Written by Greg Pak
Drawn by Victor Ibanez
Colored by Ruth Redmond
Published by Marvel Comics

PREVIOUSLY: STORM #1

This issue opens with Storm and Wolverine in some little bar in NYC talking about Storm’s actions in Santo Marco last issue. As I said before, I’m not up on current X-Men events, but it is mentioned that Wolverine has somehow lost his healing factor. Before they split up, Wolverine grabs her and kisses her, and then she reciprocates by grabbing him and kissing him back. Is this supposed to imply that there’s a romance between them now? It’s not clear. As Storm goes walking the street she sees a random missing person’s sign on a lamp-post and for no particular reason decides to get investigate the case herself. Throughout the issue we get some silent flashbacks to Storm’s childhood as an orphan on the streets of Cairo. I guess the implication is that the missing girl reminds Storm of herself. The woman in question is a 19-year old named Angie. With some remote help from Beast and his computer skills Storm connects Angie’s disappearance to that of several other young people who have recently gone missing and this leads her to go underground where she encounters her old foe Callisto, former leader of the Morlocks, who might be behind the disappearances. I won’t spoil the ending, but there is a swift but exciting fight between Storm and Callisto in the underground sewers. And the revelation of the missing teens is not what Storm expected.

There’s another appearance by Wolverine and the issue ends with “TO BE CONTINUED” although I have to say that, like the previous issue, this issue feels very self-contained. There’s a resolution to the mystery with a conclusive ending that nevertheless leaves it open for further issues. So I give Greg Pak credit for the way he’s managed to keep this series contained so far. At least with these two issues I don’t feel like I need to read every other X-Men comic to understand it. The way he handles the runaway storyline and its resolution is also extremely well-done. Storm’s characterization is also solid. Although I must confess that I am must definitely NOT excited at the prospect of a Storm/Wolverine romance (ugh). But I’ve read that he’s going to be “killed” soon anyway (yeah, right), so it looks like this shouldn’t take up too much time in this series. And Victor Ibanez continues to do a decent job with the artwork.

Two issues in I still rate this series as pretty good.

STORM (2014) #2