Black Excellence: As the Hellfire Gala Comes to a Close, Ororo Munroe, a.k.a Storm, Makes History by Becoming the First Regent of the Solar System

Full Spoilers for Planet Sized X-Men #1, S.W.O.R.D #6 and The Hellfire Gala (2021) below.

One thing you need to know about me is that I love superheroes, high fashion, and messes so messy you’re surprised Andy Cohen wasn’t behind it. The “Hellfire Gala” event that happened within this month’s X-Men books delivered all three in spades. There was heartbreak, espionage, murder, and perhaps most notably, the mutants terraformed Mars, colonized it, and declared it not only a mutant planet, but the capital of the whole damn solar system.

Now, as you can imagine, the humans of Earth were feeling some kind of way about this—none more so than Victor von Doom, a.k.a Doctor Doom. In a meeting conducted by members of S.W.O.R.D basically telling the leaders across the galaxy who runs the solar system now, Doom pulls up talking bout some “that whole Mars shit was cute, but who ya’ king tho’? Who speaks for Mars.”

It was at this point that Ororo Munroe, Storm, the Windrider herself, shows up and tells him just who she is.

Y’all.

Storm is the motherfucking queen of Mars. MARS.

Crazy right?! I mean, it makes all the sense, because as soon as she showed Doom got realllll quiet. While this happened last week, I wanted to wait to talk about it until the gala came to a close just in case some other wild development popped off. (Trust me, it’s always going down in the X-books.)

While yes, there were some big reveals in this week’s X-Factor, for me, the reveal of Storm as the Regent of Sol was the biggest and the coolest of the Gala by far. My mom’s favorite superhero is Storm, so by default one of my favorite superheroes growing up was Storm. She’s always the epitome of cool to me, and the fact that she’s now positioned as the goddamn ruler of Mars; the solar system’s capitol, means that she’s in a position of power that very few can match in the Marvel universe.

In fact, now that Wakanda has recently become an intergalactic empire, it appears that the two most powerful rulers in the Marvel universe are an African man and woman. You love to see it, you truly do.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the new X-Men books, I implore you to check them out. Every month something incredible, and mind-blowingly cool happens. Besides, don’t you wanna know just how this whole regent of Mars thing is going to play out? I know I sure as hell do.

So shoutout to Storm, the first regent of Mars. Black excellence, every day.