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Does Storm have any family, i.e. are Spyke and Mij'nari canon in the main Marvel universe?

Science Fiction & Fantasy Asked by Russhiro on July 25, 2020

The 2000 series X-Men: Evolution re-imagined our favorite Mutant heroes as angsty teens, effectively making it a fit for the WB. Most of the cast was formed of known members of the team Cyclops, Jean Gray, Rogue, Nightcrawler, etc), with one exception; a young Afro American mutant, Evan Daniels, who had the ability to create varied bone protrusions and weaponry from his body. Because of this, he was known by the code name Spyke. We meet him in the fifth episode of the first season:

Drawing of Spike on a skateboard, he wears black with green boots, belt and gloves with spikes coming out of the top

Evan as introduced as X-Man Storm’s (Ororo Munroe) biological nephew via her sister, Vi. Him being related to Storm makes his being a Mutant reasonable, as they explain here:

The character was a TV-friendly analog of a then-existing comic-book character, Marrow, a Mutant with seemingly the exact same power set, just a different gender, backstory, personality and ethnicity…

Marrow a female Mutant with pink hair wearing a revealing green outfit with wooden ornaments,a  wooden crown and holding a dagger in each hand

Ostensibly, this change was made to bring more immediate diversity to the core X-team on the show, which makes sense. In that regard, one would think he was very much like Harley Quinn, made specifically for the series to balance the cast and fill a need. However, I’ve heard tell that there is a Spyke in the main Marvel universe… how he is related to Storm, however, is unclear. Generally speaking, Ororo was known as an only child, and her parents (an American diplomat and his wife) died in the same bombing that had trapped Storm as a child and caused her claustrophobia.

Concurrently, almost ten years earlier, in X-Men: The Animated Series, Ororo was also shown to have another relation of sorts, in the form of an African-born teenage Mutant telepath and speedster, Mijnari.

Mijnari in a tank top with a yelow jacket over the top and yellow headband waving at someone unseen

There was no blood relation to him here; Ororo was basically his second mother and the midwife who delivered him, as well as being close with his mother and the person her resuscitated him as a newborn. We learned of his existence in an episode that introduced the villain the Shadow King, where he took over Mij’Nari’s body and they battled briefly on the astral plane:

I count this as family because Storm and everyone else was adamant that Mij’nari was "her son", and he easily referred to her as "Mother." There was even a comic book version of the episode, elaborating further on the God-Mother/God Son connection. Throughout the episode, Storm was obviously ready to give her life for the boy, so yeah… say what you want, that’s her kid.

A spirit comes down from a mountain to chase Storm and Mij'nari

Again, however, I don’t recall ever seeing such a character, analog or otherwise, in the comics. And when it comes to canon, as we all know: source books beat shows. It’s generally held in the books that Ororo was an orphan, and thus had no real close ties until the Kenyan tribe started worshipping her as a rain goddess… but then again, it was 15 years ago or so that it was revealed/retconned that she and T’Challa, the hero Black Panther, had been each other’s first loves as children. So it is possible that changes could have been made or characters could have been introduced of whom I am personally unaware.

So three big questions to answer:

  1. Are either of these young men related to Storm in the TV show canon in the comic books, as in are they basically the same characters with the same powers, and tied to Storm in similar ways?

  2. Do these characters even exist anywhere outside of their specific TV shows, in some other form not related to Storm?

  3. Does the character Ororo Munroe in the comics have any blood, tribe or oath relations in the comics (and no, T’Challa doesn’t count, especially as their marriage was dissolved, despite them still loving each other dearly.) I’d more specifically be looking for anyone from her past, or perhaps a lost sibling or cousin.

One Answer

Spyke was a character created for the X-Men: Evolution TV show. He was not a direct analogue of an existing main comic universe character.

A year after the show started airing, a character called Spike was introduced to the comics continuity in X-Force. In another two years a second character called Spike appeared in New X-Men. While both characters could grow spikes from their body, neither could (or at least did) have the same armour ability Spyke did. Neither were related to Storm either.

In 2006, in the pages of Black Panther David "Evan" Munroe was introduced as Storm's cousin. The son of Storm's paternal Aunt, who had already passed. He was living with his (and Storm's) paternal grandmother Harriet. That's the extent of Storm's known living biological relatives.

As for tribal affiliation, Storm had an unofficial foster parent in Ainet Mwangi while living in Kenya.

You could also consider Achmed El Gibár an unofficial foster father as he took her in while she lived in Cairo.

As for Mijnari in the main comics universe, he was actually an elder of a Kenyan village who left the village as Storm had saved a pregnant woman who bore a son and the village could only support so many mouths to feed. This story was adapted in the flashback scene from X-Men: The Animated Series where the name is given to the newborn child. The child never appears again in the main comics continuity (to my knowledge).

Answered by K Mo on July 25, 2020

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