Underseer
Contributor
Why the Fanboys Kept Asking for Angela Bassett
The first X-Men movie was released in 2000. That was some time ago. If you’re old enough to remember the release of that movie, you probably remember a lot of comic book nerds asking why Angela Bassett was not cast as Storm.
Answering why that is involves explaining something I really don’t like about the versions of Storm we’ve seen in X-Men movies thus far.
Bryan Singer deserves credit for preserving the racism theme of the X-Men stories when I’m sure movie executives were pressuring him to minimize or downplay that theme. He also deserves credit for showing how the same metaphors work for anti-homosexual bigotry and not just the bigotry endured by African-Americans or Jews and incorporating that into the movies. It’s just that I never liked the movie versions of Storm because none of them included what I consider to be that character’s most important quality: leadership.
This is also why so many male Gen X comic book nerds were clamoring for Angela Bassett.
Ororo Munroe
In the X-Men comic books, there are at least two leadership roles at any given moment. The overall leader (usually Charles Xavier) stays back at the X-mansion and is more of a “big picture” person. Then there is at least one “field commander” who acts as the leader of the X-Men while they are in the field and on a mission. This was always Scott Summers (Cyclops) up until a seminal moment when Storm challenged Scott for the position of field leader in the middle of a mission. She challenged him to a duel at a time when she was without her superpowers, and cleaned his clock good.
The writer spent a lot of time preparing the audience for this moment, so that when it happened, it felt completely natural. No one I know of objected “But she’s a black woman! She can’t be in charge!”
After that, we comic book readers were introduced to the first X-Men field commander who wasn’t Scott Summers, and we liked Ororo in that role. As we read about Ororo as a leader within Xavier’s movement (and it is more of a political movement than a superhero team), a strange thought started occurring to me: “If she gave me an order in a battle, I would obey. Without question.”
As it turns out, a lot of young men reading the same comic at around that same time had the same thought.
My very next thought after that was “Why have I never felt this way about a female character before this?” That next thought shocked me because I had to admit that I was probably more sexist than I thought. A lot (not all) of male Gen X comic book fans had pretty much the same follow up thought as I did.
Over the next several years, a lot of us had debates with each other about that moment and that thought and what it meant. Did we have that thought in that moment because our own sexism fell below some critical point that it became possible for us to think and feel that way about a female character? Or did that moment occur because this was the first time we were shown a woman in a position of military command that was actually well-written?
Star Trek broached this very issue with Uhura back in the 1960s, but they only talked about it briefly in one episode, then never brought the issue up again, whereas in X-Men, Ororo was calling the shots for the whole team, and she did it month after month in an ongoing fashion. Further, the writers took care to set up that moment so that when it happened and Ororo took the reins from Scott, it felt completely natural to us. I can’t think of any female character in a position of military leadership who was as well-written as Ororo before that point.
So which was it? Did we have that moment and that feeling because of decreasing sexism or because of good writing? The general consensus among male Gen X comic book nerds is that it’s a little bit of both.
Angela Bassett
If you want to understand why Gen X comic book nerds were so obsessed with Angela Bassett playing Ororo, you really need to watch her performance in the movie Contact. In it, she played a Chief of Staff who barked orders at white men in expensive business suits, and the white men in those business suits jumped and obeyed every time she barked.
More importantly, the movie helped us feel why those white men jumped and obeyed like they did. The character Bassett played in Contact was completely different from Ororo Munroe. She had a very different personality and background and mannerisms, but she had that undefinable something. That room-filling charisma that entered the room before she did. She projected an air of leadership, and that was what so many Gen X comic book nerds were responding to.
Look, I get that the movies never covered that particular story in which Storm took over from Scott. The Morlocks and their troubles from that time might have taken too long to explain for a 90 minute movie. I get that. But long before Storm took over, we readers saw and felt her command presence. It was woven into the story both in plot points and in how other characters reacted to her or how they behaved in her presence.
Even when she’s not in charge, you kind of feel like she should be.
Even if she is not shown as a leader, we the audience should feel her command presence, her leadership charisma, her air of authority. Unfortunately, I never got that feeling from any of the versions of the character shown in the movies.
That’s why we complained about not having Angela Bassett playing the role of Ororo.
All of these thoughts came flooding back when I watched Black Panther, because Angela Bassett displayed all of the things I wanted to see in Ororo: dignity, serenity, air of authority. Her portrayal of Ramonda had all of those things, which stirred up old memories and reminded me that those qualities were sorely lacking from the movie versions of Ororo.
The first X-Men movie was released in 2000. That was some time ago. If you’re old enough to remember the release of that movie, you probably remember a lot of comic book nerds asking why Angela Bassett was not cast as Storm.
Answering why that is involves explaining something I really don’t like about the versions of Storm we’ve seen in X-Men movies thus far.
Bryan Singer deserves credit for preserving the racism theme of the X-Men stories when I’m sure movie executives were pressuring him to minimize or downplay that theme. He also deserves credit for showing how the same metaphors work for anti-homosexual bigotry and not just the bigotry endured by African-Americans or Jews and incorporating that into the movies. It’s just that I never liked the movie versions of Storm because none of them included what I consider to be that character’s most important quality: leadership.
This is also why so many male Gen X comic book nerds were clamoring for Angela Bassett.
Ororo Munroe
In the X-Men comic books, there are at least two leadership roles at any given moment. The overall leader (usually Charles Xavier) stays back at the X-mansion and is more of a “big picture” person. Then there is at least one “field commander” who acts as the leader of the X-Men while they are in the field and on a mission. This was always Scott Summers (Cyclops) up until a seminal moment when Storm challenged Scott for the position of field leader in the middle of a mission. She challenged him to a duel at a time when she was without her superpowers, and cleaned his clock good.
The writer spent a lot of time preparing the audience for this moment, so that when it happened, it felt completely natural. No one I know of objected “But she’s a black woman! She can’t be in charge!”
After that, we comic book readers were introduced to the first X-Men field commander who wasn’t Scott Summers, and we liked Ororo in that role. As we read about Ororo as a leader within Xavier’s movement (and it is more of a political movement than a superhero team), a strange thought started occurring to me: “If she gave me an order in a battle, I would obey. Without question.”
As it turns out, a lot of young men reading the same comic at around that same time had the same thought.
My very next thought after that was “Why have I never felt this way about a female character before this?” That next thought shocked me because I had to admit that I was probably more sexist than I thought. A lot (not all) of male Gen X comic book fans had pretty much the same follow up thought as I did.
Over the next several years, a lot of us had debates with each other about that moment and that thought and what it meant. Did we have that thought in that moment because our own sexism fell below some critical point that it became possible for us to think and feel that way about a female character? Or did that moment occur because this was the first time we were shown a woman in a position of military command that was actually well-written?
Star Trek broached this very issue with Uhura back in the 1960s, but they only talked about it briefly in one episode, then never brought the issue up again, whereas in X-Men, Ororo was calling the shots for the whole team, and she did it month after month in an ongoing fashion. Further, the writers took care to set up that moment so that when it happened and Ororo took the reins from Scott, it felt completely natural to us. I can’t think of any female character in a position of military leadership who was as well-written as Ororo before that point.
So which was it? Did we have that moment and that feeling because of decreasing sexism or because of good writing? The general consensus among male Gen X comic book nerds is that it’s a little bit of both.
Angela Bassett
If you want to understand why Gen X comic book nerds were so obsessed with Angela Bassett playing Ororo, you really need to watch her performance in the movie Contact. In it, she played a Chief of Staff who barked orders at white men in expensive business suits, and the white men in those business suits jumped and obeyed every time she barked.
More importantly, the movie helped us feel why those white men jumped and obeyed like they did. The character Bassett played in Contact was completely different from Ororo Munroe. She had a very different personality and background and mannerisms, but she had that undefinable something. That room-filling charisma that entered the room before she did. She projected an air of leadership, and that was what so many Gen X comic book nerds were responding to.
Look, I get that the movies never covered that particular story in which Storm took over from Scott. The Morlocks and their troubles from that time might have taken too long to explain for a 90 minute movie. I get that. But long before Storm took over, we readers saw and felt her command presence. It was woven into the story both in plot points and in how other characters reacted to her or how they behaved in her presence.
Even when she’s not in charge, you kind of feel like she should be.
Even if she is not shown as a leader, we the audience should feel her command presence, her leadership charisma, her air of authority. Unfortunately, I never got that feeling from any of the versions of the character shown in the movies.
That’s why we complained about not having Angela Bassett playing the role of Ororo.
All of these thoughts came flooding back when I watched Black Panther, because Angela Bassett displayed all of the things I wanted to see in Ororo: dignity, serenity, air of authority. Her portrayal of Ramonda had all of those things, which stirred up old memories and reminded me that those qualities were sorely lacking from the movie versions of Ororo.