Storm (Ororo Munroe)

According to Marvel Comics, Storm (Ororo Munroe) was born to an African princess and an African-American journalist. She also has blue eyes and white hair. Why is that?

The obvious answer is "because she looks cool that way." Which she really does.

The comic strip "The Boondocks" criticized the X-Men movie for taking the only black main character and twisting her to match a white concept of beauty with white hair and blue eyes. That might be true, but having Halle Berry ask "Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning?" had to be more damaging to the character's credibility.

But is it totally impossible? According to a Sanford geneticist, "African Americans with blue eyes are not unheard of but they are pretty rare." He gives four possible causes of blue eyes in people of African descent: Caucasian ancestors, ocular albinism, Waardenburg syndrome, or (most appropriately) a genetic mutation. Caucasian ancestors would only validate Boondocks' Euro-centrism claim. Ocular albinos tend to have vision problems and Waardenburg sufferers tend to be deaf, not disabilities possessed by Storm. A genetic mutation blocking melatonin in the iris is the best explanation for her blue eyes.

What about her hair? The comics say her Kenyan princess mother also had white hair and blue eyes, as had her ancestors for generations. However, there is absolutely no real-world way for white hair to be a continuously inherited trait. Albinism is not very likely to occur to the children of albinos, not dependably for generation after generation. Also, there's not a common albinism of the hair the way there is of the eyes. The idea of white hair from severe psychological trauma is more Rogue's thing. It's not age; she joins the X-Men in her mid-20s, and she still had white hair all the way back to her early childhood. So, short of dying it for fashion reasons, I've got no good explanation there.

In a world where Lorna Dane can have green hair and Beast and Nightcrawler can have full-body blue fur, I'm not going to begrudge Ororo her snowy locks. Plus it fits great with the weather powers, visually symbolic of clouds and flashing lightning. I say give her mom a regular hair color and make Storm's hair color another effect of the same impossible magic as her mutant power. That's a great explanation for why they match so well stylistically.

The length and straightness of Storm's hair is not impossible for African descent, nor even dramatically uncommon. Many West African tribes consider long, full hair a sign of strength, health, and capability ^[source]. Storm's homeland, Kenya, is in West Africa. Her massive 80's hair-band style actually fits the genetic and cultural reality.

Storm is supposed to be a noble matriarch, the wild power and quiet dignity of Mother Nature personified. As early as her late 20s, she was already a mother-figure to young X-Men (Kitty Pryde, specifically). If anyone goes to make some new movie or TV show with her in it, please reflect that better. The movies didn't show that. In my view, she was never the shallow, token black character until the X-Men movies. Her character deserves better writing.