the potential to wield magic. Her mother, the princess of a tribe in Kenya, married an American photojournalist and moved with him to Manhattan. When Ororo was 6 months old, she and her parents relocated to Cairo, Egypt. Five years later, a bomb destroyed their home. Ororo's parents were killed, but she survived, buried under rubble near her mother's body. This traumatizing experience left Ororo with severe claustrophobia, which still afflicts her today. Homeless and orphaned, she came under the tutelage of master thief Achmed el-Gibar. Ororo soon became his prize pupil.
Years later, feeling a strong urge to head south, Ororo journeyed alone across the Sahara Desert. Finally, she reached her ancestors' homeland: the Serengeti Plain, straddling the modern nations of Kenya and Tanzania. By this time, her mutant ability to manipulate the weather had emerged; she used it to aid the local tribes, who worshipped her as a deity. Ororo played goddess for several years -- until the telepathic, telekinetic Professor Charles Xavier recruited her to join his X-Men.
Since that time, she has used her abilities to channel the forces of nature for the benefit of a world that considers mutants less than human, and has taken on the role of both teach and mentor to the students at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. |
