You people should have stayed away. I'm cold and ready to go home, but I am going to do a post just to let you know where Storm lies.
To begin with, there was a novel that came out recently that talked about the various writers and what they did with the X-Men in coninuity. You know what was said about Storm when it came to CC? After the Dark Phoenix Saga, Marvel challenged CC to take Storm down that same road and evolution with power and all. Okay, lets see what we get:
To begin with, lets start with the Uncanny 145-147 arc. This story is a perfect (albeit condenced) parallel to the Dark Phoenix Saga. Here, Storm stands in for "Light Phoenix,", Dr. Doom for Mastermind and Rougestorm for Dark Phoenix. Storm has the potential to evolve into a true goddess. This has been stated in X-Treme X-Men. It was also shown during the 12 story arc that Ororo will potentially go through a series of evolutionary changes as she evolves from one elemental form to another. Okay, in this 145-147 story arc, Dr. Doom transform Storm into a statue of living chrome. This plays up her greatest fear of claustrophobia to its ultimate height. As a result, she starts using her powers subconsciously without restraint. She does not care, as stated in 146. Storm's humanity has always tempered her power. This was the same for Phoenix Jean. The Phoenix Force had all of that power, but the psyche of Jean Grey, with it humanity and compassion, tempered that power. Hence, "Light" Phoenix was more restrained and less powerful than Dark Phoenix. Mastermind's mental games stripped away that humanity. Doom's trick stripped away Ororo's. In the case of Phoenix, we get Dark Phoenix. In the case with Ororo, we get Rougestorm. Rougestorm, like Dark Phoenix, had near-infinite power. Both of their power levels were climbing though. However, in the case with Rougestorm, she reigned herself in as she was reminded of her dear friend, Phoenix, and made the choice not to go in that direction. The issue stated that she was one with the entire planet and could control every elemental force on the planet. Her breath was fire and ice and voice, rolling thunder.
Unfortunately, we never got to see her pull any cosmic stunts in this story as she stopped herself early. Not to worry though. That comes later. 🙂
Storm has a unity with life itself. For instance, she can sense the life force within living entites and plants. She can tell if a plant is sick or well even. Her ability to control the weather springs from this unity. It also gives her greater power. For instance, in Uncanny 165, Storm flew into a galactic core in a space ship. Once there, she summoned the full power of millions of stars. It was an easy feat for her. Naturally, it destroyed the space ship she was in and left her exposed to deep space unaided. She cannot surive in deep space for long and would have expired if not for the intervention of the acanti. Now, according to the issue, she was able to draw on the energy of the stars since they were basically huge concentrations of life energies. On Earth, she draws on the planet's life force to manipuate the weather. Her ability to summon all of the energies of the stars reflects just how much she holds back on Earth. If she can do that, then while on the planet Earth, she should be able to control the entire planet's ecosystem. As a matter of fact, I can remember a story where a sentinel used a gamma ray gun to trigger a blast from the sun that would destroy the planet. Storm, while on Earth, used her elemental powers to create a protective elemental barrier around the planet which deflected the blasts from the sun.
Storm can perceive the entire universe as patterns of energy and forces. She can then bend those forces to her wil. This includes planets, stars, empty space, etc. (Uncanny 162-165) In X-Treme X-Men, she was able to manipulate subatomic particles to create clothing for herself out of thin air. Her ability to perceive the universe as patterns of energy and forces has allowed her to see objects hidden behind other objects as she can shift her perceptions to see both as they exist as energy. She has tapped into planetary EM Fields (Storm limited series in the 90s), created and controlled em fields (1994 annual), and controlled Magneto's energy (final issue of the MAgneto War where she directs the energy in his energy tower to Joseph). She has been able to alter the ecosystem on a continental scale on more than one occassion (Uncanny 121 with North Americaas well as a recent issue of Black Panther where she did this for Africa). In X-Men: The Hidden Years, she has altered the weather for an entire hemisphere, half of the planet.
From the get go, Storm has been able to command cosmic forces. Uncanny 94 was her first Uncanny appearance. By 99, she was shown using a cosmic wind attack backed by the full power of the sun against a sentinel. Obviously, she is not going to pull this on Earth or summon the power of millions of stars on Earth, but I posted this to show you what she has accomplish in comics. She has even mended a tear between two realities that were threatening to collide and destroy each other. While in that other reality, she single-handedly took on the Trion. These were, for all intents and purposes, the supreme beings of the reality. They were elemental gods who formed the form and substance and totality of that reality. Storm overpowered them. This story occured in the late 90s.
The power and potential for Storm is nothing short of staggering. Magneto does not approach this at all. By all rights, she should be able to smash his force-field and overpower him. She smashed it in Uncanny 150 as that is the most plausible thing that happened. She is a much more powerful mutant than Magneto.
You guys bring up Magneto and Thor or Magneto and Apacolypse. Let me tell you right now that he has no business going up against Thor. One of Galactus' heralds, Nova, devoured a star. Silver Surfer is on that power level and Thor has defeated him. Thor has created storms the size of Jupiter. He has generated magnetic attacks that put to shame anything Magneto has ever done. He has absorbed MAgneto's force-field and beat him like a rag doll.
Magneto tore apart Apacolypse, right? Guess what? Apacolypse has rechannelling powers like Bishop. Magneto should not have been able to accomplish this because Poccy should have been able to throw that energy right back in Mag's face. Poccy's powers were ignored and played down so Magneto could look good. Poccy is easily a psi of the highest order. He can teleport, rechannel, grow in size and strength to enormous degrees, he has energy blasts as well as control over every atom of his body. Magneto can't realistically beat that and he certainly did not display the full range of his abilities in his fight against Magneto.
You people are backing a character who Marvel tries to play up at being a certain level, but he is not. If he were truly that powerful, Storm, Thor, and Acacolypse would be given their full range of abilities in Magneto story arcs rather than always being weakened.
