The Miseducation of Ororo Munroe

[butterflykyss]

First I want to thank you all for taking the time to give your thoughts in regards to the question! Now let's discuss!!!

Being a direct weather manipulator means she has to have something tangible to actually work with. "Energy" is such a nebulous power source a writer can make it out to be just about anything.

Well from what I understand as it relates to Coates writing, the tangible aspects associated with energy and forces would be those found in nature such as electromagnetic, thermal, pressure gradients (forces), radiation, chemical, etc. So there is and has always been a tangible aspect to what energies she could manipulate.

Claremont wrote some ridiculous stuff with her. I think she works better as a weather manipulator

Hey boo. Despite it being ridiculous or not (which I don't think it's ridiculous), the question was not about what she should be but about how she has been described in using her powers in canon. If she were solely a weather manipulator we wouldn't see her doing none of the space feats she has produced, or even the application of her power that don't directly correlate to weather such as shorting the synapses in someones brain.

she's utilizing the quantum vacuum virtual plasma

I'm not sure what that means, but she generates plasma all the time (lightning is a form of plasma).

Because her name is storm and her power is weather, when they change her name to energon and her power to dynamokinesis we can talk. . .

then again
http://vsbattles.wikia.com/wiki/Storm_(Marvel_Comics)
Her power is stated as weather manipulations, some weather phenomena are related to energy so she can manipulate it via weather manipulation. . . Also I see solar storms as a stretch of the concept of weather. . .

It's kind of like saying that cyclops can absorb all the electromagnetic spectrum because he can harness the sun that uses similar energy

P.D: In vs battles wiki standard storm is ranked as 5-C and standard Cyclops is rated at 5-B :P

Her name may be Storm but her powers have never been limited to that of just weather. She has manipulated weather several times in space which is void of weather and atmospheres. She has controlled even the electrical synapses in opponents brain and created EM blasts which doesn't correlate to weather either. I get her primary offensive is weather related; however, the basis of how her powers operate stem from her ability to perceive energy patterns around her and manipulate those energies.

Yeah, mark me down in favour of her "just" being a weather manipulator. Because that's not "just" anything. It's acts-of-god level power by itself (biblical god, not loosey-goosey Marvel definition of what a god is this week) - with even a little imagination, Ororo can halt entire armies by burying them in snow, or create tidal waves, or melt the ice caps (or fix them, which someone ought to ask her about), or exhaust her enemies by dialling up the ambient temperature until they get heatstroke, or...you get it. Her powers, in their most classic form, are amazing, and only come off as unsatisfactory or 'not enough' when left in the hands of poor creators who treat her like she's just a floating lightning gun.

On the flipside, apart from the explanation of 'energy control' being hopelessly vague and less unique (Marvel has a LOT of energy controllers), this extension of her scope has never lasted long after being brought up - because sooner or later she has to be presented as mortal again - and often doesn't amount to much worthy of note. Perfect example: that last Black Panther arc, where everyone prays to her and she channels belief energy to become GODDESS OF ALL WAKANDA~ and then...is just a floaty lightning gun. But like, with a purple glow around the edges. Oooh, ahhh, etc.

(Sidenote because I'm sure it'll come up: Storm's powers working on other planets is fine. So long as said planet has a climate and atmosphere of its own, it's perfectly believable that she'd be able to exert her will over it just the same. Using her powers in actual space, however, is nonsense. Space has no atmosphere. That is its key defining trait. All it has is conflicting gravitational pulls, the naked radiation of local stars, and lots of fast-moving rocks. ROCKS ARE NOT WEATHER.)

Interesting points. Just to provide some clarification again, the question was not how do we thing her power should work, but how has her powers been explained to work in canon. I agree wielding the power of weather is god-like in itself; however, the way in which she controls the weather is how she perceives the world around her and claremont explained this early on as to how her weather control is accomplished:

Didn't she do something with solar winds once?

yes. she has done it once on a global level when she grieved for wolverine when he died, she did it again when she fought a sentinel in space during the phoenix saga.

[Crimz]

Let me ask a question:

What are the limits to her energy control? Can she control Cyclops' blasts, telekinetic energy or are they out of her control?
What can and can't she control?

[wano]

Let me ask a question:

What are the limits to her energy control? Can she control Cyclops' blasts, telekinetic energy or are they out of her control?
What can and can't she control?

That's always an issue with energy manipulation, also don't open the Cyclops blasts Pandora box... We've settled that cyclops blasts ignore all laws of physics

[jwatson]

Let me ask a question:

What are the limits to her energy control? Can she control Cyclops' blasts, telekinetic energy or are they out of her control?
What can and can't she control?

I don't eve think Storm knows and no one has ever taken the time, even claremont to have her explore her powers like we have seen so many others. She needed to affect the weather to survive in the desert so she did, a tribe had a drought so she continued that line. We are told she controls the primal energies that make up the weather but no one has ever taken the time to tell us what that means so i doubt any of us can answer questions writers haven't since 1975 but i would like to know. But it would have to be a writer that takes the basis of what that power was defined as and go from there rather than someone who simply thinks she is manipulating the weather.

[Crimz]

I don't eve think Storm knows and no one has ever taken the time, even claremont to have her explore her powers like we have seen so many others. She needed to affect the weather to survive in the desert so she did, a tribe had a drought so she continued that line. We are told she controls the primal energies that make up the weather but no one has ever taken the time to tell us what that means so i doubt any of us can answer questions writers haven't since 1975 but i would like to know. But it would have to be a writer that takes the basis of what that power was defined as and go from there rather than someone who simply thinks she is manipulating the weather.

I get that, so what do you think her limits should be if it were up to you?

[jwatson]

Let me ask a question:

What are the limits to her energy control? Can she control Cyclops' blasts, telekinetic energy or are they out of her control?
What can and can't she control?

But so far we do know that the strength of her body and will are limiters. So i guess we need to know how much energy her body as it is can channel. And if she is channeling said energy through her body how is she doing that. I always sort of thought of it as storm lives off the energies of the worlds she is on and that's why in some versions in the future she doesn't age. If you would to cut storm off from everything i don't know if she could survive. But that would have to be one hell of a chamber or dimension. I always thought thats why she looked older and more haggard when she had the mohawk with no powers and was refreshed again when she got her powers back.

[jwatson]

I get that, so what do you think her limits should be if it were up to you?

In her energy form if she ever got it? Limitless. IN current body i don't know. Also with the new godhood i don't know how that affects her body. Basically there aren't enough known variables for me to assume. I would need to think about what her mutant metabolism does, how she channels energy, if she could channel it through someone else to save her own body the strain.

[butterflykyss]

That's always an issue with energy manipulation, also don't open the Cyclops blasts Pandora box... We've settled that cyclops blasts ignore all laws of physics

Let me ask a question:

What are the limits to her energy control? Can she control Cyclops' blasts, telekinetic energy or are they out of her control?
What can and can't she control?

I think currently the limits she have would be self-imposed. Let's not forget that she wasn't classified as a potential omega level mutant for nothing. I think if she would just let go and push beyond the limits that are self-imposed her potential would be limitless, which would allow for her to control other forms of energy she hasn't shown capable to control, such as cyclops blasts or even the energies that allow sue to create her forcefields. However, we are not there yet and I don't imagine we will a writer ever take her to this point.

[Crimz]

I think currently the limits she have would be self-imposed. Let's not forget that she wasn't classified as a potential omega level mutant for nothing. I think if she would just let go and push beyond the limits that are self-imposed her potential would be limitless, which would allow for her to control other forms of energy she hasn't shown capable to control, such as cyclops blasts or even the energies that allow sue to create her forcefields. However, we are not there yet and I don't imagine we will a writer ever take her to this point.

Limitless in power, I could see that being her potential in one of those future timeline stories.
Limitless in what she controls I don't see. What she has controlled, even her huge feats, have been linked to aspects of her weathercontrol. Like Solar winds being linked to her lightning control through the control of plasma etc.
Her being able to control everything and anything makes no sense as she should not be able to control things like telekinetic energy, Cyclops blasts, Sue's shields etc. I don't see it.

[SonOfPsylocke]

This thread is just another excuse for the Storm fans to clog up the boards with how amazing Storm and her powers are.
You could have easily discussed this in the appreciation thread. What is even the point of having it, if not for stuff like this?

[butterflykyss]

Limitless in power, I could see that being her potential in one of those future timeline stories.
Limitless in what she controls I don't see. What she has controlled, even her huge feats, have been linked to aspects of her weathercontrol. Like Solar winds being linked to her lightning control through the control of plasma etc.
Her being able to control everything and anything makes no sense as she should not be able to control things like telekinetic energy, Cyclops blasts, Sue's shields etc. I don't see it.

Well let's examine this a little further. Solar winds is actually not wind at all but radiation or charged particles projected from the sun. This has absolutely nothing to do with "wind" or "weather". And the reason why I believe she could potentially control any form of energy goes to that scan that talks to her ability to perceive energy and control it. It doesn't state that these energy are limited to those associated with weather. I think she has limited to weather because that is what she is comfortable doing. I mean as a weather goddess of Kenya when she was a girl why would she need to do anything beyond making it rain to feed the people and animals of her village? It wasn't until she became an Xmen that her abilities were tested and even explored. So I would disagree that it is stupid. Energy is energy (telekinesis, cyclops blasts, sue's shields they are all just different forms of energy that operate on different frequencies/wavelengths, but at the end of the day still energy) but can exist in multiple forms, and based upon her the explanation of her powers she should be able to control all forms of energy. Like I said, I don't see this ever happening because writers seem to only think she can control weather, but again she should be able to looking at how her powers work.

[Carabas]

Count me as her just being able to control actual weather.

That's plenty powerful enough to pull of some truly apocalyptic planet wrecking.

[Crimz]

Well let's examine this a little further. Solar winds is actually not wind at all but radiation or charged particles projected from the sun. This has absolutely nothing to do with "wind" or "weather". And the reason why I believe she could potentially control any form of energy goes to that scan that talks to her ability to perceive energy and control it. It doesn't state that these energy are limited to those associated with weather. I think she has limited to weather because that is what she is comfortable doing. I mean as a weather goddess of Kenya when she was a girl why would she need to do anything beyond making it rain to feed the people and animals of her village? It wasn't until she became an Xmen that her abilities were tested and even explored. So I would disagree that it is stupid. Energy is energy (telekinesis, cyclops blasts, sue's shields they are all just different forms of energy that operate on different frequencies/wavelengths, but at the end of the day still energy) but can exist in multiple forms, and based upon her the explanation of her powers she should be able to control all forms of energy. Like I said, I don't see this ever happening because writers seem to only think she can control weather, but again she should be able to looking at how her powers work.

The reason I mentioned these energies specifically is because they all have one thing in common. They are all completely fictional. Their properties don't have to align with anything about energy as we know it (and they kind of don't already). The energy perception page doesn't account for these fictional energies and her being able to control them wouldn't make sense. Looking at how her power works an how these specific energies work they should be out of her control.

Another question:

Do you think she can control gravity and other fundamental forces (besides electromagnetism)?

[butterflykyss]

Count me as her just being able to control actual weather.

That's plenty powerful enough to pull of some truly apocalyptic planet wrecking.

question. is your statement based upon actual canon or your opinion of how you want her powers to work? the question i was posing is how do you understand her powers to work and why? not what you would like her powers to work.

[Sundowhn]

Single best reason: Keeps her from being a game breaker by putting some actual limitations on her power.

This, essentially. The more powerful a character is, the less they make sense in a team book. By pushing for Storm to be OTT, it limits the willingness of writers to use her.

I also base my concept of Storm largely on a story Dave Cockrum once told on the Nightscrawlers forum -- he talked about when both Storm and Nightcrawler were "born" and what it came from.