The Miseducation of Ororo Munroe

[Carabas]

I'm pretty shocked at people's opinions, she's always been an energy manipulator since the beginning, and I don't see where people think that that makes her so much more incredibly powerful. It doesn't mean she can manipulate all energies, it's simply an explanation of her powers. It explains why her eyes turn/glow white while she's using her powers and why she's able to do everything she can. Does it not make more sense to people that she actually creates lightning rather than having us just think she can make them appear however she likes? How else would she be able to make the most of what she has in a limited atmosphere if she can't sense/see exactly what's there to manipulate? How else can she create weather phenomena with such precision if she's not seeing exactly what it will affect?

I'm with you here.
Her manipulating energy works perfectly as the technobabble explanation for how her powers work, but then taking that as an excuse to expand her powers far beyond what she should be capable off is a step too far.

[butterflykyss]

This is not what character development means. They're just power boosts and her character, her personality has not changed because of them.

if Claremont mentioned she hasnt become a goddess yet years ago and then many years later a subsequent writer creates another story adding to this with it ending with her becoming a true goddess that is character development.

if a writer years ago mentioned she is a potential omega level mutant and then a subsequent story fulfills this through a new story that is character development.

I'm pretty shocked at people's opinions, she's always been an energy manipulator since the beginning, and I don't see where people think that that makes her so much more incredibly powerful. It doesn't mean she can manipulate all energies, it's simply an explanation of her powers. It explains why her eyes turn/glow white while she's using her powers and why she's able to do everything she can. Does it not make more sense to people that she actually creates lightning rather than having us just think she can make them appear however she likes? How else would she be able to make the most of what she has in a limited atmosphere if she can't sense/see exactly what's there to manipulate? How else can she create weather phenomena with such precision if she's not seeing exactly what it will affect?

I think it makes much more sense that she is in complete control of what she's creating by seeing and manipulating the condition she desires, if she didn't manipulate weather by it's energy then how exactly is she? Is she just hoping that she's not gonna cause a drought in surrounding areas by calling down rain, or does it not make more sense that she knows exactly how much moisture there is she can safely draw from without causing repercussions? Does it not make more sense that she knows exactly how to create specific temperatures rather than simply willing -200 and the weather just does it? The same thing would go for lightning, how else does she control the difference between a strong shock to disintergrstion? If she didn't create her effects using its energy then she'd be a horrible weather manipulator, it actually explains how she's so precise, how she has complete control, and how she knows what exactly show to crate the desired affect (heavy to light rain, strong to small lightning, a breeze to a full hurricane force blast, etc etc). I mean just her iconic small rainclouds she uses to water her flowers makes much more sense.

She's a weather manipulator, but just as Magneto is sold as someone who manipulates magnetism it doesn't mean they stop there, their powers are similar and go far deeper than their names suggest.

I'm not surprised. when you have a current xmen writer tell you her to see energy and control those energies is a retcon and they find it difficult to show her do things other than lightning and wind these responses actually make sense.

I'm with you here.
Her manipulating energy works perfectly as the technobabble explanation for how her powers work, but then taking that as an excuse to expand her powers far beyond what she should be capable off is a step too far.

that is not at all what they were trying to convey lololol.

[Tenebrae]

she's utilizing the quantum vacuum virtual plasma

This made me lol. Well done.

[Carabas]

if Claremont mentioned she hasnt become a goddess yet years ago and then many years later a subsequent writer creates another story adding to this with it ending with her becoming a true goddess that is character development.

No it's not. It's just levelling up and adding some numbers to her character sheet to put it in RPG terms.

[LordAllMIghty]

I'm not surprised. when you have a current xmen writer tell you her to see energy and control those energies is a retcon and they find it difficult to show her do things other than lightning and wind these responses actually make sense.

Truthfully, I'm not shocked by his limited understanding of Storm's power...it seems to be the norm for most X-writes these days.

The time of writers actually thinking about the way character's powers work has gone the way of the Dodobird. Which is even sadder when you consider most of the data can be found in Marvel's own handbooks.

[Celestial]

I'm in the minority as a Storm fan, but I never felt she should be an energy manipulator. Just weather. That's why her name is Storm. All these other feats and goddess-hood stuff doesn't really impress me. One of the reasons I even became a fan of hers was because of the weather manipulation and I was really into meteorology growing up.

[ShepardOakenshieldPrime]

I'm with you here.
Her manipulating energy works perfectly as the technobabble explanation for how her powers work, but then taking that as an excuse to expand her powers far beyond what she should be capable off is a step too far.

When did it go too far in your opinion?

[Muffinman]

I'm with you here.
Her manipulating energy works perfectly as the technobabble explanation for how her powers work, but then taking that as an excuse to expand her powers far beyond what she should be capable off is a step too far.

This^^ completely. She’s absolutely an energy manipulator, but the word “energy” is extremely vague. She can’t just turn light energy from a bulb into something else. She has to have huge limitations on the whole manipulation of energy spectrum, otherwise she would be crazy OP and boring. Her energy manipulation powers pertain to weather phenomena and that in itself paints a pretty broad picture when we are including things like solar winds lol. I would say she cannot just manipulate any sort of energy she feels like. That doesn’t make any sense. But is she just moving around atmospheric pressure to create storms? No

[LordAllMIghty]

Her powers are based in electro-magnetic manipulation and telekinesis. Almost all her big showing come from using these powers.

[Devaishwarya]

The energies on that page mentioned were mainly based around her weather control, it does not say all energy. Reducing those energies to "it's all energy so it's all the same" ignores the complexity and properties of these powers. Do you also believe that she is a matter manipulator?

The goddess thing is not the same, as this would not be character development. Her not being able to manipulate Cyclops' blasts is not stifling her in any way, but it does negatively affect him and others.

The bolded is a very important distinction. One which I've always agreed with.
Storm's perview is weather so rightly, she would be able able to manipulate those 'energies' within the context of weather. Where it gets tricky, is when those energy matrices overlap outside of weather control...for example, magnetic fields. As was discussed before, she may be able to see and affect (to a limited degree) magnetic fields because it is an integral, natural aspect of Earth but she certainly cannot (doesn't) wield it at Magneto's level. At least not without some physical backlash. Don't get me wrong, potentially she could but...potentialities are always vague and not at all relevant in the here and now.

[stormphoenix]

Storm doesn't manipulate ALL energy, just the Energy that governs weather systems. She is basically a walking talking Meteorologist.

[butterflykyss]

Truthfully, I'm not shocked by his limited understanding of Storm's power...it seems to be the norm for most X-writes these days.

The time of writers actually thinking about the way character's powers work has gone the way of the Dodobird. Which is even sadder when you consider most of the data can be found in Marvel's own handbooks.

Exactly. It's frustrating but yet expected that people think the way they do. Now the only thing that is surprising is that even after being presented evidence that contradict the idea she is just a weather manipulator or needs weather to use her power people still argue otherwise. This is the part that is confusing to me.

I'm in the minority as a Storm fan, but I nenevnenevenenevnenever felt she should be an energy manipulator. Just weather. That's why her name is Storm. All these other feats and goddess-hood stuff doesn't really impress me. One of the reasons I even became a fan of hers was because of the weather manipulation and I was really into meteorology growing up.

As a storm fan though, you do acknowledge she was always written as an energy manipulator though right? And how does her name define what her abilities are? You have shadowcat, psylocke, marvel girl, white queen, etc. A codename by no means should be the barometer by which a characters' powers operate.

[Carabas]

As a storm fan though, you do acknowledge she was always written as an energy manipulator though right?

Then why is her "energy manipulation" generally restricted to manipulating weather? Seems like there are far easier things you could do with broad powers like that.

[kevlon]

Another vote here for weather.

[butterflykyss]

Then why is her "energy manipulation" generally restricted to manipulating weather? Seems like there are far easier things you could do with broad powers like that.

its not generally restricted to weather. I can list a whole list of showings she has done that doewnr correlate to weather at all. such as shutting down sinisters brain, healing the trion dimension, commanding the energies of the galactic core, creating a solar wind blast in space to destroy a sentinel, shutting down the power to a skrull space ship... need I go on?