Ororo Munroe: Storm/Hadari Yao/Regent of Sol Appreciation 2022

[Micabe]

even carol got to use magic before storm lol how that work?? lol

Carol?!? Carol Danvers? Please, elaborate...

[Reigna]

I was gonna answer the what if she wasnt an x-men coz there really is one...she becomes still a master thief

But then I come to agree more...im still bummed how small the "throne room" was in this scene compared to Magneto's towering grave, or even Berto's most honorable mission to revive disco -- I had wished I would not see some things do not change in X office even if we Trust Ewing -- i mean sure he is but the artist? -- Did they talk to Alex Ross about the throne room's dimension -- this chair is too little even to hold her hair...sigh....anyways its just book 1

Yeah the throne room was lacking. But I think it was the artist not the actual dimensions remember Alex Ross had an excellent throne room on the bp cover.

[Reigna]

Oh I'm with you there. I typically tend to pair Bobby with Jean thematically and delve into their duality of fire and ice, embodying extinction and resurrection respectively, but in Jean's case the fire and resurrection associations come from Jean-as-Phoenix, rather than emanating directly from Jean's mutant powers. Like you have to take a slight detour to get there. Bobby and Vulcan is a duality I haven't spent much time contemplating admittedly, because there's no real history between them or connection like exists between Bobby and Jean so there's less drive to hold them up next to each other or link their narratives. But you're definitely not wrong. Theoretically, Vulcan on paper is a far more direct link/contrast to Bobby, primal fire to Bobby's primal winter or even water. Vulcan's all about energy manipulation whereas Bobby's energy negation.

I saw people pointing out that technically there's a possibility Vulcan's manipulation of energy can include negating it, but I don't think there's much to that line of thought, personally? Mostly because for Gabe to do that, it wouldn't be something built into his powerset but a specific outcome he aimed for with his powers....but its an outcome that would be counter-intuitive, y'know? Like, energy is Gabe's ammo. It doesn't make sense for him to actively try to cancel or negate energy in his vicinity, because that inherently lessens what he has available to work with. Whether or not Gabe could negate energy or inhibit it is kinda a moot point in my estimation as I don't see any reason for it to ever come up when the more direct action for Gabe is to simply try and hijack that energy for his own uses.

But yeah, Bobby and Gabe's fire and ice and the actual mechanics of what goes into their powers could feasibly pair well for a lot of big, impactful circuits. You already know I do think Storm has the advantage over Gabe in a fight because her powers involve energy manipulation as well but also she manipulates matter and physical molecules at a base level, in order to form weather systems. And so while she might not have the full range of energy manipulation across all energy spectrums that he does (at least not presently, but that could easily change if they start delving into the quantum implications of Storm's powers), she combines the energy manipulation she does do with matter manipulation that gives her a versatility I don't think he can match, even if he was on par with her experience wise. But additionally I do think another easy way for Storm to deal with Vulcan would be to just delegate. "You know what else I have that you don't, Gabriel? Friends." Because Bobby's power is a direct counter to pretty much everything Gabe can do, and at the very least he could stalemate him pretty easily. At least he has the potential to, if written a certain way.

To be clear, this isn't me trying to say my fave is the Most Powerful Omega and can defeat everyone ever, lol, I happen to think that if you leave the matter of Storm's godhead out of the equation (because that's a different matter entirely and thus a wildcard in this specific consideration that eliminates the point of this particular thought experiment, that's the only reason I'm leaving it out of this specific convo). But I just mean, if you look at the omegas just in terms of their mutant powers, all of them might be able to put up a good fight against each other, but there are some that have definite built-in advantages for fighting some others in specific, while at the same time having their own weaknesses to others.

Like for reasons I've stated here and elsewhere, I think Bobby has a decided advantage in fights against Vulcan, Tarn and Sobunar. But at the same time, he's definitely weak to psychics like Jean and Exodus, any telepath who's powerful enough that his ability to disperse his consciousness can't evade them or work around. Its funny that Bobby and Legion have actually faced off before, and Bobby was one of the only ones who scored any kind of real hit on David....but these days I think Bobby vs Legion would be a very, very bad idea for everybody, as there's a couple of things Legion could do with Bobby's powers if he got the chance to hijack them, that....yikes. Also, there's not really anything Bobby can do against reality warpers, and I'm pretty sure Lactuca could hand him his ass in a number of ways. Whereas reality warpers like Jamie, Kevin and even Legion are similarly vulnerable to psychics, Legion in particular, but all three of them would have a major advantage over Lactuca, Magneto and others.

Meanwhile, Storm's got considerably more resistance to psychics and as an example, I'm confident that she could solo Exodus herself these days, and I've got a couple of pet theories about how she could really screw up Jamie's powers. I really want to see her interact with Absolom Mercator, one of the best things they could do for her character power-wise right now I think would be to juxtapose her powers with his. If Bobby and Gabe are natural complements or counters to each other, I actually think Storm and Absolom might have the same kind of parallel/contrast.

I have some theories that make me think Isca could take on Proteus and Legion without too much trouble if a couple specific things happened, but Jamie's brand of reality warping could really wreck havoc with her powers and be the thing that actually brings her first true loss. Lodus Logos would be particularly vulnerable to Magneto, but I think Magneto would have a MUCH harder time dealing with Vulcan than Storm would. I'm not actually sure he even could beat Gabe in a straight fight, at least not without sucker punching him similar to how Cable got the drop on him.....whereas even though I think Bobby could beat or stalemate Gabe pretty easily, Bobby would still struggle with Magneto, especially if Magneto ever focused on just messing with the polarity of nearby water molecules.

I really want more details on Sobunar's powers because there's two wildly different ways I think they might work, and with one of those directions, he'd have a couple interesting advantages over Elixir, Tarn, even someone like Absolom Mercator, while in the other direction I actually think his fights with psychics like Jean, Exodus or Quentin could be particularly wild. Whereas Lactuca beats him hands down either way. Hope vs Legion would just be chaos, and bring back Nameless (who I highly doubt is dead, I think she pulled a fake out when she realized she wasn't going to win and she's still out there biding her time), and she and Synch could mix up that Hope vs Legion battle in a couple of interesting ways. And Tarn's got an edge on most other omegas except for the few that have ways of keeping their genes out of his initial reach, like Bobby. We still know so little about how Hope's powers actually work, it could go in a couple of ways, and in one direction Tarn's definitely got an edge over her while in the other direction Gabe might actually have the best shot against her, outside of Legion. Oh, actually just thought of a way Isca could probably win against Hope in a really fun way.

Anyway, point is, I think there's room for a lot of intricacy in the power dynamics between omegas and just because they're all on similar levels doesn't mean some of them don't still carry an edge over others, while at the same time having their own vulnerabilities. Really, I think the only given about all-out conflicts between omegas is that if you're not one yourself, you really don't want to be anywhere near where that fight's going down, because the collateral damage is likely to be through the roof in a lot of cases. I wouldn't mind if ultimately one of the ways they handle the alleged narrative difficulties of overpowered characters is by like, having the omega mutants eventually coming to an agreement not to fight each other directly outside of set arenas like the Circle Perilous, because there's just too great of a risk of them destroying so much around them while not even noticing mid-battle. Because beings at their power level are pretty much the only things that CAN endure the kinds of power they casually fling around.

Very interesting. Makes sense. They counter each other on many ways. You also said something that stirred my curiosity, sell two things one was the quantum implications of storm's powers and being able to mess with jaime, the other was she being teo sides of the same coin with mercator. Please could you elaborate on that?

[Daedra]

I’m still bummed by the various writers obsession with the idea of turning Ororo into some kind of alley rat or a thug, I hate the knife fights she has to cyclically endure and I find some of the implications very racist and unbearably stereotyped. It’s really annoying, every time One expects Storm to “ascend” the powers in charge have to drag her down into the lame overplayed narrative of the street urchin.

[Reigna]

I’m still bummed by the various writers obsession with the idea of turning Ororo into some kind of alley rat or a thug, I hate the knife fights she has to cyclically endure and I find some of the implications very racist and unbearably stereotyped. It’s really annoying, every time One expects Storm to “ascend” the powers in charge have to drag her down into the lame overplayed narrative of the street urchin.

You are right in the sense that constantly writers feel the need to imitate Claremont's arc in some ways shape or form. It happened like that in the past two years except for coates. Even ewing is guilty of this the only reason I trust ewing is because he soo far has demonstrated that he has a plan to redefine storm in a brand new way which will elevate her beyond anything before. So I am keeping an open mind. These arcs take time a year maybe two but they take time I am willing so far as the journey is not boring and lacking which from.issue one looks like it wont.

[Daedra]

You are right in the sense that constantly writers feel the need to imitate Claremont's arc in some ways shape or form. It happened like that in the past two years except for coates. Even ewing is guilty of this the only reason I trust ewing is because he soo far has demonstrated that he has a plan to redefine storm in a brand new way which will elevate her beyond anything before. So I am keeping an open mind. These arcs take time a year maybe two but they take time I am willing so far as the journey is not boring and lacking which from.issue one looks like it wont.

Of course I’m expecting Ewing to do better, he promised as much in a vey enjoyable interview some month ago so I’m willing to wait and see even though the new costume leaves much to be desired.

[The Regent]

So how did Phoenix Echo fair against Adversary?

[butterflykyss]

I’m still bummed by the various writers obsession with the idea of turning Ororo into some kind of alley rat or a thug, I hate the knife fights she has to cyclically endure and I find some of the implications very racist and unbearably stereotyped. It’s really annoying, every time One expects Storm to “ascend” the powers in charge have to drag her down into the lame overplayed narrative of the street urchin.

couldn't agree with this more!

So how did Phoenix Echo fair against Adversary?

she destroyed him seemingly but we know he can't be destroyed. he will pop up again.

[juan678]

Eternals 12 cover variant Salvador Larroca

[Starleafgirl]

Eternals 12 cover variant Salvador Larroca

Team Thunder & Lightning strikes again!

Nice to see the Avengers and X-Men team up in an event instead of fight each other, for a change... we'll see if it lasts.

[Subliminally]

Team Thunder & Lightning strikes again!

Nice to see the Avengers and X-Men team up in an event instead of fight each other, for a change... we'll see if it lasts.

I remember Captain America wondering what would happen if Storm and Thor ever joined their powers together. Here's hoping we get to see another example of that and be a bit more impactful than making a global cyclone or some lightning bolts.

[Reigna]

I remember Captain America wondering what would happen if Storm and Thor ever joined their powers together. Here's hoping we get to see another example of that and be a bit more impactful than making a global cyclone or some lightning bolts.

I know right like you have these two gods together and you are making them do basic shit? Like excuse moi. Play with the God damn toys!

But it's a variant so I doubt they will work together.

[The Regent]

Eternals 12 cover variant Salvador Larroca

I hate when they tease epic team ups or vs on covers knowing good and well we want something and they won't give it to us... just trifling!

[butterflykyss]

I remember Captain America wondering what would happen if Storm and Thor ever joined their powers together. Here's hoping we get to see another example of that and be a bit more impactful than making a global cyclone or some lightning bolts.

we've seen them team up twice in the new era?? power of light and man thing?

[HeraldOfStorm]

we've seen them team up twice in the new era?? power of light and man thing?

In king in black too but not that impressive like man thing and Power of light.