Ororo Monroe is one of Marvel Comics’ most enduring and recognizable characters, a celebrated member of the X-Men since she first joined the super-mutant team in 1975. Knowledgeable of her power from a young age, she developed control over the elements early in life, with her strength and abilities only continuing to grow as she matured. After finding her way to the X-Mansion, she has become a trusted ally and confidante for Charles Xavier, a favored teacher in the academy, and a respected leader when she’s headed the ranks of different X-Teams.
Her influence even extends outside of the X-Men, reaching all the way to Wakanda, where she has ruled as a queen and is revered as a goddess. Strong, graceful, and courageous, she’s undoubtedly one of Marvel’s most powerful mutants and a core member of the X-Men. Let’s take a look at ten times Storm proved she was the most powerful X-Man of all time.
10 10. She Fought To The Death For Control Of The Morlocks
Despite her weather manipulating powers, Storm is quite a fierce hand-to-hand combatant. She can hold her own against some of Marvel’s toughest brawlers if they can get close enough to her. In Uncanny X-Men #170, Callisto – the leader of an underground mutant group called the Morlocks – sets her sights on marrying Angel. In an effort to save her captive X-Team members, Storm challenges Callisto to a duel.
Despite being powerless, Storm wins the battle, piercing a lethal strike through Callisto’s heart and automatically becoming ruler of the Morlocks. Although her new sewer-dwelling followers rejected her offer to return to the X-Mansion with the heroes for refuge, they did take heed of her only decree as ruler: that they stop harming humans.
9 9. Her Powers Can’t Be Contained
The potential of Storm’s power is phenomenal, only limited by her imagination and self-control. Able to control atoms, she can manipulate weather, control tsunamis, breathe underwater, and also seemingly conjure solar winds in deep space.
But when Storm is forced to confront her greatest fears, we get a glimpse of her true power. In Uncanny X-Men #147, Doctor Doom traps the claustrophobic Ororo in a chrome skin. Despite being completely trapped, she is still able to conjure an enormous storm which surrounds Doom’s castle. When she’s finally released by the X-Men, they discover that she now fully embodies the force of a storm, unleashing deadly power upon her teammates and her captor. The effects are astounding, and only the memory of her best friend, Jean Grey, helps Ororo to contain the power she is unleashing upon Latveria.
8 8. She Can Hop Between Dimensions
Storm isn’t confined to adventuring in her own realm. After saving a traveler from an alternate dimension named M’Rinn from a dinosaur attack in the Savage Land, Storm accompanied the stranger back to this new dimension. They formed a thick and fast friendship as they protected and governed side by side, with M’Rinn coming to view Storm as a daughter.
While Storm finally knew she had to return to her home dimension to rejoin the X-Men and protect her own reality, M’Rinn gifted her with the Cameo Crystal, which would allow Storm to locate and open a portal which would take her back to M’Rinn’s kingdom.
7 7. She Bonded With A Celestial Being
As Storm’s body was being overrun by an alien creature, having been infected by the Brood during a space mission, her honorable nature wouldn’t allow her to kill the insectoid. After a long period of debate, she finally decided to destroy both the alien embryo and herself. Summoning the immense power of the space ship’s core into her body, she destroyed the alien, the space ship, and nearly died.
Fortunately, the bright glow that the energy gave her body attracted a young celestial being named Acanti. Having lost his mother to the Brood, he bonded with Storm, agreeing to heal her body while her consciousness would guide him. Joined together, Storm was able to fully recover and return to Earth, ready to seek vengeance on the Brood Mother.
6 6. She Has Outwitted The Shadow King
The Shadow King has long plagued the X-Men, holding a significant grudge against Professor X. Forcing Storm to choose between Wakanda and the X-Men during the ‘Worlds Apart’ story arc, the Shadow King controlled everyone from T’Challa to Cyclops. After praying to Bast, the Panther Goddess, to help her convince the possessed kingdom of Wakanda that she was, in fact, their rightful queen, she traveled to San Francisco to confront the X-Men.
Successfully dividing the mutant team, she lured the Shadow King out of Cyclops’ mind into her own, where Bast lay in wait. The Panther Goddess devoured the Shadow King, freeing everyone under his control. Reviving Cyclops with CPR, Storm cleverly and bravely outwitted a psychic energy force, saving both Wakanda and the X-Men.
5 5. She Has Defeated Cyclops For The Leadership Role
Storm has proven time and again that she’s a brilliant, capable leader, having overseen many iterations of the X-Men. This hasn’t always sat well with the team’s most prominent leader, Scott Summers.
Following Jean Grey’s death, Scott left the X-Men, leaving a leadership space that was filled expertly by the brave and level-headed Storm. When he returned years later (in X-Men #201), clearly miserable about juggling his duties as a new father and X-Leader, Ororo wasn’t simply going to hand her hard-earned position back to Cyclops and suggested they fight for the role. Powerless at the time, Storm still managed to easily defeat Cyclops in the battle (which had nothing to do with his visor being set to “ultra-low,” as he suggested).
4 4. She Led a War Against The Inhumans
After Black Bolt, the Inhumans’ Silent King, released the mutagenic Terrigen Mists across the globe, it was quickly discovered that the vapor caused mutants to develop a deadly disease called M-Pox. Forcing the X-Men into hiding in X-Haven, a safe refuge for all mutant-kind, then X-Leader Storm was adamant that they couldn’t simply hide from the problem. Instead, she rallied the X-Men and declared war against the Inhumans, desperate to fight for their right to live freely in the world.
Launching the ‘Inhumans vs X-Men’ event, Storm led her team of mutants into battle, hoping they could find a way to destroy the mists, eventually succeeding in convincing Medusa to destroy the Cloud, ridding the world of the M-Pox virus.
3 3. She Has Wielded Asgardian Power
Only the worthy should yield the thunderous power of Asgard, and Storm has proven herself to be capable on numerous occasions. When Loki captured Storm and her New Mutants in Uncanny X-Men Annual #9, he took them to Asgard in the hopes of tricking Storm into doing his mischievous bidding. Recognizing her power, he bestowed the mantle of Goddess of Thunder upon her and presented her with Stormcaster. Of course, Ororo can’t be fooled easily, and she defeated Loki, going so far as to refuse to keep her Asgardian power and weapon as a gift of his admiration.
Storm would wield Stormcaster again in X-Men Gold, this time with better control – and the power to kill a god. Once again, she gave up the strength and power after her mission was complete. After all, she doesn’t need a magical hammer or mantle to harness the power of the weather!
2 2. She’s A Real Weather Goddess
A descendant of a long line of African witch-priestesses, Ororo and her incredible abilities have often been linked to the gods. It has become evident over the years that her power is heightened by these beliefs, but it has taken a more central role recently in Wakanda.
Ororo’s role in Wakanda was incredibly important when she first married T’Challa and became the nation’s queen. Professor X went so far as to tell her that the union was an important symbol of human and mutant relations. The marriage ended during the ‘Avengers vs X-Men’ event, and the subsequent relationship has been rocky ever since. Nevertheless, Ororo has remained loyal to Wakanda and its people. So much so that their deep belief in her godlike abilities has transformed her into an actual weather goddess!
1 1. She’s As Powerful As Omega-Level Mutants
The only thing that makes Ororo more powerful than a fully-fledged weather goddess is that she has recently displayed the powers of an Omega-level mutant. Her omega level status has been debated for decades, as characters and readers alike are well aware of the incredible feats of strength and power she is capable of, such as knocking the Silver Surfer himself off his board with a lightning bolt.
Recent events have shown that Storm can go toe-to-toe with the galaxy’s most powerful mutants – combined – and subdue them. With Omega-level Legion becoming possessed by the Omega-level Nate Grey, the remainder of the X-Men struggled to get their attacks in before Storm showed up and single-handedly stunned the Nate-Legion hybrid. If any act is worthy of finally earning Omega-level status, this might be it!