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Characters / Marvel Comics: Storm

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WARNING: There are unmarked spoilers on this sheet for all but the most recent comics.

Ororo Munroe / Storm

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stormcover.jpg
Windrider, Weather Witch, Pickpocket, Leader of Morlocks, Queen of Wakanda, and Goddess of Storms

Nationality: Kenyan, American, Krakoan

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Giant Size X-Men #1 (May, 1975)

"I am a woman, a mutant, a thief, an X-Man, a lover, a wife, a queen. I am all these things. I am Storm, and for me, there are no such things as limits."
— Ororo Munroe

Storm, a.k.a. Ororo Munroe, a weather-controlling mutant and one of the most famous members of the X-Men. She first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May, 1975), created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. Ororo is the descendant of an ancient line of African priestesses, all of whom have white hair, blue eyes, and the potential to wield magic. Her mother, N'dare, was an African princess who married American photojournalist David Munroe and moved with him to Manhattan, where Ororo was born. When Ororo was six months old, she and her parents moved to Cairo, Egypt. Five years later, during the Arab-Israeli conflict, a plane crashed into their home. Ororo's parents were killed, but she survived, buried under rubble near her mother's body. The resultant trauma left Ororo with severe claustrophobia that still affects her today.

Ororo managed to escape the rubble of her shattered home with nothing but the tattered clothes on her back and her mother's ancestral ruby. Homeless and orphaned, Ororo was found by a gang of street urchins who took her to their master, Achmed el-Gibar. Achmed trained Ororo in the arts of thievery and she soon became his prize pupil, excelling in picking both pockets and locks. During her time in Cairo, Ororo picked the pocket of an American tourist. The man proved no easy mark, however, as he was Charles Xavier, a powerful mutant telepath who used his abilities to stop the theft. At that moment, Xavier was psionically attacked by another mutant and Ororo used the opportunity to escape.

Years later, feeling a strong urge to wander south, Ororo left Cairo. During her travels, Ororo naïvely accepted a ride from a complete stranger and was almost raped by him. Forced to defend herself, Ororo killed the man. From that moment, she swore never to take another human life. Ororo wandered for thousands of miles, almost dying during her trek across the Sahara Desert. Her mutant ability to psionically control the weather emerged soon after, and she was able to use them to rescue T'Challa, a prince of the African nation of Wakanda, from his would-be kidnappers. The pair spent much time together; however, T'Challa's duties as a prince prevented them from further exploring their burgeoning mutual attraction.

Finally, Ororo reached her ancestors' homeland on the Serengeti Plain in Kenya. She was taken in by an elderly tribal woman named Ainet who taught her to be responsible with her powers. Ororo soon came to be the object of worship of the local tribes who believed her to be a goddess due to her gift.

Years later, Ororo was forced to battle the threat of a fellow mutant weather manipulator known as Deluge, who sought revenge against humanity. With the help of several members of the team of mutant heroes known as the X-Men, Deluge was seemingly destroyed and Ororo returned to her life amongst the tribal people. The X-Men subsequently told their founder, Professor Xavier, about Storm but he declined to contact her at this point, not wanting to shock the young woman with the true nature of her powers.

Months later, however, Xavier was left with no choice but to recruit Storm and other mutants from around the world into the X-Men in order to rescue his original students from the threat of the sentient island being known as Krakoa. Xavier explained to Ororo that she was not a "goddess", but a mutant, and as such she had a responsibility to use her abilities to help the world just as she had helped the local tribes. Curious, Ororo accepted Xavier's offer, and was given the codename "Storm".

Storm has always played a very prominent role in the world of the X-Men. In her early days after her first appearance she was a major character in the new team of X-Men following the relaunch of the mutant team in 1975. Then perhaps her definitive role was as leader of the X-Men after Professor X went into space with the Starjammers for a time. She led the team through many huge challenges: the Mutant Massacre and Inferno (1988) to name but two, even through a long period when she had lost her powers. Following the return of Professor X, the X-Men were split into two teams, Gold (led by Storm) and Blue (led by Cyclops). During that period her closest male relationship was with Forge, however that somehow never fully matured and ended with the two breaking up. Following the discovery of Destiny's diaries, Storm led the X-Treme X-Men and then the X.S.E. teams.

Storm later married Black Panther and taken on a new leadership role in Wakanda. The marriage lasted a long time, but came crashing during Avengers vs. X-Men in which Storm reluctantly took the mutants' side and caused Namor to flood Wakanda. This act enraged Black Panther that he, being both King AND High Priest of Wakanda, announced divorce even if Storm defected to the Avengers' side afterwards. After Wolverine reopened the X-Mansion in New York, Storm became Headmistress of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and lead the first all-female team of X-Men in April 2013. In July 2014, Storm gained her first ongoing self-titled comic, written by Greg Pak. In 2015, with both Wolverine and Cyclops gone, she leads the whole team again in Extraordinary X-Men.

With the rise of the new mutant nation of Krakoa in X-Men (2019), Storm was selected for one of the twelve seats on the ruling Quiet Council in recognition of her long history of leadership and accomplishments. She split her time between council business and aiding Kate Pryde's Marauders before being chosen was one of the swordbearers of Krakoa during X of Swords, an event that caused further damage to her relationship with Black Panther and Wakanda when she had to steal Skybreaker from Wakanda's vaults. In the aftermath of the Arrako and its mutant population being brought to Earth, Storm helped take the lead in the terraforming of Mars into a mutant planet and the transfer of Arrako's population there. In doing so, mutantkind declared Planet Arrako the new capital of the Sol System, with Storm as the Queen Regent of Mars and Voice of Sol.

Storm is one of the most popular and recognizable members of the X-Men as well as one of the most recognizable black superheroes, and one of Marvel's most popular female heroes. She has appeared in virtually every media adaptation featuring the X-Men since the 1980's, including X-Men: The Animated Series, the Marvel vs. Capcom video games, and the X-Men Film Series, where she is portrayed by Halle Berry. Alexandra Shipp plays a younger version of Storm in Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix (as well as a quick cameo in Deadpool 2). Storm additionally has an entire ride centered around her (albeit a small-scale one) at Universal's Islands of Adventure, called Storm Force Accelatron.

Storm has appeared in the following works:

Comics

Film

Television (Anime / Western Animation)

Theme Park Attractions

Video Games

Storm provides examples of the following tropes:

    open/close all folders 

    A-H 
  • The Ace: Storm is ridiculously, unapologetically good at EVERYTHING. First she’s an Omega level mutant who controls the weather and she’s trained herself to absolute precision. Think taking those powers away will keep her from kicking your ass? Guess Again. She’s a master at hand to hand combat and has handed many their asses without her powers. She’s also such a good leader that Cyclops considers her his role model. She’s also whip smart. Brilliant tactician and able to assist Moira and Beast in their science. And as a child she was a great pickpocket who survived on her own. Lastly as Regent of Sol, and member of the Great Ring of Arakko, she spent her days defending her seat against powerful war seasoned Arakkii mutants, some of which were Omega Level Mutants themselves. She won every time, even against the Omega level Gene-manipulator Tarn after he depowered her and mutilated her body. This earned so much respect from him that he returned her to the way she was. Her most recent great feat is taking down War and Famine, two Omega level elemental manipulating who have thousands of years of war & combat experience on her. Bear in mind these are Apocalypse children and original Horsemen whom he considers his best and Storm beat them with ease. She then later topped that by defeated their even more powerful and experienced mother. It would actually take less time to name the things she’s not good at.
  • Action Girl: She was always one of the stronger X-Men; however, she possibly gained the most physical and emotional growth and Xenafication out of all the X-Women.
  • Adaptational Modesty: In the films and cartoons she doesn't have her usual Leotard of Power from the comics - usually donning a more modest bodysuit. In X-Men: Apocalypse she shows a bit more skin, but still more modest than the comics.
  • Adaptational Nationality: Pretty much every adaptation X-Men has had removes the bit where Ororo was born in Manhattan.
  • Adaptational Wimp:
    • The X-Men Film Series gave her a massive amount of this, unlike the comics and cartoons her powers are severely limited to just a few elements with really only her lightning being useful against villains. She regularly gets overpowered even by the likes of Toad (who admittedly got Adaptational Badass but still), she lacks any sort of hand to hand skill and her role within in the X-Men is mainly there for support rather being the big guns who can match both Magneto and Phoenix in power.
    • She also got hit with this pretty hard in Wolverine and the X-Men. This is an animated adaptation of the X-Men where she is very timid, demoted into a background character with small screen time and lines, prone to getting a Tap on the Head to keep her from easily winning any fights, and knocked out or incapacitated numerous times more often than other X-Men of the show, which is a huge contrast from the Storm of the comics as well as the other animated X-Men series, who was one of, if not the last X-Men to be taken down in a fight.
  • Almighty Janitor: In the Genesis War she sits in the Seat of Loss. The seat is generally considered one of the least prestigious and command should go to Kobak Never-Held, but in practice she is the one leading the war effort against Genesis and Annihilation, with everyone deferring to her.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: It is generally accepted that if any Marvel character can claim the title of "Marvel's version of Wonder Woman", it's Storm. Both characters have been compared to deities note ; both were very prominent members of extremely well-known superhero teams; they share a composed and regal attitude; both are regarded as secondary leaders of their respective teams; and both went through a similar period of being depowered during the 80s, whereupon they showed they were still capable of commanding respect by proving themselves as Badass Normals. There is a reason why the Amalgam Universe fuses them into "Princess Ororo of Themiscyra".
  • Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: While the mainstream Storm is still awesome, in the Mutant X reality she was turned into a vampire by Dracula that retains all her mutant powers on top of the average vampiric ones. A similar version of her became a X-Men: Blue team member in the main reality.
  • Amazon Chaser: During her "powerless" phase, several characters commented on how being more open about her emotions, especially when kicking butt, "made her lovelier still."
  • Ambiguously Bi: Well...kinda. It's honestly more a case of waiting until Marvel finally has her hook up with a woman. She obviously loves men, but pretty much nobody believes she is straight.
    • She had a small mountain's worth of subtext with Yukio during the Claremont days, but at the same time he had her strike up a romance with Forge as well. Jim Shooter, the editor at the time, had a no-same-sex policy, so two women getting together was a huge no-no.
    • She has a ton of subtext with Callisto as well. They toss knives at eachother one moment and look like they're about tear eachother's clothes off the next.
    • In Resurrection of Magneto #1, Storm is lying in bed with her then lover (who is male) and she reminisces on past lovers and compares him to (among other things) "my rooftop in Japan". Al Ewing pointed out that that was a clear reference to Yukio.
  • Ambiguously Brown: As noted below, she's African but has white hair and a blend of African, Caucasian and Asian features. This comes from an early idea to give her features from several different races, to resemble Gaia. Over the years this idea has gradually been pushed aside by the fanbase and Storm is basically just considered black.
  • Amicable Exes:
    • She and T'Challa had to hash out their issues, but they are on excellent terms post-divorce. They are romantically involved as of the Ta-Nehisi Coates BP run, but Word of God holds that they won't get married again. It doesn't last and they break up again.
    • She also gets along very well with Forge, another ex, although not one she married.
  • And Now You Must Marry Me: No less than five of Storm's long-term enemies, including Doctor Doom and DRACULA, have had designs on making her their queen or consort as part of their villainous master plan.
  • Angst Nuke: A particularly beautiful example in her solo title following the aftermath of Wolverine's death because Beast took her into the upper atmosphere to avoid causing any damage. She ends up creating a massive aurora that people all over the world can see.
  • Animal Eyes: Ororo is occasionally depicted as having eyes with slitted pupils, like a cat. This visual design was most prevalent in the 80s, and has a similar role to her perpetual Blank White Eyes in the 90s cartoon; hinting at her mutant nature even when she wasn't using her powers.
  • Arch-Enemy: The Shadow King.
  • The Artful Dodger: Grew up a pickpocket after the deaths of her parents. She retains these skills as an adult.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: "Ororo" is not an actual African name, let alone a Kenyan one. Claremont simply made up the name for the character.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She leads the the more liberal side of Arakko against Genesis' side in a civil war. She got her position and her respect, partially by beating 3 people who at one point or another sat in its Great Ring as ruling members of Arakko (Nameless, Tarn and Kobak).
  • Author Appeal: A rumor went around in the 2000s that Chris Claremont was actually in love with Storm. The rumor in question was deliberately spread by an angry former fan, but given how Storm tends to be treated in Claremont's stories, it's hard to shake the notion that there's at least some truth to it.
  • Badass Cape: Usually!! The most common design has the edges connected to wrist bracelets.
  • Badass Normal: For a little while (4 real-world years), Storm was rendered powerless. However, she continued to lead the X-Men and even defeated Cyclops in 1-on-1 battle for that honor.
  • Berserk Button
    • You probably shouldn't hold her down or from behind. She almost killed John Proudstar over this. It's also in your best interest not to mess with her fellow X-Men. Especially Kitty Pryde.
    • Trying to exploit her Claustrophobia is a surefire way to make her very angry, as Doctor Doom found out to his extreme chagrin.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: She's one of the nicest people on the team, along with Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. However, you don't want to see her mad.
  • Blank White Eyes: Sometimes depicted with these full time instead of just when using her powers.
  • Blow You Away: Her second most common form of attack.
  • Bolt of Divine Retribution: Normally she just shoots lightning out of her hands, but if she's sufficiently pissed at someone she tends to call down massive lighting bolts from the sky that hit much, much harder.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: During her time as a Genoshan Mutate
  • Brought Down to Badass: During the many times she's been depowered.
    Storm: I have no powers, my body cannot fly. But I no longer mind, for in my heart and soul — where it truly matters — I soar higher than the stars!
  • Calling Your Attacks: In the '90s animated series. Lampshaded during a guest appearance in Spider-Man's '90s animated series:
    Storm: Power of lightning, strike again!!
    Spider-Man: Uh, power of web-shooters, get real sticky!
  • The Chains of Commanding: During her time as Headmistress of the Jean Grey School. With Jean, Charles and Logan dead and Scott an outlaw (who also eventually died, Ororo begins to feel a lot of pressure on her shoulders. Increasing stressors such as increasing anti mutant sentiment and M-pox caused her to grab the Jerkass Ball and falter in her leadership. She eventually steps down and gives leadership to Kate Pryde.
  • Characterization Marches On: Early Storm was something of an oddball, with a mention of frequently going nude, and talking to plants like they were living things. By the time of the Proteus arc, this died off.
  • Character Development: In addition to aforementioned march of characterization, after The Dark Phoenix Saga Storm became the X-Men field leader in Cyclops's absence, developing a taste for it she grew to like.
  • Claustrophobia: To varying degrees. You can usually tell when in her timeline a story takes place by how badly her claustrophobia's acting up, as detailed in Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? below.
  • Combat Stilettos: Often has them on her costumes, but they're a non-issue for her since she's often seen hovering or flying.
  • Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: In all adaptations, she seems to be the lone aversion. In cartoons and films, she's called Storm more often than her real name. Presumably because it's less of a mouthful than Ororo.
  • Cool Big Sis: Mostly toward Kitty Pryde. She calls the younger woman "Kitten" as a mark of affection. Also to Colossus and Nightcrawler, both of whom she affectionately calls "little brother".
  • Cool Teacher: In X-Men: Evolution she's portrayed as such, due to Wolverine and her being the only adults at the institute.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Her parents died in a plane crash when she was a child and she watched them die. Ororo then had to become a pickpocket to survive.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Usually wears a dark outfit but is a hero.
  • Dating Catwoman: Storm gains the attention of, and feels attracted to villains about as often as she does to other heroic characters. Among them are Doctor Doom (or rather, a Doom-Bot), Arkon, Dracula, Loki, and Khan (no, not that one). Wolverine even made note of it, stating that any bad guy worth knowing would be attracted to her (can't exactly blame them).
  • Deadpan Snarker: It's actually harder to notice than most characters due to her speech tone. However, she is usually the quickest to point out when a plan is silly.
  • Demoted to Extra: Despite being one of the most prominent X-Men, Storm is often relegated to essentially a supporting role in many adaptations, particularly the films and Wolverine and the X-Men. Halle Berry actually lobbied to have a greater role after the first movie.
  • The Dreaded: In Priest's run on Black Panther, Everett Ross notes upon meeting Storm that most of his intelligence connections are terrified of her. She's powerful enough by herself to take out entire armies, she had no national affiliation or loyalties at the time, her primary association is with a group of independent freedom fighters who are regularly at least accused of terrorism, and she feels very comfortable crossing borders in the service of her own agenda. She can cause an international incident or disrupt the world's economy just about any time she wants.
  • Dude Magnet: People just can't help falling for her.
  • Eastward Endeavor: When the X-Men went to Japan for Logan and Mariko's wedding, Storm met Logan's ally Yukio. At the time, Storm was struggling with her repressed passions, unsure if she should drop her usual unemotive attitude. Yukio's daredevil behavior influenced her into nourishing her passions. The change led her to get a mohawk and become stronger than ever, particularly after getting depowered. She even got promoted to team leader for a long time. Finally, the considerable amounts of Ship Tease she had with Yukio unlocked some of her more personal wishes. A later annual showed her heart's desire was to live a carefree life in Tokyo with Yukio.
  • Elemental Baggage: This was used to (sort of) explain that she can control weather, but not really create it. (For instance, when she makes it rain inside a room, it becomes much drier outside.) Compare Thor, who can make it rain anywhere, because his powers are explicitly magical. It was also originally stated that her ability to shoot lightning bolts out of her hands was because her body naturally generated a strong positive electrical charge. This was rather swiftly dropped.
  • Elemental Hair Colors: She is almost always depicted with long, white hair which usually defies gravity, suggesting her wind and lightning powers.
  • Elemental Powers: Complete control over the weather, which gives her the ability to whip up lightning, wind, and ice storms in combat, among a plethora of other useful tricks. It's more difficult for her to do but she is also capable of manipulating water and lava currents with her powers, just to a much less fine degree than the atmosphere.
  • Equivalent Exchange: Storm's weather-controlling powers are given a limit to explain why she can't turn the world into a paradise, or at least bring relief to disaster-stricken areas. The first time she tried that, she successfully ended the drought in her village - only to discover that, since the moisture she'd drawn upon had to come from somewhere, she'd caused even worse droughts to strike the rest of the world.
  • Evil Laugh: For a hero, she's surprisingly good at it, as shown in in Marvel Adventures. Though she was playing a witch who could control the weather, it could be her needing to make it convincing. (Which was part of Wolverine's plan, "just like we said!")
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: After getting sick of repressing her passions all the time, she gave into nourishing them — this change was reflected with her new (at the time) mohawk. The change was unpopular at the time, so she went back to her normal hairstyle, but in Marvel Now she styled her hair in a mohawk again.
  • Fatal Flaw: Her sense of responsibility. She feels responsible for way too much and a result she continuously takes on too many roles at once. Leader of the X-men and leader of the Morlocks. Queen of Wakanda and savior of mutantkind. Quiet Council member and member of the Great Ring of Arakko. She gets pulled in 10 different directions every time and as a result disaster ensues.
  • Fisher King: Her mood influences her weather manipulation powers, so she's basically this everywhere she goes if she doesn't rein in her powers.
  • Four-Star Badass: Commands half of Arakko against Genesis during the Genesis War.
  • Friends with Benefits: In most cases, with Wolverine. They've dated in the past, but it didn't last. They've slept together quite a few times, but ultimately they settle on a romantic friendship.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: During her role as the "goddess" protecting African citizens from bandits and raiders, she often attacked foes with lightning bolts while completely naked.
  • Glamour Failure: In the 90s cartoon, she has solid white Monochromatic Eyes, a subtle visual hint of her status as a mutant. 80s comics instead gave her cat's eyes instead for the same purpose, but this fell out of favor.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Whenever she is using her powers.
  • A God Am I: She has a tendency to refer to herself as a goddess due to her abilities, which ranges from prideful boasting to full on delusions depending on the story.
  • God Guise: In her youth she was worshiped as a rain goddess until Xavier found her. In her 2014 series, the tribespeople admit that they were only humoring her because they needed the rain. They knew all along that she was "just" a crazy girl who could make rain, not a goddess. Storm in the present is rather embarrassed by her past behavior.
  • Good Is Not Soft: She's one of the nicest members of the X-Men. However, if she is pushed too far, either by her friends being threatened or the arising of a situation that her ethics will not stand for, she will go to extreme lengths in retaliation. Two instances were her first battle with Callisto, and years later, her battle with Marrow, Callisto's extremist protégé.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: She got very quietly jealous when Kitty started taking lessons with Stevie Hunter.
  • Hell-Bent for Leather: Storm has a track record of dressing up in form-flattering leather outfits, and her fondness for leather has even been commented upon in-universe.
    • The longest and most notorious period was during her "Mohawk phase", where she wore a biker's style black leather jacket, which at least visually coordinated with her hair. It outlived the hairstyle, but not by much longer.
    • The 90s animated cartoon gave her an elaborate full-body costume of silver-white leather.
  • The High Queen: During her brief marriage to T'challa, she served as the Queen of Wakanda, and was much respected by the people there for her leadership abilities and willingness to fight to protect them from outside threats

    I-Z 
  • I Believe I Can Fly: With her wind powers.
  • Identical Grandson: During an issue of New Mutants, Magik has an accident with her magic portals taking her into the distant past where she meets an ancestor of Ororo's who is completely identical to her.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: A recurring thing in the Claremont years is a lot of villains wanting Storm.
  • An Ice Person: Comes with her control of the weather. She is typically the most prominent ice elemental user after Iceman himself, especially in the 90s animated series, where she often summoned the colds of the arctic north.
  • Important Haircut: Her Mohawk didn't survive the eighties, but it did signify a newfound toughness the character has held onto. She eventually went back to the mohawk in 2013.
  • Inconsistent Coloring: In her introduction to the X-Men comics, Storm has blue eyes when not using her powers, and this was largely maintained for years after her introduction. However, it's not quite uncommon to see her with brown eyes in comics written in the last decade or so.
  • In Harm's Way: For all her talk of pacifism, even Storm found palace life and politics extremely boring after she married the Black Panther, and continued to help the X-Men whenever she could.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Well, her culture didn't have a taboo about nudity... she grew out of this as the decades went past. ''Somewhat.'' While it's not in every issue like it once was, she still gets this duty more than any other X-character.
  • Just the First Citizen: While serving as regent of Arakko and afterwards, she refuses to be called the "queen". In practice, she is very much the queen of Arakko, as even it's new regent (Lodus Logos) defers to her.
  • Kryptonite Factor: Storm's powers are limited by the dimensions of the atmosphere she's in (another reason for her to not like small spaces), as well as it's composition - for example, she can't make it rain if there isn't any moisture in the air (Thor, in contrast, can make it rain no matter what the atmospheric conditions are, as his powers are explicitly magical). This is usually not an issue, but it comes up from time to time.
  • Lady of Black Magic: Her mutant powers give her control over the elements, and she's a Physical Goddess and former queen with a regal air.
  • Large Ham: Specially in the '90s cartoon series, where she would verbally command the elements. Lampshaded by Rogue in the first episode.
    Rogue: Lighten up on the speeches, sugah!
  • The Leader: If Cyclops is not leading the team, chances are high that Storm is. She is mostly a type IV, as she is highly inspirational, has incredible force of personality and is really good with people.
  • Leotard of Power: Most of her iconic costumes have been leotards with some form of cape.
  • Like a Son to Me: Quickly began seeing Kitty as a surrogate daughter. It's still there as they will go to the ends of the Earth for eachother and Kate sees Storm as one of the three women who raised her (the other being her mother and Stevie Hunter).
  • Like Brother and Sister: Her and Gambit, more so early on in his tenure than now, but they are still very close. Also strongly has this with Colossus, who she often called "little brother". One way to piss Colossus off early on was to speak ill of Storm, which lead to Colossus sending Wolverine flying.
  • Magic Is Feminine: Storm is descended from a line of African sorceresses and priestesses who have blue eyes and Mystical White Hair.
  • Making a Splash: With rain, though she doesn't do this as often compared to her other forms of attack.
  • Mama Bear: It's best not to mess with the younger X-Men. In the comics, bringing harm to Kitty is the surest way to earn a beatdown from her. This also extends to her godchild in the '90s cartoon and nephew Spyke in X-Men: Evolution.
  • Martial Pacifist: She really prefers not to fight. And wants to be a full-fledged pacifist one day.
  • Master of Unlocking: She keeps a pair of lockpicks on her person at all times and is very skilled with them.
  • Monochromatic Eyes: Depending on the Artist, similarly to the aforementioned cat's eyes. Ever since The Movie, it's been pretty consistently similar to the movie version; normal eyes until she uses her powers, causing them to glow white.
  • Morality Pet: Specifically recruited as this by Cyclops between the events of Schism and Avengers vs. X-Men.
  • More than Mind Control: Briefly wound up under Loki's control during the 80s, which he insists was a case of this on Storm's part, and not just him flat-out brainwashing and gaslighting her (and if you can believe the God of Lies during one of his "Bwa-ha-ha!" phases...)
  • Most Common Super Power: She has a very impressive bust.
  • Ms. Fanservice: She liked public nudity a lot, especially in earlier appearances. Also, the costumes that she wears are this as well because of the fact that they highlight her very voluptuous yet toned body, large breasts, and long toned legs.
  • Mundane Utility:
    • Would frequently use her weather powers to generate small rains to water her plants or give herself a natural shower, playing into her Innocent Fanservice Girl and Ms. Fanservice qualities. She'd even do this in front of the other X-Men, using weather-power-generated Censor Steam. . . or not.
    • Her body constantly generates a low level electric charge, and at will she can direct it to give her hair lift without product of any kind. It's particularly how she keeps her mohawk up.
  • Mystical White Hair: Her white hair was explained as a property she got from her mother's inherent magic. Her mother was a Kenyan princess.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: Because Lightning Can Do Anything she sometimes slips into this. For instance, did you know that in the Black Panther animated series she can use Cerebro now? Examples in the main comics include creating atmospheric pressure several times stronger than Jupiter's, and causing an EMP. Claremont attempted to handwave this by defining Storm's powers as aerokinesis, or the mental control over air and atmosphere, but later writers have not run with this football.
  • Nice Girl: Storm is usually a kind, friendly woman.
  • Not Quite Flight: Storm can fly by using her powers to control a wind strong enough to support her weight.
  • Occult Blue Eyes: She has blue eyes, which is extremely rare among non-Europeans. In her case, it's a mark of her family's magical heritage, in addition to the white hair.
  • One-Woman Army: In the first X-Men Legends, she is the most powerful and versatile character in the game, and the only reason not to have her in your party is if you're challenging yourself. In Marvel's later RPG's (she appears in all of them), she's toned down a bit, but is still a top-tier character. While she wasn't used as often, Storm is considered the single best character in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The only thing keeping her from appearing as regularly on tournament teams is that she doesn't quite have the team synchronicity of Magneto, Sentinel, and/or Psylocke. She's "just" good on her own.
    • Her video game appearances are actually underpowered compared to her comic book incarnation, who in the past has created hyperstorm systems that have covered the whole planet, and subsequently dissipated them in a matter of seconds.
  • The Paragon: Depending on the Writer, and has slipped into Anti-Hero at times. For the most part, though, she's a solid example.
  • Parental Substitute: When Kate Pryde was about to marry Colossus, she stood in a room with her mother, Stevie Hunter and Ororo and said "Im with the three women who raised me".
  • Physical Goddess: She considered herself this at times in her past, due to being worshiped as one, and often uses the term to intimidate her foes, but is in fact a mortal Mutant, if a very powerful one, and as such is always completely outmatched by The Mighty Thor, even repeatedly under Claremont's pen. She is very powerful by human standards, and can potentially cause great natural disasters, but is very far from a world-buster or high level reality-manipulator. Her powers have shown the ability to gradually cause larger-scale weather manipulation than the usual quick-draw local effects. She could be a world-buster if she were of a mind to be and had time to make it happen, but... there are characters who could do worse in under two seconds. However, she was granted additional power by Loki at one point, and on another was shown as a member of "The Twelve". And in What If?... the X-Men Had Stayed in Asgard?, Storm became the new Goddess of Thunder, complete with her own Mjölnir .
    • Several comics have implied that her family is descended from some goddess. They were also regarded as long line of witches, so it's question are her powers mutation or magic.
    • As of Black Panther Vol 1 #172 (2018), Storm became an actual weather goddess by drawing upon the faith of Wakanda to help her ascend to godhood.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: Her and Logan. Some fans feel it's more. In the Ultimate Universe, it was... for a while anyway.... The 90's series have even shown an alternate timeline where they were married. Eventually, in the 616 continuity, the relationship was upgraded in the pages of Wolverine and the X-Men.
  • Popularity Power:
    • How Storm beat Wonder Woman in Marvel Versus DC, quite literally as the outcome of fights were decided by phone-in votes. Storm overwhelms Wonder Woman with lightning and even briefly survives hand to hand combat with her beforehand, even though Wonder Woman has immense superhuman strength and durability.
    • This is how she ended up on the Marvel Adventures Avengers team; she also joined the Fantastic Four alongside the Black Panther.
    • Her membership in the 616 Avengers takes the trope even further: she was on the team for about a week before Avengers vs. X-Men broke out.
  • Power Floats: She is frequently floating, which can be justified by how wind control is part of her powers.
  • Power Loss Depression: Storm had her powers accidentally removed by Henry Gyrich with a gun invented by the mutant machinist, named Forge. It took some time for her to overcome her depression over this, especially since she was in a relationship with Forge before learning he created the gun that de-powered her. Her journey of self-discovery across Africa in Uncanny X-Men #198 explores how shattered she feels before coming to terms with what happened to her.
    Storm: Once I would have ridden the wind. Now it drives me. The elements I shaped to my have me at their mercy... And always, the wind - my friend, my servant, taunts me with its fury. It howls, it laughs, it mocks my very being. Without me, Ororo, it cries, you are nothing.
  • Power Loss Makes You Strong: Her Mohawk phase is perhaps one of the oldest examples in comics.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: Storm is often de-emphasised or significantly reduced in power in adaptations. Realistically, with the woman who can control the weather in the team, what is the guy with laser eyes, the girl who walks through walls, the big strong metal man or even the badass immortal with claws going to contribute? The format of a serial comic book can easily accommodate an extremely powerful character within an ensemble cast; while a movie has about two hours to give every fan-favorite character their showcase moment, and a TV series can probably only spare a single episode for individual character development. Therefore, Storm will typically be pushed into the background, if only to prevent 99% of X-Men from being completely overshadowed.
  • Proud Beauty: It's downplayed but she takes great pride in her looks, with one Fantastic Four moment involving her being enraged the Thing called her natural hair a weave and strong-armed him into pulling on it to prove it was real. Black Panther made a point of warning the Thing never to question if her eyes were naturally blue if he valued his life.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: The more authority and responsibility she has, the fiercer she is in a fight. As a member of the X-men she is highly dangerous. As the leader of the X-men even more so. As a political and military leader on Arakko, well, she is very much living up to that "goddess" reputation.
  • Relative Button: While not related by blood, she thinks of Kate Pryde as her daughter (and the latter has said that Storm was one of the women who raised her) and harming Kate will lead to Ororo's vindictive and ruthless side coming out.
  • Retcon: When she first appeared in Giant-Sized X-Men #1, it was implied that she had never left her tribal lands before. Xavier convinces her to see the world beyond the tribe that worships her, and she replies that it may be time for her to leave the nest. But once her background was expanded on, it turned out she was born in the United States, spent her early childhood in Egypt, and spent her teen years travelling across Africa before reaching her mother's tribe in Kenya. Assuming she was 21 or so when she was recruited by Xavier, she couldn't have been with her tribe longer than 5-6 years.
  • The Rival: Emma Frost and Callisto. Since Emma's Heel–Face Turn, though, the two have become more Vitriolic Best Buds.
  • Sassy Black Woman: More subtle than most, but she's extremely imperious and willful, and has been known to make more than a few sharp remarks, at friends and foes alike.
  • Shock and Awe: Her most common form of attack, when fighting foes that are tough enough to take it or nonhuman enough that the censors won't object, is to blast lightning at them. When fighting in a more restrained manner, she favors gale-force winds to knock foes off their feet mixed with super-cooled winds, mist and snow to either freeze foes in place or create slippery surfaces they can't move through.
  • Spock Speak: Actually quite common among English speakers in eastern Africa, though the writers probably didn't know that at the time.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Storm is one long, toned legged, 5'11 slab of gorgeousness.
  • Street Urchin: When she was younger, in order to survive the streets of Cairo after her parents' deaths. She's even recruited into a gang led by a Fagin-style ringleader.
  • Supernatural Suffocation: Her control over weather and the air sometimes extends to sucking air out of people's lungs.
  • Superpowerful Genetics: The extraordinary features of Ororo. Blue eyes, white hair, and weather manipulation is carried through a gene for FIVE generations until it activates, so Storm's power was passed from her great-great-grandmother.
  • Superpower Lottery: She's often considered one of the most powerful X-Men out there, second only to the likes of X-Man, Phoenix, or Magneto.
  • Sympathetic Murder Backstory: Her backstory has her killing a man who tried to rape her. And this is why she tries not to kill the rest of the time.
  • Take Me Instead: When T'Challa succumbs to very bad wounds, Ororo entered the spirit world so she could take T'Challa's place, so the people of Wakanda wouldn't lose their spiritual leader.
  • Technical Pacifist: She wants to be a pacifist. It's just not in the cards now. She's also considerably more accepting and less angsty about it than these characters tend to be, at least for the most part.
  • Team Mom: Very protective of her friends and usually the one to take field leadership where there is no Cyclops around. She was also a leader for a lot of the 70s era. Not only was Storm there for Kitty as a maternal figure but she was one of the few people who can make Wolverine detract his claws and cool him down from a Berserker Rage.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Storm was almost raped in Kenya when she was younger and killed the man with a knife. After the trauma from that incident, she swore that she would never take another life. She has loosened up more and more with this restriction since the 80s. While she prefers to be merciful, she has no problems with killing those who really need killing.
  • Thunder Hammer: In a story told in X-Men Annual Vol 1 9 (October, 1985), during Storm's depowered phase, Loki presents Storm with a replica of Mjolnir he created called "Stormcaster". The enchanted weapon temporarily gives Storm her weather control powers back, and possibly even boosts them, but she ultimately has to give it up when she realizes Loki is using it to manipulate her. In the What If? story based on that story, it is given the name "Stormbringer" instead.
  • Time to Step Up, Commander: When Cyke left the X-Men after the whole Dark Phoenix thing, Ororo became the X-Men's team leader partly because there was no-one else who could or would lead the team. Suffice to say, she stepped up admirably.
  • Token Minority: Not within the X-Men itself, but often in various general Marvel Universe products. As Storm is arguably Marvel's most popular non-white superhero, it's not uncommon to see her in Marvel Universe group shots on backpacks, posters, lunchboxes, video games and other merchandise as the sole character of color. Then Marvel started including The Falcon as well.
  • Token Minority Couple:
    • With Black Panther.
    • There was a brief Ship Tease with Bishop when he joined the X-Men, as well. It made very little sense, smacked of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, and was quickly dropped when the book changed writers. Chris Claremont considered hooking them up in X-Treme X-Men, but wanted to avoid the implications of having the only two black characters be romantically involved.
  • Took a Level in Badass: She started off as a fairly strong Claremont Woman, but a bit unsure of herself. After some time with the team and a radical makeover in Japan, however, she became less an African Proper Lady and more of an ethnic Action Girl. She still used Spock Speak, however, and continues to do so to this day. Also, when it comes to her claustrophobia, finding herself in an enclosed space went from "instantly paralyzed by post-traumatic flashbacks to her parents' death" to "really uncomfortable, but the desire to get the hell out makes her all the more motivated to get the job done." Also during the early days she actually had some power limitations, nowadays said limitations are gone and she got a status as Omega-level mutant.
  • Twofer Token Minority: At one point in the comics, another character actually points out that she seems to have an even mix of African, Asian, and Caucasian features.
    • The somewhat mysterious origin of the Asian/"Asian" component to her features (which are completely atypical for the African community she comes from, and seemingly unique only to her and her maternal ancestors) is actually a plot point at various times.
    • The original intent was that her unusual appearance was a minor cosmetic mutation alongside the main weather control one.
    • There was also, during Claremont's run as writer, some rather strong subtext that she's bisexual.
    • She also believes in a mysterious female deity referred to as "Goddess" or "Bright Lady", which makes her an adherent of a (probably fictional) minority religion.
  • Unstable Powered Woman: She was once tasked with seducing Doctor Doom as a distraction while the rest of the X-Men launched a rescue mission. Unfortunately for them, Doom was already onto their game and captures most of the team in sadistic deathtraps. For Storm herself, he encases her entire body in chrome, which has the effect of triggering her intense claustrophobia. As she panics, she unconsciously triggers a massive tropical storm that threatens to destroy the east coast. When the X-Men finally force Doom to release her, Storm has regressed into a savage, uncontrolled state that is called "Rogue Storm" — a character that both the cover◊ and the story parallels to Dark Phoenix. In fact, Colossus uses the team's past experience with Dark Phoenix to calm Storm down enough that she turns back to normal and dismisses the storm.
  • Vampire's Harem: Count Dracula tried to turn Ororo into his vampire bride once, and though he failed, his attraction to her still remained as he regards her as The One That Got Away.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds:
    • With Emma Frost, a former enemy turned friend.
    • She also occasionally has moments like this with Wolverine, when he's being particularly unsociable.
  • Weather Dissonance: As part of her mutant power she can cause this, sometimes without meaning to if she's feeling particularly upset.
  • Weather Manipulation: She uses this trope in weaponized form.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Her no-killing rule seems limited to humans: she killed the demon N'astirh during Inferno (1988), has killed Brood (insectoid aliens) in the past, and wasn't particularly bothered when Dracula was seemingly killed.
    • It should be noted that each of these instances was unique in some fashion; N'Astirh had started a Hate Plague among the X-Men that was affecting everyone, Ororo included, the Brood violate every principle she believes in by being an all-conquering race that deliberately parasitizes other sapients to reproduce, and Dracula had attempted to brainwash her into becoming his concubine. And, in the case of the Brood, she did debate with herself rather extensively if she had the right to kill the Brood larva maturing within her, even knowing that its birth would kill her. The Angst of this started her Break the Haughty arc.
  • What You Are in the Dark: Once found Magneto sleeping — that is, Magneto before the Character Development and Hidden Depths had kicked in — and grabbed a nearby knife, seriously considering killing him then and there. Of course, she doesn't.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Originally claustrophobia, though this has abated significantly over the years from "crippling terror" to throw away fear. Nowadays it will usually only come up when they need to get Storm out of a fight without any Chickification.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: Inverted. Storm has natural white hair but is genuine hero,
  • Wolverine Publicity: She's been regularly featured in X-Men since 1975. Had many solo series, many mini-series. Has made guest appearances. Also have appeared in every game in the Marvel vs. Capcom series and Marvel RPGs, and she's one of the few characters to be on all three of Marvel's big teams (the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers).
  • World's Most Beautiful Woman: Storm is worshiped as a Goddess despite being mortal herself. Storm has had nearly every single major hero, even female ones come on to her at some point and her line of suitors include the likes of Doctor Doom and even goddamn Dracula.
  • Xenafication: A positive example here. She mainly relied on her powers in the beginning. After being stripped of them, she'd later go on to become one of the best fighters in both hand-to-hand and weapon combat. Even after she regained her powers, she largely retained the skills she'd picked up, becoming one of the X-Men's most versatile members (Depending on the Writer).

Alternative Title(s): Storm Marvel Comics

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