epic encounters: Storm vs Avatar Aang – An Elemental Showdown

Prepare for an unprecedented clash of titans as we pit the formidable Storm from the X-Men against the elemental Avatar, Aang. Our latest episode offers a spellbinding breakdown of their remarkable abilities, dissecting the factors that could sway 100 theoretical battles between these two powerhouses. We scrutinize Storm’s command over the elements, her agility in combat, and her occasional vulnerabilities, juxtaposed with Aang’s mastery of all four bendings and his reluctance to engage in violence. It's a spectacle of might and morality as we explore what it takes for each of these legendary characters to claim victory in the ultimate face-off.

As we traverse the battleground of their collision, we weigh the destructive capacities and strategic acumen of these heroes. Storm’s weather-wielding capabilities are staggering, but Aang’s Avatar State might just be the wildcard that evens the odds. With analysis as intense as the lightning Storm conjures, we forecast who might triumph in this elemental brawl. Plus, we speculate how the escalated power dynamics introduced in "The Legend of Korra" might alter the calculus of this incredible matchup. Join me, your guide through this storm of speculation, as we celebrate the feats and fathom the outcomes of this epic confrontation.

Chapters

• 0:00 Elemental Battle
• 23:28 Comparing Destructiveness and Abilities

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

Hello and welcome listeners to another episode of Epic Encounters. I'm your host and announcer and I'm coming to you by myself this time as we discuss the battle between Storm of the X-Men versus Aang the Avatar. In a clash of those who manipulate elements, we will get into the breakdown of their powers speed, endurance, defense, destructive potential, intelligence tactics and X factor and by the end, we will come up with the verdict of who would win in a best out of 100 set of battles. For this we are going to start off with Storm. Storm, also known as Aurora Monroe, is one of the members of the X-Men, not part of the founding team, but the team that came afterwards, found by Charles Xavier in Kenya while she was under the tutelage of the Shadow King, or I should say control of the Shadow King. Her powers cover control over the weather, also known as Atmokinesis, where she is able to manipulate various storms or just the elements themselves to produce any effect that she so sees fit. This can be anything from creating hurricane, forest gales, storms, tornadoes, lightning bolts, controlled control over moisture, freezing things, hail, and so on. Her powers are relatively extensive. That's shown all across the different media that she pops up in. I think that one of the best showings for this is probably like one of the Marvel vs Capcom games, even though most people who play with Storm in those games just kind of spam. But that aside, storm's powers allow her to do everything from fly at high speeds to using lightning to arc between targets or strike very precisely, while Storm has great control over her powers.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Normally Storm has great control over her powers. Normally, she does have a few weaknesses, which are she herself is still relatively human. As far as her anatomy goes, she can still be harmed by bullets, regular weapons, swords, etc. And despite her training with Charles Xavier to help with any mental issues or other problems that she has, storm is still claustrophobic, often causing her to lose control of her powers when she is stuck in tight places or places that she feels are very dark and make her feel as if she can't move. This is, at various points, actually exploited by enemies, especially those that have been able to control her mind, like the Shadow King, I think. Arcade, one of the X-Men villains, has been able to build contraptions that lock her inside of areas that make her freak out or freeze completely, and then some other characters like Kid Omega, who have also been able to manipulate her psyche to the point where she has been rendered effectively defeated. Despite this, storm does still have some very impressive feats, like in the animated series, where she's been able to not only outmaneuver but completely incapacitate Cyclops Cyclops it. When she was in Wakanda and married to the Black Panther, she was able to create massive hurricanes that could keep out invading military forces.

Speaker 1: 4:57

She has been able to on many occasions manipulate lightning Enough to knock out enemies like the blob or even overcome the shielding of magneto, and on various occasions when the x-men have been forced to go up against the phoenix, she has been one of the few members of the x-Men who has been able to stand up to the Phoenix one-on-one, even if it was for a limited amount of time. Yeah, the Phoenix Force tends to be pretty damn powerful, so most of the time when people go up against it they kind of get mollywhopped and it's normally pretty bad. Storm does well, probably second best to Wolverine, who just kind of gets the shit beat out of him, but he can, he can take it. One of storm's more impressive feats, from what I am aware of, is her ability to manipulate cosmic storms while rare, and her ability to actually be out in space by herself isn't really something she can do. It does pose an interesting X factor in this battle that may come up, but unlikely. I don't think they're going to be fighting in space. Kind of weird. And I don't think Aang magically became a cosmonaut, so they're not going into space. I don't think Aang magically became a cosmonaut, so they're not going into space. But I think that covers the bulk of Storm and her powers from the jump.

Speaker 1: 6:32

We can move on to the next portion. In our next portion we'll be covering Aang the Avatar. Aang spent most of his life amongst the Air Nomads, being a more playful and happy-go-lucky person, up until the point where he was told that he would be the Avatar and would be tasked with bringing balance to the world as it was. In fear of his duties, aang ran off ends up frozen like a popsicle and some amount of years later some kids find him and he's 112 years old but still looks like a five-year-old. But you know, that is what it is.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Over the course of Aang's journey in the Last Airbender, aang learns how to use all of the different elements that are available in Avatar, that being firebending, airbending that he already was a master at, essentially, waterbending, and I may have repeated the same thing twice water bending, fire bending, earth bending and air bending, though he mastered some of these to differing degrees. Water bending and air bending were very similar, so he mastered both of these relatively easily, while earth bending and fire bending were the ones he struggled with, earthbending being a little easier because it was less aggressive than what firebending was, because, despite the fact that firebending was something that he could actually do, the problem was, after entering Katara, he essentially didn't want to use it, and Aang was primarily a pacifist. So, even though he fought people, he himself really didn't aim to hurt anyone, and so firebending was never what he was good with. But Aang's end goal was to defeat the Fire Lord and restore balance to the world, and he does, alongside the rest of the Avatar gang, defeating Ozai by taking away his bending. In particular, Aang has the ability to manipulate air for various effects, such as creating an air scooter, pulling the wind out of someone, pinning people to the ground, sending out bursts of air shaped like himself, moving quickly, or enhancing his speed and enhancing his physical strikes. And then, when it comes to waterbending, he can create objects, make walls of water, freeze water and many more things. Earthbending has its many, many applications in Aang's case, where he can create pillars of earth, send out bolts of stone, send out boulders, create walls, create a sort of stone armor around himself and many, many more things, and firebending is the one that he has the least feats, for. I can't think of a single thing that he really can do impressively with fire, except for in the Avatar state, but we'll come back to that. So just put a pin in that, we'll come back around to it. But the only real impressive thing that Aang does with firebending is his ability to redirect lightning, which in of itself is very important for the fight as it is, but is only effective for a defensive measure which fits in with Aang's fighting style.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Going on from there, we will talk about the Avatar State. The Avatar State is an ability that is available to skills of past avatars to essentially master a bending style to achieve feats greater than what they could, naturally, often heightening their already mastered abilities and then allowing mastery over an ability that they did not have already, such as when ang uses the avatar state at the northern water tribe or maybe no northern water tribe and he creates this large water creature that is able to swat aside fire nation ships with ease by raising massive waves, and this was already further amplified by the moon spirit. And another showing of this same avatar state is with his fight with Ozai, where he actively is able to use all four of the elements simultaneously, even the fire bending. That he was not exactly good at, while in the Avatar state, aang is not truly himself becoming way less defensive and far more violent and dangerous, because he is a combination of all of the other Avatars who were not all pacifists Looking at you, kyoshi, not a pacifist in the slightest. Despite this, aang can exert control over the avatar state and in this particular battle the avatar state is hugely impactful on the fight For Aang. Likely his most impressive feat from the show I think comes from season 1, episode 12, that's not in the Avatar state is when he's able to stop a volcanic eruption using earthbending and waterbending to prevent that natural disaster, which likely is his most impressive thing that you see him do outside of the Avatar state. I know there's another time where he carves out some massive canyon with wind, but I can't really remember when it was from. But I do know that the volcanic part is likely along the lines of things that you see Kiyoshi and other avatars do, excluding Korra, because I don't want to talk about Cora moving on to talking about a bit of the advantages of each of the individual combatants in this fight and we'll start with Aang, because I just finished with the men, it's still still warm on the mind Aang has the advantage in this fight when it comes to just raw mobility he's faster, he's agile, he's used to moving around very quickly and he's energetic in his fighting style.

Speaker 1: 14:12

And the sheer versatility that his bending allows him Gives him a diverse range Of bending abilities. He can utilize them anywhere At any point. He can switch from earth bending to defend, defend himself, or use airbending to deflect or move out of the way of attacks, especially for augmentation of his speed would receive, or even for minor healing. That is shown that both Katara and himself and then later in the Legend of Korra still going to ignore it for this fight, but in the Legend of Korra he's able to use that for healing in particular. The other thing that may be a major factor in this fight is Aang's ability to take away bending, or that energy bending ability, while it may not apply to Storm, given that her effects or powers are genetic. It seems to be that that's the same way for benders you are born with the ability, not something you inherit or you gain from something outside, so it may be effective in the sense. Whether it matters or not, that's all up to chance. Lastly, aang is incredibly filled with ingenuity and resourcefulness. And resourcefulness, he's very likely to come up with new ideas and new plans on the fly. While fighting anyone, especially if his only option is to harm the other person, he will look for other options to win the fight.

Speaker 1: 16:02

Storm, in this fight, however, has a leg up on ang in her sheer power of manipulation of the thing she is in control of. Storm's powers are not limited to just being able to manipulate storms locally, but she can expand her powers over very wide ranges and apply her powers in huge effects, going anywhere from being able to freeze cities with sub-zero temperatures and causing massive ice storms that can span states, and when her powers are completely out of control. And when her powers are completely out of control, it can be a truly world-ending threat when it's brought to that level, but control tends to be what's lost in that. Additionally, storm unlike Aang, while they're both part of groups that they are varying parts of. While ang is the main person within the avatar group, he is not essentially the tactician or the leader. That falls to saka, while for storm, she goes back and forth from being the leader to an ally and she's normally sub commander and at various points she has taken over the x-men.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Where cyclops was either incapacitated or she disagreed with him and was chosen as leader for being less hot-headed than Cyclops is older one in this situation, much of his life was spent frozen and his experience is limited only to a few years and the past experiences he can pull on from his past lives, but only in the avatar state. While storm has been trained quite extensively and often on how to use her powers, control her powers, her emotions and everything from fighting To tactics To even law, storm is far more experienced and has far more training Due to the resources available To the X-Men in general and especially Charles Xavier's teachings. So now we come to grading. We're going to break down the individual categories and decide why or what points we will score each individual's powers to decide who is actually the winner in this situation. When it comes to strength, we gave Storm a 7, where Aang got an 18.

Speaker 1: 19:03

It is shown over the course of the Avatar, the Last Airbender show that Aang can carry rather large objects, especially when being trained by Toph. He has to carry large stones or move large objects, and he's shown this strength pretty consistently. While Storm has good physical attributes and is likely above the average person who does not work out or lives a sedentary life, storm's not particularly strong and she's not known for her strength. Moving on to speed, storm scored a 48, whereas Aang scored a 33. He would not exceed anything that looks anything like the speed of sound, and his fastest speeds are more achieved by his glider than he would achieve via moving on his air scooter, while Storm, on the other hand, has the ability of flight without any apparatus to help her, and her flight is often able to keep her up with faster moving things such as airplanes, helicopters and especially the x-men's blackbird. While not at top speed, she can keep up with a vehicle that can move, even in cruising at several hundred miles an hour, with relative ease, and she's been shown able to cross large distances faster than any of the other X-Men who are not much, much faster like Angel.

Speaker 1: 20:57

Moving on to endurance, aang, in this category scored a 23 to Storm 17. While Storm has decent endurance, having trained and being relatively active, especially trained under the X-Men and Wolverine's tutelage, aang is a monk who has spent most of his life training. His body, his mind and the powers of bending are primarily martial or activity based and cause very little drain without being actually injured, and we have seen Aang fight for hours on end, while, as for Storm, using her powers for extended and we have seen Aang fight for hours on end, while, as for Storm, using her powers for extended periods of time have caused her to tire out or even pass out if the effort of using her powers was exceptionally hard. Moving on to defense, storm scored a 23 To Aang's 33. Aang has a much better Defensive profile. His powers and his Entire fighting style focuses On being more defensive and passive, often deciding To redirect attacks, dodge attacks or create barriers to defend himself, rather than outright take on attacks or be hit by them. Additionally, he has the ability to raise barriers of different kinds, from water to stone, to wind and even fire if necessary, especially in the Avatar state, while Storm tends to only really be able to make minor electrical barriers for short periods of time or creating gusts of wind that defend her from projectiles. Gusts of wind that defend her from projectiles, though this has been shown that it doesn't work exceptionally well against physical attacks, having been shown by juggernaut colossus and characters like the hulk being able to penetrate this barrier and injure her, or even thrown heavy objects that she is not prepared to defend against or misjudged getting through her barriers.

Speaker 1: 23:29

Next we move on to destructive potential, with Aang scoring a 35, I'm sorry, 33, and Storm scoring a 50. And Storm scoring a 50. While Aang does have the potential to destroy large land masses, maybe destroy parts of a city, especially in things like his avatar state in Ba Sing Se and the battle at the Northern Water Tribe, this pales in comparison to the abilities of storm, who has been able to tear apart cities with gale force winds, cause hurricanes and tornadoes, and, especially when exposed to powerful existing storms, this can amplify her abilities exponentially, and even further so when she is completely out of control. Storm completely outclasses Aang in her raw ability to just be destructive, whether it be wide-ranged or focused. Next we move on to tactics Focused. Next we move on to tactics, as I stated before, and this kind of comes down to Experience. Again, storm scores a 38 to Aang's 28.

Speaker 1: 24:56

While Aang is resourceful and is, I would say, poised to use ingenuity when needed, storm is far more of a tactician and is more focused on ending a fight and has less qualms with the violence required to possibly finish a fight, where Aang would rather not harm people and especially not kill people, which puts him at a tactical disadvantage when fighting against storm. So long as we are considering each of their morals and even their thought processes, ang isn't magically going to become a murderer no longer, no matter how hard I want him to be for this fight, or whether that goes. I have to consider how the characters think and in this situation, ang is going to be the softer hearted person in comparison. Next we move on to intelligence, and this is another one where Aang scores lower, with a score of 13 to Storm's 23. This comes down to the fact that storm is college educated, has more real world experience, is older by, you know, actual lived years. It's compared to ang being a teenager by the end of his journey, before he becomes an adult, and even by then. While he is wise, hyper-intelligent, he's not even all that intelligent. He is more. He's still a child at heart and he is not in the same class as Storm in that sense. And, additionally, storm is from a future time period in comparison where there's more technology, information is more openly found, so Storm simply knows more.

Speaker 1: 26:50

Lastly, we move on to X-Factors and in this situation we gave Storm a 25 to Aang's 45. While Aang is or I should say while Storm has the ability to possibly increase her power significantly if she is pushed into a corner and freaks out, or were to have an existing Storm to help her out, this pales in comparison to the boost that Aang receives from the Avatar State. From the avatar state, whether entered inadvertently or willingly, the avatar state gives Aang much greater control, much greater versatility and much greater destructive potential. That allows him to sort of close the gap in power, in a sense, to Storm. While Storm does not have to close that gap, she does not have so much of an advantage granted by her losing control and in fact she is better off while still having control and using her greater destructive power. While Aang needs the Avatar state to really bridge the gap here, Needs the avatar state To really bridge the gap here.

Speaker 1: 28:13

With that being said, we come down to the score totals For the two characters, with Storm scoring a 236. And Aang scoring 226. Both of these characters Are very close in their Abilities overall, especially when you talk about their physical capabilities and not just their raw power, with Aang having much better physical capabilities and his defensive and endurance-related profile being much greater than that of Storm's, with Aang being a bit of a superhuman in the fact of how he's actually built as a person, with Storm being more a human with god-like powers, and that kind of sets the two apart here. And because of this, just in comparing the two and thinking about how this will go down, no matter the situation or the place, storm has the ability to injure Aang much easier than Aang has the ability to injure Storm.

Speaker 1: 29:26

Storm can throw down bolts of lightning, cause hurricanes, and much of her powers are equivalent or greater than Aang's, even in the avatar state. And while Aang has the physical upper hand, if it were to come down to physical blows, he can lift probably somewhere in the range of several hundred pounds with relative ease, and in the avatar state he can do more than that. Storm's raw power comes more from her atmo kinesis. She can rain, hail down, freeze things instantly, and while ang can divert lightning with his can. He divert it four or five times over and over again, because, in comparison to the lightning that is shown in the Last Airbender, storm's lightning is fast, truly fast, unlike what's seen in the Last Airbender, where everyone who wants to throw lightning at you has to telegraph their attack significantly. And even when ang redirected lightning from ozai, this was a task and he has been caught off guard with not being prepared for it by people like azula before, and it nearly killed him.

Speaker 1: 30:51

So, with that being said, if we were to run this fight a hundred times over and over, I would give this fight to Storm 70% of the time out of a hundred, with Aang winning 30% of the time. The real problem is that Aang has no real way to bridge the gap in power between the two. I actually believe that some of the other people from the show would have a much easier time with Storm, particularly from the Legend of Korra, where the power level kind of went up significantly beyond what was shown in Avatar the Last Airbender, and then the level of skill and power went up significantly beyond what was shown in Avatar the Last Airbender, and then the level of skill and power went up significantly. So someone like Korra as the Avatar may have done a much better job against Storm, but let's be honest, the Legend of Korra was bad, so I won't be talking about it unless somebody really wants me to. So won't be talking about it unless somebody really wants me to.

Speaker 1: 31:55

With that being said, we thank you for joining us for another episode of Epic Encounters and we hope to see you next time. If you're looking for more content, make sure to check us out on YouTube at Epic Encounters, and follow us on Twitter for memes and trailers for our other things. And if you're really interested in what we make and you want to support us, go ahead and check us out on Patreon and help us make better content all the time. Additionally, check out the YouTube channel for the longer form essay content. That's not exactly the versus debates that we have on here. With that being said, until next time, have a good day. Bye.