Considering their status as two of Marvel Comics’ strongest heroes, and as two of the X-Men’s most well-known powerhouses, Storm and Magneto share an equally powerful bond as two of Arakko’s current figureheads. Storm is no stranger to leadership, and neither is Magneto, but the two have never quite faced a challenge such as this. And with everything they’ve been through together as X-Men, that says quite a lot.
Now, all of mutantkind finds itself under siege in the pages of A.X.E.: Judgement Day by Kieron Gillen and Valerio Schiti with tie-ins like Al Ewing and Stefano Caselli’s X-Men Red #6 cementing Storm and Magneto’s status as a team to be reckoned with. But while circumstances once again find them working side by side, it’s not the first time the woman called Storm has found herself working closely with the Master of Magnetism. And it’s far from the first time that fans have seen just how strong these two heroes can be when they put their heads together.
When Magneto first joins the X-Men and begins training the New Mutants at the behest of his old friend Professor Xavier after the events of Uncanny X-Men #200 by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr., Storm respects Xavier’s wishes, even with a wary eye kept on the team’s oldest foe. But during his time with the team, the two grow ever closer, with Storm even convincing Magneto to join the Hellfire Club in Chris Claremont and Kevin Nowlan's New Mutants #51 in order to keep tabs on their enemies. Erik himself is hesitant to step once more down the darker path, only for Ororo to express her faith in his ability to remain on the side of the angels.
Storm and Magento Forge An Omega-Level Bond
Ultimately, the duo joins the club to operate jointly as the White King before the line-wide events of the drive them apart, but it would not be the last time the pair would work together. Years later, as members of Cyclops’ Extinction Team, Storm and Magneto face no shortage of all-powerful foes once more at one another’s sides. From the Celestials, to Mister Sinister, to even the Avengers themselves, few enemies manage to stand against the might of the two Omegas. And now that Krakoa and Arakko have once again brought these two all-powerful X-Men back to one another, they’re union is stronger than ever for more than a few reasons.
As with many fan-favorite X-Men partnerships, Storm and Magneto’s power sets compliment one another’s in astounding ways. As the unparalleled master of the electromagnetic spectrum, Erik has access to levels of power that few on Earth can come close to replicating, Omega-level mutant or otherwise. Meanwhile, as a fellow Omega of unbelievable power, Storm’s own weather and energy manipulations go hand in hand with those of Magneto, allowing the two X-Men to combine their powers to devastating effect.
Storm Always Respected the X-Men's Greatest Foe
But even outside of their respective abilities, what’s more powerful is the understanding that Ororo and Erik have for one another. In one of their earliest confrontations in Uncanny X-Men #150 by Claremont and Dave Cockrum, Storm encounters an unaware Magneto and thinks to herself, “Why are we enemies?! There is much to respect about him – almost to admire.” From their earliest days, there has always been an unspoken connection between these X-Men, and their shared history up to and including their time together on Arakko reinforces that notion.
Storm and Magneto are two of the X-Men’s most powerful leaders, both in terms of their abilities and in terms of their ideology. While Ororo and Erik haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, there are few mutants that the Master of Magnetism respects more than the Windrider. And there are few X-Men that Marvel Comics fans respect more than Storm and Magneto.