The demon in X-Men #96 makes a useful early test for Storm because the fight cannot be solved simply by everybody hitting harder.

The demon in X-Men #96 makes a useful early test for Storm because the fight cannot be solved simply by everybody hitting harder. Kierrok is tied to the cairn on the school grounds. Once Xavier identifies that connection, Ororo goes after the source while the others are still dealing with the danger inside the house. Her ability to travel through the air and command lightning lets her work on a different part of the problem. The cairn then pulls her toward confinement, and the threat reaches straight into her childhood terror. The scene makes the change immediate: the woman who can stand above the landscape is suddenly fighting the prospect of being trapped in darkness. She forces herself through the panic and destroys the cairn. Her success doesn't require the fear to have been imaginary or insignificant. The scene allows both the terror and the strength to be real. There is an important practical side to her place in this team too. Wind, weather and flight give the group options the close-range fighters don't have. Ororo can alter the conditions of a battle, reach a distant target and protect others across more space than her body occupies. Her manner can seem composed beside Wolverine's temper or Scott's strain, but composure shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of private pressure. The early stories are already allowing glimpses behind the regal presentation. When the team meets the apparent original X-Men in #100, she first tries to make them listen. She knows the people in front of her as allies and responds to that relationship before accepting a fight. Ororo helps give this new team a conscience as well as a different scale of power. She can bring the storm, and she can still ask whether the people standing opposite her need to be enemies at all.