Anime vs Marvel · City to planet
Gaara vs Storm
A ninja who controls the sand meets a mutant who controls the wind that moves it.
Tale of the tape
| Naruto | Universe | Marvel |
|---|---|---|
| Superhuman | Tier | City to planet |
| Sand that moves on its own to shield him, and a coffin of sand that crushes | Strength | Total command of the weather: lightning, hurricanes, blizzards and the wind itself |
| Little strength in his own body once the sand is gone | Weakness | Severe claustrophobia |
| 1–1 | Record on Versus | 1–0 |
The Arena
Storm came through a portal into an endless desert, the sky a pale, cloudless blue. She sensed the weather immediately: dry, hot, still. Then she sensed something else: the sand itself was moving, rising in a column toward a young man with red hair standing alone on a dune, a gourd on his back.
“You are not from this land,” Gaara said, his voice calm. Storm floated down, her white hair stirring in a breeze she had created. “I am Ororo Munroe. I mean no harm.” Gaara looked at her for a long moment. “Then why does the wind obey you?” Storm smiled slightly. “Because I ask it to.”
The sand rose around Gaara. The sky above Storm began to darken.
Round One
Gaara struck first, a wave of sand rising from the desert floor and crashing toward her. Storm raised her hands, and a wall of wind met it head-on, blowing the sand apart into a cloud. Gaara frowned and sent more sand, this time a giant hand reaching to grab her. Storm summoned a gust that scattered it like dust.
Gaara tried the Sand Coffin, the technique that crushes anything it wraps. The sand rose around Storm, and she called down a whirlwind from the sky, and the sand was torn away before it could close. Gaara stared. Nobody had ever escaped the Sand Coffin by simply blowing it away.
Storm’s eyes went white, and the clear blue sky turned black with storm clouds.
The Turn
Storm called down the rain. It had not rained in the desert outside the Hidden Sand Village for years. Now it poured, a torrential downpour, and the sand Gaara controlled grew heavy and wet, turning to mud. It moved slowly. It clumped. It no longer flowed the way he needed it to.
Gaara’s sand armour, the thin layer that protects his skin, grew heavy and began to crack and slide off him. His automatic sand shield, which had protected him his entire life, rose sluggishly and collapsed under its own weight. For the first time, he was exposed.
Storm floated above him in the downpour, lightning crackling around her. “I do not want to hurt you,” she said. “But I will not let you crush me either.”
The Finish
Gaara gathered every grain of dry sand he could find, deep beneath the wet surface, and sent it up in one final wave. Storm met it with a bolt of lightning that turned the sand to glass mid-air. It fell around Gaara in shattered pieces, glittering in the rain.
Gaara stood in the downpour, his sand gone, his armour gone, small and soaked, and for the first time since he was a child, he had nothing between himself and the world. Storm landed in front of him and held out her hand. Gaara looked at it, surprised.
“The rain,” he said quietly, “I have not felt it on my skin since I was born. The sand always blocked it.” Storm looked at him with understanding. She let the storm soften to a gentle shower, and they stood together in the desert, two people who had always carried something that kept them apart, feeling the rain.
The verdict
Storm wins
Gaara controls an endless supply of sand, but Storm controls the weather that moves it: her winds scatter his attacks, and her rain turns his sand to heavy mud he can barely move.
- Weather controlWind and rain directly counter sand.
- RainWet sand becomes too heavy for Gaara to use.
- LightningIt turns his last attack into glass.
How the rematch could go differently: In a sealed underground chamber with no sky and no weather, Gaara’s sand would overwhelm Storm, who also suffers from claustrophobia.
Who do you think wins?
Who would win in a fight between Gaara and Storm?
Storm wins. Gaara controls an endless supply of sand, but Storm controls the weather that moves it: her winds scatter his attacks, and her rain turns his sand to heavy mud he can barely move.