Invisible Woman
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- This article is about the comic book character. For the 1940 film, see The Invisible Woman. For the Canadian artist Sue Richards, see Sue Richards (artist).
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The Invisible Woman (real name Susan Richards, née Susan Storm), formerly The Invisible Girl, is a Marvel Comics superhero, a member of the Fantastic Four. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, she first appeared in The Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961).
Like the other members of the group, she received her powers on a spacecraft bombarded by cosmic radiation. Sue can turn herself and people and things around her invisible and generate invisible force fields.
An infatuation of adversaries Doctor Doom and the Submariner, she was a frequent damsel in distress in early issues of The Fantastic Four. As the series progressed she became more powerful and assertive, assuming the team’s second-in-command. Still, she is a loving, nurturing figure to her husband Mr. Fantastic, children Franklin and Valeria, younger brother the Human Torch and close friend the Thing.
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[edit] Publication history
Invisible Woman has primarily appeared in issues of Fantastic Four since the very beginning. Unfortunately, Susan's powers of invisibility alone proved to be of relatively little use in team's earlier missions, especially compared to the more aggressive abilities of the rest of the group. Eventually, creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby realized this and expanded upon Sue's abilities, giving her the powers to render other objects and people invisible and create powerful force fields and psionic blasts.
Despite her newfound abilities, Susan served primarily as an assistant and second-in-command to Reed, and the comics tended to treat her in a condescending stereotypical manner. This changed when John Byrne began his celebrated run on the title. Under his authorship, Sue became much more confident and assertive in her own abilities which themselves became more versatile and impressive. For instance, she found she could use her force-field abilities to manipulate matter through the air, immobilize enemies, or administer offensive long-range attacks.
This revision, also marked by Susan changing her nom de guerre to Invisible Woman, has become the standard with Susan being recognized as not only the most powerful member of the team but one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe.
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Origin
This native of Long Island is a daughter of a physician, along with her younger brother, Jonathan.[citation needed] Their mother, Mary, died because of a car crash. Even with his medical expertise, their father was unable to save her life. Life began to spiral downward for her father. After his wife's death, Dr. Storm became a gambler and a drunk, which led him to the accidental killing of a loan shark. With their father in prison, Susan had to become a mother figure for her younger brother.
While living with her aunt, Susan, at the young age of 12, met her future husband, Reed Richards, a house guest who was attending college. When she graduated high school, she moved to California to attend college, where she pursued an acting career and encountered Richards again. The two of them began to become romantically involved with each other.
Reed Richards, working in the field of Aerospace engineering, was designing a spacecraft for interstellar travel. Everything was going well until the government stopped funding of his project. Richards, wanting to see his project through, decided to make an unscheduled test flight. Originally, it was only going to be Reed and his best friend, Ben Grimm, involved, but Susan was instrumental in persuading Reed in letting her brother and herself join them on the dangerous space mission. In space, the quartet was exposed to massive amounts of cosmic radiation. As a result, they had to abort the mission and return to Earth. After the crash landing, they realized that they gained superhuman powers. Hers was the ability to become invisible at will. Realizing the potential use of their abilities, the four of them became the Fantastic Four, for the benefit of mankind.
[edit] Early career as a super hero: Invisible Girl
As the Fantastic Four, the team found themselves setting up their first headquarters in the Baxter Building in Manhattan. The Fantastic Four encountered many villains in the early part of their career, but none of them contended for Susan's affections more than Namor the Sub-Mariner. Sue felt an amount of attraction to Namor, but her heart belonged with Reed. Susan later found herself getting injured in battle with the Mole Man. Her father escaped from prison and operated on her to save her life. Franklin made amends with his children before returning to prison; however, the Super-Skrull found a way to kidnap Dr. Storm, mimic his appearance, and then fight the Fantastic Four as the Invincible Man. In the process of defeating the Super-Skrull, Dr. Storm sacrificed his own life to protect the Fantastic Four from a Skrull booby trap.
[edit] Wife and mother
Reed and Sue's relationship progressed more, with the two of them deciding to get married. The wedding was the event of the century, with several of New York City's preeminent superheroes in attendance. Even several super-villains wanted to attend, even if it was only for the chance to attack the Fantastic Four. Sue later became pregnant with her first child. As a result, she was unable to remain an active member of the team. Johnny's then-girlfriend, the Inhuman elementalist known simply as Crystal, joined the team, taking over Susan's roster spot.[citation needed]
Susan's cosmic irradiated blood cells served as an obstacle for her in carrying the unborn child to term. Knowing this, Reed, Johnny and Ben journeyed into the Negative Zone to acquire the Cosmic Control Rod from Annihilus. Effectively utilising the device, the baby was safely delivered and was named Franklin, in memory of Susan's father. Due to the genetically altered structure of his parents, Franklin was born a mutant, possessing vast powers of the highest possible potential. Seeking to use the boy's talents for his own sadistic purposes, Annihilus returned and successfully triggered a premature full release of Franklin's latent abilities, which were already in the process of gradual emergence. Fearing that his son could very well release enough psionic energy to eliminate all life on Earth, Reed was forced to shut Franklin's mind down, feeling there was no immediate alternative. Angry with Reed for not seeking her input in the matter, Susan left the Fantastic Four and had a marital separation from Reed. Taking her roster spot was Medusa, of the Inhumans. With the help of Namor, Susan reconciled with Reed and returned to the Fantastic Four accompanied by Franklin.
[edit] Malice and the "final appearance" of Invisible Girl
Susan eventually became pregnant for a second time. However, if she thought that her pregnancy with Franklin had had its share of trauma, this one was going to be even worse, for several reasons. This second child was birthed stillborn due to Susan having been exposed to radiation inside the Negative Zone on a previous trip. A depressed Susan was later manipulated by events set into motion by Psycho-Man into becoming Malice. Susan, with this new identity and emotions as Malice, attacked her friends and family in the Fantastic Four. She effortlessly defeated She-Hulk and Human Torch; luckily, Reed was able to save Susan by forcing her to hate him legitimately. Broken free of Psycho-Man's influence, Susan (off-panel) did something to Psycho-Man, causing him to terrifying scream. After she rejoined her teammates, Susan stated that Psycho-Man would never hurt anyone ever again.
Susan found herself a changed person after these events and because of this, changed her codename to the Invisible Woman. Finding a life outside the Fantastic Four, Reed and Sue were invited into the membership of the Avengers. The two of them were Avengers (in Avengers, volume one, issue 300) briefly, and later rejoined the Fantastic Four.
During the Infinity War, Susan was forced to face off against Malice, who had re-emerged in Sue's subconscious. After defeating Malice, Susan absorbed malice into her own consciousness. Subsequently, Susan's personality was influenced by Malice, causing her to become more aggressive in battle, even creating invisible razor-like force fields she used to cut enemies. Her son Franklin, who had traveled forth and back in time, had become the adult hero Psi-Lord, and he was able to free his mother and absorb the influence of Malice into himself. He eventually destroyed Malice from within his own mind.
The original Malice storyline was incorporated in the Fantastic Four TV series during the 90's, in an episode called Worlds Within Worlds.
[edit] Effective Leader
After the apparent death of Reed, Susan found herself becoming a capable leader. Around this time, Susan, who felt Reed was still alive, kept searching for him. The Fantastic Four eventually rescued the time-displaced Reed, who found himself temporarily losing confidence in his leadership skills, since Susan was also a capable leader.
[edit] Valeria, daughter of Invisible Woman and Mr. Fantastic
Following their return to their Earth of origin, The Fantastic Four encountered Valeria Von Doom. This new Marvel Girl came from an alternate future, where she was the child of Susan and Doctor Doom. Susan eventually came to accept the young girl as a friend. During a conflict with Abraxas, Franklin revealed that he used his abilities to save Susan's original stillborn child and placed it in another alternate future. After the ordeal involving Abraxas, Marvel Girl was restored to a baby again inside Susan's womb.
This time around, Susan, yet again, had a difficult birthing. Due to the help of Doctor Doom, Susan was able to give birth to a healthy baby girl, which Doom named Valeria, his price for helping Sue, or so she thought. Doom placed a spell on the baby, which made her his familiar spirit, to be used against the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four wrestled Valeria free from Doom's control, defeated him, and sent him to Hell.
Around this time, Sue underwent martial arts training with Iron Fist.
Due to their actions involving the country of Latveria, the Fantastic Four separated temporarily. The remaining members banded together to bring Ben back from Heaven.
[edit] Sue, the Human Torch
Zius, leader of a group of Galactus refugees, kidnapped Susan to be used as a weapon to hide the presence of planets, from the arrival of Galactus. Reed found a way to make Zius believe that her powers were gone, by swapping powers between Susan and Johnny. After gaining respect for what Johnny goes through in his everyday life with his abilities, Reed reversed the swap.
This parallels an earlier torture by Doom, where Sue was given an extremely painful version of Johnny's powers.
[edit] Civil War
Sue's brother Johnny, enjoying a night on the town with a date, is beaten up in front of a nightclub by locals angered because his superhero/celebrity status affords him easy entry into the club while they are forced to wait in line.
During the series, Sue visits Namor to plead for assistance. He refuses and indicates she is still attracted to him, an accusation she does not deny.
Although Sue was intially part of the pro-Registration force supporting the Superhuman Registration Act, she defects after the Thor Clone, created by her husband Mister Fantastic and Tony Stark, kills famed superhero Bill Foster. In the midst of the battle, Sue arrives and creates an invisible force shield around Captain America's Secret Avengers, protecting them from Thor's lightning blasts and allowing them to escape whilst she held him off - developing a nose bleed in the process.
Later that night, Sue leaves the Baxter Building and meets Johnny. She has left a note for the sleeping Reed, informing him that the children are entirely in his care, since she intends to go underground and join Captain America's resistance forces. Her final injunction to her husband is a heartfelt request:
"Please fix this."
The Storm siblings narrowly escape a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents bent on capturing them in Civil War #5. The two further elude detection by operating under fake husband and wife identities provided by Nick Fury, becoming members of Captain America's Secret Avengers.
During the final battle depicted in Civil War #7, as Susan is about to be shot by Taskmaster, Reed Richards jumps in front of her and takes the brunt of the attack, sustaining a major injury. Outraged, Susan beats Taskmaster into the ground, leaving a large circular indentation in the earth. Following the end of the war, Susan helps with the clean-up of New York City. She, along with the other Secret Avengers, has been granted amnesty, and she returns home to Reed. Seeking to repair the damage done to their marriage as a result of the war, Sue and Reed take time off from the Fantastic Four, but ask Storm and the Black Panther to take their places in the meantime.
[edit] Alternate Versions
[edit] MC2
In the MC2 universe, Sue and Reed recently returned from space, where Sue had been holding back a rift in reality. Sue was instrumental in battling Galactus during the Last Planet Standing mini-series in which she deployed her force fields to prevent a tsunami from leveling New York.
[edit] Marvel Mangaverse
In alternate universe of the Marvel Mangaverse the Invisible Girl is Sioux Storm, half-sister of Jonatha Storm. In this reality, Sioux has near psychosis-level emotional detachment and may potentially have Borderline Personality Disorder. In order to get her to fight-or even show any interest at what is going on- Reed has her suit dump near-overdoses of battle stimulants and aggressor hormones into her bloodstream. She is a member of the Megascale Metatalent Response Team Fantastic Four. In this universe the team uses powerpacks to boost their talents to manifest at mecha-sized levels--which is in the case of Sioux is her 200 ft tall "invisible friend" constructed from her invisible force fields. The team fights giant Godzilla-sized monsters from various alien xenocultures that attack Earth for performing experiments which endanger all of reality--such as the Energy Well. In Mangaverse vol 1 the team destroys a mecha-like Annihilus.
In New Mangaverse Sioux, along with the rest of the Fantastic Four (with the exception of Jonatha) are murdered by ninja assassins employed by the Hand. It is unclear if the team did not have access to their powerpacks at the time or if their powerlevels have been retconned.
[edit] Ultimate Invisible Woman
The Ultimate version of Susan Storm is very similar in appearance and ability to the Marvel Universe Sue Richards, but differs somewhat in her history. As the rest of the Ultimate FF, she has only appeared as a teenager and young adult. A biophysics prodigy, she has grown up in the Baxter Building in the gifted program supervised by her father. She remains romantically involved with Reed Richards.
[edit] Marvel 1602
In the miniseries Marvel 1602, Susan Storm is a member of the Four from the Fantastick, in reference to the ship upon which she and three others gained their powers in the Sargasso Sea. Unlike in the Marvel Universe, she is weightless and cannot become visible. She is related to the alchemical element of air as stated by Neil Gaiman.
At the start of 1602: Fantastick Four, Susan is visibly pregnant with Sir Richard Reed's child. He forbids her to join him in his pursuit of Otto von Doom while in this condition, but she goes anyway. Much to Miss Doris Evans' shock, Sir Richard and Susan have not married.
[edit] Exiles
Sue has appeared many times in the pages of Exiles. First, she was married to Black Bolt and helped him defeat that reality's tryannical dictator Iron Man.(Exiles #21-23). More recently, throughout Exiles #91-94, another version of Sue has appeared as Madame Hydra, controller of Captain America, Longshot, and the Hand and is even in love with Wolverine, who is also an agent of Hydra.
[edit] Planetary
In the Wildstorm series Planetary, written by Warren Ellis, the main adversaries of the eponymous team of superpowered investigators are an evil version of Marvel's Fantastic Four called simply 'The Four'. The Sue Storm analogue here is Kim Suskind, who has exactly the same powers as the original, except that she has to wear a special pair of goggles in order to see when invisible. The daughter of a Nazi scientist and lover of The Four's leader, Randall Dowling, Suskind is known for exploding opponents by rapidly expanding a force field inside their heads.
[edit] Trivia
- Susan is 5'6", weighs 120 lbs, has blonde hair and blue eyes,[1] and is an Episcopalian.[2]
[edit] Powers and abilities
After being exposed to cosmic radiation, Sue developed the ability to generate and control a form of energy from hyperspace. At first, she could only use this form of energy to bend light waves at her command, generating a tightly knit field of energy around herself to render her body and clothing invisible to the naked eye. Sue's vision has also adapted to this ability, extending partially into the cosmic spectrum so she could still see objects cloaked by this energy. After testing a radioactive device Reed had created, Sue's powers expanded and she could project her energy outwards to render other objects invisible. At the same time, Sue discovered that she could send her invisible energy in waves and sweeps to disrupt other invisibility effects, rendering them visible.
When Sue developed her ability to render other objects invisible, she discovered she could shape the same energy into solid forms. Most commonly, Sue generates nearly indestructible, invisible force fields around herself or other targets. The strength and durability of Sue's force fields have not been ascertained; however, she can shape her force fields into anything she can imagine, usually simple shapes such as barriers, columns, cones, cylinders, darts, discs, domes, platforms, rams, ramps, slides and spheres. By generating additional force behind her energy constructs, Sue can turn them into offensive weapons, ranging from massive invisible battering rams to small projectiles, such as spheres and darts. She can generate solid force constructs as small as a molecule or as large as 100 feet in diameter, and her hollow projections such as domes can extend up to several miles in area. By forming one of her force fields within an object and expanding the field, Sue can cause her target to explode. She can also travel atop animated constructs such as ramps, stairs, slides, columns and stepping discs, enabling her to simulate a limited approximation of levitation or flight. Additionally, she can vary the texture and tensile strength of her field, rendering it highly rigid (stronger than reinforced steel) or as soft and yielding as foam rubber; softer variations on the field enable her to cushion impacts more gently, and are less likely to result in a psionic backlash against Sue herself. Sufficiently powerful attacks on her force fields can cause her mental or physical pain unless she braces the field against a sturdy base.
Originally, Sue could not use both her powers at once: She could either turn something invisible or generate a force field. Currently, however, she can generate multiple force fields of varying strengths while simultaneously rendering herself and other objects invisible.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Television
Invisible Girl/Woman has been featured in four animated series throughout the years with her assertiveness increasing with each series, along with society's growing acceptance of basic feminist principles. She has been voiced by Jo Ann Pflug, Ginny Tyler-Hilton, Lori Alan. More recently, Sue has appeared in the latest animated series based on the Fantastic Four, which premiered on September 2, 2006.
[edit] Film
- Susan Storm/Richards is portrayed by actress Rebecca Staab in the low-budget 1994 film version of the Fantastic Four. In the movie, Sue and her brother live with their mother, who runs a boarding house where Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) lives during college. Sue is shown to have a crush on Reed as a young girl despite the 10-year age difference between them. When Reed designs his shuttle flight years later, he goes back to the house to invite Sue and Johnny (Jay Underwood) to join him and Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith) on the journey. Upon seeing her again, Reed is immediately smitten with the fully grown Susan. During their space flight, exposure to radiation from the cosmic phenomenon known only as "Colossus" causes the team's ship to crash back down to Earth and bestows them with their famous powers. Later in the film, Sue is the one who designs the team's uniforms. At the movie's end, Reed finally confesses his feelings for her and the two are married. Though officially never released to the public, this film is widely available as a bootleg on both VHS and DVD.
- Susan is played by actress Jessica Alba in the 2005 film version of the Fantastic Four. In the film, she is a brilliant young scientist who leads Victor Von Doom's Department of Genetic Research. (This is much like her Ultimate counterpart who specialized in biotechnology.) She is Reed Richards' ex-girlfriend and dated Von Doom at the beginning of the film. Immediately before the cosmic storm grants her the ability to disappear and generate invisible force fields, she is offered a proposal of marriage from Victor, but she later turns him down. Unlike in the comics, Sue's clothes remain visible when Sue becomes invisible; this leads to a humorous but humiliating scene for her on the bridge where Sue tries turning invisible to aid Ben Grimm, and starts stripping her clothes off so that in her invisible state she won't be seen, but halfway through her invisibility shuts off and she becomes visible again while only wearing her underwear in plain view of the public. Later again after being recognized, Sue turns invisible and strips herself naked so as to escape the crowd, but this time with more success, albeit having to abandon her clothes in the process. Her powers seem to respond to her emotions such as anger, confusion, and frustration, which she manages to control by the end of the film in the final battle against Von Doom. She accepts Richards' proposal of marriage at the end of the film as well.
- The first trailer of the Film's Sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, sees Susan Storm marrying Mr. Fantastic, only to have their Wedding interrupted by the arrival of the metallic cosmic entity, known as the Silver Surfer. From that point onwards, not much has been revealed about Invisible Woman's role in the film, although in a recent interview Jessica Alba did comment that her relationship with the Surfer was far deeper than her male comrades, and was instrumental to the plot of the movie. Alba also has mentioned that Sue would be the one to save the day at the wedding, through the use of her force energy powers.
[edit] Video games
- The Invisible Woman has appeared in numerous video games, usually accompanied by her brother and fellow teammates, being one of the most important the 1998 videogame of her team, which was for the PSone.
- She appeared as a playable character in the video game based on the film, and was voiced by Jessica Alba. She will also appear as a playable character in the upcoming game based on the sequel to the first film.
- She also has a cameo appearance in the Spider-Man game based on his 1990s animated series for Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. By reaching certain levels of the game, she can be called a limited number of times for assistance.
- Most recently, The Invisible Woman appears as a playable character in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and is voiced by Danica McKellar from The Wonder Years. In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, The Invisible Woman is unlocked early on in the game, at the first Shield Access Point, which allows the player to switch out members of his/her team. The character's back story and personality in the game is very true to her comic counterpart. Sue is a rather versatile character in the game. She can be used to serve a variety of ingame roles – be it a booster or buffer, unseen melee attacker or a mid to long range attacker.
[edit] References, parodies, spoofs and homages
The Invisible Woman was parodied as Miss Invisible of the Mega-Hyper Heroes featured in an episode of Rugrats (which provides a spoof of both the Teen Titans and the Fantastic Four). Lil, a fan of Miss Invisible, has a superhero counterpart called Dotted-Line Girl who has similar abilities, but can be seen, as a dotted line (this is a reference to early Marvel comics where invisibility was depicted as any hollow figure shaped by a dotted line).
In the Disney/Pixar movie The Incredibles, a Fantastic Four-like family motif is used, with the daughter Violet sharing the powers of the Invisible Woman (while the mother, Elasti-Girl/Mrs. Incredible, shared the stretching powers of Mr. Fantastic and Mr. Incredible had super-strength like the Thing).
Sue was parodied in Spongebob Squarepants as Miss Appear in the episode "Mermaid Man and Barnacleboy V."
In the "N-Men" episode of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Jimmy, Cindy, Carl, Libby, and Sheen get super powers when passing through a cloud. Libby, after gaining the power to turn invisible and generate force fields, takes the name Invisible Sister.
The Invisible Woman and the rest of the Fantastic Four are parodied on The Venture Bros., but their powers are burdens to them. The Invisible Woman character's skin becomes transparent, leaving her muscles, tendons, and arteries, visible.
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] External links
- Invisible Woman on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
- Ultimate Invisible Woman on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
- MDP: Invisible Woman (Marvel Database Project)
- Fantastic Four movie featurette - The Invisible Woman
- DMOZ - Open source directory listing for The Fantastic Four
- Official Marvel UK character biography
- The Women of Marvel Comics Invisible Woman Page
| Fantastic Four | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Mister Fantastic · The Invisible Woman · The Human Torch · The Thing |
| Titles | Main continuity: Fantastic Four · Four · The Thing Other continuities: Ultimate Fantastic Four · Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four · Marvel 1602: Fantastick Four |
| Television | Fantastic Four (1967) · Fantastic Four (1978) · Fantastic Four (1994) · Fantastic Four (2006) · Other appearances |
| Movies | The Fantastic Four (1994) · Fantastic Four (2005) · Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) |
| Related | Locations · Video games |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Avatars of Captain Universe | Fictional Americans in Marvel Comics | Fictional Anglicans | Fictional astronauts | Fictional characters from New York | Fictional interdimensional travelers | Marvel Comics mutates | 1961 introductions
