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| Gallery | |
 Real Name | Susan Storm-Richards |
| Current Alias | Invisible Woman |
| Aliases | Invisible Girl, Malice, Baroness von Doom,Captain Universe |
| Relatives | Marygay Jewel Dinkins (paternal aunt);
Franklin Storm (father, deceased);
Bones (cousin);Mary Storm (mother, deceased); Evelyn Richards (mother-in-law, deceased); Nathaniel Richards (father-in-law); Jonathan Storm (Human Torch) (brother); Lyja (ex-sister-in-law); Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) (husband seperated); Franklin (son); Valeria (daughter); Vil and Wu (wards);[1] |
| Affiliation |
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| Base Of Operations | Baxter Building, Manhattan,New York City, New York; formerly S.H.I.E.L.D. Station: Golgotha,Manhattan, New York City,New York; S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier; Pier 4; Antarctic lab; Four Freedoms Plaza;Belle Porte, Connecticut |
| Status | |
| Alignment | Good |
| Identity | Public Identity |
| Citizenship | American |
| Marital Status | Separated |
| Occupation | Adventurer, Regent of theUhari throne at The Peak; formerly substitute teacher, actress, student |
| Education | Doctorate in unrevealed field; high school education |
| Characteristics | |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 5' 6" |
| Weight | 120 lbs (54 kg) |
| Eyes | Blue |
| Hair | Blond |
| Origin | |
| Origin | Mutate - exposed to cosmic rays |
| Universe | Earth-616 |
| Place of Birth | Glenville, Long Island, New York |
| Creators | Stan Lee, Jack Kirby |
| First Appearance | |
| Fantastic Four #1 | |
HistoryEdit
From now on, I am the Invisible Woman! 
- -- Invisible Woman src
See Also Expanded History.
Early Years
Susan Storm and her brother, Johnny, lived uneventfully on Long Island until their mother, Mary Storm, died in an automobile accident. Their father, Franklin Storm, a doctor, failed to save her. Despondent, he descended into booze and gambling, eventually winding up in a penitentiary for murder.[4] The children went to live with their aunt Marygay. Susan, only 12, developed a crush on her aunt's boarder, Reed Richards, an honors student at Columbia. When it came time for Susan to go to college, she followed Richards to California, where she half-heartedly tried to break into show business.
Reed was working on an experimental starship when the project lost its government funding. He decided to launch the prototype, certain that the flight would succeed and attract more funding. Susan went along for her own reasons: love of adventure? potential fame? romantic gesture? Ben Grimm, a test pilot, took the controls. Johnny filled out the crew. Reed had made one mistake: he failed to shield the cabin from cosmic rays, and a chance solar flare intensified the radiation. The experience gave each of them superhuman abilities, and perhaps more importantly, it forged almost unbreakable bonds between them. They became the Fantastic Four, and Storm took the name Invisible Girl.[5]
Fantastic Four
In the early years of the Fantastic Four, Sue spent much of her time keeping the team together. Reed spent long hours in his laboratory; Grimm moped over his appearance; Johnny acted out like any teenager. Her power of invisibility had little use in battling super-villains such as Doctor Doom and Galactus, but her empathy and common sense prevented several breakups and defections. Even though she was best suited to act as spokesperson for the Fantastic Four, she would have encountered resistance in the early 1960s, so Richards took on that job as well. Her discontent manifested itself in an attraction to Namor[6], who returned her affections, but the relationship never matured.
She soon discovered new powers: she could turn other objects (besides herself) invisible and project and manipulate powerful force fields.[7]Although unable to perform offensively on a par with the Thing, she could defend against almost any threat.
When the Super-Skrull, possessing the combined powers of the Fantastic Four, attacked the team, the Human Torch managed to trap him inside a cave[8], but the Super-Skrull escaped and impersonated Sue's father, Franklin Storm. The Four exposed the Super-Skrull, but the Skrulls strapped a bomb to the real Franklin's chest, and Franklin sacrificed his own life to save his children[9]. A trip to the Skrull homeworld and the death of Warlord Morrat, the Skrull who authorized Franklin's murder, brought some measure of revenge[10].
Motherhood
Sue eventually married Reed in a wedding ceremony attended by most of the world's heroes.[11] A difficult pregnancy followed, during whichCrystal of the Inhumans took her place on the team. At the last moment, to save the unborn child, the Fantastic Four had to visit the Negative Zone and borrow the Cosmic Control Rod of Annihilus.[12] Her son Franklin, named after her father, manifested strong and unusual powers almost immediately. When Annihilus kidnapped Franklin to tap those powers, they increased exponentially, and Reed felt he had no choice but to inhibit Franklin's mental activity. It was the last straw for Sue, who left Mr. Fantastic and took Franklin with her.[13]
During Sue Storm's second hiatus, the Inhuman Medusa took her place. The old bonds though, drew Susan back to the team.[14]
During an extended trip to the Negative Zone, a sort of second honeymoon, she conceived another child. Seeking some peace for this pregnancy, Susan convinced Mr. Fantastic to move to the Connecticut suburbs, where they posed as the Benjamins. This unborn daughter began to give off radiation. Despite the efforts of Mr. Fantastic and several other experts, the girl was apparently stillborn.[15]
Malice
Psycho-Man took advantage of Sue's fragile self-control at this point and amplified her negative emotions. She became Malice, with all of the Invisible Girl's powers but none of her restraint, and attacked the Fantastic Four. Mr. Fantastic helped her throw off Psycho-Man's influence, but she lost control again when the Fantastic Four confronted Psycho-Man; she turned his own Control Box on him, which shorted out his nervous system and nearly killed him.[16] The episode would have lasting effects: the Invisible Girl changed her name to Invisible Woman; she discovered how to use Force Objects (see Powers below); and in the long term, she lost a measure of self-confidence, knowing that Malice still lurked inside her.
Sue left the Fantastic Four again, this time with Mr. Fantastic, to spend time with Franklin, who had regained his faculties and needed full-time mentoring.[17] They worked part-time with the Avengers for a while. They also helped the Silver Surfer resuscitate Galactus, during which Sue came in contact with the Infinity Gems. Distrustful of such power, she fell prey to Malice again. The soul gem tried and failed to combine Reed's and Sue's souls, which brought forth the In-Betweener and sent Malice back to Sue's subconscious.[18]
The Fantastic Four, as always, pulled them back.[19] During the Infinity War, Sue had to confront her doppelganger and incorporate its evil into herself. That boost allowed Malice to regain control temporarily.[20]
Later, claiming that Franklin's presence in this timeline would lead to destruction, Reed Richards' father Nathaniel abducted the child into the future. Nathaniel raised Franklin for years in the future, training him to be a warrior and to master his superhuman powers. The adolescent Franklin journeyed back in time, arriving in the Fantastic Four's headquarters mere moments after Nathaniel had abducted him as a child. The teenage Franklin called himself Psi-Lord, and wielded vast psionic powers, although they remained far short of his full potential.
Sue Storm struggled against Malice's influence, inevitably losing ground. When Malice manifested again, Psi-Lord drew Malice's essence into himself.[21] Finally, however, Psi-Lord somehow was removed from the Fantastic Four's time and was replaced by the child Franklin, as he had been at the time that Nathaniel had abducted him. Malice has not reappeared since.
Leader
That was only the beginning of a tumultuous period. Reed disappeared for some time, apparently killed.[22] Sue Storm became leader of the Fantastic Four, recruited Ant-Man to take over Reed's role, and quickly grew into her new responsibilities. Effectively a widow, Sue had to fend off many potentials suitors, especially Namor. She never gave up looking for Richards, though, and after a long search, she found him stranded in the past. Their reunion was bittersweet; Reed felt threatened by Sue's new found competence and confidence.
The whole team appeared to die next, in the final battle with Onslaught, who had kidnapped Franklin. Instead they (and the Avengers) found themselves on Counter-Earth, in a pocket universe Franklin had created to save them. In a sense, they had been reborn and had to start their lives over.[23] Once the heroes on Counter-Earth realized what had happened, they returned to their original homes.[24]
Continuing Adventures
The Invisible Woman and The Thing
An even more surprising resurrection unfolded during the team's reality-warping conflict with the cosmic being Abraxas when Franklin revealed he had used his powers to rescue Sue's seemingly stillborn second child years earlier, and that this child had been raised in an alternate future to become the Marvel Girl (Valeria Von Doom) who was now an ally of the present-day Fantastic Four. As a side-effect of Abraxas's defeat, Marvel Girl was restored to her original state, as an unborn child in Sue's womb. This time, Sue's pregnancy resulted in the birth of a healthy baby girl, christened Valeria in memory of Doctor Doom's first love. (Doom had insisted on naming the child in exchange for assisting with the difficult birth.)
Doom's favors, as always, had strings attached. His main focus had shifted from science to sorcery, and he used his special bond with Valeria as a focus to cast spells against the Fantastic Four. His own hubris led to his downfall--his infernal patrons dragged him to the underworld of Haazareth.[25]
With Doom gone, Richards claimed Latveria in the name of the Fantastic Four and began dismantling Doom's arsenal.[26] The international community saw it as a test of sovereignty and protested. Doom returned to find himself in a trap. To escape, he possessed Sue, then Grimm. To put an end to Doom once and for all, Richards killed Grimm.
For his reckless behavior in pacifying Latveria, as well as for murdering Grimm, Sue left Reed again. To avoid charges, Reed gave up most of his patents and thus most of his income. As further atonement, he convinced Sue and Johnny to follow him to Heaven, where they succeeded in returning Grimm to life.[27]
With their fortunes and their reputations in disarray, they took regular jobs and lived in regular homes. Sue became a teacher.[28] She also trained in the martial arts under Iron Fist. Reed Richards eventually revealed that he had staged the loss of his fortune, because he wanted the others to experience the normal lives they lost in his experimental starship. With few regrets, they returned to their former lives. To help Johnny develop responsibility, Sue forced him to become the business manager for Fantastic Four Inc., a job he gradually grew into.
A game of musical powers ensued. A band of aliens, survivors of Galactus, came to Earth to neutralize Susan. They had developed a planetary cloaking device, and only Susan could help Galactus bypass their device. Reed Richards used another device that, as far as the aliens could tell, removed her powers; instead, it traded Sue's and Johnny's powers. The immediate threat over, Reed reversed the trade. As a "reward" for derailing the cloak project, Galactus made Johnny his new herald for a short time. An aftereffect of Johnny's power cosmic removed every-one's powers temporarily.[29]
Civil War
The Civil War split the team once again. Mr. Fantastic supported the Superhuman Registration Act, while Sue and Johnny joined the resistance, more horrified over how the Thor clone killed to Goliath. Nick Fury provided both of them fake IDs as a husband and wife, much to their chagrin. During the final battle,[30] however, Mr. Fantastic shielded Sue from a bullet fired by the Taskmaster and was severely wounded. She retaliated by using a force field to pound Taskmaster into the ground. Invisible Woman helped clean up New York in the aftermath of the war and, along with the other Secret Avengers, was granted amnesty. She reconciled yet again with Reed together they took a short hiatus from the team.
Back to action
Reed and Sue vacation was over after the Frightful Four attacked them, then they returned to the team. During World War Hulk, Sue protected Reed but was subdued by the Green Goliath. Some time after the Richards' have hired a new nanny for their kids, Tabitha Deneuve. At the same time, a mysterious new group, calling themselves the New Defenders, commits robberies, and one of their members, Psionics, starts a relationship with Johnny. After a bad break-up, Johnny is kidnapped by the Defenders, along with Doctor Doom and Galactus, to power a massive machine that is designed to apparently save the people of the future 500 years from now, a plan orchestrated by Tabitha, who is revealed to be Susan Richards from 500 years in the future. Eventually, the present Fantastic Four are able to save both the present Earth and the future Earth by sending the future inhabitants to the Earth Trust's private duplicate Nu-Earth, but after freeing Doctor Doom, the future Sue goes to apologize to him, and is electrocuted by Doom.
Secret Invasion
While Susan is on a lecture tour in Vancouver, B.C., a Skrull posing as Mister Fantastic ambushes her, applying pressure to her skull with an invisible force field and knocking her out cold. Then, a Skrull infiltrates the Baxter Building disguised as Susan and opens a portal into the Negative Zone, forcing the top three floors of the building into the Negative Zone, and in turn trapping herself, Johnny, Ben, and the two Richards children there. The Skrull impersonating her is later revealed to be Johnny's ex-wife Lyja, who once infiltrated the Fantastic Four by impersonating Ben Grimm's love interest Alicia Masters. The real Susan Richards is recovered alive from a downed Skrull ship after the final battle of the invasion.
The Bridge
Reed created a device called The Bridge to explore alternate realities. Meanwhile, Johnny, Sue, and Ben fought off the agents of H.A.M.M.E.R. Reed's machine sent Johnny, Ben and Sue to a different reality where a super hero civil war was happening sometime in the Hyborian Age. Reed continued to study parallel worlds where the Civil War ended differently to find the reason his reality had become the way it was while Ben, Sue, and Johnny traveled throughout collapsed space-time. When Red shut down the Bridge and the others returned, Sue told Reed to destroy The Bridge. He did so, but then secretly put it back together, and met beings from another reality who told him how he could fix things.
Three
Susan became the guardian of Vil and Wu, the heirs of the Uhari throne at The Peak, and thus the regent of the throne. Sue returned to Baxter Building, so Uhari gave her a device to contact with her. At the same time Johnny was fighting his last stand.
Future Foundation
The Future Foundation.
Following the death of Johnny Storm, the rest of the team renamed themselves the Future Foundation, along with Spider-Man taking the place of the Human Torch. After one of the Reed Richards of another universe who came to Earth-616 by The Bridge destroyed The Peak, Susan returned to Baxter Building while the other part of the team was battling another Richards in High Evolutionary's city. After returning from battle, Reed reunited the Future Foundation, the Avengers, the New Avengers and many other heroes to attack Attilan, who where also participating in this war. At the moment the heroes were leaving the Baxter Building, a Kree army attacked New York City. Using her power and the Iron Man's armor, Sue created a force field over Manhattan, but was knocked down when the force field was broken. At the same time, the Cult of the Negative Zone entered the Baxter Building and opened the Negative Zoneportal after Spider-Man failed at stopping them. The portal revealed a living Johnny Storm with a enslaved Annihilus.[31]
Then Johnny gathered the team drawing with fire the symbolical "4" at the sky above the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue, Ben and Peter boarded one of the Annihilation Wave's ships controlled by Johnny, who used the rest of the ships to battle the Kree army until the Inhumans asked to finish them by their own hand.[32] Meanwhile the other heroes on Earth where dealing with the scraps of the battle which could damage the Earth, Reed and Sue summons Galactus, who destroys completely the Kree army. That moment, the Mad Celestials appeared to destroy this universe. Although the team tried to use the Hub (a weapon of mass destruction created by the Reeds), they couldn't defeat the Mad Celestials. Then, a future version of Franklin and Valeria appeared as part of Nathaniel Richards's plan.[33] The Future Franklin used his power to heal Galactus and destroy the Mad Celestials, saving the day.[34] Later, the Baxter Building was easily rebuilt, Mr. Fantastic showed a new secondary headquarters called Foundation and new costumes were given to the members of the Future Foundation, as part of the reformation of the Fantastic Four.[35]
Time Runs Out
Eight months into the future, Sue became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and rejoins the Avengers. She was seen capturing and interrogating Amadeus Cho, along with Captain Marvel and Hawkeye on the whereabouts of the Illuminati members, including her husband Reed Richards.[36]
Actually, Sue had infiltrated the organization in order to help her husband and the Illuminati evade S.H.I.E.L.D.[37]
Powers and AbilitiesEdit
Powers
The Invisible Woman received her powers when cosmic rays bombarded her body. Mr. Fantastic suspects that Sue Storm somehow taps into hyperspace when she uses her powers. As yet, the only limit seems to be her own reserve; she is reluctant to stretch her powers until absolutely necessary.
Invisibility: The Invisible Woman has the mental ability to manipulate ambient cosmic energy for a variety of effects, including the rendering of herself and other objects invisible, and the construction of solid, invisible force fields. In an as yet unknown manner, cosmic energy interacts with the cells of her entire body in such a way as to produce a new form of energy with unusual properties. By a simple act of concentration, she can cause all wavelengths of visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light to bend around her without distortion; she also somehow directs enough undistorted light to her eyes to retain her full range of vision while invisible. An observer, unaware of the peculiar path light takes around her body, would have the sensation of seeing through her. The Invisible Woman can also mentally project the invisible energy produced within the cells of her body in order to render other people or objects invisible. The largest volume she can as yet turn invisible at a single time is approximately 40,000 cubic feet of volume (1,133 cubic meters), equivalent to a small swimming pool. She has sufficient control over her power that she can turn parts of her body selectively invisible. She is also able to make objects that have been turned invisible by other sources visible by letting her own energy projection interfere with that other method of invisibility. Further, she can make energy that is not in the visual portion of the electromagnetic spectrum visible by a similar interaction. Sue can also sense something made invisible by physical means (such as a machine) but not by magical or psionic means.
Psionic Force Fields: While the cells of the Invisible Woman's body produce a certain energy manifestation, the cells of her brain produce a different, more potent manifestation. Through concentration, she is able to project a field of psionic force which she can manipulate into a number of relatively simple forms: rectangular planes, cylinders, globes, domes, cones, etc. The complexity of the shape is limited by her ability to imagine (mentally visualize) a particular form and keep it in sharp mental focus: not even she is able to see the forms she creates. The size of a given psionic force projection is also limited by her ability to imagine. The smallest force projection she can visualize (and maintain the visualization) is the size of a marble. The largest solid force projection she can visualize and maintain is about 100 feet in diameter. She can project larger force-objects if they are hollow. For instance, she could visualize and project a dome 1 foot thick about a mile in diameter (5,280 feet) and a dome 1 inch in thickness she can project for about 3.2 miles. Small objects at high speeds become missiles; large objects at slow speeds become rams. She can make these objects grow or shrink as desired.
The Invisible Woman is able to use the projection of her psionic force to travel through the air. By projecting a rising column beneath her feet and simultaneously causing it to expand and topple at the same time, then creating another column that catches her, shrinks, rights itself and then repeating the process, she is able to effect a zig-zag flight path. She is able to reach an average speed of about 25 miles per hour, until she becomes fatigued by the concentration, after about 4 hours.
Sue's force fields have also prevented telekinesis from passing through them. This was shown when she used a force field around herself to keep Jean Grey's telekinesis from affecting her.[38]The force field made it impossible for Jean to attack her with telekinesis. When Sue put a force field around Jean, her telekinetic attack upon various other persons in the immediate vicinity ceased. Sue also demonstrated a similar ability when facing Psi-Lord, a grown version of her son Franklin.[39] He was unable to read her mind while her force field was up. When Sue projects her force field around the Red Ghost when he is in intangible state, he automatically becomes solid.
Since her power is an extension of her mind and body, the Invisible Woman is affected by inertial forces acting upon her projections. Thus if a car traveling at 60 miles per hour hit a wall of her force that was 6 inches thick, unless she generated a bracing shape against a sufficiently sturdy object, she would be affected as though she were hit by the car directly. The Invisible Woman is able to control the surface of the fields rigidity to a certain extent. She can cause the surface of the field to be very hard, depending on its thickness (steel-like at about 2.5 feet), or as resilient as foam rubber. By making the field more resilient she is able to absorb more of the inertia of impacts within the field without having them transmitted to her body. She is also, through training, able to alter the shapes she creates while utilizing those shapes, often to absorb or deflect the force of impacts. When she creates objects of fields that are at the limit of her ability to mentally visualize, they tend to be resilient rather than rigid. As she has grown in the use of her powers. Currently these fields can withstand impacts of Class 100 strength, a literally astronomical level: the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, and Annihilus once survived passage through a black hole by using these fields (and some help from the Cosmic Control Rod).[40]
- Shock Waves: Sue is capable of using her force fields as shock waves hitting her opponent with the force field capable of hurting Titania.
She is capable of generating and manipulating multiple psionic force fields simultaneously.
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Abilities
Sue has some modest experience and ability in the field of acting, and has recently taken up teaching. She is a capable unarmed combatant. She is renowned for her changing hairstyles (once said to match the Wasp's changing costumes).
Strength level
Susan Storm has the strength of a normal human female who engages in moderate regular exercise.
Weaknesses
The size, number, and movements of these objects are limited only by her powers of concentration. Once she stops concentrating on an object, it ceases to exist.
ParaphernaliaEdit
Equipment
- Fantastic Costume: Sue's clothes are made from unstable molecules so that they turn invisible along with her. Woven into the cloth is an electronic network of transceivers and sensors that tracks her location, condition, and other data. The network relays this information to the rest of the team. A keypad and screen on one glove allow Sue Storm to call up and view the same information from anyone else.
- Fantasti-Flare: This small flaregun fires shells that produce a burning 4 symbol. It doubles as an incendiary weapon.
Transportation
Fantasti-Car 2, Avenger's Quinjet, Xantha (or Skrull) Saucer, Fantasti-Copter, U-Car (submarine), Fantasti-Car 1 (the "flying bathtub") (superseded), experimental starship (destroyed), and many others
NotesEdit
As a hound
TriviaEdit
- The Invisible Girl was one of the characters featured in Series A of the Marvel Value Stamps issued in the 1970's.
Marvel Value Stamp #33 - It has been retconned in Fantastic Four #4 that in her youth, Sue Storm wasn't a model, in order "not be bound by the social mores of the 1960s when the character was created"[44], and that she obtained a doctorate.
- The powers of all of the Fantastic Four are based on one of the four elements, with Susan's element being air.
