Susan Storm (Earth-616)

File:Invisible Woman toss.jpg

The Invisible Woman being tossed by The Thing

Real Name: Susan Storm Richards
Nicknames: Sue, Susie
Former Aliases: Invisible Girl, Susan Benjamin, Malice
Other Current Aliases: None known

Status

Occupation: Adventurer
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Identity: Public
Marital Status: Married
Group Affiliation: Founding member of the Fantastic Four; former member of the Avengers
Base of Operations: The Baxter Building, Manhattan, New York

Origin

Sue Storm was exposed to intense cosmic radiation.

Place of birth: Glenville, Long Island, New York
Known Relatives: Franklin Storm (father; deceased), Mary Storm (mother; deceased), Reed Richards (husband), Franklin (son), Valeria Richards (daughter), Jonathan Storm (brother), Nathaniel Richards (father-In-Law), Evelyn Richards (mother-in-law, deceased), Cassandra Richards (stepmother-in-law, deceased), Bones (cousin),Marygay Jewel Dinkins (aunt), unnamed child of Nathaniel Richards (brother-in-law), Tara Richards (Huntara, sister-in-law), Kristoff Vernard (alleged brother-in-law), Lyja (sister-in-law)
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #1

History

Long the least visible member of the Fantastic Four in more ways than one, the once-passive Sue Richards has matured into a formidable and commanding heroine over the years-but it is still her warmly maternal presence that binds the team together. Born Susan Storm, Sue and her brother Johnny had a happy childhood until their mother Mary died in a car crash. Their father, celebrated surgeon Doctor Franklin Storm, survived the accident without injury but was unable to save his wife despite his best medical efforts. His spirit broken, Dr. Storm abandoned his practice, becoming a gambler and a drunk, and eventually went to prison after he accidentally killed an underworld loan shark during a struggle. Sue became more like a mother than a sister to Johnny thereafter, though both were soon placed in the custody of their loving aunt Marygay. While she was still quite young, Sue became smitten with her aunt's handsome and brilliant tenant, science prodigy Reed Richards, then a university student.

The young Storms lived a relatively normal life with their aunt for several years, interrupted by the discovery of the mystical Amulet of Zarathos, which had been unearthed by local archaeologist Professor Henry Brandeis. Working together, Johnny, Sue, family friend Max Parrish and the Professor's daughter Cam managed to prevent the amulet from falling into the hands of vampire lord Dracula; during the conflict, Max used the amulet to become a demonic Ghost Rider, though Johnny helped Max prevent this transformation from becoming permanent. During her own college years, Sue began doing some minor acting and modelling work and renewed her contact with Reed, dating him steadily for some time. Reed's old friend Ben Grimm took an interest in Sue as well, though she remained loyal to Reed.

When a sudden funding loss threatened to derail Reed's experimental starship project, Reed urged his pilot, Ben, to join him in making an unauthorized test flight before the project shut down. Grimm was reluctant, but accepted the challenge after Sue questioned his courage. Sue and her brother Johnny insisted on coming along as well, wishing to share the risk. The quartet successfully launched into space, but intense cosmic rays penetrated the ship's shielding and irradiated the crew, forcing them back to Earth. On landing, they discovered they had mutated into superhumans, and Sue became the Invisible Girl. Dedicating their new powers to super-heroics and scientific exploration, the quartet became the Fantastic Four. Sue's relatively static invisibility power made her seem like a weak link in the team at first, but she soon discovered that she also had the ability to project and manipulate invisible force fields, making her a more effective combatant.

While team leader and financier Reed provided the FF with a Manhattan headquarters in the Baxter Building, Johnny and Sue maintained a suburban home in their native Glenville for some time. Johnny also tried to moonlight as a solo super hero, and his sister sometimes aided him against foes such as the Wizard, who would become one of the FF's most relentless enemies. One of the FF's earliest foes was misguided Atlantean warrior Namor the Sub-Mariner, who was strongly attracted to Sue and vied with Reed for her affections. Sue was drawn to Namor, who eventually became a valued friend and ally to the FF, but she remained true to Reed. When Sue was gravely injured during a battle with the Mole Man, her father-who had just recently escaped from prison-came out of hiding to operate on her, saving her life and reconciling with his children before he willingly returned to jail. This attracted the attention of the Super-Skrull (Kl'rt), who abducted Dr. Storm, impersonated him and attacked the FF as the Invincible Man; but in the end, the Super-Skrull was defeated and the real Dr. Storm sacrificed his life to save the FF from a Skrull booby trap, dying secure in the belief that he had redeemed himself at last.

Reed and Sue were finally married-despite a small army of super-villains dispatched to attack their wedding by Reed's old enemy Doctor Doom, who had become the FF's foremost foe. Sue soon became pregnant with her first child and stepped down from active FF duty, replaced by Inhuman elemental Crystal (then Johnny's girlfriend). Sue's cosmic-irradiated physiology complicated the pregnancy, but Reed ensured the child's safe delivery via a Cosmic Control Rod taken from Annihilus. The baby, christened Franklin after Sue's late father, proved to be a vastly powerful mutant whose fluctuating abilities have alternately saved or menaced both the FF and the world over the years. During a period where Franklin's powers were raging out of control, Reed was forced to shut down his son's mind for a time. Appalled by this, and frustrated by her growing belief that Reed did not regard her as an equal, Sue separated from Reed and quit the FF, taking Franklin with her.Medusa of the Inhumans took Sue's place in the FF for an extended period, but Sue reclaimed her spot on the roster after she and Reed finally reconciled-with the aid of Namor, ironically enough. The FF broke up altogether for a time when Reed temporarily lost his powers, but they soon regrouped. Sue became pregnant a second time; seeking a more normal family life, Reed and Sue established a household in smalltown Belle Port, Connecticut for a time, living quietly in disguise there as the Benjamin family while continuing to serve with the FF in their original identities. This baby had been conceived during a stay in the Negative Zone, exposing Sue to radiation that made this pregnancy even more complicated and dangerous than the previous one, finally resulting in a stillbirth.

Still traumatized and bitter, Sue was easy prey for the Psycho-Man and his Hate-Monger android, who used their emotion-manipulating powers to amplify Susan's darker impulses, changing her into the mad villainess Malice and turning her against the FF. Freed from their influence by Reed, Sue exacted a chilling revenge on Psycho-Man by subjecting him to his own emotion-warping technology (the Hate-Monger, meanwhile, had been slain by the vigilante Scourge). Sobered by these events, Sue changed her costumed alias to the more mature Invisible Woman, the code-name she uses to this day.

Seeking a more normal family life again, Reed and Sue retired from the FF altogether to concentrate on raising Franklin, leaving Ben in charge of regrouping; however, Reed and Sue's retirement was short-lived. After teaming with several Avengers to rescue Franklin during the demonic Inferno invasion, Reed and Sue reluctantly agreed to join the Avengers, who were critically short-handed at the time. Reed and Sue amicably stepped down from active Avengers membership before long, later resigning their Avengers membership altogether after they rejoined the Fantastic Four. The FF remain staunch allies to the Avengers regardless, and Sue is friendly with various Avengers members, notably the size-changing socialite Wasp and the super-strong She-Hulk, who had served a lengthy stint with the FF during a period when Ben was estranged from the team.

Like the other FF founders, Sue has participated in many mass super-hero gatherings over the years-notably the original Contest of Champions, during which she teamed with Iron Fist and Sunfire as pawns of an unknown entity to battle the Grandmaster's pawns Daredevil, Darkstar and Australian hero Talisman, ultimately teaming with Talisman to unmask the Grandmaster's opponent as Death itself. Later, during the cosmic conflict known as the Infinity War, Sue absorbed her own evil doppelganger (a creature from the Dimension of Manifestations, controlled by Adam Warlock's dark side, the Magus), which had been dispatched against her in the form of Malice. This led to a gradual revival of Sue's Malice persona (which had been temporarily released by the cosmic In-Betweener once before), but Franklin, temporarily transformed into the teen hero Psi-Lord, forced Malice out of his mother and absorbed the entity, apparently destroying his mother's dark counterpart. Sue never fully accepted Psi-Lord, perhaps resenting the notion of a Franklin who grew up without her as Psi-Lord did.

When Reed was seemingly killed in action, Sue took over leadership of the FF and served capably in the role, recruiting Ant-Man (Scott Lang) as the team's new scientist; however, she refused to believe Reed was truly dead, leading an ongoing search for her husband and rejecting romantic advances from her old flame Namor. As it turned out, Reed had been abducted and time-displaced by the villain Hyperstorm. Once the FF finally rescued Reed, it took him some time to regain his confidence, especially since Sue had become such an effective team leader in his absence. Shortly thereafter, the entire FF seemingly died in battle with the psychic monster Onslaught, though they secretly survived in a new "Counter-Earth" parallel world created instinctively by Franklin, and they eventually returned to their own world after a series of adventures in this alternate-reality.

Soon after their return, the FF befriended the new Marvel Girl, Valeria Von Doom, who came from an alternate future where she believed herself to be the offspring of Sue and a benevolent incarnation of Doctor Doom. Reluctant to trust or believe the girl at first, Sue gradually came to regard Valeria as a friend, even forming a familial bond with her. Later, during the team's reality-warping conflict with the cosmic being Abraxas, 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 they now knew. As a side-effect of Abraxas's defeat, Marvel Girl was restored to her original state, as an unborn child in Sue's womb. Yet again, it was a risky and complicated pregnancy; but Sue finally gave birth to a healthy baby girl, thanks largely to the assistance of Doctor Doom, who was allowed to name the infant after his childhood sweetheart Valeria in exchange for his services. Later, Doom used Valeria as his mystical familiar in sorcerous attacks on the FF, but was ultimately defeated and cast into Hell.

Reed led the FF in dismantling Doom's Latverian regime despite international condemnation of his actions, which hurt their public image and their standing with the authorities. The FF broke up, Reed and Sue split up, and Reed signed over most of his patents to the government as part of a deal to escape prosecution; however, Reed convinced Sue and Johnny to join him in a quest to resurrect Ben, returning him from the gates of Heaven itself. While the FF work to rebuild their reputations and their finances, they have recently dabbled in more conventional fields of employment, such as teaching.

Sue was recently captured by Zius, leader of a group of survivors from worlds consumed by Galactus. Knowing Sue's power could overcome a device designed to hide planets from Galactus, Zius intended to execute her; but Reed used a device to swap Johnny and Sue's powers, duping Zius into thinking the invisibility powers had been completely neutralized. These powers were enhanced by Galactus, who claimed Johnny as his herald; but Johnny's new cosmic state helped facilitate Galactus's defeat, and Sue regained her original powers-though she also gained new respect for Johnny regarding his ability to control his dangerous fire power. Sue currently moonlights as a substitute teacher while juggling her roles as wife, mother and celebrity adventurer.

Characteristics

File:Namor Invisible Woman2.jpg

The Invisible Woman & Namor

Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 120 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Unusual Features: None

Powers

Known Powers: Susan's body was bombarded with Cosmic Rays. The Invisible Woman represents the element of Air.

Invisibility: Sue Richards possesses the psionic ability to manipulate ambient cosmic energy in order to bend light around her body without distortion, thus rendering herself wholly or partially invisible at will. She can also render other people or objects invisible, affecting up to forty thousand cubic feet of volume. She achieves these feats by mentally bending all wavelengths of light in the vicinity around herself or the target in question and she somehow does this without causing any visible distortion effects; she also somehow directs enough undistorted light to her eyes to retain her full range of vision while invisible. If an object or person has been made invisible through the use of a cloaking device, Susan is able to detect them, and even make them visible if she wishes. However, if the invisibility is part of a magical spell or by a telepath attempting to conceal something, she may not be able to detect it

Lygokinesis: Sue can also mentally generate a field of invisible light force apparently drawn from hyperspace, which she manipulates for a variety of effects. Most commonly, She generates near-indestructible invisible force fields around herself or other targets. She can vary the texture and tensile strength of her field to some extant, rendering it highly rigid or as soft and yielding as foam; 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. Sue can shape her psionic force fields into invisible constructs, usually simple shapes such as barriers, columns, cones, cylinders, darts, discs, domes, platforms, rams, ramps, slides and spheres. By generating additional force behind her light 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 marble 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, Susan can cause her target to explode. Susan can also travel atop animated constructs such as ramps, stairs, slides, columns and stepping discs, enabling her to simulate limited approximation of levitation or flight. She is capable of generating and manipulating multiple force fields simultaneously.

Abilities:No known abilities.

Strength Level: Normal human female with moderate regular exercise.

Miscellaneous

Equipment:

Costume

Unstable Molecules

The Invisible Woman's costume, and the rest of her wardrobe, is constructed of unstable molecules, which are attuned to her powers, allowing it to become invisible when she does.

Wearable Computer

The Invisible Woman's costume has a complete data processing and telemetry system woven into its fabric on a molecular level, making it a wearable computer. The costume forms a network with the rest of the Fantastic Four, providing a constant, real time uplink of everyone’s physical condition as well as their location and current situation. The costume is capable of displaying data and has touch-pad controls on the gauntlets. Its sensors can track all of the team’s uniforms and provide a picture of their immediate vicinity. The costume has an intricate scanner system which can detect things around the wearer, from how many people are in the next room to what dimension or planet they are on.

Fantasti-Flare

The Invisible Woman normally carries a miniature flare pistol capable of creating a fiery “4‿ signal in the sky. Used as a weapon, the incendiary charge will ignite flammable materials.

Transportation: Various vehicles used by the Fantastic Four and Avengers.
Weapons: None known.

Notable Appearances

• Fantastic Four #1 - First Appearance and origin
• Amazing Spider-Man #1
• Amazing Spider-Man #5
• Amazing Spider-Man #8
• Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 - Cameo Appearance
• Amazing Spider-Man #18 - Cameo Appearance

Complete List

Related Articles

• Character Gallery Invisible Woman
• Namor

External Links

• Marvel Directory

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