Susan "Sue" Storm(Soldier) Traditional Cache

I know that, darling. But... But I know a lot of other things now. Things I think I've been trying to put aside, to postpone... Something a lot like growing up, perhaps. The Psycho-Man did more than twist my emotions. He forced me to look into the deepest corners of my soul, forced me to confront who I am, what have I become. When we rocketed into the cosmic ray belt, when we gained our powers, we lost something. An innocence. A child-like naivety. For a long time I've tried to go on as if we're still the same people we used to be, As if I was still the same. But I'm not. Not after all that's happened to us. Not after what the Psycho-Man did to me. There is no Invisible-Girl anymore, Reed. She died when the Psycho-Man twisted her soul. 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, 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^[4]. A trip to the Skrull homeworld and the death of Warlord Morrat, the Skrull who authorized Franklin's murder, brought some measure of revenge^[9].

Motherhood

Sue eventually married Reed in a wedding ceremony attended by most of the world's heroes.^[10] A difficult pregnancy followed, during which Crystal 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.^[11] 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.^[12]

During Sue Storm's second hiatus, the Inhuman Medusa took her place. The old bonds though, drew Susan back to the team.^[13]

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.^[14]

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.^[15] 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.^[16] 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.^[17]

The Fantastic Four, as always, pulled them back.^[18] During the Infinity War, Sue had to confront her doppelganger and incorporate its evil into herself. That boost allowed Malice to regain control temporarily.^[19]

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.^[20] 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.^[21] 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.^[22] Once the heroes on Counter-Earth realized what had happened, they returned to their original homes.^[23]

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.^[24]

With Doom gone, Richards claimed Latveria in the name of the Fantastic Four and began dismantling Doom's arsenal.^[25] 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.^[26]

With their fortunes and their reputations in disarray, they took regular jobs and lived in regular homes. Sue became a teacher.^[27] 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.^[28]

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,^[29] 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 Reed 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 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 Zone portal after Spider-Man failed at stopping them. The portal revealed a living Johnny Storm with a enslaved Annihilus.^[30]

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.^[31] 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.^[32] The Future Franklin used his power to heal Galactus and destroy the Mad Celestials, saving the day.^[33] 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.^[34]

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.^[1]

Actually, Sue had infiltrated the organization in order to help her husband and the Illuminati evade S.H.I.E.L.D.^[2]

Secret Wars

During the last incursion, while the heroes were defending the universe from the forces of Earth-1610, Susan along with the rest of the Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation were trying to get the life raft ready.

While Mister Fantastic and Black Panther pilot the ship to the center of the incursion, it suffers a hull breach, separating the part of the ship carrying Invisible Woman, Thing and most of the young Future Foundation. Susan creates a force field protects them for a few moments, but not long enough for Reed to rescue them and watches in horror as it is destroyed.^[35]

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