History ComicBook / InvisibleWoman

[[redirect:Characters/MarvelComicsInvisibleWoman]]

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->''"You're pathetic. One of the best minds on the planet and you waste it for years, doing magic tricks - then trying to best a man who'd never really harm you, despite your endless provocation. But that's the difference between my husband and me. He doesn't understand revenge. Me? I can't decide which of the many ways I can hurt you I'm going to use."''
-->-- '''Sue''' threatening The Wizard

'''Susan "Sue" Storm-Richards''', better known as the '''Invisible Woman''' (previously the '''Invisible Girl'''), is a Creator/MarvelComics character created by Creator/JackKirby and Creator/StanLee, first appearing in ''The ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #1 (dated Nov. 1961).

If the Fantastic Four can be considered the "first family" of the MarvelUniverse, then Sue Storm is their first lady. While she's not ''technically'' the first female superhero created by the company [[note]](she's preceded by the likes of Blonde Phantom, Namora, ComicBook/PatsyWalker, and many others, back when Marvel was still called Timely Comics)[[/note]], Sue was the only one with any sort of substantial focus for quite some time. By comparison, ComicBook/JeanGrey hit the scene nearly two years after Sue's introduction, though many think she didn't hit her own stride until TheSeventies.

Sue, alongside the rest of the F4, is a classic case of [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] science fiction. While on an expedition in outer space, Sue --with her younger brother [[ComicBook/HumanTorch Johnny]], boyfriend [[ComicBook/MisterFantastic Dr. Reed Richards]], and his friend [[ComicBook/TheThing Ben Grimm]]-- experienced cosmic radiation, gaining {{invisibility}} (and later, [[BarrierWarrior force fields]]) as a result. With them, she became a founding member of the Fantastic Four, using their powers for the betterment of humanity.

In the following decades since her superhero genesis, Sue goes through lots of character development, including (but not limited to) marrying Reed, becoming a mother, and being tasked with the reconstruction of the {{multiverse}}. Oh, and a secret agent. She also notably transitions from being the Invisible ''Girl'' to the Invisible ''Woman'', which is reflected by a mixture of her increase in confidence and self-esteem and, after being possessed by Malice, a feeling that she's lost her innocence.

As one of Marvel's first family, Sue has obviously appeared quite frequently in other media. She's been a leading character of every ''Fantastic Four'' movie made to date, most notably portrayed by Creator/JessicaAlba and Creator/KateMara in their [[Film/FantasticFour2005 2005]] and [[Film/FantasticFour2015 2015]] film adaptations.

Not to be confused with ''Film/{{The Invisible Woman|1940}}'', a spinoff of the classic horror film ''Film/TheInvisibleMan1933''.

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!! The Invisible Woman appears in:
[[folder: Notable Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' (various runs):
** vol. 1 (1961 -- 1996, 2002 -- 2012, 2015)
** vol. 2 (1996 -- 1997)
** vol. 3 (1998 -- 2003)
** vol. 4 (2013 -- 2014)
** vol. 5 (2014 -- 2015)
** vol. 6 (2018 -- present)
* ''ComicBook/{{FF}}'' vol. 1 (2011 -- 2012)
* ''ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|2015}}'' vol. 2 (2015 -- 2016)
* ''Invisible Woman'' (2019)
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film]]
* ''Film/TheFantasticFour'' (1994), portrayed by Rebecca Staab
* ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2005}}'' (2005), portrayed by Creator/JessicaAlba
** ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'' (2007)
* ''Film/SuperheroMovie'' (2008), portrayed by Creator/PamelaAnderson
* ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2015}}'' (2015), portrayed by Creator/KateMara
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Fantastic Four|1967}}'' (1967 -- 1968), voiced by Jo Ann Pflug
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Fantastic Four|1978}}'' (1978), voiced by Ginny Tyler
* ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' (1994 -- 1996), voiced by Creator/LoriAlan
* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' (1994 -- 1998), voiced by Gail Matthius
* ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFourWorldsGreatestHeroes'' (2006 -- 2017), voiced by Lara Gilchrist
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow'' (2009 -- 2011), voiced by Creator/TaraStrong
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' (2010 -- 2013), voiced by Creator/ErinTorpey
* ''WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH'' (2013 -- 2015), voiced by Creator/KariWahlgren
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Fantastic Four|2005}}'' (2005), voiced by Creator/JessicaAlba
* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'' (2006), voiced by Creator/DanicaMcKellar
** ''Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2'' (2009)
** ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance3TheBlackOrder'' (added in 2020), voiced by Creator/KariWahlgren
* ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'' (2010) as DLC skin
* ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' (2012)
* ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelSuperHeroes'' (2013), voiced by Creator/KariWahlgren
* ''VideoGame/MarvelPuzzleQuest'' (added in 2014)
* ''VideoGame/MarvelHeroes'' (added in 2016), voiced by Erin Torpey
* ''VideoGame/MarvelFutureFight'' (added in 2019)
[[/folder]]
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!! The Invisible Woman provides examples of:
* ActionGirl: She's generally portrayed as the strongest member of the team these days. Doctor Doom is more afraid of her than he is of The Thing.
* ActionMom: She is a mother of two, and still the strongest member of the four. Do not hurt her children if you know what's good for you.
* AmazonianBeauty: [[DependingOnTheArtist Some comics and other media depictions]] show Sue with a good bit of muscle. VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance3TheBlackOrder, in particular, shows her as being absolutely RIPPED!
* AlliterativeName: Before she got married, anyway. '''S'''usan "'''S'''ue" '''S'''torm.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Again, Susan Storm.
* BadassFamily: She's related to two of the Franchise/FantasticFour, being the older sister of ComicBook/HumanTorch and wife of ComicBook/MisterFantastic. In many continuities, her and Reed's children eventually become superheroes themselves.
* BarrierWarrior: As a veteran superhero, she's gotten quite good at using her forcefields offensively, such as threatening to use them to create a brain embolism/aneurysm at one point.
* BattleCouple: With Reed Richards, both of them being one of Creator/MarvelComics' most prominent examples of this trope.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: During the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' storyline, she confronted Reed about his pro-registration stance and Reed stated that he did it all to protect Sue. Sue then proceeded to send an invisible column above and below all 35 floors of the Baxter building and asked Reed if she looked like she needed protection.
** She's also Reed's ace in the hole in the run up to ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', playing Captain America and his supporters into thinking that she's on their side in the hunt for the Illuminati, then almost casually imprisoning him and his Mighty Avengers (a team including several powerhouses, including Blue Marvel) and Bobby Da Costa's Avengers World team (also including several powerhouses) in individual cube-like fields.
* BigSisterInstinct: Towards Johnny.
* BlueIsHeroic: She wears the same blue uniform that her team mates wear and her constructs are sometimes drawn as bluiesh-white.
* BoobsOfSteel: She is a powerful heroine and also one of the most stacked women in the Marvel Universe.
* BrotherSisterTeam: She and younger brother Johnny are half of the Fantastic Four.
* CharacterDevelopment: Went from the team's resident DamselInDistress to a confident, nigh-unstoppable badass.
* CleavageWindow: She had one, shaped like the figure 4, in her {{Stripperific}} 1990s outfit. On more than one occasion has it been pointed out the physical improbability of maintaining the appearance of a number 4 in such a manner.
* ComboPlatterPowers: Invisibilty and creating objects made out of invisible material.
* CoolBigSis: To Johnny.
* CustomUniform: Early on, Sue experimented with a miniskirt variation that didn't last. Then came the {{Stripperific}} outfit in the 90s, followed by a more modest variation.
* DeadpanSnarker: She's nowhere near as snarky as Ben or even Johnny, but she's definitely a lot more deadpan than either of them.
* DeadlyForceField: Sue Storm is the poster girl for TookALevelInBadass precisely because of this trope. In the original comics, she had a more passive role, often playing the DamselInDistress. The writers gave her invisibility powers a force field aspect to make her more active and useful, other writers gave her more creative ways to use them, and now "lil' Suzie" is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe, period. Notably, she can deal out all [[ArcNumber four]] main manners of death this trope describes: cutting, crushing, popping, and internal blockage.
* DisabilityImmunity: While her powers normally lends themselves to stealth and subtlety, such efforts are occasionally foiled by those who could not ''see'' her to begin with and are not thrown off by the lack of visual cues from her force fields
* TheDreaded: She is sometimes depicted as the scariest member of the Fantastic Four. The ComicBook/BlackCat has stated that Sue is the most terrifying thing in the Baxter Building and specifically waited until Sue was away to go through with her plan to steal a book from Reed's collection.
* DressedLikeADominatrix:
** As Malice, Sue wore a very skimpy black leather costume, a spiked collar, opera gloves with spiky bracelets, thigh-high high-heeled boots, a spiked gimp mask, and a cape.
** In an alternate universe where she became ComicBook/MadameHydra, Sue wore a green thigh-cut evening dress, a green choker, opera gloves, high-heeled boots, and carried [[WhipItGood a whip.]]
* DudeMagnet: Sue is married to Reed and both Namor and Doom have shown attraction to her. She also went on a date with Franchise/SpiderMan once.
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Sue has been desired by many men in the Marvel Comics other than her husband Reed.
* FauxActionGirl: She started off as one of these, but CharacterDevelopment [[TookALevelInBadass kicked in]].
* FemaleFighterMaleHandler: In an out-of-continuity comic, she briefly joined ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}, due to feeling underappreciated in her own team. She turned out to be quite a badass superspy, what with her invisibility powers and force fields and whatnot. Her handler was ComicBook/NickFury himself.
* FluffyTheTerrible: Invisible Girl or Invisible Woman doesn't quite strike fear in the hearts of evildoers. Then again her name isn't what makes her so dangerous.
* GuileHero: Invisible Woman should be portrayed as this. She shamed Ben Grimm into piloting the ship during the first issue. She was also told to distract many of the Silver Age male supervillains. After Psycho Man temporarily turned her into Malice she used her knowledge of Reed and Psycho Man's personalities to track him down and take revenge on him. When Dr. Doom stole the power cosmic from the Silver Surfer, she tricked him into flying into a mountain. During the Civil War, she spied on Reed. As any real chessmaster/manipulative bastard/guile hero would tell you, the greatest achievements in theses tropes is to make certain that your opponents don't realize you are a social expert.
** This trope returns in full in Mark Waid's ''Invisible Woman'' miniseries. In issue 2, Sue and the ComicBook/BlackWidow go to a bar in Madripoor to get some information on Sue's missing CIA partner. The owner Changdoa agrees to help them if Sue can win a drinking game with one of his men. As it turns out, Changdoa had been ordered to kill Sue and had poisoned the liquor they were drinking. [[GenreSavvy Sue then reveals that she never drank the liquor at all but simply made it look like she did by turning the liquor invisible.]]
* HappilyMarried: Ever since their well-publicized wedding, Sue and Reed have been Marvel's power couple.
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Once the writers found out some really creative ways to use her powers...
* HotScientist: A scientist like her husband and a notable MsFanservice (see below) for Creator/MarvelComics.
* ImaginationBasedSuperpower: Sue can mold her force fields into any shape she wants with the added bonus that they are invisible to everyone but her.
* InstantArmor: She's used her forcefields in this way once or twice.
* LeotardOfPower: Her 90s outfit.
* LoveAtFirstSight: When she was 12-13, she met a 19-year-old uni student and got a PrecociousCrush on him. Fortunately, they didn't hook up until she was much older.
* MamaBear: '''DO NOT''' mess with her children. Biological or adopted. At one point in the comics the government bars Reed and Sue from their home and their children. They call in the Avengers to do so. Ten of them, in fact, which might look like overkill at first. And then Sue loses her temper, and one panel later anyone not named Thor or Hulk is knocked flat. The original Torch intervenes before she seriously injures anyone.
* MasterOfIllusion: Sue's ability to turn herself and other things invisible is a manipulation of light waves. The Mark Waid miniseries has her develop the ability to manipulate light in a way that alters color after a conversation she had with her daughter Valeria. She uses this new trick to make her skin tan and turn her blonde hair brown.
* MindOverMatter: Her invisible force field basically boils down to this, with the handy trait of {{Invisibility}} at her discretion.
* MostCommonSuperPower: Sue is one of the most powerful woman in the Marvel Universe and also one of the most stacked.
* MsFanservice: Her regular costume(s) already flatter her, but her sex appeal often gets dialled up in alternate universes, especially ones where her invisibility is tweaked to put her in NakedPeopleAreFunny situations (as seen in ''1602'').
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Her evil split personality goes by Malice, Mistress of Hate.
* NotQuiteFlight: Sue can create floating discs or bubbles to carry herself and who ever is travelling with her through the air or jump around on invisible platforms into the sky.
** In the Marvel Adventures setting, she keeps pace with Johnny by making a force-field hang glider and gliding on the heat his flaming aura produces.
* OnlySaneWoman: She keeps Reed in check, and in the team's earlier day was usually the only thing keeping Johnny and Ben from each other's throats.
* PersonalityPowers: Originally, Sue was very shy and her invisible powers showcase her introverted nature. Later, her forcefields became incredibly powerful - as in, strong enough to stand off punches from the Void at the height of his power, and hold off the Worldbreaker Hulk (until her concentration got broken) - which symbolises how protective she is of her family.
* PrecociousCrush: Sue met Reed when he was 19 and she was 12, [[LoveAtFirstSight getting a crush on him at first sight]]. Thankfully, they got together much later in life.
* PromotionToParent: After Susan and Johnny's father, Franklin Storm, turned to gambling and ended up being sent to prison for manslaughter, Sue was responsible for raising Johnny. To the point where Johnny has stated that he doesn't even remember his mother, and believes his father to be dead.
* PsychicNosebleed: Often, when Sue is holding a forcefield against a particularly strong opponent.
* RagsToRiches: Her father lost their family fortune and she became a ward of her aunt, but Sue has never been wealthier after marrying into the super-rich Richards household and other than an occasional setback their fortune has grown even more after the cosmic ray accident.
* RichesToRags: When she and her brother were kids, their mother died and their doctor father turned to alcohol and gambling, eventually squandering the family fortune and killing his loan shark. Sue and Johnny were forced to live with their aunt.
* ReligiousBruiser: She’s one of the strongest heroes in the universe. She’s also a very devout Christian, though her brother, Johnny Storm/Human Torch, [[https://fanfix.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/figure-08_johnny-storm-acknowledging-his-sister-as-a-religious-person-in-infinity-crusade.jpg?w=468 says she’s quiet about it]]. Indeed, [[https://fanfix.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/figure-06_sue-in-st-patricks-cathedral-ny-from-marvel-holiday-special-2004-1.jpg every Christmas and Easter]], she goes to the St. Patrick’s Cathedral (which implies she’s specifically Catholic), lights the candles, and prays to her deceased parents.
** That being said, in an [[https://2.bp.blogspot.com/WUemxI9rV7r8qAYIo5NuevtkDTl4P9nWPW7-pT3WRMo0jdpN3_p_sHynuLsRKWZapJs6J5JLneQe=s0 issue]] before entering into Heaven to get Ben Grimm back, she expresses skepticism that it even exists.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: [[spoiler: As revealed in issue four of the Mark Waid miniseries, Sue's entire optic structure is very different from a regular person's. While normal people's retinas register objects using reflected light, Sue's eyes also interpolate shapes based on ambient cosmic energy in the atmosphere. This is how she is able to see her constructs or anything else that is invisible and it allows her to see even when the villains cut off the flow of blood to her retinas.]]
* SiblingTeam: She and Johnny are half of the Fantastic Four.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Her relationship with Reed.
* SkySurfing: By shaping the matter she creates into discs to stand on, Sue can fly across the air.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The sole female member of the original Fantastic Four.
* SpontaneousWeaponCreation: One of the many possible uses of her force fields. In one ''ComicBook/XMen''/''Fantastic Four'' miniseries, she has a MamaBear moment and uses a force sword to slay a Brood queen in close combat, leaving the males of both teams rather shocked.
* SpikesOfVillainy: Malice's outfit included a spiked collar, spiky bracelets and a spiked gimp mask.
* StrongAndSkilled: She has a very versatile and deadly power set which she uses with great skill and creativity. This easily makes her the most dangerous of the Fantastic Four.
* {{Stripperific}}: Unusual for a comic series in that the team's main female member only rarely falls under this trope, preferring a modest blue bodysuit identical to the ones Reed and Johnny wear, but it does happen - like when she wore a certain costume for a few years in the 1990s. The change was widely panned by fans and removed. As Malice, she wore a leather S&M-inspired outfit.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: Malice is an evil personality created by Psycho-Man preying on Sue's vulnerable emotions after she lost her child. Malice used her powers in a much more aggressive style such as [[HavingABlast creating explosions]] and forming spikes.
* SwissArmySuperpower: Her force-fields act as this. Basically, she's become an Invisible Lantern over the years, being able to shape her invisible forcefields into any sort of constructs she wants but with the added advantage that her enemies can't see them. She's also, on a suggestion from her daughter, learned how to use them to create a limited glamour effect by changing how light reflects on her - so she can't change her features, but she can change her hair colour and skin tone, which are convenient for disguise.
* TeamMom: Reed is usually more focused on his latest project, Ben sulking about his appearance or fighting with Johnny, and Johnny... is Johnny. Sue's usually the one keeping them all together (or in Johnny and Ben's case, apart).
* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Suffered from this before getting her force field power because her only power was {{Invisibility}}, so the team was put into situations where stealth was required so her power could come off as being useful.
* TookALevelInBadass: '''Hoo boy.''' She's the page picture for a reason. See her entry on TookALevelInBadass/ComicBooks for specifically why.
* TrueBlueFemininity: Blue is the color of the Fantastic Four's costume and Sue is TeamMom.
* UnstablePoweredWoman: She was once subjected to a villain's mental manipulation and developed a dark personality called "Malice", which caused her to dress in darker, skimpier, bondage-themed clothes and a more evil, sinister personality. Infamously, she is literally freed from the villain's control by her husband Reed slapping her across the face.
* [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Violently Protective Wife]]: It's a horrible idea to mess with Reed when Susan is around.
* {{Xenafication}}: She was originally TheChick of the team with a near useless power of invisibility. Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby took partial steps to fix that early on giving her force field projecting powers. However, it was Creator/JohnByrne who really powered her up by having her [[SwissArmySuperpower nifty new ways of using her powers]] and learning to get aggressive enough to really use them well. Today, she is now considered one of the most powerful superheroes of the ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' and even the character of ''Doctor Doom'' underestimates her at his peril.
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* DeadpanSnarker

In the following decades since her superhero genesis, Sue goes through lots of character development, including (but not limited to) marrying Reed, becoming a mother, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking being tasked with the reconstruction of the]] {{multiverse}}. Oh, and a secret agent. She also notably transitions from being the Invisible ''Girl'' to the Invisible ''Woman'', which is reflected by a mixture of her increase in confidence and self-esteem and, after being possessed by Malice, a feeling that she's lost her innocence.

* NotQuiteFlight: Sue can create floating discs or bubbles to carry herself and who ever is travelling with her through the air.

** ''Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer'' (2007)

* DressedLikeADominatrix: Sue wore an outfit that wouldn't be out of place at an S&M club when her Malice persona took over.

* GreenLanternRing: Her force-fields act as this. Basically, she's become an Invisible Lantern over the years, being able to shape her invisible forcefields into any sort of constructs she wants but with the added advantage that her enemies can't see them. She's also, on a suggestion from her daughter, learned how to use them to create a limited glamour effect by changing how light reflects on her - so she can't change her features, but she can change her hair colour and skin tone, which are convenient for disguise.

* SpikesOfVillainy: Malice wore a costume with these.

* {{Stripperific}}: Unusual for a comic series in that the team's main female member only rarely falls under this trope, preferring a modest blue bodysuit identical to the ones Reed and Johnny wear, but it does happen - like when she wore a certain costume for a few years in the 1990s. The change was widely panned by fans and removed.

-->Sue threatening The Wizard

Not to be confused with ''Film/{{The Invisible Woman|1940}}'', a spinoff of the classic horror film ''Film/TheInvisibleMan''.

->''"You're pathetic. One of the best minds on the planet and you waste it for years, doing magic tricks - then trying to best a man who'd never really harm you, despite your endless provocation. But that's the difference between my husband and me. He doesn't understand revenge. Me? I can't decide which of the many ways I can hurt you I'm going to use."