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Invisible Woman

IdentityConfirmed

Real nameSusan Storm-Richards

CodenameInvisible Woman

ContinentFantastic Four

In DoomsdayVanessa Kirby (on Marvel's cast list; role not yet named)¹

First seenFantastic Four #1, November 1961²

Created byStan Lee, Jack Kirby²

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Level 1 // The briefDecrypted · 30 seconds

WhoReed Richards' partner and Johnny Storm's older sister, who gained the power to turn invisible in the cosmic-ray accident that created the Fantastic Four.³

AbilitiesInvisibility, plus force fields strong enough to push back Galactus.³

In DoomsdayMarvel lists Vanessa Kirby in the cast but has not named her role; her most recent released role was Sue Storm / Invisible Woman.¹

Last seenThe Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), as Sue Storm / Invisible Woman: Revived by baby Franklin after the battle, she later finds a cloaked stranger beside him.⁷

Sources

Level 2 // Surveillance recordOn screen · 4 sightings, 1 in the MCU

Every live-action sighting of Invisible Woman, and everything Marvel has confirmed.

2005
Fantastic Four FOX
Jessica Alba Sue is a genetics researcher working for Victor von Doom, caught between him and her former boyfriend Reed when the cosmic storm hits Doom's space station. She gains invisibility and force fields, which at first switch on when she is upset, and learns to control them after the bridge rescue. She helps contain Doom's heat in the final fight and accepts Reed's proposal afterwards.¹²
2007
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer FOX
Jessica Alba Sue's wedding plans are disrupted by the Silver Surfer, and she becomes the one person he confides in, learning about Galactus and the board that summons him. In Shanghai she tries to shield the Surfer from a spear Doom hurls, but it passes through her force field and she dies in Reed's arms. The Surfer revives her before flying at Galactus, and she and Reed marry in Japan.³²
2015
Fantastic Four FOX
Kate Mara Sue is Franklin Storm's adopted daughter and a researcher on his teleportation project, designing the travellers' suits. Left behind when Reed, Ben, Johnny and Victor make their unauthorised trip, she brings the shuttle home and is changed by the incident too, gaining invisibility, levitation and force fields. She later helps track down the fugitive Reed, fights Doom on Planet Zero and, with Reed, demands that the team be allowed to act independently.⁴⁵⁶⁷
2025
The Fantastic Four: First Steps MCU
Vanessa Kirby On Earth-828 Sue is expecting her first child when the Silver Surfer heralds Galactus, who wants the baby and forces her into labour aboard his ship. Back home she faces down a hostile public, and in the final battle she pushes her force fields past their limit to drive Galactus into the teleportation bridge, dying until baby Franklin revives her. In the mid-credits scene, set four years later, she returns to find a cloaked stranger sitting beside her son.⁸⁹

What Marvel confirmed

The film. Avengers: Doomsday opens 18 December 2026.¹⁰

Sources

Level 3 // Deep archiveThe comics · since November 1961

Origin, the comics by era, abilities and recorded feats.

Origin

Sue and her younger brother Johnny grew up on Long Island in an ordinary household until their mother Mary died after a car accident; their father, the physician Franklin Storm, could not save her. Franklin sank into drink and gambling and eventually went to prison after shooting a loan shark in self-defence. The children moved in with their aunt, who ran a boarding house, and Sue increasingly found herself raising Johnny on her own.

As a teenager Sue fell for one of her aunt's lodgers, the young scientist Reed Richards, who soon moved out because she was distracting him from his work. The two kept in touch and became a couple, and she later studied at Columbia University on a scholarship. By the time they were engaged Reed was building the Marvel-1, a starship meant for a distant world, and Sue followed him to Central City, California, bringing Johnny with her.

When the military threatened to cut the project's funding, Reed resolved to launch the prototype himself, and Sue and Johnny insisted on flying with him and the pilot Ben Grimm. The cabin was not shielded against the unexpectedly intense burst of radiation they flew into, and the ship had to crash-land back on Earth. Each of the four came out changed; Sue found she could turn invisible, and she took the name Invisible Girl as the four became the Fantastic Four.¹²³

The record, by era

1961-1962
The Invisible Girl The Silver Age debut
Sue joins the team's first fights against the Mole Man and the Skrulls. When Johnny restores the amnesiac Sub-Mariner's memory, Namor is instantly smitten with her and demands she become his bride in exchange for sparing humanity, the start of an attraction that unsettles her relationship with Reed for years. In the next issue Doctor Doom takes her hostage to force the men into a time-travel errand, but she slips free while invisible and releases her teammates from his trap.¹²⁴⁵
Key issues: Fantastic Four #1 (1961) · Fantastic Four #4 (1962) · Fantastic Four #5 (1962)
1963-1964
Proving her worth Growing powers
Readers' letters questioning what Sue adds to the team leave her upset until her teammates list the times she has saved them and throw her a surprise birthday party. Soon afterwards Reed's tests reveal she can do far more than vanish: she can project solid invisible force fields and turn other objects invisible. Those new abilities are the main reason the Four survive the Mole Man's next scheme to sink New York and Moscow.¹⁶⁷
Key issues: Fantastic Four #11 (1963) · Fantastic Four #22 (1964)
1965
Choosing Reed Engagement and wedding
After a long stretch of mixed feelings about Reed and Namor, Sue accepts Reed's proposal after a battle with Diablo and the Dragon Man on Reed's old campus. Their wedding at the Baxter Building draws Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers and Nick Fury's agents as guests, and an army of villains roused by Doctor Doom as gatecrashers. Reed sends the attackers away with a device borrowed from the Watcher, and the couple marry without further trouble.¹⁸⁹
Key issues: Fantastic Four #35 (1965) · Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965)
1967-1968
A dangerous birth Motherhood
Reed announces that Sue is pregnant, and she steps back from frontline missions. As her due date nears, doctors find that the cosmic rays in her body are putting both her and the baby at risk. Reed, Ben and Johnny raid the Negative Zone for an element held in Annihilus' Cosmic Control Rod, and Sue gives birth to a healthy boy she later names Franklin, after her father.¹¹⁰¹¹
Key issues: Fantastic Four Annual #5 (1967) · Fantastic Four Annual #6 (1968)
1973-1974
Leaving Reed Walking out
When Annihilus triggers Franklin's powers and the boy threatens to wipe out the solar system, Reed shuts down his son's mind. It is the last straw for Sue, who already felt Reed did not treat her as an equal; she leaves him, takes Franklin and quits the team, with Medusa taking her place. She is soon seen at Namor's side as he threatens New York, but she and Reed reconcile, and the family is whole again once Franklin wakes from his coma.¹¹²¹³¹⁴
Key issues: Fantastic Four #141 (1973) · Fantastic Four #149 (1974) · Fantastic Four #150 (1974)
1984-1985
From Invisible Girl to Invisible Woman Loss and Malice
Sue's second pregnancy goes wrong, and despite Reed's efforts the baby is lost. Still fragile, she is manipulated by the Psycho-Man, who amplifies her darkest emotions and turns her into the vicious Malice. Breaking free, she turns his own emotion-control device on him and nearly kills him, then announces that from now on she will be called the Invisible Woman.¹¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸
Key issues: Fantastic Four #267 (1984) · Fantastic Four #280 (1985) · Fantastic Four #284 (1985)
1993-1996
Leader of the Four In command
When Reed and Doom appear to die together in Latveria, Sue takes charge of the Fantastic Four, recruits Ant-Man to fill Reed's role and grows confident as leader while turning away suitors, Namor above all. Refusing to accept that Reed is gone, she eventually tracks him to the distant past, where he has been stranded and left badly shaken. After his return Namor again declares his love, and she reminds him that she is married.¹¹⁹²⁰²¹
Key issues: Fantastic Four #381 (1993) · Fantastic Four #407 (1995) · Fantastic Four #412 (1996)
2002-2003
Valeria A daughter and a nightmare
Franklin reveals that he secretly saved Sue's lost second child, who has grown up in another future and now returns to her womb. The birth is so dangerous that Doctor Doom helps deliver the girl, demanding only the right to name her Valeria. Doom later uses that bond to channel his sorcery, strips the team of its powers, seizes the baby and torments Sue and her family until Reed turns the tables.¹²²²³²⁴
Key issues: Fantastic Four Vol 3 #54 (2002) · Fantastic Four Vol 3 #70 (2003) · Fantastic Four #500 (2003)
2006-2007
Against her husband The superhero Civil War
When the Thor clone built by Reed and Tony Stark kills Goliath, Sue blocks its next lightning strike to save the anti-registration heroes, then leaves Reed and goes underground with Johnny to join Captain America's side. In the final battle Reed takes a bullet meant for her, and she flattens the Taskmaster with a force field. Granted amnesty afterwards, she returns to Reed and the two take time away from the team to mend their marriage.¹²⁵²⁶²⁷
Key issues: Civil War #4 (2006) · Civil War #7 (2007) · Fantastic Four #543 (2007)
2015-2020
From Secret Wars to secret agent Death, return and espionage
Sue dies with her children when the Future Foundation's life raft is breached during the final Incursion, and Reed restores her after he gains godlike power at the end of Secret Wars. After years rebuilding the multiverse she returns to Earth with her family. In her own series she goes back to her past as a covert operative to rescue a former partner, teams with Black Widow, and discovers he has betrayed her; the mission ends with him dying against her force field.¹²⁸²⁹³⁰³¹³²
Key issues: Secret Wars #1 (2015) · Secret Wars #9 (2016) · Invisible Woman #1 (2019) · Invisible Woman #5 (2020)

Capabilities

Invisibility

Bends visible, infrared and ultraviolet light around herself or others, hiding up to about 40,000 cubic feet at once while still seeing normally.¹

Psionic force fields

Projects invisible force fields from 1 mm up to domes miles wide, tough enough to briefly withstand blasts from Galactus and the Mad Celestials.¹

Force blasts

Fires her fields as concussive shockwaves that push crowds back, wreck rooms of machinery and once blew a hole through Hydro-Man's chest.¹

Flight and telekinesis

Rides force-field platforms through the air and uses precise fields to lift heavy equipment, take machines apart or set bones.¹

Internal force fields

Can form fields inside a target or object, knocking people out, blocking arteries or blowing Doombots apart from within.¹

Psychic shielding

Her fields shut out psychic powers, once stopping Jean Grey's telekinesis and keeping Psi-Lord from reading her mind.¹

Combat and spycraft

Trained in judo by Reed and in staff fighting by Iron Fist, and secretly trained as a S.H.I.E.L.D. covert agent.¹

Source of power

Cosmic rays bombarded her on the Fantastic Four's space flight; Reed believes her power is energy drawn from the higher dimension of Hyperspace.¹

Recorded feats

comics Her force fields, helped by the Cosmic Control Rod, carried the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom and Annihilus safely through a black hole. Fantastic Four Unlimited Vol 1 #3 (September 1993)³³¹
comics Wrapped herself, then Jean Grey, in force fields that shut out Jean's telekinesis and ended her attack on the people around them. Fantastic Four Vol 1 #286 (January 1986)³⁴¹
comics Kept an entire Negative Zone planet invisible for an extended time. Annihilation - Scourge: Omega Vol 1 #1 (February 2020)³⁵¹
screen Shielded civilians from rubble, then wrapped a force field around the giant Giganto's head until he passed out and fell. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)³⁶³⁷
screen While in labour she seized the Silver Surfer in a force field, slammed her against walls and hurled her into lava. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)³⁶³⁷
screen Held Galactus in place with her force fields and pushed him toward the teleportation bridge to save her son, collapsing from the strain. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)³⁶³⁷

Notes from the archive

Jack Kirby gave the character the first name of his own daughter, Susan.¹
Fantastic Four #11 (1963) answered real criticism of the character on the page: Sue reads fan mail doubting her usefulness, and her teammates respond by recounting her rescues and throwing her a birthday party.⁶
Before Vanessa Kirby took the role for Marvel Studios, Jessica Alba, Sue in both of Fox's 2000s films, advised her to enjoy playing the part as much as she had.³⁷

Sources

Signal history1961 to 2026 · bars: screen · line: comics eras

196119942026 · Doomsday

Known associatesShared the screen

Invisible Woman

Doctor Doom3 shared

Mister Fantastic3 shared

Human Torch3 shared

The Thing3 shared

Stills on fileImages belong to their respective owners.

Invisible Woman, still 1 — Still 01 · T-10

Invisible Woman, still 2 — Still 02 · T-10

Invisible Woman, still 3 — Still 03 · T-10

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