Profile of Susan Richards on Famous Like Me

This article is about the comic book character. For the 1940 film, see The Invisible Woman.

The Invisible Woman, real name Susan Richards, née Storm, formerly the Invisible Girl, is a fictional superhero who is a member of The Fantastic Four in the Marvel Universe.

As the girlfriend and later wife of Reed Richards and sister of Johnny Storm, she was instrumental in persuading pilot Ben Grimm in joining them on a dangerous space mission, which exposed them to massive amounts of cosmic radiation. As a result, they gained superhuman powers. Hers was the ability to become invisible at will. Unfortunately, this power alone proved to be of relatively little use in their missions, especially compared to the more aggressive ones of the rest of the group. Eventually, creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby realized this and gave Susan other powers such as the ability to project invisible telekinetic force fields and the ability to make other people and objects become invisible.

Despite her abilities, Susan served primarily as an assistant and second-in-command to Reed, and the comics tended to treat her in a condescending stereotypical manner. This changed when John Byrne began his celebrated run on the title. Under his authorship, Susan became much more confident and assertive in her own abilities which themselves became more versatile and impressive. For instance, she found she could use her force fields to carry herself into the air, immobilize enemies, or use them as an offensive ranged attack. This revision, also marked by Susan changing her nom de guerre to the Invisible Woman, has become the standard with Susan being recognized as the most powerful member of the team and has served stints as the team's leader on occasion.

In Neil Gaiman's 1602, her power is associated with the classical element of air.

In late 2004, Mark Waid devised a plot twist by which Susan and her brother Johnny switched powers. This did not last.

Media

Susan is played by actress Jessica Alba in the 2005 film version of the Fantastic Four. In the film, she was a brilliant young scientist who headed up Victor Von Doom's Department of Scientific Research, and she was Reed's ex-girlfriend and dated Victor. On the moment before the cosmic storm changed her, she was offered a proposal of marriage from Victor, but she later turned him down. Her powers seem to parallel her emotions such as anger, confusion, and frustration, which she manages to control by the end of the film. She accepts Reed's proposal of marriage at the end.

References, parodies, spoofs and homages

The Invisible Woman has been parodied many times through the years. One notable homage is in Miss Invisible of the Mega-Hyper Heroes featured in an episode of Rugrats (a spoof of both the Teen Titans and the Fantastic Four). Lil, a fan of Miss Invisible, has a superhero counterpart called Dotted-Line Girl who has similar abilities, but can be seen, as a dotted line.

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