Day Two of this year’s Jack Kirby Tribute Month (curated by Howard Simpson), and the whole month is dedicated to Fantastic Four-related characters. Today’s prompt is Sue Storm Richards, the Invisible Woman!
Sue has a unique role in the Fantastic Four. She kind of acts as the emotional center or heart of the group. When Reed Richards would get too carried away in his head with his own thoughts, she could bring him back to earth and ground him. And he always trusted her to do that. When Ben Grimm would sometimes get angry or depressed, she knew what to say to bring him back again. And when her younger brother Johnny would get hot-headed or too out-of-control, she knew how to rein him in also. It’s kind of a subtle role, but an important one.
Initially after their flight through the cosmic rays, Sue only had the power of invisibility. But I think Jack and Stan soon realized that wasn’t enough for their narrative needs, and gave her the secondary power to generate force fields. Often those powers have been used in largely a defensive way, but during John Byrne’s run on Fantastic Four, he came up with some innovative uses for her powers that showed once and for all that she could hold her own with anyone else.
Feel free to come by tomorrow to see who’s next!
I love Ms. Storm’s force bubbles. I am going to have to look up whether the force field power has been used to protect important civil documents. To me, her intense facial appearance suggests she is going to take care of serious business and something very important for her (and likely all of us). I really like your description of her caring ways. I have wonder if she is also a bit of an empath? I do not remember any stories where that has come up. Once again, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed this take, Joe.
So far as I know, Sue doesn’t have any kind of special mental or emotional telepathy. I think she’s just written (at least traditionally) as being naturally sympathetic, sensing others’ needs and how to address them, in just a regular human way. Still, that is a talent. Not everyone has that ability. And like I said above, that skill kind of made her the emotional center of the group, holding them all together.