Marvel Studios has released The Fantastic
Four: First Steps in cinema, and I’m inspired to continue delving into
the MC2 Universe’s own founding members of the Fantastic
Four …. or the Fantastic Five, as they became in this
world. For today, let’s look at the most powerful member of the Fantastic
Four, the heart of the team herself Susan Storm-Richards aka The
Invisible Woman in the MC2.
All four core members of Marvel’s First Family debuted
in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s 1961 title Fantastic
Four #1, launching the very Marvel Universe itself as we
know it today by depicting the fateful space launch which gave this famous four
their powers.
Unlike her brother Johnny
Storm and Benjamin
Grimm, Susan Richards didn’t make a cameo appearance in the
pages of What If #105 where we saw a cameo appearance of the MC2’s Fantastic
Five. It’s not until Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #1 where we see Susan,
albeit only in flashbacks, the most relevant being our first glimpse to a
crucial event in Sue’s history…
Approximately
five or so years prior to the events of Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #1,
the Fantastic Four prepared to battle Hyperstorm,
a cosmically powered warlord from an alternate future who had built a doomsday
weapon in the Negative Zone (Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #4, Spider-Girl
#87). Franklin engaged Hyperstorm in a 'mind-war'
on every plane of existence which ultimately left Hyperstorm comatose
and apparently stripped Franklin of much of his god-like power
(Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #4).
Unfortunately, the doomsday device had already begun
to tear a hole in the fabric of reality. When Reed Richards was
forced to overload the device to stop it, Susan Richards attempted
to shield him from the radiation with her force field. Caught in the blast
radius, half of Reed's body was left in a melted and deformed
state. With the reality rip still widening, Susan used her
powers to hold the tear in place, with the strain leaving her in a coma and she
was placed in suspended animation.
In the wake of the tragedy, The Fantastistation was
built in the Negative Zone around the tear in reality. This
allowed Reed to keep Sue company while she
remained in suspended animation as he worked to slowly repair the hole in the
fabric of reality (Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #4, Spider-Girl #87).
Over the next few months, while the Fantastic Four remained in
seclusion, rumours and speculation spread about the fate of Susan
Richards despite the team never releasing details to the public. Reed developed
the Big
Brain robot to allow him to remain on the team by remotely
controlling it from the Negative Zone (Fantastic Five Vol.
1 #1).
It's not until Spider-Girl #87 that things change,
with the cosmically empowered Apox the
Omega Skrull heading into the Negative Zone to exact revenge on members
of the Fantastic Five. During the battle, Reed Richards conceives
a method to utilize Apox’s
power cosmic to seal the tear in reality and in doing so, heal himself and
allow Susan to awaken from her coma (Spider-Girl #88). Finally, a
happy ending for the Fantastic Family!
After all that, it’s nice to end on a positive note
especially because it speaks to the hopeful outlook of the MC2 overall. I’m
enjoying these briefer posts and they leave space to explore more in the
future.
Until I get to wear a see-through costume without
controversy, I remain
frogoat
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