Sue Storm’s Most Powerful Feats

In her early adventures, Susan Storm only knew how to turn herself invisible. However, over the years, the Invisible Woman gradually evolved into the Fantastic Four's secret powerhouse. While she might not be as physically strong as the Thing, as flashy as the Human Torch, or as elastic as Mister Fantastic, Sue lands devastating blows her foes never see coming. As a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and a leader of the Fantastic Four, Sue implemented a creative understanding of science to manipulate light and generate innovative attacks.

Now, let’s look back at some of the coolest ways the Invisible Woman used her abilities. From standing up to Galactus to operating with surgical precision, find out why Sue Storm is one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes.

SURVIVING GALACTUS

In most combat situations, the Invisible Woman projects invisible force fields and constructs that serve as her primary offensive and defensive measures. Sue’s invisible force shields are remarkably durable, capable of surviving the crushing oblivion of a black hole. They even withstood a prolonged attack from Galactus in FANTASTIC FOUR (2018) #7 by Dan Slott and Aaron Kuder.

During an intense encounter between the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, and Galactus in Latveria, the World-Eater blasted the Thing with his Power Cosmic. Sue jumped to Ben’s side and put up a protective force field, shielding her friend from Galactus’ planet-splitting power. She held the shields up long enough for the heroes to take Galactus down.

FIGHTING THE CELESTIALS

The Celestials are among the most formidable beings in the Marvel Universe. However, despite their vast power, these primordial entities have not always been a match for Sue Storm. The Invisible Woman destroyed a Celestial in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #400 by Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan, despite their ability to take down Galactus. Due to their unique vibrational frequency, Sue’s powers are particularly effective against Celestials. She used her force fields to smash through a Celestial’s unbreakable armor and shatter its brain.

This was no one off feat either. When the Fantastic Four faced three rampaging Celestials known as the Mad Celestials, Sue held her own against them in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #603 by Jonathan Hickman and Barry Kitson. By pushing her abilities to the limit, the Invisible Woman protected her family and teammates from all three Celestials, even impaling one of their arms with a force field construct.

POWER COMBINATIONS WITH THE HUMAN TORCH

The Fantastic Four have years of experience working together, especially Sue and her brother, Johnny Storm. Together, the Invisible Woman and Human Torch have learned to combine their abilities in unique ways to protect the planet – and each other.

One such occasion arose when Sue and Johnny used their “Maneuver Phoenix” to get inside Technarx’s armor in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #28 by Chris Claremont and Salvador Larroca. By trapping one of Johnny’s flames and condensing it, Sue created a plasma spike that produced an electromagnetic pulse and shorted out the mechanical villain.

On a much larger scale, Sue and Johnny combined their powers to save the Earth from a cluster of invisible asteroids in FANTASTIC FOUR (2022) #18 by Ryan North and Carlos Gomez. By filtering the light from the Human Torch's flame through an invisible combustion chamber, Sue created a powerful laser, which the Thing and Mister Fantastic used to blast the asteroids out of the sky.

UNDER ENEMY SKIN

The Invisible Woman’s has precise control over her abilities, allowing her to operate at a vast scale. However, some of her most powerful moves let her get under her enemies’ skin – literally. While fighting the Wizard, Sue threatened to give the villainous genius a heart attack by blocking his coronary arteries with a force field in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #549 by Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier.

When a brainwashed Wolverine attacked the Fantastic Four, the Invisible Woman showed the X-Man how destructive her powers could be. Sue stopped Logan in his tracks by placing two small force fields in his lungs, virtually cutting off his oxygen. She also turned his optic nerve invisible, which temporarily blinded him.

MAKING THINGS INVISIBLE

One of the core elements of Sue’s power is her ability to turn things invisible. At her strongest, Sue briefly made an entire planet invisible in ANNIHILATION – SCOURGE OMEGA (2019) #1 by Matthew Rosenberg and Manuel Garcia. However, even by creatively using them on a smaller scale, Sue’s powers have proven particularly effective. For instance, when the vain Doctor Doom imprisoned her, she revealed the Latverian monarch’s scars by making his mask and armor disappear during a national broadcast in FANTASTIC FOUR (2018) #4.

During her time as an occasional secret agent for S.H.I.E.L.D., the Invisible Woman used her invisibility powers extensively in her espionage work. While on a plane with a hidden bomb, she turned various parts of the aircraft invisible to help her fellow passengers find the explosive in INVISIBLE WOMAN (2019) #5 by Mark Waid and Mattia De Iulis.

INVISIBLE WEAPONS

In addition to making herself invisible, Sue Storm can make everything she touches disappear. She used this ability to sneak weapons into battle on numerous occasions, such as when she snuck past the Silver Surfer’s cosmic senses with an invisible firearm.

After training with Iron Fist (Danny Rand), Sue gave herself invisible armor that extended her reach and made her punches hit particularly hard in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #6 by Chris Claremont and Salvador Larroca. During a battle with an alien army called the Reckoning, Sue grabbed an alien sword, made it invisible, and used it in a surprise attack on Wrath, the Reckoning's leader, in FANTASTIC FOUR (2018) #44.

REFLECTING TELEPATHY

The Invisible Woman’s force fields are also particularly effective against telepathy, even when faced with some of the strongest minds in the Marvel Universe. When the X-Men's Jean Grey sent out a psychic wave, Sue shielded herself with a force field that completely neutralized the Omega-level mutant's attack in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #286 by John Byrne, Chris Claremont, and Butch Guice. By enveloping Jean in a force field, Sue effectively neutralized the X-Man’s powers. Sue later discovered her powers worked similarly against Psi-Lord, an alternate future version of her powerful son, Franklin.

When the alien Xargorr mind-wiped humans and turned them into his followers in FANTASTIC FOUR (2022) #8 by Ryan North and Ivan Florelli, Sue was shielded from the attack due to the constant low-level force field she maintains around herself. She defeated Xargorr by creating an invisible parabolic dish that reflected the psychic attacks back to the alien.

ALTERING HER APPEARANCE

In addition to making herself completely transparent, the Invisible Woman can alter the appearance of specific body parts. With great concentration, she managed to change her hair color by manipulating how much light reflected off it in INVISIBLE WOMAN (2019) #3.

The Invisible Woman also used these abilities together to lure the telepathic Xargorr into a trap. After the alien made the Human Torch burn her, Sue turned her hair invisible to make it seem burnt off, she bent light to make her costume look singed, and darkened parts of her skin to simulate burns.

INVISIBILITY RADAR

Beyond making people and things invisible, Sue Storm can also see through others’ invisibility. The Invisible Woman can reveal other invisible beings or objects by manipulating light to make them visible. She can also send out weak force fields like a radar to detect unseen entities, as she did in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #415 by Tom DeFalco and Carlos Pacheco to reveal Onslaught, a powerful psychic foe.

The cosmic rays that empowered the Invisible Woman also changed the way her eyes functioned. Eyes usually detect reflected light as part of the vision process, but Sue’s also detect reflected cosmic rays. This alteration allows her to perceive the invisible constructs she conjures and sense her surroundings without sight, as demonstrated in INVISIBLE WOMAN (2019) #4.

BLOCKING OUT THE SUN

When an adventure in the Dark Dimension brought parasitic bacteria back to Earth, the Fantastic Four realized this strain of microscopic organisms needed light to grow. Since the bacteria spread faster than the heroes could respond, the Invisible Woman blocked out the Sun to contain the outbreak in FANTASTIC FOUR (2022) #6 by Ryan North and Ivan Florelli. To starve the bacteria and save the global food chain, Sue went to space alongside her brother made sunlight invisible for three days.

While this plan was not the Fantastic Four’s most well-received moment, it ultimately worked. The incident also made S.H.I.E.L.D. take note of how powerful the Invisible Woman truly is; she’s a powerhouse hiding in plain sight.

Want more Invisible Woman? Join Marvel Unlimited for instant access to 30,000+ comics on the Marvel Unlimited app or on the web, with digital issues spanning Marvel Comics classics to ongoing series!