The Fantastic Four‘s Susan Storm is one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes, but the Invisible Woman has to pay a dark price to access her full power. Ever since her introduction in 1961, Sue Storm has been continually upgrading and diversifying her powers. Initially only able to make herself invisible, Sue is now the master of the visible spectrum, to the point that she’s proved she could ‘turn off’ the Sun and cause a mass extinction event if she so desired.
However, Sue’s powers come at a cost – summoning invisible shapes takes a toll on her energy levels, and can even cause her to pass out when they’re ambitious enough. Force applied to her shapes also causes Sue pain and even internal injuries – when she pushes herself, it’s common for her to suffer a nosebleed (as she did in Civil War, when protecting her allies from Thor’s lightning.) In Empyre #6 (from Al Ewing, Dan Slott, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia and Joe Caramagna) Sue faces off against a Hulk-level threat, and figures out a way to push herself like never before.
During a fight against She-Hulk – who has been possessed by a Cotati alien – Invisible Woman asks the psychic Mantis to suppress her body’s warning signs. While the toll on her body will remain immense, Sue can’t feel her usual levels of pain and fatigue. With these blocks in place, Invisible Woman summons a burst of invisible spikes that not only pierce She-Hulk’s skin, but hold her in place even as she struggles to free herself. However, Mantis makes it clear that Susan is rapidly approaching fatal feedback.
The Invisible Woman Is Body-Horror Nightmare Fuel as Her Powers Finally Go Haywire
Invisible Woman is perhaps the Fantastic Four’s most powerful hero, able to even hurt Celestials. But what happens when her powers turn against her?
Invisible Woman Can Take a Hulk by Repressing Her Pain Receptors
Susan Storm’s A-List Feats Include Shattering a Celestial’s Armor
Caused by cosmic radiation, the Fantastic Four’s powers are some of the most mysterious in Marvel canon. Indeed, even they don’t know the full truth, which is that they’re connected to a primordial being known as the Four-in-One – one of the original superhumans who established the archetypes of power that define Marvel’s heroes to this day. Sue has been able to do some truly incredible things with her powers, from sending the Avengers flying to imprisoning pretty much every Marvel hero when she wanted to break up their in-fighting over the Incursion events. Sue even managed to shatter the armor of a Celestial with her powers, putting her in the upper echelons of superhuman capability.
However, it turns out that by artificially suppressing her pain receptors, Susan Storm can do the impossible, pinning a Hulk in place for as long as her body holds out. It’s worth noting that at this point in time, She-Hulk was in a new, stronger form, having tapped into her rage and with her gamma powers enhanced by the Celestials. What’s more, the Cotati weren’t holding back, as they had no intention of protecting She-Hulk’s body from injury. The fact that Invisible Woman impaled and held She-Hulk in this state shows that at least for the few minutes until it kills her, Invisible Woman’s full power is capable of outclassing a Hulk.
Unlike her hot-headed brother the Human Torch, Susan Storm feels very little need to prove herself as a superhuman: her focus is on the Fantastic Four‘s mission of discovery and making sure that her family make it home from their excursions. However, when the chips are down, the Invisible Woman is one of Marvel’s most powerful superhumans, with only excruciating physical pain stopping her from matching She-Hulk’s top strength with her constructs.
