Who is Malice? What You Need to Know About Sue Storm’s Dark Side

Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, is one of the most enduring and important characters in the Marvel Universe. Not only is she a founding member of the Fantastic Four, the original superhero team, but she is Marvel’s first ever female superhero. Sue has been through a lot over the years, from meeting Marvel’s version of God, to seeing the ends of the cosmos, to battling world-ending threats like Galactus.

With the Fantastic Four comics always being just as much a family drama as they are superhero books, Sue has experienced as much heartache and emotional turmoil as she has cosmic dangers. Through it all, Sue has tried to always be the mother figure of the group, the one people can rely on and trust. She’s done that, but that isn’t to say she’s perfect.



Far from it, in fact. The Invisible Woman has her own share of darkness inside her heart, and that’s something that Vanessa Kirby looks forward to diving into in her portrayal of the character in the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps. Sue is a complex character that’s full of love and hate and all kinds of tangled things.

But the darkness in Sue’s heart isn’t just an esoteric thing, it has manifested in another form called Malice, the Mistress of Hate. Kirby says that she “is obsessed with that chapter of her life. So I wanted to make sure that there were tones of Malice in there with her, that she wasn’t just the stereotype of a goody, sweet mother.

” Who Is Malice?Malice originated way back in Fantastic Four #280, in an encounter with the supervillain Psycho-Man, so far in the past that Sue still went by the Invisible Girl. Psycho-Man inverted the feelings within Sue’s mind, turning all her love to hate and vice versa, then unleashed her on the rest of the Fantastic Four. With nothing holding her back, Sue showed that she was the most powerful of the Four, easily dismantling the then-member She-Hulk, and backing the Human Torch and Mr.

Fantastic into a corner. To bring her back to her senses, Reed realized that he had to appeal to her hate and..

. verbally abused her and slapped her, which snapped her back to her senses. It might be problematic by today’s standards, but the sheer shock of Reed actually hitting her did work.

RELATED: Godzilla Vs. Fantastic Four Turns Two Kaiju Into Heralds of GalactusSue was absolutely livid once she learned what Psycho-Man did to her and for the next several issues was bent on getting revenge. When she confronted him again, he initially captured her and tormented her psyche, until the Four escaped and Sue put him through the same mental torture he did to her.

It was this encounter that inspired Sue to change her hero name to the Invisible Woman, showing how being forced to confront the darkness inside her fundamentally changed how she sees herself, as she can’t deny that it’s there anymore.Malice Has Emerged More Than OnceThis wasn’t just a one-and-done evil-side, however. Malice would continue to appear throughout the years, often with Sue physically fighting her darker side in some manner.

During the original comics’ version of “Infinity War”, Sue mentally battled her Malice alter ego for control of her body. But instead of destroying her, Sue accepted Malice as a part of her, and fully fused them into one being. After, Sue would be a bit more curt and prone to angry outbursts, showing that Malice is a definitive part of who she is.

However, this Malice influence would eventually be removed by Psi-Lord, an alternate reality version of her son Franklin. Malice would be trapped within the mind of the Dark Raider, an evil alternate version of Reed, and hasn’t appeared since.Malice’s existence can be interpreted in a number of ways.

It could be said that Malice, who resembles the sexist evil dominatrix stereotype, is just a byproduct of her writer being John Byrne, who historically enjoyed writing his female characters confronting their darkness by making them turn evil and wear skimpy leather outfits. Jean Grey’s stint as the Black Queen is an example of that. But it’s far more interesting to look at Malice as being a deep-seeded part of Sue, a darkness that she feels but works to keep in check.

As I said, Sue Storm is a very interesting and complex character. She is a woman who battles her darkness, and ultimately chooses to love as deeply as she does. Her pregnancy is supposed to play a major part of the plot of Fantastic Four: First Steps, and while I don’t think we’ll be seeing Malice as she is in the comics, it would definitely be cool to see a new interpretation of the Mistress of Hate on the big screen.

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