Fantastic Four's Invisible Woman Once Became One Of Marvel's Biggest Villains

Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman, is about to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Played by Vanessa Kirby, Sue will appear with the rest of her family in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." After that, the Four are expected to return in the next "Avengers" duology, "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars," squaring off with their long-time nemesis Doctor Victor Von Doom, as played by Robert Downey Jr.

Once, the villain of "Secret Wars" was to have been time-traveling Kang the Conqueror — until Kang actor Jonathan Majors was convicted of assault and harassment, and then fired. What if I told you that, in one universe, Kang is just a mask worn by Sue Storm? Nope, I'm not kidding.

This happened in Marvel's original "Ultimate" universe. ("Earth-1610," not to be confused with the new "Ultimate" world Earth-6160.) In this universe, it was Kang, not Thanos, who attempted to gather up the Infinity Gems, and she wanted to "save" the universe, not kill half of it.

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After we just spent three MCU phases on an Infinity Gem hunt, I highly doubt Marvel Studios would rehash those MacGuffins. If they're going to bring back Kang, I don't expect they'll ask Miss Kirby to play double duty the way that the former Tony Stark is doing as Doom. But how did the Invisible Woman and Kang become one in this relatively obscure Marvel story?

Let's take a step back, though. To understand how Sue Storm became Kang, you have to understand how Reed Richards fell to the dark side first. These days, Earth-1610 Reed Richards is one of Marvel Comics' greatest villains: the Maker.

"Ultimate Fantastic Four" ran 60 issues, from 2004 to 2009. Unlike the other three major titles at the time ("Ultimate Spider-Man," "Ultimate X-Men" and "The Ultimates"), it didn't relaunch or continue after the world-shattering crossover "Ultimatum." Instead, the Four broke up and Sue dumped Reed.

In the 2010 "Ultimate Comics: Doomsday" mini-series by Brian Michael Bendis and Rafa Sandoval, Reed snaps. He fakes his own death and, from a base in the Negative Zone, begins staging terrorist attacks. "Doomsday" ends with Reed defeated by his former teammates and trapped in the Negative Zone, but he wouldn't stay gone for long.

Jonathan Hickman, writing mini-series "Ultimate Fallout," depicted Reed returning to Earth and beginning his crusade anew. He founded the Children of Tomorrow, an evil version of mainstream Reed Richards' Future Foundation, and became the main villain of Hickman and Esad Ribic's "Ultimate Comics: Ultimates." While Hickman didn't begin Reed's arc, he's the one who created "the Maker" as fans know him today. Ribic's Maker costume became Reed's new go-to look, too.

It's now been 15-ish years and Reed has stayed evil, a truly remarkable feat in superhero comics. Reed as the Maker is the status quo now, not a subversion of it. He's a truly terrifying villain, as well, with Reed's usual proud stick-in-the-mud know-it-all attitude combined with a vicious sadism. Utterly unfettered, the Maker doesn't just callously do evil for the greater good, no, he relishes in hurting others and takes his time as he does it. He's not trying to build a utopia where he's solved every problem mankind faces, but just a world where he can control everything. That Reed could've been, and was, a good-hearted hero only makes his current self more unsettling.

Hickman had previously written "Fantastic Four" — his first story featured Reed meeting several variants of himself, "the Council of Reeds." Reed's, and the story's, conclusion is that he needs his family to ground him. So, I get why Hickman liked the idea of a Reed who severed all his emotional ties and decided to change the world by becoming a monster.

The final arc of "Ultimate Comics: Ultimates" is "Ultimates Disassembled," running issues #25-30 (written by Joshua Hale Fialkov, art by Carmine Di Giandomenico). Kang's identity is initially a mystery, only being revealed on the last page of #29. She comes from a future where the world was destroyed and is trying to stop that future by restarting the universe with the Infinity Gems. #30 even suggests Kang is the one who first inspired Reed to become the Maker.

Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Kang gathers a team of fellow fallen heroes — the Maker, Quicksilver, and the Hulk — and leads them as the Dark Ultimates. They seize most of the Gems, and soon the world itself. The comic gives a new origin for the Infinity Gems; rather than ancient cosmic keystones created together, they are "scar tissue," successively generated after disasters on Earth. Tony Stark's brain tumor, introduced all the way back in Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's original "The Ultimates," is retconned to be an Infinity Gem that was growing in his head.

The Gems can still alter reality, though, which is why Kang wants them. Reed's actions as the Maker generated some of the eight Gems they needed, in fact. However, the Dark Ultimates fail and Kang decides to go further back in time to rewrite history. The destruction she foresaw, which turns out to be Galactus, soon arrives in "Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand." The "Ultimate" universe ended in 2015 without Kang ever returning, and it currently appears unlikely that she will.

So, how did Kang — one of the Avengers' great nemeses — only debut 13 years into the "Ultimate" Universe, and be so radically altered? "Ultimate Marvel" was meant to update the classic stories to be cool for kids of the 1990s. Kang, for his garish costume alone, would've been too silly for the original "Ultimates." 

Combining Sue and Kang isn't as random a match-up as it might appear, either. Kang's identity, teed up as a mystery, had to be a future version of one of the good guys because it fit into the pattern of the Dark Ultimates as former heroes. Kang being Sue means it also makes sense why she chooses to work with Reed. The original Kang also technically debuted in "Fantastic Four" #19 as time-traveling pharaoh Rama-Tut (only established as a Kang variant later). Moreover, Kang is often depicted as a distant relative of Reed; the Conqueror's true name is Nathaniel Richards.

Sue-Kang didn't endure as a villain like the Maker did, but they both emerged from "Ultimate Marvel" letting creators take new approaches to old characters.