Invisible Woman (Marvel Rivals)

The original Invisible Woman character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961, introduced as the female co-protagonist of the Fantastic Four comic.^[1] Created for Marvel Comics, it revolved around a superhero team of the same name, consisting of Sue Storm-Richards, her husband Reed Richards, brother Johnny Storm, and friend Ben Grimm.^[3] According to Danny Koo, executive producer at Marvel's licensing branch Marvel Games, they were implemented into the game Marvel Rivals by NetEase Games to help bring awareness of the group as a whole. Describing the group as "characters that had no limelight", he felt in particular that the Invisible Woman was not a recognizable character to the public until her reveal for the game.^[4]

In Rivals, while Invisible Woman is her callsign, the character is typically referred to by her name Susan Storm.^[5] Standing 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) tall,^[6] she is a slender woman with blue eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair parted across her brow. Earrings dangle from her ears, while her outfit consists of a blue and white jumpsuit with a "4" across her left upper chest. White gloves cover her hands while a belt covers her waist, and armor plating protects her shoulders and knees.^[7] Koo stated that Susan's design emphasized how they were able to showcase Marvel characters in the game instantly through body shape and silhouette, so players could instantly recognize them and what their abilities were.^[4]

Twitch streamer Alanya "ARUUU" Alisha falsely claimed on social media website Twitter that she had served as the body model for the character. Stating that she had previously provided body scans for the character Psylocke in the game, she pointed out similarities between her figure and Susan's, particularly in regards to buttocks. She further claimed to have called the development team out of curiosity, and that they had confirmed the use of her body scan data for the model. Despite the lack of an official statement from NetEase, several news sites referenced it as fact, including PC Gamer, Rolling Stone, and Japanese website Inside Games.^[8][9][10] However, Automaton Media later confirmed the claims as false, adding that Alisha was not affiliated with Marvel in any way.^[11]

Like other Rivals characters, Susan received skins, unlockable cosmetic items to change her in-game appearance. When designing these, they wanted to attract "contemporary players", and as a result took careful consideration to innovate and create something they felt would resonate with modern tastes.^[7] In particular, the "Malice" skin took inspiration from a storyline in the mainstream Marvel Comics continuity, in which she develops an evil alter-ego for a time. The outfit gives her red eyes, a black and red color scheme, various spikes, and straps dangling from her body.^[12] Meanwhile, her swimsuit skin references a connected storyline in the comics, featuring a one-piece sleeved swimsuit with various cutouts across it, particularly across the chest to help make the "4" shape.^[13]

This version of the Invisible Woman, Susan Storm, first appeared in a January 2025 update for the hero shooter Marvel Rivals.^[10] Modified by cosmic rays on a cellular level, she gained the ability to generate force fields and turn herself invisible, adopting the superhero name Invisible Woman.^[7] Voiced by Suzie Yeung.^[2] she uses these abilities to help fight against the vampire Dracula and his undead army.^[7]

In terms of gameplay for Rivals, Susan is classified as a Strategist, a support-based role meant to provide healing and buffs to allies.^[14] Her main weapon, "Orb Projection", sends a projectile that flies outward before returning back to her, and can pierce through multiple targets as it travels, healing allies and dealing damage to enemies. Meanwhile, she has a passive ability that allows her to go invisible while not in combat for a period of time, giving her health regeneration as well. She can also utilize a mobility technique called "Veiled Step", which allows her to jump twice in the air and turns her invisible for a short period of time.^[15]

Susan also has several abilities that can be activated at will. "Agile Strike" is a melee attack that deals consecutive strikes while pushing enemies back at the end. Meanwhile, "Force Physics" will either push or pull enemies in a fixed line in front of Susan, depending on the player's choice. "Psionic Vortex" creates a temporary singularity at a fixed point that will pull enemies towards it, damaging them while in its proximity. "Guardian Shield" can create a force field in front of an ally that absorbs damage until it breaks, and heals allies within it. While active, the shield can also be moved around, but has a cooldown period when it breaks or is manually withdrawn before it can be used again. Lastly her Ultimate ability, "Invisible Boundary", needs to be charged before use. The ability charges slowly during the course of gameplay, and once full the ability can be activated to create a cylindrical area of effect zone that temporarily provides healing and will make allies inside of it invisible to any enemies outside.^[15]

Since her debut, the character has been used in advertisements for the game on social media websites such as Reddit and Tiktok.^[16][17] In a cross-promotion for the Marvel Studios produced film Fantastic Four: First Steps, the cast of the film was invited to play their counterparts in Marvel Rivals, with actress Vanessa Kirby playing as Susan and joking about the in-game appearance.^[18] In September 2025, the mainstream Fantastic Four comic book used the Malice skin's design for the look of a evil alternate universe version calling herself The Invincible Woman. The design was featured as an alternate cover art for several issues of the comic as well, with the sixth issue featuring a code to redeem an in-game cosmetic item.^[19][20]

The advertising campaigns for the game drew some controversy, with Olivia Richman writing for The Escapist stating that advertisements featuring female characters like Susan often relied heavily on their sexuality. She added this made the game feel desperate for player attention by comparison, further emphasized by the game's predominantly male player community.^[16] Meanwhile, one ad in particular on TikTok featured Susan in the Malice skin, with the caption suggesting that players 'abuse' her. This was interpreted as encouraging sexual violence by the Ad Standards Community Panel in Australia who saw it as a breach of advertising ethics, while fans questioned if it was making light of domestic abuse.^[17]

Tessa Kaur in an article for TheGamer commented on the ad, noting that while the use of 'abuse' in that context was meant for players to utilize a character some would see as overpowered upon introduction, the oversexualization of the outfit and her pose in the ad coupled with the implication of the wording was inappropriate for the platform. She felt the use of the Malice skin was an issue all its own, as in the comics it originated from the character suffering a miscarriage. While she understood that sex sells, she felt the larger problem lay more in how the game treated its female characters overall.^[21]

The character's debut in Rivals was well received, considered a breakout star by GamesRadar+ writer Dustin Bailey.^[4] Search results related to the character on Google rose by 3000% after the trailer's reveal.^[23] PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon and Elie Gould acknowledged that while some of those searches were possibly people looking into the character's comic book history, they attributed some of the public response to the Malice skin which they described as having "sent the playerbase into a bit of a frenzy when it first came out, for obvious reasons". They additionally felt while NetEase would not state so directly, the company was likely intending such a response due to how detailed their character models were.^[24]

Miguel Varela of MeriStation observed fans praised her sex appeal, with some appreciating how faithful her design was to the original comics while others felt she looked stylish in a futuristic outfit.^[25] The staff of Inside Games shared this observation, stating that much of the player response focused on the character's backside, particularly due to her skin tight suit emphasized her figure, and resulted in a large amount of fan art on Twitter. They additionally noted the positive response to the Malice skin, calling it "racy" and that the "darkness in this work has a very sexy design".^[10]

While Yahoo Games editor "MrSun" in an article for their Taiwanese branch observed similar reactions, he cited that some were also surprised that this was the official character model and not a user-created modification. Praising NetEase's "exquisite and delicate character design", he felt the character's figure reflected her appearance in the comics. He also praised the implementation of the Malice skin, describing it as recreating the high-slit outfit design of the original and working well with Rivals' in-game presentation. He further noted fans expressing their belief that the Chinese-developed character design was not something European and American designers could readily match.^[26]

In addition to fan art and cosplay,^[27] the character has also been a frequent subject of third party pornography. Alyssa Mercante in an article for Rolling Stone attributed some of this content to how NetEase appeared to lean into the innate sexiness of its characters, citing in particular streamer ARUUUU's claims, but also stressing the impact of the Malice skin, which she described as a "one-piece, high-cut bikini that reveals her butt cheeks". While Mercante acknowledged some of the problematic aspects of its depictions within the comics, she felt the development team's use of the outfit helped represent a "level of tongue-in-cheek sexuality and playfulness for Rivals that is unparalleled in other contemporary online games" in how they embraced these sexualized depictions.^[9]