Could We See Sue Storm's Evil Alter Ego In The MCU?

While reviews for the MCU debut of Marvel's first family Fantastic Four: First Steps, have been somewhat mixed, however, the film's depiction of Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, as played by Vanessa Kirby, has earned near-universal praise. Aside from Kirby's scene stealing performance as the character, long time Marvel fans have lauded First Steps for it's improved use of Sue's powerset compared to previous adaptations, giving her her due as perhaps the most powerful member of the team, and the public face of the Four as head of the Future Foundation.

With the Fantastic Four already set to return to the big screen in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, along with a First Steps sequel reportedly in development, the cinematic future of Marvel's first family has never been more solid. Therefore, some fans have begun wondering if future films may tackle previously unexplored aspects of the characters, such as, possibly, Sue Storm's Dark Side, known as Malice.

Who is Malice?

Malice is, essentially, an evil version of Sue Storm. The character first appeared in a 1985 issue of Fantastic Four, when the team are battling a villain known as Psycho-Man, and his android, the Hate-Monger. The Hate-Monger, which enhances negative feelings in its opponents, targets Sue, leading her to manifest the Malice personality and turn on her family.

For a while, the Malice persona dwells in Sue's subconscious, emerging a few times over the years to cause trouble for the Fantastic Four. Eventually, Malice is excised from Sue's mind by Psi-Lord, an alternate timeline future persona of her young son, Franklin Richards. Franklin transplants Malice into the mind of another villain, Dark Raider, and is supposedly destroyed during Dark Raider's subsequent defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four.

Controversy

While the arc in which Malice initially appeared is considered an iconic one, the character has become a controversial figure in recent years, mostly due to the manner of her initial defeat. Reed belittles and insults Sue, dismissing Malice as a 'feminine' outburst, culminating in him literally slapping sense into her in the hope that Sue's original personality will reclaim control. The scene plays out in a similar fashion in the 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon, minus the slap.

While it is made clear in the immediate aftermath that Reed did not believe any of the cruel things he said to Sue, the idea of a supposed superhero verbally and physically abusing the woman he loves in the guise of 'saving' her has not aged well.

For this reason, some fans frowned upon the inclusion of Malice as an alternate outfit for Sue Storm upon her recent launch as a playable character in Marvel: Rivals.

The controversy has led to the idea that Malice is unlikely to be included in the MCU. However, as the problem is not Malice herself, but how Reed deals with her, there is no real reason that Malice could not potentially appear.

How Malice could play a role in the MCU

In the comics, Malice is born via Sue's existing negative feelings being enhanced by the Hate-Monger. MCU Sue, while mostly the picture of calm and poise in the face of trouble, appears to succumb to anger and fear on at least two occasions in Fantastic Four: First Steps. First when she orders her brother, Johnny, to kill the Silver Surfer, and again when Reed comes to the unfortunate conclusion that they will need to use Franklin as bait for Galactus.

Both of these scenarios involve Sue's son being in danger. If some unfortunate fate were to befall Franklin in the future, it is probably not that unusual to believe that Sue's anger could lead to a Malice-like version of her emerging.

Alternatively, considering the fact that we are still in the Multiverse Saga, we could see an alternate timeline Sue become Malice.

This would fit with a growing fan theory that the Sue of Earth-838 (where a significant chunk of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness takes place) will appear at some point seeking revenge on the 616 Scarlet Witch for the murder of 838's Reed Richards.

Whatever eventuates, we're sure to have some interesting times ahead as the Fantastic Four's MCU journey continues.