Fantastic Four Introduces Permanent New Superpower For Founding Member

Published Oct 5, 2026, 12:07 PM EDT Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor. The Fantastic Four are Marvel's First Family, the superheroes who inaugurated the modern Marvel era in the early 1960s. They've seemingly seen it all and done it all, but the Four continue to prove that they can still find novel ways to use their familiar powers. In fact, that has been part of the team's extensive staying power. The ability to continually revamp and reimagine their abilities, from discovering new ways for Mr. Fantastic to elongate himself, to unexpected upgrades to the Invisible Woman's force field-generating capabilities. That's what stands out about the team's latest adventure. In The Fantastic Four #17, the team find themselves dealing with collective amnesia, lost in unfamiliar and increasingly hostile terrain. Before they can figure out why they are there, they have to figure out who they are, and what made them forget. The answer involves an incredible new use of Sue Storm's abilities. In a moment of extreme danger, she acted instinctively with her powers to save the Fantastic Four, basically by doing psychic brain surgery on all of them at once. Warning! Spoilers ahead for Fantastic Four #17! The Invisible Woman's Precision Use Of Her Powers Reaches A New Apex The Fantastic Four #17, By Ryan North & Vincenzo Carratù When The Fantastic Four #17 opens up, the Four don't know their identities, but right away they start to form some theories. The matching uniforms are a clue that they are a team. Which suggests they're on some kind of mission. Obviously, one of them is made of rock, and soon the rest start to discover they have equally wild powers: igniting into a kind of human torch, elongating to fantastic proportions, and turning invisible, thanks to the ability to conjure powerful force fields. As the issue progresses, the hypothesis gets fleshed out. The team figure out that their current location has deadly defense mechanisms, which cause the Four to become dangers to themselves and each other. "Perhaps with my last bit of sanity, or...just some sort of survival instinct," Sue Storm pieces together, "I protect us all by shielding part of our brains." In other words, the Invisible Woman used tiny force fields to partition the brains of herself and the rest of the Four. And she did this in an instant, without even thinking about it. She acted instinctively, but also with a superhuman degree of precision that has few equals in Marvel's power rankings. Sue Storm being one of Marvel's most powerful characters isn't news, but this particular demonstration of her power set is. The Only Thing Stopping Sue Storm From Being Marvel's Most Powerful Hero Is Herself The Fantastic Four #17 is part of the "DNX" crossover event between the Four and the X-Men. Still, it operates largely as a standalone issue, with the major connection to the larger storyline becoming clear only on the final page. That cliffhanger is worth preserving, because it also answers the "where" question looming over the issue, as well as pointing toward the "why" of it all, which will presumably be fully explained in an upcoming issue. The key takeaway from Fantastic Four #17, in isolation, is how effectively the Four function as a team even when they have to piece together the fact that they are a team, and everything else about themselves on the fly. The Invisible Woman takes the temporary name "Ophelia" in the issue, but other than not knowing what to call herself, she has a vital intuitive sense of who she is and what she can do. In fact, she might even be more powerful in this state. There's precedent for that. At times, Sue Storm has been shown to subconsciously limit her own power level. "Ophelia" doesn't have that problem. The big question now is what else can the Invisible Woman do to showcase her incredible abilities now, and more urgently, is she going to be able to undo her improv brain surgery as easily as she pulled it off, restoring The Fantastic Four back to themselves. What do you think of Invisible Woman's latest feat? Tell us in the comments! Fantastic Four #17 is available now from Marvel Comics. TV Show(s) The Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes Video Game(s) Fantastic Four (1997), Fantastic Four (2005) First Film The Fantastic Four First TV Show The Fantastic Four Cast Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby