As detailed in The Marvel Saga: Official History of The Marvel Universe #16, Susan Storm, and her
younger
brother, Jonathan grew up in the town of Glenville, Long Island, children of a physician named Franklin
Storm and a woman named Mary. The parents left their kids alone one night to travel to a dinner honoring
Dr.
Storm. On the way, a tire blew out but only Mary was injured. Franklin escaped injury and insisted on
operating on his wife. He was unable to save her and she died. After his wife's death, Dr. Franklin
Storm
became a gambler and a drunk, losing his medical practice, which led him to the accidental killing of a
loan
shark. Franklin did not defend himself in court, because he still felt guilty over Mary's death. With
their
father in prison, Susan had to become a mother figure for her younger brother.
While living with her aunt, Susan, at the young age of 17, met her future husband, Reed Richards, a
house
guest who was attending college. When she graduated from high school as the award-winning captain of her
Girls' Varsity Swim Team, she moved to California to attend college, where she pursued an acting career
and
encountered Richards again. They began to become romantically involved with each other.
Reed Richards, working in the field of aerospace engineering, was designing a spacecraft for
interstellar
travel. Everything was going well until the government stopped the funding of his project. Richards,
wanting
to see his project through, decided to make an unscheduled test flight. Originally, it was only going to
be
Reed and his best friend, Ben Grimm, involved, but Susan was instrumental in persuading Reed in letting
her
brother and herself join them on the dangerous space mission. In space, the quartet was exposed to
massive
amounts of cosmic radiation. As a result, they had to abort the mission and return to Earth. After the
crash
landing, they realized that they gained superhuman powers; hers was the ability to become invisible at
will.
Realizing the potential use of their abilities, the four of them became the Fantastic Four, for the
benefit
of mankind. Susan adopted the code name Invisible Girl.
