Rumors Start of Sue's Interest In Latex

SUE STORM: FIRST LADY OF LATEX

The Invisible Woman sighed. She had more than half expected this. It was the reason that Reed had set up parental controls to censor internet and television signals into the Baxter Building, so the kids wouldn't be exposed to any wardrobe malfunctions or pervy fetish websites. No, Sue kept those feeds private, just for the adults in the building. Which is why she saw every headline, every photo.

Six days after her new costume had debuted, and Sue and the rest of the Fantastic Four had gone into action four times. Minor stuff. A migration of Moloids through New York's subways. The Mad Thinker distilling mutant growth hormone from the Hellfire Club's wastewater. An attempt by the U-Men to breach the Baxter Building, still not sure what they were after. A runaway Inhuman with spider-like powers that attempted to seduce Spider-Man.

The paparazzi had a field day. Cameras out and flashing. Catching the way the unstable molecule latex moulded her body. It wasn't as if Sue's old costumes had left much to the imagination, but this had triggered something deep in the journalistic imagination. BDSM boards were screaming. Latex costume manufacturers had faked designs up for sale almost immediately.

Sue found herself troubled. Not from the paparazzi or the fetish-types, but the fact that—she liked it. Not the attention, but the latex. The way it clung to her, hugged her, was different than her old uniform. The mask on her face was strangely empowering. It wasn't as though she was hiding her identity, but it felt like she was becoming someone else.

Which worried her. Because the feeling was familiar.

"Malice?" Dr. Stone asked. "Who is Malice?"

"I—I had a problem, for a while. An alternate personality. Maybe a psychic parasite, I don't know. But sometimes she would come out, she would take control. All my power, but no filter. She was—I don't want to say evil, but primal. There was no inhibition, no care for my children or family, no desire to do good or make the world a better place. And she—the way she dressed—it wasn't like me. It included—"

"—latex," Dr. Stone finished. "What happened to her?"

"Psychic surgery. She was—expelled from my psyche. Years ago. I thought she was gone forever," Sue said with a sigh.

Dr. Stone took a deep breath.

"Psychology and superhumans are very complicated," she said. "You have to understand, psychology doesn't stand still, and it isn't like physics where we can do physical experiments. There are psychics, mystics, who use their abilities to access mind and spirit, and sometimes they use the language of psychology and psychiatry because that's how we understand the world. But that understanding changes. Freud's dream interpretations, ****'s archetypes—those were earlier frameworks to try and understand the mind. But they're outmoded. Inaccurate. Too much doesn't fit. Things like multiple identity disorder, that used to be a real diagnosis, but nowadays we call it dissociative identity disorder. It's...different."

Sue Storm felt the tension in her body. Like a spring inside of her was being wound tighter and tighter.

"What we used to think were separate identities are parts of ourselves. Parts we don't like to face, aspects of our selves that we refuse to acknowledge and take refuge in. While you may think you've expelled this Malice, the truth is that you either haven't addressed and treated the underlying causes of your dissociative identity disorder, or that the essential elements of what made Malice are still there, still a part of you."

The Invisible Woman shook. A spark of genuine fear that upset her more than she could stand.

"What...what do I do?" she whispered.

"Form positive associations. Healthy ways to deal with inhibitions. Don't run away from latex just because you're scared of Malice, Susan. Embrace it!" Dr. Stone declared.