Who is Malice in Marvel Rivals? Backstory explained

Marvel Rivals‘ first season promises several new exciting additions. This includes The Fantastic Four as playable characters and a recently revealed skin for Susan Storm named Malice. Here’s all you need to know about Malice and her backstory before she arrives in Marvel Rivals.

Malice’s backstory explained

Malice is an alternate skin for Susan Storm, The Invisible Woman, one of the four members of the Fantastic Four. She is the embodiment of the Invisible Woman’s dark side and the manifestation of all her dark thoughts and negativity. The character made her first appearance in Fantastic Four issue 280 and was brought to life by the mad scientist and supervillain Psycho-Man and his Android creation Hate-Monger. The latter, disguised as Susan’s husband Reed Richards or Mr Fantastic, ambushed Susan and altered her mind.

Due to her emotional struggles, particularly regarding her relationship with her husband at the time, and the pressure of living up to the expectations of being a superhero, Susan was easily influenced, and her mind warped, creating Malice in the process. Malice uses an enhanced, darker version of Susan’s usual powers. The persona amplifies her invisibility and force field abilities but makes her more ruthless, cruel, angry, and free of inhibitions.

In her first appearance, Malice took control of the Invisible Woman and attempted to turn against Reed Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four, briefly becoming an enemy. However, Reed Richards found a way to snap Susan back to her senses. In an attempt to permanently rid herself of Malice, Susan merged with her dark persona, but this only made her act more erratic—so much so that she had an instant personality shift and changed her outfit, making her look significantly different from her usual form.

For quite some time, Susan and her Malice persona were at war with each other for control within the Invisible Woman’s mind. But Malice was eventually removed from Susan Storm by Psi-Lord, her teenage son from an alternate dimension. Malice then tormented Psi-Lord for a brief period with mental attacks. However, during a confrontation with the Dark Raider, an evil alternate version of Reed Richards, Psi-Lord and Susan worked together to force the Malice personality into the Raider’s mind. This plan ultimately worked, leading to Raider’s defeat and Malice’s end.

It is presumed that the Malice persona remained within the Raider’s mind. She likely perished when the Invisible Woman threw the Dark Raider into the Distortion Area of the Negative Zone, and the character has not made an appearance since.

In Marvel Rivals, Malice is known as the “Mistress of Hate” and looks similar to her comic book appearance but with a more goth-punk aesthetic. Like Mr Fantastic’s Maker skin, the Malice skin brings out the darkest part of the Invisible Woman to light and lets her indulge in her fury by taking it out on opponents. The skin will launch on Jan. 10, along with the entire The Fantastic Four as playable characters. The Invisible Woman is a Strategist character who can heal teammates and shield them from attacks.