WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Annihilation: Scourge - Fantastic Four #1 by Christos Gage, Diego Olortegui, Juan Vlasco, Cam Smith, Scott Hanna, Erick Arciniega and VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.
In Annihilation: Scourge, the undying forces of the Cancerverse have launched an assault on the rest of the Marvel Universe. In a twist that recalls classic crossovers like the original Infinity War, the assault is being led by dark, twisted versions of some of Marvel's brightest heroes.
In Annihilation: Scourge - Fantastic Four #1, the Fantastic Four come face-to-face with their worst nightmare, a twisted version of themselves that call to mind one of their most infamous foes.
After venturing into the Negative Zone to address the threat that the encroaching Cancerverse poses, the Fantastic Four fight against the dark reflections of themselves who are psychotically obsessed with their own inability to die. While the entire team faces off against their warped reflections, Sue's counterpart bears a striking resemblance to Malice, and she wields her powers in a no less frightening way.
Not to be confused with the psionic X-Men villain of the same name, Malice is the dark side of the Invisible Woman. After exposure to Negative Zone radiation left her in a fragile state, the Psycho-Man instilled the dark Malice persona deep in her psyche.
In her fully revealed form, Malice wore revealing leather costumes and used her powers in deadly ways that Sue never imagined, including dozens of invisible knives and tendrils at once, and this Cancerverse version of the character acts similarly here. During the original Infinity War, the dormant Malice persona pushed her to become more aggressive in battle and wield her powers in the chillingly deadly manner she had before. It was only the psychic intervention of her own son, Franklin Richards, that saved Sue a second time and the evil counterpart has not reared her leather-clad head ever since.
When the Cancerverse counterparts turn on one another, mad with jealousy after seeing the happy memories of their Marvel Universe counterparts, the evil Sue cuts her ties with the evil Reed quite literally. She creates a forcefield in the middle of one of his arms, severing it completely with very little effort. It is only with the quick thinking of the good Fantastic Four's powers they are able to beat their dark reflections. Driven by similar motives, the Negative Human Torch then went supernova, seemingly burning his remaining teammates to a crisp.
While the main focus of the issue was Sue's brother Johnny and his own struggle to come to terms with his experiences with death and his growth, but this could have an unseen impact on Sue's own psychology. After all, Malice survived in her subconscious once before and seeing such a deranged alternate version of herself could remind Sue of what once was.