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June 10, 2005
The Actress who should have played Sue Storm
We don’t always see eye to eye on everything here at Photon Torpedoes, but one thing the big three kahunas do agree on: we never would have picked Jessica Alba to be Sue Storm in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Not because of her ancestry, but because of her age; IMDB states that Ms. Alba was born in 1981 and is currently 24 years old. I’ve never thought of Sue Storm as being so young and nubile. In my mind, she was a woman in the 28-35 age range, perhaps because I’ve read the FF for so long. In the comics, Sue has two kids (Franklin and Valeria) and is clearly much older than her brother, Johnny Storm.
The actress we always pictured as playing the heroic and MILFable Sue Storm? None other than Gail O’Grady! She’s the star of the just cancelled American Dreams, check out this picture of Gail as a 60s Mom and compare this to Kirby’s drawing of Sue Storm in the same time period…
The hairstyle and resemblance seems uncanny to me! It does not stop there, as Gail is capable of portraying a woman from an older time period as well as a modern hot mama. Take a look at this picture from an awards show and compare it Wieringo’s depiction of the Invisible Woman…
Cowabunga! Again the hairstyle matches the drawing and her figure is full enough to round out that blue costume. I love it. As Mark Waid once said, Sue should be a hot soccer mom. I could pull out many more pictures of Ms. Grady that bears resemblance to John Buscema and Jim Lee drawings, but I’ll stop here.
Now I don’t want to discount that Jessica Alba doesn’t bear any similarities to Ms. Storm. Going through my archives I did find a modern depiction that she matches…
Ms. Alba is much more like the Invisible Woman that Steve McNiven draws in the “4” series. McNiven’s Sue is wiry, athletic, and younger skewed version—and Alba is more of a match for it. Despite the fact that I always pictured Gail O’Grady, it is unreasonable to think any big studio would prefer her over Alba because of demographics. I will still be eager to see what Alba brings to the role and how her powers are portrayed. For more Sue Storm choices, check out Cousin Dick's poll and vote! Nuff said.
Comments
Wow! You hit the mark with that pick. I was thinking just the other day about which actors would look more like the characters. Gail is one of my favorite actresses anyway, and she'd be great as Sue Storm. Jessica is hot in her way, but Gail is gorgeous too and a much better match to me. Of course, my frame of reference stops around the late 80's.....
Posted by: GCA | June 10, 2005 11:45 AM
I could agree with you more that O'Grady would have been a better choice to portray Sue Storm. Actually when I saw the series American Dreams, I couldn't help but to take notice how much she looks like her. But, you know these hollywood types. They are always looking to bring in the teen market, so Alba would help. My God, they even gave the girl blue contact lens. Like there aren't enough blonde haired blue eyed actresses in Tinseltown.
Posted by: Ron | July 8, 2005 7:44 AM
