Sue Dibny

Susan Dibny (née Dearbon) is a fictional character from DC Comics associated with the Elongated Man. Created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, the character first appeared in ''Flash'' vol. 1 #119 (March 1961). In 2004, Sue Dibny became a flashpoint for discussions of women in comics following the events of ''Identity Crisis'', in which she is murdered by Jean Loring and revealed to have been raped by Doctor Light in the past.

While her Post-Crisis iteration remained dead, a new living iteration of Sue was introduced into DC’s Earth-Prime continuity, DC’s new main continuity after the Flashpoint event and New 52 reboot, and is still alive as of 2025. As with her past primary iterations, The Earth Prime version of Sue is married to the Earth Prime version of Ralph Dibny (like Post Crisis Sue, Post-Crisis Ralph Dibny had also died but had a new living iteration introduced in the Earth-Prime continuity).

Sue Dearbon appeared in the Arrowverse television series ''The Flash'', portrayed by Natalie Dreyfuss.

Fictional character biography

Sue Dibny is a socialite from Westchester County, New York who is married to Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man. She has at times worked for the Justice League as an administrator. Ralph and Sue share a loving relationship. They met when Ralph crashed her debutante ball, using the pretense of jewel thieves to catch a glimpse of Sue. What followed was a whirlwind romance. Sue and Ralph married a short time later with Barry Allen serving as the best man. What followed was a life of adventures and super-heroics, as Sue stuck by Ralph's side as he traveled around the globe as part of the Justice League. This led to the various dangers associated with the lifestyle, including her near-death at the tentacles of an alien parasite and being kidnapped by Sonar to become his consort. Through it all, Sue and Ralph stuck together, even when the going got tough, eventually settling in Opal City.

Super Buddies

Sue is a member of the Super Buddies team made up of former members of the Justice League. As she has no superpowers, she spends most of the time at the Super Buddies headquarters arguing with team founder Maxwell Lord.

Death

In ''Identity Crisis'', Sue is killed by Jean Loring. It is also revealed that Doctor Light previously raped Sue, leading Zatanna to lobotomize him during a failed attempt at rehabilitation.

In later appearances, Sue appears as a ghost and is temporarily resurrected as a Black Lantern during ''Blackest Night''.''Blackest Night'' #0 - 3 (June - September 2009) She is permanently resurrected following ''The New 52'' continuity reboot.

Powers and abilities

While alive, Sue Dibny possessed no superhuman abilities. However, she showed herself to be a quick thinker, a decent detective (though not on her husband's level), and multi-lingual (native English, as well as French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). Her appearances as a ghost have shown her with paranormal abilities, including invisibility, intangibility, and possession.

Other versions

*In the 1997 Tangent Comics one-shot ''The Flash'', Sue Dearborn appeared as a minor character working as a reporter for All Access interviewing Lia Nelson on her arrival at her film premiere.
*In ''Superman: American Alien'', Sue Dearborn encounters a nineteen-year-old Clark Kent while with Oliver Queen, mistakenly believing that he is Bruce Wayne. She introduces him to Vic Zsasz and his unnamed wife.

In other media

Sue Dearbon appears in ''The Flash'', portrayed by Natalie Dreyfuss. She is initially alluded to in the fifth season finale before Ralph Dibny works to find her in the sixth season. He eventually finds her in Central City, wherein she manipulates him into helping her seek revenge on the crime syndicate Black Hole for extorting her parents. Upon realizing this, Dibny convinces Dearbon to give up her vendetta, only for the latter to be framed by Eva McCulloch for the death of Black Hole's leader, Joseph Carver. In the seventh season, Dearbon and Dibny succeed in clearing her name before leaving to dismantle other Black Hole cells, though Dearbon would later return to help the Flash and his allies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dibny, Sue
Characters created by Carmine Infantino
Characters created by John Broome
Comics characters introduced in 1961
DC Comics female characters
Fictional characters from New York (state)
Fictional characters who can turn intangible
Fictional characters who can turn invisible
Fictional characters with body or mind control abilities
Fictional ghosts
Fictional socialites
Fictional victims of sexual assault