You may remember her from: Much more familiar on the small screen than the big one, Mara is less well known than little sister and erstwhile Lisbeth Salander Rooney, but is establishing herself as an in demand actress in her own right. After recurring roles in the likes of 24 and Entourage, Mara earned herself a breakthrough role in the disappointingly preposterous Murder House series of American Horror Story, playing an emotionally unstable ghost. This lead to the part for which she is most likely to be known: House of Cards. This Netflix made American re-imagining of the 90s post-Thatcher political drama has won rave reviews and established Netflix as a TV production company with the clout to develop a number of their own Marvel superhero properties including Daredevil and the Defenders. As Zoe Barnes, a young reporter starting an affair with Kevin Spacey's Frank Underwood for the advancement of both their careers, Mara picked up positive notices for a nuanced performance as a character with complex interests and motivations. Her only previous experience of a project of this magnitude is a tiny supporting role in Iron Man 2, the weakest of Marvel Studio's own superhero adaptations. However, this year sees her in a much more significant role in the Christopher Nolan produced artificial intelligence action thriller Transcendence, which should give a sense of how Mara will perform in a much bigger scale actioner. Is she a good fit? Given the level of institutional sexism in traditional comic storytelling, it shouldn't really come as a surprise that the team of four features just one woman, Sue Storm, who is therefore often defined by her role in the team as "the girl". Because of this, Sue has often been defined by her relationships with the male characters in the group, as Reed's love interest and later wife or as Johnny's brother. Early narratives featured her largely as a damsel in distress, something linked to the passivity of her invisibility powers. However, over the years the character has become more developed, as have her powers that also involve the ability to manipulate force fields a la The Incredibles' Violet (obviously quite influenced by the Fantastic Four character). The more recent Sue is stronger, more assertive and often takes the lead amongst the rest of the team and this is the version in the Ultimates universe where she is the 18 year old daughter of mentor figure Professor Storm and a talented biochemist who is more likely to lead the group than Reed is. Jessica Alba was badly miscast as an underwritten Sue in the original movies, having very little to do but bring a "sensitive, feminine touch" to the team and looking just a little odd in her blonde wig and blue contacts. Mara has the potential to convince as a more real, bright and tough Sue Storm, although the 30 year old actress playing 18 might be a bit of a push. Her pale appearance is more fitting for her comic source, but does mean she doesn't much resemble the film version of brother Johnny...
