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.
[ Identity Crisis #1 (August 2004)] 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.[ Reign in Hell #1 (September 2008)][ Blackest Night #0 - 3 (June - September 2009)][ Blackest Night #8 (May 2010)] She is permanently resurrected following The New 52 continuity reboot.[ Secret Six (vol. 4) #1 (February 2015)]
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 Superman while with Green Arrow, mistakenly believing that he is Batman. She introduces him to Victor 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.
