Alicia Masters...A Mutant or Mutated Human?

 Alicia Masters, the blind significant other of the Thing, predates Daredevil as a blind person who seems to have superhuman senses.  

Alicia first appeared in Fantastic Four 8, in which her keen senses were demonstrated. She was able to sense Sue's heartbeat.  Now that's super hearing! Or is it more? In the 1994 cartoon adaptation, she's able to sense that Sue is a woman.

Fantastic Four 8. Alicia looked a lot like Crystal in her first few issues.

Alicia also seems to possess some kind of empathy power in being able to sense "goodness" or the aura of people. She couldn't sense the evil in her stepfather, apparently at first. 

Fantastic Four 8. Alicia is disguised as Sue Storm. Her resemblance to Sue was never touched upon again.

Fantastic Four 10. Sue knocks out Reed trapped in Dr. Doom's body.

Fantastic Four 14

Alicia has sense of touch is keen, allowing her to sculpt figures and even find a hidden compartment in the Puppet Master's cell.

Fantastic Four 10. Again her "Crystal" phase. 

Fantastic Four 66

Fantastic Four 66

Fantastic Four 170. 

Now is it from simply living a life being blind that sharpened Alicia's remaining senses? Perhaps so. I can't think of issue where her sense of taste and smell were ever demonstrated. However, being able to hear/sense a heartbeat and her sense of touch in being able to find a hidden compartment in a jail cell, coupled with her ability to sense the presence of the Puppet Master makes me think that Alicia is far more ordinary than she lets on. In fact, sensing a presence or being able to sense people "goodness" is not really connected to the five senses at all.

What is her origin? Well, quite similar to Matt Murdock's. She was hit in the eyes with a radioactive substance. 

Marvel Team Up 6

My theory is that perhaps she didn't hear Sue's heartbeat because she specifically said "sense." And the way she can sense other people's auras makes me think that Alicia is a telepath, but doesn't fully comprehend or lets on less than she knows. The radioactive clay could be responsible for her telepathy. After all, her stepfather had a psychic connection to the clay and they're not related.  She could be mutant whose latent mental powers were brought to the surface by the accident. I've noticed in most issues of the Fantastic Four that Alicia does not have much trouble getting around. She has never required a cane. Unconsciously, her telepathy may compensate for her lack of sight, giving her a telepathic "radar" sense, like Daredevil. 

I also wonder if Alicia developed her abilities on her own or if she ever had anyone reach out to her? In Fantastic Four 36, she seems familiar with Charles Xavier, so he may have reached out to her if she was a mutant. However, her stepfather, the Puppet Master, would probably not have allowed her to go to Professor X's school. 

Fantastic Four 36.

I have not been able to find any meetings in the comics between Matt Murdock and Alicia Masters. They both appear in Marvel Two in One 37, but do not exchange any dialogue and only share one scene at the end. However, out of canon, there does seem to be a connection between Alicia and Matt in the 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon. After the Fantastic Four lose their powers, Alicia, for some reason, takes Ben to meet Matt Murdock. She mentions how Matt has always been there for her, making me wonder if they have some history. At the very least, they probably appear at benefits for the visually impaired since they are most high profile blind people in New York City. I wonder if Matt could sense that Alicia had heightened senses as well? 

Fantastic Four Season 2. Episode 1, "And a Blind Man Shall Lead Them." Alicia Masters and Matt Murdock. The two most famous red headed blind people in New York City.

Now, Alicia may just be a capable normal human and I don't want to take away with how capable many blind people are in real life, but when there's aura sensing and radioactive clay in the mix, then I think there's a conversation to be had.