Chrome Champion



Comic Books and related media seem to love the idea of combining people with stuff Made of Shiny, hence the number of characters not just using Powered Armor but completely encased in a metal skin. It might be an organic metal skin, "liquid metal", or perhaps a super advanced Nano Machine suit of Powered Armor. Whatever the cause, the visual effect is of a transformed human with skin that is metallic, often silver, and polished to a mirror-like shine. If these figures go unclothed -- and they usually do -- Barbie Doll Anatomy will be in play.

These types generally have one of two power sets. They either are Nigh Invulnerable and have Super Strength, or are fairly high up in terms of power, usually being Reality Warpers or in control of some fundamental natural force.

Their Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance usually explains their power. The connotations here are that the character is "as strong and tough as steel", or that they are the cosmic/human equivalent of a Magic Mirror, capable of "reflecting" on the nature of existence and deriving power from it.

Compare Star Spangled Spandex, contrast Tin Tyrant.

Anime

 * Numerous Digimon: MetalEtemon, MetalSeadramon, Magnamon, OmegaShoutmon, ZekeGreymon and Shoutmon DX.
 * Mr. 1 from One Piece ate the "Iron Blade"-Fruit which turned his body into one.
 * becomes one of these at the end of Gundam 00 a Wakening of The Trailblazer.
 * Gajeel from Fairy Tail has this as part of his Iron Dragon Slayer magic.
 * Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist has this ability to convert the carbon in his body into a diamond-hard skin that completely covers his body, but he generally dislikes the look of it and goes with a Partial Transformation.
 * The same ability.

Comic Books

 * Wildstorm - Void and The Engineer. Void is a mysterious alien entity that bonded with a human woman, granting her teleportation and strange intuition. The Engineer is much like Iron Man, but has replaced her blood with Nanomachines which act as a Green Lantern Ring - and extrudes some of it through the pores of her skin as skin-tight armor. Yes, she is essentially running around naked. She's an exhibitionist.
 * DC Comics
 * Captain Atom, Citizen Steel, and the Bulleteer. Captain Atom is of the "cosmic" and "super strong" varieties, being a man with the substance of an extradimensional organism grafted to his flesh. Citizen Steel is super strong and tough, with the twist of having a very limited sense of touch due to his organic steel skin. The Bulleteer is super strong and tough, thanks to an accident involving metallic smartskin.
 * Bombshell of the Teen Titans. Her powers are derived from the same source as Captain Atom.
 * Captain Atom's Evil Counterpart (and also a member of Green Lantern's Rogues Gallery) Major Force.
 * Silver Surfer, Colossus, and ROM from the Marvel Universe. The Silver Surfer is the epitome of the Cosmically powered Chrome Champion. A Zenn-Lavian granted a fraction of the Power Cosmic and coated with a radiation/pressure/cold-resistant metal shell, he's so powerful he's one of the few Flying Bricks who can easily best anyone in the Marvel Universe save for Galactus. (At least a few stories have shown the Surfer's outer coating removed, leaving an ordinary-looking bald guy underneath. It's suggested that he requires said protection to fly through space and survive, but it's never explained why none of the other heralds of Galactus other than Nova seem to require it...)

Colossus is a super strong and tough type, who can retract the metal skin as part of his mutation. As of Colossus' death and resurrection, he is solid steel all the way through, with a corresponding increase in durability (and possibly strength). He was originally metal all the way through, turning into "organic steel." At some point writers began referring to his "armored" form, implying that it was only external. Apparently he's reverted.

Mercury of X Men is of the liquid metal variety... except her hair, which remains red for some reason. She's a Shape Shifter instead of strong.
 * The Film and Ultimate versions of Dr. Doom. The former had the metal "grow" under his skin and get revealed when Johny attacked him with flames, though it's implied he's completely made of metal. The second film has him keep his powers but revert to flesh, and later return to his all metallic exterior when he steals the Silver Surfer's powers. The latter was completely mutated as well, but his internal organs got turned into poison gas. Also, his goat legs didn't get a positive fan reaction.

A rare supernatural version happened to Doom again in Universe X. Dr. Doom was redeemed after he died and helped kill Death (don't think about that too hard). In the wake of that he became one of Captain Marvel's archangels, and along with Iron Man had a completely metallic skin.

Previously on Earth X we have Iron Maiden, who sounds like an Iron Man ripoff, but she's simply coated in Vibranium, which she can manipulate. Not very shiny, though.
 * Steeljack from Astro City is another super strong type. He was coated with a liquid steel that like Citizen Steel, cuts down on his sense of touch, but he's completely human underneath. Twist: He's tarnishing with age, having been a super villain for decades and going into his late fifties in the story arc he's in.
 * DC's Metal Men are, well, Exactly What It Says On the Tin - humanoid robots each made of a specific metal and properties to match: Lead is slow, tough and blocks radiation, Mercury can flow through cracks, etc.
 * Spider-Man - Spider-Man's foe The Molten Man, whose skin is bonded with a golden organic alloy.
 * Robin Vega appeared in two Spider-Man issues. She was a mutant able to transform herself into any metal. She had shapeshifting, super strength and, if not Nigh Invulnerable, at least she was Made of Iron. This was her only appearance, so she shined briefly. Given her abilities, it was a shame. Also kind of a living anvil against racism (in form of Fantastic Racism).
 * Green Lantern villain Goldface. GL's ring doesn't work on him because, you know, yellow... gold... same dif. His protege, Flash villain Blacksmith, was much the same.
 * There's also her cohort, the slow-witted behemoth Girder, who got his powers from being thrown in a vat of molten slag from STAR Labs after trying to assault a female coworker. He also rusts painfully, and gets torn in half by Magenta's magnetic powers on more than one occasion.
 * Wetworks - All members of Wetworks benefit from this trope, though they are golden rather than chrome.
 * The Goon had Dr. Alloy, who was a Mad Scientist Anti Villain Well Intentioned Extremist Klutz
 * August General in Iron, of DC's Great Ten, had his skin turned into living armor by the side-effect of a cure for an alien infection. He averts Made of Shiny, however, as his armor looks like rusted iron. He also has an extremely stunted sense of touch.
 * In Adam Warren's superhero comedy Empowered, Capitan Rivet.
 * Tony Stark's new bleeding edge armor.
 * Legion of Super-Heroes - The Legion has Ferro Lad (or just Ferro in the Postboot version), who can become living iron at will, all the way to his core. The properties of his metal self allowed the Preboot version to make a Heroic Sacrifice by using himself as a conductor when the last-ditch weapon the Legion was using against a Sun Eater broke down.
 * Avengers Academy has Mettle, who actually is a red variant compared to the standard silver.

Film

 * The T-1000 of Terminator 2.
 * Jack Jack in The Incredibles.

Literature

 * In the climax of Princep's Fury (the fifth Codex Alera novel), the First Lord turns into steel before flying to battle and . Araris also pulls this in the last book. But then, he is one of the most powerful metalcrafters in the world. Bonus points for . At least up until the , being the ridiculously Dangerously Genre Savvy bitch that she is,
 * Moon Rainbow - The Exotes (or, less derisive, Citgals) from Sergei Pavlov's series were initially a group of spacemen who acquired a whole bunch of cool powers due to contact and symbiotic relationship with a lifeform that is essentially a colony of living Nanomachines. One most obvious manifestation of this relationship was the need to secrete a thick ooze of these nanomachines out of the skin, turning a host into a living metal statue. It was actually a part of the symbiote's lifecycle, but this layer could be controlled and used, for example, as a protective suit, enabling a man to survive a hard vacuum indefinitely.
 * Mirror of the Whateley Universe, who has a PK skintight field about his body so he's super-strong. But it reflects all light, so he looks like he's a T-1000.
 * In James Maxley's Bitterwood series, some Atlantians wear their nanites as a skin, including . In the epilogue, the dragon known as, keeps a gold-colored version that he gets from the villain and uses it to challenge any dragon bold enough to claim kingship.
 * Hyperion - The Shrike and the four Nemes "siblings" in the Cantos.
 * Nuklear Age - Mighty Metallic Magno Man can turn himself into solid, animated tungsten and has magnetic powers.

Live Action TV
"Emily: (dazed) Wow...he's so sparkly."
 * Heroes - Danny Pine, a minor character.
 * Subverted by Darien Fawlkes. There is a short window in between normal and completely invisible where the entire surface area of what's becoming invisible (usually himself) is a shiny silver. The only super power associated with that, however, is invisibility and a low body temperature. And insanity.
 * A number of Sixth Rangers in Super Sentai and Power Rangers set themselves apart from the rest of the team by wearing shiny metallic suits. So far there's about a half-dozen silver-colored Rangers and a couple of gold ones.
 * Shinken / Samurai Gold inspires this reaction in the American version:

Tabletop Games

 * Rifts Glitterboys are powered armor Chrome Champion, being Nigh Invulnerable and having Super Strength. The brilliant silver armor was originally just a defence against laser weapons, but now that The End of the World As We Know It has come and gone, the shining appearance has made them symbols of hope for humanity in the time After the End.
 * Exalted has a spell called Invulnerable Skin of Bronze. It's advised not to go swimming with that in use.
 * In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Glass Walkers have the gift Steel Fur, which gives them an armor bonus while slightly reducing their dexterity.
 * GURPS has the Body of Metal meta-trait which you can either have intrinsically or get via magic. Ultra-Tech has a nanobot suit of armor that makes you more durable, stronger and faster.

Video Games

 * Metal Mario from Super Mario 64. He also appeared in the original Super Smash Bros as a sub-boss. As of Super Smash Bros. Melee, any character can become this using the Metal Box.
 * Pokémon - Some Pokémon of the Steel type, such as Steelix and Skarmory.
 * Dural from Virtua Fighter.
 * Street Fighter series.
 * Seth from Street Fighter IV.
 * Urien from Street Fighter III, who covers himself in liquid metal when fighting and makes metallic clongs when struck. He is a Tin Tyrant; his powers and machinations are geared largely towards destruction, unlike his brother, Gill.
 * The Wheel of Fate from House Of The Dead 3.
 * Flying Dragon, a fighting game, featured metallized versions of the playable characters as sub-bosses.
 * The second Soul Calibur game (Soul Calibur 1) has unlockable chrome skins of all the characters.
 * Fi from The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword is one, which fits with her being the spirit of the Goddess/Master Sword..
 * Galactus randomly appoints Wesker, Akuma, Dormammu, or Dr. Doom as his heralds in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. All 4 characters take on a shiny metallic appearance, mimicing the Silver Surfer. The Heroes & Heralds mode in Ultimate allows everyone else to take on the same appearance. This is unusual, because in the comics, Galactus has had numerous other heralds who didn't actually change in appearance or take on a form similar to Silver Surfer's, so the trope is applied to the game because it's an easy way to show that a character has become a herald.
 * The "Iron Flesh" pyromancy in Dark Souls temporarily turns the player character into one of these, sacrificing mobility for a considerable boost to defense and poise.

Web Comics

 * Tempts Fate from Goblins has a belt that covers him with invincible, Colossus-style armor whenever he's jumping or falling.
 * Villainous example: Sluggy Freelance's Crushestro

Web Original

 * The Global Guardians PBEM Universe features Alloy, Mercury and Chrome. Alloy and Chrome are both super-strong metal men, while Mercury is a liquid metal shapeshifter along the same lines as the T-1000 from Terminator 2.
 * In the Whateley Universe, Mirror is a telekinetic brick, but his skintight energy field reflects light, giving him a chromed appearance. Pearlescent is similar, but she can turn her field on or off.

Western Animation

 * Ben 10 Alien Force - Kevin Levin, who's part Osmosian, can become this by absorbing metal to give himself protection or to create a weapon with his hands.
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender - Toph Bei Fong, like many strong earthbenders, can encase herself in a stone bodysuit for defense.
 * Transformers: Generation 1 managed to do this to Optimus Prime, already a 50-foot robot, by coating him with Unobtainium making him the sole being in the universe immune to the Hate Plague.