Cover-Blowing Superpower: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Except for one problem: It will reveal who and what they truly are behind all that [[Clark Kenting]], with all the awkward consequences that such a reveal might entail. Maybe a [[Love Interest]] is watching and this isn't the time they want to reveal their powers to them yet. Or maybe an enemy is watching, and revealing their powers might cause said enemy to attack their [[Secret Identity]] directly.

But for whatever reason, the character will try to get out of this situation "normally", without revealing themselves in the process. Whether or not they succeed, and the particular consequences for failure, vary by situation.

 

 

 

 

** And another one was caught staring at an [[Invisible to Normals]] observer apparition while playing a "normal" recruit in the team likely to include other Contractors. Who turned out to be present and able to put two and two together very quickly.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' treats Negi's magic abilities like this in the early volumes, the most common form being him causing things to float (like stopping an eraser from falling on his head, or momentarily levitating Nodoka so he can catch her when she falls off a staircase). In one extreme instant, he saves a cat from being hit by a car by ''flipping the car into the air''. It lands unharmed.

* In ''[[Detective Conan]]''/''[[Case Closed]]'', Conan seldom actually gets in danger, but is constantly confronting the problem that he really shouldn't be able to solve all the cases.

* Kira Sakuya from ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'' gets killed on a near regular basis. "Uh... yeah. [[Unexplained Recovery|I got better.]]"

* ''[[Dragonball Z]]''

** A similar incident happened when he is playing baseball during school. The local [[Jerk Jock]] decided to try to brush Gohan away from the plate but he didn't even bother to move. Everyone cringed in pain as his helmet flew off but Gohan merely double-checked with the umpire that getting hit gave him a free base. During that game, he also caught a pop fly by jumping dozens of feet into the air [[Moment of Awesome|and doubling a guy off third who was standing there with a one foot lead off the base.]] In each case, he thinks he's successfully blending in, which is what happens when the only [[Muggle]] you've ever met is something of a [[Gadgeteer Genius]] [[Adventurer Archaeologist]] who has been hanging around ridiculously superhuman warriors longer than you've been alive.

*** This particular one is a bit ridiculous anyway, since while deciding where to throw the ball, he's effectively ''hanging in midair.'' That's not suspicious at all...

* ''[[Bleach]]''

** Ikkaku Madarame has a Bankai, but he doesn't like to use it for no other reason than because they would like him to be a captain if they found out, and he wants to keep serving under Kenpachi.

* ''[[Sumomomo Momomo]]''

** Sanae is wearing a corset which is overly sexy and revealing, however this mystical piece of clothing increases the power of her kicks well beyond reason. When she's forced to save Koshi {{spoiler|from her fiancé set up by her grandmother}} who is in front of the entire school being attacked, she puts on the outift and runs out to save him. The only way to match her opponent however is to make the outfit even more revealing than it already is and risk exposing her mostly nude body to her school. She manages to defeat her opponent and keep her identity secret, but a massive number of pictures are now circulating in her school.

* In one of the later chapters of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', {{spoiler|Ultear and Meredy just barely manage to stop Jellal from blowing his cover by [[It Makes Sense in Context|burning his mouth with hot sauce]].}} Good thing too, as he's a wanted criminal and being found out would have likely resulted in {{spoiler|Fairy Tail's being disqualified from the Grand Magic Games}}.

 

* In ''[[Gotham Central]]'', Detective Josephine "Jose Mac" MacDonald has the superhuman ability to "hear" inanimate objects, which comes in handy when investigating a crime scene. However, [[Fantastic Racism|she fears how she will be treated if her secret is ever discovered]], so she has to think of explanaions for her "hunches" and "gut." This is predominantly played for humor (Such as her ability to find her missing coffee mug when her coworkers hide it each morning) and light drama (Such as when she worries over her secret being discovered), but becomes a critical plot point in the "Corrigan" arc which closes the series. Though she knows for a ''fact'' that the gun she found is the murder the weapon, the gun itself ''told her so'', she has no way of convincing her superiors when the ballistics results come back negative. She begins to explain that she ''knows'' it is the right gun, but when [[Da Chief|Captain Maggie Sawyer]] asks her what she means by that, Josie Mac looks away and does not elaborate. [[Downer Ending|Corrigan ends up walking on all charges]].

* In an early comic-book issue of ''[[Spider-Man]]'', in a fist-fight with Flash, Peter dodges so fast that people think he is being cowardly and flinching away.

** Superman also chose not to do sports because not only would it not be fair, but he might attract attention to himself.

 

* In ''[[Star Wars/Fanfic Recs|The Sith Who Brought Life Day]]'', an officer looking at Luke Skywalker's test scores boggles at the hand-eye coordination test. Luke made the computer crash by hitting the right buttons after the trigger stimuli algorithm had been run, but ''[[Combat Clairvoyance|before the actual images appeared onscreen]]'' (it must've been running [[Acceptable Targets|Windows Vista]] then...) and the computer had not been able to handle near-simultaneous input and output. Luke apparently crashed it three times, then decided to slow down.

* In lots of [[Alex Rider]] fanfictions, terrorists will attack his school, forcing Alex to use his spy/martial arts abilities to take them out in front of his classmates.

 

* Demonstrated by Superman on several occasions in ''[[All-Star Superman (film)|All Star Superman]]'' ([[All-Star Superman|the comic]] on which the film was based showed most of the same incidents), most notably in the prison scene where he saves the guards from the rioting prisoners, Lex Luthor, and ultimately stops the Parasite, all without breaking cover.

* Early drafts of ''[[The Incredibles]]'' opened with Bob and Helen Parr, having put their superhero-ing days behind them, attending a neighborhood barbecue. Bob is cutting the steaks and he accidentally breaks the knife on his hand. When several others notice, he pretends to be injured and Helen pretends to rush him off to the hospital. (This particular scene didn't make it into the final film, but was included as a deleted scene on the DVD.)

** Also this is the main reason they didn't want Dash to join a sports team, believing he wouldn't be able to hold himself back from using his powers to win. At the end of the movie, he joins the track team with his family yelling at him to slow down to the confusion of the people next to them.

* In ''[[Mr. and Mrs. Smith]]'', Jane Smith reveals herself to be an assassin when she reflexively catches a bottle of wine her husband drops. She gets the most priceless "[[Oh Crap]]" look on her face and drops it, but by then it's too late.

* Another [[Dish Dash|revealing-breakable-object drop]] is in ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]'', with Jen catching a teacup that another character deliberately dropped to make her reveal her skills.

* The same thing happens in ''[[Ronin (film)|Ronin]]'', with Sam (Robert DeNiro) dropping a coffee cup to test Grego (Stellan Skarsgård)'s reflexes.

* In ''[[Star Wars]]'', anyone in the film (and any complete newcomers) might believe Chancellor Palpatine is just a normal guy who knows old legends. That is, until we actually see him using Jedi powers.

 

* The [[O. Henry]] story "A Retrieved Reformation": Ex-safecracker Jimmy Valentine has settled down to live the quiet life, building up a name for himself. Until one day a little girl gets locked in a safe....

* A recurring theme in the ur-superhero novel ''Gladiator'', where Hugo Danner tries to keep his powers secret. When a man is trapped in an unopenable time-release bank vault, he tries to open it while not revealing his strength. He succeeds in both saving the man and preserving his secret, but {{spoiler|the president of the bank decides he doesn't want a man with a secret way of opening bank vaults walking around.}}

* ''[[Sword of Truth|Wizard's First Rule]]'' includes a scene where Khalan hesitates to user her power in a fight so as not to expose her nature to Richard. {{spoiler|Then she gets stabbed, and uses it anyway. Luckily Richard's back was turned at that moment. And then he starts catching on that ''something'' is up anyway.}}

* In [[Margaret Weis]]'s ''[[The Death Gate Cycle]]'', this is basically the story of Alfred Montbank. He is one of the last of the "Sartan", a race with godlike magical power, and is always nervous about doing magic in public for fear of being taken advantage of. The fact that he has a spine like a wet noodle doesn't help.

* In the series ''Replica'', all of the Amys are essentially instant Olympic athletes, being clones with extensive genetic modification. To hide herself from the MIB out to get her, the Amy who is the protagonist must purposefully mess up when playing sports at school.

* This is how Jean Valjean is almost found out in one incident in ''[[Les Misérables]]''; disguised as another man and elected mayor of a rural French village, he hauls a cart off an injured man. Inspector Javert recognizes the tremendous strength, and tells M. le Maire how much he resembles a parole-breaker that Javert used to chase - so much so that he would call the mayor a suspect if it weren't for the fact that they just caught the ''real'' Valjean the other day...

 

* Michael Westen of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' is a [[Badass]], but frequently spends episodes undercover in notably un-Badass personas. This gets annoying when it would be tactically advantageous to not win fights; Westen has to struggle to find ways to plausibly lose fistfights, or allow his arm to be dislocated. This is usually played straight (''e.g.'' the arm dislocation), but sometimes for comedy, as the camera cuts to his face to show him bored and disdainful of his opponent's flailing failure to hurt him.

* In Season 3 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Nathan is pretending to be powerless, but Danko suspects him of being a super, and in an attempt to try to get him to reveal himself, {{spoiler|Danko pushes him out a window, and Nathan is forced to use his flight ability to save his life.}}

* ''[[Lois and Clark]]'', all the time. Usually Clark will use his powers and come up with some other excuse to cover it up, such as claiming he can read lips to explain how he knows something he picked up via super-hearing, or explaining that the ropes he tore through with his super-strength were frayed.

* In the third episode of ''[[Covert Affairs]]'', the corrupt Venezuelan government official Annie's covertly investigating encourages her to drive his sports car as ridiculously fast as he does. She grinds the gears and pretends to be out of her depth, but the sudden appearance of an unexpected roadblock causes her to reflexively swerve around it in a way that gives away her advanced driving skills.

* Sister Bertrille from ''[[The Flying Nun]]'' doesn't like advertising that she can fly.

* In ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'', the title wizard must constantly save the day while keeping his powers secret, since magic is banned in Camelot on pain of execution.

 

* ''[[Exalted]]'' who use a lot of essence at once will trigger their [[Battle Aura|anima banner]], giving away the fact that they're one of the Exalted (which can be especially bad for [[Hero with Bad Publicity|Solar and Lunar Exalts]]).

 

* Completely averted in ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]''. Bruce Wayne gets abducted, processed and thrown into the eponymous Arkham City, a penal colony, but has no qualms about using his badass fighting skills to defend other political prisoners or to defeat the Penguin and his thugs, despite everyone knowing that it's ''clearly'' Bruce Wayne. Nobody puts two and two together, and once Bruce aquires a batsuit, everyone just assumes that he's gone to ground or been killed by someone.

* ''Completely'' averted in ''[[Dragon Age 2]]''. Kirkwall is a city more-or-less run by the Templars, and a particularly [[Blood Knight|severe]] branch of them to boot, whose job it is to lock up all mages so they can be "trained" safely and who are particularly fond of [[Fate Worse Than Death|making Tranquil]] anyone who so much as screws up, let alone break any rules. None the less, you can form up a party of three mages and spend your days walking the streets, flinging around fireballs and summoning ice storms and [[Blood Magic|gouging yourself to increase your own power]] ''right in front'' of said Templars. The most you'll ever hear of it is from a few plot-relevant characters who conveniently look the other way because of bigger problems.

* The [[Pokémon]] Zoroark has the ability Illusion, which causes it to take on the appearence of another Pokemon in the party. It also has a signature move: Night Daze. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, using Night Daze will immidiately give away that you're a Zoroark, which is why many people use Dark Pulse instead. (There's not much difference, the former just trades 5 accuracy for an extra 5 power and a chance of lowering the foe's accuracy.)

* Alex Mercer and James Heller in ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'' can't use their shapeshifter weapons and powers without attracking military notice (not that doing so is partiularly dangerous). Extreme parkour or running up buildings, however, draws no notice.

** ...For Mercer, anyway. If Heller tries his Blacklight-infused [[Le Parkour]] around any soldiers, they'll start noticing. Do it too much and it blows your cover.

 

* Happens to Church in ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' a couple of times. His ability to {{spoiler|phase in and out of peoples' bodies like a ghost would come in handy when he and Grif are locked in a jail-cell. It's then subverted when the door is opened before he uses it, so Grif thinks he has some kind of telekinesis}}. In ''Reconstruction'', he doesn't want to show Washington he can do it, but Simmons sucks at distracting Washington and he finds out anyway.

 

 

* Zuko of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has dealt with this several times, since [[Playing with Fire|firebenders]] aren't exactly popular in the Earth Kingdom. In "Zuko Alone", he just wants to preserve the good opinion of the kid he is trying to protect, {{spoiler|but the earthbender he's fighting is a bit too tough to beat while holding back, and the villagers decide to shun him}}. In "City of Walls and Secrets", when he could have been arrested and [[Brainwashed|worse]] if revealed, he fares rather better against [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Jet]].

** Aang gets a [[Played for Laughs]] version of this in "City of Walls and Secrets", too, albeit briefly. He accidentally makes a woman spill her drink on herself while undercover at a party, and tries to use his airbending to dry her off. This reveals his identity to the whole party.

* ''[[Spider-Man]]: The New Animated Series''

** In the episode "Tight Squeeze", this trope is played straight when ex-KGB agents capture a group of civilians, including Peter Parker.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:More Than Meets the Eye]]