Invisibility: Difference between revisions
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Some coping mechanisms for permanent invisibility:
* The 1958 series hero could do no better than to bandage his face.
* In the 1975 series, McCallum's character was rendered visible via a [[Latex Perfection]] mask that was created by literally painting latex onto his skin.
* The ''[[Gemini Man]]'' had a small, fragile device which held his invisibility -- and the certain death it brought with overuse -- at bay.
* Alexa Hamilton used flesh-colored [[Body Paint]], a brunet wig and contact lenses.
* The hero of the Sci-Fi Channel series wasn't permanently invisible, but the artificial gland implanted in his brain that allowed him to become invisible also caused him to go insane if he wasn't regularly injected with a special "counteragent". This was due to the gland being sabotaged during its creation by a traitorous scientist planning to sell it and make the buyers dependent on him to provide the counter agent. Ironically, said scientist {{spoiler|ended up becoming permanently invisible later on (though he got better)}}.
* The invisible man of the film of ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' uses [[Coat, Hat, Mask|a full-length coat, gloves, sunglasses, a hat and white makeup applied to his face]] (which, by happy coincidence, allows the actor to use his real face in close-ups).
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Invisibility is such an old trope that there are multiple ways to be invisible. Many of them still require a [[Hand Wave]].
* Transparent organs. Non-organic matter cannot become transparent. [[Fridge Logic|Mind you, invisible eyeballs result in blindness.]]
* Bending light around an object. This allows clothing and other material near the object to become unseen as well.
* Not reflecting light visible to the human eye, or altering the reflected light into a non-visible wavelength. Ultraviolet and infrared are examples in [[Real Life]]. Some animals can see these wavelengths.
* Removing the light source so that no light is available to bounce off the object. But see [[Hollywood Darkness]]. Or just hide in the shadows.
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Note that most of the works mentioned herein are [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|more "cynical"]] shows; invisibility as the power of a [[Superhero]], such as ''[[Space Ghost]]'', is generally at will and free of angst. It may be a [[Personality Powers|Personality Power]], with the user shy and retiring, or sneaky and subversive.
Invisibility is also a recurring [[Advertising Tropes|device in TV commercials]], selling such diverse products as jeans, feminine deodorant and alcoholic beverages.
May or may not become an [[Invisible Jerkass]].
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** But they have to have an artificial brain for him to edit their memories, and if they have one of those it's unlikely that they don't have artificial eyes (e.g., the two hobos who see him whose memories he can't erase).
*** Can't erase? Didn't those two hobos, without any cyberized products in them whatsoever, ''still'' give the description of the Laughing Man logo when asked?
**** No, its that the hack was permanent. When the people with the hacked brains saw the hobo's discription, their brain saw it as the Laughing man logo.
**** Again, no. That kind of hack could be back-hacked and the features of the Laughing Man determined from the features the victims of the hack are incapable of seeing. What happened is much simpler: the hobos never saw his face, since he was wearing a high-collar parka and a hoodie, and it was only the hacked people who though they could draw his picture from memory, but ended up drawing the logo, instead.
* The titular Alabaster in [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s ''[[Manga/Alabaster|Alabaster]]'' is partly invisible, as the raygun he used on himself to attempt to become invisible was unfinished and lethal. Disgustingly disfigured (the only thing invisible is his ''skin''; his organs are fully visible), he is obsessed with defacing "beauty" with the gun -- leaving partly invisible corpses in the wake of his murder sprees. Playing the trope more straight, Ami, Alabaster's hostage turned mistress turned partner-in-crime, was shot by the gun in the womb, and has been invisible her entire life.
* In the Thriller Bark arc of ''[[One Piece]]'', a member of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]], Absalom, possesses this power via the Suke-Suke Devil Fruit ("Suke" means to be see-through), enabling him to turn himself or anything he touches<ref>his favored attack is to shoot enemies with invisible rocket launchers that he has strapped to his arms</ref> invisible. He's also [[Genre Savvy|perfectly well aware of]] and [[Handsome Lech|happily exploits]] his abilities' [[Power Perversion Potential]]. Needless to say, [[Chivalrous Pervert|Sanji]] was ''not'' pleased...
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* Momoko of ''[[Saki (manga)|Saki]]'', who is described as having zero presence. When she doesn't want to be found, she will disappear from your sight even though she's sitting right beside you or had just been chatting with you a moment ago. Her anti-presence extends to her voice and even to her discard pile, so other players won't notice if she had called Riichi or had thrown the Mahjong tile they needed to win. However, if her opponent completely ignores everyone's presence in the first place, this ability of hers won't work on them.
** It's noted that this is only a mental invisibility. Characters using video cameras of the game to watch can see her and her discards just fine, and wonder why her opponents are playing into her moves that should be clearly apparent.
* Genma Saotome of ''[[Ranma ½
* Soga Keena from ''[[Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou]]'' has the apparently innate ability to turn invisible (and [[Flight|fly]]), but the invisibility does not extend to her clothing. Luckily she lacks any sort of nudity taboo, so whenever she gets into trouble her first instinct is to shuck her clothes and fly away invisibly. Frequently the invisibility fails for one reason or another and she ends up flying around naked for everyone to see.
* In an anime filler episode for [[Fairy Tail]], Lucy is turned invisible by an expired magic potion she kept in her house after she put it in her bath. To be fair, {{spoiler|the potion is seven years old. She hasn't touched it since because of Tenro Island.}}
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* "The Bod", a four-part story in [[Image Comics]]' ''Double Image'', follows Kelly Gordon, a sexy blue-eyed blonde who enters show business and becomes invisible due to spilling hydrated resin on herself. Her newfound fame takes her from ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' to ''[[Jerry Springer]]'' to ''[[Judge Judy]]''. (Warning: The story contains swearing and sexual content.)
* The [[Legion of Super-Heroes]] has Invisible Kids I & II. Various parts of this trope have come into play, with their [[Backstory|backstories]], mostly with the original I-Kid. In almost all of the various incarnations of the Legion, I-Kid invents the invisibility serum basically out of boredom. It's only in the Post-[[Zero Hour]] reboot that I-Kid was working for Black Hole, an Earth government spy agency, when he invented it. In the threeboot, he found out that his father had been having him make it to give to the Science Police; it's here that the rest of the trope is introduced as he's alienated from the rest of the Legion, except for a few others.
* And then, of course, there's Susan Richards, the Invisible Woman from ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]''. She bypasses the blindness problem by being able to detect cosmic radiation outside the white light spectrum.
* Kim Suskind from ''[[Planetary]]'', one of the Four (who are a takeoff of the Fantastic Four). She can turn invisible, but to be able to see while invisible she has to wear special goggles. It's unclear why the goggles work either, but at least they made some effort.
* One of the [[Superpower Lottery|many powers]] of the [[Martian Manhunter]].
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* Two [[Walt Disney]] comedies from the 1960s, ''Mr. Superinvisible'' and ''Now You See Him, Now You Don't''.
* ''The Invisible Kid'', a teen comedy with Jay Underwood and Chynna Phillips.
* The 1992 Chevy Chase vehicle, ''[[Memoirs of an Invisible Man]]''- Chase is visibly disgusted because he can see the food he ate in his stomach after eating it and he had trouble sleeping because he can see through his eyelids.
* Two direct-to-video ''Invisible Mom'' movies starring Dee Wallace Stone.
** These movies had a [[Spiritual Successor]], ''Invisible Dad'', but the titular father uses his powers only to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rdsAvwFqiA thrust a mop at people and beat some guy up in a bathroom, then steal his suit]. It's less wacky then you'd hope for in an invisibility-based comedy.
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* Parodied in the ''[[Mystery Men]]'' movie, where the Invisible Boy can become invisible only when no one is looking at him. Including himself. It was proved, however, {{spoiler|that if those conditions were met, he could actually become invisible (allowing him to elude purely mechanical surveillance)}}.
** [[Fridge Logic|He's always looking at himself. Or at least his nose.]]
*** Or the back of his eyelids. [[Rule of Funny|But whatever, it's funny.]]
**** The back of your own eyelids doesn't count. Consider Cyclops on X-men, that back of whose eyelids must be made of really strong stuff.
* In ''[[The Incredibles]]'', Violet (who, as one of several [[Homage|homages]] to the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'', is also a [[Barrier Warrior]]) can turn invisible at will except for her clothes. However, when Edna Mode makes costumes for the family, she makes one for Violet that turns invisible with her.
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* [[Robert Cormier]] plays this for as much horror as possible in ''Fade''.
* ''[[Pumuckl]]'', the kobold protagonist of a German children's series is invisible, unless he gets caught by a human (which includes him getting stuck to a glue pot). The kobold laws state that Pumuckl has to stay with said human if this happens, which is how the series starts. Many stories are about Pumuckl being in danger of being seen by someone else but Eder, which would mean that he had to leave Eder.
* The psychic power known as "plateau eyes" in [[Larry Niven]]'s [[Known Space]] series makes people effectively invisible by forcing other people to ignore them.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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** Claude is also quite the [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]. To the point that fans will always ask the creators when Claude will be brought back. The answer is invariably, "We did bring him back! Didn't you see him?"
** Becky in season 4.
*** And she is the Claude-fans' [[Replacement Scrappy]] because she is annoying and vindictive, and she is neither [[Badass]] nor [[Christopher Eccleston]].
* Ea on ''[[Invisible Girl Ea]]'' is made more or less permanently invisible against her will by the villains of the series, although it's not perfect — several things will cause her to become semi-visible against her will, including bright light (like the sun getting reflected off a mirror), electricity (like a stun gun) and physical contact — these do not make her outright visible, but instead cause her modified skin to do a "predator-style" CGI thing (making her look like she's made of blue or red glass).
** This has the bonus effect of giving her a good excuse to [[Fan Service|stay naked the entire series]], although the hero and titular Ea rather quickly realize that [[Cursed with Awesome|uncontrollable invisibility kinda sucks]] — and so [[I Just Want to Be Normal|curing her is the main plot of the series]]. Ea's modesty was apparently also affected by the invisibility formula, as she [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|doesn't react to her nudity the entire series]]. (However, [[Accidental Pervert|the hero]] [[I Can Explain|and his girlfriend]] most definitely ''do''.) The camera doesn't react either, outside using clever camera angles, random objects, and lens flares to [[Scenery Censor|hide anything]] ''too'' much for [[Otaku O'Clock|2 a.m. TV]]. Yup, you guessed it, [[Most Writers Are Male|most Japanese writers are male]].
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* Near the end of the first season of ''[[Sanctuary]]'' the team has to locate an invisible girl to find the [[MacGuffin]] to defeat the bad guys. The fact that she has to be naked to do so is frequently commented on and joked about. This gives the show a chance to [[Fan Service]] it up since the other female characters, while being very attractive, are always quite well covered up.
* [[Iconic Character|Tommy]] and [[Sixth Ranger|Trent]] both had this as their Dino-Gem induced ability in ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]''. Neither of them used it a whole lot, but it came in handy when the former's actor was unavailable for a few episodes - they just rendered him unable to become visible again (''after'' he escaped from being stuck in his costume).
* The ability of ''[[Nightman]]'''s [[The Cape (trope)|cape]] as long as it is properly charged.
== [[Radio]] ==
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* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has ''more'' than one invisibility spell, and yes, invisibility is ''awesome''. The previous edition Invisibility spell allows invisibility until the invisible person attacks -- presumably only for game balance, as most invisible persons outside of D&D can attack and stay invisible. Of course, now, not only is the former second level AD&D spell a ''16th'' level spell in D&D 4e, it's been suitably [http://dnd4.com/dd-4th-edition-wizard-spells nerfed].
* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' contains both the psychic mind-affecting and the light bending versions - a must for most mages in a game thats all about pulling heists.
* Both ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' and [[Vampire: The Requiem]] feature the Obfuscate Discipline, which is a form of mental invisibility or camouflage -- it causes others to ignore your presence, or think that you're somebody else. Needless to say, it's a common feature of the [[Looks Like Orlok|Nosferatu]].
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** The series also has Koishi, who is implied to have a form of this as an extension to her powers to manipulate the subconscious. If she wishes, she could simply have others not notice her, allowing her to, for example, casually walk up a mountain heavily guarded by Tengu without being detected.
* ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' features the clear/translucent variety by way of power-up for Spartans, and built-in for some Elites. In both cases, it is temporary (for the player character, at least.)
** And Bungie's ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' does something even cooler. The camouflage doesn't make the user appear as clear shimmers of light, but as a [[Rule of Cool|SHADOW]]! And if you get two camouflage powerups, you're incredibly hard to see with the naked eye.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series has two flavors. The [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Invisibility]] spell effect makes the player invisible for a short period of time, and breaks as soon as the player performs an action other than moving. The Chameleon effect offers partial invisibility, making it harder for people to detect the character, and does not break on performing an action. Unlike the former it can be had as a permanent effect via enchantments, and getting permanent 100% Chameleon--which makes the player fully invisible--is considered a [[Game Breaker]].
* Joachim of ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' Covenant goes through a handful of different forms, one of which is Invisible.
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* In ''[[Battlefield Heroes]]'', Commando soldiers can use their stealth ability to become invisible from far away, making them able to sneak up on enemies with a [[Knife Nut|knife]], or [[Sniper Rifle|snipe people]] from safe distances.
* [[Mass Effect 2]] introduces the Tactical Cloak for Infiltrators, also extended to Kasumi, who has an attack based around it. Its very temporary and one particular enemy that doesn't rely on sight to get you can still...get you, but otherwise you can just run past your enemies. It seems to use a lot of energy as it can only be maintained at its longest for about 18 seconds.
* The Spy from [[Team Fortress 2]] has a wide variety of invisibility watches so he can get behind enemy lines. There's the default watch, where cloak drains when in use, but is regenerated when not-in-use or with resupplies. There's the Cloak And Dagger, which doesn't drain when you move, meaning you could be perpetually invisible. Finally, there's the Dead Ringer which if activated when injured will turn you invisible, drop a fake corpse, give a fake death notifcation and reduce your damage taken by 90%.
** Note the dangers, though; invisibility isn't instantaneous, and if you are hit, you'll briefly shimmer.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* One of Nanashi's many powers in ''[[Earthsong]]''.
* Thomil of ''[[Juathuur]]'' can render himself invisible, but rarely does.
* Kali in ''[[Enjuhneer]]'' was created as a joke on the "invisible roommate," but has since been explained as having [[I Love Nuclear Power|eaten radioactive toast]]. In addition to her own transparency, any clothing she wears gradually and permanently becomes invisible, as does any dye she puts in her hair. (A Santa hat and a pair of [[White Gloves]] are immune to this, for reasons that have so far only been vaguely implied.) The author has mined a ''lot'' of jokes out of the various rules and applications of this ability--for instance, Kali can hide items in an invisible messenger bag and pull them out as if from [[Hammerspace]].
* Geist of ''[[Heist]]'' fame has this as well as [[Intangible Man|Intangibility]]. Makes him well-suited for [[Phantom Thief|his job]].
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* Invisibility is one of [[Space Ghost]]'s main powers.
* In ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', turning invisible was Mirage's special ability.
* One of the features of ''[[Kim Possible]]'''s [[Clothes Make the Superman|Battle Suit]] is that it makes her invisible. Wade also uses invisibility on his machines.
* A one-shot villain in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' had developed a suit to turn invisible.
** In ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' Batman is assumed to have adapted it, as the Beyond suit can turn invisible. In one episode, Terry makes a remark to himself about it's more dubious potential.
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== Other ==
* Order of Mata Nui member Jerbraz in ''[[Bionicle]]'' became permanently invisible (along with his sword) after an experiment to gain extra powers went wrong. He seems to have adapted pretty well; he comments that while he was handsome and charming before he has to get by only on charm these days.
** Av-Matoran can change the color of their armor by altering the way light reflects from it. It's mentioned that they sometimes use this ability for camouflage.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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