Magic Plastic Surgery: Difference between revisions

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== Anime & Manga ==

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* One chapter of [[Osamu Tezuka]] 's ''[[Black Jack]]'' involved a doctor blaming a deadly mistake on the nurse who was just following his orders, ruining her life. She attempts suicide, but the eponymous super surgeon offers her a chance at payback, which involves turning her into an exact likeness of the pop idol the doctor was obsessed with. It doesn't take much effort for her to get the evidence Black Jack needs to blackmail the villain out of his profession. In an extra twist, it's revealed at the end that the reason the nurse's transformation into the pop idol's double was so flawless (in addition to Black Jack's improbable skills) is because Black Jack ''himself'' gave the pop idol that face.

** This goes up a notch when the Black Jack's father comes back into the picture after his second wife Renka is disfigured. This is the new wife whom he left Black Jack and his mother for while they were hospitalized in an explosion. His father gets his help to repair the new wife's face, and 'make her more beautiful' while at it. Black Jack complies and gives Renka ''his mother's'' face: partially to punish his [[Jerkass]] father, partially because Black Jack ''genuinely'' thought his [[Hot Mom]] was the most beautiful woman ever.

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* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'': Several bounties were captured using a device that could show how probable a target was the bounty with plastic surgery.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

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* Christopher Chance, [[The DCU]]'s ''Human Target'', has made a career of impersonating people with dangerous lives. He's had plastic surgery more times than should be possible in a single issue alone, and much more. He's used plastic surgery to become ''black'' before. He's had his face altered to look like a man for a short time, then returned to his normal face, then altered to resemble the same man ''again'', ''then'' back to his regular face again, with no ill effect. Cosmetic surgery is basically used as a magic wand. At least some of Chance's transformations are done with latex masks, body suits, makeup and suchlike. [[Latex Perfection|The masks are as suspiciously convincing and easily removed]] as those in ''Scooby-Doo''.

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== ~~Comics~~ ==

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* Christopher Chance, [[The DCU]]'s ''Human Target'', has made a career of impersonating people with dangerous lives. He's had plastic surgery more times than should be possible in a single issue alone, and much more. He's used plastic surgery to become ''black'' before. He's had his face altered to look like a man for a short time, then returned to his normal face, then altered to resemble the same man ''again'', ''then'' back to his regular face again, with no ill effect. Cosmetic surgery is basically used as a magic wand. At least some of Chance's transformations are done with latex masks, body suits, makeup and suchlike. [[Latex Perfection|The masks are as suspiciously convincing and easily removed]] as those in ''Scooby Doo''.

* In one storyline of [[The Punisher]], from [[Marvel Comics]], the scarred villain Jigsaw decides to get revenge on Frank by carving up his mug to scar ''him''. Frank escapes and uses his knowledge of the underworld to dig up a talented plastic surgeon. This one was forced to quit because of prescription drug abuse. And of course she is hot. But anyway, to make a somewhat believable story insanely goofy, the un-licensed surgeon not only un-scars Frank (why couldn't Jigsaw find her) but turns him BLACK.

* Shortly before his death, [[The Flash|Barry Allen]] was in a fight and has his face beaten to hamburger only to have his face reconstructed to a completely different appearance (by gorilla surgeons, no less!)

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* In an early ''[[Lucky Luke]]'' comic, the Dalton cousins (the ones who were competent but killed off fairly early) forced a town doc to give them new faces. Yes, the doctor of a frontier town in the wild west during the 19th century. After they heal up surprisingly fast, it turns out they now have the faces of four ''other'' wanted desperadoes, and return to the doctor to have their old faces restored, which succeeds without any real complications. (Although one of them complain that his chin is "a bit loose" - and it appears to be falling off! But it's fixed in later scenes.

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== Film ==

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== ~~Films --~~ Animation ==

* Used to cover a new actress assuming the role of Penny in the show-within-a-show in ''[[Bolt]]'' after the original Penny quits. However, given the circumstances surrounding Penny's departure (she nearly died in a studio fire) the audience can't be certain the new girl really isn't the original Penny until the scene cuts to show her at home watching the show with her pets. Naturally, [[Ascended Fanboy]] Rhino promptly complains that [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|the show has totally gone downhill.]]

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== ~~Films --~~ Live-Action ==

* This is used in the film ''[[The Pink Panther|Curse of the Pink Panther]]'', where {{spoiler|Roger Moore}} plays Inspector Clouseau after plastic surgery, to [[Fake Shemp|allow Clouseau to appear in a film after the death of Peter Sellers]] and give the character a sendoff.

* Examples from the ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' films:

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* Averted in ''[[Gattaca]]'', where Vincent is seen undergoing a long, painful leg-lengthening procedure with his lower legs bolted into a metal frame. (This type of surgery is called [[wikipedia:Distraction osteogenesis|distraction osteogenesis]], and it involves cutting the bone in half, driving screws into each half, and then slowly pulling them apart 1 mm per day).

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== [[Literature]] ==

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== Literature ==

* In an early ''[[Mack Bolan]]: Executioner'' novel, the hero gets plastic surgery that makes him look ''Italian''. More specifically, like an Italian-American buddy of his in the [[Vietnam War]], making it even more unlikely (underlying bone structure?)

* In a popular spy series, the hero receives plastic surgery after every mission. He no longer remembers what he used to look like.

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** Skeeter goes under the knife to look like another person. Attempted justification: [[Identical Stranger]]. Skeeter already very strongly resembles him.

** Played straight earlier. Dr. Booker is her own model and has dozens of pictures of herself looking wildly different.

* ''[[H. Beam Piper|Space Viking]]'' subverts this: when one of Lucas Trask's subordinates suggests that [[Adolf Hitler]]-[[Expy]] Zaspar Makann may be, not merely allied with Trask's enemy Andray Dunnan, but Dunnan himself disguised by plastic surgery, Trask knows that's going too far, because Makann is six inches shorter than Dunnan; "there are some things no plastic surgery could do." He doesn't trouble to point that out, though.

* [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''[[Space Viking]]'' subverts this: when one of Lucas Trask's subordinates suggests that [[Adolf Hitler]]-[[Expy]] Zaspar Makann may be, not merely allied with Trask's enemy Andray Dunnan, but Dunnan himself disguised by plastic surgery, Trask knows that's going too far, because Makann is six inches shorter than Dunnan; "there are some things no plastic surgery could do." He doesn't trouble to point that out, though.

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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

== Live-Action TV ==

* In the pilot episode of ''[[Knight Rider]]'', Michael Long is played by an actor who looks nothing at all like [[David Hasselhoff]]. Then, left for dead, Michael is rescued by the Foundation for Law and Government, given a new identity as Michael Knight, and magically transformed into the Hoff.

* Janet Green on ''[[All My Children]]'', a convicted murderer and known psychopath, is given her release from prison in exchange for undergoing experimental plastic surgery. Her portrayer, Kate Collins, left and was replaced by Robin Mattson. However, when Janet returned in 2005, she was Kate Collins again, with no explanation. (Same happened when James DePaiva left ''[[One Life to Live]]'' but later returned.)

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* Used in the second season finale of ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' to turn an escaped con woman into a Tessa lookalike to try and bring Duncan down.

== Tabletop Games ==

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* In ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'', this is but one of the [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|many]], ''[[Body Horror|many]]'' miraculous wonders the [[Torture Technician|Tzimisce]] are capable of through their unique power of [[Unusual Euphemism|Vicissitude]]. Laughably, ''raising'' your Appearance score using the power is Difficulty 10 (in OWOD, Difficulty is what you have to roll to succeed; the game uses a ten-sided die, so...), and if you suffer [[Critical Failure]] you get ''uglier''.

** There are some things that even Vicissitude can't do—trying to change [[Red Right Hand|a Nosferatu's]] appearance is impossible.

*** Changes that make them prettier, anyway. Changes that make them uglier, or cosmetically status quo (don't move their appearance trait at all) stick, while improvements 'heal' painfully in minutes. Makes sense considering Clan weaknesses are a malevolent curse rather than a genetic quirk to be fixed.

* In the ''[[Cyberpunk]] 2020'' game, improving your Attractiveness stat was as easy as throwing money at a plastic surgeon. Of course, in a setting where anyone can be biosculpted with animal features and have whole limbs and organs replaced, this is probably justified.

* In the ''[[Cyberpunk 2020]]'' game, improving your Attractiveness stat was as easy as throwing money at a plastic surgeon. Of course, in a setting where anyone can be biosculpted with animal features and have whole limbs and organs replaced, this is probably justified.

** Wanna get ugly? A straight razor is fifty-nine cents.

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== [[Theatre]] ==

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== Theatre ==

* [[Dario Fo]]'s ''Trumpets and Raspberries'' centres around this. Gianni Agnelli, the head of the Fiat car company, is kidnapped by terrorists, then involved in a car crash which smashes his face. One of his own factory workers finds him, puts his coat around him, then flees the scene when the police mistake him for one of the terrorists and start shooting at him. Agnelli is recovered and his face is reconstructed to look like the picture in the documents found in the worker's jacket. Both main characters are [[Acting for Two|played by the same actor]], with frequent quick changes where the actor has seconds to exit one wing, change costumes, and emerge from the fridge. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

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== [[Video Games]] ==

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== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Saints Row]] 2'' , You can instantly revamp your character as many times as you like at $500 per visit at the plastic surgeon.

** And yet {{spoiler|[[Shoot the Dog|Carlos is shot]] because his [[Bishonen|pretty face]] [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|couldn't be saved from mutilation]].}}

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* You can buy tokens in ''[[Guild Wars]]'' online store (with real money, naturally...) that allow you to change a character's appearance (a more expensive version lets you change gender too), making it a ''literal'' example.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'': Thanks to the Super Science Super Booster, heroes and villains can now easily change the size and shape of their bodies, even switch genders. Of course, in a world where there is a black market for magical artifacts and [[Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome|super science is used daily]], this is pretty well [[Justified]].

* In [[Fallout 3]] you can change your face as easily as getting a haircut. (Provided you find the right person)

* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'' you can change your face as easily as getting a haircut. (Provided you find the right person)

* This is the in-universe excuse for Shepard's appearance if you change it between ''[[Mass Effect 1]]'' and ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''; s/he ''died'' in the interim and had to be completely rebuilt.

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== [[Western Animation]] ==

== Western Animation ==

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Cow and Chicken]]'', where Chicken becomes a plastic surgeon and enters the interschool competition where he ultimately {{spoiler|turns himself into a ''Photo-Realistic Beaver'' (depicted with real footage over the cartoon) as the final trial}}.

* In the [[Tex Avery]] cartoon ''[[Northwest Hounded Police]]'', an escaped convict chased by Droopy goes to a plastic surgeon to get a new face. After a few seconds of surgery (which involved hammering and sawing) the convict had a new face—Droopy's. He asks the doctor to change it back and he does. He thanks the doctor—only to find that Droopy was the doctor all along!