Cover-Blowing Superpower: Difference between revisions

Compare [[Clark Kenting]], [[Obfuscating Stupidity]], [[Revealing Skill]], and [[Do Well, But Not Perfect]]. See also [[Masquerade]], an overarching reason to not use one's powers in front of ''any'' [[Muggles|normal people]].

 

 

* ''[[Trigun]]'''s Vash in episode 10. "Oops. Oh, no, I hit them all." He doesn't want to reveal himself as the legendary superhuman outlaw, but is so plastered he screws up at screwing up. Doesn't help that Wolfwood signed him up by the name "Vash the Stampede" without telling him.

* Done unsuccessfully by the protagonist of ''[[Darker than Black]]''. He's undercover working at a restaurant, and attracts the anger of a thug who was a customer, who then lunges at him. In an attempt to hide his [[Badass Abnormal|fighting skills]], he puts on a show of being clumsy, but dodges every attack so well ([[Deadly Dodging|causing a certain amount of pain for his attacker in the process]]) that a character who observes this comments that "it's true that [[All Chinese People Know Kung Fu|all Chinese people are martial arts masters]]".

* 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]]'s invulnerability, since he can't switch it off. During the [[Silver Age]], [[Lois Lane]] often tried to cut Clark Kent's hair to find out if he was Superman.

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

 

== Fan Works ==

* 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.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* 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.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* 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.

* In ''Superman2'', Lois suspects Clark is Superman and tries to force Clark to reveal his identity by jumping into a river. Clarke quietly uses his laser eyes to get a branch to Lois so she can get out. Later, Clark accidentally trips and falls into a fireplace in front of Lois and the lack of injury proves her original suspicions.

 

== Literature ==

* 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...

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* 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.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** ...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.

* Nero and Neris in ''[[Monster Girl Quest Paradox]]'' are reluctant to use their full power, the latter explicitly stating this at one point. This is because when they do so, {{spoiler|they gain purple skin with [[Power Tattoo|Power Tattoos]], white hair, wings made of energy and (in Neris' case) a serpentine lower body. These are all obvious indications that they are the children of a (part-)angel (which explains the wings) and a Monster Lord (which explains everything else).}}

 

== Web Animation ==

* 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.

 

== Western Animation ==