Spy Catsuit: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* The female spy shows up to the mission in normal, practical clothes, and males around her express disappointment.

See also [[Superheroes Wear Tights]], [[Impossibly Cool Clothes]].

== Anime and Manga ==

** While the Major's normal combat wear shows more curves than the standard models, it's generally quite practical. The major exception to this is in the ''Stand Alone Complex the 2nd Gig'' episode ''Cash Eye'', which plays with the infiltration and espionage tropes, and repeated references to ''Ocean's Eleven'', and has her wear a catsuit that fits this trope to tee with little purpose. Perhaps the outfit let the android fetishist [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] to mistake her for a combat android.

*** Although the episode does reference Cat's Eye (see below) with the 'Cash Eye' logo.

* ''[[Cat's Eye]]'', anyone? Spy catsuits complete with Xtreme plunging necklines and ''built-in high heels'', for added stealth obviously.

* Natsuki Kuga in ''[[Mai-HiME]]'' sports the motorcycle variant.

* In ''[[Lupin III]]'', one of [[Ms. Fanservice|Fujiko Mine]]'s regular outfits is a black leather spy catsuit which she frequently [[Absolute Cleavage|doesn't zip up all the way]].

** The 1969 Pilot Film had Lupin in one, in a shot that gets homaged throughout the series.

* Miu in ''[[Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi]]'' wears this for nearly every fight, which allows for the artists to outline every curve for her t&a even when they decide it should be reduced to just covering the essentials for the rating.

* In ''[[Tetsuwan Birdy]]'', Birdy wears one of these when she's spying/fighting. She's an alien, so it's easier to explain why she can move so easily in it. Most of it is also skin-colored, so it looks like she's wearing what amounts to a bathing suit.

* Cure Muse in ''[[Suite Precure]]''.

* Celty from ''[[Durarara]]''.

* [[Catwoman (Comic Book)|Catwoman]] ([[DC Comics]]) often, but not always, wears these.

** Subverted in a ''[[Batman Adventures]]'' tie-in comic that introduced Catman as a villain inspired by Catwoman. So much that he wears Catwoman's rather feminine-looking catsuit, which looks rather comical on a male figure.

* The Black Cat ([[Marvel Comics]]) also wears catsuits, unsurprisingly.

** And the [[Black Panther]] counts as a male example.

** "Empowered" goes well beyond skintight; the power suit is actually a membrane-thin piece of nothing that leaves the wearer effectively naked, while fighting crime in public. The point to 'Empowered' is to get your humiliation fetish in your ironically-titled supers fantasy.

* Similarly to the ''[[Empowered (Comic Book)|Empowered]]'' example, [[Artificial Human]] Girl One from ''[[Top Ten]]'' wears what at first appears to be a full body catsuit. In reality, she's actually nude -- her creators gave her an aversion to clothing, while at the same time giving her body the ability to hide this fact via built in full body tattoo/bodypaint that she can control at will -- she typically looks like she's wearing a full body purple spandex catsuit with logos and patterns on it. [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|They didn't explain this until several chapters in]].

* Oddly averted in ''Codename: Knockout'' -- though it's a spy parody practically made out of [[Fan Service]], the protagonist almost never wears her catsuit outside of covers.

* [[Archie Comics]] Betty and Veronica wear black catsuits when acting as "[[Teen Superspy|Agents B & V]]".

* Jennifer Mays of ''[[The Maze Agency]]'' wears one whenver she is on a stealth mission.

* The eponymous heroine's one piece racing suit in ''[[Chassis]]''.

* The Kensington ladies and Foxy Cleopatra from ''[[Austin Powers]]'', obviously.

* If there was a point to the movie ''[[Entrapment]]'' beyond showing Catherine Zeta-Jones in one of these as she slinked through a maze of trip beams, it's not clear.

* Trinity in ''[[The Matrix]]'' trilogy.

** Also Lady Deathstrike from the second film.

* Subverted in the Roger Moore thriller [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081809/ FFolkes], where the titular character, upon discovering the wetsuit he will be using to infiltrate the hijacked North Sea oil platform to stop terrorists from blowing it up snarks, "A wet suit in vermilion. Just what one needs at night."

* In ''[[Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back]]'', a quartet of jewel thieves posing as animal rights activists wear these to steal diamonds while the titular heroes are duped into freeing animals from the lab next door as a diversion.

* Worn by the team during the raid on the compound and in the [[V-Formation Team Shot]] behind the closing credits in ''[[Angels Revenge]]''.

* Based on a recent promo image, [[Anne Hathaway]]'s outfit as [[Catwoman]] in ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|The Dark Knight Rises]]'' appears to be little more than this.

* The likely [[Trope Maker]] is Irma Vep in the 1915-16 French serial ''[[Les Vampires]]''. Musidora, the actress who played Irma had been a circus acrobat and the catsuit is probably derived from her leotard and tights.

* Pookie, a Pervect bodyguard from ''[[Myth Adventures]]'', wears one of these as her work clothes, along with a short cape. How much this qualifies as [[Fan Service]] depends on whether the reader is into bald, rail-thin women with green scales.

* In ''[[Into the Looking Glass|Vorpal Blade]]'', Two Gun uses this to describe the skintight suits that [[Powered Armor|Wyvern]] operators have to wear when using their suits.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** This was, essentially, the entire point behind the character. Her name alludes to it, even: Emma Peel ==> M. Appeal or Man Appeal. (Her original name was the less subtle 'Mantha Peel, but it was changed perhaps on account of being the unsexiest name in television history)

** In later Emma Peel seasons, this ended up as a [[Justified Trope]]. The actress insisted on switching from the black leather catsuit to a colored jersey version - just as skintight, but far more practical for gymnastically kicking [[Mooks]] in.

** It worked in the '60s just because it was less [[Stripperiffic]] than modern versions, and looked like something a motorcycle-riding woman would wear. In fact, many male and female bikers wear something similar but more colourful right now. As the time went on, catsuits began to shine, reveal and tighten to the point of asphyxiation.

* Wendy Watson in ''[[The Middleman]]''. Actually, she wears one in the opening credits, but "The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown" is the first episode in which she wore one within the episode.

* Eartha Kitt wore in an episode of ''[[Mission Impossible]]'' where she guest starred as an acrobat-contortionist used by the IMF to crawl through the vents of a foreign embassy.

* Seven of Nine and T'Pol from ''[[Star Trek]]'' aren't spies, but still wear catsuits.

* Lynda Carter's [[Wonder Woman]] wore one on a couple of rare occasions in which it replaced her regular costume when she needed to go swimming (likely lampshading the fact that her regular costume ''was'' basically a swimsuit). It actually fits the trope name because in the TV continuity, Diana Prince worked for a spy organization.

== Tabletop Games ==

** And, of course, there's the Harlequins in their skin-tight acrobat leotard that emits hologram fields.

* Strangely enough, in the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' games, the [[Spy Catsuit]] is the domain of [http://i11.tinypic.com/4ujta9j.jpg male spies]. The female spies get to wear [http://i17.tinypic.com/5xz6dz6.jpg proper camo], suits, military uniforms or flight suits. The Boss starts out in a proper BDU, but switches this for possibly the [http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n291/celtic1962/THEBOSSsnakeeater.jpg a more "space age" type outfit]. Eva in ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' plays this pretty straight though, complete with the front-zipper cleavage, which features prominently in first-person cutscenes.

** The character designer for ''Metal Gear Solid'' admitted that Snake and Raiden's outfits, particularly Raiden's, were inspired by looking at bondage gear, probably an admission that it was intended as [[Fetish Fuel]]. On the character art, he draws an arrow to Raiden's buttocks, [[Mr. Fanservice|explicitly pointing out where his underwear lines can be seen through his clothes]] - it's subtly visible on the in-game model itself.

* In ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', Rouge the Bat has a tight suit complete with a [[Chainmail Bikini|heart breastplate]].

** Replaced with a generic [[Stripperiffic]] outfit in ''Heroes''. In addition, in [[Sonic X]] Rouge has a "stealth" version that's all black in some scenes(the SA2 version has a good deal of white). It still has the pink heart breastplate(and the pink hearts on her [[Combat Stilettos|gogo boots]] for that matter) though.

* In ''[[Mercenaries]] 2: World in Flames''. Jennifer Mui's last unlockable costume is a catsuit with cleavage nearly reaching her navel. She will drop a [[Lampshade Hanging]] when she puts it on. The male characters get a yellow chicken costume instead.

* In the ''[[Fallout]] 3'' DLC ''Operation: Anchorage'', one of the rewards for completing the simulation is Chinese Spy Catsuit that allows the wearer to gain a stealth field while sneaking. Although both male and female characters can equip it, the enemies who wear it are all males. Unlike most examples here, The Chinese Spy Catsuit does have stealth field properties, and is a great asset to an infiltrator, which makes this a justification or subversion, depending on your angle.

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' has the shrouded armor for assassins.

* The kunoichi [[Ms. Fanservice|Kasuga]] from ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' wears an especially [[Stripperiffic]] black catsuit complete with some impressive [[Absolute Cleavage]].

** Ashley's alternate armour in 3 has some catsuit qualities to it. In the same game, there's Eva Core, who's kitted out in the same catsuit as Miranda, which can then later be put on {{spoiler|EDI}} for no fathomable reason.

* The Ghosts in ''[[Starcraft]]'' got the [http://images.wikia.com/starcraft/images/7/71/Ghost_SC-G_Cncpt1.jpg Hostile Environment Suit] which is designed act like a wetsuit while being undetectable by thermal sensors. It also supports [[Invisibility Cloak|Personal Cloaking]].

** And don't forget when she's aiding Josh Stone in DLC, ''Desperate Escape''.

* Jenny sports a tight racing suit in ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]''.

* The Spy unit in ''[[Civilization]] 4'' look like this, at least in the later eras.

== Webcomics ==

* In the Future Developments arc of ''[[SSDD]]'' Tessa wears a dark grey catsuit that's implied to provide some protection (though an Inlay's bullet penetrates it easily), and as she's putting it on she complains about how tight it is and that Dr. Cook only designed it so he could see her tits when she wore it.

* Averted in ''[[Order of the Stick]]'': While Haley inexplicably dons black leather in her role as sneaky leader of the Azure City Resistance, it actually is LESS revealing than her normal day-to-day outfit.

'''Phil:''' Gee, Bill! I hope nobody spies on it!<br />

'''Zoe:''' ''I am not putting on my spy clothes!'' }}

* Thae of ''[[Overlord Academy]]'' is wearing one of these in her first appearance.

* In ''[[Tales Of Gnosis College]]'', Ashley Madder wears one of these (explicitly modeled on the ''maillot de soie'' worn by Irma Vep in [[wikipedia:Les Vampires|''Les Vampires'']]) to infiltrate Professor Corwin's laboratory.

== Western Animation ==

** Turns out all Monicans wear this.

** In one episodes, one of their gadgets were a "literal" catsuit, a skintight black suit with cat ears on the hood. It was specifically designed to give the wearer the nimbleness of a cat.

** Her [[Dark Action Girl]] nemesis Shego plays this trope straight.

** Subversion No. 3 is played in the 3rd Season finale, when she shows up to help Brock and the Venture family while wearing her "off-duty" getup.

** In a later episode, Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike each don into one in order to sneak into the Canterlot Archives.