Invisibility: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"I'm the invisible man''

''I'm the invisible man''

''Incredible how you can''

 

 

Invisibility is often coupled with themes of isolation and alienation, as the invisible character's ability marks him an outcast. The [[The Invisible Man (novel)|original Invisible Man]] became a [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|sociopath]] because of his condition. In many of these series, the character is [[Power Incontinence|permanently]] invisible, which strains normal personal ties.

 

Some coping mechanisms for permanent invisibility:

* 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).

 

 

Invisibility is such an old trope that there are multiple ways to be invisible. Many of them still require a [[Hand Wave]].

* 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.

[[Invisible Streaker|Implied nudity]] is another recurring element: Regardless of the invisible character's sex, clothing is seldom affected. Indeed, [[Rule 34|fans of this trope as a storyline]] have coined two different terms for invisible women: FFI (or "fading femmes invisible") for women whose clothes go invisible with them, and TFI (or "true femmes invisible") for women whose bodies vanish but whose clothes do not. A third term, CFI ("Clear Femmes Invisible"), for characters such as Oar from [[The League of Peoples Verse]], who are visible but translucent, has also come into usage lately.

 

 

Permanent, involuntary invisibility is usually treated as either [[Cursed with Awesome]] or [[Blessed with Suck]] depending on the story.

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.

 

 

May or may not become an [[Invisible Jerkass]].

 

{{examples}}

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

* Teana of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has the ability to turn herself or one of her teammates invisible as an extension of her Illusion abilities. Garyuu and a type of [[Mecha-Mooks|Gadget Drone]] also have the ability to cloak themselves.

* The Laughing Man in ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex|Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex]]'' has no esoteric superpowers, but he can effortlessly hack the brain/eye cyborg implants of anyone who's watching him and remove his image from their field of view. This makes it impossible for anyone with implants to see him, and since basically everybody in the GITS universe is cyborged to some extent, this makes him invisible for all intents and purposes. He can also edit people's memories while they are watching him in case they ''don't'' have artificial eyes.

** 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?

* 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...

** Largely because Sanji was ''also'' [[Genre Savvy|perfectly well aware of]] wanted to [[Handsome Lech|happily exploit]] those abilities' [[Power Perversion Potential]].

* 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.

* 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.}}

* "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.

* 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]].

* Speedsters such as [[The Flash]] in the [[DC Universe]] are able to vibrate their bodies so fast that they can't be seen. This solves the clothes problem because their costumes vibrate too. Of course, they can run [[Depending on the Writer|beyond/near]] the speed of light, so they can just be invisible by running.

 

* Paul in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' can boost his minor cosmetic illusion into full-blown invisibility. He cannot use this on anything except his own body. He can turn it on or off at will. And he's an [[Invisible Streaker]].

 

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.]]

**** 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 ''[[Igor]]'', you have Carl Cristall, the invisible TV show host who wears all other clothes except pants of any sort, since he realized there was no reason for an invisible man to wear such.

* ''[[The Invisible Man (film)|The Invisible Man]]'', a 1933 film based on [[H. G. Wells]]' novel, staring [[Claude Rains]].

* The young adult novel ''Things Not Seen''.

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'', extraordinarily ''real'' characters such as [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] have a sort of invisibility: They're just ''so'' visible that people's minds can't take it and end up not recognizing they're even there.

** Granny Weatherwax has the ability to become invisible by simply making people not notice she's there. Trainee witch Tiffany Aching manages to pick up on this trick, to the envy of her peers.

* [[Harry Potter]] has an [[Invisibility Cloak]] that he inherits from his father. The fifth book has Moody performing a Disillusionment Charm on Harry, a camouflage spell that makes him perfectly mimic his surroundings. And in the first book, Dumbledore mentions that there are different ways to become invisible (to imply that he was spying on Harry.)

** In Deathly Hallows, the methods for invisibility are listed (mental aversion, perfect camouflage, and a special cloth that quickly loses its potency.) This is important because {{spoiler|Harry's cloak uses none of these methods. The cloak is one of the Deathly Hallows, either made by Death himself or by a legendary wizard.}} Nobody noticed it until the seventh book, but that's probably an intentional side-effect of its powers.

** The One Ring makes its wearer invisible by partly shifting him into the wraith world - the Nine have the same effect on their wearers, and when, say, the Witch King has his final confrontation he is seen to wear a crown but "on no head visible was it set", but Frodo and the Nazgul could see each other very well on Weathertop. Tom Bombadil could not be affected in that way, but Isildur, a Man of Numenorean descent, could be; it just didn't prevent orcs from tracking him by scent and the trail he left through grass, and it slipped from his finger as he swam across the River, leaving him visible to be slain by archers.

* [[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.

 

* A 1958 [[ITV]] series in the United Kingdom.

* A 1975 David McCallum vehicle.

* A 1984 [[Miniseries]].

* A 1998 series starring Kyle MacLachlan.

* ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'', a Sci-Fi Channel series running from 2000 to 2002.

** Note that this is one of the few shows that [[Hand Wave]] away the fact that invisibility causes blindness: It's said that though the "quicksilver" that makes Darien invisible bends all visible light around him, it lets in (and frequency-shifts) ultraviolet light which allows him to see.

** 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.

* 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]].

* 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).

 

== [[Radio]] ==

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[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.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* This is one of [[Sly Cooper]]'s powers.

* ''[[Second Sight]]'' has multiple characters who use the mind-clouding variant, [[Visible Invisibility|represented as transparency]]. Security cameras ignore it, and it can't be activated if someone's already looking at the user ([[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|unless that someone is you, anyways]].) It also malfunctions if the user gets too close to someone else, and odd things can happen if someone sees footprints forming without anything visible to form them.

* ''The ball'' can turn invisible in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Baseball]]'' via a powerup.

** 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.)

* Joachim of ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' Covenant goes through a handful of different forms, one of which is Invisible.

* Female Night Elves in ''[[Warcraft 3]]'' can Shadowmeld at night if they stand still. This ability was extended to males as well in [[World of Warcraft]].

* 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.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* One of Nanashi's many powers in ''[[Earthsong]]''.

* Geist of ''[[Heist]]'' fame has this as well as [[Intangible Man|Intangibility]]. Makes him well-suited for [[Phantom Thief|his job]].

* [[Ben Croshaw|Yahtzee]]'s old surrealistic webcomic ''The Adventures Of Angular Mike'' has the the Invisible Hentai Girl character, who you can only tell is around whenever she wears her [[Sailor Fuku]] uniform, which she, given her name, rarely does for long periods of time. Yahtzee blatantly admits on the character description page that the main reason for her invisibiity is his [[Lazy Artist|inability to draw]] [[Animesque]] women, but he also makes note of the element of irony in giving the most oversexed he has ever done this trait.

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', Fatale can turn invisible and teleport. Puck is a mystic martial artist who can vanish from sight (he still shows up in a person's peripheral vision, but vanishes when he's looked at directly). The Gentleman Ghost is permanently invisible, but dressed in an immaculate white tuxedo with tails and a top hat. Phantom Panther combines this with [[Intangible Man|intangibility]].

** Wallflower's [[Deflector Shields|force field]] uses the light-warping approach. ''She'' can still 'see' from inside the field (using a sensory power she wasn't even aware she had until it was pointed out to her), but others do find themselves in total darkness.

 

* Invisibility is one of [[Space Ghost]]'s main powers.

* In ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', turning invisible was Mirage's special ability.

* 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.

* In one episode of ''[[Bratz]]'', The bratz find and use invisibility spray.

* Marceline from ''[[Adventure Time]]'' has this power for some reason.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Ghosts, if you believe they exist.

* In the near future, it will be possible to create a device that conceals you completely. Surprisingly, it would be quite similar to [[Harry Potter]]'s [[Invisibility Cloak]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Futuristic Tech Index]]

[[Category:Stock Super Powers]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]