Invisibility is perhaps the most intriguing and potentially useful superpower of all, but being invisible whilst still retaining the power of sight is actually rather tricky. How does Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman, do what she does? Could refraction hold the key? Is she perhaps bending light waves with some sort of gravitational field? Might adaptive camouflage be the answer? Or is it simple psychology? In this chapter we will take a look (pun intended) at the fascinating science of invisibility, and answer the question: why doesn’t the Invisible Woman keep bumping into things?

Ask any group of people what superpower they’d choose, and it won’t be long before someone says invisibility. Flying is cool and everything, but someone would eventually see you, and it would only be a matter of time before you ran into difficulties with air traffic control. Super strength is also pretty good, but once you have lifted a few cars, what more can you do with it? X-ray vision sounds all very nice in theory, but do you really want to see the majority of the population’s skeletons?