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Comic Books
"Now to check my vision! Telescopic vision — check! I can read the numbers on the bottom of a coin... locked in a basement vault in Moscow! X-Ray vision — check!"
Kara: Did you hear that? People screaming... and some sort of roaring...
Superboy: I don't — Are you hearing...?
Linda: I got nothin'.
Kara: And now I can see it, right in Metropolis, with my telescopic vision!
Superboy: Her what? Is there any power she doesn't have?
Superboy: I don't — Are you hearing...?
Linda: I got nothin'.
Kara: And now I can see it, right in Metropolis, with my telescopic vision!
Superboy: Her what? Is there any power she doesn't have?
"You're getting mighty sloppy, boy! I could hear you breathing and walking through a solid steel door! I taught you better than that!"
— Dr. Yagyu, Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja
"Waitaminnit! That heartbeat... I've heard it before! With hearing as sensitive as mine, they're as individual as fingerprints!"
— Supergirl, Supergirl (1982)
"My super-hearing picked up a roaring sound far out of town! I'll check what it is with my telescopic vision!"
— Superman, The Supergirl From Krypton (1959)
Fan Works
No sooner had I started out of the alley, did I hear a distinct bang. Let me clarify, I heard many noises with my super-hearing. At its peak, it was possible for me to hear and process every sound on the planet, with time to concentrate of course. I had a very limited version of that at the moment, maybe a few blocks or miles at most, I wasn't sure. Even my ability to process information, I could tell was far slower than what I was used to.
Supergirl had sent her super-vision ahead of her, for caution's sake. The images she saw arrived in her brain only a fraction of a second before her body arrived on the scene of Darkseid's den. But it was time enough to be effective.
At that moment, [Shinji] happened to chance a glance the way he had come. He came by train, of course, as he was instructed, but he looked up the road. He saw waves of heat, the heat of a summer that never ended, rising from the road, creating the illusion of water in the places where it lowered. He also saw waves of shimmering infrared radiation, the heat rising from the ground and the buildings, and the faint interplay of cosmic radiation, the little that leaked through the ionosphere, painting the world in a dozen hues no one else could see.
I always knew there was something strange about me, I guess.
It started with the colors. I began to see more of them, strange ones I had never seen before. [...] I'm pretty sure I can actually see the entire spectrum now. Let me tell you, the world looks awesome.
The hearing came next. It was pretty much the same as the colors, I started hearing stuff that no one else could hear. It got pretty overwhelming at first; ants sounded like elephants when they skittered about, but I soon learned to keep a bottle on it, hear what I wanted to hear. I usually keep it at slightly above average, but at the drop of a hat I can tell you a conversation going on halfway around the world.
It started with the colors. I began to see more of them, strange ones I had never seen before. [...] I'm pretty sure I can actually see the entire spectrum now. Let me tell you, the world looks awesome.
The hearing came next. It was pretty much the same as the colors, I started hearing stuff that no one else could hear. It got pretty overwhelming at first; ants sounded like elephants when they skittered about, but I soon learned to keep a bottle on it, hear what I wanted to hear. I usually keep it at slightly above average, but at the drop of a hat I can tell you a conversation going on halfway around the world.
Instead, the Second Child closed her eyes, once more focusing on the sounds that had been a constant background buzz ever since she'd discovered her super hearing. An endless number of sounds suddenly came to her attention: the beat of her heart, the sound of her blood rushing through her veins, the various mechanical noises made by her EVA, the conversations of hundreds of people...
Kara shifted on her knees and used her telescopic vision. It was so fine to experience super-powers again, especially the super-senses. They were so convenient.
She picked out some familiar landmarks. First, Midvale, where her parents still lived. Then Metropolis. Then Gotham City. Finally, Chicago. She didn't use her x-ray vision to see within the houses yet. That would wait till after she was on Earth herself, and could investigate things directly.
She picked out some familiar landmarks. First, Midvale, where her parents still lived. Then Metropolis. Then Gotham City. Finally, Chicago. She didn't use her x-ray vision to see within the houses yet. That would wait till after she was on Earth herself, and could investigate things directly.
He also recalled that Superman had other powers. X-ray vision, and heat vision, and half a dozen other visions. All from the comic books. All dreamed up by those idiots down at DC Comics, who really believed that such a thing was possible. Who bought into the myth so much, they tried to rationalize out every bit of it.
Only here, in this dream, it needed no rationalization.
Only here, in this dream, it needed no rationalization.
"Super-vision could help her keep track of Buffy Summers, even 108 stories up, even through stone and steel."
[She] smelled that all over the place. She mentally whapped herself for concentrating so much on what she saw and heard that she didn't use the other senses Rao had given her. Somebody had gotten a royal hosing from a polecat.
Could that be related to the missing wig?
She looked at the tree, and below it, with microscopic and infra-red vision, since it was too dark to use regular sight. There were footprints, broken leaves, all the signs that someone... no, two someones... had been there. Kara wasn't Sherlock Holmes, but she knew that the prints were from girls' shoes. A clump of dirt bore a Keds imprint. No one without super-vision could have picked it out.
There were enough acorns around the base of the oak tree in which she had hid the wig to indicate that the two parties involved had knocked them loose trying to get the thing down. Some rocks nearby, dug up from the ground and still dirty, were what they had used. There were a lot of them, and it would have taken a decent amount of tries to knock the wig loose by throwing rocks at it.
Could that be related to the missing wig?
She looked at the tree, and below it, with microscopic and infra-red vision, since it was too dark to use regular sight. There were footprints, broken leaves, all the signs that someone... no, two someones... had been there. Kara wasn't Sherlock Holmes, but she knew that the prints were from girls' shoes. A clump of dirt bore a Keds imprint. No one without super-vision could have picked it out.
There were enough acorns around the base of the oak tree in which she had hid the wig to indicate that the two parties involved had knocked them loose trying to get the thing down. Some rocks nearby, dug up from the ground and still dirty, were what they had used. There were a lot of them, and it would have taken a decent amount of tries to knock the wig loose by throwing rocks at it.
Literature
"You use Evyan skin cream and sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps, but not today."
— Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs
Jake: <There's a ship up ahead.>
Tobias: <You just now noticed it? Wow. Seagull eyes aren't exactly great, are they? It's a container ship called Newmar. It's from Monrovia. You want to know what color the captain's hair is?>
Jake: <Show-off.>
Tobias: <You just now noticed it? Wow. Seagull eyes aren't exactly great, are they? It's a container ship called Newmar. It's from Monrovia. You want to know what color the captain's hair is?>
Jake: <Show-off.>
— Animorphs #4: The Message
Lindon pointed to the east.
His mother squinted in that direction. "You can sense him from here?"
"I can see him," Lindon said quietly.
His mother squinted in that direction. "You can sense him from here?"
"I can see him," Lindon said quietly.
— Cradle Series, book 10: Reaper
Meia: [to Shera] I hear everything that happens on the ship.
Mason: Uh... everything, Gardener?
Meia: Everything.
Mason: [hides, embarrassed]
Mason: Uh... everything, Gardener?
Meia: Everything.
Mason: [hides, embarrassed]
"I can detect and identify pheromones at three parts per million. I know. I have tested it. You cannot hide very much from my senses. I think it would horrify you what I can detect by smell alone. Your pheromones tell me what you are doing or are prepared to do. And gesture and posture! I stared for half a day once at an old man sitting on a bench in Arrakeen. He was a fifth-generation descendant of Stilgar the Naib and did not even know it. I studied the angle of his neck, the skin flaps below his chin, the cracked lips and moistness about his nostrils, the pores behind his ears, the wisps of grey hair which crept from beneath the hood of his antique still-suit. Not once did he detect that he was being watched. Hah! Stilgar would have known it in a second or two."
— Leto Atreides II, God-Emperor of Dune
Tis an hour yet and an hour yet to the rising of the moon,
But I can see the black roof-tree as plain as it were noon.
Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the trooping blackbuck go;
But I can hear the little fawn that bleats behind the doe.
Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the crop and the upland meet,
But I can smell the wet dawn-wind that wakes the sprouting wheat.
But I can see the black roof-tree as plain as it were noon.
Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the trooping blackbuck go;
But I can hear the little fawn that bleats behind the doe.
Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the crop and the upland meet,
But I can smell the wet dawn-wind that wakes the sprouting wheat.
— The Only Son, by Rudyard Kipling
"I tried a most potent Noise Amplification Spell once upon a time. Marvelous spell. I could hear the birds speaking to one another in trees over the horizon, I could hear the rustlings as the clouds rubbed against one another in the sky. I could hear the sound a rainbow makes as it arches its back over the world. Then a dog barked behind me and I burst my left eardrum. Won't try that again in a hurry."
— Gandef, The Soddit
Live-Action TV
Pierce: You see Jeff, there are certain things man was not meant to hear. We were designed, by whatever entity you choose, to hear what's in this range and really this range alone, because you know who's talking to us in this range? The people we love.
[Pierce gets up and leaves]
Jeff: [to himself] He must have heard us call him Inspector Gadget.
[Pierce gets up and leaves]
Jeff: [to himself] He must have heard us call him Inspector Gadget.
"I can't see, not like everyone else, but I can feel. Things like balance and direction. Micro-changes in air density, vibrations, blankets of temperature variations. Mix all that with what I hear, subtle smells. All of the fragments form a sort of impressionistic painting... A world on fire."
— Matt Murdock, Daredevil (2015)
Father Jack: [being startled awake by the sound of Father Ted failing to stealth-pack a wine bottle] DRINK!
Father Ted: It's not drink, Father. It's just fizzy water.
Father Jack: Jacob's Creek chardonnay, 1991!
Father Ted: It's not drink, Father. It's just fizzy water.
Father Jack: Jacob's Creek chardonnay, 1991!
Webcomics
Charlene: You're using werewolf hearing to talk to her from here?
Malaya: Yep!
Charlene: It's like watching someone on a phone call.
Malaya: Yep!
Charlene: It's like watching someone on a phone call.
Police Chief: This interview will not be admissible for arraignment unless the accused knows we're listening.
Schlock: [turns to look at him through the soundproof wall]
Chief: He can hear us?
Massey: He can hear our heartbeats.
Schlock: I can hear what you had for lunch.
Schlock: [turns to look at him through the soundproof wall]
Chief: He can hear us?
Massey: He can hear our heartbeats.
Schlock: I can hear what you had for lunch.
Western Animation
"There's some milk in the fridge that's about to go bad. [Beat] And there it goes.
— Bobby, while on Ritalin (and riding in the passenger seat of his dad's truck), King of the Hill
