Basic Trope: A character wears something that obscures their eyes, so that thing morphs to show their expressions.
- Straight: Captain Justice wears a mask that covers his face, but the eyeholes are shown widening, squinting, or blinking when he is.
- Exaggerated: Captain Justice's mask deforms in the eyes, mouth, and eyebrows when his face does so.
- Downplayed: Captain Justice's mask moves very slightly with his facial expressions that only eagle-eyed audiences can see it.
- Justified:
- Captain Justice's mask is made of an alien material that sticks to his face and moves with it.
- Captain Justice is a shapeshifter and the "mask" is actually part of his face.
- The mask is a symbol, such as of the mask one wears in public, and is naturally attuned to the wearer.
- The mask has mechanical components that resemble camera shutters.
- Inverted:
- Captain Justice's civilian alter-ego shows no emotion when he's not wearing a mask.
- Captain Justice never changes his facial expression.
- Subverted:
- Captain Justice's mask is made of an alien material that sticks to his face, but it doesn't fit him right and doesn't conform to his facial expressions.
- It's Not a Mask, it's face paint!
- Captain Justice's mask doesn't move. Not that is easy to tell. However Loki the Deceiver has a nearly perfect impersonation of him; however, the mask he morphed shows expressions.
- Double Subverted:
- Eventually, Captain Justice gets used to the mask and it starts matching his facial expressions.
- The face paint wears off to reveal a latex mask underneath that moves along with Captain Justice's facial expressions.
- Amazing Girl is introduced with a mask that doesn't move. It turns out to be an Emotionless Girl wearing it.
- Parodied:
- Captain Justice notices how his mask moves and never takes it off because it works just fine to show his expressions.
- Captain Justice carries a backpack containing a mask for every possible expression. Sometimes he puts on the wrong one.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Captain Justice's original costume features a static concealing mask that does not move. However, he later bonds to an alien mask that conforms to his expressions, but it later is damaged and he has to use the old mask until it's repaired.
- It mentioned that the Expressive Mask is a Translation Convention, and in-universe the mask is expressionless.
- Averted:
- Captain Justice's mask covers his face and doesn't move.
- Captain Justice doesn't wear a mask at all.
- Enforced: "We like this costume design for Captain Justice, but we think the mask might make it hard to read his expressions. Maybe we should make it move".
- Lampshaded: "I'm going to examine this closely, as you can see from my eyeholes squinting with me".
- Invoked: Captain Justice wants his feelings to be known to his enemies and teammates, so he specifically makes his mask change with his emotions.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Captain Justice, while making his costume, briefly considers using an alien material that would fit his expressions for the mask, but decides he doesn't need to and uses a normal non-moving material instead.
- Discussed: "Have you noticed how Captain Justice's mask moves like that? It's kind of creepy".
- Conversed: "Why do you superheroes always feel the need to make your masks show how you feel?"
- Deconstructed: Captain Justice's mask ends up revealing too much emotion, allowing a villain to piece together the subtle clues in his expressions to figure out his secret identity, putting Captain Justice at risk.
- Reconstructed: However, Captain Justice had thought of this and trained himself to use different emotions as his secret identity.
- Played for Laughs: Captain Justice is prone to wacky expressions, all of which cause his mask to morph to fit.
- Played for Drama: Captain Justice designs a new costume after his sidekick, Joey the Justice Boy, has died. He wishes to honor Joey by expressing his feelings of grief.
Back to Expressive Mask
