Invisible Man Fandom Overview

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Okay, here's how it works: There's this stuff called quicksilver that can bend light. Now, my brother and some scientists made it into a synthetic gland, and that's where I came in. See, I was facing life in prison, and they were looking for a human experiment. So, we made a deal. They put the gland in my head, and I walk free. Well, the operation was a success, but that's where everything started to go wrong.

Welcome to the Agency, a low budget government outfit trying to make the world a better place one captured terrorist at a time. And when I say low budget, I mean a crappy-van, viewmaster-briefing, no-parking-validation agency that attaches itself to such glamorous Federal agencies as the Department of Fish and Game or the Department of Weights and Measures to pay the bills.


Their one big expense is the Invisible Man project, which allows a person implanted with the quicksilver gland to make themselves or anything else invisible by secreting a substance that can bend light. Kevin Fawkes, genius extraordinaire, dreamed up the gland and chose his own brother, Darien, a thief up on a third strike offense for accidentally molesting the elderly, as his guinea pig.


Unbeknownst to Kevin, his fellow scientist Arnaud fiddled with the gland, creating a bug in the programming: quicksilver madness brought on by toxins building up in the blood. The more the host uses the gland, the quicker they plunge into a violent, psychotic state. Arnaud devises a counteragent to flush the poisons out and restore the host to normal, but too much of the drug (which is pretty pricey to manufacture) and the host develops an immunity, going permanently insane. Why would Arnaud do such a thing? I'm glad you asked! He was planning to steal the gland and replicate it to sell to terrorists, and hey, if you're going to sell invisibility on the open market, you want to make sure your customers are dependant on you for regular shots of counteragent so you can keep them on a tight leash. This pisses off Kevin, who destroys all his research, which pisses off Arnaud, who kills Kevin.


And that leaves Darien Fawkes stuck with a gland that makes him go crazy, doing missions for the Agency in return for carefully doled out shots of counteragent, constantly looking for ways to get the gland out of his head before something else goes wrong with it. And "something going wrong" ran the gamut from being kidnapped by the Chinese government to generating deadly new viruses, sharing his brain with the previous owner of the gland AND his dead brother Kevin through the miracles of memory RNA, and making sweet, sweet love to Bigfoot. It was a busy two years.

The Agency:

The Official - Owing to the fact that Darien, as an ex-con, has no security clearance, it takes a while to learn that the Official's real name is Charlie Borden. He's a tough nut to crack; he has some sympathy for Darien's position, but he runs a tight ship and he never loses sight of the fact that Darien isn't entirely trustworthy.

Eberts - The Official's number one lackey, fresh from the IRS. He's a bit of a nebbish, filing soothes him, and he kicks ass at video games. Needless to say, he doesn't get out much.

The Keeper - Like the Official, she's pretty close-mouthed about herself; we eventually learn her name is Claire. She's in charge of giving Darien his shots and trying to find a cure for quicksilver madness.

Robert Hobbes - And then there's Bobby, Darien's partner, who's washed out of just about every government agency from the FBI to the Marines. He's on enough anti-psychotic drugs to send Kim Jong Il into a coma, but he's a seasoned agent and a loyal friend, and for all you slashers out there, according to the actors, "the real love story on Invisible Man is between Hobbes and Darien." They make for fabulous partnerfic.

Alex Monroe - Monroe was a second season addition to the cast, and one the fans generally didn't appreciate, for much the same reasons that Poochy didn't work on Itchy and Scratchy. The producers were clearly aiming for a Buffy-type counterpart to Darien. Unfortunately, they put her together as more of a ball-busting Mary Sue.

And since you can't have a hero without villains, I give you:

Arnaud De Fehrn /Arnaud De Thiel - Arnaud follows the best tradition of Bond villains, enamored of intricate plots and ill-timed gloating. Oh yeah, and his attempt to give himself an invisibility gland ended with his becoming permanently invisible, dependant on latex masks to navigate public situations.

Huiclov De Fehrn - Arnaud's big brother, antacid-guzzling mercenary, pushover and all-around nice guy. He's loyal to Arnaud despite the fact that baby brother shot him in the foot and left him to rot in jail; an interesting character who we don't see much of.

Chrysalis - A shadow organization whose front man, Jared Stark, seems set on ruling the world with an army of child soldiers and genetically enhanced freaks like Allianora, a woman with a huge crush on Darien and lungs like a fire hydrant.

Thomas Walker/Augustin Gaither - Imagine if Josef Mengele had a psychotic breakdown after using himself as a lab rat and, in his resulting amnesia, thought he worked for the good guys. Walker hid out at the Agency for a while from his old employers, the SWRB, generally trying to be helpful and frustrated that he couldn't remember his past and that no one seemed eager to enlighten him.

Fannish Resources:
Tons of I-Man info at The Pegasus Project
The Shippers Manifesto Guide to Fawkes/Hobbes
The Invisible Man Virtual Season
The Invisible Man Fanfiction Archive
Invisible Man at Adultfanfic.net
Invisible Man at The Slash Nexus