Security agencies are experimenting with applications of imaging devices which can "see" through clothing (using terahertz waves). X-rays have many practical uses for scientific and medical imaging.
As depicted, x-ray vision is actually more of a form of the supposed psychic ability of remote viewing. The images seen on x-ray film are "shadows" of the objects the x-rays passed through on their way to the film). X-ray films are made as x-rays pass through an object and then through the x-ray film. How such an effect might be created via x-rays is unexplained (the x-rays from the viewer's eyes would need to bounce back to their eyes the same way normal light reflects off objects and into the viewer's eyes: x-rays simply pass through an object and continue on their way.
In such cases, the visions seen are generally in full color and in three dimensions. Thus, Superman can see through walls to see the criminals beyond, or see through Lois Lane's dress to determine the color of her underwear (in Superman: The Movie, Warner Brothers, 1978). Instead, it is usually presented as the ability to selectively see through certain objects as though they are invisible or translucent in order to see objects or surfaces beyond or deep inside the affected object or material. Īlthough called X-ray vision, this power has little to do with the actual effect of X-rays. In myth, Lynceus of the Argonauts possessed a similar ability. She is often considered to be one of the first superheroes. The first person with X-ray vision in a comic book was Olga Mesmer in 1937's Spicy Mysteries. Among the best known figures with "x-ray vision" are the fictional Superman, and the protagonist of the 1963 film X.