Dib Membrane

**Dib Membrane** is an eccentric young boy who is obsessed with the paranormal. He is the brother of Gaz Membrane and the son of Professor Membrane, as well as Zim'sgreatest nemesis on Earth. Self proclaimed "defender of earth", he attends skool with Zim and is determined to stop him from conquering Earth and expose him as an alien, though almost nobody believes him. He is highly unpopular at school and at home for his said obsession with the paranormal, and is often dismissed as "crazy" or "insane".

## Biography

Dib is around 11-13 Earth years old (during seasons 1–2, including the unfinished episodes)[2] and resembles his father Professor Membrane. Both have black, scythe-like hair; in "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom", Dib's got more jagged and bigger with age. Many people claim that Dib's head is big, a running gag in the show, but it's not visibly bigger. The redesign process God Save the Dib, however, actually gave him a bigger head.
 His hair spike seems to be solid, and retains its shape even when getting wet. It took a water balloon of ridiculous proportions dropped from Earth's orbit and a second normal water balloon in order to get it to bend, as seen in "The Wettening". Dib seems to be able to zip-line with his hair spike (using the spike as the runners), as seen in "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars" and Issue 17. Likewise, it seems solid enough to punch through a brick wall like any part of his body if Dib is flung hard enough, as seen in "Mortos der Soulstealer".

He wears a pair of round glasses and a trademark black trench coat along with a blue shirt with an unsmiling grey face on it, pulled directly from Squee!, in which the main character, Todd, also known as Squee, wears exactly the same shirt. In some of the comics, the gray face on his shirt is replaced by a ghost.

It has been confirmed that Dib, as well Professor Membrane and Gaz, is a very pale Mexican.[3]

Dib is separated from the rest of his peers by his exceptional intelligence and determination, and he continues to seek out the paranormal despite the considerable ridicule he receives from both peers and family. He considers himself to be the sole defender of Earth against Zim's plans of conquest, and rightly so; he is in fact the only one who knows and cares that Zim is an Irken Invader bent on world destruction.

When Zim first landed on Earth, Dib was initially shown to be more antagonistic, obsessed and desperate, making it his sole goal in life to expose Zim as an alien by any means necessary. However, he eventually realized that any efforts to reveal Zim would be wasted on his oblivious peers, and Dib eventually lost his obsessive, desperate edge, becoming a more humorous and more sympathetic character overall.

Dib shares his father's scientific and technological prowess, with skills that far exceed the average human being: He has been known to created advanced technology entirely from scratch (for example, an advanced water balloon-launching apparatus). These skills aren't limited to just Earth-based technology, either; Dib has on multiple occasions proven a keen understanding of Irken technology as well, whether it be hacking into Zim's base, reverse-engineering a rogue Invader's crashed vessel or remotely flying the Irken flagship itself.

In this series, Dib is usually seen hanging around Dil Pickles, considering each other as best friends since they are both interested in the supernatural world, though Dil is more optomistic than Dib usually is about finding these creatures, especially during Interview with a Campfire. Oddly enough, he is seen in later stories, interested in Mandy, but this may or may not be a way to get closer to The Grim Reaper, but the two get married in the future and have a daughter.

## Relatives

* Mandy Delise (wife)
* Dysonmia Membrane (daughter)
* Deidre Membrane (mother)

## Trivia

* Dib is the first human to make an appearance on the series, this is fitting considering he's Zim's main rival on Earth.
* Dib is among the most antisocial character in the show; he has no friends due to most of the other Skoolchildren ridiculing and bullying him most of the time. The only person who is more antisocial is his own sister, who seems to actively despise humanity because they seem to interfere with her life all the time.
* Dib might have OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). This is suggested by one of lines in "Gaz, Taster of Pork": "How did I miss that?! Me: obsessive-compulsive Dib!!"
* The episode "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom" seems to suggest that, like his sister Gaz, Dib may have been granted phenomenal powers and abilities far beyond those of normal humans. These abilities may have been given to him by the Meekrob in Dib's dreamlike illusion.
* At some point in his life, he tried to raise the dead, as referenced by Professor Membrane twice in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars". It is inferred that he succeeded, as Membrane shouts "There better not be any walking dead up there!"
* Despite his determination, he loses far more battles against Zim than he wins. Even when he wins, his plans don't work out the way he plans them. Before the seventh or so script, his profile on Nick.com said he was never able to win.
* A misconception of the end of "Future Dib" is that he aged, but he'd been there for a month and the beard was most likely a momentary gag.
* The creators took a liking to his unique hairstyle, and in "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom", they wanted it to grow into a longer, more jagged, lightning-bolt shape.
* Dib, like Zim, doesn't know that Zim's mission to Earth was actually meant to be something to keep Zim out of the way while the actual Operation Impending Doom is in effect. If Dib knew this, he might possibly see Zim differently, but that's just speculation.
* Ironically, Zim is the closest thing Dib has to a friend.
* Although perceived as insane, he is in many ways the most sane and human character in the series to some viewers.
* His Swollen Eyeball codename may derive from the legend of Mothman, who would appear right before a disaster as a warning.
* Whenever he talks to Tak's ship and Zim's Dib Robot (both share Dib's personality) he starts to notice why people see him as obnoxious.
* Dib is Jhonen Vasquez's favorite character in the show.
* In the commentary for "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", Jhonen Vasquez jokingly stated that the original idea for the episode was for Zim to kill Dib permanently, and for Dib to be replaced with a new kid named Louie. However, Nickelodeon wouldn't permit it.
* Dib is one of the two characters to have technically died on the show, the second being Skoodge.
* On *Verizon* cable, in the summary for "Mysterious Mysteries", Dib's name is misspelled as "Dub" rather than "Dib".
* Dib had a yellow shirt in the pilot.
* Dib was first seen in a commercial for *Invader Zim* before it premiered; the commercial started off seemingly as a typical Nickelodeon bumper, until it was interrupted by Dib, who stated "Zim is coming!"
* On Nickelodeon an *Invader Zim* special aired before the premiere, and at one part they "call" Dib.  [4]
* Dib is not playable in *Nicktoons MLB*, but he has a collectible card. The card mentions that he knows that there is 'alien activity' going on in the major leagues and that he is undergoing psychological screening. However, the card does *not* acknowledge Dib knowing or caring that his sister is partnering with his mortal enemy.
* Dib makes an appearance in 3 of Snafu's webcomics: *PowerPuff Girls Doujinshi*, *Grim Tales*, and *Invader Zim: Manifest Doom*.
* Dib also makes an appearance in *The Night After School* series on DeviantART.
* Dib's Japanese voice actress (Ayumi Kida) also voiced Dexter from *Dexter's Laboratory*, and the two characters show some similarities.
* According to the creators, if the show had continued Dib would have discovered that he was a clone or creation of Professor Membrane's rather than a naturally-produced biological son.
* It is never stated in the show how or why Dib is capable of seeing through Zim's terrible disguises, it is also clear that its not his intelligence alone since neither Professor Membrane or Ms. Bitters realize that Zim is alien despite being smart in their own rights.
* According to polls on the internet, Dib is the most liked character in the show (other than GIR of course).
* Dib's glasses, like many cartoon characters', seem to contort to his facial expression on many an occasion. However, not only do his glasses reflect his expression, but they sometimes disappear when he closes his eyes; his glasses also don't have earpieces. As a result, the only way to tell when he's wearing glasses or not is if you look for the nose piece, signified as a straight line connecting his eyes.
* It can be interpreted that some of the "big head" insults towards Dib might not be literal; since nobody believes Dib's claims of paranormal activity, they may viewing him as arrogant/self-centered, or "big headed".
* It should be noted that he joined the Evil Syndicate in the video game "Nicktoons: Globs Of Doom", and Zim joined the good guys, so it is possible he did this just to stay away from whatever side Zim was on. But it should also be noted that the video game is most likely non canon to the series.
* It has been implied that Dib is quite self-loathing, possibly to the point of suicide; in "Dibship Rising", Dib reprograms Tak's ship to have his memories and reflect his personality, and it immediately crashes itself.
* Dib also seems to have hair on the back of his head (instead of just on top) in the comics. Jhonen has said this it due to his desire to make Dib seem more his age.
* The issue of Dib's eyes changing color in Issue #1 was a layering effect error.
* Jhonen Vasquez has confirmed that Dib, his sister Gaz and their father are Mexicans.[5]
* On the Jhonen Vasquez variant cover of Issue 2, Dib is shown wearing an outfit different than his normal blue shirt with a face on it. This time he wears and orange ghost shirt with matching orange boots.
* In Issue 8, it is revealed that crying makes Dib uncomfortable.
* In Issue 11, it is revealed that Dib is allergic to animal dander.
* In Issue 13, when Dib is being transformed into Humungodib by the humungoserum, the face on his shirt changes as well, becoming an angry face.
* Issue 18 shows that Dib is a fan of burritos, as he's shown arriving at the Burrito King for some of the free burritos being given away (unaware that Zim is the one giving them away).
* In Issue 19, it's suggested that Dib has been repeatedly going to the police to try and expose Zim, and apparently thinks that they're voluntarily working with him, when it's clear that the police barely know he exists, and don't care about him.
* Oddly, in Issue 26, Dib is never once shown wearing his glasses.
* His name may be a reference to Muad'Dib, an alias used by main character Paul Atreides in Frank Herbert's *Dune*.
* According to Jhonen Vasquez on his blog, Dib had a clubfoot.[6]
* Interestingly, despite being a child, Dib is the *only one* (aside from his sister Gaz) who capable of stopping Zim's plans and lives to tell the tale, while the Tallest, Sizz-Lorr or Tak end up *nearly* getting killed any other time they encounter Zim.
* In Issues 8 and 29, Dib narrates by means of a "paranormal investigator's log", but is never actually shown to be recording into anything. This suggests that he's simply taking mental notes.