History OffscreenMomentOfAwesome / ComicBooks

* SquirrelGirl does this all the time. In ComicBook/NewAvengers, for example, she takes down a Nazi mech. She then runs into three more. She charges them as they open fire. We next see her at Avengers Mansion, battered and bleeding.

* During Chris Claremont's run on ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'', Susan Richards faces off against Absorbing Man, SheHulk and Ben Grimm(the latter two being BrainwashedAndCrazy at the time) for threatening Valeria, her time-lost, alternate-universe daughter [[TimeyWimeyBall (it's complicated)]]. Reed Richards urges Johnny Storm, Valeria and a visiting Comicbook/SpiderMan to stand back and let Susan deal with the three powerhouses, seeing this fight as "therapy" for her. We never see the resulting fight, we just read a few random sound-effects and see reaction shots of Reed ([[SpockSpeak "An excellent synthesis of form and function."]]), Johnny("Oh, that's gotta hurt!"), Valeria("Hit 'im again, Mom!") and Spider-Man("I never, never, ''never'' want to make her mad at me!").
** An issue of ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' during John Byrne's run starts with the team returning from a cosmic adventure, which we never actually see. When SheHulk (who was subbing for the Thing at the time) comments that their adventure [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall would provide some entertaining stories for their comic book]], the Human Torch comments, "I dunno, Jen. Last I heard there's a theory among the publishing companies that 'Cosmic Doesn't Sell'." This leads to a brief AuthorFilibuster where Johnny Storm, speaking for John Byrne, advises the readers to contact Marvel Comics and tell them that they want Cosmic stories.

* The overuse of this trope was one of the criticisms of ''Comicbook/ContestOfChampions II''. In the later issues, certain fights were only depicted in a single panel with a caption stating who won. While some of these were at least semi-plausible (Comicbook/SpiderMan defeating Beast, BlackPanther defeating several of the NewWarriors, Comicbook/{{Gambit}} defeating {{Quicksilver}}), a few got to truly ludicrous levels, with Comicbook/BlackWidow beating WonderMan and then taking down the entirety of {{X-Force}} by herself.

* The overuse of this trope was one of the criticisms of ''Comicbook/ContestOfChampions II''. In the later issues, certain fights were only depicted in a single panel with a caption stating who won. While some of these were at least semi-plausible (Comicbook/SpiderMan defeating Beast, BlackPanther defeating several of the NewWarriors, Comicbook/{{Gambit}} defeating {{Quicksilver}}), a few got to truly ludicrous levels, with Comicbook/BlackWidow beating WonderMan and then polishing the entirety of {{X-Force}} by herself.

* The overuse of this trope was one of the criticisms of ''Comicbook/ContestOfChampions II''. In the later issues, certain fights were only depicted in a single panel with a caption stating who won. While some of these were at least semi-plausible (Comicbook/SpiderMan defeating Beast, BlackPanther defeating several of the NewWarriors, Comicbook/{{Gambit}} defeating {{Quicksilver}}), a few got to truly ludicrous levels, with Comicbook/BlackWidow beating WonderMan and then polishing the entirety of Comicbook/{{X-Force}} by herself.

* ''{{Hellblazer}}'': Seen in ''Hard Times'' story arc. During John Constantine's days incarcerated in a penitentiary, a gang of inmates decided to rape the Englishman while he was taking a shower. Unfortunately John isn't too keen in getting butt-plugged. Although readers never saw what was going on inside the shower room, John seemingly saves his ass by cursing the would be rapists with catatonia. Apparently it was ''too awesome'' to be seen.

* ''CryForJustice'' has Green Lantern and Green Arrow defeating an army of super-villains single-handed and off-panel. The comic jumps from them leaping into battle to another scene, then back to them after the battle is over. And in the final issue, Green Arrow brags about how he and the Jack Bauer League were able to shut down a notorious Somali pirate who is never seen or mentioned before that moment. Sure would've been nice to actually ''see'' them doing those things...

** "The Nearness of You" turns a TimeCrash CosmicCrossover into a background reference, summarized in a handful of panels across a single SplashPage.

* Frau Totenkinder and Baba Yaga's duel in ''{{FABLES}}''. All we see were lightning strikes, silhouette of monsters, and King Cole scared shitless, and it still proved to be the best battle yet, and one of the sole reason of Totenkinder's [[TookALevelInBadass badass rep]].

* In ''[[DonRosa Life and Times]]'' series volume VIII, Slick gave Scrooge [[YourMom the lamest insult ever.]] There was no battle; Scrooge was so full of pure wrath that [[CurbStompBattle it couldn't be called a fight.]] Shame that we saw only what the people outside the casino saw.

** Celestia also mentions [[{{Ghostbusters}} a giant marshmallow pony wrecking Manehattan]], and the rest of the conversation implies she had to take care of many other threats as well.

* In ''[[{{ComicBook/Tintin}} Tintin in the Land of Black Gold]]'' Tintin is cornered by the villainous Dr. Müller's henchmen, when his friend Captain Haddock, who has been absent through most of the story, pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment and saves him. We never see how Haddock found out where Tintin was or his battle with Müller and his men.[[note]] This was done due to that particular story's Troubled Production History. Herge had already published about a third of ''Black Gold'', when the newspaper he was working for was closed down by the Germans in 1940. He then started publishing a new Tintin story in another newspaper, where he introduced the character of Captain Haddock. When he took up ''Black Gold'' again after the war, Haddock had become such an established part of the series that it would be impossible not to include him in the story. Herge [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] by never even explaining why Haddock suddenly shows up: Haddock is always interrupted, when he tries to tell his story and only manages to say that it is "simple and complicated at the same time"[[/note]]

* ''{{Hellblazer}}'': One of John Constantine's signature magical power. Seen in ''Hard Times'' story arc where John, who was taking a shower, was almost raped by inmates when he was locked inside in a penitentiary. Although not seen, John prevents this by cursing them with catatonia. Apparently it was ''too awesome'' to be seen.

* In ''[[{{ComicBook/Tintin}} Tintin in the Land of Black Gold]]'' Tintin is cornered by the villainous Dr. Müller's henchmen, when his friend Captain Haddock, who has been absent through most of the story, pulls a BigDamnHeroes and saves him. We never see how Haddock found out where Tintin was or his battle with Müller and his men.[[note]] This was done due to that particular story's TroubledProductionHistory. Herge had already published about a third of ''Black Gold'' in Le Petit Vingtieme, when the newspaper was closed down by the Germans in 1940. He then started publishing a new Tintin story in another newspaper, where he introduced the character of Captain Haddock. When he took up ''Black Gold'' again after the war, Haddock had become such an established part of the series that it would be impossible not to include him in the story. Herge [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] by never even explaining why Haddock suddenly showed up: Haddock is always interrupted, when he tries to tell the story and only manages to say that it is "simple and complicated at the same time"[[/note]]

* In ''[[{{ComicBook/Tintin}} Tintin in the Land of Black Gold]]'' Tintin is cornered by the villainous Dr. Müller's henchmen, when his friend Captain Haddock, who has been absent through most of the story, pulls a BigDamnHeroes and saves him. We never see how Haddock found out where Tintin was or his battle with Müller and his men.[[note]] This was done due to that particular story's TroubledProductionHistory. Herge had already published about a third of ''Black Gold'' in Le Petit Vingtieme, when the newspaper was closed down by the Germans in 1940. He then started publishing a new Tintin story in another newspaper, where he introduced the character of Captain Haddock. When he took up ''Black Gold'' again after the war, Haddock had become such an established part of the series that it would be impossible not to include him in the story. Herge [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] by never even explaining why Haddock suddenly showed up: Haddock is always interrupted, when he tries to tell the story and only manages to say that it is "simple and complicated at the same time".

* In ''[[{{ComicBook/Tintin}} Tintin in the Land of Black Gold]]'' Tintin is cornered by the villainous Dr. Müller's henchmen, when his friend Captain Haddock, who has been absent through most of the story, pulls a BigDamnHeroes and saves him. We never see how Haddock found out where Tintin was or his battle with Müller and his men.

* In ''[[ComicBook/Tintin Tintin in the Land of Black Gold]]'' Tintin is cornered by the villainous Dr. Müller's henchmen, when his friend Captain Haddock, who has been absent through most of the story, pulls a BigDamnHeroes and saves him. We never see how Haddock found out where Tintin was or his battle with Müller and his men.

* In an ElfQuest miniseries, ''Rebels'', "The worst pile-up in many years" during a futuristic race happens mostly off panel. We just see the aftermath.
* In BlueBeetle, Guy Gardner starts a "really cool bar fight." We see what causes the fight, we are told that it is really cool, but the fight itself happens off panel.
* At the end of ''{{Preacher}}'', the Saint of Killers [[spoiler: takes on the ''entire'' Heavenly Host when they get in his way]]. All we see of it is him standing there [[spoiler:surrounded by angel corpses awaiting God's return. [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu So that he can shoot him]]]]. Yeah. And even ''that'' happens off panel!

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' doesn't show Karolina and [[spoiler: Xavin's wedding, or the Skrulls and Majesdanians blowing up each other's planets shortly after]]. Instead of [[spoiler: extra-terrestrial lesbian weddings, intergalactic war and explosions]], we get the rest of the Runaways whining at each other and falling to pieces.
* In the ''StrontiumDog'' story "The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha", Middenface and Precious have to break Feral out of a high-security prison where, for the past three months, he has been force-fed in order to be fat enough for a ritual sacrifice. This certainly sounds like an awesome action scene, and indeed the cover implies that this is what the strip focuses on... but instead, as soon as Feral is loose, he passes out, and we cut to a spaceship where Middenface is injured, and remarks that the escape wasn't easy. It's unclear if the sequence was skipped in order to keep the [[EvidenceScavengerHunt plot going]] or if Wagner and Ezquerra just couldn't figure out how to show it, but either way it went down poorly.

* GrantMorrison has some issues with endings, but the way the "World War III" arc of his [[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]] run ended really takes the cake. Every person on Earth gets powers (including [[ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey Oracle]], who, you'll remember, has been paralyzed from the waist down for years). They join the angelic choir in an assault on a horrifying EldritchAbomination-style-thing. We see the Earth's population and the angels going into space for one two-page thread... and then ''we never see any of the fight''. Okay, so thematically it was supposed to be about Superman's fight against Mageddon, but how can you tease such a gigantic fight and not show it?!
* ''TheThanosImperative'' uses this for effect. When the Cancerverse unleashes their Galactus Engine on the normal universe, it is shown to simply sit there doing nothing. ComicBook/SilverSurfer explains that the battle the Engine is involved with exists at a conceptual level (literally different abstract concepts trying to kill each other) so the fighting is impossible for mortals to see, only the consequences. Just as Nova is complaining about not being able to tell what is going on, [[spoiler:one of the abstracts on their side explodes.]]

* Done quite frequently in ''{{Asterix}}'' to mix up the slapstick a little: