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* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** Superman is the {{Trope Namer|s}}, with his weakness to Kryptonite (radioactive GreenRocks from his home planet) established back in the 40's. Since then, he's gained a few other vulnerabilities: he has no particular resistance to magic (DependingOnTheWriter, it may either be a bona fide weakness or that he's just as vulnerable to magic as anyone else, meaning it's a relative weakness for someone immune to almost anything else), red sun radiation can temporarily rob him of his powers, and there's a whole spectrum of coloured Kryptonite with varying effects (from Red Kryptonite that causes a random change for 48 hours, to Gold Kryptonite that robs him of his powers ''permanently''). He can still be killed by a huge amount of brute force from a similarly powered being such as Doomsday.
** In Post-Crisis continuity, Gold Kryptonite part is "powerless for 30 seconds", mostly because [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt it couldn't credibly be used for much storytelling otherwise]].
** He even has at least three villains -- Metallo, Conduit, and [[ManOfKryptonite the Kryptonite Man]] -- possessing powers that boil down to ''being Kryptonite.'' And due to Gold K being {{Nerf}}ed, minor villain Radion was revised into this in ''ComicBook/SupermanUpUpAndAway'' as well.
** Ironically, Superman is infamous for [[FightOffTheKryptonite ignoring Kryptonite]] through sheer HeroicWillpower. The only thing he is always shown as vulnerable to is magic. This has gives [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] [[SuperHeroSpeciation a firm place]] in Franchise/TheDCU as a valuable ally for the Man of Steel.
** ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} once used a special mix of red and green Kryptonite that gave him a third eye in the back of his head (in ''ComicBook/ActionComics #275''). In order to protect his secret identity, Supes pretended that the kryptonite had addled his brain to make him wear whatever hat is near him.
** ''ComicBook/LetMyPeopleGrow'' proves that; not even Superman can withstand an exploding supernova (he needs to wear a special armor suit, and even so he passes out due to the strain); and Brainiac is able to build Kryptonian-killing weapons.
** There are at least six colors of kryptonite, each with its own effects -- [[ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns including Pink Kryptonite, which can change your sexual orientation]].
** In Bronze Age storyline ''ComicBook/KryptonNoMore'', orange sun radiation can temporarily make Kryptonians blind and cut their powers in half. Superman, Supergirl and ComicBook/{{Krypto|TheSuperdog}} learn this the hard way as they are fighting an alien army.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'' ComicBook/LexLuthor uses beam weapons powered with red sunlight to destroy Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/WarWorld'', ComicBook/MartianManhunter tries to stop Superman using Kryptonite-tipped missiles.
** In ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'', all Kryptonite on Earth is turned into iron. Comicbook/JimmyOlsen notes magic is still a problem, though.
** ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' has the same weaknesses as her cousin Superman. Namely: kryptonite, red sunlight, and magic.
** In the ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'' storyline, Supergirl faced off against [[ArchEnemy Reactron]], an enemy powered by golden kryptonite which nullified her powers. It becomes a plot point in ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'' when the titular villain no-sells Reactron's Kryptonite-fueled blasts, thus revealing she's not Kryptonian.
** In the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' arc, Silver Banshee managed to contain Supergirl for a short while when they fought because her sonic attacks are magic, and Kryptonians are vulnerable to magic. Later on, Kara was weakened when she fought [[spoiler:Worldkiller-1]] because Earth's atmosphere was poisoned with kryptonite.
** In the first ''ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth'' story, Red Kryptonite -which is non-lethal but does weird things to Kryptonians- turns a Kryptonian into a werewolf. Supergirl's foster mother Eliza Danvers uses a red solar grenade against Lar-On when she notices he speaks Kryptonian.
** Several times in ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', Supergirl feels weak and sick without knowing why… until Lex Luthor reveals what Kryptonite is and does to Kryptonians.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', Kara Zor-El's pod crash-lands on Earth after spending three decades and a half stuck inside a Kryptonite giant asteroid. Although she survived thanks to her pod's sunlight generators, [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 she suffered from Kryptonite poisoning for over one year]].
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' issue #21, both Super-cousins fight the Kryptonite Man. His power weakens them and hurts them.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Kryptonite... Cutting through me... like a knife.
** Kara is vulnerable to magic because it bypasses her natural invulnerability. In ''Comicbook/DemonSpawn'' Nightflame's attacks hurt her because that villain is a sorcerer.
** Notably PlayedWith regarding ComicBook/PowerGirl. As a Kryptonian from Earth 2 (and in fact, the alternate universe counterpart of Supergirl above), she's vulnerable to the same weaknesses...on Earth 2. Kryptonite from Earth 1, where she now resides, does nothing to her (and likely red sunlight too). Magic still affects her, but as above, its typically more a 'has no immunity to it' rather than something that makes her weaker.
** Notably, during a time where DC were insisting on keeping Superman as the ''only'' Kryptonian, Power Girl was retconned into an Atlantean who had incorrectly believed herself to be Kryptonian, and her powers were now magic in nature. During this time, she was given a weakness to "natural, unprocessed materials" (IE, rocks and trees). Its now explained that this was a result of reality trying to find a 'place' for her after her universe was destroyed, and was attempting to recreate her Kryptonite Factor. Nowadays this period is largely forgotten and ignored.
** Daxamites are descended from ancient Kryptonian colonists who intermingled with the native population of Daxam and have similar weaknesses save for Kryptonite itself, instead they're irrecoverably fatally allergic to lead:
** ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}} (1949)'' #89 story had Superboy meet [[ComicBook/{{Valor}} Mon-El]], an amnesiac with powers like his, who assumed due to this that he was Kryptonian. Near the end of the story, Clark gets suspicious and lobs lead boulders painted to look like Kryptonite at him. Mon-El collapses, and Superboy flies in to accuse him of fakery -- but the trauma has [[EasyAmnesia brought his memory back]]; he's a Daxamite, a member of a race similar to Kryptonians, but with a weakness to lead poisoning instead of Kryptonite. To keep him from dying, Superboy puts him in the PhantomZone, preserving him for a thousand years until the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes finds a cure. Later retellings have Clark and Mon-El seeing if Mon-El was a Kryptonian (whose memories were slowly coming back) and Mon-El getting sick after Clark takes out a lead box containing some Kryptonite.
** Bizarro and his race are vulnerable to ''blue'' Kryptonite. In ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', Supergirl and Dr. Light discover they can block Bizarrogirl's powers with light of a K-class star.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Because I just had an interesting conversation with a brilliant scientist I know. Y'see, a yellow sun gives a Kryptonian powers and a red sun takes them away.\\
'''Bizarrogirl:''' Bah! Science am boring!\\
'''Supergirl:''' Ha. You are an imperfect Kryptonian clone, Bizarrogirl, super-powered by a blue sun. Dr. Light theorizes the light of a K-Class star will take your powers away.
** Originally, the blue kryptonite weakness was because Bizarro was a copy of Superman, imperfectly duplicated by a machine. Normal kryptonite had no effect, until Superman thought of using similarly imperfectly duplicated Kryptonite. Just as Bizarro himself has chalk-white skin and a skewed color scheme, the duplicated kryptonite was a different color than the regular stuff.
** ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'': Kara's attempt to retrieve her pod from Simon Tycho's base fails when she gets knocked out by the bits of Kryptonite stuck to the pod's hull.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'', where Superman has become invulnerable to Kryptonite after aging several thousands of years.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', the Eradicator's "Last Son of Krypton" body had an ironic weakness to bright lights. His body, made out of materials from around Superman's tomb, was imperfect and he was unable to see in light. Thus, he is forced to wear a pair of shades to filter the light. In his fight with Steel, Steel is able to punch off Eradicator's glasses, forcing him to flee.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'', since she is vulnerable to magic, Supergirl gets hurt by [[EvilSorcerer Karmang]]'s fire spells.
** ''ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity'': After being driven crazy by a Kandorian animal's venom, Edna Danvers uses a cache of Kryptonite rocks to attempt to murder Zor-El and Allura.
** Downplayed in ''ComicBook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow''. When she travels to Ruthye's homeworld, which revolves around a red star, Kara is weakened and can be hurt, but she is still inhumanly strong and tough. Arrows pierce her skin but they do not reach her muscles or vital organs.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman1961'', Lex Luthor kills Superman by strapping him to one stretcher and exposing him to Kryptonite radiation.
** ''ComicBook/TheHuntForReactron'', the eponymous villain tries to use Golden Kryptonite to depower his Kryptonian enemies in order to destroy them easily, but he is rendered helpless when Flamebird crushes his chunk of rock.
** ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'': After giving Lex Luthor powers, the Phantom Zone criminals intend to trick him into retrieving a sample of Golden Kryptonite to remove Superman and Supergirl's powers, as well as Luthor's.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor''. Supergirl wakes up in a chamber which supposedly uses high-gravity generators and fluorescent panels which emit red sunlight to nullify her powers by duplicating Krypton's environment. She soon realizes, though, that her kidnappers are gaslighting her and those red lamps have no effect on her.
** Though there is a caveat we should mention: Kryptonite is ''not'' a harmless substance. It's more-or-less a radioactive isotope, and can cause harm to anyone if exposed to it for long periods without the proper protection. In some continualities Lex Luthor develops cancer, or goes crazy, thanks to repeated exposure.
** ''ComicBook/WayOfTheWorld'' features Krallian aliens, who are depowered by a substance called Selenite.
** In ''ComicBook/ThePlagueOfTheAntibioticMan'', Amalak creates a yellow energy cocoon around Green Lantern to nullify his Power Ring, and uses Dr. Light's Kryptonite Light to attempt to kill Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlBatgirlPlot'', Superman believes he cannot be harmed by a meteor thrown by Supergirl until his XRayVision tells him there's Kryptonite inside the rocky outside. The fat that "Supergirl" was not harmed by the Green-K clues him in that he is not fighting his cousin but an impersonator.
** ''ComicBook/TheLeperFromKrypton'': In at least one instance, though, Kryptonite saved Superman's life. When Kal-El is dying from an incurable disease, two ComicBook/{{Bizarro}}s try to make his demise quicker and less painful by tossing chunks of White Kryptonite at him. The Bizarros are too dumb to understand that white Kryptonite cannot kill Superman because it has no effect on animal lifeforms...but it does destroy other lifeforms, such like the bacteria which was killing him.
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984'', there is not Kryptonite to found anywhere in the story, and magic takes its place as the tool used by the villain to hurt the Kryptonian hero.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'':
** The color yellow was a major weakness to the Green Lantern Corps. This was eventually explained in ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'' by the influence of a fear demon the creators of the rings had entrapped corrupting their powers, but also authorically served to constantly remind them their potential godlike power has limits (a Green Lantern Ring being otherwise limited only by the intelligence, creativity, and willpower of the wielder). When Kyle Rayner was the only Green Lantern, thanks to Hal Jordan's BrainwashedAndCrazy FaceHeelTurn, his ring had no vulnerability to yellow. However, when Hal was brought BackFromTheDead and the four Earth Lanterns took down Parallax, the Entity of Fear (and thus, the Yellow Impurity that prevented Lanterns from harming yellow objects), it was reinstated and {{retcon}}ned that Lanterns can overcome the weakness by recognizing fear.
** Alan Scott, the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Green Lantern, had no vulnerability to yellow, but a similar vulnerability to wood. This was due to his more magical ring being connected to "green, growing things".
** This was {{retcon}}ned into a long story involving one of Earth's first [=GLs=]. He was mad with power, so the Guardians gave him the wood weakness so primitive humans could club him to death. However, instead of dying, he put his soul into the power ring and battery, which collided with a Meteorite, becoming the Starheart. Alan Scott got his ring from the Starheart. Seriously. (It's hard to reconcile the original Green Lantern with the current Green Lantern Corps, and it ''ain't'' just down to his different weakness.)
** The entire 'wood weakness' may have been a {{retcon}} itself; some of the earliest comics indicate he has 'invulnerability to metal' but not really anything else, allowing him to be, among other things, knocked unconscious by a teak vase.
** It's worth noting however that because of this on-again/off-again vulnerability, the fact that Sinestro always has a yellow power ring is almost a GrandfatherClause.
** Not quite. He was assumed to be dead while the fear entity was out doing whatever fear entities do.
** In the ''Elseworlds'' storyline ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', it was revealed that the yellow vulnerability was just a hoax made up by the Guardians to keep the Green Lanterns from getting too cocky. Alan Scott's wood weakness, however, was psychosomatic and imposed by himself; during his early adventures, while fighting some ruffians, one snuck up behind him and hit him with a wooden club. While the truth was that he just didn't pay attention and thus allowed the foe to get in a cheap shot, he instead convinced himself that he had a weakness to the wood and thus couldn't defend himself. Guess he had a bit of an ego going...
** The Blue Lanterns are a bit different. Instead of having a weakness to another color, the Blue Lanterns are dependent on another color, namely green, in order to use their powers effectively. This is because green is the color of willpower and blue is the color of hope. You can hope all day long that something good will happen, but that won't accomplish anything unless you also have the will to help your hopes come true.
** The Red Lanterns will die if their rings are ever removed, even for a few seconds. This is because upon their induction in the Corps, the Red Light of Rage replaces their blood. If someone removes the ring, the light goes out, and their body is suddenly devoid of blood -- which is almost always fatal, for obvious reasons.
* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': The Manhunter (who is both powerful and has a variety of useful powers) has a vulnerability to fire. And a rather powerful addiction to cream-filled cookies, though this is more a comedic device. (See 2000's ''Martian Manhunter'' #24). In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, fire was treated by him as equivalent to Superman versus kryptonite, but ComicBook/PostCrisis, it became more of a crippling phobia. (They seem to keep going back and forth on this one.) At least once, his fire vulnerability was explained by saying that he almost died in a fire once, and has feared it ever since. This falls apart when one considered that ''every'' Martian who's ever appeared in Creator/DCComics has been vulnerable to fire. Current canon is that it's a genetic block implanted by the Guardians to [[SealedEvilInACan lock away]] the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide burning Martians]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** Early versions of Diana her lose her powers if she was tied up by a man, under "Aphrodite's Law", leading to some [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything bondage imagery]] that must have been blatant even at the time of its introduction. As noted in her entry, that was quite deliberate. In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, she went into an UnstoppableRage if her bracelets were removed. Currently, Wonder Woman has no Kryptonite Factor weaknesses.
*** Partly because she is not as invulnerable as Superman or Manhunter. Bullets can penetrate her skin if she doesn't block them with her bracers and she needs to breathe, just as examples.
*** She does (or at least did -- her continuity is a moving target) lose her powers when she changes back to her secret identity, thanks to a spell cast by her ArchNemesis Circe. Which [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of why she ever turns back to her secret identity, given that they look exactly the same. The only possible benefit to transforming is that it saves her the trouble of changing clothes.
*** In one story, Batman defeats an Amazon footsoldier by throwing a magnetic batarang at her, which sticks her bracelets together when she blocks it and removes her powers. This suggests that the weakness is common to all Amazons and that it survived into the modern age... or possibly that whoever wrote that story was [[DependingOnTheWriter taking a few liberties]]. This is actually used in one of the incarnations of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' -- Scarecrow has captured Wonder Woman and Robin in an attempt to lure Batman into a trap. When Bats arrives, Wonder Woman has her bracelets fused together, thus rendering her powerless.
** Since the Queen of Fables gets her powers from fiction, she is weakened by anything that forces one to acknowledge the truth. Being bound by Wonder Woman's magic lasso drained her powers and caused her RapidAging.
** Superman is the {{Trope Namer|s}}, with his weakness to Kryptonite (radioactive GreenRocks from his home planet) established back in the 40's. Since then, he's gained a few other vulnerabilities: he has no particular resistance to magic (DependingOnTheWriter, it may either be a bona fide weakness or that he's just as vulnerable to magic as anyone else, meaning it's a relative weakness for someone immune to almost anything else), red sun radiation can temporarily rob him of his powers, and there's a whole spectrum of coloured Kryptonite with varying effects (from Red Kryptonite that causes a random change for 48 hours, to Gold Kryptonite that robs him of his powers ''permanently''). He can still be killed by a huge amount of brute force from a similarly powered being such as Doomsday.
** In Post-Crisis continuity, Gold Kryptonite part is "powerless for 30 seconds", mostly because [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt it couldn't credibly be used for much storytelling otherwise]].
** He even has at least three villains -- Metallo, Conduit, and [[ManOfKryptonite the Kryptonite Man]] -- possessing powers that boil down to ''being Kryptonite.'' And due to Gold K being {{Nerf}}ed, minor villain Radion was revised into this in ''ComicBook/SupermanUpUpAndAway'' as well.
** Ironically, Superman is infamous for [[FightOffTheKryptonite ignoring Kryptonite]] through sheer HeroicWillpower. The only thing he is always shown as vulnerable to is magic. This has gives [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] [[SuperHeroSpeciation a firm place]] in Franchise/TheDCU as a valuable ally for the Man of Steel.
** ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} once used a special mix of red and green Kryptonite that gave him a third eye in the back of his head (in ''ComicBook/ActionComics #275''). In order to protect his secret identity, Supes pretended that the kryptonite had addled his brain to make him wear whatever hat is near him.
** ''ComicBook/LetMyPeopleGrow'' proves that; not even Superman can withstand an exploding supernova (he needs to wear a special armor suit, and even so he passes out due to the strain); and Brainiac is able to build Kryptonian-killing weapons.
** There are at least six colors of kryptonite, each with its own effects -- [[ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns including Pink Kryptonite, which can change your sexual orientation]].
** In Bronze Age storyline ''ComicBook/KryptonNoMore'', orange sun radiation can temporarily make Kryptonians blind and cut their powers in half. Superman, Supergirl and ComicBook/{{Krypto|TheSuperdog}} learn this the hard way as they are fighting an alien army.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'' ComicBook/LexLuthor uses beam weapons powered with red sunlight to destroy Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/WarWorld'', ComicBook/MartianManhunter tries to stop Superman using Kryptonite-tipped missiles.
** In ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'', all Kryptonite on Earth is turned into iron. Comicbook/JimmyOlsen notes magic is still a problem, though.
** ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' has the same weaknesses as her cousin Superman. Namely: kryptonite, red sunlight, and magic.
** In the ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'' storyline, Supergirl faced off against [[ArchEnemy Reactron]], an enemy powered by golden kryptonite which nullified her powers. It becomes a plot point in ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'' when the titular villain no-sells Reactron's Kryptonite-fueled blasts, thus revealing she's not Kryptonian.
** In the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' arc, Silver Banshee managed to contain Supergirl for a short while when they fought because her sonic attacks are magic, and Kryptonians are vulnerable to magic. Later on, Kara was weakened when she fought [[spoiler:Worldkiller-1]] because Earth's atmosphere was poisoned with kryptonite.
** In the first ''ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth'' story, Red Kryptonite -which is non-lethal but does weird things to Kryptonians- turns a Kryptonian into a werewolf. Supergirl's foster mother Eliza Danvers uses a red solar grenade against Lar-On when she notices he speaks Kryptonian.
** Several times in ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', Supergirl feels weak and sick without knowing why… until Lex Luthor reveals what Kryptonite is and does to Kryptonians.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', Kara Zor-El's pod crash-lands on Earth after spending three decades and a half stuck inside a Kryptonite giant asteroid. Although she survived thanks to her pod's sunlight generators, [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 she suffered from Kryptonite poisoning for over one year]].
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' issue #21, both Super-cousins fight the Kryptonite Man. His power weakens them and hurts them.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Kryptonite... Cutting through me... like a knife.
** Kara is vulnerable to magic because it bypasses her natural invulnerability. In ''Comicbook/DemonSpawn'' Nightflame's attacks hurt her because that villain is a sorcerer.
** Notably PlayedWith regarding ComicBook/PowerGirl. As a Kryptonian from Earth 2 (and in fact, the alternate universe counterpart of Supergirl above), she's vulnerable to the same weaknesses...on Earth 2. Kryptonite from Earth 1, where she now resides, does nothing to her (and likely red sunlight too). Magic still affects her, but as above, its typically more a 'has no immunity to it' rather than something that makes her weaker.
** Notably, during a time where DC were insisting on keeping Superman as the ''only'' Kryptonian, Power Girl was retconned into an Atlantean who had incorrectly believed herself to be Kryptonian, and her powers were now magic in nature. During this time, she was given a weakness to "natural, unprocessed materials" (IE, rocks and trees). Its now explained that this was a result of reality trying to find a 'place' for her after her universe was destroyed, and was attempting to recreate her Kryptonite Factor. Nowadays this period is largely forgotten and ignored.
** Daxamites are descended from ancient Kryptonian colonists who intermingled with the native population of Daxam and have similar weaknesses save for Kryptonite itself, instead they're irrecoverably fatally allergic to lead:
** ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}} (1949)'' #89 story had Superboy meet [[ComicBook/{{Valor}} Mon-El]], an amnesiac with powers like his, who assumed due to this that he was Kryptonian. Near the end of the story, Clark gets suspicious and lobs lead boulders painted to look like Kryptonite at him. Mon-El collapses, and Superboy flies in to accuse him of fakery -- but the trauma has [[EasyAmnesia brought his memory back]]; he's a Daxamite, a member of a race similar to Kryptonians, but with a weakness to lead poisoning instead of Kryptonite. To keep him from dying, Superboy puts him in the PhantomZone, preserving him for a thousand years until the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes finds a cure. Later retellings have Clark and Mon-El seeing if Mon-El was a Kryptonian (whose memories were slowly coming back) and Mon-El getting sick after Clark takes out a lead box containing some Kryptonite.
** Bizarro and his race are vulnerable to ''blue'' Kryptonite. In ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', Supergirl and Dr. Light discover they can block Bizarrogirl's powers with light of a K-class star.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Because I just had an interesting conversation with a brilliant scientist I know. Y'see, a yellow sun gives a Kryptonian powers and a red sun takes them away.\\
'''Bizarrogirl:''' Bah! Science am boring!\\
'''Supergirl:''' Ha. You are an imperfect Kryptonian clone, Bizarrogirl, super-powered by a blue sun. Dr. Light theorizes the light of a K-Class star will take your powers away.
** Originally, the blue kryptonite weakness was because Bizarro was a copy of Superman, imperfectly duplicated by a machine. Normal kryptonite had no effect, until Superman thought of using similarly imperfectly duplicated Kryptonite. Just as Bizarro himself has chalk-white skin and a skewed color scheme, the duplicated kryptonite was a different color than the regular stuff.
** ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'': Kara's attempt to retrieve her pod from Simon Tycho's base fails when she gets knocked out by the bits of Kryptonite stuck to the pod's hull.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'', where Superman has become invulnerable to Kryptonite after aging several thousands of years.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', the Eradicator's "Last Son of Krypton" body had an ironic weakness to bright lights. His body, made out of materials from around Superman's tomb, was imperfect and he was unable to see in light. Thus, he is forced to wear a pair of shades to filter the light. In his fight with Steel, Steel is able to punch off Eradicator's glasses, forcing him to flee.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'', since she is vulnerable to magic, Supergirl gets hurt by [[EvilSorcerer Karmang]]'s fire spells.
** ''ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity'': After being driven crazy by a Kandorian animal's venom, Edna Danvers uses a cache of Kryptonite rocks to attempt to murder Zor-El and Allura.
** Downplayed in ''ComicBook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow''. When she travels to Ruthye's homeworld, which revolves around a red star, Kara is weakened and can be hurt, but she is still inhumanly strong and tough. Arrows pierce her skin but they do not reach her muscles or vital organs.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman1961'', Lex Luthor kills Superman by strapping him to one stretcher and exposing him to Kryptonite radiation.
** ''ComicBook/TheHuntForReactron'', the eponymous villain tries to use Golden Kryptonite to depower his Kryptonian enemies in order to destroy them easily, but he is rendered helpless when Flamebird crushes his chunk of rock.
** ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'': After giving Lex Luthor powers, the Phantom Zone criminals intend to trick him into retrieving a sample of Golden Kryptonite to remove Superman and Supergirl's powers, as well as Luthor's.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor''. Supergirl wakes up in a chamber which supposedly uses high-gravity generators and fluorescent panels which emit red sunlight to nullify her powers by duplicating Krypton's environment. She soon realizes, though, that her kidnappers are gaslighting her and those red lamps have no effect on her.
** Though there is a caveat we should mention: Kryptonite is ''not'' a harmless substance. It's more-or-less a radioactive isotope, and can cause harm to anyone if exposed to it for long periods without the proper protection. In some continualities Lex Luthor develops cancer, or goes crazy, thanks to repeated exposure.
** ''ComicBook/WayOfTheWorld'' features Krallian aliens, who are depowered by a substance called Selenite.
** In ''ComicBook/ThePlagueOfTheAntibioticMan'', Amalak creates a yellow energy cocoon around Green Lantern to nullify his Power Ring, and uses Dr. Light's Kryptonite Light to attempt to kill Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlBatgirlPlot'', Superman believes he cannot be harmed by a meteor thrown by Supergirl until his XRayVision tells him there's Kryptonite inside the rocky outside. The fat that "Supergirl" was not harmed by the Green-K clues him in that he is not fighting his cousin but an impersonator.
** ''ComicBook/TheLeperFromKrypton'': In at least one instance, though, Kryptonite saved Superman's life. When Kal-El is dying from an incurable disease, two ComicBook/{{Bizarro}}s try to make his demise quicker and less painful by tossing chunks of White Kryptonite at him. The Bizarros are too dumb to understand that white Kryptonite cannot kill Superman because it has no effect on animal lifeforms...but it does destroy other lifeforms, such like the bacteria which was killing him.
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984'', there is not Kryptonite to found anywhere in the story, and magic takes its place as the tool used by the villain to hurt the Kryptonian hero.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'':
** The color yellow was a major weakness to the Green Lantern Corps. This was eventually explained in ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'' by the influence of a fear demon the creators of the rings had entrapped corrupting their powers, but also authorically served to constantly remind them their potential godlike power has limits (a Green Lantern Ring being otherwise limited only by the intelligence, creativity, and willpower of the wielder). When Kyle Rayner was the only Green Lantern, thanks to Hal Jordan's BrainwashedAndCrazy FaceHeelTurn, his ring had no vulnerability to yellow. However, when Hal was brought BackFromTheDead and the four Earth Lanterns took down Parallax, the Entity of Fear (and thus, the Yellow Impurity that prevented Lanterns from harming yellow objects), it was reinstated and {{retcon}}ned that Lanterns can overcome the weakness by recognizing fear.
** Alan Scott, the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Green Lantern, had no vulnerability to yellow, but a similar vulnerability to wood. This was due to his more magical ring being connected to "green, growing things".
** This was {{retcon}}ned into a long story involving one of Earth's first [=GLs=]. He was mad with power, so the Guardians gave him the wood weakness so primitive humans could club him to death. However, instead of dying, he put his soul into the power ring and battery, which collided with a Meteorite, becoming the Starheart. Alan Scott got his ring from the Starheart. Seriously. (It's hard to reconcile the original Green Lantern with the current Green Lantern Corps, and it ''ain't'' just down to his different weakness.)
** The entire 'wood weakness' may have been a {{retcon}} itself; some of the earliest comics indicate he has 'invulnerability to metal' but not really anything else, allowing him to be, among other things, knocked unconscious by a teak vase.
** It's worth noting however that because of this on-again/off-again vulnerability, the fact that Sinestro always has a yellow power ring is almost a GrandfatherClause.
** Not quite. He was assumed to be dead while the fear entity was out doing whatever fear entities do.
** In the ''Elseworlds'' storyline ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', it was revealed that the yellow vulnerability was just a hoax made up by the Guardians to keep the Green Lanterns from getting too cocky. Alan Scott's wood weakness, however, was psychosomatic and imposed by himself; during his early adventures, while fighting some ruffians, one snuck up behind him and hit him with a wooden club. While the truth was that he just didn't pay attention and thus allowed the foe to get in a cheap shot, he instead convinced himself that he had a weakness to the wood and thus couldn't defend himself. Guess he had a bit of an ego going...
** The Blue Lanterns are a bit different. Instead of having a weakness to another color, the Blue Lanterns are dependent on another color, namely green, in order to use their powers effectively. This is because green is the color of willpower and blue is the color of hope. You can hope all day long that something good will happen, but that won't accomplish anything unless you also have the will to help your hopes come true.
** The Red Lanterns will die if their rings are ever removed, even for a few seconds. This is because upon their induction in the Corps, the Red Light of Rage replaces their blood. If someone removes the ring, the light goes out, and their body is suddenly devoid of blood -- which is almost always fatal, for obvious reasons.
* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': The Manhunter (who is both powerful and has a variety of useful powers) has a vulnerability to fire. And a rather powerful addiction to cream-filled cookies, though this is more a comedic device. (See 2000's ''Martian Manhunter'' #24). In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, fire was treated by him as equivalent to Superman versus kryptonite, but ComicBook/PostCrisis, it became more of a crippling phobia. (They seem to keep going back and forth on this one.) At least once, his fire vulnerability was explained by saying that he almost died in a fire once, and has feared it ever since. This falls apart when one considered that ''every'' Martian who's ever appeared in Creator/DCComics has been vulnerable to fire. Current canon is that it's a genetic block implanted by the Guardians to [[SealedEvilInACan lock away]] the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide burning Martians]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** Early versions of Diana her lose her powers if she was tied up by a man, under "Aphrodite's Law", leading to some [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything bondage imagery]] that must have been blatant even at the time of its introduction. As noted in her entry, that was quite deliberate. In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, she went into an UnstoppableRage if her bracelets were removed. Currently, Wonder Woman has no Kryptonite Factor weaknesses.
*** Partly because she is not as invulnerable as Superman or Manhunter. Bullets can penetrate her skin if she doesn't block them with her bracers and she needs to breathe, just as examples.
*** She does (or at least did -- her continuity is a moving target) lose her powers when she changes back to her secret identity, thanks to a spell cast by her ArchNemesis Circe. Which [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of why she ever turns back to her secret identity, given that they look exactly the same. The only possible benefit to transforming is that it saves her the trouble of changing clothes.
*** In one story, Batman defeats an Amazon footsoldier by throwing a magnetic batarang at her, which sticks her bracelets together when she blocks it and removes her powers. This suggests that the weakness is common to all Amazons and that it survived into the modern age... or possibly that whoever wrote that story was [[DependingOnTheWriter taking a few liberties]]. This is actually used in one of the incarnations of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' -- Scarecrow has captured Wonder Woman and Robin in an attempt to lure Batman into a trap. When Bats arrives, Wonder Woman has her bracelets fused together, thus rendering her powerless.
** Since the Queen of Fables gets her powers from fiction, she is weakened by anything that forces one to acknowledge the truth. Being bound by Wonder Woman's magic lasso drained her powers and caused her RapidAging.
to:
** Superman is the {{Trope Namer|s}}, with his weakness to Kryptonite (radioactive GreenRocks from his home planet) established back in the 40's. Since then, he's gained a few other vulnerabilities: he has no particular resistance to magic (DependingOnTheWriter, it may either be a bona fide weakness or that he's just as vulnerable to magic as anyone else, meaning it's a relative weakness for someone immune to almost anything else), red sun radiation can temporarily rob him of his powers, and there's a whole spectrum of coloured Kryptonite with varying effects (from Red Kryptonite that causes a random change for 48 hours, to Gold Kryptonite that robs him of his powers ''permanently''). He can still be killed by a huge amount of brute force from a similarly powered being such as Doomsday.
** In Post-Crisis continuity, Gold Kryptonite part is "powerless for 30 seconds", mostly because [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt it couldn't credibly be used for much storytelling otherwise]].
** He even has at least three villains -- Metallo, Conduit, and [[ManOfKryptonite the Kryptonite Man]] -- possessing powers that boil down to ''being Kryptonite.'' And due to Gold K being {{Nerf}}ed, minor villain Radion was revised into this in ''ComicBook/SupermanUpUpAndAway'' as well.
** Ironically, Superman is infamous for [[FightOffTheKryptonite ignoring Kryptonite]] through sheer HeroicWillpower. The only thing he is always shown as vulnerable to is magic. This has gives [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] [[SuperHeroSpeciation a firm place]] in Franchise/TheDCU as a valuable ally for the Man of Steel.
** ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} once used a special mix of red and green Kryptonite that gave him a third eye in the back of his head (in ''ComicBook/ActionComics #275''). In order to protect his secret identity, Supes pretended that the kryptonite had addled his brain to make him wear whatever hat is near him.
** ''ComicBook/LetMyPeopleGrow'' proves that; not even Superman can withstand an exploding supernova (he needs to wear a special armor suit, and even so he passes out due to the strain); and Brainiac is able to build Kryptonian-killing weapons.
** There are at least six colors of kryptonite, each with its own effects -- [[ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns including Pink Kryptonite, which can change your sexual orientation]].
** In Bronze Age storyline ''ComicBook/KryptonNoMore'', orange sun radiation can temporarily make Kryptonians blind and cut their powers in half. Superman, Supergirl and ComicBook/{{Krypto|TheSuperdog}} learn this the hard way as they are fighting an alien army.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'' ComicBook/LexLuthor uses beam weapons powered with red sunlight to destroy Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/WarWorld'', ComicBook/MartianManhunter tries to stop Superman using Kryptonite-tipped missiles.
** In ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'', all Kryptonite on Earth is turned into iron. Comicbook/JimmyOlsen notes magic is still a problem, though.
** ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' has the same weaknesses as her cousin Superman. Namely: kryptonite, red sunlight, and magic.
** In the ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'' storyline, Supergirl faced off against [[ArchEnemy Reactron]], an enemy powered by golden kryptonite which nullified her powers. It becomes a plot point in ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'' when the titular villain no-sells Reactron's Kryptonite-fueled blasts, thus revealing she's not Kryptonian.
** In the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' arc, Silver Banshee managed to contain Supergirl for a short while when they fought because her sonic attacks are magic, and Kryptonians are vulnerable to magic. Later on, Kara was weakened when she fought [[spoiler:Worldkiller-1]] because Earth's atmosphere was poisoned with kryptonite.
** In the first ''ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth'' story, Red Kryptonite -which is non-lethal but does weird things to Kryptonians- turns a Kryptonian into a werewolf. Supergirl's foster mother Eliza Danvers uses a red solar grenade against Lar-On when she notices he speaks Kryptonian.
** Several times in ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', Supergirl feels weak and sick without knowing why… until Lex Luthor reveals what Kryptonite is and does to Kryptonians.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', Kara Zor-El's pod crash-lands on Earth after spending three decades and a half stuck inside a Kryptonite giant asteroid. Although she survived thanks to her pod's sunlight generators, [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 she suffered from Kryptonite poisoning for over one year]].
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' issue #21, both Super-cousins fight the Kryptonite Man. His power weakens them and hurts them.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Kryptonite... Cutting through me... like a knife.
** Kara is vulnerable to magic because it bypasses her natural invulnerability. In ''Comicbook/DemonSpawn'' Nightflame's attacks hurt her because that villain is a sorcerer.
** Notably PlayedWith regarding ComicBook/PowerGirl. As a Kryptonian from Earth 2 (and in fact, the alternate universe counterpart of Supergirl above), she's vulnerable to the same weaknesses...on Earth 2. Kryptonite from Earth 1, where she now resides, does nothing to her (and likely red sunlight too). Magic still affects her, but as above, its typically more a 'has no immunity to it' rather than something that makes her weaker.
** Notably, during a time where DC were insisting on keeping Superman as the ''only'' Kryptonian, Power Girl was retconned into an Atlantean who had incorrectly believed herself to be Kryptonian, and her powers were now magic in nature. During this time, she was given a weakness to "natural, unprocessed materials" (IE, rocks and trees). Its now explained that this was a result of reality trying to find a 'place' for her after her universe was destroyed, and was attempting to recreate her Kryptonite Factor. Nowadays this period is largely forgotten and ignored.
** Daxamites are descended from ancient Kryptonian colonists who intermingled with the native population of Daxam and have similar weaknesses save for Kryptonite itself, instead they're irrecoverably fatally allergic to lead:
** ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}} (1949)'' #89 story had Superboy meet [[ComicBook/{{Valor}} Mon-El]], an amnesiac with powers like his, who assumed due to this that he was Kryptonian. Near the end of the story, Clark gets suspicious and lobs lead boulders painted to look like Kryptonite at him. Mon-El collapses, and Superboy flies in to accuse him of fakery -- but the trauma has [[EasyAmnesia brought his memory back]]; he's a Daxamite, a member of a race similar to Kryptonians, but with a weakness to lead poisoning instead of Kryptonite. To keep him from dying, Superboy puts him in the PhantomZone, preserving him for a thousand years until the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes finds a cure. Later retellings have Clark and Mon-El seeing if Mon-El was a Kryptonian (whose memories were slowly coming back) and Mon-El getting sick after Clark takes out a lead box containing some Kryptonite.
** Bizarro and his race are vulnerable to ''blue'' Kryptonite. In ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', Supergirl and Dr. Light discover they can block Bizarrogirl's powers with light of a K-class star.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Because I just had an interesting conversation with a brilliant scientist I know. Y'see, a yellow sun gives a Kryptonian powers and a red sun takes them away.\\
'''Bizarrogirl:''' Bah! Science am boring!\\
'''Supergirl:''' Ha. You are an imperfect Kryptonian clone, Bizarrogirl, super-powered by a blue sun. Dr. Light theorizes the light of a K-Class star will take your powers away.
** Originally, the blue kryptonite weakness was because Bizarro was a copy of Superman, imperfectly duplicated by a machine. Normal kryptonite had no effect, until Superman thought of using similarly imperfectly duplicated Kryptonite. Just as Bizarro himself has chalk-white skin and a skewed color scheme, the duplicated kryptonite was a different color than the regular stuff.
** ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'': Kara's attempt to retrieve her pod from Simon Tycho's base fails when she gets knocked out by the bits of Kryptonite stuck to the pod's hull.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'', where Superman has become invulnerable to Kryptonite after aging several thousands of years.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', the Eradicator's "Last Son of Krypton" body had an ironic weakness to bright lights. His body, made out of materials from around Superman's tomb, was imperfect and he was unable to see in light. Thus, he is forced to wear a pair of shades to filter the light. In his fight with Steel, Steel is able to punch off Eradicator's glasses, forcing him to flee.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'', since she is vulnerable to magic, Supergirl gets hurt by [[EvilSorcerer Karmang]]'s fire spells.
** ''ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity'': After being driven crazy by a Kandorian animal's venom, Edna Danvers uses a cache of Kryptonite rocks to attempt to murder Zor-El and Allura.
** Downplayed in ''ComicBook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow''. When she travels to Ruthye's homeworld, which revolves around a red star, Kara is weakened and can be hurt, but she is still inhumanly strong and tough. Arrows pierce her skin but they do not reach her muscles or vital organs.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman1961'', Lex Luthor kills Superman by strapping him to one stretcher and exposing him to Kryptonite radiation.
** ''ComicBook/TheHuntForReactron'', the eponymous villain tries to use Golden Kryptonite to depower his Kryptonian enemies in order to destroy them easily, but he is rendered helpless when Flamebird crushes his chunk of rock.
** ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'': After giving Lex Luthor powers, the Phantom Zone criminals intend to trick him into retrieving a sample of Golden Kryptonite to remove Superman and Supergirl's powers, as well as Luthor's.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor''. Supergirl wakes up in a chamber which supposedly uses high-gravity generators and fluorescent panels which emit red sunlight to nullify her powers by duplicating Krypton's environment. She soon realizes, though, that her kidnappers are gaslighting her and those red lamps have no effect on her.
** Though there is a caveat we should mention: Kryptonite is ''not'' a harmless substance. It's more-or-less a radioactive isotope, and can cause harm to anyone if exposed to it for long periods without the proper protection. In some continualities Lex Luthor develops cancer, or goes crazy, thanks to repeated exposure.
** ''ComicBook/WayOfTheWorld'' features Krallian aliens, who are depowered by a substance called Selenite.
** In ''ComicBook/ThePlagueOfTheAntibioticMan'', Amalak creates a yellow energy cocoon around Green Lantern to nullify his Power Ring, and uses Dr. Light's Kryptonite Light to attempt to kill Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlBatgirlPlot'', Superman believes he cannot be harmed by a meteor thrown by Supergirl until his XRayVision tells him there's Kryptonite inside the rocky outside. The fat that "Supergirl" was not harmed by the Green-K clues him in that he is not fighting his cousin but an impersonator.
** ''ComicBook/TheLeperFromKrypton'': In at least one instance, though, Kryptonite saved Superman's life. When Kal-El is dying from an incurable disease, two ComicBook/{{Bizarro}}s try to make his demise quicker and less painful by tossing chunks of White Kryptonite at him. The Bizarros are too dumb to understand that white Kryptonite cannot kill Superman because it has no effect on animal lifeforms...but it does destroy other lifeforms, such like the bacteria which was killing him.
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984'', there is not Kryptonite to found anywhere in the story, and magic takes its place as the tool used by the villain to hurt the Kryptonian hero.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'':
** The color yellow was a major weakness to the Green Lantern Corps. This was eventually explained in ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'' by the influence of a fear demon the creators of the rings had entrapped corrupting their powers, but also authorically served to constantly remind them their potential godlike power has limits (a Green Lantern Ring being otherwise limited only by the intelligence, creativity, and willpower of the wielder). When Kyle Rayner was the only Green Lantern, thanks to Hal Jordan's BrainwashedAndCrazy FaceHeelTurn, his ring had no vulnerability to yellow. However, when Hal was brought BackFromTheDead and the four Earth Lanterns took down Parallax, the Entity of Fear (and thus, the Yellow Impurity that prevented Lanterns from harming yellow objects), it was reinstated and {{retcon}}ned that Lanterns can overcome the weakness by recognizing fear.
** Alan Scott, the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Green Lantern, had no vulnerability to yellow, but a similar vulnerability to wood. This was due to his more magical ring being connected to "green, growing things".
** This was {{retcon}}ned into a long story involving one of Earth's first [=GLs=]. He was mad with power, so the Guardians gave him the wood weakness so primitive humans could club him to death. However, instead of dying, he put his soul into the power ring and battery, which collided with a Meteorite, becoming the Starheart. Alan Scott got his ring from the Starheart. Seriously. (It's hard to reconcile the original Green Lantern with the current Green Lantern Corps, and it ''ain't'' just down to his different weakness.)
** The entire 'wood weakness' may have been a {{retcon}} itself; some of the earliest comics indicate he has 'invulnerability to metal' but not really anything else, allowing him to be, among other things, knocked unconscious by a teak vase.
** It's worth noting however that because of this on-again/off-again vulnerability, the fact that Sinestro always has a yellow power ring is almost a GrandfatherClause.
** Not quite. He was assumed to be dead while the fear entity was out doing whatever fear entities do.
** In the ''Elseworlds'' storyline ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', it was revealed that the yellow vulnerability was just a hoax made up by the Guardians to keep the Green Lanterns from getting too cocky. Alan Scott's wood weakness, however, was psychosomatic and imposed by himself; during his early adventures, while fighting some ruffians, one snuck up behind him and hit him with a wooden club. While the truth was that he just didn't pay attention and thus allowed the foe to get in a cheap shot, he instead convinced himself that he had a weakness to the wood and thus couldn't defend himself. Guess he had a bit of an ego going...
** The Blue Lanterns are a bit different. Instead of having a weakness to another color, the Blue Lanterns are dependent on another color, namely green, in order to use their powers effectively. This is because green is the color of willpower and blue is the color of hope. You can hope all day long that something good will happen, but that won't accomplish anything unless you also have the will to help your hopes come true.
** The Red Lanterns will die if their rings are ever removed, even for a few seconds. This is because upon their induction in the Corps, the Red Light of Rage replaces their blood. If someone removes the ring, the light goes out, and their body is suddenly devoid of blood -- which is almost always fatal, for obvious reasons.
* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': The Manhunter (who is both powerful and has a variety of useful powers) has a vulnerability to fire. And a rather powerful addiction to cream-filled cookies, though this is more a comedic device. (See 2000's ''Martian Manhunter'' #24). In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, fire was treated by him as equivalent to Superman versus kryptonite, but ComicBook/PostCrisis, it became more of a crippling phobia. (They seem to keep going back and forth on this one.) At least once, his fire vulnerability was explained by saying that he almost died in a fire once, and has feared it ever since. This falls apart when one considered that ''every'' Martian who's ever appeared in Creator/DCComics has been vulnerable to fire. Current canon is that it's a genetic block implanted by the Guardians to [[SealedEvilInACan lock away]] the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide burning Martians]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** Early versions of Diana her lose her powers if she was tied up by a man, under "Aphrodite's Law", leading to some [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything bondage imagery]] that must have been blatant even at the time of its introduction. As noted in her entry, that was quite deliberate. In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, she went into an UnstoppableRage if her bracelets were removed. Currently, Wonder Woman has no Kryptonite Factor weaknesses.
*** Partly because she is not as invulnerable as Superman or Manhunter. Bullets can penetrate her skin if she doesn't block them with her bracers and she needs to breathe, just as examples.
*** She does (or at least did -- her continuity is a moving target) lose her powers when she changes back to her secret identity, thanks to a spell cast by her ArchNemesis Circe. Which [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of why she ever turns back to her secret identity, given that they look exactly the same. The only possible benefit to transforming is that it saves her the trouble of changing clothes.
*** In one story, Batman defeats an Amazon footsoldier by throwing a magnetic batarang at her, which sticks her bracelets together when she blocks it and removes her powers. This suggests that the weakness is common to all Amazons and that it survived into the modern age... or possibly that whoever wrote that story was [[DependingOnTheWriter taking a few liberties]]. This is actually used in one of the incarnations of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' -- Scarecrow has captured Wonder Woman and Robin in an attempt to lure Batman into a trap. When Bats arrives, Wonder Woman has her bracelets fused together, thus rendering her powerless.
** Since the Queen of Fables gets her powers from fiction, she is weakened by anything that forces one to acknowledge the truth. Being bound by Wonder Woman's magic lasso drained her powers and caused her RapidAging.
Deleted line(s) 71,81 (click to see context) :
* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** ''ComicBook/MsMarvel2014'': Electric shocks reduce the elasticity of Kamala's cells, nullifying her many of her shape-shifting powers for a few moments. The Inventor predicts and exploits this, and Kaboom's attacks trigger it at least once (though oddly, not every time).
** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': There is a certain gas that can remove Spider-Man's SpiderSense temporarily. It is often used by the goblin-based villains ([[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]], Hobgoblin etc.) or by Mysterio. ComicBook/{{Venom}} and ComicBook/{{Carnage}} are completely immune to the sense altogether, since their powers come from the alien suit Spider-Man wore. Removing his spider sense or being immune to it is always shown to be disastrous for Spider-Man. For instance, his Aunt May is immune to his spider-sense due to being a trusted family member. Trying to get to his bedroom, he snuck into her house one night, still dressed as Spider-Man. She managed to sneak up on him and ended up whacking him over the head with a vase, KOing him. One of the plot points in ComicBook/SpiderIsland was Peter temporarily losing his SpiderSense and realizing just how much he depended on it. He spent some time training with Comicbook/IronFist to become less reliant on it.
** Since he's part spider, he's more sensitive to pesticides than a regular person.
** ''Franchise/XMen'':
*** ''ComicBook/CyclopsMarvelComics'': Cyclops' optic blasts can be entirely contained by even a thin sheet of ruby-quartz (and, uh, [[RequiredSecondaryPowers his eyelids]] apparently) This is used to his ''advantage'', as he can't normally control his optic blasts at all, and so wears glasses with lenses made of the material. Occasionally a villain will strap on some ruby-quartz armor, or lock a quartz helmet on to Cyclops's head, but usually they prefer to go the route of knocking off the glasses. His brother Alex is also immune to his powers, as is he to Alex's. This is explicitly a result of the shared RequiredSecondaryPowers that stop them from blowing themselves up.
*** Colossus, one of the most powerful of the X-Men, can turn his body into living steel, and cannot be hurt by many things when he is in his metal form. The anti-metal vibranium, however, ''can'' hurt him, and when faced with a vibranium weapon, he instinctively reverts to his human form.
*** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/X23 and some other fast healers have trouble healing when having "strange (or foreign) metals (or substances)" on their composition (such as Wolverine's adamantium skeleton, or being struck by carbonium) and thus not heal as fast (read: instantly).
* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': The gods, while far from completely invincible (with the exceptions of the stronger ones like ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}) are ''all'' vulnerable to the very rare element Radion. In ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' [[spoiler:Darkseid kills his son Orion with a time traveling Radion bullet. Batman later fires the same bullet into Darkseid to fatally poison him; an act that eventually leads to Darkseid being DeaderThanDead]].
* A common vulnerability of aquatic superheroes like ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and the ComicBook/SubMariner is the need to remain hydrated (moreso than a normal person, that is). Generally, it's relatively mild - the need to be submerged in water at least once every 24 hours, for example -- and comes up more as a way for villains to keep them prisoner than as something they need to worry about on a regular basis, but it does make them extra vulnerable to villains with heat-based powers, and a CrazyPrepared villain will always find a way to exploit it (Aquaman was [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel once made to be afraid of water]], for instance). Aquaman's hydrophobia is especially notable because it was (albeit indirectly) brought about by Batman, as [[CrazyPrepared the contingency plans he had in place to pacify any rogue League members]] were discovered and put in place by his enemies.
* ''ComicBook/New52'': Inverted with Ultraman. He gets stronger by consuming kryptonite. However, ''[[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]]'' weakens him. To counter this, he creates a solar eclipse after being amped up on kryptonite.
** ''ComicBook/MsMarvel2014'': Electric shocks reduce the elasticity of Kamala's cells, nullifying her many of her shape-shifting powers for a few moments. The Inventor predicts and exploits this, and Kaboom's attacks trigger it at least once (though oddly, not every time).
** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': There is a certain gas that can remove Spider-Man's SpiderSense temporarily. It is often used by the goblin-based villains ([[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]], Hobgoblin etc.) or by Mysterio. ComicBook/{{Venom}} and ComicBook/{{Carnage}} are completely immune to the sense altogether, since their powers come from the alien suit Spider-Man wore. Removing his spider sense or being immune to it is always shown to be disastrous for Spider-Man. For instance, his Aunt May is immune to his spider-sense due to being a trusted family member. Trying to get to his bedroom, he snuck into her house one night, still dressed as Spider-Man. She managed to sneak up on him and ended up whacking him over the head with a vase, KOing him. One of the plot points in ComicBook/SpiderIsland was Peter temporarily losing his SpiderSense and realizing just how much he depended on it. He spent some time training with Comicbook/IronFist to become less reliant on it.
** Since he's part spider, he's more sensitive to pesticides than a regular person.
** ''Franchise/XMen'':
*** ''ComicBook/CyclopsMarvelComics'': Cyclops' optic blasts can be entirely contained by even a thin sheet of ruby-quartz (and, uh, [[RequiredSecondaryPowers his eyelids]] apparently) This is used to his ''advantage'', as he can't normally control his optic blasts at all, and so wears glasses with lenses made of the material. Occasionally a villain will strap on some ruby-quartz armor, or lock a quartz helmet on to Cyclops's head, but usually they prefer to go the route of knocking off the glasses. His brother Alex is also immune to his powers, as is he to Alex's. This is explicitly a result of the shared RequiredSecondaryPowers that stop them from blowing themselves up.
*** Colossus, one of the most powerful of the X-Men, can turn his body into living steel, and cannot be hurt by many things when he is in his metal form. The anti-metal vibranium, however, ''can'' hurt him, and when faced with a vibranium weapon, he instinctively reverts to his human form.
*** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/X23 and some other fast healers have trouble healing when having "strange (or foreign) metals (or substances)" on their composition (such as Wolverine's adamantium skeleton, or being struck by carbonium) and thus not heal as fast (read: instantly).
* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': The gods, while far from completely invincible (with the exceptions of the stronger ones like ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}) are ''all'' vulnerable to the very rare element Radion. In ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' [[spoiler:Darkseid kills his son Orion with a time traveling Radion bullet. Batman later fires the same bullet into Darkseid to fatally poison him; an act that eventually leads to Darkseid being DeaderThanDead]].
* A common vulnerability of aquatic superheroes like ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and the ComicBook/SubMariner is the need to remain hydrated (moreso than a normal person, that is). Generally, it's relatively mild - the need to be submerged in water at least once every 24 hours, for example -- and comes up more as a way for villains to keep them prisoner than as something they need to worry about on a regular basis, but it does make them extra vulnerable to villains with heat-based powers, and a CrazyPrepared villain will always find a way to exploit it (Aquaman was [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel once made to be afraid of water]], for instance). Aquaman's hydrophobia is especially notable because it was (albeit indirectly) brought about by Batman, as [[CrazyPrepared the contingency plans he had in place to pacify any rogue League members]] were discovered and put in place by his enemies.
* ''ComicBook/New52'': Inverted with Ultraman. He gets stronger by consuming kryptonite. However, ''[[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]]'' weakens him. To counter this, he creates a solar eclipse after being amped up on kryptonite.
Changed line(s) 83,91 (click to see context) from:
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'':
** For unexplained reasons, the Emerald Eye of Ekron cannot stand green kryptonite and flees its presence. It will also shut down if it cannot see its host, but given it can see in almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, this is very hard to accomplish.
** ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'':
*** The Oan Servant of Darkness has the same vulnerability to yellow as the rest of his race has (sometimes), and as such Sun boy is able to stymie him with yellow sun bursts.
*** The Superman Servant is defeated when Element Lad makes Gold Kryptonite to strip him of his powers, and Timber Wolf crushes him.
* DC heroines ComicBook/BlackCanary and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} both have powers related to their voice (Canary has a SonicScream dubbed the Canary Cry, while Zee has a CompellingVoice that can alter reality so long as she says it backwards). Naturally, their weakness is anything that can disable their ability to speak (such as a gag, something that covers their mouth, or injuries to their throat).
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' is extremely vulnerable to the cold; coldness robs molecules of their vibrations, and as a result their super speed is drained by cold temperatures. Though sometimes this is used for environmental threats, like having the Flash struggle to work in a snow storm, its mostly weaponised by only a single enemy, Captain Cold, and to a lesser extent, his sister Golden Glider and her boyfriend(s) Chilblaine. This is one that's not as readily exploited as Kryptonite and the color yellow are for their respective heroes, strangely, despite the trouble often cited with making a challenge for a hero with super-speed.
* While most superheroes in ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' are resistant or immune to normal bullets, depleted uranium rounds are shown to bypass this.
* In one ComicBook/{{Deadman}} story, the CIA uncovers some weird alien technology in a Mayan temple capable of disabloing Deadman's intangibility, allowing them to briefly capture him.
** For unexplained reasons, the Emerald Eye of Ekron cannot stand green kryptonite and flees its presence. It will also shut down if it cannot see its host, but given it can see in almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, this is very hard to accomplish.
** ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'':
*** The Oan Servant of Darkness has the same vulnerability to yellow as the rest of his race has (sometimes), and as such Sun boy is able to stymie him with yellow sun bursts.
*** The Superman Servant is defeated when Element Lad makes Gold Kryptonite to strip him of his powers, and Timber Wolf crushes him.
* DC heroines ComicBook/BlackCanary and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} both have powers related to their voice (Canary has a SonicScream dubbed the Canary Cry, while Zee has a CompellingVoice that can alter reality so long as she says it backwards). Naturally, their weakness is anything that can disable their ability to speak (such as a gag, something that covers their mouth, or injuries to their throat).
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' is extremely vulnerable to the cold; coldness robs molecules of their vibrations, and as a result their super speed is drained by cold temperatures. Though sometimes this is used for environmental threats, like having the Flash struggle to work in a snow storm, its mostly weaponised by only a single enemy, Captain Cold, and to a lesser extent, his sister Golden Glider and her boyfriend(s) Chilblaine. This is one that's not as readily exploited as Kryptonite and the color yellow are for their respective heroes, strangely, despite the trouble often cited with making a challenge for a hero with super-speed.
* While most superheroes in ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' are resistant or immune to normal bullets, depleted uranium rounds are shown to bypass this.
* In one ComicBook/{{Deadman}} story, the CIA uncovers some weird alien technology in a Mayan temple capable of disabloing Deadman's intangibility, allowing them to briefly capture him.
to:
** For unexplained reasons, the Emerald Eye of Ekron cannot stand green kryptonite and flees its presence. It will also shut down if it cannot see its host, but given it can see in almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, this is very hard to accomplish.
** ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'':
*** The Oan Servant of Darkness has the same vulnerability to yellow as the rest of his race has (sometimes), and as such Sun boy is able to stymie him with yellow sun bursts.
*** The Superman Servant is defeated when Element Lad makes Gold Kryptonite to strip him of his powers, and Timber Wolf crushes him.
* DC heroines ComicBook/BlackCanary and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} both have powers related to their voice (Canary has a SonicScream dubbed the Canary Cry, while Zee has a CompellingVoice that can alter reality so long as she says it backwards). Naturally, their weakness is anything that can disable their ability to speak (such as a gag, something that covers their mouth, or injuries to their throat).
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' is extremely vulnerable to the cold; coldness robs molecules of their vibrations, and as a result their super speed is drained by cold temperatures. Though sometimes this is used for environmental threats, like having the Flash struggle to work in a snow storm, its mostly weaponised by only a single enemy, Captain Cold, and to a lesser extent, his sister Golden Glider and her boyfriend(s) Chilblaine. This is one that's not as readily exploited as Kryptonite and the color yellow are for their respective heroes, strangely, despite the trouble often cited with making a challenge for a hero with super-speed.
* In one ComicBook/{{Deadman}} story, the CIA uncovers some weird alien technology in a Mayan temple capable of disabloing Deadman's intangibility, allowing them to briefly capture him.
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* KryptoniteFactor/MarvelUniverse
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* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** Superman is the {{Trope Namer|s}}, with his weakness to Kryptonite (radioactive GreenRocks from his home planet) established back in the 40's. Since then, he's gained a few other vulnerabilities: he has no particular resistance to magic (DependingOnTheWriter, it may either be a bona fide weakness or that he's just as vulnerable to magic as anyone else, meaning it's a relative weakness for someone immune to almost anything else), red sun radiation can temporarily rob him of his powers, and there's a whole spectrum of coloured Kryptonite with varying effects (from Red Kryptonite that causes a random change for 48 hours, to Gold Kryptonite that robs him of his powers ''permanently''). He can still be killed by a huge amount of brute force from a similarly powered being such as Doomsday.
** In Post-Crisis continuity, Gold Kryptonite part is "powerless for 30 seconds", mostly because [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt it couldn't credibly be used for much storytelling otherwise]].
** He even has at least three villains -- Metallo, Conduit, and [[ManOfKryptonite the Kryptonite Man]] -- possessing powers that boil down to ''being Kryptonite.'' And due to Gold K being {{Nerf}}ed, minor villain Radion was revised into this in ''ComicBook/SupermanUpUpAndAway'' as well.
** Ironically, Superman is infamous for [[FightOffTheKryptonite ignoring Kryptonite]] through sheer HeroicWillpower. The only thing he is always shown as vulnerable to is magic. This has gives [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] [[SuperHeroSpeciation a firm place]] in Franchise/TheDCU as a valuable ally for the Man of Steel.
** ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} once used a special mix of red and green Kryptonite that gave him a third eye in the back of his head (in ''ComicBook/ActionComics #275''). In order to protect his secret identity, Supes pretended that the kryptonite had addled his brain to make him wear whatever hat is near him.
** ''ComicBook/LetMyPeopleGrow'' proves that; not even Superman can withstand an exploding supernova (he needs to wear a special armor suit, and even so he passes out due to the strain); and Brainiac is able to build Kryptonian-killing weapons.
** There are at least six colors of kryptonite, each with its own effects -- [[ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns including Pink Kryptonite, which can change your sexual orientation]].
** In Bronze Age storyline ''ComicBook/KryptonNoMore'', orange sun radiation can temporarily make Kryptonians blind and cut their powers in half. Superman, Supergirl and ComicBook/{{Krypto|TheSuperdog}} learn this the hard way as they are fighting an alien army.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'' ComicBook/LexLuthor uses beam weapons powered with red sunlight to destroy Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/WarWorld'', ComicBook/MartianManhunter tries to stop Superman using Kryptonite-tipped missiles.
** In ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'', all Kryptonite on Earth is turned into iron. Comicbook/JimmyOlsen notes magic is still a problem, though.
** ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' has the same weaknesses as her cousin Superman. Namely: kryptonite, red sunlight, and magic.
** In the ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'' storyline, Supergirl faced off against [[ArchEnemy Reactron]], an enemy powered by golden kryptonite which nullified her powers. It becomes a plot point in ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'' when the titular villain no-sells Reactron's Kryptonite-fueled blasts, thus revealing she's not Kryptonian.
** In the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' arc, Silver Banshee managed to contain Supergirl for a short while when they fought because her sonic attacks are magic, and Kryptonians are vulnerable to magic. Later on, Kara was weakened when she fought [[spoiler:Worldkiller-1]] because Earth's atmosphere was poisoned with kryptonite.
** In the first ''ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth'' story, Red Kryptonite -which is non-lethal but does weird things to Kryptonians- turns a Kryptonian into a werewolf. Supergirl's foster mother Eliza Danvers uses a red solar grenade against Lar-On when she notices he speaks Kryptonian.
** Several times in ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', Supergirl feels weak and sick without knowing why… until Lex Luthor reveals what Kryptonite is and does to Kryptonians.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', Kara Zor-El's pod crash-lands on Earth after spending three decades and a half stuck inside a Kryptonite giant asteroid. Although she survived thanks to her pod's sunlight generators, [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 she suffered from Kryptonite poisoning for over one year]].
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' issue #21, both Super-cousins fight the Kryptonite Man. His power weakens them and hurts them.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Kryptonite... Cutting through me... like a knife.
** Kara is vulnerable to magic because it bypasses her natural invulnerability. In ''Comicbook/DemonSpawn'' Nightflame's attacks hurt her because that villain is a sorcerer.
** Notably PlayedWith regarding ComicBook/PowerGirl. As a Kryptonian from Earth 2 (and in fact, the alternate universe counterpart of Supergirl above), she's vulnerable to the same weaknesses...on Earth 2. Kryptonite from Earth 1, where she now resides, does nothing to her (and likely red sunlight too). Magic still affects her, but as above, its typically more a 'has no immunity to it' rather than something that makes her weaker.
** Notably, during a time where DC were insisting on keeping Superman as the ''only'' Kryptonian, Power Girl was retconned into an Atlantean who had incorrectly believed herself to be Kryptonian, and her powers were now magic in nature. During this time, she was given a weakness to "natural, unprocessed materials" (IE, rocks and trees). Its now explained that this was a result of reality trying to find a 'place' for her after her universe was destroyed, and was attempting to recreate her Kryptonite Factor. Nowadays this period is largely forgotten and ignored.
** Daxamites are descended from ancient Kryptonian colonists who intermingled with the native population of Daxam and have similar weaknesses save for Kryptonite itself, instead they're irrecoverably fatally allergic to lead:
** ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}} (1949)'' #89 story had Superboy meet [[ComicBook/{{Valor}} Mon-El]], an amnesiac with powers like his, who assumed due to this that he was Kryptonian. Near the end of the story, Clark gets suspicious and lobs lead boulders painted to look like Kryptonite at him. Mon-El collapses, and Superboy flies in to accuse him of fakery -- but the trauma has [[EasyAmnesia brought his memory back]]; he's a Daxamite, a member of a race similar to Kryptonians, but with a weakness to lead poisoning instead of Kryptonite. To keep him from dying, Superboy puts him in the PhantomZone, preserving him for a thousand years until the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes finds a cure. Later retellings have Clark and Mon-El seeing if Mon-El was a Kryptonian (whose memories were slowly coming back) and Mon-El getting sick after Clark takes out a lead box containing some Kryptonite.
** Bizarro and his race are vulnerable to ''blue'' Kryptonite. In ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', Supergirl and Dr. Light discover they can block Bizarrogirl's powers with light of a K-class star.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Because I just had an interesting conversation with a brilliant scientist I know. Y'see, a yellow sun gives a Kryptonian powers and a red sun takes them away.\\
'''Bizarrogirl:''' Bah! Science am boring!\\
'''Supergirl:''' Ha. You are an imperfect Kryptonian clone, Bizarrogirl, super-powered by a blue sun. Dr. Light theorizes the light of a K-Class star will take your powers away.
** Originally, the blue kryptonite weakness was because Bizarro was a copy of Superman, imperfectly duplicated by a machine. Normal kryptonite had no effect, until Superman thought of using similarly imperfectly duplicated Kryptonite. Just as Bizarro himself has chalk-white skin and a skewed color scheme, the duplicated kryptonite was a different color than the regular stuff.
** ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'': Kara's attempt to retrieve her pod from Simon Tycho's base fails when she gets knocked out by the bits of Kryptonite stuck to the pod's hull.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'', where Superman has become invulnerable to Kryptonite after aging several thousands of years.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', the Eradicator's "Last Son of Krypton" body had an ironic weakness to bright lights. His body, made out of materials from around Superman's tomb, was imperfect and he was unable to see in light. Thus, he is forced to wear a pair of shades to filter the light. In his fight with Steel, Steel is able to punch off Eradicator's glasses, forcing him to flee.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'', since she is vulnerable to magic, Supergirl gets hurt by [[EvilSorcerer Karmang]]'s fire spells.
** ''ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity'': After being driven crazy by a Kandorian animal's venom, Edna Danvers uses a cache of Kryptonite rocks to attempt to murder Zor-El and Allura.
** Downplayed in ''ComicBook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow''. When she travels to Ruthye's homeworld, which revolves around a red star, Kara is weakened and can be hurt, but she is still inhumanly strong and tough. Arrows pierce her skin but they do not reach her muscles or vital organs.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman1961'', Lex Luthor kills Superman by strapping him to one stretcher and exposing him to Kryptonite radiation.
** ''ComicBook/TheHuntForReactron'', the eponymous villain tries to use Golden Kryptonite to depower his Kryptonian enemies in order to destroy them easily, but he is rendered helpless when Flamebird crushes his chunk of rock.
** ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'': After giving Lex Luthor powers, the Phantom Zone criminals intend to trick him into retrieving a sample of Golden Kryptonite to remove Superman and Supergirl's powers, as well as Luthor's.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor''. Supergirl wakes up in a chamber which supposedly uses high-gravity generators and fluorescent panels which emit red sunlight to nullify her powers by duplicating Krypton's environment. She soon realizes, though, that her kidnappers are gaslighting her and those red lamps have no effect on her.
** Though there is a caveat we should mention: Kryptonite is ''not'' a harmless substance. It's more-or-less a radioactive isotope, and can cause harm to anyone if exposed to it for long periods without the proper protection. In some continualities Lex Luthor develops cancer, or goes crazy, thanks to repeated exposure.
** ''ComicBook/WayOfTheWorld'' features Krallian aliens, who are depowered by a substance called Selenite.
** In ''ComicBook/ThePlagueOfTheAntibioticMan'', Amalak creates a yellow energy cocoon around Green Lantern to nullify his Power Ring, and uses Dr. Light's Kryptonite Light to attempt to kill Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlBatgirlPlot'', Superman believes he cannot be harmed by a meteor thrown by Supergirl until his XRayVision tells him there's Kryptonite inside the rocky outside. The fat that "Supergirl" was not harmed by the Green-K clues him in that he is not fighting his cousin but an impersonator.
** ''ComicBook/TheLeperFromKrypton'': In at least one instance, though, Kryptonite saved Superman's life. When Kal-El is dying from an incurable disease, two ComicBook/{{Bizarro}}s try to make his demise quicker and less painful by tossing chunks of White Kryptonite at him. The Bizarros are too dumb to understand that white Kryptonite cannot kill Superman because it has no effect on animal lifeforms...but it does destroy other lifeforms, such like the bacteria which was killing him.
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984'', there is not Kryptonite to found anywhere in the story, and magic takes its place as the tool used by the villain to hurt the Kryptonian hero.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'':
** The color yellow was a major weakness to the Green Lantern Corps. This was eventually explained in ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'' by the influence of a fear demon the creators of the rings had entrapped corrupting their powers, but also authorically served to constantly remind them their potential godlike power has limits (a Green Lantern Ring being otherwise limited only by the intelligence, creativity, and willpower of the wielder). When Kyle Rayner was the only Green Lantern, thanks to Hal Jordan's BrainwashedAndCrazy FaceHeelTurn, his ring had no vulnerability to yellow. However, when Hal was brought BackFromTheDead and the four Earth Lanterns took down Parallax, the Entity of Fear (and thus, the Yellow Impurity that prevented Lanterns from harming yellow objects), it was reinstated and {{retcon}}ned that Lanterns can overcome the weakness by recognizing fear.
** Alan Scott, the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Green Lantern, had no vulnerability to yellow, but a similar vulnerability to wood. This was due to his more magical ring being connected to "green, growing things".
** This was {{retcon}}ned into a long story involving one of Earth's first [=GLs=]. He was mad with power, so the Guardians gave him the wood weakness so primitive humans could club him to death. However, instead of dying, he put his soul into the power ring and battery, which collided with a Meteorite, becoming the Starheart. Alan Scott got his ring from the Starheart. Seriously. (It's hard to reconcile the original Green Lantern with the current Green Lantern Corps, and it ''ain't'' just down to his different weakness.)
** The entire 'wood weakness' may have been a {{retcon}} itself; some of the earliest comics indicate he has 'invulnerability to metal' but not really anything else, allowing him to be, among other things, knocked unconscious by a teak vase.
** It's worth noting however that because of this on-again/off-again vulnerability, the fact that Sinestro always has a yellow power ring is almost a GrandfatherClause.
** Not quite. He was assumed to be dead while the fear entity was out doing whatever fear entities do.
** In the ''Elseworlds'' storyline ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', it was revealed that the yellow vulnerability was just a hoax made up by the Guardians to keep the Green Lanterns from getting too cocky. Alan Scott's wood weakness, however, was psychosomatic and imposed by himself; during his early adventures, while fighting some ruffians, one snuck up behind him and hit him with a wooden club. While the truth was that he just didn't pay attention and thus allowed the foe to get in a cheap shot, he instead convinced himself that he had a weakness to the wood and thus couldn't defend himself. Guess he had a bit of an ego going...
** The Blue Lanterns are a bit different. Instead of having a weakness to another color, the Blue Lanterns are dependent on another color, namely green, in order to use their powers effectively. This is because green is the color of willpower and blue is the color of hope. You can hope all day long that something good will happen, but that won't accomplish anything unless you also have the will to help your hopes come true.
** The Red Lanterns will die if their rings are ever removed, even for a few seconds. This is because upon their induction in the Corps, the Red Light of Rage replaces their blood. If someone removes the ring, the light goes out, and their body is suddenly devoid of blood -- which is almost always fatal, for obvious reasons.
* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': The Manhunter (who is both powerful and has a variety of useful powers) has a vulnerability to fire. And a rather powerful addiction to cream-filled cookies, though this is more a comedic device. (See 2000's ''Martian Manhunter'' #24). In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, fire was treated by him as equivalent to Superman versus kryptonite, but ComicBook/PostCrisis, it became more of a crippling phobia. (They seem to keep going back and forth on this one.) At least once, his fire vulnerability was explained by saying that he almost died in a fire once, and has feared it ever since. This falls apart when one considered that ''every'' Martian who's ever appeared in Creator/DCComics has been vulnerable to fire. Current canon is that it's a genetic block implanted by the Guardians to [[SealedEvilInACan lock away]] the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide burning Martians]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** Early versions of Diana her lose her powers if she was tied up by a man, under "Aphrodite's Law", leading to some [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything bondage imagery]] that must have been blatant even at the time of its introduction. As noted in her entry, that was quite deliberate. In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, she went into an UnstoppableRage if her bracelets were removed. Currently, Wonder Woman has no Kryptonite Factor weaknesses.
*** Partly because she is not as invulnerable as Superman or Manhunter. Bullets can penetrate her skin if she doesn't block them with her bracers and she needs to breathe, just as examples.
*** She does (or at least did -- her continuity is a moving target) lose her powers when she changes back to her secret identity, thanks to a spell cast by her ArchNemesis Circe. Which [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of why she ever turns back to her secret identity, given that they look exactly the same. The only possible benefit to transforming is that it saves her the trouble of changing clothes.
*** In one story, Batman defeats an Amazon footsoldier by throwing a magnetic batarang at her, which sticks her bracelets together when she blocks it and removes her powers. This suggests that the weakness is common to all Amazons and that it survived into the modern age... or possibly that whoever wrote that story was [[DependingOnTheWriter taking a few liberties]]. This is actually used in one of the incarnations of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' -- Scarecrow has captured Wonder Woman and Robin in an attempt to lure Batman into a trap. When Bats arrives, Wonder Woman has her bracelets fused together, thus rendering her powerless.
** Since the Queen of Fables gets her powers from fiction, she is weakened by anything that forces one to acknowledge the truth. Being bound by Wonder Woman's magic lasso drained her powers and caused her RapidAging.
* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Jesse Custer's power of [[CompellingVoice the Word]] (his ability to force people to do what he says) has a catch: the Word must be both ''heard'' and ''understood'' to work. Among other things, this means it doesn't work on animals, various characters avoid it by covering their ears, and at one point it's rendered moot when a squad of soldiers who only speak French are sent after him.
* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** ''ComicBook/MsMarvel2014'': Electric shocks reduce the elasticity of Kamala's cells, nullifying her many of her shape-shifting powers for a few moments. The Inventor predicts and exploits this, and Kaboom's attacks trigger it at least once (though oddly, not every time).
** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': There is a certain gas that can remove Spider-Man's SpiderSense temporarily. It is often used by the goblin-based villains ([[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]], Hobgoblin etc.) or by Mysterio. ComicBook/{{Venom}} and ComicBook/{{Carnage}} are completely immune to the sense altogether, since their powers come from the alien suit Spider-Man wore. Removing his spider sense or being immune to it is always shown to be disastrous for Spider-Man. For instance, his Aunt May is immune to his spider-sense due to being a trusted family member. Trying to get to his bedroom, he snuck into her house one night, still dressed as Spider-Man. She managed to sneak up on him and ended up whacking him over the head with a vase, KOing him. One of the plot points in ComicBook/SpiderIsland was Peter temporarily losing his SpiderSense and realizing just how much he depended on it. He spent some time training with Comicbook/IronFist to become less reliant on it.
** Since he's part spider, he's more sensitive to pesticides than a regular person.
** ''Franchise/XMen'':
*** ''ComicBook/CyclopsMarvelComics'': Cyclops' optic blasts can be entirely contained by even a thin sheet of ruby-quartz (and, uh, [[RequiredSecondaryPowers his eyelids]] apparently) This is used to his ''advantage'', as he can't normally control his optic blasts at all, and so wears glasses with lenses made of the material. Occasionally a villain will strap on some ruby-quartz armor, or lock a quartz helmet on to Cyclops's head, but usually they prefer to go the route of knocking off the glasses. His brother Alex is also immune to his powers, as is he to Alex's. This is explicitly a result of the shared RequiredSecondaryPowers that stop them from blowing themselves up.
*** Colossus, one of the most powerful of the X-Men, can turn his body into living steel, and cannot be hurt by many things when he is in his metal form. The anti-metal vibranium, however, ''can'' hurt him, and when faced with a vibranium weapon, he instinctively reverts to his human form.
*** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/X23 and some other fast healers have trouble healing when having "strange (or foreign) metals (or substances)" on their composition (such as Wolverine's adamantium skeleton, or being struck by carbonium) and thus not heal as fast (read: instantly).
* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': The gods, while far from completely invincible (with the exceptions of the stronger ones like ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}) are ''all'' vulnerable to the very rare element Radion. In ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' [[spoiler:Darkseid kills his son Orion with a time traveling Radion bullet. Batman later fires the same bullet into Darkseid to fatally poison him; an act that eventually leads to Darkseid being DeaderThanDead]].
* A common vulnerability of aquatic superheroes like ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and the ComicBook/SubMariner is the need to remain hydrated (moreso than a normal person, that is). Generally, it's relatively mild - the need to be submerged in water at least once every 24 hours, for example -- and comes up more as a way for villains to keep them prisoner than as something they need to worry about on a regular basis, but it does make them extra vulnerable to villains with heat-based powers, and a CrazyPrepared villain will always find a way to exploit it (Aquaman was [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel once made to be afraid of water]], for instance). Aquaman's hydrophobia is especially notable because it was (albeit indirectly) brought about by Batman, as [[CrazyPrepared the contingency plans he had in place to pacify any rogue League members]] were discovered and put in place by his enemies.
* ''ComicBook/New52'': Inverted with Ultraman. He gets stronger by consuming kryptonite. However, ''[[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]]'' weakens him. To counter this, he creates a solar eclipse after being amped up on kryptonite.
* ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'': The Superman CaptainErsatz Atlas is vulnerable to Argonite, the irradiated remnants of his homeworld Argos. [[spoiler:It later transpires that Argonite is a synthetic, Earth-made material created by the US military specifically as a way to keep Atlas in check. It also has the side-effect of working on ''all'' {{Flying Brick}}s, including native Earth ones like 84 and also every member of the not-at-all-destroyed Argos' noble houses.]]
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'':
** For unexplained reasons, the Emerald Eye of Ekron cannot stand green kryptonite and flees its presence. It will also shut down if it cannot see its host, but given it can see in almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, this is very hard to accomplish.
** ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'':
*** The Oan Servant of Darkness has the same vulnerability to yellow as the rest of his race has (sometimes), and as such Sun boy is able to stymie him with yellow sun bursts.
*** The Superman Servant is defeated when Element Lad makes Gold Kryptonite to strip him of his powers, and Timber Wolf crushes him.
* DC heroines ComicBook/BlackCanary and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} both have powers related to their voice (Canary has a SonicScream dubbed the Canary Cry, while Zee has a CompellingVoice that can alter reality so long as she says it backwards). Naturally, their weakness is anything that can disable their ability to speak (such as a gag, something that covers their mouth, or injuries to their throat).
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' is extremely vulnerable to the cold; coldness robs molecules of their vibrations, and as a result their super speed is drained by cold temperatures. Though sometimes this is used for environmental threats, like having the Flash struggle to work in a snow storm, its mostly weaponised by only a single enemy, Captain Cold, and to a lesser extent, his sister Golden Glider and her boyfriend(s) Chilblaine. This is one that's not as readily exploited as Kryptonite and the color yellow are for their respective heroes, strangely, despite the trouble often cited with making a challenge for a hero with super-speed.
* While most superheroes in ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' are resistant or immune to normal bullets, depleted uranium rounds are shown to bypass this.
* In one ComicBook/{{Deadman}} story, the CIA uncovers some weird alien technology in a Mayan temple capable of disabloing Deadman's intangibility, allowing them to briefly capture him.
** Superman is the {{Trope Namer|s}}, with his weakness to Kryptonite (radioactive GreenRocks from his home planet) established back in the 40's. Since then, he's gained a few other vulnerabilities: he has no particular resistance to magic (DependingOnTheWriter, it may either be a bona fide weakness or that he's just as vulnerable to magic as anyone else, meaning it's a relative weakness for someone immune to almost anything else), red sun radiation can temporarily rob him of his powers, and there's a whole spectrum of coloured Kryptonite with varying effects (from Red Kryptonite that causes a random change for 48 hours, to Gold Kryptonite that robs him of his powers ''permanently''). He can still be killed by a huge amount of brute force from a similarly powered being such as Doomsday.
** In Post-Crisis continuity, Gold Kryptonite part is "powerless for 30 seconds", mostly because [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt it couldn't credibly be used for much storytelling otherwise]].
** He even has at least three villains -- Metallo, Conduit, and [[ManOfKryptonite the Kryptonite Man]] -- possessing powers that boil down to ''being Kryptonite.'' And due to Gold K being {{Nerf}}ed, minor villain Radion was revised into this in ''ComicBook/SupermanUpUpAndAway'' as well.
** Ironically, Superman is infamous for [[FightOffTheKryptonite ignoring Kryptonite]] through sheer HeroicWillpower. The only thing he is always shown as vulnerable to is magic. This has gives [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] [[SuperHeroSpeciation a firm place]] in Franchise/TheDCU as a valuable ally for the Man of Steel.
** ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} once used a special mix of red and green Kryptonite that gave him a third eye in the back of his head (in ''ComicBook/ActionComics #275''). In order to protect his secret identity, Supes pretended that the kryptonite had addled his brain to make him wear whatever hat is near him.
** ''ComicBook/LetMyPeopleGrow'' proves that; not even Superman can withstand an exploding supernova (he needs to wear a special armor suit, and even so he passes out due to the strain); and Brainiac is able to build Kryptonian-killing weapons.
** There are at least six colors of kryptonite, each with its own effects -- [[ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns including Pink Kryptonite, which can change your sexual orientation]].
** In Bronze Age storyline ''ComicBook/KryptonNoMore'', orange sun radiation can temporarily make Kryptonians blind and cut their powers in half. Superman, Supergirl and ComicBook/{{Krypto|TheSuperdog}} learn this the hard way as they are fighting an alien army.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'' ComicBook/LexLuthor uses beam weapons powered with red sunlight to destroy Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/WarWorld'', ComicBook/MartianManhunter tries to stop Superman using Kryptonite-tipped missiles.
** In ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'', all Kryptonite on Earth is turned into iron. Comicbook/JimmyOlsen notes magic is still a problem, though.
** ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' has the same weaknesses as her cousin Superman. Namely: kryptonite, red sunlight, and magic.
** In the ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'' storyline, Supergirl faced off against [[ArchEnemy Reactron]], an enemy powered by golden kryptonite which nullified her powers. It becomes a plot point in ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'' when the titular villain no-sells Reactron's Kryptonite-fueled blasts, thus revealing she's not Kryptonian.
** In the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' arc, Silver Banshee managed to contain Supergirl for a short while when they fought because her sonic attacks are magic, and Kryptonians are vulnerable to magic. Later on, Kara was weakened when she fought [[spoiler:Worldkiller-1]] because Earth's atmosphere was poisoned with kryptonite.
** In the first ''ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth'' story, Red Kryptonite -which is non-lethal but does weird things to Kryptonians- turns a Kryptonian into a werewolf. Supergirl's foster mother Eliza Danvers uses a red solar grenade against Lar-On when she notices he speaks Kryptonian.
** Several times in ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', Supergirl feels weak and sick without knowing why… until Lex Luthor reveals what Kryptonite is and does to Kryptonians.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'', Kara Zor-El's pod crash-lands on Earth after spending three decades and a half stuck inside a Kryptonite giant asteroid. Although she survived thanks to her pod's sunlight generators, [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 she suffered from Kryptonite poisoning for over one year]].
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' issue #21, both Super-cousins fight the Kryptonite Man. His power weakens them and hurts them.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Kryptonite... Cutting through me... like a knife.
** Kara is vulnerable to magic because it bypasses her natural invulnerability. In ''Comicbook/DemonSpawn'' Nightflame's attacks hurt her because that villain is a sorcerer.
** Notably PlayedWith regarding ComicBook/PowerGirl. As a Kryptonian from Earth 2 (and in fact, the alternate universe counterpart of Supergirl above), she's vulnerable to the same weaknesses...on Earth 2. Kryptonite from Earth 1, where she now resides, does nothing to her (and likely red sunlight too). Magic still affects her, but as above, its typically more a 'has no immunity to it' rather than something that makes her weaker.
** Notably, during a time where DC were insisting on keeping Superman as the ''only'' Kryptonian, Power Girl was retconned into an Atlantean who had incorrectly believed herself to be Kryptonian, and her powers were now magic in nature. During this time, she was given a weakness to "natural, unprocessed materials" (IE, rocks and trees). Its now explained that this was a result of reality trying to find a 'place' for her after her universe was destroyed, and was attempting to recreate her Kryptonite Factor. Nowadays this period is largely forgotten and ignored.
** Daxamites are descended from ancient Kryptonian colonists who intermingled with the native population of Daxam and have similar weaknesses save for Kryptonite itself, instead they're irrecoverably fatally allergic to lead:
** ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}} (1949)'' #89 story had Superboy meet [[ComicBook/{{Valor}} Mon-El]], an amnesiac with powers like his, who assumed due to this that he was Kryptonian. Near the end of the story, Clark gets suspicious and lobs lead boulders painted to look like Kryptonite at him. Mon-El collapses, and Superboy flies in to accuse him of fakery -- but the trauma has [[EasyAmnesia brought his memory back]]; he's a Daxamite, a member of a race similar to Kryptonians, but with a weakness to lead poisoning instead of Kryptonite. To keep him from dying, Superboy puts him in the PhantomZone, preserving him for a thousand years until the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes finds a cure. Later retellings have Clark and Mon-El seeing if Mon-El was a Kryptonian (whose memories were slowly coming back) and Mon-El getting sick after Clark takes out a lead box containing some Kryptonite.
** Bizarro and his race are vulnerable to ''blue'' Kryptonite. In ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', Supergirl and Dr. Light discover they can block Bizarrogirl's powers with light of a K-class star.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Because I just had an interesting conversation with a brilliant scientist I know. Y'see, a yellow sun gives a Kryptonian powers and a red sun takes them away.\\
'''Bizarrogirl:''' Bah! Science am boring!\\
'''Supergirl:''' Ha. You are an imperfect Kryptonian clone, Bizarrogirl, super-powered by a blue sun. Dr. Light theorizes the light of a K-Class star will take your powers away.
** Originally, the blue kryptonite weakness was because Bizarro was a copy of Superman, imperfectly duplicated by a machine. Normal kryptonite had no effect, until Superman thought of using similarly imperfectly duplicated Kryptonite. Just as Bizarro himself has chalk-white skin and a skewed color scheme, the duplicated kryptonite was a different color than the regular stuff.
** ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'': Kara's attempt to retrieve her pod from Simon Tycho's base fails when she gets knocked out by the bits of Kryptonite stuck to the pod's hull.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'', where Superman has become invulnerable to Kryptonite after aging several thousands of years.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', the Eradicator's "Last Son of Krypton" body had an ironic weakness to bright lights. His body, made out of materials from around Superman's tomb, was imperfect and he was unable to see in light. Thus, he is forced to wear a pair of shades to filter the light. In his fight with Steel, Steel is able to punch off Eradicator's glasses, forcing him to flee.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'', since she is vulnerable to magic, Supergirl gets hurt by [[EvilSorcerer Karmang]]'s fire spells.
** ''ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity'': After being driven crazy by a Kandorian animal's venom, Edna Danvers uses a cache of Kryptonite rocks to attempt to murder Zor-El and Allura.
** Downplayed in ''ComicBook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow''. When she travels to Ruthye's homeworld, which revolves around a red star, Kara is weakened and can be hurt, but she is still inhumanly strong and tough. Arrows pierce her skin but they do not reach her muscles or vital organs.
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman1961'', Lex Luthor kills Superman by strapping him to one stretcher and exposing him to Kryptonite radiation.
** ''ComicBook/TheHuntForReactron'', the eponymous villain tries to use Golden Kryptonite to depower his Kryptonian enemies in order to destroy them easily, but he is rendered helpless when Flamebird crushes his chunk of rock.
** ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'': After giving Lex Luthor powers, the Phantom Zone criminals intend to trick him into retrieving a sample of Golden Kryptonite to remove Superman and Supergirl's powers, as well as Luthor's.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor''. Supergirl wakes up in a chamber which supposedly uses high-gravity generators and fluorescent panels which emit red sunlight to nullify her powers by duplicating Krypton's environment. She soon realizes, though, that her kidnappers are gaslighting her and those red lamps have no effect on her.
** Though there is a caveat we should mention: Kryptonite is ''not'' a harmless substance. It's more-or-less a radioactive isotope, and can cause harm to anyone if exposed to it for long periods without the proper protection. In some continualities Lex Luthor develops cancer, or goes crazy, thanks to repeated exposure.
** ''ComicBook/WayOfTheWorld'' features Krallian aliens, who are depowered by a substance called Selenite.
** In ''ComicBook/ThePlagueOfTheAntibioticMan'', Amalak creates a yellow energy cocoon around Green Lantern to nullify his Power Ring, and uses Dr. Light's Kryptonite Light to attempt to kill Superman.
** In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlBatgirlPlot'', Superman believes he cannot be harmed by a meteor thrown by Supergirl until his XRayVision tells him there's Kryptonite inside the rocky outside. The fat that "Supergirl" was not harmed by the Green-K clues him in that he is not fighting his cousin but an impersonator.
** ''ComicBook/TheLeperFromKrypton'': In at least one instance, though, Kryptonite saved Superman's life. When Kal-El is dying from an incurable disease, two ComicBook/{{Bizarro}}s try to make his demise quicker and less painful by tossing chunks of White Kryptonite at him. The Bizarros are too dumb to understand that white Kryptonite cannot kill Superman because it has no effect on animal lifeforms...but it does destroy other lifeforms, such like the bacteria which was killing him.
** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984'', there is not Kryptonite to found anywhere in the story, and magic takes its place as the tool used by the villain to hurt the Kryptonian hero.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'':
** The color yellow was a major weakness to the Green Lantern Corps. This was eventually explained in ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'' by the influence of a fear demon the creators of the rings had entrapped corrupting their powers, but also authorically served to constantly remind them their potential godlike power has limits (a Green Lantern Ring being otherwise limited only by the intelligence, creativity, and willpower of the wielder). When Kyle Rayner was the only Green Lantern, thanks to Hal Jordan's BrainwashedAndCrazy FaceHeelTurn, his ring had no vulnerability to yellow. However, when Hal was brought BackFromTheDead and the four Earth Lanterns took down Parallax, the Entity of Fear (and thus, the Yellow Impurity that prevented Lanterns from harming yellow objects), it was reinstated and {{retcon}}ned that Lanterns can overcome the weakness by recognizing fear.
** Alan Scott, the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Green Lantern, had no vulnerability to yellow, but a similar vulnerability to wood. This was due to his more magical ring being connected to "green, growing things".
** This was {{retcon}}ned into a long story involving one of Earth's first [=GLs=]. He was mad with power, so the Guardians gave him the wood weakness so primitive humans could club him to death. However, instead of dying, he put his soul into the power ring and battery, which collided with a Meteorite, becoming the Starheart. Alan Scott got his ring from the Starheart. Seriously. (It's hard to reconcile the original Green Lantern with the current Green Lantern Corps, and it ''ain't'' just down to his different weakness.)
** The entire 'wood weakness' may have been a {{retcon}} itself; some of the earliest comics indicate he has 'invulnerability to metal' but not really anything else, allowing him to be, among other things, knocked unconscious by a teak vase.
** It's worth noting however that because of this on-again/off-again vulnerability, the fact that Sinestro always has a yellow power ring is almost a GrandfatherClause.
** Not quite. He was assumed to be dead while the fear entity was out doing whatever fear entities do.
** In the ''Elseworlds'' storyline ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', it was revealed that the yellow vulnerability was just a hoax made up by the Guardians to keep the Green Lanterns from getting too cocky. Alan Scott's wood weakness, however, was psychosomatic and imposed by himself; during his early adventures, while fighting some ruffians, one snuck up behind him and hit him with a wooden club. While the truth was that he just didn't pay attention and thus allowed the foe to get in a cheap shot, he instead convinced himself that he had a weakness to the wood and thus couldn't defend himself. Guess he had a bit of an ego going...
** The Blue Lanterns are a bit different. Instead of having a weakness to another color, the Blue Lanterns are dependent on another color, namely green, in order to use their powers effectively. This is because green is the color of willpower and blue is the color of hope. You can hope all day long that something good will happen, but that won't accomplish anything unless you also have the will to help your hopes come true.
** The Red Lanterns will die if their rings are ever removed, even for a few seconds. This is because upon their induction in the Corps, the Red Light of Rage replaces their blood. If someone removes the ring, the light goes out, and their body is suddenly devoid of blood -- which is almost always fatal, for obvious reasons.
* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': The Manhunter (who is both powerful and has a variety of useful powers) has a vulnerability to fire. And a rather powerful addiction to cream-filled cookies, though this is more a comedic device. (See 2000's ''Martian Manhunter'' #24). In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, fire was treated by him as equivalent to Superman versus kryptonite, but ComicBook/PostCrisis, it became more of a crippling phobia. (They seem to keep going back and forth on this one.) At least once, his fire vulnerability was explained by saying that he almost died in a fire once, and has feared it ever since. This falls apart when one considered that ''every'' Martian who's ever appeared in Creator/DCComics has been vulnerable to fire. Current canon is that it's a genetic block implanted by the Guardians to [[SealedEvilInACan lock away]] the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide burning Martians]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** Early versions of Diana her lose her powers if she was tied up by a man, under "Aphrodite's Law", leading to some [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything bondage imagery]] that must have been blatant even at the time of its introduction. As noted in her entry, that was quite deliberate. In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, she went into an UnstoppableRage if her bracelets were removed. Currently, Wonder Woman has no Kryptonite Factor weaknesses.
*** Partly because she is not as invulnerable as Superman or Manhunter. Bullets can penetrate her skin if she doesn't block them with her bracers and she needs to breathe, just as examples.
*** She does (or at least did -- her continuity is a moving target) lose her powers when she changes back to her secret identity, thanks to a spell cast by her ArchNemesis Circe. Which [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of why she ever turns back to her secret identity, given that they look exactly the same. The only possible benefit to transforming is that it saves her the trouble of changing clothes.
*** In one story, Batman defeats an Amazon footsoldier by throwing a magnetic batarang at her, which sticks her bracelets together when she blocks it and removes her powers. This suggests that the weakness is common to all Amazons and that it survived into the modern age... or possibly that whoever wrote that story was [[DependingOnTheWriter taking a few liberties]]. This is actually used in one of the incarnations of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' -- Scarecrow has captured Wonder Woman and Robin in an attempt to lure Batman into a trap. When Bats arrives, Wonder Woman has her bracelets fused together, thus rendering her powerless.
** Since the Queen of Fables gets her powers from fiction, she is weakened by anything that forces one to acknowledge the truth. Being bound by Wonder Woman's magic lasso drained her powers and caused her RapidAging.
* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Jesse Custer's power of [[CompellingVoice the Word]] (his ability to force people to do what he says) has a catch: the Word must be both ''heard'' and ''understood'' to work. Among other things, this means it doesn't work on animals, various characters avoid it by covering their ears, and at one point it's rendered moot when a squad of soldiers who only speak French are sent after him.
* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** ''ComicBook/MsMarvel2014'': Electric shocks reduce the elasticity of Kamala's cells, nullifying her many of her shape-shifting powers for a few moments. The Inventor predicts and exploits this, and Kaboom's attacks trigger it at least once (though oddly, not every time).
** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': There is a certain gas that can remove Spider-Man's SpiderSense temporarily. It is often used by the goblin-based villains ([[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]], Hobgoblin etc.) or by Mysterio. ComicBook/{{Venom}} and ComicBook/{{Carnage}} are completely immune to the sense altogether, since their powers come from the alien suit Spider-Man wore. Removing his spider sense or being immune to it is always shown to be disastrous for Spider-Man. For instance, his Aunt May is immune to his spider-sense due to being a trusted family member. Trying to get to his bedroom, he snuck into her house one night, still dressed as Spider-Man. She managed to sneak up on him and ended up whacking him over the head with a vase, KOing him. One of the plot points in ComicBook/SpiderIsland was Peter temporarily losing his SpiderSense and realizing just how much he depended on it. He spent some time training with Comicbook/IronFist to become less reliant on it.
** Since he's part spider, he's more sensitive to pesticides than a regular person.
** ''Franchise/XMen'':
*** ''ComicBook/CyclopsMarvelComics'': Cyclops' optic blasts can be entirely contained by even a thin sheet of ruby-quartz (and, uh, [[RequiredSecondaryPowers his eyelids]] apparently) This is used to his ''advantage'', as he can't normally control his optic blasts at all, and so wears glasses with lenses made of the material. Occasionally a villain will strap on some ruby-quartz armor, or lock a quartz helmet on to Cyclops's head, but usually they prefer to go the route of knocking off the glasses. His brother Alex is also immune to his powers, as is he to Alex's. This is explicitly a result of the shared RequiredSecondaryPowers that stop them from blowing themselves up.
*** Colossus, one of the most powerful of the X-Men, can turn his body into living steel, and cannot be hurt by many things when he is in his metal form. The anti-metal vibranium, however, ''can'' hurt him, and when faced with a vibranium weapon, he instinctively reverts to his human form.
*** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/X23 and some other fast healers have trouble healing when having "strange (or foreign) metals (or substances)" on their composition (such as Wolverine's adamantium skeleton, or being struck by carbonium) and thus not heal as fast (read: instantly).
* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': The gods, while far from completely invincible (with the exceptions of the stronger ones like ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}) are ''all'' vulnerable to the very rare element Radion. In ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' [[spoiler:Darkseid kills his son Orion with a time traveling Radion bullet. Batman later fires the same bullet into Darkseid to fatally poison him; an act that eventually leads to Darkseid being DeaderThanDead]].
* A common vulnerability of aquatic superheroes like ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and the ComicBook/SubMariner is the need to remain hydrated (moreso than a normal person, that is). Generally, it's relatively mild - the need to be submerged in water at least once every 24 hours, for example -- and comes up more as a way for villains to keep them prisoner than as something they need to worry about on a regular basis, but it does make them extra vulnerable to villains with heat-based powers, and a CrazyPrepared villain will always find a way to exploit it (Aquaman was [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel once made to be afraid of water]], for instance). Aquaman's hydrophobia is especially notable because it was (albeit indirectly) brought about by Batman, as [[CrazyPrepared the contingency plans he had in place to pacify any rogue League members]] were discovered and put in place by his enemies.
* ''ComicBook/New52'': Inverted with Ultraman. He gets stronger by consuming kryptonite. However, ''[[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]]'' weakens him. To counter this, he creates a solar eclipse after being amped up on kryptonite.
* ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'': The Superman CaptainErsatz Atlas is vulnerable to Argonite, the irradiated remnants of his homeworld Argos. [[spoiler:It later transpires that Argonite is a synthetic, Earth-made material created by the US military specifically as a way to keep Atlas in check. It also has the side-effect of working on ''all'' {{Flying Brick}}s, including native Earth ones like 84 and also every member of the not-at-all-destroyed Argos' noble houses.]]
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'':
** For unexplained reasons, the Emerald Eye of Ekron cannot stand green kryptonite and flees its presence. It will also shut down if it cannot see its host, but given it can see in almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, this is very hard to accomplish.
** ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'':
*** The Oan Servant of Darkness has the same vulnerability to yellow as the rest of his race has (sometimes), and as such Sun boy is able to stymie him with yellow sun bursts.
*** The Superman Servant is defeated when Element Lad makes Gold Kryptonite to strip him of his powers, and Timber Wolf crushes him.
* DC heroines ComicBook/BlackCanary and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} both have powers related to their voice (Canary has a SonicScream dubbed the Canary Cry, while Zee has a CompellingVoice that can alter reality so long as she says it backwards). Naturally, their weakness is anything that can disable their ability to speak (such as a gag, something that covers their mouth, or injuries to their throat).
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' is extremely vulnerable to the cold; coldness robs molecules of their vibrations, and as a result their super speed is drained by cold temperatures. Though sometimes this is used for environmental threats, like having the Flash struggle to work in a snow storm, its mostly weaponised by only a single enemy, Captain Cold, and to a lesser extent, his sister Golden Glider and her boyfriend(s) Chilblaine. This is one that's not as readily exploited as Kryptonite and the color yellow are for their respective heroes, strangely, despite the trouble often cited with making a challenge for a hero with super-speed.
* While most superheroes in ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' are resistant or immune to normal bullets, depleted uranium rounds are shown to bypass this.
* In one ComicBook/{{Deadman}} story, the CIA uncovers some weird alien technology in a Mayan temple capable of disabloing Deadman's intangibility, allowing them to briefly capture him.
