Line #94 WeaksauceWeakness/ComicBooks


1	{{Weaksauce Weakness}}es in comic books.
2	----
3	* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'':
4	** In old comics, the King of the Sea himself, as with other Atlanteans in general, for all his prowess in the ocean, could not be out of the water for more than an hour or he'd dry out and die. He probably got this from Namor the ComicBook/SubMariner, whom he was initially a CaptainErsatz of. Aqualad has a less-extreme version of this weakness in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice\|2010}}'' animated series. There isn't any set time limit, but he succumbs to exhaustion and dehydration far quicker than his teammates after they get lost in the desert. This weakness kind of came and went over the years largely based on plot convenience, especially by the time Geoff Johns took over during Blackest Night and stewarded the character into ''ComicBook/Aquaman2011'', mandating that Aquaman could be out of the water indefinitely with no ill effects, presumably because Arthur Curry dying if he didn’t regularly go underwater yet also growing up on land unaware of his Atlantean heritage was kind of a plot hole. Other prominent Atlanteans also had their deprivation weakness removed. Early issues of the 2011 series lampshaded this with policeman and criminal alike mocking both Arthur and Mera before [[UnderestimatingBadassery having to eat their words]]. That said, Arthur almost died of thirst in the desert once, but, well, wouldn't you?
5	** One version of Ocean Master, Aquaman's arch nemesis, gets his powers from a magical trident he traded his soul for, and when he isn't holding it he feels intense pain. Even ComicBook/TheJoker finds this funny:
6	---> "Sounds like the deal of the century, Flipper! And everyone says ''I'm'' the crazy-"
7	* One ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' strip features an alien race who can hypnotize people at will, but immediately dissolves when in contact with mustard.
8	* In a likely reference to J'onn, semi-obscure ''Marvel Universe'' character Captain Ultra has a mess of ComboPlatterPowers, but was introduced with pyrophobia so bad that he fainted at the sight of someone lighting a cigarette. He first appeared in a tryout for the Frightful Four, a group of ComicBook/FantasticFour antagonists, which prompted a trapped [[PlayingWithFire Johnny Storm]] to advise them to keep him on--after all, [[SarcasmMode when would they ever end up fighting someone with fire powers]]? Later appearances by him suggest he worked past it with therapy, leaving his main weakness to be that he's kind of an idiot.
9	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In ''ComicBook/TheAttackOfTheAnnihilator'', ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} realizes the Annihilator has evolved further every time he was exposed to great heat, so she reasons that extreme cold might reverse his transformation. Hence, she swiftly douses him in water, Supergirl freezes him, and he gets turned back to non-powered human.
10	* This was once parodied in the British comic ''ComicBook/TheBeano'', in which the character Calamity James is rescued by a superhero and offers him a Jelly Baby by way of thanks. Guess what the hero's one weakness is!
11	* Echo from ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' and ''ComicBook/NewAvengers'' possesses photographic muscle reflexes which makes her nearly unbeatable in hand-to-hand combat. She's also deaf, which means she is unable to hear her opponents. Daredevil takes advantage of this by fighting her in a locked, darkened room, rendering her helpless.
12	* ''ComicBook/TheDarkness'', phenomenal [[EldritchAbomination cosmic/demonic power]]. But can't operate under a 60 Watt light bulb.
13	* ''Marvel Universe'''s Valkyrie, in her early [[ComicBook/TheDefenders Defender]] years, was unable to fight against any foe that was feminine, even if she was alien or a robot. The Enchantress specifically places this in her as a failsafe if she turned against her.
14	* In one story from ''ComicBook/DrBlinkSuperheroShrink'', the PlanetEater Ginormous spares Earth after he learns that it's high in carbohydrates (from all those fields of grain).
15	* ComicBook/{{Eclipso}}'s weakness during the Silver Age was blinding light, which would give control back to Bruce Gordon.
16	* ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'' is a self-admitted FanService exploration of this.
17	** The main character is a curvy babe who derives her powers from an [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman extremely skintight suit]], that's [[ClothingDamage laughably easy to rip]] and weakens her powers dramatically when damaged. Her tendency to end up naked (or nearly so) makes her the laughing stock of the local superhero community. Her tendency to get BoundAndGagged while doing so makes her a living {{fetish}}. The suit's ability to be torn seems to fluctuate with Empowered's confidence level. Since she has ''zero'' self-confidence anyway and the [[ReluctantFanserviceGirl regular humiliations related to her crappy suit]] only compound them, it is ''very'' rare that she has the confidence to use her powers properly. But when she does, she's a one-woman army.
18	** It's been shown that the weakness is not even due to the suit, but to Emp herself. At one point while training Ninjette secretly rips the suit so Emp doesn't notice, but she's utterly unaffected until the damage is pointed out to her. Other occasions have her becoming an unstoppable dreadnought even when the suit is in tatters. In essence, Empowered has the weakest of weaksauce weaknesses: she's only gets weak when the suit is damaged because she ''thinks'' she is.
19	** Emp doesn't get the distinction of the weakest-sauce weakness, either... That honor goes to The Lash, a supervillain with a debilitating phobia of fabric stores due to childhood trauma. (He likens it to being put in a sensory deprivation tank.)
20	** Also, while not a weakness per se, on two separate occasions a supervillain has shown themselves to be unable to tie a knot, which is a vital career skill in this setting. Think about it: being the only villain in the world not being able to tie up the one superhero with a reputation for ''always'' ending up bound and gagged by the lowliest of thugs.
21	* ''ComicBook/EpicSuperteenageWasteland'' may feature one of the most pathetic of all weaknesses; Eric Ardor has the standard FlyingBrick powerset, but it completely craps out on him if he so much as looks at an attractive girl.
22	* Franchise/TheDCU also had ComicBook/{{Firestorm\|DCComics}}, whose weakness is organic materials. ''All'' of them. He can't affect them with his power, or he'll suffer painful consequences. So...he could be foiled by a stick. Or a leather wallet.
23	** The [[AffirmativeActionLegacy second]] Firestorm was once beaten because he published a scientific paper on how his own powers worked and ComicBook/LexLuthor read it.
24	** Firestorm needs to merge with someone in order to use his powers. If the merge happens too long, his powers ''eat'' his partner.
25	** In one of his appearances on ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'', he was rendered helpless after being sprayed with ''plant food''. Even ''their'' version of Aquaman wasn't as lame.
26	* [[http://marvel.wikia.com/Kallark_(Earth-616) Gladiator,]] [[FlyingBrick Praetor]] of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. [[SuperStrength Strong]] enough to shatter planets. Able to fly at [[FasterThanLightTravel many times the speed of light.]] Can withstand the heat of a star or the blast of a supernova. Has EyeBeams of unimaginable heat, and they can see particles on a subatomic level. Truly a being of such infinite power can only be defeated by... making him feel bad about himself. Somewhat justified in that his powers are explicitly psionic/mental in nature. If he believes that they won't work or that he can't complete a task with them, they won't work and he won't be able to complete that task. This means you don't actually need a weapon powerful enough to beat him, only something which you can convince him is a weapon powerful enough to beat him, which Rocket Raccoon exploited. Alternatively, bringing anything to the table that can disrupt psionic powers works just as well, as Nova showed when he beat Xenith -- another Strontian -- in just ''one punch'' after messing up her psionic powers with a headbutt from his psionic-dampening helmet.
27	* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' is infamous for having silly weaknesses:
28	** Almost every Green Lantern from MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks onward had the color yellow as his main weakness. Any criminal could waltz past him by wearing a yellow suit and stealing only gold, and shoot yellow painted bullets from gold plated guns. That being said, a clever person could find a way around it. Such as using the ring to pick up something not made of yellow, and hitting the criminal with it. There have been various explanations such as programming bugs or a deliberately-induced FantasticFragility, but the currently-accepted explanation is a combination of yellow representing fear, the enemy of the HeroicWillpower energy the Lanterns wield, and the fact that a yellow fear monster had been imprisoned in the Central Battery, tainting the power source. The weakness can now be recognized and overcome, and adaptations tend to downplay it into almost nothing.
29	*** One Green Lantern story subverts this, however. A yellow robot attacks the Justice League. GL responds by picking up mud from a nearby swamp and dropping it over the robot's body, completely coating it. With the yellow hidden, he quite easily rips it open.
30	*** The yellow weakness was especially weaksauce in MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks because of the fact that [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere every other villain seemed to emit some kind of "infra-yellow radiation", contain a "yellow compound", be surrounded by "invisible yellow" or have some other completely ridiculous piece of pseudoscience in place to stop Green Lantern destroying them in five seconds flat.]] For those curious: "infra-yellow", in a sane world, translates as ''[[spoiler: orange]]''.
31	*** This was a very situational weakness, as sometimes Hal's constructs interacted with Sinestro's yellow ones, creating a blue haze that negated both. Other times, Lanterns responded by using variations of CarFu with whatever they could throw at an opponent, or even remembering that an opaque construct around a target meant only green light got through -- and turning any yellow inside the construct into green due to reflective properties of the color yellow.
32	*** The yellow weakness was used in a clever fashion in "Ganthet's Tale", a Green Lantern graphic novel by Larry Niven and John Byrne. Hal Jordan's opponent in this one was a renegade Guardian, who could wield Green Lantern energy himself. The solution was for Hal to fly away from the Guardian at near-light speed, and while flying fire a bolt of energy from his ring. By the time the energy bolt connected with the Guardian, it red-shifted, its visible light wavelengths compressing down the color scale, from green to yellow.
33	*** In the Elseworlds story ''ComicBook/BatmanInDarkestKnight'', Batman gets the ring near the beginning of his crimefighting career. When criminals release a rather toxic yellow dust Batman... makes a giant vacuum to gather it up. The crooks were just lucky this was pre-hyperintelligent Batman.
34	** The [[ComicBook/GreenLantern1941 original Green Lantern]], Alan Scott, was almost as bad -- his weakness was wood. In practice this usually meant that, because he'd just melted their guns with a ray from his ring, a bunch of hoods would gang up on him and one would get in a blow to the head with a chair leg or club. Since so few people knew it as later Green Lanterns became famous, however, he in many cases seemed ''more'' powerful than the new Green Lanterns because, for example, the Sinestro Corps yellow power rings couldn't even make him flinch.
35	*** It didn't hurt that wood, while very common when Alan Scott first hit the scene, had become rarer in civilization by the time MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks hit. Villains in Franchise/TheDCU tend to decorate in metal, plastic, and ZeeRust by then, which means even less to block that strange ring with.
36	*** This actually becomes a problem for him in the {{Elseworld}}s story ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''. Like most of the other original heroes, ComicBook/GreenLantern Alan Scott's powers have progressed to a ludicrous level - he keeps watch over the Earth in a massive emerald SpaceStation, constructed himself a suit of impressive armor, and carries around a sword made out of pure energy - all from his power ring. None of it helps very much against ComicBook/GreenArrow in the final battle, since this Oliver Queen's arrows are made out of wood.
37	*** This was the main reason that [[Characters/GreenLantern1941 Solomon Grundy]] was such a threat to Alan. Being drowned, soaked in and resurrected in a swamp, his body was filled and covered with plant matter, rendering the ring all but useless in directly affecting Grundy (ComicBook/SwampThing even explained that Solomon Grundy was now a plant-based elemental of sorts like he was).
38	** Occasionally, a story will tie both the yellow and wood weaknesses together somehow (or at least {{Lampshade\|Hanging}} both at once):
39	*** The {{Elseworld}}s story ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'' {{Handwave}}s the odd Green Lantern weaknesses by having the Guardians explain that all weaknesses are mentally-imposed. Alan was weak to wood because a thug surprised him with a baseball bat and he ''assumed'' the ring didn't work against wood, while Hal was told that the rings were ineffective against yellow and thus added the weakness himself. Kyle, who gets his ring without hearing the explanation, lacks any weaknesses. (This is not, to be clear, how it actually works in continuity.)
40	*** Another story, detailing the ring's story and Alan Scott's backstory (for readers in TheNineties, at least), the guardians, in a long story involving one of Earth's first Green Lanterns, {{retcon}} the weakness. Because he was almost killed by a yellow monster, the weakness was removed from his ring. He became 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.
41	*** According to WordOfGod from Creator/GregWeisman, Green Lanterns in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' ''do not'' have a weakness to yellow and original Green Lantern Alan Scott did not have a weakness to wood either.
42	*** The absurdity of the Silver Age and Golden Age GL weaknesses was lampshaded in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'':
43	----> '''Guy Gardner''': You're supposed to be one of the most powerful Lanterns ever, but your ring is vulnerable to wood? What happens if a guy comes at you with a pointy stick?
44	----> '''Alan Scott''': The same thing that happens to you if he paints it yellow!
45	** Outside of the Green Lanterns, when various other Lantern Corps were created, the Blue Lanterns were also given a major weakness. Blue Lanterns are incredibly powerful even by Green Lantern standards, but can't use anything but the bare minimum of their powers unless a Green Lantern is in the vicinity. The idea is that where the Green Lanterns use HeroicWillpower, Blue represents the power of Hope. Hope and Will reinforce each other, but just ''hoping'' for something alone won't do anything.
46	* The short-lived hero Gunfire had the power to turn anything into a gun by charging it with explosive energy. ''Anything'' (except, oddly enough, an actual gun). Enter the ''ComicBook/{{Hitman\|1993}}'' story where Tommy defeats a future version of Gunfire by causing him to turn his own ass into a living grenade. [[HilarityEnsues Good times were had by all]].
47	* ComicBook/TheInhumans, genetic superhumans who have advanced technology and a civilization predating ''regular'' humans' by millennia, are done in by... pollution and germs. This weakness started off halfway between PutOnABus and PutOnABusToHell. It was introduced just after Inhumans creator Creator/JackKirby left Marvel for DC, and the main aim was transparently to knock Crystal out of her role as almost-full-time member of the ComicBook/FantasticFour.
48	* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'': Dr. Mid-Nite can only "see" in pitch black darkness and is otherwise blind without the specially developed goggles he wears. Dr. Mid-Nite II has enhanced enough hearing and smell that having the goggles snatched does not debilitate him in a fight.
49	* ''ComicBook/{{Lanfeust}}'':
50	** In this setting, trolls are near-unstoppable hulking brutes with SuperStrength. Their weakness? A crippling fear of water and getting wet. Since trolls are covered in coarse hair where live whole colonies of insects, and pride themselves on their flies, their stench and how dirty they are, the concept of getting clean terrifies them. A mere drizzle will make them run like headless chickens in search of shelter. Waha, the protagonist of the ''ComicBook/TrollDeTroy'' spin-off, is a human reared by trolls and thus shares this water phobia.
51	** In the animated adaptation of ''Troll de Troy'', there is also a flower whose smell instantly puts trolls to sleep.
52	* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes''
53	** The Daxamites are almost exactly like Kryptonians when under a yellow sun. However, exposure to lead is fatal to them, even in trace amounts, and (especially true in the Silver Age) being moved away from lead doesn't cure them. Once the poison is in their system, it's not going anywhere. A notable instance of this example was when one of Superman's recurrent enemies/reluctant allies, Paragon, took out three Daxamites ''with a machine gun'' while they were distracted by a power trip. Brainiac 5 invented a cure for the lead weakness that's been given to both multiple heroic Daxamites and stolen ''several'' times by the villainous ones.
54	** Daxamite vulnerability to lead becomes a plot point in ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'' when Element Lad transforms part of Daxam's atmosphere into lead to take an army of brainwashed Daxamites out.
55	** In ''ComicBook/TheCondemnedLegionnaires'', Satan Girl's powers cannot affect animals, what with her being a construct created by Red-Kryptonite, which has no effect on animal life.
56	** Bizarro M'Onel's weakness is glass. The Bizarro-logic being that glass, which doesn't block any form of radiation, is the "opposite" of lead.
57	** Night Girl can only use her powers when she's not in direct sunlight as her powers are negated by the presence of ultraviolet radiation. This means she can be de-powered by a ''blacklight''. There's a reason she was on the Legion of Substitute Heroes for a long time first. But ItMakesSenseInContext: her homeworld Kathoon is a rogue planet, with no star and thus very little UV flux. Thus, her father had no reason to consider the effects of UV flux on the powers he gave her.
58	* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'': J'onn J'onzz and Miss Martian have a ridiculous amount of powers, yet they had a weakness to fire, making it quite easy to disable them. In the case of the older hero, this is because he saw his entire family -- and species as a whole -- die in a psychic plague that manifested itself as fire. He then buried the bodies of everyone on the planet. This makes his pyrophobia a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The first attempt to remove this weakness accidentally unlocked his SuperpoweredEvilSide. Though technically, it's not a weakness of fire, it's a fear of fire. In ''ComicBook/WarWorld'', Superman ignites the ground around J'onn and him to finish their brawl.
59	-->'''Superman:''' My heat vision will ignite the carbon-laden ground around us, creating a ring of fire — the greatest weakness of all Martians!
60	* ComicBook/TheMightyThor:
61	** Thor ''used'' to have a debilitating weakness: If he let go of Mjölnir for more than a minute, he turned into Dr. Donald Blake, who has a crippled leg (and presumably an [[Series/{{House}} acid tongue and a dry wit]]), and Mjölnir turns into a walking stick. Basically, Series/{{House}}. This was removed years ago, which now makes Thor virtually invulnerable, though it usually comes back when Thor takes up a mortal guise again. This also comes into play when Mjölnir is wielded by someone mortal to begin with, like Eric Masterson (later known as Thunderstrike) or Jane Foster. While Eric had things better than "Donald Blake", being in good health even as a human, Jane's situation was even worse as she was suffering from cancer at the time -- transforming into an Asgardian marginally heals the body and purges toxins, but that includes chemotherapy treatments.
62	* Another parody -- Super-Ace, an alternate Ace Rimmer from a superhero universe appeared in one ''Series/RedDwarf Smegazine'' comic strip. While he had the full array of FlyingBrick powers, his one weakness was... human flesh. So an ordinary {{Mook\|s}} could ''punch'' him.
63	* ''ComicBook/ScoobyDooTeamUp'': The Nazi Vampire Gorilla is upset at the many weaknesses he has as a vampire: garlic, silver, religious symbols, sunlight. As a gorilla, he already finds it bad enough having to drink blood because gorillas are vegetarians.
64	* Billy Batson/Captain Marvel says "ComicBook/{{Shazam}}!", the name of the wizard who granted him his powers, to [[HenshinHero change between his hero and civilian forms]]. This isn't really that bad, but his friend Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr. has to say "Captain Marvel!" to transform--meaning that he not only has to be careful talking to Billy, but he can't even tell people ''his own code name'' without becoming powerless. He started going by "[=CM3=]" to fix this. In the first Titans Tomorrow storyline (which featured evil future versions of the Teen Titans), [=CM3=] can also be depowered when a recording of his voice says "Captain Marvel!". This is played dead straight, as Batman (Tim Drake) uses a recording of [=CM3=] revealing his secret identity to Tim to shut him down before [=CM3=] can beat him into the ground.
65	* The greater the power, the weaker the sauce! Marvel's latest and most prominent Superman [[CaptainErsatz pastiche]] is ComicBook/TheSentry, a "golden guardian of good" who's as powerful as he lets himself be. However, he's also agoraphobic -- he can't stand being outside. If you also so much as ''remind him'' of his little DarkSide problem, he'll fly off to Saturn and cry. Or revert to human form. Or, if he's ''really'' unlucky, let the Void out -- and suddenly things will look a whole lot better for the bad guys. One fancomic actually has him carrying around his entire living room whenever he wants to go anywhere. ComicBook/IronMan once defeated him by forwarding his mail, more or less.
66	* Obscure Batman villain the Ten-Eyed Man has eyes in his fingertips. (He was blind but his optic nerves were rerouted to his hands) That means his weakness is TOUCHING LITERALLY ANYTHING. (He was originally defeated by being tricked into grabbing a potted plant. Not even a cactus like his LampshadeHanging-filled cartoon appearance; there's pretty much ''nothing'' that it doesn't suck to have hitting your eyeball with any kind of force, after all.)
67	* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsonsFuturamaCrossoverCrisis'': It turns out drinking milk is the Nibblonians' one weakness, as it makes them stupider. This becomes a problem when Nibbler hypnotizes Marge into thinking he's a baby and she makes him drink Maggie's spare bottle.
68	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
69	** ComicBook/{{Venom}}. Weaknesses? Fire and loud noise. At one point, he's defeated with nothing more than a ''lighter'' (which raises the question of why Spider-Man doesn't just carry a $1.98 Bic lighter with him at all times). This varies DependingOnTheWriter. ComicBook/{{Carnage}} shares some of the same weaknesses.
70	** All Symbiotes are vulnerable to intense heat and sound. The amount of their resistance varies depending on the Symbiote in question (Carnage's resistances dwarf Venom's) and, on a more meta-note, as mentioned DependingOnTheWriter.
71	** Fan-favorite (yet sadly not used, ever) ComicBook/{{Toxin}}, Carnage's "child" however, doesn't share these weaknesses. What it does have is being very child like. (At one point it refused to help its host because he yelled at it.)
72	** Though it's actually {{justified\|Trope}} in that the symbiotes come from a world with no atmosphere, and thus have no natural resistance to extreme temperature or noise because they'd never naturally encounter them. Even a few generations with them around and the weakness is bred away quickly.
73	** Perhaps in response to claims of how silly his weaknesses are, the ComicBook/{{Ultimate\|Marvel}} version of Venom lacks the vulnerability to fire and sound. Instead, the only real threat to him is electrocution.
74	** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'', ComicBook/DoctorOctopus becomes almost completely helpless when his glasses get broken.
75	* ComicBook/{{Static}}:
76	** ComicBook/{{Static}}'s nemesis Hot-Streak had the ability to conjure powerful fireballs which he could hurl at his opponents. The catch? His powers were friction-based, so he could only use them after running around (albeit at super-speed, which he possessed in his first appearance) and building up heat energy from his feet. Once Static realized this, he simply attacked from behind and immobilized Hot-Streak with metal fixtures from a playground, rendering him completely helpless. He was a much bigger threat in the [[WesternAnimation/StaticShock cartoon adaptation]] precisely because the writers ditched the friction weakness.
77	** Static himself gets completely shorted out if he is hit with water while powered up. He doesn't have this weakness in the comics, oddly.
78	* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' pastiche ''ComicBook/SteamWars'', the Quantum Dragoons (equivalents to Jedi and Sith) can manipulate probability to a variety of effects, most commonly teleportation- since there's a tiny possibility that they could instantaneously be somewhere else, they can manipulate probability so that tiny possibility becomes the most likely, and they instantly move to that position. When the Luke Skywalker {{Expy}} is locked in a prison cell, he explains that with the door locked, there's no possibility of him being outside the cell, so he can't just teleport out. You read that right, the only way to neutralise the teleporter is to ''lock him in a room!''
79	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
80	** Mr. Mxyzptlk is [[RealityWarper so powerful]] that he has no natural weaknesses. To make his fights with Superman more challenging, [[SelfImposedChallenge he gives himself one]]: Saying his own name backwards. Thus, Superman has to trick him into doing so- fortunately, Mxy isn’t very bright.
81	** ComicBook/PostCrisis it's a self-imposed weakness. In MediaNotes/{{the Silver Age\|OfComicBooks}} and [[MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]], it was a natural aspect of fifth dimensional beings that saying their own names backwards sent them home. In MediaNotes/{{the Golden Age\|OfComicBooks}}, ''anyone'' (human or imp) who said Mxyztplk's name backwards would end up in the Fifth Dimension... or the Fifth Dimension attached to Earth-2, anyway.
82	** In ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'', Superman faces an energy creature who is eating the contents of a bank's vault. The monster seems invulnerable, but Superman notices it only eats currency which is colored red, yellow or orange-- warm colors. Guessing the creature may be allergic to the cool side of the color spectrum, he hides blue coins among the piles of yellow currency. When the creature is tricked into eating them, the physical reaction causes its energy body to fall apart and dissolve.
83	** The Superman of the 25th century, Klar Ken-T5477, was immune to Kryptonite, but vulnerable to ''seawater''. This was apparently due to "a chemical residue left by a past atomic war", but later stories showed seawater on other planets had the same effect.
84	** In the 90's, ComicBook/PowerGirl went through a single-issue AudienceAlienatingEra where she could be hurt by any "natural, unprocessed material", including the proverbial sticks and stones. This for a character who's on par with Superman and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}. The negative reaction from readers caused it to [[CanonDisContinuity never appear again]]. It was just that weak. During her ''Justice League Europe'' days she was also allergic to diet soda, causing fits of anger.
85	** Parodied in a cover of an underground comic. You see loads of bullets bouncing off him harmlessly...and a [[PieInTheFace custard pie]] volley. Granted, it doesn't hurt him either...but his pride.
86	* The first story of the 2011 relaunch of ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' features a kid villain named William Arcane. William's connection to the forces of Death (or The Rot) allow him to control all dead or decaying matter. This gives him immense power. The only problem is his fatal allergy to ''[[KryptoniteIsEverywhere chlorophyll]]''.
87	* ''ComicBook/TheSword'': The titular weapon grants whomever touches it serious SuperStrength, enough SuperSpeed to run on water and deflect bullets, and a powerful [[GoodThingYouCanHeal healing ability]] that can close gaping chest wounds and reattach limbs. Unfortunately, these only last for as long as the user maintains physical contact. Put it down to eat a sandwich or go to the bathroom and you're mortal again. At one point, protagonist Dara drops in the middle of a super-strength high jump (a natural reaction to being shot) and suddenly finds she's not landing, ''she's falling''. Worse, [[spoiler:go too long without touching the sword and any injuries it healed come back all at once]].
88	* "The Day Red Turned to Green", in ''Tales of the Unexpected'' #85 features giant mushroom-like aliens that can be harmed by anything red. The main character finds one of their "absorbo-sponges" while spelunking and anything red that he passes while carrying it turns green.
89	* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
90	** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'' introduced the Scraplets, a race of small, mechanical pests that corroded any Transformers they infected. They can be defeated only by the "rare and legendary fluid" called water (which admittedly, ''was'' extremely rare on Cybertron - and they show up on Earth in the middle of the desert). This is also a case of ScienceMarchesOn: at the time of the comic’s writing, water was thought to be very rare in the universe at large.
91	** When it comes to weak weaknesses, you probably can't get any worse than Whirl from ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye''. As a victim of empurata,[[note]]a Cybertronian tradition of replacing the hands and/or heads of criminals and replacing them with faceless, fingerless replacements to indicate their pariah status[[/note]] Whirl, despite being a former Wrecker and powerful fighter, was stopped completely in his tracks by an ''unlocked door'' simply because it had to be opened with doorhandles that his claws couldn't grasp. Cyclonus had to turn the handles for him.
92	* Perun from ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' is essentially a [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] wannabe... without the superhuman strength most Asgardians possess. Despite having a powerful hammer similar to Mjölnir, Perun is killed after an enemy sneaks up on him and quietly snaps his neck.
93	* In ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy'', Seance's powers only work when he's barefoot. [[FridgeBrilliance He apparently collects shoes]].
94	* The best weapons to defeat ''ComicBook/WilqSuperbohater'' are lame jokes, or lame words in general. He does whatever he can to prevent the villains from learning about this. Wilq also manages to disperse a leftist demonstration against the U.S. foreign policy by reading a few basic English sentences through a megaphone, finishing with throwing a hamburger sandwich at them.
95	* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
96	** ComicBook/{{Storm\|MarvelComics}} has complete control of the weather: in practice it gives her flight, superspeed, and the command of electricity, water, cold, and wind. So what's her weakness? {{Claustrophobia}}. If a writer wants to take her out of a battle, all they need to do is drop some rubble on her -- and sometimes not even that much. In her early years, she had a HeroicBSOD when a villain only mentioned a word that made her ''think'' of enclosed spaces. (These days, trying to stick her in an enclosed space just makes her [[UnstoppableRage mad.]])
97	** Thanks to his adamantium skeleton, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} cannot swim at all, causing him to just sink to the bottom.
98	* Prism, a member of the ''ComicBook/XMen'' villain group the Marauders, is a truly pitiful example that combines this trope with WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway. His mutant ability is that he is made of a crystal that can absorb and redirect light energy (like a prism) and is no more durable than glass. Yes, he is made of ''glass''. His weaknesses include any sort of impact. Two of his four deaths (yes, he has died often) involve being thrown into a wall and being shattered by bullets.
99	* Marvel villain The Absorbing Man can transform himself into anything he touches. He's also rather careless about how he uses this power. He's been defeated several times by becoming something that isn't very tough, such as water or glass.
100	* A ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' story, "Spy in the Sky" (Gold Key, Fun-In #3), plays with this. Dastardly sends Muttley to spy on Yankee Doodle Pigeon and learn his weakness. Yankee Doodle, catching on to the plan, fakes being frightened by lightning, which Muttley relays at headquarters. The Vulture Squadron rounds up storm clouds to push towards the pigeon, but it backfires--YDP is wearing lightning rods on his flight helmet, causing the lightning to strike the squadron's planes.
101	* The third ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie Sandsmark consistently ''lacks'' whatever weaknesses apply to ComicBook/WonderWoman in whichever continuity they happen to be sharing. But she loses all her powers if one of her parents decide to deny her use of them. She's literally weak to being told "YouAreGrounded"
102	* In a story published on the Italian Disney's magazine [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topolino Topolino]], Gyro Gearloose built a strongbox for Scrooge Mc Duck that was made with invulnerable materials. Nothing could damage it, not even the strongest acids, lasers, or diamond drills. Problem was that Scrooge forgot the code to open the strongbox and absolutely needed an important document inside that was virtually inaccessible. Everything was solved when it turned out that Gyro used all his budget to develop the invulnerable material, being forced to put a cheap discount lock that could be lockpicked with an hair clip.
103	* In ''ComicBook/{{Gaslighters}}'', the Dying Breed have profoundly good night vision, but are functionally blind in daylight.

Context WeaksauceWeakness / ComicBooks