No Sell / Comic Books

No-Selling in comic books.

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• Used in a 2000 AD / Judge Dredd story when the titular judge is fighting an other-dimensional being known as Judge Fear, whose "hat" is to kill by revealing its face which causes the person seeing the face of fear to die of fright. Judge Fear tries it on Judge Dredd.
  Judge Fear: Gaze into the face of fear!
  Judge Dredd: Gaze into the fist of Dredd! [punches Fear in the face]
• Astro City: Dame Progress used tranquilizing shells in her war on crime. Mister Cakewalk, who she frequently faced, was largely immune to them (though he did note they stung a lot).
• Atomic Robo: In Volume 7, Val Akilinov is completely immune to the deleterious effects of alcohol. Why? She's Russian. At one point, a character who's had less to drink than her concludes she's too inebriated to fly and hands the plane controls over to Val.
• The Autumnlands: Tooth & Claw: Sandorst fires a big, stunning spell at the great champion which is completely ineffective.
• Avengers: The Initiative: Trauma's fear based shapeshifting powers failed when he tried to use them against Norman Osborn and The Hood because the source of the Hood's power, the Dread Demon Dormammu, has a ceasefire agreement with the source of Trauma's power, his own father the dream demon Nightmare. Trauma once tried to use his powers against Hulk, transforming into the Abomination, into the Juggernaut, into Brian Banner, and even Bruce Banner, none of them even giving the Hulk pause. When questioned as to why he was immune, Hulk put it simply; he has no fear.
• Batman:
  • In "I Am Suicide", the Ventriloquist ends up confronting the Psycho Pirate, who attempts to use the Medusa Mask on him. It doesn't work as the Ventriloquist suddenly slugs him as Scarface takes over, represented by his hand moving. As Scarface tells the Psycho Pirate while dropping him to the ground, the only one controlling the Ventriloquist is him.
  • In The Attack of the Annihilator, Batgirl uses an unconscious Supergirl as a shield to protect herself from the Annihilator, whose energy blasts have no effect on Supergirl other than waking her up.
    Batgirl: '''Amazing—! That blast would have fried me... But it only served to revive Supergirl.
  • In Robin (1993), Tim Drake fakes not being affected by Johnny Warlock's life draining power to great effect since Johnny had already half convinced himself Robin was immune to his powers when Tim took advantage of Johnny overusing them to the point of weakness to beat him near to death on a previous occasion. As he controls his magic with his mind the fact that he is now convinced he can't hurt Robin with his magic means that he actually can't.
  • Scarecrow once tried using his fear toxin on Joker. Joker took it without flinching and proceeded to beat up Scarecrow with a chair. Whether this is due to Joker's messed-up biology or messed-up mind is up for debate.
• In Batman & Captain America, The Joker hits the Red Skull with a dose of his Joker Venom (which leaves its dead victim with Joker-like grins on their faces), while the Skull fires a dose of his Dust of Death (which leaves its victims' heads reddened and shriveled, resembling red skulls) at the Joker. After brief coughing fits◊, they realized that their respective poisons are both similar in make-up and long-term exposure to their own trademark weapons has left them immune to each other's poisons. Unfortunately for the Joker, he's not immune to a Tap on the Head from one of Red Skull's goons.
• Black Moon Chronicles: Methraton takes a full-powered attack from Lucifer himself and comes out of it with an expression of mild irritation, like someone threw a pebble at him.
• Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars!: When Jenny first met Toadborg, she mistook him for a simple robot and tried to defeat him with a psychic blast. It didn't work: as it turns out, cyborgs aren't nearly as susceptible to her psychic abilities as robots are.
• Doom Patrol: The Quiz, a member of the Brotherhood of Dada has "every superpower you haven't thought of yet", which means just that — she can give herself any power, but her opponent can No Sell it just by thinking of it... unfortunately, while he does that, she'll just think up a few other powers to continue with. Also, she can easily No Sell her opponents by coming up with a unique power that counters theirs; she defeated the Negative Man with "power to conjure spirit-proof jars" and trapping the negative spirit inside.
• ElfQuest: In the original quest, when Cutter first meets the annoying, fairy-like Preserver, Petalwing, he threatens to crush it if it doesn't behave. Petalwing laughs and invites Cutter to try. He does, to no effect. Switching the threat to Petalwing's wings however...
  Petalwing: Hee Hee Heeee! Highthing can't squash Petalwing! Try! Try!
  Narration: Cutter squeezes the tiny creature with all his might!
  Cutter: Umph! Your skin's as tough as thick leather!
  [other preservers begin to attack Cutter]
  Cutter: Stop it, or I'll pull this one's wings off!
  Petalwing: Ooohh — Poor Petalwing! Don't pull! Don't pull!
• Fantastic Four: One issue has Dr. Doom capture Zebediah Kilgrave, aka the Purple Man, who has Mind Control powers that work on everyone. Kilgrave snaps that Doom's so-called immunity to his ability is because of the electronics in the mask he wears, and claims that he should be ruling the world, not the doctor. Doom, taking this as a challenge, removes the mask and strides right up to Kilgrave's holding cell. The Purple Man tries all manner of commands...and nothing happens.
  Kilgrave: Impossible! Not this close! No one has a will that strong!
  (Doom gives a silent Death Glare)
  Kilgrave ...no one...
  Doom: Now, Zebediah Kilgrave...who deserves to rule?
• Fantastic Four storyline The Coming of Galactus:
  • All attacks on Galactus, all of them, are utterly useless.
  • Before the action starts, a street thug tries to take the Thing down. He simply stands there, takes all the attacks, and defeats him with a finger.
• Forgotten Realms: The comics had a brief demonstration of magic immunity and circumvention thereof. It ran thusly:
  Nameless Cyricist: Give up! I cannot be harmed by your spells.
  Elminster: Perhaps so. But are you equally immune to falling masonry?
  Nameless Cyricist: [Oh, Crap! + Big "NO!"]
• In a Galactus/Darkseid crossover "The Hunger", Darkseid mistakes Galactus' concern for Norin Radd as pity, and blasts him with his Omega Beams, designed to target its victim's inherent weakness. They do nothing, as Galactus states he was merely pragmatic, knowing Radd would rebel someday, just not now, and he had no "inherent weakness" for the Omega Beams to exploit.
• Ghost Rider: Ghost Rider's Penance Stare, which makes anyone who experiences it feel intense pain if they have even a shred of regret for what they've done, is one of his most dangerous powers. Sometimes, it's had no effect on its targets:
  • When fighting The Punisher, it had absolutely no effect. Frank has no regret whatsoever for the sons of bitches that he's killed.
  • When he used it on the Mad Titan, not only did it do jack squat, but being a complete psychopath, Thanos actually enjoyed the feeling of experiencing all the pain he caused.
  • He attempted this on Venom and Carnage and had the effect shoved back on him.
  • It barely has any effect on Morbius, because he already suffers under the crippling guilt of what he's done on a daily basis; the Penance Stare doesn't make him experience anything new.
• Green Lantern: The story Rise of the Third Army provides one example: Due to being made from Oan flesh, Green Lantern Ring capabilities, at least from that specific type of Lantern, are completely ineffective against the Third Army.
• The Incredible Hulk: Whenever Bruce Banner Hulks out, standard military procedure is to order armored columns, and air and artillery strikes against him, with predictable results.
• The Inhumans: Black Bolt is immune to Maximus' mind-control powers. Well, usually. If he starts to feel doubt, Maximus can get in there, and like any sibling, Maximus is good at getting into his brother's head.
• Iron Man: In Invincible Iron Man (2022), Tony Stark has fashioned a rod out of mysterium and recruits a few heroes to test it out. Captain Marvel can't bend it at all, Doctor Strange's strongest spells have no effect and Spider-Man's iconic Spider-Sense is useless against it.
• The Infinity Gauntlet: The fight scenes can be summed up as "Thanos shrugs off everything used against him" whether that's Wolverine's claws or a Celestial throwing entire planets.
• In one of the Intercontinuity Crossovers comics of Judge Dredd / Batman, the ectoplasmic Judge Death is released from his captivity by The Joker, but tries to possess his body as a reward. It doesn't work out; Judge Death gives up when he's not quite sure how to control a mind as deranged as the Joker's. Joker instead convinces him that they should team up, and Death turns him into a fifth Dark Judge to use the Joker's "talents" in a more useful way.
• Lucifer: One of the titular Lucifer's old roles is lighting the stars (this name means light-bringer, after all). Somebody tries to use fire against him... that works about as well as you'd expect, and they get a scathing remark for their trouble.
• Marvel Two-in-One: Daredevil tries to steal the Fantasticar without asking the Fantastic Four's permission because he was in a hurry. He is then caught by the Thing and tries to make the latter release him by kicking him in the solar plexus. However, this does nothing to Ben, forcing Daredevil to explain why he needed the Fantasticar before Ben agrees to help him.
• The Mighty Thor: Thor completely No Sells Titania when she tried to attack him in Secret Wars (1984). Titania was drunk on her new-found power and thought nothing could stop her, so she just charged right in. Against Thor.
  Titania: Me! Titania! The woman who killed Thor! (Punches Thor)
  Thor: Mayhap, woman. (Hits Titania so hard she is knocked out of sight over the horizon) When icicles doth grace Surter's firey realm.
• Preacher: In his first appearance, the Saint of Killers No-Sold a pick-up truck being driven into him at high speed (the bodywork just crumpled around him). He was similarly dismissive of dozens of cops and soldiers repeatedly shooting him and attacking him. It really gets turned up to eleven in the sixth volume when he shrugs off direct hits from tanks rounds, and shortly afterward he topped even this, by No-Selling a nuclear warhead to the face.
  Saint of Killers: Not enough gun.
• Rising Stars:
  • Subverted. A supposedly invincible character who feels no pain is shown to be terribly useless. Just because he was invulnerable didn't mean that he could stay standing when hit; he just wouldn't feel pain. And then he was murdered when someone taped him to a chair and tied a plastic bag over his head while he slept. He wasn't able to tell anything was going on, so he asphyxiated.
  • Played more straight later on: It turns out that whenever a "Special" dies, the remainder get more powerful. So by the time there's only a few dozen left (After a series of murders, then super-human battles, then military strikes), they're all Flying Bricks who can take anything... except for an EMP blast which short-circuits their powers.
• Scooby-Doo! Team-Up: In one issue featuring the Superfriends, Sinestro tries using his Yellow Power Ring, which is fueled by fear, on Mystery Inc. But when he tries to attack, his energy constructs take the shape of a hamburger — and then the Power Ring flies off his hand and attaches to Shaggy's, as it's sensed that he has the power to generate more fear than Sinestro. The alien declares this impossible, and wonders who on Earth Shaggy and Scooby — Lovable Cowards to the extreme — could possibly scare enough to justify wielding a Yellow Power Ring. Shaggy happily informs Sinestro that he and Scooby scare themselves silly on a daily basis!
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: No matter how they attack him, the fictional characters are unable to defeat the giant Homer during the climax of the second miniseries.
• Spider-Man:
  • In Go Down Swinging, the Green Goblin has merged with the Carnage symbiote, becoming the Red Goblin, who has broken Spider-Man's leg and forced him to give up superheroism. Spidey, naturally, decides to call in his friends to stop the Goblin's current scheme. First on the scene are the Human Torch and Clash, each of whom uses powers to which symbiotes are vulnerable. The pair unleash simultaneous fire and sonic attacks... and the Red Goblin is completely unaffected thanks to being full of Goblin Serum.
  • The tactic itself is discussed in a Spider-Man's Tangled Web story starring Crusher Hogan, the wrestler who Peter Parker beat when he first got his powers. Hogan, a shooter, is unhappy with his opponent no-selling his hits for the crowd and threatens to break his arms if it keeps happening.
  • Spider-Man versus Wolverine comic ends with Spidey fighting Wolverine in an East German graveyard. Spider-Man is legitimately pissed off, and trying to pummel Wolverine, but: "I'm hitting him hard enough to wreck cars... and I can't get him to stop smiling."
• Superman:
  • The Last Son of Krypton set the model for any number of similar Flying Brick characters by being invulnerable to everything under the sun and then some. In Action Comics #1 this was described as "nothing less then a bursting shell" could pierce his skin but Power Creep over the years has upgraded this such that anything less powerful than nuclear weapons doesn't have a prayer and even those can be no more then a mild inconvenience. This has also directly resulted in the birth of Kryptonite and other weaknesses and why Kryptonite Is Everywhere as creators struggle to challenge Superman and indirectly probably why there is an entire range of villains and heroes almost as powerful to provide rivals Superman can't just curb stomp. Special mention goes to magic which is one of Superman's weaknesses, not because he is particularly weak to it, but because unlike everything else, he doesn't specifically resist to it. Depending on the Writer though this seems to come in different degrees where he may not be invulnerable but is still super-tough enough to endure several hits from say Captain Marvel's magical lightning bolts.
  • In Action Comics #242: The Super-Duel in Space, the first battle with Brainiac had Superman the victim of this trope. Thanks to the villain's forcefield, nothing Superman could throw bothered him, or his ship. Superman even tried throwing chunks of an asteroid the size of islands to no avail.
    Superman: Won't anything defeat that super-alien? I'll hurl this giant meteor! (Pant!)
    Brainiac: You're only wearing yourself out, "Punyman"! Even if you threw the Earth itself, it would only bounce off my Ultra-Force shield! Ha, ha!
  • Where this trope gets interesting is with his alter-ego, Clark Kent. Superman is no less invulnerable than usual while living as a civilian, but he needs to pretend to be normal to protect his secret identity. On occasion, he's shown deliberating how he should best sell an incoming attack so as not to let an aggressor know who he is. When The Joker is swinging a massive mallet at his (Clark's) head, Supes spends several panels◊ (a fraction of a second mid-swing, in real-time) trying to decide how best to sell the attack. He has some difficulty since he's never witnessed the aftereffects of such a thing, and eventually realizes that getting hit square in the head like that would kill a normal human being, so he needs to act like the mallet just barely grazed him instead.
  • In Krypton No More, Superman hits super-villain Protector with a giant pipe, but Protector changes his body into diamond and the pipe shatters upon impact.
  • In War World, Pre-Crisis Superman punches The Spectre in the stomach. The Spectre doesn't care. Superman hits him with his full might. The sheer force of the blow makes the nearby cliffs tremble and demolishes the ground beneath his feet. The Spectre doesn't even flinch.
    Superman: I dislike doing this, Spectre — We're supposed to be on the same side — but you've left me no — Huh? You didn't even flinch!
    The Spectre: Why should I — when I felt nothing? To me, your angriest blows are no more than the whisper of snowflakes!
  • The Death of Superman:
    • Doomsday is practically wiping the floor with the Justice League with one arm bound behind his back. So they all decide to hit him with everything that they've got. After nearly exhausting their energy, they decide to quit thinking there's no way Doomsday could still be standing. But then the smoke clears, revealing that all they did was release his arm.
    • Also played straight then subverted when Superman and Doomsday first encounter each other. Doomsday punches Superman in the gut with enough force that one spectator comments looks like it could have caved in a mountain, but Superman just stands there and takes it. Seeming to realize what he's up against, Doomsday then doubles down, and proceeds to kick Superman, not only knocking the wind out of him, but also sends him crashing through a house.
  • "Superman and Spider-Man": Variant. Superman◊ challenges Hulk to hit when he is ready. Clark is easily tanking Bruce's punches — at first. However, his endurance is getting Hulk madder, hence progressively stronger, and Superman realizes that he must find another way to stop him soon.
  • For her part, Supergirl was born in the early Silver Age, which means she was invulnerable to anything weaker than a nuke since her first story, The Supergirl From Krypton (1959).
  • The Death of Luthor:
    • When Lex Luthor's big cannon hits but fails to harm Supergirl, Lex and his gang realize she is not a Superman-built hoax but a real Kryptonian.
      Crook: "You electronically moved aside those fake rocks, and made the buried big gun blast away at her! B-but the bursting shells aren't harming her!"
    • Later, Luthor shoots at Supergirl with a machine gun even though he should know better than anybody how tough Kryptonians are. Naturally, she stood still while the bullets bounced off. This situation is inverted in 2000's story arc "Girl Power" when the newly arrived Post-Crisis Kara picks a fight with Luthor and discovers his warsuit will simply shrug off anything she throws at it.
  • In Many Happy Returns, super-villain rebel shoots a beam weapon at Kara. Kara stands her ground as several laser rays "hit" her and asks if they were supposed to hurt because she is feeling nothing.
  • Red Daughter of Krypton: Two Red Lanterns test a machine launches missiles tipped with a touch of neutron star core matter... on Kara. It was her idea. One missile struck her. And it did nothing. But getting her angrier.
  • In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Wonder Woman's bracelets deflect Supergirl's heat vision and later Darkseid's Omega Beams.
  • In Who is Superwoman?, Reactron fires a Gold Kryptonite-powered blast at Superwoman point blank. His blasts have been known to punch holes through brickwork and steel, but Superwoman smiles, says it tickles and reveals she isn't Kryptonian, hence she isn't affected by Kryptonite.
  • In Who Took the Super out of Superman?, the Man of Steel is ambushed by a robot sent by Intergang to kill him. Superman punches the robot on the chest, but his strike has no effect whatsoever.
  • In Superman: Brainiac, Supergirl's heat beams bounce off a Brainiac drone's force-shield.
  • In Legion of Super-Heroes comics, Nemesis Kid's ability to adapt to his enemy's powers is frequently applied this way. And in the LSV War, Blok was suddenly revealed to be immune to telepathic abilities after the villain Esper Lass tried to control his mind: "I am BLOK, Esper Lass... and your power has no claim on me!"
  • The Great Darkness Saga: During the battle in the Sorcerer's World, Mon-El blasts the Master of Darkness with the full power of his heat vision. Darkseid bursts out in laughter.
    Mon-El: I'm going to roast you!
    Darkseid: You are quite amusing. Your boasting has achieved only the destruction of the trappings I wore— and truth to tell, it was time enow for their removal. Such decadence was unseemingly.
  • Krypton Returns: While Kryptonite can pierce H'El's skin, it doesn't sap his strength or poison him. This is because of H'El isn't really a Kryptonian.
  • In storyline Crucible, villainess Rendll shrugs off a blast of Supergirl's heat vision shot at point-blank range.
    Rendll: "Was that supposed to hurt me, girl? Looks like Crucible's standards have dropped since I was there."
  • In Gotham City Garage, a solar-powered weapon explodes in Kara's hands. Given she is sun-powered, it works right as you'd expect.
  • Subverted in The Great Phantom Peril. When Superman first engages the spectral figure wreaking havoc on Metropolis, nothing appears to be able to harm it. It stands still while Superman punches its shape uselessly. When the "specter" reveals she's Phantom Zone inmate Faora Hu-Ul, Superman understands why his blows were ineffectual: not knowing he was facing another Kryptonian, he was holding back.
    Superman: "Judging from his show of strength, I'll have to hit him with enough force to flatten a locomotive— Huh? My punch backfired— sent me sprawling..."
  • Two for the Death of One: After absorbing the Runestone of Merlin's powerful magic, Syrene tries to burn Satanis to ashes. Satanis merely sends her tongues of fire back to her, but Syrene calmly snuffs them out, proving that she is just toying with him.
    Syrene: The Stone and its powers are mine! And with it I shall kill the man who slew my father!
    Satanis: Not with flame you won't!
  • The Jungle Line: Believing he is fighting another hallucination, Superman attacks Swamp Thing, but the latter calmly heals and regenerates all his wounds as talking Superman down. A blast of heat vision through his midsection? It will heal. An exploded hand? It instantly grows back.
  • In The Unknown Supergirl, Kara squares off against an eldritch abomination called the Infinite Monster. Their battle can be described as :"An irresistible force met an unmovable object; and the object won". The Infinite Monster didn't even feel her blows, Supergirl bounced off its skin when she tried a charge attack, and her planet-pusher strength wasn't enough to even move it.
  • A Mind-Switch in Time: A biker with a grudge against Superman uses a flying super-bike to attack the Man of Steel. Superboy just smiles and stands still while withstanding his bike's energy blasts.
    Biker: Here it comes, S-Man! Let's see how much snappy patter you're poutin' after I give you both barrels!
    Superman easily tanks an energy beam
    Superboy: You know, you shouldn't knock "snappy patter"! It's a handy way for someone like me to keep up a sunny disposition when I have to take time out of a busy day to deal with someone like you! Know what I mean?
    Biker: I—I don't believe it— Not even a smudge! You just ain't human!
  • Strangers at the Heart's Core: After partially stealing Supergirl's powers to increase her own might, Shyla is tough enough to withstand one of her blows without flinching.
    Supergirl: You'll go no farther— Huh—?!
    Shyla Kor-Onn: Surprised your blow has no effect on me?
  • In The Immortal Superman, Superman tries to shoulder-tackle one humongous mecha which is big enough to move one planet around; unfortunately, the automaton is so huge it does not even feel the impact.
  • Superman vs. Shazam!: At the beginning of their battle, Captain Marvel throws a chunk of wall at Superman, prompting the latter to ask the former if he is serious while letting the brickwall shatter upon his chest. Likewise, Superman's eye-beams don't seem to effect Marvel.
    Superman: Throwing rubble? You've got to be joking! I can take the full impact of a nuclear blast— I've dived to the depths of a sun going nova— I've battled creatures big enough to devour whole planets! And you try to smack me with a brick mudball! What a laugh!
  • In The Hunt for Reactron, the eponymous villain learns his Golden Kryptonite-powered blast are useless against Thara Ak-Var when the young Kryptonian woman turns into the goddess Flamebird and proceeds to utterly crush him.
  • In The Girl with the X-Ray Mind, Supergirl starts off the battle against the Phantom Zoners by uprooting giant trees and hurling them at them, but her makeshift spears explode upon impact.
    Jax-Ur: Those jagged trees! They'll spear us!
    Kru-El: Fools! What are you afraid of? Those giant darts can't harm us! We're super!
    Jax-Ur: Of course! I forgot our invulnerable bodies will splinter those trees into matchwood, ha, ha!
  • In Must There Be a Superman?, Kal-El must stop a massive pod of dangerous alien spores before it crashes into an inhabited world. Superman expects a shoulder tackle will do the job, but the pod will not even slow down.
    Superman: But I can still whip up enough speed and force to deflect the pod...Didn't even budge it!?
  • In The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor, Supergirl cannot break through Blackrock's barrier despite her immeasurable strength.
    Blackrock: Go ahead and hit me if it makes you happy, Supergirl— I can't feel it anyway! The trick is in the force-field, you know!
  • The Plague of the Antibiotic Man: Supergirl punches Amalak when he reaches his weapons' console, but his force-field deflects the blow.
    Supergirl: "You're stubborn, Amalak— I'll give that! But I'll— Arggh!"
    Amalak: "My "energy nexus" is impenetrable— even by you!"
  • Let My People Grow!: When he charges at Brainiac, Superman gets a very painful reminder that his force-field is completely impenetrable.
    Superman: "You know I'm going to have to stop you, Brainiac!"
    Brainiac: I know you're more than welcome to try— But I don't give much for your chances of succeeding!"
    Superman: "Uunnff!!" (thinking) "His impenetrable force-field is as powerful as ever!"''
  • In Masters of the Universe crossover "From Eternia— With Death!", Skeletor tries to break into Castle Grayskull by striking the gates with Power Sword. Nonetheless, even though the Power Sword's unleashed energies can and do open up dimensional rifts, it is unable to put even one scratch in the wall.
  • In crossover "Fate Is The Killer", He-Man punches Zodac in the jaw, but he barely flinches. He-Man gapes in awe because nobody had previously tanked one of his blows without even batting an eyelid.
  • The Condemned Legionnaires: Satan Girl has Kryptonian-like invulnerability, and since Supergirl is unaware of her true nature, she cannot find a way to stop her sinister foe. She laughs Kryptonite off, shrugs lightning bolts and solar-powered fire streams off, and guffaws when Supergirl -believing her to be a humanoid robot- shoots an anti-android weapon at her.
  • In Brainiac's Blitz, Supergirl has to fight Brainiac single-handedly. As usual, absolutely nothing can go through Brainiac's force field. Supergirl throws back Brainiac's missiles at his ship, and they explode harmlessly. Kara fires her heat blasts, and they bounce off the shield. When Brainiac uses the force-field as a battering ram, its target is blasted into atoms.
  • Supergirl's Greatest Challenge, Positive Man's energy body is composed of positive ions and can disintegrate anything it touches. Supergirl's invulnerable body, though, can touch it and remain unharmed because of her invulnerability.
  • "Those Emerald Eyes Are Shining": When one fighter space-jet is coming right at Brainiac 5, Querl Dox simply stands still and lets the Blitzer ship crash into his indestructible force field and explode harmlessly.
    Brainiac 5: "Stay close, Violet."
    Shrinking Violet: "B-but he's coming right at us, Brainiac?"
    Brainiac 5: "That's his problem."
    <Big Explosion>
    Brainiac 5: "Force field belt, you're still my favorite invention!"
  • Legion of Super-Heroes/Bugs Bunny Special: Computo 2 disables the Legion by psychologically fueling their angst, which makes them easy pickings for Validus' mental attack. When he tries it on Bugs Bunny, though, Bugs only pretends to be affected for one minute before backhanding Computo into a wall, cheerfully declaring that he is looney enough to be immune to angst attacks.
  • The villainess La Encantadora was introduced offering a large amount of Kryptonite for sale to various supervillains. She eventually turned out to be a Master of Illusion Con Artist whose fake Kryptonite was so convincing it even gave Superman psychosomatic symptoms. The first clue to this was when her illusion mists had no affect at all on Ra's Al Ghul, who would have killed her for her temerity if Superman hadn't intervened. (And Ra's being Ra's, he saw no reason to explain to Superman what was actually happening.)
• The Transformers Megaseries: Megatron and Sixshot have both taken direct hits from Hardhead’s self-propelled artillery gun on separate occasions. Megatron (who was hopped-up on Ultra-Energon at the time) just smirked and claimed that he almost felt it, while Sixshot didn’t react at all.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • Ultimate Galactus Trilogy: Misty Knight blows a fire extinguisher on the Silver Wing. He gets up as if that was nothing.
  • Ultimate Vision: Several planes fired atomic weapons at the Gah Lak Tus module. Its forcefield was barely scratched.
  • Ultimate X Men
    • During "Weapon X", Sabertooth defeated Storm and Beast without breaking a sweat when he enters the mansion.
    • Juggernaut defeats Colossus in seconds, off-panel.
    • Part of the problem of fighting Apocalypse is there doesn't seem to be anything that can hurt him. Until Jean goes fully Phoenix.
• The second issue of US-1 featured an ordinary trucker who was tough enough to completely ignore being hit in the head with a wrench.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942):
    • Saturnian telepathy tricks Diana for a moment the first time she comes across them, but in every subsequent appearance she has steeled her mental defenses to the point that she doesn't even notice when they try to use it on her, which throws them for a loop.
    • Judgment In Infinity: The Adjudicator is too powerful to be affected by the Lasso of Truth. Wonder Woman cannot restrain him, compel him or force truths out of him:
      The Adjudicator: Foolish mortal! Perhaps your lariat has some mystical powers over lesser beings— But it is nothing but a piece of string to the Adjudicator.
  • Wonder Woman (1987):
    • Darkseid planted multiple Apokoliptican bombs all over Olympus, and set them off. The smoke cleared — and the city was unharmed. Since it exists because of the will of the gods, the whole city could withstand the explosion.
    • At one point a revitalized Circe was able to throw off the Lasso of Truth without even trying due to increased magical power, which was shocking for the characters and readers alike given that the lasso is meant to be inescapable in such a manner by any living thing. Later writers ignored the incident, but at the time it made the heroes hopelessly outclassed in their current fight.
  • The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): Wonder Woman and the Duke of Deception each get one for the other:
    • The Duke of Deception is entirely unharmed by Diana's attacks on him at Athens, with them passing harmlessly through him.
    • Wonder Woman is immune to the Duke's illusions, though he finds a way around it after their first encounter this work around only works from a significant distance, as in well over 50 miles so that she can't actually see the location he's trying to trick her about since she can still see through the illusions even if now she's actually noticing them.
• X-Men:
  • Mutant siblings (or other close relatives) are sometimes unaffected by each other's abilities. Sometimes even when that would make no physical sense. However, the best-known case is Cyclops and Havok, where it does make sense — they blast similar types of energy, so it's harmlessly absorbed by the other. If someone's body is overflowing with a certain kind of energy 24/7, you can expect them to No-Sell your own blast of basically the same stuff every time.
  • When written right, this is what makes the Juggernaut such a fearsome foe — with power of Cyttorak, he becomes the unstoppable force the moment he starts moving. This is why, especially in the early days, everyone made a scramble to remove his helmet and hit him with a psychic blast as nothing else worked. Among the things he has been hit by without budging an inch have been a tanker truck full of fuel (which naturally exploded on impact), Cannonball flying full tilt at him twice, Thor throwing his hammer at him, and once even a full strength punch from Rogue which was so powerful the resulting shockwave shattered the windows on the surrounding street.

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