# What would be the best way to "deal" with a superhuman who's invulnerable but can still be "taken down"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 14, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026 "2021-12-14T06:08:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/1 "2021-12-14T06:08:12Z")
In fiction there’s a ton of characters who are basically invulnerable but also you can still restrain if you try hard enough since they’re still “just human” (Wolverine, Jason Vorhees, Deadpool etc) they either have super fast regeneration or do die but are “reborn” infinitely. If there was a Jason Vorhees running around in our world, what would be the best way of dealing with them? A common method I see is to put them in a metal box and throw them into the Marianas trench, but metal eventually rusts and depending on their type of invulnerability they could eventually break their way out of it. Another method is to simply shoot them into space but that’s way too risky in this scenario if it fails (as seen by when they tried to shoot Bruce Banner into space) . Another is to pour molten metal on them and let it harden, but again eventually they could get out. So what is actually one of the best ways to handle someone like this? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/2 "2021-12-14T06:19:38Z")
Restrain them an bury them such that they can never get out (e.g. putting Deadpool in the middle of a cement block would effectively be the end of him). If they are truly immortal then I think this is the best you can do. (I’m not sure any listed are actually immortal but go with that…if they are not immortal burn them to ashes…drop them in molten steel I think might do it.) If you want to get fancy, shoot them into space. As fun as this is to speculate I don’t think this is a topic for FQ. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/3 "2021-12-14T06:31:26Z")
In EE Doc Smith’s Skylark series the main protagonist has this problem with one of the villain entities. These entities were immortal pure energy beings. The protagonist trapped them inside intersecting “force fields” and then blasted them out into the stars. The mistake he made being forgetting that space isn’t totally empty, and when they ran into a gas cloud at science fiction speeds, the spacecraft broke up and freed the entities. It was noted that putting the spacecraft in orbit around a star would have been a better call. The obvious answer is to drop your superhuman into a black hole. Not a trivial thing to manage, but as near permanent as we know how. Overall, the usual answer applies. Once fictional capabilities are allowed, fictional answers are allowed as well. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/4 "2021-12-14T06:50:14Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > As fun as this is to speculate I don’t think this is a topic for FQ. Agreed. Moved to IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/5 "2021-12-14T15:47:02Z")
The question is, are they invulnerable AND superstrong? Or just invulnerable? And does that mean they heal really fast, or are simply very durable, like Superman? If it’s just unbreakable skin, then there’s many ways to deal with them. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/6 "2021-12-14T16:45:17Z")
Answering the title rather than the examples (few of which are actually invulnerable), I have a solution but it’s pretty gruesome - and a hero wouldn’t do it, just a fellow villain. Pour liquid lead into their lungs until full, _then_ imbed them in a concrete block, THEN bury them. The advantage to the first step, above and beyond what @Whack-a-Mole said, is that if they are in any way biologically based, even if someone digs them up much later, they’re still unable to breathe or otherwise take any action. Even if they don’t breathe, moving around with roughly 60 kilos of lead in/around their center of balance will buy you a bit more time. 😄 Of course, in superhero and horror genre, someone will STILL do a full autopsy and eventually free them. Since such things work on the speed of plot, rather than sense. And I can’t believe I’m mentioning this movie, but this is basically Jason X was about. Jason is frozen to prevent action, and left behind on an abandoned and toxic earth while humanity does it’s thing elsewhere. And of course someone digs him up and thaws him for theoretical profit. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/7 "2021-12-14T17:53:33Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Of course, in superhero and horror genre, someone will STILL do a full autopsy and eventually free them. The same way some jackass will always pull the stake from Dracula’s body. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/8 "2021-12-15T03:55:22Z")
They did this in the last season of “Dead Like Me”. I found it to be quite good. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/9 "2021-12-15T15:29:58Z")
I can’t remember exactly which comic book it was, but there was a story in the 60s that followed these lines fairly closely. Their solution was to drill (literally) the deepest hole ever drilled. (And they did it in record time.) They then put a bath mat (or something similar) over the hole and lured the immortal/invulnerable guy to step on it. Their reasoning was that it would take him a long, long time to get out and that they would certainly have come up with a better solution by that time. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/10 "2021-12-15T15:49:06Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > The obvious answer is to drop your superhuman into a black hole. Not a trivial thing to manage, but as near permanent as we know how. I like the black hole suggestion, but then we run into the “faster than light” problem. Sure, this would work, but it might take hundreds or thousands of years just to get the guy to a black hole. A less extreme option would be just drop them in the biggest local gravity well, like Jupiter. If they can’t fly like Superman, and they’re naked, they can’t get out by themselves, and normal humans, even with technology, would find it exceedingly difficult to “rescue” them. Even if you invented a ship that could dive into Jupiter and return with the person, just finding a lone, naked human who is _somewhere_ in the atmosphere of Jupiter would be nearly impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/11 "2021-12-15T15:59:32Z")
I’d first have to ask what does such a villain want? Does he just want his own country with endless amounts of cash? Okay sure, in exchange for saving humanity from some sort of impending doom we can’t save ourselves from. But if the villain just wants all of humanity to suffer, than I guess we got to kill him. Otherwise it seems like a valuable resource to waste. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/12 "2021-12-15T16:17:59Z")
What about tying them up in court? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/13 "2021-12-15T16:59:05Z")
I really like the Jupiter solution. You would only need to confine them for a short period of time until a launch plan could be devised. Jupiter is relatively easy to hit, as these things go, and doesn’t have the problems of trying to hit the Sun. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/14 "2021-12-15T17:02:29Z")
I’m thinking cookies and tea and a chance to cry and talk it out. With luck, they’ll kill themselves to escape. If not, the talk will help ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/15 "2021-12-15T17:43:10Z")
If they’re frozen solid they’re going to find it just a bit hard to move. Then bury them in Antarctica or on Pluto or some such. If they’re anything less than absolutely magically invulnerable, drop them into the Sun (a flyby of Jupiter gives enough gravity assist to do this). Or unless they can fly just put them into a freefall trajectory in space that leaves them as helpless as a turtle on its back. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/16 "2021-12-15T19:42:56Z")
For someone like Jason Voorhees, I think the concrete block method is best. Cut him up into several large chunks and encase each one in concrete. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/17 "2021-12-15T20:59:18Z")
Then launch the concrete blocks into the sun. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/18 "2021-12-15T21:06:46Z")
For DC fans, shoot them into the Phantom Zone. For Marvel fans - regress them into infantilism (Magneto?) For Classics Illustrated fans, chain them to a rock and send a vulture… And for Star Trek fans, have the aliens return to collect Charlie X. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/19 "2021-12-15T21:37:14Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Then launch the concrete blocks into the sun. > [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > For DC fans, shoot them into the Phantom Zone. > > For Marvel fans - regress them into infantilism (Magneto?) > > For Classics Illustrated fans, chain them to a rock and send a vulture… > > And for Star Trek fans, have the aliens return to collect Charlie X. I think it would be better to keep them on public display, with multiple people keeping an eye on them 24/7, so that if something begins to go wrong it can be dealt with immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026/20 "2021-12-15T21:58:00Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > They then put a bath mat (or something similar) over the hole and lured the immortal/invulnerable guy to step on it. Pretty much the solution in _Phantasm_, except that it was an abandoned mineshaft that they covered with sticks and grass. They dumped rocks over it as well. It didn’t work for very long, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-deal-with-a-superhuman-whos-invulnerable-but-can-still-be-taken-down/956026.md?page=2)