Heroic Sacrifice/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

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** Live Wire (the post-''Zero Hour'' version of Lightning Lad) resigns from the Legion and sacrifices himself to save his friends and [[Love Interest]] from former-teammate-turned-[[Omnicidal Maniac]] Element Lad in the limited series ''Legion Lost.''

*** Heroic sacrifices seem to be a sort of pattern for Lightning Lad; don't be surprised if it happens again in the Threeboot.

* Easily the most famous [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]] in the <s>superhero genre</s> DC universe are the deaths of [[The Flash]] and [[Supergirl]] in ''[[Crisis On Infinite Earths]]''.

* Easily the most famous [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]] in the <s>superhero genre</s> DC universe are the deaths of [[The Flash]] and [[Supergirl]] in ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]''.

* Similarly to Supergirl, [[Superman]] continues fighting Doomsday to the death to protect the people of Metropolis, even though it meant sustaining mortal wounds in the process. Of course, he was [[Only Mostly Dead]].

* In the first issue of the current series of ''[[Justice Society of America]]'', we meet Mister America, a patriotically-themed super-detective... who has no problem beating up suspects. His family is killed by a villain to destroy his [[Legacy Character|legacy]]. He shows up to beat the tar out of the villain... and then he gets mortally wounded. His response is to run from the Boston dockyards to New York's Battery Park (using [[Le Parkour]]), jump through the Justice Society's skylight, and hit the table in the main meeting hall, dying on impact. In response, the Justice Society tracks down his family's killer.

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* ''X-Man'' ended with Nate Grey destroying his body, becoming [[Pure Energy]], and merging with every organism on the planet in order to prevent a [[Planet Eater]] alien from harvesting all mitochondria on Earth (From the alien's perspective, Nate's energy contaminated the "crop").

* In the [[X Wing Series]] comics, it's revealed that Wedge's parents sacrificed themselves when a pirate set their fueling station on fire by going in with extinguishers to slow down the fire before it could get to the tanks, allowing enough time for everyone else to get away. Wedge is [[Beware the Nice Ones|horribly]], [[Tranquil Fury|calmly]] [[You Killed My Father|furious at the pirate in question]].

* ''Brutally'' averted by [[Peter David]] in the ''[[Spider Man (Comic Book)|Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' storyline, "The Death of Jean DeWolff". [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]], the story concerns the death of police officer DeWolff in the first two pages of the arc, shot while she was resting in bed. As mentioned in the introduction to the TPB, [[Peter David]] was told by his editors that he was breaking all of the conventional [[Comic Book]] tropes, particularly the one having her death as the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] at the climax of the story.

* ''Brutally'' averted by [[Peter David]] in the ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' storyline, "The Death of Jean DeWolff". [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], the story concerns the death of police officer DeWolff in the first two pages of the arc, shot while she was resting in bed. As mentioned in the introduction to the TPB, [[Peter David]] was told by his editors that he was breaking all of the conventional [[Comic Book]] tropes, particularly the one having her death as the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] at the climax of the story.

* In the ''[[~~Gargoyles (Animation)|~~Gargoyles]]'' comic series by SLG, a female gargoyle dies after shielding her mate from a rain of arrows. Fittingly, she is known as "Sacrifice" in the script.

* In the ''[[Gargoyles]]'' comic series by SLG, a female gargoyle dies after shielding her mate from a rain of arrows. Fittingly, she is known as "Sacrifice" in the script.

* In the last comic of ''[[Earth X]]'', the Celestials had landed on Earth and is getting ready to destroy the planet. [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]] knew that he had to buy time for {{spoiler|Galactus to arrive to fight.}} So, he went up in a giant Iron Man suit and fought off a bunch of Gods by himself.

** And prior to that, while the Celestials were still in orbit, Black Bolt attacked them, using [[Make Me Wanna Shout|his powers]] at maximum {{spoiler|to call Galactus}}, which shatters his body.

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* A recent issue of ''Amazing Spider-Man'' has {{spoiler|J. Jonah Jameson's own wife, Marla,}} sacrifice her life to save her husband. The action and resulting death is so powerful that, for probably the first time in his life {{spoiler|J.J. can't bring himself to blame Spider-Man for something that was his own fault!}}

* In ''[[Justice Society of America]]'', three generations of Hourmen try to do this. In the original timeline, the first Hourman Rex Tyler sacrificed himself to stop Extant from destroying the universe. Time shenanigans by the third Hourman (an android from the future) allow the first one to spend time with his son Rick the second Hourman, knowing that he will eventually have to go back to the point of his death and sacrifice himself. Rick refuses to let his father die since he wants his mother to have the same chance to reconnect with Rex that he had, and tries to take his father's place. In the end, {{spoiler|the android Hourman makes the sacrifice.}}

* Done by {{spoiler|the All-Purpose Power Tool}} in ''[[Steelgrip Starkey ~~and~~ The All Purpose Power Tool]]'', as part of an effort to contain a runaway nuclear reactor.

* Done by {{spoiler|the All-Purpose Power Tool}} in ''[[Steelgrip Starkey And The All-Purpose Power Tool]]'', as part of an effort to contain a runaway nuclear reactor.

* In ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', it's Rosemary Almond, a mere housewife whose whole life has been destroyed by Norsefire who decides to sacrifice herself (and avenge herself), by killing Commander Adam Susan, the state's dictator, knowing full well what would happen to her if she did so. She is then mobbed by a horde of Fingermen. Her final fate is unclear, but it's probable that she doesn't survive.

* There have been a few [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]] during ''[[Archies Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic The Hedgehog's]]'' [[Long Runner|long run]]:

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** {{spoiler|Sally Acorn caused herself to be roboticized to prevent Eggman from doing it to the whole planet.}}

** {{spoiler|Antoine D'Coolette grappled with a Metal Sonic and pulled it away from the transport holding Elias and his family, letting Dr. Eggman detonate it and kill him instead (he survived, though he is currently comatose).}}

* {{spoiler|[[Ultimate Spider Man]]}} himself does this with style, taking a bullet to the stomach meant for {{spoiler|Ultimate Captain America}}, then racing back to rescue his friends and family from the escaped {{spoiler|Ultimate Sinister Six}} before he finally succumbs to his wounds.

* {{spoiler|[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]}} himself does this with style, taking a bullet to the stomach meant for {{spoiler|Ultimate Captain America}}, then racing back to rescue his friends and family from the escaped {{spoiler|Ultimate Sinister Six}} before he finally succumbs to his wounds.

* The UK Marvel ''Transformers'' comics featured one of these mixed with Crowning Moment of Awesome. Inferno is injured in his ship above a huge battlefield. As he lays dying he remarks "Always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory" and then promptly ''crashes his ship into the heart of the Decepticon forces, wiping out a majority of them''.

** This is almost a tradition for Optimus Primes in the various continuities. In at least two instances, once each during the original Marvel run of comics and once during the [[Dork Age]] release in the 90's, Optimus plunges himself and the Autobot Matrix into two different types of [[Planet Eater]] [[Omnicidal Maniac]]. It turns out that [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]] and the result is volatile enough to bring salvation in the form of massive explosions. Optimus Prime being Optimus Prime, his death rarely 'keeps' for long, though.

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* In the "Day of Vengeance" leadup to [[Infinite Crisis]], the last Lord of Order ([[The Spectre]] already killed the others along with the Lords of Chaos) Nabu engages [[The Spectre]] in a battle that he knows he can't win. [[The Spectre]] murdering the last Lord of Order convinces the Presence (which is effectively [[God]] in the mainstream DCU) that he's gone out of control, and [[The Spectre]] is promptly sealed into another mortal host.

* In ''[[Secret Six]]'', {{spoiler|Tarantula}} is killed after telling Junior she has the Get Out Of Hell Free card. {{spoiler|Scandal has it}}.

* During the ''[[Spider Man]]'' storyline ''[[Spider Island]]'', [[Fantastic Four|Mr. Fantastic]] confronts Eddie Brock, at this point as Anti-Venom, and tells him his symbiote is the cure to the virus that's giving people Spidey's powers {{spoiler|and turns them into the Spider Queen's army of humongous spiders}}, but if he does so with so many people {{spoiler|the Anti-Venom symbiote would die.}} Eddie's response? {{spoiler|he goes to a church and gathers everyone infected and ''cures them''. It counts as a [[Heartwarming Moment]] because, after the symbiote dies, Eddie realizes that, for the first time since his hell began, he finally became the hero he saw himself to be. He was the hero of Spider-Island.}}

* During the ''[[Spider-Man]]'' storyline ''[[Spider Island]]'', [[Fantastic Four|Mr. Fantastic]] confronts Eddie Brock, at this point as Anti-Venom, and tells him his symbiote is the cure to the virus that's giving people Spidey's powers {{spoiler|and turns them into the Spider Queen's army of humongous spiders}}, but if he does so with so many people {{spoiler|the Anti-Venom symbiote would die.}} Eddie's response? {{spoiler|he goes to a church and gathers everyone infected and ''cures them''. It counts as a [[Heartwarming Moment]] because, after the symbiote dies, Eddie realizes that, for the first time since his hell began, he finally became the hero he saw himself to be. He was the hero of Spider-Island.}}

* In [[WITCH]] Luba, who had been sceptical of the Guardians and tried various times to get them replaced, saves them and an almost dead Caleb from Nerissa, who is now pratically invincible and helped by four creatures that can actually give the Guardians a run for their money, by attacking her and her minions, knowing well that she had no chance to survive. She somehow kept all five of them at bay long enough for the Guardians to escape and bring Caleb to safety.