History BittersweetEnding / ComicBooks

* Every ending in the ''{{Blacksad}}'' series is bitter sweet. Blacksad finds the missing girl, but [[spoiler: her mother is now dead]]. In another album Blacksad stops nuclear proliferation but [[spoiler: doing so loses him the woman he had come to love]].

* ''YTheLastMan'' ends in a DistantFinale where cloning has been perfected and the first twenty or so reliably immune men have recently been released into the 'wild', however Yorick Brown 1.0 himself does not fare quite so well. He finds out that the girlfriend he had rounded the globe tracking down was about to dump him when the fateful telephone call was cut off, eventually she shacks up with his sister. Then the woman that had been slowly falling in love with him, 355, gets shot dead at Alter's command in the hopes of securing an 'honorable' death in combat with the only available male. He begins the DistantFinale straitjacketed and locked in a hidden room in the French Presidental Palace by his own daughter after an apparent suicide attempt shortly before his eighty-sixth birthday... he claims he thought it would be ironic.

* The "{{ComicBook/Livewires}}" mini series ends with all but two members of the team of RidiculouslyHumanRobots damaged possibly beyond repair, the least damaged and most recently activated having saved the rest tries to take them to their original base for supplies only to discover the team blew it up before the start of the mini series.
* The ending of ''FinalCrisis'' sees Darkseid and Mandrakk defeated, and Superman using the Miracle Machine to restore space/time to its normal state. However despite Nix Uotan's claim that Superman wished for a happy ending with the M.M., that is not the case. Because the Machine could only be used once, the deaths of the Anti-Life enslaved people and both Batman and Martian Manhunter still happen. Superman could have helped out earlier, if only he had returned from the 30th century earlier.

* ''{{We3}}'': 3 doesn't survive the encounter with 4, but 1 and 2 are adopted by the homeless man who tried to help them earlier in the series.

* ''SinCity'' stories often end with the hero defeating and possibly even killing the BigBad but at the cost of his life... one way or another. Wallace's story ''Hell and Back'' is perhaps the only 100% happy ending in the entire series.
* The end of the DC event "{{Our Worlds at War}}" sees the world mourning the apparent deaths of Aquaman, Guy Gardner, Sgt. Rock, Hippolyta, with Superman himself mourning the destruction of his family farm and apparent death of the Kents along with the rest of the state of Kansas.

* Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Gilbert's book TheProfessorsDaughter: Ihmotep and Lillian get married and have three children, but Lillian's father is killed and wrapped in bandages, placed as a part of the Museum's Egyptology exhibit.
* In ''ComicBook/AllFallDown'', [[spoiler: Siphon dies and no-one gets their powers back]]. However, a flash-forward shows that the heroes and villains do eventually move on and find closure.
* All of MarvelUniverse cosmic events; ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}, WarOfKings and TheThanosImperative, have had such endings, where the victory comes usually at a great cost or leads to a temporary peace with the threat still out there.

* In {{Joss Whedon}}'s run on {{Astonishing X-Men}}, the X-Men managed to save the world from a large bullet that was sent by the citizens of the Breakworld, but [[spoiler: Kitty Pryde ends up being stuck in the bullet after phasing it to make it pass through the Earth and ends up spiraling out towards space.]] The second to last panels had [[spoiler: Colossus]] looking up at the sky in sadness.
* The ending of ''{{Bone}}'' is quite bittersweet. [[spoiler: [[BiggerBad The Lord of Locusts]] is destroyed, Kingdok and Briar are killed, Thorn becomes queen, the Valley is at peace, and Fone Bone makes peace with [[ThoseTwoGuys the two Stupid Rat Creatures]]. But Lucius is dead, Fone Bone and Thorn will probably never see each other again, and the Bone cousins have to leave the valley forever. The last scene has the Bone cousins and [[TeamPet Bartelby]] heading out into the desert together, planning to return to Boneville...]]
* TransformersWingsOfHonor: The ending of the second Arc is actually happier than [[SuddenDownerEnding the first.]] [[BigBad Deathsaurus]] is defeated and driven back, the traitorous Combaticons are locked away and the autobots succeed. However, so many have died at this point including Ricochet, one of the comic relief characters. In the end, Rumbler is killed in the final battle, and Sprocket, the resident {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, continues to talk to him as if he was alive. [[spoiler: TheHero, Dion is shot along with TheCaptain Magnum, both are near death, when they go into operation, one dies, and the other emerges as Ultra Magnus.]] The Autobots all agree to leave or go into stasis, taking their war away into the Generation one series.

* ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'': The heroes have all made peace with each other, done away with secret identities, regained the world's love and trust, and last but not least, Superman and Wonder Woman are married and having a child. However many of the heroes [[spoiler: were killed during the climax by a nuclear explosion]].

* The ending of ''{{Bone}}'' is quite bittersweet. [[spoiler: [[BiggerBad The Lord of Locusts]] is destroyed, KingDok and Briar are killed, Thorn becomes queen, the Valley is at peace, and Fone Bone makes peace with [[ThoseTwoGuys the two Stupid Rat Creatures]]. But Lucius is dead, Fone Bone and Thorn will probably never see each other again, and the Bone cousins have to leave the valley forever. The last scene has the Bone cousins and [[TeamPet Bartelby]] heading out into the desert together, planning to return to Boneville...]]

* ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformers Transformers]]: Regeneration One'''s present-day aftermath of the final issue is very bittersweet. [[spoiler: Rodimus Prime has defeated the dark Matrix creature, ending the threat it posed to the multiverse, but at the cost of forever cutting off his own universe from Primus; Optimus Prime has died again, this time for good; thanks to the Matrix creature, Cybertron has been rendered uninhabitable; and most of the Transformer population on Cybertron were turned into shadow-leeches by the creature, before its defeat allowed what was left of their [[OurSoulsAreDifferent sparks]] to pass]]. But, the DistantFinale reveals that [[spoiler: the ForeverWar has come to an end, as Autobots and Decepticons become emissaries of peace; the survivors of Earth and Nebulos succeed in rebuilding their worlds; and eons later, when Rodimus finally passes, his Matrix-spark breathes new life into Cybertron, allowing the long-dormant [[{{Precursors}} Primordials]] to be reborn as a new race]].

* ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye: The Shadowplay arc was a flashback arc dedicated to bringing Rung out of a coma by trying to get him to remember. It has Optimus (then Orion), Ratchet, Windcharger, Skids and one of the few good Senators all coming together to stop a malicious plot by the senate to kill a bunch of innocents and frame the, then innocent, worker's party. It succeeds, they retrieve the bomb, and save everyone. However they can't find any evidence connecting the senate to the bomb spree, the Senator is [[PunishedForSympathy taken away]], and Optimus befriends Zeta, who would grow up to be another tyrant. The arc concludes with Rung waking up in the present while the senator [[spoiler: had the titular Shadowplay performed on him turning him into the emotionless MadScientist Shockwave who's schemes would come to threaten the whole of the planet.]]

* WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow: Superman successfully defeated all of his major enemies, [[spoiler: married Lois Lane]], and escaped with his life, but [[spoiler: he lost Pete Ross, Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen, Krypto and his powers in the process.]] He did [[spoiler: [[BabiesEverAfter have a kid with Lois Lane, though.]] ]]

* The VideoGame/DragonAge tie-in ComicBook/UntilWeSleep ends with Aurelian Titus defeated and Alistair finally meeting his long-lost father Maric. Unfortunately, Maric is only being kept alive by an ancient magical artifact and Alistair destroys it [[MercyKill in order to release his father.]] Alistair then returns home to rule Ferelden [[TheChainsOfCommanding as an unhappy king.]] Isabela, scarred by her imprisonment at the hands of the qunari, is shown leaving her life as a pirate.

* ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye: The Shadowplay arc was a flashback arc dedicated to bringing Rung out of a coma by trying to get him to remember. It has Optimus (then Orion), Ratchet, Windcharger, Skids and a Senator all coming together to stop a malicious plot by the senate to kill a bunch of innocents and frame the, then innocent, worker's party. It succeeds, they retrieve the bomb, and save everyone. However they can't find any evidence connecting the senate to the bomb spree, the Senator is taken away, and Optimus befriends Zeta, who would grow up to be another tyrant. The arc concludes with Rung waking up in the present while the senator [[spoiler: had the titular Shadowplay performed on him turning him into the emotionless MadScientist Shockwave who's schemes would come to threaten the whole of the planet.]]

* ''VForVendetta'': V and Evie have triumphed against the evil fascistic government. However, V is dead, chaos runs rampant throughout Britain, and it seems like the last bastion of civilization is crumbling.

* The short-lived ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' spinoff comic ''District X'' has such an ending. It features the POV character, Officer Ismael Oetega, managing to rebuilt his shattered family life; however, this comes at the cost of [[spoiler:his daughter's life and the mutant gifts of almost everyone in Mutant Town]]. Also, a recurring character [[ItMakesSenseInContext stayed in one place too long and turned into a tree]].

* WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow: Superman successfully defeated all of his major enemies, [[spoiler: married Lois Lane]], and escaped with his life, but [[spoiler: he lost Pete Ross, Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen, Krypto and his powers in the process.]]

** Though he does escape in the end, and is implied to be alive. His escape might also qualify as a ChekhovsGun, as he is seen practicing a straitjacket escape in the first issue

* The "{{Livewires}}" mini series ends with all but two members of the team of RidiculouslyHumanRobots damaged possibly beyond repair, the least damaged and most recently activated having saved the rest tries to take them to their original base for supplies only to discover the team blew it up before the start of the mini series.

* The end of the DC event "Our Worlds at War" sees the world mourning the apparent deaths of Aquaman, Guy Gardner, Sgt. Rock, Hippolyta, with Superman himself mourning the destruction of his family farm and apparent death of the Kents along with the rest of the state of Kansas.

* The final issue of the 2009-2011 ''Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}'' series ends with a montage of stories that the writer had planned to tell, including a team-up between Batgirl and her friend Cassandra Cain (whose absence had been a frequent criticism of the book) and a sword-and-sorcery adventure with Supergirl and Miss Martian. Despite the deliberately sad WhatCouldHaveBeen montage, the book ends with Batgirl noting that the story would never end as long as the fans continued to remember it.

* ''Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face'' ends with the Crime Master dead and Dr. Octavius being rejected by his idol Heinrich Himmler as a "deviant cripple." But Robbie Robertson has permanent brain damage from Octavius' experiments, Felicia Hardy has become a heavily scarred shut-in who never wants to see Peter again, and the Nazis have risen to power in Germany. Almost {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Peter near the end of the series, when he tells Mary Jane that his life is falling apart - and he thinks it's only going to get worse.

* All of MarvelUniverse cosmic events; {{Annihilation}}, WarOfKings and TheThanosImperative, have had such endings, where the victory comes usually at a great cost or leads to a temporary peace with the threat still out there.

* The ending of ''Bone'' is quite bittersweet. [[spoiler: [[BiggerBad The Lord of Locusts]] is destroyed, KingDok and Briar are killed, Thorn becomes queen, the Valley is at peace, and Fone Bone makes peace with [[ThoseTwoGuys the two Stupid Rat Creatures]]. But Lucius is dead, Fone Bone and Thorn will probably never see each other again, and the Bone cousins have to leave the valley forever. The last scene has the Bone cousins and [[TeamPet Bartelby]] heading out into the desert together, planning to return to Boneville...]]

* ''{{Watchmen}}'': Dan and Laurie are happily together and fighting crime and the looming threat of nuclear war has been eliminated, but Ozymandias killed millions of people, Rorschach is dead, and Dr. Manhattan just sort of... left.

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* TransformersWingsOfHonor: The ending of the second Arc is actually happier than [[SuddenDownerEnding the first.]] [[BigBad Deathsaurus]] is defeated and driven back, the traitorous Combaticons are locked away and the autobots succeed. However, so many have died at this point. In the end, Rumbler is killed in the final battle, and Sprocket, the resident {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, continues to talk to him as if he was alive. [[spoiler: TheHero, Dion is shot along with TheCaptain Magnum, both are near death, when they go into operation, one dies, and the other emerges as Ultra Magnus.]] The Autobots all agree to leave or go into stasis, taking their war away into the Generation one series.

* TransformersWingsOfHonor: The ending of the second Arc is actually happier than [[SuddenDownerEnding the first.]] [[BigBad Deathsaurus is defeated and driven back, the traitorous Combaticons are locked away and the autobots succeed. However, so many have died at this point. In the end, Rumbler is killed in the final battle, and Sprocket, the resident {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, continues to talk to him as if he was alive. [[spoiler: TheHero, Dion is shot along with TheCaptain Magnum, both are near death, when they go into operation, one dies, and the other emerges as Ultra Magnus.]] The Autobots all agree to leave or go into stasis, taking their war away into the Generation one series.