History FateWorseThanDeath / ComicBooks

** In the first issue, Dream of the Endless punishes the ''son'' of the magician who sealed him away for seventy years (the magician having already died by that time) by trapping him in an endless DreamWithinADream -- while he might eventually die, he will suffer for an eternity in his head first. (Although [[spoiler:after Morpheus' death on the hands of the three "Kindly Ones", his successor, the new Dream, shows mercy and lifts the curse. So, the man "only" had to spend six years or so in a coma, hallucinating the most torturous horrors his mind could devise.]])

** In a ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'' issue, the villain Black Mask decided to "improve himself" not by killing Catwoman, but by torturing and killing everyone close to her, leaving her alive to suffer through it. Catwoman, obviously not a fan of this trope, shot him in the head. During ''ComicBook/DarkestNight'' he became a Black Lantern and tried to finish the job; cue Poison Ivy getting hold of his undead, unkillable (but not uninjurable) butt. Solution? [[ManEatingPlant Giant pitcher plant]].

** In a ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'' issue, the villain Black Mask decided to "improve himself" not by killing Catwoman, but by torturing and killing everyone close to her, leaving her alive to suffer through it. Catwoman, obviously not a fan of this trope, shot him in the head. He recovered and tried to finish the job; cue Poison Ivy getting hold of his undead, unkillable (but not uninjurable) butt. Solution? [[ManEatingPlant Giant pitcher plant]].

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Several of Wondy's villains consider getting locked into a Venus Girdle worse than dying, including Eviless who is furious that the things can subvert people's personalities so completely that they'll eventually love their captors. Given that her own profession of choice is slave driver some of her anger seems to stem from the hero treating her like a villain while she herself forces people into HappinessInSlavery.

** Delirium inflicts the most {{Mind Screw}}ing one of these ever when she is briefly detained by a semi-recurring deformed demoness with a crush on Lucifer, and proclaims "If you don't let me in, I will turn you into a demon half-face waitress night-club lady with a crush on her boss, and I'll make it so you've been that from the beginning of time to now and you'll never ever know if you were anything else and it will itch inside your head worse than little bugses!" Debate still rages about whether Delirium could have actually done that, or just knew the demon's nature and mocked it. Or whether she ''did'' do it and they're in a StableTimeLoop or... oh God I've gone crosseyed.

* During yet another of his bids for total control of the entire DCU, {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} traveled to the Wall at the edge of the universe, behind which is The Source (presumably that which allows the superheroes to make balloon animals out of the laws of physics). Various carvings on the Wall are described as being the imprisoned forms of gods, would-be conquerors, and others who wished to control the Source. Naturally, Darkseid's face becomes the newest addition to the collection, but presumably this story was either a one-shot story or he managed to escape.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}'', the villain Black Mask decided to "improve himself" not by killing Catwoman, but by torturing and killing everyone close to her, leaving her alive to suffer through it. Catwoman, obviously not a fan of this trope, shot him in the head. He recovered and tried to finish the job; cue Poison Ivy getting hold of his undead, unkillable (but not uninjurable) butt. Solution? [[ManEatingPlant Giant pitcher plant]].
* The Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine story ''Hotel Historia'', an otherwise light-hearted and frothy tale, is ended with the Tenth Doctor sealing the race of marauding aliens into a nebulous state where they can neither touch nor interact in any way with anything. Ever.

* ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'':

* The fate of some Arkham Asylum prisoners in ''Comicbook/DeathOfTheFamily'': [[spoiler:Joker stitches them together still alive, hangs them from the ceiling and tattoos their backs with pictures that represent his history with Batman]].
* The final fate of Franchise/{{Batman}} villain Doctor Hurt. [[spoiler: He breaks his neck after slipping on a ''banana peel'', gets dosed with Joker Venom, and thrown into a coffin and buried alive by ComicBook/TheJoker]]. [[spoiler: Since Doctor Hurt is apparently ''immortal''...]]
* Invoked by name by Batman in ''[[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman, Inc]]'' #2, upon defeating the villain Lord Death Man, who has the ability to keep coming BackFromTheDead. Batman throws him off a building and has Catwoman lock him inside a very cramped safe [[note]]possibly after running him over with a truck; the art is unclear on this[[/note]] which is later launched into orbit. In TheStinger at the end of Morrison's run, we learn that [[spoiler:Ra's Al Ghul]] has recovered Lord Death Man's body, and has begun using him as an undying source of "Lazarus Blood".

* The PhantomZone from ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''. [[AndIMustScream Trapped for all eternity in a featureless white void, never aging, never dying, unable to touch and feel]]. In ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' v2 #13 we see the reaction of Xa-Du, the first prisoner in the Phantom Zone.
-->'''Xa-Du''': What's happening? Why can't I see?! I can't hear! Why can't I feel anything? Isn't anyone there? Won't someone talk to me? Please.
* In the ''Comicbook/SupergirlRebirth'' storyline "Escape from the Phantom Zone", Xa-Du has found a way to escape the Zone that involves boiling other inmates and turning their souls into fuel for their armor. And he wants do this to Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} and Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}.
-->Thing is, ya can't '''here'''. But ya can sure change shape. So when we boil ya down an' funnel ya inta Lord Xa-Du's ecto-armor, ya spend yer life as melted '''jelly'''. Imagine it. I'd go '''crazier'''.

* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'', [[MadScientist Jhiaxus]] accidentally made himself immortal at one point. This did not work out in his favor, as Arcee, whom he'd tortured extensively a long time ago (originally as part of forcibly changing her gender to female, then after that was retconned into being something she'd asked him to do it was changed to him just torturing her afterword ForTheEvulz) captured him and spent ''several years'' killing him, then waiting for him to come back to life before killing him again. [[AssholeVictim Everyone she told this to thought he got off lightly]].

* ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'': Slobo ends up blind and trapped in the future as a [[AndIMustScream living unable to die statue]] with everyone believing him dead and therefore not searching for him.

* The fate of some Arkham Asylum prisoners in ''Comicbook/DeathOfTheFamily'': [[spoiler:Joker stitches then together still alive, hangs them from the ceiling and tattoos their backs with pictures that represent his history with Batman]].

* Zera, the formerly drop-dead angel from David Hine's ''{{Spawn}}'', was so loved by God that she could never die. She is later reduced to a floating head in a jar and later devoured by vicious dogs.

** In "Judgement Day", the zombie-controlling villain Sabbat was rendered immortal (even to the point of being able to survive a bullet in the head) by a large magical crystal. Dredd [[spoiler:punished him for causing the deaths of millions of people by decapitating him and sticking his head on top of the crystal, remarking that the sentence was "life - no remission."]]

** Loki's punishment mentioned in the Mythology folder below is made ''even worse'' by breaking his neck and ''[[EyeScream ripping out his eyes]]''.

* The Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine story ''Hotel Historia'', an otherwise light-hearted and frothy tale is ended with the Tenth Doctor sealing the race of marauding aliens into a nebulous state where they can neither touch nor interact in any way with anything. Ever.

* The PhantomZone from ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''. [[AndIMustScream Trapped for all eternity in a featureless white void, never aging, never dying, unable to touch and feel]]. In ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' #13 we see the reaction of Xa-Du, the first prisoner in the Phantom Zone.

* In the ''Comicbook/SupergirlRebirth'' storyline "Escape from the Phantom Zone", Xa-Du has found a way to escape the Zone that involves to boil other inmates and turn their souls into fuel for their armor. And he wants do this to Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} and Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}.

* In Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} [[Comicbook/SupergirlRebirth Rebirth]] storyline ''Escape from the Phantom Zone'', Xa-Du has found a way to escape the Zone that involves to boil other inmates and turn their souls into fuel for their armor. And he wants do this to Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}Supergirl and Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}.

*** ...such as Morpheus condemning Nada, a former African queen, to Hell in a fit of anger after she refused to stay with him and become his queen in the Dreaming, because, as she said, "It is not for mortals to love the Endless". It took the Dream King several thousand years to forgive her and seek her forgiveness after he finally freed her from her torment.

* Wally West, also known as TheFlash, returned from hiatus in an alternate dimension to find that the supervillain Inertia had murdered his cousin, Bart Allen, who had been serving as the Flash in Wally's absence. This, naturally, made Wally ''mad as hell'': his response was to hunt Inertia down and use his powers to rob the villain of all his speed, rendering him an immobile (but fully conscious and completely aware) statue... which he then placed in the Flash Museum, to stare at a statue of the man he killed for all eternity (his situation has since been reversed).
* A rather bizarre one happened between Comicbook/SpiderMan's villain ComicBook/{{Carnage}} and [[spoiler:the Silver Surfer]]. After trying to possess the latter, the Carnage Symbiote is tossed back onto the original host and [[spoiler:is then encased in an unbreakable shell of energy much like the Surfer's own shell of silver.]] It's stated he's stuck like that for all eternity, but he got better later.

-->'''Lemelisk''': Just make sure you do it right this time.

* The Phantom Zone from ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''. [[AndIMustScream Trapped for all eternity in a featureless white void, never aging, never dying, unable to touch and feel]]. In ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' #13 we see the reaction of Xa-Du, the first prisoner in the Phantom Zone.

* The final fate of Franchise/{{Batman}} villain Doctor Hurt. [[spoiler: He breaks his neck after slipping on a ''banana peel'', gets dosed with Joker Venom, and thrown into a coffin and buried alive by SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker]]. [[spoiler: Since Doctor Hurt is apparently ''immortal''...]]

* {{Wolverine}} clearly regards the tortuous experiment he went through that grafted Adamantium to his skeleton as this, and doesn't wish it on anyone else. So much that [[spoiler:In the 616 version of Marvel, he slashes open a vat of molten Adamantium to prevent it from happening to three other victims, [[HeroicSacrifice killing himself in the process]].]]

* The Jim Corrigan [[TheSpectre Spectre]] saved his original flame from death, but in the process made it that she could never die. Said ex attempted suicide on numerous occasions and was left a comatose, burned wreck. In the end, Corrigan finally let her go.

* During yet another of his bids for total control of the entire DCU, {{Darkseid}} traveled to the Wall at the edge of the universe, behind which is The Source (presumably that which allows the superheroes to make balloon animals out of the laws of physics). Various carvings on the Wall are described as being the imprisoned forms of gods, would-be conquerors, and others who wished to control the Source. Naturally, Darkseid's face becomes the newest addition to the collection, but presumably this story was either a one-shot story or he managed to escape.

* A rather bizarre one happened between Comicbook/SpiderMan's villain Carnage and [[spoiler:the Silver Surfer]]. After trying to possess the latter, the Carnage Symbiote is tossed back onto the original host and [[spoiler:is then encased in an unbreakable shell of energy much like the Surfer's own shell of silver.]] It's stated he's stuck like that for all eternity, but he got better later.

* The fate of some Arkham Asylum prisoners in ''Comicbook/ADeathInTheFamily'': [[spoiler:Joker stitches then together still alive, hangs them from the ceiling and tattoos their backs with pictures that represent his history with Batman]].

* An issue of the ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' graphic novels (based on the films, in turn based on Clive Barker's short story "The Hellbound Heart") has a pretty horrific example of this trope: when a man visits a clinic offering completely immersive VR experiences (such as sex with a movie star where the correct nerve endings are manipulated by the machine to simulate the sensations being experienced) and finds that the head of the project is [[spoiler:keeping a test subject alive and indefinitely hooked up to a faulty machine that, while the subject was "surfing" in water during one test, experienced a glitch that turned the water into boiling lava]]. This is made doubly horrible by the fact that a fail-safe was installed ensuring that people hooked up to the machines cannot die in the VR simulation no matter what they are subjected to. This leaves the [[spoiler:aforementioned test subject surfing/swimming in lava overnight before anyone realizes what has happened, effective shattering his mind]]. The head of the project decides to [[spoiler:keep the man hooked to the machine and test a variety of tortures on him, such as being slowly eaten alive by insects, having his testicles ripped apart, and worse for the sake of his own amusement... the test subject may be a shell of a human being now, but he can STILL feel pain.]] Come the end of the story, however, it is implied the [[spoiler:test subject will finally be able to die when he is forcefully disconnected from the machine at the very end.]]

* In the ''InfinityGauntlet'' mini-series, Thanos turns Nebula, his alleged granddaughter, into a floating corpse who is an intermediate between life and death, not being allowed the luxury of death.