History HeroicSacrifice / Comics

* In ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'', the prophecy about Snow and Bigby's cubs states that "the third will do an evil thing/the fourth will die to stop her". This part of the prophecy is played out when [[spoiler:Therese goes insane with hunger after being trapped in Toyland, going as far as to murder a talking tiger for his flesh and ordering the ''living'' wooden toys burned so she can cook the meat. Her brother Darien has no choice but to sacrifice himself to fuel a magical cauldron with his blood (which due to his heritage as a descendant of a powerfully magical bloodline and a god has a very potent magical nature) which breathes life into Toyland and a steady source of food for Therese.]]

* Mr. Immortal from the ''GreatLakesAvengers'' did a HeroicSacrifice in the end of Issue #4 by committing suicide. Since his power is to return from the dead, that wasn't that heroic, or much of a sacrifice to begin with. Doorman on the other hand let himself die by getting Mr. Immortal to that very place, but he [[DeathIsCheap returned to life]] as some sort of angel of death.

* Synch from ''GenerationX'' died this way, [[JumpingOnAGrenade throwing himself on a bomb]] to save several of his {{Jerkass}} classmates.

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', the Confessor sacrificed his "life" and reputation to stop an alien invasion -- the reputation because the sacrifice revealed that he was a vampire, and made him appear to be a serial killer.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (the 616 version) sacrifices himself by slashing open a vat of molten adamantium and allowing himself to be covered in it to spare three victims of being turned into what he had been turned into.

** In a particularly convoluted example, Lightning Lad sacrifices himself in battle with Zaryan the Conqueror, and every member of the pre-Crisis Legion participates in what amounts to a lottery to determine who will sacrifice their own life to bring him back. Saturn Girl, his LoveInterest, cheats to make sure hers is the life sacrificed - but she is in turn replaced by Chameleon Boy's shapeshifting pet [[AlienScrappy Proty]], which sacrifices itself in her place.

** Even the original Composite Superman, a ''villain'' who had opposed the team, died this way, feeling remorse when [[EvenEvilHasStandards a much crueler villain]] named Xan tried to kill Superman and Batman; the Composite Superman [[TakingTheBullet shielded the two heroes from the villain's Magna Gun]], only to be vaporized. A statue was made to honor him later, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath saying he lived a villain, but died a hero.]]

* ComicBook/{{X-23}} does this. ''A lot.'' In ''Target: X'' she's prepared to willingly return to the Facility with Kimura in order to spare her cousin and aunt (Kimura decides to torture them to death ''anyway'' to punish Laura for escaping, forcing Laura to fight back). She attacks Nimrod head-on to draw its attention away from the other kids and takes a direct blast of its weapon, which overloads her Healing Factor and she only survives because of Hellion's intervention. In X-Force she takes the Legacy Virus into herself and is about to throw herself off a building to destroy it, and only survives because of Elixir's intervention. In ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' she makes a frontal attack against Apex (who is now controlling a ''Sentinel'') to try protecting the other kids, and only survives when Apex grabs the IdiotBall. Significantly, Laura is borderline suicidally depressed and has a low or non-existent sense of self-worth due to her abusive upbringing, which drives her willingness to sacrifice herself for others.

* One could probably say that the event that supposedly turned Jean Grey into the Dark Phoenix was this. After all, she never expected to survive the radiation, and did it simply to save the rest of the team. In the original storyline, she did survive, but was turned into the [[OmnicidalManiac Dark Phoenix]] which led to the whole ''Dark Phoenix Saga''. After the whole thing was retconned and the Dark Phoenix was revealed to be a separate entity posing as Jean, her original action seemed more fitting of this Trope after all. (She was OnlyMostlyDead due to the intervention of the Phoenix Force.)

* Eric O'Grady, the Irredeemable AntMan, died like this in ''SecretAvengers''. He sacrificed himself to get a child to safety, and before being stomped to death, reflected on the fact that at least he got to die doing something decent for once in his life.

* During ''ComicBook/FearItself'', Tony Stark, furious that Odin refuses to aid Earth, decides to sacrifice his sobriety to get the god's attention.

* Heroic Sacrifices are a staple of Superhero books (since, it's what makes them Superheroes and not just Supers), and a main cause of ComicBookDeath.

* In a classic ''[[TheMightyThor Thor]]'' storyline, Skurge The Executioner sacrificed himself to buy Thor and his companions [[YouShallNotPass time to escape from Hel]] (the Norse underworld). Double points because Thor had intended to do it, and [[MoreHeroThanThou Skurge knocked him out]]. Also qualifies as a CrowningMomentOfAwesome due to his beating a demon to death with an empty machine gun.
* The HeroicSacrifice is a longstanding tradition of DC's ''ComicBook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'':

* 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. He was OnlyMostlyDead.
* In the first issue of the current series of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'', Mister America is introduced, a patriotically-themed super-detective... who has no problem beating up suspects. His family is killed by a villain to destroy his [[LegacyCharacter 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 LeParkour), 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.

* Averted by PeterDavid in the ''[[Comicbook/SpiderMan Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' storyline, "The Death of Jean [=DeWolff=]". ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, 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=], PeterDavid was told by his editors that he was breaking all of the conventional ComicBook tropes, particularly the one having her death as the HeroicSacrifice at the climax of the story.

* There have been a few {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s during ''[[ArchiesSonicTheHedgehog Sonic The Hedgehog's]]'' [[LongRunner long run]]:

** Knuckles' father Locke killed himself in order to break the spell that had [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] Knuckles into becoming Enerjak.

* During the ''SpiderMan'' storyline ''ComicBook/SpiderIsland'', [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]] confronts Eddie Brock, at this point as [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} 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 HeartwarmingMoment 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.]]

* Synch from ''GenerationX'' died this way, [[JumpingOnAGrenade throwing himself on a bomb]] to save several of his JerkAss classmates.

* [[HeroicDog Farley]] in ''ForBetterOrForWorse'' dies of a heart attack after he saves April from drowning.

* In [[spoiler: ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #587, Johnny Storm sacrifices his life to make sure an army of Annihlus-like creatures never escaped the Negative Zone.]]

* 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!]]

* Ultimate Captain America sacrifices himself by slamming an airplane into Galactus during ''ComicBook/CataclysmTheUltimatesLastStand''.

** Even the original Composite Superman, a ''villain'' who had opposed the team, died this way, feeling remorse when [[EvenEvilHasStandards a much crueler villain]] named Xan tried to kill Superman and Batman; the Composite Superman shielded the two heroes from the villain's Magna Gun, only to be vaporized. A statue was made to honor him later, saying he lived a villain, but died a hero.

* ComicBook/{{X-23}} does this. ''A lot.'' In ''Target: X'' she's prepared to willingly return to the Facility with Kimura in order to spare her cousin and aunt (Kimura decides to torture them to death ''anyway'' to punish Laura for escaping, forcing Laura to fight back). She attacks Nimrod head-on to draw its attention away from the other kids and takes a direct blast of its weapon, which overloads her Healing Factor and she only survives because of Hellion's intervention. In X-Force she takes the Legacy Virus into herself and is about to throw herself off a building to destroy it, and only survives because of Elixir's intervention. In ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' she makes a frontal attack against Apex (who is now controlling a ''Sentinel'') to try protecting the other kids, and only survives when Apex grabs the IdiotBall. Significantly, Laura is borderline suicidally depressed and has a low or non-existent sense of self-worth due to her abusive upbringing, which drives her willingness to sacrifice herself for others.

* [[HeroicDog Farley]] in ''ForBetterOrForWorse'' dies of a heart attack after he saves April from drowning.

* In the "Day of Vengeance" leadup to InfiniteCrisis, the last Lord of Order (TheSpectre already killed the others along with the Lords of Chaos) Nabu engages TheSpectre in a battle that he knows he can't win. TheSpectre 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 TheSpectre is promptly sealed into another mortal host.
* In ''SecretSix'', [[spoiler:Tarantula]] is killed after telling Junior she has the Get Out Of Hell Free card. [[spoiler:Scandal has it]].
* During the ''SpiderMan'' storyline ''SpiderIsland'', [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]] confronts Eddie Brock, at this point as [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} 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 HeartwarmingMoment 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 ComicBook/{{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.

* One could probably say that the event that supposedly turned Jean Grey into the Dark Phoenix was this. After all, she never expected to survive the radiation, and did it simply to save the rest of the team. In the original storyline, she did survive, but was turned into the [[OmnicidalManiac Dark Phoenix]] which led to the whole ''Dark Phoenix Saga''. After the whole thing was retconned and the Dark Phoenix was revealed to be a seperate entity posing as Jean, her original action seemed more fitting of this Trope after all. (She was OnlyMostlyDead due to the intervention of the Phoenix Force.)

* In ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', after [[spoiler:Overlord is set lose on the Autobot Ship ''The Lost Light'', [[spoiler: Rewind]] sacrifices [[spoiler:himself]] by crawling into the slow room where [[spoiler:Overlord]] is and unjamming the door, leaving [[spoiler:Rewind at the mercy of Overlord]].
** Lampshaded by [[spoiler:Rodimus]], who believes it is a cheap way to make amends for wrongdoings, considering [[spoiler:''he'' was the one who brought Overlord onto their ship in the first place]]. He also [[spoiler:risks his own life to stop the signal from killing those who were constructed cold]].

* In the XWingSeries 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 [[BewareTheNiceOnes horribly]], [[TranquilFury calmly]] [[YouKilledMyFather furious at the pirate in question]].

* While fighting the reborn Emperor and his forces, the Skywalkers came across a cyborg Jedi Knight named Empatojayos Brand who had survived the Purge (barely). He followed them and helped defeat Palpatine, but, as the Sith Lord had transferred his soul from cloned body to cloned body to escape death, he launched his spirit at the infant Anakin Solo. Brand interposed his damaged body in between Palaptine and Anakin and used the Force to bind Palpatine to him as he died, thus ridding the galaxy of the Emperor forever.

** Also, there was Colossus infecting himself with the Legacy Virus a few years earlier, thereby releasing the cure into the air deleting Legacy from existence. But it's ok, he got brought back to life in ''Astonishing''.

* In the first issue of the current series of ''JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'', 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 [[LegacyCharacter 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 LeParkour), 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.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'', [[spoiler:when the SpaceStation is falling from orbit, Mindf*** sacrifices herself so Emp can go through the portal instead. (Sistah Spooky tries to save Mindf*** using her magic, but fails.)]]

* ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', after [[spoiler:Overlord is set lose on the Autobot Ship ''The Lost Light'', [[spoiler: Rewind]] sacrifices [[spoiler:himself]] by crawling into the slow room where [[spoiler:Overlord]] is and unjamming the door, leaving [[spoiler:Rewind at the mercy of Overlord]].

** Also, there was Colossus infecting himself with the Legacy Virus a few years earlier, thereby releasing the cure into the air deleting Legacy from existence. That got {{RetCon}}ned in ''Astonishing''...
*** It wasn't retconned, [[spoiler: Colossus ''did'' die back then. But then crazy aliens resurrected him for... some reason.]]

* In ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyMicroSeries'' Issue #2 [[spoiler:Rainbow does a Sonic Double Rainboom to help inspire everypony in Equestria and dispel the gremlins' cloud. However, doing so leaves her unable to fly for two months.]]