History HeroicSacrifice / Comics

** ''Comicbook/{{Aquila}}'': Peter the Apostle, servant of the 'carpenter God', requests Aquila crucify him upside down to make him a martyr to the fledgling Christian movement, even after Aquila means to free him from Nero's prison

* ''ComicBook/{{Necronauts}}'': Harry Houdini chooses to not return to the world of the living so as not to give the Sleepers in the Void the ability to find their way there with his body as a guide.

* ''ComicBook/Spiderman'':

* Vibe, one of the most maligned members of the ''JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'', sacrificed himself to save his teammates from killer robots built by a MadScientist.
* In a classic ''[[ComicBook/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 SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome due to his beating a demon to death with an empty machine gun.

* Easily the most famous {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s in the [[strike:superhero genre]] DC universe are the deaths of TheFlash and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''.

* ComicBook/JimmyOlsen attempted this in ''Superman Family'' #173. In order to counteract a virus affecting all of Kandor, he planned to blow up the bottle—and himself with it—thus giving the Kandorians the powers necessary to be cured. He was only saved by the super-tough Kandorian fabric he was wearing.
* 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 {{legacy|Character}}. 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.
* According to writer Tad Williams, if ''Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} Sword of Atlantis'' had not been canceled, the second Aquaman, Arthur Joseph, would have sacrificed his life to revive the original Aquaman by giving up the piece of Aquaman's soul that had revived Arthur Joseph. This was so that the original Aquaman could fight an evil entity only he was capable of defeating. Then, perhaps poor Arty Joe would have gained a little more sympathy from fans.
* In Creator/JossWhedon's run on ''[[Comicbook/XMen Astonishing X-Men]]'', ComicBook/KittyPryde phases a giant bullet through the Earth...and then is stuck out there. If it had been less of an IdiotPlot, it would've been horrifying and touching, but all it did was [[TorchesAndPitchforks make a lot of fans mad]].
* ''Comicbook/AstonishingXMen'': Colossus infected 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''.
* ''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.
** Despite possessing immense power, the Silver Agent goes to his execution by the city without any resistance, to avoid possibly altering the future and undoing the valiant efforts of all of the other heroes who will come after him.

* ''ComicBook/XMan'' ended with Nate Grey destroying his body, becoming PureEnergy, and merging with every organism on the planet in order to prevent a PlanetEater alien from harvesting all mitochondria on Earth (From the alien's perspective, Nate's energy contaminated the "crop").
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In the ''ComicBook/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.
* Averted by Creator/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=], Peter David 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.

* In the last comic of ''ComicBook/EarthX'', the Celestials had landed on Earth and is getting ready to destroy the planet. [[ComicBook/IronMan 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 [[MakeMeWannaShout his powers]] at maximum [[spoiler: to call Galactus]], which shatters his body.
* In ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'', [[spoiler:when the SpaceStation is falling from orbit, Mindf*** sacrifices herself so Emp can go through the portal instead. (Emp tried to sacrifice ''herself'' so that ''Mindf***'' could go through instead, but Mindf*** used her psychic powers to make Emp go instead. Sistah Spooky tries to save Mindf*** using her magic, but fails.)]]
* In ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' #74, [[spoiler: Eddie Bloomberg, formerly known as Kid Devil (before he was depowered), is given his heroic send off. While the other Titans are fighting the Fearsome Five, Eddie discovers a dying metahuman with nuclear powers about to have a meltdown which would destroy all of San Francisco. Without any hesitation, Eddie takes the living nuke to the Titans jet, being horribly burned and subjected to lethal amounts of radiation in the process. Then he takes the jet into low Earth orbit, refusing to eject just to make sure the jet doesn't change course and go back down to Earth. Eddie vanishes in a nuclear explosion, with the Titans' battlecry "Titans Together" as his last words.]]
* [[spoiler: Giles]] in the ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' Season 8 series.
* In ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #587, [[spoiler:Johnny Storm sacrifices his life to make sure an army of Annihlus-like creatures never escaped the Negative Zone.]]
* An 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 ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'', 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 ''ComicBook/SteelgripStarkeyAndTheAllPurposePowerTool'', as part of an effort to contain a runaway nuclear reactor.
* In ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', 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.

* [[spoiler:Comicbook/UltimateSpiderMan]] 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.

* Jericho Drumm, aka Brother Voodoo, sacrifices himself as his final act as Sorcerer Supreme, rebelling an invasion by a major entity calling itself Agamotto.
* In the "Day of Vengeance" leadup to ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis, the last Lord of Order (ComicBook/TheSpectre already killed the others along with the Lords of Chaos) Nabu engages ComicBook/TheSpectre in a battle that he knows he can't win. ComicBook/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 ComicBook/TheSpectre is promptly sealed into another mortal host.
* In ''ComicBook/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 ''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 SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} 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 ''ComicBook/GenerationX'' died this way, [[JumpingOnAGrenade throwing himself on a bomb]] to save several of his {{Jerkass}} classmates.
* One could probably say that the event that supposedly turned ComicBook/JeanGrey 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.)
* 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.]]
* [[HeroicDog Farley]] in ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' dies of a heart attack after he saves April from drowning.
* 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.
* Ultimate Captain America sacrifices himself by slamming an airplane into Galactus during ''ComicBook/CataclysmTheUltimatesLastStand''.
* During ''ComicBook/FearItself'', Tony Stark, furious that Odin refuses to aid Earth, decides to sacrifice his sobriety to get the god's attention.
* 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 ''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.]]
* ''ComicBook/HaloUprising'': Colonel Ackerson lies to his alien captors about an artifact in Cleveland so that they won't bomb the city from orbit, thus giving his brother Ruwan a chance to escape. Instead, Ruwan uses the chance to fool the Covenant into thinking he has their treasure while being injected with a tracking fluid. The aliens first think he's being tracked so he can be rescued, but it actually turns out to be so an orbital defense station can target him, and he's standing right in the middle of a Covenant battlecruiser...
* The ''ComicBook/{{Misty}}'' story "Winner Loses All": the heroine makes a DealWithTheDevil in order to save her alcoholic father, which will condemn her to Hell. Her father finds out about the deal, and why she made it, so he makes a deal of his own, taking her place in Hell.
* In ''ComicBook/DeepGravity'', when the surviving personnel aboard ''Vanguard'' are caught by [[spoiler:the escaped alien lifeform, Captain Chadwick]] stays to fight in order that the others get away.
* ''ComicBook/{{Necronauts}}'': Harry Houdini chooses to not return to the world of the living so as not to give the Sleepers in the Void the ability to find their way there with his body as a guide.

* There have been a few {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s during ''[[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic The Hedgehog's]]'' {{long run|ner}}:

* ''ComicBook/HaloUprising'': Colone Ackerson lies to his alien captors about an artifact in Cleveland so that they won't bomb the city from orbit and so give his brother Ruwan a chance to escape. Instead Ruwan uses the chance to fool the Covenant into thinking he has their treasure while being injected with a tracking fluid. The aliens first think he's being tracked so he can be rescued, but it actually turns out to be so an orbital defense station can target him, and he's standing right in the middle of the Covenant's battlecruiser...

* Similarly to Supergirl, Franchise/{{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 Creator/JossWhedon's run on ''[[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Astonishing X-Men]]'', ComicBook/KittyPryde phases a giant bullet through the Earth...and then is stuck out there. If it had been less of an IdiotPlot, it would've been horrifying and touching, but all it did was [[TorchesAndPitchforks make a lot of fans mad]].

* ComicBook/JimmyOlsen attempted this in 'Superman Family'' #173. In order to counteract a virus affecting all of Kandor, he planned to blow up the bottle—and himself with it—thus giving the Kandorians the powers necessary to be cured. He was only saved by the super-tough Kandorian fabric he was wearing.

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

* In ''ComicBook/DeepGravity'', when the surviving personnel aboard ''Vanguard'' are caught by [[spoiler:the escaped alien lifeform, Captain Chadwick]] stays to fight in order that the others get away.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Misty}}'' story "Winner Loses All": the heroine makes a DealWithTheDevil in order to save her alcoholic father, which will condemn her to Hell. Her father finds out about the deal, and why she made it, so he makes a deal of his own, taking her place in Hell.

* CaptainAmerica's death was like this. Wearing power dampening handcuffs, Cap notices an infrared sniper pointer on one of his captors. Being the selfless man he is he throws himself in the line of fire and promptly gets shot. This was the villain's evil plan to begin with, so here's one for the bad guys.

* 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=], Peter David 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.

** 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]].

* Eric O'Grady, the Irredeemable ComicBook/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.

* In ''ComicBook/TransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'', [[spoiler:Pyro]] has actually been diagnosed with a condition known as ''primus apotheosis'', which makes the sufferer idolize Optimus Prime, and try to make themselves as similar to him as possible, including his penchant for heroic, '''noble''' sacrifices. Subverted with [[spoiler: Pyro's being torn to pieces by a horde of Decepticons as a distraction]], and averted with the entire story, which is about "Good people dying in '''stupid, pointless ways'''".
* In ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', after [[spoiler:Overlord is set lose on the Autobot Ship ''The Lost Light'', Rewind sacrifices 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]].

* ''ComicBook/HaloUprising'': Colone Ackerson lies to his alien captors about an artifact in Cleveland so that they won't bomb the city from orbit and so give his brother Ruwan a chance to escape. Instead Ruwan uses the chance to fool the Covenant into thinking he has their treasure while being injected with a tracking fluid. The aliens first think he's being tracked so he can be rescued, but it actually turns out to be so an orbital defense station can target him, and he's standing right in the middle of the Covenant's battlecruiser...

* 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 SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome due to his beating a demon to death with an empty machine gun.

* Done by [[spoiler: the All-Purpose Power Tool]] in ''SteelgripStarkeyAndTheAllPurposePowerTool'', as part of an effort to contain a runaway nuclear reactor.

* ''[[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Astonishing X-Men]]'': Colossus infected 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 ''JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'', 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.]]

* In the last comic of ''EarthX'', the Celestials had landed on Earth and is getting ready to destroy the planet. [[ComicBook/IronMan 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.

* Easily the most famous {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s in the [[strike:superhero genre]] DC universe are the deaths of TheFlash and {{Supergirl}} in ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''.

* In Creator/JossWhedon's run on ''[[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Astonishing X-Men]]'', Kitty Pryde phases a giant bullet through the Earth...and then is stuck out there. If it had been less of an IdiotPlot, it would've been horrifying and touching, but all it did was [[TorchesAndPitchforks make a lot of fans mad]].

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

* In JossWhedon's run on ''[[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Astonishing X-Men]]'', Kitty Pryde phases a giant bullet through the Earth...and then is stuck out there. If it had been less of an IdiotPlot, it would've been horrifying and touching, but all it did was [[TorchesAndPitchforks make a lot of fans mad]].