History ShaggyDogStory / ComicBooks

* Almost every tale by Edward Gorey has elements of this, notably, ''The Headless Bust'' and ''The Unstrung Harp''.

** In ''Recap/AsterixAndTheChieftainsShield'', much energy is expended on running around desperately trying to find Vercingetorix's shield before the Romans... only to discover at the end of the book that Vitalstatistix had unknowingly bought the thing years before, and so it had been in the main character's hands ''the entire time''.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'' story ''The Castafiore Emerald'' is the clearest example, as the titular emerald was just 'stolen' by a magpie, but in some ways ''The Calculus Affair'' counts as well (with much more action), as after all their efforts to keep Calculus's inventions out of enemy hands it turns out that the technical details were on a film in his bedside table where nobody had bothered to look.

** Or, it means that Casey is a schizophrenic prone to confabulation, which actually fits very well with the rest of his character
* The Crusader subplot in ''ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative'' was quite compelling - Crusader was a Skrull advance agent who [[BecomingTheMask went native]], and joined together with the heroes of Earth (in human form) to repel other Skrull invaders. At the end of the story, he has saved the day, gets congratulated by Nick Fury himself... and is shot through the head by 3D-Man, who can see disguised Skrulls. 3D-Man simply shrugs his arms and says "[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Skrull]]."
* Most of the tie-ins to ''ComicBook/AgeOfUltron''. A number of books devoted an issue to the crossover, all of which were rendered moot by the ending, which saw ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and Sue Storm slamming the ResetButton and preventing the story from ever occurring. So you had cases like an ''Avengers Assemble'' story that ended with [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]] performing a HeroicSacrifice and Faiza Hussain becoming the new ComicBook/CaptainBritain, only for all these elements to be completely swept aside in the very next issue.
* The ex-mercenary Darca Nyl's arc in the Franchise/StarWarsLegends. In the series where he was introduced, a Dark Jedi killed his son, a dying Jedi handed over his lightsaber and told him to stop Lycan, and all during the pursuit people assumed that he was a Jedi, and they needed his help. And he gave it, even at the cost of pursuit time, and [[GoodFeelsGood it felt good]]. Even after tracking down and killing Lycan, Darca Nyl decides to keep helping people, because it's right and because he thinks that's what his family would have wanted him to do... And ''then'' a more recent comic came out, with an older, bitter, isolationist Darca Nyl who [[HeelFaceDoorSlam failed utterly]] at helping people and retreated to a cabin where he did nothing but carve statues of his wife and son. The "[[DesignatedHero heroes]]" of the comic only got him to help by threatening to shoot all the statues.
** Star Wars comics ''love'' this. OldSoldier Able was a clone trooper who survived alone on a forsaken planet for years before the Rebellion found him and recruited him and put him into a commando squad. He was by far the most practical and cynical man there, which sometimes irritated the other Rebels, but he tried to adapt and look out for the last Jedi, Luke... And then a comic came out where the whole squad got [[TheVirus transformed into rakghouls]] by a Sith talisman.

** There was a lot of build-up to Spider-Man joining the Ultimates once he became a legal adult, [[spoiler: but he ended up getting [[KilledOffForReal killed off before this could happen]]]].
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
** After finding a map leading to Uncle Chuck's greatest treasure in issue 7, the Freedom Fighters set out to find it, thinking it might be a great weapon he created. Robotnik, hearing this, tries to beat them to it. After an issue worth of struggles, Robotnik secures the treasure, which turns out to be [[AllThatGlitters a bronzed pair of Sonic's baby shoes]].
** Geoffrey St. John's life's work: Restoring Ixis Naugus was pointless because-despite having a Chaos Emerald-Naugus couldn't stop any enemies, couldn't heal the sickness the first Genesis Wave gave him in the old timeline and as of 252 was stripped of his powers by the first Genesis Wave in the new timeline. All that work and the guy's failure spans ''two'' histories.
* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' features a three-issue subplot (issues #10-12, year 2) involving Officer Stomponato, a corrupt sentient police dog, gradually tracking down Spider Jerusalem in order to exact revenge, only to have the dog accidentally jump to his death, failing to even attract Spider's attention.
** The main plot of those issues has some of this as well. A cult of people who can't stand to be touched have the frozen head of Spider's ex-wife, and hold it hostage to kill him; said wife intentionally broke their laws before having herself frozen, knowing that since she'd be "dead", they would take their revenge on him instead, and she could be resurrected afterward. Spider points out the obvious: ''they have her head''. He chucks it off a ledge (landing on the dog above), and all is forgiven.
%%* The French author Gotlib has done a lot of these in his ''Rubriques À Brac''.
%%* Basically, most if not all of French author Edika's stories end like that.

* ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' and ''ComicBook/OneMomentInTime'' play this frustratingly straight. In ''One More Day'', Franchise/SpiderMan [[DealWithTheDevil is given the option of getting a redo from Mephisto]], to prevent his Aunt from getting shot. In exchange, Peter has to trade his marriage. Simple enough right? But then, ''One Moment in Time'' revealed that Mephisto changed absolutely nothing by taking Peter and Mary Jane's marriage. History still plays out exactly the same. The only reason that his Aunt comes back to life is that in this new reality, Peter spirited May back to life instead of wasting time making the deal with Mephisto. In other words, May could have come back to life in the original reality if he had just spent more time with her.
* ''Seven Psychopaths'' is the story of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits assembled to assassinate Hitler in the fall of 1941. Little do they know Hitler has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Elser#The_assassination_attempt already been assassinated]]. "Hitler" these days is just a role played by a series of body doubles acting as puppets for the Nazi party. The team actually does manage to wipe out the body doubles, thanks largely to the MasterOfDisguise among them getting himself invited to join them. But the RagtagBunchOfMisfits idea ultimately backfires, as the MasterOfDisguise, who also happens to be a narcissistic GloryHound, decides he can't pass up the chance to become the "most beloved man in Germany", so he kills the only other team member who knew about the body double program and lives out the rest of his days as Hitler. The course of the war remains unaffected.
* Almost every tale by Edward Gorey has elements of this, notably, ''The Headless Bust'' and ''The Unstrung Harp''.
* The ''TabletopGame/BloodBowl'' comic is about Morder, an assassin undercover in the Bad Bay Hackers Blood Bowl team, hired to kill opposing players. Until he gets a contract to kill his ''own'' team's star player, Dunk Hoffnung, and make it look like an in-game accident. His attempts to kill Hoffnung are constantly foiled by the chaos of the game, and the both of them narrowly escape death several times. Eventually Morder doesn't care about the contract anymore and wants to kill Hoffnung out of personal spite. When the Hackers win the championship and Hoffnung is distracted by his amorous fiancee, Morder sees the opportunity to finally finish it -- and is killed by the team's coach, who has decided to "cut" him from the team.
* Matt Fraction's 2011 ''[[ComicBook/TheDefenders Defenders]]'' series ended with Comicbook/DoctorStrange altering the past so that the team never formed in the first place. (They had made a fatal mistake in their very first mission, which would have resolved itself without their help anyway).

* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'': "Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair" starts with Big Macintosh realizing he's out of nails while repairing the gazebo. He tries to go to the hardware store, but there's a festival in town so the streets are packed and lined with vendors, and Mac can go barely two steps without being interrupted. Part 1 ends with [[spoiler:Mac discovering that the hardware store is closed (and the Cutie Mark Crusaders accidentally launched fireworks at it).]] Mac decides to find the owner and ventures back through the town, finding even more obstacles. Finally he finds the owner, who says [[spoiler:he was out of nails so he went to Mac's house and borrowed the nails the Cutie Mark Crusaders had left in their clubhouse while building their firework catapult]]. To top it off, Mac finds when he gets home that [[spoiler:the gazebo was destroyed [[BrickJoke when the Crusaders accidentally launched their fireworks earlier]]]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Sturmtruppen}}'' has them once in a while.
** A particularly sadistic one is the story arc inspired to ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo''. A soldier discovers he can get discharged if he's crazy and attempts to convince the [[DrillSergeantNasty Sergeant]] he's insane, but gets beaten up and called an idiot (with the Sergeant pointing out that being an idiot doesn't count because [[TakeThat idiots are the backbone of the army]]). After a while the Sergeant comes to search for a volunteer to bury some adulterated nitroglycerin (that could explode even more easily than normal), and the soldier ''finally'' gets himself declared crazy (because only a madman would volunteer), but as soon as he asks to be discharged, the Doctor points out the [[TitleDrop catch-22]] on the rulebook that says that a madman who asks to be discharged on insanity is ''not'' insane. Thus the Sergeant forces him to do the job for which he [the soldier] volunteered... but he snaps and ''really'' goes insane due the terror. The last strip has the soldier being dragged into an ambulance bound for the asylum... And the Sergeant bringing him a document that states he's being discharged for insanity.
* In one issue of ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'', Cobra tricks the Joe team into triggering a fault line which causes an island to rise in the Gulf of Mexico. Cobra claims it as their own country almost as soon as it stops rising. While Cobra's lawyers are busy trying to achieve sovereignty for the new island, Hawk orders an assault to remove Cobra from the island and capture Cobra Commander. What happens is a CurbStompBattle in Joe's favor with them easily overwhelming the Cobra forces. But just as they're about to capture Cobra Commander, they get a call from Hawk telling them to pull out. Cobra's lawyers have succeeded in getting the island declared a separate country and they are now trespassing.
* Thanks to the ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' storyline, [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} Eddie Brock's]] StartOfDarkness is this. During ''The Death of Jean [=DeWolf=]'', Eddie had confronted Emil Gregg, who had confessed to being the Sin Eater to him. He wrote the story and had it printed on the Daily Globe. However, when an enraged Spider-Man confronts the Sin Eater, he finds out that it's another man completely. Even more, Emil was revealed as a compulsive liar and Eddie fell for it. This, combined with his cancer and divorce, drove Eddie to suicide and ultimately bonding with the Venom symbiote. Years later, Carnage, Venom's offspring who had been inverted into being a hero, confronts a Sin Eater, finding out that he's the ghost of Emil and that, indeed, he ''was'' the Sin Eater way back when.

** whenever he tries to get a girlfriend, he miserably fails because of the combination between his uglyness and tendency to pick the IdiotBall at the worst possible moment. Most notable are the chapters "The Great Isolda" (where Isolda, an extremely fat girl, apparently falls for him in spite of his butler trying everything in his power to separate them. In the end the butler uses magic to make Isolda thin and beautiful... And she promptly dumps Aldo because now she can have better) and "Come Back Home, Aldo!" (where Aldo [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext falls in love with a female dog and escapes with her]]. The dog calls her master to return home and dumps Aldo);

** The final chapter [[SubvertedTrope Subverts]] it. In it Bedelia, the woman who caused Aldo to get cursed, returns to him, apparently out of love, and he can give her the carillon and finally break the curse... Except that [[spoiler: it's Aldo's memory of her, brought to life by the curse]], so the act doesn't lift the curse. [[spoiler: He then finally finds some dignity and love for himself and lets the memory go, lifting the curse in a completely unexpected way]].
* The ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'' story ''The Castafiore Emerald'' is the clearest example, as the titular emerald was just 'stolen' by a magpie, but in some ways ''The Calculus Affair'' counts as well (with much more action), as after all their efforts to keep Calculus's inventions out of enemy hands it turns out that the technical details were on a film in his bedside table where nobody had bothered to look.
* ''ComicBook/TheAvengersJonathanHickman:'' ComicBook/TheIlluminati discover that universes are colliding together, and try to find some way to save it. They try numerous techniques, but no matter what they do, nothing stops the Incursions, and they fail completely.
** Meanwhile, a team of Avengers travel into the Multiverse to find whoever's responsible and stop them. [[spoiler:They fail, and all of them die, only managing to kill a grand total of two enemies when all is said and done.]]
** And then the ending of ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' has [[spoiler: the ResetButton being hit, meaning that the whole thing never happened]].
* The ''Adventure Time'' spin-off comic ''ComicBook/AdventureTimeCandyCapers'' has Finn and Jake go missing, and Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun being set by Princess Bubblegum to try various methods to replace or find them. At the end of the six issues, we find that Princess Bubblegum sent Finn and Jake to the Vacation Dimension, to see if the kingdom could survive without them.
* The Gallimaufry arc of ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'' sees Buck escaping off-world in a (failed) attempt to dodge his tax service to New Hong Kong. [[spoiler:When the events of the main plot aboard the Gallimaufry leads to Godot saving at least two sentient species, exposing a centuries-old crime and untangling a major inter-species political headache, he asks the SufficientlyAdvancedAliens controlling intergalactic politics to have his tax service undone as a reward. [[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20090618 They deliver]], but unfortunately the tax office of New Hong Kong isn't permitted to accept exuses.]]
* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' has a story about the Dalton Brothers' uncle, Marcel Dalton, trying with Luke's help to redeem his nephews by buying a bank and having them work in it with him. The whole book focuses on Marcel's and Luke's efforts to have the Daltons adapt to this and struggle against the corrupt banker who tries to get rid of them. Of course, StatusQuoIsGod in this series, so just when they are done dealing with said corrupt banker, the Dalton finally snap and decide to turn back to crime, Luke is forced to send them to jail again, and Marcel, realizing his nephew are unredeemable, goes back home after thanking Luke for his help.
* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': ''Recap/AsterixAndTheBlackGold'' revolves around a quest to find petroleum for the Gaulish village, since it's an essential ingredient of their magic potion. Asterix and Obelix fail to bring back even the ''single drop'' necessary, ''and'' so the Romans attack the village at their full vulnerability -- but fortunately Getafix had experimented with the formula while the leads were away and had found that beetroot juice was an ample substitute. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when Asterix tells Getafix to, from now on, do his experiments ''before'' sending them halfway across the world.
* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': If their mission is about searching something, nine times out of ten will be this. For example: one long story is about having to search an envelope hidden in one of the Super's paintings he sold some time ago, which supposedly contains something important. In the end, after a long, grueling mission where they suffer at every turn and the Super punished them for not finding the envelope... it's just a recipe to make fish taste better.
* This is practically a staple of Kelley Puckett's run on ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}''. It seems that the universe is absolutely intent on making sure that Batgirl's attempts to help people are met with soul-crushing failure. Examples include her failed attempt to save Good Samaritan John Robinson, her rescue of a government sniper who had [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]] (which was rendered pointless when he accidentally gave away his location by calling his mother, getting him hunted down by mercenaries), an attempt to stop a boy's father from committing a crime which would send him past the point of no return (she stopped the wrong bank robber, the real father was already past the MoralEventHorizon), and more.
* ''Cartoon Cartoons'', one of several [[ComicBookAdaptation comic book anthologies]] based on Creator/CartoonNetwork shows published by Creator/DCComics back in the day, featured such a story in "Beware the R.O.B.A.A.T.", a ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' story featured in the 12th issue. General Specific tries to capture Sheep by purchasing a giant robot made in his likeness called the R.O.B.A.A.T. from Victor, the spokesman for Oxymoron products. Over the course of the story, General Specific fails to capture Sheep because he keeps finding flaws and weaknesses in the robot that require buying hella expensive upgrades to fix. The top secret military organization ends up having to sell a lot of their stuff to avoid driving themselves into bankruptcy. By the time General Specific has bought all the necessary upgrades for the R.O.B.A.A.T. and successfully captures Sheep while boasting about how Sheep will finally be used in the sheep-powered ray gun, he ends up dropping to his knees crying and letting Sheep go when Private Public informs him that one of the things they had to sell to afford the R.O.B.A.A.T.'s upgrades was the sheep-powered ray gun.
* During TheSeventies, ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' ran a series of back-up stories focused on Lilith Clay as she traveled the country in search of her biological mother. The feature ultimately ended without Lilith ever finding her mom, and instead deciding to abandon her search and stay with the Titans. Her quest to discover her mother's identity would ''finally'' be resolved over 12 years later in ''New Teen Titans'', which revealed that Lilith was the daughter of the Greek goddess Thia.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Melusine}}'', Melusine goes on a quest to find a legendary and powerful ancient scroll. The road is filled with monsters and dangers. After a long and difficult journey, Melusine finally reaches her goal. She casts the spell inscribed on the scroll to learn its mysterious powers. Melusine finds out it's a teleport spell that instantly bring her back home.
* ''ComicBook/LittleMouseGetsReady'': [[TheProtagonist Little Mouse]] is told by his mother that he and his family will be going to the barn that day, so he decides to get his clothes on. [[spoiler:Then his mom tells him that mice don't wear clothes.]]

* Most of the tie-ins to ''Comicbook/AgeOfUltron''. A number of books devoted an issue to the crossover, all of which were rendered moot by the ending, which saw ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and Sue Storm slamming the ResetButton and preventing the story from ever occurring. So you had cases like an ''Avengers Assemble'' story that ended with [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]] performing a HeroicSacrifice and Faiza Hussain becoming the new ComicBook/CaptainBritain, only for all these elements to be completely swept aside in the very next issue.

* ''Comicbook/UltimateSpiderMan #28'': Peter Parker sees the Rhino tearing up Manhattan on the news, and rushes to go fight him. Over the course of the issue, he's [[TitleDrop sidetracked]] by various other problems, including a parent-teacher conference, Flash Thompson being a dick, and Gwen Stacy crying in a dumpster. By the time Spider-Man gets to the scene, Iron Man has already easily subdued the Rhino.

* ''Comicbook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' features a three-issue subplot (issues #10-12, year 2) involving Officer Stomponato, a corrupt sentient police dog, gradually tracking down Spider Jerusalem in order to exact revenge, only to have the dog accidentally jump to his death, failing to even attract Spider's attention.

* ''Comicbook/OneMoreDay'' and ''Comicbook/OneMomentInTime'' play this frustratingly straight. In ''One More Day'', Franchise/SpiderMan [[DealWithTheDevil is given the option of getting a redo from Mephisto]], to prevent his Aunt from getting shot. In exchange, Peter has to trade his marriage. Simple enough right? But then, ''One Moment in Time'' revealed that Mephisto changed absolutely nothing by taking Peter and Mary Jane's marriage. History still plays out exactly the same. The only reason that his Aunt comes back to life is that in this new reality, Peter spirited May back to life instead of wasting time making the deal with Mephisto. In other words, May could have come back to life in the original reality if he had just spent more time with her.

* Matt Fraction's 2011 ''[[Comicbook/TheDefenders Defenders]]'' series ended with Comicbook/DoctorStrange altering the past so that the team never formed in the first place. (They had made a fatal mistake in their very first mission, which would have resolved itself without their help anyway).

* The ''{{Tintin}}'' story ''The Castafiore Emerald'' is the clearest example, as the titular emerald was just 'stolen' by a magpie, but in some ways ''The Calculus Affair'' counts as well (with much more action), as after all their efforts to keep Calculus's inventions out of enemy hands it turns out that the technical details were on a film in his bedside table where nobody had bothered to look.
* ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansAvengers:'' ComicBook/TheIlluminati discover that universes are colliding together, and try to find some way to save it. They try numerous techniques, but no matter what they do, nothing stops the Incursions, and they fail completely.

** And then the ending of ''Comicbook/SecretWars2015'' has [[spoiler: the ResetButton being hit, meaning that the whole thing never happened]].

* During TheSeventies, ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' ran a series of back-up stories focused on Lilith Clay as she traveled the country in search of her biological mother. The feature ultimately ended without Lilith ever finding her mom, and instead deciding to abandon her search and stay with the Titans. Her quest to discover her mother's identity would ''finally'' be resolved over 12 years later in ''New Teen Titans'', which revealed that Lilith was the daughter of the Greek goddess Thia.

* Present all the time in the Italian graphic novel ''Venerdì 12'' (from the same author as ''ComicBook/{{Rat-Man}}''. The protagonist Aldo was transformed in a monster by a curse because he tried to gift a magic carillon to a woman that didn't love him (who actually ''[[KickTheDog dumped him when he tried to give her the carillon]]''. She showed up that day just for that, but still...), and the only ways to lift the curse are to either find a woman who can love him anyway or spill the blood of a virgin:

* ComicBool/{{Deadman}}'s original quest to avenge his own death ends with Deadman possessing the killer's body to try and ''save'' his life from a far-worse villain, the assassin Sensei. Deadman loses badly, his killer is killed by another man, and Sensei gets away just after letting Deadman know he ordered his murder at random, and that he wasn't significant to him or the murderer at all. The whole thing leaves him feeling empty and permanently sours his relationship with the god who made him a ghost.

* ''Comicbook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' #7: After finding a map leading to Uncle Chuck's greatest treasure, the Freedom Fighters set out to find it, thinking it might be a great weapon he created. Robotnik, hearing this, tries to beat them to it. After an issue worth of struggles, Robotnik secures the treasure, which turns out to be [[AllThatGlitters a bronzed pair of Sonic's baby shoes]].

* The French author Gotlib has done a lot of these in his ''Rubriques À Brac''.
* Basically, most if not all of French author Edika's stories end like that.

* In ''Mélusine'', Mélusine goes on a quest to find a legendary and powerful ancient scroll. The road is filled with monsters and dangers. After a long and difficult journey, Mélusine finally reach her goal. She casts the spell inscribed on the scroll to learn its mysterious powers. Mélusine finds out it's a teleport spell that instantly bring her back home.

* Present all the time in the Italian graphic novel ''Venerdì 12'' (from the same author as ''ComicBook/{{Rat-Man}}''. The protagonist Also was transformed in a monster by a curse because he tried to gift a magic carillon to a woman that didn't love him (who actually ''[[KickTheDog dumped him when he tried to give her the carillon]]''. She showed up that day just for that, but still...), and the only ways to lift the curse are to either find a woman who can love him anyway or spill the blood of a virgin:

** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when Asterix tells Getafix to, from now on, do his experiments ''before'' sending them halfway across the world.

* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': If their mission is about searching something, 9 times out of ten will be this. For example: one long story is about having to search an envelope hidden in one of the Super's paintings he sold some time ago, which supposedly contains something important. In the end, after a long, grueling mission where they suffer at every turn and the Super punished them for not finding the envelope... it's just a recipe to make fish taste better.

* ''[[Comicbook/{{Asterix}} Asterix and the Black Gold]]'' revolves around a quest to find petroleum for the Gaulish village, since it's an essential ingredient of their magic potion. Asterix and Obelix fail to bring back even the ''single drop'' necessary, ''and'' so the Romans attack the village at their full vulnerability - but fortunately Getafix had experimented with the formula while the leads were away and had found that beetroot juice was an ample substitute.

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' has a story about the Dalton Brothers' uncle, Marcel Dalton, trying with Luke's help to redeem his nephews by buying a bank and having them work in it with him. The whole book focuses on Marcel’s and Luke’s efforts to have the Daltons adapt to this and struggle against the corrupt banker who tries to get rid of them. Of course, StatusQuoIsGod in this series, so just when they are done dealing with said corrupt banker, the Dalton finally snap and decide to turn back to crime, Luke is forced to send them to jail again, and Marcel, realizing his nephew are unredeemable, goes back home after thanking Luke for his help.

* The ex-mercenary Darca Nyl's arc in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse. In the series where he was introduced, a Dark Jedi killed his son, a dying Jedi handed over his lightsaber and told him to stop Lycan, and all during the pursuit people assumed that he was a Jedi, and they needed his help. And he gave it, even at the cost of pursuit time, and [[GoodFeelsGood it felt good]]. Even after tracking down and killing Lycan, Darca Nyl decides to keep helping people, because it's right and because he thinks that's what his family would have wanted him to do... And ''then'' a more recent comic came out, with an older, bitter, isolationist Darca Nyl who [[HeelFaceDoorSlam failed utterly]] at helping people and retreated to a cabin where he did nothing but carve statues of his wife and son. The "[[DesignatedHero heroes]]" of the comic only got him to help by threatening to shoot all the statues.

* The ''{{Tintin}}'' story ''The Castafiore Emerald'' is the clearest example, but in some ways ''The Calculus Affair'' counts as well (with much more action).

* The ex-mercenary Darca Nyl's arc in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse. In the series where he was introduced, a Dark Jedi killed his son, a dying Jedi handed over his lightsaber and told him to stop Lycan, and all during the pursuit people assumed that he was a Jedi, and they needed his help. And he gave it, even at the cost of pursuit time, and [[GoodFeelsGood it felt good]]. Even after tracking down and killing Lycan, Darca Nyl [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming decides to keep helping people]], because it's right and because he thinks that's what his family would have wanted him to do... And ''then'' a more recent comic came out, with an older, bitter, isolationist Darca Nyl who [[HeelFaceDoorSlam failed utterly]] at helping people and retreated to a cabin where he did nothing but carve statues of his wife and son. The "[[DesignatedHero heroes]]" of the comic only got him to help by threatening to shoot all the statues.

* ''ComicBook/TheNew52FuturesEnd'' became infamous for this. It's forty-nine issues dedicated to the premise: [[Comicbook/BatmanBeyond Terry McGinnis]] goes back in time to prevent a BadFuture where Brother Eye creates a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot cyborg zombie]] [[ZombieApocalypse apocalypse]]. Aside from the fact that many of its subplots have little or nothing to do with that story and/or go nowhere, the series ends with...''not'' stopping the cyborg zombie apocalypse[[note]]It's technically a ''slightly better'' cyborg zombie apocalypse, as there are a few more survivors, but still[[/note]], and all of those mostly-pointless subplots having been {{Ret Gone}}d and thus rendered ''completely'' pointless. Hope that was worth the nearly $100 that you spent reading this event!

* In ''Mélusine'', Mélusine goes on a quest to find a legendary and powerful ancient scroll. The road is filled with monsters and dangers. After a long and difficult journey, Mélusine finally reach her goal. She casts the spell inscribed on the scroll to learn its mysterious powers. Mélusine finds out it's a teleport spell that instantly brought her back home.

* In ''Mélusine'', Mélusine goes on a quest to find a legendary and powerful ancient scroll in the black mountains. The road is filled with monsters and dangers. After a long and difficult journey, Mélusine finally reaches her goal. She casts the spell inscribed on the scroll to learn its mysterious powers. Mélusine finds out it's a teleport spell that instantly brings her back home.

* In one issue of ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'', Cobra tricks the Joe team into triggering a fault line which causes an island to rise in the Gulf of Mexico. Cobra claims it as their own country almost as soon as it stops rising. While Cobra's lawyers are busy trying to achieve sovereignty for the new island, Hawk orders an assault to remove Cobra from the island and capture Cobra Commander. What happens is a CurbStompBattle in Joe's favor with them easily overwhelming the Cobra forces. But just as they're about to capture Cobra Commander, they get a call from Hawk telling them to pull out. Cobra's lawyers have succeeded in getting the island declared a separate country and they are now trespassing.

* ''Cartoon Cartoons'', one of several [[ComicBookAdaptation comic book anthologies]] based on Creator/CartoonNetwork shows published by Creator/DCComics back in the day, featured such a story in "Beware the R.O.B.A.A.T.", a ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' story featured in the 12th issue. General Specific tries to capture Sheep by purchasing a giant robot made in his likeness called the R.O.B.A.A.T. from Victor, the spokesman for Oxymoron products. Over the course of the story, General Specific fails to capture Sheep because he keeps finding flaws and weaknesses in the robot that require buying hella expensive upgrades to fix. The top secret military ends up having to sell a lot of their stuff to avoid driving themselves into bankruptcy. By the time General Specific has bought all the necessary upgrades for the R.O.B.A.A.T. and successfully captures Sheep while boasting about how Sheep will finally be used in the sheep-powered ray gun, he ends up dropping to his knees crying and letting Sheep go when Private Public informs him that one of the things they had to sell to afford the R.O.B.A.A.T.'s upgrades was the sheep-powered ray gun.

* In one issue of ''GIJoeARealAmericanHero'', Cobra tricks the Joe team into triggering a fault line which causes an island to rise in the Gulf of Mexico. Cobra claims it as their own country almost as soon as it stops rising. While Cobra's lawyers are busy trying to achieve sovereignty for the new island, Hawk orders an assault to remove Cobra from the island and capture Cobra Commander. What happens is a CurbStompBattle in Joe's favor with them easily overwhelming the Cobra forces. But just as they're about to capture Cobra Commander, they get a call from Hawk telling them to pull out. Cobra's lawyers have succeeded in getting the island declared a separate country and they are now trespassing.