Countdown to Infinite Crisis: The Ted Kord Blue Beetle, who'd undergone Flanderization to the point he was a Flat Character and then barely seen for a few years, is suddenly brought back in a story that highlights his positive character traits and strengths as a hero, specifically to make his death at the end actually mean something (as opposed to the characters who were C-List Fodder for the upcoming Crisis Crossover event).
Teen Titans #62: Wendy and Marvin, teen geniuses who came on during the One Year Later plotline to repair Cyborg and maintain the Titans Tower gear, generally treated like background characters until needed for hostages. In this issue, they discuss their dissatisfaction with their minor roles, adopt a dog, and are repeatedly assured by other characters that they're vital to the team's functioning. Then the dog turns into a monster that mauls Marvin to death and puts Wendy in a coma when none of the heroes are looking.
Stephanie Brown, whose death was later retconned to have been faked, suddenly got a lot more panel time and was briefly Robin—even becoming the title character of Robin where she was usually the deuteragonist—before being unceremoniously tortured to death by Black Mask in Batman: War Games so that Batman could feel remorseful about his Jerkass attempt to use her to manipulate Tim back into the role of Robin.
The Invisibles features an issue dedicated to the life, good and bad, of one of the nameless henchmen gunned down by the heroes in a previous issue.
Marvel UK’s Warheads plays this straight with Perez. Although he’s one of the core cast, he gets no focus and very little dialogue. The tenth issue of the series gives him a relationship reveal, mentions that he’s got a secret plan and then promptly kills him.
Inverted in Captain America during Ed Brubaker's run, where Jack Monroe, also known as Nomad, is brought back early on to get killed by the Winter Soldier, and then a few issues later a spotlight issue reveals what he was doing in his final days before his death.
Vibe's death issue during the Legends crossover. Even though the character was absolutely hated by fans, many feel that the depth he gained in that issue managed to make his death genuinely moving and tragic.
Spider-Man: Hunted, the 2019 story event from The Amazing Spider-Man (2018), has Hunted #18.HU which spotlights minor villain Gibbon who dies at the end of his issue cradled by Spider-Man, with the issue recounting his tragic history across the Marvel Universe and his ignominious death.
The Transformers (IDW): The Spotlight series focuses on a different character in each issue and of these, the Doubledealer and Ramjet issues end with the deaths of the titular characters. Neither of them really had any focus before their issues either, with Doubledealer only making his debut a few issues before in "Spotlight: Hot Rod".
