Darkest Hours in comic books.
- Among other incidents, unprecedented amounts of crap hit the fan at the end of chapter 100 of Ultimate Spider-Man - right in the middle of the Ultimate Clone Saga. To whit: Peter has already found at least one violently insane clone of himself and has tangled with a mysterious Spider Woman; Mary Jane has been kidnapped by another warped and insane clone of Peter who intends to transform her to make her "just like him" (and as of the last page of the chapter has apparently succeeded); Nick Fury has shown up outside Peter's house to arrest him with an army of "Spider Slayers"; Gwen Stacy has mysteriously returned from the dead, but panics and transforms into Carnage (the monster that killed her in the first place) when Fury shows up; Peter was forced to tell Aunt May his secret when she discovered him with Gwen, driving her lash out at him for lying to her all along and telling him she doesn't want to have anything more to do with him, before the repeated shocks (Gwen transforming into Carnage being the straw that broke the camel's back) cause her to have a heart attack; and Peter's supposedly long-dead father Richard Parker has apparently shown up, with Peter shocked to realize that May had known about him for a while and had kept Richard's return a secret. That's a LOT of crap to be going down at once and it still has to get worse before it gets any better.
- Final Crisis for the entire DCU, especially in #5. "I. AM. THE. NEW. GOD." It takes the impending end of existence, facing Darkseid at the height of his power and with no other options left for Batman to finally use a gun.
- Blackest Night followed immediately. And Infinite Crisis happened just a couple years ago too. It was a pretty rough few years for the DCU.
- The original Crisis on Infinite Earths was this for the entire DC Multiverse, and it ended with only one universe left, a completely rebooted version of the main DCU.
- Doomsday Clock was a doozy, resulting from Dr. Manhattan deciding to Make Wrong What Once Went Right (and boy, did he). The supervillain community is terrified of the encroaching metahuman war, most of Green Lantern's Rogues Gallery is mentioned to have fled the planet, Wonder Woman is rumored to have been taken back to Themyscira which is especially unsettling because her series made it clear that she can't return there, the Suicide Squad failed a mission in Kahndaq with only Boomerang escaping, and the Issue #5 had an angry mob attacking Batman to the point the Joker could capture him. The only light left seems to be Superman who is so beloved that he's seen as the one exception to the Superman Theory and is allowed to work across the globe with no worries. The real Darkest Hour begins in issue 8, when Poor Communication Kills leads to tensions over the Superman Theory blowing up and Adrian Veidt causing an explosion that consumes Superman, Batman, most of Russia’s superheroes, and a ton of innocent people. And then in Issue #9, as things begin to completely fall apart and Superman is left in intensive care, Earth’s heroes learn Dr. Manhattan’s location and confront him... only to get brutally curb-stomped, while back on Earth, Black Adam takes advantage of their absence to attack the UN. Issue #11 reveals that everything that had happened to Superman and Dr. Manhattan since Issue #8 had been engineered by Ozymandias as part of his plan to Save Both Worlds.
- Dark Reign for the Marvel Universe.
- Jesse falling out of an airplane and being left for dead in Preacher.
- The nuke exploding, severely weakening Superman, and Gotham rioting in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
- Captain Marvel destroying the Gulag and freeing the prisoners in Kingdom Come.
- The heroes pondering how to handle a Beyonder-powered Doctor Doom in Secret Wars (1984).
- Nite-Owl and Rorschach discovering Ozymandias' scheme as the world stands on the brink of war in Watchmen.
- Ragnarok happening in The Mighty Thor, led by Loki with Thor's hammer being destroyed.
- ElfQuest:
- In the "Kings of the Broken Wheel" arc, Cutter watches helplessly as Rayek abducts Leetah, Skywise, Suntop and Ember 10,000 years into the future.
- When Leetah and the rest arrive in the future and Ekuar tells them how long it's been, there's every reason to believe the Wolfriders of their time are dead. Then Leetah is captured by humans.
- Comics based on Sonic the Hedgehog tend to have the titular hero and his allies reach this point on occasion.
- Sonic the Hedgehog comics have had a few points over the years that qualify:
- The climax of the Endgame arc: Princess Sally is seemingly dead, Sonic's been framed for it and is a fugitive, and Robotnik is posed to destroy Knothole Village and the Freedom Fighters for good.
- The destruction of Knothole in Issue #175, which includes the first time Eggman's ever managed to outright defeat Sonic in a fight.
- About midway through the Iron Dominion Saga, the Iron Queen hacks NICOLE, allowing the Dominion forces to seize control of New Mobotropolis and send the Freedom Fighters running.
- In the aftermath of the Genesis arc, not only has Eggman succeeded in roboticizing Sally and nearly killing Antoine, but rival villain Ixis Naugus has successfully manipulated the fear of the citizens of New Mobotropolis following the Iron Dominion occupation and subsequent events, allowing him to install himself as King.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) has two instances of this during the last two arcs in the Metal Virus Saga.
- Sonic and co. hit their lowest point in "The Last Minute". No matter what they do, the entire world, sans Angel Island, is overrun by Eggman's zombifying Metal Virus plague. Most of Sonic's allies become Zombots, his remaining friends are driven over the Despair Event Horizon, and his speed starts losing its ability to counteract his own infection. To say nothing of what the villains are getting at all the while.
- The first half of Issue #29 also counts. Only Sonic and seven of his friends, along with Eggman and Metal Sonic, remain to oppose rival villain Zavok and Sonic's Zombot-ified allies. There is nowhere left to run or hide, and Sonic, whose speed is now totally useless against his Metal Virus infection, has only a few minutes left before he himself becomes a Zombot. The ensuing Last Stand cuts things so freaking close that, for a while, it genuinely looks as if the heroes are doomed to fail—and eventually, die.note Only at the last possible second is Sonic cured when he and Silver go super...by which point they are the only heroes left on the entire planet.
- Sonic the Hedgehog comics have had a few points over the years that qualify:
- The second issue of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) ends with the Mane Six parting ways and continuing their journey separately.
- Issue #15 ends with all the ponies being consumed by a white void. #16 opens with the ponies questioning whether they've died.
- Halfway through Knightfall Bane heads for Gotham City with the broken Batman and launches him into the ground below, crowds of people in total shock (except for one sleezehead who just sneers at him).
- In White Sand, this comes for Kenton after he's successfully crossed the entire desert after a rumour of more Sand Masters having survived, only to reach the diem and find it completely and utterly empty. Realizing that the Kerztians have succeeded, Kenton - a Determinator par excellence - curles up under the wall and actually gives up. Thankfully, it then turns out that some Sand Masters did, in fact, make it.
- The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck has "The Empire Builder of Calisota", which shows the one time in Scrooge's life that he made money unethically - by hiring thugs to destroy an African tribe's village and force them off their land. This began a downward spiral for Scrooge, where he lost interest in absolutely everything except making money, and ended with him cut off from his family for decades.
- Berrybrook Middle School: Every story has a point, usually it being the third act, in which things are at their absolute worst. In order:
- After their constant fighting against one another escalates beyond anything acceptable (and seemingly crushes Peppi and Jaime's friendship in the process), the principal suspends both clubs from attending the festival, also ensuring that Mari's desperate plan to win was All for Nothing. For a while, the two disbanded clubs despise each other even more. Only by uniting again through Peppi and Jaime's help do things get better.
- After being rendered ill from depression (actually the flu, but what a coincidence) for about a week, Jensen comes back to see his friends have a falling-out over Felicity's suspension and whether to publish it or not. For that matter, the whole student body is wondering whether they can save Felicity or not. Jensen makes it right by triggering a "Eureka!" Moment for Akilah.
- An even worse one happens for Jorge. He's framed (unintentionally) by Garrett who used his profile while in a chat with James and company that had tons of hurtful words in it. It results in the whole school despising him and his friendship with Garrett falling to pieces while James laughs it up. The only silver lining is that Jazmine still believes in him.
- X-Men: The Krakoan Age has the Fall of X era: Orchis, after years of meticulous planning, invade Krakoa and defeat the mutants there in such a way the Xavier is forced into a Sadistic Choice, forcing most of the mutant populace through the Krakoan portals to off-Earth, not realizing the portals were tampered with and they're scattered. Xavier and other telepaths can't find each other and the remaining mutants have gone underground to fight off the fascist organization that has taken over.
