Face Death With Dignity / Comic Books

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• 100 Bullets: As Remi corners Joan D'Arcy near a bathroom, she is frightened but is resigned to what's coming and doesn't want to die cowering on a toilet. Unusually for this trope, she survives when her last bodyguard sacrifices himself to set off an explosion which maims Remi.
• Asterix:
  • Parodied in Asterix and Cleopatra; when Cleopatra thinks that the Gauls are trying to kill her, she launches into a grand speech on how a queen faces death with dignity, and Asterix has to interrupt her to explain himself.
  • A similar incident happens in Asterix and the Belgians when the heroes corner Julius Caesar, who assumes his most regal expression and informs them that he intends to sell his distinguished life dearly.
• Batman:
  • In Gotham Underground, the Penguin finds himself on the losing side of a war against Intergang, with his government contact dead, his dragon having deserted him, and all his Mooks scared off. He's got the chance to flee the city, but instead becomes a Badass in a Nice Suit, readies his best umbrella, dismisses his employees with generous severance packages, and wills the Iceberg Lounge to the Riddler before settling down with a bottle of wine and the ol' tommygun umbrella to await his killers. The Bat crew save him, but it's still classy.
  • In Detective Comics Issue #64 ("The Joker Walks the Last Mile"), after turning himself in, confessing to a long list of crimes and getting the death sentence, the Joker walks to his execution, confident that he will make a fresh start once he pays the ultimate penalty with his life, and once his mooks follow through on his plan and bring him Back from the Dead.
  • The Elseworlds series Superman & Batman: Generations manages to put an even more tragic spin on the deaths of Bruce Wayne's parents in Generations II by establishing that Superman's adoptive father Jonathan Kent saw their murders happen on the Chronoscope and attempted to warn them, only for Thomas and Martha Wayne to do nothing and willingly let their deaths happen because of the knowledge that their demises would result in their son growing up to become Batman and feeling their lives were a necessary price to pay for Gotham City to receive its most celebrated crime-fighter.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths: With an antimatter wave coming to destroy Earth-Three, and realising that his universe is doomed and nothing can stop it, Ultraman calmly declares "I fight to the very end!" and flies directly into the wave, instantly ceasing to exist.
• Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: The story "Truce Or Consequences" (Hanna-Barbera Fun-In #10, January 1972), had Yankee Doodle Pigeon being lured to the enemy's side during a 24-hour truce, where he's hypnotized and cajoled into posing for photos depicting him as a traitor. With thirty seconds left in the truce and finding himself AWOL, Yankee Doodle consigns himself to the ultimate journey. Suddenly subverted when his last words — "ABOUT FACE!" — cause Muttley to turn the cannon aimed at him towards Dastardly.
• Final Crisis: Tawky Tawny is completely exhausted after kicking Kalibak's ass. When Tawny sees Kalibak's tiger warriors surrounding him, he calmly states that he wishes he could have met them under better circumstances, straightens his bowtie, and shuts his eyes telling them to do their worst. Seconds later, when he realizes he isn't dead yet, he opens his eyes and sees the tiger warriors bowing down to him since they now consider him to be their leader.
• Green Lantern: In the Lights Out series, Relic drains and destroys the Blue Centeral Power Battery. Brother Warth and the other Blue Lanterns use what's left of their rings' energy to help save Saint Walker and several other heroes. After this they sit down to meditate, with Warth stating their Catchphrase, "All will be well."
• The Infinity Gauntlet: Thanos has slaughtered countless beings — including many Marvel heroes. Captain America has just seen a number die with his own eyes and all were more powerful than he is. Cap knows he can't win, but rather than run, he walks right up to Thanos' face and looks him in the eye.
  Captain America: As long as one man stands against you, you'll never claim victory.
  Thanos: Noble sentiments from one who is about to die.
  Captain America: I've lived my life by those words. They're well worth dying for.
• Iron Man: In Iron Man (1968) #250, due to time travel, Doctor Doom comes face to face with his future self, and he's not remotely impressed. Future Doom tries killing his past self with tech meant to dispose of his treacherous underling, and it fails, giving Doom even more reason to hate his future self (not just the disappointment, but the sheer failure). Knowing this was going to happen, because he did it himself, Future Doom calmly accepts his disintegration.
• Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Probably the only non-Asshole Victim of Johnny (Edgar Vargas) dies like this, which confuses Johnny. When asked, Edgar explains that, despite the fact that he has nothing left, he will always have faith, saying that he will go to heaven and Johnny will go to hell, so he has nothing to fear.
  Edgar Vargas: I would rather not die, but I don't seem to have much say in the matter. But, I'm also not like you; I'm not clouded. I have no family, no friends, really; nothing. But I DO have faith; you know, God and all that. A Heaven for me and a Hell for you. So fuck fear. I have nothing to fear.
  * beat*
  Johnny: I envy your conviction.
• Raptors: The old man who becomes Drago's first victim is very cordial towards his executioner, and they have a pleasant conversation beforehand. He even gives Drago his only picture of Drago's late mother, who he used to be in love with before she chose Drago's father.
• Shakara: Dr. Procopio calmly accepts her execution at the hands of Shakara for her complicity in their genocide by engineering the virus that destroyed them.
• Sin City:
  • When Marv learns that the guy he's going up against is Cardinal Roark, he realizes that it's going to kill him, whether he takes down Roark or not. He decides to press on: "Hell, dying will be nothing. I'll die laughing if I know I've done this one thing right." And so he does.
  • Also Hartigan's decision in That Yellow Bastard to kill himself to protect Nancy from Senator Roark's wrath.
    Hartigan: An old man dies. A young woman lives. Fair trade. -BOOM-
  • While it's difficult to talk about dignity in respect to an Ax-Crazy cannibal, Kevin meets his horrible end with commendable stoicism and a smile.
  • The woman in the short story "The Customer Is Always Right". Though not mentioned in the story itself, she breaks off a relationship with a gangster, who vows vengeance. Knowing she would die regardless, she hires "The Salesman" to give her a Mercy Kill.
• Star Wars: Darth Vader: The comic provides a master-class example in the form of the death scene of Inspector Thanoth, who goes to Darth Vader personally to tell him information Vader needs to know and would immediately kill him after due to He Knows Too Much, rather than waste his time and resources with a manhunt that could be better served "rescuing the Empire from itself". Right before telling him said information, he graciously states It Has Been an Honor, and braces himself for the end. This man knows how to face death with class. Vader, for his part, ends his life quickly with his lightsaber rather than his usual execution method.
• Superman:
  • Superman's usual reaction to be told he is dying in storylines like The Last Days of Superman, All-Star Superman or The Final Days of Superman is "I have no time to waste crying. I have many things left to do, and very little time left to do them".
  • The Leper from Krypton: When Superman guesses his death is inevitable, he does not weep, get mad or suffer a breakdown. Instead, he very calmly builds a rocketship which will take to a star where he has chosen to be cremated, says goodbye to Earth, asking them to not cry over him or build any monuments, and steps into the rocket, hoping that Supergirl can successfully take over him.
  • As Supergirl is dying in Crisis on Infinite Earths, she asks her cousin to not cry, and she tries smile despite the bleeding hole in her belly. Later it would be revealed she knew she would die if she fought the Anti-Monitor, but she went and battled anyway.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • The Ultimates: Mostly averted by the Liberators. They generally react with panic and bargaining when their life is on the line. The sole exception is the Colonel who only pleads for Steve to at least understand why they did it and not make a joke out of his defeat.
  • Ultimate X Men: When Nick Fury thought that Wolverine was about to kill him, during the Gulf War, he accepted his fate. He only requested him not to disfigure his face, so identifying the corpse was a bit less traumatic for his old mom.
• Wanted: Doll-Master is calm and accepting of his impending death when Mr. Rictus and his men come for him during their elimination of the American Fraternity chapter. All he asks of them is that they leave his face intact for when his wife and children find him. When they reveal that they already killed his family beforehand, Doll-Master unleashes his dolls in retaliation.

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