Happy Ending Overrides in Comic Books.
- Age of Apocalypse. Inverted then played straight. The original event ended with most of the characters dead or about to be destroyed by a nuclear strike against the US, having sacrificed their own reality in the hope of restoring the main Marvel universe. Then a sequel came out in which people pick up the rubble and try to rebuild the world and their lives. Later in 2012, Uncanny X-Force had an arc in which they went to visit that same world and it was more horrifying than ever, with Apocalypse being replaced by something far worse and most of the dimension's X-Men being killed.
- Even Archie Comics becomes guilty with this. The hypothetical Archie Marries Betty/Veronica storylines give a Happily Ever After (and Babies Ever After to the focal couple) to all the characters in both timelines. Life With Archie: The Married Life expands their first few years as newlywed couples and turns the stories into full-blown soap opera (complete with Drama Bombs) before finally ending with The Hero Dies.
- In the waning days of the New 52 Aquaman series, writer Dan Abnett was brought in to write the final four issues, which ends on an optimistic note, with Aquaman seemingly finally managing to balance his responsibilities as a superhero and king, establishing formal diplomatic relations with the surface world, and with him and Mera as the undisputed and beloved King and Queen of Atlantis. Then he was allowed to continue the series in DC Rebirth (intended to be Lighter and Softer), where the very first story arc ends with the embassy destroyed by Black Manta, Arthur more feared by surface authorities than ever and with dissident groups resurgent in Atlantis.
- The Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels quickly establish that saving the world involves more than just beating the Fire Lord, with a lot of messes and problems to deal with in the aftermath of a large-scale global war. This includes everything from how to deal with the various colonies, handling any groups within the Fire Nation that are still loyal to the previous Fire Lord, and preventing new wars from breaking out. Not even the character's personal relationships are safe, with Mai and Zuko breaking up almost immediately, despite their heartwarming reunion in the show's finale.
- The The Legend of Korra graphic novels continue this trend, though it's somewhat downplayed by the show's finale making it clear that Korra and Asami going on a date in the Spirit World is simply a short vacation before devoting themselves to rebuilding Republic City. When they return, they immediately have to deal with a refugee crisis and a new Big Bad swiftly going from a Badass Normal gangster to Humanoid Abomination that can command spirits like Unalaq all over again.
- Batman: Year One saw Jim Gordon's son and him trying to work things out with Barbara after his affair with Sarah Essen. Later stories saw that Gordon's marriage with Barbara fell apart, his second marriage ended when the Joker did a Coup de Grâce on Sarah in the penultimate issue of Batman: No Man's Land, and Jim Jr. became a sociopath.
- Black Panther: Christopher Priest's Black Panther (1998) run ended with Kasper Cole becoming the new White Tiger and choosing to stay with Gwen so they could raise their baby together. When Kasper appeared in World of Wakanda years later, it was revealed that Gwen had dumped him and taken the baby with her. Worse still, work commitments and financial difficulties had killed his career as White Tiger before it ever really took off.
- Crisis on Infinite Earths ended with a Bittersweet Ending for Golden Age Superman, Lois Lane, Earth-3's Alex Luthor and Superboy Prime, who after their Earths are destroyed go to an interdimensional heaven where they could spend the rest of their days. Come Infinite Crisis, it turns out Lois is dying, sending Kal-L over the Despair Event Horizon, and Alex and Superboy have gone mad from watching the last twenty years of DC history, and made a Face–Heel Turn.
- The original Crisis on Infinite Earths acted as an override to the happy marriages of both versions of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor who starred in Wonder Woman (vol 1), with their Earth-Two daughter who survived the worlds being erased/merged into "New Earth" going mad from her memories of her parents who have been erased from history and existence. This override was enforced in Wonder Woman (vol 2) by the fact the Steve Trevor of "New Earth" is much older than Diana, never has a romance with her and gets married to the new version of Etta Candy instead thereby ensuring their happy ending will not carry over into the new universe made up of the ones in which they had long standing happy romantic relationships.
- One could argue that, as arguably one of the most thoroughgoing cases of Shoot the Shaggy Dog in all fiction, the original Crisis is this for pretty much every happy ending DC comics had ever shown up to that point, as every universe and their respective histories get violently erased from existence or changed almost beyond recognition. Mercifully, after multiple newer Cosmic Retcons, the original DC multiverse appears to have finally been restored.
- In Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time, which takes place after the events of animated series' final episode where Danny's life is finally going great as a world-renowned hero with a public identity. The events of the comic see the return of Dark Danny, whose actions as a result of merging with Clockwork slowly destabilize the timeline, and while he is defeated, the time-space continuum is such a mess by that point that Clockwork has no choice but to do a Cosmic Retcon. He places Danny and a number of other characters in a new timeline where, among other things, Danny and Vlad still have their secret identities and the former is once again a Hero with Bad Publicity due to everyone's only recollection being that ghosts were the cause of the most recent world-ending event.
- At the end of The Dark Crystal, the Crystal was restored, the Skeksis were defeated, harmony returned to the world of Thra, and Kira and Jen lived Happily Ever After, right? Not according to Power of the Dark Crystal! A hundred trine later, Thra is a wasteland, Kira and Jen are figurehead leaders to a religion that keeps this knowledge from them, and also oppresses the Podlings and other Gelflings, and then a visitor from beneath the planet's surface, seeking help, causes the Crystal to shatter, bringing back the Skeksis.
- The final issue of Warren Ellis' run on Doom 2099 saw Doom about to realize his goal of creating a utopia by releasing thought-controlled Nanomachines that would give people whatever they wanted for free. The first three words in the next issue are "it didn't work".
- The Fly: Outbreak: While The Fly II ended on a relatively upbeat tone with Martin restoring his human body and inflicting a karmic punishment upon the Corrupt Corporate Executive who has controlled him all his life, the comicbook sequel throws a wrench into this with the reveal that Martin's genes are still not stable and more people get infected and turned into Fly-hybrids because of him.
- Fray overrides the ending of the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which saw the mass empowerment of Slayers across the world; by Mel's time, it's back to one per generation.
- The Grendel "War Child" arc ended with Jupiter Assante becoming Khan and seemingly likely to rule relatively justly, even if authoritarianly and in a world with a Might Makes Right attitude. The next work in the sequence, the prose novel Past Prime, reveals that Jupiter was murdered by his own wife on his wedding night and that his empire has collapsed into a feudal quasi-anarchy plagued by self-servingly violent Grendel clans and wandering psychos.
- The original Hack/Slash series ended with protagonist Cassie Hack moving on with her life, putting an end to her Serial-Killer Killer activities and getting together with her Love Interest Georgia to build a new life as a "normal" person. Comes the sequel Son of Samhain, she ends up breaking up with Georgia because "normal" life just wasn't interesting enough for her, and gets back to hunting monsters.
- In Legion of Super-Heroes v4, the Legion had been able to defeat the Dominators that ruled over the galaxy, liberate Earth, and set about fixing the damage done to their home (adopted or actual) with one of the Legionnaires becoming President of Earth in the intern. Then, it turns out that one person's stunt in trying to get rid of the Dominators has irrevocably poisoned the Earth and it's going to suffer an Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
- Spider-Man:
- The conclusion of The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) in 2021 finally resolved all of the plot threads of the The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott) that followed in the wake of controversial storylines such as Sins Past and One More Day, Gwen Stacy's memory and legacy was purified, a combined effort from all of Spider-Man's enemies at once could not break Peter physically or mentally, Peter's arch enemy Norman Osborn was cured of all sins, and his and his son Harry's true origins were revealed, and Mephisto's attempt to prevent his downfall at the hands of Peter's daughter in the future appeared to amount to nothing as Peter and Mary Jane finally reconciled. Ben Reilly, earlier on in the crossover event Spider-Geddon, was also 'reset' and freed from his own dark side. When Zeb Wells took over and the series was relaunched as The Amazing Spider-Man (2022), Peter was reduced to a penniless loser who Mary Jane and most of New York's heroes won't even speak to, Mary Jane herself moved on to a new man and is mother to two children, and Ben Reilly went through another series of unfortunate events that left him fractured and resentful of Peter Parker. For fans of the Audience-Alienating Era, Harry Osborn's revival and redemption arc actually got an override in Spencer's run as it was revealed he wasn't the original Harry but a clone created by an artificial intelligence unit controlled by Mephisto and that the real Harry's soul had been in hell the entire time following his iconic death in Spectacular Spider-Man#200. While Spencer's run ends with Harry's soul freed from his hellish bonds, those who supported the clone come away from his run with an understandably less appreciative attitude towards it.
- The Toxin mini-series ended with Patrick Mulligan finally coming to terms with being a symbiote-wearing superhero, coming back to his wife after leaving her behind to protect her for the entire series and telling her the truth about him. Then the writers had Patrick killed offscreen by Blackheart so they could give his symbiote to Eddie Brock and make a new opponent for Flash Thompson as Agent Venom.
- How about this for a great deal of Peter Parker's friends and supporting cast in the Spider-Girl timeline. Jessica Drew's happy marriage is shattered by the revelation her son has mutant powers, Liz Allan Osborn finds happiness with Foggy Nelson but can do nothing to prevent her son Normie from succumbing to the same insanity that befell his own father and dies of a short illness, which only worsens Normie's situation. Flash Thompson and Felicia Hardy reconciled at one point, married, and had children, but eventually drift apart with Felicia finding companionship with another woman and fracturing their family, Flash doesn't take much care of himself and is an overweight P.E teacher. It seems Peter and MJ, as well as their children, are the only characters in the saga to be content and happy, a stark contrast to how it normally is for 616 Peter, whose friends are usually the ones more well off than he is whenever he isn't with Mary Jane.
- Star Trek: Untold Voyages: In "Past Imperfect", the Enterprise learns that the vaccine that Dr. McCoy created for the virus that was killing the Onlies in "Miri" mutated into a new, more virulent strain. Miri was among the many Onlies to die as a result. Enraged and distraught by her death, Jahn seeks revenge on McCoy and kidnaps his daughter Joanna. He brings her back to his planet so that she will die from the virus and McCoy will learn what it is like to lose someone. However, McCoy is able to develop a new and more effective vaccine that permanently eliminates the virus.
- The original Marvel Comics run of The Transformers ended on a happy note where Cybertron was restored by the power of the Matrix and the Last Autobot, the Autobots were finally able to live peacefully now that their eons-long war with the Decepticons had ended and the surviving Decepticons were forced into exile. IDW Publishing's The Transformers: Regeneration One, a continuation of the Marvel Comics continuity which disregards the stories exclusive to the UK version of the Marvel comic as well as the Generation 2 comics, started with Cybertron's fate endangered again by the destruction of the Last Autobot, Megatron laying waste to Earth after being accidentally revived by humans and the Autobots' human ally Spike Witwicky now hating the Autobots for their failure to prevent Megatron from ruining the Earth and killing his family.
- The first half of IDW's 2005 Transformers comic continuity ended with a Distant Finale issue where the war against the Decepticons has long since ended and the Autobots rule a peace filled Cybertron. When the comic spun off into two new books set during the post war, the previous ending was completely ignored as the Autobots became hated and Cybertron was destroyed by Unicron. The original finale was retconned into being just a vision had by Ironhide and Alpha Trion about their ideal future and both characters would end up dying near the series' end.
- At the end of Watchmen, Adrian "Ozymandias" Veidt successfully saves the world from the brink of World War III via an elaborate alien invasion hoax, and the protagonists agree that no one must never know the truth. But Rorschach is a pre-emptive Spanner in the Works, as he had already sent evidence of Veidt's plan to a newspaper he trusts, and it was only a matter of time before the truth became public knowledge. Sure enough, by the time Doomsday Clock begins, Veidt had been exposed, and everything is back to square one.
