Often a Death Trope, so expect to see unmarked spoilers ahead.
Comic Books have no shortage of Guile Heroes and arrogant villains, so it makes sense that many of the former get rid of the latter who're otherwise invincible with their own almighty powers.
The following have their own pages:
Other Publishers
- General Spears in Aliens: Nightmare Asylum is a General Ripper on a remote colony who does not believe the heroes when they tell him that Earth has been overrun by the Aliens. He has been training Aliens to be his own personal soldiers by training their Queen with Pavlovian responses to fire. The moment they touch down on Earth and he plans to defeat the entrenched natives, the Queen turns her drones on him. She hadn't learned to fear him; she had learned to be clever.
- In one Archie Comics story, Veronica designs and creates a beautiful ballroom gown, planning to wear it to the biggest dance of the year; Cheryl Blossom steals it in order to show her up and be the center of attention. Unfortunately for Cheryl, Veronica is a poor seamstress; the dress falls apart while she's wearing it. At the dance. (Still, this is a Pyrrhic Victory for Veronica; while the result humiliates Cheryl, it also exposes her shoddy work.)
- In Asterix and the Roman Agent, Tortuous Convolvulus has sown seeds of discord in our heroes' village, and for a time convinced them that Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix have been suborned by the Romans. After our heroes set their differences aside and pwn all four Roman garrisons, Asterix gives Convolvulus a gift and thanks him for "keeping your end of the bargain". Centurion Felix Platypus is enraged and has Convolvulus chained up and taken back to Rome as a traitor. Convolvulus is back up to his old tricks before long, however.
- Astro City:
- In "Confession", as part of their effort to register or detain all of the heroes in the city, the Mayor and his supporters threaten to expose the Confessor's secret unless he leaves town or goes into hiding. With this threat, the Confessor deduces that they are actually an alien invasion force and proceeds to thwart them.
- In "Friends and Relations", the villain Vivi Viktor discovers that her robot Mooks would rather obey Ellie Jennersen instead, because Vivi has been building them with Ellie's designs and mental patterns for decades, allowing them to recognize her as a "friend".
- Dr. Gearbox died in battle against Honor Guard in 1971. His death was due to a flaw in his Robosaur that his daughter had found and fixed separately... but he didn't know about because he believed that only men could be engineers.
- Atomic Robo: Dr. Dinosaur's schemes have a tendency to blow up in his face (sometimes literally) more often than not. He keeps at it, though, because there's also a better-than-even chance of said schemes blowing up in Robo's face (often literally). There's quite a bit of overlap.
- Chlorophylle: Anthracite tried to get rid of the protagonist by tiding him up to a firecracker rocket. But he got himself caught on the rocket and couldn't apparently jump before it explodes.
- In one of the later comics, Conan the Barbarian comes across a particularly vile Zingaran noble who assassinates his rivals by giving them the Ring of Molub, a Clingy MacGuffin that can only be stolen or passed on to others without their knowledge. The ring is connected to an ancient, Nigh-Invulnerable demon of the same name who graphically slaughters the bearer of the ring and anyone who tries to stop it. Conan later acquires the ring himself and then passes it to the noble by slipping it on his finger. Then he breaks his finger just to make sure he can't get rid of it.
- In Deep Gravity, the person responsible for the accident on Vanguard is not one of the survivors, having tried and failed to leave the ship before anyone noticed.
- A horror comic
featured a lawyer who made a Deal with the Devil... on the condition that they use the contract he'd prepared, an extremely Long List to account for every possible ambiguity or Exact Words that could lead to the Devil winning. The Devil curses but agrees, then points out the lawyer needs to sign all the subclauses in the contract. The lawyer gets to it, then punctures his finger and draws blood, signing the first of many, many subclauses with his own blood, as is tradition. He's found dead in the morning of blood loss. - Quite a few EC Comics stories can qualify. Notable is a woman who plotted to kill her husband and gave herself the perfect alibi by pretending she was paralyzed in a wheelchair. She kept up the act for months, never leaving the chair, not even in private, just in case someone spotted her. She was on the verge of pulling it off when a fire broke out at the house when she was alone. When she tried to flee, she collapsed and realized too late that her legs had atrophied from months of no use, so ends up being burned alive.
- Iznogoud: Almost every story ends this way. Whatever magical object or scheme Iznogoud concocts to get rid of the Caliph, he'll end up falling victim to the scheme himself (leaving him imprisoned, Taken for Granite, turned into a Forced Transformation, trapped in another dimension, etc.). As if to add insult to injury, sometimes the Caliph will also fall into the trap - and quickly find a way out (often by accident) that won't work for Iznogoud.
- Judge Dredd: To turn the tide of the Apocalypse War, Dredd assembles a strike team to infiltrate an East Meg nuclear silo so it can be turned against its own city.
- MAD: This happens as a result of racism in Sergio Aragonés' "A Mad look at: Racism". In one strip, thinking that home values would drop, a realtor refuses to sell a house to an African American family, and inadvertently allows a family of Neo-Nazis to move in and drive down house values. In another, a racist restauranteur and his staff give an African American terrible service, and laugh him off when he angrily storms off, and then it turns out he was a food critic that gave said restaurant terrible reviews.
- Mercury Heat: The villain of "Another Bloody Crossover" gets ripped apart by his own pseudo-Crossed victims after Luiza hacks their wetware to make them target him specifically instead of everyone but him.
- This happened at least twice in the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe.
- In the comic strip story "Race To Death Valley", Mickey swipes a map out of Shyster's hand from a window, boasting, "It's an old Shyster custom I learned from you!".
- The comic strip story "Blaggard Castle" involved a trio of simian mad scientists named Professors Ecks, Doublex, and Triplex, who invented a Hypno Ray as part of an evil scheme to take over the world and invited Mickey Mouse and Horace Horsecollar to their lair with the intent of using them to test their invention. The story ended with Mickey using the mad scientists' machine on them and hypnotizing them into being good.
- Mortadelo y Filemón:
- In a short story, the Super grows tired of Mortadelo and Filemón's incompetence and plots to get them fired. He tasks them with keeping safe a very important document, only to steal it himself. After his attempts to steal the document fail one after another, he overhears Mortadelo talking to the T.I.A. managing director and mentioning that the document is hidden in a cigar they left on the Super's desk... which turns out to be the same cigar he is smoking. The Super is subsequently fired (but thankfully for him, Negative Continuity is in effect).
- The ending of "La gripe U" sees Kamikaze Regúlez hospitalized after becoming infected by the very virus he had created.
- In "Los guardaespaldas", the agents are protecting a rich old woman who has a slew of killers after her. One of them appears at her door and attempts to gift her an alarm clock, which is loaded with explosives inside. Mortadelo notices the clock has a half-hour delay and corrects the time. Then the killer takes the clock out of the bedroom's window:Thank goodness I calculated the explosion for half an hour from now! [his expression changes as the realization hits him] Ha— half an hour! He advanced half an hour all of a sud— *BOOM*
- In the Archie Comic adaptation of NiGHTS into Dreams..., Reala is supposedly killed when his anchor in the real world, Roger, is convinced by Claris and Elliot to let him go as he has no real reason to keep him around anymore.
- Noob: Comic 12 has three players from the next day's rival virtual sports team plan to take shifts in basically ding-dong ditching Kévin/Sparadrap (a Genius Ditz at the sport) all night so Noob's best player will be sleep-deprived the next day. They didn't count on the fact that he was sharing his room with someone who is more astute than him, sleep-deprived into a very bad mood and extremely protective of him. The dressing-down they get from the room's other occupant keeps them up all night (they even consider all moving in together after the tournament because they don't want to sleep alone anymore).
- In Paperinik New Adventures, Zoster manages to steal a record belonging to Donald containing all of Xadhoom's knowledge, including how she achieved godhood. After using it, he only has a few moments to enjoy it before the weight of his own power turns him to dust.
- In the Quasar storyline "Starblast", Skeletron's desire to obtain the Star Brand is what leads to his defeat, as he gains the portion of the power from The Stranger, but The Stranger is able to leave him stranded in the now-lifeless universe of The New Universe while its Earth is shunted into the 616 universe.
- Scooby-Doo! Team-Up:
- In "Perils Before Swine", Sylvester Sneekly tries to use the Scooby Gang as unwitting pawns in a plan to get rid of the Ant Hill Mob. Fred ends up being the one who exposes him as the Hooded Claw.
- Yankee Doodle Pigeon tricks the Vulture Squadron into thinking he became a real ghost by using leftover luminous paint from one of the squadron's past attempts to capture him.
- Scooter Girl: When Ashton tries to shoot Margaret with a poisoned dart, he misses, and eventually stabs himself with it, knocking himself out.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog-based comic books, every villain in the titular hero's Rogues Gallery has an awful track record of this trope.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- The original Robotnik fell to this, as well, being the only one destroyed by the Ultimate Annihilator's destruction. Granted, Snively pulled a Starscream on him, but it WAS his weapon.
- In Sonic Universe, the demigod Enerjak is invincible, and makes a note to rub this in the face of Silver, who he's dueling. Upon mentioning that Silver is not strong enough, skilled enough, or wise enough to best him, Silver realizes Enerjak is correct. He proceeds to redirect Enerjak's attacks at him, actually cracking his armor and inflicting pain on the demigod for the first time in decades. Enerjak is promptly drained of his powers moments later.
- Dr. Eggman created a mecha designed to counter everything that Sonic can do him, which he also equipped with a teleportation beam to capture all of citizens of Knothole sans Sonic (who he left after crushing him), Amy, Tails and Nicole. The heroes launch their counterattack, freeing everyone, but they're unable to escape and Eggman teleports everyone back to the Egg Grape Chambers... only to Snively finally getting to his uncle that no one was back in the Chambers - Tails and Nicole hacked the settings of the teleporter so that the beam send everyone to a new city, New Mobotropolis, was vastly more protected than Knothole. For added irony, the city was build from leftover nanites that were a result of Eggman's old projects.
- Interestingly, this is the ultimate fate of Sonic’s World post-Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide - because Eggman was so hasty in trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, his attack on Sonic has reversed everything he has done - Princess Sally is no longer roboticized, Knothole and Mobotroplis stand once more, the Freedom Fighters are whole again and he's still no closer in getting rid of Sonic.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
- The second major arc of the series has Eggman use his "Metal Virus" bioweapon to cause a Zombie Apocalypse on purpose. Even with their usual Plot Armor, Sonic and co. are powerless against the plague as it picks them off and turns them into "Zombots", one by one. However, Eggman didn't perfect the Metal Virus before unleashing it, causing the Zombots to escape his control and eventually be taken over by his rivals, the Deadly Six. Eggman subsequently teams up with whatever heroes remain, but eventually betrays them, getting Amy Rose infected to buy himself time to flee. He doesn't get far, though, as he trips on a Zombot Froggy and gets infected himself, only avoiding zombification thanks to Silver the Hedgehog and Sonic destroying the Metal Virus.
- Dr. Starline, a comic-original villain, gets this a lot as well. At one point, he deliberately triggers an avalanche to give Sonic a Sadistic Choice—only to get crushed by said avalanche not long after.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Star Wars Legends:
- When Darth Sidious returns from the dead to restore The Empire in Dark Empire, he captures Luke Skywalker and nearly turns him to the Dark Side. Leia eventually boards Palpatine's flagship to rescue her brother, and the two Skywalkers defeat Palpatine. In retaliation, he summons a devastating storm of dark side energies to lay waste to the New Republic fleet, but Luke and Leia overwhelm him with the Force, causing him to lose control of the storms. His flagship (and he himself) are subsequently torn apart by them. But he is still Not Quite Dead.
- Done again at the climax of the story. His new breed of dreadnought The Eclipse has a bow that is extra-reinforced and the shields are boosted, allowing the titanic battleship to ram into and through other ships without hesitation or damage. The New Republic takes advantage of this in order to eliminate the Empire's other, even deadlier superweapon, the Galaxy Gun. The Gun can fire planet-killing missiles that fly through hyperspace, allowing it destroy targets anywhere in the galaxy while remaining in a single location. Since a direct attack against the heavily-guarded Galaxy Gun would be doomed, instead they board and hack the Eclipse nav computer and program it to ram the Galaxy Gun, destroying both. The destruction of the Galaxy Gun causes a projectile to misfire and hits the current Imperial capital world destroying it and the massive fleet guarding it. Four birds, one stone.
- After being killed by Luke in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, Dark Jedi Master Cronal came Back from the Dead and sought revenge in Star Wars Tales #19. He uses the technopath Dark Side power known as mechu-deru on Luke's mechanical arm, but is unable to control it and is strangled to death.
- In a Super Goof story, the Beagle Boys tricked the hero into taking a hunger amplifying formula; by the time Super Goof stopped eating and got his act together enough to look for the four crooks, he was so obese, he could barely keep airborne while flying. Nonetheless, he did so until he found them, and the Beagles made the mistake of laughing and telling a few fat jokes; then the hero finally could not stay airborne and crashed, right on top of the villains, apprehending them.
- In Superior, demon Omron tricks young Simon into giving up his soul in exchange for becoming the hero Superior. With time running about before the deal expires, Omron celebrates how he's going to avoid being thrown into the depths of Hell. At which point, Simon's friend, Madeline, sets him straight.Madeline: You made him into the most powerful super-hero ever created. A character whose every single molecule is indestructible and impenetrable and undying and never-aging under Earth's yellow sun. Every atom in his body is in essence immortal... And if Superior can never die...
Omron: I just bought something I can never collect. - Superlópez: The Supergrupo's story Big Bad copies the powers of the heroes into a giant robot after giving himself those same powers. When the Supergrupo gets free and fights the Big Bad, Superlópez manages to hack the robot to turn it against the Big Bad, who claims he would be equal to the robot - only for Superlópez to point out that he's going to fight the robot and the Supergrupo. The Big Bad is quickly defeated.
- After a rooftop battle in the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage), a defeated Shredder is about to use a thermite grenade to kill both the turtles and himself, when he is thrown off the roof by Donatello's bo staff. Boom.
- In Tintin: The Broken Ear, after several failed attempts at assassinating General Alcazar, Corporal Diaz is given a time bomb set to go off at eleven o'clock. Diaz sets his watch by the street clocks, but at ten o'clock, when he thinks he still has time to spare, he is puzzled to see a municipal worker adjusting a street clock to make up for time lost due to an earlier power cut. The corrected time: eleven o'clock. BOOM.
- Tragg and the Sky Gods: In "The Cult of the Cave Bear" in Mystery Comics Digest #9, a Necromancer priest uses fumes from magic herbs and a drum beat to raise zombies to steal food from other tribes. After his zombies steal a cave bear Tragg is has just killed, Tragg uses the herbs and drum to resurrect the cave bear, which kills priest.
- Vampirella:
- In "Slitherers of the Sand" the monster is beaten when Vampirella lures it onto its own waste, which is toxic to it.
- In "Into the Inferno" Granville is killed by Vampirella, who he had accidentally driven into a bloodthirsty madness by the drug he had ordered given to her.
- The Wicked + The Divine: The 1373 special reveals that Ananke deliberately spread a virus created by a previous Pantheon and started The Black Death just so she could see how humans would react to it. Carrying the disease took such a toll on her body that she was left bedridden and covered in scars. By the time Lucifer shows up to confront her she admits the whole plan was a huge mistake on her part.
- One of Phil Foglio's Xxxenophile comics sees Saint Peter and the devil looking in on a couple having sex, as they're going to be The Antichrist's parents if he's conceived that night. The devil keeps bragging to Saint Peter as the couple go into ever-more acrobatic positions, boasting of how depraved they are. Finally midnight passes and the devil wonders why Saint Peter isn't having a breakdown, who reminds the devil that the couple did indeed go through every orifice and configuration imaginable... leaving no time for, y'know, the one required to produce a baby.
