At the end of Astérix and The Cauldron, the eponymous (money-filled) cauldron falls off a cliff onto the pirates' ship. The panel even has a caption reading "And for once, the pirates are happy!" (though Asterix and Obelix DID kick their asses as usual earlier in the book, albeit unjustly).
Is there any trope about such karmic reparations? An overlooked detail is the fact that they decided to go back to sea due to that very beating...
There are also a few occasions in which Cacofonix saves the day with his dreadful music, and the villagers reward him by letting him participate in the victory feast (as opposed to tying him up to prevent him from playing as per the usual Running Gag).
Don Rosa loved doing this to Donald. The Duck Who Never Was did it as a sixtieth birthday present to the character via It's a Wonderful Plot, while The Magnificent Seven (Minus Four) Caballeros sees Donald's foreign friends from The Three Caballeros make a return and take him on an adventure to cure his depression.
There was a brief scene in Gotham Knights where for once, Batman accepted the Spoiler, even telling her that he doesn't mind the company.
In Volume 5 of Empowered Emp (kidnapped along with a bunch of the Superhomies' celebrity doubles) wriggles out of her restraints, dons her super suit (which she'd wrapped around her waist) and tells off the double who insulted her earlier. Then for once, just once, she actually smiles in anticipation because the mooks have no idea what's coming.
The tract Stinky from Chick Tracts has a mild example: The title demon after failing his task, is seen happily slacking and relaxing at the end while his master is being punished by his boss, Satan. What makes this special is that all previous tracts ended with all the bad guys, without exception, being thrown to Hell or punished for their failure.
A Blondie comic showed everything going right for Dagwood, like the inversion of a Humiliation Conga: Mr. Dithers praised him and gave him a raise for some particularly skilled work, Blondie prepared his favorite meal and then smilingly waved him off to poker night, where he can't seem to get a bad hand.... The final panel shows Blondie, sitting up in bed, smiling out at the reader (and looking hot in her nightie) and saying something to the effect that "after X years in this comic strip, he deserves a day like this!"
In Garfield, Jon is finally now dating Liz the veterinarian, after crushing on her without success for, what? Thirty years?
Because of Spider-Man's status as one the first Chew Toys of the Marvel Universe, occasionally writers will throw him a bone here and there. Such as Stan Lee giving him a motorcycle, introducing him to Mary Jane, and generally making his life better after Stan's fellow plotter Steve Ditko quit Marvel.
One of the biggest changes is in Ultimate Spider-Man where in J.Jonah Jameson stops hating Spidey and becomes pro Spider-Man! Plus he knows that he's Peter Parker and vows to never reveal his identity to anyone!
In Peanuts, Charlie Brown had some success in the '90s after decades of constant failure; he managed to hit a home run and win the game for his team not once but twice; he defeated a bully named Joe Agate in marbles; and he might even kicked the ball for once.
After watching over and over again as Kid-Loki tries to remember his brother—and after that have the memories but no one else does, and watch everyone call Tanarus his brother to his face while Loki's clearly getting angrier and more distraught, Loki manages to recover Mjolnir and gain his first ally in the search for his brother. Who is this ally? The Silver Surfer.
