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I feel like this is maybe a constellation of tropes, rather than a single one. Also, it seems like the motive of the character on the receiving end of untimely death might play a role. For instance, if the character knows the Big Bad is so tough that he/she might be Killed Off for Real and chooses to fight anyway for sake of the group, I'd say it's due to Big Guy Fatality Syndrome.
However, (and probably more what you're looking for) if it's one of those situations where the character, probably still The Big Guy, enters the fight under the impression it will be easy but is then shockingly whipped/possibly killed, I think it could be The Worf Effect. Depending on how that fight is executed, it might also include The Worf Barrage with the character giving all they've got before being easily and quickly flicked away, or if the Big Bad puts effort into an extravagant fight to show how weak the character is, it might include a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
I'm probably missing a few other possibilities, but those are what I've got.
Edited by mephistos
It's not The Worf Effect, because for it to work the "Worf" has to survive, whereas what I'm talking involves characters getting killed. Also, The Worf Effect is when bad guys always beat up the toughest of the characters, whereas the trope I'm looking for doesn't necessarily involve killing the most powerful character(s), just killing a character who is well known enough for the death be shocking. So if the new Big Bad kills some random powerful superhero who was introduced in the same issue as he, that's not particularly shocking, but if he kills a superhero who's existed in the franchise for years or decades, that is kinda shocking, and it's used to signal that this particular villain is serious business. This trope works best in long-running franchises such as The DC Universe or the Marvel Universe, which have been going on for decades and introduced thousands of characters, so they always have some expendable "extra" characters you can use as a plot device. Also, while Hero Killer might overlap with this trope, it's not the same, since it's a trope specifically related to specific characters. What I'm talking about is a storytelling technique where the writer tries to boost the menace of a new villain by making him kill characters who are popular enough that their death feels sufficiently dramatic, but who are not (at the moment) so popular that they suffer from Invincible Hero syndrome. Often the killed characters were more popular in the past, but since then have fallen out of vogue, which is why their death can be used as a plot device like this. (This is exactly the case with the Alpha Flight example above.) The writer may try to use this technique to build up the new villain into a Hero Killer, but often it doesn't stick, and the villain is mostly forgotten. (Ironically, sometimes this trope comes to play when the forgotten villain is killed by a new, supposedly even more badass villain.) Conversely, not all the supervillains mentioned in the examples of the Hero Killer entry have actually killed that many major superheroes, they just have the potential to do so.
Edited by Tuomas
Maybe Sacrificial Lion? I can't really think anything more than what has already been mentioned.
Edited by ZelmanClock
Yeah, I think Sacrificial Lion is close enough, what I'm talking about is pretty much that trope with some specific qualities of superhero comics added to it.
Either Sacrificial Lion or Sacrificial Lamb. If you're talking about the killer, he's the Knight of Cerebus.
MAX POWER KILL JEEEEEEEEWWWWW
Pretty sure this is C-List Fodder.
Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
I don't think it's C-List Fodder, because the gist of the trope was that the dead hero(es) was important enough so audiences would recognize them, but not important enough to have Plot Armor or make a huge impact when they died. Actually sounds like "B" List Fodder, come to think of it...
That said, Zelman Clock probably nailed it with Sacrificial Lion.
Is there a trope for supporting (or even major) characters being casually killed by a new Big Bad to demonstrate how powerful he is? This happens all the time in superhero comics; for example, in one issue of New Avengers a new villain killed the entire Alpha Flight (a superhero team which used to have its own comic book for more than a decade) in one panel. Usually the fans of the dead characters are pissed off by them getting killed so easily, and often they are revived later on.
Edited by Tuomas