History DespairEventHorizon / ComicBooks

** It happens to Supergirl in the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' storyline, combined with a RageBreakingPoint. She starts out a nice, happy-go-lucky girl. Then her father placed her in suspended animation inside a rocket and launched her out of Krypton. When she wakes up, she finds herself stranded on an alien, primitive world. Her family, her friends, her old life... are gone forever because her home world exploded nearly thirty years ago. Then she goes through several months of endless battles. Meanwhile, she appears to be unable to connect with [[Franchise/{{Superman}} her only living relative]], she doesn't manage to fit in with Earth's people or keep any friends, and everyone she meets wants to decide what is better for her or tries to use her. She falls in love with someone, and then she finds out that her crush was a murderous bastard who was manipulating her. She has a chance to save her planet, and she fails... Then she runs into and fights ''Comicbook/{{Lobo}}'', who intentionally presses her {{Berserk Button}}s until she flips out. After pummelling him, Kara is mad like hell and feeling hurt, betrayed, confused and utterly hopeless, thinking she belongs nowhere and can trust no one.

** Made even worse by the "ShadowMan" showing Tony that all of the massacre and destruction would've been avoided had Tony actually listened to Steve during their one moment of clarity.

* In the "Emerald Twilight" tie-in to ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' storyline, the destruction of Coast City by Mongul serves as the DEH for [[Franchise/GreenLantern then-Green-Lantern Hal Jordan]]. He then goes on to cross the MoralEventHorizon pretty quickly. Even after the city is eventually rebuilt, it's more or less a GhostCity as nobody wants to move there because of what happened.

* It happens to ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' in the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' storyline, combined with a RageBreakingPoint. She starts out a nice, happy-go-lucky girl. Then her father placed her in suspended animation inside a rocket and launched her out of Krypton. When she wakes up, she finds herself stranded on an alien, primitive world. Her family, her friends, her old life... are gone forever because her home world exploded nearly thirty years ago. Then she goes through several months of endless battles. Meanwhile, she appears to be unable to connect with [[Franchise/{{Superman}} her only living relative]], she doesn't manage to fit in with Earth's people or keep any friends, and everyone she meets wants to decide what is better for her or tries to use her. She falls in love with someone, and then she finds out that her crush was a murderous bastard who was manipulating her. She has a chance to save her planet, and she fails... Then she runs into and fights ''Comicbook/{{Lobo}}'', who intentionally presses her {{Berserk Button}}s until she flips out. After pummelling him, Kara is mad like hell and feeling hurt, betrayed, confused and utterly hopeless, thinking she belongs nowhere and can trust no one.

* It happens to ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' in the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' storyline, combined with a RageBreakingPoint. She starts out a nice, happy-go-lucky girl. Then her father placed her in suspended animation inside a rocket and launched her out of Krypton. When she wakes up, she finds herself stranded on an alien, primitive world. Her family, her friends, her old life... are gone forever because her home world exploded nearly thirty years ago. Then she goes through several months of endless battles. Meanwhile, she appears to be unable to connect with [[Franchise/{{Superman}} her only living relative]], she doesn't manage to fit in with Earth's people or keep any friends, and everyone she meets wants to decide what is better for her or tries to use her. She falls in love with someone, and then she finds out that her crush was a murderous bastard who was manipulating her. She has a chance to save her planet, and she fails... Then she runs into and fights ''Comicbook/{{Lobo}}'', who intentionally presses her {{Berserk Button}}s until she flips out. After pummelling him, Kara is mad like hell and feeling hurt, betrayed, confused and utterly hopeless, thinking she belongs anywhere and can trust no one.

* It happens to ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' in the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'', combined with a RageBreakingPoint. She starts out a nice, happy-go-lucky girl. Then her father placed her in suspended animation inside a rocket and launched her out of Krypton. When she wakes up, she finds herself stranded on an alien, primitive world. Her family, her friends, her old life... are gone forever because her home world exploded nearly thirty years ago. Then she goes through several months of endless battles. Meanwhile, she appears to be unable to connect with [[Franchise/{{Superman}} her only living relative]], she doesn't manage to fit in with Earth's people or keep any friends, and everyone she meets wants to decide what is better for her or tries to use her. She falls in love with someone, and then she finds out that her crush was a murderous bastard who was manipulating her. She has a chance to save her planet, and she fails... Then she runs into and fights ''Comicbook/{{Lobo}}'', who intentionally presses her {{Berserk Button}}s until she flips out. After pummelling him, Kara is mad like hell and feeling hurt, betrayed, confused and utterly hopeless, thinking she belongs anywhere and can trust no one.

* A curious AntiHero version occurs in ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''; throughout the story, Superman is wary of encountering Magog, the NinetiesAntiHero who in many ways replaced him in the public's regard, until he and the rest of the Justice League encounter him in the ruins of Kansas... only to discover a broken man torn apart by guilt and anguish over [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone his actions]] and the disastrous consequences they resulted in.
--->''Proud?'' '''Proud?!''' '''''Proud''''' ''of being the Man of Tomorrow?!?''

** In "The Secret of the Indigo Tribe", Hal meets Natromo, one of the creators of the eponymous Indigo Tribe. Natromo explains how he and Abin Sur created the tribe both in preparation for the ComicBook/BlackestNight and [[spoiler:as a test run for the Indigo Rings, which were planned to be used against the Guardians of the Universe when they come to destroy the tribe]]. When Hal informs Natromo that [[PosthumousCharacter Abin Sur is dead]], Natromo declares that there's no chance in [[spoiler: defeating the Guardians]], and [[spoiler:destroys the tribe's Central Power Battery, not only deactivating the Indigo Rings, but also releasing the tribe from their influence. In other words, [[OhCrap he undid the entire tribe]]'s HeelFaceBrainwashing]].

* [[Comicbook/IronMan Tony Stark]] after [[CaptainAmerica Steve Rogers]] is killed at the end of Civil War. He suffers a HeroicBSOD over Steve's death, and it also makes him [[DeathSeeker even more reckless with his life]] than he's been [[TraumaCongaLine in almost his entire history]].

* In Transformers/MoreThanMeetsTheEye, Whirl's personality is established as him having crossed this - first he's thrown out of the Wreckers, and then the war ends. All he feels good for is fighting, and he feels so completely useless and alone in this new, war-less world that he starts talking to Sweeps corpses, beating on them to vent his frustrations, and finally prepares to [[InterruptedSuicide commit suicide among them.]]

* In Transformers/MoreThanMeetsTheEye, Whirl's personality is established as him having crossed this - first he's thrown out of the Wreckers, and then the war ends. All he feels good for is fighting, and he feels so completely useless and alone in this new, war-less world that he starts talking to Sweeps corpses, beating on them to vent his frustrations, and finally prepares to commit suicide among them, only prevented by being interrupted by Cyclonus.

* Happens to Nuke in the ''SquadronSupreme'' limited series.

** Then in ''SinestroCorpsWar'', Sinestro declares his intention to invoke this in Earth's population by razing Coast City ''again''. But this time it's defied, as those who did live there, when warned of the coming danger, refused to evacuate and instead shined green lights out their windows in support of the Green Lanterns. This show of courage ended up having the exact opposite effect from what Sinestro wanted.

* In the "Emerald Twilight" tie-in to ''TheDeathOfSuperman'' storyline, the destruction of Coast City by Mongul serves as the DEH for [[Franchise/GreenLantern then-Green-Lantern Hal Jordan]]. He then goes on to cross the MoralEventHorizon pretty quickly. Even after the city is eventually rebuilt, it's more or less a GhostCity as nobody wants to move there because of what happened.

* Walter Kovacs in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' starts out a rather messed up, right-wing, but functional man, with a fairly normal life outside being a masked vigilante. Then he investigates the kidnapping of a little girl, and ends up [[spoiler:finding her dismembered and mostly-eaten corpse, suffering a complete psychotic break and burning her killer alive.]] From that point on, he's insane, [[VigilanteMan murderous]] and barely capable of (or [[DeathSeeker interested in]]) taking care of himself, having [[BecomingTheMask completely abandoned all identity outside of Rorschach]].

* Willow in Season 9 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', after the magic is gone. Faith after her dad shows up and she does something she regrets, which causes her to go see "Mother Superior" in ''Daddy Issues''.
* {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} lives to bring everyone in the universe to this point. His goal is to discover the Anti-Life Equation, a mathematical formula that "proves" to whomever reads or hears it that life is utterly pointless and without meaning and destroys all traces of happiness and hope, though in ''FinalCrisis'' when he actually found it he altered it so that there was one single meaning to existence- namely, to obey and worship Darkseid for all eternity.

* {{Darkseid}} lives to bring everyone in the universe to this point. His goal is to discover the Anti-Life Equation, a mathematical formula that "proves" to whomever reads or hears it that life is utterly pointless and without meaning and destroys all traces of happiness and hope, though in ''FinalCrisis'' when he actually found it he altered it so that there was one single meaning to existence- namely, to obey and worship Darkseid for all eternity.

* In ''ComicBook/SecretWarriors #24'', badass super-agent NickFury finally breaks [[spoiler:after he has let ''two'' teams of young agents die on his watch. Even worse, the second team was led by his ''own son'' Mikel Fury.]] While standing at the graves of the [[spoiler:second]] team, the agents of the Russian spy organization Leviathan come for him. He doesn't even try to resist.

** Darkseid suffered his own Despair Event Horizon- he was in love with a scientist named Suli (the mother of his son Kalibak), but his EvilMatriarch mother Heggra saw that Suli was making Darkseid a nicer person and had her murdered for it. Suli tried to make Darkseid a more constructive EvilOverlord by pushing him towards building [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans a more ordered and lawful universe]], but when she died he lost all hope that he would ever be more than the monster his mother made him- so, instead, he had his mother murdered and resolved to be an [[GoneHorriblyRight even bigger bastard]] than Heggra ever intended him to be. Darkseid was a horrible villain before he met Suli, but her death is what made him such a miserable one and is probably the main reason he seeks the Anti-Life Equation in the first place- if he can't be happy, then ''no-one'' will be.

* In the "Emerald Twilight" tie-in to ''TheDeathOfSuperman'' storyline, the destruction of Coast City by Mongul serves as the DEH for then-Green-Lantern Hal Jordan. He then goes on to cross the MoralEventHorizon pretty quickly. Even after the city is eventually rebuilt, it's more or less a GhostCity as nobody wants to move there because of what happened.

* ComicBook/{{X-23}} hits one at the end of ''Target: X''. After [[ComicBook/InnocenceLost all the torture and dehumanization the Facility put her through, being forced to kill her mother by the Trigger Scent just as they were about to escape]], having to give up all that remained of her family and the normal life she was starting to build to protect them when her AxeCrazy former handler came looking for her, and possibly [[ComicBook/{{NYX}} spending an unspecified time on the streets as a prostitute under a sadistic and abusive pimp]] (it's unclear where exactly this series falls in her history), Laura finally reaches her breaking point, and seeks out ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} believing that all she has left is to [[DrivenToSuicide kill him and herself]]. Logan manages to talk her down, but it's implied she has an ongoing battle with severe, if not suicidal, depression, and much of her character arc focuses on putting the pieces back together after all that was done to her.

* The Doctor gets one at the end of ''{{ComicBook/CaptainAtom}}: Armageddon'', declaring that he has given up and that they should all just stop trying to prevent the end of the universe, as several of the most powerful superheroes have already died trying, and should instead focus on trying to meet the end with dignity.