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Heroic Sacrifices in comic books.

The following have their own pages:


Star Wars

  • Star Wars: Kanan: Commander Grey sabotages his ship's shields, allowing Kasmir and Kleeve to destroy the ship which is ruthlessly hunting Padawan Caleb Dume and escape with Caleb.
  • Star Wars Legends:
    • In the X-Wing Rogue Squadron arc "The Phantom Affair", it's revealed that Wedge's parents sacrificed themselves when a pirate set their fueling station on fire by going in with extinguishers to slow down the fire before it could get to the tanks, allowing enough time for everyone else to get away. Wedge is horribly, calmly furious at the pirate in question.
    • While fighting the reborn Emperor and his forces, the Skywalkers came across a cyborg Jedi Knight named Empatojayos Brand who had survived the Purge (barely). He followed them and helped defeat Palpatine, but, as the Sith Lord had transferred his soul from cloned body to cloned body to escape death, he launched his spirit at the infant Anakin Solo. Brand interposed his damaged body in between Palaptine and Anakin and used the Force to bind Palpatine to him as he died, thus ridding the galaxy of the Emperor forever.
    • Clone Wars Adventures: In "To the Vanishing Point,'' a wounded Jedi uses telekinesis to keep a damaged Star Destroyer from crashing into a battlefield as her allies evacuate. However, she is forced to stay behind and is crushed once she can no longer hold back the starship.

Other

  • 2000 AD:
    • Aquila: Peter the Apostle, servant of the 'carpenter God', requests Aquila crucify him upside down to make him a martyr to the fledgling Christian movement, even after Aquila means to free him from Nero's prison.
    • Judge Dredd: At the conclusion of "The Day The Law Died", Fergee is repeatedly shot as the Judges charge Chief Judge Cal's balcony. He keeps running, grabbing Cal and his followers and hurling the lot of them - including himself - off the balcony, finally ending the madness of Chief Judge Cal's reign.
    • Necronauts: Harry Houdini chooses to not return to the world of the living so as not to give the Sleepers in the Void the ability to find their way there with his body as a guide.
    • Mazeworld: The third and final arc ends with the main character electrocuting himself to stop a demonic invasion of Earth from another dimension.
  • Astro City: Occurs fairly frequently, given the overall idealistic tone of Astro City — heroes won't hesitate to put themselves at risk to save their teammates, their friends, or even total strangers.
    • The Confessor sacrificed his life and reputation to stop an alien invasion — the reputation because the sacrifice revealed that he was a vampire, and made him appear to be a serial killer.
    • Despite possessing immense power, the Silver Agent goes to his execution by the city without any resistance, to avoid possibly altering the future and undoing the valiant efforts of all of the other heroes who will come after him.
    • "Sorrowsday" is about Stormhawk's Heroic Sacrifice, and the shame of the farmer that caused it.
  • Plenty of main characters in Blaze of Glory die like this, with Lance Temple possibly having the best one, lightning up several sticks of dynamite in a suicide attack while muttering to himself that his pa will be happy that he didn't use a gun.
  • The second arc of Copperhead has an underplayed example: one of the unnamed artificial humans in the posse leaps down to push Cletus Sewell out of the animal stampede and is immediately crushed. His motives are unexpressed but could range from heroic (protect the kid) to utilitarian (protect the guy who handles the horses).
  • In Deep Gravity, when the surviving personnel aboard Vanguard are caught by the escaped alien lifeform, Captain Chadwick stays to fight in order that the others get away.
  • In Empowered, when the Space Station is falling from orbit, Mindf*** sacrifices herself so Emp can go through the portal instead. (Emp tried to sacrifice herself so that Mindf*** could go through instead, but Mindf*** used her psychic powers to make Emp go instead. Sistah Spooky tries to save Mindf*** using her magic, but fails.)
    • Later on, in Volume 11, Capitan Rivet throws himself at Willy Pete to give Empowered time to get away. Even though he knows Willy Pete can melt him and that he stands no chance of survival.
  • In Fables, the prophecy about Snow and Bigby's cubs states that "the third will do an evil thing/the fourth will die to stop her". This part of the prophecy is played out when Therese goes insane with hunger after being trapped in Toyland, going as far as to murder a talking tiger for his flesh and ordering the living wooden toys burned so she can cook the meat. Her brother Darien has no choice but to sacrifice himself to fuel a magical cauldron with his blood (which due to his heritage as a descendant of a powerfully magical bloodline and a god has a very potent magical nature) which breathes life into Toyland and a steady source of food for Therese.
  • In the Gargoyles comic series by SLG, a female gargoyle dies after shielding her mate from a rain of arrows. Fittingly, she is known as "Sacrifice" in the script.
  • Issue 213 of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (IDW) has Snake-Eyes sacrifice himself to kill a revived Serpentor.
  • Halo: Uprising: Colonel Ackerson lies to his alien captors about an artifact in Cleveland so that they won't bomb the city from orbit, thus giving his brother Ruwan a chance to escape. Instead, Ruwan uses the chance to fool the Covenant into thinking he has their treasure while being injected with a tracking fluid. The aliens first think he's being tracked so he can be rescued, but it actually turns out to be so an orbital defense station can target him, and he's standing right in the middle of a Covenant battlecruiser...
  • In Horizon Zero Dawn, its revealed that Ersa was originally captured by the Mad Sun-King because she decided to stall them while her men (and brother) escaped, contributing to his Guilt Complex he has towards her.
    Erend: Killed or captured for blood sacrifice, I didn't know. All because she had to save me.
    Aloy: I'm sure she never regretted it.
    Erend: Ersa wasn't one for regret.
  • Lands of Arran:
    • In Tome 2 of Elfes, Yfass throws himself into a battle with the Orcs he cannot hope to win to force the rest of the Wood Elves to become Neutral No Longer and help the kingdom of Eysine in their struggle.
    • In Tome 13 of Elfes, Fall kills himself when Lah'Saa attempts to possess him and destroys half of her soul in doing so.
    • In Tome 5 of Nains, Tiss and a handful of Shield warriors attract a horde of orcs inside a forest where the trees' sap is a powerful explosive. They trigger a large explosion, killing themselves and the orcs at the same time to save the rest of their garrison.
    • In Tome 10 of Nains, Abokar of the Shield makes a Last Stand against an invading army of orkelins, only to win time for a horde of Ogres to come and annihilate both parties, keeping the Dwarf casualties to a minimum.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992): Roam dies as saving Zelda from Aghanim's doppelganger in Ganon's Tower.
  • A Letter from Home: Scrooge attempts one, when Molay tries to shoot Matilda, but the gun fails as it was turned to gold. It serves to show his sister he is not the greedy jerkass she believes him to be.
  • The Misty story "Winner Loses All": the heroine makes a Deal with the Devil in order to save her alcoholic father, which will condemn her to Hell. Her father finds out about the deal, and why she made it, so he makes a deal of his own, taking her place in Hell.
  • In My Little Pony Micro Series Issue #2 Rainbow does a Sonic Double Rainboom to help inspire everypony in Equestria and dispel the gremlins' cloud. However, doing so leaves her unable to fly for two months.
  • Skull Island: The Birth of Kong: In this MonsterVerse graphic novel, Helen Karsten aims to pull one when the expedition are confronted by Death Jacks. She orders the rest of the expedition to take cover in caves whilst she holds the pack off, and she's almost-immediately Devoured by the Horde.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Tommy Turtle, having been body jacked by A.D.A.M., allows himself to be destroyed by the Egg Fleet.
    • Sir Connery sacrificed his life force to destroy the corrupted Crown and Sword of Acorns.
    • Knuckles' father Locke killed himself in order to break the spell that had brainwashed Knuckles into becoming Enerjak.
    • Sally Acorn caused herself to be roboticized to prevent Eggman from doing it to the whole planet.
    • Antoine D'Coolette grappled with a Metal Sonic and pulled it away from the transport holding Elias and his family, letting Dr. Eggman detonate it and kill him instead (he survives, though he is rendered comatose).
  • Star Trek: Early Voyages: In "Nemesis", Kaaj destroys two of the Thanatos weapons, sacrificing his life in the process, so that his crew, Captain Pike, Spock and Dr. Boyce can escape. While it was certainly heroic, he did not do so out of the goodness of his heart but because he did not want anyone else to have the pleasure of killing Pike.
  • Done by the All-Purpose Power Tool in Steelgrip Starkey and the All-Purpose Power Tool, as part of an effort to contain a runaway nuclear reactor.
  • Sullivan's Sluggers: Casey Sullivan urges the remains of his baseball team to get into the talent agent's car while he stays behind to kill the giant monster of George Malice. He does so by plugging a stick of dynamite into a gas truck, and then shooting said dynamite stick, causing it all to explode.
  • Thunderstrike: Eric Masterson battles the spirit of the Bloodaxe on the psychic plane, preventing it from possessing him in the material world, but his victory kills them both.
  • The UK Marvel Transformers comics featured one of these. Inferno is injured in his ship above a huge battlefield. As he lays dying he remarks "Always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory" and then promptly crashes his ship into the heart of the Decepticon forces, wiping out a majority of them.
    • This is almost a tradition for Optimus Primes in the various continuities. In at least two instances, once each during the original Marvel run of comics and once during Transformers: Generation 2, Optimus plunges himself and the Autobot Matrix into two different types of Planet Eater Omnicidal Maniac. It turns out that Evil Cannot Comprehend Good and the result is volatile enough to bring salvation in the form of massive explosions. Optimus Prime being Optimus Prime, his death rarely 'keeps' for long, though.
  • In The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers, Pyro has actually been diagnosed with a condition known as primus apotheosis, which makes the sufferer idolize Optimus Prime, and try to make themselves as similar to him as possible, including his penchant for heroic, noble sacrifices. Subverted with Pyro's being torn to pieces by a horde of Decepticons as a distraction, and averted with the entire story, which is about "Good people dying in stupid, pointless ways".
  • In The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, after Overlord is set lose on the Autobot Ship The Lost Light, Rewind sacrifices himself by crawling into the slow room where Overlord is and unjamming the door, leaving Rewind at the mercy of Overlord. Lampshaded by Rodimus, who believes it is a cheap way to make amends for wrongdoings, considering he was the one who brought Overlord onto their ship in the first place. He also risks his own life to stop the signal from killing those who were constructed cold.
  • In V for Vendetta, it's Rosemary Almond, a mere housewife whose whole life has been destroyed by Norsefire who decides to sacrifice herself (and avenge herself), by killing Commander Adam Susan, the state's dictator, knowing full well what would happen to her if she did so. She is then mobbed by a horde of Fingermen. Her final fate is unclear, but it's probable that she doesn't survive.
  • In W.I.T.C.H. Luba, who had been sceptical of the Guardians and tried various times to get them replaced, saves them and an almost dead Caleb from Nerissa, who is now practically invincible and helped by four creatures that can actually give the Guardians a run for their money, by attacking her and her minions, knowing well that she had no chance to survive. She somehow kept all five of them at bay long enough for the Guardians to escape and bring Caleb to safety.


Alternative Title(s): Comics

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