History HeroicSacrifice / MarvelUniverse

** The Black Order and Lethal Legion participate in a game that uses Earth as the battlefield. To earn 'points', one member of their team must grab an artifact and sacrifice themselves to score for their team. The Avengers enter as a third team, and Red Wolf gives up his life to score for the Avengers (the Human Torch does the same, but without realizing that grabbing the artifact would kill him). [[spoiler:Of course, it's then revealed that they don't actually die, but are kept in stasis until the game is finished.]]
** During the climax, the Avengers must keep stable a machine that bears the weight of the entire world. They only have Hercules on hand, as Thor is needed elsewhere and Hulk also isn't available. ComicBook/{{Sunspot}} then reveals that, without his PowerLimiter, he has strength to match Hercules and can help keep the machine in place. In doing so, however, he burns up years of his life, and at the end of the series he quits the Avengers since he doesn't know long he has left to live.
* In ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'', Carnage is affected by a MirrorMoralityMachine spell and after his HeelFaceBrainwashing [[JumpingOnAGrenade used his own body to suppress]] a DoomsdayDevice that would've [[FinalSolution killed every non-mutant on Earth]]. He survives due to his FromASingleCell ability, [[AnArmAndALeg but loses his legs in the process]].
* Jericho Drumm, aka Brother Voodoo, sacrifices himself as his final act as Sorcerer Supreme, rebelling an invasion by a major entity calling itself Agamotto.
* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's death was like this. Wearing power dampening handcuffs, Cap notices an infrared sniper pointer on one of his captors. Being the selfless man he is he throws himself in the line of fire and promptly gets shot. This was the villain's evil plan to begin with, so here's one for the bad guys.
* In the last comic of ''ComicBook/EarthX'', the Celestials had landed on Earth and is getting ready to destroy the planet. [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] knew that he had to buy time for [[spoiler: Galactus to arrive to fight.]] So, he went up in a giant Iron Man suit and fought off a bunch of Gods by himself.
** And prior to that, while the Celestials were still in orbit, Black Bolt attacked them, using his SuperScream powers at maximum [[spoiler: to call Galactus]], which shatters his body.
* In ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #587, [[spoiler:Johnny Storm sacrifices his life to make sure an army of Annihlus-like creatures never escaped the Negative Zone]].
* During ''ComicBook/FearItself'', Tony Stark, furious that Odin refuses to aid Earth, decides to sacrifice his sobriety to get the god's attention.
* Mr. Immortal from the ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers'' did a HeroicSacrifice in the end of Issue #4 by committing suicide. Since his power is to return from the dead, that wasn't that heroic, or much of a sacrifice to begin with. Doorman on the other hand let himself die by getting Mr. Immortal to that very place, but he [[DeathIsCheap returned to life]] as some sort of angel of death.
* ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2020:'' [[spoiler:In the second issue, Peter Quill stays behind to guard an exploding black hole bomb from angry gods. He's pretty confident that he'll get better, though.]]
* ''[[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 The Magnificent Ms. Marvel]]'':

* ''ComicBook/SecretAvengers'': Eric O'Grady, the Irredeemable ComicBook/AntMan, sacrifices himself to get a child to safety. Before being stomped to death, he reflects on the fact that at least he got to die doing something decent for once in his life.

** Averted by Creator/PeterDavid in the ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMan Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' storyline, "The Death of Jean [=DeWolff=]". ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, the story concerns the death of police officer [=DeWolff=] in the first two pages of the arc, shot while she was resting in bed. As mentioned in the introduction to the [=TPB=], Peter David was told by his editors that he was breaking all of the conventional ComicBook tropes, particularly the one having her death as the HeroicSacrifice at the climax of the story.
** The climax of ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' sees [[ComicBook/ScarletSpider Ben Reilly]] leaps between a Goblin Glider and Peter when the [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]] tries to kill Peter, similar to how Norman "died" (also trying to kill Peter) during ''ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied''. The 2009-2010 {{alternate continuity}} version sees [[spoiler:a MorallySuperiorCopy of Norman taking Ben's place when Harry does the same thing, allowing Ben to live]].
** An issue of ''Amazing Spider-Man'' has [[spoiler: J. Jonah Jameson's own wife, Marla,]] sacrifice her life to save her husband. The action and resulting death is so powerful that, for probably the first time in his life [[spoiler: J.J. can't bring himself to blame Spider-Man for something that was his own fault!]]
** During the storyline ''ComicBook/SpiderIsland'', [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]] confronts Eddie Brock, at this point as [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} Anti-Venom]], and tells him his symbiote is the cure to the virus that's giving people Spidey's powers [[spoiler:and turns them into the Spider Queen's army of humongous spiders]], but if he does so with so many people [[spoiler:the Anti-Venom symbiote would die.]] Eddie's response? [[spoiler:He goes to a church and gathers everyone infected and ''cures them''. After the symbiote dies, Eddie realizes that, for the first time since his hell began, he finally became the hero he saw himself to be. He was the hero of Spider-Island.]]

* ''ComicBook/KingThor'':
** Lord Librarian Shadrak sacrifices himself by blowing up the ruins of Omnipotence City to save the Goddesses of Thunder from Loki's Necro-Ravens.
** [[spoiler:Having been convinced to embrace his role as the God of Stories once more, Loki sacrifices himself to rekindle the Sun after it's blackened by Gorr.]]
** [[spoiler:Thor departs to sacrifice himself holding back the Entropy destroying what's left of the universe for as long as he can, leaving the Goddesses of Thunder in charge.]]

* In a classic ''[[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' storyline, Skurge The Executioner sacrificed himself to buy Thor and his companions [[YouShallNotPass time to escape from Hel]] (the Norse underworld). Double points because Thor had intended to do it, and [[MoreHeroThanThou Skurge knocked him out]].
* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel:
** ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan does this with style, taking a bullet to the stomach meant for [[spoiler: Ultimate Captain America]], then racing back to rescue his friends and family from the escaped [[spoiler:Ultimate Sinister Six]] before he finally succumbs to his wounds.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (the 616 version) sacrifices himself by slashing open a vat of molten adamantium and allowing himself to be covered in it to spare three victims of being turned into what he had been turned into.

** One could probably say that the event that supposedly turned ComicBook/JeanGrey into the Dark Phoenix was this. After all, she never expected to survive the radiation, and did it simply to save the rest of the team. In the original storyline, she did survive, but was turned into the [[OmnicidalManiac Dark Phoenix]] which led to the whole ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga''. After the whole thing was retconned and the Dark Phoenix was revealed to be a separate entity posing as Jean, her original action seemed more fitting of this Trope after all. (She was OnlyMostlyDead due to the intervention of the Phoenix Force.)
** In Uncanny X-Men issue 227, the X-Men sacrifice their lives to fuel a spell to defeat Adversary. Luckily Roma uses her powers to resurrect them soon after.
** In Creator/JossWhedon's run on ''Astonishing X-Men'', ComicBook/KittyPryde phases a giant bullet through the Earth...and then is stuck out there.
** ''ComicBook/AstonishingXMen'': Colossus infected himself with the Legacy Virus a few years earlier, thereby releasing the cure into the air deleting Legacy from existence. But it's ok, he got brought back to life in ''Astonishing''.
** ''ComicBook/XMan'' ended with Nate Grey destroying his body, becoming PureEnergy, and merging with every organism on the planet in order to prevent a PlanetEater alien from harvesting all mitochondria on Earth (From the alien's perspective, Nate's energy contaminated the "crop").
*** He later tried something similar - though it was closer to VillainsDyingGrace, given that he'd veered into AntiVillain[=/=]WellIntentionedExtremist territory - in the run-up to ''ComicBook/AgeOfXMan'', by using his [[PhysicalGod vast powers]] to save the world from more or less everything before he burnt out. In his words, "I'm dying, [[ComicBook/JeanGrey mother]]. I just wanted to do something good before I go." The ''Age of X-Man'' itself was this, being a genuine attempt to provide the X-Men with their perfect world to free them of their lives of pain and conflict with his last act (he [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence essentially ascended into an energy being again in the process]], but he fully expected that he would die). Given his massive collection of traumas and ControlFreak tendencies, it ended up as a horrifying CrapsaccharineWorld - though as the X-Men admitted, with some good points - and on realising this [[GracefulLoser let them go]]. Still, points for trying.
** {{ComicBook/Cable}} actually manufactured one, knowing that his PsychicPowers were going to burn him up. So he ran a whole GenghisGambit and positioned himself as the world's saviour, before making a burnt offering of himself in a massive fight with the Silver Surfer. Since he both survived and ended up being essentially resurrected (without his powers), the sarky and sincere Jesus comparisons InUniverse only increased. Being Cable, this was AllAccordingToPlan.

* ComicBook/{{X 23}} does this. ''A lot.'' In ''Target: X'' she's prepared to willingly return to the Facility with Kimura in order to spare her cousin and aunt (Kimura decides to torture them to death ''anyway'' to punish Laura for escaping, forcing Laura to fight back). She attacks Nimrod head-on to draw its attention away from the other kids and takes a direct blast of its weapon, which overloads her Healing Factor and she only survives because of Hellion's intervention. In ''X-Force'' she takes the Legacy Virus into herself and is about to throw herself into a vat of molten steel to destroy it, and only survives because of Elixir's intervention. In ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' she makes a frontal attack against Apex (who is now controlling a ''Sentinel'') to try protecting the other kids, and only survives when Apex grabs the IdiotBall. Significantly, Laura is borderline suicidally depressed and has a low or non-existent sense of self-worth due to her abusive upbringing, which drives her willingness to sacrifice herself for others.
* In ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'', we have [[spoiler: Iron Lad, Stature and Patriot, who all did this at separate occasions. Iron Lad sacrificed himself by going back to the future to restore the timeline and save everyone, even if it meant that [[FutureMeScaresMe he would become Kang The Conqueror, one of the Avengers's worst enemies.]] Then, later on, Patriot literally takes a bullet (or a laser shot, it's not entirely clear) to the chest to save Captain America's life. He barely survives and gains new powers thanks to a blood transfusion from his grandfather. Even later on, Stature sacrificed herself against Dr Doom, who had gained godlike powers and became nigh-unstoppable.]]

** The Black Order and Lethal Legion participate in a game that uses Earth as the battlefield. To earn 'points', one member of their team must grab an artifact and sacrifice themselves to score for their team. The Avengers enter as a third team, and Red Wolf gives up his life to score for the Avengers (the ComicBook/HumanTorch does the same, but without realizing that grabbing the artifact would kill him). [[spoiler:Of course, it's then revealed that they don't actually die, but are kept in stasis until the game is finished.]]

** And prior to that, while the Celestials were still in orbit, Black Bolt attacked them, using [[MakeMeWannaShout his powers]] at maximum [[spoiler: to call Galactus]], which shatters his body.

** In Creator/JossWhedon's run on ''Astonishing X-Men'', ComicBook/KittyPryde phases a giant bullet through the Earth...and then is stuck out there. If it had been less of an IdiotPlot, it would've been horrifying and touching, but all it did was [[TorchesAndPitchforks make a lot of fans mad]].

* In ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #587, [[spoiler:Johnny Storm sacrifices his life to make sure an army of Annihlus-like creatures never escaped the Negative Zone.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheMagnificentMsMarvel'':

* ''ComicBook/MagnificentMsMarvel'':

* Eric O'Grady, the Irredeemable ComicBook/AntMan, died like this in ''ComicBook/SecretAvengers''. He sacrificed himself to get a child to safety, and before being stomped to death, reflected on the fact that at least he got to die doing something decent for once in his life.

** The Black Order and Lethal Legion participate in a game that uses Earth as the battlefield. To earn 'points', one member of their team must grab an artefact and sacrifice themselves to score for their team. The Avengers enter as a third team, and Red Wolf gives up his life to score for the Avengers (the ComicBook/HumanTorch does the same, but without realising that grabbing the artefact would kill him). [[spoiler:Of course, it's then revealed that they don't actually die, but are kept in stasis until the game is finished.]]

* ComicBook/{{X 23}} does this. ''A lot.'' In ''Target: X'' she's prepared to willingly return to the Facility with Kimura in order to spare her cousin and aunt (Kimura decides to torture them to death ''anyway'' to punish Laura for escaping, forcing Laura to fight back). She attacks Nimrod head-on to draw its attention away from the other kids and takes a direct blast of its weapon, which overloads her Healing Factor and she only survives because of Hellion's intervention. In X-Force she takes the Legacy Virus into herself and is about to throw herself off a building to destroy it, and only survives because of Elixir's intervention. In ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' she makes a frontal attack against Apex (who is now controlling a ''Sentinel'') to try protecting the other kids, and only survives when Apex grabs the IdiotBall. Significantly, Laura is borderline suicidally depressed and has a low or non-existent sense of self-worth due to her abusive upbringing, which drives her willingness to sacrifice herself for others.