History WhatHappenedToTheMouse / TheDCU

** ''Adventures of Superman #431'' introduced the villain Constantine Stratos, an insane Greek millionaire who fancied himself the scion of the gods of Olympus and used a WeatherControlMachine to attack Superman. Superman destroyed the machine, but was not able to save Stratos, whom he believed was killed when his machine exploded. The end of the issue revealed that Stratos was very much alive and had been altered by his exploding machinery so he now could manipulate the weather by himself, without his technology. He was last seen swearing vengeance on Superman. This was in 1987, and he was never even mentioned again... until 2005, when he appeared as a character in the novel ''Superman: The Never Ending Battle'', by Creator/RogerStern.

** In crossover "ComicBook/FateIsTheKiller", Prince Adam is attending a royal feast together with his parents and Man-At-Arms when Zodar bursts into the place. Teela and several guards rush into the scene, and Adam takes advantage of the mayhem to go out of the castle and turn into He-Man. Before He-Man can return, though, he is intercepted by Zodac, and the story did not explain what happened to He-Man's parents, mentor and love interest after he left the feast.

** In Creator/MarkWaid's mid-00s reboot of ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', the first arc's villains were a group of psychopathic, xenophobic Daxamites. (Daxamites are related to Kryptonians, each one roughly as powerful as Superman.) To underscore how powerful and awful these villains were, a dozen of them destroyed a planet in minutes by flying over it and blasting it with their heat vision. Those are the key facts: very evil, very powerful, and there are (at least) ''twelve'' of them. The next issue four of them attack Earth and it's an amazing fight, with Crowning Moments of Awesome and Heel Face Turns and heroic sacrifices and deaths, and at the very last moment the four Daxamites get defeated, the Legion proves its worth to the skeptical authorities and the universe rejoices. And the other eight Daxamites? Each with the power to destroy a continent? Responsible for the deaths of billions? They never get mentioned again.

* ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'': The end of the series revealed the existence of the "Comic-Book Limbo" for this sort of character. Not dead. Not in prison. Not retconned out of existence. Just gone.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* In ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'', The Joker's three dwarf henchmen just disappear after Commissioner Gordon is put in a cage; they aren't seen with the rest of the circus freaks, not even when the appearance of the Batmobile scatters the freaks away.
* Near the end of their surreal run on ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'' Creator/GrantMorrison created "Comicbook Limbo" for this sort of character. Not dead. Not in prison. Not retconned out of existence. Just gone.
* Creator/GrantMorrison created a fatal version of this during their run on ''ComicBook/JLA1997'' when a hostless version of the ComicBook/TheSpectre went after FallenHero Triumph. The League put him in their trophy room as a memorial for a fallen member -- and both the team and Morrison themself forgot he was there when the Injustice Gang blew up the Watchtower at the end of Morrison's run.

** In Creator/MarkWaid's mid-00s reboot of ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', the first arc's Big Bads were a group of psychopathic, xenophobic Daxamites. (Daxamites are related to Kryptonians, each one roughly as powerful as Superman.) To underscore how powerful and awful these villains were, a dozen of them destroyed a planet in minutes by flying over it and blasting it with their heat vision. Those are the key facts: very evil, very powerful, and there are (at least) ''twelve'' of them. The next issue four of them attack Earth and it's an amazing fight, with Crowning Moments of Awesome and Heel Face Turns and heroic sacrifices and deaths, and at the very last moment the four Daxamites get defeated, the Legion proves its worth to the skeptical authorities and the universe rejoices. And the other eight Daxamites? Each with the power to destroy a continent? Responsible for the deaths of billions? They never get mentioned again.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', Elaine's friend Mona falls increasingly to the background as the story progresses, and by the end she's not present for any of the important events, and no-one even mentions her. Considering that Lucifer had made her a guardian spirit (of hedgehogs!) in his Creation, you would think that she would pop up at some point, or at least warrant a comment.

** In Creator/MarkWaid's mid-00s reboot of ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', the first arc's Big Bads were a group of psychopathic, xenophobic Daxamites. (Daxamites are related to Kryptonians, each one roughly as powerful as Superman.) To underscore how powerful and awful these villains were, a dozen of them destroyed a planet in minutes by flying over it and blasting it with their heat vision. Those are the key facts: very evil, very powerful, and there are (at least) ''twelve'' of them. The next issue four of them attack Earth and it's an amazing fight, with Crowning Moments of Awesome and Heel Face Turns and heroic sacrifices and deaths, and at the very last moment the four Daxamites get defeated, the Legion proves its worth to the skeptical authorities and the universe rejoices. And the other eight Daxamites? Each with the power to destroy a continent? Responsible for the deaths of billions? They never, ever, ever get mentioned again.

* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'':

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* Near the end of his surreal run on ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'' Creator/GrantMorrison created "Comicbook Limbo" for this sort of character. Not dead. Not in prison. Not retconned out of existence. Just gone.

* Creator/GrantMorrison created a fatal version of this during their run on ''ComicBook/JLA1997'' when a hostless version of the ComicBook/TheSpectre went after FallenHero Triumph. The League put him in their trophy room as a memorial for a fallen member -- and both the team and Morrison himself forgot he was there when the Injustice Gang blew up the Watchtower at the end of Morrison's run.

* Near the end of his surreal run on ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'' Creator/GrantMorrison created "Comicbook Limbo" for this sort of character. Not dead. Not in prison. Not retconned out of existence. Just gone.

** ''ComicBook/SupermanBirthright'': ComicBook/LanaLang is noted to have disappeared from Smallville at some point before the beginning of the story. That element never comes up again, and the only other appearance she makes is during a flashback to when they were in highschool.

* In ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'', The Joker's three dwarf henchmen just disappear after Commissioner Gordon is put in a cage; they aren't seen with the rest of the circus freaks, not even when the appearance of the Batmobile scatters the freaks away.

** In the second ''ComicBook/Superboy1994'' annual Superboy, Cadmus' thirteenth attempt at cloning Superman, is introduced to the prior twelve who are all in stasis pods deep inside Cadmus. While attempt one dies during the issue and another was already dead due to his pod being destroyed the rest of them are apparently stuck in these pods forever as they're never seen or directly mentioned again.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'', an early issue has the team invading a secret installation where scientists are attempting to create a fictional Earth and give it substance. They succeed, but someone escapes from the fictional Earth and goes on a killing spree. The issue ends with a caption telling us that he is still at large. He is never seen or mentioned again, except for a quick mention in the final issue, where Elijah basically says they've given up on looking for him.

** In the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Volume 1]] arc ''ComicBook/JudgmentInInfinity'' Wonder Woman summons the League for a debriefing, Franchise/{{Superman}} and Franchise/GreenLantern go out to look up information in their archives about the Adjudicator... and then the Leaguers disappear from the story. Shortly after, Diana summons an army of heroines to fight a multi-dimensional war, but she does not even think of calling ComicBook/MaryMarvel or ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}.

* The first arc of ''All-Star Batman'' features the return of Two-Face, who had previously committed suicide in "The Big Burn" arc of ''Batman and Robin''. While Two-Face shooting himself in the head is referred to, no attempt is made to explain how he survived that, especially with no ill-effects if he failed to kill himself.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'': "A Game of Bat and Rat" begins with a hoodlum announcing that he has killed Batman by shooting him at close range with a rocket launcher. Batman shows up less than an hour later, not only still alive but apparently not even seriously injured, though his cape is a bit tattered. It's never explained how he survived.
* Parodied in the ''Superman: ComicBook/TheBlackRing'' story arc. A particular character gets killed several times over the course of the arc, each time reappearing later apparently unharmed. The thing is, he's perfectly willing to explain how he did it, it's just that nobody else is interested, and he always gets cut off when he tries.
* In ''Comicbook/InfiniteCrisis'', it was a result of ProtectionFromEditors. In order to give the series a [[DeathIsDramatic big death]], an [[ExecutiveMeddling editorial mandate]] came down to kill Comicbook/{{Nightwing}}. The staff rebelled, offering to kill [[spoiler: Conner Kent, aka ComicBook/{{Superboy|1994}}]] [[SacrificialLamb in his place]]. Despite this, he still [[spoiler:catches an energy bolt to the chest, leaving him lying in a pool of his own blood]]. But he's seen uninjured before the end of the book, with no explanation for how He Got Better.
** The hardcover was given a few extra pages to keep the splash pages intact, and some of this space was given to Dr. Mid-Nite informing Batman and Robin that Nightwing would survive.
** Lady Quark also showed up in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' as one of Alexander Luthor's prisoners, despite having been subjected to a KillAndReplace plot way back in ''[[ComicBook/LEGIONDCComics L.E.G.I.O.N. '94]]'' #62. No mention was made as to how Quark was suddenly alive again.
* A well known "[[JokerImmunity skill]]" of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'s'' ArchEnemy ComicBook/TheJoker is to come back from obviously fatal ends. He's been shot, electrocuted, blown up, thrown off buildings, etc., but turns up a few months later without so much as a mention. One story arc ended with him clutching a crate of explosives to his chest and gleefully shooting it, with Bats barely escaping the detonating building. A few months later, [[ItMakesSenseInContext he's back in a Santa suit on a road trip with Robin...]]
* In Kyle Baker's ''ComicBook/PlasticMan'' series, Woozy Winks dies dramatically in the "On the Lam" plotline, but comes back smiling with no consequences in the last panel. For a while, being invulnerable like that ''was'' Woozy's power. Storywise, AWizardDidIt.
* The "Hunt For Comicbook/{{Raven}}" storyline in ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' ended with Miss Martian stuck in a seemingly irreversible coma. When Miss Martian next appeared in ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'', she was completely recovered with no mention to her condition.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Plastique was meant to be dead when Phil Jimenez wanted to use her in "The Witch and the Warrior", he decided to use her anyway. One of the heroes exclaims that they thought she was dead, but then everyone's far too busy to go looking for an explanation.