Heroic Sacrifices in The DCU.
The DCU
- Animal Man (2011): The Rotworld arc ends with Cliff Baker sacrificing his life to defend his father Buddy from William Arcane.
- Aquaman: According to writer Tad Williams, if Sword of Atlantis had not been canceled, the second Aquaman, Arthur Joseph, would have sacrificed his life to revive the original Aquaman by giving up the piece of Aquaman's soul that had revived Arthur Joseph. This was so that the original Aquaman could fight an evil entity only he was capable of defeating. Then, perhaps poor Arty Joe would have gained a little more sympathy from fans.
- Easily the most famous Heroic Sacrifices in the
superhero genreDC universe are the deaths of The Flash and Supergirl in Crisis on Infinite Earths. - One Lower-Deck Episode of Batman's comic occurs in the events leading up to Batman: No Man's Land. In Blackgate, a prisoner convicted for murder is about to be led to the death chamber. He's still tearfully denying his guilt, but baring a last minute call from the governor, his lawyer and other defenders can only console him. Then, the earthquake hits. With the structure in danger of collapsing, the prisoner has to play hero, leading the others to safety, and fighting his way past the super-villain population. At the climax of the story, he holds a support bar steady and yells at them to flee, his final words a confession to his lawyer — he is guilty of the murder. The column collapses as they make it clear, crushing him, combining this Trope with Redemption Equals Death.
- DC Comics Bombshells:
- Twice, in the Battle of London. Mera kills her second Titan, knowing that she will lose the rest of her powers. She also gets captured by the Atlanteans afterwards. Later, Stargirl sacrifices her life to kill the greater Titan formed by Edel Nacht.
- Supergirl's adoptive parents and Stargirl's biological father all sacrifice their life force to power the spell that defeats Faora, dying in the process.
- Diana, being herself created from clay, merges with Clayface to help depower him and transfer her conscience to him, dying in the process. Donna Troy inadvertently creates a new Diana, who has a strong resemblence to the one who died but is not truly her as she was created from Donna's memories.
- DCeased: The concluding miniseries DCeased: War of the Undead Gods has Damian Wayne give his life to ensure the heroes' victory against Erebos.
- In the "Day of Vengeance" leadup to Infinite Crisis, the last Lord of Order (The Spectre already killed the others along with the Lords of Chaos) Nabu engages The Spectre in a battle that he knows he can't win. The Spectre murdering the last Lord of Order convinces the Presence (which is effectively God in the mainstream DCU) that he's gone out of control, and The Spectre is promptly sealed into another mortal host.
- In Final Night, Ferro attempts this to destroy the Sun Eater and save Earth, as a Mythology Gag to Ferro Lad's death below. However, Parallax steps in and saves him, sending him back to Earth and being the one to perform the sacrifice.
- Flashpoint: Bart Allen sacrificed himself to become the bolt of lightning that gives Barry his speed back.
- Vibe, one of the most maligned members of the Justice League of America, sacrificed himself to save his teammates from killer robots built by a Mad Scientist.
- In the first issue of the third series of Justice Society of America, Mister America is introduced, a patriotically-themed super-detective... who has no problem beating up suspects. His family is killed by a villain to destroy his legacy. He shows up to beat the tar out of the villain... and then he gets mortally wounded. His response is to run from the Boston dockyards to New York's Battery Park (using Le Parkour), jump through the Justice Society's skylight, and hit the table in the main meeting hall, dying on impact. In response, the Justice Society tracks down his family's killer.
- In Justice League: Last Ride, the Martian Manhunter died due to doing one of these. In the backstory, the Justice League was fighting the forces of Darkseid when Batman realizes the only way to stop Darkseid and his nukes was for someone to go to Apokolips's core and shut down the planet's power. Superman volunteers to do this, but he's too busy fighting Darkseid, so J'onn, despite being weak to fire does it instead. This is also why Superman is mad at Batman: because Batman didn't stop it, even though there was no time and Clark himself, as mentioned, was busy.
- Justice Society of America: Three generations of Hourmen try to do this. In the original timeline, the first Hourman Rex Tyler sacrificed himself to stop Extant from destroying the universe. Time shenanigans by the third Hourman (an android from the future) allow the first one to spend time with his son Rick the second Hourman, knowing that he will eventually have to go back to the point of his death and sacrifice himself. Rick refuses to let his father die since he wants his mother to have the same chance to reconnect with Rex that he had, and tries to take his father's place. In the end, the android Hourman makes the sacrifice.
- Kingdom Come: After spending most of his teenage and adult life under Lex Luthor's mind control, Captain Marvel dies by taking Superman's place and making a nuke detonate in mid-air, saving countless other superheroes. His death sends Superman on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Legion of Super-Heroes:
- The Death of Lightning Lad: Lightning Lad sacrifices himself in battle with Zaryan the Conqueror, and every member of the Legion participates in what amounts to a lottery to determine who will sacrifice their own life to bring him back. Saturn Girl, his Love Interest, cheats to make sure hers is the life sacrificed - but she is in turn replaced by Chameleon Boy's shapeshifting pet Proty, which sacrifices itself in her place.
- The Death Of Ferro Lad: Ferro Lad sacrifices himself to destroy the Sun-Eater.
- Supergirl's Three Super Girl-Friends: Brainiac risks his life to give Supergirl a force-field belt right before a Kryptonite meteor crash onto their heads.Supergirl: "Brainiac 5, you saved my life by loaning me your force-shield belt...But you could have lost your own life! Why did you it!"
Brainiac 5: "[...] I'd gladly sacrifice my life to save yours, any time!" - "Legion of Super-Heroes/Bugs Bunny Special": Supergirl is dying due to infecting herself with Rigelian fever to save the Legion from Mordru.
- Chemical King dies preventing the start of World War VII.
- Karate Kid sacrifices himself to save his wife's home planet.
- Non-lethal version: Matter-Eater Lad saving the universe by eating the otherwise indestructable Miracle Machine, but driven insane in the process.
- Magnetic Kid dies to unlock Sorcerer's World during the "Magic Wars" storyline, in an effort to prove himself to his older brother Cosmic Boy.
- Leviathan, thanks to a Literal Genie granting his "heart's desire" to die a hero, sacrifices himself to stop Dr. Regulus in the post-Zero Hour reboot.
- Live Wire (the 90's version of Lightning Lad) resigns from the Legion and sacrifices himself to save his friends and Love Interest from former-teammate-turned-Omnicidal Maniac Element Lad in the limited series Legion Lost.
- Even the original Composite Superman, a villain who had opposed the team, died this way, feeling remorse when a much crueler villain named Xan tried to kill Superman and Batman; the Composite Superman shielded the two heroes from the villain's Magna Gun, only to be vaporized. A statue was made to honor him later, saying he lived a villain, but died a hero.
- Legends of the Dead Earth:
- In Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #5, Luthor the 60th fires a beam weapon composed of an element from his homeworld Hydros, essentially the planet's equivalent of Kryptonite, at Kaleb when he attempts to attack him. Kaleb is almost killed in the process. However, his fellow resistance fighter Corin jumps in the path of the beam and the weapon is disrupted. The heat of the blast is more than any human could withstand and he dies within seconds but not before telling Kaleb to take care of Lang, with whom they were both in love. Corin's death has a significant effect on Kaleb as while Corin had never liked him, he was still willing to give up his life to save him for the good of the rebellion.
- In Flash Annual #9, Bryan Mallory decides to re-enter the chamber which siphons off his Life Energy so that the people can be restored to health and the planet can remain green instead of returning to its previous icy status. He does so with the full knowledge that he shall have to remain in the chamber indefinitely.
- In Secret Six, Tarantula is killed after telling Junior she has the Get Out Of Hell Free card. Scandal has it.
- In Starman the original Starman Ted Knight sacrifices his life when he transports the Mist's nuclear bomb into space, being blown up in the process, but not before making peace with his foe.
- Superman:
- Jimmy Olsen attempted this in Superman Family #173. In order to counteract a virus affecting all of Kandor, he planned to blow up the bottle—and himself with it—thus giving the Kandorians the powers necessary to be cured. He was only saved by the super-tough Kandorian fabric he was wearing.
- Action Comics #399: An overloading nuclear reactor threatens to "turn the Earth into a ball of flame", requiring Superman to carry it into space and hurl it into the sun. Then, Superman's drawn through a portal several centuries into the future, where scientists are testing a device that has not only brought him to the future, but George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and George Custer. Superman is, much to their regret, the only one able to escape the containment field they are held in, and quickly learns a rather skewed (to him) version of his own death, where he perished saving the world from the very disaster he was just attempting to stop. (The other three historic figures had also been pulled to this place mere hours before their deaths in order to prevent a Grandfather Paradox.) Superman at first has second thoughts about going back, but then does so - only to discover, to his shock, that he manages to survive. Eventually, he starts to realize that he wasn't in the future of his Earth, but an alternate one, where history is similar, but not identical. (However, the final panel makes this very cold comfort for him, as he realizes that world's Superman died, and the citizens of the Earth he saved are now mourning for him.)
- Supergirl's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths saved Superman and the whole Multiverse and it was one of the big comic book deaths at that time. Remarkably, in Convergence she found out that she'd die if she left her universe to fight the Anti-Monitor, and she still chose to fight.Oh, dear God. Did my death mean anything? Did I help them save the world?
[beat]
No. I can't think that way. Even if all my death means is I've delayed theirs, I still have to save them. - Post-Flashpoint Kara tried to kill herself to destroy the Kryptonian Worldkiller and save Earth in Red Daughter of Krypton.
- Subverted in Many Happy Returns. Post-Crisis Linda Danvers tries to take Kara's place and fight the Anti-Monitor to save her life, even knowing she can die. It does not work, and she has to let Kara meet her fate.
- In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Harbinger dies while defending Kara from Darkseid's raiders. Batman notes that she fought at least four enemies at once and didn't die quietly.
- At the end of Crucible, the group need to destroy Superboy's clonelings before they become fully developed; nonetheless, stopping the process will trigger a fail-safe self-destruct that will obliterate the entire cloning facility. Kara and Kon tell their friends to get to safety as they stay and blow the place up, hoping that their weakened invulnerability is still strong enough to withstand the explosion.
- The Phantom Zone: When they finally confront the Aethyr, Quex-Ul realizes that the Aethyr kept him around because his presence keeps Superman distracted and unfocused. So Quex-Ul attacks the Aethyr head-on, so it destroys him, and Superman can fight freely.
- "Supergirl's Big Brother": A conman called Biff Rigger pretends to be Fred and Edna Danvers' long lost son Jan to steal his inheritance. As cajoling the Danvers, Biff discovers their adoptive daughter is Supergirl. Biff tricks Kara into giving him a power-granting pill, and starts using his newfound powers to commit robberies right away. Kara is trying to stop him from plundering a sunken ship, when she comes upon a cache of Kryptonite rocks and starts weakening. Biff feels tempted to let her die but his conscience will not leave him alone, so he gets her out of the ocean, dying as saving her life (since his powers wore off as he was swimming towards the surface).
- Superman (1939):
- In #123, Super-Girl grabs and flies away with a piece of Kryptonite that's incapacitating Superman, claiming that she isn't affected because she isn't a Kryptonian. However, she actually is, thanks to the wish making her like Superman in every way. She can feel the radiation killing her but insists on getting it away from Superman.
- A double version happens in #172: Seeing Brainiac about to throw a Kryptonite spear at his successor, Ar-Val, the former Superman throws himself in the way, causing Brainiac to waste his shot but allowing himself to take a fatal stab wound. And at the end of the story, Ar-Val gives Superman back his powers by transferring them from his own body in an attempt to atone for his earlier behavior. The process turns him to stone.
- Superman continues fighting Doomsday to the death in The Death of Superman to protect the people of Metropolis, even though it meant sustaining mortal wounds in the process. He was Only Mostly Dead.
- Mr. Mxyzptlk, of all people, did this in Day of Vengeance. Due to the removal of magic from the Earth, he's nearly powerless, and trying to return home by saying his name backwards, but has forgotten how to pronounce it. Superman tries to help him, but then the villainous Ruin shows up, and attempts to assassinate Superman with Kryptonite-based weaponry. Mxy pushes Superman out of the way, taking a Kryptonite spear to the heart and vanishing. (He seems to whisper 'kltpzyxm' first, and seeing as he appeared alive later in a couple other storylines, one can assume he was Only Mostly Dead, possibly healed in his home dimension.)
- Superman & Batman: Generations: Jonathan Kent warns Thomas and Martha Wayne of their eventual deaths after seeing it happen on the Chronoscope in Generations II. With the knowledge that their deaths will result in their son Bruce becoming Gotham City's defender Batman, Thomas and Martha willingly let their murders happen, but not without telling their son how much they love him beforehand.
- In Teen Titans #74, Eddie Bloomberg, formerly known as Kid Devil (before he was depowered), is given his heroic send off. While the other Titans are fighting the Fearsome Five, Eddie discovers a dying metahuman with nuclear powers about to have a meltdown which would destroy all of San Francisco. Without any hesitation, Eddie takes the living nuke to the Titans jet, being horribly burned and subjected to lethal amounts of radiation in the process. Then he takes the jet into low Earth orbit, refusing to eject just to make sure the jet doesn't change course and go back down to Earth. Eddie vanishes in a nuclear explosion, with the Titans' battlecry "Titans Together" as his last words.
- Wonder Woman:
- Wonder Woman (1942): While Zenna Persik has an escape option during what turns out to be her last Nazi hunt it would leave either Wonder Woman or Black Canary dead, she chooses to sacrifice herself to kill the Nazi she's been chasing and destroy his new weapon instead of sacrificing one of the heroes to do so.
- Wonder Woman (1987): Artemis draws the White Magician's attention from Diana even though she's too injured to continue putting up a fight when she realizes Diana is being overwhelmed, and then insists Diana take the Gauntlets of Atlas from her in order for Diana to have a chance against the overpowered magic user when the gauntlets are the only thing keeping the mortally wounded Artemis alive.
- Wonder Woman: Odyssey: Philippa sacrifices herself to save Diana's life.
- One issue of Metal Men has Platinum create a duplicate Doc Magnus who will love her and treat her as a human behind his back, only for her creation to come out twisted and evil as a result of a last-minute malfunction. His replacement Metal Men overcome the originals until it's down to just her vs. duplicate Doc and... Plutonium. She binds the two using her power of hyperextensibility and flies the jet platform they're on to a height at which Plutonium's detonation will cause no harm.Magnus (panicked): "Tina! Unravel yourself before it's too late!"Platinum: "You know I've got to stay to the end, Doc. Isn't that what a real girl would do?"
