Basic Trope: The villain in a superhero film dies, often despite not dying in the original comics.
- Straight: The movie Lion Man ends in the Big Bad Hyena dying as he pummels off a cliff, although in the Lion Man comics, Hyena lived.
- Exaggerated:
- The Lion Man films kill off every villain that appears in them, down to even the very minor villains.
- Hyena is established as immortal, but he somehow gets killed off anyway.
- Downplayed:
- Hyena is seriously injured, but doesn't necessarily die.
- Hyena is spared, but The Dragon Badger gets killed off.
- Justified: Lion Man believes that if he has to kill a villain, he certainly will.
- Inverted:
- Hyena dies in the comics, but is Spared by the Adaptation in the movies.
- Lion Man is killed in the movie.
- Lion Man saves Hyena from certain death at one point.
- Not only does Hyena survive, but he gets away with his actions.
- Subverted:
- Hyena seems to have died, but The Stinger reveals he lived.
- In early development, Hyena is planned to get killed, but this ends up getting scrapped.
- Double Subverted: The sequel, Lion Man 2, ends up killing off Hyena.
- Parodied: Hyena is Driven to Suicide for no other reason besides "I'm a villain in a superhero movie, I have to die!"
- Zig-Zagged: Some villains in the Lion Man films die, others don't. In fact, several even have a Heel–Face Turn.
- Averted:
- No villains die - some may be Put on a Prison Bus, but that's the worst they'll get.
- Everybody Lives.
- Enforced:
- Hyena is a truly atrocious villain who has shown that he is Beyond Redemption. This'd be the only way to give him a satisfying end.
- Lion Man 2 is set to focus on White Tiger, another arch-enemy of Lion Man, so it makes sense to find a way to get Hyena out of the way first.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Lion Man rescues Hyena before he falls to his death.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Man, I'm sad that they killed Hyena, it could've been cool if he became a hero instead."
- Implied: Hyena is last seen in an action sequence that could've killed him, but it's not clear if he died - for the rest of the film, no mention of Hyena is made, and the villain focus is shifted over to Dragon Ascendant Badger instead.
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