Bittersweet Ending / Comic Books

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As said on the main page, spoilers are unmarked.

The following have their own pages:

• The DCU
• Marvel Universe

Other Comics

• 100 Bullets: Almost the entire cast dies, but in doing so finally free the United States from the yoke of the Trust. What that actually means is deliberately left ambiguous, but do note that the final issue's bloodbath is set against the backdrop of a sunrise.
• The 2000 AD Massive Multiplayer Crossover "Nordland Rising" ends with the Norts still in control of both Nu-Earth and Mega-City One, and Judge Dredd trapped on Nu-Earth with Rogue Trooper. On the other hand, the leaders behind the Norts becoming Multiversal Conquerors have all been killed, the wormhole that allowed them to keep sending soldiers to the Meg is closed, and Dredd and Rogue are ready to take the fight all the way to Nordstadt.
• 5 Worlds: All 5 beacons are lit, Mon Domani becomes a sun, the 5 worlds extinction is averted, the Mimic is defeated and sealed away for good, and An Tzu is able to return to the Felid realm before he can fade from existence, and Jax is able to live his life on his own terms. However, in order to defeat the Mimic, Oona is forced to sacrifice herself by channeling the power of all 5 beacons through her body in order to overpower it, causing her body to burn out while her friends can only watch helplessly, which also ruins any hope of her and Vector being together after the latter had just confessed his love for her. That said, the epilogue hints that she may have been reincarnated as a Felid.
• Alex + Ada: Bitter: While on the run from the police, Ada gets shot, shuts down, and is disassembled by the authorities (who are looking for proof that she's sentient), Alex is found guilty of several crimes and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, and when Isabel reveals she was the one who tipped off the cops about him, he quite flatly ends their friendship. Sweet: By the time Alex is released, Sentients have been granted legal rights, Alex's grandmother left him enough money that his friends were able to use it to keep his house in working order, Zelda manages to reassemble Ada, and Alex's foray into Ada's neural network reveals that she hid her 'self' in a protected part of her brain; when Alex reconnects this to her OS she returns to normal and they can resume their relationship.
• All Eight Eyes: Reynolds dies killing the biggest damn spider in New York and the one that took everything from him. He still goes out happy, seeing visions of his family awaiting him. New York sees proof of the spiders, even though most people are still ready to rationalize it away. More spiders are out there, and maybe even other giant creepy crawlies, with Vin promising to fight on and wake the city up.
• All Fall Down: Siphon dies and no-one gets their powers back. However, a flash-forward shows that the heroes and villains do eventually move on and find closure.
• The Alternates: The Alternates manage to defeat the Originals and prevent their plan to flood the city with Prestige, but the Originals are all killed and the Alternates have to live with the knowledge that they basically stole their lives.
• Amelia Rules!: In Superheroes, Trishia lives, but Amelia doesn't find out until years later — and she never sees Trish again.
• Amulet: In the final volume of the series, Vigo sacrifices himself to defeat Ikol in the void, but it leaves him completely stranded in Alledia’s past 300 years ago, where he spends his last days writing a book to Emily called the Book of Light for her to read in order for her to understand that Ikol is made from Earth due to human nature. With the Stonekeeper's curse gone and all the conflicts resolved, Alledia is finally at peace as Trellis allows Gabilan to become the new Elf King, since he proves to be a great leader, while Trellis will lead the newly formed Guardian council with its new members. Emily and her family return to their world right where they left off some time ago and feel like a happy family again just before Emily’s father's tragic death. It is hinted that Emily will use her knowledge and experience during her time in Alledia to improve her world, just to make sure it won’t make any more mistakes like when it created Ikol.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The Promise: Aang successfully averts the war between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, Yu Dao becomes the center of a new dynamic between the nations, and Aang finds a way to carry on the beliefs of his people through the newly-formed Air Acolytes. However, Aang severs his spiritual connection to Roku, since Roku's outdated worldview and insistence that the Avatar must be willing to kill clash with Aang's Thou Shalt Not Kill attitude and new worldview. By extension, the other Avatars are a no-go in this department, as well. Zuko realizes his internal conflicts will continue in spite of his Heel–Face Turn, and in pursuit of finding peace in his familial roots resorts to enlisting his currently straitjacketed sister on a quest to find his still-missing mother. Finally, Mai breaking up with Zuko over his secret-keeping isn't resolved by the end. It remains to be seen if Iroh II's grandmother is another woman or not.
  • The Search: Team Avatar was able to get Rafa healed and the mystery behind Ursa was solved with her being found in a new family with Ikem with no memories, that were later restored. However, Azula is more emotionally conflicted than she has ever been in her life. Ursa and Zuko both have to accept that Ursa had willingly given up all memories of her children for 5 years due to being unable to cope with the pain the memories of her time with the Fire Nation royalty gave her and now, having restored her memories, must live with her guilt. Zuko's happy to have his mother back but has potentially lost his sister again and rebuilding a relationship with his mother may be a challenge now that she has a new husband and daughter in her life to complicate matters as well. And that's not even going into what said husband and daughter must have to go through...
  • The Rift: Aang is able to save the town, but General Old Iron leaves in defeat, declaring that spirits have no place in the world anymore, leaving Aang shaken about his duty to keep balance in the world. It gets both better and worse if you've seen The Legend of Korra, as Aang's successor will create a world where humans and spirits live in harmony, but only after her connection to her past lives is severed, meaning Aang doesn't get to see it.
  • Smoke and Shadow: Zuko and Mai manage to find the children abducted and either put an end to or severely weakened both the New Ozai Society and the Kemurikage/Fire Warriors. However, Mai and Zuko are still suffering through intense relationship problems, and Azula is still out there, with schemes that may eventually put her in confrontation again with Zuko's desires.
  • North and South: Malina is accepted into Katara and Sokka's family/circle of friends, and none of the main characters die. However, the tensions between the Northern and Southern tribes remain, Gilak dies without any chance to redeem himself unlike so many other villains in the franchise, and it is implied that Katara — while more accepting of the changes happening in the South — is going to continue opposing Hakoda and Malina's modernization plans.
• The Bad Bad Place: Ned is able to trick Malise into allowing Jenny and Jon to escape from the Castavette Estate, fulfilling the terms of his vow. As a result, the house vanishes from reality and is bound never to harm anyone else, allowing Jenny, Jon and one of the children from the house to stride off into the sunset. Unfortunately, Ned did this at the cost of now being trapped in the Estate forever along with Serena, Malise has essentially gone unpunished for her crimes, and the people ensnared by the house will remain there for all eternity.
• Bart Simpson:
  • At the end of "Basketball's a Drag", Bart is punished for disguising himself as Lisa to play basketball after being kicked off the boys' team, but he is also put back on the team.
  • "Principal Bart Simpson" ends with Skinner getting his job back and Bart no longer having to be the principal, but Milhouse is crying because he'd missed having a "sidekick" in the form of Skinner.
• Be Kind, My Neighbor: Mr. Neighbor and Wegg are reunited after Wegg comes back to life, as Mr. Neighbor kept his heart for safekeeping. Wegg's head is also back to normal, no longer being a rotting egg. But they both have to leave Baths, leaving all of their friends to think they've died, and it's unclear whether or not Mr. Neighbor will have to continue killing in order to keep his body, even with Lady Trudy seemingly gone for good.
• Beautiful Darkness: The fairies except Aurora are all dead, but so are Zelie and her followers and Aurora can now live in peace.
• Beauty: Coddie ends the story having become The High Queen, sealed away Mab and convinced the kingdom to stop worshipping the fairies but a lot of people died both directly and indirectly due to her beauty. Not to mention the implication that Mab will one day be freed again...
• The Bellybuttons: After the Downer Ending of Volume 7, Volume 8 ends on a more positive note... though there's plenty of tragic or ominous elements there that keeps it from being an outright Happy Ending. After an album-long Trauma Conga Line, Jenny has recovered, Took a Level in Kindness and is a better and happier person than she ever was before, now openly dating Hugo and having repaired her friendship with Vicky. Albin and the Albinos, after a bit of struggling, have won a prestigious music awards and have become a success. At the same time, Karine is plagued by guilt for what she did to Xander, and Vicki, who just seemed ready to accept her sexuality and confess to Mégane, discovers that she insulted the girl one too many times and now her chance seems to be blown as Mégane instead got with Lara. The last we see of Vicky in the album, she's depressed and has started comfort eating again.
• Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Sam kills Nigel, stopping him from killing anyone else and cleverly framing him for all her murders, thus proving her "innocence" after his failed attempt to expose her in Issue #4. Sam more or less gets away scot-free, her reputation with the town is repaired, and peace returns to Woodbrook. Things eventually go back to normal as the people move on with their lives, and there seems to be a new hope in the air as Melody has a new man on her arm, implying that she's finally moving on from her late husband. However, Sam plans to keep killing people despite everything that's happened; she's just hibernating a little until the heat dies.
• Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring: While there are some bright moments of Woodbrook's residents coming to each other's aid as the town is aflame, Sam still escapes in the confusion (though with Lewis discovering her secret serial-killer life and living to tell about it) and Monica's quest ends with her burning to death after being left tied up in the hardware store. Having found a good place to hide in a remote location in the desert, Sam's narration states that while the world found out most of what she did in the following years, her notoriety would earn her a surprising number of fans.
• Bingo Love: Hazel and Mari die within hours of each other one night, but when Hazel "wakes up" in the afterlife, she finds Mari waiting for her in one of Heaven's bingo halls.
• Black Hammer: The Anti-God returns to Spiral City, so to stop him the heroes decide to seal themselves back in the farm and wipe their memories so they can never break out. It works, but they are a lot happier now that their issues are removed.
• Black Hole (1995): Keith & Eliza leave Seattle to their own Happy Ending, while Rob ends up murdered in the forest, leaving Chris alone and unsure about her future.
• Black Moon Chronicles: Wismerhill manages to save many of the world's races from the impending destruction of Earth, but some of them choose to Face Death with Dignity instead.
• Blacksad:
  • Somewhere Within The Shadows: Blacksad's former flame is obviously still dead, but he was able to bring vigilante justice to the man who murdered her, even if he and Smirnov had to go behind the law to do it, which neither of them are proud of.
  • Arctic Nation: Blacksad is able to rescue Kylie and cripple the eponymous white-furred supremacist organization, but Kylie's mother was killed, leaving her an orphan, and Jezebel, the sole survivor of the complicated revenge plot that involved Kylie's kidnapping to begin with, is left broken and the Line is still a Dying Town.
  • Red Soul: Blacksad is able to prevent his friend, Otto, from being murdered and stops the hydrogen bomb blueprints from being leaked to the Soviet Union, but in the process was forced to abandon a potential Love Interest and discovers Otto is actually a former Nazi, who is left a shell of his former self from the experience (although he returns to Germany to try and repent for his sins). The would-be assassin also killed an innocent lookalike and escapes justice.
  • A Silent Hell: Blacksad isn't able to prevent Sebastian's murder, but Faust's crimes become known to others, he's going to die broken and alone regardless, Blacksad is at least able to prevent one of the musicians from being killed, and it's assured that Sebastian's widow and child will be financially stable.
  • Amarillo: Chad decides to stop running away from his crimes and face justice, preventing Blacksad from being arrested for the murder he committed, but Neal ended up accidentally dying, and it's ambiguous whether or not Chad's story ends up published. Blacksad also ends up totalling two cars he borrowed with no way to repay the owners.
  • They All Fall Down: Solomon gets away with his crimes and successfully completes his bridge, becoming more popular than ever in the process. However, it's revealed that Rachel Zucco, masquerading as the chief engineer's assistant, sabotaged the bridge during construction to ensure that it wouldn't be sturdy enough to withstand strong winds; as a result, it is completely destroyed during a rainstorm at the end of the book, ensuring that Solomon's reputation would be ruined and that he would go down in history as a man best remembered for the catastrophic failure of his most ambitious project. Also, Alma and Blacksad are shown to reconcile and run off in the rain to happily speak about what is strongly implied to be Blacksad's daughter that Alma conceived during Red Soul, which means they could be a family, but it's left ambiguous whether or not Blacksad and Alma get back together along with whether or not the former leaves with her for Europe especially with Smirnov's Fox lieutenant most likely still gunning for him to frame him over Shelby's murder of Dill's caretaker.
• Black Science: Kadir manages to reset the multiverse, with Grant and his family alive and well in one reality, a totalitarian state led by Kadir, with only Grant remembering the original timeline. Then this reality splits into one version where Grant rebels, causing his kids to die, and the other where he finally relents and accepts Kadir's rule, finding some kind of happiness. The ending implies the rebellious Grant jumped between the two realities to take his kids back.
• Blankets: Craig and Raina break up because she wants to focus on her schooling as her parents get a divorce, and Craig suffers a Crisis of Faith on studying the Bible. On the other hand, Craig decides to go to art school, move to Portland and pursue his dreams while taking day jobs on the side.
• Bloodquest: In the Warhammer 40,000 comic, the quest to recover the Blood Angels' relic sword is successful and the heroes managed to stop a Black Crusade from rampaging across the galaxy, but all members of the group are dead save for a single survivor, and the leader who sacrificed himself to end the crusade was previously possessed by a Daemon. Even the Sole Survivor's escape is uncertain since he is last seen drifting in space waiting to be picked up by a Imperial vessel.
• Bone: The ending is quite bittersweet. The Lord of Locusts is destroyed, Kingdok and Briar are killed, Thorn becomes queen, the Valley is at peace, and Fone Bone makes peace with the two Stupid Rat Creatures. But Lucius is dead, Fone Bone and Thorn will probably never see each other again, and the Bone cousins have to leave the valley forever. The last scene has the Bone cousins and Bartelby heading out into the desert together, planning to return to Boneville...
• Boxers & Saints: In the shared finale for both stories, Little Bao is Not Quite Dead, as he manages to crawl out of the corpse pile and escapes another death by chanting half-remembered scripture that Vibiana gave to him. However, his entire group was wiped out, except for him and his remaining brother, and their rebellion was crushed.
• The Boys: Hughie stops Billy from killing everyone with Compound V in their system, the Seven are no more, Vought's been dealt a mortal blow and Hughie and Starlight are free to be together. But the rest of the Boys and their allies were killed by Billy, Billy tricks Hughie into killing him so he won't have to face any consequences and supers are still around.
• Brat Pack: In the original ending, the sidekicks die again, and it seems like Black October will get away with it again until True-Man finally returns and kills them all, Dr. Blasphemous seems to get away but with an actual hero having finally returned his life won’t be very easy going forward. The revised ending is a lot sweeter, the sidekicks survive the attempt on their lives with the help of Cody’s healing factor, and though it’s unlikely they’ll be able to go back to their old selves, they have at least have a chance at recovering their lives, especially with their abusers finally permanently gone.
• Brody's Ghost: The Penny Murderer's dead, and Nicole survives. But Landon, who's used every cop and mob connection he has to ruin what's left of Brody's life, gets the credit, and Brody has to stay with Kagemura, as he has nowhere to go after becoming a fugitive. However, he does patch things up with both Talia and Nicole, who's learned the whole story from Gabe, and the ending implies that Nicole and Brody will get back together, with Nicole pulling some strings to get him a new identity and a steady job away from the limelight.
• Caliban: Sanchita survives just long enough to guarantee the alien consciousness' death in the explosion of the Caliban, which also takes out the only evidence humanity's yet found of alien life in the universe. Nomi is the only survivor, set adrift in cryogenic sleep, with a distress beacon. From what San said, it's only a matter of time until someone rescues her. In addition, San's sacrifice has saved the human race.
• Caligula: On one hand, Caligula is still out there, now possessing Junius, and Laurentius is badly wounded; on the other hand Junius was still able to redeem himself and Caligula's plans were massively set back with the destruction of the heart. His plan to corrupt Laurentius also fails thanks to Junius's intervention, and Laurentius ultimately survives.
• The Cape (2012): Nick manages to stop Eric and causes him to fall to his death, later burning the cape in a fire to both move on with his life and prevent it from causing any more suffering.
• Cereal: The Marquis sacrifices his life to save the life of his wife, burning up in the sunlight. The Leprechaun King and the Berrie Brothers avenge themselves by killing General Post and leave his body to rot in his abandoned fort. With his vengeance sated, the Leprechaun King chooses to drown himself as penance for the fall of his kingdom. With the Leprechaun King dead, the enchantment that made Beau Cherrie a Vengeful Ghost breaks and he's fully resurrected as Lord Cherrie, who invites his still-deformed brother Franken to stay with him. Lady Cocoa returns to her castle alone and sits at the breakfast table, waiting for the sunrise.
• Circles: At the end of the comic, Paulie sadly dies from leukemia and Douglas finds it hard to cope. Until he realizes that he still has family who loves him and takes care of him. Paulie did what he could to keep the family together and on good terms so that they are never alone after his passing.
• Cleopatra in Space: In the final volume of the series "Queen of the Nile", Cleo has finished off Octavian (formerly her friend Gozi) with the Sword of Kebechet and let Anubis possess her so that her descendant Yosira will help Cleo defeat Anubis from within and make Yosira the prophesized Queen of the Nile. The effect sends Cleo back to her timeline and fends off the alien invasion with the help of Antony, who time travels to the past to help Cleo and stays by her side. Fortunately, Cleo learns how to fix the time tablet and time travel back and forth to the future to visit her friends whenever she wants.
• Crimson: Lisseth is destroyed and her apocalyptic plan is averted. However, untold innocents have perished around the world after the dragon attack and the heroes' victory came at cost of Zophie and George's lives (both of whom ascend to Heaven upon their deaths). Alex still remained a vampire, but he embarks on a quest to find the Holy Grail and cure his condition. He is forced to abandon his loved ones, with Scarlet joining a convent and his father becoming Senator following Van Fleet's death, but its implied he will succeed in his quest and returns to them eventually.
• Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time: Even though Dark Danny is defeated again, he ultimately gets the last laugh as his actions have forced Danny to perform a Cosmic Retcon to undo the damage to the timeline. The result is that Danny's part in the Disasteroid event has been erased, meaning that Danny is no longer a global hero and is once again a Hero with Bad Publicity, his parents and the rest of the world no longer know his Secret Identity, and while Vlad is no longer mayor of Amity Park, he has successfully created a clone son of Danny (who is actually Dark Danny reincarnated). On the small sweet side of this, Danny, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and (most likely) Valerie still have their memories, and it's implied that Vlad may genuinely be on the path of atonement.
• Dark Ark: The first series concludes with the Dark Ark reaching it's destination, but Khalee ends up becoming a sorceress just like her father to rescue the survivors from the Fallen and has to sacrifice his life to do it. Many other casualties occur like Kruul's mate, Avvner, several monsters and Ada having become a vampire to save Selah's child. The surviving humans and monsters are now settled in a tense situation on the Fallen's residence waiting for Noah's Ark to arrive.
• Deep Gravity: The planet Poseidon is toxic to humans who stay too long, and personnel are therefore rotated through it rather than permanently stationed there. The freighter Vanguard is conducting one of these rotations, and when it's destroyed, a few survivors escape down to the planet. Most are newcomers, but one of the survivors is Michelle, who was among the group who had already had their maximum safe exposure and needed to leave. It's left open whether or not Poseidon's slow poisoning will prove fatal before another ship arrives, but it doesn't look good.
• DIE (2018): Chuck sacrifices himself to resurrect Sol, trapping himself in Die as a Fallen forever. Meanwhile, the others — realizing that Die itself isn't evil, just an amoral crucible for people's desires — return to Earth, traumatized by everything and having to adapt to a world that changed while they were gone. That said, they do seem to be better adjusted about certain things than they were when they left, and it turns out that Mistress Woe lied about Matt's father's death just to mess with the party, meaning that Matt is able to reunite with him.
• Demo:
  • "NYC". Mike helps Marie during one of her meltdowns, signifying that the two trust and love each other fully, and the two reach NYC in the end. But the future is still uncertain, and even with her assurances, it's left ambiguous whether Marie will survive in the long term without her medication.
  • "Stand Strong". James finally realises what a toxic crowd his friends are, and after deliberately botching the heist, makes it clear he's done being their tool. However, the ending implies that he's still unsatisfied with the working class lifestyle he'll be living now, and that in forfeiting the heist, he's lost the one chance he had to get something better.
  • "What You Wish For". The protagonist reaffirms that he's now got a good life and is happily married, but he also acknowledges how he'll likely never overcome how he killed much of his neighbourhood in a fit of rage, and he'll have to live with that for the rest of his life.
  • "Mixtape". Jess is still dead, and it's unlikely that Nick will ever find out why she committed suicide. However, Jess encourages him to learn from his mistakes and move on with his life.
  • "Midnight to Six Jace, Jill and Brad go their separate ways, with Jill writing novels, and Brad heading to college, while Jace refuses to grow up and become more than a slacker. However, the story ends with Jace making friends out of his new co-workers, implying that while all three are separated, they'll all be doing what they love most.
• Dracula, Motherf**ker!: Dracula is dead, but Quincy Harker is now a vampire. However, the Brides are there to welcome him to the club.
• Dracula vs. King Arthur: Dracula is killed and his forces defeated, but Arthur dies in the process as do many of his knights either having been turned, killed beforehand or killed in the final battle. The era of Camelot is ended but at the least, a hopeful new future is on the horizon for its surviving subjects.
• Drain: Chinatsu finally kills Reiji, avenging her family's death but she also had to kill Freya, her former lover turned enemy, who was her one true love. Furthermore, with Reiji's death, the vampire community now hunts Chinatsu, believing by killing her, they will become the next top vampire. Chinatsu, accepting this fate, vows to kill all of the vampires in the world to ensure they will no longer harm humanity and preventing them from becoming another monster like Reiji. Yet unknown to Chinatsu, Freya somehow survived.
• Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands ends with Katie paying off her student loans and leaving the oil sands for a normal life in Halifax, and the audience knows that she will go on to be a successful artist. However, she is forever changed by her time there, and the oil industry will continue to cause harm.
• East of West: Villains like the Three Horsemen, Chamberlain, and Le Vay are dead, and The Ranger completes his kill list. The "End of the World" comes not via an apocalypse, but through a dissolution of the old status quo — the remaining nations sign a second armistice. The narration notes this new status quo was prosperous and while it didn't last forever, this is presented in a neutral light; no nation lasts forever, but love does. While Death dies saving Babylon, the boy reunites with Xiaolin and finally sees the real world, recognizing it as something worth preserving.
• The Eltingville Club: In contrast to the horrible fates that await his former group, Evan Dorkin envisions an imperfect but nonetheless stable future for Jerry. He has to get therapy to deal with his worsening anxiety after the club's disastrous reunion, but he manages to live through it and goes on to continue playing in Magic the Gathering tournaments. He and Mandy also remain together.
• Fatale (2012): Literally everyone who has ever encountered Josephine is either dead or mad but Jo finally breaks the curse and is allowed to age (rapidly) and finally die.
• First Knife: Most of the party and Hesukristos are dead, Mari is alone, and First Knife will never get to go home. But the Yanqui are free, the Devas will engage with humans more fairly and equally now, and life goes on. Things could have gone better but they also could have ended much worse.
• Freshmen: The series is Cut Short after the Summer Vacation Special, and at the end of that story, the gang destroys the murderous and possessive sentient plant Susie, but feel sad due to how she was an uplifted symbol of natural beauty who was taking efforts to avoid killing any of them and how Charles is hurt that they killed her. Annalee’s father is also probably still out there plotting to exploit them, Liam still has a sick little sister, and it is implied through Norrin’s actions and mood that he may have succeeded in resurrecting his Innocent Bystander girlfriend Amy like he set out to do in the previous Sequel Hook but that she has Came Back Wrong in one form or another that he may not be able to fix. On a brighter note, Elwood is stabilizing his academic life and has optimistic hopes for the future, Charles knows the others accept him for who he is, Brady and Annalee remain a stable couple, and seeing how Susie acts towards Charles gives Renee a Jerkass Realization and has her let Brady go and seek to move on from their Destructive Romance like he already has.
• Ghostopolis: In his gigantic form and with the help of Frank, Garth defeats the giant Vaugner, but at the cost of Frank's own life, making him a ghost. However, now Frank can stick around with his ghost girlfriend, Claire, who takes over the late Bone King's role as the new Lord of the Afterlife. Also, it turns out Garth will be cured of his incurable disease, according to his future son, which means that he will be reunited with his mother back home.
• Giant Days:
  • Issue 10: Ed successfully takes out the corrupt student body president and gets a much-needed pep talk from Esther — but in the process, the university paper gets shut down due to Ed unintentionally inciting a riot, and Amanda gently rejects him.
  • The girls' first year ends with Esther and Ed avoiding legal trouble for Dean's scheme and Ed finding romance with his former newspaper coworker Jenny. But Catterick Hall is being torn down, McGraw's new relationship is in peril, and Ed and McGraw are possibly out of a place to live due to Dean fleeing an angry mob.
• The Girl from the Sea: Morgan and Keltie have to part ways but they agree to see each other again in seven years.
• A God Somewhere: Superhero-turned-megalomaniac Eric Forster has been defeated, but he went on a rampage of death and destruction across the U.S. before he was put down. And the friends he left behind continue to be negatively affected by his actions; Alma, who was raped by Eric, suffers from PTSD and is quite averse to being touched by males; her husband Hugh remains quadriplegic after his brother's horrific attack on him, and Sam abandons his journalism career.
• The Goddamned: "The Virgin Brides", ends with Sharri confesses her love for Jael with her dying breath and Jael managed to end New Eden's machinations with the help of The Kingdom. While her fellow "brides" are too indoctrinated to appreciate it, it's implied that they will eventually realize the heroics of what Jael did. Now an adult, Jael roams the Earth to kill the Nephilim run amok.
• Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters: The monsters may have been defeated, but human civilization is in shambles.
• The Goon: Issue 53, the end of "Once Upon a Hard Time" (which Powell himself calls a series finale) wraps up threads from the very beginning of the series. The Goon finally kills the rest of the Nameless Man's coven (including the Nameless Man himself). Through an act of compassion, he manages to avoid the damnation and death that have been hounding him throughout the miniseries, and even finds a way to break (or at least weaken) the curse surrounding the town. However, the Goon is clearly burned out by recent events, and leaves the town with Frankie in tow, possibly forever. Although he finds happiness for the first time in a very long while working at the circus he grew up at, the ending and epilogue make it clear this will not last.
• Grandville: Force Majeure ends with all of LeBrock's enemies finally dead, and his name now cleared following the exposure of all the Corrupt Cops on Koenig's payroll, with him also been made an honorary member of the Kalaharis clan, and all set to marry Billie in Paris, but she still suffered a miscarriage thanks to the vicious beating which Koenig gave her. France, on the other hand, is finally set to become a Socialist Republic following the deaths of Emperor Napoleon XII, & his Government, along with Baron Krapaud and the arrest of what's left of his Cabal^note which included most of the country's wealthy industrialists, business magnates & Nobles, with various other threats to its new Government also eliminated^note such as Apollo's cult & Tiberius Koenig's criminal organization but the "doughfaces" (or Humans) are still without any rights in the country.
• Habibi: After many trials and tribulations, Zam and Dodola are romantically involved, though Dodola still was raped by many people, including the Sultan of Wanatolia, the man from the caravans and her first husband. Zam is a eunuch, but he and Dodola adopt a little girl who was being sold into slavery, hoping to save her from the same fates they went through and they have hope for the future. However, the rest of the characters' fates are left ambiguous. The Hijras, with their main moneymakers gone, have their fate left up in the air (though the glimpse Zam got of them shows they're on their last legs). And atop that, the Sultan of Wanatolia is a Karma Houdini who gets away with everything.
• Hellboy: The Earth is reduced to a smouldering husk and nearly the entire cast dies, Hellboy included (three times, in fact), but the Ogdru Jahad, its Ogdru Hem spawn, Satan, and Rasputin are defeated for good, Hellboy's efforts ensure that some remnants of humanity have survived within the Hollow Earth, the biosphere is restored on the surface from his blood, and a race of Frog Men created from Abe's body will inherit the planet.
• I Hate Fairyland: Gertude stops Dark Cloudia and saves Fairyland, as well as forces the council to live up to their end of the bargain when they try to renege on their agreement, allowing her to finally go home after so long. However she ultimately has to say goodbye to Larry, the one true friend she had through the quest, and, now living into adulthood, is stuck in a dreary and mundane life as an office drone and practically pining to go back to Fairyland as indicated on searching through the internet for any keys back. Ultimately however, she accepts her choice to come home and goes on with her life.
• I Kill Giants: Barbara comes to terms with her mother's illness and makes amends with her before she passes away, leaving her saddened, yet able to move on.
• Infidel: Bitter: the possessed Tom is killed by Fields (who is attempting to protect Medina), Medina is forced to commit suicide by gas explosion in an effort to destroy the ghosts and save Aisha's life, and her name gets dragged through the mud as a murderer when she is posthumously blamed for Sendhil, Ethan & Tom's deaths. Sweet: Aisha is found not guilty of killing Leslie and Tom's will named her Kris's guardian, but even that has some bitter; the only lawyer ruthless enough to take her case was so expensive that Aisha's mother had to remortgage her house to pay his fees, and Aisha & Kris have moved in with her while the issue of Kris's guardianship makes it way through the court (though Aisha and her mother do seem to be trying to get along now.) And the last panel of the book shows that Fisher and the other ghosts are still occupying the building, just waiting for another opportunity to manifest.
• Irredeemable: The villains are all defeated and Plutonian gains his "redemption", but millions have died, including nearly all of Earth's heroes (the only ones that we know are still alive are Gilgamos, Kaidan, Qubit, and the fully reformed Max Damage), most of society has broken down (the only known civilization still standing in decent condition is Coalville, thanks to Max Damage), every survivor including the remaining heroes have lost someone they cared about deeply, and a warrior alien race pissed off at Earth and liable to invade in the future is one of several threats on the horizon that Earth is vulnerable to, especially with the Plutonian no longer around to protect them.
• Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth: Jimmy's dad dies after complications from a car crash, his relationship with his step-sister is irreparably strained and his mother is marrying another man. Just when it seems all is lost, a new female employee comes into the office where he was previously all alone and their conversation signals a Maybe Ever After and suggests he'll grow up.
• Kaijumax: The Alien Invasion has been defeated, with peace being brokered between Earth and the invaders. Whoofy has saved Chiba from destruction, a lot of characters who have come Back for the Finale are seen to be doing okay. Electrogor is still in prison, but he has his son with him, and he knows his daughter is happy, Hellmoth won't be bothering anyone anytime soon and Giant Monster Terongo turns out to not be dead after all.
• Katmandu: The comic was notorious for having sub-arcs where things don't always go well for everyone else:
  • When Warriors Die: The Highland tribe managed to rescue the Mousekin slaves, but Rial is killed in a surprise attack.
  • The Peacekeeper: Liska managed to defeat Rakon in the tribal games, but the latter tried to rape her, earning her hatred. It took many decades later in-universe for him to get his revenge on her.
  • The Hunt: Liska and the Highland tribe killed the two rampaging Gomorrin monsters, saving the Plains region from utter destruction, but it turns out the whole situation was orchestrated by a Hoplite inventor in order to test his new weapon at the expense of the lives of the local natives, and to make the things even more sour for Liska, Kress, an old flame from her post-slavery times, betrayed her, causing Liska to retaliate by basically giving her to the Hoplite inventor as a bride, with Kress' permission, of course, something she ended up regretting up later.
  • The final sub-arc and the very final ending of the comic, A Simple Life, ends in a borderline Downer Ending: Rakon and his people launched a midnight ambush attack at the Highland tribe when their warriors were out hunting, killing many characters; Liska is forced to face them all of them by herself in order to buy some time, and dying in the process.
• Kick-Ass: Volume 3 ends with Mindy having killed pretty much all the mob bosses on the East Coast, which allows her police officer stepfather, Marcus, to weed out all corruption in the NYPD. Dave gives up being Kick-Ass for good, moves in with his girlfriend Valerie, and "trades one uniform for another" by becoming a cop. But while Dave never loses his love for comics and superheroes, his father is still dead, and so are several members of Justice Forever, including Insect-Man and Doctor Gravity. Dave also never sees Mindy again, and she apparently begins training another kid to take Dave's place as Kick-Ass.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The series ends with Emma killing Jimmy, Mina and Jack Nemo declaring their love for each other, Captain Universe marrying Electro-Girl, and the entire crew of the new Nautilus made immortal so they never have to worry about dying. Although, they had to escape Earth because Prospero had released fantastical creatures from the Blazing World, overrunning humanity and turning Earth into a dystopia, while the Moon's inhabitants had conquered Venus and Mars, setting up a tyrannical empire destined to last for at least a millenium.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992): In the end, Link saves the day, kills Ganon and wins Zelda's heart... but they can never be together because of their respective duties.
• Letter 44: Earth is destroyed by The End and only around a million humans are evacuated to the Refuge. President Blades and Astra managed to lead what is left of humanity and build a semblance of unity and coexistence with the other surviving alien races on Refuge. The End continues its path of destruction and the last Builder hILLA and some humans, including Gabriel Drum, continue to stop The End.
• Lost Girls: In the comic by Alan Moore, the ladies have opened up to each other and come to terms with their pasts. They part ways at the end, with Alice heading to Switzerland to seek out Monsieur Rouget, Wendy returning to her husband with the implication of spicing up their sex life and Dorothy planning to start a family. Alice says goodbye to her precious childhood mirror as a way of letting go of the past. That said, World War I has broken out and the now-abandoned hotel is ransacked by German soldiers, one of whom breaks the mirror. Plus, Wendy's husband will make ships for the war and Rolf will most likely be called up to fight and possibly die. The story ends with a dead soldier in No-Man's-Land.
• Marshal Law: Kingdom of the Blind ends with Private Eye dead, but Kiloton is dead as well. The last panel is Marshal Law saluting Kiltoton's remains, saying he finally found a hero.
• Mass Effect: Redemption: Liara manages to recover Shepard's body, but her friend Feron is captured by agents of the Shadow Broker. Liara then gives Shepard's body to Cerberus in the hopes that Cerberus can revive Shepard. Liara's not entirely convinced that she did the right thing. Given that this is a prequel to Mass Effect 2 and the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, Liara eventually gets the chance to set things right by rescuing Feron with the help of Shepard, who was indeed revived.
• Maus: The protagonist, Vladek Spiegelman, and his first wife, Anja, survive the Holocaust and reunite after the war. But Anja will kill herself years later and Vladek will never be able to put the terrible experiences he suffered behind him.
• Middlewest: Abel ends up politely disowning his father despite his pleas, but now has a massive new Family of Choice in the form of the carnies and freed slave children, who consider him a hero and a leader, and he parts with his father on good terms, forgiving him despite cutting him out of his life. Dale accepts Abel’s choice with the hope they can eventually rebuild their relationship and he plans to work on healing himself.
• Minor Threats: Against all odds, Frankie and her allies manage to kill both Insomniac and Stickman, and make a deal to cover up Insomniac's crimes in exchange for the Continuum leaving Redport forever and clearing Frankie's name, allowing her to reunite with her daughter. On the other hand, Snake Stomper is dead, Pigeon Pete is exiled from Redport, and Brain Teaser is made a scapegoat for the death of Insomniac, although he's actually happy with this as it gives him the cred that he's long craved. Also, Redport is now an even worse hive, ruled over by Playtime and Scalpel and it's revealed that Frankie's daughter has inherited her talents.
• Miracleman: Miracleman defeats Kid Miracleman, at the cost of killing Johnny Bates, and turns the world into a utopia along with his team of superbeings. But it's a benevolent dictatorship at best and he's lost his humanity and Liz as well. Miracleman is left wondering if he did the right thing.
• Monster Allergy: The comic book version (which started in 2003), and how. Do you remember Zick's desire to be normal just like everyone else? This backfires spectacularly in the ending. After he uses every single bit of his Dom power, and therefore loses it, in order to save Elena from Sinestro, when he's back in his house, he's kinda shocked to be now unable to see his monster friends as he used to. Elena calms him down by telling the monsters (as she can see them now, after Zick's mother gave her some of her own power) to make themselves visible. This may fool you into thinking it's a happy ending after all, right? Think again. As it turns out, when Zick asks why his dead grandparents don't show up, his mom tells him they just can't, because, ya know, they're ghosts and not monsters. Bonus points for it being heartwrenching as well, if you're sensitive enough. As far as we know, however, this was only for the comic book: the adaptation changed it. Then, Elena justifies this by telling the readers it's just the beginning of another adventure, and "who loves us know it is". Cue the Sun.
  • Made worse in the Distant Finale (published in 2015, many years after the end of the series): Elena had to move away, and Zick, having discovered he wasn't aging, locked himself in his room and cut contacts out of shame. Thankfully, Bombo brings back Elena to shout some sense into him, and, together, find a way for him to recover his powers.
• My Little Pony Classics Reimagined: Little Fillies: All four sisters and Laurie have left New Broncord to follow their dreams leaving Jo feeling lonely as a result. Despite this Jo is able to improve as a writer after meeting and getting advice from A.K Yearling which leads to her publishing her first book based on her family life. The March Sisters reunite sometime later at Laurie's graduation party with their bond stronger than ever.
• My Little Pony: Micro-Series: In issue #3, Rarity is of course upset at high society paying attention to her hippie friends and ignoring her, but she consoles herself at least her new friends are happy and have given her a lifetime supply of their product in gratitude of her help while Twilight points out that her own fashion show was a big success itself with a slew of new commissions for her business.
• Paper Girls: The girls are returned to November 1, 1988 with only the barest impressions of memories making themselves known in quickly forgotten dreams, but instead of going their separate ways at the end of their shift, they decide to hang out some more, insinuating that they may continue to team up instead of riding solo the way they did in the original timeline. Mac is still seemingly fated to die, however, but at least she no longer knows and can't worry about it happening.
• Pathfinder: Worldscape: Shareen is freed from Empress Camilla, Kulan Gath is stopped from conquering The Multiverse and the MacGuffin is safeguarded by Fantomah, allowing the heroes to return to their respective homeworlds. However, the Council of Jungle Kings chooses to stay in the Worldscape to safeguard the MacGuffins and anyone who leaves this realm has their memory from their time trapped there erased, meaning the heroes will forget their friends and their adventures together when coming back to home. In addition, there is nothing stopping the Worldscape from trapping more and more individuals across the planes of existence, nor is it preventing those who escaped once from being imprisoned there once again.
• Peanut: Sadie's lie is revealed and she loses the respect of her teachers and most of her friends, but she and Zoo are still a couple.
• Persepolis: While Marjane can never return to Iran again due to fear of retribution and leaves several loved ones, she finally finds freedom after being sent to France.
• Pinky & Pepper Forever: Pinky and Pepper are dead and doomed to the fires of hell eternal, admitting that what they killed themselves over was silly, but they've at least risen in the ranks as grim reapers and can spend the rest of their afterlives with one another.
• Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer: Pinocchio defeats Vlad, but he ends up turning into the very tree where he was cut from and has to say goodbye to Carlotta.
• Pooh vs. Bambi: Pooh is once again forced to grapple with the loss of Bambi after Bambi sacrifices himself to stop the Heffalump mutation from spreading and Tigger has absconded after confirming to Pooh that she never really loved him and always hated him for nearly killing Bambi. But on the bright side, the world is saved, Pooh has found a new friend in Piglet and thanks to Piglet's bomb having been used up he's safe from the government for the time being.
• Pride of Baghdad: All of the main lion characters are shot and killed by U.S. soldiers, but, at the very least, they died free, and Zill got to see one last sunset.
• The Professor's Daughter: At the end of Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Gilbert's book, Imhotep and Lillian get married and have three children, but Lillian's father is killed and wrapped in bandages, and then placed as a part of the Museum's Egyptology exhibit.
• Providence: Zigzagged like crazy. The Elder Gods return and their presence reshapes reality into a nightmare world, yet people are oddly serene about it as they let go of the notion that mankind controls its own destiny. Brears and S.T. Joshi note that this is still horrifying because it shows their own thoughts are being reshaped by the new reality. Still, both are more curious about the changes than frightened, and resolve to "learn to dwell among wonder and glory forever." Meanwhile, Robert's Commonplace Book can't be used to stop the apocalypse, but the pages are dispersed and may find their way to other realities to prevent it from happening again.
• The Rabbi's Cat: The residents of Jerusalem reject the painter as a fellow Jew and tell him to leave immediately. However, the comic ends with him being comforted in the arms of his new wife.
• Raptors: The council leaders are all dead by the end, their plot to convert humanity into zoo animals is stopped and Benito is promoted to Chief of Police. However, Drago and Camilla are also dead, Aznar and Vicky are also vampires and have shed all their ties to humanity.
• Reborn: The comic ends with the heroine Bonnie saving both Earth and the afterlife realm of Adystria from Lord Golgotha at the expense of her body dying in the mortal plane leaving her still-surviving family heartbroken. On the flip side, in this fantasy world she rejuvenated from a dying old woman into a youthful beauty and gets crowned queen of the now freed realm for her efforts. On the down side, she is unable to reunite with her beloved husband Harry, whom also died long before Bonnie and ended up in this world, but has married another woman and formed a new family with her. Bonnie ends up leaving him for his own happiness.
• The Red Ten: The Alliance is dead, and Crimson returns to his fiancé. However, the Lear Corporation plans to simply roll out a new team of "heroes," but it's implied that Crimson will take the fight to the ones behind the Alliance in the first place.
• Road of the Dead: Highway to Hell: Dr. Jayne survives, but all of her friends are (un)dead. However, zombie Steven and zombie Shawn, who received Jayne's vaccine, saved Jayne's life before succumbing to their zombie instincts, suggesting Jayne may be on the right track to finding a cure.
• Rising Stars: The Specials finally succeed in turning the world into a near-Utopia where even most of the remaining villains have a better understanding of them and then release their power to another planet to restart the cycle. Less happily, every one of them dies by violence or suicide while only middle-aged or younger in the process, many never get to have normal lives and families, and the most prominent of those who does (Jason) loses his family to radiation poisoning.
• Santa Versus Dracula: Despite Santa killing Dracula, he somehow was able to turn Santa into a vampire who proceeds to turn his elves into vampires and attacks the world on Christmas Eve. The only reason it's not a downer is because the Easter Bunny manages to revive and rally the other holidays to fight Santa.
• Saucer Country: The conspiracies are unraveled and the heroes all head off to a brighter future, having received some degree of closure, as Earth makes first contact with the real aliens. But America and Russia are back in a new and especially horrifying Cold War, the scars of their experiences still haunt said heroes, and it's yet to be seen if the aliens are truly good-natured or not...
• Scalped: Very close to being a Downer Ending as the series ends with the old generation largely being replaced with the new. Dino Poor Bear is corrupted by his experiences and becomes the new gang leader who may be more ruthless than Red Crow, Nitz and Catcher die in a fire that burns the casino, and Dash, though coming to terms with himself and the reservation, leaves for an unknown destination, unknowingly leaving Maggie as a single mother. On the other hand, Carol becomes Granny Poor Bear's replacement as the mother figure for the reservation, Red Crow leaves his old life behind to live on the land (effectively being a much saner version of Catcher), and Officer Falls Down looks to be a more effective Sheriff than his predecessor.
• Scooby Apocalypse: The nanites are destroyed and humanity is cured, but Fred ultimately dies because the nanites were the only thing keeping him alive. Despite this, civilization is slowly rebuilding, and Velma eventually gives birth to a son named after the late Fred.
• The Sculptor: Meg dies in a meaningless truck accident while out running errands. Death disappears for another millennium. David is shot by the NYPD and falls to his death from a skyscraper. However, David finally creates the sculpture he always wanted to create and is finally recognized. The detective who shares David's name, who we only meet in the last few pages of the book, calls his wife to tell her he's alive, showing that life goes on.
• Shifter (2013): Noah, with Jeeves' and Casya's help, incapacitate Mark Redding and expose Morning Star Industries' plot to the public, with Gail Strand and the victims of the dam flood being the only innocent casualties of Morning Star's interrupted plan. But Noah's physical and mental changes as a result of his experiences, coupled with him having signed agreements with the government to not tell anyone else about what happened, leave Noah's fiancée Rachel feeling that he's no longer the man she originally fell in love with. She breaks up with him as a result. Noah and Casya decide to keep using the surrogates to fight evil.
• Shortcomings: The comic ends with Miko breaking up with Ben and Alice, his only friend, leaving him to stay in New York. Ben flies back to California alone and with no plans for the future, but has accepted that he needs to work on himself.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Homer Beats the Heat" from "Summer Shindig 1", Lisa is irritated by the hot summer, so Homer tries to cool her down, but keeps failing until the end... however, how she got cooled down is that they're both sick from noxious fumes emitted by Homer's poisonous fake snow, and are recovering in an air-conditioned hospital.
  • In "Summer Shindig 5", the story "Tales from the Springfield Bear Patrol" ends with the eponymous Bear Patrol stopping Arnie's evil plan to mind-control the bears. However, they couldn't produce enough evidence to convict him, so he gets away with it.
  • "Yes, Flanders, There is a Santa Claus" from "Winter Wingding 3" ends on Bart and Lisa succeeding at cheering up the Flanders boys, but the Simpsons being robbed by Snake.
  • In "Winter Wingding 5", the story "Freezer Burns" ends on the power plant producing radiation that gives various characters side effects, like Homer getting a long tongue, but it also creates an artificial summer which the citizens like.
  • At the end of "The Imaginarium of Milhouse van Houten" from "Bart Simpson's Pal Milhouse", Bart and Milhouse have resolved their Feud Episode, but Milhouse still gets ratted out for pranking Krabappel.
• Sin City: The stories often end with the hero defeating and possibly even killing the Big Bad but at the cost of his life... one way or another. Wallace's story Hell and Back is perhaps the only 100% happy ending in the entire series.
• Smut Peddler Presents: My Monster Boyfriend: "Lonesome Palace" ends with Nathaniel becoming the same creature as Pike, unable to leave the mountain region or see his family again. The "sweet" part comes is that he has Pike for company, the two of them becoming lovers at the end.
• The Snowman: Really, there was no way the boy could have thought the snowman would last forever, but it was fun while it lasted.
• Something is Killing the Children: Both arcs released so far ends on one of these:
  • The Archer's Peak Arc ends with Erica managing to destroy the oscuratypes and save the town from further pain before the monsters get hold of any more children to feed off. Unfortunately, Aaron dies in the struggle, Tommy Mahoney is forced to take the blame for all of the deaths in order to spare the townspeople from the Order's policy of absolute silence and their actions disgust Erica so much that she quits the Order entirely, becoming a fugitive from the very people who raised and trained her.
  • The Tribulation Arc manages to somehow end even worse, almost crossing into Downer Ending territory: sure, Erica manages to take out Cutter and kill the duplicitype (which, as it had assumed her form before dying, also gives her an escape from the Order and the police hunting her), but it costs her the ability to see monsters and Gabi dies in the struggle, with a vengeful Niqui determined to see Erica dead for failing to protect Gabi, while a now-completely-alone Erica boards a bus for an uncertain future.
• Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide: The ending is this: Mega Man's able to restore his world to how it was, but Dr. Eggman, refusing to let Sonic win, interrupts his Chaos Control, then attacks it, transforming Mobius to a version never seen before. A few issues later, we learn that it did worse than that: the entire multiverse collapsed upon itself and then rebuilt then, Mobius shattered.
• Squad: Arianna is killed so her heart can be eaten to De-power Becca and Marley, but Becca and Marley are happy together and delve further into their relationship.
• Star Wars: Doctor Aphra: The epilogue to the original 40 issue run sees all the main protagonists alive, with Aphra having bought the Rebel base on Hoth time to finalize their plans for evacuation, which ensures the survival of her father, Tolvan and Vulaada in the fateful battle in The Empire Strikes Back. This is juxtaposed by Aphra leaving them a farewell message explaining that she knows she's a horrible person and that leaving them all behind to save her own neck was the only way their relationship was ever going to end, escaping into space with nothing but a barely-alive Triple-Zero and Beetee for company.
• Strangers in Paradise: David dies from his brain tumor as expected, leaving Katchoo pregnant as planned along with a note telling her to move on with Francine. Katchoo and Francine embrace their love for one another, ending up together and raising their children, living each day to the fullest as a couple.
• Stray Dogs: The dogs are all saved from the house and the Master is dead, but unfortunately so are Victor, Earl, the former pack, and the Master's countless victims. Four months later, Sophie, now having been readopted and renamed Trudy, is running at a dog park. She reunites with Rusty, but neither of them remember one another or their experience at the Master's house. Nevertheless, they share a sense of familiarity between them and happily play together. When it is time to go home, Trudy briefly hesitates before happily leaving the park with her new owners.
• Strontium Dog:
  • "Traitor to His Kind". The neo-Kreeler Minister of the Interior is ignominiously sacked, and replaced with a staunch pro-mutant. The ban on mutants holding other jobs than bounty hunting and leaving the ghettoes are partially lifted, and a 100 million credit stimulus package to jumpstart the ghettoes' economy is put together. King Clarkie, already a mutant sympathizer, has his eyes re-opened to the plight of the mutants and his grip on the throne solidified. In return, the mutant community ostracizes Johnny for collaborating with the government, Johnny is forced to let the son of one of his old allies die, and the mutant liberation movement in Wales is all but destroyed.
  • The Final Solution could be seen as a darker version. While the mutants get back to Earth and the New Church is destroyed, Johnny sacrifices his life and the Doghouse is destroyed in the process.
• Stuck Rubber Baby: Sammy is lynched, Toland loses touch with his friends and after that one meeting, never sees his and Ginger's daughter again. But he's at peace with himself and has embraced his homosexuality, living in new York City with a boyfriend, and he does have some fond memories of the past.
• Superior: Ormon and Abraxas are defeated and Simon keeps his soul, but he's lost his powers for good. However, he's now at peace with himself.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin: Michaelangelo defeats Oroku Hiroto, ending Shredder's bloodline, but dies of his wounds following the battle. While he, his brothers, Master Splinter, and Casey Jones are Together in Death, his will and his teachings live on in Casey and April's daughter, Casey Marie Jones, who will in turn go on to teach a new generation of ninja turtles.
• Three: Klaros and Terpander are both killed by Kleomenes and his men, who return scot-free to Spartan society to continue its brutal and oppressive culture. But Damar survives and escapes to Messene, where she gives birth to Klaros' twin sons, names them after him and Terpander, and raises them in a free, peaceful life from then on.
• Tintin - Tintin and the Picaros: While Tintin and friends have helped General Alcazar take over San Theodoros, the last panel shows the slum from their arrival unchanged, save for the uniforms of the patrolling soldiers and the sign that said "Viva Tapioca" now reading "Viva Alcazar", implying that things won't be any better under Alcazar.
• Tomboy (2015): While Irene and Elena are defeated and their plans thwarted, their conflict with Addison has left mounds of corpses in their wake, including Addison's father and grandfather. Whether Addison herself survives is left unanswered. A few good people like Autry manage to survive, but the reveal that Jessica is the Scarlet Queen and evidence of more and more Afflicted awakening in Rivergrove means a new shadow war between the Branches and the Elder Branch is inevitable.
• The Transformers: Regeneration One: The present-day aftermath of the final issue is very bittersweet. Rodimus Prime has defeated the dark Matrix creature, ending the threat it posed to the multiverse, but at the cost of forever cutting off his own universe from Primus; Optimus Prime has died again, this time for good; thanks to the Matrix creature, Cybertron has been rendered uninhabitable; and most of the Transformer population on Cybertron were turned into shadow-leeches by the creature, before its defeat allowed what was left of their sparks to pass. But, the Distant Finale reveals that the Forever War has come to an end, as Autobots and Decepticons become emissaries of peace; the survivors of Earth and Nebulos succeed in rebuilding their worlds; and eons later, when Rodimus finally passes, his Matrix-spark breathes new life into Cybertron, allowing the long-dormant Primordials to be reborn as a new race.
• The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye:
  • The Shadowplay arc was a flashback arc dedicated to bringing Rung out of a coma by trying to get him to remember. It has Optimus (then Orion), Ratchet, Windcharger, Skids and one of the few good Senators all coming together to stop a malicious plot by the senate to kill a bunch of innocents and frame the, then innocent, worker's party. It succeeds, they retrieve the bomb, and save everyone. However they can't find any evidence connecting the senate to the bomb spree, the Senator is taken away, and Optimus befriends Zeta, who would grow up to be another tyrant. The arc concludes with Rung waking up in the present while the senator had the titular Shadowplay performed on him, turning him into the emotionless Mad Scientist Shockwave, whose schemes would come to threaten the whole planet.
  • The "Remain in Light" ark. The crew had stopped Tyrest and destroyed his Killswitch, saving everyone affected and discovered a cure for Cybercrosis, but Tyrest and his lackeys escape, Ambulon is dead and First Aid has slipped into a depression because of the trauma of a) watching Ambulon die and b) killing Pharma. But worst of all, they had to use Rodimus' half of the Matrix to destroy the Killswitch, leaving them further away from the Knights than before.
  • Season 2 ends with Megatron cementing his Heel–Face Turn by killing the Decepticon Justice Division, the return of several missing Cybertronians like Terminus and Roller, Overlord and Deathsaurus retreating, and Ratchet and Drift rejoining the crew, but it comes at the cost of Skids and Ravage's lives, and the crew are still stranded from the Lost Light thanks to Getaway's mutiny.
  • The series (and chronologically the entire IDW universe) ends with the Functionist Council destroyed, their universe's Cybertron filling the old one's place after its destruction by Unicron, and most of the crew surviving the final battle. However, Rung (a.k.a. Primus) sacrifices himself to save the day, but is remembered by nobody. And with the quest over (and despite an attempt to quantumn duplicate themselves into a new universe), the Lost Light is dismantled, Megatron is sentenced to Uncertain Doom, and the others live out their lives, with Ratchet dying of "old age" and leaving his husband Drift to mourn him, Whirl spending time in prison, and Rewind developing a neuro-degenerative disease that leaves him trapped in memory stick form. Meanwhile, in another universe, a duplicate Lost Light and its crew are free to explore the universe forever.
• Transformers: Wings of Honor: The ending of the second Arc is actually happier than the first. Deathsaurus is defeated and driven back, the traitorous Combaticons are locked away and the autobots succeed. However, so many have died at this point including Ricochet, one of the comic relief characters. In the end, Rumbler is killed in the final battle, and Sprocket, the resident Cloudcuckoolander, continues to talk to him as if he was alive. The Hero, Dion is shot along with Magnum, both are near death, when they go into operation, one dies, and the other emerges as Ultra Magnus. The Autobots all agree to leave or go into stasis, taking their war away into the Generation one series.
• The Transformers: Unicron: The comic ends with the destruction of the titular villain, Earth saved, and the populations of Earth and Cybertron saved, but Cybertron itself is destroyed and millions are dead, including Optimus Prime.
• Transformers: Last Bot Standing: The comic ends with the final extinction of the Transformers. However, Rodimus manages to defeat the last Decepticons, including Steeljaw, and he spends some time teaching the people of Fembrance how to use Energon responsibly, starting a golden age. Finally at peace, he then takes the final, stasis-locked Survivors and the remaining Cybertronian tech with him onboard a starship, being content to also go into stasis-lock until he finally dies. By doing this, Rodimus will guarantee that the Transformers' destructive legacy will end. The story ends with Shib looking up at the night sky, with the light from his starship becoming the first star in a long time.
• The Unbelievable Unteens: The Unteens manage to come together and defeat the White Wraith, but as Alexis points out, if the others bring her back to the mortal world, Jack would be a ghost again, whereas in Hell, he and Alexis can touch each other, and thus she and Jack stay, while the others return home. With their last adventure concluded, Jane, Karl, and Carlos prepare to go their separate ways, but Jane and Carlos both agree to get coffee sometime.
• Unnatural: Maxine, Jones, and his father Napoleon are all dead, and the Albino is destroyed. A year later, the cult has dissolved without its leadership, the Reproduction Program has been abolished, Carol is running for Mayor, and Leslie and Khal are in love and raising Shea together. However, none of it changes the fact that Trish, Derek, and Pif are dead, there's no indication that Trish's parents don't still hate Leslie, and she has to live with the fact that she killed her mother to save the world. There are also still people who frown on Interspecies Romance and homosexuality, and there probably always will be; such deep-seated prejudices don't just disappear overnight, after all. And on top of all of that, it's heavily implied that the Albino is still around. But come what may, Leslie has hope for the future and she won't be facing it alone.
• The Unsinkable Ship of Fools: The crew revolt, beat The Whistle and derail The Ship once and for all, freeing themselves of its hold on all of them. However, both Natalie and The Whistle have implied that the future ahead of them will be a difficult one ("apocalypse" interspersed in their language). In the end, things are going to be different for all of them, but they still have each other.
• Until We Sleep: The Dragon Age tie-in ends with Aurelian Titus defeated and Alistair finally meeting his long-lost father Maric. Unfortunately, Maric is only being kept alive by an ancient magical artifact and Alistair destroys it in order to release his father. Alistair then returns home to rule Ferelden as an unhappy king. Isabela, scarred by her imprisonment at the hands of the qunari, is shown leaving her life as a pirate.
• Usagi Yojimbo:
  • Gen's story ends with Gen discovering that the swords he stole from Magistrate Oda's house were his father's swords; Gen explains that the only way Oda could have obtained them was by killing Gen's father.
  • Lady Kiku's story ends with her and Usagi alive but forced to separate, and Usagi not learning that she still remembers and cares about him years later.
  • Lady Maple's story ends with her and her lord's son being raised safely and anonymously by Inspector Ishida and his wife, but she's dead because she didn't know Usagi brought a doll in place of her son.
  • "Travels With Jotaro" ends with Usagi and Jotaro being unable to compromise the other's happiness by revealing they're father and son, even though they both really want to.
  • "Sparrows" ends with Inazuma being forgiven by her family for running off and dying as herself.
  • Senso (which is not in the main canon) serves double duty for the story itself and for Space Usagi. After piloting a robot and destroying the last alien walker, Usagi gets stabbed in the back by the last remaining alien. Before he dies, he and Jotaro both learn that the other knew about their relationship as father and son, and he confesses his love to Tomoe. Then we see that the whole story was told by Usagi from Space Usagi to children, showing that he survived the events of his story and found another love in that canon's version of Mariko, who is pregnant.
• V for Vendetta: V and Evie have triumphed against the evil fascistic government. However, V is dead, chaos runs rampant throughout Britain, and it seems like the last bastion of civilization is crumbling. However, Evie has become the new V and swears to help the people rebuild, while taking Dominic as her apprentice.
• Victorian Undead:
  • "Sherlock Holmes vs. Zombies": London is bombed by the Navy and many people have died, but the zombies are eradicated and the city begins rebuilding.
  • "Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula": Dracula is dead and the Queen safe, but only Van Helsing and Harker remain of their party, Lucy is still at large and Holmes bitterly notes this event will only encourage the weaponization of the supernatural.
• The Walking Dead: After all he's endured, all he's lost, and all he's done, Rick Grimes— the man long considered The Hero of The Walking Dead, the man who went through seven kinds of hell and still never gave up— gets shot by Sebastian Milton for convincing his mother, Pamela, to step down as leader of the Commonwealth, bleeding to death and getting put down by Carl after he reanimates. No Heroic Sacrifice. No famous last words. Not even any loved ones there to comfort him in his final moments. Rick suffers THE most Undignified Death in the franchise at the hands of a spoiled, entitled brat who didn't want the status quo to change. Thankfully, Sebastian is caught almost immediately and is going to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell, living with the knowledge that everybody now despises him for what he did and that history will remember him as the man who killed Rick Grimes. In the Distant Finale, Carl and Sophia are married and have a daughter named Andrea. Walkers are still around, but all in all, civilization is on the upswing, recovering and rebuilding thanks in no small part to Rick, who sadly never got to see the fruits of his labors. But his legacy as a Hope Bringer lives on and is immortalized with both a statue of him and a children's story, with the last scene of the series being Carl reading it to Andrea.
• We3: 3 doesn't survive the encounter with 4, but 1 and 2 are adopted by the homeless man who tried to help them earlier in the series.
• The White Trees: The children are rescued, but it's discovered they were being held hostage by the Blacksand king, so that the protagonists would instigate war with Trilonia. Krylos kills the king to stop the plot but is executed in return; and the fate of Blacksands' relations with its neighbors is left uncertain.
• The Wicked + The Divine: Most of the 2014 Pantheon is permanently dead. Laura and Eleanor eventually split up, but Laura and Cass get married and have decades of happiness together. All the survivors are able to lead full lives into middle age, and the death of Ananke means that future Recurrences can continue without her manipulations.
• The Woods: The kids finally make it back to Earth, but not without suffering tremendous loss: four of the main seven Bay Point characters are dead, Ben was forced to kill Issac, and a lot more of the Bay Point students are dead as well. However, Sanami was able to get the word out about the incident to avoid a government cover-up, Issac and Adrian's essences were uploaded into the AI to prevent another Bay Point incident, and Karen and Sander had a Relationship Upgrade to Official Couple.
• XIII: The Trial: Wally Sheridan and the Mongoose are dead. Their crimes are exposed live on TV. The Mongoose discloses the existence of a bank safe where evidences can be found. However, Kim Carrington is dead, General Carrington, Jones and Amos have to flee, XIII is caught by the authorities and Frank Giordino tells him that he will be considered as a foreign agent involved in the kidnapping and the murder of the president.
• Y: The Last Man: The comic ends in a Distant Finale where cloning has been perfected and the first twenty or so reliably immune men have recently been released into the "wild". however Yorick Brown 1.0 himself does not fare quite so well. He finds out that the girlfriend he had rounded the globe tracking down was about to dump him when the fateful telephone call was cut off; eventually she shacks up with his sister. Then the woman that had been slowly falling in love with him, 355, gets shot dead at Alter's command in the hopes of securing an "honorable" death in combat with the only available male. He begins the Distant Finale straitjacketed and locked in a hidden room in the French Presidental Palace by his own daughter after an apparent suicide attempt shortly before his eighty-sixth birthday... he claims he thought it would be ironic.
• Youngblood: Judgment Day: Sentinel's machinations were uncovered and as punishment, he was sent to Supreme’s Hell of Mirrors. The Book of Hermes meanwhile lands with a homeless girl, who is implied will write much better stories than the ones Sentinel did. Unfortunately, Riptide is still dead, and it's unknown just how many people's lives were ended or ruined by the "adventures" Sentinel wrote. Given the history of Youngblood till that point, it was quite a significant amount.
• Zenith: Phase III. The Lloigors are defeated, but many of the heroes died horribly and several universes were destroyed unnecessarily, meaning the innocent people in those universes died pointlessly.
• Zombillénium: For Gretchen and Aurélien. He sacrifices himself to let her free the trapped souls, and therefore moves on to the afterlife for good with them. She lives on and becomes president of Zombillénium, but prefers to return to head hunting as a sort of vigilante.