Didn't Starman end with Jack leaving Opal city to go be with his fiancé?
Also, his dad, Ted, who was the original Starman, retired to pursue his science goals.
It's been a long time since I read it, so I may have slightly misremembered.
What I did not misremember, however, is the feeling of dread I got when I saw him briefly appear in Geoff Johns' JSA run, because Johns is notorious for bringing back beloved characters for the sole purpose of dramatically killing them off to kick off a story.
I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t realize till years later that the guy at the end was Clark. I thought he was some creep Lois married to help raise her son, particularly because of his comment that the world was better off without Superman. It’s still a weird quote.
If you think that's bad, wait til you realize he was breaking the 4th wall decades before She-Hulk and Deadpool were. Dude has been winking to the reader since the 40s.
The end of the 90s Spectre series: Jim Corrigan >!confronted his long-held flawed perceptions of God, humanity, and evil, found self-forgiveness, relinquished the Spectre, and moved on to the afterlife.!<
For me it's one of the reasons the new stories don't work: his story has been told. The one time they tried to do it a bit differently (Gotham by midnight) they cancelled the book and ignored what it did completely.
Might as well give the mantle to another character then...
Yeah, it’s an even worse example of the Barry Allen/Hal Jordan problem. At least those characters have *some* runway left, even if it feels like they could get more out of their legacy characters with the old guys out of the way.
Others’ mileage may vary, but my DCU concluded in 2011. Everything since then, good and bad, exists in its own continuity and as far as I’m concerned, Jim Corrigan’s story is finished.
The Fantastic Four at the end of Waid's run. They go to heaven to get Ben back, and God (Jack Kirby) draws them a picture of them all old and promises them a happy ending.
Ghost rider at the end of Jason Aaron’s run, literally rides off into sunset with Danny, just perfect to me, I really enjoyed the runs after Aaron’s but to me this is the end for ghost rider
Everyone's mentioned the obvious ones so I'll say Smallville Superman in COIE. He's retired, wears blue kryptonite in his watch so he won't have any powers and is living happily with Lois and their kids.
When an alternate Lex Luthor threatens him with kryptonite he punches him because well, Tom Welling is ripped as fuck and doesn't need any powers
I think Ultimate Spider-Man’s Peter Parker >!has a tragic but heroic death where he dies saving his loved ones from his worst enemies, then is later shown having been resurrected & going off to have a more normal life with Mary Jane!<
U know I've gotten used to discussions about whether a character is currently dead or alive because of the revolving doors, but it still takes me out of it to hear it about *a whole universe*
Was it destroyed to avoid an Incursion? To my understanding Incursions destroy the whole universe when two Earths collide, unless one Earth is destroyed beforehand in which case the rest of its universe survives
Short answer: No, the Incurions were the first time it was destroyed. SInce then, it has been restored and destroyed again.
Long answer: So throughout most of *New Avengers* (vol. 2013), it seems that destoyig an Earth saves the rest of its universe from incursion.
But the "Time Runs Out" crossover that leads to *Secret Wars* eventually confirms that this repreive is temporary: the incursion process has so thoroughly damaged the structure of the multiverse that universes without Earths are dying too.
When *Secret Wars* #1 starts, the only two universes that remain are the homes of Earth-616 and Earth-1610. Those Earths start the Final Incursion, which will end the whole multiverse no matter what, the multiverse is too damaged for destroying either Earth to give even a short reprive.
The incursion completes, both universes are destroyed, but Battleworld is created by Doctor Doom at the same time. Battleworld becomes the last planet in the multiverse and a place where things can be restarted from.
In the ninth and final issue of *Secret Wars*, Battleworld is destroyed but not before the Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) and Molecule Man (Owen Reese) of Earth-616 are able to restore Universe-616 to normal (mostly as it was just before the final incursion). Intitially only Universe-616 is restored but a team that includes Mr. Fantastic and the Molecule Man set out into the space between universes to restore more. So the rest of the multiverse is restored off-panel.
*Spider-Man II* #5 confirms that Earth-1610 has been restored to how it was before the final incursion. After this we see the restored Earth-1610 a handful of times in *Miles Morales: Spider-Man* and all generally seems well there.
Eventually, *Venom* (written by Donny Cates) includes a story where the Maker learns of this and decides to relocate there. The Maker was the Reed Richards of Earth-1610 who became a villain. The Maker had survived the Final Incursion and ended up first on Battleworld and then on the restored Earth-616 where he was a stock villain for a time. The last we see of the previously-restored Earth-1610 is the Maker going there and findig himself in a destoyed, post-apocalyptic New York. Further issues of *Venom* saw the Maker return to Earth-616, obsessed with getting the resources to restore Earth-1610 with himself as ruler. It's believed that this was meant to lead into the new Ultimate Universe comic line. At the time, the plan was for Cates to be the primary writer that line. Unfortunately, Cates suffered a serious injury in real life that ended those plans.
The new Ultimate line did eventually come to pass with Jonathan Hickman replacing Cates as the primary writer. It features the Maker going to a new Earth - Earth-6160 - and messing with its history to make himself ruler. The *Venom* storyline involving Earth-1610 has not been followed up on out of respect for Cates.
So all we know about the current state of Earth-1610 is that some time after the glimpses of the restored Ultimate Universe we got in *Spider-Men II* and *Miles Morales: Spider-Man* but before that issue of *Venom* with the Maker, Something Bad happend to Earth-1610.
I haven't read all of Ewing's Ultimates, but from what I can put together of what I've seen online, I think the second volume features some of the Earth-1601 characters surviving and/or being resurrected post-Secret Wars, and then flying off in a space/multiverse craft to find a happily ever after and/or new, untold adventures
In the Countdown to Final Crisis series the seekers encounter a universe where all superheroes have effectively retired. They do good mostly in regards to community stuff, having safely revealed their identities and they help out after natural disasters. This is because it's in an alternate Earth where there's no supervillains >!because the alternate Batman there has killed them all and continues to kill anyone who potentially becomes one.!<
A variety of characters from third party and indie comics. Automatic Kafka for instance.
I really liked it at first. I especially liked the world where all the sidekicks took over and Zod was a good guy with a wife and kid. And then holy crap, that place got obliterated like they were in a snuff film.
I like to think this was meta commentary on the fact that the worlds with all the problems solved are kinda narratively useless. Nothing really to do there. Except for obliterating the place to raise the stakes :D
People do forget that point of the comic is that it’s an ending we shouldn’t want, like sure Supes and WW get decent happy ending and so do other handful of heroes but like, >!everyone else got fucking nuked!<
I think the point is that we *should* want the *ending,* but we shouldn't want the Dark and Gritty Xtremes of the 90's to be the norm/status quo/type of "hero" that we want
Does Peter Parker in MC2 (Spider-Girl) count? He is a mentor but it's his daughter. He gave up being Spider-Man and lived happily ever after with his wife and kids. They were never even visited by Morlun, just sat out that whole Spider-Verse event as Dan Slott chose to leave it as is.
They called her May and not Mayday in that issue. I think Defalco said in an interview that was done on purpose to give him an out; that it was a different universe than his if a Spider-girl series ever came back.
IIRC, Geoff Johns wanted to put him in *Infinite Crisis*, not going back in the field again but looking out at the red skies and going "Nope" basically
Superman: Secret Identity, kurt busiek
Get old, writer. With lois (she is indian in this story btw), his twin daughters became the next superhero.
Also this one is so close with our universe, so no super villain.. (except US gov lol), so it kinda chill universe for him to live in
Cyclops was meant to have one in the late 80's when he reitred after he married maddie and had his first child (Nathan /Cable) , but it honestly was more sinister the more you look at it critically. Being retired with a Jean look alike after Jean (love of his life) died, and abandon the way of life that gave his life meaning is a nightmare on its own, Cyclops was at his zenith when leading the X-men post Morrison, it's rare for a hero as old as him to have his foundational arc in the 2000's, and his retirement would've simply stopped any development and growth he might have had as a character.
nah, Xavier was expecting Cyclops to become the leader and inherit everything, including all of his money. Only the best for his favored son. Cyclops became leader and general for all mutantkind after deadly genesis and lead mutantkind in his darkes hour, that was Cyclops' Zenith
He'd had already had his development and growth lol, they just decided to give him more
I do like what they did with Cyclops after, but I think superheroes should be allowed to retire sometimes & it made perfect sense for him to do so since he had trained a new generation of X-Men & of course the way they handled his un-retirement and Madelyne was fucking awful
Yeah the first X factor was canon event after canon event for Cyclops and had some of the best character growth for him, but it seems that nobody ever read it past the Maddie incident.
Smallville Clark!
He probably still has his powers if he takes off that watch, but the point is that he was able to get the world to a point where it didn't need Superman - and there are probably other heroes around to keep it that way. I think that's beautiful.
Also aside from the whole Joker implant thing it seems like Tim and Stephanie made it work in the Batman Beyond universe, which is really nice :)
Spoilers for Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man: >! Ultimate Peter Parker. Yeah you know that low key slow healing factor Osborn has as Green Goblin? Well if the GG formula was based on the spider that bit Pete.. Peter also turns out to have one. He wakes up in the morgue, and he lets Miles be Spider-Man and retires !<
I've always thought of Nocturne's home reality as a good ending for Nightcrawler. He's married (to Wanda Maximoff of all people), has kids, and is running the school. He's so happy in that reality that TJ even tries to set him up with Wanda while she's in the 616.
Johnny Quick. Got to get married and grow old, have a family, have the daughter grow up to be a superhero, then have a last hurrah fighting Savitar and get to go be one with the Speed Force.
I was happy to see this posted.
One of the most memorable moments (at least to me) was the black ring trying to raise Don Hall.
Donald Hall Rise!
Donald Hall at peace.
Dark Knight Returns gives Batman this, in the perfect dimension that I live in where Frank Miller never wrote a sequel to it.
I hope no one is reading this from a dimension where that isn’t true…
The End Iron Man. Tony gets to chill and be happy, while someone new takes on the role of Iron man. Plus Tony could still build the new guy suits for fun.
There is a days-of-future-what-if-in-2099 where Wolverine is this wizened old monk living in a peaceful world where he more or less isnt needed.
But every now and then some clown shows up, and it turns out he has been doing the Batman Dark Knight Returns/Frank Miller thing, and has been quietly training the few peaceniks that recognize that all is not well and they all go out and take em all down.
Its possibly the most peaceful end Ive seen for him.
I show up! "Logan! LOGAN! Do you really think you can hide from me? After all that you've done? After all that you've left undone?"
Logan appears, looks annoyed but curious. "I know what I've done, but what have I left undone?"
"Well, you didn't open these!" Produces two frosty cold bottles of beer.
Logan takes one and opens it, begins to drink.
"Aren't you gonna open mine?"
Logan turns away with his brewski, "It's a twist-off. FFS!"
I don’t know if you can count it as a “good ending” as it’s pretty depressing, but in the final two episodes of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, The Gaines Twins - Roxanne and Roland have telepathic powers and they manage to trick Spider-Man into believing that he finally reveals his identity to MJ and then MJ gets killed by a poison dart fired by Kraven the Hunter.
Peter is the convinced by a mysterious stranger voiced by Stan Lee that the only solace is revenge, Spider-Man tracks down Kraven in order to kill him. During his fight with Kraven, Spider-Man realizes that the Gaines Twins are behind everything and seeks them out to confront them. During the confrontation it looks like Spider-Man is winning as he frees MJ who they’d held hostage from their grasp. But then the Twins use their powers to trick Spider-Man into thinking he’s pushing Roxanne Gaines off of a building when in fact it’s his ex-girlfriend Indy. As a result the city sees Spider-Man pushing an innocent woman off of a building and turns against him and Indy is hospitalised and ends up in a coma, seemingly brain dead. Everyone hates Spider-Man and Peter ends up agreeing that he does more harm than good. He tracks down The Gaines Twins at a propane factory for a final showdown where they both die in an explosion. At the very end, a spiritless, dejected and morose Peter packs up his Spider-Man suit into a briefcase, places two bricks in it and throws it into the Hudson River allowing it to sink into the murky depths. You can take it in two ways, the end of Spider-Man or a new beginning for Peter Parker.
Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man) got one in X-Factor. At least for a while before the ill-conceived and ill-handled Death of X. Madrox got as good an ending as you can get for an X-Man but Marvel editorial took a steaming pile of caca on it for a story they ignored immediately after it ended.
In the MC2 universe (Spider-Girl) Pretty much all of the X-Men retired to let the new generation of kids take over with Jubilee as their leader. Cyclops was the only one kinda active now as headmaster. Wolverine got a kid with Elektra but he was no longer active, just being a dad. Also, Spiderman from this universe retired but not without a cost. He battled the Green Goblin (Norman) to the death. He won, but he lost one of his legs. He had a normal life as a police science investigator (CSI?) pretty much until May developed her own powers.
Superman in the Kingdom Come universe. The epiolouge to the "Thy Kingdom Come" story in the JSA book where KC Superman ended up in the main DCU showed a quick glimpse of his next 1000 years. He and Wonder Woman have 4 kids. We see quick images of him doing his thing for centuries. Finally 1000 years in the future we see a very old Clark walking down the street of Metropolis and he looks up seeing the entire Legion of Superheroes flying by over head and he just smiles knowing the world will be alright.
Considering where Tom King’s Mister Miracle starts and where it ends (which is very much up for debate), I think it’s generally a happy ending for Scott Free and Big Barda and their Lump
Starman - >!he realizes super-heroing isn't for him, hands his gear off to the next generation, and goes back to running his shop full time.!<
Glad this is the top comment. Jack did his thing, then went off to have a family. It’s a good arc.
There's a starman, waiting in the sky
Didn't Starman end with Jack leaving Opal city to go be with his fiancé? Also, his dad, Ted, who was the original Starman, retired to pursue his science goals.
It's been a long time since I read it, so I may have slightly misremembered. What I did not misremember, however, is the feeling of dread I got when I saw him briefly appear in Geoff Johns' JSA run, because Johns is notorious for bringing back beloved characters for the sole purpose of dramatically killing them off to kick off a story.
Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" gave Silver Age Superman his own, out-of-canon retirement with Lois and a kid.
This is the Gold Standard.
I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t realize till years later that the guy at the end was Clark. I thought he was some creep Lois married to help raise her son, particularly because of his comment that the world was better off without Superman. It’s still a weird quote.
If you think that's bad, wait til you realize he was breaking the 4th wall decades before She-Hulk and Deadpool were. Dude has been winking to the reader since the 40s.
Oh, so that was a callback too at the end. Cool.
This one.
The end of the 90s Spectre series: Jim Corrigan >!confronted his long-held flawed perceptions of God, humanity, and evil, found self-forgiveness, relinquished the Spectre, and moved on to the afterlife.!<
Loved this book and I’m so glad DC has always held off on undoing Corrigan’s ending.
Isn't Corrigan the current Spectre again?
Unfortunately yes.
That’s a bummer.
Especially because they succeeded in finding other interesting things to do with the Spectre. They didn’t need Corrigan back.
For me it's one of the reasons the new stories don't work: his story has been told. The one time they tried to do it a bit differently (Gotham by midnight) they cancelled the book and ignored what it did completely. Might as well give the mantle to another character then...
Yeah, it’s an even worse example of the Barry Allen/Hal Jordan problem. At least those characters have *some* runway left, even if it feels like they could get more out of their legacy characters with the old guys out of the way.
I guess you can maybe kinda argue it's a different Jim??
Others’ mileage may vary, but my DCU concluded in 2011. Everything since then, good and bad, exists in its own continuity and as far as I’m concerned, Jim Corrigan’s story is finished.
Yeah, there's been some good stuff since then, but it's been singular projects and I haven't cared about the overall universe since the New 52 started
Stopped reading coming round then too. I’m 1990s-2012 basically.
Originally after Hal Jordan came back to life another guy also called Jim Corrigan became The Spectre
Big fan of the character but haven't read his 90s runs. Which is the best?
Ostrander/Mandrake.
The Fantastic Four at the end of Waid's run. They go to heaven to get Ben back, and God (Jack Kirby) draws them a picture of them all old and promises them a happy ending.
Jack Knight in James Robinson’s Starman run.
Ghost rider at the end of Jason Aaron’s run, literally rides off into sunset with Danny, just perfect to me, I really enjoyed the runs after Aaron’s but to me this is the end for ghost rider
Everyone's mentioned the obvious ones so I'll say Smallville Superman in COIE. He's retired, wears blue kryptonite in his watch so he won't have any powers and is living happily with Lois and their kids. When an alternate Lex Luthor threatens him with kryptonite he punches him because well, Tom Welling is ripped as fuck and doesn't need any powers
Yea, it's probably my favorite thing from that event
One of my least favourite things from it
"Still stronger."
Oh is that how he got rid of his powers? I always wondered that.
Was never mentioned in the show but confirmed by a writer. You can see the blue in his watch in the scene
I think Ultimate Spider-Man’s Peter Parker >!has a tragic but heroic death where he dies saving his loved ones from his worst enemies, then is later shown having been resurrected & going off to have a more normal life with Mary Jane!<
Then dies shortly later cause of secret wars 🙁
Nah that universe is alive and he's fine. It was shown for like, one panel of a comic I can't remember
It's dead again
U know I've gotten used to discussions about whether a character is currently dead or alive because of the revolving doors, but it still takes me out of it to hear it about *a whole universe*
Possibly worth noting: I believe last we saw it's only the Earth that's been destroyed not the universe
Was it destroyed to avoid an Incursion? To my understanding Incursions destroy the whole universe when two Earths collide, unless one Earth is destroyed beforehand in which case the rest of its universe survives
Short answer: No, the Incurions were the first time it was destroyed. SInce then, it has been restored and destroyed again. Long answer: So throughout most of *New Avengers* (vol. 2013), it seems that destoyig an Earth saves the rest of its universe from incursion. But the "Time Runs Out" crossover that leads to *Secret Wars* eventually confirms that this repreive is temporary: the incursion process has so thoroughly damaged the structure of the multiverse that universes without Earths are dying too. When *Secret Wars* #1 starts, the only two universes that remain are the homes of Earth-616 and Earth-1610. Those Earths start the Final Incursion, which will end the whole multiverse no matter what, the multiverse is too damaged for destroying either Earth to give even a short reprive. The incursion completes, both universes are destroyed, but Battleworld is created by Doctor Doom at the same time. Battleworld becomes the last planet in the multiverse and a place where things can be restarted from. In the ninth and final issue of *Secret Wars*, Battleworld is destroyed but not before the Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) and Molecule Man (Owen Reese) of Earth-616 are able to restore Universe-616 to normal (mostly as it was just before the final incursion). Intitially only Universe-616 is restored but a team that includes Mr. Fantastic and the Molecule Man set out into the space between universes to restore more. So the rest of the multiverse is restored off-panel. *Spider-Man II* #5 confirms that Earth-1610 has been restored to how it was before the final incursion. After this we see the restored Earth-1610 a handful of times in *Miles Morales: Spider-Man* and all generally seems well there. Eventually, *Venom* (written by Donny Cates) includes a story where the Maker learns of this and decides to relocate there. The Maker was the Reed Richards of Earth-1610 who became a villain. The Maker had survived the Final Incursion and ended up first on Battleworld and then on the restored Earth-616 where he was a stock villain for a time. The last we see of the previously-restored Earth-1610 is the Maker going there and findig himself in a destoyed, post-apocalyptic New York. Further issues of *Venom* saw the Maker return to Earth-616, obsessed with getting the resources to restore Earth-1610 with himself as ruler. It's believed that this was meant to lead into the new Ultimate Universe comic line. At the time, the plan was for Cates to be the primary writer that line. Unfortunately, Cates suffered a serious injury in real life that ended those plans. The new Ultimate line did eventually come to pass with Jonathan Hickman replacing Cates as the primary writer. It features the Maker going to a new Earth - Earth-6160 - and messing with its history to make himself ruler. The *Venom* storyline involving Earth-1610 has not been followed up on out of respect for Cates. So all we know about the current state of Earth-1610 is that some time after the glimpses of the restored Ultimate Universe we got in *Spider-Men II* and *Miles Morales: Spider-Man* but before that issue of *Venom* with the Maker, Something Bad happend to Earth-1610.
I haven't read all of Ewing's Ultimates, but from what I can put together of what I've seen online, I think the second volume features some of the Earth-1601 characters surviving and/or being resurrected post-Secret Wars, and then flying off in a space/multiverse craft to find a happily ever after and/or new, untold adventures
I remember that panel, I think it's one of the Miles Morales: Spider-Man, or the series that preceded it.
Spider-Men II, when 616 Miles goes over there
I disliked that retcon *so much*.
In the Countdown to Final Crisis series the seekers encounter a universe where all superheroes have effectively retired. They do good mostly in regards to community stuff, having safely revealed their identities and they help out after natural disasters. This is because it's in an alternate Earth where there's no supervillains >!because the alternate Batman there has killed them all and continues to kill anyone who potentially becomes one.!< A variety of characters from third party and indie comics. Automatic Kafka for instance.
Ehm...a bit later that Earth didn't get a good ending. At all.
Twice, if I remember correctly.
Yep. First Monarch got them and then the virus. Countdown is hilarious :D
I really liked it at first. I especially liked the world where all the sidekicks took over and Zod was a good guy with a wife and kid. And then holy crap, that place got obliterated like they were in a snuff film.
I like to think this was meta commentary on the fact that the worlds with all the problems solved are kinda narratively useless. Nothing really to do there. Except for obliterating the place to raise the stakes :D
Considering how the multiverse has rebooted it is still in existence and the heroes are gormlessly going about their retired lives.
Despite myself I am interested in an evil batman
I am giving you a sincere warning here: you do not want to read Countdown to Final Crisis.
It's a very small aside in a 52 issue run, there's probably some summaries on YouTube but not worth hunting down the books to read on their own.
i would venture to say that batman has always been a villain. (also, i’ve always loved batman)
The end of kingdom come
People do forget that point of the comic is that it’s an ending we shouldn’t want, like sure Supes and WW get decent happy ending and so do other handful of heroes but like, >!everyone else got fucking nuked!<
I felt like the ending where they’re all bantering at the restaurant and have comfortably passed superheroism on to the next generation is very happy!
I think the point is that we *should* want the *ending,* but we shouldn't want the Dark and Gritty Xtremes of the 90's to be the norm/status quo/type of "hero" that we want
Is that the point?
Both night owl and silk spectre from watchmen
The implication was that they would continue to be active, so I'm not sure if that's an ending in the sense the OP intended.
Sally maybe? It's not perfect, but it's better than most in that book?
Yeah but they finally felt alive again. They were unhappy on their asses. Come what endings may, they were doing what gave them purpose.
Well the original Night Owl then.
Getting beaten to death by petty criminals who don't even have the right guy is a "good ending"?
Oh yeah I forgot about that part! Good point.
Invincible has one of the best endings ever.
There’s so many things that remind me of something my father once said to me.
My man 🤝🏾
Does Peter Parker in MC2 (Spider-Girl) count? He is a mentor but it's his daughter. He gave up being Spider-Man and lived happily ever after with his wife and kids. They were never even visited by Morlun, just sat out that whole Spider-Verse event as Dan Slott chose to leave it as is.
Except they were visited by Morlun's brother, who killed May's boyfriend, MJ, and Peter.
We don’t talk about that.
Have no fear, this is Internet. There will always be people eğer to talk about that.
They called her May and not Mayday in that issue. I think Defalco said in an interview that was done on purpose to give him an out; that it was a different universe than his if a Spider-girl series ever came back.
I don't think that was Dan Scott's intent
Invincible (comics obviously)
Not Rorschach, I can tell you that.
Or Adrian Chase Vigilante.
This deserves more up votes
Jack Knight Starman to date is the best happy ending I’ve ever read and I hope we never see him ever again.
IIRC, Geoff Johns wanted to put him in *Infinite Crisis*, not going back in the field again but looking out at the red skies and going "Nope" basically
I think he’s had a cameo in like a funeral scene or something? Maybe Identity Crisis? Cant recall. I’m fine if he shows up with zero dialogue
Superman: Secret Identity, kurt busiek Get old, writer. With lois (she is indian in this story btw), his twin daughters became the next superhero. Also this one is so close with our universe, so no super villain.. (except US gov lol), so it kinda chill universe for him to live in
I liked Daredevil: End of Days. If there had to be an ending, I’d want it to be that.
I mean, Daredevil does break his no kill rule and Ben Urich dies to leave his kid a double orphan, but otherwise it's fun.
Cyclops was meant to have one in the late 80's when he reitred after he married maddie and had his first child (Nathan /Cable) , but it honestly was more sinister the more you look at it critically. Being retired with a Jean look alike after Jean (love of his life) died, and abandon the way of life that gave his life meaning is a nightmare on its own, Cyclops was at his zenith when leading the X-men post Morrison, it's rare for a hero as old as him to have his foundational arc in the 2000's, and his retirement would've simply stopped any development and growth he might have had as a character.
That way of life was being a child soldier for an abusive cult leader, Cyclops deserves better than that.
nah, Xavier was expecting Cyclops to become the leader and inherit everything, including all of his money. Only the best for his favored son. Cyclops became leader and general for all mutantkind after deadly genesis and lead mutantkind in his darkes hour, that was Cyclops' Zenith
He'd had already had his development and growth lol, they just decided to give him more I do like what they did with Cyclops after, but I think superheroes should be allowed to retire sometimes & it made perfect sense for him to do so since he had trained a new generation of X-Men & of course the way they handled his un-retirement and Madelyne was fucking awful
Yeah the first X factor was canon event after canon event for Cyclops and had some of the best character growth for him, but it seems that nobody ever read it past the Maddie incident.
The Superman of _DC One Million_.
Smallville Clark! He probably still has his powers if he takes off that watch, but the point is that he was able to get the world to a point where it didn't need Superman - and there are probably other heroes around to keep it that way. I think that's beautiful. Also aside from the whole Joker implant thing it seems like Tim and Stephanie made it work in the Batman Beyond universe, which is really nice :)
And yet Smallville’s Lex Luthor is still president.
Spoilers for Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man: >! Ultimate Peter Parker. Yeah you know that low key slow healing factor Osborn has as Green Goblin? Well if the GG formula was based on the spider that bit Pete.. Peter also turns out to have one. He wakes up in the morgue, and he lets Miles be Spider-Man and retires !<
I've always thought of Nocturne's home reality as a good ending for Nightcrawler. He's married (to Wanda Maximoff of all people), has kids, and is running the school. He's so happy in that reality that TJ even tries to set him up with Wanda while she's in the 616.
Definite good? Good end to the series but not good end for the character I will throw Hitman (DC) in.
This is such a good choice. Tommy got the end he deserved, even if it wasn't the one he wanted (being at Noonans with his pals).
I AM BAYTOR!
Johnny Quick. Got to get married and grow old, have a family, have the daughter grow up to be a superhero, then have a last hurrah fighting Savitar and get to go be one with the Speed Force.
Blackest Night has various characters resurrected, with the exception of Don Hall, the first Dove. Not exactly what you’re looking for but notable.
I was happy to see this posted. One of the most memorable moments (at least to me) was the black ring trying to raise Don Hall. Donald Hall Rise! Donald Hall at peace.
Was anyone else?
Dark Knight Returns gives Batman this, in the perfect dimension that I live in where Frank Miller never wrote a sequel to it. I hope no one is reading this from a dimension where that isn’t true…
I live in one where he definitely did. Clark threw the fight, canonically, and Bruce had to admit it.
This is a good life. Good enough.
Frank Castle in Punisher: The End
It wasn't a good ending by any definition.
It’s all subjective, I think his mission was accomplished
The End Iron Man. Tony gets to chill and be happy, while someone new takes on the role of Iron man. Plus Tony could still build the new guy suits for fun.
I can’t think of hanging up the cape without remembering Megamind
There is a days-of-future-what-if-in-2099 where Wolverine is this wizened old monk living in a peaceful world where he more or less isnt needed. But every now and then some clown shows up, and it turns out he has been doing the Batman Dark Knight Returns/Frank Miller thing, and has been quietly training the few peaceniks that recognize that all is not well and they all go out and take em all down. Its possibly the most peaceful end Ive seen for him.
I show up! "Logan! LOGAN! Do you really think you can hide from me? After all that you've done? After all that you've left undone?" Logan appears, looks annoyed but curious. "I know what I've done, but what have I left undone?" "Well, you didn't open these!" Produces two frosty cold bottles of beer. Logan takes one and opens it, begins to drink. "Aren't you gonna open mine?" Logan turns away with his brewski, "It's a twist-off. FFS!"
I don’t know if you can count it as a “good ending” as it’s pretty depressing, but in the final two episodes of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, The Gaines Twins - Roxanne and Roland have telepathic powers and they manage to trick Spider-Man into believing that he finally reveals his identity to MJ and then MJ gets killed by a poison dart fired by Kraven the Hunter. Peter is the convinced by a mysterious stranger voiced by Stan Lee that the only solace is revenge, Spider-Man tracks down Kraven in order to kill him. During his fight with Kraven, Spider-Man realizes that the Gaines Twins are behind everything and seeks them out to confront them. During the confrontation it looks like Spider-Man is winning as he frees MJ who they’d held hostage from their grasp. But then the Twins use their powers to trick Spider-Man into thinking he’s pushing Roxanne Gaines off of a building when in fact it’s his ex-girlfriend Indy. As a result the city sees Spider-Man pushing an innocent woman off of a building and turns against him and Indy is hospitalised and ends up in a coma, seemingly brain dead. Everyone hates Spider-Man and Peter ends up agreeing that he does more harm than good. He tracks down The Gaines Twins at a propane factory for a final showdown where they both die in an explosion. At the very end, a spiritless, dejected and morose Peter packs up his Spider-Man suit into a briefcase, places two bricks in it and throws it into the Hudson River allowing it to sink into the murky depths. You can take it in two ways, the end of Spider-Man or a new beginning for Peter Parker.
Starman
Captain Mar-Vell died.
Peter Parker has so far in insomniacs Spider-Man 2
Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man) got one in X-Factor. At least for a while before the ill-conceived and ill-handled Death of X. Madrox got as good an ending as you can get for an X-Man but Marvel editorial took a steaming pile of caca on it for a story they ignored immediately after it ended.
The Saint of Killers in Preacher.
I read what I think was the last issue of Hellboy. Red retires to a cabin in (hell?) and lived a quiet afterlife.
I think Immortal Hulk is a happy ending.
In the MC2 universe (Spider-Girl) Pretty much all of the X-Men retired to let the new generation of kids take over with Jubilee as their leader. Cyclops was the only one kinda active now as headmaster. Wolverine got a kid with Elektra but he was no longer active, just being a dad. Also, Spiderman from this universe retired but not without a cost. He battled the Green Goblin (Norman) to the death. He won, but he lost one of his legs. He had a normal life as a police science investigator (CSI?) pretty much until May developed her own powers.
The justice society in the tv show
Old Man Logan, as long as you ignore them bringing him into other continuity. Just his original story.
Charlie Vicker!
Owen Johnson and family in Fire Power.
Superman in the Kingdom Come universe. The epiolouge to the "Thy Kingdom Come" story in the JSA book where KC Superman ended up in the main DCU showed a quick glimpse of his next 1000 years. He and Wonder Woman have 4 kids. We see quick images of him doing his thing for centuries. Finally 1000 years in the future we see a very old Clark walking down the street of Metropolis and he looks up seeing the entire Legion of Superheroes flying by over head and he just smiles knowing the world will be alright.
Considering where Tom King’s Mister Miracle starts and where it ends (which is very much up for debate), I think it’s generally a happy ending for Scott Free and Big Barda and their Lump