New Meta-Rule: Heroic Sacrifice Mega-Overpower

I recently read the conclusion to Joss Whedon's X-Men run. It was a decent story, but I'm mostly writing about one trope he uses in it. It's one I know I've seen in other superhero fiction over the last few years, but I can't recall specific examples. Part of why I'm posting this is the hope that some of you will either jog my memory, or provide examples of your own.

As a long time gamer (and rules lawyer), I tend to see stories in terms of their underlying (if only implied) rules systems. In general, a given hero's powers will stay within fairly consistent bounds. Sometimes a hero can temporarily exceed these bounds when the plot really requires it. Many game systems allow this sort of thing through a 'Hero Point' mechanism, whereby you can essentially turbocharge a character briefly at the cost of a rare meta-game resource.

The 'Hero Point' concept generally covers relatively small degrees of overpowering, and can be done many times without significant repercussions. Lately, however, I've been seeing a new variant in the fiction: The Mega-Overpower Sacrifice.

Here's a stab at a definition. A character may, if the stakes are high enough (at least a city full of civilians; more typically, an entire planet), use their power at an *arbitrarily* high level -- once. This use is essentially guaranteed to succeed in averting the disaster, but at great personal cost. In order to prevent abuse of this mechanic (by authors or gamers), this has to have permanent repercussions. In the best case, the power is 'burnt out', and may never be used again (typically relegating the character to NPC status). More often, the character making this heroic effort dies as a direct result.

(Of course, since we're talking about superhero universes here, 'permanent' is really more of 'for at least a few publisher-time years', until someone decides to repower or resurrect the character. But the other characters/players are still obliged to treat the loss as permanent and roleplay as such.)

So, what's your favorite example of this mechanic?

New Meta-Rule: Heroic Sacrifice Mega-Overpower

I recently read the conclusion to Joss Whedon's X-Men run. It was a decent story, but I'm mostly writing about one trope he uses in it. It's one I know I've seen in other superhero fiction over the last few years, but I can't recall specific examples. Part of why I'm posting this is the hope that some of you will either jog my memory, or provide examples of your own.

As a long time gamer (and rules lawyer), I tend to see stories in terms of their underlying (if only implied) rules systems. In general, a given hero's powers will stay within fairly consistent bounds. Sometimes a hero can temporarily exceed these bounds when the plot really requires it. Many game systems allow this sort of thing through a 'Hero Point' mechanism, whereby you can essentially turbocharge a character briefly at the cost of a rare meta-game resource.

The 'Hero Point' concept generally covers relatively small degrees of overpowering, and can be done many times without significant repercussions. Lately, however, I've been seeing a new variant in the fiction: The Mega-Overpower Sacrifice.

Here's a stab at a definition. A character may, if the stakes are high enough (at least a city full of civilians; more typically, an entire planet), use their power at an *arbitrarily* high level -- once. This use is essentially guaranteed to succeed in averting the disaster, but at great personal cost. In order to prevent abuse of this mechanic (by authors or gamers), this has to have permanent repercussions. In the best case, the power is 'burnt out', and may never be used again (typically relegating the character to NPC status). More often, the character making this heroic effort dies as a direct result.

(Of course, since we're talking about superhero universes here, 'permanent' is really more of 'for at least a few publisher-time years', until someone decides to repower or resurrect the character. But the other characters/players are still obliged to treat the loss as permanent and roleplay as such.)

So, what's your favorite example of this mechanic?