The following have their own pages:

• The DCU
• Marvel Universe

Other

• Robert Kirkman's The Astounding Wolf-Man. Hoo boy, it's impressive how crappy the title character's life got so quickly. So he was a wealthy CEO shredded by a werewolf, became one himself, lost his multi-million dollar company, got an oh-so-brief respite of awesome when he got some control over his wolf form and became a superhero, found out he still became a murderous beast during a full moon by killing a well-known superhero, became estranged from his wife and daughter, found out that his vampiric mentor killed his wife, got framed for said murder (including, worst of all, in the eyes of his daughter), became a fugitive, got another minor respite when he became friends with a prominent superhero, reluctantly got a minor alliance with someone he already knew was hugely bad news, was thrown into prison, and was stabbed in the chest by his own daughter, who'd turned to the previously mentioned vampiric mentor to avenge her mother's death (and let him drink some blood from her), not knowing she was training with the real killer! Whew! It was only in issue 17 that his life took any appreciable change for the better.
• Dark Times:
  • Bomo goes through brutal war experiences while trying to help the economic prosperity of his people, is prepared to die so the civilians of his tribe can escape, sees his surrendering comrades gunned down, learns the refugees were caught and enslaved, fails to rescue first his wife and then his daughter before they are killed, and is unable to spare the time or resources to rescue some of his other neighbors from imprisonment.
  • Crys is a war refugee who was terrorized, lost her husband, and gave up her son to the Jedi to get him away from a battlefield only to later realize he would have lived if he had stayed and is probably dead in Order 66 because she let him go. She had to scavenge to survive before joining the crew, is nearly made a Sex Slave after being kidnapped, and is infected with the rakghoul plague.
• Femforce: Jen Burke's life has been horrible. She never wanted to be a superhero, but because she was Ms. Victory's daughter she was compatible with V-47. When Ms. Victory went rogue, she was asked to take her place. She refused, and Tom Kelly responded by ruining her life to the point, including arranging for husband's legs to be broken, where it was either do it, or face financial ruin. Once in Femforce, the girls resented her for being forced on them, and refused to accept her. In addition, she couldn't tell her husband what was going on, badly straining their marriage eventually leading to an affair and divorce. Then her son Jason gets killed by collateral damage from one of Garganta's rampage. Then she gets manipulated into becoming Rad II, by the mad God Capricorn. Finally she just snaps.
• Zomax, the villain of a 1941 Jungle Comics story by the notoriously grim cult-favourite cartoonist Fletcher Hanks. It begins when Zomax goes hunting in the jungle and is jumped and mutilated by a lion he'd mortally wounded and was about to finish off when his gun jammed. Then a "man-hating" elephant tosses him into a pond where he's stung by poisonous gnats, causing his face to swell. Upon crawling out of the water, he encounters a boa constrictor that crushes several of his bones. Next, an ape takes him to its lair, where for several months it beats him like a drum with bones. Small wonder that Zomax, after escaping the jungle and emerging from the hospital severely crippled, vows to exact revenge on all jungle animals by causing a massive tidal wave.
• A Funny Background Event in Lori Lovecraft: Into the Past'' involves basketballer Larry "The Legend" Raven who has come out of retirement at age 50 to captain the Clippers through the playoffs. Every time he appears, he has suffered some unlikely accident. First he breaks his arm in a bathtub accident, then gets hit the face by a lawn dart. By the time of the championship game, he is playing with a ruptured septum. Then the scoreboard falls on him breaking his leg. He has it taped up and keeps playing.
• The Big Bad of Star Wars: Legacy, Darth Krayt, went through nearly two centuries of suffering.
  • In Star Wars: Republic, he was a Jedi named A'Sharad Hett during the Clone Wars. His family lived among Tatooine's Tusken Raiders, and he knew Anakin Skywalker personally and learned of his genocide against his people but neglected to report him, believing it would be best for him to face his darkness on his own. As a result, he blamed himself for Anakin's fall and the destruction of the Jedi Order, and returned to Tatooine disillusioned. He then became a Tusken warlord, only for Obi-Wan Kenobi to sever his arm and exile him from the planet unmasked as his people turned on him for violating their taboo against exposed skin.
  • He then ended up Walking the Earth as a Bounty Hunter before ending up on the Sith homeworld of Korriban and getting recruited. Then he fully embraced the Dark Side after getting captured and tortured by the Vong, who gave him implants that began slowly killing him, forcing him to spend extended periods of time in stasis to slow the progress.
  • After all the pain and hardship he went through to revive the Sith, he consults with the Virtual Ghosts of the three greatest Sith Lords seeking guidance; Darths Andeddu, Nihilus, and Bane. All three of them (yes, even The Unintelligible Nihilus) proceed to utterly lambast him for doing away with the Rule of Two and refuse to teach him anything, branding him a heretic.