The closest modern equivalent to come to mind would be some small-time criminals accidentally kill Robin, and that horrible sinking feeling that they just messed up. Bad. I guess Tarzan and Jane would be closer than Batman and Robin, though. From 1979, Tarzan #24, "Epilogue!" and "Jane's Story!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Bob Hall.
Tarzan's portion of the issue wraps up--yeesh, a ten-part storyline? That seems ambitious as hell for 1979, yet alone a Tarzan book. Tarzan returns from the inner world of Pellucidar and closes up the doorway, then sets off to return to his wife.
But Jane hasn't been just sitting around twiddling her thumbs--oh, wait, she kinda has. Bored, she heads out with the Waziri to make sure a brushfire wasn't moving towards the Greystoke estate. Some poachers had set the fire to clear the too-tall veldt grass, and started a massive stampede. While the Waziri try and set a backfire, Jane and her lion Jad-Bal-Ja try to herd the panicked animals away from a ravine. All of the animals are turned, save a rhino--that charges Jane's jeep! Jane is able to grab the cliffside, but the furious rhino shoves the jeep over, leaving her no choice but to drop. There's a river down there, but the narration has written her off as dead already.
Jad-Bal-Ja wants to avenge his mistress, but gets netted by the poachers, one of whom has realized who that was, what just happened, and who would be coming for them...Also, there were not a lot of issues left: the series would end with #29, and I suspect it crammed a couple issues worth of story into that one. The way this one rolled, I didn't think Jane was dead, but I wasn't expecting to see her the next issue, either.
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