Planet of the Apes ends with the immortal sound of the ocean lapping the empty shoreline whilst the ruined Statue of Liberty looks down on the last "true" man.

In comicbooks beyond number humans and human analogues are shown to be heading for Genesis-style apocalypse (although not necessarily a Flood) whenever and wherever they aspire too highly, develop technology that is too advanced, venture too far from their homeworld, or generally abandon a bucholic pastoral outlook.

One might call it the Gerber Hypothesis, after the somewhat misanthropist works of Steve Gerber in his Marvel heyday, a gauntlet since taken up by writers like Alan Moore.