Tear Jerker / DC Rebirth

Gotham Girl, You Are Not Alone.

• Linda not remembering Wally. It's heartbreaking, especially for those who saw their relationship develop through the years.
  • This continues over in Flash: Rebirth #1 where Wally's scared to approach Iris because he doesn't want to be heartbroken twice.
  • This is continued in Titans: Rebirth where Wally reminisces over his old friends & the reader sees the team take a group photo together, before a Gilligan Cut to Wally looking at a photo album that includes that same photo - except Wally is completely absent from it.
    • Later, Lilith probes Wally's mind to try and figure out what made him disappear, but it's hampered by his constant thoughts of Linda. The other Titans tease Wally, thinking it's just a simple Ladykiller in Love, but while Wally rolls with the teasing, it's very easy to see how much this hurts him because it's more than that, they were married. They're Innocently Insensitive because they don't remember Wally's marriage, and so they don't realise how serious the relationship was, but it's clear how their good-natured ribbing is actually really hurting him.
  • Even worse is how after Linda fails to recognize him, Wally screams and convulses from the overwhelming power of the Speed Force. From Linda's perspective, all she's seeing is a stalker throwing a tantrum.
• Likewise, Wally desperately trying to reach his friends like Cyborg and Nightwing, only to have them not recognize him either.
• Johnny Thunder being locked up in a mental hospital, and begging for both the Thunderbolt and the JSA to forgive him for what he had done.
• Pandora dies when Dr. Manhattan goes after her and blasts her to oblivion.
• Jackson Hyde is likely contemplating running away since his parents aren't accepting of his powers or the fact that he's gay. It must make him feel alone. Hopefully he meets Aquaman soon...
• Superman: Rebirth #1 Superman spends most of the issue with the great hope of reviving his New 52 counterpart, even helping Lana steal his body and taking them to the Fortress of Solitude. He even recounts his death and rebirth to her. It's all dashed away when he discovers that there's no Regeneration Matrix in the New 52 Fortress of Solitude, and that New 52 Superman left everything to the New 52 Supergirl.
  • Lana thinks Pre-Flashpoint Superman is New 52 Superman at first, running up to him and gushing relief.
    Lana: CLARK! You're alive! What happened — How did you —
    Superman: um... Miss Lang... I'm afraid I'm not who you think I am.
    (Cue Lana's crestfallen face.)
  • In Superman #1, Jonathan accidentally kills his cat with his heat vision. The look on his face is heartbreaking.
• Action Comics #958. Lois unable to explain to Jon that Doomsday killed his father, and when things get serious, she's unable to watch and turns off the television.
• Batman: Rebirth #1. Batman is fully prepared to die, asking Alfred if his parents would be proud of him, practically begging Alfred to tell him so, with slight hints of being a Death Seeker. He's saved by Gotham and Gotham Girl, but the moment was real.
• Batman #4. Thanks to a poorly timed unmask, Gotham's parents are murdered by a soldier seeking revenge on him. Despite Batman's passionate pleads to spare the soldier and that this was because of the escaped Psycho-Pirate, Gotham can only sadly tell Batman that he can't fix this before he snaps the soldier's neck.
  • At the end of the issue, we learn the how Gotham and Gotham Girl's powers work: the more they use them, the shorter their lifespans. Gotham can become even more powerful than the Justice League, but it would shorten his life by hours. She forces him to use all of his power reserves to effective kill him. She cradles Gotham in her arms, as Batman looks on sorrowfully.
    Gotham Girl: I told him to stop. I... I tried to make him stop. If he d-didn't stop, it would all be gone. H-he would be gone. I told him. I t-tried to tell him... I tried... I t-tried...
  • Later, Bats unmasks for Gotham Girl, in an emotional outreach to the stricken woman, to show he knows exactly what she feels, and that You Are Not Alone.
• In Supergirl #1, Kara is having an awful day: her schoolmates think that she is dumb because she doesn't know how to use primitive Earth's gadgets, her new boss chews her out because she made an unauthorized sortie, her foster parents' tries to help her feel at home backfire awfully. So she flies away from everyone and to the Fortress of Solitude, wondering whether she will ever fit in.
  Supergirl: Now there is only one person who can open it, Kal. You named it well. It is just me. Maybe this is where I should be. Polishing all the other relics someone shot into space. This is as close to Krypton, to Argo, as I will ever get.
• Detective Comics #940. Hoo boy the whole issue packs a wallop, but the great flood sweeps in at the end: Batman attempts to comfort Spoiler, knowing how much she meant to Tim, by explaining that Tim's death was honorable, he was a great hero, and chose the life despite the risk. However, Stephanie interrupts him to reveal Tim's acceptance letter. The news hits Bruce so hard he's at a loss for words. All he can do is reach out for Stephanie and hug her.
• Trinity #2: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had inadvertently traveled back in time to a point where a young Clark Kent began developing his super-hearing. The sudden arrival of the Trinity causes Jonathan Kent to have a heart attack. When he comes to, he sees the older Clark and freaks out, believing him to be Jor-El come to take his son away from him.
  • Then comes #3, where Batman tries to find his parents before they are murdered, only to uncharacteristically find himself lost in his own city.
    Batman: I just wanted to see their faces...one last time.
    • Even more, Batman admits that he came to the dinner because he was so ashamed about Tim Drake's death that he couldn't face the rest of the Bat Team.
• Wonder Woman #9 has Diana and Steve meet up on a ravaged Paradise Island, but as they investigate, Steve begins realizing he doesn't recognize the architecture of the island. Diana soon realizes why - this isn't Paradise Island. The Paradise Island she had went to during the New 52 era was a lie. She had never came back to Paradise Island since she first left it for Man's World.
• Deathstroke's Flashbacks
  • The book is very clear about how dysfunctional Wilson family is and how Slade had messed up Adeline, Joey and Rose.
• Action Comics #966, New 52 Lois Lane's posthumous video telling pre-Flashback Lois to take over her life, crying that she doesn't want her father or her friends to know she died, because she doesn't want them to suffer.
  • Lana Lang (aka Superwoman) on being the only one to see Lois die: "... She’s gone, Clark. Vaporized. Right in front of me. Just like my Clark was.”
• In Nightwing, Dick and Barbara have a heart-to-heart talk after having not spoken with each other for some time, only for Dick to break her heart and admit that he had found someone else.