Tear Jerker / The Ultimates

• In an issue of The Ultimates, there is a wall of photos of everyone that died in the Hulk's rampage. In itself, it's a really sad moment but seeing a child's drawing of a policeman with the child's handwriting on it with the words "We miss you Daddy" clinches it.
• Quicksilver's death is certainly heartbreaking as he spends the last moments of his life after being critically injured by Ultimate Kang speeding off to confess his sins and apologies in front of the grave of his sister Wanda, the one person he ever truly loved, before dying himself.
• Janet getting physically abused and almost killed by Hank, especially to those who have known or been victims of domestic abuse themselves. It gets even worse later, when Betty Ross reveals that this cycle of abuse goes as far back as their college days, when Hank would do things like pull out chunks of her hair, put her head through the bathroom door or punch her hard enough to split the roof of her mouth, for things like dancing with a first year student at a Christmas party, or because he got drunk after failing a physics test. It's a Tear Jerker and Nightmare Fuel all rolled into one.
• Steve's emotional breakdown in front of Bucky. His feelings of isolation in the modern world have reached their breaking point after a nasty argument with Janet, and he even tells Bucky he should have never been thawed out of the iceberg. Immediately after that, Nick Fury pulls a gun on him and accuses him of being The Mole, then he get's taken captive by the Liberators.
  • Nick himself is suffering during this. Hawkeye, his wife, and his children, who were Fury's god-children, were (seemingly) murdered. Then Nick had to be informed that the killer of his friends was none other than Captain America. Even when arresting him, Nick is clearly in denial as he prefers accusing Steve of being an impostor rather than accept that the genuine WWII superhero might've turned traitor.
  • The aforementioned death of Hawkeye's family.
• During Ultimates 2, Loki uses his powers to turn the rest of the Ultimates against Thor, making everyone believe he betrayed the team, and that he's just some nut job who broke out of a mental asylum and merely believes himself to be the Norse god of thunder. He gets better, but the sight of him in a straight jacket, with his golden locks shaved off, is not pretty.
• Bruce Banner's situation is even more dire than that of his mainstream counterpart; he's locked in a cell under constant surveillance and the deaths of millions hanging over his head as a result of the Hulk's rampage, and it only gets worse in Ultimates 2, after his connection to the Hulk is leaked to the media, and he's left waiting for a trial that will lead to an inevitable death sentence.
• The second Wasp's backstory: Red Skull threatens to kill her baby unless she murders her own husband, an activist and enemy of the Red Skull, with a blunt pair of scissors. She does so...and the Red Skull chucks the baby out of a window anyway, then orders his men to gang-rape her.
• While the Red Skull initially appeared to be one of the most vile and irredeemable villains in the Ultimate Universe, he actually becomes very sympathetic when you learn what drives him. He wanted to obtain the Cosmic Cube so that he could go back in time and prevent his father, Captain America, from being lost in the war so that he could grow up with a normal, loving family. Who could blame him for wanting to live a happier life instead of the one that was forced upon him?
  • His wanting the Cosmic Cube also explains why he engaged in such remorseless actions throughout his life. He knew that there was a way for him to go back in time and change the events of the past, to get the life that he had always wanted. He knew that everything he did in pursuit of his goal was wrong, but he also knew that if he succeeded, then none of those things will have actually occurred because he would have turned out a vastly different person. He wasn’t just going to undo what happened to him, he was going to undo all the terrible things he did to others in pursuit of his goal. The guy wasn’t the heartless monster he appeared to be at first glance.

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