Avengers Academy is a surprisingly sad series.
- Many of the kid's back stories are Tear inducing, especially Hazmat and Mettle. Part of the reason they are so loved by fans is the amount off sadness comes with their characters.
- There are quite a few in Fear Itself
- Mettle leading people to safety, only to have them all mowed down by machine gun fire. He lances the mech doing it with a lamp pole, but sees he killed the pilot and goes into a little bit of shock. Tigra has to ask him to keep going, even when he's wracked with guilt.
- Veil and her quest to rescue a little girl's mother, she succeeds, but the mother is gunned down right in front of the daughter.
- Hazmat and Mettle get an excellent moment during when they go to sacrifice themselves to let half the cast escape two of the Worthy. Tearjerker, Heartwarming and Awesome, all crowned.
Mettle: Ready?Hazmat: No. But let's go anyway. - In the Shattered Heroes arc. Adult Finesse is completely incapable of even recognizing her own daughter.
- In the second Avengers vs. X-Men Arc, there's Juston's Sentinel.Sentinel: Unit Will not abandon Juston. Not ever. No matter what. Primary Directive Over-Ride. Protect Juston.
- Finesse, gifted with the ability to mimic any fighting skill she sees, thinks the Taskmaster might be her father because of their similar power. They spar to get the readings from one another and Taskmaster tells her that the mimicry power comes at a cost: the loss of long-term memory. They might be related; they might not be. But not only will he eventually forget the entire conversation they had, he won't even remember who she is:Taskmaster: I wanted ta fight you 'cause... I thought if I remembered your moves, I might remember you. But all your moves are somebody else's. Just like mine.
- Hank's broken reaction when he finally has to admit that Jocasta is right that he's not able to bring Jan back whole yet, and that Jan would have hated to come back as anything less after having had to see her own mother live her life as a vegetable after a car accident. Just the look on his face when he finally forces himself to let go of his obsessive quest and say goodbye is crushing. And then later he discovers the body he was trying to revive wasn't even her and she's still nothing but scattered molecules out in the void somewhere.
- A lot of moments in the last two issues are Tearjerkers in retrospect, now that Avengers Arena has killed off half the cast. Especially Mettle and Rockslide bonding, and the whole graduation.
- In the second Runaways crossover issue Nico’s understand spell shows a lot of heartwrenching moments:
- Victor’s mom being killed by Ultron
- Klara being yelled at by her husband
- Gert dying before she can tell Chase she loves him
- White Tiger as a little girl finding her parents dead
- Striker about to be molested by his manager
- Tigra’s husband dying in her arms
- Reptil trying to convince Finesse they should give a relationship a shot due to the future he was in, she points out that it was only a possible one and their relationship ended disastrously in it at that making her even more unwilling to pursue a relationship with him. He pleads with her saying he’s not sure he can stand having memories of something that will never happen.
- Karolina feeling lost after Xavin leaving.
- Nico remembering how their parents died and how all they had was each other.
