Tear Jerker / Batman: Black and White

• "Two of a Kind": Two-Face, after being cured of his psychosis and having his face restored, falls in love with his psychiatrist and gets engaged. However, it is revealed that said psychiatrist has a psychotic twin sister who will stop at nothing to get Harvey to herself. She successfully seduces him, but when Harvey tries to break off the affair, she brutally murders her sister. Harvey, though consumed with rage, realizes that the therapy still works and prevents him from wanting to exact revenge. So he revives his Two-Face persona by burning his newly restored face and meets with the murderous twin, so as to kill her, and does so successfully, though he breaks down heartwrenchingly after having committed the act, cradling her body helplessly, looking as if he was crying. This is less heartbreaking than what he says to Batman after shooting the sister in the chest:
  "Then I just waited for you to show up — as you always do — to take me back where I belong... with the rest of the crazy people."
• "Fat City": A freak accident in Gotham's sewers brings a pile of grease to life, turning it into a liquefied monster that kills people by sucking the fat from their bodies. When every attempt to destroy it fails, Alfred inspires Batman to ask Chloe Willow, "Gotham's fattest woman", for help. Chloe agrees, and is flown to a square in the center of the city to be live bait for the creature. The plan is to blow the monster up with a phosphorus bomb, but when the creature suddenly and viciously attacks, Chloe grabs the bomb from Batman, explaining that she's dying of a heart condition, but wants to go helping Gotham somehow. Batman himself calls her a "brave woman", and she thanks him, before asking him to tell her husband Stanley that she loves him. As Batman swings away, we see a close-up of Chloe, tears on her face, as she detonates the bomb:
  Chloe: I-I love you, Stanley.
• In "Good Evening, Midnight", Batman hurries off to deal with a dangerous hostage situation. Alfred, meanwhile, dutifully puts away the untouched dinner and retires to his room, where he opens a box containing a letter from Thomas Wayne to his son. Thomas starts by wondering at Bruce's limitless potential and lamenting the time he wasted in trying to eradicate every disease and vanquish every hate, as we see Batman steadily advancing upon the hostage taker, and then Thomas states he hopes Bruce never has to know such obsession — he wants better for him. As the terrified felon falls, Alfred puts the letter back into his box, pulls out a cake from the fridge, lights a single candle and leaves it in the kitchen, the tiny light flickering as Batman returns home. It's even more painful in the animated adaptation, which keeps a sorrowful piano tune across the short.
• "Signals": Commissioner Gordon, upon receiving a coded letter pointing him to "Ball Rd", chooses to strike out on his own and solve the case himself instead of signaling for Batman. It turns out the case is quite personal — thirty years ago, when Gordon was a rookie cop, he had a mentor on the force who turned out to be a very Corrupt Cop that betrayed him in the worst possible way, and the resulting confrontation led to a shootout and then an explosion that left "three dead cops", including his mentor. When Gordon tracks down the source of the message to the abandoned Ballard Industries factory, he finally finds his mentor... and discovers that his mentor, while a Karma Houdini for thirty years, had become an emaciated old man living out a sad, pathetic existence. Despite thirty years worth of bitterness and disillusionment, Gordon ultimately couldn't bring himself to arrest his mentor after seeing him such a state, and leaves him.
  • Gordon's former mentor's side of the story is kinda sad, too. Yes, in his old life, he was a corrupt police officer who did very bad things and abused the trust and admiration of a young, naive Gordon. When finally confronted on his actions, he takes advantage of the resulting chaos and disappears, becoming a Karma Houdini for thirty years. When Gordon finally discovers him, he became an emaciated old man barely surviving in an isolated, cramped room, with only the barest necessities, under squalid conditions. The only response he could muster to Gordon pointing a gun at him, glaring at him like he would a common criminal, is a weak, tearful, "Jimmy— you came..." Gordon, who looked for him with intent to punish for what happened thirty years ago, actually pauses and lowers his gun out of pity.
  • The mentor also has a Catholic cross on the wall and a picture of his younger self back when he was on the force, wearing the uniform and badge. Both silent yet powerful indicators of both the mentor's status as a Fallen Hero and how much he was aware of it.

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