Tear Jerker / Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Shattered Grid

• In this promo for Shattered Grid, which is set during Issue #26, Lord Drakkon sees his other self being comforted by the other Rangers as he loses his Green Ranger powers. For a moment, it looks like the villain regrets how his life has turned out when he sees What Could Have Been.
  • This becomes Harsher in Hindsight with reveals at the end of the event. When Drakkon looked across the multiverses, he saw that he was the only Tommy Oliver that stayed evil. Angered at being the odd one out, he proceeded to erase all of these realities to create one where he could be a hero.
• Issue 25:
  • In the opening pages, the Time Force Rangers are investigating a rift in space-time that threatens the very fabric of the universe. They fly closer to try and fix it, but a sudden explosion expels Katie, Trip, and Lucas from the Megazord. Not long after, the Megazord itself is destroyed with Wes inside. Jen has no time to process her grief before she just barely escapes Drakkon. Then, Daniele diNicuolo does something unusual with his artwork — we see part of Jen’s face behind her helmet. Jen Scotts is horrified as she realizes that she’s the Sole Survivor of her team.
  • Tommy's death. He and Kim are on a date when Tommy tried to go in for their first kiss. Kim refuses it, wanting to go slower, but as they part, she realizes that she did want that kiss. She runs back after him, only to find too late Lord Drakkon having ran him through with Saba. Despite the arrival of Jen Scotts, it seems that it was all too late as Tommy appears to die in her arms.
    • The Hope Spot here is particularly brutal: The first panels of that page show Kim racing through the streets, calling Tommy’s name, ready to tell him how she feels. Then, in the last panel, we see is Tommy alone with a text bubble of an out-of-frame person saying, “Tommy.” Turn the page, then see a Splash Panel of Tommy screaming in pain as Drakkon stabs him in the back.
  • On top of the image of Kimberly crying over Tommy’s lifeless body, Jen is slumping in the corner. She’s on this mission to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and with Tommy’s murder, she must confront the painful realization that she may already be too late and that she just barely missed preventing it.
    • Even harder to read those panels now, seeing that Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly) cried when she learned Jason David Frank (Tommy) committed suicide in real life. Even Erin Cahill (Jen) was speechless when she learned of his death.
• Issue 26 opens with the aftermath of Tommy's death. The rest of the team are told that he's gone for good, Zordon feeling incredibly guilty that he failed to guide and protect them properly, and the team have to put Tommy's body back in the alley so it can be found. The next four days are heartbreaking: the team is with Tommy's mom when the police come by with the bad news, Jason tearfully being given Dragon Shield, the team at school with even Bulk and Skull looking sad, and finally the funeral.
  • The whole opening of the issue being harder to read now, seeing that people get to witness Jason David Frank's (Tommy's) funeral in real life some time after he committed suicide. Even Paul Schrier (Bulk) voiced out his respects to Jason David Frank. Jason Narvy (Skull) too.
  • This whole situation is even worse for Tommy's mother, since this happens not long after he came home after being missing for at least several days (due to being trapped in Drakkon's dimension).
  • It gets worse once Jen wakes up: The Power Rangers timeline is shattered because of Tommy's death and the one way to really fix this - go back in time and stop Drakkon from killing Tommy - can't be done because the Morphin Grid freaked out by the timeline shattering.
• The annual's RPM story. First off, it's Dr. K's birthday, and the Rangers have made her a cake (and set up a party), which the doc doesn't want because of everything with Alphabet Soup. Then Drakkon attacks, so he can get to Dr. K... and rather than try to kill her or abduct her, he asks her to join him, praising her for the Venjix apocalypse and making the city of Corinth dependent on her for survival. Dr. K takes this pretty hard, since her creation and accidental release of Venjix is her biggest regret, and her attempt to kill Drakkon only fails because the Drakkon speaking to her was a robot. When the other Rangers get back, she tells them she's going to her room and eat the cake by herself, and if anyone hears her having an emotional breakdown, they're to ignore it. And as she says this, she's already beginning to weep.
• The Free Comic Book Day issue for 2018 reveals that Lord Drakkon murdered Rita in his universe, usually she'd deserve it but he murdered her as she was comforting him in an almost motherly way.
  • The same issue reveals that by using up his reserve energy to seek help against Lord Drakkon Zordon has sacrificed his chance to join with the Morphin Grid upon his death. He literally gave up his afterlife.
• Issue 27:
  • A small team teleports back to the World of the Coinless and arrives in a ruined building. Billy finds a sign on the floor. It's the Juice Bar, to twist the knife further Coinless!Zack suggests the only reason it's even standing is to act as a trophy.
  • Jason and Lauren Shiba team up for a mission to find Doctor K. As they trek through the desert in Jason’s Tyrannosaurus, the two Red Rangers realize that they have a lot in common; namely, a tendency to blame themselves when bad things happen to their loved ones. Lauren tells Jason that the Nighlok monsters are threatening a return, and so her brother Jayden is on a mission to learn more. Not only have the Shiba siblings been separated for a third time, in his absence, a dimension-hopping sociopath is at large, their friends have been taken captive or worse, and she has no idea if home will still be there for Jayden to return to.
    • Since the comics don’t have to maintain the TV show’s Never Say "Die" policy, this scene also marks the first time anyone has ever said out loud what exactly happened to Lauren and Jayden’s father. He put all of his energy into casting the sealing symbol, and died in the middle of the ritual. Suddenly, Lauren’s Heroic BSoD when her attempt to cast that same spell fails takes on a whole new dimension of Tear Jerker.
• Issue 28:
  • In an effort to save all the realities from Lord Drakkon, Dr. K and her team are forced to abandon their own, destroying Corinth's protective dome so that the anti-teleportation measures in place are gone so that the gathered Rangers can escape, leaving the city and its inhabitants to the mercy of Lord Drakkon or Venjix. Dr. K's small My God, What Have I Done? is heartbreaking considering everything she and her team have gone through trying to protect their city.
  • In the Coinless world, the mission to rescue Ninjor doesn't go as planned and results in Coinless!Zack being killed.
• Issue 29:
  • A happy one: Andros and Karone reuniting. Andros is coming from a point in time where his sister is still Astronema (possibly the time where she was forced to be evil again) and to see Karone in front of him and also a Ranger shows him that, at least in her universe, he was successful in rescuing her.
  • The issue reveals Coinless!Skull wasn't killed previously as thought because he dies here, getting his neck snapped by Drakkon for his treason.
• Go Go #12 has Matt confronting his friends and his girlfriend that he's realized that they're Rangers, practically begging them to confirm it or else he's walking away and never talking to any of them again. Unfortunately, they can't tell Matt because they're bound to one of Zordon's rules (never reveal your secret identity) and the issue ends with Matt walking away from them, Kim trying to run after him but being stopped by Jason.
  • To make matters worse, Matt would have no reason to assume there's a rule stopping them from telling him. So to him his best friends made the choice for him.
• Issue 30:
  • Jason giving Kim the Dragon Dagger and Dragon Shield, knowing that the upcoming fight is deeply personal for her.
  • When Drakkon is forging his new sword, images of his other selves can be seen in the molten metal, which confirms that Doctor Oliver was killed off screen.
  • Drakkon snapping Finster-5's neck when the cyborg attempts to stop him from tapping into the remaining morphers, showing that the man cares absolutely nothing for anyone other than himself.
• Shattered Grid 1:
  • Drakkon creates a world for himself where he has loving parents, is Angel Grove's main savior, and is worshiped and idolized by everyone. He has everything he could ever want, but it all feels hollow to him.
    • Tommy getting to the core of why Drakkon's world felt so empty and why he was defeated in their mindscape battle: despite his claim that friends and allies were a weakness, Drakkon did want them but was afraid to let anyone get close to him.
  • The Mighty Morphin team along with Tommy, Jen, and Lauren push the Reset Button to undo all the damage Drakkon has done and to avoid mental paradoxes their memories of the event are erased. All the people that they met, the friends they made, and the romance that blossomed, forgotten.
  • Though their feelings towards each other are mutual, because of the reset Jason and Lauren won't be able to get together and in fact may never even meet.