- Elissa's father's death. For a child to have to watch her father suddenly drop dead in front of her from an aneurysm is really heart-breaking.
- Thugboy losing all his friends twice: first when his cell of the capeless uprising in San Antonio got wiped out, and then again when his gang of Witless Minions was raped to death by Willy Pete. Add to that the fact that his mother and sister apparently both died under still unknown circumstances (almost certainly involving capes, considering he was a Capekiller), and this guy has had a truly heartbreaking life up until he met Elissa.
- Ninjette's whole childhood, really. Her mother apparently died when she was very young, for which her father blamed her. More generally, her father was an abusive drunk ninja who just made her life absolutely miserable. Furthermore, she was never allowed to have any friends, even within her own ninja clan. When you realize that Elissa is the first friend she ever had in her life, it's hardly any wonder that she is an alcoholic—a high-functioning alcoholic, but still, an alcoholic, as she admits to herself at the end of Nine Beers with Ninjette.
- The scene when Anglerfish tells Emp about the murder of his son by Willy Pete. Anglerfish and his son may have both been supervillains, but you cannot help but feel for a man who has lost his son to such a horrible crime.
- Not that he didn't kind of deserve the beatdown he got from Emp, having put the poor girl through her deepest desires to be appreciated and see her father again only to have them ripped away harshly. Her reaction to being bound by who she thinks is her own father (after hoping she wasn't a disappointment to him no less) is absolutely heartrending.
- Mindf**k's death. One of the nicest superheroes by far, and one of the few to make any real effort to befriend Emp, and she dies even after Emp manages to get her safely to the evacuation portal, and Sistah Spooky flies up to save her. And if that were not enough, she's not even all that sorry to die, because of how unhappy her life had been. To top that off, for all she tries to tell Spooky that she should believe that she deserves to be loved, she can't really bring herself to believe that she really is a good person.
- The final chapter of Empowered 5. Mindf**k's Heroic Sacrifice is bad enough, but the following scene with Emp and Sistah Spooky is just heartbreaking.
- Volume 6, oh gods. "What does "three seconds too late" mean, Spookums?"
- Volume 8, Mindf**k's in Hell. Spooky and Emp didn't save her. That's where she will almost certainly stay. Nothing more needs to be said about it.
- Also the revelation that a lot of Emp's reputation and her tendency to get tied up are Spooky's fault due to spells cast in fits of jealousy. And Spooky tried to undo it a long time ago and can't because of how strongly the urge to subject Emp to bondage has become ingrained for villains. Cosmic Plaything much?
- "Go away and leave me alone, Hannah".
- In the special "Internal Medicine", the hospital's elevator with Emp and Ninjette on it opening on one of the spatiotemporally asynchronous floors (that is, the hospital has many more floors than it should due most of them being in another time and space) and meet a future Emp that is shocked to meet Ninjette, and then starts crying.
- Manny's fate. All his efforts to use Flesh-Master to cure both his normal cancer and the Mayfly-induced alien growth were for naught. He realizes too late his crush on Emp wasn't right, and whatever is left of his mind is okay with Emp destroying Manny's corrupt body in order to defeat Flesh-Master.
- Even worse, we get subjected to images of Manny's daydreams, accompanied by posthumous thoughts of how inspirational Emp's non-douchecapery was, culminating in an older Manny proposing to and marrying Emp...followed by a glimpse of the real pre-Mayfly Manny, without his helmet.
- Also, in Volume 4, Emp finding out the Caped Justice Award nomination, which she was so touched and excited about, was in fact a Carrie-style humiliation planned by her fellow superheroes. Gee, what a bunch of not-bastards. It's Emp trying to keep a brave face and finally starting to cry in Thugboy's arms that does it.
- Sistah Spooky may be a snide bitch, but she's an absolute wreck in v.6; it's hard to watch.
- Anglerfish, who laments on the murder of his son (Kid Anglerfish), Katastrophe, and Baby Bird and how the Superhomeys didn't care just because they were villains.
- In an early story in Vol. 3, Emp suddenly snaps and freaks out after being kidnapped one too many times. It's kind of hard to watch.
- The start of Volume 6, after Mindf**k's death. It is demonstrated that Spooky's sorcery can do wonders to adjust facial expressions.
"There. All fixed, now."
- Volume 11 is just full of gutpunches.
- Mindf**k's brother escapes and, being an immensely powerful telepath, sics the entire cape community on Emp, including all her Superdead friends, Maidman and Ninjette and Thugboy.
- Only Capitan Rivet is immune, and as he and Emp flee, he tells her he has remembered her since they first met and how impressed he is that she's come so far. Then he throws himself into a fight with Willy Pete he knows he can't win, to buy her time to escape. Doing so, Emp actually calls him 'daddy'.
- Perhaps sadder is Rivet suggesting that he often wanted to intervene in the abuse carried out on her by the other Superhomeys - almost to the point he seems to loathe how selfish and self-indulgent they are - but he was worried about coddling her and wanted her to endure it and be stronger because she - and a number of other ideas he and others tried - are perhaps all they have against the real terrors out in the universe, and may not even be close to enough.
- Emp finally manages to tell Ninjette and Thugboy how much she loves them both, right as she's forced into a situation where the suit might kill them if they don't kill her first.
