Now, you might ask, why didn’t Idea Man just hire a model to dress up as a Sexy Librarian? Seems easier than going to all the hassle of locating and kidnapping one straight outta the library, doesn’t it? My retroactively conceived, “No-Prize”-style theory: Idea Man had to find a “naturally occurring” Sexy Librarian in the wild, so to speak, if one can consider a library to represent “the wild.” 

 Y’know, I probably should clarify the frequently used term “No-Prize,” as only print-comic readers Of A Certain Age would know the meaning of the reference, which dates back to the bygone heyday of Marvel Comics letter columns. If I may quote Wikipedia:

“The Marvel No-Prize is a fake award given out by Marvel Comics to readers. Originally for those who spotted continuity errors in the comics, the current "No-Prizes" are given out for charitable works or other types of ‘meritorious service to the cause of Marveldom’. As the No-Prize evolved, it was distinguished by its role in explaining away potential continuity errors. Initially awarded simply for identifying such errors, a No-Prize was later given only when a reader successfully explained why the continuity error was not an error at all.”

The surprisingly lengthy and exhaustive Wikipedia entry on the Marvel No-Prize is worth checking out, if only for the section ominously—and hilariously—titled “Confusion and Decline.”

Gotta say, the rather skinny and physically unimposing Idea Man seems to be having way too easy a time hefting Emp as so-called “shoulder candy.” Hard to believe I missed out on the humorous opportunity of having the slender fellow belatedly discover that hauling a full-grown woman around like this might well be considerably more difficult than supervillainous pop-culture depictions might have one believe. (As in, “Do you even lift, villainbro?”) Then again, as Sistah Spooky opined, Emp represents the “Aryan Ideal of Shoulder Candy,” so perhaps Idea Man found himself inexorably compelled to “over-the-shoulder” carry her in such a manner, and is manfully hiding the effort required.

-Adam Warren