Panel 1: Gotta say, the idea of a cape that’s useful for more than just flapping dramatically is not a bad one at all. At the very least, such a “smart cape” could actively work to avoid getting snagged on obstacles—or sucked into jet intakes, per The Incredibles.

Panel 3: Not a huge fan of the “big head, smallish body” figure proportions on Emp here, along with a touch of the ol’ Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch to her midsection, both of which constitute wacky flourishes now gone from my artistic preferences. 

I do, however, still use a riff I borrowed for Emp's supersuit from the skintight “datafilms” depicted by Shirow Masamune in the Intron Depot artbooks and elsewhere—namely, that of the "nipple indication seen only in certain profile and 3/4 shots of the heroine’s chest,” as seen here. This is a somewhat wonky attempt to convey that Emp is indeed naked under an unearthly “hypermembrane” thinner and clingier than a layer of body paint, without engaging in what I view as the excessively crass practice of constant outlining of her nipples from all angles. (Seriously, that is an attention-grabbing technique whenever artists use it.) Your Mileage May Vary, of course, as this Shirow-derived variable form of outlining is still undeniably Pretty Goddamned Crass, as is my deliberately blithe and cavalier approach to where the hell I indicate said outlining, which often falls whimsically short of strictest anatomical realism. (Yeahp, this is another one of the visual jokes in Empowered that only I am able to perceive or appreciate.)

Then again, just as likely that Emp’s enigmatic supersuit would use the same, never-acknowledged trick it uses to hide its wearer’s, ah, “cameltoe" to conceal her up top, too. (As I’ve noted before, a fairly straightforward explanation for this phenomenon does exist, but I've never gotten around to formally detailing it.)

-Adam Warren