Panel 1: Just noticed that the gizmo dWARf! is consulting looks kinda like an oversized, old-school iPod, complete with click wheel and everything. Gotta say, I still break out a fourth-gen Nano when I’m out on a cardio hike, as the click wheel’s handier for cycling through tunes than my phone’s touchscreen. *click click click*

Panel 1: You remember Wet Blanket from earlier in the volume, right? The dorky-looking fella with the superpower-negating aura? Well, you might want to keep him in mind for future reference.

Panel 2: As I opined last page, gotta love the Lotus Node visible in the background behind Spooky, with the simple, petal-like visual riff I used to deploy for depicting these portals, as opposed to the fractal-edged, bajillion-teeny-element version I came to draw in later volumes.

Panel 3: This was, I think, the first time I indicated that the superheroes maintain all sorts of secret—and, clearly, very, very large—facilities deep underground, presumably accessible only by portals like the Lotus Nodes. Expect to see many more subterranean chambers like this one in future Empowered stories; why, one might suspect that this very volume’s climactic episode might just take place in such a space. (Uh, SPOILER?)

-Adam Warren