Really dislike the drawing of Emp’s face in panel 1—boo, Past-Tense Me!—but quite like the close-up in panel 2—yay, Past-Tense Me! Clearly, to the mysterious algorithm in my head that arbitrarily determines my appreciation of my older work, some of early Empowered’s panels have aged more gracefully than others.

I’m amused to no end by panel 4’s image of Emp wrapping herself up in the metaphorical blanket of her future boyfriend’s kind words, to the point that I’m surprised and mildly disappointed that I never revisited this particular concept. (As you might have perceived by now if you’ve read enough of this commentary, I don’t spend all that much time looking back over Empowered’s older chapters. For me, this series is all about forward progress, preferably accomplished as rapidly as possible.)

Panel 5’s close-up of Emp intrigues me, because its peculiar take on her closed(?) eyes must be a reference to a specific manga artist—but I’ll be damned if I can remember exactly who that might be.