Panels 3-4: My view of this scene is that Emp is acting more playful than needy, but I do recall at least one review of Empowered vol. 10 that was quite exasperated with her compliment-fishing, opining that she hadn't changed very much (or even at all) from her grindingly insecure origins early on in the series.

And speaking of origins, tomorrow I plan to begin serializing in these very commentaries the first chapter of prose experiment I Am Empowered, which was a Year-One-ish exploration of Emp's earliest days as a newb superhero. Yay?

BTW, if you're one of those "tl;dr" jackasses, feel free to keep that so, so original sentiment to yourselves as these commentaries balloon to epic lengths, okay?

Speaking of I Am Empowered, all 24 full-length excerpts of the long-defunct, incomplete project can be read at the $3 Patron tier below:

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design departments, or possibly something entirely new. Golly!

-Adam Warren