Panel 2: No idea what the hell I referenced Thugboy’s bandanna from, but that’s certainly a striking pattern, isn’t it? This isn’t a bad look for ol’ T-Boy, but it’s not a costuming riff that’s ever reappeared in the series, as I immediately forgot about it after working on this story. I probably should revisit the bandanna concept down the road, but don’t hold your breath on that matter, as I’ll almost certainly forget about it again after this commentary posts.

Panel 3: Behold, an early hint that Thugboy and Emp’s relationship involves a fair bit of playful “over-the-shoulder carrying,” to use the DiD (Damsel In Distress) jargon. This despite the fact that, as we’ll eventually see, the act of “over-the-shouldering” is sociopolitically charged—if not direly problematic—for a distress-prone superheroine like Emp. Then again, as we’ll also eventually see, Emp’s progressive ideals are sometimes at odds with what actually happens to turn her on, for good or ill.

Panel 4: Ah, the much-discussed “quip”—or, more specifically, the so-called “combat quip,” as I vaguely recall dubbing it in an old issue of The Dirty Pair. Must admit, I’m not usually a big fan of their use during superheroic fight scenes—ah, but my perspective might be a bit skewed, as my modern conception of action sequences is derived more from manga than from the often-wordier mayhem of American comics.

Then again, not like all “quippage” is created equal. I quite liked many of the humorous lines that screenwriters Markus and McFeely used in Captain America: Winter Soldier and Civil War, but was left cold by Whedon’s quippery in Avengers and Age of Ultron. Can’t say exactly why, but Markus and McFeely’s humor seemed less forced and more organic to the stories’ situations—and, to be honest, just plain funnier. (And to be more honest still, more like lines I might’ve written myself.)

The same idea can apply to comics characters, even. As a wee child, I was a big fan of the gruff, cigar-chomping patter of The Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm, aka the ever-loving, blue-eyed Thing. (In fact, as a putative grown-up, I wrote a Thing-tastic three-issue FF arc for Marvel that was the culmination of this childhood affection.) Ah, but when ol’ Spider-Man commenced to wisecrackin’, Six-Year-Old Me had no time for his obnoxious shenanigans. “Shut the f**k up, Spidey,” I would think, if not blurt aloud. “Go leap groin-first at another one of your crappy stable of supervillains.” What can I say? I was down with The Idol o’ Millions, not the inexplicably popular—In My Childhood Opinion—webslinger.

Then again, not like superhero fiction needs to deploy quips in order to be funny; I often find the po-faced absurdity of some superhero movies funnier than intentional humor. (As in, frowny-faced, constipated-looking heroes grimly grimacing with deadly seriousness as wildly preposterous, hilariously inane, poorly scripted nonsense rampages unchecked and uncommented-on through the story they inhabit.) 

-Adam Warren