Panels 1 and 2: Behold the tragic results of the fact that, when I draw any given Empowered panel, I keep the rest of the page masked off with (other) sheets of copy paper to avoid smudging. Thus, I didn’t spot that the top of the bad guy’s head—and its spatial relationship to the hourglass symbol on his mask—shifts considerably from panel 1 to panel 2. A minor point, to be sure, but still a wee bit annoying.

Panels 4 and 5: Gotta admit, I was initially a bit puzzled by this scene’s peculiar setting in an old house out in the woods, which is a bit of an oddity for Emp’s otherwise urban adventures. Ah, but then I remembered: This is very likely a hyper-obscure reference to a geographically bizarre scene from an issue of Marvel’s Spider-Woman I read as a wee lad. In a thrillingly inexplicable sequence, the villain—“supervillain" is a bit of a stretch—Hangman lassoes and trusses up the heretofore superstrong Spider-Woman outside a burning factory building seemingly within city limits, then carries her up a heretofore unseen grassy slope(?) to an old, abandoned Haunted House(?) located, it seems, deep in a forest(?). Mysterious!

-Adam Warren