As we head into the final pages of the story “Fruity Flakes®”—and Empowered vol.2 as a whole—it’s time for a few words about this particular installment’s ending.

Have to say, in retrospect I’m quite pleased that 2006-Era Me managed to end both Empowered volumes 1 and 2 with stories that weren't action-based, given that most of the comics I've written over the years have usually climaxed with scenes of elaborate violence. That being said, all the Empowered volumes since have ended with ever longer, more complicated and occasionally more brutal action scenes, with no end in sight for such concluding acts of mayhem. Still, closing the first two books with stories featuring emotional catharsis rather than violent beat-downs made for a nice—if, admittedly, short-lived—change of pace.

Panels 1 & 2: Not only have I long wanted to revisit the mysterious scheme that is—or was—“Project Slappy,” but I thought the unnamed Bescrubbed Woman would be an interesting character to feature again. Her somewhat unusual combination of character design and obvious bitterness towards “capes” make her fairly compelling to me, especially since Empowered tends not to feature all that many female villains—a tendency I went out of my way to compensate for in Empowered vol. 9, long-term readers might recall.

Panel 3: My pencil technique, alas, does not lend itself it well to dimly illuminated, “low-light” settings. Here, I’m trying—and, largely, failing—to emulate the technique I once used for such settings when I worked in B&W during The Dirty Pair, when I would just slap down a big piece of 10% or 20% gray screentone over an entire panel, then scrape off some edgelit highlights on the figures to indicate the “low-light” environment.

-Adam Warren