In case this page’s dialogue references are a bit too oblique, yeahp, I was indeed implying that King Tyrant Lizard and Syndablokk attended the same art school. I do eventually detail the rather unusual art class that wound up transforming these two students into superhumans, but don’t get around to doing so until the start of Empowered vol. 8. Feel free to click the “Store” or “Comixology” or “Dark Horse Digital” links if you’d like to skip ahead to that point, folks! (Er, I’d strongly recommend reading the intervening volumes first, though, for a more fulfilling storytelling experience!)

Well, at least this page’s “art school” reference is fortunate enough to get fleshed out down further down the road. Several other potential plot threads in Empowered vol. 2 were, alas,  less lucky and wound up dangling sadly unfulfilled, thanks to all the other burgeoning story and character issues that sidelined them as the series evolved and expanded and grew ever more complicated. (For long-term readers, those potential plot points involved the doofus “chronovillain” and the hospital-based “Project Slappy” that make appearances near the end of the book.)

Panel 1: Can’t quite say for absolutely certain, but I strongly suspect that King Tyrant Lizard’s civilian name, “Jerome,” is an obscure reference to the mirror-holding dude, Jerome Benton,  from the band Morris Day and The Time in Prince’s 1984 movie Purple Rain. (For those of you impoverished souls who never saw that scene from the film, here’s a relevant Wikipedia excerpt: “During one performance, lead singer Morris Day asked for someone to bring him a mirror. Benton responded by ripping a mirror out of the club's restroom and bringing it on stage for Day to comb his hair.”) I say that because, every time I glance over this page, I automatically hear Morris Day stammering, “N-n-n-now, Jerome” from, I think, the song “Jungle Love.” ( ♪ Oh-wee-oh-wee-oh. ♫)

-Adam Warren