Panel 1: Yeahp, this page is a callback to a scene from the Empowered vol. 1 story “It’s Like This,” though Thugboy’s reaction seemed a tad less pronounced in that original scene. Note also the damsel lurking at lower right, who later tried to kidnap and ransom Emp in the Empowered vol. 2 story “The Aryan Ideal of Shoulder Candy.” Keep this rather obnoxious character in mind, as she’s about to make an almost-as-obnoxious appearance in this very volume.

Panel 2: Also, keep this Thugboy line in mind for our very next page, as a rather unlikely dialogue transition sets up an abrupt scene change. What can I say, folks? Empowered was never intended to be read in a page-a-day serialized form, but rather consumed in 200-page clumps all at once. Thus, the sudden scene shifts I so enjoy using really don’t read as well—or at least as clearly—as I might like when the series is read in webcomic form. Oh, well. 

-Adam Warren