Panel 4: The image of nekkid Heavy Artillery is a hyper-obscure callback of sorts to the original “slash fanfiction,” that of Kirk/Spock way back in the day. The first time I heard of “slashfic” thirty-odd years ago in a magazine article (of unknown provenance), the piece was accompanied by a strangely hilarious piece of fan art featuring a nekkid Spock in a similar pose. 

Fun fact: Amazingly enough, the other slash fanfic pairing prominently mentioned in that long-ago magazine article was Starsky/Hutch, of already distant 70s TV infamy. What, no Jake and the Fatman erotic fanfic? No sensual pairings of Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, featuring young(ish) Jeff Goldblum? Why did these fangirls ignore the May-December shipping possibilities of Hardcastle and McCormick?

Also, gotta say that Emp’s sudden and abrupt fangirling descent into what is arguably a form of objectification as she feverishly rattles off “slash” possibilities also amuses me more than it probably should. Our heroine is not without flaw, needless to say.

And thus ends “ObjectiFINE,” the penultimate story of Empowered vol. 3. Next up, an unprecedentedly long visit with Metatextual Emp before “E.M.P. and the Nukenin Princess”—the long, grueling climactic story of this volume—finally kicks off.

-Adam Warren