I suppose I should clarify that this depicts the fictional trope of chloroform, not any real-world form of anesthetic use. As I’ve discussed in numbing detail previously, fictional chloroform is just another bullsh**t, stylized form of narratively convenient unconsciousness, meant to move a story along smoothly to the next act. Remember that damsels get daintily chloroformed, while heroes—wisecracking PIs, say—get KO’d with a crisp, consequence-free rap on the noggin, moving us quickly along to the next scene, as opposed to a more realistic depiction of “character gets grabbed by the bad guys” that would be vastly more time-consuming or unpleasant. (As in, the damsel getting terrorized at length or beaten into submission, which would be even ickier.) All forms of fictional unconsciousness are technically unrealistic but very, very helpful plot devices for the harried writer short on time or pagecount, even though such tropes have become so well-worn and familiar that some might not grasp that they are, in fact, utterly fictional flourishes akin to fairy dust or unobtanium or arousal-driven nosebleeds.

Short form: Fer chrissakes, don’t try this at home, kids.

I briefly flirted with a slightly more—ahem—“realistic” approach to chloroform in a later Empowered volume, only to find out that I was still laughably and completely off-base about how that would work. That was a classic geek “power move,” by the way: Saying, “um, actually” about how some fictional trope would work “in the real world,” theoretically to display one’s superior knowledge level, only to still be fulla crap and wholly misinformed about the topic. Whoops! (Don’t get me started about wannabe gun-nut geeks sagely regurgitating random, half-remembered BS about “hydrostatic shock” or similar crap.) Just say no to “um, actually” statements, boys, however tempting they might be!

That said, I do rather like occasionally playing around with marginally less unrealistic takes on fictional tropes, not at all for realism’s sake but just to do something a little bit different than the cliché-driven norm. In fact, the upcoming Empowered vol. 10 briefly flirts with the idea that the nonstop, repeated bouts of narratively convenient unconsciousness that superheroes endure might have long-term neurological consequences, only to hastily veer off in a different direction. Yikes!

-Adam Warren