Panels 2 and 4 feature a brief cameo by the oft-mentioned Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch, folks! Welcome back, MIPMTG! Actually, screw that; get outta here, MIPMTG. 2008-Era Me might’ve indulged in your shenanigans, but you bug Present-Day Me a fair bit.

Also, in both panels 2 and 4: A minor quibble, but I really dislike the way that the two headline captions look, here—that is, the ones that respectively start with the words “COURAGEOUS” and “INEPT.” They would’ve worked better, I think, inverted in Photoshop to white—or yellow—lettering inside a black caption box. (Then again, I am perhaps overly fond of such “inverted captions,” as you’ll see in later volumes.)

Panel 4: I strongly suspect that the mustachioed magician fella standing behind trussed-up Emp in the wee insert image might be the vaguely similar-looking guy from the Apocalypse Clique glimpsed in passing as an action figure during the Empowered vol. 1 story “Training Day.” 

-Adam Warren