Panel 2: Once again, the action trope of narratively convenient traumatic brain injury raises its head, folks! (Pun unintended.) Then again, this incredibly useful riff is so universally featured throughout all of pop culture as a whole that I’m not sure that many people realize that it’s a comically—ahem—“unrealistic” trope. (As with the similar depiction of chloroform, which has actually killed people in the real world when used by idiots failing to grasp that its pop-culture use is a wholly fictional concept.) 

Gotta say, I’ve always been amused by the idea that, say, “Batman doesn’t kill,” even though odds are that at least a few of the thousands—if not tens of thousands—of traumatic brain injuries he’s inflicted on supervillains and thugs would’ve had fatal consequences. A superhero universe has to be "nerfed" to hell and back to preserve the frankly silly idea that the good guys never kill by accident; let us not consider how many poor sods would be collateral damage when even the goody-goodiest of high-powered heroes have to fight within city limits.

Panel 2: As we’ll see later on in the series—and, quite possibly, later in this very volume—that is no ordinary push broom, folks. To be honest, a more conventional type of broom might’ve been a better choice, but I didn’t care to confuse the issue with all the witch-related broom tropes common in manga and anime. On a related note, long ago I briefly considered having Sistah Spooky flying via the familiar witch’s broom, but again didn’t care to “cross the streams” of superheroism and witch tropery. whew!

-Adam Warren