Panel 1: Note that we’ve seen the “gigantoform nautiloid” looming in the background before, when Emp unsuccessfully tangled with it way back in Empowered vol. 1.

Speaking of that story, I’m honestly not sure why I haven’t featured more rampaging, kaiju-style monsters like this as frequent antagonists in the series, given that they’re arguably more interesting than the garden-variety “supervills” I generally use as default Emp opponents. After all, giant beasties are a helluva lotta fun—if unsatisfying foes for Saitama—in One-Punch Man.

Ah, but an obvious rationale for why I don’t use “giant monsters threatening the city” more often just occurred to me, even as I type this: drawing the “city” part of the scenario is the problem. Placing kaiju—or “kaijuu,” if you prefer, as this commentary font has problems with the vowel-extension macron in romaji Japanese—in their proper environmental context requires rendering many, many buildings around ’em, which is no g-d fun whatsoever, so screw that.

Panel 3: The difference between the chubby, winged babies in Renaissance paintings—“putti,” though often labeled as “cherubs”—and the downright terrifying angels referred to as “cherubim” has always amused me to no end, gotta say.

-Adam Warren