Panel 1: TBH, I probably should’ve drawn more images from inside the radio broadcasting studio, but I really didn’t feel like doing those complicated backgrounds, okay? So, using this sign as a backdrop for three g-d panels was my none-too-sneaky way of skating around that unwanted drawing task.

Panel 2: Folks, behold the only reference in all of Empowered to the possible (and i emphasize, possible) existence of youthful "sidekicks" in this superhero universe. The concept of a cape having a straight-up kid as a junior partner is so blatantly moronic that it might well be worth addressing for the humor value of such laughably glaring child endangerment. Even as a wee lad reading comics in the 70s, the idea of the "young ward" struck me as obnoxious pandering, even if we didn't have that particular term back then. I didn't want to read about some dumbass kid I was apparently supposed to identify with and project myself upon; I wanted to read about grown-ups doing crazy s**t! That's why, later in life, I've never once even thought about addressing the idea in a superhero comic (until now).

Panels 5-6: Once again, the webcomic serialization—and the weekend-long gap between pages—hampers a joke. Rest assured that, on Monday, the concept of superhero fantasy leagues will be addressed and clarified in, I hope, a reasonably amusing manner.

-Adam Warren