Panels 1-3: My original plan for this "breaching the gates of Hell" sequence involved a whole bunch of complex visuals conveying the Vorpal Sword's passage, but at the last moment I "called an audible" and switched around to a completely different narrative approach wholly relying on sound FX. While this alternate take undeniably saved me a fair bit of worktime, I still find this to be a valid storytelling choice, as the FX help to emphasize a rattled and unnerved Emp's subjective experience of the Hellgates' breaching.

Come to think of it, this does seem to represent a bit of a lost opportunity for superhero storytelling—that is, conveying how BLUDGEONING AND EARPIERCINGLY G-D LOUD that most cape-related conflict would be. Of course, the use of giant frickin' sound FX and the like would burn up pagecount in a hurry, but this still seems like a narrative avenue worth exploring on occasion.

On a more mundane level, after doing a fair bit of shooting over the last year or so, I've long wanted to attempt to properly convey how shatteringly loud gunshots would sound if ear protection wasn't being worn, or if said gunshots were being fired in enclosed spaces. (Though, as with many of my ideas along these lines, I'm not interested in supposed "realism" so much as hoping to wriggle free of tired and hackneyed tropes to try out something a li'l different.)

-Adam Warren