Panel 1: As many or most commenters already figured out, Emp would never reveal her secrets in such an expository manner, though on some level she probably would love to gloat as triumphantly as we saw in last week's pages.

Panel 4: Speaking of the artistic license mentioned in the hovertext, I similarly tack on conspicuous and (ahem) "unrealistic" visual riffs of electrical arcing to help convey the use of (literally) "shocking" superpowers or hardware like this.

Interestingly, the one time in my comics career that I eschewed such stylized "emphasis FX" off in a scene of a character getting zapped, I found the results to be peculiarly brutal. Near the end of my run on Wildstorm/DC's Gen13 20-odd years ago (ouch), I wrote a scene that featured Caitlin Fairchild getting shocked unconscious by one of robomaid Anna's Evil Sisters (long story), and the image of our heroine spasming and convulsing without the cartoonish amelioration of arcing FX seemed oddly disturbing and unsavory. (Then again, that riff certainly fit the narrative I was aiming for, as the Gen13 kids were supposed to be getting straight-up curb-stomped by the sudden onslaught of Evil RoboSisters.)

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design departments, or possibly something entirely new. Golly!

-Adam Warren