Panel 2: "Byzanium-powered force-field generator" is a rather obscure reference to the force-field generating mineral McGuffin from Clive Cussler's first Dirk Pitt novel, Raise the Titanic! (exclamation point in the original title, BTW), which I read as a kid circa the late 70s.

Update: My recollection seems a tad off, as the Wiki entry for said novel states that the Byzanium-powered doohickey uses "sound waves to stop incoming ballistic missiles," so this wasn't quite the force field I was thinking of.

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. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon posts—extensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

-Adam Warren