Panel 1: Not sure which manga I borrowed that visual riff of "arc with four short, radiating lines" from, or if it's a modification I worked up on my own—or if, heaven forfend, I cribbed it from a Western comic—but I sure do love using that goofy dealie as a bit of emotional(?) emphasis.

Panel 4: Only now occurs to me that Emp's hand gesture for figurative table-turning is, whimsically enough, based on the movement for how a DJ would perform "scratching" on a turntable. Note also that Emp's line "Somebody's got tables everywhere living in fear" still cracks me up; nicely done, 2013 Me! As the great Craig Ferguson said (and as I've often repeated here before), "I made myself laugh, and that's half the battle."

Today’s Patreon update: As it’s a Wednesday, time for the $5+ Patron tiers to get their weekly dose of commissioned “damsel-in-distress” content, along the lines of the same material that was eventually reworked into Empowered. (No idea as to exactly what that content might be at this time, though; these commentaries are written much further out from posting than are my often last-minute Patreon updates.)