Chapter 17, Page 21b: Emotional Avoidance

Countess Influencia has arrived — and Fairmount City’s heroes are already under her spell.

As her livestreamed crime spree unfolds, the heroes of Justice Ltd. are doing what any brave, noble defenders of justice would do in a moment of crisis: They’re staring at their phones, smashing the Like button, and assembling in her comments section.

Only Captain Heroic seems immune to her influence. Why? Because the last thing waiting on his phone is a text from Miss Match that reads: “We have to talk.”

And sometimes, emotional avoidance is the only thing standing between civilization and total collapse.

Dear Pentagram Forum

If you enjoyed the illustration that parodied those old “Dear Penthouse Forum” letters, the following exclusive post takes the joke all the way.

The short story tells the entire encounter from start to finish — the setup, the invitation, the escalation, and the kind of filthy left turn those letters always seemed to take when you realized you were no longer in the “saucy anecdote” section of the magazine.

This one is pure retro smut nostalgia: A horny little time capsule from the era when “I never thought this would happen to me…” was basically the Bat-Signal for bad decisions.

Transcript

Panel 1
A large monitor displays footage of Countess Influencia hovering over Fairmount City.
Several Justice Ltd heroes are gathered in the room, but instead of leaping into action, they’re all staring at their phones. Pink hearts stream upward from their screens.

Amazing Amazon: She’s… weirdly compelling.
Elastic Man: I only ‘liked’ ironically.
Wingman: I subscribed UN-ironically.
Captain Heroic: Why isn’t anyone… y’know…  assembling?

Panel 2
Amazing Amazon:
We are assembling.
Elastic Man: In her comments section.
Phenomenal Lass: Grab your phone and join us.

Panel 3
Captain Heroic remembers his last text from Miss Match:
“We have to talk”
Cap, in a narration box: I… uhhhh… turned that off for a while.

Panel 4
Captain Heroic, flying into action:
Who knew emotional avoidance could be a superpower?

New York Comic Con 2007

New York Comic Con: Feb 23-25

The first big convention of 2007 is just under two weeks away! If you’re not making plans to attend this one, you really ought to consider it! Fellow BLCer Paul Southworth and I will be out there, and you should be there, too!

I’ll have copies of Evil Inc Annual Report vol. 1 and Evil Inc Annual Report vol. 2. I’ll also bring Courting Disaster, vol. 1 and The Best of Gresytone Inn: Lightning Lady — and, of course, the VILF shirt. I’ll be doing convention sketches and kissing babies.

2007 Convention Appearances

Emerald City Comic Con: March 31st-April 1st.

Wizard World Philadelphia: June 15-17

Comic Con International: is scheduled for July 26-29.

Baltimore Comic Con: September.

PhilCon: Possible appearance in November