Chapter 17, Page 21b: Emotional Avoidance

Posted on June 30, 2026 by Brad Guigar

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?

Green Lantern Corps 8

Posted on January 30, 2007 by Brad Guigar

Green Lantern Corps 8

Well. It’s official. I’m an old man.

I’m a huge Green Lantern fan, and when I saw the launch of the Green Lantern Corps monthly title, it was a sight-unseen lock on my pull list.

It had a respectable start, but has been getting darker and darker.

Finally, with #7, it just started getting to be too much. With #8, I was convinced. The violence has gotten downright — oh man, I’m gonna say it — gratuitous.

Excuse me. A liver spot just popped up on my forearm.

I mean. Geez! Can we take a look at GLC#8 for a couple seconds?

It starts out with the exploding heads and general corpse-mashing of three aliens. And since they’re evil and non-human-looking, it’s fairly easy to get past.

Why is everyone driving so fast?

Then we get to the R’amey Holl, a beautiful butterfly-like alien who is introduced in #7.

There are sparks between her and Guy Gardner — she lays a serious lip-lock on him about six pages in. She’s drawn to be very sexy — with serious attention paid to her secondary-sex characteristics — and she’s written with a very definite sweetness.

Excuse me. Time for my Geritol.

I should have seen it coming. Sure enough. by the end of the issue, she gets eviscerated by a terrifying alien baddie. But not before one last big push on those sex buttons. Check out the scan to the right… she’s grasped by the alien and the “camera” goes right to her ribs so the main focus is on her breasts — accentuated by a uniform that just happens to accentuate her nipples.

And then… “Spluuutch.”

I remember when this was all farms.

Before you take a quick look at Lightning Lady and cry “hypocrate”, let me say this: I like sex. I think sexy comics are just dandy. I have no problem whatsoever with amping up the sex in this sort of comic — especially if it adds a meaningful layer to the storytelling.

And, of course, I understand that violence is going to be a staple in an action comic. I could do with a little less blood and a great deal less time spent on what look to be medical illustrations of organs and innards, but I’m willing to put up with a little bit of that, too, if it’s in the name of a good story.

Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!

But, I have to say… it makes me really, really uncomfortable to see sex and violence amped up to such high degrees and presented so close to each other. One panel is breasts and the next is guts.

That’s not good storytelling. It’s a cheat.

Why is everyone driving so fast?

Okay. I get it. She’s a butterfly-alien. She’s probably going to come out of a coccoon in #9 and save Gardner. And I’m certain that that kiss was more than a kiss. Gardner may very well be gestating the coccoon himself. I know she’s not really dead. But still… those images are still burned into my head — and I’d just as soon they weren’t.

I think I need a nap.