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?

Courting Disaster Dec. 29, 2006

Courting Disaster


Courting Disaster, my weekly comic about sex, love, and relationships updates every Friday. You’ll laugh your pants off. This week’s question:

We’ve been friends for 33 years and married for 27 but the romance has been gone for a very long time. Her kisses are cold and her commitment to a sex life is gone. We used to share everything in our intimate life making sure each was fulfilled, but now a void has been created. If there’s a free moment she prefers to have it to herself. We used to have times of lust and desire and I wish we could have that again. The love is deep but the spark is weak. Any advice? — Cool Embers

Go on over and offer some advice.