Side note to the last few pages: I’ve noticed for a long time how superhero movies have affected heroes’ use of masks. In comics, masks are often easier to draw than regular faces, but in movies, the face is a key part of an actor’s toolset.  So the films kept finding ways to unmask Spider-Man mid-fight, they never even bothered to try masking up Wolverine, and characters like Batman and Green Lantern would get these more “open” mask designs that allowed the actors to emote more clearly than something more comics-accurate would. Iron Man films mostly introduced the “view inside the helmet” approach to rendering the character, too. (And yes, I know comics do a lot of unmasked or half-masked fight sequences, visual variety is fun. But it still seemed to happen a lot more reliably in superhero movies, especially earlier ones that were a little underconfident about the genre.)

In our comic, I’m not sure which version of WAV was easier for John. But I know which version was easier for Flo to letter, so I’m always amused when Flo’s scripts likewise find some way to get that mask off him, even if it’s only in time to render an undigitized speech bubble or two.

The last few panels are already a clue that things are not as expected here. There shouldn’t be time for HR to give Frigg any instruction, should there?