Empowered Volume 1

Empowered #1

by Adam Warren, Various (Illustrator)

Not only is costumed crimefighter "Empowered" saddled with a less-than-ideal superhero name, but she wears a skintight and cruelly revealing "supersuit" that only magnifies her body-image insecurities. Worse yet, the suit's unreliable powers are prone to failure, repeatedly leaving her in appallingly distressing situations . . . and giving her a shameful reputation as the lamest "cape" in the masks-and-tights business. Nonetheless, she pluckily braves the ordeals of her bottom-rung superheroic life with the help of her "thugalicious" boyfriend (and former Witless Minion) and her hard-drinking ninja girlfriend, not to mention the supervillainous advice from the caged alien demonlord watching DVDs from atop her coffee table . . .

From Adam Warren-writer/artist of the English-language Dirty Pair comics (the original "Original English-Language Manga" before OEL was cool), and writer of Livewires, Gen13, and Iron Man: Hypervelocity-comes Empowered, a butt-kicking, bootylicious superhero lampoon that raises the bar for long-john lust and low-brow laughs. Remove all previous notions of superhero entertainment from your puny mind . . . and prepare to be Empowered!

* Adam Warren's work on The Dirty Pair is well-known to U.S. comics readers.

* Warren's skill as a writer has brought him a variety of high-profile assignments in recent years from Wildstorm, DC, and Marvel.

For Mature Readers.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Humor, Manga, Fiction, Comic Book

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2007

About the author

Adam Warren (born 1967) is an American comic book writer and artist who is most famous for his original graphic novel Empowered, for adapting the characters known as Dirty Pair into an American comic book, and for being one of the first American commercial illustrators to be influenced by the general manga style.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will start by saying that this is definitely a mature comic. A bit of bad language, some gratuitous sexiness, etc. If you decide to read this based on my review, don't say I didn't warn you!

I thought it sounded interesting: a stereotypical sexy superheroine with self esteem and image issues that is the brunt of jokes and treated poorly by her teammates. It started out slowly, but the little vignettes (most stories in the collection are under 10 pages) grew on me. Also, in a lot of places, the humorous dialogue was fantastic (I especially enjoy the trapped demonlord)

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review - there is indeed a lot of gratuitous sexiness but in general, it is making fun of gratuitous sexiness. So, it uses sex to make fun of the way sex is portrayed in comic books by being truly sexy but goofy at the same time. Make sense?

So if you like funny comics and don't mind adult themes, you will probably enjoy this (NOTE: it is in black and white)

[Elizabeth Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book in a fantastic series. Superhero-in-training, Empowered has a super suit that gives her super strength and makes her nigh-well invulnerable. Except when it rips, then it doesn't do much at all. And considering the fact that it's about as tough as tissue paper, it rips pretty often, and she ends up tied up and helpless at the mercy of the super villains. A lot. A WHOLE lot. Since this series started out as a series of drawings Adam Warren was doing for someone who had...particular tastes, the "tied up and helpless" bit was sort of the whole point. Until, as Warren says, she developed a personality. And a back story. And a boyfriend (a really REALLY hot boyfriend, hence a lot of the reason *I* read the series.)

Add in a Ninja best friend and a caged world-destroying demon that lives on the coffee table, and you have a WONDERFUL graphic novel. Adam Warren's art is just fantastic, wonderful, AMAZING stuff, and the story really pulls you in. And then all the sexy fun. Of course. GREAT book.

[Amal El-Mohtar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was extremely silly and very softcore porny but I found it kind of hot and then at some point it actually graduated from entertaining to endearing, to the point where I'd actually quite like to read the next volume. I enjoyed watching something that started as a joke about people's very specific art requests turn into something else, and seeing the cartoonist grow fond enough of his experiment to give her a personality and friends.

It shares with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the dubious distinction of being a thing I enjoy but would probably never recommend to other people.

[Zedsdead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empowered is the enthusiastic but insecure JV member of the Superhomeys [sic] superhero team. Her ridiculous super-suit is a skin tight membrane that doesn’t work with clothing over it, leaving her functionally nude. On top of that it shreds at the slightest contact, frequently leaving her actually nude. AND she loses her super-strength when it tears, which gives Adam Warren the excuse to draw her naked, bound and gagged before gawping supervillains over and over again. Empowered is a comedy so she’s never depicted in actual peril, but it still reeks of girlies-in-distress softcore bondage porn. Which is not my particular bag.

Worse is the awkward, self-conscious lingo. I was embarrassed for the characters having to spout this drivel and came very close to DNFing. But then…

…maybe halfway through the book Warren seemed to find her voice. The tortured dialogue dialed back. Our hero spent less time in ropes and more time skewering superhero tropes: the difficulties of car-throwing, the rank absurdity of her power-suit, her lowly status in the Superhomeys. Enter a decent-guy boyfriend, a hard-ass best friend, and a wisecracking world-devouring demon sidekick, reminiscent of Bob the Skull in the Dresden Files. The scourge-of-the-spaceways demon is hilarious. She began to feel like a character rather than a dirty magazine, and her book began to feel worthwhile. To my surprise I’ve decided to give the second volume a try.

While I’m not a fan of the manga-ish faces, Warren’s pencil illustrations are gorgeous and perhaps enough to make it worth checking out Empowered all on their own. He draws kinetic action extremely well. And hey, if you're into shoulders-back-tits-out rope bondage...he definitely does that well too.

[L. McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I should let everyone know that this is available as a webcomic. Just go to the comic’s website and you can read it there, I didn’t know this and used one of my monthly Hoopla borrows on it.

What’s it about?
There’s a superhero that calls herself Empowered (as in, that’s her superhero name) but she doesn’t really feel that way. She feels like she’s a weak, lame superhero that always ends up in humiliating situations. Well, as events keep going things may take turns that make her feel more... well... empowered.

Pros:
The story is interesting. I like seeing different than usual approaches to the superhero genre and this certainly is that.
The art is absolutely wonderful. So adorable! Possible highlight of the entire book! It’s like a mix of manga style art and American comic book art, I really like it. Also noticed a few parts mixing different other styles which works pretty nicely.
The characters are pretty interesting. Empowered is interesting, I like that as opposed to being insanely powerful she’s actually very flawed too, she also has more emotion than many superheroes. There’s a boyfriend that I can’t say much about but he’s an interesting character. Ninjette is a good non-romantic supporting character, kinda bad-ass (no association with Jennifer Blood, BTW). The DemonGoat (or something like that) is funny.
Speaking of funny, I would say that this book’s main genre aside from superhero is probably comedy and it succeeds at being humorous, got some laughs throughout.
The romance is well done. It’s interesting and often sweet, even if very NSFW.

Cons:
This comic is predictable. No particularly surprising plot twists.
Being a superhero comic I expected more action. There’s some but not very much. Maybe if I expected it to be more rom-com than superhero action... IDK.
This book is over-the-top sexual. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no prude, most of the stuff I read (and write) has sexual content, sometimes more graphic than this but here it is so gratuitous. For example, multiple times it just goes from 2 characters talking to random fucking. I know I just referenced this quote a few reviews ago but “shit just went from 0 to 100 real fucking quick” (pun in the reference intended). Not to mention the nearly constant fan service and piles of fetish imagery (including but not limited to TONS of bondage kinda stuff).
So umm... this is gonna sound weird after that last con but why is it censored? Nudity is usually (though not always) covered somehow, language is blocked out despite it being pretty frequent and obvious what it’s saying and the action scenes are bloodless. I’m confused because even when I was 12-14 getting into edgy but not too over the top stuff (example: Deadpool comics) this wouldn’t have been allowed until I was in high school reading uncensored mature rated comics. Who are we censoring this for? In some scenes it really felt like what I’d imagine an FCC regulated show with a TVMA-S rating would be like... it’s weird as shit and seems pointless.

Overall:
Conflicted. On one hand, it’s a sweet story giving a different take on superheroes with great characters, humor and wonderful art! On the other hand, it’s predictable as hell with little action (for superhero comic standards at least), has awkward feeling censorship yet at the same time occasionally seems like borderline hentai in a few scenes.
I might read volume 2 at some point but it’s not a major priority. Much like the main character of this book, it has it’s flaws but has more good than bad but could really use some work.
If the idea of a superhero romantic comedy appeals to you, give it a go, it is free on the website after all, just don’t read it in public. If that doesn’t sound good and/or if you’re uncomfortable with frequent sex and fan service than you should just skip.

3/5

[Peter Tupper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Warren's Empowered series is a little like the old story about boiling the frog: if you raise the temperature slowly enough, the frog won't jump out until it is too late.

The story starts out easy, with Warren's skewed take on superhero conventions. It's cute and fun and sexy (the art dances on the edge of full nudity, male and female), with an array of goofy wannabe villains. Considering that the prototype superheroine, Wonder Woman, was created with bondage fantasies in mind, it's not surprising that our heroine spends so much time in bondage.

Every so often, Warren adds a minor chord. Things like Emp lost her dad when she was a girl, or just about everybody around her treats her like crap, or Sistah Spooky had a messed-up life and her lover had an even worse one, or the possibility that Emp is somehow dead and her suit is keeping her alive. This builds up, bit by bit, and before you know it, you're reading about decidedly non-goofy villains like the guy who steals the bodies of dead superheroes and turns them into zombie slaves, or the guy who is a serial rapist (bad enough) whose skin burns at several thousand degrees (even worse).

It's a tricky balancing act, and Warren sometimes wobbles. There are moments when Emp stops being a lovable underdog and is more like Ally McBeal in a black rubber catsuit. Most of the time, it works, making for an intriguing read.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know. I'm not really sure how to take this book. I think I realize the author and artist is being ironic. I think. The whole tying up and gagging thing is kind of "ew". And, as we get later in the book it seems like he is trying to make a point. But when it starts out, it just seems gratuitous. The book is kind of manga-ish, which I am not really used to, so it was interesting to read the different form. But I'm still struggling with how to take the stories. Ist it feminist? Anti-feminist?

However, I do like superhero stories that don't fit the mold of the regular superheroes fighting bad guys. But I still can't decide if this serious issues it seems to be tackling, like body issues and degradation of women are just excuses for a sexy superhero whose costume is constantly ripped off, and is constantly tied up.

[KWinks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whoo. I have not disliked anything this much in a long time (mostly because if I am not enjoying something I put it down and move on). This was a book club read, so I toughed it out. This produced in me the same feeling one would get if eating slightly off mayo. I didn't HATE it, it wasn't powerful enough to produce such emotion. I just really, really disliked it. It wasn't clever enough to be ironic, it served no purpose other then straining my patience, and it had absolutely no point, none, whatsoever. If I never see the Super Homeys again, great. Bye. I'm erasing you from my mind right now.
Thank goodness I didn't spend money on this.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much more "adult" than I was expecting. It's definitely mature, and probably just one step away from Adults Only in parts.

I've been a fan of Adam Warren since he did that Gen13 story based on Hong Kong action movies. This is very similar to that. A sexy heroine in costume that leaves very little to the imagination, and in most cases she ends up wearing next to nothing (or nothing at all). It's meant to be a parody of how female superheroes have been portrayed in comics but it serves as sexy cheesecake art as well, so it's an unusual type of parody. That being said, it's hard not to enjoy page after page of sexy art from Adam Warren. These are very short stories of just a few pages each, but overall this was very entertaining and funny.

If you don't mind some mature situations and suggestive art this is a very entertaining and funny book.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emp is a tricky comic to read let alone write about, considering the artistic subject matter. She's super-powered only when wearing a super-skin-tight body-paint costume; when that costume shreds (at the breath of a butterfly), she loses her powers and usually gets tied up; when she's tied up in a shredded costume, she looks ridiculously hot, vulnerable and uncomfortably manga-y.



There, I said it. It's a comic tailor-made for the male gaze. And sometimes take swipes at the predicament and the premise to give us a slightly less-swollen sense of shame about it.

It's a little like Red Sonja or Power Girl - I feel like they gotta work twice as hard to make this feel less like a guilty pleasure and more "intelligent" or "worthwhile" - like a Shallow Reader can't just enjoy it for what it is, without constantly watching over their shoulder to see who's going to catch me reading this would-cause-a-public-lynching-when-read-on-the-bus.

This first volume is particularly tricky, with short sequences and obligatory tied-up-in-costume-shreds filling out most of the page count. It mercifully starts to veer into ongoing storyline territory about a third the way through, so there's actually a heroine to cheer for, and some actual stakes she's engaged in claiming.

Funny thing tho - I found myself enjoying this, the more the characters accumulated an actual flawed-and-funny personality. (And the personality of the Immortal Demongoat, trapped in a bondage belt and lying on a table - that's almost Dr. Dinosaur worthy.)



Most redeeming moments: when Emp speaks to the reader through the fourth wall of the intro panels. She's actually aware of how exploitative these little undressings are.



Most uncomfortable moment: when Emp and her boy toy engage in some pretty pornhub-worthy action.

Most hilarious moments: every time the Caged Demonwolf speaks.

Most empathetic moment: Sistah Spooky's origin story. Makes me want to get to know her more.

Shallow Comic Reader approved(tm).

[Side note: this might be the only comic I first heard about on War Rocket Ajax that I actually *want* to keep reading.]

[E.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The moment I finished this book, I wished I had vol 2 in my hands right then and there. Which makes me feel like a total dork as I have just slagged off Alan Moore's From Hell and am now going to praise Adam Warren, my favorite Artist/Writer in the biz we call Comic today, but whatever. Empowered is 10 times better than From Hell. Why? IT'S ACTUALLY FUN TO READ.

What starts out as a self admitted bondage fantasy drawn out over 5 to 6 page short stories, EMPOWERED evolves into a Manga/Anime inspired underdog comedy.

Our heroin, awkwardly named "Empowered", hates her superhero name, despises her costume and none of the super villains or other superheroes themselves have any respect for her. As you read through the short stories, you suddenly begin to root for Empowered. Sure she remains a poor excuse for a super heroine, Her costume tears easily and she can't shoot laser beams straight, but when she ends up with a boyfriend and best friend that both love her, it becomes one of those stories where you learn that life isn't all about work. It's funny, but that's the lesson I took away from something that was probably supposed to just be fun. But really, it showed me that trying hard is just as important as succeeding.


As you read on, the story does remain sexual. But Warren can't stay away from a narrative, as hard as he tried in the first couple of chapters of Empowered. The cute yet erotic FemSub S&M Fantasy (not in a scary way I promise you) melts away and a real, although lose, story starts to develop. It's clear that even Warren wanted to know more about his creation. The world he draws is a voluptuous one filled with silly superheroes and goofy monsters.

It is erotic and both men and woman of any orientation will be turned on. I really feel like woman will really find it erotic, though, as the "bondage" aspect of the book is presented amongst comedy. And NEVER does it become gross out or "toilet" humor. Even though poor Empowered finds herself at the mercy of Villain and Hero alike, she keeps trying. And discovers that the other superheroes may not be as "all that" as they like to pretend they are.

[Geoff Sebesta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everybody knows that Empowered is both more and less than it seems to be. I'll go you one better and say this is the clearest heir to Wonder Woman that we in the comics world have seen since the Marston originals, and there is a tremendous amount of truth to what Warren is saying. He has my unmitigated respect. He took work for hire and made it sing. Not only that, he holds the most interesting mirror up to the superhero cliche that I've seen in my lifetime.

Seriously, Empowered is the most interesting superhero since...I was born? There have been about three truly interesting things to happen to superheroes since the Summer of Blood:

Thunderbolts
The Order/Planetary (specifically retconning the Fantastic 4 to be the real bad guys of the MU)
Empowered

Honorable mentions go to Hellboy, who is the best new bottle that old wine could possibly be poured into, and moments of the Bendis years of Marvel culminating in the Civil War, which was almost fascinating but not quite. But nobody takes the myth apart while simultaneously holding it together quite like Warren has.

Doesn't hurt that the art is magnificent. Warren has such dimensionality to his work that it doesn't matter that the fight scenes descend into speedline irreadability, I'm not reading for the fights anyway. Things that Warren draws look SOLID. This is helpful when drawing the boobs and the butts that this series runs on, but it's even more useful when he's drawing a car, a coffee table, or a sentient talking belt.

I'll also point out that Empowered touches issues most cape comics would rather gnaw off their fingers than approach. Nearly every single issue, honestly. It really is that good.

And readable.

And enjoyable.

And you find yourself caring about these goofy characters a lot more than you ever cared about the latest new X-Man.

I'm not going to review the whole series individually, I read it at once and I've said most of what I have to say about it here. It's great. Anybody who can read it should read it.

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've both avoided and been drawn to this comic for various reasons. I love Adam Warren's art style but the general idea of the comic just seemed really stupid. After putting it off for a while I finally gave it a chance & while it's stupid, it's stupid in a good way.

If you want a series with depth, you'd be looking in the wrong place, at least in this volume. (I've been told that the series gets more depth as it goes along.) This is solidly cheesecake fare and it revels in this fact. I think that this is what made this such a fun read. I loved all of the little jokes here.

The artwork is what really won me over. As always you can expect lovely ladies drawn with loving care. There's a bit of a rough edge to the drawings, but it works here. It's not the uber-polished style that you might see in some of the comics out there but it works to help set this aside from some of Warren's other works.

[Elly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to give this book two tries. The first time I barely got to page 50 without putting it down thinking it was nothing but soft core porn and no character development. I was wrong. This bondage-esque comic actually turned into one of the sweetest stories about self encouragement and determination and has one of the most healthy relationships in comic books today. This series is definitely worth the read for the light hearted feel good (and sometimes feel horny) stories with some serious events thrown in. It makes the characters seem all together more real. You really start missing them when you turn the last page.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suffice it to say I'm not sure I'll ever be able to completely figure out what about Empowered first drew my attention and lead me to decide that I wanted to begin reading it, especially upon knowing the history behind what led to the series' conception in the first place. But start it I did, and I still am glad I chose to give it a chance.

For the uninitiated, let me give you some backstory. Adam Warren, the writer and artist of this series, was at one point commissioned to do some fetish art for a client, and it eventually led to him writing a bunch of little short comics about a superheroine who is best known for her unfortunate tendency to wind up bound and gagged, due to the downside that when her costume gets torn up, her powers vanish and she's thus left helpless. Over time, he noticed the character really taking on a life of her own, and thus it led to the birth of this comic, which was initially published online as a webcomic (and to my knowledge, still is going strong today.)

This first volume largely serves as set-up. We get to meet Emp[owered], we learn about the sort of crap she endures on a regular basis in the superheroic community, we find out about her lack of self-confidence coupled with body image issues, and we see her make a boyfriend and a best friend (and capture powerful entity who becomes a live-in coffee table ornament.) The entire thing tends to be cheesecake-y with softcore porn between Emp and her love interest, Thugboy, with additional moments of heavy fanservice, and not a lot in the way of an ongoing plot [or subplots.] On that account, this first volume [and much of the following two] can be rough to read through, as it feels very slice-of-life regarding Emp without much of a bigger picture to follow. That being said, it's worth reading for the sake of appreciating both character introductions/dynamics and as a start to the series. Additionally there are further benefits, as we do see the seeds get planted for later plotlines regarding Thugboy, Ninjette, and Sistah Spooky, and little is answered in the way of Emp's own backstory and powers.

Is this a series I'd recommend for younger readers or those who might be more sensitive to a lot of the thematic elements? No, definitely not. But if you enjoy superheroes, some adult themes, and what Warren calls his "manga flava" art style, I definitely recommend giving Empowered a shot. It's by no means perfect, but it's definitely funny and it has heart to it as well.

[Alex Sarll]

At first the title seems snide, what with being the alias of a curvaceous young female superhero who loses her powers whenever her outfit tears, and as such spends an awful lot of time tied up. And in the occasional fourth wall breaches of the interstitials, she explains that she was created when a certain sort of fan would commission pin-ups along those lines from Adam Warren, but he just prefers doing sequential work – which, as she notes, has to be one of the more ignominious superhero origin stories. But as a world builds around her, initially almost by accident, and she finds love, and friends, and we start to see a little more of her team-mates' own problems, a real fondness starts creeping in, not just for how she looks but for how brave she is to keep going out there and doing her best to save the world despite this ludicrous vulnerability, and for the ingenuity with which she still sometimes takes foes down once temporarily powerless. Make no mistake, at least in this first volume the artwork remains pretty heavy on the T&A – but the overall effect somehow still ends up oddly sweet, more sit-com than sleazefest.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leyendo Empowered me surge una duda: ¿Cómo es que Adam Warren no es reconocido como uno de los mejores autores yanquis actuales? Jamás vi a alguien combinar tan bien lo que se dice un comic comercial con un montón de pavadas personales y un trazo mangoso que tan pero tan buenos resultados da en este tomo.
En una de las carátulas en las que la protagonista rompe la cuarta pared y le habla a los lectores dice algo onda: "Lástima que este cómic seguro le va a parecer demasiado superheroico a los lectores de manga y demasiado mangoso a los lectores de superhéroes". Yo me considero un lector de ambos tipos, y creo que es bastante mejor que el promedio de mangas (shonen, se entiende) y el promedio de superhéroes (mainstream, se entiende). Si alguien se anima a editarlo en castellano, me tiro de cabeza, aunque la verdad que esos tomotes 3en1 que hay en inglés me resultan bastante tentadores...

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Someone recommended this graphic novel series to me at a comic shop. I like the premise - super busty and curvaceous, but not very succesful, superhero has body issues which are made worse by her revealing costume that rips when she fights bad guys. But halfway through the first volume, it was clear that Warren wasn't going to get that much mileage out of the jokes and situations created by Empowered's physical attributes. I completely lost interest and had no desire to continue reading any of the other volumes.

[Dr Zorlak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sexy, very imaginative story of a crappy superhero with very unreliable superpowers and a distorted self-image. Her relationship with a former villain provides a tender undernarrative. Her bickering, unsupportive companions push most of the series into comedy. Supervillains are absolutely awesome, especially the one whose superpowers are a side effect from an alien STD he got from a visiting extraterrestrial princess. Nice touch.

Pencils are superb. I'm head over heels in love with Ninjette.

Extremely addictive.

[Gorgon's Kiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art is very good. He mixes Western Comic with a Manga flair that you just don't see every day, and I really dig how animated that makes everything feel.

The stories are short and engaging, I even enjoyed the dialogue of the "meta" filler between stories.

Very entertaining, I will be looking for Volume 2 and beyond!

(A word of warning: book contains images and themes somewhat unsafe for work, and I do not recommend it for anyone under the age of 17.)

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the manga style for a western comic was unique but the art especially of the heroine felt male gaze-y and overtly sexual. What's up with tying her up in a bondage, BDSM manner?

I was almost going to 2 stars this but I did like that her boyfriend is a cinammon roll and that their relationship is sex positive.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not impressed. It has some clever moments, but a male trying to depict female insecurity, not to mention ends up perpetuating the same stereotypes and objectification he writes about. It falls a bit flat.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I liked about a third of it. It was more porn-y than I expected, which would have been fine if not for the excessive humiliation and degradation. I liked the commentary on excessive sexualization of super heroines but it fell flat.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

--

To my great surprise, this was cute.

I went in extremely wary given the comic's subject matter and art style. I had been told by a friend that the author subverted a lot of misogynistic tropes inherent in superhero comics, but this doesn't really mean much. What a man thinks is subversive and what a woman thinks is subversive doesn't always align.

Warren does a good job poking fun at himself and his work, though. There was a good smattering of pop culture references throughout, and I never lost the sense that despite his tongue-in-cheek self-awareness, Warren also kinda-sorta enjoys drawing his characters unashamedly bodacious (and he knows you kinda-sorta like looking at his bodacious characters, too, so don't try to fib.)

I really liked that we got an established, praise-heavy relationship between Emp and Thugboy (but God I wish they had like . . . real names) and that we also got a supportive best friend character. Emp was an adorable character and I grew fond of her right away, which is promising.

On the negative side, the chapters were too short and we definitely didn't have a strong enough plot. We got flashes of a compelling big bad through Thugboy's memories, but that was about it. I'd also like to see some more consistent worldbuilding in the next volume(s), particularly surrounding the "Superhomeys". Also, I'm not a huge fan of the lame caricatured slang that everybody speaks but this, I presume, isn't going to change any time soon.

[Sally Kilpatrick]

This series is lewd, chock full of profanity, and probably hypersexualizes women. It’s also entertaining AF for the use of the phrase “toothsome wench” if nothing else.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

What I was told Empowered was: a satirical send up on the traditional super hero comic motif.

What I actually got when I purchased and read volume 1: A comic that was one step removed from cartoon porn. The main character is super powered as long as she is wearing her suit, which of course means by the end of each story the suit is complete tatters and barely covering her body. There are also undercurrents of bondage that run throughout the book as well.

While I realize there is an audience for this type of work, it is not me.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny, sexy send-up of superhero conventions, presented in Adam Warren's inimitable faux-manga style.

[Zach, "Gnome" Israel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is somewhat undercover. On the surface I feel I should read it in a dark room and make sure that no one sees me read the book full of pictures of the helpless heroine, who spends her days attempting heroics, and then getting stomped into the dirt and tied up mostly undressed due to her suit failing when it is ripped apart. However, while laughing at the colorful characters, and the sheer bizzareness of the plots that are woven in you find that the characters are people. Exaggerated to extremes sure, but the world makes a lot of sense. Empowered is a young woman who is overly sexualised due to the fact that she is a female superhero. Therefore, she has to be sexualised, and this universe rubs our noses in it like we are puppies that pissed on the rug.

She is fetish bait that has a personality, that we see cry because she is deeply emotionally abused and degraded, not just by villains who dismiss her, but by her fellow coworkers, especially the other women. Then we see her get back up again and try to save people. We see her push the boulder up the hill, like a half naked Sisyphus because that is what she is supposed to do. She is then embarrassed, tied up, and called fat, despite having about maybe three percent body fat not because the author is a sexist ass, but due to the ludicrous ideals we have about female bodies.

What I found interesting is her interactions with Sistah Spooky, another female superhero who has been marginalized in a lot of ways. She kicks so much ass, and villains are afraid of her due to her power and ability, but most of the press we see about her in the story is how damn attractive everyone thinks she is. Meanwhile she hates and fears Empowered due to the humiliation she suffered at the hands of attractive blondes in school who treated her like crap because she wasn't pretty enough in their eyes, due in part to her being darker of skin tone.

That is not to say that the series is perfect, it can get very preachy at times, and I can sometimes feel myself rolling my eyes. Her boyfriend, "Thug Boy," as he is called, can at times over praise her, as can her friend Ninjette, and I can sometimes see myself saying, "ya I get it," on particularly longer segments in the story line. All in all, the book is a fun satire that I personally will never get tired of.

[Daken Howlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primo volume della parodia supereroistica in stile manga ma narrativamente e strutturalmente molto americana di Adam Warren.
Le prime storie della serie erano poco più che prove, tra le tre e le cinque pagine a capitolo, tutte culminanti in una battuta. Ma in pochissimo tempo la serie si evolve mostrando super eroi decisamente atipici, dalla protagonista nevrotica e insicura a sorella tenebra, che sembra la leader impavide dell'equivalente della justice league in questo mondo, ma in realtà è una ragazzina insicura e nevrotica quanto la protagonista ma che ha venduto l'anima al diavolo per diventare bella quanto le sue compagne di classe che la prendevano sempre in giro, passando per il gruppo di supporto per supereroi che hanno ottenuto i loro poteri tramite malattie veneree contratte avendo rapporti non protetti con alieni, mutanti, robot etc..insomma, gli "eroi" della serie non solo sono nevrotici ed insicuri, ma sono anche abbastanza superficiali e moralmente più che discutibili, più interessati a far festa e mettersi in posa per i fotografi che a salvare la città, mentre per contrasto i cattivi non sono affatto così cattivi come ci si aspetterebbe da copione, anzi, ben tre di loro, dopo il loro primo incontro con Emp, diventeranno sui amici e addirittura condivideranno un'appartamento con lei.
Per finire la totale sovversione del canone supereroistico, la serie non si concentra su battaglie cosmiche e minacce globali, ma sulla quotidianità di eroi e cattivi tra uno di questi eventi drammatici e l'altro..invece di vedere battaglie per le strade di new york, vediamo il progredire tra alti e bassi di relazioni romantiche e amicizie, paranoie sull'aspetto fisico, antipatie tra colleghi e personaggi che lentamente diventano sempre meno super e divini e sempre più umani e complessati, compresi gli eroi più coraggiosi e i cattivi più esplosivi.
In definitiva una bella boccata d'aria fresca che prende il genere troppo abusato dei super eroi e aggiunge uno stile grafico e una narrativa originali e divertenti.

[Storm Bookwyrm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the titular protagonist, this series is a lot to unwrap.

At face value it looks like soft-core superhero bondage (which, yes, if that's why you're here you will not be unsatisfied), but beneath the surface is so much more.

If you can push through the first two or three volumes (or maybe you don't need an excuse to hang around besides seeing Empowered get gratuitously hog-tied again and again) you'll start to actually care about this world of silly superheroes and its mysteries. You'll realize that every eye-roll someone gives to this comic, with its seemingly ironic name and naughty façade, are all part of the greater scheme of humiliating Empowered so you can sympathize or empathize with her, watch her struggle against adversities that far more privileged super-heroes never have to, and become a true hero and not just a super-powered "hero".
On top of that, Empowered truly does feel like an 'empowering' comic, with friendly sex-positivity that you wouldn't think you could get from a comic that features such villains like "The chloroformer".

If all that sounds lofty for a comic that includes such moments as "Empowered must dress up as a sexy librarian" or characters like 'Cinda-block' (a superhero whose power is to have a cinderblock for a head and heads), then I'll repeat: Stick with it, and keep going. I'm at volume 11, and holding my breath for the next one.