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Empowered #Soldier of Love
Empowered and the Soldier of Love
Crimefighters Empowered and Ninjette struggle with a superhero community fatally inflamed by rampant romance, courtesy of the passion powers of embittered "magical-girl" The Soldier of Love. If she prevails, love is toast!
Collects Empowered and the Soldier of Love #1-3 plus Adam Warren's "Pew! Pew! Pew!" Empowered one-shot.
Collects Empowered and the Soldier of Love #1-3 plus Adam Warren's "Pew! Pew! Pew!" Empowered one-shot.
128 pages, Paperback
First published July 10, 2018
2 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Adam Warren
190 books130 followersAdam 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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 25, 2019
Amazing. Wish I spoke Spanish? Portuguese? I’ll have to read it again with Google translate.
June 27, 2025
The reviewers complaining about the lack of English translation for the Spanish dialog are not giving Warren and Díaz nearly enough credit for the effort they invested into using as many English cognates as possible so that a translation would (probably) be unnecessary. I took some Spanish at a high school level a couple decades ago, and that was more than enough for me to have no real difficulty reading this. It's unusual in that regard, and as such of some interest, even if it's otherwise unremarkable.
September 19, 2019
I love Empowered, absolutely adore it. Why was this little side story so disappointing?
A. Spanish. No translation at the bottom of the page or anything, just a lot of (pretty important) dialogue in Spanish and if you don't know Spanish - tough luck.
B. I'm all for trying different things, but this art style doesn't even come close to looking as cool as Adam Warren's.
C. Story was very meh. Interesting idea for a villain but executed in a very unbelievable way. And in the end the power of wuv saved everybody, hooray! Friendship is magic!
D. I refuse to believe my girl Emp has a Male Tears mug, how very dare you. Delet dis.
A. Spanish. No translation at the bottom of the page or anything, just a lot of (pretty important) dialogue in Spanish and if you don't know Spanish - tough luck.
B. I'm all for trying different things, but this art style doesn't even come close to looking as cool as Adam Warren's.
C. Story was very meh. Interesting idea for a villain but executed in a very unbelievable way. And in the end the power of wuv saved everybody, hooray! Friendship is magic!
D. I refuse to believe my girl Emp has a Male Tears mug, how very dare you. Delet dis.
August 28, 2018
While I enjoyed Diaz's artwork, Warren's script felt underdeveloped, relying too much on sexting jokes that got old quickly. The resolution came together too quickly and lacked an emotional punch for our heroine. The Warren-drawn additional story "Pew Pew Pew" was more satisfying, showing Emp's emotional growth and playing the her newfound maturity against her insecurity and dissatisfaction.
May 5, 2020
You gotta love an underdog. And if you love comics, that means you gotta love Adam Warren. I’m surprised someone of his talent isn’t more of a household name, but at the same time, I kinda like that about him. Have the best bands in history ever been the most popular? The Ramones? The Clash? Nope. The Beatles? Well, maybe. But someone like Adam Warren has been making highly original and edgy comics for almost 40 years, and if the public can’t recognize that, it’s their own loss.
I don’t know at this point if Warren is best known for the Dirty Pair, Gen13, or Empowered. The latter has certainly been his longest-lasting project: a thoroughly punk rock Sexy Superhero story written and drawn by the man himself, and edited in high contrast black and white to give it a shiny yet raw look. In fact, if you ever looked at inked and colored Empowered artwork, you might think it seems out of place with the dynamic black and white look of the series. Throughout it’s run, Empowered has taken on both short and long-form storytelling style, explored and developed its protagonists, and introduced meaningful characters. It’s an unstoppable juggernaut and a testament to good writing, excellent dialogue, and full-on determination.
But Warren has more ideas than he can draw: enter Empowered and the Soldier of Love.
Soldier of Love is a 3-issue run, written by Warren and drawn by Karla Diaz, and it’s perfect Empowered canon. This time, the superhero community suddenly becomes hyper-love-struck, and the contracted Soldier of Love is to blame. The only one aware enough of her surroundings is Emp, who, you guessed it, has to save the day. Soldier of Love is full of the trademark dialogue, witticism, originality, and heart we expect from Warren this time with shiny polished artwork provided by Diaz. It’s a story that helps to enrich the Empowered universe. Not to mention the “Pew! Pew! Pew!” one-shot at the end (written and drawn by Warren) which might be one of the greatest Empowered stories ever released.
Empowered and the Soldier of Love is another fantastic entry in the Adam Warren catalog. Check it out if you know what’s good for you.
I don’t know at this point if Warren is best known for the Dirty Pair, Gen13, or Empowered. The latter has certainly been his longest-lasting project: a thoroughly punk rock Sexy Superhero story written and drawn by the man himself, and edited in high contrast black and white to give it a shiny yet raw look. In fact, if you ever looked at inked and colored Empowered artwork, you might think it seems out of place with the dynamic black and white look of the series. Throughout it’s run, Empowered has taken on both short and long-form storytelling style, explored and developed its protagonists, and introduced meaningful characters. It’s an unstoppable juggernaut and a testament to good writing, excellent dialogue, and full-on determination.
But Warren has more ideas than he can draw: enter Empowered and the Soldier of Love.
Soldier of Love is a 3-issue run, written by Warren and drawn by Karla Diaz, and it’s perfect Empowered canon. This time, the superhero community suddenly becomes hyper-love-struck, and the contracted Soldier of Love is to blame. The only one aware enough of her surroundings is Emp, who, you guessed it, has to save the day. Soldier of Love is full of the trademark dialogue, witticism, originality, and heart we expect from Warren this time with shiny polished artwork provided by Diaz. It’s a story that helps to enrich the Empowered universe. Not to mention the “Pew! Pew! Pew!” one-shot at the end (written and drawn by Warren) which might be one of the greatest Empowered stories ever released.
Empowered and the Soldier of Love is another fantastic entry in the Adam Warren catalog. Check it out if you know what’s good for you.
July 2, 2018
Adam Warren and Karla Diaz combine talents for a lovesick romp through the universe of Empowered. The heroic group of SuperHomeys are besieged by lust when a magical mercenary blows into town. Using love manipulation as a weapon, the disillusioned Soldier of Love manages to distract the entire squad. Determined to wipe the emotion of love off the mat, Empowered and Ninjette must find a way to halt the Soldier’s onslaught and return the city’s self-absorbed heroes back to normal. Warren concludes the volume with a simple yet effective classic Emp tale, featuring a skeevy technology group out to cause maximum rage damage. Warren’s little Emp has grown by leaps and bounds, emerging from a one-note joke into a well-rounded female hero. The plots are always over the top, and filled with Warren’s tendency to dialogue and diatribe at length. The art chores from Jarla Diaz are colorful and expressive. Emp’s world has rarely been so well-defined and detailed; the color selection also helps this book pop. Empowered: Soldier of Love is another cheeky love note to Adam Warren’s unique creation.
January 5, 2020
Empowered is one of my favorite comic series. From the fun tongue-in-cheek and sometimes very in your face sexuality and takes on super hero tropes, everything about this series is a great ride.
'A Soldier of Love' deals with a magical girl (or at least former) whose power is love. Sounds great until the disillusionment of love changes her from a teenage girl getting everyone to love her into a jaded, pissed off 20 something who uses her powers to create utter chaos. Empowered and Ninjette seem to be unaffected for much of the story and not only have to save the day but also have to deal with the rest of their super team being super horny and obsessed with one another. Super fun, and great read.
One thing I really liked about this story is that about a 3rd of it is written in Spanish. There is no translation given and honestly, I really liked that. There is something about aspects of the book being written in another language that makes me really appreciate translation work.
Was this a mind-blowing read? Nah, but it was a great way to spend a rainy PNW afternoon.
'A Soldier of Love' deals with a magical girl (or at least former) whose power is love. Sounds great until the disillusionment of love changes her from a teenage girl getting everyone to love her into a jaded, pissed off 20 something who uses her powers to create utter chaos. Empowered and Ninjette seem to be unaffected for much of the story and not only have to save the day but also have to deal with the rest of their super team being super horny and obsessed with one another. Super fun, and great read.
One thing I really liked about this story is that about a 3rd of it is written in Spanish. There is no translation given and honestly, I really liked that. There is something about aspects of the book being written in another language that makes me really appreciate translation work.
Was this a mind-blowing read? Nah, but it was a great way to spend a rainy PNW afternoon.
July 3, 2019
Okay well first of all you need to be able to read Spanish to follow this.
(Would subtitles have killed them?)
So leaving aside not being able to follow all the dialogue, it's... honestly a real downturn for Emp. Emp has been going badly off the rails since Warren started farming her out to other creators lately.
(Would subtitles have killed them?)
So leaving aside not being able to follow all the dialogue, it's... honestly a real downturn for Emp. Emp has been going badly off the rails since Warren started farming her out to other creators lately.
August 25, 2025
it was a surprise to see this book in colour but like other reviews have said it doesn't come close to his usual art. Still, makes for a funny and cute read. Ninjette definitely got her time to shine in this one.
Also the spanish (i think it was spanish?) was fun, but i wish we'd gotten a little translation at the bottom of the page.
Also the spanish (i think it was spanish?) was fun, but i wish we'd gotten a little translation at the bottom of the page.
February 10, 2023
I am a big fan of Empowered, but this story did not hit with me. I think it played the situation way to safe and it felt like a heavy rated R sex comedy forced to censor all the good parts to be shown on prime time for a PG rating.
May 12, 2020
I love the art style and the color pallet the artist choose. However the story seemed off. The pacing was rushed, too much dialogue for a comic. I thank the stars I’m bilingual because i understood all the Spanish, but i wondered about my non speaking Spanish friends reading because there was no translations.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews