Empowered, Volume 6

Empowered #6

by Adam Warren, Various (Illustrator)

After a fiery disaster claims the lives of several teammates, costumed crimefighter Empowered stumbles upon an ugly little secret of the masks-and-tights business: a growing number of ill-fated superheroes have found out the hard way that, while their bodies are still mortal, their superpowers are not. Now, only our downtrodden but doggedly determined heroine can save the (semi) living superdead from a very genuine "fate worse than death," while simultaneously grappling with the challenges of vengefully vacationing ninja clans, car-trunk carpet burn, superhero-fantasy-league drafts, excessive bedroom chatter, and deals with the devil both figurative and literal! All this, plus Emp's not-so-secret origin is revealed at last! From Adam Warren - writer/artist of the English-language The Dirty Pair comics (the original "Original English-Language Manga") and writer of Livewires, Gen13, and Iron Man: Hypervelocity - comes Empowered, a kickass long-john lampoon that flies to new heights of hotness and hilarity.

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

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2010

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 4 out of 5]

I was kinda getting bored of this series with the last volume, but this one really ramped things up with some serious drama, clever dialogue, and some very decent action sequences. Sure you still get some irreverent, adult based content (this previous comment was your warning – you want clean, family fun, do not try this at home). But, luckily, this volume didn’t just try to rely solely on adult humor. As with some of the earlier volumes, there was a lot of creativity and some important commentary interspersed with the gags and humor.



The art continues in the same vein and will definitely appeal to Manga fans. There are also many references to Japanese pop culture in this volume. No doubt that is what is fueling Adam Warren on this series.



So, you want some superhero action with a bit of adult humor and some Japanese flair, this is the series for you. (Okay, so maybe it is A LOT of adult humor!)

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thematic BuddyRead with that gang we shouldn’t even be admitting to belonging to (but somehow proudly emblazon it wherever we go), the Shallow Comic Readers.

*Criteria: An embarrassing amount of jugs on display*

Here's a cheery beginning to a comic that's been mostly about fun and frolic for five previous volumes - here's the greatest hits of the downer moments we occasionally saw, all re-presented early on to get your motor revving:
- Blubbering confessions of inadequacy by the main protagonist
- Downer scene where dead heroes are eulogized and secrets are squashed
- Asshole "heroes" take advantage of their lessers

Is this book becoming a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Garth Ennis' The Boys?

The opening passage had me laughing, so this secondary feeling creeping in is bumming me out man. I get this momentary feeling that the book has peaked and now it's just going to be a slow slide into repetition. (Layman's Chew, anyone?)

Eloquent rants by the imprisoned demon aside...


OTOH, Warren explores at least one new concept I wouldn't have imagined myself - psychic emulations that the telepath left on her girlfriend's memories:



This story overall though, it felt more like a semi-precious stone on a beach full of familiar rocks, and I was hoping to see a rainbow-painted dolphin or some surfing armadillos.

Simple summer time-waster for the already-indoctrinated Empowered reader. (Dogs help you if this is your first book - oh the confusion!)

It wouldn't be a Boob Window review without some examination of the artistic rendering of the female anatomy, thus: it must be said that when Adam Warren puts his mind to it, he gets the basic physics of the female secondary sex characteristics:



However, there's just as many times he's apparently drawing on autopilot (not to be confused with any noun preceded by autoerotic):


[no that frame is not rotated, that's our Emp hanging upside down, apparently in a reverse-gravity field]

But damn if he doesn't know how to render a comely female form, and have a few laughs on the subject while he's at it:

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, bumped to the 4 side because I found myself thinking about the volume a lot.

--

There's something missing from the narrative--consistency, maybe? The world is true to itself where speech patterns, magic system, and tropes are concerned, but the tonal shift between fetish-fodder interludes and the wild as shit, often disturbing action sequences is just too jarring right now.

Nevertheless, I can't deny that I feel for these characters. I'm invested in their lives and dramas and find myself thinking about their arcs even after I've put down the volume. For me, I know the character writing is really good when I start getting fixated on side characters, not just the main heroes/villains. Currently I'm obsessed with Maidman and want to know everything about him. I'm loving his dynamic with Emp and am even shipping them a little (whoops).

Looking forward to the next volume!

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I swear one day I'll figure out a proper way to review these, but today is not that day.

Let it be said however, that I believe this is my favorite volume of Empowered to date. To avoid giving away too much, this volume's focus on the living-dead supercapes, Emp's involvement in trying to rescue them, and Sistah Spooky dealing with the not-quite-ghost of her ex-girlfriend talking in her head has been a wonderful treat. With all the crap Emp's been dealing with in the last two volumes, this one took a turn for the positive towards the end and the poor girl has been needing it.

[Garrett Nicolai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay! Emp finally got a win!

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

The next volume can't come out soon enough and I mean that. The series is progressing at an incredibly rapid rate and I'm really jonesing for my next Empowered fix.

The last volume ended on a pretty sad note, with the death of Mindf__. Sistah Spooky is heartbroken and practically comatose with grief. To make matters worse, she can't get her dead ex out of her mind... literally. This really shows us a deeper aspect to Spooky's character and also opens up the door for a different sort of relationship with Emp. She's one of the only people that Spooky really responds to, partially due to Emp's tearful and guilt-stricken breakdown in the previous volume. What this will end up evolving into is anyone's guess, but it's good to see them interacting in ways that don't involve Spooky being mean. We're also shown Emp's top secret origins, which are a lot more mundane than I thought it'd be.

This was a lot of fun to read and I have to say that I know I'll be getting the next volume as soon as I can. I've really grown fond of this series and it's definitely worth collecting.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

The intensity continues where it left off from the last volume. Way more superhero-y than ever before, but because we know the characters so well, the suspense has you on the edge of your seat! Really interesting new storyline with the dead capes. Interesting that Willy Pete has been put on the back burner again. He can't be vanquished soon enough! Another great villain with Death Monger, wonder if we've seen the last of him. So sorry d-bag Havoc survied his nuclear outnurst, btw. Can't stand him. And brilliant the way Warren wove in the Demon's convo with Spooky throughout all the other stuff. I've noticed that Warren has gotten good at throwing some inexplicable detail in way before he lets us in on what it's about. What else? Wonderful to see Emp's confidence growing! Im so excited for her and want to see where she goes from here. Also a little more backstory on Maidman (one of my favorite characters-so glad he's on Emp's side); I hope we get more on that later, too. Lots of awesome stuff happens in this volume. It's late and I'm still in consume mode! Volume seven here I come!

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Artist and writer Adam Warren pulls out all the stops in what was initially going to be the final volume of his parody series. Following the disastrous mission of the previous collection, Empowered and her allies must bury their dead. Discovering that a hero's powers may live on after death, a villain who can raise the dead opts to gather an army to battle the living. Pitted against a legion of former capes, Emp must overcome her own fears of mortality to rescue her friends from certain doom. Cashing in on the notion of death in comics, Empowered manages to seamlessly incorporate such a heavy subject into its offbeat world. Warren continues to use oddball characters and cheesecake art to draw attention to his series, making it a joy to read each time.

[Rich Barrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book continues to impress with it's sense of humor and unexpectedly good characterization. Bits like the radio call-in show for superhero fans where one fan is excited that an obscure villain he had in his fantasy league helped his team rank by killing a whole bunch of heroes is a really clever take on fandom. I always find the action scenes in this book are less interesting than everything else and that's still the case here. Warren also seems to constantly get caught up in overly written dialogue that has an awkward pacing to me. But this is really an underrated book that contiunes to be a fun read.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some really great sections, but it takes a little while for this volume to really get going. There was a lot of really interesting world-building in this volume, which is somewhat unexpected for the series but really welcome. There's still a good amount of character development and humor. The art for the series is usually about the same in each volume, but the action sequences were pretty good in this one, and there were more than usual. The slower beginning and middle are the only major weaknesses.

[Biscuitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is more than it appears to be, more in fact than it purports to be. It presents itself on face value as an exploitative, borderline misogynistic effort and that may be its conception.

It is however in fact anything but, its hilarious for starters, the characters are engaging, the overall story is multi layered and the stories in each book are well written.

The art work is in pencils and its the best example of pencil work I've seen.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warren continues his gradual, subtle, yet amazing world building. I love that the stakes on what started out as a silly, vapid story have gotten so big. Every volume this continues to grow from an almost one note joke into something so big and easy to get lost on.

Like all the rest I blew through this one and am ready to start the next one! I'm hoping we can get some big plot resolution in that issue, although I'm okay with things continuing to build like they have.

[Alan Castree · Rating 5 out of 5]

2017-07-17

Once the ball gets rolling on this series it's non stop plot threads. Makes me wonder if we'll ever get to meet Mindf--k's brother.

Emp is getting stronger than ever, except yet again no one fully knows how great she is except us readers and the douchecapes are treating her WORSE than ever.

Coming up next, more ninja madness and a journey through hell!!

[Adriane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant, I want more, but I found out the next volume won't be out for a while, it isn't even available to pre-order, c'mon Warren, get with it, I want me more scantily clad heroine action!

[Veronica Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

When is the next volume out, please?

[Bianca Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, consistently well-written and beautifully drawn. Adam Warren manages to keep a great balance between silly and thoughtful.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly incoherent, and far too wrapped up in the plot and going for shock value to pay attention to the little character moments that made this series more than just T&A.

[Andre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another empowered book with the same humour and 4th panel satire.

[Koen Claeys · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the time you get to volume 6 you should pretty much know what to expect ;-)

[Eulercauchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, story moved along nicely. I might be getting burnt out on this though.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

See reviews from books book 1 and 4