by: Ana Bruja-Khayos
From the great mind of Adam Warren who brought you Dirty Pair comes Empowered. The graphic novel series began in 2004 as a superhero comedy inspired by large commissions request for images of damsels in distress. This created a world that is inhabited by super heroes, villains and minions that have very down to earth personalities and imperfections. This makes this story ten times more likeable than your standard graphic novel. Simply said “ A superhero story that doesn’t take itself too seriously”.
As of 2012 the series has produced seven graphics novels, and is very well love by many of Adam Warren’s fans. When you see the books it will remind you of an american type manga. It has some of the anime traits but with Adam Warren’s touch. The pages are very bold black and white pencil drawings that literally gives it a very unique look with great panel flow. As you are reading through the pages, at times you will have to stop and take a moment to enjoy all of the little details he hides in the environments, background props, and costumes. If you love color on your graphics, I guarantee that you will not notices since the story is very unique.
Adam introduces the reader to this crazy world through a new heroine with the superhero name of Empowered, also known as “Emp” short for Elissa Megan Powers. She just graduated school with a degree in “Metahuman Studies” for an unmentioned college and has just moves to city to pursue a career as a superhero. Here she teams up with the Superhomies Superhero Group were she’s constantly bullied by the other top notch heroes. The main reason is because of how her powers work. When she has the super suite on she has super strength, can cling on to walls, and at times new abilities will appear that she’s not aware about it. However the super suite has a major weakness, it tears very very easily. At time is described as a tissue paper thin. The second the suite tears, she reverts to her regular human strength and she is very powerless. From this scenario she has gain a reputation for constantly being caught, tied up, gagged, and even becoming shoulder candy for bad guys.
Most of us are used to hearing crazy stories on how traditional superheroes get the power from the a horrible accident, horrible experiment, or an alien from another world type scenarios. In this world here the heroes get their power in the crazies ways like getting STD from screwing an alien chick, mail away powers, or a messed up contract with Satan in exchange for beauty. The heroes are also emotionally flawed and traumatized by personal experiences, self-esteem issues, egos, and yes even the work office cooler chatter and gossip news on TV.
As of 2012 the series has produced seven graphics novels, and is very well love by many of Adam Warren’s fans. When you see the books it will remind you of an american type manga. It has some of the anime traits but with Adam Warren’s touch. The pages are very bold black and white pencil drawings that literally gives it a very unique look with great panel flow. As you are reading through the pages, at times you will have to stop and take a moment to enjoy all of the little details he hides in the environments, background props, and costumes. If you love color on your graphics, I guarantee that you will not notices since the story is very unique.
Adam introduces the reader to this crazy world through a new heroine with the superhero name of Empowered, also known as “Emp” short for Elissa Megan Powers. She just graduated school with a degree in “Metahuman Studies” for an unmentioned college and has just moves to city to pursue a career as a superhero. Here she teams up with the Superhomies Superhero Group were she’s constantly bullied by the other top notch heroes. The main reason is because of how her powers work. When she has the super suite on she has super strength, can cling on to walls, and at times new abilities will appear that she’s not aware about it. However the super suite has a major weakness, it tears very very easily. At time is described as a tissue paper thin. The second the suite tears, she reverts to her regular human strength and she is very powerless. From this scenario she has gain a reputation for constantly being caught, tied up, gagged, and even becoming shoulder candy for bad guys.
Most of us are used to hearing crazy stories on how traditional superheroes get the power from the a horrible accident, horrible experiment, or an alien from another world type scenarios. In this world here the heroes get their power in the crazies ways like getting STD from screwing an alien chick, mail away powers, or a messed up contract with Satan in exchange for beauty. The heroes are also emotionally flawed and traumatized by personal experiences, self-esteem issues, egos, and yes even the work office cooler chatter and gossip news on TV.
About EmpJust like any of the other super heroes, EMP has her own hangups. Her major one is that she thinks she has a “chubby booty” even though she is very sexy. She’s constantly making remarks on how the suite really doesn’t do much to help her cover up her giant tuckus. This self esteem issue combined with her constant bondage and booty smacking issue with the super villains and at times coworkers and acquaintances really makes this young heroine a very unique character to follow along. To most of her friends and coworkers she seem as kind of a ditzy girl that really should be doing this kind of work, but as the story goes one she actually retains her sweet humility even though her powers continue right under her fingers.
Her Friends
Along the way she has made some great friends, and not so great friends. The S Superhomies Superhero Group is literally in the not so great friends. The group is composed of several dozen super heroes, and raging at different ranks.
but she has made 2 other great friends Thugboy and Ninjette. The
Thug Boy was originally a minion for hire. He used to belong to a gang with now desist friends who use to robbed super villains blind and resold the stuff for profit. During one of EMP’s super hero attempts they met and shortly after became more than just superhero vs generic thug. While Thug boy is very kind to EMP, he has a very dark past, and couple of misdeeds that are pledging him on the back of his mind and at times fears for his life.
Nijet (AKA Kozue Kaburagi) is the princes of an an Assassin Kaburagi Ninja Clan. The funny part is that even though she comes from asian asian type clan complete with asian names, she’s just a white girl from Jersey with a drinking problem. As you read the story you come to find out that the she’s ran away from her clan because she was supposed to be sold or traded to another clan to be baby making machine for the rest of her life. Not the future she wants.
There is one more character who comes into play in Emp’s crazy life later on in the story named “The Caged Demonwolf”. It’s a very powerful immortal demon living on her coffee table. You have to read the books to find the specs on this one. Bwahahahaha...
All in all, all that I will have to say is that THIS IS AN ADULT STORY and is NOT FOR CHILDREN due to some sexual content. However this is a very fun, engaging, and at times surprisingly emotional story. I give this story three thumbs up. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have.
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