roseembolism | Empowered: a Quick Review

With a bit of trepedation, I picked up Adam Warren's "Empowered" yesterday. Despite the fact that I've always been a fan of Warren's writing as well as his art, at first glance this book apeared to be a piece of bondage fan-service. And well, comics have a really poor track record in dealing with women or sex. To my relief, Empowered may actually be the first comic book sex comedy that's actually funny, and in the process, it takes some nice shots at well-known comics cliche's like the "damsel in distress" element of comics.

Take our superheroine for example: she does end up in the clichéd "girls in bondage" situations, but those aren't the focus of the stories, not really even in the beginning when the comic was a bunch of vignettes bandied around the internet. Our heroine, with the ineptly chosen name of "Empowered", has a "membrane suit" that grants her strength and protects her, except it tears like crazy at the least provocation, and when it does, she loses her powers (leading to the scenes of being tied up). Compounding this is the fact that the membrane suit is VERY tight and thin, one can't wear underwear under it (or get by without shaving parts of the anatomy), and our easily embarassed heroine is all to aware of this. Add to that the fact that while she's a nice person, she has zero self-confidence, has major body issues, and her superteam is a bunch of massive jerks. With the way everybody dumps on her, it's no wonder she has a reputation as being the most useless super on the planet, and it's a wonder she keeps going on.

What Empowered really has going for it is the personalities and relationships; While the title character starts off as plucky (if inept and neurotic), she rapidly develops a three-dimensional personality, and interesting relationships. The relationships Empowered develops are an especially funny and touching part of the book: with a former thug and minion who goes from the guy assigned to dispose of her to a boyfriend; a ninja who goes from capturing her to being a good friend; with an elder god trapped in a restraining belt that was once used on her... if you see a trend, it's part of the humor. In fact, this comic is weirdly positive and endearing, because we can't help but root for a character who keeps trying in spite of having such a sucky power and superhero career. And despite one might think from a book where the heroine gets tied up- often- the sex scenes and relationship between Empowered and her boyfriend are handled in both a positive and funny manner.

In this book Adam Warren really has created a fascinating meld of Western and Japanese elements; the superhero elements are integrated tightly enough to be deftly satirized, while the artwork and emphasis on personal relationships is heavily influenced from manga. Rather than merely adapting manga-esque artwork with an American mindset the way comics like Runaways have, Adam Warren has taken the best from both cultures to make a really engrossing (but not gross) sex comedy.

My conclusion? This is actually a really sweet book, which despite the farcical elements, has a heroine that feels more real than most of the boy's fantasies posing as "empowered women" in comics. I think in part it's because anyone can relate to jobs that are humiliating, with co-workers that are jerks. largely though, it's because like the heroine, many of us find the real meaning and joy in our lives through the people we love and care about.

In short, while the situations may be fueled by typical comic book fan's fantasies, our heroine doesn't exist solely to act them out; she has a character of her own. And that is pretty empowered.