Damsel in distress? Check.  Hot blonde in skin tight, scantily clad costume?  Check.  Constantly tied up?  Triple check.  EMPOWERED is a look into the life of Empowered (Emp for short) as she, despite being continually kidnapped and 'bondage bait', tries to be the best heroine she can be. 




Summary (Book 1): 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...

For some reason, and I honestly can't say why because I can't remember, this series has been on my Amazon wishlist for YEARS.  Its like one of the first things I put on my Amazon wishlist.  I couldn't remember why.  I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Adam Warren worked on Gen13 and Livewires, which are both comics I enjoyed greatly.

This first volume begins with a bunch of much shorter comics, with a very loose connecting plot (that is Empowered being...well...constantly kidnapped).  As you can tell the art is influenced by manga and as the book progresses gets better and more defined, though its still a lot of shading.

I think my favorite 'comic' was "Best Laid Plans" in which Sistah Spooky, Empowered, Ninjette and Thugboy are their very young selves describing how they hope their adult years will turn out (which...yeah.).  Warren wins for by far the creepiest, most sickening villain ever crafted however with Willy Pete!  I could hear this creep's voice and what he does to folk...god...

This isn't a comic for everyone.  There's sex, a whole lot of bondage, scantily clad women, racial, gender and species insults and it really might not make you think too great of superheroes.  If you can move past the lots of sex and ignore the mental image of what Willy Pete does to his victims this is a humorous, oftentimes tarnished look at what it takes to be a superhero in a world where your online presence means more than your heroics.


Summary (Book 2): Empowered returns for further misadventures, as a distress-prone girl wonder struggling with life on the superheroic C-list Clad - or unclad, as fate would too often have it - in her embarrassingly revealing and maddeningly unreliable supersuit, she fights a neverending battle against overly sensitive supervillains, irrationally envious superheroines, and her own body-image issues 

Meanwhile, her boyfriend, Thugboy, plays with fire when he foolhardily attempts to compliment his profoundly insecure sweetheart on the awe-inspiring power of her... well, booty. And her often-inebriated gal-pal, Ninjette, pursues a drunken and ultimately disastrous mission to acquire Empowered some respect - by force if necessary 

All this, plus crossword-obsessed goons, speech-impaired superbeasts, "Ninjas Gone Wild," and even a few self-help hints from nigh-omnipotent cosmic overlords You know, the usual.

Welcome to the second volume of our favorite bound and gagged heroine!  Empowered keeps on trucking even as things manage to get even...dicier.  With the addition of a Best Friend (Ninjette), a Devoted Boyfriend (Thugboy) a pet...kind of (the Caged Demonwolf) and hey maybe a bit of recognition for all her hardwork...well okay that last part is a lie.  But everything else is totally true!

I find it interesting that the villains give her way more props than her fellow 'capes'.  I mean, they're still willing to kidnap her and hold her for ransom, but along the way she manages to gain a fangirl (who makes her life...less than better, but hey she's genuine in her respect!I think) and is genuinely well liked outside of Superhomey teammates.

Warren takes the time to flesh out the other characters a bit more as well.  We learn more about Ninjette's history as well as some less than savory aspects to Thugboy's history (in which Willy Pete still remains the creepiest mo-fo ever. End of story.) and we even get to learn more about Sista Spooky, who is a bit of a puzzle wrapped in a bitchy outercasing.  I truly think there were moments when she kind of felt bad about how she treated by Emp, but they quickly got overshadowed by her petrifying hatred of pretty blondes.

Ninjette also attempts to help pump up Emp's image, but only manages to make everyone assume that Emp's rack isn't what it appears to be and the Caged Demonwolf makes veiled allusions to the true power of the suit Emp wears.  Fun!


Summary (Book 3): As if life as an often-struggling superheroine weren't already hard enough, now costumed crimefighter "Empowered" discovers that another female superhero is ripping off her distress-prone persona - and cashing in, big-time! Even worse, her relationship with live-in boyfriend (and semi-reformed Witless Minion) Thugboy has run afoul of an extremely literal set of "power issues"! 

Worse yet, a singularly bloodthirsty and ruthless ninja clan is gunning - no, make that shurikening - for Emp's best friend and karaoke partner, Ninjette! Can our unlucky but still plucky heroine prevail over all these obstacles as well as further threats posed by foreign fanfiction outrages, her own supersuit's attempts to manipulate her self-esteem, and the revelation of (gasp!) her real name?

Raise a hand if you thought you could make money off videos detailing how to avoid being Bondage Bait for badguys.  Anyone?  Well you can be apparently--quite lucratively too.  Emp's former kidnapper turned fangirl turned impersonator turned Capitalistic Moneyhound figured out a way and she wants to cut Emp in on the dough!  As long as she's okay with being tied up and spanked that is.

Sista Spooky gets a taste of her own badgering when she's the helpless victim in Bondage and very unsettling things come out about Thugboy that make me question how okay I am with him being with Emp and the karmic bitchslap Willy Pete (who I still revile and cringe away from) dealt him and his friends.  Also did you know Ninjette is a NEW JERSEY NINJA? Yep.  Color me not surprised we are pretty violent.

And if that's not enough the Superhomey guys learn just how many of their fans think that things are occurring behind closed doors when they come across yaoi doujinshi (sadly I can attest that what is depicted is tamer then some yaoi I've readseen before). 

Warren's ability to build an overarching storyline beyond Emp's self-image issues, Ninjette's drinking problems, Thugboy's anti-cape history and the Superhomey's lack of heroic-ness began slowly, but has really built steam.  Many of the plot lines don't converge until later, and they're usually still full of the standard bag of gags the books are littered with, but the slow reveal about Emp's suit or the bits and pieces we hear/see about Thugboy's past are there and make completely sense in hindsight.

And truthfully by this point I was enamored of this series and kept on reading without stopping. Next up volumes 4-6 and oh my god the horror.  SO MUCH HORROR.