Empowered Volume 1, Adam Warren

"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 . . . 

From Adam Warren comes Empowered, a butt-kicking, bootylicious superhero lampoon that raises the bar for long-john lust and low-brow laughs. Remove all previous notions of superhero entertainment from your puny mind . . . and prepare to be Empowered!"


Empowered is an English language superhero Manga (Warren describes it as being drawn in a manner that will put off American comics readers, and about a subject that will put off Asian Manga readers) that grew out of commisioned sketches of 'cheesecake' superheroines - softcore pictures of helpless women tied up.

So it doesn't really have much in the way of feminist credentials. It wears its interests on its sleeve. It's very clearly a T'n'A book, with the title character spending the majority of the book either naked or chained up.

And yet, for all its standing as a ridiculously uncomfortable public read, Empowered has an incredibly sweet heart, that elevates it beyond gratuitous swimsuit shots, and a wicked sense of humour that lashes out at the very stories it ends up parodying.

Empowered is a woman with serious body image issues, abilities that stem skintight suit that falls apart in combat and can't be covered up without losing power, and a group of villains who are quicker to capture and tie up the superheroes than actually kill them. It's a combination that leads to a lead character who is extremely awkward and unsure of herself - essentially the Marvel method of Superhero creation updated to the modern day.

With the majority of the story focusing on her relationships with ex-minion Thug Boy, and best friend (and ninja) Ninjette, we get a masterclass in creating character.

But the big sell is Willy Pete, a character who appears for less than 5 pages but who steals the book out from under the heroes. Willy Pete (code for White Phosphorous) is the kind of villain who can only appear in creator owned works, and every single panel he appears in is a horror show. For a villain with almost no page time at all he leaves an indelible mark on the book, both in the trauma he inflicts on Thug Boy and the way he sears himself across the mind of the reader.

If I pick up any of the later books, it will be to see what happens with him. The other good bits will just be a great bonus.

Also Try:
Birds of Prey, Gail Simone
She-Hulk: Single Green Female, Dan Slott
Captain Marvel, Kelly Sue DeConnick
Invincible, Robert Kirkman

Michael Chabon presents ... The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist: Various

"Leaping onto center stage from the wings of comics history comes that dazzling Master of Elusion, foe of tyranny, and champion of liberation - the Escapist. Operating from a secret headquarters under the boards of the Empire Theater, the Escapist and his crack team of associates roam the globe performing amazing feats of magic and coming to the aid of all those who languish in the chains of oppression. The history of the Escapist's creators Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay was recently chronicled in Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Now the best of the Escapist's adventures are collected into one volume for all to enjoy."










A collection of short stories written and illustrated by a team of comic stars, based on The Escapist, the creation of Michael Chabon's comic writer characters in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

At its heart it attempts to spin off a Golden Age superhero supposedly created by the 'real' Kavalier and Clay into a series of through the ages snapshots of how a 'forgotten' comic creation fared, an idea that's maintained, Princess Bride-like, by the wonderfully poe-faced prose sections which seek to flesh out the history of the character and the legal wrangles which left The Escapist languishing in pulp roots.

There's an obvious missed opportunity here in not trying to tie the artistic styles of each age in a little more clearly to the Ages each story is supposed to be from, and whilst The Escapist is an enjoyable, but slight, read it adds very little to Kavalier and Clay and doesn't really stand on its own merit. The problem is that it's a curio. Whilst the writer of the majority of the tales, Kevin McCarthy, is paired with some genuinely excellent big name artists (Gene Colan,  Jim Starlin and Bill Sienkiewicz all feature) and some less well known (Dan Brereton needs a big book to launch off, but his Luna Moth story features, at its best, some excellent Milo Manara-esque pin-ups without the extreme raunch). Unfortunately, McCarthy's writing fails to capture the best of the pulp fiction styling that the book could showcase. The Escapist as a character isn't very interesting and the one-and-done natures of the tales means we can't develop much of a bond in the brief panel time available.

There are lots of better comics out there, and though The Escapist has great source material to draw on it's a book that isn't as original, exciting or amusing as Kavalier and Clay was. The cover art is FANTASTIC though - a wonderful piece of graphic design which houses a thoroughly mediocre read.

Also Try:
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Will Eisner, The Spirit
Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, Tomb of Dracula
William Goldman, The Princess Bride