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

Scott Pilgrim vs The World - Colour Edition; Bryan Lee O'Malley

"SCOTT PILGRIM

has two girls on the go. When he's with Knives Chau, he feels he can erase the past and start over. When he's with Ramona Flowers, he's ready to accept all that and grow up. But Ramona comes with baggage - SEVEN EVIL EX-BOYFRIENDS, each eager to challenge Scott for the right to date her. What happens when Knives and Ramona meet? Which girl will he choose? And why, oh why, can't the past stay past?"





Having read the first of these updated colour editions I was sufficiently impressed to immediately go and buy the second volume. The slow schedule of these releases mean it will be the end of 2014 before we get the complete set (quite a while to wait for material that's just being coloured) but these volumes are handsome enough that I have no problems letting the anticipation build.

As well as the four colour treatment there's a selection of extra's at the back, including character design sheets and an excellent section on how O'Malley used photoreferenced buildings to create the look of Scott Pilgrim's Toronto. Whilst it's nothing like the extra's put into any one of Kirkman's Invincible omnibuses it does add something to be able to see the creative process in action, especially in the character designs.

O'Malley has often spoken about how bemused he is that his art style is so lauded when it's just drawn that way because he can't draw it looking like anything else, but there's a clean, childlike glee to his drawings. His backgrounds and clothing are the most focussed parts of his images (like a manga-inspired James McKelvie) so it's wonderful to get a sense of how these aspects of his craft develop.

The story itself is wondeful, more divergent from the film, especially in creating a true ensemble with Scott at the centre, rather than simply a Scott focussed book. The development of Stacey, Knives and Kim in particular helps, and this is a book full of strong female characters in both supporting and starring roles.

Also Try:
Kieran Gillen, Phonogram
S. Steven Struble, Li'l Depressed Boy
Grant Morrison, Kill Your Boyfriend

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - Colour Edition, Bryan Lee O'Malley

'SCOTT PILGRIM

is dating a high schooler, but when Ramona Flowers starts skating through his brain, everything changes. While Scott pursures Ramona, someone else has their sights set on Scott; HER SEVEN EVIL EX-BOYFRIENDS. If he wants this relationship to work, he needs to defeat them all - but even that herculean task might not be enough!'






Scott Pilgrim vs The World is one of my all time favourite films, a wonderful distillation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Oni Press series. The modest success of the film, along with the enduring cult status of the original books, have led to this sumptuous rerelease - a hardback colour update for the pocket sized original.

Aesthetically, its a wonderful book. The hardcover is a sturdy volume that sets it up as part one far more than the previous books did (the inclusion of the question marked boss fight section on the back is excellent), but it's the interior where the majority of work has been done. Nathan Fairbarn colours extensively for the big comic publishers, notably on Batman, Inc and for various X-Men titles, and his colouring here is excellent.

Colouring is an underrated skill, and one that's shown off to its best be updating an original black-and-white graphic novel to full colour. Considering that the movie went a long way towards creating the definitive pallette for the books it's great to see how well this fits in with both art from O'Malley and the film. It would have been easy to recolour this very differently, but it ties in as a very friendly readaptation (of the film of the book).

The colours pop of the page and serve O'Malleys exaggerated, cartoony art. The fight (and romance) scenes in particular give Fairbarn an opportunity to unleash, but the real skill here is in maintaining an interestingly coloured book in the more mundane parts - something which is integral to Scott Pilgrim, the most mumblecore of semi-mainstream original graphic novels.

It's this familiarity which ultimately elevates the story of Scott Pilgrim after all. Scott truly is an everman - a selfish, needy, idiotic, very humanly flawed individual firmly rooted in a specific place - early adulthood. This is the perfect way to enjoy Scott's adventures from the beginning, again.

Also Try:
Bill Watterson, It's a Magical World (Calvin and Hobbes)
Tsugumi Ohba, Deathnote
Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (OGN)