Empowered, vol. 3

Writer(s): Adam Warren
Artist(s): Adam Warren
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
ISBN: 978-1593078706
Price: $15.95
Page count: 208
Year Released: 2008
Status: in print
Original Source: n/a
Other Collected Edition(s): n/a
Genres: erotica; humor; romance/relationships; satire; short stories; superheroes
Recommended for Fans Of:
Possibly Objectionable Material: lots and lots of cheesecake, softcore sexual innuendo, and suggestive language; graphic violence
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Also in This Series: preceded by Empowered, vol. 2; followed by Empowered, vol. 4

Plot Summary
In this volume, Emp battles the Chloroformaster, who likes to ambush superheroines, chloroform them, then post pictures of them, passed out, on his blog. As you can imagine, he's not much of a supervillain. Then Emp finds herself captive of Advanced Restraint Research (or ARR!), who use her as an unwilling participant in the demonstration videos for their high-tech bondage gear, which they sell to supervillains. Later, the pervy guys in the Superhomeys try to convince Emp to dress up as a sexy librarian again, and they can hardly believe their luck when she actually agrees, however reluctantly.

Meanwhile, on the "advancing the plot" side of things, we get more backstory on Thug Boy and the last supervillain he and his comrades ripped off: Willy Pete. And Willy Pete is one scary dude. Also, Ninjette is confronted by some bounty hunters who reveal exactly why her clan is so hellbent on getting her back--in any condition. (Plus, we learn Emp and Ninjette's real names; which is not that exciting to me, but after three volumes it's kind of a big deal, I guess.)

My Own 2 Cents
Empowered may just be the teenage boy's idea of the ultimate comic book, what with all the bare flesh, sexual innuendo, and violence. But I maintain that Adam Warren has created an interesting cast of characters with a lovable protagonist, a truly terrifying villain, and a handful of three-dimensional supporting characters. For every story that amounts to nothing more than Emp losing her clothes and getting tied up (which, for some reason, hasn't gotten old yet), there's a story that deals almost exclusively with character development. Empowered isn't just an excuse to draw fetish illustrations. Warren has created a world that he obviously cares about, and that fact shines through in the storytelling.