Empowered By Warren Adams

 Empowered

By Adam Warren

Adam Warren was born in New Hampshire in 1967.  After high school, he started attending the Kubert School, a private school in Dover, New Jersey that teaches comic book art and commercial illustration. Warren almost dropped out, but over one Christmas Break, he got a hold of some anime and manga, most notably some issues of the series Dirty Pair.  This not only renewed his commitment to becoming a comic book artist, but it was also when he met the art style that would forever dominate his destiny. 

In fact, writing and illustrating an American Dirty Pair comic would be Mr. Warren's first major project after graduating; he would continue producing comics and graphic novels throughout the 90s. He also wrote the limited Marvel comics series Live Wires and Iron Man: Hypervelocity.  He started writing and illustrating Empowered in 2007. 

Empowered got its start in a series of commissions where someone requested art of a superheroine who was tied up and gagged. From there, Mr. Warren started to come up with a backstory for the superheroine, and things seem to have snowballed from there.  Now, just a quick note, the Omnibus combines volumes 1, 2, and 3, and I haven’t read any further.  Considering the series is still ongoing, and is somewhere past volume 12, there’s a lot more going on. 

Empowered is the story of Elissa Megan Powers, aka the superheroine Empowered. Often called Emps, to the point that her birth name isn’t revealed til the end of issue 3, Elissa attempts to be a superhero, but struggles with the weaknesses of her powers and the lack of respect from everyone.  You see, she gets her powers from her suit, a hyperthin membrane that grants her the strength of 10 to 15 men, and the ability to toss around bolts of energy.  However, if the suit is damaged, then her powers are drastically reduced, often to the point of her being just another young lady. This leads to the villains overpowering her and tying her up. 

These villains don’t go any further than this due to the unwritten rules of Capes, which is you don’t kill a Cape, and you don’t take any liberties with subdued Capes.  I don’t know who is enforcing these rules, but they must be deeply terrifying because most villains show real fear at the idea of anyone even thinking they might be breaking the rules. 

As a result, her teammates on the superhero team, the Superhomeys, treat her either as a joke or as a little sister they need to protect, while the villains flat-out laugh at her, and the public is rather cruel. Despite this, Emps gets up, puts on her suit, and runs into situations that could get her vaporized because she wants to help and do the right thing, even if no one ever gives her credit for trying. 

Now, she isn’t alone: in volume I, she meets Thugboy.  Thugboy was working as a minion for a villainous organization, but rapidly switched sides due to falling in love with Emps. He is her number one fan, and, frankly, he might be the smartest guy in the series.  He’s definitely one of the more complicated ones as we quickly learn about his rather horrifying past.  

For example, we learn he used to be a part of a group called the Witless Minions, who specialized in signing up to work for supervillains and then robbing them blind.  This ended the way you would expect, as it seems the unwritten rules don’t apply to minions who betray their supervillain employers, and Thugboy is carrying some unresolved trauma as a result.  There’s the matter of what he was doing before being a Witless Minion, but I’m going to encourage you to read the comic and find out about it that way.

There’s also Ninjette, a lady ninja who fled her clan and met Emps by trying to kidnap her.  When the kidnapping went wrong, the ladies started drinking together and became best friends. Both these girls are big fans of the other, which I like, and their relationship is interesting as both these girls are carrying a boatload of issues.  

The tone of the comic is comedic, but it has its serious moments.  While Emps is often the butt of the joke, the story manages to balance this out with her winning victories and saving lives, even if she loses dignity in the process.  I should also note this comic is a bit raunchy, as Warren's right up to the line on what you can show and do without turning it into an “adult” graphic novel, so this is something you want to keep out of the hands of children. Still, it was a  fun read, so I’m going to give it a B+