Hardcover, 2912 pages
English language
Published 2015 by Zondervan.
A Christian Bible is a set of books divided into the Old and New Testament that a Christian denomination has, at some point in their past or present, regarded as divinely inspired scripture.
FUCK YES.
I am consistently amazed at how much better this comic book is than so many of the indie darlings. Dump Paper Girls, scrap Saga. Empowered is just better.
Empowered goes in for a board review and debrief of her activities in Volume 8. And has a really shit day, as her activities have made her a villain magnet, resulting in her having to take down multiple opponents or play them off against each other.
Empowered is one of those comic books that just shouldn't be as good as it is. There's a depth to it which makes it believable and fascinating even when not in the middle of a punch up, and while the characters are intentionally ridiculous, the situations (and how Emp gets out of them) are better thought out than 90% of the "straight" comic books you'd find.
One of the densest, most thoughtful superhero books out there. It plays with the lines between cartoony superhero and all too real impact in beautiful fashion, thinking about how people who kill (ninjas) think about people who don't (superheros), how death isn't harmless and how carefully people have to manage attraction and attention between friends and lovers, and how even cosmic villains occasionally want to kick back, watch a cute girl, and pretend that they're not driven by a cosmic imperative to destroy the world and everything in it.
The bit I like most? The totally blase reaction the media has to the deaths of several superheroes. It's not just that they're not surprised. No, they have a betting pool on which supervillains are going to do the most damage. It's entertainment for the media, and it's gruesome in a way that tells you how little superheroes are thought of once they're gone. Superheroes are in it for the ego, or for the pure exercise of power, or simply to get laid. The world praises them, flatters them, and then dumps them when they're done.
And then there's the Superdead. The accepters of gifts. They may not be damned exactly (although many of them took exactly that deal) but they're heroes who are still realizing what sort of gift they received. It's a cold world.
Empowered and her friends stand out in this crowd not because they're powerful, but …
The bit I like most? The totally blase reaction the media has to the deaths of several superheroes. It's not just that they're not surprised. No, they have a betting pool on which supervillains are going to do the most damage. It's entertainment for the media, and it's gruesome in a way that tells you how little superheroes are thought of once they're gone. Superheroes are in it for the ego, or for the pure exercise of power, or simply to get laid. The world praises them, flatters them, and then dumps them when they're done.
And then there's the Superdead. The accepters of gifts. They may not be damned exactly (although many of them took exactly that deal) but they're heroes who are still realizing what sort of gift they received. It's a cold world.
Empowered and her friends stand out in this crowd not because they're powerful, but because they still have the power to care about people who "don't matter" and each other. It's an odd lesson to learn in between the bondage and the burlesque, but this series has a way of surprising every time.
All right, I'm an addict. I can't stop reading these books. I already ordered #5. Damn you Amazon Prime 2 day shipping.
This one introduces Empowered's version of the Batman. He's called Maidman. He dresses up as a cleaning maid. A sexy cleaning maid.
Have I mentioned that Empowered is absolutely shameless about pointing out that Superheroes, if they existed, would be viewed much like furries? No-one would ever believe you weren't wearing a leather outfit and mask unless you were getting off on it. And in Empowered... they do. Urgh. Yeah, comics today take the subject implicitly, but in Empowered, it's the premise.
The interesting thing about Empowered is that as much as it makes fun of superheroes, it rarely makes fun of the main characters. Especially when they have issues. Thugboy's very conscious balancing act when it comes to Ninjette (he's in love with EMP, but can't help …
All right, I'm an addict. I can't stop reading these books. I already ordered #5. Damn you Amazon Prime 2 day shipping.
This one introduces Empowered's version of the Batman. He's called Maidman. He dresses up as a cleaning maid. A sexy cleaning maid.
Have I mentioned that Empowered is absolutely shameless about pointing out that Superheroes, if they existed, would be viewed much like furries? No-one would ever believe you weren't wearing a leather outfit and mask unless you were getting off on it. And in Empowered... they do. Urgh. Yeah, comics today take the subject implicitly, but in Empowered, it's the premise.
The interesting thing about Empowered is that as much as it makes fun of superheroes, it rarely makes fun of the main characters. Especially when they have issues. Thugboy's very conscious balancing act when it comes to Ninjette (he's in love with EMP, but can't help but react when Ninjette sits on his lap) is one of the interesting little dynamics that you really wouldn't see many other places -- you could do it in TV or in a novel, perhaps, but the multiple levels of external and internal dialog and facial expressions in a single frame is honestly something you could only really do in comics, and it's actually done tastefully and respectfully.
Oh, and Empowered's "make a wish" gift to the child with cancer was beautiful. His respect and admiration for her and her growing appreciation for him was completely not where I thought that story would go.
I didn't read this either. This review is actually all typos.
