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I forgot what complete douchebags reporters could be. Reading about the experience of being "outed" as a sex blogger was actually difficult to read, not just for the experience itself (she has to run to the bathroom to throw up when she hears the voicemails from the Sunday Times), but for the knock-on effects that it had on her friends, family, her sense of herself and her loss of anonymity -- she's recognized in the street, has celebrities and radio personalities constantly hit on her, and worst of all, knows that her past lovers now know how emotionally vulnerable she was with them. Ouch.

As such, all the writing about sex and intimacy following her outing seems raw and forced -- she tries to go on with her old life, but the rhythm just isn't there, and it shows. It's great writing, but it feels almost voyeristic at times given that she's no longer able to control what people see of her.

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.

Considering how frenetic most comic books are, it was actually a surprise to read Ooku and feel the rhythm of society and daily living instead of a gunfight. There are no samurai swordsmen in Ooku, no massive drama. There's a man who goes to serve under the Shogun, and has to navigate the court intrigues that result there.

Oh, and the Shogun is a woman. And he's going to serve in her harem of men. And there are 10 women for every man, as most male children die as babies, from a sickness that's expressed in men, but only carried in women. And this happened a long time ago, long enough that most people aren't really aware of it being any different.

The result is fascinating, partly for the inversion of roles in feudal Japan, and half for the dialogue, which maps from the Japanese text, and so is in Shakespearean English. You even get to see someone called a jackanape.

Much, much better than Y, The Last Man.