Describing Empowered is a difficult task. If you were to try, the most basic summary would be: a voluptuous young superhero trying her best, despite the fact that her power is derived from a supersuit that’s constantly falling apart.But that’s only half the story. Support groups for Post-Human STD Sufferers, dark forces accidentally granting too many mystic powers, softhearted thugs, Make-A-Wish last wishes that involve rope and videotape, unstoppable evil thwarted by alien bondage gear, unsupportive team members, superheroes with part-time jobs, fragile self-reflection -- and that’s just the tip of iceberg. Throw in enough sass to choke a teenager and you’ll have true understanding of what it means to be drawn into the world of Empowered.
Dark Horse recently had the opportunity to ask creator Adam Warren some questions that have been burning in our collective minds, and in our loins. We should probably get that checked out . . .
Dark Horse: Is Empowered a social-commentary on typical depictions of superheroines and their historical trend to be nothing more than full-figured counterparts to flagship male characters? Or is it just plain campy fun?
Adam Warren: In today’s new era of Hope and Change (and Hopeful Change, even), can’t we have both? I, for one, say: “Yes, we can.”
DH: Obvious parallels can be drawn between the poses and angles Empowered is often seen holding in the panels and the fantasy positions males often want females to take. Is this also a statement to how most superheroines are depicted, or a fun way to get in some good shots of superpowered rumps?
AW: In today’s new era of Hope and Change (and Hopeful Change, Changeful Hope, etc.), can’t we have both? I, for one, say: “Yes, we can.”
Sweet! At this rate, I should be able to answer every question in this interview by cutting and pasting in the same response every time! I’m all about the efficiency, needless to say.
In all seriousness (well, not really), I quite enjoy capering about in the gray zone between what might be “cheesecake” and what might be “criticism of cheesecake”... or even “criticism of criticism of cheesecake,” etc., etc. Or do I even mean that? Am I just trying to see what Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose would be like, if it happened to be in B&W and didn’t make very much money? Or am I trying to spice up a character study of coping with chronic failure and low self-esteem by larding on the sex and cheesecake? Or am I engaged in an odyssey of nigh-Cronenbergian self-mutilation, as I try to see how quickly I can cripple my drawing hand* by grinding out 200 pages of pencil-heavy artwork over ludicrously short timeframes? Or am I just being an obnoxiously insincere jackass? You decide!
(*Side note: If my brutally abused drawing hand ever became detached from me, as in Michael Caine’s 1981 cinematic magnum opus The Hand, it certainly wouldn’t bother trying to kill my enemies, as did Caine’s free-roaming extremity. No, my detached hand would definitely go all Evil Dead 2 on me and, quite deservedly, kick my sorry ass in retaliation for the savage battering I’ve inflicted on it during Empowered’s years of grinding production . . . Can’t say that I’d blame it, really.)
DH: Do you think there is something inherently sexy and desirable in seeing females bound, gagged, and completely subject to the whims of their captors, or something that’s a product of hentai?
AW: Well, presumably there must be, or I wouldn’t have been asked to draw the seeming bazillions of “damsel in distress” sketch commissions that wound up mutating, metamorphosing, evolving, John Carpenter’s The Thing-ing, and bootstrapping themselves via Lamarckian biology* into what would eventually become Empowered . . . To get an answer about this concept’s enduring popularity, perhaps we should conduct a séance and query the shade of groundbreaking distressed-superdamsel pioneer William Moulton Marston, whose creation of Wonder Woman is so heavily/ridiculously/insanely enmeshed in kinktastic tropes as to boggle the mind. (Well, maybe we shouldn’t do that.)
On the other hand, doesn’t the book get any props for venturing into bold new dimensions of caped kink, from cosplay sex, chloroform-obsessed villains and crossdressing überbadasses to “slash” hero-on-hero fanfiction and yaoi super-shenanigans? (Then again, should it get any props for addressing such topics? Probably not.)
That being said, if fetishistic frivolity (of any variety) were the sole subject of Empowered, I would long ago have stopped work on the title . . . As in, three or four volumes ago. The property has spawned an ever-burgeoning host of characters and situations that I find compelling and narratively intriguing, which is why I bother to keep the book rolling along.
(*Well, save perhaps for Empowered’s continuing references to Were-Giraffe By Night, the Lamarckian biology reference was a bit of a stretch.**)
(**Stretch, as in the famous theoretical example of a giraffe stretching its neck ever longer during its lifetime to reach leaves up high, and this trait being passed on to its offspring, as postulated by Lamarckian biology. Get it?***)
(***Yes, I agree, this really is a very long way to go for one crappy not-quite-a-joke. You might say... it’s a stretch.** Cue the infinite loop!)
DH: Empowered has been dressed as a schoolgirl, naughty nurse, sexy kitten, etc. What is it about these costumes that give readers a raise? And what costumes can readers expect in the future?
AW: Well, let’s face it, the appeal of these titillating “cosplay” dealies isn’t all that semiotically complex, really. Now, if Emp were dressing up like, say, the Hamburglar or Mayor McCheese, that would be a considerably more sociologically complicated scenario. (Or, perhaps, an overt attempt to appeal to diehard fans of McDonaldland’s notoriously convoluted continuity.)
Hey... I just remembered that, for a part-time job, our heroine used to “fursuit up” as the sign-waving mascot for the “Value Mammoth” retail outlet way back in Empowered Vol. 1 . . . which isn’t that far off from dressing up as Grimace or the like, really. Sadly, this blatant scheme to pander to an alt-fetish crowd (well, not really) netted me little demographic-niche traction, as far as I know.
On the costume front, Empowered Vol. 5 features the return of Emp’s best-known bit of alt cosplay: the notorious “Sexy Librarian” outfit! Combine this with our now eyeglassed-and-microskirted heroine browbeating her boyfriend into putting on one of his old minion uniforms (best described as a Village People version of Spartan armor), and you have a raunchtastic recipe for costumed carnality! Sexualized shenanigans ensue, as narrated by the peerlessly poetic pronouncements of the awesomely alliterative Caged Demonwolf!
Also on the costume front, in Vol. 5 we get another look at our heroine’s rather “meta” part-time job, in which, confusingly enough, she secretly dresses up as an ersatz version of herself for a touring cosplay-tribute version of her own superteam (a.k.a. “The Superhomeys Experience”). Turns out that the fake version of her suit is almost as annoying as the real one, due primarily to the fact that the fake version inexplicably adds high heels to the ensemble... To add one more “meta” level to the mix, I should note that I got the idea for said inexplicable high heels from a real-life cosplayer who dressed up as Empowered (quite fetchingly, BTW) for a recent convention, as seen here.
DH: What percentage of readers do you think have used Empowered for ummm . . . *ahem* . . . special time?
AW: I’m happy to say that I have no idea whatsoever; the, ah, “aftermarket usages” of my work are quite out of my control, which is fine with me. Hey, wait a minute... does Paul Chadwick get this kind of question about Concrete? ‘Cause c’mon, I think we all recognize that his depiction of Ron Lithgow’s alien body was often gratuitously titillating and unrealistically idealized (i.e., hawt) . . . And, jeez, what about Stan Sakai’s excessively winsome furries in Usagi Yojimbo? He’d better tone the multi-species hotness down, and soon, or else I’m gonna have to send my fursuit out for dry-cleaning.
DH: We never get to see the goods, so to speak, is that because the unseen is more desirable than the seen, or are you worried about censorship? And why are all the f-bombs blacked-out?
AW: What can I say... For some reason, I find the idea of nude scenes without actual nudity and sex scenes without direct depiction of sex to be strangely amusing, yet still arguably sexy in an oddly counterintuitive fashion. I do occasionally hear criticism that, if your work deals with sexual situations, maaan, you should just go all the way with it and show everything, maaaaan; but I scoff (and sneer (and guffaw)) at this simplistic and simpleminded Manichean notion that my options should consist of either A), doing a book that’s as innocuous (if not asexual) and inoffensive to the easily offended as possible or B), doing full-on pr0n. Seems glaringly obvious to me that plenty of room exists between those two extremes, and that’s right where Empowered will be prancing and gamboling about for the foreseeable future. Plus, if you’ve ever taken a gander at modern pop culture, a sizeable proportion of it sees to consist of hypersexualized content where you most assuredly don’t see everything... Sound at all familiar, false-dichotomy-spouting critics (straw men though you might be)?
Also, at the beginning, I did hope that the book could nimbly avoid censorship by not directly showing any nudity or, ah, “graphic situations”... We initially thought that Empowered was going to ship without having to be shrink-wrapped; the decision to “condomize” the book (not official terminology, needless to say) happened almost literally at the last minute. The reason? Amusingly enough, the book’s superhero content raised fears that wee young folk would pick it up (because only children read superhero comics, as we all know), concerned moms would subsequently fly into spittle-spewing rages, and disaster would soon ensue. Hard to say that these fears were misplaced, as along those very lines “back in the day,” one of my saucier Gen13 covers once got all of Wildstorm’s titles pulled from Waldenbooks’ shelves (or so I was told).
Speaking of outrage-related issues, I was quite surprised that almost all of the more vehement criticism Empowered received early on (in regards to sexism, exploitation, gratuitous D&D references, etc.) came from -- wait for it -- very, very sensitive male reviewers. Perhaps I am naïve not to have seen that one coming, am I not? Alas, as I do not especially privilege the views of painfully sensitive white males (like myself!), their criticism has had tragically little influence on the series as a whole. Nowadays, I gather that the book mainly gets crap from a few 4chan trolls, but that’s a different issue . . . Whatever else one can say about 4chan aficionados, they’re rarely accused of extreme sensitivity. (In all fairness, I should hasten to add that Empowered allegedly gets its share of praise on 4chan as well.)
As for the black “censoring” blocks over most of the bad words in the dialogue, I do that mainly because, well, I think it’s funny. I first used this trick back in mainstream comics when I couldn’t use direct profanity, and enjoyed the fact that, most of the time, it’s glaringly obvious as to exactly what word is being censored... (In fact, during some recent work for a Major Comics Company, they wouldn’t let me use censored words because of that very obviousness.) Currently, I continue to censor profanity in Empowered because A), it’s now part of the book’s ongoing format and B), there’s an actual narrative rationale for the censoring, believe it or not . . . but that rationale won’t be revealed for quite some time, alas.
DH: I laughed out loud at the Schrödinger’s Cat Girl reference in Vol. 2. Does that make me sexist? Or perhaps, a better lover?
AW: Well, if you start talking to potential sexual partners about, say, poisoning kittens in a box or half-dead/ half-alive feline waveforms (à la the original Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment), you’re not likely to get the opportunity to be a better lover . . . especially if you’re trying to hook up with a cat owner.
As for whether you’re a sexist or not, you’ll have to figure that one out for yourself . . . I generally hew to the policy that sensitive males (like myself!) should err on the side of just shutting the hell up re: declaring whether or not someone or something is sexist.
DH: Ninjette + Thugboy + Empowered, I think you know what I’m getting at, when are we going to see it happen?
AW: Well, we sorta see something along those very lines in Empowered Vol. 5 . . . Emphasis on “sorta.” Or am I just being teasingly disingenuous? (I was, after all, voted Most Likely To Be Teasingly Disingenuous in my high school yearbook.*) Buy Empowered Vol. 5, and find out for yourselves, true believers!
(*No, I actually wasn’t, sad to say. )
DH: Empowered’s costume is a fragile as her ego, true or false?
AW: So far, that’s largely proven to be true... but, as we’ve seen on occasion, Emp’s supersuit may well be considerably less fragile than it appears. (Then again, the same holds true for Emp’s ego, as well.) Check out Empowered Vol. 5 for additional supersuit-related intrigue, everybody!
DH: How many volumes of Empowered do you think will be released? How far is the story planned out?
AW: Depending on the always-problematic economics involved and how long my oft-ailing drawing hand can continue to function, I’d like to think at least another five or six volumes might be released, or maybe more. I have plenty of long-term plotlines in mind, from existing narrative threads like superheated/superhorny supervillain Willy Pete’s hidden nature and Ninjette’s increasingly complicated ninja-clan ties to newer ones, such as hinting at what the assorted aliens are doing on Earth, why the “Empverse” works the way it does, how the Superhomeys (and Sistah Spooky in particular) cope with the catastrophic outcome of Vol. 5, and so on. In truth, I have enough extra material in mind that I’m trying to pitch Dark Horse on doing supplemental spin-off miniseries to fill the long gaps between Empowered volume releases . . . Stay tuned for further developments, Emp fans! Wheeee!
In closing, while we’re mentioning Empowered Vol. 5, why not toss in the back-cover copy from this very volume? Here goes:
After saving much of the superhero community from certain doom, costumed crimefighter “Empowered” is dismayed to find that, in the suspicious eyes of her caped colleagues, she may have gone from being merely an easily distressed “pair of training wheels for supervillains” to possibly being a closeted supervillain herself! Meanwhile, our stressed-out superheroine must overcome other challenges aplenty, ranging from gossip-prone cosmic overlords learning Too Much Information from her mother and “cosplay” dress-up disasters at work (and in bed!) to duct-tape-happy catgirls, fiery sociopaths, orbital catastrophes, and even a surprising kiss or two . . . Not to mention trying to survive an emotionally charged, potentially lethal confrontation with her teammate-in-name-only (and implacable nemesis) Sistah Spooky!
Yeahp, as the previous paragraph hints, this volume delivers a tad less of “teh funneh” this time around, due mainly to the long, grueling ordeal of the action-packed and intense 55-page(!) story that closes out the book, as our heroine’s good intentions lead to disaster . . . or a chain of disasters, really. As I often say during attempts to flog the book, Empowered is a “sexy superhero comedy,” except when it isn’t. Rest assured, though, Emp fans: future volumes in the series will deliver higher degrees of “the funneh” (um, except when they don’t).
Pre-Order your copy of Empowered Vol. 5 by clicking here, or get your copy June 24th, when it hits shelves at your local comic shop everywhere!