Book-A-Day 2010 # 48 (3/23) -- Empowered 4 by Adam Warren

Hey, remember what I said about Empowered 3 yesterday? (I don't have a link, because, as I'm typing right now, that post hasn't gone up yet.) Well, it applies equally to Empowered 4, today's entry in the Book-A-Day Derby.

This one starts off at a hospital for superhumans, in the aftermath of the end of last volume, and rolls on to focus on the upcoming Caped Justice ("Capey") Awards, for which Emp has been nominated. The big drama associated with that -- since of course there must be one -- is that everyone is worried that her nomination is the prelude to some Carrie-level humiliation at the ceremony. (There is a precedent for that.)

Meanwhile, the usual subplots roll on -- some that I mentioned yesterday, and some that were too tedious to go into (including the distasteful mixed sexual and anthropophagic exploits of a psychotic fire-elemental supervillain, who will turn up in the main plot someday, I suppose -- with any luck, after I've stopped reading Empowered entirely). Emp saves the day in the long last story of this volume as well, possibly showing that Warren is gently nudging her in the direction of competence. Though, again, that would destroy the entire point of the series, so I expect Warren will keep his tone wildly inconsistent and Emp's competence equally so.

I didn't really need to read this, after I'd seen #3, but it was around, and sometimes it just does seem that the easiest way to get a book out of the house is to read it first. (That may not make much sense, I realize.)

Warren is still an accomplished artist in his particular pin-up inspired style, though the endless parade of women with no noses and hugely bee-stung lips does become odd after a while. But, since the way Warren draws women is the main appeal of Empowered -- not the lips and noses, particularly, of course; other portions of their anatomy play much more central roles in the story -- presumably the target audience is still happy at the attention he lavishes on Emp's curves.

Book-A-Day 2010: The Epic Index