Empowered

General GTG Off Topic
1

Is there anyone else on here that has read Adam Warren's "Empowered" graphic novel series? I discovered it mentioned on TV Tropes and they mentioned it was being released a page per day as a web comic, so I started to read it and got hooked. It's a weird beast - it started life as a series of jokes based on being a "Damsel in Distress", and it keeps a level of kinkiness throughout, but at the same time it has some of the most real characters and most moving stories that I've encountered in a long time (not to mention a real warmth and sweetness). I think what brought home just how impressive and odd it is was this article on ComicsAlliance "'Empowered' Shatters Superhero Comics Conventions of Storytelling, Sexuality and Representation"

You can imagine what it’s like to recommend Empowered to other people. Especially when you’re someone who talks a lot (a lot) about how tired you are of sexy superheroines in sexy costumes being put in sexy situations. Because let me tell you right now, that takes up a lot of Empowered’s eight-volume Dark Horse Comics run. Super-geniuses and hapless goons alike whip out the rope and duct tape upon capturing our eponymous heroine, and hundreds of panels are devoted to her struggling and jiggling near-naked form. The first few volumes especially offer platter upon platter of cheesecake — to the point where, in-story, Emp (as she is known) is derided by other characters as villain “shoulder candy” and a useless “bondage magnet”.

So how can it be that I discovered Empowered on scans_daily, an old Livejournal hive of feminist-minded comics discussion, where it was all but universally loved? How can it be that I, a young feminist woman fed up with sexist superhero tropes, love Empowered? And not just love it, but laud it for its female-dominated narrative?

It's not going to be to everyone's taste, but I've absolutely loved (and been devastated by) the writing

2

Oh yeah!  I'm a big fan of Empowered and have been buying it in print since the first volume (I've been a fan of Adam Warren since his run on the Dirty Pair comics).  In the beginning, it's obviously just him having fun with kinky damsel-in-distress tropes, but as the series goes on it turns into some very interesting commentary about the tropes themselves and how that effects the characters.  Powerful, heart-breaking stuff.

 

3

It's slightly frustrating having only just found it, raced through all the stories (apart from the 7th one-shot) and now I'm impatiently waiting for volume 10 to come next year. I can't think of many things that have moved me as much as some of the character arcs (Les Mis, Stranger than Fiction, messages scene from Interstellar, Inside Out.... It's in pretty good company!). The chapter where a character drops their usual style of speech was surprisingly beautiful and completely unexepected and I think it's the ability to switch that really impresses me

4

Interesting -- thanks for sharing. No time to check it out right now, but have added it my list.

I've been following Strong Female Protaganist for a while, now, which takes a very different approach to the topic. The art starts out pretty weak but improves significantly as the strip goes on. I think the writing it really sharp and thoughtful, though.