A Descent into Dullness

A very light week with only a single pull. But I did finally get the Empowered one-shot from a couple weeks back that was underordered. Full of the God Damned Maidman action...

Also a 2nd issue for the new Dark Horse Presents. Honestly I'd be almost willing to pay the eight bucks just for the eight new color pages for Carla Speed McNeil's Finder. But its also got some new Concrete, an interesting crime story written and drawn by Howard Chaykin and the odd but cute Snow Angel by David Chelsea. Plus some other stuff of varying quality...

And the one pull item is a double-sized Thunderbolts that is more fall-out from the "Fear Itself" event. Concentrating on members of both teams mostly doing search & rescue combined with containment in the smashed up Raft prison...

MySpace Dark Horse Presents Vol. 1 featuring whole bunches of people

Back in the day Dark Horse ran an anthology comic as a way of featuring their various titles. Of course comic's anthologies are a hard sell nowadays even for the Big Two comic companies. So Dark Horse moved the project online. Specifically to MySpace. And so made it so I almost, ALMOST, would be willing to spend time following a MySpace site. Happily for my sense of self-worth and dignity Dark Horse collects the stories into trade paperback collections...

162 pages, divided between 17 stories. Stand-outs being the scifi adventure Sugarshock! (Joss Whedon story, Fabio Moon art, Dave Stewart colors and Nate Piekos letters), a two-page comic by Peter Bagge about George & Martha Washington, an 8-page color (Guru eFx) comic for Empowered by Adam Warren and another 8-pager featuring The Umbrella Academy's Kraken rescuing the mayor's daughter from a criminal fortune-teller (Gerard Way story, Gabriel Ba art, Dave Stewart colors and Nate Piekos letters). Plus more by Mike Mignola, Steve Niles and others. But honestly this first volume is worth it for the 33 pages plus cover by Moon and Ba...

Empowered Volume 3 by Adam Warren

The third volume in Adam Warren's tale of Empowered, a super-hero with poor luck and a great deal of self-esteem issues. This volume has less sex and humor (though still has some) and gets more into the back-stories of Emp's boyfriend Thugboy and best friend Ninjette. Even the inks are darker than normal. But between the bloodshed, Warren still has a drunken karaoke night, Emp's jerk male team-mates learning they're the subject of yaoi doujinshi and more sexy librarian cos-play. Plus super-hero wannabe Oceltina, last seen attempting to kidnap Emp and engage in unwanted naughty touching...

Like the previous volumes, the main draw isn't so much the humor or the sexy. Its the depth of characterization of the cast. You care about Emp and want her to succeed. And in the final story, where Ninjette has to battle ninja bounty hunters there's a real sense of tension as you worry about her survival...

The one fault I have for this volume? Not enough Caged Demonwolf. Though the one story he narrates does feature some true mastery of the art of alliteration...

Empowered Volume 1 & Volume 2
by Adam Warren

Empowered is a rookie super-hero with an unfortunate tendency to get captured and tied up. A tendency that isn't helped by her super-suit. Sure it enhances her strength and agility, protects her from damage and when she concentrates can generate energy blasts. But if it gets torn or ripped it rapidly STOPS working right. And it gets torn All. The. Damn. Time. But Emp keeps trying, despite the mockery of villains and her team-mates. She even manages to capture the powerful Demonwolf, using a leftover bondage belt she got when she was rejected for capture by an alien harem master for being too "bootylicious". Of course her team-mates then make her keep the Caged Demonwolf at her apartment because of zoning laws...

So its no surprise that Emp has some self-confidence issues. And wild mood swings due to body issues. No matter how often shes complimented by her boyfriend, ex-professional henchman Thugboy or her BFF Ninjette...

Adam Warren is one of the few American artists who takes manga styles and successfully makes it his own. And in so doing he manages to create a series that is cute, sexy and above all fun. Despite it growing out of fan requests for bondage/woman in peril fetish sketches, Empowered is just sweet and funny. You easily grow to CARE about the characters. You WANT Emp to succeed. And when she goes off on a self-doubting kick, you want to give her a hug and pep talk rather than the smack upside the head most emo/angst characters draw from me...

THIS is how you do a cheesecake book. Its sexy without being exploitative. Amusing without being mean. With just enough darkness and secrecy to lend it a sense of conflict and make you hunger to learn more...