Toothsome Rump

The fourth volume of Empowered was supposed to come out in late September, and I had been salivating for half a year or so. Adam Warren’s hilarious series is so sidesplittingly funny that September couldn’t come soon enough. Then the book was pushed back ‘til November, and I thought I would die. Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit here, but I really, really wanted to read the next installment in the series. So November came, and I finally got it and read it.

And it was amazing.

Empowered #4 is, hands down, the best chapter in Emp’s misadventures, and I loved every page of it. Adam Warren’s artwork keeps getting better and better, and the facial expressions, the detailed technology, and the super kinetic action scenes are beautifully (or should I say bootbackaliciously?) rendered. As a bonus, we have a short story in full color, and it looks great too, especially the phenomenally drawn Hummer. The dialogue, also by Warren, is as witty and funny and outrageous as it’s been in the past, with neologisms aplenty, great blends of words, puns, plays on words, wordiness, verbal prolixity, and of course with the Caged Demonwolf stealing the show every time he’s in a panel. (Hell, even when he is not!) There are lots of grotesquely sublime characters: Crowquet, Wet Blanket, Mr. Maidman, Dr. Big McLarge Huge, the Felonifive… and yet what makes Empowered #4 so ridiculously awesome is the cohesiveness of the book, something Warren started to do in volume three, but that hadn’t quite gotten there until now. This time, every chapter in the book, no matter how random it might seem, builds toward the overall story, the results of this becoming apparent in the last chapter. Little by little, I realized “Oh, so that’s why he did that a hundred pages ago”. Or, “I guess that funny random chapter was not so random after all” (it was still funny, though). This book had me so grabbed by the throat that it wasn’t until almost the end that I realized the “damsel in distress” theme so ubiquitous in previous volumes was barely there at all, and I didn’t even care! Whoever thought he was reading the series because of the gratuitous sex and the bondage and the fan service was wrong. It turns out Empowered doesn’t need that to remain a terrific read. So do yourselves a favor and while you’re out there shopping for Witchblade, make sure you also pick up a copy (or several, since you must have friends) of Empowered. Even if you only enjoy it half as much as I did, you’ll still love it. Guaranteed!