Grey Rating: C-
There are two ways to review something. One is to judge it standalone, strictly on it's own merits. The other is to judge based on comparisons with similar items. I prefer to do the latter when applicable, and I believe it's applicable here.
Emp 4, frankly, was disappointing. Not bad, per se, just... far less than I expected. In many ways, however, it's a victim of it's own success. Emp 1 was excellent, and justly deserved a "A". Emp 2 was simply awesome. A freakin' plus. Emp 3 was a solid "B".
Emp 4 has bondage, just not enough. The stories with our damsel, or some other damsel, gagged and bound are short. Almost like... I don't know... after thoughts. Only one story line stands out, and it's one that has our heroine being a terminal cancer kid's "make-a-wish" wish. Inventive to say the least and it could have been great, but it ends way too soon.
What we DO get is a loooong ending story that really goes nowhere, and a middle story that features... wait for it... a dude in high heels and a kinky female maid's outfit.
No, I'm not kidding, and that's not a misprint.
Adam, if you read this, I am speaking just for myself, but I feel confident when I say that I speak for many others when I beg you to please knock it off with the homo stuff. You wanna make a book about that subject, be my guest. More power to you, but kindly keep it out of the Empowered series.
Ending this, my guess is that, for some reason, Adam is forgetting his target audience here. Perhaps he wanted to see if people bought his Empowered series for the dialogue and/or art, or the hot chick(s) in bondage. Note to Adam: It's all about the bondage dude.
MORE OF THIS IS WHAT WE WANT ADAM!
Buy Empowered 4 if you have $15 to spare and you want to continue the series, but just keep in mind it's below average when compared to the other books.
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3 comments:
What a dumbass move! Empowered could be a franchise! I mean, I bet there are gonna be bondage fans and Mike Warren fans and general comic book fans that would by Empowered just as long as Warren could churn 'em out, if he'd stay true to his initial premise.
How disappointing. (I'm still gonna buy Volume 4 though -- Vols 1-3 were just too good. I'll probably by Volume 4 of Savage Sword of Conan FIRST though.
See, I'm going to disagree here. Whilst I've not read vol.4 yet, it is on my immediate purchase list.
Bondage or not, I really do think that the characters in Empowered are the most believable I've ever read in a comic book, even with the complete superhero pastiche in espouses. I love that their insecurities are all out there to see, and it all just seems so natural, compared to the slightly melodramatic seen in other comics.
Yep, bondage is a significant aspect of the series, and it may be difficult to see a non-kinky bloke enthusing about the title as much, seeing the damsel scenes as excessive. Or, he could view these as regular parody and just thoroughly enjoy the title full stop.
In some ways, I'm happy to see him back off from the bondage this time, just to see how it pans out.
My guess is that Mr. Warren lost his spine and caved to the P.C. crowd and Nazi-feminists.
You know the ones screaming about how women are treated in comics affects the self esteem of girls etc., all the while IGNORING the violence and deradation of MALE characters and its' (possible) affects on BOYS' self esteem, and beleive me what happens to EMP in her comic sieries is pretty tame compared to what most male characters must endure.
Oh well, go figger.
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