Empowered vol. 12
Things start out on the crazy end of the action scale with the world under threat from a ginormous (yet strangely familiar) energy monster with none other than Major Havoc gearing up to save it. His wife, Empowered, would be joining him in this, except that she is very pregnant with their kid. Doing so would be very irresponsible on her part, and…
Wait, that’s not what’s happening.
Elven Paladin Elissa is about to fight off the forces of darkness alongside her companions: Half-orc archer Noah, goblin ninja Kozue, human warlock Theresa, and devil-spawn bard Hannah.
No, that’s not what’s happening either.
Empowered has gone full dominatrix and is about to go hog-wild on Ocelotina in front of all her viewers!
Nope, not that either. Just what the hell is going on here?
Volumes of this series don’t have subtitles, but “Empowered and the Never-Ending Reboot” is a fitting one for this as reality is constantly warping around the title character here. It makes for a volume that’s harder to get a handle on than most in this series, even as it maintains its trademark irreverence. Those who do persevere through the chaos will be rewarded with a narrative that celebrates the indomitable will of Empowered (the character) while also showing how far she’s come since that first volume. Yes, it will require some actual work to get there, but the last few pages are a lovely point on which to end her adventures for now.
Yes, “for now.” Creator Adam Warren not only delivers on a formally ambitious story here, the man also opens up about the state of the series in a lengthy afterword. It turns out that the multiple delays this volume faced weren’t the only issues facing the series, and Warren is to be commended for sticking with things as long as he did. His candidness is appreciated and I think he’s making the right choice to put the series on hiatus after having reached a point of closure with vol. 12.
So yeah, bring on your batshit-crazy fantasy epic Mr. Warren! It’s great that we got all twelve volumes (and more) of “Empowered” after all these years and I’m still willing to follow your work wherever and whenever it appears next.