Warren's deft touch with Thugboy and Emp's warm (and often somewhat graphically portrayed,² hence the Parental Advisory sticker and shrink-wrap) relationship, which naughtily began while each was thugging and superheroining, respectively, is another ingredient that causes Empowered to gel. There's a dearth of what Warren calls "sexy superhero comedy" in the market that Empowered fulfills. Considering that the last Big Two attempt at rom-com ended with [SPOILER] Black Canary offing her husband, Green Arrow, on their Honeymoon, there's certainly a need for it. Emp even gently begins to reform Thugboy (he winds up subbing with her superteam when she's out sick). Their bond has a dual purpose: paired with the comics' humor, it softens the exploitive element of having a heroine whose raison d'être is to be tied up and gagged; and it's probably partially responsible for female readers' positive response — to make a huge generalization (which I know is a logical fallacy, but what the hell), women like sexy stuff, as long as there's some emotion to anchor it. (Plus, Emp's cheesecake comes with a side of Thugboy beefcake, and there are some scenes that should please yaoi enthusiasts.³) Warren's take on the matter is: "my work's generally had some degree of mixed readership, but this book seems to be getting a greater proportion of female readers than I recall from previous projects. I'd like to think that might be because Emp herself is, I hope, a very relatable character... She's not a 'flawless, perfectly self-actualized, ideal-role-model paragon' (as I put it earlier) by any means, but I feel she is nonetheless heroic in her own idiosyncratic way."

There's a lot for female readers to appreciate in Ninjettte and Emp's friendship as well: although Ninjette is technically a villain, her encouragement of Emp is not only emotional but, crucially, professional, such as in the sequences in which the two train, or when Ninjette kicks some minions' butts while impersonating Emp in an misguided attempt to gain the latter some stature in her chosen field.

Of course, Warren's skillful handling of all of the factors would be for naught if it weren't backed up with quality draftsmanship. Warren is as adept at cartooning a sequence in which Emp's face falls as he is in crafting layouts to suggest widescreen, cinematic action. In regards to pacing, Warren had the freedom to make each episode as long or as short as he wants it to be: the effect complies with Mamet's dictate to "get into the scene late, get out of the scene early" and gives the books a rather elliptical feel. As such, the moments in between and immediately following big battles are frequently more prized than the combat itself: readers' have snapshots of the heroine's life and are privy to the details that are left out in mainstream comic books (Emp working her day job, talking on the phone with her mother). Drawn with a 3B pencil, Emp soldiers on in world that's both literally and ethically gray,⁴ in which the bad guys are her best friends and the heroes are her enemies. The Empverse is a futile stomping ground future adventures: Warren shared "that the series is indeed open-ended, and I'm hoping to continue it well beyond five volumes, if sales permit. At present, I have overall story arcs loosely plotted out though about Vol. 9 or so, but the series could definitely run quite a bit longer, due to the highly flexible and organic nature of how the comic is produced. Not only am I constantly thinking up new, tangential goofiness for the existing cast members (beyond the scope of their preplanned character arcs), but I have many new characters clamoring in my head to 'get in the game,' if you will... A new nemesis for Emp, 'Ocelotina,' will be appearing in Vol. 3; but will I have space to introduce 'Were-Giraffe by Night'? Or the Empverse's extremely, ah, unusual equivalent to DC's Batman or WildStorm's Midnighter? Find out when Vol. 3 ships, folks!

Rest assured, however, that Emp's story does, in fact, have an actual ending... but I'm in no particular rush to get there.

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