By Dustin Cabeal

Empowered is one of those series I’m glad continues to this day. It was ahead of its time and still is in a lot of ways. This new volume didn’t particularly grab me the way other chapters have. There are a few good jokes, but for the most part something was just off about the rhythm of the comic.

The story begins with Sistah Spooky’s backstory which is simple and yet brilliant. A demon preys upon the girls at her high school granting them great looks for their soul. Brillant, fucking brilliant. Prey upon the lack of confidence and body image problems that teenagers have and make a superhero story out of it! Again, fucking brilliant! Sistah Spooky also got an added bonus of magic powers, possibly because she opted not to become blonde and blue-eyed like the rest of the soul sellers.

There’s a lot of build-up and backstory for Sistah Spooky and Emp, which is useful. It foreshadows their journey together over the next five issues as the demon seeks revenge on them and sends them to an actual high school hell.

Again, there was something off about the pacing of the story. The elements work well enough, but it’s almost the order in which they were presented that didn’t quite work. It’s not bad, but it ends up feeling choppy. You even have to wonder if any of the demon/hellscape stuff is happening in the early part of the issue. The jokes were also pretty minimal which was a shame.

The artwork is all colored, which newer to the series. For the longest time it was black and white, and frankly, that’s still my preference, but seeing everything colored gives it a freshness that would be lacking if new artists were to jump on and continue the black and white style. This time around the artist is Carla Speed McNeil. Her style vibes well with Adam Warren’s original style. It's not a carbon copy or anything that boring, but instead, it looks like it belongs in the world of Empowered. The coloring has a lot of detail and is vibrant. That and the Britney Spears schoolgirl uniforms were hilarious to look at. The fucking 90s right?

This is a good start to the next Empowered mini-series. At this point, you’re either a fan of Empowered or about to pick up your first issue and be a little confused. Trust me, the brilliant thing about Empowered is that you’re never lost for long. Warren does an excellent job of making sure you know a little extra about the world, without it becoming some daunting task. There isn’t much else to say about this issue without just providing you spoilers, so just give it a shot.

Score: 4/5

Empowered and Sistah Spooky’s High School Hell #1
Dark Horse Comics