It’s almost here: on May 3rd we’ll get the final chapter of Adam Warren and Karla Diaz’s Empowered and the Soldier of Love. See below for preview pages and the review!
(Minor spoilers follow.)
I was really hoping the issue would be a satisfying wrap up, and Adam made it happen. We get answers to almost all of the questions I had last issue: who hired the B*tch with a Love Gun, why wasn’t Emp affected, and what happened to make the Soldier of Love go to war against the very idea of love? We got answers to all of that, but I did have a few more questions.
One thing wasn’t entirely clear: was Ninjette drinking so much because she was under the effects of the Soldier of Love, or is she drinking so much because that’s just how much she drinks now? Ninjette’s been on a steadily increasing binge for a few volumes now, but in this mini series she was never ever without a bottle in her hand. I’d thought that the Soldier of Love’s power was causing her “love” of alcohol to ramp up, but it turns out that’s not quite what was going on, because the Soldier of Love digs pretty deep into your brain, and alcohol is just a surface problem when it comes to Ninjette. When volume 10 comes out in June I’m sure we’ll have more answers.
Another question we didn’t get answered was “where has Thugboy been all this time” and I’m sure the answer is “being sexy and supportive off camera and do you really need him to be in every issue? (The answer is: yes. Yes I do. BUT I understand for storytelling purposes he might have muddied the waters. Fine. FINE. No, it’s fine.)
The answer to “who hired the Soldier of Love” was a surprise, but made a lot of sense when I stopped to think about it, and fit the available facts. I’m wondering if we’ll see fall out from this in upcoming volumes. I hope so: that was a truly boneheaded move.
The art, as with the rest of the mini series, was excellent. Karla Diaz can draw any expression from panic to besotted love to rage to tears-and-snot-pouring-down-the-face sadness (that last one might have been a little too graphic for me, but it definitely seemed realistic.) I also like how she knows how to draw a magical pangolin no matter what current magical situations are present, that’s impressive.
All in all I think I liked this better than any other “one-shot” (three-issue shot in this case) in the Emp-verse, and I’ve liked all the rest a lot. It really brings home the fact that while I dearly love Adam’s art, and I really enjoy the other artists who’ve played in that sandbox, it’s his writing I keep coming back for.
