Scarlet Succubus

For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).

Empowered is an original English-language manga written and illustrated by Adam Warren. Described by the creator of the graphic novel as a “sexy superhero comedy", Empowered began to take shape in 2004 with a series of commissioned sketches of a damsels in distress; these illustrations became the basis for short comic stories that helped develop the characters for the Empowered series. So far in this series, a mention has been made of a superhero who is named Scarlet Succubus, although she has not been seen in the series as yet.

Story

Empowered chronicles the story of the titular character "Empowered", whose civilian name is Elissa Megan Powers, and is more commonly referred to as "Emp" (originally after initials, E.M.P.).

Empowered is a young, blond girl who is highly self-conscious about her appearance. Her concern over her appearance frequently serves as a dominant aspect of her career as a superheroine, in that her suit is composed of an extremely thin material known within the series as a "hypermembrane"; a material so thin and clingy that it outlines every curve of her body. Additionally, while her suit can provide her with several fantastic powers, such as super strength and directed energy blasts, these enhancements will usually fail if her suit becomes too damaged. Due to the fragility of her suit, this has happened frequently, and thus, she has earned herself a reputation for being ineffective and easily defeated. She is also an associate-level member of the Superhomeys superhero group, who are the primary defenders of the city in which they reside. Within the group, Empowered is an active participant in many of the battles against the multitude of villains that threaten the metropolis. However, because of the unreliability of her suit, she is commonly defeated and captured. And, because of the villains' unwillingness to violate the unspoken rules of superhero/supervillian interaction, she is frequently hogtied and left for the Superhomeys to eventually rescue. Because of the frequency of this happening, she has gotten a reputation within the Superhomeys as being "bondage-prone" and somewhat of a laughingstock.

Although Empowered is continually subjected to humiliation in her career as a superheroine, she does have close companionship and emotional support from her boyfriend, who is only known as "Thugboy". Thugboy, who is so-called because of his previous career as a thug and henchman to various supervillians, provides her with uplifting emotional support and encouragement despite her continual misadventures and continual failure to live up her own expectations. This support frequently manifests in the form of sex, which may be beneficial to Empowered’s hypermembrane as well as her emotional state since the former seems to mirror the latter.

Emp is also a close friend to a young woman named Kozue Kaburagi, who prefers to be called by the pseudonym "Ninjette"; despite her Japanese name, it has been revealed that she is in fact caucasian. Ninjette (or simply "'Jette", as she is colloquially known) is a highly-trained ninja and runaway princess of the Kubaragi ninja clan, which is based out of New Jersey.