Empowered

Origin

A life long admirer of superheroes, Elissa Megan Powers or EMP dreamed of being one as a little girl. As an adult, she received a mysterious “hypermembrane” in the mail and she subsequently discovered that while wearing it, she gained superpowers. She instantly decided to fulfill her dream and have a glorious career as a superhero … unfortunately reality is a bit more harsher than she expected.

Creation

Created by Adam Warren. In the later half of the 1990s, Warren did a number of commissioned sketches involving mainly “damsels in distress” and began doodling a number of brief humorous scenes involving a hapless superheroine with malfunctioning superpowers and prone to being bound and gagged.

These scenes ultimately evolved into one to two page gags which became the character of Empowered. These pages were collected into a full size graphic novel and was so popular that it became a “sexy superhero comedy” series according to Warren.

History

A heroine whose powers come from her somewhat fragile “suit”, Empowered is seen as a joke by her fellow super heroes and the object of much ridicule among the general public at large as she has often been tied up, gagged, and left in generally embarrassing situations.

As a child, Elissa Megan Powers aspired to be a superhero after she witnessed her father suffer a fatal stroke before her horrified eyes. She never wanted anyone else to experience the pain of loss like that ever again. Although she ultimately set aside her childish dreams, her interest in superheroes remained and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Superhuman Studies.

Unfortunately Elissa found out that there weren’t too many professions interested in someone with her qualifications. It was shortly afterwards that she received a “hypermembrane” under mysterious circumstances and discovered that when wearing it, she possessed superhuman powers. She decided to pursue her childhood dream of a superhero and would join the Superhomeys as a junior associate member. Upon her induction into the group, she assumed the namesake of “Empowered” which she took from her childhood nickname of “Emp” given to her by her late father.

However, the fragility and vulnerability of her “suit” quickly ruined her reputation as she would be captured, kidnapped, and otherwise tied up. Not to mention the all-too-frequent and embarrassing appearances on YouTube that left her a internet joke and a laughingstock. She would discover much to her dismay that her teammates might be adored by the public at large; but in private were sexist jerks, cynical and condescending, and selfish publicity hounds to the extreme.

One of the few people who treated her decently was Thugboy, who was working as a criminal minion and they would encounter each other several times during the course of several jobs. Developing a crush on the hapless heroine, he would even secretly assist her and they would subsequently become romantically involved. When Thugboy’s duplicity was uncovered by his associates, he is almost killed by his angry co-workers and was forced to “retire” from his life of crime.

Empowered is later captured by a freelance mercenary ninja from New Jersey; Ninjette. Her idiot henchmen however never show up to pick them up and in disgust, Ninjette lets Emp go and surprisingly they strike up a strong friendship afterward.

After a odd encounter with an alien being who’s purpose was to abduct her for an intergalactic harem (she did not meet the aliens standards; her derriere was deemed a trifle bit too “generous”) she found herself in possession of a set of power suppressing belt. This belt later was used in the capture and containment of a powerful energy based being, The Caged Demonwolf, who now resides on her coffee table and often gives unwanted and unsolicited advice in-between his sarcastic and snide comments.

Her misadventures continue in a humorous progression as she deals with her own insecurities, her teammates’ behaviors, her position as a D-List Superhero, and her hopes to someday be a C-List Superhero.

Powers & Abilities

Empowered possesses no superhuman powers or abilities while not wearing her “hypermembrane” or “Suit”. She is moderately trained in unarmed combat and various fighting techniques. Unfortunately due to her extensive experience in being captured and tied up, she has inadvertently become extremely knowledgeable in ropes, knots, and a wide variety of restraints; as well as being a self-taught amateur escape artist.

She is fairly intelligent and has mentioned that she has a Bachelor’s Degree in Superhuman Studies; she has an enormous reservoir of knowledge about any number of superheroes and villains from their powers and history. She has often drawn upon this knowledge to devise successful strategies and tactics. Emp has also demonstrated that she can think very creatively and using only her wits, has been able to overcome tremendous odds and threats although she often fails against more common level menaces and dangers.

Weapons & Paraphernalia

Empowered is in possession of a unique “hypermembrane” that is somehow bonded to her person. When she is wearing this hypermembrane or the “Suit” as she usually refers to it; she possesses a number of superhuman powers and abilities, albeit not all of them are very useful. Some of these powers can only be activated by Emp, while there are also several involuntary and inherent attributes to the suit that are uncontrollable. The “Suit” only responds to her and her alone; and although other people can wear it, they can not utilize the suit at all.

When the Suit is intact and undamaged, Emp possesses superhuman strength and professes to have the “strength of ten men”. She has been able to lift a car over her head; although she almost threw out her back when she threw it as a projectile. She can also perform tremendous jumps while wearing the Suit.

The Suit also provides her with tremendous protection from harm. The Suit is somehow able to absorb or deflect any and all forms of harm directed at Emp. She has withstood machine gun fire, blades, enormous impacts, and even energy blasts without the slightest bit of harm or damage to her person.

Although the Suit appears to become damaged or even seemingly destroyed afterward, Emp has never actually been seriously injured while wearing it. The Suit covers her entire body except her lower face; it actually “weaves” itself around each of her individual hair follicles on her head, covering her head but leaving her hair free. Emp has even manage to withstand exposure to the vacuum of space while wearing the Suit; she can breathe without impairment and never noticed any change in the temperature or pressurization.

Emp can cause the Suit to cling to inclined, vertical, or even inverted surfaces allowing her to walk up walls or ceilings. She can also generate energy blasts from her hands, although they lack a great deal of accuracy or power; she has been able to stun or incapacitate normal humans with them. The lenses of her mask gives her various image enhancement capabilities such as microscopic and x-ray vision.

The Suit also provides Empowered with a number of additional minor powers but as she states, “most of them are all useless in combat”. For example, Empowered can turn all or parts of the Suit invisible. However only the Suit turns invisible, not Emp; so it appears that she is naked. Despite the apparent uselessness of this feature; Emp once used this ability to feign being helpless which allowed her opponent to drop his guard.

Another ability is her Telephonic Power; which enables her to transmit real-time voice communications much like a cellular phone to any existing telephone. She holds up her hand up to her head and curling the three middle fingers together while pressing the thumb up against her ear and extending the little finger up by her mouth while employing this power.

Much to Emp’s acute embarrassment, the Suit also appears to enhances her libido and any euphoric pleasurable sensations that she experiences while wearing it. She claims that before she got the Suit, she “hardly ever had orgasms, rarely by herself and never with a partner,” but afterwards she’s “so multi-orgasmic, it’s ridiculous.”

However, Empowered only possesses these abilities and powers when the Suit is intact and undamaged and the Suit has proven itself to be ridiculously fragile on more than one occasion.

It has been torn or ripped by ordinary humans and even by catching itself on a sharp object like a stray nail or the thorn of a rose bush. When it is damaged, Empowered immediately loses most of her strength and powers. And the more the Suit is damaged, the weaker Emp becomes. The Suit can regenerate itself; although this process is rather lengthy and can take several hours to repair itself.

Another limitation of the Suit is that Empowered cannot wear anything underneath it (such as underwear) or over it (such as a cape) for some reason, otherwise it will function erratically.

Although Empowered is unaware of the fact; it appears that the Suit is sentient and can animate itself without Emp wearing it. It also appears that the Suit is highly dependent upon Empowered’s state of mind and it has been theorized that due to her lack of confidence, the Suit is also fragile and weak to damage as a result. When Emp is feeling good about herself, the Suit has undergone rapid regeneration of itself and is considerably more durable and much more powerful as well.

In desperate need, the Suit’s power is tremendously magnified; on one occasion, when her friend Ninjette was in mortal danger of her life, Empowered discharged a massive burst of energy sufficient to vaporize the enemy entirely.

There is strong indications that the Suit may have other hidden powers and abilities that Emp has yet to fully tap or discover.