Y-You're not like that, right? R-RIGHT?! Tell me you're not... p-PLEASE!You seem r-REALLY NICE, okay?"
Empowered is a graphic novel series written and drawn by Adam Warren; its chief protagonist is the eponymous Empowered, a Damsel in Distress-prone heroine. Empowered contains numerous deconstructions of Super Hero comics alongside healthy doses of bondage, Fanservice, and comedy.Empowered is a plucky D-List Superheroine who means well, even though she's generally hopeless when facing down villains. No matter how much she prepares or trains, she's inevitably betrayed by the fragile source of her superpowers: her outrageouslyskin-tight super-costume (which Emp is less than happy about, as she has numerous body-image issues). Emp's suit gives her immense power only while it's fully intact — and since it's made from a material that tears easily and can't be worn with anything over or under it, Emp is seldom in a position to benefit from it for long. She spends most of her time being tied up by supervillains — a fact which has made her a laughing stock amongst her peers — and either naked or near-naked. Emp's confidence gets shredded as frequently as her fragile super-suit — and yet, she persists.
Achilles Heel: One of ThugBoy's former employers had a sheer impenetrable power armor, but still needed air vents in order not to suffocate in it. He was smart enough to hide them under his cape, but not smart enough to guard them better. Not to mention, impossible to remove by the wearer if the power was disabled.
Caged Demonwolf: Aye, tremble before the might of a 7-word chain of alliteration combo.
Affably Evil: Manny wants to be a super-villain. But he's just so nice about it. He talks about like a kid would talk about being an astronaut. When he actually succeeds, he's still pretty nice about it, politely requesting that no-one resists so that he doesn't have to hurt anyone.
Aliens in Cardiff: Ninjas in New Jersey. Even in this universe, the characters find it odd enough to comment on. Possibly because even though they're from NJ, the still do everything possible to act like stereotypical Japanese ninjas, including giving Japanese names and using honorifics even in English. In our world, that would mean they'd be over-obssessed Weeaboos, so maybe they're seen similarly there.
I'd be far more embarrassed to dress up like, say, an animal. Now that would be silly. Face it. The hundreds of would-be badass capes who practice species crossdressing as various theoretically intimidating animals? That's one step removed from being a furry. Talk about embarrassing.
Animesque: Lampshaded by Emp in one meta-text panel.
Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Empowered is menaced by a robotic "Pimpotron" who intends to deliver her to a galactic harem. When his sensors detect that her butt is too big for the Emperor's tastes, he apologetically leaves her behind. She's more upset about the insult than relieved at her good fortune.
Author Appeal: Bondage, ultra-technology, gratuitous labeling, Woobies, etc. And Metahumans with random objects (hand, gun, cinderblock, etc.) for a head.
Possibly subverted. Warren received several requests for superheroine bondage pieces, which became Emp. If this is to be believed, the kinkier aspects of the comic are from those initial fans, and the appeal for the author comes from trying to get away from the creepiness. Maybe.
Author Vocabulary Calendar: Despite his convoluted speech, the Caged Demonwolf has a noticeable fondness for saying "Jackanapes" and "much vaunted". "Brobdingnagian" shows up a couple of times as well.
Awesome McCoolname: Doctor Big McLarge Huge. (he is, too. Half again as tall as most of the normal characters, and three times as wide.) It also doubles as a bonus MST3K reference.
Willy Pete, due to his elemental nature, has a massive beard of fire. (In Volume Six, it is mentioned that he has "seized the #1 ranking for Suprahuman Facial Hair.)
Weirdbeard too (not of fire though, but prehensile).
Sistah Spooky has had relationships with both sexes.
So far, Ninjette's only known confirmed sexual encounter (which occurred prior to the start of the series) was with another woman, though she is obviously attracted to men as well.
Manny is a LITERAL big bad wannabe. He's a kid who wants to be a super-villain. And he's ever so polite about it too. He stops being a wannabe in volume 4, but despite being one of the more competent villains, he's still pretty polite.
Big Ol' Unibrow: There's a superhero who's even named Unibrow. Of course this trope applies to him. We don't learn much about him, except that he's a Superdead.
Bilingual Bonus: Quite a few un-subtitled Japanese words and phrases.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Some aliens in Empowered's verse have two left kidneys. And one kind of alien (maybe the same one) has kidney equivalents that filter the bloodstream using coherent light — essentially, Frickin' Laser Beams.
Bland Name Product: Lots of this: "YouToob", "Grant-a-Wish Foundation", you get the idea.
Bleached Underpants: Maidman would have some criticism as to how well they've been bleached, but it's a respectable try, anyway.
Blessed with Suck: A form-fitting supersuit is anything but ideal for someone insecure about her body. The fact that it almost always fails when most needed is pretty sucky, too. Then note that the suit's effectiveness is based entirely on Empowered's self-esteem and factor in the above.
Bold Inflation: There are barely any speech bubbles in this comic that don't have a bolded word or two!!
Boldly Coming: Not one, not two, but three of the Superhomeys obtained their powers from sex with non-humans. In fact, they met in a support group for it. One of them (Protean) gained power from an alien STD, the second was turned into a mech by nanomachines contracted through sex with an advanced android, the third due to sex with an unknown superhuman whose dialogue suggested he was made by a certain Doctor.
Syndablokk reveals that he would have wet himself if he could in his first big encounter, and a lot of supers wear low-profile incontinence products.
In #2, the Caged Demonwolf mentions that Major Havoc soiled himself when encountering him unbound.
Broken Bird: Empowered; Ninjette; and Sistah Spooky
Mindf██k is about as much this as she can be. She's only good because she rewrote her personality to be so. While she may be smiling and kind even as she tells this story, it's pretty clear that she doesn't consider that enough to make her a good person.
Buffy Speak: Mainly from Emp in the Meta breaks — and occasionally in the main story as well.
Busman's Holiday: Kind of. In her spare time, Ninjette likes to play videogames, where the hero is... a ninja.
But Not Too Foreign: ThugBoy claimed German and Italian ancestry to "balance" his more obvious Japanese heritage. This fails to impress one Nazi employer. It is unknown if this was just him trying to fast-talk the villain.
For example, in volume 1, a guy knocks out Emp by smothering her with a rag drenched in halothane. In volume 3, while arguing about how many times she's been chloroformed, she mentions that she was halothaned too.
Emp can't wear panties under her suit because they're visible, but she didn't know this until Sistah Spooky mocked her for it in the first story. During a flashback where she first meets Sistah Spooky, Emp's panties are visible.
Captain Ersatz: A few of the characters appear to be based on mainstream comic book characters. Glue Gun Gil = Paste Pot Pete, etc.
Cassandra Did It: In volume 5, the Superhomies (especially Major Havoc) blame Emp for the trouble dWARf! caused at the Capeys, since she "so obviously" could never win a fight against a supervillain on her own and must have planned it and may even be a closeted villain herself. Mindf██k pointed out that she had read Emp's mind and seen what had happened, but Havoc still thinks Emp had something to do with it and issued a gag order on all public discussions on the matter, leaving Emp unable to defend herself publicly against the already-started rumors.
In Volume Two, ThugBoy imagines Emp as one: "Schrodinger's Catgirl!"
And later, we get Ocelotina.
Catholic School Girls Rule: Subverted. They're indeed very hot, but also the biggest bitches you can think of. Poor Theresa. (They all — yes, all — got their beauty from a Deal with the Devil, what did you expect?)
Censor Box: Mostly shows up on dialogue; also used to cover naughty bits a couple of times.
Cerebus Syndrome: The first three volumes are mostly comedy, with occasional hints at more dramatic plot developments and backstories. Volume four goes all out, opening with Ninjette apparently dealing with PTSD. Five sees Emp's Crowning Moment of Awesome from the previous book being not only papered over by her Jerkass teammates but outright turned against her and the death of one (maybe two) main characters plus a horde of C-listers. Six takes the dark note at the end of five and runs with it, and is quite frankly highly disturbing. Also thoroughly lampshaded. The fifth volume ends on a Fourth Wall Mail Slot with the characters hoping the next book will be Lighter and Softer. The sixth volume ends with them complaining that it wasn't.
Character Development: Emp started the series as a neurotic mess. By Volume 5 she's a... well, still a neurotic mess, but less of one.
The suit — which is a lot more powerful than it appears, is sapient, and had a weird glowy... something... appearing over it when ThugBoy was cheering Emp up.
Volume 1 has the alien bondage gear later used on Caged Demonwolf.
Volume 4 has Chekhov's Alien Liver Infected with Alien Parasites.
Volume 5 has Chekhov's Duct Tape.
The pile of equipment and files ████ing Oyuki-chan gave to Ninjette. Hasn't gone off yet.
Chekhov's Gunman: A female hostage Empowered tries (and fails) to save from ThugBoy in Volume 1 appears again in Volume 2 trying to kidnap Empowered for Les Yay-related reasons. She then becomes a recurring character as a deliberate model for the fetish crowd that Emp keeps unintentionally feeding.
Chekhov's Skill: Emp's embarrassing and apparently useless parlor trick of turning her suit invisible is demonstrated in a one-off story from the first volume (she is not affected, cannot wear anything over or under it, and was trying to affect only her mask instead of everything but). Turns out it had a use after all, as mentioned below. Fridge Brilliance sets in, too, when you remember how the rest of the suit's powers are tied to Emp's self-esteem, uncharacteristically rock-solid in that moment....
Special note must be made of the kunoichi so foul-mouthed that she's referred to as "████ing Oyuki-chan", who seriously cannot go for a single ████ing line without swearing.
Combat Pragmatist: Empowered demonstrates this quality in the introductory chapter of Volume 4 by explaining that throwing a car at someone is not as effective as ramming someone with that car at seventy miles per hour, as she demonstrates the technique's effectiveness on a supervillain.
And then, since this is Empowered, the resulting crash takes her out of the fight, encases her in seat belt bondage, AND gives her Jerkass teammates time to wake up and take all the credit.
She had already tried the car-throwing trick in an earlier issue. She threw out her back with it, and felt guilty when the nice old couple who owned the car came to get it.
Contagious Powers: Literally; several superheroes got their powers from alien STDs.
Continuity Creep: It all started with a few "throwaway" comics which "grew".
Convection Schmonvection: Makro in her TV show (volume #6). Maybe justified because she's, well, a superheroine.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: When the Caged Demonwolf mocks ThugBoy for being pussy-whipped, ThugBoy gets revenge by making the Demonwolf watch Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood all night long.
Crapsack World: The vast majority of superheroes are assholes, and while most villains abide by the 'unwritten rules' and are up to mostly Silver Age level antics, there are four confirmed Complete Monster villains (in only six volumes), each of whom has the powers to be a VERY real threat.
"... guess th' white capes might be underestimatin' ol' Willy Pete jus' a li'l bit less, next time around."
Applied literally with Syndablokk. Although he has super-strength and durability (and a cinderblock for a head), his real power is telekinetic control over concrete. Cue villain getting stomped by the curb, and the street, and the sidewalk, and the highway overpass. The reason he doesn't use it very often? MASSIVE property damage.
One of the suit's side effects that Emp "worries" about is... it supercharges her orgasms and libido. Gee, what a burden.
Turns out that there is actually a price for some power, though. Some people who make deals with otherworldly entities for power — some, not all — find that the power continues to animate their bodies after their demise, leaving them as the Superdead.
Cute Little Fangs: Whenever a character's feeling especially determined or cocky. Especially Ocelotina, of course.
Deal with the Devil: Sistah Spooky's origin: she made a deal for "supernatural hotness" and accidentally gained mystic powers out of the deal. It's outright stated in Vol 6 that many more heroes got their powers this way, and the "going to hell" part may not even be the worst bit of the deal.
The exact nature of 'bargainer' super-powers is left unclear. While some certainly come from deals with the devil, it's implied that there are far more benign entities that make deals for super-powers.
Death Is Cheap? Unclear. We'll see in vol. 6. Apparently, their bodies die, but their superpowers don't.
Inverted with Sistah Spooky. The only times she approaches being a decent person, or even using sex for something other than a weapon or to prop up her own self-esteem, is when she's with her on-again, off-forever girlfriend, Mindf██k. Everyone else buys the image, but Mindf██k loves Spookums for Spookums. Spookums can't handle it, and dumps her. Leads to a dark, dark Tear Jerker.invoked
Depth Deception: Blunt Trauma is attacking Emp! No, it was just his action figure that Ninjette threw into the air to train Emp.
This is how Emp's friends see her, if you can believe it. Hey, think for a second — would you keep going in her position? Hell no. Anyone with any sanity and her issues would have incinerated the suit long ago and gone back to a superpower-free, clothing-undamaged lifestyle. What keeps her going (day after day, as opposed to during any one outing) is anyone's guess, but it CANNOT BE STOPPED. Another case is where ThugBoy had to shred her suit to keep her from donning it when she was very ill. As of Volume 4: DAMN.
Empowered: I do this stupid job because I'm ████ing Driven to do it! Unlike You, ████, I do this stupid, Stupid job because— Because... This... Is... What... I... AM!!!
The goddamn Maidman definitely qualifies, especially considering he's a Badass Normal.
Empowered: You're not too hurt to do some caping are you, Mr. Maidman...? Maidman: Let me think... level-one concussion, couple broken ribs, burst eardrum, a few lacerations for a couple ounces of avulsed tissue... hmm. In other words, I'm good to go, Miss.
Disability Superpower: Mindf██k's brother tried to invoke this intentionally, when he did things described in the Nightmare Fuel entry, under YMMV.
Ninjette also plays this trope bone-chillingly straight in Volume 3 vs the Ninja assassin squad sent to cut her limbs off and take her back home so she can be a brood mare. Although she did manage to kill or majorly woundmost of the attackers before the last two blindsided her.
Downer Ending: Volume 5. Mentioned in the meta-interlude summing things up.
Double Entendre: Any superhero name that isn't Totally Radical or Jive Turkey is likely to be this. Probably the best example is the female hero with the ability to grow to giant proportions: "Size Queen".
Draco in Leather Pants: Willy Pete receives this treatment in-universe after the events of Volume Five.
Drop-In Character: Sistah Spooky says that Mindf██k (a mighty telepath) acts just like this. "Like a wacky sitcom neighbor!"
Dropped a Bridget on Him: Subverted; Emp once tries to fool some thugs into believing that her suit "gynocamouflages" her (in other words: that she's really a guy) to buy some time.
Ecchi: It's manga-styled, starts out hugely suggestive, and goes from there. By now, the whole thing skirts the decency line as closely as it dares.
Epileptic Trees (In-Universe): So, a ninja clan created all those bishonen, yaoi and moe girls, to lower Japan's birthrate? Note that the person describing this doesn't believe a word of it.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Ayakami ninjas also have (at least) one girl fighting in their rows. So do the Kaburagis.
Mr. Fanservice: ThugBoy is a shining example, albeit possibly a spectacularly misplaced one.
Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: One of them bites Emp during one of her training sessions from hell. Since she's wearing her suit at the time, it affords her a chance to launch into a hilarious rant against the shark.
Emp: THANKS FOR REINFORCING MY NEGATIVE PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT SHARKS, JERKOFF!
Played with. Despite Emp constantly being powerless, bound, gagged, and at the mercy of her enemies, no villain yet has, er, taken advantage of the situation. Notable in that the standards the villains are upholding are not their own, but a code of "unwritten rules" governing hero/villain conduct, among which include not killing or defiling the heroes. Any villain foolish enough to break these rules would have a huge mob of pissed-off superheroes out for his blood.
ThugBoy brutally killed a previous employer who was about to commit genocide with his superweapon (as opposed to using it for ransom purposes, which everyone else assumed).
Evil Laugh: Emp's laugh, when she was hatching her plot to introduce the Superhomies to yaoi (see Springtime for Hitler example), chilled even the Caged Demonwolf.
Sistah Spooky: Well, I'll be damned... though, in fact, I already am damned...but that divination spell I did, two weeks ago, it was right! I did wind up being three seconds too late, after all...! (vomits) Too late...too late...
Foot Focus: Almost all women either wear open-toed shoes (and usually either plateaus or heels), or go barefoot. Emp's suit fits so tight, her toes are fully visible. This is used to full effect whenever she gets hogtied; she'll usually be shown from multiple angles across several frames, with her feet featuring prominently. Definitely part of the Fetish Fuel.
Foreshadowing: In a dream sequence, ThugBoy remembers Spooky prophesying that he and Emp would be "separated by death". Though what was actually shown to the audience is "separated by D..." and the rest is cut off. Also: Does he really remember, or is it just a nightmare after all?
Four Lines, All Waiting: The comic started with several more or less unrelated one-shots, but with time, some plots started to emerge: So far we have ThugBoy's plot (his past, and everything Willy Pete-related), Ninjette's plot (involving the other ninjas), the Fleshmaster/Capeys/Manny plot, and of course the romantical plot for our OTP/OT3. And even now, there's time for some smaller stories.
Gratuitous Japanese: Complete with Kanji. For that matter, Ninjette's very name counts; she was born and raised in New Jersey and is as white as the driven snow, but her parents named her "Kozue Kaburagi" to try and make up for three Americanized generations back in Japan.
Green-Skinned Space Babe: Princess Arkashia, with whom not-yet-Protean sleeps with, catches an alien STD and thus turns from a human into the Blob Monster we know him as.
Heroic BSOD: Two at the end of Vol 5, right after another. Sistah Spooky snaps upon being just a few seconds too late to save Mindf██k, something her powers warned her about but she didn't recognize the significance of at the time. Immediately afterwards, Emp breaks down as well, explaining to a murderous Sistah Spooky that if she had only been just a little bit more confident, maybe Mindf██k would have let her try using her powers to survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
Hidden Depths: A few characters have them — Emp herself is the most notable example, of course, but Sistah Spooky is probably the most suprising one.
An Ice Person: Icy Mike, a one-shot supervillain who ThugBoy worked for and killed him when Icy Mike wanted to kill 50,000 civilians with his cryobomb.
One notable example features the Chloroformaster soliloquizing while Emp "samples" his "wares".
Averted, though, when someone jabs a needle into her — it takes roughly the time you'd expect to work.
Emp has had a lot of experience with chloroform-happy bad guys, so she purposely goes limp as soon as the rag is on "like you see in the movies or on TV" to stop it happening for real — or worse, accidentally killing her. Which raises some questions about whether or not she was conscious when Chloro-boy was doing his business. Eurgh.
Ironic Echo: Spooky + Mindf██k. "I know how much you love blondes..."
It Got Worse: Not for Emp — barring some tragedies, things have largely gotten better for her. The same can't be said for the Superhomeys. First, one of their own betrays them, nearly killing them all at a superhero award ceremony. Then, they lose 9 and a half of their members in one day thanks to Willy Pete, who destroys their space station and screws up up their portal network arrangement. And THEN Deathmonger trashes their base.
Jerkass: Most of her team, and indeed, most superheroes. Maidman, Syndablokk, and Mindf██k are notable exceptions. Capitan Rivet is better than most as well, even though he cannot always resist laughing at Emp's predicaments. Really, most of everyone. The world of Empowered seems to be chock-full of heartless jerks.
Possibly Hardkore. Being dead tends to make one a bit testy and when Emp proves herself to not be the bitch he was expecting, he looks embarrassed and more or less backs off.
Also Ocelotina, who initially seems to be a nothing more than a money-grubbing fake superheroine cashing in on the way Emp popularized the "helpless bondage superchica" theme. Turns out that she really does respect and support Emp and is willing to speak out about one of her Crowning Moments even after a gag order was placed on the incident. Doesn't stop her exploiting Emp for profit at every opportunity of course, but at least she's happy to share it with her.
One interpretation of Mindf██k. According to her, she used to be just as evil and twisted as her brother. She used her mental powers to completely rewrite her personality, because she didn't want to be anything like him. The heart of gold comes in when you wonder why she would care about being like her brother if there wasn't any good in her in the first place.
Jive Turkey: Major Havoc, dawg. Occasionally, other superhomeys as well.
Latex Space Suit: One of her hypermembrane's many abilities is providing life support in outer space. Including radiation protection, and even allowing Emp to speak.
Let's Get Dangerous: Once or twice a volume, Empowered will take down impressive threats single-handedly.
Line-of-Sight Name: The author got the name for a future villain from the front cover of an old magazine.
Look Behind You: Emp uses this trope successfully against the B.F.Gunnaz.
All of the ninjas. One even disguises successfully as a dog.
And Ninjette disguises herself as the Groom well enough to trick the Bride during their honeymoon.... Words simply fail.
Even the ninjas considered that to be an impressive feat. They still mention it in training.
Make Sure He's Dead: Emp and ThugBoy rescue Ninjette from a gang of Ninjas with extremely potent stamina and pain-suppression abilities, allowing them to get up and keep fighting after receiving horrific injuries. In an utterly nonchalant fashion, ThugBoy empties two handgun rounds into the head of every downed Ninja to make sure they're dead.
McNinja: Ninjette and her clan of ninja from New Jersey.
Meganekko: Lampshaded in Emp's Sexy Librarian stakeout.
Mechanical Lifeforms: At least one of them exists. She has the shape of an attractive human woman and is anatomically correct. One of the Superhomeys sleeps with her, and her nanites turn him into a mecha.
Meet Cute: Empowered and ThugBoy. She was a captured superheroine, he was the minion tying her up. Sparks flew. They don't like to talk about how they met.
Mental Affair: Sistah Spooky and Mindf██k were "mindfriends with benefits" at one point. Well, they also had a physical relationship, but it wasn't as satisfying as the mental one. For one thing, Mindf██k had no tongue.
The Merch: In-story, there are official Superhomey ringtones and themed T-shirts, plus action figures of their Rogues' Gallery. Not to mention the Capitan Rivet panties Emp often wears when out of uniform.
Empowered regularly breaks the fourth wall when she appears in the title pages of stories; Ninjette and ThugBoy lampshade this when they appear and have no idea who she's talking to.
The Caged Demonwolf breaks the wall at the end of Volume 1, filling us in on the story's aftermath. Lampshaded in a later story, when what seems to be the Caged Demonwolf going meta is actually him talking to Emp's powersuit. Later still, he goes meta anyway by referencing plotlines that haven't happened yet when he's talking to Emp's suit.
ThugBoy gets in on the act later on when he gives us a "tour" of Empowered's sleeping habits. Lampshaded when we find out ThugBoy is talking to his averagemook friend.
Mood Whiplash: Especially Volume 6, which inserts jokes in between dealing with some seriously dark material.
Mooks: ThugBoy's old gang, the "Witless Minions", who stole from the villains they worked for.
Most Common Superpower: Averted. Besides Ninjette's snark about her bust, none of the heroines sport anything bigger than a C-cup, except the superheroine Jugganaut (and this seems to be justified in her powers).
Ms. Fanservice: Emp is arguably a Deconstruction; Ocelotina is an in-universe example.
Mundane Utility: Remember that Emp's suit turbocharges her orgasms? They once used a piece of it as a condom. But it worked too well — ThugBoy could barely last ten seconds.
Naked Apron: Is a sign things are going well for Emp and ThugBoy.
Neck Lift: One of ThugBoy's employers did this with one of the Witless Minions. And then, ThugBoy killed him.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Emp hasn't quite figured out how her suit works. Outright lampshaded towards the end of Vol. 4 — Emp discovers her suit can let her cling to things and she's as shocked as the people watching.
Nightmare Face: The deep sea creatures they're chumming with anti-putti.
Ninja: Ninjette, obviously. And several clans of them.
Noodle Incident: Several storylines were (presumably temporarily) cut from the books, moved between books, etc. These are brought up during the meta-pages, with the characters warning each other not to talk about that stuff yet cause it wasn't in this book.
Notable examples are ThugBoy cosplaying (particularly bad because the author didn't have time to remove reference to it from the back of one of the books), ThugBoy wearing Empowered's suit, etc., etc.
There's also the question as to why Emp's extremely skintight suit doesn't show any camel toe, this was lampshade-hung in Vol. 3 and by the end of Vol. Four5 6 still hasn't been explained (and is lamented as possibly never will be).
And the biggest of them all: What happened in San Antonio? We know some vague facts that ThugBoy and his capekillers were somehow involved... but how did the city end up destroyed by a volcano?!
Empowered. Beneath the low self-esteem and Weaksauce Weakness, Emp went to college and is frightfully intelligent (and almost Genre Savvy). For example, knowing that if you drive an armored car into a villain at 70 MPH instead of throwing it at him at around 5 MPH (at best), it does a LOT more damage. A more specific example occurs in book 4, where Emp turns her suit invisible, making the Big Bad think she's naked and helpless, just to get close enough to him to confirm his identity and curb stomp him.
An in-world example: the Superhomies think Willy Pete is just some D-list nobody. Turns out that's only because he likes to keep a low profile and go after mooks and D-list villains. The 10-man team sent to get him (for a PR boost) finds this out at the hard way, as he wipes them all out with ease in a matter of seconds by using a blast of flames so powerful it's like hitting them with a nuke.
Not the Fall That Kills You: Once, Ninjette fell from a high house, but used a chain to get hold of a street lantern.
Not Using the Z Word: In-universe. The dead superheroes whose powers live on are zombies, but no one calls them that. ( Ninjette does, but Emp promptly lets her know that they hate being called that.)
Only Known by Their Nickname: We still don't know ThugBoy's real name. Also, we learned Emp's and Ninjette's real names as late as #3. In fact, the only names of the superheroes we know are: Theresa (Sistah Spooky), Tommy (Glorpp Protein Protean!), Bob (Phallik), Julie (Plutonium Blonde) and Maria (not totally clear but probably Mother Tongue). Along with a couple of the supervillains, Aaron (Kid Anglerfish) and Jerome (King Tyrant Lizard). But all other real names of supers are unknown either.
Political Correctness Gone Mad: Wet Blanket personifies this trope. Strangely, working together with supervillains is no problem for him.
Power Incontinence: Poor Mindf██k can't speak outside of telepathy (which has the side effect of leaking brutal honesty with every sentence), and has to avoid crowds as all the excess thoughts cause headaches. (Note that Mindf██k's lack of vocal speech has nothing inherently to do with her power. See Nightmare Fuel in YMMV.)
Lampshaded when Emp even admits she uses her suit for this. Subverted when she gave ThugBoy a part of her costume to use it as a condom. The sensation was great, but he could last barely ten seconds.
Also used extensively by Mindf██k. In fact, she's terrible at sex when not using her powers.
Pronoun Trouble: Emp's suit insists to the Caged Demonwolf that it's not technically female, despite its feminine shape, but he doesn't care about technicalities.
Captain Katana, who has a magic katana stuck in the top of his head down his spine, as well as others replacing his limbs. At the Capeys when the Power Nullifier was taking effect, he was disabled by the pain.
Several that are implied if not outright stated; Heavy Artillery has a mounted cannon for a head. How does he breathe? And the tower head girl with a hat that seems to be taller than she is not breaking her neck.
And, of course, the fact that Emp's naughty bits never show through the costume despite it being described as more closely fitting than body paint.
Rule of Funny: The blocked-out swearwords? Edging closer to the line between titillation and pr0n than previously thought possible? All for giggles. Really.
Self-Made Man: A heroic variant: Mindf██k, who used her psychic powers on her own brain to surgically remove her non-heroic impulses. The way she explains it, she was a villain in all but name before she did so.
Sensual Spandex: Empowered, for the short time it actually stays on her.
When Ninjette tells Emp how her suit sprouted wings (which Emp can't remember), Emp pictures herself as a devil. Her mental picture looks quite a bit like she's cosplaying as Etna.
The Superhomeys' undisclosed meeting location is room 3B, a reference to the imaginary lecture hall where the wizards of Unseen University in Discworld pretend to have class.
A shout-out to 4chan even made its way into one of the books.
In the early chapter "It's Like This" when Emp is explaining the weaknesses of her suit to a gang of thugs (which includes ThugBoy) there's a brief flashback of Sistah Spooky yelling for help while being held by what appears to be an Evangelion unit (judging from its silhouette).
Sickeningly Sweethearts: "No, you should wear that outfit (tee hee)!" — "No, you should wear that outfit (tee hee)!" No wonder the Caged Demonwolf imagines a scene with better dialogue, in his usual flowery style.
Sissy Villain: The galactic emperor from the in-universe Fan Fiction who forces Major Havoc and Syndablokk to have sex together.
Slash Fic: In-universe, even. Emp reads slash about two of her male teammates. They're delighted.
Slow Clap: Emp gets it by her fellow superheroes at the Capeys. ThugBoy lampshades it. But it's just an illusion made by Anglerfish anyway.
Smoke Out: Used by Ninjette, naturally... in book 2, to avoid embarrassment before ThugBoy before fleeing through a window. (And note that logically, since she leaves the tattered remains of Emp's suit behind, she's buck naked.)
Smug Super: Most of the other superheroes we meet are little more than overpowered and overgrown high schoolbullies deeply in love with their own superpowers.
Spank the Cutie: Oh so very often. In bed, in daydreams, in fanfics; on one occasion on pay-per-view TV by Ocelotina over not respecting duct tape, of all things. You may guess which member of the main cast gets this treatment. Hint: it's not Caged Demonwolf.
Speech Bubbles: Syndablokk has cinderblock-formed ones, for one example. Also, Adam Warren often uses speech bubbles containing the heads of characters which are off-panel so you know who said what.
Speed Lines: Japanese-style, with the characters in focus.
Springtime for Hitler: Emp tries to give the sexist males in the Superhomeys a taste of their own objectification by introducing them to yaoidoujinshi of themselves. When they find out it's written by girls, it's taken as a compliment. Oh, and then she finds out one of the guys is gay, and immediately turns pervertedas well.
Starfish Aliens: We have seen only one of them. They're huge (their liver weighs 700 kilograms alone!), have three eyes, and their veins seem to be on the outside of their bodies.
Emp describes her own costume as "Painted-on Slutwear", and it was voted most "Sluttastic and Do-Me-Riffic". Consequently, she is not happy about it in the least.
Ninjette and Sistah Spooky aren't overdressed either.
Even the nurses in the Suprahuman Ward are stripperiffic — female and male.
Supervillain: A whole sub-culture of them, most of whom have captured and tied Emp at some time or another. And most of them treat her with more courtesy than her own teammates.
Take A Bite Out Of Crime: Emp does it when her suit doesn't work anymore. Well, at the beginning. Later she stopped it, because bitten mooks tend to have grudges.
Take That: Maidman may be a crossdresser, but at least he's not a furry. Because that would be embarassing.
The Tease: The author won't be showing any full nudity anytime soon.
Teeth Flying: Emp and Anglerfish. Compare how long his teeth were before and after Emp beat him up.
There Are No Therapists: Emp starts out a blatantly neurotic mess, and the more the supporting cast is developed the clearer it is that she is not alone.
Except Mindf██k, in a way. But she only therapizes herself.
Throw the Dog a Bone: There is one, just one panel in Volume 5 where Emp, after being kidnapped along with a bunch of the Superhomies' celebrity doubles, donning her super suit (which she'd wrapped around her waist) and telling off the double who insulted her earlier, actually smiles in anticipation, because the mooks have no idea what's coming.
Training from Hell: Well, more of a Workout Session From Hell, but still...
Trrrilling Rrrs: Katastrophe. (It's not an accent, rather him purring to fit in with the sabertooth theme. Although sabertooth tigers probably are unlikely to purr.)
UST: Between Ninjette and ThugBoy for certain, and it is difficult to rule out the thing between Ninjette and Empowered as something wholly in the Caged Demonwolf's perverted mind.
Nothing can be worn over or under the suit. Including pubic hair. The fact that it doesn't show off her nipples or "camel toe" is a Running GagNoodle Incident in the series.
Ninjette doesn't wear underwear, either.
Villains Out Shopping: Subverted when we see a group of ninja hacking a body into 100 pieces (per the client's request) whilst one ninja is monitoring and idly browsing the web in the next room.
"85." -hack- "86." -slice- "I'm telling you, Opera is the ideal choice for a ninja's web browser." "87." -schinck- "88." -gchonk-
Virgin Power: Variant — the "Seiseiryoku-henkan-sentou no jutsu" transforms sexual frustration into fighting power.
Whatevermancy: Ninjas in Empowered's world can learn all kinds of cool magic, like kyonyujutsu (fake boobery magic), sosuijutsu (fast/quick/early to be drunk magic), sekushi nyanko "Monroe walk" jutsu (sexy cat "Monroe walk" magic), and more.
Played for laughs at the end of volume 3 however: "Okay, okay, a bunch of ninjas did wind up getting killed... But, pfft, WTFEVA. ████ 'em." These guys totally deserved it though.
What You Are in the Dark: With the exception of ThugBoy, Ninjette, The Caged Demonwolf, Ocelotina, Maidman, Sistah Spooky, Mindf██k, and Syndablokk, basically no-one believes Empowered is an effective superheroine — in fact, thanks to Major Havoc, some people think she's a villain in disguise. And yet she still throws herself into being a superheroine unreservedly, because of this trope.
Earlier on, Syndablokk gets one when he explains that his power causes nothing but collateral damage (he has elemental command of masonry and stonework). Being one of the (very) few decent heroes, he's extremely reluctant to use his ability unless the villain's already wrecked everything around him.
Worst Whatever Ever: The Fan Fic Major Havoc writes about himself is commented by the readers on the internet as this.
Writer Revolt: Empowered evolved from a series of bondage art commissions Warren was doing; he subverted the job by developing the characters he was using, and things snowballed.
X-Ray Vision: Another one of the suit's cool-but-useless-in-a-fight powers.
Xtreme Kool Letterz: dWARf! — and yes, the exclamation point is part of his name.
A few of her female team-mates (Yummy Mummy and another one, unnamed as yet) have also gotten interested ... possibly even more than Emp herself.
You Bastard: About once a volume, Empowered will let the reader know how much she hates that someone is enjoying her bondage scenes. She also gets mad when she suspects a reader is staring at her butt.
Your Fanfic Needs Work: Major Havoc's fanfic about himself is derided by the internet folks as WORST. HAVOCFIC. EVER. And not just anyone: his fanfic, with its tragic lack of homoerotic undertones, is panned by one Elissa P.
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