It is kinda skin-crawly to think that, right now, some guy with "specialized tastes"
might be getting, um, turned on by images of me all bound 'n gagged 'n distressed... or even, ick, you-know-what-ing to those images...! Brr...!
! Y-You're not like that, right? R-RIGHT?! Tell me you're not... p-PLEASE! You seem r-REALLY NICE, okay?
Adam Warren's graphic novel series (four volumes as of this troping, with more on the way) starring a
Damsel in Distress-prone heroine named "Empowered". Contains heavy
deconstruction of the
Super Hero genre, with healthy doses of bondage,
Fanservice, and comedy.
The plot revolves around Empowered, a D-List Superheroine who, although she's essentially sweet-natured and means well, is generally incompetent and incapable at doing what she does. This is more down to the nature of her powers than her skill, however, which stem solely from the
outrageously skin-tight super-costume that she wears (which she is less than happy about, as she also possesses numerous body-size issues); although immensely powerful, the catch is that it only works when it's in one piece - and as it's made from an extremely fragile material that tears easily, and can't be worn with anything over
or under it, this means that Empowered is both (a) rarely in a position to benefit from it, and in fact spends most of her time
being tied up by supervillains, a fact which has made her something of a laughing stock in the superhero community, and (b) either naked or near-naked a lot of the time. Not surprisingly, this has left Empowered with pretty much zero self-confidence in herself or her abilities.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Aliens Made Them Do It (Parodied in a Show Within A Show Slash Fic Empowered reads about her teammates.)
- All Of The Other Reindeer (Empowered)
- Author Appeal (Bondage, etc.)
- Badass Normal (Ninjette, Thug Boy)
- Bleached Underpants
- Bottle Fairy (Ninjette)
- Bound And Gagged (Empowered, all the freaking time)
- Brand X (Lots of this: "YouToob", "Grant-a-Wish Foundation", you get the idea.)
- Broken Bird (Empowered, Ninjette, and Sistah Spooky)
- Capulet Counterpart (Thug Boy, before his Heel Face Turn.)
- Clothes Make The Superman (Empowered)
- Clothing Damage (Empowered — see Weaksauce Weakness, below)
- Corner Of Woe (Ninja videogames — Serious Business.)
- Cosplay (Empowered's latest known day job was cosplaying as... Empowered)
- Costume Inertia (Emp's "sexy librarian" disguise; inverted with Thug Boy's "Spartan 3000" henchman's uniform.)
- Dating Catwoman (Empowered and Thug Boy)
- Deal With The Devil (Sistah Spooky's origin: she made a deal for "supernatural hotness" and accidentally gained mystic powers out of the deal.)
- Depraved Bisexual (What Willy Pete does to
some hapless supervillains anyone he can get his hands on (although supers last longer) isn't pretty.)
- Determinator (This is how Emp's friends see her, if you can believe it.)
- Distressed Damsel (Empowered, despite her best efforts.)
- Ecchi (It's manga-styled and hugely suggestive.)
- Empathic Weapon (Emp's hypermembrane is apparently a sapient being.)
- Extraordinarily Empowered Girl (Empowered?)
- Fanservice (Let it be known that, in a comic that is all about the fanservice, "Scrodinger's Catgirl" still manages to stand out.)
- Faux Action Girl (Empowered, although she does have her moments.)
- Fetish Fuel
- Finagles Law
- Foe Yay (parodied in another Show Within A Show Slash Fic, this one about Empowered and Sistah Spooky)
- Fun With Acronyms (see below)
- Godiva Hair (Something has to cover the naughty bits when the suit gets wrecked...)
- Handsome Lech (Major Havoc)
- Heel Face Turn (Thug Boy, Ninjette)
- Highly Visible Ninja (Ninjette)
- Ho Yay (Ninjette towards Empowered.)
- Humiliation Conga (And the dance goes on, and on...)
- I Have You Now My Pretty (This happens to Emp all the time. Lampshaded with the "unwritten rules" that keep villains from going "too far".)
- The Imp (The Caged Demonwolf post-sealing)
- Jive Turkey (Major Havoc, dawg.)
- Jerk Jock (Major Havoc - just Major Havoc)
- Knight Of Cerebus (Willy Pete)
- The Libby (Sistah Spooky)
- Littlest Cancer Patient (He always wanted to be a supervillian... and guess who gets sent to him by the local 'Make A Wish' analog.)
- Made Of Plasticine (The super-suit is more like Made Of Soap Bubbles And Spiderwebs.)
- Mc Ninja (Ninjette and her clan of ninja from New Jersey.)
- Meta Guy (Empowered regularly breaks the fourth wall when she appears in the title pages of stories; Ninjette and Thug Boy 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 One, filling us in on the story's aftermath.
- Thug Boy gets in on the act later on when he gives us a 'tour' of Empowered's sleeping habits.
- Moe Moe (Empowered)
- Mooks (Thug Boy's old gang, the "Witless Minions", who stole from the villains they worked for.)
- Most Common Superpower (Averted with Ninjette, very present on Empowered and Sistah Spooky.)
- Ms Fan Service (Emp is arguably a Deconstruction, Ocelotina is an in-universe example)
- Ninja (Ninjette)
- No Respect
Girl QUEEN (One would think Empowered saving her teammates' hides more than once would earn her a little less outright abuse)
- To be fair, a few of them do respect her... sometimes.
- Peek A Boo (Flat out abused)
- Pettanko (Ninjette)
- Pirate (Advanced Restraint Research.)
- Plot Driven Breakdown
- Real Men Wear Pink (He may wear a dress and high stiletto heels,but everyone's heard of the goddamn Maidman.)
- Rebellious Princess (Ninjette)
- Samus Is A Girl (Mindf**k)
- Say It With Hearts
- Save The Villain (A couple times)
- Sealed Evil In A Can (The Caged Demonwolf)
- Sick Sad World
- Springtime For Hitler (Emp tries to give the sexist males in the Superhomies a taste of their own objectification by introducing them to yaoi doujinshi of themselves. When they find out it's written by girls, it's taken as a compliment.)
- Spy Catsuit (Empowered, for the short time it actually stays on her)
- Steven Ulysses Perhero (Elissa Megan Powers)
- Stripperiffic (Emp describes her own costume as "Painted-on Slutwear", and she is not happy about it in the least)
- Sweat Drop
- 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)
- Training From Hell (Well, more of a Workout Session From Hell, but still...)
- Troubled But Cute (Thug Boy, and how)
- Vain Sorceress (Sistah Spooky)
- Vaporwear (Nothing can be worn over or under the suit.)
- Wall Jump (Ninjette — 'cause,you know,Ninja.)
- Weaksauce Weakness (Empowered's supersuit gives her powers — unless it's ripped or damaged. Which always happens. Good thing it can regenerate.)
- The Woobie (Empowered)
- 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.)
- Yaoi Fangirl (Empowered)
