History ComicBook / Empowered

* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Discussed by Maidman, in a bit of DramaticIrony on the character he is a clear [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Expy of]].

* {{Expy}}: A few of the characters appear to be based on mainstream comic book characters. Glue Gun Gil = Paste Pot Pete, etc. Most notably, THE GODDAMN MAIDMAN! who is basically Franchise/{{Batman}} [[JustForFun/XMeetsY as costumed by]] [[WesternAnimation/TheTick American Maid.]]

%%* BleachedUnderpants: [[NeatFreak Maidman]] would have some criticism as to ''how well'' they've been bleached, but it's a respectable try, anyway.

* AchillesHeel: One of [=ThugBoy=]'s former employers had a suit of near-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 armor them better. Not to mention that the armor was impossible for the wearer to remove if the power was disabled.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: Narrowly averted. Emp bursts into her apartment just as Thugboy is giving a depressed Ninjette a comforting hug on the lounge. The pair scoot away from each other so quickly they leave a dust cloud, with Thugboy [[RagingStiffie crossing his legs]] and Ninjette pulling her shirt down over her crotch.

** In the first issue, Emp convinces a group of rather dumb criminals she was really a man and so was Sistah Spooky, Captain Rivet was a menopausal woman and Major Havoc was a cocker spaniel. When she's rescued, she explains she is in fact a woman... but doesn't mention her teammates, who are later seen reading about these claims in tabloid papers.

* ManBitesMan: Emp bites people when her suit doesn't work anymore at the beginning. Later she stopped it doing, because bitten mooks tend to have grudges.

** [[spoiler:Captain Rivet meets a little girl whose father had died but wants to be a superhero. He tags her to recieve one of the last remaining superpowers the Hero's Council has access to: an Alien Membrane Suit]]

** Used interestingly with the Caged Demonwolf. While we have no idea just what he has done, on the basis of his first appearance and his constant claims and his title (The 'Molester Of Worlds'), [[OffstageVillainy it's quite possible he's caused havoc and destruction on a planetary, if not galactic scale,]] and considering how [[NonLinearCharacter he perceives time]], he might do a lot more of it in the future. Yet he still seems capable of empathy and fondness, informing Ninjette while the latter is blackout drunk that he will always remember her, and in that perfect memory make her immortal, for she is worth remembering. This provides an interesting contrast with Ninjette's father, who is completely human and an absolute and utter bastard, to the point where he might be the most vile villain in the comic.[[note]][[spoiler:Willy Pete seems to be some sort of artificial construct mind, Fleshmaster/dWARf! was [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy maddened into his misanthropy]], and Mindf██k's brother tried to use his mental powers to stop other people's thoughts from negatively affecting him and [[ComicBook/TheBoys turned himself into a complete fucking sociopath by accident.]] Ninjette's father, on the other hand, is a completely normal man who chooses to be depraved and vicious on a (small, but '''potent''') scale few villains could match (only Deathmonger can compare, and now he's been nuked and hence punished for his crimes). If Ninjette's father is so bad because of an actual reason, he's going to have one [[JustForPun mother]] of a FreudianExcuse.[[/spoiler]][[/note]] When you make a possible world-destroying/molesting EldritchAbomination look like he has standards, you have gone so far past the MoralEventHorizon you've probably hit the edge of the universe.

* StylisticSuck: The fanfiction in volume 1 is a pretty mild example, all considered.

** What Willy Pete does to [[AnythingThatMoves anyone he can get his hands on]] (although supers, being more durable, last longer) isn't pretty.

* BarrierMaiden: This is what Captain Rivet [[spoiler: has been trying to turn Emp into apparently. He marked her to receive her Hypermembrane. He allowed her to join the Superhomeys. He apparently believes she will be the thing that stops humanity from devouring itself with superpowers.]]

** WordOfGod states that Emp's wisecracks to herself during the scarier moments of Volume 5's finale were her attempts to allay her own anxiety.

* CerebusSyndrome: 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 [[spoiler: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 {{lampshade|Hanging}}d. The fifth volume ends on a FourthWallMailSlot with the characters hoping the next book will be LighterAndSofter. The sixth volume ends with them complaining that it wasn't. Book 8 is by far the darkest yet, with downright nightmarish imagery.

* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: In one bout of self-deprecation, Emp says she's from the "planet of the wankers". Becomes HilariousInHindsight as of "Amorous Audacity" later in the volume.

* DistressedDamsel:
** Empowered, despite her best efforts.
** [[spoiler: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 wound [[ActionGirl most of the attackers]] before the last two blindsided her.]]

* IncrediblyLamePun:
** Crowquet is a crow-themed supervillain who fights with a croquet stick. [[spoiler:Psst, he's really the goddamn Maidman. But don't tell the bad guys.]]
** Also, the Lotus Nodes network -- might be a pun on the widespread Lotus Notes software.
** An early villain is time-themed... only instead of using time ''manipulation'', he fights using clocks and watches strapped to baseball bats and throwing stars. He's described as fighting with "the power of time".
** The [[ShowWithinAShow TV programme]] ''Superdirty Jobs'' presented by -- wait for it -- [[spoiler:Makro]].

* TryingNotToCry: Emp strongly advises up-and-coming superheroines to avoid crying when BoundAndGagged. There is good reason for this: if your mouth is tightly taped or gagged, the mucous buildup in your nose can leave you unable to breathe. [[DistressedDamsel Ask her how she knows this]].

* WasntThatFun: Demonwolf's [[DistressedDamsel hostage]], reacting to Emp's defeat of him.

** Ninjette, like [[http://www.empoweredcomic.com/comic/volume-2-page-113 when]] she's beating up a room full of mooks.

At the end of 2015, the creator started serializing the books [[http://www.empoweredcomic.com/comic/volume-1-page-1 online, complete with commentaries.]] The site updates daily, Monday to Friday. As of July 2021, they are currently part way through volume eight of the eleven volumes published. (Naturally, they are NSFW.)

* MakeItLookLikeAStruggle: Spooky invoked this trope at the start of her suicide run to save Mindf██k from Hell, spoofing the security systems at the [=HomeyCrib=] into recording her magically seizing Empowered by force and making her hack the portal network when in reality she was begging for help. That plan went south when Emp insisted on coming along.

** 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, [[spoiler:when he seems to be going meta, but is actually him talking to Emp's powersuit. Later still, he appears to go meta again, by referencing plotlines that haven't ''happened'' yet... but we eventually discover that he can ''see the future.'']]
** [=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=] [[TwoScenesOneDialogue is talking to his average]] {{mook}} friend.

** There's also the question as to why Emp's extremely skintight suit doesn't show any camel toe, this was lampshade-hung in volume 3 and by the end of volume 6 still hasn't been explained (and is lamented as possibly never will be). In the commentary for one of the pages posted online, Adam Warren himself mentions the lack of camel toe as being one of the subtle things the suit does to ensure that Emp keeps wearing it.

** Divangelic is a ConjoinedTwins superhero with a [[GoodAngelBadAngel angel / devil]] motif, each half representing one. Vanity, the "devil" side is DressedLikeADominatrix and wields a bullwhip as her weapon.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The city Emp's adventures take place in has never had its name mentioned, and the only clue about its location is that it's somewhere on the west coast of USA.

** In Volume 2, Ninjette is playing ''VideoGame/{{Tenchu}}''. She remarks it's not effective to stand around doing cool poses after taking out your target, and eventually her character dies due to poor camera angles, which as an issue in the actual game.

** He may wear a dress, high stiletto heels, and pretty, pretty white panties, but everyone's heard of the goddamn Maidman.

** [[spoiler:Upon arriving at the Superhomey's HQ Neurospear sics Major Force on her. [[AndIMustScream he is full conscious]] for the ensuing CurbStompBattle.]]

** [[spoiler:Mindf██k's brother Neurospear [[PeoplePuppets begins sending waves of superhumans at Emp]] starting with the Superhomey's leadership counsel that wanted her executed and/or frozen forever for being able to hack the Lotus Nodes. She makes good on her taunt from two volumes back and beats them seven colors of tar out of them.]]

** [[spoiler:Captain Rivet meets a little girl who's father had died but wants to be a superhero. He tags her to recieve one of the last remaining superpowers the Hero's Council has access to: an Alien Membrane Suit]]

** An ongoing tactic of the Hero's Council to try and stave off the apocalypse. They've been throwing any powerset they have access to at a bunch of artifical humans they have one of their members create. [[spoiler: Yeah that's right. They had Brainbow/Neurospear create [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Willy Pete]] to try and save the world.]]

* BondVillainStupidity: The Ayakami clan capture Ninjette twice in the series at a high loss of life, but despite her InUniverse reputation of being a dangerous, slippery, and difficult to kill ninja, they let ''both'' chances of killing her slip away by wasting precious panels describing to Ninjette what they plan to do to her. They've been hired by Ninjette's clan to capture her to be a "breeding mare", as one of the few female ninjas they have left. [[spoiler:It's mentioned that they are planning to [[FateWorseThanDeath cut off her arms and legs]] to prevent her escaping again since she won't need those to squeeze out kids...]]

* AlluringAnglerfish:
** A supervillain who uses his lurelight to hypnotize people.
** And his [[spoiler:dead]] son, who uses it mostly to commit rape via mind-control.

* WhipItGood: Rum, Sodomy and the Lash.

** Deconstructed in Volume 4, where the villain thinks he's justified in taking his ''Film/{{Carrie}}''-style revenge, but Emp is having none of it.