Panel 1: Yes, potentially nitpicking geeks, this image constitutes an appearance of the TV Tropes entry “Instant Knots,” in that the bad guy’s bolo-like watch chains appear to wrap and secure themselves almost magically around Emp. Well, nitpickers, this is in fact a technique usually referred to as “dramatic shorthand,” in that this page is effectively a montage of events jumping forward in time rather than a linear, moment-to-moment, strictly accurate depiction. A more literalistic “real-time” portrayal of Emp getting chained up would’ve taken at least three or four more pages and dragged out for quite some time—possibly to the delight of serious “damsel in distress” aficionados, sure, but I wasn’t interested in turning Empowered into full-on bondage porn, regardless of the series’ admittedly unsavory origins.

In truth, much geeky nitpicking of genre tropes—including my own such quibbling—is spawned by examples of dramatic shorthand, as creators don’t have infinite time or space—or, in my case, pagecount—to depict story events in the potentially exhaustive detail required to head off nitpickers at figurative pass. (Whoops, might’ve revealed my age, there, as “head ___ off at the pass” was a figure of speech already fading in popular use during my youth.) So, the “Instant Knots” riff with this page’s chains should be viewed as a narrative device fast-forwarding us through the otherwise time-consuming process of Emp being “damsel-in-distressed” yet again.

Gotta admit, though—might actually be an amusing bit to someday show this process playing out in real time, as it would surely be a clumsy, abortive, slapstick-like ordeal for a shlubby dork like Killing Time to restrain a struggling, violence-capable foe like Emp. In the real world, I’ve often experienced the wintertime misery of duct (re)taping insulation around  plumbing; if generally inanimate pipes pose such difficulty, imagine how much more of a challenge applying duct tape to a thrashing, flailing adult human would be. Shenanigans ensue!

Or not, as I just thought better of this benighted idea. See, without getting into much detail about it, an even vaguely semi-realistic, real-time portrayal of Emp getting distressed would be a much more brutalizing, degrading, humiliating experience for her than I care to depict. And y’know what? To hell with that crap, whether putatively “realistic” or not. (Don’t get me started about geeks—including myself, natch!—and our wildly hypocritical, highly selective, on-and-off feigned concerns about “realism” in our blatantly detached-from-reality fantasy media consumption.) 

So, yay for dramatic shorthand, not only saving pagecount but eliding the grubby, ugly, bruising “reality” that this scene would’ve otherwise depicted! (Much as the gendered unconsciousness tropes of chloroformed heroines and clubbed-over-the-head heroes save storytelling time and skip right over potentially skeevy brutality.) As the Team America: World Police crew would sing, “Gotta have a montage!”

-Adam Warren