As comics have become more of a niche market, they've often attempted to appeal to their adult male and older teen fanbase with sexy female characters. Sometimes, the artists themselves are drawn (heh) to sexy topics and like to draw sexy women -- Budd Root of "Cavewoman" fame and Jim Balent of "Catwoman" and "Witch of Tarot" come to mind.

Sometimes we have crossovers that appear to partake of both adult and mainstream comics. Such a crossover appears to be Fem Fantastique, here presenting a nice image of Black Canary of Birds of Prey in bondage and getting hit via a gag mask with that mysterious "knockout gas" so popular among comic villains, from the November 2004 issue of Fem Fantastique.

The image is on the one hand well within the purview of the mainstream bondage images we've already seen, but it also reeks of sexual bondage themes.

However, if it were a pure sexual bondage image, the heroine would be naked, except for perhaps her boots, and the far end of the tube connected to her gag would be plugged into her own vagina. And the angle of the image would be different, so you could see where it was placed very clearly. Also, the Black Canary's legs would be shackled.

This could almost be a mainstream image. There's nothing that differentiates it, except ... Black Canaries nipples have been drawn in. Everyone knows real superheroines don't have nipples.

Turns out the current iteration of Fem Fantastique is largely fan art. That explains a lot. Well, definitely, it explains the nipples.