Somtimes Subtext is Actually Text

Comics

[ohwillmarston]

Hera Syndulla in Doctor Aphra #17 & #36, and The Marvel Art of Star Wars.

While training rebel recruits into pilots, Hera is captured by Doctor Chelli Aphra and her band of mercenaries. Aphra plans to use a bound and gagged Hera as a bargaining chip to get into Hivebase-1, the R&D Headquarters for the Tarkin Initiative. The "ultimate indignity", according to the art book; Aphra also tied a bow to Hera's head.

[ohwillmarston]

Wonder Woman and Queen Hippolyta in Wonder Woman (1941) #33 & #207

In a story by Charles Moulton later reimagined in the 70s, Inventa, a prisoner secured by the Venus Girdle on Transformation Island, leads a prison break and takes the throne of Paradise Island. Inventa vengefully subjects Diana and Hippolyta to a trial to decide their fates, treacherously gagging her prisoners so they are unable to defend themselves. The jury rules Death by the Four Dooms...

[ohwillmarston]

Talia al Ghul in Batman vs Robin (2022) #3

Possessed by the Devil Nezha, who's tapped into his own demons, Damian uses the devil's magic to imprison his mother. Talia is bound, gagged and strung upside down while and also trapped her in a mental prison where Damian leaves her to consider what she means when she says she's changed.

[ohwillmarston]

The Grayson Maneuver

Barbara Gordon & Dick Grayson in Detective Comics #359, Batman Chronicles #9 & Nightwing Secret Origins.

[ohwillmarston]

Helena Bertinelli in Batman Chronicles #19

On the trail of a drug buy, Helena is knocked out, and wakes up bound, gagged and strung upside down by a large group of kids. Helena realises the kids worked for a drug lord and, in over their heads, they were planned to rob the buyers Helena was there to bust, only she showed up instead. The kids panic, leaving two siblings to guard Helena, and with her crossbow out of reach and unable to speak, aid comes to Helena in the form of a trusting girl.

[ohwillmarston]

Zatanna Zatara in Power Girl (2009) #22-23.

Zatanna is kidnapped by a third-tier villain called Siphon who wants to permanently copy her powers. The catch is that he needs to stay close to her to "download" her powers. A strip of duct tape and a coil of rope keep the magician at bay for a few hours but when Power Girl and Superman come to her aid, Zatanna gets to duel the man able to mimic her powers exactly. Thinking too big, Zatanna is out-witted when Siphon uses a simple duct tape spell to gag her, cutting off from her magic once again, and buries her up to her chin in a mound of glue. Luckily, our title character Power Girl is there to save the day.