Grrl Power #764 – They probably realize this means war
Yes, Cora’s idea of gearing up for the big fight is proper battle armor. Granted, it’s mostly force fields full of <strike>food coloring</strike> holograms, but her for-serious battle getup has extra projectors and she also teleports in extra hard points that are held in place by the force fields, so that she can rotate out weaponry as needed. Remember she uses the same teleporter system that Dabbler does.
Dabbler’s battle gear is… yeah, a corset. In her defense, it’s some sort of battle corset. Definitely enchanted. +2 lift at least. Dabbler’s not so much into the separate. +1 cleavage. Also some serious projectile defense. Probably some elemental resistances. Honestly I changed her outfit because I didn’t like that green keyhole shirt I drew her in.
My original idea for the Fel was a little too close to chaos marines. Basically futuristic military dudes plus like, evil clerics and general corruption, but when it came to draw them I realized my initial idea could probably use a little development. So, now they’re more like… I dunno. The Flood meets Guyver? Kinda. They’re one of those characters (collectively) that will probably evolve a bit the more pages they appear on.
![The Wraith: Danger Close (Superhero by Night Book 4) by [Haskell, Jeffery H.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41B7At%2B3X8L.jpg)
The 4th Wraith book is still available for preorder.
This is Jeffery H. Haskell’s super powered Punisher-esque series, so if you like super vigilantes killing the balls out of really evil bad guys instead of bothering with all that wussy justice system stuff, then you might like this series. This is also his teamup book where Wraith teams up with his other hero, Arsenal, who is a proper hero, except for that time she genocided a species but it’s okay because they were all bad.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Hey, in defense of the little bottom text of “battle…uh, corset? Ready” I’ve worn corsets and if anyone hit me where the corset covered, they’d hurt their hand more than me.
Not to forget: Wonder Bewbs only wears a battle corset
This is true. Plus she calls it her ‘diplomacy armor’ in the comics. Seriously, she has called it that, as did her mother.
I mean… if you’ve built the corset properly, you’ve got spring-steel boning reinforcing the superstructure, layers of quilted padding… basically you’ve got the effective equivalent of Brigandine or even Banded armor.
I’m not sure about that. The spring steel is in these tiny strips, and they’re more than far enough apart to put a blade through. The boning does little more than divert a blade away from a specific vertical line along your torso.
As for quilting, that kind of defeats the purpose of a corset, and would eliminate most if not all of the visual aspects of it.
Also looking at Dabbler in the panel there, that’s not even a corset. Notice how the contours of her ribs and muscles are visible through it. That’s not a corset, it’s a form fitting garment in the shape of an overbust corset, with faux lacing. Dare I say the lacing doesn’t even look like corset lacing. Also very few corsets are laced in front. They tend to have a busk in front and lacing in back.
If you believe that is actual lacing in the front (do you see the tie or the knot?) and not just ‘fancy decoration’, then you need to look closerer (as though anyone really needs a reason :P )
You are also clearly forgetting that basically everything Dabbles is wearing… is an illusion (yes, think long and hard on that… she’s effectively naked, in public, and she’s LOVING it!! :D )
Yeah, but I’ve worn corsets too… and it kinda limits your range of motion for your torso, which is not exactly very conducive to combat. It would be nice if they could make a corset with better range of motion and still provide the contouring… I mean, yeah the spiral steel boning they use these days lets you move more than whale boning back in previous centuries, but it’s far from free movement.
And if it were an original Victorian era whalebone one they likely would break their hand.
Of course in a original victorian era corset (and this is not really different for modern day corsets I must add) Dabbler would be unable to draw a full breath. Or even half of one.
That is incorrect. In a modern spiral steel boned corset, drawing a full breath is very possible. I can run a marathon in one, I just can’t do sit ups because it doesn’t bend enough to let your torso do that.
Also, corsets don’t compress your lungs. They barely compress the lower ribs, if that. It does however change what it looks like when you breathe… basically your breasts heave up and down, and if you’re wearing a cleavage top, this can have quite an effect on people who are attracted to breasts. That is of course assuming you have breasts to show off…
My experience with corsets is limited so I admit not being the best person to ask for details.
Still, the few times I did try on (and even wear) corsets I found them unpleasantly constraining and difficult to draw a full breath in. To get that maximum cleavage effect after all they do need to be a bit higher up your chest than merely the lower ribs. It also may be that as a singer I am used to draw full breath deeper into my lungs than most and that this affected how I experienced them.
And two of the corsets I wore have been period costumes (well remakes of them) and those things are torture devices that clamped around most of my torso like a vice. And squeezed.
I can however with absolute certainty say that Cora’s full suit of plate armour (if properly designed and manufactured anyway) /will/ allow for greater freedom of movement than Xuriel’s corset.
You (Erianaiel) are talking about the original corsets, which were designed to make females look appealing, butt extremely helpless, Tokumei seems to be talking about modern corsets, corsets actually designed by non-sadistic non-masochistic females for ordinary women
And just like a modern bra, they should be custom fitted, not bought ‘off the rack’ (no pun intended… or was it? :P )
A decent corset should only cover the stomach and abdomen below the ribs, the rest is just ‘decoration’ to cover up and enhance the bust (which, technically, would make it ‘bustier’, which is a separate feminine torture device)
she’s a mage, she probably gets by with a stoneskin spell
Looking at the calendar, and looking at the earliest posted date in the archive, I think tomorrow is the 9th anniversary of Grrl Power!
Grrl Power #1 – The Begininging
by DaveB on August 23, 2010 at 10:00 am
I do believe you’re right!!! Congratulations, DAVE!!!!!
And we still haven’t finished the flashback we started on what, page 3?
This is Tarantinoed to the max!
I have a running bet, which I hope I lose this time as I have come to really enjoy this comic over the years,
-that the comic will end before the flash back does.
*so far every comic I’ve read online that started as a big flash back has ended before the flash back has, even when the comic implies the flash back is only part 1.
There. Got him a cake and everything. Well, a v-cake. And only the cool kids know where I hid it. ;)
The cake is a lie
NO!!!
The cake is fake!! And the pie is lye, eating too much of either will kill you just as dead
In the next post you see the space pigs showing up and besides a big grease smear out at the shooting range there is no evidence of the Fel. Dropping lower in a reasonably paced approach you see Max at the podium as she is explaining to the press that “Unusual measures required use of top secret resources.” and “No! I am not going to explain that remark.”
Is it just me, or do these guys look a lot like the kaiju Sydney went to town on?
Or, Sciona’s “not a Robot”…
one of them, yes. It is either an aesthetic choice by the author here or they are distantly connected (not directly),
however that said, the whole red multi-eyes and armor thing isn’t exactly rare. Granted not often repeated in the same series; Ben Ten’s Highbreed
HighBreed:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ben-10-omniverse-fanfic/images/3/34/Highbreed_Commander.png/revision/latest?cb=20130805160125
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ben10/images/3/34/Highbreed_Commander.png/revision/latest?cb=20150124123955
Teen Titan’s Trigon is who first came to mind when that first Kaiju showed up
https://static2.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11113/111131285/5285101-8474657751-affgk.jpg
That said only that first one had those eyes, the other three were like three different kaiju, including a Cyclops that Sydney blew the head off of…
actually…funny hypothesis, what if those world wreckers were Cthulhu class aliens (Cthulhu is an alien by the way not a god in its original imagining, just one so powerful cultists could draw power from it),
and these Fel are worshippers of an artifact tied to one such god…and Sydney killed him, so they will find that mysteriously their power source is gone, their magic no longer works, not knowing that the source of their power lay in sliced up chunks on another planet.
-Slayers anime logic: when a demon lord was killed all spells and magic artifacts that drew power from it no longer worked. Doesn’t matter if those using said spells and artifacts were aware of it.
That last bit isn’t (or shouldn’t be) just ‘Slayers anime logic’: if you cut the power to house, everything in the house that is using said power will stop, even if the house owner isn’t aware of the power cut, and it’s not a slow gradual loss, it’s a near instant loss
true, but as a major plot point involving magic Slayers stands out to me as a series that has used it.
Just saying, it shouldn’t be a plot point in some anime, it should be real life knowledge
yes, it is common sense, cut the power those using said power lose power.
But I feel you are missing the nuance here, while it is a commonly seen thing in science based series and general action movies. Cut the power, blow up the generator powering the shields, destroy the central computer controlling the robots.
It is rare to find this done with magic. Sure you have the obelisk of power with the one wizard seeking ultimate power, or the “oh no we are in another dimension and the rules of magic are different here so our spells aren’t working how they should”; or the magic jammer; or a little rarer the whole magic is coming from mana stones or spirit crystals and they are losing power from being over used or were a finite resource.
It is rare to find a magic based setting where someone can cut off the flow of specific spells and types of magic by killing specific entities like a specific demon lord or evil god that was the source of those spells.
That’s usually because the source is a god (not specifically an ‘evil’ one) and they are, by tradition, extremely difficult to permanently kill without their sphere of influence being passed on to someone or something else, ala Forgotten Realms when a number of gods were killed (Cyric started out as normal mortal man, until he {ironically} killed the God of Murder and Thieves and stole His powers, plus gained few of his own)
Hence why I only had one example for this hypothetical scenario actually happening in a series
Read the comments before posting!!!!!
This is page three, the only way to know it’s page three, is by scrolling to the bottom of the page (that never stopped anyone posting the same question within three posts of each other in the past when you still had the comment page number at the top of the page)
Butt yeah, if they didn’t bother reading the comments in the past, they sure as frack ain’t gonna do it now!
See, I liked this. As much as they mess with each other, when situations call for it, max trusts dabbler’s judgement and dabbler gets to business. She knew precisely what Max needed to know and cut right to the chase, and max didn’t question it.
…congrats on nine years of the comic, DaveB!…
Congratulations on the comic’s anniversary!
The name “Fel” just makes me think of fel magic from Warcraft, though that is a destructive magic that corrupts and destroys everything it touches, so it’s fitting.
Fun linguistic trivia: ‘Fel’ in the context of things like ‘fel magic’ is a term going back to a latin word for bilious, poisonous things and a yellow-greenish color we often still associate with toxicity and corruptive influences today. It’s also made it into other languages carrying meanings like ‘evil’, ‘fierce’ and ‘vile’, though as a simple single phoneme it also crops up with fairly benign meanings in languages with less influence from Latin.
But you can see where it picked up it’s usage in Warcraft with reference to vile and corruptive magics, and why anything associated with the Twisting Nether has so often and prominently featured bio-hazard green flames and effects.
Took awhile, butt ET finally got an answer! :P
Hmm, didn’t someone describe the Xevoarchy along the same lines: a collective that recruits everyone they can, and damn those who don’t?
Sounds to me like a Montulet and Capague rivalry: each side saying the other is the ‘bad guys’
Can’t wait for the Fel to actually disembark and we see them as space Care Bears or what Dirticans would consider ‘faeries’
No, they did not, they are the good guys.
Sez who? They are cops who accept 25% bribes to turn the other way!!
Yes, but do they STAY bought?
That would just make them worse, not better
No Guesticus. Dabbler did not say anything about ‘damn those who don’t.’ They leave the people who don’t want to join alone, which is why she was surprised when the Alari were destroyed and she thought it might have been the Xevoarchy, because of how unusual it would have been.
BTW happy 9th Anniversary DaveB.
That’s effectively what ‘damn those who don’t’ means: they leave them alone without support or protection ie they won’t lift a manipulation digit to help
So you’re saying the Prime Directive is bad. And they didnt say they won’t protect pre-FTL species from outside threats. They tried to stop the Fel, as you just saw. Starfleet frequently protected pre-Warp planets without the planets ever knowing in both TOS and TNG.
They just won’t HELP them become post-FTL species, and won’t give them advanced technology if they’re below a certain technological level. Probably because we’d wind up blowing ourselves up out of ignorance of that tech.
Think of it this way. If there’s a primitive tribe on an island, that has had no contact with the outside world, and people decide to leave them be, that does not make people bad for letting them be on their own, even if we have things that we COULD give them, like medicine and electricity and tacos.
Gonna agree with you on this one, Pander. Although it likely depends on a given species’ psychology/culture, it’s usually agreed that it’s probably not a good thing to give interstellar age tech to less advanced societies (how “less advanced” is defined, and at which point/how much less it becomes verboten, is a subject of major contention).
A good example from classic SF would be the Kzinti from Larry Niven’s Known Space series. They’re a species of warlike humanoid felines (and the inspiration for Wing Commander’s Kilrathi) who were (probably) technologically uplifted from a bronze age society to an FTL one, and besides still having all the aggression issues you’d expect from bronze age people descended from big hunting cats, the dominant social mores of the species at the time made them bio-engineer their females to be non-sentient. (insert idiotic incel rant in favor of doing this IRL here)
Also, even among modern humans, cultures don’t generally welcome intruders.
Achieving galactic and FTL travel not only means technical achievement, it means the species mindset has had a chance to adapt to the idea of other life. Imagine the reactions of Dirtlings to an alien ship in the 17th or 18th centuries (Flying demons! Kill it with fire!) to that of our post-spaceflight world where the idea of alien life and colonizing other worlds has been thoroughly explored in literature and several nations have legit plans to colonize the Moon and Mars.
Still mixed fear and excitement perhaps, depending on the individual, but which era would you prefer to reach out to?
I was TOTALLY thinking of that tribe when I wrote my post :)
I swear, I loved Wing Commander. Especially Wing Commander 4: The Price of Freedom. Classic game. And I heard about how the Kilrathi evolved prematurely by a spacefaring race that should have NOT given them the tech, the Shata (peaceful spacefaring race gives Kilrathi technology about jump points, and in response the Kilrathi slaughter the Shata and claimed all their technology of space exploration without growing out of their bloodthirsty ways. It wasn’t mentioned in the games, but it’s canon in the books. I also think something similar happened with the Klingons. It’s sort of a theme – give a primitive society too much tech too quickly, before they have even the minimum self-discipline to use it without blowing themselves up, and you’re going to regret it in the long run because they’ll use it to blow everyone else up instead.
If there is a primitive tribe on an island, that you have been observing for a significant amount of time (and even integrating with them without their knowledge *choke*sextourism*choke*), and a natural disaster is about to happen that will erase the island completely, and you do nothing to save those people (that you have been mingling with unawares, possibly even breeding with them *splutter*sextourism*splutter*), then you are a steaming pile of horse-vomit!
And that was what was referring to by ‘leaving them without support or protection’, not keeping them in the stone ages because it’s fun to watch them scramble around like idiots
The phrase “Like to watch the world burn!” doesn’t just mean they are the ones holding the match and lighter-fluid: they are in a position to help put it out, butt they won’t
There’s a difference between not saving a species which will definitely die without your help, and prematurely giving them technology and/or help before they’re ready to use it responsibly or intelligently. The former is between extinction and something not great, and the latter is a choice between either making a primitive race an essential slave people dependent on your tech, which they cannot understand on their own, giving them tech which they will use to destroy themselves (or others) because they do not yet have the self-discipline that comes with the experimentation process and careful research, or knowledge of how that society’s cultural norms will integrate the tech in ways that might destroy you (ie, the Kilrathi in Wing Commander). Even in Star Trek, they pointed out the occasional flaw of the Prime Directive, but even when they interfered with a society (usually in order to save it from total extinction), they tried their hardest to make sure the society did not KNOW they were interfering with it (the native american world that Kirk/Kirok saved, the world that Data saved when he found a message from a little girl asking for help, the small tribe that Worf’s brother saved). Most of the time, instead it goes HORRIBLY wrong when they try to do something for another culture that is not yet ready to cope with the technology of an interstellar community.
Also, you made strawman argument Guesticus, by changing my statement. I did not say you should ‘integrate with them’ – but like Dabbler said, if anyone’s at risk in sex tourism, it’s probably the aliens, since there are still a lot of sexually transmitted diseases on Earth :). Also, again, the Xevoarchy apparently DOES protect pre-FTL worlds by making sure that post-FTL worlds cannot give them FTL technology, at least not easily. It’s one of those galactic hurdles that cultures must develop on their own, unless you want to have a LOT of death and create the extinction event that you’re probably, good naturedly, trying to prevent in the first place. A lot of bad things are done with the best of intentions. It’s not ‘keeping them in the stone age’ – it’s ‘letting them get out of the stone age on their own because if you give them a nuclear power plant, they’re going to very likely to blow themselves up, blow up their neighbors, and possibly blow up you.
Yeah, not talking about giving them tech prematurely, so going to stop reading or responding (you went on a rant about someone else going off on a tangent, feel familiar?)
I’m sort of disappointed in your response. I did not go off on a tangent. Everything I said was related to your posts and your responses to my posts. Tangents go on a completely different line of thought. So no, not familiar.
You said, and I will quote, “That’s effectively what ‘damn those who don’t’ means: they leave them alone without support or protection.’ In short, you said that not using technology to help technologically inferior cultures is somehow evil. I explained how it was not, and how in sci fi, the technologically superior culture does, in fact, help the technologically inferior culture REGULARLY, and gave multiple examples from the shows, and pointed out that there was a difference between doing that and giving tech. The Galactic Police seem to have at least TRIED to stop the Fel from getting to Earth, meaning they do not have a ‘damn those who don’t’ mentality. They just have a ‘we will not give tech to pre-FTL species’ mentality. Which is how I brought up the Prime Directive.
I also described a real life example of how we do not involve ourselves with certain primitive tribes, despite having technology to help them with many issues, because that interference may affect their culture quite negatively, even though we do help them in ways that do NOT involve influencing their cultures, like keeping others from invading their lands.
Also in your OP, you were trying to make a comparison of the Xevoarchy and the Fel. The Fel apparently foricibly conscript races, and kill those they can’t, while the Xevoarchy simply does not let pre-FTL races into their club. They are not comparable.
At no point mentioned pre-FTL societies
The idea is not about pre-FTL societies, per se. It’s about technologically inferior societies. Pre-FTL societies is the whole ‘cutoff’ for the Prime Directive though, which is what the post was about, as well as what the Xevarchy’s cutoff is. By talking about the line at which the Xevoarchy will not deal with technologically inferior worlds, you are talking about pre-FTL societies.
Umm, no, was simply stating that they will abandon and ignore anyone who does not join their little Galactic Protection Racket
Please look again at who started this thread chain
Again, my point is that they are not ‘abandoning’ anyone. They’re just not letting them into the club. Clearly they were not ‘abandoning’ Earth, since they were trying to STOP the Fel from getting to Earth.
That’s the entire initial point of my response to you about the Prime Directive, which is what Dabbler mentioned in the bathroom to Sydney.
So, where were they on Alari Prime? Or helping with the refugees?
Again, again, the initial post had NOTHING to do with pre-FTL anything!!
Yes Dabbler said nothing of them damning the ones who don’t follow, but Cora did say that they kill the ones that they can’t force to follow
Sydney to the roof, shield up the building and ship. PPO everything at a downward angle clearing the hall trash. Though we don’t know if she can make a shield that big. Best time to find out in a clutch.
Sydney’s at the shooting range with Peggy.
I’ve been wondering if this means she’ll be out of the action until it’s over, or if she’ll be called in time to reveal her new top speed in action.
Sydney and Peggy would have heard the sonic boom shown on the previous page.
Even in the vehicle and over the road noise.
And the odds of Peggy just chilling out at the range are?!?!?
Besides, as I said before, they only drove 30 minutes. They’ll be able to SEE the ship.
So they are only 20ish miles away. That’s ~2 mins at just under mach one or 30 seconds is at mach 4. Syd could bubble bus Peggy over before the media can even run inside. But 30 seconds of a fist fight is a long time.
Sydney can do mach 16 now. She can get to the fight before it finishes.
Mach 16 at ground level creates a sonic boom that’s comparable to a long, narrow tactical nuke. She would destroy everything between the range and HQ if she did that. Anything above Mach 1 at ground level is a weapon, Mach 16 is a strategic weapon.
Which is relative to what?
Sydney has already demonstrated that she understands the importance of gaining altitude before using horizontal speed.
Thought about that: She can go straight up fairly safely at Mach 16, (Assuming no aircraft are nearby.) and sideways at a safe altitude. But then she has to down again, and the safe altitude for those sorts of speeds is high enough that she might as well go direct at Mach 1 or 2 if the range is really only 30 miles away; She’s only a few minutes away at even that speed.
But that kind of force might be able to lift that ship away, at a much slower and safer speed, to a relatively safe place where she can hit with her kiloton powered mach 16 drill. But it’s hard to say how much that ship weighs of course.
When is Maxi going to ask what the artefact actually is?
After they neutralise the enemy, important information first
And then they find out that Cora really is a thief and the Fel were simply after retrieving their rightful property, and Dirticans are now banned from joining the Greater Galactic Council, Dirt is now a Quarantined planet and the Space Sex Tourism is illegal, punishable by death
Space sex Tourism will never be illegal :)
Well, it’s not exactly ‘legal’ as it is, when the one’s you are touring sex on don’t know you are not a local
I don’t know about you, Guesticus, but I do not want to live in a universe where space sex tourism is illegal. That’s not what I signed up for. Not one bit.
Don’t know about you, but would rather know what is about to be inserted into me before it gets inserted!
Or did you forget the part where the tourists were in disguise the whole time!!
I dunno, when they don’t have the disguises, apparently some of them get mistaken as gods (see the Egyptian flashback).
Can’t recall that flashback :(
Here you go. Panel 6
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-461-clandestilen/
Thank you! Had forgotten that (and the gleeful “For SCIENCE!” Dabbles-head at the bottom :D )
np :)
Something “drastic”?
“Sydney? Can you and Pew Pew make that ship “go away” for us?”
*Insert Wave Motion Gun*
it is unlikely that max will call sydney in for firepower. from what we have seen, Maxima’s own ‘pew pew’ is FAR more powerful than sydneys, and rivals a small tactical nuclear weapon. Thats just based on what we have SEEN and we know that was not her full power as she laughed when someone suggested it was. The real problem here is not where to get the firepower, but how to deploy it so close to Archon HQ without destroying the building.
Yep, this is the exact kind of situation where you need to be very careful about what you’re shooting.
Ms Intellectual Rights Lawyer: just want to know, if mention more details about “Diamond-Ball” here, will the rights be protected against someone else reading them and then ‘copy’ the idea?
Also “Battle scrunchie, ready!” apparently.
No re-bar used this time
Zerg meets the Borg?
I am starting to get a Necromongers vibe from them.
The US Flag is displayed incorrectly. The blue field should always be displayed in the top left.
As has been pointed out for the last month!!
So, apparently the “fel artifact of unspeakable … cuddles” is a unique item? Because if mass production was invented by some enterprising Fel Ford it shouldn’t be. But since they are after this one so hotly it implies that it is really important to them.
I know it’s a common trope, but unique artifacts are far more justifiable in fantasy set in less advanced cultures (medieval, etc.) than in science fiction. It becomes much harder to justify a unique item when mass production is a thing, plus a solid industrial base and the scientific method for analysis. I mean, R&D is typically done with exacting records and such being kept, and in an advanced, scientific culture those records shouldn’t be single copy items kept conveniently only on paper next to a few open barrels of jet fuel with a bunch of space Frenchmen all smoking while pacing around said barrels.
You… can’t mass production a Holy Relic, at least, not have the knock-offs offer the same benefits or effects as the original
Most species figure out long before they have FTL travel that “holy relics” are actually just “relics” that they themselves imparted some false significance upon. And no amount of mythology ever makes a “relic” capable of generating unspeakable cuddles.
Unless it gives off some kind of energy like a holy sword of power created by a goddess that can hold even the avatar of chaos prisoner for years in a cave by its mere presence alone in an altar outside said cave.
or has imprisoned within an eldritch being that can influence the world enough around it to draw followers and a devoted priesthood who spends centuries and millennia influencing the direction of technological development as instructed by the entity to permit them just enough power and the right kind to eventually release it while convincing them they aren’t actually doing that but actually appeasing it to the point it will “reveal its self” someday. Thus the holy relic is a prison and the secret aspects of said society are foolish puppets dancing to its string pulling.
but ya’know most are just trinkets with no real power, but sometimes…
Considering that we have magic, demons, angels, gods, magic items and all the rest in this universe I think we can probably safely say that “unique artifacts” are probably fairly common. Holy, unholy or otherwise.
I mean that was the entire point of the vault that was raided after all…
I like the way Black Company handled it.
There were hundreds of lances, but this lance? Hundreds of thousands of mercenaries died following the flag that this lance held up for 800 years. Hundreds of thousands of mercenaries poured their loyalty, trust, and faith into the lance.
When a wizard took to the battlefield and was backhanding literal dozens of soldiers to their doom in a single movement, with swords, arrows, and other implements of war literally breaking on contact with his skin, the lance bearer dropped the tip of the lance in a panic and skewered the wizard.
Because no one sword arm is stronger than the wizard, but the combined belief and willpower of 800 years of war? All of that? Put into the tip of a single strike meant to save the very flag every last one of them followed?
You can mass produce an object. But it takes giving it genuine attention to make the object important.
Yeah, once again someone explains it betterer :D
This is just mythology, not science. And once again far more suited to a fantasy story than a science fiction or even a modern times story.
Either the wizard’s spell failed him at a convenient time, or the story has just become taller and taller with every re-telling. An object doesn’t get better just because it is used longer or more often, that’s actually the exact opposite effect. Unless you’re in the universe of The Practice Effect (A novel by David Brin), that is. Also, with great age comes great replacement parts, until the philosophers are left to argue if the items is really the item at all because every piece of it has been replaced over time.
You realise that comics are mythology, right?
Stan Lee’s goal was to create an American mythology and he said as much.
Just because a creator intends something doesn’t mean that s/he will be successful. Comics are not mythology, by the definition of the term.
NOUN
a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.
Meets this one perfect. Its been part of American geek culture for over eighty years.
Myths are stories about (the lives of the) gods.
That would make a movie like ‘the wolf of wall street’ more like a modern amercian myth than any comic ;)
Not all myths are about gods
Was paris a God?
Jason?
What would the Silver Surfer be, in the eyes of any ancient civilization?
How about Mon-El?
It seems that Stan Lee had a much better grasp of vocabulary than you give him credit for.
The powers Superheroes wield and their physically perfected bodies mimic the mythological heroes of old, and that is by design.
Isn’t Paris a city full of… Frenchies!? :P
‘Physically perfected bodies’? One word: Blob
And medusa.
Beauty offset by the grotesque.
Gods and monsters.
Stan Lee knew what he was about.
Trying to mock his position regarding comics is always going to fail because nobody knows comics as thoroughly as he did.
Wasn’t mocking him
Superman is not worshiped as a deity…
And although many of the Marvel and DC ‘heroes’ are actually drawn from mythology, none of them are worshiped as actual deities any longer, except perhaps by a fringe few eccentrics who really do not count in any significant way.
Just to point this out, this comic HAS magic and vampires and such in it.
comic books in general tend to have both magic and sci-fi elements. As odd as it may feels at times to have the techno villains of Iron-Man comics team up with the magic villains of Dr. Strange…and then have that weirdo from the animal themed costumes group of the likes of Spider-Man comics *most not not*.
Comic books were their own first cross-overs resulting in a ton of genre mixing. Yeah it can feel weird sometimes…like Carnage using a knock-off necronomicon to summon a knock-of Cthulhu and have three symbiotes fuse into an angelic celestial knight; or have the Joker, a crime boss with a clown fetish having a chat with the alien god warlord of a planet.
But that’s comic books. That is what makes the Super Hero genre stand out next to sci-fi space dramas and fantasy stories; it can mix them all together and still work.
To follow your specific remarks, there was a conversation once between Loki and Dr. Doom talking about the power of stories; that gods are stories whose powers and personalities change over time and their strengths vary depending on the narrative. Dr. Doom even regarded himself as a story pointing out the very flaws (very meta moment, not as fourth wall breaking as Deadpool, but close to it) pointing out how every time he loses it must be a doom bot or a clone or part of his plan; that the more people fear, respect, and even love him as the villain the more powerful he becomes; and how he survives things he shouldn’t ect…
basically he realized his own plot armor and status as a “Sue Villain” and was playing to it.
Heck the belief something has power so it ends up having power over time faith based power is a plot element in some comics; the Guardians of the Galaxy fought a whole group of enemies like that, and the “un-real” rules of magic in Marvel are basically based on that; that some magic items and spells only work because the spell caster believes they will work (basically its reality warping super power passed down and taught and cemented by this or that…retcons may have undone this by now; but that’s comics).
Well it is definitely true that both the Marvel and DC and also apparently this comic universe are a mash-up of pretty much every story telling element: sci-fi, fantasy, magic, horror, religion, etc. etc. etc.
In OUR world you are absolutely correct.
But our world doesn’t have magic, or super powers, or people who can channel the power of lust…
In this universe? Who knows what faith or belief can do. We have angels and demons and mages and the Fel themselves are corrupted by some sort of dark energy. At this point trying to argue that the only stance that makes sense is strict rationalism as viewed in our world and that religion is a fraud is kind of pointless.
Especially since we know, for a fact, that this universe has gods (Dabbler claims to have killed some!)
So why not leave the atheism argument for another thread?
and should a certain hypothetical be true so has Sydney now
-that being that the squidwards are the gods of the Fel, explaining the similar look but totally different powerwise and why no one recognized them.
There’s only one CERN accelerator.
But particle accelerators have been a thing since the 1930s. And CERN isn’t the only particle accelerator. And it’s not like there couldn’t be more accelerators like CERN if a company or nation or group of nations decided to make more. And it’s not like the plans for particle accelerators were created by some freak accident which could never be duplicated.
Think about it: There could be hundreds or thousands of Dr. Manhattans. The Intrinsic Field Subtractor wasn’t destroyed in the accident that created him, so all it would take is for someone else to stand inside when the thing is turned on… Some have speculated that it was his training as a watchmaker which allowed him to create his body, but surely that isn’t an unique capability.
Let’s be fair here –
Sentience often breeds superstition, even with a greater understanding of science. People will do things out of habit more than actual belief it will work. An “important” artifact may have heavy religious significance to a race, and taking it could mean something akin to declaring war. Especially if the race is fanatical in their belief system.
Just because a sentient race achieves FTL speed and super-science doesn’t exactly mean they abandon their superstitions and/or religious beliefs. It might actually make their religion/superstition stronger/worse on some level.
“So, apparently the “fel artifact of unspeakable … cuddles” is a unique item? Because if mass production was invented by some enterprising Fel Ford it shouldn’t be.” – Oberon
This makes several assumptions, none of which are proven:
– That the materials or methods needed to make the Artifact are common enough not to be a constraint on manufacturing volume.
– That mass production in the past automatically means that many products will be available (in a usable state) in the present.
– That the makers of the Artifact had good reason to make spare copies, rather than just a one-off (or however many constitutes a usable set).
– That mass production means that Artifacts are interchangeable.
Sssoooooo… They’re Borg mystics? Kinda? Yes? No? Maybe?
Uhh, is there a ‘slow blade penetrates the shield’ thing going on? Like technically?
Because otherwise, if their shields render physical projectiles useless and can stand up against energy weapons decently well, why would melee work? Unless it’s a function of larger mass or something? Perhaps some sort of ‘shorting out’ through the attacker as they stand (unless they’re flying)?
This sort of thing would really be useful to know, rather than blanket ‘melee only, just because’.
Is it a function of lower velocity not activating the shields? Increased mass overwhelming them? Surface area? Special materials/tools that bypass shields?
Because Dabbler’s coilgun thing sure should pack more of a punch than most of the team, so if they can do anything, she should be able to mow them down. So if she can’t do so with it or something similar, then how do they manage?
Just a single line giving a reason for why melee works is far, far better than just saying it does. Especially since they’re already talking a bunch and not yet at the point where it’s all short one-liners for communication mid-action.
If it’s mass, then they can throw large things. If it’s raw power, then tactics change. Is it just leverage and momentum, that they can’t actually get through the shields but can knock the enemies over anyway? If so, are the shields slippery so they should avoid grapples and just go for blunt more direct blows? Do the shields stay fixed, or is there give to them, like a cushioning effect?
Is it better to try focusing force to break through, or do wider blows drain the shields faster?
Etc
Also ‘is the shield bidirectional’ and ‘where are the shields being generated from’. It would really cut down on the hazard posed to your own forces by grenades or mines if the enemy shields help contain the blast, but in turn could make grappling kamikaze units extra dangerous. If the ship’s projecting personal shields then that’s a single point of failure.
Slow blade penetrates shield … like they did on Stargate, when Col Oneil got fed up with the alien shielding stopping their bullets and threw his knife – which penetrated the shield and skewered the enemy’s hand. LOL
Which is got the idea of from reading “Dune”
The shield could be the equivalent of a non-newtonian fluid, that you can run across as if it is (semi)solid but will sink into it if you stand still or move very slowly.
If the incoming physical impact must ‘push the forcefield apart’ but the resistance to that movement increases the faster it is attempted to be moved then such a shield would function exactly as advertised.
Kinda like the shields in ‘Dune’
Also kinda reminds me slightly of an episode of that crappy “Conan the Adventurer” cartoon (the one with the baby phoenix) – at one point, Conan and another muscle-brained tool have climbed to the top of a mountain to enter some mystical building (or something), butt no amount of strength from either beef-head (solo or together) was going to open the door the trick was, the more force was applied to the door, the more secure the door became, butt! the lightest touch would open wide the doors… hmm, seems like a metaphor for a woman’s sex – a gentle touch is more likely to open the legs than attempting to force them apart
Time to put some points into PPO.
This is one of those time Halo needs to use the full power beam weapon. I’m pretty sure those shield wouldn’t last for more than a few seconds against it.
Whatever weapons or powers are fired at that ship the most important thing to remember is WHERE to aim them.
1) Shooting at the command and control center: Good.
2) Shooting at the antimatter containment unit: BAD.
knowing where either of those things are in the 3-D diamond shaped ship…would be useful.
and we can’t just assume human space craft aesthetics; which are usually based on air craft or water craft; so no reason to suspect the command deck is in the front or the top, it could very well be on the right side, middle, bottom, or some random spot inside if they don’t have a predisposition to want it a certain place and thanks to using external sensors don’t need a window.
Stygian energy.
Nice.
I get that one.
Bummer Cora still look like the last page’s panel
My explanation of the reason bullets and lasers dont work but melee does is the relative speeds to activate the shields. that trying to get them to activate for melee weapons would be a massive pain to keep them from constantly activating and draining the “battery”. So as a compromise they dont activate for anything slower than x feet per second
How many times do you need to be called out on how to display the US flag when it’s hanging on a wall.
The union (stars) go in the upper left.
Look it up.
it is the same background, if the earlier pages weren’t changed why change it here.
For the same reason you would correct a spelling error or a basic math error.
Professionalism.
The idea of the scene is to present a representation of a hypothetical government agency.
If they are intended to be presented as competent then they would know ceremonial protocols.
To get it right? To not look like an imbecile? To have a governmental, military organization actually present itself as such?
I can understand not wanting to go back and correct the old pages. That’s work, and avoiding work is admirable. But not correcting something going forward which has been pointed out multiple times, and even acknowledged by the author, is just wrong and stupid and sloppy and dumbassed.
Personally find the whole top left thing on a wall to be asinine and likely done by some general at some point with severe OCD or something because it makes no sense; and looks backwards.
Put the flag on a pole, when it drops it could face either way. But there are also angled poles where the flag angles down, the stars are at the top back against the pole, even as it angles further and further down.
So at what angle if you keep lowering that pole do you decide to suddenly say the flag needs flipped around?
It doesn’t seem like a normal rational thing, and more *we were too lazy to make a separate banner to hang upright behind in a rectangle or just always keep our flag aligned horizontally and just make it smaller if needed.
heck the reverse horizontal one reading up on it amounted to (flag must always look like it is flapping in the wing relative to the direction of what it is on…)
and the vertical…actually…this exact same conversation happened on the first page it was seen. Flag code was written by a guy with OCD is what it comes down to and not logic.
this is what happens when you don’t centralize your flag designs like most countries.
Was just thinking about what you said about angled poles, and the reason why it looks ‘backward’ to most people (most non-USAsian’s) is because they drive on the wrong side of the road in the US, so when it is angled down, the drivers will see it with the star on the upper left
So, don’t blame one idiot with CDO, blame the entire country of idiots for driving on the wrong side of the road :P
Yes, well just as with grammar and mathematics, your dumbassed opinion is irrelevant.
The display of the American flag is subject to rules, not opinions, and you can be an idiot all day long and yet your idiocy will never have any impact on those rules. You may as well be trying to legislate that pi be set to equal 3 because it’s easier for you to remember that number as a dumbass…
you took this way too personally.
Yeah, well, that’s just like, your opinion, man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c
Since I see the flag *FAR* more often from masts and poles than I see it on a wall, the right/left distinction is not at the front of my mind. That’s a triviality, it just depends on which way the wind is blowing. It would seem bizarre and wrong to me if a flag were flown right side up with the stars on the leeward edge rather than windward, but in practice that’s not a mistake a lot of people make.
But every once in a while I see the flag displayed with the stars on the lower windward edge instead of the upper. And that’s not incorrect either. That just means I have work to do.
And a week or so ago the president of the US gave a speech in front of the wrong version of the presidential seal. Which has nothing to do with what’s correct or not, but indicates that even the highly competent people involved in planning and staging the president’s actions can make a mistake about the symbols once in a while.
We all have something that bugs us, I get it. I hate misspelled words and bad grammar, and I get unaccountably twitchy when I see ropes that moss has been allowed to grow on. But lots of people don’t care, and none of them want you to point out their mistakes.
I don’t want to be a pain, because I understand the obsession with correct flag etiquette since I served in the military for years as well. I would also grind my teeth if I saw it hung on a wall in front of me incorrectly in real life.
For the sake of a comic, though? Who cares. The fact that they sorta kept this in a fascimilie of our reality means that maybe in this world, the US hangs the flag in a different way? Or treats it differently.
I agree with Bear, as well. People see the flag normally flying “in the wind” from left to right with the Union on the upper left corner. If you tip it forward so it hangs down, logic would dictate that the Union is now upper right. However, because of *reasons* (see below) much like why we salute so differently from other countries and etc, it’s not proper etiquette to hang it that way.
It only makes sense if they KNOW the reason why etiquette states it hangs down with the Union upper left (it’s the position of highest honor). Same thing with why the flag appears to be backwards on uniform sleeves (the flag is blowing back because the military is always moving forward, not retreating).
Just be patient and explain these things, if they annoy you. Don’t just go “HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU??!” because that just makes you sound like a fanatic.
Actually… the reason why the flag is ‘backwards’ on sleeves is because someone fucked up the sewing and the Brass couldn’t be bothered paying to fix it, and people have come up with that bullshit about it being intentionally backwards for the reasons you stated (except, rather than using ‘retreating’ it was ‘running away’)
Was going to point how the UN flag was hanging, butt apparently that flag is not designed to be hung on a pole (nor the ARCHON flag)
OK, so it’s been called out (many times, and not remotely politely), but it’s in the middle of a scene. So DaveB has a choice: break the continuity of the scene by suddenly having a background element reverse itself with no on-screen action to cause it, or maintain scene continuity at least until someone on-screen can plausibly correct the mistake. I put it to you that option 1 will cause more reader headaches in the long term than option 2.
I am expecting one of the fell to request the return of the ancestral (ancient) holy took (relic) for the performance of perverse beyond utterance (unspeakable) marital romantic intimacy (cuddles). Also the next page should have Suzie ask why fans would expose a quarter to third of her chest in battle like that with a corset only to have dabs explain it used hypnotic lensing so the covered five sixths mind warping effect is adjusted to the exposed sixth, maximizing chance to draw enemies looks while causing the most thought disrupting effect.
Sydney’s shield is her most valuable power. Without it her other powers would be far less useful. Syd will be bubbling g the squishies while the brawlers slow down the baddies. It’s just like City of Heroes!
*uhnappy sigh*
I loved that game.
I had a dark-psi defender (never cared much for bubbling) and she was a-ma-zing.
Except for the alpha strike she could keep up with most Blasters, she could heal and rez and debuffed the hit chance of all but elite bosses to the floor to the point that she could Tank, with caution. And she was a better Controller than many actual Controllers I played with. And she had a pet that could do all of it as well.
Took forever and then some to get her to that point though.
Ahh fluffy, how I miss thee (and your ability to wreak havoc on enemy rank and file…)
Abruptly cancelling that game was a crime on par with the cancellation of Firefly …
(p.s. though for the sheer joy of chaos nothing beat a storm controller. Knock down, knock back, knock up (no not that kind you perverts ;)) and of course Skull punting in Perez Park)
This is literally the time for Sydney!
Hmmm How come I suspect Halo will just casually Destroy it..And Defeat them.. And Her friends and Government Will get Very VERY SCARED!
I was thinking the same thing. She growls, “I got this guys”,teleports inside and slices the ship apart.
Sydney can’t teleport inside, she has to first knock a hole in it.
The light bee needs a physical hole to enter the ship.
*cue the counter arguments that say “no she doesn’t, the light bee can pass through solid objects and even forcefields strong enough to deflect the Pew Pew Power beam”*
Of course force fields and all that relative velocity conversion which has going on in the forum for this page has to be discarded so that we may pretend that a reactive force field is the same as a physical hull.
Just to be clear: personally don’t agree with the claims the LightBee can pass through solid objects or force fields
Sydney only believed Squiddly had a force field because it managed to deflect a PewPewBeam to the face: she (and thusly, we the readers) never saw anything to indicate there really was one, because nothing on Dirt could do that (forgetting that she was not on Dirt, and Squiddly wasn’t from Dirt, and was able to create a blast strong enough to strain Mr Buble)
Well…. it can pass through solid objects, so I don’t see a problem with disputing what Pedantic said. Since DaveB literally said that it can and he just ‘forgot’ that it could during the Mars Factory page with the lightbee. So… word of god is that it can. Therefore, it can.
I think it would be apt that Sydney forgot that. She just wasn’t thinking right at the time.
Also a fair point. :)
She sent it through, at least 2 Force Shields, fighting the Kaiju!!!
Where was it shown the Squids had shields? Shown factually not guessed erroneously by readers
You must mean “Cue the canon showing that lightbee can travel through force fields.”
Right, you fucking idiot?
Tell that to the kaiju she destroyed.
Right on predicktable cue
You should have stopped after ‘right.’
Science needs to get it’s shit together. I’ve been waiting since I first heard it from Green Lantern in the 1960’s. Hurry up and figure out how to make “HARD LIGHT” !!! That shit is so cool!
” Damn scientists, why aren’t we all wizards yet!? ”
*plays cartoon heroes*
I know you’re probably joking, but there are a distressing number of people who look at soft science fiction who’s magiteck is defined as “this science box defies this law of physics so we can do this neat thing.” and go “why don’t we have that!?” followed by “Stupid scientists!” instead of the more correct “oh right, physics.”
https://www.seeker.com/solid-light-made-from-photons-1767874285.html here you go Hard light.. :) yep they made it ..
“some drastic action”
Sydney would go apeshit if she heard that… :p
Something “Drastic”…
How many great old ones/Cthuloids did Sydney kill again?
Yeah that Starship is toast before the chase ship shows up…
Arguably, just the one she sliced up (we have no way of knowing if that killed it, or merely slowed it down, same with the one she blew a hole in its head: no way of knowing if it keeps its brain in the head, or in its chest)
Killed? Zero.
Dismantled? Two.
I call your attention to the words at the bottom of the panel here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-644-this-is-how-my-culture-says-hello/
And take a look at Squidward’s burning pieces:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-667-the-hubris-inversion/
The big Cthulus were mechs.
Would be epic if Sidney showed off her new powers by destroying the carrier in a few seconds. Can’t be as hard to kill as what she faced on that planet. *Pew Pew Pew* *BOOOM* “Was that it?” lol
I am not sure if this would be a good idea. From a purely writing point of view (among other things)
First of all it would be anticlimactic.
It would diminish Cora and her ship. It also would diminish the entire galactic community.
The Fel have been set up, in the few mentions they have gotten so far, as one of the nastiest opponents on the galactic stage. By just brushing them aside as an afterthought their menace will be removed entirely from current and future story. It also leads to the dreaded ‘sorting algorithm of evil’ where at the end of each episode, or season the big bad must become a mere minion of next season’s big bad. Or the mcGuffin of the finale must be retconned and never be mentioned again.
It is the Superman problem. A character that is so far above the powerlevel of his or her environment that there is no credible threat and thus no sense of drama. In (script)writing 101 you are taught that in a story you need a protagonist who has a visceral goal and between the start of the story and the achievement of that goal a seemingly insurmountable obstacle (by the antagonist). Without the apparent certainty of failure there is no urgency to the story and readers will find it very difficult indeed to invest in either the story or the protagonist.
If Sydney can casually destroy enemies that has even the galactic army / police force nervous and both Cora (who is in command of a ship powerful enough to defend a major space station) and Xuriel actually scared then there is little to nothing on earth that can threaten her, or by extension Archon after this.
Both Maxima and Sydney actualy need to be DEpowered at this point at least virtually to allow Dave to keep introducing credible threats to Archon. (if not, it will very quickly enter bad manga territory and elder gods and unfathomable eldritch forces will be invading earth just to provide a justification for a fight scene).
Sydney has a couple of fundamental weaknesses.
First, there’s the “only two powers at a time” weakness; And because she’s a “mushy human”, who can’t take a hit, it’s really “force field plus one other power at a time”. For instance, she can fly, or she can shoot, but if she’s shooting she’s not jinking around, just in an unpowered arc.
Second, lack of control. You saw it with her cutting the tank up, and to a considerable degree fighting the squidwards: When she’s using the PPO at full power, it’s like trying to aim a fire hose. Her aim sucks.
Doesn’t matter much on an otherwise uninhabited and already trashed planet, but on Earth? Sure, she could probably cut that ship in half. And the city on the horizon behind it, too!
Aside from that, I’d say you have a point, she’s already powerful enough to, realistically, qualify as a strategic weapons system, the triad now has four legs: Submarines, missiles, bombers, and Sydney.
Collateral damage is a thing that exists. It’s the same reason why Max can’t just over-nuke every Super she fights.
Hope DaveB doesn’t mind me asking this here, butt know there are readers of “YAFGC” here and in no other webic (or at least not willing to admit it)
Please pass on this message
“Personally have no problems with the pace of the story, and looking forward to what happens next, no matter how long it takes. Have never been bored with the story and still enjoy reading it. PS Bring back Arachne :P”
So introduce them to Sydney already!
You know Dave. I can totally see Sydney having a sudden onset of ADHD PTSD and the orbs reacting to her mental state to just annihilate anything her mind considers a threat. Or just do an equivalent of Rimuru’s auto-battle.
Are the press still around? Because I have this image of Deux sitting in front of a TV screen, watching the live broadcast, and saying out loud, “there’s something on her ship those invaders are after? …WANT…”
And while the combat ensues, he just has his minion open a teleport into Cora’s ship, and five finger discounts the unspeakable cuddles.
No, last page had them taken to a safe location.
Dear Cora,
I know this is a radical idea, but space is three-dimensional, not flat. On a well-designed warship. either the ship is a sphere so that it can always rotate to fire on the enemy, tractor beams or no, or its main batteries are designed so that at least some of them can fire in any particular direction. Alternatively, teleport the main battery until it points.
Yours,
Yes, space is three-dimensional, butt please to be noting where the ship is currently? Sitting, on the ground, next to Archon HQ