Grrl Power #801 – The Heliotrope Lantern
Now, before Nathalie Hafner gets upset that her character is being used as a big dumb punching bag, she’ll have her moment. The character will. Aranea. I don’t know what Nathalie’s plans are. Aranea just got caught by surprise. Who could blame her? This is not a normal succubus power.
When someone has a growing mana reserve and no idea what to do with it, they can get creative. Normally nature would take its course, but YukiAkuma said one of Tamatha’s abilities was creating constructs so here we are.
Yuki didn’t say whether or not Tamatha was any good at insults, but I thought it’d be funny if she was especially bad at them.
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Sydney is going to be disappointed in Tamatha’s technique; anvils are supposed to fall on heads, not feet!
“Your head, your ass, let God sort ’em out!”
Tam Nukem, probably, 2019, colorized
She is young. Sydney can train her in the mystical art of curse-fu…… When Tamatha gets a couple years older.
There was an energy construct power, and she didn’t use boxing gloves?
-2 out of five, ruined forever.
There are far more effective ways to use a power ring than a boxing glove.
I’m reading that right now, it’s a surprisingly good introduction to the wider DC universe considering it’s based around taking the piss from common tropes in them.
Says people who fail to understand the perfection of the boxing glove.
You mean ‘simplicity’, used by those with limited imaginations
Jon Stewart was able to construct an entire squad of soldiers (his fallen comrades), Larfleeze is able to construct an entire Corp, heck Jordan is able to construct a gunship, complete with bullets, and you are proud of boxing gloves? o_O
To be fair, Agent Orange being able to construct so many self-willed constructs has nothing to do with his skill – that’s just a thing the Orange Light is really good at.
Those ‘constructs’ he creates, are all the dead Orange Lanterns who failed in securing their ring
And think how much energy and effort he would save if he just used Boxing Gloves. None of that ‘There Can Be Only One’ nonsense. Simply the quiet perfection of a gloved fist.
You… do understand what the Orange Lantern is, don’t you? Or did you get hit a few (thousand) times to many by a boxing glove? o_O
There has only ever been one other, living, Orange Lantern at the same time as Larf (and no, it wasn’t Scrooge McDuck)
Lex Luthor
:D Did you know that, or look it up? :D
Of course I knew that.
Also you greatly underestimate boxing gloves. :)
Nope, not underestimating boxing gloves, just saying that when someone is creating machine guns and missiles and swords and crap, using boxing gloves is just stupid
Really Lex Luthor.
That man spends million of dollars for destroying an indistructable alien, how can he wield a ring of greediness longer than a minute.
Scrooge is obviously what happens when a Green Lantern gets an Orange ring, or vice versa
Larfleez is the Emotional Spectrum’s resident Scrooge (to quote Calculator during the DCUO Christmas event)
actually there has been a couple including Hal Jordan in preparation to getting the white ring
crap even as I wrote it I knew I was wrong, so sorry got my lanterns messed up it was Kyle Rayner that was the white lantern that used every ring, hey its been a while and Hal Jordon did use an orange ring too (I had to look up the Hal Jordon)
As I understand it, a boxing glove is basically a protective device you wear on your hands for somebody else’s face. Yes, it does a good job of protecting your fists, which is what it’s primarily designed to do. But it makes your punches also not be as dangerous to the other guy.
If your weapon isn’t something that’s wrapped around your hand, why would you even think of putting it in the form of a boxing glove? Having it be in the form of a fist would be better, though not particularly imaginative.
You have that backwards. A boxing glove is a protective device you wear to protect your fists from someone else’s face. Without boxing gloves you can only punch so hard and for so long before you injure yourself. With boxing gloves you can punch harder with more force than you can without. And you can continue those harder punches longer. In bare knuckle boxing, there wasn’t a death in the ring. Because boxers had to pull their punches lest they break their fist on the opponent’s face. And there was still a recovery time for your fists to heal. After boxing gloves, you can beat an opponent unconscious and be ready for another match a day later. There are conditioning exercises that can strengthen your fists against damage. But that takes years of work. Boxing gloves give you that benefit just by putting them on.
TL;DR: Boxing gloves makes the sport more dangerous and deliver more damage then punching without them.
The problem with the boxing glove is that a boxing glove is by design a padded, bunt implement. It is by design intended to do less damage than even a bare fist.
I’m not a big DC fan, I prefer Marvel by a huge margin. But my admittedly limited understanding of the the lantern rings is that they operate on imagination and willpower. And if you are imagining a boxing glove, a device designed to do minimal damage, you are limiting your combat effectiveness by the simple fact that your own brain is holding you back.
Almost as if the “hero” part of “superhero” meant something.
Except, you are battling people like Nekron and Dex-Starr the Red Lantern-kitty (yes, one of the Red Lantern’s is an earth cat, don’t laugh, one of the Blue Hope Lanterns is a corgi!!)
Don’t laugh? I dare anyone who reads Dex-Starr’s origin to NOT CRY!
Yeah, read about it when wrote the above (wanted to make sure had his name spelt correctly) :(
It was more the idea that a ‘simple’ earth cat could be such a threat (he damn well eats people!!)
Forget about not crying, dare anyone who reads his origin to not sympathize with him and want to back him up
Does it mean “losing?” Because cops carry firearms for a reason, and that reason isn’t to collect live criminals. Or are you saying that cops, mere mortals without an impenetrable forcefield who still put themselves in harms way for others, aren’t heroes?
Actually, it is to collect live criminals, cops, well, good cops only draw their weapon if their, or others’, lives are threatened
Don’t believe the movies or the propaganda news that portrays cops in a bad light
You are, as usual, an idiot.
Cops don’t carry firearms to collect live criminals. If they must use their firearms they are trained to shoot to kill. Only in “the movies or the propaganda news” do cops shoot guns out of people’s hands, or (deliberately) shoot a criminal in the leg so as to capture them alive. If it comes down to gunplay then there is zero consideration given to live capture of the criminals.
You are, as usual, wrong. Cops carry sidearms for self-protection and for the protection of others. If the criminal (who is acting in direct contravention of common decency and the rule of law) wants to drop their weapon and surrender, the cop will not shoot them. Every cop I know carries handcuffs so they can take criminals (who choose to be criminals) into custody in a non-lethal way. Most cops also carry a taser, pepper spray, and a baton for further non-lethal ways of subduing criminals (who choose to be criminals, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned previously). This whole “all cops are bad” nonsense needs to be stamped out of our society, as it is evil and wrong. So there! Nyaah! XD
So how do you explain unarmed people getting shot by cops?
BTW Thank you, i’ve never heard of this story and i’m loving it after starting from the beginning.
You have many, many days worth of reading ahead. :) If you manage to catch up and still have too much free time, you can fix that by tackling the giant archives of the Jenkinsverse (Deathworlders) or 365 Tomorrows.
So does she later date an Oan ?
Who is Nathalie Hafner?
It was said before that these two characters, Tamatha and Aranea, aren’t Dave’s characters but belonging to some of his Patreon sponsors. Natalie appears to be Aranea’s creator/owner.
For those of you that have played TOON, I judge that to be two falls to Aranea.
Pray it’s not but rope
Not sure how that ended up as a reply
??? Butt Rope ???
:p
Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!
Well if you’re going to be making constructs, a hand to grab that dropped dagger would be fairly useful for now and More useful later on in life.
Creating the scissors seems to be a faster way to achieve the same advantage as grabbing a dagger. It would take ~ the same amount of effort to pick up the dagger with a construct, and in the time it takes to retrieve the dagger a created scissors can be snipping away.
Depends on how sharp and strong her constructs are, right?
Didn’t Sydney hope for a Smash Cut? o_O
I just realized that Ashley has been part of the comic cannon for almost eight years now.
That’s a really, really cool feeling…
A ‘comic cannon’ would have a big flag sticking out of the front with the word “BOOM!” on it. :)
Sorry too brake into you’re comment, but I had two dew it on principal. With homonyms its hard to no witch won to chews.
Beast comment to die.
Not to rain on your parade, but, um, who is Ashley? Links to canon appearances would be awesome!
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-316-couture-cammies/
He is the in-house tailor. His armored vest happened to save Sydney from impalement during her Kosmic Kaiju battle a short time ago in a galaxy not that far away.
P.S. Ashley just let slip his place of origin: “almost eight years now”
May of 2015 to now is about 4.7 years. However, a Venus year is only 225 Earth days.
(4.7 x 365) / 225 = 7.7
Ashley, you may want to keep that fact under wraps. The current US government has some issues dealing with resident ‘aliens’.
+2 skill points for awesome mathness
How could you forget Iron Cloth? Especially with the commentator/patreon using his avatar as a visual prompt!
:-O
Because… Oberon
who?
Tamatha described herself as Halo’s biggest fan. I can just imagine future pages where Tamatha tries to curse as creatively as her hero, and fails in extremely cute and hilarious ways.
I was thinking that, myself.
Was the ropes out of the butt a Spinnerette reference?
That was my first thought.
Possibly. But Sydney has had a similar concern too. Unless they are both fans, it is probable that it is just referencing the original source, namely that is where spider silk (and caterpillars etc) is extruded from (OK a specific organ, but in the butt area).
That said though Dave did used to follow Spinny, and the comic does feature in his recommended list, plus he is prone to making pop culture references, so entirely possible.
Spinny is canon.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-366-successfully-unwarranted/
Well, with a caveat. The patreon characters are canon, recurring individuals who have an impact on the story. Whereas the tribute type cameos are there either to pay homage or as a gag, depending on how they appear. Which should not be taken as being a canon in-universe character unless Dave indicates such.
Remember that rule of funny trumps everything. Spinny was in there because she was funny. Likewise Batman, in another scene. Who Dave certainly would not be able to use as a recurring character. But parodying him in a one off scene is fair game under the relevant intellectual property laws (YAY – even the law recognises that funny trumps everything!!!).
Also, that would mean that Wolverine is canon and that Grrlverse is part of the Disney Universe
Not to forget: Spinny is not a vigilante, she is a sanctioned, and recognized, SuperHero
Looks like the “demon hunter” wasn’t prepared.
Also did Tammie just Thu’um the woman?
Although it sounds like she is trying to be a true fan by making up insults on the fly that are good enough to peal the drywall and make sailors blush. Not doing it very well though but at least she is trying.
wish there was a way to edit things. I would have removed the quotations if I could.
wish there was an edit button. I would change so much of this…
Be very careful with the “W” word. Use it as cautiously as you would the phrase “please castrate me”.
More specific.
Said demon hunter didn’t expect fast, invisible and eastern subtitled fighters, so she didn’t expect Ninja’s.
My mistake.
I mistook the hole in the wall for an anime attack involving letters.
I now know that it was Tammy who attacked.
Tammie would do well to learn the art of the insult from the Grand Mistress Scoville. Let us not forget the botched bank robbery or her endeavor into another realm facing off against an alien warship. Comedy gold!
Just do remember, Tammy is only 14
Plenty of time for practice!
Well, she never stood a chance in the insulting-people field. Halo has a monopoly.
Looks like her steeltoes don’t do much for her metatarsals.
Imagine being born with enough truesight to realize that you’re surrounded by demons and aliens but not have anyone available to provide context. Would probably drive someone a bit nuts.
I see dead people. – Joel, probably
Not sure if Lovecraft wrote a short story on this, but one of his stories did prompt other writers to have the idea. What if those hallucinations one is seeing are real, creatures from another dimension with limited interactions with our world; but trying to tell others about them, reacting to them if only by reflex, drives some mad, or at least makes them look crazy to others.
I don’t think it would be a problem if your born with it, since you would learn to preceive this view of the world as normal on an early age.
It would just result in the illusion that unusual body features are a sex like taboo, thanks to avoiding answers from your parents, since they think it’s your own fantasy.
As long you don’t a. grow up in a human only community, b.get really intimate with any of the creatures hidden by the veil or c. start understanding biology too deep you will stay in the illusion that this is how the human race works and as long you don’t discover it in your biology class or an excursion it won’t be a problem, since your partner is probably willing to teach you about the Veil in such an instance.
Tama needs to hang around an angry Sydney a little more i think…but darned if she isn’t just adorable, trying to let loose the insults!
Also, #200 comment! Woohoo!
It’s good to know Tamatha is not helpless.
Also I like the form her power takes.
Anyone else notice just how closely the SMASH-outline in panel nine resembles Aranea’s mask symbol’s?
There is a similarity. Quite poetic.
Heh, looks to me like Tamatha has ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ magic. OK substituting anvil for rock, but they do the same job and look cooler.
HAPPY NEW YEAR one and all!
Plus, Anvil is a sweetie, once you get to know her ;)
And as long as you resist the temptation to ask how the weather is up there.
Maybe she secretly is Gon of Hunter, hunter
So a succubus version of Sydney? They get along pretty dang well and this shows they almost got the same personality.
Did anyone get the Spinnerette reference i the last frame? I don’t see any comments about it. :)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-801-the-heliotrope-lantern/comment-page-2/#comment-821705
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-801-the-heliotrope-lantern/comment-page-1/#comment-821501
Hmm.
Tamatha is unable to cut the webbing with the scissors.
Perhaps more practice is in order, or maybe make a serrated knife.
Or a mystic blow torch and magically burn it apart.
I would not jump to the conclusion that the scissors have failed to work. Tamatha was distracted and disgusted by the thought that the webbing may have come out of her foes butt. Once she focuses the scissors may well do their job just fine.
Calling @Yorp.
I just now learned your account is from page 16 and flipped across the X axis. That’s funny. Why did it take me so long? This is my first time re-reading the comic.
If it is your first time re-reading, that is probably why :D
He he. I hope you spotted my other appearance later in the comic too?
*wags tail wryly*
Yeah that has to be Spinnerette references. Which pleases me greatly :D
I think it would have been actually more fun if this was spinnerette. Or perhaps one of her villains, maybe we’ll get a cameo from her after all – saying that since she knows an actual warewolf and a cerberus maybe spinnerette has been allowed to see through the veil ?
If Spinnerette does show up, she’ll be an alt universe of her own comic universe, and not from that comic universe, which means she could indeed peer through the Veil…or it could mean she doesn’t know a werewolf yet, who knows?
Is it just me, or does Tamata act and speak very “Sydney” here?
Still shy regarding Sex? Check.
So much power she is not sure what she can do? Check.
Interesting choices of cursewords? Check.
Looney Toons and general geek references? Check.