Grrl Power #1077 – Coup de grâce appropriation
To answer some questions about Darude’s powers. He can control sand, and also transform into it, IF he has at least his own mass of sand to… hide in, sort of. A lot of superpowers (and magic spells) rely on semantics, so the question isn’t, “What is sand,” it’s “What does Darude consider to be sand?” Sand is really just particulate minerals, but Darude grew up in the desert, so he probably couldn’t use sand from a coral beach right off the bat. Sure, if he was the main character of his own comic, he’d almost definitely grow his powers over time and be able to use coral sand and maybe even be able to control concrete, or at least rip the sand out of it. In a manga, there’d be many multi-page sequences of him trying to work past his own definition of sand, like, when does a grain of sand become a pebble, or is there some intermediate designation that geologists use? Maybe when he’s a giant sandstorm, small to medium sized pebbles count as “sand” to him because of the difference in scale.
But what Sydney did was to melt the top 3 to 4 inches of particulate matter into a big molten trail of lava/glass, which then rapidly cooled and broke into slabs ranging from the size of the top of a shipping container down to, well, tiny, dangerous splinters that could reasonably be considered sand. Even so, she tied up about 97% of the sand for a few miles in any direction – remember the bits she skipped over was farmland, which will be soil rather than sand, (I think the major differentiator is that “soil” has far more organic matter in it) roads, and the odd building.
To address some other concerns people mentioned; yeah, she absolutely wrecked the ecosystem in that area. If anyone actually brought her attention to how many little desert mice and lizards she just smoked, she might legitimately have a breakdown. Basically, she saw a giant Mummy sized sandstorm and focused on solving that to the detriment of other considerations. The worst thing about her plan was that if Maxima hadn’t been able to keep him distracted and he had plowed onward, she could have done all this only to find him pulling sand from another part of the desert. It wasn’t really a strong plan in a lot of ways, but at the same time, it might have been the best one? Bottom line is, Darude is potentially a catastrophic level event, and sometimes to beat a catastrophe, you must become a catastrophe.
The August Vote Incentive is up!
I’m a big fan of John Byrne’s run on “The Sensational She Hulk” and the imminent show looks very Sensational influenced. Therefore, I was inspired to draw some buff (pun intended) She Hulk, and threw in Red She Hulk for fun. Also, a wild Sydney for scale. Enjoy them posing in various outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Cthillia has some gnarly feet there. I think that’s the first time we see anything other than it’s eyes.
We have seen her (I think it has been mentioned that Cthillia is a woman, I will find the link when at my computer) hands before as well.
I was pretty sure Chtilla was female too, but I went neutral, just to be safe. And I think I know when you are talking about, but I didn’t have time to trawl through the archives to check.
just to point this out, when going neutral, they/them is a tad less insulting than “it”. Just a heads up for future use on gender neutral or non-binary potential interactions. or just not sure about a person’s gender, most people in general wouldn’t want to be called “it”.
That is a fair point, and it is a pronoun I never use in real life. I honestly don’t know why I used that this time, except to, possibly, include another category that they might fit in.
Maybe because Cthillia is quite monstrous.
I don’t think anyone has to worry about offending Cthillia, what with her being fictional and probably a literal monster where ’it’ might be understandable and all. Like calling the squidward ‘it.’
I was just being accurate since she has been referred to both in comic and by the author as a woman. I wasnt trying to chastise porthos or something for calling her ‘it’, no worries!
Projection and habit.
terms one may use for fictional characters, one may be doing so out of habit, and thus doing so for real people. That is why I brought it up.
Fair enough.
Not merely that. Public re-education is a vital service to the community!
The author’s notes on page 530 refer to Cthillia as “she”.
I’ve been reading the Mage Adept series and today I read a part where they had that exact conversation about sand based magic and how the perspective of what sand is changes the magic.
Surreal.
Believe me, any of the ‘one word’ based magics are terrifying if applied properly. Thread Manipulation (or Fabrikinetics) is one of the most overpowered powers out there, because what, exactly, is a thread?
A thread can be a conversation, it can be fabric, it can be steel wire, it can be the makeup of the universe (if you believe in string theory), it can be a timeline, heck, it can be the individual strands of your DNA. It all depends on how you jail-break your powers.
You should definitely give the Nobilis RPG a try. *grins*
Just ask the hero “Best Jeanist” from My Hero Academia about that one.
Have you ever played Part-time Gods?
I once played the god of “Sin.”
Completely broke the whole damn thing.
A series im reading, a thread to a spider is, well, spider thread it can produce and manipulate, add extra properties to etc. Veery thread use heavy but hugely varied.
I feel this was definitely a case of “better to stop the fight now and help rebuild after than let it keep going and potentially get worse” if only due to the potential a sand-manipulator has for collateral damage, and I’m confident Maxima will make that argument in her report. Besides, supers have a lot of potential for helping out with the kinds of civilian applications a rebuilding effort at that scale would call for, and if the supers are already there and are the ones who were involved in the conflict in the first place? Why, in this modern era it’s as easy as e-filing some e-paperwork to extend the duration of their visit for a diplomatically* appropriate period, as a gesture of good will while cargo ships are located, loaded with relief supplies, and dispatched to the nearest port.
*plot
plus i’m sure Deus will have some industrial application for a couple thousand tons of glass. either directly (mining and polishing for use in jewelry perhaps) or as a raw material.
Or at the absolute minimum: “Cape glass trinkets! Made by the Mighty Halo herself*”
* and lots of additional worksmanship.
I remember a lot of shops selling glass eggs and things made from pumice from Mt. St. Helens, so There’s certainly precedent for this sort of thing.
Think I have a little bottle of ash from Mt St Helens someplace in my keepsakes. I’d drop a few quatloos for a paperweight made of Haloite.
Obsidusn isnt really all that rare or expensive. It costs about $1-$2 per pound.
It’s not so much glass as it is obsidian… Yes obsidian is a type of glass, but it’s also lava glass, not silicate glass. Glass isn’t a specific substance, it’s more of a classification of substance.
Obsidian, which again is lava glass, is incredibly hard to work with and it has a tendency to absolutely ruin crucibles. You can make it yourself… Just get a crucible and an electric smelter, then get a piece of naturally formed lava pumice, and drop it in the crucible and smelt it. Then say goodbye to your crucible because you will never get it all out of the crucible and it will contaminate anything else you try to smelt in it.
The best modern use is probably as a tourist attraction, but the Aztecs would have a field day making a bunch of weapons from it.
Let the human sacrifices to The Mighty Halo begin!!
Start with a certain douche, might not be able to find a heart though :P
oh… here’s something that i did’nt know until i was in my thirties, namely today, Chtillia and darude are not the same person. they just wear similar head dress. well i feel stupid now.
If you can imagine it, it’s really quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough, you’ll really sound precocious
Pneumoultramicroscovillesydneyvolcanocious!
Ah, that which is known as the Godzilla Threshhold. At what point is the damage caused by Godzilla the better option?
Whenever Sydney is involved :P
Gotta love pun names lol Darude Sandstorm… Really lol
The name was given to him by the readers, actually. It’s a case of an ascended meme.
That need to descend back down to hell
But that’s where I live, well Florida, but realy we just got that name to leave!
No, the other hell
you mean Texas?
How many hells is the US allowed to have? o_O
All of them.
There’s the valley of Gehenna. that’s not in the US. and its Hell in at least one sense.
Pretty sure there’s a Hell in a lot of states. Michigan here has one, too.
Michigan is where all the awful drivers come from.
I don’t think that’s the case. DaveB mentions that readers independently made the same joke reference he did, but doesn’t say he got the name from them.
Yes, that glass is DEFINITELY too hot to stand on. In the fifth and sixth panels you can see areas that are clearly still molten, and it takes about 3,090 degrees Fahrenheit to melt sand. Meaning where they stand the temperature of both ground and air should be closer to those inside a blast furnace than a normal desert. How Sydney managed to fly around that while melting it without her shield on… is she developing some passive invunerability? Is that what that unknown orb does?
It’s not sand… The sand in that reach is silicate sand. Silicate sands don’t melt into obsidian… Sydney didn’t just vitrify the desert, she transmuted it into lava glass…
halo has feather-fall now. she can keep her shield up, give herself a momentum boost with fly, then zoom forward, descending slowly while blasting. actually, the blast heat might give enough updraft, when combined with feather fall, to maintain altitude
Well now. Let’s see, how is Deus going to react to this solution I wonder? On one hand, this is likely going to make a fantastic tourist destination that will bring in a lot of revenue once he gets a few 5 star hotels and supporting infrastructure built up. Tourism is a fantastic tool he can use to not only draw even more money into this nations economy, but it will build up popularity worldwide. People will be less willing to support global action against his invasions if it means sanctions against the new hot tourist destination.
On the other hand, this is also political leverage. US troops inserted themselves into a battle that did not involve them and as a direct result of their actions they devastated the local ecosystem and caused an immeasurable amount of damage. He may or may not care about the damage to the ecosystem, but he does care about how easy it will be to use that fact to get something he wants. Perhaps official US support at the UN in exchange for pulling some strings to make sure this doesn’t become a major international incident. Perhaps he’ll ask for some relief aid, because why pay to build those 5 star hotels when someone else can pay for it instead?
Deus is really incapable of walking out of that without it being a major win for him.
Of course Deus cares about the massive damage to the local ecosystem. It will take decades or even a century to correct, and a number of small animals rendered homeless by the American heroes will suffer terribly while the nation of Galytn struggles to overcome the terrible harm. (One perfect tear falls down his face.) He has worked so hard to create opportunities for the people of Africa, and the attackers have set them back a decade on their timeline.
Clearly, the jealous neighbors that funded and supported this invasion need to be censured at the United Nations, and Galytn must act as necessary in its self defense. If the free people of ((name a neighbor)) desire Galytn’s help in overthrowing the corrupt politicians, then they need only ask.
Thank you.
Deus turns off phone.
Deus verifies phone is off.
Deus clicks lightning button . Muahahahahahahaaaa!
Really the only consideration Deus has is what strings are worth having attached to the aid and reparations.
Didn’t Max have on a respirator or the like?
yep, but the last page Max removed it.
It probably wont take as long as you think for Deus to fix it. Remember he has several geokinetics like Terre working for him, plus some telekinetics, many other supers, incredibly advanced alien tech including mass fabs and alari technology, probably access to magic (and definitely magical objects), demonic magic, eventually ‘wish magic,’ and the resources and manpower of both a multinational corporation and two nations.
It’s glass over sand. It’s not radioactive, it’s not poisonous, it even recycles. There are no buildings to worry about, it’s a big parking lot.
We could clean it up in a reasonable amount of time.
Why haven’t any comments mentioned the weird coincidence of these two attacks happening at the same time.
I kept expecting one of the frequent commenters to mention of a connection in the timing of the Archon invasion and the sand monster hitting the country just after everyone arrived from the U.S. Maybe Deus is behind both attacks. Maybe someone else considered this a two-pronged attack for some as-yet-not-revealed goal.
It was already said that the clumsy invader clones in Archon were a distraction while someone goes after the main prize that is still unknown (e.g. Dabbler’s workshop? Prisoners?). Meanwhile, while Harem could get outside the area to send a phone call to Maxima, the ongoing fight there meant it went to voice mail. By the time any message gets to Maxima, Halo or Dabbler, its too late to respond. Soldiers sacrificed for some goal?
I think a few pages back someone speculated that the soldiers we see attacking Galtyn are actually doubles of the character “Goon Squad” so he is not limited to distance.
if these two battles are connected then the red hoods are a larger organization than just some rich idiots state side thinking they have the right to control supers.
I doubt Deus is behind the attack on Archon, but I could easily imagine he was aware in advance. He might even be poised to take advantage of it, but I’d imagine that would be more difficult with Opal on the other side of the planet from it and her portals apparently limited in range (although, depending on how quickly she can portal her maximum distance repeatedly, it might be possible for her to get there very fast).
I’d even imagine he was aware of this incoming attack beyond merely an idea that he’d get a response to introducing demons. I could see him not only being aware of it but timing the visit from Maxima and team with manipulation of Darude and the attackers to coincide with each other.
Just because you didn’t read them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Honestly, it would be stranger for the attacks not to happen simultaneously, whether or not Deus planned any aspect of them.
Archon has powerful enemies, and it’s got to be public knowledge when any of the major team members leave the building, especially when an entire squad takes off together. And their arrival in Galtyn was also doubtlessly publicized online by civilians, or individuals on the base. All of this is true for Deus and his military as well.
An enemy of either group would see a great target of opportunity with Max, Halo, and Dabbler all off base and halfway around the world (sorry Anvil, you’re cool but just not on the same power level). With hours or even a full day to mobilize on an existing plan, it would be a simple matter to execute the attacks, whether in-house (for a proper shadowy international organization) or in collaboration with some trusted partners.
I did mention that the guy’s that Tom bashed with his axe and the minions that were in the Archon attack were the same guess no one picked up on it. The thing that I noticed is the one’s Tom hit were going “hut hut hut”before he struck and of course the same when the attack in Archon started.
I get the feeling that Darude is going to wish he was dead after Deus gets his hands on him.
Assuming darude isn’t secretly working for Deus anyway
This ^
And if he wasn’t, he’s about to be.
hes going to be given an offer he can’t refuse….
I’m probably late to the party, but I just realized the name of the bad guy is the same as the creator of the song ‘sandstorm’…That’s pretty funny
Only made the connection because I was listening to that song the other day
That’s… kinda the point, that no one in the story has actually used (didn’t that shit-wig get released late 10’s?)
it released in 1999
Really? Guess it took that long for that stink to get memed
“Because you dropped an Anvil on him.”
I suppose Concretia would be a good choice to clean up at least some of the glass.
And I bet she looks smashing in obsidian.
Okay maybe “smashing” isn’t a good word here….
It’s a fantastic word, we welcome your sharp wit and smooth delivery.
You know she already thinks you’re a glasshole, brich. <_<‘
Nonsense, I never even tried on Google Glasses. I honestly don’t know what people saw in them.
Not much, as I understand.
Maybe Marble Maiden? Or both?
Opal thought balloon.
I tried to take these people on in a fight. SHIT!!!
What kind of horrible thing could happen to Vehemence without empowering him ….?
I’m actually really curious what Opal’s attitude towards Archon is at this point (and towards Max & Sydney specifically). We haven’t seen her speak since the end of the restaurant battle, even though she’s made a couple appearances since then in Deus’s employ.
I’m guessing she’s still against them, given she was the apparent second in command of the battle, but curious if she’s abrasive enough to cause a scene here. Maybe Deus has converted her to a more enlightened self-interest approach.
In defence of Sydney, I think it was understood that Darude and Max would’ve destroyed the ecosystem quite thoroughly as well. Godzilla threshold Shmodzilla threshold – it’s understood for a fact this would have happened, along with much worse things. And hey, lots of “a few inches thick” glass is easier to collect and clean up than uh, lots of dead for miles around.
That two-sided portal though, nice work Opal! (struggled with remembering her name, almost said Teleportia from the Empverse, whoops!)
Now that the locals can handle the attack in Galen, The Mighty Halo should Warp Maxima and Dabbler and herself over to HQ.
Galytn.
By the way, what the heck happened to Opal? She looks like she’s aged 30 years since we first saw her.
No makeup
I hadn’t recognized her, had to check the sidebar. But I think that along with the lack of face paint, this is the first time we’ve seen her hair down instead of in the visor she appeared with previously.
Same, was about to ask who the new girl was and then saw the Who’s It
The three to four inches pretty much confirms Darude is a sandmorph with assimilation properties as he requires direct contact to add sand and then control it from there. Even with the surface melted there should be some sub surface sand…well unless that glass is dense and Sidney effectively made a giant hard bottle cap keeping him from even calling sand up from the sub surface, although it does seem like he lacked that ability before and is really specific on what is sand rather than pulling a Gaara and just smashing stones to make more sand.
Might be if the sand is wet or “contained” he wasn’t able to move it, I’ll bet it’s pretty thick in spots Sydney was just flying in circles.Even if it’s only a few inches thick it would take repeated blows in multiple spots to free up enough sand for Darude to use, I doubt they were going to give him the chance. Plus Max poomed him into the glass pretty hard and it barely did more than crack the surface. I used to make “natural” sand jewelry by sifting beach sand and adding some baking soda with powered metals for color. Some were pretty nice but fragile.
> so the question isn’t, “What is sand,”
Correct. The question actually is, “What is love?”
Then the answer is “u can’t touch this”.
Bayushi, don’t hurt me.
Don’t hurt me.
No more.
I prefer
‘I can’t watch this’
From far enogh away planets could easily appear to fall into the category of sand.
So, why didn’t Sydney just glass Darude?
The last thing, they wanted.
Because that is what Maxima was doing, but he can replace the sand with more off the ground.
Ironically opal’s the one to watch and take out first. Before she aperture’s everyone else into the Marianas Trench.
Same reason why Breach scared the shit out of all of the Providence Troops in Generator Rex, despite just being a barely-mutated Schoolgirl, compared to the far more threatening and monstrous Biowulf and Skalamander.
Because freaking portals.
Course, it was only made worse by the fact she wasn’t limited to places on Earth as well (The couple times Rex has direct interactions with her, she shows she can bounce through several mindfuck-ey pocket dimensions too, including one holding her “collection,” which was started by stealing an entire fucking midwestern US town. And then dumping the entire population of it in Warsaw, Poland, three days later).
Portal Makers are scary.
Aw, Generator Rex, it was such a good show…shame it ended so horribly, in a such a way its hard to watch it again.
IF it came to fighting them.
I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it yet, but Geologists do indeed have definitions for sand and pebbles and the distinction between the two. It’s all to do with the average grain size. Anything larger than 2mm in average grain size is collectively known as “gravel” (broken up into granules, pebbles, cobbles and boulders, by increasing size). Anything smaller than 0.05mm is “mud” (then broken up into silt and clay, by decreasing size).
Sand is what sits in the middle category, 0.05-2mm diameter. And like everything else, can be made up of all kinds of materials. But given the location I could take a fairly safe guess that quartz will feature prominently, and if I knew more about the location I could no doubt say a lot more.
Hrm Darude isnt in the Who’s who but sydney is evrn tho sydney isnt in today’s comic.
And neither are X or Glen. Probably. But Sydney gets insecure about being skipped over in her own comic, so it’s just easier to add her anyways. And this is the first time Darude has spoken so he hasn’t qualified until now, and he may not get to speak again. Not sure if a single page qualifies him for as having a speaking part or not. *thinking tilt*
It’s interesting that he has a character tag, that it hasn’t been applied to this page, and that he doesn’t have a “Who’s Who?” tag. The character tags are relatively new (introduced in 2019, on page 714), haven’t been applied retroactively or consistently, and I don’t believe there’s been any stated guidelines for when they should be applied to a page like the Who’s Who tags, though those haven’t been entirely consistent either. I know there’s been a name misspelled here and there as well. Elsbeth is misspelled on three pages as “elspbeth, and I want to say that Cthillia is misspelled on a page or two somewhere, but I don’t know for sure off the top of my head.
I really like the tags, fun to skim back through a character’s appearences, but yeah they’re inconsistently applied. :(
The tags do make it easier to pinpoint different parts of the comic, as I am wont to do.
He’s not been formally introduced, but Sydney should not be
Is there a reason the dude couldn’t pull the sand from below the glass/obsidian?
there are plenty of gaps to move the tonnes of sand under the new landmark from.
I am getting the impression he is more a sand morph than a sandkinetic with some direct contact assimilation/addition abilities with surrounding sand.
I imagine Cthilia will have some words with Darude for cramping his style. Very similar outfit choices
I can’t help but to think this attack was awfully convenient while others are going after their HQ – and how quickly Vale stepped in when Cthillia went down.
Cthillia is standing right beside Valeur
Wouldn’t a whole bunch of little lizards and desert mice have been killed anyway from being sandblasted by, and then buried in, thousands (millions?) of tons of sand from Darude’s giant sandstorm? Not sure I see how what Sydney did is harder on the ecosystem than what Darude was doing to it.
And if someone tries to say “But sandstorms are a natural part of the ecosystem”? No, sandstorms as huge and violent as what Darude was producing are not a “natural” part of any ecosystem!