Grrl Power #1127 – Mag-neato
You can’t blame Varia for having second thoughts about checking out her gestalt interaction with Death Toll. Going from having no powers to absolutely wrecking the oppo like she is here, then back to nada. Not that touching DT is a guarantee of anything changing on that front, but he seems like a likely candidate if such a thing is possible.
Jiggawatt: (when she wakes up) Why am I so tired?
Varia: You mean besides the ar, um, concussion?
Jiggawatt: Uh, yeah. Probably should go and see Doc Chevvy when we get back.
Varia: You definitely should. Also I used a wicked lot of powah while you were out.
Jiggawatt: Ohhhhh? How much power would you say?
Varia: *sigh* At least a Jiggawatt of powah?
Jiggawatt: *manic giggling* Ow! *more giggling* Ow! Ow, my head!
Varia: One point twenty-one Jiggawatts of powah?
Jiggawatt: Ow! Hah hah! Don’t make me laugh! Hah hah! Ow!
Varia: Serves you, ar, er, right!
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That is some damn impressive control, whipping up a working coilgun out of mostly scrap wire.
Also a little superfluous, given that she can just magnetically TK beat the crap out of everyone…
Yeah, but kind of redundant, in as much as a coil gun uses electricity to produce magnetic fields that push the projectile, so basically she’s using her magnetic power to produce electricity, that then produces… magnetism.
You’d think she’d just directly magnetically throw the projectile…
I mean, you think about Magneto: At his peak he could rip the iron out of your hemoglobin, or use insane magnetic fields to mold steel like putty. On off days he could just levitate a cloud of ball bearings and perforate anybody near him.
I think the field-expedient coilgun isn’t about being able to shape the necessary fields, but rather firing a projectile accurately. It’s about *precision*. She’s gone from having a blunderbuss to an anti-materiel rifle. Probably didn’t need it for the mooks, but she happened to have it primed…
It might also help cut down on ‘stray’ magnetic fields that make flinging chunks of metal impractical. Also, she’s clearly tried this before.
Similar to the electromagnetic power of the girl in “A Certain Scientific Railgun” anime.
Same. I was just waiting on her to pull out a roll of 100Yen coins next.
Ah Mikoto Misaka. Frickin love that series.
Ripping iron atoms out of hemoglobin requires a magnetic field strength equal to that of a magnetar, the strongest magnets in the known universe. It takes less magnetic field strength to unravel your DNA or reduce your body to mush. Kyle Hill made a video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htaYu2NGOgw
Yeah, not saying the comic books were physically accurate about that. That takes enough of a magnetic field that he’d just disintegrate the walls in his way by destroying their molecular cohesion.
Still did that sort of thing in the comics, though.
Comic book phyics and logic are usually a law unto themselves. Such as the bloke (Cyclops) who channels glaring red extradimensional energy beams constantly & uncontrollably through his eyes but can still see, or Forge who somehow gained the ability to build any machine he wanted, without ever having to understand how any of it worked, or even if the machine was possible in the first place.
There are still wires leading to the walls so maybe she’s using the base’s electricity for leverage. Well, up until the generator gets smashed.
Check panel six: no wires
She effectively made a railgun. The tighter the coils, the stronger the push. If anything those coils are just there to make it easier.
Railguns have rails. This is a coilgun.
The short-sightedness here is realizing that what aspect of a flexible superpower a character uses is solely, and I truly mean solely, dependent on the interest of the writer in the moment.
What makes you think it’s redundant? What if it isn’t redundant? Why? Because it’s easier for her that way or the writer thought it was cool and didn’t even think of a reason. That’s ALL it takes.
Also, Magneto never making a railgun out of wires is an example of his own limitations, not power. He’s just not that scientifically-educated. He mostly uses his power like a hammer and most of the instances where he flexes out is when he’s mind-controlled and/or amplified somehow.
Might be more of a force multiplier thing. Yes, she can rip support beams out of the walls, sure, but that might take more effort on her part? Perhaps it’s more of a “Better to have this thing read to punch through any shields or what-not” or something along those lines.
Mayhaps the amount of oomph she can put into a given thing is related to the mass as well as how much of it readily interacts with magnetic fields, so making the coil gun would let her start launching aluminum or tin, or more easily impart significant energy into small pieces of steel or iron.
Either way, her making this thing out of what’s available *can’t* be doing anything good for this base’s power or other systems.
The coils are activated by the line current which you can see the wires for in the first panel. Saves her power and uses the bad guys’ electricity.
The normal 110v system wouldn’t have nearly enough juice to power this, and the upstream breakers would pop first.
Come to think of it, pretty much all power and comm wiring in this facility would be copper, and therefore non-ferrous. So I’m not sure how she’s moving it with magnetic fields, other than superion-handwavium interaction.
Yeah and pulling cable would be a whole lot different too if it ripped through walls like that.. also building code should have had it in EMT but the way it’s cutting through concrete as just the wire I imagine it already sliced out of that.
Maybe she reversed the polarity on the neutron flow…
Oh, you can apply forces to anything conducive with a magnetic field. It just has to be a *changing*magnetic field.
The moving magnetic field indices current, and the induced current reacts against the field. That’s how induction motors work!
Changing magnetic fields produce electrical fields, and visa versa. That’s all an electromagnetic wave is, energy sloshing back and forth between electric and magnetic fields. Electricity and magnetism are VERY closely related.
I totally agree he was off-pitch and off-key in many parts of the song.
It’s actually terrifying how significant magnetism are. It means near enough everything around you can be turned into a weapon or shield.
As long as it is conductive (and somewhat flexible) it can be made magnetic, and thus a rail gun.
And with enough power everything is conductive …
And one of the reasons Magneto was feared so much.
Magneto was feared more because he learned how to manipulate people’s iron… Usually while it was still in them.
Magneto could move objects the size of a city, at near light speed, at a range of outside our solar system.
There were plenty of valid reasons to fear him.
Absolutely wrecking them all while keeping a grip on Jigga’s… hip.
Keeping a grip on Jigga’s whatt?
Her cheek, rump, fanny, buttocks, protruding posterior, behind, keister, bootie, caboose, derriere, rear end, mooner, haunches, double duff, hankers, seat, heinie, buns, haunches, flank, breech, tooshie, arse, money maker, bon bon, trunk wit tha junk, badonkadonk, tuckus, dookie maker, bum.
And Varia is working that butt off
Ok despite the pun I have to give you +1 internet for the thesaurus/street dictionary of synonyms. Well done.
You had “haunches” twice and missed “bottom”.
peaches, twerkstation, caboose, bubblebutt, rear view, heinie, backup dancers
Cue “only my railgun” playing.
It’s the theme to “A certain scientific Railgun” and if you’re here and you haven’t seen it, you’ll probably like it.
Haven’t bumped into this one before, but I imagine people are recalling scenes like this one. Quite the party trick. o_0
AMV of my lucky strike was playing for me. Same anime tho
Another character I can name that is impressive with her electro-magnetic manipulation control would be Railgun from the anime A Certain Scientific Railgun.
I am actually very curious what’s going to happen if DT and Varia touch. Now you got me to hoping that DT is starting to rethink his life after Varia scolded him. If he surrenders, then ARC’s scientists might actually be interested in testing this in a controlled environment. I mean, if they can test Vehemence’s powers then I have no doubt they can research DT as well. Also I’m curious if his abilities include Sydney’s orbs, because they’re arguably from some highly advanced civilization and not necessarily super powers, but I bet that there must’ve been debates about that in the comments here during his first fight in the parking lot already. :-)
Also DT vs. Maxima is something I’d like to see as well, hoping that he doesn’t take Maxima down the exact same way as he did with Anvil.
And last but not least I find DT’s personality hilarious! “Attack me or be labeled a coward!” XDDD
Yeah I doubt it for Sydney… I doubt he could even actually counter her.
It’s like in Xanthy, you have a magician whose talent is that he can counter any magic used against him. Well, bullets aren’t magic.
In this case, he has a power that can counter any super power. Technology isn’t a super power, and Sydney’s orbs are just insanely advanced technology, not super powers.
DT can counter non-super powered threats as well. His power seems to keep him safe, for the lack of better words. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-209-dramatic-speed-lines-ensue/
Well, if the superion field is artificial, then how is that different from insanely advanced technology? I think the lines blur at some point.
The superion field is the *same* technology that gives DT his power. It might be better at countering itself than at countering other things.
Tony Stark says hello… xD
Tony Stark can blow me. The suit is not his super power. Take Tony Stark, just him, nothing else, to say… a million years ago. He can’t make another suit. He can’t summon his suit. He’s boned. If he had superpowers and the suit was his superpower, then he’d be able to summon it. He’s Tony Stark, not Moon Knight whose suit actually is his super power.
When Varia touched Sydney her orbs started orbiting around both Varia and Sydney, so there is *some* effect, and possibly Varia could control them. We haven’t explored that in-comic yet.
Presumably DT would have a similar effect. In any case, keep them the HELL apart.
I suppose tieing up varia and sydney together with some sort of skin contact maintained would turn Sydney’s Powerset from a small one person spacecraft into a two person space boat.
Which means that Syd and Var can identify as Attack Helicopters now.
One uses fly and shield (pilot!)
The other uses ppo tentacle (gunner!)
Even just one more hand, and Sydney would be a ridiculously gunboat. Shields + Flight + PPO. Add in a fourth hand (have Syd & Xochitl go back to back) and you have some real extravagance – life support, comms, lighthook all swapped out when needed and in total convenience.
Forgot the word “potent” in there.
Tying up Varia and Sydney together… I like your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. :-D
Maybe the orbs manipulate the Superion field to produce their effects. We already suspect one nth race has altered humans to enable them to have super powers. Maybe the orbs belonged to an observer.
She will gain a Summon google eyes power.
And when Varia links with Sydney, they will be able to summon a googly-eyed tumbleweed on demand.
Ouch for icicles-butt there. The ‘hard takedowns’ policy in effect.
Even the most devout of Jedi were curious bout the powers of the Sith. Tis only natural to be curious
Back to Maxima… Where’s Sydney when you need someone whose whole body can just simply ignore gravity? Yes I know that’s the real why she’s waylaid in Africa. Because Suck Hole would be a fairly easy fight for her. He can’t gravity her, and she has a number of tools that could be used to knock him out.
Speaking of Sydney, what’s going on with her? It feels like it’s been ages since we checked in on her.
Iceman goeth (or is that Icewoman? can’t quite make out if the tie is between cleavage in the last panel)
From the general build it looks like a guy.
Dabbler could make her a ‘living’ object with several useful DNA abilities in it.
I remember a series where the mc had a Nemesis power that let him duplicate and even power up (his own) any ability of any superhuman in his radius. In the second book, he found samples of several supers in little ampules that were being kept ‘alive’ that he put into a pouch and wore around to have access to the powers until he burned them all out in the final fight of that book.
You mean that bra that was ‘self-adhering’?
I’d say no but that is a good idea, IF Dabs could resist making it a sexual device as well. That “bra” would of done way more than just “hold on” lol. If Dabs had her way, Max would of had orgasms every minute of everyday if Dabs could. Kinda distracting…
I used to work with a woman that decided to get a certain piercing down there and had to go on short-term disability because it caused that same problem for her, she couldn’t even drive! I guess it saved on the dating issue for her and a crap ton of batteries as well…
She wasn’t ugly but in that emo/goth way she always wound up the the worst kind of guys.
That raises an interesting question for Varia. Does the tissue she touches have to be sentient? She could have a whole business of gene spliced or skin grafted ferrets that follow her around and provide the source of various powers. Or a whole closet of living skin suits…but that would be just creepy.
I think we were told it just has to be ‘living’.
So a bracelet of some sort with a bit of skin kept alive by science, magic, or both would be perfect for her otherwise extremely versatile but limited power. She isn’t always going to have a useful power up to grab hold of. She never did figure out what power she gained from Sydney. Though I think she may be able to use the orbs while touching her.
I was thinking bio-patches, think like cheese slices individually wrapped (or nictotine patches of a sorts), little packs using advanced science or magic that supply air and just need a little water and nutrients every so often like tending a little patch of moss…except its human tissue…like little gardens. So she has a flip book of these and when she needs one she slaps it on and the science-magic wrapping detracts and adheres around the edges to form a path with exposed skin to skin while stuck on her.
and now with this convenient invention she can access many useful powers.
Another option for super-science to pursue: keep the DNA patches in stasis, once she breaks the seal and slaps it on herself they should be crafted to allow her body to keep it alive. She could have a fanny-pack of tiny symbiotes.
I don’t think you’d want it to graft, especially since she a) only needs contact, and b) can only have 1 power at a time. But a stasis pack that dispenses power bandaids with a freshness timer/alert would let her pick and replenish powers at will, before the samples degraded enough to fail.
Sort of reminds me of the super patches in Young Justice that Superboy got from Luthor in season 1 or 2.
Oh yeah, they were to suppress his human DNA and temporarily boost his Kryptonian side.
Varia’s got a POSITIVE attitude about all this.
Being able to tear wires out of the concrete is pretty impressive, even though concrete’s tensile strength isn’t much, and that field-cobbled coilgun (plasgun?) is terrifying. I’d really love to see the Electroboom guy experiment with it, preferably with some responsible supervision.
But smooshing a steel frame that size, at speeds too high to dodge, would use way more than 1.21 GW of energy, and require incredible finesse to pin an opponent without splatting them. Having designed and analyzed seismic-resistant steel frames like this one, that last panel is easily the most impressive power demonstration on this page.
Remember that in this operation, their rules of engagement aren’t very limiting. That guy may very well be mortally wounded.
1.21 JW
(And yes I know its actually gigawatt as a measurement but thats the joke :))
I’m hoping that when this joke graduates from the author blurb to the comic itself, it’s a bit more subtle. Something like Varia stating during her after-action debrief that she exceeded Jigg’s normal capacity by 21%.
Dang Varia!!! You are impressive with your control over temporary powers.
Take note that we’re seeing stop-motion rebar rotors. In reality they’d just be a blur if they could knock away all the icicles. She’s probably tapping out ‘I’ve got the Powah’ beats on the concrete as she walks along…
The railgun is a good idea, further concentrating her magnetic fields for accuracy and power. Obviously more effective than just throwing a divot of steel their way. This is a power set she is very familiar with, probably because Jiggawatt practices with her at base a bunch.
She really needs to try out Sydney’s idea of seeing if some hair or blood or something could be used to give her powers on demand…
Just made this scene pop into my head.
Funny, I heard this when I thought ‘Power’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A52–FKUQgU
Even better, it happens when she touches. :)
Yeah, that makes a more fitting tune, specially seeing how she has to touch to get the powah
Poor guy lost his shoe. Anybody know the brand? Betcha they’re a few hundred bucks a pair, he better make sure he grabs it while cradling his broken ribs.
Fairly sure that that is a brick, looks too blocky to be a shoe
No, pretty sure he lost his loafer and is wearing striped socks.
Well, apparently creating a railgun was something Varia practiced with Jiggawatt before. Makes me wonder what other teammate combos she has at the ready.
Suddenly, Arianna’s opinion that Varia needs a raise carries a lot more weight.
I’m getting Magneto vibes in these strip, And yes he could levitate using the iron in his blood so that is possible, just risky. The railgun is a good idea, sure it uses her power but it amplifies it as well and does a better job of aiming the bit she puts in it. I think a super feeling “tired” from using their power(s) is because the superon energy is getting depleted in their bodies, and since Sydney doesn’t feel that effect, she didn’t know she had depleted hers in that super-sized glass disk she made.
It will no doubt take a few days for Sydney to fully recover her orb’s power levels, they store a HUGE amount of energy, and suspect each orb is a pocket dimension that stores not only the energy, but the the devices that use that power. That makes the idea of the last unknown orb a brig quite possible…
Would make containing problem children like suckhole and Kelvin much easier.
Magneto doesn’t just manipulate ferris metals. His power pool was expanded to full electromagnetism, which was nerfed and boosted back and forth over the decades, this is how he can generate an energy shield, bend light to turn invisible, use quantum locking or repulsion depending on the decade written, and manipulate radiation to form energy blasts in some versions.
I definitely read a comic where it was a plot point that Magneto is powerless if locked in a completely nonmetallic prison with no metal within miles.
yeah he gets nerfed, and then boosted, and then nerfed again. Same as Storm, Iceman, Jean Grey, Venom, heck even over at DC the ups and downs of Superman, Aquaman, Wonderwoman, Power Girl, Supergirl, (all Kryptonians really), and various others.
Its like that Death Battle of Magneto vs Tetsuo, they definitely used the Magneto from those times when the writers pulled out the physics text books and basically made him a god controlling the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
But yeah, the Fox movies turned him into what is often called a “Ferrikinetic” or basically just someone that can control ferris metals but displays no other magnetic properties *like electrical or radio waves etc…*’
(Static Shock was more electromagnetic)
Heck I too have read and seen things like a cartoon where Magneto loses to Mr Fantastic because Mr Fantastic tricked him into thinking he lost his powers by using a toy wooden gun…and Magneto was carted off in a police car…not even trying to use his powers.
Heck want really bad writing inconsistencies which are based on character popularity and not any kind of story bible (never assume comic writers really care about consistency or continuity….too many chefs in the kitchen)…back in the 90s or so when the X-men were the top Marvel property Magneto once controlled Mjoner (Thor’s Hammer) with his magnetism and directed it back at him….but in the 2010s or so with the Avengers the top property suddenly and without referencing or explaining it Magneto can’t control Thor’s hammer.
That’s the thing, once you believe you can’t do something, you stop even trying
Remember in the second(?) X-Men movie, when Maggie was locked in that glass cell? He was all mopey and sad until that guard entered after having a rough night with Mystique: when he detected all that lovely mercury in the guard he perked right up
He specifically was injected with liquid iron. I remember him saying some variant of “Mr. Guard, it seems you had a little too much iron in your diet?” or such.
Yeah, that was definitely iron; just a bit of mercury would have caused all sorts of lethal complications to the man. (Although to be fair, having Mystique just inject him with what looked to be powdered iron like she did would have also killed him, but more due to clogged blood vessels than neurological damage.)
Is it bad that I snerked from your commentary, Dave? I mean, I REALLY snorked a good one. That was hilarious.
Railguns are neat…and this lets her amplify the magnetics to increase the intensity. I presume it works like a dynamo.
Well, these two have clearly trained together before. Nice.
As for “why a coilgun instead of just throw”? Think of it like a wizard’s wand or staff, or Cyclops’ goggles: Sure, they can still technically Do The Thing without the help, but having the help makes Doing The Thing take less energy/focus/concentration and possibly even makes The Thing more safe/accurate/powerful.
I wonder if Varia could gestalt from a Goon Squaddie or if she’d have to be in contact with the original.
If she has that much fine control with her magnetic powers she could wrap up each bad guy and carry them along with her as she goes.
looks like ice-power’s now has cracked ribs to go along with their concussion
If this whole battle was a chapter in a graphic novel, it should have a chapter title something like “Gravity of the Situation”.
She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Ass~ault Cannon
The problem is that if Toll Booth is able to get the switch of her powers stuck to ‘on’ it’s entirely possible she gets stuck on a useless power like the bird radar…or spontaneous mustard generation. I’d be interested to see what Krona sees when she’s decoding a power.
Yes, had similar thinkings (the first part, not about Kronachrome)
Question for you Vahriah: What if touching Peri did give you permanent powah, but only one powah (and that powah was random)?
or locked her power into a different variant of what she has now, like a disturbed one. So instead of Gestalt at touch she instead ended up locked with Power Cannibalism (or worse temporary power cannibalism) where she has to either drink the blood or consume some of the flesh of someone to use their powers (also yest there is a hentai version of this).
and the Gestalt, not always the same power but still this…which never heard of actually, so Approximate/Unlock Temporary Power Cannibalism.
If it’s a warped version of her current power where family lines produce similar powers that brings up interesting questions about breeding stock…this slave family makes me icy, this one makes me fiery…seriously Varia would make an interesting super villain
“Fuggin'”? I know we have history, but I hope you’ve read up enough to know what I mean by: E A D E B G
I don’t see why touching DT would have any effect after they stop touching
Thought you guys would like this. https://imgur.com/gallery/M5AcEEO
You forgot to leave the comment there, “Maxima dresses up.”
She made a Magnetic Coil rail gun!? Badass!
…why DIDN’T Magneto ever do that…? Well, I guess when you’re powerful enough to mess with the whole PLANET’S magnetic poles, something like a refuse launcher becomes a bit trite.
Ass~aultin’ Battery
I dont care how many plotholes surround Varia’s powers. Anyone that can casually make a mass driver and turn a building’s steel support beams against people is a win in my book.
Most notable plotholes is how it was stated she can only snatch a power once. It was also stated that her gift was already tested on the main group. It was never stated that there was a cooldown period.
…. what? Snatch a power once?
She can gestalt as often and as much as she likes. However, it won’t change via the person. We’ve had montages of her flipping between various people using powers, and she’s magneto’d at least three times in this comic with Jig.
Not seeing any of the plotholes you’re positing. Varia can only have 1 power at a time, but she acquires it again every time she makes skin contact with that person. Testing it on the rest of the prisoners / team has no bearing on whether she can re-use their power at any moment. So far no powers have shown a cooldown in this universe – where are you seeing one on this page?
Speaking of Dr. Chevy,wouldn’t her ultimate dream to…have Sydney declared as 4F?!?
And release her back into the general population, unleashed and unsupervised?!
Atacand, caught up from page 1. Ty, Dave, excellent comic.
:D
When I read this chapter, I was very nervous.
Maybe she is using the base’s power as leverage, considering there are still cables running to the walls. At least until the power plant’s generator is destroyed.
This is one of the best chapters I’ve read in this series. I hope that this series will be popular and have more readers.
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