Grrl Power #157 – Exodus abruptus
This is mostly just a transitional page. This page maybe could have been skipped as well but then I would have needed to put the explanation as to what the wrist thing is on the next page and that would have crowded it up a bit. In addition to being a flight transponder, it’s also just about every useful tool you’d probably need. I mean, not like… a screwdriver… Actually – I don’t see why it couldn’t have a little multitool thing that slides into the side. You can get keychains that are 8 in one tools and they’re barely bigger than a quarter, so why not? But I meant stuff like altimeter, thermometer, barometer, it probably has a brometer app that will gauge how much of a bro-heim someone’s being. Pre-loaded maps, secure phone, police and weather band and all that stuff. Basically it’s as close as you can realistically get to a Pip-Boy or a tricorder these days all connected to a serious battery. Everything a young superheroine needs.
Maxima’s phone is the same thing, only minus the wrist guard housing and extra battery life. She has to swap batteries every few hours though. She probably keeps a few extra in her jacket.
The TGT Tournament is into the finals. I appreciate everyone’s votes as always! Apparently you can vote once a day on it, which I didn’t realize, and the other comics were paying attention and got a bit of a head start. Also don’t forget to check out the new TWC vote incentive. It’s only pencils so far but it’s Anvil being cheeky. And side-booby.
So, I’ve made the Seal t-shirt over at Zazzle. Man they do not make that process easy to understand. I’ll spare you a rant about it but they could seriously use another pass at their whole “create a product” flow. Like, why would I have to pick a shirt size? I’m not buying the shirt, I’m designing it. Anyway, it’s available, and since it’s print on demand, it’s not the cheapest shirt, but the alternative is me preprinting shirts and spending weekends doing fulfillment, which is never going to happen. You can customize what sort of shirt it gets printed on, and here’s a version with white text so you can stick it on a dark shirt.
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.
Why is she not more concerned about the device that locks onto her wrist? “Oh look, shiny buttons. Wait, where is the release switch?”
Sydney, Sydney, Sydney, You need to be more paranoid about these things. Do not misunderstand, I think a tracking device to monitor Syd is necessary for new recruits. Just show a bit of concern about the whole thing is all.
The Flight Chase is a distraction
Thanks for the TGT link, I tried to follow the last one and I’ve no idea how you go from one part of the contests to another. This is the third one you’ve put up that there is no ‘next page’ that I can find.
Well I’ll beat on that vote button daily too.
i thought so too..
i’m not sure if Java is required or not to actually see it, but for the actual link itself, you need to scroll to the bottom of the page and to the right of the “page x of xyz” text block, click on the actual ” > ” symbol to go to the next page. when you mouse-over it, it takes a bit of time for it to show up, but it shows a text-box “go to next page” however, if you are not accurate in your mouse placement on exactly that single text character then you’ll miss it. very annoying to try to find, they should make an “obvious” button or something that clearly defines and separates that functionality from the rest of the text on the page…
ACH!!!… WRONG site! i thought you were talking about the Zazzle T-Shirt site, Sorry… though i agree with you about the contest site too… does anybody know that those numbers in the vote block are for? for example Grrlpower has “215” in front of it, but it’s not the number of votes it’s gotten, so i’m curious as to what it’s there for…
The numbers like “215” is the episode number if the show. The voting system is a new plug in that I’ve never used before… Also, because of space, I took out Episode that I would normally put in front of 215,etc
Girl’s gonna need some goggles and a mask to keep the wind from whipping her in the face.
also bugs.
Well, she could use the forcefield orb as a flight shield, especially if she’s going fast. I wonder if it would slow her down with the wind resistance and all, though.
Unless it is the kind of force field that is frictionless.
At high enough speeds air compression could be a problem (see ‘why space shuttle re-entry isn’t about air friction’). They’re probably not going to go that fast at low altitude though, since the shockwaves would really upset the neighbours. Side note: I wonder if the shield would protect her from the heat if she did go fast enough to significantly heat the air in front of her (also can she even go that fast).
I always just assume what ever hyperforce generation field or whatever is allowing them to fly in the first place is also able to repel most wind and small debris.
There! Imitate that exact grip with her full handprint and you’d have a third orb available provided the grafted hand was connected to her.
Why is any of this happening at the press conference? Should she have been issued this “equipment” before the conference? Though I suppose it makes sense after letting Sydney speak unscripted in front of the press. The whole operation is run by morons, it seems.
Have you thought of the consequences of giving Sydney shiny new toys to play with just before putting her down in front of the press? Everyone else’s speeches would have been interrupted with “beep”, “boing”, “zap” and “omg, see what this function does!” Not to mention being inoperable by the time of the demonstration, due to being disassembled to see how it all fits in.
The equipment may not have been available – they didn’t have a flight suit or uniform in her size, remember? Sydney is seriously a last-minute addition to the press conference. It usually takes at least half an hour of paperwork – if nothing else – to issue this type of equipment. They focused on what was visible and needed.
They could have left her in their headquarters and introduced her to the press LATER if at all. It makes no sense to have a person you KNOW is a loose cannon and bring her to your “ultra-high important first impressions with the press” press conference. I don’t get it.
It was all about giving their ‘Big Reveal’ some extra punch.
That, and it is very very clear that Arianna does not believe in safety nets – that whole fake bank robbery thing being a case in point.
At the end of the day, despite other justifications that we can propose for doing things like this, the key motivator is that it allows for funny situations. DaveB‘s mission statement is that the rule of funny trumps all.
But, if you have a look through the various pages of comments for the press conference, you will find that we have come up with some reasonable arguments to support it. It would have been much riskier to try and hide her from the press, given the exposure she had at the bank. Far too likely to trigger the suspicions of conspiracy nuts once somebody spotted her in training at Arc, if they did it the other way.
As Mark Twain once said, “First get the facts- you can distort them later” and few are better at applying this maxim than conspiracy nuts. Sydney’s presence at the bank during the robbery is too improbable to be circumstantial. Thus, her behavior at the presser could be spun as an attempt to make her appear likable while at the same time hide the true depth of her involvement with and rank within ARC. I can’t think of a reason offhand why ARC would do so, but never underestimate the ability of a “good” conspiracy nut to find a way to make such facts fit their agenda.
Good points. But at least this way they are minimising the ammunition given to any that are already paranoid about it. Not least in one very important way. Could you, or anyone else who has viewed her performance at the press conference, believe that Sydney is capable of acting undercover? Or that a sophisticated conspiracy would even think to purposely include her in a critical role? The conspiracy theorists will self-debunk on that one, I think.
To the dedicated conspiracy theorist, however, her behavior is her cover, the perfect example of “hiding in plain sight” by leading others to underestimate her. While she may fit the Beware the silly ones trope, they would see the silliness as feigned, rather than real.
That’s because conspiracy theorists are all a bunch of raving nutbars, who all need to be liquidized with extreme distaste
… liquidated with extreme prejudice.
You haven’t encountered too many nutbar’s, have you? They taste yucky!
I’m a conspiracy “nut” as you jerks call it and if I was there I would’ve gone up to Sydney and started having a silly contest, because in all reality she is too silly for it to be faked
One aspect of my unique philosophy is that I am required to be more accepting of other people’s points of view. Even some that might be considered radical from an ‘average’ person’s mindset. But if they get too weird and wacky, I find that even my tolerance gets pushed too far. At which point it is natural to consider that people who hold an opposing point of view are ‘nut jobs’. If you consider something to be ‘impossible’ and someone else not only considers it possible but ‘likely’ or even ‘fact’ then naturally you think of them as being insane.
At the end of the day though, a lot of the difference stems not just from good or poor analytical reasoning, but politics (in a broad context, as opposed to political parties). We all have our own biases, and depending on our differing viewpoints and life experiences, we may find some things more plausible than others. And in some regards we are likely to accept certain propositions with little or no evidence, simply because it meshes with our philosophy. We are willing to accept those things on faith. But if somebody else is doing the same, yet they have an opposing philosophy, or life experiences we have not shared, then we label them as being irrational, gullible, insane or the like.
Doing a bit of informal research on the matter, by questioning friends and acquaintances and getting them to talk about things they normally keep quiet about, it was quite revealing. Because I am not shy about speaking about unusual or radical ideas, I am quite savvy about what people of a given culture and background consider to be normal versus strange. So I was fairly well able to predict what set of theories were acceptable and which were not, for a given individual.
What was surprising though, was the frequency of which there would be one or two really radical theories that an otherwise ‘average’ individual subscribed to. Very forcibly and unshakably. Trying to pin down the discrepancies, I found that most were due to philosophical standpoints overriding available evidence. Some were down to personal experiences which made the extra step of believing a greater conspiracy that much more plausible than normal. And a few were just anomalies, with no particular reason that they or I could fathom out as to why they were so convinced.
The really funny thing being that, despite subscribing to a ‘weird’ theory themselves, and having built up a wall of self-defences to either conceal or argue their belief, they each were still as condemning of other peoples’ strange conspiracy theories. Leading to the bizarre circumstances that there were several instances of mutual close friends/acquaintances who got on very well. But who did not know that each held radical viewpoints that the other considered to be the domain of ‘nut jobs’.
Conspiracy theory in progress.
Then you are not a consiracy nut, you are a merely paranoid.
He is only paranoid if he is wrong. If he has been saying for years “the NSA is intercepting internet traffic and monitoring us” he is foresightful and those who labelled him as paranoid instead deserve the title “gullible”.
The equipment could easily have been issued AFTER the press release. Why the hell are they interrupting the middle of it for this? The press is still standing there, asking questions.
It’s a good way to hammer home the point that Syd joined ARC like RIGHT before the interview.
There is one very important reason. Maxima needs to be able to tell Sydney what to do in the demonstration, and the communication needs to be two-way so that Max can head off any problems before they materialise.
Neither of them have super-hearing or other remote communications powers (barring the Comm-ball, which is both classified, so inappropriate to use openly, and not particularly useful in these circumstances anyhow). Which means that they need to have radios, at the very least. Given that it would be impossible to hear a spoken conversation with the noise of wind whistling past their ears, at whatever distances they must separate to do the demo and with whatever other environmental noises might be going on, such as explosions.
I didn’t see anything about a demonstration. When Maxima snaps this thing on her wrist, Sydney is in the middle of answering a question about her powers, and hadn’t even been asked about the bank robbery yet. It’s extremely bizarre. It’s almost like she’s being handcuffed and led away where the press can’t hear because of what she was about to give as an answer. But in the most obvious and public way possible.
Maxima told the press “I’m going to prepare for the live fire demonstration,” when she flew off. The obvious implication that the press will take from that, now that she has returned, dressed accordingly, is that the demonstration is about to begin. Actions speaking louder than words.
As regards it looking like she is being arrested, Maxima has clearly explained above that the device is a multi-function tool, not a restraint. Only one speech bubble indicated whispering was going on, and that was about “shiny candy buttons”. The rest was all said in front of the open mike, so it is reasonable to assume that the press all heard that info too. Meaning they are clued up that the demonstration is starting. Without a formal announcement being necessary.
Of course, Maxima does have her communication device and she may have it linked into the press PA system. Allowing her to do a live commentary. Or one of the other Arc members on the front might do so. Or they could let the demonstration speak for itself. TV commentators will be filling in any dead air for the audience at home, if they do the latter.
It’s probably all part of the life fire excercise
After the speech Sydney just gave it would probably be good to try restoring some of the presses confidence by displaying her strengths.
Ooh. Congrats on getting first place on the Top Web Comics list! We better vote our socks off, as I am sure there will be fierce competition to seize it back.
Yeah, won’t be long before TwoKinds is back in front by about 20k
Twokinds puts extended storyline comics into their vote incentive, and the update the page quite often, so it’s no wonder they’re always in the lead, though after spending most of every month for 2 years in the #1 spot, you start to wonder how essential it is they put that much effort into it. I applaud the dedication though.
Didn’t mean to imply there was anything wrong with Twokinds, just seems they get about 2+k votes within the first week, and then it goes up exponentially after that
Don’t you mean Slightly Damned? They have a story running in the vote incentives
I wonder what Orbs she will use for the impromptu flight show?
You mean, other than the obvious Flight? Hmmm, how about Tenta-grab? Fires it out like a whip and have it wrap around Maxi’s leg, then just wait for the screams of “GETITOFF! GETITOFF!!!!!!” :D
Sky Surfing
that is all.
Unless you are referring to the ‘sport’ played by Chopper in 2000AD, then it is NOT!!!1!!! true Sky Surfing (what is being done nowadays is simply “Freefalling with a board strapped to your feet”
Uh….
Halo lassoed to Maxima’s ankle while on a board surfing through the air. Clearly is what I meant.
More like sky-skiing
Something like this (but without the teeth marks and the required tetanus shots :P)
energy blast being used constant like a rocket ?
I keep getting redirected to another website when I come here. *** with something about collection of heroes. Might want to take a look around, you may have been hacked.
Actually it’s more likely that your browser picked up a toolbar or addon redirecting your traffic.
Yeah. I second that. I wanted to scan the remarks and stuff, and I got redirected as well. I did notice that there was something on that page that had a mention about a collar.
why do I keep getting automaticly redirected to some “collective of heroes” page?
Dirty Dog redirector, some hero collective, when I click on the link to your web page it redirects me. If I click on the ‘x’ in the URL bar before it does that I can force it to stay on the same page. Firefox.
Can’t figure out why the other voting site won’t register my vote today…
I just realized that I have seen dabbler before in another comic. Out of curiosity, where did you get her from?
Dabbler is DaveB‘s creation, but he has lent her out, prior to starting Grrl Power himself. So she is one and the same purple four-armed succubus that you have seen elsewhere.
I see, that is pretty cool
Shame that other comic pretty much died, can understand, but still sad :(
What comic?
Wereworld.
Actually was reading WW being coming here
I’m getting hit by a reload/redirect/whatever into a rather squattish looking collective of heroes thing. Had to disable javascript to stop it from doing that. Something is off here.
Same here.
It looks like most (but not all) of the comics associated with the collective of heroes have been affected by this redirect thing. Perhaps the collective’s site got hacked or something and this is spreading from there?
“Up and at them!” Radioactive Man reference for the win XD
I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem but when I try to navigate you site i keep getting jumped to.
*** (edited out)
Not sure if it is your site or my computer that is being hijacked, thought I should give you a heads up.
Same issue as Kreldor here. Able to stop it by halting the page from loading before it’s through, but it’s still probably a bad thing.
I am not getting the issue. Possibly Google Chrome blocks whatever is causing the problem for others.
Nope, I’m on Chrome and it’s ditching me as well. Bloody irritating thing.
Only happens on this site. No place else. No idea what’s going on, just that it’s starting to seriously pi$$ me off.
Only thing I noticed of that collectiv thing was the login promt on monday. Maybe addblocker is stoping it?
When I opened the inspect elements dialog on Chrome I got an error message listed as being in the top frame that may or may not have anything to do with it.
The error message reads: “Uncaught ReferenceError: jQuery is not defined (anonymous function)”
I have no clue about today’s coding but I’m Guessing if the browser says it’s hinky, then it probably is.
I just let the page load completely, what with my finger hovering over the esc key. No re-directs. Has it been fixed?
Bad News Everyone!
Tonight marks the final ever episode of Futurama (or yesterday if you are reading this tomorrow).
And to the network executives who made this decision: You can kiss my shiny metal A$$!
P.S. with Sydney’s wrist communicator and one eye showing, I am predicting that at some point during the exercise Max (the closet nerd) will refer to Sydney as ‘Leela’.
P.P.S. To the person who way back in the past (or about twenty minutes story time) commented that if Sydney ever got a radio she would be making static cutoff noises into it: Well done.
1: Again, this makes the second or third (final ever episode)
Futurama
looks like your site problem of the last couple days is fixed, for some reason it kept redirecting me to another site every time I tried to read your comic, go figure…
Dave man, if you want a scene, make the scene, don’t beat yourself up about the pacing. This comic is actually a breath of fresh air, a super hero comic that doesn’t rush the drama, likes to be funny; but please don’t ever go grimdark…I say that because it looks like Spinnerete is headed down that road (granted it had dramatic moments before, but recent stuff is just…well shit man…)
Yup, the pacing is fine…….but bring us a new page every day and we might stop bitching. Tho if you really wanted us to stop you’d give us 2 new pages a day. You don’t REALLY need sleep ya know.
But I want 3 pages a day
…. And I want a million dollars. ;)
A partial would do. 2 or 3 panels each day would keep the story advancing daily and we might get a small increase from the current pace with this.
I do like the full page layout being used and you wont need to change that. just add till the page is finished.
As a former pilot (until I ran out of money) I can understand the transponder in the wrist band for the Supers with flight powers. One robin in the wrong spot can take down an airliner, just imagine what hitting a human-sized object or animal (or one of the invulnerable Supers) would do to an aircraft.
Just imagine what hitting a robin would do to a human!
Considering a june bug hitting you at 60mph can raise a lump? I can imagine.
Not to mention what it does to the June Bug…
Can you imagine what the last thing to go through a bug’s mind would be when it hits the windshield of your car?
…
…Wait for it…
…
His @$$
…not to mention what it does to the robin >.<
and thus the Hyperforce aura comes into play that was invented by comic writers affter nerds became scientists and dissected flight, much like how zerorange telekinesis had to be used to explain superstrength lifting things rather than ripping them apart like they normally would.
poor reindeer !
at least dragons would survive unhurt.
Santa has a magical exclusion field that keeps birds and bugs away from the Reindeer and the Sleigh, obviously. lol
Ah I was wondering why they wanted the unpredictable raw recruit at the press conference. It’s for the aerial demonstration.
Ive been wondering just how fast Sid can make the orbs themselves move. They where in the tube when Max took Syd for a ride, so no good there. We know they move fast enough to (maybe only one time) catch Math off guard. And to knock Syd on her ass. But if they are tough enough (and I get the impression, without any current facts to back it up, that the orbs where “bought” as unbreakable, unstealable gadgets…) and can move fast enough, Syd has another power: a pretty mean volley of short range crushing attacks. Out to about 30 feet or so anyway.
All this entered my brain with watching the orbs get lazy about following her up as she flies. Clearly the flight orb isnt moving the other orbs, so one possible limit on Syds top speed is when the other orbs cant keep up, and stop her short. But if they can keep up and Syd can go anything like as fast as Max (or even just supersonic)… thats bullet speeds. Possibly rifle bullet speeds (Mach 3+). That is “put one of the orbs THROUGH someone” speeds :)
And its not even a power stunt!
First off: Math got caught out by Sydney’s Balls because he wasn’t aware of them
Secondly: good idea, if Sydney can control the speed, that would provide an extra layer of protection (unless someone pulls a ‘Math’ and force her to put her own body in the line of fire) plus extra attack
As you and I both say: Math was caught off guard. I grabbed that example largely because the stones have to be going at least as fast as Syds fist to raise a welt like that. If they are just lazily floating along like soap bubbles, I doubt they’d have hit Math at all (however off guard/caught out he was) and certainly wouldnt have knocked him down.
We have some circumstantial/weak evidence that the orbs are very tough: When Max tries to use them to yank Syd out from under the ambulance. She implies that she is putting a fair amount of force into that. The orbs have to resist that force, through either their structure (which is what I’d use to imply they are very tough) or through what ever it is that makes them so implacable about where they are and where they go… which might be good enough to resist damage from being shot/punched (any one fighting Halo for the first time is going to at least consider shooting an orb to try to deny her its use) or being used to ram things at high speeds.
Time will tell I suppose.
Ahhh Simpsons references… Gotta love them!
T̥̥̗̻̠̈́͊ͣͮ̆h̆i̺̱̬̭͎̐͆̂̊͗ͅǹ̰̰̣̺͙̫̯ͫ̊̊g̼ͫ̏s̗̦͉̣̮̝͗ͯ̓ͨ̆ͧ ͇̉́̈͑̍ͥͯc̜̠̻ͭͮ̆̊͛a̩͈̞̞̺͔̤ͩͪ̂̽̉͊n̜͇̥̿̍ ̘̗̹͓̖o͛ͯ̋̅̆n̬̈͑ͨ̀l̤̣͔̪̯̗̼y̩ͤ̈́ͭͦ͛ ̞̫̰ͧ̽͂g̻͎e̼ͧt̮͈̮̭̦̮ͦ̃̎͒̿͒̐ ̰̺͇̱͔̍̾͋ͅb̻ͦȇ͕̰͙̂͌ͯ͌t͖̬̺͓̦̔̋̆̔͒͊t̳̒e̒ͧ̄͐͌r̯̭͇͍̰̍ ̲̀ͦͭͧ̉f̱̦̗̼͖̳͒ͥͧ̔̽o̤ͬ͆ͤ̑͒͒̾r̞̣͇̣̟͗͐ͨ͋͌̌ͅ ̘͔͕̉ͧ͑ͬ͗ͨh̩͙͚͉̘̙̱ͨͪͨͦ̌̓͋e̪͙͓͖̮̜͈̍̆̀r̩ͮ.̦̫̫ͣ̉̋ͦ̈.̒̍͋ͩͫ.̜̪̙̦ͤͫ̾ͯ.
Let us hope so.
Bless you!
I noticed maxima has small, realistically sized eyes.
While halo has huge giganic anime saucer eyes.
Is there special meaning behind this?
Sydney’s eyes have not always been so big. But she has always had a more manga style than the other heroes. Who all cleave to a more traditional genre look typical to super heroes. And normal mortals get a more realistic appearance than the folks who get glamour looks as part of the hero package.
Mind you, I kind of miss Sydney’s earlier style, as I am not so keen when manga looks (generally speaking, rather than here) get too stylised and overly cute. That said though, her big reveal of the orbs (issue #86) is the default page I have bookmarked to log onto Grrl Power. As I just love her looks and the page in general there. So DaveB‘s evolved style obviously works well even with my tastes. Issue #98 has the epitome of pitiful and cute to great comedic and emotional effect. Even more effective being used sparingly.
I find the mix of those and other artistic styles to be cleverly chosen and used to good result. Making it one of the strong points of the comic. So I too would be interested if DaveB were to elaborate on his reasoning when deciding these artistic points.
Basically I like things about manga art and things about american comic book art and lots of other styles and my own style has always been a mishmash of all that. Granted Sydney’s been slowly evolving into more of an anime look, and I’d like to pull that back just a little without it being a jarring transition, just so my comic doesn’t look like it was drawn by two different people.
Actually, my original idea for the comic was to draw each of the main characters in their own style, like Sydney would be basically manga, Maxima was hardcore American mainstream, Harem was a little more Disney Princess, Dabbler was something halfway between Disney and anime, Anvil was half American Comic half Disney adult, but it seems that Sydney and Max are the only ones that really stuck to that, and even Max turns into wacky cartoon face when I felt it pushed the comedy. I’d like to evolve my style back into something closer to that, again without making it starkly obvious that’s what I was going for.
Really interesting. Thanks for the info.
So it is a style thing then? I thought maybe she has a passive glamor running off of her subconscious that is making her look manga-ish in universe
Up and atom!
Gotta say the other teammates look amused by how this press conference is progressing.
Keep in mind, these are people who think it’s perfectly acceptable to stage a bank robbery to get some PR chatter rolling. The morally deficient also tend to be tactically stupid.
Nice exit. Personally, I would have gone with, “Later ‘Taters.”
Okay, the microphone and earpiece are low-power devices, because they only need to communicate with the armband.
Back when all watches were mechanical, they came up with a design that never needed wound (except after sitting on a shelf for an extended period of time) because it self-wound by constantly extracting a tiny bit of energy from the wearer’s movements. A conceptually similar mechanism, probably based on piezoelectric stuff, could be embedded in the cord between the collar and earpiece. So Sydney probably wouldn’t ever have to change a battery there.
The wristband still needs more substantial batteries, of course. But there’s plenty of room for them. And Sydney can actually see the device she’s changing the battery in (if the need ever arises). Unlike her neck and ear.
I would imagine that they are (or eventually will be) willing to give Sydney a more substantial bit of electronic gear and other expensive stuff than some of the other supers get, because her forcefield is explicitly some distance from her body – so the electronics are clearly protected. Some of the others can’t extend their protection past their own skin (and some don’t have effective protection), so any electronics they wear/carry are much more likely to take damage. Even Max takes some apparel damage later.