Grrl Power #169 – Halo, the gritty hero
I kind of wish I had left Sydney’s eyepatch on, and the bump on her forehead from the head desk on page 122 to have the accumulated “battle damage” even before she gets into a proper fight.
The point of this page, besides showing some immediate fallout from Sydney’s… well, fallout, is that I think I’ve neglected to show Maxima’s animosity with the press enough. Though really mostly her complaint with the press is the bias and fear mongering and shoehorning complex issues down to sound bites, and the press have given them like 2 hours of undivided attention. Of course that doesn’t mean there won’t be all that stuff going on once the endless news cycle and decidedly non-expert analysis starts up. (Though who is an expert at this sort of thing I guess?)
Thanks to everyone who did some shopping via that Amazon referral link, I only get a tiny bit from each sale but it adds up and helps with defraying the cost of emergency hard drives and whatnot.
BTW I know I haven’t updated the vote incentive like I had planned, but I do have an excuse. I’ll just say this; I’m not sure what it says about French Onion Dip that I couldn’t tell it had expired 10 days ago… so, yeah. The following day was… slightly less productive than I had hoped. I’ll try and put up something different soon.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
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"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.
If there are any half awake reporters in the crowd, the lead is
“US Government tests weapon of unknown power in view of public . . . no civilians deaths reported”
What were they thinking?. She didn’t know, they didn’t know, . . . ANYTHING could have happened. A twenty foot wide hole straight through to the Mohorovičić discontinuity would have been very exciting for the 8 O’clock news, don’t you think?.
I like how Sydney was expressing her hurt dignity, very expressive faces in this one, lad, well done.
They may have been thinking ‘hey, it’s her super power. She knows what it does and all that, even knows enough not to use it indoors…’
I’m confident the reporting would mirror this sentiment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uriZZ3Slz74
(Mitchell and Webb = win)
Well, that’s fine for you, but how about me?
Hmm… there was a recent incident but I’m doing OK now…
That is so Sydney. She’d add a big grin, of course. Everything is fine. We’re good. It’s all good. There’s nothing to see here. Moving on.
she has fired it before, then their was an intense forest fire caused by firing it, that was mentioned I believe…. In either case this isn’t its first use, the PPO is a known danger and its force is based on how much power she puts into it right? At least that’s how it seems to me.
Sydney just cannot go more than five pages without some sort of facial injury, can she?
… OR inflicting them.
btw never put lamb burger and ketchup in an almost empty mayonnaise, shake it up, and make sandwiches without checking to see if the mayonnaise expired 2 weeks previous.
Lets just say some violent action caused a blood vessel to burst in my eye. It took 3 weeks to go away.
Important life lessons that should be passed on to our children.
I’m loving the big sister/little sister relationship between Maxima and Sydney, but I also really like the interaction between Sydney and Peggy. More Peggy please!
Yes! We need more of the Peggy!!! A nice invotive of her like the Harem and Anvil, but have a feeling she wouldn’t be into that, which is cool
Sounds great! I’m trying to think of a context for Syd and/or Peg to be alluringly funny, but I’m stumped. : (
Just have Peggy in a bikini sniping random bystanders with a super-soaker.
Hiro walks in on a super soaker fight by the pool? That would give the “A Team” a reason to mock sexy Girls with Guns poses.
I’m not at all interested in seeing Peggy in that. I would prefer to see her in the story O:-)
Meh. I don’t want to say I wouldn’t be interested, because it would depend. What if they get tired of being invisible when their super friends are around? Ego stuff. It’s not like they’re ugly prudes, or whatever. Let’s say that I’m ready to ogle, if Peggy and/or Syd wants to be ogled.
*Pictures Maxi standing behind Nameless, ala Anvil standing behind Harem and Math* :D
*Holds up the “Non-SuperWomen of ARCHON Swimsuit Calendar” Wow, I didn’t know Sandy was into that much string, that little bikini.
Wait… there’s actually enough of the tank left after that for the hat to be under it?
And we see that Maxima is a damn competent commander.
Hey all,
First time commenting. Love the comic. Can’t wait to see where it goes.
Commenting on the Big Sis/Lis Sis relationship forming, I have a small hypothesis to present. I think that Maxima may be the experienced version of Sydney. (okay maybe not as ADD and hyped up on sugar/caffiene/possible other stimulant)
*waits for the lynch mob, dodges at least one pitchfork*
Now hear me out. There was a point that Maxima had made an off-hand comment about once being a nerd (it was in response to Maxima saying that Sydney’s orbs were reminiscent of ion stones). I look to this and think that the form Maxima has now is not the form she was born with and that she went through a radical physical transformation when she acquired her powers. With this said, Maxima had to go through a great deal of hardship to understand her new abilities (especially going at it mostly alone) and may of had to go through a great deal of maturing during this hardship.
So perhaps, maybe Maxima was a little goofy and silly before superherodom, and thus she sees a reflection of her beginnings as Sydney. Or perhaps she just doesn’t want to see Sydney unleashed on the populace at large?
*shivers at the property damage alone…..*
Welcome, and I think you’re on the right track. Also, Max is tougher on herself than any mentor would have been, if she’d had one, and it shows. I’ll bet all her frustration at having no help will continue to translate into a fountain of support for young Sydney. Classic stuff.
Well Max almost blew up her (I guess that’s what it is) boyfriend at once point, thanks to new powers.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/720
So yea, she probably knows what Sydney is going through.
Also ofcourse, Young Max would be the mild version of Sydney. Also in food :P
As I recall, the consensus at the time was it was probably a brother.
But I don’t remember if Dave confirmed that, and don’t want to trawl the comments there – heck, I don’t really have time to read the comments here! So, maybe it was an incredibly stupid boyfriend…
I still like the brother hypothesis better, but your point about Max understanding stands either way. :)
Considering the guy is holding a popeed paper bag? Yeah, jerk Brother pops it while she’s asleep on the couch and BOOM! New window for the house!
Lol I thought that was a trash bag. You know how it is, you start arguing about who’s turn it is to take out the trash, then things get out of hand and suddenly you have to explain to your parents why there’s a huge hole in the living-room wall…
“Hole? What hole?” ;)
The third panel is awesome artwork and dialog, just awesome. Syd is so adorable. Max is a much better “mother hen” than I expected. Seems kinda weird that bad-ass Max is doing the mom job and Ari’s doing the dad, but I’ll get used to it. Why does the camera man have a stress mark? Did he catch Ari saying bad words behind Pinky?
I just realized that we should have another shower scene coming up after Max closes the show, and after Daphne does something for attention (she must be seething). Heh, heh, heh. Hurry up, Max.
Thanks, DaveB! : )
I would guess the stress mark is a response to Suzie’s exuberance, which may seem to make her a bit out of control. He might be worrying she’ll do or say something embarrassing on camera that could effect him negatively as well?
My bad. I thought that was Pinky’s camera dude.
Looks like Pinkey’s camera is just over Suzy’s shoulder
Yup, and Suzie’s dude is taken aback by her enthusiasm and I’m a dumb ass for not seeing that straight away. Now I’m thinking that Ari got lucky that Suzie got lucky, or was it luck at all? Knowing Ari, one has to wonder.
Then again, maybe it is Pinky’s cameraperson and Suzie, in her enthusiasm to report the story, has somehow overlooked that small detail… which would help explain what might be taken as a look of befuddlement on Pinky’s face.
Then yet again, I could be totally wrong about the whole thing. In which case, kindly disregard this comment.
If you look closely, you can see Pinkey’s cameraman between Suzie’s shoulder and her head (he, or she, is wearing a yellow top)
Ya know it’s not gen a good thing to let your squaddie’s get bummed out, suffer depression or a sense of worthlessness especially towards wounds, no matter how small. This will effect how they perform, er train I guess I’m not saying anything we don’t all already know, but when training, especially if there’s a danger, explosions, misfires or something that can just go wrong, like a nervous guy milking the handle of a practice grenade, and if the instructor does not catch it, calm the solder down, so they understand and have confidence in using that weapon, well game over. Has happened. Training grenades tho unspectacular at close range do more then just remove fingers. Depending on what your after or more apte what your training them for, recon, ground pounder, air, fast react, what ever, that’s the mental mindset you want to cultivate. Now a 81mm coming out of there cylinder as a dud fire during a live fire are spectacular. Max is doing what she is suppose to do, still it’s endearing to watch. Since Max appears to me to be the last one up I can understand why DB did this with miss media putting the presser on Max (Media types are such control freaks.) once she sees Max is done or almost done with Syd. Btw thanks for not drawing her breasts larger then her head.
Yay Halo, yay Suzie.
Yes indeed, and Yay for Ari and Max too. They’re both right.
1) Now that I think of it, the reporters are standing fairly close to Max and Ari. If one of them has a parabolic mike, they could be recording the whole comment from Ari in the last panel.
2) You know that with his mega-bux and influence, Deus has got to have at least one spy in the media assembly at this event (besides Daphne). Going with the theory that it is always the person you least suspect, this leads to the conclusion that the spy is none other than our own Suzie Wen. The ditsy airhead act is always great to make others underestimate you. Ask yourself WHO are they most likely to invite into their headquarters to have a look around and interview their staff?
And she just so happened to find herself assigned to cover a story at the bank where a super secret ARC operation was taking place. A story that then enabled her to be invited to cover the REAL main story of the day, up close and personal with a new classified group of government super-soldiers.
Let the paranoia and distrust begin!
Who gave her the story?
She got the story because she happened to get the interview at the bank. Could have easely be someone else.
On that note, I don’t even think Deus is going to be the main bady in this comic. Instead, maybe just a God without a car
ONE little detail. Harem’s not at this part of the demonstration. This basically being the “brute force/firepower” part of the demonstration.
Although now that I think about it, I’ didn’t see Anvil on the buses either.
This has been one heck of a lunch hour. Did she ever get around to making the money drop for the comic book store?
Naw. Bank wold be closed for hours regardless. There was still the bog commotion outside the bank when Max gave Sydney a lift.
Good question.
Asuming she didn’t, where IS the deposit?
either in police custody as evidence, or possibly in the bank vault also as evidence… either way it’s gonna sit where ever it is, for quite a bit longer due to procedure and red-tape… Joel might be closing up shop earlier than he thought, that is at least until the press release hits the geeks inbox’s then he’s gonna get swamped.
He’s already seen the news, and worried about the bank robbery. Considering how the story started, though, he will eventually learn about Arc Swat, if they haven’t informed him already, seeing as Sydney still works for the comic book store along with this, her second job.
Actually, he was more worried about the bank robbers.
Pretty sure Joel is otherwise wondering where Sydney is, since the last contact she’s had with him was her very, very short phone call. At least, he’ll be wondering until he turns on the news. Then he’ll wonder for about half a second where her poster tube is.
Completely unrelated to Grrl Power, but I thinking it’s a fairly safe bet that I was the only who saw the ads at the bottom and started thinking “Comic, comic, comic chameleon….“
Hmmm…. Maxima had a younger sister, didn’t she?
It very much looks like she is falling into an old habit.
She had (probably still has) a little brother. Her tried startling her and ended up with 2nd degree burns to his left shoulder and a new smouldering hole in the living room wall.
Oops, He tried startling her …
Found it!
One thing I’ve noticed while reading all the comments (Yes, it’s insane to do this. Yes, i still do it) is that Arianna isn’t wlel liked by a lot of people. Manipulative and cold seem to come up a lot.
I actually like Arianna a lot; she really is a business woman with good sense and a lot of public opinion savvy. She’s professional, speaks her mind, and enthusiastic about her job. I don’t find her all that cold, just driven. The manipulative comes with the territory of her work (caused by it, or helps her in her job), but she uses her powers for good. She, so far, has yet to artifice a situation in which our heroes are forced to do something they don’t, under any circumstances, want to do. (The bank robbery was so easy and simple that Max probably didn’t even put it on her top 100 list of things she’d never want to do) At most, i see Arianna forcing the characters into photoshoots, interviews, and things like that. We’ll no doubt, in fact, have an arc about just that; Halo complains about how they are forced into all these photoshoots when she doesn’t actually have a photogenic body/face, but Arianna keeps her from getting too bent out of shape by explaining (perhaps with videos of riots in other parts of the world where super heroes aren’t seen in such good light) that she helps them by getting them to do this… then gives her the choice about whether or not she wants to still do the photoshoot.
This is all major speculation of course.
And Arianna is awesome.
One, she’s an obviously Corporate lawyer, that puts a lot of people off to start with. Then the fact that she committed a felony (staging the bank robbery) to gather interest in a press conference kinda started her off at the limit of what most people would tolerate. Then there was her “help” when Max was trying to reassure Sydney that she wouldn’t get locked up somewhere because of the orbs. (With Ari basically telling Sydney that they would if they wanted to).
I’d say she’s a lawfull Neutral
It sounded more like she was trying to keep things legal. If the contents of the poster tube were radioactive or something, Sydney would be constantly hurting people just by walking around a populated area. They would have to isolate her for public safety reasons.
Radiation == “Clear and present danger.”
How is it a felony if it was agreed to by the bank? That’s like saying CSI: Miami is commiting a felony when they use a bank for a scene involving a robbery
The misdemeanor crime of Negligence (endangering the civilians not in-the-know) added to the discharge of a firearm would (at least of Florida) bump it most thoroughly into felony zone. Down here it is automatic 10/20/life for committing crime with gun, discharging said gun, killing someone with said gun.
Exactly. The bank might have agreed to a security test, but Mister “Not the Heel!!” firing the gun at Syd could be construed as Assault with a deadly weapon at best.
Also, the “security exercise” is something local police (and the FBI because it was in a bank) will Not Be Happy At All about. Live fire exercises in the general populace are a bad, bad idea.
If it ever comes out that was staged, expect reckless endangerment lawsuits from the other civilians in the bank.
Also, extremely bad publicity.
Come to think of it, the bank probably didn’t know about the exercise. Their lawyers would never have allowed it.
So, possible back story would be the tireless FBI investigator trying to hunt down the bank robbers who “disappeared” after being defeated by a pair of supers.
Panel 4 is a prime example how the written word doesn’t convey tone or context: if Ari was speaking in a concerned tone, the second part could mean “Are we able to continue with the demonstration?” but Maxi’s inate distrust/dislike for/towards Ari could have her hearing it in a snarky tone “Can we continue with the demonstration now? Or would you like me to get you a box of tissues?”
It occurs to me that the PPO is probably a delayed explodey beam for exactly the reason Maxima just mentioned: orb management. Gives you a chance (when you know what you’re doing) to get the shield in place between firing lasers and them exploding.
Going back through the archives again, believe have figured out Les’ weakness (or at least one he is not too happy to test out): his eyes
When Sydney was flailing away during the Bank Job (the time after he konked her on the head with the shotgun) he was afraid she would scratch out his eyes (and no, that was not just good acting on his behalf, he was genuinely afraid for his eye-sight)
Nobody likes the thought of foreign objects headed toward the eyes. and the guy who had Syd in the chokehold was Amorphus.
Right, knew it was Mister Rubber, just got them slightly mixed :(
Hence “not the Tounge!” and “Don’t Touch the heel!” ;)
Umm, could someone who still can post on Spinnerette ask if it’s possible to get a text-less print of Lil` Greta in the last panel of the current page? That is a prime example of a young woman confident in her (new) body :D
I’m noticing a lack of sunglasses on Max in the first panel…
Maxima: Level up (puts on sunglasses to emphasize how cool she thinks Sydney’s accomplishment is).
I’m mildly worried that Sydney’s brain reset trick (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/720) seems to have actually worked – she indeed went for the forcefield orb first…
Freedom is the only way…. terrorists your game is through…. cause now you have to, answer to…. America, fuck yeah! So lick my butt and suck on my balls! America, fuck yeah!
That movie sure was the South Park duo at their peak. After that it was just pure descent. By the middle of 2007 I’m amazed they weren’t just canceled, that they haven’t been still.
Love the light depiction of sandy road rash in the top panels. :) I’m wondering if we shouldn’t be seeing the edge of Max’s glasses in panel one, though?
Something totally needs to be done about her glasses hanging at mouth level.
Seriously… if they’re not over the eyes then they’re not doing their job.
They are doing a wonderful job. They make Sydney look cute!
Seriously, those could just be her cos-play glasses that she likes to wear for that reason. And, as a tom-boy to discourage being hit in the face. Not to mention the perk of being able to pretend to be blind, if they fall off when ,someone is trying to murder her!
I love Maxima’s personality :D.
And although her colour scheme in that green outfit makes me cringe a little, I’m warming up to Maxima’s gold and purple.
I wonder how deep into the planet she can cut with that beam?