Grrl Power #195 – A fearsome commitment
In case you’re not clear what the Hammerspace thing is about, check here.
Sydney’s patented non-sequitur questions were supposed to be a running thing, but I kept cutting those jokes for other content. It is not clear at this time whether they are a result of her ADD or if she’s just being impish. This one feels half and half.
Tangential to Sydney’s power greed here, I never understood why heroes or villains never tried to hoard powers and super gadgets/artifacts. Why doesn’t a bad guy who captures Hawkeye take all his arrows and figure out how to replicate his explosive arrowheads and have a pocket full of massively powerful-smaller than a golfball sized explosives? Or why heroes don’t confiscate bad guys superweapons and add them to their arsenal. Sure, sometimes they’re evil artifacts or there’s some other reason why that would be a bad idea, but sometimes there would be no possible downside to adding the bad guys’ stuff to your bag of tricks, other than it would make the hero OP and create writing challenges. I still think it would be fun to read. The bad guy has defeated a whole team of heroes, and the one guy, lets call him “The Hoarder” cause that’s what everyone else does, he shows up with Excalibur strapped to his back, Mjölnir on his belt, Star Emperor’s comic bracelets, the Chartreuse Lantern’s pinky ring, Apollomese’s boots of fleet footedness, a dozen things in his utility belt copied or stolen from the Trixter, the Trapster, the Tripster, the Flipster, the Flapster and the Candlestick Maker – all that on top of his own suite of powers and the bad guy’s just all “Oh COME ON!”
After drawing Sydney’s slightly baggy jeans and Maxima’s cargo pants, I tend to forget that women’s jeans often to contain way more elastic than mens, which is what makes them so much more “hey look at my ass.” (Also “hey look at my pantyline” and/or “No pantyline? Time to play guess if I’m wearing a thong.”) I drew Dabbler standing there next to Sydney in panel 5 in baggy pants and couldn’t figure out what was off about the picture until I remembered this fact and gave them the vacuum seal treatment. Incidentally, the “Hey look at my ass” factor is why women’s pants as often as not don’t have back pockets (or front). Yes sir, comfort and utility are a distant second and third when it comes to women’s fashion. As a guy, I admit that generally works to my benefit, but if I was a gal I would be massively irritated all the time at clothing that doesn’t have pockets. I won’t even buy pajamas that don’t have pockets.
<– If you enjoy the comic and have a dollar or more to many each month (I assume that would be a tax thing) and would like to support the comic, Patreon is there for you.
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.
The first reference I ever saw of “Hammerspace” was in the manga Urusei Yatsura. I wonder if that is where Dave B got it from?
I do believe you are wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammerspace
Err, that link corroborates rather than refutes.
Nah, it doesn’t corroborate. While the concept may have originated due to Urusei Yatsura, the idea has been used far too often to consider that manga to be anyone’s introduction to it nowadays. Hell, I’ve known about the concept for more than a decade at least and this is the first I’ve heard about that manga.
You are mixing up two different things, namely the concept and the word used to describe it. evilpuma said nothing about the concept. The statement
refers to the use of the word.
Necromancy:
Bah, it’s all about El Goonish Shive, anyway. Kind of like how MegaTokyo didn’t invent L33t, but it sure as hell made it popular.
Off-topic, but what page is that avatar image from?
Ari’s stress-doll eye-popping face? Not sure exactely, but it was during the conference room arc (believe it was when Ari was fantazing about spreadsheets or something)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/655
I bet your super-power has a bunch of other applications too. Can you also sketch the skyline of any city-scape you have glimpsed?
Wish I could draw even a straight line.
yeah your right, its old school, they at least somewhat hinted at it in the last Indiana Jones movie, the Crystal Skull, which was actually the head of an alien separated from its body. but in either case, yeah, either from the future or an alternate dimension linked to our own dimension, take your pick…
The question is valid! And successful! AND YES! I have documented proof! Just have Sydney send me $20 in a self-addressed stamped envelope….
Is it just me, or is Sydney getting taller? Delayed side-effect of the Orbs?
It is just you.
You think the orbs are stretching Sydney?
Hey, when I was younger I invented a character like that. I called him “Patchwork”, and he was a civilian that hung out near superhuman battles so he could snitch power armor or stun grenades or magic staffs or whatever he could find on the ground or on the defeated person’s body. Then he’d just fly around town like an a**hole.
Dabbler is kind of sweet when she wants to be.
When is she ever not sweet? Oh, you don’t just mean her appearance?
Has anyone mentioned the movie The Mask where in one scene, a character is being searched are they pull a bazooka out of his pocket
That movie was a treasure trove of tropes and rightly so. It would be easier to count the comic tropes that weren’t in it if there were any.
“I have a permit for that”
“Guess I wasn’t just happy to see you after all.”
Dave, have you seen this — https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2014/mar/11/the-spiciest-meals-in-britain ? It’s funny when Sydney does it, but these people are batshit nuts!
Mmm, the worst of those is in Brighton, which is within an easy drive of where I will be staying around Christmas this year. And will be more than likely to visit. A cinema mind. As for that restaurant? No way! My bum is burning, my eyes watering, and my throat is raw at just thinking about a 9,000,000 Schoville curry!
…And no one seems to have mentioned that Sydney uses the phrase “ass freaks” and Dabbler shows up out of nowhere. Coincidence? I think not!
She does have porno sence after all.
Sydney would probably have been visualising relevant scenes, so there could well have been a tingle of something for Dabbler to pick up on. And there was a modest enough delay, between the statement and her appearance, for it to be credible that Dabbler had left the table and made her way to investigate the situation. To see if it was developing into anything more substantial.
I would totally be still thinking about hammerspace too!
” Or why heroes don’t confiscate bad guys superweapons and add them to their arsenal.”
Actually it has happened in the Marvel Superhero movies. From Thor 1: they made a gun from the fallen Guardian that Agent Colsen used in Avenger’s 1 (2 not being out yet) And there was a short flick as an extra where some people get ahold of a gun from the Avenger Movie that was used by the alien attackers, it get made to work and then Crime spree. Shield agents collected it and the guy that made it work and you see in the credits of that they re-enginered it into several prototypes.
It was an interesting story. But why doesn’t it happen more often? No clue, I suppose that the need to write newer storylines and many comics have different writers, re-using the ideas may constitute copywrite infringment from one writer to the next. Only a Guess.
Matrix
Copyright for such belong to the company they write for. Script writers being employees paid to create intellectual copyright for a company. Unless the film company has got very very bad contract writers. Which I doubt.
There are a whole bunch of reasons but, as you imply, the most pertinent ones apply to the script writers and companies, rather than the characters in the settings. Personally I prefer movies and TV series where there is good continuity to previous films/episodes. And in especially love the the occasional call back. They do need to be careful though, movies in particular, as they do not want to alienate paying customers who have not seen the earlier one(s). But it is easy enough to write a script that plays well to those who have no prior knowledge. Provided care is taken for just that purpose.
However many script writers, directors and the production companies behind them want to have fresh ideas and showcase their new work. Especially if they were not on the fist film and want to get all the credit, rather than to reflect some of it back to the earlier crew.
Since Marvel is now a Disney subsidiary, I’d assume “capable lawyers” is a given. If they brought in Lucasfilm’s legal team, [this statement has been redacted by court order, pending hearing].
For years my friends and I played Champions. The problem with picking up dropped items, or just taking them, is that unless you are only going to use them the one time, you end up having to pay character points for them. Usually. Unless your Referee is playing loosely…
Crocodile belts are the most in demand.They can easily b find out at mensusa.
Interesting looking products. Sadly out of my price range. Basically I am limited to whatever is cheapest. Then, when it gets too loose and my trousers keep falling down, I drill another hole in it. Which only gets unsightly if you have to do it more than once.
…seriously, a post just to advertise in a comic strips’ comments?
In your rant about a hero gathering enemy stuff, I have one question:
WHY did you not mention MEGAMAN????? >_<
Couldn’t agree more. What’s the point of taking down bad guys if there’s no loot to take anyway? You defeat a cool supervillain with a shitload of gadgets? You’ve EARNED the right to take his stuff and use them for justice.
Dabbler: “Besides, there’s an iPhone app that lets you do the same thing without amputation.”
Sydney: “Damn, I’m on a Droid.”
Dabbler: “I think ARC has an upgrade program with Verizon.”
Worm has a decent excuse for that with the maintenance issues of tinker-tech, and actual magical artifacts tend to be user-locked or at least have special requirements (on the other hand, if you are worthy to wield Mjolnir, you probably have the strong will to wield the green lantern ring and other stuff), and often the supervillain’s big thing is either doomsday devices or other stuff that’s impractical to use ethically and/or only he is smart enough to reverse-engineer. Still, though, that does leave a remarkable number of cases where the characters seem to simply not think of that.
one of the orbs she cant use atm is gonna be a hammerspace. (speculation)
so if Sydney had cybernetic arms like Doc Oc, could she use more orbs at one time?
I discussed just this point, elsewhere. But beware it is much later in the story. Although still pertinent to your question.
This interview reminded me of this strip:
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/wearables-at-work/9886668
it just now occurred to me that, although dabbler wouldn’t have the cultural knowledge to understand the allusions in ‘hammerspace’, she could at least parse it as “a space where you keep your tools”.
In response to your “Why do heroes not take the tech of supervillains” There is one great example of that: Batman. He is constantly stealing ideas and technology from his enemies, converting or upgrading for his own use, and using them against others. He seems particularly fond of Crane’s fear toxin. In the same universe, Catwoman has taken tech from Batman for her own use.