Grrl Power #226 – Hexectomy
I realized a problem with this page after I had nearly finished coloring it. It results from me having knowledge the characters don’t. Maxima prefers to keep the combat non-lethal… but if Hex didn’t have that shield, which Max didn’t know about but I did, at a minimum Hex would have suffered burns and possibly some exploded organs. Maybe Max thought Hex would Zig Zag more, which she might well have done if she didn’t have a shield, but even if we say panel two is heavily foreshortened, that Pwee Bomb went off pretty close to her.
<– Check out the Patreon campaign for the comic, where if I get enough support I might decide to check out whether or not the Surface Pro 3 is any good as a mobile art platform. Well, Patreon support plus cashing in all my ad monies so far. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that it has potential, but there are a number of critical patches it needs before it’s viable, like right handed artists like myself can accidentally brush the home button while drawing causing the art program to close. I really don’t see how it’s possible they missed that when testing the device, unless they just never had an artist test it, or they only had one guy in all of Microsoft test it and he was a lefty. There doesn’t seem to be any other devices on the horizon that have any potential as a mobile art tablet. iPads are no good cause they’re not pressure sensitive. Even if you get one of those Wacom styluses that fake pressure sensitivity, the iPad doesn’t run any of the programs I use to make the comic. There are some others that seemed to have potential like the ThinkPad Yoga, but Lenovo makes it so difficult to get straight answers about the optional stylus that I have little confidence they’d even support it post launch with patches, unlike the SP3. The Wacom ones are probably the best from a pure art standpoint but they start at over $2000 which is just gross. If anyone knows of a good mobile art solution, feel free to share it, and I don’t mean a screen you can draw on that you have to attach to a laptop, I mean a self contained tablet with pressure sensitivity that will run Windows 8.1 (or at least Win7) and Manga Studio/Paint Tool SAI.
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.
I own an Intuous 4 (collecting dust) and a Surface Pro #1. I’d highly recommend it as a drawing tablet and as a computer, since the SSD makes everything run instantaneous. Looking at the slightly bigger screen of the SP 3, I’m going to say it’s just not worth the much higher price tag. Plus 8bit pressure sensitivity? =/
Also very cool comic, I love these trope-busting web series!
Hmm… what exactly is up with Mr. Amorphous’ knuckles in panel 5?
It appears to be his finger nails, when you compare it to previous examples of the same, earlier in the fight. His hand stretches out of recognisable proportions, and the nails get significantly deformed, in the process.
So it is not a punch, it is a slap?
No, I think it is still a fist. Especially with that sound effect. Perhaps those are knuckles? It is just the change in colour that makes me assume it is re-purposed finger nails. They are the only part of the hand which have significantly different composition and colour. Intrinsic colour, as opposed to shading.
Obviously knuckles pick up shadows easily, but that does not appear to be what we are seeing on his hands. You can see that the arm becomes very different to a normal arm, so I did not restrict my speculation overly.
Mind you, with the amount he can obviously deform his body by, I am sure he will be able to learn how to give himself some disguise capability. With a bit of coaching from Sydney.
Simple answer: Pick up bits of shattered concrete and put it on his fist to add more omph.
Limited control over his composition. Probably decided to turn his knucks into steel for more oomph.
Reasonable suggestion. I would think of it more as controlling the density and tensile properties, of his own flesh, bones and nails though, as opposed to a literal transformation into steel. Which would remain consistent with his cast list profile. He can soak up damage, due to his body’s toughness.
He certainly does seem to place those hard bits in the best position to act as knuckle dusters, even though they appear to have originally been his nails. To me, anyhow, I could well be wrong about the latter.
I am sticking by my original hypothesis, that this is not a team of supervillains. After all Arianna arranged a bank robbery to show off, wh not some higher political official saying, hey great idea, but lets have more bang. Another thing, it doesn’t have to be a public team. It could be that this is more along the lines of the covert team. After all, you want to get close to the villain supers having a recorded account of you being ArcSwats enemy isn’t a bad resume. Especially is you do half way decent. These ‘villains’ do not seem to be trying to permanently put anyone out of comission. There have been several examples where they purposely missed clean shots to kill one of the team and instead just gave them a flesh wound. If you think about it, it kind of makes sense, after all these guys seem to be matching up with members of the team who are closer to themselves. Plus the ‘coincidence’ that both teams have people with similar enough powers to make it seem like a mirror match. Just one sides power levels are higher.
If it wasn’t for her blink, this would have KILLED Dabbler
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1375
If so, when it gets out that he has authorised the destruction of a restaurant, the endangerment of innocent civilians, and the probable spread of panic throughout amongst the general populace, he will loose his job. Plus face a significant period in jail.
Or, more likely, the death penalty for conspiracy to commit murder. There is no doubt that Shadow Boxer was striking Halo with intent to kill. And very nearly did. Likewise the super-enhanced ribbon attack, by Heavenly Sword, was intended to cut Dabbler into small pieces. And, again, would have succeeded except for Dabbler using dimension door to escape. Which could not have been safely predicted.
Yea, that can get to be tedious. My brother complained about that in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. “Every battle ended up in a showdown between the good guy, and an evil counterpart, with almost identical powers” Fine if there is some specific cause, such as a boss guy who has been cloning them. Which in that, there was not. So it was simple bad writing. Both being boring and nonsensical.
Here though there are a vast number of villains. So there are statistically bound to be some that overlap the heroes. And, in Math’s case, he specifically joined Archon to look for such an individual, and kept going through opponents, until he found her. So it is no surprise, that he has decided to conduct his mating dance with Jabberwoky.
Hex is extremely indignant to be referred to as a ‘budget Halo’, but it is true that there is significant overlap. Note though that she fought Maxima, not Halo. Nose Boop Guy* did not fight any of the numerous individuals who all have the strength and (presumable) toughness that he displayed.
But now look at the others. Lee Press on Nails: None. Shadow Boxer: None. Heavenly Sword: None.**
Gymnastic Ribbon Girl: None. Cyclops Wannabe: None. Super Squirrel: None. The others, that spring to mind anyhow, we either do not know enough about or appear to have different powers too.
* He was inferior to Anvil, but is a simple strong/tough brick. Her primary power is kinetic absorption, which is completely unrelated. Their only overlap is both having super strength, but she did not even use that.
Super-strength is obviously extremely common in the ARCverse. And most super-hero worlds for that matter. Likewise toughness or other simple defence. Practically every one of the male supers has both of those. So it is fair to assume that the majority of conflicts will have some of those on both sides.
Therefore there is no real point in analysing or comparing Nose Boop guy, or anyone like him, given that he, or they, will overlap half the team.
** You could try claiming Math, but the differences are significant, not least of which being that she has super powers. So, if anything, is potentially stronger than he is.
Feel free to stick to whatever hypothesis you want. Just don’t expect everyone- or even the majority- to agree with you until you can better support it.
These ‘villains’ do not seem to be trying to permanently put anyone out of comission.
If Shadow Boxer hadn’t stopped to gloat, Halo might have been dead. The only thing stopping Silent Shadow from claiming two victims is that he targeted someone with super toughness and a teleporter before managing to slice Brook. Heavenly Sword could have killed Dabbler not only once, but twice. Finally, Hex seems likely to have taken a potshot at Maxima had the latter not made it clear that she knew what Hex was about to do. My apologies, but the data clearly contradicts your claim.
Plus the ‘coincidence’ that both teams have people with similar enough powers to make it seem like a mirror match.
Just what does this have to do with the price of wheat in Nebraska? Both Venom and Carnage had powers similar to Spiderman, but that that didn’t stop them from being villains.
I wonder if the squirell will shred her clothes, just a little bit… offscreen… and some people see her boobs (offscreen, of course)
Offscreen? Why? I prefer full screen in your face boobs in almost every case. Don’t hide em flaunt em.
Almost certainly my fault. I am just trying to walk a narrow line. Which can make things awkward. I am dreadful at handling politically correct issues, as I tend to hold the concept in contempt. So it does not come naturally.
As a bit of background, one of the reasons I liked City of Heroes, was because it had chat channels. And the game attracted a similar mix of people, as to this comic. So you could get some good conversation and company.
But, in some of them, the chat could get very sexual. Which sadly, drove some folks to drop those channels. Because I had a very extensive friends list, I knew that most of those who did not use those channels were females. They found the environment was rather too ‘boys locker-roomish’.
That is not to say that was exclusively the case. Some of the most raunchy talk was from females. So it worked out fine. Those who got uncomfortable with those channels avoided them. But, because you could turn them off, or leave them, at will, nobody felt that the environment, as a whole, was oppressive. However, here we only have the one chat area, so we need to make it as accommodating, to everybody, as we can.
Mind you, City of Heroes was very much a family game. And, outside of the private chat channels, everybody behaved accordingly. Here we have a more adult themed comic, what with the language and the shower room scenes, as examples. So we need not be overly sensitive. Except when we have sponsors characters involved.
Outside of that though, I too welcome flesh. The more of it the merrier. And have no objections if we see some intimate scenes later. I am sure that DaveB can handle things in such a way that it avoids gratuitous scenes, but still keeping it realistic. People do expose flesh in real life. And that is a central part of relationships.
I think one of the best examples, where they got it right, was in Star Ship Troopers. Which showed a much less repressed society, than we currently have. Something I am very much in favour of. Political correctness forces us to overcompensate and not show even those things which are present in real life.
So the tightrope is trying to keep the comic liberated, but realistic, sexy, but not exploitative. And we can do our bit, to help keep the fan-base as wide as possible, by having a matching tone in the comments. Which does need that we be mindful of circumstances, if we want to do that.
I agree with almost everything you said (especially the part about the females being some of the raunchier talkers) but a link with a warning would solve all of that. Like the nude version of Peggy which I VERY much liked.
The squirrel, after assessing the situation it finds itself in, will run off Hex’s belly, leaving more scratches, and try to find another tree to climb up and hide, preparing to go back to sleep for the night. All that noise woke it up from a typically very light sleep.
I have, IMHO, a better idea:
Hex: [faints]
Squirrel: Chitter, chitter, chitter.*
*Yeah, I’m catching up to Halo.
Squirrel than goes on a rampage, taking out supervillains left and right to become champeen kill-counter for the evening.
Indiscriminate violence visited on everybody in the parking lot. That’ll teach ’em to disturb a squirrel’s beauty sleep.
659 comments!!!???
Nowhere near the top count we had here before.
But personally, I’d like to reach at least 666, for the laughs.
Three more
to go
BAM!
Looks like we may have overdone ourselves.
Well I assume Hex threw up the shield before Maxima even fired since the tell was obvious on maxima’s end.
Couldn’t the Pwee Bomb also be like a flash-bang with a mild blast wave?
Say, enough to cause a concussion, but not enough to do permanent damage?
Very possibly. That is certainly something that Maxima would have sought to develop, if possible, once she took on a policing role. Tank melting and nuke capability being of less use in such a capacity.
And she may well have seen the benefit of such even earlier on, in her military career. That is, after all, the environment that flash-bangs themselves were developed for. Not for civilian policing.
There is no doubt this is real. The whole point of the broadcast was to shine a light, ARC Light, on those rogue supers and see what shakes out.
waiting for the latest update, abusing my refresh button…
I hope you know, sir, that I have called in a complaint to the ASPCRB*.
*American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Refresh Buttons.
that eeeeeee noise is the buster buddies about to go boom
Hex is like a more fit Sydney…
Panel 6 is what I expect Sydney to have said when she visits a forest too!
I still love the Maxima jab on this one, “Budget Halo” LOL
Upon re-read, from the last panel I think we can safely assume that Hex was one of the people being influenced by…well, I don’t remember his villain name, so I’ll just say Kevin.
“Kevin” is easier to spell anyway.
Second to last panel. The last panel shows a squirrel behaving unusually.
Spoilers:
Either it is also being affected by Vehemence’s aura or it is normally aggressive towards humans. If so there would be more to it than meets the eye!
Well, maybe Squirrel Girl is dimension jumping again.
hex really is a budget halo. down to her reactions