Grrl Power #231 – Communican’t
Jiggawatt can still shoot, but will she be able to stand up with both ears busted? How will this affect her interest in the next gen iPod? Stay tuned to the same Arc-time, same Arc-channel!
So yeah, Hiro and Stalwart both seem like Superman light, but they have other powers that haven’t shown up yet. Hiro obviously can absorb and store sonic attacks and release that energy as… Guile style sonic booms? Kinetic whammys. That seems very specific and limited I know, but that’s not quite the full spectrum of his abilities either. More to come on that. Anyway, now you know why I wanted Breakpoint to tousle with the team. She got a bit of a short shrift during this melee. She actually has some other powers that make her pretty dangerous, but she didn’t get a chance this fight. Maybe her heart wasn’t in it. At least she got hit in the head with the big guys knee and not his crotch.
Some people pointed out that it would have made more sense for Maxima to clobber Breakpoint instead of taking a few precious seconds to delegate it. I’m sure Jiggawatt would have appreciated a snappier intervention, but that’s just the call she made. Besides, Hiro was having trouble with Boilerplate, (the bad guys really do get the short end of the naming stick, don’t they?) which is alarming since Hiro is one of the toughest members of the team. Finishing him off herself and shifting Hiro to Breakpoint more sense to her. Or course the question has also been asked as to why Maxima hasn’t wasted most of the bad guys with her super speed already, and there are a number of reasons. She knows she’s not always going to be there. Since Arc-SWAT is so small, normally they’ll be split into squads to handle multiple incidents, usually with relatively evenly distributed power sets and sharing a Harem. Max doesn’t want the team to get used to always having her with them. Also there is a small matter of ego. She knows her people are good, and if she does their job for them, there will be a price to pay morale wise. Besides, the fight has been going extremely well so far. It’s only now that most of the chaff has been taken care of that she actually need to start intervening directly. In her opinion, up to the point that her people can’t handle things themselves, it’s better that she stay on overwatch.
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What I’m wondering is why all the bad guys are completely ignoring Max. I mean, yeah she’s tough and no one wants to be the first one shot, but she’s also delegating the whole show. I figure some of the smarter baddies would try to team up and at least disrupt communication.
Well there’s her disloding the shoulder of, and than hitting him hard enough to send flying, a super on Paragon or higher level (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1395), in 2 seconds
(Hiro is paragon, 7 out of 10, and was having real trouble with Boilerplate)
There’s her literally ignoring blasts that are capable of slicing through an entire building (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1383).
There’s her dodging an entire arsenal of all different kinds of flavors of blasts with superspeed (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1280)
There’s her causually backslapping a super without even looking (hard enough to leave a visual imprint. The fact that he jumped in like that suggest that he has atleast some kind of super defences)
(https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1276)
And finally, there’s her causing, and standing in, a tactical nuke level explosion without even ripping her clothes
(https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1138)
She’s not just superfast and superinvulerable, she’s also strong enough to knock out anyone but the thoughest enemys.
She’s also supported by an entire team of supers that, without her help, are capable of taking down a team of villains with superior numbers (that help eachother)
If they want to stand a chance at taking out Maxima, they’d have to do it without having to worry about all those other supers supporting her.
Fighting Maxima would require expert coordination of a large team with a good plan (or someone who’s as strong as she is).
You can’t do that while your team is already busy fighting (and losing from) her friends
So what you’re saying is Maxima is a megaboss that requires a max-level raid group with at least three dedicated scrimmage parties to handle incidental area aggro around the main boss fight.
Gotcha.
LFG!!
The raid group has already engaged. Lead by one of the most famous World of Warcraft players!
In short, because she’s to powerfull to take down with her friends still running around.
It’s like in an MMO, you don’t aggro the boss while you are still fighting 20 elite mobs
To borrow a quote from a certain Doctor:
“Do the smart thing. Let somebody else try first.”
The goal of this fight, from the enemies perspective, is most likely to probe for weaknesses wherever possible and to possibly demoralize the ARK team by taking out at least one member (though that’s likely more a goal of the individuals rather than the leadership who sent the group). Maxima is very likely well known in the super-community, so her weaknesses are likely either already known or the supers in charge know better than to send chaff at her. The other members of the team, however, are unknown factors and anyone in charge would be much more interested in how they handle things. And, as for trying to take someone (anyone) out, people have already tried for Maxima and seem to be mostly giving up as they go for other targets.
If this is a semi fact finding mission of condition of Archon and they don’t know Maxima’s weaknesses, she is still powerful enough that they may of decided to focus on everyone else.
You can use that knowledge in a later battle to take out her support and then focus on Maxima.
Besides even if you are powerful enough to more or less ignore damage from everyone else’s attacks, they are still a distraction. If you aren’t that strong well have you ever tried to off the Metroid Prime’s Core Form without disposing of the Fission Metroids it creates.
lets not forget the Hex (the blue haired chick https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1383 ) with her Halo knock-off of a power making an attempt at Maxima which sumed up to nothing more than annoying nats pestering her lol.
Also any1 notice in the 1st panel Hiro’s not wearing the throat mic then it suddenly appears outa nowhere in the next panel?
DaveB
A bit off topic but is this a Harem cameo?
That’s definitly Harem. It even sais so in the under-comic-text (is there a word for that?)
Author’s commentary?
lemme guess, you have an ad-blocker, or your Javascript is turned off so you don’t see things like that…
But… we can see the author’s commentary.
Yeah, it’s the Author’s Notes, not the Mouseover/Alt-text that some webics have (The End and Guilded Age have some fun alt-text)
It is. Dave left a comment and link in the bottom of the main page.
Yup!
I am keeping my fingers crossed that one day we will see Sydney visit the Capsaicin Lounge. Either having her cameo over in Leftover Soup, or having it appear as a guest location here.
the bottom row of panels were utter genius, and funny. i love it
Uhm, hey Dave, possible mistake:
Hiro’s missing his neck-communicator-thing in panel 1 and mysteriously has it again in panel 2
Someone mentioned it in the midst of an earlier comment thread but I wanted to bring it up again in case it got overlooked.
Don’t remember whether I’ve said this before, but…I do wonder whether background “Challenge Accepted” guy is actually a power-copier.
That’s one good reason I can see for why he’d still be smiling at this stage of the fight. He’s getting what he came for, regardless of how his hirelings are doing.
He (I’m gonna call him Smooth Criminal until we get an official name), along with bandana girl (orange shirt), ballgreens (punk rocker), blonde raccoon (next to punk rocker) and red cape (seen too many bad movies), are probably the organisers of this little shindig. They’ve seen everyone in Archon by this point, and have a pretty good idea of how to take down each quickly (besides Maxima, but she’s the boss fight).
All the others who’ve been taken down so far were just responding to those five and their ‘improv everywhere’-esque flash-supermob. This could explain why they can’t fight together worth a damn, and why Hex bailed as soon as it stopped being fun.
On the subject of returning villains, or possible recruits, I’d kinda like to see Hex, Concretia, and Mach the Knife conscripted as part of their sentences. Crystal Sagat too, maybe.
So it’s not possible that he’s smiling simply because he thinks that Hiro is about to get flattened?
Whoops, got to get that fixed.
One crushed iceprincess in pants to go. Here you are.
If she is female, and made of ice, why bother wearing boxers but not even a tubetop? Looks facially feminine, but more likely to be a pretty-boy than a girl
Feminine? Guy looks like Handsome Jack.
Fridge brilliance on the “Hexectomy.” Max is looking to build a brutal rep., and doesn’t want to be distracted from overwatch for too long. Hex can fly w/ one pair of orbs for lift, so she should be able to accelerate at approx. 20 m/s^2, give or take. Max gave Hex enough time to reconfigure her orbs and do something, but not much time all told, so if Hex set course for GetMeOuttaHere at top accel, she should be just making it out of the “2nd-degree-burns-through-clothes” zone. (human standard)
1st and 2nd degree burns over 50% or more of her body would make her easy to ID and arrest later, and be good for a nice stay in the prison infirmary once apprehended. An elegant solution to trouble from a shooty, flying glass cannon, and good rep maintenance. Super toughness, on the other hand, would be license to loosen the kid gloves a bit. Hex foiled that plan with her shield, but appears to have learned her lesson, anyway.
Or at least learned her “lesion” …
I could just see Arc having a “Max” energy signature detector in a handy handhold. Your honor, the defendant has been tagged as being on scene during a brawl and taken marking from Maxima. Her energy wave length is documented as relatively low danger and long lasting, we move to transfer the defendant to maximum security pending power discovery.
I guess they found her *shades Breaking point.
Yeeaaahhh!
She’s not broken, just a little bent
…and somewhat flattened.
And it just occurred to me what would put all these second stringers together (besides a lot of money) and why. Mr. Suit by the tree is a mishmash of all the comic tropes –a billionaire playboy reporter…
He has the cash to pull together this event, staging dozens of ‘talent’ to test the mettle of Archon. Any who survive and are on the run will be covert security operatives. Any who get captured get defended and eventually released while being paid to keep their mouth shut. A few of them even get endorsements like sports figures. He gets to walk into the attack as a passerby drawn to the action, report on it and make a mint selling the story –to himself. He can sell information to all the highest bidders on the powers and apparent limits shown.
He is in effect an intelligence freak who just has to ‘know’ even if it could hurt him. You might as well call him the ‘Public Eye’.
A couple notes…
1) I’m kind of amused how Breakpoint got taken down- it wasn’t quite boot-to-the-head, but it was close.
2) I don’t mind if Breakpoint does or does not make further cameos- I got to see my character nearly take out a hero without breaking a sweat. If she had succeeded, I might’ve felt bad, ’cause I like Jiggawatt- but as close as she came, it oughtta give the rest of the team a little more respect for how dangerous she could have been.
3) I think this pretty much confirms that the attack Breakpoint was using was, as I posited, based on amplitude rather than frequency- the fact that Jiggawatt is still having trouble hearing even after the stimulus has been removed implies that the trauma was inflicted by the volume; if it had been based on frequency, the negative effects would have disappeared almost instantly.
4) I stated earlier that Breakpoint can generate counter frequencies, yes, but she’s not precognitive and she doesn’t have super reflexes- and, to be honest, she’s pretty inexperienced, too. Hiro got the drop on her, pure and simple. It happens to the best of ’em- and Breakpoint ain’t even close to in that league.
That’s only because the only use of Ti Kwan Leep is self-defense. Do you know who said that? Ki Lo Ni, the great teacher.
+ 1 for the Dr. Demento reference.
Looks like Hiro absorbed the kinetic vibration of the various molecules projected by the sonic attack as it impacts his skin. >.> And then redirects said energies into physical strength. Or something. Which makes for awesome. :) As for standing with busted eardrums? It’s possible. It’s not fun. It’s not easy. But it’s possible. >.>!
Hey. I’m pretty new to this site but I just had a quick question. Is your Maxima like a version of DC’s Maxima but with a reversed mindset? Was the DC’s Maxima an inspiration for you to make you Maxima like her? (In her original incarnation, DC’s version could psionically boost any of her stats).
I made my Maxima long before I knew of DC’s Maxima. I still have yet to see her in any comic or DC animated thing, but reading her power set on some site, I think it was comic vine, she’s bonkers powerful, like peak of DC silver age bonkers powerful. If I recall correctly she was like Marvel’s Gladiator meets Molecule Man or something.
Yeah, the original Maxima was pretty powerful, even in terms of DC’s ‘Glory Days’ (she was the closest female proxy to Superman after all) but one of her more modern incarnations limits her to a Flying Brick with metalkinesis and stat boosting. She also showed up in the Smallville TV series with the stock super powers as well as emphatic powers, mind control, and a ‘toxic kiss’.
But it’s sort of cool how similar both Maxima’s are despite being independently designed. If it weren’t for your Maxima being a human, they could almost be sisters.
Who said Maxi was human? o_O
I thought Dabbler was the only non-human on the team.
Have you noticed the pointy ears, natural purple hair and shiny metallic gold skin? These are not standard indicators of Homo Sapiens. Whist she may well be, the other option is still a possibility.
To be fair, neither is possessing a sonic attack, creating shockwaves, firing laser beams out of your eyes and the like. Also, pointy ears can be naturally found in humans as well as atypically colored skin, blue and grey are the most common, but green, orange and bronze (as in literal gleaming bronze) have been observed. If you nix her powers and her hair (which could very well be a side effect of gaining superpowers in the first place), Maxima could be a genuine member Homo sapiens. Get the race just right, pronounce the right set of genetic markers (for the ears) and then add in a skin disease (the bronzing one) and viola, a genuine Maxima.
I haven’t found anyone doing this one the forum and I apologize if I missed this somewhere in the massive pile of comments but I have been keeping track of all the villains in this fight and I want to get some confirmation from the rest of the readership on some of the things I was unclear on. things that I specifically want verified will be marked with this symbol: *(?)*
Also! Anyone who knows the community consensus on the villains’ names I would very much appreciate being able to update this list. Any characters whose names I didn’t see in the author’s blurb or prominently displayed in the comments sections will have a description of their outfit and or abilities. I did not include the page # of first appearance for these people because I didn’t think to do it as I went, but it’s on my to do list unless someone else wants to. I AM NOT KEEPING TRACK OF POWERS!
On top of an attempt to tally and track the villain codex… This list is:
a) A list of bad guys presumed defeated
b) Sort of in order of defeat, by whom, and what page (where I can verify/remember)
c) A list of bad guys still presumed active
d) (Where possible) A description of what active villains were doing when last seen
e) VERY much a work in progress.
Defeated:
1) Bluehaired Meathead
——Beaten by Anvil in #202
——Black pants and shirtless partial arm and torso could also be pictured facedown in corner of #224
2) Crystal-handed (possibly naked… I mean I never saw pants) Meathead
——Backhanded by Maxima in #203
3) Shadow knuckle guy
——Beaten by Halo in #206
4) Concretia
——Beaten by Math in #209
——Headshot by Peggy in #216
5) Female in red costume with gymnastics ribbon
——Beaten by Achilles (sort of) in #209
——pictured facedown in #223 *(?)*
6) Caucasian Male in white tank top
——Beaten by (didn’t write down) in #210
——pictured facedown in #224 *(?)*
7) Black Male with fire knuckles
——Beaten by (didn’t write down) in #210
——pictured facedown in #224 *(?)*
8) Laser vision guy
——Knife teethed by Math in #211
——pictured facedown on #224 *(?)*
9) Lee press on nails
——forced off the roof by projectile teammate in #209 *(?)*
——Beaten by Halo in #212
——Lifted by Halo onto the grass in #224 *(?)*
10) Male in navy blue shirt with Mohawk
——Beaten by (didn’t write down) in #214
11) Glowbug
——Beaten by Heatwave in #219
12) Shirtless Black Male with braided hair
——Beaten by Heatwave in #219
13) Male in Blue vest
——Head-gripped by stalwart in #219
14) Heavenly Sword
——Defeated by Dabbler in #223
15) Mach the knife
——Incapacitated by Dabbler in #220
——Defeated by Harem in #224
16) Dark-haired Male wearing Black pants and grey shirt
——pictured facedown on #224
——Not seen prior to this *(?)*
17) Caucasian Male wearing black shirt and camo pants
——pictured facedown on #224
——Not seen prior to this *(?)*
18) Blond Caucasian Male in red pants, yellow shirt, and an odd hat
——Beaten by Mr. Amorphous in #226
19) Caucasian male with torn sleeves and green Camo skinny jeans
——Hit by Friendly fire from Hex in #227
20) Gauntlette
——Beaten by Jiggawatt in #228
21) Caucasian Male with dark pony tail and green cloud legs
——Beaten by Jiggawatt in #228
22) Blond Caucasian Male with blue pants and orange line tattoos
——Beaten by Jiggawatt in #228
23) Pair of legs wearing red pants with black greeves
——Thrown into the asphalt by Maxima in #228
24) Caucasian male with yellow shirt, green pants and fire hair
——Beaten by Halo in #229
25) Boilerplate
——Beaten by Maxima in #230
26) Breakpoint
——Beaten by Hiro in #231
27) Giant wearing Orange shorts and glasses
——Beaten by Hiro in #231
28) Blue crystal swordsman
——Beaten by Hiro in #231
———————————————————————————
Pictured but not yet defeated:
1) Blond Female in orange tank top and headband
——Last seen dodging villain 2 in #202
2) Caucasian male wearing black shirt
——Last seen in a headlock by Anvil in #206
——may be Villain 17 pictured facedown in #224 *(?)*
3) Dark spiky haired Male with some sort of Eye disk
——Last seen in #207
——Or was he being hit in the face by that disk *(?)*
4) Mysterious (presumably male) wearing a Red cape and cowl
——First seen backhanding a flying Concretia in #209
——Possibly last seen ignoring friendly hex fire in #227 panel 2 but the pants are different… *(?)*
5) Jabberwocky
——Last seen fighting Math in #213
6) Blond female *(?)* wearing a pink shirt, black pants, and green shoes
——Last seen ducking for cover from Friendly hex fire in #227 panel 2
7) Caucasian Male Shirtless with zebra Mohawk
——Last seen blocking Dabbler’s sword with a piece of pavement in #229
8) Caucasian Male in bluejeans and black shirt
——Last seen dodging Jiggawatt’s lightning in #229
9) Hex
——Last seen escaping through the bushes in #229
10) Caucasian Male with green hair, black bandanna, black leather jacket and floating ball bearings
——Last seen Giving orders to the villains in #230
11) Blond Caucasian female with grey visor and blue eyemakeup or tattoos
——Last seen in #230
12) Caucasian Male wearing blue suit and fedora with white eye streaks
——Last seen standing under the tree in #231
…
So after all of that… “nearly 30” as spoken by Maxima in the parking lot scene should definitely be amended.
Just a note: I intend to attach the updated list as a comment in future comic updates unless someone tells me where I can post it.
Good list. I need to go in and clean up some errors, like the wrong pants on the red cape’s second appearance, and I need to ammend the number. It was originally supposed to be 40 but I ran out of time drawing the parking lot scene. I have lots of little fixes to do before I get ready to put the book together.
#2 in Not defeated is down, he was choked out by Anvil.
#3 was being hit in the face with a beanbag, he’s definitely out. Possibly down an eye as well.
#6 was supposed to be someone from Arc-SWAT but I couldn’t decide who. I need to fix that.
And extremely minor spoiler but Glowbug isn’t out of the fight quite yet.
Reading that list I realize I have a non-representative number of caucasians in the overall cast, but then I feel guilty about suddenly rectifying that when drawing bad guys.
Might be a self-selection bias: Minorities often have less pleasant interactions with authority (cops), and therefore less trust of the government. Superpowered minorities could therefore be more likely to have Syndey’s initial fears, and have stayed under the radar, or worked solo as vigilantes.
Villains would likely be more balanced, unless they have reason not to be. (A KKK superteam isn’t going to be racially balanced.) With Archon going public – and getting a few instances of good press – there might be more willing to come forward and join the good side.
Also, if developed nations are more likely to have supers, then there is quite likely an economic component to developing them, somehow. (Indirect, I’d assume.) Again, minorities tend to be poorer, so would have a slight disadvantage there as well.
Between the two, I can see the initial team being heavily skewed, but it could well reach closer parity fairly soon.
Lastly, you’ve made note that not all supers are combat-capable. Given the low numbers of supers in general, even a small statistical variation in who got combat powers this generation could be very noticeable. (While still being within statistical norms. If there are 500 supers in general in the USA, we’ve got ~50 here, total. Ten percent. Of that two-three on ArcSWAT are minorities (Hiro looks like he could have some Asian ancestry to me), and we have several with unknown ethnicities among the villains. So we have at least 5% minorities, possibly more. Slightly less than 80% of the US population is white, so we aren’t too far off.)
(Actually, considering just Archon you aren’t far off at all… You’ve shown 10 supers, again two-three non-white. That’s twenty or thirty percent, which is exactly the minority presence in the USA. So, statistically you are even with the population.)
If it helps with your tally any, Breakpoint is hispanic…
O_O I got the author to respond to my FIRST COMMENT EVER…. *minor squee*
Also! Thank you, I will make these corrections to names and Defeated/Active status.
One more question while I’m making corrections: Is “Not Defeated #2” meant to be the same person as “Defeated #17” or should I count them separately?
RE: The Race issue: It was not my intention to point out any flaw in character design or any sort of racial inequality. I was simply using Caucasian and Black as descriptive terms. I chose “black” because the term African American assumes American nationality which I can’t because this is clearly an international villain team as evidenced by British flag costumes and Australian characters in the mix. As such, to respond to Whiskey Jack, because Breakpoint has a name I did not have to describe her race, much like knowing Glowbug is Australian did not affect her description in my list.
Relax, dude- I wasn’t trying to give you a hard time. It was more for DaveB’s benefit- he was concerned because he felt like he wasn’t showing sufficient racial parity with such a heavily “white” group of villains. I was just pointing out that, technically, Breakpoint isn’t actually white.
Welcome to the community. And congratulations!
*holds up paw, for a high five*
*high five!* Thanks Yorp! Well I’ve been reading this comic since This one was first posted so it’s actually quite surprising that I haven’t put in my 2 cents yet.
We Neptunians find ourselves underrepresented as well! =OP
I believe the proper sequence goes something like this:
1) Make list.
2) Check aforementioned list twice.
3) Find out who’s naughty.
4) Find out who’s nice.
Just as a point of reference: how about you go out to a random rumble and correctly count all the people involved in less than 2 seconds, you do that, and get it correct, then you will be able to criticise Maxi for getting the count wrong
I think we have had a minor miscommunication. There was no criticism.
a·mend ( əˈmend/ ) verb:
make minor changes in (a text) in order to make it fairer, more accurate, or more up-to-date.
past tense: amended; past participle: amended
The author has admitted to the need for amending that statement in previous author commentary. After tabulating the list, I agreed.
Personally don’t see the need (or justification) to retcon the numbers (either at the start of the fight or during the Press Conference)
As you said, they (Archon/Government) can amend their numbers/data, but don’t go back and retcon the story to give them information they didn’t have at the time
If Max can dismantle a gun and do someone’s taxes in the time it takes someone to draw same gun from a holster, she has time to accurately count how many people are present after an entire whopping ten seconds.
What remains in question is how many are invisible/hidden due to superpowers, how many are normals in the wrong spot at the wrong time, and how many are news crews about to get a scoop? I’d let Max be accurate to about 10%, unless there’s something else to throw the count off.
I *am* amused that even now, Sidney is listed as a cadet, not a recruit, and appears to be the only one so marked. . .
Yea, Dave has a big ‘to do’ list of various corrections that need to be done. Some day. Where he uses the wrong terminology, and readers point that out, he acknowledges it, and ensures that the ongoing story has the appropriate correct usage.
Having a streak of obsessive/compulsive behaviour in me, the outstanding issues do niggle. A bit. But most of them require changes to artwork, in one way or another. Such as rank insignia. Or dialogue in comic. So it could take quite an exercise to sort out the lot.
Given the option of Dave taking a few weeks out to do all those, or carry on churning out the story at the current unbroken pace, I know which option I prefer.
But I am sure us obsessive compulsive types are in a minority.
Wait, when was ‘absorbtion’ part of Hiro’s power-base?
His cast page icons are “biceps”, “shield”, and “wing”, but doesn’t include the “four arrows” of Anvil and Jiggawatt (which has been presumed to mean ‘energy absorption’). Though the description lists that: “he has super strength, toughness, and can fly. And maybe something else!”
Basically, he’s been sandbagging.
On the cast page, there was always a “And maybe something else” spoiler tag at the end of his power list.
Aaaand never mind, I was post-ninja’d.
Always expect ninjas
Okay, hadn’t read DaveB‘s comments
So, this is a previously un-released power of his? Really need to see more of the Heroes go down, otherwise it’s a bit of the old “Yawn! Bad guys attack, good guys win” lame kind of fight that seems prevalent in todays cartoons
Except for Halo, none of the heroes have ever been really introduced to us.
They have been introduced to the public in the comic, but the best powers and power levels are classified, so they wouldn’t mention something like this.
So there are probably more things that we don’t know yet
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but loving Jiggie’s chibi (Chibi-Jig? Jiggie-Chib?) on the bottom row :D
Cut it out and make it your gravatar! It will make us all like you 21% more.
Well, technically it won’t make Dave like you more if you don’t ask before using his stuff. I don’t recall any blanket statements declaring his stuff fair game for avatars, though I’ve seen several such avatars – Yorp being the most prolific.
Yeah, well, ‘Guesticus’ isn’t the ‘real’ me, was just created so could comment on Girlyyy
I did ensure I got specific permission to adapt and use mine. But DaveB is pretty cool about these things, and has a relaxed attitude. There are a lot of comments nowadays, so he may not be able to spot every individual request, or have the time to respond to them, if there were a lot.
However, that said, it would surprise me if he did object to readers making avatars based on the comic art. Obviously if folks do want to, then common sense restrictions would apply. Such as no commercial use, without specific permission. And that Dave would always have the right to revoke permission, at his option. Even if it was only granted by virtue of not specifically objecting.
Again, I seriously doubt that would ever need to happen. But it is always possible that somebody might bring the comic into disrepute, here or elsewhere. In which case DaveB must retain the legal remedy, of asking the culprit to stop the visual association with the comic.
I would encourage folks to create an avatar. It is a very simple process, and any image you have saved can be used (subject to normal copyright conventions and comic ratings of course). Just click on the “Get a Gravatar” link here, or down by the comments, and follow the process through.
It is pretty simple and painless. Even I managed the process without feeling the urge to throw my monitor through the window!
For those of you who are wary about putting email addresses into comments, or to sign up for services, I can confirm that I received no problems following doing that. No spam, or advertising, or other breach of privacy, that I detected. And I am rather paranoid about these things. So do not do them often, and any culprit organisation would stand out quickly, if that happened.
Interesting foreshadowing(?) with the mysterious guy behind the tree. Was he the one suggesting strategy earlier? He seems like the kind that gathers data and then acts decisively. We’ll see.
Our Fedora wearing Tree Hugger has been watching from there since Max scoped out the parking lot. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1280
We got a good look at him when Dabbler dropped the sword. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1358
He appears to be one of the Foreshadowed Seven. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
AHA! *added to the list* thank you.
I was hoping I wasn’t the only one who had noticed he’s one of “The Seven” that were foreshadowed.
Nope. Although we have seen him lurking there a few times already. Including poking Dabbler’s sword with a stick. And he did say “Challenge accepted” earlier, in response to Maxima throwing down the gauntlet. So there is a fair amount of foreshadowing building up.
Three energy absorbers so far. Halo’s extra orbs or unspent points may have another and then Dabbler can probably with set up… I can see each of the smaller “squads” within the team having one when they start getting sent out.
Off topic for this page…but curious…what effect would Dazzler’s succubus powers have on someone who is truly asexual? Not as in lacking gender, but as in lacking sexual-based attraction. Such people do exist.
Most (not all) asexuals tend to simply not be interest in sexual intercourse (get no pleasure from it)
Speaking for self (Self is shy, doesn’t like talking to strangers :P), enjoy the pron (solo or girl/girl/girl, not the ‘straight’ stuff) but the idea of being with a real person, even kissing, just does not appeal to me (it just seems too ‘alien’), but seeing how still have the feels would probably still be affected (specially if Dabbles “cranked it up”) but would feel extremely violated afterwards (often have ‘sex’ dreams, but always very manipulated as it’s not something would willingly do while awake)
When Dabbler was pushing her Lust Aura, heterosexual females were feeling sexually attracted to her, which is something they would not feel without the Lust Aura. Logic suggests that the same thing would happen to a true Asexual. While they might not normally feel any sense of sexual attraction towards anyone or anything, Dabbler’s Lust Aura would make them feel sexual attraction to her.
Has that been confirmed that they were hetero? Not that their sexuality matters to us
Her powers work as a factor of the target’s sexuality. If her power is a 1 and your sexuality is a 1 (assuming that’s human average) then her powers would have full effect. Say that Math is a 1.5 and Sydney is a 0.8, then her powers would be affected proportionally. But it’s an additive power, so she could make someone almost entirely asexual feel a “normal” amount of lust, but if she used it on someone like Math, I’d have to post the rest of the page at Hentai Foundry. :) As long as a creature is a member of a species that has mating imperatives based on arousal and attraction, she should be able to affect them.
We have had people describe one of the bad guys in this comic as being either crystal or ice, and as blue in color. What if he is actually ‘Blue Ice” from aviation lore? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ice_(precipitation) I think that is one super power I would definitely not want.
Thus, his nickname name from the intel side would be….?
Snowcone?
And then he reads the link context fully… And turns yellow then green. Riiight
Poopsickle?
“The Flush”?
a.k.a. The Brown Skidmark
Hi DaveB, I can’t unsubscribe to this comments thread, not all bad but it is filling my mailbox pretty fast.
Also since Sidney had the eye patch long enough for various pirate jokes, if Jiggawatt just became Jiggly-WHAT?!? and in turn she can use it when she doesn’t want to hear something.
Just don’t click on the “e-mail me box next time on the next thread. That is how I do it. I simply return here instead. Sorry about that. You live and learn. Just don’t automatically click the box for “e-mail next time in the next comment for the next comic and you will be fine.
At the bottom, of each email, there is a link which you can click to unsubscribe. I would not bother with it at the moment though, as there will not be many more comments added to this page, at this late date. And that way, in a few months time, if somebody does add a comment, it will pop into your in box.
I actually make a point of subscribing, after the fist day or two. It is nice to see the ongoing comments that crop up months or years after a page went live. And, once in a while, something gets mentioned which was missed in all the earlier debates.
A cluttered up in-box is never fun though, so I understand folks will avoid that. One other option does exist, and that is to subscribe to the comments RSS feed, by using the link at the top right of each comments page. That way the notifications go into your RSS reader, and can be filtered or handled however that normally works.
The best feature of that is that it will take you directly to each comment, without having to search through the page via your browser find options, or, worse, manually. The worst is that you have to set it up separately for each page. And, depending on your reader, that might slow down updates, when you force it to check each separately.
If anyone knows a way to pick up new comments RSS feeds for the whole domain, rather than per page, I would love to know how.
Not for me, it only takes me back here, not directly to whomever commented.
When I click on an email message, it brings me to the correct issue, but that is it. It neither goes to the correct comments page, nor to the individual message. Whereas (back when I was using it), clicking on a comments RSS message would take me directly to both the right page and the particular remark that had been made.
Note that I said “comment” not “commentator”. Nothing would link to an individual person, other than clicking to follow a web-page they linked directly in the comments, or via their avatar name. Should they choose to set up something by doing that.
Hi DaveB, I can’t unsubscribe to this comments thread, not all bad but it is filling my mailbox pretty fast.
Also since Sydney had the eye patch long enough for various pirate jokes, if Jiggawatt just became Jiggly-WHAT?!? and in turn she can use it when she doesn’t want to hear something.
I expect that those jokes will last just as long as the eye patch did… I’m counting on the super powered doctor to be able to cure busted eardrums and such.
In Halo’s case, though, I expect she wanted to milk the eye patch (and pirate jokes) for all she could.
Hiro is still missing his collar on the very first panel here.
Other than that, very nicely done. I look forward to seeing the wrap-up and where they go from here.
When I first saw the blurred speech from Hiro in panel 6, my first thought was that the graphics weren’t completely loading; that’s happened before, at other websites that have a high graphic content. Then I figured out *why* Hiro’s speech was left blurred & Jiggy’s last two panels reflected my thoughts perfectly…
The blood coming from the ears tell me in no uncertain terms that Jiggawatts eardrums are ruptured. Good thing that they have a true healer on the staff.
DaveB, as a typesetter myself, I’d like to ask just what techniques you used to make Hiro’s speech blurred like that? May want to use it in the future myself.
Looks like a simple ‘blur’ filter/tool for the graphic program itself (as in, he added the text to the comic, imported it to what ever he uses to make the art, and used a blur tool/filter on the speech bubble)
I concur, Dave has used an art tool for creating blurring or out-of-focus effects, on several occasions. So I would hazard a guess that he has simply applied that to the text.
I think you’ve been hacked. . . I was searching for those characters in the archives when I was redirected to a sexually explicit website. In case names will help you fix this, https://wwwtraffspot.com/fb.html redirected me to a site named Adult FriendFinder when I clicked on your “previous” arrow button. When I accidentally left-clicked the “back” button, (I meant to right click so I could verify the names using the site listing) the site vanished from the list of sites I had visited.
Same here, but it happened when replying to a comment
Another possibly more logical explanation is that you’ve got malware/spyware on your systems.
The exact same malware/spyware, on separate systems (probably in different countries), that just happen to both target the same web-comic?
Just clicked the back button to check, it happened to me too.
By which I mean the “previous comic” button, not my browser’s back button.
I just had the same thing happen while going to the cast page.
Maybe I did something wrong, but when I tried to report my experience here with this same malware-site, the post never showed-up in any thread.
Blackhole-toolkit…98 web attack DaveB
Alright DaveB my man, I have to say it, that bit at the end between jigg and Hiro is fracking classic. Yes I am a Galactica fan, what gave it away?
Found Harem in leftover soup XD
Did you feel the urge to part the soup?
NINJA SENSE TINGLING!
This page is freakin’ hilarious. Way funnier than it has any right to be…
Just imagine that the Baddies too are monitoring this to get information on the ARC SWAT team.
…”sharing a Harem” kinda makes me grin.
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only so much you can communicate with hand signals…you do know what sign language is right?
He said “hand signals” rather than “sign language” for a reason. You have to know how sign language in order to use it.
Mawp. Mawp. Mawp.
Hark, did I hear a road runner?
*starts prepping claymore mines*
Ah, the complex and sophisticated realm of sign language.
I wonder if Super Hiro can charge up his sonic blasts by listening to really loud music all night.