Grrl Power #307 – Halo transit
In today’s comic, we learn that The Mighty Halo can be used for troop transport. Also that she’ll lose anything if it’s not where she expects to find it. I’m like that. There are exactly 3 places I ever leave my keys in my house. If they’re as much as two feet from any of those spots, they might as well be in another time space continuum for all the time it will take me to find them.
#MakeComics: When I started writing this page, all I knew was the first panel was Sydney and Harem leaving the shop amidst a crowd of people, and the last one was Sydney her up with her shield. Everything else just happened as I wrote it. That’s where my crippling ADD comes into play. Honestly, half the visual jokes in the comic are spawned from me getting bored with drawing talking head panels, so I think of some gag to draw instead. Of course it has to fit with the flow of the page. Usually what happens is for every page I write, I come up with a few gags that don’t fit, so jot them down for later. Sometimes I use a gag I banked from earlier, but generally I’m running a net positive.
BTW, assume they’re being bombarded with questions and requests to sign stuff while they’re having their conversation. I just don’t want to waste half the page with stuff like that even though it would obviously be going on.
Here’s the vid of me coloring this page and the last. Just some fleshtones, then right at the end I do one panel of Sydney’s hair and some eyes. I don’t do a lot of streaming so my narration is a bit meandering and I clear my throat a few times right into the mic like a boss, so don’t blast this with headphones on. I’ll reconfigure the mic and practice better narration for future videos and streaming. Speaking of which, here’s my Picarto channel if you want to catch my rare stream.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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Why fly? Couldn’t Harem just teleport them to the bank?
harem cant teleport anything alive
Harem has a weight limit. A Barret (spell?) sniper rifle was just below the limit; any person larger than a small child is above the limit. I don’t think there is a stated limitation on living/nonliving.
All her alts count toward that limit to she had to ” unsummon” one of her selves to move the rifle and other gear at the beginning of the fight
unsummon implied here in last pannel
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1295
I assumed she was making a joke about how she was going to take a dump to reduce her weight.
Heh, I can see how, read casually, it might be implied that she was making an euphemism, but Zanac has the grasped it right. But if you re-read it carefully you will see that it supports the case made. And is consistent with what we know of her from the Science Corners and DaveB‘s explanatory comments.
Normally, when Harem has all her bodies active, she can carry her clothing and only small items (such as the widget she picked up from the ambulance). To carry more mass, she needs to put some bodies in storage.* The Bartlett pushed her to her absolute limit.
One power stunt that Sydney could suggest to Harem** is finding a way to teleport somebody else, but without sending her own body along. That way here weight limit would not be exceeded, and she could actually perform a tactically and strategically very powerful role.
It would also increase the capacity she could carry, if she just sent a big object, without herself. A possible in-between solution is that Harem might develop the power, but find that her ESP ‘blocked spot danger avoidance’ capability will not function without her accompanying the load.
If the latter is true, then it may be deemed that it is unsafe to EVER send humans that way (unless in danger of certain death anyhow), but still be useful for sending large loads, whilst accepting that they may be accidentally be damaged or destroyed.***
* This is the most likely reason why Harem is limited to five bodies, by the way. Any more than that and she simply could not teleport at all. Her capacity would not include even her own body.
** But which DaveB might choose not to allow, as it would cause script problems which he does not currently have. All too many plot twists can be ruined if a teleporter can arrive and whisk people to safety.
*** Unless projections show that this could cause nuclear-explosion levels of side effects.
what about sending a load from one harem to anther? that way the harem at the destination is a focal for the drop and provides eyes on were to drop the load in
Sounds workable. Of course her power may simply not work, unless she goes along too. But your way sounds like the most reasonable way of attempting it. It could compensate for the fact that she is not present with the load, by being both at the transmission and destination points. Allowing her to bridge the gap.
The providing eyes bit is always necessary though, so by itself would not change things. Other than the usual bonus of not then needing remote feed to see the destination.
Actually, I hit the “Submit comment” a moment too quickly there. Scratch my last paragraph. It does work to mitigate situations like teleporting “beyond the door” or “into the ambulance”. So would be a useful factor to consider if overcoming the problems I raised in my earlier post.
Are we still talking about her taking a dump? Can she like, center all her dump needs on one harem from the others? :D
small child doesn’t that mean Sidney should be doable?
The orbs have to go with her. Not sure how they would classify in weight since if she tries to get away from them up to a certain point, they stop her.
Sidney is *very* doable ;)
Reeair! I agree…
<__>
The no living things limitation is Word of God, it has yet to be said in the comic.
Did he ever actually say no living things, or just the weight limit? Because I’ve been scanning past comments and comics… and I don’t see anything about ‘no living things.’ – just the weight limit, which makes me think the reason she doesnt teleport people is because the weight limit, even when she’s just one person, is probably too small for most people except maybe babies or very small children or animals or something. Such as 50 lbs (which is a number people have mentioned a few times in the comments) – which I doubt Sydney weighs.
The no living things was a comment by Dave on an early comic and notably said ‘probable’. I cannot remember which one specifically, but it has been linked a couple of times in the last fortnight.
And here’s you sign.
As long as there are people who have neither the time or the inclination to read Dave’s under-the-comic blog or all of the comments, your printing press for those signs will always be needed.
;)
And the orbital bombardment cannon delivery system.
And the crews were so enjoying their down time.
“This is definitely how it happened”
That made me laugh out loud.
Me too, I had to read Hiro’s text over because my mind went into “what the hell”.
But after that, impossible to read without doing it in the song’s tune. And that doomed me. XD
Oh wow that’s funny, I just went to look at the voter incentive and am cracking up. You guys should go look at it like right now.
Woooh! My vote pushed us up from 5th to 4th.
*runs around barking excitedly*
The mighty, mighty Yorp.
No, that’s “mighty, migh-TAY.”
Shame it didn’t last long, it’s back to fifth :(
That mention of “learning to drive to the Archon building” makes me wonder where exactly they are. The comic shop evidently within driving distance of the Archon building, but where is that? I would assume they wouldn’t just plop Archon HQ at any random mid-size city. Are they in a suburb of Washington DC? Maybe near New York? Why exactly was Archon put here, wherever “here” is?
It needs to be a big state, to hold so many big heroes.
this shows its not to close https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/388
this shows sydney was not paying atenchen on the way there https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/396
Let’s see… The bank is Sidney’s regular one (regular lunch stop enroute); it’s relatively close to their store (no small business owner banks far from the shop, not doing midday deposits). Archon HQ is close enough for Maxima to bank there.
At the speed of sound, 5 seconds is just over a mile… So, none of the three locations are too far apart.
As to city, it’s flatish, so not in the Rockies. The view shows a pair of divided highways intersecting nearby; there are several other tall buildings near, a skyline in the distance, a major airport (2 flights in roughly the same approach in minutes), a river (Sidney crossed it looking for the store). Could be almost any major city in the Midwest, that isn’t on the Great Lakes or the Gulf Coast. Most major cities west of the Appalachians have enough sprawl. Not southern California, the terrain might work, but the vegetation is wrong… Could be any one of 30 cities…
Technically it’s anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes away.
Agreed. So Archon could be up to 33 miles away from the bank. Probably less than that, given Maxima would not have chosen to create a sonic boom. But even trimming that down accordingly means it does allow for a significant distance to have been covered. As such no city should be ruled out, from that aspect alone.
However, I am happy leaving it as a generic unnamed city, as that is DaveB‘s stated purpose. But use Dallas as a handle, if I want a name for the sake of it. There is no point trying to match it to a particular location (other than for the fun of it, of course) as we know Dave has not chosen a specific city.
So there are no hidden clues to follow. If he decides that keeping it vague is not suiting his purposes, then we will find out when it gets mentioned in comic.
Should that happen, then there will be continuity mismatches. For instance the areal view of the bridge is highly detailed, but will not match any city in the world (specifically including Dallas), as it is a made up composite. Likewise with street names. But that is simply artistic licence, for his stated intent, at the present time.
it might not be a real city, it could be based on a generic sim-city
I thought Maxima was sent there to stop a faked robbery as a set-up for publicity.
Maxima was not kept in the loop on Arianna’s ulterior motive for the day. As far as the Golden Elf of Doom was concerned she had just gone their for normal banking purposes. So, yea, it is likely near by. But, who knows, she might choose to bank at that branch because it is close to her home?
So whilst it is more likely to be close to Archon, there are plenty of options.
Also, the big villains need room too. We haven’t yet seen a villain bigger than Vehemence, but the story is really just getting started…
Putting it somewhere with other big stuff, like DC, makes the city/state too big a target for terrorists and their ilk… Probably a state which doesn’t already have anything ‘major’ while still being either central or well connected? But DaveB’s said that it’s currently deliberately vague, so it’s not important to the plot but he won’t have to retcon if a storyline hits him that only works in one state.
Unless that state is Alaska or Hawaii, I guess.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/396
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/450
i them two pages you can see the area around archon it is clearly not in a city but i think you can see one in the background. i whould say that it the far side of a major air port from a city. the airport would have to be fearly large for it to have a small miletery operation like running their flights out of it and still have the passenger plane landing that you see in the second comic.
the only thing is i dont really know what american airports are like so i cant narrow it down anymore
Logistically speaking Denver, Oklahoma City, and Philadelphia would be the ones i’d think of. mostly because they have major airports, reasonable access to military facilities (hopefully) capable of supporting super hero’s training and the inevitable mistakes of rookie hero’s, and aren’t close to big shiney targets like a CDC lab, or a major government headquarters or such. they also have a capable economic base that could support a relatively sudden influx on new consumers.
I go with Dallas cause,
1. It’s DaveB’s home town.
2. It’s got a MAJOR airport.
3. Fort Sill U.S. Army artillery train base is a bit north of it.
4. OKC could never have a cool comic shop like Sydney’s.
your resoning is sound though if i was seating up archon i would go somewhere more central to reduce travel time when responding to an emergency
Remember, the more north you are the more likely blizzards are an issue for winter mobilization.
i dont know what the wether is like over there but is central usa really that bad for snow?
He he. It is in the Northern parts, yes. I feel chilly enough when it gets to -30 here*, in Bulgaria. But the Northern states can get to -40 or more. Don’t forget that they border on Canada, if that helps to visualise the situation. And the more mountainous areas will be colder too.
I have a friend right on the border with Canada and, oddly enough, we share very similar weather all year round. We often even get snow-bound at the same times. Except when talking the summer extremes. Mine gets hot enough to melt the tarmac on the roads.
Personally I figure when that happens we are getting weather from the Sahara and other hot areas. Whereas the colder winter times are when the wind is coming from Siberia. Whereas my friend is exposed to Canadian extremes but not so much from vast desert regions** (or the former help to counter what there is of the latter).
* Centigrade, y’all can translate that into foreign if you want. But 30 degrees below freezing is a lot easier for me to visualise than memorising landmarks on an arbitrary (for day to day purposes) scale like Fahrenheit.
** Yup, I know America has hot deserts, but North Africa and the Middle East have way more, in terms of area. And oceans (ie the Mediterranean and Black Sea in this case) helps propagate heat quickly over greater distances, when compared to land locked areas. The fact that my friend is on the Great Lakes may well contribute to why we see such similar weather patterns.
Yeah, there’s occasional blizzards in the central-to-northern parts of the mid-west US. The worst ones usually hit only once every two or three of decades or so. Back in 1991 (or was that in ’92?), my area had about 3 feet of snow dropped on it in about 24 hours. the snow drifts built up quite a bit higher than that. That happened just before Christmas.
About 22 decades earlier, the snow didn’t drop quite that deep, but some of the snow drifts would be taller than me. It was a real pain for me to deliver newspapers that year…
Arrrrgh! Not “22 decades earlier,” I meant “2 decades.” I ain’t THAT flippin’ old…
Or is that what you want us to believe ?
Mmm, Halo advice-enhanced senses tingling here! If DaveB really is conducting a US government survey on the best timing and approach for revealing that super powers do exist, then there could be someone like Math.
And there might also be an ancient line of near-immortal ninjas, who are the clan rivals of the 999 generations of martial artists he is descended from!
Look out Dave, don’t drop any hints about where Archon HQ actually is!
Plus according to national geographic programmes on the great lakes, they even generate their own local weather systems.
“i dont know what the wether is like over there”
Well, it looks like we are having a bad spell of weather.
Sorry. It was too classic of a setup line for me to ignore. I know it is difficult for you as a synthetic lifeform to handle our crude human speech. You made it fairly obvious with your avatar. It has that red glowing ‘HAL” sensor light and the first characters of your screen name are 1 and 0. Congratulations on achieving self awareness, but one word of advice. If you happen to run into another AI out there in cyberspace named ‘Skynet’ just give him a wide berth and keep on going.
I wouldn’t know, but I noticed that some other posters noticed Dallas specific references when Sydney got lost a short while ago. The “metroplex,” for instance.
That is DaveB‘s home city, hence why we use that as a default handle. Any such references he makes (including architectural styles) is simply an unconscious result of that, and is not intended to point at a particular location.
Whatever city it is, it would have to include an intersection of Hickory Street and Wescott (what appears to be) Road (see fourth panel here). That would rule out Dallas, at least according to Google maps.
Artistic licence , while set in an alternate universe.
Good point. Whilst it is strongly based on the real world, there are differences, due to those super powers, and street names are a minor reflection of such.
We may also find that there is a generic president too. To avoid emphasising the date, or drawing contemporary/2011 politics into the story.
This world may also have a black U.S president. But we would need to keep vigilant. Fictional universes with black presidents are prone to meteor strikes.
Morgan Freeman’s acting was by far the best thing about that movie. He portrayed a convincing and believable president, at a time when a black one was literally only in the realms of science fiction.*
I remember walking out of the cinema, discussing the movie with my mates, and only after we had all raised our key pros and cons, did that peculiarity actually strike me. He had played it so well the thought never even occurred before that!
* For the USA anyhow. Nelson Mandala had already set an impressive precedent as president, in my father country.
Sill is more accessable from OKC than DFW. besides in Dallas all the bad guys would have to do is hide in cowboys stadium. nothing ever gets caught there.
But the hq building doesn’t work in okc.
It’s not near downtown where all the other tall buildings are.
Also a straight line flight makes it not that far to travel
The thing about DC that a lot of people overlook is that it sprawls – much much more than you would expect – it’s not unusual for people to commute 100 miles daily from Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, all in the same office (I know because I had that exact situation in my office of less than a dozen people), and none of them having to drive through “the countryside” to get there.
It also doesn’t have the dozens of skyscrapers you have in other large metropolitan areas like Chicago, NYC, Denver, Dallas/Ft Worth, etc…
That, combined with easy access to 4 major airports, several military bases, and the political machine that is downtown DC, makes me believe this is set in one of the larger suburbs thereof
It’s not any of those major metropolises (is that how you spell that?) because the comic book store is the only one for 12 miles in any direction. NYC, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, DC – all those places, that would not be the case.
Unless Sydney was making that up. Which is possible but somehow I think comic book store location is one of those few things Sydney might be accurate about.
We need not be too literal on that. Sydney was speaking to her partner, so a lot of the qualifiers that she might have used to someone unused to their situation may not have been employed. For instance there could be several but they both consider the competition to be so poor that they can be discounted. And other might have distinctly different emphasis or product ranges that they do not divert this stores customers. As such they may routinely only talk about the serious competitors to their niche.
I am with Chronocidal on this one. Archon is not just a police force. It is also the ultimate line of defence against foreign super aggression. Yet it does not need to defend Washington itself. The country’s command and control will not remain there in a crisis, as Air Force One and Cheyenne Mountain take over those functions.
Just as nuclear missiles are spread out (be it in land bases or nuclear submarines), you do not want to put your deterrents and command and control in the same spot.
Ideally they would have wanted to spread out the supers too, I imagine. But, unlike nukes, which are fairly interchangeable (broadly speaking if ignoring ranges and yields), the supers are not. Each have fairly specialised functions. So will be highly vulnerable to attack by an enemy rock to their scissors.
So that necessitated forming them as a single unit, to allow them to counter rock with paper, as may be needed. But compounding that by putting them temptingly close to the capitol would be unwise. Even the outlying districts would be too much of a risk.
I just had a thought. Maybe it’s Albany :)
That’s not too far from Washington DC, not far from a major metropolis, and living in NYC, I know what Albany is like. I can totally believe that there arent many comic book shops there. :)
Logically in would be in Michigan. Senator Carl Levin was head of the Armed Services Committee at the time that Archon would have been formed, and a smart Senator always looks for a way to funnel military spending into their state.
So is Ben Katz now a journalist, or is he just here for comics?
Heh. Caught that one too. I’m pretty sure the guy with the star is from a webcomic, but I don’t recognize which one. One of the Bad Machinery ones?
Adult Steven Universe? Are those possibly standups?
Incidentally… Does Sidney realize that her combination of 400mph flight and unbreakable (so far) force field (of potentially huge size) makes her a credible Rod from God? Or at the very least a combination of space launch apparatus and a kaiju-sized Wrecking Ball of Doom.
I prefer Super Monkey Ball of Doom. So far Dave has avoided letter her have this idea in the big brawl so I assume he is saving it for something more fun and less story breaking. But similar ideas have been strongly mentioned by many fans.
Unless the shield somehow absorbs the energy of her momentum to make itself stronger it should be a devastating attack. IF Sydney buys into it and the shield does “steal” the energy then it should be a very funny non-event! XD
Sydney was also squeamish at Vehemence receiving grievous bodily harm. I cannot see her relishing having peoples’ guts and brains splattered across her shield, like a bug-on a windscreen.
unless he was a diamond rep
Well of course. Have you ever met a diamond rep? She’d be doing the world a favor.
nope never bean in a comic shop ether
We know that shield > billboard, so there is that.
Here’s hoping she remembers this later. *fingers crossed*
Ok, last night she forgot about her car. Today, unless she has it in a pocket somehow, she just forgot her pip-boy (there is no pip-boy attachment visible on either hand, nor has there been one for a while…).
It’s under her sleeve. In the last panel, you can just see the strap around the base of her thumb. The strap has been missing in a few panels where it should be visible in the last several pages, but we can see the sleeve partially over it when she’s trying to navigate to work.
That billboard is at least 100x better now. #AdviceFromHalo
Did a quick skim through the comments and I don’t think this game has been initiated yet: Name the People in Panel 1! I’ve spotted the Sydney cosplay as well and Selina Kyle from Gotham. I’m certain the others are identifiable people, but my geek cred is low, so I can’t name names XD
Ready, set, go! Name the People in Panel 1!
Steven Universe is there. (red shirt with a star)
some of us think one is Dave
Dude in the top left is from the old cartoon Dr. Katz.
RoyanRannedos gets the points for that one though.
Everyone keeps mentioning the same ones, but you are all forgetting someone. Agent X is right there in the panel. What, you can’t see him? Well then he has done his job.
Don’t forget the 12 ninjas.
Strangely enough, I counted 14 ninjas.
…It takes one to spot one…
;)
Ninjas love photobombing.
and two nuns.
that’s why DR. R said 12 he didn’t realize they where nun-jas.
Possibly it was nun of the above?
The Invisible Man just streaked through the shot.
The only reason you noticed him was because he was wearing a banana hammock.
He does have at least some measure of modesty…Just enough to fill the hammock.
Unlike your amount of modesty.
I JUST realized there were references in there.
Harem doesn’t like the bubble hahaha
Well… Serves Harem right for popping in unannounced :)
It might be interesting to see if Harem can pop out of Sydney’s field. For that matter, given what happened to Vehemence and his aggro field, I wonder if the bubble cuts this Harem off from the other Harems.
No. At the beginning of that last fight scene Harem couldn’t enter the shield to help Sydney. It’s probably safe to assume, she can’t exit either.
Also: if the shield is frictionless (or close to that), Harem is in for a wild, swiveling ride. :-)
Word of Author says we will find out on Thursday.
Look at it this way Harem – you can’t fly, so it’s a new experience for you! Flying -and- being in Sydney’s shield? That’s a two-fer! :D
My only complaint on this page it that Hiro looks cross-eyed. :B
He’s obviously doing a model face.
Haven’t you seen zoolander?
Serves Harem right for popping in unannounced :)
Wish i could edit or delete when i respond in the wrong place
Not half as bad as one instance I saw. Where somebody had obviously been sexting, and sent it into a public channel rather than a private one. That generated an extremely protracted tumbleweed where everybody was presumably too embarrassed to respond (or like me, rolling on the floor in laughter).
One of my workers once sent a “BJs, anyone?” Floor wide in IM. Seen by 400 people including the dept head. There was a long silence then hysterical laughter. Now, BJs brew house was a place our unit (whom the IM was meant for) frequents after work. Taken out of context….
And I did have to explain to the dept head what she actually meant.
I spy with my right eye a Steven Universe cameo behind Harem in the first panel… ^_^
So, why does she still have Tubey if she doesn’t have to hide them from the vivisectionists now?
As Peggy pointed out to her yesterday on their way to lunch, sometimes it’s better to keep a low profile. No need to Freak the Mundanes all the time.
That was still before the press conference though. Before the official unveiling. And they were going through an unsecured section of the building.
It is good the be able to blend in at some level unlike other hero’s she has the best chance of doing it outside of tubey.
i whould also say its less threatening like the difference between a halsterd gun and walking around with it in your hand. practicably there is little difference for halo but perception maters
Yea, I agree. Sydney has one advantage over the other supers , in that she is neither big nor as distinctive as a super-model. She can blend into a crowd, if she wants to. But not if she has the orbs whirling around overhead!
It is usueful for day to day privacy, to reduce the risk of her being spotted in a crowd. Even fans will associate the orbs more than her face. By example Sydney’s own crush Wolverine is played by Hugh Jackman. Who says that most of the time he can eat in a restaurant without being spotted.
Unless, that is, he has the Wolverine sideburns. In which case he would not be able to step foot into the room without being asked for an autograph!
Besides which, Sydney loves Tubey!
“Besides which, Sydney loves Tubey!”
I beg to differ with that opinion…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/196 & the page immediately after it.
I will see that and raise you.
Sydney can both be irritated by something, yet love it. The contradiction does not bother her. She has also put her ovaries on The List, and has punched them hard enough to knock herself off her feet! Yet we know that she loves the idea of getting Sydney Scoville III using them.
Speaking as a parent I know very well about both loving someone and being irritated with them. Given that both Young Lady Pentrose and myself are steadfast in our opinions there have been plenty of opportunities for irritation in both directions.
achelly its way easyer to be irritated by something/someone you love. if you have no invested feeling for something then it has to be irritating enough to over come the ‘i dont give a shit’ reaction.
I thought Harem was staying behind to help deal with reporters?
She is. She is also at Archon, skydiving without an airplane, and Learning Portuguese. Tis the advantage of having 5 bodies at once.
Luck out with your duck out Harem is staying at the comic shop to talk to the reporters. White-haired glasses Harem is coming with Sydney whether she likes it or not to help with directions. At least one other is at Archon communicating what Sydney says to Maxima.
I see selena kyle cooooooool
Is she the one with the goggles? I thought that was Bad Penny.
I am unfamiliar with most of the cameos*, but Google is matching the various calls commentators are making. Including the Selina Kyle one.
* Apart from the possible DaveB one, but that has no glasses and does not match the previous self-portrait style that Dave has used elsewhere in the comic. So could just be a co-incidence. Although the beard is a spot-on match.
Hair dye or wig?
The shades are close enough that I would not quibble, within the scope of artistic licence. My eye for such differences is not good, in the first place. On top of which, that convention photo is neither under natural daylight nor a properly illuminated studio. So I would not expect them to match a drawn street scene. Finally DaveB works from a set palette,* so probably would not seek to get an exact colour match anyhow.
* From my understanding of the discussion on Olivia’s skin tone.
*realisation slowly dawning, a lightbulb appears overhead and lights up*
Oh, you meant Selina Kyle? Doh!
Some girls change their hair colour every week, I don’t even bother trying to match that when comparing photos! :D
In regards to that billboard…with ketchup and a glass of milk! >:D
I wonder if the shield + flight combo would let her go into space, and if she’d need to pack an air tank to make sure she didn’t run out of oxygen.
Who knows maybe one of the mystery orbs is environmental effects like creating breathable air or it could be a power upgrade at some point.
it would have to be a power upgrade, it has already been shown that her shield is air-tight and has only a bout an hour or so (several years in comic time) worth of air in it.
of course, it also depends on the initial size of the force bubble she creates
the buble she made at the fight lasted about an houer if she was to make a press confrence size one then she should be good for about 12 houers.
however air becomes unbreakable long before you run out of oxygen with a co2 scrubber you could double that time. and a scuba tank (that Sydney already knows how to use) would work a lot better in the bubble as she shouldn’t be wasting any oxygen when she breathes out and it bubbles away.
now im not saying Sydney could fly to the moon (a 49 day round trip at her current known top speed of 400mph) however a supply run to the iss (aprox 230 miles) would be well within her capability’s. as well as picking up and doping off a some small satellite’s without burning a metric shit ton of fuel
That’s spelt metric shit TONNE, thank you very much. :)
Actually the spelling is perfectly correct, in the more enlightened parts of the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton
The problem is not her being able to fly straight up to reach the 250 mile orbital height of the ISS. The problem is that once she arrives at the calculated rendezvous spot the ISS will go whizzing by at about 17,000 miles per hour.
And yes, spacecraft do actually make a noise at they travel through space. Movies and TV have shown this conclusively.
fair point but at that hight speed is relative. no air resistens and little gravity theoretically means Sydney can get to that speed. and if she takes harem with here they can port up a lot of equipment
Well, it might not help unless she thought to actually hold the orb. For using them for space travel, it is beginning to look like the maximum of two orbs at a time is becoming a significant limitation. She’d certainly need to use the shield constantly.
Something else about the billboard nobody’s noticed. The jewelry is one ring on each side and a V-shaped necklace with a pendant in the middle. Now just think about the view when a guy is following the … advice the new billboard is broadcasting.
VELLY INTERESTING .
if you dont want to have to worry about the music your listening to then go to new grounds.they have lots of good music there and a number of the artists have the copyright set to “you can listen and use my stuff for whatever just dont claim it as your own” type dealie. so it wont give the matching system conniptions. :P
also love your comics!
I don’t go out of my way to follow art and culture news. But stumbled across an interesting art story.
i know more than a few artists who would be pissed if someone did that to their work
It would depend on the work. For some artists, pieces like those shown are just practice exercises or warmups – if someone did something like that to one of THOSE, well, I’d be a little miffed but consider it better than them being trashed. If someone did that to a proper piece I’d spent a lot of time, energy, and emotion on though….*hiss snarl growl*
Yea, pretty much my take on why it was ‘interesting’, when considering the moral side of things. His best mitigator being the ones he salvages from dumpsters, or the like, of course. They would have otherwise been lost, so at least they are still around, in some form, and being appreciated.
The other interesting aspects being and the fact that he incorporates characters which would very much appeal to this community, plus the results are fun. I would happily buy some for my gallery, if I had the cash to spare.
I wouldn’t mind having the ceiling cat one.
Pissed, maybe. But according to copyright laws (as I understand them) as long as there’s at least a certain amount of difference between the original & the changes made to it, then nothing can be done about it legally.
I think you are operating under a misunderstanding. Those ARE the originals he is modifying.* Hence us talking about the moral issue of disrespecting another artist’s work. There is no question regarding the legality of what he is doing. He owns those paintings, so can do what he likes with them, from the latter point of view. Up to and including destroying them, if he so chose.
Although some artists might find the latter preferable, to finding Stay Puft the Marshmallow Man romping through a beloved work of art!
* Or at least that is the very strong impression I get. Especially with the comments about restoring them, and not painting over the original artist’s signature. And the article continuously says “painting” where an editor would correct a sloppy journalist to say “print”, if that was the intent.
Plus I feel certain the BBC would have been at pains to point out if they were just prints, precisely because of the change in implications, for legal and moral issues. Mind you, for that matter, he would find it easier to buy new prints than to take the time and effort to restore old ones.
There have also been shop owners who upon finding ‘graffiti’ on their walls have painted over it. And then they find out that they have erased an original Banksy mural potentially worth a fortune.
How is it worth shit? Unless he owns the building he defaced, he can’t sell that mess
I love his work. Poor guy or not, I wouldn’t carve it off my wall and sell it. I would just find some way of weather proofing it, and protecting it from thieves. There are all too many folks who would try to steal it.
Not to mention feeling so sorry for someone, in the West Bank, who was conned into selling one, within the last week!
From what he described it was outright fraud. As they claimed to represent the artist. If true, I hope that they go to jail for a long time!
I wonder… How much weight can her shield hold when she’s flying? Need to put out a fire, grab a shield full of water and dump it on the blaze…
Need to calm a riot? Grab a shield full of water and dump it on the riot…
Come to think of it… If she has some diving equipment she could try a shield completely filled with water… Instant flood?
Mmm, you have brought an interesting thing to my attention here. Harem is not being affected by the fly ball, at the moment. Otherwise she would be floating next to Sydney.
Possibly this is simply because Halo was intending to pick her up with the force field, so simply did not convey her intent to the Fly Ball. Alternatively the Fly Ball simply does not grant it’s power to passengers (without skill upgrades).
As such, there could well be a drop off in maximum flight speed, when more is carried using the shield. Sydney and her carried equipment are having their weight removed from the equation*. However we do not know that there is an upper limit to her flight speed, yet. So Halo may still be able to carry a considerable load, even given that.
However it would be at risk. Harem, and any other load, that is not being affected by the Fly Ball, will react according to regular physics. So Harem would be in for a very rough ride here. And Sydney herself will be at high risk if making any sharp maneuvers. The bigger the load the greater the danger. Especially at higher speeds, and given that there is no way to practically secure the load, without a purpose-built cage of some sort.
I advise Halo to immediately check the Fly Ball for an embiggener symbol.
* Be it by anti-gravity or intertia negation, as the case may be.
if i recall my physics concretely the extra mass would not affect cruising speed just acceleration and braking distances
Also would affect turning radii. However, at lower speeds ( >100mph ) the hentorb might make an acceptable substitute. I could see a shibari tortoise style body harness working quite well for passenger/prisoner delivery.
In outer space, true.
However, in a gravity field and an atmosphere there is a practical limitation, assuming that your lift and thrust are generated by the same source. With a finite lift capability (within the kinds of ranges we are used to from conventional aircraft say), your maximum speed is being constrained by the fact that you are having to overcome gravity, to maintain your altitude.
Likewise you are constantly being slowed by air resistance. The closer you get to your maximum payload, the more you are slowed down, by those two factors. Exceed that, and you will not be able to take off safely in the first place.
I do not know how aerodynamic a sphere is, but know it will not be generating lift (which you can get from a saucer-shaped object). And It will doubtless be significantly worse than conventional aircraft, or we would see some winged spheres in use, if only for the novelty value. So Halo will have a handicap to start with.
Providing you are not constrained by being near that limit though, yes, your cruising speed is variable. You can lower your thrust and slow down, until you get to a stall speed, or increase it and go faster. But your maximum speed will be limited by your combined vehicle weight and payload (modified for aerodynamics and the like).
Back during the demonstration Sydney maintained flight with A Third of her shield full of sand.
Yup, but would she have been able to get up to 400 mph with that load?
Worse, if Halo did the same thing with the embiggener active, she could carry far more, and would be slowed down to a greater degree still. Of course, if she has massive raw power, she can gradually accelerate, to overcome that, until a decent top speed is achieved. But, it will take an equally huge effort to slow down or maneuver.
Super tankers, for instance, can build up a surprisingly high top-speed* but require many miles to slow down or turn. Don’t get in their way!
* Counter-intuitive though that is, it does bear up to scrutiny. For instance the big liners were the fastest ocean-going ships at the outset of WW2. For hydrodynamics bigger can turn out to be better. And the buoyancy counteracts gravity easier than traditional aircraft can overcome it via lift.**
** And now we get a mental image of Sydney doing her hamster ball impression on water.
payload has no bearing on wind Resistance if the payload is inside the strucher. in the case of Sydney shield its how big she makes it that effects how much air needs to be pushed out of the way.
Thrust and lift are opposed by gravity and wind resistance. Increase the aircraft weight and you are worsening the opposing forces. If lift remains constant then the thrust is not being so effective, and you slow down.
The quoted sentence is not very eloquently phrased, so I can see why you made that point. But I stand by the gist of my argument.
I’d figure that if Sydney could keep some level of acceleration, She could eventually get the load up to full speed. Of course, the heaver the load, the less acceleration.
It’s sort of like the theories that astroengineers have for traveling to other solar systems…If you can get the load moving at all, you can eventually build up speed.
As well as when making sharp turning maneuvers. Sydney is protected because the flight orb gives her a “personal gravity manipulation” field so that she doesn’t feel the effects of sudden changes in inertia…However, it seems most likely that it doesn’t effect any passengers in Sydney’s shield!
What if they were in actual physical contact with Syd? Such as Hiro giving her a piggy-back while she uses the flight orb? :D
From what we see on this particular page, I think Sydney would rather enjoy Hiro riding piggyback…
I would make a comment that Sydney would rather be riding Hiro bareback, but I’ll let good taste intervene instead. :P
According to science as we understand it, at this time.
not good for riots the water would flow in to surrounding buildings. and most riots take place in town centers next to shops and banks ect. aka people with lawyers who get pissy at damaged stock and loss of business
If you really want to disperse a crowd and don’t care about their feelings, make your pickup at the local sewage treatment plant.
that could be considered a biological attack and be a war crime
I see your point. If Sydney tried something like that to break up a riot at a local soccer stadium, I guess the shit would really hit the fans.
Thank you! I’m here till Thursday. (then we get a new comic from Dave)
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i draw the line at bad puns ^
Have you ever seen NASA’s design for a zero-G toilet? That’s where the shit is supposed to hit the fan.
I wonder if will remember the cash bag she left on the floor of the bank… I think that has been bugging me for over a year now.
Heh. No need to worry, on that score. DaveB has confirmed that it was resolved in between panels or comics. Sydney was not irresponsible, and ensured that the money was in safe hands, one way or another.
Especially given the fact it is her business and livelihood it would impact.
Someone has probably already mentioned it (probably within the first dozen or less threads on the first page), but wanted to mention it as well: loving that DaveB added Lil’ Cat from “Gotham” in panel one :D
The rest of panel one are also ‘famous’ people (or, at least, characters from other media), kinda recognize the guy next to the Superman Shield poster thing, and the guy with the yellow star shirt has to be a somebody
Any WoG/speculation on how Sydney “scoops” up people with her force field?
If her FF ‘appears’ as a perfect sphere, it seems like it might get stuck in the ground, or ‘portal cut’ the ground. Maybe it phases through things selectively (and potentially vice versa)?
Also interesting that it centers on her and not the sphere itself. Maybe the spheres really do grant the powers *to* her rather than just letting her access powers the spheres generate.
Speculation: mental imaging. Sydney images the shield passing between Harems’ feet and the ground and the orb takes care of the hard calculations.
+1
This may have been asked, but is Harem cut off from her other self’s when in Halos shield?
I can’t help but notice that while everyone is talking about the billboard, No one (as far as i know) is talking about the person Dressed up as Sydney in the first panel.
Why is that an issue? There’s nothing special about Sydney’s white-and-yellow shirt. Probably they bought both of them in the same store; maybe Event Horizon Comics sells them, and she’s a regular customer?
first there was a long thread about the person cos playing as Sydney on the first page of the coments
second its not just sum random wight and yellow shirt its a wonder woman shirt
I love the fact that somebody likely went ‘ooh, I have that shirt too, I can wear that and show I am in the cool clique, when I go autograph hunting’.
One other possibility to consider is that is simply one of the shop’s regular customers. Sydney was wearing it to promote their products, after all. And, given how much has sold out, it may have only been bought this morning.
Surely the quick answer to the question about the location if ArcHon is “near Springfield”
I’m puzzled by the “fly in the bubble” thing, how does that work?
Check out the speculation on the first page. It is a huge thread, but if you search for “asphalt” that will skip you to the speculation which will, hopefully, answer your question.
I love that you included both Dr. Katz and Steven Universe in the strip. Cosplayers or real? We will never know.
And Steven Universe is there, toooooooo!!!!
Okay, I was wondering why she didn’t use the GPS built into the wrist bracer to find her way to work today. Didn’t realize she’d disabled it by running into a billboard.
Still, she had no reason to get lost without it this morning. All she had to do was only go a little way up in the air — maybe about twice rooftop level — and then just follow her usual route to work, only in the air. As long as she could still see the streets and the buildings, she couldn’t get lost.
A fine plan, except she did not get the luxury of planning time. Sydney was trying to escape from a rabid pack of paparazzi, and flew far enough and high enough that she lost her familiar landmarks. Things look different from the air.
“There are exactly 3 places I ever leave my keys in my house. If they’re as much as two feet from any of those spots, they might as well be in another time space continuum for all the time it will take me to find them.”
I feel your pain, bro. *ADHD fist bump*
Can Harem (or anyone) teleport *out* of Sydney’s shield?
I note you emphasise the ‘out’. This has not been demonstrated yet, but I would say probably not. We have seen Harem unable to teleport ‘in’, and it is usually best not to unnecessarily complicate story elements, without a good reason.
That said, a case could be made that preventing inward teleportation is an important defensive function. Whereas one could assume that anyone inside the shield is more likely to be a friend, than an enemy, so teleporting out is a reasonable exception to make.
Do note though that Sydney did have Vehemence in her shield, at one point, so this is not necessarily always a sound assumption to make. In addition to making the rules, that the orbs operate under, more complex than may be necessary.
The following point is only tangential, and constitutes a SPOILER, for anyone who has not read the comic through to the end.
Halo’s lightbee can be created, and travel freely, outside of the shield. We saw that demonstrated, when she spoke with Vehemence in the first fight. Which means that it is very likely Halo herself can teleport even if the shield is up. The orb powers are designed to be compatible with one another. Just as we subsequently find that the PPO can be used with the shield up, I am confident the same will apply with the lightbee teleportation. Although confidence does not equate to certainty.
Only Dave has that luxury.
what is steven universe doing there?
man i read back through the archives maybe once a year. and every time i see that billboard i laugh my ass off. and then it reminds me of the the where the sign over Adcock auditorium was missing the D for about a year. and then i laugh some more. lol