Grrl Power #323 – She’s got the touch… she’s got the powah!
Naturally Sydney has questions. Some of them will be answered on the very next page! I want to discuss her abilities here but it would be premature before the next page. Also I would make a Who’s Who for Vance since he spoke and was named, but all it would say is “blond and pretty” which… I guess is about as helpful as the one Ren got.
Telford Porter is actually a real Marvel villain. Guess what his power is? People with powers that match their given name is… it’s one of those things that seems cool when you’re making up your own heroes when you’re 10, but it really requires some strained logic when you try and carry those characters through into other work. The easiest way to explain it is that super powers are at least partially psychic/psionic/etc in nature and a person’s identity can shape them. Dr. Doom is fine. His powers have nothing to do with his name, and his villain moniker is literally just his name plus his level of education. Doctor Octopus slash Otto Octavious is a little more of a stretch. I’ll admit Maxima is arguably skirting the edge as she can “max out” her powers. I’ve mentioned it before, but in her original incarnation she was named Ultima, but I changed her name to Maxima because of her her powers work – also it immediately helped start to form her personality. It would be pretty inexcusable if her name was Max Powers, but come on, Telford Porter? That has to take the cake.
I realize after I drew it that Xochitl’s power key flowchart looks a bit like Sydney’s Orb Grid, that’s not intentional. I probably should have gone with something that looked more like a DNA strand, but too late now.
Holy crap you guys, A-kon is this weekend! It totally snuck up on me this year. As such I wasn’t able to sign up to do a panel, but I’ll be attending several of the webcomic ones myself. This year, instead of just saying “hey let’s try and get together” and hoping it all works out, I’m going to propose a time and a place right now. There’s a bar and grill in the Atrium II (the big main one) called Media, if you’re there and interested, we can meet up there at 8pm Friday. It might be too busy to actually eat there, but it’s easy to find, so we can at least coordinate from there. The easiest way to keep track of and communicate with me during the con will be via Twitter. I may try and wear my one Grrl Power t-shirt I have for easy identification, beyond that, my headshot is on the Patreon page.
Here’s some Maxima fan art for you. Max is kind of… I’m not sure if cute is the right word, but it’s close. It’s by the creator of Magical Girl Neil. I’ve only read a little of it, but the premise is a guy gets magic girl powers a la Sailor Moon. The transformation sequence includes magical gender reassignment, and the requisite hilarity ensues.
Today’s page colored by Keith.
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.
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.
Just in case someone missed the 1986 reference today’s title.
WIkipedia
Transformers the Movie, right?
The first 30 minutes were the best movie and most significant trauma most Gen Xers would ever face.
And then an hour later we get a Weird Al song and the Junkions dancing.
Why is it called gestalt power?
Is it because it is triggered by some outside condition?
The word “Gestalt” is a rather hard to translate german term for “something manifesting / appearing in form, shape, figure, … that is or could be different from its appearance / apparent nature”.
There also is the related expression of “Gestalt annehmen” which essentially means “something manifesting as” implying uncertainty of its “real” appearance / nature.
English language appears to have absorbed that word as a medical / psychological term, but it also is common place in science fiction such as super power stories, probably because there is no actual english term describing these three layers of change, manifestation and uncertainty in one word.
It is a perfect match of Varia, because one does never know which powers a key ( person ) will manifest in her.
Gestalt is commonly used to mean one from many, for example, a gestalt consciousness is one conciousness formed by many minds
Yup. And is particularly appropriate for Varia, given that the following term is also strongly associated with it:
Must….resist…urge…to…referece…Transformers
Why not? I was when I named this page. :)
Ahh, I see. My pop culture trivia knowledge improves, a bit more.
Rather appropriate for the power. :)
The general concept of ‘gestalt’ is that it’s an emergent property, something that comes together out of a system as more than the sum of its parts. Combine several things, get a unique property out of the combination that none of the individual parts had in themselves.
Sort of like a car. Take it apart, and none of the constituent parts can operate… but fit them together properly, and you have a comprehensive device that offers a new level of utility that none of the individual components could offer you.
@@@
“Luckily, we’ve been talking about this with George for a long time, ever since we saw this could happen, and we know where things are heading,” Benioff says in the discussion, available to view below. “And so we’ll eventually, basically, meet up at pretty much the same place where George is going; there might be a few deviations along the route, but we’re heading towards the same destination. I kind of wish that there were some things we didn’t have to spoil, but we’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. The show must go on. . . and that’s what we’re going to do.”
In January, HarperCollins announced that Martin’s long-delayed sixth Ice and Fire book, The Winds of Winter, will not see publication in 2015. “These are increasingly complex books, and require immense amounts of concentration to write,” Martin’s publisher, Jane Johnson, told . “Fans really ought to appreciate that the length of these monsters is equivalent to two or three novels by other writers.”
But Game of Thrones will carry on, regardless of Martin’s wavering deadline. Season Five is set to premiere April 12th on HBO and until then, fans can explore, which feature an exiled, booze-swilling Tyrion Lannister and an outraged Jon Snow.
Wait… I just noticed… What the hell is going on in the bottom third of panel 7?
DU~DE! I just noticed that too after you pointed it out. I wonder about that too.
So want to see Vance’s powers one of these days. The poor dude is feeling like a https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatHappenedToTheMouse event. Even more than Shawn, from earlier. The Navy Seal dude was in Battle with the team, like Goose. But then the dude disappeared.
Still waiting on Vance and his powers. Though, given that Varia’s gestalt seems to manifest in a related way – Riding Harem’s teleport, becoming an energetic being with Ren (whose powers seem to include an enhancement to his nerve/neuron transmission speed – meaning it speeds up his electrical pulses), Jiggwatt gives her magnetism (the other side to here electro-force powers), and Heatwave gave her ice powers (an opposite), it might be summized that Vance’s power has something to do with metal, or defense (or something oppositional to those concepts – like aggression control).