Grrl Power #428 – F.U.tility
You know, except for all the stupid Swiss Army doodads, Sydney’s fantasy multi-axe might almost be a workable tool. (Ok, minus the laser sight as well) And since she can fly, why would she need an ice climbing axe? Because she’s been playing Tomb Raider, that’s why.
After Sydney gets over her initial enthusiasm, Anvil may need to point out that Arc-SWAT isn’t the investigatory branch of Archon, so stuff like a lock pick gun might not be the most practical gadget if she’s really tight on space.
Still, I’ve never understood why superheroes don’t all have utility belts of some sort. Sure, batarangs don’t do you any good if you can’t throw then with 90 plus percent accuracy, but everyone from Wonder Woman to Spider-Man would benefit from a fingerprinting kit and some zip-cuffs. The super soldier formula and process used on Captain America is functionally impossible to replicate for story reasons, but not his shield. Tell me Black Widow wouldn’t benefit from vibranium bracers at least, and think about how much more Spidey’s punches would hurt if he had some brass knuckles, vibranium or not.
(Actually, since when is his shield vibranium? They keep calling it vibranium in the movies, but I thought it was adamantium, or at least an adamantium/vibranium alloy. It probably is, they just don’t want to keep saying “adamantium/vibranium alloy.”) Edit: Ok, as about 20 people have commented, they apparently can’t use the word adamantium in the Cap and Avengers series cause Fox licenced out the X-men and all their particular baggage which includes the word adamantium and maybe even the word mutant, which seems like a really dick thing for Fox to do – I mean beyond the dumb Fantastic Four reboot.
I’ve updated the vote incentive with that picture of Peggy and Zayra. It’s pencils only at the moment because… well, because of Overwatch if I’m honest. Anyway, check it out, and I’ll hopefully have it further along in the next week or two.
So, A-kon is this weekend, and I will be around. I’d say I’ll be at most of the webcomic panels, but looking at the schedule, I hardly see any. I’m not sure what’s going on with that. Fan Expo Dallas is the same weekend, I don’t know if non-anime indie people are moving over there or what – though I did see that Joe Madureira will be giving a talk at Fan Expo. It’s probably not worth a one day ticket to see just one panel there, I mean, it’s not like hearing him talk will make me a better artist or anything, but for the first time I’m considering bouncing between the two cons. Actually their guest list is pretty amazing. We’ll see.
As for A-kon, if anyone is there and wants to meet up, there’s a restaurant in the hotel called the Media Grill and Bar. I’ll be there at 7pm on Friday wearing, uh… I don’t really have any Grrl Power shirts or anything. I’ll have one of those short brimmed green caps that Max wears. It doesn’t have an eagle on it, it’s just the kind you can get at Target. I have glasses and a goatee (technically a Van Dyke – something I learned from the City of Heroes character creator) Anyway there’s a tiny picture of me over at the Patreon.
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I’m frankly shocked they don’t say “adamantite”. It’s not trademarked, and thanks to FF it’s what I use when referring to the stuff in D&D and Marvel.
Also, brass knuckles probably wouldn’t hold up to Spidey’s strength for long, not even factoring in whoever he’s punching.
There is a reason for that. Trademark includes infringements which are similar enough that they are deemed to be deliberate attempts to infringe the protected term. It is a grey area, as it requires subjective analysis, rather than being a clear cut “this is identacle”. As such some cases will rule one way, whilst others go the other.
Given that Marvel had sold “adamantium”, they would be on very thin legal ice making up a close variant, let us say “adamantrium”. Whilst “adamantite” is distinct, and is a different word, it is still very similar in appearance and, more importantly, carries a very similar cultural meaning. Such that you will be able to find many instances of people using them interchangeably or synonymously.
This is where it becomes problematic as the threshold to test if a deliberate attempt has been made to replicate a trademark is whether an average member of the public might reasonably mistake one for the other. Even as a lifelong roleplaying fan, I have to pause to remember which is which, and choose the correct one. And I think it would be easy enough to show that the general public would confuse the two terms very readily.
So I think they are wise to avoid it. Not just on litigation grounds, but for a reputation point of view. They have sold something. If they are seen to be trying to cheat their way around finding a way to continue using it (or something so similar as to be hard to distinguish), then their corporate credibility will be tarnished.
Should they wish to sell rights to other intellectual property, in future, they might have a harder time finding a buyer. Or if they do, the price they get might be lowered, because the suspicions the buyers have that they will not honour the agreement.
As it is, didn’t they only sell all of that (with a very, very, painfully bad contract, I might add) because they were desperate? Kinda the same thing that caused the almighty Nazi Mouse to now own Marvel?
I don’t know how well it was worded, but the decision was (as I understand it) made because they were indeed in dire financial straits. Plus they were intending to focus on their comics, rather than branching out into the movies. As such were intending to sell off all the movie rights. So were unconcerned about incidental extras, used to sweeten the sale, such as “Adamantium”.
Was this a poor financial move? They made enough money from the sale to keep their core business going. Then turn it around enough to found one of the most successful movie franchises ever. Then sell the company for four billion dollars.
I assume the shareholders were very happy with that. And it does not seem to have harmed the franchise, as I keep seeing new Marvel movies coming out. Whether or not the quality will be better, or worse, than it would have been, if it remained under the previous owners’ stewardship, only time, and subjective opinions, will tell.
I found this game at a gaming shop I frequent, and it made me think of Sydney. Thought you’d get a kick out of it (if you don’t already know of it): https://www.amazon.com/Tasty-Minstrel-Games-1012TTT-Scoville/dp/1938146700
Heh, I can see why you thought of Sydney Scoville Jnr, given the title of that game. Not to mention it i being about eating hot peppers!
She’s got personality sprites!
Will Anasigma feature at some point along with a certain transgenic talking dog, cross-dressing psychologist, and cheerfully violent high-functioning patchwork zombie trio?
Barring that, perhaps a cameo from a certain mad geneticist with a gerbil fixation who failed to earn her PhD.
Jennie Breeden, of “The Devil’s Panties” has a fun trio of personality sprites, Angel (responsibility), Devil (shady), and Pretty F–king Princess (chaos/fun). All three wear New Rock flame-pattern boots :)
Yeah the whole mutant thing is why Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are called enhanced rather then mutants in age of ultron, and why everyone is an inhuman rather then a mutant in agents of shield. which is weird as mutant is a genetics term and shouldn’t be able to be copyrighted I believe. Perhaps it’s in relation to powered individuals
It’s all Unbelievium anyway — “the strongest material known to comic book writers.”
why can’t she use her tentacle orb as a lock pick?
If it was a very big lock she could. We have never seen her make a small tentacle though, so regular size locks could be beyond her capability.
That said, it is possible that Sydney can indeed make her tentacle really small. In fact when it is not in use, it is small enough to fit inside the orb. So she may well be able to pick locks that way.
Throw in the fact that it appears to be luminous, and that would allow an extra capability. Namely that Halo could project her image from the Truesight Orb and pass her virtual head through the outer part of the lock mechanism and directly look at what the tentacle was doing inside the lock!
Sydney could potentially become a top tier safe-cracker. Until she hits an electronic lock, anyhow.
“Adamantium” can’t be used by others at all now? Or just in Hollywood movies? Because Runescape still has adamantium as a metal, as well as the various weapons you can make from it. (And yes you can make adamantium claws and pretend you’re Wolverine, but “addy” isn’t the best metal in RS, just so you know. =P)
“Adamantite” not “adamantium”.
The key part is that the copyright term must not be used in a context where it could be mistaken for a work of the copyright owner. In this case the term Adamantine dates back to the ancient Greeks so is entirely safe for anybody to use.
Barring a very specific instance where a deliberate attempt is being made to copy a Marvel setting, and/or character (such as Wolverine), and just substituting those words, in an attempt to get around the law. That would fail as copyright law is designed to prevent this. If an average person would mistake one for the other, then the protection can be enforced in a court.
Always wanted a Swiss Army chainsaw.
EMP grenades do kinda-sorta exist, but they’re almost useless. The technical term is explosively-pumped flux compression generator, but size matters a great deal with them. One that would fit inside a grenade would likely have a ‘blast’ radius measured in inches.
Such a generator the size of, say, a compact car has an effective range of about a mile.
The break point being how far it reaches whilst being man-portable. If that can affect the area of, let us say, a football pitch, then that has got real potential. Whilst modern military units are theoretically hardened, you can bet that like with all such statements reality falls somewhat short of the ideal.
But, on top of that, the military are reliant on non-hardened civilian infrastructure in many cases too. If your power is supplied from a civilian mains grid, which can be taken out by an EMP, then an opponent with EMP equipped troops is a serious tactical threat.
Instead of brass knuckles, why not sap gloves? They’re comfortable, stylish in form yet inconspicuous in function, they can punch through cinderblocks and breach most interior doors yet they’re much less likely to cause lacerations on impact, and they deliver spankings so thuddy they’ll lift a submissive by her haunches.
If you can’t find video demonstration of that last one, then take my word for it.
That would be a workable tool, except the pry head is in the wrong place to get any realistic leverage. The hacksaw blade interferes with the user’s grip and a perpendicular grip like on the ax head lowers your relative work, rather than multiplying it like a lever is supposed to do.
Cap’s shield actually can’t be replicated. The scientist trying to create the new super alloy mysteriously fell asleep, and woke up after something had happened to the latest experimental batch. Attempts to replicate it resulted in the invention of Adamantium, a weaker and more brittle compound than whatever Cap’s shield is. Which means, Cap’s shield could theoretically be used to break Wolverine’s claws, if Cap were strong enough (and cruel enough).
Just saying, this comic became infinitely more funny after the whole OceanGate thing.