Grrl Power #521 – To no dress
Hee hee, we do have fun here, don’t we?
Yes, as long time readers know, Max’s invulnerability does extend over her clothes in the form of a near skintight force field. Obviously it doesn’t convey nearly the same protection as her intra-cellular field, which means her clothes can get damaged without getting grievously injured herself, but the attack has to hit that sweet spot damage wise. The fact that her force field is nearly skin tight (I’d say maybe a centimeter or two) means that if someone attacked her while she was wearing a big fluffy fur coat, it would probably get a severe crew cut.
Max is probably a bit more fit that most guys care for. Diagetically, (slightly reappropriating this term, but hopefully you get what I mean) she does this on purpose in the gym. When she first got her powers and her body developed from her slender track runners build, she wound up looking like Jenna Jameson or Pamela Anderson when they were in their absolute primes. She was pretty happy about this at first, but she quickly realized it came with certain social disadvantages. This sort of thing contributed greatly to her particular brand of low tolerance feminism. Now she never was one to wear the sort of clothes that those two did (or didn’t, as the case may be) but being in the military, it’s not like she had the option to wear big fluffy fur coats either. Basically her only option to change her appearance and try and deflect at least some of the unwanted male attention she was getting was to “over do it” in the gym. It’s not like she had the option to put on weight even if she wanted to. Not that she should even have to make that choice of course, but basically her only options were “super slamming beach bunny bod” or “super slamming muscle beach bunny bod.” Hiro is obviously aware of all this and is trying his darndest to be a gentleman about it. As gentlemanly as one can get with their tackle flapping in the fallout.
Non-digetically (again, hopefully you follow my intent here) she’s as muscular as she is because I like fit ladies, (follow me on Twitter for my occasional #BonkersLadyAbs posts. :) and I still tend to over do it slightly.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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.
The first lady I saw with killer abs was on the original Star Trek in “Mirror Mirror” where the ladies expose their midriffs as part of the uniform. Lt. Uhura was an eyeful with those cut abdominals. I had never seen the like before. In preparation when the body building ladies came out in the 1980’s.
Too bad we can’t see it even though we are adults here.
After a google search I must agree. Nichelle Nichols were absolutely smoking .
Then and now!
She looked strong back then. And strong now.
Remember that mutant called Doc Savage? He tended to have his clothes torn up since he was tougher than his clothes. Something that would be a constant problem unless you had stronger clothes. Even then they had limits….
Dave, just wanted you to know how much I appreciate the sacrifices you make, just to give us hot slices of beefcake to go with the cheesecake pictured here…
What are the chances of Harem getting a photo and will Math bleed out from his nose when he see it?
Fairly high. Yes.
“More importantly,” what are the chances of us getting that photo? (Answer: Fairly low, but not zero; lower considering Dave neglected VDSD this year.)
Do check out the the current vote incentive. That certainly fits the bill for the Valentine’s Day Sex Drive submission!
If it was intended as such mind, I should point out to DaveB that the VDSD link still just points back to the comic home page, rather than to the incentive. Although a Deviant Art page version of the same would probably be more appropriate, as that will not change when the vote changes.
Or, better still, a fully coloured version!
*wags tail eagerly*
So… question.. if Hiro’s invulnerabilty doesn’t extend to his clothes… what about, say, his hair and beard stubble?
This is similar to the question asked about Maxima’s hair surviving, earlier in the comments. In her case we know the nature of her powers, and her force fields would work just fine with her hair.
Hiro’s though we know nothing about. But, the fact that his hair and beard have survived do give us clues about them. Unlike an omission, it is unlikely to be artistic error. So if he were clean-shaven, Dave might just have forgotten to draw the stubble. Whereas, given that he does still have it, then that is more likely to be intentional, in my opinion.
So it is wisest to start from the basis that ‘his invulnerability does include his hair and stubble’ and disregard versions which do not. So we can rule out him having a force-field surrounding him (at any kind of a distance anyhow), for example.
He may just have a weaker version of Achilles’s invulnerability. Achilles cannot be harmed by any known means* and not even a hair on his head can be cut! Perhaps Hiro’s is just extremely resistant to any damage, in a similar manner?
One additional clue we have though is that Hiro can absorb sonic energy. Quite often super power sets will derive from a single source. And we have several examples in the unit. Harem, Mr Amorphous and Achilles for instance. So it is possible that Super Hiro’s defenses might be related to his sonic absorbtion. Although clearly they are not exactly like it, or he would replicate Anvil’s power.
But it could be that he does the absorbing part (to a degree) but wiithout topping up a battery or having the ability to redirect it (which he can with his sonic power). If so though clearly he can only do that for attacks when they reach his skin. He is not able to negate attacks prior to them destroying his clothes.
In GURPs terms, as both types I have described have functionally identical results the type does not matter for most purposes. It would just be designated as a ‘special effect’ which gives flavour to the power, but without changing any of the mechanics. However there is one significant part in that the details do affect how enemies might be able to overcome his defenses, once they know their specific properties.
Presently though we would need to look out for more clues, or hear his origin story, to find out.
* This means a lot more now than when we have said such in the past. Given we now know that Archon have access to more supernatural investigative techniques than was previously realised. Although the fact that they were willing to turn a weapon on him, that could literally punch a hole through a mountain, was pretty impressive in its own right!
Did you saw Hancock? He is shaving with his own toenails. Or how it Superman does? With his heat vision (Lois sayed that this is gross :D)
in one of the Superman movies (quest for peace?) he’s shown to shave using his fingernails
This. Sorry, I dont know how to get link in to the words with this tags. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvkDcrbLP2s
Dang those are tough mirrors! The kind of heat that could destroy bits of Super Man* should melt normal glass like a hot knife through butter!
Bare links are fine, by the way. Should you want to do the trick of turning them into words though, just use the following format:
<a href=”web_page_link_goes_here”>text_you_want_it_to_appear_as_goes_here</a>
I usually cheat and copy and paste the web url into the appropriate spot on this webpage:
https://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_links_w3schools
If you bookmark that site, then you can do the same. It saves remembering the format. Plus, if you complete the display text too, you can then hit the run button to see if it works as intended. Do not worry if the resultant text is not clickable though, as not all websites will display in the sandbox. Simple ones though, like pictures, typically will work if clicked.
But either way, provided the text appears correctly on the right, it means you are probably OK and can copy the code (from the left) to paste in your comment here. Just remember to put a space next to it, where appropriate, if it is within a sentence.
If that does not suit you, you can always type it in. But just be careful to include the “/” in the closing tag, at the end. That is a particularly common omission, which would mess up the formatting.
* Just like Hiro his hair survives all attacks, so all the arguments I listed should apply equally. It does not matter what the hair is made of, it is simply enough to note that it shares the protective properties that his skin has.
I recall either in one of the very old superman movies, or in the 60’s-70’s comic books, Superman had donated a single hair from his head to the Smithsonian, which used it in a display to hold up some massive weight as a demo of the hero’s strength. The bad guy stole the hair, extracted DNA from it*, used that to create a fully grown** clone of superman to fight superman. Suggests Superman’s attributes are present in his hair, which in turn, says that his own heat vision shouldn’t be able to shave him without leaving really bad razor burn. I guess there’s just too many Superman stories to avoid contradictions.
* Not scientifically correct, hair supposedly doesn’t have DNA (which seems wrong to me).
** Also wrong, clonesvstart as babies and grow up.
Hair does not. Although loose skin (a.k.a. dandruff) can be found on hair. The hair bulb though does contain cells, for the production of hair, which will have DNA. So provided he plucked it out, rather than cut it off, then the film is correct that a clone could be made using that.
The very fact that it could hold up a massive weight though would corroborate that the hair has Super Man’s super properties. Plus we should not forget that he is alien, so his hair might not actually be made of keratin.
There are techniques which could be used to force grow a clone to adulthood in a lot less time than normal ageing. Although they would indeed require the skills of a mad scientist, as they are well beyond our current technological capabilities. Mind you at the time that film was made, so was normal cloning.
Alternatively you could skip the baby part and just use 3D printing type techniques to create the adult body. We are already able to create rudimentary organs this way. And it is specifically done using the patient’s own DNA to ensure that a transplanted artificially created organ will not be rejected.
So there is no fundamental reason why we would not be able to use more advanced versions of those techniques to eventually create complete human bodies.
Then all we would need to do is overturn current ethical rules banning brain transplants (dating back to a real world mad scientist who was actually pioneering that in the last millennium), and we could fix any level of injury that still left the victim with a functioning brain!
Just make sure that such bodies are made with the latter technique, but without a brain. Creating people to exist just for organ harvesting is a big no no!
Further, using either technique, for cloning, would also require some kind of accelerated direct mental teaching too. Otherwise the fully-grown clone would have no more ability to function than a baby.
Trust me you do not want an adult body, with powers of Super-Man, but the behaviour of a baby! When he throws the toys out of the pram, buildings would be knocked over!
As to whether Supe’s hair is super, it depends on which period you’re looking at.
I think now it mostly depends on the writer and editorial policy (whereas in the Silver Age it was more if it made a goofy cover image).
Silver Age Superman’s hair was super and generally didn’t grow (that being a plot point a couple of times), unless he was under a red sun or being effected by red Kryptonite. When his hair, beard and nails grew from red Kryptonite., it took the combined heat vision of Supergirl, Krypto, and, I think, one of the other Super-Pets to trim it, though, somehow, they didn’t burn his skin in the process.
After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Supes’ powers were redesigned, and his invulnerability became a protection field extending only a short distance from his skin. His hair occasionally was damageable (at the ends, or if it was long enough, IIRC), and he shaved with heat vision, using a reflective piece of metal from his Kryptonian spaceship to reflect and guide the beams and as a mirror.
Other times, I remember him using a sharp piece of Kryptonian glass or metal to shave with, shaving under a red sun light, or else popping down to Kandor to visit a barber. I even vaguely remember something about lava in a live volcano affecting his hair in one story, but I wouldn’t swear to it.
Oddly enough, I don’t recall any of the Kryptonians ever depilating or shaving their legs–maybe their species has less body hair…
Honestly, I’m dissapointed that we can’t see more.
Now, I didn’t say of who.
Sydney is fully clothed still, so personally I am not fussed.
Is that with the preference for Halo being involved or left out?
The former.
I am happy for fellow fans to enjoy the view, and the more so the better. However seeing more, of either of the others, would make no difference for me.
The comedy and interplay is awesome mind. So I am not indifferent about the scene, and am interested to see how it plays out.
I feel you man. I got what you need, keep it on the down low.
https://i.imgur.com/3W5bn7R.jpg
Adorable. XD
So, does anyone get to check off “that was hot” on their ‘make Maxima say’ bingo cards?
Nah, that’s waaay too common a phrase in the English language.
Hiro, it’s fine, we’re all adults here. Maxima is an adult. You don’t need to act weird around her about this, it’s just going to make it more awkward.
His biggest problem is avoiding acting naturally.
Hm…
…
Oh! You mean an erection!
*eyes popping*
Dude!
I thought he was just like.. well… an elephant man. You know, like Vance is made up of lots of little spiders?
Oh, you kidder you :-P ^3^
*wags tail contentedly*
It now occurs to me that given the forces they’ll be fighting on a regular basis, Arcswat will pretty much need their own cartoonesk fashion depot given the likelihood that any time they go out their uniforms will be reduced to shreds even in the better scenarios.
Already on the books :) https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1722
Problem with that. He’s not exclusively employed by Archon as implied by his demand. That would mean that he’s an independent contractor and thus has other clientele.
I am not sure if it has been said or not but… over 600 comments I am not wanting to wade through them all. So that out of the way.
*cough*
GLORIOUS GOLDEN GAZONGAS!!!
Thank you.
So, how many requests have you gotten to make this comic from Hiro’s point of view the next vote incentive?
Half a dozen or so, not including those seconding the motion.
*whispering* Look down Hiro, look down. You will never get this chanse again. remember that damn poster in the mens shower and LOOK DOWN!
Well at least it isn’t Math, though I would pay to see his reaction to this situation.
If Dabbler arrives promptly, she could summon this chair, for Hiro.
Leon did not want to have it anymore, and Barberian seemed to be attached to it. So it probably ended up in Dabbler’s laboratory (it would not match the decor in her bedroom). Which means it would be available for her ‘hammer space’ teleportation to summon.
Here’s the real question, how tough is he on the “he looked at Maxima” scale currently?
The trunk is flaccid.
His mental toughness is therefore superhuman.
I most definitely agree on that.
The irony to this observation being that Maxima, she who is vehemently offended by being oogled or apparently even being hit on at all, seems to have rolled a negative in that particular area herself. Those eyes in panel 2 seem to not only be locked onto a particular location, but seems to be none too put off to look away.
If that is the case then why are her eyes looking upwards in the next panel? Panel 2 just captures the moment that she became aware that Hiro was naked. As you can tell from her surprised look, and dialogue. Clearly Maxima then chose to lock eyes with him, as corroborated by her dialogue in panel 3.
Likewise that panel does not show lust, rather she just has a slightly grumpy quizzical look. Due to not understanding his odd behaviour.
Two things to that. First, one doesn’t need to particularly look at a very southern region for that recognition. The fact that Hiro isn’t taking the chance to cash in on his front row tickets to the golden globes is a great example of that. She hasn’t even tried to avert her eyes at this point.
Second, her nearly jaw dropped eye locked stair at his junk only seems to be diffused by his otherwise hilarious face at trying not to do exactly what she is doing in panel 2. He is clearly the gentleman at heart and he could easily have locked eyes with her as well, but he’s attempting in an instant to avert his eyes entirely.
We are both projecting our interpretations here, and flavoured by our expectations, as we do not have eyelines to confirm exactly what or where Maxima is looking. Personally though I do not think her eye-line would go below Hiro’s chest, in panel 2, given that they are standing very closely together. As per your own comment that is sufficient for Maxima to be aware, using her peripheral vision, of his predicament.
That however does not constitute an “eye locked stair at his junk”. Especially as the picture is a frozen moment in time. Whereas a stare requires time to pass. So that aspect most definitely has a bias. Further you are taking the worst case scenario as a granted. Whilst I admit that am doing the converse, I am tempering that by looking at the following frame to help interpret the preceding one.
It is unequivocal that Maxima did look away, by panel 3.
If you wish to consider that was only after a good long stare though, you are certainly entitled to take ti that way.
Are those lacy undies or just burned full of tiny holes undies? lol Somehow I would have pictured 100% utilitarian cotton for Maxima!
You know, I kind of pegged her for sports underwear or even the booty shorts undies.
It is black lace underwear, per the author.
But yea, I would have expected the same as you.
Thinking about it though, they were dressed for an evening out, at the restaurant. If Maxima does wear utilitarian regulation-issue undies during her working day, I could see that she would want to slip into something more comfortable, or at least enjoyable, in the evening. I envisage that escaping from regulation wear would be a small pleasure, in its own right, even if she finds both types comfortable.
Subsequently, athough she managed to get hold of some combat gear (from the local Archon base or the osprey, as the case may be), I imagine that she would have stuck with her own undies.
Women dress for other women. Her outerwear is a uniform. underwear could be anything, from underoos to boxers to frilly lace and the latter won this lottery. I suspect none of the women present were surprised.
Also, I read the occasional romance. I’m particularly fond of Jennifer Crusie. A recurring theme in her romances is the side character who talks the main character into wearing sexy undies. In Bet Me it was Minerva Dobs’s mother talking Minnie into wearing lace, because she’d never catch a man with white cotton. Im Manhunting the best friend buys an assortment to, once again, replace the heroine’s white cotton. Maxima’s buddy is Peggy, yes? Bet on Peggy talking Max into what she’s wearing.
I guess I could see that one. Personality wise it seems a bit off for her though. Max isn’t one to be easily peer pressured and prefers to walk her own path after all.
Wait, wait, wait, Why isn’t Hiro totally hairless now? if his clothes burn off, that would logically mean his dead hair and stuff (you’re hair is dead when it leaves the skin) his hair would burn off. Doesn’t detract from it, but if you’re going to be that through and think about it, may as well got the extra mile. Make him wear a toupee for a few years our time.
That logic only works if you assume that his super defenses only affect his skin (like the ‘villain’ with ‘invulnerable’ skin and ‘claws that could penetrate anything’). Clearly though Hiro’s affects all of him. So all the above scene does is narrows down the type of (limited) invulnerability that he has.
Maybe he is similar to Maxima and has a force-field surrounding him, including his hair? Obviously though it would have to be skin-tight or else his clothes would have been protected too.
Alternatively Hiro may have an inertia-dampening aura that permeates through his entire body? As his hair is literally attached to him there is no reason why that (or other variations) would need to treat hair as not being a part of his body.
When next we see Hiro and his elephant the trunk should be pointing skyward trumpeting with Hiro eyes wide open thinking effort…… FAILED!
Question: how does working out in the gym affect your muscle and general body figure when you have superhuman strength and endurance ?
She could be lifting cars and get less of a workout than i do by lifting pillows…
The Archon gym has equipment suitably toughened and heavy enough to give even supers the workout they need (as indicated by the author, earlier in the comments). Maxima has an additional advantage in that she can raise or lower her strength as need be. Whilst even her lowest strength setting is still super-strong, it does save her having to bench-press a super tanker or something silly like that.
The interesting point to note though is Dave mentioned that any improvement her workouts provide scales up, when she increases her strength. So this is not just cosmetic, it is actually making her top-end super strength better too!
Presumably the same thing will apply to both Harem and Anvil who can each increase their super strength (albeit in different ways). Which would also serve to give insight into both of their respective mentalities. Anvil clearly works hard in this respect, whereas Harem does not.
Not that such is a criticism of Harem. Her super strength is only at its best when she has unsummoned all of her extra bodies. Which she dislikes doing because of the huge loss of functionality she has from reduced senses, multi-tasking etc. So she is wise to focus more on her martial arts training, to make the most of her more modest strength that she has most of the time.
Send 10000$ to david if you wanna see maxima undress part.
¿anybody wants make bids of maxima vagina colour?
Lol.
[Just in case Dave turns out to be the biographer of a real super-organisation, which is testing the water to see if it is wise to go public… ]
No.
With maxima’s ability to minimise how much super strength she has could she reduce it to human levels and get the same benefit with a normal workout as she would with full strength and a over the top extreme workout. Wouldn’t her muscles experience the same strain either way.
Correct logic, yes. See my more detailed reply two threads above.
However there is a limit to how far Maxima can lower it. Even if she wants to she cannot get down to mere human strength. Achilles is about 150% of a normal humans strength, and will always loose at arm wrestling against Maxima.
The same applies to all of her other abilities, barring the energy blast. Essentially Maxima only has two powers, her ‘zero range telekinesis’ (also known as her force fields) and her energy attack. Hence all her powers bar the latter can be increased or decreased. But all have a minimum below which they cannot be lowered.
Flight is the oddity, as we do not see her flying around all the time. So maybe she can turn that off. Alternatively she just learnt how to ‘fly down’ all the time that she wants to walk around or sit down.
I would like to see Maxima sleeping.
Err, in a ‘out of scientific curiosity’ point of view, with her permission. Not in a ‘peeking through her window at night’ kind of way.
if have much more strength than human should have more hunger or need more calories than human.
Superpowers are not “free”,superman needs sun,barry allen eat almost everytime.¿which tipe of special “need” have maxima?
We do not know. Whatever it is she can create an explosion that looks as impressive as a nuclear bomb though. So if it is powered by just her food then her power allows mass-energy conversion.
It may be that even the supers in Grrl Power do not know what they draw upon for their power. Several times the topic of ‘the origin of super powers’ has come up. Which would have been a logical time for someone to mention that, if they did know.
Although they may be coy about that for good reason. If you know how a super gains their power you can block them from it. So such details may simply be classified and therefore not discussed.
Honestly, this sort of thing is going to happen so much it’s got to have it’s own codeword – for Harem to fetch new clothing (pants, T-shirt, Vest with pockets) to the combat site. Sadly, I can’t think of a clever name for it. “Spare Change”?
That is a good one.
Or ‘Operation Ninja’ (as their clothes are supplied by Iron Cloth and his Clothing Ninja’s).
Considering how much love She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters gets, and HER body is pretty much the same as Maxima’s…..I’m pretty sure people still love staring at Maxima. Me, I love exotic hair/skin color mixes, small wonder considering two of my favorite comic book/cartoon girls are BOTH blue skinned redheads.
Which are those?
Im guessing mystique aaand… literally no other idea.
Gamora from GoG, would be my guess.
No, wait, she’s green-skinned.
Also, am I the only one that heard the metal gear alert sound with last panel?
I did not, but now that you mention it, thats all i hear everytime I turn the corner.
Wheres a box when you need one.
MAXIMUM EFFORT! x3
“Must not look down” The struggle is real.
I seems to me that Maxima should use body paint, in a confusing pattern so as to make her bits not as noticeable, as a secondary covering for when her clothing fails. Presumably, her thin field of protection would protect the body paint. It’s not an ideal solution, but one that might reduce the embarrassment.
Cunning idea. Sadly there is a problem. If you think back to Maxima’s photo-shoot, you will recall that she has a serious problem with makeup. It does not stick to her. We even got to see one panel of where she had tried the ‘blackface’ paint used by soldiers for night-time operations. Which also slid off.
In addition to the force field that surrounds Maxima, she has cellular force fields too. Makeup and paint slides off these. So wearing it under clothes would create a mess but not actually provide reliable modesty protection. It would smudge too much. And most likely on the most prominent parts, which would be the ones she wants to conceal.
I’m not AS bothered by muscle on women as on men… as long as it isn’t too OTT like Anvil’s…
But on men… disgusting. Absolutely revolting. So grossnasty. =(
Still applied to the last panel:
Damn that was hot.
MY SIDES ARE IN ORBIT
:-D
Somehow I don’t think Maxima is likely to say something like, “Hiro, my eyes are down here.”