Grrl Power #585 – Tentawall
Ah yes, the fabled Tentacle Sickle. I remember that well from Arthurian Legend. Well, not Arthurian Legend so much as his lesser known brother Mortimer. Mortimurian Legend. Well, not legend so much…
I don’t know, Sciona cracked the pillar containing the sickle, I figure someone picked it up.
Maxima and Sydney once had a conversation suggesting that the best defense against super speed is super confusion. Max is semi-genre savvy, and I can imagine that the appearance of a wall of tentacles might make a heroine flub her initiative roll a bit. That or instantly incinerate everything within 75 yards just to be safe. Or… snag her panties on a bramble. Depending on the genre of the comic.
I’ve updated the vote incentive with a piece I was using to practice better night time lighting effects. I think it looks a little muddy, but they’re supposed to be lit from behind. I’m still playing with it. Dabbler turned out pretty good but I see about 10 things that need work on Max and Sydney. Oh, and don’t read too much into their expressions. They’re individual busts (hur), Max isn’t giving Dabbler the bedroom eyes or anything. I mean, unless your particular slash fiction involves that, then imagine whatever you like.
I’m reading a book called “Villains Don’t Date Heroes!” in the super specific genre of Superhero Lesbian Romance. I remember 5 or 6 years ago when there were barely a dozen superhero novels on Amazon and now I can’t keep up with them. Now before everyone scrambles off to buy this, I should say it’s not a romance novel. You know. Romance – wink wink nudge nudge. One of those ones where opening to any given page lands you a 50% chance of heaving or thrusting or quivering mounds of love pudding. At least not yet. I’m only halfway though it, so maybe it will veer that direction. I suspect it’s tamer than that. It’s still entertaining, and has some nice ideas in it. It does contain something of a pet peeve of mine, something I consider a hallmark of amateurish writing. Using the same or nearly the same phrase twice in a very short span. To me it reads either like the author couldn’t come up with two ways of describing something, or something got moved around during editing and not cleaned up on the final pass. Using the same or nearly the same phrase is a little distracting, like I just did there. Doesn’t it stand out? Anyway, I think I noticed it a total of 8 or 10 times in about 150 pages so far, so it’s not pervasive, but it stands out to me. So the book isn’t Wearing the Cape, but it’s still a solid read if you’ve got a gap in your reading list.
I had to write this post twice. :(
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One comment on all the comments about sound effects. On the last page when the sickle came out of Coot’s hand Dave missed a perfectly good opportunity to use ‘Snickt!’.
Sydney has tentacle porn dreams. Okay then… I didn’t think most girls would actually find that a desirable thing, but Syd isn’t most girls.
Well, at least with tentacles you end satisfied, as opposed to… a few people i can think off.
*curls round to look at tail, glumly*
*gives tail a swish*
I had such hopes when I saw that Sydney liked combing Pixel’s tail.
*sigh*
I guess she aspires to more …
You have nothing to feel glum ol’ chum, Sydney likes tentacles for other ‘reasons’, reasons not possible with a tail, but a tail can provide a different sort of pleasure :D
Um, isn’t Dabbler able to tell what people find arousing? If picks up on this quirk of Sid’s, then the next debriefing could be fun
Don’t forget to see the Vet after this! ; )
Wyrms are bad for doggos after all.
Is it that surprising given this old comic? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/490
Haha, or this guest comic that suddenly feels like canon: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/544
I feel sorry for Wyrmil being paired with this ignoramus redneck…well, almost. Those tentacles are really freaky.
I wonder if Sydney is contemplating asking if the Council will allow a “finder’s fee” for their allies’ cooperation?
If Archon recover all the stolen artefacts, Sydney gets to take the sickle home, as a ‘toy’.
I’m sure she can find less dangerous outlets for her desires…
I’m pretty sure that’s the point of pornography.
Doesn’t she literally have an orb that does that same thing?
Which would explain exactly how she developed this fetish. The Hentorb has undoubtedly been used to recreate some stereotypical Hentai scenes in the cruise of self-pleasure. Similarly why it would be almost impossible for Harem to NOT be bi or lesbian, as her self-pleasure would appear to an outsider as girl-on-girl sex.
As we are now analyzing the characters’ sex lives, I’m convinced that Math maintains a spreadsheet on the detailed natures of his preferences, and that’s the real source of his super-hero name.
As comments for the previous strip said, I’m 100% getting a Parasyte vibe now.
*discreetly passes over Wyrming tablets*
No no no, that’s how we got into this mess, what is needed are de-Wyrming tablets :P
Small details check:
The lights on one side of the ‘dock’ are red and the other blue.
Can the Dark Vault swim?
Yeah, and the lights in the pit are red on both sides
I see someone went to the Fred Perry school of Onomatopoeia…
Dave does dig him.
I think Dave finds him solid Gold.
But he comes up with his own Onomatopoeia, he’s no Cheetah.
I do love how Wyrml is making Coot’s limbs have a high level of control, he’s a real arms master.
On another note, he needs to get out of there, but the water will be cold so he’ll need something to hop on at the surface; likely an emergency inflatable boat could even pull him up faster if the regenerator prevents the bends…. but he won’t want to deploy to early or he might give himself away…. he’ll have to time rafting right.
Also, that regenerator looks pretty sharp, he may want to put some kind of edgeguard on it.
Mmm, less ‘arms master’ more ‘tentacle tanker’.
The Regenator should be able to repair the damage the bends causes, although it may be adaptable enough to prevent them in the first place, as you suggest.
I too assumed that the sickle that Wyrmcoot is wielding is the Regenator, but its image does not match that of the item depicted when it was first described. Possibly that was just a wild imagining, if not then Wrymcoot is in possession of two or more artefacts, nude though he is, thanks to his fleshpockets.
As he was able to run around with at least the sickle inside him, without harm, I think we can take it that Wyrmcoot’s flesh is tough enough that even a magical sickle cannot (casually) cut him.
What is it with transforming villains and a lack of pants in this universe?
well i mean all he had in the interrobang room was a towel
I’m guessing Coot just has a particularly puny pecker.
A PG-13 comment concerning male anatomy that some may not want to see:
Not all “peckers” maintain their full length when limp… and it IS cold where he is.
A thing I like about this comic is that everytime I read it I end up with an idea of how a superpower could become OP. I just think of a power and then I think, “How would I use it to defeat Maxima.” Granted there is a lot of assumption along the lines of, “and it works,” that Maxima may or may not be able to guard against but at some point a hero’s power level becomes so silly it’s like a killer GM against the ropes who’s clearly making things up on the spot.
Latest power? Ability to become intangible allowing phasing through matter. Turn that on at the start of combat, allow the ability to make other matter intangible with touch (after all, the naked superhero thing is a bit embarassing) and allow selective use of power (i.e. a single hand intangible/tangible while the rest of the body is the opposite). Pick up a palm sized rock, reach into Maxima’s chest, and leave the rock inside her heart. Even if her heart is capable of crushing that rock a bunch of little bits of rock dust coursing through her veins probably isn’t healthy for her. Won’t necessarily kill her but will likely result in a win.
Intangibility is indeed a powerful offensive weapon, with the right power stunts. The one you describe would require refining to work right though. As it stands you would loose you hand, as you would need to materialist it, along with the rock you are holding, inside Maxima’s body. At which point your hand would take a lot more damage from Maxima’s force-field hardened body than she would from you (or the rock). She would be hurt, but you would almost certainly loose your hand (at a minimum).
Having a stunt which allows objects worn/carried to become intangible/tangible independently from your own state would do the trick though. So have you and the rock become intangible, position it in Maxima’s body, then make the rock (only) become solid.
Best practice it somewhere remote though. Making a whole bunch of atoms suddenly co-exist, in the same spot as a load already there, may result in a nuclear-like explosion!
But, for the result you are ultimately after, that is a good thing. That nuke would be going off inside Maxima but you would be safely intangible and unharmed.
Maxima’s forcefield, we know it’s “skin tight”, but we don’t know if it permeates inside of her as well, and if it coats her blood cells. If so, her blood might just instantly grind up the rock and her body absorb the nuke blast of what overlaps (as she’s shown she’s probably capable of withstanding nuclear forces), at which point all the rock has done is give her a dose of her regular mineral intake. (That said, I am now curious if Maxima could eat rocks for breakfast.)
If you check out Dabbler’s Science Corner #1
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/376
you will see that Maxima’s cells are individually strengthened, by her force field. Which would need to include her blood cells, or they would get squashed, like a pancake, when she performed extreme maneuvers. For instance disarming the grenade, mid-flight, would have required her fingers to ‘pull more g’ than a fighter pilot, in a dog-fight. A lot more.
>Just a reminder<
Not all right wing Americans are idiots. Just because you like to portray it that way doesn't mean its true.
I think you have a misconception. Showing one idiot is not saying that the same applies to a broad part of society.
Coot is a single character, in a huge cast. None of whom have been portrayed as having any particular political leanings.* Well barring Barack Obama and the other world leaders shown in one scene. But they were the relevant presidents and prime ministers at the time the story was set.
Yes Coot is a redneck, but I doubt even the most ignorant non-American reader would take him to be representative of half of American society.
* Not unless, for reasons unknown, you consider feminism to only be the province of one political party. That being the only political leaning that the comic pushes. Being fairly self-evident from the comic’s title.
I love that rather than being one-note, Cooter keeps finding new ways to be stupid. It’s adorable and amazing.
… Huh. I’ve generally found trying too hard not to use the same phrase or word in close proximity is more a sign of amateurish writing.
It is if done badly. Which is why you would be aware of it. If
doneexecuted well your attention would remain on the story, rather than the writing.Of course if there is a word or phrase often repeated then that is even worse. It shows that both writer and editor were not paying attention. Or were oblivious to the fact that it could be irritating a proportion of the readership.
And it is not just limited to the written word. The other week I was watching a video where weaponsmiths were forging a weapon from a film. In it there was a section where a less-seen weaponsmith got to do a number of small tasks on the project. And the narrator tried too hard to make sure the guy’s name got airtime. Putting it in just about every sentence. Grating on the nerves enough that it was detracting me from paying full attention to the content.
I was though pleased to see that I was not being overly fuss. Despite the video being (otherwise) absolutely excellent, and the weapon turned out well, the comment with the most likes (over 150), by a large margin , was the one griping about the over-use of the name.
“Yes, yes, we got his name. We heard you the first time!”