Grrl Power #76 – I think she’ll integrate well
I think I remember it happening a few times in X-men, Nightcrawler would teleport in somewhere and startle someone, but it seems to me that someone just appearing out of thin air would make drinks go flying and people go falling backwards over couches. Even if you’re used to someone on your team doing that, people generally don’t sneak up on each other all that often. You hear footsteps and clothes rustling, even if they’re being quiet, you can hear them occluding other sounds, but someone just appearing like that. You can count on Harem startling people quite a bit in the comic, but she’s a fast learner and will probably not appear within arms’ reach of Sydney any more.
Check back on Wednesday, I’m going to try and figure out how to post a voting incentive for topwebcomics.com since they reset their ranking on the first. It’s just a pencil drawing I started over Xmas break. I’ll let you guess the theme.
A few requests for Max’s grin:
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.
This comic made me laugh out loud.
And I didn’t *quite* reach the last panel before that happened.
I’m hesitant to bring this up, since we’ve all spoken multiple times about the artist’s right to take liberties in his own universe and all, but my boss just left the room and I noticed the detail and now it’s gonna drive me nuts.
In all services, General-/Flag-grade officers have their iconic (vice striped-rank in the Navy/Coast Guard) rank positioned in the center of the epaulet. (O-6 (Col/COL/CAPT) and below it’s positioned at the outside edge, as is all striped-rank))
American ranks, anyway. I wondered about it too. Compare this list on wikipedia and notice that some countries’ shoulder marks for junior lieutenant match that guy’s, more or less. That’s about army officers, the others are linked here.
In another bout of fridge logic, why bring in that 70-odd million jumped-up chopper if it’s not going to be used? To bring in heavily armed military goons? On us soil? I understand that’s a fairly sensitive issue in the US, above and beyond the usual reluctance to do that. The incident wasn’t remotely important enough to justify it, so this might need some retcon sorting.
On the subject of “heavily armed goons”, consider the alternative. There’s been an attempted bank robbery, in which deadly force was used and only countered by the use of Powers. A key witness, who coincidentally is also the one who got shot at and who used tongue-fu on one of the robbers, has just (apparently) been spirited away by this unknown Empowered lady, purely on her say-so about some new Government project. The ‘goons’ are necessary to show that Maxima isn’t just some crazy person with Powers who’s abducted a key criminal witness, and probably also intended to give said project a more Baseline-compatible face than a shiny gold level-nine Empowered (although I’m not sure that they succeed in that, given that they look like space-marines-in-training).
They also get to perform the standard task of foot soldiers throughout the ages: hold the area and clean up after the big shots have done their dirty work and cleared off back to base. Remember, besides the two Empowered still strapped into an ambulance, we’ve got multiple Scoville-based chemical-weapons violations in the vicinity of the bank and a lot of witnesses (and cameras) to look good and capable for.
Ah, see, I JUST learned that the stripes on the cuff of a jacket indicate # of years served x 10, so I thought they might do it on the shoulder flap thing too. I googled “General Hammond” since I know I can find pics of him without his jacket on, and he had a stripe on either side of his stars. I figured that’d put him in the 20-29 year range which made sense to me. I didn’t think to google epaulet… chevrons. Or whatever they’d be called. So I stuck the star on one side and the stripes on the other.
not sure which stripes you’re referring to – diagonal service stripes (known as “hash marks”) on the Army uniform are x3, or x4 on the Navy or Marine uniforms; flat cuff stripes on the Navy uniform are simply representative of rank (i.e. Ensign gets 1 stripe, Captains get 4 – if you need an easy comparison, watch Star Trek TNG and look at their collar rank – solid gold button is a full stripe, black centered button is a half stripe). The stripes on epaulet boards are actually just there to help identify the rank from a distance: no stripes, O-1 through 3; stripe on outside, O-4 or 5; stripe on inside and outside, O-6; stripe on inside and outside AND rank in center: O-7 through 10. This, combined with color, and it’s easy to tell, even if you can’t make out the rank itself.
I was watching The West Wing when someone pointed it out to me I think. General Fitzhume (?) I think was the recurring military consultant on the show, but I don’t know what branch he was with. I think he was one of the Joint Chiefs, but he had stripes on his cuff. You can see what I’m talking about on the guy on the left in this pic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Joint_Chiefs_of_Staff_Jul_1983.jpg
Hmm, looks like that only applies to Naval dress uniforms. Oh well, now it applies to Archon as well, on the sleeves and the epaulets.
your world, your rules. I’m good with it.
obtw: that’s his rank (wide stripe indicates he’s Flag Grade (Admiral)) and additional stripes show the level (equivalent to stars for a General), so the guy front left in the picture is a 4-star Admiral. It’s there because that iteration of the Navy formal dress has no epaulet boards on which to display rank.
It must be tough beyond belief to try to get the details of military rank and file right while keeping some hope for the actual story you’re trying to tell. So, just to screw with you, I thought I’d bring up something that hit me while I’m still too inebriated to stop myself over. Harem’s time of the month times five must be an almighty life-sucking bitch from which there is no escape. It’s bad enough from one person’s perspective, but for a mind to endure it from five different viewpoints has got to he be the sort of Hell HP Lovecraft woke up screaming in terror of.
Nah, she’ll just drop down to one body and only have to deal with it for that body, then when she feels she’s sufficiently over it, VORP… she’s back up to 5 bodies again…
Since injuries are “frozen” with an un-vorped clone, I would feel pretty safe in assuming that any biological processes are “frozen” – meaning she could have it going in at least one clone or another almost all month long
That said – she does strike me as someone who be willing to use birth control to make her period lighter / less painful. if she does, it may very well not affect her noticeably at all
The close-up of Max’s face reminds me of someone trying very hard not to laugh out loud…
Man, Harem used to suffer a LOT back in these days.
I can just see what is running through her mind.
Wow can this day get any better…
More likely glad she does it to everyone. Remember her own curbside splat.
Hah well I guess Maxima and Sydney will get along quite well especially after that. XD
BTW the voting incentive is frikkin awesome. :)
Yes, it’s nicely done.
What isn’t nicely done is that you are in the top 10, but you aren’t getting the recognition you deserve because your listing does not have a banner graphic! Comics without banner graphics get lost in the shuffle and don’t get all the clicks they should.
For me he’s in my fav-five
Something Positive
1. Questional Content
2. Orange Marmalade
3. Girrl Power
4.Girl’s The Wild
5. Goblins
6.Lio
7.A Girl and Her Fed
8.C’est La Vie
9.Menag a 3
10. Least I Could Do
Sorry, I started the numbers after I had written the comic name’s
I have a banner. Don’t know why it didn’t show up when you looked at it but I made it to #8 last month for a few days and it was there.
You are right. It was just on my end. For some reason AdBlock thinks that your banner is an ad. Just yours, not any of the other ones. Strange
Hmm, maybe it’s cause I’m hosting it locally and not on their page? I don’t remember if that’s the case, I should probably check that.
Thanks! It’s been a while since I put pencil to paper, so some of the lines are super light and didn’t scan well, but I started getting the hang of it towards the end I think.
And here we go again ladies and germs! Just like watching dominoes fall over.
I can feel Max using every last shred of super-strength to hold back a crazy loud ‘BWAH-HAH-HAH’.
That would have been a funny call back to the atomic wedgie, if all of the Harems had fallen over too.
I think the reason that the day’s going downhill for Harem is the fact that first, she gets thrown around inside an ambulance, she gets painfully pranked by one of her co-workers (apparently one of the most powerful supers known, which takes a bit of the sting out it), then some STRANGER manages to surprise HER by decking her right after a teleport, while one of her is sitting right in front of the General.
I think, viewed this way, it can be seen as escalating misery for Harem.
Harem is a prankster, and I am sure that what we have seen of her pranks is just the tip of the iceberg. Could be some of her past misdeeds have chosen today to start catching up with her..
They say Karma is a bitch. That is true. But, sometimes, it is frickin’ Godzilla.
much more karma and its lina inverse. it works cause zilla is lot like dwagon and linchan scare dwagons with her passion and power.
Huh?
check the anime slayers and sowwy linchan scare me
DaveB is that a T-Rex in the Christmas sketch?
It’s a Barrett XM-500, which is Peggy’s .50 of choice. It’s basically a bullpup version of the Barrett M82, or the version that you always see in movies and in games. It’s lighter, shorter, and apparently slightly more accurate because it doesn’t have the recoiling barrel, so I guess it has slightly more kick, but it seemed like a good choice for a 5′ 4″ sniper.
Semi-auto sniper weapons are always kinda tricky. They’ve got that floating barrel which deforms slightly to allow for the bolt to blow back and then snap forward. That introduces a slight shimmy into shots which, at long range, can have serious effect. All the Barrett variants are versatile in that they can drill soft targets, light armor, and even put a shot through steel, concrete, or brick to hit someone behind it. But at extreme range there’s humidity, temperature, wind direction and speed, the curvature of the earth, and distance to the target to consider. This means that at extreme range a sniper may be required to make a ranging shot and then a follow up killshot. Now, with a Barrett being semi-auto, you can get the second shot in the air the instant the first impacts, but with the transit time involved, your target may have reacted and moved out of your sights.
Consequently, the M-40 and its variants are preferred for lighter work. It’s a 7.62mm bolt-action, so it lacks the sheer power of the Barrett as well as the range. But, against soft targets, one shot is typically sufficient.
If you really want Peggy to employ a big sucker, may I suggest the CheyTac line? It’s a .408 caliber round ranged for up to 2,500 yards. 7-round detachable box magazine. Night and day scopes. Collapsible stock for ease of transport. Bolt-action for increased accuracy. Disconnected rail system means it accounts for any vibrations from your hands through the forward furniture. Hydrostatic shock means even a grazing wound will leave the target in pieces. True, it’s slightly larger and heavier than the Barrett bullpup model, but a fair number of the marksmen friends of the family preferred it whenever possible.
The team is assuming that most of their work will be urban and suburban environments, so there probably won’t be a need for mile+ accuracy, but they’re just guessing at this point. Peggy’s choice for crazy accuracy is the British L115A1, or Arctic Warfare Super Magnum (AWSM). I’m not a gun guy, but I did some research and it seemed like that was a pretty good choice for her.
And really, in all the research I did, it seemed to me that once you hit a certain level of quality with the rifles, it really comes down to the sniper and their personal preferences. I even suspect snipers have a lot of… I wouldn’t call them superstitions, but a lot of habits like baseball players where they’ll only use a certain brand of scope or have to have rubber pads on the feet of their bipods or whatever. I guess those count as superstitions.
That CheyTac does look nice though. Basically at some point I needed to stop researching and just pick something for her. It’s not like she couldn’t change over though. :)
That’s cool. Most snipers are pretty possessive of their weapons, so they do develop their own odd habits because they know how that weapon is going to act when they squeeze the trigger. Like the sniper reciting prayers from Saving Private Ryan. It’s your comic, and I’m happy to watch as things unfold, but I think I should point out one thing that movies never get right. Hydrostatic shock is a phenomenon by which a high-powered projectile can cause trauma to other parts of the body via a liquid medium. In reported cases, persons have been shot in the chest by high caliber handgun rounds and the force of impact transferred throughout the body caused hemorrhaging in the brain. So, when you use a big gun of the type we’re talking about, there’s no such thing as a non-fatal wound. This effect can be exacerbated by gravity and the curvature of the earth. At really long range, you’ve got to angle the shot up and allow gravity to pull it downward in an arc. Muzzle velocity plus terminal velocity plus hydrostatic shock means the target looks like a bomb detonated inside it when hit.
The more you know. :)
Yeah personally I’m a fan of super gory comics, it’s hard to beat mangas like Ricky-oh, but I’m not sure how gory I want to make Grrl Power. I think if I drew exploding body parts it might be too much of a mood shift. Although there will definitely be some hot and heavy sniper action when I get to Peggy’s backstory, so I’ll need to figure that out at some point.
The cartoon-violence elements you’ve got going are good. Sidney taking on the one bankrobber had me rolling in tears, and you managed to pull it off without a drop of spilt blood. It’s tough to maintain humor with people dropping left and right on the other hand. I was just pointing out that Peggy shooting a gun out of someone’s hands from 1,000 yards, while badass, would still probably result in the loss of a few fingers if not most of an arm. Again, since it’s your comic, go as realistic or fantastic as you want. I’m just always of the opinion that the more you know going into a situation, the more options you’ve got to work with.
I’m cool with a reduced level of gore, but if someone or something does get shot with the big boomers Peggy favors or Maxima’s hand cannon it would be messy. Those things are designed to kill people and break stuff, and they are not subtle about it!
Also, snipers are usually fanatical about keeping records about every shot fired from each weapon, noting details of the cartridge, firing conditions such as range, slope, wind, lighting, humidity etc., and results. Many are very fussy precision handloaders as well, or get their ammunition from one trusted source who is one. That’s how they know so exactly where the bullets are going to go.
Gore only as absolutely necessary.
Actually, might do OK just using the old gimmick of BOOM! then switch to new frame with a character looking down (or up, or wherever) at the unseen mess, and saying “E-yyyeeeewwwwww!”
Sometimes, the unseen or implied can be way way worse (and have much more impact) than what is actually displayed.
Case In Point: When Sydney barfed in the bank. Never actually saw any barf (for which I am grateful) but, by golly, we sawa the effects.
or she could be one of the people that collect equipment items 10+ scopes, 12 different k-bars, every size weapon from a single shot .12 to a full harness 25 mm 10 round mag feed simi auto anti tank rifle, radios, and armer from current to one that hasn’t been seen on a contenent in 140 years. never meet someone with all this but sections of it have been seen in the possestions of soldiers I meet.
Could also be a very useful skill under certain circumstances –
“Oh, yeah, that’s a ###### from ######. Classic weapon. But they only ever did a limited run of those way back in #####. ……. S-a-y, when you are done analyzing that, could I have it?”
See, that’s the sort of dialog I’d love to have come out of Peggy, but I’m not enough of a gun nerd to write it convincingly. Wikipedia is of limited usefullness for that sort of thing. There needs to be a “RamblingStoryAboutTopicX-ipedia.com”
If you go to Alibris, you can get a copy of “Military Small Arms of the 23th Century” by Ian V. Hogg and John Weeks for less than $5. I recommend the 1985 5th edition, which includes the most oddities. They go into enough detail to let you fake it well, in a readable style.
Edit that’s “20th” century. Evil typo pixies!
Might not be just guns, she might have a hobby collecting European and Arabic weapons from the 2nd Crusade. Or just a fetish for anything used in war to cause bodily harm. (Imaging walking into her “Room” and the first thing you see is a rack of 12th century Mongol weapons.)
… And those are just the letter-openers.
I’ve always been partial to halberd’s myself.
I would prefer a 5th century Tartar Mongol tulwar. A sort of half stick, half long bladed sword weapon.
like I said it may include armer and commo and other gear like the guy who just joined the company with a collection of old chem gear and field chow equipment, and that was an education.
HALO could also stand for the popular 1st person shooter game that recently enjoyed its 10th anniversary.
Yes, there IS a female “Master Chief.”
While Harem seems to think the day is going downhill, Maxima looks to be more of the opinion that it is getting so much better!
Maxima looks like she is about to explode with laugheez.
Umm.. I dont understand what happened in the “I can tele…” panel :(
She teleported behind Sydney to demonstrate, then I cut to another of Harem’s bodies reacting to the reflexive punch that Sydney threw. Harem is a little complicated, admittedly.
Yes! Schlag-a-nog!
When I first read this one I though she had farted a death cloud or something xD then I saw the grin and shaking fist.
I thought the same thing.
So had I…
The other thought running through M’s head I don’t care what is in the tube that was to prefect.
A friend linked this to me. It needs more love. I’m watchin’ it.
Great! Glad you like it.
Hehehehe.
Man o’ Man… i get to panel 9 and laugh my ass off every time i read this…. and i check here at least 3 times a week “just in case”
For those of us unlucky enough to have actually known a true hyperactive (it’s a severely over-used diagnosis for kids who are just plain normal kids that don’t have enough active activities to do) the initiative bonus would be around a +20 in 3rd Edition (or 3.5) D&D terms, and immune to being caught flat-footed as well. Thus the reason why it isn’t available, even for character creation. You’d basically have to be a Human Fighter and sacrifice all other character creation feats to balance out the bonus from it. Unless it was made a progressive feat, but I think they stopped using those after 2nd Edition AD&D.
DaveB wanted to compliment you on this installment. I was especially impressed with the way you did the soft shadow of the mesh in the elevator. It looks so realistic.
Thanks, I’m pleased with how it came out, especially since I don’t have Photoshop’s tools handy when I’m coloring. Well, I guess I do, but I don’t want to hop back and forth between programs. I do it all in SAI.
Would all Harem’s bodies feel the punch that strongly even if some of them were halfway around the world?
Yes, they would, if I have Harem’s abilities and weaknesses correct from the comic and Dave’s exposition in comments.
Harem’s brains are quantum-entangled, and breaking the threshold will cause all bodies to feel the sensation, because there is really only one of her. Distance would not matter, since the connection between her bodies is always present.
Hate to get real world on you but I’ll bet some of the team are football fans and if you wanted to do another bonus pic a Superbowl party would be a good idea. I can see visualize some of them making double entente jokes or cheering their favorite team with possible betting going on. And of course Sydney’s SUPER HOT wings. :)
I’d love to draw something like that but it’s 1pm on Sunday and the next page isn’t colored yet. No bonus art or superbowl party for me. :P
Doesn’t have to be today or specifically about the Superbowl. We’d be happy with it about any game whenever you could do it.
I’m not sure Sydney would be allowed to bring them. Aside from the chemical and biohazard warning plaques needed on her car to transport them I’m not sure the others would be comfortable having something that dangerous around. They could make a spectacular ‘secret weapon’ to use against bad guys once she’s officially a member of the team though.
So this now makes two people who can catch Harem… so much for her earlier statement.
I love Max’s Great Grinchy Grin :)
Schadenfreude really is the purest form of joy
I drive a taxi for a living.
When I first started, it was odd *not* to startle a bit when random people walked up and opened the back door and climbed in.
After 2 months on the job … Man, people are weird, asking you totally inappropriate things and … What the hell is wrong with society ?
Now, after 5 years driving, I’ve had people just stroll past and bang on the door glass *just* to try and make me jump, but even though I am reading a book and preoccupied by that, I can pay attention to my dispatch radio and not even flinch when someone tries to rattle me.
I’m not saying it takes a long time, but even someone coming up behind me in the room and me not noticing through having headphones on doesn’t scare me the least.
The fight or flight reflex to surprise can be subdued.
BTW, the one that beat on the glass before climbing into the cab asked me, “Did I scare you ?” I replied, “Did I stab you in the face ?” The answer to both was No.
That said: Someone new to being startled is unpredictable for reaction. Nose is least damaging, could have been crotch, could have been throat.
BTW, I’d only ever punch throat if it’s life/death … Too easy to kill.
I worked 15+ years in a stop-n-rob (robbed twice) mostly midnight shifts and the later it was the weirder people acted. Not sure why so many possible reasons. But you hit the nail on the head. A lot of them would do things like that. My reaction to being robbed differed greatly from most people. I had none. Not really sure why. I’ve got a lot of stories though.
Second Type of Reaction …
Hey ‘Harem’ … would you rather have a punch in the nose or have your tounge used as a handle while being flipped over Sydney’s sholder?
I just started reading this today. Very hard not to burst out laughing at times which is not good when at work! I’m going to hazard a guess that one of Sydney’s abilities to be revealed will be an insanely fast reflex speed, at least when startled. And remember folks, reaction is what you do upon noticing a situation, reflex is what happens before your brain notices!
Welcome!
They way you become fast, precise and unemotional is when it comes from you nervous system, not your brain. Why once you have it you can out speed most anybody. But without the emotional brain connected you could hurt someone without meaning to.
I love how you have a character that you don’t have to show the violence happening to them to show the violence happening to them.
I’m guessing that’s the last time Harem ‘ports that close behind Sydney (that is, if she’s smart).
Showing violence off camera is well known. Used in cartoons too. Yet you know something happened and must imagine it yourself.
This is the happiest Maxima has ever looked! ^_^
That grin! KILL IT WITH… um, wait…
AH its cool. from superbitch- web comic she explains why she wears high heels. is that she floats just a bout a few centimeters off of the ground so they don’t pinch her feet while she fights. it was hilarious (i never thought about it like that) thinking back on the heroes who wear shoes like that while fighting villians was a giant oversite. makes me feel sorry for black widow and other heroes like her who can’t fly.
Panel 4: Buckaroo Banzai ref?