Grrl Power #148 – Just say it. It’s about presence
Ok Suzie, don’t gloat.
I don’t know if it’s really even all that important that the team is under the DoD as opposed to the DoHS. I just don’t think any non-DoD department should really have the sort of firepower that Archon does. The INS doesn’t have access to Ospreys and artillery as far as I know. Besides the reason that Arianna gives, the “keeping it all in the family” reason, which I think is a decent one (at least I hope) it really does come down to presence. Soldiers are scarier than cops, and Maxima wanted to be able to take that to the field. And obviously preserve her rank and that of the other Archon members coming from other branches.
Maxima may not have meant any disrespect, but it’s hard to believe she won a lot of friends with that jab. It was a jab after all. Not at honest, hardworking police. She respects them, but she’s used to working alongside jets and tanks, and tends to qualify most police issue equipment as “cute.” Still there may be some eating of the crow ahead for her. Possibly several police charity events.
Ok, enough questions about what branch the team is under. A lot of that debate will continue mostly outside of the comic. I just need to remember to stick the occasional webpage/TV Screen/Newspaper in the background showing that sort of stuff is going on.
We’re almost past all this procedural stuff in the press conference, then it’s on to some quick introductions which should be a little more amusing and then a live fire demonstration which will test my ability to draw explosions and an unfortunate decommissioned tank. Which reminds me, I need to practice drawing tanks.
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I done a podcast! Some other webcomicers have started doing one cataloging their experiences as new… well, webcomicers, and one of the hosts is the writer/colorist of Juniper which I’ve linked before and I know via Twitter, so asked if they were interested in talking shop for a bit. If you are so inclined, check it out.
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.
Why on earth would NSA agents carry guns domestically (or even overseas)? They tap phones and computers. That is not a profession that requires a gun.
I should probably reword that. Some of them are armed. Most are probably not.
They carry guns domestically because they have their own police force (NSA Police), they carry guns overseas because if you’re doing work in high threat areas (see any war zone), you may need to defend yourself. Then there’s the added fact that a large portion of the NSA is simply military (If you happen to be a Marylander you can see the NSA police vehicle when driving by their entrances).
The NSA has field operatives who are armed because the kind of people they investigate probably aren’t going to come along nicely. That’s who I assumed she was talking about.
BIG MIKE! Chuck Reference Ho!
That giant robot’s not hurting anyone. It’s probably worling a demolition contract. It’s just clearing space for a new parking lot.
Mayor: “In fact, I WAS going to build a convention center! Now what am I going to tell Lauren Faust and Optimus Prime?!”
Chill Mr. Mayor Kilpatrik. Here. Have some hush money. There you go.
Just to highlight the point Maxima’s making – a super on a rampage could easily be compared to a man who steals a tank and drive through a city with it. It would have been exceedingly simple for Shawn Nelson to start running people down, driving through houses, or turning around on the freeway and crushing occupied cars under his tank. At the end, he tried to do exactly that, and the police could do nothing at all to stop him until he disabled himself.
Now picture that Shawn Nelson didn’t have a tank, but did have superpowers. Even modern police and SWAT with body armor, protected vehicles, AR-15s, snipers, and so on aren’t going to stop a tank, and the kind of power that CAN is simply not part of the police purview.
Hey, it’s Jay & Silent Bob =D
As someone not living in the USA, most of this page and the last one were pretty uninteresting to me, and a little meaningless.
I love your comic, your art and the humour here are great! It’s just that when it comes to who belongs to which branch, I really don’t care.
Many countries have limits on when, how, where and why the army can deploy. That’s what declaring a state of emergency, or martial law is all about.
I live in Canada. We have limits as well. The mayor of Toronto called for the help of the army a couple of decades ago, for what were widely seen as frivolous reasons. He lost the next election.
The US just has much more publicized (and argued over) limits.
It comes down to the theory of what an army does, which is *not* what a police force does.
I don’t think it’s really clear that everyone is in agreement what it is that a police force does. I’m sure it varies not only from country to country, but even within a country, depending on a person’s view of law and the relation of citizens to it. Broadly, do the police serve the government or the people? Do they exist to enforce the law, or to protect citizens?
I like how Max’s hat shadows her eyes. She looks satisfyingly menacing in that first panel.
Hmmm, was that our former mayor?