Grrl Power #1066 – No teeth for you!
Just a quick reminder that Varia has a pronounced Bostonian accent, which is really hard to account for if she’s not saying words that have an “ah” sound near the end, i.e., “Get to the cah pahk, idiot!” Or as the most famous person with a Boston accent would say, “Get ar um, to the aaaah, cah pahk, you ar um idiot!”
Does Sydney know about the secret tunnel in the breakroom? They’re… getting around to telling her.
I know you’re all asking if a fire extinguisher would actually beat a flamethrower. Well, they did it on Mythbusters. Granted, it was a super horsepower extinguisher so they were kind of cheating. But here, Varia came in low and this maneuver probably cost her some hair, so I’ll allow it. Plus, I mean, who’s to say the extinguishers at Archon aren’t overcharged for this very reason?
The July Vote Incentive is up! This is an unusual incentive because it started life as a panel from the comic. A few people thought it was a good pose to turn into a nude version, and I agreed. It was originally intended to be a stopgap pinup while I finished the one I’d started on for this month, but I got caught up in shiny skin and various bits of anatomy and alternate outfits so I’ll just leave this one as the July incentive. The advantage being that I have a head start on next month’s so… maybe it won’t be late?
Be sure to enjoy the alternate outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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While getting clubbed on the head by an extinguisher is dangerous the foam is even worse. It steals oxygen. If you get it in your lungs you will asphyxiate.
A lethal response, to a lethal attack, is proportionate.
And kudos to Varia for successfully taking on a super, whilst effectively not a super herself. Without a gestalt partner, Varia is a powerless, if fit, person.
“There is no such thing as ‘just human’.”
It very much looks like this guy leans heavily on his powers. I give 2:3, Varia’s favor.
Hmmm…I’m not sure which would be more appropriate…I could say, “Math agrees with you ( grrlpowercomic-dot-com/ archives/comic/grrl-power-209-dramatic-speed-lines-ensue/ )” but since he said it first it would be more like “It seems that you agree with Math.”
Hmmm…I’m not sure which way to say this would be most appropriate…”Math agrees with you ( grrlpowercomic-dot-com /archives/comic/grrl-power-209-dramatic-speed-lines-ensue/ )” or, since he said it be fore you, “It seems that you agree with Math.”
I’m betting her next move will be to grab Arthur Brown there by the ankle to see what powers he gives her.
Agreed, that is tactically her best option.
Or clubbing him over the head a bit more, to make sure that he is unconscious, before grabbing him.
OK, not a very heroic option, but she is not herself fireproof and if he gets off a single attack she is crispy fried. Plus there is no guarantee that the power she gains would give her any protection from such an attack. Personally I would happily loose points off my shiny hero score, in order to avoid burning to death!
Although there is a good chance she took him out cleanly, in which case back to Plan Elfguy.
I would say there’s a fair chance she killed him. Barring that, he’s certainly got a broken jaw. He’s undoubtedly more interested in the pain than he is in concentrating enough to focus a fire blast on her again.
Fair fights are for suckers. Sparring is one thing, but someone attacking you for real deserves any and every dirty trick you can pull.
As a drill instructor said to me,
“In a fair fight your tactics suck! We win by denying the enemy a fair chance to defend themselves, and finding that you are in a fair fight means you are a complete failure! So I’m here to teach you how to fight like the kind of amoral dirty vicious sons-of-bitches who win!”
Anybody else get trained by that guy? Or is that just a thing they all say when you get to hand-to-hand?
This is probably due to Fairbairn, of the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife fame, and author of a knife fighting manual. He really didn’t like fair fights.
Interesting why we came up with the notion of fair fights, chivalry, warrior’s codes, and so on, and why the likes of him left it behind them again. We still have the rules of war and notions of war crimes and crimes against humanity, though.
Fights used be be local skirmishes with the next township, and not always to the death. You were going to see those people again, and conquerors were going to be living with the populace. It was in your best interests to not create any deeper resentment than needed to win.
In modern times though, it’s much more distant soil and there is typically little or no chance of the specific soldiers living in the conquered territory. Their only incentive is to stay alive to collect their paychecks, and leaving behind a burning hatred isn’t your problem.
I’m sort of surprised that she didnt just shoot him, but I guess she wasn’t carrying her gun which all ARC-SWAT members have at the time, at least while in the building (except when trying to put it together like Sydney was, or when doing firearms training?)
its my understanding… that ‘on base’ only certain people are armed. after all, there’s this thing called a perimeter. its not a permitted! we pay $xx.xx ??? for security and $xx.xx ?!?!?! for Arcdark and you both missed it?!?!?!?!
channeling General Faulk….
believe it or not, firearms are HEAVILY restricted on military bases. you thought Chicago had strict controls?? not hardly. Military personnel not carrying for a SPECIFC mission purpose generally get to visit their weapon in the arms room on those rare occasions when a CI is in the offing, but the rest of the time they’re required to be unarmed, disarmed, kept relatively helpless compared to the civilians just off post.
(The exception being ON-DUTY Military Police, or those rare and infrequent visits to the ranges to do your annual requalify.)
Varia’s on base, but she’s not working post security/on duty as an MP, so I’d expect her sidearm is nestled safely in its little nook in the arms room, behind a vault door, and the Unit Armorer is probably at home getting some sleep.
one would hope that either the Unit Armorer or a backup is ‘sleeping’ on base right now. The alarm should wake several dead things on the base. Undead too though those are easier to wake.
it does not surprise me that arms are strictly regulated on a base. there are a number of situations where someone might need to say or do something that might get them shot if the subject of said verbal activity was armed.
There’s always someone in the critical offices. If nobody else, it’s the two in the OD office, usually playing checkers or cards or something to stay awake in the middle of the night. I used to go roust them out for the keys/escort to the switch closets after hours, when we had issues with the network restarting. (Yes, escort, you think they trust a civilian in the back of the Admiral’s office alone in the middle of the night?)
I work on a Navy base (in a couple years I’ll probably be the oldest person working there) and they had some character zip through with a pistol on the seat of his car last week, or so I understand it. Entire base locked down until the SP’s (Navy MP’s) caught him. Damned annoying, and the guy was a freaking idiot.
Makes sense that firearms would be heavily restricted on a military base to like.. MPs. But my main confusion was from two things, which made me think of ARC-SWAT as sort of similar to MPs, which Daniel mentioned are armed on military bases (although he did say this was only for On-Duty MPs, which I guess is different than non-military police, who can carry their weapons even when off-duty).
1) We’ve seen Sydney have her gun in the ARCHON building – she was trying to put it together in the staff lounge or something. I suppose this can be chalked up to Sydney doing something she shouldnt have been doing, which would be very Sydney-esque.
2) There are entire target ranges in the building. Remember when Maxima was teaching Sydney why ARC-SWAT even bothered to carry guns in the first place and blasted that target? The explosion wound up making some stuff from Arianna’s ceiling drop on her. I’m assuming maybe the firearms are only allowed in that room maybe? But they seem to have brought them from outside the room so I was confused about that.
3) We’ve seen Duke working on his firearms when Sydney walked past, before she started wanting to play ‘Dress Up Duke.’ I’m assuming maybe Duke is always On Duty though. :) In case of alien invasion or hot babes needing impressing.
4) Peggy seems to always be armed, whether on or off duty, including at the restaurant.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-198-sydneys-a-what/
(panel 6 – Maxima: “Eh… Peggy’s armed.”)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-200-something-finally-happens/
(doodle at the bottom of Harem and Peggy)
5) While what all of you said are excellent arguments, would that still be the case among ARC-SWAT themselves? Like I mentioned, I figured that ARC-SWAT (as opposed to ARC-Light or ARC-Dark or whatever other ARC-sections) are basically the equivalent of MPs in the ARCHON Building, since they are technically ‘military cops’ according to Maxima when describing her concerns about Sydney. It seems odd that there WOULDNT be any armed people in the ARCHON building, and if anyone would be armed, I’d think ARC-SWAT members would be the most likely. Plus many of them have powers that are at least as deadly as a firearm. Helps that several of them are also bulletproof or have ways to prevent bullets from hurting themselves (even without the Ooblek).
Plus wouldnt ARC-SWAT members be a bit less of a risk of going bad unlike an average soldier. I’m assuming becoming a member of ARC-SWAT takes a lot more security reviews than becoming a soldier on an army base (even if that’s high security also). And a lot of ARC-SWAT members are armed whether or not they have firearms.
Not really trying to argue because you all made excellent points, and I am not remotely familiar with how security goes on military bases. I’m just asking questions though to play devil’s advocate and explain my confusion. :)
Depends totally on assigned duty. I’ve been places where every officer carried a pistol, and every ranker carried a rifle. (And you better both have your clips with you AND you better have that thing unloaded indoors. I pity the fool that did an accidental discharge in the DFAC.)
Inside the US however, there are recruit trainees like Sydney who’ll likely be taking apart and putting together a weapon as often as possible, there are trainers who are ordered to carry weapons at some times of the day, there is security (presumably like Duke) and ofc, ARCHON is a different branch and has different rules, as well as having all the above in a single building, because that’s all the actual supers they have.
Civilians are a special case, and it’s totally dependent on what the guy in charge says they can do, pursuant to law, regulations and treaties. Blackwater was one extreme, I was the other, not even supposed to touch an unloaded weapon.
They aren’t. That restricted, that is. I recall the story a friend with a 2 star General father told about the time some hapless lieutenant accidentally discharged his pistol. The General had all sidearms on the base confiscated.
I wanna know what happens the instant she throws a punch… does she become an ice queen?
Imagine if she could just duck tape her hand to his and then freeze everything he sets alight…
That was Bostonian?
I thought it was just a paraphrasing of “Get to da choppa!”
Yeah, I can’t remember if she’s a Southie or just from another part of Boston! Unless Moltar’s powers are like an actual flamethrower that produce Gellied Napalm or a mixture of Gasoline and Kerosene I don’t see why Varia wouldn’t have trouble putting out his flames! Also, I’m pretty sure knocking him out helps too!
“Get to the Choppa” doesnt seem Bostonian to me :).
A Bostonian accent for that would be:
“Git to thah chahpah!”
Well, we’re almost halfway through the month but Grrlpower is number one in the rankings again.
And I seriously liked the pun “Face Extinguisher”.
Wonder what power she’d get if she touched him. He looks fairly molten though. We know they become immune to her power, but does she become immune to theirs?
I don’t, uh. Um. What?
Hold on, Varia, without touching someone, doesn’t have powers. She’s ‘just’ a highly-trained peak physical human. Who is still VERY MUCH FLAMMABLE.
Varia, touching Arianna, renders BOTH her and Arianna FIREPROOF, while also gaining fire powers of her own. Which would have made BOTH of them safe from Fire Guy. And Arianna is clearly willing and able to stand and fight.
WHY DID SHE THROW HER SUPERPOWERS INTO A HOLE IN THE FLOOR!?
Basic combat training. Varia has it. Arianna does not. Willingness to stand and fight is irrelevant, an untrained ally in combat is a liability because you have to focus on protecting them. And while they both could be safe from fire guy’s superpowers, they most likely would not be safe from other forms of attack. They would still be vulnerable to bullets, flash bangs, and fire guy deciding he needs to put his head down and charge one of them to force them apart so he can fry them both.
Varia’s smart play here is to knock out fire guy and then touch *him* for powers that hopefully can help her against the mooks.
What she really needs, though, is a bit of his body in order to test Sidney’s theory. Oh, hey, there’s some teeth!
I would hypothesize that such would work as long as the parts are alive. That could be quite a while per the Australian Museum.
“Muscle cells live on for several hours. Bone and skin cells can stay alive for several days.”
It’s all theoretical until tested. :)
It’s all hypothetical until tested.
It becomes theoretical when tested enough to rule out all other currently running hypothesizes.
Replacing a word with one of its synonyms does not change anything.
FFS learn the language.
Perhaps you should heed your own advice. Hypothesis and theory are not synonyms.
And he said THEORETICAL dummy not THEORY, they are different things.
SYNONYMS.
Theoretical, Hypothetical, Academical, Philosophical, Metaphysical.
LOOK IT UP.
Yeah, none of those are really synonyms either, not when used properly. They mean very different things. Just because people use them interchangeably does not mean they cannot be used to make a distinction.
Oh so YOU know better than Oxford, Collins, Merriam-Webster and Thesaurus.
Well I dont know what language you are speaking, but it is not English.
You are wrong.
I’m not saying I know better than any of those references. I’m saying I understand them better than you do.
Words have meaning. People often dilute that meaning by using them interchangeably, even when it’s not appropriate. But that doesn’t mean someone can’t still leverage those differences for meaning. You’re arguing for making language less useful for communicating subtle or complex ideas, because you can’t or don’t want to entertain the distinctions between two similar but not identical words. You are speaking only a subset of English, a crippled version of it.
You said, and I quote “Yeah, none of those are really synonyms either, not when used properly.”.
All the sources say that they ARE synonyms irrelevant of the meanings you attribute to them or the usage you put them to or what you deem to be proper.
Personally I would not use metaphysical as a synonym for theoretical, I dont feel that it fits, but I am not so thick headed as to assert that what I feel is correct when the sources say otherwise.
I am not arguing that I can be the arbiter of the language, unlike some others.
EXACTLY Teksura!
Untrained people are a massive liability in any kind of crisis situation. I cannot count the number of people who ‘thought they could help’ at accident scenes and made things far worse. I would assume that combat is simply that writ larger.
I was taught that you try to be polite, but you get them OUT of the way so you can do your job. If people were shooting at me? I would NOT be polite! Hurt feelings can be fixed. Dead is dead.
Also, hard to for either Varia or Ari to fight effectively when Varia has to keep in continuous contact with Arianna. She’d literally be fighting with one hand tied, and neither of them would be able to maneuver.
Arianna does not? How many untrained people would try to throw a chef’s knife at an attacker? Stabby stab, sure, if you have no other options, but they aren’t exactly balanced for throwing, and then you’re down to the paring knives for hand to hand…
That said, getting an unpowered civilian out of the combat area and into something called “the redoubt” is a smrt more by Xochitl.
Nice touch with the red soles. Because of course she can afford them with what Archon pays.
Who knows what powers the next super through the door will have? Also Ariana is a noncombatant. Your duty is to get her to safety.
Protocol… Ariana is NOT part of the Combat Forces of Archon, as she’s Technically not a member of Arc-Swat she’s probably part of Arc-Light or whomever the office workers belong to since she is their LEGAL Team Department Head…
JUST because she CAN throw a knife ONE Time (that we know of, i agree) i can ALMOST guarantee that Ariana has NO extensive “Combat” training… while I’m “pretty sure” she’s had at least SOME “self-defense” type of training, a’ la “she is an attractive woman that might encounter a mugger, and how to safely escape the situation” type of training, but I’m sure that putting her in harm’s way is Definitely a “No No” in the Archon Rule-book… Especially when there is a safe-room/redoubt for this exact purpose…
Doubt she’s a member of Arc-Light. They just seem to be Intelligence.
YOU CAN”T HANDLE THE TOOTH!
Ain’t! hat the tooth
lets not tooth our own horns here.
This is such a teeth. I mean, if he could hear you, he’d surely be agape at your comments…
well, he’s getting an extraction. not the one he wants, but its free.
Yay, Arianna is safe. Am still sad her fire proof gestalt thing also made her clothes fireproof… but I guess that could be a bonus image or something later down the road still… winkwink
Now I just want to see Sydney in the breakroom, stomping 3 times, inadvertently triggering the secret tunnel, falling in by accident, and just getting super excited/mad that there is a secret tunnel and NOBODY TOLD HER.
That seriously looks like a scalpel that fell out of Ari’s bun in panel “Down the Rabbit Hole”
Chopsticks. There’s a shadow on one so it looks a bit like a scalpel.
Pyro is starting to question his life choices about now, specially regarding his powers :P
Next time he wakes up, hope he does that classic shtick that people do when a hose stops working, except, with his face and his flames :P
I see the fire extinguisher (which looks to be a CO2 extinguisher) as a cloak against the flame. She’s underneath most of the flame, aiming up. Fire guy is close so the floor slide is enough. In addition, getting a cold blast in the face will be a distraction. I like it.
She didn’t just blast him in the face with it — she delivered a roundhouse blow with it.
The blast was the distraction
That’s after she survives the fire blast. As Guesticules notes, the first blast is distraction. the swing of the extinguisher is action.
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Fire extinguishers are HEAVY! Like hitting someone in the face with a 2 liter bottle full of set concrete… but heavier, and encased in metal.
‘Face extinguisher’ sounds like a great superhero name :D
Even more appropriate for a villain’s name.
i guess no tap dancing in the kitchen outside emergencies?
Arianna doesn’t pronounce “Waaagh” correctly, so she gets a timeout.
Plus she AIMS. Who does that?
One would suspect she’s not proper Warhammer 40k orc horde material afterall.
What madness dis? She not be green ’nuff!
Orks is da best, we knows dis. She not be an Ork, she not be da best! Simple enough even for a grot!
“Smaht Pahk!”
To anyone saying Varia shouldn’t grab McGriddle here because he’d be immune to any powers she got, have you ever seen a Bostonian in a street fight? She doesn’t need powers to whup his ass. Hell, she barely needs the fire extinguisher, she’s got two fists and two knees already.
I think Arianna not hitting her head is the most impressive thing Varia managed on this page.
face extinguisher,, fire,, since this is a “military base.” and when i was on base, we had extinguishers that “Could” put out flamethrowers (napalm, jet fuel, … ) and such,. i would say , Yes,.
and with supers, i would say the ‘building fire suppression system’ would be a little beefier.. like,, foam Coldfire suppressant.!!!
Good luck using facial recognition software on Pyro now!
They would need to rebuild it first :P
Looking at their face I don’t think it ever did. I also suspect that fingerprinting software is at best easily foolable in their case.
Wait, no ‘Battles of Hastings’ reference on this page? Not even an ‘arrow to the eye’ pun?
Shame on you all!
we have a fire extinguisher to the face, and a boot to the head. coherency is a distant goal.
I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow to the knee.
The storytelling on this page doesnt work so well between panels 5 and 6. While I get what Dave is trying to set up her in 5 in 6 its almost impossible to see Varia diving under the flame blast so it steals a lot of the drama of the moment away from the action because we cant see it.
Dave is a bit prone to do this at times I think because he likes to cram so many panels into a page for content which causes a lack of focus on dynamic elements. Its definitely not a traditional 5 or 6 panel structure on gets in a printed book and of course splash pages are nonexistent likely because he feels like this would be cheating his fans of story.
Just like the previous page hid the element of the guy in the hallway until flame guy dodged the knife being thrown at him, the set up is there but the execution doesnt quite work, for me at least.
It has been interesting to see how Dave’s work has evolved over the 10 year run of the comic, leaving its manga inspired roots to the fully painted book its become.
How long do Varna’s powers last after she touches someone (I don’t recall from previous appearance if this has been stated)? Is she instantly no longer fireproof after letting go of Ariana? That could be very detrimental in a fight.