Grrl Power #1069 – They just replaced that window
I realize I’m doubling down on the “Digit is a maniac” joke here. I think the next time we see her it should be in the field, but given her general lack concern about “those wiggly things with the faces” that keep getting transected by her inventions, there would need to be some guidelines about what doodads she’d be allowed to take out with her.
To be fair to Digit, when she was out vigilante-ing, she generally favored more… uh, cartoony gadgets, like bolo launchers and glue goo guns and caltrops – though her idea of caltrops were little pointy drones that actively chased down people and stabbed their feet. She also had the impact resistant inflatable jumpsuit, good against punches and unplanned base jumps. Then there were the sproingy boots. Not great for jumping so much as they were for running a bit faster. She really only got into the “things that launch deadly barbed things” recently, and her boss has been trying to steer her away from that category and into something less dangerous, like unlicensed nuclear particle accelerators. Actually, they can probably get licences for that kind of stuff there.
Prinrin is a cameo character from Patreon, but even though this is her second appearance, she hasn’t really had a moment yet. It’ll come. As Spider-Man once said, “Everybody gets one.” Well, at least one. Once someone shows up in the comic they tend to appear as I need them. Hmm, I should revisit some of the cameos that made it into the early battle at the restaurant.
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.
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.
We have such sights to show you
Where does he get those wonderfull Roys?
The last one being a chain with a barbed spike getting bigger (slash-cut to black)
She really is too dangerous to have around he base.
she is to dangerous to have anywhere else!
Possibly safer to have at the base than anywhere else?
Junkyard in the desert with a generous exclusion zone around it.
This level of ditzy bothers me. Inventors don’t just “forget” things that are material to what they’re doing. If they’re doing something different from the standard approach, there is usually some reason or other.
Agreed; though, I think her character type is supposed to be “Idiot Savant”, rather than engineer/inventor.
Wonder if she’s a super with some crafting power.
Something like a 40k Ork mekboy maybe. Her inventions work because she think they do.
There was a super hero right that got around the issue of super inventors changing the world by making it a mental ability. So Tony Stark would spend weeks in a cave building his first Iron Man suit, and it would work, but if it was stolen and duplicated it would never work for anyone else.
I think Forge had super intelligence as a power rather than just being naturally ‘super intelligent’ like stark or pym or reed richards.
That’s a “Verne Type” in the Wearing the Cape-verse, their tech only works for them or the person they built the tech for.
There’s a few supers like that in the PS238-verse as well.
Herschel Clay
Angela
Victor Von Fogg (possibly)
Herschel and Angela have what the author calls ‘a MacGyver effect’ where they are super-intelligent and inventors, but their genius and inventing abilities specifically come from being supers, NOT from just being intelligent.
There’s also Prospero, but he’s not a super – he’s an alien child who also happens to be super-intelligent and a genius inventor, but that might just be because his species is a millenium ahead of Earth technologically.
Victor might just be normal ‘super-genius level’ with the money to back it up, or he might be a super-genius as well (like Zodon but without the mind control powers).
That expression in the last panel, I’m guessing she only “forgets” tripods because she finds them boring.
She strikes me very much as the “Ooh I have an idea!” type of inventor whose mind randomly thinks of something and she immediately starts making it withotu any further thought like “is this useful” or “does something that already does this better already exist.” I’ve encountered plenty of people who, when faced with some task, will immediately start pursuing some ridiculous convoluted way of dealing with it without the slightest pause to think if maybe there’s a simpler way, or a simpler tool, or whatever that already exists.
Didn’t she explain that is how she worked when she talked to Sydney just before Prinprin’s introduction?
She knows what they do, she just can’t remember why she made them
Send her towards where your enemies are, and tell her she can experiment with their equipment.
That will solve matters quickly. Just make sure they don’t have nukes.
Or end up with nukes once she’s done tinkering…
or antimatter bombs, or unlicenced nuclear accelerators…
Did she just kill those two guys by accident? And is either not aware yet she did or completely unfazed by it? Got to agree with Prinrin on her assessment there.
Digit is terrifying to be around!
There needs to be ALL the warning signs and multiple locked doors to get anywhere near her lab!
Plot Twist… the alarms were actually warning the intruders about Digit being active :p
Let’s see. Allowed visitors: Maxima, Hiro, Achilles, Mr. Amorphous, Ren, Halo (with active shield), Dabbler (with active shield). I’m sorry Mr. President, it is too dangerous for you to go in there. Well you see, Digit is in that room and she said she was going to work on something.
I suspect she has her own SCP number :)
I was wondering that myself. There’s really no question about the one on the left, but the angle of the glass impact from the one going toward the guy on the right suggests that it could have just glanced off the top of his helmet instead of going through the visor.
No, it’s through his helmet: note the difference in his arms, the only reason he is still standing is because he literally can’t fall
Good catch.
if that was true would he not have hit the deck?
Cause he has a chain going through his skull into the wall behind him.
Considering it went through bulletproof glass… it’s wishful thinking that it did not also go through the guy’s helmet. :)
If that was bullet proof glass then these chuckle heads are even dumber than previously demonstrated. Imagine pointing your firearm at someone behind bullet proof glass and ordering them to freeze…
It’s only dumb if they know it’s bulletproof glass, and also know that the people on the other side know that it’s bulletproof.
↑This❗↑
Well we know it’s at least ‘reinforced glass’ which I was assuming means bulletproof (bullet resistant) glass.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-949-hob-nobbin-goblin/
We’ve seen bulletproof/resistant glass elsewhere as well, like the doors which Leon and Krona are behind, which took six shots without letting any bullets through.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1067-heatsink-form-is-too-effective/
So it would make sense that important areas – the server room, a room with high tech weaponry and inventions, etc, would be more protected.
That being said, those guys might simply not know that the glass was bulletproof.
Orrrrr…. they could be dumb like you said :) I’m assuming generic henchmen does not require that high an IQ for entrance onto the job.
I’m reminded of a scene in a comic book where the bad guy yells, “Go forth, my mindless minions!” and in the crowd of mooks rushing forward, there’s this one thought balloon: “Wait, “mindless”?”
That’s hilarious. :)
Which comic?
No, no, no, it’s alright, they’ve just been stabilized, permanently.
She did and you’d think that would wind her up in prison, not “Hey go invent stuff, kill people without batting an eye when you do it on accident.” :p
Remember: these guys attacked them, and already showed signs of not caring if they killed someone
She however, didn’t know that. She killed people without knowing she was under attack. She heard someone shout a word and then killed them by accident.
Involuntary manslaughter, due to not using proper care and attention.
No, you are still implying she does this regularly
well 2 down and not getting up.
Two more guys, just…hanging around.
“FATALITY! SCORPION WINS!”
“what did I Win? And my name’s not Scorpion…”
All I could think of is an episode of SG1.
Likewise
Sounds like a Hellraiser to me…
Spawn has a chain that can get stabby too.
So does Ghost Rider
I’m thinking that on the other side of that window there’s a lot of warning signs, like “Do Not Disturb!!!” and “Warning: Extremely Hazardous Area”, that those bad guys just ignored.
And if there isn’t, there probably will be in future.
I endorse this version of reality and wish I was in it.
#947, there is in fact a handwritten notice on the wall stating “Touch Nothing”. They might actually take that DOWN though in light of this latest… incident.
I’m sorry to say that we do live in an equivalent version of reality.
I guess these guys won the Darwin award for ignoring all the warning signs about Digit.
At least nobody can blame Archon for not warning about her.
“Do Not Disturb” and in teeny tiny writing under that “she’s Disturbed Enough Already”
those two are 100% dead, there is no saving them from the chaos thats digit.
Eaaah, the mook on the left might survive, hit his armor. And even if it went through, it only hit one lung.
Nope, that’s a heart shot. Unless that armor did more for him than it did for the mook upstairs he dayd. That’s dead^2.
Unless the glass is as far as the anchoring chains went.
If those were normal humans, with normal functioning CNS’s, the MOMENT those chains hit the window, both of those guys would have AT LEAST flinched, and most likely dodged, or dropped to the ground. That they’re still standing exactly where they were when the tripod-thingy went “sproing” indicates that they no longer CAN drop to the ground.
Prinrin needs her own comic.
It’s called Girl Genius.
…well, sort of. ^_^’
Surprised I haven’t seen any other Spark references yet.
Same actually. I still haven’t ruled out Digit as a Spark herself
Just remembered that her division is officially named Arc-SPARQ.
He dead, they both dead… that chain.. his head *Ahhh*
There is so many characters to revisit, it is like you need to up the publishing schedule a bit … nudge, nudge :-) So many characters, so few frames!
I am once again wishing Dave would do vote incentives or Patreon posts of adventures with the secondary characters. One page or mini-arcs, chibi-style, whatever he can fit in.
Something tells me that this place needs more security drills.
She’d gladly design one for you.
I think it would be safer to buy the cheapest one in a big box store.
Ahhhhh….. the suffering……
Those two guys are beyond suffering at this point.
You can’t die in Hell, you can only be unmade and remade over and over until the experience warps you into something completely new and unrecognizable… it’s like living in Jersey
Yeah, no.
I don’t think either of them knew what hit them. Especially the one on the right. Just… click, lights out.
“No tears please its a waste of good suffering.”
Now that i think of it why is there any glass in Digit range? Thats seems as bad an idea as giving Sydney Thai redbull (its like 3 times as much caffine then what we get in the US)
That would just stack with her ADD meds, and make her even less hyper.
Wouldn’t that depend on what said Red Bull is sweetened with?
Are you telling me that you would be willing to walk into a room that Digit is in without having a way to peek in and see if she is actively tinkering with anything or has one of her inventions in her hands?
This is what cameras are for. Nice, cheap, DISPOSABLE, closed circuit cameras.
Given the break pattern this looks like security glas. It just isn’t Digit-proofed.
“Tripods! I always forget about tripods.”
Someone give a copy of War of the Worlds already. I want to see what it inspires her to make.
username checks out
Why War of the Worlds (other than for the tripod reference)?
I’d say we go straight to Macross (or Robotech if you have access only to the american dub).
Is she full blown psychopath?
I mean, she just killed two people, and she is like “Oh, TRIPODS!”
nope she is a cloudcuckoolander https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Cloudcuckoolander
Shes definately not sane but id say its more of a severe mental disability that makes her mostly ignore anything that isnt mad science-either way she should either be in a nuthouse under a million restraints or even better should be euthanised for public safety considering shes an unsupervised weekend away from killing everyone in a mile radius-even further if some idiot lets her near anything thats already dangerous.
I honestly wonder how long Archons honeymoon period is going to last before the press remember they have a goldmine of scandal,lawbreaking and outright illegal acts that the public would eat up with a giant spoon n each hand.
… Could say the same thing about Sydney, and she’s not limited to a single planet!
It’s funny the wide range of responses people have to the events in the comic… Here we have someone calling for a character to be executed because their power might make them a public safety risk… while some people freaked out when Max expressed some concern about Krona’s powers.
I think the tone of the comic as a whole was expressed early on, and repeated throughout: that what people do (or don’t do) is more important than what they can do. That people, society, and the law shouldn’t consider the potential for harm, but should only react to actual harm. I personally think this is foolish, and would end disastrously in real life, but this is a work of fiction, and it is interesting to see the author explore the problem starting from the assumption that it would work out.
Problem is, when you start judging people by what they potentially could do, then you end up in a Thought Police State were people are tested at birth and if they have signs of possibly being a harm in the future (either because they have a super power or they are just ‘wired wrong’, ie anti-social tendencies) then they get euthanized before they even become youths
Remember that scene during the Press Conference? When that guy decided not to take part in the planned bank robbery but remain a builder where his powers could actually do some good?
It’s possible to plan ahead and defend against potential harm without jumping straight to judgment and euthanization.
But it does require planning ahead. Acting, rather than reacting. Building a world that can survive the worst-case scenario, rather than just hoping the pieces are big enough to put something back together afterwards.
“Minority Report”
Her undiscovered power is that she accidently nearly kills friends and accidently kills foes.
A magical IFF.
This would very nearly have to be true. Otherwise she would have to have a “happy room” next to Kevin.
I think that’s just a property of the setting. This is a story in which the characters discuss the potential for sobering, formative superhero moments, but will probably never experience them, because of the lighthearted tone of the comic.
Queue spittake in 3…2…..CHOOM!!!!! It wasn’t even malicious…..
This is why you send mooks into the danger zone first
“In chess, the pawns go first.”
technically, you can start your game by moving a knight, though
Given the complete lack of blood from the two in the back I am assuming they are not dead, just fazed by how close they came to it if not for that very study glass. At least the guy on the right is fazed, guy on the left still has his gun up and is just frozen in shock.
Guy on the right, that was a head shot
I like to imagine that they found her in a college shop class because her professor was online, desperately asking for advice on how to deal with her. “She’s my top student but I’m terrified that she’s going to kill me!’
There’s no blood? I feel like there ought to be more blood in the last two panels. Dudes just got *Shunked* through their head – which is a blood balloon – and gut, which is an area under pressure which commonly decompresses outward given any opportunity, or chest…where more than half of the circulatory system actively functions. I don’t necessarily want more blood, but I really do feel like there ought to be more… (also, if they didn’t actually get impaled, the figures should be reacting in dramatic fashion, I feel?)
Now, now…balloons don’t have rigid structures. The skull makes the head a blood zeppelin.
If anything it will drip out the back considering the force of that thing.
Maybe it is being contained by the armour suits?
This isn’t anime where people getting shot or stabbed spray blood like they were a high-pressure hydraulic system. Speaking from personal experience wounds like that leak profusely but like a drinking fountain in an elementary school, and that only for the first few seconds before the BP drops to a trickle. Source: I had major injuries from a motor vehicle that basically had a lot of splatter from the KE of the impact but then subsided to a seep.
Still ought to be some red somewhere…maybe. Feels like there ought to be, anyways. It really does depend on exactly what went through where. If the chainhook did pop all the way through someone’s head, that’s the entire blood content of said skull coming out, not just the dermal support capillaries contributing. If it just latched on to the helmet…there should be a lot of panicked dancing around. no one handles having something surprising grabbing their head with aplomb.
I for one prefer no more blood than absolutely needed to get the point across. Not a fan of carnage for one, but I’d much rather have more storyline than more gory detail in the artwork.
Digit has an unhealthy obsession for harpoons…! On the other hand,if she built a weather dominator…..
Okay, movie reference…lemme think…I got this! …My Dinner With Andre!
Yeah, fukkin’ nailed it!
Yay! Gobbo short-stack is back!
Is Digit’s superpower that she is accidentally competent? Or lucky?
I suddenly want Digit to build a machine “accidentally” summons Moira Brown from Fallout!
Several issues, 1)dangit she’s not real. 2)and I’m already in a committed relationship 3) oh bother, not another window. Next time order in bulk.
Continuing coverage of persecuted fans. a disgraced engineer has killed two more fans. people are asking what is someone that dangerous doing with tools. why don’t they use the mind control chips injected in everyone who enters the building. several leading lawmakers are suggesting that there should be an investigation.
Pinhead: “Good Lord, woman, even WE have our limits. Still… Can’t argue with results. How much for thirty? No. Fifty!”
Reminds me of that one Stargate SG-1 episode where an alien artifact anchors itself into the walls of the gateroom with O’Neill stuck on one of the harpoons.
In that case it was a microscopic race that wasn’t trying to kill it was using him to communicate. Seeing this makes me wonder if someone said something to Didgit about “sticking it in crazy” and she’s been compensating ever since! lol Clearly she’s either a sociopath or at least has Sydney beat as far as ADHD! Too many thoughts, not enough time…
So, that box contains an explosive that
1) Doesn’t destroy the box and somehow focuses all the energy into releasing 12 chains, dividing the force evenly among all 12 of them.
2) Each chain has enough force to punch through a reinforced glass window (possibly bulletproof) and whatever armor they are wearing, with enough force that it kills them without knocking them back, just punches a hole through their skull and chest.
It’s basically an upgraded claymore mine.
Almost more impressive: It contains the chains themselves as well.
There’s more volume in the seen chains than in the box.
Maybe that’s where the explosive force comes from, chains compressed into a space too small for their volume, somehow ignoring that metal shouldn’t be compressible like that, when released they just shoot out like a giga power spring…
Naa she’s a timelord it’s bigger on the inside LOL
That may be Digits’s superpower. The box only works when she is holding it. For anyone else it is just a box with some mysterious holes in it.
More of a chain-gun, I would think.
Weren’t most of the cameo’s in the Restaurant criminals? o_O
A lot of them were being subtly mind-controlled.
But it didn’t make them do what they wouldn’t normally, it just increased their aggression levels (and probably their stupidity levels)
Something tells me that being told not to use deadly barbed things, and knowing what things are deadly are 2 different cases in her situation
This invasion is not going at all the way these guys planned. It’s almost as if attacking a military base full of supers is a REALLY bad idea or something.
It does prove that ARC’s Intel division is just as effective as any other US Intel group aka caught unawares is the norm.
I suspect a tour group of Japanese school girls with suppressed pistols could have already waltzed through that base by now.
Never let Digit be in the same room with Mei Hatsume.
Looks like the base is terrible, seeing as she has constant accidents and that window wasn’t strong enough to keep things inside the room.
I feel like Digit should have a minder at this point.
Why? She’s doing fine rappelling the invaders.
See what I did there? Pitons, you know.
The only one safe enough to be her minder… is Les
She does if I recall correctly. A very stressfull job I imagine.
A tripod has the advantage that it can be used outside where you probably need a telescope or rifle more than on the inside
Damn, There is such sights I would love Digit to show me. She in one dynamite gal!
More of a Nitrogen Tri-iodide girl, if you ask me. Probably has a flask of it on the shelf, all dried out.
Getting a blow job from her will certainly open up several other options…
I dabbled with that in high school. My mother came through my room once and helpfully threw away some purple stained filter paper. It exploded when she dropped it into the wastebasket. She was NOT amused.
can’t… breathe… pictured that… in head… can’t… stop… laughing…
I am visually picturing an old school loony tunes style soot blackened face with her hair blasted back like a negative version of Goku followed by a rant of “Why can’t you just smoke weed like normal teenagers!”
Head canon accepted.