Grrl Power #1071 – Goon life. And death
“Hey Goose, how did you know those guys were full of weird, crunchy particles, indicating they might be some sort of expendable duplicate?”
“…”
“Oh……… ‘Kay.”
So yeah, the guys in the brown armor are actually a guy in brown armor, named “The Goon Squad.” I felt like that might have been used before for a hench duplicator, (cause it seems kind of obvious) but I couldn’t find anything with a quick googling. I also asked Marion Harmon of Wearing the Cape fame, cause I know he’s got some duplicators in his novels (and google isn’t going to return results about stuff like that unless someone has a comprehensive wikipedia listing novelized super powers) but his duplicators are named Platoon and Flash Mob.
Honestly, the knife to the back of the knee would probably be more painful, right? Sure, six bayonets (AKA Bowie knives) through the liver would hurt a lot, but not for very long, especially what happens next.
Unlike Harem, he can tell you what it’s like when one of his dupes dies. Or maybe not? We see them die here, or just… cease functioning, but the full scope of his capabilities haven’t been explored yet. Those of you complaining that the guys who got harpooned on Digit’s page didn’t leave any blood splatter, now you know why. As for Digit (and definitely Goose) being psychopaths… I mean… that’s probably valid?
Also, why was Goose just hanging out in the armory at 4 am? Probably over-sharpening the knives until they’re ground down to the size of mini-golf pencils.
Before anyone goes and throws up some sweet Princess Bride quotes, remember that Fezzik was on the Brute Squad, not the Goon Squad. It’s possible that Goon Squad may or may not have a brother with a power set making it likely that he would call himself Brute Squad. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.
The July Vote Incentive is… still up! As usual, the new one is basically done but I’m adding some outfit variants, so I’ll have it up with the Thursday comic.
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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Wait, if Goon Squad’s goons are just disposable dupes, why did one express betrayal when Ashely textile TK’d the other into shooting him with the tranq gun?
Rule of funny
Panel #3 is interesting for the same reason. Effectively, he’s talking to himself out loud, a nonsense waste of time for his situation in that moment and also in general. This seems to indicate that he doesn’t share the same consciousness across bodies the way Harem does … each of his spawned duplicates relies on information communicated the same as if between normal people. Yet, at the same time, the original seems to feel/experience what his duplicates feel. Maybe even what they see/say/hear/etc. He must have some sort of way to communicate back to the copies to direct them ..? Or, they are spawned with his knowledge at the moment of their spawn and have to communicate normally once spawned, and coordinate like a squad. Implies he may have some military training to run himself like a unit.
He may also simply be smart enough that he recognizes providing an illusion of each goon being an indepent entity will help sell the distraction.
But we need more information to judge at this point – his clones may be truly independent, shared will but seperate minds, semi-autonomous slave drones or anything in between.
Could be like Jamie Madrox, the Marvel mutant duplicator. If his duplicates exist long enough they become independent entities, but even before that they’d sometimes become rebellious.
I’m guessing ‘Ted’ is an alphabetic designator, e.g. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. Impractical to call all the instances by the same name.
Yeah, no. Platoon in the Wearing The Cape series is “the Bobs” so far in every book. All his instances are Bob.
More likely, he has a HUD in his helmet that shows what the duplicates are seeing and hearing, and has no “Mental Link” to them.
Just because they’re disposable dupes doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings. :) Whiny, whiny feelings. Like my ninja hit squads when they whine about not giving bonuses when they never succeed in taking out their targets.
I thought it was understood at the dojo that the monthly BBQ invites were making up for the lack of bonuses. It’s an open bar for them, so I’m pretty sure they’re just wining for the sake* of it.
* we presume at least some the ninjas are Japanese, so we thought they’d appreciate a cultural wine selection.
I do get a discount for using a Ninja Emporium which has a more diverse range of ninja for all my ninja hit squad needs, but a significant amount of them are, in fact, Japanese.
Also I am sending another ninja hit squad to you for the ‘sake’ pun, which was totally unnecessary and you should definitely feel bad about it and hang your head in shame.
So long as you agree that ‘wining’ was necessary, I am sufficiently abashed. I katana bring myself to commit seppuku over ‘sake’, but I won’t tanto you about their inefficiency any more today.
To not tell the supers he’s one expendable goon and this is a diversion.
It’s a “The Naked Gun” reference – https://youtu.be/63CiwVvIq-s?t=48
Great catch, Stu. I was hoping someone else would remember that scene.
It’s because of this scene alone that Goon Squad’s real name is “Ted.”
Could also be like the Naruto shadow clones. Naruto doesn’t know what they think or feel until they expire (die or he cancels that one/all of them), so they have to talk to each other while out if working together on something.
Is anyone really surprised that the heroes are being hoodwinked again? They get to cut through a bunch of goons, and look awesome but it’s a pointless fight, while the villains once again get away with their “real” objective.
There’s no tension in the fight itself because they are such a non threat and now there’s no real stakes, and the bad guys still get to make the heroes look kind of useless.
I would kind of dig if the hook squad was an actually threat and was making the heroes sweat a little, so that them being occupied with this isn’t just them basically showboating. The closest we got with that was Adrianne and that was instantly resolved.
The tension is in if they will realize the distraction and coordinate a proper response.
As they are probably after Data, that will likely depend on Leon.
I’m sorry but I don’t remember that happening often at all.
Like, arguably once before with Deus?
Aww, I was already shipping him with Harem, but she probably isn’t interested in a bunch of skittles in a suit.
With all the aliens running around it probably wouldn’t be the first time she Tasted the Rainbow.
Technically, Fezzik WAS the brute squad, wasn’t he?
Nope, just a comedic misunderstanding by Miracle Max. Part of a larger crew, shown in the prior scene where Fezzik and Inigo reunite.
Naa, although Miracle Max? saw him and declared as much! Not sure of the guys name it’s been many years since I seen that movie.
No, that was a surprised, drunk response, not an authoritative declaration.
Max: “Go away! I’ll call the brute squad!” Fezzik: “I’m on the Brute squad” Max: “You are the Brute squad.” I know it was typical Billy Crystal rapid-fire humor.
That’s actually a pretty damn good plan from the bad guys. And very bold of those 2 other supers (the strong guy Hiro is wrestling and the fire guy) to join the Goon Squad and make it seem real.
Heh for second I thought you were just censoring the gore that would ensure when regular human would try to fight supers.
Not a fan of gore, especially when it’s gratuitous, though a dab of blood doesn’t bother me. I’m really amused at them being filled with kids play foam either way though.
Speaking of censoring, the foreground placement of the firearm that Krona is addressing seems to qualify – considering the previous illusory pants comment. I understand why and consider it one of the most funny -not previously mentioned in the comments yet- gags.
“(and google isn’t going to return results about stuff like that unless someone has a comprehensive wikipedia listing novelized super powers)”
You mean something like this?
https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki
(There really is a wiki for everything these days.)
Specifically:
https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Replication#Known_Users
More specifically:
https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Replication#Known_Users
Didn’t know about that one. I was going to recommend TvTropes (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SelfDuplication) for the same reason, if less complete. Probably has the advantage of humor, too.
Did you just link TVTropes?
Damnit, there goes my productivity for the day. I hope you’re happy. (jk)
XKCD: https://xkcd.com/609/
Personally I find the reference links to earlier in the comic worse that TV Tropes.
I’ve been warned, and learned from experience, not to start clicking on TV Tropes. But you kinda have to read the reference page, and then you click to the next page to follow that gag. THen you’re 2 hours into rereading the comic, and you don’t remember some of these, and what else have I forgotten, and it’s only 1071 pages, I can read through that quick enough….
Yeah… searching for the right page of the comic to provide those reference links is why I’ve read through substantial chunks of it so many times, which helps with finding the right page to provide links.
That looks like a great resource, but not something that appears well placed in google results without some specific search strings I’d guess.
fandom is notorious for playing games with seo – so google downrates their internal stuff in favor of a front page link`
Goose loves armory guard duty
I for one am really happy to finally see Goose Nukem lay hands on Chekov’s chaingun.
Still, it’s a shame Sydney’s missing out on this. A guy with legitimate Shadow Clone Jutsu powers? Goon Squad gets some solid nerd cred for that.
Fezzik may have been on the Brute Skvad.
But remember, Fezzik WAS the Brute Skvad.
And Goon Squad is like Platoon, in that he has the basic hive mind.
But he’s more like Flash Mob in that he doesn’t leave a corpse behind.
So this guy is kinda like Ectoplasm in MHA if he can feel them dieing, or Twice if he can’t. Since these Clones seem to be some kind of bubbles instead of them being actual people like Harem’s Clones.
Duplication quirks are quite interesting.
Looking at the tags I would say that Gwen is the Hearth Witch in answer to the question on the Patreon account.
Gwen is the closest match I can think of anyways, we’ve only seen a handful of ArcLight/Dark characters but none of the others fit. Which reminds me, I still think we’re way overdue for some internal research sessions on Halo’s orbs.
Frix has been doing that but only for patreon members.
Frix has been doing internal examination of Sydney, sometimes with equipment and imaging, sometimes otherwise. He has yet to examine her orbs.
Goon Squad just gathered an enormous amount of intelligence on the capabilities of the first responders. I would certainly have someone coordinating with him, as he reports in, to give “the Real Team” info they can use in near real time.
Oh and, Yay! for a double page! Thanks, Dave!
Agreed, even if there wasn’t another team sneaking up on whatever the main objective is, running a live drill against Archon’s base is going to give them a glut of intel on both the team’s non-publicized powers and the base itself. Shadowy organizations are usually very good at playing the long game.
The mook incompetence suddenly makes much more sense.
If they are just copies of one person that has not gotten any real training. Let alone training to work in teams these guys make much more sense.
I still want to know how the guy working with Varia is getting on. He is probably miffed that his support shot him.
*Ol’ painless noice
Nice throwback.
DaveB. If you really wanted the low down on Dupe making supers, Jamie Madrox would have been a good source as he was one of the originals at it.
Since you mention it, I’ve been using a multiple-body brick called Brute Squad in various TTRPG campaigns since about 1980. He was inspired by the Princess Bride, because I seem to be one of relatively few people who read the novel long, long before the film came out. Much better than the movie, good as that is.
No Goon Squad character from me, though. :)
If they are all one guy I am curious about the “Why Ted?” comment.
Is he acting to keep up the charade?
Given that they have Shown at least a dozen of him, they must be mostly autonomous, so, giving names (especially simple ones like ted) makes sense.
He seems much less connected than harem, since he’s been killed multiple times but isn’t rolling on the floor, but, his minigun comment makes it seem that there is some connection, as those mooks didn’t have time to radio in before they died.
My take as well, I think Ted is just an alphanumeric designation and that the original is staging scenes for both realistic dialogue and his own amusement. You’d need a sense of humor about sending copies of yourself to their deaths over and over.
1) Okay, the bad guys are actually not idiots after all. They’re Suicide Squadding this job. :)
2) Ashley is the most badass tailor in the world.
3) Who is the ‘Hearth Witch?’
4) Those fake goon squads are literally worse than my ninja hit squads. I didn’t think that was possible.
5) Apparently they’re made of marbles? Bubbles?
6) I am so happy to see Ol’ Painless – the minigun-with-bayonets – in use by Duke (Goose – I know, but I will call him Duke … forever). This fills me with joy as much as it fills others with bayonets and bullets.
There is nothing about this page that I don’t love.
5) Bean bag chair stuffing.
The Hearth Witch is Gwen, the pink-haired, goth dressing novice level witch/mage who works as the Assistant to the Head of ArcLight.
Thanks, didnt know that until the Who’s Who got added.
3) Who’s Who got added just a minute ago and it looks like it’s Gwen.
Ashley has just demonstrated that his power has enormous potential. He can manipulate people through their clothing. Without even looking.
It’s not total control but it’s legitimately powerful. Especially if the target, like Goon Squad here, is wearing gloves – letting him manipulate their hands/fingers.
But even on the normal clothing side, he has plenty of ways to incapacitate and kill basically anyone not nude – imagine if your pants suddenly bent your legs the wrong way. Or your shirt suddenly squeezes so hard it crushes your ribs. Or even just your underwear suddenly wanting to explore your large intestine.
His arch enemy is anyone who is a nudist.
For multiple reasons.
Can you imagine if he went over to the Dark Side and hooked up with Ragyo Kiryuin?
He can literally put a twist in your panties or make your underwire start digging in.
I’m not sure if most textiles are sufficiently strong to crush a ribcage before getting torn apart.
Could still just strangle them though.
These are the kind of pages I love about this comic, action and some good comedic superhero trope lampshading.
Also, I love that Ashley isn’t even looking at them, like he’s mostly just annoyed that they’re wasting time he wants to spend on his artistic epiphany before the deadline for the next fashion show.
Yeah, with the shared memory, this is a ripoff, I mean “homage” of Platoon.
That’s a bold assumption to make, considering how many self-replicators there have been in fiction – https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Replication has a partial list; maybe they don’t all have shared memory, but given that Sun Wukong was duplicating himself in a story written in the 16th century, and that sending off copies to use shared memory is such an obvious application for the power, I doubt Platoon and The Goon Squad are the only ones.
On the other hand, if you were just trying to find other examples but asking in a trollish way… well, there’s that link. Go look.
Okay, so they are being attacked by Naruto… even have orange visors.
Digit and Goose are soldiers, but probably not psychopaths.
Close to sociopathy. More unhealthy in the long run.
Differences are that a soldier has to train to be able to kill and can put other people’s feelings above their own.
When did Digit become a soldier?
IIRC she was a vigilante with a couple others on the team, but has never been called a commissioned soldier.
Yeah, but even then, she was more of the tech-head building shit for The Terrible Trio rather than actually going out on missions
That’s like calling Q (no, not the one from Star Trek) a spy
They were vigilantes not true soldiers (well Goose was at some point) she just made him those marvelous toys! And Didget needs to stay away from movies, TV shows, and detailed books that might give her ideas like her obsession with chains and spikes LOL.
Digit use to supply The Terrible Trio (Heatwave, Morph and Les), Goose is a former marine
Excuse me I used to live on Navy bases and around retired Marines, Goose is a Marine on detached duty with ARC.
Unless she is some sort of “civilian contractor” like another of our fave characters, Digit would probably have been given some sort of rank when she joined Archon. She probably has it written down someplace but I’ll bet she has a hard time remembering it off the top of her head. Early in the “Laundry Files” novels it’s noted that a number of individuals get recruited just to get them off the streets and keep them from calculating the apocalypse. High functioning psychopaths do okay in business and politics but I can’t see one lasting long under Maxima’s supervision.
I believe a “tech spec” would be appropriate, rank without command authority (except in extreme dire circumstances… as in no one else in command chain).
(Or as in Maxim #3.)
Jamie Madrox, aka Multiple Man from the X-Men is as far as I know one of he first with a similar power.
“Multiple Man, Multiple Man, doing things a Multiple can.”
Nice Naked Gun reference.
Panel 8. Fantastic Naked Gun: From the files of Police Squad call out.
Cosplay Man.
I’m surprised this comment hasn’t shown up yet… when I saw Goose with the minigun, first thought was:
“Hail to the King, baby.”
and yes, I know Duke Nukem lifted that line (and pretty much all his lines) from other movies (Army of Darkness, in this case), but still. And it was awesome (the panel in the comic, Army of Darkness, and Duke Nukem 3D, in case you were wondering which I meant).
I admit, disposable goons is an interesting plot twist, which allows for some humorous moments and hilarious over-the-top “family friendly” gratuitous violence but at the same time I have to mirror what some others have said; it’s cool to see, but watching heroes trounce minions when they aren’t anything even resembling a threat makes things fall flat.
I would think that sheer numbers would pose a threat to harem, digit, goose, or anyone without super speed and/or invulnerability. After all, it only takes one stray bullet and even characters like Nightcrawler get hit now and again (and Kurt has superhuman reflexes on top of years of acrobatics training).
Goose especially, I’ve played plenty of Duke Nukem, Duke gets shot – a lot.
I guess what I’m saying is that whenever someone attacks the X-Mansion (the 3rd tuesday of every month or so) at least one X-Man ends up in the infirmary with serious injuries if nor a death (that usually is temporary and comes with a “Jean Grey” club secret decoder ring).
The X-Men at least try to use nonlethal force. Partly because of comic themes and partly due to character personality.
These guys are just tearing through invaders with heartless efficiency. Which is reducing the threat by a lot.
Why do you think Sydney had Goose wear that T-shirt and then tried to get him to wear that Doom suit right after she met him LOL!
I will admit, I kinda had wondered just how much money those chumps were being paid for a suicide mission, or if they’d been mind-controlled. Being duplicate copies (or drones or something like that) makes much more sense.
Just in case anyone what wondering what it’s like to be on the business end of a stick blender, we still don’t know because he didn’t describe what it felt like.
One of my favorite duplicators was Myriad from “Super Sales on Super Heroes”. Basically she can create copies of herself which operate independently of each other, buuut their mass must be reabsorbed later on for her to learn what they know and for her to be able to make another copy.
Which runs into the problem: the dead one’s don’t reabsorb automatically, and she remembers every single death, quite vividly. It’s… Not fun.
Yeah. Obsidian from ‘Saving Supervillains’ is a case of a multiplier going really, REALLY bad.
From what has been put out in the sequel, it is not entirely her fault, but OMG the mess her mind is… *Shiver*
Twice from My Hero Academia. Has the extra bonus of not knowing if he’s the original or not.
Just like the Daphne’s
Hmm, they went after Ashly with a tranq gun, that means he was a target of acquisitioning?
Wait, these puck-monkeys are after Cree!!!
Just cutting the gun in half? Krona’s going rather soft-touch considering what these guys interrupted. I’d expect her to be absolutely furious with them.
Kronachrome’s not a killer, and she ejected the magazine (clip? whatever the fuck the bullets are stored in)
omg, that gives me a great idea for a super power of sorts: the ability to make a working weapon (and ammo) out of paper!
“pass me that magazine, would you?”
‘can’t you just make your gun into a sword?’
“what? and get a paper cut?”
gore replaced with bubbles is just depressing
Someone is a fan of Bugs, and bugs :P
So, Goon Squad’s Squad is made of Floam and he has MPD? Well – that or he uses multiple names to carry the idea that they ARE individuals and don’t give away they’re floam-clones. Hmm.
Also, the only place I can think of that uses ‘Goon Squad’ doesn’t come from a dupe-supe; it comes from Space Jam. They were the monster-team, iirc. I haven’t read the comments so if someone already said it, my bad – but yeah hello have my random comment.
So it looks like this is running on shadow clone rules. A bunch of dudes, created by another dude, who share memories with the original dude directly, and are completely expendable. If he wasn’t named I’d crown him king of mooks and call it a day.
The Whateley Universe has a character named OMAG, for “One-Man Army Group”, who also duplicates. He is also as thick as an uncooked potato, so his threat level is somewhere between small kitten and disarmed clown. His takedown is one of the more entertaining moments in the canon.
What about Generator? High-functioning sociopath with the ability to imbue up to five clusters of objects with a copy of her own mind. Has used said power to pose as (among other things) 1) a mad scientist, 2) a necromancer, 3) a group of pixies, 4) the ghost of her own (fictitious) sister