Grrl Power #1130 – Pop up beat down
Occasionally some of the characters (and me) remember that Archon is supposed to be a military organization. Maxima isn’t big on all of the rigorous discipline and marching up and down the square, but I’m fairly certain that generally one does not yell at one’s C.O. If it does happen, I’d guess that mid-friendly fire is probably your best chance to get away with it, especially if the C.O. is the one supplying the fire.
I know Stalwart’s mass control claims might seem to make him more vulnerable to SuperHole’s power, but there’s some very skilled hand waving on the next page if I do say so myself.
I’m sure you’re asking, “Wouldn’t Dabbler be constantly abuzz with ‘Sweaty Shirtless Men’ grappling” notifications? The answer is yes, but it’s like tinnitus, always there in the background unless she tries to pay attention to it. Of course, if it happens to people she knows well, she gets stronger pings.
Here’s another book I recently finished that I thought was pretty good. All the Skills: A Deck Building LitRPG. It reminds me a bit of Iron Prince, only in that it’s a “Zero to if not hero then several steps above Zero” story. Unlike Iron Prince, the MC doesn’t relentlessly train like a DBZ character, but it has its own merits.
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The January Vote Incentive is up! Time for the quarterly fashion show that Anvil puts Maxima through. Can you detect the theme?
Variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
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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.
It occurs to me, couldn’t Maxima just speed blitz him now that he’s distracted?
Or a tiny bit of that daisycutter she sent at the mess hall.
that was one of the first things she tried. it did not end well.
Oh gawd…pun wars in the comments section…have I told you all that I love you? Carry on.
WHERE!?!?!
and are the gay frog ninjas involved yet?
Not yet, they are having a sword fight over in the corner.
can’t be all they do is croak
Personally, I find frog ninja duels quite ribbiting.
Sword fight has two meanings! :)
Ha, reminded me of my favorite ninja frogs, not gay though (but they are French).
Not yet, but they will. It was foretoad.
My reserved nature is having me sitting this pun war out due to the topic, there are no safe words.
“Who needs safe words? We’re superheroes!”
I like how this underground bunker has an indoor park with soil deep enough for Stalwart to tunnel though.
Hammond: Spared no expense! *eats spoonful of ice cream*
He didn’t tunnel through the dirt, he came up from the basement he cannonballed into a couple pages back
That was a jackknife.
Same difference, and he called it a cannonball, take it up with him
just remember his arguments have mass.
His logic always carries as much weight as it needs to.
No, that was a variation of the cannonball called a can opener dive. A jackknife dive you bend forward and touch your toes before straightening for entry headfirst.
Um, Max? You need to check for any script changes before doing the scene. Two pages back Dave clearly said “Maxima isn’t shooting a laser, she fires particle beams of some sort.” Now we either have to re-film your closeup in the scene or see if we can get the editors to do a voice over on the line where you said ‘energy’.
She doesn’t have to be *right*.
… It’s still energy, even if it’s a different kind than most arm-chair scientists thought it was
It is battle banter, not a science conference. She doesn’t need to use the exact terms.
They probably encourage random terms of disinformation to be used regarding the exact nature of there ability’s even if they have tested and now know the exact nature themselves. Classified data about abilities is probably encouraged to be less accurate and more casual when mentioned in the field.
I think Max got caught up & forgot her own prior orders (switching out against foes when you aren’t gaining ground). Still, not many could counter a grav-manipulator.
It’s a lot harder to actually do when it’s actually your opponent than it is to say to do when it isn’t.
Not that easy, when there is no one around to tag in (or so she thought)
I think Max couldn’t think of a team member she believed could be effective and survive his powers.
That too
Two words for Super Masshole.
“Daddy’s home.”
He calls himself Supermassive… Max infers that Arclight’s PR department means they’ll get to name him Suck Hole… Can’t we just compromise and call him Supermassive Suck Hole?
Stalwart seems more “supermassive” than him anyway.
Did you not check the Who’s Who entry or him?
Oh right, very few bother to check the comments, and the Who’s Who doesn’t show until you do
There’s a slash between the two names, inferring use of one or the other. I’m saying drop the slash and combine it all as one big name.
And thus, Max re-learns why having a TEAM is better than being a SOLO.
Yeah, and she gets to watch over half of them get turned to sticky pink paste because they can’t survive the gravity of the situation!!!
There is possibly only three who could possibly help: Wart, Hiro & Les (but all he could do is just lay there like a talkative log)
Possible additions might be Anvil, Morph (but just because he is stretchy doesn’t mean he could survive all that pressure) and maybe Sydney (no real idea that Mr Buble could survive the pressure either without causing damage to the occupant)
tHE POINT of a team is to have OPTIONS. Gravity manipulator clearly needs to be able to see his opposition, we see this because he hasn’t pulled the whole complex into any of his gravity effects and he’s been targeting his manipulations surgically.
This also suggests his defense is neither omnidirectional, nor always on, or you’d be seeing (if nothing else) clouds of loose…anything swirling and blocking line of sight for everyone including the supermasshole.
Since we’re not seeing a massive dust and debris cloud wrapped around the guy, it’s a pretty good bet his power is more of the ‘altering local concentration of gravity’ rather than ‘generating massive amounts of gravity from nowhere’.
Thus, he’s beatable by a prepared super, or even a well prepped normie. (basically catch him by surprise), or by someone who CAN handle his gravity effect by altering their mass and density. (See Max’s teammate who’s got him in a headlock and/or arm lock).
IOW he’s a striker, not a breaker-likely he’s weak (in relative terms) against grapples unless he pops with a power-stunt that can somehow get the man off him without breaking his own neck.
Not sure why he would need to see in the visible spectrum, I’d expect a gravity manipulator to be written with decent gravity radar. Although in reality, such ‘vision’ would have to be extremely sensitive to detect a human within the Earth’s gradient.
I’m not sure you can bounce gravity off something, so at best grav-dar lets you detect with much finer details where the large masses are around you and how massive they are, but whenever someone is in line with a large mass you won’t be able to ‘see’ them.
Max is a great team player. She stood back and did triage for the entire restaurant battle, letting the individuals on her team flex and get experience until it was clear she had to step in. She worked with others at the other fights as practical.
But now that they have teammates down behind enemy lines during a fight, it would be terrible tactics to hold back and be a “team player” when she has the power to punch in fast and save them. Besides, her breaching deep into the facility provides a beachhead and a flanking force for the rest of the team.
before this page, I thought Max would detonate her next energy blast in proximity to Supermassive before it could be deflected that far. I’m not sure if that would work. Now, it looks like the idiot is likely to push Stalwart away hard enough to take his head along.
Time reverses.
Did he just say Jerk Off Get?
Loving Stalwart’s expression there, well done Dave!
My comment did not go through, but a few pages ago I suggested Max to grapple him and then shift her flight into strenght and armor. Because at that point, he can’t do anything to her he isn’t doing to his own body as well.
But a surprise Stallwart probably works even better!
Max always tries to overpower her opponent in a direct competition. So her first instinct against strong gravity, is to push her flight to neutralize it. The she tried to out-blast it.
None of her powers are a out-maneuver, so she tries to go through with sheer power.
I made the same statement, although I suggested she grab a leg/arm and go “flyswatter” with him like Hulk did to Loki. Max is a power house so sure, she’s used to muscling her way through things.
I do think Sydney has helped her to see the other options however, since she was able to help defeat someone that very nearly killed Max by co-coordinating the team and looking at it a bit “out of the box” (or out of Dabblers’ top ;P) was all it took.
Max is showing signs she’s taking to Sydney’s ways as well, “Suck Hole” is a good example.
“Thinking outside the bra.”
That never works….
there are times when releasing the bra works wonders.
Wonders? Nah.
It may, at the end of the day, feel good. (if it feels better than that you need to buy a better fit, to say the least)
Now, getting out of those too high heels, that feels wonderful :)
I think it depends on if one is wearing the bra or one is looking at the bra wearer.
That was more popping outside the bra
The issue is that he’s very good at evading her. She can’t hit him with a punch, so she likely can’t grab him either. Stalwart got around it with luck and surprise factor.
If she is strong enough to resist his gravity, then she is strong enough to compensate the direction of her grab.
It will not be fast though.
She can’t. It’s not a matter of strength, but of bracing. She’d need to react quicker to compensate for him throwing her off course.
Max plays her role on the team very well. No, not her role as the leader. I’m talking about her role as the Big, Obvious, Hyper-Dangerous Threat that every wannabe bad guy has to focus on and develop a countermeasure for, but at the same time, making the bad guy forget that the team has multiple Super-Weights with wide and diverse sets of powers capable of countering their countermeasures.
We have not seen Sydney for quite a while . Last time was Nov.17
Missed it the first time, but I think the footer text is a Get Smart tribute.
“Missed it by THAT much….”
Not sure how much help Stalwart is going to be. Yes, the lower his mass, the less the gravity powers will affect him, but if he’s hanging onto someone’s back weighing less than a gram, he’s not really going to impede their movement at all. I guess if his strength isn’t impacted he could go for a choke hold, but if Suck Hole has enhanced speed he may have overall physical enhancement and be able to pry him off.
Why do you think its lowering his mass, given what you just said about how that would not impede SM’s movement?-
He must be lowering his mass to survive the extreme gravity.
Why do you assume that instead of him INCREASING his mass?
Increasing his mass would make him more vulnerable to the Supermassive Suck Hole, while reducing his mass allows him to join the fray and doesn’t change his strength.
“Increasing his mass would make him more vulnerable to the Supermassive Suck Hole”
How do you figure that? The greater his mass, the more gravitational pull would be required to alter his movement, as opposed to something of smaller mass. Newton’s law of gravitational pull requires two objects to determine the gravitational pull. With Supermassive, there’s only one object. So you have to assume that the greater the mass of one object the more Supermassive has to simulate more mass with his gravitokinesis for the ‘other’ object. So the more mass Stalwart has, the more difficult it will be to do anything to Stalwart.
Objects with more mass have a greater gravitational pull on objects with smaller mass than those objects with smaller mass have on the objects with larger mass.
Newton’s Formula for Gravitational Pull:
F = G(m1m2)/R^2
Where F = force of gravity, G = Gravitational constant of 6.67×10^-11, m1=mass of one object, m2 = mass of second object, and r=distance between the two objects with mass
Except the implication of that formula is that gravity exists between two objects, but is not exerted by one on the other. And they both accelerate towards each other, at speeds inversely proportional to their mass.
Stalwart increasing his mass would increase the force exerted between him and Supermassive’s gravity wells, and also between him and the Earth, and also between him and everything else in the universe. It would also increase his inertia, at the same rate.
In other words… It really doesn’t matter. It’s more likely it’s his required secondary powers that are relevant to the fight, or that his actual power is more expansive than suggested by the description of him being able to adjust his mass.
“Except the implication of that formula is that gravity exists between two objects, but is not exerted by one on the other. ”
No, that is not the implication. That is not how the formula works. The formula is to calculate gravitational pull, which does require at least two objects with mass.
“And they both accelerate towards each other,”
It’s not about acceleration. There is no thrust involved. It’s about gravitational force and gravitational pull. Acceleration would be about either object on its own. Gravity itself is calculated FROM different objects exerting force on each other based on the aforementioned formula. Not to be mistaken with Acceleration.
Acceleration is a change in velocity over the change in time. It is a completely different formula than gravitational pull.
“at speeds inversely proportional to their mass.”
It’s not about speed. It’s about the amount of gravitational pull an object with mass exerts on other objects with mass.
“Stalwart increasing his mass would increase the force exerted between him and Supermassive’s gravity wells”
AGain please just plug in a changing object’s mass (representing Stalwart increasing his mass) into the formula for gravitational pull and you’ll see what I’m saying. In order to keep a constant gravitational pull, the more mass Stalwart creates, the more mass (or whatever the equivalent is of SM’s gravity wells) SM will have to produce to even keep it at his current levels.
“It would also increase his inertia, at the same rate.”
The formula and what I am saying has nothing to do with inertia either.
Inertia is calculated by taking the square of the distance of uniform object from the axis of rotation and the product of its mass (or for non-uniform objects, taking the sum of individual point masses at each different radius). It’s again a different formula than the one that calculates gravitational pull.
“In other words… It really doesn’t matter.”
It really does matter. Mass of at least two objects and distance between those object is the basis for gravitational force/pull.
“It’s more likely it’s his required secondary powers that are relevant to the fight”
If that was the case, he would not have said ‘the ability to CONTROL MY OWN MASS seems germaine to the situation.”
Perhaps the most important lesson I have ever learned about math is that you have to understand what the formulae mean, and what the numbers you’re operating on mean, or you’re likely to get the wrong answer, either from using the wrong formula or plugging in the wrong numbers.
> It’s not about acceleration. There is no thrust involved.
Acceleration is just force divided by mass. Thrust is merely a specific type of force that isn’t relevant here.
> It is a completely different formula than gravitational pull.
That’s not an argument. There are usually multiple formulae to describe different aspects of a quantity, and when gravity is involved, you will use a formula for gravity to calculate acceleration.
and gravitational pull can, in fact, be considered acceleration (and most commonly is.)
An interesting quote from the article: “All bodies accelerate in vacuum at the same rate, regardless of the masses or compositions of the bodies”
This is why Stalwart increasing his mass doesn’t help him.
> AGain please just plug in a changing object’s mass (representing Stalwart increasing his mass) into the formula for gravitational pull and you’ll see what I’m saying. In order to keep a constant gravitational pull, the more mass Stalwart creates, the more mass (or whatever the equivalent is of SM’s gravity wells) SM will have to produce to even keep it at his current levels.
It’s the other way around. If you increase either mass on the right-hand-side, the force on the left-hand-side will increase proportionally. So if Stalwart’s mass increases, so will the gravitational force on him.
> Inertia is calculated by taking the square of the distance of uniform object from the axis of rotation and the product of its mass (or for non-uniform objects, taking the sum of individual point masses at each different radius)
You’re thinking of rotational inertia, which is related to inertia but not the same thing. Inertia is just the prospensity of an object to keep its current motion, and it’s proportional to mass.
“Acceleration is just force divided by mass.”
It has nothing to do with gravitational pull though.
You are talking about two completely different equations.
“That’s not an argument.”
It most definitely is an argument, and the next page shows that it was a good argument.
“There are usually multiple formulae to describe different aspects of a quantity”
In absolutely no way is acceleration an aspect of determining gravitational pull. Distance and mass of two objects are.
” and when gravity is involved, you will use a formula for gravity to calculate acceleration”
*sigh*
Gravity can be used to help calculate acceleration of an object.
Acceleration is not needed to calculate gravitational pull, nor is it involved in the formula for gravitational pull. I’m not sure why you’re not understanding this – if it’s a failure on my part to accurately explain it to you or what.
“It’s the other way around.”
No, it’s not.
“and gravitational pull can, in fact, be considered acceleration (and most commonly is.)”
Gravitational pull is not the same as gravitational acceleration. Gravitational pull is the cause. Acceleration is a consequence of that cause.
They. Are. Not. The. Same. Thing. :/
“You’re thinking of rotational inertia, which is related to inertia but not the same thing.”
No. I really am not. I am using the formula for gravitational pull alone.
> You are talking about two completely different equations.
Equations are not physical quantities, you’re making a category error here.
> It most definitely is an argument, and the next page shows that it was a good argument.
There is nothing about equations on the next page.
Okay, so acceleration isn’t technically the same as gravity (although they are equivalent – if you measure the acceleration of an object in a gravity field, you know the strength of the gravity field), but how is that a counterargument to Torabi? Or me? We certainly care about the effects of gravity, since the topic is using it in a superpowered fight. And you had nothing to offer but “no u” when I corrected your misunderstanding of the gravitational formula.
> No. I really am not. I am using the formula for gravitational pull alone.
You’ve really lost the context of what you were talking about.
I wonder if there is any number of people with math or physics degrees telling you that you have completely misunderstood all of that would convince you of that fact. You are wrong in a way that defies understanding, explanation, or rebuttal.
If Stalwart reduces his mass, the force he experiences from Suck Hole’s ability is less. Newton’s formula proves this:
F = G(m1m2)/R^2
If either of the masses gets smaller, F is less.
If F is less, Stalwart’s muscular strength more easily overcomes Suck Hole’s “gravity” fields
His strength isn’t tied to his mass though, as long as he has some leverage via an opposing surface to push/pull against he can still exert force. And given his size and military training, if SM can no longer affect him with powers I’d expect Stalwart to overpower him pretty quickly.
Remember both Stalwart and SM have superpowers, their abilities explicity defy physics in specific ways, the key here is the interaction.
SM can create gravitic effects to effectively, increase someone’s weight, change the direction “down” is for them, create little singularity type things that make “down” towards them, immitate flight, super speed and super strength through focusing on manipulating gravity immedieatly around himself, and have a sort of force field by bending certain attacks around him.
That sounds like a lot, but we don’t know if he has any personal enhancement, like being super durable, or how strong that is, and like a Stand battle I bet there is a logic to how precisely his gravity manipulation works that would make the fight way easier if Max knew it.
Stalwart is super strong, super tough and can change his own mass to be as heavy as he wants, we don’t know if there are any other tricks or caveats, but just being already in graple range means SM’s main method of winning the fight so far is out, that is being in control of who can hit who.
Personally going by how surprised SM was when Stalwart did his gravity assisted jump through the floor, that he at least doesn’t know how to handle other gravity manipulators, and in fact, his abilities might not work on Stalwart Properly if the ability to personally control his mass works in the right fashion, it could effectively function to overwrite or trump any other gravitic effect on himself, basically making him SM’s Kryptonite.
Is it just me, or does Stalwart look like a buffed up Phil Coulson?
He absolutely does!
Quiet, you. (did you notice his Agent of Shield patch?)
(There isn’t one, but I bet you just checked)
Personally, I think that in the last frame Stalwart appeared (gravity powered cannonball) and this one, he’s looking more and more like Jason Statham than he is Phil Coulson.
Yeah
Re: the who’s who – “ooh, my head.” Isn’t being counted as worth counting as a talking part. :(
NO! we were not ogljng electrifying booty cheeks! You can’t proove it.
I’m wondering how she functions in skin-tight combat fatigues with the insane wedgie they must give her.
OMG! 28 chapter without Sydney It feel like forever I miss her wonkyness thank for the chapter comment with just her head XD
Hmmm, I wonder. I think this is the first time we see a smiling Stalwart. He’s usually so serious.
He smiled while talking to Altus as well I believe. Well it was a LITTLE smile anyway.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-769-incoming-eventually/
(panel 2)
He also smiled when he crushed V’s foot, way back when.
… I’ve had issues with links in the past, so here it is in double. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-254-sydneys-auditing-a-class-at-acme-looniversity/
Yep!
Getting Friendly Fire is about the only time you are allowed to hurl insults at the other person regardless of rank, yes.
Only if you survive…
Seems like Stalwart is subject to the same shirt side effects in battle as Hiro, surprised Dabbler isn’t already running a research project on the causes.
she’s a little busy eating to do the research. besides she’s spent time with Cora (i think) that crew has a far more advanced case of that condition, so she probably knows all she needs to.
Is Stalwart’s power set similar to Ant Man? I would think if he can control his own mass, he could control how dense that mass is, and thereby grow or shrink his size.
Why does Stalwart look like Agent Coulson with the supersoldier serum.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it was because he was drawn that way. Although he also looks like Jason Statham.
C’mon, Stalwart. Let’s see how well the Suck Hole can focus his powers while dealing with the pain from one or more hand-to-hand injuries – speaking from personal surgically-inflicted experience, bone pain is the worst kind of pain, especially when it’s fresh.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it was because he was drawn that way. Although he also looks like Jason Statham.
No offense Dabbler, but the way those sweaty men are grappling isn’t that hot (yet). Why, they’re not even down on the ground and closely pressed, yet.
Just wait till the HEAVY petting starts…
The Germans ain’t got nothing to do with this!!!
Thinking about Mass Hole’s power got me going down a rabbit hole of though. I emerged on the other side with the following conclusion.
It’s supposed to be impossible to verify the the speed of like is the same in all directions because whether it’s instantaneous in one direction and half the speed in the other, any measurements of the speed of light would result in the same measurements we get
Now, what I emerged from the other side of the rabbit hole is this…If the one way speed of light varied based on direction, then wouldn’t we expect to see red shifting occurring at different rates in different directions?
Light having a different speed in “different directions” is subtle and mind-bending, but I don’t think your question is framed quite right. The challenge is often approached by measuring “there and back” light, i.e. a single frame of reference with light moving in opposite directions, outbound and inbound (or some circuit composing a loop). Your proposal of measuring red shift in “different” directions seems to imply light arriving from 2 directions, e.g. light *only* being inbound along different tracks – so there is no ‘outbound’ component to compare or compensate.
But the hypothesis (IIRC) is not reliant on different paths, it’s that light follows the *same path* twice, like a rubber band being stretched out slowly until it is intercepted by an observer/interaction, then snapping back to its origin instantly (or perhaps vice versa, or perhaps at only a slightly different speed). If there is a red shift in both directions, it is a net effect of the average speed along a single path, and since you can’t isolate the directional/speed components you also can’t isolate the red shift components.
“The Goddamn Germans got nothing to do with it!”
I wonder if Sheriff Justice would think Stalwart sounds taller on the radio too?
Amazing post. Thanks for sharing this.
Stalwart’s ability to manipulate mass seems like a strategic advantage, especially against someone like SuperHole.