Grrl Power #1134 – Chemical victory
Knocking people out in super brawls is usually handled via concussion. Concussions are wildly overused in most media, and in almost every instance, they wildly overestimate how easily people get knocked out. Sure, sometime people in TV shows or whatever get in a car wreck (especially since some stunt guys figured out how to do the T-Bone from within the car shot) and then it cuts on impact, then fades back in, representing time lost to unconsciousness. But most of the time, a goon will take a real bantam weight ding on the jaw and drop like the housing market after decades of deregulation. That’s usually the fault of lazy writing, direction and/or stunt work. Not everyone’s going to set up a yank line on the person getting clocked to make the hit look severe enough to ring their bell. TV production schedules sometimes just don’t have the time for that kind of work when a simple stage punch is fine for 90% of the audience.
I’m sure I’m guilty of it in the comic, but at least when Jiggawatt got laid out, it was after bouncing off a cinderblock wall straight into a clothesline.
But that’s why Harem gets hypo duty. Sure, sedatives have their own risks, and might not work against Supers with dense skin or hyper metabolism or their power is that their blood is pure caffeine, but it’s probably still safer than cracking everyone on the head with a tube sock full of nickels. I think the reason other super teams don’t do it is that it makes for shorter, less dramatic fights. I don’t know that I see someone like Wonderman or Thor or Wolverine doing something like that, but I could definitely see The Beast, or… oh, man, could you imagine Iceman doing it? He’d have the hypo in his utility belt which gets encased in ice, then he pulls it out and injects someone? It’d be like getting intravenous brainfreeze.
Anyway, it’s an incredibly sensible thing to do, but it assumes you have a sedative that could knock out a 225 lb guy but won’t put the 125 lb Super powered female into cardiac arrest. Really, Harem probably has several different hypos that put out different doses, and one of her has to work at a carnival six weekends a year doing the weight guessing schtick for practice. Not that honing that skill on the average American would really be all that helpful when your real targets are muscular Supers who all have about 6% body fat. Maybe there’s a carnival near a military base and she practices on Marines or something.
The February Vote Incentive is up! Yes, I know it’s late and I still owe you guys one for March. I already have the pencils mostly done, so hopefully you guys won’t be waiting for it all month?
Kat, you remember, the newly minted were-hare? Well, someone forgot to give her a copy of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Were-Margaret.” She has questions is what I’m saying.
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Actually, it’s pretty easy to guess weight fairly accurately. Certainly well enough to get in the ballpark on a drug dosage. The trick is that you don’t guess weight, you figure the body circumference just below the breasts, which is way easier than guessing weight directly.
I learned all about that the first time someone handed me a weight tape for cows.
https://southernagriculture.com/products/coburn-weight-tape-cow
And Harems backstory is that she is from a farm in Idaho.
So canonically, it would make sense for her to know this trick.
Country folks for the win!
I bet portal girl will blink in and teleport them all out.
she will try…. Max is really fast. as a certain contract obsessed villain found out.
Anyone else scared that the other shoe will drop, and Void will come out somewhere and either get him out of trouble, or come back with Death Toll? Because I’m pretty sure Nemesis, plus Gravity Powers, plus Dimension Travelling equals “Our heroes are f*cked”.
What happened to those bracelets that could automatically adjust the dosage to keep their subjects asleep and alive? For that matter what happened to the tactical glasses that could keep the team updated on the unknowns’ powers from ARC-Light, which would be very useful when you know you’re fighting an org that deliberately dresses identically? Max mentioned ARC-Sparq was supposed to be working on an improved goggle variant.
My guess is they will snap on the bracelets in a bit, this was clearing out the battle zone, when they are making sure everyone stays down, then Harem will port in the bracelets. For the Glasses- they don’t have Arc Light on overwatch, so there is no point.
I presume ArcLight is in a van someplace nearby operating a command center, but with no networking signal below ground the glasses wouldn’t work either way. There was also some debate over whether they were even worth having since most pairs got smashed up pretty quickly.
The plan was to change to goggles with a strap. But also, they aren’t “smart” HUDs. They literally only work by having a small team of people sitting in a Somebody Else’s Problem Field actively updating and adjusting the tacnet in real time.
ArcLight was updating character sheets, but basic recognition and 3D tracking of an individual should work autonomously whenever a set of goggles has someone in its field of view. Assuming the individual units had enough power to peer network and maintain the AR functionality without a central server, that is.
Here’s the thing… People associate ‘sedation’ with ‘opiates’, where overdosing can be an immediately life-threatening problem.
There are effective non-opiate sedatives that work great and don’t have the ‘oops, they got a double dose and stopped breathing’ problem. Ketamine, for example… You have to pretty massively OD someone on K before you get beyond K-holing them (although people freak out over ketamine due to its ‘party drug’ image). Haloperidol will also do the trick (although the OD side effects start kicking in a lot sooner). And there are others, like lorazepam (again, there are side effects, but they are rarely ‘hey, you just stopped breathing’ immediately life-threatening).
Heck, massive doses of LSD will work fine as a sedative. Someone once snorted a gram of LSD thinking it was cocaine, and immediately fell asleep, waking up in a hospital a couple days later no worse for the wear.
You’ve never done LSD have you, it has the oppose effect! If this guy passed out it wasn’t LSD, or he slipped into a mild coma. I got dosed at a party (NEVER LEAVE YOUR BEER ALONE AT A PARTY! Take it with you unless you’re sure it’s safe) and I didn’t sleep at all for 24 hrs! Plus I had been drinking and suddenly I was VERY sober! I overheard the guy bragging and laughing (some joke) about it the next day and let him learn what a door felt like when it wasn’t opened…
A massive dose could kill, it is basically rat poison, with a few other chemicals, at very least cause permanent brain damage.
It seems kind of stupid to have the squishes that wouldn’t be able to survive even a fraction of that guy’s powers within power distance.
Because there’s nothing stopping him from just going “You let me go or X get’s turned into a pancake.”
It makes for an awesome cinematic group photo-op thou. I suspect art > practicality at least for that panel.
That’s why Stalwart is right there to tackle/grapple SM.
That wouldn’t stop a super from using their powers, especially one fast enough to dodge Max’s in-flight punch (not her fastest, but still).
It’s difficult to concentrate on using your powers, when someone is pounding on your face
And what’s to stop Stalwart from grabbing him or Max to open fire the moment that threat is said? Or Varia and Jiggawatt launching an electrified steel beam at him? Or heatwave hitting him with a 1000 degree “angry stare”? Great power or not, he can’t handle that many quickly enough to stop them. Max and Stalwart most of all. The fight is done and won, nothing can change that now.
Especially since, to make that threat, he needs to not be using it. Which lets Maxima safely speed-blitz him before he can use it, making the threat empty.
Kinda feel Harem would get good at guessing weight of people by being under said people.
Dabbler probably gave her pointers on that skill set.
Practice makes perfect, they say. And it’s Practice she is good at from her own comments.
That and multiple pov’s allow her to make that skillset near perfected.
“How much do you weigh” isn’t exactly good pillow talk. It’s not too hard to get good at guessing within say 10 pounds, which is plenty accurate for calculating dosage of most anaesthetics.
I’m guessing Harem’s been provided with a specially built hypo device thats got a diamond tipped or titanium needle to puncture some of the supers that can take hits from Hiro and such without cutting skin.
Heatwave remains an excellent choice for taking out Suck Hole IMHO. She could easily be hiding and roasting or steadily cooking him from a distance without his gravity powers impacting her since her power isn’t a beam of heat but just heating up things she can see.
In a world with magic and super-science, this might work. In the real world, there are many problems beyond just dosing. Most sedatives take a little time to kick in, and those that don’t tend to be much more dangerous, with far less margin of error between “minimum dose likely to be effective” and “minimum dose likely to be life threatening”. Plus, you’d need much more information than just body weight to use this safely. You’d need to know the target’s medical history. Do they have any allergies or unusual reactions to medication? (For just one example, a small minority of people basically go berserk when hit with a dose of Thorazine that would turn more typical people into zombies.) What drugs have they taken in the past, and what drugs might they have in their system right now? In most situations, there’s simply no way of knowing most of that with any confidence. This is why real world cops don’t use tranquilizer guns.
Here’s the issue however, what if it isn’t a sedative? A tranquilizer could cause someone to “pass out” for a short time allowing a Harem to follow up with a proper dose of a sedative? A basic dose could knock a skinny woman for a hour or so but the same dose might knock someone Hiro’s or Stalwart’s size for 10-15 minutes. Long enough for a proper dose to be set for his size to keep him out long enough to be transported to the holding areas.
Yeah, that makes more sense
This theory pairs nicely with the wrist monitors from the restaurant fight.
There’s a reason why real cops don’t walk around with tranquilizer guns. They have similar problems… and they also don’t work as quickly. Unfortunately, after administering a tranquilizer, you’re likely still able to move and therefore be dangerous, even if you aren’t as aware of you surroundings had you been fully alert.
A sedative could effectively have someone out in thirty seconds. A tranquilizer can take 15 minutes or more to put someone out.
That said.
While Wizard is taking the cautious “medical” approach with their reasoning. The military have been known to use chemical solutions and take the collateral risk. They balance the risk of not doing it vs the risk of doing it. Their objective is to save other peoples lives. The police and paramedics are largely about dealing with the individual. So I would argue that Wizard’s statement is not taking into account the relevant contexts.
yeah, this guys are technically police but they have a military structure and act like an extra branch of the military, if harem gets an extra dose of sedative to someone and he or she dies well he or she was a hostile super in the heat of action fighting against US operatives, someone dying is bound to happen nothing you can do about it
A tranquilizer dart is for long range shots, a direct injection into a vein like what Harem does would act far faster. The darts are for people that have time to safely follow an animal until it takes effect. The nature shows you see on TV cuts out the fact it can take an hour or more to take effect, hardly tactical for a super fight. a shot in a vein, would only take a few seconds to start having an effect. Which is why Harem does it, she can pop in and out before a non-speedster to react.
I like this iteration of the art experiments! One of the things I really like about what you like to draw is the textures and fine detail, but always seemed to be highly finished in some ways and rushed in others. I assume because there isn’t enought time or energy to add those details to everything ever in every panel. This approach looks clean and consistent, with a good mix of simplifying and detail :)
Just want to take a moment to highlight the last panel: 4 male characters, 3 shirtless and one with a ripped T-shirt, and 4 female characters, all in non-form-fitting tactical gear. Representation!
Dave have no shame about drawing shirtless men. He just draw all the beefcake and cheesecake he want. He is a good example to us all.
To be fair, all of the male characters have power sets that are better suited for close quarters combat (besides SM, but he seems to like to use his powers for CQC anyway.) Even though it seems like they voluntarily undressed themselves for the most part (possibly to protect equipment/clothes or simply for comfort and ease of movement,) that tends to be an easy way to receive clothing damage. Even Max lost her vest early on, although that wasn’t during the CQC.
Both Hiro and Wart lost their shirts in the line of duty (if they manage to find the pieces, they will be given a formal funeral, with full military honours)
Suck Hole is just a kid who thinks having muscles makes him look cool
Yes, imagine having a team who actually cares about, and likes, you…
Teamwork is a bit more than that. “You hurt my friend! Now I target you with my most destructive attack/grab my friend and yank him out of danger/put myself between you and him” is not teamwork.
To have teamwork, you need to have some idea of what your friend is going to do, and proceed to help them with *that*.
That’s the thing: Suck Hole doesn’t have friends, and the other Suits think he’s a jerk, so there is no teamwork of any kind in that group
They didn’t join the fight to help him, but to save themselves (and maybe take a shot at some of the heroes at the same time)
There was more coordination during the Restaurant Rumble with complete strangers
On weight guessing – Wrestling. Roman-Greco specifically, people are almost exactly the right weight, and do it long enough and you can easily look at someone and guess what they weigh. Bonus – they tend to be extremely fit, AKA superhero material.
I’m willing to suspend disbelief, call the knock-out drug something Dabbler came up with in her lab that is a fast-acting non-opiate drug with a very low risk of OD or allergic reaction.
But I’ve always been a fan of Narritivium. The story may have science, but don’t get lost in the technobabble.
Nanobots created to directly control oxygen and nitrogen levels in the brain might actually work.
Given what is said in the last panel, the hand holding is cute.
This page has been bugging me and I realized what it is. Its the last panel. Previous page we see Varia holding Amorphis’s hand which allows her to manipulate the organic environment. We see that continuing on this page which is key to Harem being able to tranq many of the villains. But in the last panel we see Amorphis on the ground but Varia is flying in on an I beam with Jiggawatt, using magnetic powers once more. So thats a big break in continuity.
Something to keep in mind when constructing you page. Continuity in your storytelling matters.
The construct doesn’t just go away when she stops touching Morph, why would it? She used her gestalt to shape the ground, now it’s locked in that shape. It would be different if it was sand or water
Did you also note how Wet Wipe is still encased in the ice that was formed after Vahriah touched Heatwave?
Why is it still there after she stopped touching? For the same damn reason!!
Also, panel 4 shows Harem has teleported Varia back up to Max’s new doorway, where Jiggs was waking up. Pretty straightforward inference that they paired up again and Varia grabbed a magnet-friendly platform to float them down on.
Also explains how they grounded Anti-Jiggs
As for the tranq gun, it could have a dial on the casing with something like a ‘low, medium, high’ setting.
Back in the Restaurant Rumble, Archon found out the HUD goggles were too fragile to survive more than a minute. For this fight I would say that wearing face-masks that severely restrict you peripheral vision while facing multiple opponents may also be a bad idea.
TUBE SOCK FULL OF NICKELS! I love the Homey the Clown reference. For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g1e8dZM3MY&ab_channel=yourgaysaywhat
DaveB, your comment about knocking people out makes me think you haven’t watched too many UFC/boxing fights. Granted most fights don’t end in a knockout, but there are plenty of times where one guy seems fine, then gets a tap on the jaw and is down. I’ll assume you meant that in movies it makes it seem like any head trauma is likely to result in unconsciousness, which I agree is ridiculous.
În the age of gender equality I find it disturbing that only the males are running around topless. I wonder what the heroines have to hide?
Soft, vulnerable skin. Most of the shirtless men are particularly damage-resistant. Mr. Amorphous is unusually resistant because he’s stretchy, but he’s still wearing a shirt. Max is the only woman there who doesn’t need the armor.
Ah, friendship. thepower of gaining up to kick someones ass
so my question: if they take down SuckHole, (one word? two words? two words hyphenated?) How do they imprison him? Do they keep him in the cannabis smog with mister rage? Max has authorized lethal force this engagement; Chumming him might be their only answer, or waiting until he dies eventually from liver failure from being chemically unconscious 24/7
oh, whatever happened to Daphne #6? it was implied there was an additional Daphne created (There were too many of me!)were there 2 copies of one form, or a completely unmodified original Daphne added to the pile? Did Dave just tuck this into a folder marked “forget about this until it becomes useful”?
Time travel happened. One of the Daphnes traveled forward about two months, resulting in a total of six of her (including two copies of one body) before that body went back through the portal to its original time.
I like the cool team work leading to quick take downs, but it seams like gravity boy could threaten to crush them all if they don’t back off. btw could gravity boy’s speed be coming from some other super?
Take a well-deserved time off! For us readers, we’ve got an entire archive to re-read and rediscover things… can’t wait to lose hours on that! (It’s a good archive, okay?)
A day late and a dollar short, but I checked, and no one said it, so I will.
BEEFCAAAAAKKE!
Is there even a reason Dabbler can’t make a formula perfectly within Earth’s technological range and abilities that won’t kill anyone and share the formula with Arcswat? Or even that the tranq is actually a bit alchemy too, with magic to help balance or enhance certain aspects of a milder and safer formula?
Tranqs in our world have problems. Tranqs in this setting can be anything they need to be for good non-lethal takedowns that are also reasonable and well planned.
Waiting for next chapter…
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