Grrl Power #1141 – What about Sydney?
The next 22 minutes of the voice mail cover topics such as the weather in Senegal, how weird it is to see common American brands like Cheetos with French packaging, how much better “Belin Croustilles de Fromage” are, which are a French produced Cheeto equivalent, and how she need to find a reliable way to get them in the US, and if the team is allowed to do endorsements yet, because she figures that if she does “Belin Croustilles de Fromage” ads, she could probably swing a box of them every month or two as part of the contract, and also, are they allowed to do commercials in other countries in general, because she doesn’t want to pass up an opportunity to a crazy Japanese ad where a cartoon tanuki screams at her while she tries to climb a mountain only to have the camera zoom out to reveal the mountain is the side of the product, and drop of condensation runs down the side of the can and hits her and the rest of the commercial is shot underwater, and she’s wondering what the crush depth is of her shield, assuming her orbs aren’t going kaput, and if they are, can she get permission to go on sabbatical to explore the galaxy for signs of the Nth as Dabbler calls them and she promises she’ll document the whole thing because there’s no way that wouldn’t be a crazy entertaining spin-off.
Actually, that’s just the next seven minutes. Max didn’t listen to the rest. She’ll save that the next time she has to commute using normal transportation and treat it like an audiobook.
The March Vote Incentive is up! The thumbnail is weird because the picture doesn’t have anyone’s face in it. It’s an odd incentive, admittedly. Trying something new. But hopefully you all still enjoy it.
Variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon, as well as the semi-usual bonus incentive related comic.
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Sydney’s picture on Maxima’s phone is simply adorable.
Supercritical note to future SO of Max.
No matter how much you lover Max, DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EVER, let het hold your hand when shes delivering parasitized vag destroyer.
That’s probably good advice for the start of the procedure also.
That does raise some concerns, as heartless as this sounds (augmented by Maxima’s power level/defenses), the real concern if she becomes pregnant would be the safety of the baby. She can’t receive a C-section, and chances are unless the baby inherits some of the symbiote goo (see birth of a new species side concern), like a double-birth (human baby born with new symbiote already joined), or she has a power to wrap the baby in its own forcefield or can pry herself open, if the baby is human chances are it won’t be able to rip open the birth canal shall we say anymore than it is, and tools to help with that may not be easy to come by.
This is the kind of concern we see with stories where they ask what happens if the super powered woman gets pregnant. At least with alien physiology its covered Kryptonians give birth to kryptonian babies…although when the alien is the father and mother human..
well..so far examples of that have been the baby starts at a human power level but quicky (or as teen as if they were a Marvel mutant, see puberty analogies trope), gains power. We have an example with Superman and Lpis, we have Mark from Invincible whose Viltrimite powers didn’t kick in till his late teens, and saiyans we now have five examples of those born to human women starting off at a human power level but gaining strength in a matter of years…Pan in less than one year…although confunsinly able to fly as a newborn but apparently forgetting how to fly when she learned to walk and having to be retaught how to fly at the age of three…while we know from flashbacks that pure blooded saiyans displayed their power levels as high at birth (although their culture believed this was a set power level their whole life except for zenkai boosts…so not the most reliable).
Sadly we don’t get many examples of a human turned high level strength/defense super giving birth with a regular human father; probably for these same questions. It sometimes feels implied the baby may start off super powered for the sake of making this easier, or the mother will have to be over relaxed and the baby slide out. Otherwise the end result is disturbing (and wouldn’t be surprised if some overly edge-dark anti-superhero story covered this, and insisted for the baby to survive inside the super powered mother the baby would need to be pure super, like if the mother is a Hulk then the father needs to be equivalent to be sure the baby is that strong…although less dark could just say the mother’s genes are dominant, and since the mother passes down the mitochondria, these would be the super powered mitochondria a super would have to have *power house of the cell after all*, so there is a biological hand wave.
which is very Parasite Eve, super mitochondria enhancing cells in future generations.
I didn’t read the whole rant. But there are people with superpowers that can solve the “Maxima childbirth problem”. Maybe Harem can “touch” the baby and teleport him/her out of the womb.
I believe that, aside from Varia, Harem cannot teleport anything organic. I might be wrong about this though.
That being said I do think she’d need to actually be able to touch the baby even if it was possible.
What’s more likely is Maxima lowers her armor and strength to the lowest possible settings, which we know she can do, then there can be some sort of caesarean section or maybe Dabbler and Digit would be able to come up with some super-science means of a safe delivery for the child.
Harems teleportation limitations, so far as we know, are weight limitations, not material.
“she can’t take anyone with her. Clothing, equipment, easy, but no people. Possibly nothing else living.“
That brings up two questions .
What happens if Harem gets pregnant ?
Also does this mean she can birth and or abort a potential offspring by just … Teleporting away?
One of three things, I’d assume:
1) She cannot teleport that body for the duration of pregnancy due to her power not working with teleporting living organisms (except for Varia). Ie, her powers will literally not work for that body until she gives birth. As we know, Harem’s teleportation weight limit is ANYTHING other than her body. Clothes, equipment, anything. Presumably the baby would be something ‘other than her body.’ With other items, she can just teleport WITHOUT by not trying to teleport with them. But if she CANT just remove herself from the baby, it would be like an anchor keeping her from teleporting or de-teleporting.
2) She CAN teleport with the baby because it’s more like a T-800 deal with time travel, but with teleportation – the fact that the baby is ‘within’ her might shield it from the limitation, although if she de-teleports this can either mean the baby dies since it can’t de-teleport, or the baby survives the same way Harem does because it CAN de-teleport while inside her and attached to her. Or possibly the baby has a byproduct of Harem’s power to keep it alive during the duration of the pregnancy.
3) She can teleport while pregnant, but if she does, the baby dies because it won’t teleport along with her, resulting in a premature birth, and under about 22 weeks (with current technology) that is most likely fatal.
Any other scenarios anyone can think of?
Variation on 2, she can teleport safely while pregnant because her body just recognizes the baby as part of her own body. They would be sharing the same blood, which infuses the baby with her blood cells, and it has also has 1/2 her DNA, so the superion field effects that cause teleportation propagate through the baby’s cells identically to her own.
Any powers the baby has are dormant until it hits puberty, so it cannot initiate a teleport during gestation, and after birth they stop sharing blood so the ability to joint teleport disappears over the first few days.
However this is one of those “won’t know until it happens” situation, so best approach is for her pregnant copy to just never teleport until after delivery. Some testing could happen immediately after birth, e.g with umbilical cord tissue/blood, but anything before that is too risky. Even if the baby is delivered and the cord hasn’t been cut, teleporting from one operating room table to another 5 feet away puts the baby at risk.
Also good possibilities :)
Since they would be physically connected via the umbilical cord. And good point about half the DNA and how that might interact with the superion field. :)
This can also get a whole lot weirder, as her powerset isn’t just teleportation but also duplication and..hive mind.
So let’s assume for the sake of avoiding edge-dark territory her body and the Superion field have concluded that the fetus is part of her body and thus safe to teleport.
However her teleporting is also duplicating. So what if when one of the non-pregnant ones *who can feel what it is like to be pregnant* effectively un-make and re-make themselves to teleport the power “corrects for the error” and also duplicates the fetus. So at minimum two for one, but if she goes all out five for one deal on having a baby.
Now the Hive Mind raises a much more insidious issue, the power of “Mother’s Link” or its *evolved* darker form “Queen’s Link”
that being low level she can because of the Hive Mind power and her child treated as an extension of her establish a telepathic link with her child.
now one stage up from that is being able to spy on her child through their senses.
and the full blown “Queen’s Link” is being able to at will take telepathic control (mind puppetry) of her own child/children, operating their bodies remotely.
Imagine being pregnant and one day *say after the baby has a developed brain* you realize you can project into and sense things through the baby, and the level up, control the baby’s actions.
Now imagine this continues after birth, and even after your child has clearly developed into a separate independent person from you…that you can spy on them, or worse Queen’s Link with the child and control them. Do you tell the child..there are certainly times this could help the kid, but its also an invasion of privacy and is ripe for unethical abuse.
“This can also get a whole lot weirder, as her powerset isn’t just teleportation but also duplication and..hive mind.”
There’s a good workaround for this problem while still remaining in canon. Harem does not have unlimited duplication. Her ability to make a duplicate comes only after she’s gained a certain amount of additional mass or age or something like that. Otherwise she would have been able to duplicate into 5 harems from the get-go. Plus DaveB did mention in a chart that in the future, she will probably be getting a sixth duplicate. The baby would not have enough mass to have more than one at this point in time, so a good possibility, assuming the baby does not prevent teleportation of the Harem in which they’re in in the first place, is that at any point in time, ONE of the Harems will be pregnant, and the others will not be.
Again just a possible idea. :)
PS – this is one of those perfect comic book argument/discussions. Like who would win in a fight – the Hulk or Thor or Superman, or ‘how long does Superman have in solar reserves before he has no powers?’ :)
I just had a very dark thought about Harem’s power. What if when she gets pregnant her body absorbs the growing child and it develops into a new her that she can generate. I. E. we KNOW she is sexually active from her “dates” with Dues, so what if that new mass she needs is stolen from her developing a new set of organs/limbs etc.
I hope I’m wrong otherwise she’d have been knocked up or super obese to create a new clone.
Rhuen: Her teleportation is not also duplicating. She cannot duplicate anything other than her own body, and cannot do that at will. Her teleportation preserves her state, even when unteleporting — it does not “correct” for anything, considering that it did not fix her broken wrist from the parking lot brawl.
> “if one of the non-pregnant ones *who can feel what it is like to be pregnant* [teleports] and also duplicates the fetus.”
My reading of her powers is inconsistent with this possibility. Her bodies all know what it feels like to have a broken arm, as well as a healthy arm, but she was unable to cycle the injured body and change the bone. Each body also retains its hair dye etc, so I think it’s canon that each body is distinct, persistent, and unable to automagically exchange/copy attributes from other bodies.
However, that demonstrated distinctiveness goes out the window when she pops a new body, which we have very little info about. Her new bodies are known to be very similar (if not identical) to one or more existing copies, as they are all the same age*. Perhaps the new body is an average of the others, but it seems most likely to be a clone of the original. If Harem can 1) remember which is the original, 2) control the timing of origination when she’s able to pop a new body, I think she could conceivably** copy herself and a fetus. Preferably a day or two before delivery to get 2-for-1 twins without experiencing a 2nd pregnancy, although I don’t see a way around 2 deliveries initially. If it wasn’t her first pregnancy (and ArcLight did some testing during the first one to verify), she could maybe even duplicate after delivery but before the umbilical cord was cut, and skip a delivery as well.
* Aside from perhaps some minor differences from keeping one in storage, which we infer from the broken arm copy reappearing hours later experiencing no elapsed time. Which reminds me, as pointed out long ago, she really ought to be keeping at least 1 copy stored regularly for a massively extended lifespan. Also, where are all the super octogenarians who have been hiding their powers for decades?
** Sorry Pander but how could I pass that up.
“** Sorry Pander but how could I pass that up.”
You totally could have passed that up if you were not such a degenerate wordsmith. It just have taken some self-control and common decency, you scoundrel. Ninja Pirate en route.
Update:
You made a very well crafted bit of wordplay elsewhere that I found brilliant, and so I have recalled the ninja pirate assassin.
This time.
Duly noted.
yeah justice league? yeah We need a consultation for a future medical delivery. yeah we also called in a few favors with Reed Richards. yeah, we’re also fall ng in a few favors from Apocalypse. well we don’t anticipate any problems, we are hedging our bets against possible egregious collateral damage. *ahem* our insurance dept suggested it along with the Enquirer.
that would require a separation of the baby and max
until the umbilical cord is cut that’s not possible
it also requires a fair amount of… logistics to begin with considering harem can only teleport 1 other person due to that persons own powers rather than harems
Summary,
paragraph one is Maxima specifically,
paragraph two and three are examples in fiction, which sadly are mostly super male human female and solve the problem for the human female *Kryptonains, Viltramites, and saiyans used as examples*
final paragraph is the only part that is a rant going on about how fiction rarely gives us *pleasant* examples of a super woman giving birth to a non-super at birth child. With me having an ah-hah moment that given how biology works the baby should inherit enhanced cellular structures from the super mother given we inherit our mitochondria from our mothers.
which then last sentence, I compare this thought to the video game series Parasite Eve, because Parasite Eve deserves as many shout outs as it can get and deserves a remaster.
from memory dave has said that if max focuses all her power on something other than 1 of her powers she defaults own to about double a baseline human
so we have things that can cut her given certain logistics of how well she can focus while getting a C-section
on her unique baseline physiology then im sure dabbler has something or knows someone who can deal with that if the event arrived
Couldn’t she just, at Sydney’s suggestion, drink some of Dabbler’s ‘enchanted water’?
That would fit in with the options for
“or can pry herself open”
Hm, Leech(? the power nullification one) “yeah we got a job for ya.”
With Superman and Lois, as well as with Marvel and Invincible, there’s actually a good reason for each of those scenarios.
1) Superman and Lois – Kryptonian powers do not come all at once. They are caused by absorption of yellow solar energy – the longer the kryptonian absorbs the yellow solar radiation, the more their powers come into play. Aside from in the first movie with Christopher Reeves and in the silver age comics, Clark on Earth as a child started without powers and they came into being as he grew up absorbing more and more yellow solar radiation (Man of Steel actually did a good job on showing this and how his powers started coming one after the other as time went by). As a baby, he did not have any real power beyond that of a human baby (at least from New Earth onward) until he was several years old.
In every example of Lois and Clark having children, they do not start with powers (apparently typical for human/kryptonain hybrids) until significantly later in life, in the later teen years.
Kara Kent (from Superman and Batman: Generations) – did not start having powers until she was a teenager.
Carol and Jane Kent (from Superman: Secret Identity) – actually the mother here was Lois Chaudhari. Also did not start having powers until their teenage years.
Kon-El – had his powers from birth but he was a kryptonian/human hybrid clone, not born from a human womb.
Jon Kent (both Superman: Son of Kal-El and Super Sons versions) – Did not start out with powers until he was about 12 or 13, which then slowly started coming in brought on by stressful situations
Jordan and Jonathan Kent (Superman & Lois on CW) – Jordan got his powers around 17 years old, and Jonathan got his 2 seasons later due to X-Kryptonite drugs.
2) Mutants in Marvel – Most mutants don’t develop their powers until the mutant gene activates, which usually happens at puberty. The rare times that it happens at birth, it’s usually bad for the mother, depending on the powerset.
3) Invincible – like you mentioned, Mark didnt get his powers until he was around 16 or 17, which seems typical of Viltrumite hybrids apparently since something similar happened with his half-brother, although his half brother, Oliver, was not 16 or 17 – he is a little over 2 years old but his mother’s species has a MUCH shorter lifespan than humans, and his body is that of a 16 year old viltrumite boy in human biological equivalency. I believe the same delay happened with the daughter of Atom Eve and Mark, Terra Grayson.
Your nerd cred just went up several notches. Also, I’m now giggling to myself imagining a silver age page dramatically introducing a toddler Clark who “has all the powers of a human baby!”
Danke. :)
The Kryptonians was part of the point, we have no examples of an empowered female Kyrptonian being pregnant and giving birth. Like a story where a Supergirl or Powergirl or anyone else has all their powers while they are pregnant.
If I were to write this I think the work around I would suggest is that when its a male Kyptonian to human female the fetus has no solar exposure during development and the blood from the mother is human *not powered up cells*, so the baby is born at a human level, no different than if they were born back on Krypton.
However if we had an empowered Kryptonian woman, we could say she shares the solar energy and solar powered up blood with the fetus, resulting in a baby born powered up. Making it safe to give birth, Otherwise they’d have to go into a red sun artificial environment or a planet with a red sun to power down to safely give birth.
Of course story wise if this was seen as a possibility and knowing Superman he might try to insist Kara or whomever go into a fake Krypton simulated environment to prevent having a baby with a Kryptonian head start, aside from how strong they could get with such a head start we’d be talking about a baby that might cause earthquakes with tantrums, crying that could shatter eardrums and windows, or fly around as an invicible missile with little control if the parents don’t keep hold.
Its one thing to gain powers later in life either living as a human so appreciating what its like to be human or arriving later and gaining super powers. But having them from day 1 could cause some issues, and the types of issues Superman would likely want to avoid.
on the Marvel thing, not thinking when mutants get their powers, thinking the mother’s powers complicating pregnancy, including the likes of Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, and others as well that have enhanced physiologies.
“on the Marvel thing, not thinking when mutants get their powers, thinking the mother’s powers complicating pregnancy, including the likes of Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, and others as well that have enhanced physiologies.”
There was already a storyline where She-Hulk gave birth. And Hulk was the father. The comic was ‘Old Man Logan’ and it took place on Earth-807128. Hulk is a complete monster … plus for some reason redneck trailer trash… in that version. He’s a cannibal who ATE Wolverine… and him and She-Hulk have this disgusting incestuous relationship. The inbred Hulk-babies even had names like Billy-Bob.
I wish I was making this up. I’m not making this up.
In the 616 universe, Hulk and Caiera the Oldstrong (who also has superhuman strength and invulnerability) had a son as well – Skaar.
Also, while Supergirl never had a baby, Power Girl did – Equinox (Power Girl’s son). It was via magic by one of the Lords of Chaos – Scarabus – pre-Crisis when her backstory was changed that she was actually from Atlantis.
Also in one possible future, Wonder Woman had a male child as well – Hunter Prince who she was a total a-hole to and basically abandoned him and Superman and Lois Lane basically adopted and raised him alongside his other son, Jon Kent (and was rather disgusted at how Wonder Woman abandoned him for being male)
Also, in another possible timeline, Batman and Wonder Woman had a daughter – Elissa Wayne (Earth-27).
Yes and all children had superhuman fathers and mothers and started out superpowered from what I remember. I know that storyline, not a fan of Old Man Logan, but it is why my initial statement was not many rather than none. Also yeah magic the baby out to speed the story up with Powergirl.
To be fair with Elissa Wayne, Batman is not a superhuman father. :)
I’ve never read anything with Batman as a father, but he’s got to be the worst dad ever.
“No I can’t read you a bedtime story, I have to go fight the hundreds of psychopaths and monsters outside that want to kill our family and enslave everyone we know. Just lay here alone in the dark and think about how afraid you are, it will make you tough someday.”
He’s been a father multiple times
Most famous of his BIOLOGICAL children:
Damian Wayne – son of Talia al Ghul and Batman. Admittedly he was drugged by Talia during conception, but it still counts.
Helena Wayne (Huntress) from Earth-2 – Was also briefly Robin on Earth-2, then teamed up with Supergirl of Earth-2 (Power Girl) and they are the only two that escaped from Earth-2 before that universe was destroyed.
Athanasia al Ghul – Daughter of Batman and Talia al Ghul, and this time, he wasn’t even drugged when Talia forced him to have sex (Injustice: Gods Among Us)
Terry McGinnis – Amanda Wallis impregnated Terry’s mother via DNA manipulation of Terry’s ‘father,’ using Bruce Wayne’s DNA so that Terry is biologically Bruce’s son.
Matt McGinnis – Same thing as what happened with Terry, except in Justice League Unlimited
Bruce Wayne, Jr. (from Earth-154) – son of Bruce Wayne and Kathy Kane (who apparently is heterosexual in Earth-154). Also, Bruce Wayne Jr. gets married to Kara Kent (Supergirl)
There’s also another Bruce Wayne Jr who is the son of Batman and Lois Lane, but I forget which Earth he’s from. One of the higher numbers – 5 digits, starting with I think 139 something something.
Tallant (Elseworlds) – son of Bruce Wayne and Talia, where Bruce was not only not drugged, but it wasn’t even forced. Although in another Earth, Tallant exists as well, but he’s instead Bruce’s grandson (along with Redstar/Luand’r Wayne, Tallant’s twin sister, where the parents are Damian and Mar’i Grayson – daughter of Starfire and Dick Grayson)
Kull – Daughter of Batman and Wonder Woman (Dark Multiverse)
Elissa Wayne (Earth-27) – Daughter of Batman and Wonder Woman
Thomas Taylor Wayne (Generations III )- just mentioned that there’s a universe where Batman had a son named Thomas after his father. Weird part is the mother is Bruce’s adoptive granddaughter because that’s not weird at all, nope.
Xu’ffasch (Kingdom Come) – yet another biological son of Batman and Talia, although Bruce had no idea of his existence until he was an adult. He winds up marrying Nightstar (daughter of Dick Grayson and Starfire)
Brenna Wayne – Batman’s daughter from the 24th century and I have no idea how.
Tom Wayne – son of Bruce Wayne in the year 3000 because screw how time works.
‘Son of the Demon’ – yet another child of Bruce and Talia in Elseworlds. Although here it was intentional as well, but Talia decided that Bruce was spending too much time wanting to be a good father won the child is going to be born, so she fakes a miscarriage and puts the baby up for adoption because Talia is just the worst.
That doesnt include the dozens of people who Bruce apparently has adopted in the multiverse, since we’re only talking about biological children.
I am not familiar with Batman with Wonder woman, but one time he is with Catwoman and Huntress of that timeline is their daughter. And main timelines there is a Robin , now a new Batman in some called Damian Wayne who is the son of Bruce and Talia…who raped Bruce and raised Damian in the league of Assassins at first.
There are several outcomes where he is with Catwoman and the child is Helena Wayne, but the most famous of those is Earth-2 where, before she becomes Huntress, she is Robin, and Power Girl was Supergirl before she became Power Girl, and Earth-2’s entire universe is destroyed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths with just those two as the sole survivors (Power Girl’s official origin)
Or you can just handwave it like most writers do. It’s not that important, after all.
I can’t do that kind of ramble on a vm thankfully, but I know for a fact that some people have put the phone down while I was ranting about politics or healthcare before. I go from serious topic to the color of jelly beans in Finland very quickly so…. Yeah feel called out.
What a suspicious looking owl…
Max’s Personal Podcast from Sydney, for Max’s sake hopefully a one off.
nope. weekly at a minimum. lots of spicy content!
Oh my God. I sympathize so much with Maxima right now, and am mildly jealous of Sydney being able to talk so much. Due to my own issues, Max would probably only get a sentence out of me. A single one. At a time.
My mom does! his to us All-the-time.
we have to activate super flash obsevation and pricice timing to catch her when she breathes in to deploy the ‘sewing machine thread the running needle tactic’ to be able to get a word in edgewise.
that or resort to line of sight interruption between her and grandma or other vic(*ahem*) target
Dabbler could have cleaned them all up with a spell, but then they’d have to decon the plane anyway, and the pilots wouldn’t be ready to fly until the orgy was over and all their legs were unbowed…
“If this had been a orgy, I could take the whole team with my hand tied behind my back.” – Dabbler, about Vehemence.
Sydney is MEDICATED and this is how bad she is. Clearly she needs another session to get her scrip updated. I’m someone with ADHD and this is *really* bad. I get it’s being played for laughs, but seriously…
As Maxi said: any stronger, and it’s straight meth
If that’s what it takes. It wouldn’t exactly be the first medication that was just thinly veiled hard stuff anyway.
Lettuce?
Thankfully someone said it. I was wondering if nobody was mentioning the lettuce in the room. From a dietary standpoint though lesser varieties might as well be lettuce.
You mean, all the people who mentioned it on the first page of the comments?
saw actual sign in grocery store next to a huge box of cabbage(?) leaves.
“we are out of toilet paper.”
“$1 bag of leaves.”
I think a certain Claude Dibbler may have an offer for you, Maxima. At least, assuming you can get to the elephants.
That’s Claude Maxamillian Overton Transpire Dibbler to you.
If the super hero thing doesn’t work out, Sydney could try her hand at being a hostage negotiator. Or, if she could learn Korean, turn her lose on North Korea.
At some point, Sydney’s going to make corporal, right? That’s how she was addressed when she introduced Max and Anvil, but we haven’t caught up. Has the comic been retconned, or are we still in that original flashback?
Since she’s currently a private at this point of the story, we are still in the original flashback.
Current rank is Cadet, isn’t it?
Not after she graduated (still investigating how that happened :P )
in the usual manner. with credit for managing the longest distance from base any human cadet has managed to get lost. also had arguably one of the highest firepower ‘lost in the wilderness’ ‘training exercises’ in US military history, and traveled the furthest trying to find home. the gratz discovery was not deemed militarily significant. however forced consumption of gratz is now considered a violation of human rights. the demerits for having to be resuced were waived for extenuating circumstances.
Nope. She’s a private currently.
1) She recently graduated – she’s no longer a cadet.
2) Look at what it says on Maxima’s phone on panel 5. Pvt. Scoville.
It’s turning out to be a fairly long flashback. When do you think it’ll get back to the main storyline?
Max is addressing someone as corporal. What’s Anvil’s rank?
Sergeant
No, Max is being addressed as a corporal. By Hiro.
Hiro is a Major – https://grrlpowercomic.fandom.com/wiki/Hiro
Max is a Lt. Colonel – https://grrlpowercomic.fandom.com/wiki/Maxima
Was “Corporal” a typo in the strip and DaveB has fixed it already? I can’t find the word Corporal anywhere in it after a few re-reads.
Not sure what Torabi is referring to.
If it’s the very early comic, then Maxima is clearly addressing SYDNEY.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-4/
Hiro isnt even in that comic.
Unless you mean this comic (1141). But he says Colonel here, not Corporal (unless it was corrected and I missed the earlier mistake?)
I’m assuming that fred was referring to the word bubble in panel 5. I didn’t look that closely, and just assumed that fred had the correct word — they do look very similar. I believe that fred was confused about who was speaking, and was only considering that error, and not that they had also made an error in which word was being said.
Ahhh okay.
No, Fred was referring to the very early comic Ekim is talking about where Anvil says “here come the big guns” and Max says “Corporal”. She could have been greeting Sydney as a corporal or mildly remonstrating Anvil for her comment if Anvil was a corporal.
My wife’s Panamanian Uncle used to make a extremely hot sauce from pepper’s he grew on his farm.
Back in the early 90s he was flying from Panama to NYC with some for his family up here (My MIL would cut it quite a bit before passing it out) when he dropped a bottle while entering the plane.
Much the same reaction everyone evacuated and the plane pulled for service for a deep clean and rug replacement.
He was even questioned by the Feds like he was a terrorist.
The wallet condom always gets mocked, because people seem to forget what it’s for.
You stumbled drunk into a girl’s apartment at 2 am, and she’s ready to go. You didn’t plan for this, she’s not on birth control. Well shit. Shes hot enough that you aren’t gonna turn her down. Oh right, you’ve got your wallet condom! Good enough!
The wallet condom isn’t for planned encounters. It’s a weapon of last resort, if you don’t have the time or mental fortitude to find a better alternative at the moment
The wallet condom is *literally* worse than nothing. It is rendered effectively nonfunctional in its primary and secondary design criteria more or less immediately after installation (to wallet), and it gives its users a false sense of protection in the process.
I do not have statistical evidence to back this up, because I only had one experience with using a wallet condom. As masterofbones indicated, it wasn’t a planned usage. It wasn’t a random encounter, but we weren’t dating at the time and I had not anticipated anything.
In my case, the condom had been in there for maybe six months, more or less once I got to the point where I could consider maybe something possibly happening. It wasn’t the first wallet condom I’d carried, but the other had been discarded after my first planned encounter with the prior partner, and it was clear that she also was into planning things.
I opened the package. The lubricant stretched like glue. Oh my god, this was *not* in any state to be used. I couldn’t even unroll it properly. I apologized profusely. I offered to run back to my room to get one that, while not newer, had not been carried around in a wallet for six months.
She said she didn’t care. She was on the pill, it would be fine, I didn’t need one.
We’d been friends. I’d been in her room frequently, I’d seen in her purse frequently, just in the natural course of things. While I wasn’t particularly looking for… Ok, Ok, I’ll admit it. I was looking for it. I knew she was sexually active and seemed a bit flighty. I never saw any indication she had any kind of protection. She talked about sex, she never talked about that.
Somehow, I don’t understand it, I turned her down.
That wallet condom did its fucking job. I don’t think I could’ve turned her down without its assistance. I’m still a bit stunned that I managed it with its assistance.
The purpose of a condom in your wallet is to prove to the high school bullies that you are NOT gay. That’s mainly why *I* had one. Yeah, I know, but HS bullies aren’t big on logic. :)
honestly, a wallet condom should be a condom FOR the wallet, to protect you from spendin your money!
About Wallet Condoms:
Condoms have expiration dates dudes. If your not using it when your out and about enough to be going through it, change it to a new one. Best practices are though to stop on the way, pick some up, something to drink, and do try to never depend on one that’s been riding in your pocket like that.
remember to use the condom you found pinned thru the center on the bulletin board :)
though this one is a classic.
https://www.allcondoms.com/products/star-wars-condoms-i-will-not-be-your-father
three nuns were giggling like crazy.
One of them says “hehehe, I put a condom on the priests desk.”
another one goes “hehehe, I poked a hole in the condom.”
the third one fainted
“Only if you want the instructor to slit their own throat.”
Harsh, but fair, and succinct! :)
Take note, everyone. This is the first comic where Max vocally admits that she loves Sydney. You can bet this will come up again – Chekov’s Love Confession, right here!
I don’t think it’s romantic or erotic love
More like big sisterly love.
Checks out – that’s the kind where they can boss you around and occasionally smack you upside the head for making choices they take exception to.
I can relate.
there was a time when all Chekov had to do was find the nuclear vessels and control weapons systems. no hes responsible for every foreshadowed plot development oh and reading all our minds. (I refuse to imagine his therapy bills!).Can’t the poor man retire and cultivate bees or something?
Kudos to Dabbler for putting fake redness glamor over her cybernetic eye. And probably over her real one, as she probably have some 146% resistance to chemical attacks magic item bullshit.
Her cleaning cantrip has been shown before. It does have extras though, so it may or may not be noticeable if she used it. Then again, who knows what she might enjoy.
I wonder how everyone else around Sydney felt as they heard her leaving that message.
Just look at Dabblers and Anvil’s faces, I doubt that face Anvil is wearing is just about the eye, nose, mouth, and throat discomfort. Dab’s is like “How can a simple human talk so long like that?!?” Glad to see her defense buffs were up to the task or she’d be in the same state as Anvil. “Pssst! Dabs, use your healing spell on Anvil… no wait, it might be the only reason Sydney’s still alive…”
Been wondering what Anvil is thinking letting Sydney ramble aloud in an airport about their excursion. Anvil probably is in a cranky mood and happy to spread the misery to Max, but she’s still the squad’s CO and Sydney is very likely spouting info that isn’t public knowledge – and should stay that way.
So far Sydney’s specifically mentioned several details that could be used against the team, like non-obvious details about the super brawl (her native decoy, Anvil paying for damages), and the presence of Oobtek in their uniforms. And that’s just in the <5 minutes we've actually witnessed. Sure, those aren't big details and not many ways to turn them into anything meaningful, but by the time Anvil hears something actually classified and tells her to shut up, everyone nearby has heard it too.
We may have witnessed the birth of yet another quasi-superpower sydney has – super annoying endless rambling. A lesser version of Vogon poetry…
You know, I keep seeing people mention Sydney saying something about lettuce and Popeye, I can honestly say I can’t finish her full dialog here, about half way through my eyes glaze over and the desire to clap my hands over my “ears” and run as fast as these old legs can go! My niece is exactly like that and it drives me bonkers. Talking to her is like a long series of
“Um… yea…. ok…. but… I don…. really?… could we… wait… stop… umm… berightbackIgottagopee…” and start running lol.
I do try hard to be understanding but the verbal flood is too much for this old man, I don’t know how her hubby can take it.
You figure Sidney’s meds are wearing down? This is the most ADHD phone message anyone has ever heard… particularly since a lot of voicemail services limit the duration to one minute.
Her ADD meds are out. As in totally gone out. Also Sydney is nowhere near as tech savy to leave a simple voice mail. You would receive an audio download link.
Why would you assume Sydney isn’t tech savvy?
She may not be a programmer or a developer, but she runs her own business which requires understanding business equipment, and is obviously a hardcore gamer, meaning she understands gaming equipment. She may not be able to build a webpage, but she probably knows enough to mod her MMO UI so she can gank with a higher dps.
that? oh dear sweet summer child. that was mild. my whole family like that. (grandmas (both), mom, aunt, cousins….me, myself and I(noooooo))
it’s like a infectious disease. thanksgiving was … interesting.
there was only one good thing about migraines. I could tell my mom had one when she was quiet. that may sound mean but guess what I also when inherited. yep ADHD and migraines. Doctors visits tended to be complicated.”tape it all and slow it down later”
side note: yeah first we thought the second kid was a little bit slow. then we realized the first one had extremely high IQ
Still looking for panels and panels of Sydney creatively swearing.
We are overdue.
succinct report lessons taught by duke. he he he
Anvil is surely lucky that Sydney stuck with hot sauces even though she can’t find one that really makes her mouth burn.
Imagine if she has switched from sauce to live fire ants!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Weird/comments/12bw18e/red_ant_meal/
Nah, Sydney prefers the mouth-feel of sauces
Oooh boy. Sydney like Max, carries a gun, not for it’s usefulness, but it is a recognizeable symbol of “now is the time to rethink your life choices or you’re gonna die” authority. love ke Dirty Harry(Clint Eastwood)
now whan Synet points a squirt gun filled with ‘GraxXxxx uber Satans my Biatch(tm)’ Sydney LLC brand inferno sauce at ya, if the company ld chill of Thantos’s bony fknger did not go go down your spine, you’ve done goofed. from there you’re gonna be sitting in Limbos DMVF (Dept Massive Villan fuckups) explaining to your case worker the single event that balanced your past evil deeds vs the one deed that was worth the eternal pain and suffering that was counted as ‘credit time served’ super soaker mortal coil ender.
As The Grim ReaperThantos quotes, ‘damn at least I make it quick and painless as possible’
I don’t think Sydney has the focus to run her own hot sauce company, but she should definitely have someone start and operate one under her branding. Or at the very least be collecting some fat endorsement fees from existing companies.
But wait!
Why doesn’t Sydney try to get the recipe for The Unmaker from that restaurant (Fusion) back on page #118, Got It In One ( https:// www-dot-grrlpowercomic-dot-com/ archives/comic/grrl-power-118-got-it-in-one/ )? She seemed to like it…before her eyeball got a taste of it. That way she can make some decently-hot (for her, anyway). If Fusion buys it’s Unmaker for their own stock, she might at least find out their supplier for it.
Once Sydney can get or make it by the bottle or even by the case, she can still garnish it with pure capsaicin to her own preference.
I think Archon is going to need a new Office under their Intelligence Department. Yeah, I know that Archon as a whole & ARC SWAT have numerous agents whose sole purpose is to analyze raw data & encapsulate it into a useful form of intelligence. Commanders need the intelligence so that they can plan strategies & formulate specific orders to give.
It’s just that, they could seriously use a whole new sub-branch of that just to interpret Sydney’s “raw data” into a form that’s not only useful for filling out reports & briefings, but they might even need such an agent to travel with her for the sole purpose of “translating” Sydney’s normal speech into a usable form of language.
I see Sydney has been taking levels in the Savage Species monster class for “brass dragon”….
Sydney has obviously been taking levels in the Savage Species monster class for”brass dragon”….
There’s an easy solution: force her to WRITE all her communication. First of all, it’s harder than speaking, so you naturally tend to shorten whatever you are saying; second what you have already written grounds you to reality, restraints you from rambling too far and when she realises she has diverged she has something reminding her what she was actually meant to say, so she can delete the off-topic and resume the communication. Last, there is usually a limit in the size of text messages
So… Catching up on the strip, and I legitimately couldn’t decide on the intended reading of the stinger (or which was funnier). “Sydney will assassinate people by pretending to be an obtuse therapist” or “Sydney will assassinate therapists by being really obtuse at them.”
Funny thing is there’s probably only about 5 minutes of actual conversation but she keeps repeating and talking over herself they just drug out into almost half an hour’s worth of message
Looking forward to this story’s conclusion
That was a great story. Thanks. keep it up!