Grrl Power #1162 – Almost famous
Some people have asked why Max went to a bar, basically a singles bar, if she doesn’t want to get hit on. Well, her lack of inexperience in this area means she also lacks creativity. And it’s not like she didn’t want to potentially start up a conversation with some civvy guy, but the sudden run on her compounded with her stressful week and a bad start to the evening didn’t help. She’s slowly starting to mellow.
I’m bad with faces. I might have mentioned this before, but if an actor puts a wig on, there’s a good chance I won’t recognize them. At least not right away. They’ll be familiar, but I’ll take me about 5 minutes to get it. My wife on the other hand could compete with IMDB. We were watching a clip of something black and white, and this 12 year old boy appeared on screen, and my wife immediately said, “I think that’s Ian McKellan.” And it was. I’ve never even seen the guy when he was younger than 55, but it didn’t slow down the wife for a second. I assume I’d be a better artist if that part of my brain was more swole, or however brains work.
All that is to say, Maxima’s disguise would be super effective on me. My wife might not even notice the color and specularity change before she recognized her. So her mileage disguised as “caucasian” would vary wildly. Anytime she goes out in public like this, she’s rolling the dice. Once it’s known that Maxima has a way to appear non-shiny, the chance of her getting away with this goes down.
The May vote incentive is finally up! Digit has some new and exciting tech to show off, as well as some other things, albeit inadvertently.
Variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon, as well as the semi-usual bonus incentive related comic.
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Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Interesting character design for that guy…
A patron perhaps?
Possibly. Possibly…
Max in this form with glasses would be even hotter.
Which would encourage the nerd pairing fans, and in-comic nerds.
Indeed!
My thoughts exactly.
She would look like Baroness from GI Joe.
So yes, very hot.
“Can you tell me friends?
What’s a fella to do?
When her hair is black, and her eyes are blue…”
If anyone knows how to contact the person responsible for making this and help them update it, it would be really great.
https://jcc10.gitlab.io/GrrlPowerSkilltree/?
Which reminds me, any chance of a new skill tree wallpaper? Please?
She should look up some actresses and models who look similar to her disguised appearance. Then when she is hit with this vague sense of recognition she can deflect it by saying ‘Yeah, I’ve been told I look like so and so.” and then hopefully that will be enough to satisfy their curiosity.
“I’ve done some TV.” {Blows up a tank.}
Oops. That would immediately lead to “Anything I may have seen?”
the response- “oh, who?” unless they come up with a name that’s 20 years older take it as a complement. then ask what the person knows about who you look like. this will keep the conversation going and may even get one of of the pair laughing.
Clark kent glasses definitely would have helped. Alternatively, half-moon glasses… or if we want to go for unmitigated cool factor, sarah connor glasses.
Max has a habit of wearing Sarah Connor/Lara Croft round lens shades, so that would be counterproductive.
Neon colored hair and big round glasses would have made every clear thinking male avoid her
.. but the bar crowd would be unaffected.
Careful not to cut yourself on all that edge. *eyeroll*
I would have thought her alcohol tolerance would be nearly legendary, but I guess *everyone* has their limits
Who said she was drunk?
Really I’m just waiting for a villain to think that the disguise means her powers are ‘turned off’ and try to get the jump on her.
At which point EVERY guy in the bar pulls a gun and aims at the villain with a resounding chorus. ‘Back off! I SAW HER FIRST!’
They would have to know it’s Maxi first
Every guy in that bar is already trying to jump her, just not in the way you met.
If they want to go clubbing/drinking and not pick up guys, then the large girl group is often an option, to my understanding.
The other part of what Max is missing is that most women who go to a bar without company or a date are actually looking for at least some sort of connection. Maybe not a ‘tonight’ connection, but at least a number they actually want to call/have call them. So by being there alone, that is the assumption most are going to make.
Whether or not a bar is a good way to find such a connection is up to personal taste.
Aye. Social perception of intent differs from men and women in contexts like this.
A woman alone in a bar is typically seen as looking to make a connection, especially if she’s a little older than the common clientele. (A woman in her 30s to 50s in a bar mostly with college age will often be reflexively pegged as a “cougar on the prowl”, with her dressing up being seen as less selective than one dressed like Maxima is.) Dressed and acting as she is, they’re likely to still see her as one but as more of a challenge to look like “succulent prey”.
A man alone in a bar acting and dressing similar to Maxima in this segment is going to be taken as either a guy who just wants to have a couple of drinks in peace after a rough day… or as someone actively trying to seem more standoffish and “too casually cool for the room”… all depending on his age. (And that last one can either have the effect of increasing attraction if he’s good at it by being a bit more different and mysterious… or it can get him mocked behind his back for trying too hard.)
I think Maxima’s boggle here is that she only lowers that wall around people she trusts (or like initially with Sydney, when she knows it’ll form a connection that achieves an objective before they actually became somewhat friends). That, combined with her staunch Feminism and that she’s used to behaving with guys as their complete equal in respect and attitude (when on “downtime”), or as their superior officer (during “official actions”), and she’s going to have these issues when it comes to acting like “a normal, everyday woman.” Because that’s not been her life for a long time.
“A man alone in a bar acting and dressing similar to Maxima in this segment is going to be taken as either a guy who just wants to have a couple of drinks in peace after a rough day”
Yes, makes sense. In a singles bar, it’s usually expected that the man approach the woman. It’s very rare for the woman to approach a man except for in the occasional sitcom. Although Maxima is dressed as if she wants people to pay attention to her – she’s dressed in a tight black, midriff-baring, deep cleavage-showing shirt, an expensive leather jacket, tight black jeans, and a choker. And despite her standoffish attitude to the pickup lines, the way she entered the bar and ordered and downed that drink was a very ‘HEY LOOK AT ME’ vibe.
Like DaveB said, she’s inexperienced in how to deal with this stuff. DaveB’s own words – “it’s not like she didn’t want to potentially start up a conversation with some civvy guy”
“and she’s going to have these issues when it comes to acting like “a normal, everyday woman.” Because that’s not been her life for a long time.”
Practice makes perfect :) And I really think she should have invited a wingwoman with her. Depends on what she wants in a wingwoman though. If she wanted someone who would deflect some of the attention off her, Anvil or Dabbler would be a good choice, although Anvil is very familiar looking and people will realize who she is VERY quickly, and I feel like Maxima might get into a bar fight with Dabbler if left alone with her too long. Maybe Sydney, although I think Sydney might have almost as little experienced in normal woman stuff as Maxima (despite her having been a ‘normal woman’ most of her life – and yes I know I’m really stretching on the word ‘normal’). Maybe Peggy? She’s Maxima’s other really good friend. She’s able to run defense in a social setting, and she’s probably one of the less well known people in ARCHON because she does not have superpowers, so probably isnt front and center in the media like the others in ARC-SWAT are. And there’s Chimyriad who definitely can blend into a crowd, although I don’t know how good friends she is with Maxima… seems more like ‘work acquaintances.’
Based on her internal monologue, and the author’s comments, Max is trying to make a connection… she’s just really bad at lowering her defenses (enough that, until this comic, I assumed she was actually more just wanting to get a drink and experiment a bit with not being immediately recognized, not that she was actually hoping for a little Type O Treasure). Ideally she’d be able to chat with a few guys and find one that interests her, but her shields are stuck at “Repel” when they need to be on “Filter” (although at least they aren’t set to “Disintegrate”).
It makes Maxima a lot more sympathetic in that she’s at least trying to be self-reflective on her social flaws.
If they want to go drinking and not pick up guys they can go to a lesbian bar and (mostly) not get hassled. When I just wanted to go to a bar and not get hassled by the barflies that’s what I did.
Pretty sure she’d get hassled at a lesbian bar as well. Just by only women instead of mostly men AND a few women.
“And a most pretty one it is. – Sorry if I intrude, but…” (insert anything clever here that won’t get you punched in your face)
Anything other than “Sorry to disturb you, have a pleasant evening.” should get a fist to the face
Don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. Does Max ever get Mad? Um…
Her phones sure think she does.
I’m calling: Deus in Disguise.
a D n’ D? you are calling a D n’ D?
Max/Harper would probably say: “Just because I may resemble her,doesn’t mean I am her…”
There’s gotta be at least a few super doppelgangers out there doing some lucrative cosplay gigs, even the A-listers have got to have a lookalike.
Back before the truck rearranged my face there was a guy in the DFW area that looked just like me, his first name was Frank. I know this because people would walk up to me and start talking like they knew me, and they would use that name. The ones that said something like “Hey, Frank, how are you?” I could head off. but the ones that assumed I was Frank and just started talking I would have to ask if I knew them before they got the message that I’m not Frank. And there’s a retired Marine Captain who married a Korean, then got a divorce, with my old name, that has caused me trouble. Like getting my checking account locked as hiding assets during the divorce trouble, and killing my credit rating during the divorce.
My brother, a straight-laced white collar conservative, has a doppel-namer who also looks a bit like him that lives in the same county. However Bro2.0 does tattoos and extreme body modification for a living, has made himself a walking billboard for his line of work, posts prolifically across all major social media channels, and is apparently a political extremist as well.
Bro1.0 can always tell instantly when meeting an interviewer or new colleague has looked ‘him’ up in advance, the expressions are apparently quite interesting to follow. He always wonders about the potential employers who did some superficial research and then never reached out.
It could be a good gig if you were a low level super. Maybe you got the physique but no hero level abilities.
Good job having Max question her choice of location! I’m glad that it wasn’t just me in the previous page’s comment section thinking that. I believe Max might find it more enjoyable to join a club and, depending on what her actual interests are, maybe learn to e.g. play chess (or any other board game or card game), learn a language, play Pen&Paper, sewing, cooking, Yoga, learning to play a musical instrument and joining a band, etc. etc.
It could be virtually any type of gathering that gives you something to do.
> It could be virtually any type of gathering that gives you something to do.
Welcome to the best type of night out for the socially awkward.
In that context “socially awkward” doesn’t actually mean anything beyond “I don’t like having endless shallow conversations and pretend that that’s enjoyable because I drink alcohol while doing so”.
The only reason we’re considered socially awkward is because we’re the minority, because navigating life while being different from most people is always difficult.
And I immediately thought:
https://youtu.be/t_rpRU9F9pQ
With Maxima’s attitude towards single bar behavior….o I more think of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNQeAhs9biI
For Max/Harper, yes.
It could be game night at the comic shop, plenty of like-minded people there.
That’s the number one answer.
Even if they figured out who she was, they’d all have a good time.
Oh yes it would be so much fun to see Max roleplaying with Sydney and friends. The conversation about what beams pass through a see-through force-field will definitely come up again.
my advice to Max is to not go in disguise with Sydney. if she did a few days later Max would discover that the entire staff at Archon is having a betting pool on how long before Sydney blows Max’s cover. (Ariana is somewhere between 12 and 36 hours.) Leon has scripts ready to screw with posts outing Max’s identity to try and minimize the damage. Also he is building a new identity for Max because nobody believes the cover will last more than 3 sessions.
I’ve got a friend who’s good with faces like DaveB’s wife. She’s constantly doing things like the time we were at a restaurant and she saw a guy walk by the table and went, “hey, you’re the dude who sang ‘Thunderstruck’ in a Fozzie Bear outfit at Halloween karaoke when we were at [bar name] nine months ago.” Even the guy was stunned by being randomly recognized that much later.
Meanwhile, I’m lucky if I can remember which waitress took our order five minutes ago.
Max lowers her armor in the shower, boosting her strength enough to accidentally crush a knob. Water sprays everywhere, so she tries to use an energy beam to melt the pipe shut. Unfortunately, her beams are also boosted, so she ends up blasting a hole in the wall. Several people come to investigate the noise and…
Perhaps that was for some other post? Also she has a power pool. It doesn’t just shift aroud; it can be retracted from her active usage.
Hasn’t there *already* been a plumbing incident?
Not with Max.
Yes there was when maxima had to shower in the general shower area because she crushed one of the shower knobs in her private shower.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-590-fall-from-shower/
Err, you say Max has a lack of inexperience in the blog. I’m assuming a typo?
She has so little experience, she even lacks inexperience.
I think she is getting some good inexperience now, though.
For those who think that “Clark Kent glasses” are a stupid disguise… Christopher Reeve, while filming Superman II, had to go somewhere in his hero wardrobe to deal with something and got mobbed. The next week, while filming as Clark, he was able to have a quiet lunch in a reasonably crowded diner because nobody gave him a second look even though he was still in his wardrobe that people had seen on screen before.
A lot can be said for how someone is dressed, but also how they carry themselves in certain clothing (many people don’t realize that their posture often changes when going from “professional attire” to “relaxed casual” clothing). Then there’s the context factor in that we’re used to seeing people in a given context and them behaving and dressing according to that context.
The thing with Maxima is that she always behaves in public in a certain way that has been caught on camera, her bearing, posture, and the like. Especially if you notice that other than a change of shirt… she’s wearing pretty much the exact style of clothing (black pants, military boots, her usual leather jacket with the rolled sleeves) that she wears as her hero uniform. So much so that she could potentially dose in some reality and “admit” that she’s “been told often enough that she looks like Maxima that she’s an amateur Maxima cosplayer and there are a few pics of her out there in costume.” (If asked to show some… well… she could pull up a couple of respectable but but lesser known shots on her phone.)
Two examples about the context thing:
I was a substitute teacher for five years. I mostly worked at two different local middle and high schools. For the first two years students who encountered me away from class would be unsure about who I was and I’d remind them. (One of the amusing earlier incidents was I recognized two of my students at the grocery store with their mom but didn’t say anything. I heard a whisper a couple of times of “substitute”… like they were trying to do that sly “say his name to get his attention” but I was still new enough that they forgot my first name. I just chuckled and said, as I was still browsing the shelf, “Yes, I’m one of your substitute teachers. To remind you the name is Mr. .”)
Another happened back in 1998 when I was managing a video game store. I was helping a couple of customers and an older gentleman walked in and looked around a bit, patiently waiting for me to be finished with my current customers (it was the middle of the day, not very busy). Something niggled at the back of my brain that he looked familiar but it wasn’t registering. He was so unassuming and humble that his behavior was throwing me off. But the moment he opened his mouth there was no mistaking that very distinctive voice. For the next half hour I idly chatted with David Ogden Stiers as I also helped him pick out a few purchases. (He was looking for a Game Boy and a few games with no violence in them at all.) In person he was so unlike the characters he’s played/voiced in movies and TV that the context was completely thrown off.
Contrast that with the fact that while she looks different skin and hair-wise… but that literally everything else about her is so “pure Maxima”, and you dilute the context effect almost to the point where people are subconsciously identifying who she is without it ever fully reaching their conscious brain. It’s being showed to most strongly, and is likely reaching the conscious awareness most closely, with the guy in the current comic page.
((Sorry for the longer post, but as I mentioned recently, this pretty much falls right into my wheelhouse. So there’s a little bit of “professor mode” reflex.))
Another great example of the power of body language, again with Christopher Reeve, is this short clip from Superman. Great physical acting.
https://youtu.be/tNUu6Lf9mVU?t=101
Yep, that’s the clip I thought it was going to be. A marvelous example right there.
I’ve seen that one before. It’s one of the best clips about how one can completely change how one is perceived by others strictly through changes in body language, posture, and maner (how one speaks/vocal confidence, submissive/dominant mannerisms, gestures, and so on).
He was a student at Julliard and Robin Williams was his best friend and roommate. (When Williams was broke or short on food, Reeves would actually share his student meals with him.) Williams has talked in the past (most notably on Inside the Actor’s Stufio with James Lipton) how they would take classes like Masks (using your facial expressions as a mask), and working as mimes, and so on in order to use one’s body as a complete unit for acting without the need for voice.
If you want other great examples of body language and facial expression, check out most stuff by Marcel Marceau (the classic French mime), and a lot of the stuff by Argentinian performer Luciano Rosso (especially look for “El Polito Pio”, “Eblouie par la nuit”, and a longer video called “APOCALIPSYNC”). As a side note, I’ll say that Rosso beats out Jim Carrey at his most “rubber faced”.
What I wonder a lot more is how no one ever recognizes Powergirl when she’s in her secret identity as Karen Starr. She doesn’t wear ANY different hairstyle or glasses, her figure is… very identifiable… and she often doesn’t even hide the whole ‘superpowers’ thing, at least within her company’s R&D development site. And yet at one point she got blackmailed by someone who took pictures of her. At least with Supergirl, there’s the fact that she’s a hot blonde-haired blue-eyed teenager that dresses exactly like a hot blonde-haired blue-eyed teenager does, and it’s not all that distinguishable from the other hot blonde haired blue eyed teenagers in DC (Cassandra Sandsmark (the second Wonder Girl), Stephanie Brown (the bestest Batgirl – shaddup fight me on arguing this, Cassandra Cain might be the toughest and Barbara Gordon might be the smartest but Stephanie Brown is the bestest), Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl), Cissie King-Jones (Arrowette), etc). And while Power Girl is ALSO blonde-haired and blue eyed her… features… tend to set her aside as identifiable.
My friend once joked with me when I brought this up and he said ‘the reason no one identifies her as Power Girl is when they’re looking at Power Girl, they’re NEVER focusing on her face.’
Good point.
The traditional reply to “My eyes are up here.” is “I’ve made my decision and I stand by it”………
I used to wonder how noticeable staring was, until I went on a hike with a baby strapped into a carrier on my chest. Watching oncoming hikers eyes as they approached, it was very obvious they were looking at the baby first (if only for an instant) before making eye contact and acknowledging me. I imagine it’s a similar experience, definitely felt like I was of secondary (or no) interest. I’ve since been a lot more conscientious about looking primarily into faces instead of at center of mass.
Ah yes, the immortal quote of the bard, Homer Simpson.
https://youtu.be/-SRkSDoECro?t=5
That would work except that like at least half the super hero journalism group in DC is power less very hetero sexual girls.
Aside from Iris West-Allen (married to a superhero and keeps their secrets), Lois Lane (married to a superhero and keeps their secrets), Cat Grant (who in the comics and most TV incarnations, including Lois and Clark, is not particularly bright and likely would ALSO fixate on Power Girl’s boob window if only out of jealousy, and only seems to have a brain in the Supergirl tv show on CW (and knows Kara is Supergirl), and Vicki Vale (who is an ally of Batman who knows Batman’s identity and keeps his secret) …. what journalists do you mean who are very heterosexual women?
Because I can’t think of ANY.
You make a good point.
I based this on the that all the male super heroes tend to marry girl reporters ignoring for a moment that this could result in a tendency of them to hide secret identity information.
To make good on my mistake I will stil provide you with a list of single female reporters in the DC universe having a name that begins with an A, because the list turned out longer than fun(around 120 counts) + 1 count with a b for the prime earth, because that is the most used timeline.
Abby Ladd, Alexandra Brackett, Angela Chen, Nita Ashley, Astra, Bethany Snow
I will also provide a list of reporters, so you can see why I won’t name all the female ones here.
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Reporters
Abby Ladd – from Captain Atom comics. Captain Atom had no secret identity. He was publicly registered with the US government, from what I remember. Also she’s from EArth-4, which had no superhumans other than Captain Atom. Power Girl did not exist on Earth-4.
Alexandra Brackett – Didnt think of her because she was only in one comic of Robin, and mostly was in hiding from the mob. :) Most of hte Gotham Gazette seem to be ENTIRELY focused on Batman to the exclusion of everyone else, which is admittedly really dumb, so I’ll grant you that one :)
Angela Chen – I think she was a gossip columnist (although on the JLA cartoon she then became a television host on Metropolis Today). She never saw Power Girl apparently, because Power Girl did not exist in the DCAU. In the DCAU, Power Girl was basically Galatea, who was a clone of Supergirl working for Project Cadmus and had no secret identity.
Anita Ashley – I think she was only on Earth-Two, which would make one think she might have noticed Power Girl, but she was mainly focused on Wonder Woman, who didn’t have a secret identity on Earth-2. And on Earth-2, Power Girl was still Supergirl and no one ever saw her face because Superman was keeping her as a ‘secret weapon backup’ (like in silver age DC). Also Earth-Two was wiped out of existence and the only survivors from it were Power Girl and Huntress. :)
Astra – don’t know who that is. The only Astra I know of is Astra Logue from Hellblazer but she wasnt a reporter and was torn apart by Nergal (a demon) and sent to Hell so you’re probably not talking about her. When i looked on the list you gave me, she’s apparently a reporter from Earth-Two in the year 2150… which is weird since Earth-Two was destroyed in Crisis on Infinite Earths before 2150 (in 1985) soooo…. she never really existed, since she was erased from existence. Also if she existed in a theoretical future in a universe which now no longer exists, it was in the future well after Power Girl (who was Supergirl while in Earth-Two) was no longer in Earth-Two anyway. :) :) :)
Bethany Snow – in the Arrowverse Power Girl did not exist, but if you mean from Prime Earth… okay tht’s a good one. Maybe she sucked as a reporter. She DID interact with Vartox and Ambush Bug so you’d think she should have seen Power Girl at least once when Vartox was trying to get busy with Power Girl. then again, Channel 52’s motto was ‘Some of the Facts’ so… she probably wasn’t a very good reporter.
What I do seem to notice from the list is most of the female heterosexual reporters on the list are either from universes where Power Girl did not exist, where no metahumans/aliens existed, were allies WITH superheroes so wouldnt break the secret identity code, or were portrayed as… sort of ditzy gossip columnist types who would be more interested in how many sexual partners Power Girl had than putting two and two together about her poorly-kept secret identity. :) Or were from Silver Age DC and were usually focused on Wonder Woman, who did not tend to use her secret identity as Diana Prince and almost immediately dropped it anyway to become the Themysciran Ambassador to the UN. :)
Although it’s true that gossip reporters only care about her number of sexual partners.
Knowing someone’s secret identity really helps with figuring out that number and can be used for some good paparazi behavior.
If there is anyone publicly tracking down celebrity secret identities in the real world it’s the paparazzi and gossip magazines.
Also your comment narrowed down the search area enough I can now provide a much more high quality list.
I can not filter on gossip reporters, so you still need to check that.
I also filtered out the Gotham reporters, because a. I already provided high quality Gotham reporter and b. although purely focusing on Batman is bad for business this is the [B]Gotham[/B] Gazette, so I think they will be tempted to report Gotham specific news, so unless Super girl sets foot on Gotham I question this works.
Most of these will be New Earth reporters, because I needed a way of filtering on: shares reality with super girl.
Laney Lan(Prime Earth), Carole Bennett, Cokie Walters, Cricket Kelly, Danita Wright(you’re free to dismiss this, because she is an ex-girlfriend), Cassandra Arnold(she is/was the girlfriend of a super villain. Exposing heroes seems acceptable practice), Esther Maris, Joan Lincoln, Julie Greer(although she might not want to deal with any more super heroes due to her past experiences in this kind of journalism), Leslie Willis(villain, so probably available for exposing some hero secrets)
On a related note I tip my hat to your superior comic book knowledge, my compliments.
Okay :) Lessee now…
Laney Lan(Prime Earth) – I’ve literally never heard of her but probably because she’s in the comic books for the New Superman (Kong Kenan, not Kal-El) and despite saying it’s Earth Prime in the wiki, he’s actually from DC Rebirth – so it’s already well known that Karen Starr is Power Girl (and apparently dating Mr. Terrific, who’s alternate identity is also known to the public.
Carole Bennett – was from before Power Girl existed, when Wonder Woman was still new.
Cokie Walters – I honestly can’t find ANYTHING about her existence. Just that she was from a single issue of a now-defunct comic called Team Titans (not Teen Titans btw), Nothing known about her at all. I’m not even sure if she still exists since she would have been around BEFORE Power Girl had a secret identity, when she was still a part of the J.S.A. Also I think at that time Power Girl’s origin story was different (back during the whole Atlantean magic thing).
Cricket Kelly – also in one issue, nothing known about her at all. So I guess she could have investigated Power Girl? I have no idea.
Cassandra Arnold – Her first foray into journalism was when she became the girlfriend of the White Magician, a supervillain. She died at the end of that issue so it’s unlikely she’d have had time to investigate Power Girl’s secret identity.
Esther Maris – was in two issue of Aquaman. About 5 pages total. She seems to be mostly focused on reporting about Sub Diego and the people who were mutated into essentially atlanteans.
Joan Lincoln – No longer exists after Crisis on Infinite Earths, so she would never have been able to see Power Girl.
Leslie Willis – That’s Livewire. She was a shock jock, not a reporter (despite what the wiki says). It’s sort of like saying Howard Stern is an investigative reporter. Much later, she reforms and becomes part of Superman’s team, The Supermen of America (aka the Superman Squad), so…. she would be unlikely to divulge secret identities at that point anyway. Also I don’t think she’s ever met Power Girl. Prior to becoming a hero, she only met Supergirl a couple of times and was defeated each time in about… 30 seconds or so on average each time.
“On a related note I tip my hat to your superior comic book knowledge, my compliments.”
Thanks! Comic/Pop culture and law. And Ninja procurement. Those are my only areas of expertise, lol.
Jane Arden is probably a better catch for your question though, because. Her entire shtick is hardcore journalism/private investigation and she out dates even super man, so she has enough experience an credibility.
I think Jane Arden was from the 20s to the 60s. For about 41 years, ending in 1968. Before Power Girl existed (created in 1976 but she was on Earth-2 until 1985). So she wouldnt have ever gotten to see Power Girl. :)
I’m terrible at recognizing people when I see them in a different setting. I once failed to recognize a woman I worked with when I saw her outside of work. And if they change their hair style or color, I can be quite clueless.
There was a reporter who was supposed to interview Marilyn Monroe and meet her on a very public street corner. He suddenly realized she was standing next to him. “How did you approach without my seeing you?” “Easy, you were looking for ‘her’.” I’ve also been told that Dolly Parton is very good at going incognito just by taking off her wig and removing the push-up bra.
The opposite sex at present is often seen as the opfor. In fact the “woke” left seems to want it that way. Here is an early warning video from 11 years ago by Karen Straughan from Canada
https://youtu.be/rlvMAS_20K4
> the “woke” left
Oh dear.
Are you ok honey?
At this point I’m just saying “woke” means “treating people I don’t like, as human beings.”
It’s a simple exercise, and reveals a lot.
Replace “woke” with “egalitarian,” and you instantly see what these people are actually Big Mad about is the flattening of their precious social hierarchy. Without the ability to look down on & abuse a “lesser” group, they’re stuck having to face the reality that we are all equally screwed by the owner class.
Treating as human beings is civility which does not mean that one must agree.
Civility is given, respect and agreement are earned.
Sorry, you don’t get “have opinions” or “disagree” on other people’s humanity, identity, dignity, or whether or not they get participate in society when not causing real, material harm.
Neither do you get to decide how they live, what they wear, how they engage with social roles, or what consenting relationships they have.
I’m fine. “Woke” is a fairly understood concept even lefty bill Maher figured it out.
Bill Maher is not a Leftist by any even slightly-educated definition. He’s a center-right capitalist with. Poor view of religion and a growing resentment towards everyone younger than he is.
Oh, everyone knows what it means when people like you say it.
That’s why I was worried about you. When someone like you says it there’s a higher-than-average chance you’re going to go kill a bunch of people.
—
As for what it means, when you say it:
It’s the new term for Cultural Maxism.
Which was the new term for Cultural Bolshevism.
Which was the new term for Cultural Judaism. And we all know who used that one.
(I may have missed a few terms in the middle, feel free to let me know what they were)
—
You guys stole it from the black community, who used it to mean “Is aware of the systemic racism and injustice the American police (and state) currently have against the black community.”
(Yes, there was also a short period of intersectional use of the term by white people in minority catagories, mostly queer people)
—
Answer me honestly, how does it feel standing with people who unironically fly swastika flags and get swastika tattoos?
And bossivusm stacked up how many Millon bodies?
You’re gonna need to re-word that in english.
And maybe answer the question without a whataboutism.
I think they might be trying to say “Bolshevism,” which is hilarious to me.
3:5 they’ll be citing the Black Book, despite it having been repeatedly debunked. For example, the “hunnerd milyun” number includes the friggin Nazis the USSR killed in WWII, AND the Soviets who died fighting them. X’D
Also, even better, they want to blame the atrocities of authoritarian regimes on their espoused economic system…but only when it’s communism/socialism. When we start looking at the deaths caused by capitalist countries, suddenly the rules change. X’D
Oh, that’s what they were failing to type.
Deaths from capitalism include everyone who’s died in America from homlessness, starvation and lack of medical funding. So yeah, Capitalism’s killed a whole lot of folk domestically, before we even get into the oil wars.
“Ask a capitalist why they hate socialism and they’ll describe capitalism.”
I’m stealing that line.
It is a classic. ^_^
It’s not mine, but I haven’t been able to trace it back to a clear origin. It’s just a simple truth that’s almost perplexing in how frequent it is made apparent.
Woke left , you’re american , I’m European and to aggravate this french , in the eye of alt-rigth soon of McCarthy a comie with a knife.
Wok is an asin pan
Woke is the swear word of alt-rigth , the scarecrow , they are a tiny portion of population , and an alibi for:
xenophobic, homophobic, macho a..holes…
US is like any country his history war written with blood and horrors had been committed … and continue to happen.
Countries are powerful but not great…
Welfare state is a devil’s invention like paid vacation for you … or not.
I’ m from an old country , national identity date back to 1204… Glory and power is easy come easy go , China in 1970’s was on verge of autodestruction, in 1918 French army was way bigger than US army …
No country had a manifest destiny..
I’m not from a WASP country:
1) White discutable for american a latino was not a white , and like latino we speak a romance langage.
The foreign langage closest to french was Italian.
2) AS anglo saxon it’s a insult since 1066 the Brits are our rivals , we are reluctant allies since 1902…The longest war of history 116 years is mainly French against Brits.
3) P protestant since 1905 France is a secular country before it was a catholic one.
My WASP privileges in US are du to US independence war and perhaps the fact if my country was no longer a superpower it remain a great power…
Ah the French, thanks for help in 1770’s. Oh wait I guess we’re more than even 1918 and 1944-5
WWI: The German-Austrian war effort was largely doomed from the start, and was already losing ground before Wilson drug us into it, and this was due very much to the tenacity of the French Army, which generally held the line against the Kaiser’s forces very well, and bravely.
WWII: The actual work horse of the Allied forces were the Soviets, who lost over 25 million lives fighting the Nazis, many, many times more than the losses of the United States, and who were responsible for tying up and obliterating the majority of the Wehrmacht on the eastern front, thereby making Operation Overlord even remotely viable.
And before you decide to start denigrating the French for getting rolled by the Nazis, at that time, the national government was controlled primarily by people who remembered the raw butchery of WWI, and were desperate to prevent it from happening again. Fools, perhaps, but certainly not cowards. Just old men with horribly guilty consciences.
And just so people remember, the Soviets being on our side was mostly because Hiter was too greedy in their attempts to carve up eastern Europe between them.
The M-VR Pact was only reached _after_ London, Paris, and Washington rejected an Alliance against German aggression _before_ the outbreak of war.
After all, the capitalist powers considered any challenge to the hegemony of concentrated wealth & power infinitely worse than literal genocidal conquest & enslavement. A stance that hasn’t changed; capitalists are still perfectly happy to accommodate fascism, if it means they can continue exploiting the workers and alienating them from the wealth that their work creates.
It wasn’t until it became clear that the Nazis of the mid-Twentieth Century would disregard privatization & capitalist property ideology in the name of their fascist agenda that they changed their tune, and were suddenly willing to make common cause with the “filthy commies.” And even then, US firms continued to do business with the Nazis right up until Pearl Harbor. “Dolla dolla bill, y’all.”
Russia didn’t challenge that, they were just “the other side” and still do state capitalism and imperialism to this day. (See Ukraine for details)
America was also where the Nazis got a lot of their ideas from.
The UK really liked Hitler right up until he invaded Poland.
And I remember reading somewhere that the term “privatisation” was invented to describe what the Nazis did to german industries.
Oh, don’t mistake me, I’m not saying that Lenin & Co achieved actual Communism. I don’t personally think that box can ever be really checked off. It’s more of a guiding star for continuing improvement, imo. The same way I feel about formal Anarchism; probably never “achieved,” but definitely worth pursuing, and using to inform policy decisions.
The term ‘privatization’ did emerge out of the dismantling of German State apparatus, as a way to kneecap Socialist policies& movements, butit’s essentially just the logical evolution of the British practice of ‘enclosure,’ when capitalism was first starting to take shape. What enclosure did to land, privatization did to industry & infrastructure.
Agree on the “It’s the target, but we’ll probably never quite get there.”
I’ll need to look up “Enclosure,” Never heard of that term before. Though I can guess what it means from context.
There are whole books worth of reasons why France fell relatively quickly. Most Americans only know what they saw in movies or maybe the dumbed down, rehashed propaganda that passes for an high school history class. The average French soldier with boots on the ground was pretty much as brave as the soldier of any other nation. Like much of the world, France was still getting its act together with regard to the Great Depression. The French were busy modernizing their military but there were also labor problems and political dissention that went along with the issues that Bharda points out.
Did not say that the French people were rolled in fact the French soldiers did as good a job as the could., true the socialist government had used what little spending on the military in great part as a make work project. That was not the primary reason for the fall of France in 1940 the primary reason was the decisions the French military in the weeks before and during the German advance. Though the military decisions before that made choices fewer. For a good example watch the chiftians hatch on the R35 tank then his video on 1940
I own label R35 which at a small arms level shows how poorly the French were applying their weapons improvement program which was well thought out but to slow and to small, I also own mas 36 and mad 49/56 which were products of the plan both good to cutting edge rifles..
A shiny Maxima appeared!
it uses ‘totally clueless’ It’s Super Effective!
Maxima uses Aura of Malevolence – it had no effect.
I want the transcript of when Max was on the Daily Show with Stewart
Hear, hear.
She should just lean into it. “Yeah, I’ve been told I look like that superhero? Maximize? Personally, I don’t see it.”
Voices are the same way. Back before my hearing started to fall off, I could recognize a voice even if prior I’d only heard it over the phone or a (two-way) radio. Or regular radio, TV, etc. Voices always stuck with me. I’m sure for people who do that with faces, it’s not just the face, but the way it ‘moves’ just like I picked up on the way people talked, not just the sound of their voices.
It’s not just the skin color but disguised Max has softer facial lines. In the last panel her undisguised cheekbones could cut glass. That should make her very hard to recognize unless she actually uses powers. Though did her voice get changed as well? That might be distinctive.
Bar Hopping Battle strategies. Definitely a thing..
Ah, there it is in the last panel.
If Max can relax and make that joke she is moving in the right direction.
This reminds me of a book I read years ago. I do not remember the title but the series was “The Rehumanization of Jade Darcy”. The main character is a retired supersoldier who is now a solo troubleshooter, i.e. bodyguard/spy, but she is having problems adjusting to life outside of the armed forces. Among those who she allows into her life is an influential woman who she rescued from assassins years back and who has taken on the task of trying to help Jade find a good life that does not center on conflict 100% of the time.
Part of Jade’s progress back to finding her place in humanity is a small dog she has named Pita, Pain In The Ass.
I raise a glass to the rehumanization of our girl Max and her effort to find her good life.
The Rehumanization of Jade Darcy (with Mary Mason):
Jade Darcy and the Affair of Honor (1988)
Jade Darcy and the Zen Pirates (1990)
Another aspect of her not being recognized is the lack of context, no one who has seen the golden Woman on TV would ever expect to she her “In Real Life” so when she shows up suddenly, anything that makes her look different changes the identity in people’s mind.
If the pope was wearing Jeans and a T-shirt and shopping for a Taco in downtown LA who is going to recognize him as the Pope? The context of the person in the mind of the person making the connection is very important.
Worth remembering that the cosmetic camouflage device could probably be set to make her look less like herself too.
Obvious question: do any of the powers affect skin feel?
(I knew someone with a mutation in their colligen gene, increasing the elasticity of tissues. This had all sorts of negative effects on the body, of course, but the feel of their skin was amazing; think chamois compared to the usual tanned leather.)
No, but sometimes mouthfeel changes.
Also, some of those battle plans look like they might make a good orgy…
Having Jon Stewart as the host of the Daily Show makes me wonder. What is the timeline for Grrl Power?
It’s some time between 2009 and 2017.
It’s some time between 2009 and 2017.
Cool, same as in the previous timeline. No spoilers!
Well the main reason that it has to be between 2009 and 2017 is there’s no talk about an election (although that might just be DaveB trying to avoid anything political, kudos on that), Obama is President, and he’s into the presidency enough that he’d be having regular meetings on this sort of stuff. Also since two+ months had passed it was probably not in 2008 by this point anyway (two months after November is January). And since it’s not winter, it’s probably at least 6-8 months after that at a minimum. Plus Obama’s hair hasnt turned grey so MOST likely it’s between 2009 and 2011, probably in the spring or summer (because of their pool usage – even Texas gets cold during Fall and Winter in the region around Dallas Fort Worth, and I know that because my mom lives in Frisco and I’m there frequently) unless DaveB just didn’t bother with the gray hair that started coming in during his second term.
I was mostly making a time-travel joke about your double post, but I think it’s canonically 2010-2011 since that’s when the comic started. I seem to recall a WoD about it at some point, but can’t muster the energy to dig for it. Between Sydney time-jumping and finishing basic training, I figure around 5-8 months have passed since the extremely packed first day.
ohh. yeah I don’t know how there was a double post even.
As for time jumps… lets see….
The main time jump was the 51 day period during which she was on the Alar homeworld and Fracture Station.
There were also a few days for different training montages each time. A day here and there with time skips with the Council and hunt for Sciona. A few times we’ve seen Sydney go to sleep and wake up the next day (I think 3 or 4 times for those). And there was a montage that Sydney did with ‘daily life in ARCHON’ so lets add on a couple of weeks for that.
So…. minimum of about 3-4 months. I can’t figure where it would be more than 5 months though. Four seems to be the biggest stretch for me, but there could have been skips that were not shown in the comic I guess.
You say that once her ability to be non-shiny becomes known, she’s less likely to get away with this. Dolly Parton is not a blonde. She wears a blonde wig. she’s brunette. She does not wear the wig if she’s going out in public not in character. people know this people have seen pictures of her without the wig. And people still fail to recognize her.
Hey, seeing Jon Stewart, that reminds me – what time frame is this? I assume Obama’s still president, it wasn’t that long ago he popped up in comic time. I’m just really curious how things would shake out on this timeline when an ultra misogynist serial predator like Donald Trump tries to run for president, in a world where superwomen Max is able to voice her feelings on the matter.
Maxima strikes me as someone who isn’t terribly likely to use her position to influence politics, but I could be mistaken, particularly if she feels sufficiently-strongly about the topic. The emergence of superheroes should have a significant impact on how the world develops going forward, enough so that we’ll likely be looking at a very different matchup in 2016 than Trump vs Clinton – but then again supers and magic and all that have been in play a lot longer in this setting than the recent formation of ARCHON, indicating it may have a good deal of temporal inertia, so we may wind up with the same match-up. Of course, if it has that much temporal inertia, it probably won’t much matter what Maxima thinks of it, you’ll still have the same result.
I highly doubt Trump would survive a meeting with Max.
Secret Service would have to literally gag and hogtie him to stop him doing something terminally stupid.
The prospect of having a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault (and who actually brags about getting away with it) becoming her commander in chief would DEFINITELY be something that Maxima would feel strongly about. The issue of Trump goes beyond politics, it is a question of both morality and pragmatism. Max’s conscience would be appalled at her and her team having to answer to someone so blatantly, cartoonishly villainous, and the strategist in her would balk at placing their power under the influence of someone so clearly chaotic and incompetent. Having to treat such a creep as her commander in chief would be a nightmare scenario for her.
There would really only be two options, and I’m not certain if one would be viable, even with Ariana’s level of legal-fu.
Option one is, of course, to resign. I strongly expect that would be an en masse event, as I cannot imagine literally any member of Archon – as we’ve been shown it – being willing to risk putting their capabilities in the Giant Orange Man-Child’s hands.
Option two, is something the French call “malicious compliance,” which is the act of using the Rules As Written to thwart the will of those who are in an official position above you. Honestly, demanding that the Orange Ape issue his orders in writing – a right everyone in the chain of command has – would likely give Ariana plenty of opportunities to cut the nuts out of every attempted abuse he could formulate. It’s even possible that he’d eventually give up, because he doesn’t seem the type to be willing to do much writing in the first place.
Both of those scenarios presume that Trump would be doing anything much related to her. That’s not in evidence.
Maxima has been in several meetings with president Obama in the comic already.
The President is the Commander in Chief of all the armed forces, and Archon is one part of the armed forces, so the President would have at least one meeting with Archon leadership, plus multiple updates. Obama already has once in the comic, when Sydney barged into a closed meeting while Faulk and Maxima were updating the President remotely.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-313-this-measures-an-eight-on-the-sydney-scale/
There’s also option three: “The oath is against all enemies, foreign and *domestic*.”
Option four: “Damnit Deus!”
And option five: Justice Lord Maxima.
Option Three: Max is far too much of a Straight Edge to run that gambit. She’d resign first.
Option Four: Insufficient Data to parse meaning.
Option Five: Would require some specific trauma, which seems both ill-defined & unlikely.
Option 3: Yeah, probably.
Option 4: Deus is a super-intelligence with interests in the USA.
Option 5: This is my problem with most superhero stories that aren’t Worm, K6BD or Lot4K.
They never address that superheroes are significantly more powerful than everyone else. Max could solve the “women’s health kerfuffle” Deus mentioned simply by walking into congress if she wanted to. No bribes needed, just “anyone who votes against it will find themselves in orbit.” She could solve world hunger and homelessness if she wanted to. She doesn’t, because she has been trained to think of herself as a normal (politically helpless) person when not catching super-powered bank robbers, and she’s been well-off enough throughout her entire life to not really know how bad things can get for other people.
Superheroes have political impact, because when they get unhappy they can do things like flatten cities or assassinate multiple politicians with no support team or warning. And after they do that, you will have a lot of trouble stopping them doing it again. This is the oft-cited problem with the X-Men as a human rights metaphor.
So the US government should be doing their utmost to make the members of Archon as happy as possible so they don’t notice that normal people have big problems. They’re currently doing that by paying them exhorberant saleries. But as soon as one cape goes “hang on, the government has the funds/ability to solve , they haven’t, and I think they should” they’re going to have a problem if the cape decides it’s important enough to make a fuss about.
Because not only do they have celebrety clout that can’t be easily taken away, they also can walk into congress and start throwing representatives around.
Might doesn’t make right, but it does tend to get its way.
Options 4: Capability is not action, and therefore this is still non-parsable. How would you envision him intervening in a way that wouldn’t trigger a violent conflict? (Big D has clearly shown a preference for avoiding violence)
I’d suggest Maxis more restrained by ethics than any learned helplessness, but in general I agree. I have a fanfic story I’ve been tinkering with that involves “unhappy super intervening in government.”
‘unhappy super intervening in government’ lets see….
project Cadmus in JLU (animated)
Injustice (comic, computer game, isn’t there a movie?)
Technically Flashpoint Paradox counts
i’m sure there are others.
I suspect that part of the idea of Archon is to make it easier to try and stop things if for example.. Sydney and Max decide to argue personally with 6 highly placed government officials. lets just say that arc-light and arc-dark have some broad permissions on base.
though I suspect that rather than direct action… Arc-Dark may decide to let leak some interesting tidbits to the press (anonymous source as they are ‘not cleared’ to talk to the press.) and as troublesome as Max is… I would suggest that Leon is far more dangerous especially for politicians who think that social media is the best way to earn votes.
Im surprised you havent mentioned ‘The Boys.’ :)
And yes there was an animated movie of Injustice. Better than the comic series btw.
I think Max knows that the moment she, or anyone else, uses power to override the political process, then the entire conceit of democratic government goes out the window, and we revert to rule by the strong instead of self-government by agreement. Good might win in the short term, might be able to fix a lot of problems very quickly, but long term probably more likely loses forever. As Deus said, and Dave expounded upon in his author’s comments, “Evil always has the advantage of being more proactive”. The people more willing to do anything for power, more willing to use force, are also more likely to use it for evil.
Our survival, as a species, as a civilization, is wholly dependent on remaining committed to the idea of government by some principle other than “might makes right”. No temporary gains are worth a permanent Nomic hellscape.
> Our survival, as a species, as a civilization, is wholly dependent on remaining committed to the idea of government by some principle other than “might makes right”
What universe do you live in, and how do I get there?
“The strong rule the weak” may be an essential truth of the universe, but it eventually leads to self-destruction. The belief that there’s an alternative, even if it’s a delusion, is what allows for some period of existence prior to that collapse. Without it, there is only the struggle for dominance, which eventually escalates into universal annihilation. This is the fundamental conclusion of the game of Nomic.
> but it eventually leads to self-destruction.
Hasn’t yet.
We’ve moved through a few different metrics for “strong” so far though.
Personal physical might.
How big an army you lead.
Religious command.
Money.
It always comes down to the same thing: Convincing other people to do what you say, against their own interestes.
This basic principle hasn’t changed for at least 3000 years.
“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” –Aesop (~550 BC)
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And I thought about “Evil always has the advantage of being more proactive” a bit.
It’s not true. We only think it is due to cultural narratives.
The Suffragettes.
Magnus Hirschfeld
Martin Luther King Jr.
And I’m sure there are many, many more people who proactively acted to make the world a better place.
We haven’t reached the level of technological progress necessary for collapse to become unrecoverable, so civilizations rise and fall. As power increases, the scope of the consequences for small problems grows. Right now, conflicts only have relatively localized consequences. But imagine if everyone had the power to kill anyone else with a thought. How long do you think civilization would last? And I think the tipping point happens long before then. How long do you think we have until we reach that level of technological development?
There’s a limit to how proactive good can be, before it crosses into coercive force and thus evil, while evil already starts there. It’s an asymmetric conflict. Say that someone’s trying to assassinate you. If one assassin succeeds, you lose, permanently, while you have to defend yourself against every attempt or you lose. They can fail and try again until they succeed, while you have no victory condition. You can only tread water, keep yourself from losing. Unless you strike back, and eliminate those trying to assassinate you. And then someone else comes along. The only way to ensure that you never lose is to either eliminate everyone else, or attain complete control. And then you’re the evil one.
So how does good remain good, while also avoiding defeat?
> Right now, conflicts only have relatively localized consequences. But imagine if everyone had the power to kill anyone else with a thought.
Looks at America’s history…
Looks at nukes…
> There’s a limit to how proactive good can be, before it crosses into coercive force and thus evil
That’s a narrative problem, not a real one.
You think it’s there because you see the world as good currently. It’s not. We could be so much better.
If we ever got to an actually good world, you might have a point. But we’re sooooo far away from that it’s not even a concern.
> while you have no victory condition.
How about we start with no-one dying from exposure, hunger, suicide or preventable medical issues? (Which would also take away a lot of the excuses the right-wing use to make everything worse)
> So how does good remain good, while also avoiding defeat?
Well done, you’ve reached the Tolerance Paradox.
I don’t see how you get “the world is good currently” from “the world is hanging by a thread, total societal collapse only forestalled because of delusion”. I can imagine both much, much better, and much worse.
“no-one dying from exposure, hunger, suicide or preventable medical issues?”
I was trying to explain the nature of asymmetric conflicts, but I don’t think I succeeded. Those aren’t victory conditions, because they require continual maintenance. You can only avoid losing, not permanently solve them. Just because no-one died today doesn’t mean no-one will die tomorrow.
That doesn’t mean those aren’t good goals. I’m just trying to illustrate the natural imbalance between good and evil, that good is a constant struggle to avoid losing to evil, while evil can achieve victories and walk away. Evil is waste and pain and loss, and even if you fix something, make it right, evil still managed to waste your resources.
> Those aren’t victory conditions, because they require continual maintenance.
And the Nazis’s ideal world doesn’t?
It’s just about moving the overton window. You either move it left, to better things, or move it right, to worse things.
Both are just as active as each other, because we’re nowhere near the limits.
Maybe if we lived in an anarchocommunist utopia you’d have an argument.
But we don’t. We live here.
And here, there’s a lot of things good people can do to make the world better.
“there’s a lot of things good people can do to make the world better.”
I didn’t say there wasn’t! But I’m looking at the big picture, the long game, and trying to figure out both the destination and the path to get there. How you fight matters, helps determine whether your victories are enduring or short-lived. That’s why we’re still fighting, or re-fighting, battles that should have been decisively won decades ago.
I’d love to just fly in, bust some heads, and make everything right. And sometimes, head-busting is the right solution. But not always. Sometimes it makes things better in the short term, and worse in the long term.
In the comic, Deus is playing the long game, and still making differences in people’s lives. But as much as he wants Max on his side, I don’t think his endgame is to have her drop into congress and demand change.
Sadly, the long term ‘right solution’ for optimal social good does not involve head-busting.
> I didn’t say there wasn’t!
You implied it, through your “good people are reactive” framing.
The only way that would be true is if good people can’t do anything proactive to make the world better.
I didn’t say that good was only reactive, but that evil is more proactive, because there are limits to how proactive good can be, and once you cross that line, you start interfering with people’s freedom to a degree that starts to resemble evil more than good.
> because there are limits to how proactive good can be
Yes, once we’re in an anarcho-communist utopia we will have run out of ways to make the world better.
So what? We’re nowhere near that.
If you want to make an argument about tactics being intrinsically good or evil, then I’ll laugh at your deontology with my utilitarianism, and point at the Allies in WW2 stopping the Nazis for a few decades.
I don’t think anyone (including Maxima) should really want a situation where it’s a ‘might makes right’ deal.
They’ve had that in comics before.
Justice Lords
Crime Syndicate of America
Injustice: Gods Among Us
The Authority
The Boys
Invincible
It never works out well, and eventually those so-called weakling humans (and the superhumans who do NOT agree with ‘might makes right’) figure a way to kill or de-power the super or supers who decided that their way is the right way regardless of a fair, reasonable and equitable (just) legal process.
Also I would not be surprised if there were not at least 23 different strategies in place in case Maxima ever did go rogue to stop her, including the Council, who do have people in it who probably COULD stop Maxima via means where she is NOT invulnerable (magic, reality alteration, alien science). Remember Dabbler is able to fight her to a draw, and Maxima is likely susceptible to mental control from what we saw with the super mannekiller. And that doesnt even begin to include Deus, who probably has an additional 486 ways to deal with that possibility (not including Vale). And as much as Sydney loves being a superhero, I don’t think that her sense of ethics would ever let her side with Maxima taking a might makes right attitude either. She is a much more Batman/Spider-Man mentality where superheroes are concerned, rather than Homelander/Injustice Superman.
this is far from the the first thread on this topic. Unless Dave wants to see the comment section turn into a raging dumpster fire every day I think the smart thing would be to simply ignore who the actual president is going forward- pick an arbitrary name and have one of the characters acknowledge ‘oh that’s the president’ use appropriate exclamations and punctuation as needed. this also a good idea because I can’t imagine some of these characters not reacting to some of the events that in the comic timeline have not happened yet but we have lived through such as windows 11. I’m sorry but I cannot brew up a good electrifying pun.
Other options include just ignoring the government & politics entirely, which is certainly viable, or delving into Alternate History, and seeing how goofy that can get.
I mean, I love Bernie, but I cannot imagine that if he’d been nominated & won in 2016, there wouldn’t have been some amazing nonsense. At a minimum, the first official White House Chanukah would become the stuff of legends. Jon Stewart would have been roasting him alive with Jewish in-jokes literally every one of those Eight Crazy Nights. Not to mention the opportunities for “old man yells at supers” jokes.
Yes Maxima. That’s how women do it. We have a group together as a screening force for each other. :)
That idea of hers’ shows me she’s thinking tactically rather than socially. Too much time in the military, not enough time in the “real” world. Which makes perfect sense, if I suddenly turned gold, I’d hide from the world too.
BooYA! The one non-creeper is OBSERVANT. *huge grin*
I like that Maxima is recognizing that she’s a large part of the problem. Often the defense mechanisms we create for ourselves to handle toxic/abusive situations become detrimental once we leave those toxic/abusive situations. And between her messed up adolescence and her time in the military (and I’d be willing to bet money that she had to deal with at least one case of sexual harassment by a superior – and that the service decided to cover everything up, on the grounds that Maxima’s abilities make her too valuable to waste via the usual response of punishing the female service member for reporting it), she’s now assuming the worst of every guy to hit on her. Which… is not a good way to live. Nobody wants to hug a porcupine.
> Nobody wants to hug a porcupine.
I do! They’re cute.
You just have to be careful.
Hedgehogs make a fantastic alternative, and are far less destructive.
I thought hedgehogs have quills as well.
Plus they’re far too fast to catch – especially the blue ones. I guess maybe if you left out a chili dog as bait but not sure it’s worth the risk.
Most hedgehog species have soft, flexible quills with rounded tips that can’t actually poke you – they’re great pets especially for small living spaces. More like a really thick fur than the rigid spikes of a porcupine.
However yes, you need to stick with the common brown varieties instead of the more exotic blues, which require far more space to run around and have an unhealthy affinity for collecting jewelry.
I suggest many who have actually seen one wants to hug a porcupine, they’re super cute… we just recognize it’s a really, really bad idea. But yeah, she’s definitely suffering from what her immediate knee-jerk reactions are.
Perfect end to her night, a “fan” is starting to put 2 and 2 together. Either this will end badly and blow her cover, or she’ll have to leave! Max REALLY needs a “plain-Jane” to explain how the normal bar scene is, not what a drink at the PX is like. Sad thing is, if Hiro had done the very same thing and acted like Max has, he’d of been sitting at the bar alone for most of it. I don’t know about these days, for obvious reasons I’ve been out of the dating pool for for 40 years, but to me, going to the bar was to get drunk or on the “hunt”. It has to be Dab’s tinkering that’s made it so bad. In my years i have NEVER seen a line at one gal, it’s usually a handful of men, going around nursing a drink or a beer, trying to strike up a conversation. Only losers use pickup lines, or the drunk.
I’m still caught up thinking about brichin’s excellent pickup line to me about Lexis Nexus. Pretty sure if that was used on me, it would succeed in my giving the guy my number.
That required a reasonable amount of prior knowledge though to select some that are relevant to you – and even then, the other dozen lawyer lines didn’t elicit the same response. Picking just the right line for a complete stranger requires a lot of luck, which is probably why many people go for a quantity-over-quality approach.
The Lexis one in particular got a special response because that’s refined knowledge of lawyers that most people would not get, while most of the others could have been gleaned from watching lawyer shows. :) It was very impressive.
I completely expect that through some ridiculous coincidence, by the end of the evening, a certain dictator-aspirant with lots of property in Africa will happen to find himself in the bar …
I really want to see that interview of Max by Jon Stewart. There is no way it could have gone well given how squared away Max is.
No no no…. glasses would invoke sexy librarian: “Specs Appeal”
it would only make things worse.
Gotta say, I kinda love the fact that this comic has been running so long, it’s turning into a sort of… pseudo alternate history period piece. It’s strangely endearing.
Obama is president, Jon Stewart is host of the Daily Show, Neil deGrasse Tyson is still loved by nerds instead of being rightfully ostracized for being an insufferable pedant who regularly abuses women… back when we were all still living in the tail end of the “Fuck Around” decades. I somehow doubt we’re ever going to get to the “Find Out” hell we’re all living in now.
at the rate we are going I fully expect to reach either retirement age or the grave before this comic reaches 2015.
it will be a fun ride though.
Hey Max – time to get out of your head — “eh – It’ll come to you when you stop thinking about it. So, what’s your story? How did you happen to be here, now?”
“lack of INexperience”???
I thinl you wanted to say “lack of experience” or just “inexperience”.
Apropos of absolutely NOTHING on this page, but highly relevant to Maxima…
This thing showed up on You Tub Shorts.
https://youtube.com/shorts/-G0v4g87K28
Nice find (both you and the OP), this is now part of my head canon. Although having done some stone cutting and polishing, including with (much smaller) geodes, I’m furious that the finder cracked such a nice specimen instead of slicing it cleaning into matched halves on a saw.
How dumb of him!
If he had opened it with his hands instead of that mechanical thing and gotten the geode water on him he would have almost CERTAINLY gained superpowers! Now he gets nothing except a pretty geode.