Grrl Power #120 – Faceball
The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that I didn’t quite have time to finish the page this week since I was either at the Austin Dragon’s Lair Webcomic Rampage over the weekend, or I was driving to or from it. It’s not a terribly long haul from Dallas, about 7 hours round trip, but I have colored the page in less time on occasion. In the meantime here are the pencils. I’ll try and get the inks done by Tuesday and the colors later in the week, so keep checking back.
As to Maxima’s shortness with Sydney, well, Max got to spend a blissful 30 minutes or so apart from her and within seconds of meeting back up with her is reminded how challenging she can be.
Also IGN is having a best webcomics poll. It’s a curiously short list, but they do have a write in option. The poll runs until Dec 17, I don’t know what the rules are for how often you can vote, or even if they allow more that one vote/IP address per day or week or over the lifetime of the poll? I have no idea, I’ll assume it’s one vote a day?
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Update: So I’ve replaced the pencils with the inks. You’ll notice the orbs have disappeared, I add them in last from a reference file so I don’t have to redraw 7 orbs x 11 panels all the time. Since this week’s page is going up in stages, I thought in might be fun to provide the full res inks in case anyone wants to try their hands at coloring a page, or just a panel or whatever. You can download that here. And here are the web-sized pencils if you want a reference. I’m not sure when the colors will get done, I need to get started on the pencils for the next page or I’ll be behind the ball forever.
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Update 2: Foreground colors! At least now the comic makes sense with the orbs laid back in.
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Popped him with a orb. And yet another power they have.
enter the orb of smiting
It appears the orb of smiting derives its power from absorbing all colors from its surroundings. :)
She probable can use them to trap someone,if she positions them right,too
I though we already knew they could be used for delayed smiting since she did it to Dabbler in the conference room after the chair incident.
Yeah, but that was way delaied smitting. This was right beside her fist as she punched.
If I had a superpower, healing would be one of my top choices.
If I could heal myself with those powers it would be my #1.
Which makes me wonder: How many healers are there in the superhero genre? Serious question ’cause I can’t think of anyone in Marvel and DC. In fact, the only ones I know are from MMORPGs (City of Heroes) or from a superhero genre parody (PS238).
At the end of the day, superheroes are about people who help others in need. So where are the folks whose powers are to mend injuries and cure disease? :-|
Probably either selling their ability to the rich, or more likely held by some goverment agency, or some rich guy who won’t take no for a answer.
In other words, either making the big bucks, or somebodies slave.
I was thinking more along the lines of “Why hasn’t any comic book creator made a healer character all this time?” The superhero genre is almost 100 years old by now.
Marvel did try to introduce a few charactors who had healing powers over the years. They were never very popular. Even had one with gold skin.
Yeah, there’s truth to that.
I gotta admit as an MMO player, all the glory seems to go to the damage-dealers. That’s why they’re a dime a dozen while few are willing to play the tanks and healers without whom they would not succeed. :-(
All the excitement and coolness is associated with the guys who do the front line fighting and awesome blasting, and not the people who protect or heal. :-(
I’m one of those people who dosn’t mind being in the background doing the stuff that keeps the world going smoothly, so that’s why healing would be my first choice.
I’m pretty good at massage myself. have been doing it since I was 5yrs old. It’s gotten to a point where I can tell where you hurt just by looking at how you stand.
On my part, I was speaking from personal experience. I stuck to the damage dealer because it seemed cool while the healer tended to get the blame if the party wiped. Much later I realized that I really liked to heal and support others; I didn’t mind not being in the limelight of fights. Playing a healer was very, very fulfilling as a video gamer for me.
You just mentioned the number one reason healers are rare (in mmorpgs) no respect and all the blame for a wipe.
Don’t forget us tabletop RPG healers for when it comes time to divvy up the spoils we always end up with the healing potions and scrolls though the rogue gets the rod of resurrection for some reason >_< Damn it I'm an elf cleric of the goddess of magic and can really use that elven chain mail and that cool wand of zowwie without burning precious charges … *grumble grumble*
I hear ya. Always liked being a Mage myself despite the weakness at low level. I always considered the rogue as a “Polish mine detector” for traps. “Hey rogue check the chest for traps! Opps that was a mimic. Oh well we’ll res you in a minute.”
That’s one of the reasons I don’t tend to play healer’s. Idiots pulling mobs left, right and center and expect you to heal/rez them.
and the Idiots are the main reason i tend to solo
My group tended to be odd because I (the rogue-ish warlock) was the leader, so I made sure the healer got what they needed to keep my elven-butt alive. Even if it had to come out of my own pocket.
Playing CO, I give all my characters at least a little healing ability, ever since the first time I did a certain mission with an idiot photographer NPC. Not usually enough to call Healing their role though. More of “basic first aid, ramped up a bit”.
Actually, I quite enjoyed being the healer in RFOnline back when I was playing it. This is because the healer for my faction (Cora) was able to summon avatars to fight for him, same as the summoner, minus the ability to heal them instantly (so if they died i had to wait like 5 minutes to summon them again instead of just 3 seconds), thus my dps while I stood in the back and my smaller-than-normal summon attacked was fairly decent. I was also the only class that had a chance to craft “super” items. And the only class that could place turrets on the battlefield (which did ridiculously high damage, but were stupidly expensive so were only used in very rare cases), repair armors with a touch (in RF when your armor “died” it stopped working so it was as if you were naked), and more importantly, resurrect people so they didint had to run all the way back from the spawn point in the base.
My damage was low, however, since there were basic, expert and elite skills/spells and I only had basic spells and up to expert skills, so it was impossible for me to actually kill people in PvP.
BUT I was the only healer in my entire faction/race because of the “got to do damage!” tendency of kids, and so I was more solicited than a hooker with beer & honey flavored nipples.
Yep, it is an okay life being the healer, when you are the ONLY healer -_^
“I want that drop. It gives armor and evasion. Im never gonna kill anyone, but you better make damn fucking sure I dont die, either”
“But I´m the race leader!”
“So? suck it up. Want me to stop helping you?”
Who were they, BTW? And who was the golden-skinned character you mentioned?
He was in X-Men during the early 2000 period when they had a bunch of new students. One hand could heal and the other could decay matter. There was a similar power set in the 2099 series.
You’re a little mixed up there. In the New Mutants book that became Academy X and then went through various forced attempts to turn the students into superheroes rather than, well, students, there was Elixir who could heal and Wither who was basically the new Rogue in that any organic matter he touched would decay.
Later on Elixir developed the ability to use his healing power offensively – for example causing someone’s body to spontaneously grow tumours – which was linked to the black patches on his skin, but he still didn’t make things decay.
I was thinking about the 2099 series. Had a guy who at first could only decay matter but after a while got a healing hand.
Yup. Can’t remember his name (or the name of any of the X-Men 2099, for that matter), but he was their Xavier figure. He developed his healing hand after he was injured and his body went into a weird healing coma.
I think a major reason for this is answered by the question, ” How many dramatic ways can I draw someone being healed by this character?”
Ahhhh yes Elixir…Oh course his skin turned Obsidian Black after he used his power to Kill someone threatening his girlfriend…
Then it went black and gold, then it just went gold again. But that’s because he’s absurdly powerful and his skin colour is based on his perception of himself. He turned his skin gold in the first place because he thought of himself as “the golden boy”. Seriously, the guy was stated to be an Omega mutant and limited only by his own mental capabilities. Then he had Beast’s knowledge of biology dumped in his head.
Why exactly he didn’t just make more mutants I’ll never understand.
last i checked it his skin is still gold but now he has a black patch that moves around his body
hadn’t had the chance to read any of the x-comics since before House of M. I have a vauge notion of what’s happened since then but that’s it.
There is at least one: Black Jack – check:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Jack_(manga)
And a lot of clerics etc. in fantasy, D&D …
When his back was broken in the comics, Bruce Wayne was dating a Dr. Shondra Kinsolving, who eventually displayed healing powers, repairing Bruce’s back.
Makes you wonder how much choice the doctor had in working for this agency.
I guess the same amount of choice almost everyone else got without their rights being blatantly oppressed and violated, but I’m pretty sure the perks and benefits they get really sweetened the deal.
The problem is, having a healer can drain the tension out of a lot of stories. If you can be healed from just about anything, the only tension comes from whether you can get back to the healer or not. It can be really tough to do right if you’re going for drama, rather than comedy.
Oh, and I suppose I should mention that the High Evolutionary had some pretty decent healing powers along with his genetic manipulation abilities, what with him being my avatar and all. :-P
But he’s not really a hero. :-( At most, he’s driven to extremes and a eugenicist, and not a simple and honest altruist the way Superman or Spider-Man are.
Yeah but the RIGHT healer puts the tension right back in.
Like one who is, for instance, seriously cracked in the head. Or a drug addict. Or a necrophiliac “Heal me!” “No…no…I don’t think so.” “For gods sake why not?” “I’m horny and you’ll be dead in twenty minutes.”
God I love playing/writing healer classes. Just because they can weld bone, knit muscle, smooth skin, patch organs, and regenerate flesh, does not mean they have to be pushovers or play by everyone else’s rules!
I especially love the realization that, to a person who can bring other people back from the dead at will with ‘minimal’ ill effects…killing someone becomes an appropriate response to ‘slightly annoying’. And just like that, the hippocratic goes out the window…
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO JIM!?”
*sipping from steaming mug* “Not before my coffee…”
“WHAT DID YOU…” *ZAP*
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO JIM AND BOB!?”
*Savoring the Folgers*
well when people talk about “healers” they’re usually referring to the type exepmplified by Leetah from the Elfquest comics…and forget that Winnowill is ALSO a “Healer”…
Exactly. Which is why when Captain Marvel was dying of cancer none of the super genius heroes could cure him. And that includes Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, and w whole list I can’t recall right now.
There’s even a trope for this,
Ok, screwed up the tag pretty well…
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReedRichardsIsUseless
He had super cancer that had absorbed nega energy while developing. No, I didn’t make that up. The implication was that they could have cured regular cancer, but not super cancer. Which has its own problems, of course.
There’s also a fantastic Dr. Strange mini where he tries to find a magical cure for cancer in order to save Wong.
Actually, it was cancer he got from an early villain’s poison gas. The Nega bands kept the cancer in remission for a long long time, but eventually just couldn’t keep up.
Yes, and the reason it couldn’t be cured was because it had developed into super cancer because of the energy from the Nega Bands.
There’s Raven from the Teen Titans, who not only was a popular character, but has lasted for a long dang time. 40 years or more, considering she’s still active.
Piffany from Nodwick can bring back people from the dead even if they have been turned to ashes, shred to pieces, dissolved in acid, and repetitive highlander-style decapitation, with little more then ducttape and sometimes a mold :D
Sakura and other medical ninjas in Naruto Shippuuden.
Chopper (as well as a few others like Ivankov) in One Piece, who can not only heal but also turn into a variety of forms including a massive godbeast ;D
Chopper doesn’t have any healing powers, though. Well, by our standards he does, but everything he does is within the limits of medical science in the One Piece universe. He’s just a really good doctor who happens to have shapeshifting powers.
Ivankov does in fact have healing powers, though. He (I use “he” for simplicity’s sake, since Ivankov can change genders at will, and seems to identify as both) can’t do much more than giving a body a boost of energy so that it can fight off poison or fatigue. Unless you count enlarging one’s face as healing.
Well there’s always Dokoru-chan.
One healer you really don’t want on your team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY6QCX0HPxg
Hah hah well I know there’s at least one person who will get oblique references to semi-obscure anime.
Thanks I was trying to forget that one.
“Healing” is one of those powers that sound fairly standard but are actually game-breakingly overpowered when you think about it. One ability that is, by definition, useful in any situation where human lives are at risk? That covers everything from blunt trauma to heavy metal poisoning to viral infection to drug overdose to cancer to blood loss to (in at least one story) being shot in the head, all of which are distinct problems that ordinarily require completely different approaches to treating?
On the surface, healing seems like one rather simple power (“do what that guy’s fist did, but in reverse”). But trying to figure out how it could work without also allowing near-godlike feats is a recipe for a headache. At the very least, if you can e.g. control cell regeneration to heal a paper cut, the same power should allow you to kill with a touch (“let me just heal up that hole in your face, what do you mean that’s where you breathe through”).
Even if you rule out stuff like that, depending on where the exact limits of your powers fall it may have some non-obvious applications. Can you keep someone from dying of hunger? Then you can survive indefinitely in the desert. Cure exhaustion and low blood sugar? You can sprint for 24 hours straight and never need to sleep. Heal injuries during battle? As long as you can stand the pain, you don’t even need to block any attacks, so conventional fighting styles are as obsolete as the Atari 2600.
TLDR: Healing is OP. Tune in next week for my rant about how time travel is OP.
Good points, sir. I would make the case that you can’t heal what’s already dead, but that opens a whole new can of worms in the superhero genre.
No need to try to convince me that time travel is OP. ;-) Even the most successful fiction involving time travel shows us it’s OP.
There is a series of books where one of the charictors is a healer, except they trained him to use his powers as a asassin. Forgot the authors name but the titles are Chimeria and Baskilisk.
Authors name is Rob Thurman.
Also has a book where there is a healer who was insanely powerful and went crazy. his nickname was The Death Of The World. Made himself immortal, and started the Black Death plague.
(Thats what makes it fun. They always underestimate the doctor-types)
Never piss off a healer, they know how you’re put together, they can take you apart just as easily.
same reason you don’t piss off an engineer.
Then again you can always give a foot rub to the person who got shot in the head..
don’t know if anyone will get this reference
You’re not Sarge.
There is Panacea in the webserial Worm, she mainly uses her powers for healing, and that’s what most people (in universe) seem to think her power simply is, but what it really is is the totally control of the biology of any living thing she touches.
One of the Morlocks, in X-Men, had the power of healing before they were wiped out. The X-Men couldn’t use it too often because they were on Iffy terms with the Morlocks. The only other comic I know of that uses them is the Webcomic PS238, the School for Meta Prodigy Children. That’s actually an interesting series if any of you would like to check it out the link is: https://ps238.nodwick.com/
Oh for the love of breathing!
I have the first several issues of PS 238 and I stopped collecting it after I moved and never established a new FLCS. I’ve been jonesing after that comic for years and it never even occurred to me to look online.
Well, I’m an idiot, but I’m an idiot with some catching up to do with a beloved comic. ^_^
And his name was ……..Healer!
And he could only heal mutants, which limited his power.
Also Chemical King over in the Legion of Superheroes could use his ability to control chemical reactions to speed up a persons natural healing. There is a new legionnaire that had himself bio-engineered with the same powers.
I thought that webcomic had stopped. As the site I went to it for just never updated anymore for like 6 months then dropped off the net… now I gotsta find where i was and do an archive binge.
You could probably live forever b/c you would be constantly healing your organs and skin. Your hair would still turn white though
Bleh. You just reminded me of an unfortunate from the first Wildcards book. When the superpowers bomb went off over manhatten everyone exposed got to roll on the tables as it were. Most died horribly, some got empowerd but twisted and some lucked out.
One woman got regeneration and always on flame powers. She did NOT get immunity to fire. Always burning, always healing. A telepath mercy-killed her.
wasn’t a woman in wildcards that could cure you of the wildcard power, but only if she had sex with you
Yes, Water Lilly, When Croyed aka the Sleeper woke up and could infect or reinfect people with the wildcard, Water lilly who has the power over water to the extent where if she wanted to she could remove all the water from your body. She was reinfected, and gained the ability to heal anybody she had sex with including remove their wildcard.
I am reminded of the fancy adventures of jack cannon in this strip. Also next halloween she should go as david bowie from labyrinth. Slinging spell orbs.
I’m reminded of Naruto’s Sage Mode, ‘cept his dodge-denial isn’t visible.
The orbs undetectablity coming into it. Math’s danger sense alerted him to the obvious danger. Sydney’s fist. But the orbs can only be seen. Not detected.
Still look at the bottom panel. While the hit may have been a surprise. Math may not have been knocked out.
More like Matt had no clue orbs could do that, so he discounted ’em as harmless weird orbiters or somesuch.
Very tru, but it was still a good reaction…Good ol’ Math. my fav amongst the guys.
What cthulhuearring said. They’re undetectable by magical scrying and whatnot, but they’re hardly *invisible*- hence why Syd had to carry them around in a poster tube.
But supposedly Math has no powers just high level skills.
Skills which have been developed fighting human opponents. Highly conditioned reflexes allow martial artists to respond instinctively to an attack, without having to consciously think about it. All of which includes observing body posture, where opponents are looking, weapons, limb movements and the like. But does not include monitoring pretty Christmas tree decorations. No doubt he is skilled enough to adapt his conditioning to treat those as weapons, in future.
Will still be fun seeing Math try and train a Berserker like Syd *Math in Med-bay covered with bandages,bite marks and a lump on his head the size of Anvil’s fist* “THAT GIRL IS NOT HUMAN!!”
I need to not read these comments at work. I just got looks for laughing. That mental picture is great!
Although you have to admit even if Math does start registering them as weapons in the future it still may be impossible for him to dodge or retaliate against them since Syd seems to be psychically linked to the orbs movements thus being able to attack him using them without ever telegraphing her movements. Also since they seem to be able to act within a pretty wide range (comm orb was able to go across the entire ballroom controlled by her) that means her sphere of influence would be unknown to Math making it severely difficult to actually measure how far away she can attack from. So basically she could even bait him into dodging attacks in order to force him into a position where she could strike him with orbs or even use the comm orb to distract and then revert the orb into a return strike it’s all really dependent on how much she can actively do with the orbs themselves regardless though.
I don’t know what you were seeing, but I clearly see a flailing fist decking Math.
fist missed, orb hit him.
The comic is in a state of evolution. We posted the comics based on the initial sketches, where you can clearly see the orb hitting. If you check out the author comment below the page, you will see that at the inking stage, he removes those, so that he can draw them in from his stock images.
So at the time of you writing your comment, it very much does look the way you described. Today it is just an invisible orb. When the final coloured comic appears, the orb will be back and smacking him down.
Math was paying attention to the girl, so when she swung her untrained fist at him, he saw that and got out of the way. He didn’t notice how the orbs were moving. He’s probably never fought anyone using orbs before. Therefore, Chud! Totally understandable.
Now comes the big talk. Is it great power comes with great… something? or the age old question of how much medication do we need to give you before we send you to boot camp?
Drugs! Drugs! Drugs! Send Syd to a happy place, then things will really hit the fan. :)
Bwahahaha, ADHD-girl strikes again! This page will have me in stitches for a while, thanks for making my Monday as always, Dave!
ninja’s beware
I wish that whenever an individual orb effected something in the comic, it would be listed in the Who’s Who section to the right.
That way we could become more familiar with their abilities.
In this case, it makes no difference which orb did the attack. As any of them could do that. Sydney has already demonstrated precision control over all of them. However, this incident has shown that their telekinetic strength is significant.
Which leads to thoughts of just what is the upper limit of their power/velocity? Could they punch through a wall? Or is there a limiting factor, due to them being vulnerable to damage if hitting hard objects (or villains)?
If they are essentially indestructible and are capable of achieving high velocity near instantly (albeit limited in how far they can travel from Halo), then they could potentially punch through vault doors or the like! The only limiting factor at that point, being the risk of collateral damage. And even that could be minimised by using Sydney’s force field (for herself, at least, and assuming that she can move orbs outside the force field).
If you live in a Newtonian or Einsteinian world, then they should have a maximum acceleration, not a maximum velocity.
Given the hard limit on how far from Sydney they can get, and so the distance over which they can accelerate, it amounts to the same thing.
Just make their path circular, around her.
Living in an Einstein-ian world, there is a maximum speed, the speed of light. The closer you get to the speed of light, the more your mass appears to increase and the slower time progresses for you. Something with mass can never achieve the speed of light as that would require infinite energy to accelerate and time would be subjectively stopped.
Yeah but as your mass increases you can always use that for reaction mass to accelerate you. :-P
Hey, look! Our LOX tanks are full again!
Everyone knows *that*. I meant that there was a maximum force that Sidney could exert on the orb, not a maximum speed that she could make it go at. Technically the curve of force vs. speed is horizontally asymptotic due to the speed-of-light limitation, but it’s not like she’ll ever be able to make it go that far, since the orbs’ motion vectors are measured relative to her, and they can only get a certain distance from her. Although, I do wonder about circular paths *around* her.
I don’t, but I visit one occasionally. And Sydney has a few powers over and above her orbs. One of which is the ability to opt out of mundane Newtonian and Einsteinian Laws.
Actually, there is an indication that the orbs defy physics as we know it. See https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/370 and the comments that follow it.
Their distance-limit from Halo is irrelevant, just spin them in a “circle of jackhammer-blows”, & they’ll pound their way through anything, just like a constant stream of water wearing away a boulder into dust…
…only MUCH faster.
would be sledgehammer-blows a Jack-hammer would be one orb hitting repeatedly by backing up an inch or so and accelerating until impact, rinse and repeat until target is shattered.
True – I was using the “jack-hammer”-visual to suggest the SPEED of the repeated blows, but the analogy breaks down if you try to apply it to the TRAJECTORY that the orbs would need to employ.
When Maxima tried to pull Sydney towards her using the tubes tethering effect, that showed a bit how powerful they had in potential.
I always figgured they used the Earths EM field to move.
So here would be a fun experiment. Can she fling one of those orbs with enough force to break through her own forcefield? At that point, which is the unstoppable force, and which is the immovable object?
Also, I nearly snarfled my cereal when I saw the look of bemused boredom on Math’s face as he dodged Sydney’s punch. The look of “Really? Thats what you’re bringing to the table?” That’s probbly why the orb caught him off guard, he was using too much attention observing Sydney’s lack of fighting style.
It is why unschooled martial artists wear white belts. It does not say “beginner”, it says “DANGER”. Once they have learnt enough of the basics not to no longer be of threat to those who expect sanity, the first colour belt can be awarded. Raising from “Dangerously incompetent” to “Mostly harmless”.
i remember reading somewhere that the worlds best swordsman doesn’t fear the 2nd best swordsman, he fears the worst!, because he can predict with great accuracy what the 2nd best will do in any given scenario, and can safely counter it, but the worst one will be an unpredictable, chaotic, ball of fury that he cannot safely counter because he doesn’t know what they will do next… (Sydney)
In the martial arts world it is the same, or so I’ve heard.
I’ve said that here a couple times, and others have used similar examples. Although alot of us have…personal experience fighting like that.
In my experience, also occasionally referred to as ‘The Inspector Clouseau Effect’.
I just wanted to know which one blew things up and which one made the tentacle… Why you all gotta bring math into this?!
Winston: Math is delicious!
Your suggestion about using the who’s who does have merit. Although normally that is only used for characters with speaking parts. So the implications would be a bit worrying if they did find their way up there!
If you hit the cast list button, at the top of the page, you can see a short list of the powers of the known orbs (hidden in spoiler text grey, click to view). I am guessing that requests like yours will be a common occurrence, so DaveB may expand that, or perhaps follow your suggestion. But he does hold down a day job, so does not get much chance to work on all the extras like this.
I did post a comprehensive list of the orbs, their properties and in last weeks comments.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/704/comment-page-1#comments
As a work-around, until or if Dave gets to do something, it may be an idea to add that link to your bookmarks, so the next time Halo uses the orbs, you can look them up.
while i doubt she will ever catch him completely off guard again, Math is NEVER going to live this down LOL.
heh just noticed the lil sub panel under the main page… i can totally see Math doing that. ^.^
No way, he’s to proud for that
He’s not to proud if there is a possibility of groping involved.
Even I am not sure whether he allowed himself to take the hit to get sympathy gropes or if he was just caught flat footed.
Part of why Math is cool, can never be sure if he plans it out or just makes it up as he goes.
Do you want to know how I got these scars?
They took my appendix out.
Heh. I’d never want to have to be the doctor who had to operate on Math. He’d probably be by unconcious on the table from the anasthetic, dodging the scalpel, while beating the crap out of the male nurses and groping the female ones.
I guess he got hit by suprise, but played up how hard he was hit to get some sympathy from the girls.
As funny as that would be, I can’t imagine a martial artist as good as Math ever concenting to taking a blow to the face like that from a totally unknown source. His own threat acessment would probably make him want to confirm if the orb was dangerous or not before taking one on the chin . But that’s just my take and opinion.
My take on it is that the orb was positioned so well by Sydney’s approaching fist that he could not see it. Unlike knife fighting techniques, which aim to conceal the weapon against the forearm, there would be little or no clues, which the highly skilled normally normally pick up on, such as the closed hand being held at a distinctive angle.
Sydney essentially has twelve limbs. Seven of which are invisible except for the orbs at their end. And we now know she has developed (or perhaps been granted) precise and instinctive control over those.
Sorry about bringing more yummy math in. Oh, and if anyone is getting twitchy thinking about how I make it twelve limbs, you are probably forgetting the most important one, Sydney’s head.
I take it you’re counting the pseudopod as one with its orb? Until you mentioned counting her head, I was assuming that the pseudopod was the extra ‘limb’.
I chose to omit both the pseudopod tentacle and the inner orb that can be remotely sent to project Halo’s image, for the reason that she has to grasp the relevant orbs, in order to activate and control them. Thereby reducing the number of limbs she has in orbit, albeit replacing them with other limb-substitutes. So the total stays the same.
So the list (phrasing carefully chosen to avoid the m**h word) is as follows:
7 orbs
2 arms
2 legs
1 head
How about this: The orb really did catch Math by surprise. However, he is such an amazing fighter that he managed to roll even with a surprise hit, reducing the damage. Then, while adjusting his trajectory, he decided to fake being knocked out and to play for some guilt-motivated attention, termination of combat mode, mouth-to-mouth, whatever…
Let’s consider Sydney’s first meetings with other supers thus far:
Mr Amorphous – Tongue-flipped, ear-pummelled, scalp-bitten.
Max – Boot upchucked on, pratfall courtesy of The Tube.
Harem – Punched in face.
Math – TKO.
Not sure if this could be called a pattern, but it is interesting..
I would say these are very serious reasons to recruit her. Think about it. You have a highly special and trained military force of veterans. Pipsqueak comic store owner comes in and is mopping the floor with them. You want her on your side both to keep her from anyone else’s side and to get your people that much better.
Also most of her succesful moves are chaos-fu.
Halo is going to need more than just a strong talking to. She will need VERY specialist training.
Currently she has stunningly good reflexes in response to unexpected, in-your-face threats. To the kind of level you would expect in a veteran soldier. Instinctively responding to a surprise attack with a feint, who’s primary purpose is to conceal the real attack, is the kind of capability that would normally take months or years of training (and/or much battlefield experience).
Either that, or she has the personal favour of the goddess of luck!
ARC certainly do not want to train those kind of life-saving reflexes out of her. What they will have to do though, obviously, is to incorporate threat assessment and appropriate response within her reflexes. Until they do, she is more akin to a veteran soldier who has been emotionally burnt out and lost the ability to distinguish threat from peaceful intent. Which makes her deadly dangerous.
I always thought she had a drill Sgt. for a father That would explain the mouth and the combat reflexes all in one neat package.
I think ARC’s best bet with her is more to just try and keep her pointed in the right direction. And maybe an industrial strength muzzle.
chaos is one of the most dangerous and powerful elements to channel as it ignores rules laws and logic so halo is understandably devestating whith her MA based on it.
Dabbler 1 – Halo 0
in case you forgot ^_~
no its 1 dabbler- 1 halo
she nailed dabbler with a ball dropping on her head
I came to the same conclusion. She realy needs to work on her ‘first impression’ when meeting other teammembers…or they need to learn not to surprise her.
I guess the second option has a higher chance of succes.
In fairness, I reckon it goes the other way too.
Math’s actions – bouncing out of nowhere at a total stranger, doing the uber-creepy-face-and-hands and yelling “MORE WOMEN!” – is NOT a good first impression under any circumstances outside of a drunken frathouse party. If that is at all typical of Math’s first-time greet of females, then guaranteed ARC will have way way worse problems with that than anything Sydney could achieve.
Sydney’s reaction was entirely understandable. If Max wants Sydney to ‘tone it down’ or whatever, that may be fair enough. But Math totally had it coming.
You can’t take a swing at someone for being creepy.
bonuspoint for those who get the reference. ;)
Maybe that is what the talk is going to be about.
Max: You can’t go around hitting everybody when you first meet them!
Not colouring in – what a fiendish way to hide the easter egg!
Sorry for being clueless or for playing Captain Obvious, but I suppose the “omakes” at the end of each update aren’t canon?
No, those are just extra jokes
Well, some of them do look like they might well have happened. Albeit that most are very much ‘tongue in cheek’.
Ditto KFox
@Thorgar – he doesn’t know about Badgers yet. :-)
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Sweet mother of all powers, that thought made me laugh! I SO hope Dave will make that canon!
Is it me or do I see Peggy and Max putting the boot in after Math has been floored? xD
My guess is Peggy. I love her evil grin there.
I suspect it was more of a foot-nudge, to check if Math was conscious.
Probably a HARD foot-nudge, I grant you.
superhero storys (good free webnovels) with healers:
Worm
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/
Super powered
https://drewhayes.digitalnovelists.com/node/696
Now we have to wonder (at the moment anyways) Which orb it was. Sydney’s victory pose also could do as an evil dictator’s….a potential drag-off-in-the-middle-of-pose topic right there.
We will see in the next day or two as DaveB adds color and texture.
He said he would in the comments part under the comic.
Thus the'(at the moment anyways)’
This page had me laughing hard. Too bad it is just a sketch now, but that only means I can laugh at it again when I come back later to see it completed.
I agree. I loved this even as just a pencil and I know I’ll love it even more as the week progresses.
I love getting to see behind the scenes like this. I have saved a copy, for when it gets overwritten with the inked in version. Just in case it does not get put on an ‘extras’ page, someday, to show the before and after stages.
Well, as I type that, I realise I am projecting a bit, and making assumptions which might not be true. I find comics that keep stand-in art, holiday greetings and guest art in the main archives to be disruptive when trying to read through the story to date. I think the comics which handle it best are those that keep them on display for a few weeks, before moving them to another area, out of the main story.
Well, when you talk about making assumptions. . . I’m going to assume that’s the “flight orb” Syd’s holding in the last panel. That way Max isn’t so much dragging her across the floor and more like pulling her like she’s a balloon on a string. Funnier that way.
Ooh, an inked page you say? Hopefully I can snag it before he changes it out. Or he could be a cool dude and send me the hi-res over deviantart >.>. Also, IGN, wtf? Only good one I like (or have even heard of) is Battlepug. I mean of Hark!, but it doesn’t fall into what I read. Never heard of the rest. At least one of them wasn’t homestuck. Love of christ I’m getting sick of people just screaming at me “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS?!” Seriously folks, get over it. But really, no love for the likes of Wapsi Square, Girl Genius, PVP Online, Gunnerkrig Court, and most of all, Grrlpower? Yeah, I think that was just an editors top 5 morning webcomics list while he/she had morning coffee.
I don’t know IGN myself. But if Girl Genius does not feature, then I think your summary is spot on. That comic has won the Hugo award multiple times. To the extent that they chose to stand down from ever being nominated again, to allow other comics a shot at the category!
For those unaware of the Hugo awards, it is pretty much the Oscar of the science fiction world. If you see a novel with the Hugo award on it, you do not need to bother reading the back to guess how good it is. Just buy it. It will be superb.
I have a frightening number of comics bookmarked, of which there are several favourites that I always keep up to date with. Which either excel at story or artwork or have something extra that pushes them above the crowd. One of them appears on your shortlist. Not to disparage the others, I simply have not read those myself.
However, to win a Hugo in the comic category (whatever fancy title Hugo gave it) would take being at the top of the league in every aspect. In my experience, there are only two comics worthy to succeed Girl Genius. Unsounded (Beware: contains adult themes and strong language) and Grrl Power.
Curiously enough all three represent different genres. Girl Genius being steampunk. Unsounded fantasy. And Grrl Power… you might think that it just falls in the genre of superhero but it also rules in the comedy category too.
The given list at ign was rediculous. I did check out JL8 and it’s kinda cute.
I also missed all the usual suspects. Since Girl Genius and Grrl Power are my two favorite webcomics, I’ll check out Unsounded. I hadn’t heard of it before but since you mention them on in the same comment, I’m trusting your tast/judgement.
Thanks for your confidence. I am sure you will love it.
Schlock Mercenary is a worthy add to that set, been nominated for the last 3 years running. The author (Howard Tayler) did win a Hugo for ‘Writing Excuses’ which is a podcast he collabarates in.
It would be a good running joke if Math was to become leery and nervous every time Sydney was near. :)
Somehow I see most of the team being leery around Sidney.
But to see Math, who’s ego is rather large, scared of a “little girl” would be priceless in terms of humor. ” I don’t mind fighting the giant invulnerable (insert favorite villain here) but please don’t let her help!”
Martial arts master = huge letch…
IT’S THE LAW! (of the universe or something)
At this point, I want to see Math in action. His horsing around with Anvil doesn’t count; I want to see Math get serious. I want to see what he’s like when he chooses to set aside his lechery and jerkass attitude and really focus on combat.
That said, I can’t wait to see them all do that, including Syd.
Sydney we get, but where are Math’s meds? Ribald teasing with colleagues, motorboating the babe who swipes his shirt, bawdy but good natured give-and-take, that’s one thing…but accosting a total stranger in the hall? What the hall, dude?
I suspect that, when ARC had its obligatory course on sexual harassment, Math refused to participate on the grounds that he was already an expert.
*snort* (very glad that I had just finished my mouthful on reading that last)
And +1 thumb for all the comments that indicate Math is over the top here. I think we can take it that Maxima will have a word with him later. Possibly off-screen (err or out-of-comic), to avoid bogging the ongoing storyline down too much in mundane details.
It looks like we are going to see Sydney’s one though. Which is entirely appropriate, as we are following her introduction in this arc. Or should that be “into Arc”? I wonder if the Arc building has an Arc built into it? In case of flooding.
*Sees bright, shiny object and wanders off*
didin’t see that coming math lol
If you can dodge an Orb, you can dodge a Ball.
*WHAM*
Back to Training Mr. Martial Arts Master.
And yeah, like fun Sydney was gonna kiss him. We know that is not in her character. At most she would have hauled him into the Doc as they are not too far from the medbay (if not right outside it).
Odds the Doc would not use her Healing powers on him? Pretty good depending on how much he decided to perv.
Awesome comic. Love Sydney being elevated to insurmountable. I will be sure to put in my votes, as soon as I have a chance to check it out.
In the past several someones (including myself) theorized Syd using the orbs as a blunt object. I guess we were right.
I believe Math goes by the Ethos of: ‘Avoiding a Chainsaw by an inch isn’t a “near-miss” – It is a miss in which nine-tenths of an inch is wasted effort.’ (( quoted mostly word for word from V:tR VII ))
Hahaha, i’m guessing Sydney has gotten some fight training in with her orbs…or they are just that connected… either way, its a good thing it wasn’t the pew pew orb, otherwise he might not have a head…
she has to be holding them to activate them.this one was following orders.
DAVE! About the Webcomics Rampage: Did you happen to talk with other webcomic authors? What did you talk about, besides: “My webcomic is better than yours”? Was there anyone saying your Grrl Power is better comic than theirs? Say, you yourself like Spinnerette. Did you meet Krazy Krow? And what did he have to say?
I met a few readers and chatted with them on and off for about an hour. I met several of the hosted webcomic artists and got to chat a bit with them but not a lot of in depth conversations. It was fun going but I’m not sure I’ll do it again until I have a table of my own.
I suggest you got one next time using some form of comic related funding. Maybe sell cameos in the comic or presell your book. Then have a bunch of merch on hand to sell.
Hey, if you’re selling cameos, sign me up for a date with Harem(s)…
Is it just me or has Sydney been sliping ever closer to a more vilenous maglomaniac persona lately?
Nah. She’s just being herself. ADHD, tomboy, nerd, and genre savvy.
Taking out the most skilled fighter in ARC (and thereby, possibly, in the country or even the world) deserves a victory dance. I see her pose as melodramatic than megalomaniatic.
Seems like at this rate, there will have to be an official warning for the rest of the staff at the various arcs to not surprise her.
Current reflex count is Amorphous, Harem, Dabbler and now Math I believe.
An attempt at some constructive criticism:
It seems that character position isn’t consistent between panels. I know that the details that would establish camera position are missing so some assumptions might be wrong.
Panel 1: Max is on Sydney’s right and Peggy is on Max’s right.
Panel 4: Math arrives behind the Sydney, Max & Peggy.
Panel 5: Math jumps in front of Sydney and Max teleports to Sydney’s left.
Panel 8: Math is hit on his left side / from Sydney’s right.
Panel 9: Max teleports back to Sydney’s right. Math has is now facing away from Sydney and falling to Sydney’s right (momentum should have pushed him to Sydney’s left).
I’m assuming that the cause of the problem is having Sydney in the foreground and other characters in the background for their reaction. Positioning Max on Sydney’s left and Peggy on Max’s left in the establishing shot could resolve the action related positions but could throw off the dialogue panels.
The blocking isn’t perfect but basically Math jumps in between Max and Sydney, and in that same panel Sydney has spun around to face him as he does. Hopefully with the backgrounds in it will be a little clearer.
Your sketch seems strikingly detailed and accurate… I am interested in seeing a more detailed processes of how you make a page.
Also, I am confused as to how Sydney hit Math when she also missed him.
math dodged the fist, the orb got the hit. the question is rased as to how much damage an orb can take.
I would guess a heck of a lot. She found them on a reef without a vessel around them. I assume whatever took out the ship they were on didn’t put a mark on them.
My person guess on how the orbs were found in Davey Jones locker was that the last owner was on a ship/boat and somehow got one of them stuck inside something (like a locker) and the ship sank. (insert villainous treachery here). Since the owner has a maximum distance ‘leash’ relative to the orbs, when the ship went down so did the owner.
We saw something similar happen with Sydney’s car, all to amusing comic effect… strange how she didn’t think to comment about that particular vulnerability during her interview.
There is also the possability that the orbs “Found” Sydney. Who know if they have their own form of intelligence and arranged to be somewhere that only Sydney would find them.
Possibly. But consider this. A penumbrate strength superhero tried to use all her strength to move them and failed. If your proposal did happen, you might find that the sinking ship stopped going any further down, once it reached the limit of the tether range!
The owner could even be bobbing on the surface (or hovering), blissfully unaware that the ship was still just below the sea level. However, where the problem would occur is if he or she then tried to get to shore. We know that the orbs do not like to be left behind. So he or she would not be able to swim to shore, unless able to also move the weight* of the ship somehow.
Again, because we do not know the limits of the known orbs, we may yet find that the blue orb can “fly” (aka control gravity) powerfully enough to overcome this problem. Or the pseudopod tentacle thingy, from the pink orb, might be strong enough to lift an oil tanker! Failing all else, the PPO could blast it to bits, given enough time and/or power (they like to take naps, which may mean that their power source is limited by some factor).
And the mystery orbs might come into play. For example, if Maxima was right, at least in as much that one of them emulates an ioun stone of the type that negate the need for food or water, then the situation could be maintained indefinitely.
But, if all the options above are tried and failed (or not considered – after all even Sydney did not think of them to get the orbs from under the car), then you could well be right. The owner might gradually die of thirst, floating immovably on the surface of the ocean. At which point the bond with the orbs might be broken. If not, sharks will eventually finish the job.
With no body to be tethered to, the ship, and the orbs, could then settle down on the ocean to await their next owner.
* Those of you who are limited to living in a universe dominated by the incomplete laws of Newton and Einstein, and who like to be technical, may feel free to change “weight” to “mass”. And, no, before you jump to any conclusions, there is no religious subtext.
Wait a minute. The doctor has healing powers, and we’re not talking about her medical degree.
So why is Sydney wearing an eyepatch? Couldn’t the doc heal Syd and soothe her eye completely?
Unless she chose not to use her powers, whatever super-powered healing she could do is limited in either nature* or amount**.
* Example: You can repair flesh and close wounds, but you can’t remove diseases.
** Example: You can repair flesh, close wounds and remove disease, but only of the most minor kinds.
The Doctor did as much as was needed and no more. To do more would be a waste of her powers and she might need them.
Her healing powers may not be instantaneous miracle healing. It is entirely possible that they just hyper stimulate the recipient’s own natural recovery. Allowing damage that would take days of recovery to instead be repaired in hours, for example.
That would be my guess as well. Plus Sydney is annoying, and many doctors have a motto that go’s like this “If they feel pain now, next time they will be more careful.”
Don’t forget that Syd was annoying the hell out of the doctor at the time. The doctor may not have been above leaving Syd with a little ache and annoyance of her own to put up with for a short time, as incentive not to come back any time soon if she could at all help it. Or the doctor may simply not have been able to make Syd SIT STILL long enough to do more.
This is Sydney we’re talking about. Sydney Scoville, the aquapirate. You honestly think she’d pass up the chance to wear an eyepatch? I’m only reluctantly coming to the conclusion that by this page she’s run out of (or been slapped down for) impersonations of eyepatched fictional characters ranging from Long John Silver to Nick Fury.
Another great page!
I’m especially looking forward to it being coloured in, so I can confirm that Max also put the boot in while Math was down. I really get the feeling that a line would be forming on the right, if the rest of Arc knew that he’d taken a hit. And that’s gotta improve Sydney’s reception among those she wasn’t met (and assualted) yet.
since Syd says the doc said “it’ll be okay in about an hour”, it’s possible that the healing powers used were speeding up natural process of healing, with a possible side of pain-dampening.
Of course, that’s not to say the doc is limited to that, but I imagine telling Syd she didn’t need an eyepatch might have resulted in puppy-dog eyes. Or eye, as the case may be.
Woof woof ;-)
IGN sucks, consider not being on their list a compliment.
You would think a healer would be super important on missions during and back at base. Too many like the violence. But how many would find it so full of glory if they actually blasted humans to red rubble?
I suspect that Arc will want to keep the doctor at base. Supers are rare in that world, so it is possible she is the only healing super in the organisation. As such she would be too valuable to risk on anything less than, say, trying to save a city from destruction.
Even mundane doctors are normally kept at hospitals and other safe locations. It just takes too much time and money to train them up, and there are never enough to keep up with demand, especially in times of crisis or war.
Possibly combat medics will be used to provide team-level support on routine missions and to give first response care to victims they will inevitably come across. Or heroes will be offered paramedic training, for the same purposes. Harem being an absolutely ideal candidate for such.
Unless Halo, or some other multi-talented super (who is capable of looking after themselves in the field), also turns out to have healing capability.
I miss the amused Max. Angry Max is not quite as fun. Not to mention that you don’t get as many funny faces with her when she’s angry.
What the crap, IGN? I have like fifty webcomics in my regular reading list, and Hark, A Vagrant is the only one of those “best” options I’ve ever even heard of.
And, sorry, I like Grrl Power, but I had to write in Gunnerkrigg Court.
Aww, I was shore that that hit would have scored some points with Maxima.
And are we shore math can really consider Sydney a woman?
I don’t think the IGN poll even filters out repeats, at least not if you do a write-in.
I must say I’m disappointed with the stated poll options. The only one on their list I’ve even heard of is Battlepug, and it’s not one I read.
Is that Max and Peggy kicking him while he’s down in panel 10? Both cruel and awesome.
I like Sydney’s face in panel 3, Math’s face in panel 8, and Peggy’s face when she’s giving Math that “quit faking” kick. I’m guessing it’s the purpley blue orb that got Math there, just like when Sydney bonked Dabbler. If it’s fighting it’s own battle for her, instead of at her direct control, I wonder what its skill level is. Very interesting. The prospect of a scolding doesn’t seem to worry Syd much. Of course. Kudos, Mr. B. You run a great webcomic. (I wrote in a vote. Gladly.)
Well the “quit faking” thing is in the “aside” mini comic.
In the strip itself she’s just plain kicking the wanker with a look of unalloyed glee on her face.
It doesn’t take much imagination to appreciate how old “you can’t touch me ’cause I’m so bloody good, nya nya nya nya nyar” would get.