Grrl Power #126 – What if the thing he’s best at is getting stabbed?
Sydney is far from the first person to suggest that Wolverine is actually a terrible fighter because he relies so heavily on his regeneration – of course, the same thing could be said of anyone who has armored skin. Next time you see a hero in a comic charging into a room with bullets dramatically bouncing off him, think about how much better heroes that can’t afford to get hit have to be than him.
The conversation is skirting dangerously close to becoming meta at this point, but I figure if there were real superheros, they’d sit down and have a conversation about superhero tropes at some point. They’re not going to run through them all right now of course, as there are a killion of them, but it’s a fair bet this isn’t the last time they’ll come up in the story.
If you’re not familiar with the term “trope,” it basically means a writing convention that an audience will recognize. I think the best way to explain it is if you remember the scene in True Lies were the Bad Guy is giving his speech about America Bad, etc, and the henchman’s camera runs out of battery? Everyone in the audience figured the henchman was going to get shot by the Bad Guy. That’s a trope because everyone knows that Bad Guys off failed henchmen. Of course, James Cameron subverted the trope by having the Bad Guy just tell the henchman to go get another battery. It’s easy to confuse trope with cliché, as some tropes are so common they actually are clichés, but mostly they’re just useful terms to describe recurring elements in storytelling.
I’m going to do something dangerous here and link TVTropes, but first a warning. Remember when you discovered Wikipedia the first time, and you went to read up on the Moon Landing, and 4 hours later you had 32 tabs open and were reading about Pavlova? Well, TVTropes is an order of magnitude worse than Wikipedia, so don’t click the link if you have any plans for the rest of the day. BTW thanks to whoever is updating the Grrl Power tropes page. For some reason I can’t log in to do any editing. Click with caution my friends. TVTropes.org
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Ooh, steely-blue glare in panel 7 means business! Go go Sydney!
And show Joel that neckbeards are not your weakness :-P
Note that she’s doing the same thing in panel 3.
What she’s really doing is eyeballing her two unknown orbs: Also note what she says just before she eyeballs them.
I wonder if we will see the trope that is cliche of signing in blood. Or a joke about signing the contract in her blood.
Funny seeing fictional characters talking about the real world. But in each case for them it is real.
Wouldn’t you be less careful when you are invulnerable? Just imagine being a hemophiliac. They have to be careful of any injury that a normal person doesn’t think about or care. Such is th analogy.
And the worst thing is, she has the hurt eye AND the patch on her forehead, so she could test them immediately, but of course SHE FORGETS!
What pen?
She’s asking for a pen so she can sign the contract.
she might be finding out if she has psychic powers by trying to levitate a pen
Psychic powers do not work that way!
How do we know how they work? Nobody actually knows how psychic powers would work….unless you happen to be hiding something… :P
I know how one psychic power works. But not “levitation” (a.k.a. telekinesis).
You will have to find out, track down, and ask them in the various secret Occult Science Groups in the world.
That’s what the tentacle orb is for.
In Sydney’s case, they would be psycho powers.
My money is on her using the pen to stab herself in the hand (or somewhere else equally non-fatal) to find out if she has the whole re-gen thing going for her or not… :-)
I thought she wanted to get stabbed with a pen, seriously. I mean that’s Sydney, I could imagine she’d ask for that somewhen…
Did not realize I would get some of these responses. Hmm.
Ahh, perhaps the correct response should have been “There is no pen”?
Again, a stunning display of Sydney logic
And also, wolverine gets hurt more because he is a melee fighter who is in range of melee weapons, often surrounded, all the time, Cyclops is ranged, and therefore has more chance to stay out of harms way, and see attacks coming, and dodge, similar principle as to why mages dont get cut up all the time in the field, even though all they wear is cloth
Of course, Sydney DOES have a powerful force field, which means powerful attacks WILL most likely be shot at her at an alarming rate :P
Yeah, Cyclops might typically get injured less often than Wolverine.
B-u-t ….
Cyclops’s personal / family life has been FUBARed so many times in so many different ways, that it went w-a-y past funny years ago and is now just boring. I’d say put the poor b##t##d out of his misery, but that wouldn’t save him – NOBODY dies in Marvel comics.
No, they die and it doesn’t stick. Least that’s how it used to go. I don’t know about since Buena Vista bought them.
Well, nobody except poor old uncle Ben. :)
Give it time.
It is well known that Uncle Ben’s is non-stick.
You clever bastard….
LMAO! EPIC!
What about Doug?
Doug Ramsey came back. And Bucky. And Sharon Carter. And Norman Osborn.
Gwen is still technically dead if you don’t count the dozens of clones. Pretty sure Ned Leeds is still dead. Peter Parker’s parents are still dead, though they had a fakeout comeback once.
How about the Reavers? Did they ever come back? Of course, no one likes the Reavers.
Gene Grey or Summers comes back it’s become a joke.
Yes they do but it’s chracters, usually villains, so minor that most people weren’t aware they were alive to begin with. Anyone remember Turner D. Century? Or Jack O Lantern?
Which Jack? There is one (or was) in the current Venom re-boot series
I always wanted to see Scott “accidentaly” receive the crimson bands of citorack and basiclly become a walking tank.
Depends, one f the crossovers has him getting force punched through drywall, shocked by lighting, and the next issue fireworked by a jumpy Jubilee on the second page because she thought he was saber tooth.
Although I’m sure anyone with special advantages (not even superhuman) eventually begins taking it for granted. You see this even in real life. While Max’s reasoning is sound from a storytelling perspective, Syd’s isn’t necessarily false. When you have little reason to be careful, you don’t act carefully.
Or, as a character from the only comic book I collect nowadays points out to an invulnerable peer of his:
“My dad says you super-strong guys gotta learn to get out of the way better.”
Invunerable people have less reason to doge. Maxima onlyhad to catch the bullet because of the civilians. Slicing of a cyborg arm removes the advantages of that limb. Syd has points, even if over-exaggerated in her statement.
Halo will likely get Maxima class artillery directed at her, which will limit Halo to one other power.
The tethering seems to work oddly and can either trap her or pull stuff back
It’s a shame it works the way it does…she apparently can’t tow things with them, or be towed by them…so she couldn’t carry 6 people by having them each hang onto an orb while she flew with the blue one…
Which is why I said, “When you have little reason to be careful, you don’t act carefully.”
However, “less reason to dodge” is not the same as “no reason to dodge”. Just because Superman can survive getting hit by a cruise missile doesn’t mean he shouldn’t avoid it or neutralize it especially where getting hit can still slow him down from whatever he needs to do.
The quote I mentioned was from a highly agile superhero speaking to a flying brick (or a FISS- Flight, Invulnerability, Strength, Speed) after the latter had a) gotten stunned by an electric bolt and then and more importantly b) effectively neutralized by a super-strong and super-sticky goo that even his metahuman strength could not break out of.
I’m sure we can argue about the D&D/RPG style of things he could have done even in that scenario, but for the most part, learning to dodge effectively and not relying on one’s invulnerability is just both practical and effective superheroing. Invulnerability is not invincibility, especially where superheroing tends to involves having lives of innocent people on the line.
AH… PS238, i thought that was were that quote came from…
Love that comic.
Bingo. :-)
@ DaveB: May I recommend that series to you?
It’s been brought up here before. It’s in my “to read” list which is unfortunately growing out of control.
They have it in book form. It’s a lot faster to read it that way. Plus, you can have it on your shelf to loan to someone so they can read it as well.
Also, when you run into the author at one of the con’s, you can get them to sign it.
Superman has been shown to actively try to get in the way of things, because he knows he can take it. If he dodges a cruise missile (or a bullet), it has to hit someplace else, and whatever else it hits is likely to be less durable than he is. Some things he can disarm, but often it’s quicker to just let it hit him.
Similarly, Wolverine has been stated to have developed his own martial arts style that takes advantage of the fact that sticking a weapon in him’s only effect is to immobilize that weapon. If you know you can do it, and train to use it, it becomes a useful tool. The goal is to win the fight: if your enemy hitting you with sword disarms him and doesn’t affect you, let him hit you. It’s his disadvantage to do so.
Might I suggest the British form of invulnerability. If you find yourself in an enemy lair surrounded by machine-gun toting minions, merely slip on an immaculately tailored Tuxedo jacket (preferably white) and no enemy bullets can touch you. Note: This tactic does not provide protection from hand-to-hand combat with well-endowed females, or against henchmen with metal teeth.
Merely a subset of Plot Armor of course: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotArmor
And then Superman discovers the missile was carrying a Kryptonite-based warhead or device. Or was enchanted (since Supes is also weak against magic). Or that the villain behind the missile can simply strip away his invulnerability.
The bottom line point is: there can be a good reason to take the shot and a good reason to avoid it. However, complacent recklessness isn’t a good reason for either. This is precisely where invulnerability can cause a hero to be careless thus causing him or to discover he wasn’t that invulnerable to begin with. Worst of all when said carelessness costs lives.
“However, complacent recklessness isn’t a good reason for either.”
What?
In other words, don’t get so used to soaking up hits that you don’t check each time. Just because the last twenty shots were steel, doesn’t mean this one won’t be kryptonite. Or it could just be a distraction to pull you away from something more important.
In b4 Sydney gets left hanging, forcefield up, against an unrelenting barrage of physical force.
Such as being used to plug a leaky dam or some such.
What about just if one of her orbs gets “stuck” somewhere?
Or all of them. while in the tube? It’s happened before. It should happen again, with more funny :)
More:
Using super-speed, a villain puts mittens on her. ;-)
Okay , seriously this time, a villain throws cloth on her orbs, freezes them so as to cover them with ice, etc.
I can see an upcoming surveillance mission where Sydney is using her tele-presence orb to look into a plane on a runway. Then the door shuts and the plane takes off with one of her orbs inside. The max-orb-distance rule kicks in leaving Sydney hanging under/behind the plane. Cut to the inside of cabin. The villain (identified by eye-patch, scar, or fluffy white cat) sees her and commands: “One of those pesky supers is following us. Fly faster!”
As Max discovered back at the bank, pulling on the orbs does not move Sydney. The orb would either stop the plane, or punch a hole in the back of it, depending on what gave first.
It’s not clear that the distance limit works the same way with the telepresence mini-orb, anyway.
which make even more useful. She can stop planes or trucks just by having one orb stand in it’s way.
She basically like a walking roadblock.
She could put a orb in a bag of some type and latch it on to a speedster. Let’s see what happens then.
Wonder what would happen if Harem tried to telaport one of the orbs? I know that question was asked a few months ago, but it’s still a good question.
Only DaveB can tell.
Sidney is really very special! I’d be more worried about secrecy and the morality of the government than about “bad superpower(s)”. I wonder if Sidney knows Watchmen and Supreme Power (the original series).
Perhaps in her world governments really are “Kinder and Gentler” than ours.
They did say that super-powered beings don’t *have* to join up; a more corrupt government would force the issue, as a super-human is basically a walking weapon.
On the other hand, we don’t know what happens to super-beings that *don’t* join up… although That Flying Rescue Guy seems free and safe enough
On the other-other hand, in a world where super-beings and magic exist, what is the likelihood that there are super-powered investigative reporters keeping tabs on government activity?
Or super-powered Men In Black who “Monitor” the activities of powered beings.
We saw one earlier, his name was X.
Maby not a monitor for supers at present. But deffinatly a men in black.
NOT X!!! His name is Tingles. TINGLES GOD DAMNIT!
hee hee :P
and he works for Arc Dark. Who are currently seeking funding for finding a better name.
Ahh TVTropes. I think XKCD explained the problem with it well: https://xkcd.com/609/
I also like the circularity of there being an XKCD TVTropes page, and a TVTropes XKCD comic.
This page of this comic is almost the same, but the on-page content doesn’t mention tvtropes explicitly.
You’re going to love this, then:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Wiki/SCPFoundation
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4445-j
BLAST YOU! I can’t escape the pull from these pages! ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
Holy crap that was difficult to escape from.
I found this comic through TVTropes. You’d think at this point I’d be immune to the wiki-diving trap, but I’m not.
Fool! NOBODY is immune!
TVTropes is the biggest timesink on the internet, bar none.
I am. I’ve never had that problem before. At most, I’ve gone through three pages before stopping.
Is there something wrong with your internet connection? Are you subject to sudden fits of fainting? Does your cat like to sleep on your keyboard? Are the Illuminati controlling your computer?
Clearly something horrible must be happening if you can spend less than an hour on tvtropes.
She has to get back to the Pixie Trix boards, where the fans spend 7 pages overanalyzing four panels of comics.
So you’ve visited us before, hmMMMM?
Well, there is that…and I tend to have a large grasp of trivia and knowledge. I just tend to look for a bit and then move on. I think it’s because I’m just odd. :)
At least he gave a rather appropriate warning for the uninitiated for tvtropes. If I feel like being evil to my friends, I send them a link. >:-D
They drive quite a bit of traffic to almost every webcomic I know of, so it’s a fair bet that thousands are caught up in its vortex at any given time.
Friends, beware – not even The Unstoppable Higgs can escape TV Tropes!
.. t.. tv.. tropes..?!?! Noooo My only weakness!
I think I lean closer to Sydney’s thinking – if I had instantaneous healing, I wouldn’t bother trying to dodge blows either, which would allow me to focus exclusively on offense, thus making me a more effective (better? maybe not) fighter. Achilles would be this concept taken to an extreme: he actively seeks to get hit, absorbing all the attacks his team would’ve had to deal with…
When I played V&V long ago, I rolled up a character with damage absorbtion. No other powers.
I named him Target and gave him a costume with a bull’s-eye on his chest. Fun times…
Inspired by a department store chain, perhaps?
laughed so hard at all the damage wolverine copped in panel 2. good job
At least Sydney’s favorite comic series is not Adam Warren’s Empowered, then going meta would have been really dark and recursive. Or Garth Ennis’s “The Pro”, where it get really twisted.
Oh I’m sure Sydney’s quite familiar with Empowered, though she probably tries not to get caught reading it. The Pro is twisted, but only in comparison to mainstream comics where when bad things happen, it’s in a overblown soap opera way. The Pro is actually one of the more “realistic” super hero comics I’ve read.
As far as she knows, huh? Without back-story clues, I wondered if her tolerance for hotschtuff was evidence of some sort of “protection” by the orbs, until that nasty noodle smacked her in the eye. That bruise on her forehead doesn’t seem to be fading unusually fast, either. I’m glad that she doesn’t feel invulnerable, even with her shield orb. Smart girl. So, pen her already.
to be fair cyclops is never pristine either at the end of 90% of fights
it’s like the x-men tailor makes a fortune in a month worst than bill gates, like how many time in a book do they end up in their skivvies? most of the time is by cheer luck, or cheer teenager rating, that they even have at least those one.
so not sure that assessment is fully true. show me a hero that never even have a scratch on his costume because he doesn’t have healing power and we will see
but right now i am not convinced
hell even batman ends up shirtless 90 percent of the times lol
There was a running gag in the She-Hulk comics back in the day that her undergarments were Comics Code Authority-protected. She’d get hit by a blast or something, and it’d destroy her shirt, leaving her unscathed, in a pristine bra with the cAc logo on the tag.
lol so with that i think you completely understand what i meant hehe
“But since I dont have any bad powers…”
(AAAAA!! I went blind, from the sheer concentrated dark power of all that foreShadowing!)
/waits to see just how long it is until Dave unveils her “bad powers”.
Possibly two of them :D
So far, I have resisted the abyss that is TVTropes. I have visited the site, but was not sucked down for hours. Sometimes, a short attention span is your friend.
Yes it can be but it can also lead you far afield as each new link leads to a whole bunch of shiny new links that practically scream “CLICK ME!!!”.
Being a stubborn nob who refuses to give in to any form of temptation has stopped me from going to TVTropes (same reason have never been suckered into seeing whatever that “2 Girls, 1 Cup” thing is) more than once
IMO It’s less about the author trying to show off their powers and more about personality. I mean, X23 (Female Wolverine clone) rarely gets cut up in fights, whereas the cheerleader from Heroes (Another female healer) literally mutilates herself every episode. One treats the powers as an aside to combat training, and the other not only defines herself by it but keeps testing its limits.
Plus, although every scene with Magneto vs. the X-Men is asking for someone to rip off his helmet (Just stupid-looking, and the X-Men keep proclaiming they can’t track him because of it), the helmet still doesn’t get taken off as often as Wolverine gets launched out of a plane or through a wall.
Well Maxima was basically just paraphrasing the “Good Thing You Can Heal” trope. And sure, good writing can demonstrate powers to whatever degree the writer wants, but especially with comic books where titles get handed off on a regular basis, invariably some powers are abused for spectacle.
Perhaps I have a super-power!
I actually managed to click that trope-link and NOT any subsequent link on the page.
First time I’ve ever visited TVtropes without losing a few hours.
I still have a strong urge to go back, though.
Must… Not… Weaken!
Quick, I need a distraction.
Lunchtime!
SQUIRREL!
Yes, but you still gave in to temptation and went to the ‘Trope in the first page
She’s been injured by chillies, and had a head bump! She needs to hold one of those balls to see if one of them is regeneration!
I agree. Two wounds. Certainly someone there would remind her to test those other two balls and see if one of them fixes her up. I can imagine Sydney forgetting, but Maxima and Arianna? Not a chance.
Meh, this is Sydney. She’s even using Logan as an example on this page: I’m sure she’s thought to try both unknowns on a papercut or something. In fact, she might have a sub-list in her List book of powers she’s tested for without success.
I demand that Dave produce this list and show it to us, either in the comic or as a vote incentive. Better yet, a flashback of her trying things, but I’ll settle for a list.
Let me add to Sydney’s examples:
Robot characters tend to get smashed, dismembered, blown up and/or destroyed because they can usually be rebuilt or repaired (also because it was the only way to show such violence before).
Characters who fly using wings tend to get them cut or torn off. It’s almost an automatic Chekhov’s Gun result.
THIS is why Batman is better then Superman.
noooo not tvtropes again.
WHY YOU EVIL!
That was an interesting conversation, and I wholly approve of it.
But Sidney does have a weakness…her insanity.
It is also her strength.
Sydney’s weakness is a rip in the sunfiltering on window panes, a group of random strangers nearby who probably weren’t listening to her at all, a slight allusion to anything she knows deeply, the chance to completely freak out, and probably squirrels crossing the road when she’s not even driving. If Sydney were a cat, she’d be distracted by her front paws.
As I said…her insanity.
Off topic, but your avatar made me think of something. Once Sydney signs the paper, will she get her cutie mark?
In my dreams.
Proposal countersigned,
Yorp (a.k.a. Mark)
“If Sydney were a cat, she’d be distracted by her front paws.”
Best description of ADHD ever.
Insanity? One or two eccentricities is all I see in Sydney.
I can’t believe no ones commented on Wolverine giving Cyclops the finger yet, jumped right out at me :)
Look into my eye! Nice catch!
Yup, I missed that too. In fact I only just spotted the fact that the ear of Wolverine’s costume is still burning! :-D
Never would have considered “pristine” as a sound effect until now…
Ooow! Shiny!
Oh good, I’m not the only one who drowns in TvT pages and realize later that I’ve been on for two hours.
Regarding trope: Best. Explanation. Ever.
What did you mean by becoming meta?
Well it’s superheroes discussing superhero tropes. It’s like seeing a horror movie where one of the people realizes they’re in a horror movie and uses that knowledge to game his survival chances.
Like they did in “Scream.”
Or like the She-Hulk limited series that Marvel did some number of years ago…An older character trying to make a bit of a comeback already had the knowledge of being in a comic & sorta squeezed her way into She-Hulk’s books. The reason for doing that addressed the comic trope that, once a superhero drops out of the public eye, they age normally (and this particular character was not aging well)…While they’re still active in the comics, they don’t age.
She taught She-Hulk about what advantages can be taken simply by knowing about the nature of being in a comic book. She was consistently breaking the fourth wall & talking directly to the readers, even being questioned about that by other characters…She’d reply, “I’m just talking to the people out there who are reading this story,” & pointing forward. The other character would widen their eyes, saying, “Oh! Where did they come from? Why haven’t I seen them before?”
At one point, She-Hulk had to make a transition from one scene to another but she & the people she was rescuing were trapped. So she pulled up the corner of the page and led them across the centerfold of advertisements, then pulled up the next page corner into the scene where she wanted to go. One of the people she was leading even tripped on the staple as they went through.
I wonder…The way Sydney’s line of thought-processing goes…Is she going to discover “the fourth wall” & the power she could command by knowing about it here in Grrl Power?
How could I forget? I loved that series.
In the second Damage Control miniseries, one of the Damage Control execs is giving She-Hulk a tour of the offices and does one of those dynamic framing bits where a character walks between panels. I’d completely forgotten that She-Hulk was 4th-Wall-aware at the time until she immediately brought it up to her.
Oh that is the first time I have heard that phrase used. Good to know what it means. I have only seen it in cartoons, not in horror movies as I do not like horror.
Ditto, new term on me. Although I could name half a dozen other genres it happens in too!
Whaaa…. oh there are comments. Uhhh, what happened? I remember nice shiny new episode of Sydney vs the Lawyer. Then… mmm… some mention of TV Tropes.
Easy enough to dodge that mind. Nothing intrinsically meritorious about it. Mostly cliches and self-perpetuating waffle about stuff on TV. If you do not watch TV that has less power over you. And even back in the days when I did watch the stuff, I just used the same principle. Just say no to soaps. Or don’t click and you won’t get sucked in.
But then… ahh, that was it… Wikipedia…
As I understand it, the tropes started off as TV cliches, but I think manga/anime/movie/comic examples are the larger part of it now. When I visit, I am usually sucked in for hours by curiosity.
Naive Arianna and Sydney — you know what Oasis of Sluggy Freelance did with a pen when she was a teen? It’s one of those showy powers. This is all she ever shown people during her teens ’cause NO ONE KNEW she could come back from the dead with clockwork regularity with each major plot arc. While setting the entire neighboorhood on fire and not knowing about it to boot — and will have to do painful learning moments all over again because she will forget most of it each time? Do you know what those 2 other orbs do yet Sydney? WHAT ABOUT THE ANCILIARY POWERS???
Don’t hand out that pen Arianna, please! Regardless of the contract signing part, it’s indeed more dangerous than a sword!!
And let’s not forget the mascot of crayon-wielding superheroes, supervillains, and superneutrals: Homer Simpson! God knows what would happen if he had the crayon stuck in his brain removed and the world would be exposed to his hidden superintellect. Arianna, don’t you wonder how the crayon got there? Don’t you fear it happening to YOU considering Sydney’s antics?
Pen me indeed — sydney’s about to redraw the line between genius and insanity! *doodles a dark and stormy night all over the back of the contract*
Also Sydney is hinting at insanity — crazy people and supervillains alike are put in ‘the pen’. Pen me indeed! I’ll show humanity it’s…. limitations they said I was crazy I’LL SHOW THEM!
Pun me again, David. Bad puns that don’t kill me make me stronger.
is she going to stab her hand with a pen to see if she has regeneration?
I was thinking the same thing. But after reading a response to this on a forum talking about it I think she is going to sign.
Meta is a prefix used a lot in computers. Basically, “Meta-thing” means “Thing applied to thing”
Meta-data is data about the data eg. “This post is in the English language.” is meta-data, describing the rest of the data.
In this case, the discussion is meta, since they are superheros discussing superheros, but meta can be applied to just about anything.
You could make the argument that the voting public of a democracy is the meta-government since they elect, and therefore govern, the government.
I’m so meta even this acronym.
You ought to credit Randall Munroe for that and give the XKCD comic number.
I haven’t gotten past the problem of all superheroines having the same d cup size. Fully expecting it to happen to Sydney. As her powers increase, so will the cup size.
Partial immunity to spices notwithstanding, Sydney has no super powers. Nothing intrinsic to her, anyhow. She just happens to own some cute orbs.
I actually do try to be consistent with chest sizes, which is difficult as the angle you look at them will affect the size they’re perceived to be, and they’re malleable, so folding arms over the chest can either smoosh them down or push them up, shirts and jackets can cover or enhance. All that being said I try and draw Dabbler and Harem a bit smaller than Max, but then Dabbler’s illusions usually enhance her.
The reason for most superheroines having the same bust size (was going to say ‘cup’, but that’s more of a superhero thing :P) is usually simply that that is that artists style (and usually influenced by the pervy fans, male and female)
I am re-thinking what super-powers I would want now…
Just remember that immortality is not much fun unless in the company of other immortals. The loneliness gets to you… in the end. If you go for it, be sure to include a get-out clause, in case you change your mind.
…. More to the point, a bunch of other immortals that you can put up with, and who can put up with you..
Go for a simple power with a ton of mundane utility. I’m going with the power Generator has in the Whateley Universe. You can cast a telekinetic copy of yourself into any object or collection of objects up to about six feet across and a couple hundred pounds, you can do this up to five times simultaneously, and after the ‘charge’ wears off in an hour or two you get all the memories of the copy. It sounds weird, but the utility is only limited by your imagination: charge into a pebble and go ogle in the locker room of your choice; take four college classes simultaneously; watch tv while studying and writing two papers; unlock (or lock) any door; give a guy a wedgie while you’re fifty feet away…
The ability to project and absorb any kind of energy strikes me as being kind of versatile. I think that one has already been taken though.
I wonder what Sydney would choose? ;-)
I’ll take telekinesis anyday. The ability to move stuff without lifting a finger? Sold!
I could use it for work stuff.
Says the Aussie bloke. We all know you had a mental image of opening the fridge and floating the beer over to you!
As a Canadian, I want TK so I can mow the grass and shovel the snow without having to actually pick up tools. Just watch as the snow moves out of the way and the grass tops fall over, but clearly not at the same time.
You lucky fellow! If I lived there, I would make regular trips to Quebec and wander around shopping mauls and parks looking gormless. You never know when you might get to meet some of the funniest people in the world.
Not sure if there is a problem with that link or not, so to be sure, here it is raw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqFqcFqgRY0 And if that does not work, just try looking for the clip on YouTube under “Corner Store Thief Twilight Zone” or any of the Just for Laughs clips, for that matter. It is just that one is my all time favourite, as it is a complete mind-bender! It really has the folks questioning their sanity.
Which seems quite apt, given the questioning of Sydney’s sanity that is going on!
Nah, I don’t drink. Too many bad memories associated with drunken family members.
The same warnings that apply to TVTropes.com also apply to Cracked.com… seriously, stay away if you don’t have half a day to devote to reading crap!
Agreed.
I’m reminded of something I once read – a dullard is someone who looks up one specific thing in an encyclopedia, then just closes the volume and walks away.
What’s a power worth when you don’t show it off in a fight?
I mean, imagining you had invulnerability and super speed and get teamed up with someone who has super speed but not invulnerability – would you rather dodge a bullet or try to get in its course, thereby protecting your partner? I would do the latter. Plus, you’re giving quite a different message to you opponent, when you “eat the bullets” rather than dodging them, even if you could. I’d say the former is scarier :D
On the other hand – I remember scenarios where several Marvel heroes where killed off or permanently disabled within a few pages of one story – and then it turned out that it was a dream or an alternate reality or something alike.
That I call bad writing indeed.
If you do not show it off, it is worth a darned sight more in the next fight! As you still have the power of surprise, and your enemies will not have been able to find a way to negate your advantage.
The clever super hero will appear to be nothing more than a well trained normal person, with some body armour and a few toys. Even if he is invulnerable, wearing the armour will save him from revealing the fact until he is faced with overwhelming force. And that is a good time to have a few unknown tricks up your sleeve!
Talking about which, I hope that Halo is wise enough to incorporate some protection and extra gizmos in her uniform. Her force field is only useful if she has enough advance warning to get orb to hand and raise shields. Which she cant do if her first clue about trouble is a sniper shot through the skull!
Hm. The idea has its values… to appear surprisingly enduring in a fight. It might also serve to drag the opponent’s firepower to oneself, giving them a hope to achieve something while thy don’t stand a chance. Yes. But this trick only works as long as you have reserves or can successfully pretend to have reserves… Hm. Might still be good for quite some time.
Fully agreed to the last paragraph – but I doubt it. She’d rather boast and try to display more than she is ^-^
Ew. Did not properly close the italic tag :-(
Kinda reminds me of a story where a young man goes to an aging wrestler, asking to become his student. The elder fighter says,” I cannot teach you my 99 tricks, for once you’ve mastered them, you will challenge me.”
The young man denies this and the old eventually relents and teaches the young man his 99 tricks.
After the young man mastered the 99th trick, just as the elder fighter predicted, he challenged his master.
The fight itself lasted a minute and the elder sent his former pupil flying out the window using his very last trick. “The student picked himself and asked his former master why he didn’t teach this last trick.
“Because i knew you would not live up to your word. And the best masters always have a trick up their sleeve.”
I think this also falls under the old adage “Old age and treachery will out do youth and enthusiasm.
In the vein of Syd receiving a shot through the brain pan before she gets her shield up, i’ll say her comic book/game savvy will kick in at the appropriate times with the appropriate amount of excessive force.
True enough, I have enough respect for DaveB’s writing, and the savvy he has given Sydney. Although there is a big variable we do not know yet. How “real world” versus genre typical is it? My comment was following the “what if there were super heroes in the real world?” line of thought.
Most genre heroes that have some super defence would not stoop to also wearing mundane body armour. Plus is not actually necessary for them, or for squishy heroes, for that matter, thanks to the super conventions. For example, how much will Sydney have to rely on the custom that a villain’s first shot misses and only serves the purpose of alerting the heroes to their presence? (I may not click on TVTropes, but read enough webcomics and you pick up the basics by osmosis).
I suspect that comedy trumping all might have heavy influence, along with artistic image. We pretty much associate Sydney with civilian clothes. It is her orbs that distinguish her as a hero visibly. Will she even tolerate a uniform, let alone all the other cumbersome gear? She certainly does not seem to be impressed by uniforms.
Although not comic related, (sorta) my personal ‘subverting of trope’ favorite is a scene from ‘Raiders’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anEuw8F8cpE – The Master of the Sword! The Master of the Whip!! The Ultimate Fight of the Century!!! Aaaaww, screw this, ‘BANG’ and our hero is on his way.
That was simply because Mr Ford was not feeling well that day and they had already done that scene (with him using the whip, there just has to be a secret copy of that footage somewhere) many times and he just wanted it over and done so he could go lie down somewhere and be dead for an hour or 4
The cool part about that ad-lib; they incorporated it in another scene (possibly one of the later movies) where he goes for his gun but he has lost it somewhere
It’s good that Max both understands nerd and is smart enough to be the voice of reason in these discussions.
And Lo the greatest villain there ever was and will be. Twerpe. Power grows with every new trope added or cited and forces all allies and/or opponents to act to the one, or several, of thier choosing.
Heh, I play Champions Online, like, obsessively, and I make no bones in RP about my tank being a terrible fighter and strategist. Hit hard, hit often, soak up the pain. These are not fighting strategies, this is a blunt instrument at work.
Uh, guys? She’s ALREADY injured, bruise on forehead and scoville-sauced eye, remember? If one of the orbs gave her regeneration abilities…well, she’d have to be holding it, which she hasn’t done yet, but still, she already has injuries to test that theory. I’m pretty sure she’s just asking for the pen so she can sign and become a superhero-celebrity-whatsit-girl…or rather, demanding it Sydney-dramatic style.
In-story Sydney is insane of course; from where we’re standing she’s just aware of being a webcomic character.
…or is she? She’s thinking about the ‘remind what power they have’ of the week rather than the joke of the day!
A dangerous person for the artist to give a pen to. Afterall, she might want to marry wolverine for his cynicism FOR REAL!
“The difference between insanity and eccentricity is that the former are poor and the latter are wealthy”. Sydney is the co-owner of a shop (albeit that the enterprise would collapse if it did not get positive publicity from being run by a superhero), so is more appropriately defined as eccentric.
That witticism aside, as DaveB points out, she has not somehow acquired an intuition of being a character in a story. From her viewpoint, she is just a normal person, in (what is, from all of their perspectives) the real world, who has gained super powers. But who sees the irony in examining her own situation with the same analysis that geeks always debate on on the behaviour of fictional super heroes.
* Briefly glances at a mirror to examine a double irony. *
That is a behavioural quirk, not insanity. She realises she wants to be a superhero, and simply chooses an amusing way to verbalise that decision. She knows that her actions appear strange to society, but does not care. Rational but quirky. That is the real difference between eccentricity and insanity. An insane person acts irrationally and does not know it.
No, the real difference is that an insane person doesn’t know they are insane, they believe what they are doing is perfectly normal until some jerk/quack tells them otherwise (like how Wyle E. Coyote doesn’t know he is floating in midair until that speedy lunch meal points to the canyon floor hundreds of meters below him), an ecentric person does know but simply doesn’t care when someone points it out to them (or shoots them in the face with an acid-squirting fake flower)
Fallacy, actually. It is not that uncommon for insane people to KNOW theyare insane – they just can’t help themselves..
No, that just means they are not insane, they are simply compelled, or do you class those with OCD to be insane?
No, a person with OCD is (probably) not insane (dependiong on what their condition drives them to do, natch).
But serial killers who are aware of the horror of their actions, yet continue to do them, ARE insane – and that is definitely known to happen.
Further thought.
If we take this down to absolute basics – what you SEEM to be asserting is that any person who thinks they are insane is, by your definition, NOT insane.
Catch-22?
I checked out the Wikipedia definition of sanity which states that “A person is sane if he/she is rational”. Bearing that in mind, I think I should rephrase my last sentence above to “An insane person acts irrationally but may not know it”.
Sticking to Sydney’s situation, I believe she is not compelled to behave the way she does. When she is being interviewed by Suzie Shitwhiskers, for example, she shows that she could moderate her language… initially at least. Until her bubbly enthusiasm and going with the flow of her story made her lapse. But that is just a matter of a lack of self-discipline.
The fact that she could control it, shows that it was habitual rather than a “compulsion” or being out of her conscious control. She does not show the classic symptoms of a Tourettes Syndrome sufferer, by contrast.
One of her most extreme acts of eccentricity, rolling around the car park as if the sunlight was burning her, was simply a matter that her playful nature outweighed her social inhibitions. You see similar behaviour in children, yet we do not consider them to be insane. Certainly fair to describe her behaviour as childlike though.
If her actions should ever pass beyond playful and into endangering herself or others, then we might consider her to be suffering from diminished responsibility, depending on the situation. But even that falls short of insanity (there being a distinction between the two in legal terms). And if a court found that she was in control of her actions, but simply being reckless (which, based on her current behaviour I think would be the case) then neither defence would succeed and she would be held accountable.
Her tendency to respond violently to surprise threats does endanger people, but is a matter of re-training her fight or flight instincts, not a matter of mental health.