We can assume Sydney went into more detail and possibly did some demonstrations while Deus was having a laugh on the previous page.
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$10 he gets a hit, she overreacts, and the building has a new window
I say $10, that she pulls out the shield when she realizes that he “WILL” hit her.
BRW, who is covering the bets?
Probably the same person who is holding the bets on whether DaveB would draw Sydney’s eye-patch on the wrong eye or forget to include it. A bet that it is increasingly looking like Dave will win by default, never having gotten it wrong yet!
… So far. ;)
I have already forgotten many times it when penciling, which is why there are so many profile shots of her on her left side where you can’t see her eye, like in panel 3. Obviously it would be ideal if you could see her expression better, so if I hadn’t forgotten, I would have reversed the camera and shown them from the other side. Actually the whole page might have been laid out differently if I had remembered the patch because doing 180 degree reversals from panel to panel is not ideal.
Well, the eyepatch is only temporary.
Considering her sense of humour, I suspect Sydney will want to keep wearing the eyepatch for a while after she stops needing it. Only swapping it from side to side to mess with people’s heads.
I’m picking a draw – eventually.
BTW – love the last panel. very bad-ass Sydney.
The Cow Patty route indeed.
“Forty shots rang out. Forty people fell. Patty and the Killer missed each other, but they shot that town to Hell.” :P
Now there’s an image. Will they need a new HQ after?
$10 on something embarrassing to both Sydney and Math!
In the fifth panel I wondered who would wear a blue shirt that showed that much of her chest. Then I realized it was Dabbler in her pink top…
That page has just been posted and already I can’t wait to see what happens next week. I’m guessing Math will have a quick victory though as long as Sydney doesn’t go for the forcefield orb
JUNKS! You owe me a coke!. i got you first.
Max will probably break it up.
but its nice to see the Lech puts aside his lechery when his pride is wounded. Also a wounded pride can falter even the most trained fighter. I say Forcefield orb with tentacle orb…if the tentacle can go through the forcefield would be the winning combination, and as Sydney is so spazstic I wander how well he can tell her moves, plus no muscle flexing to telegraph her moves. and aiming may not be an issue with the tentacle, but how well or predictable those flight paths are is another story.
Puh-lease! She’d be first one to make bets on this one!
Besides, 10 bucks on Sydney. Gotta love that spazz.
Where is the popcorn?
Heatwave ate it all back in #77
She can always heat up another batch. Good exercise for her.
the transitive property? I guess she is more of a comic book and anime watcher than an RPG player.
Its tradition in comics for the feat of beating on strong fighter means you can beat anyone weaker than them; while in RPG/Fantasy genre it comes down not to power, but skills, type, and stats….which can in overly simple games and worlds become a game of rock paper scissors, even if complicated
https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.posterous.com/dailytechtips/nspzkwvCdixygonhrFmjJskjjBJoBaBbtkaAaCvxtbIskBFxDkdBiyBlcmrz/media_http25mediatumb_cBBwd.jpg.scaled500.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJFZAE65UYRT34AOQ&Expires=1363001114&Signature=ddt0aqK8FslkQviVQiDmkE%2FDUCc%3D
For info, sadly, the link failed when I tried it.
However, I think if Sydney saw that, she would introduce them to rock, paper, lizard Spock.
then lets try this link
https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lb8cxuTHib1qa0uujo1_500.jpg
Heh. Their wolf sign is similar to one I use to create a shadow wolf. Mine is a bit more artistic, as it has a more defined muzzle. The way they do theirs is actually closer to my shadow ostrich, although I make the eye bigger, and give it a defined pupil. That allows me to have the shadow look at specific individuals, for a good laugh.
I say timeout by general.
an he “supposably” wouldn’t be her gwen stacy uh?
i guess he wouldn’t be if it was during a kind of sparing between them
i just hope she isn’t going to use the “pp ball” in the middle of all this, althougth the hentai ball would be hilarious to use against that pervy guy hehe
well, everyone WAS wondering who on that side of the room can survive a giant energy blast…. :P
Looks like Sidney’s Genre Savvy advantage is pretty well Nerfed by Wisdom being her Dump Stat. How often does introducing yourself as the toughest cape on the block end well?
OTOH, Math is also playing his cards badly. He should either have (1) deadpan echoed Sidney’s “you can beat all of us?”, to laugh off her challenge, then prompted Max with “Press conference in how many minutes?”, or else (2) used Dabbler’s tactics – immediately flip Sidney around without hurting her, then call truce before she even figures out what happened. (And when Sidney bonked Dabbler right after that, Dabbler called cheap shot instead of hitting back.) For Math, fighting Sidney now (after her speech and actually ready for a fight) has FAR more downside than upside.
Machismo, the weakness of all pervy martial artists…and most combative men in general.
Except Math is just an Ultimate Skills Human, with no super powers. When mixing with actual Supers, such characters usually stay relevant by having much better judgement. And Step One of staying relevant is usually staying alive & un-maimed…
plus, skilled hand to hand fighter vs. person with ranged attack but without depth perception. this could take a while
Who says Math can’t atack from afar?
me, and everyone who knows that unless he gets his hands on something small and aerodynamic he has no projectile abilities. Also as he is human seriously doubt he has the Sniper Eye power like Bullseye does, or the Kinetic displacement that allows guys like Gambit to throw things like playing cards with such accuracy (Kinetic displacement causes air to become charged and move around an object both removing its self as a friction obstacle and forming a directional propellent force by opening and closing behind the projectile).
gets his hands on something small and aerodynamic..like, maybe…Sydney?…or one or two of the orbs? or…well, Sydney…if you think about it…but, i’m sure THOSE wouldn’t count as projectile weapons since they don’t detach
Grabbing one of the orbs would be one of the biggest mistakes he can do unless he knows he can’t move them and uses that.
given what happened to Maxima earlier in the strip, pretty sure no one else can move the Orbs, so trying to grab one would be the biggest mistake he could make in that fight. Ever see the a man be hit by his own fist? That’s the first gag you’d expect from grabbing an orb, second being if they have a defense mechanism. The orbs were able to knock Maxima off her feet, granted by surprise, and Math doesn’t know (unless he saw the news report and put it together those are what were inside the tube and makes it a point NOT to touch the orbs).
You don’t aim for the arrow, you aim for the bowman.
Now go to cast and see Math “powers”. He has, martial arts, speed, armor, strength and energy proyection.
the icon for energy projection is there, but the actual skill listing in his description says he is a normal human with preternatural martial arts.
Could have sworn DaveB stated that he was human with borderline superhuman skills, reflexes, agility, and strength.
No mention yet if martial artists in this world are capable of advanced chi manipulation like those in Street Fighter.
3 bucks on Sydney to last about 2 minutes before Math pulls out some equivalent of the 3 inch punch and ties up the match.
nothing to do with this page. do you think harem or dabbler ever play rock paper scissors with themselves?
Between each other could be useful. But between their own arms, pretty useless as the same mind controls all the arms. Try it; play rock-paper-scissors using your own two hands. See how much fun that is.
That page has two highlights for me:
1. “I promise, you won’t be my Gwen Stacy!” Small mistake, by the way, Dave. Stacy, not Stacey.
2. Anvils slightly bored face in the last panel.
Oh, and for winning the fight, it depends, who strikes first. That one is usually losing.
I am wondering what would happen if someone else tries to grab one of the orbs. Would they be able to use the orbs power as well. Does the orb has it’s own natural deffence that would make unwanted grabbers to let go. Is the orb strong enough to carry others if they can hold on to it while they fly around.
My money is on Sydney, just for the pure fact that she is a ADHD Hyper Active Spaz. Math will not be able to read her movements, unless the fight last a few rounds, which I do not see happening. Max or Arainna will break it up after the first round because of the press conference, or to stop Syd from using the PPB Orb
I would imagine that if someone tried to grab an Orb that they wouldn’t be able to use it against Sydney seeing how they’re bonded (?) to her. On top of that they probably have some sort of defense against that very sort of thing (though we can only speculate at this point)
My money is on Sydney as well. With her knowledge of comic book super heroes, SciFi/Fantasy, and spazzy unpredictability, I’m sure that she’ll pull off some Matrix-like inspired mayhem. But the fight will probably be cancelled by the General and the impending press conference. (Joel back at the comic shop will probably flip when he see’s/hears about it.) LOL
me i say math goes for the hit,, but he ends up being hit by balls as he does,, since i dont think sidney can keep up with his superspeed,, but i beleive that her own,,,, unpredictability is gonna allow her to get some hits in the process of being hit.
he doesn’t have superspeed. He is completly human just highly trained in the martial arts. the earlier zip was “rule of funny”.
He does have ‘almost superhuman’ speed though. I gues
that is Peak Human Speed.
But how fast could he really be if he couldn’t avoid having his arms pinned to his sides in panel 4?
Having fast “REactions” is all about anticipating the “actions.” Sydney does stuff that no one expects.
Jiggawatt in panel two
Ooh. I’ve been waiting for Math to finally get serious (although this is a rather childish instance of such).
Of course, it’s not like Max is going to allow it (though I bet everyone, including her, would like to see this super-fight).
You didnt notice the “mini” below the main comic. It may or may not be official, but I’d still think Maxine would want to see this happen. She’d love to see EITHER of them get taken down a peg, but preferably both :)
Only after I posted, but it’s non canonical anyway.
from what I’ve seen of math, he’s a melee fighter, so the easiest way to defeat him would be to immobilize him, levitating him would work, then just keep hitting him from a distance.
Of course if the orb’s are moving interdependently and are in “defense mode” with enough speed they could parry his attacks.
Sydney has flight listed as one of her powers, but have we seen her fly?, we’ve seen her hover/levitate herself, and is it just restricted to herself or can she use the orb to levitate someone else I.E Math
Not really zip around so much but she’s done some peculiar hovering. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/479
that’s what I mean, we’ve seen her hover but not fly, but in much the same way as you need to learn to walk before you can run, you’ll need to learn to hover before you learn to fly
A really good martial artist can look like he’s defying gravity in a fight, but Sydney actually CAN defy gravity. Even without “flight” that works in her favour. Getting the high ground is one of the first rules of combat because gravity multiplies the force of your attacks while reducing those of your opponent.
Also, nerd that she is I’ll bet she’s spent hours in her room practicing; https://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Zero-gravity_combat_training
I know I’d leave a lot of footprints on my ceiling if I had the blue orb.
as an idea i had when we learned what her powers was and that as she can use 2 powers at once, she could be used as an artillery shell if thrown hard enough while using levitate and shield, kinetic impact can be just as devastating as a several kiloton nuclear bomb only cleaner, the impact force depending on speed+weight you can even regulate the explosive force by simply adjusting speed
Yep. Or if the Fly Ball allows her to go fast, she could something similar on her own. Given it looks like she can orient her own personal gravity in any direction, in theory all she has to do is point in the direction she wants to go and let herself accelerate to terminal velocity. Albeit not giving an impact energy of several megatons. The result would be similar to someone skydiving without a parachute.
Or, if it is more subtle than that, and is literally a slow speed hover, with funky orientation allowed only, she could achieve a similar effect given the time to gradually climb to altitude, position herself above the target she wants to bomb and turning off the Fly Ball.
Of course, all this assumes that the Forcefield Orb somehow protects her from her own inertia on impact. If all it does is create impenetrable shell with no further properties, then she would suffer just as much from the sudden deceleration, when she impacted the target. Just like being in a crashing car, with no air bag
Note the hazard to the thrower, using the original hypothesis, by the way. If in an atmosphere when initiating a throw with sufficient force to cause an explosion like a nuclear bomb on impact, there would be rather nasty effects with the force field attempting to part the air right from the launch point. Let us hope the launcher and vicinity (say the city) are immune to heat, at the very least.
Alternatively does the Forcefield Orb simply absorb any incoming kinetic energy? That would explain why it and she did not bounce back when Max hit the force field. If so, does the effect work both ways? In which case, no matter how hard she were to be thrown/fly, the Forb would simply absorb the energy of the impact and bring her to a dead stop, with no harm to either party.
However, a nice side effect of that, if so, is she could safely step off a cliff or the top of a building, with nothing more than the Forb in hand! Knowing that she will safely stop when she reaches the ground.
But blabber‘s hypothesis might still hold up, even if it only creates an invulnerable shell, if the way the Fly Ball creates local gravity for Halo also dampens her inertia (but not the force field’s). If not, then there is still a problem. The two being separate things. Inertia being the property of objects wishing to continue on whatever path they are already on. And gravity being one of the forces that can interfere with it.
So, if understanding is right*, unless it does both, she could be thrown really fast at a target, but (even if she were to use her Fly Ball to hover, allowing her to keep on a straight line, rather than ballistic, trajectory) she would still have all the inertia resulting from the horizontal throw. Resulting in nasty squishing effects to both the target and Halo.
Of course, if it does control her inertia, then the kinetic energy on her impact is totally adjustable. But, unless it allows her to apply the effect separately to her and the force field, the damage will still work both ways. Assuming the whole thing about equal and opposite effects is not also under the control of the Ball.
Sorry about the usual long, rambling reply blabber. Your comment provoked interesting implications.
* David Nuttall, being our resident physics teacher, will be able to correct me if I am wrong.
It’s a very interesting set of ideas.
One big problem is that the only way I see to adequately test (and train) for this kind of stunt is to do it for real.
…. Which means if the guesses / calculations about tolerances or limitations of Sydney’s force field are in any way wrong, then Sydney, the Orb and probably the entire Test Area may be unavailable for a repeat performance.
A lot depends on what the Forcefield Orb actually does with all the energy involved, what its limits actually are, and what happens if/when those limits are ever exceeded. Does it simply switch off (Uh, oh), or release all that energy at once (BIG Badda-Boom!) or do …. something else (probably something weird)? Guess we’ll find out …. eventually.
My theory is that it stores all the energy until it has enough to make a pony.
Well Math knows how to fight humans but can he fight 7 intelligently guided missiles that can’t be moved by Max if they don’t want to? If he tries to counter them they may do him damage. While he may be able to pluck arrows from the air these objects don’t have to obey the same laws of motion. His best bet is to avoid them altogether and go for a quick strike. I’m sure there a video game somewhere that will give Sydney some inspiration on how to fight him. Any thoughts?
Oldie but a goodie. Guilty Gear, Math seems like a speed type fighter so anti-Chipp strategies could work
the ranged attacks of Axl Low could provide inspiration or the trapping style of Testament could mix things up.
oddly enough Math and Chipp resemble each other
https://guilty-gear.wikia.com/wiki/Chipp_Zanuff
I’m with “who is gwen stacy?”
google activated
Gwen Stacy was an American metalcore band that was signed with Solid State Records.
Their name came from the character Gwen Stacy, who appeared in the comic book The Amazing Spider-Man as the girlfriend of Peter Parker
the important reference is Gwen Stacey girlfriend of spider-man was accidently killed by Spider-man (as Max herself stated only a few pages ago while making a rather poinyant point) when he used his powers without thinking. Which in part was brought up because of her tendency to lash out, of which Math was one of the people she hit *of the three so far* on the team already. She has punched Harem, bonked Dabbler, and face smashed with an orb Math.
thus her saying Math wont be her Gwen Stacey is going back to that, saying she wont accidently kill him.
Not accidentally, no….
cant forget her spastickly taking down Mr Amorphous at the bank, and that was witout the orbs as well. He has military training too right
I don’t think tongue-fu is part of military training
And don’t forget the poor shmuck that tried to mug her and she pummeled into submission. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/416
I wonder how hard tentacle orb can squeeze, and how she experimented with it. Lets give Syd some credit. If you got super powers wouldn’t you experiment how much damage it can do AND come up with a strategy on “what to do if I have to fight against …. (ninjapirate the 3rd etc).”
I’d guess that this fight will be stopped but they will probably have a betting pool running on the training matches
I’ll throw a $5 on Max somehow being drug into the fight.
Newbie tickling the master’s ego in his area of expertise ? Right after explaining her powers, thus being unable to take him by surprise anymore ? That can’t end well.
$20 on Math depantsing Sidney during the fight to prove his point.
knowing what your opponent CAN do, is not the same as knowing what they WILL do.
It is a step in the right direction, but a breakdown of powers at their basic doesn’t tell him anything about the person who uses them, or their tendencies, favors, and mental position in relation to battle.
I think as long as she uses the forcefield orb and something else like telepresense for distraction or the tentacle orb and then tries to hit him with the rest, she could win.
DaveB, just wanted to give you a heads up on the voting image you are missing the “Thing 1” from the weightlifting Harem’s shirt.
And her awesomeness and power are the reason she is the only one with a nice body (Dabbler also has a pretty face) on the team, right? Or is it case of YMMV?
Next page, we go back to the infirmary. Math has his shirt off being examined by the doctor; his torso, arms and face are covered in round bruises, each about the same size. Sydney is sitting in a chair nearby, Anvil putting her hand on Ms. Scoville’s shoulder, keeping her in place; she has a black eye on her right eye, but at least the patch on her left eye is gone. Sydney is complaining quietly to Anvil.
Sydney: Draw? How was that a draw?
Anvil: You knocked each other out at the same time, so it was a draw.
Sydney: Damn, I needed to grab the shield orb faster.
Anvil: What was that one you grabbed just before he hit you? The red one? What does it do again?
Only one thing I notice wrong about this situation, if I was in that room I’d try very hard to remember which orb causes the explosions
Just because Math is the best pure fighter does not mean he can beat everybody there. While he can unbalance Anvil and probably Max, it is doubtful he could hit either hard enough to actually injure either one. He is clearly more agile than Anvil (being almost a foot shorter, 100 lbs lighter, and all that training are major contributors to that) and he might be able to dodge some of the swirling mass of balls, but Max has super-speed; dodge or block a supersonic punch, buddy!
Alternate images for the next page (similar to the bank robbery): Math gets behind her and holds her in a rear chin-lock. Sydney tries the Equalizer Kick, but Math dodges when he realizes what that particular weight shift is setting up for. Sydney also lacks her previous breath weapon. Achilles starts giggling in the background.
while holding her in place he is also holding himself in place, so while he may rob her body of free motion and activly handling the orbs, he is now a sitting target for them to lock onto as the swarm is in orbit around her and can close the orbit to just around her head and body to smack him up.
This should be good. We did a lot of speculating last year on how Syd might deal with Math in a fight, now we’ll get to see if Dave uses any of our ideas.
I think this might be a stalemate or a likely loss for Sydney. The purpose of this is not to see who’s better but rather to see if Sydney can use the orbs in a fight situation and how much training she may need. Using them as a whirling shield is not enough of a defense against Math, but being able to change up quickly between the orbs or using them as bludgeoning weapons in those situation where her hands are occupied by either two of the orbs or covered in some way is something that should be noted. In a way, Sydney is controlling six different and possibly sentient devices at one time.
This may very well be a perfect example as to why someone who’s mind is constantly shifting from one thought to the next is needed to control and fight with multiple orbs.
P.S. Unless it’s hidden by the word balloon there is a seventh ball missing. So Sydney may already have a plan.
Edit: Sydney is controlling “seven” different and possibly sentient devices at one time.
“Unless it’s hidden by the word balloon there is a seventh ball missing. So Sydney may already have a plan”
I think you’re right. And me thinks Syd’s grin in panel 3 was her coming up with a plan and the hug in panel 4 was her way of placing an orb behind Math without him seeing it. Notice the eyes of the guy standing behind Math, he’s not looking at either of them so maybe he’s watching the hidden orb and his slight smile is him knowing what’s up and thinking, “this ought to be fun.” And as it’s one of the unknown orbs (the green one actually) she can not only knock him in the back of the head but she’s also kept all her known power orbs out in front where she can use them. Good strategy on her part.
You know I’m hoping it’s Syd who wins this fight, and does it in such a way that Max will be able to use the threat of “sparring with Sydney” as an Article 15 to the others. K.P. is so out dated.
Sydney’s perfect attack and defense,
Using the Forb as the perfect defense,
And the comm-ball to give her a third person view of the fight.
telekinetically attack and break defenses of Math using other 5 orbs as projectiles
when a good opening presents itself go for the knock out.
I’m hoping she panics and we get a look at one of her other (hrumph) NOT poke-balls does!
Sydney: Oh, so that it is what it does. Um, Math, are you all right?
Drowned rat/Charcoal briquet: I’ll be okay. Excuse me, I have to visit the infirmary.
the fact that Sydney claims not to know what the last 2 orbs do, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t.
sure saying what each orb does may have advantages when it comes to planing tactics and the like, but that means there will be a list or record somewhere, which could fall into the wrong hands.
the same could be said of having to hold them to use them, so she could have the force field in one hand, the flight in the other, then nuke them with an energy which they wasn’t expecting
It all comes down to what Matt does with having high-speed initiative. Get Sydney’s hands unable to grab an orb AND dodge the 7 orbs at once for a long while until Sydney gives up or some orb weakness is learned is the best scenario I can imagine for Matt that DOESN’T ruin the press conference even if it might ruin the room.
i’ve got twenty on sydney. without his hot-chick-lechery powers to guide him, he’ll be an easy kill.
You know one of the way folks deal with kids with ADHD is by throwing them into marital arts it does help gives them and outlet and helps them focus their minds. After all ADHD is the old cave man hunter brain scream at the top of its lunges to go hunt. That fact that she is turning math int Gwen is what I find interesting she I guess considers him the most endangered of the group.
He is “only human”.
10,000 Quatloos on Sydney with extensive property damage.
20.000 Quatloos Math learns a “valuable” lesson.
In frame 5: Math’s hands look bigger than previous frames, and they don’t quite look right. Too much bend in the wrist, and the heel of the palm should be less square, plus the fingers don’t look quite right. You might want to include the edges of the thumbs.
Hands are a continuing challenge for me. I need to see if I can find my Burne Hogarth anatomy book.
Anvil is seriously not impressed…
My money’s on Math, Sydney needs to be surprised/shocked for her innate distructive powers to awaken. Whirling the orbs around on purpose won’t do much..
Not too long ago, Sydney saw Math shirtless. She may want the chance to get him sweaty and into close grips. Wonder if Math might slip in her drool puddle…
Also not too long ago, Math chose to introduce himself to Sydney by suddenly appearing at point-blank range with uber-creepy face and a shout of “MORE WOMEN!!!”. Whereupon Sydney punched him out.
I strongly believe that specific experience would override any thoughts Sydney might have had from seeing him shirtless.