Grrl Power #1346 – Flash Drive
There was a part of me that thought this page would have been amusing with stick figure art, in a weird meta comic prank, because this page is a cameo debut that’s been a long time coming, and to wait all that time and get stick figure art would be, well, kind of a shitty prank. So I went with regular art. Actually it’s kind of the flat cell stuff combined with the more regular art I prefer, at least for the cameo bits. Just cause of the buildup about this being a “potential tantric event” and having a well shaded ass fit that better than a flat butt. An artistically flat butt I mean.
This is Opus the Poet’s “Flash Drive,” a speedster that takes advantage of that ancient Chinese secret, the bicycle. We know that bikes are Chinese because Chun-Li had them in her level. (Yes, I know they’re probably a French invention, more or less, though the earliest bikes were a little MARK 0.1 compared to what we think of as a bicycle. Also, a lot of other “kind of a bicycle” things were invented in different times and places, but didn’t catch on in a meaningful way.) Anyway, a speedster using a bike makes a lot of sense, unless the world doesn’t have adamantium bikes or his powers don’t extend into the bike, because I’m going to guess a stock Schwinn isn’t going to be able to handle Mach 3 cornering. Also the centripetal forces would make the wheels explode as the friction turns them molten.
“Oh. Legs indeed.” Just indicates that as fast as that guy is going, Maxima can still take a slow-motion look at him.
I’m going to try something with this new vote incentive.
This month, I’m closing on a new house, selling my Mom’s house, finishing packing Mom’s house, moving city to city to the new house, forwarding mail, canceling utilities, all that. And after that’s done, I get to start the process of selling my old house, which needs a little work before it can realistically go on the market.
SO. I’m going to try and do this vote incentive in stages. Currently it’s just pencils. The TopWebcomics one will update with colors and detail until we get to the no clothes versions, then that will continue over at Patreon. Also there will be a comic or two in between each version to fill out the story.
I know it’s hard to tell from just the pencils, but this is Heatwave and Jiggawatt. The comics will explain why they’re doing what they’re doing. Although I feel like even saying that much makes it easy to guess, but hopefully the journey will still amuse.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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.
Dave, are you also trying out something new for Dabbler’s face, or that’s just how it turns out due to the flat shading? It’s been bugging me the last couple of issues.
Dabbler theoretically has the most flexibility to alter her appearance, in subtle and grand ways, given her innate and learned magical and technological capabilities, and willingness to not be same every day. Sure she has a style and preferences developed over centuries, but why not tweak a little every couple days? Also she has “Muscles that humans do not have” likely also includes face and may allow unusual alterations of facial expressions and porno sense worthy things.
I get that the frame of the bicicle can be made of adamantium. But what about the wheels? Or the street?
The streets in your country don’t have special adamantium bike lanes for speedsters?
Tires: Could probably be made of the special rubber they use for drag racers. Would probably have to be solid instead of pneumatic though.
I don’t think the material of the tires have to be particularly special; it’s more that he would be airborne if he tries to corner at Mach 3. Unless like Max he also has some sort of telekinesis to stick to the road.
There’s a reason racing circuits often have banked corners, and if they don’t it’s so the racers have to slow down. Tire material won’t do much about that.
The reason they have to slow down on non-banked corners is that otherwise they’d lose grip on the road and crash out. Tire material with higher friction coefficient would help with that.
Higher friction coefficient can only help so much.
If you pile a brick on top of another brick there’s lots of friction between them. Tilt them sideways and the top brick falls off.
Going around a curve, inertia means your velocity vector is no longer straight down due to gravity. Turn too tight a circle, or too fast, and you’re going sideways no matter how sticky your tires are.
Not to mention that a high friction coefficient means more force to keep your speed up, and more waste heat. You may end up melting your tires.
If those tires are solid, then it’d be hell to ride at any speed over anything rougher than a glass-smooth surface. The air in the tires provides a lot of the shock absorbing properties, although at those speeds, the air in the tires might just as well be solid rubber
Actually… back in the 80’s had solid tires put on the bike to safe repairs when was still doing the paper route, never really noticed any difference in performance (then again, just had a Raleigh 20 bike… )
Believe a lot of the cyclist’s in street races (both city and country roads) use them for pretty much the same reason
This bike is clearly designed with city tracks in mind.
With hard enough tires the streets and the wheels won’t even notice.
Super hobbly experience, but really good for the road.
Drawback of this approach:
all the upward and downwards force will be transferred straight to you, unless you’ve one of these really fancy shock absorber bike frames, which is clearly not the case in this bicycle design, but for a super this acceptable and much cheaper than paying for a new bike and a new road every time you go to your work.
Also American roads are generally made multi ton with cars in mind, before a cyclist manages to exert that much force you’ve a much bigger problem than bad roads.
example calculation:
Our cyclist is 80kg, their bike is 16kg( this is top heavy for a bike https://bicyclewarehouse.com/blogs/news/how-much-does-a-bicycle-weigh)
A road legal vehicle in the USA is maximally 20.000 lbs or 9081,8 kg on a single axle[1] and goes at most 104,607 km/h[2].
f=ma
Assuming his tires are as hard as those of car.
We can translate speed straight to acceleration.
9081,8/16 =567,6125
104,607*567,6125 is around 59.376
He could go 59.376 km/h and do no more damage to the road than a heavy truck.
This is also beyond earths escape velocity.[3]
I think he will get other problems before complaints about road damage.
1. https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/Freight/policy/rpt_congress/truck_sw_laws/index.htm
2. https://www.truckercountry.com/trucker-resources/trip-planning/speed-limits/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed
Do your calculations take into account the area of the road in contact with the tires? Bicycle tires are narrower than those on a truck (indeed, particularly compared to trucks I believe the tires will also have a smaller radius), meaning the force is concentrated into a smaller surface area, resulting in higher pressures.
That said, I believe you’re correct that the super would go airborne if accelerating quickly enough to actually cause appreciable damage to the road’s surface… but Dave’s commentary mentioned going Mach 3 (which may be an exaggeration) and certainly violence of the displaced air when going past the group implies an exceptionally-high velocity. But if we’re assuming powers that keep him from accidentally blasting off, it’s not too difficult to stretch that such that the bike doesn’t destroy the roads in the process (and may not need any sort of special design to survive the forces involved).
The easiest explanation here is that his powers do indeed extend to his bike, protecting it the same way they protect him. If the character isn’t a powerhouse (like Accelerando in Legion of Nothing), we’re probably looking at something that makes him and his bike able to function like they were going at normal speeds while going markedly faster. There must be more to it than that for him to generate that much wind… but at the same time, he’d get in some serious trouble if he were actually going faster than the speed of sound (a sonic boom at ground level in a city is going to be destructive). I’d guess there’s a partial “disassociate from the material world” effect while going at superspeed to avoid that.
The bike and the wheels are made of the same material as his clothes and shoes. Since he’s not cycling naked his clothes can seemingly withstand whatever amount of energy and power his movement creates.
Before I think of the Tires I am rather interest if the Quickspanner Panel 3 is able to hold everything together.
I can talk about that, in 2007 I was going out on a short ride, and I had to cross a multi-lane highway that bisected the neighborhood and I pressed on the pedals hard enough that I bent the frame of my bike and ripped the derallieur off, but the quickrelease held. So I think it will work with Flash Drives’ powers. Especially since one of his powers is Flight In Contact With The Ground. it lets him change direction without depending on the traction available at the tires. It also would have let him stop directly in front of the ladies in panel, but I’m going to assume that Dave couldn’t resist a “Buzz The Tower” incident. I have to admit it was spectacular display of Flash Drive’s velocity.
Just a shame none of them were wearing a dress, then it coulda also been a “Marilyn Monroe” meets “Lady In Red” moment :P
I thought the “oh. Legs indeed.” Implied even Maxima appreciated the man’s nice legs. She’s very feminist and doesn’t like sexuality being at the workplace but she’s not a prude, I think.
Maxima? Not a prude? Have you read, like, the whole webcomic? XD
Maxima isn’t a prude, but she is a stickler for professionalism in the workplace, which to her (reasonably) excludes any sexual conduct or innuendo. She’s perfectly willing to let her hair down with Dr. Fireman when she’s off the clock.
The less than ideal military behavior of her colleagues makes her look more prude I guess.
Given the individual power level of Archon supers, their behavior is as much military as it needs to be, and as much so they can be realistically induced to. She is a notable exception just because she is personally invested in being the super-professional commander. For everyone else, it is just a job, and they don’t need to be by-the-book to do it well.
Not just that. We have seen her displaying her sex-negative feminist foibles and mannerisms even away from work. It is just a rare occurrence because she is a workaholic. Her being able to date Dr. Fireman was an important character development for her and she struggled a lot with herself to achieve that.
Never seen her be sex negative before. Just anti inappropriate behavior at work.
Some readers count that as very ‘sex negative’
By the fly-by, but Maxi “being able” to date Fireman Sam wasn’t character development, it was simply the first time since she was a teenager that she could even talk to someone like a ‘normal’ person
The only thing that was stopping her from dating someone before that was, how could she be sure they were dating her for herself and not for her appearance (and now her notoriety), that collar allows her to be her self without any preconceived notions
For what it is worth, Max would have my sympathies. As a supervisor you sometimes (often) have to set aside what would be personally comfortable for what supports the goals of the organization. I was only a lower level supervisor with about 90 people in my supervisory tree but it was necessary to be mindful of not giving too much influence too people with whom you would ordinarily be friends but who did not hold that position in the organization. I had one supervising physician who pouted when I wouldn’t join her WOW guild. It seems like a small thing but it was a power move to gain an ally in her battle with the nurse manager. It didn’t help that my immediate predecessor openly flirted with and probably slept with at least a couple of her subordinates. So Max doesn’t have to be an X-wave feminist or sex negative or whatever. Sometimes it’s just doing what you have to to minimize chaos and keep the wheels turning.
Maxima passionately embraces a militant ideal of sex-negative feminism that is basically indistinguishable from vanilla prudery with feminist excuses. Her militancy cannot stop her from being a straight young woman with needs and the libido of Superion channelers, but this just makes her repressed, conflicted, and a hypocrite, and her actions sometimes contradictory. The situation is worsened by the fact that out of the three men she is attracted to, one (Deus) is a frenemy with a lot of baggage, and another (Hiro) is taboo to her due to anti-fraternization rules.
Her parallel adoption of the role model of a tough-as-nails commander does not help, either. Neither for the sexual stuff nor for her being a closet nerd or having a soft side for her friends that also are her co-workers.
That’s a really hyperbolic description of her.
She takes issue with over-the-top people like Dabbler, who ignore personal boundaries, laws and regulations, exploitation, rape jokes, and workplace inappropriate actions(which, in DaveB’s case tend to come up as sexual stuff, which emphasises it *usually* but also can be stuff like receiving gifts from underlings) and the reduction of a woman to just a sex object.
But she has shown time and again that she has levels of tolerance, even for some things she dislikes and is willing to lighten up, situation to situation. Such as when she interacts with Anvil(it has been noted before that she even appreciates how Anvil interacts with her and also that the reason Peggy doesn’t act the same is because Peggy respects the rules too much), or after people seemed okay during the lust aura situation or talking/about to Harem once she determined she wasn’t being forced to do “silk work”.
What is true about her:
She is 35(not exactly what one usually implies with “young woman with needs”, yunno? Not saying that it doesn’t apply, but with everything else, it seems you are deliberately painting an image);
She hadn’t dated for a while(“over a year”, prior to her current partner, which happens to many people at any age) and didn’t feel she needed to(Also “libido of Superion channelers”… seems *super* variable throughout the comic/less of a thing than “everyone, human, super, alien, supernatural, alt dimension being, etc is sexual”);
That she is in fact okay with sexual stuff, she just believes it has a place(not places where it may compromise you in some way) and time(not times when it is inappropriate to discuss), and that should whatever is making something inappropriate change to make it not inappropriate, she’ll reevaluate(e.g. if, and not before, the anti-fraternization rule no longer apply, she’ll reconsider Hiro);
That she hates abuse/exploitation/coercion/reduction to an object;
That she’s willing to discuss, and learn(talking to Harem, Seneca, etc);
That she’s okay with her friends lives and won’t impose any non-legal/regulation restrictions upon them based on her preferences.
That is *far* from ” repressed, conflicted, and a hypocrite”.
Oh… we’ve seen her butt heads with others about her less-than-positive views on sexuality. In particular, this exchange here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-197-feminist-v-feminist/
Note that it’s titled “feminist v feminist,” because the very existence of a label such as “sex positive positive” requires that “sex negative feminism” be a thing.
I would add: I’m not bashing Maxima for feeling this way. She’s been in the military (which means she’s been exposed to the misogyny, the sexual harassment, and even the chain of command sweeping cases of sexual assault under the rug). She’s not only undeniably physically attractive, but uniquely so. A bunch of tiny incidents, building up over time, have left her feeling overly sensitive about being sexualized, fetishized, or disrespected on the basis of her gender.
That character flaw of hers is actually pretty vital. It allows for character growth – and it shows that she’s not perfect, or worse yet being presented as being officially correct even if the audience disagrees. Just like how Dabbler isn’t always correct about things (which is why, on the times that she’s gone too far and gotten punched for it, the bulk of the readership laughs and agrees she had it coming).
That scene, amusingly enough, is my Number One go-to in the “DaveB can’t write feminists” file. Maxima in that scene is not objecting to ‘women should be free to enjoy sex’ (ie, sex-positive feminism), but rather, ‘women should be whores’.
Really, the scene is excellent if you read it as Dabbler not grokking certain specific nuances of English. The word ‘whore’ is likely not a concept to her, at least with all the connotations it has in the English language. In her head, she’s likely translating it to a concept more akin to ‘courtesan’ (not that Max would love the phrase any more there, as it’s still starting with ‘a woman should’. Feminism, regardless of its stripe, is all about telling men who tell women what they ‘should’ do or be to go stuff themselves.
In short, it’s not the sex, it’s the subservience.
I’ve addressed this in my comment below(took my a long time to write/had other things to do and I forgot to refresh), but that is not at all how I read her lines. Her objections appear to be, a) To the sum of the *whole* sentence(Lady, Maid, Chef, and Whore, as a package, and “only” those.) and b) Double standards in that that line may not see use, if the sentence was applied to men. Not to the existence of line itself.
Which falls more in line with the “telling men who tell women what they ‘should’ do or be to go stuff themselves” you raise, though may still fall short.
It’s still not clear what you find objectionable about that particular scene, or how it is indicative of “DaveB can’t write feminists”. Are you suggesting that no feminist could hold the views expressed by either character?
Honestly, I think that the page you linked isn’t a good one for an argument pushing for her having “less-than-positive views on sexuality”. It might pass muster as some versions of “sex-negative feminism” in a… “patriarchal disproportionate focus on sexual qualification” sense. Maybe. But is not a good demo of being generally “sex negative” outside such lens.
Initially, what she is objecting to is not the singular sexual line, but the sum. The perceived intent with which she believes the phrase is commonly used. To reductive attitudes. To the idea that women are reduced to “domestic aptitude”. This has nothing to do with sex.
Within the page, she straight up acknowledges Dabbler’s argument, allowing that the whole phrase, as Dabbler uses it is okay(not reacting negatively to the idea that Dabbler is pushing that sex is something to excel at, either), but notes that that “spin” doesn’t cover her issue of people who aren’t thinking like that using it.
Dabbler then proposes increasing the breadth of the phrase, so it is not limited by Max’s “domestic aptitude” issue. At this point, Max finally raises an apparently “less-than-positive views on sexuality”… but Dabbler pushes to find out why, and Max reveals that it is in fact, the perceived(right or wrong that she is about that existing) double-standard that she objects to. The idea that if the phrase was about men, it might go something like:
A man should be a lord in the parlor, a… valet(? butler?) in the living room and a chef in the kitchen.(full stop)
At first glance, it looks like Max is being sex negative, but in fact, her words tell a different story, one of objection to being reduced, and being treated to hypocritical attitudes.
Something worth keeping in mind as well is that she’s having this conversation, willingly, with someone she knows is a succubus(personally, if I was going to use a page, I’d use… I dunno, when Peggy met Dabbler? there are better ones, but I’m tired), and who just expressed being a whore is a sign of excellence… and she in no way took issue with that, on any basis other that what I listed above, which runs counter to the “feeling overly sensitive about being sexualized, fetishized, or disrespected on the basis of her gender” aspect you suggest, as well as accusations of prudery or being particularly militant.
No, Maxima has repeatedly shown she’s at least a bit sex-negative… or rather, a bit misandrist. Which, as I said, makes sense for her – she’s been forced to deal with hotbeds of toxic masculinity (joining the military, being deployed to the middle east, dealing with criminals, etc). She’s going to be a bit overly sensitive about it. She is constantly on guard about being objectified or reduced to a set of genitals (like when a general began to suggest that she ought to “do her duty” by sleeping with Deus, and her own commanding officer had to warn him not to finish that sentence).
And she’s been working to get better about it – like when she admits to being attracted to Hiro AND that she might have gone too far by ogling him, when she would have been outraged had the roles been reversed.
Her teammates/subordinates/friends even lampshade her track record on the subject:
“Ten bucks says Maxima smashes the table.”
“Twenty.”
“That’s not… you have to bet AGAINST me!”
“I am. When she smashes the table you owe me ten bucks.”
TLDR: Maxima clings closer to the Second Wave Feminist mindset of “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” with a touch of Third Wave. Dabbler is more Fourth Wave Feminism, the kind espoused by Emma Watson.
“least a bit sex-negative” is a far cry from the descriptors being used in the initial conversation you joined into. I do believe your stance more reasonable, though I still feel that the page you used is a bad example compared to a number of others throughout the comic, which is the actual issue I brought in my response to you.
I cannot guarantee that Maxima wasn’t “a bit sex-negative” in that page, but I do believe someone who wasn’t *could* have visited the same arguments she did, on the basis of equity(or, I’ll give you, perhaps misandry) and fighting reductive-ness. That said, otherwise, it sounds like things we are saying are relatively “lining up” and it’s just how we say them/individual perspectives that are creating a sense of conflict.
I will note thought, there doesn’t have to be a track record, for people to assume or joke about reactions from others(also it could be inspired by how easily Max can break stuff, or things like her response to the press/diva-like actions that led up to the dinner scene). People say that kind of stuff about friends/associates some times, true or not.
While Maxima has been shown to have some harsh reactions to some things other have said/done, the times that I can think of that she actually did proper damage in a remotely similar situation, are those such as when she was framed for “kissing crooks” and broke her phone(70), and when Mr. Amorphous suggested someone do the succubus aura on his girlfriend(1197) and she cracked the podium. In both situation, the damage came about from clenching her hand too hard, in reaction to a swift yet temporary burst of rage, rather than lashing out at an inanimate object intentionally, as in smashing a table(though you could possibly construct arguments about her subsequent attack on Harem).
I don’t think it’s fair to describe Max as either sex-negative or misandrist. She is not promiscuous, but neither has she expressed, for instance, a belief that sex should be restricted to marriage. She has expressed strong disapproval of people under her command feeling compelled to use sex in the course of their work. She has expressed irritation with men’s sexual attention and behavior, but gets along just fine with men in general. I would like to see just one specific example of her being either sex-negative or misandrist.
OR… they’re a comment on the fact the delivery guy is a speedster?
This was my thought, although the commentary implies she was indeed admiring his legs. Moderate hypocrisy in this regard is nothing new for her – she’s made some comments in the past about/to Hiro that she likely would have taken offense to with the roles reversed. Which, to be clear, I think is a good thing for a character – it’s a flaw, but not an egregious one.
I git the impression it was meant to be along the lines of, “Oh. I see what you mean.”
Yeah the “Oh legs indeed” bubble should have been on the bottom of the panel. So it read “Legs? Whoooosh Oh Legs indeed”
If a super world has some advanced technology, then stuff like this can make sense, yeah.
I think it’s better to just accept it for the silliness rather than hand wave it away as advanced comic technology. Sure, you could say “special frictionless bearings” and “futuretech and/or magical telekinetic fields for traction at ludicrous speed”, or you can just chuckle at the idea of a speedster on a bike.
100% this.
There’s no way a ground-based speedster is functional in any universe even remotely resembling ours. Rapid body acceleration from pushing on the ground isn’t possible without ripping up the ground due to equal-and-opposite forces (talking the physics definition of acceleration, including starting, stopping, and turning). Doing it on a bicycle is even more unrealistic.
Therefore the acceleration must be due to some other force, either aerodynamic or self-telekinesis. And with either of those, why not just fly? Go up into the air where there are fewer things to run into.
So yeah, just go with the silliness and enjoy the comic :)
Kinda like Maxima’s violations of the laws of thermodynamics: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-769-incoming-eventually/
Balderdash! A ground-based speedster is possible in lots of universes resembling ours, from “remotely” all the way up to “closely”! :-D
Or it some other sort of shenanigans. I feel like most speedsters look more like some sort of time manipulation.
I.e. they don’t put out more acceleration, physically, it just looks like more from the outside because time is sped up for them.
I agree. IMO, time manipulation is the only plausible explanation for a ground-based speedster. It addresses almost every objection raised when comparing their abilities against real-world physics. Dude’s just cycling down the road, but everyone else perceives him as going super-fast because they’re experiencing time differently. Granted, he’s going far faster than any normal cyclist (“super” physique and metabolism combined with super-advanced bicycle), but definitely not “Mach 3 cornering”.
Speedster creators never seem to use this answer. Instead of manipulating time to give them the ability to perform more actions faster than anyone else, a power that is entirely plausible in the grrlpower universe, they say their guy “thinks faster than everyone else and has super-duper reflexes and a super-physics-defying bicycle”.
I don’t think it works that way unless things like gravity and friction *also* work differently for the speedster.
Otherwise a speedster sped up by a factor of 10 is effectively in a 1/10 g gravity field, he can jump really high (but may crush his ankles really slowly coming back down) etc.
That’s because if you use Time as your excuse, you’re also aging, and aging quickly. unless anti-aging/long years is a part of your power set, running from New York to Miami is going to take you the personal equivalent of a couple weeks or something, and if you keep doing it, you could easily age years and take yourself right into retirement within your first year of being a speedster.
So, it’s basically kinetic energy control, like the speed force allows, or go home.
You’ll need a load of required secondary powers/handwaves whatever you go for, to work to begin with it has to be convenient enough that excluding aging isn’t a big deal.
“Kinetic energy control” is its own can of worms, and doesn’t actually explain most of super speed.
I think we can have both. Enjoy a silly funny ass joke and also enjoy trying to explain how super biking could work with the other nerds.
Even with modern technology it makes sense.
Running is more tiring than cycling and bicycles have shown to be able to handle speed up to 100km/h.
Even if his bicycle cannot handle his top running speed, the mere convenience could be enough reason to cycle.
Also we with some sacrifices in price and/or weight the durability of bicycles is easy to increase.
This super seems to not have spend too much money on custom design though.
Aestetically it’s clearly a standard city racing bicycle.
If I were to make a bicycle for a super speeder, I would have gone for the bulkier design of a mountain bike, a city bike or even a motor.
He should be able to safely reach a 100 km/h with this thing, but anything beyond will probably result in an folding frame.
I know people who did cycle with a folding frame, but it’s not a comfy experience.
In our world, with our physics, a speedster riding a bike is more likely to achieve high speed than straight running. You run by pushing down and back on the surface you are standing on, and then the surface pushes back, up and forward on you due to Newton’s Third Law of Motion. If you push too hard for the surface, you can overcome static friction and your foot slips; this happens all the time on ice. If you can maintain static friction, you jump into the air slightly. Running is characterised by having all feet off the ground at some point as you continue to move forward. If you push hard enough to accelerate that quickly, you will tend to leap a few meters into the air during your run, disconnecting you from the ground for a substantial time with each step. Look at a cheetah at full speed; each foot is off the ground for 40 feet or so each step.
On a bicycle, you can maintain contact with the ground between the tire and the road, as well as continual contact between the speedster’s feet with the pedals to transfer tension through the chain to the sprocket on the rear wheel to the road. Some materials will need to be swapped out, such as using (racing?) car tire rubber instead of typical bike tire compound or using a motorcycle chain to transfer the much higher tension than normal, but those can be done. Compare what bike racers in the Olympics use to that two-wheeler tucked away in your garage during the winter.
If you want to go faster, ride your bike rather than just run.
But how do you go around corners? The highest-tier motorcycle racers with super-sticky tires, dry conditions, and meticulously clean tracks with special surfaces can lean at around 60° from vertical. They are going much, much slower than this super around corners. More common street motorcycles max out at around 45° – 50°, and that’s incredibly dangerous on public streets on the risk or hitting a patch of gravel or bit of trash on the road. And they all have to slow WAY down for cornering.
And these are motorcycles with wide racing tires with plenty of surface area available for the lean. A bicycle can’t even come close to a motorcycle. There just isn’t enough surface to generate friction.
So don’t try to explain it, just embrace the silliness and enjoy the comic. If you try to explain it people will immediately explain why your explanation doesn’t make any sense.
It’s probably a high end but conventional bicycle that is inside the force bubble that his power creates.
Also, briefly, the ground. And the air.
“Porno sense approaching.”
“What do you mean, ‘Porno sense approaching’ ?”
…
Open fire! All weapons! Dispatch Warlock and Ajax to bring back his body!
Flash! Ah-aah!
He’s a miracle!
I recognize that reference dot gif. From the Wearing The Cape series by Marion Harmon, but not the volume that had Halo’s crossover.
The bicycle is generally considered to have been invented in Germany by Karl Freiherr von Drais in 1817; after that, so many inventors made improvements that it is difficult to be definite about who might have priority, though rotary pedals were originally French. People nowadays generally are unaware of how important bicycles have been to the development of civilization, including paved roads outside of cities, physical and social emancipation of women, pioneering the technologies that led to automobiles and airplanes (it is no coincidence that the Wright Brothers were bicycle makers), etc.
Study study study study
Is it Mach the Knife after finding a job or do we have a new speedster?
Author comments indicate:
– Their name is Flash Drive,
– They are a bicycle-using speedster, and
– They are a cameo from Opus The Poet.
That, and Dabbler thinks he might be tasty, is all we know so far.
heh. if he were shorter, he might be Thumb Drive
That’s his super cousin.
Super Cousin: special power: Relativity.
*giggle*
So, Elsbeth…we know she is a magic user but in this universe is that an aspect of being a super or is she some flavor of standard human with the training that would come with being Gault’s apprentice.?
In the Grrlverse mages and supers are powered by different fields (Thaumion and Superion), although they share a few similarities (both require sentient intent to access) and it is possible for individuals to tap both (e.g. E-Sciona and Pixel).
Pixelicious is the Pink Panther (Super only in her were-form), not a mage
Sci was never a super, she is a blood-mage, the body she is now is the body of a dead Super, so hardly the same thing as someone born a Super also being a Mage
What powers the transformation, if not the Thaumion field? It seems like that would be magic.
Sciona has used the Superion field in her original body, although she did so by “stealing” the ability from Supers (injecting herself with their blood), just as she’s essentially stealing Escorpia’s body. There doesn’t seem to be anything about Supers that would disrupt their ability to access the Thaumion field, as evidenced by Sciona. I suspect Vehemence may also be a “dual wielder” in this regard.
You saying that were’s are magic?
Just a ‘normo’ with special abilities, not a Super (much in the same sense that Sydney is not a Super)
Ugh…
A Cyclist. Next to vegans & crossfitters
They are the most insufferable privilege minded people.
How soon into the delivery does he get too smarmy for his own good?
hey now, it’s the bike lane, bike lanes are crazy. Well, a bike lane isn’t really crazy, but it is a Cycle Path.
You… do know he is a cameo of a regular poster, right?
It’s not cyclists who are the problem, it’s the Lycra-brigade
{ahem} half my wardrobe is Lycra, but since I had to stop riding it doesn’t fit any more. It just hangs on me now and is all baggy over my glutes any quads I also play RPGs (Flash Drive was my character in a supers game I was playing back in 2013). The fun part for me was he was so beautiful, he could change your sexual orientation at first level and every time he leveled up he had to take more points in Comliness. He was already at God-level beauty, and had to wear a full-face helmet with a mirror visor to hide his face to prevent mobs from forming and attacking his team, The helmet and visor were bullet resistant because his protection from running into things goes away when not using his speed ability. So he could still be injured by bullets when stopping to eat which was pretty often.
When I was riding I had to eat more than 4000 Large Calories a day to support my metabolism for just hanging around, and even more when I was riding. I typified the definition of cyclist as an eating machine on wheels. When I took a trip down to La Grange from Dallas I took a 24oz. loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a jar of honey to snack on on the road. It was a good thing I had a minor injury on the way down, because I almost finished the bread, There were 4 slices left when I got to the campground I was going to. I made it a 2-day trip by making a stop in Waco after covering 94 miles, then a planned 147 miles to the campground the next day. As the sun was setting on the second day I got that minor injury that kept me from finishing the ride, I bruised my tailbone and rubbed a hole in the skin over it when I was about 40 miles from the campground. I had to leave my bike with someone to bring back, and bum a ride with someone who had an empty seat back to Dallas. Now that I know what to do to my bike to prevent that injury, if I could still get on my bike I would ride it there again.
Was mostly referring to the ones who wear the Lycra, but don’t own a bike
So I wonder what the delivery could be? It must be very small as he doesn’t appear to be wearing a backpack and there’s no luggage rack visible on the back of the bike. Maybe Flash Drive is just delivering – well, a flash drive? You could stick that in your pocket. Or I guess you could just e-mail the contents, so that’d be a waste of superpowers. I guess we’ll find out next time?
Given the straps he seems to be wearing a pack on his chest.
Kind of begs the question in this world setting how one gets a bike made for someone like that? We have individuals who can lift and bend steel supports like they’re rubber, individuals who can run/move somewhere approaching or exceeding the speed of sound, and people who’s mass would make any tires on a bike tap out. Does he have to change the bearings in that bike every time he takes it home? Who even begins to make the tires for that thing?
Super Michelin.
Mumen Rider!
There’s two kinds of speedsters. The Flash, with the speed force, and when he taps into it, the world slows down, and he barely has to walk to get there in time. That’s why even in an empty road the trail he leaves is zig zagging all over the place, he’s window shopping, taking his time.
On the other hand, there’s the stories of Doc Future, and Flicker. Sure, she speeds up her mind, so things still LOOK slow, but she has to deal with physics, and she really moves.
Android 009 had a rather dark approach to the speedster, in one episode he sped up so much that while his perception made everything look super slow to the point of almost standing still he was still obeying physics for the most part, which means he was vibrating and moving dangerously to everything around him. Igniting paper at the slightest touch thanks to friction. Part of the episode was him trying to figure out how to save a child in the street that a truck was clearly going to hit. All he could do is watch, as the main drama was that he was stuck at this speed, thinking and trying everything he could to find a way to save that kid, as just touching the kid would mean setting them on fire, ripping their arms off, or the equivalent of being hit by a five foot and half chunk of metal moving at near light speed…so, not good. I believe the episode ended with his determination allowing him to slow himself back down enough to safely save the kid.
Flicker discovered that if she lost control, the planet itself would be in danger.
Go, read, enjoy.
Believe that is how most speedsters deal with saving people (and other living and non living things):- they stop a fraction of a second before making contact, securely hold what (who) ever it is and then move again with their speed-bubble protecting them (or it)
You kinda saw in the X-Men movie with Quicksilver when he moves his dad out of the holding room: he carefully holds his neck so he doesn’t get whiplash (not to mention that whole “Safe the students (and dog and fish)” scene when the school blows up: just before he makes contact with them, time momentarily starts up again when he gets close and then stops again once he begins to move them)
OK this is my OC, backstory was he was a bike commuter going to work when he was hit by 2 red-light runners that ran into each other with him in the middle. The bicycle gods were incensed about the wreck and “fixed” him, according to their standards meaning he has a face that can change your sexual orientation. If Dave is using the uniform I suggested Flash Drive should be wearing a full-face helmet with a mirrored visor that makes seeing his face impossible. He doesn’t have the usual super body in that his upper body is not near as jacked as he is from the waist down. He has the definition of a super without the muscle mass. Think the bodies of the track cyclists specializing in the sprints. One of his powers is defined as “Flight In Contact With The Ground” meaning even though he’s riding a bike, he’s really flying, literally. That also applies to accelerating and turning, and riding up the side of a building. In game he has to build his own bike for his powers to work, and he has the same kind of field that protects Max’s clothes from getting destroyed by his powers. He could be wearing a baggy jump suit but he’s always worn bike clothes on the bike, so he wears bike clothes. In-Game his top sustained speed is Mach1.2. I don’t know what Dave is going to do with him In-Comic.
He, kinda like a character made in DCUO: she’s a speedster, but… she’s not a very co-ordinated one (ie, super clumsy) and one day, shortly after she got her powers, she tripped over a pebble and faceplanted the road… for about a hundred yards so in-game she has an eye-patch and a full-face helmet (her hero name is ‘Street Pizza’, have another character whose name is ‘Woad Wage’ because off a lisp, and another called ‘Rhodes Runner’ because of her name {formerly known as ‘Zoombabwe’, but then remembered that that is not a real country so changed her name})
Disappointed. Dabbler is just wearing normal shorts. What a missed opportunity.
A new character? That’s a cyclist? cool.
A super cyclist sounds like a interesting concept.
How about… Roller blades? *ducks away*
Fairly sure there is a couple speedsters who use roller skates or blades (not in this webic, but elsewhere)
A Biking Super who sounds more useful then BMX-Bandit, hurrah!
Isn’t this place supposed to be secret?
Why?
remind me of this manga, don’t remember the name, but the main character is a cultivator from another world, and he fell into our world, and take a job as delivery man for a restaurant, because he is super fast and can even jump from building to building to take shortcuts
Someone who could actually pedal the Relativity Special.
Perspective is a funny thing. Bro could just be biking at 60mph but because it’s a bike it looks like super speed.
i cant tell what it is but i love how dabbler is drawn in that last panel. i think i just like characters with weird alien anatomy (or unguli/digitigrades in general? whatever she looks nice)
I think she’s sort of used to putting her lower arms that way to put less of a strain on the big spell keeping humans from noticing the weirdness associated with the magic-users in the world. It can make you not notice the extra arms, but keeping you from noticing her picking things up with them would take more of a “push”. So she probably does that so she doesn’t absent-mindedly use them.
It would also put less of a strain on the glamor she uses (used?) to fit in.
Are the arms specialized e.g. lower arms stronger, upper more dexterous, or are there just more of them? Is she “quad-dextrous”, or does she have a favored side?
Humans apparently are mostly right-handed due to language being based mostly on the right side of the brain (it’s more complicated but I don’t understand it all myself).
Some creators get by that by having the second pair of arms smaller (like, really small), not the same size
How about… Roller blades? *ducks away*