Grrl Power #144 – PR hopscotch
Aaaand that’s the last time I draw the press corps all in a group like that. Seriously that panel almost took as long as the rest of the page.
So A-kon was good fun, I did a panel about writing comedy in story with Jennie Breeden of The Devil’s Panties, a humorous autobio comic, and Katie Tiedrich of Awkward Zombie which is mostly video game humor. After the panel I got to chat with some readers which was cool and handed out quite a few of those postcards I made (not the ones with the misspelling) and these little dice my wife had made that have the logo on them. So if you’re a new reader then welcome! I also got a cool pen from a reader that he made after I pined about wanting a pen like Arianna’s. I’ll probably use it to sign things in the future.
Also got to meet Sonny Strait, who I knew did “We Shadows” but it turns out is also a voice actor for Funimaiton, so he was pretty busy during the con. Turns out he’s a Dallas local as well so we’ll probably get drinks some evening when we’re not both slaving away over hot pixels. Also got to meet Blair B. of Star Crossed Destiny who helped set up the panel. I must guiltily admit that both Sonny and Blair’s comics are in my “to read” queue still. That’s just the way it is when you spend your weekends drawing instead of reading.
However I do keep up with Head Trip, which is a funny and well drawn comic by Amanda Bussell, and I happened to bump into her while I was resting my poor legs. I won’t say Peggy has it good, but on the second day of walking around for 10 hours I was wishing I could detach my feet.
And I got to hang with Fred Perry a bit and talked about coloring techniques. I’m not sure if his method is faster than mine but I’ll give it a shot. I mean, it is just because he mostly does cell style shading on his characters, I mean how he sets up his channels and layers. I’ll report back with an explanation once I give it a shot.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
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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.
Is that Clark Kent in the background?
Looks it. But does that mean Lois is two rows ahead of him?
Isn’t that the reporter on whom Sydney was foisted after the bank robbery?
Suzi News!
Think she’s learnt not to ask Sydney any questions?
I do see a blue sleeved arm in the air with the questions, so she is still asking stuf
Yeah, but not of Sydney. Maybe about Sydney (directly or indirectly), but not of Sydney.
wow, she’s done this before havent she =P
Why do I get the distinct feeling she has done similar things for way longer than we believe her to have? Maybe she’s even served with those 40ies?
Just how old do you think Ari is? O_o
She’s older than I draw her looking, (because the difference between a 30 year old face and a 40 year old face can be pretty subtle, especially when they’re well maintained) but she’s not that old.
Double-dog dares LegionAuthor to ask her….
=OP
Dude, she’s a lawyer.
There’d be a better chance at survival trying and sex up Max.
Or, well, Harem. But at least death by snoo-snoo would be a good way to go.
Could always do what others do for crowds. A few faces up front and human like blurs behind them. .
I do love how she has anticipated all the reactions though.
– “Aaaand that’s the last time I draw the press corps all in a group like that.”
Or you could turn it into a running gag that whenever there’s a press hearing, use the exact same pic. Indoors? Same pic. Only 1 reporter? Same pic. Lightning storm at night? Same pic. Etc ad infinitum.
I’ve seen comics pull off gags like that with the art, but I’m not sure quite come off right in this one.
In truth, it wouldn’t be simply a running gag. Look at “real world” press conferences that are set up in an outdoors area; Don’t they set up the stage & backdrop, the audio (& sometimes visual) pretty much the same way EACH TIME? Even indoors, the whole set is just that-a set up that’s been carefully designed & made specifically to set up quickly, just so that it will look the same every time.
Reusing your current graphics for future press conferences like this would not require any “suspension of disbelief” or require any “running joke” to justify it.
idd Pickle that DOES look like Clark Kent, dident even notice at first. good eyes!
Isn’t he missing his curl though?
The Curl is only when he’s Superman. One story explained it’s the only other distinguishing facial characteristic between him and Superman.
The History Channel will have to cover the secret supers of WWII.
(THEY weren’t constrained by the Time Traveler’s Rulebook. Why didn’t they kill Hitler?)
Because the Übermenschen Kader stopped them? Given how they went after “magical” aftefacts in the real world I can feel confident stating the Nazis went for supers and ways to create supers like nobodies business. A jewish super would probably have made their heads explode, unfortunately as we all know Magneto’s powers manifested too late. :(
Time Traveler’s killing Hitler, that would could a problem, if the main reason for going back in time is kill him before he killed millions of Jews, since unless he kills all those Jews there’s no reason to go back in time.
or something like that
Didn’t Doctor Who use that premise for a season opener a couple of years ago?
Not quite. The woman who turned out to be the adult verson of his companions’ daughter and the woman to become his wife was brainwashed to kill the Doctor, but first she wanted to Kill Hitler…long story..
The Shoah wasn’t the only reason to want to see Adoph dead. Just ask my Ukranian relatives or my uncles who fought in Europe. Face it, he just was not a likeable kinda guy.
it would mean no more of those “Hitler rants…”videos on youtube
That would be a bummer. Every one of those Hitler Rants I’ve seen so far were funny as hell.
Do not worry, the rants are here to stay. Despite a complaint from Hitler.
Yeah, just when you think they couldn’t get any more cheesy already, they pull that classic irony.
Hitler killed a lot of people other than jews. Homosexuals, Gypsies, communists, Russians there was a long list of “undesirables” sent to the camps.
Living in Bulgaria, asking questions like “What did your granddad do in the war?” can be a bit awkward. Given that they were allies of the Nazis. But one point they are proud of is that they blocked the deportation of the Bulgarian Jewish population to the concentration camps. Rightly so too.
Mind you they do otherwise have an awful track history of bad treatment to their religious and ethnic minorities. Including severe laws placed on the Jews in WWII. With intolerance continuing to the present day. Such as her own fans booing Madonna for appearing on stage with Gypsy musicians supporting her.
Not quite as auqward as asking about what some of my relatives were doing during WW2, not Nazi death camps but certainly high up there in the Nazi power structure…
As someone else mentioned elsewhere in these comments, we all have dark sides in our family histories. Yet even those dark sides are not all black. There are few people who have no redeeming qualities. And some have many.
Personally, one of my ancestors (either a many-times removed uncle, or via illegitimate children) was one of the pioneers the slave trade. Capturing slaves in Africa and taking them to the Caribbean. Starting a trade that perpetrated for hundreds of years. Quite a significant karmic stain that I have to bare.
So the fates of hundreds of thousands of Africans were influenced by the actions of my ancestor. Dooming their descendants to forever live in America! Oh, the slavery bit was pretty bad too.
Not to mention the fact that the fellow was also a pirate. But, if you look carefully he did have a good side too. The piracy was state sponsored (thus making him a privateer for the English, even if the Spanish considered him a pirate). On one of his expeditions his ship, the Golden Hind, captured the treasure ship which carried the entire year’s output of the Spanish mines in the Americas. Resulting in a profit to the crown greater than that from all the revenue from England that year.
Oh, and he saved me from growing up speaking Spanish. Given that Sir Francis Drake significantly contributed to turning back the Spanish Armada. Had they landed, their army was much larger and better equipped than the English one.
Guessing you meant ‘modern’ slave trade, as slaves (and the trading thereof) have been part of human history since you had two different tribes/settlements
Oh, and it wasn’t the Europeans nor Americans who started the last round, try Arabs and other African tribes (did a report on it in highschool, still have the paper somewhere)
Yep. I originally expressed it as “the slave triangle”, but was a bit sloppy when I condensed a couple of verbose paragraphs into that shorter one. I do feel guilty about how much I post here. So try to limit some of the wordier comments. With varying degrees of success.
Yeah, can understand that: plenty of times start to make a comment and then give up because it’s goign to be (imo) too long (unfortunately, that tends to happen when trying to defend against attacks, not as clever with words when it comes to attacking other people {avoid doing that even in defense which just leaves me open to further attacks :(})
Yes, you may have to admit it, Yorp. You may be a “power post-er.” not a bad thing in and of itself.
I would admit it… if I knew what it was! :-D
heh, one of my ancestors set the town of Derry on fire…to get rid of a small garrison of English soldiers.
I take it that would have been a bad time to go around smelling the Derry air?
LOL. Sounds like an explosive pastime.
Derry air & fire…A controversial combination.
The pun…so bad…and in reference to the event…horrible…
…yet…strangely…hilarious!
Try the big H’s general of the air force. It’s rather ironic actually because one of my friends had a uncle who trained almost all of the Canadian allied air force.
‘Big H’?
Capital H Hitler. Or as Monty python would put it Mr Hilter
Was thinking maybe it was the Japanese guy
I’m not up on Bulgarian history during that time period. Were they any worse than what the US did to Japanese-Americans?
Within their own borders no. Not only did they refuse to give up so much as one of their own Jews, despite Germany’s demands, but they also gave refuge to any who managed to get to Bulgaria from Germany or elsewhere under Nazi control. The worst that they did was impose a one-time 20% tax, stop them voting or holding rural property and impose restrictions on what jobs they could hold (such as public office or in the army) and not allow them to marry or live with Bulgarians.
As a package, I would say that was not as bad as being imprisoned. Which, post-war, the newly-formed state of Israel clearly agreed with, given that they officially thanked Bulgaria for their actions during the war.
Beyond their borders Bulgaria was a junior ally of Nazi Germany and had to follow their policies. Which did result in deportations to concentration camps. With no survivors.
One critical difference being that it was the Bulgarian King Boris, Orthodox Christian Church and people who were actively blocking the deportations from Bulgaria. Who had no influence in the areas outside their country, as they were strictly under military control and fell under the German chain of command. Of course “we were just following orders” is no defence for individuals in the military, who bear responsibility for their actions.
Or they did exactly that and then some, but all that came of it was a parallel timeline instead of their own timeline changing…And since so much of how things turned out for our grandparents’, parents’ and our generation had to do with the aftermath of WWII (Jewish people getting their own country, modern warfare, so many medical advances, the United Nations, a significant push to end the Jim Crow era in the USA) that timeline would be radically different from theirs….All because of them.
Time Travel would probably be a better means of historical/archeological research than changing things for the better….Unless you count as “The Wrong Hands” and want some place to raid for slaves outside of NATO’s jurisdiction, that is.
Weird. Your post was not there when I wrote mine. And it only took me a couple of minutes. Not the hour or so needed for yours not being there when I started.
Did you travel back in time to make your post?
Different time zones?
I don’t think so. It seems that the time stamps are all as per the local server. They certainly do not match my time zone, on the other side of the Atlantic.
Of course, every time Hitler is killed by time travellers * Israel ceases to exist. Being replaced by a world where Jews are still petitioning the League of Nations to allow them a state of their own. The League, being a particularly ineffectual organisation never achieving anything significant. There also having been no collective world guilt about the Holocaust to spur individual nations to sponsor the formation of a Jewish state.
* Along with the series of other figures in the background who would rise to replace him. Get a more competent one, or at least one who did not fancy himself to be a military genius, and a few of the timelines probably end up with a world united under Nazi rule. Or, at the very least, being dominant by controlling Europe, Asia and Africa. Perhaps with Japan controlling South East Asia, the Antipodes and the Pacific region. Maybe the East coast Americans all speak Japanese and the West German.
If Hitler hadn’t gotten WWII into full swing, the Russians probably would have stepped up to fill the role.
Also, see those 2 episodes of Justice League where Hitler was replaced by a certain immortal genius…
or see C&C Red Alert, where Einstein effectively pulled Hitler out of the timeline after the latter had flunked out of Arts college.
Except killing Hitler saves Germany and the Nazis. You see it was his stupidity that did the Nazis in. Imagine someone smarter without the problem with Jews who was every bit as bad or worse than Hitler, closer to Stalin or even General Franco of fascist Spain.
Anyway it would just split the time line and you go back to your version history is the same. You would have to stay in that time line split to see any differences unless you can cross time travel.
So many people can take so much time unless you have some you can insert for such occasions lying around.
Who mentioned Lincoln? Wasn’t it only in 1941 that they claim supers were first found and used? Unless there were others, fewer, scattered who may have worked in the Secret Service back in the 1860’s? Maybe just one.
“Who mentioned Lincoln?”
Go back a page; I think you missed a week…
All this talk about killing Hitler is rather funny, cause it would have changed nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Post WW1 germany was just begging for some extremist dictator to step up and guide the country out of the biggest depression ever seen. How does one boost the econmy? With war.
Someone would have stepped up to fill that role, regardles of who you killed. And ofcourse, you need a reason to go to war: aka a scapegoat that you want to purge. In our timeline, this war the jews. And concidering history’s tendency to ALWAYS pick the jews as a universal scapegoat (they were blamed for the black plauge for example)… well you get the picture
Hitler (and most of the world) may not have liked the Jews (and that feeling goes back hundreds of years) but he absolutely despised with a vendetta the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they were the ones he wanted to see wiped out, the Jews he just wanted out of Europe
I have been biting my tongue trying to stop responding to this, as it makes me feel that I have been picking on your statements. I have a dreadful habit of going into ‘lecture mode’ and hate it when I notice myself doing that. Even though you say you are ok with it.
The one thing that kept niggling at me though was that by keeping silent I was doing an injustice to Jehova’s Witnesses themselves. Unlike the Jews, who were sent to the concentration camps purely to die, the Witnesses were offered an easy way out. All they had to do was sign a document renouncing their faith and they could walk out. It shows incredible strength of character and belief that they refused to do so. Despite starvation, deprivation and all the other horrors of the concentration camps. Even unto death.
Yups, you may have had Jewish collaberators, but not one of the Witnesses renounced their faith, not even when they were jailed and faced treason for being Concientious Objectors
Don’t worry about speaking up if you feel have said something in error (may not always get things correct, but always willing to learn and admit when have been wrong)
It is one of the reasons why I changed from being a silent reader, in addition to DaveB‘s writing and art being inspirational. Because the community attracted by it is definitely from the nicer segments of the world wide web and embrace the inspiration wholeheartedly.
A possible hypothesis for killing Hitler is to remove oneself from the timeline completely for only the shortest moment. This would essentially make it so you cease to exist and then exist solidifying your mental knowledge of history before you assassinate Hitler. After that leave the timeline and comeback in order to train someone in the new history to kill Hitler himself.
Basically as someone remove from the timeline you would be able to shape events without affecting yourself.
Downside is it’s possible you become immortal afterwords. I’m not talking vampire immortal, I’m talking even after all the stars go out and time itself becomes slow you will still just exist. I believe most people would consider that a bad thing.
Because Hitler’s personal guard were trained in how to defeat Jewish golem attacks.
Not that difficult. Destroy the word Emet (truth) that Golems had etched into their forehead.
The current theory amongst scientists with too much time on their hands and the one I go with is that changing the time stream merely opens a new universe where that has happened but we keep chugging along with our own. So if you kill Hitler you create a universe and he died. There would be no Heil Honey I’m Home for instance. (It’s a thing….sadly.)
Another theory is that time travel can only work forwards, not in reverse. So there you go, two reasons why you can’t use time travel to kill Hitler. Besides, I wouldn’t kill Hitler. I would give him a few minor victories that don’t mean jack but to get his respect, then start jerking with him. Then get out before the syphilis got too bad. It’d be a lot more fun and you could save more lives than merely killing him.
I was still waiting for the usual, “hitler is doing more damage in office than some other army officer whos more competent during the halfway mark of their reich.” yeah that would have been a good idea but that still left the POW and Concentration/Death camps/factory to keep operating and killing starving folks. WW2 was rather effed up.
sprry, the other half of that comment was for my quote, not yours. i was glad to hear a little about time travel theory today.
Hate to break it to you (or, maybe not) but the Nazis/Germans didn’t invent the Concentration/Death Camps, it was the British!!!
The term “concentration camp” was certainly coined for the British internment camps during the Second Boar War (1900-1902). Brits are very good at creating new words. But bare in mind that the Americans were also using them at that time in the Philippines-American War (1899–1902). And the Spanish even before that in the Ten Years’ War (1868–1878).
Not to mention the internment of Cherokees and other native Americans decades before that. All of which resulted in very many, totally unacceptable deaths. A high proportion being women and children. Mostly as a result of neglect, lack of sanitation, poor medical care, malnutrition and disease.
But the term “death camp” really should be reserved for the Nazi “final solution”. The deliberate intent to cause genocide by systematically killing off entire populations. Resulting in millions of deaths.
…And thus a perfect example of the contrast between morality/ethics in theory versus in practice….
Talk about a grim example of that apparent joke the Joker and the Comedian were in on that no on else seems to get….Dark.
There are certain theories partaining to the actual means to travel in time.
Some means might enable you to change your own timeline while others just open up a new branch of reality.
The DeLorean and the SG Time-Jumper fit in the first category.
With the current technology (and that of the past), timetravel is not only possible, it is inevitable.
It’s just that we’re all going in the same direction, at the seem speed.
Another theory* is that stopping Pearl Harbor from happening would result in Rush Limbaugh becoming a bleeding heart liberal, Sharon Stone actually becoming a good actress and staring in a Shakespearean play turned movie, and a mouse becoming president. We must show caution messing with the past.
*Courtesy of Freakazoid.
One of the other prevailing theories is that there is no such thing as time. It is merely an illusion due to the way that humans view the world.
“Time is an illusion perpetrated by the manufacturers of space.”
(sorry, don’t know the attribution — not mine, though)
Sounds rather like Douglas Adams in “Hitchhiker’s Guide”
the formal expression is time is a construct of man to break down eternity into manageable units.
There is an introduction to timeless physics here: https://lesswrong.com/lw/qp/timeless_physics/
and a MUCH less detailed summary at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Barbour#Timeless_physics
and actual peer-reviewed math-heavy publications here: https://www.platonia.com/papers.html
It is a fascinating concept, true enough. And there are some interesting sociological facts to give it credence too. There are a number of languages which have neither past nor future tense nor any grammatical conventions for discussing anything other than the present (ignoring modern introductions from other languages completely).
Which goes to show that the perceived human obsession with measuring and commenting on time, planning for “the future” and “recording history” are not universal concepts, but cultural ones. If you do not have the language to even discuss those terms, the meme of time is unable to propagate itself. Let alone the myriad of fields and topics which depend on it.
Until contaminated by external cultural influences, it can be inferred that individuals in those societies only lived in the “now”. Not that I am implying that they were unaware of time completely. They would still see day changing into night, the shifting of the seasons and people getting old. It is just that those are all things which occur in the present, from their perspective. Which if you read the paragraph, and think on it, is actually true.
Likewise, although there is a lot more to it, than just this, there is the Aboriginal concept of the “Dream Time”. Aboriginal culture is not like the above ones, they are aware of time. But their traditions show that there was an era before the present where time did not exist. The Dream Time.
Likewise in Christian terms, although Genesis does not explicitly say that God created time, the various acts of creation can be seen as incorporating that by inference. Finally, in science, the Big Bang Theory inherently shows the creation of time. From the perspective of our cultures which insist on categorising things by time, that infers there was something prior to the creation of time. In the same way that we recognise vacuum as something. Despite it more correctly being classed as the absence of something.
Mentioning the Big Bang Theory there just reminded me of the last time that cropped up in comments here. And I brought up my theory that there may be other universes, from other Big Bangs “out there”. Well, apparently I was not alone in that thought. Or, at least, in a similar one, with similar implications should the external ones overlap with our own universe.
A week after we had that discussion, this programme aired. Despite me terming it “other Big Bangs” and her using the more scientific phraseology and couching it in the more familiar field of alternative universes, the two can be seen as describing the same phenomenon in different ways.
Of course, rather than my rambling, she behaved in an appropriate scientific way, by making a hypothesis complete with predictions as to observable effects should it be true. Which subsequent analysis of the background radiation which shows us the edges of the universe created by the Big Bang (note the phraseology) exactly matches her predictions.
Proving that there are other universes beyond the edge of ours interfering with the even dispersal of matter in ours. Have a listen to the program and hear her explain it better than I can paraphrase it from memory. It gave me a smug feeling for the rest of the week that my rambling thought process does actually stumble on profound universal truths once in a while.
Oh, and the end of that program also has a section on precisely the subject of the above thread about time and its non-existence. Probably what had me thinking on those lines when I made my comment about it. Albeit having come across it before.
So the way I figure it, if you really want to strangle Nazi Germany in its crib, ignore Hitler. Go back further, and start messing around with WW1.
Now, you don’t necessarily want to prevent the Great War — as horrible as it was, it wiped out the interlocking nobility power structure of Europe and paved the way for the possibility of democracy. What you do, I figure, is try to equalize the effects of French and German propaganda, so that the world doesn’t start believing that this is entirely the fault of the monstrous Hun. Germany can still lose the war, so long as the Treaty of Versailles isn’t allowed to completely gut the country’s economy — we introduce the post-WW2 notion of helping your defeated enemy to rebuild.
You might have to tinker with global economics to alleviate the Great Depression, and maybe moderate the Russian Revolution on top of everything else, but I think the best way to frustrate Hitler is to create conditions where Nazism can’t go beyond a lunatic fringe organization.
Good thinking to remember the next time we
invade a country with rich oil reservesliberate a country from it’s oppressive leader. We should spend five times as much time, effort and expense on readying the rebuilding effort as we do on militarily preparing the invasion.And that is not hindsight. I had exactly that conversation with my brother in the months leading up to the last time we did that. Albeit that I originally said a more conservative 2:1 ratio. Although even 5:1 is probably an underestimate (being a back of the envelope one). But would still be significantly less than the cost from loosing the good will of the liberated populace.
Actually, to short-circuit the foprmation of Nazi Germany, Middle East troubles and, possibly, the Soviet Union, refer to ‘The Ship That Changed The World‘ by Van Der Vat.
At the outbreak of ww1, the German Navy’s ‘Mediterranean Squadron comprised the cruisers Goeben and Breslau. With absolutely nowhere else to go, the two warships made a dash to the (then-neutral) Ottoman Empire. A series of blunders by the far-superior Allied fleets in the region allowed these two ships to get through unscathed. They and their crews were then ‘transferred’ to the Ottoman Empire’s navy. Also note that the Ottomans had paid to have two new capital ships constructed in British yards, but these were seized near-complete by the British when war came.
Goeben and Breslau’s survival and subsequent Ottoman service very arguably had the following effects:
* Convinced the vacillating Ottomans to ally with Germany more quickly than they might have otherwise. Their sympathies had been fairly divided until then;
* Cut off the only year-round supply line from the West to Czarist Russia, which probably weakened the latter even more;
* Effectively prolonged ww1 by two years, meaning a much greater cost in lives and resources – and probably being a factor in the VERY punitive nature of the Treaty Of Versailles (which utlimately led to Germany collapsing and coming under the sway of Hitler);
* Sped up the break-up and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, with its former holdings then haphazardly divided up amongst the Western Powers. The problems of this continue to be a major factor in Middle East politics;
* Oh, and amongst the German ofrficers on thse ships was a bright young fellow named Karl Doenitz.
Take out those two ships or otherwise mess with their successful run to the Ottomans, and a LOT would change.
It does make you wonder how flexible time is. Or how chaotic. All those effects might have exactly the results predicted. But the knock-on reactions to them might drastically change history in completely different ways. Calling in old favours, making more alliances to make up for the loss of power and so on.
Just imagine if things ended up fairly similar to our time line, but with Nazi Germany being slightly weaker at the time when war started for us. Maybe Hitler would decide that he needed more of a technological edge before kicking off the blitzkrieg. And put in as much effort to R&D as was otherwise put into the war effort in our history.
Then imagine how different the world would be if Adolph started the war only once he had perfected his jet aircraft and V3 rockets. And mastered the nuclear warheads to go with them! There is no reason why Germany could not have developed the technology. They had access to all the same research that the American scientists did in the Manhattan project.
Indeed. But Nazi Germany pretty much HAD to make its big powerplay when it did. They were tapped out on resources and finance, and waiting just 1-2 more years without any gains would have brought a lot of very nasty birds home to roost.
Also, whilst Nazi Germany’s R&D seems marvellous, it was every bit as efficient as its industry ;) . Nazi Germany was run like, for want of a better way to describe it, a group of medieval feifs – the Luftwaffe, OKW, OKH, SS, Kriegsmarine and so forth all had their own things going on, with minimal cooperation and a great deal of back-biting. Hitler might order the Kriegsmarine to ‘build more U-boats’ but they would then have to pry loose whatever they needed from other factions in order to go ahead.
Note that it is easy to blame Hitler and the Nazis for this general problem (they did tend to encourage it than not), but some of it was already there when they came to power. Doesn’t matter WHO was running Germany in the 30s, they would have had the same thing to contend with
Their R&D was a major victim of this disunity. There was much duplication of effort, not just between factions but also within the same faction. Individual projects were frequently approved, rejected, re-purposed, divided, merged, moved, dismantled and re-built pretty much on the whim of whichever official attention said project had acquired. True, there were notable achievments, but nearly all were hamstrung by inadequate quality-control and testing before production – the Me-262 and Panther tank being two prime examples. The Me-163 Komet was the result of a shotgun wedding of two very different projects – one for a particularly good delta-wing glider, and the other for a highly experimental rocket motor. The end result was a man-killer.
Basic Nazi ideology itself could be very unhelpful as well. A ban against ‘Jewish science” greatly hampered their nuclear research, for example.
Dealing with all this was probably doable (given enough time), but it would have also required a regime and mindset totally different to Nazi Germany.
In our timeline, probably, yes. It is why, for example, Hitler’s invasions were fixated on securing more resources. The whole North Africa campaign had oil underpinning it. Likewise choosing to veer south when invading Russia, towards their oil fields and other handy resources, rather than heading towards the political centre, namely Moscow.
But my whole point was about unexpected changes resulting from tinkering (or just things having turned out differently by chance). If the shifting alliances I mentioned, as a knee-jerk reaction to the critical losses you indicated, either gave them more breathing room on bringing the “very nasty birds home to roost” or access to some more resources from their new allies, then they would have been able to keep going for the necessary couple of years.
And you underestimate the dictator power that Hitler had, when it was focussed on one area. Had he indicated that research was a priority, the petty rivalries would have been forced to work towards it. Or face his wrath. As shown by numerous other examples in both R&D and the rest of the war effort.
Serious analysis of “could Germany have developed nuclear weapons”, showed that they had all the key components within their grasp (with hindrances such as the lack of Jewish researches true enough, but not insurmountable ones).
There was one critical occurrence which stopped Hitler from giving the order though (and he had been seriously considering it). When he asked the chief scientist dealing with that area if nuclear weapons were possible, the guy did the sums and made an elementary mistake. A simple error in his formula indicated that “although it is possible to make a nuclear device, the amount of fissionable material would exceed the total amount available on the planet!”
In the post-war years, the scientist claimed that he had done so to avoid Hitler ordering that project started. Whereas, as proven by bugging of his cell whilst under military detention immediately post-war, he confessed to fellow inmates that he had simply cocked it up.
Any one of a dozen reasons * could easily have changed that one mistake and the subsequent decision that resulted from it. The rest would be the new history.
* For example him being replaced by someone more competent from a newly-allied faction (either political or economic). Or, if Hitler was tearing his hair out trying to find a technological edge so that the could bring forwards his blitzkrieg date, he may well not have been satisfied with the reply and sought a second opinion.
It would not have been inconceivable, for that matter, for him to have had scientific help from within the American community, without a war going on. As mentioned by others in previous week’s comments Germany had been courting America economically for years. Rather successfully.
I just pictured Sydney with Yang’s shotgun gauntlets from the latest RWBY trailer. Gods, the collateral damage…
Actually, even better: Dabbler with them. Four of them.
I was AT the RWBY Trailer for A-kon so I was among the first 150-200 people to see that Trailer at A-Kon 24.
Dave, again it was awesome to meet you in person. Thanks for the Dice and here’s hoping I’ll get to attend a panel a panel you will be helping host Next Year at the Silver Anniversary known as Project A-kon 25.
Also, the news caption is funny. I wonder who is doing the typing for those and how much they can get away with.
That would be Caption Lass, her colleague is Censor Mary, and together they ensure what comes out of Halo’s mouth is fit to be read :D
Soon the comic will be three years old, and it still feels like the intro Fingers crossed, at this rate in ten years or so, they’ll actually go out on a mission. :P
Or we could get lucky and the press conference could get attacked by a super villain!
this is technically still either Day1 or flashback sequence depending on how you view things, it’s also been about 3 hours tops since she left the shop.
I know! Isn’t it great! Still feels fresh and new. I love it!
The problem with most superhero comics is people start banging on each other and I get bored with that quick…
DaveB has stated, that once the Press Blitz is over, things will happen at a faster pace
More Military: Yay; More Police: Boo!
Now we know it’s really set in the US.
Now we really know it is set in Texas!
Trust me, here in Houston at least, people don’t like the idea of the military being the police.
With the IRS/FBI/ATF/EPA scandals in full swing, I doubt there’s anyone who thinks we need to hand the same clods MORE police powers.
That and the line above it explicitly says “How does America feel about Military Police?” I mean, yeah it technically could be referring to the two continents, but it’s pretty obviously not.
‘America’ used in news or reference generally refers to the US. Yeah, they’re bigheads, we all know that.
And considering that 1/4 of them has an IQ in the 2-digit area and 1/3rd of them would fail at their own immigration-tests, I’d be quite concerned about them having a team of Military-Supers.
25% of the American population being below an IQ of 100 would likely mean that Americans are significantly more intelligent that other countries using the same IQ tests.
Statistics are eldrich forces that you shouldn’t play with unless you understand them. On a related note, a superpower I’ve always been liked is the manipulation of chance/luck through having control over things/events (e.g card order, when someone will open a manhole cover, etc) where perfect information is not possessed by any party.
Guess we’ll take our polio vaccine, Internet, and world freedom back now… dumbass.
You’ll do just fine without us, and we’d love to see you try on your own, for a change.
Much as I love occasionally teasing Americans, what you say is true. Churchill’s private diaries showed that, regardless of the necessary morale-boosting public speeches he was making, he knew that eventual defeat at the hands of the Nazis was inevitable. The only way for Britain (and more than likely Russia and then the rest of the world) to survive was to hold off until America chose to intervene. Even though it did take Pearl Harbour to shift the U.S. from a non-interventionist policy.
But do appreciate the irony that you are rather making LegionAuthor‘s point about American bigheads.
In the interests of turning the thread from a nationalistic to a more positive, we are all in it together angle, may I point out that although it was DARPA that invented the internet, it was Tim Berners-Lee along with a team in CERN in Europe who developed the world-wide web. Without which the internet may never have developed beyond being a military tool to allow command and control to remain functional in the event of nuclear war destroying central facilities.
Likewise the vaccine required a coordinated effort from just about every country in the world, in order to eradicate polio. Without which, as we know from other vaccinations, the disease would just gradually mutate to gain resistance. Mind you, it is a crying shame that it is the only disease which we have managed to permanently get rid of.
The internet was never just a military tool. The vast bulk of connections and users were always the universities. I personally was using the thing at school long before the Web was invented. Most people today don’t even know that the web is an add-on on top of the basic internet functions.
The military purpose is what it was invented for. And there is a big difference between something that is only used at institutes of higher learning and being available to most of the population of the planet. But, point noted.
America’s world peace? That’s an oxymoron and in case you hadn’t watched the news or looked at a newspaper recently, world peace has still not been achieved.
But there are plenty of intelligent people in the USA.
One more thing, the internet was made by an Englishman.
Who said anything about ‘peace’?
In the same way that Mount Everest was conquored by an englishman? Yeah, gonna have to ask for proof there buddy-bean
Sorry about the peace thing, I had some trouble translating that.
But the internet was made by a Brit who lives in America, does that count?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee
And about Everest, its obvious that it was the guide and not the foreign explorer who got to the summit first.
No worries, the reason for bringing up Everest is it was not that long ago (less than a month) that Britain claimed Sir Ed as being English (he was bred, born & raised in Auckland)
Given that 100 is supposed to be the average IQ for any given generation, statistically speaking, half the population of any given country would have a two digit IQ (if you exclude the people who have an IQ of exactly 100). It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings:
“Think about how dumb the average person is, now realize that by definition, half the people in the world are dumber than that.”
Just to show off HOW stupid people can be: http://www.notalwaysright.com (and her sister-sites).
Poor Syd and Joel, actually working in retail.
“Think about how dumb the average person is, now realize that by definition, half the people in the world are dumber than that.”
I hate to be nitpicking that sentiment, but it only works when you use the standard definition of IQ, which is normally distributed.
The statement in itself is FALSE, since, BY DEFINITION, the average has nothing to do with exactly half of the people, thats the median.
Imagine four people, three owning 5$ each, one owning 1$. The _average_ wealth in this group is 16$/4=4$. And only one of the four, or 25% are actually rich below the average.
Guess you can make a few conjectures and say “smarts is (roughly) independently distributed” and so “smarts is (roughly) normally distributed, _for groups with lots of people in them_”.
That would save the sentiment, except it not really being by definition, but by a bunch of sophisticated statistical concepts being applied.
Here’s a question for Dave: Have supers slowly been getting more powerful over the years, or could there have been someone on Maxima’s power level (in theory at least) in the Civil War or earlier?
The reason I ask (apologies if it has already been asked) is that a relatively low power super like Heatwave or Mr Amorphous could easily escape public notice, but Maxima would have been noticed and remembered even without the gold skin because she could bend cannons into pretzels.
Maxima is definitely a standout in terms of power levels, but overall it would seem that power levels are going up. Of course there are a number of reasons that might be.
[Mordin] Larger population, larger sample size, Larger Sample size, greater chance for genetic outliers, more genetic outliers, GREATER genetic outliers. Hmmmm tests! [/Mordin]
People tend to couple with those with similar life situations… Especially after repeated exposure.
Imagine a “squishy” human trying to get “Busy” with Max! Not a good if she loses control. She almost has to find a super for that.
Well, Clark is in the second row, there at the press conference; he might not have met Lois or Diana yet (his two most frequent potential child-bearers depending on author), so ask. It looks like Achilles is too much of a something for her sensibilities to ever say that he could be a potential father of her children.
We do not know enough about Hiro yet; he will need someone like Maxima, or maybe Anvil, when he wants to father children. So what about Hiro and Max? Inquiring minds want to be misled.
I’m sure that there are a number of things that could be the reason for this. They might even show up in the comic eventually. It just makes it easier to explain how the public never noticed them until recently. Thanks.
As to starting in the Civil War, who knows. In any super universe I would suspect all the way back to Lancelot and the legendary heroes of the Iron and Bronze ages. Again, no way to be sure unless maybe there is a testable genetic component (assuming they could find the graves) but it is something everyone is going to be speculating on once supers go public. Shouldn’t really come into the story except as background noise, but you never can tell.
Weekly World News headline claiming Jesus Christ was a super in 3… 2…1…
That the first mutant supers were gods and demigods of the ancient past. Where that first came from. The unusual and atypical have been considered closer the the gods than the normal average person. Only instead of schizophrenia it is a super power. They have an aura that can be seen, a halo. So many are depicted with a visible energy field around them. A sign of their super status?
Any comment on that DaveB?
I imagine it might come up shortly. :)
Sir Lancelot, whose strength was as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure…
Huh!
And I always thought that was a metaphor!
I guess Samson would qualify for super-status as well.
Oh! And various saints. If you can fly, it is better to be a pious nun than thought a witch…
I tend to pay attention to any research which tries to pick out historical facts about (semi) legendary figures, which I find fascinating. Take King Arthur, for example. There was a real person who formed the core that all subsequent oral histories, novels and movies gradually spun out from. Although we cannot be certain how much was truth and how much legend.
But the weird thing is that the core is even more fantastic than the most exaggerated subsequent story. The very earliest written account of him (the Historia Brittonum) explicitly relates him single handedly killing 960 men on the battlefield.
For some reason historians seem to gloss over that point. Either putting it down to the commander taking all the credit or the usual hyperbole of some ancient books. Of course it would be ridiculous to consider that one man really could have done that… wouldn’t it?
I do not know. If you read some Medal of Honor citations, the possibilities are there.
Take Roy Benavidez for example ( https://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?archive=1&newcid=50095485956&currcount=13 ).
I use Bad-ass of the Week for a reason, because he puts the inflection on the demi-god side of the real story. Read from Bad-ass of the Week then read from the OFFICIAL MOH ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Benavidez#Medal_of_Honor_citation )
He actually did that. Officially, they do not know how many enemy soldier he killed, but the estimate is over 100. Some in brutal hand-to-hand combat. He was also stabbed 37 times, pronounced dead, and spat on the coroner to let him know that he was alive.
Never underestimate the will of a person to protect their friends and loved ones.
Truly inspiring tenacity, especially not loosing hope when the helicopter was shot down! And amazing to be able to survive that.
Although Audie Murphy is probably the most famous example. At one point, in Holtzwihr, France holding off an entire enemy unit comprising six tanks and a couple of hundred soldiers for an hour, on his own, having already ordered his men to withdraw.
I love Audre, His story AFTER the war are almost as inspiring as his actions during the war.
Heh, Mr Murphy got a mention over in “Troops Of Doom” as well :D
speaking of lancelot, i did an unpublished (and now lost to the bit bucket) fanfic of sorts. lancelot (whose parents called him lance-el) is gradually discovering his true power and becoming more and more uncontrollable. merlin warns arthur about just how ad it could eventually get and tells him that the holy grail is the only solution. in some versions of the legend, the ‘grail’ was a glowy green rock. so it is in this story ….
I’ll have to call “crossover” on this one…
we know Wolverine (a reasonable example of high-level super) exists in this universe, and per Marvel canon, James Howlett lived in the Civil War.
Wolverine has not yet been proven to exist in this universe other than in Sydney’s hyperactive imagination.
It could just as easily be Hugh Jackman being somehow dragged to the altar in costume… something which (I doubt not) any number of the women reading this comic would love to fantasize about.
I went searching, sure I’d find something, but there were only two Wolverine references:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/456 and https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/748
both of which confirm your stance.
Well done. I defer to your superior recall.
Actually, I think the second one confirms the opposite. She is having a conversation with Maxima about Wolverine. Which she would hardly do if he were a figment of her imagination. At least not without some preamble explaining more about him than just her wedding plans.
Plus the alternative is the implication that Marvel does not exist in that universe, but that Sydney has invented the identical character(s) herself. Complete with similar looks, behaviour, powers etc. Possible. But unlikely. Whereas she does work in a comic book store and Maxima is an ex-nerd. So far more likely that they were just talking about a bit of popular culture.
I think the point being made was that Wolverine’s appearances in this comic were only in Sydney’s imagination. Meaning that he has not been shown to exist “for real” in this setting, but clearly does as a fictional character.
If they’re acting as a domestic police force, they should be organized under the DOJ or maybe DHS, not the DOD. The military has absolutely no domestic civilian jurisdiction unless martial law or emergency status is declared.
Any action they take against civilians who have not committed an offense against military personnel would be unconstitutional and any arrests they make would be thrown out almost immediately. That includes terrorists, which I assume most Supers would be designated.
Yep- straight-up violation of Posse Comitatus. Even if you’re dealing with super-level villains, there’s no need to militarize any more than, say, the FBI HRT or the NYPD SWAT teams.
true enough. want to place a bet there is an evil plot, with lightning machines, in the background ?
Yet the Posse Comitatus has been violated constantly while fighting the (some) Drug War. Even to killing unarmed people.
This is, of course, if posse comitatus exists in Sydney’s world, which is definitely not ours (even if ours had supers) – just for one thing, the military uniforms are the wrong colours.
I believe Dave explained that they would be concerned with foreign Supers as well, terrorist or agents I’m not sure. That would make it DOD but prevent them from working inside the US under Posse Comitatus. However, just because their personnel have been drawn heavily from the military it doesn’t follow they are organized under the DOD.
This is such a small, and unique, unit they could be a special branch with joint jurisdiction (by special dispensation). IMO it’s more likely they are (now) a branch of Homeland Security which. theoretically at least, tries to organize co-operation between all of the services.
In real life, that would make them completely ineffective, but this IS a comic book after all. ;)
Contrary to popular belief, the Posse Comitatus Act does not prevent the military from being used in a domestic law enforcement capacity. It does mandate that the President must authorize every instance of such use. Prior to the passage of the Act, it was common for State governors–or even local sheriffs– to request troops directly from their post commanders; under Posse Comitatus, a sheriff must request troops from the Governor, who must request specific authorization for their use from the President, who sends permission to the commander of the military facility from which aid is being requested. It’s a cumbersome and unwieldy system which makes it usually more trouble than it’s worth to get Army assets in on routine law enforcement, but it can be done.
I for one did not know that. If that is true, then local law or government could request their presence in much the same manner. I predict a special committee (or five) in the US Congress and an immediate push for a ‘Super Comitatus’ law.
Dear God, the politics about to explode across the landscape…
Looking at the laws that the US-Congress actually passes and has past up to now…
I”d be growing very, very concerned.
Just look up stupid/silly laws and about 2/3rds of them come from the US.
Most of those silly/stupid laws coming from the US are on a by-state basis and are usually ones that are either never enforced and simply exist to close loopholes in bigger laws, or obscure in context and quickly forgotten. Very few of them are federal in nature and nationwide in coverage.
I love silly laws. Some of which may have been removed from the statute books, but I can’t be arsed researching which. One of my favourites is that it is mandatory for a London taxi to carry a bale of hay. Obviously dating back to horse-drawn hansom carriages. In a specific area in London it is legal to urinate in the street. Provided you call out a warning in advance “to allow ladies to avert their eyes”. The very famous right to speak at Hyde Park corner without any fear of liable laws is actually an important institution. Even though it typically only attracts the raving loonies.
I particularly remember one day, working in the ‘square mile’ of London, seeing one of our fairly stuffy-looking directors come into our office. On a normal day he would wear an immaculate pinstripe Savile Row suit. However, on that day, he was wearing a frilly pink and white dress. With a matching bonnet. Both decked out with ornate bows. And was carrying a shepherd’s crook.
Not one person batted an eye at this, including myself. Despite him not being known for transvestite behaviour. However I was aware that he was a commoner (a point of some pride in London). So all I did was ask him if the sheep were downstairs or waiting at London Bridge. He told me he had just the one, and it was at the bridge.
The London commoners gather, once a year, to drive their sheep across London Bridge to maintain one of those silly laws. There are numerous commoner’s rights around England. But which lapse from law if not exercised. Hence every year driving the sheep across London Bridge, * often dressed up in costumes, to raise money for charity.
* And stop picturing the one with the flaps that raise when shipping needs to pass! That is Tower Bridge. London Bridge is just a normal looking bridge, with no ornate towers.
Actually the original London Bridge is here in the U.S. A guy bought it and had it moved here.
As far as silly laws go. In the state of Tennessee it is illegal to hunt whales. Tenn is at least 300 miles from an ocean. Here in Mi. in the city of Harper Woods it is illegal to paint sparrows to sell them as parakeets. And in the city of Wayland anyone can keep their cow on Main Street downtown at a cost of 3 cents per day.
I considered mentioning it, along with the apocryphal story that the American who bought it thought he was buying Tower Bridge, but decided I had my fair quota of American baiting.
Although (on a technicality only) you are wrong. The ‘original’ London Bridge* was much more spectacular and actually did have a drawbridge to allow shipping to pass. Along with a chapel at its centre, dedicated to Thomas Becket. The king who inadvertently ‘ordered’ his death having commissioned the bridge with that feature. Not to mention having shops and other buildings along its entire length. And being the place where the heads of traitors were displayed. Including Cromwell.
But that bridge was demolished. It is the bridge that replaced it which eventually got sold and shipped to America.
The silly laws you quoted made me chuckle. I used to live in an inland town which had a lifeboat! Silly though it sounds, the people there felt it was unfair that the burden of operating lifeboats fell on those living on the coast. Given that everyone in the country benefits from them if on holiday at the seaside or when travelling overseas. So it was stationed at a sensible coastal location but paid for by them.
* Ignoring those prior to the medieval period as we do not know what name they might have borne, if any (and the very earliest was built by the Romans, which certainly would not have been called London Bridge, as the town was called Londinium then).
The Posse Commitas act is a statute, not constitutional law. If Archon was created by statute (which is pretty likely, given that they apparently created an entire new uniformed service, bringing the total to eight) then it could be exempted from the act within it’s own statute of creation and it would be perfectly legit.
I think they’d still be limited to enforcing only federal law and not state law except by invitation though.
I’m not referring to the Posse Comitatus Act. Military police, by their definition, act under the UCMJ, which severely limits certain rights of the accused compared with civilian jurisdictions, including limiting the writ of habeas corpus only to down-the-road appeals.
As you said, Congress could give them statutory jurisdiction over federal crimes in general through statute even though they are organized through the DOJ, but that requires a public law process, which couldn’t happen until after this reveal.
I don’t mean to say this doesn’t work in the universe of the comic, but in our world, it would happen differently. Archon would probably be under the DOJ as a division or sister agency to the FBI, or DHS as a division of the Secret Service or separate agency. Basically, in our world Archon would be a civilian agency subject to civilian review, rather than a military agency as it is here.
There’s also the fact that they’re targeting super-villains. The cops would have no choice but to rely on them. Most super-villains will have powers that the average SWAT officer just isn’t qualified to handle. I believe the DOD governs them solely because of the military members. Civilian Contractors wouldn’t have an issue with working along side the military complex, but the soldiers might have an issue with working with an ordinary police complex.
The justification , if any is given, might be that some supers could be classified as a WMD by power level. Things of that nature if found are turned over to federal authority. Why I was suspicious of them saying that they would not force Syd to join. If a super of Maximas power is found and dose not want to join they could be a hazard to the public even without going villain. Murder and manslaughter will both get you sent to prison. Remember Maximas power discovery. What would have happened if a person was on the other side of the wall. Not really fair but true.
Assuming that the justice system was operating fairly, she would have received a not guilty verdict on both counts. In fact, under those circumstances, she should not even be charged. The coroner should rule that the death was by accidental cause.
The fact that a human (or superhuman) caused the accident does not make it either murder or manslaughter. There being neither intent (for it to class as the former) nor negligence (to class as the latter). Although different jurisdictions handle things differently, I believe those are the general principles.
Of course that is “Assuming the justice system is fair”.
Human history shows that if someone is different, justice is a crap shoot at best. I think that up until the last quarter of the 20th century, a black person was not very likely to find justice in the American South. In some parts of the world, Women do not have rights. And in China, you can be beaten for violating laws, the laws I speak of violate human rights.
I dislike being so serious on a humorous webcomic. I know!! I WANT TO SEE SQUIRREL GIRL!!!!! I like Squirrels.
We do not have squirrel girl here. You have to look at Sandra and Woo for her.
I thought she was at Marvel Comics?
*ahem* Marvel Comics.
Hate it when I get tags wrong.
Isn’t that Ms Marvel Comics?
Not really. It’s now Disney Marvel. Stan Lee & even George Lucas sold out to Disney. I’m going to hate the first time I see Spider-Man or Darth Vader wearing Mickey Mouse ears…
“OH NO PSYCHO SQUIRREL!!”
xref: in “Super Powereds: Year 1”, there are the “Armageddon Class” supers. Those supers who have the ability, all by themselves, of destroying the entire planet. (I’m never clear what “destroying the planet” means in these contexts. Does it just mean “killing all the humans”, or does it mean “capable of releasing enough energy to exceed the gravitational binding energy of the planet”. That gives the possible meaning a rather large range, but still, all very armageddon-y, heh-heh-heh.)
also xref (of course): Skybreaker, who’s appearance in the Doc Future timeline almost always means the world is about to end. And possibly in the “exceed gravitational binding energy” sense.
the Golem Girls from Wapsi Square are DEFINITELY in that class…
Heh. I was looking through my “wit and wisdom of Acacia Budur” snippets, and I don’t have the appropriate one on tap, but it was a comment to the effect of “I could detonate the earth so hard the shockwave would destroy the sun 8 minutes later…” (or similar). So yeah. Armageddon with a capital geddon.
But hey, she uses her power for good, mostly. She’s the one that compressed the calendar machine down to the size of a pebble and threw it into the sun, putting the finishing touch on averting the problems that would have otherwise happened on Dec 21 last year.
Come to think of it the only one with anything even Close to a cape is X’s trenchcoat. Good.
Would Not be surprised if one of the Harems was in there with the reporters and the guy in glasses is suspiciously similar to Deus.
Now for fun times peg the question to the reporter.
Remember, colored underwear over your clothes / yellow spandex and most of all capes are all a big no-no nowadays. The heroes in my ‘metahero’ novel even regulary poke fun at that.
Though truth be told, i’d be very much front line to get a good snapshot up supergir’s skirt myself.
The heroes in my ‘metahero’ novel even regulary poke fun at that.That could be dangerous if the villain they’re poking fun at turns out to be more dangerous than they expected.
The first line of that comment was supposed to be in blockquote, btw.
Possibly, though I’m not sure why she’d bother. Even if Arianna wants a shill to throw some specific questions, there are better ways. Unless she throws a question like “Do you have any teleporters on your team?” from the middle of the crowd and then ports from there to Arianna’s side. Something like that would definitely get attention.
Also very similar to a certain Mr Kent, as a number of other readers have pointed out. I think a homage is more likely than Deus. He’s a busy man, and needn’t waste his time slumming with the third estate. He has minions to attend these things and report back to him.
Having Harem posing as a reporter specifically to teleport from the reporters to Ariana would be a very bad idea. They’re already going to worry about people accusing them of infiltrating everything for dark reasons. That would merely confirm it. Better Harem provide the sexy PR that she did in the “Playboy” picture from one of the old vote incentives.
Did Ariana remove her eyeshadow? She looks very different without it.
(Comparing it to the interview earlier)
Who knows what cosmetics lurk on the eyebrows of PR managers/lead counsels?
The (Eye)Shadow knows!
Blue is not a good color for film & pics…Especially iridescent blue. If she switches to neutral colors for PR shoots/appearances her eye color pops & makes it more dramatic.
Glad to see that Suzie managed to get a front row seat. Obviously the interview at the bank did go down well with both the public and her bosses. No longer an intern, I would guess. She probably will receive the Journalistic Medal of Bravery for her action, in addition to getting her press corps badge.
Looks like that’s one intern who will turn out well.
Or it have gone along the lines of:
Producer: That was an unmitigated disaster! That is the last time you get a live feed!
Suzy: Yeah, that could have gone better.
Producer: Well, don’t screw this press conference up or you will be looking for another job! Now get over there and get me something useful we can edit together.
Very nice. Having a distinct likeness to Arianna’s but with some fancy flourishes on it too. Not to mention seeming to have a comfortable grip.
Thanks. Basically, the situation gave me a chance to experiment, as well as an excuse to make a fountain pen. I make fountain pens for myself, as I find the flexibility fountain pens offer in the way of ink useful; I rarely get to make one for someone else, and jumped at the chance. As for the experimenting… there was a red composite material made primarily out of lava ash and clay that I wanted to try out for the barrel, to see how it would measure up in regards to color, appearance, weight, and feel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon
[… excerpt from a debrief after the protagonist (who turns out to be the absolute ruler of a planet full of spartanesque fanatics) disappeared after attacking a starship in a suit of light scout armor…]
“He must be dead; nobody could survive that.”
“But the Archon was not seen to die?”
“Well, no.”
“Then we will keep searching.”
— John Steakly’s “Armor” (quote approximate) (always did like that bit)
[… poor Felix. He had to invoke The Engine to do that, and he always hated that…]
I really hope Dave did that intentionally.
On the other hand it might be funny too see the look on his face when he sees this.
This universes conspiracy theorist are going to love this.
So, question:
Is Archon pronounced “Arch-on” or “Ark-on” or what?
/ˈɑːkən/
Assuming it is as per the existing word. Which you can hear here*
* to do a riff on the “hear hear”/”here here” thread from last week’s comments.
I am pronouncing it as Are-con.
Same here
THAT. That is exactly how you count down to the baragge-of-questions…
Arianna, is obviously a pro at this. She has everything timed out and choreographed right down to the last detail. I can only imagine the hilarity that’ll ensue if Sydney has to speak.
Though I doubt that happen…..
Well, Arianna is easy to dislike but she does know her stuff. And I think she fits the team better than most of us readers would suspect…
If I knew her, I think I would get more of a *meh* feeling towards her than active dislike. While her everyday demeanor might be a bit grating, I think her good qualities would surface during emergency situations.
Don’t understand, why would she be easy to dislike?
I look forward to seeing how Sydney’s pals back at the comic shop will react to her being a part of all this… I doubt she’ll be able to beat the news home and tell them herself.
Joel is putting a customer’s holds on the counter and he grabs his can of Spit Take cola from the counter and takes a drink.
Customer: Hey, isn’t that your business partner on the TV there, Joel?
Joel: Hunh? [ Spray! ] [ Grabs the remote and quickly turns up the volume, after turning it to face the correct way. ]
Ariana: [ From the TV ] … another one of our powerhouses, Lieutenant Cassidy, AKA Anvil. Next to her is our Techno-mage, Dabbler. Her actual name is foreign and I have difficulty pronouncing it. She is proficient in unarmed and armed combat, magic and as a expert in various technologies. Next to her we have o…
Male Reporter: Holy $#|+! That is that crazy girl from the bank video!
Reporter: You’re right! It is her!
Ariana: [ more loudly ] our latest recruit, Sydney Scoville, AKA Halo. Yes, she was helpful in containing the bank robbery this afternoon, but it also turns out that Halo has super-powers. The orbs that you see circling her head allow her to project a force-field, fire powerful blasts, and fly. We are still investigating what all the orbs do.
Customer: So is that really the other owner or not?
Joel: [ Stunned, jaw is heading for the counter he is standing behind. ]
1941 means ARC was set up before the NSA, and assigned people to them as needed.
Hmm, maybe I should swap out NSA for another group. OSI seems to be post WWII as well. I guess I could just drop it from the previous page.
Picking a nit: in panel one, Arianna appears to be reading her own speech bubble, as the amount of eye crossing places her focus WAY too close to see the cameras in the back row (or even Suzy in the front row)…
I find drawing people looking slightly down remarkably challenging. As people glance down the drop their eyelids slightly which makes them look sleepy when I draw them. I haven’t quite cracked that one yet. I spent a lot of time redrawing her eyes and honestly I’m not super happy with how she looks in that panel. I may go in and tweak it.
If the conference is being broadcast live, there are a lot of people in tinfoil hats sitting at home (or in their parent’s basements) going “‘I knew it!” Just like after the Roswell incident the number of super ‘sightings’ is going to go up exponentially (and probably get their own celebrity section in People magazine).
The advertisers are going to want to get in on this. I can see the executives at Nissan making an offer to a certain ARCHON operative to be their spokesperson for a car model of theirs “Now available in gold!”
Since Sydney mentioned the game Halo exists in this timeline and she owns a comics/games shop, they will either hire her to plug it, or sue her for trademark infringement.
You left out the December 21,2012 incident that quietly started raising the manna or bio-energy levels that should create more supers, and bring out mutant monsters from legend too. Expect more monsters?
I haven’t put it in the comic, but her shop is named “Event Horizon Comics” At least at the moment.
Actually, you have. It´s on page 80, panel 1. :)
Oh, hey, well there you go.
Panel 2:
“How does America feel about more Military Police?
More Military: Yay! More police: Boo!”
Awesome … that summed up about the whole fucking country. :D
Dude, consider the history of the US.
Most of them are more or less descendants of mass-murderers / slavers / rapists and such who came from Europe to invade that continent since 1492. And one of the first games children are taught? Cowboys and Indians, which effectively teaches racism and mass-murder.
*facepalm*
Actually most Americans has ancestors who came to this country to escape persecution, or to seek economic opportunity. Yes the treatment of Native Americans was by and large not great, but it was not particularly worse than how any of the colonial powers (I.E: All of Europe) treated any natives, or each other for that matter. Nor were “Most Americans” involved in the atrocities that did happen.
In fact even if you somehow blamed all (then) existing Americans for the mistreatment of Native Americans, continued immigration has thinned that pool of blame considerably. None of family, for example, came to the US before about 1900, except for my finace who is part Cherokee.
Historically Americans greatly distrusted standing armies as instruments of tyranny, a fear which is pretty much gone in the aftermath of the 20th century, instead we support our military as “Defenders of freedom” since the defeat of facism. The fact that we have an all volunteer, citizen army also removes a lot of the fear.
People don’t like cops mostly becuase we don’t like speeding tickets, not because we fear being caught in our murder-orgies.
Agree with most of the sentiments of your post. One point to the contrary that does strike me though is that a major point of contention between United Kingdom and it’s American colony was the issue of the treatment of natives. In particular the U.K. wanted to stop the continual expansion into native territories, and for their rights to nationhood to be recognised. It was one of the differences in policy which fuelled tensions leading up to the American rebellion (I think the locals coined some other term for it). And even afterwards, such as when the USA decided to invade Canada.
Not wishing to portray the U.K. as being good guys mind. The point about what they and the other European powers got up to was perfectly valid and well made. There was a discrepancy between principles and good practice. Although not that everything they did was bad. But, of course you cannot offset rights against wrongs and hope they will balance nicely.
I almost mentioned that in fact, but it would have kind of weakned my point, as well as drifting off topic. I was mostly reacting to the sort of knee-jerk “‘America bad” meme which grates on my nerves almost as much as the ” ‘Murica! Hell yeah!” knee-jerk enthusiasm which is usually accompanied by a large dose of historical revision. People are people. America is not always right or wrong.
But yes, if you had to be conquered by a Eurpoean power, Britain was the way to go. Mostly because they co-opted existing native power structures, rather than killing everyone with an education, which is why most of the former British colonies are pretty decent countries rather than the hell-holes most of the former colonies collapsed into after the Europeans pulled out and took all civic knowledge and organization with them. The Opium wars were kind of a low point, but we all err.
The ‘Opium Wars’ were, unlike the modern ‘Drug Wars’, a means of control not eradication, you had Opium Dens just as legal and open back then as Cigar Bars and Gentlemen’s Clubs (before they got closed down and outlawed as well)
Uh… I wouldn’t say that. In an extremely simplified form, what happened with the two opium wars was:
The British had been for quite some time already exporting Indian opium to China in great quantities — China ended up having a tremendous problem of widespread opium addiction among its population, and decided to stop importing opium from the British (probably it also wanted to cut down on imports in general; opium was a big part of China’s imports at the time).
The British, then, ended up declaring war (twice) against the Chinese in order to force them to resume buying opium from them. The Chinese were thoroughly defeated in both wars, and among other things gave Hong Kong to the British.
But the wars themselves were declared by the British Empire in order to force the Chinese to keep buying opium (and other trade items). Not really “control” — I would say the opposite (keep selling opium in the country).
Gladstone (later prime minister) said in Parliament, about the first opium war: “if there had ever been a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated to cover this country with permanent disgrace, I do not know.”
Lord Palmerston, minister of foreign affairs at the time (and later prime minister himself) replied that “…nobody could say that he honestly believed the motive of the Chinese Government to have been the promotion of moral habits the war was being fought to stem China’s balance of payments deficit”.
John Quincy Adams said that “opium is a mere incident to the dispute… the cause of the war is the kowtow—the arrogant and insupportable pretensions of China that she will hold commercial intercourse with the rest of mankind not upon terms of equal reciprocity, but upon the insulting and degrading forms of the relations between lord and vassal.”
Okay, thank you, but it still wasn’t to put an end to the usage of Opium (always strive to learn the truths about things, don’t always remember it but also always thank the one/s educating me :))
1) Almost every nation that has ever existed has had its share of “mass-murderers / slavers / rapists and such”. I would doubt you would find many people who didn’t have all of them in his or her family tree. Not that I’m justifying what they did, but simply putting it in perspective.
2) Even if the US was the only country that did, however, nothing compels an individual to accept the values of his or her ancestors.
Sure, the US has its faults, but both its critics and supporters need a more balanced view that takes in both its negatives and positives.
Well said.
I also would like to point out that my ancestors were also Abolitionist who helped to end slavery because discrimination is against the will of God.
We all have our demons. We all have our Saints. What makes us, is who we choose to be.
What about those parts of the country that are still virgins?
a super powered lawyer. cool and creepy as hell
That would be She-Hulk! :)
That’s a lawyer I could deal with.
Now that people know Sydney has powers she’ll be a object of nerd lust.
And if the origin story of how she got the orbs ever gets out, there will be others (possibly at Deus Industries) who see it as an opportunity. “If the inactive orbs bond to whoever finds them, all I have to do is kill her and then pick up one of them, giving ME all of her powers!”. (insert evil laughter and lightning effects)
which will activate one of the Unknown orbs which turns out to have a passive ability that makes Syd IMMORTAL!!!
I’m still waiting to find out that one of the unidentified orbs provides Sidney with an extremely humiliating power. [For some reason, I’m thinking about the mutant Miasma. :-) ]
My brief googling turned up nothing pertinent about Miasma. But I can see a lot of humorous potential in that concept.
In one, otherwise serious, fantasy game I was running the heroes captured a horde of magical items. Enough for one each and a spare. As they were all powerful items, and I wanted to discourage inter-party envy if one character ended up with twice the reward. So I tweaked one to have humiliating properties, to encourage them to sell it off and split the profit.
Strangely enough, one of the players fell in love with the concept of dayglow pink fluffy oversized bunny foot-shaped slippers of leaping and kicking! Choosing to wear them continuously, despite the obvious public humiliation. Mind you they did give him a considerable combat advantage. But my aim of avoiding party envy had been achieved. No other player envied the items. Whereas he took great pleasure in them.
Miasma is a side-character in the Whateley Universe (accessible through Diane’s link right there.)
His power is super-farts. Even worse, he’s an Avatar, meaning he gets it from being bonded to a spirit, and said spirit apparently likes beans. He also seems to be the primary reason the school cafeteria has one table located under a fume hood.
“Seriously, you burn a hole in just one couch, and then everyone looks at you whenever someone stinks up the place!”
If the orbs grant immortality, then what happened to the previous owner?
If you get offered immortality, check the small print.* The Orb of Eternity may have a safety feature.
* Eternity is an awfully long time. You may change your mind – make sure there is a euthanasia get-out clause.
Was actually thinking like HIGHLANDER. Immortal as long as her head is still attached to her shoulders.
And “There can be only one!”
Thank goodness, Imagine a horde of sword fighting Sydneys
Looking forward to where you are taking this. Great comic.
I am curious to see if Archon obeys the current limits on federal interference within state boundaries. Or if your universe has a different constitution. Otherwise Archon should only be able to interfere in cross state crime and national defense (inside or outside) the country.
Somewhat related, this has me wondering if supers have the same privileges and rights as everyone else, when some of them are literally weapons of immense destruction that are illegal for non-supers to have.
Lastly, it seems unusual that the other three letter defense agencies wouldn’t want their own supers. Curious how that went down at some point.
I probably won’t get in to the nitty gritty of all the legalese during the press conference as I want to keep it relatively short, but I think the law will be that they can assume jurisdiction if it’s clear a super is involved. Besides, local authorities can’t do a lot against a guy made of lightning, so instead of needlessly risking the lives of their local officers, the hope is they’ll let the feds take the hits without too much arguing.
Dave, do you enjoy writing Arianna more than you thought you would?
I suppose as the comic goes on, we’ll be seeing less of her. This is her moment to shine.
Writing the press conference has proven to be really difficult. I’m glad it’s turning out well so far, but I find myself editing up to the last second because there’s a lot to talk about and I’m trying to be concise. Several times I’ve spent 10, 15, 20 minutes trying to think of the best way to phrase something so that it doesn’t sound flippantly conversational or rambly while still conveying what I want.
This really is a scene I should have had written out completely long before I got up to drawing it. The rest of the comic has been “here’s basically what happens on this page and I basically know what happens on the next few pages, and more generally what the next scene is, etc.” and then I write the exact dialogue and figure out where the balloons go as I get up to it. The added difficulty is since much of this isn’t back and forth dialog, I’m having trouble blocking out the pages. Do I just have a big block of dialog, or do I throw in reaction shots of the press which takes space and time and reduces how much I can put on a page?
Despite doing a weekly comic for 3 years now I suddenly feel like I’m an amateur all over again when it comes to this sort of scene. I’m having trouble thinking of other comics that have done big press conferences/expo dumps like this either, so it’s hard to find examples to refer to.
Uh, so to answer your question… I wouldn’t say I’ve enjoyed writing her more than I thought I would… although I’m not sure what my expectation was really. I’m glad to be getting the chance to work on another sort of scene though as it just adds to my wheelhouse. I just hope it all comes out all right without me having to scramble and fix too much stuff. :)
Don’t mean to make this anymore political than it already has been, but people keep going on about how ‘persecuted’ the Jews were during WWII, while they didn’t have a great time of it (along with the ‘Gypsy’s’ and other ‘minorities) they had a much better time than the Jehovah Witnesses who were more hated by Hitler than the Jews (and the JW’s are still just as persecuted today as they were back then, there are still countries where they are killed if they are caught)
I would say “snubbed at the door” rather than hated. Pretty much exclusively the only negative comments I come across Jehovah’s Witnesses is in the context of joke ways that people come up with stopping them from bugging folks to convert. I have a few readied myself. But never got to use them, because the sneaky people always brought along a pretty girl when they came to my door. Which completely disarmed me.
Whereas I continuously come across anti-Zionist, anti-Islam and general racist comments on YouTube. Any of which that pass beyond expressing an opinion and cross the line into hate speech I report without hesitation. Regardless of who is the subject is. Getting feedback that accounts get banned as a result. Which does not bother my conscience in the least.
Perhaps, online, it is because Hebrew and Arabic comments stand out (likewise ethnicity from context or avatars), whereas there is nothing to provoke a specifically anti-Jehovah’s Witness attack? Although there is always the likelihood of an atheist objection to any strong religious viewpoint expressed, that is not the same thing. And would apply to any faith, not just a specific one.
I am aware of the fate of JW at the hands of the Nazis, and it is just as reprehensible as any of the other persecuted minorities. But I am really surprised that you consider the attitudes still prevail today. I have lived (literally right next door) and worked alongside JW for years and never heard anything like you imply. And am shocked that you say they are getting killed because of their religion (as opposed to murder for any of the normal reasons). Which I confess being completely ignorant about.
Not that I am doubting you, in any way. We often go unaware of persecution in our midst. But just to let you know that such negative opinions are far from universal.
Didn’t say it was happening in every country, or even a lot of countries, just that it does happen
…. Which can, in the final analysis, be said of a great many things.
When a Jehovahs Witness shows up at my door I simply tell them “No thank you.”. And that’s the end of it.
If it wasn’t for the Witnesses, you wouldn’t even be able to go nextdoor and borrow a cup of sugar (for example) without having to get permission from City Hall (yes, that did almost happen, another one of those ‘Ridiculous Laws’ narrowly avoided)
But, just what does the “HON” stand for? “Halo Ostensibly Nuts”? :)
Someone misunderstood a Southern Super. “I work for ARC ‘Hon.”
I’ve always thought it should be written as “Hun” instead of “Hon”.
Technically “Hon” is an abbreviation of “Honey”, so the usage is correct. But being a phonetic speller (and a poor one at that), when I see “Hon”, I have a totally different pronunciation in mind.
Ether that or it’s my ebil Northern ways.
Heh, hadn’t come across that word before
Use of federal military forces in a civilian police role is banned by the Posse Comitatus act of 1878. It takes an executive order and an open act of Congress to even temporarily suspend this rule. Discuss.
Seems to me th ere are at least two obvious loopholes. First, they could routinely lend Archon agents to local police, at least in some technical legal sense (along with a regulation that request *from* the local civilian police is automagically assumed to have been extended when supers are involved), or second, they could adopt the legal position that “defense against individuals with super powers” is not a “civilian police role” at all.
One of the reporters raised legal questions, so I’ve got some of my own:
Would the creation of a new branch of the Department of Defense require the creation and passage of a law in the same way that the Department of Homeland Security was formed? And if so, wouldn’t journalists and the public have some idea of Archon’s existence even before Arianna’s press conference? I’m neither a lawyer nor political analyst, but I’ve got it in my head that the creation of passage of big, federal-level laws tends to catch the attention of people.
To be honest that’s probably one thing I’ve botched pretty good. I know there are “discretionary spending” line items that cover a good deal of covert operations and agencies, but Archon wasn’t ever intended to be a secret. Budget hawks would have picked up on it already. The only way around it I can think of is that Archon’s initial funding was covered in one of those line items because someone got it in their head that America should be first to the gate with this sort of force and wanted the conversation to happen all at once instead of trying to defend the budget allocation at the same time they were having a “yes supers are really real, now give me my billion dollars.”
I find your logic credible. More than that there is a strong argument to support making the set-up secret. Just this week it has emerged that the plans for the Australian plans for their new spy headquarters were stolen by hackers. Seriously compromising their future security. Plus the similar incident with U.S. military blueprints.
In a world with domestic supervillains and hostile states with their own supers, the headquarters of your own primary super organisation becomes one of the most strategically important locations. Possibly the most (say if supers can knock ICBMs out of the sky then they are more valuable than the nuclear command and control centre).
Even though it is intended to be public knowledge once operational, ensuring secrecy during construction is worth whatever effort it takes. Which is better than the silly situation that MI6 found themselves in, having securely built their headquarters. Only to try and keep its location secret, despite having to interact with the public in various ways. Leading to the ludicrous position that whilst it’s location was an official secret, all you had to do was ask any Londoner where it was and they could point it out to you.
All of which ended sensibly enough. Allowing it to feature in James Bond movies and appear in Wikipedia. If you note the details in that entry, you will see that the National Audit Office lists the expenses required, but not the nature of what was done with the money. Meaning that people can only speculate as to what defences and other security arrangements it might have.
ARC _already existed_. All they’re doing is changing their name and their mode of operation. But the money was already allocated to it.
In the US the formation of a “Department” requires congressional oversight and approval, but agencies, sub-branches and services can usually but not always be formed by executive order. The funding requires at the minimum a black hidden “approps” bill if it’s defense/security related and/or covert, but for anything else it would require an open vote. Given the nature of Archon the governmental track would likely look something like this: Exec Ord creating it –> black appropriation funding it–> incorporation into existing department–> declassification–> transition to “white” open budget coinciding with press conference announcing it. It is theoretically possible it started with a normal open approps bill for funding but that would have made the press conference moot as the thing would have almost certainly gotten bogged down in political wrangling by then.
Yep, only waiting for a more than dubious senator here, since even the Stargate got found…
I admit that I had too look up Explicate. I like learning new words though.
Anyway, I would like too know the answers to all of those questions.
I have one more. “Do the conspiracy theorists (in your universe) now have people listening to their ‘crazy’ ideas and theories”? I mean, they are now right about something, imagine if our Government suddenly admitted that they had been working with the ‘Grays’, “Ancient Aliens” would suddenly become plausible.
Think about that and have your mind BLOWN.
Seems to me “explicate” is to “explain” what “utilize” is to “use”. Extra sylablification in aid of bafflegabbery, often in corporate or government word salad. Er… I mean “word saladry”. Er…
“word saladrification”. Antidisestablishmentarianismalesque, in a way.
It actually means to “Analyze and develop (an idea or principle) in detail.”
For instance, “The GrrlPower fourms Explicate the world of the comic. DaveB has even applied some of the fans Explicated ideas”.
I am going to have fun confusing people with my new play word. heheheheheh
I just used “explicate” because it rhymed with “eight” :)
…and cue INXS’ “Mediate”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFUEgFdP5zE
Didn’t they get that idea from a Bob Dylan song?
I love how she is conducting the audience!
She has a Doctorate in PR and Media Manipulation (pity it doesn’t work on those she works with :P)
Not sure what this “Posse Comitatus Act” thingabilliejoebobbie is all about, but considering “ARCHON is comprised primarily of, and is for defense against, individuals with Super Powers” it would stand to reason there would be a special Act (or whatever) to give them jurisdiction in all States without having to deal with some local jumpedup backwoods sherrif getting all huffity about some big city spandex-wearer coming to his fly-spit town
Whether that Act was enacted/voted into being before/during or after this Media Blitz is yet to be determined by DaveB
you know i just love what kind of silly questions the press can ask.
no really i love it to have confirmed that the mass of readers are sheep whithout imagination or even some kind of life.
Baah?
*wags tail*
To cut back from less true-to-life topics,
Question for Dave,
We know that the umbrella term for people with fantastic powers in the Grrl Power-verse is ‘Super’ (just like in The Incredibles) but are there any specific sub-category terms for types of supers?
I’ll elaborate.
Harem, Anvil, Maxima, Achilles, Hiro, etc. would be considered ‘Mutants’ in the Marvel Universe, as they were born with their powers; ‘Mutates’ if they acquired them like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. In the DC Universe they’d be called ‘Meta-Humans’ or just ‘Metas’ and Dabbler would count as one.
Sydney is still biologically a norm, but now has a super-artifact (the balls are a set) bonded to her, like the Green Lanterns or Ben 10, which now makes her a super.
Gwen’s Super-status comes from what would simply make her a witch, wizard, magic-user, or sorceress in another universe, much like Zantanna and Doctor Strange, only more green.
Math’s premature martial arts skills are comparable to Bullseye’s ability to make a deadly ranged weapon out of anything and Taskmaster’s mimicry abilities.
Anyone within the Grrlverse given some thought concerning such categorization?
Yes. You just did,
Yeah on this page (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/428) Gwen runs through some of them. I haven’t quite broken down what each one of those means in terms of power source yet, but in fact “Super” is a slightly confusing term the way Arianna’s using it. Since the public at large still isn’t aware of beings like Dabbler or magic in general, she’s using it as a blanket term to mean anyone with powers, but when talking about categories of people with powers, “Super” means anyone whose powers are derived from a genetic source, so in Marvel terms, mutants would be Supers, but so would altered humans like Spiderman and Captain America.
Most of Arc-SWAT is comprised of Supers, Sydney obviously isn’t one, neither is Achilles. Like the Juggernaut, he is enchanted.
As a suggestion, something like “natural super” might help distinguish when talking about a category. Rather than using the same word for both the general term and one of the categories within it. To avoid the likely confusion it will cause, as with Nick Manly‘s comment below.
I must disagree with Dabbler. She’s some kind of demon/alien magic using thing. As such, she was born with most of her powers. She’s as close to a mutate or Meta-Human as the Watcher, Thanos, or Superman. She’d be classified as an Extra-Terrestrial as far as I’m concerned. To be a mutate, she would need to be born on earth. Meta-Human you might be able to work depending on how far you’re willing to stretch the word. But she is not an earthling so her classification must be different.
The default term for someone with powers is a super. Regardless of their particular sub-type. That is all DaveB was saying about Dabbler. When first explaining categories it is best to avoid mixed case examples, until the basic principles are clearly understood. And Dabber is very mixed.
Gwen mentions the various categories in use in-universe here. This is also the page where we learn the name of Sydney’s comic shop.
Also got to meet Sonny Strait, who I knew did “We Shadows” but it turns out is also a voice actor for Funimaiton, so he was pretty busy during the con.
Another fact about his comic history….He drew for ElfQuest. Did most of a story arc.
Haven’t read ElfQuest in years
As for me, ElfQuest was how I became aware of Sonny Strait in the first place. His stories are collected in the “In All But Blood” collection, which sadly has been out of print and hard to find for a while, but can be read on the ElfQuest site.
I wish I could remember how I first became aware of Grrl Power, but I *think* I must have noticed it in the TopWebComics list. I believe that I can take some credit for making Dave and Sonny aware of each other, when I asked Sonny to draw Sydney together with his own heroine Goat:
https://browse.deviantart.com/art/Sydney-and-Goat-by-Sonny-Strait-341099488
I am wondering who is Jiggawatt. I click on the picture but there is no bio
I should probably take her out of the rotation until I have a chance to add her to the cast page.
This question pops up almost every week, and gets answered ever time