Grrl Power #148 – Just say it. It’s about presence
Ok Suzie, don’t gloat.
I don’t know if it’s really even all that important that the team is under the DoD as opposed to the DoHS. I just don’t think any non-DoD department should really have the sort of firepower that Archon does. The INS doesn’t have access to Ospreys and artillery as far as I know. Besides the reason that Arianna gives, the “keeping it all in the family” reason, which I think is a decent one (at least I hope) it really does come down to presence. Soldiers are scarier than cops, and Maxima wanted to be able to take that to the field. And obviously preserve her rank and that of the other Archon members coming from other branches.
Maxima may not have meant any disrespect, but it’s hard to believe she won a lot of friends with that jab. It was a jab after all. Not at honest, hardworking police. She respects them, but she’s used to working alongside jets and tanks, and tends to qualify most police issue equipment as “cute.” Still there may be some eating of the crow ahead for her. Possibly several police charity events.
Ok, enough questions about what branch the team is under. A lot of that debate will continue mostly outside of the comic. I just need to remember to stick the occasional webpage/TV Screen/Newspaper in the background showing that sort of stuff is going on.
We’re almost past all this procedural stuff in the press conference, then it’s on to some quick introductions which should be a little more amusing and then a live fire demonstration which will test my ability to draw explosions and an unfortunate decommissioned tank. Which reminds me, I need to practice drawing tanks.
————
I done a podcast! Some other webcomicers have started doing one cataloging their experiences as new… well, webcomicers, and one of the hosts is the writer/colorist of Juniper which I’ve linked before and I know via Twitter, so asked if they were interested in talking shop for a bit. If you are so inclined, check it out.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Ok, Maxima in uniform, officially hot.
Maxima is always hot. Uniform just makes her hotter.
Yes Sir, but I have to say, I prefer her with her hair drawn back from her face.
It’s a quiet night until some kid builds a giant robot that has blasters fir a head, and decides to take it for a test ride.
Probably a rumor but I heard about a kid, more than a decade ago, who snuck into an airport in the middle of the night and took a jet for a test drive. They said he had learned to fly using an airplane simulator.
No rumor, It made decent news because it was the old Microsoft flight sim that taught him how. It mirrored the cockpit actions well enough for basic flight of several real planes.
Ahhhhh. Takes me back. I loved my first Lego kit, too. And the local Quickie Mart was just the place to take it for a test drive. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAheeheeheehee teehee!
Was that supposed to be Dabbler with the gun?
Yep, she is.
Is that a baby harp seal with an M16?
Yes. And he dares you to club him.
Come on, admit it. When you see a seal cub, you have to suppress the urge club it. ;-)
Ok, one holding an M16 makes that an easier task.
I was halfway to my seal cub club before I realized it’s not an actual one
Seal cub club. say it 6 times real fast
Seal cub club, seal cub club, seal sub bub…
Ah, phooey!
I suppress the urge to spend hours lovingly dismantling anyone who wants to club a baby seal.
It’s not terribly difficult as I have the attention span of a gnat. I’d probably get bored and just start trying to rip the skin off as quickly as possible.
Do you taste like ripe strawberrys?
If yer offering to taste me……i might let you.
As if polar bears weren’t having enough problems, now they have to contend with prey armed with automatic weapons.
There was a game out that had that premise. “Deer Avenger” or sommat like that.
actually it was a series of games, focusing on some deer version of rambo(think they called him bambo or something stupid like that.) and pretty much had him hunting hunters because they hunt deer, at least 2 also had him specifically avenging a hazard-prone doe.(far as i know it’s the same doe each time)
It reminded me of the flash game ‘Clubby the seal’. Basicly, your a seal and you club hunters. Good fun though.
I love the seal t-shirt.
“I dare you to club this seal.”
Genius.
Me like.
Finally, the seals are striking back.
We demand those shirts to be sold!
Dave B really needs a Merchandiser to get all the stuff out he can. More cash-flow less stress and non-comic working.
That really is top-quality merchandising. Arianna would be having palpitations if she saw it.
Let’s make a list of all the shirts that spawned from this comic shall we?
1) Always. Expect. Ninjas
2) I dare you to club this seal
3) ?
3) Halo with her orbs and cursing a blue streak
4) Maxima … just GLARING
5) Dabler with a sword, a BFG and brass knuckles waving with her 4th hand saying “You need backup?”
Quite alot of the vote incentives would probably make good shirts
Not sure if the Harem Playboy shoot would be appropriate though… ;(
Can we get some sexy Math too?
Hmmm, Math, Achilles, Mr Whatsisface, Hiro, General Faulk, Leon, X :D
6) a girls shirt with dabbler arranged so she’s groping the wearer.
7) Jackets (leather?) with the ARC logo and stuff. Maybe Dabblers coat as well.
Make a men’s version and I’ll buy it =P
Count me in.
or we could look back at the large list of ideas I collected and posted around page 100 or a little after
I love how Suzie just yelled BURN, without yelling to hard
pik haired reporter is hot,,,
and i like that mayor,,, finaly a mayor that is not a sicophant political nutjob afraid to do anything or say anything for fear of loosing voters
Mayor Big M
I wonder what his last name is
Might be a nickname like “Big Mike”.
Mouth?
Isn’t he a slimmed down version of the guy from Chuck?
(Please tell me it isn’t Cube Gooding Jnr.!!!)
Aww heck! It is, he’s doing the “Show me the money!” face :(
If so, then he could solve his problems easily – get Subway to sponsor the hero program.
Or Best Buy (wait, is that still in business?)
Best Buy is still in business, at least here in Canada. It was Circuit City that went bankrupt a few years ago.
i say it stands for Big Mac
McCheese
In my mind, the name tag says “Mayor Big Mayor”
“Mayor Big Money”
Heh, heh. I’m loving the T shirt slogan. Has Dabby’s coat always had tails? Cool coat.
I’m eager to see the firpower demonstration, and how everyone reacts.
Really, isn’t it more Sydney’s coat than anything, since her brain made it?
Yes, Dabbler’s coat had tails, because it has to cover HER tail. ;)
She made her 2nd set of arms invisible, don’t you think she can do the same thing with her tail?
Adamas thought it through. Invisible arms you can move out the way if someone is on a path to bump into them. A tail though can be assaulted without being seen. Dabbler might have four eyes, but none of them are positioned looking backwards. Having coat-tails reduces the risk considerably, as folks will avoid bumping into or sitting on those. And if they do hit something, due to carelessness, they will assume it is coat tails not an invisible alien tail underneath coat tails.
Well, a few members of our community might, but we tend to be… unusual.
I was thinking: wouldn’t the tail make the coat tails move, but than I realized that the entire coat is an illusion. Or atleast it was in the ballroom.
So good arguments. And I think I’d be feeling a tail to :P
Are we absolutely certain it is her………..tail?
Now that you mention it… We never actually SEE the tail in comic.
Though based on the vote picture https://davebarrack.deviantart.com/art/Dabbler-Fred-Akon-24-2013-06-380271091
What else could it be?
I think her porno sence would be tingling if we found that tail, =^-^=
Are you aware of the term tucking?
As Dave replied to me, she doesn’t have a tail, naturally. It’s a Cybernetic one she built, and it comes off.
Same old story. Purple Four-Armed Alien Doppelgänger Succubus girl, incapable of dialling her sex-appeal lower than a ten, getting a complex when her Succubus peer group tease her about not having a tail, so makes a cybernetic one.
One of the classics. My Klingon is not that good, so I won’t bother looking it up, but it sounds very Shakespearian to me?
Interesting to note that the tail looks just like Kurt’s but purple.
Sure, it’s the same old shy girl/peer pressure story, but now with demon high tech special effects. I did not know that Dabby has a detachable tail. Ooooh, a detachable tail! Will it keep coming after you on its own, Terminator hand style? Does it have fangblades and venomacid and dissolvy fluids in it like one of those monsters from Aliens? Can it be grabby instead of stabby? Can it do first aid? Ooooh, the possibilities. ;)
and it even vibrates like real? lol
And of course the Giant Robot Destroyer shows up in N.J.
,Chicks do indeed dig Giant Robot Cars.
In reference to the water bill comment I wonder if Dave B’s bill went up recently?
I really wish your comic updated more frequently.
Congratulations that is the one thousandth time that comment has been made! Sydney tell our contestant what he’s Won!
Only a thousand so far? I thought it would be higher by now.
An all expense paid seven course dinner at Sydney’s favourite restaurant. =P
Including Sydneys favorite dish.
Small letters: You MUST eat everything
Please read the entire waiver of liability, including the clauses about having your own health insurance and life insurance, before signing. Bon appétit!
Don’t forget your safety googles
“My eyes! The googles do nothing!”
ROFL.
Mind you Google Glass, or for that matter the X-Box One, is as big a threat to privacy as the security services.
*bzzzZZZ*- actualy it’s 15,859,321 times someone’s mentioned that Dave should work faster, Thanks for playing!
look out! Adamas has gone all AD…OH look! shiny!
And I wish for a puppy
Sorry Michael, we get rather protective of DaveB but this is all meant light-heartedly. However Grrl Power is constantly growing in popularity, so this comment is bound to happen frequently, with new readers. And/or ones who have been with the comic for a while, but who have not been into the comments, which is bound to be a fair proportion. It is natural enough to want to see more of the comic. Trouble is Dave does have a full-time day job, so, unless he manages to get a decent revenue stream going from merchandising someday, he is pretty much at maximum capacity.
And you really can’t fault either the quality or the regularity. BTW not an attack just we hear it a lot and have discussed it endlessly before. It was more of a “Been there Done that” thing.
Hell, he has to set up some merchandising. I’d buy every shirt
That good ta know, me and my paranoia were thinkin we were just keeping him busy with all the discussion.
Nah. He probably doesn’t even read it
:(
I see all!
Dave, stop reading al these comments and get back to drawing! That alone would save you enough time to update twice a week. ;)
Twice a week? That’s just slacking. I want twice a day!
DaveB, I see what you did there!
One way to hide a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” reference, and make you look like some all knowing,,,,, What is this spine tingling sensation? Oh goo al;ksd;lkjnfv;lkahr;dukl;”””””””
nope, he DOES read the comments, and he is a frequent responder as well… but to the request for more comics, yeah, well… we’d love for him to be able to do more than currently, but real life intrudes… blech…
He’s even added a couple things we’ve mentioned in the comic if he liked it alot. Very Fan-Interactive our Dave is. *nod nod*
Are those the clerks from Clerks in panel 4?
While that is the Quick Stop in Clerks, the people you see there are probably Jay and Silent Bob.
Dante and Randall are probably inside, with Dante having vowed not to leave the building, no matter what exciting mayhem or hijinx are going on out there.
Yup, it’s Jay and (not so) Silent Bob
Now that is keen-eyed spotting. The proportions are certainly right to be them. As is Jay’s wardrobe.
Nice catch! There was a Kevin Smith gag back in Grrl Power #108, where someone called KevinSmithsTiny Dick made a preachy comment knocking vulgar language.
I read it as endorsing, but other than that, wow, good memory.
The pâtissier-bot has run amuck!
Make croissants with low-fat margarine? Nooooo!
Considering the firepower and tech Archon has access to, the DoD does make sense, no other group has the runaway budget and the permission to purchase and use such firepower and tech as the US Military.
However, I could see that there may be some supers (or magic users, which I would think are more common) who may be reluctant to join up to a hardcore government military, such people prefer to align themselves with causes over governments.
I’d much rather the military handle this sort of capability than a lot of other government departments I can think of.
Or for that matter any of a number of … Private Concerns. Imagine this. “Sure, we’ll deal with your rabid mutant rat problem. It’ll cost you eighty five dollars a mouse, cash up front, checks and credit cards not accepted. Oh, and thats just for removal of the problem, it’s extra if you want it done quickly. Oh, and we aren’t responsible for any collateral damage either. Sign here.”
xref: Danny Phantom’s Vlad Masters (aka Vlad Plasmius) discredits Danny’s superhero effectiveness, and fields a for-pay group that makes everybody pay for the nose for what Danny was doing for free.
Btw… DannyFenton/DannyPhantom, VladMasters/VladPlasmius… these are secret identies? That’s even worse than using KentGlasses(tm) for a disguise.
Also, the Big Time superhero series pokes fun at the “everybody’s name alliterates” trope; Lana Lang, Lois Lane, Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, etc, etc. Even Clarke Kent, phonetically. OK, so there’s also Tony Stark, Nick Fury, etc, etc, but still…
But I digress.
I don’t think it should be handled by the government at all, these are the same people who treat dissent as an act of terrorism.
At least twice that I know of.
Once, “when our country was a baby”. Just shortly after the Redcoats quit having their way.
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=16
Another time, during WWI.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918
I’m genuinely disappointed that the mayor wasn’t Mike Haggar from Final Fight.
I’m not. Never having even heard of him or it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Haggar
That would have been a good choice as well.
Poison needs some love too :(
Of the superhero as policeman experiment, I can only name two at most: Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon and Robocop. Both are pretty formidable but their stories did touch the issue of equipment and budget (whether lightly or head-on).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_City
Witchblade! Mind you, while Sara Pezzini is a cop, her chain of command is unaware of her superhero activity, at least that she is the one doing it.
That and She couldn’t get RID of the equipment.
If you count Witchblade.You must count Flash and Nightwing too.
Bishop from the X-Men was a cop for a little while prior to House of M.
Jim “Guardian” Harper, in his first lifetime, back before he got cloned and made head of security at the Cadmus Project.
Then there is Alan Moore’s great ‘Top 10’ miniseries (with a couple of spin-offs). Best described as ‘Hill Street Blues’ with supers.
Matthew Bright from Rising Stars.
ya know, we do have the DOJ. Little organization, has some letters that belong to it. FBI, DEA, BOP, U.S.MS…
:D
“Can I buy a vowel?” – Danny DeVito in Renaissance Man.
True … the DOJ does have a few agencies. But their entire combined budget is a drop in the bucket compared to DOD. I have yet to see an FBI-crewed nuclear powered submarine. Or even a M1 Abrams MBT with “USMS” painted on the side.
Just sayin …
im not sure budget is the issue- frankly supers don’t need that big of a budget. the issue is legal authority and legitimacy. :D
right now on basic cable some guy is screaming ” I knew it, the black choppers are real ! the black choppers are real !” and its only going to get worse from there.
What are you saying? The black choppas are real! I ‘saw’ one last night!
I saw one a couple of years back at the Lethbridge Airshow. It was your basic black with all the text and logos in light/pale gold tone. It was for the DHS.
really you just realized that? I have been doing flybys on / as one for better half of a decade.
Having superheroes operating under the UCMJ rather than civil law is a really good idea. You can get away with as lot more collateral damage that way. ^_^
Although some of the bigger PDs have some pretty cool toys. Max shouldn’t be so quick to judge.
All the more reason for them not to be, you do know ‘collateral damage’ is just another term for ‘killed a bunch of civilians’ right?
or ruining social infrastructure and breaking basic service resources (water or electric ect ect)
Mosque? What Mosque?
Other than that, the flyers of ARC should really get their own IFF for their trips, so they don’t crash into the odd jumbo jet or such. Even Superman did the former the odd incarnation.
Maybe a crash-budget (for the damage they are bound to be doing) would be sweet.
Defeat a giant robo? Who pays for all the skyscrapers he’s going to crash into after said defeat? And all the injuries? What about the cleanup?
Who’s going to pay ARCHON for all the skyscrapers the robot DIDN’T knock down?
Taxes
Firepower demonstration? Count me in! I’d be glad to finally see what all these people can do together… Especially on the brute force level – hot chicks kicking ass FTW ! :)
Fastball special! Max throws Achilles (I am pretty sure she want to anyway). Anvil throws Halo (inside force field). I don’t think anybody else can survive the landing.
Isn’t this move already copyrighted by Colossus and Wolverine? ;)
nope, Juggernaut’s used it as well. And I still like
*Curses* I still like my Idea of using Syd’s Shield and Tentacle orbs to make Syd what amounts to a super Flail for Max and Anvil to smash into things.
Shield or not, if she’s ganna get throw by Maxima there are going to be Gforces due to inertia. Most notablly during the landing.
With the shield being solid, the landing is going to be exactly the same in Gforces as without shield
Depends on if the Shield has in-built shock-absorbers (and then it’s just a case of if Maxi can catch her before she bounces into orbit :D)
Remember the part where Max was pounding on the shield and everyone complained that they were going to break every window in the room? I don’t think the shield absorbs shock.
That wasn’t shock they were complaining about, but the reverbirations
It appears to be Kinetic. So it responds by meeting force with equal force, effectively canceling it out. That would explain why Syd could tell Max was hitting it, but not if it was putting any strain on it
If it absorbed shock there wouldn’t be any reverberations. Kinda how absorption works.
It doesn’t absorb ALL the shock, or there’d be no seismic tremors to ruin ballrooms and whatnot, but it’s definitely dumping any shock away from Syd, so that she doesn’t feel it. If she’s airborne, hmm. I suppose impacts could be translated into standing waves carried around the forcefield’s surface and dissipated on contact with any surface she eventually lands on. If so, she might be able to do some tricks with that.
I just want to see how Sydney is going to screw up the demo.
Sydney: Oops, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to trip Anvil so she stumbled into you as you firing that blast. I just wanted to see better.
Max: [Furious] You idiot! I could have killed somebody! You have to be more careful. At least nobody was seriously hurt.
Suzi: [ soot covered, smoke rising from her totally chaotic hair, Achilles lying on the ground mostly naked, with some tatters of clothing, in front of her ] What do you mean nobody was hurt?
Achilles: [ growns ] I’ll be okay. Just give me a minute.
Suzi: But look at my hair!
Syd’s not going to screw up the demo, she is just going to make it more interesting.
Max: Are right Halo, it is your turn to show of a bit.
Syd: Yesss, Hmmmm I guess I will go with the Hentai Orb first, but the question is who should be my victuuuum, I mean partner for demonstrating.
1) Some male reporter: It’s got me, what the %^&* is it, get it off, get it off
2) Some female reporter: “High Pitched Scream” AHhhhhhh! “Skirt lifted up a bit, Scream turns to an enjoyable moan”
Dabbler: Do they have stuff like this in Japan?
It’s a giant humanoid robot. Even if it was not made in Japan, probably half of it’s components were!
was meaning the tentacle stuff Yorp ;)
Doh!
only in their imaginations halo is the one true henti being in the GP earth area to get the “real tentacle monster experience” dabs has to go d-hopping or world walking.
When reading the last panel, did anyone else imagine the voice on the other end of the phone to sound like that teacher from the old Charlie Brown cartoons?
yes,yes I did.
Does New Jersey only have one police force for the entire state?
There is a state police department, in addition to the local ones.
I think Max forgot one reason for DOD oversight: Less likely to provoke trouble over strict rules and disciplinary measures.
also places a series of rules and consequences that can be stricter than anything on civilian books in play for people who, being more dangerous than a M1 tank, must show more control than other people
Hi DaveB,
I’ve been reading almost since the beginning of the comic and really enjoying the character and their interactions. I think the world you’re building is excellent, and that you’re raising some good questions about the worlds of Marvel / DC / etc comics — for example, why are all superiors perfect super-attractive physical specimens? When they are affiliated with the government, how does that work? Etc. I wish the updates were more frequent but I totally understand why they aren’t — drawing these must be a huge effort, and this is a labor of love, not a job. I really appreciate the fact that you’re doing it at all.
But I’ve finally decided I need to make a criticism: Please, please, please, for the love of God, improve your pacing. You’re making the classic mistake of new writers and new DMs everywhere — you’ve clearly done a lot of work on the backstory and the details of the world, and you feel the need to share every detail.
Don’t.
First rule of good writing: show, don’t tell. We don’t need to have pages and pages of long boring press conference and meetings and such. (Although, you did a pretty good job of spicing up the inprocessing meeting with Dazzler’s entry, Agent X’s discovery, and Sydney’s hyperactive antics. But still.) Tell the story, and let the background emerge a bit at a time, as it makes sense. The more you leave to the reader’s imagination the more they will engage with the story; you’ll see an uptick in comments in the forums if people are wondering “hey, how are these guys organized?” or “since they are under the DoD, why doesn’t posse comitatis apply?”
Seriously. you’ve got a cool idea here, you’re developing some really neat characters, the jokes are funny, and you’ve got a fantastic art style. All you have to do is get the story rolling at a good clip and you’ll have one of the best webcomics on the ‘Net. But right now it’s just barely worth keeping up with because of all the danged exposition that goes on.
Thanks for listening, and I look forward to wherever the story goes from here,
Dave
Argh. And no sooner do I hit ‘submit’ than multiple spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors jump out at me. Clearly, my proofreading was inadequate…which is pretty embarrassing in a literary criticism comment.
Obviously I meant ‘supers’ not ‘superiors’; the other errors shouldn’t be too confusing. Anyway, thanks again for the comic.
Dave
As mentioned before (look up a few comments) Dave B has a full time job and no other means of support. His art is much higher quality than most webcomics and any change to his pacing would lower it quickly. Like most endeavors you can have quantity or quality but not both.
Bit of a whoosh there. “Pacing” does not mean the number of updates per week. It means how quickly the story moves forward. Ten pages of infodump in the middle of an epic space battle (*cough* certain authors *cough*) is telling it slow in meticulous detail. “They fell into each other’s arms. * * * And there were kippers for breakfast.”, a well-known storytelling device from yesteryear, is, well, different pacing altogether. Puns left to the imagination, if not the exercise, of the reader.
There’s part of me that wanted to skip over the press conference entirely and just refer to it in flashback. I think I went ahead with it because someone convinced me that nerds like a good infodump now and then. I know I do. I’m debating skipping over the introductions actually, but I wrote the page where Anvil presents herself and it helped me flesh her out a little. Of course I can use that whether or not I decide to put it in. If was doing more updates I’d have less compunction about using stuff like that but I really would like to move on, because not only is there a lot of good stuff left to get to in “Book 1” (i.e. the rest of this day) but I’ve got whole other storylines to get to.
The problem at the moment is that I’ve already started this scene and I don’t want to cut away from it in a manner that feels jarring. Maybe I can compress some of the introductions into just the highlights or something of a montage. Having everyone introduce themselves and their powers to the press would just be retread for the readers at this point. I’ll have to consider that. I really am an amateur when it comes to writing. Dialog I can do. Story pacing is definitely a level up from where I am.
While some feel the press conference is “fluff” I actually feel its important. Maybe a bit of an infodump, but every so often, that is sort of required(especially when the info is vital and would otherwise disrupt a scene by having to clarify matters).
However, the big thing is, from the bank on forward, its all been leading to this. Glossing over it would be a slap in the face to the readers. It’d be like building up to a major fight between two combatants and then cutting to the morning after(unless alcohol ended up being involved, in which case its perfectly ok).
Perhaps the pacing of the discussion could be a bit better, but the scene itself is setting up a lot of things. It’s also getting messy questions that would require someone holding the Idiot Ball in the future answered right now.
Sometimes you don’t have any choice BUT to Tell instead of Show. This is especially true when you start discussing things like the Military and the Media. Both of which are involved in this scene.
Agreed. I say stay the course.
One of the reasons I stopped reading PVP was his habit of starting a storyline and then chickening out and hitting the abort button before anything interesting could happen. :/
While this little infodump might not be a very exiting fight, I’m enjoying it greatly.
There are some great jokes in between the boring converstations (that really aren’t that boring) that cracked me up, but way more importantly: This here is what builds the entire world.
You can’t build a world in a few pages with show, and going through the Idiot Ball would be horrible. But this makes complete sense in this world.
Also don’t forget that we’r still in a Flashback. And this part is what the entire flashback has been leading up to
Introductions? Seriously? This whole press conference could have been Syd: “How do we get paid?” Max: “We’re under the DOD. Didn’t you see the press conference?” Syd: “No, Why the DOD?” Max: 1-3 sentences of exposition. DONE.
So how many more reaction shots of the press are we going to see? Pacing is definitely so slow. “Hey, Joe, read any good online superhero comics,” “I kinda like Grrl Power. Sydney is a hoot.” “What’s been going on?” “Last six weeks has been one character leading a press conference introducing the team we met in the previous dozen strips.” “Any fight scenes?” “No.” “Certainly sounds, um, exciting.”
I’m not trying to be obnoxious. It’s just if you only have time to make one page a week, why spend six weeks on a scene where everyone is standing still and talking? Put up a “FAQ” and leave your infodumps there.
DaveB has stated (on more than one occasion) that once this arc (:P) is over things will be
as fast as DragonBall Z episodesmoving much quicker, and then people will be complaining about how things are going too fast and it needs to slow down and explain things moreBecause the scene is fun, and great for world building.
Most people prefere theyr story to be imersive, rather than an endles string of POW POW batmany fights
jmucchiello, I suspect this comic may not be your cup of tea – nothing wrong with that, mind you. Dave was pretty clear at the outset (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/about) that this comic is less about the running gun-fights, and more about the personalities and social dynamics of the characters in question…
“…I find that’s the stuff I remember and enjoy the most, not what villain they fought that episode. If Wolverine fights Sabertooth for the 47th time, who really cares? But if the artist draws him drinking a Strawberry Yoohoo afterwards, that’s the sort of thing that people remember.
I wanted a comic that focuses mostly on those interstitial scenes I enjoy so much. So the comic is largely “day in the life” It is still a superhero comic though, and there will be some fighting of course but I suspect that any fighting Sydney gets involved in will be a little more slapstick than you’d normally get.”
The occasional infodumps are a necessary evil to bring proper perspective to the world those characters occupy.
We have 6 pages of one character talking about the past (and each page has one or two reaction shots from a bunch of nameless reporters). How does this get us closer to the actual characters? I don’t care if there fight scenes or not. I too thought this story was about the characters. Where the hell are they? There’s been no banter for 6 pages. YAWN. Wake me when the press conference is over because it is doing nothing to help me get to know the team AS PEOPLE. And by your own words, knowing the characters as people is what this webcomic is about.
I’ve been kinda snoozing through the tediosity of world-building too, but I think of it as another sort of fan service. For those who enjoy legalities, I’m sure this is all very sexy. To each, his or her own. The art still looks good, and the gags are still funny. To me, anyway. :)
The world is a character, on which all the others stand. Or fly or slither.
It wouldn’t really be bad, especially since a few of those character still don’t have names. I’d also be interested in Mr. A’s explanation of being able to stretch and reshape parts of his body. I’m sure Susie will be excited to learn about that.
But he is already involved with HeatWave and she looks like the jealous type.
Well, since we’re following Sydney, you could always remove her halfway through the demonstration. Then that the rest of the demonstration happens, is implied.
That does require that she be introduced early, of course.
Personally, I’d like to see the demonstrations.
I had always planned to remove her long before everyone gets introduced, but not before I get at least a few jokes out of my system.
You don’t need just one answer. Write (rough draft) your intros, but then compress most (not all) of them into a montage. In particular you can really compress the intros of characters the readers have already met at some length. Save the rough drafts, they’ll contain information that can be revealed later on an as-needed basis.
Warning: when you have a lot of characters with secrets, it can be tricky to keep track of what it is your reading public knows that your in-story public does not know.
Yeah at some point the difference between what the audience and characters know may need to become a physical document with dashed and solid lines.
I think you need a 4d spreadsheet now
I think there is a mis-understanding about what “show not tell” actually means. In the Hollywood context it is used to ensure that directors “do scenes with big explosions”, rather than having someone say “there was a big explosion”. But, this story Dave is, quite literally, showing us what Sydney is going through, as she goes through it. Torture though the inactivity is to her, as shown by her boredom.
She is one of the poster-girls for Arc and, at the moment, this is the story of her first day. If you were to do a film of the important moments for Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill you would very likely need to include world-changing speeches and press-conferences as a central focus to telling the story. Just as DaveB is doing here. There is no need to spice it up by having Abe hunting vampires in his spare time, or Winston putting on a frilly pink tu-tu and dancing Swan Lake in the Houses of Parliament.
As in Apocalypse Now the story is in the journey, those who want to fast forward to the action will miss the point.
just so you know, the Coast Guard is under the DOHS and they actually can perform police actions and are capable of working in an international setting without violating treaties(the navy has coasties on many of their ships just so that they can stop some ships without causing incident). The Coast Guard also has quite a bit of firepower of their own, not too much designed new for them, but a lot of old navy items go to them.
To my knowledge, the Coast Guard, as an armed military service, had authority to act within the us before being placed under DHS umbrella of scoped operations. Before, they were a part of the Treasury Department.
DAVE, I recommend M60 Patton for the tank. Or if that’s too tough or otherwise not a good idea (is anybody worried about collateral damage of flying splinters?), then M113 APC. Or some salvaged IFV from Iraq.
Too bad they can’t beat up one of the tanks from Tron. That would be WAY easier to draw.
Doesn’t have to be an existing tank right? Afterall, it’s not our universe. This world could be using a slightly different design
DaveB likes to have a realistic look and feel to his art. Once, having mastered a particular subject, he can then turn his hand to stylising it. For instance he creates very realistic likenesses, but chooses to apply manga styles to certain characters or in certain situations. But, because he knows how to draw emotions and other subtleties realistically and well, he can bring those out even in different styles.
I was fortunate once, to be killing time in a Spanish city and chose to go to the Salvador Dalí museum. Although he is famous for the weird-looking surreal art, there you get to see just how hard he worked at mastering even the simplest object, in a very realistic style, before incorporating it into his art.
The humble tack, for instance. There was an entire corridor devoted to just his studies of that. A single sharp pin, on a round metal base. Yet he drew it from every angle, seeing how the light reflected off the tip and the curves. And other aspects which were lost on a non-artist like myself. Only once he was satisfied that he knew it well, did he then start to manipulate it.
Similarly with his particularly famous floppy clocks. It being fascinating following the corridors to an intersection where one of his major works would be displayed. Each access route to it displaying one or another of the component parts that made up the whole. Allowing you to see the evolution of the work, rather than just the final product.
Although any of us might have a mental image of a fantastic vehicle, creature or strange phenomenon, it takes a lot of studying of the basics in order to be able to re-create that vision in a medium which others can appreciate.
I just meant to not get to hung up on the details :P
Ahh, ok. *hangs head*
hehe – you said “floppy clocks”
/jrhigh
Once upon a time, I worked in a building where the Chairman had an obsession with clocks. The whole place was decorated with them. Be it paintings of them, brass carriage clocks, wooden grandfather clocks and even rugs. The one covering the carpet in the entrance bearing the image of grandfather clock, picked out in shades of pink and red.
One time, I confided to the Chairman’s secretary, who worked right by it, that “Each day, when I come in I think that it really is unavoidable looking at that rug with the big pink clock and think that it looks like a giant cock.”
For some reason she got a bit flustered at that?
Now a days, what with all of the DHS grants, the modern civilian population need not worry about having their water bill taxes hiked 10,000%, we can see our civil rights watered down and stolen from under us on a daily basis, transforming this country from Free to Socialist to Communistic Totalitarian in what seems to be within weeks of any kind of disaster. Terrorist, natural, political….
Observations are bang on but I think you are a mistaken on the identifiers. Fascism or more accurately, corporatism would be a better fit.
The difference between fascism and communism is whether the government, or a private individual, is the titular owner of a business whose policies, practices, products, prices, and personnel are entirely under government control.
Since we have brought up the topic of money, I want to point out a basic flaw in most supervillian plots.
Option 1 – build giant robot to commit crimes.
– cost of developing mobile high-capacity power source, directed energy weapons, advanced armor, balance and navigation systems, A.I. capable of rapid independent actions, and a secret base of operations to put the whole thing together: $2.8 billion dollars.
– total take from knocking over a Kwik-E-mart: $152, a six-pack of Red Bull, and a spot on the Most Wanted list.
Option 2:
– Using super-genius skills to develop:
Mobile high-capacity power source. Sell to NASA for use in space missions
Directed energy weapons, advanced armor. Sell to military
A.I. capable of rapid independent actions. Sell to manufacturing industry, government emergency response programs
– End result: Enough money to hire Bill Gates as your houseboy, awarded Nobel Prize(s) and a national holiday in your name.
Unless you have a specific non-monetary goal like trying to wipe out humanity with an army of killer robot penguins, you never get back your return on investment by openly using super-science for evil. At least go the Lex Luthor route and get rich off your inventions while working on world conquest in secret.
It’s probably Leonardo Leonardo in there tapping his fingers together going excellent.
Besides, high level Super-Villainy isn’t about the money you can make. It’s about the fun! By the time you get to the point of giant death robots, you’ve left behind so much radiation, genetic material, questionable comet crap, and so many other things behind to mutate the population that there’s too many super heroes to make any actual plans of world conquest work.
Now, when the fun slowly comes to a halt, you sell the inventions and make a buttload of cash. Sure, you’ve spent half of your life in prison, but you’ve had your fun, made a few supers go insane from stuffing their girlfriends into fridges, terrorized the populace, destroyed a few Quickie Marts, now, you can retire into your twilight years rich from invention selling and your tell all book “Taking Over the World is a Hell of a Drug” and get served fruit drinks in over priced coconut shell glasses on the coast of Bermuda.
Being a hero is for chumps.
You could be a villain like Syndrome from the Incredibles.
He sold his inventions, and used the funds to pay for his evil lair (in a vulcano).
Also he kept the best toys for himself. Ofcourse, you do need an edge when you unleash your evil plan.
O and don’t forget the https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilOverlordList
Ironically, most of the (admittedly few) stories I’ve read concerning Mad Scientists, Evil Geniuses, etc., make a point of belabouring just how bad they are at normal human relationships, social contact and, most importantly, successfully managing the marketing and sale of their inventions. It’s not enough to simply invent the Great Gizmo, you have to be able to patent it, protect your legal rights, identify the best applications, industrialise and so on; all highly specialist occupations. Our Anti-Hero might be a genius in his/her own area, but this doesn’t necessarily translate to others.
Now bring in the un-prosecutable, supposedly-legal yet grossly ethically challenged executives of Wall St and the Big Banks. How much would you really expect the Inventor to gain from his/her work with these slippery fraudsters on the loose? Hells Belles, it is often being cheated blind and ruined that has driven our Protagonist to Evil in the first place!
One of the many reasons why I find Aila Goodkind of Whateley Academy such a sympathetic character, frankly.
That actually sounds rather insulting, they’re basically saying geek = evil.
Yep! We all is.
That is why there are “SPY PROGs” in the Think Geek site, Geek 2 Geek site, Raspberry comunity, arduino blogs, “Make”, ect.ect.ect.
Nikola Tesla suffered most of not all of the problems mentioned for generic Mad Scientists. He was utterly brilliant and and about as unconventional as one could get, had various obsessive-compulsive traits, and was consistently cheated in a big way by a bunch of people – including Marconi (his former assistant), Thomas Edison (an employer), various industrialists and even the US government.
If anyone in the modern era ever had just cause (and the sheer technical ability) to go full Doctor Evil on humanity, it was this guy. Fortunately, he didn’t.
Sadly … your commentary about wall street gave to mind the perfectly logical reason for a supervillain to become one. Hyper genius, tries to patent and sell his inventions, and because he’s clueless about business and well … how to handle people, he gets pulled into a wall street con job and has all his inventions bought out by Sears.
Of course, no self respecting inventor would take such an insult like that lying down. Nope. So, he hires a hacker(with what funds he has left) to embezzle large amounts of money from the jerkwads who screwed him in the first place, and then it all goes downhill from there. His attempts to get back at Sears, and then escalating into his attempts to destroy America. Why America? Well, in his mind Wall Street is Evil. Since Wall Street is considered part of America, America itself must be Evil!
Evil Must Be Purged!
Perfectly logical reason to become a supervillain.
That’s not a supervillian, that’s an anti-hero. Unless he’s eating babies or something of course.
I always assume that superscience is like superstrength. You can’t give it to someone else. But an big bad evil guy who is supersmart can develop all those thing you described for a fraction of their cost because only can make use of the science employed. It may as well be magic since no one else in the world can use it and it can’t be mass produced and sold to everyone on earth. So he can rob a bank with his super robot that only cost him $5484.74 to build because he’s THAT smart.
And also so dumb that the robot will fall apart when someone whispers Rosebud in its auditory monitors. But that’s a different problem of being so smart.
DaveB, don’t beat yourself up about the procedural stuff. Honestly, they’re still funny and this one made me laugh, so I think it’s cool. It would be one thing if this was boring the crap out of me, but since it isn’t :D No worries.
Well, no, as a matter of fact most NSA agents are NOT armed. The NSA mission is against foreign signals intelligence and computer ops. Most NSA personnel are the geeks and nerds of the intelligence community. Everyone tends to think that because NSA is shrouded in secrecy that they are into all kinds of spooky James Bond type stuff which just ain’t so although IMHO their missions are very interesting…but geekey. It is the CIA and DIA who are into the close up, human exploits and are far more likely to be armed. Hmm the only people I ever saw to be armed inside NSA HQ were the security guards who were either civilian or military and were not at all involved in the overall mission. There are rare occasions where an NSA specialist/technician MAY be armed but in those cases they are going to be escorted by their CIA/DIA/military brothers and their personal sidearm would be used only if whatever mission they were on went FUBAR.
Except now they spy on us as much or more than foreign threats. In a bad way that makes sense as we are closer, easier to spy on and a bigger threat (in some minds).
Well, again, no. You and most people have no idea of the mission and scope of the NSA. Remember, the NSA was created and evolved through the Cold War era. Think for a moment. We are referring to an intel agency targeted against hostile FOREIGN governments re: the old defunct USS, ChiComs, VietNam, N.Korea, Cuba et.al. Even though the USSR had gone the way of the Dodo, don’t think for a second that its remnants in Russia is not a high priority as well as all the other nations that don’t hold the USA in high regard (lot of those, ya think?). Against the capabilities developed to penetrate and exploit foreign government SigInt., anything available to civilians from cell phones to computers and any other electronic media is totally transparent.
Now, that said, when I was in the ‘business’ many, many years ago any targeting or exploitation of the American civilian community was totally forbidden and governed by rules and regulations which would land any violators in prison along with a hefty fine. Such things just weren’t done, and any official orders to do so would be immediately questioned, protested and if it persisted then a whistle would be blown. Best that can be said now is that times have changed and not for the better IMO.
That last bit is pretty much the point of the ruckus, now isn’t it? It has gotten a little out of scope, and there doesn’t seem to be much of any oversight left. And, truth be told, not just at this outfit. It’s just that they happen to be under the spotlights now, and organisations that for the longest time didn’t even officially exist tend to not take that very well.
It’s another strong indication that the cop of the world, the home of the free and the brave, just isn’t a good ally, nor a good cop, nor very free nor very brave. Something about a “failed state” comes to mind. Not my idea, by the by, but the title to a book by a rather well-known author. Despite the, of course, very best intentions of the many many people who together made it happen.
Still and all, it’s a right mess that needs cleaning up. It’d be best all around if the nation state in question did that itself. Especially given all those constitutional promises it’s not managing to live up to.
It is just the symptoms of an ageing super-power. Shame that the USA has not learnt from Britain’s example. The longer you try to hold onto the reins of power, they slipperier they get, and the more forcefully you have to use them. Which usually ends up giving a bumpy ride.
Don’t emulate a model that ultimately failed. Hold the reins lightly. The precedent runs back to one of the very earliest super-powers. Greece under Alexander the Great. Alexander had the policy that the citizens of all conquered nations would be treated as full equals to those of the conquerors. Although it was an unpopular policy at home, folks have always loved a winner, so he rode out the criticism just fine.
Yet it made him very popular within the conquered states. All of a sudden most of the citizens went from having the restrictive rights common to most ancient countries, to being fully-fledged members of the world’s super power. With freedom of travel, upward mobility and a heck of a lot of other perks. It meant, contrary to most of his contemporaries or other expansionist empires, that he suffered far fewer rebellions or or other problems with discontent.
Britain had the policy to “make the world England”, but implemented it without making the world’s population English. Had they done so, the Empire would probably be as big and strong now as it was for many hundreds of years. Similarly, recently, we might have had very different results if the phrase “winning hearts and minds” had been taken to heart, rather than paid lip service.
When a regime concentrates too much on retaining power, it looses sight of doing the things which will improve the quality of life for people. Internally and externally. Just look at the jeopardy the US/EU trade agreement has been placed in, due to just that. Which, if it went through, would be the biggest single trade deal in history. That would benefit the majority of people on both sides of the Atlantic.
Not sure I agree, Yorp. The NSA, IRS, SecState abuses has little to do to hanging on to “power” on the national level. The USA by any definition is the sole remaining ‘Superpower” (heheh) and needs to do little to maintain that state. Raw power on the global scale is the capability to enforce one’s will on another or group of nations. I can’t think of even a combination of six or a dozen nations that could successfully take on the USA with a chance of winning. Forget the nuclear option for the moment (although that is a major part of the equation) just concerning conventional capabilities, the USA has 13 (thirteen) ‘SUPERcarriers’ with corresponding support ships for a Carrier Batlle Group (CVBG), no other country has even one! Regarding this I kinda get where DaveB is going on banning ‘Supers’ from military service. One high power Super could be on helluva force leveler against a CVGB. Were we living in the alternate reality of the Grrlpower universe, I’d bet real money that everyone of those Supercarriers has at least one “Super” assigned to it if not a team of such.
I’d have to agree about it not being about keeping power. I think it is more of a desire for control over what they see as a dangerous medium i.e. the web. Most of the people making the decisions (IMHO) really don’t understand the new technology and respond to any perceived threat with overkill.
With regard to the web issue, from what I’ve observed over the last 4-5 years, it’s been much less about *controlling* the new medium as it has been about dealing with massive vulnerabilities and trying to close up huge gaping holes in the national infrastructure, a good portion of which still needs to be positively identified (think about how often your anti-virus needs to be patched/updated just to keep up with newly discovered vulnerabilities, and you as an individual are unlikely to be targeted–now imagine if your personal system was specifically targeted by untold numbers of “bad guys”). Does that justify deep incursions into people’s privacy rights? That argument is still ongoing by people with much better understanding of the laws than me, so I’ll not deign to judge prematurely.
Wait, they’re spying on the internet? I thought it was just about the various wiretaps they’ve had on my family’s phone lines since I was like ten? Governmental spying on the internet is just WRONG!!!
If supremacy were retained by listing hardware, Britain would still be the superpower. At the time of the British civil war in the Americas, if you resolved conflicts by saying who had the biggest toys, Americans today would play “God Save the Queen” for their head of state rather than “Hail to the Chief”. Instead fate likes to tease us. What seems eternal to one generation can be gone the next. Just think how people in the former USSR felt going to sleep one night as a super power, and waking up the following morning as a destitute capitalist regime.
The status quo might last for hundreds of years, or it might change overnight. At the moment China is shaping up to become a super power. If, for example, both the USA and China continue with their current policies, then China may become the super power of the Solar System, with their off-planet rivals being corporations (duly encouraged by the USA, but not necessarily beholden to them) and smaller coalitions of lesser powers.
Or something completely unexpected might destabilise the system. Typically any structure is strong enough to survive one or two major disasters. But a series of lesser ones has actually been shown to be more likely to topple major powers in the past. None, individually, being accountable for the downfall of an empire. But, combined they can and do. You might not realise the possibility of the US falling from power, but I can assure you that those in charge are aware of and go to pains to avoid it happening.
Whereas Britain has historically been expansionist by means of trade, colonialism and conquest in descending order of priority, the US has mainly been a trading power. But, like Britain, using military actions to support that aim. However, in order to be able to trade to maximum profit, you need information. On what your competitors and rivals may be doing as well as the economic effects that the actions of your enemies might have. What toys you have at your disposal are not as important as how effectively you use them.
That is the main reason why our respective governments have their noses out of joint about Snowdon. I grew up in more than one country under constant terrorist attack. It really does not change day to day life. Nor does it particularly bother the security services, it is all just part of the job. But what the trivial threat of terrorism does do is provide a great smoke screen to justify the economic and political espionage that is necessary to maintain a trading empire. And he is putting that at risk.
Hence why I say it is all about power. It is just that one must not think that power is derived purely from military force. Global diplomacy and trade is much more complex than that.
I really doubt they weren’t spying on us from the beginning. How else do they determine when one of “us” is one of “them”? I don’t really get all the fuss about it myself, I have internet access, so assume everything I’ve said or done can be traced or heard by someone. My only issue is what they DO with that information. It’s like someone getting vid of me nekkid, as long as they don’t send it to some 13 year old gal and try to get me sent to prison, I don’t much care.
Agreed
Anyone who doesn’t realise/believe pretty much everything about us has been recorded since before we were born (think about it, will wait for you to catch on) is living in a wet place in Egypt
For “NSA” perhaps read “CSC” to make it fit again? I know far more than I want (or ought to need) to know about USoA TLAgencies but not enough to think off the top of my head of what a good alternative example would be.
Well according to Chuck they are. At least Kayce is. Obviously Max meant field agents.
K’ I’m just gonna assume that Maxi doesn’t care about agencies that operate outside of her own area of expertise i.e. ‘ground and pound’. TBH most combat type officers and noncoms really don’t give a good gahdamn about ‘Intel Twinks”. I’ve known full bird colonels who did not have a great appreciation for their Intel assets and it cost them as they did NOT make the grade to General rank. That said, General Faulk WOULD know the difference and capabilities of the various Intel agencies which could be why he’s not playing the front man in this presser. Maxi’s comments can be taken as misdirection or misinformation due to ignorance or a ‘give a shit’ attitude.
Intel comes in many forms, from many sources, with various levels of confidence in its truthiness, but it always comes down to analysis. All the data in the world won’t help an idiot who doesn’t know what to make of it. I get the very strong impression that Max has had to deal with lots of idiots.
Stupid question I know but does this mean that organizations like the FBI are forbidden from having supers? Suppose someone is a super but has a reason not to join the military, does that mean they are permanently barred from other public service jobs such as FBI or Police forces?
On a semi-related note Military Police have not always been seen as positive developments in a democratic country, historically speaking. An the elusive “unknown threat” has often been used to justify various organizations that served dictators which sounds like to argument here. I don’t believe Archon is the beginning of a Fascist state growing in this fictional america, but I can see at least a few supers believing that.
As such I seem to recall a group of various police, firefighters, military etc. forming an unofficial club when President Obama was first elected. They were a faction of the tea party that believed the military was going to forcibly take away their firearms and were basically a militia dedicated to stopping that. How would archon react to a similar paranoid group of supers if they cropped up? The real militia in question just sat around and talked big if I recall, so nothing was done. However if a group of supers, however haphazard and disorganized, arose for the sole purpose of standing up to Archon was formed how would Archon react?
I don’t think that they’d be stopped from joining another group, but I don’t think it’d be a good idea. Archon is specially set up for supers. That means training facilities, education, even payroll is set up to suit them. Remember, supply and demand. There’s very few Super Powered individuals. Their powers cater to different jobs that will require high demand. As was mentioned last strip, a person that can soak or negate radiation would have been priceless in Japan.
Because of this, a Super will probably demand at least a seven figure income. I know I would. Typical FBI or CIA budgets can’t handle this demand. Economically speaking, it’s to your best interest to go to a group that can cater to your needs or go freelance, get an agent and take on work for hire. As long as you aren’t breaking the law, you can do what you want. Imagine if Achilles took on a job as a bodyguard. The FBI and CIA or even NSA just couldn’t handle the supers economically.
Governments don’t easily pay that much, and certainly not to people in the military. There’s a pay table for that. So I don’t expect seven figure pay there, even with all sorts of hazard pay added. But mere pay isn’t what attracts people to the military.
Reading back, it says “if you do have powers and want to use them to fight crime, you have to do it through archon”. So no actual ban on other TLAgencies employing supers, just that you can’t use powers in an official capacity to fight crime outside of archon. Though I suppose there’ll be detachments and such. On that note, what if someone did join at some other LE TLAgency, then found out their superpowers to be mighty handy in the day job? Transfer to archon? Nominal transfer with detachment?
Of course, this is rather hypothetical rules lawyering, so feel free to disregard.
I don’t know. Ariana only said vigilantism is forbidden to supers. She specifically stated that noboby has to register their powers, so of course a Super can join the FBI, the police, the firebrigade or become a school teacher if they so choose. If our hypothetical school teacher uses her fire-bending powers to save her students noboday is going to complain, and I don’t think anybody would or could take legal action if a Super joined the FBI and used their ability to deflect bullets, or sniff out drugs, as long as they still followed all the police procedures. Using any kind of lethal force would of course be another thing, though I believe that a crafty lawyer could deduct from Ariana’s statements that even the use of lethal superpowers is licit to an FBI agent, if a given situation would have required the use of firearms anyway. Vigilantism, as far as I understand it, means putting yourself above the law. As long as a super doesn’t do that, there is no reason why they should have to join archon to use their power.
Perhaps the military might not pay, but they might not be willing to risk one of their walking reusable nukes deciding that North Korea is willing to pay higher. You are right though, people don’t join the military for the payrate. Still, this is an unprecedented situation that has never happened in real life. There’s no real telling how the military might react.
The private sector would be all over this. We know exactly what would happen here just by looking at real life athletes and celebrities live. A largely beautiful, in peak physical shape person that can bend lead bars with their teeth? Lets give them a reality show and pay them a ton of money! And that’s just if they go into entertainment. You can’t get a better satellite mechanic than someone who can fly, deal with a lack of oxygen, the cold, and the vacuum of space. “I’m sorry the cable went down, we’re having trouble with the sattel…..he just got there. Your TV is fixed? Excellent.” And on. Plus whatever the salary is, they would make their money back just by having the super there alone.
There’s a ton of money all the members of Archon could get unless they have to sign a non-competition contract, which I don’t see happening.
Agreed. Military budgets are vast. And none bigger than the USA. Without the ability to force supers to join* they would have to rely on other means. Patriotism will work, cheaply, with some individuals. But, as folks are used to living in a capitalist society, many will demand as much as their rare powers can command.
Just as, at one time, Hollywood studios could keep actors on a minimal salary, once the face of the lead actor/actress became financially more important than the story, the old model’s days were numbered. Despite attempts to keep restrictive salary practices in place. A limited number of famous faces meant that the only upper limit to the salaries they ultimately could command was the overall profit anticipated for a movie and how much of the budget could be diverted to securing a top star.
Likewise, if you have the choice between spending a couple of hundred billion on a new weapons programme or hiring one individual who could replace that entire system and probably be more effective, you will very likely find the budget to go a teeny bit above average soldier wage. And, if you do not, either your allies or enemies will.
* Not necessarily using force of arms by holding family members hostage, as has been the theme in recent threads, but even the simple expedient of passing a law to that effect. There are more than a few countries and cultures around the world where that would work just fine. Some individuals would inevitably chafe under such restrictions and evade them, but it is the overall success rate which matters in such practices.
OUR government damn sure pays a lot! The average government employee earns 34% more than his/her civilian/nongovernment counterpart.
In any case there are a plethora of government payscales the most common and well known being the General Schedule (GS) which ranges from about $18k at the low end to about $130k on the high end. There are all kinds of bonuses and other perk to add to that.
Propping up one set of folks pay by cutting everyone else’s doesn’t really constitute paying well. If the minimum wage represented 300% of minimum standard of living expenses rather than 50% you might have a point. It might also help a tad if certain virtually useless career politicians weren’t getting millions. As it stands it’s a bit like saying slave owners pay well…….as long as you’re not a slave.
Eh, 150% might have been a better number there, point is, your cost of living should represent no more than 30% of your income. 30% being the rate at which you count as impoverished according to gov aid regulations. The apartment I live in, if it wasn’t HUD would go at a rate of about $725 per month. Before taxes a full time job at minimum wage grosses $1160. So, if I managed to keep the full check over half of it would go to rent. Phone, 45 a month, utilities ,51 leaves me with 339 for food, health insurance, gas, clothing, food for the children etc. And that’s if they don’t take taxes out……..ugh.
All things are relative. That monthly income is more than my annual budget. Although I do live rent-free, as I own a villa outright, so that makes life a lot easier.
You own a villa. Is this villa secretly a rotting hovel with a roof made of grass, no plumbing and no electricity? If not……..rich ppl problems man.
Err, no. Technically it is a fortified medieval-style Bulgarian mansion*, with solid stone walls a couple of foot thick, fully refurbished with all the modern conveniences. But, not being able to eat stone, I would not exactly consider myself rich. And the value of property here, if I were to sell it, is so low in international terms that I could not even afford a garage or one bedroomed flat, in the cheapest parts of the UK (or likely the USA or any of the English-speaking countries).
Jobs are vanishingly rare here, and it is the poorest country in Europe, so salaries are pitiful when available. For example a shepherd earns Lev 5 a day ($3.31/£2.20 at today’s rates) and an unskilled labourer about Lev 7, whereas a highly skilled individual, such as an experienced doctor, may only earn Lev 500 per month ($331/£220). I do not fall in the latter category.
But you are right, not having kids, I live comfortably enough and do not worry. Even though I may, very soon, have to sell the villa to make ends meet. If I can find a buyer which is not guaranteed in today’s climate. The mice in the garden look plump and tasty. No sign of any juicy seal cubs mind.
* I can’t remember the term for the style, but it is very picturesque, heavily featuring stone and timber, with the top floor being larger than the ground floor. Typically featuring a sizeable balcony and (in the countryside) a large, walled garden and an ornate timbered and tile-roofed gate.
The average *non*-military government employee earns that much. I was still qualified for WIC and EBT at E-5. Even with those assistances, I was still just barely breaking even. Closest I ever came to an instant out from the service was when I overheard an officer (O-2 or O-3) say that he was able to save as much one month as I brought home in the previous two combined.
Don’t feel like reading through all your replies. The military has stricter joining requirements due to the fact that every needs to be able to fight. MOS = job btw. “No matter your primary MOS, your secondary one is 11B” 11b is infantry.
Most other agencies differ between field and non-field agents. So you could join and just be a desk jockey unless they need your powers.
Let’s not forget that some people also freeze in battle. Not everyone in the military ever sees the light of a battle and even some supers would freeze at the sound of gunshots and artillery shells. But their powers are too valuable to just set aside, or some roles would be best without being near war. Like someone that can speak every language on the face of the earth. Not a very useful skill when it comes to shooting someone. But very VERY VERY useful in diplomatic situations or interrogations.
Not all supers would be valuable in battle. But all would be valuable in their chosen group.
I thought that was what the training was for …
a sadly large part of the training is to react in a way you are likely to survive and to not hurt / kill yourself or teammates. got LTs helping train that spent two days learning where not to point a rifle barrel before going to a range to learn how to shoot and adjust the weapon to shoot accurately
I don’t recall the exact number, but I remember reading that in World War 1 and 2 that something like 40% of the people that got shot and died didn’t even pull the trigger. Sure, there’s ambushes to account blitz attacks and the like, but even figuring those in, that’s still a good number of people that when the bullets started whizzing over their heads and the explosions going off, just froze like a deer in the headlights.
Now, soldiers are awesome. I respect and always will respect their sacrifices. And all soldiers reading this, I thank you for your service. Still, training doesn’t clear the heads of everyone. It just gives them a chance of keeping a cool head. When the hell of war is knocking at your door, that’s when you find out if you can handle it. And not everyone can. Training is no replacement for if a person can handle it. Just a suppliment.
The gist of your comment is perfectly correct. However, including WWI though does not help the argument. Given that commanders in that war were using Napoleonic era tactics of walking towards enemy lines and relying on discipline to hold ranks despite losses. Fine when facing muzzle loaded weapons. Not so good when marching into machine guns. Not surprising so many attackers died without getting off a shot.
You know, I actually agree with Dave (and Maxima) that the police should stick to policing, and not become a paramilitary force. Like, oh, the ongoing SWATification of policing, which is pretty much exactly that by any other name. It has all sorts of side effects, like grannies and highschoolers getting jacked out of bed at oh-dark-thirty by thirty heavily armed and -armoured faceless goons, military drill style.
Police oughtn’t find their pride in their firepower. It creates an “us vs. them” mindset that is quite dangerous and damaging to the government’s relationship with the people. Contrast the London Bobby: Unarmed, even before the (IMO rather knee-jerk, but that is another discussion entirely) tightening of the ban on private gun ownership. They do have firearms-trained people (“AFOs”), but most police officers go unarmed in public. Which IMO is a good thing from a headology perspective.
That’s why alot of the (Law-abiding) people like myself have developed an almost instinctive dislike of the local Police. Too many see the badge as License to be a little tin god.
I completely agree. Also, if I was a police man, I wouldn’t be offended by Maxima’s statement. In fact, considering how underfunded most police-forces already are, I think I would be glad to know that if I ever do face a giant robot, my job will mainly consist of getting everyone else out safely and then sit tight till the cavalry arrives, especially when I know that cavalry to be bulletproof. Obviously I don’t know anything about the mentality of an US-American cop, but where I come from police-men do not see it as their job to fight people, but to fight crime, protect people, and uphold order and peace.
To that reporters defense NSA agents aren’t armed 24/7. Heroes like Maxima are walking WMDs.
Course doesn’t matter. Cops are scary, soldiers are scary. And everyone runs from both.
Hmm… I must be even weirder than I thought because I’ve never run from a cop even when I knew I might go to jail.
That sounds about right.
will we see more of Che McBride as mayor?
That’s the other guy was thinking of (except ruled him out due to his head: Mr McBride has a pretty distinctive cranial shape)
Look closer, it has to be based on Cuba Gooding Jnr. from Jerry Maguire
hmm… i saw him as what Mr. T would look like after a few years at a desk job… but when he didn’t say that he pities ‘da fool… then i had to re-guess… and couldn’t come up with anybody :(
Oof. I know it’s primarily due to the current media climate, spawned by events surrounding Mr. Snowden, but I can’t help but feel that using the NSA was an unfortunate choice of example on Maxima’s part. It’s the sort of thing that could easily raise a lot of other unfortunate parallels.
I needed an arm of the military that operated domestically. The NSA was the first thing that popped to mind.
Ah. The budget. The ONLY reason we don’t have spacecrafts to other planets, or a moon base.
Or practical railguns, or artificial intelligence.
Or anything really Cool.
But we have TANKS and SUPERCARRIERS and JET FIGHTERS more than we can ever use! There were plans to make a supercollider larger than CERN but that was killed. Meanwhile the Pentagon asked Congress to stop making Tanks because we already have more of them then we will ever need but Congress approved building more. Money talks especially pork-barrel money.
while shutting down dismantling and dropping from service the older outmoded tanks the new high tech one replaced even if the new performed worse than the old.
small correction: Congress did not APPROVE building more – they MANDATED it, forcing the DoD to use those funds to build equipment they didn’t need, at the cost of other programs that they did need.
also a note about some previous posts – people assume that because the military budget is huge, that means the military gets anything it could need or even want. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I’ll happily debate that with anybody that wants to (and often do); just not in this forum (just like I won’t pollute it with political or religious arguments)
Yeah there’s a difference to having enough to replace what’s too badly damaged/destroyed to repair or salvage and having what amounts to a Tank Graveyard full of NEW tanks!
Very true.
Add to that the problems with disposing of old equipment, which is becoming quite a thing for the US military now. Everything has a limited lifespan, including aircraft carriers – and it isn’t like you can shrink-wrap one of those and park it in the desert.
My understanding is that the USN has a 20+-year backlog of old carriers awaiting scrapping – one needs specialized facilities for that job, and it costs big big $$$. Sinking them at sea is more expensive than scrapping (no returns, and need to clean them up for the environment first) and turning them into museums just as much so. So most carriers (and other warships) are stripped of things like weaponry and nuclear powerplants, and then moored in quiet locales until the money and facilities for their final disposition becomes available – the upkeep for this is still expensive, but much less than the alternatives.
the track vehicle level takes roughly a year and lots of money or resources to strip an “outdated” M1 abrams of sensitive equipment, scrub it of environmental hazards, reclaim reusable components, then ship it to a target range where it will be used by artillery or other track vehicles to be shot at. roughly can be as fast as 6 months or over 4 years based on situation.
Or they strip them down and sell them to other countries.
The only people who would be offended by Maxi’s comment regarding the civilian police would be the same ones who got offended by the line from MiB: “Protecting the Earth from the SCUM of the Universe.” (ie, the idiots)
So, like more than half of humanity?
Humanity is not as stupid as most people think (and they don’t all live in the US)
Believe me, if you worked in retail as long as I have, you’d wholeheartedly agree.
Eh, after a few months in retail, Most people would wholeheartedly agree.
All it takes is one customer who starts bitching “Why aren’t you selling this item?!” when the flyer they’re waving in your face is from a totally different store!.
http://www.notalwaysright.com ’nuff said.
So, to protect the Earth from the scum of the universe… you’d have to wipe out humanity? Now, that’s kind of a problem…
dunno, there were some fairly serious attempts throughout history…
Also, imo, the only people who should be concerned with Big Brother watching them are those who would have a reason not to be watched
If anyone wants to spend their time watching me sleep for 18-25 hours a day, then let them (/wave to George, hope you are eating and exercising properly, loves to the family)
Until they make sleeping a crime.
well stated, Gamesman. It honestly disturbs me, Guesticus, that people honestly believe the “only criminals need to fear a police state” argument. While it may seem reasonable in a momentary vacuum, power dynamics are neither momentary, nor isolated. The more power you allow over yourself, the more likely that power will be abused.
Not everyone wants to be watched all the time. This isn’t a you have to have reason to not want to be watched to be bothered by it. In the typical day I do nothing so illegal as maybe have a book from the library out too long but I hate this whole always online culture we’re in. I simply don’t like being watched or connected all the time. I like my privacy, which is why I don’t even own a cell phone.
Remember, just because they don’t want to be watched doesn’t mean they’re unduly paranoid or crazy.
Actually, if they believe they are “all-that and a bag of chicken wings” special that BeeBee is watching even one minute of their day, then yes, they are crazy and they are paranoid or there is a dang good reason for BeeBee to be watching them
You fail to realize that you have already broken a number of laws on the books and most likely a few secret ones as well and with continuous surveillance they will catch you and give you what you deserve you ….. [add in various labels/excuses as you see fit …. think of the children … etc]
Which laws would those be? And do they exist outside of the US?
Meh, the people that believe that some jerk in the Obama administration is watching them around the clock for every little thing they do also likely wears tinfoil hats and believes their fillings are transmitting messages to them from hell.
I just think this always connected culture and wide surveillance is damaging the more intimate parts of communicating one on one with a person and makes us lose touch with ourselves.
The political ruckus over the massive data collections (such as the from-location, from-number, to-location, and to-number of every cell-phone call) is precisely because they don’t have to be watching you in order to be watching you.
You accidentally offend some low-level person, he gets your phone number off your business card and in a few minutes pulls up everything you’ve been doing for the past several years, so he can go leafing through it for something that he can claim constitutes a suspicious pattern. Or merely something perfectly legal but socially and perhaps economically embarrassing…
First off, very few if anyone in most countries actually know all the laws in place. Especially in common-law countries like the USA, laws can vary by municipal region, and often cover obscure topics. Many of these are not enforced or regarded except in special circumstances. (My favorite demonstration of this is from an old cop show: They had a suspect they couldn’t prove did it because he could claim diplomatic immunity over the needed evidence. So they decided to nuisance him: He still had to stop to receive a ticket, so they pulled up every old reg on him and started ticketing him for everything. He got three tickets between his front door and his car parked at the curb in front of it.)
But worse yet is that they can be selective in what the present; with just a bit of care, you can imply someone’s done quite a bit without them actually doing any of it.
Of course, the point that most of the time the government just doesn’t care enough to do any of that is worth stating. But they can, and it doesn’t have to be because you’ve done anything majorly wrong. I’m not afraid of Big Brother: I’m afraid of the county clerk, or the police deputy, or the mayor’s assistant, who I’ve accidentally managed to piss off somehow. Maybe I cut them off in traffic, or turned down their sister’s advances. (Or didn’t, as the case may be…) The big abuses of power are possible and worth worrying about, but for most people it’ll be the petty abuses that make a difference – and the more power we give the government to watch and dissect our lives, the more those petty abuses can disturb those lives.
The problem isn’t only lowbie officials like county clerks / town sheriffs (etc.) abusing their powers; it’s also about those same people not actually ‘knowing’ the actual laws.
First part would be dudes like the Sheriff from ‘The Tank’ or the sheriff from Gibbs’ old hometown (NCIS; also: dude, really? actually trying to attack a federal agent at work, in a federal investigation? Personally, I’d really have liked to see that play out fully).
The second part would be reflected by a buddy of mine who’d moved to the US early in his life and had some trouble with officials behaving rather poorly (like cops trying to make him ‘allow’ other officials tresspass on his own grounds), to which he subsequently went to court (many instances, including the fact that the local sheriff and judge were old buddies) and sue the town’s pants off; which is why he’s moved away from the US.
Just thought of an interesting way Syd could use the orbs. Staircase! Her and one or two other people can use them to climb up a wall. Depending the the force they can exert for maneuvering. Alternatively they could just hold on the orb as it drags them.
Yup. Assuming the Fly Ball was unavailable for some reason. For instance frostbite, or anything which prevented Halo from gripping and thereby controlling the orbs. Manoeuvring the orbs being one of the things she can do with them purely by mental command.
but the stair pattern allows an unlimited number of people other than syd to climb the obstacle as far as the stairs give rise to. example dabs and anvil use them to lead a platoon of space marines over a wall into a terrorist with nuke weapons compound.
Can’t remember, but was it explained during Sydney’s little private ‘show-and-tell’ if others could touch/hold her balls?
No, not explained
Logically though, if she can use them to whack people, then more than likely they are physical objects which could be handled. And, as they hit hard, one can infer that they could handle some degree of payload. Whether it would be enough to support a person’s weight remains to be seen. If, however, their immovability power can be applied when using them as stairs, then they would be able to support anyone’s weight, up to and including Anvil. Given that the Penumbrate strength Maxima could not budge them.
Of course the trick would be convincing Halo to stay still long enough for a platoon of marines to make use of the stairs. If she gets distracted and follows a bright shiny object, then the stairs won’t stay put either.
I’m sure others can touch her balls, I’m just not so sure she’d let anyone hold her balls.
Srsly…..we gotta stop calling them her balls……
Only do that when it’s funny :P
Than what? Orbs?
That’s boring
marbles are good to keep track of or say artifacts
Ya but then we can’t make jokes about her losing her marbles because A: they’re tethered to her and B: too late.
Maybe something with boobs.
What would a fitting synonym be in this case?
Ornaments? I bet she will be popular with the kids around Christmas time.
Until one of the
little bratskids steps on her toesDesign a cage and harness thingy to pop them into and halo could bring the entire team with her in flight.
Won’t work. Otherwise Sydney would have drug her whole car with her back in strip 184.
Depends. If she’s using the fly orb to fly a little, than stay in a spot, than drag the other orbs forward, than fly a little, than drag forward.
Kinda like making a bridge over mud or something with 2 pannels, picking up the last pannel, putting it infront of you, stepping on the pannel, and than picking up the other pannel again, ect
Wouldn’t go very fast though
Depends on how much force the fly orb generates. Wouldn’t be very useful if it could only fly you if you emptied your pockets first.
Actually that does not prove anything. All it shows is that the orbs can apply enough force to stop Sydney from moving. The car was not involved, other than being the spot on which the tube was laying. Unless you envisage that the tube was moving to stay up with her (despite not being summoned) and getting stuck. But, even then, it may just be a fixed link between the two and it was Sydney who was not strong enough to move the car.
Whereas, if Sydney had thought to mentally summon the tube to her, we may have seen the car being pulled across the car park, as the tube flew to her. If their strength is enough to do that.
It can all be complicated more if there is varying strength for each of: the orbs flying around in their normal orbits; them being consciously controlled by Halo; summoned by her; the anti-gravity power of the Fly Ball and the immovability function they collectively demonstrate.
What we’ve seen of Syd separating from the orbs, she was using her own normal non-super muscle power to move (either herself or the orbs, depending).
If she were using the fly orb and just allowing the others to follow her, it’s possible that larger masses could hang off the other orbs. However, hanging those masses on the other orbs might be somewhat tricky (i.e. special equipment designed/manufactured/adapted) – and don’t forget that Syd needs to be able to get to all her orbs quickly at need.
When Max first tried to open the canister and look inside, it ripped itself out of Max’s grasp and flew across the parking lot to Syd. This did not rely on Syd’s muscle power, and I seriously doubt that the latter would be sufficient to do the job.
Tubey was at rest on the seat of her car when Syd encountered The Calorie Denial Force Field (CDFF) in Grrl Power #27. Her exertions had no effect on Tubey, which seemed to act as an immovable anchor with invisible chains to Syd. Since she was able to reach for the door, I assume it’s a “center of mass” thing. Since her bag is swinging, I suspect the invisible chains don’t attach to anything but her and the other orbs. Since the chains are invisible, I can’t tell if it’s one of the orbs doing all this, or if it’s common to all the orbs.
In Grrl Power #48, we see Syd go ass over teakettle when Max stomps on the strap, and in Grrl Power #58, we see Syd struggling to get the strap loose from under a tire. Once Max pulls the strap loose in Grrl Power #65, though, Syd is able to get Tubey to fly out of Max’s grip like it’s nothing. I can’t explain that one. Am I missing something?
You missed out Sydney getting the orbs to form a pretty pattern simulating an atom. And the issue where she dinged Math with one of the orbs. Not to mention forming them into a mobile shield when fighting him again later. Plus the scene where Maxima imagines Sydney abusing the power of her badge and rushing through a crowd, the orbs lagging behind as they try to catch up with her. The way I see it there are three properties at work. Which might be completely separate mechanisms or might all stem from a single source, even if they behave in different ways.
The regular motion of the orbs when they are orbiting Halo, including the movement necessary to compensate for her walking or otherwise being in motion. The immovability they exhibit if someone is trying to separate them from Sydney. Her ability to control them by mental command.
#27 & #48 demonstrate the immovability. #58 is just a mundane thing to do with the tube itself, rather than the orbs inside. #65 though is Sydney giving a mental command, in this case “come to me”, to the orbs inside the tube. Likewise when she makes them form into the pattern of an atom’s structure and both the later Mathius fight scenes.