Grrl Power #157 – Exodus abruptus
This is mostly just a transitional page. This page maybe could have been skipped as well but then I would have needed to put the explanation as to what the wrist thing is on the next page and that would have crowded it up a bit. In addition to being a flight transponder, it’s also just about every useful tool you’d probably need. I mean, not like… a screwdriver… Actually – I don’t see why it couldn’t have a little multitool thing that slides into the side. You can get keychains that are 8 in one tools and they’re barely bigger than a quarter, so why not? But I meant stuff like altimeter, thermometer, barometer, it probably has a brometer app that will gauge how much of a bro-heim someone’s being. Pre-loaded maps, secure phone, police and weather band and all that stuff. Basically it’s as close as you can realistically get to a Pip-Boy or a tricorder these days all connected to a serious battery. Everything a young superheroine needs.
Maxima’s phone is the same thing, only minus the wrist guard housing and extra battery life. She has to swap batteries every few hours though. She probably keeps a few extra in her jacket.
The TGT Tournament is into the finals. I appreciate everyone’s votes as always! Apparently you can vote once a day on it, which I didn’t realize, and the other comics were paying attention and got a bit of a head start. Also don’t forget to check out the new TWC vote incentive. It’s only pencils so far but it’s Anvil being cheeky. And side-booby.
So, I’ve made the Seal t-shirt over at Zazzle. Man they do not make that process easy to understand. I’ll spare you a rant about it but they could seriously use another pass at their whole “create a product” flow. Like, why would I have to pick a shirt size? I’m not buying the shirt, I’m designing it. Anyway, it’s available, and since it’s print on demand, it’s not the cheapest shirt, but the alternative is me preprinting shirts and spending weekends doing fulfillment, which is never going to happen. You can customize what sort of shirt it gets printed on, and here’s a version with white text so you can stick it on a dark shirt.
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.
Apparently she can move fairly quick if she wants to. Think Max is gonna push it to see just HOW fast?
I foresee a lot of shockwave broken glass in the near future.
Mythbusters busted that one. Sonic booms do not cause broken glass. Running into the windows, on the other hand, … Mind you, if she grabs the PPO, then broken windows are the least of your concerns.
Put on the forcefield orb, and fly straight into stuf
Mythbusters did nothing of the sort.
They knocked windows out of frames, and damaged structures once they got low enough. And super heros will frequently fly very low.
A jet is alot bigger than a person though. So you’d need to go even faster, and even lower to get the same effect.
Probably close enough that you can touch it
Dishes vibrating on one another during a sonic boom do break glass though, if it hits exactly the right frequency,
Mythbusters… Yeah… I´m gonna go ahead and not take their word for anything.
The show is fun to watch, but that´s about it.
If they prove something, it’s proven. If they bust something… Depends on how well they did.
They aren’t bad, but they can be a bit loose.
Asking her how fast she can fly and telling her to try and keep up is like waving a red cape at a bull.
like daring her to drink hotsauce
You can’t do that?
I took a tablespoon of Pure Cap once. . . It’s really not a case of “you can’t do that” but rather “you shouldn’t do that.”
Or like putting a giant, juicy piece of steak right in front of a dog’s nose, and telling it to wait there without moving until another dog has eaten the steak.
Given that Sydney currently has poor depth perception, I’d be a little worried about her going “pedal to the metal” in a built-up area.
Makes me worry that Syd’s speed is limit only by how much stress her shield orb can take.
Considering the fact it was taking fairly heavy hits from Max, I don’t think you have to worry about the shield orb breaking under wind resistance.
Aaaand, it’s still too early in the morning for me. I assume you actually meant that Syd might be able to tear a hole in the time/space continuum (sp?) since the shield orb seems dang near unbreakable.
Or I’m just babbling nonsense now. Morning. Too Early. Pinecones.
Just thinking that it’d be funny if Max poured it on trying to leave Syd behind and find Syd keeping up if not slowly edging past her.
I wonder if her forcefield is/can be airtight. If so wouldn’t it be funnier if Syd passed Max, said “You. Follow. Me.” and then shot straight up for a visit to the space station?
This calls for a fanfic!
Otherwise, I’d really like to see Syd knocking on the windows of the ISS, just for the laughs of it.
Or planting her flag on the moon…
I like this idea. Of course a lot of my favorite fantasies of a mysterious flyer involves a flyby or docking with the ISS.
would love to see her flag :)
My superheroes don’t need to plant a flag. They have their HQ hidden in the Lacus Solitudinis (Lake of Solitude) on the far side of the moon, curtesy of an ancient alien that gave it to them.
As for the ISS, in my superhero novel it doesn’t exist anymore, since an alien recon-ship crashed into it; made my main character (super flyer) don a space-suit and pull a space shuttle full of survivors back from deep space.
I’m now reminded of the Playmates “Beep, Beep (Little Nash Rambler” song.
Also funny: What if Syd didn’t try to keep up by flying? What if she used her tentacle to grab Max’s foot and struck a waterskier’s pose while waving at the crowd?
…And her maximum speed is also dependent on how well it can keep air pressure trapped inside…The faster the air moves around you, the lower the air pressure. At a certain speed, the air pressure gets low enough that a person CAN’T BREATHE! If Sydney’s force field doesn’t also keep air pressurized within it, she’ll have to use another means to breathe at high speeds.
Well, that’s why aircraft pilots have to wear breathing masks if the flight deck itself isn’t pressurized, ya’ know…
You don´t need to worry about that.
I had to wear an eyepatch for a time, and trust me: Depth perception is overrated.
There is no limitation to your perception unless you try to put your index fingers together in front of you.
I didn´t knock over Glasses, hurt my hand because i hit the table or any other nonsense the movies have you believe.
I could even drive and do my job (wich is driving… a forklift. That is a lot more delicate as it sounds, and even there i only needed one eye)
I´m not saying that you don´t need Depth Perception, but Sydney will definitely NOT fly into houses for the lack of it.
You only really use the parallax for depth perception within arm’s reach or so – where you want exact distances. (And even then, you can compensate.) Outside of that we more use environmental cues. (Supplemented with parallax for a few hundred feet, but no more. The eyes just aren’t far enough apart.)
If Sydney is flying close enough for one-eyed depth perception to become a problem, she’s already flying too close.
Given her limited flight experience, those few hundred feet might be all the differance.
You’re speaking from a skewed perspective about not needing depth-perception and such. Your mono-ocular vision was temporary – you had years of prior binocular vision giving you the innate brainwork to help you reasonably judge distance and size and such even without both eyes to give you proper sterescoping. Me, I was born blind in one eye and heavily nearsighted in the other, so I never got that.
I’m 31, and I still sometimes knock over glasses and run into furniture now and then, because I constantly have to guess at things you subconsciously manage and take for granted, and let’s not get into the fact my overall field-of-view is slightly-less than 50% that of a normal person, leading to problems of its own caused by my literally being unable to see half of what’s going on around me.
As for driving, forget about driving – three near-misses with other cars, two overshot stopsigns, and one narrowly-avoided tumble into a ditch, all without even getting out into actual traffic, but just driving around my housing complex at the time – proved I’m incapable of safely driving due to my vision problems.
So trust me, pal, having keen depth-perception and full field of view are a LOT more important than you might think.
I don’t know if I ever had depth-perception, but after an eye operation at four and a half years (to shorten an eye muscle that was too long … now it’s too short), I’ve certainly never had it.
I never tried driving a car. I already knew I couldn’t catch balls to save my life, for example. And I regularly run into door jambs. I had at least one accident where a car almost flattened my bicycle – the car was driving much too fast, but my lack of depth-perception caused me not to realize it. I only figured it out by how far the car drove before stopping even after the hit. And by what bystanders said, and by the fact that the driver was only concerned about my damage (nothing significant) and not at all about hers (probably rather expensive).
Now, as to low overflights by military jets … none in my time with the German Air Force, but during my school years, I once had one cross the street I was driving on. Almost directly above me. The houses next to me masked its approach completely. I almost fell from my bicycle, and had to stand there a minute or two before my heart rate went down enough to continue my way home. No broken glass, though. (I remember hearing, though, that some people who lived close to a base had serious trouble with electronic devices breaking all the time, presumably because of radar or something similar.)
I (Really, REALLY) don´t want to be mean, i´m honestly just curious:
You were in the ground crew at the LW, right?
Well, maybe so, but in this instance, I´m right.
Sydney will not hit buildings, because, as you said, she had her entire life with DP as well.
At one time there were a lot of people born blind from a condition later cured by medical science. Trouble is, many of those cured were children now grown into adulthood. They were even worse off than you’ve described since they had never learned any of the visual cues. Their brains simply didn’t know how to process the information. Most, if not all, of them had to continue acting as if blind because sight was worthless to them.
Your case would seem to be similar. As you’ve described it, your brain has never had the chance to learn stereoscopic vision. I would have thought, if I had ever bothered to think about it, that you would have an advantage, having grown up with the condition, over someone who’s lost the use of an eye. It seems I would be very wrong in that assumption.
In my own case, I would be very bad off, but not specifically because of depth perception. My eyesight isn’t very good anyway, I’m very nearsighted, but tests have shown that my single eye vision is much worse than with 2 eyes. Most people are worse with only one eye but the Ophthalmologist says I’m extremely so. With only one eye I would be legally blind. =/
@Toidillov. You may be an exception to the rule. ;)
My understanding (backed by personal experimentation) is that, for other people, having one eye covered (and the subsequent impairment of depth perception) does have a discernible effect. Not to the extent of being obviously incapacitated, but it can mean one’s ability to visually judge distances may be “off”. Given enough time, presumably one can compensate for this.
Now, Sydney hasn’t been wearing an eyepatch all that long. She has mo “real” flight experience (guessing all of her flights so far have been secretly done indoors). She isn’t in a vehicle, and so doesn’t have any instruments or built-in reference points to help her out. She isn’t even sure how fast she can go.
Presumably, Max will have the good sense and foresight to stop Sydney getting into TOO much trouble, otherwise I might be worried.
Have to say yes, we had a combat jet flying about 80-100 feet above us, it flattened the whole fire team, (felt like we had run into a compressing wall) kicked up so much dust no one could see, and breathing was hard. Didn’t even know it was coming till it passed over.
Oh, ya ringing in the ears and all that good stuff.
Mythbusters did not take into account Air Density Altitude. I think they were in a hot dessert at the time they tried it.
Oooo, what sort of hot dessert? Baked Alaska? Haven’t had one of those in decades :(
Yeah, this update is not that plot-important…
BUT
Flight is just a wonderful thing. It’s just joyful and awesome. It’s one of the most innocent and purest of fantasies and something that the superhero genre can, should and does indulge in. :-)
Hey, it answered something that’s been bugging me since I first saw that armband. ;) It’s more functional than the one I wear, but now it’s confirmed to be the same kind of thing.
Altimeter, barometer, weather from Internet and radio sources – smartphones can do a lot of that. There are even “brometer” apps – not quite what Dave was thinking here, though a Siri-like voice and language analyzer is easy to imagine, and could have been loaded as a training assistant (teaching Sydney how to play it cool, if she ever ran that app). Slide-out tools can’t be downloaded, but they’re easy to add on a custom rig. Given the purpose of this unit, it’s quite possible they’re present as slide-out or fold-out…unless whoever built this unit was worried that Halo would, for instance, start running around with the scissors deployed trying to imitate Wolverine.
Also note that the exact capabilities are flexible. Continuity of powers is sometimes a problem in comic strips, but it’s no problem here. The hardware can be added or removed any time someone with tools, that she would allow to tinker with it, is or could be with her off-panel. The apps could be shuffled around any time without Halo knowing (assuming she does not have root access). Just because it could or couldn’t do a thing many strips ago doesn’t mean it can or can’t do it now.
Of course the Armband is functional.
Ever played Fallout? ;)
Atom Ant reference…. That’s not Sydney’s timeframe of reference.
Bah, I’m only 22 and I watched Atom Ant till I was blue in the face. Thank the gods for Boomerang.
She does own a comic store, well partly,
I believe it’s a reference to the Simpsons, when the Schwarzenegger-esk actor McBain is supposed to say the line “Up and Atom!” for a movie he’s in, but can only manage to say “Up and At Them!”
It could be a reference to The Simpsons episode where Reiner Wolfcastle is playing Radioactive Man in a live action movie, and he doesn’t get the pun, so keeps saying “Up And At Them” instead of “Up And Atom” much to the director’s chagrin.
You said it much better than I did.
Yeah, but you got there first.
Thought it was more that he literally could not say ‘Atom’, so it came out sounding like ‘At Them’
I have been hearing “Up and At’em” for years, even from my grandmother, in the 1970’s, and according to her, it was a lot older than that at the time. I thought that might be the variation between Ontario, Canada and Texas.
“Up and at ’em” was in use no later than WWI, a reference to get up and attack the enemy.
Which was adapted for “Atom Ant.”
“Up and atom, Atom Ant!” the tiny super hero would cry as flew out of his underground home to do battle with the forces of evil. Also part of the song sung by Ted Cassidy of the Atom Ant theme song.
DavidM read the comments above you. Yes early on. Boomerang runs “Atom Ant” and other older cartoons ever so often.
Atom Ant was created, well first published, in 1965. This saying is much older than that. The writers of Atom Ant may have even adapted the older phrase.
It’s common enough that only DaveB would know for sure what, if anything, it’s supposed to be a reference to. I can remember my parents waking us up with “Up and atom, molecule!”
I love how she’s making the orbs spiral around her as she’s going up
I doubt she’s “making” them do that. It’s morely likely she took off so fast they didn’t have time to keep their positions. We’ve seen that happen before; https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/515 Panel 7
I really like the spiral of the orbs in the last panel! It’s probably what the paths of the planets look like, chasing the Sun around the galaxy.
You’re the first one I’ve run across who knows that, I’ve been trying to explain that for decades and for some reason people think we spin like a top in planetary movement.
I’m not sure if that was what you were referring to, but have some anyway, just in case.
Aaaaaand I fail at using tags.
Let’s try again: Have some bad astronomy anyway.
Yes it was, kind a. Nice vide never seen one laid out like that but ya, The debunker, wacky, (normally I would not debunk) that one made me smile, a kind of it’s too trivial for me kind of statement from Plait, and there’s off the bat, all the catch words that say your silly for trying to believe, but to me it’s the same, what this man is saying. “The earth is flat.”
It’s all relative, I mean, what true direction if any, is the sun moving compared to the other suns around us? But I digress. Our planets are locked with the sun so ya using the heliocentric system is best for us, but really with our planets captured by the sun (not dragging behind it) who can tell, heck there still trying to figger out how big the sun is let alone heliocentric vs. vortex. My other fave is atomic particles, always shown as balls, now it’s strings, people are still wrapping there minds around that.
And to be somewhat fair this Phil Plait choosing DJ Sadhu when there are others out there is like hearing the politics going on about Syria. Also a pretty web page does not make it right, I remember when drifting contents was formally proclaimed to the science community, and what happened to those scientists who wrote that document. but I’ve said enough. Ttyl.
True enough that the scientific community can be closed-minded and hostile to ideas which rock the boat. At times. Especially if an idea is radical. And even more so if proposed by either a scientist working outside of his speciality. Or, heaven forbid, a non-scientist.
But, there is a distinction between a sound hypothesis and an ill-founded load of gibberish. And that debunker makes a very good case for the latter, in this instance. Contrast it to the aquatic ape hypothesis, however, which is well thought out, but still ostracised from mainstream thought. Scientists in fields which could and should investigate it are too scared of damaging their careers to do so. A crying shame, as I feel it has real merit. Albeit, in my mind, with a slightly different basis to that originally proposed.
The aquatic ape theory is one of those things that starts to sounds sensible when it’s explained in a certain way, but it completely falls apart under the most casual scrutiny. Anthropologists don’t bother with it because their expertise in the field allows them to understand the basic premise doesn’t even pass muster. For example:
“We have no fur. The only other mammals that have no fur are aquatic mammals like dolphins and whales”
That sounds fairly reasonable on it’s face until you remember about all the seals, otters, and beavers.
Each point in the AA theory falls about about as easily when given the most minimal examination.
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4357
There are an awful lot of theories that have the same problem. =)
Even one of the most accurate, and widely accepted, theories we have doesn’t explain everything. I’m talking about the Theory of Gravity, which fails completely on the atomic-subatomic level. Scientists realize there us either something missing or the theory is wrong. Why do we use it then? It’s far, far, FAR better than the theory it replaced. Until someone comes up with a better theory, IF anyone ever does which is highly unlikely, that theory is accepted and used. That’s standard scientific practice.
Isaac Newton is accepted by many to be the most best scientist in history. Per Robert Heinlein, himself a mathematician and former professor, Isaac Newton is the only scientist in history to have made three major contributions to scientist. There is a lot of debate about who would be second on that list, but it’s generally accepted Newton tops the list.
Virtually nothing functions the same on the subatomic level as it does on the macro-atomic level. Granted gravity is more of a mystery than most, but we still have evidence that mass attracts mass. We don’t have any evidence supporting the aquatic ape thing, just some observations that seem to correlate and speculation. That’s fine for a hypothesis, but until there’s evidence, it’s just supposition.
There is good debunking and then there is bad debunking. They need to do better to convince me on this one. For the purposes of evolution the important thing is does X adaptation give an advantage to a species. Not does species A, B or C happen to share it.
.
Although the title ‘aquatic ape’ implies that we lived in the water, I do not think that is the case, in my take on it. Merely that, at a critical stage in our evolution, the near-humans that were to transition to becoming us were in an environment where those who were better capable of surviving in water and transiting it gained an evolutionary advantage.
Look at the most recent divergence in our close family. That of the Bonobo splitting from chimpanzees*. They are found in the Congo Basin, and it is this, or a similar, geographic feature which has been proposed as isolating them from the main body of chimpanzees and allowing them to evolve into a separate species.
We know that homo sapiens evolved in Africa, and I propose that our early ancestors were similarly cut off by water. Those individuals who developed mutations which helped living in that area would thrive. One theory put forward recently by anthropologists to support bipedalism is that mothers attempting to cross a river with a baby will have a significant decrease in mortality rates amongst bipedal species. The better the bipedalism the lower the death rate. And that is just from the point of view that you can hold your baby all the way across, and not having to drop down into a semi-supine position part way across, due to poor bipedalism as with the other great apes. Let alone the advantage of being able to spot crocodiles.
Access to food sources in water give a particular advantage compared to species that rely on food located on land only. Plus fish is a really good source of nutrient for big brains. Although land diets can provide similar levels, it is a lot harder and less reliable for hunter gatherer species by comparison.
Most of the points mentioned by the debunker are self-evidently advantageous individually in water. And even more so given the number of them. Plus there are other features which (regardless of whether they are unique to us or not) do give humans a real advantage in water. Such as babies being able to survive and even swim, if plunged into water. As a package, we really are a lot better suited to living in and around water than any other ape.
Looking for a few citations to support my arguments, I note that I am not alone in feeling this hypothesis holds water. David Attenbourough and other academics being amongst the vocal supporters.
It’s amusing to think about, and I wouldn’t begrudge anyone for including the aquatic ape thing in a work of fiction to describe where humans and Atlanteans diverged. It’s one of those perfectly “it sounds sciencey” things that totally falls apart after even basic fact checking, but a lot of fiction writing works that way.
I note that the debunker does not disprove that any of the adaptations are good for apes that need to traverse African rivers. It is incontrovertible that we are far better in water than any of our relatives. As a result of not just one or two divergent adaptations, but several. If you can show me that the advantages that we have which allow us to thrive, enjoy and work well in water are not real then you have debunked my argument. As it is, I have personal experience that lets me know that I am very good in the water. So I think you will have a very hard time doing that.
With so many features that make us good in a watery environment, I feel confident in saying there is more to it than simple chance. For there to be several that give us an edge, there must have been some major reason for them all being present. The hypothesis I propose explains those features well. If you wish to propose some other reason why we have so many mutations which make us good in water, I would be very interested to hear it. Note that there are also more that I have not previously mentioned too. For instance the fact that we have noses. Whereas if other great apes tried to dive into water, or swim underwater, they would have a hard time of it, as their nostrils are open and not streamlined.
One point of note being that the long-held theory that we evolved many of our modern features by moving out of the forest and onto the planes has been broadly discredited and has fallen out of favour. Each of the points that used to be cited to support it has gradually been disproven. Yet there is no encompassing alternative mainstream theory which has replaced it. I think the aquatic ape hypothesis is a strong contender. The fact that it has not been supported by anthropologists does not necessarily mean that it is fantasy. David Attenborough is one of the most respected nature commentators in the world, and I do not think he would lend his support to a bogus theory that had no merit.
Bringing Atlantis in to the discussion does not help to disprove my arguments in the least. I would be much more impressed with something that made me reconsider one or more of the basic concepts I propose, as being unsound.
re: we gots no hair, whales and dolphins gots no hair, so….
As you note, otters, beavers, etc. Add in elephants and naked mole rats.
But also… the whole point of Galileo’s idea of relativity[*] is that “zooming through space” is an ill-thought-out concept. Sure, planets have a helix-like trajectory in some reference frames, but reference frames are arbitrary. So, while displaying the orbs doing that is A-OK by the rule of cool, there’s no particular reason they *would* do that, unless Sydney wanted ’em to (or whoever built them put heuristics in ’em that makes ’em “want” to). Since they are what’s accelerating Sydney, it seems fairly obvious they could accelerate at the same rate at the same time, and remain “crowned” around her head. The only issue is… what do they *want* to do.
[*] what, you thought that was Einstein? Turns out not to be the case. Einstein only changed the invariant transform from “galilean” to “lorentzian”, to make lightspeed invariant.
Wow, um, this is a bit more then I bargained for, so to recap, we don’t understand energy, just look at all the different methods we have of measuring it, and to put this in perspective remember a guy named Mochios of Sidon this simple forerunner formulated a theory, of the possible mathematical existence of a particle he called an atom over 3000 years ago, so that said, I don’t expect anyone to unlock string, or the theory of everything as it’s called now anytime soon.
Yorp: Even if someone speaks well, writes well, that does not make what is said absolutely right, even if I am wrong I still have the right to speak out. Well, unless there trying to kill me then it’s like the *Doe’s this dress make me look fat.* stuff. Self preservation kicks in.
RIK: Ya, my grammar dance is not the best, keeps me from writing books tho I’m told I’m a good sound board for those who can. (Just to patmeself on the back.) I personally don’t trust the internet, just too much information to sift past. The national geographic encyclopedia of space is a good book, and they make a new one each year. This is a good read. Other then that just do the observation thing, with thought, the sun expands and contracts depending on the activity, sunspots and magnetic shifts, and if you can believe it, sound. The sun has no true size. It’s off center or a mass within is off center so it spins around it’s self or wobbles. It is relative after all, look at the position of our suns location, it’s at the lower part of the milky way, below the horizontal center, or above, depending on your thoughts. The south pole faces closely the horizontal center of our galaxy, nice stellar view from the south too.
Throopw: sorry about that, the name was a book I read back in the day called contents adrift, and true the understanding was just not there, and the idea that massive fractured sections of land were floating like slag in a melting pot is kind of disconcerting, also there were lot’s of new breakthroughs coming about in that time period, personal computers just to name one, heck my brother can still read punch cards and ribbon tape. I think this is all I have to say, well for now.
You were born an original. Don’t die a copy!
I meant no disrespect to you. I was just noting that the debunker made sound arguments against the case. A well written argument will always have extra credibility. But, at the end of the day, it is the underlying evidence that is the most important. And just based on the evidence proposed by the video maker vs the debunker, I find the latter far more credible.
But, as I say elsewhere, I do not take debunker’s opinions as being gospel and if their cause is well argued but flawed, I speak my mind. And am perfectly happy for others who disagree with my stance to say so themselves. Even more so if they bring up a point I have not considered myself, and I realise that I need to either adapt my position to explain the anomaly. Or even if I have to concede that my opinion was wrong. It all means I have learnt something and am better off at the end of the day than the beginning.
Sorry I didn’t mean to imply I was angry, just take what I say worth a grain of salt find what works for you and keep true to yourself.
I won’t argue this further, both because this is hardly the right place and, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, because I find your writing to be very difficult to parse.
Just this: Yes, people laughed at Alfred Wegener, but they also laughed at Christoph Columbus (who would have died of starvation or similar problems long before reaching Asia).
I would, however, be much obliged if you would provide some links to sources that you think support that theory better.
Also, I’d like a link to any reputable source explaining why the size of the sun would be uncertain. I can see why one might argue about where to draw the line where the various layers end, but after that it seems rather straightforward…
Actually you know, “continental drift” as such never *did* catch on. Because it was, in fact, a rather Bad Idea. Because he never came up with a mechanism for it that made sense. Sure, sure, the empirical evidence was pretty overwhelming (we now realize), but until the notion of plate tectonics made the scene, and mid-ocean ridges were discovered and associated with paleiomagnetism (and the corresponding trenches, subduction, and all like that), nobody was going to buy that continents just moved around on top of underlying basalt or whatever.
So, bottom line, continental drift never caught on (although the name has made a comeback). What I was taught in the early 70s in geology class was plate tectonics. And rightly so.
At least she won’t have to worry about flying into birds or anything, since she has a force field.
Presumably stronger than airplane windows
I watched some Mayday episodes over the weekend. They have an episode called “Hudson River Runway” where the plane lost power because a flock of geese were sucked into the engines as the airplane was climbing after take-off. The Captain of the flight made the most spectacular and successful water landing ever for a plane not designed to actually land and take off from the water.
Somehow I do not think that this will a problem for Max and Halo.
Oops, forgot a paragraph.
The problem was not a windshield strike, but the mess the birds made of the engines when ingested. It didn’t do the geese any good either. Bird strikes to the engines are often much more of a problem than bird strikes to the windshield.
Sure, but Sydney doesn’t have an engine. She does have a face, which give some problems if a bird hit it at fly speed
Max would simply be annoyed by birds hitting her, and probably reacts fast enough to avoid them anyway
Make me wonder why they don’t install some kind of mesh screen over the intakes.
A screen that can withstand impacts of birds at a few hundred knots will
a) be heavy and expensive.
b) severely restrict and disturb airflow into the engines, making the whole thing hilariously inefficient.
Current efforts mostly go towards making the fan (the big rotor you see in the front that gives most of the thrust) more resistant to impacts by constructing the blades from composites which can deform (elastically) more without being damaged and keeping any foreign objects out of the core engine.
On an airliner, it’s also only a problem for about a minute or so of flight time – after that you’re going to be above most bird flight paths anyway.
They do spend quite a bit of effort to keep birds away from the runways at airports – that’s where they are dangerous.
Another point on installing a screen in front of the engines is that in icing conditions those screens will very quickly get coated and starve the engines of the air they need to operate. Bad idea.
I now keep thinking of that introductory scene in ‘Hancock’.
Flying supers WITHOUT protective forcefields, armor or just lots of toughness; would have a real problem with birdstrikes. Just travelling under its own power, a largish bird can bust windows in buildings, and there are plenty of instances where aircraft have sustained structural damage from a collision. So what chance does a squishy human have?
Possibly one reason why Max wears glasses when out and about. Figure she’s more than tough enough to deal with the basic impact, but getting feathers and giblets in her eyes would have to be the worst.
Aye, pulling a bird’s eyeball from your teeth is annoying.
Not half as annoying as pulling a birds beak from your eyeball.
I actually had thought about that premise long before Hancock.
When I wrote my teenage superhero novel, I came up with a nice solution:
a ski-mask for your hair and goggles for the eyes.
She even laughs about the idea of getting birds in the face ( let alone anything else).
Besides, my hero has a real utility belt with money, toilet paper, water, first aid-kit…
So, Maxima is getting her out of the press conference before she does any more damage? :D
I wonder how big a sonic boom two people their size would generate.
Without special adaptations, like superstrenght, Halo will have difficulty breathing if she is flying above about 100 km/h (60 mph); think of how fast you are going when the dog will not stick his head out the window. She definitely will not be able to exceed the speed of sound without deploying her force-field.
I wonder if the shield is airtight. Than she wouldn’t have trouble breathing.
Than again, an airtight shield would also significantly reduce the sound coming out of it, and she could speak through it just fine when they were testing it.
The shield could be adaptive, forming more like a nosecone in front of her in high-speed flight to deflect the force and friction and forming a “pocket” of breathable air behind it
Being adaptive is a good guess, it could adjust to many different conditions. That makes me wonder if it could darken, or otherwise, change against light based attacks. Like in Sydney’s game way back at the beginning when she “lawyered” the games master.
I was thinking it might be permeable to the air but slow the rate of air passing through it. Keeping in mind that this “might” be advanced technology, who’s to say the force field orb doesn’t handle the air too? It could be literally air tight but also act like an atmosphere regenerator for those inside.
Also, Dave? What’s up with the comments? When I opened them, and again when I hit the reply button, a Collective of Heroes login popped up. Have you changed the comment system?
No that’s a banner swap thing I do with some other superhero comics that seems to be messing up. I’m going to disable it for now.
Forgot to mention, that this airtight shield effect would make a great spacesuit for an alien race. =) The round shape of the shield might build up pressure in front of her while flying but I wouldn’t be surprised if it can adapt to that as well.
also the popup happens when I post a comment too.
I see no reason why the flight orb wouldn’t allow flight in space, so yea. Would be pritty awesome.
It’d have to go VERY fast though
Knock… knock… knockin’ on Heaven’s Door!
… Or a window of the ISS. Wouldn’t put it past Syd.
Mooning the CIA/NSA’s Satellites
One of the SuperHeroes over at Atomic Laundromat, actually tried to change into his civilian identity in space. He had be caught several times in different spots on earth so he tried there. The courts tried him for indecent exposure, because a NASA satellite took pictures of it. =)
He’s now under House Arrest.
I wasn’t really thinking of Mesiah. But it works.
If the shield is hard and can vibrate, then sound can pass through it perfectly well while still being air tight. And from an earlier comic when the shield was being hit, we saw a lot of noise being made, so it being hard but still being able to vibrate makes sense.
If Sydney can reach supersonic speeds, she would need shield or her clothes and then her skin, and then her limbs would be detatched by air pressure as her speed increased.
Since the shield is round, that makes it aerodynamically pretty blunt. That would massively increase the sonic boom it creates. Though it’s possible the shield can deform while in flight, which would reduce the boom.
Don’t forget air friction. Get enough Mach and things can get pretty toasty…
Wouldn’t be much of a problem if the shield is airtight (which it would need to be to protect her during flight).
The outside of the shield might get warm, but still air is a good isolator, so Sydney should be fine
The flight orb is already breaking one law of physics by giving Sydney her own personal gravity field – why can’t it break a few more? Count it as a required secondary power for the flight.
I say the air around her should move with her, subject to some distance/friction thing. So she feels a breeze at top speed, even if she’s actually supersonic. The air next to her is slowed down to nearly her speed, while the air further away is slowed slightly less, etc, out to about a foot or so from her. (And maybe any passengers she has.)
“sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from magic”
It’s not by definition breaking the laws
We assume that the Fly Ball works by gravity control. Of course we might be underestimating the effect. It may be warping reality, for example. Making local conditions behave in a manner that is conducive to the will of the wielder. So far, Sydney has tried to use that to fly. So the orb changes local conditions such that planetary gravity is morphed, in such a way that allows her to “fly”. But there is nothing to say that other aspects of physics are not under it’s sway too.
As an adage used by sci-fi/fantasy writers of fanfics and novels (etc.):
“If in doubt, blame The Doctor.”
Yeah, give her something electronic to play with, that’ll help keep her focused.
Hopefully one of the orbs give her a ‘protection from flying into something while getting distracted by something shiny’ power.
That would be the forcefield orb, but that possibly means whatever- and whoever- she crashes gets smashed instead. Cue Spidey possibly break Gwen Stacey’s neck when he tried to save her (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/716).
Just so long as the forcefield doesn’t act as a kinetic repulsion field with a physic alert system as may be possible. Because if it does than it should effectively counter air resistance and cause extra big shockwaves/sonic booms and the only effect to her would be that she could tell she was going fast. Although if it did just repel kinetic energy it would probably counter air resistance which would mean that she’d have a ludicrously max speed if the flight orb works via propulsion as opposed to a levitation technique, although the shockwaves from travelling at Mach 10 or whatever would be enough to cause a hella lotta damage, heck if it could really repel and propel than I think she could just accelerate till she hits something. Anyone care to find out what happens when she hits Mach 9001?
As seen in the conference room/ballroom, the flight orb allows her to manipulate her local gravity. Isn’t that how warp drive is supposed to work? With the force-field, her speed could be really up there.
Actually warp … warps the space around the drive, not the gravity.
But gravity can also warp space (just look at a black hole), so through a little detour, maybe?
I thinking more like a Mass Effect drive. She uses the “Flight” orb to basically “Fall” into a gravity well oriented in front of her. and since the well would have to overcome Planetary Gravity i’m not sure about her top speed, but her acceleration would be at least 7m/s2
Ok Correction it’s be more like 10 m/s2
That’s a little different than manipulating local gravity though.
Creating an extra gravity well for flight would probably make it very hard to control, and give some unpleasent side effects if you try to hover (you’d probably need a gravity well above you just as strong as the one from the planet. Thus getting pulled apart a little).
Also, her flight orb only effects her for asfar as we can see. Projecting a gravity well would effect everything in the area
Greta Grabbie manages to use gravity quite effectively, to both fly, crush and hover
That’s also manipulating gravity, rather than just ‘projecting a gravity well’.
Along with projecting wells, she can also manipulate the existing ones
Really? Dang so I’ve gone back and checked and I think I’ve worked out a problem. The flight orb seems to work by negating the effects of gravity on her and then letting her effectively move or spin in any direction she wants, similar to telekinesis really. That wouldn’t allow her to warp or anything as she isn’t actually controlling external gravity and she’s just really using auto-telekinesis in a 0g environment which could be useful. However when you combine flight’s negation of gravity with the forcefield’s negation of crashing and extreme air friction I think it would become the ability to go as fast as she thinks she can with the only maximum speed being those enforced by relativistic effects from near light speed. So no Superman 1 where they travel so fast they go back in time but Mach 9001 should be easily possible.
Waiting for the fire in this “Live Fire Drill.”
Wondering about the ammo. Nerf Rounds? Marshmallows? Custard Pies?
And will this be taking place above the press area? Be careful where you let your spent “penetrators” land.
That sounds fairly salacious. Or have I been looking at Dabbler’s section too long?
Nonsense! You can never stare at Dabbler’s section for too long!
I was figuring energy blasts, those don’t drop shell casings on the audience.
Max powering up ‘slightly’ from tank to tank.
First, only a hole, then the smoldering remains of the turret, followed by… “Tank? What tank?” and a hole in the ground.
Refering to the bottom comment on the page, I think it is funnier that she says “mic drop!” without holding anything. Confuses the watchers, distracts them from the orbs, and seems typically Sydney :p
Typical Sydney. So cute.
I agree with this. :D
Hmmm, wonder if she can use the pew pew ball as a turbo thruster. Without getting smeared across the sky of course.
that would require an extra hand. since she’d need the flight orb and presumably the shield orb for high speed flight.
Thats what i would assume too, hence the smearing if she tried dropping the shield to boost. tho i suppose if it did work she could just use the shield and the ppo for flight.
Using the PPO wouldn’t smear her, just anything behind her. Might be useful higher up. But even if her shield is hermetically sealed what about atmosphere? Wouldn’t take long to use up what she had. Even superman needed a space suit.
The flight nav makes sense. It’s an aspect of flight most comic books ignore completly, but it is in fact fairly hard to navigate in trackless sky, especially for novice pilots.
Also wrist-mounted omnitools were more impressive before you could replicate them with an off-the-shelf smart phone and a sports band. :p
Ah, technology marches on. Thou with this being a military outfit they probably wouldn’t use the REALLY impressive tech unless it’s deemed necessary for the mission. Budgets! Plus, the newer stuff might have quirks that need ironing out.
So the chocker isn’t just fashionable its where the head set is plugged in, and the mic is located. plus yippy live fire
Wait. Max slapped that nav thingy on Syd’s right arm. Is Syd left handed? Or is she going to have to learn to type with her off hand?
I only mention this because I had to train myself to answer the phone with my left so I could start writing orders without switching hands.
It’s Sydney Max probably slapped it onto the first part of her to stay still for long enough
First, her saying, “Mic drop.” is very nerd kewl, so much better than actually dropping a microphone. Second, I could definitely see Sydney using Mr. Wigglesworth (the tentacle-ball) to make it look like she’s sitting in a mini-helicopter when she is flying. Que the “Ride of the Valkries”.
Or how about Wonder Woman’s plane? She was wearing her logo all day.
Mr. Wigglesworth – Tentacle
Master Blaster – PPO
Bamm-bamm – Forcefield (Cause when you hit it, all you do is make a loud noise that goes…)
Bang-Zoom – Flight (…to the moon, Alice!)
Whazat? – Clarisense/True Sight
Thing One and Thing Two – Mystery Orbs.
One word:
SECONDED!
I would also suggest Wham-bamm (Thank you, ma’am) for the force field orb.
Final panel. It is times like this that you hope you did your belt up tight to compensate for the borrowed uniform being a loose fit.
Supersonic shredded uniform? Heh. I love seeing Sydney blush.
How fast was she going in her street clothes when Max flew her to Headquarters? She didn’t lose her cap, however fast that was.
“Shiny candy-like buttons.” Right off the mark, and I’m already chuckling. Then I see Peggy smirking and watching Syd instead of Max. I get the feeling that she caught the “Try and keep up” and expects Syd to be Syd. I’m smirking too, actually. This ought to be interesting. And fun.
Thanks, DaveB!
+1
And how long does Max’s phone last in a battle with energy blasts? For that matter, how long does her clothing last??
She projects her power ‘field’ around herself to be sortof invincible, and that field also encompasses her clothes I guess
Oohhh, this looks GOOD!!
I just voted in the TGT tournament and Grrl Power had 51% of the vote already. Righteous. Now that I know I can, I’ll do a TGT vote when I do my daily TWC vote. Judging by the numbers, I can’t be the only one who votes every day, despite the once per week updates. I can’t speak for the silent majority, but I can tell you that the art and the characters are why I keep coming back. The arc of the story is plenty good enough for me. When I think about old radio and TV shows that were successful, the story arc was more like a line. It’s all about the characters in various situations. Well, Grrl Power has great characters, and their superness gets them into all kinds of situations. And did I mention the art? That’s pretty good, too. ;)
Umm, I’m getting a password entry window popping up when I come on this page. Something up?
I too am getting a password prompt from collective of heros . Net
I use Mozilla and no such window has ever appeared here. What is it asking you for?
Something is wrong with Collective of Heroes, it keeps wanting a password. I think something done broke.
https://collectiveofheroes.net/widget/popup.html?date=20130802 seems to be generating some of the problems.
Authorization RequiredThis server could not verify that you are authorized to access the document requested. Either you supplied the wrong credentials (e.g., bad password), or your browser doesn't understand how to supply the credentials required.
Additionally, a 401 Authorization Required error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache Server at collectiveofheroes.net Port 80
I just started getting that too. Something is not quite right here. I am just clicking “Cancel” and everything seems to be fine.
It should be fixed now, thanks for the heads up.
Still doing it for me.
Shiny candy-like buttons. Oh dear! Sydney, they are not for eating! Read the instruction manual before you start pushing buttons at random to see what they do.
That is one of the great things about this device, the instructions for using it are built in. Just turn it on and navigate to the manual to find out how … to … turn it on and navigate to the various sections of the system. Hmm, this design philosophy might not have been fully thought out before production. Does anybody have a paper back up?
I wonder if she ever watched “Dexter’s Lab”…
i think that just clicking it in place activates it, and for the demos today i think that Max had it set up already, and that since Sydney doesn’t NEED to mess with it for anything this early on in her recruitment, she wasn’t TOLD how to change anything about the setting on it yet. also, with Max taking off like she did, she purposely didn’t give Sydney time to wonder how to do so, either… and I’ll make a prediction that the air-path that Max will be flying will purposely be an intense one in order to KEEP Syd from thinking about it either (short attention span remember!) then, when they’re done with it Max will take off the recorder to prevent post-flight tinkering… either that or go directly into weapons testing out back, again preventing tinker-time… though she should have forgotten about it by then.
@Dave: i foresee one Major problem with the flight recorder function, a lot of the “GPS” functionality of today’s phones are of the “accelerometer” type, NOT “actual” GPS… and if she always flies like she did in the conference room where her hair didn’t even move, then she is NOT undergoing ANY acceleration at all… therefore to the accelerometer in the unit, she is still standing perfectly still and has NOT MOVED!! a way you can “fix” this is to use an honest-to-goodness REAL GPS-unit in the wristband. a real unit does not use accelerometers, instead it uses the timing signals from the GPS Satellites in orbit, and then using the time differences between when it receives those various signals it triangulates the receivers position, the more signals it uses to calculate it will increase the accuracy of the reading. the ones us civilians use (like in our car dashboard units) typically use only a very few signals (i think it’s like 3 or 4), that’s why they are somewhat loose in their accuracy. However, the MILITARY units can and do use a lot more signals (6-7, or even more, i’ve heard) and that’s why they can get that pinpoint accuracy in specifying where something is on a map.
I listed similar data in an earlier comment thread. yippee for rehashes.
Actually the GPS in phones uses cell towers to shortcut finding the right satellites, not the accelerometers (the A in AGPS just stands for assisted). No consumer phone supports dead-reckoning using the accelerometers as far as I’m aware, Not out of the box anyway. I always figured governments were sufficiently paranoid about them being used to guide cruise missiles if they could navigate even when GPS and cell were blocked. The accelerometers probably aren’t accurate enough to better than (A)GPS for it to be worth implementing, although I admit having though about having a go :)
i didn’t know that, cool! ya’ learn sumthin’ every day!!
Oh I forgot they also use wifi base station visibility for helping determine location, but that wouldn’t be affected either. Unless the force field blocks radio signals, in which case your GPS and cell connection would likely be knocked out too.
All the stuff in that wristband is military grade. There’s definitely a few things that will get messed up by the gravity cancelling properties of the fly-ball, but the GPS should be accurate to the centimeter.
hmm and this orb also nullifies all flight problems like air pressure, air drag or low/high temperature or does she need her shield orb to fly at super speed?
After three years, we’re just weeks away from some real super-on-super action (albeit just a practice fight)! Any bets on Syd doing something unexpected a few strips into the fight and turning the tables on Maxima?
I still want to see Joel’s reaction as he stares at the TV screen… :)
We’ve already had super-on-super action, back when Maxi was testing out how to break windows via hitting Sydney’s ‘eenweenci-bubble’ (ooo, that’s a cool name for it)
Poor Joel, he will have precious little time to get over the shock and work on his suave “yeah I’ve known Sydney since long before she was a super” speech. Hopefully he can avoid looking completely clueless – the better he comes across the better it’ll be for the business and Syd’s (presumed) deal about merchandising or comic shop exclusives will go much more smoothly.
That’s ONE way to derail a motormouth! :D
Hmmm I’m wondering if one of the powers of one of the two unknown Orbs is to combine the powers of any other two Orbs in different ways. I mean If it gave the resulting Orb different powers depending on which orb was added to the combining Orb first, that would give you (MATH) number of possible combinations.
Oooooh!!! I like this! And the other one ca allow her to imitate the powers of other supers nearby!
For unknown alien weapons systems with multiple exclusive settings – read Larry Niven’s “The Soft Weapon”. Set in the Ringworld universe, he re-wrote it for an episode of Star Trek-The Animated Series back in the….70’s? (Time for my Altzheimers medicine again….I think)
It just may be time for your medicine…If you can remember where you put it…
Maxima: This is the history eraser button Sydney, you first mission is to guard it.
Sydney: What does it do?
Dabbler: We don’t know, maaaaybe something good, maaaaybe something bad.
Maxima: We will never know, because you’re going to guard it.
Voice in Sydneys head:
Oh, how long can trusty Sydney hold out ?
How can she possibly resist the diabolical urge to push the button that could erase her very existence ?!
Will her tortured mind give in to its uncontrollable desires ?
Can she withstand the temptation to push the button that even now beckons her ever closer ?!
Will she succumb to the maddening urge to eradicate history at the mere push of a single button ?!
The beautiful, shiny button !
The jolly, candy-Like button!
Will she hold out, folks ?
Can she hold out ?
Sydney: *Boop*
*Harem’s history Textbook explodes*
Yeah, yeah, Stimpy. Some of us remember the “Space Madness” episode…
I think this one was quite the needed panel, I enjoy watching the detail of the small dynamics of how maxima mentors Sydney
my question is WHY doesn’t Maxima have a wrist unit as well?
Presumably the rest of the team has them? or is this a “safety” precaution for the data integrity of the tests. ie she can’t ditch the recorder “accidentally” and once she passes the demos (and more training, thus proving her responsibility) she’ll get it removed and issued a cell phone style? If that’s the case. cool, otherwise I’m assuming that Max keeps crushing the wrist units somehow, (remember the drawer of cell units Leon had!) and the A-typical fiscally responsible bean-counters at Archon don’t want to keep replacing the more expensive wrist units that they issue to the other team members due to costs, and even though the battery isn’t large enough to last longer so they need more of them, they still break even on costs and the other team members (that probably won’t be breaking their units that often (Sydney may end up getting a cell phone style soon :) )) end up with a more capable unit because with the wrist unit they can add a few millimeters of thickness or length on the arm and make the battery that much bigger without affecting the comfort/usability of it versus doing the same to a cell phone and making it too large to handle easily, even though the cost of doing so adds a lot to the price tag, then again, maybe they have a choice of the two styles and Max just doesn’t WANT to use a wrist unit? and for the untested newbie, they just grabbed the one-size-fits-all solution on the shelf to answer the question of “how to keep track of/ communicate with your flying employees?” and it happened to be the wrist unit today? Hmm… it also make sense as well for Syd to have a wrist unit, because that will allow her to still hold two orbs at the same time AND just use a pinkie finger to touch the buttons on the unit, all without having to drop a ball from one hand in order to grab a cell phone. manipulating the screens once it is held would work out the same way no matter which style she uses.
It’s Sydney. What are the chances she would randomly hurl it at someone or something if it wasn’t literally strapped to her?
More importantly, what does the (potentially job-on-the-line-if-he’s-wrong) maker/customizer of her phone want to bet the odds are?
Good point on it being usable-ish even when both hands are full of orbs.
Another possibility is that it’s because she’s the newest member so gets the newest kit. I have a newer PC than the guy sitting next to me at work because its easier to order a new one for the new joiner rather than make everyone shuffle up. Unless you join just after a planned upgrade and you really will get recycled kit, but them’s the breaks.
Hmm the drawer full of replacement phones for Max does make that seem less likely, ah well. Maybe they are her preferred model and she’s ear-marked them!
Since Sydney’s powers require her to hold the orbs in her hands, the wrist-o-matic device better have a voice command mode or Syd is going to have to learn to type with her nose.
Good point.
Dave explained, in the comments above, that she does have a unit but it’s much smaller and without the battery life of Sydney’s Presumably it leaves out some things she wouldn’t need as well, given her power set. He was careful t point out that she carries extra batteries though. =)
Surely I’m not the only one who noticed that Peggy isn’t looking at Sydneys face. In fact, she couldn’t see Sydneys face (an impressive feat considering how short she is) and instead seems ot be looking across the way at Dabblers… assets. The next panel we see her, and she seems to have moved on though…..
I think she’s checking out Syd’s ass in both panels. She’s already seen plenty of Dabs and all her bits are completely fake right now anyhow.
Did I miss it or did no one else catch the the Hanna Barbera line
Been years since I saw an Atom Ant cartoon
I love the story so far.
the characters and their designs are great.
I just wish it updated more often than once a week.
@David Barrack
Is there any chance of you in the future updating the comic twice or three times a week?
well if you want to pay daves bills for him so he can quit his job or do the prep work for his online store products so he can just sell them and make money to quit his day job, either will give a lot more time to make comics .
Dave should be rolling in dough from advertisers, but he seems to have left a crap ton of wasted space over there —->
it’s an awesome comic with way way more commenting going on then some comics have. Target the ads to words and phrases used in the comics and we’ll get plenty of hits for the dead tree ppl we can’t help but reference.
This should be a FAQ :) Perhaps some sort of thermometer graphic on the front page – “DaveB is this close to going full time” or “DaveB is this close to losing it if one more person asks about more updates” :)
Or a kickstarter for Book 1? Just throwing it out there…
Yeah the eventual kickstarter for the first book might be the best bet for that. Maybe some crazy stretch goal. :)
One thing I’ve seen on a few Kickstarter projects, usually at a high level, is having yourself written into the book as a character. Not a continuing character, but one of the single storyline important type of characters. That gives the person who bids that amount a few pages of Comic book time.
Of course, there are the usual signed and artist editions type stuff too. I have one idea that might be unique to your book though, at least I’ve never seen it in any other. This would be a single page so it might be less expensive than the one I mentioned above, but still high value. Set a certain number of entries where someone gets to design themselves as a superhuman, then include those people in your Biography of Supers, with drawing by you of course. Just something like your current ArcSwat cast bios. I think that would be popular too.
Not sure about anyone else, but would personally prefer having a wrist-unit rather than a phone-unit (for one thing: no fumbling in pockets, forgeting to bring it with you, being able to still hold a HALO while using the unit, etc)
Not sure about other right-handers, but back when still used wrist-watches would always wear them on the right wrist
Yes bring on the smart watch-type thing that doesn’t basically suck. I have a friend with the pebble and another with some Sony thing (I think it’s Sony…) and both were deeply unimpressive. Okay they’re extendable with add on software and yes I could write something myself – I just have zero inclination to.
So anyway, throwing in a gadget like that (assuming it works as well as implied) is actually a cooler achievement for the Grrlverse than setting up a new branch of government for supers. In my view anyway.
Now I think about it, I remember reading a quote from a backstage bod who said that the most complex special effects imaginable were a piece of cake compared to getting a simple throat mike to work properly. So props to ARC for achieving that too!
I’m also right handed but wear it on my left wrist. More natural to me since I use my right hand to work the controls for the watch.
Oh and if no-one has said it yet, having the wrist thing contain a flight transponder is a nice touch, and very sensible. Sooner or later ARC will end up in a situation where either air traffic control or something more missile-related will need to know where their flyers are. Good thinking ahead there.
Less sold on the multitool idea. If you want to carry one strap it to your belt. The wrist thing is probably heavy enough already and you’ll be needing to spend most of your weight budget on battery. The choker is already a stretch to keep powered, although there are low-power radio technologies like Weightless which would mean you could run the locator beacon for long periods without killing the battery. The wrist device could act as a retransmitter for the audio (needs much more bandwidth than the locator). I think I’ve just about convinced myself it could work. Now I want one! :) The US’s current tactical radios are appallingly bad (last I heard, both local and military), and while things like TETRA are better they still have problems and aren’t exactly cutting edge any more.
As for what I’d put in the wrist thing instead, I’d vote for a small set of lock picks/skeleton keys and a spring-loaded blade in case they tie you up instead of cuffing you. Anything else would be just as easily carried on the belt or keyring etc. I read something where the protagonist had a set of picks in his watch on the basis that once you’re cuffed people won’t think to take your watch off, particularly if it’s the kind of strap you’d have to uncuff him to remove it. Of course, he carried another set of picks in a pocket as a decoy or as a easier-to-access alternative. Nothing like having a backup to the backup plan.
You sure you’re not talking about Gordon in Wild Wild West (the more recent movie)? He had them in his pocket and FORGOT them because he’s so in love with mechanization (the guy had a pad and pen on extendable thingabobs up his sleeves!)
In the Man From Uncle, Illya Kuryakin kept an explosive in his wrist watch in a few episodes. They changed gadgets regularly. As for batteries, there are much better alternatives than are available to the public right now. I saw a recent report where a teenage woman developed a new subcompact battery for a contest that has the battery companies drooling. I expect MIT is offering her a full ride scholarship, the work is that innovative, and she isn’t out of High School yet.
I think I read about the ‘new battery’ you are referring to. checking the background to the story showed that the quick-charge ‘battery’ she came up with is just a large capacitor. These have been been around for literally decades under the description of ultra-capacitors. Yes, they can be charged in seconds, but have a storage capacity per weight of only about one tenth that of standard chemical batteries. So you could charge your future cell phone in seconds, but it would have to be the size and weight an old 1980’s ‘brick’ cell phone.
(If the story you mentioned is about something else, all the best luck to her.)
The Zazzle site is also terrible to navigate when trying to buy stuff – totally failed to find the seal shirt by searching, and the links to the worldwide store dump you back at the homepage so you have to search… Tried searching for the text and for GrrlPower, no luck. Man even the link for “GrrlPowerComicOnline” on the page you linked to is broken. Those guys do look a bit amateur. Less arty, more usability please.
For anyone else trying to find the shirt on one of the worldwide stores, search for the product id 235632089913750393.
I also JUST made the shirt and put up the link, they said it should take 24 hours before you can search for it. I’ll have to make a banner with a link to the store that sits over on the right side column eventually.
Fair point. I take back some of what I said about them :) Thanks Dave for taking the time to satisfy us merch junkies!
If there was a screwdriver in the wrist-mounted device, would it be sonic?
On an unrelated note… Regarding the use of the shield orb to protect her while flying really fast with the flight orb… Can she use two at once? If so, does she have to be holding them in her hands, or can she use more than two at once? (If she does have to hold them to use them, could she use more than two by sticking one under her chin, or taking off her shoes and gripping them with her feet?)
Nope, she can only hold the orbs in her hands, not between her knees or any other kinky way. The only way she could potentially hold more than two orbs is if she got bitten by a radioactive spider. Or perhaps a radioactive Dabbler.
Yeah, considering Dabbler’s overall attitude & has fangs in her mouth, I’m certain that she’d restrict herself to mere nibbles…
Spinnerette is clearly in another universe, but it could be an incredible crossover!
This could all be in the past of spinny’s universe.
It’s been explained that she can use two orbs at once but they HAVE to be in her hands.
So, she’s tried using her feet, then?
Yes
Citation please; on which page is it either said or shown?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/589
(You realize there was a link in my post, right?)
Hah, I obviously didn’t. I get all the comments emailed to me and I tend to see them individually and not in a cascading thread. Still it was right there. :P
I thought you were just clarifying for the guy who missed the link in my post. ;)
That many e-mails a day would drive me bonkers :D
I want a sonic screwdriver, but only because I’m a huge fan of The Doctor since the very first episode I saw [Pyramids of Mars with Tom Baker]. That said, I’d much rather have the Tactical Force Wrench shown in TMI https://tmi-comic.com/comic/blade/. It’s the Sonic Screwdriver’s bigger badder brother.
Aka the real Doctor.
Though I would have said “Pipe bomb” and took off but that would have been (after thinking about it during writing this comment no less) bad in judgement.
What? You’re accusing Sydney of having GOOD judgement? :P
I can’t answer that successfully without cramping my hands from all of the backpedaling I would have to do later.
I’m impressed with how well (and the fact that she thought to) she hid the fact that she has to hold the orbs to get them to work.
Way to hide your weaknesses, Sydney. You’re more canny than you appear…
+1
Although in her current likely mentally and emotionally fatigued state, she may have done it more for the gag than through her tactics. But, equally, she could have been running on instinct. Having established that gloves are her kryptonite, she will have long ago realised the need to conceal her weakness from enemies, for as long as she is able. Hopefully to at least the point that she has some solid experience before coming across foes who know how to neutralize her.*
* Although, given that her other weakness is bullets (sans-force-field), it may not be a bad idea to give them a less fatal way of taking her out of action, in the event that they would like to avoid unnecessary deaths.
Don’t forget *whisper*papercuts*/whisper*
Also if they want to hide the fact she needs skin contact they could design palmless gloves with extra grip on the fingers unless she needs full palm and finger contact with he orbs for them to work.
That actually would probably draw attention to it instead of hiding it – people would notice there’s something odd about the gloves, and wonder about it. No gloves and grabbing the orbs is actually less noticeable: There’s nothing odd about it to draw attention. (Of course hiding that she is grabbing them is better yet, but only if she doesn’t draw attention to the fact that she’s hiding something.)