Grrl Power #158 – The joy of flight
It’s pretty cool seeing Sydney actually using the orbs and not just demonstrating them. One of the best parts of every superhero story, IMO, is not necessarily the origin, but the day and week after the origin, where the fledgling hero is learning about their powers and using them for the first time. Sydney’s kind of past the discovery phase but she still has yet to really use her powers.
How will the press get to the firing range you ask? I’m sure that will be explained.
Grrl Power won the TGT Tournament, so thanks everyone for the votes. It was neck and neck all day Saturday with a comic called Moonlight Element, which I haven’t read myself but it has really nice manga style art.
Fred Perry of Gold Digger fame is doing a kickstarter to publish his long running… I’m not sure what to call it. It’s called Level Up, and it’s a doujin based around his time playing Final Fantasy 11. How he ever had time for an MMO I’ll never understand, but he’s been posting it bit by bit on his own site and on DeviantArt… in the broadest technical sense I guess it’s a webcomic, but lets not get bogged down on labels. Anyway it’s 160 pages of material and really funny even if you haven’t ever played FF11.
I’ve updated the vote incentive with the finished pencils. I have it partially inked, but I’ll save that for next week I guess, or if I get the time I’ll jump straight to the colors, but I’m not holding my breath.
Update: As requested the top panel is now available wallpaper size on my DeviantArt page. The ratio is a little weird so I did a letterboxed version as well.
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Like I said.
The joy and wonder of flight. :-)
LOVE this strip. :)
+1
Would this make her an earthbound misfit learning to fly?
Have to go so far as to say that Panel #1 of this strip may now be my favourite for the entire series (so far). There’s just something about the entire picture that makes me smile whenever I look at it..
A lot of times in the comics, they don’t really address the concept of what it would be like to just get out there & FLY. Just for the fun of it! I’ve seen some examples of heroes that DO fly just for the fun of it, but it’s mostly because a flying super often has more important concerns in mind while flying…Like, avoiding a villain’s death ray or something.
Overall, just having the power of flight is sooo underrated. If I could fly, I doubt I’d ever set foot on solid ground…ever.
That shows that both of them can go half the speed of sound, wonder how much faster they can go.
I assume that Maxima can go a lot faster with the time she managed travel from the bank to the headquarters being as short as it was.
Maxima caused a sonic boom when she did that.
Guessing that Sydney still hasn’t reached anywhere near her top flight speed just yet.
Guessing also that the biggest speed limitation for her will probably prove to be navigation. When flying at Mach speed +, collision avoidance gets rather hairy when the Mark One (or Mark Two?) Eyeball is all you have.
Guessing also that the biggest speed limitation for her will probably prove to be navigation. When flying at Mach speed +, collision avoidance gets rather hairy when the Mark One (or Mark Two?) Eyeball is all you have.
ergo why she is using her shield orb my guess is she has already figured it out or she just does not want bugs in her teeth.
Yeah. And then she’d just demolish anything she runs into
Basically my point.
A book I read on air safety illustrated this very well, by postulating two standard commercial airliners on a collision/near-collision course. Taking into account their relative closing speed (800-1200 knots in total), the distance at which they should become visible to each other (even in ideal conditions) and assuming much-better-than-average human reaction time, the time that both crews have to take emergency evasive action might only be a fraction of a second. Which is why the use of radar and air traffic control is such a big deal now.
Now, instead of a commercial airliner, let’s suppose one of the things in this collision scenario is not a plane but a flying super. Probably much more maneiverable than a 747, but s/he is a heckva lot harder for otehr fluers (and possibly radars) to detect.
Assuming the transponder built into her wristband is functioning properly, and not blocked by the shield orb or turned off for stealth purposes, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Yep, and they do have radios so should be able to keep in touch with air traffic control. At the moment they are in restricted airspace over military instillations and/or firing ranges. So they can do whatever Maxima wants them to and has arranged with the appropriate military bodies.
Presumably if they, later, have business which takes them through commercial airspace they will need to follow appropriate communications and flight protocols. Sydney is going to have to attend some training courses before then, and get some sort of certification to prove her competence*.
* To quote XKCD’s What If, for this week. Which is in itelf a quote from a FFA safety inspector talking about a human flying into LAX airspace on his deckchair** “We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, some type of charge will be filed.”
** Yes, really, neither I nor Randall Munroe are making that up. There genuinely was a guy flying on his deckchair causing a hazard to airline traffic.
I also notice that, while Sydney flies, her shield modifies its shape to be more aerodynamic. That would be a plus, since she’ll have less “drag” & perhaps adds to her maximum speed potential.
That is a good point, seeing as how she is American.
I mean, according to the Movies i´ve seen, American pilots tend to fly so low they have to avoid traffic.
Unless of course there is no earthbound danger, like giant Lizards, collapsing Islands or… Well counting Superman returns and 2012, as two Islands, i guess (No, i won´t get the time back i wasted on these movies, but i´m not half as depressed there as with one part of twilight or the LOTR-Trilogy. Now THAT was a waste of time).
When there is no earthbound danger they tend to lift of and PULL THE §&$% UP!!!
Why don´t all pilots remember that when you´re flying and nor doing a bombing run under the radar, you belong in the air? Preferrably at enough height so you are not threatened by robble from collapsing bungalows…
Oh boy…
I digressed… a lot.
Sorry.
My point is, as long as she is flying through clouds (and uses her shield for birds, friction and REALLY high mountains), i think she could risk going a mach or two without any health risk.
There is a saying in aircraft incident investigation: “Mountains are known to hide inside those clouds.”
He he.
Paraphrasing a SR71 pilot: “You haven’t been lost until you’ve been lost at Mach 3”
Also, smart of Sydney to grab her force field ball as well to use as a windshield.
Well, there are few bugs up that high, but I would worry about running into a duck at 500 mph.
You have MUCH more to worry about than hitting a duck.
Looking at the passengers of airliners that have disintegrated at high speed, they’re almost always naked, because their clothes get ripped off instantly.
And if going fast enough, limbs will get ripped off too.
It also makes her more aerodynamic.
She would indeed be more aerodynamic without arms.
However she would not be able to fly as she couldn’t hold the orbs then :D
LOL – Better hope one of the two mystery orbs is ultra-regeneration…
The shield also stops her turning into a flying icicle.
Brrrrrrrrrrr… wind chill. even iron man encountered this with sufficient altitude.
I think she’s using the force field as protection from the wind.
Not sure if she could pressurize it and still be able to hear or be heard.
Oh. Right. The radio she was given earlier.
Can someone explain to me “pop some tags” in this context?
I assumed it was a reference to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=QK8mJJJvaes#t=100
On an unrelated note: Facial expressions, hair and body language on this page. Top notch. Getting the feeling that action scenes will be better drawn in the future than the (amusing-confusing) clusterfuck that was Math vs Anvil.
Yeah, that explains the phrase pretty dern well.
That explains the words, but the context seemed more like nipples to me.
To my knowledge, popping tags is a way of saying “I like this. Imma keep it.” Seeing as after you purchase new clothes, you generally leave the tags on when you try them on, in case the fit isn’t right or the look is different than what you wanted. That way, if it sucks, you can return it. So I suppose what Sydney is trying to say is that she is quite pleased with her find and will NOT be trying to return the magic floaty balls, despite them being the occasional dick.
Sounds good.
Thanks, this makes a lot of sense.
(I had seen the video before and googling “pop some tags” translated as “to go shopping” so Sydney seemed to be saying:
“Holy shit this is so fucking awesome I’m gonna go shopping”
which was a bit of a head scratcher.)
Yeah, I like this explanation better.
Yeah, I’m wondering about that phrase myself.
I looked on urban dictionary and I’m still lost on that.
Otherwise great strip. :) Nice to see Sydney getting some joy out of her powers. Although you know, after the emotional rollercoaster of today she’s going to crash like the hindenburg at some point.
Just wait until someone points out to Sydney that she leaves a rainbow streak behind when she flies at high speed. :D
Nyan Nyan Nyan Nyan Nyan Nyan Nyan Nyan Nyan!
I see references by (Wait, didn’t Sydneys phone play my little pony?) to rainbow cartoons in the future.
The gunnery range, now we get a light show, from the both of them, with craters hopefully of the molten kind.
“Wait, didn’t Sydneys phone play my little pony?”
Eeyup.
Well.
“The more you know.”
Personally, I thought she was saying pop some TASS, and took it as a M:TA reference.
Yeah, that’s pretty good.
AWESOME strip. I love to see Sydney using her orbs and having a hell of a time.
Now, about popping tags. I watched that video and turned on the lightbulb I put it together for all of you that still don’t really get it. Popping tags in the video was going and buying something and popping the tags off so that it was really yours, you were gonna really use it to the full extent and enjoy it. Sydney hasn’t “popped” the tags off on her orbs yet because she’s been terrified to do so. Governments sponsored vivisectionists and all. Her last comment, she considers the tags fully popped, at least for the flight orb. I have a feeling at the range we are gonna see the PPO and Forcefield Orb taken for a good spin.
That is a perfect way to describe it. I knew what she meant when she said “pop some tags” but I wasn’t exactly sure how to word it.
I agree: That is the perfect way to describe it.
I watched the video. But sadly could not put up with it long enough for it to get to that bit. So thanks for the translation.
Same here
It was awful! Gave me a headache. And I still didn’t get the tags bit when I saw it.
I think the video may imply a different meaning, more like the Urban Dictionary defs 2 & 3 – which are swapping tags of high price with low price… he only has $20.
Except he’s going to a thrift shop (hence the song’s title), where $20 gets a buyer a lot more even without having to switch prices.
In some thrift shops, if you find something with no tag on it, the cashier will either go find another one or make something up. So even better than average thrift shop deals sometimes.
And now she can be outside and all that stuff too. It’s hers, big time. Now I just hope that no one blows up the Thai restaurant.
Ooooooo oooooo can i play with orbs now huh can I?
They are Sydney’s. Hand off. Really, I mean it; she attacks people who try to take her stuff (or surprise her).
However I think it is pretty possible that someone at ARC will want to test what happens if someone else grab the balls. Of course Sidney will not be happy.
And I guess Maxima will backup her :) it seems that she is growing up some feelings about Sidney.
Considering that all the magical and/or other kinds of scan they’ve done on the orbs seem to indicate that they(the orbs) don’t exist(!), I think someone trying to grab one(who’s not Sydney) will be very surprised . . .
On the other hand, it’ll probably be quite entertaining :D!
Few ppl are happy about having their balls grabbed.
Yeah, I agree that even Max understands the joy Sydney is feeling at the moment…You can see Max’s expression in panel 1 clearly enough. I kinda feel sorry for the first time Sydney learns that, along with the joy to be able to USE her powers (more or less freely), that those powers now carry a heavy burden of responsibility of being in a group of heroes. Even as much of a comic geek as Sydney is, now she has to live up to the obligation of making live & death decisions…With Great Power Also Comes Great Responsibility, and all that.
Someone at ARC *should* test that – as a deliberate planned thing with Sydney being aware of it in advance (at least for the first such test – whether there IS a second test depends on the outcome of the first).
And I’d suggest that Max or Dabbler be the grabber. Max is probably the most likely to survive weird effects unscathed, Dabbler the most likely to be able to decipher those weird effects.
Do you not see my name?! Do you not see my picture?! If I can survive the joker, batman, an evil parade float of death, and my one true love Harley Quin then I can survive the this Sydney.
None of which had a PPO orb or any other orb she has. Can you say “Quick Fried to a Crackly Crunch”?
…New favorite strip. Been looking forward to this one for (quite literally) years!
Bravo! :-)
I love how Maxima is smiling in the first and 5th panels. First one: “Flying is awesome, isn’t it?” 5th: “You’ll be impressed with yourself.”
If there was a 7th panel, I see Syd asking Max: “Can we try for altitude on the way back? Pleaseeeeeee.”
I can only see that if Sydney’s wearing that Red Bull parachute altitude jump outfit with the balls in her hands prior to donning the suit. And since she can have the balls maneuver close to her and what not, the suit design would not be a problem, that, or into the can again.
I want to see her in a baggy sleeve outfit so ball grabbing wont be seen. all the balls can be hidden in a weird top.
Great comic!
I assume they’re talking through the throat mic and earphones? Because skydivers at 100mph find it impossible to communicate over wind noise, and 400mph I can’t imagine what it’d be like.
BTW, shouldn’t Maxima have one of those wristbands too if she’s flying?
Also, “artillery range”, so I guess we’re gonna see the PPO in action?
Hopefully AFTER she takes off the eyepatch.
She’s already a rather loose cannon with depth perception.
Accidentally toasting the press is not good news making.
Assuming she even knows how to aim the beam.
She’s only used it once, and it doesn’t have a label saying “front towards enemy’.
We’ve only SEEN it used once (the forest fire panel), that doesn’t mean that she hasn’t spent nearly a month practicing with it.
Let’s assume sufficient thought was put into the artificing or manufacture of the orbs that internal safeties will either direct any emanations out through a gap in how it’s being held, that the holder of the orb becomes immune/transparent to the effect so as to avoid injury, or that the balls take enough mental direction in how they act that the user subconsciously will orient the timing, orientation, strength and other parameters of the effects, and that Sydney knows enough to not unconsciously shoot herself in the face with the PPO.
Even though it does make sense to put safeties in where possible, to assume such things exist would generally be a really bad idea. Like looking down the barrel of a gun on the assumption that whoever put it down put the safety on – something apparently you’re taught to NEVER assume. We don’t know enough about the origin of the orbs to know if they were ever intended to be Sydney-proof. They might have been intended to only ever be used by highly experienced and trained personell, who for instance would have had it drilled into them to never try firing the PPO with the shield up. Or they’re a one-off constructed solely for use by their creator, who wouldn’t have bothered with such safeties as he/she/it knew all the do’s and don’ts intimately.
Is it the orb itself that fires the beam or does it give her the power to shoot beams?
Because if it were to allow her to channel ‘energy’ down/along her arm, then there wouldn’t be a requirement for the orb to produce the beam itself, and the beam could follow her arm as far as aiming is concerned. If it worked this way, it would be like the flight orb (allows her to fly – she isn’t just hanging off it as it flies around (though she could do that if she wanted couldn’t she? Use the orbs to support a board or something and make it fly, we have seen how they can move on their own or at least resist huge forces)) and less like the pseudopod orb (tentacle comes out of it)
thumbed up !
:)
Next page:
Panel 1. Max send down 4 golden energy blasts to the artillery range.
Panel 2: The hillside gets moderate craters where her impacts occurred. Max’s craters are about the same size as the other impact and explosion craters in the area.
Panel 3: The press is suitably impressed.
Panel 4: Sydney also look suitably impressed. She lets go of the force-field orb and grabs the PPO.
Sydney: Cool! Ok, my turn.
Panel 5: Max has an arm wrapped around Sydney’s middle and flying away at high speed, so that Sydney’s arms and legs are positioned like she is a crash-test dummy in the midst of a crash. A bright glowing orange mushroom cloud is visible over much of the background, debris flying in all directions.
Panel 6: The press looks suitably intimidated (stunned) and covered with black soot.
Actually I see the next page being a very quick “what Syd does with the PPO'” before the press arrives. The press may still ahve a few people to listen to and then there will be a ‘normal’ speed trip for them to the site. The girls may have 10 minutes to see if the PPO destroys the site in 1 blast or not.
Actually, I’d rather think ARC has already set up remote controlled cameras in various places in the testing area, to transmit the images to screens set up back where the press & audience are. That’s how the military test a lot of weapons, even in the real world, ya’ know. It certainly reduces the dangers of too many people getting killed…After all, some people are only there to observe, not get involved, even if only by accident.
Check her stats on the cast page. Maxima maxes out the energy projection stat, Sydney gets 3 dots out of 5.
Actually, if you had a power that didn’t have a throttle on it, I’d rather have one that could knock a car off the road over one that would vaporize a city.
There are a lot more uses for being able to derail a vehicle.
I hope not. Given they have not had any practical test. It might not go down well if everything in sight, including the press corps, gets set on fire! Unless Maxima manages to get her to scale it up in a slow, controlled fashion, like with the flying.
Unlikely that the press corps are going to be at the site, seeing as how Maxima and Sydney just flew there at about 400 mph. Unless someone loads them up in a helicopter, of course, but they would miss out at continued interviews, no?
live feed
I’m hazarding a guess that Maxima has something other than wristbands for the mike to plug into. The reason being, and this is a big guess based on her jacket arms being shortened, that when she unloads her mega-blast, her wrist heats up, which messes with the circuitry.
Marvel physics answer, ’nuff said.
Not sure I understand it correctly, but does Sydney need to grab the orbs for them to work, or only have them in contact with her body? My question is: if she has to grab the orbs for them to work, that would mean (for example) that when flying, she would have to drop her forcefield to emit an energy blast? If yes, that is gonna be a great hindrance for her. She’ll definitely need protection from Maxima and / or the other ARC Supers to avoid any trouble… :)
It was expressly stated that, yes, she has to be touching the orbs. She can’t wear gloves either.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/589
One of them have to be in skin contact with her palm for it to work.
The same exact though occurred to me.
Without the force field, she’s limited in how fast and how high she can go, so in a high speed chase, there’s little she can do but follow. High speed strafing runs with the PPO are out too.
Personally, I find powers with weaknesses and quirks can lead to more interesting stories than flawless all encompassing powers.
Well she could just fly in to the one fleeing with her forcefield on.
This should take the other one out, considering that Maxima couldn`t even dent the forcefield.
I bet that would hurt a lot and I do mean a lot.
Maybe, it depends on how the force field works when it comes to inertia and acceleration.
Put an egg into a super strong metal box, and throw it off the top of a sky scraper. The box is still intact after impact, but the egg isn’t.
It could be the same with the forcefield. It could end up being a bowl of liquefied Sydney if she decelerates too quickly after hitting something/someone. Or even a less severe impact could still hurt her as much as whoever she hits.
It’s also possible it has a StarTrek style inertial dampening field, which allows her to rapidly change velocity without turning to mush. I don’t think it’s been shown one way or the other yet.
With the flight orb there is no inertia.
Basiclly its sort of like the spaceship in futurerama.
If you get this refrence kudo’s for you.
There might be no inertia with the flight orb, but there might be inertia problems with the shield.
Fly into something hard at 300mph, and the shield could get pushed back towards the occupier of the shield, even though the shield is intact, being hit in the face with a forcefield travelling 300mph is gonna hurt.
I imagine there is the inertia dampening going on (based mostly on the fact that Syd’s clothes and hair don’t seem to be doing much movement at all while she’s looping around in panel 1), and considering Maxima couldn’t even get it to budge an inch, I don’t think we have to worry about it deforming and causing Sydney to hurt herself.
If the orbs are tethered to Sydney in some manner where she can’t leave them in the car to go and eat, then there is a good chance that the effects that they have are just as centered on her as well as anchored, to make an assumption. However, we have not seen the full nor minimal effects of the shield orb, so who knows if she can make a field one centimeter above her skin and/or clothing as needed. What if she can make the field opaque as well.
Kudo’s to me then :)
She canpummel her target with her other balls
Keeping in mind you comment about inertia and momentum in relation to the force field ball, it’s possible she could switch out the flying ball for the PPO and use it then switch back. If momentum keeps her going of course.
All 7 orbs are under her telepathic control, so she could probably use them to hover even if she isn’t holding the flight ball. Such as by standing on two of them while using the rest to brace her upper body to keep her balance.
Yeah, sort of like how Ultra Boy in the Legion of Superheroes had to deal with his powers…He has pretty much the same powers as Superboy, but he can only use them one at a time. He can still fly & use one other power because he wears a Legion Flight Ring, but it can get interesting when he’s either caught off-guard or geared up to do something & doesn’t have his invulnerability triggered.
Note that Sydney does have one advantage over Ultra Boy…the ability to use TWO powers at once.
That was covered on page #98, at https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/589 , where she declares her weaknesses to be “Shirtless guys with nice abs”, an allergy to cucumbers, being riddled with bullets, and mittens. Quote: “I can use two orbs at a time, but I have to be holding them. I’ve, uh, tried other body parts, but they only work in my hands.” In the art, she’s shown trying to use them by grabbing one with her toes, holding one against her forehead while wearing a glove, and in contact with her butt, all apparently without success.
Oh, and I forgot her ‘weakness’ to direct sunlight.
And her weakness to sunlight seems to have been forgotten right now, what with the flying stuff. However, she has also just mentioned that she’s only used the flight orb at home, and after she found them in the ocean, as it was the first one that she grabbed.
She’s acclimated to the sunlight for now, plus she has the cap on to keep it out of her eyes.
And she is a good enough showman to not overuse a gag. She is only a vampire once a day, at most.
And there’s been awesome stuff like flying to distract the person with ADHD from how she might normally react…. What was the question again?
The sheer joy of flying comes across really well in first and last panels btw.
Yeah, Sydney can only use the orbs when holding them in her hands. I was just thinking the same thing regarding the only two orbs at a time thing. Considering she needs one orb in one hand to fly, it would limit her aerial combinations. So she would have to drop the force field if she wishes to use another orb… or, for that point, any other object which involves use of a hand. However, with proper training, Sydney would likely be able to learn how to use speed and manoeuvrability to overcome lack of a force field in aerial combat. However, considering the strength of the FF, and the speed of her flight, there is a lot to be said for simply ramming into an aerial opponent.
Thank you. Ramming was my first thought on the force-field and flight thought. My second is that the orbs appear indestructible and she can make them move around her as she wills them. So she has several weapons around all the time too.
Hmm, If she leaves the orbs in the car she gets yanked back to them. If someone tries to remove them from her, they get stopped dead. So an orb on an enemy vehicle as it tries to out run her. . . Does she go faster to keep up? Or does the craft slow down to her?
That may only happen while in ‘sleep mode’. I don’t think they can be left behind while active.
Also, with fast hands and enough upwards momentum, she could always switch out the flight orb for the ppo.
Depending on the strength, I am picturing an orbital strike.
Could be dependent on the situation. When she left them in the car, she wasn’t paying attention. When Maxima was moving back with them, Sydney was consciously stopping them.
So long as she gets the timing right, shouldn’t she be able to switch quickly between the “Pew Pew” and Flight orbs? I’m imagining something like what Railgun did in episode 1 of season 2, just without hitting the ground/lake afterwards.
As far as the shield is concerned, I doubt it stops lasers without becoming opaque beforehand. That was a key point in her tabletop RPG early on after all.
Yes, her abilities are all quite powerful, but she does have the significant limitation of only being able to use 2 at once.
Although the power stunts alluded to in her bio could lessen the limitation with practice. Imagine she can swap orbs really quickly, and free fall briefly while using the PPO and shield. Providing she doesn’t hit anything during that time without the momentum-cancelling effects of the flight orb it’ll be pretty close to having your cake and eating it. She’s got enough combinations to make some really interesting stunts.
It reminds me of the last Mistborn book – the protagonist has only 2 powers from the set of dozens that (some of) the protagonists of the previous books had. But given the limitation it meant he was much, much better with those two, and pulled off some tricks impressive even by the standards set in the earlier stories.
What I’m rambling at is that restrictions can focus the mind to eke out the absolute maximum out of what you can do. Characters that are obviously too damn powerful without having to exert themselves or show a bit of effort or ingenuity are pretty uninteresting.
So first ARC upgrade course for Sydney: Juggling.
Haha yes I can see it now: “Good afternoon Ms. Scoville, I will be your tutor in [dramatic pause] Combat Juggling. To start with something less dangerous than your orbs, here are some live grenades to practice with”.
Actually, wasn’t it alluded to in one of the Pratchett novels that the Fools’ Guild gave their members battle clown training? That sounds like something the inventor of the Tongue Toss would fit right in to. The sheer chaos Syd could cause bouncing around the bad guys could probably take out a fair sized force done right. Seven ball shower… Pew Pew… Crossover… Bounce off a henchman, grab him with the hentorb on the upswing… Flick him into the group about to open fire… Use the comm-ball for Hitchcock style focus dragging of incoming Syd (hard to melee hit something coming towards you if you’ve no idea how far away it really is). I’ve no idea if any of that’s representable in a comic but it looks awesome in my head.
Maxima could hold one of the other orbs — that way Sydney would be tethered to her position, even if they were hundreds of feet in the air.
Do not think the tethering thing would work. If it would than Syd would have been dragged out from under the vehicle she was hiding under when Max tried to through them away. If you take a tennis ball, rope, and a cement brick. Tie the ball to the brick. Throw the ball, the brick should not move, might wabble abit. Take the same set up and put the ball into a canon, leave brick out side of canon still talled to ball. Fire the canon. The brick would either go with the ball or the rope will break, but the ball will not stop when it reaches the end of the rope. I could be wrong since I am not using comic logic.
Little late, but your likely wrong. Its been shown that no force can move Sydney or the Orbs more than a fixed distance away from each other. So as long as you were fine staying put, and ‘suspending’ Sydney, I’d suspect you could have anyone (not just Max…) hold the orb up there to keep Syd up in the air. Its just they’d kinda be tethered too.
I have been wondering if the orbs ‘stick’ to her hands when she uses them. Can you image dropping the flight ball that high up?
She can direct them with her mind.I think there is no risk of dropping them
Not to mention the fact that they follow her automatically and refuse to be separated from he. Even with one of the world’s strongest super heroes trying her best to do that.
Anyway it looks like the balls are a bit big for her hands, in panel 4 it is clearly showed that she is not able to do a full catch of them. A surprise, shook, fainting or whatever that drive her for example to loose the field ball while a max speed will be pretty awfull.
Better if she look for some way to keep them still, a bag-glove or something.
Her mental control over the orbs is very precise. Being able to form them into exact patterns, sucker-punch with them and so on. She will have no problems guiding them into her hand. The only difficulty might be if her hands are injured or restrained somehow.
I can’t wait for Sydney to accidentally blow up a tank.
I think we will see a Maxima who tries to break the shield with full power too.
Max will probably be doing the actual tanking, and Sydney will probably miss hers… and wipe out a mountain or so.
And when she does there will be some reference yell. Kamehameha!? Fus-Roh-Dah!? Vin-da-loo!? King-of-Siam!?
…or destroy/scar the moon. It’s a classic. Bonus points if the author realizes the beam might take some time (if at the speed of light) to reach the moon and a small scar of a beam is discovered some time later, LOL
Plus points for style if she draws the Lol Troll face on it, on purpose.
omg,,, those faces,,, specialy panel 5,,,,, oh and the color trails of sidney’s balls,,,
dave you are(censored) awesome!!!
I agree. Panels 1 and 5 are just gorgeous. Thanks, Dave.
I noticed that Maxima’s sunglasses have a serious ability to stick to her face at 400 mph. Her uniform must be made of something special as well. Of course, she could be generating a personal force field…
Max’s “Flight” could simply be an extension of her 0-range Telekinesis expanded a couple inches to protect her clothes and body from Flight Stresses in the same way Syd is using her shield..
So Max gets her glasses from the same place that Sydney does.
More likely she’s using her “Tactile TK” ability for her invulnerability and it’s also shielding what she wears because, well, tactile you know. That makes me wonder about something. If she’s carrying someone at high speed, would whatever she’s not actually touching be torn off by the velocity? I’m guessing it would, so bye bye boots to say the least. Also, she will have to caution them to maintain skin contact at all times. [Shudders]
I also noticed that at 400 mph her clothing is staying suspiciously intact. You see in all the news reports that victims of high winds like tornadoes are often found naked. I demand that Maxima be shown with her clothing torn off! (purely in the name of scientific accuracy, of course)
PS: pet peeve. In the movie ‘Twister’ the main characters take shelter in a farm shed filled with dozens of metal farm implements. The F5 tornado shreds the shed and its contents into jagged swirling pieces, but leaves our heros standing completely alive and uninjured (and clothed by the way) after it passes.
That movie would have definitely been better if all the protagonist had been killed with whirling farm tools.
Or just ended up sans clothes.
But I remember they looked at the tools, asked “Who ARE these people?” because of all the sharp tools. Then they left that and found the other place. They didn’t take shelter there longer than it took to pass through.
I think you are mis-remembering the scene. They walk into the barn, with all that scary stuff hanging and rattling in the wind. And, very wisely, decide not to shelter in the barn. They instead make there way to a shed which only has a pipe in it. They attach themselves to it with their belts, the whole shed disintegrates and flies up. But remain tied on to the pipe themselves, and they get to see the inside of the tornado, without flying into it. Whatever is happening to the barn with all the sharp stuff does not matter, as they are not in it at that stage.
Aren’t there some instances where Tornadoes have left something untouched while destroying something mere feet or yards away?
Yes, I’ve seen it.
Thinking that gauging airspeed when all you have for immediate reference is cloud and the very very distant ground is (as I understand it) extremely difficult. Then again, Max probably has had a lot of practice at this.
They are not just using eyeball estimates though. Check back to last week. The widgets have gps, maps “and a bunch of other stuff”. Even with just a decent GPS it will be able to tell them the speed with a simple program. And it probably has accelerometers and other things in there too.
True. Except that, in this strip, Max doesn’t seem to have anything she could read that data off (unless her glasses have a built-in HUD, which is entirely possible). And Sydney sure isn’t looking at her bracelet-thingie.
Oh, yes. The previous strip showed the GPS, etc. being connected to Sydney’s earpiece. Presumably, Max is using the same thing. Also presumably, Sydney hasn’t been paying much attention to hers.
Dave decided not to show Maxima glancing at her wrist. How many times have you glanced at your watch, put your arm down, then say the time.
Also wondering if, when they get to their destination, Sydney is going to go all ‘Top Gun’ and want to “buzz the tower”.
Not with a golden hand wrapped around her ankle.
The golden hand has to catch her first, though.
…. THROUGH the Force Field, even.
“High Flight”
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of:
Wheeled and soared and spun, high in the sunlit silence
Up, up the long delirious burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with ease,
Where never lark or even eagle flew.
Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting winds along,
Through footless halls of air.
And, while with silent, lifted mind,
I’ve trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space;
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Cheers! +1
Such a beautiful page. And really capturing the joy of flight.
Congrats on winning the TGT tournament. Well deserved recognition for all your talented work.
Hell yes. This comic really pops tags for me, too.
Dave, one question. Max is flying with her hands held forward. It this necessary for aerodynamic reasons, or just a subconscious reflex of hers as a result of her growing up watching Superman cartoons?
Well skydivers have said that breaking the sound barrier with your face (even inside a pressure helmet) is “stunning”, so I guess the hands out in front gets the shock wave away from the head. I never jumped from high enough to hit trans-sonic speeds on either of my jumps.
Max has enough power that aerodynamics don’t particularly matter to her. She could fly standing up, but she does extend a deflector shield of sorts around her. The more aerodynamic she makes herself the more effective the shield is, but for the most part it’s just “how you’re supposed to fly” as you said, gleaned from Superman cartoons/movies.
Frankly, it seems to me that there is a gender bias. Superman and other flying males tend to fly with their arms forward, like Max does here. But females often seem to be depicted with their arms *out*. Of course, neither Max nor Sydney tend to conform to conventional female stereotypes.
This page is so awesome, I have only one request:
Panel 1, minus the speech bubble, to be turned into a wallpaper
I fully agree. Artistically, this is right up there as one of my favorite pages in this strip. The rainbow trails from the orbs in that first panel really make it stand out! Very well done, indeed!
Plus one for that wallpaper.
Sure, let me put that on my to do list for this evening. I’ll stick it on the DA page.
Yay! I was logging on with the intent of asking for just that. Thanks.
I have to say that this was my number one fantasy about being a super, being able to fly. Closest I ever got was “tracking” in my second (and last, unfortunately) free fall.
Smart move with the force-field to keep the wind from stinging your eyes.
Love this page, this has fast become one of my all time favorite web comics. Please keep up the great work!
– also really hoping to see Sydney defeat someone by getting them into an eating contest/ throwing her lunch in their face :)
I imagine that might come up. :)
Bank robber: [ He’s actually been at this for a few minutes] Hurry up with the money! I don’t have all day! And neither do you. [ Points his gun menacingly at the teller ]
Anvil: [ Breaking in the front door ] Arc-Swat! Surrender peacefully, and you won’t be harmed.
Bank robber: Get stuffed! [ Spins around so his gun is pointing at Anvil ]
Sydney: [Taps him on the shoulder from behind before he can fire ] Hi, I’m Halo. Do you want to surrender now?
Bank Robber: [ Drops to ground, rolling around. ] My eyes! I can’t see! All right, I surrender!
Anvil: Max was right. It is all in the way you say it.
Sydney: Yup. I just have to say it right after lunch.
One suggestion. You don’t really build up good public PR when you cost the recipient more than what you save them from. Bag of loot: about $2000 and probably insured. Replacing front door: about $20,000, and ‘acts of super’ are probably not on their policy.
Coming up on next week’s episode of the “Anvil-Halo Power Hour”.
Sydney: “Well sir, we put out the fire in your beachfront home”
Homeowner: “Yes, but you did it by throwing my house into the ocean!”
Dabbler: I thought you were SUPPOSED to put water on a fire, or is this another Japan thing?
There is a movie call “Demolition man” with a scene were there asking the main character who’s a cop about how he cause a ridiculous amount of damage in a hostage situation and the ransom was less then the damage.
Dude Stallone and Snipes are in that one, also when the reporter asked Stallone’s character “how do you justify destroying a 20 million dollar building to rescue a girl whose ransom was only 1 million” (or something very close to that) it was the little girl he rescued who said “F-ck you lady” to the reporter.
The person asking the question obviously doesn’t understand the rationale behind “millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute”. Yeah, it might be cheaper, but it sets a dangerous precedent.
Very true. Not to mention the mundane insurance aspect. Unless you are hunting your hostage takers with anti-tank weapons instead of flash-bang grenades and small arms, you are unlikely to cause significant material damage. And people take precedent over objects, in any case. Even for insurance companies – they have to pay more in compensation and liability claims otherwise. Just make sure that your SWAT teams are well enough trained to shoot hostage-takers rather than hostages. Or better yet, use negotiators to convince them that surrendering is the way to get out of the situation alive.
I love the orb trails! I hope we see a lot of them in action scenes! Gives her that super hero pop she would otherwise lack.
It should be a well known fact that the government’s vivisectionists really don’t need to be sponsored – we… errr, they fund themselves by sell organs on the black market. >:-)
And some of us don’t need funded because we do it for the fun of hearing the subject scream in agony.
most gov vivisectionists aren’t sponsored freelance but salaried contract, the rest are work for us or be subjects for the ones who agree besides you would do it anyway. the latter are the ones given the dangerous patients like me. ummm population control was that the topic? nothing to hear here carry on.
Really don’t see how Maxi’s glasses are doing any good protecting her eyes when the top of the frames are below her eye-sockets
Love love love panel 5, Maxi looks absolutely beautiful
AWESOME first panel. Excelent depict of the characters personalities. Love this comic.
When you mention learning to use their powers after the first week of getting them, I can’t help but think of the old TV show “The Greatest American Hero”
Wish they would play reruns of shows like that more often. Like Knight Rider, Incredable Hulk, and great stuff like that.
That’s kind of what Netflix and Amazon Streaming are for these days.
I mentally translate that to “America’s Most Incompetent Superhero”, every time I see it. And never could take his character in Star Trek Voyager seriously, because I always got flashbacks to him wobbling around and crashing whenever he tried to fly, in that earlier incarnation.
William Katt was never in Star trek voyager. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001411/ Who are you talking about or think was William Katt from voyager?
Him. The guy on our right, just in case you thought I had completely lost the plot. And yea, clearly different actors having had it pointed out. But having years apart between seeing each series and the earlier one not having been repeated on UK TV (when I was watching anyhow) they were similar enough for my blurry memory to think they were one and the same actor.
Either that or I slipped between realities again, and in this world two different actors got the role, but in my previous Earth the same actor secured both parts. Take your pick which you think is more likely and run with it.
That guy is waayyy too young to be Bill Katt (contrary to popular disbelief, actors actually do age outside of the TV/movie screen)
*hangs head*
That actor is named Robert Duncan McNeil, and you may possibly have also seen him alongside Courtney Cox, Frank Langella, Billy Barty, and Dolph Lundgren, in the live action “Masters of the Universe” movie from the 80s.
The woman next to him is Roxann Dawson, she isn’t in front of the camera much nowadays, but she has been a producer for a while now, on Crossing Jordan, Cold Case, and Scandal, and directing episodes of something like 30 different tv series.
Both McNeil and Dawson directed several later episodes of ‘ST:Voyager’.
RDM was also a producer and director for ‘Chuck’. And has directed episodes for a whole bunch of other TV shows as well.
Another interesting bit of Voyager trivia, one of the main adversaries of the first two seasons of Voyager was played by the actor who played Skeletor’s minion Blade (the guy with two swords), namely Anthony De Longis, on Voyager he was Kaizon First Maje Culluh (the guy the Cardassian spy ran off with). I find it extremely funny that two different people on Voyager were also in the Masters of the Universe.
De Longis has many more things to his credit naturally, including “Duende”, which is one of my absolute favorite episodes of Highlander (again showing off De Longis’s very real skill with swords). He also wrote a short story about his Highlander character for an anthology named “An Evening at Joe’s”.
The name of the show was supposed to be sarcasm. And William Katt wasn’t on Voyager.
Yup. And oops.
Flyball + FFBall to get there. Direct 3 balls into pockets sewn into suit –pockets facing downward– and let them hold her into position. Switch to PewPewball + FFBall. No great control for movement, say walking speed only but that would be doable. Same goes for using skates and going for a drag on the Molestorb.
Is the shield actually required? I seem to recall the flight orb kinda ignored gravity of something ( her hair remained the same relative to her regardless of which way up she was relative to the room), so it might compensate for air resistance as well?
Also, has it been stated how the shield interacts with the others such as the Pew Pew Orb?
(explody beam + unbreakable confined area = startled sydny )
A more harmless way to try might be the psuedopod thing or the telepresence with the shield on.
I was thinking the shield would act as a windshield while flying at high speeds. Protection against air resistance and any bugs that may go splat when colliding with them at high speed.
The flight orb has a low power deflector shield, but she really needs the shield up to get up over ~100 mph.
Ah, I figured if anything, the flight orb would pull some air along with Sydney thus cutting back on wind resistance a kind of shield of air. But the flight orb having an ancillary shield power? This could be interesting! I wonder what other powers (if any) the pew pew orb or pseudopod orb has.
Lighthook and the green orb are the only orbs that don’t have secondary powers that we know of
Does Sydney really need the force field to fly, or is it only just as a precaution?
the flight ball just flies you about. the shield ball keeps the wind resistance from causing harm while going at high speed. Think of it as a windshield.
Personally, I’d assumed that the flight ball would also give a resistance to the pressures of flying at high speeds. if it didn’t, that’d add another weakness that she’d have to list.
She could only list it if she knew of it, and this is the first time she has gone fast enough to find out one way or another. But see DaveB‘s comment in the thread above this one.
Can Halo shoot her PPO through her own forcefield? If so, maybe she can use it to defract or super focus the bean…
We do not know yet.
I have the feeling that if she tried the PPO might bounce around the inside of the shield… It might be why the previous user of the orbs lost them.
Not to give anything away, but what an amazing three year long troll this webcomic would be if she couldn’t and found out the hard way. Just have the last page be an image of an immovable force field bubble (since part of her hand is still touching the force field orb) that’s completely opaque with burning offal.
Ewww.
It would be cool in a way though.
you know you could use that as an april fool’s joke (if the timing’s right) or someone’s thought of what might happen.
Please don’t ask him to delay any longer. It took almost a year to get Sydney out of that dang conference room >_<.
What about a christmas present then?
The week before Max asking if Sidney ever tried firing through the shield and as usual Sidneys imagination runs wild going for the worst possible outcome.
It took a year to get her out of the bank!
Dude… Don’t Joss Whedon us! Although given I used this as an example in another comment just now before reading this it would be kinda hilarious.
I would expect that, since all 7 orbs are part of the same set, that they would operate “transparent” to each other in any case when one orb might be working in contradiction to the effects of any other orb. For example, whoever actually MADE the orbs in the first place wouldn’t want to be fried by his own energyblast while inside his own forcefield, after all.
Then again, I sort of recall a particular scene in the first Jurassic Park movie when Dr. Malcom says, “Great. Our lives are in the hands of engineers.”
:P
As an engineering student in college, are there better hands for you to place your lives in?
betting the next time she uses her car she will be trying to sell it or when she remembers she will still need it to go and buy groceries and what not.
She could always tie the bags to one of the orbs or use the pseudopod orb to hold all of the bags while flying at low speed to her home.
That could do it. But then, what about her remark(s) about flying heros?
thinking on it now, maybe the force field works both ways. unlikely, but its possible that if it does work like that she would just need to get the groceries and the like into the shield with her and then let the shield carry it instead
She still has, and uses, her car (remember way back at the start? just before the whole “5 years to tell a 1 day flashback” began?)
your talking about page four. if you go back and check it again you will notice only one of those panels was not a flash back. guess which one
hmmm… sorry, didn’t realize how rude that sounded until after i posted it
Page 4? There is no flash back on page 4, it starts on page 5 (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/76). Anyway you are right about her having a car while being a actual super hero.
She leaves a rainbow trail behind her when she flies?
… I bet she is going to get a lot of nyan cat and rainbow dash references
I don’t recognize either of those references, to me a rainbow trail from a flying superhero is a reminder of Marvel Comics’s Power Pack series.
Whatever happened to Unicorn farts?
https://wapsisquare.com/comic/rainbows/
How about here?
If you don’t recognize either reference, count yourself lucky and do NOT do a search for them (you are going to do a search for them now, aren’t you)
Nope.
Should be fun to see if there’s an upper limit to those orbs or not. Thus far nope.
Ok, Halo can fly circles around her. AT 400 MPH? Wow.
I want some of those!
(Goes back and checks the archives)
Yep the flight ball is indeed the first one we see being unearthed. I do likes me some internal consistency!
Is it just me, or do I imagine Sydney as having Ashley Burch’s (Tiny Tina from Borderlands) voice?
Heh, there’s a Kickstarter bonus goal for you. Hire Ashley Burch to do Sydney’s voice.
Who?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hVJ2dTU7RM
Heh, cool piss-take of table-top roleplaying games.