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.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
OK, did a quick scan of the comments and didn’t see any mention of it, but did anyone else notice than in panel one flight is in Sid’s left hand and in panel three it’s in her right?
And the Easter-egg finder’s award goes to… Scarrab.
good catch
Brook said: In panel one she is face up, duh.
Or she has lighting fast juggling skills :)
Is it me or are there only 6 orbs visible in each panel?
There’s often one behind her head. I try to have it peeking out a little but sometimes that makes the spacing look weird.
I can see the 7th pen in panel 6, but at first glance I thought it was a knob on top of her hat. :-)
Just let me join in the congratulations for a great page. I know that I, myself, have complained about the slowness of the comic at times, but this really worked best with the buildup of the previous pages, so there was no need for you to apologize for them.
Just count the rainbow: there are 7 trails in panel 1 (the green Unknown is behind her head), PPO in 3rd panel, Molesta-orb in 4th and “BADGERS!!!” in the last panel
Well, when she took off the flight orb WAS in her left hand. So technically only the first panel is correct unless she switched hands at some point.
Also Gamesman, the orbs orbit her head, so it’s logical that one is out of sight behind her head and hidden from our view.
Yeah Dave B. “splained” it to me. (If you get the reference you watch too much TV)
We all love Lucy. Even those of us who don’t watch TV.
Lucy’s in the sky.
{Richard} *Sings* Lucy in the sky with diamonds…OF FLAMING DEATH!!! [/Richard}
Oops.
All you need to say is that the left hand ball in the first panel only APPEARED to be blue due to the Doppler effect of their speed shortening the apparent wavelength of light to the viewer. However, this would also require them to be doing about quarter lightspeed for this color shift to take effect. It might be hard for the press crew to keep up with that.
I just don’t think there are enough words to describe how much I love this page.
Yup. Love it.
Seems neither noticed they are having a conversation at almost 400mph without the wind interfering with talk sounds. Is that a power of:
1- all/most supers
2- a Maxima short range telekinesis side effect
3- a power of the halo (*)
4- or is the author just going with the convention of what should be ignored to preserve simpler, fluid storytelling?
P.S.: am I first to come up with a simpler name for “non-orb-specific and/or not-orb-holding powers”? I call it the powers of THE halo, while just Halo is Sydney’s superhero codename.
P.P.S.: Clearly seen powers of the halo I remember include consciously controlling the orb’s flight paths for a bit of kinetic effect or grabbing an orb easier, colorful flight path lines (at least during flight), hiding orbs from all detection methods other than plainly looking at it, and may include noticing when someone (like X) tries to grab an orb and there is a theory going round they cure Sydney’s ADHD but then the meds she keep taking are now a problem because of it. And oh, the halo DOESN’T protect Sydney by itself (at least from spice burns to the eye…), even if in theory an orb could so Sydney’s spice resistance is in theory naturally occuring (as a person with nearly no sense of smell or taste, I can relate to the constant craving for ridiculously strong spices, yo).
2 & 3, with a bit of 1, and I’ll up you a 5: Unlike The Avengers, this team has actual comm units as shown in the last comic. Assume they have a Voice Activation setting in addition to Push To Talk.
This is why they’re using “throat” mikes. Throat-mikes pick up sound through direct contact with your voicebox and transmit to an ear plug so the sound never actually goes through the air.
Only thing better would be implants along the lower jawbone. (We hear ourselves through the vibrations traveling through our skull to the eardrum, which is why we sound so different to ourselves than we do to others or recording devices.)
Don’t you know that all super heros can read lips without looking?
Gotta believe that short-range/tactile telekenesis/force-field is a gimme with most flight powers, otherwise anyone not built like a tank is going to get beaten to death by windshear, birdstrikes, flying insects in the eye, 400MPH drops of rain, etc.
You’ll also note that Maxima’s clothes weren’t ripped off her body while flying through the air at 400MPH. Imagine hurricane forces x4… if she didn’t have a localized force field she’d be showing quite a bit more skin (or gold… or whatever).
Note that Syd naturally snagged her force field ball when flying at the top speeds… don’t know if she MUST do this when flying quickly, or she did so out of paranoia…. we shall see.
The reason Max’s clothes weren’t ripped off prolly has less to do with powers than it does the fact that Max would have to kill us all if they did get ripped off. Tho, at least we’d get that carpeting question answered shortly before our horrific demise.
And yet it’d still be totally worth it…for the 2-3 dozen photographers recording the flight…I’d probably be dead before the image regestured in my brain… :>
well godly has TK as explained earlier so something simple round her body as she flies would cut the wind as well as being a natural reaction to flight for a pro TK user. Halo is in an egg (her force shield) for flight so again no wind. beyond that there is the throat mic comment.
Or the purple orb that entered her off-hand at some point while the blue orb was still in the primary, is how they’re able to speak at that speed
I hear ya I also have Anosmia so all I get is sweet, salty, bitter, and sour flavors. Sometimes how spicy I get my food is the only thing I can control.
is sydney also using the force-field orb, to prevent wind? that would make sense, as 400mph wind would do serious damage to anyone in it. it would also allow conversation. either that or she has some innate, untapped powers (or the orbs sneakily protect her)
yep.
Eh. I view a gnat/sparrow-proofing power as a necessary secondary superpower, right up there with zero range telekenisis for super strength.
So, Max has her mouth open, traveling at ~ 400 mph. Does she avoid high flying sparrows with reflex or luck. Metal skin or no, a head on collision would be…. Messy.
So the FIRST ball she touched gave her fly ability, of all powers. That give me some weird thoughts about how could them work. But I will wait and see.
It is not unreasonable to suppose that the orbs pick up on the unconscious desires of the possessor and enable them. Flying being one of the most fundamental and universal amongst people in general and super-hero fans in particular, it would, as you imply, be the most likely to manifest if that hypothesis were true.
It would also serve to explain the Pseudopod Tentacle Orb, given Sydney’s errm… bookmarks.
Bingo ;)
I was kinda looking forward to her discovering the need to use the force field while at high flight speeds, but still enjoying it none the less.
I favor the theory that the reason the orb are invisible to scans is that they truly do not exist, simply being a combination of her subconscious, overactive imagination, and poor self image. Someone who doesn’t believe they are ‘good’ enough to be a super is likely to feel that getting there would require an external source of powers. You can bet on what kinds of ‘treasure’ Sydney would dream about finding while diving, it would also explain the unlikely event of finding the orbs just laying there, and the severe limit on separating the orbs from her, the impressive fit of the powers to her personality, and the instinctive level of use observed. The ‘unknown’ orbs simply being unknown because she doesn’t yet know what other powers she wants. This would also make the unknown orbs suddenly being found to be exactly what she needs in a moment of crisis believable.
no you don’t know me, i lurk.
Huh. You might be right.
Also explains why they look as dragon balls with ioun stones behavior ;)
I did not think that the finding was a dream but that could be coherent with she diving alone (i.e. without surface backup) which is a serious fault of one golden rule of diving.
However that could be also just Syd being Syd.
Not calling it a literal dream, just saying it would be the sort of thing she would imagine/daydream about. With her imagination, you can bet on it.
TLDR on my last comment: It might not be that the orbs are the source or her powers, but instead that her power is the source of the orbs.
I know you did not :) I was just doing a spin off of your theory ;) because diving alone is not a minor thing.
Anyway I am still on my own theory which has all in common with yours except orbs being real :)
She was not alone. I was the one holding the camera.
Ok that might have been me dreaming.
Oh, and welcome out of the shadows.
I just want to see Ari’s face if/when she finally decides to check those links.
The general was not so far off with the rainbows, LOL
OK, so! Max has taken Sydney to an artillery range for a live-fire demonstration, which means there’s a very good likelihood we’ll finally see the much-vaunted Pew-Pew-Orb fired for the first time soon. Which, in turn, means it’s finally time for me to do this. *Ahem…*
Ladies and gentlemen! Place your bets, place your bets! The wager is: What battle cry will Sydney yell out when she first fires the PPO in-comic? Our choices are:
1. “KamehameHAAA!” (or other Dragonball Z related attack)
2. “Hadouken!” (or other Street Fighter related attack)
3. “Falcon PUNCH!” (I know the PPO isn’t a punch, but I just couldn’t leave it out)
4. Some other anime/video game attack name, such as “Dragon Slave!” (Slayers), “Giga Blaster!” (Digimon), “Hyper Beam!” (Pokemon), etc. There are plenty to choose from, these are just the ones I could think of.
5. “Imma firin’ mah lazer / Shoop da Whoop!”
6. Something referencing the PPO itself (e.g. “Pew Pew, bitches!”)
7. Something completely generic (e.g. “Fire!” or “Activate!”)
8. Nothing at all (not bloody likely, but you never know)
For myself, my vote is for #1, “Kamehameha!”. #2 is also a possibility, as Sydney has already shown her familiarity with Street Fighter; but considering how powerful the PPO is implied to be, the “Hadouken” fireball doesn’t really seem grandiose enough to fit.
Been a while since I’ve played any SF related games so I may have the spelling incorrect, but Ryu does have a super/hyper/whatever version of his energy attack, the Shinkou Hadouken. Depending on which game you’re playing it usually looks like either a regular hadouken on steroids or a massive beam of blu-white light (not entirely unlike a kamehameha) erupting from his hands. Either way it’s generally one of the strongest ranged attacks in the game if you hit with the full blast so I think it would be an appropriate battle cry for publicly unveiling the PPO.
How about ‘DRAGONSLAVE!’
What I’m a Slayers fan.
With the obligatory chant of the entire spell I hope? ^^
Which one? I’m particularly fond of the one from episode 1 myself. Either way the Dragon Slave gets my vote.
Eeek! With eyes shut and a thought bubble of how disastrous her first attempt turned out.
“Omega Murder Blast” from Flaky Pastry… and with her ADHD she is SOOO much like Zintiel it’s unnerving…
Ah, but can she do Omega Murder Butterfly?
https://flakypastry.runningwithpencils.com/comic.php?strip_id=320
I still love Zintiel. But, unlike Sydney, if I met her in the street unexpectedly, I would be torn between the urge to hug her and the instinct to run screaming.
so… if you met Sydney on the street, you’d run away screaming? ;-)
Possibly. Depending on what craziness she might be up to at the time. But definitely not until after attempting a hug. Hazards be damned.
If she went with “something else from Dragonball”, might she say “Gallet Gun!”, or more likely to use “Garlic Gun!”, or “Garlic Cannon!”?
There’s always the Special Beam Canon.
What would she say for the wave notion gun?
As long as she touches her forehead with her other hand, Special Beam Cannon would be soo cool :D
She could always go old school with “Say hello to my little friend”.
I’m going to go for “Ghallagher” and leave it at that, Number 9.
I’d like to hear her say the awesome “GIGA!! DRILL!! BREAKERRRRRRR!!!!!” while fireing the PPO through a “Drill” formed by the Tenta-orb
“PPO, I choose YOU!”
“Fire Wave-Motion Gun!”
I figure “*censored*”
my vote is on 6 after all she is the one that named it that.
* holds it out aiming and ” PEW PEW!! ”
the energy beam fires rapidly blowing up surrounding landscape.
Another reference she could use:
“MOKO TAKABISHA!” (“Fierce Tiger’s Pride”) or “SHISHI HOKODAN!” (“Lion Roaring-Bullet”) from Ranma ½. “HIRYU SHOTEN HA!” (“Dragon’s Heaven Blast”) is another possibility, but that’s typically a energy blast in the Z-Axis, whilst most others are in the X/Y-Axis plane, but it works if she’s firing the PPO to the sky or below her.
I favour options 5 & 6 myself.
I’mma going with “BOOM” with maybe something indecipherable at the end of it.
It depends mainly on her mood but my vote is for ‘SPOON!!!” like the big blue guy! It will temporarily short circuit anyones train of thought.
+1
you forgot “FUS DA RAH!”
FOR PONY!!!!!!
All hail RIchard
I am interested in seeing how the pew pew orb works out.
To quote Peter Parker, “Wooohoooooooooooo…….”
HYPER BEAM!!!!!!!!
I think it’ll be something either glaringly well known, or something slightly obscure, but not so much that it falls on deaf ears, leaving the person she’s facing thinking “WTF? I got the wacko girl?”
Personally, I vote for:
REMEMBER THE ALAMO!
FOR NARNIA!
Leeeroy Jennnkins! (alternately, Haalooo Scoviiille!)
or, my personal favorite:
BY THE POWER OF HALO! (she-geek)
Meh, why not go crazy weird and just say, “Hasta la vista, have fun raiding the castle, yippie ki yay mother fucka.”
I want to see Sydney activate the pseudopod orb and extend it slowly while shouting “Thunder ! Thunder! Thundercats Ho!”
Animate it, and it sounds like a good excuse for a vote incentive.
/me surreptitiously jots down something in Evernote.
They’ll probably be thinking that any way….
Either that or totally happy to be tongue thrown.
You’re forgetting, Sydney hasn’t gotten to TRULY open up with her orbs before – done some “what do these do” tests, but hasn’t gotten to go full force…. My vote is maniacal laughter, combined with some variation of “HOLY S@#%”.
Erm… I thought the unit of measure was flying ferret balls…
Ferret Balls is unit to measure surprise.
Holy Space Llama Spit is a good second.
pop some tags? Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, but Google says that means “to go shopping.”
nm, answer was on the first comments page. I have been educated.
… Because knowing is half the battle.
“GI-JOE!”
Is…is it just me or does Maxima have elven ears? O.O
She’s always had them. . . where have you been?
He wasn’t looking at her EARS.
Maxi doesn’t like to talk about her ‘ears’
Well thanks a lot, now the carpeting question has been extended with “or is she completely elven?”
O-O You, Chaos, are a GOD among men
Take care Chaos, divine ascension is a fraught path.
I have yet to hear of elves that would be wearing an E-cup, unlike our Maxima. In that regards, I think Sydney is closer to elfin standards.
Ah, I was wondering if she’s use the shield one while in flight. Anyone who’s watched space videos knows that the friction of re-rentry-like speeds would prolly shred, if not melt, soft unprotected flesh. Maxima’s “gold” is, of course, inherently shielding her.
Hm, that’s a good question: is Maxima entirely gold, or just her skin? Like would her kidney stop a bullet as well as her skin?
We’re not sure as yet. Max appears to have both a “deflector shield” that would stop stuff before it makes contact with her, around her and a “structural integrity field” that boosts the resilience of her cells (and anything else she is touching.)
Whether she is gold because of the way the integrity field interacts with reflected light, or whether her skin is actually a different material to normal human skin we don’t know either.
Ummm, just how is the bullet going to reach her kidney if not by going first through her skin? o_O
Teleportation; phasing; being released by an insubstantial hand (or fired from a gun) whilst inside her; shrinking it to a microscopic or subatomic scale to penetrate at a level where the skin provides no resistance then re-enlarging it in the kidney; time travel (place the bullet where her kidney will be at a known point in time and have it re-enter the time stream at that moment); having penetrated her skin (some form of advanced armour-piercing round presumably); transmutation of her skin into a form that provides no defence; flaying her skin off with an irresistible force; luck (all the atoms that form her skin happened not to be in the path of the bullet at the moment it approached); wormhole gun; divine act; infernal act; comical act (making her jump out of her skin – dark comedy admittedly)…
Any more?
Impressive list :) Let me think… give her a drink with a bunch of nanos programed to build a bullet inside her kidney out of whatever metals her blood happen to have?
Also you forgot: She can be fast enough to catch bullets.
Not to be too rude, but you’d probably have to marry her to find out if she’s gold on the inside.
Giggity
…And still expect to be alive long enough to appreciate the knowledge…
Only her Gynecologist knows for sure!
And… Is not she going to have the same problem on their wedding night (being naive) that Supergirl?
Actually, that begs a question…
If she’s a virgin, how would you be able to break through?
Woman of gold manof kleenex.
Here’s hoping Max never has to blow her nose…
Woman of Gold, Man of Titanium (Hiro perhaps?), Bed of tissue paper.
The response to which is clearly… EEW!
Plus you better hope that DaveB is not channelling his inspiration from a group of supers in the real world. Or you can expect a super-wedgie around about the time they go public.
So now they fly away from the press conference at up to 400 mph as part of a “demonstration”. And they are far enough away that Sidney isn’t sure where they are. Yes, this makes far more sense than the press conference did.
Are you really going to have a live fire demonstration with Sydney within firing distance of the press conference. That would be a nice press conference when Sydney misfires and takes out half the press.
How is the press going to see it many miles away?
You bus them over, also gives time to see how dangerous Sidney is to everything that isn’t a target.
Having the artillery range not next to your shiny new offices is very sensible (and not due to the chance of misfires).
Seeing that they’d want to introduce a new branch of the military it makes sense to do it near/in the offices, then you drag people to the other locations to show why that new branch is created.
I just flashed on all those guys watching A-bomb tests, lined up in trenches and all wearing dark glasses, staring into the distance.
they would have made her out to be an idiot any how press does not help any one unless they are being helped by that person or group of people…
Hmmm, now here is a thought. I don’t THINK it has come up so far. but I am sure someone here will correct me if I’m wrong.
When Sydney has her Force Field up, can the other orbs use their mojo through it? Fairly sure the answer to this one is yes.
But…. Can the other orbs pass through the force field? The orbs usually keep fairly close formation on Sydney. But, if she raised her Force Field in a hurry and another orb she wanted to use just happened to be outside the range of effect, could it pass through or would she have to lower the Force Field to grab it? Just wondering.
There’s no reason yet to think the forcefield has to actually be a single smooth bubble, is there? She could open a hole in the forcefield the size of the orb exactly as the orb passes through it, and then close it the moment it’s through. Or even extend a second layer of the bubble around the orb that’s outside, like a little bubble-tumor bulging out of the top of the forcefield, that encloses the orb, and then disintigrate the barrier between the two sections of forcefield so that the orb is inside with her.
All will be answered in time though. I’d rather see these kinds of issues get answered as they are relevant to battles and missions than any more exposition, even if the exposition’s all in the comments.
Likewise I prefer that the answers come out in the comic itself. Even if they may be misleading at first. DaveB is very good at continuity and internal consistency in the comic. As he has figured out many of these issues well in advance. So makes sure that the behaviour we see is appropriate. Even if we may make incorrect assumptions at times about why. However, it is fun for us, as readers, to speculate on the options and possibilities. And, doubtless, tempting for Dave likewise.
Where he is giving us clarification on some of the minor issues, that do not impact on the storyline or give spoilers, that is actually probably helpful to more than just satisfying folks’ curiosity. Some of the assumptions he might be making, where they interact with real world physics, may be at odds with readers’ interpretations. Given that he does have a bunch of scientists reading this, including at least one physics teacher, they can point out some counter-intuitive issues. So, like ‘military stuff’ it probably helps to bounce around trivia at times. Helping to avoid in-comic anomalies. Even if they are plot irrelevant.
* tempting for Dave likewise to reply.
Agreed.
However sometimes I’m torn between my love of speculating and not to spoil the surprise shock of finding something never thought before, sigh.
The shield might be able to adjust itself to allow certain frequencies/molecules to pass, but not others. You can do that with physics. Electronics, anyway…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band-pass_filter
What makes you think the orbs follow the rules of physics. The do not show up on magic scans. We don’t know it the show up on camera. I also assumed dabbler scanned the orbs with sum non magic (i.e. science based, if alien). She could not detect the orbs at all.
Maybe it is magic, but remember that sufficiently advanced tech always looks like magic to anyone who doesn’t know how it works. All I’m saying is that it might be tech. Really high tech.
That could be. But i am stipulating. that it is not matter (not as we understand it). Science or magic.
We do not know yet. The only instance that we can examine is here, and the critical bit occurs out of shot. The interaction of the force field with the other orbs, their effects, other objects, people and the laws of physics, psionics and magic can all make a profound difference to Halo’s power. Likewise how malleable and adaptable it is, in various ways, with power stunts. See the opening scenes of the comic for just one implication.
Hmmm… Now that you point it out, Syd being so pushy on the topic could be because of first hand experience.
As I said, it is just a thought – and one that will undoubtedly be answered at the right time. Given that, as far as I know, this particular idea hasn’t come up before, I thought it well worth mentioning.
Indeed it is. A related point that has come up though is the inner orb can pass through the Comm-Ball, when being used for Halo’s telepresence. Although we do not know if it has a physical nature or is just a projection itself. But if it is physical, it may be possible to use the same technique for orbs to pass through the force field. Or the tentacle, for that matter. Alternatively neither may be compatible. As you say, we shall see.
Such a brilliant update. =]
I would not be responsible for my actions if I could do that.
For one thing, I would have to,( wait, needs emphasis ), HAVE TO find out just how fast I could push along. RIGHT THEN AND THERE.
I would also have to check how protected the force field made me, and it seems as if the AMAZEBALLS offer absolute protection, doesn’t it?.. Increments of course, swiftly leading up to seeing if I could tunnel through the nearest mountain WITH MERE MOMENTUM. Nothing could be done about restraining me, even by myself.
Irresistible.
Well, what springs to mind that I would say to that, given I had sudden Amazeballs, is a quote from somewhere,
“Don’t bother me with facts, son. I’ve already made up my mind”.
I hope to dream of having this flight/shield power tonight. I have had pizza, pickles and five beers. What other dreamadelic substances should I consume do you think? :tongue:
Here’s a scenario someone mentioned on the first page of comments.
Could Sydney use the orbs to hover. IF she grabs the flight orb, goes straight up 1 foot, uses the extra orbs to hover below her feet and then let’s go of the flight ball. Will she be standing on the orb 1 foot off the ground.
that makes sense as they float around her but its insinuated that they have to be in motion or being handled thus the orbit they do when they are out.
not to mention how difficult balancing on the balls themselves would be, since I think they rotate on their own when not in direct control by Syd. still I don’t think they’d allow her to float like that, they do seem to be inimical to her well being at times. (See the first half of the story so far)
I read it differently. They look after her best interests. That need not be the same as being concerned about her immediate happiness or comfort. Even if you view the most extreme example, in that light, namely the duel with Mat. This is, of course, supposing that the orbs are aware, competent and have the agenda I propose.
In that situation, the orbs, being able to direct their own path in flight, if they were purely responding to Sydney’s desires, should have automatically corrected the nudge that Mathius gave them. In order to keep up the defensive spinning. But, at the time, she was being arrogant and working hard to antagonise and alienate somebody who could otherwise be an unparalleled tutor and ally.
In the long run, which was in her best interests?
Continuing the path Sydney had plotted. Which would have ended up with turning a nominal ally into a permanent rival or enemy. Plus Sydney becoming even more arrogant and overconfident. Thereby putting her in a very unreceptive frame of mind for her upcoming training and integration into the team. Meaning that she might ignore the vital life-saving skills she could learn, figuring that if she can already beat the best, she knows better than her trainers. Further her arrogance possibly alienating her from the rest of the team, to the point that she may never fully integrate. Maybe even leading to her parting company with them, at some future point, and going rogue.
Or the orbs could allow her to get a painful bump on her shins and an embarrassing spill Which immediately gave her humility, led to her reconciling with Math, and putting her in a much better mental, emotional and social state for her long term survival prospects.
So, if they’re still looking for names for the orbs, why not name them the Spheres of Influence?
So hum. Sacrificial tank is presented (press situation, so you have high quality targets…). Halo pulls out her PPO and says ‘Pew Pew Pew’ while pointing her arm in the direction of the tank…
Possible outcomes of her first ‘pew pew pew’ that I see include:
* Missing the tank completely.
* Hitting it squarely to no effect.
* Dropping the unscathed tank into a fresh crater (dirt weaker than armor)
* Molten pool of liquid metal and dirt.
* ‘what do you mean, “we need a NEW weapons testing range”?’
Oh, story may branch in another direction sure, but the possibilities alone are entertaining… (As is Halo’s reaction to some of the outcomes)
Tanks are expensive, accounting is gonna freak about that one.
I imagine the pew pew orb should be able to scale it’s power, but Sydney was afraid of both vivisection’s and causing more forest fires to actually train. Now she will have a location, partial immunity from accidental property damage, and good health insurance.
I’m more concerned about synergy between the orbs. The shield for instance, will that allow the pew pew laser to pass through it or will Sydney accidentally cremate herself.
Tanks ARE expensive, but you still gotta train your troops in how to kill them, and you need to keep your arsenal up to date, that means make new tanks to replace the old, and send the old out to the training and testing fields for live-fire training/testing/flashy demos.
I imagine most possible ill effects from the PPO can be resolved by manifesting any effect at a distance from the orb (say, creating the beam at a distance of 3-10 feet, tho at the short end of that scale one could still manage to shoot their own foot, as it were…)
One of the main reasons tanks are expensive is the mind-boggling complex tool and crane facility you need just to change a oil filter on the things. Tito wanted tanks off the British in 1943, and they flew him to the UK to explain to him why it wasn’t a good idea.
They did that real easy. They took him to LMS Railway department resupply facility, and let him see some Cromwells being serviced. “Big Jobs” is basically the description
Maybe sometimes it is just cheaper to strip out some good bits and use it as a target.
In the real world (USAF) the bombing range, which also is used for live fire with missles and gunfire, giant paper targets are used. If you’re testing the force of something, they might use a form of hard packed earth… cheaper to runn a bulldozer for a few hours than to cart in a tank.
And… my two cents… Syd will miss her first shots. The more interesting question is… what will she accidentally hit? Not that she will remain a bad shot, but I’ll bet that she keeps her eyepatch on, thus ruining her sterioscopic visition… even though it has been over “one hour” (and per the doctor, her eye is likely healed).
Max will need to tell her to take off the patch.
I could have swore they use old junkers for targets, primarily firing training rounds, with only the odd live round at them. I’d wager a tank can stand up to a lot of rocket-propelled tracers before the armor completely melts.
True if the purpose of the exercise is to give target practice for the troops or earth penetration power for weapons-scientists. But if you are trying to impress the socks off the guys who are going to be allocating your budget for the next few years, or the folks who ultimately approve their salaries, namely the voting public, then you had better hope that your demonstration has something more than just paper targets.
If they are using an artillery range, then there is likely some unexploded ordinance still laying in there. So when she misses the main target, she hits some of the explosives sitting nearby and BOOM! secondary explosions.
7thsealord asked that up a little and we dont know but i figure since they all came from the same place they all have the same energy so resonate the same ergo the pew pew will go threw the shield. my concern is the amount of energy if she has her shield up and is using the ppo with the shield be at half strength as its not being the only one used.
* will the shield be at half *
Dunno… If I follow, she’s well below Max in terms of power, and Max has to juggle stats even as pumped as she is. The limit of two orbs is also like stat juggling, so I don’t expect Halo to face the added limits of a finite total power output. We haven’t really seen what limits that the orbs have, and now is a first good chance to finally see…
if the orbs are O.A.F. that are bound by the total amount of space between them, then that’d reduce the cost of each power presented signifigantly. Since they can only be accessed two at a time, then that also limits her multiple power pool costs. Since she herself seems to be more or less normal, all her points got allocated to the orbs, with perhaps the two not having any power assigned (AKA no points) I could build Syd fairly cheaply using the HERO system TM. (Given what I know about her so far, also not sure what power level of the PPO orb’s limits)
I won’t mention the team member’s respective ratings in comments. As Grrl Power has likely picked up a whole bunch of new readers from winning the recent competition, and they probably would not want spoilers. Given that we are just about to get a practical demonstration of some sort.
But if anyone wants to know now, you can find them in the cast page. Look for the sun symbol. Five points equating to “one of the strongest examples in the world”, for any given category. One point being “better than an average person’s capabilities”, for those things which are typically possible for a normal human.
oooOOOOOooooooOOOOOOOOOooooo….
Is there a legend for those odd symbols that I’ve somehow missed spotting?
No, there is only the legend of Yorp.
The values I give above being from observations made in comic or the cast list itself. For instance Achilles is “50% stronger than an average human” and his strength listing is one star. And recently Maxima told the press-conference that she is one of the most powerful supers in the world. Hence we can figure out what her five star ratings equate to.
Given the name, and the user’s personality, I would half expect to see the PPO have a mild powered impact, compared to Maxima at least, and a rather high firing speed.
Pew-Pew
My bet, she’s used it exactly once. ‘Pew-oh crap oh crap oh crap son of a sphincter on….’ Details like her rate of fire or actual weapon yield are probably as much an unknown for her as they are for ARC. Still, its a safe bet the rate of fire matches the name.
If something like tanks are used for weapons testing, they’ll use one that’s so old that it’s decommissioned & stripped of all electronics & salvage anything else out of it first. That’s assuming they don’t sell it to third-world nations for their military…
The United States has a tank surplus so there are plenty to use as target practice.
It’s not like we’ve got enough for atleast 2 armored divisions basicly shrink-wrapped in the desert while the Pentagon’s screaming at Congress “WE DON”T NEED ANY MORE!!!” now is it?
Personally I’d like for it to be the needin a new weapon range. It’d be funny in itself & then we’d have Maxima’s & the “council’s” reaction to the degree of power Sydney possesses & now realizes she does…
Here is a thought. What if the fly orb isn’t actually letting her fly, but is throwing itself forward, and the power of the orb is actually just a case of mistaken identity. Consider it a kind of orb that simply doesn’t stop in momentum until the user wishes it, which could turn it into a sort of ‘mountain tunneling’ orb. So long as she holds onto this rob, she can fly :)
Just a thought.
IF the orb wasn’t chained to her like the rest, wouldn’t it have broken that tube through sheer force. Unmovable objects, and unstopping objects should of torn that poster tube to shreds. As well isn’t it stated that they need to be in her hands for secondary effects to activate. Having an unstoppable object with such a short range would be the same as all the other orbs.
“For the World and round and the Sky is Hollow”
Sydney never having flown that fast before, hasn’t been aware that a side effect of her orbs is a Robot Unicorn Rainbow Trail. Best power so far.
But can she make a sonic rainboom?
I just wonder if Sidney can project her force shield as well as have it surround her? I could see her instinctively trying to protect Max as she’s on the firing range and Max faceplanting against the shield, a-la-Wile E Coyote style.
A strange part of me wants to measure those light trails and do some arithmetic to verify speed. The rest of me, however, is savagely beating that part for wanting to do math on an art piece.
Apparently Sidney has been reading PS238. :P
She should fill me in, cause I haven’t. I think I got about 70 strips in and haven’t gotten back to it. I keep meaning to since a lot of people hold it in high regard. I can’t say it grabbed me (partially because stories about little kids usually give me nothing to identify with) but I see the potential.
Oh, I thought the “always address me by Hero name in the field” was a direct reference. They REALLY like that idea in PS238.
It’s a standard thing in the comics and there are reasons why it wouldn’t be a bad idea. One is that superhero names are one per customer. The world is full of people named “David”. Not so many named “Buzzkill” or “Winterfrost”. Ambiguity in combat communication is a bad thing. Of course others like “not blowing secret IDs” don’t apply.
They’ve already been identified in front of the press by both real names & “hero” names. Like the Fantastic Four, it’s already a forgone conclusion that maintaining “secret identities” won’t be a factor in ARC Swat.
Yeah it bugs me in superhero comics – I noticed it in the Superman/Batman public enemies, where the moment they’re out of earshot of Metallo (they blew through the ground into the sewers to escape him) and immediately they’re “Hey Bruce are you ok?” “I’ll make it Clark. That’s Clark Kent, who works at the Daily Planet, dating Lois Lane, in case anyone’s listening. I haven’t swept the area for bugs or checked for the presence of rats and supervillains who can see and hear through animals or anything. Once again, that’s C-L-A-R-K…”
Me too :) Not to mention those who rely on building conditioned reflexes: https://magellanverse.com/3-09/ :P
On the bridge of the Enterprise: “Mr. Worf, you may fire at will.”
Riker falls over with a smoking hole in his chest.
And then the L.A. Police break in after Gates McFadden called them because Wil Wheaton has a gaping hole in his chest.
Besides, there are not secret identities on the team.
Your honor, I would like to make the following arguments in my defense.
1) It was a reference to the ‘ambiguity in combat’ comment
2) I was talking about the character Will Riker.
3) Shooting Wil Wheaton would be considered an act of public service.
4) I submit the following video as exhibit A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhsPHV-40Nw
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before, but I’m surprised Max didn’t go faster; namely that she didn’t try to test Sidney by racing her. (Though I can see that could easily have disastrous consequences.)
And only 400mph?
Damn. I was hoping she could at least pull mach 1, if only to find out whether a) the throatmics work at supersonic speeds, b) whether or not the forcebubble protects her from the effects of breaking the sound barrier.
Incidentally, Dave, given that Sidney can pull her clothes with her when she’s flying at that speed, (because of comic-logic, but also because, presumably, the flight orb also affects whatever is attached to her), would she be able to enlarge the bubble enough to also protect any object anchored somehow to her from the effects of high speed travel? Would be interesting to see if she could save a jet plane by using the flight orb to slow it down gradually but still keep it suspended in air by having it anchored to her, or by shaping the forcebubble to leave a flat surface for the jet to rest on, but not pass through…
Finally, I think something is going to come up involving how light and sound can get through the force orb at (so far) non-lethal levels. Especially considering that the first few comic pages were LITERALLY about whether a laser could get through a transparent forcefield.
Things will be answered. Eventually. As far as their top speed goes, Max can go much faster, but they didn’t really have far enough to travel to do a proper speed test on Sydney. It’ll happen eventually but I’m trying to move things along right now.
The one other thing is that while we’ve seen limits on the Amaze-balls ™ in terms of their usage, we haven’t seen any limits beyond Sydney’s imagination in terms of their output. It’s possible that the forces powering them were actually straining quite hard to maintain the shield when Max was laying into it and Sydney just doesn’t feel the work they’re doing because they work like tools, but for all we know they are truly limitless magical powers that function as absolutes: Perfect sight, Perfect block, Perfect flight.
If that’s true, the PPO as “Perfect blast” could rip through Maxima’s defenses and seriously injure her (seriously, nobody would see Maxima-as-Gwen-Stacy coming). So having Sydney shoot at her as part of the Live Fire Demo is a really, really bad idea and I hope the closest we come to that prospect is having a media wonk ask why they aren’t doing it and an answer delivered.
“Also, for all we know it’s light-based, at which point it’ll hit me and explode in a thousand directions.”
So it might work like Stark using Capt. America’s shield in The Avengers to “Sweep” an area clean? Interesting….
The first part might be easy to figure out. Would you want to start testing Sydney’s abilities in the middle of a press conference? Doing a live ammo test can already go badly much less if Sydney gets lost somewhere.
I just had an idea as to what the other two orbs do, they are ‘function orbs’ used by the orbs themselves. The first orb is used to keep all of the orbs together and the second orb is used to bind them to a specific user.
Technically that works, at least in the manner of ‘this is a logical path the orbs could function by’, but I highly doubt that’s what they’re for, only because comic-logic, even trope-aware, genre-savvy comic-logic, is nothing if not flashy with it’s powers.
Also DaveB wouldn’t troll us that hard. (Close to that level, maybe, but that’d push it over the top.)
*its.
I hate the lack of an edit function. Or a grammatically-sensitive spellcheck. And my dsylexia.
The idea of a “housekeeper” orb has come up before. Maybe one of the apparent duds is actually working all the time, keeping the orbs in motion and paying attention to Sydney. Remember when Syd asked if they fell asleep in their tube? Maybe the orb in charge actually did nod off. That argues for sophisticated programming, if not sentience. Maybe it’s the one that picked Syd in the first place.
It is not. In panel 2 Sydney said that the flyball was the first she touched.
Yes, but maybe it was being directed by another.
One orb to rule them all, one orb to find them, one orb to bring them all and under the water bind them.
Hahahahaha :D
So there’s a set of DARK ORBS somewhere?
Oh, wouldn’t that be interesting. The orbs with their own agenda. Orb wars, last survivors maybe?
Not sure if this has been posted yet (I’m not about to go through over 300 comments to be sure), but… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glEQKB22nIU
Hah hah nice.
3 hours later and I find myself looking at Lulu the large lady poledancing on Americas Got Talent. *sigh* Thanks, Youtube.
And thank you for NOT providing a link to that.
Why shouldn’t the orbs be cumulative or contingent?. Our genes are, and they evolved by blind chance!.
PPO in one hand, activating, triggers ramp up and tuning up, on shield orb so as to automatically protect orb-holder against sunburn.
Flight orb automatically compensates for torque and leverage when flying Sydney extends Japanese-Schoolgirls-nightmare orbs’ influence and -tacles, in passing, onto some enemies neck. At Mach two.
Because we are not interested in boring heroes who have unlimited powers. Sure, great for boasting “my hero is better than yours”. But really dull when they can beat any opponent into pulp without breaking a sweat. Having some inherent limit to the power makes for interesting situations, where they cannot easily resolve some problem, and they have to think of an ingenious solution. Which makes the story interesting for us, as readers.
If you are looking for a mechanical reason, the most basic thing is that any technomagic has its limits. It is good at some things and bad at others. Cars – good at going fast, not so good if you do not have fuel. Genes – good at information storage, but not so good if you want to evolve a solution to a problem without a few million years to do it in. Keep your fingers crossed that a simple change in colour, or something minor, is all that is required otherwise.
Hmm. OK, I accept all that, in both paragraphs, with the sole exception of the time scale. Red hair evolved twice at least, in one 70 000 year period. :)
Red hair would fall under the “simple change in colour” category though, which requires a lot less time than say, feathers or lungs. Simple random mutations to one or two genes can cause that at any time, and it would then have the potential (as a unique/exotic decorative feature) to be encouraged in the population by social pressure. Time required for something simple like that to become common is only a few dozen or so generations in a small/isolated population. On top of that, the red hair gene (at least, the most common versions of it) is a contingent gene linked to “melanin deficiency, sunburns fast and easy” – it’s not really a solution so much as a nice side effect of what is otherwise a problem.
Solving the problem of “we’re running out of oxygen in the water, and must start breathing air” takes a lot longer, and the solutions to it are all very different from each other and all have their own limitations. (Bugs don’t have single breathing orifices to get clogged, but at the same time their respiration method limits their physical size due to efficiency issues.)
Even contingent and linked genes aren’t all about “making things better” (see red hair and melanin deficiency) – it’s entirely possible that some combinations of orbs will make each other less effective, for example if the tentacle-orb and PPO are not able to exit the shield, or use of the tentacle orb not working well with stability while using the flight orb. (Weird shaped, unbalanced air resistance makes steering at speed difficult?)
You never got to know any Redheads?. :tongue:
I only got to one and only sorta-well at that, but she was a very intelligent classmate of mine, and her hair was brighter than the Weasley kids had. You know that girl in Brave? Her hair was slightly darker that that. Slightly. It looked like someone had thrown a can of paint over her head, and it just trailed down the back of her hair.
Pale as a ghost too; she was a mix of something like 90% Irish and 10% Scottish, according to her parents.
Actually, colour changes can occur even faster than that. In insects at least. Some have already changed in response to modern industrial pollution. Although that may turn out to be due to epigenetics rather than the normal flavour. But hundreds of thousands of years to many millions is still the more appropriate time scale for complex changes. Say if expecting to replicate even one of Halo’s orbs. Should there be a natural way of doing so at all.
Interestingly homo sapiens were not the first people to evolve red hair. Neanderthals beat us to it. Although, contrary to one supposition voiced in that article, subsequent genetic evidence has shown that between 1% and 4% of European and Asian human genetic material can be traced as having come from Neanderthals.
I just realized the logistics nightmare of having long hair while flying. I mean just look at Max’s hair.
The hair would get extremely tangled. Buns would not stay in place, unless you used super glue (and that would ruin your hair). I do not even want to think about the possible particulate build up from everything flying into your hair at those speeds.
So, how does the super maintain their hair?
All is revealed in another comic’s Q&A!
https://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1292
There are two possibilities that spring to mind for Max. Firstly even her hair is super, and it it would take a lot more than mere wind whistling through it to give her a bad hair day. Secondly that she does possess zero-range telekinesis, so could just consciously or unconsciously be holding it in place with that.
Both of which are quite clearly superseded by the truth: hair faeries. I am not going to risk saying otherwise!
I’ve been thinking about the nature of the shield based on what we’ve seen from the conference room, Sydney’s argument about force fields in the prologue, and now seeing it used in high speed flight.
The shield is obviously impervious to matter, stopping a tiny piece of foam, Max’s fists, Dabbler’s hand lightly resting upon it, and now 400mph wind.
Is it air-tight? Difficult to say, but one would assume yes, otherwise Sydney would have at least noticed the noise from the high speed wind. That raises the question of how sound is able to pass through it. In flight, they have a radio for communication, but back in the conference room they were just talking normally, and the sound was not notably impeded by the field. Sound, of course, is a compression wave passing through matter, but if the field is impervious to matter, how is the sound able to travel across it? If the field itself propagates the sound, then it is being affected by matter striking it, so why then did it it remain stationary against Max’s punches?
It’s possible that the field disperses the kinetic energy of incoming matter across its surface,but then any sounds would be faint after passing through it.
Also, of sound can pass through it so easily, it would not offer much protection from explosives, as much of the harm they inflict is from the concussive force.
As for light permeability, we can see through it with no distortion and only a tiny amount of coloration, suggesting that it intersects a small amount of incident light, but does not affect light passage overall. This is supported by the radio transmission passing through it. This begs the question, the same one raised in the prologue, would it offer any protection at all from a light based attack? Signs point to no. This would allow Sydney to use the PPO (assuming it is light based) from within, as the blast would pass through the field, but would also not protect her from lasers, heat, nuclear flash, etc.
Well, unless the orbs are operating based on standard physics, I would just assume their effects are generated in the same way that Dabbler’s spells are; it’s MAGIC. Which is another way of saying “you don’t know the rules these operate on.”
What I’d like to know is whether or not her flight orb has a speed cap, whether or not Sydney experiences acceleration, whether or not it functions in a vacuum, and what her carrying capacity is while using it. Can you say: “one woman space program?”
Regular physics might explain it, assuming we find a way to exploit the new Higgs boson. The ability to manipulate the Higgs means the ability to manipulate gravity, someday. Until then, yeah. Magic. :)
The fly ball might be gravity powered. If there is an orb in charge, it might have it’s own gravity gadget for keeping the orbies together. Or maybe it’s magic after all, ala Dabbler and Gwen.
Wave motion is an interesting phenomenon. If you’re not talking about subatomic particles or photons, then individual particles within the wave only move a short distance then return to their original position after transmitting their momentum to the next particles down the line. If the force field itself is capable of vibrating, it can pass the wave motion across without any individual air molecules crossing its surface.
But that still does not answer the question of what happens if the crowd are waving their lighters at the same time?
It can’t be air tight. Otherwise Sydney would be chocking soon after she raised the field every time. It might be as simple as it keeps out all threats/harm or it MIGHT be airtight & one of the unnamed orbs acts as a support/buff by making user not need to breathe or provides air among other things like letting her hear through the field if it blocks sonic attacks as well.
If they were doing 400 mph, then it must absolutely be airtight, or the compression of air in the “bottle” of the field would have heated her up rapidly. Maybe it could get around that by metering in air, allowing 14 pounds per square inch to pass its membrane, but no more than that. The same could deal with sound-waves, only stopping force or waves above a certain level. And that would be very handy in a shield.
Yet, if it was absolutely airtight, then it must have been a completely closed area like a bubble. From the drawing however, it looks as if it was a cone or a long cylinder. If that was so, as she accelerated away, the air not being replenished from the front of the “tube/cone of force”, would create a vacuum, or at least a very low pressure in the area she was in.
The bubble might be elongated simply because Sydney is longer than she is wide. But I see that it fits a lot closer here than it did against Max, where it was more of a dome. Gah! Maybe it’s an aerodynamical thing after all. My magic 8-ball says, “Ask again later.”
Mine said “Nah-nah-nahnah-nah!”
Maybe the forcefield only responds to things the user identifies consciously or unconsciously as a threat.
It allows her to breathe, and sound to pass through because neither are deemed threats nor want to be stopped. Fists, guns, smoke, fire (and as we see now, flying through the air at near 400 mph) are clear threats.
Assuming no upper limit of power, the orb could THEORETICALLY stop a nuclear explosion, and the resulting radiation, but Sydney would either need to have the shield already active or react in the microseconds after the bomb reaches critical mass before the blast reaches her (once she sees the blast, it’s already too late.)
Of course, how long she survives after the blast is a subject that would undoubtedly raise rather large amounts of debate.
At least one of those balls must be smart, is what you’re saying. It would need to assess threats constantly, and apply whatever filters it takes to keep Syd’s environment safe inside the bubble.
W-e-l-l, that the orbs may have a sense of humour is a possibility – as indicated by when and how they enforce limits on Sydney.
to save energy they may only use what power is needed and thus have some sort of inteligence.
the PPO being rated lower than others for the power may just be due to the test fire target.
That first frame is about to become my new wallpaper. Thanks, DaveB. :)
Whooooohoooooo!!!!
And I hereby certify that it is awesome to wake up and see it.
We have been sentenced to life imprisonment, by gravity. Halo has been freed.
would the shield only function 1 way ?
can she use the PPO and shield without killing herself ?
just imagining the sphere of a shield turning red instantly with a fresh coat of burnt blood and guts.
worst death ever !
As an aside, why is Sydney using slang about GOING SHOPPING of all things?
Read around a bit :)
This was answered on the first page, four block of comments, the one titled: “Mayhem September 9, 2013 at 6:06 am”
The slang whooshed right over my head, and I get the impression many other folks too. But Sydney’s expression in the appropriate panels carried the sentiment clearly. Even if she was speaking a foreign language.
“I love these and I am going to keep them”
Although you can use the phrase in a variety of circumstances, in a singular or plural format, shopping is the analogy that has the fewest disturbing subtexts and/or questions that might be raised.
* Holding a baby (is the scene at an adoption agency?)
* Pawing at a member of the opposite sex (is this consensual?)
* Fondling objet d’art (is the speaker in the middle of a museum, at night, dangling from a rope?)
Sydney would be awesome if she was a Green Lantern.
This is an incredible scary thought.
What about the various colours, Ala Blackest Night?
Black (Death): Way to lively.
Red (Rage): Way too nice.
Orange (Greed): There can be only one! Not her. If her motivation was greed, then she would not be owning a comic shop.
Yellow (Fear): While Sydney may instill great fear in others, it is due to her unintended consequences, not any desire on her part for others to be afraid of her.
Green (Will): Concentration and ADHD don’t seem to go together that well. I do not see this working.
Blue (Hope): Calm and peaceful? Peaceful, maybe. Calm? Yeah, right!
Indigo (Compassion): This could work.
Violet (Love): Lust is not love. Not enough evidence yet. “That’s the power of love” – Huey Lewis.
White (Resurrection): Must be wielded by a conscious undead. So, not applicable.
>DAMNIT< about the only way I'm going to get rid of Macklemore's stupid voice is to start to imagine Arleen Sorkin singing for Sydney instead of him. So, either Halo or Harley. droooooooooool