Grrl Power #160 – Explodiest beam vs. the shieldiest shield
I mostly did this page to start to get a feel for doing larger action panels. These aren’t bad but they’re hardly on par with the gold standards of stuff like Onepunch Man or Black God or the Cammy manga by Masahiko Nakihara or whatever else tops everyone’s lists. Arguably like many manga, they tend to over rely on speed lines, but if I have to chose between that or the pathetic looking action of most western comics, I’ll go the speed lines route. Whatever the case I still have lots to learn and improve on.
Since there’s not too much to discuss about this page, maybe people can share some of their favorite action comics, manga or western. I’m sure there are some western ones that do acceptable action but I read so few of them these days I’m sure there’s plenty I’ve missed.
Since I know it will come up, Maxima is firing a particle beam, not a laser. :)
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.
HAH! Dat a fine stuff ;3 Glad to see yer knowledgable of stuff like Onepunch Man xD
And somehow, I get the feeling that this was only a weak shot for Maxima.
If it is a weak short, her big ones pack quite the punch, if a one fingered particle beam is bleeding off enough energy to rip up the ground like that.
I doubt it is bleeding off that much (heat) energy.
I think that is just the supersonic cone the shoot generates while travelling. Wich indicates it flies a lot faster then your average bullet.
Why yes, Particles that are supposed to do any amount of meaningful damage tend to be a teensy bit faster than a bullet.
ionising plasma of some sort?
That would probably be nicely effective
At least it isn’t a few grams of plasma at the point of fusion being launched at .6 lightspeed.
Ah, I see. Someone has toured the LHC over in Switzerland.
Or a baseball at .9c
In the 40 watt range?
40 watts? That’s like a dim light bulb. Kilowatts is still too small. Megawatts, at least. Maybe gigawatts or even terawatts. I’d have to do some research to nail it down, but I’m pretty sure a bolt like that could deliver a blow like a tank gun. Drooly impressive.
In the original Terminator movie. Arnie is in a gun shop and ordered a Laser rifle in the 40-watt range. Old Action Movie ref for the win!
Just what you see on the shelf, pal.
I’ll be back
40 Terrawatt Single Finger Projectile Weapon.
Seeing as how the entire Ontario electrical power grid is distributing only about 15 MW, I think 40 TW is just a bit excessive. Let’s see, a lightning bolt has about 500 GW of power, so yeah. I don’t think even Max can generate that much power.
Oops, That should be 15GW for the Ontario power grid. That is still much less than a lightning bolt or your proposed Gold Beam.
Gold Beams!
Ah forgot to post the follow up to this, if you look at the edges of the trench it is carving. You will see it burning with something the same colour as the beam. So even if it it is the a supersonic cone that is ripping up the earth, there is still energy bleeding off in one form or another to well do something (Looks like it is burning, so could be radiation heat)
Well, she want’s to start small, and gradually blast with more energy.
She’s not trying to kill her after all. Just see how strong her shield is.
true she’ll probably stop around the time she hits the steel block, though i wonder if syd can shrink the shield to make it stronger
If I’m any judge of character, she’ll operate on the assumption that Sydney’s shield could fail at any time, and hit gently enough that her shots wouldn’t hurt Sydney if her shield wasn’t up.
She doesn’t know what happens when the shield gets overloaded. Maybe it absorbs as much as it can and allows a small amount to leak through. Maybe it breaks completely and the entire shot goes right through. Maybe it slowly takes damage, so that a powerful shot could be blocked or a weak shot allowed through depending on how much punishment it’s taken lately. Maybe it drains Sydney’s life force for extra power in emergencies, and she could be killed even if Maxima’s shots don’t actually get through the steel block.
We don’t know, and neither does Maxima. If the shield turns out to be strong enough that Maxima can’t break it with her “make a 3-foot wide hole in a concrete wall” beams, that’ll be enough to impress the reporters. Sydney’s exact capabilities will probably be classified eventually anyway.
you forgot one possibility, it hits an energy limit and channels the energy outward into a “Clearing” Blast
I think the shield will transmit the kinetic force out of the oposite side of the shield, its the easiest way to get rid of exes energy (either that or itreleases a shockwave when she dispells it)
Hm. I think Dabbler is in for quite a surprise next time she uses Sydneys force field to hide from Max’s ire.
That would be potentially VERY dangerous.
There is also the other possibility of the shield effect being linked to the other two “unknowns” and they trigger once the limit is reached. Anything from instant teleport [ie get me the bleep outa here] to going full combat mode [War Goddess … red eyes, red aura, pink hair whipping around like in a hurricane, the works].
So, instead of either dispelling or absorbing the blast, it re-directs and re-focuses it into the original path on the other side of the shield. Sounds like it would be a flaw in the shield design. And only if the individual utilizing it was behind it and not in the center of it.
However, I’m also going to hazard a guess that Maxima’s been shooting the E.O.D. monkey suit Sydney’s got on.
A flaw, what are you talking about, if you’re surrounded any puches trown will hit anyone on the other side.
Now I can’t wait to see what Sydney’s ‘splodey beams can do. If the “one-upmanship” (one-upwomanship?) trend of the rest of her spheres holds true, we are in for quite a show.
There is also the containment field around the beam itself. And the reaction of a bunch of matter traveling close to lightspeed while not in a vacuum.
Thankgawd, she didn’t use the middle finger.
This scene made me wonder if the final two spheres act like an “Alt & Shift” button, modifying the powers of the other spheres?
IT WOULD BE AWESOME IF ONE OF THEM WAS CAPSLOCK.
Oh! Yes! One’s like a right button and the other is a left and you can change the power of each orb by going right or left! <3
Let’s hope that Sydney never finds out that entering the combo of blue-blue-purple-orange-green-red-red unlocks ‘God Mode’.
That has been theorized that using one of the “Unknowns” could cause different effects when paired with one of the others.
No foolin’. Max reserves her middle finger for those REALLY serious FU explodey-shots…
Ah the story about the one exploded Mosque reveals itself. Walking down the road in Afghanistan, Max passes a Mosque just in time to be called a ‘whore’ by a passing group of men. She turns and casually gives them the middle finger….
Excerpt from inquest:
“Ah. no sir, I was not aware of any ability to fire directed energy from my fingers sir.”
that is an interesting pattern on her shield
I really like it, the fact that there is such a clean pattern is nice.
And the pattern is only on the side of the shield that got struck. Wich indicates that it is at least being taxed this time.
It was already there when Max was punching it https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/526 .
Just not as wide spread.
I bet that as more stress is given, we will see more color or a color change in the shapes that make up her shield.
Completely missed that.
I just noticed, though, that in that panel the sonic booms from Maxima’s punches were nearly “shattering eardrums” but Sydney was unaffected. Wouldn’t that mean the shield also blocks out, or mitigates, harmful levels of the typically mundane like light and sound?
Interesting point, she can hear through it, but it keeps it from being too loud… could it be doing the same for photons then? Can she tan through it? Sunburn? Be melted by a laser?
She can see through it and it blocks maxima’s energy beams which might be a laser. Which kinda goes against her rule lawyering at the beginning of the comic about a force field stopping lasers only if its opaque.
DaveB said it was a particle beam, not a laser
Interesting. This blast generates the Pattern over half the shield. I guess if the pattern goes over the entire shield it is bad (because then the shield breaks under the stress).
The blast doesn’t generate the pattern, the blast simply shows the pattern (makes it visible as it were)
GOLD PARTICLE BEAM! :)
No! It’s Maxima’s ZORK Beam!
DODON RAY!!!!!
Kudo’s if you get the reference.
DODON-PA!!! Quick Sydney, block it with a Dragonball!!!
Well it isn’t up to Wave Motion Gun standards – yet.
That’s true, but where are they going to find a space battleship?
Dabbler?
Need to take it up to Hellbore standards.
Why would they need the STF-1? They have Maxima!
I thought it was a space submarine? Which is kinda a contradiction of terms, but that’s a lot like life, isn’t it?
Pray Max can’t hit Giga Wave Cannon-levels of output.
Though it might be funny to see a mile long/wide crater…with a floating (due to quick thinking on Syd’s part) block of steel with a force field around it.
Maxima has been taking lessons from Freza I see.
I am SO glad I have the day off today. Waiting to get home to read this comic on a big screen is pure agony at times. That is one powerful “gold beam” Maxima has. It glassed the ground as it passed.
*does some quick, probably inaccurate, math*
Let’s see… 2300 Celsius for glass, Maxima’s shoulder height should be about 1.7 meters, diameter of her finger about 2.5 centimeters…
…
…
yeah… defnintely inaccurate math, unless Dave’s going for the temperature of the sun ^_^;
Obviously, she’s fueled by the power of a million exploding suns.
Well, from the color it should be about as hot as the surface of the sun ^_^
I think, though, that it’s not glass, just some surface material being blow away. Energy gets transferred to the air, superheating it and causing a minor explosion along the path of the beam, like lightning producing thunder.
What is that surface material, though? Dry lake bed? Salt flats? Some other large flat barren area?
As an artillery or military bomb range, the surface in the area of heavy activity is likely clay or other subsoil, as the surface has been blown up so much that there is nothing left in the way of topsoil. They area of normal activity will be ripped to shreds from training rounds landing, and maybe the occasional live round exploding. Other parts may have damage due to misfires and bad aim (not often thankfully), but otherwise, it will be the type of low vegetation typical for the area; trees are a no-go.
Information from the Mythbusters “Behind the Scenes Special”, Mythbusters: “Alphabet Soup: Q is for Quagmire” (even though the Alameda Country Bomb Range is not actually a true quagmire when it rains, just a mud pit), and my quite old experience with a Royal Canadian Army artillery range, back when I was playing soldier.
I went through ROTC as a college student. There was a demonstration they called “US Arms”, where we were parked on outdoor bleachers at a test range while various pieces of materiel were demonstrated, such as the Bradley fighting vehicle, the Apache helicopter, etc. The Abrams fired a ‘silver bullet’, which made the loudest sound I have ever heard, and it looked like a lightning bolt a few yards long being fired from the main gun. The tank silhouette it hit at about a half mile away caught on fire and burned throughout the remainder of the demonstration. Color me impressed!
Maybe not that inaccurate. There are Particles moving through the atmosphere at the speed of light. Since normaly only waves do that, the atmosphere gets agitated.
And why not?
They have no buisiness flying that fast. If I was the atmosphere, I´d be pissed too.
Ha, the “ohmygod” particles. They only hit a few times a year though. Lucky for us.
Doubt it’s actually going Light Speed. even .001C is enough power to wipe out half a city.
Are you a writer? Or a RPG-Author?
Where the hell do guys like you get these Numbers?
Would you PLEASE try not to throw arount the “C” as the almighty Bombshell?
.001C is 30 Kilometers per second!!!!!!
What kind of Damage would a millionth gram of matter do at those speeds?
Right:
NONE!
People!
Stop using lightspeed as an excuse for everything and start to think for yourselves.
Or at least do basic math!!!
No, no, don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel. ;-)
Sorry, that just ticks me off sometimes.
I hear lightning is hotter than the sun… for like .001 seconds.
It depends on which part of the sun you’re talking about.
A lightning bolt can be up to about 30,000K
The surface of the sun is around 5,700K.
The sun’s atmosphere varies from 100,000K to 1,000,000K.
And the sun’s core is around 13,600,000k.
Which is still one of the very fun mysterys of science. How the hell can the atmosphere be hotter than the surface XD
That is a bit like saying “how come the visitors’ car park of a nuclear plant is cooler than inside the reactor?”
The sun’s atmosphere (the corona) is above the surface (i.e. farther from the core). I’d like to offer an explanation as to why it’s hotter despite being farther from the heat source, but I don’t have the proper background in astrophysics.
As far as I understand it (which to be fair, isn’t that far) science doesn’t actually have an awnser for it.
Logicly, it shoulnd’t happen. That is, by the logic we think we know
I should apologise. I totally mis-read your comment and thought that you were talking about the surface vs the centre. Probably due to flipping between your comment and the stats michaelmcfakename listed and loosing the plot along the way. As it is, yea I agree with you, pass that one on to nuclear physicist/astronomer readers out there. To see if they have any explanation Buggered if I know*!
* Using science-based answers, anyhow. My philosophy can answer every question I have ever thrown at it. Bar one. *sigh*
Could it be that the material that makes up the surface of the sun is highly resistant to temperature changes? So it basically acts as an insulation layer keeping the sun going strong instead of quickly expending all energy and going nova?
No.
Mainly because 1) we know what it’s made of because of spectrography, and 2) there’s not a large temperature change across the hypothesized insulation, which there would be if it were what was keeping the underlying solar…. um… “stuff” (to use a technical term) hot. And maybe 3) we can see a lot of the convection patterns underlying it, and that makes is pretty clear that it’s not insulating things; it’s letting off steam in the form of photons and solar wind.
I believe the consensus on the reason the corona is hotter because of resonance heating.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/alfven-waves.html
The core of a star has the highest pressures and temperatures; this is where the hydrogen fusion process is occurring. The energy liberated from this reaction slowly (like a million years slowly) bounces around the sun and makes its way to the surface. At the surface, the energy leave in the way of light as well as by convective currents that become the solar wind; this cools the surface of the sun, so that it is only about 6000K. While the energy is bouncing around inside the sun, it is causing the magnetic field of the sun to spin and twist into crazy loops and other shapes. This provides energy for the very thin corona of the sun, which heats up a lot in response to this energy. Because the density of the corona is so low, it does not much energy to get it very hot. So that is why the corona is about a million Kalvin but the surface is so much cooler.
That makes sense
Oh! I love quick inaccurate math! Let me give it a try!
Using your 2300C for glass, the inverse square law for radiant energy, and rounding the 1.7 to 2m because I’m lazy, we get…
2573K= t/2m^2 = 2573K*4 = ~10000 degrees C, or 18000f
That is pretty impressive.
Note, however, that if Max’s particle beam is moving fast enough, the compression of air in front of it could generate some of the heat. Using NASA’s re-entry heat calculator ( https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/BGH/stagtmp.html ) moving at 5000m/s could generate this amount of heat just by moving through the air.
Now, that is CRAZY fast, and would preclude anyone but a serious speedster from ever dodging, but it’s a possible component of the heat we are seeing. We would definitely get a sonic boom each time she fired through.
Well this is a particle beam we are talking about. If you don’t want those to fall apart before hitting the target you want those going at a sizable fraction of the speed of light. So 5 km/s is slow.
Wait when did we start having Thursday strips? This is awesome!
DaveB makes a Thursday Strip every once in a blue moon, when he has time or, is trying out a new style of art.
It won’t be a regular thing unfortunately since each one is so much work. When I get into battles I’ll probably break the pages into Mon/Thurs pages because you gotta go big with action. At least, that’s my plan. Little action just doesn’t look right.
Love it and sneaky with the shield pattern! It’s a dispersion field, designed to move the damage of impact throughout the entire field then letting it bleed from the opposite side! ;)
I think I said this when I met you at the small Meet-up at A-kon this year but whenever you can give us a Thursday panel it feels like a nice gift.
I wonder how big Sydney can make the shield. If she’s touching the Archon building will the shield cover it? She can probably protect other people with it, not just steel blocks.
Interesting question. Not clear (yet) whether or not Sydney can vary her Force Field size. I would guess that, IF she can do so, the FF’s strength will drop as the size goes up.
Now HERE is another interesting question. Or a couple thereof
Sydney’s force field is a sphere. In Panel #1, we see it as a hemisphere. So, is the part we don’t see there actually extending or cutting into (presumably) solid ground? Or does the FF simply not form wherever it contacts the ground? Or solids in general?
If the FF cuts into solids, it can be a rather nasty close-in weapon. Not Sydney’s style at all, I know, but the potential is there. Anything or anybody that gets too close can have bits lopped off if she raises the shield at the right time. It could also be used to wreck (for example) buildings – raise the FF in the right spot to carve a chunk out of a wall or structural support.
If the FF does NOT cut throiugh solids ( a more likely scenario, I’m guessing), then this puts some interesting limitations into the mix. Suppose, for one example, Sydney gets lassoed. She then raises her FF. However, the FF does NOT cut the lasso, so she is now a rather large tetherball. Or, Sydney is grabbed by. say, King Kong. She raises her FF. So Kong is still holding her, but now has a FF enclosing the hand he has around her.
All shall be made clear in good time, I know. Just musing on the possibilities.
Well, almost all superpowers have their weaknesses too.
The particle Beam Max is firing right now can never be used when bystanders are on the scene. She can be the worlds best sniper, and would still do considerable collateral damage.
So, yeah, I can totally see the Forcefield not helping Syd at all once she has been grappled without it.
This is probably not her weakest beam though, she’s starting higher because she has a fair idea of the shield’s strength already.
I’d say her force field usually appears to be a spheroid (the solid of an ellipse, of which a sphere is a special case), but in this case appears to be a dome of some sort. (Might even be a paraboloid…) Of course, it could still be a spheroid that continues through the ground, but we’ll have to test that.
The results of that shot might do it.
the fact that this -> https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/515 happens several floors up and she didn’t fall through the floor the moment she activated her shield means that it does *not* cut through things.
Look at the second to last panel from the page you linked: if it was a true sphere, it would have had to envelop around or pas though her legs; latter on, same sheild, she is clearly standing behind it, your also forgetting that it might form in things harmlessly and strengthen them were it overlaps.
What do I think of her shield? more interested in what the edges do if they hit something: are they blunt? do they cut? or are they a phantasm from the sides that goes through with out harm?
That page shows nicely that her Shield adepts in it’s form to fit around the user (waving your arms around your head like you just don’t care, and the arms are still shielded. Put your arms down and the shield lowers abit down to just over her head)
I see what you were saying about her “style” and everything, but, she has an ‘plodey beam. Dead is dead.
I love the mental image of an extremely confused Kong, pounding hemispheres into the ground and everything in reach, trying to break her bubble.
An important question to resolve, in order to answer your speculation fully, is how does the force field operate? Because even if the effect does pass through matter, it may not have any effect on it at all. If, like the shields in Dune, it slows fast moving objects to a crawl, then it could even pass through people without ill effect, under normal circumstances. Fists and particle beams would be stopped by such a shield. Lasers would not.
Likewise a highly sophisticated force field which only blocked ‘hostile attacks’ may be able to either ignore inert matter and creatures/passing through them without interfering with them or, if it is of a more physical nature, turning parts of it off or on, to prevent cutting damage. Depending on it’s nature it may or may not allow mis-use of the latter option.
The force field in panel 3 here appears to be of a physical nature. Given that Dabbler appears to be grasping it. So that may give us a clue. If we can be sure it is Sydney’s shield in that panel and not Dabbler’s. Sydney does have the appropriate orb in hand, but that does not in itself prove that it is her shield depicted. It does look like the other instances of her shield, but so might Dabbler’s when it is not being struck.
That said though, it seems likely it is Halo’s shield. In which case it can be physically touched and presumably could have the appropriate uses and hindrances which may go with that. Such as being able to trap villains in a corner. Or having to be lowered in order to get a hostage inside for protection.
Unless she can use some power stunts to get around that.
Possibly it probably attempts to form a full sphere but stops at any points where it intersects with solid matter. Which could be problematic itself if an opponent can pass through the ground (or even just hides in a concealed hole, for example). Alternatively, as the shield has been seen to vary somewhat, including encompassing that rather big block, it may be that the force field shapes itself to the available area. In which case, unless flying, it would normally be a hemisphere with a flat bottom running along the floor or ground underfoot. It may or may not cause problems if trying to walk on such a surface though.
Given that Halo rates a perfect five star shield, my guess is the latter, as that is the variety which would give the least weaknesses for an opponent to exploit. Presumably a hemisphere would justify a lower star rating. Although the points might just be for raw stopping power and not take into account unusual means of bypassing it.
The question about forming a sphere in solids or not also brings the question: What counts as solid, and what counts as atosphere?
If an aquatic being grabbed the orb, would the water count as atosphere? What if Sydney went swiming? What about really thick fluids, with the apropriate survival gear? Would the orb form around her keeping the thick ‘stuf’ inside?
If you formed the forcefield and than entered the water, what would happen to the shield, and the water/air around it? What would happen to the same shield if you pushed yourself against a wall, while shielded?
A theory I just came up with was that the shield itself acted roughly the same as a non newtonian fluid. Liquid when in rest, but if force is applied on it, it acts as a solid. The ‘force’ could here be classified to include all kinds of attacks, and it would allow whatever atosphere to permeate through it
Considering that she found them while scuba diving, the previous owner prolly drowned while using them.
Could be that whatever sort of ship the owner was in crashed there
You missed one thing out about it. I don’t know if it is an effect of the shield, or its association with the group of the Halo, but, it can NOT be moved. The shield as a whole can not be moved aside, or pushed along by outside forces. The halo-in-its-disguise-as-“posters” couldn’t be moved away from Sydney when Max tried.
So it has the sort of ability to fix itself into place relative to Sydney, she is flying, it is around her, and can not be moved from around her, she is crouched behind the block, it can’t be moved from there.
A great trick if someone with speed but no ability to decelerate swiftly ( Rocket-Villain-Man, maybe) is chasing you. You just stop, and he piles into the shield at full speed, it does not move, he breaks.
What if though, she could form the shield outward from herself? Could she then push the lasso and the hand away from her, rather than surrounding them? So the hand and the lasso encircle the shield and not her.
Not a bad thought.
Though, IF the shield works that way, this then raises questions of why it doesn’t also remove things like clothing or the choker or that set of armor Sydney is currently wearing.
deployment style has not been demonstrated so it may be variable based on situation or as a power stunt she has developed to learn its limits. the limits of the halo may be developable, growing with training like the T-series a self developing combat system.
What if, instead of cutting severing or ignoring obsticles, it expands outward from the orb like a semipermiable membrane controlled by Sydney’s mind?
I did not read down to LongshotLink’s post before I responded, but that’s the same idea. Also, regarding the shame of the shield, it seems to be able to deform at least a little. When she was flying, it took on a more aerodynamic shape. That could have been aeroelasticity or something controlled by Sydney. I’m no expert, but I think aeroelasticity usually causes objects to flatten in the direction of travel and become unstable.
Also, the strength of the field in shape.
Since her rating is 5/5 we should assume she can quite perfectly control it if she wants or that it’s that well designed to start with.
Cutting through / holding objects inside should therefore be a matter of situation.
However, let’s look at the strength and shaping I believe we can assume that if the shield is spherical ( or similar ) around her body, it’s slightly weaker. But damage that would beeld through would be farther away from Syd’s body. If she’d wrap it skin-tight ( or almost) it would surely be stronger, yet the damage that would actually bleed through would cause quite the damage.
P.s. As for the strength of Max’ ray: this one seems to be the a weak version.
If she really notched it up to 11 with Max-ing out, she’d probably be able wipe out the odd mountainrange.
It’s a thought. But I think the sphere-shaped FF may have certain inherent advantages over a body-contoured form. A sphere (or spheroid) is probably much easier to form (especially in a hurry) and structurally stronger to begin with.
I don’t think the speed lines suit the first panel since the camera isn’t moving. To me it makes it seem like Maxima is moving rapidly towards the block. In the second panel it’s following the beam which is moving at high speeds, there the lines make sense to me.
It’s the air being forced out of the way of the beam. Think Nascar drafting.
I like the overall effect given by the entire page. But analysing the panels in the way you point out, I have to agree that the lines radiating out from the block do not convey anything other than ‘dramatic effect’ to me. The similar lines in the second and last panels strongly carry the destructive forces involved. Be it through fast movement, air being forced out of the way, or particles/energy radiating out, does not matter so much as the overall impression it gives, I feel.
But going back to the initial panel, after viewing those, and the radiating lines do not make sense. After all the beam has not hit the block yet, so no effects should be radiating from it. And, Forecaster‘s points about speed lines apply when interpreting the visuals as such. I am not sure I am convinced by Gamesman‘s explanation though. For that to be conveyed to me, I would expect the effect to radiate from either Maxima or the beam itself. Not the block.
Fortunately the general intent is clearly carried by the fiery yellow effects and aura. Not to mention the “Zork”.
Not that it significantly detracts from the page, which as a whole conveys raw power. Even if Halo might have wet herself, a little. Before deciding it was really cool.
My first thought was “How about some of this… SPIRIT GUN!” But then her hand would be turned wrong.
Pfffttt…… Don’t be so hard on yourself Dave. Still a great page. Also, all of us are thrilled to see a Thursday page. Even if it’s just a practice page or something to work on new scene types, we’d love to see a 2nd page each week more often. I know your schedule often doesn’t permit for it, but we’d welcome any that you did do. I think the powers testing would be a great time to work on doing larger action panels. Obviously Max has to fire a few different blasts to really get a test for Sydney’s shield. Also Sydney will need to do a little PPO testing. Use that time to work out some of what you want before the press arrives.
My favorite mangaka is by far Boichi. Author of Sun-Ken Rock and Wallman among tens of others.
My favorites manga are Sun-Ken Rock, Battle Angel Alita, Onepunch Man, Aiki and Berserk
I love great stories with characters depth and people that can stick up by themselves.
I hope she was wearing very good ear protection, because if the pressure wave from it can do that to the ground, what can it do to the ear drum!!
Though if she’s got ear protection, how could she hear Maxima earlier?
Sorry for nitpicking :D
Anyway, keep up the awesome work, I hope you do two a week more frequently, and thanks for making one of my favourite comics!
likely due to the neckpiece and earbud
Oh yeah, my mistake.
I keep forgetting about them
The shield probably protects her from shockwaves. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a very effective shield. It’s shockwaves that kill someone, not the bomb itself (usually)
Also, she can use the shield to safely fly at very high speeds. So we know that it can modify air vibrations or something (her cap and everything looks as if she is hovering at a measely 1m/s)
Earlier, when Max was hitting the shield it seemed to protect Sydney from the excessive noise that the others in the ballroom were suffering. It may dampen anything that could harm Sydney such as sound and maybe very bright light? See here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/526
We don’t know for sure how much decibels Sydney was hearing from the BOOMs though. It’s not something she was talking about
We the legal staff of Infocon do hereby invoke a cease and desist order on one Dave Barrack for the unauthorized use of the word ZORK, a trademarked property of our company.
Oh wait, it’s public domain now? Have some free games.
https://www.infocom-if.org/downloads/downloads.html
Heh. Those games any good?
ZORK was a re-invention of a text based adventure game originally written in the ’70s at MIT. There are various puzzles to solve and monsters to fight, usually involving items or weapons picked up in certain locations and used in other locations. There are various clues to guide you gathered from reading found notes or talking to NPCs. They are text only and the language parser is crude at best for the first game, but gets better in the later ones. Not the most sophisticated games in the world, but a trip through the way-back machine to the time when computers were rated in Kilohertz and Kilobytes rather than Gigahertz and Gigabytes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork
Oh! I just thought of a good villain name: Kill-O-Hurts.
Remember to always have your torch, or you’ll be eatten by a Grue!
Ahh, thanks. I used to enjoy some early text adventures. But never got into them in a big way as some games just required more effort than was fun. I remember playing a Sherlock Holmes one. You start out in their rooms and there are various items to examine and the feel of it was polished and entertaining. Up until I wanted to leave the building and get on with the case. Sadly every command I tried was ignored. From “walk out door”, through “hail cab” to “go downstairs”. Half an hour’s worth of other variants left me cold to the idea of playing any more.
The ones that I did enjoy either listed the various possible commands that were eligible in a particular environment. Or, at the very least, gave a glossary of command words the program uses. So you do not waste half your time typing stuff that means nothing to it.
Zork!
What is the sound of a photon torpedo being generated in atmosphere, Alex?
I’m not fond of a lot of manga, simply because the action indicators are often over the top. Preparing a cup of tea or something with speedlines comparable to these, say. Here the lines are mostly appropriate, though I’m still not a fan of ’em (I’m old school); also, I agree with Forecaster about the first panel – that type of speedlineage is normally used when POV is traveling quickly (people on motorcycles, or moving with a bullet, etc.).
Second panel – moving fast and and tearing up the ground as a side effect. Now that’s power!
Last panel – explosion. Nice to see the shield get a test…
Though it probably would have been smarter to have Sydney sit out the demo today (“Halo just joined an hour ago, and will undergo testing and training before we put her in the field in public. For now, take a look at what Maxima can do.”), I can see for pacing purposes we want to get things going. Maybe it is all the speedlines, but this feels … rushed.
;)
I am not into manga comics at all. Part of which is getting put off by reading right to left. I simply do not read them often enough for my mind to make the transition easily when I do fancy a concept or artwork enough to give it a try. Sooner or later I get confused about a scene, and realise I have interpreted it completely out of sequence. Then realise that the last few pages likewise need to be re-read. At which point I loose interest.
Movies though, they don’t play backwards. So those I enjoy. And some can be very moving and powerful.
Likewise manga influenced comics can be good unless they get too stylised. One example being the big drop of water that appears next to characters sometimes. I had absolutely no idea what it meant, despite it being a frequent motif in various different comics. Which bugged me no end. Although not enough to go crawling through forums to figure it out. Eventually the penny dropped that it was meant to signify sweating. But fortunately it seems to being going out of vogue, as normal sweat has replaced that icon in some recent comics which might have used it in the past.
Personally I prefer images which are genuinely intuitive to understand. Not those which are only intuitive to a specific culture. Don’t get me wrong, stylised is fine. Just so long as 1) I get it and 2) it contributes to the scene rather than distracts from it.
The same is true for music in a movie. As far as I am concerned (liking music but not being a rabid music lover), if I become aware of the music over the story then it has failed. Unless the music is in itself of significance in some way. But that is rare. Normally (on the rare occasions that it comes to my attention) it is just a case of it intruding into a scene and taking me out of the moment.
I called it being a Particle beam! *starts doing the Curly Shuffle*
Hmm. Here’s a question. Are they positive or negative particles, and does the direction Maxima spins her finger have anything to do with it? If she wagged her finger back and forth, up or down, would that be neutrons? Okay, more than one question, but what do you think?
Most likely Protons since that seems to be the standard in most Sci-Fi Particle weapons. They COULD be Neutrons since they actually have the most mass, but I’m guessing Protons.
It seems more likely to be plasma, which is (or can be) more or less neutral in charge. Indeed, something with that many particles (by “that many” I mean of macroscopic size and dense enough to penetrate atmosphere) wouldn’t work well. And note also that if she generates the plasma starting with the materials around her, like compressing the air or whatnot[1] (because basically you get plasma by stuffing 10 gallons of hot into a one gallon jug), there’d be plenty of nucleons, some of which have a long tradition of being called “particles” (eg, “alpha particles”), so there’s precedent.
Unless by “positive or negative” is meant something other than electric charge. Maybe it’s antiprotons (and antielectrons) (though how she’d manufacture them on the fly is a bit more difficult to come up with than just supposing her metamorphic field (ie, the hypothetical wossis that lets her pick up stuff with absurd leverage and balance) can grab a bunch of air and compress and/or heat it to get plasma). Plus also too, it’s not ‘spodey enough to be antimatter.
[1] Vaguely connected: Aang’s element orb in the final two episodes of “The Last Airbender”. If you watch closely, you can see that it’s built out of highly compressed substances (earth, air, fire, water). He gathered *huge* volumes and squished them down so they’d fit in the halo-like orbital rings that surround him. Those rings outmass him by orders of magnitude. And he can draw the element back out at need; that’s where he got tons of rock for his kinetic strike out of a small-seeming stone, the huge water tentacle much larger than the ring of water he got it from, how he got a blast of air strong enough to erode rock in seconds, etc, etc, etc. (Or at least I don’t see any other sensible way of interpreting it.) Always a very interesting fight sequence. IMO. But I digress.
“Firelord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world. And now you shall pay the ultimate price!”
— Avatar Aang
About the antimatter, while I don’t know for sure:
I would guess that, in theory atleast, one would be able to produce some antimatter by releasing, and specificly controlling, extreme amounts of energy. This energy would than go towards making the matter/antimatter, and isolating the antimatter in an electrical field.
However I doubt in practice this would be possible anywhere but in a vaccum, since in the atosphere of earth, there is matter everywhere around us. So you can’t isolate the antimatter, and thus it would annihilate itself instantly.
Also I’m pritty sure plasma would do the job just fine, with way less energy spent (and antimatter probably wouldn’t give the same effect)
Actually, plasma is a gas that has gotten so hot that the electrons have left, technically, dissociated from their atoms. So the atoms of a plasma are positive, but there is a negative electron cloud associated with the plasma, but not the individual particles/atoms. You can find plasmas in the sun (the whole thing is a plasma), lightning bolts and gas discharge tubes (so called neon lamps). The plasma is overall neutral, but the individual particles are charged.
The advantage of using charged particles is that they can be controlled with magnetic fields. Neutrons, being neutral, can not be controlled via electromagnetism.
“The plasma is overall neutral, but the individual particles are charged.”
Agreed. The point I was trying to make is that the probably-right answer to “are the particles positive or negative” is “yes, about 50 50”. Because if they weren’t, it’d be *very* difficult to constrain them to form a beam. Even with magnetism.
A side issue: that packet of plasma is going awful slow, or we’re being fed the images at a phenomenally high rate. If she wants to pack a whallop, and if she wants her targets not to step out of the way, then it should be going “fast as lightning”. And while it *is* possible to stop-motion lightning, Sydney wouldn’t have had time to say “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAG” as the impact occurs; she’d be saying it well afterwards, not quite what was depicted. So anyways, what I’ll do in this case is pretend it’s fast as lightning, and the last frame is an amalgum of the time near impact, but not an instant snapshot.”
"*I* will not stand aside!" Bellowed the Thunderer.
Oh, she thought, I haven't played lightning tag in ages!
--- Flicker vs Thor
(Growing up, Flicker literally played tag with lightning strikes... Thor didn't play it right.)
Time is not a limit in the final panel. Maxima could just be sustaining the beam over a prolonged period. Which is a very sensible measure as it allows her to test if the force field has a limited capacity. Having some sort of capacitor that it stores the energy in that might get filled up. Or if it can overheat or suffer some other problem from a sustained attack.
If she ever did that inside a room, think of what it would do to the air by stripping out electrons, protons, neutrons, or all of the above. She might be able to create a vacuum?
If she couldn’t, it wouldn’t last long, and be very localised. Would probably have the same effect as a simple shockwave
Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!
Nark! Nark!
Zork!
I love that game!
Is it over is that Particle beam over 9,000?!..Gah! Sorrrry! I never had the opportunity to ever use that lame line. I just wanted to be in on the out-dated crowed. Anyways! Love the pannel, speed lines really do make things more awesome…( i should find a way to use speed lines in everyday life!! ) Keep up that great work!!
I think it’s closer to 1.21 Gigawatts.
So, we’ve been in Chapter 2 for a while now.
Any idea when you’re going to start Chapter 3?
If I was better at planning all this, Chapter 3 might have been the beginning of the press conference, but it could also be right after this demonstration. Or maybe that should be chapter 4. I don’t know. When I put it all into a book I’ll have to think about that.
Capter 1, intro
Chapter 1,5 Sydney eating
Chapter 2 the bank
You could probably cut them down even further than you think
Syd still has one hand free. She needs to power up the Telepresence orb so she can get an outside view of all the cool explosions.
Very true, maybe for the next shot (but, doesn’t Tele-Sydney mimic what the ‘original’ is doing? which would mean Sydney would have to turn around so Tele-Sydney is facing the action)
If she manifested the copy about 20 feet directly behind herself she would be looking at the shield and block (shlock?). And she would provide Maxima with the very satisfying option of shooting Sydney in the back of the ‘head’.
Oh yes, there is that option as well, if Sydney wasn’t wearign the Stay-Puft armour she could possibly even do a little butt-wiggle as incentive for Maxi amping up the power :D
First panel reminded me of DBZ Piccolo “Special Beam Cannon” :) But, without all of the screaming and multiple episodes of powering up :) Great perspective
So, those are speed lines. Looks awesome. Hey! Maxima’s pistola is backwards.
No I’m pritty sure the handgrip is on her ventral side.
The thing we see sticking out is just.. something sticking out (to small for a handgrip though)
No, I actually drew it facing the wrong way. :P
DAAAVE! It’s my birthday, and this is closest thing to birthday gift I’ve got today! Thank you man!
As for the action comics/manga, I recommend ゲート―自衛隊彼の地にて、斯く戦えり, or Gate – Thus the JSDF Fought There. (Star)Gate appears in Tokyo’s Ginza district and medieval army marches out. JSDF comes to the rescue and goes through the gate to do some recon-in-excessive-force. As for the world beyond the gate… let’s say it is like japanese version of the Middle Earth: catgirls, and LOTS of them! As for the JGSDF against medieval fantasy army: curb-stomp battle all the way.
Official web release:
https://www.alphapolis.co.jp/manga/viewOpening/138000030/
Tankobons have been printed, those have more pages than web releases, and hot springs chapter has less obscuring steam. No official translations, but scanlations are around the web.
Happy birthday!
I’ll have to keep an eye on that.
im convinced the rest of syd’s expression is trollface jpg
Sydney is so right!
And oh, don’t they have replacement steel cubes for when supers try to measure their max power levels (it seems “insufficiently zorked” for a block every hero uses for power level measuring at least once)? Is Maxima holding back??
They order them in bulk from the ‘ACME Anvil and Supply’ company. A free pair of rocket-powered roller skates with every order over $1000.
*Sky-writing appears overhead saying “HELP!!!*
Yea she’s holding back.
Maxima isn’t trying to test her own power, she knows very well what that beam is capable off. She’s testing how much the shield can take. For that you have to start ‘small’
I see Max is leaning into her shot, as if braced against recoil. Nice form. For a really big shot, I can see her making a big gathering sweep of her arm (Charging! Hoowahhh!) that spirals into a point toward the target (Zork!), with a bit of recoil evident in the arm. Very kung fu choreography, Keannu Reeves, John Woo, and like that. Oh, what a movie franchise this could be! It’s got everything. :D
Personally it is the flapping coat and hair that stands out the most to me, and gives the effect of air flow from the particle beam.
It’s beautiful, man. Don’t get me started. Ah, too late.
She makes me think of lucrative super hero movies, and how the combination of bad-ass Maxima and cute sidekick Sydney is absolutely perfect for Hollywood. Better than Hit Girl/Kick Ass. Way better. This first day will make a great movie (first in a series), and the big reveal of the powers makes a great ending for it. It’ll be awesome and DaveB will be rich. One of these days, when you’re watching Halo 5: Return of the Earlier Villain or whatever, you’ll remember and you’ll think “That nameless bastard was right”. ;)
It would probably be better as a short series of episodes, rather than a single movie
But yes, it would be awesome.
Let me know when I can order the collecters edition
This answers the question that Sydney can expand the shield to protect others.
I presume the answer is “Yes it can”.
Yup. But just how big can it get, or is that it’s maximum radius?
dragon ball much
So wait, is the title insinuating that Sydney’s force field us the new “Immovable Object?”
Kind of.
Check out the cast list. Sydney has the five star rating showing she is on par with the strongest force fields in the world. Just as Maxima is for her particle beam. Achilles, however, cheats. He has six star invulnerability. He may still be around to see what happens when the last stars go out.
Problem is he’s invulnerable, not immortal.
Actually, his haircut and mannerisms infer that he IS immortal, at least since the point when his powers activated. Tho judging by how he doesn’t change with the times it might be more accurate to say that he’s frozen in time. So he’s Jack Harkness’s cousin or something I guess.
Oh, and the cast page says that he’s at least 50 years old even tho he only looks to be in his 20’s. Ima go with Immortal on this one.
s/infer/imply/
Just saying.
“My affect has an effect on passersby in that it effects a change in their affect.”
At his level of invulnerability (check his bio) the two terms might be synonymous. Plus note the following supporting evidence:
He may be invulnerable and long lived. Or he may be invulnerable and immortal. Only time will tell.
Time IS afterall the greatest weapon of all… time
Perhaps that is Achilles’s trick to invincibility? Knowing that time is just an illusion.
ZORK
So, how fast is the beam actually going?
Is it a starwars type laser (or particle beam :P) that you can dodge, or is it bullet like speed?
Also, what kind of particle is the particle beam made of? Plasma? Simple moving at extreme speeds?
Simple DUST I mean
Given the glow, the sound effects, and the apparent strength of the hit, I’d say it’s at least plasma, moving at supersonic speeds. Given that it’s staying together, it’s probably not particularly ionized. (That is: The bolt as a whole is probably electrically neutral.)
My guess is that it’s made of air, heated and directed by Maxima’s powers. Which would imply she could use the same technique to melt solid objects (and possibly fire them in the same fashion…), but couldn’t effectively use this power in a vacuum.
Maybe she should try holding one of the unknown orbs while Maxima’s shooting at her. Maybe the beams would trigger one of them.
Quick mental calculation:
400 mph flight speed, some time elapsed during conversation time, the city is probably out of the primary blast radius of a nuclear explosion.
Press corps on route to artillery range however may be within likely effect radius.
Sydney safely protected in shield. Maxima likewise having world-class defence.
Sure no down side I can see… wait! Pilot. No, Sydney, ignore that bad Korgus! Peggy might be killed!
I did not think of the potential consequences to others….I would be a terrible hero.
I was thinking could one of those orbs cause damage done to her to affect the one doing it?
Irresistable force, meet immovable object.
Hey man, I just wanted to say I have been reading your comic since day 1, and I’m really impressed with your progress as an artist and your dedication to getting a full color page per week. I have heard how hard it can be to reliably keep that pace up, and the effort you must put into this comic is not lost on me. You’re Awesome and you have a loyal reader in me!
Well said, sir.
Thanks! Yeah, it’s a lot or work and sometimes weird things take longer than they should because for all 160 pages I’ve done now, I’m still really green when it comes to drawing a lot of stuff. (Like drawing ground of all things.) I still wish I could put them out a lot faster cause I have a lot of jokes and story to tell yet. Maybe one day it’ll happen. :)
Two updates in a week? WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY WORLD
Zork ray! If it doesn’t blow you up, it summons a Grue to eat you.
Hmm. I don’t think you really need the speed lines in the first panel. They kinda confuse things and make it look like something is radiating from Sydney’s position. Maybe something more like whirly-rippling effect from a rail gun?
The second panel is fine, though. I particularly like how the blast is digging a rut in the dirt.