Grrl Power #161 – Cooldown
I penciled this page and then thought I should check the lift capacity of Ospreys. Tour busses have quite a range of weights depending on the model and options. Even if ARCHON rented a bus based on weight and… you know, whether or not it would disintegrate while being airlifted… it’s probably a stretch to think the Osprey could carry one. That’s why Dabbler is hanging off the top of the one there. She’s maintaining a few Tenser’s Floating Disks equivalents under the wheels there to help out.
That artillery range has a huge parking lot. Must be one of those touristy artillery ranges.
Vote incentive is updated with the inks. It’s partially colored but the flats are pretty boring. I’ll try to have it done by next week.
Oh and I almost forgot, but if things go as planned, I’ll be a guest on a college radio show this Saturday called Otaku Attack which you can listen to off of this page. Note the 9pm – 11pm time listed there are for West Coast time… well, technically Mountain Time but AZ is weird about daylight savings. I’m in central and their show started at 11pm for me. It’s not a podcast so there won’t be a recording of it, but on the plus side you could call in to the show and as questions… unless I’m tying up the line and they only have one. I’ll update here and on twitter as I learn details.
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As someone who’s been to many a live fire range, they ALL have fairly large parking lots (maybe not as big as what Dave drew, I blame laziness), mostly because troops are bussed to the range unless marching there is part of the training profile for that day and there are many a support vehicle that are required to transport the food, ammunition, emergency supplies, not to mention all the high-ranking officers that like to be around and spectating when things are a-going BOOM
oh yes, and the area needed for a helicopter to land in case a medevac is needed. (happens more than it should, which is why there are more fatalities service-wide during training than during a combat deployment)
There is also the comedic potential of having the vehicles that officials arrive in parked TOO close to the vehicles slated to be pushed out onto the range and blown up.
Note that I am not being serious here. The staff of a competently-run range should not make that kind of mistake. But it is funny to imagine – and keeping the two vehicle types as separate as possible (via a BIG parking area) seems only sensible.
wait is that harem just floating their in the back grown?
Folks narrowed it down to Heatwave, on the first page of comments.
Looks more like Harem than Heatwave to me too, but there’s the flying. Curious.
She’s not in the back ground, she is helping guide Hiro down (note the ‘wave’ motion of her left hand)
She has a helicopter hand? How cool would that be? ;)
Wait…is Maxima and Sydney…bonding?
Yup, it’s what we’ve (well, most of us) have been waiting for
Well aside from Max being a feminist and Syd doing rape-jokes, i don´t think they are that different. Max may be annoyed by Syd´s antics, but she´s clearly amused at the same time.
And Max already understands Syd.
Still think Syd and Dabbler will be peas in a pod.
I’m still friend-shipping the A Team.
Don’t forget Sydney and Math.
I am interested in how all the relationships go. Not forgetting Peggy and Sydney.
Ups.
Sydney may be a bit crabby, but she’s also remarkably muy simpatico with just about everyone she’s met. Amorphous? He was pretending to be a bad guy. Harem and Math? They shouldn’t have gotten in Syd’d face. Dr, Kevorkian? Should I count her? No, I think not. Despite being a hitty girl and having The List, I think Syd is generally friendly and uh, maybe not forgiving, but what would be a better word? She’s way honest, that’s for sure. Ahh, ship ’em all. Yes, more Peggy, and Gwen too.
Using a heavy transport chopper to move a bus……to transport people is a bit reduntant. But funny.
This bus will be carried by this large, very-expensive, heavy-lift, military helicopter.
The other one will be carried by Hiro.
Guess which one has all the female reporters?
all the girls are under the helicopter. other wise they could not look at him
I guess the question is…did they stop when the shield started to fail, or because collateral damage was getting ridiculous?
time is the issue – didnt have long with suiting up and escaping it after, giving a time buffer to make sure they were ready before they arrived. also slowly scaleing up to decent hits would take a while.
secondly is they didnt want huge damage to be viewed by the press when they arrived and not give an indication of top power attacks maxed.
if the shield broke they would have needed more than the block to hide behind so probably stopped when it was getting dangerous.
From Sydney”s comment I don’t think the shield failed. that hole could have been there the whole time. the only time the whole block is seen is when it is far away, and there are no details.
Maxima probably stopped at the point where her beam became so powerfull it would have vaporized the block AND Sydney, should the field not be there.
Otherwise, why have the block of steel?
You know they could have dispensed with all the choppers and buses to bring in the press if they had just called U.N.I.T. and arranged to borrow a certain blue box. (Assuming he was on-planet at the time)
Isn’t U.N.I.T. a British military group
United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (or Unified Intelligence Taskforce), so it’s international.
Politics. We all know what country is really in charge of it.
UNIT has barely worked with the Doctor in a long time. He just comes and visits. The only time he was their scientific advisor was during the second incarnation #3 body where the Time Lords marooned him there on Earth for awhile.
After what UNIT and the others did to Torchwood at the time of the 456, if I’d be that certain dude, I’d heavily favor Captain Jack over any UNIT, even if the Brig’s daughter is leading them now.
Hiro needs added to the cast page.
want to see his powers – flight and strength by the look of things…
We all know his real power is instantly casting Attract on all nearby humans, regardless of previous orientation or current gender. The amazing flight and super strength are just useful side effects.
So basicly he’s the male version of Dabbler
I don’t think he has any mechanical attachments.
Yet
I get the feeling Hiro is a standard flying brick, or FISS: flight, invulnerability (not up to Achilles’ level, but up there), strength and speed. Probably stronger than Anvil until she has been hit by a train.
+toughness, rakish good looks, per the cast sidebar on this page
Shouldn’t the wings be tilted forward a bit instead of at 90 degrees? Just for a little forward momentum for those V-22’s to generate from their propellers.
Only whilst it is pretending to be a fixed-wing plane, for high-speed horizontal travel. As depicted it is doing it’s impersonation of a rotor-wing aircraft, presumably whilst primarily descending. Although helicopters manage to move forwards, so I do not see why it cannot also have forwards momentum.
Helicopters do tilt forward – to accelerate. They don’t need to tilt as much (it’s usually built in to the propeller) to maintain speed.
I’d expect the Osprey in this page to have them tilted ever-so-slightly backwards, actually, though you probably wouldn’t be able to notice: It’s slowing down to a hover before landing, and doesn’t want to make large movements with the bus dangling below it.
Helicopters tilt their main rotor forward usually to take off, why the copter’s body tilts a bit forward when they rise and move forward. I do believe that VTOL’s like V-22’s can control their forward momentum. Why I said the rotors need to tilt a bit forward or they just hover. The pilot can control the inclination or declination of the tilt to control their forward speed. I have seen a larger cargo version I dub the V-44, saw it in the last Transformers movie. It might be able to handle a bus but why if you are going to fly them?
The Canadians had one for testing but sadly never put it into service though it had a good flight record.
They didn’t stop after the Avro-car? o_O
The Avrocar was not that much of a success because it relied on ground effect to get off the ground. If you got it much over a metre off the ground, it tended to fall off its lift support. Not so good. But they learned a lot about what jet engines could do, and they got paid for the work.
Avro went on to design and build the Avro Arrow, an advanced jet fighter for the 1950’s. Then the federal government pulled the plug while they were still testing the prototypes. Because it was classified as top secret, the government spooks came in and destroyed all plans and prototypes. Only a few examples of testing bodies and photos exist today. Because the Royal Canadian Air Force had promised to buy lots of the fighters when they were complete, Avro had invested heavily in this project. When the government pulled out of the deal and left Avro with nothing, it basically wiped out the company.
That was a damn shame. Perfectly good plane, that was. Pretty, too. :(
Helicopters as do Ospreys in ‘copter mode move forward ( actually in any direction) by controlling the pitch of the individual blades of the rotors. The tilting of the copter is a result of the rearmost blades generating more lift than the blades in front.
I’m a FAA licensed aircraft mechanic.
When carrying an exterior load, expecially one as big as that bus, a V-22 would stay more or less in helicopter mode. Lifting power is the priority here, not horizontal speed.
Maybe its because I am tired but at first from the speech blocks it look like they are talking across a field, then we see them next to each other. Is Halo floating around as she is talking…first she seems above the ground, then she seem to be above a grey object (bunker?) then on the grass dirt(either on or floating).
It just indicates that they are talking off screen, with different directions to indicate different people.
But yes, there are clearer ways to do that, such as little talking heads inside the speech bubble. The collar emblems would work for that too.
Yes. If you look at her hand, you will see that she is clutching the blue fly-ball, which explains how she is doing it. Gravity is her bitch!
It just hit me: Just how good, or bad is Maxima’s eyesight anyway? Does she have some way to keep her glasses from falling off in a fight, or has there been strips showing her without the glasses?
Inside she doesn’t wear the glasses. I’m assuming the glasses are for the glare reflecting from her HIGHLY REFLECTIVE skin.
Looking back they appear tinted. But my gut tells me that they are from before got her powers, and are either a comfort or reminder of her old life. Or i could be wrong and they are just crazy expensive.(that includes if they have gadgets).
They are sunglasses, but DaveB forgot to put the glass in them on this page
They cold be Transitions Lenes
One shot from the post before this one, shows Max shooting a blast toward the cube and her glasses are a darker shade
One post before that, her glasses have a pinkish tint (even though it could be a reflection of the sun)
Schadenfreude is the purest form of joy, as it contains no measure of envy.
I like these little “human” moments in the midst of Sydney’s unthinking antics and Max’s towering ego.
I think dave likes the word serendipity.
I imagine that if he dropped that bus “oops” isn’t going to cut it.
Sydney is hot.
Totally. And cool.
I never thought of Syd as even remotely sexy until I saw her in that damned wetsuit. She’s got a curvy enough shape and tone to make me feel like a dirty old man, once in a “nice butt” while. She could be hot, in her own way, but the idea of her vamping anyone makes me chuckle. I think Syd and Peggy (the A team) both have a little Jessica Rabbit going on because DaveB can’t help drawing female forms with less than eye pleasing lines. (Shakes fist at DaveB.)
Yeah, especially in that last panel. I think it might be because for once she’s not in frantic hyperkinetic pixilated gerbil mode, and thus is allowed to be thoughtful and introspective.
She is known to do that. Be thoughtful and introspective, I mean.
ROFL. Good way to describe her default state. But she is tops either way,
I just hope she hasn’t swallowed a life-time’s supply of Duracel, or she’ll never really calm down.
Here I was thinking of a particular squirrel after he drank an energy drink before going Over the Hedge.
Me too! :D
You know, all this talk about being “the most powerful super” is sort of setting up Maxima herself to be the ultimate Big Bad of the story, somewhere down the line.
Not soon, but someday.
We’ve already seen that ARC keeps very close tabs on their more …. dubious members, such as Dabbler.
On that basis alone, I am dang sure ARC would also have plans in place for if anyone ever goes darkside or is even simply mind-controlled. Probably several different sets and grades of plans – with parameters such as collateral damage, lethal/non-lethal, involving other supers and specifically not involving other supers (just in case). They would be incredibly foolish not to prepare for these possibilities.
Given Max’s known capabilities, any means of countering or containing her would have to be pretty hard-core. Given Max’s military training and mindset, she might even have KNOWINGLY helped with some of this planning. You never know.
Dabbler would probably come the closest to being a true match for Maxima. Max doesn’t have magic, Dabbler does
And for Sydney that bracer device could just happen to make her unable to grip a ball if need be (can you say Taser?). The collar communicator could have a dermal patch sedative that activates remotely (something simple like a heated section to melt away a thin plastic coating)… All kinds of things come to mind.
Thinking on it a little more, ARC probably has “just in case” security protocols for if individual members start behaving erratically or just plain weird (considering certain members, that last might be a rather subjective thing).
Now wondering how said protocols will have to be changed to deal with Sydney. ;)
X: I think Sydney’s been mind-controled
Maxima: What makes you say that?
X: She been walking around being courteous, friendly, and she ordered a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich for lunch!
Maxima: WHAT?!?! *Archon goes into lockdown, alarms start blaring, The General’s voice blairs on the intercom: “Omega! Condition Omega! Capture and detain Subject Halo!”
I could see Max going over the top over a villain of truly evil proportions, wanting to just end the guy– and Sydney talking her down! I don’t think too many other people have the necessary relationship with Max to do so. Just my take.
I have an observation/question… which way did the progression of ring diameters go?
Am i correct in assuming that there were three shots, not ONLY the one we saw on Thursday?. i would bet some Moxana points on it to say that the first shot, (a “low”* powered one) was the first hit that we saw on the Thursdays comic, and the corresponding ring was the LARGEST diameter, then a “medium”* shot and the shield contracted slightly to maintain an energy density sufficient to balance out the effect. and the “high”* powered shot that needed to be the SMALLEST diameter in order to still counteract the energy input, thus… we see up close to the iron block it is still cooling down as it was both the last one to get fired, AND it was the highest energy shot taken and therefore has more waste energy to dump to ambient as well… UN-fortunately, this implies that the shield CAN be broken down/destroyed? if sufficient energy is impacting it in order to cause it to contract far enough to no longer be big enough to cover her entire body… then she gets vaporised milliseconds later… ouch… but Hey! now the rest of the Orbs are up for grabs!… :D
*: low, medium, and high powered being relative terms for this demo/discussion.
Personally I am still seeing the whole scene as being the result of a single beam firing for some time. All the observable evidence is explainable by that, as elaborated in earlier comments by myself. However, there is merit in the arguments made by others for multiple attacks, but I leave it up to proponents of that theory to explain any discrepancies.
Could be from a single source of standing waves, but the spacing doesn’t look right. Same crystalline heat at three different distances, rather than the attenuating heat one might expect from a single source of extended output. To me, it looks like Max asked Syd to expand her shield radius twice. There’s the tight ring she started with, then another big enough to stand with another person or two, then another big enough to cover a vehicle of some kind full of people. If she tried cracking the shield with the same steel proof power at each distance, that would account for the regular effects at each distance. I don’t know, though. There’s also magic in the world.
One point that may support the multi-test theory is that some of the spikes seem to be curved inwards, as if following the contours of the shield. Trouble is the only one that we are close enough to see that is the inner ring. Which we knew to having been close or adjacent to the shield anyhow. So even if it is one test, the smallest ring might have formed near enough to the shield for that to happen.
Good point about the shape of the crystals. Could be something else that hasn’t been mentioned, for all we know. Only DaveB can say for sure, but speculating is fun. :)
Could be several things. One thought I had was three different simultaneous bubbles, trapping compressed air to help scatter/lense the shot, and bleeding absorbed energy into the ground – thus the melty bits there.
I think we’re going to discover that Syd and Max experimented with Syd expanding the force field to cover more and more area. The scene from the last comic shows the shield and blast very close, which would be the innermost ring. So each successive ring moves outwards. THAT would be VERY useful for the team, because she could actually protect the team if needed. Or civilians.
Which, I just realized Nameless Bastard already hypothesized. I should read the whole thread before typing. *head desk reset*
Great minds think alike?
Darn, I shall be attending KevCon 2013, on Saturday. So will not be able to catch your radio broadcast Dave. Good luck and have fun with it though!
Is that a convention for all things Kevin Smith?
Nah, Kevin “Bloody” Wilson
What’s with the purple crystals popping up around where the energy blast hit? They look to be the same color as Maxima’s hair.
Glass?
Or what you get when you melt dirt/gravel/rock in a quick and violent manner then follow it with rapid cooling
Then why is it purple?
Iron contamination.
Iron turns translucent/clear quartz into purple amethyst.
There is a minor new detail visible in the final panel. The edge of the control pad on Halo’s arm. With the strap that goes round to her palm. I bet she will be wondering if it either includes, or can be adapted to add, a joy buzzer.
Now that you mention it, what is the loop supposed to do?
Also, does her choker change color to match the ball she’s using, or is that reflection?
I imagine the loop goes around the thumb to stop the panel from twisting around the arm. It can happen with gloves and other sleeve things when they aren’t connected to the elbow or hand. As she moves or jestures the muscels in her arm will shift and that may cause the panel to slide. I’ve had watches do that if I didn’t tighten them down and they were a bit too big for my wrist.
Also it has been mentioned somewhere else, the colour on her band is reflection. Her collar is mainly white so it will reflect a lot.
I just learned something new. Thank you. :)
The Watch thing is one of the reasons I only use a pocket watch. Another reason is the inheritance I got from my Grandfather. A pocket watch he had carried all his life (and he died at 99 1/2) that his father had given him at 16. His father had gotten it from his father when he was 16. And my Great-Great Grandfather got it new from his father when he got married. It’s not a fancy watch just one that is valuable to me because of it’s family history.
As regards colour, here is the word from DaveB: http://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1043/comment-page-1#comment-45939
Yup, and it’s yellow now. False alarm. My bad.
Obviously, the Osprey’s rotor noise is being drowned out by the sound of how AWESOME Sydney is. Duh.
What’s that butterfly bred of?!
Awesomeness!
CHAOS!
My read of Maxima: may be standoffish. But also accepts that the new heroes are enthused about showing off their powers a little. The flight thing for example. It looked like she got a kick out of Sydney being excited about how fast she was able to go.
I just noticed something, the first two Glass Rings are directional’ ther formed in the direction from where the blast came from, the third ring has glass ALL AROUND THE BORDER! I think Max went airborne and struck from the top so the energy-bleed covered the entire thing.
probably so because maxima wanted to see how far the shield orb can cover in a short amount of time from a different angle (guessing by the rings about 3-5 second intervals)
I pictured Max standing on top of the bubble and thinking something along the lines of “EAT THIS!!!”
The third ring being different would support multiple attacks. There has been some debate as to whether it’s one continuous attack or multiple attacks. If it was a continuous attack, I would think that all 3 rings would be the same.
Yea, good point. Still, objects blocking a ripple effect will interfere with the outgoing ripples, so I feel the one-attack hypothesis is weakened, but still standing.
Max is fast. I have to remind myself of her super speed because she doesn’t look like a speedster. But she could run around Sydney’s shield while zorking, and Std might not even notice.
Syd might not notice. Darn this auto correct!
I think Max was also having Sydney push out the shield to see if it changed in strength as it shielded a larger area, for force protection utility as well as allowing Syd to defend herself
Is that an example of the Male-Choker Hiro is wearing?
I think that’s an example of the chokers for those with a thick neck.
Anvil has the same kind of chocker as the other ladies (and Sydney) and she has a thick… neck
Has Suzie spotted her little hyper-active friend in panel 6? Everyone else is looking at Ari, but Suzie is looking out the window, and doubt she would be looking at Heatwave (specially seeing how she is looking down and Heatwave is at least parallel if not a little higher than the window)
She’s just nervous about being in a flying bus.
Really? :(
Was just thinking how, even though Suzie is the ‘rookie’, she seems to be the most clued-in: she asked about the Oppossum thingie and she noted that Sydney was wearing an eyepatch (that she wasn’t wearing during or after the ‘bank robbery’). She just doesn’t seem easily distracted by the cute blonde in the bun who seems to be talking all the time (totally ‘shipping’ her and the other blonde, the hyperkinetic pixalated gerbil wearing glasses)
You think Ari is cute? Me too! I’m so glad I’m not the only one. :)
Suzy is turning out to be pretty sharp, isn’t she? Maybe a wee bit nervous there, but I can’t blame her for that. Based upon my own experience, I’d count her worry as evidence of high intelligence.
Yeah, as smart of a cookie she is turning out to be, she is still a rookie reporter (allegedly) covering the scoop af a lifetime alongside more established reporters, so naturally she would be nervous
it looks like there are at least four rings, that is if you assume that the ring in panel one is not the closest ring in panel two. the magnification of panel one suggests only inches of distance from the ring and the block, where as the second panel showes at least a couple.of feet.
Was just noticing that Dabbler has the floating discs going on underneath each of the tires on her bus.
Isn’t white-haired Harem spying for some corporate big shot? Would she not be in attendance (teleportation perk) with a camera ahead of time to give him the scoop on the new member?
That’s only if it was announced that Max and Sydney were going to be doing tests with the orbs. Why show up somewhere if you don’t know what’s going to happen.
Also if she hasn’t been there before she may not be able to teleport there fast enough. She only has line of sight/known location teleportation.
It’s not just the white haired Harem (that’s Co-ed, but I think of her as Prudence). It’s all of them. They’re all Daphne and she’s not just a spy. She’s a double agent.
“My name is Harem. Just Harem.” (In the background, another Harem is going “Doon diddle doon doon, doon doon. Doon diddle doon doon, doon doon. Doon diddle doon doon, doon doon. Doo doo, doo doo doo.”
She’s not a double-agent, she’s a quintuple-agent (who just happens to be double-jointed >.>)
Im looking out the windows of the bus, do they seem a bit high to you for a rotorcraft?
Window height varies depending on the amount room devoted to cargo below. Presumably dedicated press corp coaches will be chosen from models with more capacity than typical tourist buses, given that they have a lot of equipment of various sorts, including TV cameras.
“and loud.” This comment leads me to believe that a sonic attack might make it right through Sydney’s shield, no?
Additionally, I really like the Möbius strip pattern to Sydney’s shield. I speculated the first time we saw it that it used a way to turn the energy of an attack back upon itself, thus cancelling the attack (rather than reflecting, or absorbing it). The same “physics” could be why Dabbler couldn’t probe the orbs – her attempts were simply reflected back in such a way as to nullify them.
And why the Witch Division also detected ‘nothing’
Nice theory
A little more thought about this page brought a few things to mind.
It shows the shield as capable of at least partially blocking light, at least in the IR band. A blast producing enough heat for the visible effect on the terrain would as a side effect of the raw heat, produce a fair bit of IR as well, more than enough to toast that grass. Ever tried to stand a foot from a blazing fire? Radiant heat is emitted from hot objects as infrared light, one of the methods of heat transfer, it’s why objects viewed in IR are colored/shaded by temperature.
This also brings up an issue with her ‘lasers pass through see through force fields’ claim at the start. Just because visible light passes through, does not mean other frequencies do, and lasers being used for things other than light shows commonly have the bulk of the energy emitted outside the visible spectrum. CO2 lasers for example, are largely infrared, most cutting lasers are. This means a shield could appear clear, yet block a laser attack almost completely.
I’m going to go with the assumption that since she was generating the laser beam herself, rather than a piece of equipment designed for the purpose, she was capable of choosing the ‘color’ on the fly as it were, placing the energy of the blast inside the visible spectrum shown to pass through the field.
TLDR:
1) If the shield couldn’t block IR, that blast could quickly turn it into the worlds hottest greenhouse.
2) A shield may allow visible light to pass while still mostly blocking a laser beam, if that laser is not producing the bulk of it’s energy in the visible spectrum.
The author did identify the attack as a particle attack and not a laser.
Mind, while everything you said about lasers is accurate, it’d be foolish to leave frequencies open in your shield when you don’t know the nature of the attacking laser – if the attacker can pick frequencies, it may be as simple as picking a color that’s seen from inside the bubble, to bypass its effect.
to your point #1: if the shield was transparent to IR, things might get warm. If it was opaque to IR, any heat that worked inside would stay – oven style. Heat is something you can’t hand-wave in the real world. Bending/cutting metal makes it hot. Actively blocking an attack generally requires exerting more energy than the attack represents, and the concept of a shield could easily surpass the attack energy by more than a magnitude, and all that energy has to go somewhere. Entropy would tend to put it into heat.
We don’t have actual specs on the shield – perhaps it blocks all forms of energy above a threshold, or perhaps it specifically blocks coherent light (a gimmick I could see materials in the real world having, while remaining translucent or better to ambient light). Perhaps it works by locking a thin layer of air into a synthetic solid that catches the attack. Perhaps it uses magic. Dabbler might be able to tell us, if she can convince her gear that the orbs exist. Until that happens, we can guess and speculate. None of us right, none of us wrong.
So that means that all possible versions of Sydney’s fate co-exist at the same time. I guess that makes her middle name Schrodinger. (at least it keeps up the Stan Lee alliterative naming convention)
Authors note: If the black ARCHON uniforms ever get personalized with each individuals initials, I would avoid putting those for Syd (SS) on the lapel.
Its been a while since I red it, and the opening paragrqph or two for shields are not what i remember them to be, but this page here has some good input on shields, and other aspects of star wars physics: https://www.theforce.net/swtc/power.html#shields
I figure its appropriate for this page.
Looking at the link, I see that it is appropriate. Given that it talks about shields which reflect incoming energy so that it radiates out in a sphere. The talk about heat side effects is also relevant, given that other commentators have pointed out the heat must have been handled by the shield in some way too. Even if all of the incoming attack, including any heat aspect, was being reflected, there would still be the ambient heat from the sand melting into glass to contend with.
Possibly the shield just reflects all incoming potentially harmful energy/matter, and damaging secondary effects getting no exemption from that capability. Or maybe it does absorb some aspects of the energy. Say those aspects which cannot be easily reflected. Or those where reflection does not reduce the danger. By which I mean if the whole area is blast-furnace hot, reflecting the heat back may not solve the problem, as it has nowhere to go. So perhaps there is some heat-sink or other energy absorption going on in addition to the reflection. Or something exotic like shunting that part into another dimension.
Opus the Poet pointed out, on the first page of comments, that the grass is still green where Halo was standing, a detail I missed. But it shows that the heat was not having any effect inside the sphere, regardless of how it was being handled.
Only a controlled experiment would narrow down which of the two main options is going on. Where you can measure both the incoming energy and the radiated energy. If there is a discrepancy then the heat sink and other possibilities come into play.
The point I’m curious about is where the shield meets the ground.
Its evident that things were hot outside the shield and that the heat was splashing onto the ground.
Would the heat transmit through the ground to the inside of the shield? Is that transmission perhaps the cause of the different size bubbles? The shield ball saying ‘oh dear, this keeps up and it will be lava inside and out, so lets hold that off at a bit more of a distance’?
That’s part of where I like the idea of the shield locking the air (or dirt) at its surface into place – then it can protect you whether or not there is matter in the way, and it can directly control heat transfer in settings such as this. That would however imply some features about the shield that could be less than pleasant: it might not work in a vacuum (awh, grounded from space missions), it might be less than fully effective at high altitude, it might smother its occupants.
Somehow, I doubt her powers are all plusses, there’s gotta be a few drawbacks or loopholes somewhere in the fine print. Above and beyond the calorie denial field.
I agree on that having bands to which the shield is 100% transparent is bad design, I also agree that a safety threshold’ is the simplest method to allow the shield to remain see-through and still give full protection. This however, assumes that the shield was actually designed.
Also, all my comments related to blocking lasers should be taken with the first 2 pages of the comic in mind.
Some form of both heat management for both radiant and conductive transmission would be almost a sure bet if it was designed rather than naturally developed, dangerous temperature changes are rather common in a ‘super’ environment, be if from high speeds, attacks, or even just location, large amounts of expended energy results in large amounts of excess heat (waste or otherwise), almost universally.
Actually.. anyone consider that the extreme narrowness of those crystal bands may indicate the shield dissipating the energy into the ground at those locations where it intersected the ground? Possible then that the shield would be weaker in the air where it could not do that. hmm.. This of course assuming that the markings indicate tests against multiple sizes of shield, which when looking at team benefit makes a great deal of sense, hard to plan using the shield if you don’t know what it can cover. Just her, the whole team, a bus of reporters?
If gravity is her bitch, and I believe it is, her shield might have a whole new bag of tricks for dealing with energy. Dump it into the ground, or release it as free gravitons, or something?
I surprised I didn’t notice this at first, but there aren’t just two rings of those crystals; there are three. If you look closely in the four corners of panel 2, there’s a very large ring around the two much smaller ones.
Maybe the shield is layered like a giant, quasi-invulnerable onion?
People are also speculating that more than one test occurred – that they tested some ‘power stunts’ by changing the size of the shield – think of putting that shield around a mini-van, or a fighter jet.
I like the onion idea, but only on the face. Once energy gets past the first layer of a onion shield, its trapped between layer one and two, and the total attack energy in that space can build until something fails. I’m more fond of the idea of lensing energy attacks around the center, which might produce the same visual effect – the point there being not that you are shielded from the attack, it simply can’t see you – a bit like hiding behind a mirror to avoid a laser.
The third ring is also different from the first two. The first two are partial ring for the purple crystals and if you look at all four corners the third ring looks like it might be a full circle for the purple crystal.
Perhaps Max tested some roboteching guided beams for one of the shield sizes?
I think Sydney’s sense of hearing isn’t recovering fast.
maybe this was asked already, but when does Hiro get a one-liner at the cast-page? Since he seems to be like the second-highes ranked super after Max?
Yeah I need to do that. I also need an intern. :P
Alllllrgihty then.
Found this comic today.
Started to read it annnnnd an hour so later discovered that I had read the whole lot…. well thru to todays effort.
I guess that means I enjoyed it.
Welcome aboard.
Welcome! And thanks!
I think we’ve forgotten Hiro’s enthrall ability. Anyone who looks at his abs (or, really, any part of his body) is quite manifestly seduced my his…*cough* powers. Exempla Gratia, Sydney here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/672 (though I admit I wasn’t much better)
The shirtless abs certainly got Sidney’s heart “vorping”. Heavily.
Serendipity? Someone has a word of the day calender.
Just thought I’d share this article ’cause it reminded me of GrrlPower. Possibly even Kenya… https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/9213810/Barbies-face-Arnies-body
Nice eyes. Well, nice everything, but especially her eyes.
Her back…
Impressive that she seems to actually train proportionally, and she doesn’t have calf muscles bigger than her head.
Nice butt ;)
That ain’t Arnie’s body (thank the deities), but it is nicely honed & toned, I must agree.
New guy on the block. I read all comic in matter of hours and find it very interesting. I wonder one thing about a certain character. I am sure someone else asked same question but I don’t wanna dig old comments to find a certain answer which happened years ago.
Here is question for Dave.
Is math inspired from Joukyuu Kunitoshi? (I remember you wrote somewhere you were reading Aiki in one of those comments)
Welcome to the community. I am sure DaveB will come back to you on that question, in due course.
Aka after he digs through the comment section to find the citataions =P
Yes he was inspired by the character, but his original incarnation was based on a bit part character in Masamune Shirow’s Appleseed manga, and unfortunately I don’t recall his name. His most notable scene was he shows up out of nowhere, blocks a knife that was aimed at Deunan with his forearm, kicks hella ass then disappears before Deunan can even track him. I think he also helped her track down some escaped robot catgirl because… it’s a manga.
Ah, here’s a picture of him. On a cover draw by Adam Warren weirdly. Who knows, it’s possible Joukyuu was inspired partially by this guy:
https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/5/51078/1010417-app5.jpeg
Bottom line is he’s a badass martial artist and I thought a lecherous character mixing with Maxima would be amusing.
I believe his name is Fang.
Wasn’t ‘Fang’ some alien guy Wolverine stole one of his costumes from? After cutting Fang out of it first
Ok, first I’d like to say I totally understand that you had to have the Osprey carry a bus to make the gag work. But the military actually uses the Osprey as a bus: It has an internal load of 24 seated or 32 standing troops, the “greyhound” style buses they are using here seat 55, so if Archon has 5 Ospreys they could have transported the Press in at full speed instead having to reduce speed because of the external load.
Of course that is assuming they do have 5 Ospreys to work with.
or the plan was to have people drive home in the busses after the end of the conference
Guessing too that once again, it is also about the dramatic impact of the event.
Flying the media around in Ospreys is something that has been done before – a lot, I would bet. Also, I’m guessing the Osprey interior near full passenger capacity is more cramped, has less windowspace, and is less comfortable than a coach.
But, putting the media into more confortable coaches, at least one of which is then carried by an genuine-dyed-in-the-wool-honest-to-ghod-no-kidding super? Absolutely certain this is something that none of those people have ever experienced before.
Buses have bathrooms.
Excellent point.
Ospreys have a range of 1,627 km and a cruising speed of 446 km/h = 3.6 hours of crossing your legs.
Just open up the backdoor and hold on tight (to the Osprey! to the Osprey!)
Or. . . Helmets = chamberpots.
OR a plastic bottle apiece. Known in certain quarters as a H.E.R.E. (Human Endurance Range Extender).