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.
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.
By the way…any chance of you coming out with more shirts? I’m sure there’s a lot of guys who would cheerfully buy their Girlfriends a “Got Cookies?” T-shirt.
I’m glad this thing didn’t devolve into a scientology plug. At least not yet. I was really worried that’s the direction it would turn into when the author put in that thing about the h-bombs and the volcanoes as the scientific theory to explain the superheros. Perhaps it was only trolling scientology, a sort of “scientology mythos is only credible in this alternate universe where superheros are all over the place” thing.
I have never gotten so much as a hint of Scientology from this comic. And cannot recall ‘h-bombs and volcanoes’ being mentioned at all. If DaveB did say that in the comments at some point, it was probably either tongue-in-cheek or talking about super-power origins in the genre as a whole. The only in-comic explanation is that “no one knows”.
There was a tiny joke here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/880
It was trolling Scientology. The previous suggestion was a rip on a Star Trek plot.
DaveB is a scientologist????!!!!!! crap……..must delete my hard drive now.
He said trolling Scientology, not espousing it. Can someone get this man a dictionary?!
Hi, we clearly haven’t met, my name is Chaos.
The flying girl has a cloud around her. Was that there before? What does it mean?
I think it means Dave updated things and put in some clouds, nothing more. Considering that we see Max and Sydney flying through a bunch of them to get there, it is a reasonable detail to add.
I think that is Heatwaves flame aura
Which flying girl? The one hanging onto the Osprey is Dabbles, the one guiding Hiro is Heatwave
Wait, there weren’t always clouds in that panel?
Okay, let’s say it’s Heatwave. I shouldn’t have said cloud. I meant the aura around her, like mrd143 said. I hadn’t noticed it before. At my age, I worry about stuff like that. ;)
I just found a previous look at Heatwave’s flying aura. Between page 103 and 104, there’s Harem Tangent #1. In the last panel, one can see the aura as she exits upward out of frame. It’s definitely Brook.
<cues Twilight Zone theme>
Maybe you were viewing the comic in an alternate dimension?
Ahhh. Yes, that would explain everything.
That kind of thing happens a lot more frequently than you might realise.
Looking at the page from as many angles as possible, but can’t see anything around Heatwave other than the blue of the sky
Sounds like you need to clear your browser cache. You are still seeing the old version. The updated one has a pale cloud-like aura surrounding her, hugging her form. I am guessing you are probably seeing Halo in the final panel with her blue choker. Whereas the current one has been changed to the usual yellow, albeit shaded and affected by the ambient light.
Yeah, had to Ctrl-refresh to clear the cache (going to miss the blue choker ;()
To me, Heatwave now looks like someone cut her out from another page and physically pasted her near Hiro’s bus (or simply didn’t do a good job of cropping)
I like the idea of flying buses, but couldn’t Dabbler or one of the other spellcasters used a Gate spell and just driven through? There are two reasons I can think of not to use Gate. Nobody is “high level” enough or Classified. Well, the spell might not exist in DaveB’s world, but considering there is a teleporter already…
There is another ‘porter other than Harem? Not sure if has been established yet just how much extra she can *vorp* with, certainly not a full bus-load
I was referring to Harem and the fact that DaveB has instantaneous movement in the comic already. Maybe I’ve played too much D&D. I was thinking of the Teleport and Gate spells from that system.
Should’ve said Dimension Door.
Driving a bus through a long-distance gate did not work that well for the Doctor a few years ago. It still might not be advisable here at this time.
Actually, they made up that story about the bus getting damaged going through the gate because the actual bus they shipped down to the Sahara Desert in Africa got damaged in transit, so they rewrote the script to compensate, rather than spend hundreds of pounds to repair the bus.
More to the point couldn’t her ship’s teleporter move them? I’m sure she’s got weaponry larger than a bus. Come to think of it, she’s prolly got toys larger than a bus.
Just realised something: is Hiro stronger than an Osprey? He can lift his bus no problem, but the Osprey requires Dabbles to provide help with her floaty-disks of ‘lift-em-off-the-ground’-ness
Possible, though I think the disks are more for stability than support. Perhaps Heatwave had been working to keep the Hiro’s bus from swinging and turning about, and moved away as he goes to land. Dabbler and her Osprey-carried bus are further away, so aren’t ready to land yet.
That makes sense, would also explain why Heatwave was there on the outside
In looking through the comments, a possibility occurred to me: what if the last two (unknown) orbs simply haven’t yet gathered enough energy to reactivate? Based on the Absorbtive-Shield-as-Power-Source theory, what if the most potent abilities take so much energy that the orbs haven’t had enough input to recharge to usable capacity? Or similarly, what if those orbs have been overloaded, temporarily burned out, and the self-repair mechanisms of the orbs need more power (again, from the Shield) to complete the repairs? Theories & speculation. We shall see….
I was actually under the impression, assuming she hasn’t tested the theory afore, that at least 1 of the Amaze-Balls was actually kind of an Ultimate Upgrade, so when she uses 1 Orb and the Upgrader, it is empowered, so like, Violatorb+Ultimate Orb makes multiple Pseudopods with greater strength and reach, or the Pew Pew Orb+Ultimate Orb makes Blasts more powerful than Maxima’s, essentially making it so that, while Halo can “dabble” in multiple powers at once, she can also specialize 1 Orb’s powers to crazy powerful levels. Perhaps the other Orb is then something that provides perhaps passively increased Reflexes, Strength, and other Physical attributes.
well there’s a horrifying thought thank you ever so, what if, once they gather enough energy…….they summon a meteor……and bring on a second ice age?
We could do with the latter at the moment. It would probably counter our best efforts to push the climate in the other direction, and end up with us not committing genosuicide.
Seriously? Have you not noticed that it has been steadily getting colder just the last few years?
I have noticed the glaciers melting, the northern passage opening allowing shipping north of America, the coral reefs of the world dying off, all the heat sinks that nature provides filling up. Trouble is, although our eco-system has evolved to keep the planet a stable transition as it oscillates between cold and warm, we are driving the system much faster than normal. Much much faster. And have driven many species into extinction. Some of which are profoundly important to maintaining the balance.
Sooner or later the system will tip, as the carbon sinks and other mechanisms reach capacity. Possibly very fast when it does. So we may as well enjoy the quality of life we have for the moment. All too soon we will be struggling for dwindling resources, fighting over water supplies and good land and trying to cope with vast migrations of displaced populations. But, I do not subscribe to the apocalyptic tendency that appears within every generation. Something about humans require that the end of the world is imminent.
Rather the system will eventually stabilise at a hotter climate. Perhaps one too hot for humanity to survive. But other critters will take over from us. And we will be just one more mass-extinction layer for their archaeologists to eventually puzzle over.
Of course there are lots of other indicators. The ice packs melting at the poles. The loss of permafrost in Canada and Russia. The minor fact that we shall soon have an extra ice-free continent. One which has not been in that state for a heck of a long time. And which, if things were progressing at a normal rate would not be exposed for many generations. Long enough for our ecosystem to gradually adapt to the changing climate, like it normally does.
But, I am sure that climate sceptics can cite a bunch of counter-indicators, publicised by those with vested interests. In such extremely complex matters as global climate, one needs to do better than just say “Is it getting hotter or colder where I am?”. Or to pick a answer to the question, by following party political lines. Far better is to look at the overall body of work on the subject. Separate the sceptics from those who advocate a particular line, assess the competence of the members of each group, and see what the majority of the most experienced academics specialised in the field have to say.
This works for many issues that have no easy answer. Such as the question over whether smoking cigarettes lead to cancer. The decades it took to achieve a consensus allowed millions of people to die agonising deaths worldwide. Finding a way of cutting that slow resolution time, therefore can be critical. Especially as if we get this one wrong, there may not be human beings around by the end of the process.
A very clever way of dispassionately and objectively analysing the arguments is as follows. Locate all of the peer-reviewed papers published by academics with relevant qualifications in appropriate fields which give an opinion on the question. In this case, is global warming taking place? And are humans contributing to it or indeed are driving it? Rather than then studying the qualifications of each and deciding on a case-by-case subjective basis, who is the more qualified there is a clever trick. The sheer number of papers they have put through the process of publishing is an approximation of how experienced an individual scientist is. This is a fairly well accepted rule of thumb in scientific circles.
By this means, for the climate issue, when you add up all the papers on each side, and compare how experienced the various participants are you find very clear results. Not only is there a very heavy consensus that climate change is occurring, but there is agreement that it is being driven faster by mankind. Ie. there are very many more studies saying “this supports climate change happening” than the contrary. And, not only that, but the sceptics, when analysed as a group, are very much less qualified than their opponents.
The vast numbers of papers involved in studying the issue, from many different angles mean that this is a very sound way of resolving the question. I prefer to use this very dispassionate scientific route to inform my opinion, rather than to listen the the verdicts pronounced by political parties, media celebrities or groups that have vested interests.
Yeah, but things are getting colder, not getting hotter
Source: BBC article on the IPCC climate report.
Plus check out the rest of the article, which gives the most up-to-date authoritative opinion on the matter.
Do not be fooled by people or organisations which quote individual studies that say ‘things are getting cooler’ when they are not putting the report in overall context. Such as saying the study was for a few years, or in a particular region only. Likewise when they choose to ignore the greater number of reports which say things to the contrary. Picking to accept only the arguments which support your cause and ignore the ones which oppose it is not good science and can lead to disastrous policy making.
I verify my sources independently, but the IPCC is the most trustworthy single source on the subject, given that it is composed of the greatest number of experts in the field on the planet. Anyone who dismisses their conclusions, out of hand, clearly has some ulterior political motive, and should be viewed with suspicion, until proven otherwise.
I think the problem with the whole global warming (or climate change) isn’t the evidence for or against it. It isn’t even the solutions being proposed–please remember that during the early 70s, when everybody worried that Earth was running out of energy, people seriously made efforts to improve energy efficiency, many of which efforts are still in place today (and for good reason). The problem is the cited effects, which, to be blunt, do not appear to be mathematically impossible or historically valid.
I like to think of myself as a big supporter of science and hard numbers, and if the scientists say that the Earth is warming up, I believe them (conditionally, anyway). However…on a dare, I once did some basic calculations on what would happen to Earth’s sea levels were all the ice caps to melt. Understand, these are VERY basic calculations, and do not take into account a number of factors, such as increased humidity, increased rainfall, etc. However, the result I got was that, if all of Earth’s ice caps melted, the ocean level would drop by about six inches. Why? Because ice takes up more volume than water, that’s why. Yeah, sure, all the ice turning to water would increase the amount of water in the ocean, but water is less voluminous than ice, so it (surprisingly) balances out. The same holds true of many other effects, as well. An increase in humidity should increase the amount of rainfall, not decrease it. So why are we told global warming will lead to drought? We have too much CO2? That’s easy to fix. Just plant a couple of thousand square miles with trees, and let them eat the durned stuff. The list goes on.
Now, you want a list of effects that people can get their heads around, you could start with the increasing prevalence of disease as pests become more numerous. You could start with the increasing amounts of CO2 hitting a point where where breathing starts to become difficult. You could…well, that list, too, goes on. All of these problems are things that ordinary people understand, and can feel comfortable with. They are problems that they can figure out will happen, and take steps to prevent. They are, in short, within the general public’s knowledge base, and would therefore not be given nearly as much of a fight.
But see, I’ve studied weather a bit (it’s one of my more fascinating hobbies), and I still don’t understand climate change. It’s not that the information isn’t there to find, it’s that I don’t UNDERSTAND the information, because there’s not enough of an effort going on to educate the general public. That’s what’s generating the debate: people don’t understand the problem, they know the solutions proposed will generate their own problems, and so the question boils down to “do you trust the scientists not to push things just for their own benefit?”
And for most people I know, cynics that they are, the answer is: no.
Ice being more voluminous that water is a question that pops up fairly often from the public in this context, and if you Google it you can probably find a comprehensive answer. Basically the back of the envelope guestimates are wrong for a variety of reasons, most of which were not interesting enough for me to commit to memory the last time I heard them. But you have to factor things like much of the ice is currently above sea level or on land.
This is not a contentious issue in scientific circles. The only debate is how fast it is all melting, not whether the sea level will rise significantly. That is already in progress. The current and projected levels are significant enough that governments the world over are making plans about what areas will be rendered uninhabitable, and which nations will be lost first (initially Pacific island nations, but I do not intend to buy real estate in the Netherlands). The most at-risk nation has already bought land in Asia and is making provision to evacuate the entire population when the time comes
I don’t want to come across as being a rabid tree-hugger. Because I, like most folks, have suffered mental shut down and sticking head in the sand syndrome over the number of species we are driving into extinction each day, and the vast depletion of rainforests and the like around the world. It is just too depressing, and no amount of talking about it ever changes things. But the sad fact is that we are cutting down vastly more acres of trees than you are suggesting we plant, on a continuous and ongoing basis. I assume that your figures were deliberately low for comic effect. The amount we would need to plant would have to be hugely more. And it isn’t happening. Anywhere in the world. Tiddly local schemes that are done here and there are insignificant versus the amount that are being cut down in the Amazon and elsewhere.
And that is one of the biggest dangers. People assuming that we can still fix things. We can’t. Even on the off-chance that we somehow got worldwide consensus to both commit to massive change and heavily enforce violations. It has already gone too far. All we can do is limit how bad things get later. Not stop or reverse it. Thinking that we can use some technological fix is even worse mind. Almost every scheme I have seen proposed would likely cause more problems, due to being a blunt sledge-hammer fix, of a complex system that we do not understand well enough as is.
I agree that informing the public more is important, and should be done worldwide. Especially in democratic countries, where the mob ultimately decides policy via the voting booth. However the issue is so complex that we do need to rely on specialists in society to do their job and inform the rest of us in simpler terms. Especially given the fact that it is not possible to say with 100% certainty about anything in the field, so there is a limit to even what the scientists know themselves.
Firstly you are talking about thousands of scientists working in different organisations spread across many countries. Personally I find it implausible to think that the vast majority of them are advocating that we take tough measures which will impact them, just as much as everyone else in society, just so they can earn money working on this problem, rather than some other one.
Secondly is it worth taking the risk of the entire species going extinct (that is everybody, forever, with no space ship to somewhere imaginary that we have not fucked up) just because you might be worried that all those scientists are lying for some reason?
I wonder a second thing. Did Dave decided what other two balls does or are they still in progress to think/find out? I have a couple of ideas but a nerd like Sydney should test whatever I was thinking long ago so I am not sure if I am on right track :P
The question has come up more than a few times. Dave has maintained from the very beginning that their function has already been determined, and that all shall be revealed at the right time. Speculation continues, and abounds.
My favourite speculation is that one of the Myatery Orbs is some kind of ‘Omega 13’ device (from ‘Galaxy Quest’). That is, it manipulates time on some level – briefly freezes or rewinds it, maybe. Other speculations are that one has some kind of ‘Heal’ or even ‘Auto-Resurrect’, or that use in conjenction with the other orbs alters the latter’s effects. As has been said, we’ll find out.
….. Eventually.
Well my guess are more …… classical (I guess) I think they are either augmenting or enhancing orbs for other orbs.
For example one orb can be increasing numerical values of other orbs like granting flight to more people, producing more telepresence, more tentacles, multi-directional blast (though we don’t know what kind of blast is in red orb), protecting more peole in forcefield etc.
Or enhancing them in some ways like tele-presence touch as well or can change shape, forcefield acts like an invisibility field too, flight actually being gravity manipulation and lets her do telekinetic tricks, blast can change properties (like from burning to cutting etc), tentacles can be sharpened for slashing or piercing etc
Personally I think that boosting the raw power of the other orbs is not that likely. Simply because that is Maxima’s thing, and duplicating it would lessen both characters. But having it alter the other orbs in some way, now that is different enough for that problem not to exist.
Of course, the biggest problem is that Halo already has potentially one of the most powerful power sets in the world. DaveB has acknowledged that she is rated below Maxima in the cast list mainly because she is inexperienced. Once she has learnt the limits of her powers and has practised using them more, she will become a lot more capable. If each mystery orb adds a single power then her overall power level only increases slightly. But if there is some kind of multiplication either of power strength or the effective number of powers then that makes her jump up in power hugely.
Not that I would object to that, as power has its own fun. Just that it becomes much harder to write entertaining stories for a hero who has vast power. And she would still be limited to using two at a time, so her capabilities would have a strong inherent limitation to counter that issue.
Like I said that is my guess. If Sydney tried balls one by one when she found them than tried both those balls together and never with another one it may explain why they didn’t work together (since both are augmenting or enhancing balls for other 5).
I doubt they give her any physical abilities because she would try to see if they are giving anything like that bar healing powers (or bad powers as Sydney points out)
What we know about orbs in general that 1) they glow when they are in Sydney’s hand and that is also implication that they are active. 2) Each ball contains something that hints what they do which is released when they are active (yellow one has a tele-presence sphere where tele-presence directed, tentacle ball has a worm like thing which transforms into tentacle etc) so if they augmenting his physical abilities we would see some sort of aura around her. (flight is not granting an aura probably because it is not that orbs primary power but a side effect much like tele-presence truesight or flight itself doesn’t count as physical augmentation or its because that ball is empty)
If you read the instruction manual it clearly says to activate the supplementary power functions you need to hold both of the currently unknown orbs while activating one of the others. What? Your species only has two hands? What a weird life-form.
He he.
One of the reasons Arc was so hot to sign Sydney on is she has a larger Power Suite than anyone (except “Maybe” Dabbler) on the team.
They had no way of knowing Sydney even existed before she stumbled into that Bank Robbery PR stunt, unless…
You are not suggesting that the BRPRs was set up to ‘catch‘ Sydney are you? It’s one thing to suggest Suzie was a ‘plant’ to have an ‘inside’ reporter during the Press Conference…
I think Adamas is referring to the discussions that Maxima, General Faulk, Arianna and Zephan Zoeng had about whether to recruit Sydney. And the strong power she had (in particular the true sight) tipped the balance over the problems her weirdness might cause.
Yep.
Oh right, you meant after she revealed her powers publically, gotcha
some plausable options:
1) Heal / resurect wont stop pain so could be active.
2) an unusual power like talking to animals or something.
3) perhapse needs to activate one orb to recharge the rest
4) would she notice if she gained strength or density or something without a suitable test?
5) powers could be ready to use except she hasnt guessed yet therefore they didnt activate as she didnt know what to activate.
6) evolve to survive power like that xmen character – a reactive power rather than active.
7) maybe one orb seeks out other nearby orbs – could be more hidden or another user.
8) spider scence orb
lots of options.
When conducting experiments such as having Maxima blast her shield, Sydney should definitely be holding one of the unknown spheres in addition to the force field sphere.
Only once they have established the capabilities of the known orb, sure. After all, if the mystery orb does change it in some way, they would have no way of knowing if the effect or magnitude of the power they are observing is due to one orb or the other. That is simply basic scientific procedure. Restrict the variables until you are testing as few as possible. Preferably just the one.
Likewise basic safety protocols would mean that you do not introduce a completely unknown element into a test until you have both a very safe environment and no unprotected observers that may be harmed.
For example, if the red orb is an Amplifier and they tested it with the PPO it could leave the blast range looking like Ground Zero at a ’40s Nuke test.
I forgot most important question I had………. WHERE IS THE DONATE BUTTON?????? :P
Donate button? What a great idea!
I noticed there was two rings if chared ground around Halo. But their was only one shot fired, right? Does that mean that the explosion decreased or increased the size of the shield? Or could it be a little like the reflect spell from kingdom hearts 2?
That could lead to some interesting power stunts. One of my favorites was using Reflega against other barrier spells, especially ones that caused damage upon contact.
There’s actually three ring if you look closely at the corners of the second panel, and there has been a lot of speculation on if it was one blast or multiple blasts.
More likely that we just didn’t see the other attacks/test shots, because there would be 5+ pages of people complaining about the comic turning into DBZ, and people countering how great each individual impact and Sydney’s reaction was
Just read through the whole story for the first time. By my count, looks like the whole comic, which took three years in real world, happened in one day in comic time. Except for maybe the first few pages. Not complaining about it, just an observation from a first time reader.
Yup, you got it. And welcome to the community!
I’ve been thinking about this. Okay, imagine Harem and a bad guy on opposite sides of a washed out bridge. She picks a spot on the fly, her mind measuring the angles and timing like a quarterback rolling out for a pass. She jumps like she’s doing a cannon ball and then vorps herself to spot near the bad guy, coming at him feet-first from behind. Double stomp, flop, stand up and wave goodbye to the bad guy. “AAAAHHHHEEEEEaaaahhhh…”, says the bad guy. Splish.
I don’t see any reason why she couldn’t. (I just remembered that guy from one of the X-Men movies. Maybe that’s where I got the idea.) Given some training in vorpal arts, and practice working multiple bodies as a team, Harem could be one of the all-time bad ass butt kickers. Man! This comic, these characters, they’re perfect for a nice movie franchise. I could easily see Harem spinning off into a movie or few of her own. DaveB is a genius, but he should get an agent or whatever. Not volunteering. Just sayin’. ;-)
Uh, oops. That was supposed to be a reply to RobK about Harem using her vorpabilty to skip through the air. My bad.
Depending on the physics of her teleporting (ie whether current momentum is retained or lost*), you could be perfectly correct. We certainly know she is developing teleport-fu, from her cast details:
* If she retains momentum this is a serious danger if attempting a long-range teleport. Angular momentum of the Earth will cause her serious grief if she performs the wrong kind of port with such a limitation. For instance, if on mission on the International Space Station, she decides to port back home for some reason. On arrival, she would blast through her bedroom wall due to her retained orbital momentum. The remaining bits of her would continue at several thousand miles per hour until gravity and/or other obstructions brought them to a halt. Teleporting without retaining momentum looses that martial arts feat, but allows long-range porting without the use of a dedicated computer program and severe limitations on destinations. It also allows her to pop into moving cars, aeroplanes etc without fear of her head being bashed against the nearest obstacle. Assuming that the port adjusts her arrival momentum to match the appropriate reference point (car, plane, planet) as may be appropriate.
Even without retaining pre-*vorp* momentum, can see something like what NB posited: she could still appear behind him and push/kick him over the edge
Or better yet: if she can carry ‘passengers’, and the badguy is within the weight limit, she could *vorp* in his face, say something cool like “Want a bath?”, grab him by the lapels, *vorp* to the middle of the bridge (if there was still a bridge in the middle), let go of him and *vorp* to safety and watch as the guy falls to the river below (would totally do that if had that ability)
If DaveB wants the best of both worlds mind, she can actively choose between the two options. That would allow her to jump-kick from four different directions, retaining the momentum of the leap and teleport to the single target. Burst watermelon.
Then to teleport off to Air Force One for security detail, automatically adjusting momentum to match that of the aircraft. Only needing to be concerned that she wiped her feet, rather than having wiped out the president.
Read Jumper by Stephen Gould for some more cool ‘porter tricks. :)
(>ll>) one day you will update and on that day i will be waiting…….(slips back under his bridge)
l________l
(munches on sexy candy) psst its really Viagra
He did update, you were just 11 minutes early
Naughty Troll pounces on update gobbling it whole
Another argument for the single attack theory is that it is much more controllable and safer. From previous testing Maxima will have known that X strength beam can penetrate the block in Y seconds. And will know her reaction speed to turn off the beam. Thus being able to guarantee that she can prevent herself killing Halo should the shield fail unexpectedly.
However, three blasts of varying power would be much harder to predict. And the final one would have had to be staggeringly powerful. Such that shrapnel from the block alone would make the test unpredictably dangerous.
Also, although I don’t feel like hunting for it, I seem to recall that one suggestion for the fact that the two inner rings are semi-circles and the outer one is a full circle, was because the latter was from an aerial blast. It just struck me that this would be highly improbable as the block would not have offered any protection, given that it would not be in between Maxima and Halo. Plus, if the multi-attack theory is right, then it would clearly have been the most powerful individual attack and would be the one that most required the safety precaution.
Finally, crystals require a constant temperature/pressure over a period of time to form. Which I think is the strongest proof of the one sustained attack theory. I can think of no examples where crystalline structures would form under the shock of a blast. Or series of blasts. Certainly nothing which might look like the above page.
Although a compromise that there were three attacks, each with a sustained beam of a constant strength, might be possible.
Doesn’t mean it had to have happened all at the same time, we don’t know how long they had been there and they could have stopped between shots to check that things were still hunky-dory
I’m thinking that Max’s blast first hit (causing the inner crystal ‘ring’), then washed back, over Syd’s shield, causing the outer crystal ring.
It seems far more likely Max would have hit her with her (one) strongest blast, without overcharging her abilities- lower chance of turning Syd to molten slag accidentally
Might be a bit belated, but I’m still wondering:
Shouldn’t they, at least when talking about her at a press conference, mention Sydney with her last name?
Press briefings come with hand-outs on such things. They will almost certainly have had an itinerary of who will be speaking and sufficient information to give their captioners, commentators and the journalists on the front line enough to do their jobs. And in-comic they have mentioned that there will be a press packet handed out at the end, which will have even more info in it: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/989
I’ve never been to a live fire range that didn’t have parking for a couple dozen semis, or a hundred normal cars.
Mmmh – i’ve been wondering why they didn’t simply ferried the journalists directly with the osprey instead of carrying the bus ? Even assuming the bus is light enough (an osprey can only lift around 7 tons of cargo on external) it would have been faster and use less fuel to make several trips with the osprey to transport everyone. Carrying an external cargo drastically reduce the maximum safe flight speed (as the cargo would start to oscillate – i don’t even think an osprey can fly in plane mode with an underslug cargo :p
Style.
Plus the bus has an on-board toilet, is likely more comfortable and is a familiar environment for the journalists.
A military aircrew would never sling load an vehicle with passengers in it. Busses are not designed to make it through a crash landing. I know this is just a comic but it really botheres me.
There’s a small hole in the block. I’m randomly looking back in the archive, and I just noticed the small hole. Does that mean Maxima got through the shield?
Naa, it was not a pristine target. They like shooting stuff at it. If you check it out pre-firing you will see that in panel 3 it has exactly the same holes that you can see in panel 2, above.
Point of Order, the V-22 Osprey’s engines are baffled to reduce noise significantly and the Rotors are machined in such a way that they reduce air disturbance in flight. The V-22’s you see in the movies that sound like an old Bell H-1 Huey have all had the baffling removed. Just like the A-10, you would think it would be loud as shit but in reality , when in idle on the tarmac it’s like standing in a parking lot across from a mercedes, the thing just effin purrs
You’re not wrong man, the V-22 Osprey be *sneaky*. I live upwind from an airport that sees V-22 traffic weekly, and we don’t hear them until they’re practically right on top of us.
What’s up with the spikes in Panel 1 & 2? Did her laser heat the ground enough to turn it to glass?
Yes.
Upon reread, if really like to see that armchair analysis.