Grrl Power #167 – Sydney Beam Activate!
The erratic Sydneyhameha attack is simultaneously less powerful yet more dangerous than the proper Kamehameha.
Related but… not – Something I learned while I was googling Kamehameha to make sure I was spelling it correctly (I thought it was Kame Hame Ha) is that Kamehameha is also the name of a dude that conquered the Hawaiian islands in 1810. His full name was Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea which is awesome. And now, half of your battle is won. You’re welcome. Edit: Turns out the DBZ attack was actually named after this guy, so go figure.
Oh I’ve added the ability to click on the comic to advance to the next one, which… if you’re caught up doesn’t do you any good but I guess for the next time you go back into the archive.
November really snuck up on me so I don’t have a new vote incentive yet, so instead I’ll show you a really old piece of art from a page that hasn’t happened yet. I know that’s maybe a little confusing but I have a bunch of pages still from when I was gearing up to do the comic. I was drawing scenes that I knew would eventually happen while figuring out my process. This one doesn’t spoil anything, other than confirming that Dabbler has sass. I’ll try and have something fresh up next week.
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I am surprised she didn’t say Hadoken and goes with kamehameha instead since we alread got a Sagat cameo. (A search on internet also reveals that Hadoken is based on dragonballs kamehameha) but I guess only hadoken looks like Sydney’s attack was in the vs Marvel series so no big deal.
And kamehameha was a hawaiian king – I have some postage stamps from 1937 that say kamehameha on them. People copy all sorts of aspects of things they’ve seen and heard before and put them into their fiction, so what can you do.
I actually met the guy in a video game. He’s the Civ Leader for Polynesia in Civilization V.
now what kind of safety mechanism dose it have
I am going with a mental final trigger. So full focused intent.
How about “Only fires within danger range of user if overridden”? Then we can see Sydney scramble for the forcefield sphere. :-P
Kind of a “Mother may I?” thing…like the little window that pops up asking “Are you sure…?” when you try to delete something.
Well seems to me that the idea of a fail safe or “safety” on the most powerful weapon is a good idea. One that a more advanced species would incorporate into their survival tech. Just hope that one day the owners won’t come for it like what happened with the Blue Beetle.
Cracks on orb surface then matching thought cracks = safety Disengaged. PPO set to ‘Kill’.
I don’t think those a crack on the orbs surface
internal colour change, more like the iris opening through which it fires.
the question is: Does the iris opening more equal a wider beam resulting in area effect or allowing more power to be discharged in the same focused direction ?
or are both possable ?
Can’t be an iris, note that the cross looks the same viewed head-on or from the side. Probably more like the effect in a tiger’s eye gem, except like “into the abyss” rather than “shiny”. I mean, there might be an energy portal (or aperture :p) involved, but the orb isn’t actually opening or changing its shape.
The concept may still be valid even if there is a complete lack of mechanics.
As little as we know of how the orbs work there may be room for adjustment in the settings and cosmetic changes in colour / pattern to make this visable.
I agree, I think it’s a sort of internal lightening storm as it’s some sort of electrical or energy attack.
Chatoyancy or four point asterism. When it activates, the crystalline structure changes and the light develops a star pattern like you see in a star sapphire. Probably related to the safety mechanism.
I’m getting this impending doom feeling… like the crowd is about to get knocked on their asses… or worse (it is Sydney after all)
Just my thought… Seeing how the scene looks, Sidney might be a hot topic on the next nuclear disarment conference.
The beam is very tight I think she just punched a hole through that tank you could thread a Battleship tow line. Pendent anyone?
and up comes the lava from the crazy pen…
Hiro may be a taker on that pendant although due to the size he could only wear it when flying.
SWEET LAVA NEXT PAGE!!!!!
and yes knowing IS half the battle :)
As it was already pointed out those are *explody* beams. I can bet there will be a little bit more than just a hole.
And the hole keeps going until it reaches a magma pocket, superheating the magma and next thing you know we have a volcano in Texas.
Here comes the Earth shattering KaBoom!
If this was Disqus that would have earned an “up-arrow”.
If this was Disquis, wouldn’t have even read that post :(
It’s my belief that they named the DBZ attack after the hawaiian conqueror, because of the length of his name, and the ridiculous length of DBZ attacks in general. Similarity? I think so. @.@ Conspiracy? MAYBE!
imagine if the said his whole name out loud every time they used the attack
At the risk of being a spoilsport, a) Am I the only one who thinks of the legendary Hawaiian ruler *first* when hearing the name “Kamehameha”? Don’t you people even watch Hawaii Five-0? That’s his statue in front of…whatever. b) I do know that DBZ stands for Dragonball Z. Otherwise, I need someone to explain Kamehameha in that context.
The Kamehameha is, apparently, the first “energy attack” created by humans in the DBZ universe. Created by Master Roshi after many years of training, and Goku being Goku, learned it after seeing it once. Here is a video of the attack in question I just pulled randomly of the interwebs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nazk5vD0qu4
Nope. I do too. Never watched either DBZ or Hawaii-Five-O, but my mom was born and raised in Hawaii, and I’ve been there a couple of times. It’s kinda hard to miss his name if you’re actually there.
It’s a pun: in Japanese, “Kame-hame-ha” can be interpreted to mean “Turtle Destruction Wave.” (The guy who invented it is called the Turtle Hermit.)
Nope, I thought of the Hawaiian ruler too. I was wondering if that meant she was going to call forth lava or something, although yelling “Pele!” would be more appropriate (although that might bring forth soccer balls….)
soccer balls, eh? and why else would the weapon in question be an ORB????
*giggle*
If I am reading the Cast page correctly, Sydney’s ranged attack isn’t that powerful. It’s rated at 3 dots out of 5, which is the same as Jiggawatt’s lightning, or Dabbler’s ranged attack. With that in mind I wouldn’t expect Sydney’s attack on the tank to do much more than make a hole in the tank with some nice glowing hot metal edges.
She’s plenty dangerous, but not in the “Makes Glass-Lined Craters” class.
you have to remember Dabbler can also create a shield that can take a fairly heavy shot from Maxima, but Dave ranked it only 3/5 mainly because of it’s size (about 3 feet across) and the fact that Dabbler has to maintain the shield. There could be other reasons that Force to rate something 3 stars.
There is also the fact that sydney hasn’t really tested its power, so it can’t really be rated yet. Her shield was 3 stars until testing day with maxima.
I think David stated that Sydney’s rating were lower because of lack of training and that if she was properly trained then she would be one of the most powerful supers
To quote a certain reporter, “It seems like an enemy… might sense that attack coming.”
Um, imagine that were a real tank, with Sydney flying above it on a battlefield. How would they hear her say the activation word over the turbine roar and the clattering of the treads? Much less see her? I think the rumors of her attack’s ‘broadcasting’ limitation are being overstated quite a bit.
Not to mention that there isn’t a weapon on an Abrahms that can elevate to that angle. Only way for a tank she’s attacking to react to that is to pop a hatch and use their sidearms.
ummmmm im pretty sure the tank is kaput right now( ergo not making any noise), not that it was turned on in the first place i would assume. its just there as a shooting target. a big impressive hunk of metal target with the only purpose of being destroyed. probably was striped it bare too.
no engine, no ammo, jsut a big husk waiting to be shot at for a live fire demonstration.
its a military procedure when you want to use real life fire practice against a real target.
He did say “real tank” and “on a battlefield”. Of course, the lead up/ safety off time would see Sydney being shot at by everyone *except* the target.
Lightning has been known to vitrify sand into glass. It gets that hot.
Sydney may be rated 3 Stars based on Control as opposed to raw output power
1 for control plus 5 for power = 6
6 divided by the 2 categorys for an average = 3
My take: Its a mental component. In the original test she was probably assuming one of the orbs shot something and kept saying “Fire Fire Fire” while holding different orbs. When she got to the Pew Pew it “caught up” on the commands and caused fires fires fires… Now she is trying to wind up and pitch a big blast so it waited until she finished the verbal component and thought of safety –so it narrowed the beam and poked a hole through the tank. What I want to see is the beam spear through, with nothing much happening. Once they go over to check on it, they will notice that the tank is now sinking into a pool of glass quicksand. No boom. Nothing but a whiff of vaporized metal and shifting as the sand underneath goes liquid.
I also note the beam starts beyond the orb so it should be able to fire from within the force field –they are designed to work together…
I like the concept of Sydney’s beam characteristics are mentally controlled (i.e. “Fire, Fire, Fire” means a Fire Bream rather than a Ice or Kinetic beam).
Gives rise (for me) of the concept of a “MultiAttack!”, which could split the beam off into multiple, equal strength beams. Or a “Homing Beam”, which would track a moving target.
This would give Sydney a lot more versatility, thus increasing her overall “power”, without necessarily increasing the actual damage rating of the beam attack. Sure, the beam may be only a 3 in damage, but if it always hits?
But then I’m immediately countered by the visceral terror of putting an Omega Murder Blast / Kamehameha / Dragon Slave type attack in the hands of Sydney’s attention span.
Sydney: KaaaMaaayyyHaaa…….Oh Squirrel!
Squirrel:
Okaay –had to look up a micromort. 1/1,000,000 chance of death so 650,000 would be about a 65% chance of somebody dying. So if it really is a ‘Pinprick from God’ kind of thing, on a tank this is the odds of passing through one of the seat/stations. On a person, smaller target all fleshy, this jumps to say 85% as anything in the trunk or head with that kind of energy would probably kill. Even a high leg hit would kill as it turns liquids to steam from heat transfer… And it may be the gift that keeps on giving –can you say line of sight to the horizon?
I read that as the chance of killing the _tank_. It does say that on a human, the chance is higher.
The 4th and 5th panels have me a bit baffled. First, where exactly is Maxima? She seems close to Sydney in the 4th panel, but doesn’t appear at all in the 5th. Is her appearance supposed to represent her listening in on Sydney on the throat collar microphone? Also, is Suzie’s comment based on Sydney’s actions or what she is saying? If the latter, just how does she manage to hear Sydney (unless ARC provided the media a means to listen in on the mics)?
Maxima Is getting the Hell out of the way. Because when someone flies really High in the Sky starts shouting DBZ attack phrazes and is holding an item that could possibly be a very destructive weapon, It matters not if your body is made out of some strange adamantium metal of Unknown Higher then anyone paygrade, Metal, There is somethings you are not ready nor willing to test against in front of spectators when you have yet to see the effects of yet. (if Wolfveriene Flew into the (any Sun/Star) Sun some how, Managing not to die of asphyxiation, or micro meteors he wouldn’t heal afterwards, there would be nothing left of him, for healing or even his Adamantium Bones.)
Expecially if all it did was burn all her clothes off in front of CNN.
MMM… DaveB, great idea for a vote incentive.
I do think that Maxima’s supposed to reacting to what she’s hearing over the commlink rather than being physically there.
As for Suzie, I’m tempted to answer “yes.” That is she can hear Sydney shouting even if she can’t tell what she’s saying and well, yeah, way to telegraph your attack girl.
Let’s be fair.
Shouting an attack is intended to give a good opponent a fair choice…
even if it’s only doing last rites or begging for mercy.
Now, for something completely different.
Good thing that the civilians are not recording this to show the public. I do love the shockwave.
Red orb:
Analysis: Object over 50T of ferrous layer metals. Phonics relieving intent completed: Powering up completed: Minor photonic kinetic motion compensation for/possible debris expected: Release as per intent.
Or: The Eye.
“Is someone shaking me? Again? Better take a peek, not to much, this dimension seems rather flammable.”
I’m suddenly thinking of a super polite alien with a british accent living extradimensionally in the orb with hilariously powerful Cyclops-esque lazer eyes that don’t do anything to his home but when he opens a window because his ‘house’ is shaken…
so… Ferb lives in the orb….
Kamehameha also is doubly punny Kame Hame Ha is also three words in japanese (if I recall correctly (incorrect info warning; I may not)) Turtle Island Sound? Sorry My memory isn’t that fresh. It’s Been a while since jmy Otoken Days.
kami means god, I remember that.
If I remember Correlctly Kame Hame means Turtle Hermit and HA is a Verbal Sound “like a a cat goes Meow, or to laugh like a witch is kekekeke) so Turtle hermit (yell). If i recall the words right, as I said its been a while since my Otoken days.
Well that explains why Roshi wears a turtle shell….and is/was a hermit…with a pet giant talking turtle.
your thinking of Kami, kame is turtle, kami is god
I admit my mistake. Thanks for correcting me.
Turtle Destruction Wave.
Gamera having fun!
Re: Vote Incentive —
When do we get some Sydney cheesecake?
That’s what the main comic is for
The closest to Sydney-cheescake was her sitting by the pool during Anvil’s lounge-act (what? you didn’t notice there was anyone else in that shot? shame on you!!)
The closest we will get to that is sydney eating a cheesecake.
Only if it is swimming in Super-Atomic HotSauce :)
What? Why the hell not? Is DaveB one of those insecure lil boys that thinks that women have to have big tits to be sexy? Or does he think that tomboys can’t be sexy? Cuz I’ve had a few tomboys, so I’d have to disagree.
shouldn’t it be HALOHAMEHAMEHA ? hehe
Close: Kame-HALO-Harlyshitthat’sgonnaleaveamark!!!
hehe i like that one )
Hah! Yeah, probably should have been.
All the names in DB were picked from themes, either food, clothing or musical instruments: Jamjar, Lunch, Piccolo, Tambourin, Freezer, Briefs, Bloomer, Pants, Oolong (tea), etc…
All saijin names were vegetables as Vegeta being vegetable kakarot was carrot etc.
so when i scream “DAMN YOU KAKKAROT” i’m saying literally “DAMN YOU CARROT?”
Yes, yes you are. Now imagine the fact that Vegetable goes inside…I think Bulma meant Bra…
Bloomers.
What about that bald little prat that was named after whale food? Oh right, he still counts as ‘being named after food’, nevermind
So flight+Pew pew. Well, let’s see what happens to poor Mr. Tank, and the journalist is right, any enemy with even one functional brain cell is going to notice that attack coming.
I am amazed Maxima let Sydney to use her pew pew orb before doing some testing on it at there. For anything that mattered Maxima could throw tank on shielded Sydney to make a show of power
Caught up!
Cool comic (bro). Liking the irreverent tone and the art. Speaking of which, if there’s one thing I get from the author comments, it’s that you’re too hard on yourself. Your art is awesome. Keep it up. :)
Thanks! I’m like a lot of writers/illustrators in that there’s always another level to get to. I think it’s the Dunning-Kruger Effect, where the better you are at something, the more you know how much more there is to know. That sort of thing. (Conversely, the more incompetent you are at something the less likely you are able to recognize your lack of skill or knowledge)
I know everything I do with the comic has improved since I began, I’m really quite pleased with some of the art, but of course I’m not comparing myself to me from when I began, now I’m comparing myself to Masamune Shirow and Joe Madureira and Fred Perry and Masahiko Nakahira and Adam Warren and Yusuke Murata. You know, guys who have been doing comics professionally for 20+ years. :) Might as well aim high.
One doesn’t want to get a swelled head and stop improving. Being your own hardest critic as I am with my own is just part of how we work to improve. You are doing a fine job. Now stop smiling and get back to the nose to the grind stone. Must hurt at first. Poor nose.
SKWEEEEN
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this but there’s a black line running from Sydney’s wrist device to her palm. Is Archon using this test to get a reading off her orb?
Actually, that’s the palm strap of the wrist comp. Which doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be wired to scan the orbs it contacts (with the possibility of frying the wrist comp here, due to unforseen feedback). Archon is set up to deal with any and all superhuman capabilities; the more they know, the more they can do… probably. Which doesn’t mean they have any clue whatsoever about these orbs.
That makes sense. BTW, I see they took it away from her while she was in the “Time-out Box”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1070
most likely because she kept subvocalizing swears about shakespearean ferrets’ mothers…
The wrist comp is back in the next comic while she’s still in the time-out bux
Aw suck! I knew I was going to forget to draw that thing at least once.
I think the safety is squeezing the PPO. On the close-up of Sydney’s hand, it seems like she altered her grip and the cracks on the orb disappeared. I think the “cracks” are a contact switch, activating the orb. If I’m right, what do I win?
I got a handful of air* I could send your way.
*Recipient is responsible for the delivery of said prize, btw.
So, here’s a thought; What if the orb isn’t generating the power itself? If we’re talking Diane Duane magic (So You Want To Be A Wizard series.) the orb may simply be opening a portal to the nearest object of intense power… AKA, the sun. Pull a small amount of the highly condensed plasma on the suns surface, and you’ve got something around the equivalent power of several hydrogen bombs with the blasts directed out of the portal (instead of omnidirectional). Granted, overuse would tend to start to destabilize the sun (And if the coordinates are off and are placed INSIDE the sun, things could get REALLY hinky) and could have undesirable side effect.
Power wise, this could possibly be more efficient than generating the power itself. Of course, then the problem occurs “How does it generate the power to open the portal? Why not simply use that power for a laser instead?”
Well…. solar eruptions are more dramatic… and powerful than a laser.
I love how at the end you answer you own question there by answering all or at least most questions we would have answer the question of how the orb generates the power it is a super effective bio thermic/chi channeling system and the orbs are just away control and amplify that inner power
I wonder if the power of the orb is also possibly affected by the spiciness of the foor that Sydney eats…
hehe. So she would carry around a peck of pickled peppers to pop for adding power to her proliferous attacks?
650,000 Scoville foods give her a 650,000 micromort attack?
And consuming milk would make her weaker as it deadens the burn?
It would be an interesting twist.
One thing we do know is that the orbs aren’t solar powered or they would have died while in her possession.
But she just ate a 3 million Scoville meal earlier … but it would be funny if it changed the spiciness of her food into degrees Kelvin. hehehehe
It’s just Kelvin, no degrees.
I was thinking that was why she could use them and no one else.
food, even
I just thought of something..unless the flight orb causes Sydney to enter a “gravity lock” where her gravitational field intertwines with and becomes a fixed point in the earth’s gravity field, wouldn’t she be flung in the opposite direction the beam fired due to certain laws of physics?
Mentioned something earlier about the flight orb putting her in a ‘gravity lock’, but you descibed/explained it better
From what we’ve seen the Flight orb becomes the center of her personal gravity “well” so unless she tells it to, it won’t let her move.
Beam weapons, since energy has no measurable mass, have no recoil. So, no Syd flying backwards.
BTW, I’d be fully on board with a vote incentive of Max’s powers protecting her skin but not her clothing from a full on Halohemehameha blast! :P
Assuming it is a beam and not a highly energized matter stream.
Energy beam would still displace air, wouldn’t it?
Weird science fact: Lasers have recoil.
Newton’s laws of motion are accurate enough within their frame of reference, but a more technically accurate way to express them is to say that in all systems angular momentum is conserved. The Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum explains why lasers have recoil. Photons do have momentum, even though they have no mass.
The recoil generated by a laser is ridiculously small. It takes insanely good instruments to detect it, but it can and has been detected and measured.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
Quote from a scifi fanfic I read a while ago: “Photons have momentum”.
It could heat the air the beam passes through, causing it to expand rapidly, causing back blast.
wouldn’t Sydney Beam Cannon fit better
I just found an interesting life-imitates-art example. Compare the slag formations in the earlier comic https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1043 with the crystal formations in this picture from White Sands New Mexico (also a military test site by the way) https://www.livescience.com/40949-white-sands-national-monument-nps-wallpaper.html. Oh No! The walls between universes are breaking down! Call Fringe Division!
*is seen hammering at the wall between worlds with a pickaxe*
(giggles as he plasters another foot think panel on the far side of the wall)
Let’s hope this isn’t the matter-to-energy conversion beam from “The Soft Weapon” by Niven. Everyone gone in a mushroom cloud …
I have a feeling the tank will be blown to pieces by that beam.
At best single atoms.
I agree, but we will have to wait and see. I still think the tank will be blown to kingdom come in a massive explosion.
Hoping for a slice effect myself. Tank falls into two equal halves after momentary disbelief.
Or the earlier thought of cuts through and melts a large are of ground into glass and tank sinks in…
Could we do both?
I can just see the beam veering off and blasting the nearest forest, or even ricocheting off the tank, just to mess with her. Ha-ha!
I wish someone made a mod for minecraft with Sidney’s orbs.
It would be hard to name though, halo mod might get mistaken for the other game.
This is perfect for the news conference. It’s obvious the rest of the team is holding back, but if the newbie horribly trashes the tank, how powerful is the rest of the team *really*? Potential bad guys might think twice…
Here’s a thought to ponder. Sydney just realized that there is a safety. That means the first time she used it she just played with it until it discharged. She also just told it to go all out.
What do you suppose the odds are that it wasn’t fully functional/powered when she started the forest fire?
The odds are not in the favour of the reporters XD
i find it funny all those comments about how the reporters are in “danger“. you would think that a MILITARISED organisation would have taken precautions like safe distance and , i dunno… a team of TRAINED superhero ready to move in at a moment notice in case something bad/unexpected happens?
even tough sidney is new and kind of a wild card, she was still screened, interviewed, and to some extent, tested to see what she was capable of.
i don`t think they would let her participate if they did`nt think she couldn`t handle it or if they couldn`t react in time if SHTF.
my prediction? the tank will melt. period.
P.S
Dave, i said it before and i`ll say it again, your level of art is way above average. you put a lot of attention to details, you keep improving your style( therefore adding even more details to the comic/background/characters etc. in fact i`m amazed you are able to produce such quality art in a week with your life, job, etc taking time from you.
a lot of other comics i`ve read so far either are done in manga style which are quicker to draw than what you are doing, in black and white and will have 3 to four panels as an average in a strip. the better ones ive seen are also done in teams whereas, unless i am mistaken you are working alone.
to anyone reading this and thinking the comic is too long for updates or other B*llSH!T about complaint,
here is something to think about.
you go DAVE, best comic i`ve read thus far. as i said your monday strip is what makes me start my week on a good mood ^_^
A team WOULD be needed to produce this comic more than once a week – and we would all apreciate it :P
Volunteers to help could be auditioned as a trial.
That delay in firing may be because the device has to gather a charge to blast away.
you know what this is what she should of said
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLKqxxDqv8A
Personally, I’d gone with the Shoop-Da-Whoop approach.
Shame she can’t operate it with her mouth.