Grrl Power #177 – One step forward, two steps back
This is what Arianna gets for playing the PR game on expert difficulty. She’s not going to S rank it at this point, but if she can rally a few more times, she might still finish with an A or a B+ if she nails the whammy run… or something else that makes it sound like there’s a PR version of Guitar Hero. God that would be a shit game though wouldn’t it? Sydney cursed on TV! Hit Blue, Red and Green! Maxima threatened a paparazzi, Blue Blue Blue, Blue Red, Blue Red, Yellow Red! Who let a sex tape ‘slip?’ Math? Oh, no one cares about that. Well, some people do, but not in a way that generates bad PR so much. Hold down Blue.
I like to think between panel 1 and 2 as Arianna turned around, there was a split second magic-girl transformation sequence that fixed her hair and everything.
I made a Ground Zero Maxima wallpaper for you guys over at the DA page. I also uploaded a high res version to see if there’s any interest in prints. One option is that you can get puzzles. With all the fire in the background I would imagine that would be a fairly frustrating puzzle… except it’s only 252 pieces and not 5000 or something.
Oh and there’s a new Kid Sensation novel out. It’s one of my favorite superhero series… let’s say top 5 anyway. It’s linked in the Amazon widget on the side too. Here are links to Book 1, Book 2, and a short story in case you feel like going all in.
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.
I’m really starting to love Arianna
Sweeeet, awesome wallpaper
Sydney can add sound effects to her force field? Nice.
What makes those Byoop sounds? Is it the shield slowly disapearing from the ground up?
Agreed, I have no idea what the Byoop panel, or Sydney’s panel, is supposed to mean.
while I’m not sure about the “Byoop Byoop Byoop” sound, but sydneys panel is clearly showing her letting go of the FORB.
And Sydney’s Happy Cat face is just so KYOOT
Knowing Sydney, its even money whether its the shield fading making the sound, or Sydney making it herself.
The sound could be a result of how much energy the field recently absorbed. But I am leaning toward Syd based sound origin. :p We have not seen Sydneys shield grid like that before. Could be a visual warning about the impact it takes as she dose not feel feedback from the shield. Well thought out powers.
Actually that patern is what always showed when the shield was hit
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1041
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/526
Though this is the first time it’s this visable. Maybe that means something
it get’s more pronounced as the damage it is preventing gets more dangerous?
Is it just me, or does the shield look like the Assassin’s Creed Symbol…?
Should that be “supers powered threats”?
I think it was supposed to be just “supers” and then “powered threats” got added on after it and the S at the end of supers was forgotten about. At least that’s my guess.
You are probably right. Still it is a an easy to fix minor misspelling.
Yeah, happens to me often: will type something, then go back and change/add things and forget to proofread to make sure it reads well
Yeah that’s also the first thing I noticed.
If you have that amount of power you can speak any way you want and noone dares to correct you.
Great power leads to bad grammar.
Now you know.
Whoops, yeah. I was doing some last minute editing last night and Manga Studio’s text tool leaves a lot to be desired. Normally I use Illustrator but I’m on vacation at my parents’ and just have my laptop.
I am thinking it would be “super–powered threat”. Add the hyphen to make a composite adjective.
I think Arianna and Maxima are tied in the charm portion of the show. But Maxima is way out front on the vividness of her presentation. And Sydney is looking very satisfied.
A villain who could bring other’s thoughts into reality would be really cool.
And super powerful.
The faces on Maxima in panel 2 and Sydney in panel 6 DEFINITELY made this comic that much funnier.
Sydney cat-face smile. Awesome.
The flaw in Maxima’s plan is her confidence that she really is the “apex predator” and nobody will dare challenge that. Her little show however, comes across as a challenge to every nut-job with super powers and super-genius egomaniac. She’s effectively just slapped the super-villain population across the face with a glove and hurled it their collective feet.
This could all go so very wrong…
You are so very correct. I can think of at least three ways to get around her power set. Exspecially with the guy I have thought up as a supervillian.
Heh I have a super still lying around from GURPS 3.
Only one that one might have a problem with is Harem. Note that defeat in this case is not the same as kill, just so far away from the action that the action is over (and with pension) by the time they get back.
Don’t forget that her power pool is classified, at this point no one outside of the team knows she can only Max out on one thing at a time. In fact a lot of people inside the team don’t know it. Even if the villains don’t have that knowledge, I’m not too worried that I’ve written myself into a corner by making her nearly physically indomitable. Besides the comic is about more that just the fights. :)
What fights? We haven’t had a fight in years
I concur. M.A.D. works on nations and superpowers. Who knows how well it governs supervillains?
M.A.D. only works on people who realize they have something to loose. What do people think the message would have been if she were much closer to the LZ of a Maxima brand tank buster And was similarly unscathed?
This is why I said from the beginning that the whole press conference was a bad idea. Demonstrating your powers just gives the enemy data it can use against you.
One thing to consider here: people never respond on quite the same way to the same thing. I don’t doubt for a minute that there are going to be people who are going to react exactly like you’re saying: they’ll see what she’s capable of, and take it as a challenge. However, at the same time, there are people who are going to look at what she’s capable of, and say, ‘No thanks. I don’t want any part of that.’ Maxima’s stance here is quite simple: if her display of power causes even one person to decide to pass on trying to challenge her, or convinces them that they are really just people with some extra abilities and not gods, then she’s done her job. Sure, there are going to be people who rise to the challenge, but for every one that does, she’s counting on there being at least one, if not more, who bowed out.
Like I said: I’m not saying you’re wrong or anything. However, you have to look at both sides of the issue: while some people will probably step up to the challenge, there are just as many who will bow out, and everyone who bows out is a fight Maxima won before it even started.
Finally, I want to point out that I don’t really agree with Maxima’s philosophy. To me, you shouldn’t have to go to extremes to demonstrate your power in order to scare people. However, I do admit that doing it that way means that someone is going to get hurt before you can show what you’re capable of. Maxima is trying to avoid anyone getting hurt at all by scaring everyone beforehand.
makes you wonder tough… was that truly maxima`s extent of her powers???
And anyone who is willing to stand up to her challenge are probably going to eventually do something anyways, like see a bank and think that they can break into it.
…. At the very least.
Anyone with the mindset to feel “challenged” by Max’s power display AND move against her, is as likely to be similarly challenged by any other powerful super, or pretty much anything else – SWAT teams, nuclear submarines, stealth bombers, the dude who badmouths them in traffic, whatever.
Everyone is forgetting that Maxi is not a lone vigilante, and this is the about the first time she has talked in the singular (the other times she was talking about the whole of Archon)
Geez, I think I officially just clicked over to disliking Maxima as a person. Her dismissive attitude toward people seems to surpass any justification by the demands they make on her, plus her little show of force strikes me as hugely irresponsible. Weird pink-haired reporter is absolutely right, and here’s Maxima deliberately intimidating her. She doesn’t seem to me like someone who’d be interested in protecting people, only in pushing them around…
Good point, sir. For people who don’t know her, she’s coming off as a loose cannon.
Maybe Sydney can act as the voice of reason
(Snicker)
HAHAHAHA! Good one. Heck, there could be a whole series of running gags about THAT concept.
I was thinking that Sydney could *actually* act as the voice of reason. Think about it. First of all, she has a strong enough power set that Maxima can’t just dismiss her as another normal who can just sit back while someone else saves the city. Second, Sydney’s worry about vivisectionists, while easily dispelled and aimed at the government rather than superheroes, shows that she’s at least thinking about abuse coming from authority figures and that could very well extend to abuse by superheroes too. Third, Sydney seems to be the type of person who’d have more experience with being bullied than with bullying someone else. Fourth, Sydney knows about comic book tropes and superheroes treating normals with contempt for their own good is a massive one.
And in series with some comedy and some drama, the characters’ negative traits are exaggerated for comedic effect in the comedy parts. In a serious storyline, Sydney isn’t going to be as clueless or have as low an attention span as she does when the series is doing slapstick; she should be perfectly capable of being reasonable when it matters.
Actually, I don’t think anyone ever tried to bully Sydney mor than once.
As in, I don’t think they were physicly able to talk after trying it once
Out of personal experimentation I suspect that one of the reasons people bully is to deal with the fact they can’t mentally follow someone(which doesn’t necesserely mean smarter. It can also mean different.). In which case Sydney’s behavior would only attract more bullying and she also doesn’t seem to employ ignoring or authority scaring as a tactic, which are he only counter methods I’ve experienced to be effective.
Being labelled a “loose cannon” has its benefits – if only to keep a foe uncertain about what you might do.
Yes, and ‘loose cannon’ does not have to mean ‘uncontrolled/able’
I strongly concur. There’s also the environmental damage to consider as well. Look at those clouds! That can’t be good for the atmosphere! And I haven’t even mentioned the massive crater. I’m no hippy, but this is nuts.
It makes Maxima out to be a real hypocrite. I get that Ariana really pissed her off, and she’s mostly doing this as a means of retaliation, but that really only makes it worse. While it may scare some into submission, it can fuel other egomaniacal supers to challenge Archon. And then there’s the possibility that, even assuming there are supers that aren’t more powerful than Maxima, there could be teams of supers that can take her down.
Wasn’t Maxima just mentoring Halo earlier that day about restraint and caution when using your powers? Yeah, clearly not the “live by example” type.
The thing is both Maxima and Sydney know this is a controlled situation, and that Maxima can do that much with an Energy attack. They also know she at minimum can flip a tank and survive her own explosions.
All in all? Give it a little time.
Ah but maybe that’s the whole point of the thing. Supers targeting Maxima and/or Archon are supers that aren’t targeting the populace. Think of it this way: Maxima’s (the Tank) taunting to draw Aggro.
Targeting Archon means targeting the populace. What supervillain doesn’t have his thumb over a big red ominous button that toggles a death machine that murders hundreds of people on the other side of the city? I mean, that’s what I would do if I were a psycho. I’d set things up so that Archon loses by failing to protect people and then I’d make a great escape in the chaos.
Worked against Batman, the greatest Mary-Sue in comic history, in Gotham City Impostors.
Maxima IS the big red button. She already destroyed a mosque and didn’t show much regret. We don’t know if it was an al-qaida safe house or what, but most islamic people want to become terrorists. Maxima has shown a very strong feminist vibe, which while by itself is not a problem, it gives her a berserk button. It’s true you can’t choose where a super villain attacks. If a clever one lands in the middle of Los Angelos and while Max is fighting him he starts acting like a chauvenist pig, then she’s likely going to start losing control and accuracy. A clever villain never goes into battle without an ace up their sleeve.
‘We don’t know if it was an al-qaida safe house or what, but most islamic people want to become terrorists.’
That is literally the least insightful (or right) comment we’ve seen here. 99+% of people who worship Islam (or frankly any religion) just want to live their lives without any hassle. Terrorist are an infinitely small proportion of any group. It doesn’t take many people to cause trouble and thinking everyone in a specific group believes in violence because of a few people is just dumb.
Yeah, I’m sure that living in peace with all others is the point of religion. Oh wait, I forgot about the Inquisition, Jihads and too many other religious based and approved murders, thefts, rapes and general terrorizing of any who don’t believe the same as them. Lets not forget about what they do to their own followers.
As for Maxima’s behavior, supervillians will do what they do whether maxima threw out her show or not. It is likely though that because of her show less of them will get so out of hand. Saying that Maxima is creating a problem is like saying that by letting people own guns it lets criminals get their hands on them. If a criminal wants a gun, they will get one. People will always find an excuse for their behavior.
By the by I am the type of person that thinks that you don’t negotiate with terrorists, pirates or criminals regardless of the circumstances. I’m willing to accept what happens even if it happened to me or one of my family and I WON’T blame the people trying to do their job and protect us. So for me Maxima is someone I wouldn’t mind being protected by.
Both Christianity and Islam have been used by various leaders as excuses for violence at one time or another. It is probable that some religions are more or less prone to causing their leaders to advocate violence. That does NOT make the average believer into a raving lunatic who wants to become a terrorist. It might make a greater or lesser part of the adherents more or less susceptible to indoctrination into a subset of the belief that excuses violence against non-believers. Again, not making the average person of a given faith, be it buddhism, hinduism, mormonism, christianism, islamism etc, to want to indiscriminately kill civilian, innocent targets to influence said civilians leaders.
Given, most religions encourage fanatism to a lesser or greater extent, and most religions that do, encourages fanatism to be expressed violently. But just as the crusades didn’t turn the average catholic farmers into rapists and plunderers, neither does the Jihads turn common people into bombwielding madmen.
…But of course, the common people of the world have a right to be protected against the terrorists, criminals, and other threats out there. Preferably competently, and by people who don’t, by their actions, encourages more people to become susceptible to turning bad.
I look forward to seeing if, in Daves world, Maxima is a true paladin, or just a wellmeaning nescessary evil.
That was an error on my part. I meant most islamics don’t want to become terrorists. I apologize. I was trying to point out how dangerous her inclinations can be. I meant no harm by the comment, so again, I am sorry.
She’s a highly trained soldier.
Asuming she’d lose her cool if you fling a couple of of insults at her is REALLY underestimating disipline in general
Part of the problem with these super villains going after archon now that Max pulled her little stunt is who’s to say they wouldn’t of done something else, like rob a bank or overthrow a government. These villains will probably to something eventually and the reporters right, super villains won’t care about the public, with or without Max. Max’s actions have done nothing to make these villains turn to evil. Now there is a higher chance that they will target archon, which I’m sure in Max’s opinion, is a good thing.
“While it may scare some into submission, it can fuel other egomaniacal supers to challenge Archon.”
In both of these scenarios, the Supers in question are not attacking civilians, which is the whole point of Archon. As such, to Maxima, both are desirable scenarios. Remember, Archon doesn’t maintain a secret lair; it has a big building with its name on the side, with a nice public mailing address where a press conference was held. Anyone looking to find them for the sake of challenging them doesn’t need to ‘draw them out of hiding’, they only need to use Google.
Essentially this is the Superhero equivalent of ‘Come at me, bro’.
She’ll protect you, weither you like it or not
Maxima actually has one other agenda that she isn’t emphasizing. Domestic supervillains aren’t the only people watching this demonstration. China, North Korea, Iran, etc. are also watching. This is how Maxima winks at foreign armies.
But yes she is being little bit of a prick by not coddling domestic civilians.
“not coddling ”
And by that you mean “scaring the bejeessus out of them”.
“This is how Maxima winks at foreign armies”
Probably the most tactful description of the phrase “Come at me, bro”
Hmm. I think it’s more akin to “Also, I can kill you with my mind.”
What villains? I just meant she’s being awful to allies and acquaintences! LOL…
To be fair there is at least one ‘reporter’ from National Inquirer in the crowd!
Panel 1 is probably the best drawn panel in this entire comic.
I like both frames 1 and 2, the detail on both faces is amazing.
Well, M.A.D. did work during the entirety of the Cold War. Historically speaking, it was the peacetime use of nukes that proved to be a more tangible and realized danger. Funny that Ms. Pink should mention Three Mile Island.
NOTE: I’m not trying to make a political statement here.
Then again, supervillains aren’t nations.
3 Mile wasn’t really anything, though. It’s a bad point for reference in terms of a dramatic event.
3 Mile was a lot of internally damaged equipment, but the effect on the outside world was a tiny radioactive fart of noble (non-reactive krypton) gas that dissipated within the hour that it was released. Total effect was 0 to 1 persons potentially hurt (increased cancer risk).
Chernobyl – now there’s a disaster! Steam explosion, radioactive fire, a whole city evacuated.
Exactly!
I wrote a report on Three Mile Island for an engineering paper. The whole reason it was such a big deal was that a movie called “The China Syndrome” was released about a week prior to the event. In the movie, an event almost exactly like the incident was described, and then the line at the end of the description was what really made it bad (even though the line was very incorrect): “It could make an area the size of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable.”
There are better things she could have equated it too maybe, but I didn’t want her to compare it to 9/11 or some sort of intentional attack. At least, Pinkie didn’t want to accidentally imply that Maxima was a terrorist (at least with Max standing right there), so she went with the first bad PR thing that popped into her head.
I agree that miss Pinken Little is making a wrong comparison and Chernobyl would have been better.
However, if you think about it, TMI was a non-radiation releasing event that let off a little steam, and Maxima’s demo was also a non-radiation event and may have been her way of letting off steam.
P.S. Over at the DBZ villains-only club, Frieza, Vegeta and Cell are watching this on live video and going ‘Oh please, it doesn’t even count unless you blow up the planet’.
“Letting off a little steam.” I love it. :D
And then comes a villain of that caliber, nukes the entire team, with Max barely alive…
then Sydney arrives.
“Sorry, I’m late. Okay, where’s the dude who killed my lunch?”
Villain either gets screwed by her atomic breath or sees the orbs, recognizes them and:
“Okay… ahem, yeah… I’ll just be going… now….”
Not just a city evacuated, but an entire circle of 30 km radius. It is still in place. You need special permits and equipment to be allowed in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
And note that it’s not exactly healthy to even go in there for a short stroll.
There’s a reason nobody went back to live there.
At least the sane people.
MAD worked during the Cold War because there was one enemy to worry about and if this enemy reacted in the appropriate way, then MAD has worked. If there are hundreds of possible supervillains out there, they won’t all react the same way.
I’m gonna be the guy to say it: Is NOONE nervous about the RED LIGHTNING around the impact crater? I’m a little worried. Is that normal? Am I panicking? Maybe! Also: is Arianna a collector of impractical daggers?
…cue Hiro or Dabbler: “Boss, is it still suppose to be doing that this long?”…
It’s the same sort of thing you see around an actively erupting volcano, if said volcano is spewing a lot of gas and dust. Google some images of erupting volcanoes. Also, the red coloration of the lightning is probably due to the filtering aspects of the dust as opposed to the natural color of the discharge. I think he pretty much nailed it.
Hum. So, if I follow: throw a bunch of dirt into the air. Catch lightning with lightning rods….
Dirty air = free power for all!
Come on peeps, promote coal power so that we can prepare the first ever lightning power plant!
Thank you for the science! (but I want the 35 minutes I spent drooling over volcano pictures back)
Actually yes, It’s fairly common for lightning (actually more a simple static discharge) to be seen in sandstorms.
“…. and a mighty burning shall herald his return!”
Dinnertime! Sydney’s cooking this time.
That explains the guy in a lvl4 Bio-hazard suit.
It’s also a bottle opener.
It looks like we have another undisclosed nerd-ette in the ranks. Arianna apparently knows what a Klingon dagger looks like. https://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Klingon_blade_weapons
I thought that looked familiar.
It might just as well be seen as Maxima thinking that Arianna is trying to backstab her with the soft mushy pampering of the public. She doesn’t seem overly worried about it though.
Yep, thought so too.
Damn, thought it was just one of Dabbles’ toe-nail trimmers
Since Dabbler has hooves, I’d be picturing a rasp.
…I like Max’s attitude toward the media and Ms.Pinks comment-Max is a combat vet with the hospital time(and possible bad dreams)to show for it, and Pink did not do basic background research on her.
Yes, Max and the rest of the team can bring the pain in job lots when needed-if needed,not when a media member deams it may be needed…
Ominus speech from figure in black that just appeared.
Your power to destroy is truly impressive. But that is the power of a child.
True power lies in analysis and creation.
Watch those whom you may come in conflict with, learn their strengths and weaknesses.
Create that which ignores their strength and attacks their weak points.
Or better still create that which renders all that they can do, ineffectual.
Then and only then will you understand TRUE POWER.
Figure bows and vanishes
Is that supposed to be Dabbler’s “handler?”
Nope just 1 of several characters from rpgs i have played
I have a habit of taking low powered characters and shutting down highpowered ones
just to prove it could be done
People complain about Superman’s “big blue boy scout” image and say it makes him boring and too nice, but this page has reminded me that when push comes to shove I’d rather be protected by someone like him than someone like Batman or Wonder Woman. Or Maxima.
No thanks, Rather have WW.
I can’t help but feel that’s for a different reason.
Or actually 2 reasons
Hey! There’s another reason! Wonder Woman was created as a B&D friendly super heroine that was tied up by her own rope just as often as she tied up the criminals. It’s not a good reason, but it’s a good reason to me. :P
One of my biggest problems with Supes wasn’t that he was a Boy Scout (although it IS a problem) It’s that he fights these guys and smashes through skyscrapers and puts new entrances into the subway ROUTINELY. And after millions of property damage and an unknown number of collateral deaths, he puts the guy in a prison that has been shown repeatedly to be unable to contain them.
Yeah, and if Supes or any of his buddies isn’t present for the trial of the villain, they go free.
See Superman Returns.
Then again, if Supes really lets loose, we KNOW he can literally put a crater where Metropolis was and leave nothing of the city.
Plus, some incarnations say he’s just about (almost) immortal, or at least eternally young, as long as he stays in reach of a Sol-like star.
Thing is if he learned to actually fight, instead of just punch something really hard, he could avoid way more damage
When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails.
Actually, the Boy Scout does know how to fight. Muhammad Ali trained him in boxing for the purpose of a charity exhibition between them. So Superman does in fact know how to fight, boxing just isn’t his preference.
yeah, he just loves those haymakers.
Actually, he is not a Boy Scout, he never joined that organisation
Also the boy scouts are way more badass than suppes
Little known fact: They fought in WW1. In the trenches. Helping navigate, spy, and capture enemy spys
The Abstergo Logo! THAT’s what Sydney’s shield pattern is. Took me this long to figure it out, since I’m playing through the Assassin’s Creed series
I see it as the logo of one of those older movie / video companies, don’t remember which.
It’s a recycling triangle without the arrow heads.
It’s actually hexagons that are slightly offset, with trapezoids inside the hexagons so that there’s a triangle on the inside that (roughly) matches the size of the triangle formed by the offset.
Just a minor point: in Panel 2 the guillotine blade is upside down. The angled side is the one dropped on the victim’s neck.
The grey is the blade, the white is the background.
[…..stares at the panel and blinks thoughtfully a few times prior to dope-slapping himself]
My apologies. I’ll just take my ill-informed and unobservant self off to bed now.
– – – whimper – – –
can’t believe I didn’t see that …. jeez.
That thought-dagger looks like slightly Klingon-ish. Could it be that Arianna is a Trekie in hiding? :3
I figured it just looked like something Dabbler has stashed away
I initially drew the arm dagger thing from Assassins Creed, but it slides straight out from the arm like Wolverine’s claws and it didn’t look as much like Arianna was thinking about stabbing her with it, so I just made something up that was more daggerlike.
It also looks vaguely like it could be magical, which makes sense considering Max’s durability, since I assume magic weapons would be better at penetrating super-tough skin than normal ones.
Unless of course she’s a high elf, and her abilities are magickal in nature.
Last panel left hand side… I see black clouds,multiple vertical orange lightning strikes and a strange glowing vortex horizontal over the blast pit….. hmmmm.. Either SG-1 has found a new way to travel, the tradis has broken the dimensional walls .. AGAIN!! or Maxima has breached created an opening in otherwhere and who knows what may comw slithering through. Maybe Sydney took that shield down just a bit to soon! (–V—-V–)grin.
“Pinky, we live in a world that has supervillains, and the citizenry have to be guarded by people that can take them down in a pinch. Who’s gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for the environment, and then curse your protectors. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That this demonstration, while frightening, will probably save lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me and all my darkness, you need me and all my controlled violence. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a reporter who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to…”
YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH
After the first word, I read this in the voice of The Brain…
Yep, suspiciously.
I agree wholeheartedly. Thank you to all vets who read these comments.
I LOVE that scene (goosebumps everytime). It’s in my top 10 favorite monologues of all time. While i would have altered one of your sentences, that was a very moving re-imagining of the Nicholson scene. Also, Linda Hamilton should say that monologue of yours… ;)
Word.
This. So, very, very right. And yet again, totally scary.
…also, Quavering Masses would make an awesome band name!
An all-girl band name!
You missed the perfect lead in for a Paul and Storm joke.
“Quavering Masses is the name of my —– cover band.”
The sandstorm and static discharge idea is good .. except one or two bolts would discharge most of the static caused by the actual explosion and even then the bolts would be spread out around the debri field and expanding gasses/dust. Not in a curtain field around the crater.. Definitely not a happy happy joy joy area.
Next time it rains, you get a glass-lined pool. Okay, more likely mud pit.
given that Three-Mile Island was a blip that has a big rep with no actual real physical impact, that’s an amusing statement
She’d have said Hiroshima or Chernobyl.
Or Fugashima
I like the Three Mile Island comparison, and if she’s thinking right and properly informed Arianna should too. Because TMI was the biggest nuclear disaster on US soil, everything that could possibly go wrong did, everyone was terrified, massive amounts of valuable equipment was damaged…. and absolutely nobody was hurt. The safety procedures were sufficient, the safeguards held, and no damage to living things was done. People literally inside ground zero got about half as much radiation as a chest x-ray, for those outside it was barely measurable, less than a few hours of sunshine. Cancer rates in the area have been monitored carefully, and been significantly *lower* than the projected numbers for if the event had never happened.
So they should be selling this, playing it up. Maxima is the next Three Mile Island. She’s terrifying. Every time she deploys is going to be big, dramatic, and make the news. She’s probably going to break a lot of government property. And at the end of the day, because of her, every single citizen will be safe.
I also figure any Maxima gets deployed in anything other than a commanding on the ground role( I mean getting in the fight herself) Theres probably a Good gods freaking reason to be there punching stuff. I also like how the reporter completely ignore Maxima’s ability to control her power punches. In another note, this next “Three Mile Island” is tons more a hotter babe!
Arianna in first panel looks for the first time NOT as an annoying meddler and looks as a human.
Or is that just me?
PS: I love the whole page. Jokes and Drawing and jokes-in-drawings are all great. The lightning striking ground from clouds in last panel are neat.
Also, was it not established that Maxima has to be in physical contact with anything to affect her powers on it? How does that energy blast figure into THAT?
No, that was never established, apart from her zero range telekinesis which allows her to lift heavy things without damaging them.
Not just the zero range TK but also the personal force field. Between the two, it’s easy to see why someone might get the impression that all her powers need to be personal contact. Even her powers of Flight and Super Strength don’t change that impression. Still, the energy beam she was testing out on Sydney’s force field earlier kind of crosses that line a teensy bit, what with being a ranged attack. And now evidently she also has an Omega Murder Blast attack too. (Points if you get the reference.) So evidently, no, not all of her attacks are contact-only.
The Omega Murder Blast was flashier though :P
I prefer the butterfly version. More environmentally friendly.
Aren’t the “zero range TK” and “personal force field” just different names for the same thing?
Not quite. As I understand it the personal forcefield reinforces the object being lifted so that it holds together under the stress of the zero range TK being applied.
Figure into what? She made a bomb. That’s what the bomb did
NEAT!!!!? lol! neat is the sound effect and face on Sydney as that shield comes down… The swirling portal of probable doom and gods fingers carving the message “abandon all hope, and thanks for the sheep” in Sumerian runes around the lip of said vortex is not neat! LOL BSB!!!
I count myself among the many that are disappointed that Max’s clothing was protected by her armor field thing. >.>
So, what ARE the other 4 top favorite superhero series?
Others in the top 10 would include Supervillainous!: Confessions of a Costumed Evil-doer, Blackjack Villain (The Blackjack Series) – though book 2 was a bit more iffy, again not because of the writing, but because of the character’s behavior. Playing for Keeps was really good. Subject 12 was good if you like sociopathic protagonists. The Machinist (Malevolence) was flawed only by being too short. With a gadgeteer as a main character, it shared a lot of things with D-List Supervillain, and also Soon I Will be Invincible, another good stand alone novel. I have a ton more on my Amazon wishlist yet to get to. I haven’t read Worm, which is available free online, but a lot of people say it’s excellent.
Yes! ‘Soon I will Be Invincible’ is one of my favorite books, and I’m not even that super into the superhero genre (which in itself speaks how good this comic is considering it too is among my favorites).
Thanks! By the way, been reading since #32, your comic is one of 3 I stick to regularly with my ADD, Goblins another great and Dresden Codak nearly peerless (when it updates).
Regardless, can’t wait to see Sydney face off against The Hexagon, Master of Geometry, a low powered but unfortunately astute villain (Syd’s Arch, if you will).
And here one of my favourite ‘super hero’ novels is actually a Harlequin Novel … Not Quite An Angel
For everybody who knows German and likes superhero novels, the following is a debut novel:
Seven Star Crown: Number One.
All this press on one good plasma bomb and all Maxima has to say to anyone coming up to challenge her is ‘Oh That. Sorry that was only my power level when I Wasn’t maximizing my output’ Looks like it too as there didn’t seem to be any outward sign of her shifting any stats around.
Why would there be any external signs?
She didn’t use her reserves anyway. That wasn’t a 6 or 7. Probably just a 4 was used for the throw and a 5 for the blast.
DaveB explained that she’s a natural 3, can boost 2 things to 4, or 1 thing to 5
THE FACE OF DOOM…. is in the wallpaper that’s not good sign.
…Seriously, doesn’t Maxima have any military discipline? She basically just cost Archon its mission objective out of sheer pride. For most people, this would be a career-ending move. (Most people, admittedly, don’t have irreplaceable superpowers.)
She was invited to be part of the demo(nstration) after all. I don’t imagine any demo(lition) tech has been told off for blowing something up too well. Unless they blew up too much stuff, of course.
The ‘mission statement’ was, first part (the conference): “If you have a Power, and want to use it, please join us”, second part (also the conference): “These are some of our personel, some of whom come from/with a military background, also meet our newest recruit”, third part (live fire demonstration): “If you want to use your powers for evil or to hurt others, this is what you will end up facing”
All sounds like a good talk until a reporter ask the questions “Who keeps you in check? What makes us trust you won’t go beserk or betray everyone?”
Maxima’s display was proof she could go rogue and kill everyone. :p
Maxima: “What, you may ask?” *points at the others* “Them. While it’s true that not one of them could stand up to me individually, working as a team they field more than enough power to take me down if it came to that. Most likely. I’m pretty sure. Well, they’d stand a decent chance anyway.”
How about Maxima: “What stops you from getting a gun and killing everyone around you? What keeps you in check?”
What stops her from getting a gun and killing a lot of people is that she knows that she’ll eventually be taken down, either by other people with guns in self-defense or by the police. Maxima basically just told the villains that there’s nobody who can take her down, which means there’s also nobody who can take her down if she goes rogue.
She also said that one member on the team can fight her to a standstill
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/989
And fighting her to a standstill could be all that’s needed for the rest to contain her
The many cops with guns. The many other people who can stand up to the one person with a gun. :p Maxima just went and showed them all she’s a living WMD who’s more than willing to use the power. :p
And I don’t recall her telling the reporters “Oh, don’t worry. One member of the team can fight me to a standstill.” :p
During the actual conference she said that only 2 people have ever fought her to a standstill, One of them is on the team, and the other is dead.oO(As far as she knows)
Maxima has confirmed that someone in the team can fight her to a standstill (we know it’s Dabbler). Combined with the other members of the team, I’m pritty sure they can easely take on Maxima if it came to that
In “Justice League: Doom” Batman has all these plans for dealing with the Justice League if they go rogue. at the end Superman asks Bats what the plan is if Bat’s goes rogue? “The League”
It’d probably help Archon’s case to point people’s attention back to the bank, and helps Maxima’s (but kind of hurts Archon’s) to point to Sydney’s screw-up. In both cases her speed and nigh-invulnerability saved lives and she used them with surgical precision.
The truth is that this was loud, flashy, done to make a point, and probably regulated in the same way as police use of firearms.
Oh, and I think it’d be totally rad if the back of Maxima’s legs were now covered in molded glass from the superheated sand riding up as she stood firm.
That would make so much sense, and it would be totally awesome!
Sydney: Hey Max, why are you dripping shards of glass all over the place?
Maxima: Huh. Bits of molten sand kicked up by the explosion must have stuck to my personal forcefield. And don’t call me Max.
“You can’t control where supervillains will attack!”
“Oh, so you’re a supervillainologist now, are you? No? And you say you don’t know any supervillainologists? Oh, you think there’s no such thing as a supervillainologist?
WRONG. Archon has FIVE, and two of them have been studying supervillain behavior and habitat since before you were BORN.”
OR
“How do you know? Have you met any supervillains recently? Maybe interviewed them? Went back to their place, had a little coffee, maybe a nightcap?
The next morning he had regrets. There were rules, he said, as he slid your pancake onto the plate. He wasn’t supposed to get involved, certainly wasn’t supposed to give an interview without kidnapping the reporter first.
You said he could kidnap you next time, and he smirked at you through the mask. But no, he said, it had already gone wrong. There wouldn’t be a next time.
So you pulled him close and declared that well, then, you’d better make this time count. As your lips-”
“Dammit Achilles quit shipping the reporters!”
ROFLMAO! Awesome! I think Achilles just got promoted to official shipper for the series! XD
I totally just got the double meaning in the title. There’s the PR aspect, then there’s the literal one, as Maxima takes one step forward and pink-haired reporter woman takes two steps back.
I think that the best start to Max’s last comment could of been “You’re right, super villains don’t care about civilians but I do. . .” Then continue her little rant.
Looks like Arianna knows how to keep her murderous rage in check in front of the cameras. But man, if looks could kill…
And I’m happy to see that one of the reporters is seeing just how bad this is. Max may be strong to be shore and Sidney has the power to protect the masses with her shield but that’s not her only power now is it? Advancement only goes in one direction. There may not be many people with superpowers now but that can change. And soon there will be more and more people that can not be matched.
Problem with Max’s strategy is that creatures as evolved as mankind don’t give a crap about the food chain. If they did there wouldn’t be big game hunters. All being the apex predator does for you in that is make you a bigger prize to be killed and mounted. All of Max’s overconfidence is only setting her up for a big loss down the road. After all “Pride comes before the fall.”
As in “The bigger they are, the harder they fall,” kind-of thing, but it is also harder to make them fall.
Harder, but not impossible.
ah yes, the less-quoted corollary: The bigger they are, the harder they HIT
When facing Goliath, the Israeli army was saying that he was too big to fight. David said he was too big to miss.
I notice a few people talking about how this is a challenge to any super villains out there but actually it more akin to how nuclear weapons tend to be a deterrent to war, well with any country who isn’t crazy as hell.The out come how ever will probably be very much how the nuclear arms race went for the last 40 years.
Also what kind of energy is that crater giving off? I cant help but think by letting down the force field, Sydney just sterilized every one there.I’ll just pretend it plasma to prevent my mind of wondering to weird places.
Why would you just asume it’s radioactive?
For something to be radioactive, there has to be radioactive material. I don’t think Max can just make uranium on the fly
Well at higher energy levels for particles you can end up with weird interactions that might result in the generation of some radioactive material. But still not like much would be left localized…
This going to be hard to explain, especially given I’m not an expert.You see there are different kind of radiation and the kind your referring to is known as radioactive decay but many other forms of radiation is just as deadly or as damaging.Depending on where that energy came from it could produce these other harmful rays.I was alluding to a less harmful ray like siting on a microwave for about a week.On what Jindra said about higher energy range, you can check of a video on youtube call vsauce how hot can it get.They do a much better job of explaining what crazy level of energy can do then I can.
The reason people see it as a challenge to the super-villain community is that a leader of a nation must make decision affecting multiple people so if he survives after picking a fight with a nuke capable country, he’ll probably lose his job and that’s something politicians fear more than anything else, being forcibly removed in shame and failure from their position. A super-villain only answers to himself and humans love a challenge. Imagine prohibition America for a moment. The feds told these people that they weren’t allowed to drink alcohol any more. What was the response? They drank more alcohol. Maxima is stating that don’t you ever take me on ever. That will make people take her on just to spurn her.
As for the energy, I’m thinking more along the lines of fusion if I have to pick an energy type. As RobK mentioned, you need a radioactive isotope to get a radioactive energy. However, she could and probably has created enough fire and pure heat to create a localized fusion bomb. Or with the electrical storm she created after the bomb settled, she might have an unknown energy. I don’t remember Chernobyl or the recent Japanese nuclear crisis creating a storm of red lightning once everything cleared up.
There a fundamental difference between prohibition and mass murder just for the lulz.First I’m applying real world logic to it because, well I live in the real world and though I enjoy a good old fashion super beat down nor do I have any problem with it.The whole idea that some one so mentally broken that they would risk death because of reasons is unrealistic, there’s a reason why very few people charge in to a military base just for the challenge.I know I know suspension of disbelief but I’m assuming the world work like our dose up to this point and nuclear deterrent via having nuclear weapons is a very real thing and given Maxiam is military this like strategy 101 to her.I’m just offering up an alternative look on her motivation you don’t have to agree, I just like making people seeing other points of views.
I think you miss the part where I pointed out there are different kinds of radiation that can harm the human body also, you are expose to vast verity of radiation every day just at very low levels.So health risks are very low.If she was generating all the same radiation as a nuclear explosion and at the same levels, being sterile would be the last of their worry’s as their teeth fell out of their heads.I was thinking more along the line of higher then normal microwave radiation, not enough to cook them in side their skins but enough to cause damage.Your fusion comment is why I made the energy joke in the first place, fusion is the how stars are born and my god do those things give off a lot of different kinds of radiation including gamma radiation(same that given off from nuclear explosion).Here a side note though fusion could produce enough heat to make lighting (also known as plasma) but the heat at it core alone would be enough to kill every one for hundreds miles.Though looking back on how the explosion started it look more like she created a gravitational singularity.It don’t have to be realistic I just like thinking of how these powers can work with science.
A nuclear deterrent don’t calm everyone down. Quite the opposite in fact. As soon as we used the atomic bombs on Japan and everyone saw just how powerful they were the next superpower at the time, the soviet union wanted them too, and shire enough they did get them. Next thing we know we are in a cold war that got hotter by the second and that nearly caused a nuclear world war 3. Just because we had nuclear weapons didn’t stop people from going to war or waging there own war on us. And now were are they all? Nothing but giant paperweights gathering dust because everyone is too scared to use them yet still want them around. Max’s little show will ether cause villains to ether go after her, go after the public to get to her, or team up to take her down. It will also cause other countries out there to try and make there own super powered soldiers by any means necessary just because they don’t want the US to have there own super solider weapon and start taking the power from them. So yeah, nuclear weapons tend to be more trouble then there worth.
Since noone knows how supers gain super powers, they can’t ‘make’ super soldiers
You forget not a single person die in the cold war and WW3 did not happen.That the fundamental fact about a nuclear deterrent is that the risk is too great and that’s my whole point.The risk of actively challenging them to a fight is too high and the out come being death,any one with an ounce of sense would not engage in combat with them.How many people do you know get in to fight with pro boxers just for the challenge?I also didn’t say it would calm any one down I even said the events after this would in turn would be very much like the nuclear arms race.You also forget who was in charge of Russia at the start of the cold war.If there was no nuclear weapons on both side, Stalin would have probably fallow a very similar path to Hitler.People especially Americans(such as my self) tend to view the cold war as some thing more then just a very long pissing contest.Hell the contest was over after Stalin died in 53 and it kept going thanks to propaganda and nonsensical fear of communism.
Actually there have not bin a single fight between 2 nuclear powers yet.Most of our recent wars have bin coalition rather then some one picking a fight with us or we just choosing to go to war with some one.Vietnam was actually a long going war before we actually committed troops.Vietnam wanted Independence from the French and they all so wanted to be communist.Our fear of communism is what cause use to go in to that war.The golf war was cause by Iraq invading Kuwait and was pretty much justified because of that.Though it was kind of our fault it happen in the first place.The current war isn’t a war of nation so I don’t count it because there no risk of have your nation being turn in to a night light when you don’t have a nation.If you want proof that nuclear deterrent look at Israel, it is surrounded by country that want to see them wipe off the map and the only thing that stopping it is the threat of nuclear retaliation.You know you can all ways just say comic book logic and I’ll be fine with that right?
Actually, quite a lot of people died in, OR as a direct result of, the Cold War. Not nearly as much as would have died if things had gone hot, but still.
Yes, but how many died because of/from a Nuclear weapon?
Intentional nuclear detonations = None (that we know of).
But a number of deaths in accidents / incidents that directly involved nuclear weapons or nuclear. Submarines lost, accidents in nuclear facilities, that sort of thing. And no, I am NOT anti-nuclear. Far from it.
Well that depend on how you view the cold war.No one died in the cold war because there was no war but, people die because of the spread of communism at that time.I view the cold war in it simplistic form as demonstrated by my flippant attitude towards it.So to me it was just a standstill between America and Russia about nothing of real value, if you feel the events in Korea, China,Vietnam and so on was a direct correlation, than yes people did die.I just don’t see it like that, to me it was more along the line of political upheaval that cause those events rather than any thing the main two party’s did.Though if you want to you can say the current war is because of the cold war and I would have to agree with you.Please stop responding, I’m tired of pretending to be smart! Though English seems to be the one thing I cant pretend to be smart at.
All depends on your point of view.
There was a very interesting book I read many years ago, titled ‘The Weapons Of World War Three, which made the basic point that the notion of both sides preparing for this was an illusion – that it had basically been going on since the end of WW2 in the form of the so-called ‘Cold War’.
As someone born in 1961, I can honestly say that I have seen far more in support of this basic idea than against it.
Some one told me once that a member of the USSR military said some thing along the lines of he didn’t understand the cold war because most of their bombs were nothing but empty shells and the US knew it.If that is true I would have to agree with that book, though I don’t disagree with that statement to begin with.I was born in 85 so I don’t think our view differ that much. I’m just more flippant then most, because I didn’t live through the worst of it (or even remembering it as being bad) and hind sight is 20,20.I only post here 3 times and every time I get in to a reasonable discussion about Military Code, Science, and now the Cold War.Remind me, I’m still on the internet right?
As far as I know. Maybe you should check. ;)
Another thing to consider regarding the ww3 / Cold War mindset is the major GAPS in thinking that existed in design, preparation, deployment and readiness of niuclear weapons and related systems.
For extremely obvious reasons, neither the USA, USSR nor any of their allies ever test-fired any ICBMs up over the North Pole (which, if it had ever gone to worst case, would have buttloads of missiles transiting both directions). Given the major oddities of that area (the Earth’s rotation, magnetic fields, etc.), the results would probably be … unpredictiable – as in I would really really hate to be an Eskimo if something like this ever had happened).
Nobody has ever tried firing off several ICBMs or SLBMs at once from their actual platforms – when “testing” missiles of this kind, the procedure (for everybody) is to shift one to a proper space-launch faciltity, strip it down and do a special maintenance check, then launch it from that faciltity.
Elements of that mindset still exist. Too many people seem to automatically associate nuclear weapons with things that are dropped from a plane or fired in a missile. But there is noreason one couldn’t be put in a boat or a truck, or stuck in the ground as a landmine (whcih was an actual thing in the eraly Cold War), or even hidden in the back of an oxcart.
Ah yes I knew of this, I did JROTC for the navy in high school so I came away with a lot of navigational facts and so on.There is actually a dead zone in the area that would kill any forms of electronics, if not shielded.Tough there a lot of reason why ICBM have not bin tested but, my favorite is just how awkward that phone call that have to be.”We just going to shoot a missile at you no worry’s,You know just testing to see if we can reach you to with one.”Well I think the effectiveness of those delivery method would vary on the kind of nuclear weapons that is trying to be smuggled in.I’m no expert but the one we bin referring to tend to be pretty large, lets say it can be fitted in the back of a u haul.Making it very hard to get pass costumes.Though I think there was an event about a dirty bomb a while back that probably got in that way.Way do I think all the things I talked about this week got me flagged by the NSA algorithm?
I swear, Maxima looks like the Grinch in panel 2.
I love it.
Grinch is allergic to ‘smiles’ though, as someone else said, she looks like the dreadlocked Joker from one of the Batman cartoons
“Et Tu, Arianna?” in the last panel?