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.
So there’s no… er…. “If you’ve suddenly found yourself with super powers and don;t know what to do, come with us and we’ll help you” kinda thing? Like Xavier’s school but for Supers?
That would probably be a very good idea in the long run.
Make sure new supers don’t turn villain, rather than killing them
I just hope that there isn’t a version of the Botherhood of Evil in this universe then… unless it helps the plot along that is. :D
There IS that organization that is helping fund archon and it’s run by a guy who finds it entertaining to spy on archon while laughing meglomaniacally while backlit by windows created especially to go dark and flash lightning at the touch of a button.
Come on, admit it, you would have too much fun than is legal as well to gloat with dramatic electrical themed lighting. I know I would.
I’d sign up with Archon, simply for the training.
And then do my under the covers villain thing (probably).
Or just go rogue and do my villain thing (maybe).
Could be that I just use my powers for personal gain and do the occasional citizen’s duty to save the odd person when availlable.
Flight would be cool, saves a lot of cash in the long run, especially if you can carry a good load.
And imagine:
School-mate in Germany: “So, where do you live?”
Me: “*Insert some place in the US.*”
Mate: “But that’s in the USA, isn’t it.”
Me: “Yep.”
Mate:”As if you’d get here every day from there…How, pray tell.”
Me: “I’m flying.”
I would also sign up for Archon as long as there was no contract signed, then get out and hire an agent. Sell my services on the civilian market. Do you want someone to do public appearances? Special Effects that beat anything a computer does because it’s real. Maybe even do demolitions in Vegas or Fourth of July fireworks.
It beats a 9-5 job for minimum wage or dealing with people holding a city hostage. Besides, it’s likely that if Archon hears about the fourth of july show, they’d partake just to watch the show.
Except that there is a contract.
Even Sydney had to sign a contract, Dabbles doesn’t because she is not from/of this Earth
Seriously doubt you would be able to register, and then go and do freelance crap using your powers, pretty sure Mercenaries/Soldiers of Fortune would be frowned upon just as much as Vigilantes
After this is setup there might be a division solely for the training of supers. And besides, why wouldn’t they allow freelance work that doesn’t involve a conflict of interest? Doing public appearances might even be beneficial to Archon in the end. It depends on the side work I imagine of course.
That is likely pretty close to the contract you sign when enrolling for any military service, including the duration.
Lets see, sign up for Archon or possibly have them “acquire” me through federal slash legal means. Easy choice, where’s the pen? At least that way I have SOME control over my rights.
As to would I be a villain or not? Too lazy to dream up plans to take over the world. A small island, maybe, but not the world. Besides, too much hassle to do so. Think of all the idiotic leaders you put in place to rule for you that you’d have to deal with.
Easy, do it the slow way like Palpatine. Except you read the Guide for Evil Overlords first so you don’t get a Rebellion started. And of course make sure that your ‘associates’ also read the guide.
Or, if you’re smart, keep to low profile jobs that don’t come up on Archon’s radar.
There’s lots of ways to become a villain that Archon can’t touch. You could become a televangelist and keep your official status as a super secret until you collect enough money which should be roughly to the point where you get noticed. You can chalk them up as “miracles from God.” You’re ripping people off, but at the same time committing legal fraud.
You might even be able to pull off an Enron as long as your golden parachute doesn’t screw up too many people. You’d still be looking at prison time for fraud, but no one in prison would mess with you. And despite what Maxima said, she has to follow the rules. If you aren’t doing something to justify lethal force and you don’t push her, she can’t intern or incontinent you. And with the right laundering skills, you can keep 85% of the money which should be enough to live off of once you get out of white collar prison.
There’s many ways to be a villain without being the cliche rub your hands together greedily and mock the supers for daring to face you route.
Yup, those people will certainly exist. Right now Maxima is more concerned about the potential Magnetos and Sinestros out there. It’s up to Arc-LIGHT (as well as all the other intelligence agencies) to discover the more subtle threats.
Or use your super-powers to play the new-age version of Jesus, or even a god.
Pull a Goa’uld.
Hmm… you mean something like “Sky High” right? didn’t work out very well, did it? they only got detention…
Keep in mind that Sky High was a direct ripoff of a very good comic.
Or not, as the case may well be.
Archon is simply Law Enforcement. They’re more like “As long as you’re not breaking the law, we’ll leave you alone, but if you wanna be a Super cop. Come talk to us.”
Zack Tilly, and they already recovered the “if you just want to live your life normally, that’s great, if you want to be a ‘hero’, join us!” This is the next part: “If you want to be a ‘villain’, hope you have a shield at least on par with Halo!”
Yeah, Max is overdoing it here. Oh, well. It’s an interesting imperfection.
Love Sydneys :3 face
Quintessential cat face there.
I like to imagine Achilles is now squatted over the hot crater with marshmallows on a roasting fork… and a cameraman pans over the scene for some filler shots.
That is indeed an awesome thought. And looks great on the news
Not really, since he’s probably completely naked.
He wasn’t naked when he offered his ‘mallow to Maxi (moments before it burnt to smoke)
His clothes then must be custom-made to withstand his eventual antics.
Imagine the money Archon could make with that….
or Edna Mode…XD
Well I believe it has been mentioned before that Max is a walking public relations nightmare. It should be noted that Max has demonstrated that she does know how to judge the right amount of force and power to use for a given situation, as she did with the bank robery. After all, the bank is still standing, along with the rest of the neaborhood.
Ariana is a PR guru. They ALL have that mysterious ability to be a disheveled wreck one moment, and then with a quick turn around and a delightful smile, suddenly they are back in the game, bright and cheerful and perfectly coifed and configured to go. ;) Definitely at least an A rating in the powers game.
are you sure it’s quavering? shouldn’t it be quivering? quavering masses sounds like a band name
also, is there a difference in the bg there between before and after Sydney raises her shield? it looks like there is a lot more greenery before
That’s because most of the visible background prior to that is away from the crater, which comes into focus again as the barrier is raised. Basically, pink-hair is facing the crater at all times.
The alternative is turning her back on the walking nuclear bomb. Pinky ain’t likely to do that any time soon.
I note that Pinky has fallen for the old “Three Mile Island” scare propoganda too. TMI was completely contained. It’s things like Chernobyll she should be referencing, where government bureaucrats ignored the warnings of the designer of the reactor to never, ever, run the reactor at low power and attempt an emergency shutdown, because it could explode, and ran a test doing exactly what they were told to not do.
Maxie’s not the next TMI waiting to happen, she’s the next Nagasaki waiting to happen, get it right, Pinkie!
The first diagnosed victim of a disease gets the honour, perhaps posthumously, of having it named after them. Three mile island was significant in that it was the first nuclear accident on American soil. In the UK Winscale is just as notorious for being the first there.
Of course, if we switch to liquid thorium reactors then the fear of nuclear meltdown would be consigned to the history books. But you cannot make nuclear bombs from LT reactors, so I doubt any of our governments will go to the time and expense of developing them. After all it would only meet all of the energy needs of humanity for our existence on Earth. No where near as important to them as blowing stuff up.
Is it just me, or was Sydney letting the energy tentacle ball loose, and not the shield ball?
She was holding flight (blue) and force-field (purple). The tentacle orb is visible behind her head.
Nope, you can see the Hentorb behind her head.
I love Maxima’s face in the second panel. Though that grin looks like the joker.
Totally agree about that smile, was going to make a comment as well but wanted to read the other comments first :D
I’m not sure whether I commented under one of the previous comics to say this or not, so: If superpowers don’t automatically turn a villain in a typical supervillain, then they don’t plan to fight her anymore than ordinary criminals fight the police. Ordinary criminals have no hope of beating the police in an open fight, supervillains most likely won’t choose a plan where they have to fight the government employed heroes any way. Also she can’t be sure that there are no villains with her power level.
She has already foreshadowed that there is someone who was a serious threat even to her when she talked about her time over seas.
correction. she said WAS, didn’t she?
She said
‘he’s dead’
‘As far as we know’
Thats classic foreshadowing if I have ever seen it. Claiming a villain is dead is like a magical phrase that brings them back to life.
1) If Maxima stood outside the shield, why aren’t her clothes burned off?
2) If Sydney’s shield is transparent, why didn’t the visible spectrum flash from the explosion blind anyone? Atomic-level explosions can cause third-degree burns and start fires with their flash alone.
3) How does Dabbler’s railgun-equivalent work around the maximum penetration depth of a kinetic impact? In such impacts, penetration depth equals projectile length times projectile density divided by target density. It doesn’t matter if a 2-inch iron bullet strikes at 1000 ft/sec, 10 miles/second or half the speed of light; 10 inches of soil or sand will stop it, let alone denser armor.
3b) The above happens due to conservation of momentum. Conservation of energy then dictates that the kinetic energy has to go somewhere – thus kinetic impacts result in explosions. That’s why meteors blow things up when they strike and so should Dabbler’s railgun have blown up the tank instead of going through it.
4) Why is Sydney’s flight at only 400 miles per hour deemed fast? Yeah, it’s fast when compared to walking. But while airborne your max speed depends on thrust (or thrust-equivalent) versus drag. A Sydney-sized individual under effective thrust of 700N -merely about Sydney’s weight- could go as fast as 200 mph at sea-level. A human under 10000N of thrust (1 ton-equivalent) could go over 600 mph. A superhuman who is capable of lifting 100 tons during flight (like Maxima?) should be capable of 1.000.000N of thrust and thus over 5000 miles per hour of flight speed (Mach 7).
The above numbers are for a typical human trying to be aerodynamic (and failing dismally). Modern airplanes are easily capable of 500mph for civilian planes, 1000mph for most fighters, 2000mph for low-end stratofighters, 5000mph for short/mid range missiles, 10000mph for experimental scramjets and 30000+ mph for ICBMs and low-orbit spaceships.
For 1 and 2, you need to start reading the comments.
For 3 and 3b, good point. To those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here is a good Wikipedia page.
For 4, I believe that it is deemed fast because a) she wasn’t born with powers, so Maxima thinks it’s a little impressive, and b) she didn’t seem to notice the acceleration, which means she could potentially fly a lot faster if she wanted to.
impact depth is for a solid projectile; a modern sabot round for example is essentially a stream of boiling liquid debonded uranium/ tungsten when it hits and burns right through just about anything- considerably more than normal impact depth limits.
(the hardest data I was able to find was on a Russian deep penetration weapon, used against bunkers, that can cut through up to 20 meters of reinforced concrete. It’s less than 1 m long. oops)
an object going .5 C isn’t even that.. its mostly plasma / energy.
I have no clue what dabbler shot was made of, or how fast it was really going; considering she fired it without the back heat melting her face off is impact depth really the least realistic thing there?
I’m not sure about 0.5c, but there definitely IS speed when impact depth equation no longer apply. But even at only 0.01c, we wouldn’t CARE about projectile if that thing was fired inside atmosphere. See https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ and https://what-if.xkcd.com/20/ …
yup.. I used .5 c just because of the original post.
:)
To be fair ( since I did the same thing) alot of people dont read the comments as they go through and only skim down the first time when they hit the most current page for the first time or they have a question like above. As tedious as it is a simple answer is the most welcoming thing we can do. To fill in the gaps Maxima has touch length telekinesis ( or zero point telekinesis), basically holding together anything she lifts or touches. It is a subconscious ability that pairs with her strength and defense. When she lifts something ( like the ambulance before) the entire thing is lifted as one object rather than bending and breaking at her grip. The same is applied to her clothing while she wears it basically making it as tough as she is. As for the second point it is believed to have a range of self adjusting parameters that negate not just physical damage but also filter out such negative things as you have described. Since Halo is the least explained power wise we can also just say “Magic” and thats as a sound a theory as anything else at this point.
Or you could just say that Syndey’s shield works like Transitions Lenses. It’s known to be incredibly technologically/magically advanced and adjusts its parameters based on the outside stimuli. Unlike Transitions Lenses it can also filter out sound based on the volume.
I don’t know how 400 mph could be considered “slow”. The fastest flying creature on Earth is the peregrine falcon, which has a top speed of about 68 mph. A Formula One race car maxxes out at about 190 mph. 400 mph is faster than almost anything except airplanes, missiles, rockets, and some undetermined percentage of superhumans.
Furthermore, even if an airplane is faster in a long-distance flight with runways at both ends, a super who can fly 400+ mph at the drop of a hat can be more effective within a 10-100 mile radius. For example, take the flight to the artillery range, which was close enough that you could still see the city on the horizon. If Arianna tried to chase Max & Sydney in an airplane, and it took her as much as one minute to reach the runway, they would have arrived before Arianna even took off. And if you’re chasing a fire-breathing bank robber who’s fleeing through the city on a motorcycle, a super who can maneuver above traffic and between buildings at 50-60 mph is better than an airplane zooming overhead at 1000 mph.
+1
Actually, the peregrine can dive at over 300 km/h. It has been recorded at up to 389 km/h. Still, that is a lot slower than Halo in flight.
300 Km/h = 186 M/h
389 Km/h = 242 M/h
So we’re comparing “apples to apples”.
I didn’t count diving speed because, in my mind, there’s a fine line between “diving” and “falling”. Skydivers who assume the bullet position can achieve downward speeds a bit over 200 mph, which is a respectable fraction of what the peregrine falcon can do. (Or 320 kph. I used imperial units in my post because the original “400 mph” figure was in imperial, and I wanted to compare apples to apples.)
But regardless of whether you’re a skydiver or a falcon, you can’t plummet downward for very long before you go *splat*. IMHO, an important part of flying is not hitting the ground. So when comparing flight speeds, I think it’s more valid to look at how fast they can move without losing altitude.
Nice touch with all the dirt on Maxima.
What is going on in panel 5?
The shield is fading as Halo let go of the FORB. It apparently comes with sound effects.
Possibly sound effects supplied courtesy of Sydney. Point against this suggestion is the lack of speech bubble associated with them. Point in favour is her cat-grin in the following panel. Which I love.
Mind you, I love most of her expressions. Even the one where she looks like a rabid piranha. The cat-grin though does not also fall in the set of expressions which would be classified as disturbing enough to invoke terror if encountered in real life.
Max has said “Hey Nation States, I’m one of the two most individually powerful beings on the planet, me and the other both work for Uncle Sam”
If other countries want to appear as Geo-Political alternatives to the US they will have to go public with their own most powerful supers, further unless they want to be seen as the “Bad Guys” they too will have to put them in to a Civil Defense/Law Enforcement/Emergency Services roll.
Me thinks some Conflict Studies guys gave Max the full brief on what they wanted from this little Demo and Arianna wasn’t cleared for that meeting. Oho wait this Government we’re talking about, Governments don’t listen to Conflict Studies people they listen to backroom politicians and bureaucrats who work in the Alphabet Soup, not folks who actually know what’s going on like Annalists and Operators (Intel & Military) or Conflict Studies Nerds.
Good point. The conversation was probably above her pay grade. Either that, or if her clearance is high enough, there is a limit to how much the military will actually trust a civilian spin doctor. Regardless of what the politicians might want.
Is it bad I’m scared by the byoop byoop byoop and sydney’s smile while looking at a orb that looks like it’s about to activate or something O_O
No need to worry about the orb, if you look closely you can see that she just released it (note the ‘tail’)
Three Mile Island? Please, reporter lady. Three Mile Island was insignificant. Coal fire power plants release more radioactive crap each DAY than Three Mile Island. This looked at least as dramatic as Chernobyl.
(Although Chernobyl still put out less radioactivity than coal plants release in an average year. Lots of uranium and thorium in coal y’know.)
Not that Maxima is radioactive as far as I know. I’m just comparing explosive disastrousness.
The quantities of the elements involved is somewhat less relevant than the state they are in and whether the situation makes them hazardous to humans or not. Plus how well the situation is understood and whether contingency planning and preparation can mitigate the dangers.
If you can identify at risk individuals and supply them with the right pills to pop you can sometimes reduce the fatalities by several orders of magnitude. Well, for those incidents where the victims are not smoking piles of ash, anyhow.
This video describes the dangers of radiation adequately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw33AVqzQxA
I cringe every time someone mixes up “ordinance” with “ordnance”.
Or simply mispelling a word (but that doesn’t happen in web-comics, right?)
You mean like the word “misspelling?” (And yes, that is correct.)
It’s funnier when the misspelling goes the other way.
I once saw an official sign in a high-rise elevator which declared that the maximum capacity of 15 people was “enforced by city ordnance”. Man, that’s *strict*.
is something being summoned in the background of the last frame because it looks like a summoning area ive seen before. exspecially with the lightning
Hope not, we already saw who said they would be returning last page
Hoping it’s just local weather reacting to what Maxi used to make that hole
Huh. That would make for one hell of a demonstration. “We summoned a demon thingy/nemesis of one of the member of out team by accident. And then we kicked its ass.”
Just a problem.
People will freak by the usage of the word ‘demon’.
And since nobody officially has clarified the nether-realms of Grrlpower yet in their world, they would be coming up with the wildest ideas…
You know what I mean.
To quote Math” “Oooh! Story time!”
So now we Airana’s superpower. She can go from disheveled to perfectly coiffed in a split second. Either that or her hair is prehensile and responds to her moods.
If it responded to her mood, she’d probably look like Medusa near the end
^This comment wins.
Anyone one else notice the Storm and maelstrom of pink lighting over Max’s hole??
Me thinks Tantalus may have been right in her hunches…
Pshaw. If I was a super villain, I know exactly how I would deal with Max. I would wear Depends.
*giggle*
I sense much anger in this one. Yes, Max, come over to the Arc side.
Arc Dark, that is….
So Maxima has proximakinesis? Cool.
@ms duck:
Can you give me a link to your source? APFSDS rounds that rely on kinetic impacts generally get higher penetration depths than HEAT rounds that rely on creating a stream of molten metal via a shaped charge. In both cases, the rules for impact depth still apply.
“So, you would rather we sit back and just let them do what they want? You wouldn’t happen to be an undeclared Super with plans on using your powers for mischief, are you? What about any Suppervillains? Dating/married/know any?”
Most regular law-enforcement don’t know where/when the next bank robbery is going to happen, or how many civilians might be caught up in it, does that mean the police just let the criminals get away?
Pinken Little (love that name) is increasingly showing her extreme stupidity
Regular law enforcement doesn’t pit it’s own stockpile of nuclear weapons against the nuclear armed terrorists.
but they don’t have to deal with the semi innumerable: Max has shown she can toss you into orbit and then choose wither or not to use a none-radioactive nuke on you were it wont hit anyone else.
She did not exactly go all out when she moved the tank…
‘Regular law enforcement’ doesn’t have it’s own ‘stockpile of nuclear weapons’, and they are not the ones you call on to deal with ‘nuclear armed terrorists’ anyway
Actually, I think you would call 911 for a nuclear-armed terrorist situation. They know exactly who to call for that situation. Me, I have no idea and probably no idea how to contact them if I did.
Yeah, you call them, but you don’t call on them, like you used to call Phone Directory (back in the day before blooble) if you wanted a plumber, but you wouldn’t be expecting PD to come around and fix your flooded toilet
“If you see something strange in the neighborhood . . . Who ya gonna call?”
Excellent art! Dirty Max reminds me that a shower scene might be right around the corner. (Does Max take girly baths, I sometimes wonder? Imagine her smoking a cigar in a tub full of suds. I think maybe.)
Ari has a point. Syd can talk tough because her main strength is her defense. People sympathize. After seeing what she can do, people aren’t as likely to sympathize with tough talking Max. Big bully girl. Not cute at all. Now, Max has to know how she sounds, doesn’t she? She’s not stupid. Why would she drag her balls all over the furniture with so many people watching? I think I know, but I’m not completely sure. I do know she’s very macho, for sure.
Actually, Max’s final speech bubble gave me the impression that Max knows very well who is holding her leash, that there IS a leash on her, and that she intends to heed the tugs on that leash (when held in the correct hands; Arianna’s hand ain’t it).
She’s mentioned relative positions in the food chain, and mentioned doing her job…and as she is not the Commander-in-Chief, Max knows she is not the one in ultimate charge.
On top of all that Max also clearly outlined that HER targets are going to be the wanna-be super villains, because the civlians (quavering masses) are just as clearly Arianna’s area of responsibility. Max is stating (in so many words) that she has no interest in harming civilians directly. Indirectly…as another person pointed out, the police don’t know when, where, or who will be involved in the next armed bank robbery, whether as the robbers, the bank workers, or random civilians just trying to cash a cheque. Max isn’t promising no civilians will be harmed. She is, however, promising that they aren’t her intended focus…and that is the best anyone can expect from any law enforcement agency, civilian or military. (Anyone who expects and demands better than that had better demonstrate how well they can pull off their own magical miracles first.)
Gleaning all of that from her final statement, I find it a reassuring realization that Maxima does indeed know where her responsibilities and areas of activity begin and end. To me, it’s not “dragging her balls all over the furniture.” (Now that I think of it, I think she’d find that phrasing a bit sexist and take offense as a feminist; why does it have to be dragging balls over things? Why can’t it be flopping boobs to mark one’s territory? Although to be truly equalist/feminist, it should be ‘tagging all the furniture’ since that doesn’t involve genitalia of any sort whatsoever…but I digress.) She’s responding to a stupid question by a member of the press who has been reassured repeatedly, shown repeatedly, that this nuclear bomb named Maxima is firmly ensconced in a legally controlled, legally responsible, legally accountable position, and that Max herself knows it.
Not her fault if the reporter is freaking out over something that has to be explained to her yet -again-. (Mind you, it’s kind of a valid freakout, given the visible destruction, and how the plasma-hot melted ground, etc, is conjuring lightning due to high resistance between the negatively and positively charged ions in the ground and in the ash-plume/cloud.)
…It’s kind of like seeing people freaking out yet again over a single report of a bite from a pitbull, when they’re usually very sweet and loyal dogs, while the -fact- stands that German shepherds bite more people per year than pitbulls.
Kinda like this
https://f.kulfoto.com/pic/0001/0047/24Ka146879.jpg
Balls are the source of testosterone, the supposed source of male aggression. Boobs are the source of mothers’ milk and kindness. I don’t think the saying “He’s got big balls” even remotely equates to the saying “She’s got big boobs”. Not the same. Not my fault either, but I’m sorry if I offended.
Max knows that Ari knows the chain of command. I know the posturing was aimed at someone else, but I wonder if it was in general or if she had a specific audience in mind. Waiting to see.
I’ve heard the correct phrasing is “Massive … ovaries”
Happy New Year, one and all.
…Happy New Year,one and all…
I hope so. Happy New year. :)
Nice to see the full colour vote incentive. The bearded guy made me laugh, now that we can see he was keen enough in impersonating Halo to dye his hair too.
he would’ve actually been my vote for best look-alike (Sydney notwithstanding) – he got every detail of the uniform right, the distinctive bangs, and clever use of acrylic and translucent orbs (as opposed to the christmas ornaments or bouncyballs most of the others were using). I’d even credit his beard as intentional for comic effect.
Heh I love Syd’s look in that second to last panel.
Looking at the new VI. I was somewhat thinking it’d be funny if Max was the winner, and the more heavy-set one was Sandy. Yeah I’m screwy.
Yeah, but that ‘heavy-set’ one is obviously a guy, and Maxi is too well-known to pull off something like that (not to mention, not quite as artificially ‘enhanced’)
it was harder to tell that one a guy in the pencils.
Panel 5 sound effect: I am taking this as a hint that the Forb does not make one single spherical field. It in fact makes a myriad of overlapping individual sections that it can reset as they are overwhelmed. Waaay back when Max was smacking on Sydney, Max’s second hit busted one layer and it reset and added a layer or three in the vicinity (all transparently). The booms back then were the field segments overloading and releasing stored kinetic energy as sound. In the current panel they have their default level of energy to disperse which just leaves a “byoop” noise and not a “boom”. Given time and practice, I am betting Sydney could form a wall, segmented cells to hold someone inside separated from her own person by an inner shield etc. (Power Stunts)
That is a very plausable explanation. I like it
Gotta love Max’s expression in panel 2 and Syd’s in panel 6. Arianna has a job few of us would envy; trying to convince a xenophobic public that the supers are basically pussycats and not snarling tigers.
Gotta love Max’s expression in panel 2 and Syd’s in panel 6. Arianna has a job few of us would envy; trying to convince a xenophobic public that the supers are basically pussycats and not snarling tigers.
Double post … Sorry ’bout that.
Maxi will protect anyone in need of pretecting, and she will use her abilities to the fullest if need be, she doesn’t care if the one being protected likes the way she did it, she will just be happy that the ungrateful shit is still able to hurl abuse and sue her
Maxi is not in this for selfish reasons like popularity or fame, she’s in it because she can and because she wants to
Problem: one page ago, Maxima openly threatened anyone who gets in ARCHON’s way (or more specifically, in her way) with crippling, permanently-disabling harming, assuming she doesn’t just fry their head down to a blackened skull. Furthermore, she didn’t mention anything about doing so in order to ensure that ordinary civilians are safe. In fact, the Jack the Ripper smiles kind of imply that she just wants to fight someone that won’t die after the first punch without the hassle of fighting weakling mortal soldiers afterwards because she just killed their world’s version of the Justice League.
If worst comes to worst, we could be edging dangerously close to Major Force’s “If you’re not ‘murrican, respectful, and do whatever I say is right, imma rip off your limbs and leave them for your loved ones to find” method of international relations.
If you mean the smile in panel 2, that is clearly aimed squarely at Ari
Yeah, she said if they get in ARCHON’s way, which implies that whatever she does would have been sanctioned by General Faulke (and not Ari, who is simply the PR Guru), and it wouldn’t be just her doing it but the entire team (why does everyone seem to be reading ‘our’ and ‘we’ as ‘my’ and ‘me’?)
Okay, I think Maxima’s going to end up becoming the villain. She’s already established as being one of the most powerful supers in existence, seems to place little value on peoples’ lives and rights unless they can prove otherwise to her, uses brute-force intimidation as her first, last, and only means of communicating with potential enemies, and only obeys orders when they happen to jive with her current mood.
Seriously, the Plutonian set off fewer alarm bells than this.
Eventually, her methods will get an innocent killed/maimed/driven to villainy, she’s going to assume that ARCHON set her up, and thus that the government is in cahoots with ‘the enemy’, go rogue, and nuke the White House while roaring something about Justice and Glory and other things that get Capital Letters.
And it’s going to be AMAZING (as long as things don’t get too grimdark).
What? Not sure where everyone is getting the idea that Maxi will be the next villain
She might not like people, but she still values their lives, she just doesn’t care if they like her or not
Not sure where you get the idea she ‘only obeys orders when they happen to jive with her current mood’, Ari is not in her chain-of-command so she does not have to listen to what she has to say (certainly nothing Ari says could be viewed as an ‘order’), not even Sydney answers to Ari
Where did you get the idea that valuing human lives means you can’t be a villain?
The most interesting villains are the ones who think they’re doing good. Maxima obviously doesn’t like the restrictions of working within Archon. So she could end up doing what she thinks is right, with no regard for anyone else or the rules.
I’m remembering back a few hours ago (okay, like a year ago, but still) when Max was leading the charge against Harem over her public-affairs nightmare practical joke. Granted, she was probably upset about her personal embarrassment, but it was still about public perception and messaging…
Well there is the last 2 minutes of Unbreakable where Mr. Glass says the villain is usually the opposite of the hero in every way, and usually they start as friends…
(to borrow a Schlock sound)
Can you say “Maximaim” ?
Oops forgot you can’t wrap text in greater than less than around here. The borrowed noise was
“oooommmminous hummmmmm”
use asterisks like *Ominous humming noise*
She also cares about her team first, and everything else later.
And she’s a soldier, so used to the possiblilty of coleteral damage.
Your setup scenario makes no sense
I don’t see Maxima as becoming a villain any time soon. Not even as a well intentioned extremist type. I see her getting setup for a further maturing moment when she finds out, possibly at the deaths of many people, that her drawing a line in the sand was not the best move.
On the other hand, that bit with Dabbler’s past is very intriguing. It’d be interesting to have people and conflicts from the galactic/supernatural community just sort of collide with the people of Earth every now and then as a means of livening up the plot or buying time to finish an upcoming story arc.
Wait, so it’s okay for Dabbles to bring down ultra-galactic/paranatural threats to the Earth “for the giggles”, but Maxi isn’t allowed to put the Fear of Gold into the hearts of anyone thinking of using their powers for evil without hairfarted ideas that Maxi will be the next Uber Villain?
Aperently
Guesticus, RobK, you do have a point there: it IS a rather sizable double standard for me to not approach the potential fallout of Dabbler’s actions with the same level of weight as Maxima’s lines.
Part of it is just that I’m remarkably good at thinking of the worst possible implications of any given actions: for example, considering that Dabbler’s little flashback showed a rather cavalier disregard for the consequences of her actions, there could be an entire laundry list of demon lords, alien races, and Elder Horrors that she’s angered. She might even be on Earth in order to hide from them. She might even be counting on ARCHON’s operatives to act as cannon fodder for her many enemies while she escapes to some other corner of the Universe.
And you’re very right that I gave Maxima an undeserved pounding in my previous comments. I’m not even sure why I got so agitated – maybe I was having a bad day, maybe I just tend to use that sort of caustic, overly-cynical theorizing as a means of mental exercise. I really don’t know.
But I am sorry for raining on you guys’ parade, and for getting on this webcomic’s case. Grrl Power deserves respect and appreciation, not idiots like me flinging their mental feces at it. Especially that part where I compared Maxima to Major Force: she is NOTHING like that psycho, and won’t be until she starts murdering her enemies’ girlfriends and stuffing their corpses into refrigerators.
I’ll try to do better from now on.
Didn’t mean to imply you can’t have your opinions (or post them), just couldn’t see where everyone is getting the idea that Maxi is even potentially going to be the next (first?) SuperVillain (in a world full of Heroes,someone has to be a Villain)
And why just Maxi? Any one of ARCHON could be the Villain (Math: simply because he needs a challange; Les, Morph and Heatwave: they already were petty criminals/minor-league badguys before ARCHON got hold of them; Harem: do we really need to explain?)
Oh, just thought of something: maybe Pinken is reacting that way because of personal experiences, maybe not with Supers, but simply where villains did some bad things and she was caught in the middle (the way she was crouching in terror 3 pages ago gives me the impression of Shell-shock/PTSD)
I got the vibe that Pinky went through those inane nuclear bomb drills that we had to go through even through the 80s. Seriously, you think we’ll survive a nuclear bomb explosion by hiding underneath a cheap desk? Sure, it was probably so we didn’t see the light and it’s a peaceful death, but the sheer idea was insane.
yeah I always found those drills stupid, even as a kid. Even asked my teacher “how is hiding under a piece of plywood supposed to protect us from being in the middle of a fireball over a mile wide and at least a couple hundred thousand degrees?”
And even if you did somehow survive (maybe the target was miles away) if the concrete school (what they were made of back then) collapses you might as well have a paper parasol over you head.
Well, it’s better than running around and getting trampled to death by the shit-scared teachers
Max is ignoring here, that sometimes less is more. And sometimes something is enough.
She IS the next nuclear desaster waiting to happen, so it woudn´t have hurt her to be at least a LITTLE diplomatic.
Now, when a villain (like Batman) has his preparation time and finished custom building his multi-billion dollar gadgets and actually manages to take her down (she was nice enough to show her full potential in this display, so everyone knows her limits, too), a great many people will be relieved instead of apalled.
Nice job, Max.
What makes you think that’s her full potential? Just because what she did was powerfull, it HAS to be the most powerfull she can do?
Its interesting the direction Maxima is going here. Very ‘Superman Red Son’ for her. ^^
I can se it having lots of fun effects on things. From actually creating a setting where super beings are outright hated and feared by the public, leading to loads of paranoia that america has thee worlds most powerful hair trigger nutjob in their court…Embassies have been burned down and tourists murdered for far less.
Even if her power level isn’t that much better than fancy military hardware, putting a threatening and violent face to that sorta arsenal is the sort of think that causes lots of mass panic. Woo~ It will be fun to see the after affects~
Burn down the comic store because its owned by a super~! They will destroy us all~! Kill them before they kill us~!
That’s what I call glaring daggers, Arianna. XD
Apparently, Arianna is a Trekker. Or at least a Klingon fan. Who else would imagine stabbing Maxima with a D’k Tahg?
Or since Max has been outed as a nerd herself (“Ioun Stones?”) she is imagining stabbing Max with Max’s own dagger from the display in Max’s office…
She said she used to be somewhat of a nerd.
I don’t think ‘used to be somewhat of a nerd’ have Klingon daggers on display
Also did anyone else notice the ominous lighting cloud floating over the crater behind her? What if she broke a hole in reality for that demon that Dabbler just had a flashback could come through?
Hmm. I didn’t consider that, but I did notice the lightning.
XD
Put a sufficient amount of dust in the air and static discharges are inevitable. This is why grain silo can go BOOM!
This past year, one of the town near me had a grain silo for a feed company go up in smoke. Lit like a roman candle. Those are dangerous and erratic.