Grrl Power #178 – Maxima DGAF -or- The cliff has been hanged
Ok Maxima’s done being a jerk/diva now. The question is how much of it was calculated on her part to put out that honey badger vibe, and how much was her actually not giving an eff.
I suspect Maxima’s sudden departure wouldn’t have caused an actual “boom” simply because she’s not quite big enough – after all some of the noise a gun makes is the tiny sonic pop from the bullet (assuming supersonic ammo of course). Maybe I should have made the sound effect “Sonic Bloop” or whatever onomatopoeia comes in between pop and boom. Boop? Somehow a Sonic Boop doesn’t have the same impact.
And yes this page had to end on the cliffhanger cause I couldn’t fit the reveal on the page and do it any justice.
Is it just me or does the pacing suddenly feel especially slow now after two weeks of double updates? I experimented with drawing two pages side by side this week to see if it would speed me up at all. It does, but not much. Really only when I’m coloring, and even then not by much, but that’s fine, anything that helps I’ll probably stick with.
I’m also working on setting up a Patreon account. Several people donated using the recurring payment option, which I very much appreciate, but for some reason those automatic payments failed, even though the regular one-time donations worked fine. Having a Patreon account will create another option for those interested in setting up something recurring. The hard part about setting up a Patreon account is actually coming up with rewards that don’t take a huge amount of time away from actually drawing the comic, and also don’t eat into potential rewards I might use to kickstart the book, like PDFs of said book. I know I could just set it up without all that fancy stuff, but obviously it would do better if I could give back something.
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And thats how the orbs floated into space,Sydney got fired from Arc and this comic got turned into a comic about a comic shop
I hope not because I have waited yeeeaaars for a fight scene.
I’m guessing that they are in the air because of the sudden suction from Maxima leaving at Mock 8.
Actually mock is what Maxima does to Ariana. Mach is a ratio to the speed of sound to the speed of a moving object.
It was a pun, most likely…
Actually, even Maxima wasn’t able to move the tube with the orbs in it, even when they were probably “sleeping”. So I highly doubt that.
Love the look on Pink’s face in panel 2
That sort of slack jawed Oh My Goddess look is just what she deserves.
Unless I am mistaken, sonic boom is the result of a sudden pressure gradient behind an aircraft, dependent on several things besides the size of the aircraft, those being the shape (that is, aerodynamic resistance or whatthenameis, translating directly from Czech >_>), altitude (as in, pressure in which the aircraft moves, the lower the altitude/higher the pressuer the more intense sonic boom) and velocity of the object (the sonic boom doesn’t happen at the moment the object crosses 1M, it is “pulled behind the aircraft” as a shockwave the aircraft causes as it moves through the air/gas in general).
That means that Maxima is probably perfectly capable of a massive sonic boom, since she went to supersonic velocity at “ground elevation”, and she probably just went REALLY, REALLY fast.
As an exit line, the Boom is hard to beat.
It’s more or less an exclamation point.
FWIW there would be no boom, because the group (and the reader POV) is behind Max. If Max crossed over the group after achieving mach speed, there would have been a boom (OK, a thud). Think of it as the wake of a speed boat – the boom is the crest of the arc to either side of the boat, not the unorganized noise behind it. But for comic dramatic purposes, you need to use a BOOM in that panel or the reader won’t “get it”.
Technically speaking, yes, but they are standing on the ground which would reflect the sonic boom further back. That is, to them.
perhaps, but if “Sonic BOOP” doesn’t convey the proper gravitas, “Sonic THWP” definitely won’t…
I’ve heard that the crack of a whip is caused by the tip going super sonic.
No pun intended? :)
They would most definitely hear the boom, seeing as Maxima went supersonic mere meters away from them. (I seriously doubt she would go subsonic after that show.) The air displacement shouldn’t knock them over though, that’s just comedic effect ;D
But what’s worse.. a cliffhanger… aaaaaaargh! Something freaky is going on with the orbs, but we won’t know for a long time…
As best as I understand it, a sonic boom has multiple components, the prominent ones being from the front of the object (think of it as the bow wake from a ship plowing through water) and from the back of the object (think tail-wake). Oh, I expect its more complicated than that as you cross the Mach boundary. I remember these components as the document I’d been reading at the time was discussing ‘stealth’ supersonic aircraft, where the tail wake would partially or fully cancel the bow-wake, deadening the sonic boom. That said, I trust the magazine I read that article in about as far as I trust most used car sales-men, YMMV.
the hell is wrong with Hiro’s arm?
Perhaps having a face pressed against him is his cryptonite.
The muscle is hanging like melted wax.
Looks to me like he’s just flexed it up (maybe Ari’s head is heavier than we thought and Hiro is instinctively flexing to compensate for the added weight)
Maybe his arm has been bruised by Arianna banging her head repeatedly against it?
Nah, not repeatedly, Ari looks more like, if Hiro wasn’t there with his big beefy arm, she would have just collapsed in an exhausted/frustrated/drained heap
He must’ve bumped it on something, because now it’s all swollen (/RandySavage)
I’m imagining the orbs blinking in a binary sequence countdown.
Or they have all turned black.
Or melted together into a halo ring :)
Just for reference, the reason a whip ‘cracks’ is because the tip is making a sonic boom.
Physics is awesome when applied practically.
And memorizing all those damn formulas gives me the mother of all headaches.
I almost used that as an example of a small sonic boom, but doing this comic has taught me to confirm what I think I know before posting it for several tens of thousands to read. A little googling showed me that scientists are actually not 100% sure that’s what causes the crack noise, as the tip of the whip exceeds the speed of sound before the crack noise is heard. It’s like how people thought bicycles stayed upright because of the centripetal force of the wheels, but on closer examination it turns out it’s more complicated than that.
The supersonic whip crack from bullets is pretty damn significant – I’ve fired suppressed rifles with supersonic rounds, at first thinking I could get away with no ear protection. I was very, very wrong.
I’d say that you’re right on with the comic on what the effect would be.
That’s movie science for you.
Gun silencers don’t actually silence it all that much.
If you were next to the gun when firing it though, you probably heard the gunpowder exploding, rather than the bullet itself
For me, it was pretty much all whip crack. I tried standing in a few different places relative to my partner so I could experience the difference in sound (suppressors are fun for making down range targets think that you’re in a different spot than you really are).
The real fun that day was when we switched to subsonics on a bolt action rifle. No appreciable mechanical noise, no flight noise, no muzzle blast. Just a thud when the bullet hit our targets.
Sonic thump, maybe? Sonic Boop might border on copyright infringement. Seems we’re not done with mystery orb antics for the day, either. How embarrasing to not have full control of your powers at a press conference.
Well technicly they are not HER powers. She just found them somewhere.
Who knows what they originaly were
So long as she did not ‘find’ them in a bank vault or similar, they are hers. Under the old axiom of ‘finders keepers’. Plus the practical matter of them being tethered inseparably to her.
In legal terms, I guess it would depend on whether she was in international or territorial waters when she found them as to what jurisdiction and laws would apply. Laws such as apply to flotsam, jetsam and salvage, if lost from a ship or discovered washed ashore or similar. If they had been deliberately buried in British soil, then one set of laws would apply, but if lost on land, another. Some of which allow the finder to keep the find in whole or in part.
But try to take them from her and you will have a fight on your hands. After all possession is 9/10ths of the law. Anyone attempting that had better hope that she is not possessed by one of the Elder Gods.
Would be more concerned about an Elder God being possessed by Sydney (/shudder)
Remember https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/416 “Oh the humanity!” Now think of that in some alien body.
Well, “BLOOP” maybe would have been appropriate…
After all… Remember “The Bloop”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bloop
JoseB
First panel “How are supposed to write about anything but this!?” Not quite sure what that’s supposed to mean.
As a possible Patreon reward, how about people who donate $x get to watch you in the process of creating the comic?
you mean fly us down to Dallas and stand in his living room, watching over his shoulder? Yeah, that’s not creepy at all… Sign me up!!
hahahaha
I meant on webcam xD
well, that wouldn’t be nearly as fun, what with not being able to sample his liquor cabinet and all, but I could get behind that idea too
There’s a word missing there
I think that Pinky meant that any sort of detail about the “We’re friendly military superheroes for your protection and can knock bits off a tank.” part will be completely overshadowed by the “I’m possibly psychotic, in charge of the team, and can throw nukes around.” part.
Even if they give both parts equal time, you can guess which bit the rest of the media and general public will be paying attention to.
I think it suposed ro be “How are we suposed to write about anything about this”or something along those lines?
How are (we) supposed…
There was a ‘we’ missing. It wouldn’t be Grrl Power without the occasional grammar error. Should be fixed now if you CTRL+F5 the page.
As far as rewards go, I’ve thought about stuff like streaming some of the creation process – drawing, coloring, etc., but if feels weird to restrict that because drawing the comic is something I have to do anyway. I guess making a point of actually streaming it is what the reward would be though. I’ll have to give it some more thought.
The shells on a battleship are 16″ across. Firing one of those goes super sonic and people on deck can be knocked off their feet. Max is a little larger than one of those shells.
I doubt that this was Maxima’s full power, however, this may mean that her true power may be that on the level of a Saiyen (I doubt Super, cause that would be ridiculously OP)
However, the problem with showing how powerful you are, is that, while you scare off people less powerful you also
a) Cause every government, or other organisation, to create a way to defeat you due to fear or whatnot, at this power level, it will probably involve something nuclear
b) cause all the really powerful super nutjobs out there and/or alien warlords, to flock to you to fight, and so prove that they are the strongest. And these people are not above threatening other people to get you to fight
Consider what we saw with Halo’s introduction to the team – specifically, that certain abilities of hers would NOT be mentioned to the public. Could very well be that there are STILL a few abilities of Max’s that are unadvertised for the same reasons..
Quite a good point, actually. The fact that Max is so ridiculously powerful (she just created a small nuclear-equivalent blast, withstood it without even clothing damage, and before she went away at hypersonic speed, she said something about that not being even close to her full power… Countries that GrrlPower-in-univers-US doesn’t like must be VERY scared at that point. I mean, if a large explosion doesn’t do anything to her, seemingly at all, just WHAT has to be used to get her off her feet? (besides Sydney’s antiques – this might be the only case where humour might be the weak point of a superhero). What if a nuke is NOT enough?
Unless they have an equivalent super-person deterrent – I believe Maxima stated that there are TO HER KNOWLEDGE only two other as powerful as her, one being dead, the other being Dabbler; there might be someone just as powerful or even above her power that she doesn’t know about. For some reason, I find that quite a bit scary.
Actually, she thought after the claim ‘as far as we know’
Knowning comic book foreshadowing, that means that guy is still alive and plotting revenge
“NOBODY could have survived that!”
One of the most-used and most often proven-wrong lines of supers.
Well :p one rule of thumb with supers, until you find the body, assume he’s still alive :p (and sometimes it’s not even enough :p)
Actually that’s a good rule with all comic/movie/ something else villains and good guys alike
In comic books it is much worse than that. Nobody dies forever in the comic books.
Even if there was a body to bury, that doesn’t rule out clones, alternate universe doubles, time travel shenanigans, or the gods themselves sending the character back out for another try.
One of the times when Superman has died, there was a body to bury and everything. Only it turned out that his “death” was really just a misunderstanding of Kryptonian biology.
Comic resurrection is proportionate to reader popularity. The more popular a character is, the more likely it is to come back. Genre permitting.
except for Ben parker… poor ol’ guy
Part of the origin. I don’t think that counts
W-a-i-t for it. I have absolutely no doubt that Uncle Ben’s day will come.
Actually there were worlds where Ben Parker lived. House of M is one of those worlds. There were other versions that lived as well. But that’s beside the point.
Sorry, big time Spiderman fan.
You know about drowned people in winter: don’t consider them dead unless WARM and not breathing.
Well, it’s only so much more important in our setting.
Not only the body, but considering creatures like Cell’s regenerative abilities…
At best shishkebabed and each piece hurled into a different star.
He didn’t fall? Inconceivable!
“you keep using that word…”
I’m sure with Maxima, she has a long history of being right about that claim.
The other being Dabbler? Her power level in the cast section is one below Maxima’s. What makes you think she’s who was being referred to? Besides, where would the fun be if ALL the strongest supers were with them?
I’m too lazy right now to pull up the specific pages, but that was inferred early in the press conference when Max said only 2 other supers had fought her to a standstill, and one of them was on the team – Dabbler nudged Sydney next to her in what was interpreted by most of the unwashed (i.e. comic-reading) masses as bragging that she was the indicated party. As additional evidence, when Sydney was taken down by Math, Max explained that only she and Dabbler had actually defeated Math in a 1v1 fight, but Dabbler had used Magic (which apparently Max considers “cheating”).
Magic.
Maxima has a couple of very powerfull powers, while Dabbler has a lot of slightly less powerfull ones
Smarts. Dabbler is more intelligent than any human ever, so she can probably think off something good.
Gadgets. She’s extremely technologicly advanced compared to earth, so there’s a big advantage there.
Combined those, and I’m sure she can be a nice match for anyone stronger than her
well on defense Dabbler can create a shield which Dave has said could be as strong or stronger than Sydney’s but it’s only 3 stars because of it’s size.
I am of the personal opinion that a group of skilled mages could probably seal max away in another dimetion… With difficulty. It has been done to all manner of demonand other extremly powerful forces before, even earlier in this comic
Maxima just showed off a capability extremely useful in a military role, but hasn’t revealed much of her subtler abilities that might be used against a supervillain fight where collateral damage is concerned. If bad guys thing that all she is good for is tossing nukes then then hopefully they will underestimate her other capabilities.
Its even possible that the intention of part of the demonstration was to start other countries recruiting a superhero-based countermeasure of their own. Supers incorporated into the military of a hostile country are less of a threat to America than loose cannon terrorists.
ARC, their benefactors and allies in the loop, would realise that will be happening following this press conference anyhow. And has probably been going on in all countries already. At least those which had not been sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that super powers were not real. All that is likely to happen is that governments will be more open about it, as they seek to reassure their citizens that their country is still significant.
What Maxima is doing, however, is very useful when it comes to budget time. Whatever the economic cost, taxpayers will be getting their money’s worth with Maxima on the team. Unlike nuclear weapons though, she, and other supers, would still exist with or without funding. So it gives less scope for protesters to object.
Of course there might be political fallout following this. But they are living in interesting times after all.
There is always political fallout after something like this: little senators who don’t want to be in the ‘background’ anymore, or those who have a military contract of some sort, or simply the senator/governor/tin-pot sherriff of whatever state/county this happened to happen in
No matter what interesting stuff / people you get, you can count on there being 2+ kinds of people you don’t want to have:
a) the dolts who don’t want any of it (no matter how many people can be saved / how good life could be)
b) the loose screws who want to use it for their own gain (the rest of your people don’t matter)
Marvel (the entire friggen multiverse), DC, Eureka (Consortium/Military), Stargate (no-share military/Thrust)… you name it, there they were.
Probably worried in a “Dr. Manhattan” way, what if the Government decides to call on her powers to get involved in a conflict openly, as opposed covertly (and only using enough power to destroy a mosque)?
Although the image of a giant Maxima walking through the streets of Moscow kind of gives me a bit of a “Cold War Kaiju” frisson…
how are supposed to*
Shouldn’t there be a “we” in there?
It’s fixed now. :P
I doubt Max’s sonic boom shook them, or that her wake moved them. Even she and her super-strength couldn’t break their tether with Sydney. That Syd is looking up at them means they’re not “asleep” like when she was hiding them in a poster tube. Are they glowing more intensely? Or are they not glowing like they usually do? Are they damaged? Are they changing shape?
Sigh. Cliffhangers.
if I may hazard a guess.
a force field can only work in two ways
Reflection and absorption.
and given that the explosion moved around the forcefield
and the lack of a reflecting shock-wave
the forcefield must have absorbed some of the energy of the explosion
my guess is this extra energy is now being cycled to the other orbs and balancing between the orbs and the excess will be released as light.
Maybe one of the mystery orbs is a capacitor. Currently storing all the energy, ready to be released in one MASSIVE explosion with the PPO
the other option could be the excess energy might be giving birth to an 8th orb between the current 7
“Congratulations, Ms. Scolville. It’s a ball”?
If I could thumbs up a comment, it would be this one… SO HARD!! XD
If this was an animated series, someone would have to do an AMV of ACDC’s Big Balls for Sydney.
I hear that everytime Syd shows off a power.
I had a similar idea, but you beat me to it. I have been harboring a nagging suspicion that the orbs were some sort of life-form like this: https://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Parasprite
do you know how terrifying that would be?
image a grey goo scenario but with multi colored orbs all in orbit around her head
Parasprites with laser beams, energy tentacles, and goodness knows what those other two orbs do! That would be almost as bad as Kirby finding out that all the major world leaders hid cake from him. …okay maybe not quite that bad.
I thought she raised the force field in an earlier panel?
she did. but that was after the explosion dissipated
it still had plenty of energy to absorb prior to termination
I like this idea. Perhaps, however, what’s happening is that the Shield Orb actually does get damaged when the shield absorbs impacts/energy, and is cracking from the inside out. Then one of the unknown orbs is actually an Orb Repairer/Orb Medic.
In panel one it should read HOW ARE *WE* SUPPOSED ….
I’m pretty sure Bam is between Pop and Boom.
Click < Pop < Bang < Bam < Blam < Boom.
You forgot Wham and Kaboom
also the “tic tic” before “boom”
…oh, wait
Boom! shake-shake-shake the room
Tic, tic, tic, tic, Boom!
Well y’all ready for me yet? (Pump it up prince!)
yes, Will Smith. We would have also accepted The Hives, (grudgingly) Britney Spears, and the technically incorrect POD.
Yes there’s supposed to be an Earth-shattering KA-BOOM!
“Bamf”. With a slight smell of sulfur…
And two thoughts come to mind. Sydney has two unaccounted for powers. One of which may have reacted to this display of raw damage and may be getting ready to pickup the pieces. Or this much power thrown around and they may need to recharge now.
One of the 2 unknowns could be the energy collector and the other the battery/distributor.
I think Paul Taylor’s Patreon incentives seem reasonable. “Happy dance” for low level recurring, one sketch (not per month) for mid levels, etc. I think his max one was “if you are in my area I will buy you a beer”.
Yeah, I’m worried about the additional workload of extra art… unless it’s really just a sketch and not a finished piece. Hmm that might work.
I’m guessing they’re all incredibly cracked, and that is when we find out one of the mystery orbs repairs the others in the event of overuse or damage.
totally off-topic, but are you related to azurephoenix?
Or maybe, ‘azurefather’?
Az, ureFATHER. O.o
[eyeroll]
*ORABPC fires, dropping a large hammer on your car*
I’m sure the full power that Maxima has shown is far, far less than what it actually is.
Well, if her powers include altering what people can see, then, probably. Otherwise, the tank she blew up with the small orb was implied to be quite far off, and when the orb detonated, Maxima was still inside the fireball (or implied to). That sort of fireball is created by “low-end” nuclear weapons (talking a few kilotons tops). The devastated area would have to be a LOT bigger.
Which makes me wonder why we can see the desert plants in the “(SONIC) BOOM” picture. Provided they aren’t just large lumps of sand molten into glass.
That “sort of fireball” is created by ANY large explosion. ALL large explosions create mushroom clouds.
aww, you beat me to it, deuce
or any fire that burns hot enough.
Well, I meant that as more of a RL explosive device equivalent, considering that there have been only a few manmade explosions (be it intended or otherwise) that reached a “nuclear” detonation equivalent (after all, hundred thousand tons of TNT piled up in one spot would be somewhat impractical). Just like a “nuclear option” doesn’t actually imply that a device based on a nuclear force is used – just that something really, really potent will.
(WTB edit button)
In fact, any energy release sudden and large enough will cause a fireball, if it is done in an environment that allows it – a nuke going off in empty space will just vaporise itself and produce a decent amount of all sorts of radiation (meaning stuff being radiated, not “the bad stuff that makes uranium cause cancer”).
scale is a funny thing to try and judge, but from appearance, it looks very similar in scope to a Daisy Cutter (i.e. large fuel-air bomb), or the MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs), both of which are conventional explosives.
Judging by the size of the fireball and the size of the area damaged from the firestorm I have Maxima’s Yo-yo Bomb pegged at about one half a kiloton of TNT. Half the size of a MOAB.
The people who think Maxima’s demonstration would alarm nations have no concept of just how destructive nuclear weapons really are.
Alarm is generated by people. People are generally ignorant. Those who are inclined to be will be alarmed.
Crowds are stupid. Individuals are generally decently intelligent
I used to believe that statement. Now I only believe the first half, with regards to the general populace :-\
Talking is a free action.
The firestorm didn’t really last this long, but the talking did. So that’s why it looked to US as it lasted so long
Shes just showing off, she was probably charging that orb for a week.
She just wants to intimidate people (and sucseeding) by suggesting that this is not even her full power.
THIS ISN’T EVEN MY FINAL FORM!!!!
Well, i don’t think she was charging it for a week :) if it wasn’t for arianna’s PR bank set up earlier in the day, maxima wouldn’t have pushed it this far just to piss off arianna :)
I’m fairly sure Maxima’s power doesn’t work like that.
It is unlikely they contain an infinite amount of power, so they might be a bit gray after having repelled more or less a small nuclear blast at ground zero. She did have them powered down, more or less, in her tube. Alternately, they are infinitely powerful, such that they are the seven foundational origin stones upon which all realities set, in which case they may be spinning in a circle, linking dimensions with somewhere else, as some sort of eldritch door to an other place, though which god knows what would pass.
Nah, I’m going to go with the gray thing.
another alternative is that one orb just absorbed (through the shield) a tremendous amount of energy, and that orb is now either overcharged (i.e. glowing more brightly or even growing), or the redistribution function is now causing a network of energy beams betwixt the 7, creating a chaos star design in the air
The term is “septacle”. It’s like a pentacle but has a seven pointed star instead of 5. It’s a common Pagan adornment/symbol but less so than the pentacle. BTW the pentacle is also called the Star of Solomon, so it’s not like this was a Satanic symbol.
makes sense – good to know (because knowing is half the battle – the other half is violence)
thank you!
Pentacle is five pointed. Star of Soloman has six points.
You’re thinking of the Star of David, which has the six points.
Ok. Wandered around the net a bit and found that the Seal of Solomon is usually depicted as a six pointed star, the same as the Star of David. However, nobody really knows for sure, and there are some books that say the Seal of Solomon was a five pointed star.
I was wrong. My apologies.
yeah it’s one of those things nobody really knows one way or the other.
I would not have thought of it as Satanic – my experience with it is as a Pagan symbol for chaotic/fae energy
Clearly the shield orb deflecting such a powerful attack was the required trigger for the signal-aliens-Earth-is-a-worthy-opponent orb to activate.
Or signal the aliens that there appetizers are ready
I don’t think a show of extreme power from your prey is the thing you’d want as ‘ok it’s ready to attack now’
unless all they care about is fighting the stongest opponent they can find, i.e. the mandalorians in star wars.
I’m sure there are more powerfull beings out there, somewhere in the void.
Afterall, Dabbler can’t be the only alien
Before or after they retconned them into pacifistic pussies?
More than one story is based on aliens, gods, monsters or the like who leave things scattered around any worlds likely to develop advanced life. Any which solve the puzzle/stop the asteroid from hitting/ push the big red button/ hit the shield orb with a massive attack sends a signal to the (invasion) fleet that a significant species has arisen and needs to be contacted/subjugated/exterminated.
One of my favorite ST:NG episodes called “The Chase” concerned Terran, Cardassians Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans. World to world matching DNA and put it in the tricorder to generate a message from the first super intelligent species that was humanoid. They seeded likely worlds with life and special genetic markers that when one or more intelligences locate and put the message together will be displayed. Said race long dead was lonely. No other intelligent species in the Milky Way galaxy.
And people in Trek-lore even call them the Progenitors, or even the Ancients.
*shiftily eyes Stargate* Yeah, feels similar.
As stated in the movie Contat: If we were alone in the universe, it would be a giant waste of space.
So, yeah. Feeling profound loneliness and that thought, I’d have filled space too.
Shame that kind of work doesn’t get the response it deserves; neither in Trek nor in Gate.
I have two ways to respond to the “Are we alone?” question.
One, It is Mathematically impossible that we are the only sentient life in the universe. There are Billions upon Billions of stars JUST in this galaxy, if even 1% have planets and 1/10 of 1% are inhabitable, than there are Millions of races that will love to prove us wrong.
Two, If a God created the universe (instead of the other way around) Then it is the utmost foolishness and vanity to think that They would create such a large and glorious home, and leave it empty except for one minute, insignificant dust mite!
I thought I was used to cliffhangers after Worm but….goddamnit that’s an evil cliffhanger!
Cliffhangers are evil! Evil I say!
I now really, really wanna know what manages to even freak Syd out like that. Especially including the freak/speed-lines.
shouldn’t that be ” how are WE supposed…?”
Now, imagine the Orbs got activated and opened something like a portal.
Could even drop Dabbler’s old boyfriend.
Or maybe cause a rift in space-time that would slide somebody else there, or them to another reality. Ah, so many ideas. Fanfic time!
Is it wrong that my first thought was “I’d rather talk about Maxima’s orbs?” [goes to hide under a rock]
you can talk about them, but you might wake up in traction if she’s within earshot. and god help you if you wanna cop a feel.
THAT’s something I’ll keep for after having an ugly, terminal disease.
To go out with a good feeling and a grin.
“does the pacing suddenly feel especially slow now after two weeks of double updates?”
You think that was bad? Unfortunately, Maxima has just done the fly-so-fast-time-goes backwards trick. We have just gone back a day, so next week we have to go to comic 1 and start all over.
NOOOOO!!!!
Sydney is freaking out because the orbs are being sucked along behind Maxi, and either Sydney is going to end up being pulled along with them, or she is going to be serious need of MEDIC!!!!!!!!!!
No, Maxima can’t move Halo’s orbs. We’ve already seen her try. A little wind isn’t going to budge them.
One loophole being if they cannot be intentionally separated from Halo. Thus requiring deliberate action by a thinking being to trigger the unmovable option. Accidental movement, say by being caught up in a supersonic slipstream would be another matter. One which Sydney would recognise as meaning she would be pulled up with them, as they go, due to her being inseparable from them.
i don’t think so, she forgot her balls in her car once and she couldn’t go past a few meters. so i think she is completely thetered to them. intentional or not
There are two distinct features. One being that Maxima could not throw them. The other being that Sydney cannot move a certain distance beyond them. Obviously the two may share a common origin and thereby strengths and limitations. But, equally, they may not be linked.
In particular the modus operandi of each is distinct. One prevents the orbs from being moved, the other prevents Sydney from travelling beyond a certain certain distance from them. Assuming the orbs are the source of this power, as seems likely, then one operates on themselves, whereas the other affects something external (ie their owner).
Arguments in favour of them stopping actions which would intentionally separate them from Sydney (as opposed to them simply being immovable by anyone else) are:
* Maxima was able to pick up the tube. She was only prevented from throwing it away from Sydney.
* Math was able to nudge one of the balls in his sparring with Halo.
Neither of which prove that intent alone is the deciding factor, but it may be.
One point worth considering is that Maxima could have been standing just within the maximum separation radius when she picked up the tube. Thus was not prevented from doing so. But in trying to move it beyond that point failed.
Did Math nudge a ball though?
What I understood from it, he nudged Sydney’s leg into the Orbs path, thus causing it to hit her.
It would be a pritty easy tric. Plan out orb movement, distract opponent, nudge leg slightly at the right moment
Yep, only three steps ahead…
Yes, he caused her to hit herself with her own orb (he wasn’t going to beat her otherwise). But he didn’t move the orb himself, which is what we’re arguing about.
I was thinking about that too ;) trying to define the no-too-far mechanism between Syd and orbs.
The intention on Syd’s side seems to be something else to take account of. We did see that the orbs dead stopped Syd when she tried to go away (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/184), but chose to move themselves when she was dragged against her will, like Mr Amorphous did on the bank spoof (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/226).
Seems the orbs know how much risk Syd’s neck is at :)
You have to remember that in the first scenario, the orbs were stuck in the car.
So if possible, the orbs will move with Sydney via tether. But if the orbs are blocked from moving, than so is Sydney.
That does raise the question: How strong are the orbs in movement? Can they smash through something in order to get to their ownder?
And is there a difference between them being active, or asleep?
Well, laying loose over a seat do not seems like stuck to me.
Didn’t it get caught on the central arm-rest/cup-holder thingie?
It coud be in page 196 but no in page 184.
Someone asked WAYYYYY back if the Tube with the orbs were in a helicopter taking off, would the orbs
A) take Sydney with them, leaving her dangling under the chopper and cursing?
B) keep the chopper from lifting more than a couple feet, leaving the thieves panicking because they see Syd’s “I”M GOING TO SKIN YOU WITH YOU OWN F^(KING TEETH!!!” face?
or C) Tear a hole in the side of the chopper, possibly crippling it and leaving whoever is inside in a similar position as option B.
Interesting… was there some agreement?
yes it was decided wait for it to happen in comic and see how dave handles it
If they are free to move, then orbs will follow her movements, like when the art tube was skidding across the bank floor, or in the bank parking lot afterwards. But if restricted in their movement and Sydney’s strength is not enough to overcome the resistance, like a car seat or Maxima’s foot, then Sydney is stuck if she tries to move too far away.
If she sees the orbs flying up after Max because of the atmospheric effects (like a partial vacuum), she will be going flying as well, unless her hundred pounds of so can act as an effective anchor. Quick, grab onto Anvil. Is she even there? Ok, grab Hiro!
1) The orbs will move with Sydney unless they are prevented from doing so.
2) If the orbs are prevented from following Sydney, they will stop her.
3) If an attempt is made to move the orbs away from Sydney, the orbs stop. Sydney is not pulled along.
This was all demonstrated in the parking lot of the bank. Sydney moved away from Maxima to answer her phone. The tube tried to follow her. Maxima stopped the tube from moving, and Sydney was stopped short. Later on Sydney was under the ambulance, and Maxima tried to use the tube to drag her out from under it. Instead of pulling Sydney, the tube itself stopped short.
The orbs could be caught in the jet stream of Maxima’s departure, but they won’t move beyond their standard range, and they won’t be dragging Sydney around. Whatever it is that people are reacting to, it isn’t the orbs being dragged along behind Maxima.
Wouldn’t Stalwart be a better choice?
Mmm… I had forgotten that the tube started to slide before Maxima stomped on it.
By the wat, the car seat did not block the tube, Syd was running IN FRONT of the car.
There is a couple more of thing like why the orbs can move the tube but not Maxima’s foot although they can face Max’s strength without problems, but that is enough to me, it can be “dramatic purposes” involved and nobody wants to mess with that :)
I totally agree with the rules stated by TheARCmage here.
“By the wat” = “By the way”
Come think about the possibility that the orbs being tethered to Syd is actually HER sole superpower, might be severely subconscious though. Because of being that super-nerd/geek she is, she immediately recognized the orbs as giving her powers, so her sub-consciousness chained them to her and presto.
Would be hilarious.
My bet is on one of the unknown orbs being a syphon that drains a fraction of leftover energy from the suroundings, and managed to charge enough for a single use, so it’s glowing. Or itopened up revealing an instruction manual :p.
In an alien language noone knows how to read.
and in code to boot.
And written so it can only be properly decoded by standing on the ceiling and holding it up to a mirror?
…and eating tres leches cake with an orange spork, and wearing a purple-spotted bandana, of bamboo-fiber cloth, over the eyes, with a mexican centavo stuck to the third eye position with honey, and identical quintuplets (or Harem) doing the Hokey Pokey in the key of F, in 3/8ths time, in a circle around the subject.
Maybe it just requires a good dose of midnight moon and noonday sun at the same time. Now to see if I have a good stick nearby…
Ok.. I was just thinking an Substitution Code, but the book burned when the planet’s sun went Nova…
Which of course would totally freak out super-genious Dabbler.
Maybe like that cliff-face in Dr. Who. The first words ever written…
“Hello Sweety!”
Loved that woman from the first episode she appeared in.
Big Blue date-book, handcuffs (“Spoilers!”)
Hot, badass, kinky…
And of course one of the most badass dialogues a human in that series could bring.
“Records indicate you are an associate of the Doctor’s. You will show mercy.”
“I’m River Song, check your records.”
“MERCY!”
“Say that again…”
Yeah, really not easy to top that for a (at least halfway normal) person.
I don’t think even the Doctor has made a Dalek BEG!
Then again, River was universally known for actually DOING what they’d all wanted: once and for all ending, that damn meddler (even if she was in a robo-suit and couldn’t do anything).
If your race (as the supposedly superior one in all reality) hadn’t managed that and been beaten over and over by that dude, then being opposed by the one person that actually did it… yeah.
I bet that Dalek even wet its shell and actually died of a heart-attack (whatever counts as heart).
so the Alpha-Meson blast to it’s eyestalk was just the cherry on the cake?
On one hand she was River Song.
On the other hand, she was very, very angry.
We’ll never know.
And before anyone goes on (again) about Maxi’s apparant disdain for the public (or the media), she simply doesn’t see the need for the ‘dog and pony act’ (if we don’t see her, soon {as in, the next page or 2}, moping around the house/apartment she shares with Ari with a few dozen empty containers of ice-cream wearing only her unmentionables, this shipper will be a sad shipper ;()
Don’t they live at the Archon building? And what’re you implying, that they’re a couple? Given Ari was doing the ‘Not a lesbian!’ thing way back when…I think earlier that day in Comic Time…it seems unlikely. So does Maxima moping.
so this isn’t even her final form…
You know the procedure. She has to yell really loud and dramatically for about a minute, and then her hair turns blond.
So about 4 or 5 pages?
The real gem of counter-productivity here is that Max’s apparent disdain for the event lays serious doubt on that whole “military discipline/civillian leadership” thing which is what’s supposed to be seperating her from the badguys. Any plotting supervillain worthy of a maniacal laugh who saw the press conference is already working on how to seduce her away from ARC.
Or to actually use ARC for their own ends. Just do something to push Maxima over the edge… (I really, really, really hope that Nolan’s Joker is not present in GrrlPower universe)
And enjoy the popcorn.
Agreed. How did she go from, “Sydney, you have to learn self-restraint and use your powers wisely and without impulse,” to, “FEAR MY POWAH MORTALS!! BWAH-HA-HA-HAHA!!” Seriously, dafuq?!
I guess it was just for show? “A weapon that has only to be used once” is still quite a limitation to “using it all the time”.
It’s worth noting that it’s not mortals that Maxima was telling to fear her powers.
The mortal press is just the delivery mechanism. The intended recipients were other would-be gods.
Many many military people (both real and not) have a disdain for ‘dog and pony shows’ without being/becoming a villain
Maxi is very similar to Gibbs in this way (but, if Dinoso ever shows up, have Anvil squeese his neck until his head pops like a rotten zit)
*Points at Math* I think we have our Tony.
But but, Math is cool! ;(
So who’s Abby?
Peggy, maybe? Doesn’t have to be an exact duplicate
The orbs just went evil and are opening a portal for the Great Old Ones… :P
…a gateway to the MLP universe
Or… Twilight universe.
If THAT happened, I’d go ask the Daleks for a reality-bomb.
And then when Pinkie Pie steps through, we can finally answer the eternal question: who has the shorter attention span, her or Sydney?
Somehow I find it unlikely that the Orbs would open a portal to the Elysian Fields in Hades.
They are not evil. Just misunderstood.
“I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way”
Uh oh. If Sydney is freaked out at her orbs’ behaviour, then it is time to seek refuge in an alternate dimension!
What if it’s exactly what they’re doing? Opening a portal. Or maybe a long-lost hammerspace-bag. There’s so much stuff that could fall out. Like everything that’s been lost in the Bermuda Triangle and similar zones around the world.
Yup, they are the Bermuda Orbs, after all. But why would seven orbs affect a triangular geographic region? And orbs are spherical, which would imply that they would favour similar effects. The force field being an example in point.
Unless orbs 8 to 10 have been separated from the rest somehow (say by teleportation or other unusual means of movement), and disappearing ships and aircraft are simply side effects of them trying to rejoin the others?
Than now that the first 7 have been properly activated and put to work, now would be a good moment for that to happen
Seven points for a triangle? Easy. The three points of a triangle (3) the three halve way points on each side (6) now make a right angle using the middle points of each side and find where those lines intersect. (7)
Seven points of a triangle.
Though Dabbler do not seems impressed by whatever is happening just slightly intrigued. It must be something more significant to Syd in particular. My better guess is the orbs going away from her.
Mm. Not feeling better about Maxima.
Same here. She totally screwed up the press conference as well as the environment. Yowza.
A simple explosion has no significant impact on the economy…
Not with all the cars moving around and everything
On the enviroment*
don’t know why I typed economy
Um, are you seeing the crater and the freakin’… whatever storm back there? That’s not normal. Also, did you see all the nastiness that kicked up from that?
Moreover, if I, myself, am commenting on this, then logically (assuming the story follows logic of any sort), then there’d be people in the story going to forums and commenting and reacting to Maxima setting off a small, but literal, nuke in the desert. Testing nukes is something that’s frowned upon.
No, Ariana might not be very likeable, but Maxima totally effed up the press conference. She went to far.
I’m A Gray Phantom, and I have opinions on the internet.
It’s not a nuke. That would imply an electromagnetic pulse, radio-logical interference, and radioactive fallout that we have seen no indication of (such as by any of the news crew’s camerafolk suddenly complaining that they’ve lost satellite connection or that their equipment has effectively rolled over and died).
It’s a very impressive conventional explosion, but the indicators within the text do indicate that it is conventional.
Also, this is happening at a designated military bomb range. Any ‘environment’ there has already been blown to shit by previous authorized explosions.
my guess: chicken! all her orbs have suddenly transformed into chicken
Well that would answer the question of what came first… the orb.
But even more importantly, what do they taste like?
Elephant
Meow, I’m a shark.
He he
Okaaaaaayyy…
What IS up with the orbs?
That’s a bad way to make a cliffhanger.
If Max accelerated to >Mach 1 still within the group on the ground those in front of her line of travel will hear a boom. Max is a blunt body in aerodynamic terms and they make a stronger shockwave than pointed ones like bullets. And as someone pointed out up-thread the shockwave from a 16″ projectile could knock people off their feet (and render them permanently deaf) so the shockwave from Max’s slightly larger blunt body could be much worse depending on Max’s acceleration. Since nobody is toppling over I’m going to assume she only got to >M1<M1.5.
And I totally missed the panel with everyone going head over teakettle.
but that wasn’t a “sonic boom” type of shockwave, that was the explosive over-pressure from the gunpowder propellant of the gun expanding to shove that mass down and out of the barrel, and after the projectile was no longer blocking the open end of the barrel, that pressure wave was no longer constrained to just the shape of the barrel and could expand in ALL directions… thus anyone standing around gets knocked over… NOT a Sonic Boom… sorry. just a really loud explosion.