Grrl Power #193 – Won’t somebody think of the (exploding) children
The guy Sydney is shooting though in panel 4 is called “Nyah Nyah Can’t Hit Me Man.” It briefly said that on his chest but I thought the target symbol was better and it was too busy to include both. He can phase, teleport, can throw his image a dozen feet in any direction, and has danger sense and the agility of Apollo. He doesn’t actually commit any crimes though, he just shows up during battles and annoys everyone. And I’m this (–] [–) close to making him canon.
Panel 6 was inspired by some Fantastic Four comic I saw 15 years ago where exactly what I drew was happening. The Human Touch dogfighting some guy over New York and it occurred to me that the death toll would be in the thousands. According to the 1st edition Marvel RPG, his fire beams do WAY more damage than a tank round.
I generally don’t pat myself on the back in the comic comment here, but I giggle at “Scraps of Hope” every time.
Alternative Target names:
D’Awww!: Petting Zoo and Kitten Kennel
A Delicate Future: Endangered Eagle Breeding Program
Museum of Angry Gods Sealed Away in Brittle China
Make a Wish Hospice <- Oh god why would I even think of something like this?
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In all the talk of collateral damage and such, no one mentions …. Power Rangers.
Are we not going to mention that half the time a villian shows up they are suddenly in the middle of a wooded area? or abandoned industrial complex?
Instant vorping, A city can have that spell, it will instantly teleport away any ‘supers’ that start to fight within city limits. Where they teleport to…. well it’s the same area, all set up with remote cameras to catch the fight and post it on the internet.
YES! That’s what we need, and instant battle arena, subscribe to the website or tv station and all monies goes toward rebuilding the orphanages and bunny rehabs that are totaled in the first shot of the fight.
Dr. Doom has something like that ;)
over the course of the summer two years ago his capital got destroyed and then instantly rebuilt over and over again..
when asked, he snarked ‘you believed that was the real castle ?’
All I can think at that point is that he stole that idea from Mario Brothers. :P
“Your princess (Dr. Doom) is in another castle”
It is a logical extension of his use of Doombots.
During Saban’s “bring ALL the shows!!!!” phase there was a show called VR Troopers where the heroes sometimes literally went into an area between our world and the “Virtual reality” to fight.
THAT WAS THE NAME OF THAT SHOW!
And now I must inflict it upon my small children.
“VR Troopers” was made by splicing two different Japanese shows together with English speaking actors in between
i don’t believe Saban has a show that isn’t using footage from a Japanese show, though i’ve not actually checked for one.
Nope, they are ALL the same in that regard.
I believe saban tried their hand at a home-grown sentai show with The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg, it was pretty cool if I remember correctly but it only got one season.
Yeah I remember it. It was ok, and then they started giving them…vehicles…
well…. they ARE japan-based…..
Heh, remember in the original Power Rangers though, EVERY time Dragonzord went evil/taken control of/whatever, it always made a beeline to the industrial district and attacked the same factory, every….single….time… When I was younger, I wondered if it just had some sort of vendetta against that factory…
A factory killed Dragonzord’s father.
There’s an anime (not at home so I can’t say which) where the good guy’s mech used a device/weapon “Dimensional Divider” that would open a pit/combat area by splitting space apart – inside that area the fight could go as wild as they’d like without harming the city. They did have to finish the battle fairly quickly because that battle space would close up in a short time and if you didn’t get out…
The anime was GaoGaiGar. I created the ‘Dividing Driver’ as a gadget for the Champions RPG.
there would be a really big explosion. However the best part about the dividing driver was how many other uses they found for it. Splitting space on the vertical, the gatling driver, gravity lenses, and breaking into the contra-fall amongst others.
And it had an awesome song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Gelph6g54
Not bad. The best part though being the uploader’s comment:
Tim Allen?
Neighbour Wilson? Is that you? I can’t make you out clearly, over that fence.
Angel Grove had a SHITLOAD of structurally-unsound abandoned skyscrapers, if all those Megazord fight scenes were any clue…
I can just see a meeting with an architect.
Client: Oh, yeah, remember that the building is to erected in Angel Grove. The last building fell down when a some big monster was thrown into it. So we want this building to be able to withstand that.
Architect: So that explains all those building code enhancements only for that town. Our engineer is said something about multistory bunkers. I will have to co-ordinate with her regarding some of the materials we can use.
at this point let’s just do like in mangas where they create a side dimension pocket with only the “people with powers” that can join.
when all is destroyed there… no problem its all back after…
and sorry to say your name is cool but i couldn’t help but think “whiteshadow” from the animation turbo hehe
That’s making me think of the ‘X’ anime, where something similar is a major plot element. Before a fight, one of the super-types would throw up a mystical/dimensional barrier over the battle zone to prevent collateral damage. But the catch was if the person who made the barrier /dies/ before removing it again, the damage happens anyway. At least I hope I’m remembering that correctly.
Sounds about right.
It has been used by different Mangas with different special effects or hindrances.
I think in Shakugan no Shana it included a timestop (standard) but only protected the hardware, dead people where replaced with placeholders that evaporated over time unless you use a lot of energy.
exactly my point
or do it in japanese power rangers and the fight is “magicatechnically” transported into an old place with no one for “oh look at that” thousand of miles instead of laser or missile shooting…
Karmakat! Nice to see you over from guilded age!
I love it when I see the same people on different comics :D
(btw, is it Karma Kat or Karmak At? My headcanon is confused)
lol i got a whole folder of webcomics that i follow because i like them hehe.
and its karmakat full one word and my moto is “karma will always bite you in the ass” hehe
I took my nickname from 2 of my fav x-men. Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. Been using it for over 20 years on anthing I have to sign up for if I can. Sometimes it’s already taken and that makes me sad.
Thanks for the compliment, I like your name too.
This has actually been addressed. Manhattan can no longer get insurance against battles between Supers, so there is a federal fund set up to deal with repairs.
Even more amusingly, the repairs themselves are handled by a company set up by Iron Man and the Kingpin (I swear, I am not making this up), called Damage Control Inc. Originally founded by a Mrs. Hoag, it specializes in the rapid repair and rescue of civilians, property, super-heroes, and anyone/anything that gets caught in the blast radius of a super-related problem.
It has been stated outright that the hostile takeover of Damage Control by a rather unethical individual was the direct cause for Marvel’s Civil War series.
Here’s the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damage_Control_%28comics%29
I love that the motivation for the Civil War was “you guys fight. Whoever wins, we profit.” When Agents of SHIELD had that episode sifting through some rubble from the second Thor movie, I was really hoping Damage Control was going to become movie canon.
So many people whine, bitch, and complain about the freaking collateral damage. “WAA WAA WAA! Look at all this destruction caused by these battling superheros fighting superheros and giant monsters!” Oh the freaking humanity.
That’s the reason it’s called “collateral damage,” it’s unavoidable! You can’t not expect a battle between hero and villains to be like a game of freaking lazier tag were there is absolutely no damage from stray shots. Or there to be no destroyed buildings then there is a throw down between giant monsters and or robots. Do you really want you’re world to be enslaved or destroyed by some insane super villain because the hero was second guessing his aim? Do you want you’re town or city destroyed because the people piloting the giant robot fighting the giant monster were pulling there punches? Suck it up people! You cant make an omelet without breaking the eggs.
And look at it this way. All the destroyed buildings means more work for hard working contractors for rebuilding them.
Today’s editorial has been brought to you by the SITH. Keeping you safe from rebel scum by blowing up your planet for over 20 years. Why? Because we care.
For giant robots versus monsters… I’d get less forgiving each time it happens, after all I’d hope whoever was behind it to get a bit more preventive in the deployment of giant robots and stop letting monsters get to areas where massive damage could occur. And for heroes who have the potential to move the fight to a similar type of area the same. But getting grumpy because a super showdown involving people like Spiderman and his villians? Not so much. But some heroes don’t have an excuse.
Yeah. In Marvel’s universe, you can’t blame Spiderman for collateral damage, although James Jonah Jameson really, really tries, bless his dark, twisted, little heart. First, Spiderman’s enemies USUALLY go after the civilians. Carnage especially stands out on this. Given the chance, Spiderman does try to lure his enemies AWAY from civilian areas. Second, Spiderman’s primary weapon is web fluid. That isn’t even something that can cause collateral damage, at least not easily. Third, Spiderman delivers captured criminals to the police like any decent, law-abiding citizen. He specifically AVOIDS any damage beyond what’s absolutely necessary. If he’s throwing a car, there’s a damn good reason, and everyone knows it, except maybe Mr. Jameson, as he seems all to happy to publish a tabloid when ever Spiderman is involved, although he’ll get offended if you point it out.
Go Spidey, go!
*singing*
Spider dog, spider dog, does whatever a spider can…
Dai-Guard is all about collateral damage…. Sometimes avoidable. Whether its throwing a handy car at the enemy, or clearing a parking lot’s worth of cars into the ocean, or just tearing off its own arm and throwing it at the enemy… It’s all about filling out the paperwork at the end. ‘Was it accidental damage? Or was it deliberate?’
Cleanup is a jiff. It’s the paperwork that kills.
…A whole new level to the phrase, “Death by a thousand (paper) cuts.”
To think of all the trees that died just for that bureaucratic waist of time!
Dai-guard? Then what about Bokurano, when one of the pilots, who happen to be the son of the owner of a construction business, goes out of the way to actually cause the most ammount of collateral damage, so his father will have work!
Such a caring and considerate boy to look out for his father like that.
Hum…. ‘The Devil is a Part Timer’ is only half fridge logic in the respect. Yes, the city gets blown up in spectacular ways, but the Devil puts it back together after, and funny that when sky scrapers are decimated, nobody ever gets hurt. Well, besides the main protagonists and antagonists.
Except that sometimes, more lives get destroyd by FIGHTING the hero, than would be if the super didn’t try to stop the hero
Why would they be fighting the hero in the first place? The hero is there trying to protect people and there trying to stop them for no reason? A pretty bad move if you ask me.
I meant villain.
Like it or not, a large part of the reason the American Military is fairly hated in the middle east is Collateral damage.
Somebody’s ‘collateral damage’ is somebody else’s family and frankly it’s one of the ways supervillians (or terrorists) can come into being. Lex Luthor’s hair was Superman’s collateral damage in some versions of that story, how’d that work out for Superman? His job would be about 80% easier if he didn’t make the guy bald!
It’s also kind of a problem when you’re a public figure with an address and not a shadowy character in spandex and a mask. Archon is the Feds, and the Feds can get sued in court by people and municipalities with grievances. *Some* of that would be experimental law, but an entirely possible plot point here can be tension between those that hate supers and using ‘collateral damage’ as an excuse.
The first time the Team goes into action, Archon’s legal department and Ariana are going to have their hands full. In any realistic world for everyone thanking the team for saving them there’s going to be 20 protesting against them. 40 suing them and 50 elected officials holding committees on them. Everything seems shiny and happy now but it won’t last…
The scarier thing is as public figures using real names you can find out where their loved ones are and act accordingly, which means reprisals.
All of which could make for good reading :D
And this is the reason it’s better to not be a government backed, public superhero. You keep you’re real identity safe, you also keep you’re loved ones safe in the process, you get dependability for the collateral damage(no one is going to send you the bill if they don’t know who and or were you are.), and you don’t get tied down by bureaucratic bull, and red tape. Allowing you to go were government and police can’t go and do what they can’t. You ask me A lot better than having to answer to some suite.
Except the problem is in this universe, you do that, ArcSWAT comes looking for you and you’re dealing with Maxima and friends, which appears to be what happened with Achilles Heatwave and Mr. Amorphous, Which makes me curious about who might have said no and where they wound up. Like Watchmen masks are illegal.
Even with masks, collateral damage = future enemies.
Agreed, and sooner or later the mask will slip. Then you face a heck of a lot of accumulated law suits. And do not think that statue of limitations might evade the earliest ones. A court could choose to try ‘Super Man’ for instance, without knowing the identity of ‘Clark Kent’. So long as the individual was reasonably constantly identifiable.
You would need something more than just saying “I saw a guy wearing the blue outfit with his cape”. Flying and/or super strength being helpful, but the lasers being much more of a signature would help to establish the identity with reasonable probability.
A vigilante could clock up some impressive bills and jail time to account for at a later date.
Sydney, thy name is collateral damage.
I would advise HALO to try and use the Fly-Ball against the Nyah Nyah Can’t Hit Me Man. Assuming she finds out in practice that she can use it against others at all. Given that it controls gravity and his powers do not include flight, yet he is ‘standing’ on the ground, it appears that he will be vulnerable to that. Ok he can keep teleporting around, but he is then having to react to her, rather than her reacting to him.
If he becomes a serious threat then she can push him below ground level. I have tried playing a teleporter who cannot also fly and it is extremely time consuming staying above the ground. Anything other than straight line flight with lots of room to allow for dipping down is problematic. And if she wants to, she can make him fall fast. Which is doubly effective if he retains his velocity after a teleport. All she has to do is set him going and she can then concentrate on other things until he finds some way to stabilise himself (if he can).
Am I the only one who thinks he would make a great training instructor? Teaching the new recruits patience and proper aim would be a very entertaining and useful way to utilize his talents.
As far as how the momentum with teleport thing works, read (the rest of) this issue:
https://ps238.nodwick.com/?p=629
Sydney goes next to him, makes a really big shield, then flies up and lets shield go.
Splatter-Man!
Yea, that would do it. Provided he can’t just phase through the shield and step out into normal gravity before she flies up.
Ahh… nope. Checking out the author’s comments, and if we take into account the full range of powers he lists there, they include danger sense. So he could teleport away from her as she is approaching.
If Halo can target him with the fly ball at a range, then it is just a matter of whether he can teleport away before she can activate the power. So it may go either way, depending on how much warning he gets from his spidey sense and how quickly he responds. But if she has to close with him, I think evasion is certain*.
He may attempt to counter either method by his displacement illusion but, as others have said, that can be foiled with the True Sight Orb.
Powerful, infallible precogs can be nearly impossible to defeat, unless their power can be removed or negated. If they know your every move a year in advance, even one without other super-powers can be formidable. See Total Recall for a glimpse of the lengths necessary to even try and beat one.
* But if some clever deception made him think that the danger was from a different direction, he may mis-judge things. And as she would likely need the Truesight orb to counter his illusion, Sydney would have the means of doing just that. But it would mean deft swapping from that orb once close with him, so that she could hold both the Fly Ball and the Forb.
… does whatever a splatter can.
Which, when you think about it, isn’t much.
Same thing with people’s reaction to the superman movie. “Oh look at all this destruction to buildings, and he broke the Maine villain’s neck!” No “thanks for getting rid of the bad guy and saving the planet from being taken over and terraformed by superpower full aliens.”
And really were were they suppose to put Zod anyway.?
Still kills me Zod didn’t say the line. I mean how hard is it to say “kneel before Zod!?”
Maybe Supes has been hanging around Batman too long.
all super villains go to antarctica, and all super goodies go to Paradise (Island Bar and grill)
Hey! Don’t send them down here!
For me it was because there were other ways that that could have been handled. For instance, why does Zod decide to terraform the earth in the first place? I mean I know that the Kryptonians would have some trouble adjusting to the atmosphere, but afterwards they’d practically be demigods. And just on zod, he could have just thrown him through a wall and continued the fight he was winning.
It’s a big universe he could have Kyptoformed any of billions of planets.
Mars maybe? If he was a lazy ass.
Sure, but would you have shelled out 8 bucks to see that?
Coming soon to a theater near you: An alien armada from the depths of space is here to steal our precious minerals….from our asteroid belt. With Harrison Ford as the president. “Keep your damn tentacles off of our trans-Neptunian objects!”
That might actually be interesting. An alien species moves into the system, not to Earth but to Mars. All things considered, how would we, as a broad spectrum of cultures, react? How would our governments react? Would they really not still consider them an imminent threat? Or consider Mars ‘ours’?
They are already there.
“Look, one of them has made a telescope good enough to see our transport system! We have maybe 30 of their days before others are likely to replicate his lenses well enough to corroborate his sightings. Get everything camouflaged before that happens. Otherwise eventually they will progress enough to realise it is artificial.
After that we will need to bury the whole network. Their detection systems will only get better over time. Let us put off any confrontation until they start digging here. It is only polite to give our new neighbours a chance to clean up before they come visiting, after all. Given how badly things went last time.”
“Hey, boss. What do you want to do about those robots running, okay, slowly crawling along the surface?”
“Just ignore them. At the rate they are going, it will take over 3 [ Mars ] years for them to get anywhere interesting. If they get too close to something, someone can always go up and disable it.”
Hey Vinnie. You seen my jelly donut around here? I know I had it before I went over to look at that robot.
https://www.space.com/24356-mars-rock-mystery-opportunity-rover-photos.html
*sprinkling +1’s around for both of you, like hundreds and thousands*
I love you all for this thread. Pure gold. :)
Jelly donut WITH sprinkles…Mmmmm…Now I’m hungry.
How the hedge-funds does that look like a donut? It isn’t even round!!!
Bah, you young whipper snappers. It’s just ’cause the super-markets only harvest the perfect shaped ones. If you go out into the wilds and get them free-range they actually come in all shapes. Wobbly with bits is pretty normal. And always best eaten fresh. You loose the best taste once they cool down. Let alone by the time they have been shipped to a store.
It looks like a used condom. I think the aliens are getting a little freaky.
Captain Scarlet. Or is there another series closer to this?
Dunno, that series was before my time. I have only ever seen clips of it. That is just the way my mind goes. I much prefer interesting stories rather than “the guy had cataracts” or whatever the eye disease was they attribute the flaws in his sight to. Whether some TV series has done the same I don’t know. But it is not exactly a complex step to take and does explain the ‘canals’ on Mars in a more entertaining fashion than ‘they don’t exist’.
Doesn’t work for me as it is from the genre where life on Mars already existed, as far as I can tell. So there wouldn’t be the question of if we see Mars as ‘ours’ because it is in our solar system, and it veers more into Avatar or cultural invasion areas of respecting natives. Plus, we know now that there is no intelligent life there (Though the other thread in this conversation was pure gold, I admit!)
Looking around, it seems a genuinely untapped concept, which is kinda shocking. It makes me wish I was a competent writer, and specifically a good enough one to realistically interpret first contact scenarios with other cultures and such. It shocks me how little is there! It seems like an obvious step-removed from coming to Earth itself.
It has been driving me mad since I posted it, wondering what would happen in various scenarios! I tried to engage some writer friends, but they mostly either do fantasy, or far future space military stuff (Ala Honor Harrington and whatnot), not near-future first contact sci-fi. :)
I went for the funny response first. Plus it let me put out that take I had on it. But your idea is an interesting one. And possibly a sensible way for an alien species to make first contact. Go somewhere that we can clearly see and park themselves down. Let us get used to them. Allow all the religious implications sink in and give our society a chance to come to terms with the concept that we are not alone. Then allow us to contact them at our own pace.
Pretty much what a naturalist will do if trying to integrate with a troop of monkeys or other animals that they wished to interact with, rather than covertly observe.
Or, of course, they may not be interested in us at all. One of the biggest problems with first contact is that aliens may think in such radically different ways that we cannot hope to understand their motivations. Or it may be that parallel evolution will ensure that any species that gets advanced enough to travel to another world will have enough problem solving and social contact skills to have done that to allow them to also communicate with us.
One of the biggest questions is how did they get to Mars, and from where? You can guarantee that governments all over the planet will be interested in answering that and getting their grubby little hands on whatever technology was up for grabs. Oh, and saying hi to the neighbours. It would be feasible to communicate by radio, light or similar fashion, if we can open communications that way. Or we could send over one of the robot probes.
However, if that does little more than establish that they are willing to communicate but not actually help bridge the gap, then you can bet that there will be a space-race the likes we have not seen since Kennedy kicked off the race to the moon. The prize up for grabs – first contact with alien life, possible treaty with an alien race and advanced technology, including interstellar travel.
Let alone finding out what they are like and what else is ‘out there’. The meat and ones of any first-contact situation.
Yea, it would make an interesting story :)
How about something like a generation ship where they send enough people for a whole colony and it takes hundreds of thousands of years to get here. When they left their planet, the system was uninhabited and Mars was a more habitable planet. Now the current generation have to figure out what to do about it when all they want to do is make a nice happy city and the land isn’t the way they were promised by their ancestors.
A very interesting dilemma. Do they look pretty? Or are they all tentacly, slimey and fangy? Because I think the answer would very much shape how likely humanity would be to welcome them to come stay with us.
Go ahead and write the story whichever way you see it ;) It’s not something I care to explore at the moment beyond its random creation. My brain is odd…
….GAH like I needed more story ideas! *headdesk*
More ideas are always better, right?
Depends on who you are. I already have more ideas than I can possibly bring into fruition in books/comics/pics in one lifetime. In three lifetimes, maaaaybe. But not in one.
Funny, I don’t have that problem. But my diary is mostly clear until New Year’s Eve 3,000 which gives me plenty of writing time. That said, I guess I will have had more inspiration before then, so perhaps we will ultimately share that dilemma.
True. Medical science keeps improving. My statement was assuming an approximately 100 year lifespan.
yeah, but that’s not to comics-code… you gotta have the bad guys try to do stupid stuff like that just to get the hero riled up enough to go all angsty and lose control enough to kill them… one of the things that “I” didn’t get was when Zod was going to kill the civilians with his heat beams, what was stopping him from LOOKING at them! Superman was just preventing him from turning his HEAD… so what was stopping his EYES from turning and burning them down?!… yeah, it’s stuff like that that helped me gain entry to the fridge-logic brigade…
i believe that the execs deliberately decided against that line because of the various movies the prior actors were in… namely Priscilla, Queen of the Desert wearing an obvious codpeice, and then saying that line… um, yeah… NOT something they wanted to reproduce in the reboot…
why not? It’d give something interesting to the plague of reboots.
The issue wasn’t so much that there was collateral damage but that avoiding much of it would have been trivial for Clark:
“Gee, this guy really wants to fight me. Perhaps I should lead him out of town.”
Contrast this with The Avengers: One of Cap’s first concerns in the big battle was having the cops start evacuating the bystanders. This was followed by a concerted effort to contain the fight.
Just because someone wants to fight you doesn’t mean they will follow you out of the city. Suppose toy try and they don’t follow you. Then that just leaves them to continue wreaking the city without you there. Also the avengers had allot more people that could do such a coordinated effort. But Superman was just one man.
That’s the thing: ‘leading’ does not mean ‘flying 100 kms out of town and waiting for the badguy to show up’, it means ‘punching them in the face, then flying a few blocks, wait for them to come after you, repeat until you are in a safe(ish) area and finish pummeling them into the bedrock’
Or, simply position them towards the outskirts of town, and launch them there, instead of punching them through a building
Pulling mobs is an art more than a science. You really want to have a pro handling the job. All to easy to lose aggro with other fighting going on.
A act easier said than done. If the Villain knows you’re trying to lead them out they can easily predict you’re actions and plane according ly to counter it. All the while planing to do the damage.
When their goals include beating you up, yes, they are probably going to follow you.
It would be different if an attempt to move the fight had been made and failed, (giving an obvious ‘kick the puppy’ moment). However, the issue people have is that the film simply ignored it.
Love the vintage looking Human Torch!
I know right?
And I’m off to write a supervillain story about a superhero & how the traumatic death of the first person he tries to save sends him into the depths of madness.
“Nyaa nyaa cant hit me man” needs to be a blogger. “Covering superhero fights INSIDE the action!” with his cell camera. He is Suzi News’s nemisis.
Heh, I see that our minds were going in similar directions following your post on the previous page.
Oh gods. Superpowered Paparazzi. Superpaparazzi? Big Papa? Nemesis of Suzy News AND the PR chick.
Big Papa Pump? Anyone else remember that guy?
“aims orbital Atomic wegie cannon at Guesticus”
Fortunately, your wedgie-matic doesn’t work on Commandos :P
But, guessing you do remember him :D
Brings the Nuclear Nugiomatic cannon online.
Also begins powering up the Doinkanator.
Followed by Nyuknyukatron.
Finaly pulls out the wepons list to lok at other options if needed.
Superazzi ?
Plain arithmetic, people. Everybody can vote once a day. We could have at least 1500 monthly votes just with we commenters voting each time we came.
Add in all that loyal people who remains silent and, what we have…?
We can nail this vote thing EASLY!
Go ahead then.
* steward voice: Vote buttons are placed und…er… at your right top and bottom. Thank you *
5th now
Not anymore :( too much close.
A little push? Vote
In one Supers game I was in back in the 90’s our characters prevented the theft of 300K in 90’s US$ our fight hosbitilised 7 workers on the night shift along with 2 cops and caused almost 90 Mill in damages, all but one of the villains got away, and he was out on bail by dawn.
that was a small well contained fight at night in one office building between low powered supers and extraordinary normals, Imagine what a fight between “Real Supers” ranging over half a major US city?
From Pacific Rim:
Raleigh Becket: By the time tanks, jets and missiles took it down, six days and 35 miles later, three cities were destroyed. Tens of thousands of lives were lost. We mourned our dead, memorialized the event, and moved on. And then, only six months later, the second attack hit Manila.
Which was why the Jaegers were sent out to meet the Kaiju before they got to shore.
A villain looks at Panel #5
“Look out! She is going to use her finger gun!” *dives for cover*
A villain? I should think half the restaurant has dived to the floor and one of the waitresses just jumped through the window!
That depends on if she has fully recovered yet :)
Has her foot stopped twitching?
This is the 4th weapon safety rule. Know your target AND WHAT IS BEHIND IT. Especially if you’re tossing fusing plasma that can slice chobbham armor like a chainsaw through warm butter.
At least during the titanic confrontations between “Big Guy an Rusty The Boy Robot” vs killer androids, alien warriors and mutant monstrosities attacking Neutronic city, we are told that the area had been “evacuated.” Pretty good for a 1994-1996 cartoon.
Rusty was a sort of big headed cousin of Astro Boy. Only he could fire green beams of “nucleo-protons” at targets and was his power source.
Also don’t forget the titanic battle in the latest Superman movie. Talk about mass destruction… costs into the billions.
You should definitely make him canon (or include him in shorts style comics). Having the main cast deal with an opponent as aggravating as he could be would be hilarious, and could easily result in lots of trope-related shenanigans.
With sidney around, she would probabky chalange him to a swearing competition.
PLEASE MAKE NYAH NYAH CAN’T HIT ME MAN MINI-COMICS. PLEASE.
Canon or not, I would read the out of that.
Whoa I just noticed, the NNCHMM is doing the exact same face than the human torch!
*generic superhero face*?
Well spotted. Although maybe there is a reason?
Perhaps they are demonstrating generic features, but only due to possessing expressions common to destructive superhumans.
Or, maybe they are the same guy? Have we seen NNYCHMM and Torch in the same room at the same time?
And even then you can’t be sure.
Now where is Robert Langdon, when I need an observant symbologist?
*twiddles dial from 4 – fairly subtle to 9 – pretty damned obvious, and tries reposting*
Perhapsthey are demonstrating generic features, but only due topossessingexpressions common to destructive superhumans.My Marvel RPG character once had to tell Spider-Man off for pushing me out of the way of Hydra tanks’ fire, because I could take the hits, and anything that missed me was going into the Manhattan skyline behind me.
“The Army’s not the Army anymore.
It’s better than it ever was before!”
Clever avatar. And most suitable for here. Shame it isn’t slightly larger – I almost did not notice it.
Reminds me of am episode of Powerpuff Girls. There was a guy who was president of the company that repairs Townsville after the girls wreck the place.
You know, it just occurred to me. Of all the heroes in comics, the Punisher probably has the lowest kill rate. Mind you, not murder rate, but just kill rate.
He goes in with specific targets, uses military precision to take out his targets, and gets out when the job is done with.
Superman knocks people through buildings, is knocked around, misses with his powers, and otherwise does things that would naturally result in the deaths of everyone around him. Batman beats people to near death to teach them a darn good lesson on being a criminal. You know they have to succumb to their injuries. There’s only so many times a person can have their spleen stepped on. Cyclops misses with his eye beams, Wolverine doesn’t really care. Deadpool is Deadpool, Wonder Woman completely depends on the writer. So on and so forth.
Maybe the way to not depopulate an entire city because you refuse to kill your villain is to not be afraid of killing.
“Deadpool is deadpool”
He said “with great power comes great coincidence”
And blew up a castle whith a sheep-gun while sitting in the throne, after killing everyone inside.
(No it doesn’t fire sheep, it’s camuflaged as one and it shoots lasers)
The comic book genre is filled with odd and very artificial constructs. Every comic picks and chooses among the tropes it will support, subvert, or even lampoon. The “mainstream” comics from Marvel and DC set the standard, and there are more unwritten rules required to maintain that setting than you can shake a stick at.
Among the rules of mainstream comics is that bystanders will not be harmed unless the plot specifically calls for it.
Another rule holds that people may be beaten to unconsciousness without there being any risk of lasting harm.
Yet another rule states that if someone is wounded, any sort of medical treatment, even basic first aid, will be enough to allow them to survive until they get to the hospital, and hospital treatment fixes everything.
So no, Superman doesn’t actually have that many deaths on his hands, nor does Batman or Wolverine. They are characters with a code against killing, and the natural laws of the universe they live in allow them to maintain their code.
Wolverine has a code against killing? Did Joe Quesada make that change too? Wolverine has never had a problem with killing, and the Civil War brouhaha showed that yes, civilians do get killed in these battles. Commissioner Gordon can’t get a job anywhere else because he’s the big guy in a city where Batman is the only solution to crime. So maybe Superman has that benefit, but I would say Batman does not since they treat the Batman solution with that level seriousness.
Though to say no one gets hurt in these super-hero battles pushes suspension of disbelief through the roof and to an impossible place. In a bar brawl innocent bystanders get sucked into matters, so a super brawl, they must. Ultimately they may use the tropes, but it’s up to us whether or not to accept them, and I can’t accept the lack of loss of bystander life when they just stand around gawking while buildings come down on their heads.
I love that Sydney’s face in panel 1 is so expressive. It simultaneously shows respect to her new boss’s intense lecture, whilst also looking true to her “MASTER OF UNDERSTATEMENT- LEVEL UP” thought. Just enough of a smile to convey the latter, without loosing the former.
Nyaa Nyaa Man should just call himself The Bystander. He loots the area once things proceed to where no one is paying attention except to the fight or how to get away.
BTW: in the late 70’s there was a super rpg (possibly the first) called Hero 44, in which you could be sued for property damage. But you could also countersue for ingratitude.
Thinking about it, I realized why Nyah-Nyah-Can’t-Hit-Me-Man shouldn’t be canon.
The first problem is that fights between supers are going to be pretty rare. There aren’t that many supers around. How much fun is he going to have if months go by between chances to show up and be distracting?
The second problem is that fights between supers are probably not going to be Happy Fun Times Brawls like you see in most comics. In a universe that pays attention to collateral damage a fight between supers is no laughing matter. Playing pranks during life-and-death situations probably isn’t going to be fun.
the fridge logic trope page in tvtropes is my favorite page.
While I firmly agree that NNCHMM needs to be made canon, I’m still eagerly awaiting the canonization of Hyper Battle Maiden Next Generation Mitsuko (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/544); Senorita Alvarez (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/970); and of course, Postman Sam (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/942).
Still say that Maxi was checking out the Brit gymnast (she was probably thinking “Hmmm, she’s very flexible, wonder how durable she really is?”)
Agreed. I certainly was
This is probably why so many superheroes use their fists instead of guns. I knew their was a good reason!
“Museum of Angry Gods Sealed Away in Brittle China”
That had me laughing out loud so very hard.
+1
Insert one (or more) of the following: top-heavy; badly balanced; on high, narrow pedestals.
Finagle’s Law demands no less.
NNCHMM vs Halo: Halo wins, she can tell where he is at all times (truesight) and can even one up him (BADGERS!) freaking him out with completely harmless distractions, to which his danger sense would NOT react, all while eating tacos with hot sauce that fouls him up by triggering his danger sense from all around him. He’d be nearly insane by the end of the battle. If he wasn’t at the start of it.
DAVE & others. There is at least one superhero movie that does not overlook collateral damage: Hancock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DzIGZKAAjQ
BEST live-action superhero movie ever!
Oh that had me laughing.
“Do I have permission to touch your body?” *
“YES!”
“It is not sexual.”
A lovely piss-take of political correctness compounding the crisis in an emergency situation.
Love his drunken flying, and ofc the entice concept of that char and world.
I dont usually coment about the comercils but the end and shades of grey are te really good comics it is very likely you will like them if you like this
I remember the old Marvel RPG, and there was this one place, “Quickie Burger”, and every time, and I mean every single time, we played on the map that had it on it, it got obliterated via collateral damage. Finally, as a joke, I had the place staffed by people in power armor, with booths and seats that converted into battle stations. They’d blast anything that came near the restaurant in battle, whether a hero or a villain.
Days without Incident: 5
*Person walks up and scribbles*
Days without Incident: 0
Quickie Burger, where the guns come out as fast as the food.
Based on the way the PPO dealt with the tank, Sydney should actually assume she’ll hit her target AND whatever’s behind it.
LIKEBUTTA
That’s actually one of the main rules in firearm safety. Know your target and what’s beyond.
Regarding those alternate names…Dave you are a sick sick man. I like it. D’Awww was especially awesome. >;D HEY LOOK! It’s raining flaming bunnies and kittens and doggies of DEATH!!!
“So then this puppy comes through the skylight on fire and lands right in our wedding cake. And it’s panicking and shaking and flinging pieces of burning wedding cake at all the guests – we had this cherry liqueur frosting so it went up like lamp oil…”
“Well, at least you’ll have a memory you’ll never forget, right?”
“It was our wedding day! We already weren’t going to forget it!”
If y’all have 20 minutes to spare, here is something I can recommend. Normally I avoid short movies, they just do not appeal. But I am glad that I made an exception for this one. It is simply stunning. It stands alone exceptionally well, but is also ‘to be continued’. Which I shall be watching out for.
That was great! It needs to be made into a full movie (with zero input from Hollyweed)
Gandolf was hot, and the Vulcan salute at the end was funny :D
I might point out that IIRC Marvel has a superhero team who’s job is to actually go around FIXING all the damage that other super heroes do.
It is an organization called Damage Control. When I first saw it, I was thinking it was some play against their main competition (DC).
You mean, their Distinguished Competition?
forshadowing of war on wall,grand dukes assasination
Just 5 votes to fifth place!!
Who is up to kick this? :))
WINNER VOTE
HA!
… 12 people beat me to it. Still #5 though. 185 till #4.
Yes, we are doing well :) But we are just 20 over sixth, too close, we need a greater gap to be sure.
Heh, nice when that happens. Sooner or later I hope to be the one to say “First!” Nice to be able to do that on behalf of the whole community and Dave himself. Pre-grats to whoever does it though, it will come with enough time, as the word spreads.
After ‘touching a star’ I have no doubts that Grrl Power is destined for greatness. The next time that the BBC asks me if I want to tell them any interesting news, I know what I will be talking about! Of course, I shall be cunning as a fox and package it as “You have missed reporting on an emerging phenomenon, namely the rise of community patronage of artists and writers.” But they will also need a suggestion of somebody to feature, after all. :-)
Ok, all this PPO discussion has me wondering if ‘super smart targeting’ is one of the orb’s branches.
Wouldn’t it be cool if the PPO had that whole:
Tank=War=Bad =>DESTROY!
Bunnies=Cute= Good =>NO DESTROY!
Thing figured out already?
Separate bet: What do you say one of the PPO branches makes it an AoE attack?
What about anthro bunnies in tanks?
Approved. Ship them off to the Crimea.
I accept your bet. My bid is one kitten that they do.
You would probably enjoy The Weapon Shops of Isher by A. E. van Vogt. He realises that humans are not very good at making choices like that.
Mind you at our current technology machines are much worse and should under no circumstances be allowed to literally call the shots. Which is a very real issue presently under debate as regards drones/robots in war. Assist aiming, yes. Pull the trigger, no.
Not only could you miss the target, but with her power, she might blast right through them.
Here is one hero you might like at the start. He just fights to prevent innocent people dying
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/SHELL/
For some reason I really want a shirt that says “Survivor of the Scraps of Hope Orphanage & Bunny Rehab Incident.”