Grrl Power #194 – Are kill-beams really ever that discriminate?
I’m actually sure that Sydney could belt off a dozen examples of superheroes getting sued for property damage or wrongful death, the obvious example is The Incredibles, but that’s something that might happen in one out of a hundred titles. It’s basically a non-event, when in the real world being a superhero would probably be nearly impossible from a property damage lawsuit standpoint. I also want to be clear that I’m not bagging on comic books or setting my comic up to be all about courtroom procedure, I just like poking a little fun at the genre tropes. In case you hadn’t caught on to that yet. Also, I would like to see a comic where a super lawyer goes after supervillains.
I’ve always found hitting people with cars a curious strategy. Sure there are some cases where that makes sense. If you’re fighting someone tough but not strong, like a Diamond Jill, dropping a car on them makes sense cause you can pin them under it. If you’re one of those mid range strong guys like Sunspot or Spiderman, there’s a decent chance that hitting someone with a car could hurt more than just punching them, but if you’re Superman? Compared to his punches, hitting someone with a car must feel like he’s wrapping you in a fuzzy blanket. Which, granted, immediately explodes, cause, you know, comic book physics, but still. Superman is called the man of steel, but he is demonstrably way god damned harder than steel. Nutronium could take lessons from him. So if he hits someone with a car, he’s just being a dick to the owner of the car.
So, about the mosaic effect in panel three… I’m still trying to decide how violent I want the violence to be in the comic, the thing is, in addition to liking everything from slapstick comedy like Dragon Half to cute stuff like Azumanga Diaoh, I really like dirty humor like Ebichu or Archer and really over the top peak violence/gory stuff like Fist of the Northstar, Ricky-Oh, Gantz and Parasyte. Those are hard to mix, though Onepunch Man blends slapstick and violence pretty well. It’s funny though how characters tend to write themselves, and with 35 pages of only Sydney as the main character, this comic slid squarely into the cute, slapstick and lighhearted arena fairly quickly. I’m fine with that, and I think it might be a bit of a bait and switch to start going nuts with the gore all of a sudden, so you don’t have to worry about Dabbler bisecting anyone with her sword any time soon. As usual I’m not sure where to draw the line though. Scratches? Bloody nose? Sure. Bullet wounds? Someone getting stabbed? Eh, I think if it’s used sparingly that’s ok too, but a bloody stump, I thought it didn’t quite jive with the feel of the comic, even though it would have only been 20 pixels tall and is imaginary and used for (dark) comedic effect. We’ll see where I wind up going with that, but you don’t have to worry about limbs starting to fly off on every page.
I would like more dirty humor in the comic though. Dabbler will provide a little of that in a few pages. :)
Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention, I made the women’s locker room X-Ray poster into an actual poster in case anyone is interested.
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Not that you have to or anything, but it would probably be better to throw out https://www.batoto.net/ links for scanlated manga / web comics, since they are one of the sites that do better by the scanlator groups.
Just as a word of caution, and not to imply anything about that particular link, but as a request for everybody to consider. Please avoid posting links to anything which may be pirate material. I do not say this from a moral perspective, as I care not what folks get up to in that area. But it could be exposing DaveB and this site to legal action. Possibly ones involving fines for him and/or the comic being shut down for facilitating piracy. If Dave suspects that something is pirated, he would need to remove the post. Not just for his sake, but for ours as well.
Not that I consider legal action likely, but this comic is getting a bigger and bigger audience, and we know that it includes a fair number of artists and writers amongst them. It is, as they say, a small world. And, one of the drawbacks of the comic becoming professional is that such politically correct bullshit need to be taken seriously, small chance or not.
Yorp, I just realized you post of lot of stuff in direct defense of the site and the artist does that make you an admin or something? Or just a concerned fan? I really don’t know so I don’t mean to undermine anything or be rude.
I’m pritty sure he’s just a fan :P
If we start a fanclub I’d nominate him for president though
Aww, thanks. But I would be a poor choice. Sooner or later some bright shiny will come by and distract me, and I will go silent for a long time. Maybe once I have grown up.
Well sure. But until then you can be the president. Once you leave, we will have to find a replacement, but the weird dog that talks a lot will forever have a place in our hearts.
Personally, I think Grrl Power would be better served with somebody of the feminine persuasion. Given the predominance of male commentators, we need the balance. Talking about which, I think getting Kalietha hooked on reading her novels again was a mistake. :-( Come back, we need you!
XD I’m here. Never missed an update, just skipped the comments for a few days. And then been backreading them today.
Yay, welcome back!
*wags tail and prances around like a puppy*
XD Thanks. *tosses a treat*
Hey! Just because one is forced to grow older, don’t let anyone feed you clap about having to grow up
Seconded :)
Just a concerned fan.
Doubtless I say more than is always welcome. But I do not mind if 3/4 of my posts get ignored as pedantic or patronising, so long as 1/4 of them might make a positive contribution, even if a small one. It is a principle I get from my mum. I know of at least two occasions where I would have died if it was not for that kind of attitude from her.
Normally I wouldn’t have posted something like that, but his commentary had a link to a manga site, so I threw up an alternative that I feel is better for your specific comment anyway.
Never-the-less, quite true. Thank you for the warning.
Do not forget to vote each time! :) it improves the comic visibility and helps to gain new readers.
If you like the comic show it: VOTE
I have two responses regarding the hitting-someone-with-a-car issue:
First, for the strong/tough but not invulnerable group, it’s like using any other weapon- I could beat someone with my fists, but generally it’s easier to use a stick. You get extra leverage, reach, and avoid doing harm to yourself.
Second, for the small group of ridiculously powerful heroes, like Superman, you do something that is the equivalent of wrapping pillows around a battle-mace, because you don’t WANT to kill anyone, not even supervillians.
If some dude is 8 feet tall, looks like a bodybuilder, and can shrug off bullets, then you know he’s tougher than a normal human, but you don’t know where that caps out. Superman is usually depicted of having pretty good control over his powers, but it’s not like any comic never dealt with [u]accidentally[/u] killing someone.
Wow, nearly every panel of this page made me chuckle!
Good work!
+1
+1
I think panel 3 is one of the best panels so far. Very well diagramed , excellently done with many clever details.
I still can’t help but think of Rule 34 when the Tentacle Orb (Lighthook) is mentioned.
There’s also the Violator, or the Hentorb
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/793
Much like how metro will forever be known as metro despite M$’s protestations to the contrary, the Hent-orb is the Hent-Orb. Srsly if you didn’t want it called that you should never have refered to it as that in the first place. That goes for M$ as well as Grrl Power.
The in comic public well get to know it as lighthook.
The comic official name will be molestorb though. (or hentorb)
Remember there’s a difference between the 2
DC short lived series H.E.R.O. actually covered some of this, might have been some in POWERS. I know The Boys was never light on the collateral damage of short sighted super beings. All in all, it’s a topic not thought about often enough in comics as a whole and it’s great this comic covers so much in two pages.
Knocking someone into the ground is okay, if you aren’t in the city. In some cities, you have to worry about subways, underground passages between buildings, gas mains, water mains, electrical mains, sewage mains, homeless hiding in the underground, etc… It is probably a less lethal direction to direct force, unless you hit one of the first three. Now, I could see Archon having engineers with advanced technology (nanobots and such) that swarm upon an area that was recently a battle ground and doing repairs/upgrades. This could be particularly useful if the city managers are dragging their heels about setting aside monies for critical repairs/upgrades. I could even see another fake situation wherein a hero crashes through a street, as if he had been punched from a long distance away, allowing the Arc Engineers a reason to repair/upgrade critical systems so that a large portion of the populace wouldn’t suddenly suffer, say, the loss of power, possibly leading to looting and rioting…
Up is always an option vast majority of the time you can’t hit anything as the object is going into orbit but it can happen the trip back down is just messy.
Your points are all well made, but now that I am dozing off, my subconscious mind is getting more active and throwing the oar in. It seems that down is fine. Because no matter how fast they are propelled, people do not go more than people depth into the ground. Probably I have XKCD to thank for that bit of trivia, but my subconscious mind does not stoop to googling, and I am … yaawwn… not up to finding a link for it.
But so long as the mains cables and the like are not closer to the surface than a couple of feet, then they should be fine.
Why do they make gas lines run right along side the power lines and the water lines in many places? That’s just asking for trouble!
Not as bad as the trouble you have when your gas main comes from Russia, and they threaten to cut it off! With snow forecast. Like they did not kill enough people in eastern Europe the last time they pulled that stunt.
Including here in Bulgaria. Not that any of the eastern European countries are wealthy, but Bulgaria is the absolute poorest in the EU and nobody here can afford multiple fuel sources. Most in the cities only have gas. Cut it off and they freeze. Plus even the isolated villages are put at risk, because if there are electricity shortages, the cities always get the priority. So apologies if, at a later date, I fall silent without warning.
Wow, that wasn’t ominous at all! Maybe we should start a drive to get you a generator and a good supply of fuel… :/
Heh, I will be warm enough. Zombie Apocalypse protocol requires that I be self-sufficient. My fuel is wood. Trouble is even if I keep my power going somehow. the ISP relays get taken out when the local villages get cut off. I wouldn’t want folks to worry if I fall silent, that is all.
I do worry for other folks though. Thousands died the last time Russia pulled the plug on the Ukraine pipeline. Including many here. :-( Hopefully the weather will not get too bad and we can tell Russia to poke it and we will not let them use force and deadly blackmail to resolve an issue that should be handled diplomatically.
The injury to her couldn’t be helped. It was the result of a family curse.
It started with a relative of hers back in England during the middle ages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zKhEw7nD9C4
I do remember reading a comic where the Human Torch was either being sued or prosecuted for being
negligent in the use of his powers. The only reason I even remember the story was because it featured Matt Murdock as his lawyer.
Then there is the famous excessive violence case Constrictor won against Hercules
Hmmm, I can’t seem to post a comment with a link or address in it today. If you search for The Illustrated Guide To Law by Nathaniel Burney, and read part 13 (hit the content link for a list of chapters), it’s an edutaining look at when the law (generally speaking that of the United States) considers a little property damage justifiable. The whole comic is worth a read, but part 13 on necessity is the relevant bit.
And here is an example of it where life imitates art. Although it is more circular than that truism.
*throws Yorp Scooby-Snax* Thanks, buddy. That clip made my day. And yes, whoever parked that care deserved it.
I think the mosaic fits nicely with Arianna’s PR Adventures (TM). I bet she’s got a gizmo that puts those in IRL. Maybe even a blur-ray and a curse beep button.
Come to think of it, she’ll need that button a LOT, dealing with Sydney. ^w^
diablo anyone? lol
come on molestorb would be awesome!!!!
On the subject of the mosaic in this comic. I think it works, in this comic, because it is not an illustration of action but of a point being made. I don’t think that you should censor the violence during the action, but obviously at that point it is up to you how serious the gore gets.
and this way if dave wants to take the gore down we can just call it a censored bird flip
You know, the Comic series “Empowered” once discussed the tradition of throwing cars at villians. It basically went like this:
The average superweight can throw a car at about 10-20mph
Most cars can go a hell of a lot faster than that
Solution – Even if you can throw a car, don’t. Instead drive a Hummer at 90mph into the villain, and don’t forget to buckle up.
You may want to check out this post on page 1 of the comments, and DaveB‘s reply to it.
Nope, I obviously still do not have the hang of embedding those kind of links. Here it is in it’s raw state:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1224/comment-page-1?replytocom=59208#respond
First time you got it right, just there was an extra “s” at the “h t t p :”.
…Or at least have your force field up before the impact…
You also need to look at the tactical side of it. Is it feasible that a supervillian is going to let you run up to Dodge Ram(ironic) of a stranger, hoping they left the keys in the vehicle. Then watch you start it, and then stand there while you ram into him. Or is it more feasible that you distract him for a second, and then heave a 1 ton truck into is face.
I’ve seen the discussions, and what people forget about, is Newtonian physics. If two objects have about the same energy, whom ever has more mass wins, in a big way. By grabbing and smacking someone with a car you are, in effect, increasing your mass by the amount of the car.
On a side thought, i wonder of the lighthook(I really like the name) has mass/force compensation built in. Or Sydney could pick up a car, go to throw it and end up being thrown herself.
Discriminate kill beams are referred to as zap beams.
PKD jokes in tha house, y’all!
Tell you what, I give up. Brain gets too fuzzy once dawn arrives. Go to page 1 and look for Daemion‘s post. :-D
Yeah Yeah, lets not needlessly harm the trees either, I don’t want to see those limbs flying off the pages either! :-)
it is a good point about cars actually making the hit weaker.
Speaking of … exquisitely-timed psychological impact as carried by a maimed/missing limb, I’d just like to point to the movie “The Siege”, specifically the aftermath of the theatre bombing. A beautiful woman (Diana Naftal) is descending the stairs apparently unharmed, but then … well.
I found it very sublimely shocking, and I do so every time – excellent impact and filmmaking.
That said, for this comic I do think deciding what (and how much) violence you’re going to portray to be a tough path to find (and follow). My congrats and support on doing a fine job so far.
A point to notice is that the actress actually lacks forearm.
She did a touching documentary: Disarmed & Dangerous
Thanks for linking that, it was interesting. Neither girl need feel that there is anything wrong with them. They certainly are pretty enough that they should not have any problems getting dates. And lacking an arm, or any other visible problem, can have a positive benefit. It will screen out close-minded and self-centred people, so they will be more likely to find someone nice than most folks.
Did you suffer from the momentary feeling of incongruity seeing the mirror scene? It made me wonder if the director/cameraman had deliberately set up the shot for precisely that purpose. If so, it was a clever, if disconcerting, technique to use.
Actually, the cars making the hit weaker part is a lie. I mean, if you were actually showing strength in a realistic fashion (which comic books don’t).
The thing is, lifting strength and hitting strength just don’t scale the same way. Even if you were strong enough to lift the Empire State Building, your puny human frame just isn’t physically capable of making a hole through it with one punch. Strong humans hit hard because they’re heavy and they have the strength to move that mass pretty fast (there’s a reason martial arts teach you how to put the weight of your whole body behind your hits). As you get stronger without getting additional muscle mass, you’re going to hit diminishing returns pretty quickly unless you happen to have super-speed.
Hell, you would fling yourself in the air a lot sooner than you would ever do the kind of craters comics characters do: to do that kind of stuff, you’d have to be either immovable (like Superman, who can fly) or incredibly massive (as in, mass, the physical measurement, I’m not talking about size here). In addition to letting you stay in place, being incredibly dense would also increase the kinetic energy output of your punches. But most super-strong characters aren’t also made of rocks or whatever, they’re just normal flesh and blood (that happens to be invulnerable for some reason).
Hence: cars. You’re strong enough that you can basically throw them as fast as normal humans throw baseballs, except they’re a whole lot heavier, so they do a whole lot of damage. Of course, cars aren’t actually ideal. They’re actually made to be light to reduce fuel consumption, they’ll break apart if you don’t lift them correctly, and there’s a whole lot of empty space in there that just makes them more awkward to handle without making them more effective weapons. Ideally, you’d want something as small and heavy as possible.
+1
Just had this image of someone using a car as a bola against a nigh-invincible enemy. I mean, when a car side hits something with no give, the car wraps around it. And a car moving at similar speed to a smaller object is tougher to dodge.
Definitely not worth the legal hassle, but still.
Still something worth keeping in mind.
The reason Supes (and Hulk) makes holes in the ground when he takes off (apart from cinematographic BS) is because he has to push himself off the ground
In much the same way it takes a heck of a lot of thrust to lift a shuttle/rocket off the ground: if they could launch them when they are already off the ground (like how some smaller shuttle craft used to ‘piggy-back’ on jumbo-jets) they would use less fuel and leave less of an impact (in DCUO, always take a jump before taking flight, like how the old Superman movies/tv shows used to have him take a run and a jump before flying away, you know, the old “Up up and AWAY!!”)
Superman originally couldn’t fly. It was just very tall jumps. His 3 original powers were all based on his strength. Flight x-ray and heat vision, super hearing, supercold breath, invulnerability and more came afterwards.
I think the invulnerability came as a result of people saying “right, he is stronger then most people, so he should be able to withstand more harm.”
Point is the power creep was massive (I mean the fact his powers kept increasing, honest).
Modern cars are designed to collapse on impact and the fuel tanks are deigned to not explode. The old cars never had that design. Back then throwing cars was a good way to hurt someone, and set them alight. Comics have not kept up to date on how things are.
Really? If you can lift it you can throw it the same as someone pitching a ball? Can you lift a brick? A common ordinary (clean unused) house brick? Now try and throw it as fast and as hard as you could with a ball, come back and tell us if it went as far or as fast as a ball did
Most cases, a super with strength would use the vehicle like Hulk did with Loki: use it to make holes, preferably with the otherguy at the bottom of the hole, if they do use it as a projectile, they would more likely just ‘lob’ it and let gravity and the weight of the object do the damage (if they are going to actually throw something, they would pick something smaller and lighter so they can get some real damage out of it, like a common ordinary house brick, or a golfball)
Now I get this image of a superstrength villain ripping a piece of steel OUT of a car and squeezing it into a tight little ball before throwing it.
Not a ball, a spear!
Small balls thrown at high speed = bullet like damage.
*gigglefit* I like that image.
“Really? If you can lift it you can throw it the same as someone pitching a ball? Can you lift a brick? A common ordinary (clean unused) house brick? Now try and throw it as fast and as hard as you could with a ball, come back and tell us if it went as far or as fast as a ball did”
Well, no, I can’t. Which is how you can tell I don’t have super-strength: Superman totally COULD throw a brick as fast as he could throw a baseball. My point was: throwing heavy stuff is a good tactic, because it lets you hit harder than you could with your fist. You’ll notice I also said cars make awkward weapons and something smaller would be better.
I think putting in the mosaic was a good touch. Max and to a lesser extent Sydney have seen gore but they don’t like to dwell on it. I think they were both mentally self censoring so they could dodge a sanity roll XD.
When would Sydney have seen gore in ‘real-life’ before? Comics and movies (unless it’s a graphic snuff film) are not the same as seeing it firsthand
Since I have been first on scene at several car wrecks (including one with a below-the-elbow amputation) I have seen a bunch of gore. Of course I’m also old enough to be a buddy to Mr. Scoville (Sydney’s father) so I might not be the best exemplar out there.
Depends on how accident prone she is. And the sort of impulsiveness and unawareness of her surroundings (Example: getting the tube stuck in the door at the start of the comic) generally go hand-in-hand with accident-prone-ness galore.
Though. That said. EXPERIENCING the gore because you’re accident prone and SEEING it are admittedly two different things. Probably my goriest wound was when my bike handlebar went through my armpit, but no matter how I craned my neck, I couldn’t SEE it, so…
Personal Headcanon: Sydney considers the word “lighthook” an expletive.
It just makes panel 2 read funnier.
I’m beginning to suspect that Maxima has some firsthand experience in collateral damage from her campaigns in the Middle East. I wonder how many civilians she’s harmed going after a bad guy, and how much of this advice comes from her own history.
Refer the second-last panel of – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/675
A-N-D, whilst this did not happen in the Middle East – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/720
That’s likely. Most new supers with a powerset as broad as hers have a ‘collateral damager’/’world of cardboard’ phase. Control and restraint are a lot harder to master than unbridled superpowers.
I’m sure the car thing depends somewhat on the team and universe – most JLA wouldn’t get messed up by it, but a lot of x-men would. Of course, few except Maxima could realistically throw a car without it falling apart. Empowered had an interesting take on it – not only did Emp once try to toss a car, disastrously, but since she was also a supra-human studies major, she did the math and realized driving a car into most enemies at 70+ mph was more effective then throwing a car
I also loved the mosaic here just cause I thought it was hilarious, but you often have hinted at the dangers of super powers – it’d be a little odd if, conveniently, none of those problems occurred
+1 for Emp reference!
Guess that’s why everyone loves Batman, what he does is what a normal person could if they have a military research company and large amounts of cash.
I’m okay with relevant gore, so long as it doesn’t suddenly become a hellraiser episode of intricately detailed rain human giblets and limbs. Also, please refrain from dead boyfriends in women’s gym locker.
Nobody commented on the single male-dressed leg poking out from under the filing cabinet in the wreckage scene yet? I would have thought this crew was more observant than that.
Oh, I noticed. Nothing to debate there, except maybe if there should be blood pooling from there. Then again, it takes time for blood to seep from a corpse, as opposed to spurting from a live person.
Personally, I just took it as a guy lying mostly out of panel. And therefore unremarkable. As opposed to it being a severed leg.
No, the OTHER leg :)
Look on the wall to the left of the file cabinet…
Actually, it kinda looks like both male legs formerly belonged to the same guy (ouchyuck!)
I’m guessing you’ve read Empowered’s reasons why throwing a car at someone is a waste of a car? It was pretty well-thought out, I thought.
I think we are getting some good quality arguments for both sides. As with many things in life, circumstances can change the merits. While it is totally pointless in some cases (vs a super-tough opponent say) it can be useful in others (e.g. better chance to hit an opponent who needs to dodge).
Minus side I cannot recall being mentioned yet: Failing to check if there is an occupied baby seat in the vehicle first.
Very good point, or simply make sure the car is unoccupied at all
So, visualizing: Sydney light hooks a villan who is nigh invulnerable. She hoists him up and has the light hook slam him into the ground much like a high-speed slingshot. The force might kill lesser supers. It might crush tanks. This guy however merely grunts from the extreme forces of impact. Then…
* the ground collapses into the underground subway. A passing train collides with the former road surface, killing dozens and injuring hundreds.
* the collapsed subway compromises the foundation of nearby buildings, which collapse into the road, burying cars and killing dozens/hundreds more.
* Sydney says: “Oops…”
Heh. Yea, unexpected consequences. And sink-holes can open up in even normal high-streets, so entirely possible. Under normal circumstances though unlikely to happen. Not least from the fact that most underground train tunnels are well below ground level. But a few have been made by digging down from road height and putting a roof on, so not implausible.
Looking at it from a pure physics point of view though (and step into correct any mistakes), I understand that any object which you impact on another object will not penetrate further than it’s own depth. So a 1 foot diameter rock would not go further than one foot into the ground. Speed only matters at the lower end, where you may not make a dent, or may make a lesser one.
Once up to the maximum depth any excess energy will be dispersed in other ways mind. Heat, sonic and so on. But physics limits how far the object will go into the ground thanks to that pesky equal and opposite reaction law.
So underground trains are probably safe. And pedestrian subways are usually clearly marked, so can be spotted with a bit of foresight.
Yeah, there is a limit on how far an object will normall sink into the ground when it strikes, but energy is energy, can neither be created nor destroyed. That umpteen bajillion watts of energy has to go somewhere, and its not pushing our villian any deeper into the ground. It’s deforming the ground to his sides. It’s creating a shockwave that will disproportionally transfer energy to weak points in the area. It is, in short, wreaking havoc. And much serious hilarity can result.
Methinks Halo will be given an abbreviated course in engineering, so she can have a clue when cutting a hole in something can aid a rescue, or topple the structure. Although, given her apparent choice of knife is the PPO, lets hope she does not need to cut anything anytime soon for any sort of rescue…
There are a few details, as cohesion, but mainly the relative densities. It is a matter of masses so the projectile will penetrate proportionally to the difference of densities, as a cannon ball could demostrate :)
Extremely old and highly reliable narrative trick: Make the stuff with the most impact happen off screen. Nothing you’ll ever draw, write, or photograph will be as beautiful or horrifying as what people imagine for themselves.
Canonical example: the shower scene from Hitchcock’s “Psycho”. He shows you the setup, then a swirl of water going down the drain with something dark in it.
Depictions of gore rarely contain any information that’s actually critical to the story, so the space you give them is basically wasted. Instead of drawing a literal spash page showing someone’s head exploding, use the same page to show characters reacting to a room with bits of stuff dripping/falling from the celing. You get much more storytelling from the same amount of space.
Only show evidence of Bad Stuff if there’s no one around to react to it, and then show the smallest detail that conveys the level of badness you want.
That also works for sex scenes.
Now that we have discussed the pros and cons of automotive assault, it would be nice if someone could invent some other kind of ranged attack. Some sort of device that could project a small object, maybe made out of metal, at high speed toward a target. Possibly out of a long tube, and propelled by an explosive substance.
In other words, just shoot the guy. And that goes for you villains too. Do not hang him over a tank of sharks, do not seal him in a pyramid full of snakes. Do not leave him in a pit slowly filling with water. Do not leave him locked in a room with a bomb counting down to zero. Just shoot him.
Maxima does pack a gun for a reason :)
Aaaand if the villains figured that out there’d be much fewer happy endings.
thanks for the link to the dragon half video, that was hysterical.
Wow, looking at the X-ray vision poster you linked DaveB, it is saying over 5,000 people have already given it a review, with over 4,400 of them giving five stars. I thought I must have been mis-reading it. Not the high rating, but just the sheer number of them. Most impressive!
Automotive Assault– I like it… What happens if someone with a touch based TK strength grabs a car and hits someone with it? (not throw, hit) Would this basically extend the strength across with leverage to the hit like a bat would? If the strength acts such that it tries to hold the shape of the car held intact. The car might smash up a little but not wrap around the target –unless that was the intent because the TK follows intent. Now there is a character basis, touch range TK that forms the shape of huge hands from whatever is conveniently at hand (preferring cars). I dub thee, the Junker.
Clever line of thought. Given that the ambulance did not rip itself apart under its own weight, when Maxima picked it up, it clearly is being reinforced. As confirmed in Dabbler’s science corner. If the field effectively extends to include the entire structure, rather that just the weak points where Maxima’s grip is stressing it and it also grants the defence capabilities that Maxima has*, then you have hit on a very useful effect.
* Note two separate assumptions, as reinforcing for load bearing is not the same as armour plating. If it is just the former, then the car would be tougher, but would not be unbreakable.
Role reversal: what if someone with touch-based TK is hit by a car?
I’m thinking a no-sell MIT happen…
Curse you, auto-correct. I clearly typed MIT…
…
M i g h t, you know, that MITy MIT stuff.
I give up.
Actually, some comics do adress the issue – in particular the Hulk and X-men both had some episodes of angsting over the collateral damage they invariably cause.
Well Hulk was made to be show the collateral damage of ……Hulk in the first place :p
Well, angst has always been the X-Men’s stock-in-trade.
Hulk has evolved some with time. I grew up with the original hulk TV series. You could trust THAT hulk to land an airplane – in one piece. I never caught him in comics, but yes, the more recent movies with him are all about destruction and havoc.
Good point about the level of violence Dave. Take a look at goblins comic. Tarol Hunt combines some pretty intense semi-graphic violence into a witty, funny, poignant thoroughly enjoyable comic that really sucks you into its story. http://www.goblinscomic.org
Regarding attorneys and lawsuits, I suggest you take a look at the Wearing the Cape series. In there the insurance companies set up super hero/villain damage insurance for situations where you have hero battles. All deaths were pretty much accounted to the villains was the impression I received, but I could be partially wrong on that, the main thing to watch out for were Tabloids running wild with stories about heroes in the secret identities if they were unknown. In point of fact the heroes had no recourse to tabloid smut even if their secret identities were known. The tabloids could print anything they wanted pretty much and the super powered individuals had no real way to shut them up without looking like they were guilty…
That’s why the so-called ‘Freedom of Speech’ and ‘Freedom of the Press’ can be abused so badly, and you can’t do shit about it
I don’t think anyone else has pointed it out yet, but most cars aren’t made of fiberglass. Most cars are made of sheet metal, with some fiberglass parts like bumpers and so on. I mean, there are SOME cars that have fiberglass bodies – the Corvette, for example, has had a fiberglass body for years – but I’m willing to bet that 90 to 95-ish percent of cars on the road today will have a mostly metal body.
True. However such points are roughly balanced by counterpoints such as cars having both deliberate and co-incidental crumple zones. The deliberate ones coming into play if you throw a car aerodynamically in the orientation it is designed to travel. The others, such as the passenger and luggage compartment, coming into play when calculating any impact against an enemy. Some of energy imparted from the far side of the vehicle, to the impact, will be lost as those parts are compacted into the cavities.
Overall, the point remains valid that a car does not make a very good weapon against super-tough/armoured individuals. Whereas they are efficient killing machines against squishy normal people, and others who do not have top-grade super defences, of one sort or another.
Just looked at the vote incentive of Peffy louging with her weapon and I have one simple question… OMFG why hasn’t anybody tried to replicate the human foot on a prostethic the way you illustrated it?
I recognize that I’m asking a very “easier said than done there bucko!” type question but what you’ve drawn looks so sensible as the possible design for a limb that would allow much more fluid movement to the user.
Wow… well done. Nice to see tech reimagined in a way that is very logical yet almost organic.
Aaarrgh! PEGGY, Not Peffy… sorry about that!
For some reason I read ‘Peffy’ and started thinking about pink marshmallows….Clearly my brain is getting too random, it might be time to head to bed.
Danger Kalietha, danger! You will dream of eating a giant marshmallow, and in the morning your pillow will be gone!
XD I might be concerned if I actually moved in my sleep. I move plenty while falling asleep, but near as I can tell, not once I actually achieve unconsciousness. And points for the gratuitous Lost in Space reference!
There are a vast number of different types of prosthetics, tailored to meet individual needs. Aesthetic ones that approach human norms in functionality and appearance being one of the most common goals that manufacturers and users aspire to. Other considerations influence different designs though, such as the one illustrated.
For instance it is now possible to build prosthetics which are more efficient than a human limb for specialised purposes. Which caused controversy in one Olympic games when the fairness of this was first challenged. Sadly the athelete involved, nick-named ‘Blade Runner’, is currently on trial for murder in South Africa.
That aside, however, I love the irony that, whereas people with disabilities used to be stigmatised, we are now entering the era where they can become more capable than their un-enhanced counterparts. Something science-fiction has long covered, but it is nice to have seen the start of it playing out in front of our eyes.
Typically though, at the present time, such specialisations require compromising the aesthetics. If you want to perform better than your compatriots or enemies you need to sacrifice the principle of making an artificial limb look as human as possible. A choice which a soldier is wise to consider. Although we do know that Peggy has a number of alternative prosthetics, so can get the best of any situation.
And, of course, one needs to consider that prosthetics can be made to have great aesthetic appeal from artistic design which does not attempt to mimic the human form. You may be interested in watching an old TED talk which covers issues in this area. DaveB has indicated that he researched his design, so it may well be based on some of the work by that very speaker, given her prominence in the field.
Aaand now I find myself wanting to attack Anne McCaffrey’s B&B books again…
Well, on the graphic violence front, Dabbler bisecting people with her sword might be a little much, but Dabbler getting bisected might fall under the heading of comedic violence.
The way we’re going, half of her internal organs are probably cybernetic. They would just have to fuse her halves back together and do some minor repairs to the systems that actually got hit. She might need a skin graft around her waist, but she probably has some regeneration technology that could do the job better.