Grrl Power #200 – Something finally happens
I enjoy good small talk. My favorite scene in all of Django was where the guys were all talking about how shoddy their hoods were. It added nothing to the plot but it was amusing and gave dimensionality to otherwise flat characters. Same thing in the movie Amadeus, with the guys in Emperor Joseph’s court bickering about what language the opera should be in. It’s all just flavor text. I say this because I could write a dozen more pages of them sitting around the table and just talking, but I figured a few weeks ago, it would be funny to have my first big fight start right on page 200 so people can say “I like that comic but it took 200 pages for anything to happen.” since superhero comics are measured by the fights. Hence the tongue in cheek title for the page. There’s nothing in those small talk pages that won’t work if saved for later, so that’s how we’ll roll. I would like to do a page I thought of that starts with Harem saying “You know what the only thing that sucks about being a girl is?” and Sydney immediately rebutting “The ONLY thing?” I could do a dozen pages on just that.
I may be breaking some rule by turning one of those “wink wink” jokes intended only for observant readers into “the joke” for a page. (By which I mean Harem’s prophetic soda selections.) Even Peggy seems to be in on it now. Maybe there’s a trope named after that sort of phenomenon, but it’s funny how throwaway gags can become a thing. The prophetic soda happened because I needed something to color in on the can on that first page. It was just a “hee hee” moment for myself, but then it happened again, making it a thing. I guess it’s an official unofficial power of hers now.
Get ready for some action. Buckle your… buckley things. Pilgrim hats I guess. You know with all the buckles we attribute to the pilgrims it makes me think they were into hard S&M. Too bad the whole buckle thing is one of those widely held misconceptions. Still, I prefer my image of the pilgrims greeting the natives in gimp suits.
Here’s a bonus mini comic for you guys to celebrate page #200: (You can click to embiggen)
<– I’ll just leave this here, you know, in case you’re curious.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
For some reason i totally see Dabbler seducing this guy
. into joining the team.
I like Peggy’s reaction time there.
Dude busts through wall, gun in hand.
I’m not sure even Dabbler’s teleporting could have had a gun in her hand faster.
Why is she using a six shooter?
Oh, probably a .44 mag. with armor piercing ammo. or maby explosive ammo.
Reliability.
I settled on a Tarus Raging Judge .454 since it can handle a variety of ammo and still be quite powerful.
For the people a bit less informed about guns. That revolver can handle 3 types or rounds. Standard colt .45, shotgun 000 half load or the .454 casull (the last is a bear hunting round).
What the hell kind of bear are you hunting with a round that big? Armored Kodiaks?
No, no, no. If you’re going to use a .454 Casul on a hunting trip, at least pick a worthy target. You know. Like a charging rhino.
… Or a XXXXXL-sized super.
Well yeah I was wrong to describe it as bear hunting. More along the lines of ‘oh crap, I’ve got a bear charging me and it needs to go down NOW!’.
The main problem is accuracy. We’re talking about a revolver with the barrel that that entails, then for this specific gun a reduction in rifling to allow it to fire a what is effectively a 1/2 shotgun round of 000 shot (and then still have rifling to assist the other rounds).
Forgot that you said that was her gun choices.
That page had a huge amount of comments on types of guns.
A Taurus? She’s better off with a Ruger or S&W. Taurus isn’t known for its high quality and reliability. Both Ruger and S&W have revolvers in that caliber or something comparable.
A day like any other…
When Earth’s mightiest heroes banded together to have lunch after a seriously FUBAR’ed press conference.
You mean like the post-credits scene where the Avengers are all eating calmly in that halfway ruined restaurant?
Awwww, yeah, now we get to see how well Dave does action sequences! I have a funny feeling this isn’t going to go the way the villains expect. I kind of think Max may grab the big guy’s ear and drag him outside where they have room to fight, berating him in the process. At least the Max in my mind would do that.
Anvil is going to beat her to the “punch”
Anvil does look rather upset at the fact that he’s gotten rubble all over the crumb shelf of her new blouse, and he messed up her hair too. What an asshole.
Maxima on the other hand just looks like she’s annoyed her meal got interrupted. Either that or she just wants him to put on a shirt, they are in a public restaurant after all.
Rubble Shelf!
GrrlPower is now third in TopWebComics, it would be good to consolidate that position.
A vote?
*sigh* and there I go mess up the reminder for the other vote, below. I really could have done with not missing out the “/” to end the bold after the first line. It goes from noisily intrusive (but fair enough, as it is a key voting moment), to tacky shouting, as a result.
:-(
Actually round 3 ended last midnight but it is ok, round 4 will start today surely and it is good the reminder.
Doh. Ok, I am just going to … mmm… wander off in thata direction. Today is not working out well for me.
Ok, that direction had the Cyber Olympics. I think I have become unhinged from the time-line and am sliding up and down it at random. Y’all will probably be Neanderthals, the next time I look. :-(
A-a-a-and that would be a change from what, exactly? :D
We will have become significantly more evolved, and perhaps even advanced to using stone tools and occasionally standing upright?
Man, all my favourites are getting knocked out: Misfile, Modest Medusa, Spinnerette, and now Freefall, Two Kinds, XKCD, Girl Genius and Grrl Power. I have never even heard of most of the survivors. Well, it was a good run while it lasted. Don’t forget your other favourites that may still be in the running.
I think there is something wrong going on, please check my comment about it: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1257/comment-page-4#comment-62766
Just to do the math here… We have 10 shadows on the roof and one bad guy (sorry, it’s French, ‘Bahdgee’) in the room. If they are all supers and they are literally one in a million then we are looking at the results of searching through 11 million people to assemble this group.
Based on what we can just see in the last panel, we are going to need a name for the group/cadre/coven/cabal/league/legion and names for each of the members. Let the speculation begin!
Going by this being in Texas as talked about.
Po> of TX is 25 mill, surrounding state bring in anothe10 mill or so.
No problem dude
There are eleven shadows, look behind the text bubble.
sight… Ten, my bad.
You are correct: there are 11 shadows (one shadow is made up of 3 future casualties)
They probably already knew eachother before this though
I guess they have their own social networking site: ‘Fiendbook’.
Now that I think about it, I remember it was created by Victor von Doom. When he tried to create a Facebook page he was turned down by system administrators. He was told that “If you want to create a Facebook page, one of the requirements is that you have a face.”
Third silhouette from our left. Given that his fists are big enough to be mistaken for two guys standing in front of him, I think he is going to be quite a heavy-hitter.
He is squatting down and looking into the hole. Those are his knees.
We can see his uppper arms though, and they are also pritty big
While I would guess the “brick” archetype is a good bet, I wouldn’t judge raw power based solely on size. In a super-hero world petit young girls can sometimes throw buildings and put body-builders to shame. Also by “heavy hitter” do you mean strength/defence powerset (ie. a brick) or do you mean most powerful guy on the team because I’d fear Dr. X way more than a lower-tier brick.
Hey, you know what they say about guys with big hands, right? Right? Please tell me you do, because I wanna know what they say. They’re always saying things behind my back and no one ever tells me what they say.
They say that it’s hard for them to buy gloves.
I absolutely LOVE the mini comic with Harem’s “Oopsie” expresssion, and Peggy’s “I’m ready” reaction.
My son giggled over my shoulder at the Mini Comic with Peggy stopping Harem from causing the next Zombpocalypse as he handed me a towel to clean my monitor off from the Java infused giggles.
This is yet another comic I need to not read with any drinks at hand. Great Job Dave!
Thanks! I may have wasted the “Status Quola” joke on the bonus mini, but I’m not sure when else it would have come up in the comic. Just having a can of status quola might make a funny shirt though.
We’ll take them when ya print em! I’ve already incurred enough “Dammit Dinky!” karma points for my son going to school with Narf Vader and the Brainperor and EX-TERM-I-NO(Grumpy Cat and a Dalek hybrid courtesy of @lartist) shirts.
Explaining where “Status Quola” comes from will totally be worth it.
The only one that would be more awesome is the panel with the chef in the hazmat suit carrying a special sauce tin, and Sydney saying, “YEEEEES. Give in to your anger. Strike me down with all of your hate!” Caption for shirt: Hot stuff*
*This advertisement paid for by The Council for Prevention of Cruelty to Spice Lovers.
Alternate shirt would be the really hot Hot Sauce table with Sydney’s favourites, and a “Halo approved” logo.
*Queues up “Burly Brawl” from The Matrix Reloaded*
****************************************** IMPORTANT ****************************************************
Anyone who has not yet voted in the web-comic tournament, please do not forget to cast a vote for Grrl Power. Just scroll down below the league tables to find the bit with the voting buttons.
Order of the Stick has drawn level (3% of the total votes cast across the leagues), even though we have a slight advantage. They have a serious votership. If we are complacent now, they will win this.
Every vote can make the difference!
*borrows gun and shoots previous, out-of-date, comment*
It’s fine. I just wish they were a little more forthcoming about when each round was scheduled to start. I think we beat OotS, but since people can buy votes, there’s no way to know until they post the next bracket.
Ok, your calls have proven to have much more pull than mine, so I step aside. It is in your hands to announce round 4 :)
Naturally I thought “HEY KOOL-AID” followed by someone breaking through the wall.
“Oh Yeah!!”
Hm, I wonder if Sydney’s force field needs to have her inside, or if she can project it. I’m thinking it’s nice of the supervillains to be all gathered together except for Laughing Boy there, if Sydney decided to throw a force field around the rest, that would make mopping up easy. If she has to be inside, well, she hasn’t had anything to eat, she’s already moderately pissed off, and she has a molestorb and/or PPO at her disposal, with the supervillains trapped inside with her…
Yea, I have worked on the same principle before. The best use of wall/force field powers is to contain your enemies, long enough to ensure none survive. The alternative, of putting one up between them and you is just blocking your own line of fire!
It also has the useful side-effect of protecting nice, but squishy, restaurant staff.
I’ve done the wall of force trick with the bad guys and me inside. The characters name was Warhead and his most devastating attack was to create a just barely sub-critical mass of uranium 235 in each hand and then slam his fists together. He did this with the bad guys inside the force bubble with him. None of them could survive being at ground zero of a nuclear catastrophe, he could.
If Warhead could slam his fists together hard enough to get a U-235 thermonuclear detonation, he could have skipped a few steps and a lot of radiation exposure by just punching the bad guys.
Comic book logic. Standard attacks all the time makes it a game of “whose number is higher, my attack or your defence”, which lacks drama. Unconventional power uses are so much more fun to watch and to play.
It’s the same reason supers throw cars around even when it’s less energy-efficient and less accurate than just punching the other guy.
Offensive containment force fields sound like a good level-up trait. I’d assume she doesn’t have it now but might get it later.
Just fly up with the bad guys inside. Buildings debris lifted by the shield and bad guys.
Doughnuts, loop the loop etc while getting out of town, release shield sending them and rubble flying.
Anvil in there getting knocked around would power her up.
Achilles would enjoy the ride as well as the chance to get a few punches in.
Max flying next to halo could fire weak shots and block attacks to halo. Physical contact would help.
I love the comic, but I was starting to fear that this was going to be just a slice of life comic with superheroes.
You pretty much word for word said what I was thinking. Though if done well, I wouldn’t be totally against a slice of life comic, but it’s nice to see some action.
as long as they keep a small portion of comedy in it (that fits and goes well) then i dont really care where he takes this comic ^^
This is still a ‘Slice of Life’ comic, ‘SoL’ with Supers involves fighting
Read Wonderella, and tell me that with a straight face. :)
My reaction if I was in this situation and maxima’s power set? Extend first finger on hand holding bottle. Move hand approximately two feet backward to place said finger under chin of party crashing goon. Full power zap beam straight up, vaporizing goon’s head. Say “Next!” real loud. Casually finish drinking beer.
She couldn’t get that in before he gets a light hook between the eyes.
It’s halos nature.
You saying it is Sydney’s nature to kill? When she won’t eat meat because they are ‘cute’?
To Sydney, animals are cute (thus why she won’t eat them), but this gate-crashing meathead is just roadkill.
The lighthook (rhymes with right hook) is for punching and KOs. If Sydney was shooting to kill, she’d use the pew-pew orb.
“Between the eyes” is not normally where someone gets punched
I vote short straw. I don’t think he will have much in the way of balls left in a minute.
all depends on who gets to hem first cause dabbler might want them left on for experimentation later.
I know most people would want to know how such a big guy has such a tiny brain.
ask the people who examine t-rex samples
If you find a mobile phone in T-Rex droppings, you know somebody has been tinkering with their science kit.
My money is on the dinosaur who rode the T-Rex. So long as you can control them ok, you don’t need to make your vehicle too smart.
In the Django refrence about the hoods. This was a decade or more before the clan was formed.
Well they had to work out all the bugs first.
There were alot of nightriders before the clan was formed.
Sheets and cloth bag maskes were the bdu of the day.
You have to look really close to read the caption under the soda comic.
“You can click to embiggen”
Please oh please have someone punch him back out the hole!
The wall is a better bet tho.
At the very moment the waiters were starting to feel safe for not have messed up the orders…
You know, I’ve been wondering if harem can teleport in and out of the forcefield. Maybe that will come up in this fight.
Will the Villains appear in the “Who’s who” section? Or perhaps their own section?
Yes, once they’re named in the comic, otherwise the Who’s Who would be full of “Some guy who’s a jerk” “Girl with a picture of a squirrel on her shirt” etc.
You just confirmed there is a girl with a picture of a squirrel on her shirt
Interesting
Didn’t Marvel have a charactor named the squirrel in their Chicago Avengers chapter?
Squirrel Girl. Notable for having single handedly defeated Dr. Doom, Thanos, And a couple of other major villains that usually give the main team of Avengers a hard time.
https://marvel.com/universe/Squirrel_Girl
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/SquirrelGirl?from=Main.SquirrelGirl
She (and her squirrel minions) defeated Dr. Doom. Twice.
more importantly, she has beaten Deadpool. Squirrel girl OP pls nerf.
Actually I like the idea of a OP superhero named Squirrel Girl.
And Wolverine, arguably.
She was actually one of Deadpools bridesmaids when he got married
Never underestimate the abilities of a squirrel…Not only did the BBC film two documentaries about squirrels (Daylight Robbery & Daylight Robbery 2), but how many creatures can run full speed up a tree with his nuts in his mouth?
Someone who just got on the wrong side of Anvil, Maxi or pretty much anyone of ARCHON?
Sounds like that should have been in the castrato thread.
dang the bison just ran because of the laugh you inspired now I need a replacement dinner
Try a Mammoth. They’re big and slow and have lots of meat on them.
For the record Dave.
By Grabthars Hammer, I swear, I will stop reading this comic if you turn my first love (Squirrel Girl, or a clone type of her) into a villain. ONLY EXCEPTION is if you convert her into a hero (but do that within 20 comics).
I love Squirrel Girl, she is the perfect mix of ADD and hyper intelligence (when using her powers). She is very much like me.
I don’t think he Drew the short straw I think the others just pulled a Magneto and “let the pawn move first”
also i’m re reading some older comics and knoticed THIS strip https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/664/comment-page-2#comment-62477
You mean like what DaveB commented two strip ago: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1242
Also, none of the team is ever going to get to do anything in public, again. Businesses are going to turn them away.
Sydney and Joel’s insurance is going to go through the roof.
Or is it when Sydney gets a visit from the company to explain the new rates she will send the insurance AGENT through the roof?
I really like how Harem literally opened a can of whoop @$$ at the start! Good show, it is little details like that and the amazing dialogue that make this the first thing I check on Mondays and Thursday!
(Damn! I have to get up earlier. You guys already made my first three comments.)
Soundtrack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gbIal1RnoY
Hey look, the plot arrived!
*yes another gigglefit is spawned*
*yet another
Not sure how THAT typo happened…
Freudian thong? sorry gigglefits cause abnormally high levels of randomness and silliness in me.
I think they do that to most people. My friends in HS and I used to get people thinking we were drunk or on drugs as a result of too many gigglefits…Particularly on Halloween. Larping excuses for a win! And trying to come up with a storyline involving an elf, an undead construction worker, an assassin, a drow, and a fire witch certainly resulted in gigglefits.
No One expects TYPO’s
When I’m running RPGs I like to use “Suddenly, a Fight Scene breaks out.”
You know, I’d love it if, in a Super campaign, the GM was able to finegle a situation where they’d be able to say “Suddenly, a Hockey Game breaks out!”
We did that once in TFOS, does that count?
Nah. Fights don’t usually get that rough.
While I’m confident Max is going to wipe the floor with any one of those guys who goes up against her, I’ve a nasty feeling our large cast of Archon super is about to get trimmed down… :-(
Atlas (from Wearing the Cape: A Superhero Story): “People, it’s time to be rude…”
Prophetic soda?
Best case of intuition I’ve seen thus far.
Well, I’d say these guys are about to get kicked. After all, newly announced doesn’t mean untrained and inexperienced. And besides, that guy deserves what’s about to happen for him for goin out in public with that do.
Didn’t Sydney retrain herself to react by grabbing the shield?
Wasn’t the shield last set embiggened?
Will this throw of her side or the bad guys?
Let’s face it. That demonstration on the tank didn’t do a lot of them justice.
This is where the rest of them start showing their worth.
i sense impending rookie reaction from Sydney or at least i think that’s the most likely thing :3. Totally excited for the next pages.
It turns out that the team was sent by Vladimir Putin. He heard that the Russian dressing was being maltreated by the owners of the restaurant, and he sent out a group of ‘advisors’ to protect things while he works on annexing the restaurant. (Hey, he is the only ‘Bond’ level world leader we can still re-invent as a super villain. He’s got the correct accent and everything.)
I like the way you think, pilgrim..
So…that’s $80,000 for structural roof repairs. Let’s keep track of further damage.
No way that’s eighty grand for one measly hole. So far, we can’t be looking at more than two or three grand for that puny entry hole. Now the EXIT hole….
It’s easily $80k. I spent close to that after a car put a similarly “small” hole in my garage. It’s amazing how the shock waves move to through the whole structure. The entire roof needed to be removed and replaced. This isn’t some simple patch job.
The look Anvil has there.
She’s going to beat that guy so bad his face will look dumber than his haircut.
thats possible?
Anvil will find a way
Is it really safe to assume there are ten of them? I mean, I looked at the shadows and figured they were just representative of “lots”. I kind of expect them to get a look outside and realize there’s a sea of hundreds of guys out there to take on.
I mean, if it’s just ten supervillains who imagine they’re a match for what ARC showed on the air, and just decided to attack because, hey, cops to kill, then they’ve got to be the ten least imaginative villains in the world. They’ve got to have either some kind of absolutely overwhelming numerical advantage, or else a real strategy. Just sauntering up to someone and assaulting them when the only things you know about them is that they’re strong and willing to respond violently to you, with no goal or plan in mind, is just stupidity.
Looking forward to seeing this stretch the good guys a little. A hero is only as good as what he has to overcome.
Well there are 10 visible shadows on the roof, plus the big guy inside.
So atleast 11
There’s less than 10,000 superhumans in the entire world, and that’s including people like That Flying Rescue Guy who are only mildly super and who don’t care to use their powers for fighting. “A few hundred” could easily be the world’s entire supervillain population.
Well, these particular guys seem to be following the stereotypical script so far – big entrance, posture, trash talk, etc..
I mean, if they were hardcore (and not overly concerned with niceties), it probably would work better for them if they simply blasted the building with everybody in it, then hung around to take down anybody who crawls out of the rubble.
*Sigh* I must admit despite all the heroes being gathered and an assault taking place I think its going to be a bit of a let down. I like this comic just as much as the next guy, but I wouldn’t mind a bit of hero showdown cliches.
I would think the “showdown” scenes will fit in better if saved until later pages…After all, there’s less dramatic impact (pun intended) if the villain isn’t established first. And here we have (at least) 11 villains kind enough to get themselves established for the readers right now.
;)