Grrl Power #208 – Arc-LIGHT earns their keep
Arc-LIGHT is more than just Zeph, Leon and Gwen in case anyone was curious. They have researchers and even field agents a la X-Files or Fringe. Arc-SWAT needs to know who to go punch when the bad guys don’t conveniently introduce themselves at dinner after all. I skipped over most of that since this story arc was already pretty long, but it’s a fair bet the next story arc will have some additional Arc-LIGHT involvement.
I want to talk about the action on this page. I want to draw good action and I think the action on this page is pretty tepid. It’s functional, you can tell what’s going on, but while I was coloring the page I decided it could be a lot better. It was too late to change it, so I used my discontent as an excuse to re-read some One Punch Man and Cammy Manga (by Masahiko Nakihara) and I think the page that follows this one is much improved. Oh and if this page seems a little light on content (seeing as most of my pages hover around the 8-11 panel count) it’s because this page was supposed to be a double page, but due to the way the layout of the next few pages went, I had to either cut it here or make this page a triple page. These action pages with the big panels will sometimes break down like that, but the good news is at least the next comic will be a double page. Sequential art is hard.
In case you missed it, I posted a bonus comic of sorts yesterday. It’s an old vote incentive that disappeared from the web when I replaced it with the next incentive. It’s a Dabbler’s Science Corner answering some questions about Harem.
Speaking of bonus comics, I’m doing some guest comics over at GynoStar. There’s a bit of a story behind these. Basically I came up with some jokes that didn’t quite fit the flavor of Grrl Power so I wrote them into a series of strips and presented the idea to Rebecca over at GynoStar. She liked them, but I only had a few strips worth of material at the time. Not quite enough for a whole arc. So she filled out the rest of the story, which starts here, and we’re now up to my strips. I’ll be doing them for the next… 7 strips I think? Half of them are already drawn and the coloring is much simpler than Grrl Power so I’m planning to keep to the regular schedule here.
I’ll do some more streaming today. Here’s the link. I’m trying it on Twitch.TV this time. Spoilers for pages 211 and 212 obviously. Stream’s over. Thanks for dropping by is you got a chance. I don’t think the stream got saved… I must have missed that button.
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OOOO the bad girl is kicking some butt!
meh knowing achilles, he’ll jsut shrug it off and laugh( like he’s already doing lol)
He will be back in two strips time and she will hit him again.
My prediction is that when he comes down, he’ll land on someone (probably her, just for irony).
I heard it as the “Goofy goes flying” noise.
My husband agrees.
Me too.
Was that Goofy’s yell that Achilles did?
Sure sounded like it. Well that is one way to take the fight outside. There are lots of targets in the parking lot.
Somebody, other than Achilles, could be in for a headache.
Better to look up and check his trajectory, I guess. :)
No really: Even if he wasn’t pretty much invulnerable. A standard human dropping on you from that height would already do enough damage!
Comedy…er…Death from Above!
Here ya go…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUL5w91dzbo
You know, I don’t have the video capabilities to do it myself, but I’m thinking that someone should replace the Wilhelm scream from famous movies with the Goofy yell.
There has been something similar done in a parody. But as regards people shouting “Geronimo!”
I think you are right, still when you are aggravatingly Invincible, you have to learn how to enjoy getting thrown around by people stronger then you.
yes, yes it was
Yeah he did, also to note that he didn’t even bother to doge.
No, if you look at his eyes (look deeeply into his eyes…) he wasn’t even looking at her
Hey, if you’re gonna get punched to 10,000 feet, you might as well have a sense of humor about it.
I wonder if he’ll try flapping his arms on the way down – just on the off chance it might work.
I would hope that he is using his limbs to guide his descent to the target of his choice.
More likely he’ll tuck his arms in close and start arguing in
“What are you doing?”
“Evolving?”
Actually, that might be a cool idea for him: issue him a “squirrel suit” so he can get back quicker.
Or an anchor gun and a bungie cord :P
I do believe i see a slingshot coming.
Gwen is missing a small piece of her clothing. The collar (on the left for us) is not connected to the rest of what she is wearing.
Her fingers are blocking our view. That skin is not her neck/upper chest, but fingers. She is holding her hands in an odd posture while casting her cloaking field.
Nope. Checked that. Those fingers are represented just below that.
David Nutall is right. Her index fingers are straight up, middle fingers across each other, ring fingers in that kind of pentagon shape and pinkies bent down toward her wrists.
Above the fingers in a pentagon shape is a bit of fabric. Above that there is a skin colored opening that goes from her neck to the fingers that are upright. There is never any break showing another finger.
Ah, I see what you mean. But that’s simply a part of her shoulder. That we can see because the camera angle in that picture allows us to see between the parts of the tuck of the collar. The part of cloth connecting the collar to the rest of the dress on her right side is mostly hidden behind her fingers. A small part of it can be seen above her right ringfinger though. Easily missed due to the glow of her gesture distorting its colour.
Yea, I see the part that you are talking about. Not to be confused with the gap between her choker, and her blouse. But the bit to the right of her fingers (our left). Even if assuming that it is an over one shoulder type garment, there is still an unaccountable bit of cloth dangling down on that side. Possibly it is some other kind of garment, but it does not look right for either that or the traditional blouse you are viewing it as.
I see what he’s trying to point out.
You know that optical illusiion of a fork that has 3 tines when viewed from the end, but 4 when viewed from the middle? It looks sort of like that.
The EDGE of her halter top goes toward her neck, but not in a way that makes the collar make any sense on her RIGHT side.
Yes, yes it is, take into consideration that she is not sitting fully front on to the 4th Wall, and her fingers are obscuring the top of her halter (the part that is connected to the collar)
Thought you mean her choker at first (have seen some people refer to it as a ‘collar’)
It looks right to me. Like was said her left index finger is hidding it.
What her dress IS lacking of is the black outside border at that same place.
sigh… Our left, her right, my nonsense.
…one typo, in the infobox in panel 3: “deSmonstrated”.
I noticed it too.
It’s fixed, thanks for the heads up.
Hey Dave,
You’ve got a second typo I believe in Zephan’s line in panel one, “We’ll be be ID’ing…” Is he supposed to be saying “be” twice? Also, I am absolutely in love with this comic, especially it subverting soo many tropes of comics and supers
Also, same panel. “These aren’t the ‘dgents’ you are looking for.” and in the third panel, is that supposed to be “Demontrated” or did you mean Demonstrated?
That’s actually a capital A on Agents, though I’ll agree it does look like a lower case D.
Umm, too few Sses now! Sorry to be a pedant but it seems to have become something of a tradition :)
I wonder if there’s a meta-trope for that?
Good lord, what is wrong with me? Gimme a minute it’ll be fixed.
I am sure that they are coming up with these names on the fly but “Concretia”, really? If they catch her I am sure she will be disappointed in her villain name.
They name’s Lisa, but you might as well call me Cause of Death.
Anvil: Nice to meet you Lisa. Let’s see how that goes for you.
Oops! How did that happen? That was supposed to be “My name is Lisa.”
It’s just temporary until they can come up with something more… concrete.
*flees*
I believe the Distinguished_Author is making a reference to the John Goodman film, “The Flintstones”.
Although little more than a throwaway gag – Mr.Slate was so impressed by Fred’s invention of quick-setting, instant rock that he named it “Concrete”, in honor of his daughter, “Concretia”.
Yeah I do remember that gag at the end of that movie well. Which is why Ms. Stone here would hate that name as well. ;P
How do we know that? For all we know, that movie could be her favourite movie of all time and is constantly annoying her friends by quoting/talking about it all the time
“theese aren’t the intelligence agents you are looking for”…. lol
“you cant see us, you cant see us” XD
Also seems that Amorphous switched the arm that was enlarged from when I saw him in the last comic.
He’s stretchy all over.
Lucky girl Heat Wave.
He reserves comment
So does she ;)
When Concretia grabbed him, couldn’t he just let his neck stretch rather than be thrown?
Also those oversized “fingernails” must be a demonstration of his “density control”.
If I were Achilles I’d do the Goofy holler as well each time I got launched or dropped. It is all in good fun for him I’d think.
Yeah, he’s quickly becoming known as “The Fourth Stooge.” But since nothing can really hurt him, I’d guess that his own sense of self-dignity is also covered under his invulnerability…
BAD POWERS! Halo was right!
But is he immune to criticism?
not totally. just mostly
They mostly come out at night, mostly.
Sorry, I’m a big Aliens fan…..To the point of having my own armor.
He he. Nice that the in-setting rating system matches the cast-list profile. I wonder how similar the stats we have access to are to the ones given by Arianna as part of the press-hand out. Will Grrl Power world geeks be arguing over news footage too? Not that they will be seeing any at the moment, mind you, with Arc-Light doing their stuff.
“No, no, we can’t say Concretia is more than 3 strength from that hit, here are the energy calculations to compare a person being hit through the ceiling, compared to lifting a car overhead.”
By the way, shouldn’t Concretia be added to the Who’s Who? They might not have been formally introduced, but we have been given her name. Although I grant her dialogue was a bit limited here.
I understand the need to keep things simple, but I would’ve expected ARC-Light to have larger scales for the capabilities, rather than shoehorning everybody into broad categories. Kind of like the difference between stats in World of Darkness vs Rolemaster TT-RPGs, to show the rough extremes.
I can see your point. But such a rating system is really just to give a snap judgement in a crisis. For instance we know that Achilles and Stalwart are in the same strength category, but one is stronger than the other. That is something they need to know when facing off against each other, but makes little difference to anyone else in the world, who is not in their strength category.
If you are a state trooper you need to know that either can kick a tank at you, if you piss him off. So hiding behind a car would not be useful cover.
Whereas, against Maxima, even a cargo ship or super-tanker might not provide sufficient protection. That is something a 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 scale simply will not help with. Conversely, if Maxima is unsure that she can lift it, she needs her capacity in tonnage, to compare against a database of vessel weights, with and without cargo, rather than some arbitrary number.
Plus there are a lot of categories to consider and remember if dealing with a list of known or potential enemies. Trying to remember subtle differences (was he a 5 or a 7.5) can be a hindrance. In fact, the fist thing you want to know is digital. Can this attack destroy the world? If not, the exact percentage it can destroy might of academic interest, but a ball-park on a 1 to 5 scale will serve just as well for most conceivable combat calls.
Fewer categories makes on the run judgements easier to handle. For instance, a flyer will want to know if an enemy, with a known strength, is close to an object they can use as an improvised projectile:
*……. Person
**….. Motor bike
***…. Car
****.. Tank
*****.. Mountain
More categories than that might provide more detail, but will be harder to remember in a crisis.
Damn it. I should have said “Super Hiro and Stalwart”. Achilles barely gets on the super strength scale.
It does seem the starts are more Richter scale doesn’t it (2 stars is 10 times 1-star, 3 stars 10 times a 2 star)
Yeah, just for the same purposes of giving a “quick name” to someone helps for Maxima to give orders in the heat of battle, actual data on these villains need a “quick classification” of their powers *as they’re displayed* in real time, during combat. During the course of more battle (& even after the battle is done), the data is being analyzed, even as it comes in…The general classifications will be adjusted with more fine tuning as the villains are being observed while they act.
It just might be a case of how fast combat happens…giving a new name to someone *quickly* for ID purposes can help with efficiency, as far as it goes for issuing commands. AFTER the heat of battle, it wouldn’t surprise me that ARCLight will analyze the hell out of the data & come up with a more “appropriate” name later, for the official records & debriefing sessions.
I did add her to the Who’s Who, I just forgot to upload her badge last night. She should be showing up now.
Actually this made me remember a question I have and I’ve been wanting to ask.
Do the rating scales on the cast page (and I guess now in the comic) automatically assume that the character’s given ability is beyond the average capabilities of a human being? (i.e. You have to be exceptionally skilled just to get a 1 on this scale.)
I haven’t seen this asked anywhere, but I can be pretty oblivious sometimes, so sorry if it already was answered. XD
There are two types of powers. Those that anybody can have, and those that only supers can have. Sniper skills for instance are available for anyone to use. So both Dabbler and Peggy have that icon.*
On that scale 1 would be a typical soldier. 2 would be a good sniper. And, as I interpret it, Peggy represents a combination of an Olympic gold-medallist with a circus trick-shooter, at 3. If a normal human can pull it off, she can do it. Above that point you are into things that only aliens and other super humans can achieve.
Math is a special case, because he is from a long line of people who learnt secret martial arts skills. He was not born a super, but he can certainly do things that no normal human could in our world. But does have the advantage that someone who detects super powers (theoretically) should not be able to spot him.
Whereas the other type of powers are things that normal humans cannot do without machines. Such as fly. All humans have strength, but the strong-arm icon we see on the cast list is for ‘super-strength’. So even an Olympic weight lifter would be a 0 on that scale. He does not have super-human strength, by definition. Being human.
Whereas Achilles can exceed the normal human limits, simply because he need not fear hernias or other damage from misuse of strength. Unlike the rest of us he can apply maximum force and never worry that he will harm himself. But, even though he can exceed normal limits by 50%, because of this, he still only just gets the one star rating.
* Although it is possible that the icon is more generic than the symbol implies and simply represents “specialist skills” as opposed to “the sniper skill”. This line of argument can be supported by the fact that Dabbler is a Jill of all trades, having a little bit of skill in a lot of specialist areas. As some of those, such as magic and alien technology are totally beyond normal human access, she would naturally end up with a very high rating in her “specialist skill” category. Even if none, individually, was exceptional.
Darn it. I wanted to consult the cast list, but it was taking forever to open, so had to go by memory. And I see now that I got it wrong. Peggy’s overall power rating is 3 (on a scale of 1 to 10 with normal humans in the 1-3 range and supers in the 4-10 categories). But her sniper rating (on a 1 to 5 scale) is actually 4.
So whereas, either an Olympic gold medallist or circus trick shooter might be a 3, but Peggy, in keeping with my theory of having both, would be a 4.
Or, if the icon does represent ‘skills’ rather than sniper skill alone, then she is justified in her 4 because she is both an expert marksman and a top helicopter pilot.
I used to be a member of a laserquest club. And was the best shot. That is not to say that I was the top player, by any means. The rankings depended on total number of hits, and my rate of fire was lower than other players. So I was only about 5th or 6th in overall rankings in any given month. But, lower rate of fire or not, I know I am a top shot.
Yet there was one member of staff there who was as much above me as I was above some 6 year old straight off the street. He could fire over his shoulder, without looking, and hit a sensor the size of the nail on your little pinkie. At a range of 20 yards. It was as frustrating as hell fighting him!
He is one guy I would have no hesitation in trying to shoot in the back. Simply because he was so good that he still had a better chance of killing you, even if you swore blind he could not possibly know you were there.
Hmm, she’s knocked out two. Miniboss time?
Time for Anvil to take on somebody her own size.
Although she should beware that Concretia might, like herself, be more than she appears. If she can turn parts of herself into stone, she might be able to do likewise with other objects or people. It will not do Anvil’s reputation any good, if she gets stoned during a work’s party!
It should be Stalwart’s turn now that his clothes are already damaged.
Hold on, this trousers are still safe, give me a moment…
Looks to me like they’re not so much knocked out as moved out of the way so that they can’t tank for their squishier allies. They’ll be back in the fight soon enough, but it seem’s likely that what she’s done here is make an opportunity for herself and her allies to do some real damage, Assuming someone potent like Maxima, Stalwart, Dabbler or Halo doesn’t step in in the next strip.
Ooh, true! I do want to see Dabbler get some more screen time in this fight!
Somehow I can see her taking on the green-haired star-surrounded laser girl on the roof, who was planned to be called Hex, was she not? That could be good.
It would take somebody with a strong defence, to counter her lasers. Unless using the ‘shoot her before she shoots you’ practice that the rest of society follows. And Dabbler does have a strong personal shield, so would be well suited to the task.
Maybe Amorphous and Achilles should team up a little closer like tie themselves together or something? At least when strong brick types are attacking. Seems like Achilles best use is as a shield for someone else? Achilles needs a really good weapon otherwise… hopefully they will both find some non-bricks soon and have some fun (which we will hopefully get to see. Poor Achilles is turning into permanent comic relief!)
Achilles would also make a really good weapon for someone else to hit things with. I can see Mr Amorphous swinging him round by the ankles, for instance.
It seems that if he was a little brighter, he could really do with a custom martial arts style to make use of his invulnerability. It could be a highly aggressive one, since he’s got no reason to block and no reason to dodge unless the opponent’s attack would knock him back enough to make it a nuisance to get back to the fight. And when he wants to really do some damage, finger pokes would seem like a better idea than more conventional strikes or his showpiece headbutt (more reach than a punch, greater pressure because a smaller surface area, and no risk of the broken finger that many people might get unless they’re hitting a really soft spot).
Or, since he’s up in the air, maybe Maxima could grab him and use him as a thrown projectile vs someone on the other side that’s been given a high armour rating.
Girlfriend: Hi hon, how was your day?
Achilles: Pretty gorey fight. They were playing to kill.
Girlfriend: Oh yuck, you have not cleaned off yet! You have brains all over your shirt and eyeballs sticking out of your pocket!
Achilles: Yea, I tried walking back to Archon, but the schools had let out and all the kids were screaming at the blood. Don’t worry, I will remember to clean the chunks out of the shower filter this time.
Great call! Since Maxima is clearly visible in the same field of sky as the one he was just smashed into.
Yea, Paddy did specify that he should be aimed at someone with a ‘high armour rating’, so it is a sensible tactic. The follow on scene I described would only be if he was used against glass cannons and other squishies.
However, I would find it depressing, in Achilles’s shoes, if my primary contribution to fights was being a living projectile. But, despite my black take on it, he clearly has a hoot being thrown around, so the suggestion is a good one.
Yeah, at least he got to shame the laser guy before he continued his comedy life as the super heroic version of a bar of soap in a steamy shower. I’m sure Dave will give him a take down here somewhere. Its a pretty large group of shooters. They can’t all be or have brick protection.
Shield? Hey, they must flay him and make a… uh… yeah right, he can’t be cut or pierced… damn it, another good idea ruined.
A trio-attack. Halo (being the ADHD-whacko) grabs Archilles with the hent-orb, uses him as flail while being shielded or flying, then swings him at a bad-guy in a way that ends the bad-guy right between Archilles and Anvil, turning baddie into smush and powering Anvil.
Or, just for fun, ball games (Archilles being the ball)XD
Next page:
Halo flash-grabs Archilles per hento-orb and bungees him back at any villain, maybe even Concretia herself–> Rubble-cretia.
Stretchy and Heel were working with Hot Stuff as vigilantes before joining ARCHON. so it wouldn’t be a shock if they’d done something similar before.
Hahaha, I love those nicknames!
Yea. Although I would have gone with ‘Tendon’ instead of ‘Heel’.
But the point is right too, in that they are already used to working, with each other, against super-villains, as a team.
Yeah, but why are you calling Brooke the bad-guy of the group? o_O
‘Les does have that ‘dashing good-looks’ thing going on, but still…
Can magic work next to technology like that in this universe?
To answer your question with a question, why wouldn’t it be able to? Magic would be pretty useless in this day and age if it couldn’t interact with technology.
Aperently yes
I know of one RPG where the two are incompatible (or at least mostly), as they are like oil and water, in that setting. Where one exists the other does not. So an ultra-tech laboratory would be a magic-dead zone. Conversely an intensely magical area would inhibit the function of advanced technology. However, such settings are rare in literature.
Admittedly there is a traditional distinction between the two. As epitomised by the fact that there are separate genres. Namely science fiction versus fantasy. But there has also been a lot of cross-over and more often than not the two can sit side by side. Often not comfortably, as they can interact in unusual ways. But I see no inherent reason why they could not be used in joint operations. Provided you have experts in both fields ensuring that the magical gremlins do not meet the technological ones.
Plus, if magic did exist in a particular world it is a part of the laws that the universe operates under. Scientists, alchemists and wizards would all be valid professional fields, potentially of equal standing, in that world. Just like we have bio-chemists, mathematicians and physicists all collaborating on common projects, so would those other specialists, if magic was openly known and recognised. In this case it is known, but kept secret. But those who are in on the secret can co-operate fully.
* (insert well known Arthur C. Clarke quote here) *
Technomancer by SJGames (GURPS) gives a good job of showing how science and magic can work together.
SJ Games also put out a source book to work with their Illuminati worldbook, called I.O.U: Illuminati University. Some of the courses at the University include rules & ideas on how to combine magic & tech for some very interesting effects.
Yea, I love that system. Haven’t seen my copy of it for ages. Lost in one of the crates around here, despite several hunts for it. The latest edition of it is on my list of things to buy, when I get my paws on money again, someday.
I liked how magical potions and golems are produced in factories. Plus find it hilarious that a high-tech * wizard might choose to use his spells to recharge a depleted power cell, for his blaster, rather than use a direct damage fireball type spell.
* Assuming higher tech than the default setting.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that literature involving magic-vs-tech nullification is rare… I’ve read a few series that explored that. Terri Windling’s Borderlands series, and Mercedes Lackey’s Tales of the SERRAted edge series, are two that come to mind off the top of my currently subcaffeinated head, as a quick example.
I think the current sci-fi/fantasy zeitgeist is more interested in seeing tech and magic work together rather than antagonistically, though.
Comparatively rare, rather than in an absolute sense. There are a lot more examples of harmonious coexistence than non. For instance every D&D based novel has an implied compatibility. Although the technology level is typically mediaeval, or renaissance for some things, there is no indication that magic is incompatible with technology. And some races specialise in convoluted or complex technological gadgets.
I could go to my library upstairs and pull out 20 examples of books which show magic and (low or high) technology in the same place, to every one that had some kind of restriction. And even then it tends to just be blocking firearms or one specific piece of technology that is inconvenient to the plot line, rather than being diametrically opposed concepts.
Even going outside of literature, and thinking on folk-lore and occult sources, I cannot think of anything which would imply that magic was blocked by technology, or vice versa. Remedies against spells tend to be other spells, symbology, religion or naturally occurring things. Possibly the problems that faerie kind and other ilk have with cold iron weapons could be used as a basis for a supporting argument. But not a lot else springs to mind.
An interesting example of the ‘diametrically opposed’ is Tales of MU, which is set in a “DnD High Fantasy” universe, yet with modern-day trappings. The fundamental laws of that universe are magic based, to such an extent that merely the act of utilizing the Scientific Method- testing and repeating experiments attempting to get the same results every time- will cause the Universe to “notice” and cause severe backlash. Basically, Science makes your head asplode.
So the Roadrunner would be well suited to that setting then. He is good at running on, before the fundamental laws, such as gravity, notice that he is violating them.
Mind you, he would be much better in a stew, for Wylie E. Cyote, but we can’t have everything.
Most of the cases where Tech and Magic don’t interact well are cases of axiomatic world settings such as White Wolf’s Mage and the ancient Torg game.
The idea being that the collective belief of a group of people sets the axioms for a specific area, so you might have an area where Tech just simply fails and one where it works.
The SERRAted Edge series specifically mixes tech and magic – magic has problems with iron, but if you use aluminum or titanium instead of steel you’re fine.
Of course that’s meant the main magic users are a bit out of touch with current tech (having hidden from the world for the past couple hundred years), and are keeping somewhat isolated – but the main characters often mix tech and magic quite deeply. (Tannim’s armor comes to mind.)
The Sidhe COULD use Iron (Quite a few used assault rifles during an assault on an Unseelie group ) but they had to be insulated against (Silk lined gloves were used). And there were a couple Sidhe “Mage-smiths” that could use their magic on iron to a limited extent.
True; it’s been a while since I read it so it’s coming back to me. Yeah, iron doesn’t negate magic in the series – it’s an extreme allergen to (most) magical races and changes how magic reacts, but it doesn’t negate it. Resistance could be built up, and the changes in how magic reacts could be learned and adjusted for. (I’m remembering a building surrounded by a field of iron bars that popped up when attacked – no one could shoot straight once they were up, but the defenders had practiced and knew how their shots would curve.)
Actually the posts (which were also wrapped in silk until deployed) that were set around caught the elf-shot and channeled them like a particle accelerator. They channeled all those caught shots into a..I can’t remember if it was a Troll or the Bane Shide that was part of the attackers. Some nasty Unseelie beastie anyway. The story was “Born to Run” BTW
It was the Nightmare that the Bane Shide was riding.
And yes, they came up with the scientific laws of magic and being able to calculate the warping effects of iron on magic and how to use that to their advantage, much like one calculates a trajectory for escape velocity based on the warping effect gravity has on said trajectory.
One of the most awesome blendings of magic and science (plus technology) that I have yet seen in a story.
Yeah, it’s been years since I read that story. Certain Iron/Steel alloys reacted differently. Know the alloy, know the effects.
I saw a teaser in her bard series/tie-in where a Sidhe mage adjusted a race-car’s engine during a race(i.e. while it was driving). There was a comment/thought that it was only cold iron and the iron in the engine was heated to the point his magic worked about usually.
Heart surgeons do something much like that, but harder, every day.
Think that was in Wheels of Fire? My favorite things were the Elvensteeds (Magical shapeshifting horses) Masquerading as sports-cars.
I think the current trend of ‘analyze all the Magic!’ is coming from how scientists and physicists are breaking into fields that the lay-person can’t distinguish from magic. Materials that cause invisibility, teleportation of particles, multiple dimensions and alternate universes are no longer long-distant fiction, but rather next-decade possibilities.
But don’t forget the stuff that we thought was science fiction and is now last-decade or older. Like cloning.
Mind you, we also thought Lunar colonies were a given. Except they never materialised.
Ah, a Willworker. What Spheres? Don’t let the Sleepers catch on.
I favour life and time, with enough power to supplement independent creations. But, do not worry. Paradoxically we can talk openly. They will put it all down to games.
*waves paw*
These are not the magics underpinning reality that y’all are looking for.
I vastly enjoyed the idea that “technology” was in fact just another paradigm for working with the forces of Magic. It was the form preferred by the Technocracy.
I was always more partial to Matter and Forces.
Dr. Impulse, Member in Good Standing, Sons of Ether.
Yea, that being the subtle irony in citing that system as being one where magic and technology don’t mix. Where it turns out that technology is simply one branch of magic that has come to dominate the world. But, in itself is no more valid, nor more powerful, than any of the other branches.
But, what can I say, life often is not as it appears on the surface.
Time, Entropy, and Corrosondace.
So many ways to do things that way.
One word…. Shadowrun
“Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don’t understand it.”
– Florence Ambrose
Huh. Didn’t expect Freefall to come into play here.
Anyway: I’m a longtime shadowrun player myself, where magic and technology exist side by side. And there are both parts where they exclude or at least hinder each other and some where they work together. Sometimes with a bit of difficulty, sometimes quite well.
Question sometimes being of course of what exactly you define as ‘technology’.
Personally I view it as being anything more complex than a crowbar. Bow and arrow. Hinge. Pulley. Cart. Although, technically, even a stone knife is technology, but I think more on tools with moving parts, rather than simple shaped objects.
Of course a high-tensile steel crowbar is actually a product of fairly sophisticated technology. But the principle of what you do with it is no more complex than any sturdy stick. So if magic works around sticks (which it should, given the association of staves and wands) then, barring metal allergy, it should work around a crowbar.
Mind you it is easy to define an artificial point at which magic becomes incompatible with science. Such as in electronic devices. And cater a mechanism around that. But that would be an arbitrary story telling device, rather than based on any sort of known precedent.
Of course, on the other paw, we can always argue that magic used to be commonplace and viewed as an everyday occurrence. Only fading away as we became a more scientific and technological society. Plus, even when we developed more advanced technology, persisted in remote, rural locations. And we know that magic rituals still carry on in many areas around the world even today.
Thus we could infer that, as we do not see it in the more developed parts of the world, it is the presence of technology itself which prevents magic from manifesting. As opposed to magic not being real. Which would actually be a fair stance to take, for someone who did not have a fixed ‘the world works the way the text books say and no other way’ stance.
That’s practically Dabbler’s whole shtick.
This kind of knee jerk response to seeing magic and technology co-existing is a sign of just how strongly The Dresden Files universe has affected its fans minds. (even I felt a tug at seeing it and I am old and well read enough to know better by far!!)
Try Palladiums RIFT’s RPG. Came out in 90
I’ll read up on it for fun at some point but I gave up on the idea of actually playing a pen and paper (and dice) RPG with like actual people a long time ago. No one in my area of my generation was interested.
Exactly where I was going with my question. I thought that was a cool mechanic in the DF universe. But Word of Dave hath spoke
I had an RP where the setting would “Flux” between High-Magic and High-Tech. Most people could either use Magic or Tech (Depending on what state the sity was in at their birth), even if the other state was in effect, just they wouldn’t be as effective. (For example:A mage using a “fly” spell wouldn’t travel as fast or as high during the Tech, While a laser weapon wouldn’t burn as hot and require a longer recharge between shots during Magic). Only a few people, born during the short window the states change, actually have their abilities change with the city. (A winged-knight during the Magic would become a Cyborg during the Tech)
Piers Anthony had a series of books set in alternate worlds that occupied the same space in parallel dimensions. Magic worked on one side of the divide and technology worked on the other side. Selected people could cross from one side to the other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprentice_Adept
I remember that series. It had more to do with the special rocks changing between the two areas than anything else. Theoretically if you could get Phazeite to stay stable on Proton, spells would work just fine.
I vaguely remember a book from a completely separate series where magic was actually electricity somehow. I remember thinking that there might be issues in high-voltage areas simply because of a sensory overload rather than a lack of power. Even powerful mages tend to siphon off power rather than taking an entire source into themselves at once.
In the Elfhome series “magic” is a type of energy that acts similar to electricity. Spells are circuits drawn with iron filings and the elves that can use magic in combat cannot have metal near them because it will warp the magic and maybe ground it out through them. Tinker (the main character) designed “batteries” to drain and store magic that accumulated on her junkyard electromagnet.
The Wizard of _______series by Simon Green/ Hawk (cant remeber which).
Magic replaces petroleum as power source for world.
Did it have a pair of ruby slippers in it? ;-)
No just some runestones and decendants of Merlin.
Its a sign of how much I love the Dresden Files universe that this also occurred to me for a second (since Harry Dresden and other mages in his universe of any power are lethal to sophisticated electronics) but then my long years of reading other series like Shadowrun kicked in and I realized that was silly.
Maybe, I’m wrong and you aren’t a Dresden fan as well but this comment had that feel to it. :)
Exactly where I was leading with my question. My Dresden Files nerd penis is huge and long (If you get the reference…)
We might refer to magic as simply:
“technology that scientists have not yet managed to understand/control”.
Nicely put. But the ‘yet’ implies that the will be able to achieve it. There may be fundamental things which cannot ever be uncovered by the scientific method, be it magic, psionics or otherwise. In particular anything which can be affected by the observer’s state of mind or world-view. Scientists have a very rigid world-view, and, as such, many things could be out of their reach.
Not quite. People with a large ego have very fixed world-views. Scientists simply measure what Reality is and try (often failing in new areas) to use what they’ve measured to predict other parts of Reality. The bigger the “I’m right” attitude, the worse scientist the individual is.
And therein lies the problem. Here I think is a fair summary of the difference you are highlighting:
Good scientist – Maintains objectivity, does not pre-judge an experiment and is willing to accept he is wrong.
Bad scientist – Biased, prejudiced and inflexible.
Then bear in mind the point you were responding to, namely my statement that:
So let us take one out there concept, and use that as an example. Say yoga practitioners, who maintain that they can levitate. In order to do so, they must get into the right mental state of mind. One where they have absolute belief that they will succeed in floating up into the air. They must know it with every fibre of their being. If they anticipate failure they will not succeed. Then look at the attributes above, and see which of the two scientists might be able to do that. Clearly the good scientist will not, whereas the bad scientist may be able to.
But, it gets worse than that. Because my statement was not about the subject, but the observer. So if it is not just the yoga practitioner who has to be in the right state of mind, but also anybody witnessing the act. Hence, when controlled experiments are conducted, the only people who get results are those scientists who are known to be bad scientists. The good scientists cannot replicate the results.
If an experiment cannot be replicated, then, by scientific standards, it is invalid. The bad scientist gets classed as a crackpot, ceases to be respected, get funding or receive any credibility.
All this is further complicated by the fact that there is a potential way around this. Namely using surveillance, so there is no active observer, but there is a record. Trouble is we live in a society where every schoolchild is taught scientific principles and methodology. So any adult will be aware of them. And, if they are aware of being part of a scientific study, will be thinking in such terms. Which immediately puts them in a state of mind where they may not be able to levitate.
The obvious solution being covert filming. Although quite how you would set this up a controlled trial of such a precise activity, without the knowledge of the participants, is not so simple. But we will gloss over that as there is another hurdle. Namely that such is illegal in many places. And it is certainly unethical to conduct a scientific study of individuals, without them giving consent.
So, if you are on the ethics board of a university and are approached by a crackpot scientist, wanting to conduct an unethical, and possibly illegal, study into a weird field like magic, psionics or yoga levitation, would you be willing to risk the good reputation of the institution and say “yea, go ahead”?
Sorry to say, but the argument you’re using is ridiculous. Specifically, you suggest that this “magic” has such specific requirements that it cannot be replicated reliably. Let me ask – what use is magic if it’s unreliable? In what case would you pick possible self-immolation with a magic fireball over, say, karate? Both would require immense practice to use, but one of them has a much lower chance of getting you killed before the fight even starts.
Which brings me to my next point. If a human can replicate this “magic” with any sense of consistency, the suggestion that a “good scientist” cannot replicate a situation requiring belief is flawed. Scientists believe in their instruments, they believe in their findings, and they believe in the scientific process. They didn’t have these beliefs all along; each belief was formed by experience. In the good scientist’s case, their curiosity overrode any doubts they might have had. Thus the good scientist would be more likely to understand and execute said magic, not less.
Finally, the assumption that magic is constrained to the individual mind is a weak one. It’s certainly possible that only people could use some hypothetical ability – but almost all current evidence points to incidences of “life” being merely complex machines. By making this opposite (and well-supported) assumption, it therefore should be possible to build a machine which utilizes whatever “magic” may exist. Which of course is where the idea that “magic is undiscovered science” comes from.
—
On the subject of meditative levitation, it’s likely a proprioceptive error. A few years back I tested meditation with no preconceptions about the practice, including not having read any literature on the subject. It was quite boring; nothing happened at all. So I read about meditative relaxation, and found it quite easy to relax. Then I read an article about meditative “visions.” To nobody’s surprise, I then had one of those “visions.” I kept reading more and trying other practices; one of them being that “levitation” bit. I eventually came to the conclusion that meditation opens the mind to powerful self-suggestion, under which your basal desires dictate the resultant experience. The fact that I wasn’t able to consciously dictate the content of the experience helped form this conclusion. Was this magic? No. It’s regular old neuroscience – easily explained by what little we understand about the brain. People can fool themselves into seeing and feeling things that don’t happen because the brain interprets our senses rather than simply showing and processing everything as is.
The sooner people stop creating whimsy about what science can and can’t explain, the sooner we can rouse the resources to explain what we don’t understand.
Incorrect. Firstly it is not my intention to claim that any of the things on the list may exist. Merely citing them as examples of things that could. One of them may be real. Or it may be some other phenomenon that we are not familiar with.
Secondly, I said that it cannot be replicated by good scientists. Which is not to say that it cannot be repeated reliably, merely that the only people who could do so would be people that good scientists would find untrustworthy and lacking in credibility. Finally, my argument did not state that magic, or any such phenomenon would be useful. Merely hard (or possibly impossible) for science to detect.
‘Sadly it is your argument that does not hold water. If belief is required in order to activate the power, you cannot believe in it after activating the power. You must believe in it before doing so. The scientists prior experience is that magic (et al) does not exist. Therefore they lack the conviction and mind-set to be able to invoke it. Further more, because of their very scepticism, such cannot be demonstrated to them in the first place.
You fail to understand reality. Everything is constrained to the individual mind.
*pats the good scientist on the head*
Dabbler’s cybernetic arm says yes.
the writing on Gwen’s spell amuses me, I am not understanding or recognizing the Latin-like part, but the other lines i do recognize.
the outer line is by a lot of police actors, which one did it first i am not sure.
the 4th line in is a paraphrasing from star wars. and the 5th line is from far to many sources to nail down.
More or less along the lines of:
“the unknown secret lies hidden”
and
“and to those who by chance know latin”
But my decades old measly three years of latin might fail me here.
Same here.
As to the Latin (in my limited understanding): Ignotus, Latet, Absconditus, and Occultus(?) all mean roughly the same thing, unknown, hidden, concealed, or obscured. Et quo temere Latin would be something like: “…and therefore exceedingly Latin.”
Okay Lukkai probably has a much better translation there. :lol:
I found that yours made more sense.
Think of it like this (not a translation): “Difficult to understand, and therefore surely Latin.”
…
…Since I really don’t know beans about Latin, I can only say that “it’s all Greek to me”…
…
Seriously, I’d have less trouble with Egyptian Hieroglyphs than I would with Greek or Latin.
I concur with the first part, it seems a repeated, reaffirmed idea.
The verb “temere” is more like “to fear”. I would take that phrase literally as: “and those who fear Latin”. It is supposed that “demonic” creatures are afraid of the Latin as itself, but I am mainly guessing.
I will take that back, I mistook “quo” as “quod”.
I checked (sigh) I lost my latin it seems.
Just to not spread missinformation:
“Temere” has many meanings but mainly “by chance”, “at random”, “blindly”.
I mistook “temere” as “timere”, but anyway “to fear” is actually “timeo”, “timere” is a conjugation.
No, timeo is the conjugation, meaning “I fear”. timere is the base form. But we should probably not try to translate exactly.
I fully understand what is written on Maxima’s shirt, but I have got the feeling that someone who really can do Latin would have done it different.
Now you reassured me you are right. How could I forget about “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”?
I did a little more research and there is a lot of inconsistencies between the different on line dictionaries :( The lack of appropiate accents seems to be related.
As a last try I will take “et quo temere Latin” as “and more random Latin.”
Do not forget that there are many versions of Latin. There are the ancient Roman origins, Church Latin, which has many unique aspects as it gets cross-influence from numerous Latin-based European languages, those languages themselves, legal jargon in Latin and so on. The dialect you should be looking for is arcane Latin.
That is a good point.
This whole conversation has put me in mind of an idea: What if you had a spell chant that was three cohesive, fully articulated and formulated spell effects in one, which each built off of, reinforced, and complimented each other?
Oooh… Nifty! :)
Btw: I think the “more random latin” is closer than my attempt.
Arcane latin as in ARCane?
But I imagine most ancient Roman spells to be divine. Are there gods in this setting?
The setting is real world + super powers. So there will be whatever god(s) you believe there are in the real world. Plus there will be plenty of individuals with god-like powers, who, like Marvel’s Thor, will be able to, or may have in the past, pass(ed) themselves off as gods.
There goes the meat shield. Sure, Achilles is unharmed, but that’s one less obstacle in the way of the bad guys towards the softer members of the team.
On the other hand, this may make things more interesting where the other guys and gals get to show their stuff.
At the very least, Achilles bought his comrades a good amount of time. And will do so again, as soon as he lands. If not do more should Maxima decide to give him a little extra push and direction. We know he could handle it. And quite likely have fun as well!
True dat.
Ah! What if Maxima actually grabs him and uses him to block blasts while she closes with their artillery characters? She’s 100% sure he can take it, and only 99% sure she can.
Good point, and considering that the rest of the Guys and gals have been rearmed and refitted in the meantime, Achilleus’ “sacrifice” was not in vain! :D
Remember your training folks: after the shield is moved out of the way, you do what with your sword? Betting there is a blaster, probably Jiggawatt right back there getting ready to test “Concretia’s” grounding ability.
And Achilles isn’t necessarily out of play, he is currently achieving height to test the ranged offensive capabilities of the second line of enemies. Recon in force! Harem could always port just above him and nudge him so that he lands amid the parking lot players. If he was really smart he would be yelling to get them all looking at him and pop a flash bang right in front of his own chest to mess with their vision.
He he.
I wonder, is Leon showing the nerd, in having a grey alien on the back of his laptop. Or, given the company that he keeps, is it a somewhat enhanced machine to the ones we can buy in the high-street?
Looks like an Alienware logo. Gaming brand. I’ve got one of their desktops, and my college sent me a fairly powerful laptop of the same brand.
…Or maybe it’s simply an alienware laptop
:-( *sigh* Showing my lack of tech-savvy street cred. :’-(
I think it’s just a non-copyright-violating nod to Alienware.
lots of nerds like the Alienware brand – they specialize in gaming rigs, but since few things stress a system more than high-end gaming, that pretty much makes them good at anything you’d use a computer for
Expensive as hell though. I just can’t see spending $3k on a laptop.
ARC can.
Tax dollars at work
Yup
Especially since you can get Alienware PCs and Laptops at Wal-Mart…
I made a Precompsognathus write up once for a foam-weapons LARP. They had an ability to simulate camouflage which was triggered by holding up a leaf or blade of glass and saying “I’m hiding, you can’t see me.” twice.
Also…”Stories of Arc-Light” would make an interesting spin off if you get successful enough to hire on extra people.
You use a procompsognathus as your secretary? I know the pen is mightier than the sword, but if that pen is being held by a carnivorous dinosaur, I would be wary about turning my back!
heh, I liked that dino from Jurassic Park….I have a Pathfinder character with an amazingly effective one as a familiar right now.
Just a bit of constructive feed-back. Zephan’s dialogue in the first two bubbles seems fine, and perfectly in keeping with the setting. He is providing information that the heroes genuinely need. The third bubble though seems very off. It is intense exposition but of a type that he is unlikely to be providing to trained team members in the middle of a fight. They know the properties of the gear they are wearing.
An alternative way, that would fit in better, would be something like “Please confirm that you are getting heads-up display target updates.” The reply could be, in panel 2 “Yes, ready for prioritisation, Maxima”. Or in panel 3 “Yes…yikes!” as he goes sailing out the window.
I doubt Halo does, and there is reason to question just how many times the rest of the group has actually had to use this stuff in combat.
Which would be ok if Halo was actually wearing a pair, or if she was being passed some to equip. But she is not. And if they are not familiar with them then they should not have them on. Untested technology does not belong in front of your eyes in a life-or-death situation.
That is a rather black and white view, to support my original assertion, but I think a fair one. Of course, casual banter does have it’s place, to help ease tensions. And it can be viewed as Zephan’s ‘bedside manner’. Or, thinking on it, a reflection of him being unused to heavy combat and carrying on chatting with unnecessary mundane details, to cover his nerves.
So it is not the case of it being totally implausible that he might say it. Merely that it sounded off and artificially contrived, on initial reading. Which is something that DaveB had asked for feedback on, recently. As he was concerned at how to balance exposition vs natural-sounding dialogue.
Personally, I am of the feeling that less is more. Take the heads-up display that the Terminators use, as an example. There has never been any exposition regarding those in the movies. To the contrary, they are used to provide exposition, in some instances, rather than be the subject of it.
Which is something that Dave now has as an option to use himself. Not that he needs suggestions on that front, given the use he has made of the pip-boy and news subtitles in the past.
eh, just seemed to make sense to me when I read it. I wouldn’t want to wear glasses in a fist-fight, its like, almost cliché how bad that is. Also, how do we know Halo isn’t wearing those glasses now? She could have dropped the shield just long enough to get the glasses from Harem. Though, do see what you mean with the heads up for Dave. I just don’t necessarily agree this qualifies as an issue like that, though do agree with your suggestion as to a better way to do it. Terminator Vision is ALWAYS cool.
Personally I’d think a pair of safety lenses would be a fine thing to wear to a super fight. I mean it’s not like they’re actual glass. those things are presumably high-impact poly-carbonate at least as strong as shooting safety glasses and probably have built in flare-comp. Beats the hell out of getting random debris stuck in your eye.
If it rang true to you, then that is equally valuable feedback to mine. If not more so. I tend to be on the low end of the exposition tolerance scale. So am probably not representative of the majority of the readership.
I assumed they’d been tested before so the Teams have an Idea of what they do and may have trained with them, Besides using the Safety glasses in the “Normal” Military. this is just the first Combat Deployment of the HUD systems.
I like the gynostar guest stuff – it’ll be interesting to see where it goes and how this guy goes down :-)
(Part of me would like him to get objectified himself as, say, his female friend’s ideal of what a guy should be… meaning that, among other things, he sees the error of his ways while under its effects).
Typo alert: info box says “Desmontrated” rather than “Demonstrated” abilities, and I can’t imagine they’d have had to type that bit on the fly.
Let’s give Dave a break until he gets around to fixing it and just say the act of throwing the glasses through a wall caused a glitch in the display.
I wonder if Dabbler’s cyber-eye is tied into the system and gives her similar data?
Yes Dabbler’s eye is tied into the Arc-NET so I don’t have to draw shades on her. :)
What are you gonna do about Sydney’s glasses? Put the lenses into a frame with the needed telemetry links?
Just use Google Glass
they don’t make them for corrective lenses yet.
Perhaps Dabbler has cobbled together a “clip-on” version? It would be a 5 minute job for her.
If it is thrown through a gap in a wall, then it should be “defenestrated”.
I wonder if Heatwave can dampen flames, as well as create them? Mr Amorphous seems to be making a bee-line towards a fiery opponent!
I hope that he can grab the window frame, or otherwise stop himself.
Considering that it was his other arm that was super-stretched last comic, I’d say he’s at least trying to make a grab for the wall.
Given the dust cloud around his stretched hand I bet he at least got a grab. Hope it last.
He he. Even though she isn’t in the who’s who, I have spotted Maxima sneaking onto the page.
Wonder if Maxi is going to do a mvoe like doing in DCUO: take a flier up as high as they can go, then turn off flight “Downcoming!!”
Also, would Maxi have the presence of mind to say something like “Mind if I drop in?”
next page, achilles says something while being in LEO(low earth orbit) to Maxima.
“Hey boss! I just passed a keyhole satellite! A little help? Please?”
Panel 4.
Keyhole or not, he really need to be seeing an urologist, if he is passing satellites.
In space, no one can hear you scream. or talk either.
True, but throat-mics use the vibrations of your larynx, not the air, so Hard-Vacuum shouldn’t interfere with transmission, RANGE however might.
Range does not interfere with transmission, but it can play havoc with reception.
You know what I mean =P
Alien reference number 2!
Arc-light is using a somebody else problem field. Nope nothing to see here we aren’t your problem.
…Then I’d be surprised if at least *someone* in the ARCLight team isn’t named Slartibartfast…
It reminds me of the “don’t see me” spell in “The Doubled Edge” series by Mercedes Lackey. It’s much more efficient than true invisibility as it merely deflects attention.
Tannim from the SERRAted Edge series used a similar spell. Made driving hazardous because it simply made people’s minds not register your presence so you could get hit someone would try and enter the lane where you’re at.
I preferred the version I created for one of my arch-mages. It worked much like the Jedi mind trick in convincing people not to direct their attention your way. Because, whatever you are doing is ‘perfectly normal’, unremarkable and not as important as whatever else is going on elsewhere. So very similar to the one being used by Gwen.
That way there is no problem with doors opening by someone unseen, attracting attention. Doors are there to be opened, and people are used to hearing them opening, when they are not looking directly at them. And they do know somebody unimportant is there, so it is to be expected that a door might be used.
Likewise your enemies just happen to be looking in some other direction, because there is something more interesting or important that way. Every time you walk past them. And, because it is not sense specific, it is a foil to all means of detection (by thinking enemies, anyhow). They know you are there, but just do not consider it worthy of focussing senses or attention on you. Or commenting on your presence, for that matter.
It also meant you were not in particular risk of being bumped into. But even if they did, it would be a ‘perfectly normal’ bump, not worth paying attention to. So not quite ideal to duplicate that spell for use in a high-tech setting, on a motorway. If a fender bender did happen, the urge to ‘exchange insurance details’ might be considered more normal than ignoring the incident, after all. But not as risky as most cloaking capabilities.
In this case it was more like a program telling a security computer to ignore and erase your presence. The eyes see you but the mind just never registered it. He also had what he called a “Look at me” spell he used a couple times to catch someone’s attention.
Sounds like the Arcane ability from White wolfs Mage rpg
It’s similar to how the best way to infiltrate a large building/organisation is to pretend you belong there: ie, no stopping at doors and looking around to see if you are being watched, just walk up to it, open it and walk through, if it is locked and spotted, you can simply say you keep forgetting where you put the key
You know, this sort of intelligence is usually done in the after-action analysis, but if they can do it in combat it has the potential to pay off quite well – tactical intelligence in addition to strategic intelligence. This is another demonstration of the “don’t mess with a well-coordinated team” idea that Harem illustrated by her fast-equipment gathering trick.
@Yorp
What codes do you use to make the hidden text?
The word spoiler, contained in square brackets. I usually copy and paste it from the list at the bottom of the page, where it appears as the last item. As such is always conveniently visible when typing a comment. Place that in front of the block of text you want hidden. Then again at the end of the paragraph. But this time you need to place a “/” in between the opening bracket and the word “spoiler”.
Should you want to do more than one paragraph within spoiler text, you need to repeat that procedure for each paragraph.
Guest comic link.
Great job DaveB, I like it a lot :)
+1
Oooh, I thought yesterday’s bonus comic was today’s main comic for some reason >_<
I like Achillies being a living test dummy. The bad guys throw everything they can at him, giving away their powers.
I hereby dub Achilles as “Unbuster”. Long may he create new myths.
Question on the Patreon, is a $600 single donation given the same incentive as $50/mon? Since it works out as a year of $50/mon I would think it would, but Dave B is the one making the rules here. His party/game so he gets to make the rules.
Sure! :)
And he gets to make goofy yells like he is a Duke of Hazard, and in this case by the simple laws of gravity (which Maxima is blatantly ignoring) he gets to fall back into the fight to be annoyingly invulnerable in your face again! YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!
“Yaaa hoo hoo hoo hooey”
Delayed reaction spit-take after I had to pause and say this one in my head a couple of times to “get it”.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that written out before, but it works!
you’re readong one punch man! hell yeah! Saitama is AWESOME!
So, Concretia’s in the Who’s who, does this mean she’s somehow going to make it out of this and become a recurring villain?
She’s been named in the comic and this isn’t the last page she’s on. As to her running longevity, we’ll see.
Did anyone got Flintstones reference? It would have been more obvious if Achilles had shouted “Yabba-dabba-doo!”
That’s Goofy’s yell whenever he falls or something similar happens.
Ahh but Fred was around a couple of hundred thousand* years before Goofy was. Goofy was probably just doing a Flintstones riff.
* Give or take 65 million years to account for the presence of dinosaurs.**
** Yes, it can be a positive or a minus there. Given how we are working to bring back extinct species, a la Jurasic Park. And have just found another way of sampling preserved prehistoric life. Especially given how history is doomed to repeat itself, if we fail to learn from our mistakes.
We might go through a period analogous to the Flintstone documentaries, at some time in the future. Only to have a Goofy-like inhabitant on Earth 65 million years later. Man that would be depressing. Not that I am sure that present-day Earth would be that appealing a vision for an ancient dinosaur oracle to have had.
Duuh! I meant name Concretia!
“I name this concrete after my niece Concretia…
Stone age is over! Concrete age begins!”
I love the bit of trivia that there are examples of concrete construction, built in ancient Greece, which still have not set even today!
So the next time a builder tells you that they have to wait for the concrete to set, before they can get on with the next job, make sure that you either find something else for them to do, or take them off the clock. Otherwise your labour charges might be a bit more than you, or your descendants, were anticipating.
In the first panel there’s “We’ll be be id’ing anyone”
We have seen Peggy’s desk back at headquarters. How much do you want to bet that when we finally get to see Mr. Amorphous’ desk that it has a ‘Stretch Armstrong’ action figure on it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_Armstrong
I used to have one of those when I was a kid. Also used to have a lot of *original* GI Joe stuff too. At some point along the line, my mom threw out most of those old toys…
…I COULD HAVE BEEN A MILLIONAIRE BY NOW…
…two pairs of tech glasses that may be in pieces at the end of this. Between that and when the villains/goons see their medical bills there may be a swift alignment conversion to avoid bankruptcy.
I still think Achillies should try and learn from Math. A karate (for a start) black belt that absolutely, positively, cannot be physically harmed and can therefore devote 100% effort to attacking? He’d be mowing down glass cannons and goon squads by the score!
Why bother with martial arts? Give the man a gun.
Suicide belt.
Guns and explosive belts are lethal force. For those times when the DO NOT KILL rule is active a skilled martial artist with invulnerability would be extremely useful.
Remember that Hollywood bank shootout some years back where the two guys with heavy body armor exchanged about a million rounds with the cops? Now imagine Achillies dropped in there after just a day of basic police training – he could walk right up to one of them, trip him, disarm him, and then cuff him all while under continuous machine gun fire. A couple months training under Math he could do the same in super fights.
Nah, go for a grappling art like Judo or Akido. About the only problem he has is if he gets locked up. Sure, they might not be able to hurt him, but they can keep him locked down and no longer a threat. He needs something to be able to counter that.
Plus, he would be the ultimate guy to apply a joint lock to something exceedingly dangerous to make a weak spot that someone can exploit, because while he might not be THAT much stronger than a human, you’d be surprised what a very little amount of relative strength can apply when using the victim’s own arm as a lever for mechanical advantage.
Technically we haven’t seen him in a position where he could go on offense, and therefore don’t yet know if he knows martial arts or not. His strategy is to “Taunt his enemies until he can get his hands on them”, which means he probably knows some kind of grappling/wrestling techniques; if his invincibility works to the point where people can’t even bend his joints against his will, he could put even super strong people into unbreakable holds. So far he appears to be taunting pseudo-cyclops so that the guy doesn’t start trying to blast someone else, and maybe trying to bait him into grab range, when concretia sucker-punched him into the sky.
His main focus isn’t combat though, he mainly works in private sector jobs where invincibility is really handy (ultimate stuntman/astronaut). He’s old enough to have had time for combat training, but it doesn’t seem to be one of his interests.
Dunno why people keep calling him invincible. He’s invulnerable. He’s indestructible. He’s *not* invincible. Just push him down a well. (This is Spartaaa!!)
Hey, the RSS feed isn’t working for me.
Someone may have beaten me to it but…
Rock Hard Abs?
Well if she is Italian it could be calcestruzzo (according to google translate that is) or Beton (Betong) in a dozen or so European variants.
But do not take her “for granite”
I would have thought it would be trickier than that to throw a stretchy person like Mr Amorphous. Sort of like trying to throw a large beanbag, if the part you are holding weighs less than the rest, would he really go very far? Or is this a ‘caught off guard’ type of thing?
Yeah, probably just ‘cog’, like with ‘Les (he didn’t even see the punch that stratosphered him)
It looks like Leon has gotten the glasses display panel updated. However, it may now be calibrated for Dabbler’s species since it reads ‘demon-trated’ abilities.