Grrl Power #213 – A manxome foe
So Grrl Power as a team has had a few different rosters over the years before I started the comic. Maxima, Anvil and Dabbler were pretty much always on it, and I’ve mentioned before, odd though it may sound, that Sydney was the most recent addition. The other slot was up in the air for a bit. Originally it was occupied by Jabberwokky here. (Yes, Jabberwokky is intentionally misspelled – for branding purposes, though I’m not sure Jabber is aware criminals aren’t allowed to profit from their story. As for merchandising rights, who knows?) For a while Jabber was a lock, then I became dissatisfied with her as I realized in her original inception, she was really just DC’s Vixen. Vixen if you don’t know has animal mimicry powers, so calling on a Boa Constrictor lets her give serious bear hugs (presumably calling on bear powers would grant the same) calling on a rhino lets her smash into people and it would seem, weigh a great deal more somehow. I didn’t know about Vixen till well after I made Jabber, but once I saw her in the animated Justice League it bothered me. Then for a while it was a toss up between her and Harem. Harem always could make copies and had the single mind, but it wasn’t until I thought of combining duplication and teleportation that she really gelled and Jabber was off to the standby pool. Anyway if it seems that Jabber has a tad more personality than the other villains so far, that’s why.
Jabber may seem to still have just animal mimicry powers, after all calling out “Cheetah Style” results in super speed, but there are some significant differences to her power set now that aren’t evident on this single page.
Now we move on to the requisite announcements. I finally updated the vote incentive! Thanks for hanging in there.
As always I will be at A-kon this year (June 6-8 in Dallas) and as I did last year, I’ll be doing a panel on Friday. It seems to be the same one. Humor-Based Webcomics 1: Humor in Story. I’ll try to think of something new to say, but in any case, if you can, make sure to swing by!
In case you missed it, my third Gynostar Guest strip is up today. The current arc starts here.
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Clever way of handling things. Firmly establish that the heroes have formidable powers. Then, when comparable opponents turn up, you can tell they are such just by the reactions of the heroes. Especially if, in this case, she can retain respect, even after a pratfall.
That’s why I’ve often found to superhero stuff to be surprisingly similar to professional wrestling. They used to have wrestlers face jobbers all the time. A jobber was a wrestler sent in to be curb stomped by a higher-profile wrestler and make him look good. They were rather valuable for that skill, but obviously not as highly thought of by fans. That helps build up a wrestler as skilled or powerful until they face off against another wrestler built up to look that good. That’s why Ric Flair and Sting (in their prime) might have lots of nobodies in the weeks leading up to a 45 minute long match ended by the time limit.
I don’t much care for that system anymore, but that’s me.
I used to watch the UK wrestling. Back in the days when there were only three TV channels available. There you still had the showmanship, and posing. But you also had genuine fights, in between the posturing. Assuming that they were up front about it, the only ones they staged were certain potentially deadly moves, such as when Big Daddy or Giant Haystacks would drop on somebody from the top of the ropes.
It did make me wonder how they would handle mixing in the odd choreographed move into an otherwise fair fight. Not that I ever checked to see if such denials of fixing were hyperbole. But they conducted it in such a manner that it felt credible and consistent with those claims. Which kept things entertaining.
Whereas the WWF fights just turned me off, by being far too obviously stage managed. I enjoy being taken by surprise, and the suspense of a genuine fight, too much to forgo that, for style over substance. Although I understand that is a matter of taste, as there are clearly a lot of fans of the spo… umm… theatre.
No, I still call it a sport. It’s really more spectacle than competitive sport of course unless you include the politicking that goes on there. It’s as far an athletic sport as it takes for them to have to be in as prime a shape they can be so they don’t break their necks on a botched move. I’ve been calling it a cooperative sport for a long time now.
agreed, I grew up with old AWA wrestling, if a guy used a chair on someone you saw all the blood (and a couple times the skin flap) and the guy WASN’T there the next week or they had some really obvious stitches if they were. These days you’ll see a guy get “Pounded” with a chair and there’s not a mark on them afterwards.
Yeah, that was also, to me, the big difference between the WCW and WWF hardcore matches: WCW used everything, including the kitchen sink (can remember a match where they used thousands of thumbtacks/drawing pins, and you saw the guys back covered with them, may not have done much damage but they would still hurt) whereas over in WWF the most they used would have been a chair or maybe HHH’s fracking sledgehammer
Look up the 82 Starrcade I believe with Piper and Valentine in a dog collar match. When people mock me for liking wrestling because it’s all fake, I show them that one. There’s a good reason the fights have been staged since like 1905, because if they were all like that people would start dying.
One story mum likes to tell sometimes, is how at one match a little old granny was busy knitting in the front row, the Heel came along doing his Heely job of pissing off the spectators, and granny sticks a needle in his arse :D
Of course it was staged, but it’s still funny :D
I heard of a similar story Jim Cornette told about a Memphis wrestler named Tojo Yamamoto. He was a heel who would get people riled up by poking a toothpick under a face’s nails when he had them in a hold and the ref couldn’t see.
He was walking down to the ring one night and this old lady picks up her chair, a wooden folding chair, and brought it down right on his head. Not staged or anything. They just couldn’t kick her out because she was an old lady.
To me, WCW’s fights were real (or at least, they were better at hiding it), the only time you knew it was fake was the time when Sting climbed up on the big TV thing, got lit on fire and then thrown off (you knew it was fake and they used a stunt double because Sting never wore a t-shirt), could understand the reason for it: Sting may be good at the wrestling, but doing a stunt like that took a proffesional stuntman to do pull it off with out serious injury or death
Also, WCW usually managed to fit in 3 or 4 matches in each episode, whereas WWF only managed maybe 2 between all the talking bullshit (still gutted that the time went to Vegas in ’01 was just after they closed their arena in the Excaliber Hotel, like within a month or less, they still had some of their props/billboards half-packed away :()
They used to have legitimate fights mixed with wrestling cards at one point.
As for me, I’m fine with it being more colorful. WWE is too much like a soap opera for me and I really liked all the characters of the Attitude Era. Nowadays, I prefer Chikara, where they’ve taken some ideas from Japanese and Mexican wrestling. It’s also generally faster, and they can pull off some really good technical wrestling too, like with Mike Quackenbush. At least when they have wacky characters, they’re having fun with it and being entertaining.
When WWE has wacky characters, it’s because a writer didn’t see a reason not to make some guy run around acting dumb. At least in the Attitude ere, the wrestlers had more control over their gimmicks.
As for the classification, that’s difficult. They’re not considered a sport, so the wrestlers can’t get into any sports unions and get insurance that way, but they’re also not considered actors so they can’t get into the Screen Actor’s Guild unless they do a movie. Turns out some crappy movies that have bit parts from wrestlers aren’t just because of the money. They’re for the SAG card and the insurance.
Whenever anyone accuses them of being fake, though, I now ask if they refuse to read Huckleberry Finn because of how fake it is. It’s entertaining fiction, not someone trying to recreate the Mona Lisa and sell it off as the real thing.
And since I couldn’t stop myself from mentioning Chikara, a link to one of their better known matches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XesuznnHaA
Well, I watch WWE because it IS entertaining. I don’t normally enjoy soap operas, but WWE was clever enough to take a soap opera & hose it down with testosterone…THAT’S entertaining!
It makes me happy that Math is happy. I was afraid that him getting denied a decent fight was going to a recurring theme here. I should have known better.
May of been a hilarious running gag, but now the world will never know.
It would may be the origin of him becoming a villain just for a battle against our team
ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!!!!!!!!!!
‘Tis a brillig fighter indeed! Long time the manxome foe Math sought! Gyre and gimble shall they in the wabe!
Now that I think about it, if you’re going to name someone after a nonsensical form of poetry, then you’d think their power would fit the name. Pat from Two Best Friends Play talked about a power he’d like to have: communication confusion. Basically he’d change whatever anyone is saying into whatever else he wants. That’s a really good power when you think about it. You could easily pit close allies against each other.
Then there was that episode of Batman Beyond called “Babel.” The villain garbled everyone’s speech, so nobody could understand one another. It was actually quite diabolical.
would sure as hell prevent any form of tactics forming.
Would this “language scrambling”-power apply to sign language also…?
IIRC anything beyond the most basic hand signals, *Here,there,yes,no, etc* yeah.
Well consider this;
1) How many know American Sign. Europe’s is different.
2) If it comes from the same place as verbal language it would interfere with it anyway.
Well, even if the meaning were to be lost, it would still be a beautiful way of attempting expression. I find BSL (British Sign Language*) to be somewhat more aesthetically pleasing, as it involves both hands. So has a greater impact on a scene, despite loosing out when one hand is otherwise occupied.
Even if I could understand nothing that they were saying, girls would still get +1 charisma if they tried to speak to me with ASL and +2 with BSL.
* I must admit prejudice comes in here too, not from national pride, especially given the origins of ASL, but because I learnt the alphabet, from an encyclopaedia ** as a kid. Granted my brother and I only used it to covertly insult each other at the dinner table, but I still remember more of it today, than I do of the other languages I was actually fluent in at that age.
** This was an early predecessor of Wikipedia. Which was both bigger and smaller, at the same time. And made of dead trees.
So…in BSL, Sydney in battle mode would be mute? :D
I think the closer analogy would be talking with her mouth full. You may be able to make out the broad strokes, and any words which are formed with arm movements. But those that require finger positioning would likely suffer badly with orbs in hand. Which includes spelling out things letter by letter.
Halo may be able to hold the orbs between thumb and just one finger, and still maintain enough grip to keep them in the palm of her hand. But my sparse smattering of BSL characters is insufficient, for me to even make an informed guess, on how understandable that would be for someone reading her gestures.
It depends on the exact effect of the power. Being able to think and being able to articulate that thought are two entirely different things…just ask someone with Parkinson’s! There are many different ways to achieve the power’s result, as described. Is it scrambling the sound waves as they pass through the air? Is it interfering with the speaker’s vocal cords, causing him/her to utter gibberish? Is it interfering with the listener’s ability to interpret sound? Is it interfering with the listener’s ability to interpret language? Only the lattermost, I would say, would interfere with comprehending sign — and if your game system has point costs, the lattermost (being far nastier) better cost more to purchase!
I feel like he’s going for the combined animal theme rather than the poetic nonsense theme,considering her declaration of “Cheetah style” (followed by a bunch of jumping, which cheetahs are not known for). Chimaera may have been a more direct choice.
Yeah, that 2nd-to-last panel looked to me more like a certain sheriff:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet_Rabbit_%26_Droop-a-Long]
Wait until she activates hamster style…
Her unique psychological compulsion, anytime she sees a big wheel or treadmill. Activating it never seems to get her anywhere though.
she learned it by her mother throwing her in a pit of hungry gerbils with food pellets bound to her and left for three days.
Wow – in ancient times (TV in the 50’s), that’s what Froggie did.
I thought Froggie went a courtin.? Okay, stopping now. (c8
IIRC, the key phrase was:
“Plunk Yer Magic Twanger, Froggie!”
…which resulted in a puff of white powder, which hid the exit of the puppet.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy%27s_Gang]
(…& yes, I’m old enough to remember that I watched this show as a kid…)
though not stated in the poem itself, carol later described the jabrwokky as an amalgam of may creatures. thus, someone with the power of many creatures works well for the name
As a self-described Carrollonian and expert in all things Lewis Carroll, it would seem I need to study up a bit more on my favorite author! Thanks! But, could you please site your source?
She’s going to need to beware of “Snicker Snack” Or snickers snacks one of the two….
She does look prone to falling down rabbit holes.
wait till she meets the gold queen dun dun dun
Gold?
I’m waiting to find out if the pratfall, and the bandage over her nose (it appears she’s accident prone), are hints that she’s got some kind of “luck” power.
A bandage on the nose has always been a classic mark of a scrapper.
Aha, I see you spotted this before me. And, other than the luck implication, drew a similar conclusion.
Hey, you sometimes have to take a disadvantage or 2 to get the points for the really good powers. And not everyone has the munchkin idea to take “terrible liar.”
I’m pretty sure that this “bandage” is just one of those breathe easy strips which have been adopted by a lot of pro football players.
I SHIP IT! :)
Halo complaining about language? Pot/Kettle here? Or is that just a snipe at her chosen name?
I thought it was supposed to be sarcasm – ‘smug so-and-so’ isn’t particularly virulent as insults go.
It got me grinning. Which I think was the main intent. That and a deflating poke at Jabberwonky.
My initial reaction to this comic was ‘WHO the heck says “so and so” anymore?! xD ‘ (fair enough, I’ve even sed it a few times myself; but I’m not exactly the yard-stick for normality).
I would have been dissapoint if Halo didn’t poke fun at it.
Doesn’t the jabberwocky end up dying in the end? “He left it dead and with its head he went galumphing back.”
Not the best name choice for a supervillain. For anyone, really.
As long as she’s smart enough to avoid anything that might be a vorpal blade she’s set. Pretty sure the Jabberwokky was effectively invincible EXCEPT to that one thing. Of course I don’t recall the Jabberwokky ever screaming about “Cheetahs” or “Styles” either so maybe she’s just insane ^_^
Don’t worry, she’s mad in a fun way!
Most fun girls and aliens are.
I don’t think losing her head is something she should worry much about while fighting Math. But if she faces off against Conner or Duncan MacLeod, however…
Angus always pees his kilt…
…Which takes the phrase “loosing your head” to a whole different level…
Love the poses in the final panel, but Jab’s hips look “off”.
Leon probably labeled her, “Jabberwokky, a.k.a. Miss Slip-n-Slide”.
The battle fashion of supers in this world is gettin more out there by the minute. This one made me think it was Dr. Frank N. Furter in battle mode for a second till looking closer I decided that which lies under the tattoo were definitely not over developed muscles (though with male supers I could see “muscle cleavage” being a thing! LOL). Can’t wait to see the other wild outfits up close!
I wonder what power mode she used to break the glass and whether that aspect made for clumsiness as a weakness or that is just her own abilities shining through?
I think the temptation to kill steal will be too great for Sydney in her bubble. Question is: How many villains have to be bushwacked from the side before one of the biggies makes a serious attempt to smash her shield or neutralize her in some way (incase her in a second shield, teleport her and the shield away, mind bending illusions since she can see through the thing!, stuff like that). I think having a sniper sitting right in the middle of the battle would be considered a major threat by the oppositions heavies watching their probes fight.
I don’t think it’s a tattoo. It looks to me more like part of the coat, a cloth or even lace inset.
My first reaction to her costume was pretty negative though. Fishnets and garter belts with combat boots and a long sleeved leather coat? It makes her look like she accidentally forget to wear her pants. On the other hand if she ditches the coat and is wearing a sleeveless bodysuit, that would work.
It does beg a question I mentioned a while ago. Why would anyone be wearing a costume in the first place? Is it Halloween? Supers wear them in comic books, but in the real world why would anyone bother?
My guess on the costume/hair/makeup design is that Dave is doing an ‘homage’ to the Pris character from Blade Runner. https://www.comicvine.com/pris/4005-46282/
I must admit that, barring the colour, it is almost incidental to one of the outfits that I made up for my character Sucubes, in City of Heroes. She also had another outfit (a leather one), which had the stripe across the eyes. But again in a softer shade. Being a succubus who chose to fight for good, rather than evil, her clothing was simply a reflection of old habits and her traditional cultural dress.
A third thing which the above reminds me of her, is that she used the flurry of blows power. Partly to give her a bit of extra damage, at low level, but mostly because it looked really cool. As we see here.
Given that she was also a master… errm mistress… at holding, stunning and otherwise incapacitating foes, the combat practicality of her outfit never needed to override her exotic tastes.
Well, I guess the one practical advantage of wearing a costume is that you can use it to hide your identity, the same reason why real life criminals often wear masks and balaclavas, but these villains don’t really seem bothered about that.
So I’m going to go for style, the same reason you think of a cool supervillain name. People like looking good, and a cool costume can convey a message to your enemies and fans.
A terrible costume would also say a lot about you, but not what you want it to say.
They probably figure “If we win we will be ruling America.
If we loose we will be dead or in jail.”That’s pretty much what the US founding fathers thought. Franklin is credited for saying something along the lines of “If we don’t hang together we will certainly hang separately.”
Studies of the American Revolution often forget, or fail to impart, the fact that the revolutionaries were essentially traitors to their country. There was no USA to stand up against England. The USA did not exist. There was only English colonies who had a small majority who were willing to risk their lives in order to oppose the rule of the distant King.
Don’t know if that quote is apocryphal or not, but it was definitely in the script of the Broadway musical, “1776”.
There are actually a lot of supers who have powers that would encourage them to wear a stretchy skin tight outfit. Anyone who moves at super speed, can generate a forcefield a millimetre away from their skin, is superflexible, or superflexes could benefit. Apart from that having distinctive operating apparel reduces friendly fire incidents and while actual uniforms are better for that; having a distinct individual outfit that implies you are something extraordinary may actually increase your power. After all, combine the placebo effect with mentally generated and controlled abilities and the clothes might actually make the villain.
I can see skin around underneath it and the way it is skin tight to her cleavage… I’m still voting tattoo.
With her face exposed its hard to see the practical point (disguise). If her face was even partially covered I could see her trying to make a costume so iconic that others would be unable to associate her street personality with it. Since we can see her face, barring some kind of prosthetic nose, her disguise would only work against people not using face recognition software though it would still work against a lot of regular folk even if they had seen her on TV etc… So I guess it is either for the intimidation factor, cause you would have to be a little unhinged to dress like that?, or this is actually her personal style……….. Maybe getting super powers does such things to the ego that require Demon God level Bad Fashion Sense!
Like her eye make-up though. Takes me back.
The Bandaid on her nose could actually make a decent disguise. People’s eyes are drawn to things that seem out of the ordinary. A bandaid just floating there is out of the ordinary and would draw the eye to it more than the rest of the face. Combine that with the panic of an attack and the average untrained person won’t remember the rest of her face.
Unfortunately there are trained people here, a lot of them, and probably a few cameras, which negates the value of the bandaid. But against ordinary people it’s amazingly effective.
Perhaps that’s her (poorly thought-out) plan…
1 distinctive tattoo
+ blatant cleavage
= “Durr, she had a face…?”
Zack Tilly! They are not costumes, that is there normal outfit
Her outfit looks pretty close to DC Universe’s Black Canary.
https://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/204/9/2/Black_Canary_Inked_and_Colored_by_irongiant775.jpg
Muda da. MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!
Alternatively: Atatatatata/Oraoraoraora.
Whichever you prefer, really. We’re not picky over here.
Wonder if Math will use ‘The Hundred Crack Fist’? But then that could get very messy.
So long as he doesn’t chose gopher-chucks as his preferred weapon.
Wondered if anyone else was feeling a little ATATATATATATATATATATA form Math vs Jabberwokky.
Love the vote incentive! I wonder if Maxima will want to join that demonic twosome?
Okay, I’ve decided, I’m a Mathawokky shipper. They need to be kissing in two pages.
I can see the fight becoming pretty much even, without a clear winner like the fight between Cap America and winter soldier, than suddenly they can’t help it and start kissing passionately, and than one of the bad guys try to take advantage and get Math, and both Math and Jabb hit the bad guy and say at same time “LEAVE US ALONE”
Jab: “I like you, is there any opening in ARCHON? This Merc gig has crap insurance and I can’t find anyone who can stand up this long against me.”
villain 2: sneak attacking “now I got you”
wokky: kick walks up villain 2 “get your own opponent”
math: “nice legs there” wrapping himself around her from behind for a quick grope “moveing that well
outside a fight would be fun. can you?”
wokky: “maybe you could convince me to answer that after a couple beers, mr. fast hands”
math: “names math and I know a great german pub where I could try to question you if your interested”
Cap and Bucky kiss? Really want to go see that movie now
Speaking of the Buckster, anyone catch that bit in Agent of SHIELD where Skye was checking out the “Wall of the Fallen” and picked out Bucky’s name?
If Math is looking for a serious fight with Jabberwokky, they should get married. The fighting could last YEARS…
DECADES even! xD
I, too, have decided henceforth to join the SS Mathawokky. ALL ABOARD~!
*Blows the ship’s horn and sails away with all the Matherwock shippers.
Main problem with the multi-arm approach is it almost universally looks like they’re throwing amateur punches. Also note if you’re drawing a curve as the speed lines as a punch you’re doing it wrong. Punches should generally go very straight and shouldn’t raise the shoulder or let the elbow float away from the torso, unless it’s really close in and you’re gonna throw a hook (although I’ve always found myself vastly preferring the elbow or the ridge hand, never really found the range for the hook punch that great, although maybe that’s cause I’m short and it would make more sense for a taller opponent against a shorter opponent).
You’re probably better off taking some footage from seagal or ong bak and picking some combination of 3 or 4 moves in a row that you can visual put down at the same time. (I say seagal mostly because his choreography usually ends up with rapid exchanges with minimal body movement, not that it necessarily looks the most realistic).
It took a good bit of looking to figure out what the impact symbols meant because they didn’t really look like the blocks should look (although maybe that’s just that I’ve done enough martial arts to pass the tipping point of theatrical martials appearing too campy).
-S
You’re right, but a properly thrown punch has tons of body language to go with it, shoulders turned, torso twisting to bring more speed and power. Anytime you draw the blur of fists, only one of the punches at most will look like a solid move. Putting their torsos in more of a neutral position takes away from the apparent force of each one, but then all the punches coming from the side that’s twisted away would look especially weak. I guess you could draw two torsos blurred on top of one another.
I was sorta thinking like detached combinations of hands floating around the “decisive” technique that are oriented relative to each rather than seeming to all come out like Dr. Oct. So you’ve got like a ghosted right jab from character B being blocked by A who appears to be throwing some counter (starting at say 8 O’clock and progressing clockwise 90deg) to a mid level counter by A getting blocked by B’s free hand and the jab from B collapsing into an elbow (clockwise 90deg) which is pressed through by A and then the thing you draw is the spinning backlist from A that decisively landing on B in response to the “push” on the elbow [or whatever similarly concocted series of events you desire). If you had space you could even spiral those inward to give a sense of the progression of techniques.
Maybe that’s way too complicated layout wise.
In my Ong Bak -> comic book style I was thinking that a series of a few of the above (showing the hits that actually land) could turn a 3 or 4 panel fight into 3 or 4 hits and 18 or so techniques being shown (which would be a flurry of action).
-S
Well, you’re in a prime position to possibly re-define the way people draw multiple rapid blows in still cartooning!
I’d say, experiment, figure out what you like the best, then just use that. You’re still relatively early in your comicking career, after all.
The Flash is often depicted using the multi-punch method of attack.
I found a sample using it from a stationary position at:
https://i.newsarama.com/images/i/000/129/062/original/gorilla-grodd.jpg
I way prefer what DaveB has done, to that. Ignoring Jabberwokky’s waist, as Dave himself is not happy with that, the rest of the image just screams dynamic action. Blows raining down from multiple angles in constantly varying attacks. Which is what you would expect from skilled fighters. They know that if they are repetitive, their foe will be able to anticipate and counter their attacks.
Whereas the Flash’s attacks are appropriate for a normal person, who simply repeats the same attack over and over. So each piece of art is suited to it’s intended purpose. Therefore the only judgement that can be made is on the aesthetics. And the above wins, hands down. And up, and left, and right.
Don’t forget “A+B” ;)
Ok it is hard to tell who is the Bad guy in the last panel ^^
You know… You’re right. Granted she looks more villainous, but that look on Math’s face…
Hes just happy he got a new toy.
Looks to me like they’re both happy to find somebody worth fighting. This definitely needs to end in a shipping – or at least a little tension for later build-up…
Glad to know it isn’t just the good guys who keep having those moments.
Gilda? Is that you?
Dear Luna, you’re RIGHT! O_O
Oh I could give Jabberwokky some advice, if she were a good girl, rather than an enemy.
“Eye of newt, wing of bat, breath of Sydney style”
Instant dragon transformation!
Sydney’s nuke-breath weapon may be measured on Scoville scale, but it’s effects are no less serious than the scale measured in Rads…
Oh, they’re SO gonna bang when that fight is over.
Why wait until it’s over?
They’ve already started banging on each other. If it goes on for too much longer or changes in *context*, however, people are going to tell them to “go get a room.”
But the banging can continue for quite a long time. Our *universe* is still expanding…THE Big Bang is, technically speaking, still banging.
Judgign from that enterace chances are high Jabberwokky is the “Sydney” of the Supervillain team.
From panel 1, and various other panels, it looks like Jabberwokky has a plaster across her nose. I suspect that, without her power active, she is chronically clumsy.
At least she didnt end up stabbing herself in the crotch with broken glass
Looks like Math has finally gotten that fight he wanted, and ageist a hot girl no less. Hopefully Sidney won’t interfere in this one too. Though they both were acting kinda rude when the poor girl fell.
Unfortunately for math I don’t think he has anything that can be considered a vapor blade. If the girls name is any indication of her powers.
*consults tombe, entitled “Battlefield Etiquette, Ancient and Modern”*
It appears that custom allows ‘slap talk’, to anyone who appears intent on inflicting grievous bodily harm, or worse, on your person.
Doesn’t excuse rudeness. And I think you mean “smack talk.”
no syd definitely went for slap talk with wokky’s predecessor and a vapor sword isn’t an issue, a vorpal sword however may be in zefrons bag of goodies so snicker snack
I can see one potential hazard with a female martial artist throwing closed-fist punches. In the last panel she appears to have at least slightly long finger nails. Wouldn’t this risk the possibility of stabbing herself in her own hands?
Not as extreme as you seem to think atleast.
It’ll probably leave imprints where the nails were pressing against the skin, but they should by no means penetrate it.
So mostly mild discomfort
Maybe LeePoN should have taken some grooming advice from Jabber?…
Depends on if you curl your fingers, or just bend the first joint (from your knuckle) so your fingers are flater (not as effective, but means you don’t slice your palm open), and if you practice long enough, it shouldn’t be much of a problem
“Demon stuff.”
Forgive me if this sounds dense, but what does a Jabberwocky have to do with animal-themed martial arts?
The wall-o-text below the comic discribes it pritty well. And besides that, noone knows
Not every name has to be descriptive of their abilities/talents/power
Take DarkVisor for example (a character from the now-defunct Supernating SuperDudes website/game): his power was to “determine who dies, therefore has control over the Living” (you are alive only because he allows you to be, and the dead only stay that way until they wish to return, and not as zombies)
One of his catchphrases was “Life is but a Test… for the Dead!”
I like how even the guys with cool powers are still human and have little accidents like that
So Math can now have a proper superhero name: Beamish Boy! With a battle cry of Caloo, Calay!
“Come to me, my Beamish Boy” takes on a totally different meaning in this context…
Ahem.. Come to my arms, my beamish boy.
Sounds like you got it confused with this song: “Come to me, my little butterfly” (have a version of that song that have not been able to find anywhere, it came free on a little mp3 player, unfortunately have not been able to find a version with that line online, just the SMiLE.DK version)
I’m probably not the first to ask, but what is Jabberwonky bouncing off of in frame 6? In frame 4 we see Syd isn’t that far from Math, so after bouncing off Sydney’s shield there is no reason to bounce from the walls (and as most interior walls are light drywall anyway, she’d go through them if doing any kind of speed).
Or is she actually bouncing off the comic frame walls? Instead of breaking the Fourth Wall, she can bounce off it?
I can think of at least three occasions where the fourth wall has been broken here. Including kidnapping the author. So it would not be without precedent.
That aside, any decent cinematic martial artist, or ninja, can walk on rice paper without leaving a footprint. Or stand on the tip of a branch or the edge of a sword. The best ones can even run across water or the tops of clouds. And Jabberwokky clearly has super powers that can emulate such martial arts prowess.
ONe of the cardinal rules of comics art is “don’t violate the panel borders.” Of course there are some exceptions to the rule, but the specific intent of that artwork is to break the 4th wall is usually for the purpose of humor.
Jabber isn’t technically breaking the 4th wall or violating the panel border, just using it to her own advantage…
Tell that to Maxima.
Well, that’s just an example of the exception I mentioned…Maxima violating the borders, for purposes of humor.
Looks like the first of the slithy toves has arrived to gyre & gimble with Math…
I remember seeing art of Jabber years ago and I was wondering what had happened to her. Glad to see she’s still part of the universe. :D
Where did you see an older drawing?
Just to save y’all from checking too, it wasn’t in DaveB‘s Deviant Art gallery.
Sadly, I think Math is destined to lose this one. After all, he’s fighting with a huge disadvantage.
Two of them, you might say…
Insert “in your face” jokes here…
It’s sex, isn’t it? Look at their faces.
Hmmm…Your comment brought forth a memory of a particular Star Trek; Next Generation episode I saw. the episode when Q ranted Riker with equal powers to his own. Riker made a female Klingon appear for Worf & they started fighting & Worf told Riker that, for Klingons, “this IS sex.”
Arrrgh! I neglected to exercise my proofreading skills!
“when Q GRANTED Riker,” not “ranted” Riker.
Apparently, when Jabber slipped on that glass, it resulted in my own foot winding up in my mouth…
‘Twas basil and the spicy cloves
didst chive and chutney in the greens
All mango were the carrot loaves
and likewise franks and beans
Beware the Artichoke, my son!
The leek that prawns, the lox of hash
Avoid the Escarole and shun
the deadly Succotash.
He took his marzipan in thyme
a rutabaga in souffles
then truffled by the lemon-lime
and muttered, “Mayonnaise.”
And while in mushroom thought he sat
The Artichoke, with chard of quince
came waffling through the chicken fat
and dropped a cherry blintz!
Fondue! Fondue! And goulash too!
The marzipan the foe did squash.
He left it cress, a kipper mess,
then scalloped home to wash.
And didst thou dill the Artichoke?
Fillet with me, and barbecue!
O candied yam! O chowdered clam!
He curried in his stew.
‘Twas basil and the spicy cloves
didst chive and chutney in the greens.
All mango were the carrot loaves,
and likewise franks and beans.
-“The Artichoke,” Appearing in a Mad Magazine like, way back in the day, yo.
…
Now I’m hungry
…
But yeah, MAD magazine was pretty good with alternate poetry.
Assuming Math leaves her alive (which i do), those two would actually make a decent team.
Jabber obviously likes to fight as much as Math does, and somehow i think she can handle Math´s whole attitude as well. Not sure why. Maybe it´s the outfit, i don´t know.
Clearly her super power is the ability to climb through a broken window with glass shards sticking out of the edges, slip on a loose glass shard while doing so, and yet somehow NOT cut herself in the process. :P
“Cheetah Style!” Really? I have serious doubts about any martial artist who feels the need to announce their fighting style.
Waited a bit to reply here because it is my thought that she is one of those psychologically limited telekinetics that can only do things themed with their powers. In her case she has a set of tattoos, including the eagle we see and a cheetah we do not. Hopefully there is a big Jabberwock on her back. So when she invokes the tattoo, she allows herself to do things with the telekinesis that matches the powers of the critter. Cheetah is speed and agility. Eagle is flight and sight. Jabberwock would be armor and a gravity power (pounding down). While this is another way to get a varied power set, it still allows for development –she could have a tattoo of a cannon somewhere as well…
I see it like those old chop-saki movies “You’re Monkey Kung Fu will never defeat my Crane Style!”
And make sure the lips don’t match up with the words :D
*Lips move 5 seconds later*
Or, like a 2 minute sentence in a foreign language that translates into one word :D
Rather like Leonardo Da Vinci, describing his latest invention to a time traveller. Much detailed explanation, involving birds and wind, engineering mechanics, weight to lift ratio. Sprinkled with emphatic arm waving and expressive hand gestures. Which the handy pocket translator converts into “helicopter”.
Was thinking more like a 2 minute sentence (as in, it takes 2 minutes to say it, or longer) that translates into either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
Now THAT’S a translator!
*puts it on his Christmas list*
I am sure there will be an app for that.
Eww, apps. Not for me.
I’d only buy the stand-alone pocket version.
Darn you DaveB, I nearly laughed myself to death because of your vote incentive!
Don’t forget to vote folks!
Sydney could teach the guy on the speaker in this comic strip how to properly swear https://fusion.webcomic.ws/comics/40/
Blast it, I messed up. This should be in reply to https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1333/comment-page-1#comment-73058
Dang you!… now i have ANOTHER comic I’m gonna read daily (even though it doesn’t UPDATE daily!)…the only thing i wish is that the individual arc’s weren’t so short… I’m done with the archive binge, now I’m jonesn’ for the next strip… arrgh!
very good comic indeed, lots of attention to continuity from page to page, good backgrounds and definitely an unusual twist on the origin stories and backgrounds for the majority of the cast without coming too close (in the legal sense) to ‘other” supers we’ve already heard about…
Hey, I’m the one who put Hogan onto this comic when I told him about Dabbler’s past roll in https://wereworld.comicgenesis.com/ (which you will now read. Enjoy.)
Fairly sure read WereWorld first (was into the whole ‘furry’ thing, still am)
‘Furry’ or ‘Anthro’?
Not too sure what the difference is (other than, that anything could be an ‘anthro’ but not everything could be a ‘furry’)
‘Furry’ is when people dress up as animals. Often this is done in real life for 3 reasons: they believe doing so will make them more akin to the animals, they are in costumes as part of their jobs or at a fancy dress party, or for sexual fun. That last group is considered the most well known with entire conventions just for them.
‘Anthro’ is short for Anthropmorphic animals. Basically animals with human characteristics. Things like Bugs Bunny, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other such things. Shape shifter like were-wolves as well as aliens and some mythical races are sometimes considered grey areas.
Considering that both of these are mostly areas whose audiences are kids and fetishists, it gets a bit disturbing
We all evolved from furry things. It is not surprising that there are vestiges of that, affecting the psychological make up of segments of society. Which is quite fortunate for folks who have hypertrichosis.
Plus our tendency to anthropomorphise things stems from our empathy. Trying to see behaviour similar to our own, in others. There is a scale of empathy, with some people completely lacking it, whereas others have an abundance of it. So it is not surprising that at that it can extend beyond the merely human.
It is one of the reasons how we were able to domesticate animals. Identifying the characteristics that they share with us, thus allowing us to understand them and their needs better. Of course, failing to recognise the differences, can be counter productive. For instance wolves and dogs cannot smile. Yet people often interpret a tired dog as being one that is smiling.
Finally, our brains are designed to be very adaptable in recognising faces and people. Shown by the fact that we can see them in the most abstract of things, such as trees and clouds. And it forms part of our generic heritage (outside of the African populace), given that we all have some Neanderthal DNA in our makeup. They were likely very hairy, and looked noticeably different to typical homo sapiens. The bony eyebrows, white skin, hirsute bodies and red hair would have been radical differences, when compared to African looks.
Were it not for some folks in society being accepting of differences, we, as a species, would not have spread through the northern latitudes, nor thrived in other colder areas. Plus, if Hollywood even existed, film stars would be a lot more monotone. Being restricted to a pallet of brown and black skins. With no pinky/white or yellowish ones amongst them.
See, this is one of the reasons cats are so awesome. My cat can smile. Hehe… so damn adorable when that little ball of fur does. ^_^
Also, I concur – Neanderthals. That is all. :P
Okay, in that case, “Anthro”!
Tsk tsk tsk…Martial Arts Mistake #35. She is using rapid-fire punches FIRST in a new battle. If you’ve ever watched DragonBallZ, every time a person used these super fast punch attacks, they lost. Big time. They will never learn…
I suspect that no-one will ever believe this to be true until somebody actually spends the time to study exactly *how-&-why* this strategy fails. To me, this was always a welcome difference (in story-telling style) between “DBZ” (where you were mostly just a spectator), & “Rurouni Kenshin” (where you often were allowed into the mind of the warrior). However fantastical the battles, there was usually some thought put into what the pros-&-cons of a given battle-style might be.