Grrl Power #218 – Battle break -OR- The most dick way to block something
I’m not quite sure what the rules of “Make Max Say” Bingo are, I think every time someone marks off a word, everyone playing ponies up $10 which is how the pool keeps growing. I was going to originally put a mini comic below the page with Dabbler calling out “Pool up!” but this page already has a lot going on and took a while to draw. In fact it was almost two separate pages. The reason it’s not is it would have left the mammary thing hanging without explanation.
Achilles is curiously simultaneously useful and ineffective. His total invulnerability does tend to mean that his teammates rarely go out of their way to rescue him from anything.
As always I will be at A-kon this year (June 6-8 in Dallas) and, I’ll be doing a panel on Friday. Humor-Based Webcomics 1: Humor in Story. Be sure to stop by!
My sixth (and final) Gynostar Guest strip is up! This doesn’t wrap up the story arc (which starts here) just my contribution to it.
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Since my only bingo-experience is limited to the church variety, I’d also wonder:
— Is there any special award for being the first to get 5 words in a straight line?
— Church-style bingo uses 25 values that are randomly taken from a “pool” of 75 values. Are we seeing just a sample of a much larger list of “naughty” words/phrases…?
— If there are only 25 words in all, are all the cards the same, or does each card have the words in different locations?
— Is there any special “bonus” if you got Max to say 2-or-more key words in a single sentence?
— Is there any possibility whatsoever that perhaps I’ve begun to over-think this…?
:P
;)
:)
Also:
— Since “shaft” is marked TWICE, does that mean that there’s an extra (or secondary) prize for Max saying something a second time?
I think we are getting a hint about “who” got Max to say what by the marking. Dabbler only has Boob and Spank, while there are distinctive other marks denoting other players. It would make more sense to me if there were 6 players currently and you ponied up for any word you didn’t get Max to say,,, Bingo takes the pot.
Unless DaveB edited the page, “Shaft” is only listed once
I think he was referring to the fact that it was crossed with TWO lines, making an X, rather than just just one line, like the rest of them was.
Oh, just figured that was just the way she crossed it out that time
It’s funny how you can often recognize who crossed something out by the way the cross it out.
For example in my house I currently have a list where you mark off how much toilet paper you bought (student house). Each person makes a different mark (an X, or a line, or a V for example)
When mum was away for about 3 weeks, she left me some tasks/jobs to do, some of them were crossed off with a single or double line, some with an ‘X’ and at least one with a ‘*/star’
Na, I think that was just the artist giving the bingo page verity, as people tend to mark checklists different each time, but on the bright side, the pool is up to 300 now.
Pool would be going up with additional players joining.
Cards can’t all be identical. They will have locations mixed and each will probably also have some different words. This can’t be using the rule that you only mark it off if you make her say it. Max would realise what is happening before mooing the third time.
DaveB said an ever increasing pot with players forking over for each word which would put of a lot of players unless arc gives huge salarys.
When sydney finds about this she will just scribble the wirds really badly on a piece of paper and tell her it’s in a code and she can’t crack it.
Or she will just ask her to say them in a sentence, or is there a rule against that?
Also Tingle should be easy, everyone hates that guy.
This.
Would be the most total hilarious win in a word Bingo ever.
There will be rules. And breaking them probably results in disqualification. An unwritten one might be ‘do not tell Maxima that you have taken part in a pool betting on getting her to say embarrassing things’. If everybody figures that anyone, who has the balls to say that, deserves to win. Possibly posthumously.
Not shore if freezing anything it cuts is part of soul Reavers Power set, or if that was gust from a stray energy blast. Still I guess saying it was boobie trap was just a bluff because someone is touching. Not shore about the others but I would have loved to hear the conversation were Dabbler managed to make Max say “trouser ferret.”
True, but notice that he’s using a stick, not his hand – just in case.
:)
I saw that panel & wondered if that was ice, or some other form of rocky crystal…?
Later back at the Hall of Justice (sorry, ARC headquarters) Sydney learns about the pool.
Since Max is a semi-admitted comic nerd, Sydney needs to get her talking about the Avengers.
Sydney: “One thing that bothers me about Hawkeye is that even though he is about the best shot there is, he can only carry about a dozen arrows with him in that arrow case thingy. What do you call it?
Max: A quiver.
Sydney: Yea, thanks. Did I ever tell you I met Stan Lee at Comic Con once? I like that word he says all the time. Exemplary!”
Max: That’s “Excelsior”.
Or if she knows a lot about math:
“What’s that greek letter that means “one millionth?”
“Mu”
“Thanks!”
Does that still count, if the “word match” is only via phonetics, & not by spelling…?
Pretty sure she has to actually make the sound a cow makes, not just say the syllible
…Followed by Syd saying: “Just testing you!”…
…because otherwise Max would be suspicious about “Uber Nerd” Syd messing-up such an iconic phrase of Stan Lee’s.
syd would ask if she should see the doc about the shot to the head leaving her disoriented or absent minded before she needs those things babies wear what was it
max: you mean diapers?
syd: sure thanks.
On “trouser ferret”: I wonder if Dabbler got Maxima talking about Sylvester McCoy’s early career. Hey! Doctor Who is a perfectly acceptable topic of conversation for a nerd.
I just realized – NONE of Dabbler’s panels here display her “XXXX”!
:P
Have I found this page’s “Easter Egg”…?
Or does she do the “XXX” as part of the glamour which is not currently on?
Not sure if it’s an Easter Egg, but DaveB does tend to forget to add the aussie word for lousy beer to Dabbles’ choker
I thought “Fosters” was Australian for Lousy tourist beer…
Over here, they sell a “FOsters Bitter” or some such in a green can. It is MUCH better, and I suspect it is actually Victoria Bitters, which is iirc also owned by the same company.
Yeah, but they also have a brand of beer called “XXXX”
So Budweiser if it was honest with itself.
… it would simply do nude commercials?
What
The
Fok
Bud
Weis
Er
The Bingo game made me laugh out loud.
“Moo!”
How does “trouser ferret” EVER come up in a conversation???
With Dabbler and Harem around? Probably several times per day.
That reminds me of the scene in Superman Returns where he stops a bullet with his eye.
I still wonder if trying to shoot Supes with a gun, even if you KNOW he’s Supes, counts as attempted murderXD
Reckless endangerment (ricochet). Also, criminal stupidity.
I recognize that earclip!
When are we going to get the backstory on those cybernetics?
She lost the arm and the eye in separate sword-fights. The question is against who/what.
Believe it was partially mentioned/covered in the Wereworld comics
Umm, as regards Dabbler’s ear clip…
She is, I gather, an escapee? From, um, THAT outfit? Neat trick if you can do it.
I would say she’s lucky so few of her original parts have been replaced.
The Norse or Vikings wore such ear clips. Later adapted in Star Trek for the look of the Bajorans.
Not the outfit I had in mind.
The group I’m thinking of is a large interstellar empire that enslaves “criminals” — or anybody who seems potentially useful really — and forces them into military service, usually with substantial and nonconsensual “upgrades and replacements” to their anatomy. Which upgrades and replacements often contain “military secrets” and are therefore rigged to self-destruct messily if the recruit they’ve been issued to goes AWOL.
For those of us who have no idea what you are talking about, care to be more cryptic?
I think they are referring to the webcomic Wereworld, but its been a long time since I’ve read it.
Oh right, read that before coming here (actually took awhile before starting to read this), not so many furry/anthro comics (and even fewer that are as good/funny/sexxxy)
‘Wereworld’ was one of the things set in that ‘verse, but I seem to recall a few others. It’s been ages since I read them though. I couldn’t even have come up with the name Wereworld on my own, to be honest; my recollections of it are hazy general impressions.
Xuriel’s sword was called ‘Soul Reaver’ to much hue and cry about similar names. Now we have it sticking in a tree creating ice crystals. As it turns out there is another demonic sword named ‘Frost Reaver’ in the online game Adventure Quest that is made out of ‘frozen souls’. Now people have a whole new name to argue over.
https://aqwwiki.wikidot.com/frostreaver
Achiles is having way too much fun in this battle.
I wouldn’t be surprised if two villains were playing tenis with him and he would just go “Wheeeeeee!” all the time just to annoy them.
Or he might polish his nails and yawn.
Okay, I was attacked again. Took some screen shots this time.
https://i996.photobucket.com/albums/af84/Master_Geass/NoPara_llels_zps19c522d9.png
https://i996.photobucket.com/albums/af84/Master_Geass/NoPara_llels2_zps44b4be73.png
And this is why I leave Java disabled in my web browser until I come to a site that I know I want it active on. Java is just too easy a vector of attack.
Ok, thanks for the screenshots, I’ll forward those to my ad guys and see if they’re aware of any garbage on their network.
It looks like you’re running Java 6.0, they’re up to some flavor of 7 now, so updating it might not hurt in the meantime.
I was using a library computer at the time so I can’t update it or even know for sure what they are using.
It is worth suggesting to the library that they keep their computers properly up to date. They are connected to the internet and are thereby vulnerable to attack.
Without that you, and any other member of the public, will be put at risk. Not just whilst using the machines, but if transferring any data from those computers. Say by email, even if they do not allow the use of removable media.
Since everyone else has commented on the funny in this strip, I’d like to point out that Dabbler kind of wasted the opening that Achilles bought her. Heavenly Sword is now armed again and about to attack, Dabbler is still on the ground disarmed, and Achilles is under a bunch of bricks. If Dabs had acted instead of playing bingo, she could have accomplished something useful in that period.
There is a reason that her bio states she has the attention span of a sugared up child. But seeing how she is handling being in a fight that is understating it. This is the second distraction (the first was starting to yak with Sydney) in 5 seconds or so.
Maybe this was all part of her plan to get another word on the Bingo list. I could totally see her doing that just to get it. Besides I’m sure her barrier would be strong enough to block the attack since she could hold back a Maxima Punch.
Fairly sure she has to actually activate the barrier/shield, it’s not an automatic deployment
I didn’t say it was, I was just stating that she could have planned it and her shield would be strong enough to protect her. As we saw in the ballroom when they were examining the orbs that she was able to get the barrier up before Maxima could punch her. Meaning she could probably get it up in an instant if she wanted too. And for all we know her robo hand could have an automatic defensive measure in case she cant get her magic up fast enough. Of course this is all speculation and only Dave knows the truth.
It all comes down to motives. Math, he is here to have a good fight. Dabbler though, she looks like she came to Earth to have a good time. She has met her objective for this round of the fight, with satisfaction.
Heh. “Aggravating invincibility” indeed. I expect his end goal in a conflict is to annoy an opponent to the point where they flip their shit and start blasting him with their endgame powers to the exclusion of more relevant threats, preferably while screaming “WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!”
click reload click reload pop pop pop pow
shoot shoot shoot shoot to kill
die Die why won’t you die
seriously private Die why do insist on living when you have a demonstrated IQ in the negative? and less maturity than dabs displays?
Private “Because it pisses you off SIR.” Salute
That was quite a disarm if the blade flew all the to the tree in the back where the watching guy from here is: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1280
Yep. Possibly Heavenly has some level of super-strength. She obviously is not just a martial artist but, given the solid energy that she controls, she is a fully-fledged natural super too. So it would be plausible.
The other factor to bear in mind though, is that the sword itself is clearly magical too. Unless Dabbler had it stored in a very cold place. So it might literally be as light as a feather or self-propelled, in some fashion.
Maybe it is just a dancing sword, with a particular dislike of ents?
Possibly, I can totally see Dabbler having a sword with bonuses vs. wood. :P
or the energy field has a boost impact effect on what it hits
I have a growing desire to see some of these supers being defeated and repurposed. If supers are indeed as rare as thought then this is a talent pool that should be worked with rather than simply locked away. I would imagine building a jail that could house the grand menagerie of abilities see even just tonight would cost more than simply trying to “turn them good” for lack of a better term and putting their abilities to use. Thus far the majority seem to have come on a knee jerk reaction and didnt really have a plan to do anything but show up and flex how super they are.
I noticed that earlier (2 strips ago) with Math and Waug-Girl but now Dabbler and Heavenly Sword too – How come that they are all suddenly outside. Shouldn’t they at least level the place or be kicked through walls (at least 3 left after Anvils nose attack) to get outside? You know, the traditional way to leave a buildings in a super fight.
Id imagine the safest answer is to say its actually showing the progress of time. Dabbler and Heaven were likely swinging swords for a good while and it led outside as no good sword fight is two pointing standing still. Evidence would be that Achilles had time to make it back after being launched earlier and that Heavenly had time to examine and then praise Dabbler for how she fought with a sword.
When did Achilles change his shirt?
He didn’t change his shirt:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1247
The grafic style of this comic is going better and better. Dont get me wrong, but somehow I felt that the way how Sydney was drawn and the all drawing style of the comic didnt really match. But somehow it seems that Dave has improved and harmonised the drawings. And I love Sydneys outbursts and the humor in this story!
I keep wondering if HS is going to stay a villain. I’m not sure a villain would care about putting Achillies’ eye out, for example. She seems to ahve something of a moral code ( or that’s the impression I get) whihc would be unusual in a villain,
Or maybe that’s just a normal reaction to someone stopping the pointy end of a sword with their eyeball, like how Sydney reacted just at the thought of deliberately getting a papercut
HS was reacting to the expected damage to his face (not a fan of gore) and the fact she didn’t want to kill him but he jumped into the attack not that she has a problem with hurting people
She drops a sword at the thought of stabbing someone in the eye???? I’m assuming she’s not exactly a well blooded warrior…
Achilles needs to get some better fighting gear or something so he can do more than be a punching bag after the surprise shield/attack wears off and they get his number. Something to help him stay in the fight and hold aggro a bit longer anyway.
Was that ice or crystals forming off the swords attack?
How much blood is there in a typical eyeball? o_O
Inside the eye? Hm… Not too much I believe, as the eye is filled with a transparent fluid. If our eyes were filled with blood, not much light would reach the receptors in our eyes.
Though there are blood vessels in the surface of our eyes, you can see them when you look in a mirror.
Zack Tilly the point was making: eyeballs are typically filled with a viscous fluid, and fairly sure those
blood vessels’ you see are the left overs from when the eyes were developing (ie no longer carrying blood)
No they still carry blood. When they become larger we say the eyes are “bloodshot”.
Isn’t that blood leaking in from the back though? That’s why it tends to look like red food dye being poured into milk
No, you get that effect when a blood vessel on the surface of the eye is broken, it’s kind of like a bruise of the eyeball.
As far as personal knowledge goes, that has never happened to me so wouldn’t know
They are right about the distinction between the two symptoms. If you ever see someone with blood swishing around in their eyeball, get them to a hospital fast. That happened to my best friend, whilst he was already in hospital, and they still only managed to save his sight in one eye. But he was grateful that they did. Especially as he technically died twice in the process.
those blood vessels are still active, and does have a purpose:
you know how your pupils can dilate or contract? you have a tiny muscle for that, in the eyes
muscles need blood to function
Not much blood in the eyeball at all. We have to get blood to our tissues to support metabolic activity, waste removal, and healing. Eyeballs do an absolute minimum of all three.
The muscles that pull the lens into shape when we focus need some blood supply for metabolic activity, and so do the rods and cones in the retina so that they can respond to light. But that’s a very very small amount of blood, and there is virtually no need for any ‘extra capacity’ in the supply like our other muscles get, because those two things are under a pretty constant and very small metabolic load.
If you look at the Bingo sheet closely, you see that interestingly Dabbler seems to like switching pens. The colour of the strike on the last number is different from the colour the next number is written in. And only the blue pen is ever used to strike a word.
Not sure what to make of that.
I simply love Dabblers facial expressions in this strip, just cant get enough of them :-)
Loving all the faces of Dabbles on this page, specially panel 9 :D
I like how she’s talking TO the tiny little Maxima in the top corner in that last pannel
Double-dog triple-dare you, to tell the real Maxi that she is ‘tiny’ and ‘little’ :P
when she only comes up to the raised heel in my normal sitting pose I believe she qualifies
And here we have the second case where a team or people who should know each others skills and abilities has to ask questions or issue warnings on the battlefield. First Maxima, the professional soldier and team leader who should know much better, has to ask Harem in the middle of a huge and unprecedented fight against supervillains if she can teleport with the Barrett. And now Dabbler feels the need to yell out that her sword is trapped, where all of the people she might like to get caught in that trap can hear her yelling. How hard would it have been for Dabbler to have laid this out in a team strategy meeting?
And before anyone says it, faking that her sword is trapped just to get Maxima to advance her bingo card is still a stupid thing to do, since Maxima should have responded “Why did you never tell us the damn sword was trapped in one of our many strategy sessions, you idiot?”, and not bothered to correct her English diction.
I’m all for humor breaks in a comic book, and it can even be made to work in combat where you’d expect people to actually focus a bit on the task at hand. But there is a wide gap between ARC-swat being a government sponsored superhero team and the apparent lack of any kind of training or strategy amongst the team. It’s like it’s just an informed ability*: We are being told that ARC-swat are this group of professionals, but we never actually see it. And that is never good writing.
* https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InformedAbility
But… The exposition!
In all seriousness though, you raise some reasonably good points. Maxima probably would know Harem’s carry capacity.
As to the other points, Dabbler is going for a word score, so bad example. Also she has an entire lab of equipment, so unless she feels like explaining everything… Then again, she did say that things would teleport back to her lab if they left her hand…
As far as combat goes, this is presumably the first time they have been attacked by anything close to a challenge ever.
Well this team is relatively new. Yes some are military and worked together before but Harem is only 19 so unlikely to have been with them long and Dabbler still has a handler so also likely new if not as new as Sydney. Also they just went public something they would do BEFORE any large-scale deployment so as not to scare the “norms”.
If you bothered to read, you would have seen that Dabbles wasn’t yelling it to everyone on the field but only those connected to the ARC-NET
I did bother to read, and it wasn’t clear at all that Dabbler was shouting out loud in a way that only ARC-net could hear. No mention has been made of magical or technological sound dampeners, after all, so why are you assuming that her speech bubble ending in an exclamation point is not audible to anyone within shouting distance of her voice?
And I for one assumed that the mention of the ARC-net connection was only so that Dabbler could have a record of her bingo score being advanced. Because, you know, that seemed to be the central focus for the remainder of the strip. Well, that and Achilles being buried under a pile of bricks. That’s only one of the problems which occur when you use rather vague hints, different people can interpret them in different ways.
She must have been calling it out loud, given the response of the villain in panel 7. He is clearly afraid of setting off the trap.
The note, that Dabbler is hooked up to the Arc-net, simultaneously made us, the readers, aware of Dabbler’s cybernetic capability, and allowed us to realise that Maxima was also a part of the conversation and could easily make out the details, despite not being in view.
How loudly they were speaking would simply be a matter of how noisy the battle was, at that moment, and how close Maxima was overhead. Presumably both Dabbler and Maxima would have made their comments loud enough that the villains could hear, in order for the bluff (or warning) to be carried to them.
We can’t be sure that he heard Dabbler, but we do know that he sees the crystals around the sword’s point-of-impact with the tree. It could go either way, here.
Agreed. Reads funnier if he did hear it mind.
It’s a good point, and I hate how stupid some supposedly-military grade characters behave in some shows and comics, but in this case:
Max likely knew the Barret was close to Harem’s limit, and wanted to confirm she could lift it rather than assuming it (which is not unreasonable for a good leader to verify that what they think they know is still true).
And Dabbler is apparently reluctant to explain her full power set to anyone for “prime directive” reasons – I could see this extending to not explaining how every single bit of kit she has behaves in every scenario.
(Also, the teleport back to lab may only apply if she teleported it to her in the first place – the sword looked more like a magical summons)
Maxima should know Harem’s weight limit. Not have to ask in the middle of a fire fight. And. knowing this, she should also know exactly what pieces of equipment she could ask Harem to teleport around in the middle of just such a fire fight. And so should the Sergeant manning the equipment depot. It should be as routine as saying “The Barrett and equipment packet D”, not a question at all, but an order.
Comic https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1295 showed an equipment list with what looks to be quantities next to them. This kind of a list should also show weight and Harem ‘porting capacity. Because that kind of information is kinds important.
Every civilian and military vehicle has a tow weight, after all. Harem’s teleportation capability isn’t much removed from that, and it should come easy for a military organization with a teleporter on the team.
As for Dabbler not wanting to break the prime directive and reveal all the secrets of her powers and/or technology, I would hardly qualify “If I drop my sword, don’t touch it. It is mammary trapped.” explained in a strategy meeting as any kind of technology reveal to the poor, backwards Earthlings. It’s just a fair warning to her team members with no details behind it. And far, far superior to shouting out said warning in the midst of combat, when members of her team may have already moved to pick up her sword.
Really now, none of what I have suggested is difficult. And the lack of such strategy sessions is easily criticized as being unreasonable. Only the Keystone Cops might find this kind of pre-combat strategy session where the various team members capabilities are discussed and plans made to incorporate those plans to be unreasonable.
I do not hesitate to point out if I feel that dialogue sounds wrong. Obviously the emphasis of this scene is the comedy. But, taking the comedy into account, the remainder seems perfectly natural. One element of which to realise is that trapping items of equipment for use in a civilian environment is illegal. Civilian or cop, you do this and you go to jail. Dabbler has been trained and briefed enough to be trusted to operate with Arc-SWAT in public. Ergo she knows this. Further Maxima knows that she is aware of it.
So, with that basic fact in mind, it is clear (to the principals in the conversation) that what she is saying is not true. The obvious reason for saying what she did is to discourage any criminal from trying to pick up her sword. Which it actually does, so it serves its purpose. As this is an unique magical weapon, that is a very useful bluff. One which does no harm, as no cop would be fooled by her statement*.
We know that Dabbler’s ulterior motive is to also up her score card. Maxima is unaware of that however, so to her ears it is simply a bluff. But, with the mistranslation, it is a confusing bluff. So, in correcting Dabbler’s statement, she is clarifying it, thereby enhancing the bluff.
Simultaneously though, this is casual team banter. Which is a very useful response, as it helps to convey relaxed confidence to the rest of the team. Something which can help keep them feeling the same way.
Had she responded as you suggested though, she would be unfairly rebuking a member of the team, in the first instance. And, secondly, would be harming morale. The accusation of a lack of teamwork, to a powerful and vital member of the team, would imply a schism. Which would distract and worry the other team members.
* Heatwave excepted, but she should not be trying to pick up Dabbler’s weapon either, so the warning does no harm.
The other possibility is that it is true, of course. But in which case it will have been agreed and authorised in advance. Presumably the legislation, to allow trapping of unique and dangerous equipment, will have been passed as part of the acts which set up Archon in the first place. In which case, Dabbler is simply doing her duty, in announcing this fact to the criminals, and any civilians who have not yet been evacuated.
Even if you read it this way, the dialogue still plays out.
yes Max knows that Harems weight limit with 5 bodies out is Harems body mass + 25lbs, which includes the clothes that are being worn and any stuff that is being carried such as wallet, keys, phone ect, so she was getting a judgment from harem if getting the rifle was possible at that time
I am skeptical that an object can’t be legally booby trapped. Sure, it couldn’t legally be trapped in a way that hurt someone, but that doesn’t prevent it from 1) setting off the equivalent of a burglar alarm and calling the police, or 2) disabling itself in such a way that it can’t be used for the rest of the battle (perhaps by teleporting to a non-hyperspace location, gluing itself to the ground, etc.), neither of which are things that the heroes would want it to do.
Your examples are perfectly correct. Alarms are legal. Disabling devices are legal. You are also right that traps can technically have those effects. But, contextually the weapon had clearly caused magical damage to the tree it is in contact with (looking to be ice or cold damage from the crystals). So the implication is that any trap would be just as dangerous. Which is an opinion shared by the guy, carefully poking it with a twig, above.
Note that the more common usage of the word ‘trap’ is for those which have a lethal or containment aspect. Be it rat trap, bear trap or wolf trap. In fact to distinguish a lethal or damaging trap, from one that is not, it is conventional to specify the difference. Hence buying a ‘humane mouse trap’.
So, putting aside the legal examples you cited, most traps are either disabling, injuring, containing or lethal. All of those effects are illegal, if used in a way intended, or likely, to affect people. In fact, in the UK, it is even illegal to place such traps for people within private property. As has been proven by more than one court case where individuals have created burglar traps (of the types I am talking about). The householder goes to jail and the burglar is entitled to sue them for compensation.
The private property aspect is likely to vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, as that can be viewed as being the result of political correct madness*. But I doubt any of the English-speaking jurisdictions, or any country in the EU, will allow legal use of traps in public areas. In fact America is one of the few countries, in the world, uncivilised enough to even condone anti-personnel mines in military use.
* If you think that, consider is it fair for a six year old, looking for their lost cat, to be executed because they have entered somebody’s garage? Traps are indiscriminate and will affect anybody. Be it criminal, innocent bystander or emergency service personnel attending an incident.
Based on what happened to the tree, I’d guess the “trap” is some sort of freezing/crystallizing ability that would essentially glue the person to the sword. Since it has already attached itself to the tree, this would prevent the person from moving much, thus entrapping them, but wouldn’t cause any harm.
* and to the best of my knowledge, covering your doorknob in rubber cement (for a similar effect) is not illegal. I may be mistaken though, so correct me if I’m wrong.
Entrapping somebody is known, in legal terms as imprisoning them. If you do it for a legal purpose, and in a suitably controlled fashion where the subject is not at risk of harm, then it is legal. The point of traps though * is that they operate indiscriminately on anybody who triggers them. Which means that it can, and will, imprison anybody, even those who do not deserve it.
Illegal imprisonment is a serious crime. To say that it cannot harm somebody is not true. If the prisoner is in urgent need of medicine or treatment, and is unable to move, they can be killed as a result of being imprisoned. An item which can cause imprisonment is even worse, as it can be lost in some remote location, trapping people until they die of dehydration or starvation.
* At our current level of technology, so this may not be true of Dabbler’s technomagic. If hers is sophisticated enough to only entrap criminals, in the act of committing a crime, and is capable of sensing if they are in need of medical attention and either providing it or releasing them, and is capable of transporting them promptly to a place of legal detention and informing the prisoner of their rights and…
in short, if the sword is a duly delegated police officer, it is legal for it to trap criminals, under the same terms and conditions that a normal police officer can make arrests. If it is not, then nope, even an entrapping trap is illegal.
The rule of funny has precedent. The whole double-page above is hilarious. And much of the impact comes from the implausibility. The fact that the rest of the story carries enough realism to allow it to have that impact is simply a credit to DaveB. This is a comedy super hero comic first. Nice though it is to have a lot of realistic elements in it too, they are the secondary consideration, and rightly so.
As for the Barrett question, that is just silly. If an officer is not sure they should ask. This is a new organisation, they will be trying out new tactics and very unusual combinations of extraordinary options. One of the more complex ones to memorise would be Daphne’s variable weight teleporting. But she is just one amongst dozens of heroes. Every single one of which has different capabilities.
Plus it is important to remember that nobody is perfect. Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps Maxima has an imperfect memory and forgets the odd thing? Would that disqualify her as an officer? It would disadvantage her, yes, but it is not something that she cannot overcome. And, provided it did not compromise her capability to do so, she can still remain an effective commander.
The present mayor of my village is illiterate. Yet is very competent at her job. This may be surprising, but a certain generation in this country had problems. As a result of which, she is not alone. One of the most prominent national politicians is likewise. And, throughout history, there are examples of many heads of state who were. But, provided they can delegate, it does not stop them from doing their job.
You have to accept people as they are. The deciding factor in how good a leader is how well they lead and the results they achieve. Not whether somebody else feels that their individual actions match the way that other person would do a task.
Frankly Maxima would be stupid not to check. It is an essential part of her tactics. Sure Harem could carry it in the last exercise, but she may have been eating too many chocolate bars since, and have lost capacity. Harem will know.
Checking cost a moment. For someone of her rank, false assumptions or a inadequate double-checking can cost many lives or billions of dollars.
“As for the Barrett question, that is just silly. If an officer is not sure they should ask.”
Silly? You really think this is silly? Now you are just being stupid. If an officer who leads a small, tactical team isn’t already aware of the capabilities of their team, it is they who are silly. If Maxima didn’t know the ‘porting capacity of Harem before this fight, she is an idiot. And Maxima isn’t being portrayed as an idiot. Except, that is, by the way that the comic has been pointing out her incompetence when it comes to understanding the capabilities of her team.
Harem is not a machine. Plus her capacity can, and does, vary.
Court Marshal prosecutor: Lieutenant Colonel, were you, or were you not, aware of the rated carrying capacity of this soldier?
Maxima: Yes. I had witnessed her carrying the Barrett before.
Prosecutor: So why, at this critical moment, did you not check that this was still the case?
Maxima: This was an off-duty meal, I had no reason to expect her to be wearing concealed armour.
Prosecutor: Yet the team had just recently returned from a bomb range and live fire demonstration. You are aware that every item of equipment Harem is carrying, counts against her capacity? So that whilst she may be able to carry a heavy item one day, the following she may not?
Maxima: Yes I am. I have no excuse to offer. I was derelict in my duties in not confirming her capacity. The subsequent delays in arming and equipping the team are my responsibility.
“Harem is not a machine. Plus her capacity can, and does, vary.”
No, it does not.>/b> That you think it might proves that you misunderstand the entire situation. Harem’s capability to ‘port objects varies varies specifically with her number of selves. This would not be a “surprise!” capability in a combat situation no more than the number of grenades a squad member held would be a “surprise!” capability for a competent squad leader.
I cannot state this any more plainly: For Maxima to not understand the capabilities of the units under her command demonstrates incompetence. For the units under Maxima’s command to operate as though they do not understand the capabilities of the other units under her command only escalates her incompetence.
In any real world*, after this fight is over, Maxima should be screaming at her troops for withholding vital information from her. And/or she should be being relieved from duty for an utter lack of leadership capability.
* Sure, this isn’t the real world. But it should either pretend to be, or give up on it entirely. Sure, there is a wide swath of comedy which ignores both, but no one takes it seriously, do they?
I apparently fail at the lousy markup tags this forum provides…
As relevant here, Harem’s effective capacity does vary. It is dependent upon what she is already carrying in terms of clothes, accessories, and for all we know, food that she has eaten.
Maxima probably knows the mass of the Barrett and what Harem’s technical max capacity is. She also knows that they are close enough to make it worth checking whether Harem in her current condition can shift it.
Given that it was close enough that Harem had to kick off her shoes in order to manage it, that’s a fairly valid concern.
+1
And apologies to Oberon. I failed to adequately draw attention to my mention of concealed armour, which clearly, from the reply must have been missed. Likewise had I thought to use the term ‘effective capacity,’ it may have helped to avoid that misunderstanding.
Hopefully taking those two things into consideration, along with your kind clarification Khatzas, a re-reading, of my previous court martial dialogue, will prove to be viewed as a reasonable scenario.
Oberon is right to say that Maxima should know Harem’s base capacity, but cannot know her current effective capacity, without asking.
Those are good points, but in my defense, the Barrett thing was partially exposition, plus it’s near her weight limit anyway, meaning she has to reduce the number of dupes she has out, meaning it would slow down her delivery of other gear.
As for her sword, Dabbler has only used it on once before during her stay on Earth, which I haven’t quite figured out how long that is, but it’s not a super long time, under a year for sure. You’re right that she should have included more details about it in strategy meetings as it’s one of her better offensive options, but she didn’t bust it out during training since she could only really hit Achilles with it. Maybe Max, Stalwart or Hiro, but she has such a diverse arsenal of attacks she never really needed to.
Ok, I didn’t see this before my replies to the three people above. Perhaps I’ve been a bit harsh.
Here’s my final rant on this subject: Exposition is fine when it conveys information to the readers. That is what is is for, after all. But it is not fine when, in the course of sharing info with the readers, it makes the tactical leader of a military group appear to be an idiot when it comes to the capabilities of the team she is leading. Lives can be lost this way, after all. And despite the comedic bent of the comic, if the danger of super-vs-super fights is trivialized then I believe that the entire comic will be trivialized.
Asking Harem what her ‘port capacity is in the middle of combat is kind of like a second lieutenant asking his SAW operator what the range of his weapon is in the middle of combat. It simply should not ever happen, unless the questioner is being set up to be an incompetent.
Shouting out that the item you dropped is booby trapped also should also never happen in combat. Either you want the enemy to activate the booby trap, in which case shouting out that it is a booby trap kinda defeats the purpose, or you want to protect your own people, who should be aware well beforehand that there are booby trapped items and what they look like already. Again, it just makes no sense, unless of course the people in question are incompetent.
…or it isn’t actually booby trapped, and Dabbler just doesn’t want some bad guy running off with her super sweet sword.
Or, it was just a way for Dabbles to get Maxi, on record, heard by multiple ‘witnesses’, to say ‘Booby’
You seem to be the only one who feels Dabbles SHOUTED!!!!!!! that her sword was mammary trapped, as long as she can hear herself speak, then everyone connected to the Arc-Net would hear her just as fine as though she was sitting in their ears
Mr Fedora was probably poking the sword with a stick because he’s not a fracking moron and can see what it did to the tree
Also, you are saying that Maxi is incompetent because she asked for confirmation that a vital member of her team was still capable of retrieving a heavy piece of equipment, along with the rest of the gear for everyone else? That, to me, is the sign of a very competent leader: she doesn’t assume but gets confirmation, fairly sure if it turned out that Harem couldn’t ‘hump the Barrett’ she would have been ordered to bring the next biggest rifle
*holds up paw* I must be fair and confess that I read it as her calling it out loud too. But your interpretation does work well, so it is a valid way to read it. Although I do think that Maxima’s response plays somewhat better, if it sounded like Dabbler’s message was directed to the villains. That way it is harder to accuse her of being gullible.
Or maybe one of those grenade launching ones… in a restaurant… for a sniper… mmm… ok maybe you are right on that.
Best to start big, and work down, specially in a situation like this: Maxi probably does know Harems upper *vorp*ing carry limit is, knew that the Barrett was at or close to that limit so checked if she could do it, Peg possibly has a bigger/heavier sniper rifle that she uses if the situation cals for it, but no way that Harem could even lift it let alone *vorp* it, and there was no time for Hiro to fly back and get it
Wouldn’t consider it as Maxi possibly being ‘gullible’ to fall for saying ‘booby’, but even if every other member of Archon (including the Janitorial Staff) know about the sword, there is one new member who, giving the chance, would definitely at least put her grubby little fingers on the hilt, if not leave fingerprints (and nose prints) on the blade itself
“You seem to be the only one who feels Dabbles SHOUTED!!!!!!! that her sword was mammary trapped, as long as she can hear herself speak, then everyone connected to the Arc-Net would hear her just as fine as though she was sitting in their ears”
Yeah, because ending a sentence with an exclamation point has absolutely no meaning in the English language. Oh, wait… It does have a meaning, how could I have missed that? It indicates high volume. I might ask why you are the only one who thinks that something so obviously indicated by the source materiel as being shouted out loud was only quietly whispered into her walky-talky, but that would only be inviting you to actually think for a few minutes.
Err, yes and no. Volume is one of the uses of the exclamation mark in English. It can also be used to denote emphasis of feeling, with or without volume.
Somebody walking beside me once told me suddenly to stop and stand still (I was within 2 paces of walking on a rather poisonous snake – one of the joys of living in rural Australia), and they did so with considerable feeling but surprisingly little volume (quieter than we’d been talking), but it would have been quite valid to use an exclamation mark in a written transcription. An exclamation, in fact, but not a loud one.
I can quite easily read Dabbler’s warning over ARC-net in a similar vein.
Didn’t say she ‘quietly whispered’ it, just that she didn’t SHOUT it loud enough for Mystery Hat Man to hear, considering she is, and most members of Archon are, currently connected to ARC-NET, having someone suddenly screaming in your ear could be a potentionally fatal distraction
It hardly matters how many people KNOW the sword is dangerous to touch.
If it does infact deal significant damage to anyone touching it, there is NO reason NOT to warn everyone on your side extra.
People are not computers, they do forget things from time to time. And it’s unreasonable to asume that every member of the team knows all the details of every other member of the team.
It’s unlikely that Dabbler is yelling. She’s got a throat-mic, like the rest of the team… which means she could easily be speaking somewhat below a normal speaking voice and still be clearly heard on comms.
Dabbler should be looking to get her to say “Quim” if she wants to win.
“Quim for the win.” Gamesman‘s motto for the week?
Works in real life too.
is that inspired by Maytag comments on the webcomic flipside? She did just mention how eyes remind us of our mortality.
If a coincidence, the effect of being reminded how vulnerable eyes are did enhance it for me.
Good thing I did not read schlockmercenary just before, schlock’s eyes grow on a tree, LOL
Am I the ONLY person wondering how the hell Dabs got Max to say “Trouser Ferret”?
Umm, no, about every 4th or 6th comment-thread has been wondering that same thing
I’m just surprised no one has gotten her to say knickers yet.
‘Knickers’ is more of an English word, so probably hasn’t come up in a non-obviously-contrived way, yet
Dabbler: I believe the saying is “don’t get your knickers in a twist”.
Max: *giving Harem a chewing out* Dabbler, shut up or I’ll twist YOUR knickers!!
*Leon from offpanel* BINGO!
*Maxi showing up behind Leon* What did you just say?
*Leo Points to another Harem with a “drum” for mixing bingo/lottery balls*
Leo:Bingo. *Point to a normal bingo card with the numbers diagonally filled in*
Max:Grrrrrr *walks away*
Peggy: That was quick thinking Daphne.
What im finding more interesting is actually relative power level. Maxima is rank 9, and have displayed a level of power that would have made her a core member of the JLA, only slightly below the Leagues core powerhouses.
But how much stronger does that make her than the rest of Archon? would Math and Dabbler have a chance against her together? would it need to be Math,Dabbler and Hiro before things started to look fair?
As I recall, during the press conference Maxima stated that only two people ever beat her, and one was on the team. Given Dabbler’s reaction, I would assume it was her. So she evidently has enough skill with her magic (and various other talents) to hold her ground against Maxima.
Given that Math has no super abilities beyond his martial arts, I imagine he’d find it hard to do meaningful damage against Maxima’s 5 armor rating.
I would think Hiro would be countered by Max’s speed; he wouldn’t be able to do any damage because he couldn’t hit her.
Was Dabbler implying that she once bested Maxima? I read that strip as Dabbler giving props to Sidney, who’s force-field brought Max to a standstill. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/989
Maxima is a soldier, there is a big difference between a test and a fight. Bear in mind this is in the context of the other person having been (presumed) killed in a battle to the death. A full-on fight, in a sparring match, would be comparable. A controlled test would not.
No, Sydney with just shield does not stand a chance against Maxima, for the same reason.
Just because she can’t damage him, doesn’t mean she can’t defeat him (or her, in the case of Sydney).
You can work around a tank. To be able to fight someone to a standstill, you need to do more than just absorb the damage
Ahh, my comment should only be read in the past tense. If Sydney and Maxima go head to head in a real match, rather than a demonstration, I would not write Halo off too fast. Maxima will probably win the first match because she can react faster than Sydney can get an orb in hand.
But if Sydney starts a match with the shield already up, I cannot see that Maxima could do anything to harm her. Short of upping her blast to a level which might accidentally trigger world war three. And even then we have no reason to suspect that Sydney’s shield could not handle it.
Of course Sydney’s PPO would not even scratch Maxima. But it would force her to keep quite a high defence. As would the threat of the tentacle. So Sydney could make herself a real nuisance. But, short of some cunning plan, on one side or the other, I think they would end up in a draw. Quite literally fighting to a standstill.
Of course, if they were given objectives to complete, rather than ‘defeat the opponent’ as the goal, then it would be a different matter. I think Maxima would have the distinctive advantage early on, before Sydney is trained and has levelled up the skill tree. Once Sydney has done the latter, my money would be on her.
I do think Maxima would still win easely.
She probably wouldn’t need to survive the PPO, as she can probably just dodge it (like she did with the shots here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1280 )
And she is fast enough to close in on Sydney. And shield or not, she can (presumably, we don’t know how strong the fly orb is) lift her up and carry her off somewhere.
Fight to a standstill, in my opinion, means more that both opponents would be locked into a fight where they both would lose if they make a mistake
The near-nuclear level blast that hit Halo’s shield did not move it an inch. I suspect that the shield can only be moved when Sydney wants it to.* But, you could be right, of course. Even then though, Sydney has 4 star flight to Maxima’s 5 star. So Maxima would have to shunt her full power into flying, in order to overcome Sydney’s opposition to being moved. Which, do not forget, is Maxima’s weakness. Once she has committed herself fully in one area, she is exposed in another. Unlike Super Man, she has to allocate where her power lies at any one time.
All Sydney has to do is choose a moment when Maxima is distracted, for some reason, and she can counter-attack with the PPO or tentacle. Despite the impression created by Maxima’s cast list entry, she does not have 5 star defence all the time. It is fair for it to be listed as if she did, on the grounds that she can switch her stats around faster than most people can blink. So for most intents and purposes she does.
But not if she is blindsided, whilst all of her variable power is committed elsewhere. If it was a genuine fight, Halo could kill Maxima, before she even realised she was under attack.
* This would require testing, of course. But we know that even Maxima, with the strongest known strength in the world, cannot move the Orbs, if they are not in the mood to be moved. This may well apply to the shield too.
You raise good points.
But much like Maxima, Sydney also has to switch powers before she can use them.
Unlike Maxima, Sydney has to physicly switch orbs (while Maxima, presumably, only has to make a mental command. And still has partial acces to a power if she’s focussing on another one)
So it would make for a very interesting match, one fought out between minds, with powers being simple tools. Kinda like chess, trying to outmanouver the other
Agreed. The level of distraction provided to Maxima would be critical. Too low and she would notice the lack of resistance to her flying, reduce her level in that, and either increase her reactions, to give her time to investigate the change at her leisure, or simply bump up her defence.
Of course, it is a risk free strategy for Halo, either way. Even if Maxima spots the ruse, Halo looses nothing, and can try again the next time an external distraction presents itself. Or she can speed things along by use of the PPO or tentacle.
And, of course, with a fleshed out skill tree, Halo will have a lot more capability that we can only guess at now. Whereas Maxima will have learnt a few new tricks, and refinements, but will not (barring the weird things that can happen in super genres) have gained whole new powers.
But, as you say, it is not the powers alone that determines the result, but the battle of minds. The experience and tactics, plus the ability to maximise lucky breaks and minimise the unlucky ones.
you forget the ability to improvise and come up with unusual tactics, Which Sydney is supposed to excell at.
dang a battle of the minds and syd has a non conventional weapon system to throw the analysis not a powerful one in normal consideration but one few could figure out how to guard against
You don’t have to damage/hurt someone to beat them, just look at the little show Anvil and Math put on
OK. I want to know how, and what kind of conversation it was that Dabbler got Maxima to say “Trouser Ferret”!!!
Join the (expanding) queue (of people who don’t read the comments to see that that question has been asks many several times :P)
Hmmm… let’s see. If you can get her to start talking about bows, you can probably get her to say ‘Quiver’, pretty easily. Penetrate can be done in military terminology ‘penetrate their defenses’. Perhaps a question about biology for Cloaca? That’s going to be the tough one on the line left. I’d have originally said ‘Trouser Ferret’, but that seems to have been done already… mad props Dabbler.
I can’t even put eye drops in without flinching!
Have to really ask: why, based on the other words, is “RHUBARB” on the list? o_O
I’ve heard the word rhubarb used as a reference for male genitalia. I.E. rubbing your rhubarb…
I feel pretty comfortable saying that every word in every language ever has been used as a euphemism for something sexual, somewhen.
“That depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.” – Bill Clinton
Except celery. That’d be silly.
Wash your mouth out! We don’t use dirty language like that here. Talking about food, that food eats, is bad enough. Let alone mentioning a variety that takes more energy to consume, than is gained by eating it.
“sneaks up behind YORP and whispers diet”
AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! *Starts beating Dr.REVENGE with a foam baseball bat.*
Glad I put on my power armor
“shoots Adamas with the shoulder mounted Nerf cannon on my armor”
*ducks while leaving gouges in the ground from being forced backwards by the shots hitting the bat.*
“Enables rubberband minigun”
Heh, hardly an issue right now. Within the past week or two, I have had five locals separately enquiring after my health, and asking if I was getting enough to eat. Given that has been coming from poor gypsy members of the community, who often go hungry, I would be foolish to ignore it.** There is only one solution.
I must haz chocolate!
*om nom nom*
** Not that I am alarmed, they clearly just like ‘love handles’, more than western culture folks. None of the ex-pats, or ethnic Bulgarians, have batted an eyelid at me loosing them. I do actually have a balanced diet. There is a tub of rabbit food in my fridge, as we speak. It is just hidden, somewhere at the back of the obscene foodstuff drawer. As it should be.
Be careful Yorp… you don’t want this to happen: https://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb652.html
Reminds me of Weird Al’s “Living in the Fridge”.
Better check your cupboards, to see if there is a Japanese woman hiding in one.
“Hands YORP a foottlong BLT with extra B”
Yum yum yum.
Sooo hard to get decent bacon here. The weird cuts, that Bulgarians use, miss the plot. Not to mention failing getting the curing aspect at all. It is available, from rare specialists or by import, but typically priced at levels only rich foreigners can afford. So I usually only get to eat BLTs when I am visiting the UK.
Also could be used in reference to males too. In the Batman movie with Micheal Keaton, Joker shot Bruce Wayne & said, “Never rub another man’s rhubarb.” I doubt he was referring to his own genitalia at that point…
“Rhubarb” is a word that film extras and similar positions in crowd scenes are given to say or shout because it blends to become a general hubbub rather than being easily distinguishable*. You just get a low murmur coming from the mob.
Whether that has anything to do with why its on the MMS bingo card, I’ve no idea. Maybe its a euphemism. Maybe whoever put it there just thought that it was an inherently funny word.
*Unless you give it to a ship full of Royal Navy sailors acting as extras, where it is distinguishable because they all shout it in perfect unison apparently. :-)
Before seeing that bingo panel i thought she actually put a mammary trap on it.
I couldn’t decide if it was a breast enlargement spell or something that harms males only.
Just noticed/realized: panel 5 highlights Les’ dickitude
Dabbles is saying that he knew that that was how she lost her eye, and he did that move not just to freak out Heaven (he had no way to know she would react that way) but to piss off Dabbles
I’m pretty sure the eye was replaced by the race that was holding her captive based off the fact that the main character from wereworld had the same thing done to him.
Dabbles has mentioned she lost her hand and eye in seperate sword fights, panel 5 implies that she has mentioned, at least to Les, how she lost the eye
Oh my GOD I should not be laughing as hard as I am.
I know Right XP
It seems like Achilles could be a great deal more effective if properly exploited.
At the simple end, he could simply charge enemies while holding explosives, allowing him to punch well above his weight in terms of power. Other methods in this style involve using various gasses.
A more directed usage would be to propel himself at enemies at speed. Max did this earlier in the fight, throwing him at some of the attackers. Assuming he could aim properly, he could strap rockets to fist and have a literal rocket punch.
More direct and more reusable would be to strap some sort of powered exoskeleton to him. His invulnerability ensures that he would avoid the harm that makes a dumb exoskeleton dangerous: If worse came to worse the exoskeleton would simply break itself.
Sorry, the Acme Supply Warehouse seems to be temporarily out of these items. We do, however, have a nice discount on portable holes and 2 ton anvils. Thank you for your inquiry.
Uhhh, the anvils fell into the holes, so now we have 2-ton holes.
They also have a surplus of “tons of bricks” on sale this week. They had to backorder more since the Roger Rabbit movie.
I’ll grant you the rockets are cartoonish, but well … so is Achilles.
The explosives are a fairly mundane item though; and the exoskeleton has been in development by the armed forces for a number of years.
A couple of decades study under Math would do him the world of good, in the long run.
A couple of decades to study under Math would do most anyone good. I’m not sure that it takes the best advantage of being totally indestructible though.
The way his power has been demonstrated thus far, it seems like he must be infinitely hard. Theoretically, as long as he could place himself in opposition with himself, he would be capable of holds that would be impossible for a non-teleporting / shapeshifting opponent to break. Many of these would be really silly for a breakable person to try though. And so on.
Huh!?!… you don’t think that Achilles is ENOUGH of a Lech? that he needs TRAINING in the art of Lecherousness? and that it’ll take a couple of DECADES to do it!…
one player in my old group strapped a claymore onto the front of his armor. actually,, another time his character didn’t need the armor under it… Corey, you are a nut.
One of these days, you’re going to have to tell us how Dabbler got Maxima to say “trouser ferret”. Even if it’s only in a vote incentive.
Heavenly Sword seems to be a villain for the sake of the fight. She stikes me as someone who wants to fight whoever she wants, whenever she wants and doesn’t want to have to hold back. I’d think she is comfortable with the idea of killing or maiming yet but understands and accepts it’s a potential consequence of how she want’s to fight. If she dies or loses having fought her best so be it. If she accidently kills someone, she might get upset about it but it won’t stop her. If she can thrash within an inch of their lives without feeling like anyone had to hold back so much the better. She picked who seemed the most capable looking, unengaged fighter in the room to get that. If Maxima was there she probably would’ve prefer to go after her. I’m also pretty sure she would have probably ignored Sydney (being an untrained rookie), and the non-supers, including Math, until they looked like a challenge (which Math’s fights with Anima and Jabberwocky have surely done for him by now).
I’m surprised Dabbs doesn’t have thrust (dead easy to work into a normal work conversation), penetrate (same and Max already used the derivative impenetrable), and Manocracy (given how militantly feminists the Commander is).
isn’t comfortable I mean
I’m loving this comic so far, but am I the only person who’s noticed the messed up perspective on the sliced bit of wall in the last panel? I thought it was just speed lines or something at first, but no, the wall really is pulling some kind of M.C. Escher warp there at the top, and it’s incredibly distracting.
This, of course, coming from someone whose artistic skills fall far short of the artist’s, but still.
Distracting.
Never mind. See how I messed up looking at it now. *blushes.*
Not to worry, your comment was constructively put. And may have been useful to Dave, in indicating that the intent was not clear at first glance.
It is difficult to tell that she sliced a corner off of the building, but if you look closely and compare the before and after panels you can see it