Grrl Power #221 – Ballisticus interruptus
The second to last panel is supposed to be Harem’s view through the spotter scope, not Peggy’s view through the proper rifle scope. I only mention it because that’s not what typical crosshairs look like and otherwise I’m sure it would cause a few raised eyebrows. That said, for all my googling I couldn’t find a definitive picture of what spotter crosshairs look like. I assume they’re different from scope crosshairs, so I used one with more marks which I’d think would be useful for measuring things visually.
I had fun at A-kon, but forgot about trying to update on Twitter since the hotel seemed to have some sort of coating that blocked Sprint. I did my panel, attended a few others, watched Fred pencil and ink a page nearly to completion in under an hour, got a commission from him which I’ll share later today, talked shop with other comic creators (Spinnerette and The Devil’s Panties), and had a fun dinner with a reader, hopefully without spoiling too much stuff. It’s clear the spontaneous meetup doesn’t engender a large attendance. The next time do one I’ll schedule a time and location in advance.
#MakeComics: This was supposed to be a double page, but so was the next one, and I’m not quite up to the point where I can do two double pages in a week, especially with A-kon looming. I had to cut the first panel from the next page to make this page end on more of a period instead of a comma, which is why the last two panels are a little cramped.
You guys have helped Fred Perry’s NSFW Tactics Elemental game get voted into a real project. I assume there’s some switch that has to be hit behind the scenes before it can start accruing pledges. I’ll link it again once it’s at that point.
Make sure you catch the classic Escher Girl pose in the most recent Gynostar.
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Just noticed: on the right side of the scope, there is someone on the ground with red evening gloves, probably one of the ones Maxi used Les to knock off of the roof
Keep her away from Halo! Mittens are her kryptonite.
Yeah, don’t believe she (or he, could be Frank N. Furter for all we know) is up to much more than taking a long nap right about now
That’s her all right. And the restaurant is on fire! Things are getting a little dramatic in there, I bet. Sydney to the rescue of the KOed perps? Or is Anvil still in there as well?
****** VOTING PROBLEM *********
Please do not forget to cast your vote.
We have slid down to 6th place, in the Top Web Comics list! Keeping high in the ratings is something that drives readers this way. The more readers there are, the more potential patrons Dave has. And the more likely he will be able to keep the comic going, without having to consider going back to a day job.
The new vote incentive should help. Hubba Hubba.
4th now within spitting range of 2nd
Yea but TMI currently has a nude vote incentive atm and is fighting for second
Meh, our vote incentive is of Sydney, so should win hands down. Her being awesomeness wrapped up in a cute little bundle.
Besides which, it is by the heavily influential artist Fred Perry. If anybody wants to see the work of the guy that DaveB looks up to, this is their chance.
Over and above capturing Sydney’s likeness incredibly well, he manages to get her looking sexier, than many a nude picture you might see.
Less than 20 from 2nd at this time.
FRED PERRY!! hat should get some attention.
I just had a look at the website, and it is still at the stage where it has confirmed the qualifying vote was achieved, but has not yet progressed to the next stage. I am sure that DaveB will let us know, when that happens. He said as much, in his author’s comments, above.
This is not the time for horsing around. Dabbler is liable to be bisected herself because of it. Good thing the Hand of God is watching them all.
IS that a navy seals movie ref i spy?
Heh. I twigged what the reference was about, but could not remember where it was from. Thanks for poking the little grey cells.
I still want to know EXACTLY what kind of tech Dabbler’s got. Cause if she’s really got an infinite bag of holding, she doesn’t really seem like anything more than Sydney on steroids (powerwise, anyway).
I presume it’s not “infinite”, just “however many gadgets she can cram into her spaceship”
I’d like to see her space ship.
Is that a euphemism?
It isn’t not a euphemism…
It is not an euphonium.
But I need the euphonium for my bomb.
Ah, euphoria!
What kind of bomb uses that much brass tubing? Or is it the trigger?
Same kind that uses nails or ball bearings.
Hollow tube is particularly bad (gruesome), but painfully effective for demonstration.
Strongly suspect that (as per the name and description), Dabbler does not have an all-inclusive collection of technology and magical artifacts – just an extremely varied one.
So she has a pistol-sized Rail Gun, but (for example) she may not necessarily have a Phillips-head screwdriver or a can-opener or a Batarang. Though she ****might**** have items and/or mojo that will (more or less) do at least part of what those things are meant for.
The old line about ‘Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None’ comes to mind. The key is versatility – Dabbler has a scary-as-#### sword, but that does not mean she is as good with swords as some other people. She might have stuff that can be useful in a variety of situations, but it does not necessarily mean she has something for EVERYTHING. We should keep that in mind.
It’s still a coilgun.
I’m going to keep correcting anyone who gets this wrong.
One of the perks of building a device is earning the right to name it. Dabbler seemed quite taken with rail gun.
It’s a railbow :P
Is there somewhere over that railbow where bluebirds sings?
Hard though it is to compete with Louis Armstrong, on his signature tune, this version always sends shivers down my spine. Katie Melua duetting with her inspirational role model, Eva Cassidy.
With the sad twist that Eva died long before Katie got to meet her. So this is all done via magical editing.
While It’s a Wonderful World is my all-time favoritist song, the bluebird reference is to Somewhere Over the Rainbow (a song that is generally good*).
* at least when it wasn’t being butchered on Star Search, where practically every song had to contain a segment during which the singer had to display his or her vocal range regardless of the how unlistenable the resulting abomination of sound turned out to be**.
** yes, I really, really, really hated the singing portions of Star Search. Did I make that too obvious?
Tip of the day, if your pub quiz team lacks a music specialist, just about any puppy would be better than me. It is one of my incompetences.
20% cooler in .1 seconds flat
The correct term would be “electromagnetic mass driver” if you want to be pedantic about it.
Is anyone else amused by the fact that the guy named “Prototype” is the one who is all bent out of shape about the names of things, or is it just me?
well it is a cyborg
Is there a doctor… err or a mechanic… who can help patch him up?
Not bent out of shape so much as just bothered.
If I went around referring to doors as windows, I’m sure I would be corrected.
A railgun and a coilgun are two separate things.
And so my quest to spread scientific literacy goes on.
I will say two things: first of all, French windows are windows that are often (and understandably) confused with doors.
And secondly, I agree with you–her weapon does look and act more like a coil gun than a rail gun. Mind you, it ought to have a hellacious recoil either way, so I have to guess that it’s not JUST the gun, but, still….
I calculate the recoil to be about twelve thousand g’s (if dabbler were holding it so that the recoil were distributed perfectly)
muzzle velocity=escape velocity =11km/s (it needs to go at least this fast to shoot down satellites)
11000m/s /2 =5500m/s average velocity (during shot)
5500m/s over .5m barrel=.00009s
11000m/s in .00009s=120000000m/s^2
F=ma
shot=.1kg
F=.1kg*120000000m/s^2=12000000N
Dabbler=100kg
a=12000000N/100kg=120000m/s^2
1g=9.81m/s^s
120000/9.81=12000g
Lots of rounding, but I’d say it’s between 10-20k g’s.
She has amazing recoil compensation.
She sends it here.
*pointing paw to a spot in extra-dimensional space*
Or uses a bit that could convert most or all of the recoil into energy, then convert energy into mass for the next shot.
Mostly because a gun that makes its own ammo is very useful, and incredibly cool.
My reply was mainly due to my instincts to spring to the defence of any lady. That aside, I do actually have every respect for correcting terminology that is not being applied in the right manner. For instance the “Union Jack” is that which flies on the flagship of the British Navy. And no other.
Although usage trumps, so we all know what folks mean when they say it, in other contexts. But there is one guy who has been fighting a very successful campaign to convince people to use the correct term, namely the “Union Flag”.
It has been a long time since I have seen any (British) newscaster who has been ill-informed enough to use the wrong term. And more and more of the public have been taking up the change. So it may well revert, even in common usage, to the traditional form.
Ah but union flag is confusing, at least to an american, wherein Union means American only. Union jack = british flag, union flag = american flag. mind you I’ve never heard it referred to in that manner but that’s what my mind translates it as. Then there’s the confederate flag of course. Actually once you bring the confederate flag into the equation then the term union flag means the flag of the northern states.
Ah, but there is the crux of the issue. It has nothing to do with the nomenclature specifically but having to deal with ‘Merican centrism, just like the world had to deal with geocentrism or the Ptolemaic system in the past. Eventually people learn that they are not the center of creation.
Don’t forget her short attention span. It can be a liability in a superhero team :-P
Indeed. Something that would tend to work against careful forethought, thorough organization and in-depth planning. Not eliminate them completely, but possibly make them …. harder to achieve.
Plan around it, she makes a great distraction after all and not just because people are magically inclined to look at her.
One of the webcomics Dave links in his list off to the right, Strong Female Protagonist“, is doing a kickstarter right now. It is a totally different take on a superpower comic, but worth checking out. And if you like it, consider giving it a kick…
And the third panel of the second comic is totally a giant vagina. How they get away with things like that, I’ll never know.
Psychiatrist: Please look at these ink blots and describe what you see.
Patient: A couple having sex…
Patient: A vagina…
Patient: (tilting head to side) Wow! How much for the set?
Funny! Thank you for that.
Psych: You are a sick person!
Patient: But you’re the one showing the dirty pictures to everyone, Doc.
Patient: Doctor, doctor, I think I’m cracking up. Last night I had a dream where I was a tepee and then a wigwam.
Pscychiatrist: In this case, the diagnosis is easy: you’re two tents.
https://instantrimshot.com/ It’s self-service, help yourself to a couple.
I’m in love with Peggy!
I own a rifle scope very similar in appearance to Peggy’s as depicted in the last panel, and that crosshair with the rangefinding scale is pretty similar as well. As for spotter’s scopes, you can get them totally clear or with a simple crosshair or cluttered up with as much peripheral junk as you want. Some of the newest top-end scopes (both rifle and spotter) have LCD crosshair panes that are completely customizable. I imagine that’s the kind of tech ARCHON loves and Peggy doesn’t trust.
To be fair, if you are dealing with superheros and supervillians, sooner or later you are going to run into a technopath. At which point all your high-tech goodies become weapons to be used against you. Better to stick with the more mundane equipment that can’t be reprogrammed.
Or just disable any wireless function.
Trouble is anything that has been disabled can potentially be re-enabled. It reminds me of one of my mates poking around inside my PC once.
“Ahh, I see you very wisely bought the cheapest chip set, in the range. Because the company that makes them simply mass-produces the entire range in a single factory line. Then all they have to do, in order to supply high and low end versions, is to disable some of the functions, on some, and sell those as the budget ones. But all the features are still on it.”
*poke, twiddle, puff of acrid smoke and some other technical wizardry*
“Tada! There you go bud, one state of the art top of the range chip for you”
…Hopefully, the acrid smoke wasn’t coming from the chip itself.
Nonsense. Everybody knows that computer chips and all things electrical are powered by magic smoke. Clearly, when you are adjusting said devices, there will be small amounts of smoke lost.
It’s when you lose all the smoke that things stop working.
this is when you don’t want your gear to pass the smoke test…It means that all the smoke has passed out of its containment…
Or Yorp’s mate ;)
I remember hearing a very similar story, but it was Nvidea graphics cards.
All of a sudden the Net was full of posts on various forums about how Nvidia was trying to con their customers. Someone had examined the hardware of two cards with wildly different prices and noticed that they had the exact same chipset, just the lower end version had features disabled at the factory.
Instructions on how to re-enable all the good stuff were posted. There was much rejoicing, especially from the people who had purchased the cheaper cards.
At first there was no response from Nvidea. A lot of people took that to be proof of the whole story. There was some rumbling from people with top end cards about filing lawsuits. Finally Nvidea explained what had happened.
It wasn’t that they were cheating the people who purchased top end cards. What was happening was that when a chipset failed the final quality asurance check, instead of just throwing it away, they had taken to disabling some features, slowing the clock speed, and testing the chips to see if they could be used in lower priced cards. They hadn’t wanted to come right out and admit that, because some people might see it as selling defective chipsets in lower end cards.
A few lucky people really did get a performance boost. Most folks got nothing but the placebo effect. A fair number of folks fried their graphics cards in a manner that voided their warrantee trying to get Something For Nothing.
On the flip side is the story about the Intel Celeron 300A which was sold as a 300 Mhz processor but which could be overclocked to 450 Mhz quite easily (given a motherboard which offered clock adjustments). That’s a 50% improvement for the low, low cost of a quality motherboard, which not only brought its own quality to the table but also cost far less than a 450 Mhz processor.
I owned three of those CPUs back in the day, one on a single CPU motherboard and two on a dual CPU motherboard.
Overclocking isn’t quite the game breaker as it used to be, and I just don’t bother these days. Sure, you can still squeeze some performance out of your CPU or your GPU if you overclock, but the improvement is only incremental and you might never even notice it. And the cost of a CPU or GPU which runs natively at the clock speed you can achieve via overclocking isn’t a great deal more than the cost of the parts which can be overclocked.
Actually, the price of overclocking is the risk of the chip dying sooner. Run the clock at a higher speed, the chip heats up more. The higher the temperature you run your chip at, the faster it will wear out.
Factory clock speeds are designed to make sure the chip lasts until the warrantee expires. They have fairly little to do with what the chip is physically capable of.
And not a second longer.
Actually, with any electronic device/component, the expected lifespan is between >5 years and 2 seconds :)
Warranties are more like “use by” dates these days.
It’s called ‘binning’, and is a common practice. Often early in the product’s run the chips are legitimately non-functional on the disabled features, but late in the run they are just turned off. (Due to production quality improving over time; later in the run there are less defective chips to down-rate.)
You are assuming the technopath needs access to get in. Many technopaths are access to get in: They can control any technology within their range.
It’s kind of a fools game to try and take Supervillain Countermeasures unless you are expecting trouble from a known villain. No matter what you try, there is always going to be someone whose power set makes what you did the wrong answer.
Using more primitive tech to avoid having trouble with a technopath you aren’t sure exists may end up causing you to lose your tech to the guy who fries electronics with electromagnetic pulses the top end gear would have been shielded against, and no matter what you did with your tech gear, it doesn’t help you against the telepath that hacks your teammate’s wetware.
Tell that to the crew of the Battlestar Galactica. I think the most useful general tactic is to ensure that you have a variety of options at your disposal. That way, if you do manage to get any warning as to the nature of an approaching foe, you can ditch, or destroy, any items which would be hazardous. But will still have your alternative gear available.
Likewise everyone should attend their defence against the dark arts lessons. And practice their mind shield exercises. Although you may need a mage to take on a mage, and a psionicist to protect you against mind attacks, it does not hurt to give the generalists what protection they can have. Although it will not necessarily work against strong supers, it could help if just caught up in some weak effect. And versus lower-powered villains and minions.
In this case though, the lower-tech solution is equally capable (if chosen correctly) as the high-tech solution, so there is no real downside.
It’s a long cost-benefit analysis for any choice you make. In general, for a military situation reliability/durability is a prime virtue, and you have to have significant other advantages to push that one down the list. Against supers part of that reliability means protection against superpowered attacks on the equipment.
If the tech provides additional capability that’s significantly useful, it’s worth the risk. But err on the side of caution. (Especially when you have someone who can near-instantly retrieve whatever equipment the current engagement requires – You might keep other equipment ready for Harem to fetch if/when needed, but it’s not part of the ‘normal’ loadout unless you see a reason for it on a particular mission.)
Oh, and for the specific example you gave: It’s actually easier to shield lower-tech equipment from EMP than higher tech. ;) (Vacuum tubes are immune, and the larger transistor size the better it can handle it, while the main progress in computer tech has been in shrinking transistor sizes.) The only question is whether the shielding has been done – and that’s unrelated to the tech level, just the effort expended.
You know I am not so sure HS is “out” as in unconscious or even stunned. Say it together folks “A high powered bullet just hit within inches of my head and my powers do not include invulnerability or radical healing. This bit of pavement seems like a good way to play nice and be not a target for the moment while the operator of the high powered sniper rifle finds other things to point at. Yes, officer I do feel like cooperating …”
A sudden cool breeze on the neck equating with a near miss by a certain scythe can chill the hottest head. Plus I think she may have a painful case of splinters in her hands and head.
Scotto the not-so-unwise!
According to an aqquaintance of mine who has been under fire from a Soviet-built HMG (12.7mm, or roughly equivalent to the .50BMG that Peggy’s M82 chambers), a near miss from a .50 at medium range is like getting smacked in the head with a sock full of sand. Even a graze from a .50 can cause a serious flesh wound; it’s a badass round. I’ve never been to war but I have had smaller bullets pass close to me and the air displacement feels like a physical impact. At the very least Heavenly is having a sit-down and reconsidering her career choices.
Off-topic, but interesting just in case Archon ever needs to defuse a bomb (although some of them might not apply if a super-hero is doing the defusing).
I just read that earlier today. Good research stuff with the Cracked touch.
Man that guy has balls. If some cop suggested to me that I should smash my way through a door, in close proximity to a bomb, my answer would be “f**k off.” Not an enthusiastic, ‘Hell yes!”
If its small, Achilles could just eat it.
He could technically be used in this fashion to store antimatter, as it wouldn’t annihilate due to the fact that that would involve damaging him.
Which would bring new meaning to the phrase “silent but violent”.
Although there is the minor problem of the atmosphere interacting with the anti-matter. That and/or fluid and/or food would be present. So he would need to be totally dessicated first, starved, then have every bit of non-Achilles material removed from his body (say by nanobots) and then placed into a vacuum. And kept there indefinitely, until a safe storage facility could be constructed.
After reading through the comments about Dabblers performance I noticed one thing not mentioned so far. Maybe Dabbler has little to no experience in non-lethal combat. I’m sure if she were to whip out some terrifying doom weapon HS would be particle matter. Her magic also might have similar limitations or just not a lot of practice using the “stunball” vs “disintegration ray”. Trying to strike a balance between non lethal and eh, they are probably fine while still being Dabbler……its like Sydney talking in public without swearing. Not in their normal mode of operation.
She’s definitely hamstrung to a degree by non-lethal combat. HS would have trouble defending against a fireball.
A: keep up the good work, you make me F5 way too much on update days :)
B: Spotting scopes, if they’re military style can have any sort of reticles. You basically drew a Horus style reticle, which is actually in vogue amongst more experienced marksmen due to the additional stadia lines allowing you to precisely hold for windage/elevation. Most I got exposed to while active duty were not mil-dot, but instead had tick marks. the tick marks are millradian calibrated for using them to range a target and offer more graduations than what mildots do, either round or oval.
Thanks! That’s good to know about the scopes. I assumed it mostly came down to personal preference.
Another good page, I’ll be gutted to see HS taken out of the equation, but she has had a good run. It’ll be interesting to see Dabbler free to start sweeping though as I’m guessing Heavenly is amongst the best/is the best this outfit have to offer: her skills with a sword, reactions and dexterity in close-combat and tactics would put her on a level with Math; add in energy manipulation and it probably IS right that she’s a match for Dabbler, a 7-8 on the Power-level scale would be my guess. If the “baddies” had any more on Heavenly Sword’s level, Arc-Swat would be getting walked all over (they ARE outnumbered, remember!)
With their defacto-leader taken down (if she truly is out of it of course,) my money’s on one or two big-ish threats stepping up for a whooping then it’s nighty-night, routed anti-arc-Swat (almighty finisher from Max maybe?); this fight’s been really good IMO, kewl villains and interesting tactics, hope the finale lives up to it :)
Dave said Hex and Glowbug are still not down and out. And Heavenly seems to have been a mid-level guardian, so imagine what the end-of-level bosses will be like.
I’m still wondering about the person who swept Concretia aside after Math slammed her out of the restaurant. Haven’t seen much of them besides that one shot, and I’d say they are a bit more fearsome.
Maybe but I’m looking at it that Dabbs is on her own as second strongest on the team and Heavenly would have beaten her if not for interventions, we can’t have half of the town levelled now can we? You gotta build up to that kinda thing over time :P
Hope you’re right though, Max should at least have to get into middle gear to sort this out, can’t wait to see that :)
I think Peggy is my favorite team member <3
She is lovely, isn’t she. Peggy is getting a growing group of devotees. Dave sure knows how to create appealing characters.
I have no idea what is on the second part, but the above stands very well in it’s own right. In particular encapsulating the respective attitudes and relationship of Dabbler and Peggy.
Plus it shows a lot of the team dynamics, if you read between the lines. Whatever her official status is, Xuriel is the de facto ambassador to multiple alien races, and the only known example (to us, and possibly to the government too). As such, she can very much play things on her terms. If she wants to have fun, rather than fight hard, that is what she will do.
Maxima will try what she can, to keep Dabbler in line. And they have their own love/hate (or tease/grr) dynamic going on. But, at the end of the day, the powers that be will not tolerate such a uniquely important personage being pissed off. Maxima’s job includes entertaining the ambassador. Not just leading a SWAT team.
Dabbler can pretty much get away with anything she chooses. Just about all that Maxima can safely do, without creating an interstellar incident, is to get Dabbler off the team, if she becomes a liability. Which is not the case at the moment. She is being useful and helpful. Just nowhere near as productive as she could be.
Peggy will be just as aware of all of this, as Maxima is. And we can see her response to the situation above. A subtly clever social dynamic.
I don’t think Dabbler is to the point of “ambassador”, usually cloaked government agents don’t follow their own ambassadors*(except maybe as bodyguards).
*If you don’t trust someone to be unsupervised, chances are that you don’t trust them to speak on your behalf.
Err, if you have not noticed the USA does spy on allies with diplomatic privilege. There is quite a diplomatic incident going on, and the German government is conducting an investigation , as we speak.
Of course, this is not a poke at the US. All governments do this, to some degree or another. It is just that if they break the law, in doing so, they must not get caught with their fingers in the cookie jar.
But, that said, you are right. I doubt that she is a formal ambassador. But that is why I used the term ‘de facto’. Just as you represent your country when you are abroad, so she represents her various species. Given that humanity has (presumably) no other contact with them, whatever Dabbler says, or does, reflects back on them.
Likewise any one of the races/alien governments might take offence at one of their citizens being mis-treated. When you consider that the penalties for such might include clearing the Earth away to make room for a bypass, you really do not want to piss them off.
Ok, Dabber. Time to realise that 1) neat tricks like that never work twice, and 2) there’s no magic bullet.
And I request that Peggy’s description is altered from “skilled sniper” to “incredible expert master sniper”.
Peggy is shooting from what qualifies as short range for the gun she is using. We haven’t seen her pull off a tricky shot yet.
The maximum effective range of her rifle is 1800 meters. About 1.1 miles. Though hitting something at that range is difficult. But at the range she is at, it’s almost point blank for that rifle.
It’s not about whether or not it’s “point blank” for the weapon, but for the user. In this case it is. As for your max range shot, that would take at least 15 minutes with a laptop to figure out, and more time to set up. Mechanical holding devices with micro-adjustments, a far more powerful scope (probably digital and reading to the above mentioned laptop) and an electric, remote trigger just to get things started. When you start having to figure the longitude, latitude, and rotational tilt of the earth into your shot, it becomes a little more complicated than “point and pull”.
I don’t know about all that. I was a Marine and qualified with an M16A2 rifle with iron sites. I had a grouping the size of a quarter at 500 yards. The snipers were a lot better than me. Some have kills out to 1.2 Miles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_recorded_sniper_kills
Sounds a good bit like what I said.
I had about the same grouping with my M16A1. I’m probably at least a generation ahead of you. I routinely made head shots (on the range) at 300 yards, and yes the snipers were quite a bit better than me also. They are paid to be better than us grunts. Not much, but still…
If you guys are Marines than I shouldn’t have to remind you that the White Feather snapped off mile-long kill shots from a mah deuce with a 4X scope without so much as a windsock, much less a bunch of electronic doodads.
If the stand off really was that close, all Dabbles needed to win is to thrust with her arms and, unless Heaven dodges, put the tip of her sword through Heaven
Current score: *
Dabbler: 0 Peggy: 2
* And, yes, some of them may be getting up again. But currently they are down, and Peggy is the one who put them down.
The “A” team is tied at 2 2 :)
I’d call Silent Shadow a score for Dabbler.
Oops, I stand corrected.
When Dab’s finds out you tried to short her, you will be in her odiedience school learning to be a good puppy. And alo she will be teaching you remedial math.
I have been a bad puppy. Dabbler must spank me.
Judging by the unhappy look on her face and the fist shaking I can tell that Dabbler is not happy with Peggy interfering. And her has a good reason to be, things were just getting interesting until once again another teammate stuck her nose were it wasn’t needed. This makes it the second time someone has interfered in someone else fight, someone really needs to teach these people about combat manners.
Zack Tilly! It’s combat, not ‘show off and get your ETA kicked’
As Peggy said, the team needs Dabbles to stop screwing around (she can save that for the victory party ;))
Fighting fair is for tournaments, with combat you fight to win.
If you have an opportunity to take down the enemy without endangering your team, do it. The concept of Kill Stealing is for video games, and has no place in a real battle.
There are a few people that might disagree with you.
And they are the ones who have zero place in real combat
Or on the other side. It is always nice to realize your opponent will back off because his teammate doesn’t have the angle but does have precedence. Gives you time to reload and take them out easier.
real combat manners are my buddy is still dealing with this guy after two minutes let me adjust fire and put a bullet in him so said buddy can advance and kill the bugger pinning those buddies over there that I can’t get an angle on.
+1
That is the unit I would want to serve in.
If she’s a Succubi, does that mean that she can turn into an Incubus?
/pushes Walker foward
You go ask!
That, I believe, requires an incubator.
I’ve got a subcutaneous conception tool right here that would do the job nicely…
Usually, the answer is NO. No more than a fully functional woman can become a fully functional man. (Even if she does, he will not be fertile.)
Actually, there is some reports that after ‘mating’ and collecting the spermy DNA, the Succubus can become an Incubus and pass on the ‘seed’ to their next, notalwaysfemale, victim
You say reports, I say vicious rumors. The succubus anti-defamation league will be in touch with you.
From Neal Stephenson’s novel SNOW CRASH, chapter 1:
“When they gave him the job, they gave him a gun. The Deliverator never deals in cash, but someone might come after him anyway — might want his car, or his cargo. The gun is tiny, acm-styled, lightweight, the kind of gun a fashion designer would carry; it fires teensy darts that fly at five times the velocity of an SR-71 spy plane, and when you get done using it, you have to plug it into the cigarette lighter, because it runs on electricity.
The Deliverator never pulled that gun in anger, or in fear. He pulled it once in Gila Highlands. Some punks in Gila Highlands, a fancy Burbclave, wanted themselves a delivery, and they didn’t want to pay for it. Thought they would impress the Deliverator with a baseball bat. The Deliverator took out his gun, centered its laser doohickey on that poised Louisville Slugger, fired it. The recoil was immense, as though the weapon had blown up in his hand. The middle third of the baseball bat turned into a column of burning sawdust accelerating in all directions like a bursting star. Punk ended up holding this bat handle with milky smoke pouring out the end. Stupid look on his face. Didn’t get nothing but trouble from the Deliverator.
Since then the Deliverator has kept the gun in the glove compartment and relied, instead, on a matched set of samurai swords, which have always been his weapon of choice anyhow. The punks in Gila Highlands weren’t afraid of the gun, so the Deliverator was forced to use it. But swords need no demonstrations.”
It just seemed appropriate, somehow ;) I just hope Heavenly needs the whole sword to make the energy thing work. And she should be grateful there’s a “no kill if avoidable” gig; her head or her chest would have been much easier targets.
I get the feeling Heavenly Sword just played rock paper scissors a couple of times there. Unfortunately for her, she just got rocked by Peggy. ;D
No, Peggy threw “the bomb” (LARP rules?).
With all the talk about how overpowered Dabbler is,* it struck me that no one has mentioned how much of a disadvantage she has, precisely due to having such a wide range of powers. If there is a psychic critter which causes all psionic individuals to collapse in pain, Dabbler will go down. A wild magic zone will cause Dabbler’s spells and magic items to go haywire. An energy field designed to make ultra tech power sources overload, and explode, will have bits of her flying around the room.
At times having specific super powers can be hazardous. Dabbler manages to ensure that if there is such a danger, she is on the list of individuals at risk.
* Mainly from the previous issue, noticeably less this week, now that she has been taken down a peg, by Peg. And, serious though Peggy is about it, it is wryly amusing that the team’s super-power-less member is being more effective, than the second most powerful super in the organisation (and possibly the world).
In situations like this it’s not how much power you have it’s how precisely you apply the power you’ve got. Peggy has put two .50 cal rounds at precisely the point of maximum disruption, while Dabbler has been flailing about switching approaches and weapons and still not getting any real work done. Shadow is her only success. Even Sydney has her beat.
For every time Dabbler is more vulnerable because she has a specific type of powers, there will be the time when she is less vulnerable because she has a specific type of powers and that lets her defend herself.
Dabbler may be the only one who has any defense against psychic attacks.
Dabbler will have ways to counter magical attacks not available to people who have no magical powers.
Dabbler may be able to rebuild her tech, or adjust it so it keeps working properly inside the Anti Tech Field.
Another advantage that Dabbler has is that her powers are much harder to suppress than other characters. You want to shut her down you need an Anti Tech Field, an Anti Psi Field, an Anti Magic Field, an Anti Martial Artist With Super-strength Field, et cetera.
Want to know the biggest disadvantage all those different kinds of powers creates for Dabbler? She has -way- too many choices for someone with ADHD.
“I could use my sword! Or that Crimson Bands of Someone Or Other spell! Or I could totally build a phased plasma rifle in a 40 watt range! Or I maybe I could… Ooooo! Shiny!”
on a related note, she has so many options that even she, with her unmeasurable intellect, can’t recall all of them at any given moment, while under fire – she (like most of us) simply chooses from a short list of options that pop off the top of her head and goes with it.
“somebody’s coming at me with a sword… ooh, I have a sword…”
Yeppers. I would happily sign up for the ‘too many powers’ disadvantage. The pro’s definitely outweigh the cons. But it does give Dave plenty of ways of putting the breaks on Dabbler, if he feels that is necessary to keep her out of solving some plot problem he wants handled another way. And, nicely, it does not have to be done in a way that is targeted specifically at her. It is not like she needs something unique, such as kryptonite.
There are always countermeasures available in any super-hero setting. What ones are available to any given villain or group might be limited though. But whatever they have is likely to to have work on Dabbler as well as any other more specific targets.
actually dabs may be weakest because she will instinctively want to head for the playboy (or girl) on the enemy team who offers a delicious feast of desires (thinking with her stomach as it was) if they have a way to boost others desires dabs wont resist or if they could project desirability.
Thank you for starting this thought, if Dabbler “eats” emotion then she is just playing with her food while it simmers. Peggy just threw out the desert course right after she put the whip crème on…
A 40 watt plasma rifle would actually be nearly useless in terms of lethality.
a one second charge would give the shot 40 joules
this is the same energy as a large rodent falling on you from the top of a two story building.
R.O.U.S.s can be a serious danger!
Interestingly they did once exist. A metre tall and three metres long!
You know, I think it would be a pretty fun running gag if Peggy kept “Ballisticus Interruptus”-ing all the big stand-off Super Fights. Like, everyone’s always getting hyped up to take on the big villain, he/she’s Monologing about their plan then BLAM and the doomsday device/death-ray/phlebotinum rope holding MAX hostage is gone and everything gets wrapped up with military precision, preventing further property damage.
And that is why every super team should have a Peggy or three on the payroll. A 500 meter shot might not destroy the Comic Crystal (stet) but it would shoot it out of Doom’s hand and blow it right over the edge of the building roof he’s standing on. After which Bashful Ben does a one-Thing pig-pile on Vic. And Jack Kirby invents a new monster for the filler story on the last eight pages. Win-win i say.
Dabbler, if they told you once they told you a dozen times: No screwing around in combat! So no point being angry at Math or Peggy when the butt in on your fight. It just isn’t the right time for extensive foreplay.
Now start racking up a few takedowns already. You even get to take of a piece of clothing/glamour for every one you take down. You are currently one glamour in the minus.
*Dabbler puts on a fez* “Happy now?”
As long as you burn that bowtie you are holding behind your back with fire
I’ve yet to see a sonic screwdriver produce a fire…
Looks like both Dabs and HS had their turns at being smug for all of three seconds. Moral of today’s comic: don’t count your opponents beaten until they’re down on the ground unconscious.
And poked with a stick.
or with a cattle-prod. You know, just to be safe.
Purely for academic reasons………….. *ahem* he-he-heh…
Oooh, look, another perp! *ZAP*
Dan Aykroyd in Dragnet: “Ya gotta admire their crowd control.”
Hey, just to let you know that for the last three times that I have visitied your site this week, I have received a warning from my anti-virus software that it thwarted a web attack (Sweet Orange Exploit Kit website) that came from img.blueprint-legal.com.
Just wanted you to know about it. I really enjoy your story and art and I’d like to keep coming back, but not if I feel that my PC is under attack.
Thanks,
N. Mannski
The good news is your software knows it’s there. The bad news is DaveB and whoever else keeps up the site have little say in what ads appear. Try using your ad-block software to specifically blacklist that item. The instructions should be in it’s Help file.
I am sure that DaveB will pass this information on to the add company urgently. If it is a genuine threat they will need to act promptly. I doubt anyone will be sitting on their hands. Both Dave and the companies that the advert makers represent will be loosing customers every time this happens. It is a very serious matter.
But, turning on an add-blocker, would indeed be a wise intermediate step. We have no idea how efficient the advertisers are, so whatever corrective actions they take are indeed out of Dave’s control. But he has every moral right, and in fact a duty, to insist that they do take such steps. With haste.
Great comic. I always get a kick out of the teams antics.
https://www.google.com/search?q=spotter+scope+reticles&sa=X&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS558US559&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=QeS6U8uPCoegyASd_YHQDA&ved=0CBwQsAQ&biw=1449&bih=815
In the “biz”, they’re called “reticles”, not crosshairs. They come in an almost unlimited range of layouts, colors and features.
That bottom comic sentence.
Say that to Kirito.
Dabbler’s raised fist reaction to that shot, is still making me laugh out loud, when I see it.