Grrl Power #223 – Unlike a dead parrot, Heavenly Sword does go VOOM
My wife cautioned me to research whether or not ice conducts electricity before putting up this page, which is good advice since I just assumed it did. Water conducts electricity so ice should too, right? Well, it turns out, water doesn’t conduct electricity. Not pure water. It’s all the impurities in the water that conduct the electricity, or rather all the ions swirling around that are provided by the impurities. Same thing goes for ice, only since ice is cold, the ions aren’t so much with the swirling. A chunk of frozen sea water will conduct electricity if you put enough volts through it, but it is a better insulator than melted sea water. Therefore we can posit a few things about Dabbler’s attack. One, the ice she whips out of the sword is loaded with rock salt or something. I guess the diamonds or magicite or lightning phoenix eggs or whatever you what to think they are that she has in the hilt are intentionally impure for that reason. Look, it’s magic ok? Two, she puts a shitload of volts in that electricity attack. Four million at least. :)
Originally I had planned for Dabbler to cast some sort of Magic Missile pinwheel attack to keep Heavenly busy while she reconfigured Soulreaver, but it didn’t fit. I also wanted Sydney to grill Dabbler about where the second handle came from, which is a reasonable question. I originally tried to conceive of a way that would work, the best options I came up with had flaws. One was that each handle was shaped like a U if you looked down the length of it. Maybe a better way to describe it is like an stick of celery. Take a second stick, flip it over, then they kind of fit into each other, only Soulreaver’s handles would fit together with machined precision, and never get floppy if not refrigerated. That would physically work, but could make the grip awkward in both configurations. The other idea had the handles corkscrew shaped. That could potentially make them the right circumference in either configuration, but then separating them would be a pain in the ass. In the end I decided that one handle is phased inside the other, which is a huge cheat, but again, magic. I mean it’s a sword that shoots out elemental attacks based on what magicite has been stuffed in the guard so I figured it wouldn’t upset anyone too much.
Anyway, all that extra stuff would have made for one if not two more pages, and I wanted to wrap up this fight and move on. Sydney can give Dabble the third degree about the sword later.
Heavenly Sword is fun. Her name is a little cumbersome, granted. Same number of syllables as Wonder Woman, but anything over three syllables is in need of a nickname IMO. The more thought I give Heavenly the more I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve seen of her, but she’s done for now. When she comes too she’ll feel like she had a hard night of drinking and woke up next to the Energizer Bunny, only all his fur is missing and it’s just a bunny shaped mass of exposed wiring.
I am on vacation this week, puttering around Florida, so contact may be intermittent, but expect a comic as usual on Thursday.
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Poor HS.
And nice done, both Halo and Dabbler.
There’s a phrase for this: “quit while you’re ahead”.
At least HS still has a head. It was kind of close in the comments.
“Quit while you’re not dead”?
Having a multi-purpose weapon does fit Dabbler’s stated MO.
Half magic and half tech. I love it. And the appearance of the separated weapons is excellent.
I’m trying to think what bad guys are still left standing. There’s only Gilda AKA Jabberwocky left?
Jabby and Scarface that we’ve seen, yeah.
There’s a bunch we haven’t met yet. The ominous dude in the red cloak, the guy who nearly got shaved by Soul Reaver when Dabbler got disarmed. I call it about half finished and time for some more serious threats to emerge from the all-concealing shadows. Can I get a “muuhaaahaaa!” from the congregation?
muuhaaahaaa
muuhaaahaaa ha ha ha,
ha ha ha ha ha
in Excelsis Deo
(You did call us a congregation, after all).
Amen and Halleluiah!
(making cross sign over HS) ader marta, ve dedura, ve gebura, lu orem, amen
[The following must be said out loud repetitively and in front of others to be effective]
Owa tassil ligoo Siam.
A Siamese owl tassel igloo. Why?
The Tao that can be explained with words is not the Tao. It must be experienced through recitation.
Don’t honk me off.
HONK
Pie Jesu Domine
Dona eis requiem
May the Force be with y’all.
And may the ointment clear up your infestation, of metachlorians.
That’s certainly a learning experience for me. I never knew there were Southern Jedi.
What, all the unresolved sexual tension between Luke and Leia in episodes 4-6 and you didn’t realize that some Jedi were from the southern states where incest means “the natural sexual attraction of a boy towards his kinfolk”?
Hex and Glowbug were still around, according to Dave. There were some other rooftop folks unaccounted for, as well as Concretia (she got blasted but can reform elsewhere) and the hooded guy who slammed her into the pavement.
Max counted 30 after her initial flight. We’ve seen or gotten evidence of around 15 taken out (yes, I looked through the archives, I’m that anal), leaving about another 15.
And that should include most of the stronger ones.
We still haven’t had anyone (on panel) come up against Heat Miser and Cold Miser, Energy Bullet Guy (green shirt grey pants), Hentai Guy (purple energy tentacle), Baron Von Hood & Cape, and the Surfer Dude hulkster. (and assorted other less identifiable persons in the parking lot, one of which shot a green beam at Max)
If Dabbs just freezes the moisture out of the air, there’s plenty of impurities to make the ice conductive. Especially if she puts pissed-off levels of power into it.
DaveB probably wasn’t thinking this when he drew it, but those ice crystals are extremely well formed. That means they have very few impurities. They would probably conduct electricity better than air but worse than water.
That two-handed taser evened things out well enough. HS should quit smoking, it’s unhealthy.
Maybe the ice is psionically imbued with Dabbler’s thought? That would have plenty of impurities, plus the crystals would still be nice.
I see what you did there.
Bad Cyber! Bad! Don’t make me get the rolled up newspaper. As soon as I find a functioning newspaper stand.
“Hands eddi monday’s Wall Street Journal”
Thanks. But I got back too late. Cyber off romping elsewhere and if I whack him now it just confuse him.
…probably not any worse than he already is, though.
Meanwhile, in a distant alternate Earth:
Two of my childhood faves in one nifty package.
So Eddie and Wednesday are sharing the paper?
She has marked the investments he should make.
Actually, from what I have been given to understand, pure ice does not conduct electricity as well as air does. However, that’s sort of a moot point, since the explanation is clear enough.
Just like pure silicon is an incredibly effective insulator, pure ice allows almost no current to pass through it, since the electrons are completely absorbed by the water molecules which make up its crystalline structure. However, adding impurities will essentially free up electrons, allowing both water and silicon to conduct electricity–this is, in fact, the basis for modern computer technology. Depending on the impurities added, and how they are added to the substrate, you can exercise extremely precise control over how the electricity flows. Dabbler could, in theory, use that magical ice trick to build a computer out of ice, or capacitors, as well as the much simpler diode that we see her using here. Doing so would require incredibly precise control, of course, but then again, Dabbler’s magic appears to be sufficiently advanced to allow her that level of control.
Certainly, this does fit well into her theme of advanced technology, and would seem to suggest that her primary skills would lie much less along the lines of creating her own techniques than along the lines of combining the techniques available to an extremely advanced society. At this point, I am willing to go on record as guessing that Dabbler’s primary crafting skills are as an extremely advanced metallurgist, as the ice, the rail gun, and the sword blade all seem to support this.
Yeah, pure water is a VERY poor conductor; even salt crystals act as insulation. But when you mix the two together, you have a pretty good conductor. It’s not the water or the salt that conducts, it’s how their individual properties interact with each other that does it.
What you said about silicon is also true; they make semi-conductors (like transistors) by “doping” the material to change its properties. Yeah, I have a background in electronics engineering…
Even so, don’t stand in a puddle when you’re messing around with your fuse box…THAT water certainly isn’t pure enough to insulate!
Two thing to note (they may have been noted elsewere, but I didn’t got far enough yet):
1. The “ice” you see is not necessarily a water ice. Magic is such a wonderful thing…
2. Even if it’s a water ice, the precision you mention that is required to give crystal certain properties is a relative term.
It can be hard to construct a crystal from molecules manually, but nature does so… well, naturally, without a thought or issue, and with spectacular precision.
What I wanted to say, if certain ways of doing things you know are hard, someone may know the way to acieve the same result with much less effort.
In our case, using magic to achieve certain natural results could be easier than to use technology. And not being stupid, Dabbler using the easiest available way to get the job done.
This is true, but circuits are already created on Earth today on an incredibly small scale, beyond, according to what I understand, the tolerances of the machinery being used. It’s all about understanding how forces interact, and predicting what reactions will take place, when, and where. This is, I am given to understand, fairly straightforward…if you can do it.
Well, as it IS one of Dabbler’s attacks, we need to remember there’s what we & everyone in-comic saw/remembered….And what really happened. I mean, what percentage of Gotham’s Blackgate inmates would be able to believe that The Batman doesn’t actually have any super-powers once they were aware of the existence of metas like Superman, The Flash, Aquaman and such?
If we’re really looking for problems, we can stop at the point where the sword is closer to ground than Heavenly Sword.
I’m not sure how I feel about this ending. Granted, I knew HS was going to be taken down and Dabbler was only toying with her, but this seems a bit OTT. Dabbler could win the entire fight against most of the enemy supers that way, so unless they can guard themselves against being frozen or shocked, or dodge quickly enough, she could immobilise them and take them all out in one swoop.
Also, I like how you did your research on conductivity and use real chemistry and physics in a comic where super powers are around. Refrigerator logic squad? Nope, true world stuff.
Well someone mentioned the slots for the Jewels. But I don’t remember anyone calling just WHAT those gems did.
Red Materia – Summons
Blue Materia – Support
Black Materia – Meteor
White MateriA – hOLY
white is ice, panel 7
blue is lightning, panel 10
She did fight Max to a draw and Maxima could do the same spoiler level takeout of the bad guys with her powers. Dabbs just forgot to stay flexible in her fighting style.
Well, when you have a LOT of options available, it can sometimes be difficult to choose the right options for the best results…
I see what you mean, but what we discussed here for the last couple of weeks is that Dabbler is ridiculously superior in way to many fields to begin with, so the question isn’t if she can take out her opponents as easily as she just did Heavenly, but how well DaveB fits her into the storyline.
And I haven’t been disappointed so far. Also, it was about time for Dabbler to get serious and have Heavenly take a hike / visit dreamland / practice ground impact / put on ice.
The only reason she is ‘superior’ is because of dabbling (get it?) in so many fields, not that she is “superior in way too many fields”, she is a JOAT-MON
Touché. ;-)
Ehh, come to that, Superman or Thor could end most of their fights in one panel, but they don’t chiefly because that wouldn’t be entertaining. I’m fine with Dabbs showing off her awesome.
I would not consider Dabbler’s response to be Over The Top. HS has shown significant skill and adaptability. On top of that, HS is obviously using a killing attack targeted at demonic types. I say, enough playing around, put the enemy down hard and fast.
How could it be a “killing attack targetted at demonic types”? No one outside Archon (with the possible exception of Deus and his guarddog would even know Dabbles is a demon, not even Heaven believes her to be a demon
The sword knows. The sword knows.
Dabbler may be super powerful, but hubris can level a lot of playing fields.
No, she couldn’t. It would be extremely easy to guard against this trick. HS simply has not done so. I can think of three ways right off the top of my head, two of which HS could have used herself. The first, and perhaps the most obvious, is simply to wear protective clothing. HS, in the comics thus far, appears to be wearing nothing more sophisticated than a simple cotton or nylon fabric. Since cotton conducts electricity naturally, and nylond does so when wet (as in, don’t sweat on it), this outfit would do absolutely nothing to protect her from any kind of electrical attack.
Silk or chain mail, however, would do just fine at protecting their wearer against electrical attacks, as neither allows electricity through. Of the two, chain mail would probably be the most effective, as it creates a faraday cage around the wearer and thus shunts electrical energy off to the side, but silk will work almost as well, and is much, much lighter.
Yeah…you know all those books and comics you read years ago, talking about how electricity would be so dangerous for medieval knights? Turns out all of that was a big, fat lie.
Anyway, even if HS doesn’t want to shell out the big bucks for silk, a latex outfit should at least partially protect her from electrical attacks, as rubber is a very effective electrical insulator. It won’t work as well as silk or chain mail, primarily because it’s dangerous easy to rip, but it will still help.
The second method available to HS is even simpler: instead of a wooden kunai, or a ribbon, use a weapon with a bit of metal in it. A copper rod would be favorite, but anything metallic would work. Then run a wire down through your costume from your hands, and have it end at your feet. Presto: instant lightning rod. Good for diverting all manner of electrical attacks, and, in a pinch, allowing you to launch your own.
The third method is something that HS may not be able to do: break the ice, and jump out. I don’t know if she is strong enough and/or fast enough to do this, but the ice/lightning combo would likely have exactly zero effect on the guy we saw starting off the attack, because the ice wouldn’t stop him, and the way the attack is portrayed, the lighting bolt is grounding through HS only because she runs all the way to the ground. If she were on top of the ice, it would have no effect, for exactly the same reason why birds can sit on electrical lines, and not get zapped.
Chain mail and rubber are the preferred clothing of electrical line workers, after all, and for good reason. It is not entirely without reason to suppose that, had HS been wearing a chain mail bikini, or latex, that she would have been protected from Dabbler’s electrical attack (and here you thought both were just for the sexy). Regular cloth would have no effect, of course, but silk would be just as effective as chain mail (albeit much more expensive).
Alternatively, HS could wear a
Shinai, not kunai. It also appears you hit a limit.
Not just talking about the combo Dabbs used here. But freezing someone on the spot is an excellent start to taking them out in (relative) peace and quiet, since breaking out of such a thick layer of ice is surprisingly difficult unless you have super strength; ice is a LOT tougher than most people realise it is.
Of course, ice is strong, but it’s brittle as hell. Anyone who has vibratory powers could simply shatter ice. That calls to mind of a certain exotic dancer I once met…
1) I think Dabs was willing to continue playing with HS until HS hurt her. Then the gloves came off. As far as your second point, there are probably several Archon-ites who “could win the entire fight against most of the enemy supers”- Maxima, definitely; Halo, especially once she gets more training, learns what the other orbs do, and levels up, and may be a few more.
Let’s give a round of applause for the fabric of Heavenly Sword’s dress.
Normally when incased in ice (even for that short of a period) your nipples get rock hard :D
There are limits to the amount of fan-service (cheesecake) one wants to put in a fightscene. Different for each artist, I assume. You’ll just have to use your imagination if you want the knobbly bits stiff as a board.
:)
Mightiest Disciple Kenichi
Can’t call that one. There are no soft nipples in that manga. Must be a martial arts thing…
true, but it also counters the “there are limits to the amount of fanservice you can put in” comment.
We demand a redraw with the rock hard nipple xD
Maybe convince Dave a Heavenly Sword pin-up would attract votes?
Actually, with the way the votes go, if Dave did do an incentive with a little cheese/beefcake each week he would probably take and hold the top spot.
I sincerely concur, for science.
Scruffy, what say you?
https://www.operatorchan.org/k/src/139554300427.jpg
I agree. Perky nipples for SCIENCE!
You do realise that rock-hard ice-nipples don’t happen instantly, don’t you? Certainly not when you are wearing industrial grade nipple-covers
No, but fast enough to happen before Dabbler finishes her explanation :)
Lawl, Dabs can do in-fight gemming of her stuff, bet also reforging and enchanting.
XD
She probably also ate a cartful of cabbages and sweetrolls.
She went for the stews.
you missed when she put up a lean to and took a nap for HP and MP regen – we all saw her erect a couple tents earlier so I couldn’t term it that way
Panel 7. It looks like Dabbler just missed exploding out of that top.
You need to play more ‘arm, shoulder or boob’.
Drat! Two shoulder joints = Not the eyeful I thought. Still, worth staring at. And hope springs eternal.
Sounds like you thought something was going to go springing, but it doesn’t sound like hope.
That’s not her boob under her arm/shoulder, that’s another shoulder. 4 arms, 4 shoulders.
Forewarned is forearmed. It is foretold that the four-armed will reap fortune.
Dabbler is finally showing her hand. 5 Aces. All from different decks. You don’t have to cheat to win, but it saves a lot of time.
But fourarmed is not forwarned
It is if your author is Phil Foglio.
Forgive and forget.
Forsooth, this is a forsaken forum!
So many puns, but fortunately we have the time.
Forgive me.
All is forgiven, as long as we can try to keep these “for” puns counting up in multiples of four.
As long as you don’t forbid us to forage for some more on the grounds that it might forment… uh, foment a riot.
and this stirs a four-est of comments in a four-tress of silliness by four-men of discussion
Then let us forge ahead… that is, if there’s enough metal to do so,
Forking through the slag that remains, I see that to avoid foreclosure, I must be forthright. I have forsworn forgery.
Forearmed is half an octopus! :)
Still went for the non-lethal (though painful) shutdown, even after being provoked and wounded. Nice restraint, Dabbler.
That is a well earned victory! I’ll surely use the line, “Having 3 threes is better than one 9,” in some contextual sense.
I also love the way she’s holding each sword. Only someone with an extra pair of arms could possibly dual wield those things. Hmmm… I wonder if Spinnerette would ever consider getting a pair of swords….
I’ll take 3 threes and a pair of nines for my hand. Full house beats most other hands. But yeah, even “just” 3 threes is a pretty good hand, it beats about 65% of the other available hands, if I remember that probabilities properly.
I the game Magic if the defender has one blocker with 12 shield than one 9 attacker will do no damage, but three 3’s will cause 6 damage (the 12 will stop all damage from ONE source with less than 12 attack, all other attacks go through unhindered)
You know what, Dabbler can pull off quite a good demonic look. I don’t know how such a sweet girl as her can do that?
IMO she has a much cuter face in her demon form.
Her human form is much more attractive to me.
I am strictly original flava.
Yes, grape :P
I like to imagine her skin feels like purple velvet…
If the sword splits into 2 does that mean there’s now 1 mogwai dangly and 1 gremlin dangly thing?
Do Mogwai or Gremlins have dangly things?
There is no mowglie fob visible. Although it could simply be off-shot in every panel. But I like the idea. One sword, one cute furry critter. But get Dabbler pissed off enough to separate the two swords, and it gets converted into a pair of gremlins.
As long as one of them is Spike :D
Not sure that it splits into just two swords. She may decide to pull a Kali and wield a seperate blade in each hand.
It just happened to fall of panel for most of the page, but it’ll get shown in its split form before the fight’s over I imagine.
The center panel expanded to get a full view of the swords would make a great wallpaper.
(swearing Sydney optional)
Noooo, Sydney must swear. Also, add nuns. :-)
Absolutely have to keep the swearing Halo in the full sized poster/shirt
And ninjas…
Nope, no ninjas…
…NUNJAS!
Lookout samurai satan.
I’m just dissapointed that it moved in the previous comic. In the first few where it was visible, its orientation remained constant, though the sword moved.
I thought (and was hoping) it was a ‘feature’ or eegg you’d put in.
Alas.
YES!
That’s my girl! <3
Noooooo!
I’ll miss you HS!
It may be a while, but I’m sure a rematch will happen.
Yeah, she has been put on ice, not on a slab, so there is a good chance we haven’t seen the last of her
You know she will be bugging DaveB every chance she gets. She’s just that type of character.
So it will give her time to cool off and stratergize before she tries to ice Dabbler again?
She’s gonna be spending some time in the cooler for sure.
I love how Dave’s taking the time to fly in the face of the entire superhero genre by bringing up real world issues and going against the accepted norms, which does bring up a point…
Who do you think is going to be the first of our heroes to die?
…and I do mean dead, as a doornail, dead parrot dead.
Well, we’re in a comic book universe. So… Nobody.
in most of those
death is just a “time out” like in hockey hehe
HS is apparently in the penalty box for high-sticking…
It will probably happen, but it will be tough as and when it does. Dave manages to make good characters that you can empathise with. So it would be hard to loose any of them. Even the one he has set up to have dubious morals.
DaveB said there will be casualties on both sides during this fight, so far we haven’t seen any confirmed on either sides (plenty of downed villains, but that doesn’t mean they are dead)
Not all deaths have to be epic, some are quick and ‘foolish’ (remember that scene in “Hook”, with Rufio?), but most are tragic
even if it’s updating “only” twice a week and makes it sound longer, this fight technically just started.
so… maybe a lil patience? hehe
Just pointing out that everyone seems to forget (or didn’t read in the first place) what DaveB said at (or near) the start of the fighting
Perfectly paitient personally to wait and see how the fight goes (don’t really want fatalities on either side, not even Prosthetic Balls that Sydney put down)
or “up” for the prostethic balls hehe
Yes, but casualties does not mean deaths, casualties can also mean injuries and we have seen that, though fairly light, in this fight.
I think Prosthetic Balls might loudly disagree with the “light” category. If he were conscious that is.
He’ll live. But all his buddies will be mocking him forever. Fate worse than death.
Casualties =/= fatalities. Other way around, sure, Absolutely. Casualty means “hurt”.
From Wikipedia.
A casualty in military usage is a person in military service, not necessarily a combatant, who becomes unavailable for duty due to death, injury, illness, capture, desertion, etc.; or a civilian casualty.
In civilian usage the word “casualty” is properly used for a person who is killed, wounded or injured by some event, and is usually used to describe multiple deaths and injuries due to violent incidents or disasters. Casualties is sometimes loosely used or misunderstood to mean fatalities, but non-fatal injuries are also casualties.
Heatwave is down and probably out of the fight. Sydney is hurt, and Dabbler is cut up a bit. Laser Eyes has bleeding gums. LeePON is punctured and out cold. The first two bricks both got free dental work. Heavenly Sword is thoroughly tased. I’d say the casualty count is pretty high. And that’s just the worst hurt on the bad guy side.
By light I meant the actual damage to each individual.
I doubt Heatwave is out of the fight. LeePON is out cold because he fainted. Tazed, while incapacitating for a bit is not much of a lasting injury. Sydney is bruised. The bricks got the worst, but bricks can usually take that kind of damage being bricks. Dabbler has several cuts, but as mentioned last time they aren’t that bad due to the “Blink”. Laser Eyes is painful, and scary, but not of a major wound.
No one has take a wound that would require major surgery, loss of a body part (except maybe a tooth), or is life threatening by itself. Attacks have been life threatening, but not the wounds inflicted.
Have a close look at panel 5 of this issue. Not one but two orbs, performing an organ-crushing manoeuvre. The comic is mostly light-hearted, so he probably avoided rupturing and internal, or external, bleeding. But, unless that is confirmed, Shadow Boxer is at risk of dying.
Either way though, he will require intensive care. And possibly re-constructive surgery. He aught to be thankful that he will likely have the services of the super-healer to patch him up. Otherwise, even if he lived, he would face likely sterility and impotence. He is most definitely a casualty.
Okay, that was a bit more than minor, but I still doubt life threatening. He probably does need some surgery, but for what he was trying to do he got off light. :-)
True, death is not the most likely result. But it is a very real possibility/a>. And the examples cited there are simple squeezing. Not traumatic injury. Which would dramatically increase the odds.
The greatest danger being if there is significant bleeding. If it is happening, unnoticed and untreated, he could have already died.
Casualties and fatalities are different things.
Anything that renders a person unable to fight (for example catching a knife in your teeth or slightly impaling yourself) can be called a casualty.
In the webcomic Life and Death, Death comments on being done for the day now that Superman is dead. The next panel Superman is alive again. Third panel Death is shouting “Can’t you people stay dead for even 5 minutes?”
so okay, here is my point of view on the team as a reader.
Maxima is very good and powerfull but way uptight and STILL not directing her team enough to give them direction as a leader
Peggy very good and level headed, she is a GREAT support to the team but is mostly on distance.
Halo lots of untaped potential, with training can get extremely good in several positions for situations like this one. big problem her ADD and craziness is like the other edge of the sword that could get the team in a lot of trouble if not kept on a “tight leash”. a bit like a husky.
Anvil, pretty good but should learn martial arts to perct her skills. nice second in command with Hiro to my point of view.
Achille comic relief that tends to forget others aren’t invincible. Ready to take a hit for the team good, putting them in trouble with his joke VERY bad.
Math a god in martial art and i admire that, on the other hand put a woman with hot curves in bikini and i wouldn’t bet so far he wouldn’t chase her off the battle field so far.
Dabbler a hell of a lot of power but cocky as hell… can’t get serious unless she really get her back against the wall… if she isn’t careful she could lose more than a hand and an eye.
Harem so far i would trust her as far as i can throw her. with all her versions and powers i would put a tracker on all of her versions. she is useful for equipment carrying that is proven. but she is the TYPICAL character with an agenda on her own.
Heatwave the PERFECT exemple of why Maxima has to step up more as a leader, like with Dabbler sincerely. but her powers can get very useful.
Mr Amorphous seems serious and reliable but i wait to see more to really judge.
Stalwart and hiro… no outputs on them so far.
Sincerely THIS IS NOT A CRITIC this is my point of view on the team in battles so far and what would make me worry if i was part of the team or, worst, in maxima’s position.
i sure can see arianna investing in a whole cargo of headache pill with them for sure.
I’d imagine another “Halo”-issue is that the others will hesitate to trust her with their lives (in a “nasty” situation), until after they’ve worked with her first (in a controlled, “training” situation). Right now, it seems that the ones who trust her most (Max, Anvil, Achillies, maybe Math) are only the ones who are most likely to survive her mistakes. This is also (most likely) why they can afford to be so calm with her in mid-combat.
“Math a god in martial art and i admire that, on the other hand put a woman with hot curves in bikini and i wouldn’t bet so far he wouldn’t chase her off the battle field so far.”
Back in the days when horse-drawn chariots were the ultimate military machines, clever commanders would release some mares, in heat, across the line of battle. this would distract the stallions efficiently. I could see a similar tactic used on Math…
“i sure can see arianna investing in a whole cargo of headache pill with them for sure.”
I’m thinking of heavy stock purchase in aspirin companies & contacting Archon…
I can see Math getting pulled into an ambush by a damsel in distress ploy. The problem for the trappers is convincing Math to not beat the tar out of them anyway.
government employ = government health care program. she will be issued motrin for her problems (anything from a headache {arianna} to cut open foot {brook} to cramps {heavenly sword} to being buried in bricks {achillies}) no purchase or investment needed.
Unless Achilles has, or develops, claustrophobia, he is at zero risk, from being buried. Other than such potential psychological issues, he will never need medical care.
The physics teacher in me wants to say “Electricity takes the easiest path to ground!” This is the problem with most electrical attacks in comics, TV shows and movies. Unless you have good conductors to carry the electricity to and from the subject, an electrocution will not happen. If the conductor is grounded before reaching the subject, that forms a short circuit and again, protects the subject. If the “ice” is already touching the ground, then that is the easiest route to ground, not necessarily through HS.
4 MV through a human subject, unless at very high frequency, will likely kill someone (read: smoking heap of charcoal), A human has about half a million ohms of resistance. At 4 MV, that yields a current of about 8 amps, way more than enough to actually cook the flesh, let alone kill you; death happens when a human conducts about 0.1A or more, but 4 mA across the heart can kill too. A high-frequency Taser uses 5 KV at very low current to immobilize somebody, not 4 MV, 800 times as much.
The reason high-frequency electricity does not kill is that, while the electrons are receiving a huge push from the high voltage, they do not travel very far in, say, a millionth of a second, thus the actual heat generated is minimal, easily enough for the body to handle, say with blood flow. Low frequency electricity, such as in household/industrial electrical supply, try to move the electrons a few meters in a cycle, at about 50 or 60 Hz. Cooking time!
I would say that electricity follows the path of least resistance. Therefore, if there is a a grounded metal rod somewhere in the path of ice (which happens to be quite common on parking lots around restaurants), the current would go all the way from the sword to the rod. Of course, in that case, it would go (mostly) around Heavenly Sword, not through her…
… which explains why she is able to actually voice the pain, and not just smolder.
It’s true that electricity does follow the path of least resistance, but the more of it there is the more paths of least resistance it takes to channel it all. It’s like water. Water flows downhill. A trickle will flow downhill along the easiest path. A stream will tend to branch out into several downhill pathways, unless it’s had time to wear itself a good channel. A flood will just go everywhere as the amount of water flowing makes all paths look to have the same degree of resistance.
With an electrical attack like Dabbler’s, I’d wager most of the current she unleashed never reached HS, grounding out along the way, but with as much current as she can unleash and her analytical mind I’m sure she was able to guesstimate pretty accurately how much current would actually reach HS before grounding out completely. That’s the thing about electrical attacks: they look flashy, but you have to set up conditions just right to make them effective.
A good point – as (most) material’s heat increases, it tends to reduce conductivity, which requires the next electrons in line to seek a less resistant path elsewhere.
Lightning is really odd though and sometimes seems to have rules of it’s own. I’ve collected quite a few stories of odd lightning effects. A newspaper article once reported two women walking down the street hit by lightning. The only thing they were left wearing were their shoes but they were unhurt. In a book of unusual phenomena I once read of a case where a man was hit by lightning. Not only did it cure his blindness but his hair started growing again. This is to say nothing of the Forest ranger they call the human lightning rod. He’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for having survived more lightning strikes than anyone else on Earth, seven in all before he committed suicide.
That is shocking!
The ladies experienced flash-over. Their clothes get soaked from the heavy rain, (unless they were wearing leather) along with the salt from their sweat, makes their clothes a pretty good, but not great conductor, as in not up to the conductivity of a metal rod. When the lightning hits, almost all the electricity goes through the circa 2000 ohm clothes, super-heating them and causing the wet clothes to explode, but very little goes through their 500 000 ohm bodies. Their nervous systems get temporarily overloaded and they fall unconscious in the middle of the storm. When they awaken, they are naked, with minor injuries caused by the lightning: ringing in the ears from being in the centre of the thunder and minor burns when all the water in their clothes turned to super-heated steam.
Noting that we are talking here about electricity (or a facsimile thereof) that is generated by (or through) a “magic” sword being wielded by an alien-succubus hybrid.
On that basis, I kind of think the electricity will tend to go where SHE wants it to, laws of physics be danged.
There is no reason why it need ignore physics. The ice connected to the ground is nice and pure, with neat crystals and relatively low conductivity. However the path, within the ice, heading towards Dabbler’s intended target, is seeded with a nice ratio of conductive impurities.
I would suggest that the juice isn’t flowing through the ice at all, but through the very thin layer of water that formed on the surface almost immediately, a combination of meltwater and condensation. Rather than flow directly through the ice to ground, it’s traveling through the water until it gets to Heavenly Sword, who provides a slightly lower-resistance path (mostly along the outside of her body, which is why it didn’t kill her). Dabbler chocked the sword into the ice close enough to HS that this was an easier path than just following the sheet of water down the side of the ice to ground. (Though some of it no doubt went that way, anyway–electricity doesn’t ignore higher-resistance paths, it just splits in inverse proportion to the resistance.)
The sword could have deposited conductive material scattered throughout the ice as it formed.
The mad inventor in me says that the sword could (and should) have microscopic metal ribbons coming off it, that would hit the target even if the sword itself misses. The shock value of covering someone in tiny electrodes, when they think your missed your attack, is very high (voltage).
“The physics teacher in me wants to say “Electricity takes the easiest path to ground!’”
Electrical “ground” is not the same thing as the ground of the earth. In electronics, “ground” is simply the common point of a circuit. Regardless of what an electrical schematic actually shows, you can put “ground” anywhere in the circuit, but the only thing that changes are the measured values at which you put the other probe of your meter to read it.
What makes electricity flow is the difference in electrical potential between two items…Electricity will flow from a more negative potential to a more positive potential & take the path of least resistance to get there. For an example, the old “shuffle your feet across a carpet, then shock someone with your finger” trick; what happens is that you pick up extra electrons from the carpet, building up a more negative electrical charge (temporarily) in your body. When you get your finger close to another person, their electrical charge is more positive than yours, so the electrons jump across the small air space between your finger & their skin.
I love Sydney’s comment!
Which one? :D
The Kratos one.
I wonder what Dabbler’s singing voice is like? She could play some wickedly complicated instruments or combinations. I could just picture her with a bass guitar, held high, in her upper hands, whilst playing keyboard with the lower pair.
Nah… she’d play one of those 2 necked lead/bass guitars.
Nah. Keytar and base.
Guitar or Double?
You are right, a fiddle is much more appropriate than a guitar.
A fiddle of Gold?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9uk9IcoQ0w
no the tone? would be horrible it is the reverb of the sound off the wooden inside of the fiddle that makes what comes back out pleasing to the ear
Gojiira gies shenron /facepalm
Y’know, Dabbler’s spending a lot of time talking and fiddling with stuff with Heavenly Sword apparently just standing there doing nothing. Actually, that’s happened a couple of times now. Is this a turn-based fight?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQVaupPS80
Monologues are a free action. :P
Not so (Halo’s homerun debunked this). Note panel 1 here: Dabbler is fending off attacks during this exposition.
We should not read too much into the amount of time required for speech vs the corresponding actions in each panel. The greater priority to realistic timing is for interesting dialogue, comedy and carrying the story visually.
Sitting down with a stopwatch to figure out how long each comment takes, compared to the time allowed, is a waste of time better spent in drawing and writing. Further it is also counter-productive in that we would get practically no dialogue. Realistic combat simply would not allow it.
The genre has a tendency to have far greater speaking than the situation could allow for. DaveB did state that he would be running with that. So it is a matter of artistic licence. Which, I think, is for the better.
Just like Quentin Tarantino films would not be the same, without the lengthy dialogue scenes. And if they happen to fall in the middle of combat, then so be it. The action pauses until the speaker is done. It would be rude to interrupt, after all!
It has nothing to do with how long it takes to do something versus speech, but the appearance that someone’s doing several things while the opponent in a supposed fight is sitting there doing nothing. You’re breaking the flow.
There’s even already been a lampshade hung on it in comic 215.
Throughout the rest of the Dabbler versus Heavenly Sword fight it’s been done very well. Look at Comic 217 through 220. There’s background stuff going on, attention being split, individual characters showing off, but there’s never the sense that either Dabs or HS, or anyone else for that matter, just stop and sit there while other people act. Things continue to flow.
In today’s comic what is Heavenly sword doing in panel 2-7 while Dabbler fiddles with gems, separates her sword, and poses (twice), before unleashing the surprise ice wave?
My suggestion? Show the ribbon sword being momentarily tangled with Dabbler’s sword in panel 4 (you could combine 3 and 4 to save space if it makes it easier). Then, on panel 6 have Dabbler firing off another lightning bolt off screen, like the one HS already avoided a few pages ago. Even if you don’t see HS you still get the impression that things are happening continuously and HS isn’t just doing the anime stare while the opponent transforms/powers up.
Once something has been declared to be artistic licence, I simply accept that as part and parcel of a setting. Super heroes are all born buff. And they have a gene which gives an imperative not to interrupt a monologue.
To me there is no question that Heavenly Sword is doing anything other than just listening. The very issue you mentioned shows she is inclined to do just that. Her opponent is, yet again, giving her valuable information. The more she learns about her, the more she knows about Archon.
Heavenly has repeatedly shown herself to be superior to Dabbler, so feels wholly confident that she can take her down, once the information dries up.
As for the handle you could also have gone with quantum connection, that is that there really aren’t two handles, there’s just the one handle. By pulling the handle apart you will naturally make each resultant handle half the strength, density and other values as the original handle. However, being phased is effectively the same result and it doesn’t carry the overlap issues that a quantum connection does. That being of course that if the two handles are the same handle then the two blades would likewise be the same blade, which would mean that each blade would have half the properties of the full blade, which is incompatible with the notion of each blade having distinctly differing properties. Also, form-wise she wouldn’t be holding what is clearly two halves of the original blade, she’d be carrying two visually identical blades that would be weaker than the whole blade.
Or to put it another way, if you have a quantumly linked pair of spoons, neither is real!
There is not spoon. Also, the cake is a lie.
No no NO!!!! The cake is fake, the pie is lye!
Dark Side cookies are a deception to entice recruitment. The proof is in the pudding.
The truth has no steak in this mater
So, the meat of this argument is that I can haz my cake and eat it. Provided I am content in just feeding my imagination.
I hope you get your Just Deserts!
Lettuce ponder on this
I was thinking that the handles are of slightly different size and one just fits inside the other. Like how a telescope would look if you cut it open along its length.
To me it looked as though there were two round handles bound together by the cloth- the magic just made the cloth separate.
That way, the big 4 hander has an oblong handle, and the smaller 2-handers have circular handles.
,,,
Dear Santa…
Nice to see the reason why Dabbles tried to fight with a sword: she wanted to see if she could win, at least one sword fight, and she’s not too proud to admit that Heaven is a better swordswomen
Also, side casting a butt-fu seduction spell (the spell that does not cost magic, just posing). Enough to paralyse Matt is he was looking that way…
…do the sword halves have individual names? (“soul” and “reaver”).
P.S.: about the ice. There are 15 known forms of ice, just check wikipedia for “ice X”. Make Dabbler’s ice number 42, and made of heavy water to boot (check wikipedia for that, too) and you have some scifi thing that is sorta like ice, but does not melt until the plot demands it and conducts electricity if you want it to… and is light or heavy or heavy or light as you feel it to be…
P.P.S.: Where does Dabbler get heavy ice 42? From freezing hell of course!! Thats a noodle incident for you, lol.
One of the blades (the one in her left hands) has the name/word “XURIEL” (Or “XFRIEL”) on it. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/Ancient_alphabet.png
Nicely spotted. I bet her mum put that on it. And sewed tags with the same, into her clothing.
/volunteers self to check Dabbles’ underwear for proper placement of tags
What? Someone has to do it!
She is a SUCCUBUS, she doen’t wear underwear.
You just made the job more appealing :D
To boldly go where every man has gone before, huh?
Ice 9 was used in a Vonnegut story of the end of the world.
There is a philosophical argument that Dis, one of the layers of Hell, is a realm of ice. Maybe Dabs got it from there…
The clssic 9 levels of hell become progressivly colder the lower you go.
Until you reach the bottom where it is totaly frozen.
… I just now realized that Sydney’s shirt has the Wonder Woman logo on it.
it’s always been there, you just couldn’t see it through the flight suit during the press conference.
This is the page which gives the clue.* Sydney always wears super hero themed t-shirts. Presumably to market the shop’s product range. I can see her getting a nice range of endorsements soon. Manufacturers will be bending over backwards to get her to wear the latest one in their range.
* Not that I joined the dots myself. I never watched Wonder Woman enough, to become aware of her brand trappings.
In hindsight, this is actually also the page where she tells Joel of her orbs, see last panel…
I would agree that Sydney always wears geek-fashion tshirts, but not necessarily superhero ones (though my quick deep-dive showed that they were,/I> the overwhelming majority).
(evidence here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/57, and here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/60)
Ahh, I see why you think that. Because it does not have a superhero logo on it. However it is a famous catchphrase from a superhero, so it does count.
The Archon heroine, Halo, first says that following the world-famous ‘battle at the steakhouse car park’. Fans pick up on it, and it becomes her signature catchphrase. Former uses of the phrase being generally forgotten by members of the public, or dismissed as a generic term, until it becomes strongly associated with the heroine herself.
Fair enough – well played
Looks like a “Wheezer” t-shrt :P
Better than the old comic hero that dressed in yellow & used the name Whizzer…
You mean the character or the early British comicbook?
Alright!!!
Now she gets serious.
GO, DABBLER, GO!!!
Okay now the theme song for Inspector Gadget (the cartoon) is playing in my head.
There’s no need to try to explain the conductive properties of those crystals as if they were ice, because ice crystals do not look like that. Ice crystals forming like that have a feathery appearance. Quartz crystals do look like that however, and those are excellent conductors :D Quartz crystals have a lot of hi-tech uses as well, and she could have easily seeded the area with sand grains to initiate the rapid crystal growth :D (The ice crystals flying around are merely the moisture in the air condensing on airborn dust particles (again quartz) due to the magic involved ;D) Anyway, that’s my explanation…
Ice crystals have literally infinite variety. See snowflakes for an infinite sub-set.
Snowflakes have a finite set of possible shapes visible to the naked eye.
Snowflake variations are only virtually infinite.
for proof consider that even all the atoms in the universe can only be arranged in so many configurations (more than even the upper bounds of yorp’s number).
I do not consider that proof to be conclusive. All you have shown is that there are a limited number of elements.* It does not show that there is an upper bound, to the different ways they can be arranged. Unless we introduce an arbitrary restraint, such as how small a variance can be considered to be unique, you will have to do better than that to convince me.
* Given that we have evidence of another big bang intruding onto our universe, there is no reason why we have to even limit ourselves to that paltry number. I will supply infinite big bangs as the source for our giant snowflake.
Even if the centre does become rather singular, the outer bounds will be unique. Briefly. Or possibly eternally. Does it just feel like eternity, falling into a black hole? It woud be pretty though. Nice snowflake.
I used the assumption that we are limited to all of the mass/energy and volume of the observable universe, and we convert all of it to water ice.
Given those constraints, there can only be so many particles. Given a set number of objects, there are only so many possible configurations. Then we factor in the size of the universe, by building the snowflake at every point in the universe.
The universe is about 46 billion light years in radius and roughly a sphere so has a volume on the order of 10^80 m^3
It has an average density around 10^(-28) kg/m^3
So the mass of the universe is 10^53 kg
This gives us 10^55 moles of water, which is 10^78 molecules.
There are only so many ways to arrange 10^78 molecules in 10^80 cubic meters.
This may be reduced further due to many configurations producing black holes, which seem capable of destroying information. (I can’t go into detail because as a high school student I never saw a direct need to understand Steven Hawking’s life work)
A circle is composed of an infinite number of points Every point where my snowflake intercepts the circle, there can be a point of divergence. With an infinite number of divergences, there are an infinite number of solutions. Along a single circle. I do not need the rest of the universe.
You know, I’m super tempted to say those actually are quartz crystal. For some reason they’re really cold. Maybe Dabbler steals the local heat from the environment to help power the creation of the crystals. :)
Just say they are Auracite crystals.
the nickname for “Heavenly Sword” is quite obviously “Sword”.
No actually, the nickname (short name) should be Dagger. :P
No…Divine Dagger.
Double D. Goes hand in hand with Heavenly Keyhole.
Sticks
Oooh Ancient symbols from Stargate on the blade in her left hand. Reads XURIEL. Dunno what the other blade’s language is or what it says.
I’ve seen that writting before, I’m just trying to place it.
The red or blue text?
The blue text looks to be ancient Alteran writing (Lantean or Ori).
The red I don’t know.
Wait a second. Let me check it with my decoder ring.
It says….”Be sure to drink your Ovaltine”
Those symbols are Infernal, which is the language of demons in my little universe. The DaveB-Verse? Dave-Verse? Daverse? Anyway I just doodled them on there when I drew the sword but I’m sure I’ll eventually come up with some sort of syllabary for the language eventually.
You’re the only one I have seen call Supers “Atypicals”, but “Atypicalverse” is a bit of a mouthful. I’d go short and sweet and just call it the “ARCverse”.
Daverse ®
+10
Yep.
HS should consider changing her arm guards to a less conductive metal. When she comes to, that is.
Also, it looks like Halo moved herself (and her shield) out to the parking lot. Well, Max didn’t say she couldn’t…
I think the opposite would be true. The more material to divert the electricity, the better. If Dabbler tried this move on a knight in plate armor it would just make the energy flow around rather than through him. It should not harm him at all, and possibly heat the armor enough to melt him out of the ice.
There is a band call ARC Attack that does live shows standing between two Tesla coils while wearing chain mail suits. (And in Dave’s universe may actually be a part of the organization). I would love to see Jiggawatt up on stage jamming with these guys.
https://news.discovery.com/tech/arcattack-rides-lighting-between-tesla-coils-130519.htm
actually Knights in full plate armour got fried by lightening all the time. Plate armour doesn’t work like a Faradae Cage so the electrical charge doesnt disapate around them. trust me I’ve seen it happen
A suit of metal armor will certainly conduct some part of the lightning around a target, but the basic problems are (a) electricity generally splits up between all possible paths, and even a fraction of a lightning bolt is plenty to be bad, and (b) plate usually won’t give an unbroken conductive path.
I vaguely wonder if she ran inside the shield like a hamster-ball…
I wouldn’t put it pass her!
From the amount of monologue from Dabbler I half expected her to end up the battle by slapping on a pair of sunglasses and saying “Well, it looks like this fight…..has been put on ice.” (YEEEEAAAAHHHH!)
Hmm, if DaveB hadn’t said that the sword created actual ice, I would have just assumed that it was “crystallized aether” which I would assume to be conductive. After all, the most recent use of the term aether in science was as the medium that light forms waves in.
Also, this would explain the crystals cutting heavenly swords outfit, and the fact that water ice crystals have hexagonal symmetry rather than the quadrilateral that these seem to be displaying.
okay, sorry, I’m lazy; exactly where does Sydney call it on whatever she called, I’m missing the reference here.
You mean Kratos? From the game God of War?
Kratos is an ancient character in greek mythology, the god of power and might, revered by the spartans.
See here for reference.
And yes, he also makes modern age appearances in certain games … ;-)
However, Sydney is almost certainly referring to the video game.
Believe Sydney is talking about the sword/s, not the Goat of Sparta
I got the Kratos reference, I meant panel 5 where she “fucking knew it”.
It never happens in the comic, she just tool one look at the sword and thought, “oh yeah, that thing splits into two swords.”
Thanks for the clarification!
Watch out for Panama City. I do security there, and may send people to… bug you… for autographs.
Since nobody’s said it yet…
“She’s not dead, she’s resting,”
Welcome to Florida! Sorry.
No need to apologise. Unless a ‘gator eats Dave of course. Which we would frown on.
Glad you are making him feel welcome on his holiday.
THIS IS A BROADCAST OF THE EMERGENCY “WARNING TO ANY ‘GATORS EVEN CONSIDERING EATING DAVE” SYSTEM: You are nowhere near ready for the can of whupass that we, the readers of this comic, are ready to lay on your sorry excuse for a backside shall you choose to so much as snuffle in his direction. Hear us now and believe us later… you do not want to be that
matching set of luggagepoor unfortunate soul. You want the Dave? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE DAVE![We now return you to your regularly scheduled comic]
I’d worry more about some gun-nut “Standing their Ground”. Gators aren’t ranged weapons.
Depends purely on their use.
Ahh, I see what you are alluding to. The notorious incident, that P.E.T.A. are probably still investigating, which allegedly occurred during the reprisals, conducted by the international community, resulting from the invasion of Canada.
I love the song. Although it does make me wonder why the lyrics fail to mention the most famous incident in that war, namely the burning down of the White House, Navy Yard and Capitol building?
British troops did those deeds. The Canadian forces were busy cutting chunks out of the Northwest (around the great Lakes then) US.
I like this version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkAGY6W1-38
I would say that the other hilt is in hammerspace, and that the second blade simply teleports into it (or it teleports into place on the second blade) when the swords separate.
Or the moecules in the hilts align magicly to allow them to merge when brought together.
This was an awfully gentle takedown considering just last page heavenly sword attempted to (and almost did) brutally murder dabbled by dicing her into pieces
(you could argue she has been trying to from the begining. but should have just been trying to disarm at first. it wasn’t until she wrapped her in the cord and turned on her slice aura that it became a clear attempt at killing
That’s the major difference between hero and villain. Restraint and mercy versus self-indulgence and vengeance. Even the darkest heros turn away from a kill shot unless it is necessary. And Dabbler is far too light-hearted to be murderous.
Actually its the difference between a hero and an anti hero.
A villain is characterized by doing misdeeds.
Killing isn’t always murder, it can be, for example, self defense.
I tend to agree with the ‘three 3s is better than one 9′ line. Sure, having one overwhelming specialty is good, but then you lack flexibility. It is better to have several abilities at a lower level that can cover eachothers’ weaknesses. Especially in superhero universes/games, when things like anti-magic, anti-mutant, anti-fire, etc. effects exist. A mutant with a magic sword and a superscience suit of armor and martial arts training may not be overwhelming at any one thing, but not having exploitable weaknesses is a strength all its own.
In general, I agree, but would take issue with the bit about “not having exploitable weaknesses”.
Dabbler is not a sword master which, in this case, is a weakness that Heavenly Sword can (and did) exploit. But Dabbler also has extra tricks that do not make her “as good as” a swordmaster, but enables her to fight one in unexpected and … unusual ways.
Basically, she did what Indiana Jones did to that swordsman in ‘Raiders Of The L:ast Ark’ – unexpectedly ‘changed the rules’ on the opponent.
IF you want to think of it this way, the ice is forming from magic and the water has to come from somewhere. The air is filled with moisture and air is far from pure, so you would get the water and impurities at the same time.
if you want an experiment, put pure water at freezer temps and it wont freeze, open the bottle cap and either shake the water or put something impure into it like a knife or rod and watch it instantly freeze.