Grrl Power #225 – Guess who switched from speed to armor
I’m back from vacation, and I’m running critically low on internet.
It’s hard to believe the last time we saw Hex, she was leaping off the roof on page 209. I guess she’s been just hovering there all this time. Of course, comic combat exists in an extreme version of comic time, so it hasn’t been weeks or even minutes. She’s been chilling out for maybe a minute.
There’s a big difference between how battles are handled in manga and how they’re handled in American comics. For one, there are very few team on team battles in manga because there are very few teams. Nearly everything that contains significant fighting falls into the category of Shōnen, as in Shōnen Jump. Basically a single male protagonist getting into lots of fight. The cast is of course much larger, and the main character can have some combination of team mates and frenemies like in Bleach, Naruto, or DBZ, but nearly every fight still comes down to one on one battles. It’s probably unfair to call American comics more varied in that regard, but personally it’s easier for me to think of examples of both single title protagonists getting in to fights, (Spider Man, Batman, Wolverine, etc.) as well as team on team battles. There’s a huge difference between one on one fights in comics and team battles. One on ones can span a significant chunk of the issue in American titles, and in Manga with their much higher page counts, they can span multiple chapters, going on for 50 pages or more. Team battles, which like I’ve said are mostly the domain of American comics, though I’m sure there are exceptions, are different because of the much smaller page counts. In most team battles, everyone goes down in one hit. It’s something I never noticed until the very first time I tried drawing a team battle, something I did probably 20 years ago on copy paper. I realized if I had everyone have these big battles that showed off their abilities or how resilient they were, the battle would be 80 pages long. I grabbed the nearest X-Men comic and realized the one hit rule was how they kept team on team battles down to 4 pages, and the cool battle moments were always saved for much lower population fight.
This battle is kind of a combination of both of those rules. It’s the first fight the characters are having (on screen anyway) so I want to show off some of their cool tricks, but that makes the page count go up. It’s also why I have a lot of disposable villains, so they can go down in one hit. In D&D 4th Edition rules, they’re 1 hit point minions. It’s also the reason I’m trying really hard to edit a bunch of the fight out (and not always succeeding mind you). Achilles for instance is just buried under some rubble. It would take almost no effort for Mr. Amorphous, Maxima or Sydney to dig him out, but then I’d feel obligated to make him be useful in the fight, and while I have some other funny things for him to do, I think I’m going to have to leave him KOed for now. Rationally it makes little sense for Maxima not to super speed down to the rubble and just kick him out of it since she doesn’t have to worry about hurting him, and it would take her all of 2 seconds to do it, but having her do that might add 5 pages to the fight, and I’ve already got a ton left to get through before I take my next editing pass. It’s hard to lose entertaining content or cool action sequences, but I can save those moments for later in the story.
Some of these pages during the fight are just fighting, but where I can I try to include other elements, whether it’s insights into Archon’s battle strategy or just setting up something for a future page. This one is mostly trying to fold Sydney back into the fight. And setting up Hex for a little action.
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Syd doesn’t even need something extra to tank her opponents easily.
Hent-Orb+ Shield-Orb= jojo-effect.
Grab one around the waist with the tentacle, smack them against the shield from outside.
Are they still conscious? Repeat, stronger.
Baddie unconscious? Add one, just to be safe, then dump them.
But with Syd’s luck, she gets the real bad-ass baddie.
Or use the flight orb and ram them with the shield.
Well, that probably too, for some variation.
Human battering ram. Yeah… That could work.
I appreciate that more in a Rover sense.
Cease and desist, citizen, or I drop on you.
You don’t tank mobs by picking up one foe at a time and dealing with it…. You aggravate them in bulk, and keep them irritated while they try to figure out if you are invulnerable or not, all the while robbing them of the will to care whether you are invulnerable or not.
In short, you call them names.
Making like a human bowling ball and going bowling for baddies helps draw aggro too…something that flight + shield could do easily. Nothing says she has to fly at high altitudes.
Time for Sydney to go all ‘Scorpion’ on poor Hex
I do get a sense of this page as setup for another villain to make a credible attack on Max.
The big bad certainly does need to make an appearance around now. Otherwise the remaining villains will start falling like nine pins. Maybe ten pins. Perhaps Skittles. Possibly Smarties.
There are no Smarties in this bunch, but a lot of Dum-Dums.
no there all live, not a dud…..err since mr. nose boop not a dud among them. just they are using a small caliber weapon to try knocking out a large caliber target – without learning it’s soft point first –
You poor soul. You have never tasted the delight of a Dum-Dum Pop. Although your pun-fu is truly powerful, your life is not fulfilled.
They’re cheap ten cent american suckers that don’t seem like they’d be that good as teeny as they are. But a Dum-Dum sucker is one of the little joys in life. There’s a chain of fast food joints here who walk around and offer everyone that looks like they’re done eating one for the road. I never feel complete till I have my pink lemonade sucker.
That’s their polite way of saying “Get out!”?
Would you like a Jelly Baby?
No thank you. I have my own. *hands you a small leather pouch* Want some of mine?
Do villains worry about trademarks and patents? …I mean other than Lex Luthor. Actually…did he ever market any of his inventions? That seems to be a better idea for beating Superman. Just make a super high-def TV with kryptonite (there’s red, green, and blue!)…sell it cheap…then boom! Superman can no longer even walk around as Clark Kent without dying/losing his powers/turning gay/whatever…
gay? yes, supermans fear isnt death or being weaker by kryptonite. no, his greatest fear is turning fabolus.
Who’re you kidding? There’s probably some form of kryptonite that flips sexuality :P
IIRC didn’t Red-K have pretty random effects each time he was exposed to it?
i thought it just rendered him as weak as a normal human being =/
Wasn’t that Blue-K? Stripped him of his Super-ness
No no, it was definitely red. A red star drains away superman’s powers while a blue one increases them.
I think this link is pretty accurate, as well as up-to-date:
[https://superman.wikia.com/wiki/Kryptonite]
…it should cover all your questions on all the various forms of kryptonite.
Oh, funny. I see that I was underestimating the writer, of that issue, in my glib comment below. I see that the pink kryptonite actually had Super Man chatting up Jimmy Olsen!
Actually there is. https://superman.wikia.com/wiki/Pink_Kryptonite
Heh, I was going to suggest pink as the logical colour. Shame they actually went with the sexuality angle. Although I can see how that would be in keeping with the flavour that messes with his mind. Ie it would keep to the theme of altering personality, rather than the body.
But, I would have thought the potential for swapping gender would have been a more interesting story. Albeit that we do have more than a couple of webcomic examples. Not to mention non-super movies which explore the theme.
However, as they were writing a Super Girl issue, I guess they just wanted some hot girl on girl action.
Pink K, first introduced by Peter David in his classic Super Girl run. And yes, it does exactly what it says on the bottle.
( gay becomes straight, straight becomes gay, and bi stays the same. for some reason it had no effect on super girl herself… )
I think that “mystery” is pretty much self-explaining…
Of course Kryptonite is supposed to be fairly rare, so it would be hard to sell large volumes of the TV. (Never mind that kyptonite might not be a good replacement for phosphorus.)
Then just use a small amount in some way – Metallo uses it as a power source, so use it for long-lasting Mobile/Laptop power-packs…
Sure, it’s a tiny amount in each device – but, the pervasive, low level kryptonite levels will probably be even more effective due to a slow but constant poisoning, with hotspots like Phone shops that can knock his powers out briefly. Soon, being rescued by Superman could be seen as more dangerous than not being rescued!
Your application to join Luthercorp has been approved. Please report to minion orientation, first thing tomorrow morning. Be sure to provide your blood type, organ donor options and next of kin details.
It’s extremely non-canon, but ages ago Marvel and DC released the ‘Amalgam’ comics which were a mish-mash of their various properties. One of which was Super Soldier, in which Captain America is actually Kryptonian. And Lex Luthor is the Green Skull after years of exposure to kryptonite radiation.
In that continuity, Super Soldier wakes up from the Captain America-style cryogenic sleep to find that he is weaker than he used to be. Turns out that while he was gone, kryptonite-powered nuclear bombs were set off as part of ending World War 2. Thus, the background radiation of the whole world is basically laced with kryptonite.
But, isn’t Kryptonite only deadly to Kryptonians? To Terrans, K is no more harmful than any other rock
There were a couple versions of K that only affected Terran life forms.
Actually, Kryptonite IS deadly radioactive to humans. While humans do have a greater degree of resistance then Kryptonians, long-term exposure WILL kill terran life forms. It has been documented in “The Return of Superman,” (Where a revived, and de-powered, Superman, closes a blast door to keep the rest of the Justice League from entering a room with a massive Kryptonite cloud.) “The Justice League,” (Where Lex Luthor gets Kryptonite poisoning) “Batman, The Animated Series” (Where The Joker stole a “Jade” statue that was, in fact, Kryptonite and had killed numerous of its previous owners from Radiation Poisoning).
Heck even Luther got cancer from wearing a Kryptonite Ring.
I believe he did, yes. In current Superman lore, Lex Luthor is a mad scientist/business magnate, who has built up a massively powerful business empire, and become a billionaire. He has served (for a time) as the president of the United States, and is a noted philanthropist. If he weren’t insane, he would probably be a quite popular and powerful businessman, and fit into the world we have today quite well.
I don’t think you need the “If he wasn’t insane…” caveat on that line. Perhaps just more of “If he was less blatant…”.
Given the events of “Red Son”, it’s likely that Superman is the reason that Lex went ‘bad’
(Baby Kal lands in Russia, raised Communist. Lex Luthor is successful and popular genius
millionairebillionaire philanthropist President. Lex saves the world from Superman with one sentence written on a piece of paper, with normal ink.)Gah! Why did the Spoiler tag not work?
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{spoiler}{Test}{/spoiler}
Isn’t that stuf extremely rare and radioactive?
You can’t put radioactive rocks in a TV and sell it
Yeah, Kryptonite is very radioactive. Not as bad for humans, but I think that’s the crux of why it’s deadly to Superman. It’s not a matter of he’s weak to bits of his home planet, but it causes radiation sickness, same as if a human was exposed to raw plutonium.
I argue the rarity of Kryptonite. It seems whenever they want a human to challenge Superman, there’s always a piece of Kryptonite handy. For such a rare and difficult ore to get, it sure does get around.
too be fair it doesn’t take a lot of K to effect the Super-family. I mean a piece the size of a dime would do it so I don’t know why they show the bad guys holding huge honking crystals of the stuff. I’d make a dirty-bomb out of it and make Metropolis too dangerous for him to even be in!
or just grind the stuff down and pollute the drinking water with it. Imagine Superman dying after taking a bath.
That was essentially what the Luthor expy did to the Superman expy in Superfolks.
His son appears to be immune to the effect.
One of Superman’s enemies did just that!
Mr.Mxyzptlk flung the contaminated remains of Argo City at Metropolis, representing the largest known single fragment of Green Kryptonite. Although Supes found a way to smash it to dust, & save the city from being crushed, it was completely coated in a storm of glowing green dust – permanently poisoning his home-town, & rendering it impossible for him to stay there!
(this happened quite some time ago, well before the John Byrne continuity-reboot.)
How is radioactive not bad for humans?
Well, in the early days, Supe’s invulnerability and strength were down to his having a denser molecular structure or something (whether this meant his body was made of different, denser, molecules, or they were somehow magically squeezed together was never explained – but the second option would explain his weakness to magic) (Originally, he used super speed/jumping to get around too, not flight.)
This means that radiation flying though his body was more likely to hit something, so he was more affected by radiation in general. Then they added the whole “flight/super vision(various flavours)/freeze breath/telepathy/etc” claimed that it was due to the difference in Earth and Krypton’s suns – and since Krypton was (at that time) destroyed by their sun going ‘nova, Kryptonite was saturated with whatever radiation… Well, either inhibited his powers, or didn’t give him the powers that Earth’s sun did. So, it reduced him to what he’d have been like on Krypton, plus radiation sickness.
Then, it all got re-retconned and the magic glowy rocks (various flavours) just make stuff happen to him (or not) as the plot demands.
In the 90’s the reason kryptonite was bad for superman was his cells absorbed the radiation instead of solar energy because it looked tastier and it effectively gave him food poisoning. At the end of the Return of Superman storyline superman’s power were recharged with filtered kryptonite radiation but his powers eventually went out of control as he was overcharged.
Oddly enough low levels of radioactivity seem to be good for you. Perks up your immune system or whatnot. It is why areas with natural low level background radioactivity do not all have bad levels of leukaemia and the like. In fact some could be areas that showed up as having healthier populations.
Although the Edwardian practice of eating radioactive pills is probably best avoided. All to easy to misjudge ‘perking up your cells’ and end up with ‘hair falling out and a mild case of dying’.
Ooh, I wonder, is that why Lex Luthor is bald? Too much time spent fondling Kryptonite.
Nope. You can blame a guy with a ‘I want to wear my underwear on the outside’-fetish for that. Then again that was half a million reboots ago.
Actually there’s background radiation everywhere.
The concrete in your walls is radioactive, and so is your body.
Mesuring how many radioactive isotopes are left in something is how they determin the age of something old
But yes, just like pathogens, a little but is actually benifitial
Yea, I phrased that poorly. What I was alluding to was areas that have above average background radioactivity. Such as in regions sitting on a lot of granite. It confused the hell out of scientists initially. They had extrapolated predictions of danger levels, from the study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims.
So the early safety standards were calculated by following the line down, on the graph plotting mortality levels versus exposure. Trouble is that it breaks down at the lowest end of the graph. Because we appear to have developed evolutionary mechanisms, to deal with the above average radiation. Which you can get from granite rich areas and the like.
So in some places, where they were expecting to find above average leukaemia, and other radiation related illnesses, they failed to find a correlation. In fact finding that the populations were, if anything, somewhat healthier. All other things being equal. So the assumption is (and I cannot recall if this is proven yet, or not, hence my vagueness), is that it stimulates the body’s immune system and/or the repair of damaged cells.
But it is quite a low level of tolerance. And it is not universal. Rather like some people are somewhat resistant to alcohol and others are highly vulnerable. Or lactose tolerant or not.
Hmm? Can haz link? That sounds counter intuitive….
Offhand the only really good quote I have for radiation settings is (paraphrased): “He was doing great until his jaw fell off”. (Yeah… The mineral-water Radithor had some issues… Amazing that it sold for a decade)
As you might tell from my vagueness, that is something that I came across some time ago. Can’t currently think where, off the top of my head. I was just as bemused as you. And agree that it was counter-intuitive. Anything like that makes me double check the source, before mentally filing it as confirmed. But the source was very clear on the matter, and very much indicated that it was considered a counter-intuitive anomaly. So you and I are not alone in thinking that.
Take the conclusions and inferences with a pinch of salt though. Any time my mental filing system does not have a ‘definitive’ label next to it, means that I may have been doing that speculation myself, rather than getting it from the researchers
Or a bit of both, which is normally the case. They will be a bit cagey about their speculation, and I may infer more into it than they are willing to risk drawing as a conclusion themselves. Although I try to note when I do that, sometimes I get carried away, and get sloppy.
But the good news is that I need to do a trawl through my research archives, for another reason, so there is a very good chance I will stumble across it. Sometime in the next fortnight. If I do, I will post the link in whatever the current comments page is, rather than here.
Before the Superman reboot after Crisis on Infinite Earths, Kryptonite radiation was completely harmless to all non-Kryptonians. Silver Age science.
Actually there was an arc where Lex was diagnosed with Cancer from Kryptonite radiation poisoning.
Sure you can. Kryptonite is about as dangerous to humans as tritium is, and they used tritium for glow-in-the-dark watches for decades — they still do. Radiation poisoning is in the dosage, not an innate all or nothing thing. And some radiation exposure might be good for you.
For example, while there’s a cancer cluster at ground zero in Hiroshima to this day, there is a zone around the area where people have less than 1/10th the Japanese national average for cancer and their kids are smarter than average. That zone has a higher background count of radiation than the region in general.
To be fair, the radioactive paint they used to use in watches for glow in the dark numbers and hands before the modern watches was perfectly safe. Perfectly safe unless you were the type of person to paint yourself with it thinking it would make you sexy or that it was cool. As soon as body contact occurred, those people were pretty much screwed.
Then again they weren’t being stupid, for the longest time people thought large doses of radiation was harmless and in fact healthy for you when we all know it’s not.
The way I heard it, the watchmakers had a tendency to lick their brushes to make a finer point, so they were inadvertently sucking on RADIUM paint.
Tritium is still used in things like night visible iron sights, but the half life limits their shelf life.
Fiesta Ware has pretty much the same problem. Being around them shouldn’t pose a significant health risk, but touching and eating off of them are both considered bad ideas.
Can’t put radioactive rocks in TV and sell it?
>>Blink<>Blink<<
There was a time when millions of homes across America all had 2+ TVA, complete with radioactive rocks (er well, processed products from same)
Are you sure that wasn’t an actual ’60’s Superman comic book plot, because it sure sounds like one?
If you have no idea what something does, use it in a test-battle such as this one. If you have things with as of yet undefined powers that can be used in combination, use them. In combo. Orbs 6+7 to be used in combination against Hex. Those with Halo’s standard ‘Tourettes Blast’ will make any bad guy shrivel and back off. Although, it would appear that the bad guys have a similar level of info about ArcSwat that ArcSwat have about them. Meaning they are using this time to achieve similar levels of reconnoissance intelligence about the good guys. I don’t see co-operation between bad guys, so they could well be a mixture of ‘minion’ armies for differing supervillains. Therefore the bad guys behind this attack will not be studied while gaining info on ArcSwat elite, meaning the attacks can be better co-ordinated. If said supervillains were unaware of eachother’s villainous militias, this could get interesting as power struggles come into existence. Especially when it comes to bringing ArcSwat into those politics – what fragile truces will they call with who, and who will they class as the more worrying..? So maybe Syd needs to keep those two unknowns under wraps until she can practise in private. Work out the combos involved with those two, and then she has an extra arsenal of weapons at her disposal that the real bad guys have no idea about.
I wonder if the lighthook is dextrous enough to work one of those injectors.
It could hold one but it cannot split to pull the trigger. Maybe a Stage 2 upgrade later?
You’re worried about having to find something useful for Achilles to do? That’s easy. Just have him do it as one of your remarkable background events.
Same for the others. You can show the cameos for some of these other fights, running it in one or two panels of background, or in the middle of the fight.
The thing you have to remember, in addition to page count, is that MOST comics, be they Japanese or American, are about ONE protagonist. You seem to be running something like three (Sydney, Math, and Dabbler), so you’re going to have a lot more team fights.
It may help to think of it this way: all of the main characters in the comic are, at least in part, reflections of SOMETHING inside of Sydney (just like you tend to judge the people you meet in terms of how they reflect something in yourself). The primary characters, in addition to being characters in their own right, are also reflections of one of the dominant aspects of Sydney’s personality–Peggy reflects her surprising practicality, Anvil reflects her tendency to try to take out the baddies with style, and so forth and so on. Part of this is because the comic is about Sydney, but part of it is also because she’s learning from the others in the process, so that she can function as part of the team.
Ideally, a three-character team represents the parts of a person’s consciousness: the ego, the super-ego, and the id. In this case, speaking more as somebody who has ADD than ADHD, I would guess that Math would represent the id, meaning that of the three, he most represents the tendency of the group to push themselves, to look for a challenge, and then to focus themselves completely to meeting that challenge–hence the reason why he is focusing on Jabberwocky so completely. Dabbler, on the other hand, represents Sydney’s ego–she is just as unfocused as Sydney, but without the checks that hold her into obeying orders, or doing just what she thinks is right, both for the team, and for the world (which makes sense, in a storyline sort of way, since Dabbler is not actually from Earth–she’s here for the same reason Math is, for the challenge). Sydney functions as sort of the super-ego–she knows right from wrong, and she’s not part of the team just for the adventure, but for the chance to be an actual hero. Sydney wants the adventure, yes, but she’s looking for an adventure that has her as a good guy, and she accepts that she has a lot to learn. While her ability to draw on the imaginations of countless numbers of comic book artists and role-players gives her a much clearer idea of what could be done than either of the other too, she is not the only person in ARCHON who has access to that resource–Maxima, for instance, has admitted to being something of a geek, and I would imagine that there are others.
Ultimately, this is part of what draws me to Grrl Power–the boobs help, yes, but what I like about it is that it is something where you can see the teamwork and the tactics involved, and how it is evolving, as well as the character interactions. Even here, within the first day of ARCHON’s existence, for instance, you can see the formation of the sub-teams within ARCHON, as different groups form to engage types of targets with different tactics and on different levels. Harem and Peggy, for instance, seem to be working together nicely, and are more than capable of handling both support roles, and the safe and careful elimination of targets from a distance, without causing massive property damage and/or loss of life. Along those lines, I would not be at all surprised to find Achilles and possibly even Gwen ending up as their permanent team-members, to add elements of stealth and durability to what is already a team with a very strong offensive punch and great mobility.
Anvil and Max, obviously, work well together, and I could easily see Mr. Amorpheus and/or Heatwave adding to their numbers, turning the brawling duo into a force with extreme mobility, offensive might, and the ability to engage with pinpoint precision that is inherent in any air-mobile force. They would have much more of a wrecking ball to their teamwork, of course, but that is sort of inevitable.
As for the Unholy Trio? Assuming their team-mates don’t kill them, they’re the ultimate wrecking crew: they simply need to be pointed at an enemy, and then their very unpredictability takes over. So long as they don’t run into something like a pair of Max clones, they could handle pretty much any task given, providing they can learn to work together. As a bonus, the person who fills each role changes from one fight to the next, depending on the nature of the fight, which the other groups can’t boast. If they have a real weakness, it’s that their connection with the rest of the team can become somewhat tenuous at times–sanity isn’t exactly the strong point of any of the three, so there’s going to be some amount of friction between them and their commanders, regardless of the circumstance.
This would seem to be a strong operating model for ARCHON to work with: pairing superheros with complementary talents together, to allow heroes to be assigned to problems as they come up. Since supervillians have never been known for co-operation, this would make MOST fights tend to be over rather quickly. Split the heroes into a number of larger teams, each with 10-12 heroes, with each team split into 3-6 squads, which are dispatched as needed. Supers are NEVER deployed alone, as this would render them a lot more vulnerable than having them deployed in pairs. When circumstances warrant, multiple squads may be deployed to handle a problem, while, occasionally, entire teams may be required. Maxima serves as a sort of field commander for the teams, as well as overseeing the team she is responsible for, while General Faulk oversees the entirety of ARCHON, ARCLIGHT, and the various support structures. The general rarely gets involved in the fights, unless it requires the entirety of ARCHON to be mustered. Instead, he usually leaves the actual combat ops to the team leaders, trusting Max to have a better idea of the tactical situation, but the ultimate authority is his…which means that, if Max screws up, she has to answer to him.
Achilles’ main use would seem to be as a projectile. Syd could lighthook him and toss him at baddies outside lighthook range.
If I were Achilles, my combat ‘pack’ would be a set of plastique explosives and detonators strapped to my back and the back of my legs etc. Most of the time he will be _Facing_ danger (and damage) so there is no real chance of problems, but when he gets buried one voice activated command and its “BOOOM” , “I’m baaack! Didja miss me?”
“But you’re naked…”
Steel plates between the explosives and Achilles clothes might protect them.
Achilles is only “normal person” strong (1 star). Asking him to carry armor plating around thick enough to stand up to explosives in contact with his person would be a bit much, doncha think?
Achillies is closer to Elite athlete, or slightly above… As mentioned in his Bio, he is indestructible and thus cannot injure himself due to over excursion.. Thats fairly strong..
if you want real world comparison, give something to an infant and then try and take it back… They are surprisingly strong because they have yet to learn restraint…..
Secondly, you’d be surprised on how much a “Normal Person” can carry….
Think adrenaline fueled strength (lifting 2 ton vehicles and going toe to toe with polar bears) without injuring yourself in the process.
I wonder how long he had to retain his body to circumvent the self preservation reflex that allows us to avoid injuring ourselves.
Technically normal people would be zero on that scale. Unlike sniping, which even a non-super can get a decent rating in, because anyone can do it, that particular category is reserved for super strength. As opposed to just listing a basic human attribute.
Achilles is actually fifty percent stronger than a normal person. So gets onto the super scale. But only just. Whereas Peggy is a normal human, so does not get any points at all, for super strength.
But, that nit-picking aside, you are perfectly correct in your comment, and I agree with your conclusion.
Take as Long as you need for this to be seen through to completion with a minimum of editing. Tis great as is.
Agreediddlydoo
What… one of the super-villains deciding to actually do something intelligent? Who woulda thunk?
aspirations of becoming a mastermind ?
Baby steps, shazz, baby steps. Let’s see if they can first string a few ideas together before getting anyone’s hopes up.
Aspirations of living through the night.
Will just leave this here, enjoy
Memories. +10
Buahahahahahahahaha.
#20 on the evil overlord list
Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it’s too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.
Why do I see Syd giving the baddies a lesson on how to be evil?
Especially by ways of above list.
XD
“Sydney, the point of these classes is to reform them, so that they stop being villains – not teach them how to do better next time!“
But he forgot the bad puns and overused threats! Nobody should be that bad at being a villain.
*Grin*
Besides, the fist step to getting better is realizing there is a problem.
Got too excited about landing the trademark to my Buster Buddies. *hangs head*
Did you come up with the name for the “Buster BuddiesTM”?
No, I didn’t but I wish I did! I didn’t know anything about what power I might get before. However, both the ridiculous name (trademarked) and the abrupt awkward retreat are exactly things thatt I imagine my dark alter ego would do.
Still hoping Hex survives the fight, managing to get away would be an extralicious bonus :D
I hope I can reserve first place, in the autograph queue, at the premier, for your Hex cameo role, in Grrl Power, the Movie?
Lol, sure. I’ll make you a chair with a sign and everything. RESERVED FOR YORP. Actually, if Hex is in many more panels I might go ahead and cosplay as her for ECCC. It’d give me a chance to dye my hair blue again.
Cool!, another Seattleite!
That’s a great idea Gamesman! I’d really like to make some lights that I can control and change their blinking, but it’ll be difficult to have both control and invisibility. Hmmm.
And scantrontb yep! Apparently there’s a bunch of us on here. :) Also- RobK… I’m embarrassed I don’t know this but who are you IRL? You’re either a spectacularly amazing spy, or someone I actually know. If you tell me I’ll bake you cookies in apology for not recognizing the name right off.
*wags tail excitedly*
Whee! If you do the cosplay, I hope you will let us see photos? Either way though, if they do formal competitions, you should get first prize! Unless there is something very fishy going on.
I was thinking about the exact same picture XD
Well, that settles it.
DaveB, I demand atleast 10 more pages with Hex in them
I can think of a couple different ways to attach the Buster Buddies(tm) to you depending on weight. If light you use spring steel whiskers (capped of course for safety). Basically very thin strong steel wires that are hard to bend. Painted correctly they should almost be invisible.
if you see yaya or some of the others from scyfy’s cos-play show tell them I challenge yaya to make a Tantalis costume.
I could suggest away for Yorp to have a cameo, but as he continually slanders and libeles me I will not.
Unless I get a full and proper apology.
It wasn’t you, it was a clone! That does not count.
But you keep blaming me.
But I will be nice.
In the movie when they do Grrl Power #186 – Fingers to maximum steepleage!
From the final panel just have Vale look down at the dog slaying at here feet and go,
“He is pawing the TV isn’t he Yorp.”
Dog looks up and either nods or says “Yes Mistress.
“Veeeeeee” dam clones
So this new opponent is a bit like Toy Box fro m Top Ten? I wonder what else her Buster Buddies (TM) can do.
Anyway, she has successfully distracted Maxima from co-ordinating the fight. Hope she can fly really fast…
I think you’re giving her too much credit. Yes, she caught Maxima’s attention, but so did that itch in Maxima’s leg in panel 8. I doubt either will have any significant negative impact on her ability to lead the team.
She may have her ‘Buster Buddies”, but they pale in comparison to the power of Dabbler’s “Bustier Buddies”.
Mammaries
Like the artificial kind.
Bouncy silicone-y mammaries
Not the way they were.
Hey! Xuriel is a 100% all-alien succubus. No added fillers or preservatives.
Toy Box had roboticized toys (green plastic army men, Barbie dolls and others including helicopters). All of her toys were on the Frankenstein’s monster side (like the army man with drinking straws to make his legs longer). I don’t see the similarity.
Wait a sec those aren’t orbs. They are flat therefore more likely in the glyph or portal category and thus making her not like Sydney at all other than something floating near her head
Yeah Sydney, be useful. Dig Achilles out of the rubble and slingshot him at the flier currently trying to be pointed away from Maxima. Oh you missed?! Oh my, did he achieve escape velocity or just reach-next-city?
I would think that accidental escape velocity would be Achilles one personal fear. We would survive forever, but alone, and bored and helpless.
Not even that anymore. Xuriel (Dabbler) has a spaceship handy and could run out and pick him up.
Two words: Needle + Haystack
one word: Radar.
Radio
Pip-boy.
How far away did he get before she went after him? I can see the moon from here (~450,000 km).
I’ve… seen things you people wouldn’t believe… Attacked ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those… moments… will be lost in time, like… tears… in… rain. Time… to die…
Epic, specially considering that was completely ad-libbed
I think Hex is playing Sydney counterpart on the villain team (esp with the pulling aggro and otherwise supporting other member without getting in the way). I also think she saw an opportunity to go for a kill on a distracted hero (and a leader at that) and tried to take it. Sure she saw Max survive a massive blast and while she’s not stupid, she clearly under estimated Max’s in testing if a concentrated direct attack was any more effective. If you look she’s doing what she can to intensify her attack, closing range to increase power and accuracy, increasing the number of beams and their intensity (notice the buster buddies and their beam were glowing brighter on the last shot) and aiming for a small area.
This means that Hex took a risk which in most cases would have paid off, but instead marked her down as a real danger. Hex waited for an oppurtunity and tried to snipe the leader. This is one of the problems with superbattles.
One possible reason the bad guys might be doing this is if they have a teleporter ready, say someone with the power to recall familiar objects or people to themselves. Just as Archon finishes cuffing everyone, BAMF, all the bad guys vanish into a shielded room miles away and they are left wondering whether or not they even fought real people.
Heh. I like it. That would both explain both their confidence, in attacking, and the fact that they did not bother taking the time to learn teamwork, and to practice coordinating their attack. They probably realised that the cops would benefit more, from such training time, than they would themselves. Plus they knew that, even if everything went wrong, they would just be ‘ported to safety.
That is however making a very big asumption that Archon will try really hard not to kill them
Also I don’t think Eyebeam guy would still like that plan
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1317
You are ignoring Maxi’s orders to at least try for non-lethality, and forget about them facing a disciplinary hearing over any deaths, they will have to face Maxi
They didn’t know that before they attacked.
And I doubt Max would really mind if some of them do end up dead.
If it’s between killing them or dieing, every member of Archon is fully justified in killing
That order came after the opening act of the nights after-dinner show
Also could be they are all cut-outs for someone gathering data – a sacrifice play by someone with more long term plans so they can see what this hero group can do.
ADD or not Syd’s proved she smart enough to be good at this job. She’s held her own in a killer albeit using trickery. She’s followed Max’s order’s and advice to the best of her abilities so far. Took down the guy who shredded Math’s shirts with a cheap shot with a cheap shot of her own and explained the logical inconsistency of his boasts. Got information for Arclight, Dropped off her captures. And then she checked in for further orders once she was available.
Sydney is a great person to have on your side really. She knows when to get serious and now is that time. I’m sure everyone’s estimation of her as an asset to Archon is rapidly climbing. With no formal training, she is being useful. Even though she was nearly killed, she’s still in the fight and not running or hiding.
+1 for both comments.
Well, she IS an experienced RPGamer. She knows how teamwork is supposed to work.
So am I but I find that doesn’t always translate to real world teams. It can but certain personalities are more able to pull it off than others.
Under the WHY? category…
What if Deus has hired this group of ‘villains’ to and I quote “Serve as security contractors paid to test the effectiveness of the new ARC SWAT division.”
Explains terminal stupidity… a little. Kind of… None of them are good at villainy.
You’ve hit on my pet theory. Of course, he’ll have done it through a few cut-outs, since he has no authority to do any such thing….
Both villians and heroes usally have severe issues with their perceived importance and grandeur. The difference is that heroes know ( or at least believe ) they succeeded being the impersonation of the top of the foot-chain, whilst the villians essentially want for the world to recognize them ( and their self perceived ) grandeur. It traditionally even is a lack of acceptance, or high levels of criticism, that make a super want to match himself / herself against a recognized super-heroe just to prove their worth, usually aggravating and therefore leading to the secluded life of could be heroe turned villian.
Naturaly, somebody used to a secluded life who has severe thirst to proof himself, is way to eager having a face-off for there to be any team-play or tactics. Bundle this with blind over-confidence and you might also have an explaination why anybody would dare to challenge archon the way they did.
This does not explain why nobody did try to flee so far upon realizing they couldn’t win, because Villians usually are either behind bars or very good at running and hiding once things went wrong. The better ones soon develop a healthy sixth sense for being outmachted and on the loosing side, but as things stand even a mental case with one blind eye should be able to tell its about time to bail.
So why be so stupid as to, for example, charge Maxime on top of things ?
This reeks of an underlying agenda and means of escape we don’t know of yet – such as the already suggested teleporter / portal manifester, still allowing a quick get-away.
I can’t help but notice though that an exclusively reserved diner on a nerly vacant big parking lot in the evening is seriously convenient if one wanted to keep collateral damage low. This leads me to believe that somebody knew about, or at least expected, the assault.
We know that Harem is a double agent and suspected tripple agent, and while we still don’t know why DEUS was introduced, Harem clearly kept him in the loop, so he should have had the means to prepare a stunt like this.
But why, for we don’t know his motives yet.
Starting an assocition like this is a costly and very controversy undertaking, prone to be socially and politically bombarded to shreds withing month after the foundation, most notably by those who simply fear the unknown and succumb to natural rejection and their various partly aggressive manifestations. Which means that Archon is, or should I already say “was”, in severe need to proof the right and need of it’s existance in order to gain a solid standing withing society.
Which means that those villians, who allegedly came to crush them, achieved the exact opposite doing them a huge favor in the long run.
This means that whoever created that rag-tag wanna-be team of villians might not be an enemy at all, and this whole ordeal setup to fail.
If it was indead DEUS, maybe he just wants to ensure angoing business with Archon ?
I really hope to find out soon, for it kinda is killing me to be kept in the unknown.
Assuming Deus is in fact the mastermind behind this, to find the WHY, we follow the money…
Deus runs a defense contracting conglomerate, selling high-priced, bleeding edge technology and weaponry to the government. I say he’s trying to increase demand for his products by using this massive attack to greatly exaggerate the threat.
hmm… next step: what if the newtech Deus has waiting in the wings is a device that identifies supers?
Ah! The warning finger: “Don’t make me use this…”
Seems to me that Max is going to try and take out the buster buddies(tm)…
About to be Busted Buddies™?
Ummm, just a thought, but what if this isn’t a bunch of supervillians? What if this is another government supported team that max and arianna didn’t know about. After all, one team can’t be everywhere and its more likely they would be dispatched to non super threats. After all they would be great natural disaster responders, so why not have two teams. Like Avengers east coast and Avengers west coast? At least better response times.
Because a government supported team isn’t going to suddenly attack a publicly-recognized group of official military supers for no good reason in the middle of a residential area.
Only if it’s the same government.
I wouldn’t put it above Russia to attempt something like this, nor to fail this badly.
I suspect that they would be a lot more coordinated and effective. They have done some effective reorganisation, and modernisation, of both their conventional and special forces military. Plus they have been getting in a lot of practice. And have shown that they have developed some serious new capabilities. Such as being able to incapacitate all the people in a building, in a hostage situation.*
Just look at how easily they took over the Crimea. With barely a shot fired.
Never underestimate a powerful opponent. Especially after they have demonstrated their capability, with nonchalant ease.
* Ok the most famous example led to a number of fatalities, due to compilations. But the Russians have never been too concerned with casualties, so long as the overall operation is a success. Which it was.
A foreign country attacking a military group on american soil? Wouldn’t that basicly be a decleration of war?
I doubt that’s the case
Err, Russia currently has main battle tanks operating in Ukraine. Along with numerous special forces. Everyone is very carefully avoiding taking that as a declaration of war between Russia and the NATO forces.
Exactly the same would happen in the hypothetical situation proposed here. The Russian embassy would deny all knowledge and responsibility. And declare that the individuals were unknown to them, and if any should be Russian citizens, they would be acting under their own initiative.
The US government would then either have to accept that, on face value, with the usual protests and accusations. Or decide to ignore the diplomatic veneer and issue a formal declaration of war. Which, if you think about it, might not be such a good idea.
Either in the hypothetical scenario, or in Ukraine. Probably best to avoid kicking off World War III, if we can avoid it. Even if hoping to keep nuclear weapons in their silos.
Wrong. Those tanks are positively identified as T-64s. The Russians don’t have those in active service. On the other hand the Ukraine not only produces T-64s but also uses those.
Same thing about those special forces. A lot of noise made about a few pictures, only pair allowed a comparison that was above the level of this guy has a beard and that one also so they are the same person. Funny thing about that one pair, when the journalist who snapped those found out how they were used said both pictures were taken inside the Ukraine.
What the Russians are doing is getting less attention for some reason. You don’t just find manpads lying next to the road. Or the intel dropping that just happens to benefit the separatists. Or the suddenly extremely porous border at points where the separatists are next to the border (don’t forget a significant amount of people defying Kiev have families across that border).
I can go on at length about it but the situation is a lot more complicated then the absolutely mind numbing narrative of “We good, Russia bad” that the media present. And some of it casts the US and EU in a worse light then Russia.
The good news coming out of that place is that both sides are have started talking
Sorry, I rambled on quite a bit here. And it does get very off-topic. And I inject a lot of personal opinion. As such, I considered deleting the whole post, beyond the link. But figured that some folks may be interested, despite that.
Everyone else, please accept my apologies for cluttering up the chat. I live pretty close to where all this is going on, so got rather carried away. Please just skip the post, if not into current events.
I added the emphasis to the last, to make clear that your statement in no way invalidates mine. Check out this article, which is clearly very much aware of the issues, surrounding those tanks.
That is not the only point. There has since been a ‘flood’ of other vehicles, arms and equipment being supplied to the rebels. Consistent with equipment available to Russia. And, more to the point, who else has an incentive to be supplying the rebels?
I am not blind to propaganda. I am very aware that various press are biassed, and that national interests will flavour any reporting. However I get the bulk of my news from the BBC, as I consider them the most generally reliable source. Importantly, I am aware of what biases they have, and take them into account when getting information from them.
But am interested in hearing other perspectives. Especially if they contradict the BBC. Going by past history, when I have investigated such, I have typically found that the BBC were either right, or acting in good faith. With few exceptions. Mostly these tend to be discrepancies in weight, emphasis applied or tone, or conclusions drawn, rather than incorrect facts.
And I tend to separate the editorial opinions, from the facts, when making up my own mind. So such inconsistencies usually do not affect me anyhow.
As such, I consider them a credible source, in circumstances such as these. And have been very closely monitoring the reports. The BBC do a good job of showing the vested interests of the various parties, so that means I am well aware of the motivations of the various factions.
I consider the incumbent president of the Ukraine to have handled events incompetently since his inauguration. He should have taken a Mandela-like stance, and offered full unconditional amnesty, peace and reconciliation style, in the event that rebels came to peace talks.
As opposed to his more belligerent initial stance. He had a ‘them and us’ attitude (which is probably why he got elected mind). But he is showing his roots as a businessman, rather than a peace-making statesman.
Whilst he thinks of the rebels as criminals, who need to be punished, he will keep making that mistake. If he viewed them as being his flesh and blood, and needing to be protected, then he would have the right mindset and attitudes. They have the right to fight, to protect their interests.
I have lived through first hand experience of three different terrorist/rebel conflicts, so have gotten quite used to filtering out the bullshit that flows around in such circumstances. I prefer to look at the situation from every political, ethnic, cultural and religious groupings individual points of view.
Ignoring all the other camps, Russia is very easy to read at the moment. We have seen very clear precedent, for their actions, in the Crimea. They infiltrated all of the province with special forces units, and other assets, acting under cover of routine activity in their rented bases.
When they seized the province, they repeatedly denied the presence of special forces units. It would bemuse me if any informed person, who was not blinded by propaganda, believed Moscow’s official line.
Supporting this is the fact that their equipment is distinctive. Plus various other sources corroborated it. Including a couple of gaffes by senior politicians, where they let slip the truth. They have lost all credibility. I see no reason to assume that they are behaving any differently now, to then.
Looking at the rebels, the sheer speed of mobilisation, equipping, tactical operations, anti-air armaments, armoured support and the like should make it obvious, to anyone following events closely, that Moscow have been aiding the rebels, from the outset and to the present day.
Look at the very different pattern of events in Syria, by comparison. The rebels struggled to find the resources initially. Even with non-combat supplies being provided by the west.
Part of my conclusions are drawn from the nature of the Russian reporting, by the way. There is a very distinctive footprint on it, which I recognise from my youth in South Africa. State controlled and influenced media can give you a lot of insight into motives. Study the propaganda.
I say this from my own conclusions, by the way. It just happens that a fair amount coincides with the views of the western powers. Importantly, I would be doing exactly the same kinds of things as Putin has done, and is doing, if I were in his shoes. Check out his stated and acted upon strategic objectives, and you will see the truth of it.
He had a dazzling victory in capturing the Crimea. The west has been too disorganised, conflicted, and inter-dependent on Russia to punish him for that. So he is avoiding pushing them too far now, but will continue his actions, whilst he can maintain
plausibledeniability.The only real question is, does he truly care for the Russian speaking rebels? If he does, he will do his utmost to push for a peaceful, political solution. If not, then he will have little compulsion about supplying enough resources for the rebels to succeed by war. That will ensure two more satellite states, as a buffer.
Trouble is that, it is clear (to me) that even if he does want peace, he wants to ensure that the rebels are militarily strong enough to hold their ground, and push for a strong settlement, even taking that path. Which could backfire. In various ways.
Sadly that is not the case. Although a cease-fire has nominally been called, it is not being supported by all parties.
Plus both sides have accused the other of breaking it. On 50 odd occasions, according to the government. Including shooting down a helicopter, and killing all 9 people on board. Which clearly was not faked.
That is not to say that it cannot be turned around. I, for one, remain very hopeful that it will be. And the Ukrainian president is making clear efforts in that regard, and will hopefully make up for the opportunity that he missed, on being inaugurated. Plus Moscow is paying lip service to the peace process, and appears to be making efforts to support that. But how much is genuine, and how much to avoid sanctions?
But, until the separatists actually come to the table, it is still a civil war. And they have expressed no interest in doing so.
Yes, but why would a second team of supposedly good guys be trying to kill a nationally recognized group of good guys?
This isn’t a case of “Let’s see how we stack up, take them down hard, but no fatalities!”, this is “Kill ’em! Kill ’em all, especially the rookie! Oh, and make sure it’s a ‘closed coffin’ funeral!”
I like to think that, in the last panel, Maxima is calling her shot like Babe Ruth.
Funny how in her case it looks just like she’s aiming.I know, in her case it’s the same thing really. I’d call it a threat to convince her to back down but I have a feeling that Max isn’t really a threat type of person. Pretty much every unpleasant thing she communicates doing is a promise. When she stated ArcSWAT’s rogues would be incarcerated or interred she meant every word what she did say for sake of intimidation was they’d only inter as needed.
I’d say given what we’ve seen of jabberwocky, Sydney would most definitely be a “Hard Counter”
Martial arts don’t work against what’s basically a spherical shield, and while she could dodge, say the PPO, sydney could just wail on her from all ends with the lighthook, or just make a large enough PPO blast that even if she jumps out of the way, she’ll get burned (Half damage on reflex save is still some damage). The latter won’t happen, but nothing stops the former from being the case.
Problem with that being that the PPO…well, we don’t actually know how much she can hold back its power. Jabberwocky doesn’t seem to have super-durability, or at least hasn’t displayed it yet, so firing a beam that can slice a tank in half at her seems like a bad idea if we’re trying to keep things non-lethal. And especially considering the melee going on around them, if she misses, remember what Max said about thinking about who’s behind your target? If that thing accidentally hits anyone but Max or Achilles, that’s trouble.
You can always say: “Hey, I tried going on low-power… but… *meh*”
I already mentioned the PPO being out of the question, as the afformentioned “Latter”
The PPO is out. Max specifically stated not to use it until Archon can evaluate it and train Sydney properly. You don’t hand a trainee a rocket launcher and say “try not to hurt anyone too badly”.
awwwwwwww *Is sad and puts his rocket launcher away*
**grumble** [puts rockets back in crate]
Aww, I could not find footage of this. But it reminded me of the scene in the film Commando, where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s civilian female companion fires a rocket at the bad guys. But has it back to front, so blows up something behind her!
Rae Dawn Chong in Commando. 1:07 in the trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPhISgw3I2w
Oh cool. Thanks for that.
As a handy tip, just to save you having to type the time point, in a comment, you can just use a built-in feature in YouTube. Pause the video at the time in question. Click on ‘share’ and a new section will open up. On which there is an option ‘Start at’. Just click on the box, to put a check in it.
The video URL, in that section, will automatically have a suffix added, which will ensure that the video starts at the right time. Just copy and paste that, rather than the web address at the top of the page.
Thanks. I don’t go there much, so I’m not up on the features. I’ll remember that one though.
Having Sydney run decoy would be the best use of her right now. She is untrained in combat, if she did try and shoot her PPO, there is a good chance of her missing or putting too much (or too little) power behind it to be effective.
I hope the next story arc gets her back to the newly minted craziness that her store has become now that she is a celebrity. I imagine that business has increased 200% ‘today’, and will jump 500% ‘tomorrow’.
Poor Joel (I still remember his name after 2 years of him not being around), having to work that by himself.
Poor fellow. He has only been on his own for an afternoon, but it probably felt like a couple of years to him. The guy deserves a holiday!
A personal grooming question: Now as Achilles’s hair doesn’t grow or cant be cut his grooming is not in question. but is Maxima in the same boat? Is it like Superman where he has to cut his beard with his fingernails? (I forget where I saw that, the new movie maybe?) But yeah… if you cant be hurt how do you manage personal grooming? Must be why Super Saiyan’s hair never changes unless they transform? :P
Max’s defenses seem more like a skin tight force field. She could drop it to zero for haircuts and other things.
Achilles is a problem. His power might explain that mullet he wears. His powers kicked in and he’s never been able to cut it off.
On Achilles the popular theory is that he is quantum locked (nice technobabble there huh?) in his current state. So the hair doesn’t grow either.
I saw something somewhere (can’t remember where) about Superman/Supergirl shaving in a mirror with heat vision…
60s vintage Superman it sounds like.
80s/90s “vintage” using a piece of hull metal from his nativity pod as the mirror.
With an electric razor on, and lying on the edge of the sink for convincing noise.
Supergirl shaves? Please tell me she goes full Brazilian ;)
That one with the laser thingies is pretty darn weak, all she did was make max itchy. Not a wise idea to get her attention I thinks.
She was looking to make a reputation for herself. She did. A reputation as someone who kicks sleeping tigresses. Her handle is Hex, it supposed to be for the six projectors she uses. But she is about to get hexed. Cursed by Max to a rough landing.
I don’t think you can take Maxima as a mesurement for how strong something that attacks her is.
She’s basicly invulnerable, so everything is going to look weak in comparison
Her bio does say that she was injured fighting in Afghanistan. I don’t know if this was the result of letting her guard down, or due to fighting against another super, possibly the person in panel 4 of this comic https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
P.S. The person in panel 1 of that comic is on scene of the current fight. (Poked stick at sword. He shall be named ‘Pokey Man’). My guess is he is the ‘brains’ of the attack: Operation “How tough could these guys be anyway?”.
Well based on this
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/989
We know that 2 persons have ever fought Maxima to a standstill. One of them is Dabbler, and they are friends, so we can asume that was not a deadly fight.
The other one is, as far as they know, dead (so tropes demand that that person is still alive and plotting revenge). So we can asume this was an actual fight to the death.
It’s reasonable to asume that a super that is equal in power to Maxima will, in a fight to the death, injure Maxima before finally going down.
So logicly we can put those 2 tougether and conclude that that is how she got injured
Indeed considering she wasn’t even scratching where she was hit I think it was more an indication of annoyance. Max likely knew she was there and is only turning her attention to her because Hex was becoming a distraction.
Well, firing your deadly lasers at the only reflective target in the battle doesn’t show much sense either…
It makes sense on all fronts, but I still think hex and her laser thingies are not much of a threat to anyone.
If you notice in the first panel where the beams hit, there are cracked holes filled with yellow hot asphalt despite her beams looking less intense then when she attacking Max. There more than a little punch and heat there. Maybe enough so to at least hurt some of the borderline bulletproofs.
They’re probably not lasers. The amount of power required to generate enough thrust to lift a human mass with laser beams would do a lot more to the pavement than make little molten holes. It would turn the entire parking lot molten, at a minimum.
My guess is they’re some sort of highly accelerated high temperature plasma.
I don’t feel failing to defeat the strongest superhuman on record in the world is much of an indication of strength.
In any event hex done a dumb dumb thing and she is going to get a beaten for kicking a sleeping tigress, probably not a severe beating though but enough that hex decides to never do something this stupid ever again.
Awp, someone mentioned D&D 4E, time to take a shot. ::Downs a healing potion::
D&D 4E doesn’t exist…Pathfinder is what it should have been…4E is dead to us!
“Pull agro” comes from MMOs…4E was lame because they tried to make it work like an MMO, so D&D fans usually stick with 3.5E or have moved to Pathfinder. (See https://paizo.com/prd/ for more info)
You do know that D&D 5th is coming out in august, right?
That still doesn’t make 4E any better.
The funny thing is that I had one friend who absolutely raved about it. In a very articulate and enthusiastic fashion. Except he was being quite defensive, at the same time. Thus making me suspicious.
Bear in mind that I have been cut off from my role-playing environment, and any new manual, for quite a while now. So have never gotten my paws on a copy. And he was the first to give me info on it.
So I was judging it based purely on my knowledge of his mindset, what facts he chose to supply, as a fan of it, and reading between the lines. And my conclusion was “omg, they messed it up that badly?”
I too came to the conclusion that they were trying to make it match video and the MMOLG type environment. And clearly went overboard and mis-judged the loss to tabletop /paper gaming. Even though he went to pains to avoid making any overt reference that would lead to that conclusion.
Something which has been corroborated by every other opinion that has been ventured to me, on the subject. Including this thread.
I never really understood the level of what appears to be outright hate for 4th ed D&D. While I still prefer 3.5, I can definitely see the issues what 3.5 has that 4th ed was trying to solve (sometimes successfully, sometimes not.)
At the end of the day, a lot of the fun comes from the roleplaying within the group and the NPCs, and also from the problem-solving, such as the tactical side of combat. Both of which can be done fine in either edition.
Role-players get more invested than average folks in things. It is a part and parcel of being a role-player. So there is usually resistance to a new edition. A new system is another matter mind. New game, new characters, new challenges. That is all fun.
But if you are creating a new version of the same game, people will want to be able to translate their existing and older characters to the undated system. Change it too much and they do not feel right.
I certainly resisted every version up until 3.0. That was the first time that I felt that the system was significantly improved, as a whole, without loosing too many aspects that I liked. Trying to draw in the computer and console gaming community was not a bad idea, in principle. But failing to address the needs of the pen and paper community was disastrous PR.
They are the core players who form the community, even if they are outnumbered by the digital players. Nobody likes being dictated to that ‘you must upgrade to the new system’ because some corporate suit demands it. But, give the new system enough appeal, and you can win over such natural inertia.
Trouble is, the radical changes needed to make the game more accessible to those used to digital characters and game-play, radically degraded the feel of the game for traditional players. It is not surprising that the usual grumbling and dislike failed to break down and transition to acceptance.
And if the previous version is not being supported, in an attempt to force the new system on customers, that will naturally lead to hatred.
Companies, in every market, should learn that lesson. Customers like the power of choice being in their own hands. Try and force them down a route they do not want, and they will rebel.
I think we have discovered that shooting high intensity particle beams at Max is the equivalent of shining a laser pointer in front of a cat. They both do little other than get their attention. (And it is fun to watch both of them chase after the moving target)
You are so lucky I wasn’t drinking anything. ;)
It’s probably more like a laser pointer for a dog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2jViqMnnK4
Scale wise I think it is more like this.
Just noticed, Heatwave’s description doesn’t mention that she’s immune to heat…she would have to be if she can melt an aluminium can in her hand and not suffer terrible burns.
See the trope “required secondary powers”.
Okay, guess Hex hasn’t been formerly introduced yet, can you maybe use panel 5 or 9 for her profile pic when she is? Or maybe even panel 6 (such a sweet round profile in panel 6)
*sigh*
*shakes head*
Besides which, Hex’s first appearance would be much more appropriate.
That could have worked (not as well as panel 6 mind, and certainly better than the last panel)
Stupid question. Where is Jiggawatt? I haven’t seen her since the Press Conference.
Her sudden appearance will shock everyone.
-_-
I’m just really amped in expectation. But watt is taking so long? The current action is directly tied to my frustration. Getting that character out here sooner has my volt.
This thread is getting all the readers charged up. We will be expecting Jiggawatt to appear like lightning, as a bolt out of the night. Electrifying us all with her performance.
By the way, I am betting that she has been held up getting an emergency make-over. Her public relations consultant told her that test polls indicated that she was getting negative reactions. Because people felt she was too much like the fictional character Storm.
Or there is nice young lad, singing to her – Watt is love? Baby don’t hertz me, don’t hertz me, no morse…
Ionic, isn’t it?
Positively.
Maybe the villains are generating too much negative energy and she has been repelled.
There isn’t just Shonen to look at, there is also Sentai as well. Or for those that may not know the tern, Sentai = Power Rangers. They always work as a team when it’s clearing out the min yens or taking on the boss monster of the week. Hell ever there Giant robots work as a team.
Though I always thought it was a bit unfair. Six heroes ageist one. Not sporting in the least.
Once again Max shows off just how over powered she is. God dame it. Tell me she isn’t going to be this comics broken superman, and the only person who is able to give her a real challenge is a evil version of her.
Not to worry, I have plans. :)
So if we need a valid opponent for her, it would have to be the anti-Maxima. Since she is a human with yellow skin, a highly focused mind, a serious disposition and a distaste for intimate relationships, her opposite would need to be a non-human with purple skin, an easily distracted mind, fun loving, a total nymphomaniac, and still be powerful enough to take on Maxima in a fight. That’s a pretty odd combination. I don’t think the readers would believe in a character as unlikely as that.
Wouldn’t her opposite also need yellow/blond hair? And was that Dabbler I saw browsing the dye section at a nearby drugstore earlier?
No, she will just use an illusion for the blonde hair.
Actually a male character with silver skin, without team skills, and no sense of solder honor and duty, but able to match max move for move would be better. A Lobo to Max’s Superman.
Would your silver guy be carrying a surf board?
They should certainly be a hippie or have a similarly laid-back attitude.
I’m tending to agree with Maxima’s initial suspicion that some or all of these folks are images. The good guys seem to be getting two on one’s more often than I’d expect if they were, in fact, outnumbered 3 or 4 to one.
Joel finally closes the store, after the huge crush of customers finally wanes, and notices that it is almost 11 pm.
Joel: (thought-bubble as he starts to close) Where the hell did Sydney get to anyway? I haven’t heard from her since the bank robbery this afternoon. Might as well turn on the late news. [ He looks around the almost empty store shelves. ] I am not complaining that much, but how did she pay for a television spot? We don’t have that kind of budget! [ Turns off the credits of a JLA-Universe movie playing on the big screen and turns on the local news. ]
TV Anchor: Good evening. This is the Eleven O’Clock Report. Our top story is ARCHON. In our Six O’Clock Report, we told you about a recently declassified branch of the military responsible for policing the actions of people with extraordinary abilities, and we showed you some clips from their first-ever press conference. [ Clips can be seen over the anchor’s shoulder from the press conference and the subsequent tank demolition. ] This afternoon, we brought you a live report about a bank robbery that was thwarted by two members of ARCHON, field commander Lieutenant Colonel Leander, code-named Maxima, and a recruit with a code-name of Halo. [ Two static pictures are seen over the anchor’s shoulder: Maxima in the midst of the fireball, issuing her ultimatum and Halo, as she does her “mike drop” during the press conference. ]
(Cut to Joel, Was he drinking Spit-Take cola? It always seems to have the same effect on people.)
TV News Anchor: Tonight, we have to report that the front-line ARCHON team we met at the press conference was having dinner at the MacGuffin Steakhouse, when they were attacked by a group of super-powered individuals, not all of whom have been identified as yet. After a prolonged fight, all the attackers were subdued and arrested by the ARCHON personal, many of whom received minor to severe injuries. 22 individuals are under arrest in the ARCHON facility and are scheduled to be arraigned on various federal charges tomorrow, including multiple counts of attempted murder of a federal officer, among many other charges. A spokeswoman for ARCHON had this to say:
Halo: Holy beep! We had just started eating dinner when all of a beep sudden, this big beep beep guy burst through the beep ceiling and started beep beeeeeeeeep punching Anvil. I beep mean they just beeeeeeeep attacked us out of beeeeeep beeeep nowhere. I mean, we were just minMfff!
Arianna: [ She has put her hand on Sydney’s mouth and stepped in front of her. ] This attack against this federal agency was totally unexpected and unjustified. The individuals who attacked us are clearly part of a larger organization which will be identified and the people responsible will be brought to justice. We are sorry about the collateral damage to structures and civilians in the area, and these criminals will be held to account for the injuries and destruction they caused. The exact motivations behind this attack are unknown at this time, but we will be working with other federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies to bring to justice all the criminals involved in this incident. This is just the beginning of this case. We will release more information when it becomes available. [ In the background a nearly-topless Anvil is helping to extricate Achilles from a pile of rubble. Math is also there, but he not helping that much; mostly Math is staring at Anvil. ]
Anchor: In related news, various businesses and other facilities at the Stanley Mall on Shuster Street were damaged this evening and parts of the mall will be closed until repairs can be made. The popular MacGuffin Steakhouse in the mall was particularly hard hit. Most of the mall will remain open during repairs, according to mall management, and other areas will be reopened as repairs are completed, over the next few weeks.
TV Anchor: In international news, the government of Canada has announced a similar initiative to ARCHON to be called Department H, part of the Ministry of Public Safety.
[ Cut to Joel, staring at the TV, his jaw against his chest. ]
Brilliant.
(Earlier in the day)
Joel (thought bubble after the 1st customer asks if he can get Halo’s autograph for them): Um, they do know that’s a video game, right?
Joel (thought bubble after the 5th customer asks if he can get Halo’s autograph for them): O.k., Joel (or would it be Brian instead?), it wasn’t that funny the first time. I know one of you guys is around so you might as well come out with the hidden camera.
Joel (thought bubble after the 23rd or so customer asks if he can get Halo’s autograph for them): Alright, the next person who asks me that and I’m going back to the back and pound my head against the wall until I’m senseless.
Joel (yelling from the top of his lungs after the 67th and two-thirds customer asks if he can get Halo’s autograph for them): GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THIS HALO DUDE IS AND WHY EVERYONE SEEMS TO THINK I CAN GET HIS AUTOGRAPH FOR THEM!
[Cue shortly after this the men in white coats who take him away for a (what we can only hope is short) vacation]
Don’t have time to look this up (work calls, unfortunately) but didn’t Maxima state earlier that the damage was no big loss since the steakhouse was due to be demolished soon anyway? Although I could be mistaking someone’s comment for the comic itself here, which wouldn’t be too surprising to anyone who knows me….
In “Nose Boop of Doom” she said the room was a write off .
So the property damage was moot.
I interpreted Maxima’s “write-off” sentence as indicating the amount of damage caused by a guy jumping through the roof and being sent back out a wall meant that the restaurant’s dining room had been so severely damaged that additional damage was no big deal. The restaurant’s insurance company is going to have to write a cheque to cover pretty much a complete reconstruction of the room anyway.
I like the “Holy beep!” . Didn’t laugh like that in an while.
Halo will, no doubt, be very well known for most of her interviews at least containing that would-be sentence.
I forgot to mention the call from their web-host asking if they got featured on slash-dot or in a YouTube video that went viral because the website was getting hammered. At first he thought it was a distributed denial of service attack, but then noticed it was just a huge amount of legitimate traffic. He is moving EventHorizonComics.com to a dedicated server in the morning if this load continues.
I think Sydney catching up with Joel is probably the most keenly anticipated event, in the comic, other than the unveiling of Tubey. Ignoring the cliff-hangers, of course. I must have envisaged, at least, half a dozen distinct versions, in my mind’s eye.
Love seeing other takes on it though. Nicely done.
I agree, and I am happy to see so many people wanting to know what happened to poor (doomed) Joel.
After one second of hitting Maxima with those beams, with her non chillantly ignoring the attack, I would have turned tail and ran.
So did hex. The question is what does she run into since she is flying away while looking behind herself.
None of you saw the above posting
Phone calls from perverts in 5… 4… 3… 2.. 1…
While I do not consider myself a pervert, we don’t need you baiting the trolls either.
I don’t think we need fear trolls here. Not yet anyhow. Some day the comic will pass the numbers threshold, where they become unavoidable. But I think the strong community spirit here discourages such activity, for the most part.
I am sure there are exceptions to any rule, but I suspect that most folks, who get attracted to the comic, in the first place, and then to the comments, are more fascinated by the discussions and the bits they might have missed in the comic, than they would be tempted by trolling.
Of course, there are folks, in society, who get a strong buzz from anti-social behaviour. *sigh* Can’t do too much about that. Other than try to steer them off the path, if they are borderline, rather than uncontrollably psychotic. But folks here are too nice, for us to worry yet.
I don’t see this lot as anything other then a pack of hired , super muscle thrown together to see how Archon operates. There doesn’t appear to really be anyone in charge, granted HS made an attempt, they’ve obviously have never operated together on any level.
As for glowy light girl, well that’s what happens when you dps twerps attack the Boss without a tank to draw the aggro away from you :)
No that was a conversation between Harem and the quartermaster/logistics/supply Sergeant Vauxhall (It’s unknown what branch he was in or what branch layout Archon follows but QMs are Army, Logistics personnel are AF, & Supply personnel are Marines). Harem suggested Arianna probably picked the place because it was due to be demoed or was run by the mob. The Sergeant said he thought Max picked the place.
That was intended for responding to Deof Movestofca, I must’ve not hit reply or hit cancel reply on accident.
Kvetch. Why didn’t I notice it sooner? Hex has a similar power set to Halo, but she can use more than two at a time, except she’s limited on power level by the number of Buster Buddies on each task.
Methinks we might have a recurring villainess. Maybe. If she doesn’t get arrested and tossed in a not cardboard prison.
The PPO appears to channel plasma, not just photons – no substance.
Also, Hex her Buster Buddies seem to draw their beams from extradimensional sources elsewhere.
Then there is the buildin safety the PPOs appears to possess I fail to see: the builtup and stream like release.
The effect is different as well, for the Buster Buddies do melt, but don’t cut laser sword style “like butter” through virtually anything in its path.
Well, it’s not that the powers might have the same source. It’s that both Halo and Hex have similar “floaty thingies that provide a variety of powers, but not all at once”. So, they’re a hero and a villain with similar power sets, even if the source of the power is vastly different.
Just a side note, really, but:
Did anyone notice that GRRLPower kept us entertained for more than 3 years on 225 pages worth, some even the double joy variety, with 221 playing in the present and still the very same day it all started ?
I’ll probably never learn if Halo ever finished her training since I simply won’t live long enough to get there, but hopefully it also means having a really good read until then. :-)
As long as DaveB keeps it as entertaining as he has had so far, I don’t mind if he stays on the same day for the next three years.
Hey now, keeping a story are going a while is fine but let’s keep any DBZ level time dilation at a minimum.
I’ve certainly noticed, and have pointed it out a few times myself. However, since it’s clearly nighttime now, we *might* have passed the midnight point, in which case it’s now technically day 2. :)
And this is why you have someone inform all parties of potential enemy capabilities before an operation.