Grrl Power #228 – 1.56×10^20 electrons walk into a bar…
How do you keep Jiggawatt from shooting lightning? Take away her credit cards. Wait, that’s not right.
When Thor gets an STD, he gets the thunder-clap.
An atom walks into a bar an asks the bartender “Have you seen an electron? I left it in here last night.” The bartender says, “Are you sure?” The atom says, “I’m positive.”
A neutron walks into a bar and says, “How much for a beer?” The bartender says, “For you? No charge.”
Ok enough of that. Jiggawatt can do just about anything involving lightning, including obviously turning into it. Not necessarily a unique power for a lightning wielder, but usually when you see it the have to travel through telephone wires or something. I’m not sure if Jiggawatt can do that actually. I always envisioned her arcing through the air, and she can move a considerable distance before she has to bounce off something like a cloud or just connect with the ground again. I guess I need to add teleporting to her badge on the cast page, even though it’s not quite teleporting. It’s more like really fast super jumping that can also be used as an attack. Like it combines super jump with Bison’s Psycho Crusher. (Or Vega’s, if you’re reading this in Japan.) She can’t go through most things like walls (unless she’s just tying to blow a hole in it) unless they’re moderately conductive like a squishy person.
All these one hit scrubs that keep getting knocked down were supposed to be in the parking lot shot, but I ran out of time to draw them all, plus I hadn’t quite designed everyone yet. The plan was always to add these guys into that shot, and bump Maxima’s estimate from 30 to 40. I don’t want anyone thinking more villains are showing up in the meantime. A lot of the minion scrubs are just that, and may not ever show up in the comic again, unless I show them incarcerated or if there’s a prison break or whatever, but a few of them will be seen again. In fact some of them had larger roles they were supposed to play in this fight, but their parts got cut because I don’t want the battle to be 100 pages long. Gauntlette, the gal with the purple fist on this page was one of those. She would have been labeled as Tenti-Gal by Leon, since she can wrap her energy thing around her so it looks like a big tentacle. You can actually see her on the parking lot page, though she’s mostly obscured by Hex’s lasers there. She would have fared much better against Jiggawatt’s attack if she was still wrapped up all snugly in her tentacle, but there’s always next time.
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He he. Now there is a girl who knows how to make an entrance!
DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!!!!!!
4th and climbing
It’s now a couple votes away from third. ;)
I’ve been waiting for this.
So happy. And she’s funny too!
Making an entrance – my first thought also.
Yes it was a stunning entrance
It took the blonde villain’s breath away, for one.
Absolutely shocking
I’d say that, from the viewpoint of the villains, that entrance was re-volting.
It certainly was electrifying =P
High-voltage humor. Wrap up three to go.
She can jump through clouds
THAT IS SO COOL
That is certainly the way I am reading it, and yea, I totally agree! Although, at an outside chance, it could just be that she entered off-panel, and summoned the lightning to her, as person thought, at first, below. But, the art makes me happy to see it the other way instead.
And, checking her personnel file, I see that she does in fact have a teleportation-like power listed, at power 2. So only just below Harem in that capability! So it all fits nicely.
No, in the under pannel thingy it sais she can turn into lightning. So that is how she travels
Yea, I was not saying it is teleportation. But it is damned close, so teleportation-like is a fair term to use, I think. The icon used covers a very broad range. At the upper ends it includes teleportation, for Harem. But at the lower end Halo has a point in the same power. Which we know can only be her telepresence power. So the best way of summing it up is a teleportation-like power.
In Halo’s case though, it is so weak that she cannot travel with it, but can merely project an image of herself to the remote location, rather than going there personally. Conversely one could describe the icon as being a telepresence power, of which the upper ends allow travelling to the remote location instantly, rather than just acting by remote means.
Jiggawatt’s power is certainly much closer to teleportation, than flight, if looking for a simple way to sum it up. And it is a close parallel to how the Star Trek universe describes teleportation. Converting a physical body into energy, transmitting that energy to a remote location, and then re-assembling it into corporal form.
At first I thought she’d summoned lightning from the clouds, through the badguys and into herself.
I bet I know what brand of cereals Jiggawatt uses, what with the ‘zap, crackle and pop’.
Maybe thats where the “Blitzkrieg”-soda came from … ?
Too bad Gauntlette is already named. We could label this bunch Oh Snap, He Crackled and Whose Your Pop.
We can name the other two. Az-Tat and Tootman.
I see that Gauntlette is a Brit, who else would wear Unionjack pants? This gives move fuel to the idea that this collection of bad guys is international.
Annoying non-British college students ;)
Union Jack is English. They have a history of even flying it at football matches versus Scotland.
No, no it’s not. The Union Jack is more likely to be flown in England, but it’s absolutely a British flag. Why it’s more often flown can be put down to a few reasons, among them: the average English person self-identifying more strongly as British than the average Welsh or Scottish person; London in particular being the capital of the whole UK, not just of England; and the George cross (English flag) being frankly a bit shit aesthetically speaking, and too close to crusader imagery besides.
GOD
SPARKS OUT OF HER ASS? lol
and love the back up joke really good one hehe
Too hot to handle.
Challenge accepte. My kinda lady.
I bet Sydney was shocked by her entrance… and the lame puns.
That there be one fine piece of VOLTAGE!
***Ducks***
I would have said “fine piece of AMPS” myself.
I’d simply say that I wouldn’t mind a closer look at her joules.
I imagine she would put up some resistance.
Nah, if you know what you’re doing then it’s easy to get running on parallel circuits.
I’ll bet you don’t need to “Jump-Start” her.
If she isn’t in the mood, it’s your joules you will need to worry about
Let us meditate on the awesomeness of Jiggawatt…
Ohhhhhhm…..Ohm…..Ohm
I think it’s an ‘electrifying’ entrance. As well as a ‘shock to their systems’. Especially with the sudden revolting ‘back up’ jokes and the ‘arc of pain’ that travels through those bad guys.
Well, she IS a member of ARC-Swat, after all…
Those villains got swatted pretty good, huh?
Ah-ah-ah-AH, the ‘shock to your/their system’ is the tag-line from Static Shock, which is owned by DC — so you can’t use that one.
I’ve been waiting for this!
Hopefully this means the chaff’s fully removed, and we can get down to the wheat?
One Taser grade mass zap from Jiggawatt and the chaff will be taking a smoking break.
They are just going to get turned into cereal! :O
Just so long as she doesn’t over do it. Otherwise she’d be a cereal killer!
I’m surprised she is “only” a 6 with those abilities, literally turning into Lightning is an amazing power, as Negima has taught me.
If I read her profile correctly she is lacking in defensive powers.
And perhaps she gets distracted by lightning rods.
What made Negi awesome with it was the ability to switch back and forth at will. And have the reactions to match. As pretty much a capstone type ability for him.
What made Negi so scary wasn’t just the transformation. He could also use that speed to draw extremely complex magic circles for traps and big attacks. He also has access to “The Great Birth Canal”, so he can just use his opponent’s strength if the need arises. He’s the only mage who can actually use the darn thing practically.
Sinse when does lightning have a Kazoo sound?
That apparently is not the only sound possible:
Tesla Coil Music
One might, of course, also refer to a certain not too old remake of D1sney#s … ;-)
Now that is one cool clip. And it made me laugh as the presenter walked out, into the space that had previously been occupied by multiple lightning-strikes. Was it just me, or did he seem to be a bit hesitant, doing that? :-D
I might watch more of that, later.
That reminded me of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice tesla coil scene; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2CNIJ21ooo
Now there is a guy who knows how to get electricity flowing in a relationship.
Is he from ArcAttack? Because they’ve been doing that for years.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn8I8I4PVZCb7rKSIBsZ7ug
So Jiggawatt’s supplying the music at the next Christmas party then
It has a “KKKKKRACK-BABOO-KAZOO” sound. When it isn’t making “zap, crackle and pop” noises.
Baboo Kazoo is actually a somewhat obscure reference to one of my favorite podcasts. :)
I hereby nominate Jiggawatt for the most badass super power EVER
I can not think of anything that can beat turning into lightning and jumping through clouds. No, not even Maxima’s powerset is this cool
I wondered why she wasn’t at dinner. I initially thought she was doing a road runner impersonation on the sixth panel, it took me a while to see she was doing the funky reversing lorry. All I can say in the circumstances is be glad she’s doesn’t seem as kinky as Dabbler, imagine her doing the shocker (sorry).
There is a certain chance that might scorch the ceiling …
Did Max just punch someone into the ground so hard that she got a compression wave out of the strike?
Some flying brick tried to rush Max while she was distracted. Fat chance. He is now picking gravel out of tender spots.
She just buried her
opponentvictim under the parking lot. A handy position as being thrown that hard into the ground would kill most people, even armoured people.So, did Max just take out the mysterious caped guy?
Wrong color scheme.
I don’t think Red Cape is going to be a one-punch wonder. Even a one punch from Maxima wonder. The number of supers was underestimated, so any guess at the spread of potential power levels has been tossed out. Max faced one equal in combat and survived. Until now the numbers guessed at must not have left much room for another like that. So Max has been confident she is the top of the class.
*groan*
A neutrino walks into a bar. The bartender says “We don’t serve your kind here”. The neutrino answers “I was just passing through”.
A Higgs-Boson walks into a church. The priest immediately asks it to leave, to which it replies – without me, you can’t have Mass.
A Noble Gas drifts into a bar – the bartender says “we don’t serve your kind here” – it doesn’t react
How do you stop Jiggawatt from charging up? Take away her credit cards.
A Higgs-Boson walks into the bar. Does it matter that everyone looked at him darkly? That surprised him though, so he said “what, I thought everybody was looking for me?”
PS: Shouldn’t that atom walking into a bar be a Proton?
Protons are the positive parts of atoms
Only if it was originally Hydrogen. Remember any Atom which loses an electron becomes a positive-charged ion
An atom missing an electron is a postive ion.
Only if it was hydrogen. A sodium atom has 19 protons and can easily loose 1 electron and become a positive ion. Fluorine has 9 protons, but can gain an electron to become a negative ion. Opposite charges attract and you get sodium fluoride (found in most toothpastes). So this could have been a sodium atom that dropped an electron at the bar. If the bar is conductive, you will never find that electron, but maybe you can get another one to replace it.
You already did Dave. You must have added that quite some time ago, and presumably forgotten. Assuming that I have been interpreting the icons correctly.
Jup, that’s teleporting
Harem has the same one
But so does Halo.
And, here she is is using it. Perhaps she will be upgrade it to full teleportation, someday? For now though, all she can do is project herself to the remote location, rather than going all the way there, in person.
For “Jiggawatt” to arrive with thunder as short advance warning and to strike as serious lightning impersonated, is the new height of a grand entrances !
“Gauntlette” the Tenti-Gal ?
While she reminds me a bit of a purple lantern, safe for the blue e-shock stand-up hairs, I already feel sad we didn’t see more of her action.
This isn’t the last we have seen of her (she was supposed to have had a bigger role, but people complained about the fight lasting until christmas 2021 so DaveB has been forced to cut a few dozen good fights)
Jiggs dance made me think of ERB: Jordan vs Ali “Beep! Beep! Why don’t you back up that trash?”
A girl with a giant fist, bigger than her body, a huuuuge purple tentacle, that she can summon around her, and union flag trousers*. Yet who has a very manga hairstyle. Now she has got to have one heck of an unusual back-story.
* Pants, for the benefit of the colonials.
*Taps Yorp’s nose with a newspaper*
Bad Yorp! No being a prat. No biscuit and tea for you!
It is my duty to tweak the collective nose of America occasionally. They belong to the world’s super power, they can take it. Think of me as the slave standing behind the general, in his chariot, as he takes his triumphal march. Whispering “Remember, you are mortal”.
Besides which, I am a colonial myself. Self-depreciation is allowed. If not, I would loose my right to pronounce myself as the most humble man in the world!
I always wondered something about the slave bit. What was the life span of said slave? Especially AFTER the chariot ride?
Probably extremely long and prosperous, being the favoured personal property of the emperor.* This is someone entrusted enough to perform a task that will aid the emperor’s own chances of long-term survival. By reducing the odds that a skilled general will stage a coup.
* Feel free to replace with “dictator” or “holder of highest pubic office” as may be appropriate.
If I recall this correctly, this was a standing instruction to help keep him grounded and alive. Using a slave to remind him before each public performance would help the slave live longer.
Just one slave doing this would reduce the gossip potential and if he dies, will his personal slaves survive?
Slaves are a valuable property. Unless they know things that would be a problem, I doubt that anything would happen to them. Other than being transferred to the beneficiaries of his estate, or the state, in the event of his estates being officially seized. Either way, if the slave’s services were not required, he may face public auction, and the hazards of ending up wherever that may result.
Egypt now, that was another matter. Get the wrong master there, and you might end up being buried with him, to serve him in the afterlife.
Whether or not it was considered an honour to be selected, I imagine seeing the guy with the twiddling device that they stick up noses to mush up brains, and extract them, as part of the mummification process, might make you re-consider your opinions.
You’ve got so much humility, you’ve got a right to be proud about it?
In all modesty, yes.
Maybe it’s Engie from Nerfnow and the Tentacle is JoPereira who appears in the comic as a tentacle.
He does mostly game related comics and usually has 1 or more female versions of game characters living with him (in the comic). Right now he’s doing a DOTA version of the Viper vs Mountain fight in GOT.
https://www.nerfnow.com/comic/1325
Nah, you could have left it at trousers. The only dialect mismatch there, is that we add an “ie” to your pants.
*gives Yorp a bowl of Yorp-Snax*
Thanks! Yum yum
*munch munch, slurp slurp, BURP BURP*
Yorp Snax ™ are made from only the best parts of deceased Sydney foes finely ground and seasoned to perfection then baked into a crunchy bone shaped biscuit to help keep your Yorp’s teeth clean and healthy.
Are they green?
No but we do have a wide selection of Soylent ™ products in everyone favorite colors. Unfortunately the green is getting really expensive and could cost you an arm and a leg.
Well, that was an electrifying entrance. Sparks are going to fly now, no mistake. Stay tuned for the shocking conclusion.
I would threaten her with the Pun Hammer, but that entrance/bad guy take down was just too awesome.
Still, DAMN! That had to suck for those guys. I hate getting electrocuted.
Tell me about it. Not fun at all.
Still have Sydney papercut moments over it.
Never walk around a dry-dock with a hole in your shoe. Especially if you have steel toes. Why someone would run a power line with missing insulation through a puddle I’ll never know. You live you learn.
it was probably a welding machine lead… we get that ALL the time where i work, the dumb-asses can’t be bothered to stop work, get a new lead from the rack that DOESN’T have a hole in it, and turn that one in to us electricians to get fixed… we only find it when someone ELSE complains that “that wire is smoking, do you think you guys can take a look at it?” or at the end of the job when we have to make sure all the wires are off the ship, before the floating drydock can be sunk to let the ship out… then we find crap like that, when we ask around we find out that it’s been that way for the last week with no one telling us, and we’re too busy on other stuff and can’t spare the time or bodies to do a search every shift for things like that… grrr…
Exactly. I was a painter and I can’t tell you how many times some welder or surface grinder wielding idiot tried to set me on fire by working in an area full of paint and fumes. “Duh I did it before and didn’t go boom duh.”
I once had some co-workers try to unclog a drain using bleach. When that didn’t work, they added a bit of ammonia. After asking me what they should try next, I suggested that everyone evacuate the room for awhile. I don’t know if they mixed enough of it to be dangerous, but I wasn’t about to find out the hard way that they had. After about a fifteen to thirty minute impromptu break (during which we had a discussion why mixing chemicals and especially those two particular chemicals falls under the heading of VERY BAD IDEA), we eventually got back to work.
If Hex is called ‘Budget Halo’, I’ll call Jiggawat ‘Not Copyright Infringment Storm’.
By the way…
Just now noticed the speedlines above her ass.
I guess her arms are hiding the other ones.
That is not a speed line, it is a jiggle line
Yeah, watt a jigga she can do! She could easily outperform ANY exotic dancer you could name.
Also the arms are positioned to be 1 on the steering wheel, the other sounding the horn
What about Static, or Livewire? I bet Syd will know some more soon…
yeah she does seem more Livewire than Storm or Static Shock
Wait a second…
Perhaps this has been mentioned before but… Jiggawatt arrives and knocks down two baddies who appear to be fighting?
Either she knocks down two baddies, or also wipes out a goodie? Or I’m just confused?
I vote for the confused option. By the way, I make it three baddies. No goodies.
But she does fit in a very cute reversing lorry impersonation, with her hopping. I bet she lights up the dance floor!
Most dance floors are made of wood to absorb some of the impact. Channeling lightning into wood tends to burn it. I have seen a tree explode when hit by lightning, but parquet flooring has a lot less water in it.
Just don’t be behind her when she farts.
Oh, yea, the fighting bit. I must confess, at first glance I assumed they might have been squaring up at each other. But dismissed that as just being contorted, from the shock they were suffering.
Yeah, I assumed as much, but then why are 3 baddies standing off to the side all lined up?
Also, to Bismark’s comment at the top, VOTE! Of any webcomic, this is the one I wish were updated more regularly, ideally twice daily.
No, ideally, hourly, but Dave might want to sleep once in a while, and eat, etc. :-) I guess we will just have to let him off on this one.
It looks like the line was oriented towards Maxima. They may have been preparing a devastating combo, to attack her with? The Giant Purple Worm Fast-ball Special Encased in Unquenchable Flame.
It’s possible two of them were about to have a go at each other. This isn’t the best of the best after all. Some ego tripping could get distracting. It wouldn’t be the first time some bad guys lit into each other in preference to the heros.
Ahh!
Shocking … Electrifying … Re-Volting … Charging …
Okay, enough of that.
Thunderbolts and Lightning! Very, very frightening!
A rhapsody in motion. (wrong song right visual)
ME! (Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo
Galileo Figaro.
Magnifico!
My favorite cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY&feature=kp
Look up to the skies and see…
… any way the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me.
So is Operation Lightbringer, “Get Jiggawatt on the phone. Tell her ‘Leave is cancelled.’?”
I think it is more likely Max gave her a phone call.
Just had a look back, I think it was Lightstorm, not Lightbringer.
Also, I’d say it is a fair bet that Jigga-backup is Lightstorm. Especially after the cloud thing.
Ooh ooh, Jiggawatt and Jabberwocky do the fusion dance, forming JägerWHATNOWBITCHES?!
Ah, as in Stom-light, meaning not quite Storm?
Mind you, Storn can’t actually turn into lightning. That is a really cool power! Actually, she is prbably pretty hot.
Well, at least Jiggawatt’s parents had an easy time controlling her as she grew up; I mean, anytime she misbehaved, all they had to do was ground her… [Wait for laughter- 2- 3]…
Boooooooo
ZZZZ snort, what? Oh… ZZZZZ
Nice one. They probably had lots of problems, until they used breakers. I guess she can switch moods lightning fast. One wrong word, and she might short out!
Hmm, looking at the title on the page: 25 coulombs walk into a bar… If they do it in one second, that’s 25 amps. Just don’t be holding the bar as a path to ground.
Hey, Jiggawatt, it is fair. No one else got to eat either.
Actually they were eating
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1247
Of course, she may have just killed three people. Lightning strikes are damned dangerous. Survival is rare.
Lighting isn’t very good at killing people. It is most successful when the person is alone or the people they are with are hit at the same time. When help is nearby, the chances of survival are greatly increased. I’d say there’s a good chance that these three all make it to their trials, and if not? That’s the nature of using lethal force against a team of Peace Officers.
That’s true. There was that one guy who survived 7 direct strikes.
Not sure if that was lucky or unlucky.
He survived 7 lightning strikes, but not his suicide attempt.
Yeah…
I didn’t mention that as I didn’t want to darken the mood.
Lightning usually does not actually go through a person, but mostly passes the outer layers such as the epidermis. The reason for that is that electricity tries for the “easiest way” as in the one with the least conductive resistance. Thats also why, contrary to trees, people seldomly blow appart when hit, because there is no blow out of suddenly evaporating inner body liquids.
I recently saw a report about the kewl patterns that lightning strikes leave on people’s skin.
I would assume she can control her Amperage so she acted like an oversized-tazer instead of Hammer of Thor.
We keep bumping into,each other. Great minds as they say watching the same channels.
Or in your case while channel surfing for cartoons
Jiggawatt controls electricity. That means she can adjust the power. A taser shot is bad news but not fatal too often. Lots of voltage with almost no amperage.
It didn’t kill me when I got hit. *Checks pulse* I’m still alive. So it must be survivable.
Surviving a lightning strike is actually very common. Bodies process lightning differently so while some people die, most do not.
You still haven’t told us what super power you got from that. Can you turn on lightbulbs, by just holding them in your hand?
For a while I had the power of having hair like a Dragon Ball Z character without the use of sticky hair care crap. I’ve tried firing electricity from my hands. It doesn’t work. Though in my time I’ve been hit by a truck, watched as I contracted a disease that caused the muscles in a leg to atrophy and rot and then heal without scarring. My teeth are a medical miracle that many dentists weren’t even sure was possible. Been hit in the head with a rock, right between the eyes and didn’t even bleed. Am pretty much immune to many anesthetics, surgery is fun! Knocked out a man who tried headbutting me and just grumbled about a slight sting. Pretty much can’t be moved when I stand still unless someone is using a vehicle, or if I really want to.
I think before the lightning I already had super toughness and a healing factor. Either that or I’m the Juggernaught.
That sounds like a bizarre set of powers. You had better take care!
I’ve also entered bullet time, but I don’t count that since we’re all capable of that. Cars boxed me in except for the front in a rain storm. Lightning and thunder and the whole mystery novel works. I see a car on the other side of the highway blow a tire and veer out of control into my lane. Suddenly everything just slows to a crawl.
I can see every drop of rain individually falling and everyone to my left and right are in a panic. I know what to do though. I hit the gas HARD. As I hit the gas, risking hydro planing, I get ahead of the other cars who are now all slowing down further and go into a safe lane.
If I had slowed down, I would have still been boxed in and no one would have been able to get out of the way in time as they were doing their own emergency maneuvers.
Turns out, adrenalin can slow down your perception of time so you can react better and faster as well. But damn does it take a lot out of you.
Yea, I have had that a few times. One was really weird though. I was travelling at speed on a main road, with just the two lanes, one in each direction. Bus on the opposite side, to my lane. And then some d**k head decides to overtake it, in my lane. Head on to me!
Like you say, bullet time. No escape on the bus side of the road, there is a pub there. Plus a load of people blocking the pavement. No wiggle room in the road, with bus and oncoming car blocking those. My side of the road there is a substantial hedge row, that looks like it might be concealing an earthen embankment behind it. So probably fatal to hit it at speed.
The only option is to mount the curb on my side. Dodging bus shelter, lamp post, traffic signs, one of those big route signs, that shows loads of destinations. That part was just a blur. Bump, zip, zig, zag, bump, down the curb, behind the oncoming car. And just drive on.
The weird part comes the following day, coming back. Because I had real difficulty figuring out how I had dodged all the obstacles. But it was a grass curb, so I decided I would get out and just look at the tracks.
Sure enough, there were the ones going up the curb, towards all that stuff, cutting deep tracks where mounting the curb. So I could easily confirm the precise spot I went up. Even though they faded out after the initial impact, where the ground got harder, so I could not track the route through.
The problem? I could not see any gap, between all those bits of metal, wide enough to take a car. Had I been on the road side of them, I would have had to have been half-way into the road, and would have been a bug on a windscreen.
And the angle that the tracks showed that I was not pointed that way, and with far too little distance to turn back. On the other side of the bus shelter, and all the other metal, there was insufficient room to squeeze the car through, past the hedgerow. And the ground there was really soft, even walking on it, I was sinking in, so tyre tracks would have been left. There were none.
In fact, even if I envisaged the car on it’s side, on two wheels, Hollywood style, I could not see how the car went through any of the gaps in the middle. I racked my brain trying to remember. Bullet time, whilst making the decision about which route to take. Then blur. And out the other side. Stayed there until I had eliminated every option. Pacing out possible routes and so on.
You might have noticed that I consider every possible option, in exploring a problem. I did not find a solution. Nor come up with an even remotely plausible hypothesis.
Well then this proves it, I’m the Juggernaught, and you’re either Shadowcat or Nightcrawler. Take your pick.
Heh. Done.
Ok real-life-conciquences-of-super-powers-question:
How does Jiggawatt know where she’s going when she’s turned into lightning?
Even if she can somehow still observe the world (I’m asuming she could… somehow), she’d be moving at the speed of light.
So does she sit in a cloud, or where ever, plan where to jump to, and jump? Or does she have super reflexes and do plan her path instantly.
Does she have to create an ionized path through the air to travel through, like real lightning? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLWIBrweSU8)
Controlling the ionization of the air would explain how she can control where lighting strikes, since that’s how lightning travels through the air.
The Ionization would be the most likely scenario for controlling Strikes and likely where she travels as a Bolt.
We’ll have to assume that she can process the electrical signals, being fed back to her as she moves, equally (or close enough) as fast as she herself is moving.
TLDR: When she’s going at lightning speed, so’s her brain.
Lightning does not necessarily travel at the speed of light. Nor does it travel in a straight line. But that is just quibbling.
I think the most practical option is that she pauses at each vantage point, in order to choose her next path. This is similar to the way teleportation was handled in City of Heroes. You look to where you want to go, click, and poof you are there. Then you choose your new destination, and off you go again.
In comic terms, drawing that, it might give the impression of it all happening instantly. But the slight pause, at each stage, would allow informed decisions, rather than random choice, or following the path of least resistance.
Or while in energy form she perceives her surroundings as an energy field.
And is able to interpret it in a normal visual maner
Electrical current doesn’t travel at the speed of light – remember, electrons have (a tiny) mass, and nothing with mass can reach C. But to normal human perception it would appear instantaneous. BTW, Jiggie has some really nice legs.
She definitely works out. Check out the biceps too. Clearly she does a lot of freestyling.
I figured it’s something like telekinetic control over the electrons themselves. Just grab a bushel and chuck them where you want then to go.
Actually, electricity doesn’t move quite as fast as light. It depends on the material that electricity moves through, with higher resistance slowing it down. Even the neurons in your brain have SOME level of resistance, so the speed of thought is really a bit slower than the speed of light.
Well, Dave can have her lightning travel work however he wants, but here is one option:
Like lightning, she sends out a leader to where she wants to go, and then bolts down it once it is established. This prevents the need for her to be able to see while she is in lightning form, and it also slows her speed a bit since the leader only travels at a few thousand miles per second. Much slower than light speed!
I have this image of Halo inside her force bubble walking up to Mr Mystery Cape and asking him why he hasn’t been joining in. The conversation between brand new superhero and (probably) established super-villain would be a hoot.
‘How about a lifetime discount if you promise not to blow up my comic store?’ (Said as Maxima slams somebody else into the ground behind them in the shot.)
I see. We are putting the fun in fundamental physics.
Ben Franklin would be stringing Jiggwatt along. He always had an eye out for the ladies and was hard to shock.
So you are saying that he would consider her a fly-by-night, who would just kite him around, and keep him at a distance? Mind you, the alternative might be too hot for him to handle.
Well he is the Keymaster.
But is she the Gatekeeper?
For Ben, they all are.
Best looking way to “bring the Thunder” since Girl-Thor.
Oh boy, have you opened a can of worms, Dave. Jiggawat’s lightning powers can do all sorts of snazzy and dangerous things. Just check out either “A Certain Scientific Railgun” or “A Certain Magical Index” and look for Misaka “Railgun” Mikoto. Officially, her power is throwing lightning around, in actuality, she can manipulate ELECTROMAGNETISM, and the gauntlet of her power application is truly phenomenal.
her power might be limited to ONLY creating-controling lightning-strikes and her electro-jump
Check out her cast-page entry. Jiggawatt can also absorb electrical energy, and re-direct it. Just like Anvil can with kinetic energy. But at the lower level of 3 point power, versus Anvil’s 4. And the text pretty much makes it clear that she has great scope, within her speciality.
If she can’t make little animated figures, out of crackling electrical energy, and make them dance the can-can, complete with electrically created music, I would be very surprised.
Also, a ton of other cool/hot possibilities.
Electro-magnetism, or assassinations/ long-range-kills if need be, maybe powering equipment, emergency-powering of stuff…
The bio says she can control lightning – does that include regular electricity or not? And how close does she have to be to control it? And, how fine is her control?
In other words: Can she use her power to shut down the power in a villain’s lair, can she include batteries in that (i.e. not having to actually be in contact with the mains to stop the power) and can she bypass locks on electronic doors by just forcing the motors to turn? (Or, depending on how smart she is, hijack an entire robot?)
I’m assuming that what we’ve seen isn’t the limit of her powers, otherwise villains would just swap the spandex for rubber suits. (Bat-nipples optional)
I bet you, that with sufficient programming and hacking training, she could net-run, hack computers, take control of robots, open electrically controlled doors, turn alarms on or off and defibrillate somebody in cardiac arrest.
Throw in an extensive grounding in physiology and neurology and she may be able to stimulate selective parts of the brain, to induce fear, pleasure, pain, paranoia, induce sleep or panic, send direct stimulus to control limbs and other muscles.
Of course, micro-managing individual muscles or organs can take intense concentration, but may have severe limitations on effective control.
But why bother doing it the hard way, when she has an extensive command and control system at her disposal? Just turn herself into electricity, zap into the robot, elephant, dinosaur or human of choice, and map her control system directly onto the target`s.
Et voilà, instant total possession.
Well, controlling a computer like that is awkward – you have to either target the input sytems (i.e. keyboard/mouse) and do things the long way, or be able to act/react fast enough to intercept the signals surging through the motherboard – which would require thinking faster than the processor.
Something like a muscle or a motor, where you can just tweak the signal in a single wire that’s directly connected to the target would be simpler, and controlling a person’s/robot’s limbs would be more like touch-typing by comparison.
(Plus, wouldn’t “direct-brain-access” be dangerous, since they vary so much at such a small scale? You’d be better off targetting nerves once they branch out, or glands to release endorphins directly – no need to micromanage the senses if you can just fire 3 or 4 glands to trigger a 5-10 minute episode of psychotic hallucinations, or induce mind-body seperation like during sleep)
Computers and like devices are designed by humans. It is not too hard to understand how they work, given suitable training. Although understanding it from inside, would be an interesting experience.
The human body and brain is vastly more complex than anything we have ever built though. And we only have the crudest understanding of how it all works. Hence my idea of just making use of her own brain and body’s experience in controlling such.
Sure taking over an unfamiliar body is bound to have glitches. There would likely be a settling-in period, where control was partial, erratic or unpredictable. But, assuming she could over-ride the signals coming from the normal resident’s brain, the human mind is adaptable and can compensate for damage, and other problems.
Those mismatches would be modified and adapted by autonomous repair systems, without Jiggawatt herself needing to know or understand what was happening. Her job would be making sense of what her new senses were telling her. And trying to whack whatever looks like a villain.
Its possible that her power is limited to lightning-type effects rather than anything electrical. Without an in-depth analysis about exactly how it works or potential limitations, we can’t know.
That reminds me slightly of Hei / BK-201 from Darker than Black (and, to anyone who decides to look it up, I’d advise skipping the second season… Bleh >_<)
His officially listed power is a contact-based electrical manipulation. It's actually contact-based subatomic manipulation – usually he just moves electrons, but he can do things like shift protons and neutrons too to create new atoms. In the english dub this is obliquely hinted at early on because his coat is only bulletproof when he's wearing it. (In the original Japanese, it's not specified whether this is the case or not)
I take it Jiggawatt has to watch out for strong electrical fields, or her powers go haywire?
I bet they have to use specially grounded appliances at her apartment.
I doubt a field would throw her off.
She can probably control such a field
+1
Is Jiggawatt strongly attracted to any man with a positive attitude?
+1 (^.^)=b
Considering she probably didn’t have time to pick out which villains had resistance, and considering she passed through the dude with the Aztech-ish gold tattoo (who I will refer to as Az-Tat), I’m guessing Maxima forgot to tell her to keep it non-lethal.
The cast list implies she has great control over her power. There is no need for her to make it lethal, unless she chose to. I really cannot see her having done that though.
Just look at her lovely little hopping entrance, and smile. If she was doing that having just killed three people, that would mean she was getting kicks from their deaths.
They have merely been tasered and, I take it that, she is confident enough in her power, that she can be unconcerned about their well-being. Enough that she can relax and have a laugh.
People keep waiting for a fatality in this fight. Frankly, they’re reading the wrong strip. DaveB is here to do a fun story. Not get bogged down in emo gloom and legal arguments. Relax and enjoy fun.
Dave devoted an entire strip–the prior one–to legal ramifications.
And you can still do a fun story with violence, although it’s a tightrope walk where one misstep may turn away half your audience. But the violence is already here–Syd’s still bleeding all over her shirt, Dab’s cut up, Heatwave can only count to nine. And Dave’s been pontificating on the silliness of comic-book superhero battles, yet now we’re in the middle of a G.I.Joe cartoon/Spielberg’s Hook/Osborn’s Avengers battle where the good guys keep giving the bad guys opportunities to slaughter them only to escape harm (for the most part) because the bad guys keep choosing the worst targets for their skill set.
Maxima’s already alluded to killing, and the first two goons in this fight have had their faces and skulls rearranged to the point they might already be worm food. And as any cop should be able to tell you, a tazering is NOT “harmless;” even the healthiest person can die from it under the right (wrong) circumstances. Depicting all-out armed combat? Fatalities are open for discussion.
I wouldn’t suffer “emo gloom” if the attackers that Jiggawatt just electrocuted shat roasted guts and began death-twitching. All indications are that they either came here to murder people, or are (as in the case of Hex) just easily led into combat without understanding the purpose or outcome.
You are missing eddi‘s key use of “emo gloom”. DaveB is working hard to avoid the comic going down that path. So whilst real world issues are in, and addressed, they will not be used as an excuse to push the comic down an unnecessarily dark path.
If those three were to die horrible deaths, directly resulting from her actions, whilst Jiggawatt was smiling, and performing a cute little mime, it would come across as callous. Especially as the event is likely to be televised.
Currently it is an hilarious, stylish entrance. If the wide angle shot, showed such gruesome deaths going on, it would instead become a macabre act of dancing over her dying victims. With their relatives watching the scene live on TV. Not to mention millions of kids. Some of whom might be becoming orphans, due to what they were witnessing.
Jiggawatt would become despised as an insensitive killer, who did not deserve the badge of a cop. If killing is necessary, it should only happen when it is unquestionably called for, not as a random, off-hand act (which without contextualisation, is how that would come across). Plus suitable decorum, and respect for the dead and dying, should be maintained.
I prefer the route that Dave is taking.* Where she will instead capture the affections of millions, around the world.
* In this route, where her colleagues can be confident she is playing safe, Leon, Arianna and/or some other dedicated Archon employee can be advising the media, live, that Jiggawatt is well-practised in incapacitating criminals, and that the villains are just stunned.
That eases concerns and nips recriminations in the bud. Whilst allowing the instant empathy, with the stylish heroic cop, to build amongst the TV-watching public.
+1
To sum it all up people, this is X-Men, not Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. The powers in this fight will not be lethal, everyone will come out alive. Sore, but alive.
Amen
Nah, with the correct amperage, such a shock simply works like a tazer.
Knockout, but harmless (also quite painfull)
and embarrassing (Common side effect of being Tazed is loosening of Bladder and Bowels AKA peeing and crapping yourself)
None of these villains would ever be let to live it down…XD
Lightning is static discharges which are technically direct current, however they typically happen in series so they share some characteristic with high frequency AC current. It’s amperage is typically between 30-300 KA (for negative and positive respectively) and voltage typically rages from 100MV-1GV.