Grrl Power #229 – The loudening
Breakpoint appears courtesy of Avery Leckrone, one of the high roller Patreon supporters. When I asked for some cameo ideas, he handed me a slew of links to his characters. I chose Breakpoint because the team is poorly equipped to handle sonic attacks like this at the moment. As with most of Avery’s characters, she’s normally a hero, so we can assume extenuating circumstances, like this being her mirror universe twin. Also I’m sure her name has nothing to do with Keanu Reeves movies, but seriously sometimes the most difficult part of each page is the title and the little quip at the bottom. But who knows, maybe she’s a fan. Also, I’m not sure her name specifically has anything to do with the fact that she can do sonic blasts, she actually has an interesting mix of powers, but I wanted to get her name on the same page she debuted on.
Breakpoint doesn’t have to shout in order to do her sonic attack, she can just generate it. I had trouble getting my head around that for a few seconds, then realized it’s really no different than Jiggawatt being able to generate lightning or Maxima generating plasma or Cosmic Boom Booms or whatever energy that is. I wasn’t sure if “AAAAAA” was the right sound effect. I considered WUBWUBWUB to slip in a dubstep joke or at least something else throbby sounding but as long as you get “loud noise” from it then I guess it works.
Interestingly I learned from reading Breakpoint’s bio that the loudest sound under 1 Earth atmosphere of pressure is ~194 db. The fact that there might be a limit to the loudness of sound is something I had never thought about, but while you can have a shockwave that is many times louder, a sustainable sound requires the oscillation of a wave, meaning the maximum amplitude of the wave would be from 0 PSI to 2 atmospheres. In other words, 1 atmosphere, plus or minus 1 atmosphere. Apparently someone did the math and that works out to 194 decibels. Which by all accounts is pretty god damned loud, since the decibel scale is logarithmic. (20 db is 10 times louder than 10 db, 30 is 100 times louder than ten, 40 is 1,000 times louder, etc.)
Of course in a medium like water, sound could be much much louder. It’s weird to think that on different alien planets, sound would behave differently. The composition and density of the atmosphere would affect both the speed of sound and how loud sounds could be. Of course if the atmosphere could support human life, the atmosphere couldn’t be too different from Earth, but imagine an alien planet where visiting humans had to wear atmosphere sniffers like that dude from TNG . A concert on that planet might require repeater speakers or something. That would have to be a pretty thin atmosphere, but it’s interesting to think about.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Go Halo! Even that score!
You’d think she would get in trouble with Max for actively fighting. Even if that shield is really strong, increased exposure means the enemies have more chances to creatively work around it. Realisticly, she should stay out of battle until she’s been through enough training to meet the team’s standards. Of course, she’d miss out on a ton of XP that way.
Halo has been assigned to distract the baddies and shield her less powerful teammates. She kept Goose from getting cooked when Hex went squirrelly. And she just followed Maxima’s example and body-slammed some flaming idiot. Dabbler is close by so even Sydney has some backup if needed.
Halo is just practicing basic fire safety, “Stop, Drop, and Roll”. First she stopped him. Then she dropped him. And now she will roll him around until the flames go out. She will probably get her merit badge in first aid for this one.
Don’t you mean her fire safety merit badge?
When somebody is already on fire, fire *safety* is irrelevant…It’s time for first aid.
Ahh, especially with this being a sonic-themed page, you remind me of a glorious moment, in another universe, when Earth’s most important heroine needed backup!
Nice- how did I know there’d be a Buffy reference on this page, somewhere? Made me chuckle.
Season 6, Episode 7: “Once more with feeling”
The most complex, most time concuming and most expensive single episode ever made, and easily one of the best if not the best itself.
At some point they just realised: Hey, don’t pretty much all of the actors not have a musical background ?
Why not make an episode a musical ? And thats what they did and did it well ! :-)
“Once More With Feeling” on Wikipedia
I don’t see Halo singing though. Especially not that she wants to be like every normal girl.
And for Dabbler, the mess-up queen of some of the last pages, to sing along ? I smell disaster. What happens if a succubus starts singing anyways ? Sudden siren love festival ?
What I CAN picture Dabbler as would be that “Demon Of Fun” ( “Sweet” ? ) though, for it would match her quite well. ;-)
Maybe not, but you do have to admit she has a talent for helping other people sing…
soprano.
She can sing solo – so low I can’t hear her. Or she can sing tenor – ten or twelve miles away.
Why not? For all we know, Sydney could sound heavenly (or sound like cat taking a dump and a hairball at the same time in a blender), the point is, we don’t know, and judging peoples musical abilities is stupid, if you did we wouldn’t have that Scottish Boil or that operetic Pol Pot guy (personally can’t stand The Boil, but won’t deny she is very talented)
wouldn’t that be Falsetto?
Not if it’s truesetto :P
I think the most appropriate term would be ‘castrato’.
Even Maxima has to admit there aren’t many things more distracting than being face-planted into the parking lot.
Even someone who’s not as good as the rest of the team can still take out grunts.
There’s no reason for her to stay back and NOT help out while staying safely under the shield (also, she’s actively tanking. So she has to attack)
Exactly. You can’t tank effectively if you don’t draw aggro somehow, which is pretty much what Maxima told her to do. Sydney even called it “Operation Draw Aggro”.
good to see the circle jerk of bad comic book writing is still applauded here.
I don’t see how random background action is bad writing.
Trolls can’t ever be happy and they want the rest of the world to be just like them.
Agreed. In fact, to the contrary. Whilst it is, of necessity, important to show the key actions that the supporting characters are undertaking (in this case it is Jiggawatt), there is more to the story than just that.
This scene keeps the primary focus on her. But panel one provides three key, useful, elements, which support that.
Firstly it contextualises the scene. The previous page only had Maxima, rubble and car park for clues. If the devastation had been spreading, that could be anywhere. So this one shot confirms that there are more buildings still standing, in the business park, that the action is migrating towards them and that the heroes, including Jiggawatt, are pressing home their advantage.
Ie the place that had been the focus of the attack (the pile of rubble that used to be the steakhouse), is no longer the centre of the action. The heroes counter-attack is building up pace, and the remaining villains are falling back.
Which leads to the second point. Other than the location, it is reminding us, the readers, that this is not a series of individual actions. We are seeing snippets of a greater battle royal. Everybody is pressing the battle hard, and Jiggawatt is the only one fresh on the battlefield.
Thirdly it allows fans of particular heroes to see them making an ongoing contribution to the battle. At the end of the day, one assumes that their take-down rate will be approximately proportionate to their super rating. But it would be boring to show all of the incidental take-downs, in detail.
Suffice it to say that, mixed in with the more challenging foes, there are a number of weaker ones. The casual ease they are being dispatched with, and the very fact that it does not need to be shown as the major focus of the action, casually helping to illustrate the power of the characters.
Plus a large number of the core fans enjoy looking for the smaller details. It in no way detracts from the flow of the main action on this page. You have the option of exploring the scene-setting in detail, before running through with the rest of the action.
Or, if you prefer, you can just register ‘there is background fighting going on’ and then keep going with the central character being featured.
If comic-book schools are teaching something else, perhaps the teachers should get out from under their bridges a bit more often, and see how much more interesting things are, when you expand your horizons.
Amen
Very well said, Yorp!
Good intent, but it falls through because the “background” is in the top left corner, the first thing you see. You can see how that detracts just by the first thread on the page being about Halo. There’s also the issue of Halo’s balloon also pointing right at Jiggawat.
As for mainstream usage, this type of layering is largely the signature of Michael Bay, and so should obviously be approached with caution.
I take it you are not all that familiar with much in the world of comics then. May I suggest looking up Myth Inc as illustrated by Phil Foglio. Bay was still a gleam in a Cro-Magnon Roosters eye when Phil was putting pen and ink to art board.
Good intent, but it falls through because the “background” is in the top left corner, the first thing you see. You can see how that detracts just by the first thread on the page being about Halo. There’s also the issue of Halo’s balloon also pointing right at Jiggawat.
As for mainstream usage, this type of layering is largely the signature of Michael Bay, and so should obviously be approached with caution.
And for some reason the website thinks this is a duplicate.
That would be because it _is_ a duplicate. Your first post attempt actually went through.
The background may be “the first thing you see” if your eyes happen to go directly to the top left corner and scan outward from there rather than latching onto the biggest character in the panel first, but even then they are small and quite obviously “in the background”. What makes Sydney an immediate topic of conversation isn’t so much where she appeared on the page, but the fact that she’s a more familiar and popular character than the featured hero and she’s doing something more interesting and amusing than shooting lightning. Sydney steals the scene just by being in it. She could have been in the bottom right corner with just her face showing and people still would have talked about her first. Jiggawatt just hasn’t had enough exposure to build a fanbase yet.
As for Michael Bay, these types of multiple fights running over each other in the same panel scenes are way old school. He may use them more than most movie makers, but I remember seeing scenes like this back in the old Fantastic Four comics. Just because he loves to use the technique a lot doesn’t mean he has any special claim over it.
Apart from the fact that Jiggawatt is WAY bigger on that pannel (which draws the attention), I think most people actually look at the center of the screen first
Also the world bubble is clearly pointing at Sydney. She’s above (on the pannel) Jiggawatt
Actually, thought it was Jiggs who said that at first, didn’t even notice Halo Under Glass :(
You are being harsh, but still nail it nicely.
No, I can see their point. To some extent, this is less than optimal writing. I understand (I think) what Dave is trying to do, but he’s flying in the face of a bunch of comic strip storytelling traditions that were established for a very good reason. And, to be honest, Dave’s getting really, really close to the point where continuing the battle will start to damage the story.
To start with: Jiggawatt is on another team, right? That SHOULD mean that she’s a fairly minor character in what is supposed to be Sydney’s comic, whose interactions are limited and self-explanatory in nature. Unfortunately, now that you’ve introduced her in a big way in this fight, you’ve established her as a major character in Sydney’s comic…which means that Sydney must interact with her on a fairly regular basis. By introducing her to the fight like this, you’ve put her on par with Dabbler and Math as Sydney’s cohorts–after all, she’s the one who did the big dramatic appearance to rescue the team, and, in terms of concentrated action-oriented screen time, she’s got more than Max, Harem, Anvil, or Peggy. All three of these have now been relegated to secondary major characters, meaning that they’re important for filling in small details (such as the tranq bracelet thingies), but they’re pretty much out of commission as main story characters. So this means that Jiggawatt is no longer a minor character–she’s prime stuff, and will have to be dealt with accordingly, because she was there when the team needed it. She was there, and she left her FAMILY to be there…and, again, that really counts. Jiggawatt’s family is going to have to come up again, now, too–you’ve mentioned it in an action-packed setting, so it must be important. You can get away with introducing ONE character into the main storyline like this…but only one. And once somebody’s had this kind of entrance, they’re stuck for a while–you’ve got to make them a major character, because it causes too many emotional interrupts to not do so.
Second: the melee itself. Max counted about thirty bad guys at the beginning. We saw twenty-three in the initial picture, so we’ve still got some room for error. Still, assuming the mastermind is unlikely to fight to the end, we have now seen twenty-five of those bad guys knocked out of commission…assuming, of course, that everybody we saw tranqed earlier had been shown being knocked out, which is no sure bet–I can’t place at least two of them, for instance. With Breakpoint beaten, that’s going to leave four of them still active…including Jabbers, who is kind of busy at the moment. In short, Breakpoint is, conceivably, the last of the bad guys–any further cameos will have to wait. And yes, I know Hex is still alive and kicking…but she’s some distance away, and tangled up in a tree.
Third: you would expect the bad guys to break and run at some point–they’re bad guys, after all, and thus, they can’t trust each other to back them up. They haven’t. You’re going to have to explain why not, among other things. You’ve left a LOT of unanswered questions, and while, yes, you can use this as a starting point for a bigger story arc, you’ve still got to answer them.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Dave, once you finish the fight, I’d suggest taking a week (or possibly two) of filler, and planning out the next three months, in detail. Look at other comics, look at comic critiques, and get some idea of what works, and what doesn’t. Get some idea of what you’ve said about each of the characters in this fight, and then figure out how to work that into the larger story. You may find yourself having to run two separate storylines. Don’t be afraid to do so–it may reduce the strain on each one considerably, so long as they continue to mesh.
You’re starting to get out beyond what you’ve planned out, and it’s really starting to show. My advice is to fix that. You can’t really afford not to.
Some fair points. This is my first big fight after all so it probably won’t go down in comic history as the best way to do a big battle royale, but I’ve taken into account some of the things you bring up, unfortunately I can’t point out which ones without risking spoiling stuff prematurely. Hopefully by the end of the fight everything that’s gone on so far will be satisfactory. As far teammates stealing Sydney’s thunder, that’s largely happening because I’m trying to keep the writing consistent. Sydney’s not supposed to be savaging anyone quite yet. Even this page where she’s smacking the guy into the ground is more than she ought to be doing. She’s on the team but she’s still a recruit. She doesn’t even have a badge yet.
I’m continuing to edit the upcoming pages though, and I do try and read all the comments still, so I’m amenable to suggestions. The end of the fight is pretty much set but there’s still a few pages before then. :)
No, Sydney getting her thunder stolen is no problem–you’re still in introductory stages of the comic, after all. You’ve already introduced Sydney, the world she’s in, and the organization she has just joined. Now, with the demonstration and the fight, you’re selecting which of the people we’ve met are going to be main characters, and which are going to be supporting characters. Using a battle royale is a novel but by no means ineffective method of doing so, but the point remains, regardless–Sydney should NOT be stealing the limelight, even if she were at Max’s level. Doing so would mean that Sydney effectively sets this up as a standard superhero comic, which you have stated you wish to avoid. The catch is that you’ve got to remember two things: 1) that planning REALLY pays off (Dabbler, for instance, is going to require some very tricky handling from here on out), and 2) most characters you come up with will start to take on lives of their own.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the way you’ve set this up, you’ve got room in-universe for multiple comics if this one pans out financially. If you can make those, you should probably start planning out something like your future methodology now, while you’ve got a little bit of time to do so.
I try to make my characters with enough personality that they would do their own solo title, or at least a few limited miniseries, but I especially think that an Arc-LIGHT spinoff would be interesting as it would be sufficiently different from the main comic while remaining heavily tied in. It’d be like X-Files/Fringe meets Hellboy’s BPRD.
I think you are doing an excellent job. IMO you should only ever use avoid character development on the most generically disposable characters. You aren’t building a team of mooks around Sydney, you are building a team of unique individuals with their own strengths and weaknesses. You aren’t facing them against mindless automatons. You are facing them against people with different reason for doing what they do despite any manipulation or influence going on behind the scenes. Some of my favorite writing has me feeling as much for the minor characters and antagonists as I do the main and supporting characters. That is what I see here. There may be more conventional and/or efficient ways of doing the job but what I see is plenty effective. Don’t be afraid to either stay your course and/or experiment in other other story telling techniques but always keep your characters interesting.
Agreed. I won’t say that Dave has the best writing ever. In some cases, he is in need of full jar of polish, as evidenced by “The day that never ended.” But the fact that it’s still incredibly fun to read, and all of his characters are not just slight retreads of other characters, heroes and villains included, means that he’s doing so much right that I can’t complain much about it. I for one think that he should keep doing things his way, either staying the course or switching it up with another new method of his own design. That’s why his comic is good: because of his approach.
What do you mean by ‘on another team’? The only reason she wasn’t at the Dinner Party was because she had prior familial obligations, Jiggs is part of ArcSWAT, the same team Halo is going to officially be part of when this Longest Day finishes (and personally, speaking from a tiny minority, would be quite happy if this day continues for another 10 years)
Twenty years works. :-)
Dave is doing a great job, building characters and setting up a huge story world. Dave I love the way you tell this and put it all together.
I mean in a huge fight like this there is going to be fighting in the background and on the sides and even in front of what is being shown (though that would be behind the “camera”). The entire ARC Swat team is going to be featured in the comic so of course Jiggs gets her time as well. I am sure eventually all the other members will get their turn as well.
You have a lot of fans who love the way you are telling this story. Don’t worry too much about the ones who are just jealous that you can do something they don’t seem able to even follow.
Based upon the quality of comic book writing now, as compared to the 70’s and even the 80’s…when there were actual stories in single issues……
THIS comic surpasses current comic book writing.
The ONLY thing keeping Marvel afloat are the movies.
Although, technically, not all those Movies are Marvel Movies, that’s why Spidey will never join The Avengers on the big screen
Then why come here. Go back to your Archie comic books and stay.
Psst… don’t feed the trolls they live on hate. Indifference weakens them so ignore them and they go away.
Come to the shadowy side we have bacon.
And cupcakes!
Best of both worlds: baconcakes!!
Num, num. https://www.cookinandkickin.com/2012/02/bacon-strip-pancakes.html
If an alien spaceship lands, and asks me to explain what Americans are about, I will just point them to that web page.
I prefer sausages with my pancakes because then you can dip the sausages in the maple syrup. Yummm!
@Opus:
That’s all well & good, but can it stand up to the “ULTIMATE” breakfast-food:
[https://groovykinda.org/comic/the-waffle-truth]
…we’ll just have to see.
:P
:)
Thick-cut Maple Smoked?
We have a smorgasboard of bacon , all types.
NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!!!!
I’ll have a plate of bacon, with a side of bacon, smothered in bacon. YUM!
My question is sort of off-topic from the comic & related to the relationship between your avatar & your username: Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it true that Richard (your avatar) has never needed (Dr.) Revenge as a motive to cause some havoc? (For Pony!) Granted, he never turned down a revenge motive, but he’s never *needed* it…
Actually, “For Pony!” is his motive (if you read the last couple updates)
Your point is quite correct, BUT a supers name does not need to reflect on their powers or mindset.
Besides I like the picture.
Agreed
I can beat a troll, but it has to be real time chat not like this. You can overfeed a troll and cause them to reveal a weakness then apply that until it stops being fun for them. They will leave at that point. However, I do not want to resort to that here and I’m sure no one wants me to.
I can beat a troll- but it has to be in person, with the troll tied down, and me with access to a nerf bat!
I was always one more for cricket by my lil sister suggested pool noodles for eithe flogging or used in more “creative” ways.
In person, an ice cream scoop works wonders.
Well for real bloody-mindedness there is in most forums a Ban-Hammer. But that’s a temporary solution and often gives the troll to much credit.
“Ice-Cream Scoop”…?
Too big – I prefer melon-ballers…
…they’re just about the same size as the adult human eyeball, you see…
I’ve seen something that might work better. It’s a small scoop-like utensil designed to remove that little leaf-top core from the top of a tomato. Best feature: The edges of the scoop have serrated teeth.
…I prefer using an aluminum bat. Since trolls are so full of crap, it takes that little extra *punch* to pound some actual reason or logic into them…
So you can defeat a troll by yourself becoming a troll? Seems counterproductive somehow in the grander scheme of battling the horde.
To defeat the enemy sometimes you must become the enemy. I was a troll for a while just cause I liked hassling people. Because of this, I can put on the gloves and troll back so other people don’t have to get their hands dirty. Besides, I only do it when the chat rooms I go to need someone to give the other chatters some peace, and entertainment.
As an occasional troll…no, we don’t get bored by indifference. The good ones get increasingly contemptuous, because silence equals assent (and a lot of trolls WANT to be proven wrong), and the bad ones just get mean.
Me, I try to be a good troll. That means that I try to limit my epistles (I am a bit wordy) to that which is pertinent, and hope for a civilized rebuttal, because that way, I can learn something. Occasionally, I’ll even admit to being wrong, because I clearly am. I could care less whether I am popular, because I’ve lived a large chunk of my life being too mentally and/or emotionally isolated to be popular–basically, I’m doing this to try to understand people better, because I didn’t really get a chance to while growing up. I haunt this forum in particular because y’all are thought-provoking, and intelligent, and well-read, and I learn a great deal from you guys. As such, I have no problems with defending my territory against evil trolls who just want to feel important.
But don’t imagine, even for a second, that I don’t understand exactly what goes through the minds of those other trolls, who breeze in, act rude and/or arrogant, and then breeze out. Good or bad, I understand what they’re thinking, because I’ve been that, and, to an extent, still am. You want to get rid of a troll, you’ve got to effectively silence them–either by banning their account, or by burying their posts where nobody can find them.
I am sure you are right. There will be some trolls who are too far removed from society, and wrapped up too deeply in twisted troll counter-culture to be redeemed. But the longer we can put off eventually having to ban someone, the better I feel.
Especially as it would have to be DaveB doing it, and he is clearly a really nice guy. I would hate to see him being backed into a position where that was the only course of action.
Like your post indicates, there are folks who are just doing it to let off steam. Many of whom are decent folk in everyday life, who just like the anonymity of the internet, in order to take out their frustrations on strangers.*
Constructive criticism is welcome. Even posts deliberately set in tone to be controversial, can lead to interesting replies. So are not all bad. Although ones that are outright rude, clearly just for the sake of it, are indeed best left ignored. Under the “don’t feed the trolls” maxim.
But, where there is a possibility of drawing a troll from the darkness, by showing that the same buzz can be obtained by fighting for a genuine point, rather than a spurious one, there is the hope of bringing an extra member into the community.
The more skillful trolls are clever folks, know how to bait a question, that is interesting enough to provoke a reply, without triggering peoples’ “don’t feed the troll defences”. Provided they do that in a way which is not disrespectful of the artist/writer, or just generally rude, that can actually make the community that much richer and more vibrant.
So troll or not, what I look for is does this person harm the community, more than help it? Can they be redeemed? I think the effort is worth it. If we can build an environment, where trolls gradually realise they are having more fun hanging with friends, than they get baiting strangers, then we are making the world a bit better.
* An interesting exception, that does not necessarily fit into either of the broad stereotypes I mention above, was this article. Reading between the lines, it is entirely possible that the troll was the president of a nation!
Without being interested enough to check out his politics and likely character, I can only speculate. Assuming that it really was from the top man though, is he just a normal person, risen to a position of power, who wants to get his daily frustrations out, in an anonymous way?
In America, a politician would probably turn to a therapist for this. Or beat his wife and kids, depending on his character. But, in the internet age, I can see folks from all walks of life, high and low, going the same route as this. Some good, some bad. Most just middle of the road. Living life and getting frustrated.
Of course, given the fairly recent history in Rwanda, it could just be that, whoever the troll was, he may just be the ultimate incarnation you can find of a truly irredeemable troll. Someone who’s frustrations merely stemmed from delays on, very real, plans for genocide.
Two things (three, actually, but who’s counting, right?). First of all, you have to remember, most trolls don’t think about it in terms of “being drawn into the light.” They see it at least in part as an effort to bring YOU into the light, as they understand it. That’s the truly odd thing about trolls–most of them, even when being rude, seem to mean fairly well–and I’m not just talking about the ones I’ve met, personally, but also about the ones I’ve encountered on other forums. So if you want to shut them down, you don’t have to do anything like ban them–a lot of times, just being able to see their point of view, and then explaining why you think it to be incorrect will relieve a lot of the pressure they feel to convert you to their way of thinking. If LOTS of people do it, even if there are a lot who disagree (that is, side with the troll, or take a whole different approach) most trolls will either leave, or stick around in a much nicer persona. Better yet if there’s a large, well-informed discussion on the subject.
But the key is to be POLITE. Ignore the bad language, spelling, etc. If they’re trolling in short posts, ask for an expansion on the subject…and understand, if their expansions consistently use the same language, that it is probably a failing on their part. Otherwise, address their points in cogent, well-thought-out terms, and admit when you’re not really sure of the answers.
It is my experience, as a troll myself, mind you, that if a troll is just looking to produce a reaction, responding in a civil manner, as befits anybody civilized, will generally drive them away as being not worth the effort. If they’re a more benign form of troll, who simply likes to throw out thoughts and comments to stir people out of complacency, then they’ll generally moderate their language (if not their spelling) as they get drawn into the discussion.
Trolls tend to fall into two categories: people who are being assholes (for whatever reason), and people who are simply arrogant. I fall into the latter category, generally–I know I’m smart, and well-educated, and I like to study people almost obsessively, which gives me a surprisingly good amount of insight into their motivations. Unlike most trolls I’ve run into, I tend to pay attention to my own shortcomings, but this does not reduce my arrogance one bit. Assholes look for the biggest reaction, for the least effort. Comments like “do not feed the trolls” is one form of that reaction, and lets them know they’re being noticed, and just haven’t found the right combination of buttons to push to get a nice “boom.” People who are arrogant tend to think they’ve got some kind of superior handle on the truth, and can’t imagine that other people wouldn’t want to have it too. This latter kind, if simply rejected with a “don’t feed the trolls,” tend to get a little peeved–as they see it, they’re taking time out of a busy day to help the peons out.
If you want to make a troll move on, you’ve got two or three options: 1) add so many new posts, threads, and so on that their original post or thread just disappears, 2) delete and/or ban, or 3) show him that the people on the forum he’s trolled are too intelligent for him (or her) to handle. Any of these will work. Telling your fellow forum-goers to ignore the troll won’t–that’s exactly kind of reaction a troll needs to tell them just how close they got to hitting a big forum-wide hot-button.
Oh yeah…and one thing I should mention. Simple silence does imply assent, as you didn’t bother to deny the troll’s post. Or, at the very least, it implies that you are not sure enough in your own thoughts to try to counter the troll’s postings. Neither is a good image to present to the troll.
Ok, here I shall have to respectfully disagree with one’s definition of “Troll”. One who keeps his posts at least somewhat relevant to the conversation, exhibits a modicum of civility, and (when such occurs) respects intelligent debate is NOT a Troll.
I consider a Troll to be someone who goes out of their way to cause trouble,brings nothing applicable to the discussion, hurls insults, and generally cannot respect even the bare minimum of polite conversation. (Not to be confused with someone who is usually respectful losing their temper on occasion, or one who may inject a joke to diffuse a tense conversation/debate )
Yes, but I can do that without being rude, crude, or massively unpleasant. All it takes is finding the right hot-buttons, and then pushing them the right way. Trolls don’t have to be mean to get their point across–but many are, because that makes people react better.
So you are a Provocateur.
Silence does NOT equal assent. It means “ignoring the ignorant.”
Heh! “Eat street.”
Ironically enough, Sydney’s in a prime situation to start making road pizza out of that dude.
The pain threshold of human hearing lies at about 130 decibels, so 194 would pretty much destroy your hearing. Someone take her out quick! Jiggawatt needs more screen time than this!
Too late: at 194 she is already deaf. Then again, supers of any stripe never seem to go deaf when big explosions go off next to them or when they stop moving faster than sound and get hit by their shockwaves, so maybe all supers just have amazing ear drums.
I doubt that some that stands at the origin of thunder alot,has normal human hearing limits.
I was just rereading DaveB’s commentary about Breakpoint. Her designer noted the 194 Db limit but it’s not mentioned if Breakpoint can reach it or is using her power at that level now. if she can, I have no doubt she is firing a max power attack.
Actually, Breakpoint’s maximum dB generation- at least, sustained generation- is around 180 dB, but she rarely uses that. For reference, 30 dB is about the volume of a whisper in a library; 180 dB is the level where exposed tissue dies. Personally, I doubt that Breakpoint is actually hitting that level- she’s a little too smart to be killing cops and, besides, while she is sort of ambiguous, she’s not really psychotic…
180 db exists under normal atmosphere? I didn’t know that.
I’m pretty sure that the actual 194db is unreachable under 1 atmosphere, as vacuum (0 pressure) is of course not a fluid, so when you approach lower pressures, things stop working as expected. Imagine you have are pushing against the side of a ball bit to create waves in the balls. As you approach zero pressure the behaviour start to change to pushing against the side of a ball pit with only a few balls in it. There is nothing to effectively push.
Of course it is pretty easy to work around this problem. Just double the air pressure locally and you can transfer far more powerful sound waves. That’s not too much of a stretch for super powers.
If you ignore the fact that it is probably unreachable under atmospheric circumstance, the maximum sound level of 194db is equivalent to the sound you would hear when standing 50m away from over 2,000,000 jet fighter engines at full power.
This part was not supposed to be quoted:
You may have missed the part where Breakpoint tried to blindside Jiggawatt with a parking lot bumper. Had it hit it could have easily killed Jiggawatt, so Breakpoint is going down for attempted murder no matter how gentle she decides to be with her sound shockwave.
Also, once Breakpoint is incarcerated she can change her name to Permanent Record, Dangerous Liaisons, or Poetic Justice. :-D
I continue to fail with the blockquote tag…
Didn’t miss it- but there’s a world of difference between attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, manslaughter, and actual murder.
I’ll add that, given that Jiggs was capable of responding to the thrown barricade, it implies fairly slow velocity (likely, given Breakpoint’s actual strength levels) and/or superhuman reflexes on Jiggawatt’s part. Given that, it might be difficult to make an attempted murder charge stick (she’d still get charged, but probably not convicted).
Many cops wear a vest, if you shoot one in the chest, it’s still attempted murder. You can’t prove you knew that someone would survive deadly force, so it was still attempted murder.”I knew she could block it, unless she didn’t.” is not an advisable defense position.
I forgot to add that the big difference between assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder is preparation. If you purposefully go someplace with the plan to attack with a deadly weapon, which I think is evident in this steak house raid. You are going with the intent to kill.
I never said that she wouldn’t be charged; I said it might be difficult to make the charge stick. That’d more depend on the lawyers and the DA, frankly. Granted, given Breakpoint’s monetary situation, she’d probably get stuck with a public defender, but that isn’t necessarily the same as incompetent, despite what TV likes to tell you.
For the basic usage, open up with your preamble chat here. Then insert the opening tag.
<blockquote>Type your text to be quoted in between the opening tag and the closing tag. Note that no spaces should be put between the tags and the text. The most common cause of problems is to forget to type a “/” after the “<” in the closing tag. This results in all the subsequent text being included in the quote. The closing tag should look as follows</blockquote>
Then follow with any further comments you want to make. I deliberately spaced out the preamble text and the follow up text, with a couple of line breaks, to make it more readable.
That is not necessary though, so I normally run the opening text straight up to the opening tag, with no space.<blockquote>”Although optional, I tend to also add quotation marks, like I have done in this example”</blockquote>Obviously I have forced the text to display the way it has, rather than using them as tags. But converting this final paragraph into regular text, so the tags will work comes out as follows:
That is not necessary though, so I normally run the opening text straight up to the opening tag, with no space.
Obviously I have forced the text to display the way it has, rather than using them as tags. But converting this final paragraph into regular text, so the tags will work comes out as *crosses claws* I hope it just did.
Yeah, I thought that was what I did, but obviously I typoed it or in some other way screwed it up. I’ve managed to make it work in the past, so I know it is possible. :)
Now we get the hard cases. Jiggawatt is not out but she’s deaf for the moment. Someone better back her up, fast.
Only those with defense powers can help her, such as Halo, Maxima, and Achilles (Dabbler’s shield is too small). Better hope Maxima gets un-busy or Halo runs fast.
And it’s Scovile for thesave.
Sound is basiclly vibrating the atmosphere quickly. So her power could be telakeneticly based.
there was a guy who wrote a book on the X-men’s powers and he concluded that for the most part they could be explained as examples of psionic manipulation at the molecular or atomic level, either as the Main or Secondary.
Which basically means: “their powers work by moving stuff with willpower; mind over matter style”. Which explains nothing really; just gives it all a single label.
This was like 15 years ago and it was all Physics-ly so I don’t remember too well.
I have done a whole thought process on how Psychokinesis (telekinesis) can be used to replicate a variety of other powers, i.e. Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, Electrokinesis (most of what Jiggawatt does falls under this umbrella), and Sonokinesis (what Breakpoint here is doing). Sonokinesis is the easiest as sound is nothing more than a wave or series of waves of pressure and displacement. For a single sonic boom, a single high density pressure wave can be sent toward your target or generated at a given point for a radial burst. For sustained sound, simply “grab” a section of air(or an object if you can’t grab a gas very well, GM’s discretion and all that) and start shaking it (a simplified way of describing the stunt but you get the jist), the sound generated will vary in pitch and volume based on how fast and how hard you shake respectively. This trick can also be used to generate voices, music, or other sounds beyond a simple drone or hum with enough practice, skill, and study. Yes study, all of these things require a knowledge of sound mechanics beyond “it’s a wave” got to get into that theory of sound, musical theory training or sound tech training can give you the needed knowledge, I have both, which is where this whole idea for expanding Psychokinesis started. Now that I think about it, sufficient training and skill combined with the right knowledge, I might be able to work out how to generate, shape and control light with Psychokinesis, It’s all transfer/conversion of energy through matter, light is energy, great now I have another RP theory project to add to my plate.
He he. You know you love it when your plate is full of yummy ultratech.
How does jiggawat’s clothes and/or earpiece stay with her after she turns into lightning?
superpowers
See secondary powers trope at TV Tropes. One of those minor things that are just there to keep from bogging down the character with too much detail. Never actually useful beyond their primary purpose. If a character like JW was created for a game and wanted to carry a load while in lightning form the player would have to spend points on upping her Teleport power from the basic.
Yep. It is assumed in most superhero fiction, unless the authors have a specific desire to force the hero to deal with a disadvantage, that all the little things necessary to make their primary power not kill or embarrass themselves or the people they’re trying to help just work as a subset of their main power. This reduces the complications of something that’s described in drawings only, and also avoids having to be classified as adult content because the hero/heroine is naked in every fight. Similarly, the fire-based hero doesn’t melt his own flesh off and the brick can catch the falling girl without the sudden impact at high velocity turning her innards to mush. Physics don’t apply to anything the superhero interacts with through their powers unless it’s plot-convenient for them to apply.
Super heroes are just some kind of highly specialized wizard whose power follow a theme, most of the time.
With a side order of boobs that never sag (not limited to females as seen in this comic… no way this is a woman…), no wrinkles, clothing adapts or reappears after destructive transformations (part of many old enough hulk stuff for instance), immunity to have their ear drums destroyed, not marking the ground under them when throwing super-super heavy stuff, immunity to centrifuge force as convenient, , and if they were to bathe in toxic waste they’d just get cool new powers and not sterility and a rash… thats just for starters, TVtropes have the full list.
Any sufficiently advanced magic OR technology OR combo is undistinguishable from super powers.
The “it’s super powers” is sufficient. But, even if you look at it in more detail, there is no reason why, if she can turn herself into lightning, that she cannot also turn her clothes into it too. There is nothing intrinsically different between, say her hair, and her clothes.
Whilst the roots of the hair are alive, the rest of it is just a strand of non-living organic compound. If her power only worked on living things, then she should arrive bald and naked. So Jiggawatt actually has power over electricity and matter.
But, for the purposes of keeping the story focussed on the part that is most entertaining, I imagine that she will find some restriction on her manipulation of matter. Perhaps it is something subconscious that she only has limited control over.
Or she is already near the limits of her power, regarding transformation, and experimentation will show that she can get much more return on practising her electrical powers, and developing stunts for those, than exploring the matter conversion process.
Unless DaveB finds that angle interesting. Which, of course, is one of the fun things about this comic. It can go in unexpected directions. We can make our guesses, but they need not be accurate ones.
The pranic sheath, sometimes called the Kirlian aura, extends beyond the epidermis, which allows the morphic resonance field to encompass jewelry and tight clothes endowing them with sufficient unstable molecule phlenbotinium to generate obfuscating technobabble and…
…
A wizard did it? It’s super powers, m’kay!
Thanks for the in-depth answers.
zomg that’t totally hex behind the bush in the 2nd to last panel!
Yep. Hard to tell if she planning an attack or just trying to keep a low profile. The BBs aren’t helping her Stealth rolls.
To me it looks like she is executing a tactical retreat.
1 stand up villain is worth 2 hiding in a bush.
[ insert Cheney joke here]
NOT THE FACE!
Well he did hide behind 2 Bushes.
Next page:
Halo: Where do you think you are going? [ Uses Lighthook to pick up Hex around the belly and pull her over to Halo ]
Hex: I surrender! I give up! Please don’t hurt me. I don’t know anything about the attack. I was just passing through. …
Halo: Oh, okay. How does that go again? Oh, yeah. You have the right to remain silent. I recommend you exercise that right at this point. Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and to have, uh, something. Badger’s Butt! I forgot the rest. So much for all those cop shows I watched as a teenager. Um, what are those?
Hex: Oh, those are my Buster Buddies™. I built them. What are those?
We know where this is going.
Except if Sydney really did watch a bunch of cop shows as a kid, she’d have the Miranda rights down pat.
After all, this is a fangirl we’re talking about. If she can tell you the weight of the Enterprise ‘A’ through D, which is probably never mentioned in a single episode of any one of the Star Trek franchise serials, then she’s not going to forget the most repeated phrase in all those cop shows.
Then again, it’s probably a good thing that Maxima recruited Sydney instead of the villains. Otherwise, if she was arrested, the cops would probably be begging her to exercise her right to remain silent.
Queue up all those shows where the cop makes the collar and begins the Mirandizing with:
“You have the right to remain silent. So shut up!“
She’s obviously hiding from the squirrel.
Thought it was her, her or maybe some cameras or a couple cop cars
The cameras are across the street. And no doubt getting some gratuitous buttage of Hex as she crouches there.
ROFL. Hex totally made her sneak roll vs me. Damned impressive, considering she has six glowing Blinky Buddies (TM) following above her!
I really hope she gets away. She is the only villain smart enough to realise, in time to do anything about it, that this fight is not going well. It will be even better if she, like Super Construction Worker, realises that she is not cut out for a life of crime. Not with Maxima out there, anyhow.
Well, being hammered by Maxime probably qualifies to be a thorough wake-up call – if it doesn’t knock her out that is.
Between Maxima and Mega-Squirrel, I think she’s had enough for the night.
Either she made her Sneak roll or you missed your Observation roll. Good thing someone pointed that out, because it gave you a chance to re-roll.
With all the grunting Breakpoint is doing, those barriers must be near her strength limit. Or she’s really putting some muscle into throwing them. Or she plays tennis a lot.
Good thing (for her) they aren’t bolted down like most are today.
It may have been. We have seen this character throwing around these things since the first second of The Super-Fight at the Steakhouse Car-Park. Breakpoint has probably used super strength or sonic attacks to prepare a few, for opportunity attacks.
If you look at the one that Jiggs sliced in twain (nice use of her powers there), you can see the holes on the bottoms where they had had prefiously been anchored to the ground, and in the 3nd to last panel Breakout Sister is ‘grind’ing that barrier before kicking it up (either that is a sign of her strength, or she can cause sound to emit from other parts of her body not normally associated to sound-generating, and people were concerned about standing behind Jiggs when she farted…)
Breakpoint has pretty low-level super strength, actually- snapping the bolts holding those barriers down probably is pretty close to her max (and also the reason she has to move them laterally before picking them up)…
And, yes, as Dave noted- Breakpoint can generate sound from pretty much any part of her body.
She could be lots of fun at parties. Also wonder if that happens when she’s getting “Biz-ay”?
house (and eardrums) explodes?
from any part of her body
I think the implication was more along the lines of “penis explodes.”
On the other hand, she gives the best hummers! **Rim shot** That’s right, folks! I’ll be here all week!
You should commit penance for that. Although, given the strange things people sometimes attribute their actions to, perhaps I am better in specifying the ultimate punishment:
A one hour ban on internet access! But even I could not suggest such a cruel and unusual punishment for a fellow Grrl Power reader.
I suffer a 6-8 hour lack of internet access every day. When I am asleep. I don’t miss it though, I write, direct, and occasionally star in my own movies during that time.
Or instructional “Use that tongue where the sound is and follow it”. You just know she’ll want to lead the “dance”.
A super tends to use his or her super powers over normal ones, and the one they are famous for and most proud of ( the strongest ? ) usually the most often – if they don’t go for the step-by-step level+challenge up approach.
This would suggest that for Breakpoint swinging objects probably means that she needs those to supplement her powers, which I take to mean that she can cause more damage by throwing things than through only sound based attacks.
Her sound attacks may lose power rapidly at range. Thrown chunks of concrete that reach a distant target hurt said target. She may also find it handy to toss stones and sonic blast the thrown item –becoming more of a shotgun blast. They also tend to be a sneaky way to introduce an attack when the enemy knows the sonic user is there and is expecting the announcement of powers active –toss like a boss!
That… that’s a nifty idea. Given her ability to intuit resonant freguencies, that could be potentially devastating. I gonna have to use that…
Nice, I never seen a travestite supervillain with actual kickass powers before.
P.S.: if it is a transexual and not a travestite, I am sorry for the mistake.
Don’t know where you are getting either from, other than the fact she has muscles (better stay away from Shelly over in Wapsi Square, she has bigger muscles and a smaller bust than Breakout Sister)
To be fair, Breakpoint does have somewhat masculine facial features (mainly the jawline) and broad shoulders. But I wouldn’t automatically assume she’s a transvestite or transgendered person. Some women look a little masculine, some men look a little feminine.
Yea. Females with well-developed muscles, in particular, will heighten any other hint of masculine features. Culturally, most of us do not expect to see muscular women.* So, subconsciously or not, our brains will be looking for any subtle clues that they may be male and seizing upon them.
Even in a world with idealised hero figures, this will happen, when their assets are not put in the shop window, by not wearing traditional comic-book garb. But she is dressed for a fight, not to go out clubbing. Err, or maybe she is intending some clubbing. Just probably not the dancing kind.
* Obviously I am not including fans of female body-building here, but just general society
Scene from my childhood:
“Feel free to splash about as much as you want !” she says and gives me back the paddle and just passed her.
“Are you not into water, or just not into fun today?” I ask.
“Nah, it’s just wouldn’t look nice with muscles, so I can’t risk getting some.” she answers the baffled me.
The screenshot I was given for Breakpoint looks like it came from Poser or a similar program, and she’s hugely muscular in it. I met Avery at A-kon and asked him about that and he said she’s not supposed to be quite that big, so my drawing is a softening of that version. I admit I do tend to put strong jaws on everyone and sometimes that can look a bit masculine. I’ll need to work on that. Maxima will always have a jaw you can split logs on though.
To be fair she could carve a mountain with her fingernail.;)
Personally, don’t see anything wrong with Breakout Sister, muscular sure, but nothing ‘masculine’
It’s her shark-like grin that I noticed.
FYI, there are pointers that can identify a male vs female skull. A male skull has a flatter forehead, more pronounced ridges over the eyes, a wider nasal opening, and the lower jaw is both taller and wider at the chin. A female skull has a rounder forehead/cranium transition, no or reduced ridges, a smaller nose, and the smaller chin tends to be more pointy than square. The character design looks like it fits in the female range. However, the grin that goes all the way back to her wisdom teeth looks kinda creepy to me. I guess it makes it easier for her dentist to do her annual teeth cleaning.
Women also tend to have more prominent cheekbones. That said, there is a huge amount of individual variation, especially if a woman has abused anabolic steroids; expect all sorts of masculine features then.
Also a tendency towards big mouths (smiles that show ALL of the teeth) and thighs that are proportionally longer than physiologically normal. This is not criticism, this is commentary. Doesn’t bother me, up to DaveB if he wants to work on it.
The jaw in panel 4 does look a bit off, but other than that, I see no problems here.
Keep up the good work.
Heh. Actually, a transvestite is a man who wears women’s clothes (not sure if there’s any way in modern society for it to work in reverse). A transsexual is a person who swapped bits with the gender they weren’t assigned at birth. Breakpoint is neither. My original concept was of a Hispanic supervillainess who looked a little like Carmen Ortega, but that kind of changed as different artists futzed with her.
For the record, I like what Dave’s done with her- especially the way she’s wearing her hair…
Interesting seeing what is presumably the reference photo, that Dave mentioned. In light of your conversation at A-kon, which he referenced, in his reply above. Nice to see a bit of the evolution of the character. Looking forward to seeing what may come next.
Although I quickly averted my eyes, when I saw there was a character description below it. I imagine it will not be an exact match to how she gets implemented here, but felt it safer to avoid any possible spoilers. Just in case.
Probably not, and Dave already has my full permission to use her however he likes. That said, I fully encourage anybody and everybody to read the character bio, the short story I put her in, and to give me any comments, encouragement, advice, what-have-you that tickles your fancy.
The funniest bit is that in panel six, when Jiggawatt quips about Breakpoint hating sharp pencils, it looks like she’s holding a giant #2 pencil.
And guess where she plans on putting it to get a point :P
In the show South Park there was a episode with something called the Brown note. If sh could tune her powers to that note, she would be the most feared and hated supervillian or superhero around.
I think (THINK) Mythbusters busted the Brown Note myth.
This is another universe where little things like magic, demons, aliens, and superpowers exist. Do you think a little but very funny thing like the Brown note couldn’t fit it’s way in to the fabric of this universe?
It certainly could. The question we need to ask is; SHOULD it? And I’m definitely torn about that. I guess it is up to the Creator.
If it’s up for a vote, mine would be a solid ‘NO!’ Not unless Breakpoint dies quickly and there are no other sonic powered superheroes, ever.
I would not find a comic where the participants in a superhero v. supervillain fight often shat themselves amusing.
Then you wouldn’t want to read the comic “Jesus Christ; In the Name of the Gun.” Let’s just say that Jesus’ power of resurrection was linked to an…uh…unfortunately embarrassing side-effect. The comic story is completed & came to an end, but you could still find it easily enough (Hint: https://jesuschriststory.com/ ).
Found and interesting chart about sound waves about 194db … at which point they become shock waves.
https://www.makeitlouder.com/Decibel%20Level%20Chart.txt
Hope that link works
It a long read … but interesting nonetheless
ugh … I should know better than posting before I’ve had my morning coffee …
* about should be … above ….
Nice chart, thanks.
Oh cool chart. Now I’ve got something else to read up on, difference between a shockwave and a soundwave.
Original animated Soundwave was one of the coolest Decepticons (vastly superior to the Bay-bomination)
Wasn’t ‘Shockwave’ one of the planes? You had Starscream and Thundercracker, fairly sure the third one was ‘Shockwave’
No. Shockwave was this guy. he could transform into a gun.
Oh right, he was one of the ones who remained on Cybertron, wasn’t he?
Going to have to watch the original shows again (have 2 sets of the series, plus 2 versions of the movie, plus the Beast Wars and a couple of the Japanese series, not watching the crap that came later)
TF:Prime was pretty good.
Artistically? Maybe. Storywise? Choke me with a brony but it sucked (that was the one where the big buff {can robots be ‘buff’?} Decepticons ran scared from a tween girl, wasn’t it?)
I think that was TF:Animated. Although Meiko DID steal the “Invincible” Apex Armor which made Starscream of all people equal to Megatron.
I’m not saying TF:P was the best of the lot, but it wasn’t the worst. That was TF:A
Neah, Shockwave was Megatron’s scary one-eyed science guy, who also turned into a gun. (A big purple laser gun, but still a gun.) He’s in the newer Transformers: Prime series too, and is a scary science robot, and second in command whenever he’s around. Usually gets left behind on Cybertron. Possibly because he scares the other Decepticons more than Megatron does.
Have seen a couple episodes of TF:Prime, and refuse to watch anymore on the grounds that it is utter bullsnozzle
Shockwave’s only Master is SCIENCE, Megatron just let him do whatever experiments he wanted on WHOEVER he wanted, without all those pesky laws against Sentient Experimentation.
From the chart (in decibels):
213 (N) SONIC BOOM GENERATES APPROXIMATELY 1.2 GIGAWATTS
Very cool- this is very similar to the chart I used when I made the character. I think yours is more recent, though. Looks like I may have to update her bio page…
One important value was missing from the table.
When sound pressure level is 185+ dB, lung cells begin to rupture. Damaged cells can not exchange gases, and bleeding from damaged areas will coat the still functional areas. This will lead to death by suffocation. The first symptom is that the patient is coughing up foamy blood.
When a main battle tank is firing its main gun, the sound pressure level alone causes ~150 m long danger area in front of the gun.
Hey, is Concretia still a thing? I kinda feel like she shouldn’t be counted amongst the mooks. She admitted herself that she was overzealous, which cost her, but I kinda want her to still be a threat in the fight.
She is tough smart and impossible to stop without some really creative planning. I think we will see Concretia in the finals. She just has to find a place to pull herself together out of Peggy’s gunsight. Like the brand new ruins Hex just made full of brick and concrete in bite size pieces.
I beg to differ. She’s been stopped twice, without ever landing one punch. She should quit. Also, I think she has to form a body out of one chunk, or she’d just pick up the missing pieces of her previous two bodies and meld back together.
Since she had to abandon the first body when she lost parts of two fingers, I’m guessing that any damage to the host material, means she can no longer animate it. Fastest way to stop her is to break off a pinky.
I think it only comes down to motivation, for her. If she has a strong reason for being here, there is no reason why she should not hang around as long as she wants to. She is at very little risk, from any kind of traditional attack. Unless one of the heroes has a Ghostbusters-style ghost trap, or some spell with a similar effect, it will take clever improvisation to contain her.
All she need do is turn incorporeal and slide away through the ground, if things do go badly. Or form a tiny body and sneak off down a drain.
On the other paw, her boss has yet to show his(/her) hand yet. Should he do so, and keep Maxima busy, Concretia could form a colossal body and go on a King-Kong style rampage. And, if that body gets stopped, she may consider it is time to make a strategic withdrawal.
Either way though, it is not a high-risk strategy for her. Unless she was only here on a whim. But, she is already looking at serious prison-time anyhow. So, perhaps, taking down Archon might seem like her only viable route out now?
I have to correct you, sorry. Concretia knocked down Mr. Amorphous and punched Achilles through the hole in the roof. Not serious damage admittedly, but she was building up a head of steam when Math kicked her out.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1303
to be fair we haven’t seen how much damage her first body took. She might be able to animate a damaged body, but it might be more difficult so why would you pilot a damaged body when you’d standing on a large source of material to create new ones.
+1
I wonder if she needs a solid cohesive section, or if she can pull together shattered pieces. If Concretia jumps into the restaurant, er, rubble pile, will she be spending most of her concentration on just holding herself together? Any little distraction and she starts shedding pieces?
Hmm, there you go. Breakpoint tries to nail somebody on team ArcSwat with a sound attack and nails Concretia instead; because she is made of solid, stiff material, she shatters when hit by the sound waves.
Breakpoint: Time to pop that bubble! [ Sonic attack at Halo ]
Sydney: Eek! [ Notices that the force field is holding and is actually bouncing the sound in another direction. ] Yes! [ Starts weird dance ] Can’t touch this!
Concretia: Four arms are not going to help if don’t notice the two-arm pummel. [ Starts sneaking up on Dabbler, when she gets nailed by a column of sound bouncing off Halo’s force field. Concretia just goes to pieces. ] Arg!
I too believe she needs a chunk of something that is whole in order to become her body in order to have control over every bit of it.
I also think that she can’t remain in control of parts that have come loose.
And while she might be able to scale things a bit, I does not look like it, and if she did she probably would have an increasingly hard time moving bodies the bigger they get because of having to use her own strength to animate them.
+1
THis, or something similar MUST happen. Especially if Halo tries to save Jiggs.
I wonder how far she can run around “insubstantial” before building a body? (that is what she’s doing right?)
If that is what she can do then she can just smarten up and scout insubstantially for the sniper and then build a body BEHIND the gun placement then attack. If she starts scouting more like that she is basically like a rogue in WOW and can be much more effective even if the materials she finds are not ideal. Surprise vs. squishies is worth more than rock hard body materials.
Yup.
Yup. Run Peggy!
The one mitigating factor is that Peggy has a good chance to spot Concretia, before she is seen herself. DaveB has confirmed that the insubstantial form was just as visible to the in-comic characters, as to us.
Even so though, an insubstantial character has a considerable advantage, over normal folks, in being able to hide most of their body in the ground. Shadow Boxer may well have had an ability to see through solid objects, to have found Sydney so quickly, in the fight. Or he may have scouted ahead, just peeking through walls and floors, to orient himself stealthily.
His shadow aura could have either helped in that, or hindered it. As it did when he attempted to sneak up on Sydney. For Concretia, we have no clues, other than the fact that, to date, she seemed to prefer the up-front, take them head-on approach. Which would imply, but not with certainly, that she lacks the seeing through the ground ability.
If she does have it, Concretia will be able to take Peggy totally unawares. She can submerge fully into the ground (Dave confirmed she can go a long time without air), and only come up when she has spotted Peggy and is in an optimum position.
Peggy would be a goner. Barring intervention by a super, or Peggy catching a lucky break, and spotting, or hearing, Concretia forming the body.
Without it, and it becomes a one-sided, deadly, game of cat and mouse. The experienced stealth capability of a master sniper, aided by a super spotter. Versus the enhanced sneaking power, of someone who need only keep her eyes above ground height.
I wonder what a child of the shadow boxer with concretia would be like ability wise.
Maybe able to hide its real body in the ground, using animated dirt as a golem and swinging shadow blades ? Possibly using shadow blades even in ghostly form ? And wouldn’t that ghostly form not be dark purple and black ? *shudder*
I suspect they would need to adopt. Shadow Boxer is currently indisposed in that department! Although our technology is nearing the point where some of his DNA could be transplanted into a donor’s wigglers. We can already do that on the female side of the equation, but not that I have spotted on the male side.
If those two require the biological approach, he may indeed be out of the run for quite a while … :-)
At the least he’ll never hear “HOMERUN!!” The same way again.
A fine place to do that might be inside Halo’s forcefield. Assuming her immaterial form can pass through it like Shadow Crushednuts could.
She could form her asphalt form and threaten Halo, and would be less vulnerable to physical assault from Halo or the orbs. And it would be interesting to see if Halo dared to use the PPO inside the forcefield.
That is an assumption that may, or may not, be right. Granted it did look like he was able to do so. Which could actually have been what happened. But there is an alternative.
Possibly Shadow Boxer positioned himself in the floor, directly underneath Halo, and awaited the distraction that any good backstabber needs, to ensure nobody would spot him. And it may have been his intent to specifically be within the radius of her shield, when she raised it.
We know, from Nose Boop guy, that the villains have seen the TV broadcast. So they are aware that Halo has a powerful shield. Shadow Boxer was clearly assigned the task of taking out this powerful new heroine, and planned his attack accordingly.
But deliberate, or accidental, he could easily have been inside the shield, when it was raised.
Sydney’s shield wasn’t up when Shadow Boxer hit her. She put it up as she went down. Accidentally, I think since the orb was in her hand.
Ahh, good point. In which case he definitely did not pass through it. :-D
Of course, he may be able to, should he try. I suspect if a teleporter cannot pass, then nor can anyone phased. But it does fall in the category of ‘wait and see’.
If you could turn into light then you could go through the shield, because as we can see, it is transparent.
It may also be vulnerable to lasers and other light based attacks.
I seem to remember future Sydney arguing about this weakness back in the first few comics.
The former I agree on. And would add sound too. The latter though I doubt. Halo’s shield is clearly discriminatory. It allows safe levels of light and sound to pass. She can see and hear through it, without a problem. But it blocks the dangerous levels.
This was illustrated two issues back, when Hex’s anti-squirrel barrage hit her shield. Even if we presume that it is primarily a plasma attack, or has some other matter-heavy aspect to it, it clearly also has light as part of it. Yet the whole attack was being stopped dead.
Ie, we did not see the plasma bouncing off, but the visible light portion going through. Although I imagine the safe levels passed, to allow Sydney to see it herself. But not enough that it is forming a laser, bright enough for us to see from our perspective. So nothing potentially harmful is getting through.
Light doesn’t have much in the way of ‘mass’
Hmmm, ok. Concretia could still use the shield as a, um, shield, by putting Sydney between herself and Peggy. And she might be fairly resistant to the Lighthook since she will weigh a lot with an asphalt shell.
Here’s the page, https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1286
She’s still around, but I need to decide if I need to show her officially exiting (or being removed from) the battle. That’s mostly contingent on me being able to do that in one page as I’m trying to not go out of control with the page count.
Woo!
Btw, does the Who’s Who indicate people who’ll be recruited by Arc-Swat at a later date? There are several characters who don’t get put in there despite being in the comic panels.
Of course, none of those has been formally introduced yet either, so it could just be named characters.
Still, Halo and Hex together would be (in my opinion) extremely funny to see around the corridors of Arc headquarters.
The convention is that both an introduction and a speaking part are needed to get on to the Who’s Who. Although it can be relaxed, to one or the other in some circumstances. For instance when a name is designated on a HUD.
But the fact that they got a mention in the Who’s who, is no guarantee of longevity. That might be the last time we see them. They might die, on the next page. Or they may become lifelong buddies with the protagonists.
Mayflys, or probably better “fleeting stars”.
Even if many won’t make it to the storyline again, they still left quite an impression.
“…they still left quite an impression.”
Yep. Just ask the steakhouse & the parking lot.
Indeed. Halo is currently attempting to replicate a version of this.
The restaurant could start a Walk Of Infamy. Instead of handprints in wet cement, they could display faceplants in asphalt.
The normal method for that would be to plant the face *before* the asphalt sets & solidifies, but…
+1
That’s one for the museum they ( Arianna ) are planning to turn ( spin ) the place into. :-)
+2
A single panel of some of the villains fleeing while the battle rages in the far background should suffice.
“This was a bad idea. Don’t call me, and I won’t call you!”
A single panel of some of the villians fleeing while the battle rages in the far background should suffice.
“This was a bad idea. Don’t call me, and I won’t call you!”
Whoops
The Echo is one of the bunch making a run for the border?
Dave, quit worrying about the page count. We love your story and the way you tell it.
You bring your characters to life so well. Just tell the story and we’ll enjoy the ride. :-)
Agreed
As long as Dave continues with the comic, I`ll be here.
What they said.
Aye take as many pages as you need to tell your story effectively. At my reading speed they’ve fought for 10-15 minutes which puts you light years above the DBZ curve.
Oh goodies! Someone who is a challenge/threat to Jiggs
Take your pick of these goodies :D
Heh heh, used to get in trouble as a kid saying the little hairy ones name :P
Oops! Forgot there was a limit on the number of links (don’t worry, they are all Goodies :P)
DaveB will just have to authorize your page when he takes a break from drawing Thursday’s page.
I still can’t watch any of the actors, doing anything else, and think of them as being anything else than one of the Goodies. Which can be distracting when you see one of them sneaking stealthily up on a bird’s nest, for instance.
Has Mr Garden been in anything else since? Fairly sure have seen TB-T in at least one other thing, and Mr Odie obviosuly in the animal/conservation shows
I don’t do TV. It does not match the hermit philosopher lifestyle. But I do hear him a lot on BBC radio. Various guest appearances on quiz shows. Things he hosts himself, including co-hosting with Tim Brook-Taylor. Acting parts in various plays and writing some himself.
He, he doesn’t look like he used to, R.I.P. you mighty mutton chops :(
The problem with sonic powers, is that they instantly make you the second most noticeable target, right behind the guy wearing the giant hat/helmet to let his opponents know he’s a psi.
Also, I think Sydney has definitely earned another point, maybe two. She got one for just shielding the fifth columnists (heh-heh), IF DB is applying the rule that you only earn experience if there’s a conflict. That was about two or two and a half pages. This fight has gone on about 29, with about 10-15 to go, and she got tagged by Shadow Fist, or whatever his name is.
On a similar note, This has been a long day for Sydney. 225 pages so far. When you publish this volume, Dave, you should title it “Day: One”. /jk
Whenever I see your name, it makes me assume it is a shortened version of Defenestrator. The super hero (/villain) who’s speciality is throwing people out of windows!
Clearly super strength or telekinesis would do the job just fine. But it is quite a specialised moniker. So it makes me picture somebody who generates an effect which sucks all his enemies out of nearby windows.
When he knocks someone off their feet, a window appears and they go through it. Depending on the power Defnestor applies it could be anywhere from the ground floor to 101 stories up.
Only weakness: being away from places with windows.
Like outside for example.
Wait, does it count if they get thrown in to (instead of out of) the window?
In usage it is ‘out of’. Etymologically though the word comes from the Latin de- (down or away from) and fenestra (window or opening). So, using that context, being outside does not matter. And any opening could be used, if lacking a proper window. So cave entrance, unzipped tent flap or even stuffing somebody into an open rucksack, head-first, would all be viable improvisational uses.
The line on that piece of pavement should probably be all yellow or all red instead of yellow on the cut part and red on the part that he’s holding. I don’t know which because that piece of pavement wasn’t in the wide shot on page 204.
I think the red part is hot because Dabbler cut it.
Spoke too soon I agree. But one thing Tarmac tends to crumple how the heck would you pull up a divot like that?
ask Hulk and the Thing how they can pull up a solid chunk of earth when the ground they’re standing on is usually Pavement over sandy soil and sandstone.
One thing that helps is that when roads are constructed (used to be in the trade) a healthy measure of cement powder is mixed into the earth to form the base for the asphalt pavement overlay. Chunks up rather nicely, although not as well as real concrete. For those who don’t know the difference (and there are many) cement is what is used to make concrete and is not a synonym for the same.
Yes the cement is the bonding agent and sand or gravel is the aggregate. Concrete was used by the Romans so it’s not as “Modern” as most people think.
The Greeks too, and their earliest use pre-dates the Romans. Although, off the top of my head, I cannot recall if that was with or without the aggregate. But, the interesting bit of trivia, I was leading up to, is that some of the more substantial structures had a lot of it. Enough that the bits in the middle have still not set yet!
I may have said this before, but can’t resist it even if I have:
If a builder tells you that work cannot carry on until the concrete has set fully, make sure that you either find something else for him to do, or take him off the clock. Otherwise you could be committing yourself to paying him for over two thousand years!
Greeks and Phenicians had cement. The Romans added volcanic sand (originally), which included big and small pieces of basalt to make it stronger. Compare the Parthenon in Athens and the Collosium in Rome. By the time the Collosium was built, other forms of aggrogates were being used as well.
And concrete is only as heavy as the agregate used
Remember seeing some show where they used pumice to recreate a dome for a building or basilica: it was as strong as ‘regular’ concrete but not nearly as heavy
There are drawbacks to that though. They used a light aggregate in one building and birds pecked holes in it after a few years.
Most Basilicas tend to be covered in metal, it was just the shape that was made from concrete
The red stripe is the fire lane marking at right angles to and at the end of the yellow parking lane stripe.
The color pattern on the chunk has me at a loss to see where it came from.
1) The nearest missing section of the lot at his feet has no lines, but the piece has lines anyway.
2) The two hacked off bits have one color, but the chunk he is holding continues the line with another.
3) The pattern matches the established red border and yellow parking lines, but could only have come from a different part of the lot. (and the cut sections should be red).
coolness. and it’s not decibels she’s using, it’s DB’s…DaveB’s….woohoo, hidden MarySue! (giggles)
Time to pull Achilles out of the rubble and use him as a shield.
new villian: Brown Note?
see above somewhere in the earlier comments (NOOOO!)
As you can see, there is a good reason why you don’t yell during a sneak attack. It is of no use to give the enemy a head’s-up, and thus an opportunity to foil said “sneak attack”.
A previous GM of mine once killed off one of my characters when the character was exposed to a sonar ping while submerged underwater. The GM, who was a member of the Coast Guard at the time, explained how dangerous intense sound waves could be in a liquid medium. Nasty.
Yep, that’s true. A soundwave that’s only irritating in a gaseous atmosphere can be downright debilitating under water. it has to do with being a more cohesive medium than air for conducting sonic vibrations.
Is that Hex trying to sneak away in the background?
Yup.
Halo: “Puny Super!”
+1
She smacks him extra-hard because he fakes a Human Torch (and fails miserably).
Which Torch? The original android? Or the latest African-American?
Too bad Jiggawatt didn’t just zorch Breakpoint right off the bat, instead of wasting time on banter. She needs to remember that talking isn’t actually a free action.
Hey, Halo has a speaking part this page. Shouldn’t she be in the Who’s Who? Also a concrete parking barrier is only painted yellow on the outside. The inside still looks like concrete. Or this supposed to be glowing because it was cut in two by the lightning blast?
that’s my bet, Jiggy basically used her power to make a Plasma Cutter so VERY hot concrete.
Woah.
I’mma call him ‘Gidget’
Who?
The page notes show it to be something else, but at first read it looked like Keanu, um, Breakpoint is amplifying Jiggawatts own voice back at her to the point of causing damage. This could be an interesting power. Codename: Feedback.
P.S. I am surprised that Jiggawatts look of a black woman with white hair throwing lightning bolts hasn’t gotten the attention of a certain comic company. Her appearance could cause a ‘storm’ of controversy with their lawyers.
That can happen with big companies, if the various divisions do not talk to each other. In my (non-professional) opinion, it would be defensible though. Firstly, contextually, there is clearly zero intent to imitate Storm. And this is helped by Dave having said as much, when the similarities were first pointed out.
This is corroborated by the fact that her powers are only superficially similar. One has power over all the weather, including lightning. Whereas the other has control over all electricity. The only point of overlap is the lightning. They both have broad-spectrum powers that have a wide variety of applications, which the other cannot do.
So, if Marvel’s lawyers consulted any member of their creative department, who actually read through the archives, they would point out the clear differences.
Secondly it comes down to whether the ‘distinctive likeness’ is being infringed. Because the name certainly is not. Here, the strength of Dave’s art comes into play. If he were a poor artist, and did little more than create generic ‘one face fits all’ characters, he may be in trouble.
If the only way of distinguishing them, was by their hair and skin colour*, then the litigious lawyers could claim that the artist was intending to copy the look, to the best of their capability. Whereas Dave is such a good artist that somebody recognised Megan, from her character’s image!
But, that is just one example. We have numerous pages of expertly rendered likenesses, in a huge range of realistic facial expressions. Dave really is a good artist. If he wants to make a distinctive likeness, it is well within his capability.
So we need merely compare Jiggawatt visually to any of the iconic images of Storm. Firstly she clearly does not look like Halle Berry. Secondly, she does not remind me of Storm from any of the comics.
If Marvel’s lawyers did pursue this case, the crux of their argument would come down to ‘all black women, with white hair look alike’. That would not play very well to their public relations department, if they ran it by them. To say the least.
So, if DaveB does get a letter in the post, or an email in his in-box, from Marvel, he need not despair. His first remedy, if he feels alarmed, and does not want to endanger either the well-being of the comic or his livelihood, would be to take the safe route out, and have Jiggawatt make an in-comic visit to the hair-dressers.
Should Dave propose that to them, I am sure that any reasonable lawyer would be content with allowing the archives to remain as they stand. They will have taken the necessary steps to protect their brand, and Dave will have ensured that his is distanced from theirs. Plus, it is already stated, in her profile, that she dyes her hair. So there need be no break in continuity.
Or, if he is feeling brave, he could get professional advice, to confirm my opinion. And if it valid, then I am sure he would not have to fight the corporate giant alone. The case would be very easy to portray, in the media, as a small-guy being bullied by a big company, on very very shaky grounds.
It would be very easy to find people, in the wider public, not just in our relatively close-knit online comic community, who would rally to support such a David vs Golliath battle. And the process of spreading the world, to raise the war-chest, in order to fight the battle, would generate both massive negative publicity for Marvel and much good publicity for Grrl Power.
My opinion: we would win.
* By the way, I have not forgotten that we recently had a character who looked enough like Math, that he needed his hair colour changing, to distinguish him. But that case was because facially he was similar to Math, so there was a distinctive likeness problem.
The one thing that I would advise Dave to do is to avoid doing a stand-alone advert featuring Jiggawatt. That is the one circumstance when those three points of similarity would work against him. Because a court might choose to consider the advert in isolation.
Without the kind of supporting evidence that I mentioned above, it could be harder to defend. Plus a case could be made that any potential readers, who responded to the advert, were doing so purely because of that perceived connection. Despite any other differences.
It would only be by the time that the character appeared in the comic, that it would be crystal-clear there was no intended similarity. And advertising often is decided in situ, as the public would see it on it’s own. So it would not be an unfair approach for the courts to take.
Not that I think Dave would feature anyone other than the protagonists, unless part of a larger group. But just thought I would mention it, for completeness.
There is one other huge thing separating Jiggy from Storm, one that would destroy Marvel’s suit if they brought one. Speech patterns. Jiggawatt doesn’t sound like she’s preparing for Shakespeare in the park. Dave could very easily argue the electricity is coincidence and the white hair on a black woman is just an appealing costume design. Bang, case dismissed right there.
Judge: “Heh, beep, beep, backup. I mean, lawyer for Marvel, what is the issue here?”
LfM: “She’s a clear ripoff of my clients intellectual property!”
Dave’s Lawyer: “Are they wearing the same costume?”
LfM: “No.”
DL: “Do they talk the same?”
LfM: “No.”
DL: “Are their powers exactly the same?”
LfM: “There’s lightning…..”
DL: “Are their powers EXACTLY the same?”
LfM: “Nooooo.”
DL: “What is your problem then exactly?”
LfM: “The hair.”
*Maxima bursts in and beats up LfM to put an end to this silly skit.*
Love it.
I do need to change the color of her hair I think. Maybe to yellow to match her lipstick.
Her hair is naturally white but she colors it. And has to occasionally let it go back to normal to avoid problems. And the color she picks depends on her mood. That would be different enough and a little humor possible with bets on the color of the week.
Look again Jiggawatt’s hair is naturally black but she colors it. Meaning she could and will chose any color. She was in the mood for white at this time, so what.
That would be fitting, as it would also match her logo, on her choker.
She probably needs to change her current hair band though, as it would not stand out at all. If she went with blue, that would keep the choker theme going. But that may be a bit garish? Especially given how the rest of her outfit is toned down.
Depends on the shade of hair and what shade of blue to have the hairband: doesn’t have to be as ‘bright’ as the choker
The talk about atmosphere and how it is different on other planets made me remember a really short story.
The rest of the universe being afraid of humans since (amongst other things) we are the only species capable of surviving in a hideously corrosive/reactive gas, oxygen. Most memorable part is where the storyteller recounts how some humans he traveled with used rocket fuel (LOX) at one point to be able to breath.
Yeah I’ve had a similar discussion about how just how many ways Humans could be Terrifying to an alien species. One was how we ingest toxic chemicals for recreation.
I distinctly remember that episode of Deep Space 9 where Quark, Nog and Rom are thrown at Roswell.
Quark is horrified that the locals smoke and use radioactive materials as power generators.
Then he gets a notion. “If they’re using poison like that… I can sell them anything!”
In Alan Dean Foster’s “The Damned Trilogy” aliens recruit humans to fight against brainwashing squids because there are immune and the most viscous warriors in the galaxy (they actually ENJOY killing things and fight harder when their friends are killed or wounded).
Yea. I love the whole concept. Especially the bit where it becomes clear that it is the only thing that humans are the best at. One race is the best at planning long-term strategies and civilisation shaping thinking, another are the deepest philosophical thinkers, others are far greater artists than any humans (barring one or two exceptional individuals) could hope to achieve, and so on.
In fact there is only one known, sentient, race, in the entire galaxy, who’s average intelligence and social development is actually lower than humans. And they have an easy-going attitude and tolerance of menial chores. Which makes them fill the niche of being ideal for handling all the nasty jobs, that even humans prefer to avoid, if given a choice.
I just love how it does not assume that humans will always be major political players, in the galactic community. In that story, we are the galaxies mercenaries. And ones who are very much feared, because humans actually enjoy combat, and even children incorporate combat into their play!
Believe read that many many years ago (loved the fact he included a scene in New Zealand: a couple were having a picnic when they get attacked by the nasties, the couple make short work of the nasties and then proceed to reset the trap, ie their picnic :D)
He he. It has been way too long since I last dug that out of my library, I had forgotten anything about that. But it does go to show why only the hardiest members, of the more rugged species, are assigned to act as liaisons with humans. And even then they need to have post-traumatic stress counselling.
A normal galactic citizen might need that for just having to pass a human in the street!
Although there was that one researcher who through long exposure ended up able to deal with humans and even use a weapon without mental trauma.
I can’t remember if it was here or Too Much Information that we had that discussion. I remember having it but can’t FIND it.
I think it was here.
I think you’re right but I can’t find it. quite annoying
I think I can understand your point with the negative properties of oxygen. In Forbidden Planet, Robbie the Robot’s first appearance ever, a comment was made about the higher oxygen content of the planet’s atmosphere. Robbie’s reply was, “I rarely use it myself, sir. It promotes rust.”
We don’t notice it since we are adapted to living in oxygen. Thing is if fluorine is the Godzilla of the periodic table then oxygen is its (not so much smaller) little brother. Same reason that there is some speculation that life might have started several times on the planet and killed of almost as often due to oxygen poisoning.
Even adapted to oxygen as we are, people still try to get “anti-oxidants” to slow down cellular aging.
The reason why we use a logarithmic scale for acoustic amplitude is that human perception of loudness is more or less logarithmic, resulting in apparent and intuitive linearity. So, while it is correct to say that a 20dB sound wave has 10 times the amplitude of a 10dB sound wave, to say that it is 10 times as loud is misleading.
more like 10x power- and medium of air limits loudness due to diffusion.
Now a real sonic user that’d be dangerous would be one that could also manipulate air density up or down too. (vacuum break shield to counter reflected sonic attacks or a column of really dense air to act like a focus bean for said sonic attacks (have to be a power pool linked power really). That person would be really scary once they got good enough with either power too. Heck increase density of air enough and person will drown in 02, neh? Go other way and fluids can boil and gases inside body expand too. Cause the bends. OUCH!)
I had a character in a sh game that was a survivor based tech wiz, normal guy basically but two super intel effect – Photo-kinetic and the touch based clairvoyance-kinectic memory. If he sees something and touches it, he can understand it well enough to make something that works. Normally limited to tech, but somehow the game had the line about magic and tech of sufficiently advanced nature not really being different at all. This let him make two items to increase his survivability in the battle fields he originally snuck around to get inspired by (yeah the power pool for the two memory/intel powers were Inspiration based…) and pick up salvage to examine.
No one else played sonics, and I made sure he had damn good stealth skill-wise. Human, but due to his lifestyle and being a norm crunchy really well developed above even assassins who didn’t rely on magic or tech assists (once he got those it helped even more).
I saw half the team get taken out by a verbal component mage and his wind element who used air sonic vibrations as its mode of attack (it could do sonic, wind, weather (usually cold to hinder or fog to blind) , and even lightening attacks.) — so I pulled out an article on the Sonic repeater, which is basically a microphone the catches a sonic or verbal component by someone and send it right back at the speaker. It’s great for interrupting their train of thought and verbal abuse (be it a normal speech or some verbal magic/sonic attack.)
So I incorporated that ability as a reflex reflection attack and also put it on my shield (normally worn on back because of said back attacks- it was decent armor ). I also was able to recreate what y’all call the brown note. Which isn’t based on sound really, but a vibration frequency of 24. (See Edison’s shaker platform It really loosened the bowls of his testers- like turn it off NOW and run to bathroom quickly.)
This I changed to zero range touch but on a multi-baton. Called it a stun, you could ignore it, but the more powerful your abs were and how long since your last “movement” did come into effect as to how effective it was in being noticed on the battlefield. Guy in armor might have an “elimination” system inside (MY ARMOR DID. Plus a hook up to empty those tanks…so what if that looked like a gun too…that was just in case of emergency.)
Only problem I had was that all the metals and bits I picked up on battlefields in the Tri-city we gamed in, was that there was never enough of one type to be dominant- so the GM had to created a multi-alloy slot on his charts…basically every part that had a + rating vs something got added to the column, and it’s negative to another…then the next in alloy. Tally each benefit and neg and you had the overall rating, but mostly halved unless I had something that reflex absorbed that weakness (see sonics and vibrations (in a tech suit vibrations are a nasty thing, you either ring like a bell or get shook like a sonic milkshake…))
I eventually got enough salvage I started selling custom designer alloy cups for the PD and armor inserts for their vests. (First million achieved!)
But one problem several of the alloy’s components would glow actively when absorbing or reflecting certain energy type attacks…it ended up being MAUVE.
So I could see a really annoying and sneaky villain or wannabe SH out there drooling at this battlesite and taking notes and trying to rush in on his scooter (Yeah that was my method of movement in the game. :P Well until I got a broken hoverboard from the Kali Dude (he had a funk attack, always on, stun/blind, and contact buzz– plus unearthly luck and strength. Downside super metabolism and munchies.) ) Made that into hover shoes and a buttplate to help me survive knockback. (bought Bounceback powerfeat right after that too.)
My character changed from session to session enough that the team never knew who I was and thought I was a govt lender SH so the nicknames never stuck.
Worst mistake Brown Vibing a Size changer mid change from giant to short dense…sucker flew three hexes and well his magic kilt did its job, gravity the rest. (At least he’d only eaten three cars, one truck of snacks, a fire engine and a half dozen civvies (yeah- people died a lot in this SH game. which played out more like Cyberpunk than the normal SH game).
I sold my repeat back tech (well leased it, and the support- the team’s minions needed extra money too) to certain politicians and cities where public speaking was causing riots and going anti-super. It got to the point where they’d stand there with a tape or cd and let it play. (which made for fun substitutions (See Escape for NY for one example.)
That was a real fun campaign, lasted a good six months before half the group got deployed so we couldn’t really continue. (we started me running shadowrun again instead.)
“the Sonic repeater, which is basically a microphone the catches a sonic or verbal component by someone and send it right back at the speaker. It’s great for interrupting their train of thought and verbal abuse (be it a normal speech or some verbal magic/sonic attack.)”
My headset does that, it used to be really disorienting, but now I can talk to myself just fine.
It just takes some getting used to (and may cause mild symptoms of insanity, like talking to yourself) to render such a device ineffective.
A sonic attack against a girl who controls lightning? Jiggawatt, it’s time to bring down the THUNDER!
“The team is poorly equipped to handle sonic attacks like this at the moment.”
Implying there is any defense against it. Whether it’s games or movies or cartoons or T.V. shows, sonic attacks are almost impossible to block. Which makes sense to me.
Anything that vibrates enough will break. I remember an episode of Mythbusters where they took a tiny tool that made a repetitive ticking motion up and down. They resonated it to a frequency specifically for that bridge, and caused the whole bridge to plus. And this wasn’t a small foot bridge. This was a full scale bridge meant for cars. They projected that a larger device would bounce the bridge apart, so long as you found the right resonance frequency.
And besides your teeth shattering in your head, you also have to deal with your ears exploding, not being able to communicate, and some sense of balance.
I don’t remember which page it was, but I left a comment before about how devastating sonic attacks are, and how they can really screw a team up.
Not ironically, though, is that often those that use sonic attacks are themselves just as vulnerable to sonic attacks. Go figure.
Unless Dabbler can whip up something non-Newtonian.
Failing that, just put Harem on Breakpoint. Directed sonic waves? Oh, too bad, she’s behind you and kicking you in the head.
Amorphous or Achilles would work too. Achilles wouldn’t even feel the vibrations through his body, and he can’t damage his muscles. Amorphous could probably stretch himself to cancel it out.
If Amorphous can go all Reed Richards stretchy and form a parabolic shape, then he could redirect the sound back at the source.
Sound is a wave, as has been stated. Arc, though they don’t have it with them now, could have a device that can sample a sound, and play it back 180 degrees out of phase. This is how most noise canceling tech works. But it would be a specialized peice of hardware, especially at the volumes she is generating.
https://www.mediacollege.com/audio/01/wave-interaction.html
Yeah, it’s sometimes referred to as “counter sound.” Indeed, that’s a process that auto some manufacturers use to keep their cars running more quietly.
“I chose Breakpoint because the team is poorly equipped to handle sonic attacks like this at the moment.”
The important part of that statement is; sonic attacks “like this”. It implies that Breakpoint has some kind of special power that is different from a standard Sonic Energy Blast.
In comic books, it does not matter what part of the electromagnetic spectrum an energy blast comes from, it does the same thing, and is defended against in the same way. Sonic attacks are not intrinsically any different from any other type of attack.
Quite often no attempt is made to define what part of the electromagnetic spectrum is involved with an energy blast. I doubt we will ever know the wavelength of Maxima’s GoldPlasma attacks.
You don’t want to try and apply real world physics or biology to the effects of comic book super powers. Going down that road leads to the realization that there really shouldn’t be much left after a super fight but badly damaged corpses.
I’m sure Mythbusters should show the kind of damage high energy plasma does to things. It’s pretty gruesome.
Well, sound is different than light or infrared or radio waves or anything else in the EM spectrum. Sound is a vibration through a medium, EM energy does not require any medium to transmit through.
The Higgs field is now crying about how you forgot it existed!
And it can do that, too. It’s one of its properties. I’m sure someone will announce the discovery soon.
As a student of physics, I am confused by Oberon’s comment.
While the Higgs mechanism is why electromagnetism and the weak force are low-energy aspects of a unified electroweak force at high energies, and the Higgs field couples to the W and Z bosons (and, to a lesser extent, the electron) giving them their rest masses, the photon does not couple to the Higgs field and so the non-zero vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field is not involved (to first order) in the propagation (in vacuum) of electromagnetic waves.
As an armchair fan of physics, astro- and otherwise, I am probably well out of my safety zone. But I was under the impression that the Higgs field filled all of space, empty or otherwise. And so I was making an off-hand and pretty lame half-joke about how Dave said
when it is traversing a medium, the Higgs field.
When you are talking about comic book super powers, there is nothing that says a Sound attack requires a medium to transmit through. Even in cases where a sound attack does actually travel through the air, what does that have to do with anything?
No sane gamemaster ever gave a player extra powers or effects just because they choice their power type as “sound” rather than “infra-red” or “Custard Pie”.
Breakpoint may have a power that bypasses normal defenses and knocks out anyone who doesn’t have ear plugs, but that’s not an intrinsic function of Sound based powers, it’s a special attack.
Actually, if I understand how sound works, Anvil, Max, and a few others should be pretty much immune. Sound does not work as a simple energy wave, you see–it functions via the actual impact with your ear drums. This is why a particularly loud sound can be felt in your bones, as well as heard. Max and the others will feel the sound, but they won’t be incapacitated by it, while Jiggs, Sydney, and the rest probably would be.
This is why sound has a greater impact under water–it’s not louder (in fact, it loses energy faster), but it has a greater impact, due to the differences between water and air. When a sound hits you in atmosphere, it does so as a series of beanbags, because the air molecules can be deflected and cause an area of greater pressure to partially neutralize the next, incoming wave. Like a beanbag, the impact is spread out, and thus diffused and weakened. When sound hits you under water, it hits as a brick wall, because the water molecules CANNOT be deflected–there’s no room.
“They projected that a larger device would bounce the bridge apart, so long as you found the right resonance frequency.”
Yep, resonant frequency patterns in moving air can get pretty nasty. Look up reference to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (nicknamed Galloping Gertie) that collapsed in a high-wind storm. You can find it on Wikipedia & it was featured in some video documentaries.
I wonder… if Jiggy can regain her wits enough to transform into lightning, would the sound attack still affect her? If not, Breakpoint could be in for a real shock.
My personal take on it would be: Jiggs in energy body would be immune to Breakpoint’s sonic powers. I just can’t think of any way in which electricity is inherently affected by sound. I am not, however, a physicist- someone else probably has a better idea.
Sydney: (pantomiming as if she’s sounding a bugle) Ta-ta TA! CHARGE!
JW turns to lightning & fries Breakpoint.
It’s nice to see that Halo’s actually participating.
She’s going to be telling everyone that she beat up a Super Saiyan now.
Dang, you got to that one before I did.
From the angle that Breakpoint hit Jiggawatt, I wouldn’t be the least surprised to see Halo caught directly in the blast as well, and clearly sound can travel through her forcefield…
Breakpoint may not have heard Maxima’s lesson about looking behind the target.
Or maybe she did, and taking out 2 foes at one time
Sound like light can pass through her Force field unless it is at a harmful level as seen by the page with Maxima’s explosion. (an explosion that size would have been deafening and no-one appeared affected.)
Ok, Now I’m picturing Sydney wrapping Breakpoint’s head in the Lighthook while telling her to “KEEP IT DOWN!”
Was having troubles using IE so switched to Firefox, and this was at the top of the front page:
“Warning: opendir(/home/content/24/3522224/html/wp-content/cache/supercache/www.grrlpowercomic.com/) [function.opendir]: failed to open dir: No such file or directory in /home/content/24/3522224/html/wp-content/plugins/wp-super-cache/wp-cache-phase1.php on line 592”
Hmm, I just tried it in FF and the page loaded ok. Well, the flash plugin crashed, but that’s what it’s there for eh?
I use nothing but FF and have no problems with this page or any other.
The flash crash is annoying, but that’s the fault of a plugin, not the browser. And it only happens to me because I never reboot my computer and often have a few browser instances with a few dozen tabs open for days on end.
Didn’t say had any trouble with FF (it was IE that was having trouble) just when sitched to FF that was at the top of the page (may have been there with IE, just hidden)
Sounds like a Flash-based ad failed. Probably due to poor assembly of the pre-made modules. Or using obsolete coding. That’s why browser developers and web page designers hate Flash. And hackers love it. A nice adblocker (I’ve been using AdblockerPlus for years) of a plug-in aimed at keeping Flash blocked until the user specifically requests it are both good solutions. Add Ghostery to kill trackers and your good to go.
Yea, AdBlocker is a useful program/plugin. I run it all the time. This is one of the few sites on my exceptions list. But, obviously, if somebody is having conflicts between their browser and the adverts, then that is an ideal way to solve it.
It also helps diagnose the problem. If AdBlocker is used, yet the problem persists, then it will tell us that there is something else going on. However that does seem to be the most plausible explanation offered, from my non-expert viewpoint.
I would have called her Wacks with Sound but I am a nerd like that.
Breakpoint is either way too confident, or not serious about the fight like Dabbler…she warned Jiggawatt in time for her to split that first tossed parking lot tire bumper.
She was actually just grunting.
So if she grunts with effort at lifting and tossing a mere couple hundred pounds of concrete, she is on the weak end of superstrength, maybe twice as strong as Captain America, or half as strong as Spider man.
Depends on how hard she threw the barrier
Also, a number of the female tennis players have that annoying habit of grunting every time they hit the ball, specially when serving (some claim it is so their opponent can’t use the sound of the ball hitting the strings to determine the type/force used)
Her Who’s Who entry does say “moderate superstrength”. So lobbing parking barriers needs a grunt to give her the power she needs.
Pretty much, actually- Breakpoint can (in the words of the OHOTMU) lift/press about one ton under optimal conditions.
Hardly. Spider Man’s forte is agility, but he is actually capable of holding ten tons above his head! I felt the movie scene, of him slowing down the runaway train, using a combination of his webs and super-strength, to have showed his capability nicely.
Spidey only comes across as weak when he is battling foes who can hurl sixteen-wheelers like they are toys!
There is a big difference between lifting 10 tons, and stopping a speeding train
True. But super-hero writing is never particularly consistent with previous stated capabilities.* Where it is good though is that it maintains the intent. Which is that Spider Man does actually have super strength. And a fair bit if it too.
It is just that most of the time he chooses to use his agility and webbing, in preference to brute force.
* Mind you, to give credit, where credit is due, they did a good job of showing that this was significantly above his normal limit. First he had to make several attempts, using webbing. Although each failed, they will have robbed the train of some of it’s momentum. Plus the entire process took a long, extended effort.
And he quite clearly committed every last reserve to it. A normal human can jump well beyond the regular limits, in emergencies. In that case Spidey was just showing that the same rule can apply to supers as well. It is just that they start from a higher base.
Was just implying that even someone like Superman or Hulk would have trouble stopping a speeding train (stopping it without derailing or destroying it) but could easily benchpress it if it was stationary
Yea, the concertina effect. Mind you, the webs themselves acting to keep the engine on the tracks. But, other than that, it is where slow but steady wins out. Supes and Hulk could do it, but they would not be able to do the stand in one spot technique.
Hulk really should not have the brains to solve it, if being a true angry dumb brute, but the man of steel would be able to. Especially with his flying ability. He can just fly in front of the train, and gradually slow it down, much as Spidey did. Without having to use his feet as improvised brakes.
How about this. Spidey once lifted Penn Station, from the foundation up, for a span of about fifteen seconds.
Which, admittedly, he was just shifting rubble from a collapsed Penn Station, but that rubble included SEVERAL TRAINS. They were more or less directly on top of him.
what no mention of DISASTER AREA the universe’s loudest band
You just did. Even more, you forgot to include that Disaster Area is, in theory, possibly the “loudest noise ever,” including the Big Bang.
BS, my old man snoring is louder. ;)
I love how Sydney in panel 1 of this strip is using Max’s lecture notes from panel 4 of this one: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1224 to smack that baddie into the ground with her lighthook. Exactly as she’s supposed to. *smug look level-up!*
And here is confirmation of something that I said a while back, about the NSA having already compromised certain alternatives, that folks turn to for privacy.
Probably just as useful to pour blood over yourself, ring the dinner bell and jump into the shark pools in an aquarium!
Problem is that quite a few people are using Tor, and not for criminal acts but simply because in our time, users have to ready themselves and “tech-up” for protection against becoming completely transparent.
There also is the sheer quantity of data again, making it hard to figure out who uses it for what.
Monitoring Tor should proof very usefull keeping state employees from blowing the wistle by simply putting them behind bars the moment they show interest in it, though.
Wait is Sydney tripping that guy (yanking he feet out from under him) or is she doing a full on “Hulk smash puny god”?
The impact lines are the same from head to feet, so I think it’s a full-length bodyslam.
If she simply tripped him up, he would probably land in stages with head last, but ‘yanking’ him off his feet could very easily explain him falling evenly flat
If she wanted to bodyslam the shmuck, she would have been better off grabbing him around the waist
I agree. The flames corroborate that too. If he was being pivoted by the ankles, there should be little disturbance of the flames by the feet. But fanning out more and more, towards the top of his body.
As it is though, it is all burning at a pretty consistent height. The only extended flame is by the head and arm, and then not enough to convey the impression that it was a trip.
Halo is remembering her pep talk with Maxima, from before the fight, and is acting as advised.
I am sure that, statistically speaking, there are bound to be examples of police cadets who have genuinely been present at crimes, and have acted to intervene. As any member of the public is entitled to do, even without being a fully-accredited, badge wielding, police officer.
But I think that Sydney is probably setting a world-record, for number of citizens arrests, being made on the first day of joining!
Actually nobody has been arrested yet. After the fight ends and the assailants are contained and controlled, then the formalities of the arrest start. Probably including Miranda Rights readings and making sure the arrestees understand the further penalties for resisting. The ones KOed will be arrested as they wake up.
I say probably on Miranda because I’m not entirely sure where Arc SWAT is on the law enforcement food chain. Police have to. Officers of the court not always. And civilian arrests have zero requirement. I’m not sure about military police arresting civilians needing to do the Miranda at that point. When they hand the people over to the civilian police then the little card comes out for sure.
The ArcSwat folks will probably use the same script as the FBI uses, as both groups are federal law-enforcement personnel with powers of arrest. I just don’t know what that one is.
There’s a lot of misunderstanding about Miranda rights and how they’re proffered, largely because of how it’s portrayed on TV. They won’t necessarily be presented at the moment of arrest – they must be presented before an interview.
Military police vs military personnel will have their own specific rules, and legislation will specifically exclude military personnel from various aspects of civilian law. Due to the fact that they usually get tried by court martial, or otherwise under army jurisdiction, not civilian courts. I imagine Miranda does not apply, to US forces, but do not know.
However gendarmes (what ArcSWAT are) police civilian populations, so follow the rules that regular police do. So anyone they arrest will have the full package of rights normally available to them, under Miranda, or otherwise. The distinction being that if they have to arrest one of their own, or a member of one of the other arms of the military, then the different rules might apply.
The time when this does not apply is when under martial law. In such emergencies, the niceties of civilian rules get thrown out of the window, and expediency rules. Always be very wary if you encounter a situation, domestically or overseas, where you find yourself under martial law. Your normal rights are severely curtailed, whether you realise it or not.
Fortunately there is the in-between option of declaring a state of emergency. Which gives the authorities sufficient extra powers, to handle a crisis, but without stripping folks of as many rights as under martial law.
Hmmm, always thought a ‘gendarme’ was simply what the frogs called their cops, like the Brits use ‘Bobbies’ and US ‘pigs’
flic is the usual rude term. British is still filth, I think.
Cops is what most people in the US call them. Pigs is used as an insult and generally not a good one to use if you might end up in their “custody”. Some of them have no restraint. Don’t get me wrong most police like most people are decent enough but the bad ones look just like all the rest.
Of course it is an insult, and didn’t say it was a good one (or even wise) to say to their face
OK because neither bobbies nor gendarme are insulting terms (though bobbies is casual, about the equivalent of cops).
“Bobbies” comes from the guy who first came up with their idea: Sir Robert Peel (“Peelers” is also another, less widely used, term for them)
France has two national police forces. The Police Nationale, which are pretty much what we are used to with cops in other countries. And the Gendarmerie Nationale, which has it’s own areas that it polices. But is trained, organised and falls under the disciplinary rules of a military force.
Various other countries also have military arms involved in civilian policing. Typically the term used is “genderme”, hence this is an international term, rather than being just a French one.
Thank you, didn’t know that
Hmmm, pretty sure we just have ‘cops’ (once upon a great time a go, we had ‘police’ and ‘traffic police’, but that was more that the traffic cops were more dedicated to traffic related matters rather than a separate organisation/division)