Grrl Power #231 – Communican’t
Jiggawatt can still shoot, but will she be able to stand up with both ears busted? How will this affect her interest in the next gen iPod? Stay tuned to the same Arc-time, same Arc-channel!
So yeah, Hiro and Stalwart both seem like Superman light, but they have other powers that haven’t shown up yet. Hiro obviously can absorb and store sonic attacks and release that energy as… Guile style sonic booms? Kinetic whammys. That seems very specific and limited I know, but that’s not quite the full spectrum of his abilities either. More to come on that. Anyway, now you know why I wanted Breakpoint to tousle with the team. She got a bit of a short shrift during this melee. She actually has some other powers that make her pretty dangerous, but she didn’t get a chance this fight. Maybe her heart wasn’t in it. At least she got hit in the head with the big guys knee and not his crotch.
Some people pointed out that it would have made more sense for Maxima to clobber Breakpoint instead of taking a few precious seconds to delegate it. I’m sure Jiggawatt would have appreciated a snappier intervention, but that’s just the call she made. Besides, Hiro was having trouble with Boilerplate, (the bad guys really do get the short end of the naming stick, don’t they?) which is alarming since Hiro is one of the toughest members of the team. Finishing him off herself and shifting Hiro to Breakpoint more sense to her. Or course the question has also been asked as to why Maxima hasn’t wasted most of the bad guys with her super speed already, and there are a number of reasons. She knows she’s not always going to be there. Since Arc-SWAT is so small, normally they’ll be split into squads to handle multiple incidents, usually with relatively evenly distributed power sets and sharing a Harem. Max doesn’t want the team to get used to always having her with them. Also there is a small matter of ego. She knows her people are good, and if she does their job for them, there will be a price to pay morale wise. Besides, the fight has been going extremely well so far. It’s only now that most of the chaff has been taken care of that she actually need to start intervening directly. In her opinion, up to the point that her people can’t handle things themselves, it’s better that she stay on overwatch.
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That was an orange crush for Breakpoint.
And 3 points to Hiro.
Only two points maximum – Breakpoint’s not out of the fight yet, and we don’t know for sure how those other two took their hits.
I’m pritty sure she’s out of the fight.
DaveB said that she has other powers, but didn’t get to show them this fight
Yeah, pretty sure she’s out.
Panel #4: she didn’t complete her thought
Panel #5: she’s underneath the big guy as he lands… HARD.
I like how her feet are sticking out from under his chest, like the Wicked Witch of the East and Dorothy’s newly landed cottage.
yah, and DaveB also said she took the big guys knee to the head. That should pretty well make it a bad day all around for Breakpoint.
“I used to be a supervilllain like you, but then I took a knee to the head.”
[Holds envelope to his turban-covered forehead]Name something that Breakpoint would say during a cross between Scared Straight and a ex-supervillain support group*.
*Supervillains (Not Quite. considering a video of the melee would be among the most watched on YouTube) Anonymous?
Ah, yeah, I missed the part where the other ones landed on her.
Panel #5 = Ow.
Breakpoint, master (mistress?) of sonic energy. Oh, unless it’s used against her. Then she’s incapable of doing that whole resonance wave thing to cancel out the attack, apparently.
And… Breakpoint doesn’t even take down Jiggawatt with that attack, and she has no defensive abilities except for absorbing electricity. Yet the return effect is an immediate take down for two other villains, and knockback for Breakpoint.
It doesn’t seem quite fail to have Giant Man and Diamond Man taken down so quickly by the same attack that didn’t take down Jiggawatt.
===
I guess this is the “And maybe something else” in Hiro’s profile, since absorption isn’t covered by flight or armor or strength.
I don’t think we missed much not seeing the other two in action. Billy Crystal was an armor and melee weapon type and Giant was another brick in the wall.
Well you can’t really compare Breakpoint’s attack not knocking out Jiggawatt to Hiro’s attack knocking back Breakpoint.
Hiro absorbed the energy and released it in single shockwave, while Breakpoint unleashed that energy over time, as sound
While sound can reallly hurt and disable, it’s a poor way to kill someone (that’s probably what she wanted to use those carstoppers for
We need to keep the same theme going here. He would be ‘Budget Hulk’.
Well, Breakpoint was still conscious after Hiro’s sonic return, unlike the other two. I’d say that she did cancel out the returning shockwave, she just didn’t have time to completely negate it.
I still call BS. Breakpoint is a sonic powered super. She attacks a super with no particular sonic defenses, Jiggawatt, and although she does some hearing damage that’s it for the effect. She is blocked by a rather generic hero with strength, armor, and flight. Who is suddenly (because that ability was not listed on his bio, unless you count “and maybe something more”) able to not only absorb her attack but return it in a way which is not only immediately devastating to two of her team mates, much faster than she was able to harm Jiggawatt, but also blasts her off her feet, when she should be able to negate sonic attacks coming at her.
It simply screams of deus ex machin, or poor writing.
1) Sonic powered mistress is knocked out by a sonic attack from a hero who isn’t even specialized in that power type;
2) Not one but two other supers are knocked out by the return attack, while Jiggawatt suffers only hearing loss and some minor injury.
It is farcical. Really. Who could read this and claim that it was at all fair to the supervillains?
I don’t give a rat’s ass about “Breakpoint’s attack was over time, and Hiro’s was a blast.” That only aggravates the issue about Breakpoint being beaten by Hiro at her own game, while he also has all his other powers. And no, I’m not saying that Breakpoint needs to be as powerful as Hiro. I’m saying that Hiro shouldn’t be able to absorb her attack and then use it to far, far better effect than she can. Breakpoint is the super who can sense the weaknesses in objects to include people, right? Not Hiro. So there is no rational reason why Breakpoint couldn’t take down Jiggawatt with the same attack which, Hire reflected, took out Giant Man and Diamond Man. Oh, and also blasted Breakpoint far batter than Breakpoint ever managed to blast Jiggawatt.
The way I see it, Breakpoint’s defense against a sonic attack directed at her is only an “active defense,” in which her body doesn’t have any innate immunity or resistance. When Hiro returned the sonic attack, it was pretty sudden & Breakpoint was caught with enough surprise that she only had time to *partially* counter the return blast, not negate it completely.
The attack that Breakpoint was using looked to be a Flash attack against Hearing. All she was trying to do with it is stun Jiggawatt long enough to hit her with a chunk of concrete. It’s not a very powerful attack as such, but few characters have a specific hearing protection power, so it can be pretty effective.
It might have even worked if Sydney hadn’t blocked the first chunk of concrete Breakpoint threw after she started the stunner. Then Hiro got in the way.
Hiro’s cast page has clearly stated for months now that he might have powers other than the ones listed. Hey, surprise, turns out he does! We don’t know exactly what powers he has been hiding. All we do know is that he was able to absorb Breakpoint’s sonic attack, and that he was able to throw a sonic blast of his own.
We really don’t know if the absorption power is in any way connected to the sonic blast power. They probably are, but there is nothing that says they have to be.
For example, maybe Hiro has a 3 dot energy blast power. He hardly ever uses it, since he can hit harder with his fists, and he can fly, so reaching his opponent isn’t ever a problem. He’s also got an energy absorption power. He can absorb various types of energy, and use that to supercharge his energy blast power. He soaks up Breakpoint’s sonic attack, and throws back a 5 point sonic blast.
That theory fits all the facts we have, and explains perfectly how he could stop Breakpoint’s attack cold, and then overwhelm her with a sonic attack. He’s not copying her power, he’s using a power all his own that she helpfully charged up for him.
There is no reason why Breakpoint should be immune to all sound based attacks just because she uses them herself. That’s kind of like saying anyone who uses a gun should be immune to bullets. Breakpoint might have been able to come up with a better defense if she had known what was coming, but it’s not like she knew, and it’s not like it took several seconds from the time Hiro fired his blasts to when they hit her.
She may well have better than average defenses against sonic attacks. That would explain why she remained conscious when hit by the same attack that knocked out the two other members of the Chaff Brigade that were threatening Hiro.
What DaveB did is not poor writing, nor can it be considered deus ex machina (which is just an even nastier way of saying “poor writing”, by the way). Poor writing would be to have a character whose powers have been pretty well established already jump in and suddenly prove to have energy absorption and blast powers. It would be pretty lame if Achilles did it, or Harem. We have seen them in action. We haven’t really seen Hiro in action before this.
+1
Although I would not say that the original argument was without merit. Things have been going very smoothly for the heroes. We are getting good entertainment, so no complaints, but the victories are gradually being chalked up to the good guys here.
So I agree with your counter-argument, which explains things nicely and contextually. But, in general, you would expect a blaster vs blaster battle to have a stickier ending, for the one on the receiving end. However the good guys are conducting solid team-work, with their tanks running interference for the squishies.
As such, I would not class it as being unrealistic. And certainly not bad writing. Just a bit one-sided. At the moment.
Historically in comics, having someone else use your powers has always been more effective. Case in point is when the White Queen mind controlled Iceman and used his powers far in advance of what he was able to do. (X-Men comic, not films)
Regardless….this is a comic…..sit back and enjoy the ride, else you just spoil it for yourself!
As RobK says Breakpoint was using a sonic attack to set Jiggawatt up for a beating, Hiro absorbed the sound and sent it out as physical force, while there might have been a sonic component to his attack it was mostly kinetic. So, even if she could cancel out, or absorb, sonic attacks, that still would have done damage.
Additionally, in order to cancel out the shockwave, she’d have to know the frequency, and match it.
She may not be able to do that even with a regualar sonic attack, atleast not before she got hit with it (as she couldn’t determine frequency if it hasn’t arived yet)
Yeah, it’s the same with Goose from the Galaxy Rangers: he had to get hit to be able to adapt and change his body
Not exactly match the wave as much as form the inverse 1+1=2 1+-1=0. Additionally the wave would have to be traveling in an identical vector to destructively interfere with the wave at more than one point of negligent size, which she might be able to if she can project from a point other than herself which does not appear to be the case. Also calling superenhanced super durability on all 3 because a pressure wave that caused enough compression to impulse a body 30ft through bushes would normally rupture internal organs at small fractions of that level.
I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if that was part of why it did more damage to Breakpoint- in her panic, she accidentally did 1+1, not 1-1.
I love how people just make shit up… The sound effect for Hiro’s return blast even says “sonic”, and yet you somehow decide that it’s mostly kinetic. Good for you, I guess you have access to the author’s notes and can correct him when he screws things up.
Not fully made up actually, seeing as an attack like this one might very well have a strong shockwave accompanying it. Or more of: Will have. Breakpoints attack on the other hand, not so much. Nor was it meant to.
BHAHAHAHA!!! We had “Master of Understatement”, now we have “Master of the Obvious” level up by at least 10 levels.
Also, yay new power exposition for Hiro! Anvil absorbs kinetic energy, Hiro absorbs sonic (which is also some form of kinetic energy, come to think of it).
And ow, Jigga’s ears are bleeding. Medic!
I think it will take one of Harem’s trank bands to get her to sit still for treatment right now. She’s pissed and about to take it out on the next mook that gets her attention.
Not just her ears, her nose is bleeding too and it even looks like she has a burst blood vessel in her right eye, fingers crossed that their Doc is up to the challenge.
psst… I think she has powers
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/709
Thing is, we didn’t need the exposition. It was fairly clear to us what Hiro was doing.
It should have been classified under, “never just explain how your powers work if it ain’t obvious.” The same as Anvil’s absorption, and Halo’s commball.
Hiro was mocking Breakpoint before he put her away. And the others didn’t even get a chance to process the words before they were airborne.
I knew he was blocking the sonic energy, but I wasn’t sure how, so I’m happy with the new info.
She also has blood in her right eye. If she weren’t already brown-eyed, she might have come out of this with heterochromia due to the iron in the blood permanently staining the irises.
now thats a power i would like to have. does it have to be aimed directly at him or can he absorb sound like if he was at a rock concert. how long can he hold the absorbed sound for?
With Hiro as bait,they were able to take out 3 for the price of one
Pretty much why Max sent him to tank the hit. (Hiro needs the ‘4 arrows converging’ Absorption power block added to his stat card) She knows his capabilities and knew that he’d make a tactically better shield for JW than she would.
A similar question has been asked about Anvil’s power, since any movement/impact would generate Kinetic energy for her to absorb.
I just imagined Anvil pulling something like what Harry Dresden used to do with his force rings before they got destroyed.
He had a bunch of rings designed to absorb a portion of kinetic energy anytime he moved. In emergencies he would release that energy as a kinetic bolt….sometimes from all of his rings at once…and after a while, each of his rings was designed to do the work of multiple of his original rings.
And, of course, now his new staff has that same spell carved into it dozens times over, but he can only release one bolt due to the limits he had for crafting when it was made….but it is a monstrous hell of a bolt.
If Anvil and/or Hiro read Dresden Files….that would get….interesting.
Repeat after me
Dresden Files the TV show,, Dresden Files the…..
Preferably on AMC. If they can do Walking Dead and Hell on Wheels…….
They already made one….it did not turn out well. I should clarify that it was not terrible, just average for a TV show.
I’ve got all twelve episodes on DVD! Yeah, I liked the show enough to buy them on sale. I haven’t read the books, but to my understanding the show was, “not meant to follow the same story. It is meant as an alternate world, where the overall background and story-world is similar, but not all the same things happen.” Maybe that’s why there wasn’t a season 2?
Basically yes. The story world wasn’t even really similar. They threw out 90% of Butcher’s worldbuilding, and what they replaced it with wasn’t as compelling.
I REFUSE to call that a Dresden TV show.
Really? A hockey stick?
That show looked like it was produced by a holdover from “Bewitched” and “I Dream of Jeannie” except without the good parts.
She and Sydney are going to get along JUST fine….
Haha, I’m going to agree on that.
Amen
Looking forward to the cursing contest :D
Who? There are a lot of people pronouned “she” around here. Breakpoint? I don’t think so. Maxima? Debatable. Jiggawatt. Yeah, probably, but watch that they do not start trying to out-snark each other.
jiggawatt is the she in this case i believe.
I think Halo and Maxima will get along fine. Maybe not as BFF’s, but more of a big sister/little sister relationship where Maxima is always looking after Halo and Halo, while glad that she (i.e., Maxima) cares, thinks she (i.e., Maxima) is overprotective towards her (i.e., Halo).
Yup. She can still fight….if she can get that big guy off of her. Love Jiggawatt’s face between panels 10 and 11!
“if she can get that big guy off her…” Gotta engine hoist handy? And some smelling salts for the lady.
“Engine Hoist,” I’m thinking “Construction Crane.”
What I would like to know is how they managed to get this guy to the fight location at such short notice after the press conference. He doesn’t exactly fit into a standard airline seat.
Maybe he was already in town* or has another “form” (like Bruce Banner/Hulk or Captain Marvel [Fawcett/D.C. version a.k.a. Shazam]/Billy Batson).
* Before anyone starts complaining that that would be too big of a coincidence, he or she should remember that everyone has pretty much accepted that Halo “just happened” to be in the “right” bank at the “right” time as the robbery.
Air Elbonia Transatlantic Catapult.
Kamakazi Airlines,
We will get you there.
Getting back is you problem.
Bonsai!
Somehow I don’t think he is the kind of guy to indulge in Japanese ornamental gardening. Here with the clue of the day is special guest star Ralph Macchio:
https://www.subzin.com/quotes/M9297b8ae/The+Karate+Kid/To+baby+trees.
FYI: for those of you wanting feel old, Ralph Macchio is now older than Pat Morita was when he appeared in the original movie.
So if 007 was transferred to the Japanese forestry division, his name would be Bonsai, James Bonsai?
If you are going to transport ebola around, I would prefer that you stay away from either side of the Atlantic. The 90% mortality rate is a wee bit above my comfort level, for it to be on the loose, anywhere on the planet.
That should be “Air Elbownia”, not “Air Ebolania”
Air Elbonia is from Dilbert. Elbonia is the 3rd world country his corporation exploits. Their airline is a bunch of big catapults. And aim for a fat Elbonian for the landing.
Yeah Jiggawatt! That’s telling ’em!
Did Hiro aim those bricks or did Breakpoint just miss a luck roll?
Probably just bad luck
Probably just rule of funny+rule of cool
Or off-panel lighthook intervention/redirection?
Yep the angular momentum of Hiro’s strikes should have sent them to 1 and 11 o’clock.
Not Shown:big Guy bouncing off Tree, Crystal bouncing of rubble in mid-flight.
The trees around here are having no luck and no doubt, Hex’s squirrel had scampered into that tree to try to get to sleep again. The squirrels are having no luck either.
So far this is turning out to be a proper shake down run for Max and the gang. There’s bad guys popping up like weeds left and right.
And getting properly whacked.
It won’t be long before they’re Round up.
It’s a good thing Arc Swat is good at improvising to act as weed-whackers…
Maybe they could tempt The Bushwhakers out of retirement :P
Well, I hope the doc’s healing powers extend to repairing ruptured eardrums, ’cause that’s pretty awful otherwise.
I wonder if there needs to be a kind of “Geneva convention” for super powers you shouldn’t use, such as permanently blinding people and the like. Otherwise, yeaouch!
No rules is the standard rule. Do unto others and hope they can’t fire back. That makes it easy to spot a good type, no matter what side they are on. They will not use their power like that. enough force but not too much. Which always starts a long debate about semantics. What constitutes “enough” and all that jazz.
Or at least they will try, when unknown powers are involved, among your opponents, it’s a judgement call at best.
Ruptured eardrums heal on their own, mostly, unless its a truly severe rupture, or complications set in.
From experience, the rupture itself doesn’t hurt. It was actually a sudden relief from the pain; apparently because the eardrum was no longer being distressed. After, it was just weeks of dull aches while the drum healed.
Before rupturing though… now that hurt.
That’s interesting, though makes sense if you think about it
I disagree, sort of.
I’ve had two ruptured ear drums (both of which were caused by trauma induced water activities) and those little bastards hurt like the dickens. The first one wasn’t…horrible per se at first, but I was drunk and it hurt progressively more as I sobered up.
The second one nearly incapacitated me for about 3 hours as I was sober during the whole event.
The pain subsided by the end of the day but it was surely there…
I’d be interested to hear how a ruptured eardrum which is ruled to be a “trauma induced water activity” can be incurred whilst drunk. Diving with dynamite? Grenades and going down? The old man and the deep blue sea with nitroglycerine? Ear ruptures and exploring the reefs?
Sounds like a good candidate for “Stupid home videos.” :-P
Trivia: eardrums hit from the centre out. A rupture towards the edge should heal just fine, but if someone sticks a sharp object through the middle you could be shit out of luck.
Those are not standard military hand signals JW is using. ;-)
The military has standard handsignals for ‘fucking doy’?
I’m kinda surprised to find out they don’t, considering how often such a response is needed.
When I was in, there wasn’t a “standard” hand and arm signal for ‘fucking doy’ but in hindsight we should have.
But then again, the fucking doy hand and arm signals depicted here would have been easily interpreted and accepted so maybe there are universal words that which DON’T need to be taught? lol
Same with ASL. Those aren’t the proper signs (I don’t think there is one for “doy” but there are plenty of stand ins), but no one will mistake you.
could always just spell it out for surety’s sake.
3 letter words are often spelled instead of creating a sign. Or like “apartment” is just A-P-T
Well, Jiggy’s last signal could be interpreted as “d’oh” instead of “doy,” but it’s still in the same context…
I suspect those words were left out of the military sign language on purpose to keep the grunts from insulting their leaders.
Speaking as a retired squid….
There are standard hand signals….and then there are official hand signals.
The first are not usually used around officers.
Do they include extensive use of the middle finger?
doy!
“…not usually used around officers.”
…Unless they’re turned around & can’t see it…
Who’s that mysterious guy chilling by the tree?
He’s been hanging out in that same spot for a while now. At least as far back as when Dabbler’s sword got embedded into it.
Reminds me of this Simpson’s guy:
https://i.imgur.com/5iiVH.png
“But Marge, that little guy hasn’t done anything yet. Look at him! He’s gonna do something and you know its gonna be good!”
I’d say that guy is the same as from panel 1 of https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189.
It’s definitely that “Challenge Accepted” (C.A. for short) guy, as the close up view in Panel 7 (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1358) shows the same facial markings/tattoos.
Side note, that linked comic is by far my favourite appearance of Dabbler in her battle-form, specifically because of her coy facial expressions.
I can’t believe I missed that one. Though he doesn’t look halfway as menacing as the first picture.
He looks dangerously like “Challenge Accepted” man in panel one of https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189.
Looks like we’ve found today’s BBEG, along with the other golden caped one identified before.
He and the Red cape are probably going to be the end bosses
They are the only ones we’ve seen so far that have done nothing but manicly stand around and observe.
My guess is, one for Maxima, and one for the rest of the team
I expect one if not both to simply leave without getting involved when things wind down. Unless Max or Sydney looks particularly vulnerable at some point…
If they get stopped, what can ARC do? “I don’t know these people, I just wanted a steak…”
They still could be held for questioning, as a person(s) of intrest, for 24 hours. If there isn’t any sufficient evidence to their involvement, then they would likely be let go.
if an attac like this can be considered a terrorist activity then under the overwhelming blanket of homeland security procedures they can detain for much more. This opens the issue of human rights towards superpowered abnormal humans and what is acceptable and what isn’t…I don’t remember anything in previous issues talking about this right now.
Yup, I think the powers that be would be well within their rights to invoke anti-terror legislation for a massive attack on an off-duty police unit.
The UK equivalent laws would allow individuals to be detained, without charge, for considerably longer than the normal 24 hour limit. And, even without declaring it a terrorist incident, I think a judge would be favourably disposed to a protracted investigation, in such unique and dangerous circumstances.
The legality of super powers was discussed here. Other than making it clear that comic-book concept of vigilante super heroes is not acceptable, the legislation does not differentiate between humans, with powers, and those without.
People cannot help being born with unusual powers, so it would be unfair to discriminate against them. If they use them in a criminal manner, they get treated as criminals. Although it has not been discussed, presumably if someone is unable to control their powers, and poses a danger to others, then suitable measures will need to be taken.
Perhaps isolating that person, until they can gain control of their powers. Or, if it is simply a matter of panic, lack of practice or understanding, then a mentor could be found to tutor them. But there need be no legislation.
It is the same kind of things that you do with people without powers. If they are bad you punish them. If they are good, they can go about life how they like. If they are dangerous, you do what has to be done to prevent the danger.
The courts, if they get involved, just need to be a bit more flexible in how to deal with a problem, if someone can walk through walls.
I’m betting he was hired as an observer. Red Cape might be too. Tough enough to be in or near the melee but with a prime power geared to fast escape. Teleport or Speedster. Or they are images, like Halo’s Telepresence orb power.
Seeing as he’s dressed in a business suit, he’s in the best position to claim he was just walking through the parking lot when all hell broke lose, and hid behind a tree because it seemed too dangerous to try to run through the firefight.
If any cameras capture his nonchalance, it’s a pretty easy defense to ask if there is a typical attitude one is supposed to take during a superhero brawl, and if he is informed of such he will be sure to adopt it the next time he’s caught in one. :-P
If I was a non-super investigator, working at Archon, I would not be looking at footage of this fight. I would be tracing taped footage, from other CCTV, around the city, to backtrack where these folks came from, and to see if there are any other clues, that could be picked up there.
Easiest of which to spot, amongst the others, would be if either of those guys had prior contact with the rest of the villains. All it would take is one piece of footage, showing them together, earlier, and you have circumstantial evidence, of prior association.
Which is one of the planks that would be necessary, in proving a case of conspiracy, to commit the various other crimes, we are witnessing. If you can find their rendezvous point, or even better a base of operations, and you will be able to gather a lot more evidence to support that case.
And that is without interrogating any of the prisoners. If they do not let her slip away, Hex looked like she would willingly spill the beans.
Sinister Dapper Gentleman is probably one of the ‘assessor’ capes (like Gwen, Leon and Zephan) who’s job is just to sit back and watch everyone else fight. “Ignore me, I’m unimportant.” powersets are handy like that.
Not being dressed in spandex is also handy like that. If he does nothing and is attacked, he can easily claim that he is just an innocent civilian caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and just look how out of control all these superhero types are, and maybe the government should think twice before inflicting them on a helpless public. That would do some damage to the just introduced ARC-SWAT reputation, at least.
He can claim what he wants. However if it can be proven, by regular police investigation, that he had prior association with any of these individuals, and a sound case can be presented, that convinces a jury, then he could be going to jail for a long time.
Many criminals have gone to jails for acting as look-outs for others involved in criminal activity. It may be harder to prove the case, but if it is done, then the courts do not treat conspiracy to commit murder lightly!
Pay no attention to the man behind the shrubbery!
Never mind the man *behind* the shrubbery, just bring the shrubbery to me or I’ll say “Nee!”
As opposed to saying “Ni!”?
If we’re not supposed to be paying attention to him, how will we know who you’re talking about when you say not to pay attention to him?
I was going to question who that was as well……On a side note after this battle royal there might not be many villans left. Win /Win
Yeah, i really like how he just stands there. Like – Oh I’d like to see where this is going, how is this guy going to defeat Breakpoint and what not…
His face is a bit hard to see, he might just be watching bunch of shirtless guys fighting and having delicious blood splattered all over themselves.
Panel 1: Missing neck-mounted communicator on Hiro.
:-( Can docs fix popped eardrums?
From WebMD for what it’s worth;
Typically, no specific treatment is needed for a ruptured eardrum; the vast majority of ruptured eardrums heal within three months. Your doctor may prescribe an antibiotic — either oral or in the form of eardrops — to prevent an ear infection or treat an existing infection. If the ruptured eardrum is causing you pain, the doctor may recommend using an over-the-counter pain medication such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Warmth may be applied also to relieve discomfort.
If the eardrum is slow to heal, the doctor may put a patch over the eardrum. In some cases, surgery may be needed to repair a ruptured eardrum. The surgery is usually done on an outpatient basis. During the procedure, which usually takes a couple of hours, the doctor will attach a piece of your own tissue to the eardrum to rebuild the eardrum. Surgery is most commonly used for large perforations, for perforations that involve the edges of the eardrum, or for ruptured eardrums caused by an ear infection.
While the eardrum heals, you’ll need to keep the ear dry. That means no swimming or diving until the doctor says the eardrum is healed. You’ll also need to use a shower cap or place cotton coated with petroleum jelly in your outer ear when you shower to keep water out. Other precautions include:
Not using medicine other than what’s prescribed by your doctor in your ear
Taking all the medicine prescribed by the doctor
Protecting the ear from cold air
Avoiding blowing your nose while the ear heals
Phew. THANK YOU.
Glad to help. Yeah, I expect the Arc’s doctor will have JW back to full health in just a couple hours.
The Ray (yet another hideously overpowered DC resident) had his injuries reset/healed every time he switched between solid and energy states. Jiggawatt might be lucky and get something similar, or she might bleed lightning if she switches now.
And the dock with healing powers can probably shorten the time it would take to heal (like she did with Sydney’s eye)
I wish I had a dock with healing powers.
The sailors would love me.
Repairing a ruptured ear drum is called a Tympanoplasty.
And it can knock you on your ass between 3-5 days with a sudden change in your equilibrium. The room spun for 3 days for me after my surgery.
Yes they can but normally it is not needed although a doctor should check to see if there the rupture is not so big that you do need surgery. Takes weeks to months for it to heal though on it’s own.
Hiro’s communicator got knocked off (I assume that’s what happened anyways) in the last comic.
Although while on on the topic of such things, I don’t think shrift is a word
“She got a bit of a short shrift during this melee.”
shrift
SHrift/
noun
archaic
noun: shrift; plural noun: shrifts
confession, especially to a priest.
“go to shrift”
absolution by a priest.
…And technically anything used as a word is a word, if you’re going to N@zi be sure to be correct or just let it go and enjoy the flow.
B
I was pointing out a typo of what I’m pretty sure was supposed to say shift.
It’s just a thing I noticed.
I said I didn’t think shrift was a word, thank you for correcting me.
Amusingly enough, the correct phrase is “short shrift”. It’s one of those expressions that hangs on in spite of the fact that the word “shrift” has largely fallen out of use. Hit up the internet search engine of your choice with the words “short” and “shrift” and you will see.
https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/short+shrift is one such link.
If it got knocked off last comic then why is he wearing it again in panel 2 of this page?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the ARCHON doctors could re-build her eardrums. They have the technology and/or magic. They can make them better than they were. Bigger, faster, stronger.
The only problem is that they tend to make an annoying ‘nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh’ sound whenever she tries to lift something.
Forget about when she lifts something, they make that noise every time she uses them to hear with (remember, when Stevie used his eyes they made that noise, can’t remember if it happened when Jaimie tried to eavesdrop on someone 2 blocks away)
There is another good reason why Max hasn’t mopped up the flunkies.
She wants them alive. If she is going to take them out in seconds an unknown number will be dead. She has no way to gauge how much they can take, as opposed to boilerplate who she could estimate based on the amount of punishment he’d taken from Hiro.
Oh an I thought suit guy would have high tailed it out of there after the close encounter with the sword.
And the winner for stupid instructions and proper responses goes to….
If that’s Concretia there, did she try to absorb glass windows from the surrounding area?
Chris Crystal is a new character. Edgy and sharp… like a bowling ball.
I’m going to call him Billy Crystal just for laughs.
His silence implies consent. Or unconsciousness. He got played like a piano.
+1
I was going with Crystal Bill, considering the spherical “glove” (?) in at the end of his right arm
Which brings me to my entry for the bi-weekly Easter Egg Hunt:
In frame 1, Crystal Bill has a mace-like protrusion in place of his right hand, but in frame 2, his right hand is clearly intact, and carrying a crystalline scimitar.
hrm… studying frame 1 again, I can see how it might actually be his left hand…
I withdraw my entry
If these guys had thought ahead and coordinated, Hex could have projected her beams through him to create a wide area dazzling effect that would have blinded their opponents. Their own ‘operation lightstorm’.
(In which case he would have earned the name ‘Crystal Light’)
Depends on if he is made from water or mineral crystals, the Bustier Buddies are lazers, so could morethanlikely melt ice
Her hair is different.
I’d guess it’s a different mook. Remember concretia also didn’t have shoulderpads, and different clothes
And no sword.
I wanted to point out how I love how Dave illustrates hearing loss in his panels. Whether it’s a blurry word bubble, or a constant “eeeeeeeeeeeee” going through Hex’s ears, it very well demonstrates the point.
Also, Jiggawatt is quickly becoming my favorite character here. Still not as good as Peggy, but that’s just a given.
Personally I’m putting Jiggawatt behind Sydney, Harem and Maxima but she’s been moving up =)
Yea. It reminded me of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82RTzi5Vt7w" beach scene, in Saving Private Ryan. Initially the muted sound when the leading character falls into the water. But again, immediately after, when he is shell-shocked.
Although, having the edge of super-powers, has allowed Jiggawatt to snap out of it, quicker than he did. I love how well Dave introduces characters, and makes them likeable. The only problem, that he may end up with, is if he makes them all too likeable. There would be no scope for rivalries, antagonism or other personality conflicts.
But, we can see, even at the top, that it will not be the case. The three-way-non-love triangle between Dabbler-Maxima and Arianna, being the case in point. I wonder what that relationship is like on the non-Maxima side?
I think Dabbler will enjoy teasing Arianna. But it just is not as much of a challenge, versus someone who cannot throw a tank half-way to the horizon.
This brings up the question: “How did Hiro discover he had this ability?” The team doesn’t seem to have anyone with sonic powers so he couldn’t have discovered it while sparring. Do all Supers innately know their entire power suite as they gain their powers? Or did Hiro have a comedic exchange with a death metal band super villain team? Or maybe Hiro absorbs all sound around him naturally?
Maybe he likes going to concerts and noticed he got stronger while there
Possibly Arc ran a series of attack types at him using various weapons. Start low and see what happens. They got to sound-based stuff and everyone including Hiro when, “that’s interesting,”.
What I find interesting is how (up until this point in the comments anyhow) everybody is assuming that his power is restricted to just sound. He could well be a broad-spectrum energy absorber. Presumably excluding kinetic energy, as that is Anvil’s gig.
If he is, then that is something that he could have found out easily in many different ways. But, even if it is just sound, then RobK‘s suggestion is a good one. Or it could have been even less than that. Many super-powers might be noticeable at less than combat intensity (or ear-drum rupturing rock concert level).
Presumably a super gets to feel some kind of sensation when a power is working. Even if it is not one that they are aware of yet. If he spends an evening listening to loud music, he might gradually build up a charge. Likewise walking by heavy roadworks, with cutters and other noisy, vibration-intense machinery may work a lot faster.
If his brain lacks any other way of providing feedback on the sensation, it might have made him feel like his bladder was filling up. In which case, he might have had a very unfortunate experience when he went to relieve the sensation, in the nearest rest-room!
Let us hope that no squishy humans were in the vicinity of the porcelain.
That “OK” sign is the letter F in ASL (American Sign Language), but I know a lot of non-deaf folks use it for OK. (Quite possibly the military–and no, I’m technically not deaf; I have very sensitive hearing, so I get overloaded on sounds easily, and too much sound is one of my migraine triggers…which means in a weird way I’m going deaf backwards…) So it’s still good to use. Just wanted to remind people who might also know some ASL that this is military hand-jiving…er, I mean military handsigns. *cough* Not necessarily the same as ASL (based off the French version) or any other sign language that is an actual full language.
…Personally, I think with so many kids and teens and twenty-somethings ruining their hearing, sign language should be an automatic second language which is mandatory, like learning French is in Canada. Except I think people would use it more, outside of Quebec. Relatively speaking.
Shouldn’t the 3 fingers be together for it to be F? I’d splay the fingers out for the “all good” sign. (ASL obviously just uses the letters O, K for “ok”)
I love how both of you overlooked Jiggawatt’s sign language XD
If you look around, I didn’t, it just didn’t have anything to do with his comment.
Suit guy is still standing around all casual like. He must have an impressive set of powers if he still stands there like that instead of helping the team to pick off Arc members. I hope he and cape guy will get into the action soon, I am curious what they can pull off.
Didn’t even see Breakpoints’ legs sticking out beneath “BigBoy”. Ha!
However…..since a lot of the guys have either lost their shirts in battle…or don’t wear them, it seems only fair to have the same happen to one of the distaff members of the battle. (If you know what I mean…nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
Maybe we can have a little girl from Kansas and her dog come along and take her shoes.
Hm. I think I would call Hiro’s ability a “directionally projected shockwave”? Reminds of the M18 Claymore mine.
“Claymore” – now THERE is a name / concept for a super.
Claymore as a name could be misinterpreted though as it also refers to a type of sword.
I know.
Ahh, but to an imaginative super, it merely provides him, or her, inspiration on how to develop the power. So the no-holds barred power is good for cutting down a platoon of enemies. But a more refined, controlled, release of the power, could provide continuous cutting energy in close proximity.
Akin to a sword, sonic-sword or lightsabre. And that would actually be a useful practice. If the individual could avoid expending all the energy in a single strike, then it can be useful for an extended period, or on multiple occasions. Likewise swordsman-like control will allow precision targeting of enemies, rather than broad area destruction.
Ok, in due course, such an individual will probably want to strike at single individuals, at range, which does not fit either concept precisely. But, Heavenly Sword showed how something like that can be pulled off, and still look like a cool Claymore-wielding hero. Preferably in a kilt.
And the most terrifying use of the power?
Super-Bagpipes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isxaq6yuKxE
When I first saw a picture of a Claymore mine I was amused and confused as to why the army posted a ‘this side toward enemy’ sign on it. I later learned that the mine has a steel plate on one side and a block of C4 packed with ball bearings on the other. This is one item you want pointed correctly. Somewhat more useful than the practice of labeling artillery shells as either ‘AP’ for anti-personnel, or ‘AP’ for armor-piercing.
Sarcastic Sign Language.
When a simple ‘Confirmed’ just won’t cut it.
OK where’s the like button? This comment deserves one. =)
Agreed :)
Sign language sarcasm, we need more of it. XD
Talk to a deaf person, they love that shit.
According to the numbers that Archon believed to be true right up until this fight, there would probably never have been a need to break the team up into smaller units. Arcswat couldn’t have been expecting to have to handle a violent super criminal more than half a dozen times a year, and the odds were pretty long against having to fight more than one of them at a time.
Remember back when supers were rare? Like, earlier this very morning in the comic?
Archon isn’t just for dealing with supers, though that is one of the major purposes of it. So maybe they anticipated other disasters/situations that would need their attention.
You are right, they might well be split up in non-combat situations.
That doesn’t explain Maxima hanging back during a fight. At least as far as Archon knew it wasn’t likely they would ever need to be split up during combat.
Exposing herself to fire from every opponent is hardly ‘hanging back’. Once she trains up Halo, to be able to be take her place in such situations, then she can be freed up to close to all the criminals, and assess how squishy they are individually, in order to take them down, without killing them.
Of course, if she wants tomorrow morning’s headlines to read “Police Massacre Thirty Supers“, she could just start blasting back indiscriminately.
Somehow I think the president would prefer to be reading “Police Capture Thirty Super Criminals“, as he eats his Cornflakes.
during the press conference, it was suggested the they could respond to natural disasters.
If you station everyone at a central location and fly them out to emergencies… even at Mach 3, you may find yourself staring out the jet window and twiddling thumbs for an uncomfortably long period of time.
(Which is why my gps testing used Mach 20 in the test data… Mach 3 is slooooow over the arctic circle).
So you break up your team into penny-ante reaction forces and station them across the nation. Then, if you need super help quick, you can have boots in the ground in just an hour to two.
Besides… Do you need the whole force to deal with one unruly super? Not everything will require the whole team. If it does, consolidate forces before attacking.
Definitely not a proper combat military organization, yet. First, the NCO would have given better direction than just “Assault Enemy”, and a soldier had better not get snarky in a combat situation. That can get the soldier in all kinds of trouble. One of the things to go over during the debrief is better communications, and taking combat a lot more seriously. Definitely some discipline issues that need to be addressed here, but that is to be expected when dealing with absorbing civilians into a military organization without some sort of proper indoctrination protocol like Basic Training and AIT.
Actually Hiro is a proper soldier (a Major). They are simply a little informal
However, this is a comic, and the Rule of Funny trumps all. Just laugh at the joke, and move on
+1
Arc may contain military personnel but they are detached. The majority of powered individuals are civilians under contract. They are here to do good, not waste time saluting. Max despite her ability to look STRAC, was just as loose until, for her sins, she was put in charge of the SWAT team. And she is still out of uniform. Which sets the beat for the music the others are dancing to.
Why would she be in uniform? As far as I can tell, they were on leave/off duty or whatever when they were attacked. It’s not like they can tell the bad guys. “Just wait one second there. No fair attacking us until we’ll back on duty!”
Except for the opening of the press confrence where she wore her Air Force blues, her current outfit is her working uniform.
I didn’t check to make doubly sure, but I believe that Jiggawatt is at the recruit level, just like Halo. Meaning neither one has had much formal introduction to military curtesy, and like others have said, it’s a mixed bag team and I don’t expect too much formality to rub off on either of those two.
Well she knew enough to understand the signals of ‘attack’ and ‘enemy’, which I doubt is the first thing recruits learn
Archon has been around for a while, preparing to go public. They already have some team practice under their belts. The only person out there completely untrained is Sydney.
I take it as jiggy received pound hard from the signs she saw as a recruit wouldn’t know the advanced signs of the military when normal soldiers don’t know the advanced signs either that’s if hiro was using proper hand signs
RobK: Forgot to give you a big thumbs up for using the word “mook”. One of my favorites, and sadly under-used these days.
the convention fan-group i’m in calls our security “Mooks” and if we’re in polite company, they get called “Da’ Boys” instead. and let me tell you, in 20+ years of throwing parties at cons, we’ve only had one, maybe two instances where we actually had to call out the mooks to take care of a problem that their mere presence “somewhere” in the party space didn’t quell outright…
Hahaha I love the “Fucking Doy” sign language :D
Meanwhile the fadora bandit still continues to watch…
Love that name: The Fedora Bandit, or maybe, The Fedora Felon? Felonious Fedora?
Jiggy is going to be more careful in the future. Now that she’s ruptured her eardrums, it’s gonna be A LOT easier for it to happen again. That is, assuming META (I use that term loosely) physiology is similar to normie physiology…
Also asuming Superdock can’t fix them completely.
Though even than, I doubt she’ll be enjoying rock concerts the way she used to. Severe pain like this can really attatch itself to sensations (in this case, loud sounds)
What’s with the extra K on Doc? I’ve seen it several times in the comments so I can’t believe it’s just a type, especially since those keys are 5 keys apart. Is there some significance I’m not aware of?
I believe the first time was a typo, perhaps caused by english being a second language(?), that then immediately became an “in house joke”.
You know, I have no idea. (both docks are me actually)
It’s probably a brainfart that somehow my mind confused the words dock and doc (because they sound the same), and the second time I typed it (not that long apart), my brain was still in that mode.
I type blind and pritty fast. My brain just thinks up the words, and my hands type it. So I ended up with the wrong version of the same phonetic word
Similar here: brain thinks something and the fingers type something else (sometimes completely different word)
That, and failing to take a few seconds to proofread yourself before clicking on the Submit button doesn’t help either.
Yes, me too…Guilty as charged.
Fair enough =)
Same by me.
Naughty puppy :P
You are not wrong concerning her now having a maybe complex with loud noises and/or auditory attacks. I’m more hesitant to JUMP into water and even more going into depths greater than 5 feet without plugs in my ears.
I can’t imagine that Operation Shiny going much better than Operation Hit the Hiro. Best case scenario you distract her into smacking the shit outta someone for a bit. Worst case Max reminds her what she’s doing or a cry for assistance distracts her from the distraction.
I am kinda looking forward to seeing what they come up for that operation.
The diamond super would have lasted longer if he(?) had tried to distract Halo (reflective surface) instead of trying to jump Hiro.
Well that depends on how safe you concider it to have Halo’s attention
Safer than your unshielded electronics in my uninsulated hands.
Not nearly as safe as your stuff on my workbench and me wearing a shitload of electrostatic safety gear.
When Hollywood gets around to making a movie out of Dave’s comic, I’m pretty sure the noise they are going to use for Hiro’s sonic blast will be the ‘Inception’ BWOONNGG! sound. They have used it everywhere else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=830I9w7I7wM
We know the local news crews are now filming the fight. When they get to showing this point on the nightly news broadcast, you know their sound guy will dub in ‘Holding out for a Hero’ in the replay.
“Or course the question has also been asked as to why Maxima hasn’t wasted most of the bad guys with her super speed already, and there are a number of reasons.”
Max is doing what she’s supposed to. Her job as CO is not to jump in and fight everyone at once, it’s to hang back and observe the entire battlespace, so she can effectively coordinate her team’s tactics. She’s also acting as a reserve – if one of the team gets tied up with someone whose powers play to their weaknesses (like with Breakpoint and Jiggawatt), she’s available to jump in and rescue her teammate. Or, like we saw here, free up someone caught in a slugging match who is better suited for the enemy in question.
Running around trying to take out everyone leaves her open to getting tied up with someone who might be able to stand up to her for even a couple of minutes. If that happens, she loses her ability to coordinate the team, and to react to any changes in enemy tactics.
Imagine that Maxima had ordered everyone else to stand inside a shield bubble with Sydney at the start of this fight. Then she goes out and takes down as many of the bad guys as she can.
The prevailing theory on why there are so many low powered attackers is that there is a big bad guy hanging around in the background watching, who wants to learn about the powers Arcswat didn’t show off at the press conference.
Having Maxima take care of all the “chaff” would be a much better strategy all around. She’d have been able to trounce every single one of the bad guys we have been shown in action with one hit, while not giving the big bad guy any new information.
Except Maxima is obliged to assume that the enemy have a plan to take her down. Otherwise why would they still turn up after her demonstration? Without that fact, your plan has merit.
With it and it reads as “Isolate Maxima from any support, allow the enemy to implement plan ‘Kill Maxima’, out of sight of anybody”*
Clearly the most important reason why it is happening this way, is because it is interesting to see all the heroes and villains strutting their stuff. But DaveB has given reasonable consideration to Maxima’s role in this.
Just like any good warrior, she is not needlessly exposing herself to counter-attack. Whist she had more enemies than she could easily track, she kept her distance, to allow herself the time to dodge any attack that looked particularly dangerous.
And the strategic advantage of having a commander in an overview position is highly significant. The fact that she is the leader making it all the more important that she does not get taken down. Taking an unnecessary gamble is not wise. She has alternative strategies available to her, and is using a slow-and-steady tactic.
Which also stops her from panicking her enemies into making a rash move. So long as the battle is contained into a series of small, controlled fights, the surrounding city is at minimal risk. Make powerful supers scared, and mushroom clouds could start disrupting the sunset!
* They would be inside the restaurant and she would have to go out.
Right. Oh, except that not right. Maxima is the most powerful super known. She has only been fought to a draw by two supers, and one of them is dead (we think) while the other is on her team.
Halo has a rank 5 force field. Maxima has a rank 5 blast. There’s absolutely no reason why Maxima couldn’t have ordered the team and civilians present (who were not protected at all, I have to note) into Halo’s force field while Maxima just laid waste to the villains. If Maxima runs up against any difficulty, the team is there to bail her out if they can.
As I said before, the speed with which Maxima took out Bronze Breast Plate Man, about 2 seconds, means that with 30 supervillains this could have been a 60 second fight. Maxima seemed to welcome the attack, she should be laying waste to the fools who thought they could challenge her.
I understand a lot of the points behind most of your argument, and I don’t entirely disagree.
Let me preface with an acknowledgement of how OP Maxima is based on what we know about her. Next to nothing -Physical- should present her with a serious issue (baring of course the hostage defense, and even that is not an insurmountable one).
On the ‘lay waste to them’ idea… The news people have already brought up the concern of letting Maximia booms in city limits. It would be a victory for the day, but would validate everyone’s concern.
Granted, knocking the building down isn’t a great start… but at least you can say ‘And that over there is where the ENEMY cut off a piece of the building to trap Achilles’. A giant crater with Maxima written on it on the other hand… Plus no prisoners.
On the chance that you meant lay waste with fists: True, but then we reach our second problem. Numbers. We are betting that of the 12+ villains gathered here NONE of them can incapacitate Maxima.
Let us not forget that Maxima has complained/mentioned ‘Sticky Air’ I think it was, as what allowed her to be stopped. — Keep in mind that it need not be sticky air exactly. There is other stuff out there that could also stop a Superman+ like Maxima. Like the ability to induce Uncontrollable Laughter or some other random thing.
One villain with that power and suddenly we are in your ‘Then support Maxima when things go south’ part of the argument:
They are now down 2 very important things:
1.) The commanding officer.
2.) Their heaviest hitter.
Otherwise a sound plan.
———–
Last thing that occurred to me just now: This may spawn a ‘Chosen One’ effect.
Imagine the thought of: “Only Maxima can save us! The rest of ’em cower behind a forcefield while she cleans house!” Way to make team ArcSWAT look weak.
Anyway, like I said: I don’t disagree with you about how quickly Maxima SHOULD be able to take out bad guys, but it is not the ideal solution.
[In the case that a Maxima removing effect is used]
I’m not sure I see any reason why such an attack can’t do exactly that regardless of whether Maxima leads the charge or stands back as a reserve.
Maxima leading the charge has the immediate benefit of not exposing Heatwave to a foot injury, Jiggawatt to potential hearing loss and general bleeding and bruising, Achilles to being buried under rubble, Hiro to getting pummeled bloody by Boilerplate Man, and new recruit and completely untrained member of the team Halo to nearly being murdered. Plus any other team members who are injured during this fight.
Certain powers, usually very powerful ones, can only be used by touch. For example Anvil’s kinetic absorption. If there had been a five point version of that amongst the villains, Maxima’s attacks would only serve to charge her up. And give the villain enough return fire-power to kill Maxima outright.
Likewise there could have been any number of other deadly close range attacks. These villains were a complete unknown. Maxima is a military commander, not some gung ho cowboy. She needed reconnaissance, and intel.
Plus, whilst she is in the air, and holding aggro, she is keeping those weaker members of the team safe, by drawing the aggro of the bulk of the enemy forces. Which she does by keeping most of her variable power pool diverted to her defences and either her reaction speed or her flight speed.
The latter options allow her to dodge any incoming attacks. Something she is less likely to be able to pull off successfully if engaged at point blank range.
I do agree that she could charge the enemy, and take them out, but not without some considerable risk. If she is trying to overcome their super-defences, she will need to take power out of her defences and divert it to her offensive capability. Which will leave her vulnerable to the constant numerous attacks.
Remember, she is not Super Man. When you look at her stats sheet, it only shows fives in all of them, because she can swap her abilities around fairly fast, to simulate being that capable. In situations like this she has to be very careful not to expose her greatest weakness. The fact that she is actually only moderately capable in most of her abilities, at any one time.
Possibly the villains know that weakness, and have been keeping her under steady attack, all this time, to prevent her from using just the tactic you are describing?
Waiting for Maxima to lower her defences, in order for her to be able to attack swiftly and deadly. Only to find all the villains unleash their most powerful counter-attacks at her, simultaneously. Knowing she will not be strong enough to deflect them all.
Actually, Max told Hiro (a flying super) to get the civvies out of the area in the same panel she told Harem to get the Barret and then run Lightstorm.
Sorry, wrong page. Last panel of the page before. “Halo, put your shield up and keep it up! Harem! Equipment run! Major (Hiro) take care of the civvies!”
Except that, if you go back to page #204, you’ll see Max and Hiro noting that the number of enemy supers attacking them is more than the number of “combat capable” supers they thought existed in the US. It’s not a stretch to think that maybe one or two of those might approach Maxima at least in physical power. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a draw to end with a tragedy for the team, they only have to tie her up for a few minutes.
On top of that, they don’t need to be as “powerful” as her to be a problem. Dabbler isn’t nearly as powerful, but still has abilities and skills that allowed her to fight Maxima to a standstill.
What if the team gets inside Sydney’s shield while Maxima fights? Well, if I were the enemy commander and that happened (and I was truly evil), the first thing I would do is send my “anti-Maxima” people after Max. Then I would send the rest out to hunt civilians. That would lure the team out from the shield real fast, but now their commander is tied up and unable to coordinate, the team is scattered chasing after enemy supers with unknown abilities, AND the bad guys are still at full strength with enough numbers to swarm individual team members while they’re away from possible support.
And all it takes is one or two who are able to demand Maxima’s full attention for just a few minutes.
+1
It is like the tradition of the martial arts stand off. He who looses his cool first attacks and is at a considerable disadvantage. Having the initiative, in a fight, is only useful if you can use it to strike the enemy before they are ready for you.
If they are staring you in the face, you are not going to surprise them, and only open yourself up to a counter-attack, exploiting any weakness in your attack.
In this fight, the enemy were ready, and quite clearly watching, for Maxima’s attack. But she did not blink. She did not over-extend herself, or her unit. And the slow, but steady, tactics are reaping ample rewards.
There’s also the point that if the fight can be handled by the lower-powered members, it makes sense to have the big guns in reserve. After all the bad guys might have THEIR big guns in reserve.
Which the guy above me just pointed out!
Yeah… but the counter to that is we’ve already revealed several classified powers…
Which ones?
Sydney hasn’t revealed anything that she didn’t show off at the presentation – shield and tentacle are it for her this fight. We didn’t really see anyone else talking about what their powers were, so we can’t say for sure if they’ve shown off anything that isn’t known publicly already.
Y’right, technically that statement was a bit of a reach. I assumed the bads all watched the press conference, so I expect that if they didn’t already know Hiro was absorbing the sound, that he didn’t mention that he could. And while Max tells Sydney that some of Anvil’s powers are classified (absorption), it’s possible that none of the bads realized that’s what was happening (they could just believe she’s super tough/grounded and strong/kinetic).
Next time, HappyHead! Next time!
Hiro revealed his ability to absorb and return sonic energy, and perhaps other energy types as well. With a better effect than the originator of that energy, as a bonus, and regardless of how distasteful that ability seems to be to me.
The effect of blurring that line was quite effective at conveying massive tinitus screech blocking out all sound. I read that line as “(LOUD HIGH PITCH SOUND)”
I read it as (everything damped down to unclear low frequency low noises) much like having one’s ears thickly covered with cotton.
Note that a severe enough damage to the eyes, or if something were to happen where they were flooded with blood, can cause eye color to change….it apparently stains the melanin in the irises.
Jiggawatt has brown eyes, so she’s unlikely to have this happen. But I did run a story once where a hard blow to the head caused a character’s left eye to go from blue to blue stained with patterns of reddish-brown.
This looks more like a subconjunctival hematoma-there is a space between the bruising and where the cornea attaches to the sclera (white) of the eye. If the iris of her eye was damaged (and where her eye color comes from), the blood would fill the anterior chamber of the eye and she would be having trouble seeing out of it. That particular injury should heal on its own in a couple of weeks, like any bruise would.
We see some familiar faces here:
Looks like Concretia has got a new body, now that Peggy is no longer holding her down. Does not prevent her from getting one shooted by everyone so far.
Also in the first panel, standing at the tree there is someone looking suspiciously like the guy from the first panel in this comic:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
That isn’t concretia. Wrong hairstyle, shoulder pad addition, change of hand into a mace, addition of a sword, change of clothing from tank top and form fitting pants to boxers and to top it of wrong gender.
One more for the manual “When fighting sonics, keep your mouth open to relieve the pressure and prevent your eardrums from rupturing.”
What, like yawning to relieve pressure in an airplane?
That never really worked out for me, atleast not fast enough to be of any effect in such a situation
Thought it was chewing to relieve the pressure
Limiting the pressure on the tubes by chewing is an undependable side-effect for you may or may not stretch the muscles that actually have a say in the matter.
There are three ways:
1. Swallowing – works way better than chewing.
2. Open your mouth so wide that you almost lock your jaw.
3. Learn to control the muscles which directly have said effect – somewhat like yawning without opening the mouth.
If it works you’ll be rewared by some kind of wet “pop”. If it doesn’t you are either doing it wrong or your inner ear tube is blocked due, for instance, some kind of infection.
If you are diving make sure to release the pressure every less than 1 meter / 3ft addition dept. You may not want to have succeeded otherwise. :-/
Anvil absorbs kinetic energy, while Hiro absorbs sonic energy. Both can then redirect their absorbed energy, Anvil at touch range and Hiro by blasting it. Have I got that right?
I believe so yes. Though we have never seen Anvil release stored energy yet. We know she gets stronger as she gets hit more, and we can asume that it’s this strenght she used for the noseboop of doom, rather than actually releasing the energy.
So we don’t know HOW exactly Anvil would release the stored energy. We also don’t know the specifics of Hiro’s absorb powers yet
Anvil releasing stored energy.
NOSE BOOP of DOOM!
I dont think that order were “fucking doy” though, Hiro might as well have instructed her to fall back and let the rest of Archon mop things up.
But if the recruit didn’t give shit to the Major, how would this be funny?
Really, if the recruit (Jiggawatts rank) didn’t give shit to the Major (Hiros rank) how would this be funny? Oh, right, it might not be.
Even in Aliens when the enlisted gave shit to the Officers the NCO came down on their ass like a load of bricks and made their lives hell for it. Including supers should not mean eliminating discipline and respect for rank. If anything it should be enhanced, just as the security around nuclear weapons and materials is enhanced.
Really, setting ARC-SWAT as a military unit might have been a huge mistake. There would be too many courts martial for all of the rules breaking and that would take up a large amount of pages. Or the entire military organization will just become a joke, with all of the obvious consequences.
Right now, it’s heading for the entire military organization becoming a joke. Sadly. An author can set the setting, but then that setting needs to be respected. Or the setting and then the story falls apart. You can’t make the setting a military organization and then demonstrate how the military organization is ignored or superseded. Some choices need to be made here. Unless simple slapstick is the goal, in which case, bang on!
There was a point a while back where Halo ‘attacked’ (tackled? Glomped?) Dabbler just after Dabbler produced a hand weapon capable of killing satellites. Which I’d have expected immediate and dire punishment for. This resulted in a timeout box being used for a period of time.
I don’t think the goal is a strict military organization. Think on this:
You have someone who literarily cannot be jailed (Harem), several who are immune to point blank atom bombs, and a foreign national who has likely not disclosed her full capabilities. Several of the people can’t be disciplined in conventional ways, locking them up is at times pointless (harem). Corporal punishment is at times pointless (Achilles).
You can ask for strict military discipline. Is that possible with a super force? Will 20 lashes really convince Achilles to not use the weapons testing range for his daily jogs, or anything else for that matter? And where would Dabbler fit in a military organization?
Just remember the primary mission statement. “The rule of funny trumps all”. When comparing it to Aliens, do remember that the movie was a straight sci-fi drama/horror. This is a comedy comic, first and foremost.
That might allow you to relieve the uncomfortable feeling you are suffering.
I just noticed Math having “ranged attack 3” power on the cast page – that’s Heathwave level (and we all have seen her melting through tank armour). Hadoukens, anyone?
We’ve seen him use that…I think it represents tossing missiles of opportunity (like the steak knives in the steakhouse) and not Ki blasts.
Well, we already know “western”-type magic, which relies on knowledge and formulas do exist in GP world, so it wouldn’t be surprise to anyone if weaboo fightan magick exist too.
I’m not sure how such an attack that would be classified, but Math doesn’t have any super powers, just a ridiculous amount of skill, so I’d assume it means throwing things.
Actually, Math has super powers. He says he got them from intense martial arts training.
not quite he said he’s on par with superpowered levels because of martial arts.
justahumansayswhat?
I absolutely love this comic, but I must say I look forward to its future. I’m really hoping a villain is introduced that doesn’t get utterly hammered within a few pages or the like, a villain that could go toe to toe with Maxima. But obviously this would be much further along in the comic.
There have been a couple of hints that that is, indeed, the direction this comic is going.
Firstly, we have Maxima saying that there is someone who fought her to a standstill, and as far as she knows, is dead. Comic book rules dictate that he is alive and plotting revenge. (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/989)
Secondly, we have seen 2 characters in this battle royal who have done nothing but observe.
One of them (the guy in the suit. This page, first pannel, to the right) observes the entire fight.
The other one, who has been named Red Cape by the comments, has done nothing but observe Maxima, to the point of casually backhanding someone instead of moving (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1311).
We can asume that those 2 are the big villains. I’d wager Red Cape is even the dead guy that fought Maxima to a standstil
My bet is it’s Islamic dude from “Fingers to maximum steepleage!” given where max was stationed and injured. He may or may not be red cape but whether he is or not he seems to be watching Halo as well (or he may just be looking in that general direction because one of Hex’s errant beams hit him from there).
Islamic deal for the fight Max to the stand still and she hope’s he’s dead.
A super villian does not observe the fight. They send a ordinary human lackey to observe and record and report. Thus keeping off the radar.
Unless, of course, they are trying to wear down the hero before dealing with them themselves.
As a super-villain I’d be scouting only.
Detail the powers of each player, analyze videos. Identify likely weaknesses and ploys. Carefully plan the defeat of each.
Know my enemy and victory is mine. If I were of a mindset for a Xanatos gambit then I would show u and get caught early, before doing anything actionable in a court… Revealing a false set of weak powers. But I never did care for Xanatos. I’d be watching the news broadcast from a hotel room.