Grrl Power #232 – Test your equipment before fielding it
Yeah, Heatwave’s probably going to lose that toe, and she’s definitely out of the fight, so -1 to Arc-SWAT. Heatwave isn’t one of the big guns but super powered battles can shift quickly. I guess they’re kind of like Magic the Gathering in that regard. Someone can be all “Ooh gravity powers, no more flying or projectile attacks, combine that with “Make it Rain Man” to wet the ground and “Lightning Dancer” and all your grounded teammates are shockstunned. Booya.” And then the other guy is all “Oh, thanks for supercharging my Man of Iron card, +10 Repulsive blast!” Someone ought to make a game like Magic but with superheroes. As as I type that I realize that given the popularity of Magic back in the day (is it still mega popular?) there’s almost no chance that there isn’t a superhero CCG. Probably several actually.
So, Glowbug wasn’t quite taken down by Heatwave on page 219. If you recall, Glowbug is a cameo for one of the Patreon big ballaz, Shana Hills, though honestly it’s questionable how good a likeness it is. Amusingly I had this page almost totally penciled before I thought “Hey I should email Shana and make sure she’s ok with kind of her face in a one woman wet t-shirt contest.” Luckily no worries mate. Did I mention she’s Australian? She tells me that really only the older generation that says Streuth! but hey I’m an American which means that 90% of what I know about Australia is the word streuth, barbie, dungarees, funky mammals, opera house, sheilas, shitloads of poisonous stuff and “that’s not a knife…” Oh, also, when I was in high school, someone told me there’s way more women than men in Australia for some reason so when soldiers get leave they always go there and they get mobbed by horny sheilas. Apparently that’s the sort of stories high schoolers come up with when they hear there are 100,000 more women in Australia than men, ignoring the fact that the country (currently) has a population of 22.7 million people, making for a 0.4% disparity.
Writing for comics can be weird. The last panel originally had Glowbug saying “of course” but with a long “of.” It’s one of those situations where there’s no great way to write it. If I write”offfffff” it looks like off, and if I write “oooooof” it looks like oof. Uuuuuv was the best way to make it read phonetically, but then suddenly switching to a phonetic spelling would throw some people. After I drew the panel I decided it was fine to leave out the text, so it worked out, but things like putting emphasis on words, and trying to write subtle accents can be really tricky.
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*starts erecting an age gate, fast*
“Checking the cameras for the footage”
What timezone are you in that you were able to post a comment so early?
Because where I am it’s just after 5AM.
I just don’t sleep much.
Might go to bed soon though, as my thoughts degrade in quality with time spent awake.
Is this even a thing to be typing, in a place where other people would read it?
Meh.
Does nobody here sleep?
5 more comments came up while I was typing that.
Why would I be asleep? It’s only 9pm here in wonderful Australia.
It is 11:24pm in the even wonderfuller NZ (the new page comes up at 11pm for me)
Update here in Texas is 6 AM, so I usually either start replying at 7 (around 50 comments) or 8 (100).
It’s 4 AM here, but I’m a night creature on these hot summer days.
Make that 1pm in germany – those releases always are well timed for lunch. :-)
Noon in UKian time (except for a coupleof weeks in March ‘cos we switched to Daylight Savings on a different w/e to the USA)
Ben Franklin has a LOT to answer for over Daylight Savings time. I know it wasn’t instituted till WWI but he’s the SOB that first suggested it, as a means of saving on lamp oil.
6 am here, which is fine during school, but during summer I’m fast asleep.
NVM, 5am, the comment system is weird and says 1hr back from when it’s actually posted.
Comic always goes up at 1pm for me, so perfect time to wait for the comic
The comic comes up at 2 pm, my time (GMT+2).*
* Galactic Mean Time
8:23 pm here in Western Australia
DaveB is in Texas, which is uses North American Central Time (Daylight right now) and schedules his new pages to release at 6 AM local time. Here in the Eastern time zone, new pages appear at 7 AM. Good for a giggle before work.
good luck with your erection yorp.
If he needs help after viewing this page, then he needs help :P
+1
+1 +1 +1
man what if an age gate was like a Stargate and you inputted a series of commands and the esoteric symbols matched up in a certain way and when you passed through you’d come out the other side a certain age wouldn’t that be weird? like you go through it once so you can drink or vote or rent a car or whatever then go back through so you can go to a Justin Beiber concert un-self-consciously then go through again to get senior discounts on food and movies and stuff man that would be awesome wouldn’t it? I think it would I would totally be getting early bird specials up in this piece mmm pancakes
At first, I was agreeing with this comment.
then…
wut.
Okaaay, just give me the sharp, pointy thing in your hand. Good. Now let’s just go over here and sit down and think calm thoughts. You remember what happened on ST:TNG when Picard, Guinan, Keiko and Ro Laren went through the transporter and were de-aged? There was also a DS9 episode where Molly ended up older, without everybody else living the years in between and an Original Series episode where some people got older. Hmm, none of the “old” make up really looked like those actors do now that they are that age. ;)
Heh, remember Westley aged to adulthood by Riker-Q? The actor looks nothing like Will Wheaton does today.
https://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Wesley_Crusher,_age_25.jpg
So glad to see Glowbug again :D
…In this particular circumstance, REALLY glad to see her…
Cannot get the creepy chills outta my head when I see how Heatwave got hit…
Also, it would seem Halo is giving Achilles a run for his money…
Achilles was last seen burried in rubble, after Heavenly Sword put him in there.
Then hex destroyed the building on top of him and burried him under even more rubble.
I gues Maxima thought “Halo makes a good ersatz-Achilles”.
Achilles still has other minor powers and signiificatnly more experience then Halo.
Plus once she get to use her other orbs more, she will be to busy to be replacement for him.
At least you didn’t have her saying “Crikey!” :P
I can confirm never having encountered a non-ironic strewth or crickey – plenty of “no worries” though, that one does get said plenty! :) Or “hor yeah”, which I’m not even sure how to transliterate.
(NSW disclaimer applies.)
2 things:
Firstly; who is that buried under the rubble at the end of a crash landing?
Lastly; Halo is going to be on a lot of hitlists simply for her arrogance (and annoyance)
I think that’s Mook #1. Nose booped into oblivion. He did carve a gouge in the parking lot.
As for Halo, “Annoying” is her middle name. And drawing aggro is her game.
Possibly, and the crater is near Yorps’ mistress, but thought he was already rounded up by Harem
Without Sydney or a derrick, moving him is going to have to wait.
We are seeing another angle on panel 5 in this scene. As confirmed by the remains of the burning tree. The consensus of opinion, for that issue, was that the crater had indeed been dug by Nose Boop. Clearly he lacks fast recovery/ regeneration (or possibly also needing spontaneous self-resurrection).
Thought he landed facefirst though
He exited the exited the steakhouse backwards, so it is entirely consistent that he would remain in that orientation, as he ploughed through the asphalt, to land as we see him above.
Thank you, for some reason was picturing him flying face down
well that changes my list… Then who is the shirtless guy with black pants in the very bottom corner of #224
Good question. Maybe he is like Harem and can duplicate himself?
Maybe he was mook 2 who shouted “First blood!”? If his crystal hands depended on him being conscious, he’d have reverted to normal by now. And if someone from Archon was kind enough to give him pants, of course.
Very possible. Could it also be where Boilerplate ended up after getting backhanded by Maxima?
I think he landed outside the parking lot. Maybe in the next time zone.
I sunburn easily, so Glowbug has some sympathy from me. But she did herself in on that last attack.
Pease for the love of god stop showing that knife in Heatwave’s foot. For some reason I can handle missing limbs and disembowelment just fine, but a knife between the fingers or toes? Or even worse, under the nails? Freaks me the fuck out.
I’m glad you decided to leave out the dialogue in the last panel, it’s absolutely perfect the way it is.
Also, what exactly is Halo so awesomely deflecting in that panel? Is it an energy beam? It would raise some interesting questions about that tentacle if so.
Whatever Halo deflected seems to be an object. You can just make out an outline within the energy haze at the end of it’s path.
Page 206 there is another shot of her throwing an object surrounded by a charge and trailing a comet tail.
Well, not having had the chance to sniff her, to confirm her identity, that could be mistresss. In which case the only things she might be throwing are a stick or a bone!
*runs to fetch*
You just want an excuse to fetch don’t you?
He shows dogged determination.
Grabs a frisbee and tosses it a few times for Yorp, just to get him some exercise and occupy his mind.
I’m sure your mistress will give you a treat later Yorp.
Isn’t your mistress a blonde? This lady clearly has brown hair. Even with only two colour receptors (to allow for more rods for better low-light vision), you can tell the difference between light and dark hair.
Shhhh! That has been put on the to-be-fixed list. Or maybe she will get her blonde hair back, over the weekend.
I’m with Maddock here! Seeing Colonel Glass get blown to smithereens is tolerable, but for some reason seeing the knife penetrating Heatwave’s toe is making me cringe something fierce! And what’s worse is that she’s doing the wrong thing by kicking it.
An injury like that needs to be left alone. Leave the knife in, and stabilize the wound. Elevate the foot above the heart by lying down.
And if anyone receives a similar injury like this in the work place, best strategy is to NOT remove the footwear, and wrap the foot in duct tape until you receive medical attention.
Like, I know she’s not the brightest bulb, but I would hope that Heatwave received first aid training before being put out in the field o_O
Well Heatwave has been stated to get taller and fill out when she’s got her powers going. If she can get the knife out, then turn off the heat, her smaller status might help the wound to close (or, if she reverts back to a certain state when unpowered, might nullify the injury entirely).
Being trained and being cool enough under pressure to remember your training are two vastly different things. A reaction like her’s is normal, even if wrong.
Well yeah, Glasshole has been shown, repeatedly, growing back missing limbs in seconds
Removing the knife from wound can also be nervous job, since the sharp edges may cause additional injuries if the knife moves in a wrong way during removal. Serrated or barbed blades and irregular pieces of glass are ever more nastier. Removing “snaggles” from wounds (pieces of metal torn apart by explosion) are real nightmare, since torn-apart metal can form razor-keen jagged edges.
In Heatwave’s case, I would start by wrapping the knife and boot so that they do not move, and then cut the boot in two halves with boot cutters (double-cut duct-snips, made from surgical steel). After that, I would cut off the rest of the boot (and sock) without moving the knife.
I agree on the “wrap everything in duct tape” part, then I would leave the rest for the surgeons to handle. The blast might nick an artery on the way out if uncontrolled or it might be the presence of the blade that is stopping a gusher from a blood vessel. Unless you are ready (and trained) to do immediate surgery, leave well enough alone.
It does annoy me watching TV that insists on removing bullets after gunshot injuries – on the whole, providing you’ve stopped the bleeding and handled infection, guddling around to dig out a lump of lead will do nothing to magically save a life and actually causes more trauma. Bleeding, trauma (and longer term, infection) kills people, bits of lead don’t. Not in the Hollywood timeframe anyway…
Well fair warning, there’s maybe two more panels showing her foot, but it’s not prominent. :)
Thanks, I think I can handle that.
You’re an evil, evil man, Dave. ಠ_ಠ
Jeez, a knife in the foot gives you guys the willies? Were you missing in action when Math kicked that knife into Laser-Brain’s MOUTH? Compared to that, Heatwave’s injury would be easy to treat.
That was also sickening, but also funny. And because it’s funny, it’s easier to disconnect yourself from the projected pain.
You could actually do an interesting study on this…
I think there already was such a study. What they found out is that people can find humor in pain/injury, but only when it’s not their own.
And almost everyone has stubbed a toe or three. So there’s empathy for Heatwave’s injury. Getting something caught between your teeth is more aggravating than painful.
I wonder why Heatwave is kicking the knife.. couldn’t she, you know.. MELT the damn thing? Or is it considered part of her clothing now, so she can’t melt it without outmatching Glowbug for ‘wardrobe malfunction’?
It may well be tungsten (very hard to melt).
A speedster would need knives that don’t deform, and weight isn’t much of an issue either, so it is a sensible choice.
I think Heatwave is panicking a bit. Combined with being as grossed out as some of the readers. Unfortunately, the upcoming crash landing is not going to help things
Yeah, she is freaking out too much to think to bend and dislodge it with her hands
If you have stubbed your toe on a door frame in the dark, you do feel her pain. Or enough of it to seriously wince.
Hah good point, but eddi is right, she’s just not thinking.
I’m not sure molten metal inside your foot is a good idea, even if you can take the heat.
Tell that to Wolverine…
Case in point: It nearly killed him, and the shock drove him nearly mad (and amnesiac).
No, the amnesia was caused by something different … but note that it was mentioned that only reason he SURVIVED at all was his amazing regeneration.
People definitely don’t think straight in the immediate aftermath of trauma. Docs generally will not take someone’s word for it if they say they feel fine – endorfins and adrenaline can mask a huge range of life-threatening issues. God knows how you’d do triage involving supers – all the skills of judging who is actually seriously injured would go out of the window when a chunk of your intake have non-standard physiology.
Emergency room treatment for supers can be quite hazardous.
You could have drawn out the ‘course’, but as you said, it looks more than fine (/wink) without any words getting in the way :)
As for accents, unless they have a huge heavy accent, it’s usally fine just using the ocassional phrase/sterotypical word, just to remind people they come from somewhere else
Or oversized OF, italicized course.
OF course
“Ooooooov course”? But agree that it works fine without.
DaveB, the facial expression alone in the last panel, along with the words from the previous panel, speak way more volume than sneaking in more words into the panel. The final result is great as is.
Dave mentioned MTG, WO HO!!! :D
I am wondering why Heatwave would lose the toe. ARC does have someone with healing powers. Or are they not powerful enough to deal with the injury?
From what my reading of Super Doc’s power is, she can simply accelerate the body’s natural healing process. If somebody looses a limb, she could not force it to spontaneously regenerate. If it was surgically re-attached, whilst it was still viable, then she could reduce the recovery time from months/years to days/weeks perhaps.
From DaveB‘s comment, it would appear that the damage to Heatwave’s toe (probably including this lightning attack) is sufficient, that it is beyond rescue.
I.e, the main aim of Super Doc is to prevent heroes from having to be out of the story for months at a time, recovering after a fight. She does not stop them from suffering crippling injuries. If modern science can cure an injury, she can speed the process up. If it cannot, then she moves on to the next patient.
There may not be the pitter-patter of little Shadow Boxer feet, unless he adopts.
Dabbler could hook her up with a cyber-toe. Losing a toe can completely screw up your balance.
Depends on the toe you’re losing. The main one for balance purposes is the big toe, with the others being of less importance. She might have to give up sandals, but that’s probably the extent of the damage.
The angle is showing it wrong on this page, but believe it is lodged in either the big toe or the long toe beside it
I checked Heatwave’s character sheet. No sign of defenses (shield). between the stab and burns from the electric shock, she is in trouble.
Seeing as how Heatwave was a few feet in the air, she was not well grounded, so she would not have gotten electrocuted that much. Glowbug, on the other hand, is standing on the ground under a broken piece of plumbing, getting rained on; good thing she is mostly immune to the effects of her power.
Hmm, time for Glowbug and Jiggawatt to meet up. Polarity shift!
Normally, electricity flows to ground via the path of least resistance. Lightning powers, by definition, allow you to break that rule; otherwise, all lightning powers would just curve straight to the ground.
Assuming that the lightning is of normal power and that it behaves normally once it strikes, Heatwave has some physics going for her: The human body isn’t a great conductor. When struck by lightning, the heat usually vaporizes moisture in the skin, and the lightning flows around the person through the cloud of water vapor.
The exception is anywhere the person is wearing metal (jewelry, a knife in their foot, whatever) the metal disrupts this and the area under it is badly burned/electrocuted. Finally, the EM field created by being surrounded by a 100,000,000 volt shell usually stops the heart and the lungs. On the plus side, it leaves them undamaged, so rescue breathing + defibrillation can help resuscitate.
Nah, Halo can lighthook her gently to the ground. She’s all over the place with that thing. Might even pull her inside her shield and float her to the medics.
Though it’s anyone’s guess how much damage she took from Glowbug’s electric attack.
Oooh. Could an unknown orb be for healing?
We can only hope that it is one of the 3 middle toes so she retains balance in the foot. Losing the great toe/1st toe would mean she would have loss of function of the abductor and flexor hallucis muscles and losing the pinky toe/5th toe would have loss of function of the abductor digiti minimi (yes its a funny name). The abductor muscles of the foot are only found in the outside toes and they allow you to spread your toes which aids balance a surprising amount. Without either of them she would have difficulty balancing on one foot.
On the plus side she might be able to collect disability…
And she will be getting a Purple Heart.
“Denied” is Halo’s “combat catchphrase” from now on.
Makes sense, really.
Attacking me? Shield. Denied.
Trying to attack someone else? Light hook. Denied.
Try’na corner me? Flying orb. Denied.
Trying to set that orphanage on fire? PPT. Deni–OH FUCK, MISSED! DENY ME!
She needs a little red button that makes that annoying BEEEEEP sound when pressed
Previously I heard it as Wayne’s world, this time I’m heading a bored civil servant stamping some form of permission slip. Careful on getting complacent there, Sydney.
Light-hook? You mean Hentorb? No srsly……if you didn’t want it called hentorb you shouldn’t have told us not to call it hentorb.
when not pg lighthook it has been established as molestorb
I did get the virus alert when I clicked on the link to page 219 from your commentary.
Still may be bugs in the archives.
But besides that, when it comes to electrified showers, OUCH!
Had an asshat platoon mate that thought it would be fun to run a line from the light switch to the water pipes, then decided to flip the switch a bunch of times while several of us were showering after PT.
I think one of the guys that was caught in it nearly broke both his arms once he caught him.
Nothing is as embarrassing as getting your butt kicked by a naked man covered in second degree burns.
Hopping about with open trousers because you didn’t realize you were peeing at an electric cow fence isn’t very dignified either – or so I heard.
Still less hurtfull than eletric shocks through a knife sticking in you big toe I am sure.
There are some quite sensitive mean nerves down there after all …
Actually, a person’s skin have resistance properties against electricity, but when current is flowing through the *inside* of the body, it takes much LESS to kill a person. With all of those saline-based fluids inside & a central nervous system that’s *purposed* for conducting electricity, when even low current is applied subcutaneously it will be far more serious.
So, having that metal knife inserted *under* skin level in Heatwave’s toe could have some pretty serious consequences.
The nervous system is not a set of wires. It does not actually carry electricity. Each cell receives chemical signals which generate an electrical potential difference inside each cell which in turn cause chemical signals to be sent to the next cell. That said, an electrical discharge can overwhelm all that chemistry if the current is high enough.
Same here.
Had a power line come down on a building I was staying in in a developing country once. Didn’t realise until I’d been in the shower and somehow completed a circuit once I had soapy suds round my feet and I touched the metal lever to turn off the shower. Fell over like I’d been tazered and my arm hurt for a good while after.
So yeah, the disparity between men and women, I’m sorry I fell out of the stereotype, blokes and Sheilas, is actually more significant than 100,000. Also, I’ve been told by an American workmate we tend to swear more prolifically.
I think the Russians are the winners of cursingist award.
I vote the Scottish on that one.
I still think Sydney has them ALL beat. It wouldn’t take long anyone to find the evidence for my opinion back in the archives.
Sydney is in a class by herself. In a lot of ways.
Afrikaans is one of those languages where, to a foreigner, it can sound like you are swearing when you are saying anything. Depending on the tone you use, you could read out a recipe for making lemon meringue pie, yet sound like you are cursing somebody, to die a hideous protracted death!
Strange how I also find the accent to be audibly rich and beautiful. I guess that is because I grew up with that accent, and miss it. Just the other day, one of my cousins was telling me that, when I first came to England, she could hardly understand a word I was saying.
Yet I had no problem with even the thickest of regional English accents. I used to have to translate, what my uncle was saying, to my brother, because his Cornish accent was too strong, for my brother to understand.
As a Dutch guy (so I understand Afrikaans a little), the thought of someone interpeting it as cursing is funny
Mum (and second eldest sister) were born in Rhodesia (eldest sister was born in Malawi), they moved out here in the early/mid 60’s, family doctor is also from Zimbabwe
If your father is Cornish, does that make you and your brother the ‘Children of the Corn”?
That’s a pritty corny pun
*Cornfield in Iowa turns into popcorn*
My dad is a Womble (i.e. born in Wimbledon, London). It’s my mum who is Cornish. Going back as far as records could trace.
Womblecorn? I’ve never heard of that particular strain before. I wouldn’t mind trying some if there’s any farmers that grow it…
Wombles of the corn?
That sounds like a great film yet to be made.
I corn’t believe you wrote something like that!
Don’t underestimate the Irish!
Again, never had a problem with their accents. And every one, I have met, has been good company, plus kind and/or generous. Same can be said for various other nationalities too. But the Irish stand out, even in good company.
RE: Australia female stuf.
It’s funny to read that, because over here in my city, we actually DO have way more females than males
It’s a major student city, and aperently 60% is female
Hmmm how much is an airplane ticket these days…
I’m an Aussie, and it’s the first I’ve heard of this alleged imbalance in females we are supposed to have.
Funny thing? First time i heard about such an imbalance i was told the exact opposite, that there were far more men than women and there were some minor laws and stuff to stimulate ladies to migrate to Australia.
Rumour, urban legends and all that silliness…
Reading the wikipedia-article on the human sex ration, it seems more women than men is normal. Although the reason is probably that men tend to die earlier. I don’t think that’s the target group for high school students ;-)
ratio
this other thing sounds strange
haha, sex rations
Where do you get those filled?
At the Y
Actually a portion of the reason there are more females than males in the general population of humans is genetic.
There are some genes that you need at least one copy of on the X chromosome that aren’t present on all X chromosomes.
Since girls get one X chromosome from their father (who only has the 1) they’re close to guaranteed to get a set of the “don’t die” genes. Boys get their only X chromosome from their mother who might be a carrier of a defective X chromosome and pass the bad one down.
The end result is that more viable fetuses are XX than XY.
glowinhy lighyninhy, sunburny, cookedy, wety
hehe
You forgot “steamy” :P
DAMN you are right lol
We seem to have caught her at a bad moment.
Not many people consider it a good thing to get caught in the shower.
well no one told her to take a shower in the middle of a battlefield sincerely lol
Standard operating procedure, in certain circumstances, actually. Such as when decontaminating your protective gear, after being exposed to a biochemical agent. Likewise if treating a wound. Although normally you would be limited to using the contents of a water canteen, for the latter.
Quick thinking, and improvisation, on her part, to find a better solution.* Up until the firing lightning bit, anyhow.
* Especially as she does not seem to be carrying survival gear. Although I may need to do my customary check, for hidden details, just to be sure.
i think “standard procedure” doesn’t have in mind any “unfriendly fire” or jiggawatt shooting on the piper or sydney deflecting a shot on her ass either lol…
i still say would have been safer a LIL AWAY lol
Radiation burned, electricuted, wet, and now your lipstick has worn off. Your just having a bad day, Glowbug.
Also, her lipstick is a different color than it was on page 219.
Her lipstick hasn’t worn off, it’s just the way her lips are while she is grimacing/fuming
Err Blowbug’s costume looked blue in page 219. Is that an artistic mistake, or a byproduct of her powers?
Sorry, Glowbug
By product of power use I think. She seems to have a bluish aura around her in 216 and here when she fires that lightning bolt. the suit is reflecting that color.
page 219 as you said.
Might also have something to do with what Heatwave is doing to her at the time
Oh, and before anyone forgets to mention it: the way to dipicted the water flowing down her body in the first 2 panels is truly remarkable
The water is too blue! :(
<a href="https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/672" title=
:(
Feels like a deja-vu: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/672
Depends on what type of water that pipe is carrying :P
But was more referring to how it flows down her body rather than the colour
“…what type of water that pipe is carrying”
Glowbug should be grateful that the water isn’t yellow. That COULD have been a pipe that used to drain from the bathroom…
Wasn’t that see-through outfit blue last tune we saw her?
When using her power she glows blue. Thus the name Glowbug.
So is Glowbug glowing from her powers, or is it from her skin being so badly sunburned?
At this point, I think the burn is overwhelming the power aura. Ouch.
Hard to say. There clearly is a bit of a misty aura around her. Her name is Glowbug, so it seems highly plausible that she does have a continual low-level glow, even when not shooting lightning.
However it could be a bit of artistic licence. She is obviously in the water to cool down, from being severely overheated. So that could literally be mist/ steam coming off her.
The reason why I say it would be artistic licence is that for that amount of steam to be produced, for the length of the scene, out of the enclosed atmosphere in a steam-house, she would need to be so hot that she was being cooked!
FYI Magic the Gathering is still very populer
Two things:
A) Having witnessed it on deployment, women DO come out of nowhere when US military is deployed. Had one woman tell me that she drove 200 miles because she heard Marines were being deployed for two weeks to Gladstone. And the stories one hears in the Navy…… ALMOST makes me wish I was single again. Almost.
B) A wet Glowbug is the opponent for Math.
I think Jiggawatt is going to try to blow Glowplug’s fuse. And not in the way your nasty mind is thinking.
Oh yea, the rock, paper, scissors of putting a powerful electrical manipulator up against an electric generator. Glowbug will be a puppet for Jiggawatt. Much like Wolverine is for Magneto.
One thing that Glowbug can do, that Wolverine cannot, is avoid using her powers. Without it being manifested, she is no more vulnerable than anybody else.*
Mind you, her Who’s Who shows her to be “Glow-y”. So if she has light-based powers, as well as the purely electrical ones, then she can still pose a threat, even without her lightning.
* Of course, if Jiggawatt can fine-tune her electrical control, she can work anybody like a puppet. Much like pupils, in any decent Frankenstein class, can make severed frogs’ legs dance, by putting an electrical current through them.
Or like how certain Waterbenders can Bloodbend during the full moon.
And a certain genetic line of them can Bloodbend w/e the f*** they want.
Dancing the Dying Cockroach Jig.
Depends: are her powers electrical or electromagnetic? If electrical, the glow may just be a side effect (like static cling). If EM, it’s a manifestation of her powers (conscious or not), & likely trainable.
I think we have seen the glow turn off and on. Like in the last two panels, in 7 her hair is brown but in 8 it goes to a bluish hue. Brown in panel 3 when she is trying to hide the evidence, then blue in panel 5 when she fires at Heatwave.
When I was in the US Navy (back in the mid 1980’s) the Word was that Australia was the most fun place a sailor could visit. The Aussie girls were supposed to really like American sailors.
A lot of that probably had to do with the fact that to be there at all meant having been at sea for months, picking up paychecks you had no way to spend. A sailor would hit portside in Australia with a couple thousand bucks to spend and a serious desire to have some fun.
Rumor also had it that Aussie girls liked American boys because we had much nicer manners than Australian guys. Americans were known to buy the meals, pay for the drinks, buy little gifts, and we wouldn’t smack a girl around if we weren’t happy with them.
I never got the chance to find out for myself.
Military men have a lot to offer a girl. They are young, fit, and typically have a lot of disposable income. You can’t accumulate much in the way of possessions while on deployment, and if you’re based on a ship your “stuff” space is ridiculously limited. So while on leave instead of buying possessions you buy disposable goods and services, such as food and drink and good times. All strong draws for a young lady looking for some good times.
I’m an Aussie who’s been around the paddock a few times, and I’ve never heard “Streuth!” (“Struth”? “Strewth”?) used unironically.
Ironic usage can sneakily become habitual. Until, one day, you wake up and say “struth I am a stereotype!”
Stone the flaming crows, mate, that’s a bit much
Maybe it’s regional and/or generational?
First time I clicked on comments, I got hijacked to some poll asking me to log in with fakebook. You might want to check into that.
Better report that direct to Dave. grrlpower @ gmail.com I think he is gathering data to get the group handling the ads to pay attention to the situation.
That happened to me, too, when I went to post a comment. I was redirected to Game Quiz on Facebook. I guess I’ll report it too.
That ad has hit a few sites I visit regularly. Haven’t seen it yet today (and now I just jinxed myself…)
Hopefully this has now been fixed. If anyone gets any more warning messages, please email him:
grrlpowercomic@gmail
Nah, DaveB. Modern medicine is good enough that she should have no problem getting her foot patched up. Maybe some out-patient surgery and stitches. Of course, Arc has that super healer…
Knife in foot, maybe. Although the way it has gone lengthways through the toe, propelled at super-speed, it could well have damaged critical bits beyond functional repair.
But throw in direct hit by lightning, on top of that? Heatwave needs to be picking out whether she wants a mahogany, or pine, matchbox, to bury her toe in.
Also the whole flying around and kicking it thing probably isn’t helping DX
The lightning would have probably have cauterized the wound.
The toe, sadly, is as good as gone.
You’ve got a malware injection problem here.
Page is being redirected to https://www.traffspot.com/fb.html when I click on comments.
Dave has an email address he has asked people to send news like that to. grrlpower @ gmail.com
Not doing that for me, You might have a Trojan.
They are not the only one, and it’s not just happening with this site
There can be a host of reasons why it doesn’t do it for a person. There have been others who have already reported the same (and I just had to reload since I got it as well).
A widget I use got infected. I’ve removed it until I hear it’s fixed.
Phew! Glad you got to the bottom of that. Let us hope all the alerts stop now, to confirm that was the extent of the problem.
*claws crossed*
Maybe the wet t-shirt gimick has worked on the others, but you can’t fool me! It was all a sneaky ploy to hide the fact that the knife has magically changed. Not only is the handle now brown instead of green, but the whole style of the knife is different. Oohhh! Does Mack the Knife have a sidekick named Blade Swapper who can transpose one blade for another so that Mack never looses his favorite set? =P
Or it could be that Heatwave’s heat aura has burned off the paint on the knife’s hilt and tinged the blade a new color due to the combination of heat and her blood on the blade.
Aw, geez! O_o Don’t DO THAT! Don’t kick it! Don’t pull it out! What the heck?! Leave it in, don’t pull it out!
…
Ahem, context is everything.
>cough< That's what she said, am I right?
Well yes but I think that only really applies to wounds where you’re at risk of worsening bleeding or causing more damage. A toe wound you probably can’t make much worse by yanking the blade out.
(I am not a doctor, this is not a consultation on how to survive getting stabbed, please don’t sue me)
The general rule is, do not yank out anything stuck in an injury. Unless it is a tiny item/wound, do not try to make a judgement call on it. Get the professionals to deal with it, at accident and emergency.
Heatwave is, very realistically, showing that peoples’ judgement can be severely impaired, if suffering from a painful injury. Hence the importance of keeping to the rule. This can make the difference between life and death!
If the injury has cut an artery, the only thing keeping you from bleeding to death, is the item acting like a cork. Plus an untrained person is probably going to cause more damage removing the item.
Numerous coroners verdicts have concluded that a wound would have been survivable, had the people rendering ‘assistance’ not taken a knife, or other item, out of the wound.
The only exception would be if the wound is very likely to be aggravated, in the process of getting to emergency treatment. Say, if you are in a remote location, and cannot summon assistance, then you would need to remove something in your foot. You will be using it, in the process of getting to safety.
At first I thought it was some weird semi-transparent skin that was showing off her bony-musculature anatomy.
Dave’s coloring job is a good depiction of a really bad sun burn. That mix of tan and red that says, ” I shouldn’t have fallen asleep.” And prison blankets are pretty rough.
I remember sunbathing with a friend. I was using sunblock, he chose not to. There were a lot of girls around, and he decided he would look cool with his sunglasses on.
For the rest of the week, he looked like a red panda.
Karma has a wicked sense of humor. And Darwin never sleeps.
You really *can’t* fool Mother Nature. The Laws of Nature are self-enforcing, no matter how good you think your lawyer is.
M:tG is still a thing, still releasing more stuff 5 times a year and running tournaments with attendance of 1000+ multiple times a year (largest ones reach over 4000 players atm)
I hope that’s the freshwater pipe, not the sewage pipe.
On the other hand, she is evil. Serves her right.
Sewage would not be flowing under pressure. Not to mention the smell would chase off a skunk.
You want to argue fluid dynamics in a superhero comic?
I’ll still stand by my second point. Open sewers make a skunk hold his nose.
And can someone dig out Achilles? I’m worried he might suffocate! D:
He doesn’t need to breathe. And he’s got enough strength to dig himself out. Not as fast as some of the others, but he’ll get there.
“Streuth!” is still around, but it’s only being used (non-ironically) by the “Old and Country” or the “Very Country”, you know the folks that are living Clechés, the folks that are al R.M. Williams, Akurbra and Dry as a Bone as formal ware.
Wait, isn’t it “DryzaBone”? If referring to the overcoats
All i have to say is, Love your outfit Glowbug! Never change it! ^_~
Perhaps a vote incentive picture?
That “September Morn” pose in panel 3 full length.
Aside from the knife in her foot, heatwave should be fine from the electrical attack. An airborne target like that, doesn’t leave much of a path to the ground. It’d be like when planes get hit by lightning, it screws with the avionics something fierce but no one on board gets burned and the plane doesn’t explode or even loose it’s engines. At worst she’d get a painful but harmless static shock when she eventually lands, but even that would be all volts and no amps so again, potentially painful but mostly harmless.
The path of a bolt on a plane is around the outer hull but it can leave burn marks and melted spots at the impact point. Not as bad as a hit when grounded, but Heatwave is already hurting. This could KO her.
You are forgetting something very important: the blade is in her toe bone
The more popular of the Superhero CCG’s was called OverPower… It was primarily Marvel, but it did have a DC expansion. It did not officially live long beyond y2k though, roughly when Wizards of the Coast got their hands on it. I still have some cards sleeved and sitting around in my basement somewhere…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OverPower
didn’t figure out till the thought buble in the 3rd panel, that the blue stuff was water and not some sort of sticky gooey stuff.
Until this moment, I never really thought about why electric-super-power-users are so vulnerable to water. Ok, on the one hand it’s to give them a basic weakness that their enemy can exploit. But if they are are already immune to their own power, then what difference does it make whether it’s conducted through water rather than air? If the medium made such a big difference, then they should probably not being able to wear anything the slightest bit metallic, either.
She may well be immune to it (she is, afterall, sitting up moaning about it) but that doesn’t mean she won’t still suffer the effects of it (it was powerful enough to dry her clothes, for a moment anyway)
I don’t know why people make the assumption that all supers are immune to anything related to their own powers. Does having a gun make you immune to bullets?
There are plenty of examples in comic books of a character having their own power reflected back at them and it hurting them.
I love how villains always blame the negative consequences of their choices on literally anybody else….in real life it is a horrible pet peeve of mine….in fiction, I always have the urge to drive them down the logical process to the point at which they made the decision to do X which made conflict inevitable.
Well, she is completely correct about this case: Heatwave thought she was a shrimp and tried to toss her on the barbie, which is why Glowb was under the water(?) pipe (to cool down), which is why her white outfit turned a lovely shade of transparent :P
Not exactly. Heatwave was going for heat prostration (no skin damage visible). Then Silent Shadow / Mach the Knife stabbed Heatwave, causing her to flare her powers (presumably) involuntarily. That’s when the real damage happened.
So, the police are using their lethal weapon in a non-lethal way, e.g. using a gun on a pressure point to safely incapacitate a perpetrator. Then another perpetrator attacks and wounds the policewoman and the gun goes off. It does not make sense in that case to blame the police.
But Glowbug might not know about Mach’s Run-by slashing, all SHE knows is Heatwave suddenly went from “Uncomfortably Warm” to “INCINERATE!!!!”
Besides which in any case, Heatwave is defending herself and her team. Glowbug and company made the decision to attack. As far as I’m concerned, when you make the decision to initiate violence, you accept responsibility for all possible consequences that result.
ehh, that was stated too strongly….
In any case, if Glowbug hadn’t chosen to be part of the supervillain dogpile, she wouldn’t be in this situation…it’s ultimately her responsibility.
Actually, she clearly THINKS about blaming herself (“I gues I can only blame myself for not testing it”), so she knows it’s really her own fault
But on the outside, she still blames something else
Poor impulse control. She got angry and lashed out at the nearest target without thinking. And got some immediate, painful blowback. If she’s half-smart, Glowbug will join Hex in the “Screw This” brigade.
It wasn’t just the nearest target. She was well aware Heatwave cooked her before and wanted a bit of revenge. Other than that I agree it was poor impulse control. Like Max told Syd, be aware of your surrounding.
-Peter Sadlon
PS: Heh! Would this count as a Final Fantasy story since it has a Syd in it?
Ah, cool the Gravatar follows the email address not the name.
Glowbug’s blaming herself for her poor choice in CLOTHING (i.e. a costume that turns transparent when it gets wet). That does not stop her from blaming Heatwave for making her find out about her poor clothing choice like that. Indeed, she’s TOTALLY blaming HW for her new ‘wet look’. Nevermind the fact she challenged the police…
I’m reminded of a page of EGS where a goth chick is mad about the new school uniforms ruining her relationship with her boyfriend as he’s no longer acting angsty. When it’s pointed out to her that maybe he’s just a poser, she states that that’s a fact she’d be blissfully unaware of if not for the uniforms.
Villains? Try “all of the human race to some extent”. OK, maybe just the vast, vast majority. There are many books and psychological studies on why/how/when people avoid taking responsibility for their own actions.
I hear there’s this river in Egypt which is popular in this context…
Oh, you mean when people are in de… water that is deep?
Hey, don’t blame me for that! =OP
It’s not my fault I can’t take responsibility… it’s society’s.