Grrl Power #236 – Recon
I’m rather fond of this page. I think it’s a pacing thing, especially that middle panel where the two of them are just watching. I also like how the guy in the fedora is totally nonplussed by Sydney standing next to him. I mean the more recent North American definition of nonplussed, which is to say he is unsurprised or unperturbed by it, and not the original meaning, which is so surprised or perturbed that you don’t know how to react. So it’s a word that means the exact opposite of itself. I guess that qualifies it as a contronym, like oversight can mean oversee and also overlook, or left can mean depart or remain. (The artists have left, the writers are left.) So. Those are handy.
Maxima told Sydney that the yellow orb was to remain classified. Obviously Sydney took that to mean the truesight function of the orb and not the illusion function. If she’s wrong about that there may be a lot of pushups in her future. There are anyway, but you know, extra.
Huh, this page went up early. Must have clicked the wrong day. Oh well, have at it! Also, I know the RSS feed is broken since the new hosting. I will endeavor to have it fixed before the next comic goes up.
Danielle Corsetto of Girls with Slingshots fame will be stopping by Zeus Comics in Dallas this Saturday, (Aug 2) which is my regular comic shop BTW. From the looks of it on her website, it’ll be from 4-8pm, and Randy Milholland from Something*Positive will be there as well since he’s a Dallasite and they’re buds and all that. I will definitely stop by and hang out for a bit since I need to pick up my comics anyway.
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It took me a while to realise that guy wasn’t actually crying a river.
Is he going through the shield? Does Halo’s shield change shape to certain things, or does that mean he’s a hologram and not actually there?
No, it means she’s a hologram and not actually there.
So, com-ball Sydney is basically “Nyah-you-can’t-hit-me Dude” lite?
Budget “Nyah-you-can’t-hit-me Dude”
Oh I see, so the pwip in panel 8 is her letting go of the yellow orb. I had the right idea just inverted I guess, shoulda known better.
I… don’t think anyone defines nonplussed that way. Maybe just wrong people.
I’ve never heard it used any any other way except to mean “unsurprised (etc)”. I wasn’t even aware there was another definition until very recently (literally within the last week).
I second that. I’ve only ever heard it used to mean “too surpised to respond”.
Likewise.
Wait, those two aren’t even the same…
I’m aware of both definitions, and loathe the “unsurprised” one. And how certain are we that it’s the “North American” definition? Here in “Midlands/Pittsburghese”, insofar as anyone actually uses “nonplussed”, it’s roughly synonymous with “flabbergasted”, which is probably much more common.
(Google, google)
Right! I’m calling this usage “bad English”, it only dates back to 1999. Kill it with fire, put the remnants up on a stake by the highway as a caution for others.
Yeah it’s probably one of those usages that creeps into existence due to general ignorance, but when I looked it up, both usages were given. I admit I thought it meant “not surprised or bothered”
Yeah, always figured that it meant “not bothered, not phased” rather than “not surprised”
Okay, according to “Collins English Dictionary“, Australasian edition (reprinted in 1976):
nonplus n. peplexity; puzzle; embarrassment; inability to say or do more; quandary;—v.t. to confound or bewilder completely; to bring to a standstill [L. non, not; plus, more]
https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/nonplussed
It’s the Queen’s English, after all. I tend to check the Oxford dictionary.
“It’s the Queen’s English…”
The only thing that’s bothered me when someone uses that phrase, is that even though we here in the USA started out as English Colonies, we’ve since outgrown the need for a Queen (or King). Our Supreme Law of the Land even forbids titles of peerage or royalty in government.
But then again, I also realize that in Britain, they think of us speaking English probably about the same way that Spaniards think about how Mexicans speak Spanish…
…It’s all just a point-of-view thing…
I enjoy the mild irony of the phrase “The Queen’s English” because it really isn’t anymore. The vast majority of people who speak English as their first language are not from England, or even from the UK. When I made that comment, I had my tongue firmly in cheek.
I do tend to check the Oxford dictionary though. I have found that I am much more likely to find the technically correct definition of words there than in any other dictionary. The Webster’s Unabridged is my second choice.
As I understand it, in the UK, they call the language spoken in the United States “American” rather than “English”, which makes a certain amount of sense, but I shudder to think the phrase “It’s the President’s American”.
The Queen’s still the Queen for the Dominions, isn’t she? (google) Huh. Fewer subjects left in the world than I’d thought. A bit more than a third as there are English-speaking Americans. Both are seriously outnumbered by the aggregate total of Indians, Nigerians, and all those who use English as a lingua franca or a preferred second language.
The Commonwealth Games is currently on, just count the numbers of countries/nations attending (plus there are still a number who could be eligible to attend)
Well, the preferred “language of diplomacy,” English & French are what’s used most at the United Nations…Or so I’ve heard.
English is actually a growing first language in India – to the point where there are more native English speakers in India than in England. Partly that’s the remnants of colonization, and partly it’s because there’s no ‘Indian’ language. (There’s twenty or thirty, all with different alphabets and writing systems.) So it’s the language most Indians have in common.
“…When I made that comment, I had my tongue firmly in cheek.”
Even with “tongue in cheek,” your fingers still had to be all over the keyboard, though…
:D
As for referring to “The President’s American,” I shuddered too…For one thing, even though it’s the first time I’ve heard anyone refer to it that way, I don’t think our current President is even American, except perhaps through Naturalization process.
What do you mean? Are you one of those people who thinks he wasn’t really born here?
*there
(Don’t know why I said “here”; I don’t live in the US.)
I’ve only ever heard the “completely unsurprised” definition used.
Looking it up in Garner’s Modern American Usage (My go-to guide in such cases) I find the following:
1. That the Kindle app is genuinely terrible at text search and take forever. This is not relevant, but is indeed something I learned.
2. Only the surprised definition appears.
3. The variant spelling “nonplused” (one ‘s’) also appears, as “stage 1” (infrequent, but spreading usage)
Try looking here.
Precisely. It’s not a definition any more than “expresso” is a word. It’s just a common mistake.
In English, a common mistake is a definition, if enough people make it. That’s how the language works: If people think that’s what a word means, that’s what it means.
Words have changed/added definitions before, and will again. Dictionaries aren’t proscriptive, they are descriptive, and by nature always incomplete. (Some other languages have attempted to have proscriptive dictionaries, with varying degrees of success, but English has never really done so.)
I live in North America and was completely unaware of the “not surprised” meaning, until now. I will note that of the several dictionary sites not all of them include this reverse definition. And that it’s just wrong in any event. Perhaps it grew out of the same sort of idiocy which lead to “inflammable” being so confusing to people that warning signs all over the place now incorrectly read “Danger: Flammable”, because, you know, nonplussed just has to mean “not” somethinged, right? Wrong.
Also, it should be:
Scoville get off the channel unless you have something useful and succinct to say!”
Actually, it is “not” something: ‘not more’
What is wrong with saying something is flammable? That means it will catch fire, doesn’t it?
The “to say” is implied (Maxima obviously doesn’t mean “to write” or “to act out”) and thus unnecessary.
In panel 5, it looks like she’s holding a solid purple orb. Shouldn’t it be blue for the shield?
Blue is for flight. The shield orb is more violet with a blueish inner sphere, but when the shield is deployed the inner sphere disappears from the inside, and the glowing of the orb makes it look a bit more purply.
ah. On the side it looks like it’s blue, with a purple center, to me. Primarily light blue, though.
Guess it just depends on the viewers monitor/viewing device
Blue is flight, for easy orientation look at right panel Who’s who
…That wasn’t suspicious at all. Not one bit. Nope nope.
Sydney is just being Sydney. Multitasking and being nosey and accidentally paying attention to things outside of the fight.
I wasn’t talking about Sydney. I was talking about how the guy completely redirected her attention from how disturbing his behavior is to someone else entirely.
Valid as his observation is …..
As she said, she is bad at focusing on one thing.
Notice also that he tricked them into taking out the one super there who properly countered his own powers.
Isn’t three o’clock directly to the right? Then again, that could be Maxima’s right, since we have no idea what direction she’s currently facing. Giving relative directions always confuses me.
I think it’s more Sydney not knowing how to give clockdial directions. Probably just thought it was something cool and military-y to say.
Of course, this also means she failed her Geek Check, as Indiana Jones clearly explained clockdial directions in The Last Crusade.
Assuming that anything explained in The Last Crusade is accurate would be a failure of your own Geek Cred, whether it managed to be accurate by mistake or not. Even a broken clock is right twice per day.
I kind of like this page too, got to see a bit more personality from the chars, both good and bad. Good to see Sydney is quite aware there’s more going on than meets the eye, I do wonder though what name will be given to the red dork.
Since Leon names them…
Probably Red Dork.
Leon is just as much as a dork as skullface here, He’d probably give him some ominous sounding name like Crimson Skeletor. Us dorks have to stick together even if we disagree over the the Star Trek-Wars and whether to have super-battle over cities (An actual argument I have had.)
So naturally Leon would give a good name to the (apparent) ringleader.
Of course all this is a ploy to get Archon let him wear his cape to work.
No, Leon is a geek & a nerd. Not a dork…Get it straight.
:D
^^ I vote Lord Capey.
Sydney is more discerning than her attention span can handle. Recalling “Ninja Sense Tingles” a moment (I would link the page but I’m on mobile), she could very easily come back to this guy later if he’s not careful to leave quick enough.
That… is worse than ‘Budget Skeletor’ and that stunk worse than a hundred agitated skunks in a 10 gallon sealed drum after a month in the Sahara
Tsk. You can’t fit 100 skunks into a 10 gallon drum. You need at least a 50 gallon one.
Yeah, but imagine the smell when it gets opened!!!
1- Run skunks through blender.
2- Mix blended skunk material into a homogenous mass. Each aliquot of skunk paste now contains equal amounts of each individual skunk.
3- Through the magic of homeopathy, each unit of pureed skunk will now contain a 1c dilution of all 100 individual skunks and therefore will contain a low-potency dose of 100 skunks.
Thus, 1 ten-gallon drum of skunk puree may contain 100 skunks.
We only practice allopathic animal mutilation in this outfit, mister! Next you’ll be trying to stuff ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag.
Yeah, you can get thousands of skunk (pureed) scent-glands into the the same space as 100 whole skunks…
That’s pretty easy if you buy your sacks in the UK.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to make a bag that weighs five pounds, yet holds more than ten pounds.
I prefer to simmer my blended skunks, to reduce the liquid and concentrate flavor, before placing in a sealed 10 gallon drum.
Nah, you just remove the scent glands and then you dump all the glands in the 10 gallon drum- you have the effective dose of 100 skunks in a 10 gallon drum. Maybe a couple full sized skunks as filler.
Depends on the size of the skunks, back at my old University, the skunks we had on campus would be too big to fit more than one into a 10 gallon drum. Those things were huge.
You sure those weren’t badgers? o_O
Sydney would definitely know if those were badgers if she saw them…
Unless she thought it was a wolverine ;)
Black with white stripes, huge fluffy tails, and stank everyone out of the courtyard the one time someone refused to run and tried to “scare it away” by yelling at it.
Hah! Clearly a city bred idiot, the screamer.
I recall a night I was on guard in the barracks (purely a formality and a training/discipline duty, this was within the CONUS). I’m standing in the doorway, which had 3-4 steps down of wood with no siding, and along comes a whole family of skunks, mom and 3 kids, walking right down the edge of the barracks. No amount of screaming from a non-com could have kept me from doing what I did, which was to take three steps directly backwards and hope that they just kept on going. Which they did, thank the non-existent gods. :-D
@Oberon
You would not be expected to battle impossible odds. Besides I’ve stayed in those older wooden barracks. If you had offended momma the only way to kill the smell would be to burn the place down. Whether or not you were in it at the time depending on how upset the First Sargent was at you.
Hmmm, M-16 against 4 skunks. My money is on the skunks!
Lends a whole ‘nother meaning to Spray And Pray.
No need for filler if you milk the glands when still attached to the hundred skunks, for say around a month should fill the barrel.
Just remember to add a booby trap to the lid to an air cannon sitting in the bottom.
Send this prank to any worthy victim.
You really like to raise a stink about things, don’t you?
no, he just likes to add in his 2 scents
… Lord Capey is 1,000,000 times better than “two scents”… *grumbles*
Interestingly, it’s also 1’000’000 times worse than Budget Skeletor (see above point on how bad that is)
Said the Mama Skunk who named her twins “In” and “Out” when asked how she could tell them apart: “In stinked”.
Seconded. This made me giggle a little, which makes it the perfect name for a big-bad in Sydneyverse.
More then likely it is the Emperor who our hairdresser spoke of just a few pages back.
He was referring to Palpatine in Star Wars. Comparing JW’s dark lightning to his Force lightning.
Smooth Criminal indeed. Now I’m wondering if he actually has powers at all, or just facepaint and competence.
What kills me is that Sydney was so nonchalant! I mean “S’up? Perpetratin’ Evil?” Sooooo Sydney.
Sydney’s just playing what she believes is how a quirky superheroine is supposed to act.
I don’t believe she is just playing at being quirky. Quirky is her middle name!
Hmmm…The character roster doesn’t include Sydney’s middle name (or initial, for that matter). How do you know that? You ask her?
:P
Is he a bad guy or good guy? It is really hard to tell.
Not that difficult really. Consider how he answered Sydney’s question. “Perpetratin’ evil?”
He says “Multitasking.”
He doesn’t -deny- that he’s Perpetrating Evil.
Can you imagine anyone who wasn’t a bad guy answering the way he did?
I was going to say “yes,” but then I looked back at page #186 and saw him saying “Challenge accepted.” I think it was him, anyway.
He’s a bad guy.
But he’s a professional bad guy. He doens’t have anything personal against the people he’s fighting
The term- or trope- is “Affably Evil”.
He’s a bad guy, but not a mean, nasty guy.
“Zangief, you are bad guy, but this does not mean you are bad… guy.”
Wait, wasn’t it Zangief who said that? To Ralph?
It was recalling a moment of personal reflection.
Hmmm, was sure it was Zangief trying to reassure Ralph during that group session with other ‘bad guys’
My hypothesis is that he’s a good guy from a foreign superhero group.
AND, you’ll notice that he TOTALLY “distracted her with something shiny”: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1395
… I just realized that the two folks in the last panel of that are -also- the two in darkness, in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189 (specifically the “Maybe we can use this” duo.
Which means that at least two different panels from that montage are in this one fight scene. I’m doubting the demon or the Arabic speaking one will show, but it’s always possible The Cleansing Guy (this is now my headcanon name for him) is around this mess somewhere.
Actually, now had the chance to compare both pages, yes, yes it is them both times (she just put on a visor for going out in public), or at least, she is in both pictures, we can’t see his shadowed ear to properly confirm
I dunno, neither really matches either to me. Front shadow has the same hair style as punk magneto, but their teeth don’t match up. Back shadow looks more like ‘he’ has a crown of horns than braids, and doesn’t have the wide mane of hair obstructing the line of sight between their chin and shoulder as well.
Agreed. I don’t think they’re the same at all.
Hairstyle is different, golden spikes and masculine appearance vs. woman with braids. Plus the guy with green hair has black painted nails, while the slicked back hair in shadows has nothing.
Just remember, not even Fedorka looks the same as he did in panel 1 as he does in this page
Assuming that this guy is one and the same as before. They could be twins or some other crazy explanation.
good eye! +1
O_o
You may be right… if they got their own foreshadowing panel and blue fedora got his own panel…. then that would mean that blue fedora has nothing to do with this group which fits with the line “I hope she doesnt get killed tonight”
I think he IS just there to observe… He said “challenge accepted” before, so he probably wants to be part of the gallery of rogues, but clearly he isnt stupid so he’s doing his homework now.
maybe he’s from another agency that hires supers out for security and protection jobs and they’re wondering what the competition looks like? He doesn’t seem too evil. Whereas the guy in the cape is obviously evil, just look at his costume.
Both the shady guy watching and evil cape guy have been in the picture quite a bit, so I’m sure they’re important… foreshadowing much?
We first see the Crying Guy here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
I believe we were told that the bad guys and what they say there isn’t officially canon. They are supposed to be images and ideas brought to mind. Still, it’s pretty suggestive that someone who looks like the first image is hanging around in the background of the Supervillain Blitzkrieg.
He’s not just foreshadowed, he’s got Industrial Strength Foreshadowing going.
Good point. (Thus y’all can ignore my post just under the lead on this thread.)
Hmmm. I thought he maybe first shows up here (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1358), but a second hard look at the battlefield splash page (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1280) has him right there by the tree in the upper right-hand corner.
Certainly an observer … maybe a nice guy. Probably a villian, alas alas.
Very arguably, he is (or represents) a third or fourth party in the proceedings.
I dunno, I don’t see a villain thinking “good kid, hope she survives”
Considering that he’s a big guy in a nice, obviously expensive tailored suit, he’s not here to get involved in the fight at all. You don’t fight in a suit unless you absolutely have to, or are MIB where dry-cleaning is covered by work expenses.
Him being involved in the Private Security sector would be an interesting direction. He looks both sharp and like he can handle himself so he’d make a good public face. Given contacts in various places could have heard what was going down and decided to make a business opportunity out of it. Get to assess the talent, job offers for the less stupid and criminally inclined (who if they’d really thought about it, wouldn’t be there in the first place), and PR for why super-powered private security would be a good option for those who don’t want Government jobs and direct oversight.
Since super powered individuals have only just been publicly and officially recognised, establishing a super private security firm now would just be good business sense. This event would handily set up the argument to the press as to why such a firm could be useful, and where it could operate where Archon shouldn’t get involved in.
Hmmm. Are we sure this guy is a bad guy? I mean, Skull Cape (at whom Mr. Nice Hat is pointing) is clearly a bad guy – and of course we can’t have seen everyone in the ARC group, eh?
I think he’s either a rival faction of bad guy, a wildcard, or a shade of gray. I also think he’a an illusion.
A rival faction would definitely want to watch his enemies battle each other, and perhaps “multitasking” could also mean something along the lines of “Watching enemies via telepresence and using the distraction to do some [random illegal activity].”
A wildcard would have an agenda of their own to push. Perhaps he is simply the kind of man that likes to get into a nice rough barfight on occasion and hasn’t found a powerful enough person to put him down yet. Maybe he is a mind powers sort of guy and has a complex plot to bring Arcon down around Maxima’s head and rise from the ashes as an immortal terror on the scale of nations as Hitler once was.
Or maybe he has a lesson or five to teach the members of ARCSWAT. Maybe he is on their side, and seeks to become the grindstone on which they hone.
Any which way, I think he’s as real as Sydney here, during this conversation. Just a hunch, nothing to back this up.
He can’t be an illusion, unless he is an Ace Rimmer
“Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast!”
Zack Tilly :D
Except, when he doesn’t :(
“Like” =)
My bet is he’s organized crime.
Actually, I halfway expect him to be working for “Arc-Dark” (y’know, the secret branch of Arc(hon)-[Anything] that also monitors Dabbler), with them having arranged the entire fight as a publicity operation by manipulating other supers into attacking the main guys.
Too risky: Shadowy Crushed-Nuts almost took out Sydney permanently
You’re thinking he might be ArcDark or ArcLight? How would he have gotten here so quickly to be at the start of this then?
Umm, because Archon knew where they were having their little tea party? Heck, X was even in the same room (quietly skulking in the corner, working on their non-sound absorbtion hiding trick)
I think this guy could be x without the mask. He wasn’t surprised by halo, wears a fedora, and went unnoticed by everyone. Plus on x’s mask, there are lines coming from the eyes, just like this guy has lines from his eyes.
Scratch what I just said, this guy is on the top left of page 186. He just looks a lot less evil here.
He’s WAY too big to be X. This guy is built like a brick shithouse and X was about a head taller than seated people and half a over head shorter than Max who is 6’1″.
The suit is either an ethical villian or an agent for an unsanctioned competing group of heroes.
Ethical, or pure business
Ethical, maybe. Definitely not moral though. Pure business, yes, I’d agree with that…As much as Lex Luthor is.
I say good or bad, he has ethics. He would obviously prefer those he considers good people not come to harm, whatever his agenda. But yeah despite that his actions are pure business. Even though he was mildly surprised by Sydney’s sudden appearance, questioning, and disappearance, he didn’t let it distract or frazzle him. You notice he never actually answered anything. Sure he responded to her queries but he never actually admitted anything. He simply redirected the conversation. Dude is seriously is a cool customer.
Need Airbender-style tattoo
I mean neat
I like this guy more than I expected to when I first saw him. He’s pretty cool, even if he is a supervillain
Maybe Sydney will hit him with a, Nanoha Style, blast of friendship. It does as much damage as a regular blast, but the survivors tend to join the user’s side.
Wow, slightly less psychopathic than expected.
Yeah, more socio than psycho, or Chaotic Neutral rather than Chaotic Evil (Joker is the definition of Chaotic Evil, Batman is Chaotic Good or maybe Bats is Lawful Evil)
Batman is more a Neutral Good, Deadpool would be Chaotic Good.
Batman’s alignment is Batman. https://s13.photobucket.com/user/Gugenheimer/media/batman-alignment.jpg.html
also: https://encyclopediadramatica.es/Alignment
Come on I am pretty sure the Joker is Chaotic Neutral. He does things for the pure Chaos of it, not for his own gain.
Doing evil things for the pure chaos of it and not for your own gain doesn’t make the things you do, or you, any less evil.
I’d peg Deadpool as Chaotic Crazy. Whether he’s good or not varies WILDLY, the dudes a complet psycho.
dude’s*
Complete*
I wasn’t talking about Sydney. I was talking about how the guy completely redirected her attention from how disturbing his behavior is to someone else entirely.
Bleh. New comment system requires me to mess with my noscript before I can reply to people properly. Not cool.
I’m kind of hoping that this guy ends up getting flipped and working for Archon, if he isn’t actually part of ARC-Dark and this whole mess isn’t some sort of shakedown cruise sort of deal.
While I sympathize with the desire for just about every cool character to end up on the side of angels, there’s a significant part of the evil-writer-guy in me who keeps going, “yeah, but that would make for a really, really boring story in the end.”
I mean, seriously, if everyone who was suggested for flipping ended up a good guy, who all would go over? Heavenly Sword, Concretia, Budget Halo, Captain Hairdresser, and now Crying Game… er… Guy- and that’s just the ones my seriously sleep-deprived brain managed to remember right now, before hitting the sack.
Nah, he will be better as being a Head Villain
He might not be X, but maybe he works for him…
Wait, X is outsourcing survailance? X works for ARCDark, that would be like Sydney hiring someone as a sub-contractor (and not for her comic shop)
X may work for ARCDark, but then again, from his placement in the conference room and participation in the discussion about Sydney afterwards, I’d be more inclined to think that he’s the head of the department rather than just a literally faceless employee.
X as in “tingles” – not X as in Deus
Zack Tilly who was talking about (there is no way Fedorka is Deus)
The fact that tree guy doesn’t seem to know red cape indicates that maybe tree guy was not supervising the villains here.
The fact that he obviously isn’t going to fight them means he’s not with the good guys either.
The fact that he is standing calmly so close to a super fight indicates that, A: he is incredibly brave, or B: he has something to keep him safe.
The fact that this comic was released early indicates that DaveB loves us.
Check out the way his expression changes from panel one to panel two- I don’t think he’s as innocent as he lets on; he’s just quick on his feet. Possibly his super-power is actually nonchalance?
I think he just pointed out the Cape to distract Halo
And I’m pritty sure both the Fedora and the Cape are very powerfull supers
And drinking buddies, drinking the blood of their enemies from the skulls (with filled in eye-sockets) of their enemies
Mr. mindcontrol is sending Sydney to take out the decoy, lol.
Here’s a creepy thought.
There are no supers attacking, it’s just this guy and his power is that he can manifest “things” from his imagination :)
Thus he’s “multitasking”…
I posited a similar idea a few strips back.
I said it then and I say it again now:
His supervillain name, as the guy who generates a bunch of supervillains to fight:
Patreon.
That would be a rather cheap way to represent all the paid for cameos, and so I reject your “it’s all an illusion” theory.
Surely Sydney would have noticed by now if they weren’t actually fighting people.
She would once she changed to the Truesight orb. So at this point, we can be sure the bay guys still standing are real or that would have grabbed her attention away from Nice Hat.
Wild guess, his power has something to do with the air. Why? Because the crying like markings look like aria from fairy tail, and the markings which appear on his face appear to also be on the back of his head and hands like aang from avatar.
What’s got me curious is that it seems no one but Sydney has spotted both Crying Guy With Fedora and Cape Dork yet. Apparently Maxima hasn’t called in an attack on either of them, and no one’s noticed Cape Dork’s antics yet. And considering how he’s swatted aside flying forms and ignored major attacks near him, someone should have taken a shot at him by now if he was visible. Seems that both are cloaked or invisible somehow. Which would also explain why Maxima isn’t giving Sydney’s call out any attention. Interesting…
That’s the problem, he has yet to do anything, other then showing bad taste in clothing. So, them being police they can’t whack at em until he does something illegal .
Yeah, but Dr. Voodoom was right outside the restaurant during the attack, close enough to swat Cree aside, plus close enough to Sydney when Hex went squirrelly, unlike Fedorka
Cape Dork has been noticed and attacked…. Jigawatt had a go, but couldn’t target him due to lack of balance and eardrums……
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1386 When Hex goes crazy, Sydney and Cape Guy are seen being directly hit without consequences. I don’t know what his superpower is, but I think he’s not too worried about getting hit.
A bad sign. Max might have to take him out once the rest of his team is done pulling out surprises.
He also harmlessly deflects concrete girl (name escapes me) when math smashes her through the wall
Concretia (or ‘Cree’ for short)
Maxima has noticed red cape guy, but he hasn’t attacked anyone yet, so he’s a relatively low priority at the moment.
Wouldn’t that mean that he is not a criminal / supervillian? Maxima is big on the law is the law whether super or not, so if he isn’t breaking any laws by standing around then he would not be arrested. Keep an eye on – yes, arrest – no.
?
Hanging around in this brawl instead of trying to get clear is suspicious enough.
No. Clearly he is in league with the others. But since he hasn’t shown off any powers per say and he isn’t attacking, he gets moved down the priority list, unlike people like Heavenly Sword, Cree, and Sonic girl, who are actively attacking. The more of a threat you make yourself out to be the higher you go on the priority list.
Also, it saves a messy cleanup if she sends the wrong hero against him
At this time.
Other then being picked up for questioning, what if any charges could one make?
Defending him self from flying suppers? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
He could, I believe, charge jigawatt with attempted assault, not mind you, with a deadly weapon, he is after all not normal.
I doubt he could make assault charges stick. First, there’s no way for Jiggawatt to check if every potential enemy is an actual enemy and, considering how he’s dressed, there’s plenty of reason for her to assume he is. Second, I believe he would have to prove that she was intentionally aiming at him which would be difficult to do after Breakpoint scrambled her senses.
I notice you don’t state that she has noticed crying guy, however.
That guy is really good at managing Halo though, I mean REALLY good. He took the attention off of him and onto someone else.
My guess, Nice Hat isn’t with the rest of this bunch. He knew the fight was going to happen but he is smart enough to let others take the lumps while he gauges his options. Depending on his motives, he may just do a fade out and not be back in the story until he can recruit some serious help. Or he may do a “if you can’t beat ’em, infiltrate ’em.”
That leaves Red Cape as the boss of this pack of yahoos. That costs him cool points in my book.
Nice Hat could well have orchestrated this. His Sydney-redirection isn’t in super-power range; It doesn’t seem like he worked any mojo on her so much as “he was clever and she acted like Sydney,”
But still…
His behavior fits mind controller behavior perfectly. He’s not getting personally involved, but he’s close enough to watch the action and “multitask.”
His closing thoughts seem to me to put him not at the top of the chain of command on the villain side. Doom does not “hope” someone will survive. If he decides he wants someone to survive he works that into his plan. So either Nice Hat isn’t the man with the plan, or he’s playing the plan fast and loose, and doesn’t have much control over his targets.
Which does gel with the behaviors/comments of Zebra the Barberian and Hex.
No, I don’t think he’s part of this group.
He’s part of A group of shady people, and probably a high level member of said group though.
He’s using this bunch of amatures to observe and take notes for when his own group is ready to step out of the shadows
My guess would be that he’s got a very subtle form of Mind Control, perhaps something that makes people accept and believe whatever he tells them without thinking. He doesn’t have -direct- control, but give him a little time to talk and he can have a lot of influence.
I admit, part of the reason I think he’s the big bad guy behind the whole mess is because of his appearance way back on page #186 as Challenge Accepted Dude.
It also kind of surpasses belief that some group of evil-doers organized the Supervillain Blitzkrieg without alerting Archon, but were sloppy enough for some other group of evil-doers to hear about it and send observers.
While we are on the subject, just where would groups of villains come from in a world were there’s only around 500 supers in the entire US? That’s almost as unlikely as having 30 plus bad guys show up in the same spot at the same time.
wasn’t he standing under a tree in Dallas back in ’62
Since nothing of Earth-shattering importance happened in 1962 he could have been but nobody would notice. Kennedy was shot in 1963.
But, not in the JeepVerse (GP=Jeep)
If he was there in ’62, however, that would indicate prescience as a super-power. Or, he was just doing a little advance scouting. Either way, still scary.
yeah, your right, side effect of diminsion hopping, keeping track of what events happoned in which diminsion and when.
I guarantee you that someone, several someones in fact, were shot in Dallas in ’62, so that doesn’t get this guy off the hook. ;-P
Hmmm.
I JUST NOW realised, that in the two pages where Max and Arianna told each other what the reactions of villains were in their oppinion, the pannels showed ACTUAL reactions of villains.
Well played, DaveB, very well played indeed.
I really wish we could know more about those 2 unknown orbs within the next 15 pages or something.
Or maybe she knows already but decided to keep them secret because they are extremely destructive or something?
My favorite theory is that one of them’s for formatting the other ones, or somehow embuing the power of that orb to somebody else temporarily.
I still stand by my ancient guess that the two unknowns will steal powers from others.
My guess for the Unknown Orbs:
Healing/Regeneration (But how would that work if she was severely injured?)
Omega 13.
One of them being a Healorb has been ruled out several times (don’t mention papercuts, and her own personal ‘noodle incident’)
Because she wasn’t holding them, or maybe they only heal other people?
I thing they give halo control/access to some alien/atlantean technology
what makes you say atlantean?
Practically generic for ancient powerful civilization. Less words to misspell.
Not talking about Namorita or Aquadork, but the ancient civilisation Lanthis (just hope that Bud doesn’t show up, or a pixie with huge knockers o_O)
well if anything Sydney said was true she found the orbs while scuba diving in the Atlantic ocean so Atlantis is the most likely ancient super advanced civilization for it to be.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/554
err love eggs?
They hatch and deliver a new set of orbs for a worthy user.
I don’t think Sydney is as ditsy as she seems here… Yes she has be redirected.. but….
1. She approched Hat dude using here holo clone.. meaning she probably seen him earlier and sent clone to check him out.
2. She has let him penetrate her holo version of the shield and he didn’t notice..
3. By approaching him she has let him know, his presence hasn’t gone unnoticed. Actual sydney was probably watching and her Leon upgraded glasses would have recorded him.. he is now probably in the Archon Database and also probably being looked at by ArkDark.. I doubt hat guy is unaware of this, he would know he has been atleast partialy compromised
But she doesn’t have any such upgraded glasses yet, iirc. Wasn’t that the reason Maxima gave her the PipBoy instead?
Pipboy!
Early update? :(
Yeah I accidentally scheduled this page for Wednesday at 6:00 am instead of Thursday. Of course I did it at 11:30 on Wed evening so it didn’t show up before then, but once it was live, I figured what’s the harm?
Heh heh, had come in about an hour early to read the previous page and be ready for the new one, was pleasantly surprised to find the new page already up :D
I don’t know about being *glad*, per se…Even if I get to see the new Thursday comic within just a couple of hours after it’s posted, I already gotta read 2-3 pages of comments. This week, however…
IMHO, updates cannot come fast enough (provided, of course, that DaveB maintains the high level of quality we have come to expect from the comic).
Did he change trees? I swear I could remember seeing the ice/crystal from dabblers sword in the tree after it flew away, and he was poking the sword with a stick. Is it just not visible from this angle?
Wouldn’t you move around if your first hidey-hole got iced?
…. Or had a whacking great demonic sword rammed through it?
Oh yeah, I meant to add those. I’ll put that on the fix list.
Nah, makes more sense that he would have located a non-crystaled tree to lurk under
there’s a fix “list”? just how long is this list i wonder?
236 comic pages = 472 typos, color errors and other minor tics. Assuming it’s like any other job where details are what kill you.
So that’s interesting
IF that guy is a villain, he’s here purely for business, nothing personal.
Or he’s a potential future villain, just observing for his own agenda/boss.
Either way, he’s a professional
maybe he works for arcswot and is taking the opportunity to conduct an impromptu performance review
I don’t think anyone has mentioned it yet but the woman in the last panel of this page https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1395 has markings similar to Fedora. I mean they could be completely unrelated, but there is a possibility they’re connected too.
Also, just because he’s pierced her shield without her awareness doesn’t necessarily reflect her casual manner with him. He could be the equivalent of a “null” in that powers don’t work on him, period. Ergo he would be capable of passing through her shield.
She is also the one in the back of panel 5
It’s not so much that she didn’t notice him passing through the shield, but whether he noticed or not
He didn’t pierce her shield.
Tha’ts her telepresence hologram. She’s not physicly there, and neither is the shield
Guess Dabbles and Jiggs decided not to take Zeb the Barberian up on his offer of surrender (either that, or he is unbelievebly stupid and attacked them when they turned away)
that’s a different dude he has yellow hair instead of the Barberian’s black mohawk
Don’t have a way of zooming in, but that ‘yellow’ looks like his head to me
What is the mark on her face from?
Nega-Knuckles.
war or mutation marks ? hehe
Cheap shot from Shadowy Crushed Nuts
At this rate, that’s becoming his official ARC file name.
and here is another oddball of a villain hehe
Dave keeps coming up with these gems and makes it look like no big thing. We don’t see the sweat and tears, but they are appreciated.
oh i bet when it gets serious we will see them hehe
Also, panel 6, that must have taking you ages to get right, and it’s sooo worth it :D
Thanks! Yeah I had to redraw his face from scratch twice and even then it took a lot of tweaks and still it could be better. That angle is a real bitch. I even loaded up a copy of ZBrush and tried to make a thick jawed head so I could reference the angle but that didn’t really pan out cause I couldn’t spend 6 hours making the head just right.
That sort of angle is supposed to be one of the most difficult, and you did a great job :D
He’s got quite the sense of style. I wonder who he’s wearing?
One thing we know for sure is the person who designed red cape guy’s outfit was NOT Edna Mode.
…Maybe it’s an older suit she designed. Maybe it took a few supers getting taken out by their own capes before she decided to stop including them.
panel 9 is sid using a orb(lighthook) without touching it?
No, that was her letting go of the “Badgers!”-orb (that yellow tail was her holo-link), it has been shown that the Hentorb doesn’t actually touch the tentacle it creates
No, she was using it, and she just let go of it
Also it’s the telepresence, not lighthook (lighthook is pinkish with something swirling inside)
Well. Consider the following;
He is hopeful that Sydney survives, which implies nonvillainy.
He’s implied to be aware of Dabbler’s warning in #218, where he is poking the sword with a stick rather than just grabbing it, and seems suddenly afeared with the announcement of the mammary-trappings.
He is smiling. ARC-SWAT is apparently winning the brawl, so logically he is pleased with their success.
The phrasing of being worried about Lord Capington von Skullfaceguy suggests that he’s not aware of his motives or abilities, but is not sympathetic to his cause.
All in all, I’m thinking he’s either a member of ARC that we just haven’t been told about, or someone who’s on the sidelines as either an ally or a neutral party. But he’s displayed thus far that he’s not particularly villainous, aside from the possible display of #186.
Actually, none of your points rules out villainy
Joker hopes Batman always survives, so that he is the one to kill him
All it requires to do what Fedorka did on page 218 was to see it impact the tree and create the crystals
He could be smiling because he remembered the sounds the puppies made going through the the tre-shredder, we just don’t know
That’s just distraction (or simply Fedorka owes Dr. Voodoom a lot of money and would rather not have to pay up)
That is most certainly him in panel 1 of page 186 (DaveB simply perfected his look since then)
Exactly. +1 and all that sort of thing.
Honestly, Batman is the last person Joker would ever kill, besides himself. He would still try to kill him, he want’s to kill everyone, but he wants to beat Batman more than he want’s to kill him. He’d kill 7 billion humans and any aliens on Earth before Batman if he could to do it.
Kill/beat/have a wild night in bed, the point being that Bats is Jokers and he will mutilate in painful ways anyone who tries to take him out first
So true
Not even “besides himself.” I’ve got the graphic novel where after getting his neck broken the Joker deliberately moved his head around to kill himself just so Batman would take the blame.
1) The Joker, however, would never refer to Batman using a “good kid”-type label.
2) That is not “most certainly him”, as we cannot rule out the possibility that it’s simply someone who looks a lot like him.
It does indicate that he’s not part of this villain team.
He’s probably some high ranking member of another shady team that is now observing their new enemy the smart way, before stepping out of the shadows.
He’s also a hardcore professional. He doesn’t have anything personal against Halo, and he probably realizes that if they were on the same side, they could be friends.
“There’s no reason for you to die yet, so please be safe”
Occurs to me that he *could* be a powered observer for some country NOT the USA.
ARC is a US-based team after all, and its big reveal and statement of purpose to the world is not just of interest to supervillains. Other countries, both allied and otherwise, will be paying very close attention.
That was my thought. He’s here to observe and evaluate. Sort of like a Super 007 because even allies spy on each other as recent news has pointed out.
Another possibility is that he’s here to form an informal alliance with Archon for sparring-triaining and/or information-intelligence purposes.
No, it really doesn’t. All it indicates is that he’s smart enough to not reveal who he is and what he is there for over the course of a 15 second conversation. You know, unlike the idiots who can be seen on Cops spilling the beans on themselves without any reason for doing so.