Grrl Power #282 – It was this or wrap his arm in ten million dryer sheets
Sydney’s plan continues, this time with a more active result. I hope no one thought Dabbler was going to have to do jumping jacks until Vehemence’s power ran out, or he passed out from hunger. The hypnoboobs (all glory to them) effect isn’t that strong. It’s seriously distracting, but it’s not “mouse pushing a lever to get cocaine until it starves to death.” (Which according to a quick search I did to make sure I got the drug right, isn’t even a thing that happened, or at least comes with a giant asterisk, but it has its uses as an apocryphal tale.)
The flashback panel on this page is supposed to point out that super speed does you no good if you’re caught flat footed. Remember Vehemence was nearly matching Maxima’s speed earlier, at least while Max was doing the even spread with her power pool, and Sydney wanted to make sure Jiggawatt got a chance to do her part before being swatted away. The funny thing is, before I went back and looked at the page to pull the clip, I was sure Maxima said “Well I have to be ready for it!” I considered changing it and making a note that’s how Sydney recalled it to make it more clear why she included that snippet of her day in her plan – but… I thought that would be distracting and hopefully the page makes enough sense without any tinkering.
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The mollusk is a magic scrubber or something isn’t it?
I forget.
Not so much magic as the radiation that comes free from the lightning and darkning cancelling each other, but close enough.
Cheers. Thx
no its an gamma radiation absorber.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1420
Probably more general radiation than just gamma though
“Vehemence SMASH!”
Wrong it will be
“MAXIMA SMASH”
Vehemence SmashED, soon.
Puny Vehemence.
No SMASH! That will just power Vehemence up more! MAXIMA tickle!
I still prefer ‘Dabbler BOUNCE!’
Doesn’t everybody?
We really need a Dabbler Bounce endless loop .gif created and posted.
seconded!!!
Infinityed
And beyond?
Technically it could only go up to about 7 billioned
Not really, electron-positron annihilation generally only creates gamma rays. Since the resting state of an electron (and a positron) is 511 keV, the two photons created by the annihilation both have an energy of 511 keV, according to conservation of energy. If you look at the Feynman diagram for the annihilation (wikipedia has a good article + pictures) you’ll see (and it will explain) that the angle of the interaction requires the creation of at least two photons, which are gamma ray photons. At higher energies other particles might be created, but I don’t know that lightning would consistently have particles of a high enough energy level for heavier particles like mesons.
This has been a Science Moment with Malice.
(Peer review and corrections are most welcome.)
Methinks the general line of thought with it being a general rad-muncher was that Dabbler wouldn’t go through the trouble of genetically engineering a different scrubber for every type of radiation.
She wouldn’t really need scrubbers for other types of radiation though. I mean, X-rays, sure, maybe ultraviolet, but anything below that energy level wouldn’t really pose a threat. And besides, if we’re clinging to even a semblance of realism, she would need a different apparatus for absorbing particles of such disparate energies. The rad-muncher (or as I like to call it, the Radmanyte, in reference to the pokemon Omanyte that it so-closely-yet-legally-distinctly resembles. Or just the Rad) would most likely be able to absorb photons of a range of energy, like plants photosynthesize light of a certain range of wavelengths.
A scrubber for visible light would be so awesome though.
A darkness grenade? Pretty neat, yeah.
I beg to differ there Malice :) we have a golden saying in our lab: “you can check whether the laser works twice, once with your right and once with your left eye”.
a simple, 300mW green laser already evaporates black material. The femto second pulsed IR lasers kill your eyes, without you even thinking about blinking :) Sure it wont kill your body easily, but being blind is quite a handicap I would say :)
oh and you never mentioned Neutrons in there, those are meanies as well :P
Which reminds me of a project manager I once had. He seemed like a pretty smart guy, but we (about 7 of us) were practicing for a presentation which included a projection to which we would reference with a laser pointer which had a simple “press to activate, release to deactivate” mechanism. The battery got weak and the thing became intermittent.
And he actually “checked” it by holding it about 3 inches from his eye (and probably his dominant eye, since that’s just a basic reflex) and pressing the activate button. I yelled something, he stopped, and I offered to go find more batteries so he didn’t have to go blind.
It eats the radiation that the lightning and the ‘darkning’ are causing. see and
It looks like a weird omanyte with elf ears to me..and it absorbs electricity or something.
it’s actually a squeaky toy that absorbs positronic radiation
Gamma ray, not positronic. Jiggawat’s “darkning” is positrons.
I’d say spock ears.
The needs of the many.
Ok a fanny pat not a stooge slap.
It’s just as effective & less harmful than the Stooge’s eye-poke too.
Sointely! (nyuk, nyuk)
Hey, they are at what is left of a restaurant, maybe everyone can start throwing pies at Vehemence.
If they resort to slapstick humor, he might get a charge out of the punch line.
IF there was anything left of it they could have.
This was a steakhouse, not the Strategic Pie Reserve complex.
Pissed off Maxima is pissed off (even more than usual).
I wouldn’t want to trade places with Vehemence for whatever she is going to do to him next.
Most people would rather be pissed off rather than pissed on. As for how Vehemence much Vehemence has been pissing on Maxima here, she’s got every right to be pissed off about it.
Yes, because it’s well established that it’s a good idea trying to hurt him violently…
I expect a tickle fight!
Wedgie?
He’s not wearing underwear. And if those pants tear, Dabbler will be the one hypnotized.
…Again…
With her tongue hanging out.
Maybe even drooling.
What? The first time, Dabbler was hungrily licking her chops. She was reacting the same way to Vehemence then as guys are reacting to her boobies now.
That is just Xuriel being her own natural self. Under the circumstances she may have slightly more self-control than Math, but it would be hard to tell. She might be able to avoid drooling.
Count me among the people who are kind of disappointed that Sydney is already saving the day with brilliant masterplanz.
Also, count me among the people who are loving every second of this anyway.
Also, just noticed. DAMN that is some massive pupil dilation in panel 1.
Erm, but, she IS the main character after all. :-D
So far, Sydney also happens to be saving the day according to what she’s seen other teammates doing once already. Every part of her plan (so far) only includes what she already knows to be truth. She’s not relying on conjecture or guessing.
You and me both, bro.
Sydney’s ability to cull together disparate bits of information into a “save the day” strategy is actually similar to what some authors do with what we like to call “plot threads,” weaving them into the overall story tapestry to make a kick-ass picture. She’s not always effective (she’s had two failures so far), but she keeps going. THAT is the truly heroic thing.
The fact that she can improvise on the fly (thanks to her ADD/ADHD) is simply how she does things. They don’t always work, but she comes at a problem from so many different angles, something’s bound to work.
Plus she’s got the whole “works in a comic book store” thing going for her. She’s been avidly reading the creativity of all those comic book authors for years. (And it is stated in the character notes, etc, that she’ll have a strong grasp of various power feats/tricks that the others can do, because of her background.)
Douglas Adams was a master at that sort of writing style. In his 5-book trilogy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, he’d expound profusely about sidelines & tangents that really didn’t seem significant except as more humor included…Only to tie them together later in the story, or even in later books.
Too, true, well observed… and god, do I miss him. :-(
ever read Steven Erikson his malazan empire series? that guy ties so many tiny things together I am still trying to figure out the size of his whiteboard on which he connected everything.. must be too big for his house.
I recommend using tesseract shaped white boards. They give you more writing space to work with for their size, and they can let you connect things in four instead of merely 3 dimensions.
same is true of the original writer for the cartoon series gargoyles (he also did Roswell Conspiracies Myths and Legends for the full series). Always something that didn’t seem to important at the time that would come back to be important later: The Phoenix Gate…. Oberon’s Children…etc. though, come to think of it, Greg Weisman is probably a big fan of Douglas Adams too.
Yes, Gargoyles, minus the atrocious Goliath Chronicles, was great because of all those ‘little things’ that somehow manage to come together into a big epic. I wish the cartoon series would continue, at the very least animate the comics that came after the series end.
Michael Reaves and Brynne Chandler did an amazing job with Gargoyles seasons 1 & 2. Just goes to show what happens when you tell a mature story instead of a childish one. I do feel many adults don’t respect the intelligence of children and assume that dumbed down pap is what they’d prefer.
Once Marvel Studios starts tapping out their comic book line of characters (it’ll happen eventually), a Gargoyles set of movies would be fantasic. If the adaptation is done right you can likey get it into a 3 arch set of movies. First movie basically condensing the first season which would stand alone well.
nah, they’ll just go and do a universal reset like they did with the 52 series reset thing?? at least that’s what i recall being done, i don’t know for certain as i don’t care about any of the ones affected… I’m more of an indy comic reader.
It was DC, not Marvel, that did that New 52 reset. I stopped buying DC comics because of it, but I still do follow some of the news that comes out of DC at https://hasdcdonesomethingstupidtoday.com/
Marvel has its screw-ups in the comic front, but yeah… DC. That’s a whole new level of crap there. For instance, Lobo. Who thought that was a good idea?
Someone at DC who looked over at Marvel and saw how popular Wolverine was.
The two companies have been stealing superpower ideas from each other for as long as they have been in business. And longer, even.
I’m talking about the scrawny Lobo from the New 52. I’ve cared little that Marvel and DC have been ripping off from one another for who knows how long.
The Marvel screw-up that cooled me off of them was ratting out to the Mickey Mouse Club…
I haven’t even been trying to follow Star Wars since Lucas Arts sold out to them too.
You know, the trailer for the new Star Wars actually shows some promise. Then again, it depends on your opinion of a lightsaber with a cruciform hilt. People keep saying it’s impractical but I look at the hand protection and think “you know, there are 2 people with the last name Skywalker that could have really used this shit.”
To me its all perfectly plausible, Halo has likely been obsessed with Supers from the age of 7 or something. And at the age of 12-13 the some idiot would eventually say “Superman would totally beat Batman in a fight, he doesn’t even have superpowers.” and thus the war begins.
We’ve all had these thought one super against another with good or evil not even coming into it. Heck we’ve been doing it in these comments for ages just read back over them. In Sydney’s case she turned her love/obsession of comics into a business, its not only a past time she enjoy’s its her livelihood and life. In her universe there are likely BOOKS fully of rants and counter arguments about the supers and their fights. I don’t recall how old she is but i’m betting at least 7-10 years of online posts. And the only person that I can think of who’d give her a run for her money with comic-book knowledge is Sheldon Cooper.
This is her wheelhouse, she’s actually been mentally training for this all her life, I am fully expecting her to Adrenaline-crash vomit when this is over but until then this is exactly as it should be.
I’d just like to see the actual military people with actual training kicking more ass than pre-training Sydney. She already figured out Death Toll, that was more than enough.
Really, the part that bothers me is more that the rest of the team are taking her orders (suggestions) like that, and that she’s assuming they will. I like the plan, the comic and Syney way too much for this to really bother me, it’s just… a little disappointing.
So technically you are not really bothered by the comic book smart ass Sydney but by the plain stupidity and lack in creativity of all those Military supers.
The problem is they are trained to in standard military/law enforcement tactics which will not be effective against Vehemence due to the nature of his ability.
So therefore this is a situation that requires out of the box thinking.
And Sydney just happens to be able to do just that.
Well you have to think about the training, military training does not cover “dude who attacks from shadows and does not appear to have a body” or “person who is lightning”. Tactic’s from the military side of things are pretty standard: charge, flank, suppressing fire, retreat, hold, skirmish, calling artillery or airstrikes. The list goes on and on, its all pretty standardized and almost all of it can be tossed out then window when someone with super powers show’s up.
Basically: Military training and tactics are good for situations where you come up against the things you trained for, but when you come up against the unknown and unexpected, you generally get slaughtered. (The movie Predator is an excellent example of this, old Arnie and his team tried all the standard stuff and got killed, he had to get mud-lucky and think pretty far out of the box to beat the Pred.)
Fighting supers you don’t know or even the supers you do know requires none-linear thinking and a LOT of adaptability. I’m pretty sure that the folks who have super powers but cant think fast/weird enough just get killed early in their career. (a good example of adaptability was in “The Incredibles” where Mr Incredible hides behind the bones of Gazer-Beam.)
Not to say that military tactics would be totally ineffective or have not been used by the ARC-team in this fight. They have had pretty good success actually. Maxima blowing up V’s arm = Classic Shock& Awe. The .50 cal to the eye = Ambush/surprise attack. The excellent communication skills and ability to arm everyone very quickly, I say all of those are pure military precision and know-how. But as the comic show’s us… that only works to a point and everything after that point is pretty much Halo’s wheelhouse.
Honestly if a General who’d come up from the old military schools had been in command of this battle how would it have gone? “Shoot the guns!” … “Shoot the bigger guns!” ….. “Shoot the biggest guns!” …. “ohcrapohcrapohcrap!!!”. They are just not cut out for this kind of thing. (there are countless movie examples of this is: Act One: new officer fresh from the military school is put in command of command of veteran troops. Act Two: he gets lots of troops killed. Act Three: “friendly fire” ……..) I’m actually betting General Faulk is not your by-the-book kind of guy and was given the job because he’s the only one who can do it, it even says in his bio that he gave Maxima a “high degree of autonomy in the field” leading me to think that he actually gets the fact that this kind of fighting is as 30-40% training 70-60% making it up as you go.
(sorry this got a little preachy :p wish I know how to make a potato with the keyboard to make up for this being to long :P)
To be fair to the military mind, that kind of thinking would have worked against their second greatest challenge so far: Dork Toll.
Or so I believe. We didn’t get to see the take down, but it seemed clear from the context that it was a classic dog pile, overwhelm his power to counter by giving him too much to counter. Having soldiers shooting at him with M16s, SAWs, M40s, .50 cals mounted on jeeps, the Barrett, and add in artillery and air support if needed, etc. should have done the trick just as well.
and his power replies with a force field that stops all the various bullets add the metal melting targeting laser from a bradley and the 2 types of attack (solid and light) take him down or add flamethrowers/ incendiary grenade for a third type
true enough, but that would have powered up V even faster and using that tactic on V…. pretty sure he’d be at super sayin 3 or 4 be now I think.
Death Toll: “Hmm, various incoming fire from various military units, all solid projectiles.” *activates kinetic energy field, stopping all rounds viva la Neo*
“…in “The Incredibles” where Mr Incredible hides behind the bones of Gazer-Beam.”
Yeah, that was a good one. I’m still geeking out over that!
:D
…I see what you did there…
And I like it!
Give yourself a congratulatory cookie! ^.^
…It’s just a Syndrome I picked up somehow…
:/
But they have been kicking ass sure we don’t see it but that’s because Sydney is the main character. there were over 30 supers there Sydney took out three or four I can’t remember. Death Toll and Vehemence have powers that they weren’t suited to take down. Sydney just came up with plans for them which is really what was needed.
I’m with you a bit there – it may have been years for us, but Arc have known Sydney for days at most. I’m not really surprised that she expects them to join in her ‘follow my lead’, which seems to be a habit of hers that hasn’t had time to be replaced with the reality of the chain of command. Why the rest are jumping into this unknown factor is less clear. Sydney might have crammed a convincing plan into her heads-up text, but more likely it’s a case of ‘no-one else has any ideas, may as well try it and see if it works’.
“…I am fully expecting her to Adrenaline-crash vomit when this is over”
At least Maxima has already learned (the hard way) to expect it & dodge it…
Always expect ninjas.
And fear vomit.
Is there even anything in her stomach? Did she even get a bite of her potato before the first jerk jumped into the restaurant?
Damn. I know we had his hand as perspective for how big he was, wrapped around Maxima. But this still supprises me how big he actually is
Heh, called it on Jiggawatt’s contribution (though I’m sure many others did too)
Hey, does this mean Jiggawatt is an alien? She’s just become a static Klingon…
:-/
To be expected that Jigg annihilates the lightning, nevertheless a top notch page again.
So now that Maxima has a bit of space to maneuver.. will she ruin Sydneys plan? or did Sydney only plan to the point of giving Maxima space?
The plan would be ‘Stop V’s attack on Maxima’.
After that, Max is back in charge, let her handle him.
The plan on her wrist thing clearly says:
1) stop aggro aura
2) do that darkning thing
3) free max
4) Max hit
And V says “Oh hell…”
He knows what’s coming next.
I think there is still step 5 and maybe 6 after step 4, involving someone else
I’d be certain of it.
Three steps ahead and all that.
Well, yeah. To stay 3 steps ahead, you’d have to keep adding more steps when your first steps actually happen…As steps 1 & 2 go down, you’d have to add steps 4 & 5.
Step 5: “Initiate search for V’s other testicle”
Step 6: Arrange for hazardous waste disposal for Sydney’s post-trauma vomit.
Her lunch at Fusion has already been digested. Her potato from the steakhouse was not that spicy. A good rain will decontaminate the parking lot as opposed to a level-3 abatement team.
I’m 99% certain that the one step is “Get Max to hit Anvil” which is something myself and many others have been calling for for a while.
Its a great idea, but would anvil her power increase quicker than Vehemence his power?
In true villain fashion, Vehemence monologued and gave away the fact that Maxima is “actually too violent for [him].” If the Agroo Field is a net benefit for him – ie, it costs him less in power to maintain than he gains in Vehemic energy from the people fighting – then Maxima is the opposite, capable of doing more damage to him than he gains from her acting violently.
I hope they are not sent to a groo field. Then they would find themselves in twisty little passages. And they would be in big trouble if they did not have a torch.
That would be a Grue field, surely. A Groo field would be something completely different (and not something you would want anywhere near a ship) :D
Or your village’s cheese dip supply.
A Groo field? Is that where Groo has wandered off to?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groo_the_Wanderer
least it’s not a Groot Field! though that is probably where Groot originally came from ;)
Groot is the Monarch of Planet X.
The above sounds super fake but is his genuine origin.
Back in 1960 Stan Lee created a comic of Earth being invaded by plant monsters as a ripoff (sorry, homage) to War of the Worlds. In this version the invaders were defeated by termites instead of by germs. The character idea was later recycled into what is now Groot.
Nobody’s making a reference to Angel‘s Groosalug? Must not be anyone from Pylea here.
@ Jack: Also, remember that the release of stored kinetic energy from Anvil can be as non-violent as a simple nose-boop She could just dash up to him after being powered up by Max at a distance, and drive a wedge or spike of kinetic energy through his skull similar to the coin Magneto used to kill Shaw in First Class.
I think she should apply a super-strong choke hold. Not that violent and renders Vehemence unconscious.
I’m pretty sure that everything we can clearly read is just Step One. Hence there only being one visible number. Notice also that the message goes out to the whole team, meaning most likely other steps involve other members.
Yeah, this is just step 1 so far: Get Vehemence to stop overcharging Max’s credit card before her account runs out of a balance. They just had to distract V to give them an opening to do that.
Step 2 probably involves some way to take V down without Max blowing his skull to pieces.
Nice touch with adding a few typos, though personally I would have asumed she used Swipe to type that fast. No typos in swipe, only a few completely wrong words
Keyboard that size, probably more likely that 5 finger typing is faster and easier than massive swipes.
Dabbler probably had a hand in making and programming the wrist communication device, so her advanced tech would definitely offer much more accurate words, but would still be unable to compensate for the user choosing to fully type the word out “tyo”, “teh”, etc…
with her English knowledge? I doubt it.
Her English comprehension is quite good. She may have some difficulties with slang, but that also may be her goofing around. She has shown quite good comprehension of jokes and innuendo, which require near native mastery of a language.
True but bear in mind he’s a succubus and sexual innuendo is her native tongue.
First iPad post by the way.
Typo, Pete. (s)he’s a succubus. He would be an incubus. :)
Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.
*proofread, double check, I’m clean :-D*
Well, in French at least, succubus is a masculine word. Officially, “he’s a succubus” is perfectly correct. Well, “il est un succube” is definitely correct.
I say officially… I can’t say “il” or “he” about a creature with full female genitalia.
And note that this gender issue may come from two things:
1/ Like angels, demons don’t have real genders and succubi only APPEAR female, so, since “demon” is masculine, “succubus” is too.
2/ Some myths abouth succubi/incubi consider they are the same demons (works well with 1/, by the way). The demon, under its female disguise, has sex with a man to collect his semen. Then, under its male disguise, he has sex with a woman to impregnate her with the man’s semen altered in the demon’s body to produce a new demon.
Indeed a typo normally I’d fix such a thing but I didn’t notice and these comments won’t let me.
Dave says it keeps the funny typos alive or something like that, I don’t remember.
I thought her native tongue was “pierced”?
It can be and indeed is both.
It’s also forked
But what if Dab added some other languages in there?
Who knows, ‘tyo’ and ‘teh’ may be completely legit words in Dabs native language!
This is a very confusing plan. I knew I remembered seeing that weird creature before, but had to search back for it. It’s the radiation eater dabbler dropped back in #235.
I’m still not sure what Halo’s got in mind. Kinda surprising that ever one else seems to be going along with it.
Without the lightning keeping Maxima in full armor, she can switch back to strenght and throw Vehemence off. It seems that Sydney figured out that Maxima switched between power pools
Well-up, she at least knows that the lightening is keeping Maxima from exerting her strength, if not why.
Syd is genre savvy, but maybe not that much.
More likely it is more: “being zapped is stopping her from throwing him off” with no knowlege of the power pool.
I know being constantly zapped by lightning would stop ne from doing much…
…as would being riddled by bullets or staked in the heart >^.^<
Shirtless men with abs won’t do anything for me, though. Topless women with a rack, however. .
“Holds up a picture of a naked Betty White”
*whistles in appreciation* Didn’t know she posed for something like that back in the forties! The old girl looked good back then…
Don’t you just love Photoshop? =D
“The old girl looked good back then…”
I was born too late
:(
Classic Return of the Jedi, geek training day one.
Well Vehemence called it out in comice #273
When you’re the only one with any kind of a plan, people listen. Especially after butt smacks, LOL.
✓ Maxim 2: “A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on.”
+1
That really should include “And a Master Sergeant outranks God”
It’s also simply a good idea. No reason to refuse to follow someone’s order/suggestion if you agree it’s a good idea
And a bomb squad technician at a full sprint outranks everyone
That’s ALMOST Maxim #3. It’s actually an ORDINANCE Technician, but you got the general idea.
To be fair, Jiggawatt may not know how new Sydney is to the team right now. After all, Jiggy’s a Reserve Member & she may have missed the TV broadcast that introduced Sydney as a new recruit. But the Maxim stills applies even if you don’t happen to know the relevant ranks between someone on the move compared to someone standing obliviously ineffective.
Well you can always switch to Maxim 3: “A demolition technician at a dead run outranks EVERYBODY” Right now Syd is on par with a civilian consultant (altough everyone could order her around). As a Recruit she has no authority to tell anyone anything. But since she is the only one with a plan, everyone would be rather stupid if they didn´t listen (mostly seen in managers and young bosses these days).
Also, recall that Harem told Sydney (a few pages ago) to “…think of a way to beat him!”. She can argue that she’s just following instructions.
If you check out the comics in the beginning where Halo/Sydney was introduced to the team, you’ll notice Jiggawatt was there among the members.
Jiggawatt was at the press conference where they introduced her. After the conference she went to her family’s place instead of sticking with the group. Looking at the press conference we can’t see her but neither can we see Hiro or Mr. Amorphous but since she was at the demonstration I believe it’s safe to assume she was at the conference.
It’s also kind of an “Oh, right” moment where Jiggawatt is being reminded that she has the specific power needed to free the strongest member of the team.
Looking back at the archive to the flashback panel, it’s very cool to see how the collouring has changed. It looks way better now
I agree that the artwork has improved immensely, but technically THIS is the flashback part of the story, or the other part could possibly be a flash forward, or if this scene had gone on any longer it would have been a Dabbler flash EVERYONE story.
Why can I totally see Sydney quoting Maxim #2 (of the Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries) when Maxima tells her off for directing combat operations again?
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-07-31
“A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on.”
And a running bomb squad member outranks a four-star general!
If you can’t keep up, you’ll get run over…
That’s Maxim #3: An ordinance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
Actually, the real truth is: A bomb outranks everybody, including the bomb technician. It’s just that the BT knows enough about when it’s time to start running.
There’s a shirt somewhere that says “I am a bomb tech. If you see me running, try to keep up.”
I doubt anyone is going to give Sydney a hard time after sucesfully saving the boss :P
Or do you mean in general, ever again?
I can imagine it, very clearly.
I’d say Sydney will be thanked and praised for her actions, then given a very stern lecture on just why you don’t go putting yourself into a potentially life threatening situation without the go ahead from someone higher up and just what the term “acceptable risks” means. And probably something about not dying for your cause but letting the other damn fool die for his cause.
Remember, despite all this battle, Sydney has yet to pass basic training. She’s definitely acting above her rank in this battle.
Sydney was literally the only person on site able to make any decisions whatsoever. I doubt she’s gonna get into too much trouble for taking the initiative.
Trouble no, pep talk with a lesson, yes.
Showing initiative in the face of extreme danger is what gets people promoted, not a stern talking.
If it looks stupid but it works, it ain’t stupid. If her plan works, it’s a good plan.
Just because some big hat didn’t give her permission to think yet doesn’t mean she should just watch how Vehemence kills Maxima
That’s the key in Sydney’s “defense” right now…No one has yet given her any orders to NOT think.
:D
And gladly, none of the ‘good guys’ have lost their hat in this plan.
But Vehemence lost his… earlier, as part of his plan.
Hrm. I think his plan was a bed plen.
Too true.
Any plan where you lose your hat is a bad plan.
No, something can be stupid and work.
But that doesn’t make the plan good, it just means you got lucky.
Heh heh heh, personally, I love the little hearts around the “Oooo, that smarts” star in panel 4. Nice touch, Dave.
The vibration during the spank was pretty… jiggy.
Jigglewatts?
Definitely one of the things I’d like to do when I grow up. :D
Are you referring to giving or receiving…?
“…Not that there’s anything WRONG with that!”
“OF COURSE NOT!!!”
Well, I have always been told that ’tis better to give than to receive. So I am paying much close attention to how Sydney did it.
But there isn’t anything wrong with receiving.
We (and probably Halo) haven’t seen Jiggawatt’s absorption power, but I assume it would have worked in place of the positron lightning.
I think she is still using that power, only at a zero range level to absorb/convert it as it is being generated. Her next move once Max is free of his grip is to jump up and grab his head from behind. 1) So he can’t reach her with his bulky arms, and 2) so she can send another charge straight through his skull. This would of course give him an actual positronic brain.
Pop go the neurons. Let’s see him regenerate from that.
Talk about brainstorms….
^ That’s worth a +1
I’d tap that @$$ to if I got the opportunity.
And I do believe Vehemence is have in an ephany right now.
Vehemence: Oh hell! The power of teamwork! My one weakness!
You are forgetting Sydney’s ringtone. It is the power of friendship!
Well, if nothing else, there are plenty of moons to admire.
Well I guess that worked and hey Jiggawatt gets more screentime!
She not only knows how to make a grand entrance, but she can also be affectionate too. She’s getting jiggy with V’s arm…
Hmm. Vehemence’s lines are getting darker. Red rings of death anyone?
No free V-energy flowing in and lot of energy flowing out. That’s his battery indicator showing energy drain.
I was under the impression they had turned red about the time he was crowing about having leveled up from all the V energy his aggro-aura was generating for him.
Until we see obvious detrimental side effects from overpowering-up, colors shifting back through the pallet we’ve already seen, or an ability of his fizzle I don’t think we can say if his energy reserves are running out or overloading yet.
OOhhh….I like where this is going…
I have no idea what’s going on. This page confused me a great deal. I’m not a fan of the pages where you have to read your explanation to have an idea as to what’s going on, but this time I just plain don’t get it at all, even though I’ve read it. I didn’t even realize that the flashback was a flashback.
I know it’s not very popular around these parts to express anything but absolute unbridled joy over the comic, but I think this and the Dabblerjumpy pages were among the weakest in the story so far. The “hypnoboob effect” is cheesy – intentionally so, I get that – but it doesn’t convey to the reader in any way except the characters telling us it’s super sexy, which we have to take their word for.
This page’s problem is that it’s all over the place, especially the bottom panels. The context may exist, but it is far removed from these pages both numerically and in time since it first appeared.
As it says in Sydney’s write-up on the Cast Page, “…as she seems to be better at coming up with power stunts than the power’s owner in many cases. ”
Sydney has seen some of the individual abilities of her other teammates& she’s combining what she saw in a plan to distract Vehemence from killing Max, getting him to stop shooting lightning through her so she can get free of V’s grip. According to what Sydney typed out on the pipboy, she’s fully expecting for Max to try taking V’s head clean off.
But Sydney was pretty upset about merely being a part of Max blowing V’s arm off, so I’d wager Sydney’s already planned a way to bring V down without killing him. I figure Sydney’s got a non-lethal plan going mostly because Sydney doesn’t want to feel responsible for even a villain to die.
…And the fact that DaveB also said he wants Vehemence to be a recurring villain.
;)
Honestly, I had no problem following the plan, but thats because I have read the entire comic series several times while waiting on updates. So I saw what she had in mind as soon as it happened. Its probably easier to miss the connections and such if its been months since you saw the radiation eater and a year or more since the fear vomit line.
nope it is not.. at least it was fine for me.. then again woooot physics!
I dunno. The only panel I didn’t understand without explanation, funny enough, was the fear vomit flashback, namely how it applied. Funny, because that panel was supposed to put into context this step of the plan, which was to render V’s lightning useless without him being able to react the way Max couldn’t react to Sydney getting vomit on her boots. I thought it wasn’t necessary till I was reminded of V’s own speed and Jiggy is not a speedster outside of becoming lightning itself. Otherwise, I understood things completely, especially since I am not a long time reader, so most of the stuff is still fresh in my mind.
Before I read the commentary, I thought the fear vomit panel was referencing someone vomiting / about to vomit in this situation :\
I do get what the author is going for, but… didn’t work for me.
Including the last page that’s 3 chekhov’s guns going off here, and very funny as well!
The last panel is just great, you can almost hear max thinking, ‘no more second chances, now you go boom!’ (it might not work or happen, but you know she wants too). Mind you, if V regenerates his head, welp, I’m out of here till the battle ends (adore the comic, but there are limits) :-).
Panel 6, so does that mean Sydney’s force field really does make a “Byoop Byoop” noise when it lowers? I’m not sure which is funnier, that it does or that Syd is still filling in sound effects for it!
We saw the same sound effect the last time she dropped a big shield
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1150
just noticed that Maxima’s hand gripping that crystal/diamond thing is actually cracking it, her other hand is on his thumb… I’m predicting a broken thumb at the very least.
…I think Max wants to break more than just a thumb, but ya’ gotta start somewhere.
Max did have her foot on V’s shoulder. She has moved it now but I was expecting another amputation maneuver. Now all she’s gonna do is pay him back for her twice-broken nose. By breaking two things precious to him. A surge of vehemic energy, true. But useless until he can uncross his eyes.
Something like this, perhaps?
https://s174.photobucket.com/user/therealaze/media/Newtons_cradle_animation_bo.gif.html
Yup. But at supersonic speed.
To quote Wolverine in Last Stand: “Grow THOSE back!”
Ok, now I really want to see what the next part of the plan is… I see long term flaws already, but hey you got to take these things one step at a time.
Violence changed to vehemic energy, changed to electricity, changed to dark radiation, and absorbed by rad rad-nommer. Nice partial neutralization of V’s power.
Thanks!
I was confused as to what was happening.
“A good friend comforts you and talks you down when you are angry. A best friend skips along side you, carrying a baseball bat, and chanting, ‘Somebody’s gonna get it!'” Max has a whole team, and audience of BF’s right now.
A good friend helps you move furniture. A best friend helps you move a body.
You mean dispose off
Yup!
I’d like to point out the hearts from the tentacle snap. Jigg and Dabbler must get along well. :P
I’m guessing that EVERYONE but Max gets along well with Dabbler.
So far no Deus ex Machina.
I’m thinking also that Sydney’s plan doesn’t wrap up with Maxima blowing V’s head off either…So I also don’t anticipate a Deus ex Maxima to bring Vehemence down.
*sigh*
I’m just gonna assume that the term “Deus Ex Maxima” you guys are throwing around has nothing to do with the term Deus Ex Machina some are also throwing around. Because if Maxima blew his head off it would be WELL foreshadowed. It would make perfect sense in every way as well. So I’m assuming you mean something totally different from Deus Ex Machina when you say “Deus Ex Maxima”.
“Deus Ex Machina” meaning “god from the machine” and in this context meaning plot resolution from forces outside of the current scenario. DaveB doesn’t appear to be introducing a (new) specific agent to resolve this dilemma, so Vehemence is being handled by the team, and by abilities previously stated.
I was referring to the “Deus Ex Maxima” thing that commentors keep bringing up which if it has a meaning similar to Deus Ex Machina has not been possible ANY of the times someone has brought it up as all of Maxima’s abilities are at least somewhat understood or foreshadowed and she actually was the most likely one to take V out early on. So I am assuming this Deus Ex Maxima thing actually has a meaning completely different from Deus Ex Machina. I think Deus Ex Maxima probably means “Maxima is really strong so it wold be boring if she defeated V.” or something like that from the context when I see it being spoken of.
Pet peeve but I wish they would come up with a new name for it.
…The phrase “Deus ex Maxima” is really not fan-originated…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1504, last panel
Thank you. It seems a long time since I’ve seen that and all I’ve heard since are rather negative things said in the comments concerning this Deus Ex Maxima thing. I had forgotten the original. With many of the fan usages not jiving with each other. So it originally meant come down here boss and bring the hammer of God down on these unexpecting mortals and has been mutated over time. Didn’t really jive with Deus Ex Machina then either but at least it was closer since all the villains had seen (cept V who seems to keep up on things) had only seen her little bang attack and didn’t know the full breadth of what she could do.
Oh well, at least now I know why its so popular though it really sounds odd. (especially the way some of the other folk are using it… )
Thanks for linking that.
i can see how ordinary people, and the lesser powered supers like Harem and Peggy (i know: shes NOT a Super, but you get my drift) could come to that conclusion… basically compared to THEM, she IS “godlike” in her ability to dish out damage to an opponent… thus their efforts, while mighty indeed, even teamed up on him as it were, are just NOT doing it… they NEED that “Hammer of God” to finally stop him… granted things didn’t work out that way, but up until he talks it over with Dabbler, about power sources, they all thought that he’d run out of oomph, sooner rather than later…due to the overwhelming levels of energy Max could put to use against him… therefore that saying DOES make sense (to me at least.)
With the reminder and the link I find the Deus Ex Maxima thing much more palatable though still sounds off being repeatedly used when you know what Deus Ex Machina means in writing. Aaand the people who refer to Deus Ex Maxima are often discussing Deus Ex Machina at the same time leading one to thinking that they are somehow related.
And while the initial use may have had some similarities, at least enough for a joke I guess, now the one just means that Maxima is going to kick some ass with known abilities. The opposite of Deus Ex Machina.
Anyway the link helped make it less… itchy…
My use of the phrase was just to indicate that, as Sydney’s plan unfolds, I don’t expect it to rely on Maxima to finish the fight. That’s in line with the original context of “Deus ex Maxima” when Dave used it.
In here, a Deus Ex Machina would be Sydney disabling Vehemence with one of the unkown orbs, that suddenly turns out to be the perfect counter
Was mostly talking about the bizarre, “Deus Ex Maxima” thing fans have come up with. For more see reply to Kuro above. (short version. I don’t think it means what commentors think it means and its become a pet peeve of mine… )
I thought it was Harem who first used “Deus ex Maxima”, not fans, here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1504 . From context I thought it means something like “release our ultimate violence dispenser”, it’s similarity to deus ex machina is just play on words (and nod to the fact that she is probably stronger than rest of the team together when she really tries).
Thanks for the link.
I’m taking Deus ex Maxima to mean, “resolved by Maxima using some unforeseen power or degree of power”, making it an unsatisfying Deus ex Machina solution as well.
But yes, I can see how some people are using to to mean “Maxima gets pissed off and turns extra badass”.
Not necessarily unseen, but often disproportionate. Compared to just about any meta we’ve seen so far, Maxima’s grossly overpowered when she puts her mind to it – hence the ‘divine intervention’ allusions.
Glad to see there is indeed more to Sydney’s plan than the hypnoboobs, but I also miss them already. Really –gone in one page? Really? (sad face)
Well, we got hypnoboobs ang Jiggy’s butt in one week. I can’t complain.
That is one really tough cell phone.
Would you really expect an organization like ARC-Swat not to have Mil-Spec phones?
Good point – it is still functioning after being inside and next to lots of lightning bolts.
I have little doubt that those phones are also Tempest Hardened*.
*Look it up. When I was in the military, I dealt with secured communications protocols & engineering.
1) I am surprised that she can keep any electronic devices alive in her immediate vicinity.
2) I am surprised that she is able to also convert her clothing and gear to electricity when she does her tele-zap transport. More likely, she would appear at her destination in the buff. I think we need to correct this little issue, purely for the sake of realism of course.
her power may allow her to construct her clothing at the atomic level by controlling the atom’s electrons
Than you must wonder why she didn’t uses her matter creation power for something else
Maybe she can only do it with a limited amount of mass at the same time, and only back into things she first deconstructs by TURNING into lightning.
So she’s not making anything. She’s simply bringing things along with her
It’s not matter creation, it is matter deconstruction and reconstruction. But mostly it is “convenient comic book physics,” which is totally fair game.
I wouldn’t mind seeing that issue being corrected, though.
Because, science.
On a pair of nice legs.
+1
That’s a _very_ annoyed looking Maxima.
I’m curious to see what a royally pissed of Maxima, who’s life was just in serious danger for the first time in quite a while, will do next. I’m guessing it will be more than just a punch.
Conjecturing the next bit of Sydney’s play, It looks like the obscured lines may be something like I will follow on with the lighthook (presumable after Maxima hits). Anyone got a better idea for “I will follow on with *obscured* ook?”
I also like how Maxima’s grip is cracking the pointy crystal thing.
“I will follow on with a right hook.” Sydney is betting that her strength stat is so low relative to him, her attacks actually count as negative violence. [No, I don’t think that’s what it says, but it’d be hilarious to see her punching Vehemence anyway.]
See, I like this one. Halo doesnt have to possess any knowledge she couldnt get from simple observation. “Maxima got pinned when he started to shock her. Stop the shock, she can fight back.” It doesnt matter that lightning isnt her weakness, or that she has no way of knowing that maxima can reallocate her power pool, the plan still works because of that.
The other plus is that VEHEMENCE doesnt realize he could probably still win if he switched elements and started roasting maxima or something. Jiggawatt would be burnt to a crisp and maxima would still be in full defense mode to survive. Since he erroneously believes lightning is her downfall, it likely wont occur to him to try something else before she breaks free. Given 5 seconds to think about it he still might, if only to get rid of jiggawatt. A quick second of napalm on his arm and she would let go in a hurry. Then switch back. But I get the feeling he wasted his time to think about it saying, “Oh hell.”
If he bends all five elements I guess he really IS the evil avatar!
5? What’s the 5th?
Lightning is an advanced form of fire
For the Nick series Avatar? I guess it would be
1. Water
2. Earth
3. Fire
4. Air
5. Spirit
I guess maybe we could count V’s vehemic energy powers as a branch of spirit bending? Why not. *shrugs* Anyway just a joke so…
So far, I can naturally bend water, earth, and air in the bathroom. I’m on my way to becoming an uber-avatar. :D
With Sydney’s culinary preferences, she bends fire…
I’ve already wondered what the “Advanced” Air bending was I mean
Water: Ice and Blood
Fire: Lightning
Earth: Lava and Metal
Air:… …
I see an Imbalance here.
I believe there are some but they are coming up in seasons I have yet to purchase. Other than their enhanced spiritual side like that little girl airbender that could astrally project. The other one I’ve caught fragments of will have to wait till I buy the season.
I thought lava was a combination between Earth and Fire. So only for the Avatar.
Air benders can fly though. And by real world logic, air should be the strongest thing ever, especially on a mountain. You can just blow everything off the mountain, no fire is going to help with that
Only Earthbenders can lavabend, though, as demonstrated bu Bolin and that one EB guy of Zaheer’s. And Advanced Airbending is flying without the stick or suit, but to literally walk on air. Zaheer is the only one capable of doing so right now. Also, firebenders can also combustion bend, waterbenders can bend plants, and earthbenders can bend sand.
One Last Airbender fanfic I read pointed out that the only time Air monks turned to violence, all that remained of their enemies was the skulls. (Aang finds the dead in his home temple) As the fic implies, when an Airbender wants to kill someone, there isn’t much of a corpse.
A different chapter has a character quoting a saying about bending in warfare/a siege. One type of bending (Earth IIRC) to defend a city, one type to besiege it (Water, I think), a third to conquer the city and the saying cuts off with “to destroy it. . .”
Found the reference: “If you want to besiege a city, use waterbenders. If you want to hold it, use earthbenders. If you want to take it, use firebenders. If you want to destroy it…” (Vathara’s Embers, chapter 36)
…Or Vehemence could be a fan of the movie, The Fifth Element…
Boron?
On the contrary, it’s quite exciting.
I hated that movie
We can never be friends.
and big bada-boom
Right through the roof!
:D
Three steps ahead. No matter what V does at this point, Max is free to shift power to offence. The only thing that will save his life now is Sydney, Jiggy, and Dab’s close proximity – unless they retreat and take refuge under the shield.
On my phone right now, so I see ads
Love the lightning prevention ad….with this guy on the same screen. (Doubly so with the “anti-lightning” darkning at the same time.)
(Wait, TWO ads, hah!)
Rather poor choice of last words there V old boy.
Actually, those would be appropriate last words…right up there with “Oops.”
And ARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!
And last words, recorded or unrecorded, of posthumous Darwin Award winners…
Darwin Awards are always posthumous. Anyone who survives gets an Honourable Mention.
I think you forgot the black band on sydney’s right hand in panel 3.
Looks like Vs cracking up in last panel beteween Daz distraction and Jiggy countering the juice max can shift gear back to power and get free.. Hate to say this I still don’t see how they plan to take him down with out taking his head off..
It could be your bog standard super shot that propels vehemence away, defeating him but not killing him. He manages to vanish before they can find his body. Other option, Maxima vaporizes him, but he reforms later, after they leave, now solid metal, laughing all evil and insanely. And deservedly so. He just survived total obliteration. He didnt know he could do that. And now he wants revenge, so reoccurring bad guy creation completed.
He’s still anchored to the ground maybe? So I vote vaporization over knock back.
My thought several pages back was that she vaporizes his head, and he reforms it much later in the morgue, looking much like a cross between the T-800 and Colossus heads
sydney is sure proving to be a great asset of the team
Meanwhile, Jiggawatt is showing us why she has that first part in her name — a great ass.
Also, it sucks for Vehemence that he now has a metal arm, because she is willingly plastering her boobs all over it.
We’ve already got a glimpse of how much of an asset she is, way back on https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/589
@DaveB
Anytime you need to do a flashback, just have a single-line cut-panel in between with “flash” written backwards, then “/flash” at the end. (With “/flash” written normally.)
The way Dave’s been using a kind of fuzzy-looking purple haze around the inside of the panel’s borders for showing flashbacks, I had no problem noticing that they are flashbacks.
No, I noticed too — some people, however, need that extra little ‘OBVIOUS’ sign.
So should he put that sort of thing around the whole comic for the past most-of-it-aside-from-3-pages then?
“Lately things don’t seem the same.”
I think Dave was looking for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehead_%28science_fiction%29#Known_Space_stories
Louis Wu was also a wirehead in the second Ringworld book.