Grrl Power #287 – All wrapped up
I have a few pages of house keeping to do before we move on to the next scene and chapter. This isn’t like Kung-Fu theater where the bad guy gasps his last and they roll credits literally 2 seconds after the hero slumps to the ground, exhausted but elated that he’s finally avenged his father and/or master. We won’t linger long though, just want to hit some important notes first. Notes like the girls making jokes about shirtless boys. I figure it was time to balance the scales a bit – not that there’s a direct male equivalent to “girl in corset jumping rope” of course, but it’s something.
There’s been a lot of speculation on how to incarcerate Vehemence. Obviously you couldn’t throw him in general pop or even some a moderately populated super prison since the first riot and he’d be off, and they already know he can start them. I’ll touch on it later, and also maybe cover the fact that Dabbler did stuff to make sure he hadn’t banked a ton of energy or anything, but I’ll leave it at “really really really tied up” for now.
Dabbler will eventually share the story of her arrival on Earth and such, but that’s for the next book.
Oh and I somehow forgot to use a scratchy font for Maxima on the last page, I’ll eventually fix that, but her voice won’t be all “unbelievably strong guy tried to crush my windpipe” forever.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
First! aha!
I know there are some sites that will start blocking people who shout first on a page. I vote it gets implemented on here too.
Seconded.
If the persons who practice that idiocy actually had something worthwhile to say, I wouldn’t mind. But it seems their minds can’t stretch that far.
Amen. Save useless stuf for youtube
Count me in.
Its either that or I start with the signs again.
First posts are such a catch 22. Do you ignore it or comment even though you know it will happen again? Ultimately harmless but still a bit annoying. -_-
I dunno, I think it’d be pretty funny if DaveB himself did it one of these days.
Why would he? He has the description to rant all he wants to and everyone will see it.
…’Occupy Hat’?
…I see what you did there…
There is a certain cachet to being at the top. Your own comments are more likely to be seen, and thus you have a better chance of contributing meaningfully to the discussion, but this race to be first to comment doesn’t add anything.
Unfortunately, it conflicts strongly with monetization schemes – you don’t want to ban people that just gave (or might give) $$$ to the author so that he could bring forth more of the goods.
I was speaking only of a comment ban, and only if there is a repeat of first posts. They should still be allowed to read the comic, but if the only thing they ‘contribute’ to the comments is “First!” they might as well not post anything at all.
Oh please…At least add something relevant to the page if you’re going to lead off with THAT trope.
And to prevent myself from becoming a hypocrite, I’d like to add a comment about something in Dave’s blog, up above.
“…but her voice won’t be all “unbelievably strong guy tried to crush my windpipe” forever.”
TBH, I never gave it a thought that Max’s throat wouldn’t be sore forever…They DO have a very good healer back at Archon HQ. She did wonders with Sydney’s eye after that nuke-powered noodle slap.
;)
“nuke-powered noodle snap”
That’s it.
My day is made.
I’m going back to bed.
“nuke-powered noodle slap” time to find a game and make the most underpowerd character/gear nuke powered
Off Topic. But Wow, Your name Nevyn is VERY similar to that of which I used myself when I was in Highschool as an alias. Swap the V and the Y around and it would have been EXACTLY the same. Give or take a couple of times I miss spelled it…
You know, I used to tease people about having to “give them 20 lashes with a wet noodle” if they didn’t behave.
But if the noodle came from a dish of Sydney’s food, that would actually be a threat. *shudders*
The only time the first thing bothers me is when like 50 people all think they had a shot and hit send and then you have to scroll past them. I think at that time it was also popular to call out 2nd and 3rd with the same results. That was a bit of scrolling. I assumed that level of escalation was why it started being banned in the first place. (especially on those pages where those were the only comments the author got that day!)
Normally read the comic the posts are already on page 2. Today we are up to 212 comments, but the other day, when the comic posted late, I got one last refresh in before going to work. There was also a comment on the previous comic about being the last post and I thought it would be funny to have a first on the next day. I hope that I haven’t unleashed a monster.
Thanks for the page.
+1.
Shame that the comment did not happen to be the first, it is much more deserving.
I’ve only ever dome those “First” type comments once and even then it was a “nth Where n is a number between 1 and ∞” and so on.
I’m betting she learned english like Starfire, kissing it out of someone
I’d wager she did more than kiss…
I can only guess how many victi…uh, language teachers Dabbler went through.
Apparently not enough yet to master English. Though she won’t be short on volunteers to teach her.
To be fair though, language teachers are a lot more common than Philologists are. Dabbler just has to be persistent.
(No, that’s not a dirty word…Look it up ;) )
I expect that she’s a cunning linguist.
Well, by nature, a succubus has to be at least a practicing “bi.”
Really? Always figured Succubae were for men, and Incubi for women
Other way round, actually
Though I don’t know how it might work for some … personal orientations.
Oops, my bad. Delete that first sentence.
some legends had them as shapeshifters, so basically if they were going to feed on a woman, they took a male body, Etc.
In one of the christian mythologies they rode a man in the shape of a woman, collecting and corrupting the seed internally, then as a male, inseminating a woman with the corrupted seed, leading to the woman giving birth to a child who is damned, serving the dark lord from birth.
christian mythologies?
wow. just…
wow.
considering Christianity itself is a great deal about freedom of choice / free will, that seems an overly biased remark. As well as appearing uninformed. Leave the word christian out of the post.
Just sayin’.
Well, it comes from Jewish-Christian folklore, so why be offended at the Christian part if it’s true?
However, Gruhl, there are distinct differences between male and female demons as Succubus comes from the Latin Succubare (to lie under/beneath) and Incubus comes from Incubare (to lie above/on top).
The detail is that according to legends it was not a succubus turning incubus, but GIVING the seed to the incubus to infect women with.
The thing about mythologies, Muchacho, is that they are allowed to be internally inconsistent, because the stories may not be told the exact same way every time, and can evolve over time.
So yes, there’s probably a version of the Succubus/Incubus mythology where the two work in partnership. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a version where the two are the same being, performing different roles at different times. Both can be true, because both are just stories told.
There are, like, six different versions of the story explaining why Hephaestus has a limp, for instance.
Also, Hypnofetish… Yes, Christianity has mythologies. The mythology of Christianity should be considered to be rather like a cloud existing around the religion, not inherent to and inextricable from it. That’s the upside of having a single designated holy book.
Possibly, although there are male versions called Incubus.
Looks like the pun went over unnoticed :)
Nono. I saw it.
Wasn’t sure whether to groan or applaud.
i did both.
Seemed appropriate.
No, it most assuredly did not… XD
I noticed it…I even expanded upon the “linguist” part by making a reference to bi(lingual) speakers.
After reading/hearing it for the umpteenth time, I thought I gave it all the attention it deserved.
… And how many were ….. enthusiastic ….. volunteers (my guess for that part is all of them).
I think the real question is.. How many were enthusiastic.. after the fact? If it was just a kiss, I wouldn’t be bothered that much.. But if I was experiencing a rapid personality change.. After.. say.. betraying my significant other.. Who I am Happily and gratefully in love with.. I would be horrified at myself. Not to mentioned her.
Seems to me that outright coersion / mind control is something she only uses on enemies. She affects people to some exent normally, but not to the point of having them cross the line (refer – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/607 ).
While I assume she only did that to make sure whether her handler is there. She still got it to a level I would personally not feel.. Clean.. After.
And remember what she did to the general? She plucked his personal business out of his mind and displayed for all the world(Friend and co-workers) to see.
here
sorry:https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/660
Not done maliciously, mind you – and there are much much worse things to be outed as than being a fan of Classic ‘Star Trek’. ;)
Personally, I think it’s a basic culture clash. She came from a society where if you are able to force a desire in others.. then all power to you, it’s your right.. For humans though.. We place a great degree of emphasis on sexual trust. There is a reason our ancestors considered succubi/incubi demons, rather than angels.
Am I the only one who remembers Dabbler’s first science corner? I know it’s not really canon, but she might have used the…method…of gathering information that she used on Dave.
Sydney’s weakness is showing again.
My guess is that the problem is they have too many criminals to fit in all the cars, possibly a few being too big as well.
That or not enough holding cells of the correct type.
Or not enough forms to fill out to requisition enough holding cells…
Could be that they have some prisoners who want to switch sides.
And therein lies the problem.
Some have demands.
… Or they have agents / lawyers with demands.
Time for Arianna to fight her own super battle
… And NOW the battle gets nasty.
All kindsa bloody hell. My last comment didn’t get posted (after waiting 24 hrs.). I must have really butchered the a href deal. I’m more used to url= link tag, and never got used to So here’s hoping round bucking two actually succceds.
Anywho. The onlyone walking out of there legally, and coming out ahead is Death Tolls. With his power, its all self defense. Quite litteraly. And since they used enough force to do serious damage (and one guy stuck a knife in him). You have on a legal stand point. Excessive Force, Assault and Battery (with a lethal weapon(s))), Attempted Manslauhter (that knife was making that wound gush a lot of blood), and possibly “emotional damages along with the physical”.
Thus equaling a massive lawsuit to get them money, and opening others with DT to get a release / lawsuit for massive money. (Especially if they can throw in some civilians that were technicaly “around” for endangering civilians). So at the least, finding others like DT who either were defensive or didn’t attack first, and you have quite a few prissioners getting free.
And the two links I butchered for an Anti-Arriana, and quite awesome Villian Lawyers that could pull off the above scenario IRL.
https://www.cracked.com/article_16358_9-insane-cases-that-prove-us-legal-system-screwed_p4.html
[Mr. Loophole. Has individually won cases were he has used. Having 9 double vodkas in a person in them makes them sober; needing to do #1 is more important than the law; and accusing the magistrate of winking. Other words. Arriana’s worst nightmare. A good lawyer who word lawyers and has others legally admit to his loophole skills.]
Then. My more personal favorite IRL Lawyer. The onlyone for real Supervillians.
https://www.cracked.com/article_19341_6-companies-that-are-clearly-catering-to-supervillains_p6.html . By the way all of the articals in that one are awesome. But still, a Supervillain Lawyer is something awesome, and this could quickly become a battle even more ferocious than the one they jusst fought behind the scenes … especially if you count Dabbler using touch based sex magic targetted purely on another rather than ambient, as mind rape. Since she did use targeted sex magic to get the martial arts chick to attack violently her team mate. Then mentioned that it lingers, against their will (before and after the effect is used / in effect), thus is another thing that legally can be used against.
I had a similar experience from yesterday. And we have had at least one other person mentioning vanishing comments. I suggest that anybody who has a similar problem mention it and give what details they can.
In my case, it was a very simple post, which consisted of just two links, both encoded in the fashion shown on this page: https://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_links_w3schools
I am fairly confident that the two links were clean, because when the I submitted the post and it failed to appear (even after reloading the page), I recreated the post from scratch.
That time I got an error message, saying that “duplicate comment detected”. So clearly the server had received my comment. Further, if I had made a mistake, I made exactly the same one twice. Which is unlikely.
From past experience, I know that more than two links pushes the post into moderation. But I had not exceeded that limit, nor had there been a message to that effect.
I felt that it would be preferable to risk two versions of the post appearing, rather than leave it with the possibility of there being none. So modified my new post slightly and re-submitted it. It went, but did not appear, and still has not, the following day.
Aa such, I suspect that a new patch/update to the server (within the past couple of months) may have blocked posts with more than one link, in an anti-spam feature. But that it fails to send it to moderation (or, at least, provide a message that it has blocked it).
He he. And, if I had read on, in your post, I would have seen that you had two links, both of which work. So scratch my theory in the last paragraph.
Possibly the source I was copying one of my two links from was not clean. Which would explain it happening twice. I do not recall testing both of them, in their final form. So maybe it is just an issue of dirty links.
Or there cold be something unrelated to that. Either way it bears investigating, as one should have an error message appear, and the other may be symptomatic of a more serious problem.
Cool post, thanks for sharing that. Plus you picked the cream from those articles.
Not intending to detract from your quality work, I was rather disappointed with the journalistic standards (in the other parts) of the first article. Which is a shame, as Cracked has been growing on me, and it is discouraging to see that their standards can be… variable.
The item “Exhibit 2: Softcore porn apparently illegal in court” stands out best. First the headline is actually wrong. For it to have been true, the judge would have had to say “I am banning the reading of softcore porn in my court”. Such things can and have been said, and it does hold the strength of law behind it, making such illegal.
What actually happened is that one individual was found to be in contempt of court for doing that. And for good reason. Although the article fails to draw attention to it, the key word jumped out at me. Namely “lawyer”. The person was not just some random member of the public, but a lawyer! In a court sitting in session.
Ok, I am making an assumption here, but I think it fair to say that the person was probably one of the prosecution or defence teams. If so, that means that he was not paying attention to the court case, was failing to carry out his duty to his client (or the public, if on the prosecution side), and it is damned right that he be found in contempt of court!
And, even if he was just a spectator, any lawyer really should know better. He was showing public disrespect to the judge and the court. A normal member of the public may be forgiven their ignorance, and just be told to put it away. But a lawyer has no excuse.
So I think that declaring him in contempt of court was entirely just. As did the legal system, as it was upheld on appeal.
So the item does not support the article title (“9 Insane Cases that Prove the US Legal System Is Screwed”), given that it proves the opposite. A member of the legal profession was behaving in an unprofessional manner, and was rebuked and punished for the transgression.
He was a twat, but the system was doing what it should, in a just manner.
Or some of them escaped during/after the Fury Revival.
I’m wondering if the two muscle heads who helped hold V down are making a fuss about getting in the carpool to prison. They are wide awake, and strong enough to resist violently if they don’t get what they want.
“Hey, what are you doing, we helped you!”
“Yeah, be cool man, let us go. He converted us.”
“You mean… he coerced you?”
“Yeah that, he cornered us.”
“We’ll sick Maxima on you. Now that Vehemence is down there’s nothing stopping her from disassembling your other shoulder and knocking out the rest of your teeth.”
“Umm. Ok we’ll go.”
Clearly the paperwork doesn’t come until after shirts are found for everybody. The shirtless thing is kinda like Wolverine’s healing factor. He CAN take a beating so he does take a beating. The men CAN lose their shirts so they do lose their shirts, unlike the women. Or do they lose them deliberately? I know I would if I had a body like that.
Now, the question is, would you simply run around without a shirt or wear something flimsy so that wardrobe malfunctions would be something to look forward to?
Heck, I don’ look anywhere close to that good and I lose my shirt on a pretty regular basis anyway. If I looked like that, I would only wear a shirt when absolutely forced to.
Hahaha, reminds me of the Anime “Fairy tail” where Gray Fullbuster always strips down to his briefs at any given time. He doesn’t even notice he does it, anymore. Hilarious timing, though :)
{Rickman]”I see you got your shirt off.”[/Rickman]
“don’t ANY of you WATCH your show?!?!” says crewman #6…
Crewman #6: “I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m just “Crewman Number Six.” I’m expendable. I’m the guy in the episode who dies to prove how serious the situation is. I’ve gotta get outta here!”
Monk: “Guy, Guy… maybe you’re the plucky comic relief. You ever think about that?”
Would rather be the un-named away team member who goes around a corner out of sight and lets out an horrendous scream as they get butchered
That would be funny…especially for the part of the plucky comic relief.
So nice to see maxima loosen up :) seems appropiate.
Don’t worry, once the adrenalin and such wears off she’ll return to normal self.
That said, even strict people have a gentler/happier side of them, though usually only really showed to those they consider worthy/companions/comrads in arms/or such, I would say Sydney has just qualified for that.
Actually, I’d say Sydney has been in that particular category for a while. The whole ‘saving Max’s life’ thing (plus all the rest) probably just shifted her status from ‘Probationary’ to ‘Confirmed’..
Yay for the anti-climax!
This is the post-climax. Dabbler will help show you the difference. Repeatedly.
and rigorously. She strikes me as an “active” sort of woman.
Hopefully you’d have the stamina.
“post-climax”
Heh!
No! No! I refuse to expound any further!
Not even if threatened with impalement?
Nice try, but I don’t swing that way. Not to say that your offer is unflattering though…
O.o
:-D
I better leave it there, as we might be making young ladies blush. Archaic torture conjuring up graphic images, as it may. And they could misunderstand your ‘swinging’ remark, as some kind of sexual innuendo! Which would be bad.
At least we’re in good company here, with this very comic itself implicating much of the self-same topics.
:D
Hur-hur.
How is this anticlimactic?
Misuse of the term. This is a coda or epilogue.
And in a few months Vehemence will emerge from his cocoon as a beautiful butterfly.
…A big, bald-headed butterfly…
I wouldn’t put it past Dabbler to requisition a Vehemence Plushie that she couldcuddle with. Judging from her earlier reaction, she’d settle for no less than a full-sized, post-growth plushie.
Anatomically correct of course! :)
Of course, in order to avoid a stern lecture on appropriateness & such, Dabbler would have to keep it “under wraps” so no one else knows she has it.
OK, that’s getting majorly creepy. No more Internet for either of you.
Keep your pants on and Dabbler will keep her plushie’s pants on. At least while you are around. She’s a succubus so EVERYTHING goes!
Except, from note that Arianna is currently writing:
That, or she and suzie wen/news are organising their very own ‘fight club’. of course, considering who they are and with all possible respect given* the first rule will probably be “You market Ladies Fight. Incessantly”…
* respect due because A. is my favoruite character and has been since the ballroom first got damaged :D
Wait, anchor news fight club? I think I’ve seen that before!
Brick Tamland: Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident.
Hey, Brain Bleach™ is good for not only what has been pictured, but also what has been written…I’m just trying to drum up a little more business, ok?
;)
If you keep it up I will have to give you some competition in that department with my own product.
Do you give discounts for ordering in bulk?
Occasionally…Especially when Dabbler or the commenters get a bit risque.
;)
Of course now I’m picturing him dancing around in a tutu. Somehow. *looks at decongestants*
And the gift wrapping conveniently lets Dave bypass the question as to whether V’s arm remained in metal mode.
Dave’s comment on the previous page: “I’d liked to have one more row of panels showing Vehemence slumping to the ground, reverting back to his original size, his armored arm clanking off in strips, showing a regular arm underneath, but yes, the fight is finally over.”
Yes, but if one of my “requests” posted at the previous comic’s comments got any notice, we may yet see at least somebody use speech to give us a bit more exposition on the visual details Dave skipped.
Yeah, i really loved that commet from her as well.
It is adding a bit of depth and much needed humanity to her, showing us rather clearly that she is not just a super powerful metal statue in human shape, but also has personal interests in things besides her work.
For a second I thought her hand was up for the high five :D
I thought so too at first, but realized that it was like an “audience aside” directed to Sydney.
I guess that is the super paddy wagon.
Looks like a armored truck that has been reenforced.
I hope it comes in extra-large. It looks like Vehemence will have difficulty being fitted in, even going lengthways!
Maybe they’ll stick him on the roof rack. Not like it’d hurt him, or that he’s capable of objecting.
Oh, the expressions of the drivers who see V strapped to the roof of an armored truck like he was a five-point buck. I can imagine them, and they are glorious.
As long as the bumping & jostling doesn’t wake him up, everybody will be happy.
I thought he shrunk and lost his metal outer shell by Dave’s underblog last update?
Probably. But I was just eyeballing the size he is above, including the wrappings.
Dave maybe has a harder time drawing him regular size than abnormal. We could just say they used some other restraints on the inside before they started wrapping him up in multiple Mummyshots.
Is that anything like a ‘money shot’ from a four thousand year old dead Egyptian? o_O
Dabbler hasn’t reveal the source of the materials in it. But since its Dabbler I suppose its possible she has a reanimated ancient prince tied up in her sub-lab somewhere for… reasons…
After all this, I suspect that the comic shop will be packed in the morning…
I think it would be packed also.
Do you think Sydney got free space in the mall for her comic book store as a part of the deal where she joins ARKSWAT?
It’s plausible.
Depends if there is space available. Don’t want the other businesses there to get booted to make room for her. I’n sure Sydney would rather the ‘Fusion’ place stayed, plus ‘Luftwaffles’ and ‘Cupps’ are just too good to lose.
I’d think Arianna would make it happen…Especially since Sydney went & advertised the shop on national (probably international too) TV during the press conference.
Packed? I think the ques to get in will have vendors selling tents and others renting mobile power outlets, for folks to recharge their laptops and the like. The city will have to ship in ranks of portaloos. The regular police will have to divert several hundred officers for crowd control. Schools will have to set up mobile class rooms, so that students do not fall behind in their studies. The ‘take your number’ vending machine will need to incorporate a calendar on it.
Are they releasing the newest Dragon Quest game?! ;)
Nah. The latest Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball game.
There does not exist an excuse good enough to get an editor to allow a reporter NOT to investigate Archon. Every aspect of literally any member of Archon’s life will be clickbait.
When they cautioned the team earlier that they were about to be mega-celebs, they weren’t kidding. Its going to be a media circus unlike anything the world has ever seen.
“Ten things about Maxima that will blow your mind!”
“The things that the government doesn’t want you to know about Archon!”
“Does the government have aliens secretly working for them?” (let’s not get ridiculous here)
1), 2) Her enormous set of tits!
3) Her nuclear blast!
4), 5) Her giant ta-tas!
6), 7) Can you say 38F?
8), 9) Those things have the super-power of anti-gravity!
10) We’re too tired to go on…
I would assume it was packed since 30 minutes after the guerrilla plug was aired.
And the poor saps standing outside the comic shop missed the historic super-fight. Harem is the only one who could have been in both places at once…
Could be huddled around a screen set up in the shop I suppose.
Took me four glances to realise Sydney is using her flight orb to be able to whisper into Maxima’s ear. Nice touch. Not exactly subtle on her behalf though.
And the award for most obscure use of a super power goes to Sydney
I don’t know, using fabulously advanced telportation tech to play “Make Maxima Say” bingo takes some beating…
I want to know how “Trouser Ferret” happened.
Like Maxima’s Mosque incident, I guess it’ll be consigned to the unshown histories of Noodle Incidents. At least Dave actually gave us a “noodle incident” that happened to Sydney, so I won’t complain if he never shows us the Trouser Ferret incident.
I wish I could remember the webcomic where a character actually admitted he framed “some spiky haired kid” for the noodle incident.
the character in question was Sam Starfall from the comic Freefall, but i don’t remember if it was in the in-comic universe as a background aside, or if it was in a guest artists comic submitted… it also MIGHT have been in the “Cross Time Cafe” comic as well…
ah good ol Sam Starfall the only Alien that has the local population holding referendums on whether or not to Nuke his Home Planet.
Heh, well spotted.
Incredibly cute, and hovering to whisper. Gah, her “hug me” aura just keeps getting stronger!
hug aura? that might explain why I want to find a way to cling to her at all times <.<
I think she used the Tamaran method of learning languages
I think she probably learnt English by watching movies that came from the seedier parts of the internet
They always have excellent dialogue
Nah, think she’d be more aware of Japan instead of wanting to go there based off of what other members of Archon have said in that case.
If I remember correctly, and some days that’s a huge if ^_~, one of Dabbler’s parents is/was part human. she may have learned some before coming to Earth.
Google “Sleeping Dictionary”, then drill down past all the references to the movie of the same name.
Incarceration ? I still vote for my diving bell at the bottom of the Mariana trench thing – with frills for delivering food and such … unless of course he can source off angry squid or something …
I was thinking one of those deep mines that has been played out.
The ones that are two to five miles underground.
Set some explosive charges on the shaft in case he tries to escape, or maby divert an underground river.
Or Dabbler could stick him in a prefab cell on the Moon. Go ahead V punch through that wall! Hope you can breath vacuum.
In my Champions playing we did that.
Actually, that’d be a viable means of incarcerating supervillains. Ian Thomas Healy did that in book 4 of his Just Cause series, Deep Six. Of course the story is about a BREAKOUT from the supervillain prison, but hey, eventually everything breaks.
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Just-Cause-Universe-Book-ebook/dp/B00GYBPZZY
I wonder what could hold him at all, in the longer term… Once he’s fully awake, where-ever, he can start slamming fist against walls, thereby applying violence and gaining strength/power from it… once he has enough power, he could break through any door or a wall, gaining more power by doing it…
There are 2 things I could imagine:
– put a permanent power draining spell on him,
– or put him on a prison on the moon where the environment (once he breaks through the walls) is not exactly violent but nevertheless deadly bbecause it’s missing life-supporting factors like air.
I suspect his vehemic ability is artificial rather than inherent, noting how his racing stripe lit as he powered up. Could be that there are ways to inhibit or even negate that.
Get Dabbler to extend the stripes on his face. So that the only thing which gets bigger, as he gains energy, is his nose!
….. And you really think Dabbler, of all people, would do something like that to his face?
Ohhhh, the horror.
I do belive she would move them lower if anything
You think she’d be able to convince Archon to let her imprision him in her lab? I personally think she’d keep him…under control. Probably.
I know! Just cross through the stripes with tattoos!
Should work, right?! RIGHT?!
I wouldn’t think so. After all, having his arm tats blown off with the rest of his arm didn’t seem to disturb his abilities. There’s also the fact that when he regenerated his arm, the tats came back even on the outside surface of his armoring,/i>.
There is clearly a limit to how powerful he can get on specific acts of violence. If all he had to do was act violently to get stronger, he wouldnt need the heroes at all. He could have crouched there and continued to crush maximas throat till the violence of him doing so made him strong enough to pull it off. Instead he had to make everyone fight each other.
What they have to do is find out how strong he can get through self inflicted violence and keep him isolated in a cage that can handle that level x10 for safeties sake. Maybe include sensors that detect how much harder he is hitting walls and whatever so they can tell if he is getting stronger and gas him or something.
Any violence he pushes out to make his hits stronger I would assume gets partially returned to him but I doubt its a 100% return. I think it just enough to make sure he is not worried about draining himself by attacking with his powers.
My question would be if he can control his power pool usage. If he can stop his body from using his powers and draining his pool then maybe he can get a little charge by performing violence repeatedly using whatever his bodies base vehemenced strength is.
bell boy snuck away, didn’t he…
Who? Sorry, but your reference there just doesn’t ring a bell with me…
I suspect nikolai60 means: For Whom The Death Tolls.
Unless someone had a butt-plug handy, he’s still probably unconscious from blood loss.
:/
He was still out cold when everybody else was brawling under the influence of the aggro aura.
‘Out cold’ or ‘out dead’?
Well, when DT was pictured at the time the Aggro-Aura was in effect, he wasn’t squirting blood anymore. That could mean someone managed to stop the bleeding OR he could have just bled out; I should point out that he wasn’t pictured at that time as lying in a huge pool of blood…
Your guess is as good as mine. I’m being optimistic. As Midnight points out there wasn’t much blood last time we saw him.
I seriously doubt he would get far with that knife in his sit upon. Even clenching has got to hurt.
Hex and her Buster Buddies (TM) actually managed to escape. Why is everyone presuming someone else escaped?
Escape? She is the only one still engaged in combat. The squirrel is in hot pursuit and has a vengeful look in his eye!
that squirrels stats must be of the charts
Nah, a squirrel doesn’t need enhanced stats. Check out the BBC’s two-part series (if they’ve added a new part since I last saw, well, I never saw it) about squirrels called “Daylight Robbery.” You might learn to never underestimate the natural abilities of squirrels ever again.
Besides all that, who else do you know can run full speed up or down a tree with his nuts in his mouth?
I must say, Yorp, your comments today had me laugh even harder than todays comic – and it was superb.
Having a really good day, huh ?
Thanx anyways ! ;-)
+3
Don’t forget Concretia. Her last form got fragged trying to sneak up on Peggy. Whereabouts presently unknown, but she could easily slip away now that the party is slowing down.
mmh – could the problem be related to the critical injuries some of the people involved sustained during the fight ? (Like vektor’s neck trauma, mr Amorphous brain electrochoc or the dental care Math gave to one of the villains – things that could require maxima to do an emergency transportation to Arcswat’s medical facilities ?
Doesn’t seem like an URGENT problem, as one would expect if it was medically-related.
I’m thinking it’s more like a “OK, this particular decision is outside my paygrade, so I’ll let my commanding officer deal with it…” sort of thing..
Could it possible be that those villains that turned coat & actually helped pin Vehemence have snuck off while no one was looking? After all,they still need to avoid getting caught & it hasn’t yet been settled that they were restrained. Granted, those that were drugged earlier went back to sleep, but there were those few that didn’t get drugged before V’s aggro-aura was used, then stopped.
I think the problem is that there are missing some bad guys through the fight with vehemence and are escapes likely Opal and Vekter and maybe more
Maybe one of the bigger mooks is too heavy for anyone to lift without some extra help.
It would have to be somebody we have not seen before, in which case. Because the guy saying that there is a problem is strong enough to lift a coach, on his own! So they would have to either be bigger than that, or so dense, we would have seen the ground cratering, as they walked.
Probably just wants to know how much to tip the waitress.
Or maybe the answer to the question “Separate checks?”
Avout a year or so ago Max announced the dinner was on Archon’s tab.
pretty sure she announced it was on Her tab, actually
You’re right. Number 1204 in the archives. Plus a great first panel of the Arc SWAT crew and their guests.
Is that Stalwart’s footprint?
You mean the bruise on Superman-lite’s chest? Seems likely.
Nope it is not Stalwart’s footprint.
I do believe it is a bruise he got from Boilerplate punching him.
This due to it’s size and location.
Hiro put a shirt on before someone tries to harness the power of those abs for evil.
For those who might be inclined to think “evil” thoughts from seeing his abs, it’s already too late…They’ve already been seen.
Screw this guy! Hiding those abs should be illegal!
Those abs are just as deadly as the hypno boobs and unlike Dabbler Hiro hasn’t mastered them. It’s reckless endangerment I tells ya!
Apparently, he’s mastered them enough to get them into the shape they’re in…While having a “perfect physique” may be a side-effect of having “brick-type” super powers, it’s obvious he’s put some hard work into them already. So I’d have to say he’s got Mastery over his abs.
In Dabbler’s case, it’s taken as a fact that she’s got mastery over her boobs. While part of their shape has to do with the succubus side of her heritage, she’s also learned how to use them to their best effect, even if she doesn’t utilize her “supernatural advantage” for enhancement. I mean, even without using her magical Glamour, she knows how to flaunt their perfect roundness and jiggles them to literally hypnotize people and…and…
…and I’d better stop there, before Dave is forced to ban me…
O.o
I think he’d be happy someone appreciates the results of all that ‘research’ he mentioned doing for Dabbler’s jump-rope scene.
Where r his nip nops
Dave B. like many artists may have problems making male nipples look right.
People who act like self-proclaimed censors are allover the internet…If one of them get a load of nips, even on males & they’ll demand an “adult” rating be put on the site, above & beyond any reasonable intelligence.
I’m afraid that Dave had to “self-censor” to avoid that problem, by making his male characters get a nipplectomy before appearing in the comic.
:/
Sometimes on men with big pecs the nipples are at the bottom (under the fold). Usually that’s only on guys with bigger pecs than that though.
You can just about make out the edge of the left aureole
Just realised that panels 2 & 9 of the previous comic do not have Max speaking in grating font.
Check the author’s comments above. He mentions that.
I need to stop staying up late for the Monday updates…
An alternative solution might be to wake up early instead of staying up late, perhaps?
Wake up early? What’s that? Some kind of torture?
Insanity.
So I know if I go back and re-read everything with a fine toothed comb I’ll probably find this out but I’m betting there’s someone here who’ll be able to supply the answer I’m too lazy too look for :P
Question: I noticed all the girls seem to have the neck thing with their code-name’s (or real name’s) first letter. H for Halo, M for Maxiama, XXX for Dabbler and so on. What I cant see is a collar like that for the lads… why is that?
They all take their orders from Maxima don’t they? Or are the lads somewhat in their own squad?
Second Question: Do we have a layout of the rank’s of all the known members of ARC-Swat or just ARC in general somewhere? (If not: Is there hope that there will be one one day?)
Third Question: Do we have a layout of all the known Equipment both magical and technological? (again if not: Is there hope that there will be one one day?)
Think most of those questions have been addressed to some extent.
Some of the male characters do use the collars – Math for example. Just that it is hard for those things to fit the more … muscled-up …. males without looking weird, so other arrangements are made.
Max is the unit’s field commander. So yes, they all take their orders from her.
No “rank layout” or organizational tree (I’m assuming that is what you mean) as yet. Dave works pretty hard to maintain the twice a week rate of the strip. Maybe some day, is my guess.
No equipment layout as yet either, probably for similar reasons. This is a brand-new organization, and so far most of the gear we’ve seen is either US military issue (more or less), OR one-of-a-kind things belonging to individual members (eg. Dabbler’s tech and Sydney’s orbs).
Both Bummer and Thanks Bro. Suspected it was something like that.
No worries. Welcome aboard, BTW.
the “Big” guys use more “Slightly” standard looking throat-mikes with their Insignias. Most were probably lost during the Melee.
The ranks are listed on the Cast page.
Am I wrong in remembering a mention that Hiro was the next ranking member of the team? I could swear I remember a conversation where they ask Max if she’d like to be demoted and to have Hiro take over as field commander.
Yeah, they asked if she was worried they would bump her down a grade after the press conference and put hiro in charge. She wasnt worried.
It just ended up looking ridiculous on the beefier individuals in the team. Math has used one on occassion, Hiro has an alternative design here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1043
Presumably not used here for the same reason everyone is out of uniform: this was never supposed to be a combat op.
Pretty (not very) sure the answer to your other two questions are
2: no (yes, hope [not necessarily expectation, but I bet we’re all hoping])
and 3: no (yes, hope [not necessarily expectation, but I bet we’re all hoping])
DaveB once described the guys’ “collars” as being similar to torcs. They were the height of fashion two thousand years ago, around these parts.
I’d love to have one made for myself, but I seem to be slightly allergic to some coinage metals,namely silver.
Hmm.
Does anything unusual happen to you during a full moon?
Can you see your own reflection in a mirror?
Long as he doesn’t sparkle
My sister has a metal allergy, and she’s always had a bit of a mustache… hmmm….
No I don’t transmogrify…but it is a good idea to not irritate me during those three days.
The problem with torcs is that they were used as currency. The Celts could never get any change back after a purchase…
“Your torc is too much for this sheep. Can you break a ram?”
“Throw in a couple of chickens & you got a deal.”
Actually they were a lot cleverer than that. The torc was designed to provide exact change. You simply sawed off the amount of metal that you had agreed upon for the transaction! The design pattern often having segmentations, to make both the bartering process and hacking easier. “Nope, this is not worth two segments of copper, I will only give you one”.
The next payment you make, you take from the other side of the torc, to keep it’s balance. Use too much, and it can’t be worn around the neck, but can be modified as an arm band. Spend too much of that and the remainder can only be broken up into it’s component segments, for small change. Or re-cast into some other item.
The big guys have a half collar. You can still see it on the top pannel on this page
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1395
Hiro being in close combat must have lost it (or it’s a tiny detail that DaveB missed)
I think he looses it in that strip. It’s there in panel #2 as he takes the punch, but not in #5 or #7
I like this page. It’s awesome all round.
It’s really nice to see Max losing the proverbial stick up the @@5 and making jokes with Sydney without any condescendence.
The relationship as evolved.
She’s always been this way, if there is time. She just knows to prioritise during combat
Most of what we have seen of Max is her public and professional face. Only glimpses of her more relaxed private self. Although there is the mega-wedgie she gave Harem and her breaking in a fit of laughing at Anvil’s ob-gyn interview joke. Not to mention hugging Sydney just when she needed it most. Max may be hard to get to know but it looks like it is worth the effort to try.
Dabbler’s top two horns are cute. The other pair add to her look, but… ouchie. You would have to be very careful if having a kiss with her!
Well, that’s a succubus for you…Always very horny.
*Groans and hefts a mallet with “Bad Pun” labeled on it*
I summon forth the pun jar..
pay up, or face the consequences!
If you went for a full on tilted head kiss they’d line up with one of your eyes…
That would make one exception to the “once seen, it can never be unseen” rule.
Dabbler’s certainly the smexy one of the group…BUT I’m calling “excessive force” from Dabbler. In panels 1 & 3, look at the sound effects; Vehemence is down & out, yet Dabbler is still “pum”meling him!
O.O
TTechnically having any kind of sexual act with a Succubus is not supposed to be healthy for you…Actually pretty much the reverse is implied.
Getting an eye emptied out is a bit extreme ‘though.
Is the wrappy thing around V cause him to suffocate if it’s self constricting? Also, I hope V doesn’t need to go to the toilet anytime soon. Though considering his powers, he might be able to hold it in.
Poor V though. Let’s hope they don’t put him in solitary confinement. Maybe they’ll brainwash him into becoming a cafeteria guy?
Dude, we want V to stay AWAY from violence. Not have him contemplating it every hour of his working day.
The wrappings are from Dabbler’s gun that is designed to tow satellites in orbit. Which means they are phenomenally tough, and resistant to stretching. They do wrap around, when being deployed in capture the villain mode, but we have no indication that they otherwise constrict.
Multiple layers of anything increase their effective strength. That many layers of those cords would prevent a main battle tank from escaping. But more is probably wise, in this particular case.
You are right about the bladder problems. Maybe one of the officers was foresightful enough to obtain some tubing, and incorporate that into the wrapping process. We must just be grateful that things can happen in between the pages that we get to see.
If they did not make such arrangements, then yea they are going to have an awkward logistical and security problem in the not too distant future.
Such brainwashing would be unethical, immoral and in violation of basic human rights. Legally though, it may not be specifically covered under any legislation in that jurisdiction. It would fall under several categories within the European Conventions on Human rights. The U.S., to my knowledge, though, does not have an equivalent.
So I would explore trying to challenge it under infringing the right to Freedom of Speech. If your mind is changed in such a way that you can no longer express yourself, as you would normally, then it is impinging that right in the most fundamental way possible.
Mind control makes a mockery of the justice system, pretty much. They need new laws for mind control, and the complexity that those laws would require stuns the mind.
Dabbler must think humans are hilarious.
“… The U.S., to my knowledge, though, does not have an equivalent.”
Actually, we do, but you have to search around a bit for it. It doesn’t pertain to “mind control” directly, but it has to do with terms of Full Disclosure of Facts, Knowing & Willing, and other such terms as they relate to contracts & agreements…Prerequisite conditions for such are listed in the Uniform Commercial Code.
Terms concerning intimidation, coercion & being tricked under fraudulent information ARE viable defenses in court.
While these terms don’t specifically address the overall topic of “mind control,” they DO address the specific effects that could result from a direct mind control via “psionics” or “empathic” means to bypass a person’s free will.
Vote, people! We need to get the comic to the top 3 at TWC again…
So I’m asuming that DaveB knows that the whole ‘you get one phone call’ when being arrested is bullcrap. You have the right to a lawyer, and you can call for a lawyer. But if you’re really arrested, all contact with the outside world has to go through your lawyer.
We’ll just saw that it’s Jabber who believes the trope
I’d say so. Likewise the whole “Reading Your Miranda Rights” thing.
Actually that might be true but the rights are very strictly protected. I’ve actually read of a RL case where the suspected perpetrator (kidnapping case) was being transported to a new location in a police car. A policeman talked him into telling where the child was, by pointing out the weather was cold enough the child could die. The case was thrown out of court because the perpetrator’s Lawyer wasn’t present during questioning, one of the Miranda rights.
Sure, they have to follow them. But some movies claim that the cops also have to read you the rights upon arrest, or they can’t prosecute you. THAT part is bullcrap
Yep. they can pull you in & hold you for a time just upon “reasonable suspicion.” Of course, they take that time to investigate & if they CAN’T pull up enough facts to put the “reasonable” with the “suspicion,” they have to let you go with no charges.
The Miranda is only required if they’re going to actually arrest & charge you with sufficient evidence for indictment. That usually comes during the time while you’re stuck in legal holding, not wherever it you were when they first nabbed you.
Or a bail bondsman.
I am sure he does. But, given the number of villains arrested here, and the number of times it would have to be repeated, and the total lack of any plot development, comedy or interest in even hearing it the once, I am very glad that stuff happens in between the pages/panels.
Then she would pretend to call her lawyer but actually call Dabbs? XD
Which wouldn’t work anyway cause she doesn’t have Dabbler’s phone number. Does she?
But the short answer would be somehow she’s avoided being arrested in america before and bought into the movies.
I suppose they might be doing things like the Miranda reading to the whole group or something just cause they are on TV and it looks good? *shrugs*
If they are being detained under the Homeland Act for terrorism, they may not even get that first phone call for a while, especially if there is a Super Villain Act in place…
Why would there be a ‘Super Villain Act’ in place? Before this night (that finally is drawing to a close :P ) they didn’t even think there were enough Supers to hold a football match
They have just realized that one of the attackers escaped.
Primarily due to a fear of small fuzzy mammals dropping from the sky.
Don’t worry, it will catch her. *shudder* That poor girl! Without the aggro field she is probably lovely.
“…she is probably very lovely.”
Who? Hex or the squirrel?
;)
Yes.
I think Jabberwokky’s going to be very disappointed when she tries to call Dabbler. Dabbs never told her what the phone number is…
She could always call ARCHON’s public hotline (I assume there is one) and ask to be transferred.
Since it’s presumably toll-free, she could call that number A LOT.
Well trolls only live under bridges, so you would expect an office block to be free of them. But, yea, you do not want to be calling anywhere that does have them. They would be demanding money, with menaces.
Dabbler’s number is, of course, 8675309.
Damn, I hate to be _that_ guy, but what is that number?
It’s a song, hopefully I didn’t screw up the link.
heheh look it up on youtube :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ou6DDG5e7I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny
Nah, It would be something more like 69-247-365
I had to go back and make sure that “resentment” wasn’t on the “Make Maxima say…” bingo. It sounded too tame, but I had to make sure.
Hoping that Dabbles’ spell doesn’t wear off, or, after it wears off, Jabbs still feels the same way
Hopefully she’s not feeling too violated. That said I think she and Math would get along better.
Dabbler doesn’t mind sharing.
Naw, I don’t think so. Just because Dabbler has won Jabber’s heart (among other things) doesn’t mean she’s changed her mind about Math at all.
Yeah, she still views Math as a great workout partner, so she can get all hot and sweaty for her real partner /winkwinknudgenudge
I’d say the real question becomes, do they give him the trial he’s allowed. If so, with so many people around, he should be able to escape.
Could just have him appear via video hook-up.
One thing that doesn’t look right to me is the change in Maxima from panel four to panel seven. It doesn’t look like she has enough time to get her sleeves rolled back down based on the pacing of the dialogue.
(but then she does have super speed available) Also, I think she might look a little too muscly in panel four vs some previous pages. I know it is hard to draw a character the exact same way each time.
As for Dabbler, she is going to have her “Lab” make some more munitions for her. That is one smart dog.
Woof!
Ka-sleeves?
I fell a need to point out that, though she might be eye candy for the readers, you would not see Batman and Superman talking about Wonder Woman like that. I find that last panel troubling.
That is because those comics do not realistically portray humans. Guys talk about girls and girls talk about guys. Our genes give us an imperative to reproduce and such dialogue is one of the results of that.
Lack of silver age censorship is one of the things that I, personally, like about this comic. It does not pander to unnecessary political correctness. The slices of life have a feeling of realism, as a result.
What it does not do is step over the boundary and go into exploitation. Society is currently just over-sensitive in that area, and imagining harm, when there is none. They are maintaining work-place decorum by not harrassing him with the comment. And, if they were in a social environment (as friends, rather than workmates or, more importantly, his boss), I am sure he would only find their comment complimentary.
So, whilst I appreciate your discomfort, personally I find it a charming exchange.
Sure, but is the military normally more uptight about such things? Maxima is trying to slightly discourage the new recruit from saying such things out loud. It probably is something a leader like Maxima has to be more careful of then a raw recruit though.
The normal military rules are that officers simply do not fraternise with the troops. But there is an operational need for it here. Maxima worked hard to make a connection with Sydney. Having done so she has to maintain it. If she reverts to normal officer vs soldier behaviour, that will be undone, and Sydney will drift off into uncontrollability again.
So Maxima can relax and treat Sydney as a friend. If anyone in the chain of command does not get that, then she can phrase it like this:
Halo is a weapons system, which only understands nerd-talk, and is steered by friendship.
So… PPO + FlyBall = Orbital Friendship Cannon?
I remember a Silver Age JLA story regarding an upcoming super-hero wedding (might even be sadly ironic the wedding of Atom) and the female members were off making a girl thing while the guys were doing the guy thing and Wonder Woman casually noting she had no problems with with the guy thing because it was natural and implying it natural for the gals too. Back before she was subjected to the more extremist anti-male stuff they started packing onto her (like in the animated JL with Wonder Woman thinking there wasn’t any need for men and not seeing it so bad if they were all killed by her rogue ‘sister’ and Hawkgirl having to call her on it).
Sure Bat man and Superman wouldn’t talk about Wonder Woman like that it’s not in their character. Bats is to serious and Supes too strait laced. The Sally West Flash would probably make some commentary, out of earshot most likely.
In addition Sydney basically just sent through a combat op with Maxims and during that op showed she could support Max when everything went all.pear shaped. From what I’ve read and heard from veterans its hard not to have a better opinion of someone who just saved your bacon.
Spidy would have no problem making comments but he’s supposed to be young and feeling a freedom normal life doesn’t offer him. Kinda hard to take offense from a guy who can do what he can and also take the piss out of the big bads. One of the things that I liked about him was he didn’t let other people’s values effect his.
Batman and Superman might not, but I reckon that Bruce Wayne might crack a couple of jokes during an interview with Clark Kent…
Even if only because people then will go “Batman would never do that, no matter how similar he looks to Mr Wayne, or how much Wayne-tech he uses”
Actually, as a precedent has been set for Maxima being an aggressive feminist, it is rather hypocritical of her to be objectifying a male in such a manner. It is also very unprofessional to be commenting in such a manner regarding a subordinate, and even more so to another subordinate. Yes, the military is a bit stiff regarding such interactions. That being said, it has also been shown that this unit is a wee bit looser in its discipline, probably due to the nature of the recruits and their high level of usefulness at this point in time. That does not mean that it might not be reined in in the distant future, but for now, certain things can be overlooked. That being said (there’s that phrase, again) it would be VERY bad PR should the press managed to record this interaction, or should Sydney happen to discuss it openly with other subordinates, especially the subject himself. In this instance, I would guess that Maxima is suffering a bit from a Winner’s High, and is not editing herself as much as she knows that she ought to, that, and Sydney was key to defeating Vehemence so there is a little over-sharing going on during the bonding moment. The Colonel may be sweating this moment later as she regrets her slip. If she is smart, she would report herself to the General, and have a discussion with Sydney, starting with an apology for unprofessional behavior, and requesting that Sydney not speak of the moment. If Maxima has some serious spine, then she would also have a discussion with the subject, and offer her apology to him as well. As a former officer of the U.S. Military, such behavior is unbecoming of an officer; however, if the matter is addressed in a professional manner (unofficially if it hasn’t leaked out), and such behavior is not repeated in the future, then the matter would end up being quietly forgiven, under the “lesson learned by all” rule.
Fair comment, up until “so there is a little over-sharing going on during the bonding moment. Beyond which I think a quiet word with Sydney, would be the appropriate route. Whereas yours is going rather over the top. Being more suited to a major transgression, than a relaxed slip. In part, because I take this as being a quiet exchange, not likely to be overheard by anyone. *
But also because, although ditzy at times, Sydney is not stupid. If Maxima points out the need to keep comments, made in friendship, confidential, as it would endanger her position otherwise, Sydney will respect that. And, yes, I appreciate that there is still the risk that she may blurt out something (like in Peggy’s leg incident).
However that is a calculated risk as Maxima has built the entire team up in a relaxed fashion. So none of the members are likely to be too fussed, even if that does come out.
* And, if it is being broadcast by a TV crew, using a super sensitive microphone, then the damage is already done, and neither route would make any difference. The politically correct whiners will already be banging on the media doors demanding their screen time.
“So none of the members are likely to be too fussed, even if that does come out.”
We’ve already seen that the guys don’t make too big of a fuss about it…Remember when Harem managed to pull a Half-Monty on them back at HQ? Whatever complaining they did, it was all in a good-natured attitude.
You might be surprised at how incorrect your assertion is. There have been quite a few times where male DC characters have used inappropriate language when discussing female characters. And that’s not even counting all the innuendo, such as Wonder Woman being written by a polygamous bondage fetishist who managed to get her tied up in every single comic for years.
Or the time the male members of the JLA (or whatever) asked Power Girl to distract a 14 year old boy. She said “Why me? How could I possibly distract a 14 year old….oh. Yeah.”
And while it has been determined to be an urban legend that the artists for Power Girl kept making her boobs larger and larger trying to see how far they could go before the censors stepped in, it cannot be denied that Power Girl is an enormously busty woman (larger by far than anyone on the Grrl Power team) dressed in a high cut, legless leotard with a large cleavage window providing a lot of top boob viewing. And a great many of her comics show her in on her back, spread legged poses with her crotch pointed directly at the readers, or with the “camera angle” from high above her, looking down into that cleavage window.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just saying that the disrespect which you seem to believe does not exist is present in both the male characters and also in the artists and writers.
This just in: This comic rocks.
Old news, my friend. Old news.
But nice to say, nonetheless.
I’d say “Max rocks, Dabbler rolls & Sydney rickrolls.”
;)
So happy that the fight is over and we’re back to the fun stuff :)
Would that be the pandering? :p
The last panel with maxima, honestly is kind of jarring to me. Its like that one comic before the interview where she gets the giggles over the idea of arianna scheduling a trip to the ob-gyn for the press conference. She spends 99% of her time being a serious and easily angered boss lady, then randomly breaks down and gets giggly (or in this case) kinda girly over a shirtless guy. I mean, i think I get the point behind it, it shows that behind the strident feminist serious boss lady, there is still a normal person who likes to joke around when appropriate and appreciates eye candy like all of us mere mortals. It just seems to be out of place on her whenever she does it for some reason.
In this case she’s coming down from her Adrenaline (Which can make people silly/punchy)
I can see where you are coming from. But note Maxima’s opening line “Shh! Sydney that is inappropriate.“. Before going on to , exhibit her feelings. Maxima is not against being feminine or having sensual feelings.
What she is against is inappropriate language or displays. She can let her hair down (remember her flashback to chugging down beer with the troops), she does talk dirty with the girls and she does appreciate a nice set of abs.
As the unit commander, she has to be the one to speak out and put a firm stop to anything which could be construed as sexual harassment. Although she is inclined to do that anyway, as she is a feminist. She is genuinely irritated by Dabbler’s blatant advances, for example. Which only amuses Dabbler, as she takes it as being self-repressed stuffiness.
DaveB has always been consistent about this duality within Maxima. She is not a cardboard cut-out one-sided feminist. As we get to see more of her, and you get used to her attitudes, I am sure the feeling of discontinuity will fade.
I kind of understand the feeling. Still, I don’t find this jarring one bit, but rather it blends perfectly well with her character. For all the authority she dishes out, including her angry moments, this is also the same woman who caused the Harem domino effect via wedgie for retaliation. :p We’ve even seen Anvil call her ‘babe’ (I think) and get away with it. There’s the noticeable fact that her softer side tends to show far more towards people she likes, such as Anvil, and as of recently, Sydney. As Yorp has said, we’ve mostly seen her serious and angry side but this is mainly because this is still ‘day 1’. Give it more time, and we oughta see more antics like these.
Hey, if you want a good place to ‘lock up’ Vehemence, I suspect the Dalai Lama wouldn’t mind attempting to convert him to Buddhism. It’d be pretty neat too — he could be the world’s most effective peacekeeper!
Think about it:
“Any resistance you take which results in violence will only make me more difficult to defeat. Good luck.”
Him and Imhotep Would get along rather nicely come to think of it…
Well, I will agree that the smooth plains of the Imhotep region of Comet 67P, appear suitable to build a prison. And it is very isolated. But think of the cost! And it would take decades for the staff to commute. Not to mention prison inspectors and any visitors he might have. Just think how bored Sydney would be on many year long round trips!
I suspect the problem might have something to do with “Hey, all of these guys were demonstrably under the influence of violence-inducing powers beyond their control. Good luck getting any charges to stick.”
They really werent. Not till the end there. If he had his agro aura up before that, the heroes would have been randomly attacking each other as well. I get that this is the new hip theory “Omg! If the Aggro dont fit, you must acquit!” but there is no legit reason to think he was controlling them until he specifically activated his agro aura towards the end of the battle. We have like, half a dozen witnesses who saw it being turned on right then, not a half hour ago. They might TRY to use that as a defense, but good luck proving mind control was used.
If anyone gets off with the agro-field excuse, there will be lots of convicts claiming they were acting out of character at the time they were lifted and demanding retrials, claiming they saw a large bald guy in a suit.
Probably a typo, but if it was an ‘agro-field’ wouldn’t they all have a sudden urge to tend crops?
Your assuming the agro aura only has one level of intensity. If he could dial it down then maybe he did have it on. Either way it would provide a shadow of a doubt to the case as prosecution would be unable to prove otherwise.
…Unless, say, the people in question are all individuals with a record of criminal acts like this. Which V flat-out says most of them are. Not only that, but he CALLED most of them and set this up. So there’s likely to be records of the calls. Even if they don’t get charged for their actions tonight, how much you wanna bet most of these guys have warrents out on them?
They were only under mind control for a short time. The fact that one of them surrendered showed that they clearly had free wil (and it’s an aura, so either everyone or noone)
Except Sydney demonstrated that she could resist it so it’s not an all or nothing thing, the Hairdresser could easily be dismissed as someone who just didn’t have enough violent feelings to amplify to prevent him from deciding to surrender or otherwise resistant or immune to the field, so the rest (other than For Whom The Death Tolls since his own unique power ensures he can’t make such an argument) could possibly succeed in arguing that they were just victims of mind control. Mind you though that requires they actually know the field even existed to try and argue it, which depends on how good their lawyers are and how detailed the reports on the battle were for the defense lawyers to go over.
She resisted it by knowing about it, and that took ALL of her willpower. And she only JUST resisted it before Vehemence turned it off.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1575 As you can see, she was about to go for her PPO, he turned it off just before that
Even Dabbler, who has a natural resistance to this kinda thing, wasn’t able to fully resist it
As Yorp said, we don’t really know if the agro-field was on earlier or not. Sydney only discovered he ability to see it near the end. It would be reasonable to assume his agro field got stronger as his other abilities did, hence why the team wasn’t attacking one another from the outset.
What’s more, V said that he had manipulated the others into being there. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1536
So, according to the guy who has the power to make people violent, he was the reason they attacked. That sounds like a pretty solid defense to me.
Heck, several of them were even HELPING at the end there once the agro-field shut down.
Sure but V ALSO said the people he called were all the sort of people who would already be inclined to do this. He also says he CALLED them. I doubt they thought that a guy who runs off violence just wanted them there for a picnic. And, as I’ve said before, most of these guys, with a few exceptions likely have priors, if not active warrents out on them. Plus, if his aggro-field grows stronger with his other powers, wouldn’t that also mean it’s range is decreased by lack of power? Hell, he said his absorbtion range expanded with how much vehemic energy he absorbed. I don’t think he’d have had the range to pull it off in the beginning. There’s also Nega-Knuckles. He still tried to kill Sydney, despite being inside her shield, and thus cut off from V’s aura, if it was active. So at least one of them doesn’t get to claim mind-control.
All this talk of trials and such is mayhaps forgetting a what they did. A team of civilians attacked a valid military force with intent to harm. Now over the years these sort of civilians have had many names “partisans”, “freedom fighters”, “militia”, but I’m betting today they would be called terrorists. And that folks is when all the rules change, all of a sudden you can be locked up for quite a while without charges being formally laid, are subject to a military trial, and all with minimal press coverage due to “national security issues”.
Not the most pleasant outcome at all, but very likely I think.
Though they would have to more actively shut the press down this time cause they have already gotten a look at them on video and EVERYONE is going to be very interested in the fall out of the first super powered brawl. Or according to Arianna earlier it seems to be the first official one.
Not saying they couldn’t/wouldn’t do it but it media people and others with any connections are going to prying for all they are worth!
Stalwart struck a senior officer. That is “serve the rest of your tour in a stockade and here is your dishonourable discharge” material. Arianna attacked a member of the press corps. Which, aside from getting her fired, under normal circumstances, would also lead to charges of criminal assault.
I trust you are happy with all the members of Archon serving their jail time for the crimes we just witnessed them commit?
Or do you feel that acts committed whilst under the influence of a mind-altering effect gives them an excuse?
And if they are entitled to be let off for those acts, are you going to apply double standards versus the other people who were caught up in the aggro field?
Do not mistake me, if it can be proven that the aggro field was not operational earlier in the fight, then you are perfectly correct. They committed a whole series of very serious crimes, and must stand accountable for them.
But, if that is not the case, and they were doing things that they would not have otherwise, due to the mind-altering effect, then the courts cannot find them guilty. That is a long established legal principle.
I’m not sure you can use “long established legal principle” with respect to mind control cases. They’d have to write new laws for it, as presently it would be a legal quagmire the likes of which has never been seen. (The obvious principle is that the controller is responsible for her pawns actions, but there are about ten thousand exceptional cases, each of which would need to be litigated.)
Many many good points here (from all posters), and I’m thinking this is going to be handwaved as someone elses problem to be done offscreen. Unless the comic is going to swap from a large fight to a years worth of “Law and Order Grrlpower” strips :-).
“In the super criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: The super heros, who beat up the villians, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.” DUN DUN
… we also may have yet another problem here, because while the agro-field probably wasn’t on, I could imagine that it can be used to sway people to do things they normally wouldn’t.
Meaning: Vehemence clearly knows how to use his power and has full control over it. So what if he seeked out supers he might have detected because they appear to emmit more absorbable power that normal people. This would also mean that those people are likely to have aggression issues, or at least tendencies in this direction. If he tries to persude them into action, all his would have to do is talk while subtly pushing them in the direction he wants them.
This might explain why some were wondering how they were talked in going there to fight it out in the first place.
I am, because the principle I am referring to is that a person can only be held liable for criminal acts if he is of sound mind. The insane are not criminally liable, nor those who are placed under the influence of mind-altering drugs, unknowingly, or against their will.
This is why I used the phrase “mind-altering effect”. Full mind control is indeed beyond case law.* But the loss of the defendants own volition is not, and has plenty of president, in the examples I cite above.
There are various drugs which incite aggression (such as LSD), that can be slipped into somebody’s drink unknowingly. The individual who is held liable, should there be injury, or other criminal acts, attributable to that, is the person who spiked the drink. Not the victim.
So whether it is due to drugs or a super power does not matter, the key issue has already been explored in court.
* In fact, hypnotism cases have been heard. And the post-hypnotic suggestions that can be implanted have been found to be genuine. So even full blown mind control does have case law to draw upon.
Although the super-powers are more powerful, so the previous decisions may need to be examined to take that into consideration, before applying them. But courts are used to adapting ageing legislation to new situations. They have to do it all the time with modern technology changing things faster than governments can legislate.
Hypnotism is a very powerful tool and its capacity to do crazy stuff is quite real despite what most may think. My dad was hypnotised into believing a stage he was on was actually an enclosed room. As everyone else was leaving the stage, he was trying to sneak off, only to run into a wall that only he could see. He was aware of everything else going on, but to him, the stage was a room with no doors.
Sure, this was at a carnival, but still, if a carnival hypnotist can do that level of stuff, imagine what someone who specialized in mind “alteration” could do in a real world example? Now imagine what someone using any form of mind control (be it emotional control or otherwise) could do with practice and how much faster they could do it.
I have seen cases where hypnotists have been convicted of rape. Which is easy to envisage, if somebody is willingly submitting to being hypnotised, but the person they are trusting is disreputable.
But, for something very much along the lines you are implying, but still in the real world, check out this.
We’ve got a notion of “of sound mind”, but it doesn’t really work for full mind control. The legal system has a notion of humans and volition which falls entirely apart once people become just gloves for their masters.
The very basic case of “Bob MC’s Andrew” is fine in theory, Bob has assumed Andrew’s liabilities, but it starts to fall apart fast. Say Bob is a vegeterian seeking to spread his beliefs. Say Andrew is a killer who would kill people he hates. Bob mc’s Andrew to hate meet eaters, Andrew kills one. Who is the murderer? Bob? But he’s a pacifist and never said to hurt anyone. Andrew? But he only killed because Bob added his victim to his kill list.
Penny mc’s Kendra to drink alcohol and forget doing so. Kendra later drives a car and is involved in an accident. Is it Penny’s fault Kendra was driving under the limit, when all she told her to do was drink? Is it Kendra’s fault, when she didn’t know she was impaired?
Alice is underage, she uses mc on Bob to get him to screw her. Is he a statutory rapist (despite having no choice in the matter)? Is she (despite being the one who is underage)? Or is this a case of rape with no rapist?
Leslie is into financial domination. In order to heighten the thrill she applies an MC device to herself before her session. Her dom Jane orders her to get money, not knowing that she’s mc’d. Leslie robs a convenience store. Who is guilty, Leslie, who had no volition? Jane, who was role playing?
These examples are super generous to the legal system, assuming that mind control can be detected infallibly and no one can fake it. This isn’t super likely to be the case though. I mc you to mc me and give me the following orders and forget doing so rapidly produces legal quagmires where no one can be at fault because they were all MC’d, and there is no way to determine where the original orders came from because they were MC’d to forget/lie.
The ur-example is something like: Moe commits a crime, but Moe claims to be mc’d. He doesn’t know who mc’d him, because he was mc’d to forget. Is he guilty? If no, then what if he’s lying, or he mc’d himself? If yes, then mc anyone and make them commit crime = you control the justice system?
Yes. Complex mind control that goes beyond the Agro Aura, will stretch the court’s ability to operate on existing legislation. Just as some new laws are being passed to cover information technology, and it’s use in society, so too there would doubtless be new laws clarifying how old principles should be viewed in light of super powers.
Mind you we can face such legal dilemmas even without super powers. A hypnotist convinces his subject that a young girl is actually his wife, and the two have sex. Who is culpable? The hypnotist. The subject was acting in good faith, thinking he was having sex with his (legal age) wife.
We know that hypnotism can alter such basic perception. The hypnotist was aware of the consequences of his actions. The subject was not. He was not thereby operating with a sound mind, because there was a disconnect between what he perceived and reality.
The hypnotist would face the full consequences of causing the rape of a minor. Assuming that his actions could be proven in a court of law.
Easier to do with a hypnotist than a super telepath, though, as you rightly say. Unless you have some other super(s) helping to uncover the truth.
I think you overestimate the legal system, it doesn’t work like on tv. Roughly every charge sticks.
Think about it this way. The public will feel towards supervillains (and Archon gets to define who those are) roughly like they feel towards child rapists, maybe more so. A jury will invariably convict, regardless of the merits of the case.
The prosecutor will approach the villains and point out that if convicted they’ll face thousands of years in jail/the death penalty. They’ll point out that the odds of them winning are insanely low (their lawyer would have to overcome the “they are scum” effect, the halo effect on archon’s testimony, and establish a new legal theory of defense based on mind control. The only lawyer I could imagine winning that case would be Dabbler). They’ll offer a plea bargain of decades to life in jail, and the villains will accept.
Of course, all this is imagining that they are tried. That seems more or less impossible given their powers, but maybe with Archon’s cooperation something can be rigged.
I doubt they would feel about them that they were child rapists. They might see them as inherently dangerous individuals who can’t really have their powerful weapons taken away but that’s more big scary bad guy feeling then twisted evil creature of hellish desires. The one you instinctively want to kill or negated so you feel safe at night. The second you want to negate as well but in a way that leaves them suffering horribly for as long as possible.
Homeland defense laws. Anti-terror acts. These villains are walking WMD(s)…
What you say Maxima is a walking WMD. Well walking/flying whatever … she is our WMD!
So would that make Dabbler an ICBM? (I See Boob movement)
Some of them are basically just I person with a gun that self charges. That’s not too bad. Other’s are like tanks that can only fire at things right next to them. They are a bit worse cause they are human sized, harder to hit and if they are running through the buildings of a city much harder to take out without doing collateral damage but still not like setting off a nuke or something if you take them out fast enough.
It seems like only a couple of them were a real threat to say… a whole city or something by themselves. All together they would definitely qualify!
Hah! The first time I read ICBM I literally thought of a frozen bowel movement. XD
He he. Either you are very young, or are unlucky enough to live in an area where there is a culture that leads to frequent mis-carriages. Or, more likely, are susceptible to propaganda that is designed to make you think the latter.
I had a job which required me to be aware of legal systems in many jurisdictions around the world, and have kept a passing eye on legal cases for many years. You are simply mistaken. Decisions can go either way. And, more often than not, if there is a surprising headline, when you read the details of the case, you can see that the judge and/or jury had sound reasons for their decision.
There are many controversial cases, true. And many mis-carriages. But there vastly more sound, undisputed cases that do not cause controversy, because they came to a result which had merit.
What you will find, however, is that countries which have good prosecution services will not waste court time in bringing charges that are likely to fail. So from that point of view, you may well see that there are more successful prosecutions, than cases that get a ‘not guilty’ verdict. But that is not the same as saying that it happened without merit. And certainly does not justify saying “invariably”.