Grrl Power #290 – After action action
This page should help wrap up some unanswered (and possibly unasked) questions. Harem’s the obvious choice for this since she can interview 5 people at once. Well, 4 at the moment. “Vanilla” Harem got her wrist broken and is currently un-teleported.
After I drew the panel of Sydney smacking that fire guy into the ground, I thought it was a bit much, I mean people can break bones just from tripping. Even if I’m conservative and say what Sydney did to him was the equivalent of a 1 story fall, he’d still be really hurt.
Seneca’s never been formally introduced in the comic, but she’s shown up a few times, most notably demonstrating her sweet tooth. A page I was going to include involved her walking up to the defeated Vehemence, asking Dabbler if he absorbed violence when he was unconscious. Dabbler responds “Eh, like 10%” so Seneca kicks him and yells “That was attacking before dessert was served!” Sydney immediately admonishes her and tells her not to assault unconscious perps, and gives a thumbs up to Anvil, calling back to this page. Obviously I wound up cutting that stuff, but pretend it happened anyway.
While looking up Q words to finish out the Arc-SPARQ acronym, I came across “quaff” I always thought it meant to drink a quarter of something. I recall reading it a lot in fantasy novels. People quaff potions all the time in them, but nope! It means to slam back your drink. It’s weird when you learn a word that you thought you knew your whole life means basically the opposite of what you thought it meant. :/ Of course after trying to do actual work, I wound up just going for a funny word instead of trying to come up with a serious acronym.
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.
Paperwork will make them wish they were on the injured list.
If they could still use their hands well enough to manipulate a pen, they could still look forward to having a clipboard full of paperwork delivered right to the hospital bed.
:D
More likely, I’d think they’d just have someone audio-record their reports while in bed, then come up with a written transcript to fill in the actual paperwork.
They probably would not have to do paperwork until after they were given a release by the doctor saying they were ok to work, considering that they would be on pain killers and probably a bit loopy depending on how severe the injury is. They would probably do an interview and ask them to tell them as much as they remember while still in the hospital, but their own reports can wait till they have a clear head.
Doctor: You are restricted to light duty for the next week at least.
General Faulk: Good, that will give you plenty of time to fill out these reports.
Panel 3 should read “actually [be] a big reason…”. I think. Great strip as always :D
Heh! I noticed that too. I didn’t even bother reading the rest of the comic page before scrolling down here to see if someone had mentioned it already.
;)
Also, in the post, you’re missing a “for” and an s in dessert.
In addition to the noted wrong pants color in the last panel, Seneca’s hair color has changed since her last appearance https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1247.
Yeah, I noticed that too, but I’ll attribute that to different lighting in the restaurant. :)
I guess she had to change shirts as well, because that is a completely different shirt she is wearing. No chest logo, and not a v-neck.
Most, if not all, the guys have lost their shirt as well. It would only fair if the girls had a similar amount of clothing damage ;)
But I guess then the comic wouldn’t be PG anymore or something like that.
…
*looks to the side* How goes the construction on that age gate mentioned back on one of the Glowbug pages?
Whoops, I’ll get that fixed.
Wow! Watch out Dave! the Continuity Cops are on a roll.
:D
Soooo. Goose, a non super soldier, was able to land knife hits on a Speedster. That’s impressive
Well, he was clearly a speedster without any super senses. The only speedster I’ve seen done right was in X-Men: Days of Future Past. One minute and twenty-five seconds of greatness.
Well, there’s a difference between “moves really fast”, “moves and thinks really fast”, and “slips into accelerated timeframe”
Quicksilver is usually the middle one. The Flash seems to swap between the second and third depending on the writer – usually the latter when they want him to go FTL or something equally ridiculous, so as he runs faster the world slows down for him.
Mach the Faceplant seems to be the first variety – just flick a quick rope or board into his line of travel, and you get a pretty impressive crash. A 45º mirror in a 90º corridor could have the same effect
… Or a banana peel.
Or a flyer with telekinesis forms an invisible wall in front of a maxed out speedster. Who’s head hits it while the rest of his body continues under the barrier. Resulting in a high speed slip, slide, and tumble.
pulled from a fanfiction story
https://thespecialistscomic.com/comic/page-222/
visual depiction
The fanfic one survived though. In traction. A telekinetic shield is more of a stable push than a physical obstruction. I’d think anyway. The comic one you showed me is an obstruction example.
Pushing one part of someone backwards while they’re at full run, will still cause injuries. But not to that extreme
I have done that one myself, after a fashion. I was running inside a military troop tent (15 feet wide and 30 feet long, but you can connect more together to get a longer tent) and hit the rolled up door at one end, with my entire face (Don’t distract a guy as he is running in a tent!), effectively clothes-lining myself with the tent door. I ended up rotating 90 degrees to land on my back outside the tent. As I landed on my entire back and managed to keep my head up, I did not get hurt, but did knock the wind out of my chest.
:D Would that fanfic story by any chance be “The Secret Return of Alex Mack” over on Twisting the Hellmouth? Because that’s my story. I squeal with glee at the thought that someone else read it.
Oh! Hey Diane! Dang, I need to get back in the Whateley community. I’ve missed the discussions. But I gotta read the new stories first! Curses!
I ran across a fic on TtHm that had Xander Harris somehow inhabiting the body of Power Girl… was too weirded-out by it to check out other stuff…
Well, if TtHm is a transgender area, that would explain it. But if you let a little thing like gender issues decide your reading, you’ll miss out on a ton. Like the Whateley Academy stories I mentioned, for one. One of the more well thought-out and extensive online super-sites out there, sadly kept fringe due to those sorts of non-interested’s.
“…so as he runs faster the world slows down for him.”
That’s actually the closest to the truth for anything moving fast, according to physicists today. Even satellites in orbit & jet airplanes that have a constant radio link to a ground station via for their on-board computers have to periodically synchronize their clocks with each other: the reason being is that the faster-moving object really does speed up in time & their computers will just be transmitting gibberish.
Sorry ,
actually its the opposite , for the fast movin Flash time would slow down ( so he would actually have a crappy reaction time )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation
That time dilation you refer to is according to the perspective of the observer. The speeding subject still perceives their own time-frame as normal for them, but everything else appears to be slow.
The speedster doesn’t really need enhanced thought or reflex capabilities, at least until they actually achieve lightspeed…that’s the point where “normal” physics tends to break down, because our species doesn’t have any capability to observe what happens at lightspeed. Of everything we can observe, it all depends on movement at some fraction of lightspeed. That’s how time dilation works.
If Flash runs in only one direction maybe, but I assume Flash is changing reference frames quite often to do anything useful.
Say a very fast speedster has a math competition against someone and they send each other math problems per light signals while the very fast speedster runs away and back again, They each send one problem every x time interval from their perspective.
Take this explanation of the twin-paradox https://www.cpp.edu/~ajm/materials/twinparadox.html and take this part “The difference is that, for the TT, the low and high frequency signals occupy equal portions of the trip while, for the EBT, the low frequency signals are observed during 80% of the trip.”
The speedster has to deal with more high frequency signals, I would say reacting is harder for the speedster.
(Optionally, replace math problems with shooting high speed weapons at each other.)
No, that’s not right. Although each object is moving from the other’s point of view (hence the Twin Paradox), the object that moves the fastest ages less than the slower object.
The reason that satellites age faster than Earth-bound objects is due to them being some way out of the Earth’s gravity well, which slows time at the surface. This is more than enough to offset the effect of their high speed.
Say one day we actually manage to build us a space elevator up to a geostationary satellite. The top and bottom of the system will be running at slightly different time frames. This could lead to operation problems for the computer control systems. And you can’t just set the top and bottom clocks to different speeds to compensate since the car that runs up and down will need to work at continually changing variations between the two time frames.
Make it big enough and the far ends of the elevator* would be travelling close to light speed. Which would really mess things up. I wonder what would happen if you made it longer than that?
As folks get their knickers in a twist at the possibility of something going faster than the speed of light, would instead the Earth slow down? Randall Munroe, the people of Earth want to know!
* Assuming it is made from indestructible materials that could survive the stresses.
Yes, if you assume unlimited strength of the tether (and Earth attachment point), the effect would be like a skater extending their arms, so reducing the rate of rotation (ie. the angular momentum stays constant). So the Earth would slow down. Even more so as the end approached the speed of light, since it would increase in mass. The result is that the tether would not exceed the speed of light.
XKCD would give you jokes and pictures as well 8-)
Absolutely. However, the difference in clock speeds would be very small. Unlike, for example, GPS (where extremely precise timing is vital), in most applications the clocks are allowed to be slightly different, to allow for manufacturing tolerances and ageing.
As an example, the old RS232 standard for data links can allow a difference in speeds of 1% without problems.
The dilation effects between different computers moving at different speeds also compensate by regularly sending synchronizing signals & instructions as part of their standard protocol packages. This way both computers are consistently ensuring that their CPU’s don’t gradually drift out of synch.
My perspective? My view is that the Flash from that there new TV show on Huwu aught to have been able to casually ripped the freezing and fire guns from those two normie yahoos. His super speed seems to come and go during any given episode as the writers need it to. (sure everybody does it a little but these guys seem to do nothing but convenient writing for his speed. Oddly enough I am enjoying the show… *shrug* )
The new Flash show. Sometimes he’s so fast that everyone is frozen in time. Even when he’s sitting still and checking someone over.
thats quite simple, as demostrated on Injustice comic, super speed is not equal to running, theres a part where superman and flash are talking while everything is frozen around them
Which makes me wonder how they could pull that off if they both happen to be moving faster than the speed of sound…
At least Superman is an accomplished lip-reader, but I don’t know if Flash is.
Another good point-of-view perspective on how creatures moving at far higher speed than others has an effect, watch the Original Series Star Trek episode, “In the Blink of an Eye.” It demonstrates the same principles as how you described Superman & Flash talking to each other at high speeds.
Superman & Flash could talk seemingly normally to each other because they are moving in-synch with each other…To any outside observer, moving far more slowly, Supes & Flash would have to stand in the same place for a (subjectively) long time for anyone else to even see them there; if they move around no one else could even see them. Anything they said within earshot of anyone else would seem to be a high-pitched buzzing noise.
Disclaimer: I have not actually read the FLASH issue below, only comments about it.
The most blatant Flash time stunt I heard of was supposedly in a comic where the Falsh saw that a car was going to fall off the end a bride that had been destroyed. He is claimed to have found and read books on engineering, gathered the materials, and rebuilt the entire bridge with his own hands before the car had the time to fall into the river. There was no explanation of how someone with super speed but not super strength was able to lift several hundred tons of steel and stone into place.
Or I suppose he could have just pulled the guy from the car before it fell in the river. But I guess the other way was easier.
The best Quicksilver is in X-Factor by Peter David, early 90s.
Turns out his power is Always On, and he not only runs fast, he does everything fast. So he has to constantly deal with the whole world running slow.
Well as the creator of ‘Mach the Knife’ (name is dave’s own) I would say he was in second category with a hint of 3rd one with his knife handling however DaveB made changes to him to fit in the story. Don’t forget though he could still aim and throw those knives precisely despite moving at high speed so all I can assume is he was not moving fast while under V’s aura since for him moving really fast may have been required alot of concentration.
Eh. I’d be willing to be that’s all reflex. Humans are crazy good at throwing things.
Actually, that’s something I’d love to see commented on in one of the series that has a bunch of human-looking aliens on their teams- that the aliens are actually terrible at throwing things accurately. It would certainly explain why most of them seemed to have skipped ballistic weaponry entirely and either gone straight to energy-projection guns or stuck with enhanced melee.
Come to think of it, you never really see Superman throwing things, do you?
Goose may look like Duke Nukem, but he’s essentially the point man from FEAR. He has crazy reflexes. It’s not literally super speed, but it’s close.
So Badass normal, like Peggy?
Are there any non-Badass normals on the team?
Leon
I would be careful about dissing a man who can alter your records to show you owe the IRS a million dollars, change your name to “Perriwinkle Butt-Sniffer” and hack your pacemaker and stop you, dead.
Leon has Nerd Fu.
And THAT’S badass!
Wouldn’t be much point since they would be up against supers, mad scientists and the forces of nature run a muck their lack of bad ass skills/abilities would reduce their personal lifespan, the get the team hurt or both. They had the run of the entire military litter to choose from I would think.
Why exactly DID Sydney place the smack down on the fire dude?
I wouldn’t think she would have done that myself.
Looked again at the frame the ‘damage’ and smack down was taken from and realized that it was during the fight when Sydney was in ‘draw aggro from the shield’ mode.
Definitely on the ‘touch o the crazy and they won’t bother US again’ side.
May have been between one of her ‘denial’ snaps of the light hook and she forgot to adjust the force she was using. Max force for the ‘denial and deflect’ of the incoming girders / concrete bars
I’m going to disagree. I think the damage to the fire guy was a result of the length of the tentacle. Sydney has fine control over it, but that doesn’t mean she consciously keeps every relevant factor in mind. If the fire guy had been close to her, the slam to the ground would have been far less damaging. At the greater distance, the equivalent slam had greater distance-traversal and greater impact force. I think this is simply a case where Sydney is simply showing her inexperience with using the tentacle for destructive things. She literally doesn’t know every aspect of her own strength, with that tool.
Maxima basically told Sydney to do that, not long before the fight. See panel 4 of page 194 /archive 1224.
Also, I’m going to disagree that Sydney was influenced by the aggro field. Take a look at page 277 /archive 1564, and you can see an actual shadow-effect, upon the aggro field, behind Sydney’s shield. Her shield is definitely blocking it from affecting her!
I therefore reiterate that the magnitude of damage to the fire guy was a consequence of the length of the tentacle at the time it was used (page 229 /archive 1393), more accidental than deliberate.
Hopefully Goose is only like Point Man in that way, and not that his…..”family situation” would damn near make the Manson family look Amish.
To Sydney’s credit, she was following orders as Maxima stated them. Throw them into the ground, not a wall or anything a human might possibly be behind. With all those powers flying about, it’d be damn near impossible to keep track of who’s invulnerable and who’s not.
That, and she was probably unaware of quite how much impact force she was delivering – non-lethal takedowns like that were probably on the day 1 training plan. But with a dummy, or Achilles
Well, day 2 if you count the flight practice as day 1.
Only if it is after midnight.
if it is after midnight it’s taken 290 pages to move about 12 hours, it’s going to be a long flash back
That is fine, just so long as you do not also feed her and get her wet.
Also to be fair, though maxima probably has better control then sydney, maxima’s attack on page 230 seems like it would do equal damage.
Yeah, adrenaline pumps pretty fast in a combat situation…Sydney just probably got caught in the “heat of the moment” & underestimated how much force she used. A common mistake & she is untrained…But once Sydney is aware of how serious the dude’s injuries are, it should re-empahsize what Max referred to as Spiderman’s “Gwen Stacy moment.”
There’s also the fact that Max broke an arm bone and dislocated a shoulder when fighting “Boiler Plate,” and THEN hurled him into the sky. Sydney was far tamer than that.
Max could tell that Boiler Plate was tough; He was giving Hiro some trouble, so it was pretty obvious that it would take something “more than human” levels of punishment to keep him down. However the fire-guy Sydney slammed didn’t show any of that level of toughness…Pretty “normal” as far as it goes for being a “squishy.”
…I’ll bet he’ll never again play or watch a match of Squash…
Dislocated the shoulder, yes (easy enough to ‘pop’ back in while he was under Nurse Harem’s care)
Broke an arm bone, no (easy to think that because DaveB showed only the upper arm bone)
let’s not forget that shot went right through boilerplate’s basilica & brachial arteries, possibly the lymph nodes (dependent on how much the damage radiated). The internal hemorrhaging might’ve been reduced by his musculature, but at an absolute minimum, he should have massive bruising and numbness/lack of control in that arm
*basilic
(stupid auto-corporal)
I’ve heard of a game called, “Crack the whip”. I have a suspicion Sydney hasn’t played it.
Sure she has…Fire Guy is what happened when Sydney played it.
Could explain why everybody else’s fights took a while. They had to slowly ramp up their probing attacks to figure out exactly what the enemies powers defended them against before taking them down.
Based on Sydney’s reaction to when Maxima blew off Vehemence’s arm, I’m sure she will be mortified when she finds out how badly she hurt someone here, even if it was a villain. More to the point, that’s one of the lessons that Sydney, after having learned it the hard way once, won’t be likely to repeat it in the future unless she absolutely has to.
Heck, I even see her bringing flowers to the hospital for this guy, lol.
But, just before leaving, warning “Don’t do it again, or next time I will really mess you up!”
Sydney: *in tears* “Why for you make me hurt you!?!”
and her nickname for him will be “Gwen”… and he’ll never figure it out either…
Also, Sydney is metaphorically running on fumes. Her issues are real things, and if you treat people whose meds are wearing off like neurotypical folks you’ll get bad outcomes. “She slammed a goon too hard” is a super tame way for Archon to learn that they must be always cognizant of the last time Sydney medicated.
Forgive me if this is obtuse, but do you think they could work some sort of auto-feed mechanism for her medication? I suspect such a device would be stupidly simple for an individual of Dabbler’s capabilities, or even a good human engineer. That said, I suspect it won’t happen. There’s too much opportunity for comedy if she takes her meds manually (and is thus able to forget them).
There are ways and means of doing that. But would they be wise for somebody in a high-risk role, like Halo? If the device receives combat damage, she could end up getting all her medication in one go! The greater the amount that it stores, the more harm could potentially be done.
Plus there are mundane risks to consider. Such as, for an implanted device, the risks of infection, rejection and the simple need for refills. It would not be wise for Halo to be dependant on a hospital for such, as she may be out in the field for extended periods.
Although cost is an issue, these are all good reasons for why people who need regular medication usually resort to having some reminder. My brother gets a beep from one of his electronic devices. Whereas my dad uses those boxes which are divided up into days of the week and times of the day. Actually he has two of the largest sizes they make, as one alone is not enough for all the ones he needs.
So she programs the reminders (including you are getting close reminders) into her devices, like the bracer gear thing, and keeps a little on hand. Problem solved. :) (if all her gear gets smashed she has bigger problems anyway)
Just program the app into her telephone. She may not want to wear her collar or armband 24/7; they may be good for while she’s on active duty, but programming her phone would be better for when she’s “on liberty” status.
ADD/ADHD medication is oral. She doesn’t need an implanted injector.
While a reminder device couldn’t hurt, she can’t stop in the middle of an emergency to take her meds. She just has to cope the best she can.
I LOVE how Sydney is holding up a mirror AND wacking someone with the same tentacle.
10/10 style points
Actually she’s just tossed him in the air and is about to PPO him. Note various limbs scattered below him from previous victims.
She’s going for a trick shot! :D
Well damn, that makes it even better.
Doesn’t it, though? Bwahahaha!
“I LOVE my people!,,,, Pull !!!” …a few seconds later… “BLAM— Aaieee thud”
Peasant hunting; the sport of kings.
+1
Fortunately, that particular panel is just an “imaginary possibility.” A very scary possibility. I distinctly recall some comments from previous pages from people who were postulating what it might be like if Sydney were to ever “go rogue.”
Between her power suite & her ADHD, the mind boggles…
O.o
About DT, why did they assume V could opt people out? His powers could be active while he’s unconscious, in which case he’d be immune. If they’re mot, then the aura would have just barely woken him up before his powers took effect again and protected him from any further effects.
Probably because V grows stronger from violence, not from defensive actions?
I assume they are unsure if nemesis would have worked on aura effects, or while DT was unconcious. And Opal didn’t wake up either so that is two people left out.
They don’t have several weeks of comment sections to mull it over in full on debates with other commenters?
Is everyone forgetting that no one but Sydney actually saw the aggro-aura? Her True Sight doesn’t reveal anything to anyone else. None of them could see how the effect of the aura was bypassing around DT’s unconsious body.
It is weird rooting for Opal’s concussion being bad because I want to believe Vehemence’s aura was an indiscriminate AoE kind of thing, which ties in with me wanting to believe the attackers came here on their own volition and weren’t brainwashed. DT would, if that was the case, not have woken up because his nemesis power cancelled out the aura, and would also have blocked brainwashing attempts.
Apparently not.
Unless DT is a genuine supervillain (or, more likely, a supervillain wannabe) and DT didn’t need to mind control him in the first place – just convince him to tag along. Certain irony there, if true.
DT strikes me as the kind of wannabe supervillain that would show up of his own volition even if his defenses works against the aura.
There is that. DT does seem exactly the kind of annoying person who would have that specific trait.
“NOBODY expects ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’…“
Oh God that is such a not-Sydney thing in the last page.
No, it’s a very ADHD thing to get dragged along in the chaos like that.
And we already know Sydney can be vicious if you look at her wrong: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/558
Or suprise her: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/626
There is a difference though between lashing out on reflex when being startled, as happened with Harem and Dabbler, and flicking someone into the air to use as target practise.
Being caught up in the moment and for that reason slamming fire guy into the pavement does match though.
First panel. Her reflex was preparing to punch. 2nd was attempting to.
The panel on the other hand is her deliberately preparing to Kamehameha his “I want to live!” self or whatever she’s calling her “Blast with a high beam causing destruction” orb
PPO ™ by ArcSwat Merchandising. All Rights Reserved.
Ah good. I couldn’t remember lol
…It’s “PPO” only if you’re hip, though…
Without the life target it is something she would do during training.
It is a non-Sydney act, because it is not her at all. It is an Imagine Spot from Maxima.
It’s mirror universe Sydney.
But where’s the goatee?
Q for Quartermaster, naturally. Or “Quartermastery” which sounds even more awesome.
I called up a list of words that might have something to fill the bill…but the list is long enough that I don’t have time right now to check out the definitions of the “most likely” possibilities.
https://www.crosswordsolver.org/q-words
I suggest: Super-Powered Abetment, Reinforcement, and Quartermaster
(reinforcement in general, not specifically troops). Alternatively, ‘Relief’ or ‘Resupply’
“Quartermaster” is the first thing that came to my mind, as well.
Quartermaster generally refers to the person or the post, not the activity. But as someone who has held that post (for a sports club) I heartily endorse “quartermastery” and will use it forthwith!
“While looking up Q words to finish out the Arc-SPARQ acronym, I came across “quaff” I always thought it meant to drink a quarter of something. I recall reading it a lot in fantasy novels. People quaff potions all the time in them, but nope! It means to slam back your drink.”
Makes sense. Who would drink only a quarter of a potion? Somebody who wants to only be 25% less flammable?
makes sences if the potion gives you 25% fire resistance, only drink 25% of it at a time and you can make your self 100% resistance to fire ^^
In the original Dungeons and Dragons and 2nd Edition, My DM would allow us to use 1/4, 1/2, 3/4’s of a heal potion. Mainly because they were so bloody expensive that it wasn’t worth the gold value of a cure critical or God help us a “full heal” for a 1/4 for a quarter of your HP. Sometimes depending on what we were fighting that 1/4 HP (hit points) could make all the difference between life and death.
With a resist fire potion? Hell, just drink it and pray.
Long Live THAC0.
Yeah, adventurers probably had a lot of trouble being covered by a health insurance plan.
Concerns like that can be addressed by the Adventurer’s guild…Or Mage’s Guild, or Thieves’ Guild, etc. I’ve seen a good example of what kind of effort it would take to establish such a guild in webcomics: Guilded Age
I have even done two of those, in roleplaying. With the same character! Most of the players in the party had enough magical abilities that they could qualify as members. And every guild needs specialists, who can handle things that the core membership are not suited to. So everybody had real fun after setting up the mages’ guild.
My character just saw the benefit to having a parallel thieves’ guild. Some of the mages’ guild members were not suited to joining that though. Be it morally, or lack of suitable guile, and/or stealth. But enough were that we could undertake rogue activities, when the others were not available for a game.
And it was interesting to see how different a mage-heavy guild operated to a traditional thieves guild. Especially when we all worked to keep our day-job images untarnished. Which was helped by the fact that we definitely lent towards being a rogues guild, rather than a thieves guild. We restricted our liberation of goods to those which were already in ambiguous or illegal ownership.
All hail the great Gygax and morn his passing!
There were true giants on the Earth in his day.
Amen.
And he even introduced us all to some other giants along the way: Hill giants, Fire giants, Frost Giants, Storm giants, Formorian giants, etc.
;)
So, all in all, as bad as a few injuries are, still WAY less casualties than most super fights would likely produce, and just don’t mention.
Yep, they managed to end this without wiping out half the city.
I was going to say no civilian casualties, but then I remembered Suzy. OK almost no civvie casualties.
Foreplay does not count.
If you can count the bruises, then foreplay counts…
+1
:) +1
It’s interesting that Harem didn’t list her own injury.
Harem: And oh, by the way, my wrist is broken.
Dabbler: You should count yourself lucky. When I break a wrist I only have three hands left.
Peggy: Technically you do only have three hands left.
…
Peggy: What? I’m allowed to make those jokes.
Harem should actually get reprimanded if she does not include he own injuries on the damage report. unless it included in the “usual bumps, bruises and burns” wish i kind of doubt
Sorry, but don’t you mean 4 (2 right plus 2 left hands)?
:P
Or maybe just 2, because broken-or-not, her 2 left hands should still be there…
…unless an amputation/injury is ever involved…?
OK, I’m reaching here, I admit it – sorry.
Seriously though, we only know that it’s been badly hurt – not whether it’s bad enough to be broken.
No, three, since she had to replace the fourth [/don’texplainthejoke]
Harem: I know, right? I only have 8 right now!
@Dave
“That was attacking before desert was served!”
Sounds like a dry wit there.
Sorry.
BYW, Dave. A possible technical issue. Don’t know if I’m unique, but this particular comments section is taking a L-O-N-G time to load (like 2-3 minutes each time). May want to check on that.
No problem here.
I take a long time too, though I blamed it on everyone from everywhere rushing in at the same time to see the latest page and comment on it, creating heavy traffic.
You don’t *sound* sorry…….. GET HIM!!!! :P
Sorry, “typo-police” here.
Why would she care about a barren expanse of sandy DESERT?
A sugary sweet would be called a DESSERT.
Back then I wondered if the fire aura belonged to that guy or was a symbol for roadrash.
Just love the guys facial expression in the second last panel. kinda abject misery and terror
Sheer agony works too. Entire left side of your body broken or dislocated is GOING TO HURT.
“Puny villain”
Hah!
I don’t think it’s fair to call up the “Hulk vs. Loki” incident unless Sydney had slammed him at least 3 times. That’s why I didn’t mention it myself. Oh sure, I thought about it, but declined because we only saw her slam him once.
It had been such a long time since Sydney did that (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1393), that I had to go back and look for it…
Yeah, it looked less like getting “road rash” than it does becoming “street pizza.”
There ya’ go, Yorp! Don’t worry about what happened to Peggy during Vehemence-induced free-for-all any more…Dave included her in the post-brawl rundown.
:)
…and she definitely isn’t a victim…
Depends on your point of view, and wordage: she was still a victim of the Aggro-wave, but not a casualty
Yay Peggy! Any day you are not posted on the fatalities list is a good day.
“Pulls out a list and looks at Yorp”.
A hit list is not the same thing. :-P
Besides which, they are super heroes (and her virtual cape is cut from the same cloth). If they aren’t on any hit lists, they have not been doing their job well enough!
“Rolls up the list while looking at Yorp”
Shouldn’t maximas voice microphone thingy be rather broken after being strangled by V?
If those are built with “cloth-electronics,” then the circuitry would be flexible enough to give under that kind of pressure without breaking. Even in this real world, engineers have been designing (& beginning to market) what they call “wearable computers,” where the circuitry is bound up in the fabric of the material.
It might still be crushed while the collar itself is flexible, though it’s more likely her “Invulnerability” stat provided enough protection for the collar itself. We know it provides some protection since the explosive bolas only gave her a bare midriff.
And popped her back
Max’s base-line defense protects anything she wears. Only A Bomb got through that protection.
Merdoc does make a valid point. Whilst your first line is true, the latter forgets one thing. Vehemence was strong enough to get through her defence, by being able to damage Maxima and her clothing. Without going back to check, if she had her maxed-out defence going, whilst she was being strangled then it may still be working.
However, she clearly did not when he punched her through the rock pillar. And I imagine that any embedded electronics would have been severely disrupted by that shock, being on her neck. However, the cloth of the choker would not be harmed, so things would still look as DaveB has drawn them.
I’d have to agree. Max’s Contact TK and Toughness are good for clothing, as they would have to be to preserve her modesty when flying supersonic. But flexible electronics can easily break ‘wires’ or embedded chips without breaking the support fabric, which wouldn’t necessarily show up without close examination.
Of course, they are in the clean-up phase now, and there has been plenty of time for external help to arrive (medics etc.) I’d be surprised if Arc-Sparq don’t have a spare communicator for everyone in the back of the van for this very sort of situation, and Max would waste little time getting back in the loop.
It looks like a lot of the gear did not pass the first real test. Broken glasses, missing earpieces and other comm gear. I don’t know if Jiggs’ cell phone was her personal one or Arc issue but it’s done for. Arc-SPARQ is going to be going through a heap of field reports all boiled down to “it busted, make it better.” If Max’s throat mike is broken, that may have to be where SPARQ says, “We cannot make it tougher unless you want a 6″ thick armor collar.”
Ahh, but this is where DaveB‘s intent shines through. The engineers at SPARQ will have been trained at the Transylvania Polygnostic University.* Although, unlike true Sparks, they will have to remain rooted in real-world physics, they can tweak some of the rules, through the inspiration of studying super-powers.
In this instance, I could see that the solution would be to make the components more flexible, rather than armouring them. Operating like modern, well-built, high rise buildings do, in earthquake zones and high winds. Namely bending, rather than trying to oppose an unstoppable force of nature. Which will, at least, make them more resilient to the most common damage that the items are likely to face.
Then the Sparqs can turn to improving resistance to temperature extremes, electrical surges, and so forth. At the end of the day, though, without super-science or magic, they cannot realistically render those devices invulnerable. Not to the gamut of super attacks, anyhow. Stuff will break.
But, of course, that is where a number of team members come into their own. Vehemence is exceptional, against lesser threats, many of them are capable of protecting their gear at the same time as they protect themselves.
Math does it by sheer skill at dodging; Maxima, Dabbler and Halo by their force fields; Anvil by kinetic absorption; Jiggawatt is the go to girl if electricity or lightning is zapping around; whereas for heat or fire, you call Heatwave and so on.
* Figuratively speaking.
Last panel, loved it.
Sydney has the potential for being a Class-A Arch-Villain, that’s for certain. With her ADHD & a bit of thought behind it, what detective-type (maybe short of Batman) could figure out her next scheme?
O.O
Sydney has the mental capability of the Riddler and Joker combined in that she is highly intelligent but also highly unstable. Put that together with her power suite and I don’t think even Batman would be able to predict her next scheme.
Disc World author Terry Pratchett explained “quaffing” the best.. “The difference between drinking and quaffing is that quaffing gets your ears wet.”
That’s a much better choice of words than, say, “queefing”…
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Queef
Yeah, I always figured the reason you quaffed potions was because they all taste horrid, and the faster you drink them, the sooner you don’t have to taste them.
Also, my grade school had awesome spelling/vocabulary lists. Partly because the teachers were desperate for useful/interesting words that started with “q” and “x”, and partly because at least three of them were old school roleplayers.
Really, the only thing you have to avoid is drinking a different potion to get the taste of the first one out of your mouth…
AD&D nerds know what I’m talking about…
;)
Oh yea. That is real ‘better stand in a bucket’ time. Whilst curses can be removed, stone can be turned back into skin and clerics can even help you recover from being blown to bits, there are some things which require extraordinary precautions. And being turned into liquid is one of those!
Sounds like a good base to play Scrabble, as well.
I think it’s a cool implication that Dr. Z is a badass enough wizard to have resisted the aura and freed Seneca from itas well. Dude must have crazy SR.
Well it does say in his bio he’s has some artifacts.
So who knows what he carries around as a precaution .
Yup, he is the most qualified human magical expert that Archon were able to hire. I would be very surprised if he did not have some functional defences. Say a charm to provide luck, or a ward to fend off evil. Being possessed, or controlled, by an evil entity would make the latter kick in, I imagine.
And he may well have some more exotic things to provide active defences. The “you can’t see me” aura showing that Arc-Light do have some powerful mojo going for them. And he is the head of that organisation. His executive toys won’t just be shiny balls bumping into each other, on a desk top!
I can imagine what his home might look like…Smithsonian Institution would have nothing on HIM. Or his office might look like you’ve just walked into a occult store, but his stuff WORKS!
who do you think inspired the librarian’s office design?
Syndey as a supervillain would indeed be pretty darn terrifying, and varant a full deployment of the team. or an airplane full of shiny things…
And now I’ve got a picture of Sydney being distracted as the team brings in their secret weapon. A truck load of tinsel…
Nope it would be a huge plate of Fusion’s Unmakered noodles.
Since you brought it up, Dave, going back to the previous page with the nega-knuckles guy, he looks pretty evil and pretty viscous. The ex-bad-guys who have gotten screen time lately seem kinda like a big bunch of softies, but there are a few more who really seem like they where prepared to slice and dice and really hurt people. Is Arc-Swat really just going to dump all these guys (and girls) back into the general populace? Seems kind of reckless, at least.
I think that “We know you now and we can kick your ass again if you misbehave” should be enough of a deterrent in many cases. The nega-knuckles guy isn’t going to show his face soon out of pure shame :)
he’ll probably also be speaking in a higher octave for a few weeks.
Considering his mindset, “Shadow Boxer” or “Nega Knuckles” probably HAS a criminal record, or outstanding warrants already. I don’t think he’s going to walk away from this.
“moo” point…between magic, super-powers and high-tech tracing the meanies shouldn’t be a problem…
Considering how Squeaky (my preferred designation for Nega-Knuckles) was taken down, ANY walking he does will be very slow and careful for quite a while.
+1
That’s okay…The hospital has plenty of wheelchairs. The worst part will be when he has to use the bathroom.
Also, we’re not sure how many of these folk would still read as “badass” when Mr.V wasn’t around to goad them into being violent.
How many division have Arc? And what are their responsabilities?
So far I remember ArcSwat, ArcLight, ArcDark and ArcBurgers (No wait, that last one was only a suggestion)
Also ArcAegis, which is containment, and now ArcSparq, R&D.
and now Arc-Sparq…
Sufficiently
Perplexing
Acronym
Requiring
Questions
Or it could be their sports team. They have a lot of people who can fly.
Super
Powered
Activities
Resembling
Quidditch
Never forget ArcBark!
And it’s opposite.
ARC-MEOW.
Got to do something with all the Cat-girls.
… where Math is always trying to get himself transferred
…but they have to keep rejecting him because he’s neither a cat or a girl…
Yea, even wearing clip-on kitty ears and a skirt does not fool them. Been there, tried that.
A dog in cat’s clothing? I seem to remember hearing about something so similar to that…
His tell was actually caring about a human.
So isn’t Sidney’s face going to start SWELLING now?
This whole fight probably just lasted 10-20 minutes, if even that, but now that the super doc will be busy with the more serious injuries, that would mean Sidney would have to wait a while to receive treatment that would make it go away. Until then, her face would swell, no?
I would think that swelling would be most probable if her cheek bone or jaw got at least a slight crack, or if a tooth or two got loosened. But that punch was partially deflected by her armband before it connected, so getting “merely” a nasty-looking bruise is reasonable.
no, the ppo partially blocked the one that went for her face, the arm band blocked the initial strike.
I assume they have some sort of healing power beyond mundane treatments? Otherwise the people Peggy kneecapped are likely crippled for life.
Never mind the risk of just dying from it.
You just might be surprised what kinds of “reconstructive surgery” is possible even in our own “mundane world.” Sure, a huge problem & a lot of time & physical therapy to get used to it, but when you include “super” levels of healing possible, I’d wager that most, if not all, of them can expect a full 100% recovery.
They do, their doc has already been established as having healing powers since before the press conference.
The bull in the china ship myth was exploded on Mythbusters. Bulls navigate china shops very well.
…Unless you get them angry. You wouldn’t like it when they’re angry…
It is only if they don’t know what is going on and start to panic will they start wrecking stuff. Sort of like, “I can’t find the way out! Let me out of here!” Imagine how you might react in that situation; now apply that feeling to someone a lot more strong and a lot less smart.
They also don’t give a crap about the color red any more than other bright colors.
It’s the guy with the sword, and the people backstage that squeeze of it’s balls that pisses off a bull for bullfighting
Which makes me wonder if there’s any group in the comic’s universe that does the busting of the myths.
If so, they may or may not actually call themselves Mythbusters.
The comic formula is ‘real world + super powers’. So, yes, they do exist. Under the familiar name. But, should they make an appearance, or be referred to, it is usually wiser to change the name enough that it avoids any copyright/trademark issues.
There being a highly pertinent precedent to this. The Simpson’s episode featuring Jamie and Adam*. Which used a bogus name for the show. This despite the fact that the two principles were doing the voice acting! And that the Simpson’s makers easily have the resources to seek approval for all such uses.
But it simply is not worth delaying production to do that. Or risking them demanding script changes and/or taking action to stop the publication. If a generic name is used, they have little ground to stand on. It could be anyone/any company you are referring to. But, once you have sought permission, they have all the proof they need.
Although many uses will still be fair, under our societies acceptance of satire, it is still not worth risking a corporate lawsuit. Their pockets are too deep for justice to be easily served. Besides which, a clever name twist can keep the intent clear enough, whilst providing an extra laugh.
* Who’s name took five minutes for my broken brain to supply. Despite subscribing to one of his YouTube channels, and having watched not one, but two episodes of Myth Busters today!
Now offcourse, since Super powers exist in this world, there are probably going to be a few extra, or different myths.
And offcourse, Jamie HAS powers. He basicly already has them in our universe
Aye. And Carrie.
Although hers are of a more primal level. I saw them testing pheromones today. What they failed to do was test how her’s get though the monitor! And I don’t have a fancy one with built in pheromone sprayer.
Adam seems powered to me too. But more of a Mad Genius type power.
What, like Jamie is not a Mad Genius?
Adam is certifiably madder. A born Spark.
I love when Adam comes up with something crazy and Jamie just rolls his eyes.
Ummm… Wasn’t it ‘strawberry’ not ‘vanilla’ Harem that got her wrist broken?
vanilla is a term for original harem…one that has had nothing changed. the harems are as follows: vanilla is normal, punk is the one with short dual colored hair, goth is the one with long dual colored hair and the makeup to match, ditz is the blond, and i’m having trouble naming the white haired one.
She’s usually called the “co-ed”.
Their names are:
Berry (normal or ‘vanilla’)
Gothamer (goth)
Blondini (blonde)
Bodie (pronounced ‘{long}Bow-dee’, or that guy from ‘The Professionals’, Bodie and Doyle: punk)
Abbey (white hair with glasses)
Blondini is also called Vogue.
‘Vogue’ isn’t a ‘name’ though, it’s a vacant description (and not apt for any of the Harem :P)
Thanks for the page.
I don’t have time to review all the comments (I have to get to work) so I don’t know if someone mentioned this already, but shouldn’t the damages also include a destroyed restaurant, pulverized parking lot and a damaged bridge construction site? Oh, and Arc-Swat’s reputation could do with some repairs as well, but that was mentioned last page.
Eh…collateral damage.
Seriously though, Arianna is probably already figuring out who in this group of villains & brawlers can be sued for material damages…And she even has the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to back her up when it comes to collecting those funds for the repair/replacement.
If they allow people to get off on charges via mind control/influence, she can try and sue for damages, but that’s going to be a hard press even with the government backing. Even those with priors really can’t be sued either, cause they’re still under mind control/influence. I think you could also argue that Death Toll could counter sue because, unless i’m mistaken, he was straight up assaulted. When it comes to damages, the most damage caused seem to have been caused by V and Max.
There are at least a few of those villains who can’t take the “reduced liability” defense because of V’s aggro-aura…Arianna would most likely focus most on them.
And don’t forget that the burden of proof for civil liability is much, much lower than that for criminal charges.
Yep, there’s a world of difference in legal accountability between handling “physical injury” in comparison to “property damage.”
For Whom the Death Tolls was resisting arrest, very effectively, so they were justified in ramping up the efforts to arrest him until their efforts were ultimately successful. There is lots of precedent for that kind of thing.
I think they’re going “personnel” right now. Someone else. Someone in accounting, will do property damage, and that’s easily in the high five figures, could even reach the six figures territory.
The restaurant will easily hit the six figure mark.
The building itself will top a half million easily.
Then add in the cost of the kitchen gear, freezers, tables, chairs and the inventory.
Plus lost revenues.
Damage to the utilities infrastructure.
And there you go.
Plus car parks, utilities and the like. And, although they approached through the empty car-park, there will be full one, within the destructive radius, that the customers used. At least one was used as a weapon.
It is staggering how expensive some of the things are, which we take for granted, when we walk over them every day. I remember being shocked, decades ago, when the cost of installing a new pedestrian crossing was mentioned as being something like seventy thousand pounds. And they have been tearing up a lot of the landscape!
Plus other buildings will have been damaged too, not least due to evil squirrel provocation.
The prices of road and street work have soared beyond mere inflation, due to new materials and processes. But the trade off is that the new structures will last longer and take more punishment from weather and traffic as well as quakes and other disasters. I worked for a state DOT making sings for 30 years and some of the last ones we made will be fully functional, barring vandalism or high speed impact, for 20 – 30 years. The material is warrantied for 20 years anyway and the crews have brought in signs for us to date that have beat 30 years before failure. The roads we decorated with them will also stick around at least that long. Of course the difficulty of widening them or other making major alterations adds to further development costs.
I did NOT sing for my paycheck, no matter what my boss says. I made SIGNS. (grumph, mutter)
Spellcheck bastahds ! Yeah, well the company I work for formulates asphalt blends to last 30 years in different environments hot/cold, snow?, salt?, heavy use/light, direct sun? Etc. Also like you I am not in the main line of that work –I create queries to tell them how much of each raw they use or will use in next year based on history, current pricing, alternate blends and how many r’s are in a group of months. (sorcery!)
There is a quarry on the outskirts of my village. Quite a significant one, with a number of expensive lorries, diggers and the like parked on-site. Along with various administrative and storage buildings. One of which will keep the explosives that are used, from time-to-time.
Which means that they keep a pack of guard dogs. Sadly they fail to ensure they are properly confined, and they are now ranging aggressively, beyond the grounds of the quarry. Making it hazardous for any legitimate activity, in the area, such as going for walkies in the surrounding countryside.
Maxima’s chin in that third panel is a bit No one’s slick as Gaston/No one’s quick as Gaston/No one’s neck’s as incredibly thick as Gaston’s.
She’s got an overly strong jawline is what I’m saying.
Gaston is now a verb to me. Thank you.
As many times as I’ve looked at the current Vote Incentive, I’ve been thinking: Finish it up…T-Shirt (with a nice, pithy caption perhaps). If I can find a way to afford it out of what I laughingly refer to as “my budget,” I’d get it.
Maybe someone mentioned it already, but just in case, in panel three, second speech bubble, it should read “…actually be a…”
Harem’s follow up to her report is to say “Wow, all this fighting has made me thirsty. I could really use something to drink right now. Good thing I had a spare can.” She pulls out a can of ‘Blitzkreig’ soda while everyone around replies with universal cry of “NOOOOOOO!!!”
She only gets GeneriCola.
You mean Status Quola
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/GP0200a.jpg
In the last panel, I’m sorta tempted to give that guy some kind of name. Meat Pigeon, maybe because he’s apparently not made out of clay. Skeeter also comes to mind, except that he’s being more of a “skeetee” than a “skeeter,” so I might just shorten it to Skeet.
What is it about Sydney that makes everybody imagine the worst about her? But it always if funny when they do, and the final panel really made me laugh.
THE LIST.
She’s the little geek/nerd girl among the big bad supers.
What happened during the bank robbery.
And for those who know, her arrest.
She was the citizen arrestor, not the arrestee! And the poor little girl was obviously acting in self-defence.
“Oh the humanity”
A scary thought would be that this is how Sydney crosses people OFF her List…
Last panel: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/684
All this in the first day, we aren’t gonna recognize anyone when they finally change shirts.
Well I doubt anyone would have trouble picking Maxima out of a lineup
Oh, yeah. During the press conference I was all kinds of confused ;-)
You get confused when you look in the mirror.
A positive reflection?
Life is good.
I’m attracted here by the positive vibes…
Being negatively charged yourself, I can understand why…
Harems various forms make it really hard to keep track of whos who, I keep mixing up some of the harems with Heatwave peggy and gwen. Half the time I mistake peggy and Heatwave as Harems or mistake one of the Harems for Peggy or Gwen.
Up close Harems distinctive freckles give it away. Even in the middle distance Peg’s distinctive hair, facials scars and or tattoos usually let you know its her but if. Gwen’s a bit of an issue having some similarity to the more gothic Harem if you aren’t current on their look of the day. So from middling to far distance I guess I could see mistaking Gwen or maaaybe Peg (really a ways out) for a Harem but Heatwave has a kind of distinctive look to her and a different color to her hair. I’ve never even come close to mistaking Heatwave for anybody else at all.
4th panel: Nice theory Harem but I’m thinking DT’s ability to counter any power used against him actually prevented V’s booster wave from effecting him.
correct, AND it works when he’s unconscious too… in the zoomed out panel showing the area that the Aggro Aura was covering, he was in the frame and the aura WAS being deflected/blocked by his power, and just like Sydney’s shield casting a *shadow* of an area with NO aura, it was doing the same thing… so anyone that was directly in line with him and Vehemence was probably NOT affected, until they moved OUT of the shadow… then again if he was lying on the ground then that shadow was only a foot or two high at the most… so change that to say that IF he were STANDING UP, then they wouldn’t have been affected…
If you remember that, at that time,only Sydney (& We the Readers) could actually see the aura & how DT’s body was deflecting it around him, I don’t fault Harem for being wrong.
+1
And it speaks as to impartial writing. The characters are speaking consistently as to their knowledge. Rather than automatically knowing the true situation. Where Halo has been able to make intuitive leaps, DaveB has shown the methodology of drawing in both subtle and obscure observations, combined with her background experiences, and her capability for complex reasoning, which have allowed highly educated guesses.
Mind you, it would be fun if she lucked out, some time, and called it wrong.
If Sydney ever makes a wrong call, even as insightful as it may be, it would be fun…For us.
Everybody else, on the other hand…
first of all great page as usual
second, before i forget, i think there is a typo of sorts on maxima “he may actually a big reason…” i think you forgot the “be”
third OMG i love the damn last panel lol
freaking HILARIOUS hehe
Sydney becoming the Phoenix of the Grrlverse. Or just a regular homicidal pyromaniac. PULL!
It’s a kindness. The only alternative is to be put on The List.
Imaginary Scary Sydney is always funny.