Grrl Power #314 – Contrition condition
Sydney seems to have escaped relatively unscathed… for now.
I may need to futz with the dialog on the page a little. For instance I’m not sure if “the thanks of the office of the president” is too much, like if that carries some sort of official recognition or if that’s just how you talk when you’re president. Also I’m not sure how the prez would actually address her. “Miss Scoville” seems ok, but then he’s the Commander in Chief and she’s in the military now, so it seems like he should call her either “Recruit Scoville” or “Private Scoville” only, I’m not sure at what point she would actually become a private. Is it the first day of boot camp, or the last? She’s been rolled out in the PR event, but she hasn’t been issued her gear yet or even taught how to salute. She’s basically just stepped off the bus. I probably should have asked on Twitter before this page went up but I assumed I’d have to tweak it a little in any case.
Things I learned while drawing this page: when women put their hair in a bun (or anyone with long hair I guess) there’s this spongy donut thing or a rolled up sock with a hole in the toe inside the bun to give it shape. I just assumed it was all hair. It’s possible to do it with all hair, but then the bun is usually hollow and keeps its shape largely due to hairspray. I was looking up acceptable military hairstyles for women to make sure I was getting Max’s hair right. I think her bun might be a little low but lets ignore that for now. If I was a gal in the military I’d just go all G.I. Jane for the duration instead of having to walk around with 27 bobby pins in my hair all the time. On the one hand you’d have an ample supply of lockpicks if you need them, on the other hand you’d be screwed if Magneto attacked.
This must have been pre-ARCHON.
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.
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The oldest story I recall about ‘eating crow’, was a gentleman who was told he’d be killed by a particular crow. So he had the crow shot and ate it. Or tried: choked to death.
Let us hope Sydney fares somewhat better.
I love that story.
I have nothing against a good comic hero fight, but the last few strips were what imho keeps this comic at it’s core alive: character-background and the antics of a geek inside her own superhero comic. Sydney meets the President. Hell yeah!
So, military social trivia from a former enlistee.
Generally speaking one’s rank is the proper formal way to address them irrespective of authority differentials. There is some leeway: All Airmen can be called ‘Airman’, all Sergeants can be called ‘Sergeant’ and so on up the ranks, for broadly the same reason you can call a Dentist ‘Doctor’ unless you need to be more specific). A General and even the President are expected to respect that a person has earned whatever it is they’ve earned, just as much as an E-1 is expected to respect their senior’s rank and authority.
However, under relatively informal conditions it is often seen as socially acceptable to address one’s juniors with the semi-formal Miss, Mister or Missus as otherwise socially appropriate. The President in particular is in a position to get away with this because, while he has authority over the military he is still a /civilian/ whose principle relationship to the chain of command is being the hook it hangs from.
Given the relative informality of the moment, the President using an informal tone and form of address to try to put an obviously distressed and situationally novice Sydney at ease to help urge her out the door in an efficient fashion is entirely appropriate. Diminutizing for Sydney, to be sure, but she did come in rather inappropriately herself. His Presidence is certainly handling the matter much more gracefully than Lt. Col. Leander.
Since you have actual military experience, I was thinking about something else: the variance pro/con list of making them full and official soldiers versus “military consultants/contractors” or something along those lines. I know being a soldier puts you under some conditions on even how you live your life (uniform code and public behavior and stuff like that), but also offers some protections. I’m not 100% on what a “Court Martial” covers, but would it, for instance, keep her out of civilian court if she commits a crime while “in action”? Like, all those super villains couldn’t charge her with assault or what not.
I also know that their is an important level of deniability involved. There are major differences between a civilian doing something crazy/stupid on foreign soil versus a member of the military. If you’re already not on great terms with the country, they could present it as an act of aggression or violation of their sovereignty. I remember we got a LOT of heat for taking out Osama because we never asked Pakistan for permission to send troops into their air space (for very obvious reasons, how ever much THEY deny it). And I think we can all agree Sydney is a walking “diplomatic incident” waiting to happen.
I also have prior military experience and can back up all that Vaporware said. Though he did not answer the question of what exactly Scoville’s rank is. At this point I think her rank is only recruit. She would become a private, airman, seaman, or whatever rank DaveB decides to create/call her upon her actually beginning training. Which would probably be this day. Another reason for the Commander in Chief’s calling her miss would be her current status.
To HartThorn, you are correct that being in the military can provide ‘some’ protection from civilian led courts by use of courts martial, as recent history in Afghanistan and Iraq has shown, it does not provide complete protection. As for the deniability level and foreign soil stuff goes, keep in mind most of the deniability stuff is done by Special Operations Command or the CIA and FBI. ArCon is the visible side of the superpowers stuff, so less chance of that happening. However, Americans on foreign soil, regardless of military or civilian status, are still highly likely to be treated better and the US government will try to assist in most cases. ESPECIALLY if they were under orders in the military or by a government agency.
I have absolutely no military experience whatsoever, but I’m not sure Sydney even HAS a rank yet, beyond ‘Recruit’ – is Recruit even a rank though? Sort of like Nursery school is school, but not really a grade yet :)
Archon also had ArcDark (I think that’s what it was called) for those “deniable” actions. So, not entirely in the visible part.
But then, they’re not actually supposed to be used in warfare anyway, per an upcoming U.N. treaty. Or at least I seem to remember something like that…
Minor peeve… is the use of “myself” by POTUS correct? How about “The NA leaders and I…” or perhaps the third person “We.” Not trying to be the grammar police cause I hate those guys:) I just dont like that use of the word Myself.
He needs a teleprompter to talk to elementary school kids. Rand Paul can lecture history for 13hours without a break or teleprompter.
Isn’t Rand Paul selling those $15 NSA blockers that go on your webcam, and is trying to kill net neutrality?
Net neutrality is the Obamacare Website version of the intranet. Most of the plans for it came from Soros. Lois Lerhner & 7 other top IRS officials thought they had lost all their emails for 2 years but it turned out it was only an affirmative action worker that couldn’t find them. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/30000-missing-emails-from-irs-lerner-recovered/article/2556522 The internet needs merit not affirmative action. Otherwise we would never see the Rodney King video that cleared cops of wrongdoing or the Ferguson Liqour store video from 10 min before Gentle Mike was killed where he was pummeling a little Asian clerk, with the “hands up” witnesses participating in the robbery. Did your media show that the rioting in Baltimore was for a drug dealer who had spinal surgery a week before and should have been on bedrest?
You hold a lot of racial stereotypes in your head, don’t you?
Net Neutrality is a scam. The ONE instance the proponients can cite for it is when Comcast made Netflix pay extra to speed up their bandwidth…but Netflix was using more than 60% of the entire bandwidth of the Internet at the time. It was completely fair that they help pay Comcast for the hardware upgrades.
If Net Neutrality isn’t going to actually affect anything, why do all the companies that would benefit most from abusing the loopholes currently in place oppose it so strenuously? They’d be better off just letting it pass, rather than making everyone wonder what they’ve got up their sleeves.
It is going to effect stuff. 96% of broadband users have options for internet providers. Instead of those providers competing with each other with giving users better services & offers as they have been, simple bribes & lawfare will ensnare users. They will have a virtual monopoly.
So which part of net neutrality will eliminate the existing companies or market that is already there? There’s nothing about making a single internet provider or anything like that.
Oh, it will affect things all right…for example, after Netflix made the deal with comcast, Netflix downloads were prioritized. The new laws and regulations will NEGATE that agreement and Comcast will be legally obligated to NOT prioritize Netflix downloads over, say, “Hot Granny Porn Action” websites.
Enjoy your Netflix buffering, courtesy of the Obama administration’s FCC.
And why, for instance, should the latest Adam Sandler schlockfest be prioritized over a BBC podcast? They’re both data, and there’s no justification for treating one as higher priority than the other. Either Netflix will figure out a better way to handle buffering, or more people will go back to DVDs. It’s still all market forces; it just keeps people from being able to rent-seek and acquire a permanent advantage in the market.
Because Netflix paid EXTRA for faster speed, and the BBC didn’t.
It’s called “Capitalism”
“First mover” advantages are already very powerful for the internet, even without players with deep pockets being able to buy further advantage. That way will simply give us a series of monopolies.
I like my “Capitalism” with at least the possibility of some “Competition”.
The answer is: Build a better mousetrap. Build your own network that is better than Comcast’s, and YOU can be the one being paid for fast speeds.
When I’m the one at the other end, trying to watch something, I don’t give a *&+% about who payed who what, I just want the internet to work as fast as possible.
No matter what I’m viewing.
Well if you don’t care who payed for what, Pay for a T1 Hookup, and everything will be blazing fast.
Rand Paul needs to be able to bullshit off the cuff, though. It goes hand in hand with performing the mental gymnastics needed to simultaneously think the government shouldn’t control any aspect of people’s lives, and then turn around and champion legislation that tells people who they can and can’t marry, and whether or not women can have an abortion or take birth control.
Hillary took over $40 million from nations that execute gays & is responsible for the death of gay ambassador Stevens who requested real security a month before he died. Why not cry about that instead of not having a pizza served at your wedding. A black moslem serial killer of gays in 3 states was caught 2 weeks after the Ferguson liquor store robber was shot by Officer Wilson but leftist media totally ignored Mohammad Ali Brown.
“Why not cry about that instead of not having a pizza served at your wedding.
This basically boils down to “you can’t worry about this issue, because I think another issue is worse.”
“black moslem”
Oh look: a retard!
I’m hardly surprised someone like you supports a two-faced hypocrite like Rand Paul. I’m sure you think if Rand Paul was elected into office, he would end aaaaall the bad things.
Yes if the black moslem serial killer of gays in 3 states was a White Christian the lamestream media would have covered it more than Matt Shepard. If the gay bar in Seattle that got torched by a different black moslem was white it would be bigger news than a pizza place in Indiana not serving wedding pizza. Here is a religious jew covering that https://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/benghazi-muslim-who-torched-seattle-gay-bar-im-terrorized-in-my-own-land-and-im-the-terrorist/
That religious jew that reported it probably wouldn’t serve pizza to gays but he is at least taking action to make sure they don’t get burned to death in the US.
Meh. I’m not a fan of Rand Paul (or his father) mainly because they seem a little unhinged, but I’d vote for him if it was either him or Hillary (who’s a lot unhinged, plus a liar and would be in jail or facing charges if her last name wasnt Clinton). I’d really prefer someone like Rubio or Huckabee, or especially Carlie Fiorina (who is awesome).
(To be honest, I’d prefer Gary Johnson but pretty sure most people don’t know Libertarian candidates, and I’m not going to vote on the Libertarian ticket if it means voting again for the Libertarian candidate means Hillary becomes President…)
Let me try to figure out how to tie this into the comic, since none of this conversation I’m reading has ANYTHING to do with the comic.
Hrm….. lemme think. Oh okay I know. If Carlie Fiorina ran, I bet Maxima and Sydney would both vote for her – she’s supportive of the military, she’s a successful woman, and has never taken millions of dollars from countries that treat women like second-class citizens like a certain other female candidate for President.) Leon probably would also since she was CEO of Hewlett Packard, and is a supporter of Net Neutrality.
There. I tied this political ranting thread back to the comic, albeit minimally.
I don’t normally reply to political threads, but I’m genuinely hoping that Bernie Sanders runs. Unfortunately, as an Independent, he’s going to have to run on the Democratic ticket.
However, he’s one of the few candidates that isn’t (1) a liar like Hillary, (2) a religious nutcase like Ted Cruz, (3) a bully like Chris Christie, or (4) a Koch sucker. If Sanders decides not to run, I agree with you about Fiorina or Johnson. Both seem pretty awesome.
Message from the future; well, he gave it a hell of a go… although Johnson’s gotten somewhat tarnished the more airtime he’s received.
You realize that at least three quarters of the “history” Rand Paul would be spouting during that 13 hours is complete fiction, right?
“Did you know*dramatic pause* that Abraham Lincoln was a republican?
(just don’t bring up the fact that political orientation of political parties change over time, otherwise this point will seem stupid)”
Well he was not elected republican in his second term
And he actually self-described as a Henry Clay Whig. The Republicans where just where he wound up after the collapse of the Second Party System.
…. guys, don’t be revisionist. This isnt Stalinist Russia. During his time as President, Lincoln was a Republican. In fact, he was the first Republican President. He was in the Whig party THIRTY YEARS before that. He had been out of the Whig Party for over 20 years when he ran for President.
Also… ‘he was not elected republican in his second term’ – what the heck are you talking about. Yes he was. HE WAS THE INCUMBENT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT. You’re confusing the name change during the 1864 election, when the Republicans changed their name on the national ticket from Republican Party to National Union Party. They changed the name, but it was still the Republican party, and in the states they still used the name Republican Party. They then changed the name back. It was the same Republican Party the entire time though. History. Read it. PLEASE Grrrrr.
Geez :/ Not liking republicans is one thing. Trying to change the past is another.
All I need to make a bun (that stays) is two or three ponytail holders (well when my hair is to my shoulders, too much longer and it is too heavy for me to do – which wouldn’t bother Max I guess). I have too much hair to use the poof support. They do make spiral hairpins and those work the best. Two long or three short and my hair bun doesn’t move all day.
Bobby pins had me covered when I did ballet. Bobby pins and hairspray. But then again, Max can “control things with her mind if she’s using her body.” Why shouldn’t her stabilization beam apply to hairstyling? It’s not like she needs to be tank-proof right now, so focusing a bit of energy on looking professional for the world leaders wouldn’t be unreasonable.
If I get mine twisted the right way, I can just put a pair of sticks or pens through it and it’ll hold for hours. Unfortunately, I can’t usually seem to get it twisted the right way anymore–out of practice, I guess–so I resort to 20 or 30 bobby pins. I have one of the “perfect bun” things, but apparently my hair is too fine to use with it, because I can’t get my hair to cover up all of the foam support.
I wish Sydney blurted out something extremely offensive and politically incorrect instead… That would be more in line with her character.
I just imagine the other leaders had sent messages to him saying: ‘she’s from your country, you deal with her’.
Good thing Arianna has the IM pane closed, then! But I bet Leon would have spit-took when Sydeney burst in. There’s no way he’s not call-tapping, mostly because he’s the one keeping it secure.
Sydney finally got turned towards the camera. There are probably going to be some questions posted to Archon asking basically “What the heck did the logo on that shirt mean anyway?”
In our next episode of “Archon’s Funniest Videos” Dabbler walks in on a video chat with the Pope while in full demon mode.
+1 (laugh I had to turn into a cough because I am at work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW7OPByRGDY That is definitely the proper salute to give to the president. Due to this… (if you don’t want to click on the link: John Hodgman checking Obama’s Nerdcred)
(and Geekcred
It might be insubordination- and Max is quite right to look cross- but Sydney should NOT receive a harsh punishment, for two reasons- 1) she is not, AFAIK, yet a sworn member of the military, so I don’t know how much the UCMJ actually applies. 2) she has not, at this point, actually received any training in military procedure. 3) she had a legitimate issue to bring up with Max.
Oh, yell at her, by all means- but an intelligent commander should probably deal with this unofficially. (all told, it’s a minor screwup, and she WAS known to be impulsive)
It’s hard to say whether it would be categorized as insubordination per se. Scoville has a legitimate grievance, after all, and fireworks notwithstanding she was attempting to /comply/ with an order that happened to conflict with circumstances.
At worst, this is general conduct unbecoming and Maxima is constrained by the fact that, as you point out, she’s had little to no training in military formalities: you can’t expect someone to conduct themselves becomingly if you haven’t yet taught them /how/.
Add to that the fact that Archon as a whole is, by and large, an extremely informal organization whose status as a military branch is largely bureaucratic and it’s hard to imagine Maxima pushing for much beyond sharply reenforcing to Sydney that Closed doors /need/ to be respected…and that’ll be easy to reenforce since the severity of the goof is so painfully clear to Sydney.
Correcting for Dabbler’s subtle contribution (intentional or not, she did sort of wind Sydney up about seeing Maxima ASAP “before you get us both in trouble”, for all that Sydney wound herself up about New Comic Day), this is just another day at Archon. Embarrassing, certainly, especially for Maxima who is…virtually the only person on staff who is, in fact, prior military? There’s that General, but so far Archon has a LOT of Civilian running around from their support staff on out.
I imagine the entire Federal system is still sort of feeling out how to deal with superhumans and superhuman personalities in a service context. It might ultimately shake down that most of the Recruits like Sydney wind up being re-categorized as civilian contractors like Dabbler just to re-frame the expectations on them both for organizational and public relations purposes (let’s be honest: people get nervous around armed servicefolk as it is, whether military or civil police. It might well be best for super-powered servicefolk /not/ to look like Government Authorities in Jackboots as much as possible), with Archon as a military branch existing mainly to coordinate them with other government agencies in a paper-trail friendly fashion.
Personally, I think that would be the sensible way to handle things since superhumans are so dramatically non-uniform in capability and personality that conventional military indoctrination and training just isn’t going to be as useful in getting them on the same page. They need to train together and drill, certainly, but they’re going to continue to have to develop entirely new tactics and methodologies…not learn established methodologies for the sake of uniformity.
Well, regarding supers in uniforms making civilians nervous, there’s nothing saying that the daily uniform a military superhero team couldn’t be “casual civilian clothes, but stick to these colors”.
Archon might end up more like the Public Health Service … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Public_Health_Service_Commissioned_Corps … per wikipedia: “The corps, as a uniformed service, may also be militarized and considered a branch of the armed forces by an act of Congress, or by executive order by the President of the United States, not only in time of war, but also in “an emergency involving the national defense proclaimed by the President.””
“…I think that would be the sensible way to handle things…”
Maybe so, but who said the military (or the government, for that matter) acts sensibly in the first place? That’s a pretty big presumption on your part…
;)
4) She did just save everyone’s lives 12 hours earlier, including Maxima’s. Cut the newbie a little slack :)
Here’s hoping Sydney doesn’t back down. It’s sad to see her back down. She should be fighting back not just standing there and taking it from Maxima. She was never the soldier material and she hasn’t seemed like the type to stand down.
I’ve heard it said that when it comes to swallowing your own pride, treat it like swallowing a mouse…grab it by the tail & take it head first, so that it goes down more easily.
Better for Sydney to back down now, while she still has the “untrained recruit” factor in her favor, rather than to push it too far & get more severe punishment.
In german it’s “eating chalk”.
Well, chalk is fossilized plankton (more or less). Would that count as Vegan?
I want to say no, since Plankton is supposedly an animal, but then I read up on them, and read that plankton is made up of ‘tiny plants (phytoplankton) AND tiny animals (zooplankton).
Sooo…. I guess it’s vegan if you mean phytoplankton… and it’s not vegan and a crime against everything vegan if you mean zooplankton.
Also I did not know that chalk was fossilized plankton. For some reason I thought it was a type of compressed limestone or calcium or something.
brionl is pretty much correct, though he didn’t go into much detail. Here’s “the rest of the story”.
“Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary carbonate rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite shells (coccoliths) shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores.”
Coccolithophores are unicellular, eukaryotic phytoplankton (they’re algae, and therefore plants). They have shells made of calcite extracted from the sea water. As they die, a huge thickness gradually builds up and, through the weight of overlying sediments, eventually becomes consolidated into rock (chalk).
Enjoying the update. Thank you.
Finally made it to the end! Ugh, I can’t go through a whole archive in 5 hours like I used to.
Awesome, hilarious, genius comic. :D
These two last pages were complete facepalm to me. I had trouble reading it, soooo much embarassment.
I don’t normally like humor designed to make the audience as uncomfortable as possible, it’s why I’ve never been able to watch The Office. I barely made it through the first episode. It’s unrelenting in that show, it’s like 95% of the “humor” from what I saw. That said, it’s ok to use as a contrast to other types of humor, but only sparingly.
I love this page so much. So funny.
Obama has a very direct, deliberate speech pattern. One of the best impressions I’ve ever heard is from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
It always sounds to me that he and William Shatner studied under the same diction coach.
A lot of actors from the 60s studied under the same diction coach as Shatner, but few people have noticed. The thing is that Shatner only started getting vocal pausey in the late 1970s, early 1980s, with the Star Trek movies. It got even worse when comedians started making fun of it, because he started making fun of himself by exaggerating it.
Probably half of it is making sure he doesn’t say “uh. um, I mean,” etc. He thinks before the next word comes out.
He’s probably had some diction training at some point in his life, as he made his way into politics as a community organizer and public speaker. That, and he’s lived in a great deal of places, hence his slightly off-putting lack of a geographically-placed accent. He’s lived in Kansas, Hawaii, Indonesia and Illinois, all have radically different and identifiable accents (when speaking English) so he’d have different speech patterns than most Americans who stay in one area.
As far as Shatner goes, he and many other actors got their start on the stage, with an emphasis on Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s works have a rhythm and pace to them that creates an engaging, poetic flow. The actors pick up that rhythm and have a hard time suppressing it when they act, though Shatner’s is more prominent than most.
Shatner and Adam West ( TV’s Batman ) both did the speech pauses in order to maximise their screen time at the expense of their co-stars.
Obama: “Peace and long life, Sydney.”
If he wanted to earn full geek points he would have to reply with “Qapla’!”
I don’t think Obama needs any more reason for people to question his citizenship.
*puts nit-pick hat on* OK, I’ve read this line several times, and it is really bugging me.
“Believe we will discuss it later.” It really, really feels like there’s a ‘me’ missing in there. “Believe me”
oh several things are missing, I’ll be the first to admit it having studied Obama carefully before I even voted. Obama simply wouldn’t say things like that, nor would he say those things. Obama doesn’t compliment people he side steps and puts blame elsewhere. He hates whites, he hates blacks, he hates this country and anything that defends it. I got all that just listening closely to his speeches and how he constantly apologies for the actions of this country even when their is no reason at all for him to do so. Obama would never give his thanks like that, its just not in him to do so. At least he never has up to this point even when he should have, he’s also never apologized when he was wrong about things he has said or done.
What? Dude, he thanks people all the time. He’s always thanking service people and emergency response crews and whatnot, practically every time he gives an address about any disaster. Hell, just yesterday he had a whole speech to thank the teachers of the year from every state. You really think he wouldn’t say thank you to someone who had just helped save people? It’s okay to disagree with someone’s politics, but that’s no reason to demonize the individual.
The mere appearance of the current POTUS in anything less than the most demonized role imaginable has unleashed a part of some readers’ brains, forcing them to just spew Obama-hate in the comments. It’s Presidential Derangement Syndrome, first really seen during Clinton’s administration, though I’ll be the first to admit that some liberals suffered from it during Dubya’s turn in office, too. (Politics in the U.S., of course, have never been a model of gentility, but the last three presidents have been insanely polarizing.)
I’d even argue that it’s not the presidents themselves that are polarizing. I’d say the American people are simply more polarized. Part of it is a result of gerrymandering, the expansion of the internet and endless news-cycles, but it also comes down to the fact that people just get worked into a lather about things very easily.
The biggest advances our society enjoys is that when someone reacts to aspects of their lives they are dissatisfied with by resorting to violence, the nation is shocked. If someone commits a violent crime, and another person expresses admiration for them, that admirer is placed under scrutiny. We don’t tolerate violence anymore, we don’t tolerate institutional violence or discrimination (when we can prove it) and the lynch-mob is a thing of the past…mostly. Because of that, people who once would have been in those mobs need new outlets for their anger, hatred and fear, so they turn to message boards.
On the whole, much healthier.
Your wording is better; really, I should have said, “We’ve been more polarized under the last three administrations.” Bush the Elder, for instance, never generated this sort of heat–he got criticized, yes, but the animosity never seemed to be personal the way it has been since he lost (oh, and as a die-hard bleeding-heart liberal, I still think we would’ve been better off if he’d won a second term).
I think gerrymandering is a big part of it. As places are reshaped to only represent one political leaning the fringe crazy people of both sides get an unreasonably stronger voice.
and how he bad mouth’s cops without any proof then turns around and doesn’t apologize like in the Micheal Brown case to name about a hundred really shows this. Especially since the cop in question was in the hospital with a broken eye socket from Brown who had just robbed a store right before attacking the cop? Obama even incited a riot by his remarks against the cops, not to mention what Holder, his right hand man came out with, or the Democratic governor of that state? All of that says the very opposite of your comment doesn’t it? We really can’t trust this president since he’s out to separate us and cause trouble, not prevent it. Or how about his entire first term when he went to all the leaders of the other countries he felt we had wronged and apologized to each and every one of them in such a way that is made this country look weak and ready for conquest? Not backing up our people in a certain now destroyed diplomatic envoy resident bombed and torn apart the same day as 9-11 even though they asked repeatedly for help, not even sending in a squad which was ready and waiting to help in the same case? Need I really go on since I could for about 5,000 or more pages of things like this Obama and his servants, and yes I called them that on purpose, have done and continue to do. Obama had done everything to disrespect this country that he can and from one of the most powerful positions in this country. Look closely at his face when anyone gainsays anything he wants, its the look of a petulant child about to or in the act of throwing a tantrum. This is not now, nor has it ever been a good thing for a man in power.
BELIEVE we will discuss it later.
Believe THAT we will discuss it later.
Believe ME we will discuss it later.
All of the above are appropriate English, but the message varies slightly for each. The way Max says it, she means there can be no doubt regarding the possibility of a future discussion.
YOU BETTA believe we will discuss it later.
I like bettas, they’re amazingly awesome fish and look even more awesome if you use a black light bulb as the tank’s lighting.
I think it’s like Sydney saying “The hell is my car?!” a few pages back. The “Where” is implied and while not grammatically correct, it’s fine in context and is more true to how people speak. Similarly here, I think Maxima’s line is ok, but it’s not something you’d use in formal writing.
Sounds odd and unnatural to my ear, but could be a regionalism. The only way you could end “Believe we will discuss it later” and make is sounds natural to me is “Believe we will discuss it later if you want, but I’ll probably have forgotten about it by then.” or some such. :-/
“Believe me, we will discuss it later” on the other hand, strikes a properly ominous tone.
To me, it sounded like a directive… which I would imagine Maxima is quite accustomed to giving.
It’s an imperative with a dependent clause as object. It’s perfectly reasonable English. I guess some people would insert a “that.”
I would normally expect either “Believe you me, we will discuss it later,” or “You’d better believe we will discuss it later.” However, as written, it works if you have heavy spoken emphasis on the first word: “Believe we will discuss it later.”
Or as Cartman would say….
https://cdn.meme.am/instances/250×250/61666170.jpg
I read it as a sort of Jedi mind trick:
‘Believe that you only use 10% of your brain”
‘believe that we will discuss this later.’
Note that it’s “BELIEVE we will…”
Implied here is “You better believe we will…”
As a woman with ‘magical Rapunzel hair’ according to friends, who frequently wears buns… Sock buns (what you described—they can actually be made by substituting a sock with a hole for the spongy thing) aren’t really the norm. They’ll often end up huge, and women without long or thick hair might have trouble covering the thing inside. It’s more common to put it back with a quick twist, or braid it and twist up the braid, in my experience. However, that experience is in a casual or business-casual setting, not military.
I am cringing over the future consequences of this.
Such as?
Is it just me, or is Sydney giving Maxima the puppy dog eyes in panel 5?
Personally I’d think Obama would eventually come out as a villain, with some of the things he’s been doing in Real Life I wouldn’t exactly be surprised. But you did a thought out and humorous addition to the comic using hi as the instigative straight man. Its a nice touch.
Grow the fuck up and stop pissing and moaning. There isn’t a single president that ever was, nor will there ever be, that everyone loved everything they did. Transplant any other president in his place and if it’s not you saying the same thing, it’d be someone else saying the same thing.
Where it is true that with every President there are those that will complain about them. But, to blindly lash out to those critics with nothing more than “Other Presidents did stuff too” is very childish. I personally believe this president should be removed and prosecuted for his crimes, that does not excuse what GWB did, or Clinton. But this guy has taken it to an extreme.
With that being said, This truly is not the proper forum for this discussion. I think Dave’s respectful handling of Obama was well done and completely appropriate for the comic.
Troll much? I’m making an actually point, your talking dirt, did I cuss? Did I say something about you personally? I talked about a leader of this country who has abused his powers constantly and continues to do so because some people think it’s politically incorrect to stand up and be a man when confronted by someone doing wrong just because of the color of his skin. News flash, he is as much white as he is black. His mother is WHITE. His father was BLACK, big deal, I’m not talking about his race I’m talking about his actions. He uses gangster like Chicago tactics in his politics, that’s dirty business by any and all names and unworthy of his office. You disagree with him and he calls you a bigot. I have a lot of black friends, I’m no bigot, I just disagree with how he is running things into the ground. So you have to talk crap about me and bad mouth me, however not one of you have actually defended him logically against anything I said have you? He’s done Worse than Clinton and yet nobody will throw him out of office because he is black, get over it. Do the right thing and look at the man not the color of his skin. If you strip that one thing away from him and look at his actions, not his race then you have no choice but to agree.
Well, someone had to be the person who said it, I suppose.
My attitude toward Obama is that I could have a civil conversation with him, end said conversation kind of liking him, and come to my senses before I do anything really crazy like vote for him.
I can withstand him being in a comic being portrayed as a nice guy, because most politicians at the national level can play nice. I wish more DID though.
I agree with you, I can be civil with him, I don’t like him, nor what he is doing, but, I can be civil with him. The real question though is can he be civil with you. When he a certain bible tv series was running on cable and they brought out the Obama look alike as the devil exactly how civil was Obama about that if you recall? I just can’t see Obama as a good guy because he has gone out of his way not to be one. I come from a Military family and not one of my relatives who have continued the Military legacy trusts him and fear for this country because of his actions. Frankly half the time I don’t know what to think when it comes to Obama, but I look at all sides of him. Not just what he wants me to hear or think, not just what his opponents want me to hear or think. I take the time to listen to both, then I go out and look for myself, compare what both say with the ACTUAL record in standing which is public information free for everyone to look at and see for themselves. The differences are startling in all cases and very disturbing. I don’t want people to just troll. I want them to open their eyes and look for themselves, think for themselves and stop quoting the faces of the news they believe to be correct. Use the most important thing given to each of us from birth and which our education system has worked so hard to destroy by telling us what we should do and say, OUR MINDS. By all means DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR ANYTHING but, DO NOT TAKE THEIR WORD EITHER. Find it for yourselves instead of relying on a broken system.
That reaction she gave in the first panel made me laugh out loud! That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in this comic since… the comic store full of reporters.
I just binge-read the archives to catch up, and I like this strip a great deal. You’ve done a wonderful job, and got a new fan.
Eagle
Thanks very much! Glad you like it.
They are recruits until they pass through Basic Training…and it is perfectly acceptable for the President to call her Miss Scoville. (I’ve done a lot of research into the military over the years.) As a sideline, the President saying “the office of the President” is also acceptable, because he’s acknowledging his position’s status as commander-in-chief, i.e. “the buck stops here” when it comes to delivering praise as well as discipline, and she did undertake several actions which saved a lot of people, both directly and indirectly…but at the same time, he didn’t have a personal stake in her actions, so it’s appropriate to invoke his office rather than himself as the source of those words of praise.
As for the hair bun, it’s more about length than anything else. If it’s long enough, depending on how thick the hair is, you can get away with 1 large bobby pin, or require 2-3. The only time you’d need more than 3 is if the hair is both thick and in that really awkward stage of not being long enough to make its own bun–properly twist-coiled and pinned, 2-3 is all you need to keep the bun from flying apart under normal combat/exercise conditions.
Properly twisted when coiled, the pins go through enough “twists” in the coil to use the snagged bits of hair to act as a sort of coil/net to help contain the rest. The location of it is acceptable; since Max doesn’t have a really short neck, the current location should keep it off her collar, which is the requirement. Any lower, though, and it would definitely hit her shirt and jacket collars.
Given the previously seen length of Max’s hair, she’s probably at that awkward length where it’s always either in a ponytail or in a sponge-donut bun of the sort you use 2 hairties on; the first one forms the ponytail, you slip the hair through the donut hole, spread it out around the sponge, and then use the second one slipped around that sponge and layered on top of the original ponytail tie’s location to double-back the hair against the head, where the ends can be tucked against the scalp.
…The real challenge, of course, is finding a hairsponge donut thingy in purple instead of some more normal color.
Agreed, coming from a military family myself I’m aware of these things and your totally accurate on this. I love the fact that Dave also used this accuracy in the offices and the appropriate response of the office itself in his dialog. That was masterfully done on all accounts. This really brings home the importance of the entire situation. However now we know what the deal which she made before signing was all about in the first place. I don’t know if anyone noticed this so I’ll bring it up myself. We now know that the deal Sydney made was to not be disturbed on Comic days for her shop. Or rather that her interaction with the group was not to effect Comics days at her shop. She was very ticked off about this and brought it up as a violation of her terms in joining ARC. This brings a whole new light to the actions of the last several comics in some ways. Plus it adds a whole new sense of humor to the situation when she comes barging in ticked off about the deal being violated only to find Max in a conversation with most of the American continent set of leaders. One would wonder if this means they could have Canadian supers joining ARC at some point, or even ones from places like Mexico or Argentina? Depending on how far ranged the power of ARC becomes in North America, South America, and Canada this could be fr ranging and open up adventures outside the bounds of the United States itself.
One other thing I happened to notice is that we are still under a day past the time when Max had her nose forcibly rearranged (twice). She is back to her standard look with no bruising or swelling. Does she have some inherent healing abilities, or do we have the talents of our resident doctor to thank for that?
Dabbler’s lack of any cuts/scratches from H.S. could be chalked up to her recharge session. We have yet to see if either Stalwart or Hiro is limping any this morning from their rage match. Jiggawatt’s hearing damage may be hard to detect from just appearances.
We do have a doctor with healing powers confirmed to be on staff, my guess is that that’s just going to serve as a convenient excuse for everyone looking exactly the same a day or two after a fight XD
As much as I’d prefer to draw gradual damage over time on the characters, history has shown that I will consistently forget to do it, so the doctor seemed like a practical thing for the team to have and a good excuse for me. :)
There’s more ways than visually.
If you still want to indicate that not everything’s fixed the next day you can always have someone comment that their neck is still sore or Math talk a little stubhed upb, or asking Brook how her foot is doing.
The Brook thing being especially of interest to the audience since its been suggested she took enough damage to maybe not heal completely perfect/whole even with their resources.
I have absolutely no problem with the doctor being a reason that they can quickly perfectly heal any injuries in a greatly accelerated way.
In Maxima’s case, just slap a support-strip (gently, of course) on her nose & all’s well.
;)
In other cases, maybe just a discoloring bruise here & there or someone with their arm in a sling would work.
What I think is the funniest part, is after that statement from Halo (How she got the Idea’s) these world leaders will be in the future reading comic books. Wonder if they will order from her comic book store?
Makes me smile.
Off the top of my head, we know Hiro, Peggy, and Goose (at least I think that was his name) are military transfers. We saw Hiro in uniform at the press conference, Peggy served with Max in Afghanistan, and I think Goose was the one with the “Try clubbing this SEAL’ t-shirt.
And, this was supposed to be a reply to VaporWare’s question about was Maxima th only one that was military besides the general, and a whole bunch of civilian consultants.
Never thought to curtsy to the President. May have to try that next time.
Since I happen to be a male, I doubt that it would be a good idea for me…
Why? I’m a male. I’ve curtsied to kings and queens before; granted, it WAS out at the Renaissance Festival.
I’m sure it’s in character.
If you were cross-dressed as a serving wench. :)
Sentence: Personal training session with Maxima, no holds barred. Good Luck.
You’re an E-1 the second you signe the contract to enlist. For me I was a seaman recruit, and toy automatically get the next two ranks with time baring misbehavior, and this is Sydny so in the reality she would probably do something to Warner a delay.
Sorry, signe and swear the oath, but I don’t know if Archon has an oath. Maxima definitely swore in but I don’t know about those who transitioned the way Sydny did.
So do something like escape from the water tower again?
That one took me a second, the the person next to me on the trolley was made uncomfortable by my sudden HAH!
If you have enough hair, you put your hair in a ponytail, then split it in two, twist them, then twist the locks around the ponytail until its in a bun, holding it in place with another ponytail. Nothing’s hollow, and you shouldn’t need any extra pins unless you have layers or your hairs not quite long enough yet.
I believe that the vegetarian version of eating crow would involve either two week old stinky tofu, durian fruit, or bugs.
Or eating Natto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natt%C5%8D
https://youtu.be/FSSaJ8jemlg
I love Sydney’s soulful look in panel 5, along with Maxima’s expression. Sydney curtseying had me in stitches. And Obama’s look and character here and, on the previous page, is captured really well.
I think the better joke here would have involved Obama, a well known nerd – to the point that the White House Press Corps have nicknamed him “Mr. Spock” – and lifetime comic fan, giving Maxima a “dude, not cool” for messing with the sacred New Comic Day.
I find DaveB’s commentary on making sure the hair bun was right completely hilarious considering that Sydney’s bangs do not only defy gravity, they also defy geometry.
I started a 3D model of Sydney (which I really must finish one day) and I carefully tried to match the model up to the canon images from the comic. I could do this with all of Sydney except two parts: The glasses and the hair.
The glasses I could cheat by going back to the earlier pages when they were actually drawn to be a functional appliance instead of a stylized face doodle. They still sit oddly low and the earpieces are still miles long, but they look acceptable from all 360 degrees.
The hair though! First is the ponytail. It sits lower on her head in profile than it does in a face-on view. This was fairly easy to cheat, as in 3D animation, it would be bobbing up and down enough tto be anywhere it needs to be for any given still frame. But the bangs are nonsensical.
When viewed from the front, the bangs are parted slightly so that they obscure the outer cheeks and ears, and hang far enough forward that they sit in front of her glasses and all of her facial features. When viewed from the side, the bangs are parted widely so that hang down the sides of the head, covering the back of the cheeks and ears, and hang far enough back that they sit behind all her facial features. The only way to model this is give her bangs two default states and have the hair reshape itself as she turns toward or away from the camera.
(The orbs’ orientation is also reactive to the camera. No matter where the camera is in the scene, the orbs always show the same hemisphere to it, with their up and down relative to camera-up and camera-down.)
tl:dr — Anime bangs do not exist in Euclidean space.
I think you might be on to something cool with the orbs though. Never noticed that they present the same view regardless of camera angle. Do they break the 4th wall?!? Or are they 4D holographic, and show only one facing to 3D space at this time. And if THAT is true, how much should we panic when they decide to change… :)
Yeah her bangs are 4 dimensional. It’s a problem when drawing them cause they cover so much of her face from certain angles. I may try and tame them a little at some point.
I was actually wondering about that but never said anything, mainly because I felt I might come off stupid if I said so. I didn’t realize you had done them 4th dimensionally though. I hadn’t even thought of that as the answer but now that you’ve said it things make a whole lot more since when it comes to that detail. Thinking about it though, I’d leave it as is instead of taming it. Don’t get me wrong, you can tame it if you really want. But I think it adds to the humor in some ways and if you did mess with it. Well, it might change an important dynamic for all we know. I think the looks of Sydney may just be one of the most important factors of what makes this comic what it is. Who knows what could happen if you mess with that dynamic.
As an example let’s look at the old Sailor Moon series from back when I was a kid and it first came out in the United States. The Voice for the American Sailor Moon had a lilting quality which drew your attention and lent itself to the musical qualities of the songs in the first season of the series. But then they changed the voice actor in the second season and this was truly a bad thing to do. The voice went from drawing your attention to grating on your nerves. One dynamic which ruined the show for many fans and almost killed it in the United States even though it had a great storyline and enticing characters which kept your attention. One dynamic change can have major consequences not realized until its too late.
The Case of the Mickey Ears strike again! https://youtu.be/86xsnNJpDY4?t=143
Geez Dave, this worse than thr rapegate from last week. All this political hate talk…by the way you should rethink the rank of private al together. There should be a standing rule about people with powers at least being officers… People who have a degree start that way and everyone on the field of battle should probably take orders from the super by virtue of they know what they are doing.
Yea, I was thinking something similar. I would expect her to be an officer recruit, so officer cadet, or whatever her branch calls untrained officer candidates.
How about we don’t put gate behind everything that pisses off some vocal people?
It was my original intent to make all supers officers like how you have to be an officer to fly a plane in the airforce, but the more I wrote Sydney as a goofball, the less sense that made.
Isn’t the point of the training to make her somewhat less of a goofball in the field. Functionally less of one at any rate. (probably still LOOK like one for some years yet)
Just think major burns from mash.. Especially if she is a college graduate otherwise she would be at the very bottom of the chain of command. It does make sense and break reality
1) What’s the over/under on the number of times that Sydney mentions that she talked to the president the next couple of days? (I pity poor Joel)
2) Archon and Maxima might want to look on the bright side of this little encounter. If anything, I would think today’s demonstration almost entirely ruled out Sydney as a potential future tyrant* in the minds of the assembled (or are they disassembled?) leaders.
*that is, as long as she gets new comics day off. Otherwise, things could turn ugly.
Huh.
I just got a Google ad for a Mexican political party in the sidebar. Congratulations, your ads have outweirded the ones I got at David Willis’ sites asking me to marry Asian folks and / or move to Australia.
i dont know if its been said yet but, syd’s canister is open
Well she did kinda use the orbs to nudge her way into room. But nice catch. No halo above her head atm…wonder if the orbs went “meep!” and hid back in the canister after she saw the prez?
Shes floated them back in there but hasn’t reached back to pop the tube closed yet. I meant to put a little orb glow at the end of the tube but I forgot.
then im glad that i could be of assistance