Grrl Power #319 – Armored with advice
It occurs to me that half the gags in this comic seem to come from the fact that I get bored drawing talking head panels, so I throw the dialog to captions and draw whatever nonsense I like. Seems to work out ok, but sometimes those panels wind up being smaller than I’d like cause I’ve already drawn the rest of the page. In case you can’t read it, the three in the background of the last panel have Wrath, Lust and Gluttony written on them.
I have no idea if ooblek normally has much if any tensile strength when you smack it like Claire is having to do in panel 5, so I don’t know if that particular setup would work, except to say of course it would since that deathtrap uses the kind of ooblek that does have incredible tensile which makes it perfect for that sort of 2 person deathtrap.
Predictably, Claire is the competent explorer, and her bumbling friend was the one who touched the idol that gave her the somewhat unreliable powers of Distress Damsel. I tell you, if Empowered wasn’t already a thing, I could totally do a Distress Damsel comic. You know, along with Grrl Power, Demon High and Grrl Power After Dark of course. (And two others I have ideas for that are super smutty.) If I could have any power from my comic, it would definitely be Harem’s.
Oobtek is brought to us by Machina Industries predictably. It almost sounds ridiculous to have armor made out of goo, but I didn’t make this up. This exists in the real world, at least in prototype form. Apply it over kevlar and it’s practically impossible to get a shiv through it. Its ability to dissuade even armor piecing bullets is significantly improved as well. Google “oobleck armor” for a bunch of info about it.
The Oobtek inserts were my idea, so I don’t know how realistic that is, but we can assume Machina Industries has razor edge tech which at the very least prevents the Oobtek from just pooling in the bottom of each pouch. The inserts more than double the weight of the AFDs, but enormously distribute the energy of any sort of blow. By the way in the third panel, Ashley isn’t saying armor piercing pistol rounds are no sweat for the AFD’s, he’s letting her know where the definite cutoff is. The take home message for these outfits is, as with any armor; “don’t get shot, but if you do, you have a better chance of not dying, assuming you don’t get hit in the neck or head. It will still probably hurt.”
The major disadvantage to this sort of material is that I imagine it probably doesn’t breathe well. The Kevlar/ooblek stuff I found online looks like waterproof canvas, so probably hot and generally not that comfortable. We’ll assume the Q-vex/Oobtek version overcomes this to some degree, as well as lining the inside with a wicking fabric that channels sweat to the seams. They’re still working on variations for extreme environments, but as a domestic force they don’t have to be worried about being deployed in a 120 F desert unless some supervillain decides to build his base in Death Valley. You’d think that would happen more often just for the name and the ambiance, but finding henchmen willing to make that commute is tough.
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Dune ref
The oobtek must flow!
Also, Stargate.
Always fun to see a Goa’uld get pwned, especially by low-tech.
True though the wording was from Dune.
Huh, thanks, I was completely unable to see the Stargate reference. Still am, but now I feel better about it.
SG-1 first season, Episode: The Nox.
Shooting with a P90 or normal gun doesn’t work against the personal Goa’uld force-field. Shooting an arrow (hinted at here) or a hurling a knife (later peisode) works.
Much to the dismay of Heru’ur, O’Neill has a damn good aim with the knife.
Except it’s not a Stargate reference because the line “the slow blade penetrates the shield” is word for word straight out of Dune. Here, observe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQFhPJuxgk
Sydney should probably avoid using her shield in the desert….unless she has her hooks.
She would totally pawn a sandworm. But the tentaorb would make a good maker hook.
Sandworms not withstanding I bet she has problems in the desert even if she doesn’t forget her hooks. If tha shield holds in carbon dioxide then it also holds in heat like she’s in a clear plastic bubble. She’ll dehydrate almost as fast as she runs out of air. Now if one of those nodes on the orb is an option for opacity…
Then it’s a matter of question in which direction the opacity goes.
Such as only from the outside, letting her look outwards; or a full blend, also blocking her own view. In that case, she’d easily get into trouble.
Maybe they could make her a giant sombrero to fit her shield?
Subtext there, If Ashley dies then does the AFDs lose some their effectiveness?
I think he can just make the weavve really tight and make it stronger than usual fabric. Or something.
Look he probably just enchants it to give it a passive power.
Probably not, the ‘passive enhancement’ probably means that the fabric is optimally woven by his powers, so that normal wear and tear, as well any combat damage, minimizes any armor degradation. Expensive blue jeans vs. bargain brand. Well made expensive ones will last a LOT longer.
Commander Vine’s Boot Theory.
i think would disagree with you.
but i am not entirely sure what was their conclusion.
they made some field tests for both and put them somewhere on a display.
and i think people didn’t knew which is which.
but then again they only compared one cheap to one expensive. if there are others then well…
(if you see a long link instead of a single word, sry, it was my first try)
omg… is there somewhere a tutorial for this stuff?
You learn by doing.
Practice commenting on past installments.
No one reads those.
<blockquote>”The text to be quoted.”<blockquote>
DaveB and myself, at the very least, read comments on the past instalments. Not to mention new readers and occasional folks doing an archive trawl. But there is no harm in practising, if you wish to.
Personally though I use this sandbox to test anything other than simple posts:
https://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_links_w3schools
That website also has in-depth tutorials too. Which is mostly (but not fully) compatible with here.
What Yorp said, except the final tag needs a slash in his example.
<a href=”URL”>Link text</a> will be a link.
Darn it, yes. I must have overwritten that, when I put in the coding for the “<”. Sorry.
Corrected version, for quotes:
<blockquote>”The_text_to_be_quoted.”</blockquote>
And, the link, in a similar style:
<a href=”The_website_address”>The_text_to_display</a>
No, when he enhances fabric for the team he’s basically tweaking it in ways that you can’t off a machine. He’s not remotely dumping energy into every pair out there.
would be funny though
“Welcome to Archon recruitment, can you tell us what your super power is?”
“I CAN ENCHANT TROUSERS!”
Cue Dabbler sniggering…
He enchants pants to make sure Dabbler can’t get into them. Its the only way we can get anything done around here…
Really? You don’t think Dabbler would just take that as a challenge?
Dabbler doesn’t try to get into your pants, she simply gets you out of them.
If Vehemence was a supervillain, they could’ve hired him to do that. However, buffing up his power levels to actually perform the job might not be…cost-effective.
Sounds like thry need another magic pants guy.
pants, magic pants…
Try letting your tongue lollop out. That will help you cool down faster than just panting alone.
But never give into the temptation to resort to magical cures, when there is a simple, mundane, option available!
If only he were there yesterday, he could have beaten Vehemence.
“AH HA! YOU KA-PANTSED! NOW I CAN BEAT YOU! PANTS! IMMOBILIZE HIM!”
Then Vehemence has to either de-ka-pants or be unable to move.
Oh! That’d be hilarious!
“He enchants pants, and I entrance what’s in your pants” ~ Dabbler, probably.
Ashley: “I end up having to fix more clothing because of Dabbler making people rip their clothing off… till Max was able to insitute the ‘no teammates’ policy so that people can actually work. Dabbler also makes for one of the best models… more or less. Four arms are difficult to work with.”
Does Maxima’s attack not count as a bunker-buster?
It was energy not projectile based which probable made it a lot easier for the shield.
in the HQ max punched the shield.
then so did V, after he stepped on the stage.
Neither are piercing weapons though.
Piercing works as maximizing force over a small area. A fist thrown from Maxima or V might be pretty close to naval artillery in force, but applied strictly over a fist sized area, so that in its own right could be considered a piercing attack, although I don’t know if there is enough info to say that with any certainty.
Doubtful. In TV shows they always make energy easier to absorb than weaponry with shields, but the fact of the matter is it’s just different sorts of energy. Since we don’t know how her shield works we can only guess about which type of energy it blocks best or if it blocks them all equally. Max has fired 2 blasts near the shield, one purely destructive, and one implosive. The direct energy blast seems to have been some kind of heat ray as it burned everything around the shield. Heat is kinetic energy. If the beam was actually a laser then the shield did not allow any of the dangerous light to pass through it. The implosive blast didn’t directly impact the shield. All that hit the shield was a blast wave. Again, kinetic energy.
In fact the only energy beam I think she got hit with was by Budget Halo at the restaurant and the shield didn’t allow even a harmless level of the light to pass through it. Don’t know if her beams were lasers or what. Most likely some form of high energy or charged particle I would guess since she could push them against the ground for flight. Possibly kinetic, possibly radiation.
At any rate, rather than thinking about a shield being more or less effective against different types of energy you should consider that it is different types of shielding rolled into one. Sydney’s shield obviously does an excellent job against any form of kinetic energy and selectively blocks radiation such as light so she can see through it without allowing intense enough light to hurt her (this is assuming either Maxima’s first blast or Budget Halo’s beam had a light-based component to their damage and were not simply charged particle beams).
All that said I’d wager Halo’s shield could withstand a nuclear blast. 90+% of a nuclear blast’s destructive power is in a blast wave comparable to the one Maxima created with her implosion blast but spread over a much larger area. Sydney might even be able to survive the blast at point blank range if her shield can handle the light component as well as it does kinetic. Nuclear blasts truly are inefficient for all that we fear them.
Technically, they are the most efficent weapons we have on a pure mass-to-energy ratio, but are still rather inefficent in comparison to matter-antimatter anhiliation, which itself only releases 50% of the energy in a way we’d be able to use.
Actually the most efficient weapon we ever created was during WWII for use against Japan but the Manhattan project panned out before they could use it and the generals couldn’t take the weapon seriously. It was called the bat bomb. Someone calculated that 10 thousand tiny incendiary explosions spread among the largely wooden structures of Japan would actually cause more damage than a nuke. He got a grant from the army and developed a bomb designed to hold, I think, 30 thousand bats and developed tiny timed incendiary bombs they could carry. The idea was to drop it during daylight and the bats would naturally fly out and roost all over the city. It was actually fully developed and tested without the explosives but never deployed in combat.
That sounds batty to me.
I wonder what happened to all the combat bats? Did they all go to bat retirement homes? Or were they, and their descendants, kept in active duty, and redeployed to a cave, just outside Gotham City?
Kamikaze Bat #29,998: Do we deploy tonight?
Kamikaze Bat #29,999: No, Alfred says Batman is still alive. Fighting the Joker though. So maybe tomorrow night.
Not the one she used on Sydney, she’s not crazy.
Max did say that she was holding back, even in the tests at the bomb range.
I think it counts as a Mosque buster according to her superiors
Woo!
The sloth just tells you you will die…eventually.
Actually killing people is so much work.
Truth! The sloth prefers to let his victims die on their own, thus fulfilling his ultimate plan. Gotta love a villain who’s battle cry is, “Meh.”
I would give you a +1, but that sounds like far too much effort.
I think the anti hero called “The Hipster” trademarked it first, he liked the irony.
Ashley: “And this is why I’m so glad I don’t usually do field work. I don’t mind a good fight, I mean, who doesn’t, but some of the vigilanties and villians you run into are just… ugh.”
The natural muscular wear to your heart you experienced in apprehending me has brought your eventual death of natural causes closer by a matter of minutes! victory is mine!
Sort of like the sniper from metal gear solid. The End I think? Interesting way to win a boss fight…
heh yea save and wait a week and the end will die.
His greatest attack is the ‘You’ll Die of Old Age’ Assault.
I wonder if he received training from the Ginosaji.
I really really really want to see Iron Cloth come into somewhere on a flying carpet.
he doesnt need to, since he can make any clothing he has on make him fly (although if he was in only his underwear that might be a little… uncomfortable), but cmon, it would be awesome!
+1
+2
If he can levitate clothes into a bag, he can make a carpet fly!
Ashley could become the ultimate carpetbagger!
Hey, a new name for a super! The Carpetbagger!
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/carpetbagger
I’m currently at a loss on linking powersets to justify Ashley’s power with the definition of the name, though…
I once made a character for QAGS The B Team named The Wooden Avenger. His power? Tablemancy. He literally animated tables. He had a heavy old coffee table he rode into battle because lab tables, while more sturdy/powerful were much more conspicuous.
I’ve seen a house fly.
I’ve seen a needle that winked its eye!
But I’d be done see’n about everything!
When I see a carpet fly!!
You know, bullet proof is fine, but what happens when people start flinging lasers, boulders and spirit bullets?
Do THOSE fall on the bulletproof spectrum? Because then the spectrum would also need a degree of scale as to what level it strikes from ‘sub-atomic’/magical (or, doesn’t care about matter YET hurts somehow) to ‘planet sized’ (you’re more likely to have a vacation on it than be ‘struck’ by it)
this would all likely fall under the atypical threats category, same as lee-press-on Nail’s “pierce anything” claws, there’s simply no economically feasible way to provide a human being with all around protection from stuff like that, far more sensible to prepare them for normal threats, and let the equally super-durable members of the team tank those kind of hits, though I expect they might outfit their mundane crew with some heavy duty ballistic shields or the like to be used with the rifles, regular swat and riot cops get like gear after all
We have already seen that Sidney’s shield is capable of stopping laser beams, and given how the orbs seem to be immune to magic (undetectable, see through any illusion) we can probably assume the shield can stop magic too. Spirit bullet could be an entirely different matter though.
I suppose it depends on what a spirit bullet is. If it can pass through her shield chances are it will pass through her, but maybe it’s a physical image of say an astral projectile which damages not her body but her soul. We really don’t have anything to defend against something like that since noone outside of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within has ever encountered the like. Who knows, maybe a sweater made with love is armor against that sort of thing.
At least they are using special fabric and special liquid inserts instead of metal so they won’t have that thing where the metal heats up quickly and transmits it to the wearer with some types of energy blasts. That’s a thing isn’t it? I seem to remember that in my Sci-Fy travels somewhere.
Yes. If you have energy weapons then some of the kinetic armor we use would provide little protection or even make it worse, just like if a soldier gets hit just right the armor inserts in his vest can become shrapnel making the wound worse than if he had no armor at all. It’s a judgement call that the armor is more likely to help than hurt.
Energy doesn’t fall on the bulletproofiness scale at all. You would say a garment is both bulletproof and laserproof, not it’s bulletproof enough to stop lasers. Completely different enrgy scales.
What wanna know is does this work does this not make “Can’t Hit Me Guy” canon?
Well he’s almost canon, not shure if it changed lately.
He’s canon-adjacent.
He’s a loose canon.
Possibly even “nigh-canon”?
Is the Can’t Hit Me Guy canon and can hecan can even under cannon fire?
Especially under cannon fire.
“Fire the can-can-cannons!”
He can can cannons. And cannon canned cans.
But if he canons the can canning canned cans into another canon would that still be canon?
Can we really keep up this pun thread?
Yes, we can!
That’s it I am firing the Garbage Cannon at you people.
The feel of it is that most of these things come from one of the heads of the people listening to what is being said. If Sydney’s present I just assume that it is from Sydney’s head.
So to me that just means that “Nah Nah Can’t Hit Me Man” is Sydney’s head canon. Therefore it wouldn’t be weird to me if she spoke about him. It also might be cute if some of these come from some of the odder comics in her shop that we get so read snipets of later.
I wonder if Dabbler refers to “oobtek” as “boobtek” to get a rile out of Maxima…
Boobtack sounds really painful.
I don’t have boobs, but I sat on a tack once.
So that’s what Dabbler’s second pair were… ;)
Well if you have to have a boob job covering your upper chest with a bullet/fast stab resistant liquid would make it seem like you had more than vanity as your logic. Also would explain a lot of heroine designs in video games, etc… (its just part of their armor… no really! ehm… )
Nah, that’s a reference to Dabb’s first appearance in Wereworld- an old webcomic. She had 4 boobs then.
I know, I was trying to combine a couple of parts of the thread for funny.
I failed… :(
Yes, you are a failure.
So cold…
Dr. Revenge is a dish best served cold…
I hope that Arnold Rimmer is taking notes.
Well at least he didn’t write “I am a fish” on the entire comments section :)
But it was “Souper”
With a nice Chianti wine.
Hold the Fava beans.
Oh noes, we would not want to eat you DR. REVENGE! Even if you can just crack open one of your clone storage capsules. It just would not be a nice thing to do!
If she can figure a way to use it, in order to ‘make Maxima say’ one of her missing words, on her score card.
I think a shot from a battleship is definetly a “cannonball”.
Especially if they use Achiles as ammo.
its still a physical projectile.
the only difference is force and its distribution.
At some point, referring to every physical attack as a bullet is both a massive oversimplification and retarded. Beta rays are electrons, but if you get hit with a beam of them. you were hit with a charged particle beam, not a damn machine gun
Makes me want to email to the Mythbusters and have Achilles sent over.
“Can you make him get hurt?”
Actually…. I think its very possible for Achilles to be hurt. Well, if you define “hurt” as “feels pain” anyway. Emotional pain would easily qualify as “hurting” him. A good hypnosis routine could possibly work too.
Or just ignore him and pretend he doesn’t exists. He seems to be the sort of guy who thrives on attention.
actually, it’s been pretty well established that the man cannot be harmed, not even by his own actions (which is why he’s stronger than a normal human of his fitness and build, because he can strain his muscles as hard as they can without risk of breaking himself from his own efforts). Since pain is a warning signal given by the body when it is put under unreasonable levels of stress, strain or suffers damage, and none of those can occur for him, it is in fact quite likely that, since his powers kicked in, presumably somewhere around puberty, he’s never felt pain outside of the emotional variety since and unless someone does invent some kind of power negator (which the author has said wont happen), he never will.
afaik, there is no super so invulnerable something hasn’t been able to hurt them… even galactus, which is kinda silly, as he’s a living star.
some obvious things to try on Achilles would be suffocation, very high power lasers (he can see, and his skin shows color, so light reacts to some degree), gravity powers (same), selene’s death touch, etc….
So, you are saying you suspect he has some kind of weakness? Perhaps in some unlikely part of his body?
Naa, I mean, what would you call it, an Achilles’ heel?
His head, would be my guess. Achilles may not be stupid, but he doesn’t strike me as being the sharpest knife in the armoury either.
Yeah, he strikes me as while having some intelligence, being far more brawn than brains. That and while they have yet to find anything more durable than him, his strength is low compared to many supers.
Hmmm, there’s a thought. I don’t know when how old Achilles was when his powers emerged (specifically, was he a kid or a full adult or what?), but that could explain his being …well, not stupid but not especially smart.
IMO, a lot of intelligence (of the common-sensical kind) comes from a person’s ability to learn from mistakes and, most especially, NOT do anything especially stupid – sticking fingers in power sockets, running into traffic, drinking from a bottle with a skull’n’crossbones on it, etc.. Because, in his case, doing any of those things simply doesn’t matter.
Apparently for quite some time, if not most of his life, Achilles has never NEEDED to do think that stuff through, never needed to aniticpate possible harm to himself or anything like that. Hence, no real reason for his mental facilities to step up and pull their weight. Just a thought.
One wonders how Achilles would react if he somehow ever took a REAL injury. Go completely to pieces (figuratively speaking) is my guess.
Yea, I think it was that line of thinking which may have (consciously or subconsciously) inspired DaveB for Lee Press On Nails and his fainting episode.
But I am glad that Dave chose to use a villain to explore that. And likewise addressing one of the other burning issues of ‘what happens when an irresistible force meets an unstoppable…”
No wait, “When a force of irresistibles meets an immobile” Nope, not there yet…
“When an immolated force is unstoppably… ”
Tell you what, whatever it was, I am glad that Dave used another character. Because exploring any of that would weaken his thing. And that would be disastrous for the character concept!
Maxima and Super Hero represent what Super Man would be if he were toned down to more interesting levels.
But Achilles he goes the other way. He is actually better than Super Man! For his one thing. Introduce anything that can harm him (other than the interesting things like ’emotionally’ or ‘feeling pain through a spicy food eating contest with Sydney’), and you loose that.
Then he will just represent a single power of Super Man. His invulnerability. But will also have that irritating kryptonite issue. Yet no other powers to compensate for the loss, or to keep him interesting. He would just have to rely on his personality.
Good for character development maybe. But he would ever after be the sad guy drowning his sorrows down the pub. “I used (hic) to be this all-invulnerable hero. But then I found out about my vulnerability to the feet of statues. And suddenly every villain is throwing marble statues at me!”
Provided that does not happen then Super Hiro may be Super Man Light. But Achilles is Super Man Plus. Not just bullet proof, but everything proof.
Also occurs to me that someone with Invulnerability or high levels of Regeneration should also hope / oray that their body is absolutely PERFECT.
Reason being, what happens when such a person needs surgery – such as removal of impacted wisdom teeth, or ingrown toenails, or an inflamed appendix, or any number of other common ailments?
If invulnerable, problems with having the surgery done AT ALL. I recall a Marvel character called Diamond Lil (in ‘Alpha Flight’) who had super-dense, impenetrable skin. All well and good, until she discovered she had breast cancer …..
For someone with Regen, it means the possibility of those impacted wisdom teeth or that bad appendix continually regrowing. They mightn’t kill said person, but they aren’t going to do much for quality of life, either.
@Sealord read David Weber’s “Apocalypse Troll” it deals with that point at 1 point in the story.
According to the cast page Achilles can’t be poisoned, suffocated, starved, irradiated, crushed, cut, pierced, burned, frozen or injured by any method yet discovered. He has also shrugged off attack that have destroyed things at a subatomic level.
He can’t be suffocated but what happens if you fill his lungs with concrete? He’d have trouble moving around with the extra weight and if it set it would be difficult to get it out.
Indeed. He would be advised to keep his mouth shut, if that was attempted. But, even if he was overcome, through superior force, it could be done. But concrete, that is not exposed to air, sets very slowly. So it may not be as bad as it sounds.
As such, once he was no longer under overwhelming guard, he may be able to break free himself, using his moderate super strength to gradually break the set concrete. And just vomit out the wet stuff.
Whereas, if he got rescued they could use extreme force to break it fast. Maxima could just take him to a safe spot, where there is no risk from collateral damage. Then drop one of her plasma bombs down his throat, and squeeze his mouth shut.
The ensuing blast would pulverise the concrete into dust. Which he could just cough out.
But, even if he was trapped, and rescuers did not find him, it would just be a matter of time until he wore down the concrete, through rubbing at it and attempting to breath. Gradual wear and tear would crumble it, over time.
The same would apply to tougher materials. The only thing that changes would be the time it took, or the force that rescuers needed to apply.
Nothing much short of perfect self-repairing nano metals, or eternally powered force fields, would contain him indefinitely. And they need to be able to survive Sol engulfing the Earth. If they are not red giant sun proof, he will break free then.
Hopefully Archon will have been kind enough to leave him some stuff, in a suitably durable time-capsule. With a suitable homing beacon, telepathically signalling him where to find it.
“Err hi Achilles. Sydney here. Well, a recording of me. I guess I will be dust long before you hear this. We all put some stuff in this capsule, that we hope will help you. Mine is a compressed file, containing every comic ever written!
Plus all of the other things written, to date. Apparently they can keep adding to that remotely. So hopefully you should have some nice high tech info too. Dabbler built the reader, and it’s power supply. Apparently it is almost as tough as you! She snickered when she put it in though. I suspect that it is not solar powered.
Well, enjoy. I hope you do not get too lonely. Bye”
How is Galactus a star? He’s the last being from the universe that came before this universe’s big bang, and an agent of Cosmic Balance.
The part about his strenght has had me thinking, why would there be a limit to Achilles strenght?
I might be missinformed, but I thought human strenght was defined by:
1. How much you can lift before your muscles start tearing.
2. Mental barriers that prevents people from over-extending, or (if those are overcome) the pain caused by mentioned muscles tearing.
No 1 is a non-issue for Achilles, so logically the only thing holding him down would be mental barriers? So if he trained mentally for it there would theoretically be no upper limit to his strenght?
He can’t get stronger because part of “working out” is tiny tears in the muscles that heal by growing more muscle tissue. His strength is limited by the muscle tissue he now has. No amount of “mental” effort will overcome the physics of leverage and force applied.
So educate me on human physics: If a human has no mental barriers and feel no pain, what limits “strenght” beside muscle tearing?
I keep thinking of this scene in a anime (ghost in the shell) where the main character (an android) literally tear her own arms of trying to break into a tank.
If your arms, legs and spine are indestructible, what is there to limit the ammount of foece you can extort?
Just because his muscles won’t fail catastrophically doesn’t mean that they can’t be prevented from contracting.
The limit would be the maximum force that can be applied by each muscle fibre (which is limited by the chemical forces that bind each fibre to its opposite partner). At that limit, the muscle would still burn energy but would be unable to contract. But don’t ask me to put a number on it 8-)
Five.
42
Dave explained it that way once I think. That his strength was so high due to being able to work out as much as he pleases cause it doesn’t hurt him to lift whatever he cares to try etc…
Many folk have pointed out that his muscles shouldn’t tear and therefore he can’t get stronger that way but Dave hasn’t said more on it since (I think). However he did say his invulnerability (straight up infuriatingly invulnerable to every kind of damage including suffocation, sunburns, starvation, whatever) was magical in nature and therefore maybe acting in that “artificially intelligent” way that some of the greater spells/curses do to counter what it considers damage. I’ve always thought things like this use either the recipients mind/will or the original casters, whichever makes more sense, to establish what is considered damage in each situation. At any rate I think Dave is gonna let it stand that he can get stronger through working out for now to explain his very high for a normal human strength.
Actually, no. There is a very clear limit to how much a human can physically advance. It’s not just mental barriers or pain, its just that humans can only get so strong before they run out of room to put more muscles. Even with all the training and specialize drugs in the world, eventually the body simply runs out of room to get any stronger.
Unless they were genetically modified or magicly improved like the supers in this comic, there is a clear limit, and if he doesn’t have super strength, then he is limited to human power levels.
I think they meant those situations where a person uses the full potential of their strength even if doing so might damage them if they do it once and would certainly wreck them if they did it repeatedly.
Like the old mother lifting a car off her child stories. They actually had “true” stories like that and they had them back when cars weighed as much as a truck (or two depending on type) do now. Its called hysterical strength and its not something that lends itself well to research, due to its rarity and the nature of the emergencies that inspire it, so it mostly remains something from news stories. Some think it comes from adrenaline but some like me figure it also comes from just not caring if you destroy every system in your body as long as the result is saving that person.
Kind of reminds me of this stage performer who bent metal bars and implements cause he knew how to use leverage and also was willing to hurt himself for a performance.
Imagine how much weight you could lift if you never had to worry about hernias, damaged disks in your back, muscle tears or whether some tiny weakness in some bone would give out. Even record breaking weight lifters have to lift that weight in a very specific manner and while some of that is to optimize the force they bring to bear some of it is so they don’t hurt themselves. Imagine how much harder you could hit people if you didn’t have to worry about broken bones in your hand or arm (muscle tears etc… ). How much longer can someone run at his absolutely fastest speed if he can’t suffocate? How much faster can you react than other trained personnel when the complete lack of fear has melted away the very last hint of hesitation? (hell he probably has a hell of a bite if he worked on it cause its not like he has to worry about his teeth or choking on something!)
Sure, even taking into account whatever muscle building advantage his magic gives him, other humans who were dedicated could match his strength but they could never use it like he could unless they were a berserker or otherwise able to shut off the part of themselves that cares about hurting themselves. Achilles can always use what strength he has to its maximum potential and he apparently has incredible, if still human, strength.
He might seem borderline low level super strength when viewed in action by most norms.
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On an unrelated note. IF they come across a small enough top secret thermonuclear exploding G.R.E.L.V.I.N. device or whatever what happens when Achilles swallows it? Does he gain a breath weapon? If he’s gotten it far enough down an organic “rocket pack”? Or would he become like one of those spinning fireworks that has flames coming from both sides?
I keep thinking that Achilles should be issued the most dangerous hand to hand and ranged weapons that can be built for those really bad fights.
It makes no sense whatsoever that he walks around without a weapon of any kind but has no innate offensive power or ability. He and Peggy should be double teaming perps and I honestly don’t understand why they don’t do it already.
He could wield carbon nanotube whips and caltrops and gargle Novichok-5 nerve agent breath spray before a fight, and that is all fine and good for clowns like Vehemence, But I can imagine situations where Achilles might be the ONLY being in existance who could get close enough and survive delivering the appropriate weapon. I’m just spitballing here, but sticky WP grenades, and three or four W54 nuclear bombs in bazooka format come to mind for when things get really ugly.
Hell, he could apply a W54 directly to the forehead of people he didn’t like and walk away like Eastwood.
First off, you are absolutely right. He is all defence, but no offence. In addition to the weapons training and equipment, you suggest, he also needs martial arts training. The bad side effect of his power is that he will often be put into positions where anyone and anything else may be destroyed.
For instance being thrown out of a plane without a parachute. Or be enveloped in numerous super attacks, such as acid, lightning, fire, cold, disintegration. Quite often he cannot rely on any equipment or weapon surviving. Other than himself.
But, that is not to say that he should not be given items. He absolutely should. There will be many situations that they will prove useful. And not every mission will require he enter such destructive environments or situations. Or, at least, he might be able to do something offensive, before that happens.
Because the team has only just been formed. And the various members are still being assessed for their capabilities, trained and integrated into an optimised team.
Remember that Achilles, Mr Amorphous and Heatwave were, until very recently, actually not soldiers. They were a team of vigilantes! Dave has taken this into account when deciding what tactics that small team has fallen into the habit of using.
One of which will be Mr Amorphous using Achilles as a big hammer! Which Maxima has clearly seen them do, and has made use of herself, in the recent fight.
As a military commander she knows it is best to have your troops use the tactics that they are practised and familiar with, until you have had the chance to train them to operate the way you want.
Whilst they must all have been through basic, it was probably just regular army basic. Which is not optimised for making the most of super powers. To the contrary it is ‘one-size-fits-all’. So the vigilantes probably just coasted through it (Achilles even more so than anybody else), in order to get their uniforms and ranks. Then just fell back into their old habits, when it came down to super fighting.
Maxima is going to have to break those old ways, and incorporate their military training into their super fighting tactics. And then improve them.
And you could see the first hint of that, in the restaurant. Maxima telling the team members not to socialise with their usual buddies, but to mix. She wants to break the old habits, and cliques, and get them working as a cohesive unit.
I think what is throwing me is that I assumed Achilles, like Peg and Max, was in the sandbox, and already had time in uniform. We know he’s been a super longer than anyone else known. I suppose he might have spent his time up until now in the states doing movie stunts, and is only a recent member of ARC; I visualized him doing bomb squad/IED duty in the hurt locker with a camera on his shoulder up until now…
I just realized I skipped explaining a major step in my thinking all along-
Max, Peggy, and Deshantis were showing signs of prior training and cooperation in the V fight; which to me indicated training and analysis time for everyone off camera, as it were. If those three had it, where was the time spent on everyone else, especially Achilles? (and I do understand that Max and Peg are friends who served together before this, still, I imagined some time had been spent on training and planning up till now)
There must have been some. The Archon building was not built overnight (probably). But, officially, the unit did not exist until yesterday. So, whatever they have been doing, up until now, would have to have been kept low-profile.
Plus I would guess that much of the time, has been involved in actually locating and, discreetly, recruiting the members.
As the vigilantes were on the wrong side of the law, I suspect that they may have been later recruits, rather than earlier ones. Whereas the ones who transferred over, from other arms of the military, would likely be the first ones to have joined up. And would have had the advantage of not needing training.
Up until the super and team building stuff kicked off anyhow. For which a few things have been done. Such as Harem’s resupply and flashbang tactics. But it is still very early days, nonetheless.
The building was probably repurposed and remodeled a little from the older paranormal whatsit agency they gathered into the new ARCHON? Would be cool if they discover some odd stuff and secret rooms left over from that period.
Like the cryptozoo, alien interrogation room and cryogenics facility?
DABBLER: Aunty? They told me you were dead!
last time they did double team someone max said never do it again and xurial was forbidden to play such a way with team members again.
Well, he probably does need food, water, air, and rid his body of toxins (perspiration, exhalation, urination, and defecation), so coating him in some form of skin-tight/water-tight/air-tight force field/goo/etc. would probably kill him.
…. eventually.
Way to simple, there is no way such a obvious weakness would not have been discovered already.
I’m pretty sure his cells can sustain themselves without nutrion. Actually that’s incorrect.[Theory] His cells never die, as such they never replicate either and so he has no need for food, water or oxygen.
I think they already tried suffocation, and it didn’t work.
He probably breathes just cause he’s used to it.
Most theorise he’s somehow quantumy locked in the moment his powers kicked in and no oitside force can change him.
In that case he wouldn’t be able to think – or move at all….
Check the cast list details, none of those things bother him in the slightest.
And also look at his rating in defence. All other powers only go up to five. Which equates to ‘the best known’. Achilles’s defence is six. Which I personally take as equating to an absolute invulnerability.
Besides which it is his only thing. Rather like Math is silly overpowered for his area of expertise. Except Math’s capability is actually quite varied. Achilles’s power is all focused to doing just one thing. But doing it very very well.
Looks like Wolverine has to stop saying that he’s “the best at what he does,” because Achilles is better at what he does than what Wolverine does…
Except that its easier to enhance Wolverine that Achilles since Achilles power would stop any attempt to modify him. So no cool built in offensive abilities for Achilles.
what wolverine does is eat sushi. messily. this was established by Chris Claremont, and is therefore, canon.
But what Wolverine does ain’t pretty.
And Achilles is a very pretty man.
D’OH! You are correct, sir. I just went back and read his full write-up. This guy had better hope that the Earth never gets blown out from under him, or he is in for a looooooong, boring time-out.
Yup. He would have to take up a hobby. Such as making up mosaics out of shiny bits of world-rubble. Until an alien space ship wandered by and got curious.
Or some new interesting life began to evolve. On whatever bit of rock he eventually drifted into. Even if he had to await the duration of a couple of star-lives before that happened.
Rig a solar sail and become a space pirate!
Tried a black hole yet?
He has a gap in his memory. So possibly, yes. This may not be his native universe. Perhaps he found out what happens on the inside/other side of a black hole.
He feels stateless to me. That is, I doubt he digests food he eats, probably doesn’t defecate, breathe (which is why suffocation doesn’t harm him). He’s more like a person-shaped impression on reality than a person.
I imagine he would survive being coated in something just fine. (Albeit, trapped within the ingot it froze into forever). I think that unless you can turn off his powers, he’s simply unchangeable.
I concur. I’ve always suspected something along the lines of a time-lock applied to his physical status. His body exists in the present as it existed at some point in the past, probably at the moment of Macguffin application.
Thus, a time-warping or -travelling villain might be able to do something, or – after an unspecified amount of time – he might randomly become “unstuck”. I’d doubt it, though; the latter would be rather cheap storytelling.
this is the basis for the time travelling Ben Franklin’s invulnerability over in spinerette, as time itself won’t let him be hurt since he has to die in the past.
another idea is there is some external force watching over him, such as Bink in Xanth;
he seems invulnerable, only because something can know whats coming ahead of time and counter it.
either way, im not buying absolute invulnerability by itself as :
– it’s trope defying
– incredibly boring
– clearly incorrect; if he was invulnerable to light 100%, he can’t see… etc
• I defy tropes. They are pointless things which ruin enjoyment of stories. I refuse to delve into TVTropes as a result.
• I love the concept of things that Achilles can get up to with absolute invulnerability, and think there is much scope for exploring that. Plus the potential for quite a few laughs too.
• Invulnerable just means ‘cannot be harmed’. Personally I do not get dragged into the arguments about how he can achieve that (unless a new variant intrigues me, of course), as I am quite happy to accept the fact that he cannot be hurt by anything. It is a pretty simple concept, that could be achieved by a number of means.
The interesting things come about once you accept that and start looking at how life must be for him in that state. And DaveB was sensible in giving the power to one of the lesser characters. As it would lessen the suspense, or most feelings of peril, if a protagonist had that ability.
But, even with that, I find his power set to be far more interesting than, let us say, Heatwave’s, as an example. Not that flight and burning stuff is boring. But absolute invulnerability… that is thought provoking, if you let your mind follow different avenues and see where it takes you.
Somewhere, in an attic, there is a very beat up painting…
I like tropes. They’re useful in giving a storytelling phenomenon a name. Cliche’s are all tropes, but a trope isn’t necessarily a cliche.
There we go! Word of God that tropes are fun! :)
unless it’s a trope’ee (trope-toupee) then it’s just painful to see
I can’t say that Achilles is boring simply because his one-n-only power is absolute invulnerability. Maybe it bored Achilles himself for a while, but he makes up for it with attitude.
Being “aggravatingly” invulnerable just adds a bit of spice to it. For being what amounts to as the team’s primary “meat shield,” he does it quite well.
Trouble is a lot of baggage comes along with it. You are an exception to the rule here mind. You can gain assistance, in your comedy, through subverting tropes. Which is of most benefit to the tropers amongst your readership. But, in doing so, it is likely to be surprising to any member of the audience. Which, in turn, can make whatever gag you pull a lot more funny.
Beyond that though, you get into the territory where I feel it is counter-productive to writers, prospective writers, critics, commentators and even the readership themselves.
Rather than concentrating on the things that make a better story, such as the cohesiveness of it, the interrelationships, the pacing and so on, folks can get distracted by the issue of ‘is this a trope?’ Or ‘what trope is being used here?’ Or ‘I have seen this trope done better’.
Defining something, creating a pigeon hole, and then seeking to categorise things by which pigeon hole it is in (or avoiding putting it in one) are all distractions from the important things. The writing that is on that bit of paper you are trying to find a home for.
My dad has been a photographer, a cameraman and a director. And passed on a bit of advice to me.
“Once you are past a certain stage in a career you risk loosing your sense of perspective. You see everything from the technical side. How to position yourself to get the perfect shot. When to catch the light at its best. But you also loose your enjoyment at doing the job. You forget why you are there, in focussing on the how to do things.”
I find the same thing with science fiction and fantasy novels. With the inspiring new talent, their first book or two is fresh, interesting and vibrant. Then, way more often than not, authors start to focus on the craft, ‘improving their writing’ and end up just drifting into the mundane middle ground that we have a glut of in the book shops.
Tropes are just ways of defining what other people have done in the past. That is irrelevant. It is how you choose to tell your story that is the critical thing. Keep being a pioneer, not an archaeologist!
yorp there is no way to get around the fact that tropes are not bad https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools. in fact if you say tropes shouldn’t be used you are paradoxically saying that you like one trope in specific. (this one https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheTropelessTale) in fact yorp subverting a trope is in itself a trope there is literally no way to make something that is tropeless. everything has at least one trope.
oh also if you defy one trope you are using another if I didn’t make that clear
There is a way to get around tropes. Don’t click on such links. And stop reading if someone starts quoting one.
The very language that we speak, and the words which we choose to use do actually shape the way we think. Quite literally and measurably. Altering our behaviour and even the shape and function of our brains.
Whilst I acknowledge that there can be benefit, I do not see it as being a panacea. Not by a long shot. Adding a whole lexicon of tropes is a way of narrowing peoples minds to thinking in a ridged set of ways.
I choose not to do that. I let my mind go where I want it to. If others choose to put themselves on rails, that is their problem. It just makes it easier for me to outthink them, if they fall into the trap of believing that the only solutions are those which are defined by tropes.
Try coming up with something original, that you thought of yourself. Which pertains to this conversation, whilst progresses it. If you do so, without referring to crib notes, I will be much more impressed at your debating skills and intellect.
If that’s true I’d think words like happy and sad restrict how we think about emotions just as an example of the kind of things that I think would be similar.
They do. But those exist because they refer to behaviours which are hard-wired into us, by evolution. If we come across an alien race, we had better hope that they have corresponding words.
If not, firstly it is likely that they do not have such emotions. And secondly they will have a hard time understanding them. Their brains have not been trained (by learning the words and understanding the meanings and implications behind them) in how to handle the concepts.
We should be even more worried if their nearest words were:
Krashak (the feeling of ecstasy, at killing an enemy)
Doomal (the feeling of depression, when encountering another person)
So they have something similar to endorphins and dopamine. But are not wired up to experience them under all the same reasons that we are. So their language for genetically influenced behaviours would, of necessity, be different to ours.
Whereas tropes are not so basic and fundamental. Some of them deal with truisms, others with chicles, yet more are abstract, a lot are nonsense. Many are heavily culturally dependant.
But what they all are are codified.
Taking a situation, making boundaries and rules to confine it and restrict it to fit the purpose of the trope. Then applying whatever the definer chooses to make up, in connection with it. Such as making some kind of social commentary about it.
As with any codification, the more you allow yourself to be influenced by it, the more your own behaviour is controlled by those making up the definitions. Even if your choice is to try and avoid a particular trope.
The more you know of tropes, and their definitions, the more true this is. I know precious little about them though, so their effect on me is minimised.
What the heck? I know I clicked on “cliché” and not “chicles”, when I did my spell check!
Spellcheck polka-dottted you.
All these new heroes and villians need full 18 page backstories now. Especially Target practice in panel 2 and Eventual Evicerator! They have stories that need telling!!!
I second that motion.
Target practice’s name is ” Nyeah nyeah can’t hit me guy”.
His powers are invisibility, super speed, projection (like yelow orb), and precognition.
He is “almost canon”.
I thought his powers were teleportation and intangibility. And an incredibly irritating laugh.
Have we seen Claire previously?
Also…
Isn’t there a Flulid that solidifies with an electric current? Silica Gel?
(I should Wiki before posting, but it’s Monday morning!)
You might be thinking of her twin sister, Lara…
It is called Ferrofluid https://www.ferrotec.com/technology/ferrofluid/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid
The most common use I have heard for it is in vehicle suspensions. Adding an electric charge makes the viscosity of the liquid go up in the shock absorber and stiffens the ride.
Yes, its called an “Electrorheological Fluid“. Put a (high) voltage across it, and it stiffens to a thick gel.
Wouldn’t the pouch rupture after being shot once? You know, from the pouch material being broken.
Could be something that seals itself by becoming hard on air contact.Good enough to keep the padding filled but needs to be replaced as soon as possible.
Not neccisarily. The weave itself COULD be bulletproof. It could totally prevent itself from being ruptured by a bullet which would keep the bullet from entering you but not eliminate the force of the bullet hitting which still transfers and results in nasty bruises breaks and ruptures. The ooblek then distributes that impact over a larger area,,diminishing its “psi” as it were.
The pouch is under the ‘bullet proof’ material – the material on top stops the bullet from piercing anything, the pouch underneath dissipates the force (because getting punched by a tiny fist at the speed of a bullet would still do some major damage, but if you spread that over a wider area, it’ll hurt, but it probably won’t do much more damage than a paintball…)
It could. Most armor is one time use only, but it’s better than your lung rupturing.
Most concept for armored NNFs actually use a gel instead of a straight-up liquid because of the pooling issue. Since the gel hardens on impact, the q-vex probably doesn’t deform as much, so it can probably last longer than a typical bulletproof vest under fire.
Why didn’t the cutting edge manufacturer Machina just make the sack filled with overlapping layers of tiny sacs of the liquid which would prevent both pooling and if a projectile gets through enough to “pop” some of them then the others could still cover their areas.
Or does this liquid loose its abilities to a degree if broken up into a bunch of smaller amounts like that?
In addition to the non-newtonian properties of the fluid, the idea of the sacs is to spread out the impact over the widest area possible (forcing the bullet to expend more of its kinetic energy, and coincidentally reducing the chance of a broken bone or internal contusion). Obviously, smaller sacs won’t spread out the impact nearly as much as large ones.
later comments have suggested other solutions up to the upgraded comic version being a gel.
But I did have one thought for a liquid. You put it in a flexible thin hose and spiral it around to create a plate then another behind it arranged to cover the joins between tubes. As long as the tube material wasn’t too thin or flexible it might keep enough fluid at the top of the structure to be useful while at the same time making it all one “piece” of fluid over a larger area when it hardens.
Like the ballistic masks that some SWAT teams will wear. The reason soldiers don’t wear them is because there’s no way to wear a gas mask with it. Also, they’re only rated against pistol rounds, which are fatter and slower than rifle rounds. A round from an AK-47 would go straight through.
A Class 3a ballistic mask is able to stop a pistol round of up to .44 Magnum. If you were to get shot in the face while wearing one of these, you’d probably still end up with a broken jaw… but that’s far better than a hole in your head. (Or losing your whole head.)
Point is, you don’t want to be shot twice in the same place (although the ceramic or metal inserts do help, and might stop more than one bullet). In police forces, it’s standard procedure to replace a vest that’s been hit, because it’s been compromised in that location.
Surprisingly simple things can compromise protective gear. For instance putting a sticker on a motorbike helmet, can negate it’s effectiveness.
Less of a ‘go faster stripe’ more of a ‘brain go splatter stripe’.
How could a sticker ruin a helmet’s effectiveness?
Stickers use adhesives, which include solvents in them. Provided you have a sticker which has been tested to work safely with the helmet it is not a problem. Otherwise there is a potential risk. The solvent can attack the material of the helmet, weakening it.
Further any such weakening (such as crazing) would be hidden by the sticker itself. And even hairline cracks can render helmets useless in a crash.
I remember this all from a police safety talk given to my school years ago. Sparked off by a young motorcyclist who had died despite wearing a proper helmet. But it had been compromised by the stickers he had on it. And the coroner concluded that, in that instance, the helmet would likely have saved him from the brain damage, that lead to his death, had it not been for it being weakened by that means.
As Dave just said, most armor will break if the same spot is shot twice. You can compartmentalize the gel armor so that the other sections of the armor would still work, and the chances of being shot in the same spot twice is quite low (unless if the enemy is a sharpshooter).
Maybe, maybe not. Its a very complex issue that. And it depends a lot on the physics of everything involved. But cloth isn’t that liable to tear if its held against something stiff.
If I built a base in Death Vally it would be a secret underground base with tunnels to hidden bunker lookout points that would be fairly comfortable that afforded you a good view of the area.
Yup, forget the Death Rays and the Mind Control systems. 90% of the base power plant’s output goes to …. AIR CONDITIONING!
Personally mine has wormhole corridors to my Antarctic base. And the living quarters are in the nice temperate zone between the two extremes.
I just have to instruct the henchmen not to let the penguins wander up the wrong corridors.
That would cause a wind of hurricane strength to blow through. Thermodynamics is a bitch.
I use that wind for fast transportation :)
Naa, I send those down the tunnel to Albuquerque.
…where there happens to be a left turn, to direct to to anywhere else, apparently…
But, but…Those who are small enough to enter the wormholes can still invade your sanctum from the Antartica end. Do you have any plans to address that particular breach in physical security?
My penguin army of course. Elite, special forces with special anti-squirrel weaponry. Amongst other things.
So your evil scheme is to use the heat from Death Valley to melt the southern icecap and flood the world’s major cities. Sorry, but the fossil fuel industry is already working on that project.
The biggest problem with having a secret base in Death Valley, is that we have Marines all over there. And not just that, but Fort Irwin is specifically a training base where we prep marines for the harshest conditions and enemies. Even building mock cities and mock enemy bases. Someone might dig right into one of your base’s air shafts trying to build a fake secret base and then find your real one.
Now that right there was funny. I dont care who you are.
Although with a portal from D.V. to Antarctica…does enough snow and ice come through to turn D.V. into a lake? Or do you end up with an antarctic valley that is chock full of tropic rain forest jungle and extinct species?
I once got a ‘honorary special mention’ in an awards ceremony at GenCon UK. The event had been a dungeon building competition, where you build one, and then get to try out a dungeon designed by a rival group of players. Whilst you try to survive someone else’s ingenious dungeon.
Our group was deemed to be especially fiendish, in building a fake dungeon, next door to the real one. And then burying the entrance to the real one.
They literally spent over half their game in the fake dungeon. Much of it trying to figure out why they could not get past an impenetrable wall, at the end of a corridor. Which was just, of course was just the end of the fake dungeon, and there was nothing beyond.
We did make up a bunch of riddles and fun stuff for them to solve though. To keep their hopes alive.
Plus put in a nice teleporter. Well sorta like a teleporter. The sphere of annihilation, incorporated in the device, might have made it look like one anyhow. When you saw people step into it and vanish.
OOoooo, THAT is g-o-o-d!
My main lair is in another dimension to which I am the only one who has access to.
Though I do have a nice little retreat in the mountains of antarctica.
I also maintain several bases around the world so my opponents have something to keep them occupied.
Preventing the Oobtek from pooling should be simple, just have many small but interconnected chambers, kinda like an air-bed.
Arguably you don’t even want the cells connected, for the sake of increased longevity.
However, that would negate one of the important advantages of Oobtek – spreading the force of the bullet over a large area. Now instead all of the force of the bullet is spread just over a tiny square.
I imagine each pouch is 2-4 layers thick of alternately overlapping cells the size of a quarter. Also the Oobtek could be suspended in a firmer polymer than usual.
Whoops! Didn’t read far enough before commenting above…
Personally mine has wormhole corridors to my Antarctic base. And the living quarters are in the nice temperate zone between the two extremes.
I just have to instruct the henchmen not to let the penguins wander up the wrong corridors.
Somehow a wormhole glitch caused this comment to appear under the wrong thread.
You should get that fixed…
oh god the sloth vilain at the end just CRACKED me UP badly hehe
Unfortunately, they couldn’t get the whole team together in that last panel. Greed was in a meeting at his Wall Street job, Envy was too wrapped up watching back to back Kardashians episodes and Pride was already busy feeling awesome about himself in panel 2.
Don’t forget Gluttony.
He is driving another all you can eat buffet out of business.
Little girl is gluttony/
Whoops missed the munchkin.
Good one DaveB, Its a bit wordy but, I feel it could be both important and its obvious you have a very real reason for putting it here. This just smacks of setting a scene with a slow but powerful enemy or some deranged plot we have yet to fully realize which will put all of this into perspective. Can’t wait to see what you come up with and how this science lesson on super suit tech is going to come high balling into things.
A lot of my pages are a bit wordy. I’d be a better writer if I could covey the same info in half as many sentences. Also in a normal that much info would probably play out over 2-3 pages.
The gluttony girl too thin to represent this sin.
is a black hole too thin as well?
If I am right and it is the short girl in the apron, I would assume she has the metabolism of youth. So she can eat her body weight ins sweets and still run around like a caffeinated squirrel.
I get a Men in Black innocent little girl vibe off her. Being out of place in the gang. She is the one to watch out for!
Actually, it’s because she’s so thin is why she eats so much. She can never gain weight, nor can she ever grow up & “fill out” her form. She can never relieve her hunger pangs. That’s why she’s Gluttony.
Death of Deadpool? Come on! There is no way they can kill him. And seriously, who can hate such positive guy?!
I think that, between the three of them, he’ll get as close to dead as he’s ever been…And would never wish for another such experience, ever.
In other words, Deadpool is about to get soooo much “bang for his buck.” But not quite the kind he’s expecting…
Deadpool has been reduced to ash by Thor but he got better.
Though there was a bit of a problem because Madcap was ashed right beside him and they combined into one body for a while.
Actually, the military is working on various types of oobleck armor, the idea being pretty much the same as what’s in the strip, and for the same reasons. The problem with bullet resistant protection is the same thing that’s existed since armor started being used. There’s a balancing act in protection, in that it does you no good to have great armor that will protect you against most threats if you can’t move.
Wouldn’t the stuff on the ropes just be pulled apart normally because it’s a constant force?
-facepalm- wow I just…yeah the situation is the reverse of what I thought…
It would, which is why Claire has to hammer it. Hammering it makes it strong and not-flowing.
Well, in comic-logic. In real life though the fluid would need to be in some sort of container, the force being transferred to it by a moving big plate that the fluid would flow around, and hammering on the fluid has such a localized effect that it probably would not make much of a difference. I’m not too sure though, so now I want to try and make it work… :P
This one was quite timely for me, as I just finished a SAW marathon this weekend ^.^
Bullet resistant liquid is a real thing. Tests are currently soaking Kevlar in it and it actually works against the slow knife as well. It was designed to fix the problem of sharp objects cutting through kevlar.
Bullet resistant liquid is called ethanol. If you can get your opponent drunk enough, he can’t hit you.
As well as water, as shown by the mythbusters. One of the few substances that actually gets more bullet resistant the faster, and narrower the bullet gets.
Which brings up all the complex physics of a proper trauma inserts. Ceramic ones don’t work entirely by increasing the area, they also work by fracturing and absorbing energy in doing so. A well contained soft pouch goop would in theory work because of surface tension and transferal physics. There are lots of variables that go into that.
I think they found the stopping distance for bullets in water was up to about 8 feet. So if Sydney flew around in her shield set to about 15 feet diameter and filled with water (and her in scuba gear) then she would be effectively bullet proof. But then there is the problem that whatever made it through the shield to get to the water is probably way more energetic than a bullet.
P.S. Today’s ‘refrigerator logic’ topic is the law of unintended consequences.
As for those that have in the past advocated the Sydney in water bubble tactic, remember that any big impact on the surface is now being transferred via incompressible water, not air. The effect would be like a submarine being hit with a depth charge.
I can see Achilles and ‘Nah Nah Cant Hit Me Guy’ being friends or rivals, competing on who can draw the most aggro in a fight.
Cant Hit Me wins, Achilles can be launched away fairly easily, and thus stops drawing aggro.
But Achilles works as a human shield, and CHM doesn’t.
I wonder if they have access to Dragon Skin armour which is a real thing they have tested in Iraq. (Google dragon skin armor)
They do, but this stuff is a balance of weight and maneuverability.
I would not go into a Greek restaurant wearing that. Given that it is made of ceramic plates. They would have a smashing time with it!
…And you’d also better stay away from Link (of Legend of Zelda fame)…
Panel 2:
ORDNANCE….not ORDINANCE.
ammo not law.
Just sayin’……
Now you want me to see Dave add a new hero named “The Law”. His power is that he has really long arms.
And he is blind.
And he is a she.
Oh, wow, I had no idea ordnance was a different word. No wonder the spell checker didn’t catch that.
After looking at that last panel and reading the Sevenly Deadly Sin manga for a long time I wonder what would be fitting seven deadly sins for ARC. Here is my current list and reasons
Pride: Maxima; I thin this is self explonatory she knows she is one of the top supers and not bothered by making claims about it but this was almost her downfall in the fight against Death Toll and V.
Lust: Dabbler; I was almost putting Harem in here since Dabbler would be an obvious choice and it is debatable how long Dabbler will stay on earth however I think I have a better one for Harem so lust goes to obvious one. Why Math is not included here is because IMHO being a pervert is not enough to be personified as lust you should also have actions to show it.
Sloth: Achilles or Heatwave; Ok this one was a little hard I mean there is noone on team especailly shows lazziness or looks like lethargic however Heatwave gave me a slow-person feel I am not sure why it is just a feel so I can’t really justify her for this spot. Achilles on the other hand usually does nothing. Just stands there and looks around waiting for next attack made against him. Not even in the big fight we saw him throwing a single punch, kick or anything else he just moved between a sword and dabbler and that was about it. So Achilles get this one
Envy: Heatwave; Well she is only one in Archon we saw openly shows it so this spot goes to her at the time being. Math would be a distant second for Envy though like in lust he lacks actions to show it and what he is jealous is not straight out pointed.
Greed: Harem; Like I said Harem would fit on lust or as I will later say even gluttony but she is fitting better at greed since she wants to experience all kind of things A close second would be Arianna for greed however compared to Harems she is a tad bit lacking. (considering just she wanted to experience it Harem acting like a double or triple spy) And quiet frankly most of other sins born from a certain typw of greed in my opinion as a person of multi sins Harem fit to this one better than any of others.
Gluttony: There was not enough scenes to make a decision for this one. One could say Sydney qualify just fine considering how much she ate during first day but not to forget she vomited her first meal and IMHO a gluttony shouldn’t be choosing meals s/he could have favorites but a glutton shuld be someone that can eat any edible food without problem in huge quantities (like Goku from Dragonball, Toriko, Zebra or Midora from Toriko or Luffy from One Piece)
Wrath: Sydney; Well it is probably a side effect from her ADHD nonetheless she is the only one that would fit into this category. One could argue Maxima or Anvil could also fit on this spot but both of them are think first act second characters meanwhile Sydney is like Act first roughly if not work think than act roughly type of person.
I vote for Ashley having the voice of Andrew Robinson/Garak.
If you don’t understand why, shame on you :P
That’s the problem with today’s Sci Fi audience. They are not keeping up with the Cardassians.
For that sir, you win all the internets.
You either deserve some sort or award for that, or just a slap.
An award shaped like a slapping hand?
Ooh! We’ll call ’em the Slappies!
“And the Slappy for worst punning in literature goes to…. (like it’s a surprise) Piers Anthony!”
Huh! I’d have thought Spider Robinson would get it for his Callahan’s Saloon stories.
Spider is more Campy less punny.
Then you’ve never attended a Punday Night competition, I take it?
The reader shits and the webcomic author slaps.
Thanks… I’ve just had twenty seconds of silent giggling. You’re lucky that none of my colleagues can see me. SLAP!
The suit will not protect her from the Ginosaji … with a SPOON.
… “it will hurt more!”
This is the worst way to be murdered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VDvgL58h_Y
So THAT’S the origin of the Tick’s battle cry!
Spooooon!
Mythbusters tested Ooblek for bulletproof-ness and it, well, failed badly. See MythbustersResults.com for more info. I say back to the ceramic plate and her fireball
proofresistant shield.I got no results for ooblek on that site.
Dave is safe though, he specified a militarised version of it. The normal stuff is like jello, compared to what Halo will be wearing.
“mixture of cornstarch and water”
:-D
Actually, David… no, they never tested it. Not against bullets, anyway. All they did was show you that you can run across a non-Newtonian fluid (cornstarch and water, aka oobleck.)
What is used in the new gel armor is NOT oobleck, however. It is significantly more advanced than a backyard science project. Known as a dilatant or a shear-thickening fluid (STF), the gel contained inside the new vests has a viscosity that increases when shear stress is applied. In other words, it gets thicker when hit with a bullet or projectile, much in the same way as the oobleck does when your hand or foot comes down on it, but in a much more efficient way.
Please don’t try to fill a vest with oobleck and see if it can stop a bullet while wearing it. While you may win first place in the Darwin Awards, you certainly won’t be around to enjoy it.
I read somewhere that, in-universe, the cartridges that hold Spider-Man’s web-fluid are a pressurized container filled with an adhesive polymer shear-thickening-fluid – this is how he can produce yards and yards and yards of webline from a canister smaller than a deck of playing-cards.
Yea, that is the way that original flava Spider Man’s webslingers worked. Well the era I started reading it in, anyhow. Accept no substitutes! Like modern versions where he has a spider’s silk gland on his wrists. Rather than by his anus, where it should be.
with Spinnerette going for anatomical correctness then?
I seem to recall that Spinnerette has complained about that exact thing: The location of her silk gland (at the base of her tailbone, fyi) makes it incredibly awkward (read as “nearly impossible”) if you’re hoping to use it to swing like Spider-Man does. It’d be great for other things like suspending yourself from an overhang, though.
Yea, you are both right, to pick up on that. I did laugh at her discovering her capabiity. :-D
Hee, hee. Yep, not often one sees a classic superpower with such a heightened (and entirely logical) embarassment factor.
Are the deadly sin group cameos for something? I feel like I have seen the Gluttony girl somewhere before, but I can’t remember where.
The Eventual Eviscerator. Half Brother to failed Flash villain, The Turtle.
her hairstyle is reminiscent of Jinx from Teen Titans
Check the first few pages. Joel & Sydney talking about Super Reality shows. Strength competition.
He should have used Dragonskin Armor.
https://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,SoldierTech_060223_Pinnacle,,00.html [Saved from Armor Piercing Incendiary Rounds], and is many times more flexible and efficient than IBA [Interceptor Body Armor]. Event taking Armor Piercing Rounds from a rifle [in the youtube links below [first one], and an IED Rifle in Link 2.].
Seriously Ashley could have done better. Especially since he has his power. He could make normal silk as strong as BioSteel was supposed to be, and you have supers that could easily make a more efficient breatheable armor. Capable of taking armor piercing rifle rounds, and still have maneuverability and breathbility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYaSRIbPWkM [Future Weapons test].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8tYcSErWa4 [Military Lab Test [stops 640 mph shiruken shot out of a Pneumatic Gun [9:05 unprotected; 10:16 protected].
But for a spur of the moment, forced out, prototype until he really makes proper body armor. I guess bulky, semi-restrictive, not top of the line armor is good enough.
With his power, and a Super capable of making advanced tech / mini version of Dragon Skin / Carbon-Nano fibers [with shrinking power like the Atom / Ant]. He could easily make an Armor capable of taking a super strength punch. At least once. Since really, that’s what you’re needing armor for. Heck bullets. You have Super Strength attacks, people who can toss pebbles at Mach 10, Speedsters (that’ll hit you going at many times faster than Speed.).
So any armor that can’t take at least one clip of armor piercing rounds, or five shrapnel pieces shot out at Mach 10, and 2 Maxima Punches [Full strength]. Isn’t going to cut it.
They have armor they can wear over the AFDs, she’s just getting fitted for her duty duds now.
Well, that’s good. So how much additional Bulk will she be carrying around [Adding in the whole bags of OOBTek?] when wearing her armor? Or are the OOBTek bags made to be somewhat light? I mean it doesn’t make sense to be carrying thirty plus pounds everywhere you go, and have your normal movement restricted. Then put on Tank / Speedster Resistant Armor ontop of that [T/SRA] and end up carrying an additional thirty plus pounds.
Oh! Sidenote. Grrlpower After Dark, and Demon High … are those real comics you’re making, and if so can you link them? If there anything as awesome as this series I’d definitely enjoy giving them a read.
Heh, they are ones that Dave has mentioned in the past that he would like to do. If Grrl Power was not a full-time job.
Considering what the state-of-the-art modern fanfic is like, I hesitate to suggest that DaveB blog out some specific ideas he has so that the fans can do the writing & art for him on this…
:/
Yeah, I’m sure there are plenty of good artist to make a rather decent fancomic on those.
Certainly, there will be a lot of good stuff…but Fanfic adhering to Rule 34 is the most prevalent standard, not the exception.
Loading down an infantryman with 70 lbs of kit (if you can afford it) has been how professional armies have been going about it since Rome.
Back then it was 70lbs=”melee weapon of choice”+armor+water and one tenth of his squads common supplies(tent,cooking gear,Food,water).
Now its all about spare mags, spare mags, oh yeah and some spare mags! (and a snack)
Still Arc Swat has folks that can lift like nobody else. They can get away with carrying extra gear.
As long as it does not hinder movement.
“Still Arc Swat has folks that can lift like nobody else.”
True enough, but then there’s a point of “diminisheing returns” once a person gets to a certain level of strength: Think of Superman wearing his Clark Kent garb…He’s got to be very careful not to rip his outfit. Every movement, every gesture (even breathing) risks tearing his outfit to shreds & exposing his identity.
A super strong soldier who isn’t also bullteproof will have to be very careful not to rip his own armor off…
Well, here’s the issue. So far, the gel inserts used in our attempts (and by “our” I mean everyone but Poland) are actually slightly heavier than the standard ceramic or metal inserts. But Poland claims to have developed a new Shear Thickening Fluid that allows them to be lighter (if they have, however, they’re not sharing — yet.)
The trick to heavy armor is to distribute the load properly. A full suit of plate armor from the 1500s and early 1600s weighed as much as 55 pounds (25 kg), and yet the wearer was just as agile and could jump, run, and move as freely as they could without the armor, because the load was distributed evenly across the body. You can find videos of people doing backflips and cartwheels in replica armor.
Line of Fire also makes a body armor that is highly superior to most of the ceramic plates out there today.
The armor plates were invented by this kid who when he was 12 or so saw what crappy armor plates we use and said to himself “I could do better than that!” and over the course of five years through trial and error made a armor plate that could take a full clip from an AK47 and still be intact. Our armor usualy cracks after three rounds BTW.
I haven’t been in the ARMY since 2006, so my recollection might be a bit hazy. But IBA plates are like what, 10 LBS. Per plate, and there are 4 Plates you have in the front and back. Plus you have to be careful not to drop them or they’ll crack reducing those 3 shots, to considerably less am I right on that?
And the Duds here, have those bags which are probably around 5 lbs each. With 6 of those, that’s 30 lbs. Which is still a bit of weight to be carrying around. You’d think with Supes. they’d use Mage enhanced Non-Newtonian pellets Fabriketically imbued into the armor. But yeah, those duds are kinda hefty for everyday duds. Unless of course they had a Mage make the bags with a permanent Featherfall enchantment to reduce weight.
you have kind of a point, armor not rated for armor piercing rifle rounds is probably not going to hold up very well at all against most higher tier super villains and their attacks, they are not going to do a thing to save a squishy archon operative from getting squished under a thrown car. Being able to move around while wearing said armor might however… it also might help save them from life threatening injuries from shrapnel resulting from the car hitting something near you (not saying it’ll explode, but the impact alone is likely to send fragments of something or other flying in various directions).
Heck, if we go with the big super brawl, I’d say body armor would not have held up against.. well lets see, eye lazer guy? nope, immitation-halo’s lazer beams? nope.. electro glowbug shocks? Nope.. nail’s super nails… nope.. heavenly sword’s sword? nope… getting punched around by concretia’s literally rock hard fists… neupe.. honestly, I think they may want to partition their protective efforts towards suits made for maximum mobility and shrapnel, possibly flame resistant and non-conductive if possible.
and then just give up and splurge on some proper bomb-disposal style hardsuits, possibly fitted with a motorised exoskeleton, power armor style, to give team members who’s role wont let them do their job while relying on luck and quick reflexes to keep them out of the line of fire something to rely on besides the power of prayer (and that of their super powered teammates).
Given that their role is to respond to emergency situations, not to do investigative work or police an area where people have not committed a crime yet, the odds that one of their number is going to get shot at by conventional handguns (rather than something far more deadly) is rather remote.
Note that I am not saying that the body armor shown so far is pointless for archon to use, but it does fall into an uncomfortable range where it is probably not going to hold up against what gets thrown at them given the type of threats archon is meant to counter.
I’ll give that. If the bags are made in a way that don’t severely limit mobility, and over come the additional weight of carrying 30+ lbs from the OOBTek bags. And with DaveB saying they have Body Armor to place over their duds. It’d be more useful than wearing normal clothing. But going against any number of Supers, it’s woefully unprepaired for ambushes, average super powered threats (when dealing with the types of powers we saw so far), and or even some of the tech the more advanced beings could use. Even a basic Elemental [Plasma, Lasers, Fire, Ice, Stone] resistant, Super Non-Newtonian [capable of taking a Speedsters attack, or at least 2 Maxima Punches before breaking], and able to take at least one shot from Dabbler’s Mass Driver Gun, would be enough to protect them from 95% of any threat they face. As long as it hits the armor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA
While reading this comment, “why am I soft in the middle?” was playing from the radio.
Heh. I liked how the other guy kept wandering out, when he had nothing to do. Then, even when he did return, twiddling his thumbs, until his parts came up.
I somehow feel that once a shield can easily withstand extremely hard punches from Maxima and Vehemence, Peggy’s gun, and Maxima’s plasma bolt….. it’s pretty much bulletproof. I’m also assuming it’ll be able to deflect Dabbler’s railgun.
Grrl Power After Dark? Am I missing a comic series or is this in reference to the Valentines Day stuff?
Grrl Power After Dark is just a joke for now, it’s basically a NSFW version of the comic where conversations take place in the shower (a joke I will probably do anyway – I can get a lot of mileage out of inconveniently placed steam and word bubbles) but also stuff like “what happened that time Harem tracked down a succubus on her own” and other explicit adventures.
[Intense Math Stare]
Please tell me that’s a real thing.
[/Intense Math Stare]
Voting incentives would be having the inconveniently placed steam dissipate?
It works for By the Book…In-comic AND with vote incentives.
I’ll be in my bunk.
Or make an age gate. Like the one on Blooming Faeries or the one on Ship in a Bottle. Non existant
You have my attention.
A cold shower might help.
The weight probably makes it hard to swim with too
Hmm, This is good emergency backup for sydney, since what she really needs it for are those brief periods of time when she has to drop her shield for whatever reason, or is taken by surprise. Lets face it, the armor will do nothing for her that her shield cant already stop. Maybe her shield cant stop a bunker buster (I doubt it would be broken) but her body armor aint gonna stop it either. It can take physical blows like maxima or vehemence’s fists, energy blasts like maximas particle beams or whatever they are called, even block chunks of STYROFOAM!
Heh, I guess that will also be a part of her testing, seeing not just how much raw force her shield can block, but if there are KINDS of force it doesnt take well. Like blunt, penetrating, energy attacks across the spectrum, that sort of thing. The last thing they want to learn in the middle of combat is that her shield is vulnerable to the color yellow or wood.
Bullet resistant armor only covers physical attacks. A Taser or anything electrical can bypass armor if not properly insulated. Any strong form of acid or highly corrosive mixture will eat through that armor. And a flamethrower or even a simple Molotov cocktail can do a lot of damage. Plus. if you mix laundry soap and petrol together, the mixture will stick easily to their clothes like tar, making it easier to burn the person.
They do have those hard suits we saw when they were wrapping up at the bank. Those are designed to be as supervillain proof as possible, but they’re also too expensive to supply to the entire team.
Ahh, that makes sense, still, given how uniquely valuable sydney’s life is, surely she rates getting a hardsuit made for her as well? At least for those times when they are actually getting deployed to deal with a super crime in progress?
For when she knows she’s going into danger she can put up her shield.
she cant keep the shield up forever due to the oxygen thing, she might also run into situations where she needs to be able to use two orbs (none of which can be the shield orb) at the same time, for example by using the comball and lighthook to snake a tentacle underneath a door/through a small hole to manipulate a padlock on the other side, or if she needs to be air-support and fly while doing any of her other orbs, be it blasting, grabbing or something else, in any of those situations having some hard armor on her would be highly advantageous as a just in case kind of deal.
Yup made all these same arguments and more while defending why I thought she should have the closest thing for powered armor they have or can rig up in this universe. Powered cause I assume once they made a hard suit that covers what the shield does for her to a lesser extent (heavy armor and defense against toxic gases and liquids) with a small air supply for when she needs to seal it up it would be heavy enough that she would need a power assist in moving it around.
I remember a line from something a read a loong time ago somewhere. (I’m just giving the jist since I don’t remember it verbatim)
Person 1 “Why does every super seem to have higher than normal human toughness even if it has nothing to do with their powers or origin story?”
Person 2 “Cause all the others died or retired before you had a chance to notice them.”
Eh, but a character needs room to grow so maybe this can be something done later on in the comic. Seems like there are enough armor options for now and other heavy hitters that she should be fine playing it safe with her shield for a bit.
But I’m assuming that when we see those “space marines” in their hard suits actually engaging in expected action they will be wearing helmets? Just seems retarded to have a suit like that and then leave your head exposed. That actually encourages the baddies to make more effort, and risk to themselves if it takes longer to aim, to make the deadly head shot.
DaveB are you really going to make a Demon High webcomic?
Please say yes! I wouldn’t even mind if it was just once every two weeks or so. Although, weekly would be great.
He needs a team of colorist first DaveB has already said that he can’t do is full color work and do more comics unless u want grrl power to start looking like misfile. Give him more patron money!
Aha, the evil squirrel overlord is doubtless training his sloth army, as we speak!
Sloths are slow because their diet does not provide a lot of energy, and their claws are not sharp. However, they can pick up the pace when they have to, and if you’re not expecting it, it can catch you by surprise. The two-toed sloth is faster, more active, and a little more temperamental than the three-toed sloth; I’ve seen a two-toed sloth grab an unaware zookeeper and give him one heck of a bite.
In general, however, the following line is quite accurate:
“Oh, no! A sloth is attacking! Quick, walk for your lives!“
ROBIN: Batman, the Eventual Eviscerate is catching up with me!
BATMAN: No wonder the newspapers have started to call you the Geriatric Wonder!
ROBIN: Bah, you try keeping up, after a double hip-replacement operation!
BATMAN: There is only one solution, Robin. The bat-zimerframe!
I’d love to see a more blown up version of the last panel just to see the detail on gluttony. Pink pigtails are so adorable. But then I find pigtails in general very cute. If Maxima had pigtails, she could scowl all she wanted and I’d still go “d’awwwww’…. Only, don’t tell Maxima I said that.
MAAAAX , MelancholyZen is saying you need to become more girly looking!
This discussion reminds me of the first time I got a “thrust vest”. Supposedly stab proof, but after you’ve watched a pencil go through like butter you shell out for higher grade pads pretty quicklike.