Grrl Power #331 – My god, it’s full of… spiders?
Thought I’d do something a little different with Vance’s introduction. At this point in the story it doesn’t really matter what his powers are, so instead Sydney gets to experience the full … well, it’s not hazing, just a little messing with the rook. As Sydney joined the team roughly 24 hours ago, she is indeed the junior most member.
There were several moments while writing and drawing this page that I actually considered making Vance’s powers actually be that he’s a colony of collectively sentient spiders inside some bizarre human suit instead of it be that he’s really just messing with her… though I suppose up until the point I actually put him using his powers into the comic I suppose I could change my mind, so… maybe he isn’t messing with her? Of course, he’d need some other power too. Being a colony of Borg spiders is pretty impressive on its own, but that’s not going to get him a spot in Arc-SWAT. He’d need to be able to hold his own in a fight against other supers.
Some random superhero novel pimpage for you, two new books in two of my favorite series are out, neither of which I’ve had a chance to read yet unfortunately. I really need to finish The Dark Lord’s Handbook: Conquest and get in to my growing queue. Anyway, the new books are Revelation: A Kid Sensation Novel (Kid Sensation #4) and The Betrayal of Renegade X (Renegade X, Book 3) both series I highly recommend.
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He reminds me of the Drow by now.
He reminds me of the Ananasi from Werewolf: The Apocalypse.
That, and also a bit of a ‘Bride of Nine Spiders’ thing.
Ohforfuckssakse!
A war spider the size of a goddamnd house!
Thats a good enough superpower for me…
Not Drow, Drider. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drider.
No, I meant the drow. One of my books on the drow mentioned them using bodies of elves as spider cocoons, part torture and part trap for other elves to find and be exposed to spiders when the bodies burst.
And in addition to what you just said here, all Driders were originally Drow Elves before their transformation.
I’ll send you the bill for my new sides.
*slides away from SKW, far far away*
For reasons. Very good reasons.
He’s lucky she didn’t use the Hotshot Orb (my name for the pew-pew ) to incinerate him.
If I was her, I would have grabbed one of the unknown orbs and asked him if he knew what it did. When he says ‘no’ I’d lean in real close and say ‘it kills pests.’ And then I’d go back to reading my book as if nothing was wrong.
i like the way you think…..of course with sydneys extreme adhd a good witty comeback like that would be rather difficult and would probably come to her well after the fact
There is one other fact that Sydney’s ADHD mind would have very carefully examined, from every possible angle. The day before yesterday, she would have called bullcr**p on this. Today she now knows that monsters are not just legend. They could be supers, they cold be the results of super powers being used, or magic or they could even be aliens.
And those are just things she has personally witnessed, in the last 24 hours. Including speaking to, and even grappling with, a multi-limbed non-human!
Sydney’s ADHD mind had to get out the Myth Buster’s “PLAUSIBLE” stamp for this one. And mentally slap it on Vance’s forehead. Having done that, the options are:
A) Play it cool and give him some slap talk.
B) Avoid and do not provoke him.
If he is just messing with her, A) gives some satisfaction, at a witty comeback or B) it acknowledges that he has made a very good play. Although leaving open the possibility of future teasing, about it.
If he is telling the truth though. B) is completely unchanged. However A) might result in Vance feeling peeved and deciding to prove he is telling the truth. SPIDERS EVERYWHERE!
Actually, I just thought of a third option. Remember when Sydney put Leon on the flipside of the List? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/735
Imagine Sydney going stary-eyed at Vance’s description, sliding up to him all girlish and flirty, and telling Vance “That is soooo cool. Are you seeing anyone?”
He may not know he should be afraid right then, but in time he will be.
Except, now Sydney is going to come up with a brilliant and foolproof plan hinging crucially on that power, only to be told “I was just messing with you…”
What kind of plan involves “thousands of spiders ripping out of some normal looking dude” ?
A terrifying one.
Ask Skitter.
Then be afraid. Very afraid.
Though Skitters use of insects tends to involve the death of hordes of them. Tactics depend on whether losing part of the collective is a bad thing or whether he can just add new spiders somehow.
The whole point behind Skitter is that she was SMART, and very good at using powers in ways other people didn’t anticipate and deciphering weaknesses Kind of like Sydney (I’ve mentioned this before). While Skitter did send hordes of insect to their deaths on many occasions, she did also use single insects to attack her enemy’s vulnerable spots or conduct chemical warfare on a repeating basis. While having to keep most of the insects alive might make her slightly less reckless, I seriously doubt it would slow Skitter down for long.
All that being said…
Maxima vs. Scion
Who do you bet on?
Pretty clearly Scion. Dude’s not just a ‘powerful Super’- he’s literally the … Oh yeah, SPOILERS… source of all superpowers, with the vast majority of his being in alternate dimensions. Maxima, as able as she is, is still pretty much entirely physically powerful. To defeat Scion, you need weapons that can penetrate dimensional walls or affect all of reality at once, or else have super-planning mojo that allows you to know the exact way to defeat him and stay alive.
Now Maxima vs. Alexandria would be a LOT more interesting.
Or Achilles vs. Scion.
Scion, no question. Max could put up a fight, but she couldn’t win. Max is tough, but she can be hurt if you hit her hard enough. Scion can’t really. He might not actually be as tough as she is, but if you do damage him, he regenerates instantly and perfectly, so it doesn’t really accomplish anything. Max doesn’t have the ability to cut off or use up Scion’s source of regeneration. So it’s a fight where Max can be worn down, and Scion can’t. Sooner or later, Scion wins.
How about Max vs. the Siberian? Max’s need to prove to unknown capes that she’s not merely more powerful than they are, but so far out of their league that she can just ignore their best shot wouldn’t serve her well there…
Max couldn’t beat Monica Villareal either. Monica can travel faster, is probably more resistant to damage, and has some interesting immunities… then there are her nasty powers.
Max could beat Atsali *if* Atsali doesn’t realize it’s an all-out battle… if Atsali thinks it’s a win-or-die situation she’ll completely subdue Max before Max even realizes an attack has been launched.
On the other hand, considering who Atsali’s friends are, losing to her is probably safer than harming her.
One point worth bearing in mind is that we do not actually know Maxima’s upper speed. Even flying she probably holds back, to avoid breaking every window in the city. She is faster than a bullet though.
But, for the best hint as to her capability, she can react faster than a teleporter.
I’m thinking squirrels.
Oh my god, why did I not suspect that? Of course the Evil Squirrel Overlord would be behind a plan as dastardly as this!
Having been revealed as the mastermind behind Vehemence (Issue #226 – Hexectomy), the overlord is now having to lie low, and let his deep-cover operative, Vance lull Archon into a false sense of security. But he has now seen Sydney’s ADHD senses foil one plot already, he needed to take precautions.
His fabrication about spiders was just to divert her from making any possible link to him. She is bound to spot subtle clues that there is something else living under the skin. And if she fears spiders, she will not want the suit opened to see them! A very clever ploy.
Brace yourself for the eew factor now. Clearly that cannot be a silk disguise. Squirrels do not produce that. But evil squirrels would, of course, not hesitate to kill someone, to make a disguise! And the overlord would easily figure a way to stop it decomposing.
Once Operation Trojan Vance has reached maturity, Archon can be attacked from inside it’s own highest security. The Evil Squirrel Overlord will unzip the Vance suit, and order the attack.
But, it is even worse than that, for these are no ordinary evil squirrels!
I can think of at least a dozen ways for Vance to instantly end fights just by transforming. I mean, is he like the common house spider, or millions of brown recluses? Wolf spiders? Widows?
Fuck… I wish that was his real power now. Might not be the most powerful super, but certainly the most terrifying. Imagine a massive sentient spider swarm as a prison guard…
Cruel and unusual punishment!
*hands out one ‘get out of jail free’ card*
He’d make a hell of an ARC-Dark member, though… were that his *true* power.
ArcDark or ArcSwat. If he can separate individuals off but maintain consciousness of all (and something equivalent to human level perception from them), he could be in more places than Harem. Also, if destruction of a small number of spiders doesn’t really hurt him, bullets won’t mean much, or most things brought up against humans (fire bad, still). All of this would make great for intelligence and going in on a hostage situation.
ooh i didnt think of that… thought like sending one spider ahead to scout the area or something.
also “there is nothing to fear but fear itself….and spiders.” sorry i had to. :3
Doctor Doom was brought low by squirrels. Now imagine hundreds, possibly thousands, of spiders. Intelligent spiders that can get into crevices in armour. Spiders that are evidently capable of weaving non-standard silk. Who knows what their venom contains? Special silk polymers implies that they’re able to adjust what their bodies can secrete at a certain level, perhaps they can willfully alter their internal structures to output toxins that could even take down super powered people.
Maybe that spray that Harem was using to sedate all the villains in the parking lot was just an extract of his spider venom.
Maybe the cloth that their uniforms are made out of is extra-special because it’s tailor-made from tailor-built spider silk.
This is an absolutely hideous and amazing concept for a character.
One of the most powerful most generic fears there are: Arachnophobia.
Only problem is that most suffering its effect act rather unpredictably, like jumping, screaming, shooting like mad, fear vomit, heart-attacks, random fits of kamikaze, …, so throwing a “non-super” like that into the crowd is likely to cause instant unstoppable mad chaos of epic proportions.
I don’t think even a horde of squirrels can match up to that. ;-)
You should look for a web serial novel called Worm, it’s about a parahuman that can control bugs and ends up amazingly successful because of it.
She can hear everything, SEE everything in the city. She can infiltrate the most secure buildings, and poison the toughest opponents.
She even kills the local equivalent of Superman by stuffing her throat with bugs until she chokes.
@Zeterai
Unless the spiders are enormous tarantula’s, the amount of spiders that would fit inside a human body that are tightly packed would number closer to the millions than thousands.
I wonder how effective bugspray is on “Spiders”. Yes, that’s what I’m calling him now. Though Vance is a sexy name. And he has a face to match.
And great… now my mind’s going into biology course about how Spider Vance eats, drinks and uh, uses the toilet.
Think about how he breathes.
Spider Vance, Spider Vance
Does what ever a human can
Spins a web, just like skin
Hiding the multitude within
Look out, here comes the Spider Vance!
O,O
clapclapclapclapclap
clapclapclapclapclap
https://gifs.com/3fJ
clapclapclapclapclap
You win the Internet for today, sir
Getting snapped with a rubber band while your finger is on the trigger seems like an accident waiting to happen.
That would not be following correct procedures. You must self-administer that punishment. Which necessitates taking your hands off the gun.
Besides which, anyone who would continue to hold the gun, like that, despite having realised they were not following rules, is not bright enough to be issued this manual.
They either need one that is even more simplified, and comes with a set of colouring crayons. Or it should be read to them, by someone who can explain the concepts. :)
“Which necessitates taking your hands off the gun.” not necessarily, unless its your only one.
if you have the band around your wrist (of the hand holding the gun) you can use the other hand to stretch it.
or just be kicked out and never allowed to hold a gun.
I doubt he’d have much trouble fighting against supers though.
I wonder how Vehemence would have responded to being absolutly covered in gigantic spiders
Unless he’s arachnaphobic, he’ll probably just smoosh them.
Don’t have to think too hard about how Budget Halo (Hex) would have felt about it, RobK.
I don’t think they’re gigantic.
What about the ones he could not fit inside the skin? He probably just forms this body with the teeny baby spiders.
They become his pillow. Pillow Spiders. :P
Maybe his power is Super Bluffing.
That would be useful, right?
Yes, yes it would.
https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0767.html
Bluffing can be quite useful.
https://p.dreamwidth.org/64843f37c436/img.photobucket.com/albums/v365/terry3906/scans_daily/MASpider-Man57022.jpg
you need to fix the link, all i got was a “404 Page not found” error.
The link looks clean and I think it worked for me yesterday. Presumably it is a problem at the photobucket end.
Soooo. Timeline question:
How much time passed between panel 6 (Sydney and Vance sitting in the room) and 7 (Harem talking to Vance outside the room).
Is this a case of comic book time, or is this a hint towards his other powers?
Still in the room, I think. Vance just stood up to get a trink. At least it seems to be tha same blue locker in the corner.
“…tha same blue locker…”where is the table next to it then?
i think it may be on the other side of the window or something.
sincerely depends vance…how hard do you like your atomic wedgie when she realizes you messing up with her?
I think he should guard against counter-messing.
yeah especially since hers can be even more “messy or bruisy’ hehe
Sydney: Okay, Vance, you got me good. Oh, by the way, I have too much of my lunch today. You want the other half of my sub?
Vance: Sure, no hard feelings, right? Not bad. What kind of sandwiiiiiiich?! Yow!
Sydney: I call it a kale, cucumber and ghost pepper sandwich. So, be honest, what did you think? Are you going to be okay down there?
That is a fitting revenge. Mind you, there might be unintended consequences.
Yeah if he tried that on me what would follow would be a discussion of arachnology that would trip up most non-experts. After he confesses there would be a period where spiders of all sorts start showing up (not real ones just toys, pictures and small models) maybe his name is changed in a roster or two just for a little pay back.
Flies in his lunch…
aaand how would you manage that?
Not hard actually XD You just need a protein based start up kit :P
Well, there’s the possibility that IS his power, and he’s messing with Sydney by bragging. Or they’re messing with her.
I so wish that was the case. I love creepy heroes.
Why wouldn’t it land him a spot in ARC? He’d be the most effective spy. As for being able to fight, you really need to read Worm (by Wildbow)..
-Being a colony of Borg spiders is pretty impressive on its own, but that’s not going to get him a spot in Arc-SWAT. He’d need to be able to hold his own in a fight against other supers.
Ah, yes..
But it’s a colony of TELEPHATIC SUPER SPIDERS.
Heck, make them cybernetic as well (in true borg syle) and you have got the most original super-hero ever.
Be honest now. You are just trying to induce nightmares in arachnophobes, aren’t you?
na – that’s what the white face paint, red noses and thousands(x8) of extra large shoes are for…
Flaming Clown Spiders. You’re a monster.
:D
I’m visualizing this as we speak. :-D
Have you ever heard of the Marvel comic villain Swarm? marvel.com/universe/Swarm
He is a conscious colony of bees that had eaten and absorbed the consciousness of Nazi scientist Fritz von Meyer.
In the animated series ‘Ultimate Spiderman’ Swarm appeared as a mass of mini mecha-spiders created by Michael Tan, a ‘disgruntled’ scientist working on telepathic control of machines, and recently fired by Tony Stark.
Note: Swarm has not appeared in a live action Marvel film, but shawarma has.
https://www.ew.com/article/2012/11/29/avengers-shawarma-scene
Even hulk like shawarma!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZkqC4Lz8dU
REPLICATORS!
>But it’s a colony of TELEPHATIC SUPER SPIDERS.
>Heck, make them cybernetic as well (in true borg syle) and you have got the most original super-hero ever.
Actually, I wrote that character (sans cybernetics) in my novella “Acquisition“, published June 4, 2015. It’s the second in a series about “what would the world look like if superpowers were real, and contagious?”
With a name like Vance one would think he had magical abilities.
…why?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Vancian_magic
Vancian magic.
Ha haa… I understood that reference.
seems like that manual has been written for Cydney. Also I agree with Harem, I hope ex-new-guy is prepaired to suffer.
i don’t think that’s going to be a problem.
she is impulsive, but not vengeful.
she will just get distracted and forget… until the next time she see him.
Unless she puts him on… THE LIST!!!!!
right now she is probably too scared to think of the list.
and i think she actually believes it.
so, until someone reminds her.
yeah, she’ll get distracted all right… right up until she goes to the Locker Room to change for P.T. and sees The SIGN again… at which point she’ll panic and scream for bug spray! to kill off any little bits of Vance that “just happened” to be in the female locker room “by Accident… yeah right, accident, my ass!”
I like spiders. Keep other bugs out of the house. Would be nice to have an intelligent colony. Would invite it to live in my basement and take care of the roaches.
Agreed, I only throw my spiders out after they cross the line. Life would be easier if I could tell them what the lines are.
I’d LOVE to be able to make a deal with hornets, wasps, and bees. Of course, it I could, so could [INSERT ORGANIZATION AND/OR GOVERNMENT THAT YOU DO NOT LIKE HERE].
If I had a way to communicate with wasps, I’d want to know why the ones in Germany like to hover around me. The things followed me all the way to the middle of the Rhine River.
A while back some sort of a stingy bug got in the house. It did one quick buzz around my head and then went straight to the screen door and waited for me to let it out. So maybe some of them are getting more intelligent.
8 out of 10 flappy buzzy things that follow me in, through the front door, proceed to exit it, if I swing the door back open and tell them, firmly, to get out.
I suspect it is more the draft the door creates when I do that, which encourages them. Plus the bright square of sunlight, compared to my relatively gloomy great hall. But you never know…
No need to. Just blow at them. The ones in my flat immediately turn around and go the other way. Quite a reliable way to save them from the cat… as long as the cat didn’t notice them first.
I like my daddy longlegs. Quiet, don’t eat each other, can be convinced to move on. And they even keep other spiders out, or eat them. It’s just that I have to clean up after them and they don’t catch fruit flies.
My spiders don’t….They just either stop for a moment before continuing for their goal (me?), or swerve around the gust of air, fearlessly marching on. I try to stomp in front of them, but they just keep skittering regardless.
Whew, daring little basterds(sic). :) Hmm, options I can think of:
– place a sheet of paper in their path, wait until all legs are on paper, turn paper 180° around vertical axis.
– blow dust/lint at them
– put the edge of a box in their path, when in, close box and empty box outside, as a last resort.
Trust me an arachnophobe will not want a spider on a piece of paper. They can skitter up that just as easily as the floor or a wall. The best trick is paper (or, if to hand, something stiffer, like thin cardboard) and a glass. Just slide the paper under them, then pop the glass on top.
That way they stay in place AND you can ensure they are actually inside the container. As opposed to crawling, out of sight, on the other side of a cup. Or, worse, on the back of your hand!
Oh I trust you on that :) Perhaps I got used to mine (daddy longlegs) and these cute jumping spiders… I take a jumping spider on my shoulder and/or a daddy longleg on my hands and arms rather than a bee in my hair any time… had all three happening to me… guess which was the worst… Alas, a friend of mine was once bitten by a kind of Araneus (barn spider?) and would rather not have that again.
The idea behind the paper was to give the spider a new direction without removing them. For removing: Cardboard & a glass, for sure.
interesting fact: Daddy-Long Legs actually aren’t spiders. they’re also known as Harvestmen, and that’s due to the fact they’re one, if not the only, kind of arachnid which drinks plant juices.
they have no fangs, nor venom, just a pair of chelicera (claws). their size compared to other arthropods is their main defense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae
Daddy long legs is a generic name for many long legged arachnids- around my area they are actually long-bodied cellar spiders!
For removal of the somewhat larger Australian huntsman spider, I use a flattened breakfast cereal box, and a transparent plastic cookie-jar-sized storage container substitutes for the glass. Used regularly enough that they are set aside ready.
And I agree, the little jumping spiders with big eyes are cute!
Ok, that definitely constitutes rolling on the floor laughing material! Karma for messing with Heatwave.
Right, Harem. Because noboy at Archon is messing with Sydney right now. Total honesty about everything.
I am impressed with Archon’s procedures. Either they have a training manual tailored for nerd-speak, or somebody was up very late last night, tweaking it for Sydney.
As a side note, this is probably nice for readers who felt that things were getting a bit too ‘military’. Reminding us that comedy trumps dry training manuals.
Although this might be inspiring to real training manual writers. ;-)
“…tailored for nerd-speak,…”
i am not sure if nerd specifically, but since they take on members who might have never had a proper training, and their power may make their personality a little overconfident and ignorant, they can’t use a wall of text type manual.
Also, as this is still Sydney’s flashback recollection of the events you have to ask yourself: “Is she a relieable narrator?”
Everything we have seen so far (including Harem being a double/triple agent) is through the filter of Sydney’s memory of the events and the voice in which she is chosing to present that to her audience.
We don’t even know who the audience she is recounting all this to is.
We can assume she’s breaking the fourth wall if we want to and that the audience is us. It is equally possible, however, that she is explaining everything to an in-story character whose viewpoint we are seeing this from. In which case we have a second unreliable narrator presenting the information to us, and are even further removed from the events being depicted.
I realise that DaveB may have addressed these issues in a blogpost, comment or similar of which I am unaware. However, taking only the extant material of the story itself, the situation with the narators is how it appears to me. Any variation from what would be expected of the formal register of a military organisation, and the embedding of ideas in ‘nerd-speak’ may just be Sydney’s retelling, or how she translated it to herself to make it stick.
Solidly reasoned.
Should we ever catch up to ‘the present day,’ and continue the story from that point, I am sure that the comedy will continue.
But what you say does give DaveB a very interesting option of playing it strictly realistically. You can still find comedy in reality, though. And the extra elements in Dave’s story allows him to explore comedy that has not been worked to death by stand-up comedians. So it is doable.
“You can still find comedy in reality, though.”
Some people just happen to realize that life itself is a joke & that they seem to be the punchline…That’s how depression first sets in. Some jokes, however, are only funny when it happens to somebody else.
No, that would be a person that has been told to write a Tech manual/Field manual (WTF manual) for a new recruit that until ARCHON came in from the Dark side of the budget (Black Ops.) was to REtrain them OUT of all the crap that movies and the media in general has improperly indoctrinated then about how a “Super Hero” was to act in the first place… whether that definition of “hero” is like the comic books (Batman/Green Lantern, etc.) or movies (Hot Fuzz/ The Avengers, Harry Potter, etc)…
remember, that the general public still thinks that supers are a myth or a government coverup… at least until yesterday that is.
What nerd speak?
is the only thing that strikes me as… a bit unreal, because IMHO you could as well jump off a bridge with your pants down. So why the effort?
Can you still jump with your pants on your knees though?
I couldn’t run, but I could jump. At least off a bridgde or everything downwards where no running jump is needed.
Would some like to have a “g”? I put in in one too many…
That was the right number of “g’s” but the wrong number of “d’s.”
And thank you , but no. I’ve already got my own D. I was born with it.
Oh… right. What was I thinking….
However you seem to have an ‘e’ deficiency. If you are turning a bit anaemic, I recommend some vitamin e.
i _elieve you might _e on to something there. Always _est to check how nutrient deficiencies can _reak the clarity of your writing. I, personally am _edevilled _y a lack of the second letter of the alpha_et. My _ase approach to food _eing on the _orders of veganism, i _arely get enough of some nutrients, unless _loody careful, resulting in the deficiency seen and enumerated here.
If your diet laks enough of a sertain vitamin found in sitrus, you kan try to kompensate by a klever substitution of other letters with a korresponding pronunsiation.
I refer to the letter “c” as “the thief of the alphabet.” It has no sound of its own, either swiping the sound of “s” or “k,” or it needs another letter added to it to form a different sound (like in “ch”). Indeed, there was a time in history when there was no letter “c” at all, either written or pronounced.
When is the letter “c” ever gonna get arrested & thrown in jail?
O.o
actually a reply to ‘MidnightDStroyer’, but we’ve run out of reply options:
Just checked through a few manuscript images: Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica manuscript no. Lat. 3256 defintiely has the letter . (lovely script of ‘square-capitals’ that are very easy on the eye if you liek that kind of thing. That’s a copy of Virgil, produced in the 4th century CE.
I’m only a medievalist – and usually with my feet in the seventh to early-twelfth cneturies – so don’t have any information from before that (Classical Antiquity, etc) to hand. Will maybe have a hunt though, if time permits…
I think Vance would like to add a few more letters to Archon’s name, making it “Arachnon”
I could manage to…
( •_•)
( •_•)~⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
…deal with that.
The effort to pull your pants up is a courtesy to the people who see you on your way to the bridge.
A www, I was hoping that it would be his real power. I really liked he were spiders in the old world of darkness, and having an Anansi on the team would be neat. Especially if he had all the forms. Human, man spider, swarm, and six foot long spider.
Spider be credit to team!
Let me tell you, having an ananasi on the team is great. Unless you are the only person on the team not immune to the delerium. You quickly learn to hate the Ananasi almost as much as you do the Shadow Lord.
Pretty sure I’d blast him with the PPO just to make sure.
He is deathly afraid of birdman…
*sitting on far side of room, to monitor, with a very long extension cable, on keyboard and mouse, peering at comic with binoculars*
Oookay, having finished reading DaveB‘s blog, I think this is now my preferred reading distance. We know that the 4th wall is permeable in this comic. Now I do consider myself to be a reformed arachnophobe, but there are limits!
There is no ‘reforming’. There is only management. :(
Recoil is in the plane of the gun, so your typical shot pattern will have an elliptical cross-section. Holding the gun vertically means the long-axis of your shot-pattern lines up with the long-axis of your typical target; holding it sideways means you’re matching long-axis with short-axis unless your target is also horizontal.
or there are multiple targets and the recoil will help pull the pistol to the next target.
The problem with that is forces acting at right angles to each other. Which is why testing always yields poor accuracy results.
Gun in vertical alignment: Gravity operates vertically. Recoil operates towards the gun wielder, but their arm is a lever, which will only allow so much of the force to be transmitted in that direction. Resulting in the lever moving, in the direction the hinges (elbow and wrist), thus resulting in the gun recoiling vertically.
Gravity however helps, because it pulls the weapon back into alignment. With muscles only needing to fine tune it. Moreover our brains are evolved to compensate for such vertical interactions, due to how we run. Even throwing is something that human brains have been evolving to deal with. Which works at its best, when keeping the forces in a vertical plane. Note how inaccurate discus and hammer throwing is, compared to, say, javelin or baseball throwing.
Gun in horizontal alignment: Now the forces are not working in the same plane. Gravity remains vertical, but the lever is in the horizontal. Note that turning the gun moves both the wrist and the elbow into horizontal alignment. Recoil is operating horizontally. But gravity is now pulling the gun down, out of position, rather than back into position.
Note that the muscles of the forearm are now aligned in a horizontal position, not allowing that to be corrected easily. In order to have accuracy, you want to use fine control. You do not see watchmakers using two foot long levers in their tools. The longer a lever/pivot arrangement is, the more movement you get at the end, for a given force. Too much and you do not have fine control.
The only way to vertically correct a misaligned gun, whilst it is in horizontal position, is to move the muscles of the upper arm. You are using a lever that is twice as long as the alternative means of control. So not only is gravity pulling the gun out of position, and the brain having difficulty with the complex problems of forces acting at right angles to each other, but your only means of correcting it is actually (more than) twice as bad as normal.
Note that firing a burst from a fully automatic weapon, aligned like this, will magnify all these problems. But if you do have a crowd of enemies, it is true that the recoil will be pulling the gun horizontally. And a high rate of fire can compensate for a lack of accuracy. Provided you are not shooting into the ground, for example.
Without training and practice though, this would pose a threat to allies, due to the risk of overshooting. Not to mention that, if you do not hit someone, you loose the option to correct your aim, until you do.
Whereas horizontally traversing such a weapon (held upright) does not appear to be onerous, in the first place. It is not a problem looking for a solution. So I would be surprised if soldiers felt the loss of both accuracy and control to be of any benefit.
“Gravity operates vertically.”
…Except when Sydney is also using her Flight Orb…
Well that helps explain the Mythbusters’ results when they tried various handgun holds. Jamie also noted that holding the firearm vertically also allowed the use of the sights, potentially improving accuracy.
Wheee!
*runs around excitedly, chasing tail*
I talked about physics, in a purely real world context, and a physics teacher was satisfied with my argument!
Do I get a gold star?
*wags tail, in eager anticipation*
Good doggy!
The instruction for the second illustration is poor, especially since it does not specify snapping herself with a rubber band until AFTER removing her finger from the trigger. The author should remove his or pants and jump a bridge as a matter of general principle. As much as I like Peggy, she should do the same for specifically handing a book with that illustration and instruction set when she specifically knows Sydney.
Except that particular style of manual is particularly effective with people with short attention spans.
that’s a page about proper trigger discipline. not even firing. you NEVER leave your finger on the trigger.
(unless you intend to keep on pulling it)
i’m not sure that’s an unimpressive power, after all she took on spider man more than once ( the other).. before getting eaten by birds.
But if you don’t hold the gun sideways how will people know you’re a street tough gangsta not to be effed with? What you gonna do when people start frontin on your turf unchecked?!
Thats why you hold TWO guns! You dont need to hold them sideways to prove your street cred at that point!
Yep, you can be every bit as inaccurate using two guns as the wanker holding his one gun sideways.
Pfft, it doesnt matter you are twice as likely to miss, YOU ARE HOLDING TWO GUNS! :p
For the exception of bird eaters a most Australian species, I really like spiders.
Very helpful getting rid of other nastier vermins.
Have a love/hate regarding Brazilian wandering spider.
I have no hate-on for spiders, and appreciate their place in the ecosystem.
Sadly, phobias have nothing to do with logic.
I find it interesting that you specifically dislike the spiders that are most easily made into pets (that is, if by Bird Eaters you mean tarantulas- I’m not completely up on my spider lingo).
They are a species of tarantula, but rather a particular one. Arguably the biggest species of spider in the world (if you go by mass). If size is your thing, they are the second. With leg-spans of 12″! Plus they have 1″ fangs.
If you want to keep that as a pet, just be aware that your number of friends will be inversely proportional to the number of legs in your home!
Arianna: No, Marvel already have a “Spider Man”.
Vance: Yea, but I said “Spider Man s ”
Arianna: That does not sound right. Especially as you look like one man.
Vance: “Spiders Man”?
Arianna: Still close enough that they would probably sue us. And win.
Vance: Well I am actually both genders anyhow. “Colony Man”?
Arianna: Perhaps you should run that by the others. You may want a variant on that.
Vance: “SpidMan then?”
Actually….. Marvel already has a guy like that. Remember the Spider that bit both Spidey (and actually a girl in the room, who now goes by the hero name Silk)? yeah…. Pete had a rather dickish bully at the time who ended up putting two and two together about the spider bite, went back, found said spider, and ATE IT in an attempt to give himself superpowers.
He became a colony of sentient spiders and called himself “The Thousand”. he’s probably also one of the most nightmare-inducing villains Spidey ever had to face.
flash thompson ate a radioactive spider hoping it would give him powers? Seriously? Since its fairly obvious pete didnt eat a spider, why would he think that was the best way to do things?!
because he was a MORON? maybe… that whole “a rather dickish bully” line…
Actually, said spider would have been long dead by the time this bully figured it out. As dead spiders don’t bite eating it would have been the only option left to said moron.
Different dickish bully. Flash was the one that was written at the time. This guy was the one written into the backstory years after the fact.
There was a “Spiders Man” in Earth X.
Maybe Sydney has a fear of spiders????
I suspect Vance will learn to fear Sydney yet.
Have Vance visit that guy Sydney slammed into the pavement last night…Hospitals do have scheduled visiting hours.
“Are you a friend, or a relative?”
“Well some of me lived in a corner of his garage, for a few years, I guess that counts?”
“People who co-habit do count as ‘friends’ under our rules. But only them. No exceptions.”
“Ok, I guess the rest of me will just have to stay here. They can go on ahead.”
*unzips Vance-suit and separates*
*screams and sound of running feet*
“Hello… hello? Where did everyone go?”
I would move as far away as I can too if someone gave me a creepy smile like that.
Plus, why is Vance drinking soda with his pinky finger extended?
Also, why is the soda called cuke? Is that a real thing or is it made up? I am asking because there are a lot of brands out there with weird names like an energy drink called p ussy and a beer called f ucking hell?
The name’s made up to avoid copyright violations.
well, Coca-Cola lost the rights to “coke” as a trademark a while back. I forget the particulars, but between the term becoming common parlance used to describe any carbonated beverage in some parts of the US (growing up, getting a “coke” could mean root beer, sprite, orange soda, Dr Pepper or so on) or having frequent people use the term and Coca-Cola deciding not to pursue lawsuits on what they believed to be harmless things.
Thanks.
“
He has only just broken the habit of drinking by putting his little finger into the can. Vance might have been a Mork and Mindy fan.
to quote Sky Sharks by Fred Perry, “because it’s fancy”.
Drinking with your pinkey extended is super classy
That’s how I drink my yucky tasting tap water.
That’s actually not why. :) It’s a stealth reference.
“It’s Heaven in a can”
It could be cucumber flavoured soda. For whatever reason, cucumber is becoming a flavour for beverages, now.
Maybe some people are getting tired of the taste of real cucumbers, so they have to have a chemically-induced artificial flavor? Or is it that some vegans think that regular soda tastes too much like meat for them?
heh, fairly close to what kitsune in Divine Blood are.
Man-Spider.
Also – I’ve wondered – since he’s been introduced as Vance – is his name Alex, and did he take his name from a certain video game franchise that is incapable of counting to 3?
Being a comic nerd, perhaps Sydney could arrange a trans-reality visit from one of Adam Black’s “Locus” characters, ‘Spook’. His real name being Shen’to Bana’i which translates as “Eater of Spiders”. Hey, ARC is supposed to keep tabs on all things super, alien, paranormal and supernatural. Yes? Could be done. Or maybe easier, collaborate with Dabbler and her glamor/shape shifting abilities. Seems that Dabs would always be up for a good practical joke.
I think Vance was recruited for his psychological warfare capabilities.
Agreed.
I’ve been reading to much worm fanfiction, because I have the image of Vance somehow getting transported to earth bet and ending up face to face with Skitter stuck in my head.
“I’m made of spiders!”
“Maniacal Laughter”
I can’t wait till this turns on him ’cause Sydney blurts it out in front of someone who has no idea…
On a side note: THANK YOU for that first panel.
Spiders Man…Spiders Man…freaks you out like all spiders can
Just beneath his exo-skin, a bunch of nopes lay within
Look out! Here comes the Spiders Man!
*golfclap*
*looks at Here Comes Honey Badger, whilst tilting head to one side*
*shakes head and shrugs shoulders*
*normalclap*
*gives Yorp a cookie* You deserve that. Never seen a dog that can clap before.
*Eats cookie and wags tail.*
*Then types: “*Eats cookie and wags tail*” and hits ‘Enter’, on keyboard’*
Hmmm…Did Ralph von Wau Wau teach you how to type?
For reference, see the story that first introduces Ralph to Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon in the book “Time Travelers Strictly Cash,” written by (coincidentally enough) Spider Robinson.
my god that was funny to read and imagine
Heh. He really IS a talking dog…The guy is mute & the dog is the ventriloquist!
:D
Later on, Ralph got a job as a blog-writer since no one on the internet has to know that he’s really a dog. That’s why I asked about Yorp’s training with a keyboard.
;)
Evening classes. I figured being able to touch-type would be able to help in any of the careers I was looking at, as well as for online communication and gaming purposes.
Humans complain about the problems of a glass ceiling. Kennels have wooden ones. And they are much lower!
You already got a cookie a long time ago for being a dog that can type. I only give cookies for new tricks. *pats Yorp* But you can get pets anytime.
Yay!
And i just noticed his “who is who” picture…
He will always be known as the Spiders man.
Made me think of the black widow spider. Now the question is – should he keep that name then?
Is he serious? If yes, what powers did Varia get when she touched him?
Also, his necklace is just brown. Woner what that maans.
It’s actually black, as far as I can tell, which simply means he doesn’t have a code-name yet.
We know that Varia has to touch someone, in order to form a gestalt. She probably changed her mind about checking what power she would get from Vance. I am guessing momentarily after hearing the phrase:
“Sure, just let me peel off my skin, so you can actually touch us.”
I would suppose that’s one of the 7 billion powers Varia would NOT care to try…
The necklace is also made of spiders…
… Each spider of which, in turn, is made of smaller spiders. ;)
There is something silly about the author saying that it doesn’t matter what Vance’s power is, when on page 323 /archive 1745 Varia touches him and clearly manifests a significant power (which we expect is not identical to his). It looks like she acquired a stainless steel body (so when he uses his power for himself the result should be similar, perhaps acquiring a titanium body –but there are plenty of other possible substances, of course).
Well on the following page, to the one you mentioned, Varia points out that her gestalt from Ren is radically different. His enhanced adrenaline power gives him super strength and slow motion sensory perception. Yet Varia turns into a lightning golem!
So it does not matter whether sometimes the powers are fairly similar, or have a connection (such as with being able to piggy back with Harem’s teleportation). Not when there are known exceptions that are totally unrelated. Vance could have any power and it would still be compatible with the established canon.
And, for the record, I hope that he does not have something like a steel body. When I swat spiders, with a heavy object, I want to hear “SQUISH” not “THUNK”!