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.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
::holds flamethrower:: “For reasons” Kill them with fire is not a reason “…Millions of spiders all over you” …do you have a spare?
If he was a telepathy-induced spider-based colonial organism, he could be pretty effective if the spiders could use telepathy on other organisms. Especially if, as is often the case in fiction, telepathy is instantaneous, allowing him to remain connected with his component parts. Imagine sending out different spiders to allow instantaneous communication between his separate parts, allowing easy spying on someone who doesn’t notice or ignores the spider, or just simply sending out a spider to nestle in someone’s hair or in their clothes and utilize telepathic suggestions to influence their action, or cover them in spiders to have each one broadcasting an emotion, like, say, ‘fear’…or even completely puppeting someone covered in spiders. That many spiders working together could also potentially create a lot of webbing very quickly…especially if they have super-webs, but silk is reasonably tough all on its own. Of course, a lot of these sound like villain powers…
No, no I do not think telepathy is necessary to induce fear, under those conditions!
For anyone wishing to dispute that, by claiming they do not experience fear, from being covered in spiders:
• Have you actually tried that?
• Bearing in mind that there is no known species of spider which does not have poison.*
• Any species of spider can potentially transmit bacteria, by their bite, which causes necrosis, in the victims skin. Although it is only common in a few species. However it can cause permanent disfigurement (I personally know someone who had this on their face), require amputation of limbs, and sometimes cannot be stopped even by that. Resulting in a slow, painful, death.**
• These are super spiders, so presumably they have super poison.
• Check out Vance’s Who’s Who avatar.
• If that lot does not scare you, sorry to tell you this, but your wiring is faulty.
* Albeit that most spiders do not have jaws big enough to penetrate human skin, nor have enough poison to kill an adult human. Nor for that matter do many have toxins which are optimised for killing mammals. Paralysing small prey is the usual aim. But don’t count on it, if in Australia or dealing with super-spiders!
** On the plus side, see your doctor early enough and the condition may be easily treatable. My friend only required a single course of treatment (antibiotics or anti-venom, she did not know which), and it halted the spread. But that cannot cure the disfigurement. Dead skin remains dead!
If you get weird s**t happening around a bite mark (or an unknown injury, which could be one), then get it checked out by a doctor. Preferably one familiar with the bugs in that area. If you saw the critter biting you, take it’s body with you. Or memorise what you can, to give an accurate description.
I don’t have that many and I don’t want to hurt the ones I have. There were a few time one was running/walking over my pillow and climbing on my arm. It tickles a bit. I’m quite confident I would be comfortable with lots of them doing that. Mine are not aggressive towards me, so I can feel safe.
Solifugae (camel spiders) come to mind. But even though they are not venomenous, they are freaking large and can allegedly bite through toenails, so if you’d ask me whether I would comfortable with being covered in them, I’d say “No!”. There’s no link to their Wiki page provided here to protect the arachnophobiac ones among us from curiously mis-clicking.
Huh, I thought it’s the venom of certain spiders (e.g. brown recluse) that causes necrosis. And I can think of a treatment if you can gather the bravity (not sure I would :p): Let a doctor cut off the dead skin and let it regrow.
I’d agree with that – mostly :)
Both are true. Which is why I asked my friend if she got anti-venom or antibiotics.
The disease version is necrotising fasciitis. As a disease, it is not unique to spiders. They are just one of various possible vectors.
The venom induced version is Loxoscelism</a, which is present in the Brown Recluse Spider and various of its relatives.
There are quite a few spiders that don’t have teeth big enough to bite through human skin though. For the perspective of a human, they might aswel not have venom/teeth
From what I understand, the humble Daddy Longlegs spider has the most potent of spider venoms, on a microgram-per-microgram comparison…It’s just that their mandibles are too weak to penetrate human skin.
That is an urban legend, and proven to be untrue. They are just so docile that it takes being hit with an electric shock to make them bite. And the guy on the tv show I saw covering this had no ill affects from the venom.
He literally put his hand in a box with these guys and shocked them until they bit him(yes nuts, lol)
i guess it would be a good test of the telepathic potency though: get them to transmit ‘calm’ add them one by one, and see which emotion wins…
any volunteers?
Please excuse my carelessness in not closing the blockquote tag.
Darn it. Why can’t they keep the facts the same? Once they have taught me something at school, the world should not change. Now I will have to qualify the statement in future!
*sigh*
Thanks though. One extra bit of trivia, to go into the brain. So, instead of injecting their prey with paralytic poison and slowly sucking them dry, those species:
Ok I still rate that as being scary. Icky and scary. I still would not want a super-spider colony of those near me!
Well, the issue is that he’s likely to be facing people with super-powers, many of whom would likely have skin impenetrable to the force a spider could bring to bear for a spider-bite, and many of which might well be immune to poison due to magic, protection, or unusual anatomy. Not to mention aliens, demons, and other such entities who may be totally unfamiliar with spiders and thus not have an instinctive revulsion towards them. Also enlightened warrior types who know no fear and all that, merely react appropriately. So I would say there are probably plenty of supers which potentially have no reason to be afraid of spiders (especially when there are things like Maxima to be afraid of), so the fear they could bring to bear via empathic or telepathic projection might be enough to overwhelm some of the tougher types. A mental type would probably be likely to be immune, or at least have be able to combat it, though perhaps enough spiders working together could overwhelm some forms of mental shielding…
had a character in a Scion game, half Italian daughter of Benten and native of Sydney Australia. I named her Juri Como (a play on the Japanese myth of the Jurougumo). Her mother gave birth to her while sheltered from titanspawn by the Jurougumo and so Juri has a friendly relationship with most spiders. I took the “Sprites” follower creature and refluffed it as three swarms of tiny spiders and two larger spiders, all rather harmless species.
She was primarily social and magic rather than combat. But she eventually created a spell to allow her spiders’ bites to inflict the bad luck effect from the Evil Eye spell. She also had a spell that allowed her to know when a particular target (person, place or thing) was being scryed on, but it required said object to be “decorated” in webs. They primarily traveled hidden in her clothes, which was generally a shock whenever she deployed them because she was a more or less kawaii-ko type mangaka girly-girl and then suddenly swarms of spiders would spill out of her to go do recon or ambush people (no damage but they caused a lot of panic when they deployed properly).
Eventually, she acquired five kunoichi servants which were actually the souls of fans of her comic given a chance to reincarnate into shape-shifting fire-spider ninja girls. Like much of the rest of Juri’s schtick, they were mostly about distraction and playing merry havoc with opponents than actually doing damage. They did a lot of leading people on goose chases.
One likeness, a bit too European looking for my imagination of the character: https://fav.me/d80i165
Better likeness, plus the rest of her band: https://fav.me/d83okle
Spiderweb is mudafucking resistant material. The militaries arround the glove try to make sheep generate the same sustance instead of wool because then they could make bulletresistant suits that doesn’t weight 30 kg and are flexible
The poor sheep… :P
But they’d be bullet resistant super sheep!
Not sheep, and not so much militaries. You’re thinking of the Canadian company that’s been making Spider-Goats, who’s milk contains web proteins.
If they are not atempting, they should.
It would be cheap and really resistant. And, maeby, even “multimercado” [had to say that in spanish] and cheap. Like Grafeno [and, again, in spanish]
You said “cheap” twice. I am fluent in animal speak. “Cheep Cheep” is bird talk!
Whereas sheep go “Baahhh”. Presumably so do hybrid spider-goats.
Mind you people seeing goat-sized spiders make a noise like: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!”
I remember an interesting video which said that dogs make different sounds depending on which part of the world you’re in – Arf arf, Woof woof, Bark bark, and some other ones I forgot…
One book on languages I read a few years back didn’t make the point that the dogs themselves sounded different, but did make the point that how different languages represented dog barks varied widely. Something similar: A list of dog noises in different languages.
Random info that was put in my brain at some point, but I am aware that it is just an accent thing. The “language” is the same.
Also try the Internet, to humans dogs sound the same the world over despite the wide range of sounds they make. (don’t loose a week on dog videos “researching” this :)
In spain they go Guau Guau
Sorry, It was a bit late for me.
If a mudafaking spider goes in a dog sice, first, I’ll burn everything in a mile radius. Second I will train it and make him my ride
A) Fig. 3 – HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. B) Is that psycho drinking new coke? Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
It’s clearly New Cuke.
Also, Vance is pretty fancy. Check out dat pinky.
tie-in
Is that the sound of the orbital pun cannon being deployed?
No, no, it is in space. Just wait to hear the screaming.
Bonus points if you spot the a href=”https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lw-33d2-ueQ/UWow0kFRyHI/AAAAAAAAASs/hpGeb9HPKlE/s640/7179442321_0dca576a06_z.jpg”>tie-in.
Looks like plain Coke to me, pure liquid Coke, street value… several million
If it is made with Corn Syrup, then it is new crap, real Coke has real sugar in it
Ya’ know…
At some point, when you start shooting, you do have to put your finger on the trigger.
Yea but the picture for that appears on page 14. After the section about “point this end towards enemy”.
+1
But you don’t keep your finger on the trigger the entire time you are holding the gun. You only put your finger on the trigger when you are about to shoot and are certain about what you are shooting at. Of course this is just shooting range safety. In an actual fire fight however, safety comes second to survival.
On the contrary, your own survival is dependent on how you practice safety. In a firefight situation, would you want to accidentally shoot yourself, thus doing your enemy’s job for them?
And he shall be called NOPE-man… with the power of NOPE!!!! F*ck that! I’m outa here!
i second that ^__^
I vote for this
Dave, you just sort of accidentally Rule 63 on one of my City of Heroes characters and I can’t stop giggling.
As the saying goes: Right of Way is a regulation, not a rule.
You can have it all you want, that 20 ton Truck is still going to run over you if you try to assert it.
The same applies to the “new guy get’s messed with” rule.
Just yesterday Sydney managed to hit a water main under a parking lot. If she thinks she really needs a spider to shock a supervillain, she might just try to cut vance…
“…she is indeed the junior most member.”
In military slang, Sydney is the FNG (New F**king Guy).
Obviously, this is Vance’s version of asking Sydney to get a left-handed wrench, or a spool of shoreline.
He is just F**king lucky she grabbed the Fly-ball and not something lethal
Don’t care how new someone is, some people you simply do not mess with
Left handed smoke shifter, a port to starboard thrust knob, a skyhook, the list goes on and on.
Sydney has her own Skyhook
Or did you mean these Skyhooks?
These are supers. Asking them to get something ‘impossible’ would probably result in a pile-up of useless junk.
That is the BEST EFFING GUN MANUAL PICTURE EVER. I want to read the whole manual. Dave, I took the liberty of posting the first panel on Twitter, thank you <3
Sure, mess with the new guy. But don’t do something that would encourage them to use their demonstrated super blaster to sterilize (glass) their immediate vicinity. Or you.
Well, at least I now have a LEAST favorite member of the team.
If he is just messing with her (as opposed to messing with her AND being made up of spiders), then I approve of his deadpan humour.
Otherwise, yea, move over Harem, there is a new player in town!
No wonder she likes hanging with him!
Because they are multi-bodied organisms, with an over-mind. Vance might actually be a perfectly nice person, who, as such might not be appealing to a thrill-seeking double agent, like Harem. If so, I will just have to keep my dormant arachnophobia in check.
Why has no-one mentioned the Aburame clan from Naruto?
Because… no one else watches that show?
Also, the aburame dont do spiders, that was kidomaru, the 4 armed guy that worked for orochimaru.
Still, a whole hive of insects inside a person.
Oh good- I was worried from his expressions on the previous pages that Vance was going to be all uptight and the stop-having-fun guy. This makes him seem much more personable.
The Mgalekgolo or Hunters from the Halo games are also a connected colony of sentient worms, that regularly pound armored armored super humans into the ground. Maybe a colony of mind linked super spiders would also be super strong and super durable.
They’d kinda have to be to maintain a humanoid shape of that size without crushing the ones that make up the feet. It’s something to think on, in a swarm creature. The entire swarm is must be as durable as the mass of the of the swarm placed in the backs of the members at the bottom.
If ants can do this https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/watch-fire-ants-use-their-bodies-to-form-living-architecture-180947854/?no-ist then Vance should be capable of doing the same with spiders…His own mind with the telepathic control would provide the organization necessary for them.
If his Vance-suit has an included “skeleton” as a support structure, the weight wouldn’t be that big of a problem (and maintaining shape would be a LOT easier), but they’d still need to be super strong spiders just to be moving it around. Otherwise they’d need to go all the way to MIB Arquillian “human shaped robot” level of complexity to keep it looking and moving like a person – then there would be a lot less space for spiders.
His implication though, is that he’s just a human-shaped silk balloon filled with spiders, spiders, and more spiders – in that case, yeah, they’d have to be super spiders to maintain the right shape and motion to look human. Now imagine fighting someone like that, and when you punch them in the gut, instead of a “whoosh” of air coming out of their mouth, they spray you with super strong telepathic spiders…
Okay, I’m going to go shiver in a corner now.
That’s his superpower; to induce & activate a severe case of arachnophobia in people who were once emotionally stable human beings…
O.o
Vance: This is my gift, this is my curse. Who am I? I’m Spiders Man.
*”I’m spiders, man.”
Prediction: Some of us are going to have spider dreams tonight.
Prepare for the mental invasion of SPIDERS! (Courtesy of Vance)
Feels like a there is a panel is missing between six & seven
It would just be Vance standing up, or walking. The page already comes to nine panels, plus a couple of inserts. If Dave starts doing too many inserts it would both clutter up the flow of the page, and mean he would be trying to cram two pages worth of work into one page. Which is probably not a good way to go.
Plus do not forget that Dave is now having to consider the paper book page layout. That really is a full page already. I would not want to see any of the other frames swapped out, or reduced in size, just for a transiting shot.
My opinion- normal super who can transform into a swarm of super bugs of his choice.
Lots of bugs have weird abilitys that would be great.
Super bugs would be a great addition.
Spider webs, bombardier beetle, stealth (pigment change), flight, eat through anything (termites tunnelled into a bank) etc
I would add that he needs to turn humanoid to change bug type though.
Actually, if someone introduced themselves to me, I’d be instantly and IMMENSELY attracted to them.
What can I say, I freakin’ LOVE spiders ♥
He has good looks and a decent personality. I just have arachnophobia, so I’d be both attracted and terrified at the same time.
Sydney, you need to put Vance on “The List.” And he needs to SEE you do it. ;)
All he’d need to do to win any fight is explain his powers. Nobody would risk hitting him. He’d win every confrontation without violence.
Hey, that could be a great way to deal with our own police brutality issues: fill up all our cops with spiders!
Expect for The Black Flag (for those who don’t know, it’s a brand of fly spray, that is also effective against spiders)
I can sooo relate with Sydney…
I’d have a hard time not using the PPO on him at that point xD
Max’s reaction that might be anything but pleasant but I can’t imagine it being worse than “spiders everywhere”.
Um, he does realize this is Sydney he’s doing this to? So, he’s going to be the first member of their group to actually get killed a a battle, right?
Soooo…The REAL Spiderman, huh?
O.o
Vance Is Evil. I respect that.
i had a similar idea last year but involving ants and manipulated wave lengths or light. didja know there’s a species of ant that can make a silk like substance using its silival extracts? anyway i sure hope Vance is full of spiders and not just messing with sydney
One likeness, a bit too European looking for my imagination of the character: https://fav.me/d80i165
Better likeness, plus the rest of her band: https://fav.me/d83okle
wrong place, meant to connect this to my commentary on my spider friend above….copy-pasta initiated
Hmm…I quite like the image he painted. It would be a very cool being.
The back story to Vance is that the core spider to his collective is actually the spider that bit Peter Parker. By ingesting his DNA he gained amazing human powers. Opposable digits! Ears! Endothermic metabolism! The ability to chew and process solid food!
To this day he still seeks a scientist capable of removing the curse!
I wish I had that first panel in a 3×5 Feet to post at the range when I was on active duty. So true, so funny, so true.
Pure. Comedy. Gold.
Alternate Who’s Who entry:
VANCE: Possibly full of spiders; possibly full of crap.
By the way, Vance has a +2 in ma Favourite Character List.
Messing with the noob friking her out but with the pinky hold up to drink a coke like a sir.
And another +2 if he is, in fact, a hive of superspiders in a bulletresistant humanshape ragdolle.
…
Or if he is just a very good ilusionist and make people think that dose are actually his powers becouse of resons.
….this is the single most evil thing anyone has done in this comic yet. if he is NOT a spider collective, however…sydney is going to turn him to paste
I thought you were never supposed to hold a gun one-handed at all?
Can be hard to get it out of your holster if you don’t. Plus, how are you meant to shoot at other drivers on the freeway?* You need one hand on the steering wheel!
Although optimum shooting stances do involve supporting a pistol with the off-hand. (Thanks Myth Busters, never let it be said that TV does not teach stuff).
* Remember freeway shooting is seasonal. Be sure to check the dates with your local highway patrol, and apply for a permit.
I thought about the possibility of using the feet to drive. It later occurred to me that there would be no foot on the accelerator.
Uh, unless you intentionally stick a can under the pedal. Then there would be no brake.
I just thought of a circumstance where one handed shooting would be optimal. The principal was first discovered in the age of duelling. When weapons were not particularly accurate. So the difference in target size was important. Someone standing square-on to you presents a broad target. Whereas an opponent side-on to you had a narrower one.
The same applies nowadays, but the increased accuracy, and rate of fire, means most of the time you are better off trying to kill your opponent, before they get a chance to fire. Which requires optimising your accuracy (two handed stance) as opposed to minimising your chances of being hit (one handed, side-on).
But, if just providing cover, then there is no need to put yourself at additional risk. Your reduced accuracy is not so important. Whereas the enemies is. And you are helping to prevent them from shooting at you (and your allies) by means of making them take cover.
Obviously this is assuming circumstances require you being in a position where such choices make sense. But, for example, if advancing with enemies in a building, that you are already adjacent to, then you have the option of keeping your back flat against it, to minimise your profile. Perhaps gaining some concealment, or cover, by that means.
You can hold a gun two handed, whilst doing this, but it would make your arms a more obvious target. And your weapon would be pointing away from where your enemies are. Whereas the one handed stance actually allows you to point the weapon at windows and doorways, as you approach them. Without unduly exposing yourself.
Especially important, if you cannot see an opponent. Then your survival depends on you spotting them, before they see you. Note that, if they do fire first, having a reduced profile improves your odds of living long enough to return fire. So, up until that point, the one handed stance is the far better option. Also, as you are already pointing your weapon in the right direction, returning fire is quicker and safer.
Especially as your instincts would be not to further expose yourself, whilst someone has a bead on you! Simply by returning fire, you may force them to take cover, even without being accurate. Now you know their location, and can decide if the two handed stance would serve you better.
Oh god, what if he could transform into something like a Crawler from Killing Floor 2? Some sort of horrifying human/spider hybrid straight out of your nightmares? https://wiki.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php?title=Crawler_(Killing_Floor_2)
Dave i’m begging you let the spiders look like some of the spiders in this page https://www.pinterest.com/racoonzmama64/kick-ass-nature-and-the-nightmarish-confusion/
or like this bug here
https://www.pmslweb.com/the-blog/monday-chuckles-making-the-most-of-moon-day/17-nope-nope-nope-meme/
and when he said spiders everywhere i thought about the first men in black bug suit
A spider telepathically linked to a remote sentience would be an interesting and powerful surveillance tool. Look up Allen Steele’s short story WHININ’ BOY BLUES for a nice and humorous take on the idea.
Anyone remember Jonathan Hive from Wild Cards? He could turn into wasps.
Ah hah hah! Yeh; his power is to vomit silk to ensnare his enemies into submission.
This is why you always grab the truesight gem.
Or never do, if you’d rather keep your sanity.
The truesight orb would not show anything amiss. Vance is wearing a mundane disguise. Sydney already confirmed, to Peggy, that the orb cannot penetrate those.
Truesight does NOT equal “X-Ray Vision”.
The latter *****MIGHT***** become available in a futire ‘upgrade’, but it is very clear that Sydney does not have anything like this capability at present.