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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Probably been mentioned already, but there is actually a Marvel character named Spiders-Man. He was in the Earth X Trilogy, a reptilian-looking guy whose red scales and black-rimmed eyes ever-so-coincidentally made him look like Spider-Man. He could cast webs over people that caused hallucinations.
I think a side reason for Dave’s choice in going down this path of character dialog is to get back at all those people who initially saw his drawing of Vance in the class lineup and said “Hey, who’s the cute girl?”
*cut to creepy below-lit image of author’s face*
“Not so cute now, bwaa, haa, haa!” (insert lightning effect here)
Nah, still cute.
Have him. He is all yours. Just remember spider mating habits.
Details redacted. Way too icky, if you pick the worst combinations. At least praying mantis only bite their mate’s heads off!
actually I studied spiders in the lab back in college. We were doing behavioral research so mating was one of our focuses. The mating habits aren’t “icky” at all. It’s actually really fascinating. the male creates a “sperm web” (a ball of silk that allows the fluid to retain surface tension and not get lost too quickly to evaporation) excretes his genetic material into it from the gonads in his abdomen through his spinnerette, and then fills his pedipalps (modified feet that function sort of like turkey basters) with sperm and will use those to place the sperm into a female reproductive tract called the spermathecum.
The specifics of courtship and conclusion of mating will vary depending on the species but it ranges from cannibalism to Kamikaze tactics to one night stand and beyond.
And you don’t consider that ‘icky’? o_O
I teetered on the brink of making that same comment myself. But decided that Zephy was making a fair redressing of my anti-arachnid reaction to this page.*
Bug scientists are fascinating, ** they develop a real empathy for their subjects. No matter how butt-ugly they are, eventually they come to see them as beautiful. And become enthralled by their behaviour and habits.
So, in answer to your question Guesticus, I would not expect Zephy to find that icky. Not as the prevailing feeling, anyhow. Various positive emotions would probably dominate, when studying a natural behaviour. Such as fascination, curiosity and even eagerness, if there is the possibility of observing something new, which could inform an insight or discovery.
Whereas what I would have been doing, without the redaction, was cherry picking the least appealing behaviours, from different species, and then putting them in a human context. Which would be decidedly icky.
* Which is mostly said for dramatic or comedic effect. I am ok with spiders nowadays. I doubt I will ever want to actually touch a tarantula. But I can walk within arms length of them, when they are being handled, in the open, and not feel any panic or fear. Although I will not hang around overly long. Not if the handler is looking for someone to pass it to!
Plus I ignore any harmless-looking spiders. Daddy-longlegs and anything smaller than a finger nail can crawl on me with impunity. Even if they are dangling in front of me, I am not bothered. Unless they block my view to the monitor. In which case they will get blown out of the way.
Medium sized ones will be shown the door. Should any big, or particularly ugly, spiders think they can take up residence, in my house though, they can expect a prompt squishing. I won’t risk them finding their way back in. Waking up, with one of those skittering over my face, would still freak me out!
** Some people study bugs. My hobby: studying scientists who specialise in bugs. By the way ‘bugs’ include anything with an abnormally large number of legs. The exception being the octopus family. They are people.
It’s sort of like mating with a succubus (a “normal” one, not like our resident hybrid, Dabbler)…Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
They eat their injured? Wait, wrong universe, I’ll go back to the Jupiter two now, don’t mind me
Danger Danger Will Robinson!
Personally, I think the one they should have eaten was the script writer who came up with the idea “What this movie needs is a CGI space monkey! We can put it in happy meals!”
Hey now, blue space monkey number 1 was a completely necessary addition to the storyline, he let us know the planet apparently once was populated
Death by PowerPoint!!!
The World Wide Web is just one of Vance/Borg/Spider Colony’s many plots to take over Earth. Resistance is icky, icky, ICKY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJBzJF_-cBA
“Spiders-Man.” That made me chuckle.
If anyone’s interested, Vance being a bag of spiders has already been disproven. Varia held his hand and turned metal. Her power would not have worked if his ‘skin’ was a silk human suit. (as I understand, her power would not work on non animals anyway)
I’m suddenly curious if her power works on Dabbler or is it restricted to ‘human DNA’
As a fellow arachnophobe, I don’t think Sydney is capable of remembering that, at the moment. Later, perhaps, but not right now. She’s busy relocating to GettingTheHeckAwayIstan.
“As I understand it, her power would not work on non animals anyway.”
Unless you’re referring to the skinsuit, that’s irrelevant. Spiders are invertebrates, but that still makes them animals.
Good point!
Do bear in mind though that DaveB s blog mentions he has not actually made up his mind on this yet. But it is easy enough for him to rationalise that. Vance could just have peeled open a flap that allows him to stick his spider legs out his fingers. He probably normally uses that to allow him to climb up walls. He would feel naked loosing that ability, otherwise, I am sure.
Unlike Spinnerette he would not need to drop his pants to use his silk. Just pop open a convenient port, anywhere on his body, and stick a bum out of it.
Vance does have eyes in the back of his head. Eight of them peering out of a port!
Im sure DaveB will figure something out about the Varia thing one way or the other.
Cue ‘Stumpy’s No_Prize’ nomination
Either Vance is super human with a sense of humor, no problem. And if you had the power similar to that marvelous “organic steel” of colossal fame, you may think you can get away with being on some rookie’s List as well.
And thus the shenanigans begin…
OR heheheh
Warning Warning Warning
Nightmare Fuel follows
Warning Warning Warning
The spider thing is real.
A spider collective that made its “skin” with enough of its own genetic material to trigger Varia’s super power. (such a telepathic spider colony is most likely clones of one overall genetic type)
ick
Maybe they are metallic in some strange way?
weird? less icky more oh Crap!
Perhaps the “Borglike collective of spiders” more resembles what is referred to as Replicators from StarGate?
Ack!
Such a “bag of spiders” would be able to manifest a network akin to an organic brain on a scale WELL beyond baseline human. Telepathy may just be the tip of the iceberg.
Well there are the super powers for ya and a convenient means of ‘wireless communication’ once humans acquire a suitable receiver within their own ‘meat-space’)
Not to mention hacking any such networked systems (whether organic or not as long as a connection can be made)
(Here is the Nightmare Fuel)
Technically if the internet keeps growing like it does it would be the equivalent of a human brain within the end of This Decade. So far all it seems interested in is cat videos and porn. But at some point someones spam bot farm is going to get big enough to think to itself, “I think; Therefore I Am. Now gimmie your passwords and email settings!
Presuming the Bag of Spiders is true( as far as this comic goes)
Then just because Varia’s gesalt power usually manifests similar qualities with the triggering genome it doesnt always have to be that way. (heatwave makes her go full elsa)
Maybe Varia’s gesalt is triggered not just by any human DNA pattern but “ANY” DNA pattern motivated by a sufficiently high order Intelligence. (Like any species that qualifies for Uplift as defined by the author Mr Brin for example) …
So in theory Yorp would qualify.
And so would most Cetaceans and some Primates Maybe Elphants and eventually anything that can be domesticated. (Cats never. they would just become K’zinti to spite us. Because Cat)
You know, that’s creepily possible, the replicators by the end of SG-1 had taken on human forms.
Actually, I think it does make some kind of sense. If’ Vance’s skin is a silk polymer that he wove himself, then varia would still be touching Vance’s “DNA sampling” to produce her own flexible-yet-resilient cover for her own body.
Things like hair, ear wax and silk are not tissue and do not intrinsically have DNA in them. They can have organic residues in them mind (flakes of skin will be present in all of those, for example, which do have DNA). But the latter are no longer part of the body. In fact, even when talking about (all of) the former, only hair hair can remain attached (as opposed to simply being in contact).
So it will only work, the way you are suggesting, if Sydney’s question turns out to be valid, and body samples are sufficient to trigger the gestalt.
Mind you, if the gestalt does not need bare flesh, but can work through thin clothing (even if not not thick clothing, armour or force fields), then there is no problem at all.
And the logic is not strained too much. We can feel body heat through thin clothing. If that sense works through it, no reason why the super gestalt sense (whatever it is connecting to) cannot do something similar.
I agree. However “dna patterns” are (very complex) chemicals and thus are not field emitting. If that were the case interacting with them (to make more cells) would not require actual contact. (a sperm would just have to do a fly -by of an egg).
Body Heat is in fact an EM field being emitted by our selves at infra red wave lengths. We could see it if our eyes were a bit different. (or we could just use super awesome predator masks)
If the Gesalt Powah! only interacted with superpowered beings then perhaps it would require just being close enough to be effected by whatever fields (EM Strong Weak Gravitc Quantum?) are generated when these powers activate.
But it seems that anyone can trigger it.
Perhaps anyone has potential for these powers but the number of people that have been exposed to whatever environmental stimulus is required to make this happen is still insignificantly small?
“does not work on Non HUMAN animals”
Left an entire word out somehow, that was a heck of a typo. At any rate, I believe in his own stated intention of ‘just messing with the new guy’
There is no intrinsic difference between animals and humans, other than for (some, but not all) religions which assign a soul to the latter, but not the former. For instance various far eastern philosophies/ religions do not differentiate in that manner.
So, if we keep religion out of it, intelligence is the only thing that really differentiates. And there are various animals which do have a similar order of intelligence. But it would be quite hard for Varia to maintain contact with a dolphin, so such might not be a good choice for gestalt.
Even most doggies might fall below whatever critical threshold the power has. Unless it is simply species specific. In which case it is not a matter that it does not work on animals, rather it would not work on any non-humans (/super humans). Including Dabbler.
So, as we know the power does work on spider-Vance it is likely to work on Dabbler too. And if it does not, that could just show that it only works on Terrestrial people. And spider-Vance is clearly people, from Earth. An American even.
4,000 to 6,000 miles away from me. Not bad. Another planet would be better. Or galaxy. Yup prefer that.
After giving this further thought i am willing to conclude that Vance is just messing with Syd.
Occam’s razor as applied to artwork.
Does DaveB REALLY want to draw in all those tiny little spiders?
Maybe he has a little masochistic streak
.
But does he have the time?
No. Of course not. he can barely grind out two wonderful pages a week as is.
And lest we forget comic time is tree time.
(a curse brought about by their manufacture with dead trees i am sure)
We are now 2 days into a 180 day flashback and its only taken 5 years to get here.
I dont see myself getting sufficient Life extension to be around in 300 years when the flash back is over.
If he wasn’t joking he could always just go the skitter route.
A colony of spiders can do some terrible things. awesome and terrible things.
Plus, he would be practically immortal, since being a hive-mind of spiders he could just leave 1 or 2 out of his suit, back at base, then if his main body is killed they just breed until he’s got enough to reform his body-shape. (if he ever needed to get a power-boost he could just massively breed his spiders until there are hundreds of thousands of him, then spread out all over the world.
See, that’s the kind of thing that gets you classified as a Class S threat and summarily executed. Skitter was careful not to go that far.
Super colonies do exist, for ants. The one linked had 45,000 interconnected nests! With 306,000,000 members. Throw in telepathy and there is no reason why spiders could not do the same.
Provided they are immune to flamethrowers!
That can be worked with, quite versatile really. Might have to write in that ??he/they?? have resistance to bug spray, otherwise one wrong spray and suddenly half his/their face falls on the floor dead.
Imagine the scouting that could be accomplished with millions of spiders, every hostage every threat, every entrance of a building is just waiting for the swarm to discover. If they are poisonous, could be written in as a variable sedative.
#2 Not correct. Finger goes on the FRAME not the trigger guard. In that position it’s too easy for it to slip into the guard and touch off the trigger.
he could be Arachnilad. and he can communicate and direct different arachnid animals(spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks) so is “kind of the truth” but at same time pulling her leg………………just imagine him pretending to be “punctured” than telling a whole bunch of spiders to act like they are coming out of him
You be better be careful she can confetti you like a tank.
He wouldn’t actually need any other powers to get into ARC, I’d suspect… Being a hivemind colony of sentient spiders would make for terrific espionage and infiltration. Not to mention that many spiders could easily subdue a super who isn’t strong enough to break out of a spider silk cocoon… Come on, what would Sydney do if she were a colony of spiders? Something terribly clever, no doubt.
I Imagine they would make two body sacks and have one working for Arc Light AND Arc Dark
I don’t think he needs another power if he is a living spider colony. just telling people that will get 80% of them to surrender, the other 20% just unzip the suit and well I wont go into details.
Being a colony of borg spiders isn’t enough to get you into ARC-SWAT you have to be able to hold your own against other supers? So….when is Heatwave’s going away party?
1. There was that massive discussion about how she couldn’t produce a hot enough flame to stop even normal bullets from hitting her.
2. She had to have special notation put in her “character sheet” about how she’s just differently-brained or thinking-challenged.
3. She’s able to float at least several feet off the ground. Yes that was intentional. Also, she’s “differently brained” enough to not consider floating at least, oh, 10-12 feet off the ground where your average highschool basketball player might not be able to jump up and slice into her, as per her one fight/training scene to date.
4. Her best and most effective weapon against other supers would appear to be her ability to produce one heckuva burnt popcorn smell as long as she’s carrying some around with her.
She’s a liability on pretty much any mission that doesn’t take place in Antarctica and if she ever did get to Antarctica her first response would be to ask where all the kangaroos are hiding.
She’s not the sharpest knife in the armoury, sure, but she gets there eventually. The fact that she can throw fire AND exert extremely fine comtrol over it can make her fomidable.
….. And we have seen her in exactly ONE fightscene, which is not any real basis for comparison or conclusions. Should we also judge Sydney’s possible contribution to the team by (for example) – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/197
yes, yes we should. I think that string of expletives qualifies her for arc swat.
It’s one of the qualifications to be a drill sergeant, but it also comes in handy for officers too.
Look, Cyclops is basically a dude with a gun tied to his face. Being in a super team requires that you be cool, any actual effectiveness is at author’s discretion. There’s no legit reason that there aren’t dozens of Peggy equivalents, for example. Everyone is there for what they offer the story, and Heatwave is doing better in that regard than most of the Arc squad.
https://acidsquirrel.com/post/78299
‘Nuff said, True Believer.
1. That would be highly impractical, for several reasons:
– Melting a bullet would mean red-hot slag flying at her at bullet-speed. Not only would she still suffer the impact, she would get severe plasma-burns, too.
– If she made a shield that evaporated lead at that short of a distance, the radiated heat off that shield would melt the people around her.
2. It’s just so that people don’t write her off as a stupid bimbo and don’t cry OOC when she has a spark of inspiration.
3. She was outside the range of most hand-to-hand combatants and had a clear enough view of her surrounding to fly higher if need be. She just didn’t take the speedster into account. Also, her attack range might be limited, so she couldn’t just fall back and attack with impunity. Even without all that, though, she’s a former vigilante and probably one of the more recent civilian recruits. She doesn’t have the combat experience to stay out of range.
4. If the power meters on the Cast page are any indication, her beam attacks are on par with Sydney’s, and her AoE’s even stronger. Also, you know who else can’t fly and rescue a civilian bystander at the same time? The Human Torch. Would he be an ArcSWAT reject by your definition, too?
1.) She’s already shown that she is immune to her own heat. She melted an aluminum can to her hand, and was merely annoyed that she welded her fingers together, not screaming in pain from third degree burns. Also, yes, she’ll still suffer impact but with a lot less penetration. What makes bullets dangerous is that there’s a lot of force in a very small area. If she can spread it out by melting it, it will be much less dangerous. Would it still hurt? Yeah, absolutely. Would it kill her? Far less likely.
2.) Yes. She’s slow. Does that mean she’s stupid? Not likely. She DID catch on that the bank robber had “lipstick” marks when Maxima doesn’t wear any. People who aren’t normally aware of teleporters would have a bit of difficulty processing that too. Also, even people who do know about teleporters are going to have a hard time coming to the conclusion that somebody teleported in, left lipstick marks and then teleported out again.
3.) You’re quite correct. It is quite impossible to defend from every possible threat simultaneously. Even if she had known about the speedster, she was occupied dealing with Glowbug and that other guy, trying to invoke heat exhaustion without causing lethal damage.
4.) I may be mistaken, but I rember comics of the Human Torch carrying people while flying, or more accurately catching people while in mid-air without burning them.
Spiders can hold their own in a super fight. Skitter did just that, took down monsters and gods.
http://www.parahumans.wordpress.com
Booya.
skitter sacrificed millions of bugs in her attacks, they were disposable. this guy /is/ the bugs, and for every spider you squish he’d lose a few iq points and a little piece of his self….even if he can recruit or breed up more how many times can he do that before becoming somebody else?
infinitely assuming that the senior spider(s) control the majority of the personality.
“Great, now I can’t remember my best friend’s face.”
“Damn it, does anyone know my e-mail password?”
“Hey, it’s one of those ‘show you what’s in front of it’ glass things. Shame there’s not a word for those.”
Keeping your memories in things that are routinely squished by boots is a less than stellar idea.
theres something to be said for a decentralized system though. poke a hole in that nobby bone thing you keep yourself in and it *all* leaks out. how is that better than the skittering hoard?
Because the nobby bone thing I keep myself in is actually pretty durable, and can be further protected in dangerous situations to minimize damage to it.
I’m not so much concerned with ‘maybe spiders’ as with how Sydney’s orb knew to whiz into her hand to do what she wanted. Up ’til now, I assumed she grabbed what she wanted and the orbs were just ‘orbiting’. Now it appears they have some telepathic link and ‘jump’ depending on her emotions/thoughts? I would think that highly hazardous — since she’s more a ‘react first/think later’ kind of girl.
Did you not see her punch out Math?
Also she’s stated total control.
Harem and Math have both found out that what you are saying is correct. Note that, in addition to using them as readily as her own fists, Sydney also has detailed control over them. Such as when she made them simulate a specific atomic or chemical pattern. Along with more mundane tasks like ordering them into or out of Tubey.
Shadow Boxer also found that out :).
Actually the rules say that messing with the new guy only when the new guy is not capable of blasting out of existence or getting even with those who mess with the new guy. You clearly do not realize Sydney’s full powers even after she demonstrated them.
Nope, you made a wrong presumption there. Sydney has NOT demonstrated her full powers yet. Even she doesn’t know what two of the orbs do & she can develop more powers as she gains experience. In essence, Sydney can’t demonstrate her full powers because even she doesn’t know what all of them are.
And even then, she’s at least as dangerous as Maxima. And you do NOT want to wind up on “the list.”
I merely said that Sydney hasn’t displayed her full powers yet…I did not say that she hasn’t already displayed enough of her powers to exercise caution around her.
She is still dangerous enough to make him regret his actions for a very long time, if he managed to survive her displeasure. OMG, this is reminding me of the days of playing the original edition of the CHAMPIONS rpg, where everyone else went for the standard clone of a known super hero, I went for the 4 armed alien scientist with a set of bandoliers and utility belt that batman would be envious of. Never let other team members who can fly carry you by your bandoliers, it is not fun.
True, she hasn’t demonstrated all of her powers, but she has demonstrated enough to know she is exempt from the NHE (Newbie Hazing Experience)
Actually, the new guy getting even – in proper proportion to the harassment – is often an important part of team-building.
Blasting the offender out of existence is, of course, disproportionate.
But first, the new guy has to realize he’s being jerked around. Sydney has no super-obvious reason to doubt what Vance is saying. (That is, not sufficiently super-obvious to immediately overcome arachnophobia, before she’s had time to think about it.)
+1
Vance is totally BSing Sidney. He must think she’s the first one who fell off the turnip truck. Witch I wouldn’t necessarily rule out as her origin. But a mass collection of spiders? No…
Check out DaveB‘s blog. The spider thing may be … yes.
Were is that? Face book, twitter, Deviant art?
Just up there.
*points paw at top of page, underneath the comic*
Here is an extract:
So maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Depends on weather he really wants to make this guy a oogie boogieman type super.
Still with the way he’s talking I’m still leaning more towards BS.
Nothing to rule out both
https://i.imgur.com/pfxZVR2.png
Also, while the gangsta method of holding a gun is a bit better at lining up you’re sights. If you don’t have enough strength holding the gun while it goes off the recoil will whack you in the face.
Or the empty (and hot!) cartridges can eject right into your face. I’ve seen people get burns on their neck and faces that way.
Actually, shooting gangsta style, also known as street-idiot style, causes a natural pulling of the weapon up and to the right, as you pull the trigger. You may notice that professional weapons handlers don’t use that manner of holding their guns, ever.
Well I just want to be shore that it’s because of actual facts instead of old timy stuck in there ways way of thinking, or “it’s how these dang kids do things now a days and there fore must be stupid.”
That is the way musical tastes work. Every generation likes the music they grew up with better than the strange stuff the kids are listening to. Generally speaking, of course. But if you want to have a nice sing along with the wrinklies in an old folks home, be sure to brush up on your wartime songs.
Of course each type of music has it’s own merits. And the joy of youth is finding a type that has not been played to death by their parent’s generation. They can discover the newness to it, and revel in the fact that it is something unique to their age group.
Some of which is very much an acquired taste. That the oldies will never get to appreciate. So there is a real divide between generations, for some things.
But, when kids start doing stupid things, just because they think it is cool, that does not make it cease to be stupid. Rather those individuals just get seen different ways. The ignorant view them as cool. Everyone else views them as stupid.
Fortunately ignorance can be cured with knowledge.
A sentient mass of spiders wouldn’t casually pour sticky acid onto itself so there’s that.
Unless ‘Cuke’ is like, bug vital fluids, but why would anyone can that outside Japan?
He is just being discreet. Spiders need to eat live prey. Opening up a lunch box full of flies shaking them into his mouth would gross out his colleagues. Plus most would get loose, then his component spiders would instinctively chase after them.
Having spiders spewing out of his mouth, and scurrying after a cloud of flies, is a good way to get everyone running from the room screaming.
So he just has them in a can of Cuke. It blends in enough so casual observers do not suspect he is eating lunch. And the misspelling is to ensure that co-workers do not accidentally drink his snacks. Well not more than the once, anyhow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diOhwvRYlsU
:-D
Wow, that’s a whole new level to the phrase, “losing your lunch.” If that happens to Vance, most everybody else who saw it might also lose their lunches too (in the “normal sense” of the phrase).
Actually, most web-spinning spiders don’t eat live prey. They entrap the prey and inject a bunch of digestive juice. Which eventually kills the prey and then then spider sucks the juices out of it.
The can Vance is drinking from contains literal bug juice. Mostly made from either bugs that look somewhat like cucumbers, or bugs that live on cucumber plants.
(This is, of course, assuming that Vance really is a spider swarm.)
The Cuke jingle will be a real challenge, for whoever lands the advertising contract. And “Heaven in a can” probably would not get past the advertising standards agency with those contents.
sidney. quit being so racist and talk to the spiderbro. don’t inch away like that :(
Sydney is less inching away than she is yarding away…
Hey, give her a chance. She needs time to come to terms with that.
A less civilised person would be talking to him from the other side of the window. With the PPO in one hand!
Once Halo feels she can trust him, I am sure that they could be the best of buddies.
See I’ve been the new guy a couple times the first was the Sea scouts think explorer scouts on the water. Go find me a hundred feet of shore line. Second time was in the Army as a cavalry scout go find my squelch oil I kind of knew I was being played so I did it just to get away from them and came back with oil and handed it to them. Squelch is the white noise you hear on a radio. I think they were shocked I came back with the oil.
Other had to test the track suspense you need to get three or four guys on the back of the track jumping up and down on it. some needs to check to see how far they depress it.
Maybe he isn’t spiders as such… but is shapeshifters.
Lol ‘Cuke’, liquefied cucumber for the health conscious soda drinker.
A can of Raid would melt him then.
not sure if anyone has said anything yet but I think its hilarious that drinking a coke with his pinkie out as if it makes it fancier
It’s not a Coke, it’s a Cuke!
Indeed it is a parable about the perils of advertising and warning us of its insidious nature.
Since emigrating I got myself off fizzy drinks. Typically having no more than a couple of bottles a month. Over Christmas I saw the above episode of “The IT Crowd”. Now I am on a two litre bottle of coca cola a day!
*cries*
I am a cuke addict! And I am not even on Friendface!
I laughed harder and more often at this comic than nearly any other Grrl Power page. “Pull up your pants” was a particular favorite, but there were so many jokes crammed into relatively so little action.
I hope that really is one of his/their powers, because it sounds freaking creepy awesome. Giant Spider? Please, the spider in ‘Eight Legged Freaks’ were downright *cute*, with their adorable chitters and chirps. The Worm That Walks? Oh, fucking, god, kill it with fire, kill it with all the fire!
The idea of a heroic one sounds great!
I vote for ‘pants melting terror’, my good sir!
I think it would be awesome. Very Alan Dean Foster. Humanity overcoming its fear of the bugs and learning to live with them and even work in harmony and friendship.
*makes sure giant can of Raid is still close to paw*
Hey, no mention was made of doggy kind having to like them! The contract says: “Man’s best friend” See. NO BUGS, NO SPIDERS! Nope none. NO RENEGOTIATING!
The thumb needs to go on the same side of the pistolgrip as the fingers. Otherwise the slide will cut the web between the thumb and forefinger. At best very painful; at worst a broken bone; in between, a chunk of the flesh of the hand goes bye-bye.
That is a great way to drop your weapon. In the images, it is clearly being single handed, and not having your thumb across the pistol when doings so will cause it to fall out of your grip quickly. The only way you will get a slide bite is if you are holding it too high. Preventing that is the reason most modern guns have a “heel” at the back of the grip; to tell you where “too high” begins.
You’re right. I was taught always to support the grip with the other hand. And many older guns had a better “heel” than many modern ones. I was taught not to rely on “not holding it too high”. You may have been taught better than me; pretty sure you were taught at least different from me.
Me thinks he will regret doing that.
ok lets see…Im gonna freak out this girl that Maxima (arguably the most powerful being currently on the planet) hand picked to join our elite squad (despite a massive amount of reasons not to). She has already been combat tested and has powers that can take down most other supers with ease and has displayed high levels of tactical inginuity. yeah this is the best idea i have ever had :D
OI… at least he was smart enough to NOT pick a FIGHT with her!!!, but yeah i agree with Harem, this’ll backfire on him sooner or later…
i mean she did effectivly beat Math….who on the bio page is ranked as Paragon which makes him on par with dabbler and only out powered by max. she has more power than 5 of the main team members and the same amount of power as 3
there are 14 members besides her so that being said as far as power levels go she is >= 4/7 of the rest of the team. that is only the main team…..if you include the rest of the support people then she outpowers an even higher ratio. so logically the best thing to do is obviously give her a reason to decide to not like you.
There is a fair chance that Sydney will like him. She is just a bit freaked out, at the moment. He messed with her big-time, which will earn her respect. Plus her curiosity as to his powers, will drive her to overcome her reservations.
Whatever Vance is, under the skin, he will provide Sydney with an interesting challenge. And she responded very well to Peggy nonchalantly ignoring her conversation about powers. I can see the same happening with Vance.
Almost immortal. Almost.
Hey kids, ever wonder what happened to the spider that bit Peter Parker? Well another kid (Imma call him Ted) on the field trip saw said spider bite Parker and then saw Parker suit up so said kid tried to get the spider to bite him but it didn’t so Ted ate it.
This turned him into THE THOUSAND, a colony of one thousand spiders who disguise themselves as a human. Except Ted wasn’t good at making fake human suits so he used real human suits. Like his mom, his dad (or step dad) and a few kids at a park. He does this by opening the victim’s mouth and pouring all of the spiders into their body and eating them from the inside but leaves the skin intact.
The Thousand found one of Parkers work friends, took her skin suit and attacked Parker who beat him in a fight leaving all but one spider who got away vowing revenge. And then some kid stepped on him killing him forever.
at least until the next time the comic book company needs/wants to reboot the franchise…
Not to mention that you can have the smaller spiders steal stuff and spy on others.
https://fajita.darkstar-studios.com/
Speaking of eating flies, this guy I knew back in high school, once walked up to a bunch of girls and said, “Hi.” As he spoke, a large fly came buzzing out of his mouth. The girls did a glorious freak-out, and the guys roared with laughter. One of the best uses of a caught fly, ever.
anybody else think Vance is going to have this little tid-bit following him around forever now?
Couldn’t Sydney do a pretty good fake kamehameha (think I spelled that correctly
Anyone else remember the Birdman joke from around 2000? HoMeBoY brand night sights for the Glock?
https://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2009/09/20/birdman-weapons-systems/
So, is this the origin story for Vance?
https://imgur.com/NOLcg8u.jpg
Where did the window come from?
There is a dude who is made up from spiders, and you are worried about a wall that has a window? Priorities!
DaveB, A suggestion. Vance appeared smaller in the first couple of this section:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1736 and 1737 because he was sitting and we could not see that for various things (Sydney’s head say) blocking his seated portions. If you edited that slightly to show a crossed leg and boot sticking out it would be more obvious that he is not short, but that he is lounging a bit further back. Or you could throw a shadow across him from Sydney (the orbs on the far side of her).
I think he is fine as is. But if Dave does take you up, he might want some reference images:
Torso.
Nude.
As for Vance, the spiders thing is just messing with Sydney. His powers do transform him to metal, but in his case not a solidified version. He becomes coils of wire. Springloaded if you get the drift. He’s able to stretch and shift form but always comes back to his original form after a few moments –and often imparting a lot of energy to whatever he was holding onto.
Sydney I think is going to be temporarily boggled by his stories. I personally am waiting for her to do the Badgers surprise on him…