Grrl Power #334 – Make down
It’s funny for all the research I’ve done in to guns and military stuff in general, I had to make quite a few assumptions about makup here. I asked around a little about it, but Maxima’s skin is a unique situation. It’s smooth like glass, so makeup can actually be applied quite nicely, but it doesn’t stick the same way. It tends to fall off in uneven clumps. Anything more oily that does stick like lipstick or grease paint smears that much easier. It’s also flexible like skin, so if she covers herself in grease paint then applies powder makeup over that, it will still wrinkle and crack in short order. When Max was younger and got her powers initially (a story I’ll tell eventually) she spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to pass unnoticed in public. (She’s supposed to look 15-16 in panels 4 and 5 which is pretty tough to draw. A baby, that’s easy, but drawing the difference between a 16 year old and a 34 year old is trickier, especially with odd angles or expressions.) The closest she got was latex house paint with various makeup applied over that, but it wouldn’t pass close inspection. It made her look like a mannequin with the skin of a 70 year old. By the time the paint dried acceptably it wrinkled unnaturally and even began sliding off her slightly. The complication she didn’t understand until later was her personal, nearly cellularly tight forcefield which makes it so nothing sticks to her for long. Even if she keeps her actual force field to a minimum, that force field is the scaffolding all her powers are channeled through, so using her strength or flight or anything will hasten the degradation of any disguise she’s using.
The little outtro gag at the bottom of the page, some sort of latex appliance, is legitimately her only non-magic option for trying to pass as normal, but you’ve all seen those behind the scenes docs about how Worf or Quark needed to show up for work 4 hours before everyone else to get their faces put on. By the time someone can get a prosthetic face on Maxima, it’s already in danger of starting to slough off, so her window for moving around in plain sight is pretty slim.
We’ve already seen that Arc-DARK has spells which can entirely disguise someone, but they can’t hand those out willy-nilly. I’ll get into the why’s of that eventually as well. I haven’t decided if Dabbler can disguise others. Her glamour is self only, and she’s not much of an illusionist. If it has to happen when I get to that moment in a storyline, it will be severely limited, like it only lasts a few minutes or she has to actively maintain it and stay within line of site of whoever she’s disguising.
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So, her fingernails are just naturally red, then?
Fingernail polish is a different chemistry from makeup applied to skin. And, since fingernails are different from skin on normal humans, it can be considered plausible that Maxima’s fingernails are also different from her skin. Fingernail polish might work just fine.
Or maybe it’s Krylon.
Nailpolish stick to polished metal as well as to a normal nail.
Now I’m picturing Maxima with a fingernail-outline template and a can of spraypaint… hilarious.
Abstract art, or ‘colour-by-numbers’ :D
It helps that nails don’t (generally) flex and bend but for Maxima her forcefield issue would cover her nails too.
I left this for a bit, in the hope someone might remember the page, and link to it, but DaveB did comment once on Maxima’s lips (and probably fingernails too, but I cannot remember the comment clearly). They are naturally red. No make-up involved.
As you can see in panels 4 & 5, even teenage Maxima had exactly the same hair, lip and fingernail colours. Likewise when trying to do her black ops disguise, in panel 6. You can guarantee she would not have put lipstick on, under those circumstances.
Maxima gets those lips free, as part of her super-hero package.
Not sure about official comment, but Heatwave (eventually) realised that Maxi doesn’t wear lipstick (they are naturally that colour) so how could she have left lipstick marks all over her boyfriend in the ambulance?
Ops, you ninja’d me :)
But you actually provided the linkage :D
Harem actually left the lipstick marks to frame Max, as I recall, and got an atomic wedgie for her efforts.
As Yorp said, yes per Word of God
BTW: her lips color was way earlier addressed in the very comic (last panel).
Now I have a question stuck in my head. How does a super, like Maxima, cut their fingernails? I mean, it’s not like standard steel clippers are probably strong enough…..does…does Max have to chew her nails to keep them trimmed?
She is not molecularly indestructible like ‘Les
A good grade steel file probably ought to work. :P
If it wouldn’t be toxic to her, acrylic paint could be the solution to glass texture face. I am not sure how resilient he is to things like chemicals, but acrylic paint if done thinly would have a pretty long stock time s8nce Max doesn’t smile Michael anyway.
she has no pours through which to absorb it
She doesn’t have pores for the paint to pour into either :P
She has no paws either. But she did pause.
If she had paws, would she be a Golden Retriever?
8-D
She’s super, but not furry.
And to even suggest that would cause fury.
And you will be Nick-ed :P
Let’s have a big Hand for my pun SHIELD. It can Ward off whatever you May throw at it (even from the Skye) and it always Fitz!
Does it block per-Simmons too? I have a tree full of them to throw at you for all the puns. It would be a neat Trick if not even one hits you.
Here, have a bouquet of Daisies for you both :D
(can’t even remember any other SHIELD members to use :( )
Even without moving acrylic on glass tends to devlop tiny cracks in drying. Also ignoring the cracks it still wouldn’t look normal which would be the only plausible reason for applying makeup for Max. She’s eye-catching enough already that I can’t picture her trying to up-play her appearance.
Max’s skin isn’t porous? Does she sweat? If she doesn’t, how does her body cool down?
she’s made of metal her whole body acts like a giant heat sync
Not really made of metal; just very dense, hardened material (skin?). But let’s assume you’re right and it is metal.
Metal gets hot too, and a human body will generate heat more rapidly than metal can shed it, especially in still air. Without some cooling method, she’d likely keep building heat until objects near her charred and scorched. Eventually, she’d melt or burn up. Heat sinks only reduce heat if they’re capable of dumping it faster than it accumulates. That’s why your computers cooler has a radiator block, and a fan to move air over that block to increase how rapidly it reduces heat. Take that fan off and watch your processor temperature climb.
It’s more likely that she internalizes the heat and converts it from that energy form to one more useful directly, such as speed, flight, strength, energy blasts, and other factors related to her unique physiology.
Or we could stop being so pedantic and just enjoy the story.
Being pedantic is also fun!
Remember way early on:
“What’s your skin made out of?”
“That’s classified. (Also no one knows)”
Though you are correct. An inability to diffuse heat into the surrounding environment would be a very significant selection pressure.
maybe that’s the real reason she has powers? she’d overheat without them and die from heat exhaustion.
RogueSpidor:
Not necessarily – heatsinks lose heat by convection & radiation, just like human bodies. Forced airflow is used for situations where there isn’t room for a passive heatsink, which is the case in PCs * . A human-sized metallic object would lose heat by convection about as fast as a human. Being shiny would reduce the loss by radiation, but that wouldn’t affect the total too much (given that most of her skin is covered by clothes).
Maxima’s real problem would be the inability to sweat (if that’s the case). Relying on panting like a dog would be… inconvenient. So, whenever she exerts herself, it’s back to ‘special physics’.
* However, there are ultra-quiet PCs that use a HUGE natural-cooled heatsink to avoid fan noise. It takes most of the room in the case.
This conversation would be more appropriately applied to a character from George RR Martin’s Wild Cards universe where 90% of people who develop super powers die almost immediately because their bodies don’t develop the ability to survive their powers. In most comic book universes it’s assumed you develop the support powers to survive whatever is done by your visible powers. As a rule if you’re superstrong you also have enough supertoughness to avoid pulling your body apart when you exert your own strength. If you can fly at supersonic speeds you’re assumed to develop the ability to see and avoid objects at that speed (mostly, unless the writer needs it to happen for plot purposes) and you can withstand hitting bugs and small particles at that speed instead of having them punch into you like tiny bullets.
I would say that, if her skin is made of a metallic alloy, a living metal of sorts, it would stand to reason that it does work like a heat sink. There are metals out there, space age alloys developed by companies and agencies like DARPA, Boeing, and NASA that are able to dump heat nearly as quickly as it gets hit with said heat. If her skin is a super dense living metal alloy, and the outer shell of her cell structure is of this alloy that happens to look gold, it stands to reason that there may be an alloy of Titanium, Platinum, and Plutonium in there. Titanium is very strong and heat resistant, Platinum is fairly dense and very hard and has a gold like sheen, and plutonium, when fully refined is also gold like in color if I remember right and is EXTREMELY dense… and may also be an explanation for Maxima’s nuclear detonation and projectile powers… as well as the reason why her body has a natural force field around it. If her body’s skin is devised of an alloy containing weapon’s grade plutonium… then the force field is the only thing keeping her corporeal, from turning into a literal nuclear meltdown, and keeping everyone around her from bursting into flames or from dying of acute radiation poisoning.
20 bitcoins (hah! I gotz jokez! Bitcoins… lolz) says she could be used in the doc’s office to take x-rays.
you know a Matte spray seal might do the trick it’s designed to keep artwork from being damaged so i might hold up a bit better then hair spray
the problem is slickness. paints, glues, sealants have to have surface area to work. glass (as was said in the comic) isn’t porous. Get some paint or glue on a clean piece of glass. after it dries you can flick it off with just a little effort. now take that same piece of glass and scrub it with a piece of sandpaper, blow the dust off of it and apply your paint/glue. you will never get it off, barring extraordinary measures. the sandpaper gave that piece of glass a whole lot more surface area. the paint/glue now has more to hold on to. about the only thing that would work for her would be a wrap. heat shrunk to her form. I doubt she would let them do that though.
Spray on Glass Frosting.
Cake Frosting is betterer (and tastier when it’s time to remove ;) )
Spread on chocolate frosting.
I’m amused to note that E.L.F. Cosmetics (“Eyes – Lips – Face”) can be seen in the ad-space to the right of this comic.
That’s nice. I’m just getting a dating site for men. Either the cookies haven’t recorded my gender yet, or the comics I read fool them into thinking I’m a guy. Probably the latter.
Just requires her dumping the flash and fixing with the exposer rate of the film should take about a minute or two to get it right still going to be shiny though just not reflecting and looking like a flash bang going off in front of the camera.
seems like she could change the angle of the flash pots to throw the reflections away from the lens. Like taking a picture of a mirror.
You can do that as well there are lots of tricks you can do to reduce the reflection when you shoot around water a lot you get used to doing it.
That’s what it seems she planes to do going from the last panel
A diffused or bounced flash would help; and it’s possible a good circular polarizer filter might cut any reflected glare from the subject, too.
First thought (not feeding off someone else) is, Is Kandi ex-military? I mean, how would she know what it’s like to take a picture of an exploding flashbang grenade?
Second thought, if everything directly contacting Max’s skin immediately begins to degrade, how long do her clothes last? Or does her TK field just hold them slightly away from her body without otherwise doing damage to the integrity?
Flashbang photography (which actually were around before the grenades), just watch really old movies from the 30’s and 40’s (or movies set in the 30’s and 40’s, or earlier)
That still wouldn’t teach her what it is like to actually do it. Just give examples of when it’s been done. This seems to be one of those things that take experience to actually talk about. I mean, wouldn’t the normal civilians reaction more likely be “…pictures of polished jewelry” or “…pictures of cut crystal”? I know I wouldn’t think of a picture of a flashbang, and I am ex-military.
You’re also probably not a photographer but she is.
Flashbang photography is not taking photos of flahbang grenades going off
Back in the early days of photography they had these huge bulb flashes, and when they went off it sounded like a bang and huge flash of light, hence the term ‘flash-bang’
She said taking “pictures of a flashbang” not “with a flashbang”.
Oh, okay, but she still doesn’t have to have been ex-military (or even and ex-cop) to have seen a flash-bang go off, and equate what she is getting from Maxi to be similar
Those are flash-bulbs, flash-bangs are grenades that make a lot of noise, and not much damage.
Before that, was flash-powder. You see it in cartoons sometimes when the photographer holds up a pan full of stuff that explodes, and the vict… err subjects get all scorched.
Way back in the early history of flash-photography (18oo’s or so), the flash was produced by a measure of black powder lit off in an open tray…Yes, it made a bang when going off too. That was the precursor to flash bulbs.
Even if Max were ‘merely’ super strong and tough (all the time), I imagine her clothes and makeup would wear off/out more quickly than on a non-super.
I get the impression that her force field is perfectly smooth, so friction is probably not much of a problem (slaps self), therefore I think you are correct: her clothes and makeup miss touching her skin by some tiny amount, maybe less than the thickness of a soap bubble.
that begs the question, does she have a sense of touch? or is the FF flexible enough that she can perceive tactile sensations through it? Can she feel her clothes? would she know if her shoes were too tight? is she ticklish?
[quote]Is she ticklish[/quote]
I would like to know that too.
“How long do her clothes last”–I think being exposed to physical stressors that come from superhuman strength applied by polished gold instead of squishy flesh would be what does in her clothes first.
Otherwise, her personal integrity field reinforces her clothes as well (while it couldn’t hold up to the bolo-bomb that caught her by surprise during the parking lot brawl, I do note that her clothes were NOT sandblasted off of her during the demonstration in the desert, unlike Achilles’.)
DaveB has explicitly explained that her clothing is protected by her zero range telekinesis shield, with the implication that there’s an outer layer and inner layer to the shield, and presumably her clothing is between those layers.
Always just figured it was like Superman’s zero range telekinesis shield: it encapsulates what he is wearing if it is within a certain thickness and directly touching his skin (or close enough for a jacket over a shirt), that is why his cape usually got tattered and in need of replacing more often than his red and blue jammies
It’s exactly like that, but there’s two layers of it, and she can’t turn off the layer directly on her skin.
Where was the skin-layer FF being permanently on mentioned?
Implied in this comic’s comments from Dave. The glass-like quality of her skin is created by the forcefield, apparently, correct? So if she could turn it off and then reactivate it over her makeup, you’d think she would try that.
I once created a character who had 2 sets of force fields for an Aberrant game. One was a standard force field. The other was at a cellular level around every cell in her body. No turning those off. In Max’s case DaveB has said her other powers channel through the force field and thus it CANNOT be turned completely off.
Wait, if she had cellular level force fields, how is she alive?
Maxima’s force fields must be permeable to certain things. Quite possibly they can also lower themselves. Note that the distinction is that (in effect) it is the cells making the decision in such cases, as it clearly is not under Maxima’s conscious control.
Unlike Sydney we can tell that Maxima’s force field does not prohibit air from passing. Notably it can stop the nuclear-level furnace, caused by her energy attack, even whilst she is speaking.
Sydney’s force field can contain a lot of air, so her impermeability problem took a while to be spotted. Whereas Maxima has no more air within her force fields than might stay under clothes. If her shield shared Sydney’s properties, she would have virtually no extra air, perhaps a breath or two. So it would have been apparent before now.*
Ergo it is air permeable, but can still block damage.
The alternative, if it relied on being raised and lowered, to let her breathe (necessary in order to make a speech) is that the energy would have gotten through, and scorched her.
Presumably Maxima’s super-power (or the subconscious part of her mind, or a combination of both) is handling the mechanics of this. Although some degree of training may have been necessary, just as toddlers have to learn how to walk.
Something similar must happen at a cellular level. The power is able to detect the needs of the cell (perhaps by treating it as an individual being) and allowing the nutrients it needs to pass. Presumably lowering the field completely, for such necessary functions, where simple permeability will not do the trick.
It is possible that it is actually the cells themselves which are generating those force fields. We could follow Sydney’s macabre line of thought, as she applied for Ren, to this. Even flesh that is somehow separated from her, could retain the super toughness. For as long as the cells remained alive, anyhow.
* Plus, especially if Maxima had a clever trick to get around the problem, she would have been bound to share the information with Sydney.
Okay. I was going to say well put but I was not expecting the Silence of the Lambs route to come up.
“This vest stops anything.”
“Cool! What’s it made of?”
“Not sure. The tag just says Maxima.”
Protected from exterior forces yes. That still allows extremes of wear and tear when Max moves at high speed. Your average sleeve seam in not designed to reach subsonic speeds when you move your arm. Even if a bullet/laser/explosion doesn’t reach it, the friction of the material to itself as she moves her arm could burn off her sleeves. This may be why she favors short sleeved and shorts as combat uniforms…
Re: how does she know what a flashbang looks like– could just be hyperbole. People are allowed to do that, are they not? She’s just exaggerating to make a point.
Whoa, Max wasn’t born all golden? I always thought her powers were genetic in origin.
They might be, and just didn’t manifest immediately…
I have always wondered that. They may be genetic and activated at puberty or some other time in her development
.
Puberty does seem to be the comic default for power manifestation. Just makes sense what with all of the other changes going on. Of course, there’s always the good old standby of getting dropped in/dumped on/splashed be a vat/bucket/drum of radioactive waste…
“But where are we gonna find a barrel of toxic waste..?”
Not sure where that quote’s from, but I’m going to answer “Ebay”.
It’s not word for word, but it’s from Sky high…
Josie: We can’t change who he is… not without dropping him in a vat of toxic waste.
[pause]
Josie: Steve!
Steve: Where would we even find a vat of…
Josie: *Steve*!
….. In an abandoned factory (that seems very typical in the comics)
….. In the city sewer system (ditto)
….. In the dark alley behind any fast food franchise.
You forgot to include the (In reality) to the last one.
Imagine if she turned golden slowly. Three weeks in the hospital because they thought it was jaundice…
I think you did pretty good. The planes of her cheeks are not as pronounced. Her chin looks shorter and less pointed. Her eyes look bigger. Her ears also look less pointed, but that could be angle. All in all, it appears that her face/skull has not reached full growth, which means mid-teens.
What Maxima neededs to try is geckskin which is a commercial product based on research into how gecko feet work. It can hold 700 pounds of weight over an area the size of an index card, on surfaces as shear as glass.
With some super fashion powers I’m sure the team’s tailor could whip up a flexible adhesive body suit for Max. You know, for those rare times she needs to be covert.
That’s really awesome.
So you’re saying Maxima is a super hero version of that purple my little pony girl?
Twilight Sparkle?
Naa Maxima does not do angst. Ripping limbs off? Yes. Pouting and acting soft? Nope.
Mind you, she is a real softie, at heart. She just does not let it get in the way of business.
Think of her more like a stellar explosion. There is one type that leaves a super-dense core of carbon, the size of a planet. And astronomers have positively identified at least one. If you work through the facts, be impressed. We know the location of a diamond the size of a planet!
Think of Maxima as one of those stellar objects, in its exploding phase. Capable of emitting vastly destructive energy, but also hard and sparkly.
Hmm. Maybe backlighting really is the best way to take a photo of her. It would explain why her glasses are white – the light bouncing off her skin (at the tangents, maybe) landing on her lenses for the Hellsing effect.
Also, it’s worth finding out if the same effect happens on non-visible light, such as infrared or ultraviolet. If she shows up then, she’s not much use even on a moonless night. Her only chance of going on a commando raid might be in a place like North Korea or the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the only light to be seen is from the Milky Way Galaxy.
Hmm…Canon DSLR, possibly in the 5D family? Probably with a 50mm or 85mm f/1.2L USM. Props for taking the time to draw us some nice photo equipment.
Hey, even photo nerds are nerds :D
Uhh…Nrrd Power? :D
That really ought to be a meme…
If it involves shooting, they will come.
For stuff like that I suspect it’s easier to find a picture of a real one and work off that rather than try to make one up.
Thanks! I was worried it wasn’t professional enough, as I don’t know a lot about professional photography, but it seems the upper limit for DSLR cameras is in the $3-5000 range (not including lenses). Anything beyond that and you’re getting into gigapixel stuff like the RED cameras which I think cost upwards of $20K. So ~15 minutes of googling around and I settled on that as her camera. I was still a little worried I’d get photography pros saying it was a baby toy.
Well, it’s no Hasselblad or Phase One…then again I can’t see Arianna paying the studio fee for a ‘tog that uses such high end gear, especially not for Max to look pretty.
The 5D is the workhorse of the Photog world. Good enough to get the job done, rugged, and with a lens for almost any situation.
Why even use Maxima as a covert operative? She’s the team supertank. Use her as the DIVERSION.
That was when she was in the Air Force, long before ARCHON
Why let them prepare for the Supertank, when you can suddenly spring it on them so they’re nowhere near ready…
Wait, “Just a balaclava”? what about the rest of her gear? is that why she was looking at him like that? wondering how much trouble she would get into if she punched him?
When I first read that panel the word registered in my brain as ‘Baklava’. Then my brain said ‘That word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’ and I had to take a second look. Although, I do think it is sticky enough to adhere to her skin.
Plus it would be more fun to lick it off :D
Gelatin and lightly applied powdered sugar? Glue and talc might work too but it wouldn’t be as healthy or safe for everyone else. Plus the glue would end out getting on her clothes.
Simple solution: no clothes!
And to avoid the ‘being naked’ thing: body art to make it look like she is still wearing clothes :D
That’s an idea :)
Was thinking how the “World Bodypainting Festival” had just been held recently :D
Or there is the air force version. But she probably looks best with the Guesticus solution.
Yeesh, panel four shows a not very happy teen Maxima. High school is rough enough when going through the normal troubles and changes, adding a super body and golden skin must have resulted in quite the social priah. And some broken arms on the boys, when they tried to get grabby.
Although I wonder, did she ‘turn nerd’ due to this? While we nerds are just as likely to gawk over a fine female form (or male, whichever), they might have included her into the fold due to love of superpower stories. If nothing else, weekend D&D games might have helped her get past school drama.
Also, only just noticed the picture in the background in that panel. So she was a blond little girl before growing into a golden big girl, eh?
Good eye
hmmm..that brings up a question. you know how when you were growing up you wished you looked just the opposite of how you look? blonds wish they had dark hair. curly hair wishes it was straight..ect. well she actually had that happen to her. what kind of effect did it have upon her development?
Not everyone
Well spotted.
Plausible but not definitively. We cannot see the whole picture, so Maxima might be in the other half. It could be her sister, her friend or even (if you are mistaken about the age) her mum.
If it is her though, that does raise the interesting possibilities, that folks are speculating on.
Note that we should not take Dave’s comment above as confirmation that Maxima started out looking like a normal human, as he only mentioned about her gaining her powers. It is not unreasonable to assume that she gained the looks and powers simultaneously.
However, we do know that Maxima had her full golden look, before she learnt she could uses her energy blast. Possibly she had only just changed her appearance. Alternatively she could have been born with her looks, but her powers simply did not kick in until puberty.
If the boy, who we saw startling her, and triggering that discovery, was actually her brother, he looked normal. So she could also have a normal sister.
Starting normal (and that being her picture) seems the most likely at the moment, but the other option is still on the table.
I’d imagine having glass smooth, impermeable skin would be a minus for Max in the intimacy department. Assuming anyone, male or female, would have the guts to be intimate with her it’d be like making love to a bronze sculpture. Does Max have sensations in her skin at all? I’d imagine her in a state of arousal would be something more formidable than sexy. Besides, if she lost it in the throes of passion she’d tear you into itty bitty pieces and you could be buried in a soup can.
“…she’d tear you into itty bitty pieces…”
When you said that, I immediately thought of Hannover Fist on the witness stand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHgMsvpFm08
…Go figure…
For some reason I’m thinking ‘Man of Kleenex, Woman of Steel’ (as opposed to the other internet meme).
She can feel stuff fine, especially if she lowers her armor. She can still feel when she’s armored, but sensations get capped and she looses some of the detail.
She looks younger in panel 4 than 5- it’s the forehead shading that makes the difference. Smoother = younger.
There’s a detail/pin-striping/sign-lettering paint called One-Shot. Adheres to any metal, is intended to adhere to a non-porous, high-gloss surface and is flexible enough to not-chip/crack when that metal is dented. Comes in a fairly vast array of colors, including metallics.
I use it on re-enactor armor & shields. Any way I can help out, Max – just let me know….
Ding, Ding, Ding. We have a winner.
I just want to say that im glad maxima is being a good sport about all this. She didnt really want to do it in the first place and now there are all sorts of delays. Hmm, I wonder if she will get candice to give her a paper with the setup she used written on it so in future photo shoots or tv appearances, she can give a copy to the cameramen and see if they can work with any of that?
From the flashbacks to teen Max, I’m almost getting a Kate Becket vibe.
Also, something that I can’t quite figure out: was Max ever a mere mortal like the rest of us and then transformed into her current metallic empowered form, or was she always golden?
We know that she didn’t always know how to use her powers, or even know that she had powers, and discovered them over time but I’m not sure how she came to be in her current state of being.
The middle panel shows part of a photo of a pale blond girl that I assumed was a ‘pre-golden’ Maxima. Powers being triggered by puberty is somewhat a trope after all.
Today I set for you a thought experiment.
Maximized Supers.
Take one of the lesser powers of the team, and give it the Maxima treatment. Raise just that power (and if need be the tertiary powers that make it possible to not break the universe) to the absolute MAX.
I will reply to myself with the example I claim for myself.
(honestly, feel free to use any of the well defined bad guys if you like too)
Me, I’m taking Anvil.
If you amplify her to 9 stars, one starts to realize that “kinetic” is just molecules in motion. That’s also sound, light, heat… almost anything.
Sadly amplifying her ability to take punishment does not give her the ability to expend all of this power in any new ways. She spends her time with her stored energy at the upper limits and can refill from the warmth in the air itself, from sunlight, from the sound of her own voice, so instead of one slow charging attack she’s got enough to swing for the fences every time.
Stalwart. Boosting his durability and his weight to 9 stars, he would be capable of delivering meteor strikes worth of kinetic damage with a stomp of his foot. His weight boost would be so powerful, the ground under him would form a deep dense crater from the compression. It could even be dangerous to him, because his legs would sink into the earth like its quicksand, leaving him trapped.
how about if I add in an idea I had for a ‘super’?
a perfectly normal-looking cat.
however, if abilities/powers/weapons are used on it, no obvious effect. until the next one.
then, the feline becomes a cat-alyst, and the two (or more) attacks are combined and reflected/refracted/ or just plain used by the cat,at whim. and, hey, it’s a cat. you max that out, you pretty much have an indestructible creature which nearly no-one in their right mind would ever attempt to kill. (‘you think that’s the same cat?’ ‘ It could be, better let it sleep’)
kind of like a gestalt ability, but not quite.
I’ve read this post 5 times and still have no idea what’s being suggested.
I /think/ I understand it, but it’s a bit of a crazy level of power.
It’s the nulification power of “bell tolls” and reflection of the combination… a cat-tastrophy waiting to happen.
yes, you got it in one. I apologize to Pander if my leaps in illogic are too bouncy.
and fun pun, btw.
I like it.
Even if he can turn it off, or stat dump OFF of weight and then FLOAT, he’d still be stuck if he wasn’t careful.
I’ll pick Achilles to maximize.
…Done…
;)
I can think of 1 thing that noone in-comic would want to happen, but we’d laugh out heads off at – Sydney’s ADD! Pump THAT up to level 9, & not only would she be the ninja kid NOONE could track/keep up with (not even Arc-Dark), but it would would also affect anyone she came near, infecting them too! That is, if she LIVED long enough to be in thew comic… :P XD
First, let me say, great page. I love the comic, and the look in to the psyche of a teenage Max is quite interesting.
Second, a question. Why do you update a 5am? You can hardly call this the comic for 9July when, for over 20% of the day, the page desplays the old comic. Why not a midnight local time update like the vast majority of webcomics?
I’m going to guess that DaveB is naturally blessed (cursed?) with insomnia, and/or work or worked a night shift. My personal suspicion is that it gets updated when he gets finished with it.
Now I want the comic to be updated at 7:23 am regularly, just to mess with you.
I don’t usually start posting the comic till maybe 11-11:30pm, and it may sound weird but sometimes it takes me 2 hours to post a page. Sometimes there are last minute fixes, I write my comment, grab links and also sometimes it takes me forever to think of a title to that page. I suppose I could back it up to 3am.
Pretty sure there is a Patreon level to get that posting time back. Probably has a comma in the number though.
The easiest way to conquer the reflection problem is to tilt Max forward just a bit. I used to do photography for a local newspaper, and whenever I had something shiny like a trophy to shoot, I just had them tilt it forward and down a bit, and the reflection went to the ground, not the camera lens.
That could work. Of course, that would also give a direct shot down her cleavage….
Well, maybe that’s where the photographer is going to go next. She was trying to talk Maxima into doing some racy pictures, after all . . .
That is a valid point…
Doubtful, she has been given a job to do. She offered an extra service, which was firmly put down. Plus she has already been warned by Arianna that Maxima is a wary customer. If she pressed things, in an unwanted direction, she is both being unprofessional and likely to loose the business.
Perhaps not just for Maxima, but for the whole team, if she feels that Candice is pressure selling. Which would be justified, as such is highly inappropriate, for various members of the team (such as Sydney, who, despite her bluster for other things, is insecure about her own body).
Uhm… just asking, you stated that dabbler might have something to disguise people with, but didn’t she already give them something for the bank robbery setup? Both Achilles and the other hero involved were using techno / Magical disguises for the job that seems semi-permanent until the tag (sticker?) was removed.
No, that was Arc-Sparq, the tech division, not Dabbles
A teenage Maxima suddenly fills my mind with the tragic hilarity of teenage angst. What if Maxima went through a cutting phase, but only got frustrated and gave up when she realized that she couldn’t hurt herself?
Now I’m picturing teenage Maxima (with wrinkled black latex on her face in a failed attempt to emulate Goth makeup) trying to use a thermal lance on her wrists.
I fully acknowledge that we both went to a really dark place, but I suppose that just goes to show there’s a market for dark humor ^_^;
The secret is to take something that’s dark and terrible and run with it until it simply is too absurd to not be funny. See trope
Where is Max’s pistol in the last frame? I don’t even see the straps for tying it down on her thigh.
That’s because she has it strapped under her arm
Oops, totally forgot to draw it. :/
Nah. Arianna’s orders: No weapons while in with the photographer. They are going to take pictures of Sydney eventually so set the limits now. Disarming Max just in case Kanda rubs the wrong way –there can be skeevy female photographers, yes?
Spellcheck ninja’d again: Kandi
So Maxima does age normally? I had been wondering about that.
Well, despite her powers, she seems to have aged normally from teens to adulthood. That’s about all we can really say.
It does not say how long ago her “teen” years were…
Damn, beat me to it. She may be aging, but at what rate? Normal, sped up, or slowed down?
Hmm…picture in a dim light room of her reflection in a mirror Should cut down on the shinies.
Seems to me Maxima’s head ends up being a shiny ballish shaped object , so from nearly any angle shinyness would happen. So perhaps, have Maxima zip up the jacket to her neck (makes the line between shiny and not more horizontal, dont really see her as the type to wear a strapless dress/tubetop, and let’s face it the leather jacket looks badass…), keep her hands down, and use a graduated filter? Face gets dimmed, clothes/body still gets camera flash.
All told, Max has got to love having a natural defense against paparazzi.
Maxima should just buy one of those Hollywood latex masks.
Just finished reading the whole archive, loving every page, and it ends on a photography strip and camera speculation. It makes me post my first comment, (sniff).
First, I’m surprised at the detail DaveB put into the camera. I’m thinking it’s a 6D due to the lack of lettering on the lower right on the front. I believe I know that lens, and used it many a time. Canon EF 11-24 f/4l USM. The focus adjustment behind the distance scale is a giveaway. That screams telephoto. The fisheye curvature of the objective isn’t apparent, but the width of the tulip shade blocks the zoom adjustment from sight, another giveaway. An odd choice for a portrait shoot. I’d have gone with something like a low f-stop 50mm prime for a sharp subject and good bokeh.
Candace would not be able to use a polarizer to mitigate glare with a fisheye. So, other than changing lenses, going with HDR bracketing and/or adjusting the lighting to be indirect and diffused are her best options.
Now, the burning question: will Candace use Photomatix, Adobe, or HDR efex?
There are paints that can stick to glass…. seems that it would make sense that they could design makeup that can as well :)
Well, probably they could, but no company ever would, considering the size of the market for it. No company would even bankroll the research for a product for exactly one person. Maybe she could convince the R&D folks at ARCHON to look into it for her, if she can convince them that it is a military necessity. “What if we have to do a covert urban insertion? It would help of I could pass as a normal.”
I wasnt suggesting a company do that. I was thinking Archon probably could come up with something, given they have a genius who’s IQ can’t be measured on a human scale, magic, and probably the best R&D budget in the country.
Actually I come across companies doing things like that all the time. Typically it is for a charitable cause, such as curing a disability. Of course they get their return by the favourable publicity. Maxima just risked her life in a major super fight, live on national TV. She is publicity gold at the moment.
All she need do is hint that it could improve her quality of life, and they would jump at it.
But, from everything said in the comic, and Dave’s commentary under it, I doubt that paint would do the trick. The glass-like texture of her skin is one thing, but the molecular force-fields are actually her big problem. And we do not have any companies whch have developed paint to work on force fields.
I read Balaclava as “Chewbacca”
“Maybe just Chewbacca?”
For her body, she could use a skin colored body stocking.
As for paint, the trick would be to coat with a very fine mist such that it doesn’t form a sheet. Kind of like condensation. Because the surface area is so small, the paint should adhere and since it is not a sheet should flex. It would difficult because the atomizer would probably clog after each coat and she’d need to buy a new atomizer. The effect would also be tinted by her real skin underneath. Might make her look like she had a spray on tan, but she’d look more natural. After it dried, the touch would probably feel a little like fine sand paper.
Simplest way to do that would be to use an air gun like they use to make T-shirts. They’re made to be broken down and cleaned after each use.
Maybe I’m seeing too much into this, but did she really just use the metric system in a casual conversation? That’s weird for an American.
Actually, it isn’t too uncommon for U.S. military (like Maxima) to use the metric system in casual conversation. They use metric measurements extensively to ensure interoperability with allied forces, particularly NATO. For example, the ground forces measure distances in “klicks”, slang for kilometers. Most military weapons have been measured in mm since the late 1950s, except for a few legacy exceptions, like .50 caliber. Military vehicles are generally built to metric standards.
The Navy and Air Force still measure distance in nautical miles and speed in knots, but these units are now accepted for use with SI by the BIPM (the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, headquartered in France).
Hm, yeah, that’s logical.
I guess I was just expecting her to revert to “civilian speak” when talking with the photographer.
Makeup appliances and facial prosthetics have come a long way since even Star Trek TNG. With 3D mapping and 3D printers we can create a full facial map of a person’s face, overlay it with another person’s face (or a slightly larger version of her own for Maxima), and create a form-fitting mask that moves realistically. Check out this video someone posted a little while back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkC_86cZEl8
CGI, but cute and eerie.
If I had a big sister, it would be great if she was cool like Maxima.
Maxima is the shiniest object in the known universe. Shininess is typically expressed in units of centi-max.
It ranks second to the highly reflective posterior of one Bender Bending Rodriguez.
https://theinfosphere.org/Assie_Come_Home