Grrl Power #352 – Superman never has to file a flight plan
I know that’s a big blob of text at the top of the page. Self editing is tough, cause you can always convince yourself that any detail or bit of dialog qualifies as world building, and conversely you can tell yourself the more you cut, the better an editor you are. Each of those is only sometimes true, so I just write like I do and edit as I go. Hopefully it’s the right amount. Also hopefully all the air traffic stuff makes sense. It’s not supposed to look like an actual air traffic controller’s screen, but actual “this is what a flying person sees when they look down” maps and combine them with layers of practical information.
I think I’ve shown a closeup of the wrist com before, but the buttons weren’t glowing. They only light up after you interact with it, so I guess Sydney just poked the screen.
I think the funniest thing on this page is how Sydney immediately repeats her mistake when going for the high five. I just wish I could have fit it on the page proper.
Forgot to mention: This page colored by Keith.
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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Oooh, I see messages from Leon on Sydney’s Wristcom. Let the flirting begin!
i think the message from dabbler is more interesting…
I’m wondering if you can send pictures on this wristcom? if so what exactly would Dabbler have sent?
Notice that one of the buttons has an envelope icon and another has a camera one. I think pictures can be sent.
Unless it has a detachable camera, not sure what pictures it could take
We ARE talking about Dabbler and a device that can (presumably) take photographs whereever one’s hand can reach…
And are also talking about a woman who won’t let her tech in the hands of anyone
Although Harem might have her hands on the tickle gun.
It is probably along the line of: Please come down to my office so you can set some passwords on your accounts here at Archon. You actually get three different accounts on our computers. Oh, and each password has to be different, at least 3 different character classes (Capital, lower case, digit, symbol; I recommend putting in an obscure Unicode character or two as well) in a minimum 12 characters; each password expires in 60 days and can not be reused for a minimum of 24 times. Think of something, and do not write it down. Please see me before the end of business today.
Meh that isn’t a good password policy. Password policies have to take into account user behaviour and ease of remembering is important for that. With 4 complicated passwords you change every 60 days people will write down their passwords even if you tell them not to=> security risk. Or if they don’t they will sometimes forget them which requires a procedure to quickly get a new password which is also another complication.
And mandatory mixing character classes like that might be an easy way to create a high theoretical number of possibilities, but first if it’s mandatory people tend to create them in not particulariy random ways. Things like fulfilling the numbers part with a 123 at the end. And some unicode characters are bound to be more likely than other. things like that. And it makes it not only harder to remember but harder to type. Typing unicode characters is inconvenient. Typing a long passphrase can be quite secure, easy to remember and since you only use letters (and maybe numbers) it’s easy to become fast at typing it. (Some password policies work like this: If your password is short you have to use multiple character classes, as it gets longer the number of required classes gets decreased.)
Yes, Leon might be smart enough to follow that advice:
https://xkcd.com/936/
It also got an approval from Bruce Schneier. Which might have some weight for a computer geek.
Correction, Bruce Schneier revoked his approval:
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/03/choosing_secure_1.html
No real need with such password policies and all that, Leon already set her up with a password manager.
That was just for the first day, he specifically said “that should be enough till tomorrow”
Yes, but that was more due to not being able to “reach” every site/service she has an account with through her phone.
I recommend, to my friends, that a new password be based on a significant incident happening on, or near the day that the password changes. Use two or more words. Cram them together. Mix some numbers and symbols, and upper case into the mix, and you can use the actual event as your reminder phrase; such as, D3nt@lV1sit, with the clue being “Dental visit”. I know that it isn’t the best security, but generally these friends will use passwords that match their login name, or login with their first name and use their last name for the password, or their pet’s name, or many other easily deciphered passwords. Of course, I also have to explain to them why they should do this, and possibly demonstrate by guessing their passwords in six or less attempts.
But, you then have to remember what day you changed your password, and if that incident happened on that day, or the previous password-change day
I was thinking of some corporate policies that I have had to work with in the past. Some government policies seem like they were designed 10 years in the past to use technology that will not be available for another 5 years, and will be updated in two years to be something totally incompatible.
Leon’s enough of a geek to know to set people up with password managers. Besides, this is the government: it’ll be more along the lines of: ‘Here’s your CAC card, and your token. You’ll need a six digit PIN, changed every 90 days. Report a lost or stolen CAC or token immediately.’
In the military, 8 digit PIN, no scheduled changes to the PIN. :) And by token do you mean the access card for electronically locked doors?
It’s been pointed out recently that an off-the-shelf laptop (and not even a high end one) has enough computing power to brute force an 8 character password in a little over 3 seconds. That same laptop would take over 2 years if you use a 16 character password. Good to know our military hardware is secure. :-)
Having worked as a technician with computers while in the Navy, I can pretty much confirm that the military policy with equipment usage is: “Keep working with it until it stops working & will never work again. Then replace it with something a little newer.” I’ve worked on a computer that has been in use since the days of Magnetic Donut Memory Core & it had less RAM memory than a Commodore 64.
The CAC mitigates that: True, a general computer can scan through a PIN database quickly, but in this setup you need the CAC first – and it is what is validating the PINs. The card has limited computing power, and will shut down after too many attempts, rendering it useless until you take it back to IT support and have them reset it.
It makes short memorable PINs useful, because they are only for unlocking the CAC.
Real security often has a 3/30 policy – three mistaken passwords and the account is locked out for 30 minutes (or something similar). It’s quite good for preventing straight attacks, random guessing OR when you’re basing it on knowing the person.
The demonstrations that show them breaking passwords are where the hash (encrypted version of the password) was compromised. When that happens, it’s only a matter of time and brute force to figure out the password.
What’s more fun is Apple’s iPhone lock. The more incorrect attempts, the longer before you can try again.
Incorrect Attempts|Minutes before you can try again
1-5|0
6|1
7|5
8|15
9|60
10|connect it to iTunes
Even more fun is if you Jailbreak it. Then the time increases exponentially. One person managed to get it to 45 years. (If the battery is almost dead, it will keep increasing until you plug it in.)
No – that’s something else. I’m talking about one of these. It generates one-time keys for remote logins – they get used in addition to the CAC for logging into the system. (The CAC alone is all you need if you’re at your desk, but that’s on a secure network.)
*cough* You mean THESE I think…
Yep, same device. ;) Although RSA has patched that particular vulnerability. (And a couple of others that have come up since.)
Part of why they are typically only used in addition to a CAC, and possibly a password. Breaking one part of the security doesn’t get you through on it’s own.
I wonder who the fourth message is from.
I make it that there are 3 missed messages from whoever else.
14 total, 3 from Max, 5 from Dabbler and 3 from Leon. Unless Max’s messages don’t count (now read) and there are 6.
Actually, chat != email so number of other chats could be different.
I still can’t make out that last number :(
It looks like more than one, and that’s just a “there’s more” triangle arrow so I’d bet there’s more than one sender if she scrolls over.
Maybe Dabbler or Digit can work up a Heads Up Display for her glasses.
Flying AND looking at her wrist pad seems awkward.
Speed, Altitude and Heading at a minimum.
I forget, did they upgrade her glasses yet? ‘Cause I’m thinking ordinary specs aren’t going to cut the capsaicin in a super-powered combat environment. A strap would help them not get knocked off, but for the lenses themselves you’d want something that is more resistant to breakage than ordinary optical glass…
Maybe, but giant nerd glasses are part of the things that make Sydney Sydney. I don’t want that to change too much.
Custom made sports glasses with auto-tint and HUD.
Not sure they make a sport goggle version of Google Glass but I suppose anything’s possible when you’re rich.
Sorta technology eyeware
The ones shown before were “beyond bleeding edge”.
Sydney: Ah flying is so cool. How fast does the GPS on this thing say I am going anyway? Mach 1.2?! (looses altitude as she concentrates on reading the WristComm). Holy (Skip! Skip. Slide)! Ouch. Right, always look where you are going and where you want to go.
I’m sure it could be arranged. The whole team wore smart glasses during the fight. It’s less awkward than it sounds though. Remember Syd doesn’t have to worry about wind resistance in her shield or gravity with her orb. She can sit comfortably and look at her wrist instead of having her body strung out behind her and effectively looking up while holding her arm over her head to fly.
However, once she has flying+shield up, she’s up to her two power limitation, and might not be very useful for the fight. Well, except for coming up with fighting tactics due to her her genre savviness. Using both hands for the orbs would even make it hard to use her wrist com, as today’s page shows.
And don’t anyone use this as an excuse for coming up with another outrageous method to overcome the limitation. I think it’s clear that she’s limited to two powers at a time just because she is. It’s a central plot point, and we’re not going to see Sydney sitting on her flying orbs, or hanging from a hovering backpack, or whatever other theories I’ve seen thrown about.
With the shield up, she can always ram. And the wrist com seems to be button-oriented, not touchscreen, with fairly big buttons, so I think she could handle operating it while holding her orbs. It’s not fine manipulation, like putting in an earpiece was.
*Reads last 2 comments, gets processor image of Sydney flying in shield, bouncing on top of the villains while her mobile plays the Super Marion Brothers theme, making the boo-woop Mario-just-squished-something sound effect as she slams into each 1 from above…*
Oooh… I can see that, and it’s exactly in character for her…
(THIS MUST HAPPEN!)
Soooo…. if she’s ever in a grapple situation, the bad person MIGHT accidentally press one or more buttons and get interrupted by a ‘butt dialed’ (more like grapple dialed) situation?
What if Syndey pulls an Apocolypse Now stunt and comes in with “Ride of the Valkyries” blaring from her wrist comm… so much for stealth.
Then again, she can take candid shots to post on the InterWebs and have the evil person die of social media embarassment.
AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sydney’s such a newb!
at this point i am sorry but that’s…a A BITCH SLAP off the nest not a push lol
Max took her up to a decent altitude. :-)
Besides I feel certain if Max thought Sydney was panicking and forgetting to use her orb she’s fast enough to zio down and catch her before she hit the ground.
Yeah, Maxi took her high enough that when Sydney fell, there would time for Sydney to grab her balls or for Maxi to swoop in for the save
“there would be time for Sydney to grab her balls”
hahahaha I’m now 12 years old again.
:D
Okay Leon upgrading Sydney’s glasses might actually work and we’d get a chance to see him interact with Gizmo.
But imagine the glasses Sydney would get if she allowed Dabbler to “Adjust” them…
“Ohh, lots of functions. Neat…and a zooom too! OMG! EWWWWWW”
“Oh, I see you found the Porn Sense Sensor.”
“How do I turn it off?”
“Why would you want to?”
“And this function makes everyone look like they’re in sexy underwear because if you see everyone naked then where’s the fun in unwrapping them…”
You so mean, Max. Why you so mean? :P
From what we learned of max so far is that when she is in full flight she could probably catch sydney 5 inches from the ground from the location she’s currently at if sydney panicked too much over trying to fly again and was at risk of going splat.
Also she is a lieutenant so if she needs to be mean to teach, she will, no questions asked.
Sounds more like a Sergent’s job. And Max is a Lt. Colonel
Yes, but they’re a small elite team like special forces which means that while she’s higher rank she’s in charge of a group smaller than one company (which would be a captain slot, also below a Lt. Colonel).
Lt. Colonel, not lieutenant. HUGE difference.
The training mantra of the military is “Sweat now or bleed later” Military training isn’t meant to busy, it’s meant to keep you alive later.
So could Halo fly by having the Orbs under her? It would be slower but it would open her hands up for something else. Maybe if she had a belt with slots for them made she could fly/hover with the ones she’s not holding and shoot/shield with the others?
They only function with her hands.
yes but they do fly/orbit around her and can move pretty fast if she wants them to. What I’m thinking is: If the orbs are in a backpack and she’s wearing the backpack, and she thinks at the orbs “go up” will they have enough force to pick her up?” And if they do, could he have a belt/harness system made so the Orbs can slide into it and keep her from falling while she uses two other orbs in her hands. Its a lesser form of flying, more like hovering, but it could be a useful trick if she’s ever in a fight with another flying super. She’d have 2 Orbs in use and still be able to keep her location in the air.
Their movement is also controlled by Sydney.
Agh! I just sort of thought that she could give the tube with the orbs to Max and let Max drag her along. But you’re right, that wouldn’t work.
Don’t see why it wouldn’t work: if Sydney is going with Mr Tubey
But the bigger question would be: why would Maxi carry Sydney that way when she could just carry her like PeeGee did with Harley when Harley tricked PeeGee into believing they were ‘best buds’
Remember after the bank, when Maxima picked the tube up. They can’t be moved away from each other but you can’t move her by moving them, you can only stop her from moving away.
Again: why would anyone attempt to carry Sydney that way? If Sydney doesn’t want to move, she ain’t going anywhere, and if she does, there are easier ways to move her
Refresh my memory… how did Power Girl carry Harley?
Under Harley’s arms
Actually, more awkwarder than that: Harley had her arms pointing out front (with her legs dangling down) and PeeGee was holding her under her biceps (maybe Harley is ticklish in her armpits)
I suggested that in the comments of the previous strip, but more of
a backpack/jetpack.
Doesn’t sound workable without cartoon physics.
That depends if the movement of the Orbs is based in relation to Sydney, or to something else. Since they are magicly tethered to Sydney, it’d make sense that their movement is based in relation to Sydney. That means it’s impossible to move Sydney by using the orb’s movement (like you can’t blow in the sail off a boat you’re standing on)
um, sorry to burst your bubble… but Mythbusters proved that YES, yes you CAN blow your own sailboat around… at quite a good pace too… Granted it took rather specialized conditions… but…
Ok… How about push a car while inside the car?
I can do that if I am allowed to get one leg out a door to push on the ground.
Or you could cut a hole in the bottom and do it like the Flintstones do.
you really should have said ‘sorry to take the wind from your sails’ missed opportunity there :p
From what I read that test is a bit misleading. You can power the ship by blowing backwards with the fan, what their sail test did was something similiar though ineffizient, the large sail redirected part of the air stream backwards. So the forces cancelling out part doesn’t apply to all the the forces involved, but you probably should just turn the fan around.
So that’s how that works. I already wonderd.
Funny how theoretical systems never quite work out on the real world.
Still, the same thing does happen when you blow. Asuming you could blow hard enough
Wasn’t that essentially what they said in their final conclusion, that the sail can only “absorb” a certain amount of force and once the fan exceeds that force the sail starts acting like a thrust reverser?
If Sydney can halt the movement of her orbs then she might be able to. . . No . . As I am typing this I am shooting down my own theories on how she could convince the orbs to hold position and thus hold her aloft without the flight orb. Having a ball under each foot and just stay there. They would remain in position at her feet but fall with her. . .
Why couldn’t she tell them to “move up” at the same speed she’s falling down?
The easiest way for Sydney to fly without using an orb, freeing up both hands? Grab Varia, sit Sydney on her shoulders, Varia holding her by the bare ankles using pointer finger & thumb, with flight & shield orbs in hand too, then Sydney’s free to Lighthook & PPO all she wants…
Varia being able to ‘piggy-back’ on to Sydney’s use of the balls has not been confirmed, or simply the balls were including Varia in their orbit because Varia’s head got too close
Whenever we see Sydney get her head near someone elses, the orbit of her orbs tightens up so that they are only going around her and not crashing into other people’s heads. The only time they do smack people around is when Sydney tells them to.
However, I agree that we don’t know yet what exactly Varia’s gestalt power will let her do with Sydney.
While it is true that shared use is yet to be confirmed (or even the potential for it noticed in-comic), it’s also true that the orbs do tend to pull in tighter as people close in on Sydney’s personal space, yet spread out to include Varia on contact. That looks like strong enough evidence to warrant accelerated field testing…
While it’s in my head, Varia said her power tends to be similar for members of the same family. So, if it proves true that she shares Sydney’s orb control on contact, would that mean Sydney’s parents/siblings/grandparents/etc. have “no effect” too, since they most likely do not possess anything like Sydney’s orbs? And if so, does this mean the orbs have been part of her bloodline for so long they were forgotten when lost?
Seems I share Daniel the Human’s erratic thought processes when in need of shutdown, or “Tired-Random” as he calls it. Still, sounds ligit enough to put out there…
I can see that one of Sydney’s next choices, on the skill wheel, would be to add a duration on her flight, after release, so that she could hover or continue flying for a short spell whilst dealing with other matters that require hands empty of orbs.
I want to see her select one of the crossover powers for her next choice. At least that is how I read her skill tree, that there are combination powers that she has to be holding to orbs for, designated by lines running to each of the farthest primary points.
Come to think of it. She “leveled up” from a single shot and a shield, plus getting out to the dog and pony show. The battle after, she didn’t level up again? You know the first couple of levels are usually the easiest to level.
She withstood Max’s punching, floats around in her apartment, set a forest on fire, tried out all the orbs to get their function, and who knows how far the previous owner had them levelled?
And first she’s going to have to know what each of the spaces on the leveling diagram actually mean.
Dave, do you have that already, or will you be making it up as you go?
“Previous Owner” Those two words could spell years of side stories and or future problems.
We don’t know how much experience she earned prior to attracting the attention of the military. she clearly experimented with them for a while before she met Max at the bank.
An “extended effect – flight” addition would be very awesome, however it would also require knowing which option to choose. And while, as others have pointed out, we don’t know how much leveling up she did pre-comic or how high the orb’s beginning level is, A flight orb option or even an multi-orb option is worth a shot…
For those wondering, the airport codes on Sydney’s Pipboy (MUN and PAL) are used for Maturin, Venezuela and Palanquero, Colombia in real life.
The Dallas area airports are DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth International) and DAL (Dallas Love Field).
Those are the two main ones which have scheduled service. There are several other smaller airports in the area that do not have scheduled services: Dallas Executive (RBD from its former name: RedBird Airport), Addison (ADS), Fort Worth Alliance (AFW), Fort Worth Meacham (FTW), Fort Worth Spinks (FTS), McKinney National (TKI),Aero Country (T31), and Air National Guard base Fort Worth (FWH) (No civilian traffic unless an emergency). Nope, none of them are on Sydney’s wrist-comm.
DaveB: if you want some ‘unassigned’* airport codes (to keep things fictitious), here are a few:
Similar to MUN:
MUJ, MUU, MUV;
Similar to PAL:
PAI, PAR, PAW.
*almost certain: it’s hard to find a 100% comprehensive, free listing.
why are there 2??? can the second be removed plz?
Huh???
OK, that was meant as a reply to the preceding post.
OK, I definitely hit the ‘Reply’ button on the previous post that time. May be a problem here.
Yep. Dave, we have a problem.
Test 0004.
Reply to 7thsealord’s 9:07pm (Server Time) post on September 10, 2015.
FOR SCIENCE!
Test 0007
Result: Success.
Hypothesis holds.
Working Hypothesis: Select users are unable to reply to posts, or have their own posts replied to.
This concludes testing.
Conclusion: Some users (7thsealord is included in this group) are unable to reply to the posts of others, and replies to their posts fail similarly.
Testing was inconclusive as far as determining if 7thsealord is the ONLY user experiencing this problem, as several of the comments of the last few commenters all COULD be failed replies. More testing might prove revealing in this instance. However I have no wish to spam the comments with dozens of tests in the name of identifying an error in the reply function.
This was fun.
FOR SCIENCE!
OKay, just tried to make a standalone comment right after AronIronHead’s analysis above. Sent it through, and it failed to appear. THIS is being sent as an actual reply to the above.
I can reply to earlier comments on this page, and they come up normally. If I try to make a “new” comment, it fails to appear. If I reply to one of these last few comments, it comes up as a separate comment. The fact that no one else has apparently submitted ANY “new” comments since this mess began is probably significant.
Dave, problem, fix.
But something is seriously wrong here.
Are you sure you haven’t somehow disable Javascript for this page in your browser? I’f I remember correctly that screws with posting replies, but it’s been a long time so I might be wrong.
Stand by for Science!
OK so that’s not the problem. Ain’t Science fun?
OHH-kay, the standalone comment I made earlier that seemed to disappear actually hasn’t. It just appeared further up the page instead of at the end like one would expect.
This is getting very weird.
FOR SCIENCE!
Replying to 7thsealord’s 9:03 pm comment from my Android tablet.
Maybe the problem is with dumbphones?
Or not
Are you running some sort of ad/script blocker? NoScript does the same thing to me unless I tell it to “allow scripts globally” on this page.
Ok, previous comment was meant as a reply to 7thSealord. Something is screwy. Maybe firefox, maybe plugin, but something is off.
Reply to DaveM’s last post
I had just chaged versions of Firefox but, if there are any issues (and I go to LOTS of strange places online), they are not showing up ANYPLACE else. I use AdBlocker Lite (as previously), but I have just disabled that to see if any differance is made.
Apparently, no differance whatsoever for me. AdBlocker aint doing it, and I am inclined to think it probably aint Firefox either.
Testing, testing 1 2 3
testing, testing, reply for me :)
(to sealord 7:48AM)
I don’t use adblocker and haven’t updated FF in about a week, so let’s see if this works.
OK, really weird. It not only posted my reply to 7thsealord as a stand alone, when the page reloaded it kicked me all the way back to page 1 of the comments, while posting on page 3 (like it should). Dave, we definitely have a problem…
test post
okay, “test post” was a reply to anifreik, ended up at the bottom of the list, and I redirrected to page 1.
“ditto” was a post without being a reply ended up WAY up in the list, way out of order.
test post
Confused me too
I have to wonder about the “more turbulence” comment from Max though. Yes, Sydney’s field is bigger than a person, but it becomes more aerodynamic and conformal at higher speeds. (See #158 “The Joy of Flight”)
Agrecian: Sydney can custom her Bubble to be bullet shaped, and thus take up not much more ‘space’ than a ‘natural’ flier like Maxi, possibly even reduced turbulence
It’s still a larger displacement moving through the air, even if it does become more aerodynamic at higher speeds.
The high five did make me laugh out loud! Good job I’m working from home today.
That’s my favourite part of this one too!
“its really hard while hoding…” *awaaaayy*
i think that’s a +1 to my theory.
either she doesn’t control them directly, and the ball noticed the discomfort and decided not to bother her… or she is clumsy and lost contact with it, and it immediately returned to the halo formation.
Probably the second one. It seems that simple contact with the orb isn’t enough to get it’s power, you have to actually hold it.
She probably opened her hand half in order to try to hold the Orb and manipulate the ear piece at the same time, and it wasn’t enough to register as holding
Also remember that directly controlling doesn’t exclude some kind of AI controlling the Orbs. The orbs probably have some AI that governs their basic functions/movements, but Sydney can overwrite that and take direct control (she’s not controlling them when they are in Halo afterall)
My question is- did she drop her earpiece in all that commotion? Losing sensitive electronic equipment seems like the kind of thing a military organization would look down on.
And Max would look down on it more than most.
:P
The earpieces plug into the back of their chokers, so it’d probably just be dangling.
Naw, the other end of the earpiece is clipped to her choker.
If she had, Max could just catch it. She’s not cruel, and this was a perfectly understandable mistake.
A good leader should always allow their people to make honest mistakes. Few things are better teachers.
This makes me wonder about the force field and it being used as a weapon, or emergency landing item. If she falls and uses the force field will it absorb the impact while keeping her in the center and not transmit the force to her? If it does couldn’t the field be used as a mega battering ram if she wanted to? It seems like the field does absorb kentic energy otherwise the force of Max’s blows should have transferred to her and she never felt them.
The shield penetrates the ground, so emergency landing would be out. Maybe it recognizes the Earth as a much larger spheroid and yields to it?
Maybe if she upgrades the flight/shield connection node she could get this to work.
The shield pentractes the ground only when it is turned on. Once on it will keep itself intact. When Max did a high power shot to test the shield Sydney did not move at all, not even the ground inside the shield. But the earth did form waves around the shield in response to the blast. Once on the shield doesn’t seem to pass anything but harmless light. Sydney also did not show any movement in respose to Max really hitting the shield hard either. I think it is a very good bet that the shield does absorb, or cancel, kinetic energy as well as other types.
There is no question that the shield can absorb huge amounts of kinetic energy when applied EXTERNALLY. The big question is if can absorb kinetic energy from Sydney while she is inside of it. Think of it this way, a 2 inch thick steel plate can absorb fairly large amount of kinetic energy but will do effectively nothing to save you from injuries or even death if you are falling at terminal velocity.
For the shield to be able to save the user it needs some form of inertial compensation on essentially a cellular level.
Even if she stays dead center in the forcefield, she still STOPS when the forcefield stops. The sudden change in momentum is enough to kill you, it’s not the actual impact (although the impact would ALSO kill you)
normally, yes it would, but that’s because of kinetic force distribution.
here, for all we know she may he “kinetic dampeners” or something like that in her shield.
But as Kfox pointed out: the Bubble passes through the ground, but Sydney doesn’t
it only passes through when it’s convenient.
remember, when the tectonic uppercut happened, the ground under Sydney was cut off smoothly, rather than cracked like the rest.
also, “ground”, is not an enemy that you would be charging n the first place.
Unless you’re fighting Concretia.
then you point out the size?
When has Sydney ever rested on the ground like a hamster ball?
Probably only when walking on the ground, in the same way that the Shield seems to cut off regular things when they reach dangerous levels (sound passes through, but the massively loud explosion didn’t seem to effect anyway during the press conference).
An impact with the ground would no doubt register as impact, in the same way that a punch or a thrown rock would. And be blocked
Max’s explanation in the first panel is short enough not to be boring, and long enough to get the major message across to Sydney (hopefully) but also the audience (to me, at least). Nice job.
And Max is even cooler with the punning.
I agree, it is a good ballance between lots of text and not enough
I’ll throw a 3rd “agree” in wit this lot… :p
God, I love Sydney in this one. I’d certainly have to have a change of pants too after that, though I think I would have managed to remember five seconds later and not gone for the high five. Instead, I would be clutching that orb in a death grip!
Meanwhile, I notice Max is channeling Horatio Caine. “Besides, you seem to have things,” sunglasses go on, “well in hand.”
Did…did Maxima misspell Sydney’s name there? x.x
Sydey?!
You’re right. She must not be a very good typist.
To be fair, Dave did say that all that text was hard to self-edit.
We all mistakes. How often have we anted an edit button? Max is in the same boat here. So she forgot one letter; it is not as critical as some other things she may have to type.
Mid day during tomorrow’s training Sydney comes running up to Max wearing a flight suit and helmet.
Sydney:”I got here as fast as I could. Where are we going?. Does Archon have a secret space plane or something?”
Max: “I don’t have any trip planned. Where did you get that idea about a secret plane?”
Sydney: “It is right here in your message. ‘Assemble at base for launch in ten minutes’. ”
Max: “Oh, sorry. I meant that LUNCH was in ten minutes.”
Whoops! That’s what I get when I write text straight into the art program instead of writing it out in evernote first, which has an inline spellcheck. I think I’ll leave it that way though since it makes sense as a typo.
I like the idea of Badass Max having a human failing like not being able to type on touchscreens.
Touch screens work on capacitance sensing. Max’s metallic skin is probably outside the ‘normal’ range and her tech finds it hard to handle her input reliably.
It least she has it easier than Jiggawat. She probably can’t even use touch screens without zapping the device.
She probably has to use a stylus.
Jigs or Maxi? :D
Probably both
That mini-comic. LOL :D
5 bucks sais that Maxima actually used her Superspeed to nudge the Flight ball out of Sydney’s hand without her noticing, to see how she’d react
I know I know, she’s not actually that mean. But still cool thought
At the very least she had her speed up and was ready for it but didn’t react.
All hail the mighty CSI: Miami reference!
YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!
Oh and Dave, her WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH should be going from blue/green to red as she falls further away. Doppler effect/Red Shift and all that.
The mini comic had me laughing out loud. Plus, I like the texts from max as she realizes that Halo had fallen off the grid.
Me too, that minicomic is amazing
1997 mini-series by Chris Claremont, “Superman/Wonder Woman: Whom Gods Destroy” has Superman giving his position to the FAA so that they can route traffic appropriately. Basically saying that sure, it put him in danger if his villains hacked his location, but better he be in danger than the flying public.
Still, no flight plan, per se. I imagine, in light of Astro City #1, it’s awfully hard to file them quickly enough.
Do what air ambulance pilots do: File aural flight plans. It can work for traffic observation pilots too, like the one that Halo freaked out this morning.
Even as I typed the title to this comic I knew it must have happened at least once before. I mean 60 years of Superman comic across dozens of titles. Still, it’s not SOP with him.
Back in the old Lois and Clark series a villain with a grudge against Superman got elected as a city official and later gave him a ticket for flying without an official license. (Played by John deLancie)
What is it with JdL and playing assholes?
A lot of actors have said that they prefer to play the bad guy – it’s just more fun.
You calling Q an asshole? o_O
Q is an asshole. He’s not necessarily a ‘bad guy’, but he’s definitely an asshole.
I wonder if they’ll get her a Google Glass-style HUD eventually. It would seem to be an improvement.
Last time I looked around, very few of the products available similar to that, didn’t accommodate prescription lenses (or any ‘extra’ glasses at all).
Things have no doubt changed, but at the time, GlassUp (which still hasn’t shipped) was the only one I found that would be suitable for Sydney to use.
The alternative of course is to have her wear contacts instead of her glasses (to accommodate e-Specs over the top) but that choice could be made for any number of reasons (comfort, ease of use, sensitivity, etc.) and I can’t recall what (if anything) was said about it previously in-world.
Well, fortunately Sydney is in the Grrl-Universe, they probably have developed HUD-contacts
That’s really just a function of how much you want to spend on customizing them. Putting a prescription lens into a HUD would likely cost less than that wrist-comp, and be well within the budget.
Well they’ve already got HUD glasses, giving Sydney a pair of maore-combat-safe/durable prescriptions that fit underneath could work until they can make her a HUD sunnys that are prescription. Mind you, the prescription-under-HUD-sunnys might be a better idea. If another team member with perfect vision puts Sydney’s prescription version on mid fight like Jiggawatt does in the link, the warped vision could make them a friendly-fire liability…
*HISSSSSSSSSSSSSes like a scared cat at “Contacts”*
I could see this being an interesting skill for her to master. Seeing Sydney juggle orbs between hands to maximize her versatility and use abilities in rapid succession would be pretty interesting. Especially if she managed to really master being able to do it mid-flight with total spherical awareness. Mastering the ability to take forward momentum and dropping flight and shield to fire PPO in one direction and lighthooking in another only to jump back into flight… done correctly it could be very cool looking as well as impressive. However, knowing Sydney, she’d end up dropping flight and shield, firing PPO in 100 directions and flailing the lighthook like a baby rattler only to slam face first into a pole, and then raising her shield around her…which, in it’s own way, is kind of impressive.
ooOO – I like that image. Very Looney Tunes-ish.
Agreed XD
Maybe have the next orb/next few orbs she’s gonna use lined up along her arm from the wrist back, so current 1 flicks/gets pushed out forwards, allowing next orb to immediately enter hand, get used, followed by the process repeating for the next 1…
Rapid fire orb use… :p
The amount of text given the situation wasnt that bad, and I have a low tolerance for overly wordy comics. I think that because it was a technical description, it was more palatable than, say, a winding monologue.
Anyone else sad that the pun after the page isn’t in the official comic?
That looks like it should be canon. :D
You mean the CSI: Miami bit? DaveB said that it was canon, he just couldn’t fit it in
Oh? Neat. :D
Anyone else sad that the pun after the page isn’t in the official comic?
That looks like it should be canon. :D
Well, it looks like the comments posting system has failed the ‘Highlander’ test.
Because in the end (puts on sunglasses) there can be only one.
Well, we already know how it goes; Not having an editing function, we just have to…
( •_•)
( •_•)~⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
…Deal with it
Maxi knew that she could catch Sydney if she really needed to… right? o_O
And clearly, Sydney knew it, too.
Yes, but to do so without causing massive deceleration trauma? Not so much.
Actually, Maxi probably has loads of experience with how to mitigate that.
To counter that, she just has to keep going and simply change the angle so that she swoops a few inches off the ground rather than a sudden and fatal stop (which is what would have happened if Sydney hadn’t grabbed her blue ball in time anyway)
Hmm, turbulence huh? Sounds like she has a REALLY effective tool for taking out an air based attack. Embiggen her shield, fly super fast and do a buzz through of an enemy copter/jet formation and watch them all come tumbling down from the huge wake she produces. I wonder if that would work?
Mention Superman and airtraffic in a single go and this is all I can think of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5ev9d31Zqk
The problem I see with that idea is that Supes has telescopic vision…All he has to do is <frickin' pay attention to where he's going !.
O.o
Speaking personally, I just skimmed or skipped over the wall of text explanation in the first panel. That’s the kind of thing that had been happening too much lately for my tastes, and was leading me to consider deleting the bookmark and just checking back in a few months. Luckily the rest of the comic went back to being a comic, not a set of instruction manuals.
So he’s not allowed to have a detailed story? I’m always bothered when people act like web comics have to be 100% one liners and action.
Magnetoo, do you even realize how lazy that sounds?
“Oh, woe is me, I might actually have to read a whole paragraph!”
As Lulu pointed out, comics… even web comics… can’t be 100% one-liners and action scenes. Matter of fact, remember the big fight? People were complaining that they were getting bored because the ACTION was taking too long! Can’t win for losing with some people.
I’m not complaining that I have to read: it was what. Strong Female Protagonist often has pages full of text which are central to the debate which goes on in that comic. Subnormality is famous for the wall-of-text approach, but again the point of those comics is discussion between the Griffin and her friend, or whatever. I’m a fan of those.
I’m also a fan of Grrl Power or I wouldn’t be here, but I don’t particularly enjoy the “insert rod A into slot B” description which seems sometimes to happen. Dave wondered whether he’d put in too much of that this time, I offered my opinion: I expect that’s helpful to him. You’ve offered your contrary opinion, I expect that is also helpful to him.
Re: Subnormality…
The Sphinx and her friend.
Yep, my bad – thanks.
Wait, you have no problem with walls of text between a Sphinx and her friend, but you have a problem with explaining how something works? o_O
I find myself wondering about just this sort of thing a lot. And what about flight at very low altitudes? How likely is a novice flight-capable super to hit power lines or otherwise come to a tragic end?
To say nothing of birdstrike. The opening sequence of ‘Hancock’ covers the perils of low-flying supers quite well, I think.
There’s an old saying: “Eagles may soar… but weasels don’t get sucked into engine intakes.” I resigned from the Air Force, so I enjoy flying, but sometimes I’m perfectly happy being on the ground… especially when you go to a site like flightradar24.com and see all those yellow markers (although unlike the wrist-comm, flightradar24 doesn’t sort by altitude.)
As someone with a long-time interest in aviation, I found flightradar24.com to be a very interesting site. Thanks for that – somewhere else to waste my time and bandwidth when things are slow. :).
As someone who has taken some aerospace engineering classes and as a son of a pilot, I can tell that besides which airports are shown the information is correct. The information regarding traffic is correct, although there will also be planes circling the airport whenever someone at the airport screws up (pilot landing on a turtle, those ready for takeoff missing the go-ahead, and other things that drive my dad crazy) or if there is inclement weather. And for the turbulence stuff, it may not matter to other supers, but enough turbulence can take a plane out of the air. That’s why there has to be a fair amount of time between each takeoff or landing. The oval-like shape around one of the airports is likely due to the direction the runways are facing. Although… Where are the non-commercial flights? They also should be shown (probably marked with their tail number). It’s hard enough to search for one when you get pinged for traffic. Does the brace have some kind of large-area radar?
And I can also say that that is most definitely not like an ATC map. Not nearly enough circles. My dad has fun with the Washington DC circles every time he comes home. (His home airport is within the restricted fly area.)
All that said, I wish this kind of map was readily available. It’d be great for anyone with a small drone so they didn’t end up in front of a commercial jet.
From what Max said the map alters according to altitude. It could just be there’s no small planes close enough to them for the map to tag as possible obstacles? That and it seems tagging EVERYTHING might be overwhelming to a newbie like Syd.
If you’re including a detail as “world building,” there’s a 100% chance you should cut it. As a general rule, the only person who cares about world building is almost always the author.
All you needed in the first panel was the first sentence and the image. The image conveyed everything else.
On the other hand, Max isn’t really explaining it to YOU, the reader; she’s explaining it to Sydney. The big block of text doesn’t really qualify as “world building”.
I’m with LockeZ on this one. The conceit is that Max is explaining it to Sydey, but the reality is that its directed at us.
Yeah, and how many muppets would end up asking how it worked anyway
Personally, I like the extra info, as long as it isn’t too much. It provides extra context as to what Syd will be doing with it and any use or failings of the device on the future will need explanation.
Think of Q giving James Bond gadgets, they all get explained in some way before they get used.
In this case, there was not an explanation when Max gave Syd the pip boy, so we get it now, when she is being trained to use it.
If Dave goes on to explain the rest in detail it would probably be too much, we can take it as given now that the rest of the features will be explained in more detail, now we know the basics.
Q doesn’t point at a screen and explain his gadgets, he demonstrates them by blowing up target dummies.
Can’t blow up a target dummy with a communications device.
Actually. strictly speaking, you could.
At least two different ways I can think of *, but neither is as simple as point-and-click.
(Possibility One – MacGyver the comm-device into an IED;
Possibility Two – Use the comm-device to call in an airstrike.)
How exactly do you show don’t tell something that is basicly an advanced tablet?
No, he points at the destructive device itself, explains what it does, and then demonstrates it by blowing up the dummy complaining
Personally, that was my favourite part of the comic this weak. We’re not all here for wall to wall jokes. Just accept that he’s not here to cater to your every whim and that there are people that enjoy different things than you
Sure. But Dave basically invited feedback on this particular point, so it’s reasonable to give it to him. So far some people like it and some don’t – nobody is not accepting that.
I don’t think is a bad thing to express what one think is wrong. I’m not going to criticize people for telling something I like is good, so I’m not going to do it the other way around either. While done respectfully, they have the same right.
I could still argument against the opinion itself, though.
…Which is why J.R.R. Tolkien is so widely hated, right? World building, in moderation and appropriately placed, helps build the story and helps readers understand the world you are using. It helps immersion, and helps them connect with the problems the characters are facing. Yes, you can overdo it (like anything else in writing), but I don’t think this is overdone.
And, not that Dave is necessarily intending this yet, but good world building is the difference between a logical consequence and a dues ex machina. We now know that any of Arc’s forces can track air traffic, and be tracked by it, as long as they have a wrist-comp. This has many implications that could come up in a story, both to help and hurt our heroes, and telling us then would feel like an ass-pull, even if Dave had been planning it for ages. Bringing it up now, when our viewpoint character would logically learn of it, means it can be used later.
Well said.
Tolkien didn’t write a comic strip.
And Dave isn’t including world building because it’ll matter later. It won’t. I guarantee it. He just gets off on figuring out and explaining how superhero stuff could potentially integrate into the real world.
This isn’t the setup to Dave – it’s the payoff. The characters, conflict and events are the setup. The entire story exists only to set up these moments where he can explain the details of how the legal aspects of the military heirarchy would work.
Mmm… maybe, but even if your feel is on spot, is not an argument against wall of text or anything. Is DaveB’s business if he likes to do that.
Beside that, your post sounds dismissive. If that was your intention, I don’t think that’s right.
See I loved this explanation of her gadgets, this stuff is awesome.
All you need as functional narrative, you could be right. But there’s also other considerations. What the author want his work be like, for instance.
Speaking from my personal geek taste, I consider what DaveB did here “fan service” ;)
Venezuela? Columbia?
Dammit, Max! I thought you swore off of international incidents!
I think that incident with the destroyed Mosque had something to do with it…
you do slapstick better than any other artist I read. and if ppl are all “TL:DR” over a blob of text in a comic panel? well they probably are not your target demographic in the first place.
Good point. Can’t please anyone, and it’s always better for your sanity to not try
OOPS!!!
Looking at The Mighty Halo’s wrist gadget suddenly made me remember the one used by someone else. Who? The Predator.
Boy, I hope there’s no thermonuclear self destruct button on there . . .
for that you have Dabbler cling tenaciously to Max’s buttocks.
Where in the world, do you suppose, the communicator is getting all of this information to give to Sydney? The air traffic and so on, I mean. Unless Dabbler changed her mind about giving some of her tech to the humans, I can’t quite believe that it has an on-board sensor system that’s sensitive enough.
My vote is that there are a variety of radars and other scanners at Archon HQ and a bunch of satellites up in orbit that are doing all of this and then transmitting the info down to Sydney.
Most air traffic towers broadcast live feeds nowadays. Matter of fact, you can listen to their radio chatter online at https://www.liveatc.net and you can track flight data in real time on https://www.flightradar24.com. For example, as I write this, I know that UA746 is enroute from Houston to Denver; it is currently at 25,975 feet altitude, travelling at a speed of 314 knots, and is currently at latitude 35.1728 by longitude -99.3247. (Flightradar24 is powered by Google, of course.)
If I can access all that data from my home computer, surely the wrist-comm can access it too.
Why the hell does anyone still use an archaic speed nomenclature that was developed from how much rope pulled out of the water behind a sailing vessel? I mean, how many of us actually know how fast a “knot” is without googling it first? I sure as hell don’t.
Because Change is scary and “Too Hard”
It actually has two important, and valuable, reasons: First off, it brings up that you’re talking about fluid speed – that is, speed relative to the fluid that you are in, instead of relative to the surface of the planet. Boats and airplanes need to care about both fluid speed and surface speed, so having something that brings up which you’re talking about is useful.
Secondly, it simplifies calculations. One knot for one hour is one minute of latitude. Navigation maps for ships and planes tend to cover enough area that distortion from flattening becomes a problem, so it gets hard to measure miles and distances accurately. Knots however become the same units we use to locate items on the map, so measuring them is much simpler.
Even if public feeds weren’t a possibility given that Archon is a governmental agency and their needs it would be very probable for them to have private feeds for their own usage.
There’s an app for that. Seriously.
Actually, LOTS of them.