Grrl Power #358 – Fair trade photography
I considered extending the scene at the comic shop a bit longer, but beside an increasingly belligerent Maxima vs. a totally oblivious Brad, there wasn’t much else left to do there.
I cut a bit from this page where Sydney thought Maxima’s handling of the come on was a bit aggressive but I couldn’t figure out how to dovetail that into a conversation about her having to deal with a lot of unwanted attention and still fit everything else on the page so I’ll save that for another time.
As far as what actually did make it on to the page, yeah, this could be a poor precedent to set. Hopefully their phones are less hackable than the average consumer model. Well… not hopefully. They totally are less hackable, but there may be considerably more incentive for certain antagonistic parties to try and get in to them.
Vote incentives! The new one is up, obviously not finished yet but you can tell it’s a little different than previous ones. It will be updated throughout the month as I get time to work on it.
The previous incentive of the Spectrum Gals is now up at the DeviantArt page at a higher resolution, so go and enjoy the fine detail, and thanks for all the votes!
Update: It looks like Patreon got hacked, because that’s just how things go these days. From what I can tell, credit card numbers were not taken, but I would definitely suggest people change their passwords, especially if you use the same password everywhere, which is security no no number 1.
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.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Harem. love em and leave em
Ha ha ha! Varia’s teasing of Sydney is backfiring! Nice one, Dave!
Don’t see any teasing from Varia
Nope. This was more about Harem reacting to Vance and Ren being too PC for her liking.
KFox was referring to this incident.
Oh right, the shower scene
Porn sense tingling…
The best kind to tingle ;)
I don’t understand Varia’s reaction to Harem here because of this incident. What happens in the shower is supposed to stay in the shower I guess?
No double shiny powers for Varia from Harem?
Evidently, Varia can control whether or not she gets a power from physical contact or not…Unlike Rogue from the X-Men, who would absorb from others regardless of wanting to or not.
first, her warning a Sydney and showing her BEFORE the hand shake, would suggest otherwise.
second, as far as we were told, she doesn’t gain any powers when touching someone, its just her own power is unlocked somehow, so touching the same person “more” should not unlock any more.
third, her power from harem was ability to follow if i remember correctly, so she wont show any unless they try to vorp, while in contact.
here, they vorped before they were in physical contact, and separated again after it.
oh… oh goddess…
When she touches Harem, she can “Tag along for the teleport”…. what happens if she tries to hop along with two harem bodies teleporting to different places?
two Varias?
or two half Varias…. a bit messy really.
‘Splinched’ Is the sound effect is it not?
It is now!
It is a wizarding term from Harry Potter that describes a mishap during teleport.
https://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Splinching
So are you objecting to it, or supporting it as an onomatopoeia?
A better question would be what if she hops a ride with a Harem who UNTELEPORTS?
She goes into storage, until that Harem is summoned again. The principle would be little different to the clothes that Harem is wearing going into storage with her. They vanish when she vanishes, and return when she comes back. In the same state as they went in.
That could be either very useful or horrific. Much would depend on if time passes for Vaira when she is in storage. I don’t think it passes for individual Harems so probably not for Varia, but Harem always has at least one body for her mind to exist in, what would happen to Varia if she had no body for her mind, but did have consciousness and a the passing of time?
Every indication is that time is paused, when in storage. Wounds will be in exactly the same state coming out as going in, for instance. So I would not expect even Harem to be aware of anything for that body.
When I think of how Harem views the world, I picture her bodies being for her like limbs are for the rest of us. Each can be doing something different, but they are all controlled by the one mind.
So, to visualise a body in storage, the nearest analogy we would have is a limb that has been given local anaesthetic. We know where it is. But we cannot sense it or do anything with it. Until the anaesthetic wears off.
Even having a brain in the mix does not change things, as that brain is incapable of thought (either being frozen in time or, for the analogy, being sedated). Varia, with only the one body and mind, would likewise be unaware of the passage of time. Simply because, in storage, there is none. For the analogy it is like she is under general anaesthetic.
Should my interpretation be wrong, then the implications would be most disturbing. But no worse than actually occurs in the real world. We know that once in a while people are not properly anaesthetised, for surgery. Such that they are just paralysed by it, but not rendered fully unconscious. Thus experience the entire surgery, hearing every word spoken and feeling every cut of the knife.
Being paralysed in some limbo, for a period of time, would be a very unpleasant experience. And solitary confinement is an unpleasant torture.
But there are worse things that people have endured. Including some folks diagnosed as being comatose, but who remain mentally active. Their situation is far worse, as they had no prospect of escape. At least we now know that such do exist and so some are having their situation recognised and, if lucky, a means of interacting with the world may be given to them.
Suggest, yes. Prove, no. Varia does not seem to think things through thoroughly. For instance not picking up implications about her power, over however many years she has been using them, but which leapt out to Sydney within minutes of meeting her.
Likewise some of her explanation about her power contradicted facts given both in the press conference and by Peggy. The possibilities include that she is more insightful, or the nature of her power gives her clues that nobody else has. But, until we get further information, which might inform us more, I feel Arianna and Peggy are the more credible witnesses. As such I would take any comment by Varia with a pinch of salt.
My impression was it depends on the power. Some powers would by nature be “active,” and others might be “hey, now I’m on fire.”
With a new person, unlocking an unknown configuration of her power, a warning of “hey, something weird might happen” seems prudent.
You are missing my point there. The warning was wise. But basing a conclusion about her power, on how she phrased that warning is the issue. Varia may be able to touch and be touched until the cows come home, with no problem at all. Until she chooses to make the power work, whilst touching someone. But because of the way she phrased her warning, a conclusion is being drawn that is not the case.
Not that I am saying that is how Varia’s power works. But the conclusion was being drawn based on her statement. Not on the facts that we observed.
As for your comment about active and passive, yea, that is a perfectly reasonable point and it would make the warning sensible. But even then she did elaborate later that she ‘normally gets some hint about the power’. Which corroborates my warning about taking things said too literally.
Dave writes these characters realistically. Part of which is that people do sometimes make exaggerations, speak loosely or even lie. Some more than others. And, if telling the truth, they are saying what they believe. Yet that may differ from the real facts.
Yeah, that’s why it annoys me when someone tries to correct a characters speech, because very few people actually speak with ‘proper’ grammar
Alright, dug up the pages in question to help – 322, 323 & 324. Personally, I’m not sold either way…
On 1 hand, it looks to me like the power itself is unlocked on contact, with certain elements activated by choice like teleporting, but some activate automatically, such as appearance changes & being on fire. So having Harem go all lip-ninja on her possibly activated the option of teleporting, but since she didn’t WANT to teleport, she stayed where she is. It’s the wording that helps me lean this way, Varia warned Sydney BEFORE making physical contact. On 323 Varia says “Each person I touch acts like a key that unlocks my powah in a different way” (exact wording :P ). The different way part along with other stuff, to me, hints she may not always be able to stop some parts activating, but full control of other parts…
If this is true tho, she would possibly be more than a bit introverted, because if she changed appearance every time she touched anyone, that would mean if she walked through a crowd & kept bumping into people (on a train, down the street, etc), she’d be constantly changing as each person activated a different power, not to mention the mad panic something like that could start. Have people running away from you scared witless & cops coming running because of something you can’t help would quite possibly make you prefer your own company. If so, maybe she’s more relaxed here cause she doesn’t let it get her down, or there aren’t any crowds here…
However, since Harem doesn’t activate any visual changes, we haven’t seen anyone else initialize unforseen physical contact with her & we haven’t seen her out in public, it looks like we need either Varia to bump into someone & suddenly burst into flames (or not), or for Mr DaveB to throw some Word Of God our way…
Or I’m seriously over-analyzing all this. Daniel the Human does keep saying I burn through net-gigs like marshmallows at a Scout camp. Maybe that’s why he blocks me out while he’s not here…
something like teleporting cannot be passive. also, i think we agreed its the power to follow the teleportation, not teleport on her own anyway. if that is the case, then its a purely passive ability.
if its not… well, it would be a one time jump. if she couldn’t control where to, she could just as easily end up in the sewage, or right in front of a kamehameha, which would make it quite a self destructing power.
as for the crowds, there may be a 2 second activation period or something… may.
or she could just wear some cloths that cover her completely.
My bad, bad choice of wording, I did mean tagging along on the teleport, not actual independent teleportation. I’m saying she may have an active choice to tag along or not.
A time delay would be hard to show in comic without breaking the flow, but would also allow a “safety timer” kinda setup…
Or her Gestalt power is activated by touch by her hands, not just by touching any part of her body?
Lip Ninja, because Ninja’s couldn’t get any more awesome?
Always.
Expect.
Ninjas.
Always.
Except, nobody ever does. Which is why ninjas always win.
What about inquisitive Spanish ninjas?
iunderstoodthatreference.gif
I understood both those references…
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisi . . . er, the Spanish Ninjas!
Spanish InquisNinja…..,
I confess I confess!!!!…
Especially Fashion Ninjas
Equivalent Exchange!
Are we trying for a Full Metal Alchemist reference here?
“The Women of Arc-Swat”
Sounds like a Playboy Special Edition. I’ll buy. :P
How’s that quote go?
Oh yeah:
“I’ll buy that for a dollar.”
Unfortunately that’ll never happen. I assume the moment it is brought up in front of Max Playboy headquarters would share a certain mosque’s fate.
Once in a while I stumble upon covers of a magazine named “Playtoon” (e.g. on dA: https://playtoon.deviantart.com …) How about that? It’s out of their world but not out of ours.
Hasn’t Harem been featured on Playboy already? ^3^
Yeah, over in Dave’s Deviant Art pages. I’m glad that didn’t cost me a dollar (even though it would have been worth it)…
I was going to make a joke about Harem never having to do the walk of shame, but honestly, I don’t see her as the shameful type.
You’re kidding, right? Harem even having any sense of shame? Has anyone yet seen any evidence of this?
That’s what I like about her so much…
She used to be one of my favorites, too. For me though, her ranking plummeted when it was revealed that she was playing double agent. I know that it’s possible she’s really playing triple agent and DaveB just hasn’t let us in on it yet, but even so . . .
Triple? There are at least five of her.
Also, she’s playing double agent to a guy who has ominous-thunder-on-demand build into his office. That level of “playing villain” usually happens only in comedy series, or is only done by comic relief characters… Not by genuinely threatening villains. Yeah, it *might* be a subversion, but… someone who likes playing the villain so much just doesn’t seem like an effective villain. That’s the kind of guy who’d look at the Evil Overlord Guide and consider it an achievement list, not a list of things to avoid.
For all we know, this might just be an eccentric rich guy who uses his insider knowledge into ARCstuff to satisfy his curiosity or whatever.
He could very well be a guy who really, really likes the idea of Superheroes, but realizes that things on the other side may need to be… managed, to keep things from going WORM too quickly, maybe by playacting like… THE TECHNO QUEEN *KRAKATHOOM*.
It’s an interesting idea, and one that I think Richard Roberts is exploring through Spider in his “Please Don’t Tell My Parents…” series- the ‘villain’ who’s most definitely a villain- robbing banks, fighting Heroes, breaking laws and things, but isn’t actually one of the Bad Guys, and isn’t Evil. If they’re powerful enough, a Kingpin villain could very well keep things civil between the capes and the masks by arranging villain-fights between the more homicidal V’s and encouraging ‘polite discourse’ and high-end legal protection for the less violent ones, maybe working behind the scenes to support positive social change through directed acts of specific chaos. News report tells about how there’s going to be laws preventing people from suing Heroes for property damage? Oops, looks like Brick-Fist Man demolished Congressman Davie’s hometown Folk Art Museum while fighting Nyah-Nyah-Can’t-Hit-Me-Man. Dr. Insane’s people-eating-landsharks start running amok in Kansas City while ARCHON is busy with Tsunami relief on the other side of the globe? A few choice words to The Crimson Destroyer about how Dr. Insane’s muscling in on his turf. That sort of thing.
Basically, a Hero who’s decided that the best way to help people is by playing the Villain, and so they play it up to the fullest.
After all, Maniacal laughter is quite cathartic, and really fun.
It’s probably unfair, but whenever I see Deus and his partner Vale, I get a flash of Doctor Drakken and Shego from “Kim Possible.” Now if I could only figure out whether I’m being unfair to Deus, or to Drakken.
;)
Shego became a ‘bad guy’ to save her brothers, who are all Heroes (and also have names that end in ‘Go’)
You are totally being unfair to Drakken :p
Actually, she became a villain because her brothers were so incredibly irritating that she couldn’t stand to be around them anymore. And because evil was more fun.
That is, unless I missed an episode clarifying the reasons she left…in which case I stand corrected.
Your majesty is quite right, assuming I’m remembering the episode correctly. To paraphrase a half remembered conversation:
“The more we fought evil, the more she liked it.”
“The fighting?”
“The evil!”
There was an episode that showed they were cursed (or something) and she took it all on herself because her city needed her brothers more than they needed her, whether she enjoyed being evil or not anyway, she still did it to save her brothers from going evil
Like Jason Todd in Under the Red Hood?
I suspect Deus is a nice guy playing at being a villain like Doofenschmirtz from Phineas and Ferb and his help is just too priceless for Archon to lose so Daphne is playing along to stroke his ego and keep him happy and entertained. Why her? She’s the most fun loving of the group so it might just be a kick for her too.
Panel 5?
It’s not the walk of shame for Harem…. More like a strut of conquest
Lack of a sense of shame plus she doesn’t have to walk away from anywhere. :D
If only Ren knew we we know about what happened in the Grrl’s shower earlier…
you mean the farting?
With the green orb being an unknown, this vote incentive is interesting. I hope its foreshadowing.
Which brings up a question for DaveB. Do you know what the unknown orbs (and the extra powers listed in Sydney’s upgrade chart) do? Or do you just leave it blank so that you have the option to steer the plot there is it makes sense?
It’s a question that has bugged me some time about people’s writing process. How much further ahead and to what level of details do you have the plot in your head?
Thanks,
Shachar
Dave has previously stated that not only does he know what all the orbs do, but also what every slot in the skill tree does. It is all saved in a text layer on the skill-tree master image.
DaveB pretty much knows the general idea of where the entire story is going for a while now as well. He’s actually got a good deal of planning done for the series. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew not only what every slot on the skill tree did, but also what order Sydney will take, and what order she would take if she actually knew what they did. Hell, I hope at some point DaveB releases that so the rest of us can actually take a look at it and determine what order we’d go in so we can further the fantasy of living in that world.
That or so someone can use it to make a video game based on it.
Yup, the skilltree and mystery orbs are planned out. Fun fact, I used to build ARPG skill trees for fun. If I wasn’t doing this comic, I’d love to take a shot at being a game designer. :)
While I would be interested in seeing your take on an RPG skill tree in a game – THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN. I require you to continue drawing this comic. :)
Work on successfully cloning yourself first, that way you can produce this comic quicker, and design cool games :D
He did say he’d want Harem’s power.
No. That would take him away from drawing. Someone ELSE work on cloning him.
Didn’t say DaveB had to be the one working on the clonage :P
Is there any chance you can post just the Orb Skill Tree in High Res. It doesn’t have to have the skills listed, I just think that it is a very nice design by itself and wouldn’t mind having it for a desktop background.
Reposting this, as the comment did not appear, nor was there a message.
As requested. Enjoy.
Plus a fan-produced version, which met with DaveB‘s approval.
Thankee. I had the first but not the second. I just wanted one with the skilltree by itself as I think it is a very cool design.
Well Gee Dave… that’s what kick starter is for.
you know… stuff like comics.. and games… and stuff I think YOU even crosslinked?!?!?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/howardtayler/the-planet-mercenary-role-playing-game
Phil posted a kickstarter and I found one as well, for a superhero rpg. just cause I boost signals when I can’t throw my two quid into the pot.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1277034820/masks-a-new-generation
Grrl Power: The Game.
That has possibilities…
This is why I love so much this comic, above many others. The fact that everything is heading in a certain direction, it is really storytelling not just trying to keep a comic alive patching it up.
That’s also why I love Berserk, for example. Keep up the good work, Dave. It’s nice (or at least doable) to wait for a good story to be finished ;)
Foreshadowing seems less likely than foreauroraing.
wouldn’t it be headlighting?
Except, poor Sydney is lacking in the impressive ‘headlights’ department :(
What is Varia being grumpy about? Wasn’t she asking for something exactly like this a little earlier in the day . . . in the shower . . . :D
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1803
Maybe she just didn’t want anybody to have photos of it?
To be fair, Harem used exactly three of her for this.
Girl’s shower talk is one thing, mixed company in public is a whole different ball of wax.
but the girls don’t NEED wax… and apparently neither do male supers either… at least as far as we have been led to believe so far…
Now that you bring it up do they have ANY body hair? Because I kinda like the idea they are smooth ALL over.
Apparently not. They have hairs on their head, but nowhere else.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1816
Dave, just wondering, but do you have a video of someone talking in Varia’s accent? I’m not sure I have any frame of reference, so I can’t quite picture what she sounds like.
Watch the movie “the departed” with Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon has that kind of accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26xRbrwL7oM
I loved that video. Pretty woman, exotic accent, good sense of humour and a lovely smile to go with it. Plus she explained the subject well.
Funny fact. the Male Sole Survivor in Fallout4 (Brain Delaney) is from Boston and joked they had to keep asking him to use “less Boston” doing voice recording. XD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc5lUfy1CZI
Or Peter Griffin from any episode of the Family Guy.
I usually think of Julianne Moore’s character on 30 Rock, Nancy Donavan. Apparently the 30 Rock people police clips pretty hard so I’m having trouble finding an example.
here you go.
Mind you when I see her face, my mind goes to this film.
Well that didn’t last long. They really police those.
Still there for me. And it was put up 15th March 2012. Maybe that is just blocked in your region?
He’s pulling your tail! Says right on it “blocked for copyright in your country” here in the US.
Who said Yorp is in the US? And it shows up for me as well
Guessing if you want to watch a US show, you have to go outside of the US to watch it o_O
Wait, is she Bostonian or Irish? o_O
Well Boston does have a very heavily Irish descended population. So it makes sense if she has an Irish brogue.
Her accent was pure Boston, but her dialogue, in that clip, implied the Irish connection.
I’ve heard that, of the many American accents, the Boston-area one is supposedly one of the hardest for a non-native speaker to imitate.
Is it just me or is Harem in the 5th panel looking a bit like Arianna? Maybe it’s the hairstyle and makeup? Because it would sure be fun… :)
I couldn’t put my finger on it on first sight, but something felt strange about that image, and now that you mention it, absolutely, so no, you’re not the only one :)
Yes, it does look like Ari, but that’s just Blondini with her hair up because she is in ‘Military Mode’
She actually copied Arianna’s bun. The only difference is Arianna has the superman twisty bang in front.
Doesn’t Ari also carry her spare chopsticks in her buns as well? o_O
As an interesting note, chopsticks can actually be used as pretty decent throwing weapons (at close range, anyway). I’ve seen videos of chopsticks being thrown through steel cooking bowls…
https://youtu.be/sxF5ytCAvLI
https://youtu.be/UHOXbfjWJsU
So you are saying that there is more to Arianna than meets the eye?
Dave should do a strip of Arianna working out sometime and we find out she has like a second degree blackbelt in Tai Chi or Judo. And that’s how she gets rid of her Maxima induced stress, beating the stuffing out of a practice dummy.
And Sydney see’s that and is like “Wow, I dodn’t know that”
It’s possible. Though obviously you’re probably not going to be piercing bowls with cheap restaurant-quality chopsticks. I don’t think Arianna would use those to hold her bun in place, though.
Fun times. :) Also, now I want a twisty bang as well (instead of just a prickly fringe).
Did you get that from standing too close to the fire? Beware getting any closer, you might just melt, rather than twist and bang!
What would Varia’s accent be like if she were from the south instead of Boston?
Try Charlotte from “POW! Right to the Nostalgia” (although, she’s more of a Texan accent)
Heh, not exactly a fair split. I mean, That pic of hiro may be shirtless, but he is also clearly pretty injured in it as well. Unless women find black eyes, bloody noses and busted ribs sexy. If so, excuse me, I have a flight of stairs to “accidentally” slip and fall down.
He’s bruised in a way that indicates a fight, which means he’s tough. That would be the only “sexy” part of the injury. Otherwise, I think the super brawl would probably have been the only time for Sydney to get a picture of him with no shirt at that angle, so far. (Note how the only other time he’s had no shirt was when she was a floor above him.)
I know when she took the picture of him, im just saying that actual battle damage like that, (Hell, I have had a broken rib before, I wince every time I see that bruise) is decidedly nonsexy. Even if it is on a manly mountain of muscles. Though too be fair, the harem/varia pic was more cute than sexy. “Oooh! She got kissed on the cheek twice! Thats so SEXY!!!” So maybe it was a closer to fair split.
Wait, he was injured? Poor baby!! Maybe he needs a hug to help the healing!!!
But honestly, didn’t notice the slight bruises
Please don’t hug guys with broken ribs. It hurts. Take it from an ex-kickboxer.
Or even bruised ribs and for god sake don’t make them laugh or sneeze!
I have a friend with a calcium issue and he frequently breaks ribs by sneezing. He is almost always in some level of taped up.
I don’t know anyone who breaks ribs by sneezing. I do know someone who breaks laptops by sneezing…
He’s one of those guys who has a weird body chemistry, who can’t wear a battery-powered watch because even with electrical tape on the back, he drains the battery in an hour. He found out the hard way that his body fluids are lethal to laptops. Imagine being at a tabletop roleplaying session, and hearing this:
A-CHOO! *bzzt*
Fortunately for him, I fix computers for a living. By a stroke of amazing luck, I happened to have a spare motherboard for his laptop in my car, so I replaced it. “That’ll be $65 for the labor, $129 for the motherboard, and please, try NOT to sneeze on this one.”
I swear having them cracked hurts the worst.
Well I never actually broke a rib so I can’t compare. But the first week or so with cracked or bruised ribs is torture pure and simple. Even breathing hurts. I once had an abscess in my jaw so bad I could barely see out of the eye on that side. Still not as bad as the ribs. It was a steady throbbing pain. Rib pain is like being stabbed repeatedly over and over.
Yeah…I was trying to understand how the photo of Hiro was “compromising” in the first place…other than it probably being taken without his knowledge or consent (which makes Syd a bit of a creeper, but just on this side of socially acceptable…which it probably shouldn’t be).
Considering harem took one openly after making the entire male lineup of heroes shirtless yesterday, I dont think hiro would care too much.
I suspect that Dabbler already has a complete set, probabaly done up as trading cards.
Agreed. Possibly with a couple alternate universe versions thrown in as specials.
Ok I have to say I disagree with the change in jiggawatt. Was hoping halo would call her out on the white hair and then she goes all fan girl and less face it storm is like the second most recognized female hero out there right behind wonder women.
I agree she looked better with the white hair. Another interesting detail is that she appears to be holding a computer tablet. Either she is able to control her powers sufficiently to handle personal electronic devices or they have designed and issued a highly shielded model just for her.
If she couldn’t control her powers, then she would be a high risk going anywhere near Leon’s cave (or even use the pass-keys to get into the building)
Meh…I know loads of women who change their hair color on a regular basis (to the point of me wondering how they still have hair instead of chemically burned wisps).
Is Harem’s teleportation instantaneous or is there a time of flight? Since time and space are basically the same thing could she travel in time as well?
It’s been stated that Harem can teleport at the speed of her own thoughts, so to speak (basically once she wills it, it is instantaneous).
It’s not quite instantaneous, but it depends on how pedantic you want to be about the meaning of instantaneous. Nightcrawler’s TP isn’t instantaneous, in that a cloud of smoke appears slightly in advance of his arrival. It’s only a few frames speaking in film terms, but it might be enough for a super speedster to do something about it. Still it’s pretty fast.
According to a Marvel book I once read, his teleportation isnt instantaneous – he’s actually travelling through an alternate dimension called the ‘Brimstone Dimension’ – that’s what causes the smell of brimstone and the ‘bamf’ sound when he teleports – air escaping from the Brimstone Dimension when he ‘teleports.’
Did they retcon “Dimensional prison for the mutant basis of the legends of Satan’s war on Heaven” to “brimstone dimension”? What a gyp.
I saw an episode of the animated X-Men show where they contrived to slow Nightcrawler down as he teleported. For SCIENCE! I guess. In the slowed down trip he saw what basically looked like Hell. And then some demons followed him to the high school where he was attending and attacked in a very non-lethal manner. G rated show I guess. In the show he had some kind of illusion or super-disguise so he looked human and didn’t freak out the normal kids.
I always thought Nightcrawler was a rather stupid name for the character. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dug up or bought nightcrawlers for a fishing trip. And Nightcrawler doesn’t have any worm or fish bait related powers, as far as I’m aware…
Enough time to displace the air in advance of arrival so it doesn’t create a thunderclap of sudden displacement. Requisite auxiliary power
Time and space are not “basically the same thing”. They are linked. There is a definite tradeoff factor in terms of time and distance based on speed, but neither Einstein nor any other scientist has yet managed to come up with a unified field theory. Manikowski “spacetime”, while it does simplify some math and appears to fit in our current understanding of the cosmos, may not ultimately be the right way to look at this relationship.
The dragons of Pern might beg to differ.
Well, this can’t /possibly/ have any future repercussions….
noooo, none at all… >_> <__>
OK, WTF happened to my >_> <_<…?
I think your eyes got screwballed!
It’s better than getting your eyes screwed like this:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EyeScream
Very true. I like my optics…
I did it all right, checked it, but some didn’t get through…
It looks like you whoopsed a derp face.
Where are they? Looks like a cinema. With an interior simiar to the hall or Archon… Archon’s cinema?
Presumably an auditorium, for some lecture. Maybe about handling the media, since that was Arianna was so adamant that Sydney should attend.
Probably at the PR class, meaning Ren’s comments are appropriate, and Harem’s actions are part of why they’re there.
It appears to be a Mission Briefing Room; or something similar for training recruits.
As opposed to Dabbler’s quarters, which is a de-briefing room.
(or boxers, depending on personal choice)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1630
Consider that a) everyone in the room is a trainee (yes, Harem too, Maxima busted her back for insubordination) b) they’re all in uniform, I’d say it’s a classroom. Panel 2 shows a shot of the front of the room, with what might be a chalkboard (or just a dark-surfaced table). They’re probably waiting for the instructor (Maxima?) to show up.
No, Harem isn’t a trainee, she’s there as like a “Teachers Aide” or one of those people who ‘audits'(?) a classroom
She’s auditing basic (with ONE of her) because Maxima felt she had a discipline problem. She’s not the teacher’s aide :)
That was it, auditing the class, but she’s not a trainee
It is an Americanism. To the rest of the (non-U.S. influenced) world auditing only involves checking the books. In the U.S. though it can mean a student being required to re-sit a course. So, even if she passed it the first time, Harem has been made a trainee again.
Hmm, always thought it was someone sitting in to make sure what was being taught was appropriate (or that the teacher knew what they were talking about)
It’s not so much being “required to retake a course,” it’s actually taking the course as something of an observer, rather than a student.
Basically you sign up for the class, but you don’t get graded and it doesn’t count against your GPA. It’s often done as part of continuing education or for personal interest.
At least that was how I understood it back in my (fairly recent) college days.
Ahh, so this is like Schrödinger’s cat. Until you examine the word, you cannot determine her status. She is simultaneously both a student and not a student.
Thank you for clarifying that.
You’re almost there. In academics auditing a class can mean sitting in on it for no credit. It can also mean taking it on a pure pass/fail with no grade issued. Sometimes this is done to wave a prerequisite for another course. The advantage there would be that you don’t have to do any of the homework or other projects, just take a test to prove you absorbed the knowledge. I’ve also heard the term used for skipping the whole process and just testing out of taking the class. As with any specialty field people like to make up their own terms and meanings to feel special.
The Oxford English Dictionary indicates this usage with “North America”. Does this mean it’s also a term of use in Canada (don’t want to bother the guy I know in Edmundton)?
You’ve got to admit, no matter how undisciplined she might be, it’s pointless to make her be in the same class with more than one of her at a time. Unless you’re just trying to punish her with utter boredom, I guess.
It would be like attending the exact same class in two consecutive hours, with the same professor, the same students, and they all asked the same questions and got the same answers. Except worse.
They’re actually probably waiting for Arianna for media training.
Uhm… Panel 5. Is that Harem at the back? She looks like Arianna
Yes. Her hair is pulled back from her usual flowing locks into an Arianna-esque bun, but that is blonde-Harem.
Blondini
One for I be? Nooooo. That was a three for one there. The guys (and some of the women) got the better of that deal. Thank you Harem!
Dear Dave:
I have a favor to ask. About 3 weeks from now (October 21, 2015) is the ‘future’ date from the second Back to the Future movie. That week please let Jiggawatt have a panel that slips in a quote from the series somewhere. (or a scene with recruits training on hoverboards would be nice)
Thanks.
Please also invent air cars. And flying hover boards. We were promised those, and they have not been delivered to the high-street yet!
Well we do already have a working hoverboard. It just requires a custom skate park to work…
And jumping off quick, before the fuse reaches the explosives.
And we thought being unable to function over water was bad. The real thing can’t function without laying down a full metal flooring.
They can invent them buy you will never be able to buy them in the US. Volkswagon makes a 280+ mpg car, the XL1, but it only matches pre 2008 emissions standards. Now they are being fined 20x what GM was fined for killing at least 137 people for a compound that forms when air is heated. A solar oven can produce what VW is now fined for.
Untrue, Mikey. There’s already one Volkswagen XL1 on tour around the U.S. The reason you won’t see many of them in the U.S. is because Volkswagen is only making 200 of them for sale, and they’re only selling them in Germany. Essentially they’re testing the waters to see if there’s any market for a $150,000 hybrid car.
There is *no* conspiracy by Big Oil to keep them from being sold over here. The reason they’re not being sold over here is because they don’t meet CRASH SAFETY STANDARDS, and they lack mandatory safety equipment like rear-view mirrors. It has NOTHING AT ALL to do with the car’s emissions.
Yes, GM was only fined about $900 million, but you haven’t taken into account the cost of recalling 30 million cars, or all the other lawsuits they’re facing from the families of the people who actually died, or the $3 billion they lost in the value of their stocks…
“A solar oven can produce what VW is now fined for”… what the hell kind of solar oven are you talking about? Surely not the emission-free solar cookstoves being sold in places like Africa.
Where the hell do you get your “facts”? Conspiracy Theorists R Us?
To clarify something: Nitrous oxide (NO) and nitrous dioxide (NO2) are not a product of “heating”… it’s a product of combustion.
Like when a lightning bolt starts a forest fire.
Or a car burns gasoline.
Or a Volkswagen burns diesel.
Even if a solar oven did produce NO or NO2, it would be nowhere near the amount produced by a single automobile. The U.S. standard is 31 milligrams per kilometer, or less. The amount being produced by the Volkswagen diesel-powered automobiles was from fifteen to forty times as much… 1240 mg per km, which equates to almost 2000 mg per mile.
Indeed, it was as much as 25 times higher than even Germany’s standards, which is why they’re being investigated by Canada, France, India, the Netherlands, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and even Germany itself. Sweden has completely banned the sale of any diesel-powered VW’s, Romania has stopped registration of any diesel-powered VW equipped with the “Euro 5” engine, and the rest of the countries I just listed are investigating VW for fraud and/or emissions violations. It could end up costing VW over $80 billion (total).
Oh, by the way, Volkswagen hasn’t been fined… YET. They have set aside money to pay any fines, but that is not the same thing. They could be fined up to $18 billion (the maximum that the EPA can levy, based on the official number of vehicles sold), but let’s face it… they won’t be fined anywhere *near* that much. $37,500 per vehicle is more than most of those vehicles sold for in the first place, and fines can be (and probably will be) lowered on appeal.
Always expect lip ninjahs?
Wait, does that mean that Ren does have compromising pictures?
And Varia doesn’t sound too upset to me, more that she isn’t happy that everyone is going to get a copy
Seems to me that Sydney either didn’t think to share with the rest of the girls, or didn’t want to share at all :D
She probably didn’t even think of sharing it. Considering the song she was imagining him singing, I think she had very definite plans for that picture.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1682
Hmm, the Arc phones may be better secured, but it feels like in this world there almost MUST be “Hacker-man”, who hacks all the things. Maybe if Dabbler gave them some alien ICE…
Enter the reader Original Characters (OCs)…
I know Daniel the Human has an OC who could crack even the most high-security phone no prob. Apparently he enjoys cracking into high level security networks, then gives them a video of how he did it, showing all the security flaws. Then goes again a month later to see if it’s harder…
….. Except that there is no telling what this hypothetical alien ICE could lead to. Probably why Dabbler hasn’t brought in any such thing.
Now Dave’s comment makes me wonder- would Max be more annoyed or less annoyed if she ran into someone who totally geeked out about her being a superhero?
RE: Panel 4
What? You mean there’s a woman on Sydney’s team who hasn’t “accidently” taken a picture of Hiro shirtless for herself?
Wait, you mean that Hiro doesn’t ‘accidentally’ manage to lose his shirt at least once in front of all the girls?
Is there some way to reverse the Who’s Who tags to search for pages containing certain people?
I wanted to review what Leon did to Sydney’s phone when she first arrived at ARC SWAT.
Unfortunately the widget isn’t that sophisticated. Well, it looks at page tags and pulls an appropriate picture for the tag, so there may be some wordpress php function you can type in that would do a lookup, but nothing easy you can click on.
For whatever it’s worth, I think all Leon has done to date is set her up with a password manager.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1206
Well…. that’s what he did yesterday, from her phone… in a restaurant hallway to the bathroom. In about 1 minute. For all we know he’s done a lot more since then.
She hasn’t had time to go back to see him today… yet
You say that as if he’d have to actually be present to do anything he wanted with her electronics…
It’s not like the hacker extraordinaire needs Sydney present in order to make all of her computerized accounts FAR harder to hack.
Yeah, but it strikes me that Leon is the type to ask first, and for someone in his position within ARCHON, he is going to rely on people trusting him
Well all he’s done in-panel anyway.
I know little about WordPress and ComicPress but I think that is a basic option to allow the tags to be displayed at the bottom or top of the post. Then you can click the tag to show the list of the related posts.
Nevermind, I just realized that you are using tags more functional that user friendly ;)
It won’t be simple, but if you have Tags, then a directory can be built using Tags.
If I ever get unburied from paying work I’ll zap you a message ;)
WordPress already has an URL to search for tags and it’s currently working in this comic.
Look at it as an excuse to reread the entire series…
If I were Varia, I’d be pissed. I mean, I’d be livid; possibly enough to report her >:-(
Just as well she is not you, because she is not pissed nor livid, and not so petty as to report something so minor
Especially considering she was gleefully fake flirting with harem in the showers earlier just to bug halo. Including wanting “lip massages”
If someone kissed me without my consent, I would feel justified in being angry. I’d be double so if they took pictures of it.
True, but in this instance she had consented, by virtue of requesting it (earlier in the shower). It is poetic irony, in any event. Varia was sexually harassing Sydney then (who was getting very embarrassed by the incident, so it is indisputably such). So it is cosmic justice for her to have the situation reversed and, better still, in precisely the way she had asked for!
Ninja tailors, lip ninjas… the comic is certainly keeping to the advert teaser of ‘… and maybe ninjas’. I wonder what is next…
Candy ninjas?
Well it is coming up on Halloween. Imagine some kid discovers he has a power that allows him to Ninja candy from bags.
Well, the sliced produce in the dining hall is provided by the resident Fruit Ninja.
They also have another type of ninja on the base. They are hard to spot since they live in the sewers under the complex and usually only come out at night. Eyewitness reports state they are green, masked, and seem to be wearing some sort of rounded body armor.
Not to mention noone has any idea who keep delivering the in-office mail so fast & efficiently, or at such speed…
Real ninjas did not try to hide, they just blended in, so they looked like they belonged. There has been a ninja present for most of the comic…
Is Tingles a ninja? Would explain why they chose him. Besides the illusion thing.
I’m reminded of the ninjas in one of the early issues of The Tick.
Imagine an entire line of ninjas, whose “disguise” consists of holding up two branches.
“We are a shrubbery. There is nothing to see here. Please move along.”
Technically, Blondini and Abbey didn’t touch Varia’s lips ;)
Would be kind of funny if that guy showed up later having somehow managed a buff body or even going super and trying to get a date with Maxima as a result of what Sidney told him.
Yeah, maybe he lost a bunch of weight, shaved, made his hair all one color, and managed to become friends with Sydney. Or at least friendly enough to sit in on her role-playing games, anyway. Maybe that’s the new and improved Brad sitting behind Sydney?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/57
On second thought, probably not.
Oh god, now im having a Megamind flashback of Tighten or whatever his name was. Tell me you dont see him going villain when Maxima is still like, “Um no. I just dont like you, super comic nerd man”
Titan, tho he spelt it Tighten :P? From Megamind?
“Waaaaaa, shiney girl shut me down big time. That’s it, I’m wrecking a city block, maybe then she’ll notice me…”
Probably not, if he went and got powered up a perfect male body is part of the deal, even if he couldn’t attract Maxima with it he’d still have little trouble attracting plenty of other groupies. Not like he’s got a stalker crush on Maxima like Hal had on Roxanne after all where he’d not even think about other females.
Oh crap! What if he gets inspired to find some underground scientist to give him super powers? We could have just witnessed the beginning of someone’s origin story. Total drama bomb if he gets a botched transition though.
Find? He has whole departments of them working for him. And they have already started. Did you not notice he can summon thunder, on demand? It just needs a little… tweaking.
Just as long as he doesn’t start ‘twerking’ :P
I’m wondering if maybe Sydney has now set Brad upon a quest. After seeing that pic of Hiro, he will now go out to get as ripped and buffed as possible in an misdirected attempt to win Max’s attention.
Too much effort. If he was willing to put in that much effort he wouldn’t look like he does. Not saying he too lazy just it takes a lot of time and effort to look like that if you aren’t a super. He’d have to give up a lot of things too.
But not impossible, the right motivation at the right time can work wonders. Just look at what Arnold Schwarzenegger started as and what he ended up as, because he got the right motivation.
He is the best robot actor, in the world.
No not impossible but highly unlikely. Especially since it’s something you can’t do in a short period of time. He’d basically have to spend at least a year or more to reach the minimum level with what he looks like now.
You really need to update that cast list bro.
I’m thinking the NEXT time Harem gets to audit Basic Training it’s going to include ALL her bodies so her focus stays in one place.
So are we in the media prep course?
Only if it has online internet registration and fourth wall permeability.
Can you imagine Sydney speaking at a press conference? If she opens her mouth,will garbage come spewing out-much to Arianna’s annoyance?
At least she will not be able to summon a tumbleweed. She tested that much.
Unproven; she’s leveled up since then…
True.
With her lighthook, she can at least simulate a serendipitous tumbleweed.
I recon she might start out alright, then she’d be distracted by something shiny & completely forget that there are people there, let alone the fact she’s supposed to be talking to them… :P
So, really off-topic question that was probably discussed at some point, but where exactly would the book of these cut off at? Whenever we time-jump back to where Sydney’s a corporal?
Well, the first cut-off would probably be just before the restaurant rampage, second would be the start of Day Two
The end of book one is Page #294. Check the author’s blog on that page, for confirmation. We are presently in book two, which will mainly cover basic training. So we will remain in flash back for at least this book too.
I’ve noticed that none of your ladies besides Sydney skips leg day. hahahaha
Also, I have a crush on Sydney. Does anyone else?
Those with the very best taste, and a preference for girls, do.
Probably a large percentage of the fans here. I know I’m one. Even got a nice picture of her butt. It’s a cute butt too.
I forget if this was answered or not, Yorf might know….
Will Xochitl’s Gestalt powers work if she isn’t touching the actual person? Like if she had a vial of blood or something would that work?
Every instance we have seen she has been touching someone, when using the power. But she was doing demonstrations, and did not have a need to do otherwise, so it is possible that the ability is more flexible than that.
Sydney had the same speculation that you raised in your last question. But Varia has neither thought of that, nor tried it out. So we do not know that either.
I suspect that she will be able to continue a power, once started. Perhaps for a duration, or alternatively until she starts a new gestalt.
The vial of blood thing is both a bit icky and would make her already immense power even greater. She could have any power she wanted, at any time, provided she had met someone who granted that and took a blood sample. So I would be surprised if that did work.
Having to find a particular person, and convince them to form a gestalt has much more interesting story opportunities than ‘lets open up my bag of blood vials to get a solution for this crisis’.
Find myself wondering about the filing system she’d need for that. Kind of the Personal Organizer From Hell.
Wonder how good Dabbles’ filing skills are :D
Maybe they would still work/start working, but they get weaker & weaker as the genetic material degrades?
Properly stored DNA (which presumably she would take the effort to do) takes a very very long time to degrade. There is even work being done on using DNA for long term storage. Such as archiving knowledge in the event of an apocalypse. It has the advantage of being incredibly compact and not requiring a working power supply to preserve it.
When I read articles on such technologies, it does make me wonder. If you encoded the complete works of Shakespeare, into DNA, and randomly chopped up sections of it and spliced those into the test tube fertilisation of a million monkeys, could you end up with one that would make a competent copy-typist?
Ooooh, enthralling :)
Likely the most in character stage play cast ever.