Grrl Power #359 – Curses! I am pundone!
Sydney may need to re-up the Midol, and her pun game.
It is generally known, at least among the people who know such things, that super powers are hereditary, in that if one or more parents have them, then there’s a much better chance that the children will have them, or even if neither parents have them, if one offspring has them then there’s a better chance that more than one will. Given the low incident rate of super powers in the first place, that’s a difficult statistic to verify, but it has happened a few times.
Usually in the case when neither of the parents have powers, it seems to be that specific pairing which produces super powered offspring. Jiggawatt’s case is unusual where dad seems to be the “carrier,” or it’s just amazing coincidence that dad and each of the moms happen to pair up. As she has no other siblings there’s no way to tell.
It would really suck to have a brother or sister that had powers and you didn’t. I’m sure that’s been used as a supervillain origin more than once, cause man, talk about a sibling rivalry.
Update: The vote incentive is updated. I had dialog planned for the picture, but I think it works just fine the way it is. :)
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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“…like mysterious dogs and magically-concealed blue skinned supers?”
Hey, Yorp, what mysterious dog? Did I miss that, or just forget it?
Oh, um… first?
He is talking about himself, naturally :D
*wags tail happily*
Like a dog with a bone… :p
Or a box of Scooby Snacks :D
Got to give Sydney credit for sticking with her pun-age :D
Personally putting the ‘fail’ down to Varia not playing along :P
Seriously, it was a decent pun. It’s too bad she didn’t play along.
Sydney is only five? I thought she was in her early twenties? Was she born on a leap-day?
No, it’s Harem who is five.
Touché.
Fun fact: The leap day is actually February 24th. The normal 24th and the rest of February are moved forward a day on leap years.
Funny enough, I have a response to this. Actually no, February 24th is not leap day. But it is the day that loses its status as a saint’s day during leap years, so some people incorrectly think that makes the 24th ‘leap day.’
Really, leap day is February 29th. Leap Day is the day that gets added once every four years to make up for the discrepancy that a year is actually 365.2421875 days (SI days). They don’t ‘add’ February 24th ever. In fact, technically, every so often (roughly every 400 years) we DON’T have a leap day on what would otherwise be a leap year. We never would have a year in which we suddenly don’t have February 24th. Therefore, February 24th is not ‘leap day.’
But honestly if we wanted to be REALLY exact, we should skip 1 leap day every 3,200 years. :)
It’s very sad that I know this but I did a report on it waaaay back in 6th grade and it stuck with me.
Sorry, I just looked at my old report and I made a teensy mistake.
Every 100 years, we skip having a leap day, not every 400 years.
Every 400 years, we skip skipping the leap day.
Then every 3200 years, we could skip skipping skipping the leap day, and every 400,000 years, we could skip that as well.
Those are some good parties for time travellers and immortals though. I imagine your 6th grade report makes for a handy guide for those future skippers.
Yup.
Gotta hand it to David over at Atomic Laundromat, he has 6 siblings and a dad with superpowers… and none himself
… save for the powers of control of what colour his superhero siblings will get their underweat back in!
Given the superheroic predilection for wearing underwear as overwear, that’s a more powerful ability than you might think…
David also grew up getting wedgies from an older brother who could already pick up cars by the age of three. That’s a real Atomic Wedgie!
But, is it a Maxima Wedgie? We will have to get Bodie to compare the two :D
yeah but the best thing now is that David has control over his brothers underwear and other clothes. He can shrink his smalls anytime he likes, or “accidentally” turn everything pink etc or just happen to let slip to the media about that mankini he put in his wash
Not to mention Angela put the idea of itching powder in his head at least once. That would make for an interesting Super-fight…
“Alright, can we just stop the fight for a minute? You scratching your package every few minutes is REALLY throwing me off my game…”
“Sorry, but for some reason, my undies are seriously giving me trouble. Alright, I think I got it under control, let’s do this…”
*Another minute of fighting, it’s obvious the Hero isn’t holding back too well, until he suddenly snaps & rips the undies out of his clothes, panting in relief…*
“Aaawww Heeeell no! That’s it, where’s a Cop, I surrender, Just get me out of here…”
*The Villain is arrested for his crimes, while the Hero is also arrested for indecent exposure…*
He can share a cell with Messiah
His Dad? I think he’s under home arrest at the moment. I remember he dragged the laundromat TO his home to speak with David, I’m pretty sure it’s house arrest…
Atomic Wedgie sounds like a great idea for a supervillain
Atomic wedgie has now become a real means of homicide.
I don’t understand the pun here.
Don’t worry, we’re talking ancient history here.
Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) is a celebratory day in many areas with Hispanic culture.
Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican version of the Fourth of July, when they won their freedom. If other hispanics celebrate it’s only because it’s another reason to party (much like most Americans that do).
I thought September 15 was Mexican Independence Day. Cinco de Mayo commemorates a battle on May 5, 1862 when the French, under Napoleon, were trying to invade Mexico.
But nobody parties on Sep 15th. Parties everywhere on May 5th, much like July 4th.
Anyway, Mexico has like six independence days.
@Dave Nutall
Read a history book, troll.
Not a forum page.
Not a Twitter feed.
A fuckin’ Book, Troll.
Pretty sure David Nuttall lives in Canada and not under a bridge. Plus not only was his question given in good faith, it is actually accurate. So was perfectly reasonable to wonder at the apparent discrepancy, when looking at the earlier comment.
It is always worth asking about cultural issues. Text books may not accurately reflect how such things play out in contemporary society. So brionl provides us with interesting insight.
Although your little poem provides it’s own cultural flavour too. Albeit rather unfairly.
That’s not a poem. It’s based on the lyrics to the song “Read A Book”, replacing “Nigga” with “Troll” and such.
Songs can just be poetry set to music.
Although, in this case, and given the lyrics involved, I am more than happy to concede the point. On the same grounds that I do not consider an unmade bed or a shark in formaldehyde to be art. I agree that a minimum bar should be reached.
“I do not consider… a shark in formaldehyde to be art.”
:.(
When I walked around the Tate Modern, a few years ago, I would have felt quite happy picking out three quarters of the displays to be put on a big bonfire. They lacked any artistic merit in my eyes. However, to set your mind somewhat at ease, the remaining quarter included works that I very much enjoyed.
But I know I am not alone in finding the bulk of modern art to be rubbish.
That said, I do appreciate, even for folks who had exactly the same ratio in mind, that the selection they would make, for the bonfire, would not match my own. We each have our own tastes.
If others find enjoyment in something that I consider to be rubbish, then I will not deny it to them. But, for those who feel that an unmade bed is high art, then may I interest them in my latest work? It is entitled ‘Turd in a bedpan’. Reserve price for the auction £100,000.
I do take comfort in one thing though. Formaldehyde is highly flammable!
It is not a case of whether or not someone finds enjoyment from something, or brutal mass murders with all the graphic details would be considered ‘art’
A shark in formaldehyde is not ‘art’, it is ‘science’, and an unmade bed is simply poor housekeeping
StumpyDaPaladin, you should probably apologize to David Nuttall. He happens to be RIGHT. As I stated elsewhere on this page, Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican National Holiday, except for the state of Puebla and in the neighboring state of Veracruz.
Oh, and for Ie Yamof Ool, brionl, and everyone else:
Mexico’s official Independence Day is September 16th. That’s when it’s celebrated, anyway. And unlike Cinco de Mayo, it is a national holiday.
To be fair, I did read the history books, along with a blog from a woman who lives in Mexico, which got me looking at the books and on-line encyclopedias. A few years ago, on May 5, she stated that Cinco de Mayo was not a big deal in her region of Mexico, south of Mexico City. She said (wrote?) that some people have it confused with Mexican Independence Day, in September, which people in her area do celebrate. I actually did forget the exact date and looked it up on-line.
As for being a troll, I have played one once, but that was years ago. Massive Constitution and hit points, but lousy Intelligence and Charisma. My character had raided a potion shop looking for something to eat and drank a bunch of potions, which resulted in a massive boost to mental abilities: Int 8, Wis 12, Chr: 6. He was so smart now that his alignment did not have to be pure neutral.
It’s a play on words, for the holiday celebration in Mexico on May Fifth
Used elsewhere as a celebration of alcohol while thanking Mexico for having a different language so the number 5 can sound exotic.
For me Sinko de Mayo is truly a day to celebrate. Few people have come to know the “true” story of the origin of Sinko de Mayo. It is my pleasure to set the record straight.
A little known fact is that back in 1912, Hellmann’s mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York. This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico but as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York.
The ship hit an iceberg and sank and the cargo was forever lost. The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning which they still observe to this day. The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course as Sinko de Mayo. Go out on this day grab a couple of slices of Wonderbread and a jar of Hellman’s mayonnaise and have a party. You know I will!
Shamelessly stolen from: https://nj1015.com/the-true-story-of-sinko-de-mayo-according-to-big-joe-henry
+ 5 (Cinco).
There could be a colony of octopi, living in the wreck of the Titanic, which make laver bread, so that they can eat tuna and mayonaise sandwiches!
Yup, have heard of that :D
I’d like to say I meant that as humor.. but I heard a group of drunks saying that one year
If she were an investment broker, she’d be a Nasdaq Aztec.
If she went into space, she’d be an Aztecronaut.
If she wrote manuals on how to build ancient buildings in Central America, she would be an Aztecnical Writer.
If she gets mad enough, she might give Sydney and Aztec-chewing.
If she were physically and socially clumsy, she would be a Spaztec.
When someone triggers fire powers in her, she would use Pyroaztechnics.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Well done!! :)
Yeah! I bet you really knocked her Red Sox offa her! :D
(Crickets chirp…)
*slow clap*
Much like the Aztec sacrifices, I put my heart into it, then a high priest cut it open and ripped it out.
At least you took a heart-felt stab at it. Couldn’t really offer up more than that…
If she freaked out easily over everything, she’d be the Spaztec.
If she built gadgets, she’d be Aztech.
“Brazillion” in a world where supers don’t have body hair…
But, they still have head hair :P
And DaveB did say first “…could make duplicates of herself…”
I humbly request you change your profile pic to
(in case the link doesn’t work, this: https://wallpaperswa.com/thumbnails/detail/20120423/final%20fantasy%20vii%20yuffie%20kisaragi%20chocobo%201024×768%20wallpaper_wallpaperswa.com_15.jpg)
Or the link can become the failsafe… -_- This is why I don’t program.
Bra-zillion for the super power of having multiple boobs, and the harnesses for same.
Bra-zinga!
For an alternative Earth where Sheldon Cooper is a girl.
Man, how long are they going to be waiting in this room for? I figured with arianna being all gripey and moany about maxima taking sydney out flying that they would have been behind schedule or something.
Actual time has probably only been maybe 10 minutes
The next page was supposed to start with a joke along the lines of “Hurry up and wait, welcome to the military Sydney.” but it wouldn’t fit.
Heh, ah ok then. I have to admit im very curious to see if sydney is basically going to be the trouble maker here. I mean, she has already argued with arianna about public relations and her responsibilities, but I wonder if any of the others will chime in.
Well, Harem is awfully uninhibited and Vance is a bit of a troll, so it’s very possible. I don’t know about the others though.
Super spider colony with troll DNA spliced in too? OMG, instantly regenerating spiders with big claws!
*runs away and hides*
Damn, that sounds awesome! Why can’t my Armour do that? All it does is make me look Human or like a 6 foot bomb technician. Oh well, least I still get to have fun…
I take it you are not a fan of Spinnerette?
I used to be, right from the beginning too. If you are implying that she has since grown claws, fangs, eight eyes, become venomous and gained an appetite for blood, then I probably would run away from her too!
Girls with just multiple arms though are a plus for me. Dabbler gets a major bonus from that. So I enjoyed experiencing that world with Spinnerette as the protagonist. I could fully empathise with her relationships, dilemmas and dangers. I even fancied M. Maid long before she did!
Then Spinnerette started having pivotal experiences, such as meeting other central characters and sharing missions with them, but without me. So she was remembering, and acting upon, life-changing events that I was not privy too. Which meant the magic was gone.
The former relationship I had with her no longer existed. I tried, for quite some time, to re-form it in a lesser way. After all there are plenty of other good stories where you do not share that depth of connection to the central character. However it just did not pan out.
But I am not shapist. People come in all sorts of forms. With two legs, four or even one, three or none. Nor do I mind if they have a trunk, flippers or even eight tentacles.
*Grabs Yorp’s collar and drags him back*
You can never escape Mr Webby!!!
TL;DR follows long winded Rant.
Rant/
Or Arianna the (ultimate rules) Lawyer that also majored in Public/Media Relations will school them point blank; troll or no troll. on just how fucked up interacting with the media can actually be.
Perhaps by starting with a combined After action report for the big V fight last night.
Everyone thinks they know what happened, right?
We start with a reading of all the (very different) debriefing notes. With Video from the glasses and Hud displays the supers were wearing running in the background to show just where they got it right and (more often) wrong. (because any investigator will tell you how one incident between 2 people with 3 witness’ will have 6 different answers to the question “What happened?”
Then show the Raw footage pulled by whatever cameras were on scene (sooo many of them)
You can show how the news story gets changed from the raw footage Suzy News shot.
To the segment she made afterwards (oh god were they shooting live?)
To what her Boss edited down for time and content.
To whatever Regional person in charge Sent to national!
To whatever words are falling out of Brian Williams telegenic face while tiny bits of Suzy’s story are running in a quarter panel background with out any sound. Repeat for ABC CBS Univision BBC
Then follow up with a side by side comparison of what FoxNews decided to show vs MSNBC
Each one taking a 30 minute fight and condensing it into a series of sound bites or segments of video that are Instagram sized that confirm whatever agenda their favorite talking heads and pundits are going on about
(MSNBC talks about how yet another overly militarized police department that has not nearly enough people of color to be representative of its jurisdiction willfully using excessive force against DeathToll. Whats with the stabbing an entire k-bar in his ass?
With FoxNews complaining how its one more secret that King Obama was hiding from the Public and where was maxima and co when Benghazi happened? I bet there was a deleted Email from Hillary Clinton about this…
Then there is the trending stuff on social media … What happens when it gets out that All That Fighting came from one guy that “Made them all do it” ?
What if its something Vehemence has no real control over? #NotAVillainButAVictim
Should the absolute violation of personal self that is Mind Control be deemed a Rape of the Consiousness/Soul? Or because its all in your head and even when you film it you don’t see anything actually happening does it just demean/marginalize the real suffering of actual rape victims everywhere? Social Justice Warriors Speak out!
Is Vehemence to blame for every mass shooting for the last 15 years? #ConspiracyFactNotTheory
And cap it off with the various commentary from folks that sometimes don’t even pretend to be the news The Daily/Nightly/Late/Tonight/LateLate Show with some famous comedian!
And then after a few days imagine the armchair quarterbacking from the weekend shows like crossfire/Meet the Press/ to whatever random opinions fall out of the face holes of Bil Mahr, John Tolliver, Chris Wallace, Brit Hume, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes, Chris Matthews, Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Joe Scarborough etcetera. Etcetera. ETCETERA.
And after all that … Congress must chime in (in order to appear relevant). Also people running for (re)Election.
“Mr Trump what are your thoughts on Supers?”
“What’s with the big one?. No not the shiny one, the big one. A very strong woman. And I respect that. I’ll get that wall built in no time. But at the same time I don’t think she is an example of what girls should aspire to when it comes to looks”
“Dr Cardin. Your thoughts?” What is there religion? Are they an affront to science? or god? a don’t know yet but studies need to happen right now! (#prepare the nerve weasels)
Sure supers don’t need to register NOW but what about later? Congress can change its mind every and any election cycle. “Yes, We said that registration was not necessary. But that was before we realized just how truly dangerous supers can be. After the tragic deaths of those innocent orphans and bunnies on a field trip to the gas refinery that destroyed 1/4 of a small town 10 miles away when Maxima threw a mosque at Vehemence after he escaped AGAIN … How can we not DO SOMETHING to Ensure the Public Safety and above all Accountability To the Elected Representatives of The People of This Great Nation?
/endRant
TL;DR?
It takes a while to gather a presentation of what the media are saying right now about what happened yesterday and more sightings today.
The whole time Adrianna is providing commentary and pointing out
How. Every. One. In. The Media. Has. An. Agenda. Period.
Everyone?
EVERYONE!!
And those agenda are not always the same. And they will change over time.
And that is why you must take care when speaking with Media.
As to Politicians; the same applies only double. As Adrianna is your shield vs Media
your Commanding Officers (General Faulk, Colonels Leander and Hiro) are your Shield vs Politicians. Be really careful when speaking to/endorsing/disparaging them
Ohh I just realized that this getting televised means that “professional wrestling” is done for. Why cant you see John Cena? Who cares. Maxima is sooo Shiny! Actually any “professional” Sport is now in jeopardy. So lets add Bryant Gumbel And ESPN to the list of Media That Needs Answers Now!!!
The National Football League is only as good as NFL Films can make it look. Given that there are less than 1200 players in the NFL (and how drastically Archon underestimated the super-population How soon before a Mutant Football League happens?
Probably not as fast as an MMA tournament promoter creates a super category. Or for that matter Don King making some action happen if not IN Las Vegas (property damage akin to the Godzilla movie) But in an empty patch of desert near by… $$$PayPerView$$$
And I just realized that getting into any of this stuff I brought up will extend the length of this flash back by 2 years (given 2 pages a week)
Its a shame too. Some of that political stuff could turn into some spy vs spy bourne supremacy techno thriller stuff you find in an airport bookstore. And yes, I acknowledge that it doesn’t at all fit into the theme of the comic. Perhaps for an ArcLight/ArcDark spin off. Why did the presidents super team liason die in a locked bathroom? a lot of money disappeared from a vault! Was it the only teleporter we know to exist? or was it the banks way of hiding a bad series of investments? Why are they related? Are they related?
Its up to Skulder and Mully to find out. Can they do it without meeting the same fate as the Liason?
What I find interesting is that your TL;DR is pretty long itself.
I honestly dont think she would go that in depth displaying how screwed up the news is. The main focus will be, “Watch what you say, watch what you wear, watch what you do. Someone will always take it the wrong way. I dont expect perfection, but I do expect you to not be caught talking about religion, politics, or what really grinds your gears.”
Maybe follow that up with some role playing where she plays the part of a paparazzi or tabloid reporter and twists everything they say and do so they can understand the level of paranoia being famous requires if you want to survive with your rep relatively intact.
“You wanna know what really grinds my gears? PEOPLE ASKING ME WHAT GRINDS MY (%%@#)%$%#%^_^_%#%&#^$&^$%&*_*++*_^*&#$!T#^&$$(%&) GEARS!!!!!!!”
=P
We do know that having children is hereditary—if your parents didn’t have any children, chances are that you won’t either…
Just like insanity. After all you get that from your children.
Nonsense! Your parents always have children… otherwise they aren’t parents.
What a cute critter! Very clever avatar, reflecting the witty comment.
Indeed, having children is a recessive trait. If your parents had children, you might. If your parents did not have children, you won’t.
so, in your worlds, there’s no such thing as adoption?
Think about what it means if your parents didn’t have children (note, ‘parent’ as in ‘the one who birthed you’ not ‘the one who raised you’)
The fun is in looking for loop-holes. For instance we can now create artificial life. Completely synthetic, but otherwise indistinguishable from naturally-born individuals. Currently limited to extremely basic lifeforms (bacteria). But there is nothing other than complexity (and ethics boards) to stop humans from being created the same way. In due course.
Would the computer which chose the specific characteristics to include, and compiled the genetic code, be considered a parent? Or should that fall to the person who originally wrote the code, even though they had nothing to do with choosing the details or initiating this specific act of creation?
Would the test tube or incubator be considered the mother? Or would the person who pushed the start button be a parent? What if that was the laboratory cleaner, bumping into it with the broom handle?
The punchline to the joke (as such as it was :() is that, if your parents had no children, then how do you exist?
I could refer you to a good movie that does just that. However it would also be a major spoiler, so I shall not.
Suffice it to say that paradox is not something that is comfortable to contemplate.
Mind you, it is one of the earliest paradoxes that I enquired about. At approximately age six, I asked “If God created the world, then who were God’s parent’s? And who created them?”
Or, as “Weird Al” puts it, “without a mother or a father, just a test tube and a womb with a view.”
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
Nonsense, so far all people whose parents had no children became just fine parents themselves. Gotta love the empty set.
My mother is still a virgin…
Is your father a carpenter?
Oh, Jesus.
That’s my Son, how can “I” help you?
I have a door that won’t shut properly. Can you take it off it’s hinges and plane it, so that it sits in the frame better?
From the Ancient Greek Pantheon, Athena was born right out of Zues’ brow…No mother. But then again, Zues has been known to father a lot of kids without involving his own wife.
Indeed. Hephaestus had to take a wedge and split Zeus’ head open. (And you thought YOU had a “splitting headache”…)
Which is why Hera hated Heracles/Hercules so much. Out of all of them, he was the only one (as far as I know) who was originally not immortal.
Zeus’ other children included Ares, Hebe, Eris, Eileithyia, and Enyo… and those are just the legitimate ones that he had with Hera. The rest are Apollo (via a woman named Leto), Dionysus (via Semele, daughter of the King of Thebes… or possibly Demeter or Persephone, depending on which legends you’re reading), Athena (via Metis), Hermes (via Maia), and Hercules (via Alcmene). At least one of his lovers (Io) also ascended to godhood (according to Ovid, she became the Egyptian goddess Isis).
As for the rest of his lovers… let’s just say that Hera was not nice to them, and leave it at that.
You forgot Aphrodite who was born of sea foam and, in some versions, was born when Zeus “Waxed his thunderbolt” and fired a shot into the sea. (I bet Poseidon wasn’t very happy about that.)
Wax on, wax off…
The way I recall it, Aphrodite was born of something a little more violent. Cronus got his . . . reproductive organs torn off and thrown into the sea, the foam creating the love goddess.
Actually, Ignoble is correct. That is one of the versions of her origin: Cronus severed Uranus’ genitals and threw them behind him into the sea. The foam from his genitals gave rise to Aphrodite (hence her name, meaning “foam-arisen”), while the Erinyes (furies), and the Meliae emerged from the drops of his blood.
In another version of her origin, she was considered a daughter of Zeus and Dione, the mother goddess. However, as far as I know, there is no reference to her having been the result of Zeus “waxing his thunderbolt”. I could be wrong, though.
Well, Ignoble was almost correct. Wikipedia agrees with you, so it looks like I made a mistake in whose goolies got yanked off. Reminder to self – Check these little details before you post!
Well technically she is neither, mayans misteriosly vanish hundreds of years ago and aztecs went extint, there aré many indigenous comunities in México like the huicholes and others and some aztec traditions remains as part of the culture but not as a comunity in itself
At least in this universe…
Mayans did not mysteriously disappear. They are still there. Their culture just collapsed mostly because of invading Spanish.
Indeed! It stuns me how many people believed that the end of the Mayan calendar (September 21st, 2012) meant the end of the world, but it never occurred to them to ask an actual Mayan why they weren’t concerned. After all, they (or their descendants, anyway) are still around.
As a side-note, I have a friend who actually is of Mayan descent, and teaches at Vanderbilt University, so I asked him about it. He said “Actually, the Mayan calendar would’ve ended even earlier, except that one day the priests got bored and extended it to 9/21/2012. They always knew that eventually the Mayan calendar would be replaced, or they would’ve extended it even further.”
Was pretty miuch my call, so thanks for confirming that. I knew the Mayans were dern good at astronomical calculations, being able to predict the phases of the Moon, the positioning of Venus, etc..
Doing calendars RIGHT is a lot more complex than merely re-jigging last year’s, after all. So, it seemed most likely to me that their calendar ended at 2012 simply because that was as far as they had taken their calculations before things fell apart.
I now find myself wondering if Mayan astronomy / calendar-making would have ever had anything analagous to the Y2K bug. :).
Considering that the year is actually ~365.2425 days long (why we have a leap year every 4 years,but not every 100th, but every 400th). This means every 1000 years you need ~242 extra days to have the longest/ shortest days fall on the correct calendar date.
God, I hope not! One was quite enough, thank you. I was a COBOL programmer for Texas A&M at the time… do you have any idea how many lines of code there are in the Student Information System? And thankfully, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to live long enough to have to worry about Y10K. xD
That I recal, the calendar was round…
When you got to the end, you were at the beginning again. If I recall properly, 2012 was when they ran out of unique dates in their calendar system, the system itself could keep spinning fine.
The whole issue of ‘2012 = armageddon’ afaik, comes from a society with an armageddong based theology coming across a society who’s calendar system had a somewhat clear end to it. Connect the dots, apply some duct tape and baling wire, strap on a hypothetical planet Nemesis or other favorite to kill us all, and call the movie writers so they can get started on your script…
That I recall, the movie 2012 had some structures also with strong ties to stories from a theology that has an Armageddon, something I think that was not simple chance.
Yea, Christianity likes propagating the whole ‘end of the world’ thing. The early Norse mythology did not have such. Until Christianity started influencing things. Then ‘Ragnarök’ got incorporated into the lore.
Although I should be fair and indicate that the link is scholarly conjecture, rather than definitive. But, if it is valid, the crossover occurred via similar poems in the 9th century. The Norse oral traditions serving to spread it effectively thereafter.
For every day that exists, you might find somebody has predicted it as the End of the World. The best-guess prediction I’ve heard of involves a few billion years from now, when our sun goes nova & the expanding coronal layers engulf our planet…Can’t get much more End of the World than THAT, I say.
The sun won’t go nova. It doesn’t have enough mass for that. It *will* become a red giant, and its outer layers will engulf the Earth. However, hopefully by then we’ll have left Earth and colonized other planets.
There’s about 21 exoplanets that we’ve discovered so far that are within the habitable zone of their star, and of similar size and composition to Earth, though that doesn’t mean they’re all ideal. For example, some of them have an atmosphere that is too thick, too thin, or otherwise hostile outside of some sort of environmentally sealed habitat. Some are too warm or too cold. However, there are several candidates that are even more suitable for vegetation than Earth is!
“Now you know, and knowing is half the battle”. The other half is figuring out just how we’re going to get there… all of them are between 12 and 1500 light years away (and two of them are over 2500 light years away).
The other (and sadly more likely) option is that we destroy ourselves long before our sun gets to that point.
P.S., yes you can get more End of the World than that. According to scientists, our universe has now passed middle age, so we’re at least halfway towards the eventual heat-death of the entire universe. Fortunately, that’s still a LONG way off.
I dunno that I buy that our universe is half past living. Faster you go, slower time moves for you. And the Big Bang was pretty fast. Could be that the center of the universe has already died, and the edges will live on to year infinity, with increasingly slower clocks. Like a pebble dropped in an infinite sea, the ripple spreading out forever.
For once, I’m not having much luck with Google. All the things I’ve tried to search for end up with results about astronomy in the middle ages, or the lifespan of the sun. However, if I remember correctly, what they’re referring to is that the rate at which stars are dying is now exceeding the rate at which new stars are born.
A nova is different from a supernova. When our sun goes nova, that’s when it changes into a Red Giant. It doesn’t have enough mass to go supernova, which would involve an actual explosion just prior to collapsing into something else, like a pulsar or black hole; it takes a LOT of mass to go THAT far.
Nova are actually associated with White Dwarf stars, in binary systems. So we would only get a nova in our solar system if we pick up another star. Which could happen, say when the Andromeda Galaxy comes to visit, but only on an outside chance. But at least the time-scales would be feasible, as that happens before the crispy-fried Earth incident, even if the odds are against it.
Our astronomy is not developed enough to say what will happen for sure. The sun will expand, as a Red Giant star, to approximately the current orbit of the Earth. But we will not be here anymore…
As the sun ages it will be loosing mass. Less mass means that our orbit will expand. Some models predict that the sun will expand beyond even the new orbit. Others do not.
Either way the atmosphere and water will boil off from the Earth.
Unless it is moved underground…
There is not much room for it at the moment. Because we only have a thin amount of cool crust to make use of. But the Earth is cooling. We have about 14 billion years of it left. And the marshmallow toasting of the Earth is scheduled for 5 to 6 billion years time.
So in about 3 to 4 billion years time we should start making use of the cooling real estate and preparing hollows for our ecosystem to migrate into. For those of us who have not found more permanent accommodation elsewhere.
“So in about 3 to 4 billion years time we should start making use of the cooling real estate and preparing hollows for our ecosystem to migrate into.”
…Or prepare to move into another neighborhood, where the property values would be higher.
Good point. I misread your original post.
By which I mean, as far as I know, Yorp is correct. From Wikipedia:
“The best-guess prediction I’ve heard of involves a few billion years from now..”
Best guess I heard involves the oceans drying up in about one billion years or so, long before we have to worry about the sun.
This will happen because the Earth’s heat comes from the decay of radioactive elements, and when that decay begins to slow down the water seeping into the crust will not longer be boiled back to the surface. That will probably lead to the end of all or most life on the planet.
Sounds like the Earth has things well planned out actually. Lock the water into the crust 2 – 3 billion years before the date I had pencilled on the calendar. So life will have plenty of time to adapt to the water withdrawing below the surface, rather than just bobbing around on top of it.
Nicely happening long before the atmosphere gets burnt off by the sun. So there will not be the greater problem of dealing with both issues at once. And, before that occurs, the Earth will be skittering as far away from the Sun as it can, to avoid being engulfed in the Sun’s atmosphere, as it expands to it’s full size as a Red Giant.
Naa, we already have extremophiles that survive miles down in the Earth’s crust. So they will be fine in the conditions you are describing. Especially easy if the water is being safely locked down there for them.
Plus us surface dwellers will have plenty of time to evolve (perhaps with the aid of social and/or technological evolution) to those conditions. Those organisms without technological help will likely get much much smaller, slower and more economical. But all life going extinct that easily? I doubt it. Probably far far more will die than survive, but that is part and parcel of how evolution works.
Adapting to being inside a star though? That would be a lot harder. If the models which predict that are the correct ones, then make sure you sign up for Mars, Titan or Pluto colonisation programs. Or beyond.
If I remember the calculations properly, the habitable zone for the sun will move out to the region that includes orbit of Saturn, when the sun starts fusing helium and turns into a red giant. Titan, the largest of Saturn’s moons, has a huge amount of organics on it, so life gets another shot to evolve around our star.
I can just imagine, 8 billion years from now, an analyst with a new space agency on Titan is looking at images from the mapping orbiter over the closest planet to the sun. There are signs that a some point in its history that the planet had vast oceans, that have since evaporated, or even boiled, away. There are volcanoes and mountain building, indicating active plate tectonics; some of the mountains are clearly extremely old, clearly in existence for billions of years. Even some of those lines of hills might have been mighty mountains, billions of years ago. No signs of current life, but it is possible that some of those remnants are evidence not only of life being on the planet when it was still very wet, but perhaps evidence of civilization and construction. We will need more detail analysis from the ground. We need to start working on a rover to explore the nearest planet.
I wonder if we (the members of the Earth ecosystem, albeit in very much earlier evolutionary stages) first got going on Mercury, in the Solar System’s youth? As things warmed up, migrating out to the second planet.
Where, of course, our industry got out of control, causing run-away greenhouse changes to the atmosphere and we had to re-locate fast to the third planet. That migration was probably disorganised, due to being an emergency, hence why it did not go smoothly.
Ooh ooh (putting two plus two together), nastier members of our invasion fleet probably dropped a big rock on the Yucatán Peninsula, to reduce the populations of meat-eating dinosaurs in the vicinity of the planned landing site.
Only, of course, the consequences were much more devastating than they predicted, making the colonisation much harder, rather than easier. Causing the gradual break down of society and loss of technology.
The last remnants of which probably remained at the central colony island, Atlantis. Serving the descendants of the colonists, as they gradually evolved into forms more suitable for their new planet, over hundreds of millions of years. And when even it’s self-repair mechanisms broke down, the foresightful evacuated from there too.
Heading 150 leagues south, down the coast, to found a new civilisation.
Y’know. I’d have more confidence in predictions attributed to the Mayan calendar if it had in fact specifically warned about weird foreign visitors. I mean, not only that they were coming but that they were, totally and unequivocally, extremely bad news, get the frick out of town NOW, I’m really not kidding about this.
As I understand it, there were various predictions / prophesies around that (were made to) fit European arrival / invasion – but all were at the Delphic Oracle level of clarity (which is to say, not much dang help at all).
Don’t you go dissing the Delphic Oracle!
The Mayan doomsday thing was a Western concoction. But do not go mixing up Delphic predictions with modern charlatan practices. Although some of the predictions were of that ilk, do not forget that the oracle persisted for many generations and when one died, another was appointed as a replacement.
I imagine some would not have had the talent, so would have resorted to the kinds of tricks we are familiar with. But others made very specific, unambiguous predictions, with indisputable results.
For those who consider that predicting the future is impossible, such accounts need to be written off as legends created after the fact. I have personal experience where I know, with absolute certainty, that such is possible. Therefore I do not have to disregard such, out of hand. Plus there are centuries worth of predictions. A number of which had world-changing consequences.
Just one as an example:
Phillip II of Macedonia received a prediction that whoever could ride his black colt would conquer the world. Neither he, nor any of his generals succeeded. However, his son, Alexander did.
You may know him as Alexander the Great.
Same thing with the Aztec. Culturally both are basically extinct, but individuals (who managed to avoid smallpox and other European diseases) are still around. Actually a Mexican friend of mine joked that the Spaniards came and fucked the natives into Mexicans. A simplified but probably not entirely inaccurate accounting of history.
Knew an Aztec dancer from Mexico City who was visiting local family and dancing the PowWow circuit and that was basically what he told me one time.
That’s…darkly hilarious…
Better than what Americans did.
It’s actually roughly analogous. Both killed far more with disease than with force of arms, and both had episodes of mass slaughter.
Actually, that was the Aztec civilization that collapsed due to the invading Europeans, mostly Spanish. The Myans died out several hundred years before. It looks like they weren’t prepared for a prolonged drought and had to leave their settlements in Eastern Mexico. The growth of the Aztec empire in central Mexico at the same time probably pushed things over the edge as their armies moved over the region.
I had a good friend in college who would have disagreed with that, she was pretty much pure blooded Aztec and dang proud of it.. to the point she would joke on a regular basis that her grandmother taught her the recipe for cooking people, so watch out :)
Did anybody step up to her and asked for the recipe?
https://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/HowTo:Cook_A_Human
Check legality in your jurisdiction before attempting.
A plate full of Long Pork sounds good right about now…You guys just made me hungry.
And 5 de mayo isn’t a realy important hollyday in México
Next you will be saying that Piñata’s don’t even come from Mexico o_O
Psikodanste is actually correct. It isn’t a national holiday (although it was, from 1962-?), though all public schools are closed on May 5. In the State of Puebla (where the Mexican army fought and defeated the French, despite being outnumbered 3 to 1), and in the neighboring State of Veracruz, it is a full holiday (no work). The rest of Mexico pretty much ignores it.
A regional holiday or celebration is still a holiday to be celebrated :P
But thank you for explaining :D
“It would really suck to have a brother or sister that had powers and you didn’t.”
Like Tyler and his “brother” (actually clone) Toby from PS238?
Wasn’t juggernaut Xavier’s half brother? Got all angry and jealous his brother had powers but not him.
At least until he found the magic gemstone that makes him be juggernaut?
Yep! Since his powers are magical in nature, rather than a mutation, his real nemesis is Dr.
Strange, Sorceror Supreme.
I thought Juggy was his Step-brother.
Yes, step, not a blood relation (Juggy’s father married Chuck’s mother)
Although more magical than ‘super’, the daughter of Darrin and Samantha Stevens had powers, but not their son.
They had a son? When did that happen? o_O
The son was “Adam Stephens”. He appeared in 24 episodes from 1969 to 1972.
Thank you, don’t believe we ever got that part, just remember the daughter being a baby and then time-jumping to her in college (or high school)
Are you talking about Sabrina, the Teenage Witch? She’s a Spellman, not a Stephens. No relation at all.
The comic book dates back to 1962, before the Bewitched TV show.
No, not her, Tabitha Stevens, to do her magic she used to move her nose with her finger (at least, that’s how she did it as a baby seeing how she couldn’t do the nose wiggle like her mother)
I loved that show when I was a kid, and I still don’t remember ever having seen an episode with Tabitha where she was anything other than a very young girl. As in maybe 7 years old tops. College age was never a thing, and I never saw an episode with a boy child either.
I do vaguely remember both the son and either a college age or at least teen age Tabitha, but both were only very briefly near the end of the shows run. Just checked IMDB, Adam Stevens was born in the 8th and final season of Bewitched, where he was tested and found to be a warlock. Five years later, on the spinoff series Tabitha, he was now a mortal, but like his sister, he was in his twenties.
well, that’s because magic is not super power.
you can inherit an affinity for magic, but not the magic itself.
the magic itself has to be learned, it will not awaken on its own.
unless its a rare magical affliction… that is somewhat contagious… in that case it may be inherited.
“It would really suck to have a brother or sister that had powers and you didn’t. I’m sure that’s been used as a supervillain origin more than once, cause man, talk about a sibling rivalry.”
You pretty much described why the Juggernaut grabbed a magic ruby and recited a spell to become unstoppable, since he was a normal human who happened to be Charles Xavier’s step-brother.
Are you implying that he wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t have a step brother with mutant powers? Because I know that I sure would have, regardless of the powered or non-powered state of my siblings.
Check out “Brit” for some of that sweet villainous sibling rivalry.
Totally irrelevant to current comic page…maybe.
So the person with the ‘super’ power of being able to depilate any target area of a body would be called …..?
Depilator
Tonsure
Brazilinator
Antimerkin
Close Shave
.#other suggestions#.?
Fallout???
Rich? Quick & easy, non-invasive, hair removal, I hear many Earth ladies would love that, and some men, especially if the results last for a while…
Yes, I didn’t think of that aspect. Must remember that if I ever wind up playing a superhero TTRPG again.
Rofl. I had to look that up.
Kind of strikes me that one day we will have to get used to saying “NBH”, rather than “human”. To differentiate between natural born humans and other varieties.
…And if they also have the power to not only remove hair, but also make it GROW, they’d be a billionaire as balding Humans come to regrow their hair, medical patients come to regain confidence while recovering, others getting it in strategic locations to look more macho/sexy, etc…
Just don’t piss off someone with either power, or you may end up a bit colder in winter or with a cheap werewolf costume you can’t get out of…
Or end up being throttled by your nose hairs, and your ear hairs creating a hairy blanket for your brain
I’ve played superpowers games that refer to PSH (Pure Strain Human), for people who aren’t powered, modified (surgically or gengineered), or even from any kind of deliberate Eugenics program.
IPL-man. Or IPL-girl/IPL-woman.
A least her “girl parts” got a more measured response this time to their griping. No falcon punches!
Hmm, did they gripe because of the poke? Or did they get poked because they griped? o_O
Thought she was talking about Harem, Harem, Varia and Harem and simply idly poked herself
I was thinking poked because of the gripe, myself. That “Hadouken” must have been either her tummy rumbling again:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/414
Or her ovaries still fighting:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1635
Her comment about “girl parts” makes it clear which.
Street Fighter reference, by the way!
Hadouken is an attack used in that game.
technically, the person is saying ‘hurricane’
No, it’s “wave motion fist.” Possibly a reference to Hadou Ho, “Wave Motion Gun,” from Yamato/Star Blazers.
Yes, used to play SFII in the arcades in the 80’s and 90’s :P
You’re either old, or girted. Heh.
*gifted
Would like to think: both :D
“…When asked how he committed crime which happened before he was born, they only said he’s really, really smart…”
:-D
It actually took me a while to even read that effect. Don’t know if I should feel bad for her because of the pain or in awe because they can throw projectiles at each other.
Just clarifying… The aztecs were merely a legend of the Mexicas and in fact, when speaking about Aztecs, most likely the ones being referred are the Mexicas. Although the term is incorrect, it is used by traditional historians. However, a Mexica (or Mexicah) would NEVER call themselves Aztecs. Either Mexica or Nahua, but not Aztec.
Nevermind, it works for the comic.
Actually, they usually referred to themselves as Mēxihcah Tenochcah or Cōlhuah Mexihcah. But Monchmonch is otherwise correct; aztecatl or aztecah means “People from Aztlan”… which was a mythological place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time.
These days, Aztec is mostly used to refer exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan (now the location of Mexico City), situated on an island in Lake Texcoco. Sometimes the term also includes the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan’s two principal allied city-states, the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which controlled what is often known as the “Aztec Empire”.
So if this had happened to Vikings, we’d be calling Swedes and Norwegians “Asgardians?”
And Greeks would be Olympians?
And whoever first came up with Atlantis would be Atlanteans
Nope! The Greeks didn’t actually believe they came from Olympus; that was the home of their gods. Same for the Vikings… they didn’t believe they came from Asgard; that was the home of their gods. But in the case of the Aztecs, they believed that Aztlan actually was their ancient homeland.
The place Aztlan is mentioned in several ethnohistorical sources dating from the colonial period, and each of them give different lists of the different tribal groups who participated in the migration from Aztlan to central Mexico, but the Mexica who went on to found Mexico-Tenochtitlan are mentioned in all of the accounts.
There are significant doubts as to whether Aztlan was an actual place or is purely mythical. If it was real, however, it would most likely be in northwestern Mexico or the southwestern U.S.
Aztlan : Atlantis?
Only if Atlantis was in the middle of a lake, and not the ocean. The ethnohistorical sources sometimes contradict each other, but there are three things they all have in common: (1) The Mexica are listed as one of the tribal groups, (2) that there was a lake around Aztlan, and (3) that they migrated southward. So Aztlan, if it was a real place, would have to be somewhere NNW of where Mexico City is today.
We also know that the migration happened in (approximately) early January of 1065, and the distance traveled was about “150 leagues”; there is a lake around Cerro Culiacan (Lake Yuriria) that makes the mountain look very much like an island when photographed from the water, and is similar to an illustration in the Boturini Codex, which depicts the departure from Aztlan.
Modern archaeologists agree that Aztlan (if it is in fact a real place) would be somewhere in the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Michoacán. Not surprisingly, Lake Yuriria (which I mentioned previously) is in the state of Guanajuato.
Not that I am seriously suggesting it, but like running with an idea, even if it is absurd.
Bear in mind that descriptions of Atlantis (as in what it looked like, rather than where it was) indicated that there was a central island, where the rulers lived, surrounded by canals or lakes. So, given the passage of time, and divergent paths that the information travelled, they could be talking about the same place.
Provided the migration included some means of crossing water, needless to say. The compass direction could be approximate. If you were migrating down a coast, you would not need to do more than specify that you were travelling ‘south’. That, and the distance travelled, would be sufficient to indicate your point of origin to your grandchildren.
Just look for a tell-tale underwater crater, or other indication of a submerged island or archipelago, about 150 leagues up whichever coastline looks appropriate and we would have a viable candidate to resolve both legends!
But, didn’t Atlantis originate in the Mediterranean Sea area? But kept being ‘pushed’ further and further away as people started to navigate and colonize the area until it ended up being in the middle of the Atlantic?
Personally I feel that the most viable candidate has been identified as being in the Mediterranean. But that does contradict one of the major sources on the subject, namely Plato. And it is his version which the above hypothesis draws upon. He states that Atlantis lies ‘beyond the Pillars of Hercules’. Which we know to be the Straights of Gibraltar. Ie he is clearly saying that Atlantis is not in the Mediterranean.
In looking for the link to that, I also stumbled across Plato’s description of the island, which I mentioned above.
True. I hadn’t thought of that. Well done, Yorp! :)
Based on her dialogue up until now, I wouldn’t have pictured Jiggawatt using the word “credence” without prompting. Her comment here makes me realize that all her dialogue that I recall is from one fight scene (and her Who’s Who entry).
It’s neat when a character surprises you like that (and especially when they don’t make a big deal out of it), because it happens often enough in real life if you get a chance to observe the same person in multiple contexts.
This discussion if super powers are genetic or not always baffled me:
Either is an inherent physical trait that, as any other physical trait, might/might not be passed along, reduced or improved (a guy named Darwin wrote something about it) or is externally given (armour, magic item), if the last, this discussion makes no sense .
Changes by radiation count as inherent physical trait after the fact.
Dabbler doesn’t have “super powers”, she is “super” only regarding humans not regarding her progenitors.
That’s the funny part about super powers. No matter how you get them or what they are, it’s debated on whether it’s even possible to do that thanks to science. The question is whether or not it’s believable enough to not shatter our suspension of disbelief.
Human scientific disciplines can’t explain everything yet; it took aeronautic engineers a few decades to figure out how the common bumblebee was capable of flying.
The whole sum-total of human knowledge is directly derived from the Laws of Nature (the conditions that allow this universe to exist & continue perpetuating; Physical Laws, if you will). Before we can learn anything, we first must be able to perceive it, observe it, study it & learn it before we can define it.
It’s the height of human arrogance to even consider the possibility that humanity has learned everything there is to know…After all, as long as there is any room at all for “theory” in any field of knowledge, it’s something that we haven’t yet learned as being fact yet.
It does make sense actually because we know that there are many things which fall in the middle ground. Rather than there being a clear cut ‘nothing to do with hereditary’ or ‘only exists due to reproduction’. Take cancer for instance. You can develop it spontaneously. But if you have a family history of cancer you are at measurably greater chance of falling victim to that type of cancer.
So, to use super-genre logic, we could say that cancer is our world’s nascent development of super powers. The abilities are almost there. Cells which are attempting to become immortal, are incredibly hard to destroy and attempt to propagate throughout the body. Thus (once they turn benevolent, through evolution) granting powers such as toughness, super-vigour, invulnerability, longevity, immortality and probably related ones such as regeneration and maybe even super-strength.
The campaign to eradicate cancer could be orchestrated by a secret society of super villains, who are covertly attempting to stop evolution from completing it’s work, in the rest of the population! Preventing more supers being born in this world. In the GrrlPowerVerse though the efforts of that cabal was countered by an illuminated super-hero.
*Starts waiting for tags to be put on cancer saying “Note, NOT super powers in development, just potentially fatal cellular mutations”…*
I actually liked your comment…
Cancer is a wonderful example (no pun intended, don’t think cancer remotely funny).
Cancer is inherently define by genetics, if cell DNA is damaged either you have the proteins working to correct DNA or they go into a process called apoptosis and basically suicide.
When the last doesn’t occur and cells continue to proliferate with wrong DNA you have what we’d call Cancer cells.
Thing is, the way it’s understood now it’s actually possible for you to be exposed to cancerogenic products and never develop cancer, and have a totally healthy/pure lifestyle and develop extremely violent cancers.
Your resistance to cancer IS genetic.
External factors only change the rate of induced DNA changes, if your system works well you can actually be unarmed.
Of course probability and statistics comes into play, you bathed near a heavy water generator while drinking paint remover and smoking lead lined cigarettes and you are probably out of luck.
I thought Varia would still be upset by Harem’s little stunt a page back…!
She got over it. She was joking with Harem about it in the shower, she was just caught off guard on the last page.
DaveB, ninja extraordinaire. Halo is keeping an eye on you!
DaveB, ninja extraordinaire. Halo is keeping an eye on you!
Apparently an inadvertent double (or possibly treble) click, on the ‘submit comment’ button can bypass the ‘duplicate comment detected’ spam protection. Sorry ’bout that.
She was mildly miffed, but clearly got over it. Varia enjoys teasing, and her retort may have been more banter than genuine offence.
Unwashed, brand new utilities are stiff and creaky. Wait til she washes them. Irish pennants on every seam. Maybe Archon gets better quality utes? That tailor guy, maybe he found a way around that old problem. Guess we’ll see.
Thanks for another fine page, DaveB. Your work is much appreciated.
Nothing a Bic can’t cure.
prefer a Zippo
Depending on what you use for fabric softener that could have dangerous repercussions. I watched someone put a lighter near a freshly washed pair of pants and a blue flame traveled up the legs. Just a warning.
Sure they hadn’t simply farted? o_O
I read that as better quality utes, as in Coupe Utility, AKA the good old fashioned Aussie Ute :P. I guess they could get better quality vehicles, they do have at least 1 Osprey after all…
*gives Sydney a basket of Midol, water, chocolate, tampons, pads, a stress ball and a dammit doll*
That should help.
Ice cream…Don’t forget the ice cream.
And make sure to ask what her favorite flavor is.
actualy i think that sibling rivalery of power no power was used at least once for a hero origin when his brother nturned villain,, he created gadgets to fight him
On yer donate button, tell syd ta start strippin.
We know that the Truesight Orb has a small inner-orb, that can come out. Maybe they all have similar capabilities, under certain circumstances? Sydney Schoville 3rd may be able to have her own set of orbs too!
Would “Sydney Scoville the 3rd” be accurate? Or would it be more accurate as “Sydney Scoville Jr. the 2nd” be more accurate. After all, Sydney herself isn’t “Sydney Scoville the 2nd,” she’s “Sydney Scoville Jr.”
Well her dad is Sydney Scoville. Just like King Henry was just King Henry. It is only subsequent generations who need to add the numbers, retroactively, to differentiate between the individuals.
Although, of course, it is up to the individuals themselves, and their parents, as to how they wish to be known, in their own lifetimes. So can choose “Jr” or “2nd” or change the convention, as they want. And Sydney has stated her desire.
Apropos to nothing in particular I do look quite dashing in a bow tie and tuxedo myself.
Although I appreciate that might lead to some confusing imagery.
Yeah, I think you’d be good with a bowtie:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SillyBuddy
You look simply dashing!
I am reminded of Billy Crystal’s character Fernando from the SNL of ages ago.
“Darling, you look marvelous!”
Jr. is just another way of saying ‘The Second’
Honestly if I had super powers and my the rest of my family didn’t. I’d either find a way to make them powers [seriously, Technomancy / Technokinesis [the ability to make tech with one’s mind], very minor Reality Warping / imagination based powers, and ability to grant minor wishes [through the first two powers]. Would be able to pull off almost anything.], Or find a way to get them at least powered armor that’d be close enough.
Or I’d push them to become super heroes while I was the villain. Because honestly, if there are no villains then there will never be a hero out there to stop them. I you think about it, Super Villains are the most needed part of a Super Hero’s life. Without them all you have is a super powered person in a costume, whose always under utilized.
[Of course a Good non-super powered Super Villain needs at least 32 – 50 million to make a good [yet thrifty] dooms day device. Or at least 12 Million to make a weapon that’s sufficiently threatening to a large amount of a large city [not counting cost needed to keep the engineers quiet, or the price of minions, or transporting the super weapons, while still keeping it under the 5 – 15 billion price tag of their more expensive cousins]. Which already right there kills most dreams of super villainy in it’s tracks.].
Still I’d be a Super Villain if needed to ensure that my family get’s pushed into super hero hood, rather than the other way around. Since I’m so generous and all ^_^.
Of course, the entirety of your third paragraph is as good of an explanation as any, as to why super-villains are always trying to rob the biggest banks & jewelry exchanges…
;)
In the Legends Elseworlds series, Superman and Lois’ son was exposed to gold Kryptonite in the womb, and was born without powers. Their daughter wasn’t, and had to wear a red K necklace that suppressed her powers until she was old enough to use them responsibly. Once the son found out about his sister’s powers, he was easy for Lex Luthor to manipulate into wanting revenge for ‘depriving’ him of his ‘birthright’. So yeah, he killed her. And then died, because the formula Luthor gave him to give him back his powers? Flawed. That’s what you get for trusting a supervillain.
Hey, Super Villains are totally trust worthy. Since you can trust them to be villains. It’s not Lex’s fault that Superman’s son took an experimental formula, that just so happened to have an adverse side effect. I mean come on, all medicine, formulas, and elixirs have a probability to have side effects. It just so happens that the kid had a rather sever reaction to it.
Yup, you can trust a Villain to be villainous, but you can’t trust a Hero to be heroic
Especially those ones who follow https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsNotNice trope or https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SociopathicHero. Seriously you can’t really trust heroes, at least not all the time.
Finally! Someone who agrees with me!! :D
You’re welcome ^_^.
Sometimes, the only way to save the day is to break his leg in 3 places to make sure he doesn’t escape to attack again?
Yeah, all of those drugs can’t even be trustworthy in the real world, let alone coming from a super-villain. Any new drug commercial on TV nowadays have side-effects that are worse than the problem & can even be fatal.
Prof. X and Juggernaut. Half-brothers, powerless brother gets a magical gem for some reason.
Oh god, I just had the most random thought ever. What happens if harem goes and gets pregnant then unteleports her body? What if more than one body is pregnant? We know her injuries still exist while unteleported, so could she go minus a body for 9 months then pop out to give birth? Would multiple pregnancies effect this in any way?
When she’s unteleported she doesn’t exist in any way that can be detected, so if she did that while pregnant it would extend the gestation time relative to everyone else’s perspective.
Do you know what you’ve done? You’ve just restarted the discussion about Harem and her ability to live for a very long time again…’
I’ll better defuse this by asking what would happen if one of Harem is in storage at the time her other bodies die?
Immortality. In one kind of flavour that malicious genies provide, to those who wish ill-advisedly. Immortal but unable to sense or do anything.
Of course there is the possibility that someone with Dabbler’s level of capabilities might be able to retrieve the still-living but time-suspended Harem. Alternatively (or additionally) it might have been Dabbler who killed off her other bodies. So may only retrieve the last body, to make sure she does a good job of it.
So if she got pregnant, unteleported for 9 months, then popped back out, she would still have 9 months of pregnancy to deal with? Dang. Here I was thinking that would be a pretty awesome way to abuse the system for when she gets broody but doesnt want to deal with morning sickness. :p
But it is a very good way to deal with traumatic injury, or a body that is at death’s door. Pop it into storage and only get it out when an emergency room, or operating surgery, is fully staffed, briefed and ready to provide treatment.
That actually sounds like an awesome medical tactic she could do…
That’s what she did with the body that got the broken wrist from last night’s super-brawl. She held the injury “in stasis” until after the more critical injuries were treated & the medicos could work on her own injury.
According to last page, that Harem is still in stasis
True, tho I was kinda thinking along the same, more life threatening injury lines as Yorp. I think she would have thought of that tho, I doubt she’ll want to discover what happens when 1 of her dies…
If Harem did that just to avoid the morning sickness, it wouldn’t be avoided…Just delayed. She’d still have the sickness as soon as she comes out.
I think the real question is what happens if Harem makes a new body using a pregnant body as a template. Is the embryo cloned?
That would have to be a ‘wait and see’. But very likely yes.
Similarly she may be able to clone Varia. If so she should get the telepathy for free, as that was a side-effect of the process, rather than a separate power. Further, as the creation of the clones is due to teleportation, but it is maintained without it, even when the Harem/ Varia gestalt ends, she should retain the extra body.
All the same applies to the baby. It may not actually have any intrinsic super powers itself, unless it inherits/develops some by the normal means. Thus could have cloned telepathic bodies, but lack any of the standard freebies that supers get in this world. So no automatic good looks, fitness and freedom from shaving private parts.
Or, even more interestingly, it may have some non-teleportation power. So would have some of Harem’s capabilities but a completely different core super power (or set of powers). And, if the process of determining the super power gained is not determined at conception or birth, but say at puberty, then each clone may develop different powers!
Actually has not been stated if she use a “template” or have any say on the new body’s characteristics.
It’s worth to notice that all bodies so far have been created “vanilla”. On the other hand it’s also true that she has a vanilla one that she could have been using.
I’m not sure if it came up in this comic, or somewhere else, but the phase “You wouldn’t know your bullet proof if no one ever shoots you” sums up how I think we get ‘normal’ parents with super children.
I’ve long suspected that Super’s aren’t rare, Origin events are.
Daniel the Human says in Bruce Willis’s “Unbreakable” his son was only gonna “Shoot him once” to prove he’s an invincible super hero. That count for what you mean?
There is a similar scene in Flaky Pastry.
Needless to say the details contain spoilers.
One of the delicious bipeds discovers that a future version of her flatmate is immortal (or possibly it is a version of her from an alternative reality, or even just a technologically induced delusion or simulation). She tries to prove which is the case by stabbing her flatmate!
That was indeed amusing.
*Reads up to 264 bing-style, Realizes it’s almost the scene mentioned, then has to stop…* TT_TT
I may be bullet proof but I can’t know for sure…I’m as susceptible to any other kind of injury as anyone else would be, but being specifically bullet proof has yet to be proven.
And I have no desire to test it either…
Same with me and breathing underwater: have no desire to test it until about to drown anyway
I have proven that I can’t. Twice. Just to make sure.
Best to get a second opinion, on the existence of life-or-death superpowers.
The secret to a long life is to keep breathing; evidently, you’ve proven it to be true so far, considering that you’re still breathing even now…
I read that there’s a pill that gives you eternal life and youth, but it can’t be released before a full working test.
They are still on it.
Just noticed : Jiggawatt has her hearing back ?
She has been treated by Super Doc. Who’s power appears to work by speeding up natural healing. So we would expect her to recover in hours, rather than the weeks or months that such an injury might normally take to normalise. *
Word of god was that the only injury that was likely to be permanent is Heatwave’s foot (which got stabbed). Albeit that Jiggawatt will probably always have slightly impaired hearing, as a result of the injury, the worst of the deafness does indeed appear to have healed already.
* Of course some injuries cannot heal naturally. And some types of hearing damage fall in that category. But, equally, even some of those might heal,with super-fast recovery, as the normal situation where deterioration occurs faster than healing could be overcome. A broken back may not recover though. Likewise dead is probably dead.
Enough to get by. Remember that “yesterday” (in comics time), she was back up to about 50% already.
That wasnt yesterday, it was around noon or 1 am. Sydney is still at her first day of basic training.
The rest of my point still stands, though. She already has about 50% of her hearing back.
50% in one ear actually. She says everything sounds like its behind a closed door and the healer said she could probably get her back to 95% in both ears in the next few days. The healer was too tired from dealing with the more serious injuries to do more at the time.
Wait… noone noticed the Minecraft joke Sydney made?
I dunno. Presumably you are referring to her last line. If so, DaveB has done a good job of slipping in a reference that also passes as regular dialogue. ‘Hitting rock-bottom’ being an age-old term, which may have been adopted by Minecraft, for fairly logical reasons.
I applaud Dave whenever he does that. He provides the best of both worlds. A thrill for those who get the reference. But avoiding irritation on behalf of those who realise that they are not in the loop on an ‘in-joke’.
Besides, hitting lava is worse, ‘cuz you get burnt.
More like a Flintstone’s reference
WWE reference.
Flintstone’s predates both
And, in a spectacular move, Guesticus has thrown Traab out of the ring!
Pfft, its only flintstones if its bedrock, not rock bottom.
Ahh, that is my fault.
*holds up paw, guiltily*
I use ‘hitting rock bottom’ and ‘hitting bedrock’ synonymously. For most purposes they are the same. Be it in real-life digging or for use in analogies. I opted for ‘rock bottom’ as it fitted my pun. But, if you check the final panel, Sydney does actually say ‘bedrock’.
Which is what Sydney mentioned :P
Considering the idiocy displayed the previous day, that could also be the origin of a tech-based superhero arising, “Sorry, guys, but I HAVE to be Captain Capacitor; my brother developed electricity superpowers, and he let it go straight to his head!”
“It would really suck to have a brother or sister that had powers and you didn’t.” well that the situation in the webcomic “Atomic Laundromat” but he’s basically OK with it not a supervillian (so far).
A bit off topic, but I saw this on imgur just now and thought of Heatwave… https://i.imgur.com/1J296rW.jpg
Ouchies!
Hmm… Dropped a knife and tried to catch it with a foot?
Most folk’ll never lose a toe,
But then again, some folk’ll
Like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel!
This would be a timely moment for Concretia to return.
So Halo could hit rock-bottom.
but only with a light spanking
Or Dwayne Johnson to show up ;)
So you think the Scorpion King might come to propose to the Spider Queen? It would certainly explain Vance’s initial feminine looks. And a colony will have girls in it, even if it may not have a monarch.
I say this in keeping with the pun theme of today’s comic mind. Vance has butched up nicely, so, whilst he might still be tempted to eat Sydney, I doubt he will want the Rock as a consort.
Maybe he likes them ripped ;)
Rock bottom, or a rocky bottom? xD
Calling Benjamin Grimm, calling Benjamin Grimm…
I do not consent to such punishment
Hey, to step into the ring, you first have to sign the liability waiver…That IS your consent.
That gets me thinking… After ‘debriefing’ I wonder if they got any new recruits? Barberian was kicking around (although for *other* reasons); Will any of the ‘bad guys’ from the Vehemence debacle join up? Even as probabtion perhaps?
Archon is taking the official view (based on what Maxima said, and the fact that we have nothing to contradict it) that most of the participants were under the influence of Vehemence’s aggro aura. As such they were not acting under their own volition, therefore are being treated as victims, not perpetrators.
So, yes, they would be eligible for recruitment. Subject to being suitable in other regards, of course. Plus they represent a big pool of talent, which is otherwise in short supply. So I would be surprised if at least one or two candidates were not, eventually, drawn from it.
Hopefully not ‘Barberian’ though. Assuming I have that associated with the right guy. He needs to open up a hair salon, next to Sydney’s shop!
His talents would be wasted as a mere brawler. What other person would be qualified to sculpt Maxima’s hair, for one? Currently she is having to resort to using rebar for her hair-pins!
Not all Supers have to be on the front line, just look at the Fashion Ninja, they could set up shop together: they go to the Fabricmancer for a new outfit, then go to Barberian to get a new hairstyle while their outfit gets made by the fashion ninja’s :D
…And while the outfit’s being made, they stop by a certain comic shop to fill the time…
Depending on the hairstyle they are getting, they might not have time :P
See, this is why both Sydney and the super hairdresser need to get units in the Archon shopping maul. That will put them all close together. One needs to look respectable when saving the world, and time may be of the essence.
…or to be sat on by a giant bird that can carry elephants away.
A Roc or a Haasts Eagle?
What is Sydney going to do when she finds out (or is led to believe) that Supers don’t get PMS or periods…
What’s the emergency code for when all the supers get on the same cycle and start to PMS at the same time?
Harem PMSx5= scary.
Even worse, it’s mentioned in a comment string above by Mr DaveB himself, while harem’s got un-teleported bodies, they’re essentially in stasis, time not passing for them at all. Which means that, since each is medically speaking a fully independent body, just linked by a single Spark/Spirit/WhatEverYouWannaCallIt, being un-teleported means the count-down clock till their next period is put on hold. And since she possibly doesn’t systematically un-teleports them so they’re synchronized…
…It’s possible for Harem to be mid-PMS indefinitely, 1 or more starting up just as another is finishing… O_O
Although I have not scientifically measured this, I understand that women living together will gradually find their periods syncing up. I imagine the process would be even faster for clones who are quantumly linked (even if it is only their brains).
So, whilst I agree that they can get out of phase the way you describe, I think that they will fairly rapidly synchronise. Provided Harem does not continually put bodies in storage, for weeks at a time.
For that reason, and others, most likely all her bodies are taking a No-Period No-PMS type of birth control pill.
You mention that there isn’t enough supers to verify, but how many supers are there? 1/1000? 1/10,000?
Probably far fewer than that. Remember, the Earth’s current population is over 7 billion. If there was only one super per every million, that’s still seven thousand supers.
Then again, it’s also possible that there’s people with super abilities that simply have no obvious manifestation. Say, for example, your only power is a mind block that protects your mind from any form of telepathy. Considering that there is probably (at most) a few hundred people world-wide with telepathy of any sort, either magical or natural, someone could go his or her entire life without ever finding out they were a super.
My wager is on one in a million, or even one in ten million, with possibly that many more who have powers with no obvious manifestation.
There are official estimates, but take care when using them. The events later in the same day imply that they are low. There will be many supers who, like Sydney, were hiding themselves in fear of being ‘whisked off’ to some secret laboratory. As more come out into the open, the government will be able to revise their numbers to a more realistic level.
But supers are still clearly very rare. Just not quite as rare as they initially thought.
Ahh, I had forgotten that.
Neat.
And yeah, I can think of some powers you would never discover. Like the ability to telekinetically lift Uranium at will. How often do you find yourself around Uranium in the average lifetime?
I bet a lot of things would also be noticed but not considered a superpower, like those people who can see more shades of color or people capable of building and maintaining muscles with a lot less effort. They would just assume it was a mundane genetic quirk.
True, however Maxima suspected that instead it could be “an international coalition”, and later Vehemence confirmed that he herded every group or individual super he “ever come across”. That likely means Max was right. Also every well done estimate should to try and take account of the hidden cases.
That said I think you have reason that the recent events should lead to at least review the official estimates. Anyway I feel inclined to believe they are still reliable enough, until proof to the contrary :)
All good points.
actually if Varia touched the right person she might gain the ability to make duplicates since her powers change as she touches different people.
Still weird that Sydney didn’t trigger a powerset for Varia. (Maxima too, but I sort of expected that.)
Actually the orbs started to orbit Varia too but no one noticed.
REALLY? I did *not* notice…
Wait I did! …and promptly forgot…
That’s got to be the first time Varia actually ‘copied’ a powerset.
Unless…the orbs do different things in her hands…
Seems like you have something in common with Sydney (final panel, above).
You need to go back to that page and look again. Very carefully. Sydney did trigger a power! It is just that nobody present picked up on the effect that was happening.
Maxima is permanently surrounded by a forcefield, at a molecular level. Varia would not have been able to make direct contact with Maxima, which is a vital part of activating her power.
Maxima…can’t be touched? Does she have Rogue angst, and THAT’S why she hates flirting so much?
I suspect it’s far more involved, but there’s usually deeper reasons than we see.
*eyes mist up*
Possibly.
Although more likely it is just a technicality. For instance we are mostly made up of vacuum, with just a few teeny bits whizzing around in it, but because we seem to be solid, we do not notice or get too angsty about it.
Clearly any hindrance that Maxima has is not life-threatening. She is still able to breathe and digest food, for example. So her super power is allowing the force field to be bypassed by things which are necessary for her to live. The same might allow her to have kids too.
Plus, on a day-to-day basis, she clearly has enough sense of touch to be able to button her shirts and perform other delicate tasks. So I do not think we need be too concerned.
But, even if she suffers no practical problems from it, there could still be some psychological problems from knowing about that. Hence your speculation is viable, either way.