Grrl Power #361 – Hits and misses
In Math’s defense, those guys were categorized as scrubs because they were all wiped out in about 5 seconds. She’s essentially complimenting Math for taking them down quickly by calling them scrubs. That’s certainly how he’ll relate it later.
Math, of course turned down the Doctor’s healing touch, she had more serious injuries to deal with and of course a busted nose is a good reminder to do better in the next fight. It’s hardly the first time he’s gotten his schnoz shifted. This time it might have actually straightened it out.
There’s a lot of people Maxima could call out for actions in the battle, good and bad. As well as ditching a family event, Jiggawatt took out three people on arrival and was instrumental in Vehemence’s takedown. Achilles ran some interference but could have been a lot more useful, etc. I’m not going to cover the whole battle in the following pages, but assume Maxima recaps it with a fair amount of granularity in between pages. I’m sure some of you could really get into some detailed tactics porn, but I’ll probably just pepper that in as I go during future battles.
BTW don’t concern yourself that in the first panel you can’t see the back of Hiro, Anvil, Dabbler and Math’s heads. There a screen there… a partition… an invisibility partition… ok I just ran out of time and sort of forgot to add them. Pretend that Math spilled some skittles and they all bent over to pick them up. Also if you hadn’t noticed that before I pointed it out just forget about it. *waves hands, snaps fingers* I just felt guilty after I noticed I left them out. Actually now that I look at the layout of the room from the stage, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be able to see the backs of the chairs in the front row from where the recruits are sitting. *shakes fist at sky* ARCHITECTURE!!!
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This is all just a dream in maths head
The part that he hasn’t caught on to yet: “No more fighting until you’re bored of looking at porn.” D:
That would effectively be ‘Math can no longer fight, ever.’ :D
6 months later….
“No Math, you can’t have another 10 Exobyte drive to fill with porn… We’re already spending the equivalent of a 3rd world country’s GNP on cooling and powering your system now…”
Why would he bother downloading porn? Does anyone still do that?
As long as he swaps arms and remembers leg day down the gym he should be ok. He might need someone to remind him to eat though.
…And drink plenty of fluids. I figure Math would dehydrate himself into a coma long before he starved himself away from the computer.
ah but your forgetting he isn’t suppose to look at “porn” he is supposed to stare at just boobs. Just boobs, nothing else. Probably not really doing anything or being played with, just plain boobs. Until he reaches the point where an oponent could fash him and he’d be like, meh just another pair.
Getting him bored with boobs will take years, and really isn’t what’s needed anyway. She needs him to stop dropping his guard when flashed, which, luckily, is easier (not, easy, easier; hetro and bi males have an autonomic response to being flashed which has to be retrained). She needs the girls to flash him at random when sparing and, while he’s distracted, kick the **** out of him. He’ll get over dropping his guard fairly quickly… Though he’s going to be a lot longer getting to the point where he can do more than defend in that instance.
Yeah or find a discipline training martial artist master.
I don’t know, but seems like something smart trainers look into.
based on the assumption that men are attracted to breasts because they don’t have any, and maybe some psychological reminder of their mother, (the person whom carried them for the first 9 months and raised them). In which case you could just inject him with a load of Estrogen, then he’ll grow his own pair, then he’ll loose interest in them.
nope, they are surrogate asses the equivalent of a baboon’s big red butt that women developed up front when we went from having sex from behind to primarily having sex face to face.
which is why most mammals nurse just fine without the massive chesticles.
Actually, there’s evidence that they also evolved as a handhold location for use during doggy-style sex.
More like the assumption is that the female boobs evolved specifically because we got to standing on two legs instead of four limbs. Whereas before, to an ape a female showing her behind is a turn on. With the hominids, the female now evolved to have bigger boobs in addition to having her booty. Funny isn’t it that the base for the attraction to the female chest is from an attraction to the female booty?
TL:DR Kept thinking about boobs and booty…
I’m…. not sure Max knows how man work here
max i now out of the team permanently based on his mentality
*math
Maxi knows precisely how Math works: as drakeye (and others) have said, she has effectively sidelined Math for the duration (“duration of what?” you may ask, the duration of everything), people like Math (males and females) never get bored of porn (‘burnout’ is not the same as ‘bored’)
afaik, it does happen; I took some art classes in college and one of my teachers was a retired photo artist for playboy. You spend enough time looking at anything and it just gets boring ;)
The ‘same boobs’ might get boring… maybe. My wife’s still get my interest after 36 years of marriage.
Boobs in general, however, with all of their wonderful variations in size, shape, and general perkiness will get boring sometime around the time the universe experiences heat death.
you didn’t look at them ten hours a day for twenty years or so.
boobs, like any other sexual object, are attractive because they are forbidden.. there are plenty of cultures where being topless is not a big deal, and in those, a person might notice a particularly attractive set, same way we might notice nice eyes, but beyond that, meh.
I am going to say “are attractive partially because they are forbidden”. Primary and secondary sexual characteristics are somewhat attractive anyway – evolutionary biology, if nothing else.
I would say how we react to them is partly because of that not finding them attractive. I still find faces quite attractive(well when they are attractive) but seeing them is no big deal as you said.
Oddly muslims are bypassing 47 muslim nations that they could assimilate into, trying to get into Sweden & Germany to demand handouts and that the natives stop drinking beer, eating pork, and having nude beaches.
You do need to factor in how many are actually willing to accept them. If a country will not do that, then the refugee has no say in the matter. And international politics are a lot more complex than Muslim and non-Muslim, in any event.
Mind you, your statement does show extreme bias. Given that the vast majority of Syrian refugees that have not done what you said, but rather have settled in nearby countries (map at bottom of linked page). Notably majority Muslim ones:
Turkey: 2,072,290
Lebanon: 1,078,338
Jordan: 628,175
By contrast:
Germany: 125,441
Sweden: 80,360
Mind you I am more interested in solutions which prevent refugees, in the first place. Rather than trying to cope with them once everything has gone pear-shaped. “Love they neighbour” goes out the window, when they start knocking on your door, rather than just being seen on TV appeals, in some distant land.
Well, your situation is a bit different than what Max is telling Math. Your wife’s boobs may be the greatest thing you ever saw in your life, but what if you were forced to stare at them on a 24/7 basis?
What Max needs to do is pull a Clockwork Orange-style therapy session on Math…
The thing is though, he might eventually get bored of internet boobies. But a live pair will be fresh again. Right back to… boob one?
Do not underestimate the VAST difference between looking at pictures of boobs and actually facing the real thing. What he might eventually need is some de-sensitivity training from Dabbler.
You are not the first to suggest this. Mind you nobody has stopped to consider Dabbler’s feelings on the objective (as opposed to the methods). Would a Succubus want to participate in something which has the aim of making a male loose interest in boobs? It would be anathema to her culture, after all.
Dabbler has magic boobs, she knows full well that no one, regardless of their gender or sexuality, can resist them. She would probably participate just to prove that the power of boobs can never be fully suppressed.
…It would also play havoc with her need to absorb Tantric Energy too. Even a demon/alien/whatever-else hybrid needs to eat too, ya’ know.
Yes, I’d thought of that. But Dabbler can follow orders (sometimes). You work most of the day, and eat every now and then. I didn’t say it would be ALL kicks and giggles (but you can be allowed to enjoy your work, too ).
The objective is to get Math to lose interest in “normal” humans. I don’t think anyone could lose interest in a succubus. Get used to Dabbler and you’re ruined for anything less — and that’s the goal.
I’m sorta like Stan Lee when it comes to how I like looking at comics & boobs:
It’s nice to see them on the computer, sure, but I much prefer being able to actually hold them in my hands too.
I would agree with the others. There is a big difference between just nudity, and porn. Nudity by itself does not necessarily equal porn. You could become so used to bare boobs and nudity that by itself does nothing for a person while porn still has effect.
you speak of nudists who can walk around all day in the presence of the other gender and not get excited but two minutes in the bedroom with there SO and well you get the idea.
I couldn’t think of a better way to make use of Dabblers hypnoboobs they to cure Math of this proclivity. Baring that he could be made to live at a nudist colony until nudity just becomes so passe that he is immune to Boobie style.
I would actually suggest that Dabbler have a night with him and NOT wipe his memory. At least one of them will get taken down a peg.
Of course it shall not be mentioned exactly which peg gets taken down…
But if Dabbler could ruin normal women for most men in just one night, think of how long she could “cure” Math’s problem if they spent together every nigh for a week…or month! That should “cure” him & the NEXT 99 generations of martial artists in Math’s lineage.
+1 and the internets to you
If that happens, chances are slim that there will be even a single generation of Math’s lineage if not by Dabbler.
Oh… wait… you were talking in terms of sensei and student…
Carry on then.
This!
Living in a nudist or naturalist environment is probably one of the few things that could make Math a bit less easy to distract. It would expose him to naked bodies of every shape and form (well almost, I don’t think Dabbler would have any problem with the dress code so he’d even get an eyeful of a nude half succubus).
Besides he would be as much on display as everyone else around him, which probably would be quite a humbling experience. Let’s just say the it doesn’t take long before most men stop “saluting” every attractive woman they meet in one of these places.
It is however not a surefire way to “cure” Math or any man. Even if you grow up with casual nudity you can still be distracted by unexpected nudity. Just because you’re used to it doesn’t mean you stop appreciating a nice pair of tits…
I’m pritty sure nudist grandmothers would be the best way to turn someone off of sexy thoughts
Kind of tough on the old bird if she had to hike along all the time to keep Math from ogling the super talent he keeps running into…
Supergranny!
Now I wonder how supers look like when they are old
Believe there was a show from the UK called “SuperGranny” in the 80’s
“Supergran”
Set in Scotland, filmed in north east England and following the adventures of a granny with superpowers as the thwardes the “Scunner Campbell”
It was a fun show :)
Stand back Superman, Iceman, Spiderman. Batman and Robin too
Don’t wanna cause a fracas, but BA Baracas, have I got a match for you.
She makes them look like a bunch of fairies.
She’s got more bottle than United Dairies.
Hang about – Look out! For Supergran.
You can take your heroes, your Robert De Niros. Your Al Pacinos too.
They say Stallone is just another phoney. He couldn’t lace his shoes.
After her they’re all big girls blouses she’s got more front than a row of houses
Hang about – Look out! For Supergran
She’s a serious granny (Supergran!) A serious granny (Supergran!)
She’ll do things that you never saw your granny do
Scunner Campbell: Is there nothing that she cannae do?
Yeah, just make Math hang out in a nudist colony for Senior Citizens ONLY…
I have been to Europe there are more nude grannies on the beaches than young women, even before the muslim invasion.
ROFL. Do you have a liking for seaside retirement towns? There are a number of resorts which specialise in that.
Personally I just go where ever is convenient, which barely ever includes nudist beaches. But I have been to many regular ones, in a large number of European countries. When you get topless women, the comely girls far far outnumber the grannies. On my local beaches about one in seven girls dispense with their tops.
I am badly short-sighted, and don’t wear my glasses to the beach. But even so I usually end up with half a dozen topless girls settling down, near enough to me that I can easily make them out. Whereas you might see one or two topless grannies (or women of more ‘niche appeal’) during the course of an entire day! Including occasions when wandering around.
You could probably compare a set of boobs to amazing scenery of nature in this regard. Live on a mountain top long enough and you’ll eventually grow bored of the view. But you’ll only grow bored of THAT view.
If you get to a different mountain top that has snow, and a different background, it would probably be great again
Even seeing boobs constantly, he will never get bored or tired of looking at them. He could eventually stop being distracted by them. (Yes, personal experience.)
I’ll be disappointed if Sydney does not eventually get some sort of job in on field analysis and command. It figures that Dabbler and Math are the only two who didn’t listen to orders and took too long. They both have similar attitudes to being on the team. Math is only there for a fighting challenge, and most likely takes his inability to finish an opponent himself as a disappointment. Dabbler is mostly there for a working holiday, and also wishes to improve her skills and prove her prowess. Their priority was to prove themselves, not to assist the team and bring down the attackers.
That’s probably why Sydney is a Corporal already.
Dabbler and Math are also both civilians.
And Math has just been benched, probably find out Thursday what Dabbles’ ‘punishment’ will be
Make Math and Dabbler fight against each other, until Math wins. Dabbler can use anything she wants to against him. Anything, even boobs.
is SHE REALLY expecting him TO GET BORED OF BOOBS?
might as well try an AVERSION therapy instead…even if i am not sure of the results.
In a sense this is aversion therapy. That said Maxis the last person I expected to give hive him that sort of order.
i really don’t think this is aversion therapy at all…more like what he he might do until he is to old to fight…
Well, if he gets enough… exposition, his reaction might go from “WOW!” to “I’ve seen better”. Which, I guess, is what Max is REALLY hoping for here. x)
That’s… not how man work though
not sure if you are a guy or a girl but sincerely…FAT CHANCES that happens…
ESPECIALLY since he would be some on the net and not in real life. so in REAL LIFE he could be even MORE distracted by them wanting to touch them.
hence why i said aversion therapy could work better. emphasis on the “could”
I’m thinking, Clockwork Orange, for an example of aversion therapy…
What do you suggest? Have multiple Harems boob him up until he cries for mercy? :-)
Yes please
But to keep his current (Teenager Censor, SFW) rating here, Dave probably wouldn’t show us how that works out…
know something he would hate
like if it’s a food or a phobia
or force him to kiss a guy or do stuff with a guy every time he does
something that every time he stares at boobs for too long he REALLY get scared and stops
She could always try the Ludovico Technique if that doesn’t work.
i THINK that’s against the genevra convention
There’s a technical term for the result of aversion therapy: “kink” …I’m not sure that’s helpful
Halo: You wanted a bottle of my favorite hot sauce, Dabbler?
Dabbler: Good, but I better test it first. Let’s try the inside of the wrist. Ah, good. My skin is not sensitive to the spicy ingredients.
Halo: Hey, don’t waste it! What do you want with this for anyway?
Dabbler: Max said I should help Math not get distracted by breasts, so I am going to do some aversion therapy. I let him see, feel and taste boobs, (all mine but with different illusions) then coat my breasts with your hot sauce and let him taste again. That might work. We may have to do it a few times.
Halo: Okaaaay. Too much information. Just make sure you are somewhere private when you try this.
There is a flaw with this, given the serious risk that it could simply aggravate his behaviour. Being the most skilled fighter on the team, it is not a good idea to make him the test subject in an experimental protocol. It must be trialled first.
Dabbler’s illusions do not fool tactile contact*, so such testing should not be conducted with anyone who is unaware of her true nature. Severely limiting the pool of possible test subjects.
As such, I volunteer to pioneer this test. Strictly in the interests of science, and to support the good cause that is Archon!
But we should ensure that there are human breasts involved in the trial too. The hypnoboob effect might skew results otherwise. So, as Sydney is aware of the trial, and who knows of the presence of aliens on Earth, she should be asked if she is willing to volunteer to participate too.** In a tactful way, of course. We would not want to embarrass the poor girl unduly! Cute though her blushes are.
* Dabbler was able to grope Maxima with her ‘invisible’ hands.
** Providing aversion test services, rather than becoming a fellow tester. Just in case that was unclear.
You are volunteering to try tasting Sydney’s hot sauce?! Even if you are licking it off Dabbler’s boobs, that is still going to be likely debilitating tongue torture.
I must confess that I was much more tempted with the concept of garnishing Sydney, with Sydney’s sauce. Which would totally be worth it!
Needless to say, if there really was a Halo, I would not even jokingly suggest the Dabbler version. But, in a Dabbler-only world, yea, she is cute enough that I would take the pain. Provided she guaranteed no mind wipes! Not even if she tried to selectively target just the pain.
Ha ha, Max has never been to England, has she?
What do you mean by that? o_O
Two raised fingers like in panel three could be considered much like an American middle finger. Winston Churchill got a lot of grief for making his V for victory gesture all the time.
Oh right, hadn’t noticed the ‘double finger salute’ :p
Always thought Winnie did his cigar salute with the palm out (unless he actually was giving the fingers to everyone, specially the enemy when he won :D)
According to interviews I’ve seen with some people close to him he knew the two finger salute was rude and often deliberately made the ‘victory’ sign that way around because he thought it was funny.
Just goes to show that everyone has their silly side.
The two fingered salute is very much an ingrained part of British culture as an insult..
It started as a insult to French soldiers by longbow men, the salute meant they had not been captured and could still fire their bows(captured bowmen had these two fingers cut off so they couldn’t fire a bow)
The act was extra insulting because bowmen were commoners yet the knights they killed were almost always noblemen, they though themselves superior to the commoners,
I’m afraid the longbowmen thing is a myth, the French never cut the fingers off captured longbowmen. At lease according to Mr Fry on QI.
Considering what she says, maybe she has If someone calls her on it, she can always claim she didn’t know what it meant while flashing a “prove otherwise” grin.
Is it really only the next day still? Somehow thought it had been longer.
Day 2
The day after the fight
Technically, it’s Day Two of the Three(?) Month flashback :D
6 months
DaveB, if there is crunching underfoot as everyone leaves the stadium, and Max calls for “Skittle Cleanup” in the auditorium, in the next strip, you are well covered.
Or just have some poor joe grumbling about skittles as he sweeps the auditorium.
That guy who has to clean boot prints off the ceiling will probably have to see to it.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1844
There he is, walking down the hallway with a broom and bucket in his hand. His buddy looks into the bucket and says, “Skittles again, huh?” The soldier nods his head, a look of disgust on his face.
Dave, have you considered inserting text pages between the comic pages? In the same manner as Earthworld does? You cram much knowledge in your page notes and they won’t be in the final comic. This would cover much of Maxima’s debrief, which people could find interesting, would provide some entertainment for you, and wouldn’t break story.
This is a fricking /awesome/ idea, if it is something that you’d be up for Dave. I’d definitely turn up for it.
Do you mean Erfworld? If so that’d be great. You can do ‘panels’ as photos and make them look like reports. Each one with a different style…. and suddenly I realize that might be a problem with ‘fonts’ and ‘font’ copyrights… hnmmmm
Word of caution for Dave – while I love Erfworld, I lost track of what was going on a while back because of the erratic update schedule and the long text updates, and haven’t had the time to go back and catch up since, essentially meaning I’ve dropped following that webcomic.
They can be useful in moderation, but it takes more time to read one, and if the reader doesn’t have the time available (because they weren’t expecting to need to take the time) they may skip it – and if they need to know that info in the next page they may be lost. (Or end up skipping it because they still don’t have the time to go back and read the previous page.)
I’ve never considered it because I consider pages of text in between comic pages to be very offputting. If you hand me a book and tell me it’s a novel with some pictures in it, then fine, but it you hand me a comic and tell me large swaths of the story are just block prose I’ll usually hand it back to you. I try and never put critical story information in my comment, just relevant musings. Yeah the book won’t have that stuff, but the website will always be here for people who were introduced to the comic via the book and want more.
Maybe more like a “footnote” section at the back of the book. That way you can read the comic, then when time permits read the author’s notes in the back, flipping between the two?
Agreed, if I want to read a book, I’ll read a book, comics should stay comics. The only reason I still read Erfworld after it swapped to text alternating with comics is because I got into it before it started doing that… it still annoys me though.
Yea the mix-and match suggestion sounds feasible on proposition. But I do recall that on the few times that text info-dump pages get inserted into comics I usually just skip over them. And would feel resentful if too much critical information was lost that way.
Film directors and actors have similar calls to make. And the better ones tend to avoid situations where the audience have to just put up with somebody making lengthy static exposition to camera. It is a visual medium and viewers or readers expect to be seeing something going on.
An actor might choose to be doing some chore, so his hands are providing some activity. Or a director might situate the scene such that there is something of interest going on, either in the background or dynamically between the principles. A lecturer might put up a graphic to help convey their message in a visual way.
This is even truer for this for this comic, as such information is important to the slice-of-life that the story focuses on. It is not the McGuffin that is only there to move on to the next scene. It is of interest in it’s own right. And we want pretty pictures to accompany that.
In American TV there is a technique to allow for excessive exposition. They have the characters do something like walk down a corridor in a building, or along a sidewalk so that there is something visual going on while the conversation is taking place. This was used a lot on the old ‘West Wing’ series. They called it the ‘walk and talk’.
At least the west wing waited to rewrite history. Madame Secretary carries so much water for Hillary it should count as campaign ads.
At first I was thinking “whoa, major art mistake in panel 6… That arm is huge and why is it coming out of Maxima’s head?” But everything can be blamed on Mr. Amorphous. Brooke is a lucky girl.
Still seems wrong to me. I’d expect the arm to go in a more straight line.
Shachar
If you look closely, that bend is his elbow. All those curves aren’t liquid arm. They’re the lines of an arm.
Though, his deltoid must be HUGE, making his upper arm appear broken somewhere behind Lt. Col. Leander’s head.
His upperarm is pointing down, his forearm is bent up to give the fiver
OK, which orb did Sydney use to muck up the aurora in the October incentive? One would be Flight, but the other?
Probably the tentacle, to hold whatever it was that disrupted it. I am guessing the shield and tentacle themselves are probably inert to such. And the PPO appears to involve heat, rather than anything intrinsically magnetic or electrical. Perhaps just flying through it is enough, but I suspect not. So she may have been taking something that (for lack of a better term) ‘de-ionized’ the area she travelled through.
Given that we do not fully understand how auroras work in the first place, there is little need to try any genuine scientific explanation. Even a meteorologist or physicist would not be able to make a call with certainty on that.
Sydney could have borrowed something she found lying around unguarded in the Arc-spark laboratories. So even she might not know what she did!
Maybe it’s one of the mystery orbs. Perhaps one of them has to do with magnetics.
Or, alternately, maybe she was just using the PPO from the ground.
It wont work Max, Ever….
Dabbler could probably taint Math though… Make anything but her pair seem dull……But that would probably kill Math… knowing that she would never “Recharge” using a team member…
Technically I think this qualifies as sexual harassment, and HR would be pissed. Less technically no one in that room is going to call HR.
They don’t have to call anyone. Isn’t Arianna in charge of that sort of thing?
Math is the living embodiment of sexual harassment.
It is not sexual harassment. Math did not feel harassed. Nor was it creating a sexually oppressive work environment for others. Ergo there is no case to answer.
One or the other of those would be necessary for such a charge to stick in any court.
Not true as sexually harassing someone can make others in the room uncomfortable, and, complaint or not, it is then an issue. (I listened to all the briefings on this.)
Of course, that all depends on Math’s civilian status.
Your initial sentence ignores the fact that he was not being sexually harassed. So, whilst your statement is true in principle it is not relevant here. And I already pointed out that creating a hostile work environment is classed as sexual harassment, but deemed that it is not the case here.*
Math is a civilian, but he falls under military command.** So has lost some of the rights and privileges that a member of the general public might be afforded. And most of the rest of the unit have far less than that, being full members of the military.
But your point that this depends on his status is not correct. Even in a purely civilian workplace my former post holds true.
* Of course others are free to disagree with my opinion on that. But they would need to provide much more substantive grounds, than I can observe in the situation in question, if they wish to convince me. And please bear in mind that I am extremely anti sexual harassment, and other forms of workplace discrimination or bullying. So I do not make these calls lightly.
** I imagine military jurisdiction too, but readers in the military would be more up-to-speed, on that point, than me.
Even though he’s a civilian, Math is still subject the the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) & the offenses listed under NJP (Non-Judicial Punishment). Specifically, Article 2 describes who is subject & who is not:
(a) The following persons are subject to this chapter:
(1) Members of a regular component of the armed forces, including those awaiting discharge after expiration of their terms of enlistment; volunteers from the time of their muster or acceptance into the armed forces; inductees from the time of their actual induction into the armed forces; and other persons lawfully called or ordered into, or to duty in or for training in, the armed forces, from the dates when they are required by the terms of the call or order to obey it.
I’ve put the part that would include someone like Math & Dabbler in bold text, above. They are not officially “military,” per se, but they are under lawful contract with the military (as Archon is under the DoJ).
Under the UCMJ, Math could face NJP punishment under a charge of Misconduct Before the Enemy. That would never stick in a civilian court, but it would in a military court.
Current US case law on “hostile work environment” makes intentions and feelings of other parties essentially irrelevant. That Math doesn’t feel that he is being sexually harassed, and that Maxima is not intending to sexually harass him are both completely irrelevant. Seriously, a few different sets of people can tell one inappropriate joke each, with the receiving party finding it funny, and a single person who overheard them, even by accident, even when all the parties were trying to keep it private, can be offended by them, and it can be held to be a “hostile work environment”.
Yes, it really is THAT insane.
Again you are drifting away from the specifics viewed above. Which is the insidious nature of political correctness in our society. What you are describing has absolutely nothing to do with the scene above. Maxima has not made a joke. She is talking about something that is critical to their job, and which could have gotten Math killed!
This is no different to a doctor telling one of his students ‘you failed to show clinical detachment, your patient saw you staring at her breasts’ and then offering some suggestions for how to do so.* These subjects have to be discussed, in order for the professionals to actually do their job.
Guys do have a problem avoiding looking at womens’ breasts and, if that is causing a problem in the workplace, it needs to be dealt with. Further by doing so openly it is letting others know that this is happening. Thus letting the oppressed know that their problems are not being ignored.
Such would not always be appropriate, but being open and honest is often actually the best route. Except for overly political correct nonsense making people think otherwise.
Although the primary aim here is to reduce the risk of death in combat, there will be other benefits too. If they find a way of doing this, it will actually serve to make this workplace less hostile, than it is at the moment, due to the previous sexual harassment that Math has exhibited!
* Ok, Maxima’s suggestion may not be as practical as she assumes, but that is a separate issue. Plus, of course we must recognise that this is part of the gag for the comic (and specifically suggesting porn, rather than beating around the bush** to find a politically correct way to say it, is part of that), but that is a separate issue to Maxima’s intent. She is offering an earnest suggestion, which will probably need refining in due course.
** Boom boom.
Note that Math’s behaviour, in this scene, is politically incorrect. And he is making jokes which are contributing to a hostile work environment. But my comments are dealing with the central issue, namely Maxima’s order to look at porn, rather than the ongoing behaviour of Math, Dabbler and Harem.
All of which will receive a much higher degree of tolerance in a military environment than in a politically correct civilian one. And represent a degree of banter that many of us will be familiar with, in any case. It is an ever-present element in our society. One which tends to be brushed under the carpet, unless it is causing a problem.
Hence the reason why it is necessary to make judgement calls on these things. You have to ask “is somebody being offended by this?” and “does the degree of banter exceed the norms for the particular environment?” Trying to prosecute a mechanic for putting up a calendar with topless girls, in a garage, is very unlikely to get anywhere in a UK court, for instance. Simply because such is ubiquitous in the society.
Of course, things change, and societies and segments of it can become more or less tolerant. And I am sure there will be exceptions even to the above example I gave, because there are many courts, and there may be aggravating circumstances in particular cases, which would give different verdicts. And Britain is suffering more from political correctness than before, so that example may not hold for long. But it is just a ‘for instance’.
I suppose it wouldn’t work to ‘train’ on boob resistance with Dabbler…. and I just realized boob resistance might be an actual succubus technique or attribute.
Aaaaaaaand now there’s a succubus ‘boot camp’ scene playing in my head…. yeah, Max seems to be putting a lot of faith in Math’s force of willpower over his anatomy, which is a good thing!
“Aaaaaaaand now there’s a succubus ‘boot camp’ scene playing in my head”
Wouldn’t that be called ‘boob camp?’
Or maybe even, Booty Camp.
How to get Math back into the fight, since it is impossible for a man to ever get tired of boobs:
Step 1: Blind Math.
Step 2: Train Math in no-sight fighting, heightening his other senses.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit.
No, I’ve seen enough hentai to know I true boob aficionado can ‘see’ boobs with his/or her/ hearing; daredevil style.
Well, there’s also the Tactile senses too. Just as a blind person can avoid running into walls because they can feel the difference in how the air flows, Math could just resort to his sense of touch…
Maybe if he had some boobs of his own? Plastic surgery?
make a call to EGS, and ask them to fix him.
Then he would never leave the house.
And there could never be a 100th generation martial artist in his lineage…
Not even Archon could do that, as it would be unlawful NJP to inflict cruel & unusual punishment. Maxima’s “punishment” could in no way be misconstrued as “unusual,” considering that Math seems to like that “sentence of punishment.”
…At least, he seems to like it for now…
Maxima’s current orders to Math would be ‘training’, not ‘punishment’, I believe. ;)
Blind him?! Are you trying to turn him into Zatoichi?
Or make it so he can Jungle like Lee Sin
Well, you could always make Math the most powerful martial artist eunuch. Though…if he acts up just wrong, could happen with some of those he’d be drawing fire from.
Actually, the bio on his cast page already deals with exactly that:
“he is almost comically distractable by sexy women. He has been knocked to the losers’ bracket in several tournaments because of it, and has only come out on top due to his uncanny knack for blind fighting”
The only problem I have with the write-up for Math is: what do you mean, “almost comically distracted?”
O.o
Sydney is so cute when she gets all flushed by a little praise.
Thanks, Dave.
Since nobody picked it up, Max’ gesture (presumably indicating “two”) in panel three is something British military officers, lecturers or anyone else speaking in public s taught not to do. It’s approximately equivalent to the extended middle finger in American usage.
Oh? What happened to “V for victory”?
That’s with the palm out, not in like this.
I think she can probably be excused here: this is not a British organization, and she has no reason to learn British slang hand gestures. Adrianna wouldn’t make that mistake, presumably, and she’s the public contact point.
You’re assuming the Lt. Col. doesn’t know EXACTLY what she’s doing…
Victory sign is given palm and other fingers towards the audience. Showing back of the hand makes it the rude gesture.
And yet in context, perhaps even more appropriate.
She’s just gesturing while saying “you two.” I had to draw her doing something. She’s aware of the gesture but since no one in the room is British (Well, Zeph was born in British controlled Hong Kong) she’s not worried about it.
And… how else would you indicate the number two with fingers? o_O
Thumb and index finger, index pointed up.
What are you, German?
Anvildude has a point. Remember that Maxima is a military officer… and in the military (at least the U.S. military), “thumb and index finger” is military sign language for PISTOL.
Or sometimes “rifle”. It depends on how high you hold your hand. See the link below (which is from paintball, but used by the Army and police SWAT as well.)
https://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/vortexshadow/paintball/pics/militarysignals.jpg
Or “shoot the large villain in the eye”
It is interesting that you can narrow down the nationality in how you signify numbers with your fingers. It cost a British spy his life, during world war II. His German was fluent enough to pass himself off as a local. But he failed to realise that the locals* gestured distinctively for this.
He held up three fingers, starting from the index finger. The normal way that English-speaking cultures do. However, to successfully pass himself off, he should have raised his thumb and two fingers instead.
* I cannot recall where he was specifically at the time. Probably Germany or Austria. Likewise I do not know if it was a regional habit or a national one. I assume the latter as it was sufficient, on it’s own, to condemn him as being a foreigner.
That’s also how the U.S. military indicates the number three (tactical hand signals). The link below is from paintball, but it’s used by the Army and by police SWAT teams as well.
https://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/vortexshadow/paintball/pics/militarysignals.jpg
It’s also appropriate to ASL.
The normal ‘first three fingers’ in ASL (numerically speaking) indicates the number six.
And by normal, I mean ‘normal for hearing individuals in English speaking countries’.
Whoa! How come the sign for “dog” looks like somebody being grabbed by the nuts?
Oh, hang on, I get that now.
DaveB, I think you should check out that list of signs, and put it on your wall. You lucked out with two, as that is intuitive, but if Maxima had held up three fingers, her military sign language would be saying “six”!
Isn’t that a scene in Inglorious Bastards?
It is!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_lq2p7-p2Y
I have never seen it but, as a Tarantino movie, it is on my ‘to watch’ list. But it does not surprise me, as I would expect him to source his material well. I know he has had a fascination with WWII, since his childhood, so he probably has the same general knowledge as me, on the subject. Wherever I may have picked up that bit of trivia from, years ago.
It’s pretty much the same in Italian culture also. With just a hint of “giving you the evil eye” thrown in for good measure.
Math sort of reminds me of a character from the manga AIKI by isutoshi. They both look similar in appearance and attire, both are martial arts experts and both are extremely perverted.
Is it just coincidence or is Math’s character based on that character?
Dave has mentioned before that Matg is inspired by the main character of AIKI.
Also, much better in later chapters, when the perversion/nudity were sidelined as running gags instead of core focus.
Well, when Math got a gander at Jabber’s exposed boobs, he got a bloody nose for it. That’s what happens a lot in anime & manga, isn’t it?
;)
This is an awesome page.
I think they’ve all been awesome, but your point has been noted…
;)
Anvil was getting ready to do her photo shoot back in the shower scenes. Not that it matters, I guess, but I wonder if she’s back from it or hasn’t gone yet. It just seems to me that Maxima was gone for quite a while, but it doesn’t seem as long since we last saw Anvil.
Still, the challenge of dealing with Max’s reflectivity may be enough to explain that.
That’s her in 6th panel. As per Dave, “BTW don’t concern yourself that in the first panel you can’t see the back of Hiro, Anvil, Dabbler and Math’s heads.”
Although I would suggest they are too far down the rows to see the back of their heads especially since Math’s head/hair sometimes does (5th panel) and sometimes doesn’t (6th and 7th panel) appear over the entirely visible partition.
Sorry. Failure on my part to coherently communicate. Here’s what I meant to say:
Hey! There’s Anvil! Wasn’t she about to run off to a photo shoot not too long ago? I wonder if the fact that she’s sitting there means she’s finished it already or if she just hasn’t gone yet.
. . . he’s gotten his schnoz shifted.
I’m loving that turn of phrase. I always thought that schnoz had two z’s at the end, but apparently I was wrong.
Both seem to be correct, although the “one ‘z'” spelling seems to be more common.
“Where’s Math”
*points to a shadowy office*
“He hasn’t left in several hours. I think the light is retreating from him”
better than internet boobs, why don’t you lend him to dabbler for a week or two until he’s afraid of anything that look like a woman…
I don’t think afraid is what Dabbler meant when she said ‘Otherwise he’d be forever ruined for human woman’ (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1694)
HAH! Totally called Math saying “Worth it!” xD
Is it just me or does Dabbler looks oddly huggable in that sweater…
Dabbler’s always huggable.
Except when she’s absolutely terrifying… And even then she’s alluring…
I’d still hug her.
I was thinking she looked darn cute with that hairdo and turtleneck sweater.
Is….is that actually gonna work on him!?
No, but that wasn’t the purpose: keeping him out of combat is!
Or keeping him away from the superhuman females inside the building for awhile.
https://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2010-02-25
I lack this “immunity” you speak of.
Well you could try ogling tits on the internet until you develop an immunity to them. Report back when you’ve succeeded. Better write something in your will and instruct the executor to make a post here if you would die of old age before you were able to develop this immunity.
If you do try this I’ll check back every decade to see if you’ve made any progress.
I don’t see Math learning any lessons anytime soon. Nobody was seriously hurt except Heatwave, and Math specifically joined Arc because he wanted to fight stronger opponents. Until someone gets really, really hurt, I don’t see Math correcting his behavior.
And… that is what the assignment is really about
It’s about time we had an After Action Report session. Seriously. :-)
I wonder how this particular chain of command might respond to constructive criticism. Max just commended Halo for her level-headedness. We as readers saw that Max made a mistake or two during the fight – and that’s usually when Halo stepped in to suggest an alternative.
Where’s the General? He of all people should be there.
The general will likely debrief Maxima privately, rather than in front of an audience.
Bad bad person! Stop thinking those thoughts. Oh you have such a smutty mind!
I wonder if he has green lighting in his office? After all, Dabbler did pick up he liked green skinned women and Max would reflect in nearly the color of the light source…
The General is probably married. After all it was indicated that he has grandkids.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/468
I’m pretty sure the general already met with the department heads before this. Max is doing a troop briefing for her section only.
You know, I’ve never gotten guys’ obsession with boobs. I mean, natural ones are just semi-squishy things that get in the way of crossing your arms and make cute clothes hang better, and fake ones are plastic globes glued to someone’s rib cage. There are far more interesting parts of people’s bodies — both male and female — to look at, and what aesthetic value breasts have is usually mostly due to the clothing that wraps and enhances and/or constrains them and the effect produced thereby.
Plus, in this case I would also like to point out that Max did NOT tell Math to look at breasts he finds attractive. Or women’s breasts, for that matter. *feels Math is likely in for eight hours straight of moobs, cancer diagrams, and mammogram videos*
My idea is that the obsession starts in our infancy. You see, when you’re a baby, a lot of the time, that’s where the food comes from, so naturally we’re going to become very focused on them. This probably explains why so many men like great big ones inasmuch as pretty much everything is oversized when you are relatively tiny. Most women and some men are just better able to grow out of it than the rest of us are.
In case anybody doesn’t get it, this is not a serious opinion – I am just being a little silly.
Evolution mostly. They’re there to get the man’s attention and sad as it is to say, since those other parts are not as pronounced, even in clothes, those boobs are why mankind is still around. Advertising!
For men, visually sexy information is like a sugarcube. Just nice every time. And breasts are usually in the right spot when you interact with women. Evolution needed an additional sexy thing for standing humans.
Those other far more interesting body parts, aside from the face, are probably too far away from the face to be noticable during a usual conversation.
So yay, boobs. I like them. They combine sexiness and aesthetics perfectly, imho.
Also, nipples are fun. Female nipples, mind.
Now if only someone could convince Hollywood, the ratings board, and the FCC of that!
I mean, it’s ridiculous how prudish we Americans are when it comes to the female nipple. Two examples come to mind:
In the 2013 movie of Romeo and Juliet, the actress Hailee Steinfeld (who was only 17 at the time) was not allowed to attend the premiere opening of the movie, because of a topless scene. Apparently someone thought she was too young to be allowed to see her own nipples.
And another example occurred on one of those daytime talk shows, featuring a M-to-F transsexual. “Before” picture: Male chest, both nipples visible. “After” picture: Female chest, nipples blurred out (despite the fact that they’re the same two nipples we saw in the “before” picture, except that now they’re attached to boobs.)
I like boobs.
Breasts represent fertility.
Man are geneticly programmed to apriciate signs of fertility (evolution dictates that a man wants to spread his genetic information as much as possible)
They also indicate youth and health, to an extent, in size and perkiness. An attractive mate is generally fertile, healthy, and young. (Last within the confines of the first – meaning fully mature – of course. But breasts indicate that as well.)
“*feels Math is likely in for eight hours straight of moobs, cancer diagrams, and mammogram videos*”
Then I suppose we should keep this link (https://heavy.com/comedy/2011/11/the-sexiest-x-ray-photos/) away from Math, huh?
;)
Boobs and butts show cleavage. It’s the cleavage, but I can’t explain why…
Whose hand is that in the second-last panel?
Mr. Amorphous, the super stretchy guy, I believe. The two men were having kind of a long-distance high-five.
The last few pages have felt choppy, like you’re missing some sort of flow between them, so that if read in sequential order closely, if feels like you’re missing a page or something. :/
Just a thought.
Certainly, DaveB did skip over the part where Max chased Sydney off the stage and put an end to the betting. It looks like the grid she drew is still there, though.
Yeah, part of the trick to making each page its own self contained story is I often have to cut some of the transitional stuff between pages. I think it works in webcomic format but in a single read through like and archive dive or in book form I think that transitional stuff is definitely missed.
You don’t need to make each page self-contained, though. That’s more an issue for comics in periodicals like newspapers, where you’re not always going to have easy access to the prior pages. In a webcomic, you have the archive to use if you’ve forgotten your place.
Eh if you do a book, just go through and put “5 min later” or “after much snark” between each one. It could be a reoccurring joke.
Just like you don’t need to show a character going to bed every day, or eating every meal, or going to the toilet every time they need to, you can skip alot of the boring obvious stuf
I read a few of the early James Bond novels and I found that Fleming had an almost obsessive need to describe the details of every meal that Bond ate during the adventure. One source states the Fleming fully described the contents of no fewer than 70 meals in the book series.
P.S. Another researcher counted the number of times Bond was described as smoking in various books. He would have to smoke an average of 50 to 60 cigarettes a day to match the plot.
Maxima, that ‘getting bored theory of yours’, I hate to point this out to you but it will not happen. You were talking to a guy.
And, yup, pretty sure I will not be alone in expressing that. But it is a meeting discussing tactics and time-saving techniques that order does fall short on improving either. Great for morale mind. :-D
she could just spar with him. enough iterations of “flash and thrash” should break his habit of dropping his guard when he see’s boobs. she would just need to make sure that she varies the types of attacks he receives so he does’t just continually block for a single attack(which could make the problem worse).
She’s strong and fast enough that he can’t possibly block though (if she really wanted to)
I somehow doubt an ardent feminist like Maxima will ‘flash’ Mathias in order to win.
1) She does not see herself as a sex object.
2) She can beat Mathias without flashing him.
I agree with the sentiments. But you must factor in that Maxima is a military officer. If all lesser means of solving his problem fail (which is unlikely, but not inconceivable), that is actually a viable treatment for Math’s problem. Given that Maxima’s options would be to order someone else to do it (unless she finds an eager volunteer) or do it herself, her very morals might dictate the latter to be the viable choice.
The alternatives being to either risk Math dying, or to dismiss him from service, if the risk is deemed to be too high. Given that the battle was televised, and villains now know his weakness, this is a real possibility that cannot be lightly dismissed.
This will help Maxima establish the clinical detachment necessary to do the training. Just like a professional model can treat nude photography as a job, rather than a sexual act.
Isn’t it interesting how Sydney can fly out in front of that crowd without any kind of problem and launch into her betting pool silliness without batting an eye. A little praise from her friend and boss in front of that exact same group though and in panel two we see a bit of a blush appear.
That girl can be so adorable sometimes.
Someone should try to bottle that adorkability…
On the other hand, no the world isn’t ready for that. It will never be ready for that…
Why does it have to always boil down to maths. :P
Jiggawatt’s hair color has changed from white to blond. Maybe she likes to dye her hair?
DaveB mentioned this a while back. He did it to further disassociate her from Storm :D
The invisible people are in panel 5, not panel 1. Sydney and Xochitl are not in their seats.
Panel 1 has other problems (the viewpoint appears to be from the row behind Sydney, looking down and in toward Maxima): Jiggawatt is one seat to far left in that panel only, and the rows of seats are drawn as if ascending instead of descending. Compare it to panel 2 and the last panel in #360; you’ll see what I mean…
I can’t see invisible people.
But you can always judge their motivation…It’s easy to see right through them.
I’ll tell you right now that it won’t work, it fact it will make the problem worse.
On the ‘invisible people’ front- this is the beauty of computer-based drawing.
At least, I’m assuming you’re doing computer-based drawing, or otherwise using the computer to its fullest by working in layers and compositing them digitally.
In which case, you could draw a set of ‘frontal seated’ and ‘rear seated’ characters that you could use for these sorts of scenes, which I’m going to assume will probably happen decently often. Then just slot them in, instead of having to re-draw them every time.
i have to say i love the idea of superhero’s actually doing a good AAR. i have never see this in other superhero oriented comics even when the hero’s in question are supposed to be a team that communicate with one another. the only thing i could think of is having Maxima get some input from everyone else.
also why can i never get corrective training like Math?
Side question: What are Maxima and Peggy’s military ranks?
Maxima is a Lt. Colonel, Peggy is a First Lieutenant
Yup. And ignore anything to the contrary, early in the comic or on the cast list. They are obsolete and will be redacted… eventually.
For instance:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/370
Those eagles Max was pointing at should actually be silver oak leaves.
Actually they could be anything they wanted to be….
Different branches of the military use different symbols of Rank, as Archon is not part of any of the traditional parts of the military(I dont think they are even military…. ) so they could use their own Rank insignia…
Yes, Archon is military. It’s a new Department directly under the DoD. That was specified during the press conference just yesterday (in comic-time).
True. But, in addition to history, we need to consider contemporary politics. Looking at history first, each service was formed to operate in it’s own medium. Land, sea and air respectively. So as each operates independently of each other (albeit supporting each other where appropriate), it made sense for them to have their own character.
But, where further divisions get made, which have a relationship and overlapping role to an existing organisation, it made sense to mimic their structure. With some degree of distinctiveness, to establish the separation, but keeping the core elements similar to ease inter-service co-operation.
For instance marine unit insignia followed those of the army, rather than the navy, despite their shipborne role. Because it was more critical to ensure that there was no hesitation in identifying the senior individual (when interacting with units of other services) whilst in their primary combat role, which is on land.
The contemporary politics aspect is the modern desire for standardisation. In particular all NATO units have standardised ranks. So unnecessary divergence would be frowned upon.
Whilst supers can operate in any existing combat terrain, plus others (such as space), their primary role is going to remain where the key resources and populations are. Namely on land. So keeping to army ranks is actually the most sensible option for them.
Likewise if contemplating whether it is better to use police ranks or military ones. In a time of crisis, martial law may be imposed. At which time the military take higher precedence over the police, when compared to their normal peace-time roles and responsibilities. Further establishing seniority in a war-time situation is easier between armed forces (due to the standardisation of ranks) than if a non-military unit is involved.
Whilst military services did historically choose uniform and insignia distinctiveness to show their unique identity, Archon have chosen to introduce the chokers and torques to do that.
Another aspect of the Marines that a lot of people aren’t aware of; as you mentioned (Marine insignia matches the Army even though Marines are under the Navy), the Navy can (& does!) “detach & reassign” Marine units across Branch divisions…Marine units can be assigned to Army or Air Force (at least on a temporary basis) at need.
Marines are something of a “floating subdivision” even though they are officially commissioned under the Navy. Marine units also train specifically (ie: infantry, airborne, etc.) for such “temp reassignment” across Branches, specifically for that purpose. In short, Marines are intended to be that versatile.
Apparently, the new Branch, Archon, has been designed as its own Branch for specific reasons, primarily to make use of “exceptionally elite” units for extraordinary situations. As such, I’d expect most of Archon’s functions to have the full range of training & accepting assignments that would seem to “cross over” with all of the other Branches.
Yeah there was a Marine who was in my training barracks because he was going to enter Airborne “Jump-Training”
Another thing most people aren’t aware of is that, when I was in the Navy (this would be about 25 years ago), there was the first Marine ever to qualify & join the Blue Angels flight team. I don’t know exactly which year he officially joined the team for performing in their air shows, but I saw such a show where I was stationed at the time.
;)