Grrl Power #390 – Project overkill
Kivuli is Swahili for ghost or shadow. In case you have cause to casually slip that in to a conversation.
Deus may have been slightly overprepared for this meeting. But hey, if you’ve got the resources, why not bring a half dozen super powered guns to a knife fight? Sure some people might call you a dirty cheater. If they survive to tell the tale that is. You know, history, winners, etc.
I like how they’re all wearing reasonably effective looking tactical armor, but Vale is still rocking the V to the navel evil henchwoman look.
Our chatty Geatish friend is actually a cameo character from Grrl Power super pal Patreon Sean Mnoholitny. Don’t worry about him too much yet, he’ll be more of a slow burn reveal.
Lots of good comments about the good and evil and ethics on the last page. Some people pointed out that Deus might be calling out Indinge as a real piece of crap in order to justify his actions, actions which he might have taken regardless. Or maybe he did what he did only because of Indinge’s character. There seemed to be general agreement in the comments that motivation plays a factor in determining the ethics of actions, and at this point only Deus knows what his real reasons are.
I thought it was interesting that no one I saw (apologies if I missed it) brought up the fact that we consider Maxima a good guy, even though during the press conference she admitted to killing an indeterminate number of supers. Yes, she was a soldier under orders, which definitely speaks to motivation. Some people accept that as justification for killing, some people don’t. A sterile discussion about ethics may still suggest a life lost is a life lost, but can be myopic to global and long term concerns. Again, I think it comes down to the most good done via the least harm.
Some of the supers Maxima killed were definitely protecting an evil regime ruled by an evil man, some might have been forced to fight by the regime, and some may have had nothing do to with the army, but were just defending their country against an invading force. For the (classified) record, Maxima didn’t commit wholesale slaughter. She killed the ones that absolutely were there to kill her or other American soldiers, and whenever possible she tried the shock and awe approach, that is, she whooped their asses hard and publicly so word got around that fighting her was hopeless. I.E. quickly demoralize into surrender to minimize the total harm done. That’s not to say she didn’t enjoy cutting lose a little, but she wasn’t flying around snapping necks and incinerating infantry either.
I updated the vote incentive. I mean, it’s just the inks but it’s progress. The good news is I’m pretty sure I’ll have a piece for the Valentines Day Sex Drive thing I do each year, since it’s the only chance I have lately to flex my perv muscle. Not like that you pervs!
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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SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Regarding the Voting Incentive: Let the Protocol Droid Win.
The only Protocol droid that can blow your arm off, as Vehemence learned.
is that guy in the white mask using a Chiapca Rhino 40DS?
Yes, mostly cause he think it looks cool.
only reason I know that gun is because I want one too.
A chiapca what?
I’d never heard of it, but they’re right. It does look cool.
Yeah, it has a bottle opener on the underside of the barrel.
It IS a cool concept in revolvers, and flat sexy to look at.
The Chiappa Rhino is a really cool .357 revolver that actually has its barrel placed in front of the bottom chamber of the cylinder instead of the top, significantly reducing felt recoil while still allowing the use of the full, wonderful power of the .357 magnum round.
You want to know another way to reduce the felt recoil of a .357 round? Use an automatic, not a pistol.
I’ve fired both, and .357 pistols have much more kick, both due to lower mass (and the Rhino only comes in a 6″ barrel tops, and seems to favor the 4″ barrel. And has a 2″ barrel, try to hit something with that…), and because an automatic uses some of the gasses to work the action.
I’d like to fire the 6″ barrel Rhino, just because, but I would not expect that it is markedly different than the other .357 revolvers I’ve fired.
I’ve fired a load of automatics, but the time I shot a Ruger 686 i had a load of fun with it. it may have had a bit more muzzle climb, but with most of the mass being behind the barrel I was able to get back on target quite quickly
The Mateba Model 6 Unica (Autorevolver) is even better. Same concept, plus a semi-auto mechanism, so all shots after the first are single-action.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateba_Autorevolver
OTHER GUN NOISES
I love it
I’m a fan the ka-safety off myself
Friday, January 22, 2016 —> Wilbur Scoville’s 151st birthday.
Let us all eat a hot pepper in memory…
Dang. Kol Drake beat me to it.
Happy birthday Wilber!
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiYq_2ki73KAhXEnYMKHRsNAdsQqQIIHjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ftechnology%2Fgoogle%2Fgoogle-doodle%2F12113018%2FWho-was-Wilbur-Scoville-The-science-behind-what-makes-chillies-so-hot.html&usg=AFQjCNHTh0sgELiK1BAiT3-b-EYDWAPrxQ&sig2=1xPiCoVO1iuKpXNHL-cX0A
Actually, fairly sure someone mentioned on the second page :P
Didn’t make the connection til now..so Sydney is a descent of Wilbur Scoville [fictionally speaking, of course]? That makes sense.
Actually Dave says he didn’t know about Mr. Scoville when he came up with Sydney’s name
Did he know about the scale just not that it was named for a real person, or was it a complete coincidence?
Alton Brown likes to say, “Food + Heat = Cooking”. Thanks to capsaicin, some foods are always cooking! Happy Birthday, Wilbur Scoville! May there always be good science in your food!
Okay, is the only reason why people (won’t go quite as far as calling them ‘idiots’… yet) are calling Chummy ‘Periwinkle Buttsniffer’ (or was that Sydney’s nickname for Kevin? o_O) because Vektor is there? o_O
Some have hypothesized that Chummy was For Whom the Death Tolls.
Yes, wasn’t that Sydney’s name for him?
Just trying to figure out why, and if the only reason is because Vektor is there
Meant “Periwinkle Buttsniffer”
Pretty much, yeah
Just as well as it is ten plus years ago, or they would be suspecting Harem of being there somewhere o_O
You know, I may just bookmark Perriwinkle Butt Sniffer getting a better name than “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, it seems to keep coming in handy… :P
As for why everyone thinks Masked-Sword-&-Gun-Guy is Butt Sniffer, I’ve heard he’s in a rather vulnerable position (he’s close enough for a competent guard to counter-attack with no reaction time) but if it is Butt Sniffer, his power should counter any attack. He also appears to have Butt Sniffer’s flare for being dramatic, wearing a mask & the fancy line. He will have another 10 years to work on his act, so if this is him, he’s still got time to refine his act…
Except, Peri doesn’t need weapons, and this guy has both a sword and a snazzy-looking pistol
s it me, or does Deus have his hands on Vales backside?
I tried, but I just can’t get close enough to the screen to peer over the bottom edge of the bottom panel border…there’s not enough of a 3D effect to get a good angle to look.
I know, I spent hours trying to check Vale, ……… Just to check Deus’s hands, no other reason…. And no, could not see her backside….. :(
Naaa, looks to me like he’s just holding his own wrist. I’ve seen Daniel the Human do it plenty of times. Plus it looks like his hands are roughly around the part of her back just above the butt. so if he wants a free feel, he’s gotta lower his hands a little more, then either take a slight step back or have her do it instead…
Well, Deus did just 2 pages ago mention that he has a “private security force.” Don’t tell me that no one saw this coming…
O.o
Does everyone in that little country speak english then? Everyone from the Warlord King and his son down to the guards? It’s taken me this long to notice that all of this is set in a small African country and everybody is able to communicate fluently. I assume DaveB would have made it clear that he was translating this conversation from some other language if he was doing so.
So far, the only English spoken by the Guards have been ‘Sire’ and ‘No’
Maybe, but they also clearly understand what’s being said. We could dismiss the “Keep your head or lose it” threat as they might be standing still just because guns are being aimed at them, but Indinge did try to order them – in english, evidently – to kill Deus.
You don’t have to be able to speak a language to understand it, and Indignant may have said it in English so Deus could understand
Some of this could be translated for our sake, I think – have we seen how Dave represents other languages?
I’m wondering if this part of Africa used to be a British colony or was a base for American slavers or something. That would probably explain why everyone seems to understand the language.
Off hand, I don’t recall any examples, but isn’t the comic book tradition to put the dialogue inside brackets and then place a box somewhere that says that it’s being translated from some other language?
I think you’ll have to admit that it’s actually kind of hard to translate what’s being said in a foreign language if you don’t actually speak it. You’ll be prone to making plenty of mistakes! Mistakes are not something you want to have when you want to give orders to men with guns.
Given the stated location of “formerly part of Zaire”, the lingua franca should logically be French. However, given the politics of central Africa, it could be any number of things.
Han was able to understand Chewie (and vice versa) with neither being able to actually speak the others’ language
No, I’d not admit that. When in Italy I can understand much of what is being said to me in Italian. The difficult part is that I don’t speak it, so it’s a one way conversation.
In a church a priest asked my wife if she would like to go to confession. In Italian. She knew she was being asked a question and said ‘si.’ I then said to her “The good padre has asked if you would like to go to confession,” and she then turned to him and said ‘no.*’ Later while laughing about the incident she said she would probably have answered ‘si’ if he had asked if she’d like to go to the execution chamber… :)
In another case I was in line for the single bathroom at a restaurant. A young girl of about 13-15 cut in line in front of me. I didn’t care because I only wanted to wash my hands after eating, so my need was not urgent. After a minute she seemed to realize that I might also have been in line and was clearly a bit flustered at having cut in front of me. She asked me, in Italian, if I was in line for the bathroom, and I said yes. But then the best I could do to let her know that it was ok was to hold up my hands and say “Lave. Manos.” Which isn’t even good Spanish but got the message across. Smiling helps.
A reasonable familiarity with Latin helps a huge amount.
* She is a Catholic, but for reasons of her own chooses not to participate in the sacrament of confession. I was aware of that of course, which is why I provided the ‘translation.’
I concede that point. Thanks to Caesar and the Legions, a familiarity with Latin would give you a good headstart in more than one of the European languages. For someone like me though who only speaks english and gibberish, I believe my point stands. :)
Speaking of Caesar . . .
Fun Fact! Why was the monarch of Germany once called the Kaiser, and why was the monarch of Russia once called the Tsar or Czar? Because both were corruptions of the word Caesar!
Now you know! And knowing is half the battle! :D
The only time I can recall here is when Dabbler said “<Rude>” during the Steakhouse Fight, so in her own lingo, thus chevrons would be used if its a foreign language.
Mistakes are not something you want to have when you want to give orders to men with guns.
Aww, but it can lead to so much fun… :P
…Alright, it might be more fun if you’re in bullet-proof (resistant?) armour & can’t be hurt by said guns… :P
Whoops, forgot to add a different address for the link. My bad… :P
This is a rather interesting concept for a villain. Deus is one of those “ends justify the means” sort of guys but he may end up using that as an excuse for too much and cross a line he should never cross.
Holy crap Vekter is one of that guy’s own henchmen, also heh that guy up top created the illusion they were not there. Very clever to have a squad in there without them being seen.
I guess Sydney was correct – you should always expect ninjas.
Very true.
“The closest thing to [Dark Lords] in the Muggle world was hedge-fund managers, and none of them had tried to take over so much as a third-world country, a point which put upper bounds on both their possible evil and possible goodness.”
Lots of lights, sparkly and visually appealing effects.
Dues is part magpie?
so, considering what we know of this african dictator, if he was killed by seal team six for diamond rights, no-one would care, but because he’s being killed by a private businessman who seeks to develop the region and improve the lives of the citizenry, even if his main objective is profit, he is evil.
and yes, i know i’m oversimplifying the issue, but as i currently understand the situation, a shady individual is killing an objectively harmful one to bring about a positive change in the lives of many people. among other thing we will no-doubt learn about later.
A shady individual is killing an objectively harmful individual for personal benefit. The fact that other people may benefit if he does so is pure happenstance, and is not part of his intentions, so it doesn’t give him any moral high ground.
Don’t think anyone is arguing he’s being a hero in this instance- just that the situation is very morally ambiguous. Which it is.
Doing good for the wrong reasons puts him in antihero territory. Being evil doesn’t stop that.
Actually, other people benefitting is a direct benefit of his actions, as his investment hinges directly on the wellbeing of the people of that new nation, removing Senior is simply a means to ensure that that will happen
BINGO! JACKPOT!! YAHTZEE!!! We have a winner!!!!
technically, Seal team 6 doing i8t doesn’t give them any moral high ground either, since said diamond rights are going to the states. it’s the entire reason Saddam Hussein couldn’t be assassinated by a covert team. doing so would have made him a martyr and probably would have made things even worse than they currently are.
but that’s besides the point. yay update :D
As we have no clue what he is really working towards.
To classify Deus as good or evil at this time is foolish.
Not this again… How many times does Deus need to state exactly what his goals are before people start taking him at his word? “A few billion in, dozens of billions out in the long term.”
Aren’t dozens of billions a believable motivation? What else can he possibly say to to dispel tin-foil hat conspiracy theories which are so far fetched as to ignore simple greed and profit as a motivation?
Actually, Doc came across as one who also is tired of the labels and that we should wait and see
I agree with his second sentence. It is indeed foolish to judge Deus as being either good or evil until we see how the rest of this scene plays out. Indigo-girl isn’t dead, yet, after all.
It’s the first sentence I take exception to. We do have a “clue”, and it doesn’t take a masterful detective to find that clue, either. All it takes is listening to the man speaking and understanding his words. Billions of dollars, how can that be so universally overlooked as being a legitimate motivation?
But Obi what is he going to do with the money?
Scrooge Mcduck it?
Own the world?
End world hunger?
Finance true space exploration?
Until it is revealed our labeling him as good or evil is irrelevant.
Rich people things. What ever those might be.
No. This way lies madness. You cannot claim that a person’s eventual use for his wealth, and your judgement of that use as being either good or evil, is tied in with the accumulation of same.
A person can accumulate wealth in a completely benevolent fashion, such as bringing up the standard of living for a few million people in a war torn nation by providing roads, schools, and hospitals. And then use that money to buy a world ending bomb. The accumulation of wealth did not suddenly become evil because of the use with which it was put, did it?
Just as a person who is a corporate assassin, buys and sells companies to generate wealth and in the process puts millions of people out of work and destroys economies. And then sets up a charitable trust to assist poor people. The accumulation of wealth did not suddenly become good because of the use with which it was put, did it?
Do you see how that works?
If Deus did indeed raise the standard of living for the citizens of that African nation, did indeed build roads, schools, hospitals, all the while making a few billion dollars, then that cannot be called an evil act, no matter what he does with that money in the future.
The thing is, since what he’s doing (overthrowing a corrupt dictator, with the immediate goal of improving the economy of the country, which will have a measurable positive effect on the lives of its common people) is not itself evil, evil goals are all that’s left to paint him as an unambiguous villain. And without the eventual use of his wealth being something unambiguously evil, that means you have to fall back on “greed is always bad”.
All his critics can say at this point is that he’s doing good things for a not-good-enough reason, which is an even weaker claim than “right things for wrong reason”.
Scrooge McDuck it. Definately. At least once.
Forgot 1.
Build the SUPER MEGA COLLASOL asteroid of doom blower upper.
The chief component required to make it work being the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. That’s what puts the Earth-shattering Kaboom into it.
…So has anyone else noticed that Deus is using a trinity knot for the tie? A complex knot for a complex man. I like it.
I’m surprised that you don’t have something special for Wilbur Scoville’s 151 birthday.
I wonder if Deus has a shapeshifter on his payroll. It seems like someone like that would be helpful for the next step of this hostile takeover. Have him turn into Indinge and slowly hand power over to Deus. That would be useful for dealing with his loyal men and his officers they can’t “push out” right away.
Why? When he has Indignant Junior as the next leader
True, but given that the man just had his father killed he might just try to stab him in the back the first chance he gets. Even if he is smart enough not to attack him now it seems like handing over power in a way that doesn’t look to the outside world as conquering would take some time.
I like the fact that you had the bullet from one of the guns coune off of Vincent’s head as he realoaded them, nice touch
Happy birthday to Wilbur Lincoln Scoville – born January 22, 1865.
I wonder how our Sydney plans to mark the occasion?
Eating her way through the entire scale? Inviting her new team-mates to see how far they can go (specially Les) :D
“Wood paneling on a gun?”
Apparently the Geatish Ninja has not handled a rifle in extreme cold weather. Metal is heat conductor while wood is insulator. In extreme cold human skin can flash-freeze on metal, and it can be very difficult to get off without tearing skin, and often leaves permanent scarring.
This is the reason why we preferred wooden or plastic-coated rifle stocks, and wrapped all exposed metal parts with white cloth tape. Even small things like metal buckles or D-rings on load-bearing harness could become dangerous when temperature was around -40C/-40F.
In arctic warfare, having too hot weapon is a rare issue, but having a weapon with too cold metal parts is everyday issue.
this is actually something i’d never thought about! and it is a russian design originally, so cold weather suitabillity is logical. nice one.
As convenient as such labels are, I think part of the point is that you cannot simply label a person as good or evil and be done with it.
Individual acts can be labelled as good or evil based on motivation, effect, and many other factors. But almost any person, at least almost any human, can perform both types of acts repeatedly with various motivations and in various situations.
I think it really boils down to “does this person need to be separated from society for the good of society”. For my money, the jury is out on Deus.
On the other hand, I think this is pretty much unethical business practice and a violation of international laws. So there’s that. The UN or the US Treasury Department or someone would be totally justified in trying and jailing him and his cronies.
I like this guy. He knows how to handle despots.
Did you deliberately reference an obscure cult Playstation game with this comic’s title, or is it some sort of weird coincidence?
reminds me of a song oddly enough, den den den, and another one bites the dust…..
Oh! Let’s go!
Steve walks warily down the street
With the brim pulled way down low.
Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet,
Machine guns ready to go…
I am not a comment section regular here, but I might become one, but my mostly neutral standpoint on *everything* makes people think I talk like I am on a high horse supposedly according to one random Internet person that was quickly told he was just being a jerk by others because of his response to a truthful statement made by me about how to really go about viewing events.
So with that clumsy introduction out of the way…
From the start I loved the comic and stopped reading it for quite a while to let it build up a nice stock of panels to read. Only animated sci-fi shows get me coming back week after week usually to watch because I love discussing them with other fans.
That being said I caught up last year and kept pace with the comic and noticed a few things immediately as I was reading. Well, noticed them earlier than then but let me continue explaining.
The only real explanation I will offer as far as my motivations for replying is that I consider that no one in the comic is a “hero” and this is based on whom they work for and what their personal motivations are and what I know about how the world works.
The comic seems based on our world only with super powered individuals based on years of the writer/artist’s own experiences playing around in the genre in some form or another.
I am going to be vague from hereon because of what I suspect is the overarching plan of the artist and writer of the comic as far as how he wants to do the story.
I have always had a *gift* to pick out future plot points in stories without really trying if I *really* get into something. It is my talent, seeing the bigger picture and analyzing the hell out of it to find fault in it and how to make it better.
It is always on, and always keeps me entertained no matter what I do which is why I love my day job, it gives me plenty of time to just *think*.
So when a comic’s plot has me thinking about it constantly on some level to the point that I have been inspired creatively based on themes found in it, that I knew about from other media; I have a bunch of ideas about where things can go, and from what has been shown some solid ideas about what will happen thanks to having a nice large collection of ideas within my head.
Narrowed down the possibilities of where the story can go to put it simply.
I am not going into detail due to not wanting to possibly spoil the comic for other readers based on my theories and observations. But, I think Dave will ultimately play it safe due to wanting to keep the happy masses satisfied with his work (and food on his table, revolting fans do not feed an author anything but hate)
You cannot get controversial with something unless you are willing to pay the price for that; and not many go the route of Mark Millar or Frank Miller without serious talent.
Which I believe Dave has from what I have seen and from what my talent and gut tells me. So this is going to be a hell of a ride if he can see it through till the end.
“Kivuli is Swahili for ghost or shadow. In case you have cause to casually slip that in to a conversation.”
That is also what we whites are called “ghosts” because of our unusual paleness.
The AK in its various forms and incarnations is rugged and reliable. Tough and indelicate. Unlike say the US M-16.
Despots, so many came out of the British, Belgium, French and British colonies in Africa. It was unfortunately natural but not inevitable as they have tried in various ways.
Never underestimate your enemy and get your enemy to do your work for you. Use their greed against them and understand you enemy better than they know themselves.
Compared to the original M-16, maybe. Not the updated M16A1.
As I stated (on page 2 of the comments), the original M16 had a LOT of flaws. No forward assist, the barrel and chamber weren’t chrome-plated, the powder they used was inferior because DuPont wasn’t able to provide enough of the better product, and not nearly enough cleaning kits (with no instructions because Colt claimed the guns were “self-cleaning”).
Within 2 years, the XM16E1 was released as the M16A1. The barrel and chamber were plated, a forward assist was added, and a massive number of cleaning kits were shipped with instructions. Two years after that, they were able to replace the powder with a cleaner-burning formulation to reduce fouling (still not the original DuPont product, but better than what they had been using). All these changes caused the failure rate to drop by a factor of ten.
Having said that, the AK-47 is allegedly still more reliable, but anyone that says they never jam is lying. There are plenty of videos on Youtube showing an AK-47 jamming, either due to old bullets, poor maintenance, or (when firing on full automatic) a stovepipe jam.
no, the M16A1 is still crap. the C8, however, is actually semi-decent.
prob with the M-16 in all its forms is it gets tiny amount of muck on it and it can’t fire. you can douse an AK in mud and it’ll still reliably fire. Combat is never going to stay clean. you want a rifle you can depend on, which is also why the AK is so common. hell, US soldiers in Vietnam were tossing M16 into rivers and such after they got their hands on AKs.
the utility of a firearm is much more than just how many bullets it can shoot or how advanced it is. hell, a Musket ball’ll kill you just as dead as some highly advanced armor-piercing depleted uranium sabot round :P The US seems to have this fetish that highly advanced tech makes up for the fact they don’t train the vast majority of their troops worth a damn. your average US Fighter pilot doesn’t even know how to load ammunition into his own aircraft. Canadian CF-18 pilots could build a CF-18 from scratch given the right tools and parts. biiiig difference in training.
Really? Then explain the video where they dipped an AK-47 in mud… and it jammed. They dipped an M16 in the same mud (with the bolt open to make sure the chamber was nice and dirty)… and it fired. As I said, the AK-47 is still more reliable, but even it will jam if proper maintenance is not performed. And its accuracy is noticeably inferior to the M16A3.
As for the C8… The C8 is a variant of the AR-15, with similar design and function to the M16A3. That’s right, your “semi-decent” C8 rifle is built by the Canadian branch of an American company, based on a “crap” rifle.
The CF-18 is (or was… the last one was purchased in 1988) built in America. The only noticeable difference is the 0.6 Mcd night identification light. Even with the Incremental Modernization Program, it’s expected to be removed from service within the next four years. The replacement will likely be the F-35 Lightning II. (Yes, it is true that in December 2012 it was announced that the Canadian government had abandoned the F-35 deal due to escalating cost and was beginning a new procurement process. However, the F-35 is still being considered in the new procurement competition.)
Also, I seriously doubt a Canadian pilot could “build a CF-18 from scratch given the right tools and parts”. Proof, or it didn’t happen. Now, being able to repair some of the components of the CF-18, only needing specialist mechanics for the most difficult repairs, that I can believe.
Really? Could’ve fooled me… because I was an “average US Fighter pilot”, and I did know how to load ammunition into my own aircraft.
I will admit that I was the exception, not the rule. I made it a point to learn as much as possible about the jet I was flying, from the people who worked on it. Not every pilot does that.
I don’t think it’s a case of “the U.S. doesn’t train the majority of its troops worth a damn” so much as it is that Canada has a smaller military, so it is practical (and prudent) for them to cross-train their soldiers in more than one field. For example, a Canadian fighter pilot is also trained to do at least basic repairs to his aircraft, as well as munitions loading, because specialist personnel may not always be available. (Case in point: Canada’s air force has only 17,100 personnel, counting reserves, supported by 2,500 civilians. The USAF has 307,000 personnel, NOT counting reserves, and around 140,000 civilians.)
I do wish that the U.S. would do more cross-training… it isn’t the soldier’s fault that they’re not cross-trained as well as I feel they should be. It’s the politicians who would rather spend money on the latest high-tech doohickey just to bring more jobs to their state. Some of them seem to think that it would be “too expensive” to cross-train all those personnel (as if spending billions on a new weapon that we have no desire or need for isn’t?)
In other words, the “U.S. high-tech fetish” is more of a political thing than a military one. I think if the soldiers had more of a say, we’d prefer better training over newfangled gizmos.
and most likely, about half the gizmos that are rarely used in the field swapped out for gear that would actually be USEFUL.
where the heck did they get all those 1911 pistols! Most third world countries use Russian block stuff Torkarevs, Markovs and the like, and the older stuff as well. also they tend to like revolvers, easier to service I guess. I guess I’m just a fire arm Nazi.
Tokarevs and Makarovs, you mean. I think it’s not so much about how easy they are to service, but about how many of them there are, and thus replacements and/or spare parts are easier to acquire. But the M1911 has been in production since… well, since 1911. There were more than 2.7 million of them made, and those are just the ones made by Colt. That’s not including all the knock-offs and clones produced by Norinco (China), Girsan (Turkey), IMBEL (Brazil), STAR (Spain), Astra (Spain), Llama (Spain), Armscor (Phillipines), Seraphim Armory (Canada), etc. And according to Wikipedia, a number of them are being used in Zimbabwe.
A little bit of speculation right here. Vale’s power is somehow able to stop bullets. this is based on her status as Deus’ PA/Bodyguard, and her position in the room during the reveal. she’s standing between him and the potential threats. i’m thinking some kind of Invulnerability, TK, Metalbending, something that would stop bullets from hitting Deus.
maybe even limited precog? to get him out of the way? that would be cool. imagine fighting someone well trained who can see 30 seconds into the future.
there’s a lot of variables that can occur in 30 seconds. Look at the Multi-diminsonal alien in MIB3 “if this is the reality where happens then But if it’s the reality where happens we’ll all die, BUT if this is the one where
you would have to be deadpool to beat that person, on principle
Late to the party (as per usual), but Dave’s comment on the strip and good/evil got me thinking of Vietnam. After a certain point, when the guys were drafted and waiting for a transfer to Nam, before they ever stepped foot in the war, college girls dressed in skimpy clothing used to go around the airport where they were waiting and walk up to them, calling them murderers and baby killers. As I’m sure you can imagine, it did so much for morale v.v
My dad had been to a few bases there where they sent women and children armed with grenades and semi-automatic weapons. It was a very, very real decision of risking every life on base, or taking out the one life to save them. It’s also a morality question that have stopped a few of my pacifist friends short. It’s easy to think you’ll never harm a soul no matter what, but when it’s not just your life on the line, when you actually have to choose between not taking one life and letting several others die, or taking one life to save several others, in a situation that has happened frequently in real life, it can get them to stop and think a bit. Especially since by doing nothing, by letting the people who count on you to die because you couldn’t bring yourself to take one life to save theirs, doesn’t that still make you a murderer, in a way?
Anyway, sorry for the rambles. Just another way to look at things.
Hang on, Vekter? As in, Villain who ‘organised’ the super brawl? Huh. Deus, why are you so morally ambiguous.
I get the sense that he’s just a decent guy with few personal scruples and a fondness for villainous grandstanding. He also seems to be heavily in the “enlightened self-interest” camp, considering that he has done very very well with what sound like overall beneficial work. We’ll have to wait and see. And find out what happened to his face.
Re-read here, which I do about every year now… Helps me put recent comics better into the overall story.
What I wanted to say is, your use of Patreon contributer’s OCs makes me really want to see one of my own in-panel. Partly because it would just be that cool, but also because I really like your style. ;)
The only problem is, he is also a military-affiliated Super (Airborne), whose name is also Halo. :D … A bit of a problem, sure, but it would also be interesting to see Sydney meet up with someone who also uses her name, just in a different branch of Service. In his case, it is his pilot’s callsign, not just his “Super” ID.
Hah, well they came up with her name kind of on the spot. The didn’t have a team of research lawyers look through cultural references and trademark filings before presenting her to the public under her super moniker which they really should have, but they had like a hour before the press conference.
This may sound counter to my last comments, but self-preservation is a biological imperative, and therefore supersedes ethics. This does not conclude whether it’s right or wrong, only that you can’t be judged for self-defense because of that imperative. Preservation of the lives of others, preservation of a society that many equivalate with their own self-preservation, I think these extend from that with diminishing margins.
Most other military or veterans will tell you (and assure themselves) that necessity makes it right. When you swear the oath and sign the contract to military service, you have to place trust in the chain of command that it has handed your orders down after consideration of all information required to make the most ethical and necessary decisions. Killing isn’t ever right, but it doesn’t follow that not killing is always right. Whether it was necessary is always an ethical dilemma, and the best you can do is follow your best judgement at that given time.
“Ruggedness”, Core? A merc should be more appreciative of the simple majesty that is the AK-47.
Ahem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUAcujyMrOo
“Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal, nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova, model of 1947, more commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It’s the world’s most popular assault rifle, a weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple 9 pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn’t break, jam, or overheat. It’ll shoot whether it’s covered in mud or filled with sand. It’s so easy, even a child can use it; and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin. Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people’s greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars.”
Being over prepared is just common sense, otherwise you be messing with a sucker when they turn out to be able to make head explode, game over. Seriously I’m super verse, any kind of verse with action heroes it is worth considering anyone you meet may be able to take on a army and thus prepare like Batman, heck even Batman was not prepared for bane. So be more prepared than Batman.