Grrl Power #400 – Holy blasphemy Batman!
Batman is a powerful motivator, but like any aphorism or drug, the subject will develop a tolerance for it. Without the extra motivation though, I’m not sure Sydney could actually climb that rope, even doing the foot thing. It’s hard to say as I’ve never been a skinny but unfit 22 year old nerd girl before.
Someone has plenty to talk about at Nerd Confession. Now say 20 Hail Wonder Womans and 10 Our All-Fathers. Or should that be 20 Hail Jordans. Cause… Green Lantern is Hal… Jordan? >cough<
Hmm. Nerd Confessions. I’ve never seen Battlestar Galactica. At least not the new series. I saw the old one when it was in syndication, so when I saw the pilot for the new series, I was put off by the infiltrator cylons. A sci-fi trope that I think is played out. I mean, I get it. Aliens (or cyborgs or whatever) that look human to infiltrate us is pretty easy on the effects budget. I’ve also only seen bits and pieces of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I’m familiar with most of the characters and I’ve seen a few episodes here and there, but I’ve never sat down and binged it. I’m probably short on a few critical novels as well, like… well, lots of them actually, but stuff like Hyperion by Dan Simmons and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson spring to mind.
What are the alarming gaps in your nerd vitae literacy? We’ve all got them. Stuff you know you should read/watch but have never gotten around to? Confess and be absolved! No self-flagellation necessary, unless you’re into that. I’m not here to judge.
Holy crap, I’ve drawn 400 of these things! Yes, I know it’s still day 3. I would promise the days will get shorter, page wise, as we get more of the early setup out of the way, but… clearly I’m a bad judge of these things. It’s my intent to eventually get to slightly more traditional story arcs where several days or even weeks can pass between them, but there’s still too much good stuff to mine from Sydney going through basic. I may decide to start saving some of that stuff up for flashbacks though. And before you point out that the whole comic is a flashback, I would suggest that maybe the first few pages were a flash-forward.
Patreon supporters can view this page at twice the size! ($1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :) I will post this page when I get up (then immediately go back to sleep.)
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
LOL. Good one, Dave. I did not see that coming.
I really hope that Peggy eases up some, running Sydney through the meat grinder like this on her first day of physical training is going to do more harm than good. She may have lost sight of the fact that since Sydney isn’t the average “super” she doesn’t have the same conditioning they seem to develop as soon as they manifest their powers. Even with a doc that’s got healing powers there’s a limit to what she can do, and it’s entirely possible that Sydney could end up really hurting herself going forward.
I mean, I was a butterball even after I slimmed down enough to join the Navy, and they didn’t throw us off the deep end like this the first day of Basic.
The point of the day 1 meat grinder isn’t exercise. It’s grinding the meat
Key word there being NAVY……
i figured she was rolling in a…. *whatever those initial assessment things are called*, into the workout to see what syds current limits where.
That is not only a fair assessment of what Peggy is doing, but she is also trying to break down Sydney’s limits. In the Army, they don’t just through you into the meat grinder, they do it multiple times. At the end of my first day I was so tired and sore that I could barely sleep.
Also, I don’t believe that Peggy is being to hard on Sydney because she isn’t like the other supers. You have to remember that this team has people like Gwen, Ariana’s assistant, whose name I forgot while writing this, Leon, Peggy herself, and a host of other non-supers that are all going through this together. I would enjoy having Dave, the great and merciful, show a strip where Sydney interacts with Leon who is having just as much trouble as she is.
Leon is Arc-LIGHT, specifically the intelligence acquisition and processing division, which has the same fitness standards as NSA subcontractors, which is to say none. There are Arc-LIGHT special agents, which are all the field agents. They’re part of the investigation division, and they have similar fitness standards to FBI field agents.
Anyone at Archon is welcome to use the fitness equipment, but Arc-SWAT gets priority.
Per Dave’s remarks for #398, “Sandy and actually anyone else not in Arc-SWAT isn’t required to to morning PT, but a lot of them do at least some of it since the rest of the team is up and at it anyway.”
“The point of the first day is to drive you to your absolute LIMIT!” (Bottom left panel)
I get the feeling THIS is Peggy’s game plan…
I believe the english term is Hazing
Not quite. Hazing is just tormenting them, this has a further point of testing their limits and setting a new benchmark for their fitness level that they can work against.
Isn’t that what student groups do?
Over here they torment you awhile to build group identity. Which is basically the same thing. Break them down individually to build a super strong group bond.
But yes, your further explanation makes it clear it’s a different thing. Kind of in the same spirit of ‘push you over the limit for a reason’ though
Hazing is usually unsanctioned (but mildly condoned) abuse from other cadets or students, typically those older (usually in the last year or two before graduating), and they deliberately target those they deem as inferior and an insult to the school or academy or branch of the military with the intent of either causing them to washout or become as big an arsehole as they are
The only time you hear of the authorities (top brass, school officials, government) stepping in is when someone actually dies because of it
Yea that is very different than what student groups do over here, which is group building through pressure
How many pages will this PT session run?
As long as the instructing staff says so
Train to Standard, not to time.
After this,Sydney would show up for the media prep course very tired that she sleeps through it!
Arianna will be very cheesed at Maxima…!
Train hard, fight easy.
Sweat is better than blood.
You will hear these quotes roughly every 5 minutes in Basic, and about twice a day until you get out, assuming you aren’t, you know, actively fighting some one. And you will hear the “Sweat is better than blood” even then.
Ahem –
PT session will run until you puke.
…….
you tripped and cut your arm on the track edge and now you’re standing there at PARADE REST getting blood on my track! finish your laps on the grass outside it and I may let you go to sick call before reporting for work today! yes you may hear this at basic before the drill sgt drags the baka to get appropriate medical aid. I heard it at an actual unit except it was a fence on the side of a road and said road respectively.
Totally knew a comment like this would appear soon
Can be worse…
“Dick Graison can do this easily”
“F*ck D*ck!”
At least, Batman sounds holy… <__>
Holy swearjar Batman
Come now… if there was a swear jar Sydney could already afford ALL of Batman’s gadgets three times over.
…And that would’ve been before she joined Archon…
i confess… i don’t actually buy comic books, or play much video games at all. i’m a fan, but those two hobbies are freakin expensive, and i grew up poor and i remain just barely above poverty. so i only consume nerd culture that i can get cheap or free.
the effect from her splatting in the mud made me think it was raining for a second.
Steam is an amazing thing, my friend. So many games on sale, and so many for free! It’s also a VERY easy way for friends to gift you games during birthdays and holidays :)
i can do that now… if i had the time. but growing up i didn’t get to buy comics and video games, is what i mean. i never really got too interested in comic books, so haven’t put any spending money toward that. but i’ve spent a lot of time playing Warcraft and a few other online games. but again, i was usually playing on a computer that was so slow, i’d be laggy all the time and i couldn’t seriously do raids or PVP. i’m glad Steam exists (i heard someone just last week tell me to download a game from it), but it’s not “free” in the sense that my computer’s really freakin old and may not handle it.
Buddy, you ain’t seen expensive until you’ve played Warhammer 40k.
That’s an understatement.
I used to play their Epic minis, 6mm so you could field a lot more units than the 28mm stuff. I bought and painted a huge amount of their stuff, but quit cold turkey when I was refused entrance at one of their store events (it didn’t even have prizes or anything, it was just a ‘show up and play’ event) because they had released a new miniature series in place of some of mine, and they didn’t want my old model minis on the table. Fuck that… I had paid them very good money for those minis.
They have a corporate strategy which involves crap like that, and also publishing a new set of rule books every few years regardless of the need, so people will have to drop another $60-120 on the new rules. They also published very overpowered unit templates in their White Dwarf magazine, so that they could get more sales of it, and it was a very expensive subscription and even more expensive to buy single copies.
I sold off all my GW stuff at Cold Wars a few years back, and walked away with over $500.
Yeah, when I saw that they charge $30+ for a single figurine no bigger than one Reaper sells for $4, I knew that 40k was not the hobby for me. They do make awesome models, but they’re not THAT awesome.
I love the puppy eyes in the last cell.
IKR. That look a puppy gets when it peed on the floor because you forgot to take it out. They think they did something bad. But you know if was totally your fault. You feel bad, the puppy feels bad. And you gotta clean up puppy pee.
The orbs apparently instantly shed mud – the flight orb goes from being held down in mud to having no obvious dirtiness in one panel.
“Sorry, I can’t come out tonight. I’m, erm, washing my orbs.”
They defy examination so reasonable that they don’t fully interact with this world, eg collecting dirt.
In the #500 comic, Dave make something blaming captain marvel or maybe, wonder woman… :^)
They are so smooth, nothing sticks to them
It would make sense. There are some materials in the real world that shed things such as mud pretty easily. Since the orbs aren’t actually natural, why wouldn’t they just shed mud?
In the middle of the last 3 panels, I’m getting the impression that Sydney may have accidentally shoved a handful of mud into her mouth. I could forgive Sydney’s moment of blasphemy because it looks like she immediately self-applied the atonement for it.
I think you might be right. It certainly would be in character.
Here’s a weird nerd-confession. I’ve basically never read paper comic books. Okay, I read Dark Knight Returns years ago, and I’m a few chapters into Watchmen, but I’ve just never been that into them, even though I’ve watched all the Marvel and DC movies. My webcomic list is actually quite long though. Not sure what that says about me.
I’m the same. Never read a superhero comic.
In the UK we never really had the DC and Marvel comics that are so big across the pond. It was more Beano and The Dandy over here.
Have a few Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddie’s Cat knocking about tho.
but you’ve got Judge Dredd, and Rouge Trooper, and the old ABC Warrior comics, some of that is better than the crap put out at certain times in history here in the US
Actually, it sounds like you have your own British nerdisms that are all the cooler for being obscure to us Yanks. Your geek cred is intact.
And all under the same banner of “2000AD” :P
Yeah. I had a subscription to the monthly and weekly Disney Comics as a kid until I was about twelve and I read a lot of Franco-Belgian comics, but superheroes, I never even remotely cared about. Not that they were actually available over here when I was a kid.
nerd Literacy gaps?
I’ve never finished any Star Wars movie. I’ve found them all boring. I’ve only ever seen a small handful of Star Trek: TNG (or any of the new ones, really), too. In concept, TNG is appealing, but in execution, I found it terrible.
Hmm. I’ve also never read any superhero comics. Not properly, anyway. I’ve tried a few of the recommended greats (The Killing Joke, Red Son, Dark Knight Strikes Back), but never liked them.
Man, this’ll be a long list. I’m currently working my way through classic SciFi, though. So far: Bradbury is excellent, Asimov is interesting, but dry, Heinlein is terrible.
Well, there’s your problem with the comics; you read Dark Knight Strikes Back. That was after Miller had started his spiral into insanity. Stick to Dark Knight Returns. It may be showing signs of that spiral, but it isn’t nearly as bad.
I also have to agree with you about TNG. As for SciFi books, I recommend David Weber, especially the Honor Harrington series (start with On Basilisk Station).
That’s the one I meant, actually. Returns. Never read Strikes Back, heard it was bad. Didn’t find Returns all that interesting, either.
As for newer-ish SciFi, I’m good on that (glances at four bookshelfs, in this room.)
You might try Heinlein’s juveniles–they were written before he went eccentric. “Waldo,” “Double Star,” “Puppet Masters” and “Door into Summer” are also generally good reads. I enjoyed “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” at one time, struggled through “Stranger in a Strange Land” (but had read the juvenile “Red Planet” first, so got some background before it got weird), and still occasionally read “Job.” Most of his later stuff is “not wonderful” with flashes of “meh.”
Asimov was dry as a fiction writer, but did better with his nonfiction, where he wrote with a clear and conversational style. I especially recommend his books of humor, particular the collection of “dirty limericks”. Bradbury, I can take or leave–I prefer his fantastic to his scifi, excepting “All Summer in a Day.”
As to comics, Try “Batman: Year 1”–if you can’t get into that, you probably won’t like anything Batman from the last 30 years–it’s all derived from that. “The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told” and the equivalent Superman collection can give you an overview of how they were portrayed in the past. I’m sorry you started with the ones you did–all of them depend on what some would say was a dark and obsessive familiarity with the characters’ histories/back stories.
Ever read any Lovecraft or works based on his?
Cthullu 2016
Why vote for the lesser evils?
Yes–Lovecraft, Howard, Derleth, a few others–mostly the older stuff, though, when writers still relied on the reader’s imagination, and before movies and the internet started portraying the Elder Gods. Sorta cheapened them when you could hold them in your head.
I do love ’em though–genuinely disturbing stories.
A lot of the new stuff is quite good, and cheap if you search though Kindle.
If only Syd would mean it.
Always hate Batman, it´s the right thing to do.
Also, epic Math is epic.
Rather than watching Avatar, watch The Legend of Korra :) Much much better imho and Korra kicks ass.
Ehhhhhhhh I liked the past Airbender better. It’s up to the individual to judge for him/herself
You Sir, did not say THAT.
Avatar TLA is far better written and paced.
And while Korra ended on a high note it had too many problems during production that really damaged what could have been wonderful.
It really does have great points, and it’s through those, that it manages to shine through in spite of its problems, but regrettably it’s inferior to TLA as a whole.
As for DaveB, he really should binge both; It can be a beatiful experience to share with his girlfriend, since both are well balanced series that many people enjoy.
I havent watched the new Battlestar Galactica either btw.
I don’t want to. I like the old one. It’s campy but cool. The new one with the shaky camera just annoys me to no end.
The shaky cam parts were limited. Most of the show was in standard drama tv cameras.
I watched the new one but not the last season (it got a bit melodramatic and I just didn’t get back into it after the break). The Shaky cam was just the space battles, to simulate watching them through a telescope.
Good choice, it´s crap.
I know a lot of people really liked it, but…
Nope, total garbage.
Could never really understand the reboot: they are a futuristic space-flight capable race, and they use scratchy patchy line-of-sight radios
This does seem a bit much for the first day of PT. Especially for someone who has never worked out before. Even Batman must have started small.
Then again, I may be looking at PT more fondly through the lens of history. I remember the DI getting freaked out when he found out I went from 165 pounds to 141 after the first week. Being six foot tall I didn’t have that much weight to lose in the first place.
Keep in mind this isn’t “basic” basic training.
This is basic training for super heros/ special forces. A certain level of physical fitness is already pre-required to do this as shown by Matt in the background. Sydney just is kind of an exception and got shortchanged in this area due to the nature of her…”skill set”
Even the Elite Forces have to start with the “basic” Basic Training. It’s for building up to the higher physical standards that would be required for a higher level of expectation. Even the standards for non-combat line Officers is tougher than “basic” Basic, in that Officer’s Candidate School *starts* that the “basic” level & then continues beyond that.
Arc “basic” is set up with certain assumptions.
1. That the people going through it would be supers with all it entails.
or.
2. They would be ELITE normal with the training to be able to hold their own with supers.
Sydney is neither.
I’m pretty sure this course was designed for near 7′ amazons. Of course a Fraggle Queen won’t be able to reach those bars!
I mean, what would be the point of the exercise if their feet could still touch the ground?
NEVER MIND! I just saw the steps up to the bars.
Yep…It’s those very same steps that Sydney bumps her head against while she’s sitting in the mud.
I firmly believe that Nerdia & Geekdom span far too broadly for anybody to have actual encyclopedic familiarity. I’d wager the more common model is for people to have deep knowledge of a few areas, surface experience with a few more, and little more than passing familiarity with the rest.
My own case: I’m completely lacking in Anime-cred (beyond Akira & Lodoss), and my must-read list grows every year, even as I put down about a novel a week. I’m relatively well-read in tabletop & computer RPGs, but completely inexperienced with FPS, or card-/model-based combat games.
I’m with you: I’m not embarrassed by any lack of nerdy knowledge, because there’s too much to be had. Perhaps my most “shocking” lacks pertain to things I’ve skipped on purpose due to lack of interest, like “Game of Thrones.”
Almost everybody’s a nerd or geek about something. I mean, what is a “jock” but a “sports geek”?
The term nerd and geek are basically meaningless these days. They’ve become to broad.
Personally I’m a big nerd for games culture, but I don’t give 2 craps about comic nerd things (or movies like star wars)
A “Jock” is a person who is primarily interested in participating in sports.
and has little interest in the more cerebral aspects of life.
A “sports geek” while having most “jock” interests also has interests in the more intellectual aspects of sports.
If there’s no initial interest in something, then it really can’t be said that you have a “lack” of nerd-cred. After all, just trying to categorize “nerds” according to interests is a task in itself. It’s as the late, great Will Rogers has pointed out, “Everybody’s ignorant, just in different subjects.”
Agreed that it’s a wonderfully broad umbrella term, though there are some basic, stereotypical ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ things that, if you’re lacking, might turn a few heads. I’m not into FPS at all, though I do enjoy some of the mythos behind them, such as Fall Out (then again, I was very much into Fall Out 2, so that might have something to do with it >.>)
I used to be pretty good with FPS games, back when I was still young…but aging has slowed down my reflexes & I’ve gone more with turn-based strategy. Sometimes there are good reasons for choosing your own particular nerd (or geek) subjects.
But overall, there’s just far too much that CAN be known, that there’s nobody who can keep up with ALL of it, let alone have any real interest in it.
I was a skinny but unfit 22 y/o nerd girl last year and I can confirm that the rope needed motivation. (I am still skinny but unfit, but now I’m not 22)
My Nerd confession is that a couple of months ago I was doing vader’s death count in the OT and managed to miss Obi-Wan. I remembered all the imperial officers, but not him. That was bad.
Bravo madam. I have always loved that claim.
“I’m no longer a 25 year old virgin. Now, I’m a 26 year old virgin”
Not proclaiming that I am either of those of course. I’m 24
Eh, I didn’t loose mine until I was 25 years old.
That was…more than half my life ago…
…Oh God, I feel old…
“Hands MD a prune juice and crown support libation.”
So with all the ex-military people their no one bothered to tell sydney she is climbing the rope wrong?
Today is pushing her through her limits. Teaching her how to do it is later
Right, this is “you a weak and made of fail, we will rebuild you”.
However it’s been 400 strips to do 3 actual days, Basic is roughly 70 days. I hope we don’t have to do 9,330ish strips before she gets out of training.
Don’t count how long many pages per day, count how funny each page is
Dave Panel 2 – use of “Mantle” – incorrect extremis. You probably looked for an alternate word to cover and a mantle is a cover of sorts, but not right for this sentence. Surmount, cover, overcome would all work here best instead.
There’s actually a climbing term called ‘mantleshelf’ (often abbreviated to ‘mantel’) that means to lift yourself up to a shelf with your arms. That could be what he’s aiming for, here.
It’s used in videogames all the time now, where you can climb over some shoulder-to-just-above-head height obstacle. It looks like I did spell it wrong though.
A “Mantle” in pre-gunpowder warfare was a moveable wall use to cover the advance of troops up to any opposing sides fortification.
correction – second panel in the second event shown. for some reason my Grrl power didn’t load in the top rope action until I opened image in second window to look for easter eggs in background.
I can understand running, but making them do an obstacle course is extremely stupid – these are not soldiers! Sydney really should’ve utilized the power of her balls to demolish all the obstacles Phule’s Company style.
Actually, if you take a moment to read through the comments here… or even back through the comic, yes, they are soldiers. They are fighting other supers, and there might be times when their powers are nullified or drained somehow. To become too reliant on your powers is to paint a huge weakness for others to exploit. It’s been done time and again in a lot of different comics. So yes, the obstacle course makes sense. It not only helps them get stronger physically, but it lets Halo and Peggy both see exactly what she is capable of and what she would struggle with, allowing ARC to keep from setting their heroes up to fail.
Actually, as explained here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/953
Archon is ‘a federal military police force’, operating under the department of defence.
So yes, Sydney is a soldier.
And Archon wants it’s soldiers to be useful even without powers. If you want a reason why, just look at Superman. He’s the most powerful being in existence, until you give him a green rock. Than he’s just a useless weakling. On the other hand, Maxima (one of the most powerful beings in this universe) is still a soldier. Without her powers, she can still kick your ass
Unless you Know how to shut her down before she knows what hit her.
Sure, but that is true for every hero
The last 3 panels are realistic, the first 4 aren’t. No way I believe Sydney has the arm strength for that.
As physical training, this is awful since it’s like demanding 100 pushups from the get go. At best it’s a way to increase the pain threshold but even that should be done gradually.
35 years ago, when the Superman/Batman Comic lay in the basket of the smallest store in a village every two weeks…
I think the best thing about the new Galactica are some parts of Adama’s performance. Olmos has the most amazing face. In a way I like the old series better. Just compare the intro music and you may know why.
Rope climbing is also done with the legs – she doesn’t actually have to be able to pull her full weight up in order to do it… if she is doing it right. The problem is she also isn’t using her legs the right way, based on the rope position, so yes, the action seems unlikely.
To an extent. With this being the initial PT, Peggy needs as good idea as possible to know exactly what Halo’s limits are and what she needs to work on. When I tried to get back into Taekwondo after a few years’ hiatus, the school pushed me to the very limits the first time. They claimed they were testing my knowledge, but had me doing sets of 5 and 10 of each move as we went. I did the stupid thing and absolutely refused to be the one to day stop. That earned me soreness like I had never felt, to the point where I was feeling pain even 6 weeks later >..>
Agreed though that the wall climb and rope climb are a little unrealistic >.<
Actually it is quite stupid.
Looking back on my basic experience( marines, early 80’s) we did not do the obstacle course till near the end of phase 1 (of3).
P.T, consisted of running, sit-ups, pushups, jumping jacks, pull-ups, and other callisthenics.
Syd’s also fairly light, it would take much strength to lift her.
and there are people that can do 60′ rope hands only in less than 2 minutes but when told to wrap the legs take 5+ minutes to fail around 45-50′ mark.
Poor Sydney. But better to find her limits now in a safe environment.
You really do need to give Battlestar Galactica another look. Yes, the infiltrator bad-guy trope is one of those old and well-played saws. However, BSG mixes it up by getting really deep into these IBGs and eventually playing the whole IBG thing out. “There are only twelve models of Humanoid Cylon. I’m Number Six.”–Six. Then it gets into the whole thing of They-look-like-us, They-feel-like-us, They-laugh-cry-and-love-like-us, How-again-are-They-any-worse-than-us? In the end, you’ll never see bad guys that get under your skin than Six and Eight, Three, Seven, One… …and especially the last two of The Final Five. “No. No. I’m an Officer of the Colonial Fleet. That’s who I want to be. And If I die today, that’s who I will be. You’re the Fifth.”–Four.
Syd’s not going through anything most Soldiers don’t go through on day one. The whole idea of Basic training Physical Training is to tear you down and build you back up the way the Army wants you. EVERYONE suffers PT those first few weeks but it becomes easier… or rather, you learn a tolerance for it and you become stronger. This is Sydney’s first day… we still have a lot more antics to go before she finally starts to see results.
Watch the new BSG with a fresh eye… you have to… its a completely different series. I watched the old series religiously… even saw the pilot movie in the theater. The new series takes a lot from the old story wise… and adds a lot of new twists. The imposter bad guys actually work well in the new series. I agree that the best performance in the whole series was Edward James Olmos… I began watching the series with my mind fixated on the old series and yeah… there are a few things they changed from the old series… Tigh, Boomer… STARBUCK… but iin this new series the changes WORK. The whole series is darker, more realistic and to be honest, more enjoyable. It’s effects oriented, yeah, but it’s the story that keeps you watching. I think this is one of the best space epics for showing how real spacecraft operate for example… retros and directional thrusters… the details are really amazing.
Remember… All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again…
Gaps in nerd knowledge? OK, here’s one that’ll have people screaming. I’ve never read the Big Few epic fantasy series – ASoIaF, Wheel of Time, etc. I keep thinking I’ll get around to them some time when I don’t have more interesting space operas with snarky AIs to distract me, but it’s also just that my tastes run far more to Vlad Taltos than to LotR (which I have read, and enjoyed ok, but never had the urge to read again).
You might enjoy the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss then. Although it’s definitely more fantasy than Scifi, it actually has a rhyme and reason and explanation for how and why magic works, which can be quite fun for the more logically minded- especially if you’re more into scifi than science-fantasy (ie Star Wars vs Star Trek).
For that I liked the Dragon Crown trilogy too.
Years ago Lyndon Hardy wrote three fantasy books that were essentially sword-and-sorcery books that had a *very* detailed magic system.
“Master of the Five Magics” explains the magic system (which is pretty cool) and is by far the best read.
“Secret of the Sixth Magic” explains the Meta of the Magic system and is a drop down, quality-wise.
“Riddle of the Seven Realms” explains the cosmology (omniverse?) of the series and goes from being very readable to begin pure torture depending on which chapter you’re reading (at least, so says everyone I know who has read them and expressed an opinion).
All pretty old (early to mid eighties) and might be hard to find. I don’t know if he’s written anything since.. :(
Steven Brust (Taltos) is amazing – he packs more subtext and inter-story connections into fewer pages than any other author I know. He took the Fall and made it make *sense*.
However, a paper I wrote in my Milton class in college comparing and contrasting “To Reign in Hell” and “Paradise Lost” both tripped out and energized my professor. She felt compelled to go buy “To Reign in Hell”. She read it in a single night, reread it the following night, and forced her husband to read it the night thereafter . She encouraged the class to go buy and read it. After, of course, the end of the semester, to avoid minds being blown.
What’s the chance that those last two orbs are physically-based powers, and Halo didn’t realize it because she wasn’t testing her physical abilities while holding them?
Maybe one gives her super strength, or super speed/reflexes, or spidey-sense, or natural fighting skills. Personally, I’m hoping for fighting skills so we can have Halo/Math round 3.
Forgive me Superman, for I have sinned. I have only read a small handful of superhero comics, and get most of my comic book information from the internet -.- Though this makes me a fraud as a comic book geek, it is my hope that my love and passion for the subject can overcome my lack of access, funds, and time to hunt down and read all the best comics there are. Please forgive me >.<
I keep trying to imaging this if Peggy invoked Math.
imagine
I keep trying to imagine this if Peggy invoked Math.
In the #500 comic, Dave make something blaming captain marvel or maybe, wonder woman… :^)
note: I messed up the comment…
*Raise the first* Guy Gardner, you @#$%@%@#!!!
Somehow with all the montage songs we posted yesterday, we missed the most appropriate montage song of all for a woman going through basic…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbp52Z9jRg0
Actually, that was mentioned, a couple different versions even
I think this shows that poor Sydney is never going to be a physical type like Math or Peggy, her physique and power set really don’t lend themselves to this but she can be more useful as a pain in the butt type like Kitty Pryde or Scarlet Witch. One of the types who sits in wait for an opponent to overreach and then smack em silly. Not that training wont be useful but they should really just set up a realistic goal of low end competence and then drill the heck out of tactics and battlefield control.
Kitty Pryde is actually in crazy good shape. Once Logan started teaching her martial arts, she went from lanky teenager to fairly cut adult relatively quickly.
Heck, if you’re going to be an instrumental part of saving the universe (especially more than once), you better get into shape first.
Yes, I’ve noticed how over time, Kitty has gotten into shape…
Confession: I’ve never watched the entirety of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I’ve caught bits and pieces of it, but due to already being aware of most of the jokes from being quoted so often, I just never really felt the urge to actually sit and watch the whole thing.
As an alien life form who went AWOL for love of the internet, I thoroughly recomend watching ALL the Monty Python movies, maybe even “And now for something completely different”. Cybertron really needs this stuff, seriously, might make the planet more “livable”…
Same for me. I’ve seen the funny clips on the internet so many times, I feel like I’ve seen the entire movie already
For shame Peggy, for shame. The spirit of the Batman may only be invoked in direst need, not at whim. You must find another motivator for Sidney. Or three. Especially given that she’s doing all of this without her glasses and so has the added handicap of being unsure of everything, distance-wise.
And now, a verse from the Book of Saint Wayne:
“Our Batman, who art in Gotham,
Dreaded be thy name.
Thy dark cowl come.
Thy will be done in streets,
As it is in Arkham.
Give us this day our day’s arrest.
And forgive not their trespasses,
As we lock up those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into anarchy,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the city,
The power and the glory,
Forever and ever.
Amen.”
and now, to re-word your lovely poem:
I am the terror that flaps in the night…I am the thing that bumps in the night…(giggles, being unable to finish)
I just want to say that you really didn’t miss anything by skipping over the new BSG. They only had material for about one and a half seasons and after that the writers were pretty obviously making it up as they went along. The plot was increasingly incoherent, the characters became more and more random, and the whole thing just fell into a death-spiral around the middle of season 3 that it never pulled out of.
YES! THIS! Thank you for saying this so clearly!
They were using a lot of filler plots cribbed from Babylon 5 (which actually was a good space opera) and otherwise there Was. No. Plan. The plan was a lie, the writers jumped the shark too many times with blatant ass-pulls. The revelation of four of the “final five” human form cylons was the last straw for me: the characters were chosen purely for shock value, logic or sanity be damned. The fifth was, also, a total cop-out choice.
The original mini-series was good, and worth seeing. The first season was actually pretty enjoyable. Halfway through the second, as was previously said, is where it officially went off the rails. Granted it got much, much worse a season later, but that’s too be expected from the original trend.
my confession: I’ve only watched a grand total of three Doctor Who(the newer) episodes, and not the first three in a row either
did anyone else notice the weird tan force field in panel 9 ?
also there is what looks like a glyph scratched on the bar in the same colour
she didn’t reach the bar, but it made a “ting” sound like something hit it.
the field looks like it originated from her finger.
could be a passive effect of one of her orbs
what are your thoughts?
That “ting” is her fingernail clipping the bar. That brown lines are motion lines.
That’s supposed to be a comic effect following the motion of her hand as she jumps at the bars. I made it tan to match her skin, but maybe I should make it white.
Surely a better way to invoke that third time would have been: “Why do we fall, Master Wayne?”
That’s what I was thinking too. ;-)
“We fall because of gravity, Alfred. Because of gravity.”
Nerd confession: I don’t own a single comic book. I’ve never played FFIV or Chrono Cross all the way through. I am abysmal at chess. I’ve seen every episode of every series of Star Trek… except the animated series. I was not able to get Marina Sirtis’ or Summer Glau’s autograph at GenCon 2015. I have yet to collect them all.
I am so ashamed.
As long as you do not give up there is no shame.
Doing to GenCon this year?
I am.