Grrl Power #407 – Pseudohistory
Yeah, there’s a little history there, but nothing either one would cop to. That doesn’t mean he isn’t interested, or even that wasn’t trying to date her without her knowing about it, or even even that she’s not interested. But certainly not interested in games. Or maybe this is how she flirts. People are complicated.
Max spends enough time being annoyed at the things men do* that she hasn’t done a whole lot of dating in her life. It is safe to say she has pretty high standards though. She can afford to pretty selective as she checks a lot of boxes in the “desirable” categories. Wealth, fame, beauty, exotic, power – both literal and societal. This assumes “Strong enough to accidentally kill me if she sneezes while we’re kissing” is not a strong turn off for a potential suitor. Also; “Strong enough to permanently emasculate me if she sneezes while we’re… (long pause) You know. Say no more. Wink wink nudge nudge, eh?”
Of course, Maxima has to balance her inclination toward selectiveness with her own sex drive. That’s something that’s never been established in the comic for her. Dabbler, in her own words, never goes below an 11, but she has pretty strong willpower. That begins to wane as her innate hunger goes un-slaked. Harem is probably a 7 or 8 on the sex drive scale, and maybe a 5 or 6 on the willpower scale, which means she’s woken up next to a few people and thought “Come on, Daphne.” Anvil’s right in the middle, but gets a few spikes when she sees a guy with is her type, primarily guys who are taller than her, which is rare enough, and gangly guys aren’t really her thing either. It’s safe to say she likes watching basketball. Sydney comes in pretty low on the scale, despite getting flustered around cute guys. In her case, she also wrestles with a certain degree of self confidence deficit, so in the rare cases she’s genuinely smitten, she’s usually slow to put it out there.
*(#NotAllMen)
In case anyone doesn’t know, Conan’s line is a paraphrasing of a statement attributed to Khan (Genghis, not Singh), “The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters.” But I think Conan’s is more pithy.
Ug, two double pages in a row, both with mini comics? I need a vacation. And by vacation I mean a single page that’s slightly easier to draw than usual. :/
Patreon supporters can view this page at twice the size! (as soon as I wake up and post it then immediately go back to sleep since Patreon doesn’t have a way to schedule posts yet.) $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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.
This could be fun. I wonder how bugged the rebreather will be.
You mean with tracking and listening devices?
I don’t want to start the argument again over whether or not he’s a villain, but assuming that he is, I hope someone also checks it for remote controlled self-destruct bombs. We wouldn’t want him to hurt our li’l Sydney by setting it off if and when she starts interfering in his schemes.
If we assume that he is a villain (which I still don’t agree with), he’s not going to bug something that comes directly from him.
He’s way smarter to do something so blunt and obvious. If there is some kind of listening, it’ll be passive. Just a recording, and it has to be returned every now and then for maintenance (or a recorder in the tanks, that are returned to him for refilling)
And some poor bugger has to filter through Sidney’s ramblings. Don’t envy that job.
Do you want the original, the cut version, the short version or the PG version?
The PG one please.
Come on, my fingers still hurt from last week!
Nah, to get the full context & meaning clarified, you’ll have to go through the whole speech. Hope you can get through the day without your ears turning red & spontaneously combusting…
I’d like to say that bugging would be useless, and yet… what really bugs me is her shield.
Not enough data :-/
Considering that when her shield is up, and her shield seeming stops everything regardless of force – either physical (Maxima’s fists), energy (Maxima’s blasts) or metaphysical (aggro aura).
Even stopping molecules of air from entering or leaving, but yet it doesn’t stop her voice from being transmitted, or her hearing other people.
Stopping lasers, but normal light and other forms of light (radio waves) don’t get restricted, which would be something that a bugging device would be using.
Need more data to analyse!
Or, you could just accept the Space Magic explanation. That’s what I did!
The best hack would be if at some point in the future at Deus choosing it shoved out some sleeping gas/poison. I can’t see how they could get that past Achon’s ability to check up on the gear though so it probably won’t be that.
Okay, so they do have some history
As Joe said, this’ll be fun :D
An entirely new can of worms has unexpectedly been opened..
Fun, as long as you are not involved and manage to retain all of your limbs.
Dabbler is so gonna bug Sydney for details…
Like the softer look for Max in panel 3, all the other shots are real nice to.
Ok I Know Syd isn’t the tallest person but Max is Amazon Goddess in stature, but Deus is massive, in height and build, apart from the scar he has the features that Psych’s say are “Attractive” for a Male to have and he clearly has a well above Baseline mental facilities, has he bean tested for Powers?
Tall, not lanky….. maybe Dues will date Anvil next….
Deus is 6′ 4″, Anvil is 6′ 7″ but height isn’t the only factor for her, but it’s it’s a big nice to have.
Don’t destroy my ideas so bluntly, let me down gently……
Anvil is 6′ 7″? and she wants a taller man?? some how I cant see her dating that much then…
I guess that would depend on just how negotiable that height-requirement is for her.
Remember, she was willing to dance with that “snapper” dude at the club the night before.
The softer look is nice, and it comes up on some other pages too. It makes me wonder if it’s just the angles of the shot, or if her face actually is softer when she’s not annoyed+ or if this is just an art thing.
My guess is that’s it’s a bit of both. When she’s relaxed her face get softer and when she’s annoyed or focused the hard angles are exaggerated to show how people perceive her mood.
So instead of wrinkles she gets chisels. Get her mad enough and you might get a short view of “hatchet-face”… a very short view… perhaps followed by a long convalescence (or a short obit).
“He pissed off Lt Col Maxima Leander, ’nuff said”
Actually, given how her powers work–the whole “personal energy field that hews to my flesh” thing–it may very well be a subconscious flexing of those powers. Soft tissue might very well get pressed just a bit by the field when she tenses up mentally.
It’s likely that in this setting, there’s a baseline of “Perfect Human Specimen” as a power unto itself. Such individuals would not have paranatural abilities, but they would be pretty much like Deus appears to be–very strong, healthy, attractive, charismatic and intelligent.
I think it’s mostly greed that drives Dues towards Max. You know her gold skin & his greed would be a match made in his heaven…
Never really viewed Deus as being greedy, certainly not after something as petty as gold
He IS the sort to consider a woman a prize to be won, the more ‘out of reach’ the more desirable. Maxima must be like his Holy Grail of dating.
If she is his Holy Grail, then he was using the wrong gifts. He should have brought her a shrubbery.
Power over Maxima is what I’d say is behind the “relationship” so far as Deus is concerned. Beautiful women CAN be attracted by money and power – and Deus isn’t exactly hideous (although I suspect the scar would be somewhat offputting IRL). He’s also sort of witty, which I’ve been told is attractive to women. :)
But Maxima is a force he is not and is unlikely to be able to control using any of those things. She’s a challenge at every level – and I suspect the hyper-genius doesn’t get many of those in his life.
“That was a miscalculation: it was supposed to have been Sapphire’s and Amethysts… you know, to match your hair and eyes. What? I totally was looking at your eyes the whole time.”
Gosh, I so wish I could upvote that comment XD – as in, you know you had too much of reddit when…
Thank you :D
It is the sort of comment which demands distinction.
… That certainly explains a lot about both of them. We taking bets on if a window is going to get broken in this meeting yet?
… ONLY a window?
It could be broken with a face.
this is not a comment i get to use often enough, but i could so see Sydney yelling it as it happens:
“Happy Defenestration Day!”
I love that word.
I LOVE that the English language actually has a word for the act of physically throwing someone out a window.
Nice thing about Latin-based languages, if a new concept rolls around, you can pretty much build a word for it, using existing building blocks.
To be fair, we are talking about a guy who runs a business based around making things hard to break and this meeting is supposed to be civil… supposed to be. On an off note, How many leather biker jackets does Max own? O.o
I’m looking forward to seeing that house burn down.
:D
I wonder if Machina Industries sells those plaques? I’d buy one for every room in the house!
Well sure, but with his negotiation skills he’ll end up owning your house. Totally worth it for the plaque though, right?
I have a 5′ bulwark at the bottom of my steps to the basement, so I need a “The penitent man is humble before God” plaque as a warning to anyone over 4’11”.
Do it!
Well at least we know Machina Industries is only concerned with the best things in life
There are far worse things for an evil(?) corporation to obsess about.
Concerning the editorial, yeah, I thought the comics super women, She Hulk for instance, would have ‘issues’ in that regard.
This probably isn’t the venue for a third tier super to pick up money on the side who’s power is massage with super happy multiple endings by short range stimulation of the spinal cord.
Villain: “Now you are all at my mercy, because I am … The Happy Ender!”
(This villain is unlikely to appear in a big budget superhero film)
Well… isn’t the Joker a “Happy Ender” of sorts?
they may die laughing but they never have fun dying and most certainly dont end on a happy note, except for the Joker, to say the least.
… right.
The reverse situation, of course, is known as “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”. Honestly, I expect many supers tend to date other supers, just because they’re more likely to understand the basic lifestyle adjustments that come from having powers.
Max and Dues……. BWHAHAHHAHA…. that is all
In Maxima’s case, I’m reminded of Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex – and just how that inverts for her. Ouch.
Unless he is that tough. Then it is “Man of Steel, Woman of Gold, Bed of Tissue Paper”.
I they really get going it’s “room/neighbourhood of tissue paper” :-)
Have you watched Jessica Jones?
*salutes in honour of the traditional IW-reference” :-)
guess here’s a possible outcome ;)
https://nebezial.deviantart.com/art/doesn-t-matter-had-snu-snu-418949142
I was just about to go looking for that image, thanks
Sweet Goddess that fits almost perfectly.
And that children is how the grand canyon came to be.
Remember her power isn’t just super stats, it’s variable super stats. If she takes everything out of strength then she should be fairly close to normal human strength if not just as strong as a normal human, info is a little murky there.
No, her base levels are still super.
DaveB explained a long time ago that she’s a base 3 stars in everything, and can pump 2 stats to 5, or 1 to 6
So even at minimal power levels, she’s still super strong. Just, not as super strong as dedicated bricks
Where’s that come from out of interest? Particularly the six star thing as there’s only one six star I know of and that’s Achilles with durability, and we know that Achilles is more durable than durability maxed Maxima, Achilles durability being absolutely perfect invulnerability. So that seems to indicate six stars are fairly stupid high.
On the other hand I can pull up a link to a comment on Maxima’s baseline abilities which stated that she’d probably keep her strength just a little above what you’d expect for someone her size, and that she doesn’t have to use all her points which implies she could lower them even further if she really wanted. The link is https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/323#comment-4532
yes she CAN drain a stat to “normal” levels, but she doesn’t like too
Right, but as the topic is whether she’d do it to prevent herself from injuring someone she’s interested in the wellbeing of I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t normally do it is irrelevant, plus that quote specifically says she’d keep it at a level normally where she doesn’t have to worry about accidentally injuring people or breaking stuff. Although that does suggest interesting things about their ability to control their own strength.
Then there’s the question on how much her subconscious influences her switching her “power pool.” In the throes of ecstasy, she might subconsciously get that one, last…um, push…& then, squish like grape.
You know what amuses me? Most everyone here is stuck on Penis-in-Vagina or some variant. Come on, Max is intelligent and considerate, and there are many ways for everyone to get their happy ending without invoking “Tight as a Vise and Twice as Nice.” If she likes penetration, there are steel dildos and vibrators, as a for instance, and while people tend to denigrate masturbation, when you have a helping hand it’s a completely different story entirely.
On a related note:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCdrUW–Jic
But what a way to go, huh?
;)
Got to say, the question of someone like Max, who constantly forgets just how strong she is, with an involuntary muscle spasm like an orgasm, just what would happen, has been bugging me for a while now. Not just pervy thoughts, but realistic. I imagine it would make it hard for her to have a physical relationship with anyone other than someone like Hiro, with roughly the same power build. Of course, I’ve also wondered just how those same ‘muscle spasms’ work with Harem. Can she keep them separate or do they bleed over? And what if more than one of her is getting busy? Ok, now I’m getting pervy.
…..imagine a cigar cutter. I am going to let you fill in the rest of it with your own imagination.
O
OO GOD NO
I think O would be become a .
I’m thinking of a new movie proposal: The Return of Lorna Bobbet.
Would it really though?
While the concept is something most potential suitors would have to hurdle over in theory. In practice we know that maxima can put her points here or there, all she has to do to avoid accidental dismemberment is tune her powers to keep low to minimal super strength, possibly by maxing out some of the less dangerous ones like flight or armor (speed probably would be a poor choice as spending an hour’s perceived time on a minute-long kiss might get boring… then again if it does not, there’s most probably some chemistry between them. Armor has a slight problem of reducing mobility and, presumably, making her somewhat more rigid than you’d want a flesh and blood partner to be but only at the highest. Does raise an interesting question… Can maxima Not use all her points? Like, could she keep all her powers on low and keep the spare points in the floating pool doing nothing until she changes it?
Still, regardless of what her actual situation with that is, since that whole aspect of her powers is classified any prospective partner would still have to deal with the deterrent effect that is their imagination in that particular aspect regardless of what the truth may be.
Yes she can keep points in reserve, it was said so in a comment chain at https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/323#comment-4532, so they should be able to totally get around the issue by just withholding points.
Maxima’s baseline on strength, without any enhancement, is well into low-level brick super, “brick” being one of several designations for strength-type supers. Whether this is low enough to seriously injure normal partners is unknown, but I bet money it is well into heavy bruising territory.
“she probably keeps her strength just above what you’d expect for a person her size”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/323#comment-4532
Just for reference, she doesn’t have to keep her strength very high at all, certainly not well into superhuman range based off that comment.
Even if she can lower her ‘spec’ enough to play safely, there’s still the question of how much concentration it takes to keep a particular allocation of points, and whether any re-allocation is reflexive. Armor is probably OK (or at least survivable), strength very much not. Do we know if strength couples with armor, to stop her ragdolling all over the place?
I suspect she works very hard to maintain her composure outside a straight all-out fight like Vehemence, exactly so that she doesn’t have a powered knee-jerk reflex except in extremis.
Also, since Max’s integrity field stretches enough cover clothing, and enough ground to lift those concrete sections previously, that may offer some protection to partners. Although clearly the integrity field doesn’t cover whatever she punches, so…?????
Who else wants to see the boots now?
i’m pretty sure we already HAVE seen them… she’s probably wearing them right now…
Those boots were made for walking.
And that’s just what she’ll do!
One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.
If a woman like Maxima accepts those boots as a gift from a guy like Deus they must be some extremely awesome legwear.
Wait, so Deus is a bad guy, or a “True Neutral” guy?
Not that bad, I’m guessing, or the chemistry with Max would be very different. Good enough, maybe, if Max gets an urge. Lol.
We don’t know where Deus falls on the scale. Lots of people want him to be a bad guy, but I I doubt he is
My guess is that he swings both ways.
He’s probably one of those guys that can be your most valuable ally, or your worst enemy.
Or, if he doesn’t gain anything from a particular conflict, just a neutral bystander
Exactly.
Except for that last bit. In any situation where he is a neutral bystander, I see Deus going for any kind of angle that gets him ahead (or puts a rival / foe / sparring partner behind) – or (to him) simply provides the most entertainment.
More likely Lawful Neutral.
Depends on where you put mercenaries though.
Dues would be Neutral Greedy (Not good or evil, per se, but more firmly Selfish). He’s already explained his primary motivation during that TV interview…
From what we’ve seen so far, Deus is very much a “ends justifies the means” sort of guy, which is one definition of evil.
He is, however, *very* restrained on this scale, so that pushes him well back towards the “good” side of the scale.
The *motivation* for his restraint, however, is using people to increase his personal power (wealth being a form of power) and not doing anything that might interfere with that. One definition of sin is using people like objects and loving objects like people. Back into evil territory.
On the other hand, he probably doesn’t see any of this in such a black and white way – I have a feeling he’s staving off boredom by playing this *really* awesome game with all of reality.
In answer to your question… Yes, he is.
Well, this is an interesting turn. Looking forward to see where this goes. Thanks, Dave.
I suppose there’s a reason they’re seeing Deus in the first place?
Because his company supplies ARCHON with all the non-Dabbler tech? o_O
They are probably not the Only provider of tech and hardware that Archon makes use of. Also Dabbler does not share her tech as far as we know, so if they are the exclusive provider that’d be all of Archon’s tech period.
Well, all tech that that Dabbler doesn’t use. Dabbler does use her own stuff, so it’s still available to Archon, in a package deal with Dabbler.
You are forgetting ARC-SPARQ
And where do you suppose they get the components to make their gadgets?
Dabbles may assist in building or making them, but even she needs a supplier
Dabbler’s an intergalactic bad ass. She probably has mining equipment in her ship to get whatever she needs
And do you know how much hassle it is to mine even space rocks? The cost of the fuel alone makes it worth her time (and money) to just buy it from someone else
Plus, Dabbler won’t supply the group with tech – they have some kind of Prime Directive non-interference thing going on, although it’s subtler than that…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1231
Most probably they didn’t have to see him, but he just couldn’t resist coming down from his office to see Maxima.
Should that be, ‘If you can imagine.’ in the first panel?
Whoops!
Dam.. there is enough chemistry and tension between Max and Deus to full full a small medical produktion factory.
And honestly Max is one of those lucky few super powered people, who dont have to worry about accidentially hurting her partner during the sexual act, just because she gets a bit exited.
She can drain on her strenght to overcharge her flight and energy projection abilities, that would leave it safe for her to have fun with a regular human.
It might not be so easy. Remember the flashback where she took out a wall of her home with a laser blast when someone startled her? An orgasm might also send a stray energy beam somewhere and, considering she’s powerful enough to set off what looked like a nuclear explosion, dumping all of her power into energy projection might level a major city.
Gives a whole new meaning to “set my world on fire”…
Even when minimizing an aspect of her powers, she’s still 3 star strength. Which is still super levels
And that’s apparently not true. Look through the comments above and you will find that WoD is that when mingling with soft skinned people she usually keeps her strength slightly above what would be expected of a similarly sized normal human woman. That’s certainly not in the 3 star range.
One thing that might cause a problem is just how much concentration is needed to change the allocated powers. We know that it’s close to instantaneous, but is it something that can happen just by instinct? If so then something as intense as an orgasm could very well trigger an increase in strength and that might cause some serious problems if her partner is squishable.
Hmm. We need some Dabbler science corner to explain this
RobK. We have been told that Maxima can actually drain from an attribute in order to bolster another. All she needs to do is to push strengh into flight.
Dave, confess, how many Thor comics have you read in order to create a perfect trolling villain just like Loki.
And Deus and Maxima? WOW! Didn’t see that coming…
I read a bunch of Thor, but that was back when Walt Simnson was drawing them. Think original Secret Wars era.
Nice. Best classic Thor stories. For the best Loki story, take a look at the 2004 Loki mini series.
You have excellent taste. Simonson Thor is best Thor. “Heroes have an infinite capacity for stupidity!”
“My arm! You’ve broken my arm!” “There speaks the cunning Loki at last!”
“‘He stood alone at Gjallerbru.’ And that answer is enough.”
(curse you Tom DeFalco. curse youuuuuuuu)
Also:
Odin: For Asgard!
Thor: For Midgard!
Loki: For myself!
Richard: For PONY!!
To quote Cohen the Barbarian (Terry Pratchet) on “What is it that a man may call the greatest things in life?”
“hot water,good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper”
Word.
The mission statement alone would make me want to work for machina industries.
Also, were they dating or not? because their dialogue is confusing…
It all depends on your point of view.
That was the point
In panel 10 it should be use instead of used.
Hmm, Grammar Girl says it’s “used to” https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/used-to-versus-use-to-and-other-listener-questions
Personally use which ever sounds more ‘comfortable and natural’, so tend to use ‘use’ rather than ‘used’, specially for past tense (to me, ‘used’ is for things you, well, use, but then again, also view ‘use’ as having two different pronounciations and usages)
Well, at the end of that Grammar Girl section she writes that “‘Use to’ is correct in the negative and question forms”.
Everything here is spoken, so grammar is not as relevant.. the characters may not have the best grasp of English……
Oh wow… this is going to be an awesome meeting! Sydney and Deus are DEFINITELY going to get along like a house on fire. Her calling him on his Luthorism. Deus saying things like ‘Phft. As if I would be ever that stupid’. This is going to be a fascinating show.
“House on fire”.
Yes. Flames, smoke, screaming, the possibility of explosions, definite property damage, people running to escape..
*man in black and red robe dances by singing “Slaughter Your World”*
I need an orphan for the fire.
Baby back ribs anyone?
Watch out Dr.
There’s an orphanage attacking! Time to use the Fwoosh Defense!
Red or Blue? He has been cursed to only be able to Fwoosh if he has saved an innocent life (even if he put that life in harms way in the first place, why do you think he keeps Cale around? :P)
With Cale, the Fwoosh was only good once; that’s why he still keeps Wee King Charles around.
For some reason I felt compelled to post in this thread.
For PONY!!!
And you shall have my Fork of Truth
>Ug, two double pages in a row, both with mini comics? I need a vacation. And by vacation I mean a single page that’s slightly easier to draw than usual. :/
Have you considered drastically simplifying character design in non-“sakuga” strips? Draw most of the strips in your “mini-comics” style, with only those panels that are a big eye-candy in full glory.
Compare the way Deus was drawn in 130 with the way you are drawing him NOW – you’ve double or tripled the amount of details.
Stick figures are even easier
I’m considering some things about my art, like leaving faces, hands, hair, etc in high detail, and fudging some of the peripheral stuff. Stjepan Sejic uses this to great effect. The question is whether I can actually implement those changes, but I don’t want to make the art cartoony and flat colored unless it’s used for effect in the storytelling. Who knows, maybe Sydney will get bonked on the head and everything will look different to her for a few pages. :)
Spinester used point-of-view art to some good effect in his Tripp webcomic…Main protagonist was accidentally dosed with LSD & saw most everything through a pattern of swirled colors, with his co-workers appearing as a medusa, or an astronaut in full environmental suit.
Hair is the one thing that I would try to simplify the most. I.e. in this comic, Maxima’s hair has something like 30-40 individual strands, each with its own light and shadows – in every single panel!
Simplifying it to 6 or 7 bigger strands and 2-3 smaller ones would not only greatly reduce the amount of work necessary, but would also increase the impact of the picture as a whole since unnecessary details won’t distract from it (and *increasing* it back to the original amount in panels 5 and 7 would accentuate the importance of those panels).
It actually already is simplified: ignore the colour of the hair and look at the shape (the part bordered by black, Sydney’s and Deus’ hair is similarly drawn), the bit inside that shape is simply highlights to make it not look ‘flat’ and ‘one-dimentional’
This page is so sweet! It’s nice (and realistic) to see that even the usually cold Maxima has a soft spot – it makes her human instead of ‘just a super on business’.
And loving Deus’ pose in the last two panels. I don’t know why, but his posture just makes him so lovable – like a you really want to approach. Deus and Max do make a good pair, if it weren’t for their different values. If we do get alternate worlds/spinoffs, it would be great to see the two of them work together! <3
I think I ate too many expired V-Day chocolates… Does Deus accept hugs?
On a side note, I'm not sure why I'm leaning towards guys like Deus and Vehemence… Something about their style I suppose?
Will there be a villains cast page? It took me a while to find out V's name because I'm bad at remembering things…
From Max’s comment she said he ‘calls himself’ Deus. So at this point we do not know either his first or last name. So, in this world the superheroes don’t have secret identities, but apparently the villains can.
In Deus’s case, maybe his orignal name is something he considers embarassing or just totally unsuited to his calling.
Plenty of precedent for that. For example, John Wayne’s REAL name was Marion Morrison.
Well, there are plenty of gals who seem to be attracted to the “wrong kind of guy,” so you’re not alone.
;)
Yey~! :)
hey daveB i think there’s a typo in this *if you can imagine instead of if you can image. sorry i’m wrong and it was intentional
No it’s wrong, I’m uploaded a fixed version in a sec.
I sense imminent collateral damage.
I’m now wondering is this is why Deus has his scar.
He also had that scar in the flashback, which was 10 ish years ago. Archon wasn’t a thing yet back then
It’s probably where Maxima marked the spot she was going to hit him if he ever slapped her butt again…
Slapping Max’s butt is it’s own punishment, you’ll likely break your hand… and if you didn’t, then she’d assist.
They are now heading to the lab where they will most likely ask Sydney to test the rebreather.
I am now taking bets on on how many (milli)seconds into the test Sydney will hold out before breaking into a bad Darth Vader impression.
Well that would depend. Do we start the counter when she sees the thing, or when it’s installed on her face?
Depends on what the rebreather looks like. We know that she is a huge fan of Batman, so she could go with a Bane impersonation if the look is right.
@DaveB: On the subject of decent guys tall enough for Anvil to be interested in dating, I have to ask: Shouldn’t Ren be in the running? I mean, from the relative heights in panel 5 of the below strip, he’s at *least* 6’5″, possibly quite a bit taller.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1736
Let’s check off his plus column: He’s powered, though to a minor degree; he’s pretty dang tall; he seems like a decent guy. Unless Maxima’s prohibition of Dabbler’s zonking team members is actually part of a larger “no one in ARCHON is allowed to date in-house” type administrative rule, but then how are Mr. Amorphous and Heatwave allowed to date? A grandfather clause permitting them to just because they were dating before joining ARCSWAT would be an unlikely exception, so it makes more sense that there’s an official policy permitting their relationship.
Perhaps Anvil and Ren tried dating and it didn’t work out? Or he’s just not as tall as he seemed? Otherwise why haven’t they given it a shot?
The Dabbler zonking team members isn’t about the sex. It’s about the memory hammer (I think)
It seems that the memory hammer is quite carefully calibrated to take the edge off, as it doesn’t permanently remover the memory of Dabbler but let the recipient reestablish them at a rate that allows them to be assimilated. It also gives the memory a detached feeling, lessening the emotional impact on the recipient.
While the memory hammer might be part of the reason for Max not letting Dabbs have a free hunting license within the ARCHON organization I think it’s also about keeping the green eyed monster at bay.
Xuriel (Xuriel Shahara Tantalis, aka Dabbler) is highly unlikely to form a long term partnership, and given her appetites it’s likely that given the opportunity she’d sample her way through the ranks. As she’s quite addictive it’s also likely that at least some of her meals would eventually come to either resent her or feel animosity to anyone she shows any kind of interest in. And when the ranks are full of metas and “norms” with skills like those of Peggy and Math, you really don’t want them to resort to anything more destructive than Parcheesi.
Yeah, Ren probably checks a few of her boxes, but she’s a Sgt and he’s a recruit, and she’s also got like 9 years on him. That’s on the edge of acceptable for her, so it’s probably not going anywhere besides some light flirting.
So what, should we start calling them “Deus ex Maxima” whenever they are around each other?
Yeah, Dues would like that because he’s billed as being first…
One question on Maxima’s jacket. What’s with all the buckles on the sleeves? It this one of her old jackets from back in the 90’s for her ‘extreme’ look, or is the ARC uniform designer currently going through a Michael Jackson phase?
I google “leather jackets” each time I get a chance to draw her in a new outfit and cobble together some bits and bobs from jackets I like.
Huh a ship where it would be better to use the full names. “Deus” X “Maxima”.
That fits so perfect I’m thinking DaveB planned it that way
If they did actually date at some point, then Col. Leander would be Deus’s ex, Maxima.
Winner!
Perfect!
I don’t know about you all but I did not see that one coming.
Pretty sure no one did.
Actually… someone did. Sorta. Just the pun tho, and not the belief it would be canon.
Dave, I stumbled on four major grammar errors (e.g., missing words) in your commentary. I suspect you wrote it late at night.
Part of it was written on my iPad at like 2 am. I should go back and check it.
Gifting is so hard to get right…
Occurs to me that Deus COULD almost be this universe’s answer to Tony Stark (Iron Man).
Certainly, if he and the Marvel Movie version of Stark somehow ever met, I strongly suspect they’d find lots to talk about.
They’d have to stop every two minutes in their conversation and ask each other if their last statement was snark or not.
And as they leave I can see Tony making a call:
-Pepper honey, I’ve been thinking and our new tower, the foundation can easily hold another thirty floors.
-No I said thirty.
-Yes I know it’s already two thirds done, but that’s not a problem, Jarvis can have the plans updated as soon as you say go.
-No, nothing at all.
-Deus who? Oh right, that chap I had a meeting with. Why do you ask?
-No of course not. By the way, we need to rethink the logo on the new tower. It has to be sized up by about 40%, have Jarvis work out how large it can be, and that bioluminescent lightning system will be a bit weak so I think we will have to go with something like plasma arcs instead.
-Yes it will increase the energy consumption by about 250 KW.
-Actually it’s closer to 50000%, and yes it still within the power budget. I’ll just tune the arc reactor and there will be no problems.
-With the added height and that ugly new tower they’re building to the east we need both the size and the output increased to really show up.
-Yes the one on 12th.
-Oh Machina Industries you say. I didn’t know that.
-No way, it’s that Machina industries. You know I didn’t know that…
-No no. I had no idea that it was Deus company. And no it won’t be higher than my tower, not anymore.
-What? Of course I’m not just comparing size. That’s childish. Besides mine is larger…
Well played, sir.
Well, they say “Differences make good sparks” – Hey, Maxima was the one who mentioned houses on fire, not me!
Ok… Loled at the mission statement. Seriously more businesses should just fess the fuck up and admit that they are in it for the win.
“We admire our competitors and hope that they will occasionally require government assistance in order to remain in business.”
Yeah, right.
In Genghis Khan’s defense, he probably wasn’t speaking English at the time he made the quote.
he did clasp a lot of wives and daughters to his bosom though, 1 in 200 men are direct descendants of genghis khan
I meant in terms of quote pithyness.
Let’s see now, he died in 1227, so…
…I’d venture to say that during Genghis Khan’s lifetime, the English language wasn’t yet invented…
…or at least hadn’t yet evolved even to the version that Shakespeare spoke, centuries later, in the 1500’s….
…so yeah, I’m with you on this one.