Grrl Power #411 – Tete-a-Tet Offensive
Deus actually isn’t too bad at this. Maxima gets paid well, but not that well. But still he knows just dropping a check on her by itself isn’t going to move the needle.
After I wrote this page I looked up Tiger Woods’s Nike contract, and apparently I thought he was getting paid quite a bit more than he actually was. His contract was a 5 year contract for $40 million in total, then another $100M over 5 years, not per year, so Deus’s offer is… pretty good. I think I was thrown off when I heard estimations of Woods’s total net worth during the whole divorce kerfuffle. Obviously he had more revenue streams than just the one endorsement. Anyway, a quarter billion isn’t nothing to Deus, but then he would be getting value for it, and if nothing else, Maxima would be tantalized by the idea of a generation of little girls growing up eschewing heels for combat boots.
I think putting 80 year old scotch on a $3000 suit might actually make the suit more valuable, given what that stuff must go for per bottle.
Now, while I do normally stick a lot of pop culture references there in the background, I should say than the stuff in panel 2 is… well, I’ll just tell you this time. There’s the Maltese Falcon and the shard from the Dark Crystal on the shelf. The rest is either nonsense or stuff that’s actually there for a reason. I thought I should call out the two actual refs before someone sprains something trying to identify “…that key is the one Buffy used to open the crypt in episode…” no, it’s just a fancy bottle opener.
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What if she’s already had one the whole time?
Well, if she did have one, we probably wouldn’t know. I mean, it’s invisible.
Superbitch had one. Lost it. Invisible, dontcha know?
Even so, I like how Maxima turned the tables on Deus’ offer…That Woman is a Wonder, isn’t she?
;)
Who doesn’t want an invisible jet?
Me, for one. I have a feeling I’d keep misplacing it.
And tripping over it at inopportune times. Tell me about it.
Or banging body parts into it
As long as you wear your Imperial Storm Trooper slippers, you’re guaranteed not to stub your toes on it.
The real kicker is that the jet is invisible, but you remain visible, sat floating on nothing, and thinking that no one can see you…
Why would you think that? Wonder Bewbs knew that people could still see her
It’s pretty hard to take any eyewitnesses seriously when they describe “a hot woman in a leotard squatting in midair”
I’m reminded of one of the newer DC Justice League movies where Flash is running through the hangar of the Watch Tower and ends up on his ass because he close-lined himself on the wing of WW’s jet.
:D
But imagine all the money you could save on parking.
yeah, you could park it even right on the runway to save time… wait there must be a catch…
yup, put a big invisible object into place, where people are putting their cars.
i can see nothing wrong coming out of it.
Invisible jet? If I’m going to have something with that advanced technology, I’ll get spaceship. I’m sure Klingons are selling them for fair price, as they live for honor. Also, you can keep someone inside to beam you up if you forget where you parked.
I had an invisible jet, but then I couldn’t find an invisible pilot, so I had to sell it. :(
Did you get invisible money for it?
Was that a reference to the X-Men’s infamous Blackbird (SR-71)? I remember from the comics and movies it turning invisible…
Or maybe SHIELD’s retro-reflective paneling from the helicarriers?
probably a reference to Wonder Woman’s.
Yup, considering it is Maxi, most definitely Wonder Bewbs (also the fact of that terrible movie that recently came out)
Terrible place to have sex.
Well one of the things in the background is obviously a unicorn horn.
I mean Narwhal thingy.
*whistles innocently*
I thought it was the Dagoth horn from Conan the Destroyer [The movie, uncredited part played by Andre the Giant according to IMDB], then I remebered I think it had a “plug” of …stuff at the base in his case, was jewel encrusted, and I don’t think had the spiral pattern to it.
Yes, but was that before or after Conan ripped it off and shoved it up its arse? o_O
It was before it was attached to bring him to life. If I remember the horn was smooth curved ivory like a drinking horn, with the aforementioned gems on a thick, wide ?gold? ring. After attachment it became plain rough bone with ridges running from point to base with no spiral, the gold became bone, and no gems.
Actually, if you watch closely, Conan tosses the horn aside after he ripped it off Dagoth’s head…He wanted to grab his sword.
Same thought here… Narwhal or – unicorn.
on the right on top a soul gem, and on the right bottom, the Maltese falcon, I think.
Damnit!! Was about to say that!!! :( (about the Falcon)
Pretty sure the top right item is actually The Dark Crystal
read the author comment, it is the Maltese Falcon (which in the movie was black, but ended when they said it was a fake cover over gold), and The Dark Crystal..
And the green thing in the second row on the right is clearly the ashtray that Deus made for his Mom in 1st grade. ;-)
I thought it was the Unicorn horn from _Legend_, the one Dark cut off the one unicorn to sacrifice the other for eternal darkness.
Love how pleased with herself Maxima is in the last panel. XD
If you can blow $50 million a year, then you can use $3k suits like disposable tissues.
well,if he’s willing to give 50millions / year, it’s that he considers the gain from the publicity for his products (by having maxima wear them) to be a good investment :) (afterall, he wants his product line to go from not known to worldwide recognition on par with top sellers :).
besides, maxima’s media exposure for the few first years after Archon’s official reveal is going to be far more important than what an athlete would have :)
Typical margins are around 20%, so whatever he is selling would have to increase revenues in the $250 million per year ballpark. That is an incredible sales growth for anyone.
True, but if Maxima models articles of clothing like boots, or other rugged-type wear, they’re bound to be pretty damn successful. She would be the epitome of badass on an epic level in that world, and it seems unlikely that she would stop taking names any time soon. So even if they discontinue the contract after the five years, he’s created a product that is associated with Maxima’s powerful image, even if that image is no longer explicitly (legally) associated with the line.
So when people think “superpower,” they think of Machina Industries’ Footfallout line of extreme footwear! From the imposing Imperial Marches combat boot, to the refined yet forceful Legio Primo business shoe, you’re sure to make an impression in whomever you cross!
He doesn’t even need to directly benefit that much from Maxima’s endorsement. He’s starting from zero, so he’s basically buying market share to jump start the business instead of growing it over several years. Once your product is out there in people’s hands, you’ll have loyal customers who will return to your brand, and you will have people see and be seen in the clothes and shoes which generates interest. He’ll benefit from the initial boost for a long time even if Max doesn’t renew after the 5 years.
One of the key tricks to becoming (and STAYING) a multi-millionaire is keeping a tight grip on your spending. So, sure, you could buy all the $3K suits you want, but if you’re careless with them, you’ll run out oif the cash to buy them soon enough.
The typical rich guy doesn’t wear $3k suits either. They wear suits from Men’s Warehouse (if they do at all), live in a $350k house and drive a modest car. $3k su its are usually found on athletes and musicians living well beyond their sustainable years. If he’s wearing a $3k suit, he’s either close to bankruptcy or so wealthy it doesn’t matter if it he’s dirty.
When you go by the name “Deus” (literally either A god, or THE god depending when it was used), hire superpowered mercenaries to take over a country, have a “thunder clap” generator installed for your rants….
Yea, “typical” isn’t exactly your neighborhood.
It sounds like Deus is supposed to be a kind of modern-day Rockefeller. On steroids. Economic steroids. (As the actual John Rockefeller was pretty straight-laced) So he’s probably set aside a sizable portion of his wealth as truly disposable income, which means he CAN throw away things like $3000 suits. His 50mill/year negotiations would probably come out of whatever company he uses to manage advertising and such.
For all we know, $50 mill might be about what Deus mentally categorizes as “Sock Drawer” or “Petty Cash”.
That isn’t to say Deus considers this a trivial amount (he clearly has more than a few ideas as to what can be done with it), just that he may be used to thinking in much larger amounts when being talking SERIOUS business..
What do you mean “blow” $50 million a year? Deus is a businessman, he fully expects to receive more than that in return. You don’t think that celebrity endorsements are just because companies have some executives who are sports fans, do you?
To be honest, I’ve been totally bewildered since the last update, and continue to do be so with this. Deus’ behavior here- very casual, genial, non-threatening- is just taking me for a loop given we’ve seen him be completely ruthless and ambitious.
Well, he is ruthless, but he isn’t stupid. He wants Max, and so he is laying the groundwork for manipulating her. Note how he makes this tempting even though she knows he is playing her.
Here’s hoping that max knows better than to trust someone who likely has a closet full of authentic super villain costumes.
Well… He HAD the original Lex Luthor mad scientist get up… But he spilled some high priced Civet poo coffee on that one.
You can see under his jacket that he is still wearing the purple shirt, but he had to send the green pants to the cleaners.
He also had to stop wearing the long gloves with the outfit.. People kept thinking he was doing a Breaking Bad cosplay.
He can be ruthless when he needs to, but there’s no gain from being ruthless here, so why would he?
Stop viewing him as a stupid villain, stop viewing him as a villain at all
Oh, he’s not stupid, but the VILLAIN part?
There’s a reason we think that.
Every rich guy has his weird kinks. This is VERY harmless as far as that goes.
He hasn’t done any actual villain acts yet, so right now people are just calling him a villain because they see a villain shaped hole in the comic that he could fill
Arranging, nay -ordering-, a heart attack to suit his goals jumps to mind as a ‘villainous act’.
Considering the one he had killed was a complete murdering warlord who enjoyed killing his own people, yes, that totally makes Deus a ‘villain’, forget all the lives he has helped directly because of it
His goals were to remove that genocidal warlord
… And I, for one, would lose no sleep over that. Even if out of total self-interest, he has made the world a slightly better place.
However, I’m not saying that I’d actually TRUST Deus. At least at this stage, I rank him similarly to the Deveels of Robert Aspirin’s ‘Another Fine Myth’ series*.
* EXPLANATION: It is said of Deveels, by pretty much anybody with a clue, that if you make what you think is a good deal with one, then you should count your fingers, then your toes, and then all of your relatives.
And your teeth, and everything you own.
Is it though? If he was a local, he’d be a hero of the revolution. His act directly uplifted the country from poor-as-dirt to heading-for-1st-world.
Just because it’s making him even more filthy rich doesn’t diminish the good it’s done to a lot of people
There is an argument which can be made, and a valid on in my opinion, that saving dozens/hundreds/thousands of lives by taking one is justifiable.
He offered the real villain money and power to scale back his depredations, the the real villain refused. Murder at that point, especially after being personally threatened with death, was quite justified.
It might even count as a mercy killing – that warlord was arguably too stupid to live.
Let’s not make this into something it was not.
Deus threatened the warlord first. The warlord’s response to that was ‘You’ve threatened me. Leave my home or I will have you shot.’ Note the ‘leave my home’ part.
Deus then gives his order to ‘Abdicate’ the King.
Which means:
1. Deus threatened the King – in his home – first;
2. The King’s response to this was not to issue a blanket threat or order him shot, but to give Deus a ‘Leave my home or there will be consequences’ warning;
3. Deus then orders his assassination;
4. The King then orders his guards to kill Deus.
Whether or not the King was a monster is immaterial; this was not a case of Deus responding to threat of death with self-defence. There is no such justification.
Cripes, if there’s any justification for self-defence, it’s on the King’s side.
For me, this is more of a case of one villain killing another villain.
Sure, but then you go back to the larger picture, that entire country that is now better off.
No one’s saying that Deus is a good guy. But he’s not a classical villain either
I’m discussing the idea that ‘the murder, especially under threat of death, was justified’ (ie it had good results and was also self-defence). Which is incorrect, as any threats began with Deus, as did the violence.
And for my money, sure, it’s still villain offing villain, though to be fair I suppose it’s more accurate to say ‘Evil killing evil’. Does this happen to make things better for the country? Sure. That doesn’t change Deus’ motivations.
But we’ve been down this road, haven’t we? :)
On top of that, there’s actually no proof the King was ordering his guards to kill Deus. ‘Throw him from the…’
The what? The window? The house?
He has dudes with firearms standing there, and he’s not order them to shoot Deus. Instead, he’s telling them ‘Throw him from the…’
Sure, probably the window, but one could argue he was about to say ‘…palace.’
because until he can say “or else I cut off the money for your women’s shelter” he has no leverage over her.
This might help you understand his motivations a little better.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH2ftrk_n8s
Just a warning it is over an hour long and goes in depth as to what Lawful Evil is. Cliff Notes version Deus is about order(his order) and tradition. While he may do things that a Lawful Good character like Maxima doesn’t agree with, right now he is obeying the law and helping the masses so she can’t stop him without proof of what he was doing to justify doing so.
Deus is an expert at carrot and stick diplomacy. Right now using the carrot is in his favor. What happened in the flashback was a case of the carrot not working so he used the stick.
Oooh… Thank you for turning me on to that series. I’ve been looking at some RPG blogs, but this is a decent looking Vlog series too.
I’m impressed by the fact that the video, which covers only a single one out of 9 alignments, is 1:18 long.
If the rest go as long that is almost 12 hours on just alignment.
NERDS!
To be clear, I’ve played D&D, so I’m in the glass house throwing that stone. But damn!
A fun and detailed (read: long) description of Lawful Evil:
Compliance Will Be Rewarded
Deus is being a bit obvious here, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work. He’s not expecting an answer right away. More like, ask again in 6 months and keep asking until he gets the answer he’s hoping for.
Because of that last line, my mental voice for reading Deus’ speech will now be Job Bluth.
I always find it funny when a rich person in a movie/comic/tv show complains about an exorbitantly expensive suit even though they have plenty of money to buy a full closet of them. I mean, unless the suit is made from some rare cloth, and their suit contains over 20% of the world’s supply, I’m betting that they can get one exactly the same made. But even then, usually the reason it’s ruined is they spilled something on it, or even are just kneeling in it. Dry cleaning can usually fix that unless it’s very dark red wine (which still can be gotten completely out as long as it’s not a white suit), chocolate (same), or blood (same).
I wish I had the money to buy a suit that was more than the $150 one I got…from a sale…that I’ve worn a total of 5 times in the last 7 years…and it makes me look more like a game show host than a business man.
Rich people tend to acquire and retain the wealth to afford such things by not wasting money on bad investments. So even a suit they could afford to replace is treated like an investment. They paid $3,000 for a suit, and they expect to get at least $3,000 worth of wear from it.
Zack Tilly! Just because they can afford a thousand similar suits, doesn’t mean they want to, specially over something as small as a stain
I’m specifically talking about in movies/comics/tv shows, where the only way a rich person can become broke is by some plot device (i.e. corruption, tax evasion, stocks failing dramatically, etc), where not only will they lose their money, but the next day repo men show up and take all the furniture, the house, the cars…everything. I’m not talking about real life rich people. I just used real life scenarios as an example.
Seriously, think about someone like Richie Rich, or Tony Stark, or Bruce Wayne. They have so much money they could buy half the world a $3000 suit and it would barely show up on their balance. They might have to give up that planned 1-year high roller vacation tour of Europe and Asia. Or put off buying those 3 houses in the Bahamas that are on their own private islands.
Heh, Remember that bruce wayne is the guy who was able to design, fabricate, launch and assemble a space station for the justice league and keep it hidden “as a line item in the R&D budget” Yeah, comic rich people are absurd and their writers dont have the slightest clue about how many zeroes their bank account would require to actually pull something like that off. That doesnt even touch the logistics involved.
To be fair, a lot of times comic-book rich guys have more types of resources than real-life ones. Like, for instance, Bruce could easily have had the components of the Watchtower constructed in separate facilities under odd, unassuming names, shipped to a warehouse, then had Supes, WW, Flash, etc show up, grab the stuff and ferry it out to the middle of the ocean, assemble it via superspeed and superstrength, then just super-fly it into orbit. No need for all the safety equipment, testing, etc- no need for launch rockets, orbital windows, fuel… No giant roar of exhaust, contrails or heat bloom for sensors to pick up…
Stocking it, once you have teleportation tech up, is even easier, and power-wise- isn’t the Watchtower constructed partially with Kryptonian and Martian technology?
True, except for one thing: All of the League was surprised by what he had done. They had no idea what he had done before he showed them the Watchtower.
That being said, Wayne Enterprises has, or at least I believe the company has, shuttles to space. One of the ways that Batman/Bruce could have gotten the Watchtower up into orbit, is to build the station, pay off the workers that assemble it in space, and then claim that it was destroyed.
My theory is that it might be one of his favorite suits or he is just saying it to get a rise out of Maxima.
Not necessary Maxima specifically. It might be reaction he have trained for anyone.
If the suit contains over 20% of somethings world supply, then it can be cleaned – even if you would need to use electron microscope or particle accelerator for it, it would still be worth it. I’m sure physics already have a way to remove specific single atom from a surface.
… also, if I would pay $3,000 for a suit, it would be EXACTLY because it’s easy to clean. Or, like, fireproof, which is exactly the same thing because you can then clean it with welding torch. What, your suit can’t do that? Then I’m not paying $3,000 for it.
Ha, that reminds me of a recent kickstarter — successful, mind, it’s already closed and more than fully funded — for women’s skirts. I think the company was called Eros and Psyche? The best value for investment in the KS project, to let them establish the factory and start their first line, was $300 which would net you three of the skirts in your choice of size/color/style (they had a Cocktail and Mini style), as a Backer Reward. They’ll be double that at retail price, apparently.
Sounds absurd price-wise, but they’re being made using high-tech chemical treatments that make them waterproof, stain-proof, even BLOOD proof (I mean they actually called it “period proof” but), PLUS they have a pair of nice, deep hidden pockets (ON WOMEN’S CLOTHING YAAAS). Oh, and the same treatment makes it antimicrobial — so not only does everything from red wine to blood slide right off with as little as “a damp cloth”, not only do you not have to worry about your butt getting soaked in the rain, but even the kind of dirt and sweat that might otherwise cause bacterial growth that makes it stinky, apparently won’t be an issue?
tldr you literally would almost never, ever in your life have to wash it, even if you wore it every single day, even if you bled on it or spilled food or drink on it or worked up a sweat in it. It would actually probably be “cleaner” than the human who was wearing it at any given time lol
Like, $300 for three skirts (let alone $600) is something I would never ever pay for something that was super delicate or that I’d have to worry about staining. But I actually convinced a family member to pledge to it for me as a birthday/future Christmas present for me, precisely BECAUSE “omg I’d never have to wash it even if I bled on it!? AND IT HAS POCKETS!?” otherwise I’d be like “eff off no way”
But as to how this connects to the comic: This is technology that has apparently existed for a few years now, but it’s only now getting to be sorta kinda mass-market price-able. But again…it existed already. As far as I’m concerned, even if he had to pay extra to have it perfectly fitted to him, Deus is wasting his money if that suit isn’t already scotch-proof :)
I’m a guy, but for clothing that awesome, I’d start crossdressing.
Wouldn’t they just be out of style in about three weeks anyway?
Those are some of the reason why all of my regular clothes cost less than $20 a piece. As a guy, I get dirt, grime, blood, food, and who knows what else on my clothes randomly whenever I wear them. Someone tried to convince me one time to buy a pair of $300 white shoes one time. My first question to him was “Will they be just as white in a month?” “Well, if you clean them regular – hey, where are you going?” “Unless you’re answer is ‘These shoes wash themselves so they will be just as white a year from now no matter what you do.’ then instead I’ll go buy myself a pair of $20 white shoes that I can get dirty, throw in a washer whenever I want to clean them, and when they get destroyed I can instantly buy another pair.”
Those are some of the reason why all of my regular clothes cost less than $20 a piece. As a guy, I get dirt, grime, blood, food, and who knows what else on my clothes randomly whenever I wear them. Someone tried to convince me one time to buy a pair of $300 white shoes one time. My first question to him was “Will they be just as white in a month?” “Well, if you clean them regular – hey, where are you going?” “Unless you’re answer is ‘These shoes wash themselves so they will be just as white a year from now no matter what you do.’ then instead I’ll go buy myself a pair of $20 white shoes that I can get dirty, throw in a washer whenever I want to clean them, and when they get destroyed I can instantly buy another pair.”
The suit’s worth might be unimportant, but think of what he could earn in the time he now has to spend with a tailor.
A suit that expensive is also a TIME investment. And Deus has exactly as much time per day as everyone else.
In addition, I’m sure that Machina Industries is a corporation (or more precisely, an incorporated holding company that owns a bunch of corporations). Even if he’s the only stockholder, there is still – as a matter of law – HIS money and THE COMPANY’S money, and hoops which must be jumped through (most of them taxable) to convert the latter to the former. The proposed $50M to Max would be company money, since it’s for advertising of company products; the suit, his money.
Yeah, but real law and fantasy law don’t always meet the same standards. Comic law usually has a CEO, especially if the company was started by that CEO, having both his money and the company money be one and the same, without any legal repercussions. It’s why a company going bankrupt also bankrupts the CEO.
I would bet he already has muslins on file in any establishment he would be likely to patronize; has attendants (and/or machines) who check for any measurement/posture/body changes on a daily or weekly basis, while he is busy doing something else (like working out); body doubles (or life-model decoys) who do basic fittings in his place; and thus reduces the amount of time he has to be in the tailor’s presence to a bare minimum, far less than an ordinary tailor’s customer.
Some (though not all) establishments will even fly a tailor to a sufficiently wealthy or important client, saving him the necessity of visiting. If I recall correctly, the POTUS and other heads of state get that kind of service, and, I presume that Deus does not rate himself any less highly.
I wonder how long Maxima has been sitting on that joke.
For that matter, I wonder how long DaveB has been sitting on that joke, just looking for an excuse to work it in
I did a bit of research for this for a urban fantasy book I’m writing.
A bottle of Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Robers Reserve 1955 sold at auction for around $94,000 back in ’05, so yeah, good possibility the suit might be worth more…
I believe Deus spit out the scotch on purpose. Or at least didn’t train to get rid of that reflex for comedic purposes. I myself never had that problem. If someone made me laugh real hard while I was drinking something I always had a few seconds left to aim everything so that it went right back into the glass, letting it flow down with gravity rather than actually spitting it.
Then you dont know the right people! :P
what ^ ^ ^ said. i’ve gotten hit with jokes that are so outta left field, you have no time to aim a spit take. and i’ve done it to people. wound up taking a coffee shower that way once, on the bus to work.
The problem with an invisible jet is that, if you forget where you landed it, it’s as good as lost.
Then there’s the possibility of walking headlong into it when you don’t recall exactly where it is. Not to mention the chance that it could be sitting on a runway when another plane tries to land there unawares.
I guess you could look for the suspicious marks from landing gear on the ground and several dead birds seemingly floating in mid air.
just don’t wash it until just before take off. Planes get DIRTY just flying. It wouldn’t be easy to see, but you could see the lead edge/ windshield.
I can’t remember the exact comic or cartoon that did it, but I remember they did joke of Wonder Woman taking a passenger on her jet and the person needing to use the rest room. She told him there was one just behind the cockpit, but after thinking about it he decided to wait until they landed.
Fire up the radar or thermal camera and you’ll see it easily.
She probably means cloaked jet. If it was just transparent, you’d still see the pilot in a sitting position and a couple of filled fuel tanks.
Cloaked can usually be turned off and will cover any dirt, splattered birds, etc when active.
But, even at that, there are times you may want to set it down and leave it without arising suspicion as you sneak in to the enemy base. As they said in Star Trek – The Voyage Home, “Remember were we parked”
No, she means Wonder Bewbs’ invisible jet (from when she couldn’t fly herself, like how early Soups could only leap tall buildings)
Brings to mind the movie Megamind. Parked his invisible car. Forgot where he left it and could not find it.
I think an invisible jet would be an absolute bitch to repair or perform routine maintenance on. Think about it.
To bad W.W. is not in the Marvel universe. She could hire Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil) to do her jet maintenance. He could tell where all the parts were with his sonar.
Great. That means her jet’s maintenance would be done by a lawyer.
I think those last two panels are some of my favorite facial expressions for Maxima as of yet.
In panel two, is that the Maltese Falcon in the display case behind Deus?
Sorry. I asked the question before I read DaveB’s blog.
If Maxima’s trying to get Deus to be *not* interested in her anymore, she’s doing it wrong.
I would think dry cleaning would be sufficient.
It’s mostly alcohol.
He could have identical $3k suits for each day of the week.
The eponymous Maltese Falcon but not the RotLA idol?
(The 12 foot rock is in storage.)
Again, he has more than just two piddley little display cabinets
I do believe he just might own “Warehouse 13”.
Dang!
I’ll have to wear my Thurday suit Wednesday!
Max timed that perfectly.
Absolutely. And it sends the message that he may know how to push her buttons, but she does too.
That necklace seems kinda maybe possibly familiar looking, just not sure where or why…
Loving Maxi’s happy face in panel eight :D
Hm. I wonder how much would adding a visual+IR cloaking system do to F-22’s USD150M (or F-35B’s USD104M) pricetag…
Lots, I’d say.
Invisibility aint cheap, and we’re w-a-y-y-y past the stage where giving a plane a transparent plastic skin could work (as was tried in ww1).
There are visible and IR “cloaking” prototypes that some military contractors have tested, but nothing beyond that. Besides, I am fairly certain that none of those would be easy to add on an F-22 or F-35B without breaking their stealth.
Or without getting past the maximum take off weight. x)
The army tried a technique in WWII called ‘isoluminance’. Ground troops often first see an incoming plane as a dark speck against the brighter sky. The army air corps tried putting a string of lights along the front of the wings that would make the plane appear to be the same brightness as the background. It did not make the plane invisible, but did allow it to get much closer before the enemy could spot it by eye. Then both sides had to start using that pesky RADAR thingy and ruined the whole idea.
well given that IR cloaking on a jet would require violating one of the laws of thermodynamics it would be a fairly heavy fine in addition to the R&D costs required to break all known physics. radar and optics we can and have done successfully for years though.
What makes IR different from any other electromagnetic?
The difference is that IR is emitted by all objects withing a fairly large temperature range. Cloaking of that sort would require the plane to alter its surface temperature to match that of its surroundings. Which is likely to be VERY tough to do with exhaust, or under low temp conditions. Mind you, not impossible, but still, VERY tough. It could, in theory, be done using the Peltier effect (which would allow to precisely map the outside of the airplane to a certain temperature map), however, unless the excess heat would be emitted elsewhere, it would eventually cook the inside of the plane. I guess it could work to fool ammunition tracking IR, although there are simpler methods for that (often, just provide a “brighter” source of heat).
Is that a shard of “The Dark Crystal”? behind Dues….. how many other mythic objects does this man own?
And like Ignoble before me, I need to read DaveB’s blog notes…..
My first thought on seeing the crystal was “damn, it isn’t blue”. Because then it’d either be from Metebelis III (doctor who), or the Stargate SG1 episode “Cold Lazarus” (known to some fans as THAT episode..). But it’s purple and the shard of the dark crystal instead and that’s cool but I’m just a little disappointed :-)
Oh, and the Maltese Falcon? That one is a fake. The real one is not only gold but encrusted with gemstones as well. Quote: “a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels”. You got taken for a ride Deus!
Yeah I couldn’t find a version of it that showed the jewels, I guess that prop was never created for the movie.
I don’t know, if I were a multi-billionaire industrialist/entrepreneur specializing in business deals that are never quite what they appear to be, owning the signature prop from a movie about shady deals might be an awesome thing to have sitting out on my shelf in my “deal room”, if I were convinced I was more clever than everyone else (and also a snark).
Ahh, Pride vs Greed. All this scene is doing is lending more creedence to my theory.
Aaaand now I’m envisioning Max in Wonder Woman’s outfit. GAAAAHHHH! The image is kicking my brain’s butt for being sexist! Hurt! T.T
(Yes, I do have an overactive imagination.)
Too late…
https://davebarrack.deviantart.com/art/chicasguerreras-hutopo-349677992
Which version though? And why is it sexist? o_O
Including the Maltese Falcon is fun. Including the Maltese Falcon stripped of its lacquer is brilliant.
Ok, It IS brilliant and I’m being picky because it IS that brilliant, but according to the 1941 film (and the book if I remember correctly) the falcon was not only solid gold but “encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels”. No offence to DaveB, but I think Deus might want to check if he kept the receipt :-)
Maybe he just had the movie prop gilded.
This is timely:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385775/The-priceless-statuette-The-Maltese-Falcon-turned-lead-fake-expected-fetch-1-5-million-auction.html
I love that you actually know how to use the verb “to gild” (cover with metal leaf, usually gold or composite “gold” leaf) correctly.
My dad does gilding — including professionally. It’s a finicky thing but totally possible to do it on a statue like that, and well within someone like Deus’ means to have it done.
Deus might know a certain geomancer who would do the job for him. As for the rest of us, the best fake gold can be made by substituting tungsten for the core and then layering a small amount of gold at the surface. It works because the two metals have the same specific density.
https://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-03/how-make-convincing-fake-gold-bars
What’s so funny about an “invisible jet”? And “reel it in”?
it was reel it back, not in. Basically she said, “don’t get ahead of yourself, maybe I just want [something unbelievably impossible]”
The invisible jet is an item belonging to Wonder Woman, who is a female superman (just like Maxima)
And on an alternate world, she is actually known as Super Woman
Also the invisible jet is a Wonder Woman joke.
In some of the old cartoons/comics, Wonder Woman didn’t have the ability to fly like she often does in later comics, and she had the Invisible Jet instead. Which was exactly what it sounded like…and was animated by showing her sitting down in mid-air at invisible controls.
It…was not the most well-thought out concept. But since it was in the Super Friends cartoon that an entire generation was exposed to, it’s rather famous.
Actually, she was typically shown sitting in the outline of a jet
I’m not sure which one is worse
Then there was the TV series.
When the star of your show is Lynda Carter and you have her dressed for most of each episode like this, you don’t hide her inside solid and non-invisible planes.
The control panel of said aircraft would be substantially less useful than a visible one.
Over the intercom: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. We are traveling in some direction at some speed and at an altitude of kinda high up. We will arrive whenever I can spot the place we want to land, unless we run out of however much fuel we have.”
That geode in the middle looks suspiciously like the bad kryptonite from Superman III.
Pink Kryptonite works ‘differently’
“no, it’s just a fancy bottle opener.” uhuh, you expect us to fall for that one? :)
Ok, random thought, and perhaps this has been said I don’t know, it’s my first time in comments. This may have been intentionally left to speculation. It was the women’s health and such that got me thinking. Can Maxima even have “relations” with a non super? Thats just to say, super human strength + kegel contractions = very bad news for all mortal men. We’re likely talking worse than slammed in a dictionary here. Sorry If I’ve over thought this.
It’s been discussed, but nothing official from DaveB AFAIK. My personal ship is her and Hiro. He’s tough enough to handle it and Max has commented on his looks before.
Since she is able to handle not destroying everything she touches, even when pissed off, I would think the man of steel woman of kleenex thing is a nonissue for her. Plus, I dont have anything solid to base it off of, just a feeling, but she doesnt strike me as particularly virginal either. I think she has had at least a little experience in that area.
Of coarse she can manage to not destroy everything she touches, but the reaction I’m referring to is involuntary. Much like blinking, it’s an autonomic function.
DaveB’s made mention previously that her powers are sort of on a moment-to-moment “point buy” system. It’s not made explicit in the comic in any actual wording, because it’s the kind of thing that you would prefer to keep bad guys in the dark about (e.g. if they knew X power was lessened by pumping more into Y power, they might be able to strategize around it)
I imagine if she wanted to she could utilize that aspect of her powers’ nature to get around the “Woman of Steel, Man of Kleenex” problem pretty easily ;)
*er, assuming she’s not also into ladies or those of non-masculine gender, in which case I amend that to “Woman of Steel, Partner of Kleenex” I suppose. Somebody pointed out she’s shown appreciation for Hiro’s looks so it’s likely she’s into guys even if not exclusively, but. Wanted to be accurate here X3
Plus, she has only shown mild annoyance slash embarrassment from Dabbles’ ‘attentions’ and public gropage
I’m sorry, did you say “mild annoyance”?
I know DaveB said it’s all “nonsense or […] there for a reason” but that triangular column just to the right of Deus’ face is ringing bells for me. At first it reminded of one of the stones from The 5th Element, but its too shiny. Seems more like something out of Stargate. Ori maybe?
Anyway it’ll be neat to see which items are “there for a reason.”
You mean rectangular column? Beside the Pink Kryptonite and below Dagoth’s Horn?
Maybe we ought to check in on Sydney and see if Vale’s eyes are wide and she’s running her index finger up and down her lips?
Oh Maxima, your nerd is showing. I love it.
Such a simple yet elegant win for Maxima~
Still ‘shippin’ it! :D
This may have been addressed before, but does alcohol actually affect Maxima? What about the other supers?
It does but she has a tremendous tolerance.
Is that caused by her powers? What about other supers? You are conveniently leaving out a lot of answers here
A good author keeps things in reserve, so as to keep his audience interested.
Probably depends on her powers.
Alcohol tolerance is a function of overall physical health (constutution), body mass, and biological predisposition for or against sensitivity. Most supers are pretty healthy (Mr Glass notwithstanding), and Maxima is both tall and… let’s say more muscle-y than a typical female, so unless she’s got one whopper of a sensitivity to alcohol, pretty sure two or three shots of even high grade alcohol wouldn have much effect in a 15 minute conversation.
Once out-drank a fellow who outmasses me by 200 pounds, shocked the hell out of me. Found out later that he hadn’t drank anything in a year while i was regularly drinking once a week at the time.
That didn’t last long… :D
Disclaimer 1: My wish to contest the views expressed by the characters in this comic is not an attack on those characters or whatever group they may be a part of. I specify this because I know how easily this kind of debate devolves into ad hominem attacks. I understand where Max and Deus are coming from, but I still want to comment on what they say.
Disclaimer 2: I’m French, so I won’t comment on the “health care kerfuffle”. From across the Atlantic, American healthcare politics honestly look like a massively chaotic shitshow.
Onto the main points.
Women have a vastly superior amount of gender-seregated shelters available to them compared to the roughly equal need each gender has regarding protection from abusive relationships. Though more shelters is always a good thing, I question the idea that seems prevalent nowadays that women are alone in needing them. Statistics show that non-reciprocal abuse is split along the middle as to which gender enacts it (not to mention the whole other can of worms that are abusive same-sex relationships).
As for the scholarships and gender disparity in jobs, it’s an idea that seems based on quite a few misconceptions, chief among them the idea that this is a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it. While racial positive discrimination may make some amount of sense, given the measurable differences of income between families of various social groups (though it would make even more sense to just base access to scholarships on family income regardless of that family’s standing), women are exactly as spread out as men across these same groups and therefore do not need any special financial advantage on that front. The fact that women tend to choose non-STEM fields (which cost the same as STEM) is a personal choice with statistical consequences, and whether or not one believes this to be a problem, it doesn’t stem from a lack of money; more money is therefore not a viable solution.
He is picking a subject aimed at his target. You don’t try catching fish by dangling a carrot on your rod. Similarly, you don’t dangle a worm if you want to catch a donkey. Though, if you are trying to catch a donkey, a boat on the river is not a good starting point, but I digress.
He knows what pushes her buttons and what interests her. If he was trying to snare a Sydney it might be about his idea to launch a chain of comic book stores that sell spicy vegetarian food.
Yup, the idea might be absurd, but it doesn’t sound absurd to *her*, and she is the only one whose opinion matters in this situation.
For those who take their chosen cause and/or preferred charity seriously, there is absolutely no such thing as “enough” funding. There would always be something further that could, or should, be done.
I cans catch donkeys wiz carrots?
Yays!
Only donkeys with diving equipment.
Cerby, very well stated. Ohmagerd, a NON attack, NON pushing my own opinion response! *faints* :)
Hm, some fair points about the abuse (though men are apparently less likely to be outright raped, it doesn’t mean they can’t be abused in other ways — and whether it’s rape or other abuse, men chronically under-report when it does happen, thanks to gendered cultural expectations that shame them about not being “tough” enough to protect themselves, just as women have to be “pure/smart/good” enough to “not make themselves a target” — ugh, that sentence was painful to type).
However. There is a minor quibble I have with something you remarked upon in regards to STEM and women:
“The fact that women tend to choose non-STEM fields (which cost the same as STEM) is a personal choice with statistical consequences, and whether or not one believes this to be a problem, it doesn’t stem from a lack of money; more money is therefore not a viable solution.”
No. Actually, a few relatively recent (as in, mostly within the last few years) studies come to mind that dispute this. It’s not just a matter of “personal choice, inexplicable, imagine that”.
A study that…I think came out of Princeton, IIRC? Showed that women do indeed choose to go to to non-STEM fields more often…but it’s because the same training gets them paid better in other fields. This isn’t always a case of “women going into teaching science instead of doing science because they’re conditioned to be natural carers” or something, this is a simple matter of women doing the math and realizing that the skills they picked up in college, in a tight job market, will pay better elsewhere…even if they originally went to school for STEM fields.
This MIGHT indeed be a problem you could throw money at, when you consider that in America (again, you’re French, so your education system keep in mind is very different from the US) university education is massively expensive. It has vastly outpaced inflation as well as what the job market alone could support at starting levels. STEM fields as a rule pay absolute crap in the US compared to what universities are currently charging for tuition (certainly, this is the case for engineering — I’m related to several engineers and they basically have said anyone graduating college for engineering in the last few years cannot possibly make enough at the starting salaries companies are willing to pay them, to be able to recoup the expense of the education necessary to get that job). So to be frank, a lot of people with the training to go into STEM fields are finding that they can’t get a job that pays back their student loans, if they stay in STEM.
Women are doubly impacted by this though, as we are not dumb; we too you see, can look up the studies that for something like ten years or more have been saying that “Even when you control for everything else, including the sheer numbers of members of each gender, education level, or credentials, women are less likely to get published and less likely to get grants”; when the scientific culture is “publish or perish” this isn’t conducive to larger numbers of women getting into the fields!
No, throwing money at it isn’t the only thing that is necessary to fix the problem that has been brewing, but in that case (student loan/tuition coverage) it may very well make the difference
Now, as to why women don’t go into STEM as much, even aside from the way we’re pushed aside in publishing and grants? Well, there’s a few things involved in that.
First, a personal story: as a woman who used to be a nerd girl interested in STEM fields as a kid, I can look back at my life and actually see a whole mess of awful, well-meaning, condescending decisions that the people in charge of the public schools I went to made that literally shifted me to an “arts” track and away from “science and math” heavy tracks. E.g. “oh your math grades are low, do you not like math? We’ll put you in EASY math classes then!” = assumed that I did poorly because it was “hard” for me or didn’t interest me. Turned out I just had ADHD (ps: ADHD in girls has a tendency to go undiagnosed for longer…but that’s no excuse in this case since I had been diagnosed over two years earlier!) and it was a combination of the disorder’s causing issues with executive functioning (I was poor at planning/organization/time management, and often forgot to do, finish, or turn in assignments; I often spaced out during class, sometimes not realizing homework was even assigned,etc) and… that I was BORED in class because the way math was taught was highly repetitive and unengaging and often seemed non-relevant to any useful or interesting problem-solving I’d have to do in real life; my actual TEST scores in math were excellent, but were ignored because “oh you find it boring, huh? okay, we won’t CHALLENGE you to work harder in it then” seemed logical to the people who compiled my High School (Secondary school) schedules. >_> And because I was not in higher maths, they put me in lower science courses too, even though I had a vocal interest in science (I actually had to fight, halfway through my second year of high school, to get put in a different science track because I was literally in a class where none of the other students cared about the subject and they had given the class to a newbie teacher who had trouble controlling the class and I wasn’t learning anything but WANTED to).
I have no explicit “proof” that this was because I was a girl, but as an adult who is aware of stereotypes of men being the “math and logic” thinkers and women being “not interested in math” but good at arts and language? Who has heard of the studies where it is found that in US classrooms, girls get called on less, particularly in subjects like math? Yeah, I can read between the lines: they assumed i had a lack of aptitude, instead of mental health issues. They assumed I was bad at math when I wasn’t, demonstrably wasn’t, and put me in the science courses they assured me would be easier but “equivalent” (they were not. in my area there’s the “Integrated Science” that is taught by often inexperienced teachers or ones teaching out of field, and then there’s the “Year each of Biology, Chemistry and Physics” track, which are actually taught by the people who MAJORED in those fields. It’s a huge difference. I know this, because I had literally been through both approaches and the “year to each of three major disciplines, taught by someone who majored in it” is vastly superior, trust me!)
So a lot of this IS more about changing the culture and how we TREAT girls as they grow up and get their basic pre-college educations.
But some of it is also how even college-level education is handled, by people in the field; another study* showed that there is a huge difference in the level of MENTORING accessible to women students in STEM vs male ones. Male students in STEM are much more likely to have professors who go out of their way for them, who approach them for mentoring and on-campus STEM job offers, whereas women students are often all but ignored.
(*this may have been the one that was at Princeton, or maybe both were by Princeton, sigh, did I mention ADHD screws with your memory for details like that? I had meant to start organizing sources like this but well, that apparently was a level of Executive Functioning I have yet to master because that never happened. But anyway)
So, the long-winded moral is: it’s not so much just that women aren’t interested in STEM fields. it’s that at every level from K-12 schooling through college on up to past graduation, there are many subtle ways in which they are discouraged or blocked from entering the fields, in ways that men are not. From being less likely to get grants and publications, to being less likely to get a mentor or job offer that leads to professional connections and encouragement to pursue the field, to being steered AWAY from STEM tracks, to even just the simple economic necessity of needing to be able to pay off student loans, women are discouraged much more than men are from entering STEM fields and that is BEFORE we get to the more overt “women aren’t welcome here” vibes that groups in certain STEM fields (e.g. computer science) apparently give, which you can find discussion of by a lot of women if you google it up (computer programming is or was particularly bad for this, apparently).
So, you aren’t wrong that not all of this can be solved JUST by “throwing money at it”. A lot of it is cultural.
However, tuition assistance would go a LONG WAY, when young people are being told they need to “pick something practical that you won’t end up in debt for”…even by their peers who only graduated a few years ago. I mean, hell, if I had a full ride to study neuropsychology I WOULD DO IT, but it is dauntingly out of my price range, so I’ve had to settle for “get an Associate’s and just work retail”. Because it’s either that or be stupid enough to go into debt for my entire life for a degree I might not even get a job in. If I didn’t have to worry about the cost of that schooling though? Hell yeah I would do it! It makes a bigger difference than you would think.
And I feel like if we really did put $50million per year into promoting mentorships and outreach for women and girls, and educating people at schools and universities about how they need to stop and think about how much they might be failing to encourage women and girls, etc….well, it won’t fix it all, but it doesn’t seem like it would hurt either. If even one or two professors or high school class schedulers stops to question what they’re doing, it could have a surprising impact :)
tldr it’s complicated but do consider that in the US, thanks to the over-pricing of higher education, tuition support/educational grants/student loan forgiveness to prevent women from going into debt in order to go into science, would actually do quite a bit of good. No it wouldn’t solve the whole problem, but I can guarantee it would put more women in science compared to not supporting them, and watching them drop out, switch majors, or go into other fields when they realize they can’t pay back their loans on the salary they’d be offered.
Awesome post. Very good job of expressing your life-experience.
Of course, its grand size I will now take as a personal challenge to exceed. :D
The biggest post must be mine! Mwu-ha-ha!
James Harden – $15.3M per year for 13 years. Kevin Durant – $30M per year for 10 years. LeBron James – more than $500M – Lifetime. You’re in the ballpark. She’d pulled more money than those guys, most likely, because there is no female equivalent.
“If these boots can take a Max pounding, they can take anything. Max Boots by Deus.”
Let’s keep the politics out of this, maybe?
Yeah, that’s why I just called it a “kerfuffle” and left out details beyond that.
Maybe I’m not being fair.
Still, if you want to address politics I’ve seen it done very well before, it’s just hard for an author not to write in obvious right and wrong views for his characters, which is distracting in a realistic universe.
Deus’ office must be geek central. Look at all the shiny!
It’s times like these that makes me remember Maxima was a geek, and that Deus and her could’ve mesh together well…sometimes.
oooh, you live in GOOD world, where politicians cost more than $8000 to buy.
(Seriously, buying a political favor from a politician is easy and very, very cheap…)
The expense is in making sure they stay bought, by you, and not jump fence to someone with more money