Grrl Power #414 – The O.G.s (Origin of the Gold stuff)
So yeah, turns out, Max’s trajectory to superdom was a little different than usual. This gets expanded on a little in the next page, but basically all that Deus knew was one year Max came back from summer break gold, and given there are no other gold skinned supers as far as anyone knows, he thought it might be worth looking into.
I guess Max’s family is the sort that visits museums at 9am on a Tuesday. I wasn’t being lazy by not drawing other people, there actually wasn’t anyone there to witness what happened to her. Not that the event seems significant on its own, she just got splashed with “geode” “water.” She even told her parents when she found them, but by then it had all “evaporated.” She was like “I just got a mouthful of geode water.” And her dad was all “So I guess you don’t want your 7up?” But like I said, more info on the next page.
As for why baroque art is right by the geology exhibit, uh… the museum is remodeling the baroque wing? Cause, you know, it needed fixing?
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It occurs to me that both halves of the geode would have been collected as soon as someone realized (or suspected) there might be a link between it and Maxima’s transformation – at least in any rational universe, and this one seems pretty rational.
Max’s reaction might be explained by her belief that both halves HAD been secured and the presence of this half in Deus’ collection represents a MAJOR security breach.
Which would be cool and rather Deus-ish. “Oh, by the way, my research led me to this, and I thought it was SUPPOSED to be under lock and key. I … took care … of the problem and was waiting for an opportunity to return it to you … discreetly. Here’s the dossier on the thieves and a copy of my research. Whatever I could find, it’s possible someone else could find as well.”
One thing to think about is how many people know Max’s last name? And out of those people, who knows that this was the event that triggered the powers?
It would take a LOT to connect the dots, and the only person with both the time and the resources to pull it off is Deus and the yet-unreveiled antagonist that is Max’s mortal enemy.
“How many people know Max’s last name?” The entire world. She was introduced as Colonel Leander during the press event.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/989 This is the link where she introduces herself as Maximillia Leander.
And her family must all be deceased, or else they would be targets.
Or that’s not her real name (though dead family is a typical Batman-type origin for why someone becomes a super hero) Or her family has been relocated like in the Witness protection. Special Forces often try to keep their identities secret while their in service but that was never a option for Max as she started to stand out in a crowd long before joining the military.
Her brother is still alive
Yeah, you have to assume that Max either panicked (if the difference started showing up immediately) or was grossed out and left the other half behind, and that the museum staff thought the half geode was interesting enough to keep but unsalable. Or maybe someone kept it around since it doesn’t look like a normal geode but didn’t end up getting rid of it. There are some seemingly low-probability events involved here.
I’m guessing Dues (or someone of a similar mindset) got a hold of it before the government did.
or they went looking in the wrong place.
Why do people keep spelling Deus wrong?
You just have to remember “E before U, except after Q”
I just figured Deus autocorrected as Dues.
I wonder I she would be even stronger if she had drank it all instead of absorbing half through the skin.
She’d have to be pretty dern strange beforehand to even CONSIDER such an action, I think.
the Art is easy to explain, the curator of the Museum is eccentric and well liked enough to get away with it.
so Max and Sidney both have something in common when it comes to how they got their powers Dumb luck.
Max was rewarded for scientific curiosity not luck. :)
Technically you could say the same of Sidney, as she was Scuba diving when she found hers….
So new question, will the orbs start changing sydney?
If Sydney hears about Maximas origin she will no doubt try to open her orbs to bathe in whatever they contain. Who wouldn’t want to be big, muscled, golden and sexy like Maxima?
Anvil apparently has some issues with dating men who are shorter than her.
Which happens to be almost everyone (did say ‘almost‘, so no need to start listing basketball players or certain tribes in Africa)
Actually, I don’t think it’s that she has an issue dating shorter men, per se, so much as it is men in general feel threatened by a woman taller than they are (to say nothing of stronger). Thus, most men she might consider dating are more than likely to have had, let’s say, poor reactions.
When discussing the relative strength of the girls sex drive in the comment to the strip Grrl Power #407 – Pseudohistory Dave writes:
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.
So men taller than her who are well muscled definitely stands a better chance than the short or the lanky. But the way Dave wrote it those slightly shorter than her isn’t automatically disqualified, just less likely to get her juices flowing.
A ROCK? That’s her destiny?
Hah! Nice reference.
Every Halloween, Charlie Brown knows & empathizes with that…
Poor Charlie has never thought to try to crack one open.
Fate is trying to make it obvious (I mean, how many young boys can go trick-or-treating and only come home with a single rock). And it happens during Halloween that this strange statistically improbably event occurs, a hint of the direction of Charlie’s destined super powers.
Linus also instinctively knows he’s meant to be a sidekick, but consciously is confused about this, hence why he always watches for the “Great Pumpkin”.
The “Great Pumpkin” will be Charlie Browns superhero name.
Also why is head is bald… like a pumpkin.
He even already has the loved adorable animal companion.
Destiny is calling, and every year the blockhead misses it.
Fate does not like Charlie, as shown in Erfworld.
which of the teen years are we talkin about. it could be 13-19. age is a key part of the origin story, especially with artificially gained abilities.
From her appearance in the page, she looks to be about 11-13 years old. We saw Max (back on page 122) when shes an older teen (16-18ish), and shes already fully transformed, appearance-wise.
College age actually, if you recall they made a mention she was in college so at least 18 I’d say, if not slightly older at that point.
Hmm, I thought Maxima was a code name, but panel 2 makes it clear it’s not. It’s such an uncommon name.
Could have been “Maxine”, and she uses Maxima as a close derivative.
Maximillia is her real name, Maxima is her hero name.
She’s not the most creative of superheros.
Headcanon: As soon as Maximillia Leander was seconded to ARCHON, Arianna began pestering her to adopt a code-name from a list of highly merchandisable suggestions. Maximilla chose “Maxima” out of sheer exasperation.
Might even be a name she chose for herself, being sick of whatever name her parents hung on her. It does happen, especially with teenagers, and occasionally the name change can even stick.
Nor the best of explanations, but otherwise I gotta wonder, who the frick names their kid “Maxima”?.
Nostalgic Max looks hurt… I mean seriously… I see deep down pain in that look… not so much that she’d lost it, but that Deus had found it… that he’d had the audacity to pry into her past that deeply to locate it. Question is, does it remain on his shelf, or will it be a peace offering? (or piece offering knowing Deus… as in “how about a piece of ass for old time’s sake Max?”)
Yes, can see the pain and hurt, but not that Deus has it, but that that rock was the cause of her change and all the problems that have come with it
Young freckled Max has such “girl next door” looks. So much for that.
The real question… who eats hotdogs at 9 in the morning?? Monsters that’s who…
Awesome monsters made out of awesome.
Honestly though, it’s conceivable that they’ve been there for a few hours. You can spend DAYS at the Smithsonian and still not see half of the exhibits on display.
Monster from the Latin monstrum (aberrant occurrence)
Aberrant form the the Latin aberre (to stray way)
Heck, just the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago kept me busy for three whole days (of normal open times)…and I still didn’t get to see everything they had on display at that time.
Bachelors. The same bachelors who eat cold pizza, leftover Chinese, and whatever else is handy/quick before dashing out the door in the a.m.
Looks like we need to get another beryllium sphere…
Do you people even WATCH the show?
Wait, they have already started showing the “Grrlpower TV series” where you are? o_O
that was a quote from the movie Galaxy Quest. (actually, I think both were)
It does seem pretty weird that the authorities didn’t move Heaven and Earth to track that thing down years ago.
Incidentally, I wonder if that ear-flick ties into her having pointed ears somehow. Enh… might be a stretch.
The only possibilities I can imagine, are that they were looking in the wrong place, or that Deus (or a like minded other got a hold of it first.)
Wonderful. With science now a days it’s possible to get a sample, however small from that rock, how long has he had to study that thing? There’s a violation of privacy ya don’t see everyday.
*Shrug* Does privacy even exist anymore?
Even if it does, we saw, with the briefing pages, how privacy-indifferent Arc-Swat is. As such, it’s hard to get indignant over someone else pulling the same thing especially with how valuable a “Maxima formula” would be.
I can’t see the image…
For the sake of covering all the bases, I will point out that this does not necessarily mean the fluid Max got doused with is the source of all of her powers. It’s possible that breaking the geode was her first manifestation of super-strength, and the fluid/nanites/symbiote/whatever reacted to her because she was an incipient meta.
And this is one of the few theories I’ve seen here that cares to explain the way the geode/capsule broke when Max was handling it, and that’s important.
Those geodes in the gift shop must have been handled a lot before Max got her grubby hands on this one. They were most probably inspected and sorted as they wouldn’t want to sell something really interesting at a bargain price like this. If the geode/capsule was fragile enough that a teenage girl shaking it would be enough to break it then it should have been broken a lot earlier either by being banged against the other geodes in the bin or during inspection.
I’m not convinced though. Given that is doesn’t look like this was a geode but rather some kind of capsule I think it’s more likely that Max handling it somehow caused it to release the content. If I’m right there’s probably something more then just shaking it that was required, perhaps it had to be held by someone genetically compatible before it activated.
Theories are all we have right now, and only Dave knows for sure…
Maybe some symbiotes with the same meta-power Aztec has?
That’d suggest some of Maxima’s power-set is inherent, and some is augmented.
Now I under if the marble girl has a similar origin.
*wonder
Or Concretia (you know, the concrete girl who got her ass kicked by Math during the restaurant brawl).
Corrrection: She got her “asphalt” kicked by Math.
And then got blown by Peggy
Concretia was also goldish in her ghost/non-solid form.
About the geode – I’m satisfied to say “Oh yeah! Called it!”
2 pages ago, that is.
About her little brother – In looking at comic #122 prompted by JPR in an earlier comment, I noticed the kid in panel 2 of that comic looks like the same guy. Match for appearance (with age adjustment), relative age, and personality (as shown by his apparent recent actions).
Holy unexpected origin story, Batman! I wasn’t expecting that to be in this update at ALL! AT ALL! It’s even knocked me out of lurkage! Brilliantly played, Mr. DaveB Sir. Poor present Max, though. That’s some pretty serious level stalkerage from Deus. What a thing to spring on her. I call butthead.
The Baroque wing is the only one the museum ever remodels.
If it ain’t Baroque, don’t fix it.
*ducks*
Aha! That transformation!
Max’s little brother is quite likely to be Max’s ex-little brother, given her punchy nature and his inherent squishiness as a human. Sure, she missed in this comic, but we all know that she’s now fast enough to catch a bullet fired from her own gun before it kills her target. That is a thing which has been described as per canon.
Now, I wonder if the ‘geode’ is going to be her Kryptonite?
We did see him again after the gold plating was completed, when she first manifested the Laser Finger Death Point
I doubt it would have any direct effect. It’s likely only a canister for “super soldier serum”.
Seconding this, except I’m guessing it’s a canister for “alien regenerative goop” that “restores” your alien body and powers.
Have been calling Maxi ‘the GEOD’ for years now, and only DaveB knew how close to the truth it was :P
Guesticus – Why did you call Max the ‘GEOD’? Is it an acronym? :)
As for the origin – Definitely brings up more questions, mainly about the origin and nature of that “geode” as everyone has mentioned. DaveB already has all of that thought out of course, let’s see just how much he reveals in the next page! Will he hint at something mystical or alien/technological? Both? Neither? Or something completely different? Or maybe he will give no real information at all, which will leave us all very frustrated! :)
Golden Elf Of Doom!!!! :D
I’m guessing it’s Golden (obvious why) Elf (because of ears) of Death (because of the quaint pointy finger zap that blows craters in the desert)
or Doom (because Guesticus says so)
I can’t wait till Sydney starts calling Deus “Douche”.
It would be so cool if the liquid was just a water form of a Sydney orb trapped in a geode, but once it got into Maxima’s mouth, it became a part of her.
Or the geode was the (highly damaged) eighth orb.
possibly the central control orb because of the way max can adjust her powers. And Sidney’s less then ideal control interface is just a manual backup system.
And maybe that is why Varia isn’t set off by either one of them?
It would be rather interesting to see what happens if she touches 2 people at once in general, but especially Max and Sydney
When Varia touched Sydney, those orbs started orbiting both of their heads…In effect, the orbs recognized Sydney’s “personal signature” on Varia at that time.
When Varia touches Sydney, she logically would get a copy or variant of one or more of whatever superpowers Sydney has at the time.
On the known occasion, Sydney wasn’t holding any of her orbs, so her only superpower in effect was the power to have the orbs orbit her. Varia got the power to have the orbs orbit both of them simultaneously. Which would be a variant of Sydney’s power.
The thing is – that could also have been the orbs reacting to an apparent non-enemy being that close to Sydney, and not a temporary Varia-power at all.
“Varia?” I’m confused, I thought Xochitl’s codename was “Aztec”.
No, her ancestry is Aztec (by way of Boston), her codename is “Varia” (as in, ‘variable’ or ‘variance’)
Actually… just a thought. “What if” comics. “What if Sydney Possessed The Power of Maxima?”
shenanigans ensue. and cussing. a whole lot of cussing.
There would be a cloud of rubble between Venus and Mars.
This immediately makes me more concerned about Deus. Securing something tied to a hero’s origin, especially a particularly powerful hero, is a very Lex Luthor/Project Cadmus move.
… And you think HE doesn’t realize that?
Look at how he lives and what he does. Deus clearly has some kind of ‘Super-villainry Checklist’ thing going, methodically working through it to cover all aspects of super-villainry – Big corporation to do my bidding and R&D cool stuff for me? Check. Gorgeous, but scary, assistant? Check. Spy network? Check. Thunder and lightning generator to accompany my better utterances? Check. And so on.
I realise that, but whether he’s done this purely to study the origins of one of the most powerful beings on the planet without being aware or caring what a stereotypical villain move this is, or he’s done this because it’s such a classic villain move, and studying Maxima is just a secondary goal, it’s still a worrying thought that something like this “geode” has found its way into his hands.
Max is sitting down to lunch one day…
Dabbler slides in next to Max and whispers into Max’s ear, “So, I just learned you are into golden showers.”
Max spit takes all over poor Anvil who is sitting across the table.
Combat ensues…
I’m not gonna lie, that would be AWESOME, just to see the look on Max’s face.
Oh wait, no! It IS a ZPM! But all used up and melty, it kinda LOOKS like a geode! Alla that Zero Point energy being drawn across so many different universes just HAD to result in some kind of mutagenic gook within the melty geode looking ZPM! Yes!
Standin in the museum, buyin’ hot-dogs, sippin on geode juice
Laid back [with my mind made of metal cause there’s metal in my mind]
This is not the first time we’ve seen Max’s brother! I’d wondered who that guy in Maxima’s “watch out powers can be dangerous, voice of experience” story was (and when Maxima and Deus’ demi-non-relationship was revealed I went back to make sure it wasn’t him-but-younger).
It was mentioned at the time that it was her brother
Notice in the 7th panel how the “geode water” falls out of the “geode.” It doesn’t come straight down, or even on an arc. Each stream actually snakes its way down, bending one way then another. That’s interesting.
Not as interesting as you think (and there are four streams of ‘golden liquid’)
“there are four streams”
Did I not say each stream? – as in more than one.
Just for the sake of argument I don’t think the sphere cracked just because Max was holding it. If you look at the half of rock closely about 2/3rds of it have very regular hexagon shapes but the part closest to the “camera” is irregular and looks more broken.
It could be that the “geode” just banged around just enough prior to max playing with it that, just like it appears, it broke while she was shaking it. I had that happen to me once when I used to work at a store that sold rocks and minerals. All I did was place a few more “unopened” geodes into the basket and one fell in two parts and that one was solid inside.
As for what happened to Max, Im thinking a fossilized space egg had so kind of super DNA or something.
Just my $.02
Is Maxima’s brother… Math? The facial features, the easy swipe out of the way of her punch, could it be?
If you have read any of Math’s history, you will know it is not true
so, possibly both max and syd got their ‘powers’ from alien tech
That’s her origin story?
Aww… I’m a little disappointed that it isn’t cooler.
Between this and Sydney’s “I found them,” I wonder if mundane origins will be “the thing” in this comic. :)
You probably made a few “golden shower” perverts very, very happy (bleeh). Don’t google that if you don’t know what it is.
I’m so happy right now!
:’)
*Reads your comment*
*Reads previous comment*
XD XD XD
Nothing enrages me or pisses me off more than ear flicks and other just related actions
I figured that bin was right in front of the gift shop like more than a few places I’ve seen over the years. If so, you can’t see the gift shop because it’s where the camera viewpoint is at. Unless of course it moved a little and was behind the tshirt rack, but then you wouldn’t see what happened. ;)
Is Deus Max’s brother?
Lords no! That would make the not-dating even creepier!!
Hm. what happened to her btw… We never saw her after the event.. and her being some kind of “spirit”… well… she might be anywhere.
This was supposed to be a reply to a comment about Concretia.. but ended up to be a new comment (and i can’t edit it)
Hey Dave, you know they couldn’t be renovating that art wing! After all if it ain’t baroque, don’t fix it!