Grrl Power #44 – Crime Fightin’ Lessons
Oh no Sydney’s been shot and… Oh wait, none of you thought that for a second. I don’t know why stories, be they movies, TV shows or comics bother with the fake cliff hangers like these, no one is tricked into thinking the main character is really in mortal peril at any point in the story. Also, if you didn’t have to wait a week to see the next page, this wouldn’t even register as one of those not-cliffhangers, but that’s the limitation of this format. Of course, if the first time you’re reading this is long after it’s been posted, then ignore this whole paragraph.
But at least bullets are in the air, it’s a fair bet we’ll see some super powers next week.
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.
Fail bet?
Well, we know how to snap Syd out of her berserk mode. Break a couple fingers hitting something.
I think that it was meant to be “fair ber”.
Whoops, heh heh, fixed that.
Dive, Sydney, dive! Dive for the tube!
That sounds incredibly odd in my head for some reason.
~Snicker~ – Tube diving
Is Maxima’s skin mean to be mirror level reflective?
If not, a more blurred reflection like the gun shot in the man’s glasses may work better.
That or restricting the reflection to glare effects at a distance with detail in the close ups.
For fake cliff hangers the question intended is, I assume, how the main character will get out of it, rather than if.
The same reason you get a shot of a shadowy figure then cut to one of the characters saying
“My God, it’s you!” then scene change or ad break.
To an extent it is a (perhaps unconscious) admission that they don’t think the story is enough to keep you watching so they need to inject uncertainty to attempt to boost tension and maintain viewer attention.
Quote: “it’s a fail bet we’ll see some super powers next week”
Typo of “fair bet” or slang I haven’t encountered before?
Yeah, Maxima is up to mirror reflective, but it’s not like she’s just polished herself with a car buffer, so normally she’s somewhere between chrome and frosted glass. It also comes down to how much time I’m gonna spend environment mapping stuff around her on to her face. Let’s just call her “shiny-ish”
And now I have a picture of a nude Max just out of the shower with a small buffer. o_O
Dibs on the buffer. :)
Theres a bad pun there but Im not gonna do it.
Something about pearl-polishing perhaps?
As long as you don’t go this far:
Dr. Evil: Scott, I want you to meet daddy’s nemesis, Austin Powers
Scott Evil: What? Are you feeding him? Why don’t you just kill him?
Dr. Evil: I have an even better idea. I’m going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.
Congrats bank robber! You’ve been promoted from ‘assistant badguy’ to ‘teaching aid!’
….
Why aren’t you smiling?
oooh – methinks we’re about to see Sydney “borrowing” a superpower!
tangential: if Max’s skin is really that hard, does that mean she feels like a steel mannequin? The thought kinda makes her ample proportions a lot less appealing if there’s no “squishiness” factor there…
I’ve been waiting for someone to ask that question!
Go to YouTube and search for ‘non-Newtonian’.
You’ll find people running across the surface of a pool of cornstarch/water.
What happens is under stress, the liquid changes into a solid-ish consistency.
I quess this is what happens to Supers when they’re shot.
(Some other principle is involved if stabbed.)
Ideally, the bullets that hit Maxima will lose all their kinetic energy and fall to the ground.
Otherwise the bystanders (hopefully only the gunman) will be struck by bullet fragments.
Well that’s the issue with any superhero(ine) that’s bulletproof. Would Superman’s stubble eviscerate Lois, or could Wonder Woman use her leg stubble to saw through an I-Beam? I actually plan on addressing thing like that in the comic, but it’s not going to be a physics lesson, I mean we’re dealing with super powers so there’s obviously things that are a little different than in our world.
But to answer the original question (spoiled for people who want this revealed organically through the comic – though that will probably take a while) Maxima’s power levels aren’t fixed. She can adjust how armored/strong/fast/etc she is, so boyfriend time isn’t an issue.
I think DC once tried to clear that up for Superman by saying his invulnerability was really a forcefield of some sort that was either skintight or somehow spread through his structure at a subatomic level, thus also explaining why it went away if his powers were drained and he could get away with swallowing live explosives if he wanted to show off.
The pretty much classic all-time example of how absurd superhero physics can get was ‘Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex’ by Larry Niven. Suffice to say that if the baby ever kicked, Lois dies…
I’m guessing our much appreciated author has a copy of ‘The Physics of Superheroes’ somewhere handy for discussions like this. If not, you should! It is well worth the price if you are writing something like this.
wait… doesn’t Superman get his powers from the sun? so how could the baby have had enough exposure to kick through a womb?
There are a couple of nitpicks to Niven’s rant like that, but mostly it’s a good read. (His reasoning for why it would never come up in the first place is much better. Lois probably wouldn’t have survived that long.)
haha fair enough ;)
yeah i read that story by niven, and a lot of points were good in it
he wrote it tho, in either early 70’s or late 60’s, when superman in the comics was different than today. back then superman was powered by a yellow sun or not, no gradual in between state. he could supposedly move planets with no one on them noticing due to sheer strength, before they started changing superman and his powers or power levels every couple of years
i did like nivens explanations for several things about supermans supposed sexual results, from his wet dreams leving the house like swiss cheese, to gutting lois like a trout on the first stroke due to strength, or literraly shooting off like cannon thru her, or the point that in the throes of ectasy he would hug her with superstrength without meaning too (for a man strong enought to leave fingerprints in steel, as the story explained)
imagine the reverse for supergirl, squeezing too hard at the wrong time, no repeat customers
I have that image of Hancock in the trailer with the chick now. thanks for that.
That scene in Hancock made me think the movie’s writer had read Man of Steel Woman of Kleenex (the name of the Niven story)
Never read, is it good?
Not actually a story – it’s an essay.
Of course, that’s only for the person next to Supe. The real fun comes over the next month or two as the super-sperm find (and fertilize) all the ovulating women in the area. . . .
Assuming, that is, that human and Kryptonians can hybridize.
Niven covered that, too from what I recall.
As far as ‘Superman Returns’ they cover that. In a funky not many questions answered way. One of them being why was the boy seen as sickly?
Somehow, between the bio and her actions so far, I just can’t picture Maxima with a boyfriend. At least, not for long.
Superhero relations can be tricky, if their not careful you can end up with third degree burns and a lingering smell of burnt rubber.
Was thinking of Flash:
Woman: I’m ready
Flash: I’m done.
This won’t hurt, did it?
why is part of maxima’s face green? is she sick? or is it the reflection of the cap?
Yeah, since she’s all shiny-like, it’s her hat reflecting in her face.
So shiny you could see your face in that… face.
It happens a lot in real life, if you’ve got a bright colour and an at least slightly reflective surface. Wiki explanation here ;).
That remaining bank robber is toast – and I’m dern sure that however this happens will make the whole “tongue-throw” thing look like a mere warm-up.
I wonder what would happen if something that fluoresces is between Maxima and another mirror?
Would we get an effect based on Light Amplification through Stimulated Emission?
Doubt it. Max isn’t a perfect mirror.
…and while undeniably curvy, she also isn’t parabolic
You do not need a perfect mirror else you would never get any energy out of the thing.
As for parabolic, that is only one style of mirror system used, just wiki or better yet check out a physics text on basic laser cavity design.
As long as the gain is bigger than the loss due to scattering etc you will get amplification.
Geek out yo
For those of you wondering what the Light Amplification thing in an earlier comment was a about the explanation is this: it’s the words that the acronym LASER stands for
That’s right, laser is an acronym
Actually I want a Graser. Lasers are too mainstream. B)
a Graser?
Here is a cow.
… oh wait that is grazer.
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation if I recall correctly.
I am geek
But not geek enough to read further up the thread and see this was already stated.
I am embarrassed
Think Maser, Microwave amplification…
So I’m guessing either Sydney ducks behind Max, or Max steps in front of Syd … or both, with the comedic result that they swap places.
To bad she calmed down. I was hoping for an involuntary ‘fast ball special’ on Sydney part.
I noticed that she can see the reflection of her breasts on her arm… There are so many comedic ways to spin that ability…….a few perverted ones too.
Are Maxima’s boobs getting bigger every time? Because there’s definitely not a single complaint about that.
Boobs are surprisingly hard to draw. Consistency is another issue, but I have that for everything, not just boobs.
Well if they are DD then they are just about right. I think each breast for D to DD is supposed to be the same size as the head before you give it shape.. not entirely sure though.. :S
Monica from Wapsi Square is a 30F, and she can wear one of the cups from her custom made bra like a loose fitting hat.
The thing to remember though is that breast size isn’t consistent from day to day anyway, so why should it be any different in your comic?
It is, however, fairly consistent from one moment to the next. While I understand why you’re making apologies for inconsistency, Dave’s attitude to it produces better comics.
nice reflection in the 2nd to last panel! >)
Okay, its bugging me now, is Maxima’s top made of two different materials? The bottom half looks very clingy/ transparent, but the top half clearly isn’t and looks like its padded.
I try and draw shirts semi realistic, so that they hang on the body right and have wrinkles and all that, but I’m a tummy man – some guys are in to boobs, legs, asses, whatever, but I like me a washboard stomach, it’s a hard urge to fight when drawin.
I’d like to do my laundry on *that* washboard…
Gigidy
Actually, it is fairly realistic – she could either be wearing a padded bra (generally necessary when things get that big) or she could be wearing a padded top – the kind that has padding on the top, but clings tightly on the bottom.
This will all come up in the comic at some point, but being made of a stronger material than humans, Max doesn’t need a bra necessarily, but she usually wears a sports bra or something similar in public just for that extra layer of modesty. She’s not a prude… well, maybe she is depending on how you define that, but she does get a little punchy when guys make crude comments about her or stare at her chest too much. And not punchy in the cute girly way like Sydney does. Like, proper punching. You’ll see.
I figured it was a cloth that responded to body heat by forming itself to the body. Good for fashion and possibly armor if you can manage it.
Huh, that’s odd. I would have thought that a woman as muscular as Maxima would have more of an ass. She’s as flat as Sydney back there. Sydney makes sense since she’s skinny as a beanpole, but Maxima?
*turns off Sir Mix-a-Lot track*
Pardon me my blackness is showing.
I’m suddenly finding out that I’m terrible at drawing the body in profile. Backsides and the neck/shoulder area are throwing me off. It’s definitely something I need to work on.
If I may suggest, you should take a gander at the men’s magazine “Smooth” or hit up the website smoothmag.com. All the profile shots you’ll need for uh….inspiration. >.>
While the superheroines will likely be more fit than many guys care for (as my preference is towards the ridiculously athletic), I do want some variety of body type to them – and so does Arianna, who you guys haven’t met yet (She’s on the postcard opposite Max if you look at the blog). That will make sense later.
You and I share the same taste for physically fit/hyper-athletic women. Don’t let “traditional” ideals of feminine beauty get in your way. Have at it my man!
“Son of an eel waxer”, eh? Waxed eel sounds hideous. Normally I’ll try any dish at least once, but that? Ugh.
Well, considering one slang term for Self-pleasure is “Waxing the dolphin”…I think you see where she’s going with it now.
Well, I know about that slang term, but I don’t think that’s where it was going. DaveB has mentioned in other comment threads that his method for Sydney’s swearing is basically just choose a random “noun verb” or “noun profession” combination. Basically just filth-kraken mad libs.
I kow. I just liked how my explination sounded. :)
Well, I was just messing around myself when I was pretend-gagging over a dish of Waxed Eel. :)
Dang that is a quick reaction by Maxima in the second panel. And the way she removes those glasses she isn’t even trying to be fast.
She’s putting them back on. :)
I said second panel. Not second to last panel :p
Yeah I didn’t draw it that way by accident.
Dave its space, time diallation meaning everything has slowed down or we preseave it has slowed down its also more commonly know as bullet time but its a great excuse youcan use to explain your minor cliff hanger moment here
Maxima’s hand in panel five, where she’s pointing at the bank robber, doesn’t look right. It looks like the lower half of her finger is missing and the upper half is attached directly to her knuckle. Even with her other fingers holding her glasses, we ought to be able to see her entire finger as she points it at the dude.
At least, I think we ought to be able to see it. I’ve been testing that point of view with my own hand. Even given Maxima’s fingerless gloves, it just doesn’t look right.
It’s maybe not physically possible, but it happens all the time in comics, where the finger is curved upwards slightly during the dramatic point. I just drew it so that the lower part of her finger is obscured by the knuckle – though testing it now, I probably should have had the part from the wrist to the knuckles angled down, and the finger from the knuckles angled up, but then from that angle it’d have looked like there was a finger sticking out of her wrist.
Ditko fingers!
It is an odd hand (and finger) position but it is definitely possible and a glove of unspecified thickness makes it easier (and slightly less odd).
DaveB, you must not watch many bad movies then. “Smoking Aces” shows characters that are painstakingly built up and then killed without much fuss. There are shows where macguffins are built up and then they vanish to never to be heard of again like in the tv show “Alias,” and their Da Vinci/Conspiracy theory BS.
Sure, there are exceptions where movies have high body counts among main characters, outside of slasher films obviously, but they’re few and far between. And with the internet these days, if a characters is getting killed off in a show, you hear about the actor leaving half a season before it happens.
Ever see the film Executive Decision?
Or, for that matter, since you mention McGuffins, Psycho?
The way that i knew the rumours about Tara being killed off was when Amber Benson went from “Special Guest” to being listed as a regular cast member.
Love the comic, but disappointed that it isn’t updated more often.
1. Have a look at the artwork on this page alone. How long do you think that sort of thing takes?
2. This is one of the more regularly updating webcomics I follow.
So either you don’t have a lot of experience with webcomics or you’re one of those people who think that artists/writers shouldn’t have a life outside of their work. This is a FREE comic so unless you volunteer to pay for Dave’s groceries, you should stop complaining about frequency of updates. Most traditional comic books are released MONTHLY for goodness’ sakes!
Hombre I don’t want to sound mean but once a week with this kind of quality art AND COLOR is amazing.
If you don’t believe me try it yourself
On a bullet wound, very little of the damage is from the direct path of the bullet. Most of the damage is from something called Cavitation. The text book I have describes it as much like the wake on a power boat. All the body tissues that get hit by the shock wave of the bullet passing through at high speed suffer things like being pulled away from the cells next to it due to the kinetic energy that bleeds out and away from the direct path of the bullet.
If you don’t get penetrated by the bullet (such as if you are wearing body armor) you still have to contend with the sudden discharge of the kinetic energy, resulting in much reduced cavitation. This usually results in some pretty nasty bruises.
Maxima’s best results from getting hit by a bullet is a combination of flexibility of the ‘soft’ tissues to absorb the kinetic energy of the bullet combined with enough structural integrity to prevent penetration of the round AND disruption of the soft tissue due to the cavitation. If all of her was as hard as her face you would get bullet fragmentation and possible shrapnel injuries from the bullet fragments to bystanders.
Oh god, a full blown nerd monologue.
I’ve read this comic several times through so far. Its actually the main one I look forward to each week.
Yes, I know, nerdy. I don’t care lol.
Regardless, one thing I noticed is that you put yourself down too much. You’ve thought the storyline through well so far, and it works well whether you read it all in one sitting or one page a week.
Back to story. Yay.
I’m gonna say maxima will actually use her speed to dodge the attacks and disarm the gunman. The chance of flying shrapnal, as noted by Bri above, would be too high for Maxima to risk.
Also, as I mentioned before, Maxima knows something is up with sydney and that tube, so expect her to take Sydney somewhere else to test it.
Yeah I’m critical of myself, but I know my art is better than a lot of webcomics out there, as are other aspects of the comic, storytelling, action, whatever, but I compare myself to the very best stuff there is cause I’d like to think that one day I could produce a comic that looks as good as Adam Hughes covers or Joe Maduriera or whoever. And all hopefully all without losing the humor and characterization. I love the way Madureira draws (or drew when he was actually producing comics) but I don’t think he could draw zany if you had a gun to his head. I genuinely can’t think of a single picture he’s draw where someone’s smiling, and it isn’t an evil ‘mwoo hah hah” smile. I’m also kind of ticked at myself for basically spending the last 10 years playing video games instead of doing this comic… which admittedly would have been pretty different if I had started then, but even at 1 comic a week, think of the archive! Plus my art would have been sick by now. So you’ll probably have to put up with a little of me going “boo hoo, this picture is only pretty good.”
well i think as long as you keep this up, and listen to valid criticism every once in a while, you’ll get to where you want to be…on a side note, even the best comics ave inconsistencies, and everyone makes mistakes…
Panel 2 has the best eyebrows you’ve ever drawn! M is really coming to life :)
Ah but bulletproof can be may things. For all we know Maxima can catch the bullets in her muscles and pop them out afterward or maybe absorb their kinetic energy on impact so they fall instead of ricochet. Then again she could be skilled enough to angle herself so the ricochet goes where she wants it to or perhaps she just phases the bullets out out our dimension? Lets let Dave surprise us with how Maxima is going to handle this, but I think we can all agree she has it under control or she would have taken Idiot, uh Gunman #2 out before he had a chance to fire. Sydney, on the other hand, is running on pure instinct. She isn’t even making it up as she goes, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do until after she does it. If she had planned any of that it would never have worked but since she did it all without a single thought it worked like a charm. What’s really odd is that she is very smart, but her brains would have gotten in the way of doing everything she did lol. She should write a book, “Superheroics by the seat of your pants.”
I think it should be ‘Super heroics by the seat of your Tights’.
okay… i’m sorry.. I read the first half of that and when I got to about… I dunno, the third line… I couldn’t help but imagine Max catching the bullets in her cleavage… impact absorbed, nowhere for shrapnel to escape, no chance of ricochet… and moderately appealing in my own twisted way.. okay, maybe not ‘appealing’, but cool as heck.
you all know you want to see Power Girl do it.
Yes actually, I think I would!
Talking about cliffhangers that apparently kill off a major character:
Couple weeks ago in Wapsi Square, the Friday cliffhanger appeared to show Shelly – a major character from the beginning – dying, an in a pretty unpleasant way.
In response to reader comments as to how that couldn’t possibly be true, Paul responded that it was, indeed the real Shelly and that she really died. And he wasn’t lying.
Of course, he had a trick up his sleeve, but…
Or the beginning of the first episode of Series 6 of Doctor Who (“The Impossible Astronaut”), in which the Doctor … dies.
Oooh, exciting! We’re bound to have a superpower of some sort activate in the next comic :)
Nitpick: Maxima’s right hand in panel four seems slightly too big; being partly obscured by her chest, it should be further away than her left hand.
Yeah, that’s probably fair. In my pencils, I draw heads too big all the time. Thank god for the transform tool.
Well that snapped her out of her berserk mode, my guess is that now its Maxima’s turn to take out the other guy who is standing there with a handgun.
Bad guy fail… he didn’t even use two hands… he’s gunna knock himself out with the recoil…
Not really knock himself out, I’ve known people who can shoot handguns with one hand. Its shotguns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles that you have to aim with both hands otherwise the recoil would knock you back and onto your but. A single handgun’s recoil wouldn’t be too much of a problem depending on what caliber handgun he is using. My guess is that its a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, am I right?
Despite enjoying a diverse arsenal in FPS games, I’m not much of a gun expert, but yeah the image I googled for his gun was probably 9mm-ish. I’ve seen those get fired one handed on shows all the time. I do need to read up on them though because Peggy is in to guns like the average guy at a LAN party is about DIY computer building.
Heh glad to help then. XP
Having fired a similar gun and watching my father do the same for years. there is always going to be some manner of a recoil. the trick is to get your sights set back to the original postion with only a fraction of thought. It makes for a good grouping on the target. :)
And Only fools will shoot a hand gun with only one hand. Two hands mean hit target. One hand means watch out! My chances of hitting where I aimed, if I did, have decreased!
Actually, in some cases in fast-moving combat shooting, where you literally don’t have time to aim, one-handed and pointing the gun as if it were your finger can be fairly effective.
If nothing else, it puts the rounds close enough to keep the other guy from aiming, either.
I must be a fool then.
Really, a handgun doesn’t kick THAT much.
Well, something about the size of a 9mm Luger doesn’t, anyway.
Oh, and for reference, I can do, MAYBE 30 pushups, and weigh in the neighborhood of 150lbs, so I’m not overpowering a gun here. I just think your estimate of the kick of a handgun is a bit high.
(That and I took martial arts once upon a time, and have essentially adopted fighting stance for shooting.)
Magnums do recoil that bad, but few of them are that small.
By recoil I mean, as you fire, the gun will move. Even the Mythbusters couldn’t get a gun to not jerk while, it was bolted down.
There are only really one or two handguns you [i]have[/i] to fire braced and those are the new .50 cal rounds. And since they don’t come in semi-autos which is clearly what he’s using, it’s not a problem. Even a 10mm is only going to sting fired one handed. And if you make the mistake of firing a .50 one handed it’s still not going to knock you out, it’ll “just” break your wrist.
“New .50 cal rounds”?
This is, perhaps, something different than the round used in the Desert Eagle, which is a .50?
And a .50 ain’t gonna be that much different from a .45 in recoil, unless it’s hopped up like a .44 magnum.
The old .44 Automag, with an 1800 fps muzzle velocity (higher than any production .44 ammo for the revolve, actually had less recoil than a .45, according to some of the gun mags of the day.
currently the two most powerful production hand guns I am aware of are revolvers, and they are basically versions of the the Russian Rsh-12 chambered in 12.7X44 mm. One a 4 round the other a 5 round. Given the mass of the guns are almost identical Despite the smaller cylinder, you have to wonder why they bothered making a 4 round version.
https://thefunnybeaver.com/rsh-12-most-powerful-revolver-world/
Their is also a couple of Gunsmiths here in Texas who decided to make a similar under-barrel revolvers using a modified .50 Beowulf type round. Not really sure how successful they have been
lol I know that a broken wrist is a lot more likely than a knock out, but I just thought it would make for a good comedic situation…
Ehh his wrist will be sore if he’s not used to it.. The main thing is he won’t be able to hit anything but maybe the ceiling after the first shot.
Well, I’m not big or muscular but I can fire a 12 ga. holding it with only one hand and return it to battery (ready to fire) within a reasonable time, but then I also lugged a 40mm grenade launcher around and fired it from the off-hand position. It’s technique, not size that lets you do that, although a certain amount of size is required to aim and carry the danged thing.
True enough. But do you think Max will LET him get it to ready position again?
If i’d have been a boomie-stomper instead of an REMF (Cam Ranh Navy comm station), i think i would have been greatly in favour of the ol’ blooper.
Got to play with one on the range one afternoon and fell in love.
Only short-to-middle-range antipersonnel weapon i ever saw that impressed me more was a ten-gauge loaded with fuse-box knockouts. Destroyed a standard silhouette target with one shot.
And it couldn’t Blow Things Up.
Yes, that’s right mister. Fire a gun in the general direction of the golden military lady who just about broke the other girl’s hand with her face. That’s really going to end well for you.
Well, neither of these two brainiacs have the smarts god gave to dogs…
Totally.
The smartest move that Robber #2 could have made was to quietly leave while Maxima was dealing with Sydney.
No, scratch that. The really smart move would have been to NOT rob a bank in broad daylight, especially while a very obvious uniformed super was inside.
…And without anything meaningfully concealing their identity from the security cameras. (Seriously, sunglasses and baseball caps? It might work, if the cameras are set at too much of an angle, but then they take off the baseball caps…)
At least they didn’t write the holdup note on their birth certificate, which yes, has happened. Also robbers returning for their note, being told that if they’re going to take money then they need to leave their name and contact information… and then giving it, being told the bank is out of money… and believing it. Just google stupid criminals for hours of entertainment.
Had one relatively recently in the South who wrote the note on one of his personalised deposit slips…
the best bank robberies go unnoticed by everyone but the bank teller. there was a man in my town who “robbed a bank” in a full business suit. He handed the teller a deposit slip and a prepaid credit card and said that he would like $6 mil deposited onto the card. The teller being trained properly complied, and he walked out like it was any other transaction. Of course, while my town is close to NYC, it’s no Wall Street, and as a result he was apprehended about 500 feet away…quite hilarious, he thought of everything but the getaway car.. XD
And, of course, when he tried to use the credit card? Wouldn’t the bank keep track of where their money went? I figure he’s got about 10 minutes max before they track it, and then he’d better have a good way to launder the money into a clean account.
A while back in England, they had a case where an extortionist proved (by doing it to pet food, apparently) that he could add broken glass to baby food – i forget how he managed that – and then demanded that the payoff be made to one of several bank accounts he had opened under an assortment of false names around the country.
He would then show up at a bank – somewhere, at random, at midnight – wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet, and use the ATM… You can read about it here – scroll down to the heading “The ‘Baby Food Blackmailer’ Case”. (The great part of that one is who he turned out to be.)
Hmmm… My WAG (Wild Arsed Guess) for the next episode is Syd suddenly discovers or demonstrates that she does not need direct physical contact with the thing in the bag to trigger her forcefield.
While I am quite sure Maxima is proof against projectiles up to and including heavy tank rounds, and that she is further quite fast enough to dodge out of the way of most such projectiles, Sydney does not know this and reflexively is going to reach for protection to something she *knows* can protect her.
My only question is whether or not Maxima is cold-blooded enough to have set Sydney up to be shot at (in hopes of showing super-abilities) knowing that she (Maxima) could easily block the bullet if Sydney turns out to have no superpowers after all…
DaveB, you are doing an excellent job combining excellent story telling and physics. If people are to wrapped around the physics, then they are missing the story telling. I cannot wait to see what type of Heroine that Maxima and Sydney are going to be. The story has been hilarious and entertaining as all get out. Keep up the great work.
BTW: I bet you can see why they did not attempt the same type of drawing reflectivity on the Silver Surfer. Good job, but good luck as well. It must be difficult and time consuming. :)
Also, Kirby and Sinnott didn’t have the luxury of being able to computer-map images of the surroundings onto the figure.
Love, love, love it! :)
In panel six it looks like the underside of Maxima’s arm is normal flesh. What am I looking at?
Her
boobshirt is reflecting on her arm. To the best of my ability to draw such a thing.Yes, I noticed that. It made me laugh when I realised what it was.
I do like being able to look back at something several times and still get new laughs out of it.
If Maxima is *really* super, she’ll just catch the bullets in flight, flick them into the ceiling.
I suppose *anywhere* except into people or out the window is acceptable.
I wonder if Sydney is going to throw out her hand and call the tube into it (ala Yoda doing a force pull on his lightsaber). Of course, Sydney will only be able to do this if she isn’t thinking about it, but acting on pure instinct.
DaveB, just curious does Maxima need glasses or does she just like looking cool
Max: Well, looks like this will be a *Puts glasses on* Golden opportunity.
YEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!
*Plays “We won’t get fooled again”*
Sorry, had a meme moment.
Hey I’m pretty sure Horatio would like Maxima, and it would be a funny encounter.
They’re just for style. Obviously tromping around in paramilitary gear and combat boots, she’s not that concerned with fashion though.
Oh, so her glasses have nothing to do with the fact that she’s shiny and her skin would probably reflect sunlight like a mirror, possibly right into her eyes at an inopportune moment? Darn, would have made a great out-take.
I am, unsurprisingly perhaps, super pale, and wearing sunglasses without a hat makes it harder to see cause light reflects off my face and then bounces off the inside of the shades into my eyes. :P Max would probably have that same problem come to think of it.
There’s another good tactical reason for her to have them (though they’d need to be more reflective/opaque for her to pull it off): They obscure her eyes.
It’s surprisingly effective at keeping people from knowing exactly what you are looking at. In a moderately tight environment, where she’s taking on several opponents in hand-to-hand range, it would keep her intentions hard to guess until she actually moved.
Out of sheer curiosity how many of you out there actually know where Mt. Rushmore is?
I ask since I have lived in a large number of states over the years and people just never seem to actually know where Mt. Rushmore is unless they actually live in the same state that it is in. I have had people swear that Rushmore is in Washington state (its not) and one complete idiot tried to tell me it was in Washington DC (also not). Also if the only place you have seen Mt. Rushmore is on TV and Movies then you have no real idea what the area looks like because they never get it right.
Now then just to state it for the record Mt. Rushmore is in South Dakota, 25 miles from where I am typing this.
Been there, done that, sold the t-shirt for a rag… Last visit was 1968 though, I need to go back just to make sure it still looks the same. >:-)
Well the mountain itself does, but all the visitor centers and so on have been radically changed since then. Seriously though if your coming to the Black Hills just skip Rushmore, it is waaaayyyy overpriced, go on over to Crazy Horse Mountain instead, its a whole lot cheaper plus it is still being carved.
I knew where Mt Rushmore is (or, at least, which state of the Union it is in) – because I watched ‘National Treasure 2’. :D
I’ve been there, and I was wearing a Canadian Sweater.
The last panel is a nice shot of the muzzel flash.
Does that mean the bullet has exited the barrel of the gun
and we now see the combustion gasses?
What I’m getting at is FREEZE FRAME!
If maxima has supper speed abilities, we’ll get
a good look at them.
((There’s an Outer Limits episode (the funny one) where
aliens use their time machine to stop time while a guy is
being shot. They deflect the bullet using his cigerette case
leading everyone else to believe he’s really lucky.))
Gah!!
**SUPER speed**
I have the same problem since I’m using a Nook Color and its touchscreen keyboard. VERY easy to double-tap a letter.
Does the page render ok on the Nook? I’ve tested it on my phone so I assume it does. Even the javascript popups on the cast page work on my phone and ipad/iPhone.
In the entire run, there was only one page that didn’t fully render; however, I’ve gone back to where it was and it now loads correctly.
Can’t blame the iPad. Actual qwerty keyboard.
In the next update, its a fair bet that Sydney has managed to step behind Max. If only because of her Bullet Proof Question. I figure its funnier that way. I see in my decaying Mental Organ An image of Syd Stepping behind Max as Max herself steps in front of Syd. I also see that at the level of the Gun flash is not only Syd’s face but Max’s Very buxom endowment. So fair chance a bullets going to be bouncing off some Shiny-Golden-Boobies! Where the bullet travels afterwords is another story but its a fair bet that Below the belt has a 90% incursion rate, and Max will be complaining about the hole in her shirt.
If I have not made it clear I think Robber #2 is going to get hit with the recoil.
Robber #2 gets hit with his own ricochet? Certainly plausible, but I think THAT is letting him off lightly. I’m betting on something more …. interesting happening, myself.
This is plausible, after all Dave is the master he will find some way causing us laughter as Robber #2 is writhing in pain.