Grrl Power #470 – Knock knock bang smash
The problem with action pages is that I usually feel like there’s less for me to comment on down here, at least in comparison to a more typically neurotically exposition laden pages with a dozen panels.
So… yup. The door blew up. Someone obviously has an issue with The Council. That or the Girl Scouts are getting super aggressive.
Usually phones are kind of all or nothing with the notifications. Either on or off – though there’s probably apps that give you more control than that. I mostly use my phone to browse Reddit when I have a few minutes of down time and I’m not sitting in front of my computer. Of course the team isn’t exactly running stock Android on their team phones, so they can customize their notification with more fidelity than usual. A lot more focus on security, including the inability to install any app willy nilly. (I mean, they can install Peggle, sure, along with some white listed stuff that’ve been thoroughly vetted.) Also there is definitely a “Really silent for real cause I’m being stealthy around bad guys and I want to avoid the trope of my phone going off cause the producer decided there hasn’t been an action scene in 12 minutes” button.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. (As soon as I get up. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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Well Done, Sydney. Very professional, here’s another commendation coming your way.
This just goes to show why they put up with her. She’s neurotic, but useful in a pinch.
It also, probably, means she will get “rewarded” with door guard duty for awhile. She’s useful watching for stragglers, and can’t annoy the regular attendees near as much.
So, demerit for unprofessionally geeking out. Canceled out by a commendation for the heads up.
prior to this page i was thinking it would be a long time before Sidney’s welcome back to this council.. if it survives.. Sidney may get an invitation to the next one.
And we need to add “super Texting” to Sydneys powers.
What? C’mon, if Superman could claim “super weaving” powers (which he did in golden/silver age), then Sydney can claim “Super Texting”!
Fast, but not super. The squad would have to take some time to get into their assault positions (in order to maximise penetration speed, but minimise explosion risks) and then coordinate the strike.
Don’t forget, there’s a finite delay when sending text messages. I’ve seen it take a full minute or two to arrive.
That is going via a cellular tower. This will have gone direct to Maxima, from Sydney’s pip boy, as a military communication.
“The squad would have to take some time to get into their assault positions”
That’s not a given. When Sydney was ejected from the meeting she ended up just outside the door, we have no idea how far she wandered looking for the vending machine before she got distracted. And you know how easily she gets distracted.
When Sydney first looked out of the hatch, the leading squad member was approximately 15 to 20 feet from the Council chamber door (adjusting for perspective). The penultimate panel, in the linked page, shows us the precise lay-out of the corridor in question. As confirmed by the painting of the skeletal fellow, common to all pertinent scenes.
My point was that they believed they had complete surprise (and the meeting would be running for some time, so interruptions were unlikely). So they would have the time to carefully position themselves to minimise risk from exploding door shrapnel. Then check each others positions and confirm that everyone was ready, for the fight of their lives.
Maybe taking a moment to say their last words, if alive. Or squirt a bit of WD40 on their joints, if not. OK that bit was optional. Then they would do the silent, three fingered, count down, before blowing the door off its hinges.
If they knew time was of the essence it would have only taken a few moments. But they needed to optimise their chances, so I feel they would have taken the time to do that.
They might even do that stealthy “check the door” bit, find out it’s locked, and then set the explosive and back up to let it do it’s thing, thinking that they have the advantage of surprise. Which Sydney deprived them of in the case of the one with super speed and super reactions. Someone who can catch a bullet leaving the barrel of her own pistol before it hits the forehead of the new recruit standing 5 feet away is fast.
We don’t really know how well Maxima’s speed compares to Mach the Knife (from the Steak House Brawl), Superman, or even the Flash. But what we’ve already seen, Max’s speed is nothing to be sneezed at.
Quite literally, in fact. She definitely can move faster than a sneeze & could easily outrun it…
Max has five stars, in speed. So is as fast as any known speeder, known on Earth (or is in the same ballpark, at the very least).
They may have used a breaching charge to blow up the door as well (rather than just blowing it up with the grenade launcher). That would give Halo a little more time to send her text message.
Considering his proximity to the door I would assume it was a shaped door breaching charge.
Agreed.
That assumes that “he” is actually a “he” and not an “it”. It could be a mechanical and/or magical construct.
I guess this was meant to go elsewhere? Given the gender-neutral content in this thread (other than for Sydney).
“Considering his proximity to the door I would assume it was a shaped door breaching charge.”
It might be “its” proximity to the door, not “his” proximity to the door. We don’t know enough to definitely state that the attackers are living (or unliving, in the case of vampires and such) willed beings.
My apologies. I read that thread at least three times, on each occasion I swear it said “the” instead of “he”.
Clearly I must get a grip with my accidental sliding, to adjacent alternate Earths!
*wags tail interdimensionally*
No probs. We all probably do it (or some other similar mistake) sooner or later.
Hopefully we can meet up, and console each other, with a drink, the next time we both end up on ‘the Earth with no shrimp’ together.
Or we could go with a gender-neutral term. I propose that if a person’s gender is ambiguous enough that we don’t know if that’s a He, She, or It then we could just refer to the person as a S/H/It.
Wipe your potty mouth!
Wait, wait, wait.
Messages from Sydney are priority on Max’s phone?
What even is the point of having a priority level if Syndey can send you “Blarg badgers!” at any moment and it comes through?
I mean it might be that Sydney has a button that says “Priority send” — but who would give her one?
Think it may be more that Max’s phone has a ‘if you call this number, it had BETTER be an ACTUAL emergency, or else’ number that routes to it.
And I was 50/50 on whether Sydney would remember to use her comm bracer or kneejerk use the telepresence function of her orb, which she was already using.
Or the phone has monitors in it that verify the user’s mental/physical stress level before allowing a ‘priority’ message to be sent to begin with.
That wouldn’t be effective, considering most Arc agents are professionals, and might not be noticeably stressed by the thought of combat. (it is their job after all).
And if it were that strict Maxima would have bee much quicker about checking it, rather than explaining it to the others, since there would be a 50/50 shot somebody was literally dying.
They are a military organization, threat of being reprimanded should be enough to discourage any non-sydneys from abusing it.
Given past sequences. I think Max has two numbers. Emergency and non emergency.
so syd sent it to the emergency one. Which is likely shorter and a speed dial on everyone’s phones.
Most recent evidence woudl be the last time Syd messaged max.. it had the “coming to take me away” song, but this time had a different one. But Syd has only one communication and not even a cell phone (if I remember right)
So it makes more sense that Max has a double layer phone.[
=========
I think her telepresence one she has to be within sight.. so the door blocked her from doing it. Otherwise that likely would’ve been more useful of a warning.
also she probably coudlv’e used it to keep watching/asking questions earlier
She implied that she could telepresence through the wall of the showers early in the comic. I believe it goes through solid objects, but it has limited range and may not have reached through the door. Plus, you can see the ball traveling at first, and it might tip them off that they’re being watched. Finally, she might be able to get her image through the door, but there’s a large distance between the door and the table. Currently she has to speak herself to get her image to speak, and that means she’d have to be yelling for people to hear her; not a good idea given she’s directly above the bad guys with nowhere to run to.
Range wise we did see Sydney use it in the car park, to speak to Vehemence, some distance away. The image itself does go through solid objects. We saw Sydney’s arm being waved through Arianna’s head.* What might not have passed through it is the inner orb (from the Com Ball) which actually projects the image around it. So it could travel up to the door then, if it bumped into the door, lean through, to shout the warning.
Unfortunately that would also place it slap bang in the middle of the explosion. And we have no idea how durable the orbs are, beyond being tougher than a clenched fist.
All of which is also exposing a highly classified feature to a lot of people.** With minimal extra gain above what the alternative that Sydney ran with.
* No slur intended, before you leap to her defense Suzy News.
** Some of whom will doubtless be hostile to Archon (we have seen some being unfriendly already).
The one mitigating factor is that this may have been picked up by TV news crews, so could already be public knowledge. We have no way of determining if that did happen though. There were reporters present, but there was also a lot more action going on that they (and any cameramen) might have been focusing on.
Except she has been told to keep those aspects of the ‘commball’ under wraps. And with you on the telepresence restrictions being a gray area. We’ve only really seen it used once, during her interview, and I don’t recall Sydney going into what limits, if any, it had on being used as regards distance or barriers.
Her telepresence is NOT just within sight. She’s already considered using it to peek into the men’s shower room.
If she can see through her telepresence’s eyes, then even if she has to have line-of-sight to where she puts the telepresence (I don’t think she does) that gives her a pretty decent ability to see things she doesn’t have line-of-sight to.
The thing which will limit Halo is where the inner orb, which projects the telepresence image, from inside it, can go. If it can pass through physical objects then she has the greatest flexibility (although maximum range is still an unknown*). If it cannot then she needs to find windows, air vents or make a small hole, if she wants to see inside rooms or buildings.
* Our only clues are the use in the battle. Where it reached across the car park some distance. Plus that it is only rated as a one star power. Contrast this to Harem’s teleportation, which uses the same symbol. Harem has three stars with that.
So the car park gives us a minimum range. Whereas the upper bound will be a couple of magnitudes shorter than Harem’s teleportation.
Other than range, the lack of tangibility in the telepresence’s image may also lower the Com-Ball’s “teleportation” star rating. (Though sometimes being not-actually-there is an advantage.)
Solidly (so to speak) reasoned.
As might leaving a vulnerable body behind.
Somewhat vulnerable but not totally so. Unlike astral projection, or the like, her body does not go comatose. Rather we saw her image mirroring her body’s actions. Sydney was able to operate normally, with her own body, in other words.
You are right to say that it is vulnerable though, from the point of view that she is likely to be distracted, by the sensory information coming from her projected image. Very distracted, knowing Sydney. Unlike Harem who can do five disparate tasks simultaneously, without a problem. Albeit that she has to avoid eating things with conflicting flavours.
Incidentally I predict that one of the skill points, on the Truesight orb will allow Halo’s image to do separate actions to her real body. So, for instance, the image could be keeping up a conversation, stalling enemies, whilst Sydney was running for the hills!
Sydney’s pip-boy armband would be easier to access than her mobile phone, and can do everything that a smart phone can, in addition to its advanced combat options. Doubtless anything coming through on their combat channel would go through as a priority (as a text message, and Maxima not having her heads up display glasses on, it would have had to divert to her phone instead).
I would be very surprised if the pip-boy was not smart enough to identify the nearby team members (either manually when briefed, or automatically via their IFF transponders). As a unit communications device I imagine it would have a simple quick access interface prioritising them (and HQ, plus Harem as a rapid responder). Tap the icon photograph of Maxima’s face and you probably get connected immediately (or send the text message, if one is filled in).
The team can set priority on texts, which isn’t usually the case, but they have a discreet archon.mil service or something like that, and you customize your notifications based on those priorities.
points to Sydney for that message gave all the info as consisly as it could be given
It was concise and cogent, wasn’t it?
You’re right. That’s not Sydney! It’s an impostor! They must have taken over Sydney’s body so that they could read all of the new comics without paying for them!
:-D
Either that or they limited combat text messages to a maximum of 52 characters, to encourage concise communication.
Or maybe not…
“… fire salvo at co-ordinates (in next message).”
“Max, there are bad guys incoming. Whatever you do, don’t ‘
ADHD + adrenalin can = extra clarity
Could have been a bit more concise: “4 in SWAT gear @ wood door!” No need to type out “imminent,” and Maxima can judge “bad guys (???)” for herself.
Indeed. But the time taken, to consider ‘what is the quickest way I can type this?’, Sydney instead spent on typing manically.
Or just, “4SWAT@door” if Maxima doesn’t need the extra info that they are suspicious unknowns then she can probably figure out Sydney is talking about the door she was just shoved out of which is most likely the main entrance. (and aren’t most of the doors in that place likely to be wood to stick to the theme or the castle/dungeon) and with the number and special character in between the words you can get by without spaces too.
This is why I think Sydney called it right in typing a normal message. By omitting the ‘suspicious’ yours trims it too far. As it could be interpreted as New York City SWAT (eliminating Arc-SWAT due to Maxima’s command knowledge). It needs either Sydney’s option or ‘unmarked’ to indicate that they may be hostile.
UNK might be military short for “unknown”. Maybe in the future something like 4UNK SWAT@door?
Though in future Maxima and Sydney will have gotten to know each other enough that Max would know Sydney not to use the priority for things she didn’t find suspicious. (and Sydney would have gotten to know NOT to do that.)
Course at that point they could have worked out special shorthand so that just by the use of terms Max would know whether they fit into suspected friendlies, unknowns, or enemies.
So, we’ve seen Arianna stage one attack for publicity among the humans…
What do you guys reckon?
Naaah.. If someone were trying to ‘out’ the supernaturals, they would do it in a public place with a lot of cameras already rolling. But I am on the edge of my seat as to whats happening, as only four of almost any group couldn’t expect to last long against all the ‘oomph’ gathered in that room. Even if ARC wasn’t visiting.
Which makes me think they are a suicide squad. You can do a lot of damage if you don’t expect to survive (and those magic nervous system outlines make me think they may not be in control of themselves).
I think it was the new skill point, not magic.
Mike was referring to the view we had of the S.W.A.T. squad, via the aura-sight. In particular the fact that the troops have glowing lines in their bodies. Various interpretations of these have been: their skeletons, their nervous system, magical control over them, a magical parasite coiled down their spine (and controlling them), the spell animating otherwise empty armour, and the internal structure of golems.
Whereas you are referring to how Sydney gained that ability. Which is true enough. The magic part though is referring to what may have been used on the members of the squad, probably by a third party (using the above explanations), in order to make them glow, when viewed with the aura sight activated.
At the pretended robbery Ari had arranged a “security test” with the bank as clearance. I don’t think something like that could be possible here.
Agreed. And I doubt Dave would reuse the same ploy. Especially as Arianna will have gotten a lot of flack from various parties, about how dodgy the first one was. As a lawyer she should have known better than to do that. Although it does encapsulate that she prioritises the letter of the law (having the agreement of the bank) above the ethics.
And the scheme very much depends on secrecy being maintained. Otherwise those who suffered trauma in the robbery (chief of whom was Sydney, but also including Suzy News) could sue Archon for emotional damage and any ongoing treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They would loose such cases with no doubt at all. So the scheme was not legally watertight, by any means.
What I like about this page, other than the great artwork on last panel, is that it ties to the point that Maxima discussed a long time ago, how surprise is her biggest weakness (see fear vomit discussion), that brief warning from Halo was enough to give her a chance to react, as we see in the panel with a very surprised Dabbler sitting idle while Max is already leaping into action. I think that this call back to an important concept discussed earlier is good use of story structure. Also I like that we are finally getting back to the action.
indeed,i had the same thoughts ^_^
Hear, Hear!
The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries (paraphrased)
(2) A Recruit in motion outranks a Lieutenant Commander who doesn’t know what’s going on.
(via Schlock Mercenary in case you were unaware) :-)
And the follow-up:
(3) An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
That one’s a rule in real life, as well.
I used to work in an explosives manufacturing plant. One rule was “no running.” The corollary rule was “If someone’s running, try to pass them.”
LOL.
I have a joke shirt of the same nature. It says:
“Bomb squad.
If you see me running, try to keep up with me”
My favourite joke shirt has a picture of a guy, throwing stick in hand, taking a T-Rex for a walk, on a leash. With the caption:
“WALKIES!”
I understand that they also like to play fetch.
*stands up, on hind legs, and claps a standing ovation*
And well said DaveM, although making sure that the Lieutenant Commander is aware does take priority, where possible.
Sorry SWAT guys, but you missed your surprise round on Maxima.
You may be prepared for everyone on the council, but a Maxima in Motion outranks at surprise that has been blown. At the very least Max should now go into close combat – possibly returning the grenade to those guys/detonating it in thier faces.
Yeah I doubt the grenade is getting past the doorway. The bad guys are in a world of hurt if their backup isn’t already on the way. Sydney’s shield is the anvil and Max is the hammer. Correction: even if the bad guy’s backup IS on the way.
To quote the Police officer from Blues Brothers:
“Boys, you in big trouble.”
Ouch, that’s a very good point. Halo can very easily act as area denial with her shield, by body blocking access points. If she drops in behind these folks, she’ll easily become an immovable wall.
Normally that’s a dangerous position to be if enemies do have reinforcements, as you’ll be the nut in their cracker. Sadly for enemies of ARC-SWAT, Halo is a nigh unbreakable nut.
Heh, a nut with a hammer.
And a portable particle weapon.
pointed into an occupied room.
People were talking about reinforcements coming up behind and trapping her. The PPO would not be aimed into the room but at those reinforcements.
Maxima gave very specific orders about this kind of circumstance. If you follow the direct line from Sydney (where we last saw her), to the vanguard villain (where he, she or it is presently), you will find Maxima and Dabbler beyond it.
Whilst Halo could potentially try to fire down, just at the rear rank(s), the PPO is something that Sydney has only had the chance to practice on two occasions.* Both times she had significant problems in controlling it, without unintended fire effects. Like burning down a forest!
Since that incident, Sydney has, judging from her results, put in a lot of effort to practicing her other powers. Such as being able to write her company’s website address just using the tentacle. And, even though she could not risk flying outdoors, she did master floating aggravatingly, upside down.
But, being too afraid of being ‘whisked away’ into a government laboratory, Sydney did not get to practice with the PPO again, until melting the tank. Without sufficient experimentation and training, any attempt to use the orb, under anything other than the simplest and safest conditions, could end in disaster!
* Baring any unseen initial discovery scene, perhaps like Maxima’s. Unless Sydney was sensible enough to do ALL her initial testing in isolated locations, where it would be unlikely that third parties (other than evil squirrels) could get hurt.
Sorry, puppies kept waking me up, last night, and I have been careless in checking comments. Had I done so, carefully, I would have acknowledged that you indicate Sydney’s intention to fire away from the room. But would have then pointed out the other risks involved, as above.
For instance Sydney did end up experiencing a recoil-like effect, when meting the tank. Especially given her current precarious position, she could well end up taking a tumble, whilst still firing, and end up shooting into the conference chamber.
As opposed to rocketing herself into the chamber, which would likely be a positive.
At full speed, all Max would need to do is run through them at Super speed with her arms out. Her rendition of a weed whacker…
Dabbler’s surprised face is just *adorable*.
I totally concur, I can’t stop laughing.
Same but she really should have been on her guard after Max getting something on her Priority line.
Lets be fair, a priority call doesn’t always have to mean imminent danger. There is no way to even who sent it. It could’ve been from anyone who could be any sort of distance away and could mean any type of emergency that doesn’t necessarily involve or even require her presence. I’d also like to think she probably has her own phone (or something similar) that would go off if an emergency call is sent out.
That’s true, for all she knew someone may have just needed to ask Max an urgent question.
That look on her face has to be one of my favourites for Dabbler so far.
Face? What fa… No wait, yes face, right.
What? No, of course I was looking at her bo… Face!
Her ears do stand out magnificently, silhouetted against the explosion, as they are.
*cocks ears at a jaunty angle*
In the next comic after they enter the room we hear:
‘Don’t mind us, we’re just hunting Pokemon. We heard there was a Snorlax in here.”
“Wow! Those are some agressive Pokemon hunters!”
“Yeah. There’s probably a gym in here.”
“Guys! Check it out! New Pokemon for the Halloween event!”
Let me guess, set to spawn in the middle of fireworks display areas?
Is one of them the Third Degree Burnsimon?
Freeze, Cobra Commader
Um, he’s about 2 blocks away in that hidden cave behind Bulgy King
….
Could this be Deus?
I mean, probably not personally, but could he have sent them?
I mean, they’re well-equipped, they know stuff they shouldn’t know (the location of a highly-secret council meeting), they have magical enhancement… sounds pretty expensive to me. Deus leaps to mind.
Actually sorta doubt Deus. It is probably another organization that knows of the others so far. and likely have been the ones trying to hunt them over the eons. and took the opportunity where the runes are less effective to launch an attack.
now that damaged runic langauge? That I think is Deus. but I don’t think he sent hte heavy (assume) hitters in. Though he probably knew that folks might take advantage of the moment he takes some magic and tech to hide.. whatever it is he is doing
True but odds are they likely got fitted out by Deus if only because he sells the quality merchandise.
I was thinking that last comic. It would be his style to blow up the door, enter flanked by armed guards, remove the helmet, smile and say “I apologise for the inconvenience but there are things we need to discuss”.
The last panel changes that. This is not a dramatic entrance, it’s an attack. Unfortunately for the attackers unless Maxima has come down with a bad case of Worf syndrome it’s all over bar the shouting :-)
(waits for Monday for DaveB to prove me horribly wrong on all counts) :-)
If they know Maxima is there, it would make sense for them to prioritise taking her out, given that she has been publicly declared to be “the most powerful super on the planet”.
A very good tanking method, I might add.
Sadly it also means that villains will not hold their punches and will also deploy any special capabilities which they may think will overcome her.
if you can get the other side to throw the big trump early…. (trump card not trump duck) there’s a good chance you can pull through. remember all Maxima really needs to do is buy enough time for the council to get over their surprise. we have several ancient vampires, at least two succubi, and a host of other things- give them a few seconds and all hell will be loosed.
::popcorn ready::
Shh!
Don’t say Tr*mp, you’ll only encourage him.
Yea, with three name-drops, I am surprised it did not kick off automatic spam filters! ;-)
I’m guessing Mr. Cleansing is behind it. (Panel 2 here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189 )
This actually makes sense, which makes it more likely that we might be getting the villains in that comic in panel order. Which means that bad thing that I think is Dabbler’s old enemy might be next after Mr. Cleansing.
I think the word was “reverse”. Or if he attended Hogwarts “reversio”.
OK I identified how that went in the wrong place. A puppy trod on my keyboard, whilst another distracted me by demanding to be let out for a wee. When I got back I did not notice that the next tab (also with Grrl Power open) had been selected, instead of the one I had opened a ‘reply to’ comment on.
Just in case the same problem happens to you. Maybe with kittens or piranha.
that happened to me a lot with kittens… but they wanted to play more then be let out.
Nicely done girl. Denied the biggest weakness of Max. uncertaintanty. Although still she is moving slower than her normal reaction time. but still gave her probably 3 extra seconds of movement she wouldn’t have. Like Dabbler and probably most if not all of the council.
I REALLY WANT THE NEXT OPENING PANEL TO JUST BE MAX CATCHING THAT GRENADE 2 INCHES FROM WHERE IT IS NOW
I was half expecting Sydney to have gone shield and flew in front of the door while haha. I guess she’s following the rules they established before about not acting alone. The correct choice. Sydney focused her hyper in the rirght direction and aid’d max’s join battle roll
Oh. and I still am calling the magi cyborg undead angel (this was a typo for angle but i’m gonna keep it cause that just sounds crazier now). The religious (or not. just the stereotype) org using the “evil magic tech” stuff to combat “abominations” is a pretty popular and interesting reversal theme.
:-D
“I REALLY WANT THE NEXT OPENING PANEL TO JUST BE MAX CATCHING THAT GRENADE 2 INCHES FROM WHERE IT IS NOW”
And the panel after that with Max’s hand holding the grenade right in front of SWAT-guy’s face.
And a word balloon from Max saying, “I believe this is yours.”
Max can use her speed even against a gas attack in this case – rushing to and stopping in the doorway, allowing the wind of her passage to provide a few splitseconds of overpressure when grenade blows, forcing explody gases to blow away from the chamber. If she passes thru the door at speed, however, it has the opposite effect: displacement of the volume of her body would suck the expanding gas into the chamber. Requires milli- or micro-second timing. No problem for someone who considers bullets in her presence to be harmless even to bystanders in a bank robbery.
no no. Catch it, flip it, and shove it back into the gun, before moving to the next guy. Because you know he is pulling the trigger for another launch. His second shot will detonate the first right there possibly the entire clip. She knows there are 4 so a quick KO on the next. Then what ever Sidney tries to do from behind them now that she knows they are bad guys. Not to mention what the rest of them will do now that they are past the initial WTF moment.
No clip…that’s a revolving cylinder :)
And how fast *is* Max? Super-speed hasn’t been portrayed very reliably in comics…you may see Flash kick up a few papers on the street even though he’s supposed to be approaching the speed of light and sonic booms are used infrequently. Logically, someone `faster than a speeding bullet’ should be making a lot of noise every time he…or she…dodges one, since most rounds are hypersonic.
Seriously, even with her speed set to `normal’ for Max…soon as the door starts to blow, she should be able to get there before anyone can enter, surprise or not.
I’m *hoping* this is an opportunity for Max to shine…because honestly, so far we haven’t really *seen* her living up to her hype. Arrogance, attitude, and big talk, yes…but in the `crunches’ we’ve seen thus far, Max has come up short…both Whom and V made her look pathetic and it was up to Sydney to save those particular days. I’m kinda worried that Max will look stupid and useless again and Sydney will once again win the battle.
I *want* Max to make everyone stare stunned afterwards…Sydney, Dabbler, Council, *everyone*…and think collectively, “Yeah, we want to be on *her* side!”
Time will tell, I suppose…
She has been shown to create sonic booms before (after the ambulance and pr event spring to mind), although a human sized object wouldn’t create mush of one, more of a sonic “crack” most likely. Either way, she may be intentionally not going as fast as possible in order to not disrupt/injure those immediately beside her.
Totally agreed on the super speed. If you are going a sizable fraction of light speed, any contact with matter (including atmosphere or the ground) is effectively a weapon of mass destruction.
Also agreed on hoping for Max to have a break from being the Worf equivalent.
One of our best measures is that Maxima can move faster than Harem can teleport!
Note that Maxima has a highly sophisticated force field, EveryZig, which allows her other powers to work efficiently. We have had a detailed explanation for her super strength. However I can envisage a similar one for Maxima’s super speed, if she gets to dangerously high mach speeds.
Namely that the force field could grab a tiny amount of air in front of her*, swing it around her body (and similarly moving any other air blocking its path) until it is on behind her body, relative to her direction of travel.
The force field then adjusts the momentum of the air, to return it to the same state it was in before being grabbed, then releasing it. Any energy needed to do this could be drawn from whatever source Maxima normally calls upon (such as for her nukes). Likewise any surplus could be sent to the same source.
This is just in case anyone crunches the numbers and shows that Maxima has travelled at destructively high speeds already.
* The force field operates at a molecular level, so this is feasible, from that point of view.
Well, she’s shown she is almost as fast as a five-second delay news-feed
No, she’s not faster than Harem can *VORP*, she simply used distraction* to go for Bodie who thought she was safe and didn’t even attempt to *VORP*
*she took a half inch steep towards Berry, but instead *ZIPPED* to where Bodie was for the Maxima-Wedgie and the chain-reaction
Shh, stop ruining an over-exaggerated point, made for dramatic effect! :-D
The key thing is that Maxima still managed to pull that off, before Harem could react and teleport away. All it would take is for Harem to think of getting away, and she would instantly be gone.
Importantly Harem was aware that Maxima was engaging her, even if she did not anticipate where. So this would not class as a sneak attack,* rather it is a feint. Just as in sword fighting the defender can react to this, if they are faster than the aggressor. Unlike sword fighting though Harem does not have the delay of having to get her body moving. The instant she makes the decision, Harem is gone.
But you are wholly correct in your challenge, so I shall concede the point and replace it with a, suitably dramatic, alternative.
Maxima can move faster than thought! ;-)
* For anyone who might be thinking that. I am not saying it was implied, but folks minds could well go there.
i’m now tempted to start making Chuck Norris jokes subbing in maximas name.
The best solution may be to get that can as far from the attendees as possible even if it means blowing up the front door.
That would be pretty hot.
♫If I could save time in a bottle♫
What do these people think a grenade launcher amd swat gear aae going to do against super powers and magic? ##pwnageinc
It’s probably not a normal grenade, and the gear is probably magically enhanced to protect them from whatever is in the grenade.
or they are going full out surprise attack style and hoping the grande will kill the people around it before they can cast defensive spells. the heros are the random factor here. however the one with the deformed arm and alternate helmet will likely deal with max dabbler and halo.
Magic SWAT gear. Given how fast Max should be moving by now, he must be firing that canister litterally miliseconds after the breaching charge. IE. They are standing in the explosion.
Agreed.
…. ASSUMING that Max’s decision is to go Full Siperspeed.
Agreed, it seems her most likely tactical option, but I wouldn’t rule out other possibilities. For one, she COULD opt for Full Invulnerability mode and trying to shield others in the room from whatever’s coming next.
Or better yet, half-Superspeed and half-Invulnerable and do both
Just one pointer against any suggestion that these four might be weak minions. That one just walked through a fireball (or even the still-expanding explosion) unscathed!
fully clothed fire resistant swat gear… my brother in the army has done similar. he says that type of armor is heavy as hell and generally not used unless its a first strike kind of thing. Then they get out of the way for other troops to handle whats left. Basically he is the guy with the battering ram on the show cops who busts open the door for the others. Only he is military so has to enter and shoot things to.
Not to mention that shaped charges are highly directional.
As long as you are not ‘hoisted’* you can stand right next to them and be fine.
For examples, check any movie where SWAT/Special Forces beach a for with explosives. (But not when they beach concrete walls with det-cord. That’s a whole other ball game (and yeah, I guess they might have some that here). Odds are that the fireball is just artistic licence (“hey guys, they came through with an explosion”)
*I’m referring to the phrase “hoisted by your own petard”, a petard being a rudimentary shaped charge developed by the French, it was basically a cauldron filled with gunpowder and stuck to the door they want to breach, at which point someone would light it and run.
It wasn’t easy to contain a blast like that, and you would often end up with the petard shooting backwards with more than enough force to lift someone off their feet.
Well, that’s the story according to Tony Robinson (Blackadder’s Baldrick and time team host (I know you can get it on the US) when I had a Q&A with him.)
Morti has kindly provided the counter, in the thread above, to both your comments (moonpatroll1 and Baldrickk). Namely that if the explosion is still occurring behind him (and it certainly does appear to be the case, as opposed to seeing the charred fragments of door on fire), then he was capable of traversing the explosion in milliseconds. Thus far exceeding any human capability.
The above is based strictly on what we see. However I do keep ‘the door being on fire’ as an option, to allow for artistic license. That may be the intent, despite the fact that, in reality, it would look very different. Source: I have watched enough Mythbusters explosions to know the difference.
C4 or a launched grenade would not leave a rolling fireball, nor would a wooden door be burning like that. It would splinter and only have bits on fire, if any. It takes a long time for that to develop into a hearty fire. The source for the latter is using wood as my primary heat, during winter. Although right now it is doggy and puppy powered.
I’m calling rule of cool on walking through the explosion.
That is fair.
I’d say Sydney just redeemed herself in the eyes of the Council.
If any of them saw her message… it’s likely Arcon will be blamed for the attack by baldy. Who will use Sidney’s being kicked out as an excuse for her to ready the attackers, and maxes call as her Que to duck.
Ive seen to many action dramas…
That is highly plausible. All depending on how well (or badly) our heroes respond. If they do well then the claims would be less credible. But could still be dangerous to relations.
Though remember how sceptical some were about dealing with the humans in the first place? They could easily get the blame for leading the soldiers there in the first place.
Very true.
And even if any of them did see the message, it could be taken as a signal that the attack was good to go.
This reminds me of the scenario in David Weber’s For Honor of the Queen where Honor foils a Masadan plot to kill the Grayson king during a meeting between her and him in an attempt to make it look like she was behind it.. Looks like the Archonites will have to save the Council for the same reason.
Nice going Sydney! Alerting the one person who’s weakness is surprise and is the most powerful person in the room (possibly) that there’s something bad about to happen!
Hope Max has enough time to guess that whatever is in that grenade thing is probably canned sunlight, salt, and cold iron filings (and whatever else is the weakness of a bunch of races) and NOT allow it to detonate if possible even out in the hallway (just in case).
These people are obviously from one of the races and have a beef with the Council. They probably messed up the Sigil KNOWING that it would cause a Council meeting to occur, a la Khan in the second reboot Star Trek movie. What better way to take out all the leaders than to make them gather in one place and surprise them? Unfortunately for them, a Sydney-shaped wrench was thrown into their works.
Lots of folks with good analysis, on this comic.
*wags tail companionably*
Lost it at aggressive Girl Scouts Lmao. ‘You WILL buy our cookies.’ *Cocks shotgun.
I laughed at that to but my brain went further with the aggressive Mormons ” You will let us tell you about your lord and savior! ” of coarse it then went to the old door to door sales men of the 40s/50s ” Have i got the greatest thing for you? Of coarse I do here let me show you ! “
At this end of the world aggressive Jehovah’s Witnesses are more likely..
“Halt! You will read our Newspaper ‘The Watchtower’ under pain of , well .. pain!”
“Have I got the greatest thing for you? Of course I do!” *Shoots customer in the head* “Now will that be cash or credit?” *Steals wallet from corpse*
Girl Scouts chaperoned by <a href="https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/694") the waiter from LuftWaffles? (You. Vill. Be. Seated!)
Heh.
Your link got corrupted. Here is a cleaned up version.
Thanx on the link. Apparently I need to backslash the ending quote in the tag, but not the opening quote? I’ll try: back to school for me, I guess.
My pleasure.
You got it just right. :)
Oh, thank God. Finally back to superheroes being superheroes. I’ll probably get a little hate for this but I was getting really tired of all the council BS. I get it, you want to have werewolves in your superhero comic. There’s an organic way to make that happen (for example, Kirkman’s introduction of The Astounding Wolf Man to the Invincible Universe) but this was not it.
No hate. We all have our preferences, and it is good to get feedback on what folks think. Personally I loved the low-key nature of it and the non-combat, non-aggressive and civilised way it played out.
Likewise am glad that you are enjoying the return to action. It is nice to have a change of pace.
The only hate I’m sending your way is that you had to phrase it this way. We’re getting very interesting world building and story here, it’s not like we’re watching Dragonball Z.
It actually tickles me that Sydney was the most uncivilised person there. Barring Crimson and Scarlett eating with their mouths open.
I’m with you and Sydney. Boring meetings. Had a coworker who had a special tshirt for “casual friday” meetings: it said “Just pretend I’m not here. That’s what I’m doing”.
Most of my ties had a basic theme of bright colours, on a dark, or preferably black, background. Because I preferred wearing black shirts, so they complimented them nicely. In particular I used to love wearing character ties. I had Spiderman, for instance.
But the best one, which I made a point of wearing to such meetings, especially with one chairman, who flinched every time he saw it, was Taz, the Tasmanian devil. With his tongue lolloping out. There was more than one manager who gave me the hairy eyeball, for wearing it. But none ever challenged me over it. They knew I was too stroppy, to be bothered, if they did. So they wisely let me have my fun.
personally. I am curious to know who their service provider is cuz to be able to send a text to maxima that fast while being god know how far underground enclosed in a stone tomb, so to speak, means their cell provider has one hell of a connection strength.
Sydney almost certainly used her pip-boy. Being a military communications tool, it will not rely on cell towers.
i agree, however, the signal still needs to be relayed somewhere whether a satellite or cell towers privately owned or not. And even if it could go directly from one device to the other without any other hoops, wouldn’t it still have to be some kind of uber strong signal. radio frequencies cannot go through earth and that’s not counting on whatever magical/technological protection that place should have, especially considering the amount of high profile people within that confined space, right?
The signal only needed to pass through a wooden door. Any walkie talkie could have managed that, without any modern high-tech relay needed. I am happy to be corrected, but I would be very surprised if modern squad communications were dependant on relay stations.*
If so, then they have taken a step back from the walkie talkies of WWII.
Further they are now actually in a building,** despite the appearance of being deep underground. Although that may include the basement levels of the building, so your point about poor reception could be valid.
As regards magical protections, the conference table and balconies appear to have those, given that even Sydney’s aura sight cannot see the lower limbs of most of the delegates in the chamber. But the chamber walls and door*** neither glowed nor blocked her super power.
* Here I am talking about communications within a unit, as opposed to needing to relay their messages to remote locations like aircraft carriers. And am ignoring any militaries which decide to only have communications with remote command centres, and not bother with letting units contact each other directly, other than face to face.
** Chorius talked about going in the front door.
*** The door may be very prominent in Sydney’s field of view, blocking part of her view of the conference table. But even if it is not, it would be both visible from her location and be highlghted, if it had any spells on it.
fair `nuff. I am not completely convinced yet but you make good points that I cannot refute. and I am by no means an expert in the field so I will let it go. thanks for making time.
Always a pleasure. I would not be surprised to have some aspect of my comment disputed mind, if there is any flaw in it, as we do have a lot of military and ex-military readers. And are up to the eyeballs with physicists, and other boffins, for that matter. :-)
me included ^-^.
Consider also that the average smart phone has greater computing power and probably greater bandwidth than an AT&T phone switching building in 1975 – the only real need for a cell tower or other relay is to link to outside the cell phone’s immediate range. We probably don’t even need cell phone towers in crowded cities at all except to accommodate density shifts like rush hours and empty business centers late at night, except that phone software won’t use other phones as routers. Even that is slowly changing. Halo looks to be only a coupla hundred feet at most from Max, and cell phones have ranges 20-30 miles at least. Signal attenuation by wooden doors is not likely to stop a direct link.
Of course, we also have Sydney on their six with the element of surprise.. entangle as many as she can with the lighthook whilst hunkered down inside her force field? Or at least the one who’s helmet screams ‘I’m their leader’.
Though I would recommend she exit the attic first. They may just be cantrip level magical items, but having them bisected by the forcefield might lead to awkward reactions.
The force field automatically adjusts to fit confined spaces, so there is no problem from that point of view.
Oh, with ya on its relative size being adjustable, we’ve seen it go from single person bubble to football field sized. But its always, to my memory anyways, been spherical and centered on Sydney, even when half of it cant be seen due to its being underground. And we have seen that solid matter, even benign, doesn’t pass through it once its active. So she is either stuck in place or taking part of the attic with her if she moves.
I suppose it may depend more on the nature of the/any magical objects it might interact with. Is magic, once cast on an object, akin to it being irradiated, a ‘background count’ that evokes certain effects/interactions? Or more like anchoring a continually looping magical program/bit of code to the object? I’m sure Dabbler could explain it, but my eyes would glaze about five seconds after she started talking, and not due to the magibabble.
It has thus far adjusted to her moving around, I think?
The two times we’ve seen it big, it has spawned centered on her, but she could then move around inside it (flying around above the reporters and pressing back against it to get as far from Vehemance as she could).
During the vehemance fight, she was certainly implied to be moving whilst stood on the ground, so the shield must know when it’s intersecting immovable terrain or she would have been dragging asphalt with her the entire time.
Re your last. Yes, you are correct. We have even seen Halo kicking up dust, with her feet, when she was being dragged. It is my assumption that, when Sydney wants to walk, the shield forms an open hemisphere, so that she can find purchase on the ground, rather than being unable to walk, due to the force field getting in the way.
The canon quote, referenced via the link in my comment below, indicates that if the shield were to pass through a solid object, it would bisect it. Thus dispelling any arguments that it phases through objects. Which has been a long running debate.
It does not actually risk doing this though, as the shield automatically adjusts its size, precisely to stop that.
However this is not to say that my interpretation holds that it always has an open hemisphere. I contest that most of the time it will form a closed one, with the force-field passing under the shoes of anyone enclosed.
We can see something similar to this, when Daphne is scooped up by the shield. Albeit that Sydney was flying at the time, so it was able to form a full sphere, on that occasion.
We have seen that the shield adjusts to a torpedo shape, when flying at high speed. That shape would easily fit through the hatch. Duende Sociopata found the canon statement that such adjustments can be done automatically.
This certainly applies when going outdoors and indoors. We can see that the sphere is much bigger in open environments. The ‘football field-sized’ one is the exception, as Sydney has to use a specific glyph, on the Forb, to raise or lower that version. However it is a reasonable assumption that the shield goes narrow (like the aerodynamic flying shape) when passing through narrow doorways.
Although we do not have a direct shot of it, Sydney has travelled from inside the Steak House, to the outside, during a pitched battle. And no reference was made to her having to expose herself to attack, in order to get out. OK there was a big hole in the ceiling, but we likewise did not see her flying out, so logical assumption is that she just walked out.
Most importantly though, the quote referenced, via the above link, includes:
Halo’s shield, like her other powers, is very sophisticated. It is designed to protect its user, without restricting them.
Huh, Sydney did do the right thing – I thought she’d have more time tho. At least they took a minute to get in position and ready so Syd could get her warning out.
And with the warning Max can kick up her super speed and lay down some serious smack.
What if Dabbler isn’t the only one who has a gun that shoots tangle ribbon? She said the ribbon was strong enough to tow an asteroid, that might be too much for even Maxima to break out of.
True. Nobody on Earth would have something that utilises off-world technology. Barring factions represented in this chamber (or their peers). For all we know Dabbler utilised off-the-shelf alien technology to make her tangler gun.
Theirs might not be the same mind, as Dabbler likely tweaked hers. But theirs is a LOT bigger. So it may entangle many folks. Which actually makes it harder for Maxima, as she has to worry about squishy allies being bisected, if she tries to escape with brute force. And we have already seen that it is proof against a super-speeder.
Maybe its the same idea but a different application.
Incredibly Expansive Sticky Goo Grenade?
A clever use of technology for policing. And efforts have clearly been made to limit the intrusiveness into other people’s lives.
Well done Canada.
*sheepishly looks for forgiveness*
So… they… basically tracked who was in the vicinity when a crime was committed… innocent people who weren’t involved and in all likelihood saw nothing… and they just… harvested the numbers of all the people in the area at the time…
And this is well done? I’m not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but that kind of shit makes me fuck’n nervous and glad that I use a prepaid phone that was paid for in cash, with prepaid cards paid for in cash…
All mobile phones do that all the time.
The Mounties had to get a court order to access them. And precident has established that they are only allowed to do so for a limited number of people. Finally they are restricted to their telephone numbers only, with no meta data (such as the people’s names).
As a package that second paragraph outlines is what I am applauding. It shows a considered use of private data, with the protection of the owners (the phone users, not the company) rights fairly balanced.
I do not have any phone myself, for the reason stated in the first paragraph. You can still be tracked. And scientific studies have shown that it is a trivial matter, just using meta data, to precisely identify who you are, even with a pay-as-you-go phone. Unless you only use it for emergencies, rather than routine use. And do not keep the sim in it, whilst it is powered up, at other times.
Regular phone use though allows a complete list of who all your regular contacts are. Which is easily sorted into private ones versus business numbers. Any use of social media via it will leak all sorts of data, like friends and families names, dates of birth, etc etc. Even if you have high privacy settings people you associate with may not.
Further all the time it is turned on it is transmitting your location. So it is easy to tell which neighbourhood you live in, where you work, where you shop. Which friends you hang out with. Where the bodies are burred.
burred = burried
man… i love maximas face in this one.
Girl Scouts actually coerced to start selling Girl Scout themed cereal in Janurary 2017. I could see this as part of their push.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/10/24/general-mills-launching-girl-scouts-cookie-cereals/92706140/
I am still ticked off about the so-called ‘Girl Scout cookies’ I bought last year. After reading the ingredient list it turns out it did not contain any actual girl scouts. What a ripoff.
And don’t even get me started on that package of ‘ladyfingers’ cookies I got at the local supermarket.
Nice reference :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zCO4j4MrxE
Something similar happens to me every time I go to a giant sale and ask how much a giant is.
More importantly fish don’t have fingers, crabsticks do not contain crab and ‘crispy fried seaweed’ is made from cabbage!
*howls in anxious frustration*
The salesclerks at the store didn’t like it when I was buying a bottle of baby oil and I asked how many does it take to fill one bottle, and were they organically raised.
And here I thought “Lady Fingers” were a vegetable…
Thanks for the info, I now understand the ‘thin mints’ reference that has been dropped elsewhere.
For info, as a couple of other folks have also had difficulties, the correct format for converting links into text is as follows:
<p><a href=”https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/10/24/general-mills-launching-girl-scouts-cookie-cereals/92706140/”>Insert_text_to_be_displayed_here</a></p>
The first and last parts cause it to appear on a line on its own. Usually you do not want that though, if you want the text to appear in a sentence. In which case you format it like this:
<a href=”https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/10/24/general-mills-launching-girl-scouts-cookie-cereals/92706140/”>Insert_text_to_be_displayed_here</a>
The link can be created and/or tested in the sandbox here:
https://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_links_w3schools
Just copy the web page into your bookmarks, and call it up whenever you need it. Copying and pasting the formula (on the left) into the comic when the testing shows that it displays correctly (on the right).
Actually, one doesn’t need the “p” and “/p” tags, just the “a href=” and “/a>.
I mentioned that.
The only reason why I demonstrated both versions, is so that the sandbox now has the “<p>” and “</p>” built into the example. So folks need to know that they do not require that, most of the time.
The other alternative is to not refer them to that website, but it is just too helpful an option not to make it available to folks.
Um, I was just emphasizing that point? Yeah, that’s the ticket. Sure. I’m not getting defensive, you’re the one that’s getting defensive[1].
[1] Just wanted people to know this was a CR.
Just so long as you were not taking the ‘p’ ;-)
What is a ‘CR’? I am not up on ESAOIO.
Cultural reference
I love Dabbler’s expression here.
It seems a lot of us do. :-D
So, that 3 dozen boxes of Mint Choc Chip and 4 dozen of Peanut Butter? Each.
If you want to keep the sneaky scenes entertaining, you can have them overhear guard conversations as they sneak past. The sillier the conversations, the better. Note that this was a large part of the comedy in the “No One Lives Forever” series, which were First-Person Shooter games where the campaign’s gameplay required a sneaking around a lot more than it required shooting things.
Thief: The Dark Project had that quite a bit also; possibly the funniest background sound ever in a few places.
I am SOOOO annoyed that I can’t find my “No One Lives Forever” CD’s. You can’t get them anywhere unless someone’s selling theirs on Amazon, because of an ownership dispute over the IP. (Essentially, about four different companies own bits and pieces of the IP, and one of them… I’m looking at you, Warner Bros… doesn’t want to re-release.)
Saw the last page with Sydney polling artifacts and runes of power. Flipped to this page, noting the explosion, and figured “Yep, totally what happens when leaving a Sydney unattended…” Except the text gives a different story… :S
Not sure if I should be impressed or disappointed at this. I mean, Sydney antics with explosions are always fun.
Autoclobber sucks.
Polling -> ogling
Actually ‘polling’ worked quite well there. :-)
“Shall I have you, or you, or you?”
You could simply be running a phone with dual sim cards. Incoming calls/messages to one number get one ring tone (customised maybe by sender/caller) and incoming messages to the other number get the “omg priority call/message” tone. (again possibly customised).
If Sydney is smart, she’ll just block off the hallway behind the SWAT guys with her unbreakable (so far) forcefield. Maxima and Sydney become an unstoppable force and an immovable object, with the SWAT guys trapped between them.
I expect there is much more to this attack than just the dudes standing in the doorway.
+1
Grenade launchers make more of a “Poont” sound. FYI.
This one is bringing the “FOONK” back, along with the bell-bottoms, can you dig it?
I can dig it, he can dig it
She can dig it, we can dig it
They can dig it, you can dig it
Oh, let’s dig it
Can you dig it, baby
Grazing in the Grass, baby…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LklGNCi0DK4
Not sure but the one with the Milkor seems to be a she.
Top marks for Sidney. Maximum tactical information in an minimum of words. Location, appearance, and quantity.
Some interesting thoughts on our baddies, they are INSIDE the wire, heck they are already inside the facility. The perimeter and internal defenses have not notified anybody inside the council chamber. No alarm sounded. We know that there were guards at least on the outside of the facility. This would indicate an inside job. Guards and defenses suborned.
The second thought is that this is not the attack. This is the distraction. The attack will come from amongst the council members.
nah, the guards are still arguing over who’s going to place whom in UNO (*) next turn, so they missed the four goons waltzing right on by them… :D
* = they were playing chess with a checkers set, so i figured that they would be playing by other, non-standard, rules as well… kinda like Baseketball does.
though seriously, they’ve probably whacked the two guys outside before they could get an alarm off in the first place, i wouldn’t go searching for a mole yet…
I would search for a squirrel myself.
Quite possibly the one during the fight at the steakhouse, with revenge on his or her tiny little cranium.
You can get by a lot of security by just appearing that you are supposed to be there. Back in the 80’s a pair of wanna-be reporters dressed up in Tuxes and while one of them was filming the other with a video-cam walked past security and straight through the main gate. Once inside they wandered around interviewing celebrities at random.
https://www.vice.com/read/this-video-about-sneaking-into-the-oscars-in-1988-is-incredible-995
Yup, and the bigger the location, the greater the success, until you start wandering into smaller and more secure areas
Guards tend to be on the lookout for people or things that are suspicious or ‘out of place’, so, don’t act suspiciously and don’t look around before going through doors (if it has a window, carefully look through it afterwards to see if anyone noticed you and coming over to check)
I’ve done it myself. Albeit that we had a right to be there, so it was all legit. :-)
Three of us were personally invited guests of Nickleback, but somebody had forgotten to leave tickets at the ticket-box, for us. So we just pretended to be roadies and got into the concert carrying bits of their equipment. As soon as we hitched up with them, they ensured we got our passes, after-show party invites etc.
That’s because a lot of “security” is actually “security theater“. Hiring more guards doesn’t solve a single potential security problem unless one can get them to do their jobs (e.g., if you tell them to stop anyone who doesn’t have a certain badge for access, then they do so regardless of what a person without such a badge tells them).
Oh, *nice*. The heads-up was clearly enough time to get Maxima into combat mode, and probably enough time to put her VPP into speed.
Hmm. Is Max reaching for a gun in the second to last panel?
Side note- looking more closely at that panel, I think the proportions are a little off on Max’s right arm. Seems kind of small in comparison to everything else.
Holding her cell phone out of the way / putting it back. Note her position in cell 3.
As for the baddies… Hard to tell. There’s form for taking normal armor and enchanting it for extra protection against physical or magical damage. The stick-figure center is interesting, though, much different than any of the others pictured in the Council chamber, even Zephan. It looks more “magic marionette” than “magic person”.
You are correct. Maxima’s gun is on her right hip.
I doubt that Maxima would opt for her gun though, not with her blast ability or physical intervention as options. The latter being a real problem if she does it in person, as it would expose her to whatever magical or super-powered attacks they may be using. Sadly Sydney did not have time to alert Max to that aspect.
It looks more ‘magic gorilla’ to me, internally. Externally though is standing too tall for that to be the case. So human/gorilla hybrid would be closer.
She’s also pointed out that the primary reason for the gun is to be able to present a clear threat when needed.
Pointing her gun is for intimidation. Pointing her finger is for incineration.
“This is my pistol. This is my WMD.”
And you don’t take a pistol to a WMD fight.
I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned how able she is to throttle the power of her fallout shots, but the pistol might allow her some pin point accuracy rather than an attack who’s heat bloom might half roast the squishier people in the enclosed space/
Maxima has fought in at least two wars. I am confident that she will have refined her power enough to be able to ‘dial it down’. Shooting beer bottles is probably a party trick, of hers, for instance. :-D
Whilst I do use ‘nuke’ myself to describe Maxima’s power, when it is used at ‘mushroom cloud creating strength’ it is just to save having to type such a mouthful. It is actually an analogy though, given that it looks like a nuke but is not actually one. The destructive power may be comparable to low yield one mind. But, importantly, it has neither EMP nor radioactive fallout.
As such it is best to avoid describing them as ‘fallout shots’, as it does not create that effect, so would be misleading.
Totally had faith that Sydney would do the right (and correct) thing
Damn, should have had a pool going, would have raked in big time!
:-D
Just thought people might be interested to know, that the inaugural ADHD Awareness Day is October 30th, with a conference being held in Auckland (that’s in New Zealand, not on the other side of the Bay Harbour from San Diego :P)
If this was in the GrrlVerse, Sydney would have been the Guest Speaker
Heh, maybe DaveB can email through some promotional materials, to the organisers? Or at least draw the comic to their attention, to see if they can give him a plug at some point.
So, I may be the only one thinking this, but is Sydney going to be punished for not stopping those guys on her own, rather than just informing Max? I’m sure she could have, if she had stayed where she was supposed to. Maybe I’m just being too negative, here.
I just got done (last post) arguing over whether the rawest of recruits should even be out and about this much without some more training and a ton of powers/orb testing so I got to say this concern surprises me.
Nah, military wise they haven’t even fully taught her to wipe her own butt let alone know how to judge friendlies from potential threats/enemies in a world chock full of hidden supernatural, alien, super powered AND mundane allies, neutrals, and threats.
Now that they have started firing she might get a little heat if she just stood there and let them kill the ENTIRE Council without attempting to do something or get direction from a superior at least. But overall its Max’s responsibility to protect and direct the untrained recruit.
I’m thinking she gets a Scoville snack for not only taking the initiative but actually doing something useful and informative that neither revealed her position or risked targeting friendlies.
Would people please stop treating Archon like a normal branch of the US Military? That would be dandy, Andy, but make it a shandy
Whilst Archon may have a few similarities to, say, the SEALs or, more likely, Delta Force (DF eat SEALs like dolphins beat porpoises) they are not actually Military, so how they treat ‘recruits’ is not even close, think of them like JSA Dark, or X-Force: specialized Supers who actually get their hands dirty (but not as dirty as Batman, seriously, for a dude who claims not to kill, he sure racks up a decent tally of body-bag wearers)
Totally agree with you here.
As noted way back after the first battle, in our world Maxima would be facing charges for allowing Sydney to be part of the battle, Sydney would be confined to base pending mandatory trauma counselling, and every religious & anti immigration group would be wanting full details of Dabblers background “to protect the public”. This didn’t happen because the Grrlverse runs on a mixture of narrative causality & rule of funny (eg: Things happen because it’s funny and/or it advances the story).
Enjoy the story and don’t overthink things sounds like a good rule of thumb. :-)
Wait, ‘facing charges for allowing Sydney to be part of the battle’? You make it sound like she had a choice!
Dabbles’ appearance was already explained (prior to her even displaying it) as simply a ‘battle form’, ie not her true form but like how Colossus goes all metally
Ooookaay, though the main difference between them and regular military is that they are difficult to impossible to replace assets with possibly, in Sydney’s case, unique abilities that may simply be judged to be needed in a situation training or not.
That said, insert whatever word you want for the type of force they are instead of “military”. Police force, special ops, coast guard , warehouse security guard, meter maid and at this point Sydney still hasn’t had enough training for them to expect much right to punish her for her decisions outside what they would punish a civilian for. (I’m just gonna kill everyone and sort it out later.) Not saying they wouldn’t try to do it anyway if the need for a scapegoat was strong enough but I doubt it unless she goes totally crazy.
I wasn’t really thinking of anything specific training wise when I said “military” as I don’t do or speak military (like Sydney) I just meant she isn’t trained at all for hardly anything beyond some very short conversations on simplest of basic ideas of super fight strategy, public relations, gun safety, and a doozy of a first day racking up real world super fight experience soo… I don’t know, call it the equivalent of 3 or 4 days training? (though the super fight experience will keep helping in being something for her to compare to when given ideas in future classes).
Though I do think that DaveB originally wanted them to be like a military organization (and he has technically made them so) that has been given a hug amount of leeway due to the unique and difficult to replace nature of their personnel. (plus massive doses of rule of funny cause its a webcomic [rule of funny and DaveB’s lack of military knowledge are probably the major contributors to the difference over the super powers actually])
And so far, she hasn’t done anything she shouldn’t, or what you would expect a raw recruit to do if basically having a combat zone drop on their head
Like said, they have similarities to Special Ops forces, but they are still closer to JLA Dark or X-Force rather than the ‘regular’ JLA or the X-Men
First part we have been agreeing on since my first statement.
Second I don’t know much about those specific references but I assume you are talking about groups that somehow get the job done despite not having much in the way of actual rules with potential punishments all spelled out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GMkuPiIZ2k
It was more that those groups are the Black Ops divisions of their respective groups
But yeah, ‘more guidelines than actual rules’ does sound about right
I agree that Sydney did the absolute best thing she could here. Initiating hostile actions against possible friendlies would be attempted murder.* Reporting in is what she should have done, trained or not. Her orders were not to ‘hold the perimeter and do not let anybody pass’, let alone ‘attack anyone who comes near the door’.
Now that they are clearly hostile, and lacking direct orders to the contrary, she is free to use her common sense. As bound by the rules of engagement that Maxima stipulated in her talk at the bathroom in the Steak House. Bearing in mind that the enemy are directly in between Sydney and a lot of friendlies. So she must avoid any attack which could harm allies.
* And bear in mind that one of the highly plausible comments is that these are friendlies of some sort (be it local SWAT or folks otherwise associated with Archon), who have been magically controlled into attacking. Had Sydney killed a NYPD SWAT squad, with such minimal provocation, she would be in serious trouble!
Her only mitigation would be them not having appropriate insignia or police markings. Which still does not excuse killing someone, who has a legal right to be where they are whilst bearing arms.
I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think one can be charged (at least not in the U.S.) with attempted murder if there’s no intent to kill. Rather, I think the charge would be assault with a deadly weapon.
I cannot think of an American example, off the top of my head, but the Oscar Pistorius case hinged on a similar point, to the one you are making. The two countries have related legal systems, so it is reasonable to cite, to illustrate a point.
In it the defence argued that shooting through a door he could not know that he would kill the person on the other side, therefore there was no intent to commit murder.
However he was found guilty of murder (on appeal) on the grounds that he believed there to be someone there (whether it was an intruder or his girlfriend being irrelevant to this particular issue) and that firing a gun towards their suspected location was sufficient proof of intent to kill. The gun had a reasonable chance of killing someone, even firing blindly.
The same would apply to Halo, if she used force sufficiently dangerous that it resulted in death. Unless it could be shown that she made reasonable effort to minimise the force or avoid injury, and that the deaths were caused by some accident or event out of her control.
Wrapping them up, using the tentacle, would be an example of the latter, even if one had a heart attack. Sydney would be seen to having restrained her attack, but that the degree of force was reasonable given the possibility that the suspects were an imminent threat. Whereas then slamming them into the ground would be likely to severely injure some and kill others. Thus justifying a charge of attempted murder.
A defence lawyer might successfully plea bargain it down to one of the various categories of manslaughter (depending on what is available under New York jurisdiction), given that she could plea that she was acting in self-defense. That may or may not wash.
I should clarify that various jurisdictions allow ‘self defence’ to include ‘the defence of others’. So a parent defending their children would be protected under any provisions allowed by self defence statutes. Sydney was at no risk herself, but she would have been acting on the perceived threat to her colleagues and allies.
Then again, I could just look it up on the internet: “In order for a person to be guilty of attempted murder, that person should have deliberately, intentionally or recklessly with extreme disregard for human life, attempted to kill someone. There should be some substantial step towards committing the crime.”
The prosecutor would have to show that Sydney’s actions showed an “extreme disregard for human life” to prove attempted murder and even then, mitigating circumstances (such as fear for the Council’s safety) might nullify that.
Darn, the tab I had this page on must have been sitting there for a long time, for this addendum to your previous comment not to be visible.
Either that or I have been rolling a long series of critical failures, on my ‘spot checks’!
Actually, trying to stop them by herself would be a wrong move. Let’s suppose she does try to take them on her own and, for whatever reason, fails not only to stop them, but to alert those in the Council room who could help in defending it. The attackers now have the element of surprise back.
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