Grrl Power #471 – Ordnance disposal: Expert level
So Max is fast. Not Flash Silver Age light speed fast. That creates severe writing problems as far as I’m concerned, even if you ignore all the shockwaves, and explosive friction and X-ray blasts. Even still, Max’s speed is the first thing any opponent of hers needs to be able to counter. Thanks to Sydney’s heads up and her speed, Max gets a +17 to initiative. (Or a -9 or a +5 or +2d6 depending on whatever system you prefer)
I’m pretty pleased with this page, I wasn’t sure if blurring the backgrounds instead of Max would give the effect I wanted but I think it turned out good. The only real failing, art wise, is that Kat doesn’t seem to have any reaction to someone blowing up the door to the chamber. My thought when I started penciling was that she hadn’t had time to react yet, but I don’t think it reads that way. I guess I could go the other way and say her Lycanthrope reflexes allowed her to track what was happening and saw that Max was neutralizing the threat… but – while Lycans are definitely stronger than humans and a bit faster, but not “sit calmly while someone defuses a live grenade mid flight” fast. So, you know, live and learn. I’ll get it next time.
BTW the grenade contained silver buckshot, iron, and I’m not sure what the 3rd one is. Lots of fairy tail creatures have real specific weaknesses, so it could be anything. Wood pellets of assorted types, or salt? I think either of those would get vaporized by the shaped charge behind them. Though I guess they could be little hollow sabot rounds with all sorts of stuff in them, like wood, salt, I don’t know, seashells, baby teeth. Of course that may be over thinking it. A wood nymph might react just as badly to white phosphorous as a human would.
I have a surprise for you guys. Eee! I’m so excited! So Wearing the Cape is one of my favorite superhero novel series. I’ve mentioned it before, usually when a new volume comes out, and guess what?
<—— Hmm. One of those gals looks familiar.
A while ago, Marion G. Harmon, the author of WtC (and as it turns out, reader of Grrl Power) contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in co-writing a cross over story with him. Naturally I said yes, even though I’ve never really written much in the way of prose before. The basic premise of the book is, as the “Team-Ups & Crossovers” subtitle suggests, Astra (the WtC protagonist) goes tumbling across dimensions and bumps into various other realities including a few people you might recognize if you’re a voracious consumer of all things superhero. Now keep in mind, the chapter in the Grrl-verse is just one section of the book, but this is a canon story for Sydney and co. It takes place just a bit in the future of the comic. Sydney is a private, but there’s nothing that spoils anything between then and now. Here’s a like to the kindle version. The paperback will be available in the coming weeks.
I mostly wrote Sydney’s sections and Marion mostly wrote Astra’s, but there was a lot of back and forth and editing and I think it came out really good. (Though you can safely assume any dip in the quality of the prose is one of my sections. :)
The November vote incentive is updated. It’s sort of a teaser from the crossover. It doesn’t give anything away really, it’s like a comic book cover that has elements of the story inside but doesn’t actually spoil anything. “Ah, I see in this issue of X-men, Wolverine fights Sabertooth in a forest. Again. Apparently, the thing that Wolverine is best at is maintaining muti-decade grudges.”
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 :)
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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Their luck was NOT in tonight…
Depends on what their victory conditions are.
One would assume their goals didn’t include a gentle disassembly of their ordnance, presumably to be followed by a far less gentle disassembly of the attack squad.
:-D
Nor headbutting Halo’s shield, face first.
Sometimes, to win you just need to start the sence of menace
And we achieve that menace by getting bitch slapped across the room. Gotcha boss, can do.
Assuming also that this is not simply a diversion of some kind.
Depends.
Hypothetically having the attack which would have been devastating to the assembled supernatural entities thoroughly thwarted by Maxima would serve goals related to demonstrating the power of Archon. This would be useful to anyone who wanted to paint Archon as a danger, as it’s easy to sell “what happens when Arcon’s interests no longer align with ours?” but only if everyone understands that Arcon is dangerous.
IOW, they’re trying to show that the Archon doesn’t fall far from the tree?
(Woot, first attempt at using the acronym tag. Double woot if I did it right.)
Whoot whoot, toot toot, hoot hoot!
You might have someone there not affected by the contents of the shell (even if that’s down to wearing their +1 armoured longjohns) or it was a dud. (while they knew Max could stop it, they disabled the explosives in case she wasn’t able to.)
Getting someone to fire a live shell at you is a lot of trust in the abilities of others just to prove it wasn’t you.
Don’t just sit there Kat, hop to it and get to safety!
#explanation
Were lets her be fast enough to see somewhat what happened (blur?), no need to be able to see everything to know it was fast.
Prey animal means ‘deer in the headlights’ instincts?
What do you guys think?
Was thinking more that she was impressed or in awe, and forgot the danger she, and everyone else, is in
I think Dave should go with the ‘bunny in headlights’ one. :-)
Bunnies can react incredibly fast. But they can be surprised by something they have not experienced before. Just like Maxima with fear-puke.
Forgot about that. Though instead of changing any art, it can be cleared up with a dialogue change. Instead of commenting on Maxima’s speed, just a simple “What the -?” or “Holy mother of -!” would work. Make it vague as to just what’s being commented on. The positioning’s fine for someone who’s been caught flat-footed and whose brain hasn’t quite caught up with events.
Or, it could be that Kat is not in a emergency orientated profession. If she was doing data entry (or some other boring job) before being infected, her base reflex could be to wait for someone else to take care of the problem. Being superfast doesn’t mean she’s not a passive person.
Even in that case, we still have basic survival instincts. Something flies at my face, I’m going to want to try and either dodge it or deflect it (which is why people cover their faces in a case like that). Most of how we perceive and think comes from survival mechanisms, such as seeing faces in everything. Two windows above a garage? Totally looks like a face, doesn’t it? That’s because over the millennia we’ve developed some REALLY good facial recognition wetware. It’s better to think that a lion may be hiding in a bush when it really isn’t, than the other way around.
That all being said, our resident werehare is still mainly human in thought process, and thus reaction time. Maxima managed to negate the surprise round by getting a warning, as well as getting to act in the surprise round due to her speed. She reacts the way she does because she’s specifically been trained to deal with threats like that. Katrina is less so. So, since she hasn’t likely been trained for combat, THAT causes her to react slower than someone who has been. You’ll also notice that Dabbler was caught by surprise on the last page, and she’s more combat ready than Katrina, but since she’s an adventurer rather than a combatant specifically, she’d react slower than Maxima.
+1
Importantly when Maxima read Halo’s warning, she will have cranked her reflexes up high. So, purely tidying up the point regarding Dabbler, that alone gives Maxima a massive advantage. Given that Dabbler does not have super reflexes/speed as a power herself.
Maybe a spell, mental power or gadget can emulate that but, even if she does have something like that, she would need to activate it, and was clearly caught completely flat-footed, on the previous page. With the extra disadvantage that, unlike Katrina she is not facing the action, so only has the sound of the explosion to give her a clue.
In addition the porno sense wouldn’t have activated as the objects inbound do not have lust. She wouldn’t know they were there at all until the action happened. Even if Dabbler could activate it on a sneak attack effect you’d need some sort of notice that it activated and have a clue of why. Her defensive magics may activate on inbound attacks but her offensive and reactionary skills do not.
I expect Dabbler to immediately engage the next target thru the door. I also expect Gwen to deal with the suddenly excessively dangerous objects on the table before anyone gets hurt.
I figured it was a case of different Were strains having different ‘focuses’ for their enhanced abilities. Werebears would be stronger, Werewolverines would be angrier, Werecats have better balance, Werewolves have enhanced scenting capabilities, Werehares react (and probably move) faster.
+1
Werehoneybadgers are the most dangerous of them all?
I would not want to mess with one!
Nor a were-elephant or were-hippo, for that matter. But I would have the former on my pub-quiz team, or as my phone-a-friend, on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
A were-panda might be interesting though, don’t you think KATE?
There could always be a slightly rarer were skilled in swordsmanship or with a friend skilled with an axe.
What would a wereplatypus’s abilities be? Confusing the science-geek-stereotype characters?
(Charlie: “Evolution!” God:”So clever. Hereya go!” Hands Charlie a platypus)
A were duck-billed platypus would actually have two powers each of which would be vanishingly rare amongst lycanthropes. Namely venom and electrolocation. The latter being the ability to sense electric fields. And to do it well enough to be able to locate prey just by the electricity their muscles generate!
Following the principle of it being improved over the basic animal variety, the poison would probably be lethal to humans. Although they may also be able to produce a variety which just incapacitates through extreme pain.
Whereas the electrolocation power could probably pick out every person in a crowd, detect electronic listening devices in rooms, fault find a building or vehicle’s wiring and maybe even remotely scan information from a computer or electronic data storage device.
Subject to having the appropriate skills of course. Directly reading a computer language (machine code), without it being interpreted for human use, being a particularly tricky one.
On top of those they would also have aquatic powers, of course. Plus a compliment of carnivore weaponry, animal reflexes and a handsome tail.
Possibly also a devastatingly cute land-waddle combined with super wiggle swimming. Hmmm…potentially their electrosense could detect Abby Normal brains in operation, or finally fulfill the promises made by polygraph proponents.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with weres, but I can hardly let a discussion of platypuses pass by without making mention of that super secret agent Perry The Platypus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRCT30pDtVE
He certainly is not “an egg-laying mammal”!
They briefly thought he was in one episode. It led to some silliness.
I would be best friends with a Were-Rhino. By best friends I mean they’d be my meatshield.
Or, as Tali says in Mass Effect…
“I’ll be… right behind you. That armor is in good condition?”
Fear the mighty were-bumblebee bat!
A non-human mammalian base species becoming infected with lycanthropy is plausible. As we do have precedent of diseases crossing the human mammal boundary. And even human-avian. Although I suspect that the further from the base species (ie human) it goes the more likely it is just to kill the victim, or leave them unable to function, rather than making them a lycanthrope.
However a bee lycanthrope wood bee batty!
Not a bat from a were-bumblebee, but werecreature that turns into a bumblebee bat (a.k.a. Kitti’s hog-nosed bat).
Sometimes it takes awhile for the fight or flight reflex to kick in.
Oh come on, that line in an old world style english accent is more then enough action :D
I will admit, disassembling the grenades is quite a bit more bad asked then merely throwing them back.
Also, the golem slash twilight zone doll attack shows that this is likely an unhappy supernatural faction, rather than the us military taking out “those freaks”. Now to watch max neatly take most of them appart, and halo smash one into rubble via panic attacks.
I dunno.. military love UAVs and golems could easily be a pretty snazzy Unmanned tactical vehicle.
although i still think its probably neither group. Or both groups but being manipulated into it.
probably pushed by Zeus in order to try and force a ‘in the public reveal” to some extent in order to profit.
I think that you ment Deus. Zeus is a greek god
Yes yes I did…
I was reading Highschool DXD earlier haha
“Someone” sent this as a test of the council available defences… The strike team is so small, there is no chance they tought to accomplish more than a couple of injures
Had Halo not alerted Maxima, thus allowing her to boost her speed, that grenade would likely have exploded. Note that nobody neutralized it before Maxima got to it. If it went off there would have been massive fatalities!
The size of the team was not important. Getting the surprise shot in was.
Not sure about that “too small” assessment. The first bullet disassemble is obviously designed to kill multiples of council member types, and they penetrated without being noticed into the hideouut of people who are very good at hiding. The council could have been mostly wiped out if they didn’t have their own version of Maxima. And they apparently had no live/unlive/animated guards and only a wood door as physical obstacle. That’s gotta be insecure by ARC standards.
Oops. Reply was aimed at ziggrrauglurr’s comment and missed.
There were guards, but on the entrance to the facility. Either these guys came from somewhere else inside the complex (or a secret tunnel, magical summoning, teleport etc) or the outer perimeter guards and defences were overcome. And, especially with the help of the Veil, they could have been much much tougher than they appeared.
Note that Maxima and Sydney did get to this corridor from an elevator, so there could be lots of other floors accessible from that. Most modern buildings concentrate their security on the main entrances. So someone on the inside can let infiltrators in, via a fire exit, if they know how to disable the alarm. Which is (relatively) easier from inside the building than out.
That said I had commented, when Sydney was kicked out, that I expected there was some kind of security, such as a magical guardian, to protect this door. It is a critical room, which you would expect to have better than normal office building security.
Coming from an IT standpoint, I have to regrettably say that most system follow the “Coconut” design: “Really tough external protection, mushy insides”.
It was probably assumed that whatever protections are in place to avoid enemies entering the compound would be enough, so no security is needed inside.
Only a monkey can be fooled by a coconut. ;)
I guess that doesn’t say much for modern security.
my dad was a locksmith… he keep on telling me that “a lock only keeps HONEST people out” with the corollary to that being that “if you really want in, you’ll find a way to get past the locks”
Sliding glass doors are vulnerable. When I lived in a loft apartment, my “backup key” in case I ever locked myself out, was a Philips-head screwdriver. Even the security bar wasn’t a deterrent… I just took out the two screws that kept the other half of the door from moving, and pushed THAT side of the door open, then ducked under the security bar.
In page 2 it was proposed that this was a surprise test of Arc-Swat abilities by the council; with the added mystery that someone might have included live ammo in the attack.
The security test thing was done for the bank. I would be disappointed if it was recycled for here. Even with that twist.
Best to disarm if you don’t know the contents. It could be harmless to your attacker but deadly to yourself, or the people you are defending, even at that distance.
Could be awkward if you dismantle it and it turns out to contain nerve gas, though,,,
I think that Max can burn the gass if necesary. If not with energy beam by deactivating her forcefield that prevents air conbustion at superspeed
Burning it would be good. I suspect that Maxima is well trained enough that she could tell if the projectile was a fragmentation or gas one. Even if it is not of a standard design, she is reacting so fast that she can study it as calmly as a bomb disposal expert, before acting.
I’m wondering if her tactile telekinesis field allowed her disarm it before she actually disassembled it. Once she touched it, her field would envelope it, and it would allow her to determine what exactly it was and then her field it self did the disarming/disassembling. All so fast that Max doesn’t even have time to think about it.
The loads in the rounds assume that The Legends are True. There could have been a centuries-long campaign of misinformation or simply some plain wrong information that nevertheless had momentum.
OTOH, silver and iron would still rip up unprotected flesh, so hedging one’s bets against supernatural creatures is just the smart thing to do.
Or it’s an inside job by someone who knows.
This is a good point. I can’t remember where I read it, but there’s a story in which a werewolf actively incites a would-be hunter to shoot him with a silver bullet. The catch is, in this particular story, “silver is poisonous to werewolves” is a deliberate campaign of misinformation spread by the werewolves themselves. In fact, not only is silver not poisonous to werewolves, it actually jumpstarts their regeneration factor.
(Whoa. Deja vu. I think I mentioned this exact same story a few months ago.)
Assuming you can just heal up any wound, your biggest worry is going to be infection. Silver is naturally antibacterial so will reduce that issue greatly.
Also Hardened Ash or Yew wood splinters can be blessed. the force of the explosives detonating wouldn’t affect either of those two types of wood unless there was a very large explosion. * or 9 times as large as a standard bursting charge.
Kat’s reaction to the silver (and Gregor’s, by the look of things) and not the rest seems to indicate a bit of truth anyway.
I like the idea the last one was filled with whatever the “holy water” myth thing is actually based on. So it’ll aerosol like a poison mist. I doubt its specifically blessed water is a thing, though considering deamons maybe there is…. but whatever its based on would make a pretty effective poison.
though really any sorta poison that’ll keep from that explosion would be agood additive. and would explain one of the usage of doll/golems (besides not giving the enemy anyone to question. Although they could also stick em full of bombs I suppose)
Although I read that person’s speech bubbles as thoughts.. since if theyr’e talking that fast.. Max isn’t moving very fast. but speed of thought is doable.
lastly..
What happened to /Sid’s glasses? she put it away for battle? Seems like a bad plan considering her shield and her rather absymmal vision otherwise
Syd***
also actually just straight up condensed chlorine gas would work. you could get quite a bit if you use the right compression technique in liquid sorta way.
chlorine gas? Pah. One contains Syd’s favorite flavoring.
Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion and Ghost Pepper powders are all redder than that. Pure cap is white and oleoresin thereof is black/VERY dark brown. It could be some obscure superhot but that colour best matches the capsules of Bird’s Eye powder I used to have, which is hardly going to be strong enough to pepper spray a room.
She didn’t want to see the creepy mannequin anymore?
This. This is an awesome and Sydney ish explanation haha
Except it wouldn’t explain panel 3 where she doesn’t yet know it’s a mannequin. I like the idea though, hopefully dave just fixes that one panel, ratherthan both.
I actually see the outline of glasses in panel 3. Awful fuzzy though.
Yea, I can see the bottom rims the most clearly.
Congratulations, here is your Observer award. We will get the other name … um … airbrushed out. Maybe replacing it with a deerstalker hat and a pipe?
They mispelled my name with an “ation” at the end instead of an “er”. Is the Ana Cristina award have much of a tradition?
Absolutely no idea. There was only the one hit, so I doubt it was anything much beyond what you saw.
Well since yoyu can’t see “action” movement in panels. only stationary moments in the action. Such as… the whole sentence she says not occuring while it hasn’t fallen off her shield.
I just went with her tearing her glasses off a quarter second before this still. Given how her hand is nearby anyway
Grrl power has its first crossover.
-Tears in eyes-
It’s become a REAL comic book now…
I’m just super excited there’s another WtC book! An I’m giddy that it has Sydney in it.
There’s a woman on the front who looks a bit like Sydney and one of the chapters/stories is called “Astra Get Grrl Power”
Aww.
*dabs eyes with a hankie*
Its first in-print crossover. Its first webcomic crossover happened before the first page of Grrl Power was put up! Namely Dabbler featuring in Wereworld.
And thanks to RunsWithFrogs for giving us the heads-up on the new book yesterday / this morning (depending on folk’s time zones).
Our favorite comic is growing up so fast! *Sniff*
Sydney’s Glasses are missing in the last panel.
Yes, they are. Maybe she jerked away from the impact of the Creepy Mannequin crashing into her shield and they went flying off?
The rabbit-person has speed vision?
Also….
Jeeeze Max, I know you’re busy right now but the idea was to keep the antipersonell payload away from the targets. It’s just luck the garlic container didn’t break.
I could rationalize the where hair’s lack of fear in his response in one simple concept: He wasn’t afraid.
Lanthrotropy, while only moderately improved in overall stats from base human compared to other “afflictions” like vampireism’s flight in certain renditions, its true strength lies in its wide variety of resistances of things that would normally be lethal to humans—Silver being the only significant trade off. (and even then, it would still kill a human so it’s more of a chink in the defenses with a +0 defense than an outright weakness)
The author covers this in his blog above. Lycans do have faster reflexes than humans. So, loosely speaking, she could see that happening (even if it is just a blur), but was not fast enough to actually react yet.
Ya, but which conclusion do you think Halo would make? Besides, DaveB himself admits the first explanation is flimsy.
But his explanation did not factor in that were bunnies are likely to be much faster than other lycans. Each were-species enhancing the predominant traits of their animal aspect. Such as werewolves having bigger teeth, claws and being much more muscular and bigger than regular wolves. As we can see from Barkley. Bunnies are most known for their speed (such as with the tale of the hare and the tortoise) and leaping skills.
Throw in being too startled to react yet, and the above comic works just fine. And I am not the only one suggesting these points.
I think Halo would conclude “Ahh! Evil creepy manikins!”. She does not have super reflexes, so may not have seen Maxima at all, other than as a streak of gold, across her field of view.
If we keep this up, DaveB may incorporate it. I could see an entire 0.1% chance.
Valid points too. Funny how we aren’t arguing over whether it’s a believable reaction or not, but rather HOW it would be believable.
PS: It could be an after the fact comment from Halo instead of right at this moment) I mean she did remember the lasers not piercing her shield and has a knack of putting details together like she did with the guy with the nemesis power and skull hat. All she’d need is someone mentioning how he was calm until he saw the silver.
Heh, in my opinion, there really would be no need for Dave to change anything. I think it is one of these situations where any craftsman, or entertainer, can wonder if his work will be interpreted the wrong way or appear flawed. Even if the work is actually flawless.
You get a similar thing in movie commentaries, by directors. The thing they think audiences will pick up on, en masse turns out not to get a single mention. And something that never even crossed his mind ends up making them slate the film. Which is why studios spend a lot of time, money and effort in test screenings.
More than one has ruined a film mind. But usually it can help the process. And sometimes it makes a huge difference. In Shawshank Redemption the director ended the film before Morgan Freeman’s character got to the beach. Which had the trial audiences up in arms!
The studio handled it in the most artist-friendly way possible. They gave the director the budget to shoot a beach ending. But left the choice to him as to which version to send for theatrical release. Thank goodness that he chose to go with the beach scene!!!
In the above comic Katrina’s reactions seemed to fit seamlessly, on my first and every subsequent read through. Although it would probably also work fine, the other way Dave proposes. I think the only reason why folks commented on it (as much as we have) is because it was mentioned in his blog. Without that maybe nobody would have found it odd?
Although we get enough comments, and with varying points of view, that someone might have picked up on it independently.
“because it was mentioned in his blog. Without that maybe nobody would have found it odd?”
well that reminds me of:
“What’s really going to bake your noodle later on is; would you still have broken it if I hadn’t said anything?”
Oracle, The Matrix.
Came up with something similar for my Shadowrun character (1st gen- y’all kids get off my lawn!) years and years ago.
Humanis loads for shotguns and grenades: iron, silver, wood and plastic shot. It reduces effective blast range to about a quarter of normal, but if you’re allergic to anything but sunlight it’ll get ya.
Also available as brass knuck (okay, IRON knuck) and baseball bat spikes, for those who like to get messy.
*tosses a UV grenade and Holy Water squirtgun (Yes, my decker carried one everywhere) to you*
I saw bad guys braking the door, ready to fight, shooting at will. Bad guys, barring the red hand of Maxima.
Well now, if DaveB is doing a supers-type crossover, I can’t see any reason why there can’t be some kind of cameo at least that might include Jenny Anywhere (https://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Jenny_Anywhere). Or would that be Jenny Everywhere (https://jennyeverywhere.net/whois/)? Oh well, since they’re both Public Domain, why not both?
:P
Sometimes it’s best to leave it that way as an exercise for the reader to guess, with the hint that between them, it should kill most in the room.
Congratulations on the collab DaveB! will be trying my hardest to get a hold of it.
Also I like the turn the comic took just now.
Any day Maxima backhands an evil mannequin is a good day.
So I’m assuming most of the other people at the table are freaking out, out of frame?
… In (comparitive) Slo-Mo, undoubtedly.
I think calling them “evil” may be earned by their use in this ambush.
Yups, was thinking that as well
It’s like how people got their tighty-whitey’s in a bunch over the catch-phrase for “MiB”: “Protecting Earth from the Scum of the Universe”, if you are not out to do nefarious things, then you are not scum
Also – the sentence doesn’t say the “scum” are aliens… Or that the Earth part refers to the human population.
Saw the in flight disassembly bit coming, it was only sensible given Maxie’s speed, but the bitchslap upside the head was a nice touch, and is that blood?. Golem’s don’t normally bleed, i think we may be looking at an unrepresented or rebel faction, or maybe a coup attempt?
Looking at the imprint of the hand it doesn’t look like it is a result of the backhanded slap from Maxima. It might be a symbol (like ‘property of the Red Hand’) or part of whatever ritual was used to create these things.
The thumb is in the right place, for a backhand slap. I think this is one of those things we should not over-analyse. Maybe the force of the blow was so much above manufacturers limits that the visor flexed enough for the force to penetrate? Either way it is approximately what you would expect, so we should just run with it.
The bleeding is unusual for a womanikin. But so is walking around and shooting guns. That is a different issue though. However some suggestions:
• The animation process requires pouring blood into the cavities in the womanikin.
• They are controlled NYPD Swat team members, who have been polymorphed into womanikins.
• They are dopplegangers who did not bother with details under the visor.
seems to be a golem-style animation. blood has all kinds of uses in various magical traditions, most being power, but a side use being knowledge and a sympathetic link. so they could be remote controlled, or simply golems itll be fun to see which…
No, the thumb is not in the right place for the backhand slap. Maxima slapped the assailant with her thumb on top, the thumb on the handprint is facing down and to the left, exactly the opposite of where it would be pointing if it was an imprint of Maxima’s slap.
It all depends what angle his face was at, when her hand impacted it. We do not see that part, as he has already been thrown back by the force of the blow. Likewise she is moving in bullet-time, so opening or closing her fingers, in the time it takes him to do that, is trivial.
I stand by the expectation built up by panel 5, emphasising how much force has gone into this ‘barely a tap’. Plus the fact that is enough to throw the manakin back through the explosion and out of the room!
We would expect to see some serious damage to a face. Which we do. Yes it may be a ritualistic magic, and thereby just a coincidence. And folks have cited credible things to support that. It just does not seem like the intent to me, that is all. A lot of folks read it differently to me mind, and I do make mistakes, so have probably gotten the wrong end of the stick.
Nonetheless if I do have it right, then Maxima’s “barely a tap” blow was so hard that, even with a helmet on, it made a dummy bleed. :-D
As that tickles me, I have no intentions of listening to any logic on the matter.
*puts paws over ears*
Tra la la la, tra la la…
It is the wrong angle to be her hand leaving the mark. The visor was in the way during her contact and, while cracked and now flying off, isn’t shredded, so she couldn’t have made that mark.
I’d bet my worms on it being part of the spell to make them or the last act of a previous victim.
Bloodbinding to it’s creator to give them control most likely.
^^^ This. That was exactly my thought too. I think the “mannequins” are in fact humans under puppeteer control, which should really rock the council (“Humans have found us!” “They’ve declared war!” “To battle!”|)
What worries me is that with Sydney’s aura vision, is that *all* of them seem to have the same condition. The puppet master has not yet come out.
The guy at the rear had different armour and (under aura sight) unusually long arms, with an extra joint. Quite useful for a puppeteer, as that is what you are after.
What is silver buckshot?
What affect does it have on certain council members,such as Katrina???
From her reaction, it probably isn’t a myth that it kills the were community.
Katrina is probably thinking of how fleeting life can be. “Hare today, gone tomorrow.”
Maybe this hare raising scheme was a myth steak and they meant to use quick silver?
Were did you get that idea from?
(And yes, I did spell “were” correctly for what I meant)
Classic movie method to kill or wound were’s?
Usually stops their regeneration (sometimes makes that wound permanent or semi permanent while the poison seeps out) and sometimes causes additional corrosive and or poisoning type damage. (once I read a book where it just prevented them being anything but human which makes them easy to kill)
Yeah, that’s the reaction a human would have when he sees that the nail bomb was dipped in rat poison.
or say…bee venom if you’re severely allergic?
Buckshot is a kind of shotgun ammunition. Instead of a ton of tiny little pellets, it’s a bunch of bigger chunks. Often in a stronger material too.
IIRC a Buckshot cartridge’s pellets are comparable to about a half-dozen .38 caliber bullets
0000 or quadruple aught is .380, 000 or triple aught is .360 diameter, 00 or double aught is .33 diameter. and it goes on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_%28pellet%29#Sizes
Even if the Were’s reaction to silver is just a burning sensation upon touching it, having a bunch of silver buckshot embedded into your body all over is going to be EXTREMELY extremely painful. If it actually burns? That’s even more dangerous and painful.
In several systems were creatures simply cannot be harmed by normal weapons. Typically just instantly healing back up. Silver just stops that effect (be it regeneration or invulnerability), but does not otherwise do any more harm than a normal weapon would do to a human.
Others just indicate that nothing but a silver weapon can kill a werewolf. They can be crippled, blinded and have limbs cut off, but will never die. Plus any wounds will slowly regenerate.
Definition of “slowly” – in “slowly regenerate” – being variable depending on universe, character, and plot convenience.
Raally loving the blurred background effect on this one, I think it works perfectly to express the speed of what’s happening here. Blurring Max would work well from an observer’s perspective, but here I think we’re seeing it from Max’s view (which I guess must mean I’ve finally dropped my emotional adherance to the argument that all of this is still flashback being retold by Sydney).
Regarding katrina the werehare (or a carehare, perhaps? someone check her tummy for a sigil) not reacting to the door, I just starting laughing imagining that she gets the adrenaline jolt somewhere next page.
oh, and, #NotAllMannequins
+1
There are several pages which have been from the perspective of team members other than Sydney. For instance Maxima in the ambulance and at her photoshoot. Likewise Harem at the HQ and talking to Deus. Including elements (such as the bank robbery being fake and Harem being a double agent) which Halo might not know even by the time she is narrating the flashback, in only a few months time.
“only a few months time.”
It seems that a lot can happen in that amount of time. Are we even close to finishing a week yet?
Nah, I like it the way it is.
I feel most of it is still capable of being told by Sydney. She’s just filling in the parts she wasn’t available for with what she learned from comparing notes with others. (also why there’s all the imaginary bits?)
Last page I said that the only probable way to defeat Maxima (without overpowering her) is to use a very powerful sleeping gas grenade, just like batman used against Earth-3 Superwoman and the Hulk, but I didn’t considered Maxima’s speed, reaction time and military expertise. So, while it’s still possible to use the gas on her, one has to wait for her to drop her defence and take advantage of an opening.
No grenades, if it makes a sound she will wake up and clear the room before it can take effect. Instead leak a colorless odorless gas into her room while she sleeps. It would take author fiat for her to be taken down by a visible attack like that.
Maxima’s default reaction speed is pretty much normal human, as Sidney demonstrated back at the bank. Once she turns on full speed, she does things like catch bullet in mid-air, but catch her by surprise and she is seriously vulnerable.
It is important to note that Maxima was only surprised because it is funny. So we should not rely too heavily on using such an incident as a judge of how capable Maxima is.
Loosely speaking though we can say that if Maxima is surprised then she has not started to react, so her reaction speed is irrelevant. In the present scene the important feature is that Maxima was sitting with her back to the door. So would not be able to see the explosion.
As the manekin stepped through the explosion, and fired, whilst it was still occurring (indicating incredible speed in its own right), the projectile might have exploded (say by hitting her) before she realised there was an attack.
This is distinct from something which Maxima is aware of* because, contrary to your statement, Maxima has minimum levels below which her powers cannot go (barring the blast attack, which can be turned off, of course). Even at her minimum Maxima will be faster than a low-ranked super speeder. And is far beyond any human reaction times.
* Which is why we should ignore any continuity issues with the puking incident. That plays better if Maxima can have a look of horror on her face, anticipating the incident. Hence Dave running with it for the gag, even though Maxima would have easily been able to dodge it, with her reflexes.
In one of my now-ancient super-hero games, we summed it up by having speedsters not always be thinking and reacting at super-speed, else they would slowly go insane being stuck in a world moving through molasses. I think the Impulse comic reflected what it would be lie to have full-time Speedster Brain to a degree. So Max isn’t always running at warp speed, and thus can e surprised.
Not to mention it puts an important limiter on characters with super-speed, else they could never be surprised by anything not moving as fast as they are. Which is boring.
Duh, the third vial is The Unmaker.
I like Zellgato’s idea that the bun hun’s speech should be converted into thought bubbles. Still probably be thinking too fast vs. Maxima’s speed but it would be a lot closer. Though I don’t know how easy that is it should be possible if he still has the original file with all the layers right?
The evil creepy mannequins can bleed? Kind of disappointing even if its really some kind of lubricant.
Transmission fluid perhaps?, that’s a reddish hue, but that would imply that these were mechanical creations and not just magically animated
Can’t they be both?
Mechanical creations magically controlled? Would probably reduce the required input force to run them magically and may be boosting the controller’s capacity for the attack.
i don’t think it’s lube, i think it may be blood from one of the two guys outside, seeing as how the hand print is wrong for how Max hit him/it… she hit it with the BACK of her LEFT hand with all her fingers tightly held together, but the print is wide open, from someones RIGHT hand…
The splayed fingers, versus closed, could just be an error. I am not going to read more into it than that, myself. Not unless we see another one with a bloody hand mark somewhere they have not been hit.
If the womanikin’s face deforms (under a blow from Maxima) then you could not tell the difference between a blow by fhe front of the right hand, or the back of the right, from what we see there.
Nope, the thumb is on the wrong side for a back-hand: if her left hand was used, then the thumb print would be on the TOP of his face towards the hair-line (spread fingers or closed fingers, either way), but, as you can CLEARLY see, the thumb is on the BOTTOM towards the nose/mouth area on his/its face… therefore NOT Maxima’s hand that caused it. the way i see it, the ONLY way that hand print could get there was by someones RIGHT hand… that person was standing in front of the bad guy, and having that person trying to push it’s face away with his right hand… that’s it… any other combo of left/right, front/back hand or in front of or behind, work out wrong… well except for you standing behind the guy facing it’s back and reaching your right hand up, over the top of his head with your right elbow in the air, and have the thumb of your right hand pointed down, fingers pointed towards the nose area… conceivable, but that is a very awkward position to be in, and i highly doubt it was that… more probable, the bad guy knifed the two guys out front and one of them tried to push the attacker off of himself after trying to staunch the bleeding from one or more wounds from either the other guy, or themselves, thus getting blood all over it’s face.
You are assuming that the manikin is stationary. He is not. Bear in mind he previously moved fast enough that he walked through the door, and fired, whilst the explosion is still going on. So he can move in bullet time himself. If you compare frames 1 & 3 he is shifting his body position, from a crouched/leaning back position, to a more upright one.
There is no reason to suppose he would just stop there. In fact, if you compare their lower bodies (in frame 5), they have actually moved past each other. How much of that was his movement, and how much Maximas, we cannot say for sure (although most will be hers, given her momentum). Therefore we have no way to tell what position he was in by the time Maxima hit him
If we extrapolate however, he could well have been leaning forwards. by the time he was hit. Which would have allowed Maxima’s left hand to leave the imprint, at the angle we see. Neither of us can prove what position he was in sadly, as by frame 5 he has already been thrown backwards, from the point of impact.
Handprint on the “face” not the facemask, while max hit the back of it’s head. Neither bleeding nor mechanical fluid would make sense.
My guess? Ritual blood to magically animate the mannequin. Applied externally in the form of a handprint.
I’ll have to agree on that one. The blood print powers the puppet. It’s old magic.
So we don’t need super powers just-
Formula 409 All Purpose Cleaner?
“I’m not sure what the 3rd one is”
Start your own mythology. Make it something interesting like petrified rowan wood, works as a stake for vampires without vaporising, plus good for taking out witches and other assorted evil but I have never heard of it being used before.
i dunno, that rowan tree which Thor grabs onto, to save him from being swept away by the, *ahem*, flood created by the giantess Gjálp must have been pretty petrified :p
Petrified wood was used against a vampire in one of Fred Saberhagen’s short stories.
Last tube is garlic powder………… :D Lets see if there is magical materials too i think adamantine is pretty much effective against anything than why not all tubes filled with it? Damn thing is hard to find. Mythril was mostly a defensive material so i don’t think that would work other than that last one could be quicksilver or some sort of mace spray thing for those who would be weak against them.
Salt is my best. Lotsa things hate salt. Even humans. And slug monsters.
Salted flour. Flour’s an apotropaic against a bunch of different Undead in a lot of cultures and it can explode on its own (you’d have to magically enchant it to in this particular case, but I imagine that it’d be easier to do that than it would be to magically enchant something that *doesn’t* naturally explode).
Marmite.
No, vegemite, pure toxin :P
Mercury is allwais an option for uber toxic grenade. Everything carbonbased would be poisoned.
Another even sure…er shot [More sure? sorry, from Spain] is terimite. Desinged by Hans Goldschmidt it has a ignition power that melts steel with ease.
Thermite, and it’s not all that useful except for cutting/burning holes in things; basically the only way to put it out is in fact to disperse it, so it wouldn’t be all that useful here.
There is te posibility to encapsule balls of fosfor with termite core. So it ignites with air friction and explode in flames. Organics get set in flames and metaloids are blasted
White Phosphorus would do the trick though. Ignites in the presence of oxygen and burns until consumed.
Yea, I could see a dose of good ol’ Willy Pete being tossed in, fire being one of those things that has a pretty good track record against many supernatural things.
“with termite core”
I guess that was to be used against the Dryads.
Instead of using Thermite, you can use shotshells loaded with magnesium pellets. Magnesium pellets will self-ignite during shooting, and keep burning for ~100 m range. A 5-pack of 12-gauge Dragon’s Breath shotshells costs ~30$, but they are not availble in every state/country.
I wonder why?
+1
Hellboy’s rounds contain white oak shavings and holy water, among other things
Is the handprint, a shout-out to the Uruk-hai in the Peter Jackson films?
That sounds plausible. Given that everyone other than me is taking it as not being from Maxima’s bitch-slap. :-D
So, I have to ask. Are we now never going to find out why an untrained private was invited to top brass secret meeting? Is this only so Sydney knows what she sees through the veil, or was there another reason?
Go back and read the pages and pages of comments: it has been brought up on almost every page since this ‘arc’ started, and been answered almost every time
I think that’s it, yeah. Same reason they told her about aliens- she’s going to find out about this stuff on her own, so it’s important to let her know that 1) she’s not the first to find out and 2) it’s an official secret that she shouldn’t try to expose.
As some of the others have stated, one of the reasons why she was brought to the meeting was because of her Truesight Orb. The other is perhaps one of the magically inclined races would maybe notice the orbs and be able to reveal their origin…though unlikely.
She’s the audience surrogate, so she has to be where important stuff happens.
Or did you want an invented, in-story explanation? :-)
All of the above. Read the damn backstory.
The explanation is given in the comic. If you read Ingsol’s comment where he introduced “the Veil”, he mentions that they know Halo can see through it.
Clearly, we can deduce, she got her invite on that basis. She needs to be able to see all these beings, so that she is familiar enough with them not to show surprise, or make a give-away comment, if spotting one using her truesight orb, whilst in public or being filmed.
Plus Sydney’s tactical skills were what saved Arc-SWAT from being defeated by Vehemence. She is a vital asset, and needs to know the truth, in the event that they have to face supernatural villains.
Both of the above will sink in better if done in person, rather than just being told about it.
I think there is also the factor of Syd’s lack of filter to take into account, too. Get her exposed to all of this, get her used to it, impress upon her the importance of it. so she doesn’t squee-ramble to the rest of the team (or anyone else at random) as she is wont to do when she encounters something that she thinks is cool.
Basic point-while this is a military unit, the individual “soldiers” are so unique that command has pretty much given up trying to impose “rational” behavior.
Sidney, as possibly the 2nd strongest member of the team, needs to know a large variety of information that would normally be super-top-secret-burn-before-reading. Also her powers cause her to learn stuff and she needs to know that stuff is [usually] not a reason to spaz out. [Actually most members of the team may attend meetings like this, and this is simply her turn.]
While even suggesting Sidney have a major command position is grounds for immediate court marshal, she does get some very useful ideas, and so needs the information to base these ideas on.
“Cobra Commander” has a bloody hand print on his visor? When’d that happen? Is it a legacy of his origin / creation?
Look closer. You can see the visor itself flying away behind Sydney’s speechbubble. The bloody hand print is on the thing’s face.
Mysterious third substance? Is that like the mysterious third book in “The Time Machine”? We were told what two of the books he came back for were, but not the third one
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
The Noodle (Incident) Cookbook?
It was a request from the Morlocks. ‘To Serve Man’.
Okay. First guess, those are the non-sentient type golems. It would explain the magic that Sydney saw in them being lines instead of…you know, everywhere like the rest of the ‘magic’ folk.
2nd guess, they’re initiates or some form of ‘chosen’ warriors. The bloodied hand is sometimes used as a marking in some stories. Usually done by the leader of the tribe or whatnot.
Actually upon seeing the ‘blocking’ visor be broken away, it’s the first guess.
I was thinking along the lines of #1. Until I saw that last panel I was under the assumption that they were decked out in enchanted gear. If they’re just disposable automatons however, then that would be a waste of equipment.
not necessarily… if the Golem(s) were the expensive part of the attack squad, and the grenade launcher’s and the body armor were at the cheaper-to-get-and-replace end of the bill, then having relatively disposable items provide more protection and combat multipliers for a possibly “fragile” Golem (in a relative sense of the word fragile) then the guys that sent the golems into the fray, would be very willing to “buff up” the things in order to make them last longer in a fight, thus providing MORE casualties in the end vs the golems getting taken out early due to a lucky shot or something that would have been stopped by the body armour, etc…. besides, it also provides a bit more confusion factor if any survivors can’t tell that the attackers were, in fact, GOLEMS wearing armor, but they looked like HUMANS in SWAT gear! all designed to confuse those looking for clues afterwards.
On Kat’s reaction: There just wasn’t time for any reaction. Max caught the round mid-flight and disassembled it in fraction of a second. A small fraction. Maybe there should’ve been a reaction to the initial door explosion, but the creepy mannequin is literally firing in the middle of it. So, the reactions would probably happen next page, in any event.
If anything, the panel layout is out of order. The two Kat panels should probably be at the end seeing as how Max probably hit Creepy Mannequin into Sydney’s shield before the payload hit the table. But, Sydney had to have the last word. ;)
Thank you, Harmon, for making “Wearing the Cape” free! I went ahead and downloaded it, since I already read “Curveball” and “With This Ring” and figured it’d be similar.
Because it looks to be bleeding and closed one of the eyes I think that is supposed to be an imprint from the back of Max’s hand.
And love the RDF symbol on the tapestry.
Whoo, I is not alone!
Good call on the Robotech Defense Force. Hopefully this is just a reference gag. Otherwise they would need to be alien robots, to be compatible with Dave’s comment that there is no robot faction on Earth.
Totally called the Golem thing, I remember seeing the red hand before tho. I know it’s a ritual to control golems and zombies but can’t remember the origin.
It does appear on the Uruk, in Lord of the Rings. But there may well be something in Voodoo, or the like, too.
The Uruk-hai wear the handprint because it is Saruman’s emblem – the White Hand. In the books it is painted on their shields, along with an S-rune, as a symbol of allegiance. It has no magical qualities.
In the film they are marked on their faces but it’s still just a badge
I remember it from the movies but I meant a real life origin. I remember when I was younger and looking through a witchcraft/demonology book that there was a red hand symbol used for curses or possessions. I have no idea where I got the book or what it was called but I remember it had a lot of dark and weird stuff in it.
Actually now that I think of it, I think that is around the same time my older brother and I started seeing the shadow men walking around the house at night.
Holy lead. It rounds out the all purpose “screw the supernatural” blend.
buckshot? the pellets look way too small for that to be buckshot (smaller number of larger pellets), more like birdshot (larger number of smaller pellets)
long story short: when you need to teach a burglar a lesson but not kill him you use birdshot to cause a large but shallow wound & when you need to absolutely kill someone dead you use buckshot for a deep, nasty wound that breaks bones.
*I meant: deep, nasty wound & broken bones
Rock salt works even better.
and that has to do with the fact that the shot in the comic obviously isn’t buckshot…how exactly?
It might be that Kat doesn’t know what buckshot is?
It is certainly the term I would have used to describe it. Hunters and gun enthusiasts, and their friends and family, know the difference. To the rest of us we would not know the difference, unless having a broad general knowledge. Americans would have a bonus on their general knowledge though, given the gun culture.
Um, not all Americans are part of the “gun culture”.
Living within it they are. I did just that, in my youth, and was duly influenced and absorbed information, from the discussions going on around me. Even though I never even so much as picked up a gun!
Even people exposed to American culture, without living amongst Americans, get influenced by their gun culture. Just look at Mythbusters and their fascination with gun myths, as one example.
Or, closer to home, here in this comic. When Dave asked for advice about what would be good weapons for Peggy, we had one of the lengthiest comments pages, on the website. And I am now comprehensively informed about the properties of 50 cal weapons and ammo. By the standards of someone not living in a gun-obsessed country.
I thought it was common knowledge that “buck” means deer, for larger game like that you’d want to use larger pellets, that is just common sense, think about it: you take a fistfull of sand and throw it at someone, what happens? Now you take another fistfull of sand and put it in a bag & throw the bag at someone, what changed? Why did it change? could it be that smaller number of bigger pieces maintains energy better than larger number of smaller pieces?
I am aware of both terms myself. But if grasping for a word to describe pellets used in munitions I would have come up with ‘buckshot’ It is simply the one I am more familiar with. Whereas ‘birdshot’ would only spring to mind if talking about bird-hunting.
The point about the relative size differences is indeed self-evident. But only for folks who actually know both words (or, in my circumstances, actually recall both, at the appropriate time).
“That creates severe writing problems as far as I’m concerned, even if you ignore all the shockwaves, and explosive friction and X-ray blasts. Even still, Max’s speed is the first thing any opponent of hers needs to be able to counter”
I like to think that the dampener shield of range 0 telekenisis actually pull backwards air so it does not ignite or explodes the atmosfere
Hold up, -9 to initiative after being warned of a threat? How does that work out mathematically?
I don’t exactly know the game or the game mechanic. But i suspect that you throw dice and wichever gets the lowest, goes first.
Old D&D.
Any other system where, the lower your initiative score, the better.
In first and second edition AD&D, you first rolled surprise – the attackers roll to surprise and the defenders roll to be surprised. Barring other modifiers, each side had a 3 in 10 chance to succeed or fail, respectively. The attackers could conceivably get up to two rounds of action before the defenders could react or none at all.
Then initiative is rolled, either individually (for longer but more interesting fights) or by team (for faster, less realistic fights). High Dexterity modified either the die roll (for teams or individuals) or the Weapon Speed Factor (individuals only, and only if the campaign used WSF).
Low total goes first.
Silver Buck shot the other vials are probably holy oil and garlic powder (you use holy oil so it sticks like napalm)
I like the foot-note to the barely-a-tap sound effect
I had a little trouble following the action sequence with respect to Sydney. After a more thorough look:
Panel 1: Sydney is forcefielded up and is way behind the action.
Panel 3: Maxima is way closer to Sydney. So either she went through the whole crew that fast, perspective is off, or Sydney is moving forward quickly.
Panel 5: Maxima is even closer to Sydney, especially when considering the relative distance between Max and the attacker.
Panel 7: The attacker Max backhanded smashes into Sydney’s forcefield.
So, either Sydney was moving forward fast or the various showings of Max are with different attackers because the relative distances between all three go down drastically between panels. That’s what threw me – on my first read it looked like Max was dealing with the same attacker in each panel, but it seems more likely based on speed and distance that this shows her dealing with multiple attackers.
~!@#$%^&*()_ unclosed italics tag. Only ‘fast’ was supposed to be italics.
Sid and Max are fast girls. Probably Sid is trying to shield the room from the atackers by placing her between bought and expand the shield.
Panel 3: Maxima is way closer to Sydney. Sydney is probably flying forwards, but Maxima is moving so much faster, that Sydney’s progress is negligible.
Panel 5: Agreed. Maxima’s momentum has not vanished, so backhanding the SWAT womanikin has already driving it back fast. Plus Sydney is a slight bit closer too.
Panel 7: Agreed.
I second Alekay’s conclusion. The remainder of the SWAT team, including the guy with the cross-helmet, have not yet entered the room. This is not surprising, given the explosion was still happening, in Panel 1 (and possibly still in the final panel)! Halo has simply flown past them.
Maybe she was planning on using the shield to stop them, from either being able to attack or enter the room, as suggested. Or, as someone else suggested, prior to today, Halo had intended to use her tentacle to grab the grenade. But simply was not as fast as Maxima.
If there’s room for Syd to get between the attackers and the door, she probably can set her shield to block the door without going through it herself first.
Or, now, she can decide that Max has that doorway covered adequately, and block the attackers’ retreat path, increasing the chance of a capture.
Sydney wasn’t thinking: the henticle (ahem, light hook) can do very complex things, extend quite far, and lift tons. It would have taken a far shorter time to shield up and use the light hook to loop the attackers. Even if she couldn’t directly disarm them, it would have thrown off their aim and timing, and slowed them down enough for Maxima to act.
Sydney doesn’t KNOW these are bad guys until the door blows. So while she can get ready, she can’t go until the boom, and the attackers know when that is better than she does. At best she is a step slower, and if she gets distracted [and we are talking Sydney, who is always distracted] they effectively have loads of time to start the attack. [Finish of course is a much different matter.]