Grrl Power #472 – Bring a spike to a sword fight
If martians busted in and started ray blasting everyone, they might not wait for Irradon to give permission to retaliate, but sapient animates, i.e. the intelligent swords, the chatty mirrors, even the castle full of servants who got changed into boudoirs and clocks and candlesticks, haven’t always been treated as well as they could have. There’s definitely an anthropomorphic bias as well as an organic one, at least among organic anthropomorphic beings, which is probably unsurprising.
Still, a bunch of artificial ass holes shooting explosive silver crap around the room are probably going to get their butts rocked with or without Icon’s blessing.
I’ve commented before that people with artificial limbs in comics get a lot of abuse. It’s like swords and bullets are attracted to them. If your entire body was expendable you’d probably fight a lot differently that those fragile meat tubes who care about having all of themselves attached to all of the rest of themselves at the end of the day. Not that Dabbler hasn’t fought her share of space robots and zombies and what not, but after getting told to knock it off with the lethal attacks since teaming up with Arc-SWAT, she may need a moment to reconfigure her macro bar.
Given the diversity of her abilities, she really needs a macro bar macro bar. She’s definitely not one of those lame FPS heroes who can only carry 2 guns and a sidearm. Actually I’ve thought about how to put Dabbler in a video game since she seems like she’d be well suited for a 1st or 3rd person shooter. I think the best option would be the weapon wheel. You know, hold down the reload button to see a list of weapons, use the thumbstick to select one (or your mouse, if you’re civilized) then release. It’s a good way to compress a menu of things when you have a limited number of buttons. I figure Dabbler could have one for her guns, one for her attack spells, one for her defense and healing stuff, etc. Of course the real challenge in making a video game with her would be resisting the temptation to load her down with a ton of abilities that don’t offer distinct function. If she has a rocket launcher, does she need a fireball spell? Well, maybe if the fireball can be charged by holding down the button for a longer DoT or bigger AoE and the rockets can home on on where you’re pointing the cursor, otherwise you’ve just made a rocket launcher with two different particle effects and more crap for the player to keep track of.
So if you missed it on the previous page, I co-wrote a chapter of Marion G. Harmon‘s new volume of Wearing the Cape, subtitled “Team-Ups & Crossovers.” Guess who Astra (the WtC protagonist) crosses over with? :D It’s just one section of the book, but this is a canon story for Sydney and co. Here’s a like to the kindle version. The paperback will be available in the coming weeks.
I’ve made a dedicated blog post for the book, in case anyone would like to comment on it in one place instead of across multiple comic posts, cause I imagine I’ll mention it a few more times. :)
This page colored by Keith.
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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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
If you mean that area under her arm and at the back of her top, I believe that’s just a bit of decorative black lace. The green bits are some of Dabbler’s stripes showing through.
Sorry, I managed to misplace this. It should have been here.
Yeah, it’s lace. You can see it in the panel where Dabbler draws her sword out of a portal… :)
Comparing the last panel of this comic to the eight panel of “Grrl Power #450 – Bang jail”, I’d say the “scales” are actually side panels (perhaps lace?) of the corset which only appear in the front.
Like Ignoble‘s comment above, this was supposed to be a response to one of Yorp’s comments.
I was going to go with the “great minds think alike” line, but then realized how little that would apply to me. =OP
Hardly, your great minds managed to come up with the solution. And at almost the same times, at that.
*looks at paws*
I need corset undoing practice. Err … in case first aid needs to be administered.
” And at almost the same times, at that.”
You are now entering… The Twilight Zone….
Not to worry. The actual line goes “Great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ,” so we’re covered either way. ☺
Speaking (or writing, that is) of fools and great minds, one of my favorite all-time quotes is “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” –William Shakespeare (although I thought Plato said something similar, but I can’t find the exact quote).
“The difference between me and a madman is the madman thinks that he is sane. I know that I am mad.”
– Salvador Dalí
You’re welcome. =)
I was once in the same building as Salvador Dali. Squeeee!
*waves paws around excitedly*
It was an interesting experience.
Dabblers sword does have its own element based magic attack enhancements. I’m waiting on either the sword or Max intervening.
There is one thing about Dabbler, provided she manages to survive, she always has other options to fall back on.
they involve different gems in Soul-Reaver’s hilt. She might be a bit to occupied to gemswap at the moment.
Man i would love to make icons armor for a costume too bad there is no full body sketch of him to use.
You do get to see a bit more of him on this page, but it does fall short of ‘full body’, you are right. Do not despair though, as he is involved in a fight, so you have a good chance you will get a long-shot of him. Maybe even on Monday.
Good choice of outfits though, that is a great look.
So you’re saying there’s more to him than meets the eye at the moment?
Ah, comic-related discussions, may they never change. Transform, maybe, but never change… :P
These comments are Minicon approved…
The Powermasters approve as well. The Headmasters are of two minds about it though.
After they’re done here, maybe the Man-equins can head out to the mall, maybe flirt with some hot clothing models. Things could get really risque at Victoria’s Secret.
Wouldn’t those clothing models be Woman-equins?
Aren’t those mares?
That would require an extra “e” at the end, making it Woman-Equines.
So womanequins on ecstasy become horses? Is that some kind of lycanthrope thing?
Since I suppose it could be argued either way, I guess I’ll have to accept that possibility with equine-imity.
Maybe they can hang out with the Ladyquin from “TMI”, and then go party with The Mighty Quinn :D
That spike reminds me of the impractical “data spike” from Robocop.
Yea, you are not the first to say that. Oddly, although your visuals match much better, what springs to my mind is the Terminatrix, in Terminator 3, ‘hot wiring’ a vehicle with nanites, from the spike in her finger. And Dabbler does have cybernetic components, which could be compromised that way.
Although a spike, through one of her hearts, would probably also compromise her.
Like said already, Murphy’s spike did not come from his palm (just a minor point)
I just wanted to offer a heads up to my fellow fans of The Mighty Halo!
Over here in the United States this morning, we did that Daylight Saving Time nonsense again where we turned our clocks back by one hour. That presumably means that the time when DaveB posts his new pages will also change by one hour.
You have been warned! ☺
Europe did ours last Sunday, so he will just be bringing it back into sync again.
We western hemispherian’s will just let that sync in for a moment.
We Southerner’s did last month (first in everything! :P)
Angel can beat Spike, in any swordfight. As can Buffy.
That would explain why that automaton got kicked out of the Homecoming Dance: he kept on trying to spike the punch.
Angel only beat Spike, because Spike was laughing too hard at the little puppet man :D
At least we know how the sapient automatons in the Haloverse psyche themselves up: “I think Icon, I think Icon….”
“Halo world, here I am!”
“Live to the Max!”
“I need a Hiro!”
“Faulk this, I am going to fight back!”
“Gwen push comes to shove, I shove back!”
“Be a Leon and roar!”
“You won’t like me if I get Varia angry!”
While Iconvey my thanks at receiv-Ingsol many suggestions, I Ren-ken that it Max sense that a Varia-ty of Haloverse characters can- Anvil- re-Leon such catchphrases, as is customary of Faulk heroes.
One issue I have yet to see anyone comment on is that the automatons seem to have fairly advanced responses to the attacks and defenses employed by the Council and the Archonites. For example, the one automaton not only “knew” how to block when Icon and Dabbler swung their swords at it, but to draw out the spike seemingly even before Dabbler wove her shield spell. Which leads to three possibilities that I can think of (and I’m open to more):
1) a very extensive A.I.
2) they are controlled from afar by someone receiving sensory data and sending commands, and,
3) they are controlled by someone (or someones) within the Council room.
Or, they are not controlled at all
You seem to have the spike and shield thing reversed: Dabbles raised her shield because of the spike, so that is more of a point in favour to Dabbles being quick on the response
Which is what I wrote: “spike seemingly even before Dabbler wove her shield spell….”
Did I fail to mention that they could have “a very extensive A.I.” as one of the possibilities? One that would have to be able to “recognize” that Dabbler and Icon’s sword swings as threats, that one movement (raising one of its arms) could block both, that it had to keep its arm raised to prevent Icon and/or Dabbler from attempting to dislodge them, how and where to locate not just Dabbler, but her vital organs as well, etc.
Okay, one final thing that’s sort of bugging me:
In panel six, Icon and Dabbler sink their swords into the automaton’s arm, who is holding it above its head.
In panel eight, the automaton seems to have its arm in the same position as panel six.
However, in panel seven, Icon and Dabbler can be seen over the arm.
So, did the automaton lower and then re-raise its arm, or is it just artistic license to avoid trying to squeeze Dabbler talking to Icon while looking from the back of the automaton?
One of the following:
1) He is shorter than you think.
2) He is not standing upright.
3) The 4th wall chose to manifest at a suitably dramatic angle, when looking at the good guys.
I would say your second option would be the best bet, as it looks like the force of Icon and Dabbler’s blows may have driven it to one knee.
“I’ve commented before that people with artificial limbs in comics get a lot of abuse.”
So does this refer to Dabbler, the automaton, or both?
It refers to cyborgs, which is what Dabbler is. Whereas the manikin appears to be a wholly artificial being. If so, then it would not classify as a cyborg. And it does not seem to be prone to dismemberment.
I think that technically every archetype that anyone’s ever written is what Dabbler is.
hayate x blade reference and a gremlins reference? NICE!!!
>using a controller to play shooters
I swear…everytime I think I get ahold of myself…Another awesome angle/pose from Maxima blows my mind… I think it’s the hair this time.
The facial expression in the final panel looks like Dabbler hastily brought up a shield against physical attacks but she thought she almost wouldn’t activate it in time. I like it. Partly because we hardly ever see a negative expression on Dabbler’s face and partly because DaveB is such a good artist.