Grrl Power #474 – Disassembly line
I have been dissatisfied with my kind of boring panel layouts, so I decided to experiment a little. Hopefully this page isn’t confusing at all. As with the reddish skin tints, i.e. the red noses, (which you’ll notice I totally forgot to do on this page :P) I may over do it before I correct back to a happy medium (or forget to do altogether.) BTW in panel 6 it looks like the door is suddenly restored, but that’s the reverse angle of the hall. You really should be able to see the council’s table between in front of it but I kind of forgot it/ran out of time.
Maxima’s “They didn’t know we’d be here” is a weird humblebrag, because it’s not really humble at all, but to… uh, I haven’t named him yet have I? The black guy in the trench coat who kind of looks like Fireball from the Running Man (I’m honestly surprised Hollywood hasn’t tried some lame reboot of that.) Anyway, he’s The Council’s Mage seat. And to his point, even if the people who sent these things knew Arc-SWAT would be in attendance, that’s still a far cry from being able to counter their power.
Speaking of Maxima on overwatch, I have considered doing some sort of comic showing exactly why she’s not in Overwatch. (Besides me not having any relationship with Blizzard and all the obvious reasons.) Maybe I’ll do that for the next vote incentive.
BTW no politics in the comments please. I know there’s a lot of emotion right now, but nothing is getting resolved by jerking up the comment section of a webcomic. Go organize the revolution on facebook or reddit or whatever if you need to.
Be sure to check out Wearing the Cape: Team-Ups & Crossovers. Sydney’s first Crossover! I’ve made a dedicated blog post for the book, please comment there.
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.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Dave takes his duty to enrich our vocabulary very seriously :D
I really need to watch out that “Click here to cancel reply.” appears…
It was supposed to be a reply to wilder125… oh well.. still works as a standalone post =)
The tagline really should be discrete gluons, unless you’re talking about their ability to keep a secret.
“Hey, we’re never going to tell anybody we were part of a creepy assassin manikin torso, so you can stop pulverizing us now, okay?”
Consarnit! Discreet and discrete are two different words, which is why the spell checker didn’t catch it. Fixing it now.
At least your not up discreet without a paddle.
*Badum Tsst*
So yeah, every comic so far shows these guys were designed to wreck the supernatural in every way. Grenade launchers packed with 3-4 different generic supernatural counters, spikes that cancel magical protections, dummy bodies that reform when broken and are hardened against conventional assault, had arcswat not been here, this would have gotten SUUUUPER ugly.
Hmm. This might actually be a problem for ArcSWAT – some of the members might now think that it was ArcSWAT who sent these Dummies to demonstrate their power and to ensure a treaty / cooperation.
Hey, Arriana’s shown herself willing to create a situation without letting Max know about it ahead of time….
Arianna did that previously in her role as a public relations officer. And did have a (partial) excuse in that the bank had authorised a security test. In this situation though Arianna has literally no mandate to operate. She is neither a soldier, police officer nor intelligence operative. And the public are not aware of what is happening here, in any event.
If anybody would do such a scheme it would be Arc-Dark and we know next to nothing about them, or their mandate. So maybe it is an underhand scheme of theirs, but one would hope that the heroic organisation does not have such a corrupt arm within it.
I rather doubt that Maxima would be tolerant of betraying a major ally though. So anybody who might cook up such a scheme is likely to have the world’s most powerful super as an enemy. Along with the rest of her team, most probably.
Although too be fair, had sydney not gotten off that warning, its entirely likely the attack would have already claimed a few casualties. Its entirely possible she wouldnt have been able to react in time to stop that launched grenade. That may be why whoever is behind this went through with it, if they even knew arcswat would be there. They figured they would be able to accomplish SOMETHING before being taken out, and depending on what happens next comic, they still might.
given the level of debrief Maxima operates at (how many military people get to have speaking roles in meetings with the POTUS?) she may know Arcdark’s mission and personnel. she didn’t seem at all surprised to see X when Sidney blew his cover. so if it is an Arcdark scheme, someone’s going to have to do some fast talking, possibly while being choked. because if Maxima knew this was going to happen I doubt she would have brought Sidney to the meeting.
Knowing that one of your team has a “Watcher” would be SOP. At Least if you didn’t want Maxima leveling your base when she hears something that’s not supposed to be there.
“Why are you dressed like a belly dancer?!”
Because she can’t NOT dress like a belly dancer.
Because the silk veils of a harem girl won’t stop bullets…?
Use spider-silk or carbon nanotubes?
(Oh, and enchant the lower layers with a cushioning spell to take the blunt-force impact out of the equation too)
Make it spidersilk and it might.
Because it’s Thursday?
Like normal Earth-clothing, that is far too restrictive!
Because it is a day ending in “y”.
no day ends in ‘y’, they all end at midnight. ;}
And anyone still awake at that hour goes “WHY?”.
Or is that just me?
Why? Because you’re not asleep.
It’s not just you. I say that all the time.
Because I’m at work.
“The black guy in the trench coat who kind of looks like Fireball from the Running Man (I’m honestly surprised Hollywood hasn’t tried some lame reboot of that.)”
DaveB! Please don’t jinx it! They’ll sense you said that and do it, just like they did with Total Recall!
and Rocky Horror Picture Show
What would be interesting would be a remake based on the original book by Stephen King. It was a lot more scaled-back, and the hunters weren’t anything more than a team of regular (okay, elite regular, like Peggy) soldiers. And the Runner was literally released back into real world, so the hunt was going through American cities and so forth–he just had to submit video tapes periodically so that the audience could watch him.
Here’s an example of how I’d actually like a reboot: https://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/junkrat-should-have-stuck-with-riffraff
I was going to say they didn’t redo rocky horror… then I googled it…. its clear that Hollywood has had way too much koolaid and needs to move on. so when is the Citizen Kane remake again? (google) you.cannot.be.serious.
I think someone needs to take the money bowl away for a while. they clearly have no clue what to do with it anymore.
The Bible II, Decepticons versus Godzilla.
The Creepening: Mimes vs. Clowns
all i can say is Ghostbusters. with 3 women playing the original characters. with the original script.
…
I was looking forward to seeing it remade with a female cast. Contrasting how women would handle the situation, of first contact with the supernatural, to how the original crew (mis)managed it. The script potential had me all tingly!
Then I saw the trailer.
Don’t look now, but it’s being reported that a sequel is in the works.
The speaking mage needs a who’s-who entry.
“he’s The Council’s Mage seat”
Therefore he should be called Chippendale. (no Dabbler, not that kind).
The mannequins should currently be called IKEA (some assembly required).
The rule is that folks need an introduction and a speaking part to qualify. As we have not learnt his name yet, the Who’s Who is correct, as stands.
First, nice panel arrangement. Had no problems following the correct order (I think. :D ).
Second, really liked the “Here we go again” aspect – exactly what I was expecting and one of my favorite fight tropes (when did I say we were “out of combat”?).
Third, I LOVE the final panel with the close-up of Maxima – she looks very believably realistic to my eye. I can imagine meeting her in the street and looking just like that. If extra effort was put into that panel, congratulations, it really does show.
Thanks! I was please with that rendering of her.
Heh. That’s why English teachers always get on your case about homonymous words (eg their vs they’re, discreet vs discrete, as well as similar sounding: effect vs affect.
Heh, I knew you were going to end with the headshot. And deservedly so. Likewise I agree that the page flowed extremely smoothly.
Yes, that final panel was nicely done and quite dramatic.
Is it me or are they reassembling Micronaut style?
It’s not just you, but how many of these here whippersnappers are gonna remember the Micronauts?
Those really lost the magic once they started making them ‘safe’ by not letting them launch missiles the kid could choke on.
Had a younger sibling who you wanted an “accident” to happen to, did you? =OP
Notice: for anyone who requires such a notice, this is not meant as a serious comment.
When I first read wjm67x referencing them I thought he meant another toy line, StarCom, of which I often got to play with a Shadow Bat and the two Shadow Parasites (missing basically all the guns and stickers, of course) with a few of the magnet footed characters.
As for the Micronauts: I had a friend who’s dad owned the Battle Cruiser, but we were never allowed to play with it. It remained on display on a high shelf in his office at all times. Sometimes it would be assembled, sometimes it would be apart or in other configurations. I suspect it was his dad’s bit of stress relief/play during hard days, something I didn’t know adults did at the time.
I wonder which got banned first, those or lawn darts? I had both as a kid. Didn’t die or shoot my eye out or anything like that.
Although if anybody nudges your ‘antenna’ you get flash-backs to ‘the incident’. On the plus side, you can pick up MTV free!
Why would you want to pick up MTV? They still haven’t developed a vaccine for it
I beat that particular infection before it mutated into its current strain; they no longer show any actual music videos.
Their entire business model is ”Hey, let me put some cameras in your trailer!”
One issue I had with panel layout is that I went DOWN from Panel 3 (not counting the inset-panels) instead of across- this was, I think, due to Maxima breaking the bottom Panel 4’s border, making it seem like an aside from the final panel. I think that’s easily fixed if you made the right border of Panel 3 ‘point’ into Panel 4, since right now you sort of hit a ‘wall’ with the current right border, then ‘slide’ down the angled bottom into the panel below.
Tumblr Nose is rarely an improvement, especially for art that already has solid sense of depth and shading.
Hey, Junkions!
Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong.
Greetings. Fear not. We do not intend to disassemble you. Yet.
*Phew* Good thing you speak the language. I thought it meant “We come in peace. Shoot to kill, shoot to kill”.
“It’s worse than that, he’s dead Jim!”
“Ye canna’ break the laws of physics, captain!”
You’ll need a roll of toilet paper to get rid of those Kilngons from Uranus…
nope, it was actually supposed to be translated more along the lines of:
“Humans of Earth, I come in peace. You need not fear me, I mean you no harm. However, it is important to note that most of you will not survive the next 24 hours. The few of you that do survive will be enslaved and experimented upon. You should, in no way, take any of this personally. It’s just business. So to recap, I come in peace, I mean you no harm, and you all will die.”
I just noticed the title of the book he’s holding: “To Serve Man”.
Incineration? That means I get to make a really bad military pun:
“FIRE IN THE HALL!!!”
awww, you got to it first. that really burns me up.
Mmm. I wonder if those manikins might be made out of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, Octanitrocubane, or something similar, which resists being set off by impact, but will be set off by an attack like Maxima’s.
If someone is attempting to both discredit Arc-SWAT and wipe out most of the Twilight Council, having it appear to be Maxima using her flaming attack, in nuke-like mode, would certainly do the trick!
Yorp. you are thinking like a GM.
Or a smart PC.
Sadly, the INT and WIS necessary to come to that conclusion usually preclude the CHA score needed to convince the party’s tank to stop…
Just make sure it uses hardened circuitry, has a self-contained power source, does not have an internet connection and can override the manual controls on the tank, and you will be fine.
That’s why my Warlock kept a Web Wand handy. (3.5 Warlocks needed medium to high INT,WIS,and CHA). My party’s “tanks” was a Paladin with an INT of 3 and a Barbarian with one of 8.
Probably already in here.. sorry for the mispost… Sydney’s line at the end “Second act is incident” – shouldn’t that be “Second act is imminent” ?
“Incipient”, which in this case, means about the same thing as “imminent”
To be precise, “incipient” means “beginning to happen”, while “imminent” means “about to happen”.
Seeing the Overwatch advertising to the right of the comic for the first time. Seriously, sometimes this internet advertising is freaking me out.
I don’t even play computer games.
lol.
Don’t think they’re referring to the game Overwatch, buddy. She means “overwatch” as in the military tactic. As in “bounding overwatch”. You know, when you have a sniper or LMG unit providing covering fire and/or visual support for other units.
Overwatch being essentially what Maxima was doing earlier floating above the restaurant battle and (re)directing her units to change targets, support a lagging team member, etc. I think Peggy was providing overwatch for that battle too.
The advertising though does not know that. It is just looking for webpages which mention a key word, or phrase, enough to match a particular advertiser’s needs. Given that Dave also mentions the game, in his blog above, and on previous pages in the comic, and various readers have also responded with other keywords, from the game, it is not surprising that the advertising has done that.
Mind you I am getting Second Life adverts, so I hope it does not have any special insight into my life expectancy! On the plus side, instead of Overwatch, it is giving me some Bulgarian advert. Given that it does not know how bad my Bulgarian is, I am not overly concerned about its omniscience!
Unlike thier mortal enemies, puppers only have one life. :-(
We’ve known you for over a second so I think you’ll be fine.
Yorp – in case you didn’t know, “Second Life” is a Virtual-environment “game”.
One where I could pass as a human, and nobody would know the difference!
Once A) robust compatible virtual reality systems becomes a household standard and B) comprehensive emulation of the real world can be replicated in a massively multi user environment and C) a company can create a comfortable environment for anyone to enjoy themselves, without harassment, we will see quite a big segment of society living a lot of their lives there. Much like the hikikomori.
You will find me in the super-powered servers. The ones without PvP enabled.
I like the layout you did for this page, very comic action-esque. :) I say keep with this style for a bit, see where it takes you. The asymmetry works.
Uh, what if the whole point of the charade was to invoke Maxima’s “firepower.” Those dummies could be booby trapped, thereby pinning the blame for the explosion on her. How would the council know she hadn’t merely used too much of her own ordinance? At the very least they would say she recklessly detonated a bomb.
There’s some risk involve regardless of what they try. If they try to destroy them, that might set off a mammary-trapped mannequin. If they try to immobilize them, that might do the same. About the only other choice is to allow them to keep attacking the Council.
Well yes, the fact they’re in the room is a risk, that’s the point of an attack.
So what plan would you suggest that they follow that would have eliminated the risk of them setting off a potential booby trap? If you can’t think of anything better, then why criticize?
My original comment should make it obvious that destroying them outside the room is far preferable to inside. Why ask nasty questions when you don’t understand the concept of risk?
*grants special award*
A winner is you!
The plan I would be looking for, was these things as some kind of diversion. One possibility – if you really wanted to hurt the counsel – is to have a loud diversion break down one entrance, and a kill team waiting outside the most likely escape route. That way the powerful counsel members/ARCSWAT go for the diversion, and the kill team gets to bag the more vulnerable ones… But yeah… a trap card would make sense also.
Great point! I was going for a tie-in to those villains watching TV earlier. But villains don’t always do as you expect, how would the hero be heroic if regular police could foil every plot? Vehemence did exactly what you suggest.
It looks like Dabbler almost Achillesed[1].
[1] A·chil·les [əˈkilēz] (verb)- to announce that one is ready to join a fight after one’s teammates have already beaten the enemy
“Or punch to the moon….”
That would require naming the recipient “Alice Kramden“.
If there’s a debriefing for this incident, I’m wondering at what point do they realize that it was Sydney reminding Maxima to stay focused on the enemy?
Love her face in that last panel.
But would you say that it’s a Covergirl face?
The linked girl is nowhere near as pretty. Nor is Max posing for a photoshoot.*
Besides which that is ‘by Noxzima‘** not ‘by Maxima’!***
* No, you silly browser spellchecker, that is not ‘photos hoot’.
** This is an example of immoral subliminal advertising, telling you ‘buy Noxzima’!
*** This is not subliminal advertising. Maxima is not for sale. You have to win her heart. But subtly and patiently, so that she does not feel that you are objectifying her.
So does this mean that Sydney, Maxima, and Dabbler will now participate in the Mannequin Challenge?
Hmm, they’re missing out a third option:
1> “They” didn’t know that they’d be there.
2> “They” did know but couldn’t muster the firepower to overcome them.
3> “They” did know and this attack is only a distraction for the real attack…
4> The attack wasn’t meant to kill/harm everyone, but just enough to get Council members to question Ingsol’s leadership, create one or more martyrs, and/or frame someone.
Oh yeah, good thinking.
Overwatch = her role in the parking lot melee previously for those curious.
The panels don’t feel confusing at all. Much more dynamic and well-sized. So many comic artists often ignore or cannot grasp the impact of good paneling.
Although Maxima has managed to do a good pummeling.
I would have Halo encapsulate the drones in the force field .. using her power . This in hopes we see more advancement in her “spell tree? “
Unfortunately, Sydney cannot project a force field around other things . . . at least not yet. She would have to be trapped inside with the Evil Mannequins!
It is a shame that she cannot do this though. Sydney’s force field has proven to be strong enough to keep Harem from teleporting through it and likewise severs the mental connection between an individual Harem and the rest of her duplicates. I’m very curious about whether or not the force field would also block the magic that is apparently animating the bad guys here.
If it is coming from an external source, such as a puppeteer, then it probably would. The same trick worked, in reverse, for Vehemence’s aggro aura, after all. However if their source is internal, then Sydney would die fast, as she would have no means to defend herself, if they were inside her shield with her and still active. Unlike Vehemence, they have no emotions to feel empathy with her, and spare her life.
Hopefully no one comment snipes me on this. *looks around warily*
Rather technical language but here is the page where Harem says that her self doesn’t get interrupted by the shield. It’s probably stated better in the comments than the page itself. It would likely still block any outside animation having proven to block magic and teleportation. No proof for psionics at all though, that I remember.
You are absolutely right to challenge that Harem’s mind works through the shield. I don’t know how I missed that part of the comment myself. I guess it is just because I was agreeing with all the preamble that I skipped onto the meat of Ignoble‘s comment.
Light can pass, yet we have seen a laser-like attack bounce off the shield. Likewise sound and radio waves can penetrate it. The shield has powerful discrimination powers to allow useful things like communication but to prevent attacks.
Causing an ally’s brain (or anybodies for that matter) to cease communicating with its parts would be a baneful effect, which one would hope a sophisticated device would not do. So it is behaving in a consistent manner.
Finally (regarding Harem) the quantum entangling can be viewed as parts of her brain being in five different places at once. As such placing an impenetrable barrier between them would not stop that effect. They are already there, so do not need to pass through the intervening space.
Unlike teleporting, which needs to get from point A to point B by some means, Harem’s brains are already at A. B, C, D & E. Likewise information is not needing to travel as it is at all five points simultaneously. Yes that does seem paradoxical. No it does not stop super powers from working.*
The aggro aura was a mental attack. Whilst its exact nature can be disputed (some things point to it being magic although most to it being super in nature) it is very closely related to psionics. Given the shield’s very broad-spectrum defence I think it is likely to cover psionics too. But, you are correct, that we cannot prove that, until it is tested or used in anger.
We do know that the orbs, in general, resisted all Dabbler’s attempts to probe them. Given that her capabilities include magical, super-technological (her cybernetic eye) and psionics, the implication (albeit not explicitly stated) is that her psionics failed to get any result either.
However her mental powers might not include a capability which would be useful, in that regard. Likewise proving that would not prove the shield could block psionic attacks. But it does give support that it could be within its capability, if its maker(s) were familiar enough with psionics to block such scanning.
* And the same can be said for quantum entangling. Although physicists seem to get their knickers in a twist, if you suggest that information could travel faster than the speed of light. The best defence against that is to twist it a bit further, and watch their eyes pop out!
Was I wrong?
*Goes and checks*
Yup, you’re correct, DragonSmith. I coulda sworn that Harem had been a little weirded out because she was unused to being so completely isolated from the rest of herselves once she was inside Sydney’s shield. It turns out she was just weirded out by the knowledge that she couldn’t teleport herself out of it anytime she wanted.
Hey, but the good news is that at least a few of the things I said in my post were correct! ☺
ahhh yes she has that limitation now but she has all those unused spots on the skill tree
True, it is likely a power she will be able to use, in due course. But the drawback with having a skill tree is that she may have to allocate a skill point, before she can do that.
That said, it could be an option Halo can engage by pushing another of the glyphs, on the Forb. So it is a worthy suggestion. But it would have to be a ‘what does this do’ test, in mid-battle. Given that, if Sydney knew about that ability before, she would have used it against Vehemence.
However, despite that, Halo might be able to infer the power, from the icon(s) used to represent it, now that she knows the conventions used for a couple of such powers (the embiggener and the ‘detect aura’). So you can keep your fingers crossed, that you may have called it right!
*crosses claws*
NO! Don’t burn them before you know what they are constructed from!
Some types of herbs and wood can have harmful effects on supernatural creatures.
EDIT: The smoke from some types of herbs and wood can have harmful effects on supernatural creatures.
quite a few of those would also not be good for the creature in question to come in physical contact with either.
Am I the only one who gets the distinct impression that Maixma and Dabbler argue like an old married couple?
Dabbler is a mere 187 years old, so far too young to be settling down! Although she does have her eye on Maxima, so maybe. One day.
Dabbler has her eye on just about everyone.
(Although she would prefer other body parts).
And back at the restaurant she had her eye on the dinner table.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1167
Now I wonder if she can see through her cybernetic eye even when it’s not attached. If she can, that opens the doors to so many possibilities (and also brings new meaning to the words “Covert Pervert”, placing it somewhere inconspicuous so she can spy on people doing… stuff.)
To heck with the moon. Simply get them up to solar escape velocity an any direction other than in the direction the Sun is traveling, and they’ll have a few tens of billions of years to meditate on things. Or, if you can do the fancy shooting, a Hohmann orbit dropping into Jupiter in a couple of years. 31 miles per second minimum when you hit the top of a very, very dense atmosphere. Be sure to write!
Thou must study thine XKCD. Attempting to achieve that from a basement of a building in New York city could be … unfortunate. As would having Maxima depart the battle long enough to exit the Earth’s atmosphere (at a safe enough velocity to avoid effects which might kill all the inhabitants of the city). This is a single squad, and there could be much more to this attack, yet to reveal itself. Maxima’s presence might still be needed here, rather than hurtling through the atmosphere.
Which is not to say your idea does not have merit. It is an excellent solution to an invulnerable or continually rebuilding foe! But there may be simpler options, until the rest of the situation can be assessed. And Maxima’s incineration may work. In which case it would be a steak point.*
* This is like a moo point, but one which has been cooked.
An excellent solution, indeed… but, oh no, Superman just had to stay in a slugging match when he confronted Doomsday…
I’ve actually been waiting for you to get a little ambitious with your panel layouts. ^_^ Visual pacing is a much under-appreciated skill.
Time for tactics! Maxima! Hurl the reforming puppets out of the chamber hall! Sydney, as soon as she follows them outside, use your shield to block the entrance completely. The chance for collateral damage is still very much so real and this should allow maxima the ability to focus without having to worry about bystanders. Council people, prepare your defenses! This might be a feint, or at least there might be another attack incoming. We already know they have anti magic gear, so mages work on support. In addition, see if you can determine anything about who is behind this while whatever is animating the enemy is active. There might be clues that will vanish once the controlling entity discards them.
Additional thought to the tactics, set the limbs by Sydney so they’d be inside the shield. Truly a minimal chance that the animating impetus is inside every piece, so Sydney should be safe, and the mannequins should all be disarmed. (pun relatively unavoidable)
Solid thinking Traab.
The limb idea is a good one too. But not risk free. That ‘minimal chance’ could prove to be fatal, to Sydney, if animate spike-bearing limbs can turn on her. Whilst Sydney could call upon the orbs to parry them, Math has shown that orb-fu can be overcome.
Plus Halo would be outnumbered. Even the martially-skilled Dabbler was unable to beat them one-on-one. Although the math would be more complicated if one on 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4.
make the shield bigger and have a b-list combatant share it. there has to be someone else in that room willing to fight. even if they’d be close to Sidney.
Good compromise. I would volunteer…
*paws scratching on the 4th wall, trying to get in*
Not a super expert on comic page layouts, but I do like this style. It, to me anyways, feels a bit less boring and static and has much more of a fluid flow. I’d like to think it’d be even better for action sequences than dialogue heavy ones, but it’s still nice.
I can’t help but think of the Star Trek: TNG episode The Arsenal of Freedom.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arsenal_of_Freedom
I’ll buy 10. Bill ARCHON directly.
I love Dabbler’s face in that small panel when she says “Oh you like?”!! I think she’s one of my favorite characters.
on another note; IF hollywood did reboot the Running Man. They could hardly do worse.
Don’t tempt them, they like taking sucker bets (just look at GhostBusters, Total Recall and Robocop)
I agree with you on Ghostbusters, based on what I| saw of the trailer. It looked utter shite. The Robocop was … unmemorable. Which the original was not. It has many elements which have withstood the test of time. None of which the remake came close to replicating, let alone surpassing. So I agree with you on that.
I saw the Total Recall one recently, and felt that was actually an enjoyable movie. This despite that remakes have an uphill fight with me, as I like being taken by surprise, on one paw, yet expect a remake to do justice to the original material, o the other. They made good choices to balance the two. Clearly the central premise needed to remain true, which it did. Yet they still managed to pull some clever switches, which I loved.
Importantly, unlike with the Robocop remake, I actually felt empathy with the hero. He managed to carry me through the movie as well as Schwarzenegger did in the original. And they kept enough diversity in the rest of the story that I did not get bored knowing where each beat would come.
Although I was a bit disappointed that some of the original movie’s twists were retained. Without detailing them, as I would not want to create spoilers. Given that it is one I would recommend folks to watch.
I´m agree. And don´t forget Star Wars. The last Star Wars movie can be considered a remake. A shitty one, in my opinion. Another Death Star to destroy. Whoever asks you what is Star Wars about, you can answer that half of the movies are about destroying Death Stars. And the rest of the screenplay is absurd. It is a pity. A tool (the new Death Star and the movie itself) designed to destroy what Lucas did in the second trilogy (which I didn´t like, but is better than the new movie) and the expanded universe. A universe full of posibilities, wasted. A posibilitie to make something different and thrilling, wasted.
It is sad.
Mmm, the Star Wars one is unique though. Disney had to convince the public that they would be good custodians of the franchise. Most importantly it is the first in the ongoing series of films. Given those factors, I think it was wise to err on keeping things on familiar territory, in the first one.
Yes disappointing that they did not innovate more, but that would be risky. Take it too far and it would not feel like the Star Wars we know and love. Importantly, unlike Ghostbusters, they just kept familiar elements in it, but without photocopying the earlier scripts. It is very hard to balance how much of the familiar to keep. So it is impossible to get the line right for everybody. But I think they made a reasonable attempt.
It also means that the new characters/actors have been safely introduced and are now a familiar part of the Star Wars family. And it did successfully bring a lot of the audience over to the franchise. So I have high hopes that the next films will be daringly innovative. That is the correct time to risk it.
Keep things on familiar territory doesn´t mean to make a remake with huge plot holes everywhere. For that purpose (keep things on familiar territory), they had: Han Solo, Leia, Luke, Chewbacca, etc. A solid base to give birth to the new story. Well… in a different way. :D
They had a granted success by the simple act of showing a lightsaber and the Millenary Falcon on the big screen. After the awful first movie of the second trilogy, the people did keep going to watch the other two movies. It is Star Wars. Millions of people will go to the cinema no matter what. Is sad to waste such a good opportunity.
I don´t like the new characters except for the girl. :D
Ghostbusters issues are different. The movie is about throwing an awfully done feminist reivindication to the fans faces, show characters with no charisma and make deplorable jokes. Not interesting, in my opinion.
What an off topic!
Not at all off topic. Dave’s blog explicitly introduced the subject of Hollywood reboots. Besides which the topic of ‘what makes a story interesting’ is always on topic for a comic’s discussions.
Mind you, as a community, we are not fussed about restricting ourselves to ‘a topic’, so long as the debate is interesting and not likely to create disharmony. Periodically tying the thread, back into the events of the comic, is nice though.
Sydney aught to do her lightsaber droidika impersonation, to Lucas, in due course.
HOW DARE YOU GO OFF-TOPIC! Brewaghslphwnahgrd!
;-P
^^
The hentai orb of Sydney offers soooo many possibilities… I would spend all the levelup points in it. Forget flying, forget shield, forget everything. Worm orb. Dabbler would approve it.
Never underestimate incompetence.
Is it just me, or has Dabbler’s face become…weird?
She looks a little bit weird to me too. I guess that the evolution in Daves drawing has these kind of side effects. :)
Looks like we won’t get to see this meeting take place…! I was hoping to learn about Sydney’s orbs.
I am guessing the Council do not know either, in any event.
If they did know all about it then there would be likely to be other examples of the same kind of work. Perhaps even a whole race using orbs the same way we use cars and other machines? Which would reduce Sydney’s uniqueness, to the point of being mundane. And, given the orbs’ huge power, would make humanity even more insignificant, on the Galactic stage, than they already are.
Bear in mind that Dabbler knows the broad strokes of magic and super-tech, plus is familiar with galactic culture. Yet she did not have the slightest clue as to the orbs nature. So, if anybody does know, it is likely to be a specialist in obscure knowledge. Who may only have pointers, rather than definitive answers.
Nobody has realized that this attack may only be a bait, a distracting maneuver to attack the veil without no one notice it until is too late.
No one has mentioned that on this page, simply because that has been raised quite a bit on previous comments pages. Plus, given that the Veil has already come under attack, the general assumption is that such will continue.
Whilst some folks have explored the possibility that this attack is not Veil related, it has little bearing, until the attack can be stopped. Given that, if the Council is wiped out, then there will be no-one to counter the threat to the Veil in any event. The diverse factions will be leaderless and it is always easier to destroy (in this case the Veil) than it is to create.
So far this fight has taken less time than they spent deciding on how to react, so it is not making much impact, if all it is designed to do is delay them dispatching the response teams.
Too many comments, I guess. :)
If Maxima has her own seat on that table, the one that planned this attack, knew that she would be there. Knows the being in charge of the attack that Maxima can´t react at superspeed if she is surprised? Was the intention of the attack to kill Maxima too? Or that doesn´t really matter to that unknown being? With one of the most powerful beings of the planet surviving the attack (a likely outcome), the brain of the attack should know that the mannequins would last short. Unless they are nearly indestructible.
I asume that the attack is meant to make as much harm as possible, but the first goal is to create ruckus and commotion. As you say, to delay the response teams. People think first in their own safety. And that could be used to make them forget about other important things. The members of the council could be replaced. They should be replaced quickly, if the different factions were well organized (they should). It would be harmful, of course. A lot. But less harmful than a serious malfunction of the Veil. Which is more important than them all.
The fact that the mannequins can rebuild themselves after being “easily” destroyed, is what smells fishy to me. Let´s see what happens after a little bit of incineration. Maybe I´m overthinking it a tiny little bit. ^^
There is no such thing as ‘overthinking’ here! :-D
In my opinion either their intelligence was top notch, in that they knew Maxima would be sitting with her back to the door. Or they did not know Archon would be there at all. The former is valid because, were it not for Sydney’s luck (in spotting the attack team inbound) Maxima would have been taken by surprise.
Although Maxima would have survived the blast, from what we have seen of the munitions involved, all squishes at the table (most excluding Icon) would have been killed. Including Halo and Dabbler. And there would be many injuries and possibly more deaths amongst the other delegates. Effectively decimating the Council’s current leadership.
Even if the rest of the attack amounted to nothing, that alone would delay any response to other matters, in recovering from the attack and deciding who would make up the new leadership. Plus it could harm relations with Archon, given that they would have failed to prevent the atrocity. But even if it drew them together, out of solidarity in both parties having losses, Archon would have lost key members too.
Most of the above still applies if they did not know that Archon would be in attendance. Which would be most likely if the enemy is not a Council faction, but some outside group. Of which the preacher, from the arch villains page (where they reacted to Maxima’s challenge), seems to be the most viable candidate.
But even faction members might have only known that Archon were sending representatives, but not whom. We know that the US has been covertly colluding with the Council for a long time, and previous representatives probably were non-supers. For example we know that Zephan is clearly a long-term delegate. As we can see from the above scene, he and the other non-supers have had no impact on the fight.
Maxima would have been taken by surprise. But in the short time between the doors explosion and the attack to the council members, in that mere second, she would have time to activate her powers and the result would have been the same. She is an expert soldier and she would have get over the shock of the doors explosion pretty fast. Of course, Sidney was of help, but Maxima… Maxima is so powerful that can be a headache for the author of the comic. :)
From what I have understood, the council members don´t vary. Zephan is on the bleachers and Maxima and Dabbler are seated at the table. And when it seemed that Sidney would seat at the table too, that made a certain council member get angry. So, the arch villain should know that Maxima would be there that night.
I bet that whatever happens, Archon will be blamed for this attack. :D
The preacher seems the most viable candidate to me too. The Veil and all the hidden races are the most logical targets for his “cleaning” eagerness.
No overthinking here. Not at all.
Oh he is only the most viable suspect amongst the external foes. The other vampire delegates (excluding baldy) would be the key internal ones.
If you go back and check the sequence, the manikin had entered the chamber and had fired, before the explosion had even finished going off. In fact Maxima actually dismantled the grenade before the explosion had reached its full extent!
In the alternate Earth where Sydney had not given the warning, the grenade would be exploding at about the same time as Maxima heard the door blowing up! Plus Maxima had to dial up her reactions to get them up to “bullet time” speed. Think back to the fight, with Vehemence, to see that she does not move like that all the time, whilst in a battle.
Let alone, when sitting through a dull meeting. It would be totally impractical. Tedious hours would pass for Maxima, in between each breath in the conversation. It was only when Maxima saw Sydney’s message that she maxed it out. Whilst her reactions are still super fast, even at a minimum, an explosion’s shockwave is significantly faster than a mere bullet.
With the grenade exploding behind her Maxima’s weakness would be exposed. To ensure surviving the explosion, she would need to boost her defences. Which limits the amount she could put into speed. Resulting in the grenade explosion expanding faster than Maxima could effectively intervene. She may be able to grab one person, or interpose her body, to shield someone. But the majority of folks at the table would suffer the full force of the explosion!
In my humble opinion. In short Maxima lacks any super senses or Spidey sense. She can be taken by surprise. You cannot start to react to something until you have sensed it, after all. Had Maxima been facing the door, she could have seen it. But having the grenade travelling with the sound of the explosion would be too hard for even a battle-hardened veteran to anticipate.
“the manikin had entered the chamber and had fired, before the explosion had even finished going off.”
You are right. All my overthinking gone to waste. :(
My point was that Maxima can activate her powers in the blink of an eye. And in this case, as well trained as she is, as soon as hearing the explosion, she could have activated superspeed and invulnerability and do what she has ended up doing. But everything has happened faster than I recalled. :(
‘Overthinking’ is not a bad thing with this crowd, not if it helps get thinking going at all :D
Maxi may (or may not) be able to activate her powers ‘in the blink of an eye’, but she still needs time, normal time not Process time, to determine which powers to activate above normal levels: she hears an explosion behind her and, not knowing the source or cause, may put everything into Invulnerability, which would save her and maybe one or two others but no-one else, and the grenade would still go off and that mystery Third Component would enter play (if it was some sort of a gas, even Maxi would be affected, seeing how she still has to breathe)
As for The Council, fairly sure DaveB said (or hinted or implied) that they do change:- Maxi was at the table because she is the current US Government Liaison, Dabbles was at the table (along with Sydney) as part of the ARCHON delegation (Deco is the current Succubae Representative) and Zephan was in the peanut gallery because he is just another member of the Mages Guild currently represented by FauxBlade
The fuel that makes the world turn. :D
I may be missunderstanding you, but the clocklike powers drawing DaveB made to show us how Maxima chooses her powers, doesn´t mean she needs any time to choose and activate them. I take it as an automatic and instant action. As when we choose to use a spoon instead of a fork when eating soup. And usually, she doesn´t need to put all his power into invulnerability. When she faced Vehemence, we saw how powerful it can be. So, after hearing an explosion there is no need for her to put everything into that power. I see it reasonable for her to use superspeed, to quickly weight the situation too.
I´m pretty sure that DaveB is laughing while caressing a cat, when reading how much that third component keeps everyone awake. :D
I meant that the council member changes are likely to be unusual. When planning the assault, the evil mind behind it had to have in mind that Maxima would be present at the council that night.
Kinda figured Maxi was similar to Ultra Boy: all the powers of Superman, but can only use one at a time, no matter how fast he is at switching he still has to think about the switch and it’s not quite instantaneous
Like your analogy with the spoon and fork: you still have to decide to switch, then put the fork down and find and pick up the spoon, and the problem is, if you are startled, are you sure you are going to pick the correct utensil from a group of five?
It still seems to me, that Maxi being at the meeting was a bit of a last minute thing, specially dragging Sydney along: the meeting may have been in place for awhile, and Maxi may have a standing invitation to attend (what with Zephan on the Council and Dabbles being a member if not on the council, and there are a few groups she could be part of) but there would be no guarantee that she would show up this time, even if the attack on the Sigil was planned
You’re alright! Yay! I should have known that you could shrug off ‘mere’ earthquakes and tsunamis.
Hold on hobbits, hold on!
A 7.5 and a 6.6 aren’t mere earthquakes, but haven’t heard anything about tsunami’s, and almost the entire country would be at risk (and we are on the coast), not that we wold know about it seeing how they replaced the local Warning Sirens with a cellphone app :rolleyes:
It is worth investigating if there was a failure in their communication to you, in which case, as a tsunami alert was issued.
Further it was confirmed that a 2 meter wave did strike, in one area, so it was not a false alarm. Albeit that they rescinded the tsunami alert for elsewhere, they did (at the time of the article) advise folks to stay away from the shoreline.
I get this through RSS, and the image gets shrunk. In the Shrunk one, I wondered what Dabler was doing imitating Sydney. First Panel
Just showing off her new accouterments.
“Go organize the revolution on facebook or reddit or whatever if you need to.”
So the revolution won’t be televised… but it may be social media’ed (or whatever the verb is supposed to be)?
What if the Mannequin’s adapt to whatever defeats them, so now they end up being as fast as maxima and much stronger and harder to damage?
Then everybody is in deep doo doo.
Game over, for everybody, who ever sent the FauxSWATaton’s would effectively rule the world as there would be no-one who could oppose them