Grrl Power #515 – Amazon delivery
When you have a team full of people that can do what they did to that poor tank, equipping the Osprey with rockets was probably a difficult line item expense to justify, but Max is all about diversity. Still, it doesn’t cost the team $400K when Max levels a secret evil layer or Heatwave melts Glacier Man, but it’s nice to have the option.
#MakeComics The rubble in panel 1 took so long to draw. There’s so many little rocks and bricks, and then the final step was to add a bunch of dust – cause when you smash a ton of concrete, there’s a lot of dust. :P I think I watched the entirety of City Slickers while working on that panel. Well I watched this spoof first, which is what prompted the desire to watch the movie. But I’m getting a lot better at drawing rubble, and that’s pretty cool.
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This is gonna be good…..
So good!
All aboard the epic thump express!
Rockets and Anvil deployed. Good to see her again by the way, especialy in clothes that show off her nice muscles.
Fire-and-Can’t-Forget Missile.
Yes, that’s one way to put it (or was that two?)
Certainly “enhanced”…
I was just thinking, she’s going to land light as a feather, but with a ton of stored kinetic energy to unleash on whatever.
Anvil will definitely have a few good punches to throw in, but unfortunately we saw that this thing can copy super powers (or at least make a similar copy of them???). It is nice to see Anvil get in a fight again but we risk this thing copying her powers and that is bad.
Actually, it can only copy powers with a blood sample. It will need to get a sample of her blood before it can copy her power. And it will have to figure out what her power is and decide if it’s beneficial to have or not before uploading it.
Furthermore, how does it get blood from her when it can only either blunt impact her which she’s resistant to, or cut her with lasers that should cauterize the wound?
Cut a bit off, and extract the blood from that. Clearly it does not require flowing blood, as it only needed whatever was smeared on its tentacle, to analyse Pixel’s blood.
Agreed. Sciona and her minions will suffer from this, just as much as both the Twilight Council and Archon themselves do. Figuring out things about super powers takes more than just pointing a tricorder at a super.
However do check out Dave’s blog from the previous comic page. Clearly Sciona must have some insight that the others lack, or else she could not have even enchanted this construct to do what we have seen already.
But, nonetheless I agree that there is probably a limit to how much she would be able to infer from the blood alone.
Mind you the press-releases, with detailed hero power lists, will probably be of use for the unclassified powers.
Can it cut her eventual eviserator style?
No (not with the lasers), per MSpears‘s gorily detailed explanation”.
*averts eyes whilst creating link*
Not if you are thinking that doing it slowly will prevent any of the cauterising (and other) effects that happen through a fast cut. In fact it will significantly worsen them. A slow blade imparts less energy, whereas a laser (like this) is continually throwing vast amounts of energy at whatever it is cutting. The longer you do that for the greater the harm.
So if Anvil gets away, with all her bits attached, then she is OK. Splatters and any bits that were very close to the cutting might well be too badly burnt to be analysed (but who knows with magic?).
However if Anvil looses a big chunk, or a limb (and see Pixel’s attack vs the construct to realise how easy that would be), then there will be undamaged bits with blood.
*stands ready with smelling-salts, if anybody feels wobbly after reading that*
*takes a quick sniff*
her powers didn’t absorb the actual impact of her landing on Vehemence. It just kept absorbed the energy that would’ve turned HER into a puddle on impact. She’s gonna land like a wrecking ball
I had a momentary urge to link to a Miley Cyrus song, but luckily I made my saving throw.
Since she can absorb the energy from air resistance that means she can fall faster and thus hit the golem with more kinetic energy right? Or not, I admit that I learned most of my physics from science fiction so I may very well be wrong.
she isn’t reducing friction / air resistance, she’s absorbing energy. she might fall slightly faster, but not any faster than 10 meters per second squared. the air resistance on someone assuming best streamlined isn’t making her a heck of a lot slower than that.
She will be able to hit harder herself, but her mass is probably constant enough that hitting with just her mass will make an appreciable difference. If she throws a strike of some sort as part of hitting, then I’d say you’re right.
There surely is a lot of smart people on this forum. Wich makes sense, smart people knows a good comic when they see it.
Note I’m assuming we’re adhering reasonably close to known physics.
And we have super powers.
So, really, all bets are off. :D
I agree. Weatherheight’s responses often show him to be a wise ass.
(I may need to phrase that differently)
9.81m/s² is the average acceleration due to the earth’s gravitational field on the surface, with a little variation based on distance from centre of mass (partially due to inconsistent radius) making that last digit somewhat variable.
But that is only one force applied on her. The other force in effect here is a speed and surface area dependant acceleration in the opposite direction caused by the atmosphere and, at high enough speed, this will become large enough that the two cancel out at result in terminal velocity.
The question then becomes, can she absorb a force acting on her if its only function is to reduce the net kinetic energy or is her power (as previously established but only verbally) merely a way to store up kinetic energy that would be produced by the forces prior to equilibrium point.
If it is the latter, this still logically means that she can feed off the potential for kinetic energy and just hang in the air outside the jet until she has enough to unleash on impact.
Correct. I believe that Anvil would have no terminal velocity. Essentially she would fall at the same rate as if the Earth were airless.*
Talking about which, Anvil should also be constantly absorbing the energy from the weight of the atmosphere above her (generally speaking now, rather than anything specific to this scene).
* Interesting physics conundrum. By removing energy, from the equation, (namely the kinetic energy being applied against her from air resistance), Anvil is accelerating faster and thereby will gain more energy when she does eventually impact!
*removes brain and places it in a vat of nice soothing liquid*
I am overdue a nap.
I think that title gave me cancer.
Yup, the amazon is about to be delivered! Nothing to do with a on-line bookstore and their little delivery drones.
It could be worse, I think.
Dropping the Anvil comes to mind. Or A.C.M.E. Anvil drop, etc.
Maybe Peggy’s call sign should be “Wile E. Coyote.”
Fffffff……..
NOW i finally get why Sydney was making the roadrunner noise in the fight agaisnt Kevin
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1500
I knew what she was doing, but didn’t connect the dots to “dropping an anvil”…
+1
Peggy is Elmer Fudd ”…Golem Season, FIRE!!!”
A page or so back Sydney would correspondingly be Yosemite Sam blasting away with her rapid fire all over the place.
well, acme does mean apex – so it would kinda make sense for the person at the highest altitude…
and Acne means upix
Now I’m worried about Anvil. Kinetic impacts are one thing but *laser claws* are another. I hope Halo messages that warning.
Meh, where’s the difference?
Anvil absorbs & is strengthened by kinetic energy: AFAIK she can’t [safely] absorb lasers.
Worse, those laser spikes could make Anvil bleed. And if the golem gets hold of Anvil’s blood…
Lasers tend to cook the surface and not result in blood spewing. Plus, if she can absorb the impact of the ball, they can’t get too far into her.
Yes, but as I pointed out on another page, lasers also tend to be hot enough to cause the water in our cells (50-65% water) to instantly flash to steam, which does not cauterize as it blasts a bloody chunk out of the flesh. That’s assuming (as you point out) that she can’t simply absorb enough of the impact to keep the spikes from penetrating.
Technically, since energetic delivery is always kinetic (particle acceleration delivers energy packets via kinetic impact at the molecular / atomic / sub-atomic scales, which, as I understand it, manifests usually as kinetic vibrational frequency shift), she has some defense, but that’s probably being overly pedantic. From a Game Mechanic point of view, she probably has massive physical defense and lower energy defense.
Looking forward to it – hoping Anvil shines brightly and doesn’t get the Warf Effect.
I don’t think that would apply, in any event. Maxima is the closest approximation. If you take Warf as being the toughest dude on TNG’s enterprise, then his counterpart is Max, in Arc-SWAT.
Anybody remember the episode Genesis, where the crew devolved into prehistoric creatures after a medical treatment (on Lieutenant Barclay) went wrong? Worf devolved into an insect-like creature, complete with venom sacs under his jaw, and was still unable to break the door to sickbay down.
Meanwhile, in Conspiracy, sapient neural parasites are trying to take over Starfleet Command. Onboard the Enterprise, one of them (inhabiting the body of Rear Admiral Quinn) tries to infect Riker, but is interrupted by Worf and LaForge. It throws LaForge through the door… the same type of door that insect-Worf couldn’t break down… and Geordi just dusts himself off and throws himself back into the fight!
So I don’t want Worf as my chief of security… Geordi LaForge is the toughest dude on the Enterprise! xD
Those doors are made of scriptium. Their breaking point is determined by whatever suits the scene being shot.
The much more ludicrous example is the wire-mesh cages, in the Sunnydale school library (in Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Frankly they are flimsy enough that even I could break them open, with a simple lever. Yet they had to contain vampires, werewolves and even disgruntled slayers.
Who, in other scenes, can quite happily kick open inches-thick steel doors!
Well, to be fair, Worf was trying to break down the sick bay doors. I can see those doors being reinforced for safety (e.g. psychotic patients). In fact, I would imagine that doors to critical areas of the ship (the bridge, engineering, etc) to also be reinforced.
Whereas, the doors that Geordi was thrown through were just the standard door that they put on private quarters… not a critical area of the ship. Like my friends who play Star Fleet Battles say, “you can lose the captain’s bowling alley and the swimming pool, and the ship will still be operational.”
Yea. And those library cages were owned by a Watcher and situated above a Hellmouth. So I just rationalised them as being reinforced with protective magics. Which could be far more potent than otherwise due to harnessing the power of the Hellmouth.
That and I allow a reasonable lassitude for TV budgets. When they had an episode where “a room is on fire”, yet it had a tiny patch of fire, shot real close to look well like a slightly larger fire, I just went with the intent. The acting matched it being a ferocious fire, so as far as I was concerned the really dangerous bits were just out of shot.
The series was just oo good to be bothered by trivia. They got it right most of the time, so suspension of disbelief was easy enough.
By the time we humans have starships and are civilized enough to host a peaceful galactic federation, I hope we’ve produced at least one genius who can design a computer without embedding fireworks, then program it to not automatically open every door to every guest. The captain should be able to tell the guests “feel free to explore the ship, the doors will only open to non-work areas where it’s safe for unmonitored guests”, rather than having guests accidentally triggerring the self destruct mechanism after stumbling into backup control room while looking for a restroom in 10 forward….I’m sure they were only a few episodes away from that happening.
I would estimate that to be when numbers have died back to about the last thousand individuals. Or will need to be far enough through evolutionary time, say thirty or forty million years, that we probably would not recognise them as humans, if we saw them.
I would say Data is to Maxima as Warf is to Anvil.
Warf was pretty much second class throughout the series, which is kind of sad to me.
Poor Klingon.
Well i assume hei’s either distracted by the missile or blinded by the smoke not to hold his flail above his head.
He’s probably wondering how sydney did that.
That osprey better have an ACME sticker on the side if it is delivering rockets and dropping anvils.
+1 internet points for the pun.
+2
Indeed. She’s the bomb.
Special Delivery!
If she had kids would that make her a MOAB?
Only if her kids were the rest of the bombs.
” These are my children, Block-buster and Daisy-cutter”….
This line of discussion makes me think Anvil needs to marry this guy:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1829
Her ‘payloads’ are impressive…
It’s not like Sydney didn’t already do that…
:P
To be fair Syd basically slingshot-ed her down, this time she just jumped.
So the golembot is officially name Wiley?
its like a cartoon,they drop a anvil on the villain.
If he DOESN’T call the next strip “Dropping the Anvil” or words to that effect (or at least use that phrase at some point), I’m gonna be disappointed.
This is the one that should be called dropping the Anvil. The next one should be “One small step for woman, P’Tang”
Well, Anvil can’t fly, certainly, but she can land with the best of them…
:D
well… ya know what they say: “EVERYTHING is Air-dropable… ONCE” it takes a lot of planning and design to be able to do it a second time…
Except a fully inflated balloon. That is air-upable.
Of course the drop will eventually come. But, by then, it is no longer a fully inflated balloon.
Favorite line from Mummy Returns:
“If anyone can fill this thing with hot air, Izzy, it’s you.”
I prefer to say “You don’t need a parachute to go skydiving.”
Of course, the corollary is, “… but you might want to take a parachute with you if you plan on going skydiving more than once!”
Unless you’ve got powers like Anvil or Achilles, obviously.
I can’t verify the source, but I have heard that there is a similar Russian proverb “Every mushroom is edible. Some of them only once.”
By that theory, Anvil can fly like a little bird, but she can do so more than once…
Hankie warning required!
It occurs to me that Anvil’s landing would have been better prepped with one of the other heavy hitters “priming” her kinetic energy before hand for a better ground pound on it for the landing. Have Hiro or someone casually wail on her in the copter and then have him escort her down faster with a bear hug onto the thing.
Yeah, she still has to absorb the energy first, and, even with her near-constant build-up just from walking, there will still be that time between point of impact and absorption, not to mention she has been walking to build up that base! She’s basically going to be hitting the Robo-Venger ‘cold’, she could at least have had Peggy slap her around a few (dozen) times
Maybe some people in the Osprey worked her over with baseball bats right before the drop.
Honestly, a good wind up swing or two from Hiro or Max should be a pretty good set up at a minimum. She could hit the ground swinging with that at the very least.
Seriously doubt Maxi is there, which, again, raises the question: “Where in the world is
Carmen San DiegoMaxi?”Max is the fast one, which means she’s the farthest, and gets the dramatic entrance….
Also one of the reasons why I mention Hiro. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the second highest ranked in the field on the team and also able to fly. That would bring the likelihood of his presence on or around the copter up a bit.
In military rank terms, yes (in combat rankings both Dabbler and Math beat him, but only just). He is a Major to Maxima’s Lt Colonel.
As to the likelihood of his presence, that is harder to determine. Even though this is the current flashpoint, you do not want to put all of your eggs into one basket. Strategic reserves are very important in combat, and the second in command is the one who should be in charge of that (unless needed for some ploy in the primary engagement).
It is why Ryker keeps reminding Pcard that they should not both go on away missions (in an attempt to have Picard remain tucked up on his ship like a sensible captain).
Mind you, they are already deployed, but had they known about the power-stealing, then it is Maxima who should be kept the furthest away from the construct. But, that said, she does have an effective ranged attack, whereas Super Hiro does not. So she is actually still the better choice.
Anvil is even worse mind, lacking even flight to provide superior mobility. But nobody knew about the absorption ability until moments prior to engaging. So it was already too late (the missiles may already have been in the air when that happened).
Rank wise, I don’t recall them actually stating ranks for anyone but Max on up. Correct me if I’m wrong there. Only reason why I could peg Hiro was because he was actually in his blues too at the press conference and if the older green uniforms had ranks on them, they weren’t very visible.
Presumably Hiro would be there as you stated. Max is commanding the larger op and Hiro should be responding to the engagement at this point as well as he’d really need to be present in the “on the ground” sense so that he could eval and relay the response needs to Max can manage that.
Why they threw in Anvil as the spearhead response, I don’t know. That particular choice doesn’t really seem to make sense tactically unless she’s really there to try and keep it pinned for a more aggressive response.
As to Max… where she is is the real mystery. She’s really high up for sure, but given the lights in the shot it seems like she’s over a city.
Everyone, including Hiro, was formally introduced, at the beginning of the press conference, plus it was verbalised at least once elsewhere. Although precisely which scene eludes me, at the moment.
Do be wary of any earlier mentions of rank, or glimpses of insignia prior to that though. Some (including Maxima’s) differ (and are still out of date on the cast page, for that matter). Dave received advice from military readers, so adjusted some ranks to better suit the characters age, experience and role in the unit.
Super Hiro’s rank though is correctly stated as ‘major’, on the cast page.
Max and Peggy indicated that they were both responding. As Peggy took over communicating with Sydney, I took this as being an indicator she would be the first to reach here. Out of a desire to retain continuity of command. Which has been borne out by the above scene.
The teams were clearly spread out. Maxima is by far the fastest though, so will logically have been deployed to the most remote location. As the Twilight Concil is a global organisation its enemies likewise may have global scope. So Maxima could have been on the West Coast, and the city might have been San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Or it could have been Perth, Sydney or the Imperial Capital on Gedi Prime.
So Maxima is coming. But is limited to a top speed that does not break every window on route. The when is therefore only dictated by the moment of highest drama. Possibly Super Hiro is on his way too, but no mention has been made of it.
I imagine Hiro and Maxima playing baseball using Achilles as a bat and Anvil as a ball.
… and now I can’t stop picturing that. XD
Speaking of being batted, the new vote incentive is mean to poor little Sydney…. ;-)
@DaveB make that the next moth vote incentive :)
He he.
+ 1
I think you scored a home run there.
well this answers some questions about sidneys shield I think………..nah not really
Poor enemy. Being in between a Anvil and a hard shielded place…
Not to be a spelling neatnik but it’s lair, not layer.
It was a secret evil layer of a lair.
The correct term is pedant…
True! Though, to be fair, after Max is done with it, it only takes up one ‘layer’.
Beat me to it.
Dave! We thingied at the stuff!
Somewhat akin to being between a rock & a hard place. Queue up some Queen music: Specifically, this.
She will rock the Husk’s world.
are you sure you didn’t mean this one? seemed kinda obvious to me, really, since they’re going against Death on Two Legs and all…
Bloodgolem will soon find itself under pressure.
Sydney, if you do too, just don’t loose your head. And remember flat-bottomed girls make the rocking world go round!
Obligatory mentioning of the typo in the undercomic author’s comment from https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2457 now completed.
The entire team loves classic cartoons it seems. (I’m beginning to think her code name was chosen for her by the team for this purpose.)
@DaveB: A secret evil lair is where a bad guy might hide out. A secret evil layer is the part of the cake where Sydney snuck in her favourite hot-sauce into the strawberry filling without telling anybody.
if Sydney did that she would be court marshaled for attempted murder bio terrorism and weaponizing a dangerous chemical, not to mention that it would be immediately given away considering that the Unmaker would most likely just melt the entire cake.
Court Martial.
But as enlisted she’ll usually go through NJP unless she’s willing to up the ante and request a full trial.
Sydney: Umm, Anvil, this toothbrush smells of bleach. What am I supposed to do with? My breath doesn’t smell that bad, does it?
Anvil: You get to clean that [ pointing to the women’s washroom ] with that. [ points to the toothbrush ]
Naa, just an article 13 hearing…
The most evil layer is anchovies on a pizza.
Ahh, the lesser-known tenth layer. reserved for those who spoil somethign great!
Dang, that reminds me of a porn game played just the other day, still in production so can’t really do much, but they used that same image of Hell! o_O
That must be one hell of a production they are erecting.
Err, not that it is a prompt for more info.
I think it falls under ‘heresy’.
This sounds weirdly similar to my recipe last week: https://spicefreakblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/pavlova-in-purgatory/
Heh. Nice serendipity. Although I think a heat rating of 0.5 out of 10 does loose it the ‘evil’ classification. It gets some back for the calories mind, but I think that only takes it up to 2.5 out of 10 (naughty) on the evil scale.
Loosely related (because of a play on words with “chili peppers”)…
If you don’t mind covers of rock music, go to YouTube and do a search for the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.
After listening to bagpipe renditions of popular songs, you will never quite listen to rock music the same way again. (Don’t worry, they removed the reeds from the chanters. Your ears will thank them for that.)
Then of course there is a nice tie in with another thread, with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers rendition of Fat Bottomed Girls.
Almost makes mewish I’d used a piping bag for the meringue.
So does anvil have to have the kinetic energy already stored to release it on impact or can she instantly release the energy as she hits the target making a sort of a kinetic shield slam dunk?
Or does she plan to absorb the impact of the fall and use it as a punch later?
Well at least now we know where she got the nickname from, tho.
At this point, a character named “Piano” would just be redundant.
Her entry on the character page doesn’t goo too into it, mentioning she can store and convert kinetic energy but not going too far into specifics beyond that.
It’s worth noting that her profile ranks her as Strength 3, Absorption 4, and Fighting 2. Jiggawatt is ranks as Absorption 3, assumably because she can only absorb electric energy which is more specific than kinetic energy, though there might be other reasons for the rank difference.
Also off topic, but I just noticed something on Math’s profile. He possesses a good array, Fighting 5, Speed 4, Toughness 2, Strength 1… and what I assume is Blast 3. The yellow blast icon is only possessed by four other profiles, Maxima, Halo, Dabbler and Heatwave. We definitely know Max, Sydney and Brook have blast powers and it seems laughable to assume Dabbler doesn’t have some blasts even if you don’t count her guns. So I guess what this made me wonder is if I am reading this wrong or if Math has some sort of ki blast attack or some such from intense martial training.
It was mentioned some time ago that Anvil builds up her Kinetic Energy reserves simply from walking (not much, but it’s usually enough to at least allow her to absorb initial impacts from punches and similarly minor things), butt… she would have been riding in the Osprey, so, unless it’s a vibrating death-trap, let’s just hope she managed to get enough from before Peggy picked her up
‘but’ not ‘butt’
Sorry I had to.
It was deliberate :P
Have you ever ridden in an Osprey before? They aren’t exactly known for their smooth rides. In fact, no propeller based aircraft is really known for it’s smooth ride.
No military aircraft is, unless it hauls VIP’s. I always enjoyed my rides in C-130’s sooo much…
me too, seriously. my first ride in a herky bird was through severe thunderstorms in central Texas. Smoother than falling down the side of the Grand Canyon, less exciting than Niagra Falls in a barrel. A C130 in a storm is a huge cork with oversized wings. loved it.
You should try an MC-130 doing a nap of the earth insertion in the mountains. It’s fun for the entire family…
Sort of what I recall people telling me – nice to have independent confirmation.
IIRC Dave said that Anvil’s “Reserve” also “Drains” slowly, and absorption of energy from her footsteps is just about enough to cancel said drain effect.
Yes, but there isn’t much walking to be done in an Osprey, even if she spent the whole time walking in circles
It occurs to me that provided Sydney’s shield doesn’t filter it out, there are some real possibilities for equipping Sydney with a laser guider for long range missiles.
She just has to fly in with shields up, sit right next to the target if she wants, paint it with the laser and… wait… patiently…
oh… thats why they haven’t done it.
Yeah, but the thing is, would the shield allow the laser pointer to pass through?
An interesting point.
I note that the shield is more or less transparent in BOTH directions, so the answer would seem to be “Probably”. That raises questions about whether Sydney is vulnerable to laser-based attacks – so maybe the shield stops anything over a given intensity / power level. But, if so, a low-powered laser could still be used for “dazzle” attacks. Hmmm.
Noting also all the upgrade options available at this stage, saettings that turn the shield into a mirror or a super-absorbant black sphere are poaaibilities.
No she is not vulnerable to laser based attacks. Back when Hex (Budget Halo) was going crazy over the squirrel her laser hit Sydney’s shield and it turned opaque where it was hit blocking the laser allowing Goose “The Duke” to take cover behind her. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1386
This page is relevant. A deadly laser has been confirmed to not pass through, while regular light does, but where the threshold lies is still unclear. It could be a case of quantity, that is to say it blocks radiation above a certain amplitude, or gives diminishing returns on light input (maybe something akin to non-newtonian fluids? “hardens” on “hard impact” except with light), or blocking any focused ray of light, or a bunch of other things.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1630
The whole arguement is moot. If you give her a radio transmitter, set the missile to track on that frequency, and send her in it would work the same way. And if you are dead set on using a laser, she could use it in combo with the Forb and the PPO since we know, now, that when she places the PPO against her shields it opens a small port. Just pull the PPO away from the shield when the missile is a couple of seconds away.
It’s not a hole in the shield. It’s a “Particle Portal” (random name Dave used to explain it) nothing can actually go through it. The PPO just fires through it likely because they are part of a set designed not to interfere with each other.
Wait a minute…
Sydney has a Moldiver for a shield?
Sweeet….
Is that like ‘the Incredible Journey’, but being inserted into the body via a mole on the skin?
Or are we talking rectal insertion in the burrowing mammal?
*eyes popping and wincing*
Looks like this is where Angel Blade came from. Cool, another anime to watch.
Max’s attack is more a Particle “Beam” than a laser ( I shudder to think of the energy needed for a laser to damage the ground it’s traveling OVER like this.)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1041
for a laser, that would be an astoundingly poorly collimated beam, with proportionally poor efficiency in delivering energy to the target. might be safer to be behind the target than on the ground near it.
Wait, …wut? Is Anvil still in this comic?
Welcome back, Anvil!
Seeing as this comic is PG13 at worst those clothes are probably indestructible.
As long as they are partialy undestructible it should be okay. Many superheroes have made a career of fighting in torn cloth barely covering crotches and nipples.
It is notable that the main exceptions to this are in series like Wild Cards and Whateley Academy, i.e., prose, rather than comics. The superhero comics which do, ah, provide additional exposure are usually adult-rated parodies.
Speaking Whateley, perhaps they’ve taken a page from Tennyo (who tends to end up in the buff after her fights, what with getting shredded by rotary cannons, blown up by tactical nukes, and so forth) and wear a chainmail bikini made of something unreasonably durable (it’s nice to have incredibly wealthy friends, isn’t it?) under their costumes for such an eventuality.
Either that, or accept it, and wear the shame (and cheap, easily replaced clothing) instead. Or, well, I suppose at that point it’s not so much ‘shame’ as taking Ula’s and Bialistock’s advice to heart. “If you’ve got it, Flaunt it!”
Also, another Whateleyite, eh? How’s the universe doing these days? I tried to dive back in a while ago, but the whole site’s gotten changed up, and I can’t find anything anymore.
Hmmm… I dunno, does the shield pattern look wrong to anybody else? It feels like it’s curved in the wrong direction to me.
…Actually, the ability to put *someone else* in a shield bubble without being inside with them would be really useful in Sydney’s line of work. I’m going to guess that this ability is in the Shield Orb’s orphaned node.
Hmmm… The difficulty would be the implementation. How does she figure out how to let someone in.
But really, the Comm ball already gives her this ability now that it has teleportation. She just deploys the light-bee, ensures the target person is within her telepresence shield and then activates the teleportation so it becomes her physical presence with the target individual inside the shield.
Shouldn’t be that difficult: all it would require is the ability to change who is in the center of the bubble, at the moment it seems to be hard-set to Sydney
She has so many upgrade choices, and maybe next she’ll pick the committee choice. Unless she’s under attack again, then it’s roll the dice again…
I hadn’t noticed it at first, but now that you mentioned it I see it too. The pattern near the edges should’ve gotten wider instead of more narrow I think to display the view from inside the shield.
While it would be useful for Sydney and Archon to use the shield as a sort of net or cage to trap people in it I think from a storytelling point of view it would be a bad move to have this become an actual ability. Giving her the power to project an inescapable cage makes any threat non-existent.
re: shield looking wrong. ALWAYS a problem when a 3D object is projected onto 2D view space. mostly, it’s in the head of the viewer, but artists can often supply additional cues ( like drawing the joining walls as an outside of a building, or the inside of an office) that keep the brain from being confused. but a curved, mostly transparent surface? possibly the toughest to make unambiguous.
If anyone here has read Brandon Sanderson’s The Reckoners series (Steelheart, Firefight, Calamity), you’ll understand how the ability to put someone else at the center of the forcefield would actually turn her shields into a potentially overwhelming and devastating weapon.
It’s pretty terrifying, and Sydney is scary enough on her own.
Please explain, for those who’ve not read it.
Please explain, for those who’ve not read it.
It involves someone turning a bit towards the evil side and using their shield projection ability to put shields around people …. then reduce the shield and its contents from person sized to basketball sized.
I don’t think Sydney would go that far, but her shield still is too powerful to be used as such, from a storytelling point of view. The fight with Vehemence or this one would be over within a second if she could catch them within her shield without her in it.
Similar to when Sue Storm turned Malice: she would insert her force bubble in places they didn’t belong, and then expand them
Okay …. on a tangential note related to offensive shields … Sydney, being who she is, has probably already checked this out, but if not she should. Can her shields be introduced intersecting with a corporeal entity? In other words, can she bring a shield up that passes through somebody or something? And if so, what is the effect?
In some places, shields that are introduced will … subdivide the intersecting object. That has obvious potential for catastrophic damage. Since that is crazily powerful, I’d guess a more likely alternative would be either it allows the intersected object to either move in or out until it has fully done so (NOT LIKELY) or it might hold it in place with the out being out and the in being in and the part at the shield being held in place where it is. If this last is the case, I was put in mind of Elastigirl in The Incredibles when she is infiltrating the island and gets her waist stuck in the door with her top half on one side and her bottom on the other.
Whatcha think?
If it is a bisecting/cutting shield, then, in this fight, Sydney could rapidly redeploy the shield to cut the robot in half, because … it’s a fracking toaster.
If it’s an incapacitating shield that freezes the intersecting material, then if she can ever get behind it, Sydney could effectively hobble the opponent if by no other means than by making her shield intersect a portion of a foot.
The least interesting option of all would be if it can’t intersect at all, though I guess that could have interesting implications too…
Most of the super powers in the Grrlverse work as intended, rather than behaving like an ill-phrased wish. Where a power might have nasty side-effects, there is a secondary power that compensates for that. Take Harem’s ability to sense if her arrival point is blocked, prior to arriving.
On top of which the orbs have demonstrated various safety features. So, however they handle such issues, accidental bisection will not be on the cards.
Possibly Sydney might be able to override the safeties and force that to happen. Which is not something that she would do with a person. Not without some extraordinary hypothetical need.
Whilst Sydney might be too tired to think about it, at the moment, this construct is clearly more than just a dumb machine. Either it has been very extensively programmed, with a lot of contingencies, that result in it having powerful tactical intelligence and giving the impression of emotions (see it whipping its head round, to glare at Halo) or it is a person. Just as much as Icon is.
As she is fighting for her, and other’s lives, and squeamishness is not something that she can afford right now, I will not be pointing this moral dilemma out to her. In due course she will have to come to terms with it, as a soldier mind.
As for the technical side, Sydney’s shields get raised one panel at a time (see the embiggened shield being lowered, at the press demonstration). So it would not intrinsically bisect a large object, but it may do so on a small part of it. However we have also seen that it deflects to avoid chopping things. So Halo would have her work cut out trying to get around more than just one obstacle in her path to bisection.
Thoughts as to the incapacitation option?
Mmm, that sounds like the kind of power stunt that may, quite reasonably, be developed by a hero using a phasing type shield.* However I am of the opinion that Halo’s does not work that way. I think it forms (very fast when in small size, as we saw when the construct swiped at her) one panel at a time, and where it would intersect something physically, it will deflect to avoid this.
As proof of the behaviour, I offer that Sydney could form the shield underneath Harem’s feet, when picking her up outside the shop. Just as she does whenever raising the shield whilst standing on the ground. At no point has she ever complained that she needs to keep replacing shoes because they have layers sliced off them (for example).
There are a few other points too, but I listed those recently.
*points paw vaguely at the previous comic or two*
Whilst I remain open to counter-arguments (as always), none have offered points that are compelling enough to change my mind.
Which leaves the idea as plausible, but not likely in Halo’s case. In my (sometimes flawed) opinion.
* As in one that avoids damaging the ground, when standing on it, despite having a spherical shield, by means of passing insubstantially through it. With some complex pseudo science babble about how it is still able to provide protection despite this.
For info the latter is one of the reasons I find such implausible.
I like your points, however, I think that the interface between Sydney and her orbs is very sophisticated and nuanced and that it is quite possible that they might actually take intent into account. since she seems to have a thought interface with them, if she intended that they perform in a way that was possible but not the default, they might be able to do so. I might argue that she intended to have the shield perform exactly as intended (on an unconscious level) in the previous comics, and so they did so. Since she has presumably not tested any of these possibilities, now would be an immensely stupid time to do so, but it might be interesting to have her try in the future.
I totally agree about them responding to intent. We have various examples of such (punching with orbs being an obvious one). However unless we are to assume that they are like genies, in orb form, then they can only respond to said desires within the range of things they are capable of doing.
Hence why I argue that if the orbs have no mechansim to allow the force field to phase then no amount of Sydney mentally commanding them to do that would have any result.
However, it is entirely possible that they do actually phase, and I have just been misinterpreting things. Or they could be advanced enough that it is like advanced car technology, that you can opt to turn off at the flip of a switch.
So experimentation is likewise something that I heartily endorse.
Mind you it looks like Dave is going to keep things too busy for quiet experimentation. Which may mean that Sydney will have to do a lot of experimentation, on the fly.
Which should be fun! (on this side of the 4th wall)
*wags tail chaotically*
I hadn’t been thinking necessarily about phasing given your previous analysis but potentially restrictive assembly. You have accurately (so far as we can tell) described her force field initiation as the assembly of pieces (this is reinforced by the representation seen above). I could see the default being to assemble in the desired space to the inclusion or exclusion of intended targets. I think it is reasonable to think that she MIGHT be able to assemble it to intersect, if specifically intended, with a physical object and that such a situation might be able to be used tactically. (Force the golem to avoid a double dribble by pinning its leg.)
Now that I concur would be entirely possible. And nicely argued.
At which point (should Dave think along similar lines) it would then be a matter of how easy it is to do that. Writing the website address showed that the orb effects can be manipulated with precision. But Math being able to force Sydney’s leg into the path of one, show that there are limits, even with the orbs otherwise complying with Sydney’s desires (in this case not wanting to be hurt).
Which is just to say that even if it can do the trapping, it may take some practice on Sydney’s part, to order the components to assemble in the manner you are suggesting. These kinds of decisions though are all down to what is convenient to the plot. Which is why Dave is wise to be coy about confirming too much.
Whilst he may have it envisionsed as something Sydney can improvise, on the fly, when he first needs to use it, it may prove to be better comedy for it to fail, and allow more character building in showing her working hard to perfect it.
In other words either option is possible, and we cold come up with reasons to justify whichever we chose.
Finally, of course, there is a third option That may be one of the choices on the forb’s skill tree. In which case, yes, the orbs can do it, but only when Halo has unlocked the relevant upgrade.
Actually regarding the pseudo-science babble, folks could just use the ‘it lets good things in (like harmless ground) and stops bad things’. So provided they avoided detailing exactly how, then it would not allow me to pick holes in it.
However it is still hard to visualise it allowing earth to pass through, but simultaneously stop someone like Shadow Boxer (as a purely hypothetical example). Letting light through but blocking deadly amounts, I can handle. As we see astronaut’s helmets that provide similar capabilities.
But it is hard to find a simple to explain, yet elegant to contemplate, mechanism for simultaneous phasing and protecting. If it fails that test: ‘pseudo-science babble’
You realize that you are discussing pseudo-science babble about a pseudo-science bubble?
*bobbles head, about bubble babble*
Mind you I prefer to think of it as Dave being a talented artist chosen to sound out society, and see if we are ready to have super heroes revealed yet. With the implication that the bubble is not pseudo science. It is just powerful technomagic.
Science just being a way of describing the more readily analysed and repeatable types of magic.
I think Yorp’s conversational nuances have gotten stuck in a Cantaloop. (i.e. Scribble dabble scrabble on the microphone I babble…)
Either that or he is secretly not a doggie worthy of Yorpie snacks, but merely a Fox in Socks.
L.E. Modessit uses a variant on the idea of a force shield to slaughter more than one Chaos mage.
Surround the Chaos mage with an Order shield. Adjust the shield to allow chaos to pass in to but not out of the shield. Allow the Chaos enery to build. Take cover and beware the Divine Light.
My memory of those was that it was usually designed to allow chaos to escape but not enter since order mages contained their own order, but chaos mages pulled from the chaotic energy all around them. Thus by being sealed off from external sources of chaos, they could only feed upon themselves … That would be a cool idea to implement. It MIGHT be conceivable that Sydney’s shield works like that since it has adjustable opacity (i.e. seals out the more chaotic energy sometimes). It would be interesting to see if it has any effect on the magic users of this universe. If it can seal people away from their energy sources then … DAMN.
i believe we’ve already seen that it DOES have an effect on Magic-users, for example, when she cut off Vehemence from his Aggro-Aura power collection spell, granted we aren’t yet filled in if that WAS “magic” or something “else” but it’s a good enough descriptor for now…
Although I am in a minority, I believe that his power is super in nature. Not least of which because he is a super-villain.
The comic has very distinctive art for spells being cast, which he lacks. Contrast Dabbler casting her combat spells, or Zephan and Gwen casting the ‘you cannot see us’ spell, to Vehemence growing bigger, for example.
But we can say that the orbs are resistant to magical detection, so we could infer that the same is likely for other aspects. Certainly characters in the comic have made that assumption, as Ingsol requested Halo’s assistance, on those grounds.
You know… thinking about this… I can’t think of a WORSE super to send against this thing than Anvil…
I mean, really. Her main invincibility power is to absorb kinetic energy from blunt attacks, and now this thing’s mace is laser enhanced while the tentacle can penetrate skin and wrap her up without serious blunt force.
Then, you get an automaton that not only has a shield to use against ranged attack AND lycanthrope regeneration to heal whatever damage it takes but ALSO kinetic absorption which will really mess with Maxima’s ability to take it down.
This looks like a job for Math and Achilles.
And Peggy but except for Peggy catching it off guard with the .50cal I can’t see them doing much damage to it or effectively containing it.
What they really need is almost something with a kryptonite like weakness that it would mistakenly absorb.
Poisoned blood would only work if they could properly analyse what makes the golem work first.
Anvil could snipe it with a cannon from the helicopter since she can absorg the recoil. She would be a perfect sniper actualy with her strength and stability but I guess it’s more fun to see her use her sexy muscle in close combat.
Also, if the rocket didn’t stop the golem I doubt that a 50cal bullet will.
I’m wondering how smart it is to have anyone go face to face with that thing. As long as it doesn’t power steal Anvil’s abilities…I’d just keep blasting it from a distance.
The natural supers just keep accidentally powering it up until they are AFRAID to let Maxima or any other genetically powerful being anywhere near it. So The Mighty Halo and Sniper Lass are the only ones on site who can attack it without any risk of powering it up.
Thus giving a fairly legitimate excuse to have Sydney the rookie go all out on the attack. ( with mentors/commanding officers backseat driving through the com) Could be a fun fight once a few supers have powered it up a bit.
Just realized this thing is a lot like those Suped up Sentinals from the movie Days of Future Past.
This one is smaller and it is using blood magic instead Mystique’s genetics for adaptation. Ok, so yeah, about the same thing.
Did you not see the movie? There were smaller ones than the fifty feet tall ones from the comics and cartoon, and they were able to counter several of the mutants’ abilities (Sunspot got frozen, and Iceman got fried)
Sounds like the ones from the Zero Tolerance story arc
“Off Topic” Topic of the Week:
If Max was a virgin when she came into contact with the Gold symbiote fluid, and assuming that she wouldn’t be sexually active during her awkward transition/development years, does that mean that Max has a super strong hymen?
Would it take another superhero male (or female with strong fingers) to pop her Golden Cherry?
Or can/did Max lower her Toughness stats far enough that an above average person could take her Super-V-Card?
This is a good question. This question is relevant to my interests. Please answer this question Dave.
Well, DaveB, gonna weigh in on this?
Doctor: [ During physical ] Hmm, that’s unexpected. Colonel, have you had sexual intercourse in the last few days?
Max: You’re kidding, right? The only guys I know tough enough to even try that are in my chain of command. No way I’m going there.
Doctor: Math is a civilian, right?
Max: What!? 1) He is not tough enough. 2) He and I do not have that kind of relationship and we never will.
Doctor: Dabbler’s pretty tough, especially with her shields up.
Max: I do not swing that way. As much as she tries to get me interested, we are not going there.
Interestingly enough, the Hymen can be torn through normal, yet rigorous, activity, such as horseback riding. A lot of female athletes don’t have their hymen because it tore while they were training as well. Now that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still virgins, it just means that they are less like to experience pain during their first sexual encounter.
Or, at least, that’s their story and they are sticking to it :P
Supposedly sufficient foreplay, arousal and care can make it flexible enough to get pushed out of the way as well, such that it is removed from consideration without damage.
I think there isa photograph of that, but thankfully without injury.
Almost certainly not. Even Maxima’s minimums are respectably into the super ranks. Achilles has one star super strength and would likewise find himself frustrated.
This is a question that I would not be ashamed to ask Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, or any of the other great comic writers/nerds, if I ever met them.
Just avoid the temptation if handed the microphone at a family friendly event. ;-)
The secret excellence of this technique is that if you looked up and saw that hurtling at you, you wouldn’t dodge.
Many a villain will be hauled off to jail with a goofy smile on their faces…
But would it work on a blood powered golem? If it’s mostly made from straight male blood I guess it could.
I hope she lands somewhere with sufficient surface area to offer resistance. It would be hard to absorb any kinetic energy if the Robovenger decides to impale her on a spike.
“Man of Steel, Woman of Tissue”, about a half century ago, addressed the kinetic aspects of Superman’s happy funtime conclusions.
One reason Wonder Woman could be a friend with benefits, but neither Lois Lane nor Lana Lang should be a target of his affections. Really, wait until a New Goddess or a woman from Kandor shows up or the results get even more messy than usual.
Been awhile since we’ve seen Anvil in action…!
Wait so now she is the Shiny? Woah.
First thing to pop into my head was StarCraft and the quote “I’m about to drop The Hammer and dispense some indiscriminate Justice!” …. they are dropping the Anvil….. I have the feeling that’s a step up in the same way firing the Missile gets a step up if you fire the Missile Base at them xD
And now that you mention that, what pops in my head is the 30-ton Hammer (HMR-3R) and 60-ton Anvil (ANV-1L) ‘Mechs from Battletech. In-universe, the company that made them pitched them as the perfect combo, though in practice that turned out to not work as well as expected (according to later Tech Readouts).
A 60 ton mech would be good for death-from-above tactics however, with jump jets and a chassi built for the job. At that size jump jets still have a decent efficiency to tonnage ratio, Allowing both a strong and mobile design. Let that be the hammer and the ground the anvil. Just be sure to use competent pilots.
Not that I ever favoured DFA myself mind. Too high risk unless battle damage restricted other options.
My mech designs favour placing short and point blank weapons on the torso, with the long range ones on the arms. That way you have a comprehensive field of fire to dominate the battlefield. Yet when you close to melee range you are free to use punching attacks. No loss that you cannot fire your long-range weapons, as they would not work well, when toe-to-toe.
Of course, when possible, I would also squeeze in a couple of small rear-mounted weapons, to give coverage against infantry, or fast/ jumping opponents getting behind the mech.
In my first real Battletech game, I kept making the mistake of positioning myself (in an OTL-4D Ostsol) where it would be easy for another pilot to DFA. However, his dice did not cooperate…
“Death From Above!” (Fails roll, takes damage) Later…
“Death From Above!” (Fails roll, takes damage) Later…
“Death From Above!” (Fails roll, takes critical damage to ammo bin, ‘Mech blows up)
In other words, he did no damage at all to me, and I did no damage at all to him (my attention was focused on a Clan ‘Mech). He killed himself attempting the DFA. It was the funniest thing that ever happened to me in a Battletech game.
P.S., in-universe, the Hammer and Anvil combo was meant to work similarly to your ‘Mech designs. The Hammer was armed with three LRM-5 launchers; a pair of Hammers would soften up enemy ‘Mechs at a distance with missiles, and when the enemy closed in, the Anvil would pound them with its massive fists and the array of torso-mounted pulse lasers.
Sydney: gee i THINK i can be distracting
Her big problem is NOT being distracting….
No it costs 400k when max levels a mosque.
Sorry. I can’t…
It’s “evil lair”, not “layer”.
Join the cue >_>
queue .. sorry, had to do it
Again, deliberate, hence the shifty eyes >_>
Too bad they needed to sneak up on the bad guy. I would have loved to hear the troop transport arrive playing “Ride of the Valkyries” over their PA system.
Dang, that was supposed to be its own comment.
I blame Russian hackers.
The ones with the Wagner CD and boom box ALWAYS get to be the lead helicopter.
I’m guessing the damage is insignificant as it can regenerate as long as it isn’t run through with something.
Light hook and impale what’s left on that girder from panels 1 & 3
Hurting a critter badly enough that it cannot attack while the self-repair routines spin up and get to work is always significant. :D
At the very least, hurting it badly and adding more targets will de-prioritize the wounded and give them a chance to scarper.
+1
Just be sure not to be adding to the pile of injured. Which laser-vulnerable Anvil might be about to do.
There’s a new interpretation of the term dropping an anvil on someone.
“Amazon delivery”. AFK — laughing forever.
For those of you complaining about “evil layers”, maybe the city is being attacked by a giant robo-chicken.
So, a Poultry Villain instead of a paltry one? ;)
Is she wearing a Kevlar bra this time?
Let’s just hope she isn’t wearing anything.
Given by how much it hurt in the fight against Kevin…
Isn’t Anvil at least a little bit concerned that, when she jumps into an unknown battle area, she might fall on something spiky?
Kinetic battery types don’t care what they fall on. The impact is absorbed. All versions of impact. Laser claw might be an issue though.
Shouldn’t Sydney warn them about this things ability to copy powers?
Was hoping to get an answer on last panel debate on how exactly does the shield protect from falling, crashing or getting a lot of g’s.
Instead I have a new question. If she can get radio signal, is she protected from shockwaves, loud noises and vibrations?
Considering the blast from Max’s demonstration didn’t seem to really effect any of the reporters under Syd’s shield, I would assume the answer to both shockwaves and extremely loud noise is, “Yes, it protects from them.”
I’m more curious on the why we can see the shield lines this time. Is she running out of ADD power?
You always can, anytime it comes under attack. From the first demonstration in the boardroom interview onwards. The enbiggened force field showed that the pattern persists for some time after the attack too. I have not checked to see if there are any other examples.
Mind you the pattern is much more pronounced than normal, granted. But these are much different lighting conditions than any previously, which probably accounts for it. The pattern stood out in the embiggened form, but had bright sky and was in a desert environment, for example.
I think it’s showing the symbols this time because it’s holding back the weight of all that rubble
Everything we’ve seen up to this point seems to indicate the shield is energy threshold related, rather than energy type related – anything sufficiently powerful enough to deal damage to Sydney seems to be interfered with, while anything below that threshold seems to pass unaffected.
I’ll concede I could be wrong, but so far I’ve not seen evidence that directly contradicts this.
Like those suits from “Dune”? It can block lasers and projectiles, but a slow hand-wielded knife can pass through
They will eventually eviscerate.
The Dune shield has limited permeability to allow air to enter. It does stop high speed objects but reacts VERY BADLY to lasers. “However, if a lasgun beam hit a Holtzman field, it would result in sub-atomic fusion and a nuclear explosion.” To me that would just make all personal shields a potential terrorist attack waiting to happen. Just equip a drone with a laser, fly it over to the shielded object or person and have it zap the target at close range. Instant Earth(-like planet) shattering kaboom.
https://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Shield
True, but it also meant that anyone trying to capture an objective rather than destroy it, had to use projectile and melee weapons.
Worst case scenario : Anvil’s power does nothing against laser spikes. She get flailed before hitting the ground. She freak out because pain and blood loss is a completely new experience for her. The construct use this time to replicate her ability and completely heal the damages from the rocket. As a final insult, he absorb her stored energy.
I can see that as a possible outcome, as well as see Sydney hitting Anvil repeatedly with her new power attack to build up her energy level to use against enemies.
“I don’t know who (or what, really) you are. I don’t know what you want. If you’re looking for ransom, I don’t have any money (I mean, I get paid well, but I’ve just started at this, and most of my first paycheck went into my store). What I DO have are a very particular set of skills, skills that make me a perfect distraction for people(?) like you. If you go away now, that will be the end of *BOOM* oh, too late, here’s Anvil.”
+1 Internets for you! Brilliant!
I approve and endorse this comment.
+1 Indeed
DaveB: “The rubble in panel 1 took so long to draw.”
And then you covered up the whole thing with another layer containing the shield pattern.
You could always post the fruits of your labor on your Deviant Art page without the overlay so we can see it.
Ahh, another rubble-fetishist, out of the closet.
Well, she is cute, in a paleolithic kind of way. https://pre09.deviantart.net/327b/th/pre/i/2015/059/2/e/betty_rubble_by_rubtox-d8jt52o.jpg
Barney Rubble was my hero.
How the heck a short dumpy guy like him landed a literal “Betty” like Betty Rubble gave me hope for a long time.
Yes I know they’re cartoons – she was still hot. Ditto Daphne.
I never realized – Daphne is to Wilma as Velma is to Betty.
Weird…
Daphne DeShantis? Velma (?)?
Or some general pop culture reference?
Poor Heatwave. What did her parents think calling her ‘Brook Falls’? Quite pretty, but I bet, at school, she got nicknamed ‘waterfall’ or some nastier derivative.