Grrl Power #528 – Sneak escape
“On death, eject control cortex; leave behind sleeping cat-like floppy body”
I’m not sure what the Super Husk’s directives were exactly. Probably something like “buy me time to escape.” But after that, who knows what its programming defaulted to. It does seem to have some self preservation instincts though.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a Wolverine comic, but I don’t recall if he had super hearing or not. I know he had super smell. Or uh, super smelling. Maybe he stunk too, but in either case, Pixel has super smelling, hearing and superior night vision, though her color perception is somewhat muted in hybrid form, and more so in cat form. A quick googling reveals that cats are trichromats like humans, (except for the super rare woman who is a tetrachromat who I’m totally jealous of) but the ratio of rods and cones in their eyes is the inverse of humans. Conversely, dogs are dichromats, and like red/green colorblind humans, mostly see red and green as yellow, and do okay with blue.
The issue with exceptional hearing is being able to filter out noise, pun intended. In a scenario like what’s left of the Mars warehouse, there’d be people trudging about, Sydney would probably be badgering the survivors still, the Osprey would be making all kinds of noise as it settled, wind in the leaves, etc. The trick around people with super hearing probably wouldn’t be making no noise, it would likely come down to not making any distinctive noise. If their hearing was so good they could track individual heartbeats or something, then you’d be screwed almost no matter what you did.
Unrelated to this page, but dang, you guys had some mixed reactions to Maxima’s handling of Krona last page. That’s ok, it’s the sort of thing that people generally won’t agree on anyway. It’s a tough situation morally. If a guy’s got a nuke in his pants and you can’t take his pants, but he hasn’t exhibited intent to explode his pants, do you trust that he’ll continue to not explode his pants, or is the risk so great that you have to trample that one guys rights, or is trampling his rights the thing that makes him want to blow up his pants, or can he be bribed or blackmailed one way or the other, etc etc. There’s no right answer without being able to see the future. Max made a call, and opted for semi-polite caution.
I’m trying something new with borderless comics. Makes the page feel more roomy I think. Well, there’s still a bottom border cause I want to keep the stinger and credits easily legible. The panel divisions on this page are a little muddy cause the background image extends over the whole page, but I’m still experimenting with it.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Since I’m a huge Wolverine fan and own every comic, book, movie, and anime their is with Wolverine I can answer some of your Wolverine questions. Some of your answers though chance depending on who is writing him. In some he does have enhanced hearing, in some he doesn’t. That’s because along with enhanced healing he does have enhanced senses which does include hearing and smell. Wolverine, especially in the new movie, is what could be considered a throwback. Sometimes also considered a savage the Wolverine type mutant has enhanced senses, hearing, smell, taste, sight. Sometimes these come from a specific animal genre meaning that in some ways their accent or development of powers parallels a specific animal of nature. Keep in mind that the writer of the genre has a big place in this description because depending on who that writer is some powers are Increased, reduced, or simply not there.
and sometimes he’s a ‘Lupine’, evolved from mutant wolves, rather than “just” a mutant human…
Indeed. He is supposed to get the whole enhanced senses package, but other than occasional call outs to night vision or such, his enhanced olfaction grabs all the “screen time” because its easier and more impressive to depict him sniffing out opponents. His ears don’t twitch, for one thing.
Rather than enhanced, the usual explanation of Wolverine’s senses is that by having his healing factor since birth, none of his senses has ever taken any damage (loud noises, etc.) or the normal wear and tear that leads to dulling with age. If any of you remember, we could all hear, smell, taste a whole lot better when we were younger than we can now.
No, it’s usually stated that Wolverine’s senses are dramatically more acute than is possible for a normal human. He’s able to function and retain his enhanced smell and hearing in urban environments because of his healing factor.
His sense of smell is the sense most often shown off because it’s one of the weaker human senses so so he can do more super things with it like track people or sniff out shapeshifters.
anifreik, please tell me where your avatar is from. I’ve seen it multiple times but because it is so small and pixelated, reverse Google image search doesn’t yield anything.
It’s the Nana to Kaoru manga. https://nanachanscans.wordpress.com/ https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/NanaToKaoru
Thank God! Captain NuclearPants is here! We’re save–BOOM
I love these entries under the pages. I actually end up citing a lot of the logic Dave busts out about powers and stuff during normal conversation. Though, that may be because I think the same way about a lot of these topics (regarding powers/abilities).
Well, one thing you DON’T do with dangerous people is treat them in a way they don’t like, and that says they can’t trust you not to do more of it… and then leave them able to act against you.
Which is exactly what Max did with Krona.
“I’ll tell you that I won’t disappear you, while clamping on your shoulder in an overpowering type of way, then in the next breath I’ll tell you that you have to come with me for an unspecified time so we can study your deepest secrets, because we’re afraid of what you might do. Oh, and then I’ll say in your hearing that your people can’t protect you from me. And then, after all that, I’ll leave you un-handcuffed while threatening to handcuff you.”
No. Just… no.
I think it’s in-character for Maxima to act this way. With most people it would be a serviceable approach: “You have to do what I say, and I’ll explain that fact to you and then tell you what I want, and since you can’t hurt me at all you don’t have to worry about me restraining you too harshly.”
But it’s a stupid way to act in this case. Maxima is not thinking things through. She should either:
1) Render Krona unconscious and/or immobile without warning, until she can be carefully studied;
2) Acknowledge to Krona that Krona is scary-dangerous even to Max, and very nicely ask for her willing cooperation in making the world safer.
I’m reminded of the “roles” lesson from HPMOR. Maxima is playing the role of enforcer-of-safety, rather than actually thinking about how to make things safer than they are. And the rules of the role are not flexible enough for this case, so she makes things worse.
It’s a very good thing that Krona is humble, good-natured, good-hearted, and overconfident. If Krona did not take Max’s orders well, Very Very Bad Things could happen.
You are another of those people who ignored the fact the only reason Maxi even brought up cuffing was after Kronachrome mentioned using her powers after Maxi asked her not to
It’s also a very good thing that Kronachrome agrees that her powers are scary and need examining, she also knows using them in that way would just prove how dangerous she is and mark her as a Real Threat
Though hes got a point,Please dont threaten/abuse the reality warper who could kill you just by quickly editing realitys code in any given number of ways,Scaring people with that level of power without killing them 1 millisecond later usually ends tragically.
That said Maxima has grown up thinking shes the most unkillable creature on the planet so maybe theres a case of subconscious smug super going on here since shes never had to worry about consequences of what she says or does before simply because almost nothing is a viable threat to her.
Thats not me snarking Maxima either,Its just me thinking what effects to a persons personality could happen if they had powers from an extremely young age.Kind of reminds me of Menace/ Patrick from strong female protagonist whos mental powers(apparently enhanced intellect combined with mind reading) have made him at the very least a mildly sociopathic individual with a habit of manipulating everyone around him by discretely using their personal desires an issues against them to get what he wants.
If not Maxi making the request, then who? Who else has that sort of authority or ‘level of command’ to make that call?
And don’t start that whole crap about how “no one should have the authority over someone else”
Forgot to comment on the two options put forward
Option the first: Render Krona unconscious and/or immobile without warning, until she can be carefully studied;
Yeah, that would go over well, and just play into the anti-government nutbrigade’s hands
Option the next: Acknowledge to Krona that Krona is scary-dangerous even to Max, and very nicely ask for her willing cooperation in making the world safer.
Yeah, while Maxi could have been ‘nicer’ and more ‘diplomatic’ and less ‘blunt’, but fairly sure that is what she did do
The diplomatic option is always the right option its just that Max did it in an extremely threatening and commanding way.As I said threatening a reality warper-even one as nice as Krona is never a smart thing to do,If shes given the impression that shes going to be “disappeared” rather than being offered a safe way to learn her abilities I honestly wouldnt be surprised if she recoded Maximas blood into mercury out of fear as soon as she felt she had the chance to do it without her head being punched off.
In short when youre a big scary lady who can on a whim theoratically kill half of america before anyone realises whats going on you should be diplomatic rather than threatening because dispite your track record people who dont know you well will take your threats a lot more seriously than you intend.
………………….
Also please dont try to scare/threaten the reality warper with the possibilty of permanant imprisonment-They might wind up accidently exterminating all life on the planet in self defence.
And there’s the rub: ‘we’ don’t know how well Maxi and Kronachrome know each other
And again, didn’t see any threats, but did see a great big giant assurance that she would be safe
That’s more a case of what you wanted to see rather than deductive analysis on how someone in that position would feel about what was said – with sustained physical contact from someone who can snap her neck in under a second’s span.
Just because someone says “I won’t hurt you” while they’ve got a gun to your head, does that mean they’re your friend and you’ll be safe? Because as Max has shown us, a gun conveys intent, but her hand is FAR more powerful than any gun. And that all-powerful weapon is currently sitting on the shoulder of a thin, reedy girl while Max gives her orders she shouldn’t be capable of giving her as she’s from a different organization altogether.
The Twilight Council and Archon are in dialogue about how to lower the Veil. Which would necessitate any factions operating in the US being subject to US laws and jurisdiction. Currently that is only hypothetical, though, as they are operating in secret. But as that is the destination they are heading towards, Krona is being pragmatic in allowing this.
Presently they are indeed allied organisations, each with their own chains of command. However this particular mission has clearly been run with Arc-SWAT as the senior partner. And it was on this mission that Krona messed up. So the buck stops with Archon. Something that threatened the universe happened on their watch, and under their command.
Do note that Archon and the Twilight Council clearly do have protocols for how they interact. Our heroines were a delegation having formal (if secret) contact with the Council. At least one of Archon’s leaders also serves as a leader in the Twilight Council. Further every member of the Semper Vigilantis have also been granted the rights to be members of American federal agencies.
These two organisations have been co-operating for generations (albeit that previously it was with Archon’s predecessor organisation). Even on the page under scrutiny we hear Maxima say “I know that your a Semper Vigilantis and the Council have signed off on you”.
This is clearly a formal process, underscoring how deeply intertwined their respective organisations are with one another.
Lets be honest,The only reason Archons going to get away with stealing such a valuble asset is that the plot says so or if you prefer a more in universe answer because Krona has no powerful allys within the council so theyd rather leave her to fry rather than miss out on using archons forces and resources as pawns-er I mean allys-to deal with another more immediate threat.
After all if they cant get her back from Archon they already know that her resets are based on her stresslevels and not on her being mortally wounded-they can always have someone shoot her with a sniper rifle while shes at mcdonalds oneday if they think Archon are likely to become a threat by keeping her.
We get it, you hate Archon and all it stands for, you probably blame them for the Restaurant Rumble and the famine in South Sudan and the war on Caprica
He he. Well said Guesticus.
Clearly the good answers we provide are being willfully ignored, so your conclusion is fair. However to reiterate a few of them:
• The very first thing Krona said (to Halo, in the Council chamber) could be taken as a hint (or a Freudian slip) that she would join Archon if asked! Given her god-like powers, that would be good enough on its own. But there are others.
• Krona appeared to be lonely. Being in a faction and box of her own, and not socialising, like other delegates were, for example.
• Krona likes pranking stuffy fellow delegates. Both these points actually offer support the ‘has no allies’ angle, so that was well said. Which does though make the conclusion of ‘it only happening because the story says so’ a nonsense though.
• Krona realises she has messed up her code. Whilst she clearly would prefer to fix it herself, we can see that she does not mind the prospect of help.
• Nobody, including Krona and the Council, want to see the universe destroyed or stuck in an eternal time loop! Whatever maximises the chances of avoiding that will be in all of their best interests. If Krona does not want other Council members poking in her code, but is OK with Archon doing so, then that is a good route to go. See above for why she may prefer that.
• Krona is more like a super than a supernatural. She probably was in the wrong place anyhow! Not particularly a reason why the Council would agree mind.
But if Krona does opt to do more than just get retrained, and decides to join Archon, then the Council would have one of their own faction leaders in Archon. Which does balance the fact that Archon have one of their leaders sitting as a delegate in the Council!
Since for reasons unknown I cant respond to Guesticus and Yorps comments directly ill respond here.While I know Guest is taking the mikey he has given a good point-Archon WAS responsible for the Restaurant Rumble as it was a direct response to Maxima openly making Archon a target by calling out any supers who felt they could take them on-ironicly I actually kind of approved of this tactic dipite it almost ending so far in multiple fatalities including Maxima herself.It was a very effective way to draw out the nuttier types of super out and to get them to focus on an organisation designed to deal with them rather than having to react to said nutty supers steamrolling whatever else theyre interested in and killing lord knows how many civilians in the process.
As for you Yorp while youre busy patting guests back-Impressive given you have paws- Im not ignoring your answers(Some of which are extremely good) Ive only been pointing out that 1: Maxima was extremely heavy handed in what shouldve been an extremely easy recruitment,So much so it can be negatively interpreted in so many ways and 2: If Krona was more of a twitchy kind of person this approach couldve ended tragically.In this world you can offer the carrot and threaten with the stick.Offering the stick is a good way to get a reality warper to turn your bones into glass.
Though all said Krona will probably thrive in Archon and will be a valuble resource in general I just wish it didnt look from an outsider view to be a blatant powergrab from archon.
All very well said.
WordPress only allows so many comments to be nested, before capping out, which is why there was no reply button, for the two comments you mentioned (nor will there be from now on, in this part of the thread). However you figured out the customary way to carry on, regardless.
Clearly you are not alone in your points, as there have been many comments which, when you work your way through them, will have these at their core. Personally though I am very happy with them, once setting aside the discord they sewed. Simply because they are true to the characters and their interactions.
Maxima is blunt and to the point. When that does not work, she has to work hard to find an alternative. See how she got in touch with her inner nerd, to connect with Sydney, for example.
But having a reputation for plain speaking can also be a powerful diplomatic tool. Once people know that you speak honestly and without hiding ulterior motives, then they will be a lot more likely to take you at your word.
The nuke-like demonstration is often misconstrued, for example, because people read into it things that Maxima neither said nor intended. Arianna though was very much aware how badly it would play in many segments of society. Dave is doing a very good job in remaining consistent with the characters personalities and agendas.
In particular, for this scene, Maxima was not talking to anyone else. She did not have the press filming her, nor was there a crowd hanging around. Max was speaking with someone who knew her reputation and is her peer in a way that no other person on the planet is (that I can think of).
Here are points they have in common, both are:
• penumbrate power rank (Maxima is 9 stars & a question mark, for the 10th, personally I would put Krona at a straight 10 stars).
• heads of a powerful arm of their organisation (Krona does not have anyone to boss around mind, but does have the political power, status and responsibilities which go with such a position).
• federal agents
• members of an elite special forces unit
• work with a wide variety of individuals with extraordinary powers (and this is the most important aspect for understanding the kind of issue they are dealing with here, they will both have come across this kind of situation before, it will be routine for them).
So they will get each other very easily. I love it when character interactions are true to their situation. Any time a writer puts dialogue in a character’s mouth which is only there to explain stuff to the audience, but would not be said otherwise, it stands out like a sore dewclaw and is really irritating, because it ruins suspension of disbelief.
Let’s be clear, no stealing lf Krona is going on. Stealing from whom? From her faction? Krona is a faction of 1. From Semper Vigilantis? From what I can tell that’s not a very well centralized group. From the council? I doubt Krona would even lose her seat if she started working with/for Archon.
They are offering their unique brand of support for a super who has demonstrated that her grasp of her own powers isn’t as strong as she thought it was. That’s all. if that leads to Krona working directly with or joining Archon, that’s probably going to be Krona’s choice and Krona’s alone.
Lets not forget that Max and Krona might know each other, maybe semi-well, and Krona might know Max is joking with her. Everyone forgets sarcasm is VERY hard if not impossible to get from text alone unless you can do something like ‘/sarcasm go jump in a lake and come back when you’ve cooled off’
Wow,not once did I read that as being a threat to handcuff Krona. Have a re-read please. That final panel was lighthearted banter. Krona was being cheeky and Maxima was joking about cuffing her around the ear!
Krona’s expressions in the last two panels very much support this. Plus my take on Maxima’s intent, and therefore tone, is far more in keeping with how we have seen Maxima behave, than the sinister overtones you have laid on it. Plus logically there is no sense in threatening to handcuff her, in that context, as you say. So even if she is using it in the handcuff sense, it is still clearly intended as a joke!
I disagree. Maxima starts by thanking Krona. This is a polite opening, rather than a threatening one. Placing her hand on Krona’s shoulder is then a way of getting her attention (bear in mind that she was carrying on working on her screen up until that point).
It also helps to underscore the change to something more serious. She then lays out her concerns, and reason for acting plainly. Then, just as she did with Halo, she makes it clear that there is no nefarious intent or hidden meaning to her comments. Maxima is a plain speaker and is talking honestly about Archon’s policy in such matters.
Whilst this is talking about a serious matter, none of this is threatening, and Maxima has gone out of her way to dissuade any fear. Further she goes on to remind Krona how ‘atypical individuals are considered a national resource’.
Again individuals can attempt to lay sinister overtones on this. But such is just their own rabid imagination at work and goes counter to everything we have seen. The public statements match the things we see behind the scenes.
Supers (etc) are free to remain in the private sector, if they wish. Should they join Archon, they work in a very casual environment (compared to regular military, anyhow) plus they get paid so generously that it shocked Sydney into becoming ‘the Queen of Salt’!
Even most of the supers who fought them, in their first battle, were let off completely free! Because they had been acting under the influence of Vehemence’s aggro aura, Archon considered them to be innocent. And very importantly did so right from the outset. No need to consult lawyers, nor to have public pressure and human rights organisations complaining. They did the right thing up front.
Very importantly Krona is a senior member of the Twilight Council, so is extremely well informed on these matters. Maxima is talking appropriately to someone who understands all the nuances and knows Maxima’s reputation, plus the fact that Archon really are good guys.
After all Maxima had just saved many of the Twilight Council from being killed in the surprise attack by the constructs! Plus they already were strong allies. Archon is taking a huge political risk in aiding a secret organisation, that conceals the presence of monstrous-looking beings, from the general public. They do this though because both organisations need to co-operate in order to achieve their respective aims.
Krona knows all this. Further she is fully aware that she has seriously messed up by having her code go wrong. She lives in a community which, when threatened, will kill the perpetrators. So being offered help, to sort this out, is a reasonable lifeline.
It does come with the catch that Archon will learn more about her powers. But this is why I emphasised she knows they are the good guys. Krona is not afraid that they will abuse this knowledge. Which we see in how calmly she takes this, and even using her coy ploy to tempt Maxima to make an exception, for simple things.
Throughout I feel that Maxima has been firm but fair. “We need to make your powers safe. This is not optional. But we are going to treat you fairly in the process.”
There was only one threat mentioned. Which was the danger of Krona’s power to the rest of the universe. That makes it self-evident that precautions must be taken. However Maxima has indicated that Krona’s own rights will not be subverted, in the process.
Darn it, the blockquote should have cut off after “ear”.
Let me try a test:
Did that work?
Actually, Maxi may have gotten Kronachrome’s attention, for a second, and then Krona promptly resumed what she was doing, effectively ignoring Maxi, and that was when Maxi gave her a compliment
As for the cuff around the ear, Maxi does know how to touch with out using her full strength or poor Kronachrome would be squirming on the ground with a shattered shoulder, possibly even her arm flopping on the ground beside her
You figured out the blockquote issue nicely. It usually is a missing “/” in the closing tag to blame.
Likewise. But she is also an experienced programmer, who knows that even a simple program, which is working OK at the moment, may actually have hidden bugs. Having lost Maxima’s confidence in her coding ability, she knows she will need to prove her competence, rather than being able to just say ‘I use this kind of stuff a lot and it always works fine’.
So, yes, she is making a serious offer, but knows she is being cheeky in doing so. Having this as her first response though shows that not using her powers, for the time being, will be hard for her. Think of ‘I dream of Jeanie’ and ‘Bewitched’ as early examples of characters, with similarly casual use of significant power, who struggled to go ‘cold turkey’ when asked not to use their powers.
Granted. UK police, in the fifties, would treat cheeky kids with a cuff to the ear, so it is a commonly used tongue-in-cheek threat, this side of the pond, as a hangover from those days. So I am probably projecting something inappropriate for an American cop/solider.
If Krona did carry on taking actions that could endanger the universe then clearly Maxima would need to take action. And just like mittens are Halo’s kryptonite, I imagine having her hands cuffed behind her back would be Krona’s. It looks like she needs to use her screen, in order to control her power.
So that threat is present, regardless of what Maxima says. And I reiterate that Krona is one of the heads of a world-powerful organisation. She is not naive, so realises this. Maxima had already established that she was talking in a formal manner, as the representative of an organisation tasked with stopping this kind of activity; By assuming a jocular tone though, Maxima would be lowering the threat level, rather than raising it.
Because what you are missing is the fact that as a cop, with her mandate, she should be handcuffing Krona. This is what Chris Phoenix was demanding. But it is only appropriate if cautioning and arresting the perpetrator. However such is a heavy-handed approach. Of the kind that both of you are arguing that Maxima is conducting.
This though is not the approach that Maxima takes to policing. She is behaving like a good community police officer. One who seeks amicable solutions to problems, without wasting court time or putting people through the trauma of an arrest. Provided there is a viable alternative way of getting them to become respectable members of society.*
So the most important part of her saying that is to point out to Krona that Maxima has intentionally not handcuffed her. The subtle take-home is therefore that this is being treated as ‘co-operating with the authorities’, rather than a formal arrest.
Yes the threat remains, but that was not the point that Maxima was making. Nor, if you look at her expression, the way that Krona was taking it.
Agreed, that is also present. Albeit without the capital letters, in my opinion It does not negate my point though, given that it matches with ‘being firm’.
You are looking at the page and seeing a big soldier threatening a little girl. You are wrong though, as Maxima is talking to a peer. Krona is someone who has the power to easily kill her. Establishing her authority is therefore vital to her policing role here.
Remember her teaching Sydney about such things? Maxima thinks these things through very carefully. If she wanted to be threatening, there would be no mistaking it here. Maxima does not do subtle threats. Remember the nuke-like demonstration?
In conclusion I am arguing is that Maxima is establishing that authority firmly rather than in the ‘extremely threatening’ manner initially proposed in this threat.
What I would concede though is that Maxima needs to polish up her social skills. But that is no surprise, if you saw how awkward she was comforting Sydney just now. Maxima is not very good at conveying soft and gentle. Although I do believe Krona got the point, even if fellow readers disagree (which is fine, as we all have our own takes)
* Which is also why it made me subconsciously think of the fifties community policing. Sociologist studies have shown that it really was a ‘golden age’, in the UK, where fear of crime was at an all-time low, and satisfaction with policing was at an historical high.
1. Every program contains at least one bug.
2. Every program can be shortened by at least one line.
3. Thus, every program can be shortened to a single line of code, and it would still have a bug in it.
Though I’ve never tried to do this all the way, my decades of programming experience have failed to find even a single exception to these three statements.
Provided you change “would” to “could” in point 3. then that is a fair set of statements. Clearly it is possible to have a single line of code, that is bug free, if your program only has a very simple purpose.
Much like Krona was trying to persuade Maxima, on the previous page, for the simple uses of her power. But because the possibility remains that there could be a bug, even in such a simple code, Maxima is clearly wise in not risking it. Not until it has been thoroughly examined and deemed to be safe.
Even then though there is no guarantee that the checkers and any testing would pick up all the bugs. So any profound use of the power, such as tinkering with time, would need to have far more stringent testing than even the most critical of normal code gets. For instance those controlling nuclear reactors or spacecraft. Especially as we know that even those go wrong sometimes.
Actually, if there IS a bug in one of my programs, no matter how obscure, I can trust an end-user to find it. Every time I think I’ve made a program idiot-proof, the universe retaliates by creating better idiots. THOSE are the people who find the really obscure bugs, because they will try things that no normal person would ever think to try.
If only it was possible to rely on that. Some bugs can lurk for years.
Well sometimes it takes years for the universe to generate just the right MBA and insinuate them into a position to create the maximum amount of damage possible from said bug.
He he. That is just a programming flaw. You should eliminate user interaction completely.
OK causing human extinction is probably not ethical, but it would solve the bug.
Better get used to running civilization solo though. I suggest you start with figuring out how to keep the power going first. Or adapt your program to run mechanically instead.
Eloquently put Yorp, exactly my point I was conveying in different words in the previous page’s comments. I am delighted you were more attentive to explanation than I.
Krona could have caused a problem of horrific ramifications and Maxima has appropriately requested that there be a review of her code and what dangers therein lie within by taking her to ARCHON headquarters.
While I agree max was trying not to terrorize chrome, max is a military officer so is in the habit of commanding what happens and being forceful in speech or behavior. max use of the hand to get attention I saw also but I took the cuff part as only half joking as krona opening her screen would be a potential attack or escape attempt (even if chrome did it only as a irrational panic response) so any use before the briefing of the council, and IF the council or supervising SV agree, then move to archon HQ and open the screen where her actions can be observed by skilled programmers and mages for safety reasons. if someone other than krona refuses the whole move to HQ is aborted but other precautions will be negotiated. and I again must note max has lived a lifestyle that promotes blunt and clear messages even if peer to peer so heavy handed is more proper to the character in expressing you just forgot to clear the rifle before entering the barracks as is the style and tone of this message.
It KNEW when Pixel was listening.
Could there be a conection between them due to the blood? (sorry for bad spelling).
Mmm. Very interesting thought. Someone else wondered why it paused, when Pixel started listening to it. I just took it as the evil squirrel minion being cautious. But Pixel was using her super-hearing, and it has copied her super-powers.
So your idea does have merit. If there is a link* then it could have been hearing what Pixel was listening to. Namely itself.
* Which may be due to the power-duplicating ability, rather than the blood, by the way. It only analysed a sample of her blood. Unlike the blood-mage it is not actually making direct use of the blood, in my opinion.
However it does need to actually use the super power somehow. So perhaps it channels that from the donor super. Maybe that is its weakness. Kill the donor and it can no longer maintain the link, so looses the power?
Personally took it in same way that Twig and Baby Groot was able to tell when Drax was looking at him, from behind
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/welsh-farmer-accidentally-creates-worlds-hottest-chili/
I think we just found Sydney’s next birthday wish.
I hope that Spicefreak
(who, as a Brit, could credibly be going to the Chelsea Flower Show) takes note of the following warning, and resists the temptation to take a nibble!
That doesn’t sound like capsaicin though. Capsaicin does not burn anything, it only chemically stimulates heat-sensing nerves.
Yeah, don’t believe someone who has just had their airways closed will give two fucks about the difference
also, beware of wasabi, where people say it opens your sinuses, it doesn’t, honestly.
True, but if you have a stuffy nose, it is good at removing mucus from your nasal passages, probably due to the lachrymal effect of allyl isothiocyanate (AITC). Just hold it in your mouth until the flavor dissipates. I think the myth that it clears your sinuses is derived from the fact that horseradish has high levels of sulfur, which has an antibiotic effect on sinus infections.
Wasabi is in the same family as horseradish, mustard, broccoli, and cabbage. In fact, the Japanese call horseradish seiyōwasabi, or “western wasabi”. Nowadays, most wasabi is actually made with horseradish because of the scarcity of the wasabi plant.
i read an article a while back, i forget where, but in it they said that the actual Wasabi plant has some pretty strict growing requirements for the best results. that said, i seem to recall that it also said that somebody in Oregon went over to Japan and analyzed the conditions well enough to replicate the conditions either naturally or artificially, back here and since then a majority of Wasabi is actually grown here in the US, and IMPORTED to Japan…
“The burn” is a common metaphor used when talking about chillies, though not everyone understands that it shouldn’t be taken laterally. There are many things wrong with the publicity surrounding this chilli but that turn of phrase isn’t one of them.
Weirdly enough, though, there is no mainstream publicity for the actual new reccord candidates, Fatalii Gourmet’s Jigsaw and the italian bred new strain of Trinidad Scorpion, the Apocalypse. Both of which are expected to make their attempt in autumn of this year.
And, as for Sydney’s wishlist, I’m pretty sure that the UK grown Infinity Chilli would currently hold the top spot in her time period but news of the next challenger, the original 1.2 million strain of the Scorpion, may have got out. As a Ghost lover, though, she is eating very close to the hottest thing around.
Anaphylactic shock is an actual possibility but it’s a reaction to VASTLY exceeding what the body is prepared for. Between my tolerance and the small size of these chillies meaning that they probably actually contain less capsaicin than the Reaper (SHU is heat per weight), I expect I’d only be in severe agony. I’d do it for the publicity but £145 plus travel expenses just to beg the grower for a sample seems a little steep.
*gets the black foreleg-band out of the sock drawer*
Just in case.
Hiya so long time lurker 2013-ish?, just wanted to say the border-less look on that page isn’t the best I’ve seen from although I think you could work. ^.^ THE (<====important part) other thing though is a lot of your pages happen at night the borders helped keep the page light without the borders it really changes the tone of the page itself and may even take away from gags in serious moments. BUT If you're looking to change the direction of your comic that would be a fantastic way of slowly easing everyone into it.
Aww, I was going to say that I quite liked ‘heroism without borders’. I am fascinated with the look.
I think one of the reasons I like it is because I have come to intensely dislike photos on Deviant Art which have a border added. I use all the photos I like as my wallpaper, set to ‘tit’ and just have a plain black background. I am perfectly happy to have black to either side, or above and below, as it allows me to enjoy the picture as is.
However when there are photos with coloured borders, of any sort, it ruins the aesthetic. So even if I really like a photo, I would not download one with a border. It would be a simple matter to crop it out, but I do not like disrespecting an artists vision, even if it is just for my own use.
Not that this particularly translates to a comic, as they are different media, with different requirements. But seeing the comic without borders did give me a nice tingle. :-D
In particular I like the use of a single image for the whole page, with the other panels sitting on top of it. I will be interested to see how that, or any variants, work out.
Yeah, like already mentioned somewhere (probably on page one of these comments), don’t believe this will be a new feature, or even a regular one, just something DaveB experimented with to see how it looked, personally believe it will only be used again in a similar fashion for a similar page: a great big background scene with little actual action, and then a few border-less panels over the top
He he. I guess this could fall in the category of a Freudian slip:
‘tit’ = ‘fit’
Although without my glasses, or leaning forward, closer to the monitor, the two words look identical. So the typo slipped by.
Pixel is growing on me, more and more.
I hope that she also has a cute little housecat form!
*pads off, to pet some kittens*
Incidentally, the tech guy has to do all this.
https://iase.disa.mil/Pages/index.aspx
And everyone gets trained before they can log onto a military computer.
And then there are orders and instructions about things like this:
https://www.jbsa.mil/News/News/Article/1182451/dod-warns-of-wannacry-ransomware-threat-to-networks/
Maybe Leon needs a trifle of help? Not to mention that if he’s patching and upgrading, then a wholly different group has to do testing and scanning. You can’t certify your own work, that’s the rules.
Yup. Behind the scenes there is a whole building of people doing stuff. However if you check out the roster, Dave is keeping the cast list to a minimum out side of the individuals with super powers. Arianna being the biggest example. Being the lawyer, P.R. lady, human resources and just about every administrative role.
however she clearly is one of the heads of department, so will probably have a floor full of people for each of those roles, each of which has someone managing it and reporting to Arianna. That way she can act as the face of the administrative departments, both to the supers and the readership.
Likewise there will be an IT basement, with fridges stocked with Cuke. Sometimes they will even send for the internet, and show it off to guests. But none of those will ever be allowed up into daylight, other than when a PC needs upgrading or repairing. Most of them would have blood gushing out of their noses the first time they saw a super take off her jacket, so it is probably for the best.
:D
I really like the new borderless page. It feels less like I’m reading a comic for some reason, and more like I’m watching it happen. I don’t really know how else to explain it, but that is the ‘feeling’ i get.
I spent a lot of time the other day reading everyone’s opinions on the Maxima / Krona situation. People sure have a lot of opinions.
As far as I’m concerned, both characters acted in ways that made sense to their characters (Both meanings being taken here). Maxima did Maxima things, and Krona was Krona, so, I’m happy :D
+1
+2
Does Pixel suspect something….?!?
The question is: has she dismissed it in the last panel, or about to go ‘on the hunt’?
I think the burrowing, glowing squirrel, with metal tentacles for feet, has made its escape. Just like its squirabes-infested evil squirrel overlord master!
Maybe, and probably, but that narrowed eyes and “Hmph” implies otherwise to me, but, like with most things, will admit to being wrong, if that is the case
On the Max/Krona thing…since a lot of comments are nested to the max…
Being a visual medium, it *can* be viewed as Max being threatening and heavy-handed (pun only slightly intended). However, I suspect many have not re-read the archives recently, since *Halo* was drafted in a very similar fashion.
I, personally, read it as Max being simply laying out the way things were going to go. `This is what is going to happen and why.’ An enforcer of the law has no need to present obedience to the law as optional or a favor. While I’m unsure as to the exact number of laws on the books, given that Archon is government sanctioned, there would be a variety of them. Whether you personally agree with a particular law or not is immaterial. You can fight it in court and possibly get it overturned, but until that happy day…you break it, you buy it.
So Max was actually being nicer than, strictly speaking, she had to be. People who read it otherwise are entitled to their opinion, but I don’t see it that way, either in the context of the comic or in Real Life. Sure, all of us break the law dozens of times…use speed limits as an example. A cop pulls me over, I take the ticket, pay my fine. I did it, I knew I was doing it, I made the choice, it’s on me. Those who think Max was too heavy-handed, I suspect will take the ticket and spend a great deal of energy complaining that *they* got pulled over and `everybody does it’. These are also the people who scream loudest when a car speeds through their neighborhood in excess of the posted limit. `But my speeding ticket was a completely different situation!’ Nope.
So Max was in the right far as I consider it. Others see it differently, and that’s fine. I don’t even see her being all that `authorative’…just speaking face-to-face, level-to-level with Krona and treating the situation as normal, no big deal. Joking a bit to lighten the mood, even.
That dispensed with, my opinion rendered in all its long-winded glory…*my* question revolves around Krona. I absolutely despise world-breaking characters, in comics and otherwise. Superman and The Hulk spring to mind, where the writers over time set themselves into a never-ending upward spiral. You need dramatic tension, something of a threat…but the hero has to *win*. Gotta top last year’s climax, so the Bad Guys get stronger, meaning the heroes also get stronger to beat the bad guys.
I don’t think DaveB would do that to us or his world. Lets face it, what we know of her now, Krona may as well change her Hero Name to God. What *couldn’t* you do if you could `hack reality’?
Me, I’m hoping DaveB has it in hand. I’d think it funny as heck if Krona was a mentalist of some sort, able to make a certain number of people *believe* she hacked reality. Even something like limited mindwipes…a couple minutes or so…and implanted memories. Still extremely powerful in the hands of a competent user, but nothing like we’re given to believe are her current abilities.
But that’s just me. I’m pretty happy with DaveB’s process so far, with a couple notable exceptions I’ve detailed elsewhere.
Well typed, +1
I guarantee that Dave has got it in hand, from two separate angles. One being that I have heard people voice concerns over his characters in the past, and none of them broke the world.‡ You can find these for: Maxima, Halo, Dabbler, Concretia, For-Whom-The-Death-Tolls and Vehemence.
All of whom have had repeated claims made that they would ruin the setting. None did. Dave builds in limitations, either inherent to the character, in some way, or has some external means such as a social one, which does the same job.
• Maxima – If she has one attribute, or power, at full strength, then she cannot have the others high too. Vehemence was hitting her hard enough she had to do that with her defence, so then lacked the physical strength to counterattack. ‡‡
• Halo – Mittens. Two orb limit. Personality (fighting Math, Sydney could have just raised her shield, and toyed with him how she wanted to, but she chose to show off, and ended up on her arse).
• Dabbler – Can be beaten by a specialist, if fighting like-for-like (e.g. swordfighting), Personality. (Gets bored easily so, for example, only got around to building a couple of reloads for her tangler gun. Likewise the same can apply if a space menace appears. Dabbler may only have the one spare energy pack for her satellite-destroying gun. So needs to make her shots count!)
• Concretia – Remains undefeatable. However she can temporarily be destroyed even by a normal soldier, with a claymore mine. But is a total non-threat to the balance of the setting as she probably is just a normal person, with an every-day-job, who has no interest in doing super stuff. She just got caught up in Vehemence’s aggro aura. Peggy inadvertently drew her beyond its effect, and she left.
• For-Whom-The-Death-Tolls – Defense only power. No actual threat once you know that.
• Vehemence – Pot and happy cartoons are his kryptonite.
The other reason is that Dave has already told us Krona’s limitations, in his comments. Namely that Krona needs to intimately understand something, in order to be able to manipulate it. She knows the principles of grenades, so can disarm it, at the push of a virtual button
However, if there is a plot element that Dave does not want Krona interfering with, then he just needs to ensure it is something unfamiliar and it is automatically exempt from anything she can do directly against it.
Finally Dave has indicated that the checkpoint is the pinnacle of Krona’s power So whilst she makes a great vehicle for us to speculate on how she might develop, in the future, presently she has controllable limitations. One of which is the social one that she knows she is not competent to use that power, until it has been checked out.
Whether she develops beyond this peak, or at what rate, if she does, are factors wholly within the authors control. So you can rest easy.
*languidly swishes tail*
‡ Well Krona might literally do that, if left unchecked, but Maxima is doing the job, that super heroes are required to do, and saving it.
‡‡ She also has a social limitation too. Maxima’s nuke-like attack could still have been used, at that point, because it does not have the shared limitation of her other abilities. However to make it strong enough to kill Vehemence it would probably have wiped out all of her command and a big chunk of the city too!
Incidentally, this is testimony to Maxima’s strong will that she resisted such. Had Halo not intervened though, even she would have reached her limit, and the aggro aura would have forced her to attack, unless Vehemence killed her first, which he planned on doing.
Which , of course, is the other big gap in her capabilities. Maxima only has willpower to resist mental and magical attacks. Had the construct’ not been damaged, and thereby had a weakened mental attack, she would now likely be Evil Maxima! That however will only happen when it is convenient to the story. Until then her strong willpower can handle any lesser threats.
Interesting points Yorp, but i really disagree about Max in particular. She is extremely overpowered with her combination of super strenght and speed, and it took someone with a simular OP powerset like Vehemence to demonstrate that. But her initial speed blitz against Vehemence showed that you need at the very least bullet+ speed or an extremely solid defence to even participate in the fun.
Also, im pretty certain that Vehemence left Max out of the agro aura. He showed that he is able to do that with For Whom the Bell Toll’s, and he most likely did not want to make her crazy enough to suddenly blow up.
Not that i think she could have used her Nuke attack in that situation. She was forced to turtle up with the constant lightning attacks, that means she could not have assigned power pool points to her energy blasting.
Re. the last point first, Maxima’s energy attack is independent of her power pool. She has two powers, her force field and the energy attack. The former is extremely adaptive. In addition to the obvious defense, it can also lift things (hence why it is alternatively called ‘zero range telekinesis’
This aspect provides both Maxima’s flight and explains her strength. Further the force field can stregthen both her and anything she lifts up, at a cellular level. Hence why the ambulance did not buckle at the point she held it. So there was nothing stopping Maxima from using it, other than her choosing not to (or, if I am right, being able to resist the aggro aura).
It is clever to cite For-Whom-the-Death-Tolls to show possible excemptions. And you could well be right about both him and Maxima. Mine is only speculation too. However, on consideration, I do not think your argument is definitive. Because FWtDT knows that he can achieve maximum damage by provoking enemies to attack him. So he would have behaved in exactly the same way.
Except, of course, it has seprately been established that most of the people there were just normal ciitizens, going about their daily lives, until the ringleaders turned up and they inexplicably agreed to go out and attack super-cops! Whilst I cannot prove that FWtDT specifically was one such, equally you have nothing to support that he was an exception.
So using Occam’s Razor, which is that he is in the same situation as the rest of the underlings, then he was being affected by the aggro aura. Otherwise he would have stayed in his circus show, earning his living from punters betting that they could take him down, with a single punch. (Or whatever job he has that explains his silly outfit, maybe a pro wrestler?)
Plus you are ignoring Maxima’s instruction, at the outset, to avoid the use of lethal force. Yet we see her pounding Vehemence into the ground with a giant pillar. Then ripping his arm off! And even continuing to opt for violence, even after it became apparent what his power was, despite that being illogical!
These are certainly not the preferred options she was trying to achieve. Plus she did not attempt diplomacy to talk him out of fighting, despite the fact that he had shown the capacity to calmly sit out the entire fight, up until that point. Not to mention helping them to defeat the other two ring-leaders.
So there were many reasons why we would expect her to take a more peaceful route. Therefore I remain happy in my assertion that she was being affected by the aggro aura. And this is confirmed by her dramatic change in behaviour, along with everybody else, after Sydney used her shield, to cut the aggro aura off.
The only shown exception regarding Periwinkle, was when Kevin used his Aura to wake people up again, he deliberately left Peri asleep, Kevin started the brawl because he was bored and hungry, he is not a murderer (except in the case with Maxi, but that was because of the chaos her death would have brung: an almost continuous buffet meal for Kevin, for years to come)
I am R.E.G.I.S. Mark V. I will destroy all. R.E.G.I.S. will incinerate this planet and enslave all its occupants. The R.E.G.I.S. Mark V is invincible. No weapon forged by such a primitive species can defeat R.E.G.I.S., which is invincible. You will all beg for mercy. In vain. The debris of your planet will litter the solar system. I shall sup upon your very atoms. Surrender, and I will kill you peacefully.
Washington is the place you traditionally need to go to, to deliver your interplanetary greetings. But the bloke you are after is in the Middle East at the moment. I am sure he would love to see you.
Hopefully the sentient tentacle thing won’t come back to destroy them all too bad