Grrl Power #570 – The bamboomanity!
A lot of you guessed about work arounds to the death field problem, and if you didn’t come up with a solution as simple as this, it was probably because you wouldn’t have thought it could be defeated this easily.
It is pretty bone headed, but in The Council’s defense, Sciona didn’t think of it, and this is the final deterrent after running the rest of the Vault’s gauntlet. First and foremost, security through obscurity, then the physical challenge of accessing the vault, then breaching the vault, then defeating the guardian, then surviving the lobby defenses, and finally breaching each sub vault, all while under a time limit since normally the alarms would be going off.
Really though, they should have put more time into… I don’t know what it’s called, but opposition research? You Red Team it, so the second thing you do after designing any kind of defense or security is figure out how to beat it. Then you go back and fix all the ways you figured out how to beat your first version. The problem with security through obscurity though, is you want as few people knowing about the defenses as possible, so you wind up getting the people who designed the defenses trying to break them instead of putting fresh eyes on it. Still, if nothing else, the pillars should all be closed and unlabeled, so a thief would have to break into each one separately and blindly.
Of course in the real world, there’s always considerations of budget and practicality. Yes, a vault in the core of the Earth would be difficult to access. It also might be cost prohibitive.
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I’m a little surprised that no one has yet commented on the fact that Sciona’s first artifact grab was the one SHE wanted, while Deus’s first artifact grab was for one of his minions — thus very strongly punctuating his comment about trust and loyalty. That right there is class and quality, thus cementing his status as a Magnificent Bastard.
It also has the advantage of not giving away his hand on what he’s there for – assuming there’s anything in particular he’s there for, and not just ‘there’s a lot of good shit there, and I won’t have to work on the defenses if I let them take them out first’.
Consider he literally was waiting to see if there was a secondary effect that he wasn’t able to get information on. He literally baited his not ally into poking the switch first.
Ha ha, nice–I hadn’t caught that one.
Deus is my favourite villain of Grrl Power at the moment. I would gladly work for him. Working for Sciona on the other hand would make me scared shitless because I would expect her to kill me at any time.
Even if I were evil, I wouldn’t work for Sciona unless I could manage to implant a bomb in her head without her noticing, just so I’d have leverage when she inevitably turned on me. Just for kicks, I’d put it on a deadman’s switch, so it’d go off if I suddenly died.
Seconded; even my most evil characters would likely only work for her if they knew they could over-power her if need be. Whenever I’d see any group of villains and the head villain would kill one of the lesser villains randomly I always expected the other strong villains to either instantly turn on them or betray them as at that point there is no longer a guaranteed payday and your employer may try to off you at any time (job security nose dive).
Honestly, it’s things like this that make Deus genuinely terrifying as a villain to me.
He inspires loyalty, and works to deserve it.
He commands respect and even affection, even from his adversaries.
He builds trust to the point where his minions would willingly sacrifice for him, knowing that he has their interests in mind as long as their interests benefit him in the long run.
He views that trust ultimately as benefiting him in the long run.
And in spite of all this, he is a selfish, self-important, opportunistic, greedy businessman with an amoral code of honor and a willingness to enact evil for his own benefit.
This makes him absolutely TERRIFYING, because people like this inspire even good aligned people to his service, willingly, and without coercion. People like this are served by powerful allies, and they are not wrong to feel they are being treated well.
People like Sciona threaten powerful heroes.
People like Deus threaten whole worlds.
He’s basically a cross between David Xanatos and a pre-Superman-obsession Lex Luthor. This is how more villains should be written.
Well, I say villain… Let’s tot it up:
1) Saves third-world country from corrupt dictator
2) Assists said dictator’s noble son in improving infrastructure, economy and living conditions in selfsame country
3) Supplies new government-sponsored superhero team with top-of-the-range equipment
4) Retrieves and safeguards an item associated with Maxima’s enhanced powers, allowing her to know of its whereabouts with minimum chance of anyone associating it with her
5) Offers to fund significant amounts of charity work on Maxima’s behalf
6) Interrupts a Sciona’s heist-in-progress and proceeds to secure artefacts against her attempts at grand larceny
I honestly wouldn’t classify Dues as a villain.
He’s not a Hero though either.
I think he’d be best classified as an Anti-hero
some of his actions may seem evil or amoral.
But ultimately in the end his actions improve the lives of those around him.
…until they don’t.
I think the word you’re looking for is ‘antagonist’.
PS. note that Maxima trusts Deus to help protect her civilian identity.
That goes a long way towards showing that behind what we’ve seen, he’s probably been checked out really well by Archon, and probably on a continuing basis.
That doesn’t mean much – I mean, Batman can trust the Joker not to reveal his secret identity (Joker’s smart enough to have figured it out), but that hardly makes him trustworthy. The Joker simply values Batman too much as an adversary, and not enough as a blackmail victim.
Joker Vs Batman? Makes for great entertainment. Joker Vs Bruce Wayne? Less so.
Plus, imagine the reputation al loss when people find out that the Superhero arch-enemy you have spent so mch time, effort and money to fight is just a spoiled rich kid acting out over childhood issues regarding his parents. In his spare time. While holding down a full-time 6-till-10 job as CEO of a major multinational company.
Fighting him was your reason for living. For him, it was a relaxing stress-free pastime.
Saw a parody long time ago, where Batman revealed to joker that he was actually a time lord. Likes tons of gadgets, can be apparently killed and yet not stay dead, talks enough to shame any super villain’s soliloquy and … it’s a spoiler, ain’t gonna do it. will try to find it, maybe imgur….
here ya go.
https://www.deviantart.com/art/it-s-simple-we-kill-the-doctor-no-wait-batman-420747605
Archon does not have a policy of using secret identities. With the obvious exception of agents in Arc Light and Arc Dark. I am not aware of Maxima being an exception.
Even if I missed something (Maxima’s origin arc occurred when I had limited access to the comic, so such may not have sunk in) I fail to see how it would be practical. Maxima became golden in her late teens, whilst still a school girl. As such her entire community will have been aware of her, not to mention how newsworthy that was.
Britain does protect the identity of minors from news reports, but I do see them in American reporting (at times). So, unless she was granted special protection, as soon as that happened, I think her identity would be a matter of public record (or easily researched in any event).
Then there is the fact that Maxima is golden all of the time. And we see that she even goes to the bank like that. It would be rather impractical if she had to seek out one of Archon’s very few magical practitioners to give her a disguise every time she went home.
Plus, the whole point of not having secret identities, for police officers (other than when conducting undercover operations) is the need for them to be publicly accountable. And none more so than the super police leaders!
There would already be enough mistrust for allowing a military branch to operate on US soil (even though there are already exceptions), let alone the potential fear of supers. Maxima must show that she is held to the same, or even higher, standards as every other police chief.
As to 3), I am reminded of a scene from Hellsing.
To wit, where one of the vampire’s handguns freaking explodes in his hand because it had been supplied to him by what turned out to be an enemy, and he’d been playing the long game where treachery was concerned.
Scarface has been supplying Archon with tech.
He knows what kind of toys they have.
He designed them.
He knows their weaknesses.
And he might have ways of using them against their wielders.
Deus isn’t going to threaten his world. It’s where he keeps his stuff!
I honestly don’t know that I’d call him “evil” at all. An asshole, surely; and I don’t expect altruism from him; I think “enlightened self-interest” might fit the bill. One thing he isn’t, is cruel for its own sake. If Deus is ever cruel, it will be for a purpose and he will get some use out of it.
Deus is not a fool – or, more to the point, he’s a fool in all the right ways. He wouldn’t have gotten his company to where he was if he hadn’t. Because of this, he’s hopefully studied a bit on leadership – and that, while loyalty from subordinates is nice, loyalty to subordinates is far more important, because they’re the ones you will work with long-term and hopefully succeed with. Deus seems to understand that lesson quite well.
Richard Bronson: “Train your people well enough that they can leave, treat them well enough that they don’t want to.”
This goes not only with training but also with equipment and everything else. Deus is a great boss to work for, even if he is of dubious morals, he certainly is not without loyalty, honour and ethics.
+5 – great insight.
Thats a great observation which does enforce the rather pointed difference between the two group leaders. Where I on Sciona’s team in that moment I’d likely just switch to Deus’s while telling Sciona to eat it.
yep time to scotch over to Deus side of the room and ask if he’s hiring, because at this point I’d doubt Sciona was intending to either pay anyone or had any plans to acquire the artifacts they want; heck just asking Deus how much he wants for one of those bamboo plants should happen.
No: You scotch over and get an email address to submit your resume, then leave with Sciona. Because she’d kill you in an instant if she thought you were leaving, so you want to be already on his team first.
Plus it upgrades the weaponry of one of his party in case things go south & a fight breaks out.
That artifact counts as living?
I was thinking hole in a fresh cut tree round due to the whole “only living matter can pass through the field,” and those artifacts sure don’t look living.
It was explained in the notes of the last update. Long story short: security only prevents non-living stuff from getting in, NOT from getting out.
That was never mentioned in the last update. In fact it was specified that it was a hollow field instead of a solid one because it -would- cause problems with knocking the artifacts away. Unless it is specified in a comment somewhere.
That’s what was being mentioned. The force field knocks nonliving matter out. Non living matter trying to enter from the wrong side would be forced out, not back into the middle.
The entire reason these artifacts are locked away is because the counsel cannot figure out how to destroy them. Living or not indestructible trumps the field. So yeah if Achilles were on one of the teams he probably wouldn’t have even notice the fields as he looted the joint.
and some of the artifacts are also seals or prisons that if broken would end up releasing some eldritch horror or curse onto the world.
Or, because they have some occasional use that might be necessary.
Consider a device that could roll back time by one day, with devestating side effects for seers, prophecies and FTL communication in the sector. On the other hand if your latest big -bad has just set in motion and unstoppable end-of-the-world or apotheosis situation it might be worth the risk one or twice an aeon.
So he puts a living bamboo stick in and that knocks out the item?
when dead, bamboo is still super solid. and hurts like HELL when it hits you.
i’d imagine that’s the main reason they use them as practice swords in kendo, it trains you to avoid getting hit by a blade, because your body anticipates the pain of the blow and reacts to prevent it.
I used to train with kendo swords (bamboo swords and not the wooden boken, the bamboo swords are called shinai) . I can attest to the fact that those suckers hurt like hell when they hit you lol. And I was trained without all the armor! Just head protection and some hand protection. Used to get bruised up pretty good, we sued to call these bruises “stick hickies”.
Don’t they still use bamboo for construction scaffolding in some places?
Yup. It shocked me when I first saw it being used in Hong Kong, but it seems to work quite well. Light, strong, and cheaper than steel in places where it grows.
And it’s….
wait for it…
GREEN!
::scampers away as fast as his hooves can take him.::
Deus is quickly becoming one of the more interesting characters in this comic. He has flags of being a “not-100%-good-guy” (I can’t say bad-guy because he seems to be morally ambiguous at this point), but can’t bring myself to hate him.
I happen to looove Deus :) Complicated, well-thought out and imperfect characters are always preferable to two dimensional ones or perfect people.
He’s not a hero. He’s not a villain. Even when he does something that could be considered evil, like murder, he tends to have it done to people who are really deserving of death like that despot who was slaughtering his people and making them starve. Even when he’s stealing artifacts, he makes sure to do so in a way that doesn’t harm his people, and gives his people the first artifacts. What’s not to like :)
Deus is quite possibly a good man at heart. He’s imperfect, and doesn’t feel ashamed of his foibles where they’re simply irritating rather than harmful (e.g. hitting on Maxima in a way that clearly trolls her and makes it hard to tell if he ALSO actually likes her or not). But his motives, while self-interested, are not villainous and seem to involve a great deal of care for others’ happiness and well-being.
Now, the thing about enlightened self-interest is that it’s very hard to tell selfishly-motivated people who adhere to it from genuinely good people who have a strong pragmatic streak (but aren’t willing to compromise their morals for it). So he’s ambiguous, which is neat. But given that he’s what I would write several kinds of hero as, at least so far, and that my major villainous example of enlightened self-interest is far less personable than him, I’m inclined to lean towards “good man at heart.” He just really, really likes the melodrama of playing “supervillain.”
(And we all know the difference between villainy and supervillainy, right?)
PRESENTATION!
You have a Mega good Mind to remember that,
> Now, the thing about enlightened self-interest is that it’s very hard to tell selfishly-motivated people who adhere to it from genuinely good people who have a strong pragmatic streak
Does it matter? If the outcome is the same, who cares what their motivation is?
*Hard* to tell apart; not impossible. So the outcome is not necessarily the same. And motivation *does* matter quite a lot of the time; it just doesn’t matter *all* of the time.
The single best comparison I can think of – David Xanatos from “Gargoyles”. The guy always had a plan, ALWAYS benefited from the outcome regardless of whether or not the plan worked, and was fully willing to admit defeat and just learn from the experience, saying “Revenge, as they say, is a sucker’s game.”
Morning, just an art note, easy correction. Living bamboo is generally green, though there is also black bamboo. (Looks really cool) and a yellow brown striped one, but that has much much larger trunks…
Anyhow, right now it looks like he’s either swinging a fake or a dead plant.
black bamboo means that the force shield have already kill it and turning it stone.
+1
(not sure about the ‘stone’ bit, but still solid enough, whatever its composition, to give a whack)
I got to panel 3 and was forced to stop reading… because my eyes had involuntarily shut from laughing so hard.
The context, Deus’ expression, his size, and the tiny bamboo pot easily make the top 10 best gags of Grrl Power. And one of the best just comic gags I’ve seen in a long time. Is there somewhere we can nominate it for an award?
Deus solves the puzzle! Give his lady a prize! It’s Prince Nuada’s sword! (Thanks to Man At Arms: Reforged for getting me familiar with it.)
Okay, respect for Deus here, not merely for coming up with a clever solution but for not being a petty villain. Aside from the given callousness and cruelty of casually sacrificing allies and minions for their goals, there’s just something trite and small and distasteful about it. I like seeing “mature” (for lack of a better term) villains.
Treat your minions well and they will be less likely to betray you.
Yep, its on the rules for the evil overlord list, randomly killing minions makes you look evil and ruthless but it also causes a bit of a moral issue (especially when said minions are mercenaries and not forced loyal peons like minion goblins or something).
looks like he’s also using this as a job advertisement to the other team
Never do anything for just one reason.
Yep, I can pay you, I can engineer solutions to problems that don’t involve randomly killing you.
Side note: It occurs to me that we have a strong hint that Deus is a superhuman. He doesn’t, so far as we know, exercise (or “lift,” as the parlance goes), pay particular attention to diet, or otherwise spend more time in sculpting his bod than he does running his companies, and yet he’s built like an Olympian god who DOES. It is known that superheroes in this setting have a nigh-universal “perfect body” sub-power, for some unknown reason, with the exceptions seemingly all being those whose powers come from external sources, like Sydney.
On to my main point, I love not just his solution (though we do have the unstated assumption proven right that the field’s solidity is one-way), but the presentation of it with dozens of potted bamboo shoots coming through the portal on plinths. Not only is it going to preserve loyalty by not requiring you to abuse your minions, but it’s far more reproducible as he’s got lots of them, while Sciona only has so many people to murder.
Finally, unless the vault is never meant to be checked on and the stuff never meant to be accessed, you don’t put everything in solid, unmarked pillars because you want to be able to check on the specific items you’re there to inspect or retrieve should you come in legitimately.
If you never want to check on them nor retrieve them, you don’t put them in a vault. You seal them in whatever anti-divinatory and magic-sealing bindings you can think of, and then embed the whole thing in solid stone, either by magical phasing or by pouring cement over it. Then bury THAT in a random stony pile somewhere obscure in the world, and forget where you put it. It may “only” be security through obscurity, but actually retrieving anything from that would be even harder than doing so from this vault.
I thought he was the superhuman capable of geomancy….
Extremely doubtful.
We have only seen him a hand full of times, we have no idea if he does or does not spend 4-6 hours a day working out
As far as naming the “opposition research” goes, I propose analysis. In cryptology, cryptography is the art of creating and applying codes, and cryptanalysis is the art of breaking them.
Just me, or is the “Cast” page broken for everybody?
Dave said a few months ago that it will be forever due to the new format he has to use.
Not forever, just until he has time to figure out a fix.
Still, a long while either way.
There’s going to be the squee-ist moment in history very soon.
Sydney realizes, after the investigation completes, that she, and she alone, is the single greatest possible advisor for how to properly protect the artifacts from here on out, because she’s such a giant nerd.
Max and Archon give her as a loaned officer to the Council.
Max: *pinches between her eyebrows* “I’m just going to leave you here at the bottom of the ocean with all the vampires, werewolves, aliens, and cursed weapons. Also armor- sorry Icon.”
Sydney: *the squee-ist squee that ever squeed*
So it only keeps non-living things out, not in.
It’s the ‘anti’ Roach Motel.
The kick-out direction might be one way, so once it enters the field it gets pushed out rather than in.
Lol
A problem with this shield is the Counsel got fancy and combined the “no living things can pass into” and the “if you pass this you die” fields. Really they should have layered the two fields sequentially, instead of parallel.
First kill it, then stop it.
Of course further enclosing the artifacts inside metal/stone cages would have prevented them from being simply knocked or grabbed out of the field. You’d have needed to use a Xenomorph as your fist wrapper, with its super acid blood.
Perhaps they just like looking at them, for those who are normally able to access the vault. Thats the only reason i can ever see for such ‘displays’ to show of the artifact. Which of course means creating a weak point in the security.
Or if the alarm system includes surveillance it would let them quickly check on what’s missing.
So, I doubt Deus is a super, but he could probably be a sweet plutomancer.
He’s totally a super (you can tell by his physique, he has “the super” physique). That said, he’s obviously shrewd, and knows the value of people not knowing what his power is, as that’s a very useful trump card to have if people can’t plan for you appropriately… either that or he has a super silver tongue.
to quote Deus “Money is the best superpower.”
Having a relatively perfect physique isn’t exclusive to supers, it’s faulty logic to insist all those with such a physique must be a super, only that if you want to find a super start by looking for the physique (and it seems at least some don’t fit that profile either, like our were-kitty who only enjoys it in her anthro form).
It’s a pretty strong tip-off though. Sure he ‘could’ be normal, but if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s either a duck or a platypus, and I don’t think Deus is Australian. Sure, “money may be the best superpower”, but “best” doesn’t mean “only”. His physique is also eerily close to Vehemence. Plus, there’s the scar. He hangs out with supers, and has a ridiculous scar, and is alive, which implies a “You should have seen the other guy” situation, which also implies the other supers weren’t enough to stop whoever it was but he was. Which implies he’s a super.
I’m not saying it’s 100% guaranteed, but I am saying I’d be willing to bet a little bit on it.
I would be willing to bet a Yorpie Snack™ against myself.
We have not had so much as a hint of him using any power. Granted that could just be either discretion or a subtle power (such as mentally enhanced abilities).
However we have had the hint that money is his (only) super power. Of course he may have several, and just prefers that one. But a non-super standing nose to nose to an arch-villain, makes him such a stronger character, that I would be disappointed, if he did turn out to be super.
Not knowing definitively though is good too. It keeps extra interest in him.
Actually, if we make it a cake, instead, then I can have my cake and eat it!
Except it DOESN’T imply any of that. His scar ONLY means he’s been in a situation that scarred him, it could easily be one where someone tried to take him out and while his security saved his life it couldn’t prevent him from being injured. It definitely doesn’t even remotely hint at him having defeated a super that some other supers couldn’t so he must be a super. That’s not even remotely logical.
Not gonna lie, I laughed out loud for a good five minutes at this.
Heavenly’s face in the last panel is my favorite.
It’s just like Cyanide said. THE POWER OF BAMBOONIUM!
He’d better clean up all the bamboo before he leaves, or it’ll be a dead giveaway that someone other than Scionia was looting the place.
They will probably suspect a were-panda
Or, simply, Sci-fright was the one who used the bamboo
You said in the last pages comments that the field effects the artifacts so I get the bamboo going in… but shouldn’t the artifact not leave the field? As far as we’re aware the field isn’t 1 way so shouldn’t the bamboo have knocked the artifact off the pedistal and then bounced off the death field since non living matterm can’t pass through?????
I think its going the route of being a repellent field, so once a non-living object on the inside is pushed out, the repellent effect ends up squeezing it the rest of the way out mistaking it for an external object trying to piercing into the field. Otherwise it would need to be able to tell the difference between the specific internal object and the external one. Hence the focus on it not only repelling objects but also being a death field.
CALLED IT! A SHRUBBERY! BRING DEUS ANOTHER SHRUBBERY!!!!
Goddammit I just spit milk out my nose.
Best part? You don’t even have milk in the house :P
Better through the nose than three feet lower and rotated 180 degrees
Comment about author comment at bottom of comic: If you mean a were-panda, as in a person who shape shifts between human and panda forms, don’t forget the hyphen, Dave. Without the hyphen, the sentence means nothing and reads very strangely.
Big villain bonus, he just showed those she hired that he is both more clever, and less likely to kill you suddenly.
Overlord rules, randomly killing your minions may show them you are ruthless but it also hurts moral.
And thus Sciona was just demoted from “Major villain” to “Cannon fodder used to demonstrate how powerful and intelligent the villain is.”
Congratulations, Sciona; you’re the next Cooter 2.0.
From the moment she was introduced I got the impression she was going to be used this way, an example of the *twirly mustache evil for the sake of evil, everyone is a bug for me to crush under my heel* villain being shown up by the more modern *suave, calculated, serve me and you shall have the power and wealth you desire in my empire* kind of villain. Basically a Venger vs Xanatos.
After the heist Deus will thank his employees and congratulate them on a job well done. Sciona will go out on monster twitter and complain what a bunch of losers she has to put up with, especially ‘Little Wormy’. And that they are lucky to have her as the greatest most awesome most beautiful boss ever.
Shut the hell up with your not-so-subtle political digs
but it does fit the classic villain archetype,
*I am the Grand Duke of Disaster, the scion of corruption, the most powerful and handsome being in the all the galaxies of the universe. If we failed it was because of YOU, you worthless peons, you should be honored to have me as your master, how dare you make my perfect plan fail with your incompetence.*
-proceeds to blast random minions, or if a darker series just randomly shoot some guy on the floor.
If the shoe fits…
The fact the dig was so obviously a dig was because it’s true.
Worth noting that both entities noted are villians, just one’s more effective for the long game.
Okay, everyone say it with me.
Sciona? YOU GOT BURNED!
Well, Wyrmil got burned (well, more partially vaporized and slowly regenerating), Sciona more got taught a valuable lesson in management that she would do well to recognize and adjust her future procedure; maybe even thank him for the much needed lesson especially since he didn’t charge her for it.
Whose to say he wolnt charge her for the usage of his plants to compensate for the “Free” lesson
The artifacts he takes are his payment.
It is my firm belief that this page should be required reading for every CEO and politician and organization leader.
“Paradigm Locked” may not be original to you, DaveB, but it will remain forever locked in my memory as yours.
It’s early Christmas, and Heavenly Sword is very, very happy.
Hopefully Vale and Opal get nice presents, too.
I wonder if a bunch of items on his shopping list have notations as to which
minionhenchmanassociate they are intended for? No, doubt he’ll keep some nice ones for himself, too.She has probably been shown the display
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2038
and been told she can “borrow” the ones needed when necessary.
you see things like this make it difficult for me to really see Deus as a villain. what are the worst things he’s done so far? he killed an evil dictator and brought peace and prosperity to that country, he negotiated to have a few of his minions released from holding after the superbrawl so they can handle transportation, and now he’s wooing Sciona’s crew away from her. everything he’s doing actually makes life easier for Archon. a villain wouldn’t be doing that.
even having Harem pass him information of the sly is mostly helping him anticipate what archon needs (like a rebreather for the noob with the impermeable shield that got completed with suspicious timing.)
“Buff Xanatos” is my impression. One moment hatching a nefarious scheme for his own wealth, the next he might be fighting alongside the heroes to save a baby from an immortal magical being.
I’d say he’s not a good guy for the same reason vigilantism is illegal: rules are rules for a reason. One person may not trust themselves to be an absolute authority on what’s good and what’s bad. If something is illegal that’s a pretty good tipoff that you might be doing the wrong thing. Always consider the possibility you are wrong, always estimate how badly you’re going to regret being wrong.
Deus does not seem to care about any of this. He’s ruled by greed, and he ignores things such as ‘do not kill’ and ‘do not knowingly allow a team of murderers to access a storage of super-powerful artifacts’ because either 1) he thinks he’s just so smart there won’t be any unintended consequences or unaccounted for variables; 2) doesn’t really care if there are any; 3) a combination of the above.
In all three cases the result can be cathastrophic all the same. Great power, great responsbility, etc. It’s the reason Sydney is scared of having the Pew-Pew Orb: she knows she can’t trust herself to wield this kind of power responsibly.
Deus thinks he can wield ANY kind of power responsibly. He DOES overestimate himself. And he does not have the simple empathy failsafe that most humanity can rely on to keep them from doing shit like this: the ‘ding dong this might be wrong’ bell that goes off in your head even when you’re not smart enough to really see the big picture.
He’s not a villain because he intends evil. He’s an antagonist because he’s dangerous.
Or, you know, it’s illegal because someone with a golden axe to grind figured it being illegal would help their pocketbook.
Methinks Sciona just failed her job interview.
He is a good villan.
Also.. good job powering up his minion ASAP after sciona got her tool (and confirmation that tehre wasn’t an extra trick). Just incase sciona decides to fight.
Also.. that line about trust and loyalty? Whelp.. Looks like Bossman is looking to hire the other villans there and now. Always recruiting good workers. True that.
I was thinking throwing avacado or fruit baskets at it.. but that also works.
Hey, on a positive note, Wyrmil is still alive. He must have Wolverine-level regeneration to survive a fist through the chest on top of a death field and still have the breath to call Sciona a bitch.
or “last breath rule” is in affect. You may be dying but that shouldn’t stop you from spouting a one liner, or entire paragraphs of exposition if need be, and clearly, before calmly closing your eyes and drifting off to Hell.
Or, he simply doesn’t keep his vital organs in the same locations as humans.
yep the golden rule, the more important you are in the story or the more valuable the information you have the longer you are allotted to speak at your final moments.
1. Sydney’s regeneration rule is in effect.
2. He’s already recovering skin that was lost in the previous comic.
Ideally, it doesn’t matter. It can though, since pure pragmatism leaves you motivated to do some really twisted stuff so long as you are absolutely positive that no one will ever know.
Interestingly, in reference to DaveB’s comment about checking out the opposition…
Isn’t that what Deus is doing? Seeing Sciona and Co. ‘in the field’ and comparing what she would do vs, what he would?
I mean, he has multiple objectives- after all, it never hurts to show your Minions how bad other Bosses can be in comparison- but also collecting some artifacts, getting a solid look at what the Council considers ‘top security’, and I wouldn’t doubt he intends to leave some form of recording devices behind so he can study how the Council reacts to the heist.
I personally think Deus’ ‘superpower’ is to intelligently plan and build a loyal team of agents to carry out those plans. It’s rarer than you’d think.
Okay, wait. I’m sure someone has twigged on this, but how does nonliving, dead type artifacts pass through the field without being surrounded by living tissue?
Per DaveB the field is one way.
Ah, well I suppose plants work just as well as mice. I was assuming ‘living’ meant kingdom animalia specifically.
Then again, I’m not sure I value the life of a mouse more than a good house plant anyway. I’ve always loved botany, and my only experiences with Mice inevitably involved them eating their own children, so I don’t really see it as a big loss either way.
Rats on the other hand, are great! I would never throw a rat into an instant death field like that, they are so smart and trusting that it would just kill me.
Must have been were-(red) pandas. Pesky buggers. Always get into your secret vaults, stealing your artifacts.
That’s actually brilliant.
well clearly her solution helped her with two things.
1. get the item.
2. one less person to share with.
she is nailing the evil master villain role perfectly, she could totally have done it that way. but doing it with theatrics and flare (ooh my blood magic is the only thing) will make others question it less and also fear her – plus they would also be greedy and see it as one less to share with.
*eats shoots and leaves*
…not sure if missing punctuation as in “The cowboy eats, shoots, and leaves.” or if a panda impression.
One clue, is the comic strapline:
Another being the name of the commentator..
Mind you, you omitted a third option, namely both.
Well, I think Mr. Death Gaze knows which boss is his favorite now.
Ms. Death Gaze. The knower, that is, not the boss.
Oh, did we get a definite gender somewhere? I was just using masculine as ‘default when you don’t have information’ for the creature.
I’ll be sure to adjust my terminology if it comes up again.
Not sure in the comic itself, but Dave has addressed her as such several times, in his blogs.