Grrl Power #593 – Cat play
Happy new year! Here’s a comic for those of you not too hung-over to read.
Superpowered horseplay could get out of hand real quick, which is why Maxima is tamping it down as harshly as she is. Though at some point, someone will probably point out to her that these guys were just, well, horsing around, while Sydney gets away with physically assaulting teammates in the shower. She obviously has her biases, but it probably can’t last forever. Maybe Sydney could be excused because she’s still a recruit and not yet a private, but then, so are Jiggawatt and Varia.
The locker room also follows sit-com physics, where conversations on opposite sides of a relatively small space are considered utterly secure and private. Otherwise Sydney’s comment about Dabbler’s space visa could cause problems.
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sydny just had to check herself in maxs arm still better than her boobs like dabbs
It would be very hard to resist doing that.
With knowledge that immediate retribution happens there is little chance it will happen.
I think there will be volunteers to help fix Maxima’s shower, to reduce that risk.
They just better not accept any parts Dabbler may provide them.
… …
Shiny fun house mirror surfaces, every ADHD’s worst distraction, but yes, better her shoulder than grabbing up her breasts like the world’s worst motorboat.
Shiniest motorboat, not necessarily the worst.
But reduced drag therefore faster water-speed.
Happy New Year – here’s to another great year of Grrl Power !!!
I like the part where Jiggawatt is hitting Varia with her bra
How did Jiggawatt get Varia’s bra off anyway?
More sit-com physics, maybe?
This should definitely be addressed, preferably on a double page, panel by panel.
I have had some success in removing a woman’s bra without undoing it first, but in my case the wearer was willing to let me remove it. If you are not careful, however, you can cause the wearer some discomfort.
Oh, is THAT what that is? I was trying to figure it out, but it’s too small on my screen.
I was having difficulty figuring out who that was with the blue hair. Seeing the frosty effects though, and not remembering anyone else with those powers, I guessed it might be her. Transformed whilst in her gestalt with Heatwave. I had a recollection of her demonstrating gaining ice powers, in a gestalt, but could not remember with whom nor whether her appearance changed as above.
Thank goodness for the Who’s Who!
She isn’t hitting her with it, she’s just been caught right after pulling it off (makes you wonder just why she would do that, though… )
To hit her with it, of course. ;-)
Nice to see you back.
Never went away, just stopped posting
Not sure what sort of padded bra’s you have familiarity with, but most bra’s wouldn’t really be much of a ‘weapon’, so she probably removed it for other reasons…
If it were a weapon then she would be on charges. But thrashing someone with a non-offensive weapon is a way of showing your displeasure.
So, if Maxima stands in front of a mirror does she constantly see that infinite mirror illusion?
Max may be shiny, but she’s not flat enough to do infinite mirror tricks.
The real question is – if she stands in front of a camoflaged vehicle, does she hecome invisible too?
The better question what would it be like if she went into a gold tinted house of mirrors?
Nope! The real question is “If someone can teleport between mirrors hence a mirror world, does that mean Maxima is always a portal?”
Mirror travel usually has limitations, such as the material, surface area, and clarity of the mirror, hence why very few with this power below say Fae royalty can pull it off with a reflective pond, or a dirty mirror.
Doubtful, since the reflection off Max’s skin would be gold-tinged.
So only good for desert camouflage schemes then? ;-)
Even if the terrain had the precise shade &/or tint of her color, there’s no place on Earth where yellow dunes would be THAT shiny, sorry.
What about the tunnel leading to Omashu?
If there’s a problem concerning it, I’m not aware of it.
Or even the legendary city of El Dorado?
Not to be confused with the food manufacturing city of El Dorito.
More reflections… :-)
A lovely muscular mirror indeed.
Mirror, mirror, on the Maxima. Who is the Maxima of… Maxima? Sorry got distracted.
“Sydney” would be the appropriate response to “Who is the fairest of them all?”.
Hey, Sydney is very fair in how she treats people. She’s clobbered Harem, Math, Dabbler…
And puked on Maxima’s boots.
Hmm…. but what does that grit do to her uniforms. If it’s anything particularly harsh, I can’t imagine her clothes last long.
Her super powers extends to her clothes. Which is why she can stand in an explosion without her clothes melting.
Not always
[Robert Rosenthal] — Agreed.
That grit is going UNDER the clothing, so it’s in there BENEATH the protective aura, which therefore protects both the clothes & the grit…
…but not the clothes FROM the grit!
That said, I’m pretty sure that this particular grade of grit was chosen LESS for its abrasive qualities, & more for its ability to hold still on her skin, while reducing her “shine”.
The specific purpose of this stuff (picture it as a loose, free-form version of sandpaper, usually used for high-grade polishing) is performed in a manner which is mechanical, rather than chemical (much like soap / shampoo in that regard), & it’s sold in several different grades of coarseness, which would allow Max to select the grade of coarseness that’s best-suited to do what she wants it to do for her, with minimal clothing-damage.
If such a thing happens with Maxima, her excess dermal material must be like highly abrasive glitter, everywhere.
It was mentioned in-comic that although LOOKING like shiny gold, no-one has been able to figure-out what this material IS. From this we can infer that, whatever it is, it doesn’t flake-off over time, as human skin-cells do. If I’m wrong on this point, then that would mean that researchers would already have more than a DECADE’S worth of shiny skin-flakes to experiment upon. Once separate from Max’s body, they could then be subjected to FAR more rigorous (even destructive) testing, compared to when they were still attached to her body.
CONCLUSION:
Either…
1)__Max was “BS”-ing us, in order to withhold classified personal data.
2)__Her skin is at-least invulnerable-enough to never flake-off, or abrade.
(…but, as shown when Vehemence gave her a nose-bleed, it’s not 100% damage-proof!)
I gave a lengthy answer to this. With links to pertinent science. Fascinating stuff.
The server lost it.
*cries*
I’m sorry to have missed this response.
Ahh, I sense uncertainty in you.
Info: This would be funny if your brain worked like mine and swapped “Heisenberg” for “Rosenthal”, and assured you, with absolute certainty, that there was such a thing as the “Rosenthal Uncertainty Principle”.
LOL that was clever Yorp! Good nerd joke.
It’s probably something similar to rice powder or Kryolan anti-shine makeup. Non-toxic, unscented and colorless. Max said that baby powder works, she just doesn’t want to smell like a trollop.
I thought that “baby powder” was just a scented version of talcum-powder…?
Given how some folks are allergic to perfumes, I’m hard-pressed to imagine that no-one has produced a perfume-free version of talcum-powder…?
…but if talcum has a distinct scent of its own…
…perhaps what’s needed here is a powder that’s SCENT-free, not PERFUME-free…?
…which might be what’s led Max to her usage of grit!
(…I think I just talked myself into a circle…)
(…adopts a “Monty Python”-style falsetto…)
“OI…!!!?! I’ve run rings around me-self, logically!”
That’s Circular Logic for ya’…
Army BDUs are pretty rugged. They are made to be, after all. A bit of grit isn’t going to do them any harm except across a long period of time. The t-shirts are fairly standard, if a rather dull brown, and so are pretty much just as susceptible to damage as is any reasonably thick Hanes or other brand of t-shirt. But I’m not sure why Maxima would bother putting the grit/talcum powder/whatever anywhere that clothing covers in any event. She applies it to dull the shine, and there’s no shine from any skin covered by clothing.
Plus the clothing would probably gradually rub it off. Especially given the slick nature of her skin.
Happy New Year to Dave and my Co-Fans!
Thank you. And likewise to one and all!
“An’ th’same right back at’chas, alla youse guys!”
:)
There are a lot of pranksters in this team. I guess superpowers don’t choose people with ideal soldier qualities. Poor Maxima have to keep order in the madhouse. Adding the chaosbringer Sydney to the gang didn’t help.
That, plus if you have superpowers, wouldn’t you want to try and use them for some epic pranking?
I would probably have to put myself in voluntary isolation to resist creating chaos just for the luls.
Maxima’s not immune, either.
That was not a prank. It was non-judicial punishment. And well deserved too!
I’m sure it has been said before… but the news crawl text is funny. (please stop this girl cursing)
“I feel like I’m playing Diablo with the sensor button.”
it’s the censor button, as in beep generator.
You mean, something like this?
Cleverly done. Let down by the ‘peep-peep’ type of beep. It weakens the impact of the censoring, even if it is a bit more cheerful than a regular bleeping. It changes the tone of the song to a much more irritating one.
Acknowledging the funny can’t be overdone. It tickles me whenever I read it.
By the way I do have a really low tolerance for things I have seen before, like movies. The vast majority will get ignored the second time I come across them. So it takes something special, like a very well made multi-million budget spectacular to do that. Let alone earn a spot (someday) in my permanent library.
Yet Grrrl Power can keep on poking my funny bone, on page after page, even after all these years!
My powers of funny are more punny and otherwise I am a real boy scout so American style practical jokes just don’t enter the equation.
whereas a pun is an impractical joke
Yeah, but Sydney isn’t the kind of chaos you can squash and suppress, it’s the kind you have to direct and ride like a wave.
I’d actually say Maxima has been doing a really good job at herding those cats, particularly Sydney.
In the military there’s a whole lot of people being squashed into the standard mold. For some that more or less works, but there are both individuals and groups that won’t work for, especially those that have or need a high level of independence. Maxima is that kind of person, and was in that kind of military position. Pretty much all of the super segments of ARC are those kinds of groups, and many of their members are those kinds of people. Though to be fair, that kind of balancing act can be difficult to pull off, Maxima can probably do it so well because not only is she one of them, I’d say she’s got a lot more in common with Sydney than she’d ever admit, though without the ADHD.
I have to say something about Dabbler and her getting smacked around a lot. It seems to be the only thing they can get away with to discipline her that has any effect to start with. Second, a succubus is built tough, so that getting punched through walls thing is probably little more than a slap on the back for her, it’s just that she also knows how to play for sympathy and over dramatizes it for effect. After all, a sadist wouldn’t be happy if their punching bag yawned and continued reading twitter or something like that, and succubi are definitely all about service and happy customers. Sure Dabbler is kind of a renegade weirdo of a succubus, but she’s still a succubus.
Very eloquently put and nicely argued.
I agree. *doffs monocle and nods* Indeed. mmm-hmm.
*serious look*
Maxima and Sydney are such a good comedic duo. Very lawfull good VS very chaotic good.
At first I was all “Max isn’t that lawful” but then I realize she tries to be. She likes the rules and regulations and following the codes.
Yeah it’s a bit futile to expect that recruits like Halo could ever come near the ideal lawfull neutral soldier Maxima tries to be but that doesn’t stop her from trying.
Actually, I don’t think of Max as being Lawful Neutral. That’s the behavior pattern of someone who will follow & enforce ALL laws, regardless of whether they are beneficial or detrimental to the overall whole.
I think Max is more Lawful Good, which enforces Law that would be beneficial to the whole, even if it means maintaining proper discipline in a given situation. When Max pulled the atomic wedgie on Harem, that was to emphasize the practice of discipline against pulling impractical jokes, especially against those of a superior officer & when some of the effects of the joke spill over to those outside of the unit; Max’s action is a kind of “tough love” of which is an aspect of Lawful Good.
For comparison, check out the differences in AD&D Outer Planes of Mount Celestia (LG) & Mechanus (LN).
Just because one does not agree with the Laws, does not mean another should not attempt to uphold them, specially when one is supposedly an Officer of said Laws
Yea, that is a fundamentally important part of a democratic society. That the military and police will enforce even those laws which they do not favour.
Up to a point of course. When the government decides to start ‘whisking people away’ and instigating death camps then it is right to make a stand.
Unless you are one of those “they don’t pay me enough to understand why, the Government must have it’s reasons” type
Well they will eventually find themselves on trial for their roles in any abuses or atrocities they participate in. In a just world.
Or lynched by a resistance group ‘trial’, in a less-just one.
A-ha!
The cooter escape no longer seems as weird as it did before, DaveB is cleverer than we gave him credit for!
A super who is strong enough to withstand explosions in her hands, fast enough to disassemble artillery in flight, who doesn’t have super ADHD, lets a fat old Colonel Sanders-wannabe trot down a one-way path to freedom ahead of her, and you thought there was even a chance she wasn’t letting him get away?
It certainly seemed odd to say the least. Especially considering he was/is their only lead.
that and an open blood portal they could send a drone on a wire through like they did on Star Gate SG-1 with the Star Gate to check out if it was safe on the other side. But they likely know THAT will likely lead to some random empty warehouse or old abandoned building’s basement or something. Cooter was the real lead indead.
are you sure the portal is open and not just a pudle of blood?
Sydney fell into it deep enough to need to fly out, so if it was just on the floor it wouldn’t be that deep. So at the least we have a tunnel of blood.
Not necessarily a tunnel, but certainly a hole, at least Sydney-sized
Cleverer that the average bear. You know, we are like smart persons.
Speak for yourself-If someone half as fast as the flash doesnt catch someone its obvious theyre doing it on purpose ^^.
DaveB – the very first thing, and I mean FIRST, thing the military does with a recruit, during swearing in, is to establish his/her rank, usually as just a bit above dooley*. Musn’t risk anyone being outside the chain of command.
* dooley – the whale shit found at the bottom of the ocean.
Dooley is a naval term.
Goat-smelling individuals is an army term.
There is a difference. Mostly the recruits need something that they can directly relate to. that’s why USArmy bases keep goats around, so the recruits have an idea of where they are starting from. (Participles are meant to dangle from the end of a sentence until pronounced dead to the English language. That is how civilization advances.)
Dabbler is so far outside the chain of command I suspect you can’t even title her a civilian consultant or specialist.
She isn’t a citizen, or likely part of the regular demon hierarchy represented on the council…heck as far as the council goes, the demons and aliens stand out as the two (non-indigenous) representatives making their place on the council ambassadors/bridges to even more diverse groups *a representative bottle neck as it were* to the council.
Dabbler is pretty much a multiverse wandering hooligan looking for fun and excitement; they have to find that balance that keeps this powerful and knowledgeable asset around of her own volition but also keep her in check so she doesn’t treat everyone around her like her personal playthings.
Dabbler is officially listed as “Civilian Specialist”, which is a recognised rank (with a range of grades which have that as part of the title). Technically Dabbler outranks over half the people in this current scene!
But your point that her indiscipline makes that more of a token thing is well made.
Completely agreed!They cant really threaten her with anything cause shes already proved she can handily beat their trump card(Whom much like Dabbler often uses her immunity to consequences to push her luck with command and anyone in authority that annoys her in general-and thats dispite allegedly having gone through bootcamp) and if they tried to kill her shed probably wander off for a few years til everyones guard down and hit back with some hilariously embarrassing revenge.
Heck they even tried keeping her under surveilance only to eventually find out their stealth guy was easily spotted from the moment he started.Dabbler is the chaotic neutral of the party,Shes not there to be a hero or for some daft idea of justice.Shes on the team cause its what she finds interesting right now =).
Yea, and Math is her male counterpart. Just on the team so that he can find ‘worthy foes’. And to harass cute anime girls.
Agreed!Though I completely disagree on the latter part,The most animegirl looking character Maths barely shown any interest at all in cause she doesnt have tig ol bitties,hes more into the western superheroine build than something more associated with lolis =)
If you go by the current trend yes, but not long ago cute anime girl used to include characters with builds like Naga the Serpent, Major Makoto, ect…
the trend goes back and forth, usually one being the joke to the other.
Yeah Ill give you that =).And its obvious that Maths longterm lifegoal is to become an even more perverted Master Roshi!XD
Math: for your first lesson find me a girl.
-Student brings back mermaid-
Math: yesss, perfect.
ROTFL!!!! Someone make this canon!XD
They probably aren’t stalking her anymore, now that they’ve confirmed she isn’t here to steal our water.
Looks like even Ceres has water, well ice anyhow. Rather than being made up of the usual asteroid stuff. It just has a layer of those, on parts of the surface, from when they have bumped into it.
And, weirdly, clay.
It gives me a serious craving to become the first potter producing native dwarf planet pottery.
You know, given a suitably warm heater, a way of getting there and a lifetimes supply of Yorpie Snax and other essentials (chocolate! etc).
Yeah, as it turns out water-ice is actually fairly common in the universe. So much so many old sci-fi movies LoL.
Guess had Planet X looked like two moons over they wouldn’t have needed their convoluted scheme to get Earth to agree to loan them Rodan and Godzilla so they could brainwash them…although they could have just come to Earth and brainwashed them anyway as they already knew where they were and didn’t need any Earth help to transport them, and they staged the attack on themselves….Paradigm lock, as Deus said, they had this convoluted scheme all worked out just to get water and didn’t want to double think it.
Since you said it that way, I hope that Xuriel Tantalis gets to meet and go on an adventure with Haruko Haruhara.
Okay, I’ll say it…Sports bras.
Physics are physics and athletic endeavors require a certain amount of *ahem* restraint. Sure, not everyday. Especially if you know you are going to be spending the day in the shop or office, but I can’t see Max not being always ready to fight.
However, I have never worn one, so if those who do or have care to chime in, I’d appreciate it.
Honestly, I doubt even Monica Villareal’s bra maker could manage something able to restrain Max. Then again, if you look closely in the first panel of the last comic, you’ll notice that they seem to be a bit gravity defying…
It’s possible that golden skin of hers has other, less obvious properties.
But these are boobs that can deflect cannon shells so perhaps they don’t need that much support.
So she’s wearing the underwear to look pretty! Is that such a crime!?
Only in countries which ‘accidentally’ get their mosques knocked over.
Not at all. I’m sure those sewing ninjas could create someting sexy out of super kevlar or something.
Mono-molecular lacy underthings.
Just sayin’.
Just don’t imagine the wedgie..
I said DON’T!
Too late! EEP!
Yeah – Maxima’s power set means ALL clothing is little more than decorative tissue to her. Some of it may be stretchy or even slippery… but none of it will ever manage “snug” or “supportive”.
sooo noone seems to havve pointed it out but… did varia just subzero jigga’s neck?! isn’t that lethal?!
Varia’s only doing the ‘surprise icecube on the back of the neck’ trick, it looks much worse than it actually is.
it is frosted all over!
she removed so much thermal energy from her neck, that the neck started crystalising air that contacted its surface into ice!!
that has to be lethal!
Anyone else notice that Jiggawatt’s nipples are reacting to Varia’s cold touch to her neck?
I noticed that they are… noticable. Although we dont know if they were or weren’t that way before the bad touch.
I would say … a good touch … if it makes things … err … rise to the occasion =P
I’m guessing that, like Scanlan Shorthalt, she can project lightning from anywhere, not just her hands.
Ooh… tingly.
I noticed… ;)
Well, consider that they just came out of the shower, where everything was already covered with moisture. She’s probably freezing leftover surface moisture. I just find it a bit ironic that Varia is touching both fire & lightning at the same time, but getting ice power…
(Yeah, I know there’s a joke in there somewhere about that being a place where all of the gals get wet, but I didn’t want to go that far)
;)
Thank goodness you did not make things that steamy!
Varia’s prank would’ve been far more effective if she ran her icy touch down Jiggawatt’s spine to the small of her back…
…where most women are super-aware of the cold…
…but THAT would’ve been far harder for the Esteemed Author to portray than this perspective was. I’d guess that he didn’t want to sacrifice the plot-element of showing us Max’s sight-lines onto these hijinks.
ALSO:
I’m loving the subtlety of Heatwave’s face, which is protesting: “Why are you making me an accomplice?”, yet “implicitly complicit”, due to her silence, which allows Jiggawatt to be surprised by Varia’s prank.
“Well Done, Good Sir”
(…golf-claps for 1.50 minutes…)
Yeah using newly aquired ice powers on what someone needs to breathe through in other comics would class as an outright murderattempt,Honestly Id be surprised if this team hasnt put dosens of people in hospital and even a few in morgues given their willingness to commit pranks with their powers,Maybe its how Arcswat managed to so easily recruit them.After all non of them seem particularly dedicated to helping people and so on,I guess maybe a few joined for hero worship and money but we need to see more of the characters to see if any are actually heroic or are just superpowered goons picking up easy money.
You do seem to have missed the point about this being a comedy comic.
And the fact that given super powers a heck of a lot of people would use them for petty fun and lots of other minor uses that would not be approved in a military handbook.
Ironically the commander who outright bans all such uses will have a less adaptable team who are not as sure of how to safely improvise uses of their powers with members of the public.
Admittedly there will also be a lower risk of fatality and serious injury in the team.
A mid-ground of turning a blind eye to harmless pranks and casual uses, but coming down hard on the potentially dangerous ones (like this one, as you say) seems to be a sensible mid-ground.
Ok ill step upto bat on this!=D
Being a comedycomic can only excuse everything if nothing is meant to be taken seriously and I consider this comic to be far better writing than that kind of drivel.
Yes a lot of people WOULD use superpowers for petty reasons-this is literally one of the reasons Arcswat exists-When “McExplode things by looking at them” accidently takes a guys leg off in a prank a tall golden ladies going to slap some cuffs on him and throw him in a cell highly specifically designed to contain him until the courts decide what to do with him.People tend to do a lot of things if they think they can get away with them,That doesnt make these things legal.
Superpowered beings can refine their powers in thousands of different ways less risky than pranks-training is a thing that even exists in the real world you know?Heck theres even been visible attempts of training on power usage and identifying ways to adapt shown in this very comic so dont talk to me about adaptability.As for a midground I will move a little on since mundane utility of powers is actually a good thing to learn and a good way to keep sharp in of itself but even Ive seen “harmless pranks” end in hospitalisation and trips to intensive care and thats without superpowers that bypass the laws of physics being involved.
Not if all she is doing its producing frost, a sudden frost in the air wouldn’t be lethal, just incredibly uncomfortable. But that said, the ice effect we see is likely hyperbole so the audience knows what is happening without needing a sign pointing to her fingers going *her hand is really cold right now*.
Sooo – nice recall that varia goes ‘princess elsa’ when touching heatwave :)
I wonder what her power do when she’s touching two persons at the same time though :), as she’s supposed to get magnetic powers from jigawatt :)
its probably fair to assume the first person is a lock? although only author can answer that for sure.
more likely she gains both, unless they are “always on” and incompatible (i.e. lava form & ice form)
Icy hot anyone?
descent chance she either has a time limit after one till she can switch, or she can consciously control when she does it, so its not like a auto-gestalt version of Rogue.
I can’t recall when it was established that touching Heatwave gives Varia ice powers, and it’s driving me batty. Could you remind me, before I actually start going through the entire archive looking for it?
Page #593.
However we can see what appears to be Varia gaining a body of ice in a gestalt with a girl. Where she likewise gains blue hair.
Okay, that I recall — but that’s not Heatwave she’s touching in the flashback. I thought there was a previous comic where she touches Brook and gets ice powers, and I just couldn’t remember it.
“Mandela effect” perhaps?
Pictured what they described in your mind enough that you swore you saw it for real.
No, no, he was real! OK I admit in my youth having a black president, and one as gifted as him, seemed impossible. But that really happened!
Didn’t it?
Careful Varia. When Kirby combines ice with electro he becomes a refrigerator. And that might not even be the final form.
At least she could keep the team fed.
“Becoming a refrigerator” might be labelled as “SciFi”, but “Keeping the team fed” would be strictly “Fantasy”, because that would’ve required transforming into a STOCKED refrigerator. It would be more accurate to say that she’d be able to “keep the team’s food fresh-&-edible for weeks”.
Given the lifespan of my cheeses, we’re clearly talking “weeks” in the legal sense but, ignoring actual physics, both me and Stephen were referencing Kirby and the Crystal Shards, in which his fridge transformation contained an infinite supply of tomatoes and cake.
I never said it would be a healthy diet…
the virtual-world equivalent of healthy Twinkies
“O-I-C”
I’ve not played that game, sorry.
Thanks for the clarification.
I think Sydney might get away with punching teammates because she doesn’t use her powers for that horseplay (using the momentum of an orb to knock out Math doesn’t count, really).
If she had verified super strength of some sort, I doubt Max would be anywhere near as lenient as she’s being now.
Sydne doesn’t need to be afraid of being punched in the wall here, unlike Dabbler. For one, Maxima’s allowed her to be close by since they were both naked in the shower and now they’re at least somewhat decently dressed, so that’s implied permission for her to look at her. Another thing is she knows Sydney is a hyperactive child and not a hypersexual succubus, so Sydney would be WAY too shy to pull off a funbags house of mirrors stunt.
A mean glance from Maxima is usualy enough to intimidate people.
So did Xochitl happen to be wearing that shade of blue, or is super-accessorizing part of her powerset?
She has sometimes changed colour when absorbing powers. This might just be how she looks when she’s getting ice powers.
This might be the first time I’ve felt sorry for Max. She really does have to hide her shine to not be treated like a mirror. I get why she is more fun to look in than a mirror but that kind of attention would bother me like crazy.
Now I’m wondering if the symbiote (symbiont?) made her skin reflective for beam armor. Oh the wonder of distracting hazard suits.
That is actually an excellent point. We have yet to see a laser used against Maxima. Then again, she has a protective field just above skin level, so the laser would have to pierce that in order to actually reach her skin. Also, if that’s the reason for the reflective skin, it raises some pretty big questions about the nature of the symbiote. Did it evolve to combat predators which naturally hunt with lasers? Was it created by an unknown civilization for military purposes?
We have the cutting beams that Budget-Halo AKA “Hex” used against her. They looked to just be absorbed by the field and not do anything.
It’s designed to blind sparkly vampires if they get too close. :D
Panel 3: I might just be doing the same thing as Syndey.
Panel 4: Maxima is not impressed.
And, apparently I can’t spell today. >.>
Sydney.
Syndey is actually Sydney’s evil twin. It is hard to tell them apart because the goatee look is a little hard to pull off for her.
P.S. DAMN, her eyeballs are big in panel one. It is like one of those paintings with big eyes.
Yet it is not triggering my uncanny valley, despite Maxima being in the same frame. I guess mostly because the eyes are simply too big to risk that. Plus there is quite a separation between their two faces. As opposed to their eyes being on the same height and the eye-lines flowing from eye to eye, as it did in the recent scene that weirded me out that way.
Perhaps Sydney’s “Evil Twin” wears HER goatee BELOW the waist…?
…as a specially-sculpted “Brazilian Wax”…?
:P
I do suppose that would be fitting for a more sexually open anti-Sydney.
He he he. Love Sydney risking poking her tongue out. So cute! Especially when she gets caught, and remembers what happened to Dabbler. Daaaw.
To be fair to Sydney, she’s not looking at Maxima’s chest. She’s looking at Maxima’s rippling muscles. That should be far more acceptable.
And she has not barged into her bedroom or grabbing her tits.
I see thatGuesticus has been making good use of his time, during his self-imposed hiatus.
Now that is a fun way to see in the new year!
“Sydney gets away with physically assaulting teammates in the shower. She obviously has her biases, but it probably can’t last forever. Maybe Sydney could be excused because she’s still a recruit and not yet a private”
No, Sydney gets away with it because she knows her superior officer has done the same. The very day Sydney was brought in she saw Max take a swing at Dabs and last page Max told her she put Dabs through a wall. As long as she has just cause she’s in the clear.
One can imagine the “excessive use of force” varies when the person in question is more durable than most armored vehicles. Dabbler played it up, but chances are other than feeling the momentum *physics* it was like throwing dryer lint at her.
Happy New Year everyone!!! Awesome way to start the New Year Dave! Seeing Sydney “reflecting” on the past few days is a hilarious way to start the new year out right.
Somehow, I don’t think Max is as annoyed at Sydney as she was at Dabs… even if Sydney had focused her reflecting on the same area Dabs had. Sydney seems to have some influence on Max… Calming, yet infuriating at the same time which more than not seems to have Maxi giggling inwardly at least in most cases.
Allow me to mirror your comment by wishing you a happy new year too! And, yea, this is a great way to start it off.
Fortunately for Sydney she was only caught staring at Maxima’s shoulder, rather than her breasts. Plus there was no grabbing involved. Even though she was, adorably, unable to resist replicating Dabbler’s face-pulling and tongue-poking.
DaveB are you using the reflection gag to practice certain art effects? You were mentioning water/reflective or dark backgrounds were sometimes difficult a bit ago so if working with reflective surfaces practice for that?
Is anyone else surprised Max wears such a feminine bra? I would have figure plain black cotton, not lacy designs.
Oddly i soukdve guess max wouodve used a sports bra. Even with auper strength and urability youd still want minimum movement and maximum comfort
It is possible you have not yet rid yourself of the effects of any New Year’s reveries you may have indulged in.
Loving Brook in panel two.
Adorable…
Everyone enjoy their new year while it is, like Maxima, bright and shiny. And happy.
Because no one wants a new year like a ticked off Maxima…
::does a soft hoof shuffle, exit stage left::
*waiting stage left, with a hoof-polishes kit*
*buffs Weatherheight ‘s hooves to a mirror-finish*
Failing that, [Yorp] might borrow a bit of Max’s grit for this project…
…& if he asks nicely-enough, she might not take offense.
(…but how likely is it that she’ll be able to resist those “Bambi Eyes” of his…?)
*harumph*
I have grit! I have been tested in the fires of peril and been found worthy!
*wags tail assertively*
*blinks Bambi eyes*
*Turns white and wizardly.*
I’m not dissing your “FORTITUDE”, Doggy-Dude…
…I’m merely suggesting that you’re too clean & well-groomed to have a ready supply of “abrasive powder” on-hand for this hoof-polishing task, is all.
PS:
Your “Bambi-Eyes” are wasted on me.
My 1st girlfriend inoculated me against that ploy, decades ago.
(…best NOT to ask…)
Ya’know… when you put it like THAT…
…I could TOTALLY see the resemblance to “Snagglepuss” — like with the VOICE, even!
;)
:)
I think if Maxima ever tried sleeping on a bed with satin sheets she would achieve a state of complete zero friction. It would be like trying to sleep on an air hockey table. (depending on what she was or was not wearing of course)
Which could make romantic encounters problematic.
…which suggests, in-turn, a response that is NOT even CLOSE to being “PG-13” in the slightest, & shall therefore remain unspoken.
;)
Pretty sure Maxima is going to always have issues, romantically. First is the “Woman of Steel, Man of Tissue Paper” thing (https://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html), second is that (how do I put this…?) her pelvic floor muscles could be somewhat avulsive.
…& possibly employing enough thrust to propel a mortal man thru a wall, yes.
Examples abound, such as “Golem 100”, by Alfred Bester, or “Interviewing Leather”, a web-serial by Eric Burns-White.
I am now tempted to test the feasibility of (actually) sleeping on an air hockey table. It might be hard to get one that’ll fit an 18GÅ man, though.
Now I am visualising an Olympic arena, with the whole playing area being a giant industrial-strength hockey table. The game being a cross between hokey, curling and canoeing. Given that the players would have brushes to use like paddles, whilst they ride on top of their own canopuck™ to rules similar to ice-hockey. But with really big goals, suitably sized for canopuck™s.
There will even be a circular track around the stadium seating, at a mid-height, for vending canopuck™s,. mascots and cheerleaders to use (wide enough for two to pass each other). Plus there can be a lottery each game for some lucky individuals to get to have canopuck™ rides around the track. Suitable crash-barriers would be required.
Ladies are advised not to wear dresses or skirts, if needing to cross the track.
While that seems like a massive jump from simply sleeping on a game table, I definitely like the idea of riding giant pucks like a water slide and might actually watch sport if it was something like that.
The comparison between sydney’s anime eye’s and and maxima’s face make it rather glaring; you might want to tone it down when they are next to each other in the same frame. Then again I might just be nit picking because it stuck out to me in that first frame.
Heh, and there I was saying, above, that it did not trigger my uncanny valley feeling.
It is a risk that DaveB has to balance. It is an interesting but challenging decision that he made to mix and match art styles. And sometimes the anime style can clash with the classical hero looks that Dave otherwise creates.
It is bound to trigger ‘this feels wrong’ at times. But that is nicely offset by the ability to magnify emotions with the exaggerated cartoon style that Dave can get away with more easily on the anime characters.
To me Sydney was just too cute and desirable for me to be distracted by the big eyes!
“Uh…tub of grit?”
Great recovery!
Heh. Yea.
On the BBC current affairs comedy quiz, “Have I got news for you?”, one time a major politician, who was meant to be featuring as one of the guest contestants, pulled out at the last minute. For no good reason. Which really ticked off the team. So rather than fill the spot with whoever could be found at zero notice, they replaced him with a tub of lard.
Quite a scathing indictment of the politician, that they felt such was a perfect replacement for him.
And, funniest of all, despite being a team of ‘Paul Merton and a tub of lard’, he still managed to win! The politician really would have been a waste of space.
That tub of lard is now favored to win the 2020 presidential election.
I understand drawing small scale is hard but with the chibi art it’s darn near impossible to tell who is who or even what’s actually going on.
More reason to get the paetron with the 2x size version ;)
Seriously? Someone above mentioned not being able to tell that the blue thing was a bra, until that was mentioned, which I grant is a small enough detail that someone might need to zoom in to tell.
Personally my eyesight is so bad that I can no longer read the text reliably. Yet the fact that every single one of the characters has different coloured hair and skin colour does rather make each chibi distinctive. Especially with each character having featured clearly on the page already.
Not to mention the simplified art of the chibi making it easier to read their poses than normal.
But, to help translate the scene for you, Brooke (red hair) is drowning and Varia (blue hair) has clearly dived in the pool to rescue her. Meanwhile Jiggawatt (yellow hair) has braided together clothing to improvise a line to rescue them both.
With Maxima (purple hair and shiny gold skin) hovering divinely above, brewing up a mini-nuke to rebuke them!
On a separate note:
It took a couple of reads to realize that, despite the spelling, Sydney (in Panel_4) is NOT making the “smug anime kitty-cat”-sound, but rather the far older, classic “Exclamation of Dismay”, (c)opyrighted by Moe, Larry & Curly! I’m just not used to seeing it written-out, & when heard it’s usually 3 syllables or more in length.
Well there is a longer version, N’yah nankhônôma, if you want it.
Watched it…
…Liked it OK…
…Still you cannot truthfully deny that it’s a tangent, with no bearing to the current topic.
So if Max puts on grit to reduce the shine, we can assume there are certain areas she avoids applying it, for reasons. This opens up an interesting if risque variation on tan lines.
Ahh, so (l)… when Maxima was working on the construction site she had a severe risk of builder’s crack. Where it would look like the sun was shining out of her … pants.
Then where would one tell her to shove things?
One is not feeling suicidal.
Into storage.Maximas probably one of the tidier people on base given her upbringing =)
Does “Put that on your pipe and smoke it” apply in this situation?
I’m sure at least one of the three non-working crew members that were shown noticed the lack of grit and considered a pick-up line that ended with “because I can see myself in your pants”, but was smart enough to not even voice it aloud.
Lends a different flavor to “where the sun don’t shine”
This seems as good a time as any to ask this pondering about one aspect of Varia’s powers.
When she touches someone she gains a temporary gestalt form based around either that person’s powers, somehow related like an opposite, or weird random grab bag-yet stays about that within a family.
However unless she can let go of a person and use the power for sometime, it is rather limited. So the question is; can she continue to use a power after she lets go of the person she got it from?
If so is there a time limit till it wears off? Or she mentally shuts it down? Or until touching someone else? *I am sure the last one there isn’t the case or she’d be stuck in one form or another till touching someone else and she clearly hasn’t been*
Which really the question is then, can she keep using a power for a time after touching someone without needing to stay physically in contact with them?
IIRC, Varia has never yet been shown using a power while not being in skin-to-skin contact with a target.
Yea, the more instances we see, the more damning the circumstantial evidence.
That said though even in this horseplay situation there is a good reason why Varia is touching Heatwave. Namely that Maxima has only just turned her back and they were trying to get up to mischief. As we already know that Varia has to touch, in order to initiate the gestalt, she would have to do that to activate the power.
And Maxima intervened after that. So the only opportunity they had to separate was lost by Giggawatt jumping the pair of them.
So, whilst the circumstantial evidence is strong, it is not overwhelming.
Plus we should consider habit. Varia gets a clue about the nature of someone’s power when she initiates the gestalt. She may hold on to them, unless there is an overriding need to part, in order to carry on expanding that ‘hint’ or getting other clues, about different aspects or circumstantial uses for a power.
Psychologically this would be a hard crutch to break, as having hundreds or thousands of different power combinations available must make it hard to keep track of the specifics. So, much like we rely on the Who’s Who, Varia may like to check that her memory is correct. At least for a while after reestablishing a gestalt.
Whilst this is just speculation, we know that Varia is a novice, so may not have kicked bad habits yet. Plus Sydney found out that she had not even contemplated keeping a selection of bits of partners. In this case Varia could improve her procedures: ‘double check your power hint, then disengage from your partner before engaging the target’. Assuming, of course, that she is able to do that, as Rhuen queries.
Considering that at the construction zone she had Jig riding on her back as she worked I strongly suspect that she must always be touching since if they could get away with it Jig wouldn’t have stayed in that uncomfortable position.
Happy New years Dave and to everyone in the comments
What exactly IS Maxima made out of? Polished gold? Crystalized Uranium?
Golden age supermanium of course!=)
Not the former, she has revealed that to Sydney. What she is actually made of is classified above your pay grade.
Well we assume her form is due to bonding/merging on a cellular level *blue blood and forcefield is around every cell* with a strange symbiote or substance found in a geode. So either its a strange symbiotic organism that needs a host and grants them incredible superpowers for mutual survival, or its an alien, prehistoric advanced civilization, or other advanced weapon…or third option it was the reduced form of some eldritch horror or cosmic being imprisoned for eons till only the essence of its power remained and latched onto Maxima.
So not a golden elf then?
Not likely, unless they pull an “everything is X-men” bit like Marvel did during the 90’s.
-vampires turned out were the result of a mutant *Dracula* whose power included transforming others into weaker versions of himself via a thrall type power amongst his powers.
*they also tried to pull a Gamma-gene where the gamma mutates only resulted from people with a mutant gene for absorbing gamma radiation and utilizing it, so these people were just lucky otherwise they would have gotten cancer,
ect…
-basically, what “elves” nah, turns out Supers can pass down their powers even if from an external source and enough breeding in an isolated group like a tribe among the mountains that avoids “normal” humans out of fear results in a whole tribe of (elves, vampires, lycanthropes, ect…) who end up thinking they are not supers but supernatural creatures due to this.
Titanium nitride. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_nitride Looks like gold, tougher than tool steel.
My fall back on living things having nearly indestrutable yet flexible bodies even with or without forcefield generation is (Cellular Crystal Carbon), an organic cell-level form of diamond filament that due to cellular activity and natural growth far exceeds anything produced through science in terms of how resistant to damage and heat it is as well as being surprisingly flexible thanks to its fibrous structure.
The real reasons that Syd tends to get away with violence is cause A: Shes the main character and immune to longterm consequences and B: Do you honestly believe Maxima would ever punish someone for hurting Dabbler?Like all supers who are used to being unbeatable demi gods Maxima has developed an instant dislike for the one person guaranteed to be able to easily beat her-Just like how someone with the ability to switch off superpowers(And then i dunno shoot the powerless idiot left over in the head?) would scare the carp out of other types of heros.
You seem to misread their relationship. Dabbler and Maxima are friends. Check out them chilling and enjoying each other’s company in the restaurant, as an example. Maxima just will not tolerate Dabbler’s sexual advances towards her. Other than that though they have fun teasing each other, as many friends do.
Plus Maxima has already figured out that Sydney will probably be more powerful than her one day. Yet has developed a fondness for her, despite the annoying and peculiar quirks that she has to put up with. Rather belying your theory.
I didnt say Maxima hates Dabbler,Theyve obviously been around each other for a long time and have become friendly.What Im saying is that Dabbler Automatically pees Maxi off cause she can pose and threaten as much as she wants to try to keep Dabbler in line but shes aware that Dabbler isnt threatened at all by this which takes Maxima out of the comfort zone shes lived in ever since she was a teenager.Which if Im honest is actually something Maxima badly needs.
Of course the sideeffect of all this is that Maxima is always going to judge against Dabbler for anything short of a literal murder attempt cause its one of the few ways she can strike out at Dabbler with no negative consequences.
As for the Sydney thing thats apples and oranges,Sydney has indeed been given mary sue level powers which havent hit their Max level(Pun intended) yet but Maxima is less threatened by them cause Sydney is a collossal spastic that has fallen into a kind of little sister role with her.Doubtless in future Sydneys powers will one day(My inner cynic says 6 months given the rate of level ups so far) surpass Maximas but even then that will mostly be a case of versatility rather than raw power.
In short Dabbler unintentionally teabags Maxima with their ability disparity all the time whereas Sydney can get arrogant and egotistical from time to time but thats more of the green recruit getting drunk on power and Maxima knows this.Though that said I imagine if Maxima had never met Dabbler she mightve been a bit harsher on Sydney at first when Syds smug super side popped out for the first time.
“Mary Sue level powers”….
hence my great dislike of this term.
Mary Sue was an actual character, and no she didn’t have powers. She was a character that instantly solved any problem, everyone loved her immediately or if they didn’t they were disliked by everyone else, and everything always went her way no matter what….and it wasn’t written as a zany comedy. It was a Star Trek fanfic sort of deal. Readers hated it. She had no drama, no conflict, even the biggest Superman or Miss Victory or whatever has at least some drama, even the most lovabale likable anime comedy character would have more drama than Mary Sue did.
it was never about power, although yes, people tend to use that as a way to make a character unbeatable. But I see this term glued so much to any character with any level of competence, confidence, altruism, usable super-powers, and a positive personality; that I immediately have a knee jerk reaction to people using the term; because I have seen some people describe a “Mary Sue” in such a way that the only way to not be labeled that would be for the character to be a near useless bungling idiot who gets the ever loving piss kicked out of them on a daily basis whose powers are either useless or have some horrible drawback, who goes home to a run down hovel each night and drinks staring at the wall questioning if its worth it to be a superhero and trying to not go on a murderous rampage.
*Anti- Mary Sue syndrome* is what I have dubbed the tendency for writers afraid of being labeled a Mary Sue thus resulting in the above unlikable character traits.
Ill answer this properly later but ill just say this-Halo has a shield that has no known upper limits that can stop anything and when fully leveled up shell have a power platter so diverse that theyll be able to deal with anything possibly even including ressurrecting the dead.How are the orbs not a mary sue type power in waiting?
I don’t consider *power level* or *type* a Mary Sue element.
A Mary Sue is a badly written character who never has any challenges, dilemma, drama, conflict, or development.
the term has come to basically be used as a “I don’t like this or that feature, or feel things might be too easy for them” rather than its original use.
So no, if Power level and amount of power meant a character was a Mary Sue, then
Lina Inverse,
Erza Scarlet,
Natsu Dragneel,
Ichigo from Bleach,
The Incredible Hulk,
and
half the cast of DBZ,
would all be considered Mary Sue characters.
and Anti-Mary Sue Syndrome is why we had in New 52 a Super Girl that was threatened by Superman and Wonder Woman, chased off the Earth, and ended up a Red Lantern, only to be rejected by them too eventually…
to be clear, it has become a generalization term that has little to no meaning these days because of how badly it has been abused, this link would be the original,
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/ATrekkiesTale
and how I personally consider the legit term, a boring character who can’t develop because its a self fantasy fulfillment with no conflict. It Halo had been a Mary Sue the fight with Vehemence would have ended with her and only her talking him down and him falling in love with her while everyone clapped to how great she was and made her instantly super-captain or some such crap.
So what were basically doing right now is arguing about the meaning of a word? Egh fine!I dont care about that so wont sum up the energy to do it.However I will tackle your list cause thats something more interesting to discuss =)
Lets see:
Lina Inverse: Dispite not officially being the strongest mage in universe her bread and butter spell is dragon slave if memory serves me correct.The main reason that this doesnt get classed as mary sue level spell is that given the indescriminate destruction it causes it almost always does more harm than good in the series in general-especially given that Lina literally doesnt care about collateral damage most of the time too- she also later has giga slave which is even more powerful but literally costs a ludicrous amount of magic and if miscast can potentially end pretty much everything-Lina included.A sue would probably have these spells with friendly fire pre installed or something so this is obviously not a sue thing at all.
Erza Scarlett: Oh boy did you drop the ball here-You literally picked one of the crappest spell schools in a series where half the characters seem to have legendary abilities thought to be myths by people who havent met them.I Imagine you picked Erza because shes one of the memetic badasses in the series: Erzas spell school is literally summoning stuff that she has stored away-Namely weapons and armour.The reason that she does so well in the series is that she in universe has spent a LOOOONG time becoming an exceptionally good fighter and custom ordering armours and weapons for every type of enemy that she knows of.In fact throughout the series its implied the biggest weaknesses of her “item summoning” spell school is that there is a limit to how much she can “store” to summon up later,Summoning a lot of weapons is especially tiring and lastly her gear is only as dangerous as the users skill level-In fact shes one of the few fighters in the Fairy Tail guild who could be theoratically beaten by a skilled enough but powerless swordsman.
Natsu Dragneel: Now THIS was the choice I expected from FairyTail!Especially since Natsu is one of the characters who routinely ignores the rules of his own universe(him borrowing all the mana from “tommorows Natsu” cause he ran out today still sticks to mind now-i really should finish this series sometime!).While sue accusations can be made Natsus power isnt one of them.This series has MANY people with the same type of power(Theres even a story reason for this being so) and though in universe Dragonmagic is considered obscenely powerful Natsu routinely gets his arse kicked pillar to post cause though his magic gives him an edge on most schools hes a long way from being the most powerful or most skilled magic user in universe-In fact come to think of it Erza who has what I call a “crap” school of magic is one of the characters in the series who Ive yet to see Natsu beat dispite him knowing Erza for years and presumedly knowing exactly how her magic works and always itching to challenge her-AND she isnt even the strongest member of the guild- Have fun watching Natsu drop his fudge fighting Gildarts further on in the series,Its actually a good character moment for Natsu if you ask me =).
Ichigo: Oooooooh boy!Yeah I can see how you might think this one since Ichigo Literally gets every non skill based powerup possible throughout the series thrown at him and though in theory this could be a sue power it actually makes him super overspecialised for all of the series I bothered to read(Personally Idve picked Aizens shikai as a sue power or maybe Orahimes “reject reality power?” but i digress).I cant call Ichigos Soulreaper/Hollow/quincy hybrid powerboosts a sue power because for the most part theyre just that-power.While power alone if you have enough can instasolve most problems were talking about a series where characters can literally flashfreeze you,Switch off your senses and casually behead you or rot you to nothing by just lightly brushing you-Heck the head of the soul societys power is so dangerous he could cause extinction level events by unleashing his bankai and just taking a smokebreak,No actual combat required!So yeah Ichigos powerset grants him great power but its in a universe where great power isnt the be all end all.
The Incredible Hulk: Ok now youre just reaching.The incredible hulks powerset has very concretely set rules and doesnt even make him the most dangerous being in universe(Though world war hulk was pretty fricking impressive I confess!)In fact Banner himself literally spends most his life trying to cure himself of this power that you think is a mary sue one cause he likes it THAT MUCH!.In short Banner hulks out and becomes an anger based behemoth with usually very little in the way of intelligence and though the hulk is one of the big guns in universe his “power” fluctuates wildly.At one point he even got his butt kicked by a middle aged guy with a flabby gut and tentacle arms(doctor octopus).For a Marvel Sue idve picked the Sentry,A character who to this day I think was less a character designed to be liked and more a case of epic trolling from Marvel writers in general.
DBZ Characters: Ok this is turning into a wall of text already so ill make this brief in universe DBZ characters powers arent mary sue cause damn near everyone seems to have them.An argument could be made for Saiyans I guess since they get power boosts all the fricking time but thats a snowballing sideeffect of Toriyama originally planning the battle with Frieza to be the last battle ever in that series period-Yknow what?Ill give you this one though im hoping super will solve the numbers problem that Toriyama installed.That said im only letting this through cause the dragonball universe tends to solve everything by facepunches and nothing else so its a Universe where having tons of raw power essentially makes you god.
Phewf!That was kinda fun to tackle tbh!Though I will say that we have wildly divergent opinions on what makes a mary sue power.You seem to think in a brute force direction and I think in more of an absolute versatility direction where the powers so adaptable any plan against it is unlikely to work. For example,I can think of a dozen ways to kill Goku dispite my powerlevel being at best “Farmer with a shotgun” cause for all his powers there are VERY definate ways to kill him,His starship level shields arent always on and throwing a punch or directly confronting him would be moronic to say the least.if I absolutely absolutely MUST face the guy on full go time mode I know he still has to breathe so maybe I can bring a canister of sarin to the party or something,Its at least worth a shot.
Ironically Halo whos a quintillion tiers lower than goku in tiers or raw power(The gaps probably bigger than that tbh-Dragonball got really silly with the power levels thing) would be utterly immune to my attempts in a head on assault cause dispite not even having a billionth of her powersets potential unlocked yet shes already got way more general defensive coverage in her shield orb alone.Also dispite being spazzy sometimes shes actually quite smart which is why popping her shields up is usually the first thing she does in a fight.
Actually let’s just wrap this up okay, its not a fun topic, and your focus on the randomized list shows that we are using vastly different definitions.
You seemed to imply Halo had Mary Sue powers, based solely on the parameters of them being versatile and powerful, and that was it.
So I grabbed a random list of characters often regarded as over powered even within their setting *which by the way Lina is the second most powerful character in Slayers canon just beneath her sister Luna* based on having powers that fluctuate wildly as the story calls for them, so long as they are popular *Marvel is a tricky one as making a powerful character can result in them becoming a jobber if their popular slips, which has happened to the Hulk, Thor, Juggernaut, Magneto, and a number of others*.
But going by the justifications you have given for the random list, you should have no reason to consider Halo at this time as being a Mary sue, her powers have a distinct limitation and a limited growth, we have already seen she can’t defeat everyone, and each orb’s strength is limited, the speed and shield being the most powerful, but the tentacle is weaker than most the other high tier supers, her blasts have limited use, and she was nearly killed by Sciona due to the fact she has to have the orbs in her hands to use them; something any observant villain will be able to pick up on watching her on tv.
I’d say this by your own parameters would make her less of a Mary Sue than Natsu or Erza or half of any other headliner character who can almost seem to just make up powers or pull some new legendary ultra power out of their butt *as a note: as fun as Fairy Tail is…this plot armor thing did get grating how often it was abused to solve the problem*.
*At the end of the day I wouldn’t consider Sentry a Mary Sue, because he was clearly designed to be unlikable. He was a jobber waiting to happen, a hateful parody of Superman clearly modeled after Nuclear Man from Superman 4 (a low point).
So no, the definition I go by for the term is solely based on the character (Mary Sue) and the initial reason why she was hated…especially since her creator kept trying to shove her down everyone’s throat like she was the best most perfect thing ever created rubbing trekkie fans the wrong way.
but I think we hijacked a topic here about Maxima and Dabbler’s relation,
on that end, no, I think they do get along, and isn’t threatened by power, if anything when Sydney was showing her powers it was seen as a plus in her favor. I just grabbed onto the Mary Sue thing as a knee jerk reaction, because I don’t see it fitting by my definition and giving your examples by yours either, so kind of weird. Its not like she Impossible Man or The Beyonder (who yes, the Beyonder was definitely a Mary Sue when first introduced, a writer self insert who everyone just automatically loved and could do anything no problem…hence why the next writers up made every effort to depower and villainize him).
I outright stated were running on diffrerent definitions.Youre the one thinking that mary sue should be the whole package whereas I said in passing that Halo has a mary sue level power.
Halo herself is definately not a mary sue,shes intelligent funny and even loveable on occassion but shes also spazzy idiotic arrogant and not someone who youd want to be stuck on a 20 hour flight with and thats before we get into her love of overeacting or performing to get attention. HOWEVER- The orbs that Grant halo her powers give her so far-
Shield orb:A shield thats so strong even a test shot from Maxima didnt make it shudder and so far No villain in universe that shes faced so far has managed to do better than harmlessly spazz flail against.These same shields.Its also stopped magical mental assaults that effected her entire team barring maybe Dabbler whos best suited to resist that kind of thing along with an epic level debuff thats part of a hidden vaults defences designed to stop people stealing items that can possibly cause extinction level events.This is shields at level 1 btw.
Teleprescence and truesight:
The ability to see though ALL illusions-are you the sorceror supreme?That cute cause Halo can see through your illusions anyway!
The ability to scan for magic see through walls and other things
The ability to project copys/decoys of herself and even use these decoys for extremely safe recon
And most recently…..outright teleportation! this orbs at level 2 i think
PewPew orb:
So far the biggest liability in Halos arsenal since it starts at complete overkill for most targets and has yet to unlock a stun setting.If Halo was evil this baby would get a lot more play but since turning people into cooked meaty confettis a badguy thing shes not gonna be using this in populated areas unless she absolutely has to-In short this is her DBZ weapon.Oh also she has a spray and pray option too for things that are quick enough to dodge. this is lvl2.
Hentorb/lighthook:
Creates an energy tentacle with an untested maximum length as far as I know which the owner can move and command with no effort into any variety of shapes and configurations.this same tentacle also is so strong that it could lock down all but 3 members of Archon down physically and once again this is just at level 1.
Flightorb: Does what it says on the tin,The top speed limits of the orb are untested as far as I know in fact in flight she might even be faster than Maximas top speed.It also offers stationary floating and has tons of potential uses when combined with her shield orb alone. level 1
Life support orb????: One of the mystery orbs which i worry will suppy more Deus ex machinary powers,as is it removes the biggest drawback of Halos invincible defences by granting her an infinate air supply.How broken this orb will be only time will tell….level 1?
Shiny mystery orb: Deus ex machina orb no 2?Only time will tell.As is this orb could do anything from summoning an invincible army of squirrels to granting unlimted timetravel or even immortality.We simply do not know.
This is Halos current loadout with only 2 level ups and judging that each orb has a grid of its own she can get a LOT of levelups!Please explain to me how a powerset which at level 2 out of I dunno 210?(30 levels per orb-for all i know im lowballing them) is not a potential mary sue power?She at her weakest has more powers than most superteams and we have little idea of the maximum limits for a majority of these powers!Hellfire what few limits we do know might vanish with a random levelup!
Also since were trying to wrap this up ill handle Halos only noticable weakness quickly-If she has the shield orb in her hand before she turns up NOTHING cant shut Halo down,NOTHING!So even Lex Luthor is out of luck unless he gets ninjas to glue mittens on her as she sleeps or something.
Just to wind up the thread, rather than with the intention of provoking it further (but feel free if you wish), this is why I say that the term “Mary Sue” is not fit for use. Its ‘definitions’ are too nebulous and varied to be able to provide or aid constructive criticism. In addition to being insulting, due to its extreme negative connotations.
Those two aspects mean that its use is likely to be challenged, even if just said ‘in pasing’ as it is likely to be taken as a broad insult. And the ensuing argument will then drag on interminably and tediously (doubly so given how often we have to put up with this drivel).
Finally the fact that it was coined for the purpose of bullying and continues to be used to persecute and harass writers means I shall vehemently dislike the term and any use of it.
It is known to have discouraged budding writers, stressed established ones (predominantly female writers), put off male writers from writing female leads and make others defensive (sometimes verbally, other times changing their writing in detrimental ways).
I do wish people would accept that this is as insulting a term to use for a writer as any racial slur is for a minority. Just pigeon hole “Mary Sue” with “Nigger” and think about that the next time you wish to throw it into a conversation!
Hmm given how this went im inclined to agree though i refuse to ackowledge the N bomb line.Even where I live saying that word in the wrong area could have me in hospital for the next few months and eating out of a tube.I think Ill just still with the term Goku levels of overpowered which pretty much sums the point without triggering people with thin skin.
I think after we each established we weren’t using the same definition/parameters/frame of reference for a term that anything discussed beyond that was entirely pointless in relation to it.
Like trying to get a Nintendo to play a PS1 disc and vice versa. While there does appear to be an interesting potential discussion mixed in there, whether or not Sydney’s powers count as OP within the setting of this series, as OP *which would be the adjacent term that not 3am sleep deprived me is realizing*; it is a tad late here and would require a fresh start without the above string of posts being tainted with the Mary Sue-ism confusion.
Porky’s? Really?! Wow. Nobody say that name within earshot of Dabbler. Although I’m sure she would approve of the film, I can’t imagine the monster that would be created. Arianna’s heart pressure would go through the roof.
Won’t anyone think of Arianna? (No, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.)
I imagine for Dabbler “Porky’s” would just be a dry lackluster comedy.
I imagine she’d find it amusing in a “That’s so Cute!” kind of way. I also imagine she would find it even more amusing to draw inspiration from it to annoy Max and Arianna, not to mention all the rest of the team.
Small details check:
The orbs are not casting a reflection. Neither in the mirror in panel 2 nor on Maxima’s arm. We do see their usual ambient glow, but nothing identifiable as an orb. The nearest potential candidate I think is just part of her collar bone, as it is metallic gold and is reflecting two different colour glows, rather than being identifiable as a specific orb.
Halo’s orbs are undead!
*gets holy water, a bag of steaks, a bag of stakes and a net*
Sydney does not appear to have a reflection in panel 2, but is definitely visible in Maxima’s arm. So we can discount Sydney’s death from having caused her to rise as one of the undead too.
In panel 2 I think that’s more because of the angle of focus, which is right behind Sydney.
As for the orbs, no mechanical device can perceive them, not surprised that they don’t reflect off of mirrors.
*De-lurk* Because of the angle of panel two, Sydney is between the camera and her reflection, you can just make her the reflection of her right shoulder peeking over her real shoulder, and her neck just below her bangs
It’s possible her balls are too small (but perfectly formed) to be distinctively reflected in Maxi’s shoulder *Re-lurk*
Go back four comics and look at Sydney’s silhouette (Sydnuette?) kicking in the door to get to a lovestruck Eddy/just before the gazorpazovum punch. Despite being soft light sources, the orbs are not reducing the silhouette’s top nor are they creating multiple copies of it based on their multiple light sources. Similarly, they are not changing the colour of the room from their light. Instead, they are keeping their light confined to a LIGHT-BASED EQUIVALENT SILHOUETTE above Sydney.
I think we can safely say that the orbs are not following proper photonic laws and can thusly forgive their occasional lack of reflection.
Dabbler established that early on, you can see the light, but her sensor/scan spell wasn’t picking up the light, so its not photons. However unlike the skill tree, machines can see the light. So there seems to be layors of selective cloaking.
Scan spells can’t even see the orbs themselves *the poster tube is too empty moment*, but machinery can see them and the light, but the skill tree can only be seen through organic eyes.
hmm…by this layoring I must surmise they are meant to be hidden from a Techno-Magic society, like some crazy Voltron-Gundam crystal of ether-mana type civilization. Using magic and magic-machines to scan would miss them completely.
Way back when sydney joined dabbler said that the orbs are not emitting light at all and are not showing on her camera eye, so no reflection. But then you then should have got confused camera men at the press conference.
I think she just explicitly said the power tree didn’t show up on her camera eye but yeah she also said that she could see them but couldn’t detect any light emitting so if a camera could see them then she should detect them.
You are confusing the time Dabbles examined Sydney’s balls and the time her balls went nuts and formed a complex diagram: she could tell they were giving off light, just could not detect where that light was coming from, or what it was composed of, her cyber-eye was not able to see the level-up tree (fortunately she could still see it with her real eye and had a photo-graphic memory)
With the larger image available for Patreon supporters, if you look close enough, you can see orb reflections even if they are largely obscured. Or Sydney suddenly has 9+ orbs from one particular angle :)
Quick Sydney Tell Max her skin is flawless, absolutely flawless and you will be back in good graces again.
flawless, like diamond. Neil Diamond.