Grrl Power #594 – Well this is just mean
I guess they didn’t get ready on time, but at least Jiggawatt was able to fix her lipstick, right?
I’m sure in the history of the military, having to go running in your boxers is something that has happened more than a few times. But that was probably before women were allowed in the armed forces, so I’m not sure what the deal with that would be now. In this case, Maxima is just giving them a little extra PT, and doing it in their undies makes it slightly embarrassing and probably a bit more challenging. Or it would be embarrassing if they weren’t super attractive women with no body image issues what so ever. I don’t know, maybe Heatwave is like “Oh no, I’m slightly too fit.” Sydney would get 4 steps before passing out from blushing too hard.
Having an audience would create all sorts of issues with objectification. If it was just male soldiers having to do it while other male soldiers go about their business? That’s just, like, the Army, right? Making women soldiers do the base’s tough mudder in their underwear in front of a bunch of male soldiers, or even mixed company? There are obvious issues with that. It’s fair to say Maxima is not cool with catcalls and wolf whistles and any other kind of drive-by harassment, so she’s not going to create a situation like that if she can help it.
This page does make me wonder what sort of bras lady soldiers wear. If you know you’re going for a run, I assume most women would prefer to don a sports bra, but that’s not something you’d wear all the rest of the time… otherwise wouldn’t women wear those all the time? So I’d guess for morning PT, sports bra, hit the showers, then something more traditional for the rest of the day. But then, what do lady soldiers wear when they’re deployed? Presumably the thing that’s most comfortable for the longest time, which I’d guess is a standard bra with the underwire (although that never sounds comfortable to me, but most women I know are like “nope, underwire is the way to go”) but then you have to deal with something not optimized for tearing around a battlefield if a firefight breaks out. Maybe they have underwire bras with extra coverage over the top of the breasts to better contain the contents. I imagine something like that would be fairly unflattering, but it’s not like soldiers run around in deep-V’s so that’s okay.
Also, everyone at Archon seems to wear their own thing, but I would assume the military has standard issue skivvies. I could probably google the answer to most of these questions, but it’s more fun to ponder them here.
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This is great, I would so love to do that.
Sports bras in the military. Sports bras for morning PT, sports bras under our normal work clothes, sports bras to bed if we thought we’d have to get up, and then you realize sports bras are just comfortable and tend to wear them with civies. I reached a point where I only owned two fashion bras and those were for my dress uniform. Some females wear fashion bras under their regular uniform and to bed, but being dumb isn’t gender specific and underwires always get stabby sooner or later.
I wear a sports bra exclusively, because it is the most comfortable for me. It’s a light-duty sports bra, rather than the heavy-duty one a lot of women wear for running and so forth, but that makes it a good compromise. It keeps my boobs where they belong without being TOO constricting. I only use a regular soft-cup–NOT underwire–bra when I need to wear a shirt that the sports bra would interfere with. However, an underwire bra is not the kind of torture-fest you think it is, at least for normal women. (It can be if you are over a certain size, because the underwire is not sized properly.) An underwire is padded within the bra, but provides basically a stiff support on the underside of the breast that the curve of the cup can follow. When you’re my size, that means that the underwire almost always winds up poking into your armpit, which is uncomfortable, but most women aren’t my size. For ultimate support, a well-fitted corset. That is NOT going to be seen on military women outside of special events, though, because while corsets don’t case the kind of harm they’re accused of–your internal organs are DESIGNED to squish, or you wouldn’t be able to sit or walk, and frankly when there are manuals on “how to faint delicately,” it wasn’t CORSETS causing the fainting–they DO restrict your flexibility through the waist and hips, and your lung expansion shifts to the UPPER half of your torso instead of the lower, which takes getting used to. I can spend a whole day in one, and scrub my house top to bottom in one, but an obstacle course where I had to CRAWL I’m not so sure about…
…And I messed up my quote. Argh!
It is NOT normal. Ideal breathing happens with the diaphragm expanding downwards, causing the belly to expand. And ideal breathing is much preferred when, say, exercising because PVT Snuffy decided he wants to screw over the whole platoon again. Watch a baby breathing some time. They’re belly breathing because their clothes don’t constrict and then train them to shoulder breath.
Hmm, diaphragm only expands down for me, when breath out, when breathing in, the belly goes in and the upper chest goes up and out, but that’s only when ‘showing’ breathing, ‘normal’ for me is deep but shallow (fills the lungs more than the ‘showy’ breathing)
Breathing with your chest is a pactive used in singing and other such audio voice stuff. Breathing with your chest allows you more air capacity and volume when speaking. I learned this while taking drama, as we were taught to “project” our voice. I cannot comment on which is more efficient for exercise.
When I was in the theater we were taught to project from our diaphram not tje cjest to get the most projection/volume. I ended up using those same techniques in the army so that I didnt lose my voice screaming for the drill seargents when they wanted us to sound off louder and louder.
Interesting. Plus there are other battlefield uses.
One little fact: the British LOST that battle, only one managed to survive
Err no.
You are mistaking two separate battles on the same day. The one you are thinking of is the battle of Isandlwana. Which was indeed a massacre of a large British army. There was not just one British survivor though, but approximately 5% of the force.
Whereas the film extract I linked to was of “Zulu”, which depicted the battle of Rorke’s Drift. Which was a major British victory, in that the bulk of their forces survived, and drove off the attacking army of 3,000 Zulus. As (with a lot of artistic licence) depicted in the scene linked.
Militarily speaking though, if you compare the two battles, the Zulus were the ones who had the significantly larger victory.
But the heroism of the defenders of Rorke’s Drift should not be diminished by the failings of the commander of a different force. Between them they earnt more Victoria Crosses than have been awarded in any other engagement (including D-Day, which only had ONE). Plus there were a lot of other medals award too.
In actuality the two principle officers, shown as commanding the battle, were wholly incompetent. Rather it was the commissary officer (unfairly portrayed as bumbling in the film) who firstly insisted that the force stay and fight, contrary to the proposals of the other two officers.
Secondly he was the one who actually organised the fortification and defenses. But politics demanded that the officers of good breeding were lauded in the command role, and received the Victoria crosses.
Fortunately the commissary officer’s role could not go unacknowledged indefinitely, as he was too pivotal for the rewriting of history to ignore. So he too got a V.C. after a year.
Umm, no, the Zulu took the guns they captured from Isandlwana and used them at Rorke’s Drift, Bourne was able to get away and alert the British which meant Ladysmith was a British victory
Another thing: there were civilians at Rorke’s Drift, women and children
Okay, seems to have been given mis-remembered information (lesson for you kiddies: don’t listen to old, and possibly senile, Africans :P)
Oops, you ninja’d my reply. Duly noted, so my points are irrelevant now.
Nope, your points are very much still relevant as they correct the misinformation posted by an idiot :P
I am splitting the following, to address each aspect separately:
Actually being able to loot the battlefield, and commandeer the enemy’s weapons is a clear indicator that the Zulus won. As wiping out 95% of the British does not appear to be enough to satisfy you.
Plus the battle of Ladysmith is totally unrelated, as that was part of the Second Boer war, whereas Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift were battles from the Anglo Zulu war.
You will have to give a better indicator of who Bourne was, as I get zero hits for him in relation to any of the three battles you have drifted across. Maybe you are referring to the battle of the CIA vs Jason Bourne?
Working on the assumption that instead he was one of the British survivors of Isandlwana, getting a warning out is only a victory if it allows you to either prevent a disaster or win a war.
Whereas the massacre had already happened. Plus the Zulus were purposely avoiding the main column of troops, and were in fact luring them away from the battle. So they never were in danger. And, in any event, had been warned of the presence of the Zulu army approaching their camp before the fight even began.
Finally the purpose of the expedition had been to invade Zululand, burn down their huts, take their cattle, kill or disband their army and end the reign of the Zulu King. Instead the main column had to retreat back out of Zululand.
It was an unmitigated disaster on all fronts. Except from a Zulu point of view. For whom it was a great victory.
However you are right that survivors (but not matching the name you give) did give warning at Roake’s drift:
This warning was certainly timely and contributed to the victory at Roake’s Drift. But that does not turn the massacre at Isandlwana into a victory.
And there were 500 (best guess) likewise at Isandlwana. Whilst interesting to note this was fairly common for armies at the time. Especially when expecting an easy victory, rather than a massacre of their own forces.
The battle at Isandlwana was an attack of the Zulus on the army’s camp, including the followers, having successfully lured the bulk of the army away with decoys.
Like said, don’t listen to senile old Africans (she got confused with the Boer War when mentioning Ladysmith)
Bourne was Colour Sergeant Frank Bourne
Never said Islandlwana was a British victory, was under the misinformation that there was a third battle, and the survivor from Rorke’s Drift managed to warn them, butt, as it turns out, was completely wrong
Ahh, I never even considered him, as I knew that he had been stationed at Roake’s Drift, so did not match being a survivor of Isandlwana. Interestingly though I had just watched a program which included one of his decedents, and those of another of the soldier’s, standing at the points where their ancestors had fought!
So added an interesting personal aspect to the narration. Although an even more impressive one was that a guy who had been researching the battle of Islandwanda was there reminiscing with a descendant of the Zulu king Cetshwayo. Absorbing in its own right.
The twist though was that independent of his research one of his relatives found family documents and a medal from the battle of Islandwanda. It turned out that the researcher himself was also a descendant of one of the British soldiers! But one who did not survive.
Apologies for the confusion, didn’t mean to give the impression that Bourne was a survivor of Isandlwana :(
You two taught me more about history than National Geographic did in my youth. Good tip kiddies; watch documentaries and read books because your teacher’s degree may be as useful as a poor man’s substitute for paperbark tree toilet paper (think of someone accustomed to regularly intensely irritating the event horizon skin of the brown hole)
*wags tail contentedly*
And to think this started as a discussion about bra’s
Those Zulu’s sure did project well, didn’t they?
What is your cup size by the way? My inquiring mind wants to know. I like the look and feel of a corset on woman folk. I pride myself on being able to lace a lady into her corset as tightly as she wants/can take … nothing more uncomfortable than a loose corset, right?
How painful would this be for a normal man with normal libido?
How painful for a 13 perma-puberty hormone rushed kid?
How painful for a man who’s mind lets him think 7 or more moves/situations into the future before he has to act?
Think on that. His mind and hormones grab all known data of the subjects…play them out in all possible positions, actions and categorize them as most likely to happen so that a counter can be used to prevent harm…
But this applied to what he’s hearing is causing more damage and harm… and comedy…it’s causing comedy.
NOW imagine Max walking by or the General. Math pops to attention… and some lackey with the general or max taking notes notices that Math is ALL at attention../
“You’re men are all well trained…I believe that super we passed was giving us a one gun salute.”
When did Jiggawatt’s hair color change from white to blonde? I know it wasn’t long after her first appearance, but that version is what sticks in my memory so every time I see her now I do a double-take.
I think DaveB mentioned that he got a lot of comments that, with the white hair and the lightning powers, she looked too much like Storm.
Change over happened https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1580
Earlier than that. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1415
Which happened after ducking foy
It was changed shortly after the Restaurant Rumble, because too many readers were claiming she looked too much like Storm (that wasn’t her first appearance by the way, she first appeared eating lunch with Gothamer when Harem suffered a devastating Maxi-wedgie, and then again during Sydney’s ‘interview’ when Gothamer smashed a pool-cue over Math’s head)
Hmmm, but we must explain this in-universe, hmm
*in voice of Ludwig Von Drake*
Naturally of course her sudden deafening in conjunction with her electromorphic capabilities triggered an as yet unseen and uncontrollable metamorphic, nay chromomorphic property within her hair foliciles resulting in a shift from platinum blond to canary blond.
*shifts glasses and eyes the room*
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CDtKniIWIAEZiYF.png
Sounds plausible, let’s go with that (it also allows DaveB an ‘out’ regarding her earlier appearances with white hair, thus saving him from having to re-do her ‘do when he finally publishes the Sydney Chronicles in physical format)
There is no need of any more complex reason for a change in hair colour than “She a woman”.
In my experience for some women the chance of them changing their hair colour week to week is about the same as them changing their knickers (not bras, sometimes those things don’t get change for months…)
Except in this case the change happened during a fight scene.
I think he’s going to recolor the scenes where she had white hair for the physical comic book edition instead of making some in-universe reason for explaining the change.
Yup.
OH, NO! That was SOOOO Cruel. Down right laugh out loud funny, but Cruel.
Poor Math.
His mind is melting with visions of semi or naked Super Heroes.
.
The reason why, most likely, you’ve heard women say they prefer underwire bras is because the underwire gives support. You’ll see girls with quite small breasts who prefer no underwire, but the reality is that if you’re larger than a B-cup, you need some support. Sports bras are a different animal because they compress your breasts into your chest to pin them in place, if you’re wearing a heavy duty one they honestly aren’t very comfortable because in order to work they have to restrict your breathing a bit. It’s worse the larger boobs you have, because you need a tighter fit to hold them in. Your basic “t-shirt” bra, which has an underwire and is made to be “comfortable”, is most women’s preference because the material is soft and it provides minimum support without feeling like you’re being strangled.
Bras all sort of suck, though.
What would Maxima say in response to that one? The mind boggles… :p
I am about 90% certain it was Maxima that put up that sign. The one that says “that means you math”
I wear padded sports bras, because I’m, relatively speaking, comes with my chromosomes, barrel chested, so my girls are pretty far apart. Cup bras just slip off. The downside for sports bras, at least mine, is the thick bands don’t work with all outfits, especially sleeveless dresses with thinner straps.
I am mostly wondering how they are not could in only their underwear, not doing sport.
Is heatwave using a low setting area of effect heating to keep them comfortable? Or is resistance to chills a side effect of the superpowers like the cupsize?
This isn’t real-time (ie, not January in Alaska), so it’s probably warm enough
January almost anywhere in North America is cold for the last few weeks. We are often 20 degrees Celsius below our average since the middle of December and the deep freeze extends well into the States. Much further south that usual is experiencing freezing weather.
Don’t know North America well, only been there once for two months (New Years to mid-late February), and apart from being wet (who ever said it never rains in California has never been there during winter) it wasn’t much colder than back home
They are probably inside with a special training room for the absticle course. So environmental control is possible. Otherwise I do not think a single door would keep math out of an outdoor area.
it’s the coldest winter in North America in almost a hundred years. Places where it never snows are getting a foot of snow.
Again, not real-time, the comic is still in 2011
Is it weird that I remember the year in universe by what the world record chilli was at the time?
It’s the unstable Naga Viper, BTW, with the more well known Ghost sitting at number 3.
With a name like yours? Would be weird if you couldn’t :D
“Year of the unstable Naga Viper”? New one on me.
Mind you I only perk my ears up for “Year of the Dog”, so that is understandable.
Like the chinese one, that year started in february, when it ended the “Two weeks of Infinity”.
We don’t get in england so we have to be creative.
God damn it, why can’t we just use standard BBCode?
Chaining up an emergency exit like that is a safety hazard. I do realize that many of the people there can make their own doors through an otherwise solid wall (Maxima, Hiro, Stalwart, Anvil (the last couple with a good run), Halo (PPO to the rescue, maybe Lighthook), Dabbler (I am she has an appropriate weapon for such a purpose)). Harem can just sides-step the issue by teleporting past the wall/locked door. Unless one of the above-listed door-makers goes first, everybody else could be in trouble if a problem starts up, depending on the exact nature of the emergency..
I’m pretty sure this is all a joke at Maths expense maybe without Max’s knowledge even. I’m still of the mind that Max’s threat was an empty one from the previous page. Its not really in her character to make them do that ogling aside.
No, I think these three cooked up this idea based on Max’s threat that’s why they are prepared with the tablet and know to do there lines o the other side of the door. Pretty sure all three are in just normal PT ware. Once the joke runs its course those chains are coming down. I’m surprised though that Haram or Dabbler haven’t been roped in on this little bit of tom foolery though.
“Ok you three drop them and give me 50 squat thrusts right now!”
No. If you look, the last panel is showing what the tablet is showing, which is the security camera pointed at the exit. Note the arrow that is part of the panel.
Also note the visible security camera in the third to last panel.
From Jiggawatt’s whispered comment, I get the impression they’re ad-libbing on the fly while watching Math squirm.
Your points are all true, but they do not negate Wenthral’s argument. To the contrary it includes the statement that:
Whilst I disagree that Maxima only threatened the PT, the rest of it seems likely. Possibly Maxima herself installed (or activated) the camera, in addition to chaining the door, on the principal of taking no risks. But it works just as well with them having done that under their own initiative.
Either way they are likely acting of their own recognisance now, in her subsequent (presumed) absence.
I do agree with the ad-libbing conclusion you draw. Although I must confess that on my first reading it looked like they were going by a script, which they had agreed on, from the tablet. Even the dialogue seemed to corroborate that, as it sounded like them debating varying from that.
Up until my reread, where I likewise spotted the arrow – confirming that they were instead using the tablet to monitor Math visually, as you say. With the obvious conclusions about the ad-libbing.
Agreed. Although note the author’s comment, in his blog above:
So this would counter your suggestion that:
I am pretty sure that they did come up with this prank, as you suggest, but only after having done the PT demanded. Maxima probably had to go to attend to other things (by another exit, such as flying out a window or skylight, and left them to attend to unchaining the door.
The initial chaining though is likely to have been at Maxima’s orders given Dave goes on to say:
Smart money would record all of this to use as reporter blackmail later on.
Not unless they fancy loosing their jobs and a spell in the cell next to Vehemence. Courts take a very dim view of corrupt police and blackmail is a criminal offense.
Yea, I am bypassing the funny side to your comment. As a comedy comic this side could be played and probably gotten away with.
But super hero stories double as morality tales, for the modern era. I would not be happy seeing a rolemodel ‘hero’ promoting blackmail. The type you suggest is similar to the kinds used frequently in social media bullying and criminal exploitation.
Whilst Math would not be bothered, such actions in the real world has lead to youngsters and the fragile commiting suicide. So it is not an issue I feel able to take lightly.
Nah, Math recording it for Maxia’s ears. Laps For Days.
Why would he be recording it? o_O
Agreed, and how?
I presumed the intent was the other way around, given that the girls are using a camera and laptop, so have the means to record readily at paw (possibly including audio if either device has a microphone). Unless Math routinely wanders round with a recording device, in his pocket, I do not see how he would be able to do this?
The one other possibility is to use the electronics in his torque (which has the same capabilities as the chokers), but it does not look like he is wearing that.
Plus recording what is clearly meant to be a private PT session is more likely to get Math in trouble than the girls! The padlocked door and security camera are clear signs that he is not meant to be there. Not to mention the actual sign explicitly saying that he is to keep out!
Whilst he is just standing outside of the door he is keeping to the instructions. Creating a voyeuristic recording though would be crossing a line into peeping tom/eavesdropping territory. Either of which would be big no-nos for Maxima.
You do realize the door has a sign which singles out Math, right? :) It’s clearly goading him and based on the Stresand Effect, it’s pretty much guaranteed that Math would be curious even if they werent loudly saying that stuff.
Ahh, kind of like how trying to ban an expose book from being published instead ends up with people queuing out of the door to buy it.
But, yea, I totally understand why Math is there. My query was only regarding the proposed course of action he should take.
I think he is far bertter off restricting himself to trying to gnaw through the chains.
Yep, that’s the Streissand effect :) Based on when Barbara Streissand sued some magazine for publishing pictures of her home, and when they had published it almost no one had paid attention to it. But because of the lawsuit everyone suddenly became VERY curious about what was going on at Streissand’s house, so not only did the magazine with her house start selling like wild, she was also inundated by paparazzi trying to get more pictures ALL THE TIME.
As for the action he should take, I am partial to him weeping openly that he does not have the ability to see through walls. He seems to be proceeding on schedule in that last panel, so I am satisfied.
Or perhaps he is telling porkies about not being a super and does have the power to see through walls. And good comedic self-depreciating acting ability.
Yes, that’s why he stopped and started listening, butt, why would he be recording what was going on? o_O
For later that night? To give a soundtrack to his dreams?
So their punishment was to torture Math? I know he’s a bit of joke character at this point, but at least set up a reason for him being the punching bag.
I agree that his obsession with girls has been played for jokes, as here. As such I think that the reason is self explanatory. We have seen first-paw how he leched at Sydney the instant he saw her. With his other behaviour in this regard giving credence to this being his normal behaviour.
Further the fact that he lost his fight with Jabberwokky, due to ogling her, was pointed out in a debriefing.
With such a well-established reputation, I feel that there is no need for them to specifically say why they are pranking him. He had it coming. Especially hanging around outside that door, which he must have been for them to be able to start this.
Whilst that is a serious character flaw, and it has featured heavily, I would not write him off as a joke character though. Notably he redeemed himself in Sydney’s eyes by taking on the role of martial arts mentor. Which, fortunately for his relations with her, does incorporate such inappropriate behaviour as part of one of the stereotypes.
His “three steps ahead” speech connected with Sydney and, along with impressively easily beating her, has made her aspire to improving her martial skill. Something that is of vital importance. Whilst a normal recruit can be broken down and retrained the way the army wants, that is not an option they have with Sydney.
She is both too fragile and very powerful, to risk such traditional techniques. So having a mentor is important. Maxima can provide the role model for her super aspects, but Math has stepped up as the mentor for the tactics and combat skills side.
Not to mention having shown himself to be a badass fighter. When not distracted by boobies.
In the old-style comics it was a tossup if Math had no eyebrows or if the hair was just very close to his skin color. This appearance leaves little doubt. The question is how did he lose them? Trying to steal from a sleeping dragon? Disarming an exploding ninja booby trap? (the trap, not the ninja).
Also, with the resemblance and Math’s proclivity to hit on just about any female I think we need to do a DNA paternity test on one Bartholomew J. Simpson. He may actually exhibit his own super powers. He is over 30 years old and still doesn’t look a day over 10.
If you look at his smugshot, his eyebrows were the same colour as his hair, which made them difficult to see against his skin tone, but Math is much older now (guessing all that time fapping to order aged him)
Of course we all know that if Math decided to go through that door, with his Kung Fu, he’d get through in no time. He is actually showing remarkable restraint, given his proclivities. I’d say the therapy is working.
On the other hand, he shouldn’t be listening outside that door in the first place. He has much to learn.
I wonder if this is a joke at Math’s expense…?!?
Very much so, yes.
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
*confused look – head tilted to one side, quizzically*
I thought you were meant to pander to people?
To be fair, even if you don’t buy it, it’s still fun to imagine! XD
*snickers* I love that they’re trolling Math. XD How long will it be before Max clues in that they’re not actually running? :j
On the subject of bras, Soma started selling underwire sports bras in the last fews years; I look forward to being able to try one, though I don’t believe they’re in the brick-and-mortar locations (which are, frankly, less tacky-looking than a certain person’s secret). Will be finding out this Spring/Summer.
Just be forwarned that tastes change, and can most likely change with size. I can’t picture Halo wearing an underwired bra; she doesn’t need to. Once you get past around a C cup, though, they tend to be more comfortable (though my mother insists otherwise *shrug*). Then again, you have the camp of women who feel underwires can cause cancer (?!?), others who are big enough that they basically have to wear corsets instead of bras (38H, anyone? She was getting into making her own corsets and was planning one out of Hello Kitty fabric :D ), too many women who just flat-out wear the wrong cup size (which I think has been discussed in the comments before?), etc, etc, etc.
The main drawback with wired bras is that if you’re not careful, the wires can break. I had that happen when I was leaning sideways against a desk once (I was standing, and reading something in my other hand at the time, leaned against the arm resting on the desk, and *crick* – snapped the wire about 3-4″ from the outer end.). Depending on how bad the break, it’s either minorly annoying (as in, “aww dang”), or you basically have at least one end of the wire poking you where you *really* don’t want it to. And since the underwires used in retail bras are exclusive, and cannot be found in sewing supply shops, you bascially have to buy a new bra, as just removing the underwire from both cups will result in an ill-fitting bra (speaking from experience after the above situation).
Considering the fights that have happened herein, I’m not going to be overly shocked if someone breaks an underwire at some point; I’m actually suprised no-one has mentioned it yet, come to think on it. The main question is who it will be; given her field, I doubt it will be Max, and I can’t picture it happening to Anvil for similar reasons, so my proverbial money is on one of the Harems. :)
seeing how they have the live security feed up and running on a tablet I would guess max is nowhere near the course and they are using max’s threat to troll math.
What I have been told is that just like many other items, bras are not sized the same by different companies. And so a woman who wants a good fit has to learn what cup size she is comfortable in for each different company. And a woman who has not figured this out and who just goes into a store and picks up a bra in X size that she has bought in the past but perhaps from a different manufacturer is likely to have a poor fit.
Which makes perfect sense to me, as I have wide feet and I’ve had to learn that I simply cannot buy a shoe from some companies and expect it to fit, while the exact same size from a different company will fit just fine.
And a vast majority of women have never been properly sized in the first place
You don’t just go and pick a pair of shoes off the shelf without first trying them on first, regardless of whether you have bought that brand before or not: only takes five minutes to try the shoe on
Also true.
This is quite true. Wapsi Square did a good job of explaining bra fittings and such. Heck, the same company might have a you in a different cup size depending on the bra style.
Concerning bras:
Underwires are of the devil, as are those stupid foam cup shits that are pretty much all you can get. I wear a sports bra or soft cup, but really jockey had these perfect bras that were sports bras that breathe and aren’t super constrictive. I’ve been wearing them almost exclusively for a few years now, but then jockey discontinued the line. :’(
Underwires don’t just break, they can also warp and/or poke through the bra material and jab. Oh I hate them so much. Of course , I’ve not ever made it into being a C or bigger cup. But I have a friend who makes her own bras and she makes them nice and soft.she has more ridged models for formal occasions, but her “oops I mad this too small you want it?” Bra that she gave to me is super comfortable and doesn’t do much more than keep the ladies warm and gently corralled.
So it really depends on personal preference.
The majority of the ladies I served with in the military wore sports bras, cause you never knew when you might have to get physical.
isn’t there a law against Cruel and Unusual Punishments?
Yes. But not against chatting amongst themselves in a private room. ;-)
We’re missing the next two panels. the first where they make kissing and moaning sounds and the next where Math’s head literally explodes. ;)
And this evil. Fun, but evil.
Which head though? :P
This is freaking hilarious!
Yea, it gets a LOL from me every reread. :-D
It occurs to me, they may need to re-evaluate Math’s usefulness to the team.
Given past dialogue he doesn’t seem to have been on the team very long; in fact the restaurant battle implied it was his first battle on the team vs superhumans. *Likewise I am curious how long Dabbler has been about given the whole *early on* vs X’s comments that imply she was only being shadowed for a short time before he was found
but back to Math, yes he has impressive combat skills, and could in that regard be an asset, however his personality seems lacking if he is to be used to help train recruits in combat who don’t have physical boost powers for instances where their (atypical abilities) aren’t useful *like Jiggawatt fighting an electricity proof person*.
his restraint is questionable, although he isn’t just chopping through the chain or didn’t do a one finger penetration strike or whatever its called to drill a finger-eye hole through the shower wall.
but as far as battle went, he took down a few opponents, despite being told to go non-lethal he still chucked a knife in a guy’s face (granted wasn’t killed), and his desire for a stronger opponent and insistence that is why he joined the team brings his team work skills in quick and efficient takedowns into question. He all but abandoned helping the rest of the team when he found an opponent that he couldn’t take down immediately, including ignoring the order to trade off with someone who could handle them better…resulting in his loss to said opponent *Jabberwocky*.
Its one thing to say, “he joking around, pushing the pervy Roshi, Hopposai trope” another when his combat use which seems to be his whole reason for being there is brought into question. Perhaps one on one stealth runs could be his bag…until his opponent is a Ninja Cat-girl, or a Gun Slinging western theme Bunny Girl…and I think I just figured out my fanfic LoL.
His aversion therapy needs work, and his role at Archon re-evaluated if he can’t conform to a ranked and order driven combat situation.
Very good points, hopefully DaveB will be able to find a way to incorporate more Math to show personal growth with the lech, otherwise, yeah, why is he still part of the team if he doesn’t show any teamwork?
Suppose it’s slightly better than having him running around unsupervised looking for a ‘challenge’ (isn’t that basically what Kevin did?)
Yeah, keeping him on a leash, lech leash LoL. He seems a type 2 martial artist, which isn’t very good for actual combat, tendency to focus on personal challenge, and singular focus on one or small number of opponents.
1: Work Out
2: Tournament
3: Active Combat
Good point but i propose that he’d he fighting supers, who’s egos would limit the degree which they would fight as a team rather than as individuals aka the restaurant fight.
If he was going up against a organized opponents such as Deus and co, you may be right though.
Supers are extremely rare, as are people that are so extremely skilled they can go toe to toe with supers and not break a sweat.
Arc doesn’t exactly have the luxury to pick only the best of the best
Except he has shown a reluctance to follow orders to the detriment of the team. They also have evidence supers aren’t “as rare” as they thought, only spread out and extremely hesitant to out themselves, with an official super team and some time more might reveal themselves for local branches to operate.
They have some very powerful individuals, skilled individuals, and most importantly individuals willing to follow orders and work as a team. If he can’t do that, all the power in the world would make him more a combat liability than an asset. Especially if they have to end saving him every time he gets seduced, distracted, by the established majority have human ideal beauty physiques super-women out there.
Many of the heroes have undesirable aspects. Heatwave, Achilles and Amorphous were all vigilantes. Achilles is a self-absorbed narcissist who is all personal defense and no offensive capability. Heatwave (as we saw on the previous page) is slow enough on the uptake that she may not be able to read a combat situation swiftly enough to take effective action.
Halo’s flaws are innumerable and oft-discussed. Likewise Maxima has a few. Dabbler many. Zephan is actually one of the leaders of a rival organisation (the Shadow Council) so should be treated with suspicion due to conflict of interest.
Whilst Harem is actively conducting treacherous actions. Vance is likely (even the author does not know, at last time he mentioned it) a colony of spiders. So would be an absolute PR disaster for trying to get the general public to accept supers as being ‘normal but with powers’.
Get rid of all the undesirables and you don’t have much of a team left! Hoping that the undiscovered supers out there may be better though does not help combat the dangers that are cropping up here and now. Plus it will take time to locate, recruit and train those, in any event.
In a world with 7 billion humans you can easily pick and choose, when assembling an elite force.
But if you want to assemble one with super powers you have to work with what you have. Where the individuals have flaws you need to retrain them and find ways to mitigate those flaws as best you can.
Always bearing in mind though that the private sector can offer way more than is politically expedient to offer public servants. So they have to sweeten the deal by pandering to a lot of the whims of the supers. See Sydney’s demands regarding her shop, and maintaining the sanctity of new comic day, as an example.
You can be sure that the others all have some incentives too. For Math it is the challenge of fighting a worthy foe. Maxima has to work around that, to ensure that he can do so without deviating from the mission objectives. If she does it right both can be satisfied. If she gets it wrong then Math leaves.
He claims to be the 999th student in a line of martial artists. It will take quite some time to develop an alternative soldier with such a pedigree. And without it I do not see many black belt martial artists capable of taking down top tier supers!
Just because Brooke is ‘slow on the uptake’ does not make her bad, she follows orders well enough, probably well enough to also know that if the Field Leader is incapacitated to defer to the next in command, if there is no one else, then to bug-out if possible (taking the incapped FL with her of course), obviously she probably would never be put in charge of a team herself
None of them are bad. They just have flaws. Which have to be worked around. You list options, for Heatwave, that a commander would certainly consider in doing that.
Another one is to rigorously train in conditioned responses to typical situations. This has a flaw for situations which are not readily as they appear. But it would allow Brooke to handle most normal situations without having to delay in analysing them.
Which is a tried and tested means of training army and police.
Ideally though, as police do have to be able to operate individually at times, you want some degree of autonomous thought, for those non-standard situations. But Heatwave needs time to do that. So they can also teach her stalling tactics, to keep situations stable, to give her the thinking time.
And Hiro has dangerous erections which break through concrete.
I’ll field these in reverse order:
No offense capability? You must be either joking or insane. He has an impregnable defense combined with the human-perfect physique that comes with being a super. He can literally fight all day long without tiring or being injured. He can punch a door open without fearing for his hands. He can jump from a moving vehicle without injury, or jump off a fifth story balcony in order to close the distance to a suspect without breaking a leg or spraining an ankle. He has more offensive capability than any normal human who ever lived, and would beat both Bruce Lee, Mike Tyson, or any MMA champion you care to name, in a ring. You simply cannot choke him out. There is no grip which will inflict enough (or any) pain to force him to concede. He can literally do the “Rocky maneuver” and let his opponents beat on him until they are too tired to beat on him any more (also known as the “rope-a-dope”), and then put them down at his leisure.
Only superheroes have a chance to “beat” him, and it won’t be because they hurt or killed him, it’ll be because either they are too rugged for him to harm or because their power set gives them the means to escape. Math might be an interesting match-up for him, but we already know that Math can’t hurt him because he cannot be hurt. So the only outcomes are Achilles wins or Math forces a draw by exiting combat in some manner. There is no “Math wins” option here, because Achilles is the perfect determinator. It might be tomorrow or next week, depending on how deep the water is that you dump Achilles into with an anvil tied around his neck, but sooner or later he’ll come walking up some shore and will be back on your trail.
Now as to “self-absorbed narcissist,” Achilles seeks new experiences. That has been stated about him. It has been implied that he’s been around for a while (the 80’s mullet) and it has been straight up stated that he has grown a bit bored with merely jumping into lava on occasion. That seems like a fair enough mental hangup arising from his power set, but it doesn’t make him self-absorbed. Aside from throwing out a few obvious jokes which any reader of intelligence should have recognized as such he hasn’t done anything at all to earn the label of “self-absorbed narcissist.” But if you care to cite a few panels that you think support your characterization of Achillies, we can discuss this in greater detail.
I will add that a physically fit human whose body takes zero abuse/absorbs zero percent of the force working against it could do things that one could easily mistake for super strength.
Punch through a wall, glass door, smash bricks with his hand, stop a chainsaw with his hand causing the chain to come off, ect…
True. And he is rated as having one star super-strength as a result.
But not sufficient that he could guarantee a victory against Sydney’s tongue-fu!
*wags tail cheekily*
OK Sydney presently relies on beginner’s luck. But even a skilled mundane martial artist can beat a strong unskilled person. Whilst I will not dispute Oberon‘s assessment of Achilles’s potential, against even the very best normal (non-Math type) humans have to offer, that is only true once he has sufficient base skill himself.
Presently we have nothing to support that though. Even though he must have been through basic training we have not seen him making use of it. And even that is not enough to consistently take down the best of the best. He would need to fill in a few stars on his martial arts rating to do that.
That is true. But Achilles is not “a strong unskilled person.” He is instead a strong, unskilled person who does not tire or suffer any injury. And I’ve already gone on at length as to exactly how that would make any fight against him either a loss or at best a draw due to exiting combat for the “skilled mundane martial artist.”
Which you said you would not dispute, immediately after you disputed it with an observation which conveniently left out the fact of Achilles’ invulnerability. Bravo.
I said I would not dispute his potential. His current capabilities though are another matter. I still find them lacking.
Bear in mind that Achilles is a cop, not a tournament fighter. He needs to be able to stop villains doing villainous things. If they are able to prevent him from arresting or killing them, whilst they continue to go about their nefarious activities, then it is they who have won, not him.
As for your lengthy proofs, they do have some flaws:
We have nothing to support that. Supers get an automatic good physique and fitness. They do not get immunity to exhaustion.
Agreed. But there are plenty that can immobilise him, so that he can be handcuffed. Provided they are robust enough to be 51% stronger than will restrain a normal person, he will be out of the fight (his ‘super strength’ only equates to being 50% stronger than average).
Even without a suitable restraining device, just one skilled martial artist can take this super out of action! Or two thugs, each holding an arm.
Not very impressive for a super hero.
But potentially very impressive, once he has developed the skills to effectively use the techniques you suggest. Hence, despite the quibbles, why I do not dispute that he can become a capable hero. Albeit within the lower ranks of the super hierarchy.
Until the others die off of old age of course.
Exactly, and we see this in comics, anime, and one rather funny episode of Star Gate Atlantis, Superman even once did a horrific thing by trapping an immortal guy in a box and throwing it into space to stop him.
Being indestrutable basically makes you a turtle if you have no real offensive powers. Achilles indestructibility we saw in the restaurant fight got buried in debris. Sydney almost met the same fate when fighting the power copying crystal-worm robot guy-thing; her force field for all its strength even coupled with the air orb…especially if she is only holding these two makes her the *encase and guard the civilians while everyone else fights* character for the team given the two at a time limitation.
The best use for Achilles with what we’ve seen so far is if a strong character decides to use him as a projectile, like throw him at an escaping plane *Amorphous or Stalwart who don’t have projectile abilities I could see picking him up and throwing him like a javelin at an escaping plane
We have everything to support that. Achilles is immune to damage, poison, any injury at all. Fatigue is caused by poisons, conveniently called “fatigue poisons” building up in the cells faster than the body can get rid of them. It doesn’t have to be spelled out by the author for immunity to fatigue to be a part of his power set, it is an obvious “secondary power” that comes with absolute invulnerability to all forms of damage. Achilles’ body will either not produce fatigue poisons, or his body will get rid of them just as fast as they are created, or his body will simply ignore them as they will have no effect on him due to his invulnerability. Or some other thing that the author may decide happens, if he bothers to address the details behind the scenes at all. In any case, Achilles is immune to fatigue.
Coherently argued and sounding highly plausible.
I would need to research ‘fatigue poisons’, as I am not familiar enough with them to debate authoritatively. Sadly it is late, I am tired, and have to catch an early bus. Plus will be busy all of tomorrow, so will not get the chance to do that then.
From memory though I know that toxin buildups contribute to the progressively more debilitating effects of sleep deprivation. This sounds similar to the ‘fatigue poisons’ you are referring to. Barring that the time scales seem off. The ones affecting sleep only become a problem after days (in healthy young adults).
Which is why junior doctors can end up doing back to back shifts for two or three days.
Yet fatigue caused by intense physical exertion would accumulate rapidly, by contrast. Sprinting would tire out somebody in a few minutes.
Although I do appreciate that different activity types could produce toxins at vastly different rates. So I am not discounting your comment. Rather I am just trying to reconcile discrepancies with what general knowledge I have no the topic.
Falling back on deductive reasoning though, it seems to me that you are missing an element in your argument. Namely energy. Whilst supers pretty much ignore energy limits for powers like throwing lightning, teleportation and so on, I think it reasonable to assume that they would still have normal requirements for mundane physical actions like walking and brawling.
It is my understanding that the body only has a limited amount of energy stored in a easy-to-access form for use in intensive exercise. When that is depleted it has to fall back on slower to convert sources.
So, if my recollection is correct, you are only proposing a negation of one of two significant causes of fatigue. And one which I suspect would be the slower of the two to become a problem.
But, I am happy to be corrected by those more knowledgeable, or with the time to google the principles.
You are forgetting one crucial factor: we are not talking about Supers in general, we are talking about a specific Super and how his powers work
Remember, he is so Invulnerable, he can’t even get rid of his mullet (at least it wasn’t a perm)
Why would you be perfectly willing to handwave away the enormous energy required to throw a bolt of lightning, and then balk at extending the same suspension of disbelief when the discussion turns to more mundane things?
This is the same sort of balk that I’ve seen in a lot of role playing games. It’s perfectly fine for many that a Wizard can literally make the laws of physics curl up and cry in the corner. But when the Fighter in the same fantasy setting wants to make a 20′ long jump, that’s when “realism” has to be enforced. It suddenly becomes “Well hold on now, no one can long jump 20′ no matter how strong they are! That’s impossible!” But this guy is supposed to be an equal participant in the join story that all the players are telling along with the DM, and the Wizard player shouldn’t be just assumed to be the only capable member of the group just because he wrote “wizard” instead of “Fighter” at the top of his character sheet.
In the exact same way, in superhero comics you have Super Soldier Serums, Gamma Radiation, Radiated Spiders, Cosmic Rays, being born on another planet under a redder sun, lightning bolts into a bunch of chemicals, and a whole long list of other ways that provide ample energy to people so that they can do mundane sounding things like walking and brawling all day long, or all year long. Without the need to eat or sleep or even breathe in some cases.
Because a well thought out super power is one that says ‘what if I could do X?’ and then explore all of the ramifications and implications of that. And, if a bonus power can be gained by following the chain of thought, then that is a clever development of the power.
For instance saying that a super-speeder can heal faster, due to their body-clock running faster. A nice bonus power. But one that does not require adding a new power (Y) to achieve.
Likewise it is reasonable to say that ‘because X cannot work unless you have Y, then it would be mandatory to have that in order to explore the premise’. A super-speeder needs to have so many secondary powers, to operate at bullet speed, that I would reach the end of the alphabet before listing them!
However gaining unlimited energy is not a side effect of being invulnerable. Nor is it a required secondary ability.
That said, I must confess that, in the past, I have actually explored the possibility of Achilles having an extra inexhaustible power source, for the premise of him being able to burrow his way out from under a mountain or keep going once the heat death of the universe has occurred.
However those were purely speculations on him having an additional power to the one he is known to have. Whereas lightning throwers must have that as a required secondary ability.
Knew someone could counter those better than me (completely agree with you)
Achilles has not had very much comic time. So we have to judge him by the scant material available. One scene I had been thinking of had been him going on about the ‘mouthfeel’ of is food. Which, combined with being oblivious to it winding Sydney up, is an instance of being self-absorbed. Not hugely so, but if trying to get a feel for his character, it is reasonable to assume that this is typical behaviour. It certainly came across that way.
More clear cut though, is panel 5 here. Achilles gets the opportunity to demonstrate to the world what he can bring to the team. All he chooses to do is to show that, when head-butting a tank, his hair and face remain ‘flawless’!
The assembled world press, judging by their reaction, were similarly unimpressed with this display. In addition to his narcissistic posing, it failed to show any offensive capability – the tank was not dented or scratched. Bearing in mind that Arc SWAT has been created to counter super villains and ‘extraordinary threats’.
So, whilst you do make an extremely good case for how great an offensive capability he has against normal humans, he has shown that he is not capable of harming anything tough. Be that a fellow super, or an armoured vehicle. I bet he would not even bear up well against an armoured space marine.
But, to be fair, I was sloppy in couching him as having no offense. And your reply eloquently points out ways that he can make use of his capabilities. Notably, in the cast list, ranking as having super strength, as a result.
Only just barely mind. And not even enough to free himself from the small pile of rubble he found himself under, from the collapsing restaurant. Not in a timescale that permitted him to return to the fight anyhow. Showing how simple it is for any villain with modest offensive capability (or just a grenade) to take him out of play.
I would though clearly have been better qualifying him as having ‘little useful offense against super foes’.
Importantly however do not forget that I was only listing the superficial flaws, by which the less insightful commander might write off members of the team. You are correct in saying that he has potential. But, for whatever reasons, he has not yet fulfilled that potential. Most significantly he lacks any martial skills to make use of the kinds of attacks you suggested he could do.
Intercepting the sword attack on Dabbler, with his eye, was an impressive use of his defense mind. But offensively he has only been used as a projectile weapon!
So the biggest area he has for improvement (overcoming his flaws) is to develop solid martial skills. Even his slight super strength will allow him to carry heavy weaponry, as may be suitable to a particular mission. For example he could carry the impressive mini-gun that Sydney wanted to play with. Along with enough ammo to remain self-sufficient far longer than a normal infantryman could. Obviously not in an urban policing setting mind.
However even there, he would make an ideal explosive ordinance disposal officer. Able to do so swiftly with no risk. Similarly, returning to the offensive side again, he could learn demolitions. Thus giving him the options for directly attacking a foe, with a suitable charge (or claymore or specialist ordinance).
Should he apprentice under Math he could become stunningly capable. Unlike at present.
Les knew exactly how much ‘mouth feel’ was winding Sydney up
One thing we have to understand: just how long has Les and his former co-vigilante’s been with Archon? Also, that Rumble was the first time any of them had seen combat apart from Maxi and Pegs, also possibly discounting Dabbles and the Vigilante-crew (and we don’t know exactly what those three were doing before getting caught and ‘recruited’)
Remember, Brooke didn’t do much before she was removed from the fight either, other than being a knife and lightning magnet
Let’s examine the scene: It’s a press conference, in an empty desert field with a tank as the sole target. The superheroes are there to demonstrate their powers. Which, for those with offensive powers such as a “high star” super strength or a beam of energy such as Heatwave, Halo, and Maxima, is a trivial thing to do. They can bend the main gun barrel, kick it downrange, and cut it up in various ways. And they did.
But for Achilles, not so much. His sole superpower is invulnerability, and the resultant “1 star” super strength that comes with it. There are no bricks or boards there for him to break with his fist or across his head. There is a tank. Which he simply cannot damage any more than you or I could damage it. So you’ll have to forgive him for the “flawless” pose after headbutting a tank. It was just about all he could do with the materials at hand, and it doesn’t in any way indicate that he is a “self-absorbed narcissist.”
I disagree. If he were a team player he would simply bow out of a demonstration which did not improve the image of the unit. Plus the ‘flawless’ pose was just tacky and unnecessary.
Alternatively, if he were less self absorbed, he could have thought about bringing in one of the other team members.
For example Heatwave had demonstrated how she could melt a tank. He could then show how he could counter that by standing in between her and the tank. That would have proven his defensive credentials in a spectacular fashion!
Albeit requiring him to share the limelight with Heatwave.
If Maxima wanted him to demonstrate, then “bowing out” might have included leaving the team. He might be a “civilian contractor” but he can’t ignore orders or even requests from the chain of command without very good reasons if he intends to remain a member of the team.
That’s your opinion, and I don’t think much of it. Try to keep in mind as you constantly harp about the word “Flawless” that all he really did, in two small panels, was headbutt a tank and then turn to the reporters and show that he wasn’t injured. “Flawless” was a ?sound effect? or whatever you might want to call it, Achilles certainly didn’t say it or yell it or do anything other than point to his uninjured face. Which was a simple demonstration of his superpower. Your characterization of it as indicating that Achilles is “self absorbed and narcissistic” is all in your mind alone. Your tiny, tiny mind.
There was nothing to stop Achilles from replying to Maxima, to point out that he would have an ineffectual demonstration, which would harm the unit’s image. Nothing suggested that Maxima was operating a ‘do not talk back’ policy.
The remainder of your reply resorts to trying to elevate the value of your opinion, over mine, through the use of insults. Which both shows that your argument was weak and that we have reached the limit of productive debate.
I therefore shall not reply further to you on this matter.
You say these things, and yet there he is, demonstrating his powers. His pointing out to Maxima of your lame opinion that his demonstration is somehow ineffectual may or may not have happened off-panel. Regardless of whether it took place or not, there he is, demonstrating his powers. Which demonstration in no way supports your assessment that Achilles is self obsessed and narcissistic. Unless you want to try to extend that same assessment to everyone else who also demonstrated their powers that day? No? I thought not.
Yeah, what it showed, was he can take damage without being damaged
Dabbler’s rail gun bouncing off him after going through the tank was the better demonstration of his abilities. But that was unprepared and she suggested it. For him a better demonstration may have been for someone to drop the tank on him or throw him high into the air and let him freefall and then show no damage to himself.
Good points.
The final one of course being one that Achilles would not be interested in doing, because
Mere freefalling, without a parachute, will have lost its lustre long before reaching that level of disinterest!
We have precious few points to base our judgement of him. I am sure he will be more rounded as we get to discover more of his personality. A redeeming characteristic, for example, is that he likes to hang around with his teammates.
Being sociable is good and helps build up team bonds. But he needs to do more to improve himself for his job. The motivation for that though I feel will have to come from his superiors, unless something inspires him to better himself.
I singled out Math for a reason.
See I am not thinking in terms of a Seal team or a delta force or anything of that nature. It may be military backed, but its also a voluntary civilian recruitment with nine decades going on a century of cultural assumptions *superhero culture*. A lot of leeway can be given for personality quirks, and in fact as Maxima once put it with Arianna, humanizing traits. Better to have some people the public can look to and see both as moral role models as well as being flawed and approachable human beings.
However at the end of the day Halo, Achilles, Heat Wave, ect… all look to understand they are part of a team, need to look out for one another, respect each other *even if Dabbler tempts fate a bit*, but the fact she hasn’t dragged Jabberwocky off to some dark corner somewhere despite the fact there is likely exactly ONE super on the team that could do anything about it, shows her own well…restraint and friendship.
I think I stated somewhere that Math has shown some restraint among teammates, and could just be acting up. But the one fight we have seen does bring to question just how much the team can really rely on him. As I stated in a reply to Guesticus, Math even with his impressive skill set seems to show a type 2 Martial artists approach to fighting. Like he’s in a tournament against select individuals, and ignored orders. Thing is Dabbler kind of did at first, but she did drop that and take care of business to help her teammates. Math might have, we don’t know, because his personality flaw resulting him getting KOed, and lucky for him not while in a situation that would have lead to him then being executed while out by his opponent. Also seeing as how he wasn’t tranqued…he probably got a concussion from that.
All fair points.
The most significant one being ‘… and could just be acting up’.
He is.
Check out his rating in the cast list. Overall he has a seven star rating. Only Maxima beats him! Putting him on a par with both Super Hero (remember his nickname is justifiably ‘Superman lite’) and Dabbler. Bear in mind that (provided magic is banned) Math consistently beats Dabbler in sparring.
Plus he has a strength rating equal to Achilles’s super strength. Should he choose to he could rip those chains off the door, just using brute force!
He has the same ranged attack capability as Halo’s PPO! And power wise he is correctly rated as being higher than Halo’s mere six star super rating. Setting aside her beginner’s luck he took her down with no more than a toe nudge!
Centrally though he has five star martial arts capability. With five being ‘the best known to exist’. And with that he can beat anybody on the team, barring Maxima (or Dabbler cheating with her ‘sticky air’ spell).
Not to mention that his speed/reflexes are four star. Putting him only just below Maxima. You know the gal who can catch bullets and disarm grenades in flight.
Yes, attitude problems. But only because he is bored at the lack of challenge. And easily distracted by boobies.
Wait, since when did Math have any sort of ranged attack capabilities?
If you are going to include using projectiles (like that knife-in-the-teeth trick) then you had better add Pegs to that list as well (and better put her higher as she has access to sidewinder missiles!)
I did point to the cast list, to corroborate that.
When matching up the power symbols with known powers we can determine that the sun icon is a ranged attack. For instance we can account for all of Maxima’s other powers (speed, flight, defense, strength) meaning that her energy attack has to be the remaining symbol, the sun one.
Dabbler’s version uses magical missiles (that we have observed anyhow). Sydney has the PPO (matching both Dabbler’s and Math’s power rating). In fact even Heatwave has the same three star rating.
So Math’s ranged attack should be capable of stopping a tank (given that Heatwave demonstrated being able to melt one with her attack). Or something of equivalent utility, if not literally that.
If it is the use of thrown objects, consider that he could achieve the same effect by throwing a projectile through the viewing slot, and it ricocheting off and killing every crew member!
Alternatively there are more than a few martial arts movies where the protagonists can hurl fireballs or lightning bolts. Or it may be the more esoteric ability to use his ki to ‘punch’ someone at a remote location. Or make them die, without touching them.
Or, not all the symbols are correct
Sacrilege! Burn the heretic.
Well give him a Chinese burn anyhow.
Math has been described as human, skill so great its hard to differentiate between him and a super, but I think being Ki-enhanced, or even knowing lower tier ki moves like the Swallow Slash or Armor Piercing Blow would officially settle him into the Super category.
More likely he is so skilled that his “projectile” ranking is more like Hawkeye, Bullseye, and Green Arrow territory where he is so diverse and well at it that one could easily think he has a homing skill, sniper’s eye, zoom-in vision, or something even when he doesn’t.
It’s probably worth a lot of frustration and money just to make sure the less ideal soldier type of supers don’t choose the supervillain career.
Also Dave can entertain us better with funny jokes about those silly superheroes.
Oh the flaws of the characters are essential for them to be rounded characters. The flaws show their human frailties and make them and the story more interesting as a result.
We did see both Zephan and Maxima being highly concerned that Sydney might fall down the wrong path, if Maxima could not make a connection. So, yea, that is certainly a part of the equation.
Even if one questions Math’s fitness for a combat team, it behooves ARC to keep him on their payroll as opposed to wandering around causing trouble unsupervised and undisciplined.
Welp, it looks like Math has failed in training with his new “discipline.” Looks like he’ll have to go back to his computer and train harder than before…
O.o
All he needs is a cold shower.
Or a dip in the oil wrestling pit.
Underwire is NOT the way to go in combat. Ask martial artists who’ve been punched in the chest while wearing an underwire. Nope nope nope nope nope *nope octopus style fleeing*…
Underwires are a nope for the same reason that boob plate is a NOPE, if on a much smaller scale. Boob plate–as in metal armor shaped to cup each bra individually with a valley between the breasticular peaks–WILL KILL YOU. Seriously.
What happens is, sword thrusts will be *guided* inward by the peaks of the breasts, and very likely land with enough force on the sternum to puncture the metal, and quite possibly the bone, or the cartilage holding the bones together, heart or lung shot. Same with glancing blows that land on the underside of the breast curves, puncturing into the ribs and thus the bottom of the lungs.
Just *falling* on boobplate can ALSO kill you. There’s this little bone at the bottom of the sternum called the xyphoid process. Boob plate puts pressure on that bone, it snaps off, and that triangular piece of bone will cut into your soft tissues and cause potentially massive internal bleeding. It has even been known in extreme cases to damage, yep, you guessed it, the lungs. Never run while wearing boob plate, because it can kill you if you trip and fall…or just slam into a wall tits first.
Underwires are admittedly not quite that lethal, BUT you can still get severely cut up by the wire if it breaks and moves around. Even just an underwire that works free of its cloth pocket can cut holes into the body, most often the tips, but also the bottom of the curves. (I know both of these things from personal, as in yes I literally bled from it, experience.)
Historical examples of similar death-by-wires-in-clothing include women who broke metal staves in their corsets, and the metal pieces gouged into their bodies, puncturing vital tissues. Usually not too deep, but there have been reported cases of death-by-corset-steel. (Sounds a bit far-fetched? There were at least 2 reported cases of death-by-decapitation from heavily starched collars from just over 100 years ago; the collars caught on something (I believe at least one was a trolley car incident, so the trolley kept moving) and severed the gentleman’s head sufficiently to kill him. Yay.)
(…It is frightening how many weird factoids I know. Alas, the sleep of a research junkie is almost never a completely restful one…)
Anyway, trust me on this, underwires are not appropriate for heavy combat.
When I did research in the ’90s, women were wearing the equivalent of an 18-hour non-underwire bra, very rugged, broad band at the ribs, broad straps on the shoulders, locked-and-loaded cups designed to inhibit motion, and almost decent enough to pass for a sports bra. These days, you can wear a wider variety, but it’s recommended that if you get any sports bras that they be logo-free and no-nonsense, etc. The range of colors allowed in the early weeks of Basic are the neutral hues, as in black, gray, white, cream, and nude/tan/beige, that sort of thing; once you’re deployed, you can wear whatever.
Interesting stuff, thanks.
I like the camera that seems to be catching all this for later watching and enjoyment by Maxima in the upper left-hand corner of panel 3.
Maxi would not be enjoying this later, and right now, it is the Titillating Trio who are using that camera
There’s a Discord we can use now. I set a couple channels (voice and text) for Grrl Power. Here’s the non-expiring link: https://discord.gg/rpF3rK2
And if you guys are having issues (super sorry Yorp, I haven’t had any problems with it) then just let me know and I’ll do what I can to help. With Skype’s screenshare if nothing else.
Nope, Discord refuses to work on IE now :(
I never thought I’d meet someone that uses Internet Explorer after 2005!
Would still be using Netscape Navigator if could :(
I did until Microsoft Edge came out my webmail refused to work in any better browser.
I use Discord for a few things, but discussion about this comic isn’t going to be one of them. Why take the conversation about the comic away from the comic? I see zero point in this.
Not to take it from the comic, that’s not what I wanna do. Sometimes someone wants to discuss something at length and doesn’t wanna hit refresh each time, or maybe there’s something they don’t want written, or maybe it’s someone new (okay being this far in I doubt anyone new that didn’t already get their answers) wants to know something or even a veteran ask a question they feel embarrassed to ask because they know it’s been answered before but don’t wanna dig through dozens of pages and hundreds of posts to find it, and doesn’t wanna get chided for repeatedly asking.
I suspect that not many folks would understand my barking. ;-)
You have made quite a few points on capcha considering disabled people as inhuman and other points!
Man, those kind of strip when compared to the little mugshots on the right really show how the art style has changed over time. Math look both quite a bit older and less handsome nowadays.
Also, what’s up with Jiggawatt’s hair being bright yellow instead of white ? Is it a power thing ?
Get used to Jiggawatt’s hair changing colour. Dave has commented that she likes to vary it quite frequently. But, no, not as a power thing. Just with hair goo.
The change from white though is a retcon. Quite a few of the readers (myself included) felt that she was coming across as being too similar to Storm. Both black women, with white hair and superficially similar powers. Storms weather powers are far more diverse than just lightning mind. Likewise Jiggawatt can do things Storm cannot, most notably her ‘teleporting as lightning’ trick.
However the similarities were enough that they were detracting from Jiggawatt’s uniqueness. Super Hiro was purposely designed as a watered-down version of Super Man. But there was no such intent with Jiggawatt to be likened to Storm.
Dave decided that introducing her with white hair was a mistake. Once it has been well established that she chooses to re-dye her hair periodically, then switching to white for a while will be fine.
So retroactively changing Jiggawatt’s hair to yellow, from the first time we see her teleporting into the battle, is on Dave’s “to do list”. Probably a good idea to add changing her “Who’s Who” picture then too.
Nah, we have decided that the canon reason for the change mid-battle was due to battle-injury (her hair changed colour when she lost her hearing)
That’s dumb, though. Damage to hair follicles can only result in less pigment, not more.
We don’t know how or why it caused her hair to change colour, just that it did
She is an electromorphic who retained injuries to her physical body after shifting to a pure energy state and back again. Which is in its self odd for beings who can take on an energy state, like her body has a memory of her most recent physical state rather than a set state. But sudden trauma could have some wacky reactions for someone with such an extreme metamorphic ability.
Not quite: she sustained the injury while in her physical body (Breakpoint yelled at her too loudly) not when she launched herself at Tollhouse Cookie, got trapped, and then got sent through Wart into a wall
She is a mortal woman who can take the form of lightning, not intelligent (sentient? sapient?) lightning that can take the form of a mortal woman (like Anti-Monitor in DC comics)
I was afraid my sentence wasn’t going to be read the way I thought I wrote it.
I meant was while she was injured in physical form, the process of transforming to an energy state does nothing to repair damage to her *which one might think it would given she is being transformed between energy and matter* which means like Harem her restore *save point* is her exact state prior to teleporting or transformation. Which is unusual in most mediums depicting characters able to switch between an energy and physical state where they use the energy transformation to over-ride biology and heal damage.
But you do make a good point, a mortal with that power is extremely rare. Usually it is an energy being or ascended entity or god or something whose physical form is merely a construct anyway.
It may be an unusual depiction, but it is the more logical one, in my opinion. Unless the others either complicate the power by introducing extra elements to explain why memories remain intact.
Memories are laid down by physical changes in the brain. So if you recreate someone from an earlier save point then they should loose all their memories created after that point.
An alternative explanation is one that they are recreating an idealised version of themselves. Which is fine for a shapeshifter. But, unless they have some reason restricting themselves, they should have no difficulty in creating whatever form they choose.
Just imagine it, convince themselves that it is ideal, activate their power and poof – they transform into a handsome Alsatian shepherd!
Am I the only one having trouble getting to the casr page?
No, the cast page has been out of operation for some time. People are referring to the Wikipedia page as a de facto cast reference.
grrl-power.wikia.com
I’m working on one of my own projects right now, but once I have time again I’ll do more work there.
Always appreciated should you or anyone else find the time.
I find myself wondering if Anvil’s powers work on her chest. If they do, she could jog braless with nary a jiggle, much less any inconvenient flopping and bouncing.
While charging powers. Not a bad idea, really. Then again I wouldn’t be surprised if every female super wears a bra not for support (as sagging breasts don’t fit with the theme so they probably can’t) but so their nipples don’t stick out of their shirts.