Grrl Power #614 – Stratotail
Maybe Maxima should have been two more cars behind. It always bugs me in movies when someone is tailing someone else, and they’re maybe 30 feet behind them. I know they do that so its easy to get everyone in the same shot, but it makes it look like the followers are every bit as incompetent as the people they’re following. Same thing when someone is parked across the street staking someone out, they’re usually less than 50 feet away. These minimal distances are usually exacerbated by the cameraman taking the shots with a telephoto lens, which compresses the foreground and background elements and makes them look like they’re right next to each other.
To be fair to Max, she was at least half a kilometer above Sciona, and she doesn’t glow like those wings. If it was daylight, she’d have to worry about glare like a sniper in a video game, but at night, she’s a pretty stealthy flier.
It’s a good thing Max caught up to Sciona though. Even if she’s going supersonic, it’s unlikely anyone would be able to track her in those valleys. Maybe if there was an AWACS in the air above her, but they’re not supersonic.
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This should be good
Or incredibly destructive…
Why not a little of both?
¿Porque no los dos?
⸘That would be like having Coke and Pepsi‽
It’s not as big of a deal as you might think.
It is if you can’t afford either.
Are we talking Cola or other Coke?
Yes.
if you mix cola, coke and pepsi, it tastes vile.
That’s also true if you don’t mix them.
IMHO…
They’re both terrible. Drink ginger ale.
I prefer ginger beer. ;-)
Dry or regular?
Mum prefers Dry Ginger Ale, have tried regular Ginger Ale, didn’t find anything refreshing about drinking liquid fire!
Idris Ginger Beer. Brewed in the Elemental Plane of Fire!
what do you mean “or”?
I’m assuming Sciona will use the bridge’s suspension cables as a rope to tie Max up with.
Maybe she just fancies playing a giant harp?
I think her plan is to damage the bridge in passing, so that Max has to break off pursuit in order to save lives.
That would be a real smart thing to do, and Dave has shown he likes his smarties. But I feel like we might get a small fight scene to give a power scale to Max on how dangerous Sciona is. And THEN destroying the bridge when Halo comes with her bus of heroes.
Haven’t eaten Smarties in years :(
I’m assuming she’d just blow it up to force heroes to save civilians instead of chasing her.
This’ll be short. A little mayhem and then bail-out via brane ripper. Max may be fast, but I doubt she can chase people in other dimensions…
Or, and this would be the cool part, Maxi chases Sci-fright, Sci-fright uses her Brane and Maxi flies straight into another dimension!!! Would certainly make the anti-police crowd happy
Why try to defeat an enemy you already lost to once before, if you can just make them go into a dimension that they can’t return from, eh?
Technically, Sci-fright and Maxi have never actually met before
The next thrilling episode will discuss the efficacy of unguided missiles against small aircraft.
A beam weapon would be more suitable.
You mean like: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Palmdale
Firing 208 missiles, burning 1,000 acres of land, and almost setting fire to both oil sumps and an explosives plant. And firing a salvo directly into a town.
All in an unsuccessful attempt to shoot down one drone! An unarmed one, without any munitions on board.
I think they may have just been better off letting it crash wherever it wanted to. Even if that had been in the middle of Los Angeles, that would have been less destructive!
Well at full fuel load it could do as much damage as maybe 10 of those missiles.
According to the wiki, the plane flew until its fuel was gone.
Fun Fact though, the rockets used were supposed to disarm if they missed and speed went down.
Of the 208 rockets fired only 15 did not detonate.
No fatalities so we can laugh.
Only 15 were found undetonated implies to me that there may be undiscovered missiles that buried themselves.
Maybe, but I would like to think that the military accounted for all of them.
Leaving military equipment laying about, even if it is probably inactive, generally isn’t a good idea. Besides, it’s peacetime, so accidentally blowing up citizens is generally frowned upon.
I think the flaw in that plan is gravity. As the missiles would be gaining speed, due to falling (once their fuel was expended), the ‘slow speed disarming’ would not kick in. Obviously we would expect them to have compensated for that. But the alarming failure rate would point to a basic flaw such as this.
Depending on how fast they can go under power, they may not accelerate while falling. They probably decelerate fairly sharply due to already being well past their terminal velocity.
For example all bullets (that I am aware of) travel far faster then they will fall once their initial velocity is overcome by gravity and air resistance.
Good point.
Reported fatalities.
If you got hit square in the chest with a missile, then I don’t think there’d be anything left.
Unless you’re Thanos, but, eh.
LOL I grew up in Littlerock and went to Palmdale HS. Thanks for the link, I had not heard of the “Battle of Palmdale”.
I’m from Canyon Country. I never heard of this either
Energy weapons might bounce of shiny things, like Max, but get absorbed by dark things, like Sciona. Hmm, Max’s outfit is kind of dark. Yeah, this would be a great idea! Hey Sydney, we have a target for your PPO!
Just shoot at Maxima while she uses her palms like a parabola since she’s better at aiming?
I do like how Sciona incorporates science AND magic in her plans. If she didn’t constantly betray her allies, she’d likely be a much more formidable baddie.
I’d think her armor has a “Detect Life” or “Sense Blood” or something that picked Maxima up instead of an actual radar.
I am surprised Sciona is still able to fly that fast with her cracked faceplate though.
I think wings like hers (if not magicly enhanced) wouldn’t be able to go supersonic.
She has light blade wings, they are nothing but magic.
I think the faceplate is more for the HUD the for the protection, as I think she just enhanced herself to not be affected by super sonic flight. Like Max does, but with magic instead of OP cheat hax powers.
Because there has never been ‘Life detection’ technology in science fiction?
I’m of course being sarcastic – of course there is. And if Alari are aliens, they might simply have superior tech, in addition to magic.
To people who use the old Arthur Clarke adage that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ – that isn’t actually saying that magic and technology are the same thing. It’s saying that to a scientifically ignorant person, technology seems like magic.
I’m partial instead to how David Xanatos sees magic compared to technology – two sides of the same coin. Both are able to alter the universe to a person’s will, but one uses specific sets of laws and rules that work under universal constants of physics and chemical reactions, and the other comes from some more ephemeral source, or from the mind.
I’ll admit I did like how Mage: The Awakening did it though – the Technocracy created science as ‘reproducable magic by the masses, even if those masses were not born with the spark to do magic, by tapping into the collective unconscious of everyone to make scientific laws the new norm of the universe.
Yeah, that “battle damage” is completely cosmetic, isn’t it?
I wonder if it really is science/tech, though. Think about the Veil. When Dabbler was talking with one of the council members about the code, they were using names that were magical variations on real programming languages. This tells me that magic, when done a certain way in this universe, behaves like technology, just with a far more limited userbase.
We haven’t seen the extent of the super-tech in this universe, but there is no indicator that Sciona is wearing any tech – nothing to project the translucent HUD, and no sensors/gear that we saw. Yes, it could be hyper-nano-tech built into her suit, but it runs contrary to everything we’ve seen of her so far.
“Magic is just insufficiently researched SCIENCE!” – Agatha Heterodyne
*Lightning krakooms*
Uh oh! Now you did it! You’ve just enacted the ritual summoning!
Queue the Boss Villain!
Any sufficiently analysed magic is indistinguishable from science!
“Magic’s just science that we don’t understand yet.”
― Arthur C. Clarke
Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science.
Any sufficiently advanced anything is indistinguishable from BS
Unless it works in the real world. If it works in the real world, its distinguishable from BS in that it works.
Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science. — Agatha Hetrodyne.
Any technology, not matter how primitive, is magic to those that do not understand it. – Florence Ambrose.
“Magic is the cheat codes for the world.” – The Drummer
One thing to keep in mind is that Sciona is an alien, which means she probably reached Earth via advanced alien technology. And regarding that, consider the first “Thor” movie, in which the main character said something like, “In my world magic and science are the same thing.” So, regardless of what we call it, what really matters here is, just how much stuff does Sciona have with her, that she can use in the upcoming fight?
We have to be careful with our assumptions, for the supernatural. Some, such as the various demon species, have been stated as being aliens, in canon. Whilst others are home grown supernatural beings. The lycanthrope species, for example, include* baseline humans, from Earth.
Whilst yeti, Nessie, and the abominable snowman could all be aliens it is more likely that they too are indigenous Terran species, which are normally hidden by The Veil (and/or their own means, as the case may be).
We have not had any indicators for Sciona, other than the fact that she is a non-human species (of Dave’s design). Unless Dave stipulated ‘alien species’ and I forgot that. Which is possible.
But, alien or not, Sciona does indeed have very advanced technomagic (which could even have been learnt from aliens, one way or another). So your point remains good regardless of whether or not she is actually an alien.
* There are also those who are born as lycanthropes, but their ancestry likely includes baseline humans, as their condition is ultimately caused by a virus, rather than having been a separate species evolving in parallel (although that is what they may become,** by breeding true).
** As pointed out by a commentator, on the previous comic page, whilst they can interbreed with humans they remain human. Only once they diverge enough to no longer naturally produce offspring would they be classified as a new species. Even a human who permanently has a viral or bacterial disease (Typhoid Mary for example) is still human.
The abominable snowmen of the Himalayas are yeti! Sasquatch, Bigfoot among other names, is a similar creature from North America.
While all Sasquatch are bigfoot, not all bigfoot are Sasquatch.
Sasquatch is a tribe of hairy giants from the Pacific Northwest, local native tradition paints them as just another tribe living in the woods not as monsters.
However Batsquatch, Dog Man, Ohio Grassman, Skunk Ape, Wampus Cat, and others (that bigfoot shows like to group together despite some not even being apes) while also in North America are separate entities.
Thank you.
That is what I always wanted. My own little ghostly ferret. I will name her Rhuen and I will hug her and squeeze her and pat her and pet her and rub her and caress her.
Just for the record I have been using the name Rhuen for ALOT longer than Monster High has existed *it was actually my old fursona, but despite not really using it anymore I still like the name so keep using the name*
google Rhuen, Howl of the Heavens *a very old work of mine…and it shows, but it also shows how far I’ve come and the old Werewolf-ish creature I once was*
-although its unfortunately so old that not much remains bearing a time stamp to that regard as most the old sites it was shared on (some werewolf forum and one vampire forum) are long gone…
So an all but invisible hairy humanoid?
*builds a palatial den with all the creature comforts a cryptoid may desire*
I might have a bit of trouble finding you. You OK with a bell on your collar?
And that’s when Syndey goes from Mach 1 to stay at Hiro’s speed all the way to Mach 4. :)
Not even that. Hiro can’t even manage Mach 1 in level flight. Diving, sure.
If Sydney doesn’t make ‘nyoom’ sounds as she accelerates, I will be disappointed.
Warp Speed, Mr. Sulu!
Engage!
wrong captain
Which one married Mr Sulu?
Bart Altman or Kerri Higuchi, depending on which actor you are referring to.
KITT, Turbo boost!
I bet Hiro can do Mach 4 if he gets inside Sydney’s bubble bus.
Sydney has been clocked at about 400 mph. If that is at, or close to, her limit, then she too is sub sonic. The speed of sound being approximately 767 mph (varying depending on air pressure and temperature).
Which would make catching up with a supersonic target a problem. We know, from the briefing, that Sciona can achieve supersonic speeds. But Halo could intercept if she was ahead of Sciona’s current course, or if Sciona is travelling slower than mach one at the moment.
Or Maxima’s brief speed tests might not have pushed Sydney to her limit, and she could have supersonic capability. The fact that Maxima seems to think that Sydney is close enough behind her to catch up does imply that Halo was making good enough progress, prior to this scene. So supporting this possibility.
For information only, Maxima has five star flight capability (when appropriately boosted to maximise that), whilst Sydney is four star, Super Hiro three, with Heatwave bringing up in the rear (ratings wise) with a mere one star.
Don’t believe it’s a case of Sydney and cargo ‘catching up’, so much as ‘change of destination, and you need to get here now!’
Sydney can make supersonic, MACH 4 even: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1856
In #354 she tops out at mach 4, with Max noting that Sydney is the 2nd fastest flier.
Sydney doing Mach 4 is canon, as indicated by those other posters above. However, I note she was using a rather more aerodynamic-shaped shield at that time, than is the bubble bus. It is possible that she can’t go quite that fast at this time –although one way to compensate for that is to go to a much higher altitude, where the air is much thinner, and the air resistance is much less. Her altitude limits have not yet been formally tested, so if she goes high enough, she might still be able to make the bubble bus do Mach 4.
I float in the air corrected.
My memory let me down badly on that. Don’t know how I got 400 mph in there. I was even picturing this scene.
It occurs to me to wonder about radio waves penetrating the shield. Of course we know that low-intensity light can get through it, so I see no real reason to think that other frequencies of electromagnetic radiation can also get through it if low-intensity enough, and very likely Maxima and Sydney are communicating on some radio frequency or other. Possibly this has already been discussed somewhere, and I simply missed it. We might also wonder about higher frequencies, like ultraviolet or X-rays. Does any get through, or is it all blocked?
The shield is highly sophisticated and differentiates between harmful energies and harmless ones. Sydney can see through the shield, so it allows light to pass. Yet we saw a laser-like attack (we only have the visuals to go by, but that is what it looked like) striking the shield and deflecting. This was in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park™.
Notably it was diverted in its entirety. Even if it was made of some exotic particle attack, it was still emitting bright light, yet none of that was allowed to pass through, on its original path.
Similarly Sydney can hear everything happening in the vicinity, and can hold conversations with people with no loss of clarity, nor needing to use radios (some examples had individuals not wearing such). Yet, from the above incident, I would expect a sonic attack to be blocked.
Likewise radio waves, at an intensity only strong enough to be useful for communication, but not powerful enough to risk harming folks inside the shield, clearly pass freely too. But a militarised weapon operating on that, or a similar, frequency would likely be stopped in its entirety.
Yes, I suspected all that, but hadn’t noticed if it had been discussed in detail before. Thanks.
Regarding 400 mph, perhaps you were thinking of page 158 /archive 1034, the first time she had official permission/acknowledgement/freedom to do some serious flying.
Thanks. Yea.
Another thing about going very fast at high-enough altitude is, when she swaps the flyball for the air-ball, the bus might lose some altitude, but not so much speed if the air is thin enough.
I’m also going to point out that Sydney must move the bus to higher altitude when she speeds up. Despite the danger of high-frequency solar radiation, what would be even more dangerous would be air-resistance when letting go of the flyball in order to refresh the air in the bus. At high-enough speed, failure to keep forcing one’s way through the air means literally-deadly deceleration from air resistance, unless the air is very thin (as in, very-high-altitude air).
Here is how the author describes the process. Which is credible. The forward momentum of (Mach 4, as corrected) flight should prevent too much altitude being lost, especially if on a parabolic trajectory (essentially what Dave is describing Halo experimenting with).
Absolutely not safe at low altitude though, as the process is likely to have altitude loss, despite the momentum, and could easily loose a lot if Sydney is distracted or otherwise does not perform the swap over fast.
Plus you are absolutely right that a spherical shield will have massive air resistance, so the drop may be a lot more drastic than Dave is envisaging. With high altitude thin air being the best remedy to that, as you say.
So possibly it is vital, but I would be interested to see if any of our community’s mathematicians / physicists / aeronautical engineers / pilots* could crunch some estimated numbers, to find out how severe the drop might be. Say at an altitude similar to the one Maxima is currently depicted flying at.
* And yup we have numerous individuals who have indicated experience in at three of those roles (separately of course).
Actualy with the edit mods and realism mod, you can kind of model the problem with KSP.
The main remaining problem being the transition from “Orb Virtigo free flying” to Freefall and back.
Air refresh cycles should not be that bad for a relitivly larger volume. Seriously it’s how a lot of Submarines worked up untill late in WW2
oh–and they should already have experienced some of that deceleration problem, traveling at several hundred miles per hour with Hiro alongside. What I wrote above should be figured-out and known to them already.
In case I haven’t been clear enough about the deceleration thing, consider that a spherical shield traveling through the air is like a wall pushing air aside, with a coefficient of air resistance that is nearly equal to a flat circle the same diameter as the sphere. When the flyball stops pushing the shield (because Sydney needs to switch to the air-ball), the air outside the shield, getting pushed aside, can now push the shield. So the shield slows down very quickly, and occupants inside the shield, retaining their momentum, smash against the inside wall of the shield. We could imagine this impact causing Sydney to let go of the shield-orb (unless it is affixed to her hand by tape or something), after which Hiro needs to save everyone before they fall to the ground. Not a pretty picture!
All good points. You won’t catch me trying to crunch the numbers to find out how bad the drop might be though (ignoring any fumbles), as the math for that is pretty complex, and I only has four paws to help with my counting.
As you may have noticed, 4 is nearly indistinguishable from 400 in doggy math! Although I really should have spotted the difference between “4” and “more than 4”.
“Drop” is not the problem at all; I completely agree with DaveB about the rollercoaster descscription. I’m simply saying that drop isn’t the only factor at high speed, when Sydney stops holding the air-ball. I’m also saying, based on the images in the previous comic to this one, they are already at fairly high altitude (likely above the clouds level), and they have already been aboard the bus long enough to have discovered the deceleration effect of air resistance on the bubble, likely the very first time Sydney switched between fly-ball and air-ball. They should be fully aware that if Sydney needs to move that big bubble-bus at Mach 4, she is going to need a lot higher altitude (edge-of-space with visible curve-of-planet, likely).
I need to correct something I wrote, about her altitude limits being tested. Shortly after visiting Machina Industries to obtain a rebreather for use inside the shield, Maxima took Sydney out for an altitude test (page 418 /archive 2084). On that page Maxima decides to assume that Sydney can apparently reach unlimited altitude.
Of course at this current point in the story Sydney has the use of the AirBall and doesn’t need the rebreather. But it is certain she can reach whatever altitude needed to move the bubble bus at Mach 4 through minimum air resistance.
Agreed.
speed is a product of thrust. friction acts to slow things down. having Sydney push against Maxima or someone strong to get an idea of how much thrust she can put out would be a good way of judging her top speed. Also, her shield being all smooth and ultra hard would have a low coefficient of friction, reducing her horsepower requirements to achieve top speed. UNLESS! her flight abilities work some other way, like say, mini warp drive or something.
The flyball does work another way. Or at least it has more properties than just providing thrust. Amongst other things it provides a local gravity field, where Sydney can comfortably be at a different orientation to everyone else. Note how, if upside down, her hair hangs towards her feet, not the floor.
When you have a device that messes with a fundamental, like gravity, the usual laws about how physics operates cannot be stated with certainty.
No matter what the flyball currently does while Sydney holds it, it does none of that when she lets go, to use the air-ball. And as for the shield, while we know it can hold position relative to Sydney (recall Maxima pounding on it during Sydney’s formal interview-with-the-military), we also know Sydney can pretty-freely move around inside it (various comics in which she is off-center, or even –#279 / archive 1572– bump against the inside of the shield). Between the two of those things, it is problematic to assume that air resistance will affect the shield (make its motion slow), but on the other hand, where is the force coming from, to keep the shield moving through air resistance, when the fly-ball is not in use? When a commercial jet loses power (has happened sometimes in a heavy rainstorm; pilots can usually get the engines restarted), its aerodynamic shape and large total mass (with associated momentum) prevents drastic slowdown from air resistance, but the bubble bus does not have either. We might imagine Sydney harmlessly slowing down with the bubble, even if it is pretty sudden, due to various interaction-characteristics between them, but what about everyone else inside? They are not all as invulnerable as Achilles!
Speculative note: The shield orb’s skill set shows one branch full of already-selected nodes, with one node still to be selected. I’m wondering if at that final level it can shield against gravitation, like H.G.Well’s fictional “cavorite” in his book “First Men in the Moon”…. If so, there will no longer be any drop associated with Sydney letting go of the fly-ball!
The comment I was responding to only dealt with the flight and the flyball’s characteristics. Likewise the one it was replying to was commenting on flying (in that case Hiro), not the air refreshing.
Regarding the points you raise about the shield though, I wonder what air resistance a force field provides? It is all to easy to think of it like glass, but it is a phenomenon that we do not have any direct experience with. Maybe, as we are finding out with super materials, like graphene, force fields will have very unusual properties.
How they interact with air pressure may be one. As its role is to deflect incoming attacks, it is entirely feasible that it could deflect the incoming air, without suffering the equal and opposite effect that we might normally expect from that. After all Sydney did not go bouncing around the ballroom, when Maxima whacked the shield. The energy got absorbed somehow (with a certain amount spilling over from the noise of the blow).
I’m seeing a similarity between Sydney’s tether to the orbs (as portrayed early in the story) and Sydney’s relation to the shield. Per the tether, Sydney could move freely out to the limiting distance –OR the tube could be moved freely out to the limiting distance– but at the limiting distance, neither could make the other move.
Per the shield, Sydney activated it relative to a particular place on Earth, and she didn’t want it to move relative to that spot –so Maxima could not budge it, even as Sydney goaded Maxima while moving around inside the shield.
Now think about the battle at the (got demolished) restaurant, where Sydney activated her shield near the start, per Maxima’s command, and apparently kept it up continuously until the air got stale (#247 / archive #1476) –but both she and the shield moved freely around the scene (not counting #236 / archive #1422, which was a use of the comm-ball’s telepresence feature).
I’m tending to think Sydney might be able to will the shield to ignore air resistance, when driving the bubble bus. I dunno how long it might take her to think of trying it, though.
Well, if she turns up promptly behind Maxima, I think we can take it that the air resistance was not being a problem, one way or another.
Regarding “more properties of the fly-ball”, I am reminded of a singular node on the skill tree (page #181 / archive #1166), between the fly-ball and the weapon-ball, the only enabled node directly between two balls in the skill tree. I’ve been wondering if it represents some sort of combination feature, but maybe it is simpler than that. Perhaps, when holding the flyball, Sydney can use the weapon-ball, and vice-versa (which is the safe way to test this idea, to try flying while holding the weapon-ball). When all those connecting nodes get enabled, Sydney could hold any one ball but use all of them. Cool, huh!
Speculation is that is the ‘tank melting beam’, which can only be used when flying. Meaning that we have yet to see the basic operation of the PPO. Despite Sydney having already upgraded it, in her panic, to get the multiple fireball option.
Maybe the basic one summons a bunch of flaming squirrels, and when they see trees they go nuts?
Speculation is free, of course. As for myself, in looking at the skill-tree for the weapon, I see a string of connected nodes, of which three are enabled. If I compare that to a similar string associated with the flyball, or another similar string associated with the shield, I find it easy to conclude that we are talking about intensity levels for a particular feature. Sydney right-away mentioned that perhaps the node recommended-to-he for selecting might let her go even faster than Mach 4. And so I think the shield has another level of shielding available, and I think the weapon has two more levels of blast-power available.
That multi-shot blast could be the same total energy as the single blast, So if the max possible blast goes up, the multi-shot blast could be a more-numerous or more-rapid shot, see?
Not to mention a final point: When Sydney originally tested the red orb to see what it could do (portrayed as a flashback in #88 / archive #490), she was on the ground. That kind-of defeats the notion that the blast she used on the tank could only be used while flying.
Your final point is incorrect. That panel shows Sydney fighting the fire, not starting it. She started it with her flaming squirrels, not the tank melting beam. There was no tank in the forest so no need. :-P
You have still made a wrong assumption. Sydney did not know what the red orb could do until she tested it. And in #511 / archive #2459 (right after, on the previous page, she says “Eat what I just bought!”) she appears to be happy that the weapon is firing rapidly –as if she didn’t know it could do that. Therefore I submit that the tank beam is what she discovered in the forest, and what she expected to display to the press against the tank. And forests being crowded with plants, it doesn’t take lot to start a big fire (a single match sometimes does it, remember?).
Yes, she did just buy that. And yes she did not know that it could do rapid fire, as she had never used it before.
There is nothing about those statements which dictate that she used the tank melting beam in the forest. Those are exactly the same reactions you would expect either way.
By the way, it is not my theory that the skill node between the PPO & the Fly Ball is the tank melty beam. But nothing you have said refutes it.
All it takes is a single flaming squirrel to start a forest fire. You don’t need a tank melty beam to do that. ;-)
Regardless of whose notion it is, that the tank-cutting beam can only be used when the flyball is getting used, it doesn’t have any more support than the notion that that beam is available any time the PPO is held. Sydney knew what she could do with it, because she did it before. I note that during her introductory interview with Archon, she only said that the orb makes explodey beams, and she probably shouldn’t test it in the ball room –page #88 / archive #490– she said nothing about needing to be aloft to use it. Here’s something DaveB wrote in his commentary on that comic page:
Sydney’s obviously spent some time testing out the orbs, but as we see on this page, that sometimes proved hard to do without drawing attention to herself. She knows their basic functions but still has a lot to learn.
Considering that a significant purpose of that interview was to provide Archon with details of the orbs’ capabilities, it doesn’t make sense that she would leave out such a requirement as needing to fly to use the
fireball –new suggested name for the PPO!–
especially when, on page #98 / archive #589 she talks about having tried various different ways to use the orbs.
Well the reason why it is not my theory, is because it has holes in it. And you have just pointed out several key ones. :-)
So if we take it that is not the case, then yea, there is a possibility that it allows both the PPO and flyball to be used, when either is held. Although I am not keen on any of the various suggestions for ways that Halo can exceed her two orb limit, as it is pointless to put in sensible limitations on a character only to remove them like that.
Plus it would be a bit dull having quite so many skills doing exactly the same thing, on different orbs. But at least there would be that difference. And it is not completely unrestricted as it would only allow certain combinations.
But, once that last node was unlocked, there would be little point in reading the comic anymore, if your theory is right. If Halo could use all of her powers at will, with no limitations, then it would be tediously easy for her to overcome any challenge, and the story would become boring.
There would be little need for any other team members, as Sydney could handle most foes and disaster situations solo. So Halo’s adventures would be dull, and there would be no incentive for interacting with the team for anything other than social reasons. I have no interest in reading a cartoon soap.
A significant part of the story is about Sydney. I’ve encountered a number of web comics that had stories, and simply ended when the stories were done. So, perhaps this is the story of Sydney’s development with respect to the orbs and their use. It could end when Sydney enables the last node of the skill tree. And that could take a long time, given how many nodes there are, and especially with hints of nodes yet to be displayed in the tree (several threads containing nodes extend beyond the last node).
Nitro?
I’m sure she would say “Turbo” for the Galaxy Quest reference.
Also…
Maxima…wouldn’t communications use Codenames while on mission??
Honestly, are code names useful if they are public knowledge? I mean everybody knows Sidney is Halo. For most of the others, there code names are aberrations of there given names(max and hiro) or nicknames. With Dabbler I’m not sure, that could be a case of not using real name for magic reasons/name is alien and can’t be pronounced by a human anyway.
Dabbler’s (closest approximation that can be pronounced by humans, probably) name is Xuriel Shahara Tantalis. Then again, she knows just how powerful Name Magic can be.
Also, since her first name sounds like “Zuriel”, there maaay be a but of envy/ego going on. Or she’s an Eva fan.
Well, she doesn’t look like part of the Ko-Dan Armada…
Tantalus was cursed by Zeus to never be able to gain a cool drink of water or eat the low hanging fruit even though they were close to him in the depths of Tartarus. He could always see, but never can touch it. However for Dabbler she wants to be touched…
They’re a short hand for directing talk on a widely shared channel. numbers can get confused; real names may have overlap (how Bobs fly fighters right now?) and the military can choose names that don’t come close to “official” words. ( like NO “Fireball” if there’s a chance it will be mistaken for “Fire All!”
^ This.
They’re also usually only one or two syllables long, to make them short and easy to say. Camel, Calvin, Mounds, Splinter, Shock, Slaw, Banjo, Baja, Spider, etc.
It isn’t about secrecy; I mean, in the Air Force, your name and callsign is painted right below your cockpit. It’s about clear communication in a rapidly evolving situation.
Explain ‘Maverick’
You seem to have missed the key word in MSpears sentence…”usually”… that means that “sometimes” there are call signs with more or less than ‘two’ syllables
Well, hotshot know-it-all was too many syllables?
Heh.
A maverick doesn’t follow the rules?
Also, it could be pronounced as two syllables, Mav-rik.
Especially if the callsign arose because of an amusing incident between Mavis and Rick.
Page 158.. seems to be discretionary at the very least.
Yea. Their code names, in this organisation, are primarily for p.r. purposes. Given that they are all public knowledge, there is no security risk from using real names rather than code names.
So the most likely place that they may be ordered (or just requested) to stick to code names is in public appearances, especially ones promoting a new product range featuring the hero code names.
Ludicrous Speed!
Please, no one wants to see Sydney in plaid.
What if it is a plaid Catholic school outfit?
I would prefer to see her without it on. But neither is likely, given Sydney’s shyness.
Wait, you want to see Sydney out of her school-girl uniform? o_O
Yes. She is 21 now though, so I suspect it would not fit her anymore, in any event.
That’s the best time to wear it: when they are still fit butt don’t fit fully :P
Actually, Sydney looks like she hasn’t changed physically in some years (same height and weight)
I think the codenames where more for the public, and thus Arianna’s idea to sell more merch.
That or Max is REALLY confident that their channel’s are secured and Sciona can’t hear her.
As ZeDestructor pointed out, no: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1034 – Third panel
But I think that according protocol she should be using team names.
Although there is a good point to be made that addressing Sydney directly is more likely to grab her attention. Quite an important requirement when considering her distractible nature.
Depending on angle, Sci-fright could have spotted Maxi reflected in the water
Kind of doubt that one. The waves distort the image too much to see such small details at such distances.
And the only image Sciona could make out (visually speaking that its) depends on how the light reflects from Maxima, then from Max to Sciona’s eyes. As you pointed out, open bodies of water are very rarely smooth enough for a good reflection, but there’s also the increased distance that the light has to travel. As DaveB pointed out, Max was already 1 km above Sciona, so the light would have to go past her for however high her altitude is before reflecting off the water, then reach Sciona. In effect, the image that Sciona might see would be at an overall distance of 1 km + 2xSciona’s altitude.
Visually speaking, Sciona would have to have very good eyes just to see anything more than a small dot that’s also distorted by the rippling water.
She has to be using better than merely visual senses.
Theres a “bip” sound and a map-like square with a red dot in it, proyected on her transparent visor in the 2nd panel accompanied by a questioning expression. I think it is pretty clear that Sciona’s armor has a HUD. Most likely magical in nature.
There’s no ‘map-like square with a red dot in it’
There is a square of light, there is also a long rectangle of light and a circle of light, butt those are probably just caused by the light, butt there is no red dot on her visor
I agree with Haaly. You are looking for a discreet red spot, but it is a diffuse one (making it very faint), that is almost verging on pink. It is in the top right hand corner of the rectangle (from our perspective). Taken with the fact that Sciona is clearly looking down at it (as opposed to up at Maxima, or craning her neck around) and there is the “BIP” onomatopoeia, I never took it as anything other than being a Heads Up Display.
Hence my initial comment about liking Sciona’s use of magic and technology. This harks back to Sciona having been alerted to Pixel’s presence (despite being stealthy and invisible) through her ‘wards’.
Here we are seeing something with a distinctively technological look to it. And it may well be just that. Some high tech woman portable mini radar (or exotic alien equivalent). However the fact that we know Sciona uses (presumably) magical wards gives us the possibility that the detection is using magic, integrated with her HUD to give her a visual (and audio) warning of an approaching enemy.
Was meaning after the BIPs-up, she could have looked down at the water to confirm the golden party-pooper on her tail
Took a bit of zooming in and viewing the screen from different angles to spot the pink triangle, butt it’s clearly not there in the following panel
Probably just because Maxima is at the limit of Sciona’s detection range. What with Max hanging back, for discreet tailing purposes, it is logical that she may move in and out of that extreme range, in the process.
Well, she did get a ‘heads up’ from her armor so she probably wasn’t looking for something like that.
Though it’s a nice moonlit evening/night and Maxima may be visible by reflection you’d have to look up and spot a small moving light. A light which has a tail like a comet btw so that might make it easier.
But spotting such a reflection in choppy water is unlikely given the amount of moonlight reflected off the waves.
Let’s see if a plummeting GEoD is faster than a speeding dragon-fly :D
Underestimating the enemy 101.
Yes, Maxi has a lot to learn, again…
… sorry guys, not buying it.Max is right- Sciona causes any sort of havoc on the bridge Max has to do S+R and lose her(the only way Max could stay engaged would be if Halo+Co.were a LOT closer than they apparently are- i.e., in visual range of Max).Protecting the Veil doesn’t even register as a concern; protecting civilians does…
…aannd I didn’t see Yuffiek’s comment below because I didn’t refresh the page before I put my 2 cents in…
I just so want to shout out ” Incinerate her lower half if you have to Max she can probably survive that. After all she survive being little more than the upper portion of the head for who knows how many years.”
to be fair, there was a lot of ork attached to that upper head.
That is a fair point.
Still a clever line of thought, if seeking a less-lethal solution.
Whereas if wishing to guarantee to risk to the civilian population travelling over the bridge, aiming for the upper half is advised. For the same reason.
Hopefully,when this is over,the team should discuss how to do handle Sciona and if Sydney should be court martialed for her lateness?!?
Why do you assume Sydney was late? Anvil was there to motivate her. They probably had the big, obvious bubble lagging behind Maxima to avoid being spotted as easily.
Why would Sydney be late? The plan changed, that’s the reason she is now ordered to accelerate.
No lateness, Sydney and Alpha Team were heading towards where Wyrmoot was attacked, Maxi went ahead to see if she could pick up Sci-fright’s trail and tail her
Ok a couple oh points. Odds are there is an AWAC aircraft up there, the do training and certification flights almost year round over the us, they don’t need to be right on top of you.
Second Halo is flying a group at sub sonic speed because she has Hiro flying overwatch.
Third Google a map of the US showing the Dallas Pittsburg St Louis are, what the AWAC team needs to do is plot an intercept direction and point based on Maxes and Sydney’s current speed. You do this because you want The intercep point to be in front of where max and Sciona is now because if you can’t fly instantly to a point, flying to that point only gets you miles behind, and that leaves max with 2 bad options, flying solo leaving her backup behind, or ordering Sidney to go super sonic and climb to minimize the overpresure shock from a 3m + diameter supersonic cannonball.
“engaging nitro!” It will be interesting to figure out how much faster Sidney can go.
If she can go significantly faster, will the force bubble change shape or is it just more power? It has been shown and discussed that it can form avoiding solids so when Sidney goes supersonic will the bubble become more aerodynamically suitable? If it does, it’s probably an automatic reaction, since I don’t remember Sidney having much flight experience.
If the shield can be influenced by Sidney the in-flight scenario could be something like Sidney accelerating and imagining or thinking of an supersonic plane with the orb filling in the gaps.
If that’s possible the next step might be an Armor-style forcefield.
On the other hand, if it’s done by using more force, the question is; how much power is available?
If the current bubble can accelerate to beyond Mach 1, can a bigger bubble do the same?
Also if the bubble could be big enough to fit the Osprey would Sidney be able to get it into the air and move at an usable speed?
The orbs have some limits so where should the flight- and shield-orb’s capabilities end?
Also, supersonic flight may require a wasp-like curve to the shield. not just an ellipsoid, but an ellipsoid with a narrow waist.Look at most supersonic fighters today – all have a point where the fuselage narrows (usually about half way). Compared to early supersonics (X-1, X-15) without it – the X1 had problems passing mach because dynamic forces have a peak right where later jets have that constriction.
Actually the wasp waist is only required when you have wings, its all to do with the rate your aerodynamic cross section changes – that’s why the various rockets and bullets are vaguely cylindrical without a pinched waist. Boeing 747’s are particularly efficient because the cockpit and the ‘top deck’ help ramp up its cross section gradually as you reach the wings.
The name I was looking for is ‘Area Rule’ aka Whitcomb or Transonic Area Rule.
Don’t forget, flight-orb gives the propulsion and lift so no need for wings, air-intakes, etc.
That means that the shield, depending on how much it can be reshaped, could theoretically be a perfect aerodynamic form. Also additions like dimples (as present on golf balls) or sharkskin-like textures could improve speed.
If the field remains rigidly spherical, you ought to see some AWESOME cavitation on the trailing hemisphere…
Which at mach4 and low altitude might make a sonic boom that destroys near by towns.
“If that’s possible the next step might be an Armor-style forcefield.”
Now that’s a thought. I’ve thought that bubble + fly was a weird combination with needing to switch out one for air with long trips as that means you either have to drop shield (deathly wind-wall) or drop fly (sudden free-fall). But despite trying multiple body parts, she’s never tried activating an orb WITH an orb, and they respond to mental commands for movement. So Air & Shield, make shield-armor with mentally controlled hands surrounding existing hands, that can, in turn, grasp more orbs.
I’m guessing that one of the as-yet-unavailable features of some of the orbs is a “set and forget” ability. So, turn on the shield, activate set-and-forget, and then let go of the orb and grab another orb, yet the shield stays up. Having that for the air-making orb would be useful, too. At the rate the story is progressing, though, it might be a long time before we see any such feature become available. More likely we will sooner see Varia (the Boston/Aztec team-member) using some of the orbs (see #324 / archive #1751, where the orbs orbit both Sydney and Varia).
Max if the first words from your mouth are questioning her intelligence. Then you are underestimating her. Because bolts fired from the visible hero toward the masked by the veil villainess means you will look to be attacking civilians.
A civilian who’s supersonic. In the air.
Without an airplane.
Wonder how the Veil conceals her nature in this situation even if no one’s attacking her.
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
Yea, one or the other, now keep your eyes on the road, before you crash.
I rarely look up…The pigeons love it when you do that.
Especially when you look up in surprise with your mouth open.
No one has ever mistaken me for Superman…
Yet you keep insisting on wearing your underwear outside your trousers anyway, hoping that one day they will…
I think Wee Red Bird is super, man.
And even has a suitably coloured name.
It’s a birdplane!
Or a drone.
These days every single unknown object in the sky is immediately regarded as a drone by people. Check pretty much every youtube video about UFOs, high atmospheric life forms, flying people, ect…the most prevalent these days explanations that people accept without question is “drones”.
and yes drones can be mistaken for stuff….but things before drones were common is just dismissed, nope its all drones today. Almost feels like an actual psychic veil in the works sometimes.
With her light wings, size, blinky bits on her armor, going to say easiest mental mask is a drone.
Max could care less how things look. PR is Arianna’s headache to deal with.
Max is operating on a “Sciona is presenting an imminent threat to civilians.” premise, because Max knows she can slice those suspension cables in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Max’s only current option to engage is her golden “Fuck You” beam.
A very VISIBLE and overpowering attack against a small, Veil cloaked target.
And she did kind of freak people out nuking the tank at the press conference…
Max: “That mosque was an accident!”
You can do everything right, and still be vilified by public opinion.
“You can do everything right, and still be vilified by public opinion.”
Hence, don’t even bother with doing it right … end result is same and its much easier way.
That’s the shit way to do, well, anything, and we saw that with the previous four POTUS: don’t do what is ‘right’, do what will get the most public approval, and if you do it well enough, you will get a Nobel Peace Prize within weeks of rigging the election
Trump was only nominated fraudulently, and has not actually received a prize. Although I do agree that publicly calling on Russia to hack his presidential rival’s emails, and offering them rewards for doing so, via the US press, was a horrendous breach of electioneering protocol.
And especially damning now that we know Russia took him up on the invitation and were actively interfering in the campaign, to Trump’s advantage.
Although, for the sake of balance, I should point out that the Republican party has concluded that Trump was not in collusion with Russia in doing this.
Interestingly though Barack Obama did receive a Nobel Peace Prize, and that was early enough in his presidency to spark controversy. Which is easy to see why, given that the committee has also previously nominated Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin for Peace Prizes.
However, in Obama’s case they did so because he had shifted the White Houses policy from the warlike strategies of the previous administration to ones promoting more peaceful solutions. A gamble which did pay off as he kept to those policies.
Not that I am claiming that his were necessarily the best policies available. But they were more peaceful in contrast to Bush’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Probably best not to dwell on the Peace Prize committee’s decisions too much mind, given their controversial nominations over the years. And we would not want this thread to become a political flame war. In the past, DaveB has asked us to avoid contemporary politics.
Wasn’t talking about Strump
“Early enough in his presidency”? He had barely even reached the Inauguration when they handed over the PP to the dropkick
Ahh, I discounted Obama, given your line about “… rigging the election”. Given that there was no credible evidence even hinting at this.
Discounting the usual lies by the bloke who’s name I will not mention. But he does rather epitomise the joke about how you can tell if a politician is lying. Namely that his lips are moving. Given that any given speech of his usually contains several, it is vital to have a reliable debunking process for anything he claims.
Even today it is reported how he was boasting about purposefully lying to another national leader, during important negotiations. Bad enough to do that, in the first place, but even worse to be proud having done so!
PLEASE, LET US REFRAIN FROM POLITICAL STATEMENTS ON THIS FORUM!
Sorry to shout, but if I want to read insults and taunts
I can peruse the comment sections below news items on Yahoo.
Perfectly understandable, and my apologies.
the veil doesn’t make things invisible, it makes them less noticeable. without Max people probably wouldn’t see her, but with her being shot at, they’d have to see SOMETHING, just not something magical.
It will either look like she is taking out another flying super or taking out a giant seagull.
or taking out small plane, or gigantic mosquito
Or a flying mosque
I’d imagine the Veil is doing little or nothing – she looks like a person in flying powered-armor, which is a perfectly reasonable NON-MAGIC explanation in this setting. At most her wings might be dressed up as more metal than glowie.
Supers coming out has taken a huge burden off of the Veil. The ‘new normal’ is quite malleable…
Also the whole, MAX is a military officer. She has all the legal rights to fire on anyone she deems a threat.
And just like real military (or police), she has to have probable cause before she even whips out her guns
She does have probable cause.
Agreed. Sciona has already attempted to kill a room full of people, with a surprise attack, and likewise has assaulted (/batteried for Americans) Pixel and Sydney, illegally imprisoning the former and possibly attempting murder (/homicider) against the latter. And now, upon spotting Maxima’s approach, she has made an abrupt diversion towards a bridge.
Maxima is having to make a judgement call as to whether Sciona is doing so for innocuous reasons, or to attack it. Given that she has already damaged a Sigil, in an attempt to lower The Veil, and further attacked Pixel, Krona and Halo on an exposed rooftop, in sight of a city, Sciona is showing a pattern of behaviour of:
1) Surprise attacks, with intent to injure or kill
2) A desire to do so in a public way
3) A complete disregard for human life
So Maxima can easily justify prioritising public safety over the possibility that Sciona is not making this approach with nefarious reasons in mind.
For info I had exactly the same approach to the metropolitan police shooting dead a suspect believed to be in possession of explosives, who they followed into a tube station. Even though he subsequently turned out to be innocent, they had probable cause, at the time of having to make the judgement call.
Had I been called for jury duty, and the facts presented had remained as per those in news reports, I would have found the officers making that call to be not guilty of any crime.* They had been told that he had explosives. Any challenge could have allowed him to detonate such before they could stop him. As he was already in position to kill many people, the loss of his life was justified, to prevent that risk.
The same goes for Maxima here. Sciona has already shown that she has devices capable of defeating Maxima, and people’s lives are in risk. So lethal force is justified, if that is what Maxima has in mind with her attack.
* The ones who botched the investigation and got the background intelligence wrong is another matter, which may or may not have been justifiable. But the officers having to make the ‘kill/do not kill’ decision have to act on the facts as presented to them.
Oh, and forgot to mention the fact that Sciona is believed to be in possession of multiple weapons of mass destruction. Which rather ramps up the anti from just being the people on the bridge being at risk. Mind you that is sufficient in its own right.
As it happens Sciona only has the one artefact, but Maxima has to make her judgement based on the facts known to her at the moment. Maxima does not know that it is actually Deus who has the rest.
You mean the facts, given to her by a lying sack of smug shit? The same lying sack of smug shit that has multiples more weapons of mass destruction? That he was willing to sell to a known wanted criminal?
Are those the facts you are talking about? Or different facts?
Have you seen anything to support Maxima knowing that he is lying? I certainly have not. Whilst we have seen Archon conduct due diligence in investigating him, that is normal for anybody in a role vital to national security. Rather we do know that Maxima trusts him enough to allow him to retain the geode that triggered her gaining super powers.
Not that she is blindly trusting mind. Given that she admonished Sydney not to discuss confidential information in earshot of a device provided by him. But that can be put down to him having a reputation for knowing a lot more than he should.
Which itself we saw, given Deus teasing Sydney by strongly implying to her that he is aware of things that The Veil should have hidden from him.
And the rest of it she is completely unaware of, so that should not factor into her decision making process at all. You need to separate our knowledge, as readers, from hers. Otherwise you will not be able to judge her actions correctly.
Didn’t say that she knew those facts, just when we are talking about hypothetical fact-knowledge, we must acknowledge all fact, not just those we like
It has nothing to do with liking or not liking. It has to do with being relevant.
She still has to prove it, both cases
No she does not. Proof is not required in an emergency situation. In a time-critical life-or-death scenario our police are expected to use their judgement to make a reasonable call using a ‘on the balance of probability’ basis.
This is distinct from the standard required in a criminal court, where a suspect is judged ‘without the shadow of a doubt’. Courts can examine situations at their leisure, calling whatever experts may be useful, to provide testimony.
Likewise being able to have scientific tests created, simulations run and getting informed argument for both sides of a prosecution, and even taking out days or weeks just for ‘thinking time’ for a judge and potentially weeks or months of debate amongst the jury.
Most of which will not be available to a cop having to make a ‘shoot/do not shoot’ decision. Hence why they are not required to use the same criteria as a court does.
Hence why a cop will be found ‘not guilty’ even if shooting a kid with a toy gun, if it appeared to be a real weapon being aimed at them or someone else. This is why the UK has very strict laws prohibiting realistic looking toy weapons. The US less so, but still having some.
Apparently wrapping the end of the weapon in orange tape, to show that it is a toy is sufficient!
Not at the time she doesn’t have to prove anything, it’s afterwards when she has to explain what happened to the bridge, that is when she is going to have to justify and prove her actions
Yes. Which she will be able to do easily. She is acting in the defence of the people on the bridge against someone who has attempted mass murder, and has been on a killing spree, including several attempts against the lives of police officers.
Maxima will not have any difficulty getting the internal investigations team and the public prosecutor to agree with that. So, beyond testifying at an inquest, should Sciona die, there would not be much for her to do.
Maybe make a few appearances on talk shows, so that the public can get to hear what happened, directly from her?
Your convinently forgetting that the US literaly went to war with the objective of taking out the existing head of state of not one but two governments. Panama and Iraq.
I will grant that in Panama we did have evidence to convict Noriega, but you do remember how many nukes Sadam had built?
Sorry replied to the wrong post.
The problem is that at this point all Arc knows is that someone broke in and ripped off a vault load of loot and objects of unknown but implied (to us ) threat.
We may be looking at a One Ring level threat, we may be looking at something not even close to that. (Seriously one of the items summoned a tentical monster who likes to watch cooking showes and sex….seriously the guy might get a job in Japan if he’s not careful.)
They had figured out that Sciona had been there (as per the dialogue in panel 1).
I think we can take it that big blood teleportals are distinctive enough a signature that they could discount any other subjects. On top of which Crimson had picked up a clue about ‘creepy looking dolls’ earlier, which is another of Sciona’s signature magics.
Not to mention having pretty much figured out that she was behind this, even before entering. Given that Sciona was the one who tricked them into lowering the magical world-wide web, so that the alarm signal could not be picked up remotely.
Maybe not enough to convict ‘without a shadow of a doubt’ (but only if there is somebody else in the world who could make a blood portal), however it is certainly a sufficient body of evidence to justify making Sciona (and her accomplices) their prime and only suspects.
They literally have no other clues (at this time) that anybody else was involved.
Hmm are the forums glitching?
Sorry for the confusion, I was refering to an earlyer post.
I was refering to the disconnect between what we know, and what ARC knows. Basicaly at this point, we know more than both ARC and Sciona, on this topic, but not as much as Dave, This is always something to keep in mind.
She hasn’t been on a killing spree: name me one person she has allegedly killed who has staid dead? What’s that? You can’t? Damn right you can’t, because there isn’t even one
Oh, and apart from the only mass murder attempt (against the people who had failed to kill her, and keeping a global secret from the public), the only time she has knowingly even threatened the life of a police officer is when they have attacked her
Oh back to this rubbish again? I get bored with listing the facts over and over again.
1) Attempted mass murder in the twilight council chamber. Her reason for it is irrelevant it is still attempted murder.
2) Attempted murder of various police in the twilight council chamber. No the police did not attack her. They were just sitting at a table!
3) Kidnapping, assaulting, and draining the blood of Pixel. Given that this was not being done in a controlled fashion, but just leaving her bleeding unattended. This would also fully justify yet another charge of attempted murder. Anyone without regeneration would have died, and Sciona had no way to know that Pixel could regenerate.
No Pixel did not attack her. She was strictly on a scouting mission. So any wounds Sciona suffered were from Pixel defending herself.
4) Kidnapping, assaulting and draining the blood of various other victims, including a dark elf. On the same grounds, attempted murder is yet again a justified charge, as their survival was through police rescue. Being left to bleed, unattended, like that would certainly kill them otherwise.
And note that they could well have actually died the first time round, just like Sydney. Only the reset and Sydney having seen them would have allowed prompt medical attention to save their lives. You die really fast when a bucket full of blood has been drained out of you!
5) Attempted (and possibly actual) murder of Sydney. That attack Sciona was making was not a controlled medical procedure, it was a stab aimed at Sydney’s chest!
Getting raised from the dead does not turn a murder into ‘not a murder’.
5) Attempted murder of Halo, Krona and Harem.
No, yet again (note on a THIRD occurrence) the police did not attack Sciona. They were standing on a roof talking to each other!
6) Attempted murder of Anvil and Maxima.
Note that they were responding to an attack on police officers, so their actions are not an attack they are a defence (in military terms, a counter-attack, in legal terms a defence). Plus they never got near Sciona, so you are talking rubbish on all counts!
And I told you before that I am not going to put “attempted” in front of it every time I say that she is a murderess. Just because her opponents are more competent than her does not stop her from being on a killing spree. Trying to kill people on multiple occasions fully justifies that characterisation!
didn’t the fairies guarding one the veil sigil sites suffer massive casualties.
We know that a sigil was destroyed. I assumed there would likely have been casualties, but if it wasn’t said so explicitly, in canon, Guesticus would not accept that as having happened.
Mind you likely even if it was, going by recent form. Possibly murdering the protagonist, plus definitely murdering Cooter and Wyrmil all being fine, ‘because they got better’.
Like said: the only time knowingly even threatened a police officer (emphasis on ‘knowingly’) is when they attacked her
Also, again, no one she has killed has staid dead, she knows all about Wyrmie, so the reason she used his face to get that device could be because she knew he would be fine
You are really bad at reading what people actually type, and going by what you believe they meant
And you seem to be ignoring the fact that they were in uniform. Besides which she was trying to kill people. She does not have to know whether they are cops or not for her that to be attempted murder.
Sciona did not know that Cooter would get better. He is human. He could not. Likewise Sydney.
Stop making pathetic excuses. Sciona is a murderer. None of your arguments carry any water at all.
She’s not invisible, the veil is doing some psychic glamor stuff, what it covers them up with and the specifics we can guess at unless DaveB wants to do a long time unseen science corner page… but I’d guess it would be in this day and age with Sciona’s armor being all light bits and her wings…a drone.
It will look like Maxima is shooting down a drone, if so easily covered up (runaway drone on a crash course for a bridge had to be shot down before it collided with the bridge or anyone on it).
Heh. I love Sciona’s mix of technology and magic. She isn’t a blood mage. Sciona is a techno blood mage.
“Techno Blood Mage” sounds like it could be a nineties superhero.
Or a death metal band.
Given the number of Cyber Death Squad X-treme type teams in the numerous short lived series by indie comics during the nineties I wouldn’t be surprised if there was.
‘wetware mage’ ;)
Hm… it’s getting very Shadowrun in here…
Deus runs a megacorp, he’s obviously the real villain!
Don’t let the lawyer see you type those slanderous lies!!
He he he.
i think that by the fifth image it is already an UAV and Sciona jumped down over that piece of forest
Maybe, but the wings are part of her not her armour. She could have decoy extra ones but so far she hasn’t shown any inclination to do subtle.
I’m pretty sure Sciona would have reached the bridge before Maxima and Sydney could finish that conversation.
This comic has a standing rule of ‘talking is a free action’. That way Dave does not have to sit up at night, with a stopwatch, exchanging dialogue with his wife, before he can even start drawing a scene.
that seams to be a very common comics all the one liners, in a real battle there would never be enough time for grand standing.
This is why, as a Villain, you need to make all your gear run on voice commands, and everything uses sonic attacks.
Shout Mau’dib for the win! (Or maybe be Dhovakin? A villainous Dhovakin shouting Mau’dib when talking is a free action?
Yea, when he started the comic, Dave sat down and decided what aspects of the super hero genre were good and contributed positively to the comic he envisioned. And which were flawed or did not match his artistic vision.
As Dave enjoys drawing pretty girls, having a good physique (for guys or gals) was on the ‘keep’ list. Whilst unrealistic poses, scanty outfits (except for characters who enjoy looking like strippers) and portraying vigilantism as socially acceptable went to the ‘loose’ list.
Banter though is something which positively enhances the comic experience. And can be at its finest if performed in the heat of a battle. Personally it is one of the reasons I am a Spidey fan, as that is one of his signature techniques.
Hence why I am very glad that Dave decided that realism could take a back seat, to ensure that witty repartee could happen.
Likewise, should the worst come to pass, we can expect a dying character to get some last words.
Pretty much like we saw Cooter saying ‘bitch’, despite his chest, vocal chords and tongue being bisected. Not that dying is a problem for him, it is just a regular occupational hazard, for having a ‘bad power’.
“Having a bad power’…. also sometimes referred to as “Blessed With Suck”.
No, I won’t link to TV Tropes. You’re welcome.
I will,
because I am classic evil…or chaotic neutral evil by perception…orange/blue morality.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlessedWithSuck
Also in my own world I tend to refer to many powers like this as
either
Z-class: Powers with some limitation or counter point *lacking a secondary power, or is traded for an equivalent ability* that make them points.
see “Aquarium Man” who can breathe underwater, but only in freshwater, can’t dive much deeper than a regular person, and can’t breathe air anymore since he got his powers.
or
Class Reduction Affect: When the individual’s power should have a certain class rank, but due to a negative side effect or lack of control reduces its usefulness.
see *Psychokinesis* easy to activate, nearly impossible to aim or control and takes more effort to stop than it did to turn on. Compare with telekinesis which takes more effort to use, less strength, but easy to turn off.
*Faucet example. Telekinesis is like a faucet that is very hard to turn even enough to make a tiny drip, making it very impressive to get much out of it. Meanwhile Psychokinesis is like a faucet where you barely tap it and it explodes all over the kitchen and you have to struggle to turn it off as the pressure fights back.
*see also Captain Overkill type powers where your power could make you a superhero but its 100% lethal and/or destructive with no feats or go between *Cyclops from the X-men has his special visor to focus his otherwise insta-kill beams , zero to ten billion, either its off or its leveling the parking lot, sucking the life from every living thing around you, blowing up the immediate area around you in some fashion, summoning cataclysmic disasters, storms of chaos magic, opening the gates of a dark netherworld unleashing primal emotion driven abominations mixed with your own dark internal psyche following your most basic subconscious urges outside your conscious control…and so forth.
Also stuff like pyrokinesis but you aren’t fire proof, cryokinesis but the cold still hurts you, particle beam powers but no dimension warp counterbalance to the equal and opposite reaction *AKA: your beam powers throw you backwards like a rocket.
Although I imagine the *Power induced carelessness* gets points. Or like Maxima was talking Wolverine before where writers have to show off a power like that where they get this secondary “bad luck power” that targets them. But Sydney’s point of “take more hits because you can handle it* Deadpool does that, he becomes careless in battle because he knows it can’t kill him..which is canon and has led to his defeat a few time *yeah can’t be killed, that doesn’t mean you can’t be incapacitated, locked away, or thrown so far by a Hulk that you are no longer a factor in the fight.
Two of my favorite examples from the Blessed With Suck pages:
First is the guy who has the ability to explode… but without the Required Secondary Powers to survive the explosion. So his only power is to die, and take people in the immediate area with him. Maybe not so bad if you have a martyr complex, but otherwise it sucks like an Electrolux.
The other one is the guy with the ability to see visions from whatever he eats. Sounds like fun, but imagine eating a hamburger and receiving all the memories of the cow… up to the point of its death. That would also suck. If I had that power, it is probably the only thing that would convince me to go vegan.
When staying with a friend last year I saw a really good zombie show on Netflix. I have always enjoyed them and gave them a free +2 rating to account for poor budgets for such movies, back in the day. So I was not too bothered when the title screen made it look cheesy.
So was pleasantly surprised at how in depth it was. Including the feature that the zombies were intelligent, but more than that they gained the memories of whoever’s brain they ate. Logically enough.
Meaning that the series overlapped with other genres too, as the heroine worked for a police coroner’s department, doing autopsies. And was partnered with a cop. To him she pretended that she was psychic, to account for her visions.
So it was a zombie/detective/psychic series. But there was more than that too. It also regularly gave cookery tips on how to prepare human brains, to make them more appetising!
Mmm.
That wouldn’t happen to have been ‘iZombie’, was it?
Thats the one :)
Could’t recall the title, and hoped someone would supply it.
The lead actress is a kiwi :D
Pretty sure she was a human. Maybe a zombie? If so, I hope she does not get type-cast!
until you experience the “alien” but very real sensations a plant feels up till it being killed.
*sniff*
Poor little planties!
What Yorp said.
That, of course, leaves the question how fast and accurate Maxima can throw her ball of energy!
It needs to be as fast as a (guided) rocket if it is supposed to intercept Sciona. And the explosive force should not damage/destroy the bridge while, hopefully, still stopping Sciona.
Remember that Maxima’s top speed is classified. She might be able to get closer to Sciona faster than her energy bolt (plasma, for example, does not travel through air at the speed of light), before loosing that bolt upon Sciona.
A person sized object (or a person) traveling at supersonic speeds at treetop level is going to produce a noticeable shock wave at ground level. Sciona should be leaving a trail behind her in the water.
Also, Sciona’s three sets of wings reminds me of a WWI triplane. This is going to be a good aerial dogfight. (note to Max: You are going to need a white silk scarf to go with that leather coat.)
At last, now I am in my element.
I am prepared for …
… a dogfight!
Guess she should have flown more of a.. *cough* dog leg course to make her harder to intercept?
So brutal that things must come to such violence, it’s a real dog-eat-dog world sometimes…
Maxima would have still been dogging her.
I think Sciona is about to have a ruff day.
I’m not much of a pilot, so I have to settle for hand-to-hand combat.
Ooops! Something wrong with that link…Stand by…Stand by…
…
…
https://d28mt5n9lkji5m.cloudfront.net/i/YS54TMTgtu.jpg
I dunno about “dogfight”. There will initially be two women involved in the upcoming conflict. Doesn’t that mean it qualifies as a “cat fight”? Another fight Sciona was involved in, very recently (2nd panel of page #603 / archive #2762), and involving another apparent female (Vale), was called exactly that.
So it’s probable that currently she is flying SUB-sonic at this time.
First supersonic to get some distance from where she sliced and diced Cooter and now going low and slow to get to her base of operations unnoticed.
Nah, more like a dragonfly, unless you mean head-on tri-plane (from above they look just like a regular bi-plane)
I’m thinking Pkunk Fury. Which I think makes Maxima the Ur-Quan Dreadnought.
Dave says it’s “a good thing” Maxima caught up with Sciona. We’ll see how this pans out before we make such judgement.
Lots of Radar can hit supersonic, she’s a little small but you can’t actually spot a plane by eyesight unless you’re a few miles away which is vanishingly unlikely at those speeds. They must have eyes on her some how.
Radar can go far beyond supersonic. Light is approximately 1 million times faster than sound through air, so until relativistic Doppler effects start to become prominent (when bogey’s v >1% c) it’s perfectly usable without modification.
I believe his implication was she would be out of line of sight in the valleys. Not that radar cant catch her. So the source of the radar would have to be overhead.
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Here comes a battle for the ages!
Wonder what bridge that is…it’s too small to be the Golden Gate, though it has a similar design. (Golden Gate is 6 lanes and more than a mile long, and has a bit of an arch to it making it much higher above the water in the center, while this looks to be two lanes, fairly flat and about 500 feet or so long)
Too bad the bridge doesn’t have railroad tracks. Max could do the traditional stunt of laying across the damaged section as the oncoming train (probably filled with nuns or orphans) passes over.
Aww. So, all she can do is save Jimmy Olsen and the school bus, then?
Which Jimmy though? o_O
You’ve never seen Superman the Movie?
Was referring to both “Smallville“, which had two Jimmy’s, and “SuperGirl” with a black Jimmy
Nuns ‘or’ orphans? Why not both? Even better, the Scraps of Hope Orphanage and Bunny Rehab could be doing a field trip, chaperoned by the nuns from outside the bank!
.somewhere in PA or Ohio- no NJ bridges match the terrain (lifetime NJ resident )…
Based on the apparent length of the bridge, it’s spanning a major body of water. Because of how close those waterways are to each other (Sciona just flitted over a little island to aim for the bridge), I’m thinking a reservoir? That would narrow it down to probably being over the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers.
Now we see why Deus seduced Sciona in the previous comics. He got her all tired out so she would be easier to catch. What a noble sacrifice on his part.
could be just happy side effect … I highly doubt Deus had more intention behind seducing than get to new conquest and another bragging right
Made me laugh.
I don’t even want to think of the damage Syd chould do hitting something at mach 4 (I think that was her top speed) with the shield orb at the size it is with everyone inside..
I don’t even want to think of the damage Syd could do flying to close to something super sonic. The shock waves are quite destructive.
What if Syd is going mach 4 and then hits the “embiggener” button like at the press conference?
Hard to tell, as it really just comes down to mass and velocity.
The shield dosen’t really add any mass and the various people in there aren’t really a solid single mass, which would create weird values as they rattle around in the shield on impact (assuming that there are no magical inertial damping going on).
Further, does Sydney really have any mass with her flight orb?
At any rate, the cast page is not listing character specifics, but assuming Sydney is 5’2″ and an average 120lbs (54.4311 kilograms) and going the speed of Mach 4 (3069.08 mph), then according to this web site (https://www.1728.org/energy.htm), Sydney would release 5.1229e+7 joules of energy, which is 0.012244 ton of TNT.
Now how hard would that be and how much impact force would it create? Yeah, there wasen’t a website for that. https://www.wired.com/2014/07/how-do-you-estimate-impact-force/
Mass and velocity is what you need if she hits something. For shockwave through air you need cross-sectional area and velocity so the shield would add a lot to that.
With the larger sheild, her top speed might be lower. Her energy would still be very high though. It might even be higher than top speed by herself.
It would only be lower to reduce the air-disturbance
Her energy could be higher because of the greater mass from her passengers. Energy is mass multiplied by speed. To find out whether she has more energy by herself or with passengers, you’d have to calculate her energy without passengers (top speed of small shield times her mass) and her energy with passengers (top speed of big shield times collective mass of all passengers), and compare the two.
DaveB: The effect of the telescopic lens (it would only be called telephoto when it’s an attachment for a photographic camera) is called foreshortening, and is most often seen during televised motor racing (particularly Formula 1), where it sometimes presents the unusual illusion of the car that is further away appearing slightly larger than the nearer car.
Probabl should’ve been underwater or near the water where most things would be nebulous read outs at best for tracking her.
I wonder if her plan. is to hit her with blast or just cause a big ass blast in front of her
Looking at her past actions she’s brutal enough that she’d take out a bridge just to distract Max.
They could have used a satellite to track wind turbulence and corresponding light trail signature.
The really surprising thing is that her HUD still works…
It looks like only the clear part is broken. Most visor-type huds just reflect a projected image. The project might still be intact.
Sonic booms can really tear up the water, might wanna draw that
It’s a supersonic flight. Gotta keep it going.
Yeah lazy close camera shots. One of the things that always bugged me (greatly) about StarTrek (et.al.) space battles with ships taking pot-shots at each other from point blank range when in reality the ships would be far out of sight of Mark I Eyeball. David Weber has aced the description of space battles. Regarding AWACs, probably not as a human body gives a very poor radar return although it might get hits off her equipment. Then again, as an ‘artificer’ Sciona has no doubt stealthed her stuff.
Just finished reading the comments.
First off, Dave plainly states that Sciona is NOT supersonic. That said a human body moving at very fast subsonic speed, say 500MPH, would be a very difficult visual target. First hand experience at trying to spot traffic from a ATC warning while flying a RV-1D Mohawk with excellent observation characteristics. We were at 10k AGL and the traffic was approaching from the right and below us or so ATC thought. Finally spotted a small civilian aircraft about two thousand feet below us but it was difficult to see. If it had been Sciona sight seeing over Germany I doubt I would have seen her human sized body. Max with her super sight would probably be the only one able to track Sciona.
max STOP YOU’RE GOING TO HIT THE BRIDGE
MAX: Oh dear, the bridge has hit you. Again, and again. Oh, you think you are getting up do you. Think again!
(Maxima continues hitting Sciona repeatedly over the head, with a massive section of the bridge, driving her into the bedrock next to the riverbank)
MAX: I know what you did with my ex, you bitch!
(Maxima drops bridge club, slows breathing, and turns camera and microphone back on)
MAX (into microphone): Situation contained. Perpetrator resisted arrest. Send for a spatula and bucket.
Send for a fleet of ambulances for the civilian casualties Maxi caused
Yup. But that whole scene was just an imagined one, for the laughs, with zero justification for the premise.
Maxima is not a corrupt cop, who would behave in such a way, Deus is not her ex (although he did give the impression that he was trying to date her*) and Maxima has not shown herself to be jealous (plus clearly prefers Super Hiro, in any event).
* And having learnt about his sexual behaviour and use of bribery, Maxima’s interpretation has full credibility whilst his ‘I do that with all business associates’ has zero credibility. Well, as an attempt to deflect the claim he was trying to woo her. It has full credibility that he may be trying to bribe his other (desirable) business associates too. The guy had too many ‘conquest albums’ for it not to be habitual behaviour!
Yups, knew it was an imagined scene just from the second line
If Sciona is going supersonic that close to the water, where is her roostertail? wouldn’t her turbulence be throwing a big ol’ trail of water into the air?
Have she and Maxima slowed down for this engagement?
Dave said they’re not supersonic.
It is the AWACS that is subsonic (Maximum speed: 530 mph versus speed of sound in air, which is approximately 717 miles/hour). Dave’s description only indicates that Sciona may or may not be travelling at supersonic speeds.
Mind you an AWACS does not have to be supersonic, in order to monitor a target But it would not be able to pursue one, and, with those canyon walls, would need to be pretty much overhead to make it out directly. So Dave’s point is well made.
Lol @ yorp. That pic and the name keep bringin me back to the dog outside Sydney’s shop…(if someone is more tech inclinde they can provide a link lol)
That’s where it’s from. He’s been a fan for a long time :)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/147
*wags tail companionably*
One of the longest, and most loyal :D
It’s a good thing no one currently is named nitro….otherwise someone will need to make another emergency phone call to her parents…
To explain that no there not getting married…or even engaged yet….. you know how some of the media can be….
Hey can Maxima max out her senses like she can her powers, like what if she was able to see footprints on the moon or feel the person following her half a mile away with her skin?
No, none of her powers affect that. Her elf-like ears do give her improved hearing mind, when compared to a baseline human. However that is a fixed capability, rather than one that she can vary.
Actually, hearing can be concentrated or ignored, so it is possible for her attune those things if she wants to
Concentrating on one conversation is not actually making your hearing better though. And even mundane humans can do that, so it is not a superhuman power. So Maxima’s elf-like ears do give her a slight advantage. But she cannot hear the ‘bip’ from Sciona’s device, for example.
Plus would rely on her communicator to hear any reply from Sydney, rather than just doing the Super Man thing to hear her directly, from possibly many miles away.
I say this not to refute your comment (which is correct, for the fist part anyhow) but just to point out that Maxima’s hearing capabilities are not on a par with the other examples given in the initial question:
Hence the latter part of your reply is ambiguous enough that I felt a clarification was in order.
Didn’t say it any of what you said
Re: Vote incentive. Just details, one really. The sheets of the roofing panels would go across the beams, not along them. The strength of corrugated sheets is along their length. In that configuration they would sag. And alot. And would collapse under the weight of the first heavy storm. 30 years of building buildings like that.
Cool info. I love learning stuff like that, thanks.
Well, I had to go check out the vote incentive to see what you were talking about, and you’re right. I’m not a construction worker, so I missed that the first time, but it’s obvious in hindsight.
I agree with Yorp. It’s nice to know that there’s a reader who’s worked in construction, just in case that kind of question comes along, in the same way that Pander is our go-to-girl for legal questions.
Now we just need a chef, a military person, a doctor, and an IT guy who can say more than ‘have you tried turning it off then on again.’ and we’ll have half the non-porn or pet-related answers that are asked about on the internet!
And there I was thinking you were assembling an alternate cast for a remake of this.
Well, we already have one of those. I am an IT guy who can say more than ‘have you tried turning it off then on again’. I program and fix computers for a living.
I also happen to be a military person (ex-Air Force). My father was ex-Army (Korean War) and my uncle was ex-Army, ex-Navy, and ex-Air Force. (He was a mechanic. Doesn’t matter which service you’re in, they all need mechanics.)
I most definitely am not a chef, however. After the disaster with the ramen noodles, my own mother banned me from cooking anything more complex than a microwave pizza. xD
Nice Maxima has some media awareness, or just common sense not usually depicted in super stories. Villain is headed towards bridge, villain has no regard for life; better intercept.
Obviously planning to cause chaos *such as wing slicing through some cables* to force her pursuer to stop and aid civilians.
+10
Yeah, butt she needs to work on her situational-awareness: she’s about to use her Big-Bada-Boom, and Sci-fright is already so close that even if Maxi manages to hit, it will cause a lot of collateral damage, worse if she misses
She can adjust the power of the strike. Otherwise she’d never be able to use it while in a city.
Yea, we saw that Maxima can vary her power, as the testing on Sydney’s shield (when she had the funnily oversized armour on her) was far weaker an attack than the nuke-like one later demonstrated to the press corp and the world at large.
I imagine Maxima can dial it down considerably less than the former example mind. But even if that was the weakest that she can go, she could still use such safely at the distance Sciona is presently at (assuming that it can strike fast enough that Sciona does not get close to the bridge by the time it hits).
However Dave has confirmed that Maxima can concentrate to lower her other abilities below their normal minimums. Whilst that does not automatically follow with the energy attack (it is a separate power to all the others) it would follow the theme of her character.
Whilst her name emphasises the upper end, it is her variability that most characterises Maxima’s power. Not having all her powers at maximum strength, all the time, is what distinguishes Max from Super Man, thus making her the more interesting character. In this case actually providing her an advantage, rather than the weakness shown when she was over-stretched in defending herself against Vehemence, so being unable to maximise her strength, to break free.
Actually she also used an even lower setting in the ARCHON gun-target room when demonstrating to Sydney why she has a gun. :)
Ahh, the ‘underwear changing’ setting.
Yeah, can’t get lower than ‘none’
All she did was point, Sydney looked where she was pointing, that was when Maxi swapped her finger for her shoulder-cannon, causing Sydney to dive behind that table
There was also the demonstration, just prior to that, melting a hole in a target.
I think your cast page might be broken- I tried to get to it and only got an empty page- I could see the header and sidebar- all the stuff that’s on every page, but nothing else.
Dave, I think you should put an “Under re-construction” sign or something in the Cast page, it keeps confusing people.
DaveB was contemplating just temporarily linking to the wiki page.* Which I think would be the far better temporary solution, as it would cut out the frequently repeated questions about when it will be repaired (in addition to fixing the even more frequent notifications that it is broken).
* Amusingly, because I have to link people to that page so much, Google Chrome has decided to list that amongst my ‘most frequently viewed’ pages that feature on the initial (new tab) browsing page! And I keep it there, for the same reason.
English is not my first language, is “you’re real dumb” actually correct? It seems to me that it should be “you’re REALLY dumb”.
Technically, it should be “really”, butt “real” still works
Thank you. I asked because it looks odd to me and I couldn’t find other examples (lots of “really” though), but I guess it works similar to “plain dumb”, which is widely used.
It is perfectly normal informal speech. It would be inappropriate in formal settings mind, as it is too casual a relaxation of the normal rules.
So politicians, for example, would avoid such a turn of phrase (maybe opting for the alternative you proposed), if they wished to be seen to be speaking grammatically correctly. Whereas a populist politician, who was trying to appeal to ‘the common man’ may opt for the informal version.
The word “real” is sometimes used as a synonym for “very” (“you’re very dumb”; “mom, I’ve been real good”). More often “real” means “actual”, and that’s why “really” becomes used (“you’re actually dumb”; you’re really dumb” –yet even here the word is still synonymous with “very”).
It was especially egregious in the original Star Trek when the ships would be just too close. In most cases the vessels would be looking small from distance. Star Wars was a bit better, but like noises in space, they had to do it for cinematic and human reasons.
Agreed. Easy enough to ignore mind, if you assume that they have really sophisticated computers, which enlarge the size of the ships and other tactically important objects.
The sophistication being in doing so in such a way that it does not distort the crew’s perception of the tactical situation.
Not that I am suggesting that was what was intended. Clearly they were just doing that to make it more visually appealing to viewers. But it is a useful way to maintain suspension of disbelief when it bugs you.
I don’t see it mentioned but IMHO that last panel is a masterpiece of perspective and lighting. And I’m saying this as someone that is not fond of the current artstyle.
Also a lovely rendering of Max’s face, best among latter pages.
Good work Dave.
Yay! I am glad I am not the only one finding that to be a great piece of art.
Just to stunt the ‘Trek’ comments, even going back to the original, they used to put the other ship onscreen – visually magnified.
The exterior battle shots were effectively foreshortened to save the time of panning from one ship to another and back, making it easier for the audience/viewer to see what was going on with both* ships magnified for the shot, visually similar to how looking at the battle from another view screen** would look.
* I say both but it could be fleets of starships.
** Starships, a cinema or even a TV.
Hope this helps explain that common misconception.
Plus the fact, a lot of the time, they didn’t stay relatively stationary and trade shots, they were more like World War Two fighter planes engaging in aerial dogfights rather than 18th century sailing ships
In the TOS episode ‘Balance of Terror’ Kirk is going up against a cloaked Romulan ship. They circle around and trade torpedo shots with each other. Each commander tries to get into the mind of his opponent to predict his next move. I swear the writers just recycled an old WWII Naval movie script and wherever it said ‘submarine’ they just crossed it out and wrote in the word ‘starship’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_Terror
If it works, don’t knock it. ;-)
Zack Tilly!
And remember, TOS was early 60’s, before the alleged Moon Landing or Star Wars