Grrl Power #62 – A memorable start to her interviewing career
So a little wall or text-y unfortunately. I didn’t see a good way to break this one in to two pages and have enough content for a full second page, but the advantage of a cramped page this week means the next page will be Maxima’s interview, which means I can upgrade her who’s who badge to something other than “Mysterious Golden Woman.” It also means I need to finally name the team. Unfortunately I’m stuck at FSWAT (Federal Super Weapons and Tactics) which is serviceable but not quite as catchy as I’d like. Really I’d prefer something unique and googleable, so stuff like “Spartans” or “Phalanx” or other cool sounding words are out, leaving me mostly with (hopefully cool sounding) acronyms. Since the team is a new branch of the military, acronyms containing “Squad” doesn’t quite make sense, since I’m looking for a name for the whole division, not just one team. Acronyms containing Corps of Force would work I suppose.
I had played with something like Arc Corps, or Arch Corps, since the team is comprised of the super elite. That doesn’t make for a cool acronym but it’s fairly unique as far as I’m aware, plus I could call team members Arc Troops or Arc Knights or something. I like FEAR, from the video game, that sounds cool but isn’t unique obviously. For anyone not aware, FEAR stands for First Encounter Assault Recon, but my team is neither First Encounter nor Recon. They’re the ones that people call when they realize they can’t handle whatever super powered menace is confronting them. They’re more like Last Encounter if anything. Assault suits them, but they’re more than just a fighting force. While they aren’t engineers, you can imagine what super strong flyers could to in terms of building or repairing bridges, so an all encompassing acronym or name for the team continues to elude me. Suggestions are welcome. If someone comes up with something that’s a clear winner, maybe I’ll do a commission for them or gift them a shirt or something.
By the way I have a terrible (at the moment) looking store here with Sydney’s “Always. Expect. Ninjas.” in shirt form. I’ll add to the store with a shirt of the Grrl Power logo and some other ideas as I come up with them (and have time to draw them.) Also someone asked for a mug so I’ll set that up this week as well.
I didn’t mean to hit the meme well twice in a row, I won’t make a habit of it. I think memes are one of the best thing about the internet, the crowd-sourced iteration of humor, but I don’t feel like I’m writing my own jokes when I rely on them too heavily. Obviously Sydney is more than familiar with them though so it’s only natural that she’d bust ’em out every once in a while.
Metahuman Ultimate Response an Execution Srv or MURES.
The Doom Patrol! (kidding.)
Metahuman Ultra Reaction Defense Execution Response Team or MURDERT
Rapid Response Super Human Team or RRSHT.
DaveB you can first create an acronym then find words to fit it. Also do they work within a known organization like DHS or the USSOCOM or their own branch? Maybe through the Fusion Centers of the JTTF? Something that will give them not only national jurisdiction but global one?
I like General Response League or GRL, so one more vote for that.
I think that is the best one it even fits the theme of the comic.
Hmmm….
T.R.U.M.P.
Tactical Response, Unconventional/Meta-Powered
F.I.X.E.R.
Fantastic/Innate/Xeno-Empowered Resources
How about SHARD? Super Human Armed Response Division, or something. Sounds suitably… spiky. The ‘armed’ bit might be a bit superfluous, but it makes the point that although someone like Max might be able to take down a bad guy non-lethally, equally she’s authorised to shoot em if necessary.
That said, I quite like ARC. You’ve gotta have a 3-letter agency name if you want to go up against the big boys. GRL would be a nice too, although putting League in there sounds a bit too comic-book cheesy for my taste. After all they are federally funded.
You could use one in use unofficialy by variose SWAT teams. 1*. (try sluring the pronuncation, you’ll get it)
H.E.R.A.S. Hero Enforcement Response and Subdual
Hera “…was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women…” – wikipedia.org
Hera’s other job was to punish all the illicit offspring of her husband Zeus with all the ladies he propitated.
GRL sounds good to me too. See if you can work in another R to make it GRRL.
General Rapid Response League/Level/Legion/Ltd./Liaison/Laboratory/
Hera also was the survalance goddess. She was basicly the goddess of remote viewing. Make’s you think of Big Sister instead of Big Brother.
S.P.E.A.R.
Superhuman Planning Execution Action Response
S.O.A.R.C.
Superhuman Operations Assault Response Control
Pronounced Sorc
F.O.A.R.C
Final Operations Assault Response Control
Pronounced like Fork
P.O.A.R.C
Powered Operations Assault Response Control
Pronounced like Pork
Military themes? … umm … Metahumans Intelligence Agency? (kidding)
Well, their boss is going to be METCOM (Metahuman Command), but that doesn’t say much more.
MOG-42 (Metahuman Operations Group)?
I agree with Tom S that the League in GRL is abit “comic-book cheesy”, so i played with it and somehow ended up with G.R.I.T. or General Response and Intelligence Team.
A quick google for definitions resulted in:
grit [grɪt]
n
4. indomitable courage, toughness, or resolution
I actually like that one. There is a post on the forum about this and not much has been said about it.
Maybe something to work with the word “BOSS”?
She has already said “Like a BOSS”. That would open up humor opportunities with Max and Syd as the former wouldnt likely know about the meme. Max could think she was trying to lump herself in with the group prematurely or something.
Though my favorites so far are SPARC and BLARG.
well what about,,,,Division Answering Very Extreme Blunders,,,,
but seriously how about T.E.S.T.:: Tactical Encounter Super Team
How about we flip it? Metahuman Emergency Network.
Suddenly I feel like singing
“We’re M.E.N! We’re M.E.N in Tights!”
Bureu of empowered being enforcement (bebe, often jokingly refered to as Babe or Baby.)
While I fully appreciate the desire to have a cool acronym, I can tell you for a fact that 99.9% of all goverment acronyms suck and are confusing. I’m in the army, most of our acronyms are dumb and many don’t even make sense, with the best evolving naturally and having very few syllables. Most of the time we don’t even use accrony,s, we will use nicknames or abbreviated words. For example, I just came back from the MPPFC, or main post physical fitness center. Its a Gym, that is what we call it.
So I guess that my point is, don’t agonise over this, honestly it would probably be better if you deliberatly gave them a bad or amusing acronym. Imagine how Maxima would react if they were given an acronym that phoenetically spelled something like herione, lady, sex, boob, or something else silly. The best bad acronyms are the ones that go out of their way to sound like a word or that sound like something funny, like OACOK (pronounced Oh a cock) or CAC.
So hefully my rambling has helped some.
Great comic so far by the way. Any chance of there being a male character somewhere in the mix here?
You’re right, most TLA’s suck and are confusing, and the ones that don’t usually sound forced. Which… may happen anyway cause I’m sort of enamored with a few ideas. I’m just worried that I’ll think of the perfect thing after I’ve committed to something else.
The basic human condition, dude.
Okay, how about this: turn your consternation into a running gag throughout the comic – with the higher-ups constantly changing the name of the group in the hopeless quest to find THE perfect name. Arianna would, of course, adapt immediately, wholeheartedly pushing the nom-du-jour. Max would probably just sigh and roll her eyes, while the various and sundry team members would constantly come up with ways to use the name to torment her…
Leave the door open. Insist that the name itself is classified and stick to your guns.
Aegis: Shield of the gods.
A-gency of
E-mpowered
G-eneral-purpose
I–nternational
S-quardrons
ARC Corps, The MAE Division
Assault and
Response
Contingency
Metahuman,
Alien, or
Enhanced
Seeing MAED, I am preemptively saying “You MAED, bro?”
L.E.A.P. Last Encounter Assault and Protection
how about Last Resort Faction
Last
Action
Recon
Police
HAPPY: Heroine All-Purpose Personnel Yankees
SEG: $#!^-Eating Grinners. All of them have it.
Department of Special Abilities (D.S.A.)
Warning: Incoming two cents.
How about the Supers Defense Force or “SuperDef” for short. It’s kind of … sort of … catch?
{plink, plink} There they are.
S.R.I (Special Response Initiative)
D E O (Division for Extranormal Operations)
SOG (Special Operations Group), with variations SOC, SOD (Corps/Division) or even SOCSI (Special Operations Cross-Service Initiative)
ANASTU (Army, Navy, Airforce, Special Tactics Units) Or the almost as stilted STUCSI (STU + Cross-Service Initiative)
I could probably play around with the letters all night, but I don’t know if I would find anything good.
Force (Unconventional), Reconnaissance, Infrastructure (Extra-normal), Support teams.
BLARG Force
Rapid Metahuman Response Force.
Really Super Fine Women/Rapid Super Female Weapons
I see that the next to last panel is what Max saw through the window, causing Arianna to cry out for the interception.
And whoa… not even a day and we’re to page 2?
And can Max leave “Bonnie & Clyde” before Harem gets back with the audio flashdrive? Those EMT’s would get back in which could lead to an unplaned encounter with Harem.
So you like something with arc? Well, if they really are what people would call if things really get out of hand, I would use the word ‘reserve’ somewhere, like in ‘Reserve Corps’. That`s the RC already. Now all you need is an A, like, Augmented? (Or is that too Deus Ex?)
Or you could make that Delta Reserve Corps. But you write it with the Greek letter delta, so it only looks like ARC (and gets pronounced that way). That way it has associations to Delta Force, and at the same time it hints to a larger framework. Perhaps there is also an Alpha RC? Maybe Delta are the special special forces?
Not a bad idea, but “reserves” to me sounds like the guys you call up when all the better options are used up. It doesn’t exactly scream elite.
Well that`s just my natural modesty, I guess. I like giving the ultra elites the most mundane names. ;) But you can go with Response i.s.o. Reserve. I like that word, since it is a catch-all. Something happens, they respond. Getting more specific than that would only raise semantic conflicts.
I`d stay away from names containing the I of International, unless you can substitute it with Intervention. However politically correct it may sound, I don`t think it sounds very likely. Best you can get in that department – well, realistically – is some form of exchange program.
Anyway, the _real_ name would of course be EIMP (Enhanced/Extraordinary Individuals Monitoring Project) since we all understand the the main purpose for the government to start such a project would be to make supers step in line. :p
For reference, in my country the marine unit trained for hostage and rescue operations that gets called in by the police when things really get out of hand is known as the Special Assistance Unit. When things get out of hand less than that, police use their own Mobile Units (riot police – essentially a lot of well-armoured bodies in armoured cars) and SATs (Special Arrest Teams- small units that can carry any weapon that is not strictly military and that are known on a per team basis by 5-letter girls` names, like LINDA and WENDY).
Remember that while SEAL (SEa Air Land) Team is knwon by its acronym another Special Ops Counter Terrorism unit 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D) is not.
So you could per say use Federal Super Weapons and Tactics – Arc (FSWAT-A) ?
Well, if you were dealing with the US Navy, you could consult the MILSPECSTANDACCOMACREQBU. And if you can figure that one out, you’ve done your time, you can retire now…
I like the ARC MAE idea – it sounds like Acme, so there could be a whole lot of comedy panels around that misunderstanding. Of course there is the obvious Looney Tunes reference, but acme actually refers to the apex or top, which is fitting for an elite team.
Given how recent agency naming can len flowery like the Department of Homeland Security, and due to existing standards like the Federal Emergency Measures Agency, I’m going to go with “Peak Threat Agency”.
That way, Maxima will need to ask Sydney if she wants to join the PTA, giving Sydney the opportunity to show some snark, and giving civvies the opportunity to snark as well, getting Maxime ever more frustrated. Seems like a good running gag opportunity.
Tactical
Recovery and
Incarceration of
Metahumans
T.R.I.M.
National Super-Human Emergency Response Division: NSHERD, pronounced irritatingly like, “insured.”
Oh, and I don’t think this was too texty. It was dialogue, and funny dialogue at that.
Just realised that, so far, action in the strip covers only a couple of hours, no?
That’s comic book time for ya. Oncve this day is over, I’ll be able to jump the timeline up a bit, it’ll be more stuff like, here’s a scene, cut to a few hours later, here’s another scene, next day, etc.
Meh. If you think of something better at a later date you can just have a page to explain the change. Maybe the name is taken by another company or something….or you can just kick the forth wall in the nuts and do whatever you want.
Official designation: Metahuman Strategic Command
If you want that military-buzzword sound: MET-STRAT-COM
For daily use: MetCom
Slang: “call The Mets”
How about Myrmidons?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmidons
They were fierce Warroirs and in building literally as busy as ants.
Only potential problem: They would execute whatever order given to them by their superiors without question. Even things we would regard as amoral/atrocities nowadays.
On the other hand they are a Military, last resort team. So doing “whatever it takes” and “following orders, even if you don’t like them” kind of comes with the job. Of course that doesn’t needs to be darker than the comic (nothing worser than somebody ordering Maxima or Sidney to wear a Dress because the missions needs it – or at least trying to order them…).
I think the station may be about to revise its standards for live broadcasts
or at the very least carefully instruct all of their interviewers to avoid “that blond beanpole” except for non-live interviews for extensive editing.
Meta-Emergency Reserve Corps – MERC
Pretty much sums up what it is they do, as far as I can tell at this point in the story, and could be used for humor, drama, or what-have-you by having them confused for mercenaries.
Or if you prefer,
Meta-Officer Reserve Corps – MORC
A bit goofier sounding than the first one, but you have already told us that they all have ranks, so they’re officers, right? (Correct me if I’m wrong about rank=officer. I’m a science geek, not a military geek.)
If you’re looking for plenty of oppertunity for snark you could go with something like
Super Powered Atrocity Negation Corps….
sounds silly and all how much fun would it be to see Maxima grit her teeth as she asks Sydney if she’s like to join S.P.A.N.C.
B.A.S.T.I.O.N.
Battalion of Abnormal/Augmented Soldiers: Tactical International Operations Network
That is, provided they are international.
Also if they do mostly espionage and anti-terrorism actions:
—————————————–Terror and Intrigue Operations Network
Or a different suggestion:
T.E.R.R.A.
Transhuman Expert Recon and Resolution Army
or
Transhuman(s) Enlisted/Enterprise: Recon and Resolution Aggregation
Just for a few, also, I love this page so freakin’ much! Any page that just features a rant of Sydney works out to be hilarious.
Heh thanks. I do kind of like the T.I.O.N part. I don’t think Battalion fits though. I don’t think the team is big enough to form a single battalion as it is, at least at the moment.