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.
“They’re the ones that people call when they realize they can’t handle whatever super powered menace is confronting them.”
super powered menace handles
or su.po.me.h sounding like superman
How about S.P.E.A.R.? That would be: Super Powered Emergency Action and Response.
I like this one the best.
It makes sense, it sounds reasonable. So many other suggestions are forced, grabbing words that only vaguely resemble description of the group. It also flows really well; instead of grabbing a list of adjectives to fill out the letters so that they spell something, the full name flows like the name of a real agency.
The problem with Super Powered (…) (…) is that the team isn’t only super powered individuals. It’s not a deal breaker since the non-powered people on the team… basically have powers. You know, you can argue that Batman doesn’t actually have super powers, but if he can jump off a roof, spin around, throw a batarang aimed perfectly to cut the swing line of someone persuing him, and in the same spin, turn the rest of the way around, fire a batline, swing over a roof and kick someone, then flip off that guy’s face and land in the drivers seat of the Batmobile… he fucking has super powers. There’s just a point that the abilities of someone exceeds what is reasonable for a human being to do, and there’s going to be a few people like that on the team. Still I think Elite, Exceptional, Metabeing, stuff like that is a bit more apropros. That seems like an entirely superfluous word since we already have the word “approriate.”
ah yes – Batman & Iron Man
Money: the Real Super Power
I think S.P.E.A.R. is a good name too. But I also think people are putting to much effert into a team name and not commenting on how @#$%ing funny this page was. I mean cracked him one in the spunk factory? Kept it semi-clean and would make you snort your drink if you were watching this on the news. COMIC GOLD.
A.D.O.L.F. which is Arc Division of Leading Females. Could be Legendary Females. Or it would be A.D.O.W.F which is Arc Division of Weaponized Females. Whichever
This comic made me laugh out loud.
The “fugly” panel and the one after it, frikkin laugh riot.
I don’t mind the text, it made me laugh ;-)
C: Currently
A: Abnormal
L: League (of)
L: Ladies
the jokes on that could be hillarious.
‘In trouble? Need super assistance? Call Call!’
or
‘It’s the Call girls’
Metahuman Engineering and Assault Team. Don’t use that.
Department of Superhuman Shoulder Angels. Makes sense for an organisation whose mission is not so much to fix super-problems themselves, but to track down all of the superhumans on the planet and convince them to act as heroes rather than as villains.
Metahuman Incident Response Agency.
Superhuman Interdiction, Engineering and Reprisal Regulatory Agency.
Okay! How about Super Powered Operatives and Outstanding Normals (because they aren’t all supers).
SPOON!!!!
im recomending “Ragnarok Corps”
ragnarok being the “twilight of the gods” could be interperded into many diffrent things, scince in this case we are applying it to a team of supers, you could assume ragnarok to be refering to either their near divine status compared to most people, or their application in a tactical situation, (historicaly ragnarok was to be the LAST battle betwen the norse gods, and the forces that opposed them)
but ja, love the comic, sydney, while functionaly insane :P is an awesome caracter, sooo many lol moments, ive recomended this to a bunch of my freinds, please keep up the good work.
(ps: sorry bout the spelling… i hate the english language…)
Hmm, I actually kind of like Ragnarok Corps. I don’t think it makes sense for a military force, it sounds more like a band of mercenaries or maybe what one company might call itself unofficially.
Why not make up your own word.
Historically I’ve been really bad at that. I’ve been reading a Warhammer novel, and the Space Marines are called Astartes, which sounds like a cool latin word, turns out it’s some Greek goddess. I wouldn’t be opposed to co-opting some obscure god’s name for them like that. Too bad the Games Workshop guys already adopted that one.
Here is a secret: Take 2 awesome words, mix their letters, then make an awesome word with half of them and drop the rest. (Naming D&D chars that way :P)
Hmm…how about Freya? Nice name, and even if recognized she is a goddess that it makes sense for them to be named after – I think.
Super Hero Interview & Tactical Squad…. um, maybe not.
We need more news interviews like this.
Superhuman Intervention and Response – S.I.R. “I’m a SIR, and don’t you forget it!”
Metahuman Active Response Section – M.A.R.S. “Call in the Martians!” My own favorite.
Metahuman Special Tactics and Response – M.S.T.R., pronounced “Master”. ’nuff said.
Metahuman Intervention and Rescue, Active Countermeasures, Logistics and Engineering – M.I.R.A.C.L.E. If you REALLY wanna force it.
“Metahuman Special Tactics and Response – M.S.T.R.” – I’d bet it would more likely be said as Mister… which I think would most likely make Maxima somewhat pissed.
A militant feminist being in the “Mister” unit? That’s irony for you right there.
Why
Is
No
Going
To
Openly
Suggest
Anything
Utterly
Common
Earnestly
Damn it now I want wings.
HAMR – Hostile Action Military Response, Hostile Action Meta-human Response
or my personal favorite:
Fast Action Response Team
Omega Force – It implies going last and being super powerful.
Yeah, I was thinking of something like this, only it’s tremendously overused.
“Historically that hasn’t worked out, but I can try” – lol. At least she admits she has a problem. :)
And poor reporter Suzie’s face is priceless. That’s the realization that this may not be the career maker she’d hoped for.
Find a good government agency sounding name for the team, and then see how the acronym sounds.
Although there’s a Public Relations person who may have a decent say in what the team gets named, this is the government we’re talking about, so don’t count on a cool sounding name out of the box.
After all the Department of Defense (DoD) was originally named the National Military Establishment (NME… which sounds like enemy when said fast).
So feel free to start with a “bad” name that a bunch of pencil pushing bureaucrats came up with and have the name changed later due to pressure from the PR people and/or due to a change in the teams main focus as it evolves.
Makes sense.
Could even become a running gag: “So, what acronym are we THIS weel?’
ELaTAD – Extranormal Logicstics and Tactical Aid Division, although that implies that they’re part of a larger group.
SARIF: Super Assault Reactive Intervention Force
NERF: Native and Extra-terrestrial Reaction Force
FORCE: Force Of Reactive Co-operating Elites, so just… Force :)
Ok, here’s what I’m starting to think. One, I’m not going to come up with anything that’s a slam dunk, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I’ve been stumped. But the team is actually several divisions, we’ve hear that there’s a black ops team, obviously there’s a white ops team, which is what Maxima/Harem etc are on, there’s a PR team and an intelligence team. Naming them individually makes it a little easier since I don’t have to come up with an all in one word.
I’m thinking:
White Ops: Still leaning towards FSWAT, there are a few other ideas that have been floated that aren’t bad though
Black Ops: Not directly acknowledged, referred to internally as something cool sounding like Ultra Violet.
PR division: Metabeing Affairs Division (MAD)
Intelligence: Super (Something) Intelligence Operations Network (SCION)
And then the whole division can have some boring gov’t name like Office of Extraordinary Intervention or whatever.
Why don’t you keep the G.r.r.l Acronym, would be fitting i think. like Geographical. Ready .Response. League. or something to that note, idk XD
I love the G.R.R.L it fits the comic.
Fswat sounds like F= a swear word and then swat is the normal swat team word.
More like Government Regulated Response League…. still the G.r.r.l. acronym does make the most sense, that IS the name of the comic after all.
Yeah the problem is I can’t think of an acronym that describes the team that fits GRRL. The ones that have been suggested so far are a little tortured. I like the idea that the name of the comic isn’t tied to the actual team name anyway. Also as I’ve said before the team isn’t all women, the comic is just called that cause the main characters are women.
Think of it as the flip side to the “X Men.” But It’s okay whatever you do.
Group
Rapid
Response
Liazon
Or Guerrilla Rapid Response Legion.
Arc Corporation was the main villain group in the superhero TV show The Cape. Not that anyone watched it but me…
But mostly I wanted to say, why are you limiting yourself to acronyms? Try mashups. Take a syllable or two from one or two different words and much’em together. It’s how we get one of the best villain names in all of human kind’s existence: Maleficent (Malevolent + Magnificent). It’s more European than American granted, the military does love stupid acronyms, but gives you a lot more options.
Actually, I’m pretty sure malificent was an actual archaic word that had fallen out of common usage, some sort of obscure tense of maleficence.
But mash-ups are still pretty effective means of creating effective names.
For your SCION acronym, how about either Command, Control, or Coordination for the ‘C’ slot?
maleficent: adj. Harmful or evil in intent or effect. A very good villain name, but a normal word, not even archaic, not any sort of mashup — they just nouned an adjective for the name.
…Not even archaic? I may have overstated my case a little but it is definitely an obscure word that’s fallen out of common usage.
according to the merriam-webster dictionary the first known use of the word was in 1678, So I’d count that as archaic.
SCION
Super
Cranial
Intelligence
Operation
Network
Well. I did used to have one I wanted to use if I ever got around to doing my own comic, kinda trailed off but feel free to use it if you want.
Special Combat Ability Recon Squad. or SCARS for short.
Vague enough to not raise eyebrows on the government’s bill from people not *in the know*, but says what it is pretty well.
I have this odd image in my head however of arianna’s original choice of name before she stopped to think about it. Arianna’s Super Squad. Lol
We have an outfit of people with extraordinary abilities. The focus of the comic is on a subset within that apparently selects for being pin-up like and for delivering large amounts of whoopass on the heads of bad guys. In addition, their is the factor of being quasi-military in nature, yet informal — almost cartoonish.
Therefore, may I suggest National Organization of Super Entities – Assault Raid Team or NOSE-ART
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_art
BTW, re: earlier discussions of Maxima’s gilded eagles, their is precedence in the US. Police units, forex. https://www.uniforminsignia.org/?option=com_insigniasearch&Itemid=53&result=2378
City of Heroes has a few things you could look at for inspiration, by way of acronyms. Plus, it’s free, so there’s nothing to stop you from replicating your characters here in there.
Heavy
Offensive
League
of
Yellow
Supers
Hackers
and
Intelligence
Team
State Monitored Analysis and Responce Team, Super Heroic Excellence Squad.
Reminds me…when I was a teenager, my younger brother was trying to come up with a cool-sounding name for a spy organization. He wanted to call it TEAM, and he asked me for something it could be an acronym for.
I shrugged and said “Titanic Elephants Are Mental?”
Fortunately, he thought this was hilarious.
What about calling it ‘S.H.A.R.D.’?
SuperHuman Assault Response Division?
And if we’re going with that, the over-arcing organization can be G.L.A.S.S… can’t think up a cool acronym for that yet =(
possibly drop an s for government liazon against supercrimes, wait last s would be section. that does work
I agree that a GRRL based acronym makes sense, why not something along the lines of government rapid response l___?
Is that Stan Lee?!
It wasn’t to begin with but it is now. Read earlier comments to see what I’m talking about.
Oh, and: RTFM (Resonding Tactical Force Majeur (or Force of Metahumans) ) Also known as: Read The F***ing Manual!
You are aware that MAD is already a pretty well known acronym (Mutually Assured Destruction) referencing the nuclear policy? I’d suggest something else… unless you want to use it as a running gag.
Also Mothers Against Drunk Driving is in use too. So is ARC in Star Wars the Clone Wars.
I think probably unless I just make up a word, everything will have been used in one capacity or another.
Superhuman Apprehension Tactical Unified Response Network. Just a suggestion.
A few suggestions:
A.X.E – Allied Xenomorph Executive
C.O.A.S.T. – Covert Operations And Special Tactics
A.I.M. – Altered Individuals Management
A I.D. – Augmented Individuals Division
A.B.C.D – Altered Beings Covert Division
MBA – Meta Beings Auxilliary
Make of them what you will :-)
PEAC
Powered Elite Alternative Corps
homophone for both Peak (they’re cream of the crop) and peek (cause you’d like to peek at most of em)
Never posted before, but I do enjoy word games, and this one was challenging enough to be entertaining. I figured I’d hold myself to one suggestion, since there seem to be quite a few out there:
Alternative Tactical, Logistics and Support Division – ATLAS Division
(Cheated a little with classic acronym format there. I think most folks would still find it workable, as well as memorable, but either way it was still fun to work on!)
Not bad. They’re not exactly support though. Super Division maybe.
An idea,
Elite Response Tactics and Command (ERTAC or ER-TAC)
G.R.R.L.: General Rapid Response League
C.U.S.S.: Central Unified Superbeing Section
Conventional Acronyms –
FCF – Final Contingency Force
LRRG – Last Resort Response Group
NOOB – Nonconventional Operatives / Ordinances Brigade
MOST – Metahuman Operatives and Special Tactics
SPRT – Super Powers Response Team
Fun with recursive Acronyms
POST – POSThuman Operations and Special Tactics
Messing with uneven capitalization for more naming choices
FRM – FoRce Multiplier
Non Sequitor Codename chosen “Randomly with no meaning”:
Codename: Burnt Bra
Gamma Force
Failsafe
My slight variation on G.R.R.L because it seems like a popular thing to do.
G.R.R.L – Global Rapid Response Legion
I keep thinking “U.N.C.L.E.” but, well, that’s been done. So, what about
Super(s) Law Assault Police — should be pretty accurate, no?
I would try to think of something for AUNT (Active Unconventional Network, Tactical?), but that probably wouldn’t be as appropriate since it has male operatives.