Grrl Power #621 – Egocentrap detector
There is no I in team, but there is a ME if you rearrange the letters.
Maxima and Sydney are talking about both sides of the same coin. Sydney’s just forgetting that teams can do stuff like split up and apply their specializations while not standing right next to each other. She may be getting a little too used to being the center of attention ever since joining up.
For those of you who don’t know who Achilles is (because he’s only been in a handful of pages since the start of the comic) well, you can probably guess what his power is. And it’s not coming up with a creative name. And it’s not that mealy invulnerability that a lot of so-called invulnerable heroes have. Achilles could take a bunker buster to the noggin and not notice if it weren’t for all the noise and collateral damage. He’d be the worlds best tank if the enemy strong man couldn’t just pick him up and throw him into the next zip code.
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I know that it’s funnier this way, but it’s kind of a dick move to bounce his dead across the ground like that.
if it was me doing it I’d have the curtesy to walk him right side up, sort of like how a child would walk a plastic action figure by tilting it side to side.
head* -_-
Dick head? Oh dead!
Zed is dead.
Iz you Zed’s brother?
I expect he’s rather used to it with this team, besides, it’s not like he’ll get hurt or anything. ;)
Then there’s the bonus points for keeping Sydney occupied. That’s always got to be worth a few brownie points from Maxima.
It is not about physical injury, it is about dignity and respect. But of course, we know both of those are alien concepts to Sydney :D
And they aren’t too familiar to Achilles either.
Indeed.
To stand up for Sydney she did show extreme respect to the President. After her embarrassing blunder mind. And she was dignified when she managed to intimidate even Maxima, at the interview.
Other times though …
*gets out the gloss paint and blots out most of the comic*
another (much faster) to disarm traps would be to melt the ground, walls and ceiling with the PPO orb. But you might have to wait until the lava walls have cooled a bit before advancing any further…. nothing is perfect!
SPOILER:
Looks like you and Dabbler think along similar lines!
I had the notion that Achilles likes to play an idiot because he *loves* to stumble into such situations. Maybe he does it that way to show off his otherwise pretty much defensive ability. And the play on the name… the historical Achilles is primarily so well known today for his WEAK point, not his otherwise invulnerability – while this guy IS indistructible but useless in a fight outside being a damage sponge (as far as we have seen him doing or better NOT doing offensively stuff). A funny guy. I wish we would see more of him outside his “I barely noticed this meteorite striking my face – only because it obfuscated my view”.
You see he’s thought it through quite well, the bad guys will be assuming he has an Achilles heel and look for it, thus spending more time (and thumbs) wailing on him instead of kicking him into the sea. A decoy name for a human decoy, if you will.
Okay, am enjoying the art and the overall story, just not liking the current thug-hunt arc
Okay, let me bring up an old old topic, except with an extra something that I’m embarrassed to say there I could only find mentioned once (at least in some of the obvious places, like in the comments on page 134 /archive 846, and the page after that, or comments on page 86 /archive 472, and several pages afterward). Those orbs are roughly the same size and colors as billiards balls (the first seven). #1 is the yellow CommBall, #2 is the blue FlyBall, #3 is the red FireBall, #4 is the purple WallBall, #5 is the orange MysteryBall, #6 is the green AirBall, and #7 is the magenta SnakeBall. (Ok, it looks likes the colors of #4 and #7 are not an industry-wide standard, but I did say “roughly”.)
Anyway, related to that is where Maxima on page 100 /archive 601 calls them “weapons grade bonkercite”, and they actually do get used to inflict some punishment (pg 104 /arc 626, pg 120 /arc 709, pg 133 /arc 838, pg 206 /arc 1290, and pg 500 /arc 2417), but the main reason I’m talking about this is that there has been some discussion regarding what happens if someone besides Sydney grabs one of her orbs. Well, I think the “bonks” portrayed on those other pages, plus a finger-touch by Math on page 133, shows us that basically nothing extraordinary will happen –they probably feel like billiards balls, to anyone who can’t use them.
Fairly sure you replied in the wrong place
Nope. You said you weren’t enjoying the current thug-hunt arc, so I deliberately brought up an old topic so you could think about something else.
And I’m going to add a bit to that, because there has been some discussion regarding the possibility of Varia being able to use the orbs. A problem has been mentioned in that Varia would have to physically contact Sydney, for such a possibility to be enabled, and that implies that one of her hands would then be unavailable for holding an orb. However, I have found a simple solution! See this picture! It should be obvious that it qualifies as a way for two people to maintain physical contact, while enabling all 4 hands to grip orb-sized things.
It is also a pawey way to make a pinky-promise to look after one another.
And the reason Sydney isn’t using her Shield Orb is because why? Last time I checked it does everything Achilles does and more. She’d still be involved without looking like a dick.
It is valid that she should now be protecting herself and others with the shield, whilst using her find and disable traps skill. You never know whether there will be splash damage or a rolling boulder which could reach them!
However her doing the hamster ball thing, as you imply, is not a good idea. Simply because you are mistaken in thinking that it is comparable to Achilles’s power. It is not. Achilles has absolute invulnerability and cannot be harmed in any way (per exhaustive testing, even down to the atomic level).
Whereas Halo’s shield has not been subjected to such extensive testing, simply a preliminary one, by Maxima, at a reduced power setting. So them assuming her power is compatible would be premature and dangerous.
And, as we know from both the ratings on the cast list and comments by the author, it is not comparable. Sydney’s force field can be brought down by a strong enough attack. Even worse it is no stronger than Dabbler’s shield (again going by author comments). Whilst Sydney does have a much higher rating for her shield that is purely to reflect the fact that it can protect others, plus fully surrounds her, prevents teleporting and magic and so on. But it can be overcome by moderately strong attacks.
Even worse, when fighting Sciona. Because we have seen that her foot soldiers (the basic constructs) are equipped with spikes in their hands which can bring down force fields! We saw that happen to Dabbler’s shield.
So any of these traps could incorporate such a feature, which would make them instantly fatal if Sydney was standing there!
So in that case why not just use the Light Hook itself? It’s solid enough to manipulate things, and doesn’t run the risk of getting stuck (as Achilles might) or flung into the next zip code (as the author comments mention.)
Because Sydney is a bit special. Also it’s more fun this way.
Teamwork. ;-)
As to Sydneys Forcefield, I’d say it’s proven itself to be able to withstand the equivalent of a small nuke at blast effect area 1 or 2, but not 0.
Of course, it’s going to be real hard to test at higher levels as anything that can knock down or puncture the field is likely to kill Sydney, even if it doesn’t directly hit her. I suspect Maxima is well aware of this, and she took a long time ramping up the power when she tested it. Probably because there will likely be some apparent reaction when it starts nearing it’s limit.
Then there’s the whole issue that so far, it seems to be spherical at all times. That can be a problem with doorways, and only leaves one tiny contact point on the floor. She knows enough about checking traps in a game to not expect that to set of many of the traps. Likewise with the Lighthook. It’s not alive, so magical or psionic traps probably won’t trigger on it.
On the other hand, it may just be due to her generally and lovable wackiness and ADHD kicking in. ;)
One thing to recall with explosions, nuke-like or otherwise, is the inverse square decrease in damage potential as the explosion radiates outwards. It is going in every direction, so what started out as a force capable of levelling buildings, rapidly decreases in deadliness as it expands.
And the artillery range nuke-like explosion occurred near the horizon.
Beyond a certain point a real nuke cannot even knock over a free-stranding wall, let alone a building. And we do have a means of measuring this aspect, namely Achilles. We have seen how easy it is to knock him flying (requiring the same force any other human). Achilles did not even have to brace himself.
There was no more force left than on a day with a strong wind.
So all that remains is the secondary effects. For a regular nuke the radiation would be a concern. However we have no hint that it included that. Mushroom clouds are an effect you get with any explosion of sufficient intensity, even though we most often associate them with nukes. And Maxima would not want the bad publicity from irradiating the press corps, so would not have pulled that trick if such was a risk.
Meaning that the only significant effect Sydney’s shield was having to withstand was the heat and flames. Enough to melt a marshmallow and burn clothing. But only on one side of Achilles. And this for the duration of Maxima’s speech, rather than in an instant. About what we might expect from standing something partially in a bonfire, for a similar period of time.
So Sydney’s shield is rated as able to withstand a big bonfire. A slightly less impressive metric.
I should point out, for completeness, that the earlier, much smaller blast, in their initial testing, was the much more impressive. For the purposes of judging Sydney’s shield. Whilst considerably smaller than the later one, Halo was right at the epicentre. With a big block of metal blocking any direct hit, we must recall mind.
However even the head alone was enough to melt sand into glass! Which means it was at least 1,700°C (3,090°F).
Mind you I should not knock campfires too much. They can melt various metals. A big one could get as high as 1,100°C (2,012°F).
head = heat
Sydney already answered your question: Because teamwork!
Rephrasing her response to Maxima: If she just used the hentorb by herself then how is Achilles involved?
Teamwork!
Really? The only thing I remember about the fight with the construct was it cutting off a piece of the building Sydney was on and it didn’t break; it just kinda pinballed her. This does make me wonder though. Has Sydney ever tried to activate the Shield Orb outside of the Shield? Like in the first Megaman X where you got the Armored Armadillo’s Rolling Shield?
You are thinking about the big construct. That was armed with different weaponry, including a blood analyser that could replicate super-powers, and thereby laser claws. It did not deploy a shield destroyer, as you say, so probably was not equipped with one.
Whereas I am referring to the man-sized SWAT dressed team of constructs, which attacked the Twilight Council.
Whilst you may not recall the panel where Dabbler’s shield was shattered, by the construct’s spikes, I imagine you will recall Icon (the leader of the sapient construct’s faction), subsequently leaping to her defence, and enveloping Dabbler in his armoured body. This though was only necessary because of the shield’s destruction leaving Dabbler exposed.
Halo had that very need, in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park™. She wanted to surround Vehemence, with her shield, so that it could block the aggro aura’s effects from affecting the team and all the other combatants. Preferably with her on the outside, with Vehemence trapped inside.
Sydney was unable to do this (and we know that she thought her options through intensely), as the only way she was able to do this was by bravely staying inside the shield, directly exposed to any attack Kevin may choose to make!
I did just realize something, if Sydney could combine the powers of the Shield and Lighthook orbs together she could make a Flail, Mace, or Wrecking Ball. Hell, Yo-Yo Ball!
I loved that he praised her bravery, but was annoyed that no one else apparently noticed.
I don’t know whats funnier, Sydney doing this (and talking Achilles into) or the fact that Achilles isn’t even complaining about it. It really doesn’t seem to bother him at all that he’s become the equivalent of a blind man’s walking cane.
I think Achilles finds it funny.
When Sydney hit him in mess hall, he said something along how he does not mind it (forgot exact words, and am too lazy to search that page)
Achilles does look like he’s not entirely certain how he feels about it, but … I find it far more amusing to think that Sydney talked him into it.
Yeah I think thats gonna be my head cannon.
I do recal yelling wheeeeee when he got tossed through a wall in the team’s first big fight. He might be into it after all.
“No, this is not how a team works”
Hey Dave!! I found a live Sydney! look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkxOXMiEAl0
Looks like a fan. She even sings in English.
She sounds like she learned the song phonetically, without understanding the words. For example, she keeps singing “rip side” when the actual lyric is “riptide”.
Still, she has a nice sound and does a presentable job. Wonder how she did in the contest?
For such exemplary cos-play there is only one possible outcome!
That was …….. not bad. I don’t think she’ll be a US pop star, but it certainly wasn’t the worst cover I’ve ever heard.
Real life Sydney is adorable.
Well in the event there’s a pitfall or something you’ve got a hold on them so he doesn’t just fall to a place he cant get out alone.
Is Achilles really unwonrable… inwundra… *checking google*
Is Achilles really invulnerable of booth natural and magical damage?
Surely it has to be one or another not both. Because if soo then that begs the question is Achilles powers genetic or magical? If genetic then surely something as unnatural as magis should mess things up.
If Magic then a correct applying of spells should cancel that protection.
Just tel me this, can he drown?
Archon have tested Achilles’s invulnerability thoroughly. We know that they have some mages and we can see that Dabbler, at the very least, can invoke damaging effects with it. Plus their predecessor organisation has known about the supernatural community going back hundreds of years. Making it very likely that they would include magic in their testing.
With both a need to do so, and the means, I would be very surprised if they have not. So far nothing has harmed him.
However invulnerability does not necessarily provide protection from non-physical magical attacks. So charms, curses, mind control, illusions, fear effects and the like may all be fully effective against him.
We have seen that he is not immune to magic though. Specifically the way that he and Mr Amorphous were disguised, as bank robbers, was with magic. And we have learnt that illusionists are very rare and that Gwen’s illusions are so poor that they could only create a crude Muppet like image (and then only with the help of mechanical aids, like breadsticks).
Meaning that the disguise was probably a shape changing spell. If Achilles can be polymorphed then it is possible that he can be petrified (turned to stone). This is a risk, as we know there are gorgons amongst the ranks of the supernatural. Likewise he could be vulnerable to being turned into a frog.
We did though see that Achilles was not harmed by Maxima hitting him (and she was not pulling her blow, as she had figured out that it was him). So even transformed he retained his invulnerability. Possibly just because the spell used allowed that though. Whilst hostile powers might transform his basic nature, potentially making him loose his defences.
Whilst Archon would want to test that, they might not have had the means to do that. The Twilight Council do though, and they are allies. So my suspicion is that such have been tested and that Achilles makes a handsome frog who cannot be squashed, even by a steam roller.
Just a note, but we DON’T know achilles is effected by magic… He could just be wearing a watch that makes an illusion – the magic doesn’t even need to be interacting with him in any way at all in that case
Whilst that is possible it is not something that could be done with human technology in the present day. Arq-Sparq do have some impressive capabilities, but that would require alien technology, which we have not seen them as having access to.
Barring Dabbler, of course, and she is not sharing it. Whilst the Twilight Council are willing to help Archon, they probably have the same policy too, of not handing out items that might be turned against them, should the relationship sour.
But for the bank job we specifically know it was magic which transformed them, as that was mentioned (possibly in dialogue, but certainly in one of the author’s blogs).
And I have already shown that the magic was unlikely to be illusions given that Archon, and Earth in general, are lacking those. Gwen only being a self-taught beginner mage and only having the crude cantrip we saw. Whilst Dabbler does not have any illusion spells at all. Another fact that we learnt from the blog.
Meaning that Dabbler’s ability to change her own appearance is due to a racial ability. And we saw the Twilight Council succubus diplomat teasing Dabbler about her lack of higher education in succubus skills. Even if well-educated succubi learn how to use their racial ability on others, that is not something Dabbler knows how to do.
“But for the bank job we specifically know it was magic which transformed them, as that was mentioned (possibly in dialogue, but certainly in one of the author’s blogs).”
Max specifically mentions (assumes) they had help from the Black ops team.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/323
Thanks for linking that. And I see I have made an error, as Maxima’s dialogue specifically mentions ‘illusions’. Perhaps she is just using that conversationally? As in shorthand for ‘disguise created by magic’. If not it does somewhat contradict the canon about there being very few illusionists on Earth.
Although not completely, as it is reasonable that Archon might have been able to snap up one of them. However that does seem to be stretching it a bit, in addition to Dabbler, with her racial ability AND Gwen with her Muppet cantrip! And being allied to the Twilight Council, where we see another succubus, and one who may be considerably more capable, with illusions, than Dabbler.
Given that we know Deus has extraordinary intelligence information, and has both legitimate close contact with Archon and Harem supplying him with even more, it is likely that he is aware of these points. So it seems odd that he would emphasise the lack of illusionists, when he knows that there is a concentration of them in, and around, Archon!
Yeah, it was a ‘disguise created by magic’, more specifically, it was a ‘magically decal’ because on this page they rip off tattoos and the ‘illusion’ shuts down
Mmm. Rethinking Sel‘s point (and apologising for my disputing that), there is one angle that might resolve the qualms I just expressed above.
Whilst I still think it is unlikely that the Twilight Council would give Archon ultra technology off-world items, I am sure that the government would happily make use of any which happened to find their way into their hands. And likely trying to actively encourage that, with their black ops teams.
Of course, despite the fact that we have seen that the Council lock away the more dangerous stuff, they do have other items actively in use. Of which one of the most common ones (for offworld species visiting Earth) would be the hologram devices that they use to appear human.
These are necessary as the Veil has to be specifically programmed for each species. Meaning that the various Terran supernaturals have been added to it. But we have seen that there is huge variety amongst aliens. Even demons, which are related to one another, have vast variation (think back to Dabbler’s classroom scene – which is canon).
Meaning that it would be hard to add all of them. And unnecessary as aliens readily have access to technology which obviates the need. Which they do use (per Dave – probably mentioned during the club scenes, if anyone wants to, justifiably, check my memory).
So with a large number of such items in circulation it is likely that some will fall into the wrong hands. With Archon ensuring that they ended up in ‘the right hands’, of their black ops teams.
Now whether humans would be capable of reverse engineering, or even begin to understand how they may work, is another matter. But if it just has simple controls (or automatic operation on default settings), and no security measures (or ones they can bypass) humans would still be able to make use of the captured items.
“Achilles was not harmed by Maxima hitting him (and she was not pulling her blow, as she had figured out that it was him”
Point of pedantry: She definitely pulled the blow. For one thing, there was no follow through (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/253). For another, he flew across the room, but he didn’t go through the wall.
Heh, pedantry noted.
Normally Maxima would pull her blow enough to ensure that a squishy human did not die. Which being hit clear across the room would be a serious risk for most muggles.
When the old stats page was up, if you considered that everything was marked out of 5 (5 being absolute max defence – i.e. Maxima thrusting everything into defence mode), well Achilles wasn’t a 5.
Achilles’s was marked as a 6 (out of 5). With the comment of “has proper aggravating invulnerability”.
Also, invulnerable on the atomic level isn’t 100% invulnerable to physical attack. There are subatomic particles. … hey… wait… is that a spike that just went through his leg?! WTF?!!!!
Also, we’ve seen temporal manipulation, of sorts, which is a great way to @#$% up any superhero’s day… essentially unmake them by killing a parent or ancestor.
man, Iron Cloth and his ninjas work hard on those pants
Achilles is invulnerable to that.
His early history is unknown. Even he cannot remember beyond 50 years ago. You can only kill someone’s ancestors if you know who they are. Well unless you wipe out all humans, but that is a different technique.
He cannot drown. The details of his invulnerability haven’t been explored, but since he can survive a nuclear explosion without any damage at all there’s no chance that being deprived of O2 for his bloodstream, for any amount of time, could be an inconvenience or even noticed by him.
I don’t recall all the things which have been said about his seeking out of new experiences, but I believe he has gone swimming in lava and jumped from a plane without a parachute.
The nuke thing basically means that you can’t get a needle into him to draw blood, and you can’t know that he even has blood because it’s very likely that an x-ray would be completely blocked by his physiology.
I believe it was already established that one of Achilles’ many thrill-seeking hobbies is deep-sea welding. Whether or not he had any protective gear was not specified, but as comic book superhero tropes go they probably would not have mentioned it if he had not been exposed to mortal peril at some point down there. So I would imagine that he has handled the full brunt of crushing depths, with all that entails.
If he cannot experience any sort of cell death, as seems to be the case since he doesn’t age, then lack of oxygen would have no significant effect on him since his brain cells would remain intact. Maybe he’d pass out while his body can no longer undergo the usual chemical processes and goes dormant, but he’d probably get over it.
Well argued.
Krona may be able to cancel his invulnerabilty…
Agreed.
I hope Dabbler is here,love to hear her opinion of Sydney’s actions…!
We know Dabbles is there, we saw her last page reminding Maxi-thug that she only said it was 60% chance of it being Sci’s home
Yup. In fact we can actually see her in the final panel above. It takes a bit of detective work mind, because, at first glance, it looks like two guys walking down the stairs, with a woman behind. None of whom appear to have four arms.
However the leading character has distinctively non-human legs. So, unless they have a lycanthrope (or some other supernatural with superior leg articulation), on this mission, who we have not yet seen, that can only be Dabbler.
Yeah, noticed that leg as well
The one in the back is still a woman’s behind (and everything else :P )
You really have not forgiven Maxima for attacking Sciona, have you?
If I was ever under attack by a super villain, I would hope that Maxima were nearby. I would rather that she attacked them, without hesitation. Rather than waiting until after I was dead, to ensure that she would not be prosecuted for attacking someone who had not already thrown a blow.
+1
This whole thing seems totally over-the-top, it’s like Sci use to bully Maxi in junior high and now Maxi is looking for some maximum pay-back
It is credit to you that you dislike a hero attacking from behind, with no warning, and especially when there is no incontrovertible attack visible.
On the other paw though Sciona really has lost the right to any benefit of the doubt, from her past behaviour. At some point, when innocent people’s lives are at stake, and a moment’s hesitation can see them dead, a cop or a soldier has to make the tough call.
And look at the alternatives.
1) Sciona keeps going. (And escapes with her WMD).
2) Sciona uses the Bane Ripper, to open a portal to hell, on the bridge. Killing everyone on it and allowing an army of demons to flood out. (Yes I am opting for a dramatic example, but it is actually quite modest when dealing with an item in a collection of apocalyptic devices).
Details may vary, but they will be variants on one of those two options. We now know that there was no ‘3) Maxima arrests Sciona’ possibility. Not with her teleportation ability. And Maxima knew that Sciona can conjure blood portals (which it would be unsafe to follow through). So it is not just with hindsight. Maxima knew that failing to act only had bad or very bad as the possible results.
But that is the tough thing about being in the command seat and having the buck stop with you. When a situation only has bad options (attacking without warning, to kill, is bad and to be avoided when possible) you have to choose the one that you consider the least bad. And that is where Dave’s writing is realistic. Life does not always offer a heroic option. Not even if you have super powers. Sometimes you just have to do what soldiers (and armed police) are paid to do.
Kill the enemy.
Wasn’t it you who were one of the ones suggesting that Sci would just use the cover of the bridge to mask her escape?
One Brane Ripper does not make a WMD, it opens up the barrier between dimensions, and we saw Trent emerge from it
Seems to me that Maxi has taken Sci’s repeated escapes far too personally: she managed to get away from The World’s Strongest Super, not once, butt twice, humbling her in both times, so now Maxi is out to ensure it does not happen a third time, even if it means reducing that entire mountain range to rubble and a smoking crater
Well that is the implied thing that would happen after 2), if Max and team are too busy trying to contain the demon army. But it is complicated, as Maxima may go after Sciona, to stop her opening more.
Either way though I took it far enough to show that it was not a good outcome for the people on the bridge.
Yet that was in the hands of a hired heavy. Rather than in the hands of a highly experienced mage, with an exhaustive knowledge of technomagic. If you recall even Vale was extremely worried about what Sciona could do with it. Sciona should be able to make far more effective use of it, even just limiting it to that one known feature (which is not necessarily the limit of its powers as an artefact).
However that is all I showed her doing. Opening a barrier between Hell and Earth. You will find that an awful lot of people do consider Hell on Earth to be the actual apocalypse. So describing it as a weapon of mass destruction is actually an understatement, not an overstatement!
Unless they found some way to close or seal the breach humanity could end up enslaved or wiped out. Obviously by nasty demons, not the nice ones like Dabbler.
Maxima does have her personality flaws. That though does not make her a thug. She is still doing her job, despite that. And remaining within the rules of engagement of the united states armed forces. Further none of her actions are unjustified.
You may recall that, in the battle at the Steak House, that Maxima issued orders that everyone should use non-lethal methods where possible. And, even with the aggro aura interfering with all their judgement, it is that order which ultimately ensured that there was not a single death. In a situation where police were being attacked with deadly force and would have been entirely justified in responding in kind.
That is not the actions of a thug. Maxima is conscientious and protects the public, even against themselves. She though does not extend that courtesy to someone who has repeatedly attempted to murder multiple people, including members of her own team. Who were tortured and (in Sydney’s case) possibly killed.
She has every right to be pissed at Sciona!
If Maxima wanted to level the mountain range, she could have done that already. And doing so once they have already entered would kill off members of the team. So your hyperbole is flawed. Clearly the reason for entering is to ensure that they have the right location, make sure that there are no innocent civilians, and take whatever actions might be appropriate under the circumstances that unfold.
But, if it turns out that there is no other way to overcome Sciona, short of levelling the mountain range, that would be a better alternative than allowing Hell on Earth!
Could Achilles just reach into the deathfields in the vault earlier? In other words, would an instant death effect work on him?
Also, it must be a real pain for doctors to give Achilles a physical examination. You can’t draw blood from him, he doesn’t react to bright lights in his eyes or a rubber hammer bonking his knee…it’s probably possible to get a urine sample, at least.
You raise an interesting point. I’d like to offer this for pondering and discussion.
The rubber hammer to (area right below) the knee. This does not inflict pain. This sends an involuntary signal through to the motor nerves (different ‘system’ than what communicates pain). Sure if you hit it hard enough on a normal person, it would register as pain, but that’s not the point.
I would think he would react fine to that. The same with light changing his pupil dilation. It’s not doing damage, it’s triggering an involuntary response that is normal to standard stimuli.
If he was invulnerable in the way you were describing, he would have no sense touch, and very poor vision (in most cases) if his pupil didn’t adjust appropriately to moderate light for the environment.
So hitting him hard enough to do physical damage, as well as hitting him hard enough to break the threshold of his pain receptors may not be possible, but ‘everyday stimuli’ should trigger normal bodily reactions.
Well thought through, and I agree.
In order for his invulnerability to leave him with any real way to interact with the universe it has to be gated by something, magic, divinity, whatever you want to devise, which can allow his body to respond to anything less than injuring just as a human would, such as a caress, or stepping from a brightly lit room into a dimly lit one, or being struck by the physician’s reflex mallet, but then just stops utterly (nuke, remember?) anything that goes (or attempts to go) any amount beyond that at all.
On the one hand, why would he need to go to a doctor? He’s invulnerable to injury and most disease.
On the other hand, that brings up a good point about illnesses such as cancer. Cancer (as a very brief summary) happens when a cell gets the “wrong blueprints” and starts to multiply the bad cells. As cancer is not just limited to external influences, is it possible for Achilles to get a super cancer that, sharing his invulnerability, is immune to any form of treatment?
For that matter, do Achilles’ cells die out or are they eternal as well? Does he still have the same skin/colon/blood cells that he had when his powers kicked in? What about things like bacteria living in his intestinal tract? If they don’t die out, then, presumably, they also don’t regenerate If that is the case, Achilles’ could conceivably die of a nose bleed (Presuming that you could force one) as his cells wouldn’t replenish his blood so a pint lost is a pint lost forever.
I imagine that the answer to all this is “It just works this way, okay?!?” but it’s still an interesting thought.
If he had all the same cells, he would essentially have no personal smell (he might smell like whatever food or soap residue was on his body). Also, does he then need to eat or drink? If not, does all the food and water simply pass through his system? Does he have bacteria living in his gut?… cus’ if so, he’d have crazy gas because of the undigested food just sitting inside his impermeable bowels.
True, and interesting. Plus apt as regular cancer is actually closer to Achilles than it is to us, given that it is nigh on immortal and harder to kill than regular cells.
However it would have to be a late-onset cancer (such as prostate cancer typically is), given that he is already at least fifty years old.
The consequences might be far far worse than you envisioned though. If all you were doing was picturing him dying. If he does it may take a very much longer time to do that, than with a normal cancer patient. Given that the rest of his body could carry on functioning long past the point when someone would normally die.
But, eventually (and assuming an aggressive type, which then spread), the cancer would convert something into a tumour which is vital to sustain even his life, so, yea, game over.
His odds of getting cancer though are very much reduced, from the average population. As we know that, even for those who are genetically disposed to such can be significantly worsened by environmental factors, such as overeating and smoking. Which would not harm Achilles, so could not contribute to the risk.
Note that the Grrlverse gives supers a good physique for free, so I doubt he could get a beer belly even if he tried.
Even better Achilles may actually be thousands of years old (and thus THE Achilles of legend, sans heel problem). As such he will have long passed the point where cancers are known to develop. Although, admittedly, we are not really up to speed on what illnesses might affect people beyond their second century.
They are eternal. Achilles has not aged a day since he turned 20. Plus we know that he has been subjected to destructive testing not just at the cellular level but at the atomic level.
It is more than just that. Most cells in human bodies are not of human DNA! Humans have about 20,000 genes in what we think of as human DNA. But that is dwarfed by the (very) approximately 10,000,000 million microbial genes! In terms of number of cells a mere 43% is human.
But you are right to phrase it the way you did as the bulk are in the gut.
I think they would all need to be immortal for him to have a stable biology. Otherwise various of the things he does (like standing in burning fires that would kill a normal person and eating genetic warfare agents) would have killed off his microbiome.
As TDM says, burgers and other food would just sit in Achilles gut and rot. The smell would be corpse-like and noticeable from across the room!
I will invoke the, the food would not just sit in his gut and rot. It is possible and we have seen examples in media of immortal or semi-immortal beings with bodies that either used to be or were based on human physiology who could eat food, but not incorporate its nutrients, but not result in food just rotting inside them.
This has been done in one of two ways.
Eventually they just vomit it back up.
or
They have the plumbing of a digestive so as Amethyst on Steven Universe put it, the mush passes through their body. (Amethyst is a gem with a body made of “hard light”; yet she loves to eat. The mush just passes through her shapeshifted gut. on the same show a pink zombie lion likes to eat, and just pukes up everything later).
At least one Wraith *space vampire bug people* from Star Gate Atlantis was shown to eat, as Wraiths were engineered from human ancestry; while he can’t really digest the food it would eventually pass through him.
To vomit stuff back up you need to be able to build up sufficient pressure on the contents of your stomach. Often people might want to vomit, but even if they can trigger the reflex, nothing comes out. Because that pressure is lacking.
Now that is in a normal person, with a gut full of acids, microorganisms and other gunk already taking up a fair proportion of the volume. If all of the living components had died, that itself would be rotting. Yet, as we know from normal experience, there would not be enough pressure to expel that proportion.
So at all times there will be rotting material in his gut.
There are people who have medical problems akin to this, be it bad bacteria running rampant in the mouth, because the good ones have failed to kill them off, or flesh becoming necrotic, or a break down of gut bacteria. All of which end up with severe halitosis.
And our noses are optimised to pick up such smells (because eating purified food would be deadly). And it triggers a revulsion reflex in anyone smelling it. So we would very much be aware if Achilles had this kind of problem.
Now there is a difference for an artificial life form, which has not been designed to digest food. That can be built to ensure that the stomach can expel everything in it, quickly enough that rotting does not occur.
And even then you would hope that there is some kind of rinsing or washing mechanism. Ideally with anti-bacterial properties. Because, without such, there will be a residue and it will eventually start to stink too.
To donate blood of course! ;-)
But the point raised was perfectly correct in saying that such would be impossible, by any known means.
Mind you, if they did want to try to get a single blood cell, and they found a teleporter who could lock onto one without seeing or touching it (thus excluding Harem) then maybe they could teleport it out. Even then his invulnerability may well prevent that. Sydney’s shield does block teleportation, so it is reasonable that his stronger super power may do that too.
Well, Achilles appears to be invulnerable on an atomic level, so I am pretty sure he could casually stand in the death-field. Yeah, it’s magic, but considering that Archon has literally no idea what his limits are, if any, I would imagine they have tried magic already. At the very least, you KNOW Dabbler has to have experimented on him.
Apropos to nothing, here’s a link.
It’s safe. It’s just that while I was reading it I thought, Sydney would probably enjoy it.
Yea, I saw that on the BBC, and immediately thought of Sydney too. That article though did not mention the additional interesting bit, right at the bottom of your linked article:
If that is a risk just walking past it, then I think Sydney will want to snarf down on it!
So not related to the comic but for some reason for the past week i havent been able to access grrlpowercomic.com through anything but a proxy site. is the lack of net neutrality ALREADY fucking me over? is anyone else having problems? the only internet i can really get where i live is through my phone with cricket. everything was fine untill about a week ago then boom nothing.
I have experienced no problems, and I live in a remote village in the Bulgarian countryside. Have not had anyone else commenting on experiencing difficulties. So possibly as you suggest. Whilst I have no idea how that might manifest, I would not expect it to block access to a site, merely take a long time to do so.
Having had a very poor set up previously (seriously obsolete computer and very limited bandwidth due to using radio to connect to the internet) I know that the comic could sometimes fail to appear if my internet connection was very weak.
But there would be plenty of signs that such was affecting other sites too. Grrl Power was not especially slow. More typically it would just take a long time to load the various elements (sometimes not finishing the process, on bad days). But similar to average (non-optimised) websites.
There is one thing that is worth trying, and that is checking to see if your computer corrupted the latest update, when trying to load it. If so there is a way of fixing the glitch. Just try to open it, using whatever link you normally use, then use Ctrl F5 (for Google Chrome and several other browsers) or whatever option you have to ‘refresh memory cache’.
If that is the problem then it will replace the corrupted version, which is failing to display, with the current comic.
If that does not work please let us know and provide any other clues that might help the more tech-savvy members of the community to help diagnose what the problem may be. Or at least offer other suggestions.
Yeah I tried a forced refresh and even taking my computer to a friends house who has centurylink and it would load there fine. I also can’t access Slightly Damned and a few other comics as well. All of them work through a proxy but that is it. Thinking about using PIA or something. Been wanting to set up a vpn for a while now but i’ve just been too lazy. This might be the kick in the pants that gets me to do it XD.
Aaaaaannnnd now everything is working again. Still have no idea what it was but at least I don’t have to worry about it any more.
Yay!
*wags tail contentedly*
I have to wonder, how astronomical is ARC-SWAT’s uniform budget, and how much of it is solely because of Achilles?
Lol.
I am presuming that Achilles *volunteered* to be wrapped up in the lightwhip…because if he didn’t agree to it, that’s NOT consent, Sydney. (Personally, I think he did because he thought it’d be funny. Or at least more interesting than walking along like a normal person. I’ll bet he didn’t expect she’d tap his HEAD on the ground, however…)
Achillles seems like the person who believes he is, properly mind you, the center of EVERYONES attention…. having Sydney use him as a minesweeper is actually ego boosting given what we have seen of Achilles personality
WHERE. IS. MATH?! He is, by far, the most interesting male “super” on the team. Where is he?
Watching porn, as per his commanding officer’s express and explicit orders to him.
Ninja!
Obeying orders.
Achilles has the “this is my life” look on his face.
+1
“Hi honey, how was work today?”
“OK.”
“Oh dear, did they use you as a missile again? You know I will have a word with Maxie, if you did! It takes forever to get the blood and brains out of your uniform!”
“No, trap detector. It was different this time though. That new girl. She is kinda irritating, but at least she made it go faster.”
“Oh, and the clothes?”
“No problems, I drew a new set, on the way home.”
“Actually it was sort of a nice change from walking with my feet, the corridor had a nice head feel.”
Lol.
He is being too nonchalant to effectively checks for all possible traps. He could miss some. Stay more chalant!
Indeed. And he should be ulgent too (ladies present, so no ‘eff’ing).
I do like to share news items which make me laugh.
OMG! Sydney has psychic powers!
Exhibit A (final panel).
Exhibit B (panel 5).
Every Achilles scene is a good scene.
Prove me wrong.
:-D
He is … a character. One with fun potential.
Welp that is the oddest way to detect traps, he don’t seem to mind it ether. Gotta say he is quite okay with all that but considering he is used as a battering ram among other things I guess he can handle traps of that low level.
eh, third or fourth oddest I’ve seen,
next to sentient hot dogs running down the death gauntlet to levitating pieces of toast through an aerial mine field. and possibly tied with an invincible bouncing ghost thing bumping into everything.
Very true.
Hey reusable trap detector…
From what I’ve seen so far of Achilles, he enjoys doing things in the most “dangerous” way possible, so he probably thought that getting Sydney involved would “maximize” that….
:-D
Realise this is highly unlikely, butt is it possible that Sci is wanting to use the Ripper to do an ET and simply go home? Do we know where she comes from? Is it simply another planet or is it another dimension?
Butt yeah, let’s not stop the max-hate towards her, that’s always fun to read :rolleyes: :vomit:
It is possible. That though would not worry Vale. More importantly, given how he has his finger on the pulse as to what Sciona and her minions wanted, would it explain how Deus planned to exploit whatever she did.
Unless he just wants her to open up a gateway between her home and Earth. Which could offer lucrative profit options for him, if he is not bothered about the risk to humanity.
If Sciona is a typical example of her species that does not bode well.
Achilles has much in common with Beatrix Farmer, her complete invulnerability being a gift from benevolent aliens when she was fatally injured in a drive-by shooting. Except she couldn’t eat, taste, smell, or touch due to the frictionless force field from her form-fitting costume. She also didn’t need food, water, air, or even sleep and seemed to have invulnerability to the mentally debilitating effects of her state as well.
Many would consider that a fate worse than death! Being deprived of three of your senses? No thanks
A horror indeed!
It also meant as she very quickly realized that she couldn’t have sex anymore, which was while not to the levels of her roommate and friend was something she still enjoyed doing fairly often. But as noted it also looked like the aliens built in mental stability into her invulnerability so she wouldn’t go insane under those conditions, they also made it something she couldn’t turn off because ‘invulnerability isn’t invulnerability if it’s not always on.’ She had to learn how to walk all over again due to the force field (she did at least learn she could ‘skate’ on it to move quickly) and how to hold things otherwise they’d slip out of her hands like they were greased up.
Dwarven trap-finding got an upgrade.
I remember many a DnD session in which our rouge was in one way or another not available, so the dwarf (some a fighter) would just start swing ax at the square in front of him to see if it was trapped. The rest of the party would generally stay 20 ft behind just in case he triggered a fireball or something.
Looks like he has the put-upon patience of a big brother who’s adorable little sister just flung herself with all her weight onto his back, and is now hollering, “Giddyup!”
When looking for traps, send in the booby first.
I think this is actually usefull, you can’t kill Agilles, but you can shoot him away.
Now that is also not an option.
Honestly, my favorite part of this is still that you know Achilles went along with the head-bonk plan willingly.
The guy has a great sense of humor and he should probably get to show it more.