Grrl Power #628 – Maxima’s MFP attack
Sciona is crazy resilient, that’s really all she’s got going for her in this fight. She does have a mess of powers, but obviously, she hasn’t gotten a chance to test them. Even with this arsenal, she’s outnumbered and arguably still overpowered. But she’s not trying to actually beat them. She would definitely brag about it at the arch-villain conference if she did manage to take a few of them down. At least add it to her resume.
Maxima doesn’t herself name her different levels of punching, but when your strength range goes from “opening a door without shattering the foundation of the house” all the way up to “what mountain?” it’s maybe not a bad idea to visualize the scale. With Maxima, it’s not just a matter of her flexing harder, she also has the power pool draw from. It’s not like she sees a UI like she’s playing a video game when she moves her power level around. She just flexes whatever superhero muscle she flexes until the power is in whatever buckets she wants. So her punches (and kicks, headbutts, Indian Burns, etc) have a fairly distinct feel to her. It’s not like in a regular person, where punches range from “hitty girlfriend” to “anti-hysteria slap” to “friendly boxing match” to “I’m seriously trying to hurt you” to “haymaker.” Maxima has like 50 different levels of punch. The MFP is closer to the top of the scale than it is the bottom, and Sciona is only the third person she’s ever hit with it that hasn’t been instantly decapitated. (Keep in mind that Maxima fought other supers in some overseas action. If you misjudge the toughness of an opponent on the superhero scale by even a little bit, stuff can get fatal real fast.)
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And where’s Sydney?
That is sydney shielding the eye beam
Could be … it is so hard to see anything. ;-)
But the dome shape is suggestive.
If so Sydney was VERY brave. Because she would have had to drop her shield, move closer (or twiddle the embiggener a bit) and then raise it again. Whilst Sciona was attacking every other member of the team simultaneously. So was vulnerable to instant death during that action!
And Sciona has (probably) already killed her once. Which Sydney will not have forgotten.
You may be able to make out the halo of orbs above the head.
Well observed. I could not, looking at panel 4. But you are spot on, when looking at panel 6.
looks to me like panel 4 is still max, but by panel 6 sydney intercepted the beam, which sciona couldn’t propperly see, so that ax could then land the MFP.
Daniel here. I like my older but big screens, so much detail…
Panel 4 IS Max bracing for something that’s probably gonna hurt, but judging by the colour of the beam in that panel compared to the beam when fired, seems Sydney saw the beam getting charged up & moved in the way, blocking it before it even got to Max cause that’s DEFINITELY Sydney in panel 6 with orbs above her head & shield at full strength…
I fully confirm Sydney has pulled a superhero switch. Shield up probably a teleport involved but dam was she crafty in taking position where her size would be confused for Maxima.
I can see something that suggests glowing orbs in both panel #4 AND panel #6. In panel #4 though, it also looks like it could be Max outside of the shield, still standing among the shattering rubble. From what I would guess is that Max could have (super speed) moved out of Sciona’s beam (even while the beam is degrading her vision), then moved up for the MFP attack while Sciona was trying to see who was still standing directly in front of herself (which would be Sydney).
The problem with super speeding out of the beam, was that it was damaging enough that Maxima needed to have her defences up high. So could not lower them, to boost the super speed.
However Dave mentions, in a reply below, that Sydney jumped ahead of Maxima, to block the beam. So presumably in between panels 4 and 6. Other than that, being as you surmised.
Two powers at a time. So she kept the dome up and teleported.
O right, she teleported over there. I completely forgot she could do that.
Or she kept the dome up and simply projected herself.
Why even Teleport, if your image would work just as well?
And we saw her shield being copied as well in 1422: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1422
That was an illusionary shield, just a part of Halo’s image. Observe panels 4 to 6 and you will see Vehemence’s limbs poking through it.
And why can this not be a illusory shield this time too?
The attack might hit the wall, maybe? But the shield might scatter such a wide beam attack anyway, making it a poor choice to actuall stand in it’ way.
And again, this size of shield is not a generally bad idea for team battles. One important job of Halo is to “Draw aggro” and “deny any attacks” that otherwise only maxima could block.
Well argued, both times.
My bad, I was misinterpreting your comment due to not taking in the “… if your image would work just as well?” in the context you intended. I think it is because of the proximity of ‘protect’ in the sentence above and I mentally combined the two into one.
It did seem odd that you would think the illusionary shield would protect Maxima (there is the impression that she is present, in panel 4 – although that may be a misconception). However Maxima is tough enough that she can take the hit herself (albeit limiting her other options).
Or Sydney could just be standing behind Maxima, with her shield raised. And everything would look the same.
However your point is right that it is safer to do so with an illusion.
Daniel here. Going off what my screens are showing me, what seems to be happening is;
Panel 2; Sciona performs an attack power-up sequence, which would be obvious to someone as genre savvy as Sydney…
Panel 3; Powered up attack fires, in a VERY BRIGHT (almost WHITE) blue beam…
Panel 4; Max braces for the beam to hit & is surrounded by a MUCH LIGHTER blue than the fired beam, possibly indicating the attack was being blocked already.
Panel 6; On my screens, I can clearly see it’s Sydney, orbs overhead, I can even see her shield bubble. She is doing the same “brace for impact” pose Max did in panel 4, but I can even see the outline of some pouches on Sydney’s belt…
I don’t think Sydney’s shield deflects energy attacks…As we see here, the shield is blocking one of Budget Halo’s beams (the other beams are totally missing the target), which indicates that the shield absorbs the energy, not deflects it.
However, I still think a material projectile is still likely to bounce off, Sciona’s attack here is clearly an energy-based attack. Also look at the “energy-lines” DaveB drew in panel #4; if Sydney’s shield sere reflecting, then some of those lines should have been drawn to show an angle of deflection.
In the case shown on this comic page though, the area-profile of Sciona’s beam is larger than the area-profile of her shield, so we can’t really tell if this is the real shield blocking a part of the attack or if it’s an illusionary shield passing the whole attack though to whatever is behind it.
Heh. Oddly enough you have chosen the shot that I usually cite as being an example of Sydney’s shield deflecting a laser-like attack.
It is a complex one though, so it is fair enough that there are different interpretations of it.
My take though is as regards the point of impact we see on the left of Sydney’s shield (from our perspective, or her right if you prefer that). If you examine it you will see two lines converging on it. A straight one, and then another one, above it, curving back towards the point of origin.
Now I grant that we would normally expect to see a deflection going off to our left, from that kind of an impact, whereas that is going to the right. But it could indicate that the shield may be able to reflect attacks back towards an attacker,* or it may just be that the force field is tweaking physics to operate.
Which would match what the flyball does (by appearing to control gravity), albeit that those are very different kinds of tweaking.
But, trying to get that to match your interpretation is possible too. If the upper, curved shot, is actually originating from Hex too, and is just being ‘sucked in’ towards the shield (to account for the curve) as it approaches, to finally be absorbed at the same point of impact as the straight line beam.
However it is that final bit which is what makes me stick with my interpretation. I find it unlikely that both would end up going to the same spot. If it did have this feature then we would expect ALL of the shots to have been sucked in. Especially as it was Sydney’s intent to protect her allies.
Either way there is an anomaly, which needs explaining. But I feel mine is the slightly less complex.
* Obviously not all the time, otherwise Maxima would have been hit, during testing. However the orbs do obviously respond to mental commands, so it is unlikely that such an option would be activated when testing is being conducted by a friend or ally.
Nasty attack potential mind. Position the illusionary shield bisecting Sciona (vertically, through her head), then teleport!
That is simultaneously something you want to beta-test (the shield might auto-expand rather than let you teleport-gib, thereby letting a dangerous villain into your shield) and something you DEFINITELY DO NOT WANT TO BETA-TEST.
….. actually, okay, Achilles might volunteer for beta testing.
Good points.
It would not be the first time that Sydney has done that mind. Recall the fight with Vehemence?
I only pointed it out as a potential however. There is no way Sydney would attempt such a viscous attack, unless in the most dire of need. She looked like she was going to puke at the thought of even having contributed to Maxima ripping off Vehemence’s arm!
Sydney’s expression.
As long as Achilles uses the right words he might be beta tester without volunteering for it.
Using Achilles as a test subject may not get you any result that can matter anyway…If Achilles can’t be cut by the shield, then it would conform to his profile or it would expand or contract automatically. There’s still too little actual knowledge about the orbs to be able to predict which way it will react. You’d still have to find a different test subject.
Achilles vs. a teleport gib is invincible shield vs. unstoppable spear conundrum.
The shield, by all known physics if there isn’t an expand/shield-off effect built in for such an instance, should sever literally anything because it’s appearing already inside the person. Achilles has True Invulnerability, as in not damage resistance, but that he has what can be considered Inviolable Form, Achilles being unable to be damaged might as well be a law of the universe.
So what happens when the MUST cut through whatever is there shield meets the body of the thing that cannot be harmed?
The Teleporb could simply not teleport if Sydney or part of the shield would intersect solid matter at the destination.
Either failure to initiate teleport, or maybe my thought: The illusion shield doesn’t go through his body (you’d need Lightbee Sydney and some tech glasses of some kind in order to check) but around it, so there’s an Achilles-shaped hole in the illusion.
Teleport to Illusion Halo and the shield would be real, but wouldn’t close until either Sydney expanded/shrunk the shield, moved, or Achilles moved. That should be worth a point (learn how to make shield doors).
You beta test that on things you don’t mind getting cut. Like trees.
Sydney still wakes up crying, some nights.
Please don’t joke, I don’t want our beloved heroine to suffer from more conditions than she already has.
Plausible. We saw Halo using the lightbee through the shield, when going over to have a chat with Vehemence, at the tree (the one the squirrel was hiding in, scheming with his minion Vehemence).
It is worth mentioning that we have not discovered the outcome of Sydney musing about whether she should keep the teleporting secret (to use when Maxima inevitably gets hit by something that turns her evil).
However, in this instance, she could indeed use that trick, without compromising either her safety or her (possible) secret, as she is behind Maxima, so how she moved would not have been observed by her (and the others are either unable to see through rock or are tumbling).
*issues a gold star*
SQUABIES!
if not wrong she can move with shield freely as shield is centred on orb
Without the trick that Dark Matter mentioned though Halo could only go up to the point where the shield bumped into Maxima. At which point Maxima would either get pushed out of the way (unlikely) or Sydney would be brought to a halt.
If she just hit the embiggener, at that point, the same mechanics would still be a problem. Maxima is on the outside. So either she or Syndey would be pushed out of position to accommodate the growing shield.
Or, as I recall seeing at least once, the shield will deflect. Partially wrapping around Maxima. Possibly this could provide some protection this way. But technically Maxima would still be on the outside.
I think that is likely that Sydney used her shield to push Maxima out of the way and take her spot. It is highly unlikely that Sciona can throw anything stronger than Maxima has already tested against her shield.
The other option is that she used the embiggenator to push Maxima out of the way, then used light bee to place a version of herself in the path to confuse Sciona that she is still hitting a target.
I have to argue with you Yorp, but I can’t find the words I need.
So I’ll bring up the Kevin vs Sydney fight, specifically when she cut off his Anarchy Aura. The shield wasn’t centered on Halo, or the Shield Orb, but on VEHEMENCE. That’s how she was able to back up and bump into the shield like a wall.
It’s not clear since this page, with the exception of the last panel, is from Sciona’s POV, but Sciona fired, hit Max, but while she was blinking and trying to squint her eyes through the blast, Sydney jumped into the beam, allowing Max to shift from armor to speed and strength.
To be fair she may have noticed the arcane symbol popping up as an eye blast. Might have never actually hit Max in the first place. If Halo flew in she wouldn’t have had the ability to position properly. Walking in was equally dangerous. Quick teleporting into position with the shield up was probably the only way she would have been in position to block in time without being seen easily.
It also could be important to know if the support structure for the room was behind Maxima….
Using the FlyBall, Sydney can quickly take any position she wants inside her shield. I think it would take more time for her to have sent the lightbee in front of Maxima, than to simply fly there, because she doesn’t use the lightbee often, making it less of a precision instrument –but we know from page 158 /archive 1034 that she has used the FlyBall a great deal in a small apartment. She has precise control there.
With respect to Maxima in the 4th panel of the current comic page, remember that Maxima can react very quickly, and we can expect that almost as fast as Sciona’s blast reached her, Maxima would have maxed-out her shielding ability (which extends to her clothes). We also don’t know exactly what sort of blast it was –perhaps it only affected living tissue, and ignored clothing, for example.
Yeah, have the same feeling regarding the non-use of LightBee
Should have damaged her clothes though, unless Sciona’s beam was weaker than Atomic Bombshell’s “party popper”.
Yeah, Sci was just warming up
wow dude, you are actually arguing the scene with the creator of the scene.
So you’re saying teamwork happened.
I hadn’t considered that Max was power limited in a way similar to how Sydney is. That Max could only use her power for one or two effects at a time. Or is it that she needs to mentally focus on what effects she would access and that defending herself took her full concentration?
It’s not that she can only do one but all of them share the same power pool so if she’s boosting strength and defense she can’t boost speed or energy beam.
If you think of the blast like a water cannon, and Person A (Max) is being blasted with it. How can Person B (Sydney) enter the blast zone without being pushed out? It would take a lot of strength to push her way into the line of fire.
Stepping in before the blast hit, or stepping in after it dissipated I can understand. But doing it in mid-blast doesn’t seem possible.
Flight Orb + Force Field that is incredibly resistant to simply being “pushed”.
the shield orb itself has shown itself unable to be moved if Syd doesn’t allow it.
Yep! Other characters and powers in the story have stats and go by physics and mathematics, but Sydney’s orbs are Keys of the Twilight (see: .hack//sign) that simply go into (as Krona said) “deep code” and simply says “no” to whatever.
The opposite of .iso files. Bypass permission checks and says the check was already done and the answer was ‘its fine’.
It took her a few moments to realize what was happening, but that is some high quality teamwork she did there.
+1
Sydney can fly in her shield. She’d only have to drop it to include someone in it.
Mmm, not to mention dropping it again, whilst the attack is continuing. Thus leaving herself with nothing but Maxima to shield herself from the ongoing blast.
Which may be what the dome-like effect is. Namely an eddy behind Maxima.
But it is nicer to think that Sydney stepped up her game, to join in with extreme teamwork.
*wags tail faithfully*
The shield itself isn’t fixed to a location, so all Sydney needed was to keep the shield up and use the fly ball to position herself in front of Maxima
I think she has her arms crossed too. The “I’m not even trying” pose.
I think she’s actually mimicking Maxima’s pose to fool Sciona
I think that is just the standard “protect my eyes” instinct/cliché when a bright blast of energy is flowing straight at you. To be honest, I doubt that Sydney is thinking straight enough right now to be intentionally trying to mimick Maxima.
Ah, yes. She’ll get that Sciona is a bit blinded by her own ability and jumped in.
Or just in the superhero “maximum resistance” pose.
It isn’t just the superhero maximum resistance pose. The pose is designed to protect your vital area, your head, make you a slightly smaller target, and still allow you to see what is coming at you.
Why would she need to drop it again?
I don’t think she even needs to drop it to make it bigger.
She does seem to need to drop it to resize it.
However I think that would actually be the normal size for team battles. It is way easier to shield allies from attacks with a bigger shield and “Operation Draw Aggro” is still in place.
Initially Halo would be shielding Maxima from the blast. So Max has to be inside the shield.
However, in the final panel, we can see that Maxima has charged forwards to attack. So is clearly outside of the shield. Hence it would have to be lowered.
Or, using the clever option that Dark Matter pointed out, Halo could just teleport away (taking the shield with her, but leaving Maxima unprotected). So negating the need to lower it.
would max need to be inside the shield or the shield just in front of her but with her still outside?
Sydney is *way* in front of Maxima, enough so that her relative size was about the same as Maxima’s. She could *not* have teleported, as there would’ve been a probably lethal to her section of the beam that was inside the bubble the moment she arrived. But she could’ve flown pretty fast. She didn’t just have a blink of time to confuse Sciona. Due to her unfamiliarity with the power, the first few moments that Sciona was invoking it, she was focused on creating the beam, not looking through it.
DaveB, confirmed, above, that Maxima was in front initially. Looking closely, at panel 4, you can actually make out Maxima’s arm, and then the rest of her torso and legs below. With her usual colour (except on her arm) obscured by the brightness of the blast.
What made it hard to pick out was the explosion completely obscuring Maxima’s head. But that makes sense, as it would hit at eye-height, given the source.
Dave terms it as ‘Sydney jumping into the beam’, which sounds more physical. But, just for the sake of running with the argument, we could take that to mean a teleport type jump.
Whilst your argument has merit, don’t forget that Maxima was blocking a big part of the beam with her body. And Sydney is a lot smaller than her. So there would be an area that was receiving some shielding.
Very risky mind, but possible.
Or, never lowered it in the first place. She went between the two. Max would have been fine on the far side of it.
Max could simply be behind the shield rather than inside it. Sydney just ran in front of Max while keeping her shield up the whole time.
The latter part is right, in that Sydney moved up, but the former turns out not to be the case. As per the author’s reply, further up the thread.
But Maxima never was inside the shield in the first place. So in order to get Max inside, she’d need to drop the shield.
Don’t forget that the first reply, in this thread, was codebracker saying:
Whilst DaveB has subsequently clarified that it was actually Maxima taking the initial hit (thus being her in panel 2), we had been working on the assumption that it was Sydney’s dome surrounding Maxima, and thereby shielding her.
Even your earlier reply:
Seemed to be confirmation that you agreed that the shield had initially been dropped, and were only contesting the need for it to be lowered a second time.
Had our shared assumptions been correct, my chain of logic was sound.
It was not until DaveB pointed out that Maxima had borne the brunt of the attack herself, and that Sydney was therefore only acting as a decoy, and not a shield, that the debate became moot.
As you have just said, we now know that Maxima was never inside. However we did not know that, at that point in the debate. Or if you did, well done. But you failed to convey that point previously.
I’d like to think so (she does have an initiative bonus) but the question is more (in my opinion) how fast the shield actually forms when she grabs the ball.
It IS Sydney! I missed the little balls on first sight.
Heh. Yea. Panel 6 though, for anyone failing to find them in panel 4.
So that is likely to be Sydney there. Although it could be Sydney behind Maxima, that is unlikely, given their size differences, and that the orbs would be lower than that normally, thus being obscured by Maxima’s silhouette.
*holds up paw to Sydney*
High five on being mistaken for Maxima!
Maybe Sydney moved up close to Maxima, but Max repositioned herself, in order to try and blindside Sciona, from an unexpected angle? So Maxima may have not been inside the leading edge of the shield, but rather outside it all the time, until she moved.
In panel 3 it’s definitely Maxima taking the beam. And trying to block it using the Wakanda salute. Silly Maxima, the Wakanda salute is only for blocking sonic attacks.
Sydney is blocking the Blast for MAX so she can hit Sciona (Maybe to prevent further cave in chances)
Is Max best Hit a MOAP? (Mother of all Punches :P)
I think it’s a Serious Punch.
One Punch Man’s attack names are the best.
+1
C’mon, guys, the author has already named it, don’t be disrespectful. If he wants to call it a Mother-Fucking Punch, then it’s a Mother-Fucking Punch.
:-D
+1
Read the blog again. This is not her best punch.
I bet Sciona has had it with these M. F. punches in this M. F. fight.
+1
Punch of Sam “Serious” Stone?
Ludicrous Speed…Er, Punch! Go!
Just before hitting Sciona, Max’s fist goes Plaid.
Keeping score.
On the east coast of Australia, terrible city, even terribler country >.>
My brother chose to live on the West coast. He likes it.
I was real impressed with how he managed to hold on, without falling off.
Just grab onto Ayer’s Rock. That sucker’s dug in so deep, its going nowhere!
My brother called from there one Christmas. He had his caravan set up overlooking it, and had the entire place to himself. Even the park rangers (or whatever they are called) had sensibly gone home for Christmas.
The less people around the happier my brother is. Of course normally, that time of year, he would choose to be with family. But not so easy when you have to rappel, to the edge of the world, to get back.
Nice one!
Yes a superpower that doesn’t shred clothes is kind of idiotic.
I’m going to agree with Ancalador above (posted at 5:27am), that Sydney flew her shielded self in front of Maxima. Now look at page 277 /archive 1564, where you can see Sydney’s shield casting a shadow with respect to something mystical that radiates from a source. Here Maxima is in the equivalent of that shadow, so her clothes are not being threatened by Sciona’s magic energy beam.
Dabbler has no idea what we’re talking about, and yet still agrees with you.
I agree that Maxima should definitely have artfully battle damaged clothes right now.
Yeah, I thought about that, but while it doesn’t take too long to draw a bit of battle damage on one page, keeping that damage consistent across the next 10 pages has always been a weakness of mine. :)
Well, we all know that Sciona is a mage, and therefore it is easy to assume that that bright blue beam is some sort of magical energy. Since Sciona is a casual and merciless killer, I’d expect that beam to be more of a death ray than a disintegrator. Sure, the differences between such things can be subtle (here’s a good one!), but just maybe Sciona, as a skilled magic user, doesn’t want to waste magical effort on destroying things that are not actually enemies.
In this case, though, a possible problem is that Maxima’s “living tissue” is rather different from ordinary living tissue –but Sciona doesn’t know that, and so this particular weapon, against Maxima, could be less effective than Sciona expected.
I think it’s pretty likely what she’s using in this page isn’t actually magic. If it was a spell she knew then she would’ve been able to test it previously and wouldn’t have been surprised by how hard it is to see anything while using it.
It probably came from her blood cocktail.
Agreed. Pretty much corroborated by this line, in the blog above:
Whilst there could be other reasons for her new powers, we have not seen them. We saw what options she chose with the artefacts. Likewise there is no spellcasting on this page. Whereas Sciona did inject herself with half a dozen powers, of which we have only seen a couple demonstrated.
So I am sticking with the simplest explanation, per Occam’s Razor.
Totally viscous guy. “You go with my explanation or I cut yea throat, from ear to ear!”
Yeah, but that “She does have a mess of powers, but obviously, she hasn’t gotten a chance to test them” is a fairly silly statement to make in the first place.
Consider: When you’re whipping up your magical blood-superpower-transference spell, are you always 100% certain that it’ll even work? So there’s never a need to test it? And are you always going to acquire only the exact amount of blood that you need for one use, why not get enough blood for 2 or 5 or 27 different ‘potions?’
A couple of good reasons spring to mind. One being that Sciona’s kidnapping and blood-draining operation got interrupted. And she has been on the run, or in hiding, or carrying out her heist, ever since. So simply has not had the time for testing them properly. She may have done ‘proof of concept’ testing, but has not had the chance for significant trials.
Sydney is in the same situation.
The other being that there are side effects, of an unspecified nature. Ones that Sciona clearly found undesirable. I can think of many which would put me off use, other than in a life-or-death situation. We have not seen any problems so far, so it is likely that they only kick in once the primary effect wears off. Which means there could be some very nasty options.
For example, each potion (cumulatively) drains the users health a little bit, but permanently! If you are likely to die, becoming a bit less fit and slightly more enfeebled, is not a bad price to pay, to avert that.
Or each use causes a random mutation. Say an extra ear growing. Or a tooth becoming a tusk. Or toes atrophying and withering away. Or genitalia turning into avian equivalents. Or wings becoming soft and fluffy!
After just this one batch Sciona could end up worse off than when she was part orc!
No time for trials, but enough time to prepare a revolving injector. Sounds legit…
*gets out tricorder and examines display closely*
*adjusts a few settings*
*gives it a shake*
Nope, I am nee able to tell if this thing is broken, or if there is no sarcasm to detect. Umm, I guess, thanks?
Interesting that you took it to be a revolving injector. Although with the Gatling gun-like look I can easily see how you interpreted it that way. And possibly correctly so.
However even rereading the page, it still looks to me as in my first impression. Namely that the plunger is set up to dispense all the various doses simultaneously. Hence the “Skutch” followed by “Hnnnrg!” and Sciona’s transformation.
As opposed to: “Skutch”, “Ow”, “Skutch”, “Ow”, “Skutch”, “Ow”, “Skutch”, “Ow”, “Skutch”, “Ow”, “Skutch”, “Ow”, “Skutch”, “Ow”, “Skutch”, “Hnnnrg!”.
Although I do appreciate that Dave could well have abbreviated the process, and just shown the final part.
Mind you that sequence would have been funny. :-D
But not as dramatic. Hence the short-paw version is viable. So I have no issues with your interpretation.
Yorp, I thought that injector more looked like one of those pens with multiple colors of ink but only one can be depressed at a time, and pushing a different one down pulled the displayed one up as they switched.
A lot of the powers Sciona has now? It’s totally feasible that she really doesn’t know much about them or had time to test/practice with them. After all, it was pretty recent since she had that Bloody Mary Cocktail…
Simple explanation: Maxi’s force-shield protected her clothing long enough for Sydney to get in place while the Sci-beam was charging up
Fair enough. You spoil us with fanservice enough as it is. Thank you for all your hard work mr Barak.
Yeah, even just me writing my book, I have a lot of extensive notes to remember skillsets and battle damage of my drider.
I live for this shit.
A very fun and clever fight on both sides, I have to ask though, what was Sciona’s thought supposed to be? My mind cannot auto complete what “Wait, is that even Maxim-” was supposed to be.
Sydney jumped in front of maxima to block the beam,but becauae it’s an eye beam sciona couldn’t tell it’s “not Maxima” untill she got MFP by her
Ah, that makes far more sense, also explains how Maxima managed to both tank the attack, and counter it both, she didn’t! Never crossed my mind it was Sydney there.
She can’t see well when she’s eye-beaming.
Which is kinda silly. I mean, there’s a touch of realism in it, but it’s the touched by an idiot amount of realism. You’d have to be a person who was happy with the amount of science that says that it’s difficult for eyes to see through a bright beam of energy, but also not happy with the amount of science that says that eyes simply can’t generate a bright beam of energy in the first place.
Not many supers are shown with powers that work against them like that. I do recall some comic* that had a superhero who could create enormously powerful beams of energy from behind his eyeballs. But his eyeballs were not immune to the beam. He could still shoot enormously powerful beams of energy from behind his eyeballs after that, but he was blind because he no longer had any eyeballs. It was pretty much a gag setting/comic though, you don’t normally have heroes whose own powers gimp themselves like that.
* Name long forgotten, but it was an amusing tale of the ‘B’ level (perhaps the ‘H’ level, even) supers in the setting. I wager 5,000 Quatloos that there are a few people who read these forums who will know the name just based on my scant description.
Heh, I was ninja’d in time by Nightmask : Lazer Pony
Yep. He’s one of the Legion of Super-Redundant Heroes. I still keep that one bookmarked.
She realised that she might not even be looking at Maxima through that beam…thing. Have a closer look at panel 6. That’s Sydney, right there
Yeah, Maxima in panel 4, and Sydney in panel 6. The switcheroo must have taken place off panel during panel 5, since we don’t see any motion.
The switcheroo trick raises a couple questions. In order to pull off a deception involving a beam of energy that is difficult to see though for Sciona, you have to first be aware that the beam of energy is difficult to see through for Sciona. Which neither Maxima nor Halo could know in advance.
I suppose you could argue that it’s obvious that the beam is hard to see though because Maxim and Halo have a hard time seeing though it. But that violates the typical maxim that the superhero is not inconvenienced by their own powers. Cyclops’ beam (unable to turn it off without assistance notwithstanding) doesn’t impede his eyesight when he shoots it. Not does Superman’s. I’m unaware of a single hero who shoots eyebeams who has their own eyesight inconvenienced by their own beam.
And yeah, this isn’t exactly an eyebeam, as it appears to come from in front of Scion’a face. But given that we have already established that the beam is so difficult to see though, how are either Maxim or Halo supposed to have spotted that 3″ difference in origin?
The bottom line is that while the ol’ switcheroo trick is a classic, it isn’t justified or even logical in this case. It really makes zero sense upon a few moments reflection.
I agree.
However that is only if considering Sydney and Maxima deliberately attempting to pull off a ‘switcheroo’, as a coordinated maneuver. So whilst it ended up as that, it may have just been the result of the chain of events.
They are aware that Sciona can copy super powers. They saw the construct replicating Pixel’s laser claws and regeneration. Further they are familiar with spellcasting. Even Sydney has seen Dabbler casting in combat. So can recognise the distinctive signs.
Here Sciona was not spell casting, yet was using something that looks very much like a super attack. So it is entirely reasonable for either Sydney or Maxima (or even both) to conclude that it was a copied power. Which means that they could guess that Sciona may have difficulties seeing.
Mind you I would not want to rely on a guess, in combat!
Of course there is also the fact that we know Sydney’s shield does specifically protect against laser-like attacks (we saw one bouncing off the shield, in the Battle At the Steak House Car Park™. Significantly without any part of it passing through. So the normal light she needed to see by was getting in. But no part of the harmful attack did.
Now if we apply that knowledge here, and look at the scene from Sydney’s perspective, she can see the situation clearly, because the dangerous (blinding) levels of the beam are not affecting her. So Sydney would be able to make out Sciona having difficulty seeing. Hence could have purposefully moved up, due to that.
However the above are just bonuses. rather than being necessary for the following.
Because, in this scene, we see Sydney behaving in her typical combat role that she has been delegated. Acting as a mobile shield for her team mates. Bear in mind that Halo had just been commenting on how everyone had upped their game. So good team-work would very much be in the front of her mind.
Therefore, for whatever reason Sydney had (be it seeing Sciona blinking or just being keen), she put herself in a blocking position (perhaps even hoping that Maxima would recognise the chance to do a switcheroo), Maxima suddenly found herself no longer having to keep her defences up. Note that Dave’s reply above does not mention their motivations, just their actions (and how Sciona’s blinking helped). However he does go on to say:
Despite showing the potential Sydney had to recognise Sciona was having difficulty seeing, I think it more likely that the good timing was simply a result of Sydney being hyper-motivated to show good team work. So the instant she saw the attack, and realised this was her opportunity, she would have been leaping in.
We do know when she got there though, because it was whilst Sciona was still blinking, from being blinded by the blast. The shield blocking a wide area of the beam would either allow Maxima to step out of the line of fire, to a safe spot, and switch her stats around. Or she could have done that behind the shield and used her super speed to move.
Clearly, with weak armour Maxima would have had to remain outside of the path of the beam. So would need to exit that initially. And then keep out of it on her charge towards Sciona. Fortunately, with bullet time engaged, Max could likely see that Sciona was not reacting to her movement (due to being blinded by the light) so could safely commit to the MFP.
Hmmmm, no. I think. I agree that she isn’t going to be dazzled by the flare of the eye beam, due to her force field protecting her from that. But that doesn’t give her the ability to see through things that she couldn’t see though before. It’s protection, not a new super power. So I still don’t buy her being able to see that the beam is coming from in front of Sciona’s face instead of from her eyes, and I still don’t see (no pun intended) any reason at all for either Halo or Maxima to deduce that Sciona’s vision would be impacted by the beam.
Oh, they certainly are. Look at Maxima in panel 4, and then Sydney in panel 6. There’s zero reason for Sydney to take the exact stance of Maxima, leaning in, arms crossed in front of her, legs wide and slightly bent*, when she could just as easily be holding the flight ball and be lounging on her side, or upside down. Or just standing there normally, like she typically does. There’s too much coincidence at work if this wasn’t a deliberate attempt to fool Sciona. Which then of course begs the same questions: How could they even guess that Sciona would have a hard time seeing through the beam?
Sydney intercepting the beam so that Maxima can do an end-run, I can totally buy that. But explanations are needed for knowing the limitations of someone else’s powers, even if they are stolen/borrowed from someone else. Well, they are needed if the suspension of disbelief is going to be maintained. Right now the suspension of disbelief for the rational basis of the switcheroo trick is right out the window.
* We don’t see Maima’s lower body in panel 2, but it’s the same stance she had in the last panel of the prior comic.
Granted. There is a limit to anti-glare.
In which case I shall have to invoke …
[drumroll]
a href=”https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/55″>Page 2 of the comic!
Panel 6, obviously. No no, not that nonsense about force fields not blocking light based damage.* Rather I am invoking the dungeon master’s ruling!
If Sydney could not see Sciona, her first (instinctive) thought is going to be ‘Sciona cannot see me either!’ Now we know how fast, and varied, Sydney’s thoughts go in these circumstances. So I wholly agree, with your protest, that she would quickly think ‘but supers are immune to their own powers.’
However I already laid out the groundwork that Sydney knows Sciona is a blood mage not a super (she sure isn’t going to forget that). So she would realise that a non-super, copying such a power, is not necessarily going to have that immunity.
Importantly there is no down side to doing a bit of impromptu Maxima cos-play. Sydney knows Maxima is not going to waste the opportunity her blocking the attack will afford her. So is expecting a counter-attack to be forthcoming, regardless of what Sydney does. Sydney is not disadvantaged, in any way, by taking a Maxima pose. But it may fool Sciona, so worth doing.
Which paid off.
So, I was wrong, and you are right. We should congratulate Halo on deliberately orchestrating a switcheroo!
In a believable way mind, once you think it through. :-D
* Bad girl Sydney! If you have professional knowledge you should not abuse it by non-disclosure at the gaming table. Your force field is not a state secret, even if you cannot reveal the circumstances of the particular battle.
However, I must be loyal, and point out that Sydney’s shield is way more advanced than typical force field descriptions can handle. Hers can discriminate between ‘harmful’ and ‘useful’ light levels, whereas more primitive technology may not be able to refine the blocking mechanism like that.
It clearly (pun unintentional) is not using sunglass-like technology, which could do that kind of thing.
Alternatively Viirin‘s interpretation, below, is an even better explanation for the ‘Maxima pose’!
Always expect ninjas.
But nobody suspected Sydney!
Especially in the fitting room.
Perhaps she was thinking of a maxim for the occasion. To me it seems like a strange time to start doing philosophy but then again I’m no blood mage.
“If you’re leaving scorch marks, you need a bigger gun.”
True. The best result is when there’s nothing left to show any scorch marks.
Why do I hear Deadpool giggling and doing the Narration of DaveB’s explanatory post (along with side comments and wall breaking…and chichimangas too) ?
Because it is the kind of thing that Deadpool would do, and you are awesome for thinking it.
Not sure what kind of eye beam that even is.
Heat? Microwaves? Some kind of kinetic force?
I thought Maxima’s personal shield was skin tight, but here it’s protecting her jacket.
It’s not really an eye beam, since it’s originating from in front of Sciona’s forehead. I’d guess it’s some kind of psychokinetic “shred everything in front of you attack”.
Pity nothing gets through Mr. Bubble.
Yeah, ‘cuz we all know what heppens when the beam comes from the sockets *cough* Lazer Pony *cough*
I have only been able to find out what happens before use.
+1
If I was a better artist, my webcomic (which I haven’t worked on in years once I realized I needed a new art direction and am too untalented in that department to fulfill it) would have a pet monster for my hero, comprised of:
Barney the Dinosaur
Shoop da Whoop
Godzilla
“Hi kids! I’m a firin’ my laser, ha ha.” Also he’d erupt from a tennis ball-turned pokeball with the release power of the Lament Configuration.
I’m a simple guy with simple tastes, all which make complete and rational sense. *nods to self while mirror image rolls eyes Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom boulder scene style*
Well, nothing that anyone has been able to throw at the shield so far…But what about an extremely, super-enraged Hulk throwing Mr. Achilles?…
It extends a few milimeters off he skin.. When that girl with the energy bolas destroyed maxima’s jacket that was kind of big deal.
Her shield extends to her clothes as well, to a lesser extent. Its possible to blow up her outfit without hurting her but it still takes a lot.
Just ask Hiro…He was right there.
0.0
No, Mr Buble is protecting Maxi’s second favourite jacket (Nega Sonic Boom-Boom shredded her favourite)
It’s a bright-glowy-energy-rays eye beam. Pay attention. ;P
Okay, but analyzing this seriously…
… this isn’t an EM attack. Every spectrum of light is either invisible, or would pass cleanly through the air without us being able to see it from the side. If it was so powerful that it superheated and/or ionized that much air to glowy-levels of heat, we’d be seeing heat waves (the desert mirage kind) coming off of it and plumes of flame rising towards the ceiling. Also, the last punch, with the beam arching around the room, shows that it’s not traveling anywhere near light speed.
For that matter, I doubt it’s anything that relies too much on thermal, which would include plasma, fire, heat transfer from infrared, etc. That much visible energy coming from superheated air would make the room uncomfortably hot real quick, and by “uncomfortably hot” I mean “if you’re not super you die because your airways roast”.
That’s also clearly not an electrical attack because it’s traveling straight through the air and not arching towards ground. It’s not kinetic force because the rock’s unaffected and since when is kinetic force visible in and of its own right? It’s not sonic because it’s not loud enough, it’s not ice because it’s not leaving rime….
…. so yeah, that’s conclusive. It’s just a bright-glowy-energy-ray attack.
You forget the cop-out:
If there is a forcefield around the beam (the closest real-world analogy to a lightsaber is plasma in a magnetic forcefield), then most of your points don’t apply. Because the effects of the beam is limited to the inside of the beam.
If the lightsaber can cut through things (meaning, most objects can pass through the magnetic containment to get burnt/melted/incinerated) it still wouldn’t work. Surrounding air would heat, room temperature would rapidly rise through convection turbulance, and we’d have the same problem regardless.
Also, lightsabers make “THOOM” and “HISS” noises, and that was clearly a “ZORCH”.
It’s not wise to underestimate the power of a lightsaber…
“Close the blast doors!”
“They’re still coming through!”
Yeah, the metal of the blast doors showed how much that heat energy was being convected through it…
Nice analysis – drew my attention to the arc of the beam, including the section of red-hot rock in the impact crater which I had totally overlooked before. (Nice touch, Dave!)
Maxima would go through jackets like Kenshiro if she didn’t have that practical shield.
Note for people like me: panel E is Maxima with her arms crossed in front of her head. From left to right, the three blobs are her left fist, her right fist, and her face.
Not Maxima, Sydney. TEAMWORK! :D
Look just above the head. Trademark halo of amazeballs.
Yes, the halo is there, but I want to point out something that Sydney said back on page 246 /archive 1471, about the ARC organization having a Public Relations department –and we all know that Sydney knows Arianna is the head of that department, and we know that while Sydney publicly labeled the orbs “Amaze Balls” back on page 156 /archive 1020 –but now look at page 114 /archive 676, where Arianna envisions merchandising each orb-imitation under the brand name of “Power Ball”.
I’m pretty sure we can expect Arianna to overrule Sydney with respect to how the public ends up referring to the orbs, just as Sydney was telling “Death Toll” that his name for his super-self could be overruled (basically by Arianna).
I think the name “Power Ball” is already copyrighted by the lottery people.
That could be a good point, if we knew for sure that the Power Ball lottery exists in this universe of super heroes.
The halo is present in panel 6, but not in panel E.
+1
That’s not Maxima. That’s Sydney standing in front of Maxima. After which, Maxima sneaked around and punched Sciona.
Look, let’s just compromise and say it’s Harem, tanking it like a boss, with 5 little chibi-clone-harems floating around her head.
(They’re lower mass so she can create more than normal.)
*absconds before people begin debating this seriously*
I have studied the double-size image, and from the eyes and hair and sleeves I can definitely say it is Maxima and not Sydney in panel E.
Looks like Sciona to me. Going by the white hair, blue skin, dark blue outfit, sinister face and … pointy ears … oh, guess maybe you might be right?
Panel F?
But Sydney’s smaller than Max, so Halo could be in front of Max, in the same body position.
If you check up near the top of the page, you will find a reply from Dave. Where he indicates that Max took the initial hit. Then Sydney replaced her.
So panel D (a.k.a. 4) would be Maxima (probably with Sydney bubbled up behind her).
With panel F (a.k.a. 6) being just Sydney. As confirmed by the folks who spotted Halo’s orbs.
As for Maxima’s position, at that moment, she was probably flanking Sciona (Dave confirmed that she moved whilst Sciona was blinking from the flash). Moving at least far enough so that she was not in the centre of Sciona’s field of view.
Plus I think Maxima would need to be about half a mile away to hide behind Sydney! :-D
Panel E is the one that is labeled E E E E E E E
He he. Of course, how remiss of me.
Actually, re-reading DaveB‘s comment, I think I am doing you an injustice. As he phrases it as ‘Sydney jumping into the beam’. So there certainly would have been a moment when Sydney was in front of Maxima.
I still think it highly unlikely though that Max could actually be concealed behind Sydney, and just can’t picture her scrunching down, to do that, in any event. She is just too badass. So I still conclude that Maxima would have been moving into a flanking position, by that frame.
No, I see Sydney flying (why her amazeballs are a halo) but the body is too big to be her, so it must be Sydney in front of Maxima, with her limbs in mostly the same position as Maxima’s are. Since Syd is flying, smaller, and in front, Maxima’s silhouette wins out.
It’s like using GIMP or Photoshop or something and having two 30% opacity silhouettes and putting them on top of each other. Then fill in everything to 100% black. In this case, that would look like Maxima with Sydney’s halo. (Sydney’s feet at Maxima’s knees, for example, but we wouldn’t see that in this blinding light.)
Dave does say that she ‘jumps in front of Maxima’, but that clearly is a figure of speech (Sydney not being able to leap a shield’s width). So the method of locomotion is up for speculation. Plus those legs do look too muscular to be Sydney’s.
Consceeded.
He he.
OK Pander, I grant that is definitely another new power. I wonder where Sciona developed that from though? Maybe that symbol she just drew previously actually does such diverse abilities, as such it would still be part of her blood magic spells. But, if so, why is she unpractised with it? If not, presumably it must have been provided by an artefact.
Yet we saw the only uses she had with the first one. Namely restoring her original form. So presumably she should be intimately familiar with all its capabilities (clearly the case with her wings, other than her energy deflection). Other than that she just gave herself a boob-job. Possibly she may have granted herself this then, but why did she not deploy it versus Vale?
So the most likely candidate seems to be the Brane Ripper, but this capability seems to be well outside of its observed powers. Mmmm.
*puts on thinking cap*
New power from the Blood-pack she stuck herself with?
It’s from the blood cocktail she injected herself with just prior to coming up here. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2838
Ahh, of course! You are both right. We had not seen most of the powers. Yet we know that Sciona has developed the ability to copy super-powers, with her blood magic. So this was just part of the exploration of Sciona’s powerful existing set, after all.
Poor Cyclops! I wonder if Wolverine got it too? Sydney would be devastated!
And Gazerbeam and who knows what other supers?!
I checked backwards and this is actually Cthillia’s forehead beam attack she used in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2638
While both are a sort of ‘face beam’ they look very different to me.
Sweet call Ancalador.
There are distinct similarities though. The blue being the most obvious. Plus we have had lampshading that copied powers do not include knowledge of power stunts. So Cthillia’s basic power might be exactly identical. And just as impractical to aim or see what is going on.
However Cthillia could well have developed techniques to modify how the beam manifests itself, thus accounting for the different appearance.
Most importantly, due to the impact on my weeping wallet, Cthillia is a known associate of Sciona’s. So there would have been ample opportunity to obtain a blood sample, by fair means or foul.
*gives Ancalador a gold star*
Because it’s Sciona, preferably foul.
Disclaimer, all provision of gold stars is for observation rights only. Ownership remains with the copyright holders.
Gold doesn’t come cheap, and I is poor.
Is this the best you can do?
Well I can’t afford royalties for a star like Felicia Day! Genuine vampire slayers, from the Buffyverse, do not come cheap! Not to mention that their hotness has to be measured on the Scoville Scale!
(From 11 to Sydney)
So I can see why you might link to that other guy instead. Whatever he may have appeared in.
Psst. Sorry Will, if you are reading this. I just detect extensive use of brain bleach, so know there must be some vast gaps in this part of my memory.
You were cool in Big Bang Theory though. And don’t mind Guesticus, if he freaks out. That is one of his trigger phrases. Maybe I can distract him from you? AUSTRALIA!
It is a blueish beam from the left eye. I’d say it fits.
… that could be because of no practice / limited control-Cthillia went from heart attack w/ no visible marks to multi-ton punch(centuries of practice?)…
Probably from one of the many supers who she’s gotten blood. There’s Maxima (probably, given the supermannekiller survived and might have gotten a blood sample), Pixel, Cthilla (probably, since she’s worked with her before as well), and probably a few more supers, since she seemed to have at least 3 other supers’ powers, judging from the 3 others who were hanging like Capri Suns in her basement at the Mars Factory. Not to mention that the super-syringe seemed to have tubes on it (5 that you can see, 3 of which you can read, and 3 on the other side that you can’t see, assuming all tubes are the same diameter)..
I really don’t think it did, but let’s just all be happy that Maxima’s blood wasn’t acquired somehow by Sciona after her nose got smashed by Vehemence.
Oh, plus the other supers that she obviously fought/killed (allied or otherwise) in the fight where she lost most of her head and all of her body.
“What mountain?” reminds me of a Nodwick comic. “Yes, a shining city on a hill.” “I thought Krutzing Hollow was in a valley.” “More of a crater, actually.” “Crater?!”
Pretty much like Black Mountain at this point, in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic.
Makes you wonder how Cyclops and Superman (among others) can actually hit anything.
Because their powers have the required secondary powers so that they can see while using their eye-beam attacks. Cyclops for example would be pretty worthless (like Lazer Pony worthless) if he couldn’t actually see while his Optic Blasts were active since they’re ALWAYS active so he’d be effectively blind.
The problem with Elle Pee, is his beams form behind his eyeballs, which is why he no longer has any
Cyclops also has a tertiary power of being able to calculate angles instantly.
Which also makes him really good at playing pool and billiards.
• See through light. Check.
• Calculate angles mentally. Check.
• Really good at playing pool and billiards. Check.
Say, I’m beginning to wonder if I might be a super?
Probably.
(Man I’m doing this a lot today, it isn’t intentional, maybe just I’m finally manic after so long) My own hero comic has a hero that didn’t get his abilities from radiation, or a nuclear spider, or a magic item, or by finding out they’re part god/alien/robot. He always had the power, just it took…
EXTREMELY NOT SAFE FOR WORK ON PURPOSE COME ON GUYS ITS ME NOT HOLDING BACK BUT THIS LINK IS THE CHAPTER I SHOW MY HERO REALIZING HIS POWERS TO BEGIN WITH.
So you might be a super, Yorp. Did you do what Eugene did to confirm it?
Naa, I already knew I have a couple of super powers. One is internalised though. Lucid dreaming will not be cool for showing off, until there is tech to link my dreams to a big screen.
Awesome fun flying (with wings), or leaping over hillsides (in a very languid, low gravity kind of way) or shapechanging. Dragons being a favourite. Or just the claws and fangs, if I feel a need to vent.
Oddly enough I don’t do gross manipulations, like altering the landscape. I think that just triggers a normal dream-type scene change. Rather than getting the Populous (game)-like feel. Maybe I should get a bit more of a Hollwood wizard vibe going next time?
The other one took decades to find out if it was just a recurring vivid dream, and if the childhood memories of precognitive dreaming were false memories. But my longest repeating such dream, from Africa, finally came true, in every detail, decades later, in England. Where I was speaking French (in a French lesson).
The frequency I had the dream at increased as I approached the date it eventually occurred. And I had several clues, like recognising the individuals in the classroom, the first time I met each of them. Or going into the classroom itself for the first time. Each of which was a tingling down the spine moment.
But nothing like when it finally unfolded. Knowing the dialogue, for the entire scene right from the outset (only a couple of minutes long mind).
Sadly that was also the last time that particular super power manifested itself. So, nope, no predicting the lottery numbers for me.
But I still get to do whatever I like when I enter a lucid dream state.
Provided my kittens do not decide that it it time to give me
EskimoInuit kisses. But there are worse ways of waking up. ;-)Heh, have long wanted to be able to record dreams (for personal playback initially, don’t want any sex-dreams to get out), have heard quite a few dream songs that do not exist in Real World, same for movies and TV shows
Oooo, also have those annoying ‘everyday events’ precog dreams, like you, nothing really significant or ‘Destiny changing’, and, because they were so ‘normal’ never realised until they actually happen, although, again, like you, would be some ‘pre main-event’ happenings
Flying with wings is cool, butt free-flying is even better :D
Absolutely very little comes close to that feeling (and no, ‘free falling’ while skydiving does not count, as you are still falling and in no control over it)
I forsaw my grandmother pass away 5 years before she did. I warned her, told everyone, no one thought it was valid because of how unlike her it was.
Happened exactly and exactWHEN I said. Still makes no sense.
I have heard a song in a nightmare before, that doesn’t exist. It doesn’t matter what was happening in the nightmare, but a song was playing. A sweet female voice sang, “I… couldn’t tell. oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh.” Quite melodic. Don’t remember the rest of the song because I’d have to see more of what was going on.
Paul McCartney famously dreamed ‘Yesterday’, in its entirety, and was thereby convinced that he had heard it from someone else, and was just copying it. And he is not the only one.
Of course, if our dreams are allowing us to wander to alternate Earths, or a shared mental landscape with other dreamers, who may also be from such places, he could have been right! :-)
I am glad that my precognitive dreams were all mundane mind. Far better than suffering like Cassandra.
Foreseeing the future, years in advance, as we have both experienced, strongly implies that we have a fixed destiny. I failed to take the opportunity to try to interrupt my event though. It was too awesome having it unfold in every detail. Plus I wanted the girl I fancied to smile and laugh at my witty comment, at the end :)
As such I do not know if it is fixed or if we can alter them. Most classical sources indicate that they cannot be changed.
However I do have a friend (who’s credibility and integrity is top-notch) who recognised a precognitive dream, where her husband broke his leg. But was able to intervene. It was a long while ago that she relayed it to me, but I think they were standing to one side of a ski slope, and someone lost control.
So she had to push her husband out of their path (even though she could not see the incoming skier, other than “in her mind’s eye”).
That had been a ‘night before’ type dream though. So it is possible that some events are predestined, and invariable, hence can be seen years or decades (or, for Nostredamus fans, hundreds of years) in advance. Whilst others are more ephemeral, so can only be glimpsed a short time ahead of the event.
The event may be fixed in time, the outcome may not (presenting exhibit BttF)
Yeah, there’s all kinds of origin stories floating around. There’s one of the Super Homies (Empowered Comic) whose power is shape-shifting, but frankly, he’s literally a blob. He got his power as an STD, contracted from borking an alien.
Cyclops actually has a secondary power that lets him figure out trajectories and angles, which honestly doesn’t explain how he can bounce his optic blasts. Then again, comic book superpowers.
Superman’s heat vision is described as “waste energy from after his cells process
ultraviolet lightsolar radiation”. So, in a sense, he’s literally pissing on you.If I remember correctly Cyclops’s beam is a force beam not a laser beam so that’s why it can bounce and know people back and such.
IIRC He has focused it down enough using his visor to function as a laser before. But yeah it’s usually listed as “Concussive blast”
Yes, Cyclops’ beams are not lasers – they’re some sort of ‘energy-based kinetic force beam’ according to Stan Lee.
Which doesn’t make sense when you really think about it (although I’m sure there’s a physicist who might argue successfully that even photons have some kinetic force behind them) but in any case, it’s Word of God so just go with it.
Just remember: water can be used to cut if the spray is narrowed enough
*warily looks at nearest tree*
Superman’s eyebeams used to be incorrectly referred to as “Heat Vision”, in his case meaning they were concentrated heat, not lasers or any kind of massively coloured beam.
In the case of Cyclops, he actually do see the things he are firing at, possibly with a red colour distortion, just like the ruby quartz glasses give.
(….Also, the idiocy that Cyclops’ eyes are portals, when it actually was established for decades that his body absorbs sunlight and that is the energy that is released through his eyes should get retconned back to the original established canon.)
“the heat of his X-ray vision”
oh year the comic science phase. Apparently there is a dimension full of osmium. And colossus can somehow exchange all the carbon in his body with it and reverse. All the X-Men did get an explanation in that style.
Interestingly enough, he would see the world in normal colors if not for the ruby quartz glasses that he wears. While his beam would tinge the color of what he sees read, it wouldn’t affect his peripheral vision since it comes out as a beam and not a cone.
Our punches go to eleven.
Narrator: “Who’s that superhero!?”
Sciona: “IT’S MAXIMA!”
Narrator: “It’s Halo!”
Sciona: “F..”
(original vid here [warning: F bomb dropped])
Technically, Maxima dropped the ‘F’ bomb first.
When she fucked your mother.
With that punch.
*laughing*
“Keep in mind that Maxima fought other supers in some overseas action.”
On that note, are we ever going to actually get into her previous sorties in that sense? I feel like that’s probably got some serious character connotations to it beyond the presumably featured villain from the line up from panels way back when.
There IS that Arabic speaking mummy-guy reacting to the press conference…
Ow.
She wanted power to the Max
She got power from the Max
:-D
Got power from The Maxx?
I like that Sydney is mimicking Maximas pose to fool Sciona since she in no way needs to make that pose to protect her face! I didn’t catch on that it was Sydney at first until I realized what the things above her head were (I thought they were part of the beam).
I don’t think that Sydney would need to consciously be trying to mimic a pose like Max would. Force Field aside, covering your head like that is a reflexive reaction.
Maxima just needs to focus all her power in order to give Sciona the One Punch Man experience.
And here we see Maxi in her natural element of “Take No Prisoners, unlessinabucketordoggybag”
Aw man, why’d ya’ have to say it like that? You just made Yorp get sick with the implication that he’d accept a doggy bag full of Sciona-bits.
Yes, yes, you are right.
*discreetly slides napkin off neck*
Oh yes the switch a roo I’m loving it.. If Siana remembers anything about Sydney is that she can teleport she also expressed interest if Sydney’s blood was the reason why she could use the orbs suggesting that if she gave Sydney’s blood to one of the golems that she makes maybe the Golem could use her orbs as well
Sci does not know Sydney can port, because Sci was not in the room when Sydney showed up uninvited
Also, why give the blood to one of the golem’s when she could give it to herself and play with Sydney’s balls personally?
She does know that Sydney can teleport because Sydney shouted that out loud with Sciona standing right behind her. Sciona even repeated it while stating that to be a reason for how she could’ve sneaked in without activating any alarms.
Sydney discovering she can teleport: #499
Sciona repeating what she overheard: #500
Okay, thank you, had forgotten that part
Mmm, something just struck me about that scene. Obviously it was real bad timing teleporting in with the big bad right behind her. Location wise though, it made sense, as this is where Sciona was working.
But even then their respective positioning was still especially bad. However I had not considered the lightbee being quite visible, especially in darker conditions. So there is Sciona:
‘Muh huh ha! Buckets and buckets of super blood!’
When she spots this faerie light whizzing around her complex. Perhaps she even took a pot shot at it? With no effect, obviously. But even if it had a very spectacular explosion, the lightbee has no sensory capability, other than telling if there is a clear route to follow.
So it could have literally flown right under Sciona’s nose, without Halo being aware of that!
Hence Sciona would have been in hot pursuit, of this intruder, and cursing that her wards were not set up to trigger on such an oddity. Even more so (if just mentally) when she saw Sydney appearing ahead of her!
Ooo, good explanation of possible events
However, the whole incident got reset by Krona, “back” to a “checkpoint” where even Pixel had not left the rooftop group to look for Sciona. We can suspect Sciona remembers as little as Pixel, of what they experienced before the reset happened.
I should mention that the technical explanations for what happened as a result of the reset amounts to this: The point in overall space-time that Krona selected to “mark”-for-reset was, for the region of space-time affected by the locality of that checkpoint, brought forward through time to the point in time where the reset was triggered. That’s why only a small amount of time passed after the reset, until Maxima requested the various search teams to report.
Which opens the question of just how extensive was the locality specified by Krona’s machination. If Sciona was not in range, then when the reset happened, Sciona would have experienced Pixel and Sydney disappearing upon (Sydney’s presumed) death (because the reset overrode Sydney’s travel into the lair), yet Sciona could be expected to remember that disappearance, because she was not part of the volume of space-time that got included at the checkpoint. But if Sciona was in range, then she would not remember.
Actually I doubt that sicoa forgot but I included the possibility with my phrasing. Remember the 4 of them were repositioned in 3 dimensional space not 4 dimensional space shortly after sicoa attacked them and time passed normally for all. Harem has some mix memories but anyone else who was affected outside of Sydney forgot everything and only ones who I believe were affected were the ones that she set the check point 4 and that will be team X.
I doubted she was in range given the sudden arrival of the not-a-robot.
It was shown that Krona didn’t have as good a grasp of what she was doing or capable of as she initially thought.
She set the triggers to activate the checkpoint on their group, only they could activate it.
What was supposed to happen is that when a trigger was activated that person, and only that person, would have their memories transplanted into their past selves and thus be able to warn them on how to avoid that same scenario that activated the trigger from happening again.
What actually happened though when the trigger was activated was that the group was reset to their previous state and location, but in current space-time with only the one among them that activated the trigger still having memories of the events that happened.
Most likely their bodies disappeared to be reset on the rooftop (otherwise there would be a bunch of duplicates running around) however for everyone else time has always kept flowing normally without memory wipes.
tl;dr;
Krona attempted a time-loop but actually created a real-time respawn point.
Well she herself did admit that she had never tested it with other people before that point and that she was trying to be cautios with her powers for being scared of unravelling the universe. Adding extra people to the waypoint, especially a few unique supers, added in a whole bunch of untested variables. As programming goes, I think the resultant bugs were fairlor minor. At leash she didn’t run into any crash, burn, kill the operator type bugs with that one.
I’m remembering how badly Sydney needed to pee before getting killed.
Too bad the savepoint/teleport combo didn’t work out funnier- Sydney does use the restroom, with another body in the future, so she doesn’t need to go anymore. But her body is gone, so really all that happens is Sciona kills Sydney, who then ceases to exist but Sciona’s arm is covered in pee and also gets nothing out of it.
Except pee smell.
When I posted this, this was Sydney’s face on the top of the page.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/wp-content/themes/comicpress/images/page_gfx/halo/rotate_halo.php
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the ability to upvote each image (with a left click) or downvote (with a right click). And periodically the least favourite ones could be swapped out for a selection of new images?
Just hypothetically speaking. Dave being far too busy to implement something like this.
One positive for Sci: if Sydney is here, then Buster is not being molested by her in the other room :D
Yeah… I know this is just the… err “plot armour is a thing” part of my brain speaking. But if Sciona was being literal with her time estimate, and Sydney isn’t interfering with the mannequin (unless she did and returned), I wonder if infielder thing Sciona’s waiting for is a genuine threat.
Personally, my bet is on portal to wherever Sciona came from, but I’m keeping other non-threatening options in mind.
Yeah, that’s personal hope as well: Sci just wants to go home
I’d be more worried about Dabbler molesting Buster, personally.
Yes, yes it was Maxima.
No, no it wasn’t, look about the head, and if that still doesn’t convince you: check the Who’s Who
It was Maxima who punched her though.
So I stand by my comment, anal-boy.
You didn’t say which was Maxi, because it was obvious (even for someone like you) to see that it was Maxi in the last panel, the debate was about who was in panel six
Viirin has convinced me, further up the page, that it was Halo’s upper body, and head (complete with the distinctive orbs), but Maxima’s legs.
…
Which sounds kinda weird, spoken out loud like that …
did Viirin pull my fur, over my eyes?
For that to work, we would have to see two sets of feet, because that is clear enough to make out where the trousers tuck into the boots
Not if Sydney is doing the super man pose. Which she tends to adopt when trying to fly fast. Her feet would be obscured behind the rest of her and/or merge into Maxima’s silhouette beyond.
And, just to clarify, I am not saying that she is still flying fast. But she did have to get from where she was to where she is fast. Then could have just remained hovering in that pose. She is perfectly comfortable no matter what orientation she chooses.
So, you are basically saying, she has her feet in Maxi’s face? o_O
Hardly, she has a big force field around her and Maxima is on the outside. But they are pointing in her general direction.
Either that or Sydney was working out a lot on her lower body strength, in between panels, in the last few scenes. Or we could put it down to artistic licence, I guess, if you are not on board. Those fatigues are kind of baggy.
Not that fussed really.
I sure hope what wasn’t a load-bearing wall….
If it wasn’t it is now. It has a load of BS splattered on it.
If Sciona had half a brain; well, more than 2/3rd’s anyway, she would be pulling a Loki or Luke Skywalker, and be using illusions to keep her enemies busy instead of going toe-to-toe with untried powers.
And where would she get those? maybe she hadn’t hit any ilusionist? and well, even if she did halo would still nosell it. Too bad so sad.
There has been no indication that she needs to hit someone to gain a power. And, as she is allegedly very old, I see no reason why she, as a bloodmage, couldn’t come up with some sort of ruse to keep others busy. As far as Halo detecting the magic ruse, Sciona probably has no idea that Halo has that ability, plus Halo actually has to think to use the comm orb.
Sciona has already shown that she is highly impetuous and does not take the time to study new enemies, as she is busy with her own plans.
The impetuous and not thinking part and would be the whole reason for not planning somehting a bit more distracting than just going head-to-head with the team. She is kind of rushing and going so far as to use untested powers to try and keep them busy and by time.
Other more level headed villians would probably think to use illusions to distract (if illusions are available). Other options would be to throw together a few quick golems to try and lure the team elsewhere in the cave system/base.
When i said “his” i did not mean “punch”.
i meant “kill em, bag em, drain em, store the blood for later”.
We see it multiple times. first she comments on halo’s balls, asking if she could u8se them with her blood, then the golem uses pink panther’s abilities. she also makes a comment that “troll blood does body good”.
You know… SINCE SHE IS A BLOODY BLOOD MAGE.
She’s already shown herself to be stupidly self-confident.
hy~pe~er, BEEEEEEEAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!
one PUUUUUUUUUNCH!!!!!!!
Amazing page, though i dont really have much to say this time.
Well, other than that “the past needs to give way to the future”.
Its a bit sad actually. She plan and learn and survive for centuries, building her power… only for some meddling kids to stumble their way into saving the world. some of them on accident.
She’s actually Ganondorf?
*Shrug* Was there a mythos about her before she actually appeared like the gerudo had about ganon?
Another indication it’s Sydney is the sleeves. Max’s sleeves are high on her bicep. Sydney’s are down near her wrist. The person blocking the beam in panel 4 clearly has their sleeves almost at their wrists.
Correction, Max’s sleeves are at her elbow. So it still stands. The sleeves are too long to be Max’s
The clearest indication is the bubble shape inside the beam, and the shapes over her head.
Ah, the dangers of being a Wizard with buff spells, but no preparation.
Weak blast power. Max’s clothes are still present.
She didn’t hit maxima, she hit Halo. you can se her balls orbiting in there, as well as the outline of the shield.
Yup. I see them now. I must have read the page on my small monitor.
The author has clarified that Maxima was hit initially (so that will be Maxima taking the brunt of the attack in panel 4), but then Sydney took her place, whilst Sciona was still blinking from the blast.
In a separate reply Dave also indicates that Maxima’s clothes probably would have taken damage. But that it would just be a pain trying to keep track of, and replicate correctly, over the next pages.
From which we can take it that the blast was strong. Meaning that Maxima must just have upped the power in her outer force field enough to take that.
Normally it would actually be safer to concentrate on her inner force field, as that is the one which surrounds every cell in her body. So it would protect against effects like being slammed into a wall, as it could cushion against whiplash. But she could get away with it this time, because it was an energy attack, without sufficient knockback for that to be a problem.
Sciona has learned not to let her guard down so Maxima can come in swinging…!
What else should Sciona learn after today?
Maybe keeping the armor might have been useful?
Beta test indeed. Super powers are dangerous. I imagine The Flash left more than a few horribly mutilated bodies around while trying to figure out the difference between “knock out” and “boom headshot”. A bullet can kill with small mass because of speed, when flash puts his weight behind a punch… His own hands should probably explode. Especially since the K.O. / death line is probably in a 1% or less range of speed.
Items the Flash touches may be inside his ‘Speed Force’ area of effect and not experience relativistic speed effects. He can grab a person and carry them out of danger in a blink. Normally, accelerating a person from 0 to Mach 3 in a tenth of a second would leave nothing but fragmented bits, but Barry, (or maybe Wally, or was it Jay?) can manipulate objects a hyper speed without doing damage. My concern about his collateral damage is that every time he races down a city street he should be leaving a sonic boom shockwave that would shatter every window in his wake.
I think most of the time when he races down the street he stays just below the speed of sound. I thik he has probably done a lot of practice with punching an dhitting things in that lab of his to test reletive strengths and force applications. Probably broken his hand a time or two doing it as well. Fortunatly, the lab has its own medical facilities, one of his friends has medical knowledge, and he heals really fast.
He gets injured a lot, between training and getitng beaten up by baddies.
I am pretty sure barry is flash, and wally is kid flash. i remember someone making a “wallman” comment.
Not sure who Jay is.
As for shockwave, not sure if its canon or fanon, but i believe there is an agreement that the speed force field extends a milimeter or so outside his body (which doesn’t explain poeple, maybe he can “manually include”or something?) allowing the air to NOT collide with something that moves bilion times faster. the moment the air is out of the field, its back to normal speed.
Jay Garrick, the Speedster that Zoom was impersonating.
Jay Garrick is the original Flush
His own hands dont explode because of the time disparity.
Essentially, for him and the target, physics are enforced at a different rate.
Look at it this way. if by speeding up, you can impose a far greter streanght at the target, then the opposite must also be true. if you are slown down (in a time dialation sense), there is far less force you can put into anything, which also involve resisting incomming force. therefore, since targets are far softer (in relative terms) his hands do not explode.
Now take into consideration, that he can amplify his speed to the point where he is faster than light. how high of a force multiplier must THAT be, with zero additional strain on his own body.
“Multiplier”? If he can amplify his speed to point he’s faster than light, it means theory of relativity doesn’t work around him.
Was that an Eye-kamehameha? Somewhere Cyclops must be laughing…
Not eye.
Bloody dragons, having the balls to misappropriate my name!
I’m terribly sorry your highness. May your reign be long and prosperous.
I’ve always been partial to “Fuck-mothering”. Consider the amount of “Fuck!” ‘s seeing that punch would elicit. Any TFS fans in the house?
He killed a lot of people for that title. Not sure if Maxima has done that yet
Yes, yes she has.
Her upper most power punch is simply called, “The End”…
For rather obvious reasons!!!
Here I thought it was called “My, what a lovely tea party”.
Wait. Are you saying that she HAS decapitated people? (Robots don’t count in my book.)
Also, I can’t see Sciona being welcome at an arch-villain conference after all her betrayals.
I think they will welcome her in … and never let her out in one piece.
Maxima is in the military, and served on the front line in two wars. Killing people is part of that job.
Plus, if people are attempting to kill her, and her colleagues, it would be easy to forget that humans come with detachable heads, as standard.
Dave’s commentary reminds me of the world of cardboard speech. It’s one more reason why I would prefer psychic powers to physical ones, the only things you can hurt are your enemies if you’re a psychic. Don’t have to worry about breaking a door or a friend just by touching them
FALCON PUNCH!
Since she already had a death sentence on her, should Max be worried about hitting too hard?
Then again, the old laws said if you survived a hanging, you were free. Probably applies to having your head hacked off too.
Sciona already had (most of) her head cut off and survived, that doesn’t appear to be granting her any leeway with the Council or Archon.
A court martial and/or civil case determining whether Max used “excessive force” (for this or any other attack) would set an interesting legal precedent (see also the WoD for this comic). Who can really say whether a super misjudging the gap between love tap and decapitation for a particular foe was justifiable given the knowledge they had at the time?
I can’t wait for Dabbler to use her cleaning spell to clean up the blood keeping the stolen powers active … and also, the cleaning would give Sciona nice makeup!
Don’t look at me, if it backfires it was Sydney’s craaazy idea!!!
Cue Maxima giving the “World of Cardboard” speech.
Good for Sydney – she goes from “nice teamwork, did I miss training” to actually doing nice teamwork. It is especially impressive that she figured out Sciona might be partially blind due to her own attack and then used the same stance that Maxima used in order to fool Sciona for just long enough.
She’s a “proper nerd”. She knows.