Grrl Power #645 – Back up!
Peggy is mostly kidding about that being a flare. She does work with Supers, and they tend to overdo certain things. Still, blowing up a mountain in lieu of a flare is a little over the top, even for Maxima.
Well. Unless she’s positive no one’s living on the mountain. Not even squirrels. She’s only blown up a few mountains in total. Small mountains really. And only one of them was full of insurgents who had just shot up a school for girls. The others were to establish her credentials as “She who is not to be fucked with” because it doesn’t matter how many times you tell someone that they will lose hard if they go up against you. The human ego, being what it is, needs unassailable proof before it will allow some people to back down.
In case it’s difficult telling what’s happening here (it’s clear to me, but, you know, I wrote it) basically, the explosion went through the portal and set off Sciona’s self-destruct kit.
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That’s a happenin’ flare…
There’s something happenin’ tonight
What it is, is extremely bright
There’s a trap of some bombs underground
That when hit make really loud sound
You’d better run, children, what’s that flash,
everybody do the hundred yard dash…
There’s fire lines being drawn.
Nobody’s sure if everybody’s gone.
Large explosion generated in mine.
Shockwave blast will shake your behind.
…As if on the queue, stated by Achilles…
Eh! He’s okay. Inconvenienced, definitely, but he’s okay.
Consider that there’s only about 6′-7′ of space before Sydney’s shield would have been plugging up the portal itself, but the explosion still had to flow around her shield before being channeled through it. Even on the other side of the portal, there was still enough explosive force to throw a fairly sizable boulder into Achilles’ face. This was still enough to have triggered Sciona’s “self-destruct” trap in the cave. That means Sydney’s shield still had an enormous amount of force to contend with…Even Maxima hasn’t been able to test this shield to this extent yet. I must confess that I don’t have the “mad maths skillz” to describe in any other way.
But once again I should point out the “spoiler” DaveB gave us with the first few pages of his comic actually taking place after this incident. Sydney’s shield IS at least this strong. A nerve-wracking test at the time it happened, but still…we already know better.
;)
It looks like there were four separate points that exploded last page – four separate “skweeeen”s around Sydney’s shield, at least one of which was closer to the portal than the group in the shield. Also, that boulder was flung into Mr. Amorphous’s face, as evidenced but the darker hair and intact shirt.
However, I agree that the shield hasn’t been tested at “ground zero nuclear blast” levels yet.
Nah the explosion killed sydney and everyone else.
Then Krona’s save point activated again despite Krona having thought she turned it off.
I am kidding of course but that would be hilarious and cool if that happened.
I had a similar thought actually.
And it need not have been an error. Krona’s power has been checked out and given the all-clear. She could have checked her coding, on the checkpoint, and have reinstated it.
If Dave really wanted to troll his audience, at some point in the future he will have Sydney wake up in the back room of the comic shop with a superhero comic over her face and say to herself “Wow, what a weird dream. Better get back to stocking the shelves.”
Hey it keeps her alive, and improves the odds of her making friends with any doggy being taken past her shop for walkies. All good in my books!
While the explosion probably was impressive, I think credit goes to Sciona for the mountain explosion. The “Skweeeen” (Is that what we’re going to call them?) only needed to provide enough explosive power to go through the portal (a few feet away), blow the shirt off Achilles (note: the shirt was not instantly vaporized) and then trigger Sciona’s self-destruct systems.
Iludium Pu-38 Explosive Space Modulator is go!
oh nooo, that was not a bit nice!
It’s a go?
Go?
GO?
Baby, that thing is GONE!
*chuckle*
^_^
Oh Man, Archilies is going to be buried for EVER 0.o
Like, his body might be fine for the next thousand years but his mind will be broken into a million pieces by the time some future civilization digs him up.
Legit being buried alive for thousands of years is probably one of the single worst things that can happen.
I didn´t like the episode of Torchwood in which Jack Harkness was buried alive for thousands of years, and when he was dug up, he was smiling as if nothing happened.
Not like it’s the first… or last time for Jack Harkness..
In fairness, he spent most of that time dying, and his resurrection isn’t instantaneous. I’d be surprised if he spent more than a hundred years of thousand that conscious.
You mean, that one time when Jacked spend a thousand years fucking a mountain, and was smiling afterwards?
Achilles is probably not buried. More than likely the overpressure from the demolition explosives forced him through the portal similar to how the other exits are venting. The again, he could still be buried on Alari world under debris that was forced through the portal with him.
If the boom was coming through the portal, wouldn’t that blow Achilles away from it, not into it?
The one coming from the portal only desintigrated his clothes.
The blood magic base self destruct that was activated because of the first explosion on the other hand may have pushed him through.
I’m going to stop here before comparing types of explosives. Low, high, nuke.
We’ve previously established that Achilles is invulnerable, not immovable. He regularly gets thrown through the air by impacts. So how is he managing to stand still while his clothes are ripped off him?
Not that it isn’t a funny picture, but it’s inconsistent with previously-established canon.
I was sort of assuming that there wasn’t a lot of pressure, but there *was* a lot of superheated gas, so his clothing ignited but he wasn’t knocked back. Now, when the barrels of explosives went — *that* knocked him around a little, I think.
It doesnt look like the explosion from the giant worldkiller thing was a concussive explosion or Achiles would have been thrown backwards – seems like a purely non-kinetic energy based blast instead. Sciona’s failsafe explosion, however, is concussive, which we see with Amorphous being hit by a rock flying outward.
Why is panel 4 not a literal sign (“Welcome to Arma-g’don city, a mullet-free zone.”) hitting Achilles in the face?
Achilles isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
To be fair, Achilles doesn’t have to be smart…He already knows that he’ll survive any mistakes he makes.
Even so, he asked for a sign…Could a boulder in the face be taken as a sign?
;)
That was a boulder to Mr Amorphous’s face though.
mistakes hurt. we all learn from our mistakes. If these things are true, it’s pretty obvious why Achilles would appear to be less than intelligent.
:-D
Love this page.
Heatwave is going to get jealous.
Heh, lucky that was Morph who took The Rock to the face :D
So, any reason why Les wasn’t sucked through the portal in the first place? o_O
he was still stuck in the ceiling by that colum?
No, Maxi had already knocked him down, we didn’t see how Hiro got down though, or where Blondini came from to end up being sucked through the portal
Wrong place at the right time. The others were closer to the portal when it formed. He was just far enough away at the time.
One possible reason could be that the portal requires breaking someone or something down to its atomic components before reforming on the other side, like a star trek transporter or the Stargates from SG-1.
In which case it would not work on someone who is literally invulnerable to the extent that Achilles is.
Just so. Not how a normal wormhole works, but there again it did not match that in other aspects (like people being able to traverse it). So maybe it creates a traditional wormhole (complete with fatal levels of radiation for anything travelling through it) then transmits the passengers through it, by the means you indicate. A data stream, suitably designed not to be affected by radiation, would be able to make the trip.
Plus they did arrive at a location which looked like it could be a designated arrival point. Ergo the reconstituting equipment could be part of the fort’s equipment. In fact, thinking about it, that could explain the glyphs all over the platform they were on.
Yorp it is how the wormholes in Stargate worked. They specifically said so multiple times in the show in fact. The show tended to use amuch harder science fiction on the Mohs scale of science fiction hardness than other scifi (harder scifi than trek, softer than ender or mass effect). Its not how it works in Deep Space 9 though but even DS9 wormholes dont work like they do in RL theories, which tend to be described as folding space, like what the Tollan in Stargate do (not that wormholes actually exist anyway in any provable way).
Fair enough. I have seen quite a few episodes, but there are a lot of gaps, because I only got to watch them when visiting folks. Nice for it to have been so well thought through.
To quote cgaracters on the show on episode 200, I believe in response to someone trying to say that no viewers will care if they add a bunch of pseudoscientific nonsense dialogue:
Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell: Never underestimate your audience. They’re generally sensitive, intelligent people who respond positively to quality entertainment.
:)
Knew that about the Star Blech ‘porters, butt always figured the Stargates were tunnels because you see people walking through them rather than simply stepping into them
Butt either way, that does make sense, hope DaveB actually addresses it either incomic or below
Well there is the simplest explanation, which is that he may not have been close enough. The last we saw of him was on this page. Where Maxima was pulling down the pillar which had trapped him in the ceiling. After which we know that Maxima got straight back into the fight.
In other words he was in a room with an unstable ceiling, and we did not see him afterwards. Even a relatively modest amount of rubble falling on him would take a while for Achilles to dig himself out.
Whichever way it went though, he was not seen in the next room. So either he was trapped/delayed or he did go through but was not near the middle of the action or the portal (as we had a good shot of that).
And, yes, he could have been just out of frame. But the ones who got sucked through were in frame and close to the portal.
I would rather think it being a rather basic and crude temporary portal. Mostly given that she would be in a rush to complete it once she obtained the D-wall can opener. It gave me the impression that ‘yeah, I can cut thru the dimensional bubble skins, but none to accurate at all’ Also due to the fact of limited energy and control issues and focus/distance. Stable and efficient portals probably need stable bases to attach the quantum space linkages to. When the scythe part cut the D-wall it auto-repaired in short order (eg the vault).
A continuous ‘smooth’ space time tunnel would leave the object going thru it connected(?) I’m thinking more of a use of higher levels space dimensions as quantum science suggests (12 or so with most of them ‘stunted/folded up’)
Having a transporter type portal would imply a active and running ‘computing type’ system to control it and keep it in focus on both the target and source. something that would not be unfeasible considering they have ‘intelligent(?) golem’ beings/structures that can be created.
Also given the allusion of the existence being a bit more complex that most realize and some have seen (‘Krona(?) and her comment of universal source code’)
The stargates do disassemble you tho…. moments after stepping through in fact. It was shown in the movie (badly) but the whole point of the iris being so close to the event horizon, in samantha carter’s own words, is its too close for physical natter to reform but radio signals and heat can (which is how Baal heated the iris to make his face to communicate.)
Matter not natter. I hate typing on my phone :)
And once again, Achilles loses his shirt (& pants) because he didn’t get out of the way of the explosion. Man has serious wardrobe issues. They need to at least get him some indestructible jockeys.
How on earth would he get out of the way of that explosion hahaha. The whole frikken mountain is going boom :D
I agree, he didn’t exacly have any warning there was going to be a big explosion comming through the portal. And then the room he was in explodes as well.
As was pointed out to me last night in an entirely unrelated discussion, there’s not a single superhero origin story (other than possibly grrlpower rat cheer) that explains how the superhero got the superpower of being able to sew superhero tights that fit and can survive the s**t the superhero gets into.
Superman’s outfit was woven from the baby blankets that were in his rocket ship. His boots came from the lining of the rocket. Superman’s used his super strength and heat vision to alter the materials when needed.
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/22729/how-did-martha-kent-modify-the-kryptonian-blanket-that-became-supermans-costume
Before the New 52 reboot in 2010 and after the Crisis on On Infinite Earths reboot in the 1980’s, the canon explanation for Superman’s nearly invunerable clothes was that his invunerability was an aura that extended a inch or so above his skin, which generally protected his clothes. This was the in universe reason for putting him in a skin tight outfit. It also allowed his cape to get tattered dramatically and you knew something was really serious when an attack was strong enough o
The biomatrix was actually introduced in New Earth, not New 52. They changed it so that Kal (and Kara) have an invulnerable ‘biomatrix’ field around them that’s nearly skin-tight, so the clothes are usually protected if they’re skin-tight too, although a certain level of force will breach the outer edge of the biomatrix, which is why the suits can sometimes get damaged anyway. The capes, however, are made from the blankets :)
I actually like that reasoning better than the silver age one in the link :) Plus they also said that’s why things that Superman and Supergirl lift, which should break under their own mass, do not. The biomatrix field stabilizes it a little, enough that the mass doesnt destroy it, and enough that when they’re flying with someone, those people don’t die from wind shear damage – also why he doesnt ignite the sky when flying very fast.
Iron Man? Although he may not qualify…
The Incredibles, perhaps? Does it have to be self-made?
Fantastic Four. Reed Richards invented “unstable molecules™” fabric which adapted to the wearer’s powers – such as his and Johny Storm’s.
and Sue Storm’s…
Jack Kirby originally planned that she’d have to remove her clothes when turning invisible, because otherwise they would still be visible and give away her position, but Stan said ‘No’.
^_^
And yet one of the Fantastic Four movies brought that back. Making her remove her (street) clothes, so that she could sneak past some cops manning a roadblock.
Which somehow the guys were able to do just by walking past. A complete and utter waste of a scene, who’s sole purpose was to get Sue naked, for purvey reasons, and have her brother be embarrassed at that.
That said, I am quite keen on pretty girls getting naked in movies. And if there is a good in-setting reason for that to happen fairly often, so much the better.
But not when it is handled in such a cack-pawed way!
They’ll just make any excuse to have Jessica Alba get naked.
Yeah, she’s a beauty all right.
I approve of full-frontal nudity on the big screen (as long as the movie is rated for it), but it kind of loses it’s best effect when you can’t see it.
8-/
Getting your clothes blown off is a occupational hazard for superheroes, especially for Achilles. Fanservice duty yet again for him.
I know I mention Whateley Academy an awful lot, but I would like to point out the character of Tennyo. She’s survived a lot of things, including being within a 200m or so of the hypocenter of a tacnuke. Her clothes? not so much.
Which is why she now wears a bikini made of Adamantium under her costume (WU adamantium isn’t quite the same as the version from Marvel, but close enough). It’s already saved her some embarrassment. The teammate who bought it for her, Phase, refuses to divulge how much he spent on it, to avoid making Billie feel quite so endebted to him.
I know I mention Whateley Academy a bit too often here, but one of the running gags of the series is Tennyo can survive a lot more than her clothes can, the point that one of here teammates spent a small fortune buying her an adamantium bikini to wear under her uniform.
Sorry, I messed up the link: https://whateleyacademy.net
I am honestly getting a bit fed up with the comments section software here, too.
Yea, I’m still hoping that WordPress et al will do something about it. But, as time goes by, that is seeming increasingly less likely.
I hope we are not loosing too many folks over the issues. I know at least one declared they were abandoning the community, until it was fixed.
I feel like this comics biggest weakness is that Maxima has no real challenge when it comes to powers or a fight, closest thing we have to that is when she dealing with her subordinates tom-foolery. And even then it gets resolved quickly…
So far the only person we’ve seen who’s been able to go toe-to-toe with her is Vehemence and even he admits he couldn’t do so without pre-emptively charging up first. Dabbler and some Arabian guy apparently can, but we’ve seen Dabbler have a harder time dealing with threats than Maxima under the same conditions, and we know for a fact the Arabian guy lost
So? You don’t need to put Max in mortal danger for there to be tension.
Her friends aren’t nearly as powerful and she can still be challenged by things that can’t be solved with brute force.
Yeah, but when it comes to fights, her team generally falls back and lets her take care of it whenever it’s time to deal with the big threat. Logical? Yes. But not very interesting in terms of story telling. And the only things that challenge her seen in-comic that can’t be solved via punching it are social issues, which she’s quickly resolves by either pulling rank or via intimidation.
I’m not even asking for someone to just show up and be intrinsically more powerful than her.
Like, just her go up against Ocean Man, whose powers are Hydrokinesis, Hydro-Sense, Super-Strength & Durability (though still weaker than Maxima’s, but strong enough to withstand & move around in the ocean’s depths), and been able to breath underwater. And have him beat her by using his Hydrokinesis to either make all her blows miss him or to just straight up bind her by controlling the water in her body. Thus winning not by been more powerful than Maxima (as in, he couldn’t to even come close to her destructive power unless he was near a large body of water), but by been smart with his powers
How so? The biggest threat they’ve fought so far was Vehemence, and Max was (slowly) losing that fight… the battle was won almost entirely by Halo’s ability to recognise the situation, devise a counter, and get the team to go along with it.
You might wanna read my original post
Then you throw obstacles at her just like you would any other physically-powerful character: you attack them indirectly.
“Go ahead and punch me, Max. Touch me, and 400 pounds of randomly-distributed C4 goes off in the city. Let me walk, I tell you where… hmm… *half* of it is.”
Sure, she might be nigh-invulnerable and able to punch down anything (eventually), but being invulnerable doesn’t amount to jack when someone can bomb a farmer’s market with you in the middle of it.
There’s also plenty of indirect powers and abilities that Max has nothing to counter with. Illusions (she has no boosted senses as far as we’ve seen), psionics/mind control (possibly her invulnerability doesn’t extend to non-physical/material), or simple con games.
Exactly. Like Superman, her enemies’ best bet is to use mind games and target innocent civilians rather than trying to go toe-to-toe with her.
Reminds me of someone who, in order to fight another superman expy, gained superpowers. The superpower of getting stronger the longer he’s awake. Just after sleeping he’s a normal human, but it quickly stacks up. So, before a job, or a fight, he’d take amphetamines for a week to get on fake!supes level.
You are referring to Max damage from The irredeemable Incorruptible series. Funny thing is that the plutonian wasn’t really a living thing he was a advanced like thought probe of some sort that took on humanoid form because it’s some suicidal crazy woman who turned him into a damaged Superman to begin with. The fact that he was raised by an abusive father who thought he was teaching him the whole right KERO path do for others and stuff like that at the expense of yourself only damaged him further. Also according to a couple places on the web irredeemable was supposed to get its own movie before too much longer though I kind of doubt we’re going to see that.
Exactly. You dont attack someone where they are strongest. You attack where they are weakest, or use strategy to prevent them from being able to use that strength without horrible consequences. Batman has beaten Superman at least once that way.
To what end?
Max doesn’t fight solo or very fair. She is a Superman expy with a lot skill, combat experience, and a decently strong team. So it makes sense that the only main challenges of the story are that you need to be exceptionally powerful and prepared(Vehemence), so clever and connected that she can’t intimidate or pull rank on you(Deus), or work around her entirely(Sciona).
All of which has and is currently happening. Some random Super with a decent power and some skill beating Max isn’t really the type of story this is.
Also, as Dave aluded to in the begining, the tension for a story doesn’t have to come from combat. You can have character interactions, social issues, moral quandries, etc.
Nicely said.
Max has a few challenges:
Keeping her team alive
Stopping shit from going to hell before she even gets there
Defeating more than one high-tier super at the time.
Diplomacy
Gathering intelligence
Deal with Sydney is not child´s play. It requires huge mental strenght and autocontrol.
And 4 out of 5 times its a losing battle to deal with her antics without losing some sanity.:)
Yeah, both Max & Arianna have Gen. Faulk’s sympathy.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/939
– if her team is a liability, she shouldnt have a team
– she has super speed, and intel isnt her job
– All the villains we have seen so far (except maybe deus) combined would lose to maxima
– Who needs diplomacy when you can *win* instead? Also, diplomacy isnt her job
– Intel isnt her job.
As powerful as Max is she does still need a team. She doesn’t work 24/7 and can’t be everywhere at once.(And her enemies aren’t going to be so obliging as to stay in one easy to find area.)
“Who needs diplomacy when you can *win* instead?”
Nor can she blast every problem in her life.(Case in point being Deus.)
Maxima admits that Sciona is at her level – it’s the presence of the well-trained team that let her win earlier.
In theory, this puts Vale in the ‘threat to Maxima’ category for a fight – but hypnosis, mind-control, etc seem to work too. Or rig up hidden speakers to say sexist things and distract/enrage her.
Sciona isn’t.
Maxima may say she s, but both times they’ve gone up against each other, Sciona either ran and only got away by chance or was swiftly overpowered by Maxima
You and another have both made mention of this, that Max ‘admits that Sciona is at her level’. I’ve gone back and re-read the comics after Sciona’s use of the dagger three times now, and I can’t find where this is coming from. Would you happen to have a link?
I don’t recall that either. However I would assess that Sciona was more powerful than Maxima, whilst Sciona was buffed with the eight super powers she injected. Simply because, even before that, we saw that she was fast enough to both hit Maxima multiple times, and make her bleed, then teleport out, before Max could intervene.
Add in super strength, the eye blast and who knows what other powers she gained, and I think that easily tips the balance to Sciona. Just the strength alone would push those scratches up to limb-cutting off territory. Regeneration is not part of Maxima’s powerset. As such she would have to devote all of her variable power to ensuring that her force field maintains its integrity.
Which we saw her having to do just with the death blast gaze. It was not until Sydney acted as a decoy that Maxima was able to slip out of the beam and swap her abilities around, so that she could deliver the M.F.P.
Unbuffed Sciona probably would get her butt handed to her by Maxima. Overall threat levels though Maxima still is top dog, because she has Arc SWAT backing her up. Which beats Sciona and her minions, even buffed.
Should there be enough surviving Alari though, to form an army, or any ships offworld, then the tables might turn again.
I don’t read the ‘Innocent Bystander Stomp’ encounter that way. To me, her blade storm appears to have left some smudges on Maxima, probably from where her wingtips were caught on fire and ashy. Sciona’s blade storm did not cut Max’s jacket or clothes, and the hand marks weren’t visible one comic later (roughly 2-3 minutes in-story time) which further suggests to me that they weren’t scratches. It seems mostly like Max was caught off guard by the teleport – the best counter to super-speed is super-distraction/misdirection/unpreparedness/etc.
I think the super-blood-cocktail put Sciona up into warming the benches in the same ballpark as Max. As examples: Sciona’s hit with her face-beam stopped Max for some small amount of time (until Sydney jumped in) but it failed to get through Max’s outer field to even singe her jacket/clothes. Per Dave, the MFPunch was closer to the top than the bottom end of Max’s strength spectrum but was still not as hard as she could hit – she needed to at least try and not take Sciona’s head off. And she almost failed at that: we wee that the result of the MFP was the left side of Sciona’s face crushed in. That same punch slightly higher and Sciona is brain dead.
So far the only thing I’ve seen of Sciona’s that came close to affecting Max was the Tentacle Golem’s Mesmerize Gaze + Laser Needle combo. But we didn’t get to see if it could have actually gotten through her skin.
Good points. Regarding the scratches though we do know that Maxima is a VERY fast healer. In that she had to reset her own broken nose (or whatever) after the car park fight, because it would have healed (in its broken position) before they got back to the super medic at Archon!
If she can heal broken bones that fast then a scratch would be cleared up within the kind of time-frame you indicate. (Plus Dave does forget small stuff like blood, this very page/ blog being a case in point).
Agreed, that seems like a very reasonable possibility.
Sorry, masterofbones, you’re wrong. Diplomacy is her job. Part of it, anyway.
General Faulk doesn’t go with them into the field… he’s not a super, and even if he was, the Air Force wouldn’t let him go into the field. Officers of his rank are “too valuable to risk in combat”. I speak from experience, I served in the Air Force. In either case, as far as I know, he’s just the liason between ARC-SWAT and the government. So his job isn’t diplomacy either.
Maxima is the team leader. That means, in a first-contact situation, diplomacy is her responsibility. Unless, of course, you’re saying that “diplomacy” should consist of “We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill. We come in peace, shoot to kill, Scotty beam us up!” (also called “gunboat diplomacy”).
In Babylon 5, it was exactly that kind of “diplomacy” that started the Earth-Minbar war. Although, to be fair, someone back on Earth was kind of stupid to send a captain who was known to be bad at first-contact situations to meet the Minbari.
Amending something I said in my last post:
“So his job isn’t diplomacy either.” — Not in the sense of first-contact situations. One would assume that ARC has specialists for that, but you only send the ambassadors when you know you’re about to make first contact, or after contact has already been established. Just like Faulk, the ambassadors are too important to risk… they’re not going to send them along on every mission.
The problem with the Earth Mimbari war was that the Earth Force military didn’t have a shoot second rule in place. Even in Iraq I was trained to shoot if I even saw muzzle pointed my way. Which is what the Earth Force captain did. He saw guns, he shot first. Though to be honest, he should have had hi ship scan to see if they were being targeted while bringing his own guns online and prepairing for attack. But most people generally hae a reaction of attacking first when they see weapons out and ‘apparently’ ready to use against them. Sometimes, as we saw, the one who gets the first blow has the highest chance of winning, unless the other guy has shields or other defenses so they can afford to take a hit and be the second to enguage.
There were a lot of mistakes made by Earth Force.
(1) They were told by the Centauri how to contact the Minbari. Either the Centauri didn’t tell them about the Minbari custom of opening their gun ports as a gesture of respect, or Earth Force didn’t think it was important enough to tell the captain.
They did tell the captain to avoid any first contact situations, unless authorized to do so. But when their scanners were unable to do more than detect the silhouette of the Minbari ships (because of Minbari stealth technology), he gave the order to move in closer, over his XO’s concerns.
(2) It was still a mistake to send that particular captain, which was acknowledged by Sheridan. From the Wikia: “Captain Jankowski had developed a reputation among those who serve under him as a loose cannon and was known to be bad at handling first contact situations.”
Further acknowledged because he was court martialed, stripped of rank, and offered to the Minbari as a means of making amends. He later committed suicide with a PPG, leaving behind a note that said “On my head”. In other words, he blamed himself for starting the war.
It still fits with Earth Force’s general level of incompetence. I’m rewatching the series right now and Earth Force is pretty darned incompetent. Half the time it seems like they want everyone to get killed by the threat of the week.
VTech and Chronocidal have already addressed this.
Yes, she has super speed, but not at the same time as super strength, super flight, etc. She has a limited “power pool” for her superpowers, and has to decide how to allocate that pool. If she puts too much into speed, she’s not going to be at her strongest or most damage-resistant.
Untrue. Max has already admitted that Sciona is at her level, and there’s also that super from Iraq that she thinks she killed (but she didn’t). And apparently you missed the fight with Vehemence.
Okay, so instead of negotiating with North Korea, we should have gone to war with them because we can win? (Which we could, as long as China decided not to get involved.) Let me make something abundantly clear to you: War sucks, especially for the civilians who get caught in the crossfire. “Yeah, 50 million people are slowly dying of disease and starvation, but why should I care? We won!” — If you think winning is the only thing that matters, you need to get your head examined.
And I’ve established in another post that, at least in some situations, diplomacy is her job.
Sciona can’t seem to take the serious hits well though.
Where did Max say Sciona was at her level?
As the (very recognisable) leader of a team of field agents from a paramilitary organisation created to police and prevent superpowered incidents, Gathering Intel and Diplomacy are both part of Maxima’s job.
And to cover the
*sniffles* I messed up my post…
It is horrible when that happens.
*hugs*
Still you made good points.
Her team is a liability, you say? Hmm… tell that to Vehemence, who would have eventually won against Maxima if it wasn’t for Sydney and her pesky brain.
• I second Tokumei‘s comment above (albeit mentioned in the opening comment too). Plus add ForWhomTheDeathTolls. Maxima avoided instant defeat by him, through sending the pawns in first! Then there was the super-power copying construct, which would may have been able mesmerise Maxima with its gaze attack, if its projecting lens had not been cracked by Anvil.
• We have seen several instances where Max could not increase her super speed because she needed to keep her defences up, either because of an ongoing attack or because of the threat of one. Sciona, for instance, is clearly faster than Maxima’s baseline speed (she cut her several times with her wings, before teleporting out, as one example). Likewise if the opponent is too tough to hurt, without increasing her strength.
• Except the ones who I listed. And any villain with a reasonably strong mental attack (to overcome Maxima’s strong will) or any other kind of attack which her force fields do not protect against (being turned into a bunny say).
It certainly is! Both police commanders and lieutenant commanders need to conduct a lot of diplomacy as a fundamental part of their job. With politicians, peers, other police/military arms, the press, their subordinates. Likewise in the basic role as a cop. Killing villains is not the job’s mandate. Protecting the public (INCLUDING villains) is. Hostage negotiation, for example, is an important part of the training for senior cops with an active policing role.
• Yes it is. Although theirs is a S.W.A.T. unit, and they do have two intelligence branches within Archon, all police and military need to be able to conduct intelligence activities, as the situation demands.
And we have already seen them on a reconnaissance mission. Where Sydney, Pixel, Krona and Harem were scouting the Mars factory. Whilst Maxima was leading another team at another location. These are situations which are too dangerous for non-combat operatives to investigate.
“lieutenant commanders” = “lieutenant colonels”
I would include admitting to falling in love with another superhero as Max’s weakness.
That weakness is only as weak as the superhero in question. Hand he’s not exactly Papier-mâché man.
technically sydney is far more powerful than maxima is (or at least her bubble is), for dabbler typically she looses focus and starts fooling around which leads to more drawn out and harder seeming battles
I don’t know about that. Maxima didn’t exactly give Sydney’s bubble her all. She gave it a lot… a whole hell of a lot… but she could have gone further. Probably didn’t for fear of possibly harming Sydney.
They are both rated as five star strength. But that covers a huge range. Either might turn out to be the more powerful.
Sydney does have one advantage though. Hers is always full strength. If Maxima has to divert her variable power elsewhere, it may drop below Sydney’s.
Our best example was Maxima succumbing to the side-effects from the unstable wormhole, whilst Sydney did not. However we do not know if that was down to Maxima’s basic shield strength being overcome. That seems unlikely though as none of them were physically injured (and Harem is pretty squishy).
Rather it is more likely that it was a magical effect (or technobabble natural anomaly) for which normal force fields offer no protection. Halo’s though we know does protect against stuff like that, as we saw it protected against Vehemence’s aggro aura.
So the jury is still out, on which could protect against the greater amount of raw damage.
actually, there is one guy who’s yet to show up that’s a challenge for her. remember the guy she assumes she killed while on duty in Iraq? he showed up in that Rogues Gallery splash page way back with an Arabic speech balloon that translated to: “So, I’m dead, Am I?”
So happy that someone translated that from Arabic.
Er… did you notice you’re bringing up this problem on a page showing side effects from our heroes being attacked by the biggest threat we’ve seen to date? Pretty sure maxima can’t just punch that thing.
Amazing that it took 5 hours for someone to point that out. Maxima isn’t even ON this page.
Oh, Mr Buble didn’t act like a plug, didn’t think so, they were too far back
Might have still mitigated some of it, preventing things from directly going through or making the explosion lose some strength before going through (like a break-water reef).
But yeah that depends on the angle and scale fo the blast and from the last page it looked to be from above (so the shield wasn’t between it and the portal) and very big (so the shield couldn’t block all of it).
With this strip I get the feeling the members of ARC-SWAT have become blase about seeing Achilles naked. Especially after a super big boom like this.
And Achilles can’t have much shyness left after all these years of involuntary nudity. It’s a hard job being mr Fanservice but someone got to do it.
I think it’s worth reiterating that, while he is far from the most flashy, Achilles’s power is actually the best one we’ve seen so far.
I think we could argue that his power is the MOST “flashy.”
groooan…
And once again, Achilles loses his shirt (& pants) because he didn’t get out of the way of the explosion. Man has serious wardrobe issues. They need to at least get him some indestructible jockeys.
If it appears that your post didn’t go through, wait, maybe refresh a few times, or post something new, because it did go through, just takes time for it to show up
For some reason, when I post, I actually have to close the browser completely, and then restart the browser and load the comments page again. Otherwise, my posts never show up for me. I’m sure everyone else sees them.
Have never had that happen to me with this chat-system
Maybe try a different browser? Which one are you using?
Nobody else has mentioned such a problem (although with something that severe other less dedicated commentators may have just given up).
Assuming that it is just you, it may be symptomatic of some other problem with your setup. David K. Storrs‘s suggestion sounds like a good place to start, with checking the possibilities. Likewise seeing if there is an update for it, if that is not done automatically).
This site’s problems started with GDPR and it may not uniquely be a WordPress problem, as browser companies were having to change code too (along with innumerable other websites). So we can only hope that patches are being gradually put in place as each resolves compatibility problems with each other.
Ah.
Two of my three posts here so far today haven’t appeared [to me, anyway] yet…
That is a very common problem that all of us have been suffering from recently. The fix is just to go to another page (comic or comments) and back again.
99.9% of the time that works OK.
The remainder of the time is when an old issue occurs. Namely if someone’s connection or PC is running slowly. Then the server might time out processing the post, due to the lack of response. If your connection is ever running that slowly, just be sure to copy the text, before hitting the “Submit Comment” button.
However be sure to check if the post is just delayed, by the way mentioned above, before trying to repost it. Otherwise you may get a duplicate comment.
I’ve had to do a ctrl+f5 refresh for it to work before but usually it’s just time. The weird thing is that on my old tablet with it’s own browser the replies show up right away.
With this strip I get the feeling that the members of ARC-SWAT have become blase about seeing Achilles naked. Especially after a super big boom like this one.
Exposure therapy at work.
The exposure of Achilles, that is. ;^)
Once you’ve seen something enough times, it stops bothering you as much.
It’s sort of like werewolves in a lot of “urban fantasy” novels… most of them have no nudity taboo, because shapeshifting ruins their clothes every time (unless they take the time to undress first).
I love achilles’s face in panel 2.
not as much as that rock loved Morph’s face in panel 7.
I think Achilles needs to invest in garments that are indestructible(or don’t wear out)…?!
If they could make clothing he could wear that could survive this then they would have everyone wear it and anyone could become as invincible as him.
True.
Maybe he just needs to be issued with a holographic clothes projector? Which he could keep safe by secreting it in the orifice of his choice. ;-)
I hate you for making me picture that XD
I wonder if the Blops tattoos are explosion proof.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/518
Wouldn’t the projector have to be pretty hardy also?
Not if it is inside him, no. As it would be protected by his invulnerable body, for the most part.
Being able to project through him would be quite a technical feat to overcome mind.
I’ve seen a scene like this before, but it involved a pissed off dragon primal escaping from a moon-sized bouncy ball.
Let’s hope this doesn’t end the same way, with attempts at resealing it getting blown to dust by the sealee.
Poor old Grampa Louie did a good job turning it around around at the end there, though.
True, though it ended up biting him in the ass longer term. Not fun having to fight the very people you sacrificed yourself to protect.
Ouch… Amorphous is not fireproof, is he?
Also, if Sydney’s shield survived that, the orbs are way more powerful than initially thought… which might explain why the mecha cthulhu freaked out and nuked her.
Fire-proof, bomb proof, rock proof, etc. proof. He is indestructible by any known means. He may get thrown around by whatever difference of pressure there is on his body, including super-sonic shock-waves, but he does not take any damage from the pressure differences.
No, you’re thinking of Achilles. They’re both in the compound.
Amorphous is probably undamaged by bludgeoning piercing slashing, but he probably takes damage from acid, cold, fire, poison, radiation, etc.
At the most, his hands (and maybe his arms) may be burnt, depends on how long he is left in the blast, the rest of him is shielded by that chunk of rock that hit his face, hopefully it is being propelled hard enough to knock him away from the flames
I think that big rock flying at Mr. Amorphous should shoot him out of the cave, so he won’t get hurt that much by the explosion. While Peggy is flying around looking at the “flare”, Amorphous is tumbling down the mountain.
Wrapped around a boulder.
I am impressed by Achille’s unflappable factor. Step over Roger Moore, there’s a new guy in town (who predates Roger Moore in age, but still).
He simply is no longer capable of discerning between intensity of hazards.
But he is compensated by increased sensitivity to mouth-feels.
I didn’t understand what was happening until I saw the written explanation below. It’s been a while, so I had completely forgotten about Sciona’s self-destruct system. I think the culprit here is Panel 4. It’s a vague cylinder shape covered in clouds and with nothing around it to indicate any sense of size or or scale. I honestly had no idea what that thing was until the text write-up reminded me of the barrels full of explosives. If the panel could have been bigger and a half second earlier in time (showing what the barrel was and maybe surroundings for context and a reminder), it would have been a lot clearer.
Not sure how to get there… maybe sacrifice panels 2 and 6 for more room? The Achilles gag probably could have been done in two panels, and the Amorphous gag likewise.
Without the author explanation I would have thought that it was the explosion coming through the portal causing the mountain to blow up. Which brings up something odd in panel 3: most forces strong enough to shred Achilles’ shirt would have pushed him around – for all his invulnerability, his mass is the same as normal.
Fire doesn´t push. In this case, what pushes is the energy of the explosion that pushes the fire in all directions. So, in my opinion, the timing is fine as long as Achilles is thrown away by the onomatopeia (boom).
I’m still trying to figure out why fire would set off plastic explosive. Burning C4 doesn’t cause it to explode.
Presumably Sciona had fitted the C4 with detonators that the fire could set off. It is also possible that the heat plus force of impact could be enough to set it off. During the Vietnam conflict, many of our troops would burn hunks of C4 (relatively safe to do) in order to cook their C-rations. In one instance one of my Sergeants told me about, a guy tried to stamp out the C4 when he was done with the fire. Managed to acquire himself an early discharge and a prosthetic leg.
Mythbusters tested the burning C4 blowing up when stomped on story and…it’s just a story. Even burning C4 needs a far higher velocity shock than can be generated by a human leg stomping on it in order to detonate.
Well, according to page #631, the barrels are just filled with “super volatile stuff”. Presumably, the fire blew up the barrels, and the barrels blew up the C4. It is also possible that the explosions are JUST from the barrels, since we didn’t actually see the C4 itself detonating.
I’m not even surprised, the portal is no doubt closed since all those bombs went off. It means they are stuck there on that planet dealing with those things to fight against. Anyone else think that rather than running away they should of fought that thing BEFORE heading for the portal at the very least?
No. Running was the right decision. Fighting with a completely unknown entity that may, MAY have nuked the Alari homeworld, and the Alari people, into oblivion when they don’t have to is stupid and suicidal. Besides, unstable portal to deal with, remember? Even in a BEST CASE scenario, leaving it open while they deal with the mecha-cthulhu would have had a “bad” outcome.
Dude all I am saying is that I’m sick and tired of the running, so far they are running away from a threat that will no doubt annihilate everything on a planet. Its going to find its way to Earth then over nuke the whole planet population, so far its not going to stop attacking cause they left through a portal. Its going to send a drone THROUGH it then trace its location to earth and reduce it like it did with the Alari, so far all I’m hearing is that running away good idea fighting bad idea. If I was in that freaking situation I wouldn’t run from the fight for too long, at some point I would of lost my temper then proceeded to bust up that mecha freak to the point where I would stomp its head like a tin-can of soda then blast a hole in the that corkscrew ship for good effort. So far I’m hearing tactical stuff but I’m not tactical, I’m not an uber intelligent person. What I do is this ‘if something attacks me, me run away, thing still attacking me, me stop an fight back cause me is angry for being attacked still.’ Any being that is attacking fleeing hostiles is something you need to put down HARD despite whatever the hell lack of intel you are lacking.
So, the team should have re-enacted the Battle of Thermopylae at the portal to keep the invaders from reaching Earth? Or maybe Sydney doing her Gandalf impression in front of the portal? (You shall not pass!!)
So, you’re saying that they’ve only been running for three pages and you’re already sick of it? You need to learn a little thing called “patience”.
No, you would’ve lost your temper, turned around to attack it, and most likely gotten blasted into atoms for your trouble. Achilles is the only member of the team who is truly indestructible; even Maxima can be killed. Get back to earth, close the portal, and warn them about the potential threat (and hope they listen).
You are dealing with something on a power level somewhere between Super-Secret Hidden Ultimate Summon (think Knights of the Round or as someone else said, FF14 Bahamut) and a Mass Effect Reaper.
There is no fighting. There is running home to get ALL THE GUNS, nothing else.
Oh screw that if this turns into a freaking god damn Mass Effect situation, that would be the worst way for this comic to be going. And whats to say that those other aliens will ACTUALLY help? They might just say ‘Oh looks like Earth is going to be wiped out, oh well off to another planet to go screw around with.’ and then leave the planet to its doomed fate. All I’m saying is deal with the threat NOW before it learns of earth and causes planet wide destruction. For god sake I’d rather die fighting and distracting that damn thing then to run away like a freaking coward.
Funny though this is, it is still a damn dirty jump cut from the last page which is a cliffhanger until Thursday at least. Way keep us on the edge of our seats.
I get the impression,those aliens,really dont like Sydney`s balls.
well, so much for that mountain.
Okay — something that’s been bugging me for a while.
This third panel demonstrates Achilles’ invulnerability extends to his hair.
So…how does he get a haircut? Wouldn’t his hair be down to his knees at this point?
at ‘the incident’ where he got his powers something happened to freeze his molecular configuration into a permanent unchangeable form.* This keeps him from injury, but also keeps him in his ’80s mullet forever.
* With the story-required exception of setting down new memories in his brain.
Most supers automatically have perfect bodies. Maybe that includes hair that doesn’t grow.
Were that the case, the Barberian guy that Dabbler shac- err, RECHARGED with wouldn’t have a job.
That’s assuming that Barberian only does haircuts for supers. You’re right, though; as far as ARC-SWAT goes, everyone’s hair grows, except for Achilles. His hair is locked in a permanent mullet, like it was when his powers first manifested.
Agreed. I think Achilees is the only one with perma-fixed-hair. The others while having perfect hair, still need ot get haircuts every now and then. Plus the non-super member sof the organizaion in that building.
They only had perfect hair when they gained their powers, otherwise Daphne couldn’t have altered her hair at least four times
Strange, the Who’s Who boxes didn’t become visible for me until I clicked to the comments.
The author has addressed this. Achilles’ hair doesn’t grow. It’s locked in the same state it was when he manifested his powers.
Er… did you notice you’re bringing up this problem on a page showing side effects from our heroes being attacked by the biggest threat we’ve seen to date? Pretty sure maxima can’t just punch that thing.
Sorry, this was meant to be a reply to an earlier comment.
“When you’re a Superhero, you need to look your best.” *Achilles montage of walking past flashing cameras, fighting with the team, etc… * “For the people, for your team, and for yourself.” *Achilles walking through superhero locker room filled with “super” looking models in masks and towels* “But saving the world won’t wait for an old school hygiene regimen with soap, shampoo and conditioner… ”
*Achilles shows bottle to camera*
“That’s why I use Explosion 3 in 1 body wash, shampoo, and conditioner for men. Powerful enough for a Super-man. Non-toxic enough for a man.” *Achilles enters shower, turns it on, and is just about to apply “Explosion” product when the scene switches to carefully edited images of the scene in todays comic post*
Explosion Shampoo, Conditioner, and Body wash. For powerful men with responsibilities that just can’t wait.
When they were filming the commercial and stylist showed up to blow out Achilles’ hair, he used actual dynamite.
His cologne is a splash of napalm with subtle hints of citrus and sandalwood.
Magie Sauvage
The New Eau De Parfum
From
Dior
:-D
To answer a few questionable things…
1. The team were running back to he portal because a) it was unstable and they have no idea of how much time they can afford before it closes and b) the portal was opened from the other side… I doubt it can be closed from the alari home world.
2. Being that the portal was opened from the Earth side, what is that self destruct mechanism going to do to it now that it’s gone off?
3. I think its safe to say that Sydney’s bubble wasn’t projected through the portal or the bubble and not the rock would have been the first thing to smack Mr. Amorpheus in the face.
4. Now that I think about it, you have to wonder… big mecha cthulu boom on once side and sciona’s self destruct boom on the other… It’s either gonna close the portal… or rip it a new and much wider ass…
To answer a few questionable things…
1. The team were running back to he portal because a) it was unstable and they have no idea of how much time they can afford before it closes and b) the portal was opened from the other side… I doubt it can be closed from the alari home world.
2. Being that the portal was opened from the Earth side, what is that self destruct mechanism going to do to it now that it’s gone off?
3. I think its safe to say that Sydney’s bubble wasn’t projected through the portal or the bubble and not the rock would have been the first thing to smack Mr. Amorpheus in the face.
4. Now that I think about it, you have to wonder… big mecha cthulu boom on once side and sciona’s self destruct boom on the other… It’s either gonna close the portal… or rip it a new and much wider ass…
Oh, and Achilles? The sign you’re looking for is “NOPE”
Not really sure why you think Sydney’s bubble would hit Amorphous. He’s at the cave entrance, and the rock that hit him was part of the exploding mountain. I’m not even sure if he’s seen the out-of-control portal yet.
Have a holiday? It would probably enjoy Hawaii at the moment.
so the portal explosion comes through while Achilles is there contemplating the portal and missing team mates and at the same time scion’s self destruct goes hitting Achilles from bother directions at once? ouch that is some scary timing there.
Achilles will have been standing there since they got sucked in, and would likely remain there until he got a sign, or someone more assertive arrived. Achilles has the patience of an immortal. So no timing involved, on that front.
Meanwhile it was the portal explosion which triggered the booby trap explosives to go off. Hence no co-incidence, on any aspect, for Achilles’s scene.
The serendipity though was the timing for the flare.
I mistakenly thought that the countdown for the base self-destruct had already begun. Even so timing-wise I believe it may have been convenient with only Achilles by the portal being vulnerable to virtually anything and Mister morphis being near the exit so virtually safe from the explosion virtually not completely. On top of that I believe that those were the only two team members left on that side of the portal I have no idea where Anvil got to I don’t quite remember if she was part of the original away team I think she wasn’t but we’ll see. I hope she doesn’t windup like strong guy when he’s in explosion and need to pound the Earth until she’s let off some of the extra kinetic energy she absorbed
That is not down to timing though. It is simply down to prudent disposition of forces. Everyone on the A-team is very tough. Dabbler has killed gods. Achilles is invulnerable. Maxima and Halo have top-tier force fields. Leaving Mr Amorphous and Harem as the weakest links.
Going underground they needed to have someone remain at the entrance, both to guard it (normal police procedure) and to guide in the Delta team. Harem drew the short straw, in having to stay with the heavy-hitters, because she was their only way of remaining in contact with Archon, when deep underground.
So the most logical person to leave behind was Mr Amorphous. It was a ‘cleared’ area, so fairly safe to leave one person, and he is capable enough to handle peripheral risks. A patrol of the manequin constructs would have been the more likely one envisaged. As such he would have probably been on orders to evade them, unless it was a solo one, and to regroup with the Delta team.
They did see that the entrance way was heavily booby trapped though. Hence another reason for choosing Mr Amorphous, as he would be able to survive the effects of a major one going off, if he was far enough away from the centre.
She was not part of the Alpha team. With Super Hiro on it, I imagine Anvil will be leading the ground forces on the Delta team.
She is the same rank as Peggy, but Peggy’s role will put her either with the helicopter, or providing cover as a sniper. Neither of which are well suited to retaining control of a SWAT unit going underground. Assuming that it is even safe or possible to enter that is.Correction. The cast list indicated that they were both 1st lieutenants. But if I remember correctly Anvil has been retconned as a sergeant. Making Peggy the senior officer. However, due to the considerations mentioned, operational command, once disembarked, may well fall to Anvil.
Although Peggy might decide that staying with the team, and investigating the base, is more important than guarding the osprey or taking up overwatch on an apparently bare mountain. And they may have the space marines with them, for the mundane stuff.
I object to Achilles being tiny when stripped. This is an important scene for him and my desire for him to receive proper panel space when denuded is not at all in self interest.
Big Budda Boom!
Ha ha ha.
“DANGER CLOSE! DROP IT ON ME! AND IF YOU MISS IT, YOU SUCK!”
p.s. They didn’t miss, so they didn’t suck.
I feel like Achilles is either lampshading his own genre awareness or just plain dead-panning in the 3rd panel.
“Aaaand, there’s a precisely timed explosion to the face. Not even surprised anymore when this happens after I say something like that.”
Maybe but while it’s a sign that something big is happening it’s still doesn’t tell him one way or the other if he should go through or not.
Ironically this is almoust exactly what i asked for in the previous page.
Thanks Santa Claus!
The orbs better not cheap out by only giving her one skill point for this.
If I read the page in the conventional order, I assume a “BOOM” in the face is not enough of a signal for Achilles ?
“Boot to the head!”