Grrl Power #66 – Hero Baiting
Hmm, looks like Max isn’t the only one who slipped up on this page. No one’s quite had a chance to catch on yet though. It would seem Syndey’s unofficial list of superpowers, besides super swearing and spice tolerance, are super hero baiting and summoning pom poms for comedic effect.
FYI, there’s a really good artist that I… well, I don’t know her, but I’ve been following her art on DeviantArt for a long time (and she draws, among other things, sexy elf gals) and it turns out she needs a kidney. I saw someone tweet about her predicament, the link lead to a Tumblr page with a giveaway contest to help generate donations. I haven’t quite figured out what Tumblr is for myself, but I’ve had an account there for a while, so I reblogged it, the details are there. If you’ve got $10 to spare you could literally be helping to save her life. You can hold off on buying a shirt for a few weeks.
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I’m sorry… I know I should feel sorry for Maxima in this page as she’s been made a complete fool of…
but I can’t help but laugh hysterically when I read this. Its always amusing to see someone who is so sure of themselves fail… in which case Sydney had better be careful lol
Thank you of comic creator… its been a while since I laughed so hard I cried.
I wonder if Sydney’s “artifacts” might not have some probability manipulating aspect to them. This would explain the almost-too-convenient curb-slip in panel seven, and might also explain how they were originally drawn to Sydney – who is, if we’re honest, basically a living infinite-improbability drive (or at the very least a free chaos generator).
:mrgreen:
I have a feeling that if Sydey was a GURPS character she would have the disadvantage “Wierdness magnet.”
Yes, that was me agreeing with you. Just verifying in case you aren’t a gamer and have no clue what I am talking about.
“Weirdness Magnet” is worth every point, as long as you have a ‘GM’ that can “play” it.
I think DaveB has that down :)
And it also pops up in DC Heroes, and works just as well.
The only trouble with “weirdness magnet” is that if more than half of the party have it, after a few sessions you might as well be playing “Toon” unless your GM is a freaking master storyteller.
In my opinion, thats not a disadvantage, even if GURPS claims it is :)
The curb slip is just Maxima losing her balance. Same principle used in the old Looney Toons where Foghorn Leghorn taunts the dog, and the rope jerks him short. Maxima wasn’t expecting that sudden stop, and lost her balance. Well, that plus the rebound bonk of her head on the tube.
Oh and for the tube since most see it as a poster tube it is actually a blue print tube which come in three form plastic cardboard and aluminum. I would suspect Sydney going for the aluminum one seeing how she knows her strength and what happens with the tube and doesn’t want it to be destroyed by the first car that runs over it. Oh and please no wands no Pretty Magic Girl Sydney please shudder please no bad evil.
NO WANDS – That’s Sydney’s rule. That’s why its in a poster case! Still laughing over this one.
I would say that The Tube itself is remarkably tough. Very arguably tougher than it should be. We’ve seen Sydney yanking repeatedly on the strap to try and pull it out from under a car tire, we seen her throw it, we’ve seen her VERY energetically pound it on the pavement. All this stuff and much more, it has taken without a single dent or scuff mark or even just popping open.
Hmmmm. The source of Sydney’s powers may not actually be whatever is inside The Tube. Maybe it is The Tube itself that is special. Just a thought.
not if the contents force field the tube when it nears stress limits
I’m guessing Halo’s secret identity was never intended to be secret, and never will be.
(My comment from yesterday did’n come through! :( )
Hmm… So when Max holds the poster tube like in panel 4 and is ready to apply enough force to drag Sydney out from under the ambulance, expecting some connection between Sydney and the tube – just like Sydney would have a grip on the strap and wouldn’t let go: Why does the tube not break from Max grip? On top of that, when Max is surprised by the dead stop, wouldn’t she apply some much stronger force, at least for a moment – why does the poster tube still not break?
Unless… “they” reinforced the tube, to the strength of solid steel.
And – many thanks for everyone who made puns and especially Chargone for the english lesson :D last time!
Please ignore the obvious typo.
Only if you don’t call attention to it.
=OP
Six hours after reading this, it dawns on me that Sydney does almost exactly what Maxima did in her introduction. Called the “what” before it happened.
Man there are too many awesome things in this one page to list them.
Good catch Marscaleb! I totally missed that.
Totally didn’t see that one! Thanks for pointing it out, it makes the page even funnier now!
I just noticed that Harem and Arianna look very similar in that last panel. Same height, nearly identical face shapes. The only really noticeable difference is that Harem has freckles.
Does this count as an Immovable Object (Sydney and her document tube) meeting an Unstoppable Force (Max)?
Nah. Can’t have both of those in the same universe.
Hmm well this is interesting, maybe the contents of the tube are sentient from all the stuff I’ve read. I had to re-read the whole comic 2 just to come up with my own idea, while all those possibilities are good I think its just that the tube contains a sentient artifact that DOESN’T want anyone other then Sydney to move it around and pick it up. Surprised that the head slam against it didn’t crack the tube open.
So…. Does this mean that if she ever fall off a cliff or her chute doesnt open when skydiving she can just will her tube to stop and hang in midair?….cause thats pretty damn handy.
That last panel is made of win.
so is “The List” going to be a reacuring theme here? not saying its a bad joke quite the contrery in fact i would love to see some of the names on it. like some of the really old grudges.
Would be funny if DaveB was on the list if we ever get to see it.
[Oprah] Your on the list! And YOUR on the list! YOUR ALL ON THE LIST!!!!!! [/Oprah]
An extract from The List:
“DaveB: for shackling me to a poster tube full of freaky alien artefacts.”
We will never see The List. The List is like The Noodle Incident.
First Sydney freaks out in the sun, and now Max TRIPS. LMFAO I so wasn’t seeing that coming, I expected Sydney to go flying…so can she make the case thethered to her or what? Or does it just have a mind of its own? (I think the latter…)
I am going to guess that it acts on some of the basic laws of physics.
When an object is in motion it tends to stay in motion. However…
When an object is stationary, it tends to stay as such.
As she and the case are linked to eachother (or tethered if you will) it would seem that whatever the state of one is affects the physical state of the other. Also as there is a finite range of separation with this tethering and the tethering is seemingly unstretchable…
It would seem that the girl is the immovable force and the canister is not. This would support why the case can skitter along the ground like a toy truck on a string but why she is immovable when the case is moved instead of her.
So if she were to get caught in a hurricane all she would need to do to not be blown into the next county would be to stake the canister to something immovable and she would simply flop around in the breeze.
Vice versa if someone like the Hulk for instance were to try and steal the canister…
He would get a yank slam and do a nice reverse flip face plant.
Except that, zen-like, those allegedly-two rules are simply different names for exactly the same physical situation. The difficulty is, how do the artifacts know when Sydney motionless and they are moving, and so they should stop, and when Sydney is moving and they are motionless, in which case they should skitter along behind.
You and Aristotle may think it’s obvious, but Galileo and Newton disagree.
Further, of course, is the slight difficulty in explaining the calorie denial forcefield (and especially where the tube is found afterwards). Doesn’t mean there’s no explanation; just that it can’t be that simple, nor based on “objects in motion do one thing while objects at rest do another”, since the categories “in motion” and “at rest” are purely in the mind of the beholder, and are not an objective physical state.
CDFF effect: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/184
Yeah, it seems less like it has anything to do with the laws of momentum and more like whoever made the things put in some kind of safeguard to ensure the user could move them but they couldn’t be used to move the wielder (they can however, be used to hold the wielder still, so it’s not a perfect safeguard).
As to how THAT works… I’m going to go with magic, which simplifies things as magic often seems to have some degree of interpretative power on it’s own, but it could be advanced alien tech.
Well then I am going to go out on a limb and say that…
…it is most likely that she is immovable and the canister is irremovable no matter what the situation or physical state of momentum and both are connected by an unbreakable unstretchable invisible chain or cable.
Maybe Sydney can accelerate the tube but the tube can’t accelerate Sydney? Or maybe force fields are used to prevent separation and Sydney can telekinetically pull the tube but the tube can’t return the gesture?
Actually, in the discussion for page 27 (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/184), Dave said that the tube did get jerked forward, and when it could move no further, Sydney experienced the “calorie-denial-force-field”. Which leaves this page as the only one that seems to defy Newtonian physics. At least, it requires the tube be able to exert force against something other than Sydney. Perhaps against the ground.
“Vice versa if someone like the Hulk for instance were to try and steal the canister…
He would get a yank slam and do a nice reverse flip face plant.”
Oh. My. GOD! I just visualised that happening, and I almost slid off my chair from laughing so hard!
:)
What is really awesome is that all this is on local TV!
Do not anger this yellow-skinned behemoth!
I just last night realized Sydney/Halo’s perfect response to a standard hero dilemma:
“You have a bus full of screaming children headed for the lip of a cliff. The bus driver is unconscious or dead, and you are the only hero close enough to react before it goes over… What do you do?”
Sydney: “I throw my bag full of artifacts in through the back window, wait until I see it hit the floor, then I sit down.”
that would be the most . . . i don’t even know what word to use awesome/epic/hilarious/anticlimatic/crowning-moment-of-fill-in-blank/coolest thing ever and i so wish to see that
I completely agree, and given what has been said by Dave about Sydney’s ability to think of weird applications for powers, quite in character. Very cool idea.
:) :) :)
This would be awesome, but the most likely result would be the case ripping right through the bus (and any passenger unlucky enough to be in its way). Like Superman holding a plane up by the nose – materials won’t stand it.
Oh I think I am confused did max fall or kick the tube in frustration?
She fell. The one foot in the air is a trope from manga, usually indicating that someone was bowled over by some news or usually cause someone is acting in an unexpected manner. Sometimes you’ll see it instead of a faint with their legs up, it’s animated as a short slide. Here’s an example of people getting knocked over by surprising news, but in my case I was just using it to show that Max really wiped out cause I wanted the panel to be of Sydney taunting her.
Oh I took it as her kicking the tube out of being frustrated. It was not until some one mentioned that she fell on the forum that I even thought she fell. That changes the whole concept of this page for me.
Huh. The odd thing is I read a lot of manga and I never made that connection. I assumed she yanked herself off her feat from overbalancing trying to move the tube and then landed at a funny angle.
I did not even know she fell I mean she is standing in the last panel so I figured she lost her balance but not actually fell. I mean I have lost my balance but not fallen as I was able to regain my balance.
Oh and that example is not very good. I can not even figure out what is going on in it. At first I was thinking it looked like a Collage but second look I could actually see people and monsters but no one falling.
She’s standing in the last panel but with diagonal speed-lines indicating she just stood up.
Also, you’ll note that when she lost her balance she slipped off the curb, which is enough to make someone fall.
I do not see upward motion just arm movement. So I take it as her moving her arm in anger.
No, you don’t see it because it happened between panels.
Hm… And you thought that other comic, even if it wasn’t the best laid out, was a collage.
Do you read a lot of comics? You might need practice.
I read a lot of comics actually. I guess I just took this different then it was meant to be taken. It was not until I found out she actually fell that I had to find out where that was taking place in the comic.
Except that she’s rigidly pointing with that arm, the movement lines aren’t consistent with arm flailing, and there’s a “vip” sound effect, which we’ve seen before ro indicate she moved her whole body at super-speed (eg, when she gets bored and “vip”s between Sydney and the shooter, just after catching the bullet) https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/253
Hence, I conclude she jumped back to her feet at super-speed, and then pointed accusingly at the tube.
Hippie. Freaking great.
Love it.
Uh-oh the spaz dinky Sydney has made fun of the powerful militarily trained muscled golden skinned colonel on live TV! Well the fit just maybe her turn now and that fury can crush cars like tin cans. Yeh I hear Rainbow Dash but with the hyper activity of Pinky Pie. A real dynamo on speed and no brakes. And Sydney has already made a huge slew of brownie points with Harem. Nice start in a way. And I see that the colonel is flapping now. (Formally unflappable Maxima that is.)
Weird question, but do you ever get asked if you’re related to the president?
It’s happened. I prefer to think it’s in jest but you never know.
Everytime i read this page i smile and laugh :D
Hm… Now why exactly does Max’s *hair* get a lens flare in panel 4?.. Is her hair just as shiny as her skin? o_O
Her hair is made from a material that’s like a metallic version of silk, so yeah, it’s pretty shiny under the right conditions.
Neat!
Part of Harem is not strapped down inside of that ambulance.
Every time Sydney appears, I cannot help, but cry joyful tears. NO seriously I am literally crying cause I am laughing so hard. ^.^
This is the coolest page so far! I can look at it again and again and it’s still funny. XD
hippie say what?
Okay, I have to say this comic doesn’t gel for me…simply because if the case is `tethered’ to Sydney and we have already seen the tether yank her off her feet and physically move her, then basic science (and common sense) says Sydney would simply have been dragged kicking and screaming out from under the vehicle. Max is stronger than Sydney; Max has the case; Sydney cannot break the tether.
I suppose it *could* be explained that the case is psionically linked to Sydney and she is in (sub)conscious control of whatever’s in there; the case *can’t* be more than X feet from her, but the strength or resistance should not be stronger than Max…otherwise in the bank it wouldn’t have rolled slowly…and wouldn’t have needed to, because according to *this* page, Sydney can’t be separated from it. So how did the gunman get her far enough from the case that it needs to roll to her?
Honestly? Logic and internal comic cohesion sacrificed for a funny. And it would have been funnier to have Sydney dragging along the parking lot behind Max, anyway.
It’s a little more complex than a tether. Think of it like the case (or contents thereof) won’t move beyond a certain distance from Sydney. If she moves, it follows, if something tries to move it, it refuses to move past that distance, and obviously have a significant ability to prevent it. In other words, if Sydney’s moving then the bond acts like a tether. If someone is trying to move the contents of the case, it’s like Sydney is standing in the center of a spherical room and trying to move it beyond that boundry would be like trying to shove it through concrete. Which granted Maxima could do if it was just concrete, so I guess it’s a sphere of inpenetronium. The same thing Wonder Woman’s diaphragm is made up presumably.
The artifacts have set Sydney as zero point for their reference frame. They have a limited distance they can move from zero and they dont give a damn if rest of the universe tries to move them father away. But if Sydney wants to move the reference grid around she better make sure she has the ability (usually physical strength) to move the artifacts with her.
It makes some sense. Don’t think of the two situations as different. If a force is attempting to pull their owner too far from them, they either follow if they can, or completely counter the force. Sydney walking away is the same as something trying to move them outside that radius. This might just be making sense because I’m tired, though.
I know a (former) Naval O2 (Lieutenant Junior Grade). He is (and was at the time) the single biggest hippy I have EVER met. And I live in the Pacific Northwest.
I literally did not believe him when he told me. I had to see his uniform and old pictures before I finally accepted it.
Ok I know this is about 4 years too late, and Dave corrected it at the press conference, but I am surprised no one has mentioned this in the comments. In panel 2 Max points out her rank insignia, an eagle, this would be correct for a Full Colonel, but for a Lt. Colonel, the insignia is a silver oak leaf. She is wearing the wrong insignia. Just surprised no one has pointed that out.
By god, Odin and Holy Celestia, do I love this comic.
Looking back at this years later… Maxima should have destroyed the tube itself. Do the orbs auto-protect any container they’re in?
She was limiting her force so not to injure Sydney.
All above told the truth. Let’s discuss this question.
https://forums.chicagovw.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=672295#p893633
I am sure someone has pointed this out already, but That is a Full Colonel bird on Maxima’s shoulder. A lieutenant colonel has a silver cluster.
of course moments after I posted I see the comment a few above from 2015. derp
Well, Dave did retconn the rank to LTC after people explained more how rank structures work in the military.
A couple earlier pages were corrected. He probably just missed this page.
second to last panel is funny. its always hilarious when maxima has an anime like reaction