Grrl Power #692 – Common ground
I wanted that final panel to look like a soft-R-rated… basically an orgy, but work safe, cause it’s not that kind of a comic. As usual, my imagination far exceeded the time needed to draw such a thing, so I started adding confetti and balloons in the background to make it look a little crazier. That sort of made me think of Dabbler as an X-Rated Pinkie Pie. The point being that the first person who makes Dabber her maid of honor is in for a shock when she throws the bachelorette party.
I guess in panel three, ThanoSydney is wearing one of those foam Hulk smash gloves that’s been painted flesh colored. I mean, to explain why the orbs are so small compared to her hand.
This page colored by Kieth.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Wondering if the guy in the last panel is Deus’s less than evil twin ;)
Could be a very recently shaved Commander from Manly Guys Doing Manly Things…
Possible, he is from the future after all…
Shaved his whole very fuzzy body. Who would take such a titanic task… Oh yeah, Dabbler is there.
easy: cast fireball…
I think Dabbler would prefer to take her time with this.
Dunno – he would grow it back if she takes too long… a quick and easy method would do for both of them.
really don’t see Deus as evil so much as just Dr. Doomy. he counterbalances his self-interest with extreme acts of charity and good works. Taking a country from a 3rd world shit hole to much better standard of living goes a long way towards negating badness in my book. He could probably do some pretty vile individual things and still get a pass from me for that alone.
Until you realise the reason he ‘helped’ that country was so he could have a sovereign state in which to do anything he wanted…
Are good acts committed with evil intent robbed of their goodness? I’m not actually making a specific point, I’m raising this as a philosophical question because I’m honestly not sure what my answer is to that question haha. Granted in this specific case, it’s a good act committed with the intent to enable future evil acts… or so we assume!
Don’t know about future evil, butt it certainly gave him a base away from the US law if need (specially with Little Miss Portal providing him an instant “Get Out of Dodge” card)
Doctor Doom is an incredible asshole who will go to great lengths to be seen as an honorable and noble ruler, but will not hesitate to do horrible things if he thinks he can push it up. He’s also incredibly petty, what with spending so much of his time trying to kill or humiliate his college roommate and his entire family over a single math error.
Hush, darn you autocorrupt.
Ah, the simple math error,
yeah Dr. Doom’s motivation was retconned. Dr. Doom was building a machine to go rescue his mother from Hell (Mephisto’s hell), when Reed Richard’s pulled the plug, blowing the machine up and scarring Doom’s face…well tiny little scratch…that Doom himself made a million times worse by having a still red hot face plate mask shoved onto his face.
Not so much “evil” as sociopathic. He probably doesn’t even register “good” or “evil”.
People who are *serious* all the time worry me FAR more than someone who can be silly some of the time. Those people are wound far too tight and likely to snap at some point.
As she said, the only question is if Syd is always this silly, and we have seen that no she isn’t; in fact when the feces hits the rotary air distribution device, she actually performs pretty well.
Agreed. Sydney is in touch with her inner child, most of the time. But can act in deadly earnest, when the situation demands it.
More like she’s a child who is occasionally in touch with her inner adult.
While I can agree with brichins’ assertation that Sydney is more like a child that occassionally gets in touch with her inner adult, Yorp also has the primary point correct…When Sydney gets serious, it’s for a serious reason.
Several examples include:
When she first found the orbs, she tested them in a low-key way shows that she has the foresight needed to keep risk of injuring others and/destroying property to a minimum (small forest fires not withstanding, she still took the responsibility to prevent it from spreading).
She regularly engages her life in a way that earns her source of living (ie–comic book store), which IS an adult responsibility for everyone to handle.
Even more so than anything else, Sydney can recognize, learn & apply good advice where it’s neccessary, as shown in the “3-steps ahead” plan that defeated Vehemence. TBH, I hope we DO see him again…He’s already become a classic-original since his first appearance.
Taking careful consideration on how she uses each XP Pip when she earns them, even if it means prioritizing them according to her current situation.
There are many more examples, but these few lend credibility to the assertations made.
Yep. I think we also know someone else who meets the description Sydney gives in panel 5…
Likening humans to wound springs can produce such illogical and fallacious imagery.
Yeah, you don’t want to drink from a natural source that will hurt you :P
ba-dum-tssh
:D
So… Cora is wearing MORE clothes during that flashback Orgy than she is now, while out saving Sydney.
Yes. Unless she’s programmed her hard light suit to mimic what she is wearing.
Undressing is an important aspect of foreplay. Flipping an ‘off’ button really does not have the same impact as, say, a strip tease. Of course a well designed holographic outfit and choreography can simulate or maybe even improve on that. But it would still start off with simulating being clothed or covered to start with.
Yups, a werebear in “Wapsi Square” started wearing clothes after she got a girlfriend, just so her girlfriend had something she could slip her hand under to cop a cheeky feel, couldn’t do that when her ‘clothes’ were literally part of her skin
Thus why lingerie is popular. Same as why wrapped presents are better than unwrapped ones.
I made the wrapping part of the gift, not just the mystery leading to it.
I only gave two gifts this season:
One was an art kit to a friend, who said he draws to relax. I kept trolling him and making him nervous on what it was, and he wondered if the police should open the package when it arrived. He was happy when he saw what it was.
The wrapping part of the gift: I bought a pine box at Michael’s (craft store) and painted it to look like a medieval treasure chest. I kept trolling my other friend, getting him to listen to stuff I was saying only to find out he listened to an exciting story that was just a lead-in to an obvious lie. Inside the box, is an index card saying “I got you dude!” and below that, some fishing items. A hook, line, and sinker.
I believe she is actually wearing less clothing in the flashback. Note the absence of the light blue “clothing” on her cheeks, neck and upper chest. Also, I don’t think her arms and legs are clothed, those look like her “real” arms and legs, maybe cybernetic replacements.
Her need for cyber limbs were a result of a sword fight she once had with King Arthur.
But of course, all of that “clothing” is a hardlight hologram. She’s wearing nothing at all, sort of, so even that scant tanktop is technically more clothing. :p
How do we know the tank top is not a hardlight hologram?
How do we know her head and torso aren’t replacements and she’s mechanical?
I would love Dabbler to be my Maid of Honor….
Now I have to wonder… If the limbs in the flashback are cybernetic, and her suit now is composed of hard light, does she even need the cybernetic limbs?
Comes in handy if the batteries run out on the hard light projector. Especially if in mid-combat or fleeing some danger!
Plus advanced cybernetics incorporate things that a light image (even a solid one) probably does not. For instance tactile and temperature sensors. Something of particular use in the above scene!
Yeah, as any deep space succubus can tell you, it is really frustrating when your HARD light projector’s batteries die.
Rimmer (later seasons of Red Dwarf, look it up if you don’t know) was all hard light, and he had full tactile and thermal sensation. I just have to wonder though, which is more power hungry cybernetic limbs, or hardlight projections…. After all, I would think the hardlight projections wouldn’t be being used as clothing, if they could just run out of power readily.
I always thought it was a pretty clever plot device to justify an extremely low-budget solution to an all-digital main character. It’s that sort of lampshading that made me love the show.
“It’s technology so advanced, it’s exactly as if he were a regular human with an ‘H’ emblem stuck on his forehead! Amazing!”
Most notable difference, is cybernetics would be individual for each part while hard light is usually one thing. (I suppose you could have an individual hard light generator for each limb you are projecting as well as another for armor…) If you have your HL destroyed, disabled then you are Fubar while if you loose one limb your other should still keep working just fine. Basic principle of redundancy, you don’t want everything tied together all at once.
For some reason, I can’t help but think the guy in the flashback is Deus, pre-scarring. Though the hair is the wrong color, so perhaps not.
But it could be, since he seems to really get around.
Dabbles would have mentioned something about that, specially to rile Maxi up about ‘having’ SmugD first :P
Out of curiosity; How does Sydney plan to recharge the batteries of her holographic wings?
This is high tech gear. It probably comes with a universal adapter (remember, Earth is a tourist destination, and holographic disguises are probably pretty common)
If it’s anything like the cheap stuff on Earth, the batteries can’t be replaced anyway.
Or it’s pizeoelectric, gaining electricity from body movements or such.
Was thinking that as well, also for charging Cora’s cyber-limbs: as long as she is mobile, she is getting a charge (kinda like Anvil actually)
Not enough to matter though, especially with no turbine, which is how *you move and it charges* type things generally work, hydroelectric, wind farm, coal, and even nuclear, turn a turbine, spin dem copper wires and dem magnets….sorry its embarrassingly primitive of a power source no matter how you try to dress it up, the real world is sorely lagging on energy source tech…robotics is so far ahead you can’t even properly power them anymore *granted that’s a battery storage issue and size issue*, but I digress.
This talk is the “The Matrix fallacy”. The, Humans operate on a power dump, you have to put more energy in than can come out. So no matter how much a human body moves, or how much heat it produces, those same movements require MORE energy than they can produce.
Same issue with powered prosthetics, they have to have internal batteries, or absorb ambient energy as a secondary source; as the power needed to move them is drastically more than you could ever produce while moving them; its the perpetual motion machine problem.
You… do realise that the human batteries in The Matrix weren’t actually moving, right? Apart from breathing at least
They were using body heat and kinetic energy to power the machines. Which numerous people have pointed out over the years wouldn’t work as humans need more intake than they can produce. Same applies to All people, animals, and machines. Everything works at a loss . Ecoupled with the very small amount you can produce by moving you’d be luvky to charge a lightbulb by walking.
This is why I prefer the original reason for using humans in pods that got scrubbed by the executives because it was too “smart” for general audiences. The directors wanted the explanation to be “Our brains that are connected to the Matrix are being used as processing centers”. Basically instead of holding a Durecell, Morphious holds up a microchip.
Those producers were morons, THEY didn’t understand, so assumed audiences wouldn’t either. heck, it wouldn’t even have been the first time sci-fi had done the “we have linked your minds together to become more powerful”, even if they didn’t grasp the bio-computer hive mind thing, the basic concept would have made sense.
Instead of implying that tiny amount of heat humans give off, or jerking muscles while in a tube somehow was powering the matrix, as well as the sentinels, giant towers, robot arms, ect… (humans burned the sky, and the geothermal of the earth was nearly gone somehow) but…yeah, even desperate the machines would have gotten more energy by forcing humans into giant treadmills than those tubes…also…wind farms…yeah solar gone, geothermal gone…but the surface sure looked to still have wind.
I’d love to say its overthinking a movie, but its a movie that claims it makes people think, so it deserves the scrutiny.
‘Producers’ are not the same thing as ‘Executives’, all ‘Executives’ do is mess with the movie (look what happened to all the DC movies: those bad decisions were made by Executives, who, in most cases, know fuck all about making movies let along what the audience or fans want)
Actually a lot of producers are literally executives in a large corporation. The producer’s job is to raise the finances for a movie and organise all the logistics to get the movie made. Whilst it is the director’s job to actually make the movie, using the assets the producer has provided.
However you are right that there are quite a few producers who are not corporate executives. A good example would be any of the famous movie stars who have decided to produce one or more films themselves. If they are wealthy and willing to risk their own money then half the job is already done! Although, even on Hollywood “A” list salaries, many will still seek to spread the risk by raising finance the traditional ways.
Finally of course there are the “executive producers”, a very important credit to note. These are influential enough individuals that they have demanded the right to have final say on how a movie (or TV series) is made. So they can overturn any decisions the directors or (for those projects under a studio umberella) even ignoring any demands made by the senior studio executives.
One example is Joss Whedon, who had been frustrated by the incompetence of the studio which took up his idea to make the movie of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And was so irritated (justifiably) by them hamming it up, rather than playing it straight that he made sure he could call the shots when the TV series was made. Albeit along side a fellow executive producer (but one he presumably knew to be sound).
Another was Stan Lee. In his case it was simply a precaution to allow him to veto anything which strayed too far outside of the Marvel concept. I guess he had a minimal producer role, in most of the movies, but that veto is a powerful way to keep the original artistic integrity, in the event of some director or producer taking too many liberties.
Dang, so one of the most thought-provoking films of our generation actually had a sensible plot at the outset? It really bugged me that it could do “Descartes’s demon” so well yet have such a complete fail on the human body battery bullshit.
So, just going to throw this one out there given your comments: I’ve been to a cosplay burlesque event at a con that featured a Pinkie Pie. She got down to pasties and a thong while Manson’s “I Don’t Like the Drugs” was playing in the background.
It was awesome
That certainly came out of left field.
I’m assuming it is a response to the author’s comments about Pinkie Pie. And Rule 34.
Ah, of course, One of the few times I didnt read Dave’s comments.
Or it just came out of the several comments about X-Rated Pinkie Pie on the previous page of comments.
A touch of “immaturity” and phenomenal god like power; is a good thing.
Take yourself too seriously and you end up with one of those (The Universe is nothing but boredom and decay) or (I am above all of this…even that, and everything else, I must undo it all and make it in my image)…you just sort of SNAP like that if you have all that power no sense of humor.
Too childish and you get (I’ve kidnapped you to reenact my favorite tv show for all eternity) or (You are my best friends teehee, that’s why I’ve trapped your souls inside these living teddy bears, now your not just my best friends…your my FOREVER friends.) sort of mindset.
Good to have a bit of balance there.
Heh, those two paragraphs can perfectly describe two of the god like beings in Star Trek: The Pa Wraiths and the Q… the first paragraph definitely describes the Pa Wraiths, while the second is 100% on par with the Q, specifically the first Q we ever meet.
Yep, both sci-fi and fantasy have a habit of going one or the other, I was disappointed in the DMFA comic when it decided their Fae were not just cosmic Q types but actually were the brooding eternity is boring types trying to cover it up with fanciful type so they actually kill themselves eventually *set number can exist* so new ones can be born…something so common there is a waiting list to get a baby. I guess it is original to mix the two and make it a factor of how many trillions of years they have lived. But I much prefer the idea that an eternal being has a distinctly non-human mindset, not just a stretched out one. Thus it doesn’t matter how much time passes, or doesn’t even view time the same way.
But yeah, no surprise Star Trek has a few examples on both sides of this, it is very rare to find that fine mix of the two. Washu Hibiki seems to embody the line between (too serious) and (not serious at all), for this trope.
on the other non immortal side, its also the guys who are just super powered, you can have your *I tried to help, but in the end it was fruitless, this is an uncaring universe” vs “Howdy folks! I’m Toonforce McGey, let’s smash some heads Ha ha!” (so balance between philosophical era Silver Surfer/Thanos and The Mask”.
Truesight sees through illusions.
Wouldn’t you consider holograms an illusion?
“There’s a door behind those phony bricks!”
There is the riddle. Her True Sight when active has seen through:
Dabbler’s Beholder’s Beauty Glamor,
X’s cloaking (which was optical, possibly thermal, maybe even sound wise but sound was still distorted around him enough for Dabbler to pick up an anomaly in that corner of the room)
and the likely hologram masks of alien tourists, which were likely hard light shells masking not just their looks but textures *lizard guy otherwise would be detected the second he touched someone*.
But not solid dense mass things like physical masks.
While glamors are psionic in nature, their everyone sees them even the cameras aspect still has to be a projections (other wise she’d have a Wolf’s Rain issue everytime a camera saw her anywhere while glamored up).
So Sydney’s true sight is likely not just bypassing the psionic influence (which may have disrupted Dabbler that first time, why she dropped it, as she didn’t expect it), but it is definitely also seeing past photonic warps of light.
So chances are if she used it right now she’s see under Cora’s hard light clothes, but not through any denser mass. This makes sense by design. After all, if you saw through the denser mass, you’d also phase out of vision the physical threat, hidden item/person, you were looking for. So this is clearly a by design filter true sight and not simply a *I am immune to your psychic illusions Master Mind* *X-men villain whose illusions were 100% psychic projections, onlookers not targeted wouldn’t see a thing*).
Just to be a little nit-picky, Dabbler said she could tell X was there because she has tantric sense, and he was getting aroused. She did say his cloaking occluded sound IIRC.
She also mentioned about the sound occlusion, enough to toss in a fireball in the general area, kinda like how the scanners work (or don’t work) on Sydney’s balls
Syd’s true-sight was also able to see the invisible ‘enrage magic circle’ that Vehemence did. (perking lot brawl)
I say magic because it looked like what a magic circle might look like.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1856
If you look carefully it seems that it might actually see through holograms. Then again the old man that is actually blue might be using ?magic? as a disguise?
My guess is her super balls will work against tech disguises but not against low tech ones.
As long as it’s not a solid disguise (like a Halloween mask, or simply a screwed up piece of newspaper), then she can see through it, ie True Sight
Dabbler mentioned various disguises aliens could use, chances are aliens use various holograms including hard light. The veil can only do so much, as while the alien tourist board ambassador is part of the twilight council, the veil only accounts for the supernatural beings and would have to be reprogramed for every alien species.
Truesight sees through illusions.
Wouldn’t you consider holograms an illusion?
“There’s a door behind those phony bricks!”
(Dang…this post goes HERE.)
Panel 3 is one of the awesomest things I’ve seen in this comic yet. Makes me wanna know what unknown orange cloudy ball does even more.
I expected angel wings, to go with Halo’s theme.
Or maybe they have multiple settings?
Sydney would have probably tried on several, but found that the lack of feathers and transparent nature would not have suited the image. Whereas they are perfect for gossamer faery wings!
It’s also an alien display. It’s possible (although not likely) that the designer has no experience with feathered wings.
Very true,
as much as people point out human like breasts and long head hair or a humanoid body as unusual to see among different species, we at least see similar builds and structures in other groups of animals on Earth and possible parallels to certain degrees.
But feathers are insanely unique to birds. While structurly there are significant differences, purpose wise and appearance wise many different animals have some form of “scales” or “hairs” we even see “quills” pop up in different phylum.
but feathers are 100% unique to birds, nothing else on Earth has anything like feathers, especially not flight feathers…and no Christmas tree worms and ribbon worms and such aren’t really “feathers” as that is their entire bodies not quill like coverings layered with numerous soft extensions along the quills..
I would be far more surprised to find an alien life form with what could be identified as feathers over say scales, armor plates, or even some sort of sack or sacks high up on its chest, neck, or some type of mane (granted many birds also have manes, but that is that way not this way sort of comparison here);
not to mention in Earth’s own history we had like a hundred million years of feathers before we had flight feathers and feathered wings. Flying animals back in the early Jurassice or late Triassic *too lazy right now to go google when the first flying birds popped up…and yes we had overlap of flying birds, gliding dinosaurs, and just plain feathered but earth bound ones*, but that far back it was the parachute like pterosaur wing or the lacey insect wing.
Honestly with as many humanoids we see in this universe, would not be surprised to see “bat wings” as fairly common among flyers (as a third pair of wings or main limbs) as bat wings evolved from a grasping hand structure.
Except there were bird-wings, feathered wings, on the previous page…below the butterfly wings and above the dragonfly wings.
I don’t understand how this statement is an “except” to what I wrote there?
There was a bird like design yes, but the pic was very simplified. Chances are based on seeing feathered Earth races, but not personally having any references on hand or personal cultural experience made them a tad more cartoony; so Sydney may have preferred the fairy dragonfly wings over the Christmas tree topper version of angel wings (common Christmas tree topper nit pickers, yes some have full wings but the average Christmas tree topper angel looks like three or four feathers just sticking out like fingers)
Looks like The Lady meant to tag the comment above yours
Did you mean to tag me? Irony, LoL. Yeah, I see that. My comment though was a tad over zealous given his comment seemed to indeed have missed the “angel wings” on the display board. I figured he meant Sydney probably thought they didn’t look right, and the hologram would look less *impressive* and more (neon street sign), while see through light up insectoid wings matches “pixie fairy” pretty well.
but yeah, Occam’s razor, likely just didn’t see the bird wings on the wing set previous page.
Feathers are only unique to birds if you count only living species. Feathers evolved before birds, heck they evolved before dinosaurs. Mind you birds have the most intricate feathers of any species to have ever possessed them, but they are not alone. Any animal that has scutes, is just a slight mutation away from having feathers, as scutes are modified feathers. Infact, injecting an animal that has scutes with a certain protien blocker, will cause the animal to grow feathers instead of scutes. Finally, though rare, some mammals have scutes (even humans with a rare mutation), meaning mammals have to potential for feathers (even humans).
Well that blows the ‘angels are dinosaurs’ theory out of the water, even before it was voiced.
*gloomily examines body for any recently spouted feathers*
Oh I am aware, that was my excuse some years back for “Life on Param” that 200 million years in the future saw a new evolution of a type of feathers, and the bird like sapient life forms were actually the distant descendants of humans.
In addition I did mention feathers existed before birds,
“not to mention in Earth’s own history we had like a hundred million years of feathers before we had flight feathers and feathered wings.”
I don’t and didn’t have a text book on hand or google specific eras before typing so that number could be somewhat off.
I am tickled by the small detail that the orb’s trail is much stronger than normal, to enhance the rainbow effect.
And at the end of the rainbow is something vastly more precious than a pot of gold!
I approve of Dabbler as x-rated Pinkie Pie. Also Halo should totally add the wings to her official on-the-job costume/uniform, but only *sometimes* and make it look accidental when she does, so that anybody investigating the origin of her powers will end up chasing pointless rumors about her being fey.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Well that makes her a Super Fey! since shes so big compared to actual fey, heck shes a actual Giant among fey
that depends on what you qualify as fey, for example titania and oberon, queen and king of the fae are generally portrayed as human sized
Kind of disappointed Sydney didn’t wind up on a planet that, by comparison
to everyone there, she’s a Space Amazon.
Planet of the Space Pygmy’s? o_O
To be fair imagine how fragile someone would have to be to make Syd look normal let alone buff-shes basically straws linked together by elastic bands as is.
since you used “fey” instead of “fairy” or “pixie”
I am obligated to point out that most “fey” or “fae”, are human sized or LARGER,
Dullahan, Nuckelevee, Jack in irons, Banshee, mermaids, selkie, ect…these are all Fae.
Yeah you have lots of little ones like gnomes, brownies, pooka, bogles, red cap, and so on; but the higher ups of Fae tend to be human sized and bigger; including the “uniques” or “Faeries queens and kings” that seldom have much lore beyond (random crazy magical lady used to sit on this rock and drive people insane who walked by). Sort of stuff.
Also a fun fact, while Shakespeare popularized the names Titania and Oberon as the king and queen of the fae, there is no actual lore of a specific pair who rule ALL Fae, but there are kings and queens of Fae factions, and most Faerie queens don’t have names.
I must say, I’m a tad disappointed Halo went for fairy-wings, when the holographic bird-wings would’ve much more suited her “halo =? angel” aesthetic, and even could have become a part of her normal costume.
She was in the Council Chambers when an actual winged-woman came in to warn about multiple attacks on other Veil-pylons, and the woman mentioned how pissed she and her kind were about other people being mistaken for Angels, so that’s possibly why she didn’t got for the full-feathered wings
^ This reason.
Sydney can be polite about stuff like that.
Any particular reason her hair isn’t falling down? Usually it’s still affected by gravity, even with her shield up.
Umm, no, when Sydney is using her flight ball, her hair stays relative to her (ie, it doesn’t fall down if she is upside down)
Her ‘flight ball’ is more accurately a ‘localized gravity well, with propulsion’
How can Sydney enjoy wings she can’t see ? It’s on her back!
That’s what I said!
(You may have to read previous comments after the first day)
Unless they were commenting on the first day (and know that there is a page 1), they never do
Heck, some barely even read the comments on the page they comment on (even the post immediately above where they type their own post, repeating what was typed before)
For the same reason a child can enjoy wearing a cape and pretend to be superman.
for one you can still see part of it, peripheral vision, and the other they KNOW its there, and I imagine the hologram like a cape has some part connected to her, in this case the projectors. So between seeing parts of it, especially those by her lower back that stick out so far, and just knowing their there, she can enjoy them.
It’s actually a good thing that Cora was deflected by Sydney’s Fangirling over the hologram booth, since she was just asking Halo to tell her more about the orbs.
Remember, the Orbs are mostly classified, and Cora has no security clearance on Earth, so if Sydney told her too much about the orbs, she could be in big trouble if anyone found out.
Only if Cora staid on Dirt, and Archon has no real authority over who Sydney can or can not talk to about her balls
In all likelihood that big contract she signed includes clauses about national security regarding any powers she may have that if made public could endanger national security or compromise future missions, so is under orders not to disclose those details.
If she were only a civilian, yeah, no one could stop her. But, that big pile of papers likely included a few things; hence why Maxima could tell her in the first place to keep the true sight top secret.
Except, they are Sydney’s powers, Maxi didn’t order Sydney to keep it a secret, just suggested keeping some of the abilities hidden for as long as possible, specially the one that can reveal the Truths
She used the term “classified”, doubt with her rank she’d use that word in the same manner a civilian would.
They would reveal the obvious powers to the public but keep the true sight classified and just to cross the t’s I suppose also listed what at the time were two unknowns (still one) also as classified.
Also the extent of Anvil’s abilities are classified, as are those of Maxima (speed mentioned in particular).
So it can be surmised that it is considered an issue of national security and their own well being (given those who may know and then try to counter measure) those abilities.
So that basically means, Sydney can never leave, ever!! At least, not alive
Archon s a branch of the US Military.
She has become a military asset.
There is some give and take there; if she wants to keep her pay, freedom, and so on; best to abide by certain rules.
Maxima made it very clear that there will be no ‘whisking away’. Clearly that is limited to ‘whilst Maxima is in command and not turned into an evil twin’.
However Colonel Faulk seems to be pretty much on the same page (whether of his own accord or to placate Maxima we do not know mind). So the current leadership would need to pretty much be dismantled and replaced before Halo would be at risk of being enslaved.
The comic belabours the point that the heroes are free to leave and to join private industry as they choose. That does not preclude a non-disclosure agreement (should that be in her contract) or the very specific conditions that ex-service personnel are bound to.
Whilst I do not know the details that apply to US military personnel I am familiar with various of the UK ones, which will probably be similar. There is a list of countries that such individuals may not travel to without written permission (due to them being considered hostile powers of one sort or another). Likewise breaching the official secrets act, even after leaving service, still carries severe prison sentences.
Similarly I have ex-prison warden friends, who are not even allowed to associate with people who have served time in jail. Whether or not it was the one that they worked in or not. Essentially, if they have any suspicions about a potential new acquaintance, they are required to make the relevant enquiries to find out.
None of these post-service terms require that an individual carry on working for the state indefinately. However there are separate conditions which allow the state to keep them on in the case of war or a state of emergency. Likewise as to recalling them to active service even after leaving.
So Sydney could find herself having to fight for Uncle Sam, even after she decides she wants out, but only under a publicly declared state of emergency or war. There should be no small print allowing the government to do that covertly, as that is an onerous clause which Arianna, as Sydney’s lawyer, would have been bound to clearly draw to her attention before getting her to sign up.
To be honest if we ever actually get to the “present day” in this series Archons in for a lot of legal nightmares.Short of killing arrested supers theres no reliable way of keeping a good chunk of them in longterm captivity(We already have one whos being kept permahigh which is probably super illegal as is)-which is awkward since one of Archons big plans is arresting all non Archon based supers who have the audacity to do anything heroic.
As for people like Syd and Maxima the organisation doesnt dare be heavyhanded with them cause they despirately need big guns to arrest all those vigilantes out there and quite frankly the second they start dissecting their own staff they instantly make enemies of every single person with powers out there and god help them if theres more Maxima tier “Housewifes” out there than they currently think…..Which given that its already been shown theres more supers in America alone than Archon expected is entirely possible.
Thankfully the shows still in the honeymoon period as far as the public is concerned so the problems are in the far future but the PR monkeys are gonna have a great time when they have to explain why shooting captain America is for the good of America so to speak.
Vigilantism is illegal, and there is nothing ‘heroic’ about being one: a vigilante puts themselves above the law
All one has to do, is join a local law-enforcement agency, and get proper training and authority
Again: being a Super is not illegal, using your powers and slash or abilities to commit a crime is (and vigilantism is a major crime, Super or not)
Maxima puts herself above the law on a daily basis and the writers outright said that if trump was president in universe shed quit her job at the drop of a hat.Do you think shed obey the law and just watch while a busload of nuns was on fire or would she break the law and be a hero?
Anti superpowered hero laws that are being rushed in in universe are far too sweeping to be worth obeying as they put someone stopping a murder with reasonable force in the same boat as the punisher.
You could stop a crime with superpowers and make a citizen’s arrest, and that wouldn’t be vigilantism, but if you run around using excessive force on criminals before turning them over to the police (we’re looking at YOU, Batman)and deliberately seeking criminals out, that’s assault and stalking and you could be charged if the criminal presses charges.
Zack Tilly Elfguy
Again: there is no laws specifically targeting Supers, the laws are simply expanding to include them
If you have powers and want to use them legally, there is nothing stopping you (remember that strong guy who was going to do a ‘job’ until he saw the report on Archon? and then decided to go back to the construction business?), if you want to protect people or stop crime, sign up and get training and a badge
Yup, there are no “Anti superpowered hero laws” in this universe. There is only the ONE law that was passed, which was the one summed up by Guesticus.
It is a very sensible one too, given that their world’s pop culture pretty much matches ours. Where the vast majority of people assume that having super powers would give carte blanche to become vigilantes. Given that widespread assumption it it very wise for lawmakers to make it absolutely clear that it is not.
If somebody is employed by a corporation and is using super powers to do their job, then it is that corporation’s duty to ensure the health and safety of their employees and the general public. As such only those which have the resources to support such supers to ensure that they practice how to use them safely, and provide compensation and reparations for when it goes wrong, should make use of super powers.
Those who foolishly do not make such provision will face the usual legal consequences for their corporate failings.
Likewise for individuals who choose to use their powers incompetently in a private capacity.
The law is just removing the all-too-likely temptation of becoming vigilantes, by clarifying that such is illegal and that there is a zero tolerance attitude for supers conducting it.
Bus load of nuns on fire? Go ahead and rescue them. That is not a vigilante act, it is a heroic one. Just make sure that you do not accidentally kill them by using powers incompetently, otherwise you may face manslaughter or involuntary homicide charges.
I work for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and every year attend “In-Service Training.” Said training includes First Aid and CPR. All VA employees are trained as First Responders, able to render aid until the professionals arrive. As such, we are all covered by the Good Samaritan laws which say that so long as we follow our training, the gubmint will back us legally and civilly.
Emphasis on “follow our training.”
Was referring to her never being allowed to mention what her balls do ever, due to National Security, even though they are, effectively, part of her
It would be the equivalent of Logan being told he can never reveal the true nature of his claws
She isn’t allowed to reveal the True Sight,
the other two were unknowns. I doubt “makes air” will stay classified and the green orb is now up for consideration on being declassified after such a short time.
But the True Sight is an issue, not just on national security level, but revealing publically she has it, will likely cause a lot of problems for her as “monster hunters” come knocking on her door as she can see who is and isn’t a monster. Also foreign powers may want this ability, we can think of one incident in comic where “I can see invisible people” would have been a useful person to have around for a certain now deceased dictator. As she isn’t invulnerable with the shield down all sorts could try to snag her for this power alone to force her to use it at gun point, including other “monsters” and aliens on Earth who use glamors and such against each other not just the veil.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have even let the Twilight Council know she can do it. I think that was a bad move on Archon’s part, showing a little too much trust in this clandestine organization. They might as well have strolled in Deus’ office and told him too. Because now the heads of rival monster clans and kingdoms now know someone can just bypass ALL their illusions and glamors and psychic veils and whatnot even those that work on each other; and that person is a squishy little human…something more than a few of them may still consider as (prey), heck Sciona has already entertained the idea of stealing the orbs, and now we know the Twilight Council secretly had tons of magic items they never told the human organizations about until they needed help, I think Maxima being as rational as she is has probably considered it now a bad idea to let the “we secret away magic items we consider a threat to us, but may want to use ourselves someday” folks know about the orbs…yeah they didn’t know ahead of time, but still it was a leap of trust.
PS: if you want to use Wolverine as an example, he was a lone wolf for years before the secret X-men group took him in. He was being pursued by Weapon-X and Department H for ages due to his skills, knowledge, and the adamantium on his bones. Wolverine could detach himself from society and live in the wild with no friends or money, Sydney can’t.
That wasn’t the true nature of Logan’s claws was referring to
Department H wasn’t pursuing him, he was part of them until loaned out to Professor X (who simply never returned him), and, technically, the Weapon X program owns his adamantium (and he wasn’t the first one, he was the tenth, hence the ‘X’)
For me, Archon’s motives were not just to make the Council aware of the Truesight, but also to make sure that Sydney was aware of the Council. Yes, it’s courtesy to let a major ally know that their main line of camouflage is penetrable. But it’s also vital that the Person who can penetrate the camouflage knows up front that there are many and various People who rely on it daily for mundane reasons; that a non-Human behind the Veil is not necessarily relevant to Archon’s work.
Big trouble at best would be yelling at Sydney-Shes literally got enough power to commit terracide so short of shooting her in the head when she least expects it theres not much that can be done to punish Sydney if she doesnt agree with the punishment.
Its much how that dispite having a military background Maxima only respects authority when its convenient cause honestly what are they gonna do if she tells her boss go to hell?Fetch superman?
I will never understand how anyone thinks that a good call on anyone who isn’t an uber-alien like the Silver Surfer with no prior connections or moments of vulnerability.
We assume Sydney is a rational individual who enjoys having a business, a home, contact with her loved ones, a social life online and off, money….and her meds.
What are they going to do if she decides to go all super vigilante and disregard all laws and rules if she doesn’t like them?
Simple, mark her as an enemy combatant, freeze her accounts, hack all her network accounts and lock her out, place her friends and family under constant surveillance should she try to contact them, send in “loyal” supers to take her in. At which point she will be locked up with mittens and a straight jacket so the most she can do is zip the balls around while in a padded cell with no prospects for being set free as she has proven herself too dangerous and unstable to be trusted.
However neither the team nor Sydney has shown any sociopathic tendencies to warrant this outcome. But come on, if she doesn’t play ball, she doesn’t get to be a superhero, and will be not only returned her life of menial drudgery, but now be marked as “the first ex-superhero”, and still be under constant surveillance because of what she KNOWS.
Worst case scenario…aside from lethal force when her shield is down…is deportation into space and telling everyone she died in action, or an accident.
Besides like I said we shouldn’t have to get this extreme because any rational person who cares about those around them is never going to go “Ha, ha, I am the great and powerful super among supers, I am above your puny mortal laws, there is nothing you can do to stop me!”…because they can see numerous ways how this will make their life harder, still gotta eat, still have wants and needs, respect for others and so forth. Besides it wouldn’t fit her personality to even consider going this way.
Well I wouldnt quite call Sydney rational but ill let that pass.
Sydneys not the type to ignore all rules anyway and barring her going completely insane waving extreme consequences at her could be disasterous-Ok try marking her as an enemy of the country etc?She can literally travel world wide easier than we can drive to the next town,If she feels actually threatened she can leave the country at any time and has a gamebreaker powerset that other countrys would do anything to own-heck shes one of the few known “supers” that might eventually be able to easily kill Maxima-The US government would either not dare risk her fleeing/escaping to another country or more likely not dare let her live.This is a universe where though supers are only just being officially recognised theyve been used in open warfare for years.
Besides things would never get extreme cause unless Sydney blows up a school full of kids or something any of her snafus will be quietly swept under the rug and light will be shone on her better deeds to joe public while in private shell get a slap on the wrist at most.
Good point.
I hope Dabbler is going to do the decent thing and introduce General Faulk to the green-skinned alien in the final panel? It is the least she can do, after mind-reading his fantasies, without permission.
More likely to introduce him the waitress from the bar, the one Peggy brought home for an afterparty party
This brings up some contact issues. Such as when Cora lands her ship, Sydney will one get to see where the aliens land and take off on Earth and get to learn all that fun stuff….that or Cora is going to bypass the Twilight Council and just land on the Archon roof, because honestly, screw the Twilight Council; don’t know what it is, but something about them rubs me the wrong way…aside from the fact we have a self policing multi-ethnicity organization whose internal laws ignore those of the surrounding nations; whose chief members have shown a disdain, fear, and even look down upon humans; that has contact with alien visitors to Earth; thus acting as the first impressions of Earth to various alien visitors. Who basically regard humans as “token” members of the council than anything despite their fears.
Yeah…couple that with the stored armaments of magic, and its beyond shady, and a tad disconcerting that THEY are the ones with contact with aliens. Its like if the Vampire council from Blade were also negotiating with alien visitors. Feels a tad…off.
Anywho I can see Cora wanting to speak with Sydney’s commanding officers over concerns with the Orbs…if Cora isn’t just a mercenary or something. That planet wide drone net scanner net feels a tad more military grade than mercenary grade though.
The Twlilight council mainly exists cause all the non human races know that humans would go nuts and try to kill them all if they ever unveiled themselves to the public.Theyre not supposed to be our friends,In fact quite frankly im amazed that they value humanity enough to war with themselves and wipe out the supernatural groups that want to either erase or enslave humanity.If I was one of them id be spending all my time trying to engineer an all out nuclear war between the major world powers so i could crawl out of the ashes and wipe out whoevers left so i can live in relative peace.
And honestly Im not surprised that Aliens would rather make first contact with “monsters”,Can you imagine how much footage of our alien genocide fantasies that weve beamed into space over the years that aliens visiting have probably noticed?We must seem like Orcs to most advanced races.
The reason why the humans would ‘go nuts and try to kill them’ is because the member races of the Twilight Council are still feeding on the humans, and treating them like livestock, or, did you forget that part?
Thats a sweeping statement and you know it,There are many supernatural races that dont need to eat people- Lycanthropes for example.Its like saying we should wipe out all humans cause theyre still randomly killing people for fun.
Of course it’s a sweeping fucking statement, just like your one about humans wiping them out once they find out some secret nest of monsters have been manipulating human politics for centuries!
Don’t forget that the vast majority of the predatory races have turned to ethical food sources, such as human volunteers (the super who can top up his own blood supply, being an example) and animal alternatives. Whilst the exceptions are lawbreakers who are being hunted down by both the VIs and Archon.
Still something that the general public would like to know, of course. But small scale criminal exceptions are very different to humans being farmed for wide-scale consumption.
Would it be wise to risk provoking a war of extermination, by lowering the veil, in order to publicise the rare exceptions? Especially given that humanity is way outclassed by the supernaturals and aliens, so (unless supers can tip the balance) it could well be that humanity would end up being exterminated.
Blindly championing “freedom of information” over “national security” can have disastrous consequences. State secrets are a necessity, enshrined in law, to ensure that, when there are conflicts between survival and principles, that the former take precedence.
Yes there is also the risk of abuses. However avoiding extinction is a greater priority. And Archon are taking steps to minimise the abuses.
I am thinking they don’t have the numbers to take over the world,
Too much internal fighting,
Never developed their own technological means to fight,
The Alien ambassadors would stop giving them their business as a backwaters world in its industrial stage about to nuke its self back to pre-industrial.
Many races have too many weaknesses to fight consistently with a human army even with magic,
Pandora’s Box scenario where other powers take advantage of the situation to exterminate each other and claim the humans did it,
Some would even join the human side for future prospects and reveal the secret weaknesses and locations of their rivals to let the humans exterminate them in this scenario.
Also, the vault could be taken as was storing their version of nukes to use on humanity if it came to that.
I am curious too how they present themselves to the alien tourist board. Would not be surprised to see Ingol claim to Cora’s ship once detected that he is King of the Earth and the Twilight Council rules Earth and thus have as far as aliens are aware the authority to determine who can and can’t land; and revealing this all to be BS *BS the tourist board ambassador may be in on* reveals that no, they don’t have the authority; thanks to Sydney being on board and describing the real situation between them and the vastly outnumbering them human governments they have no control over.
And thus the tourist board is exposed for keeping this secret, and new contact points must be officially established with Earth.
Or Cora COULD just dump her out an airlock, since she would have no problem getting home from Earth orbit….but she probably wants to deliver her directly to Dabbler.
Something tells me Sydney isn’t the best altitude adaptor when it comes to picturing ground to air differences and adapting her perspective…given she got lost in her own city like a hundred feet off the ground *still confuses me a little as I think It easier to navigate a drone or what have you over buildings than it is to drive ground side, and I have always been great at reading satellite maps*,
but I understand its different for others, Sydney should really learn though as a flyer, maybe google image some hot spots of her town to get a general idea what they look like from above.
that said, from low orbit, remember the world doesn’t look exactly like a map, especially if she is East coast USA, I would just picture her a few thousand feet up trying to remember exactly where the boarders are; and try to fly down fast enough to get CLOSE to where she lives…only to end up 100 to 300 hundred miles off and need to land and figure out where she ended up landing. Unless its something big and can remember THAT is a specific thing like the Great Lakes or Long Island, but…actually do we know Archon’s approximate relative location to the real world? I am thinking East Coast USA in my head, but I could be wrong…especially as the shooting range looked awfully desert like…so West coast maybe?
Anyway let’s just say among the reasons for planes to have flight plans is making sure to stay on course because you don’t want to eyeball things from high up, even birds have special senses just for navigation.
Doesn’t she still have her com and phone, so that she could call in and be GPS guided, if needed? She’d probably view it more as a fun challenge than a problem, compared to her former situation.
But like I said, I’m sure Cora wants a face-to-face (among other possible body contact parts) with Dabbler.
Sydney had been too sleepy the night before to remember to put them on to charge, so had no artificial aids to help guide her.
As regards Rhuen‘s point, about being good with reading satellite maps, that is not exactly a fair comparison with the situation that Sydney was in. For instance whenever I am on Google maps, if I cannot figure out where something is, I just zoom out until a familiar landmark appears. Be that a river or the coastline. And you can keep going out, as long as it takes to do that.
Whereas Sydney had to figure it out just from what she could see from her perspective at the moment in question.
Plus, if you refer back to the comments pages in the original scene, you will see that we had several pilots speak out in agreeing that what was portrayed was totally realistic. Sydney had not studied aerial maps of the area and figured out a flight plan.
She just bugged out to get away from the paparazzi camping on her lawn, and did not think to start looking around for landmarks until she was already some distance away from home. Although it turns out that she was within dog walking distance of it, or her shop, if you keep an eye on the small details.
*wags tail to give a clue*
However the change in perspective, and seeing them at a distance, can render even familiar places as being unrecognisable, per those professional opinions.
Chocolate is a deadly chemical agent outside of Earth. Depending on the species it’s either a nerve agent, attacks the kidneys or organs that perform that function, or causes explosive diarrhea even if inhaled. We humans are one of the few species even on Earth that can consume chocolate safely, and even derive beneficial effects from it (dark chocolate reduces blood pressure for people with high BP, and is an effective anti-depressant). Everything else either survives ingestion, or doesn’t. Human garbage guts FTW!
So that’s why don’t enjoy Dark Chocolate so much: have low BP, and it’s bad enough that going to sleep can cause me to pass out
Using Rule 34 instead of X-rated I got a lot of images involving Rainbow Dash in some form of intimate congress with Pinkie. Apparently that was/is a popular ship in the Ponyverse.
First thing that popped into my head for the last panel was the guy is Zap Brannigan and that’s the Lovenasium.
Kif, I have made it with a woman. Inform the men.
I’d have suspected angelic wings, to go with the Halo code name :p
I can’t figure out in what position is Cora. Is she sitting on the ground with one leg up or?
The scene looks really pretty though, will there be an R-rated version? Is the guy going to be a new character btw, or is he just background scenery?
Thank you for your service Commander Badass
A hypothesis about the origin of Sydney orbs (yes a rare thing in the comments of this strip huh? LoL)
We have seen theories about them being alive, being Nth level beings toys they lost, tool kit, space ship components, or that the previous owner lost them on Earth due to death, being separated by a portal, that the orbs have been on Earth since hyborean times or earlier hidden on the sea floor, or it was more recent and something happened to the previous owner on the way to Earth or something unknown on Earth; or that Sydney herself is the avatar of a Nth level being and was mysteriously drawn to their location, even subconsciously manipulating herself to take diving lessons to get her toys to play with…
However,
what if…
the owner is NEARBY, what if it is no accident Sydney found them, but rather WHILE she was diving the being who owns them DROPPED them right in her path to find them; and has been observing her this entire time for an experiment, its own amusement, or a test.
Maxima made it very clear that there will be no ‘whisking away’. Clearly that is limited to ‘whilst Maxima is in command and not turned into an evil twin’.
However Colonel Faulk seems to be pretty much on the same page (whether of his own accord or to placate Maxima we do not know mind). So the current leadership would need to pretty much be dismantled and replaced before Halo would be at risk of being enslaved.
The comic belabours the point that the heroes are free to leave and to join private industry as they choose. That does not preclude a non-disclosure agreement (should that be in her contract) or the very specific conditions that ex-service personnel are bound to.
Whilst I do not know the details that apply to US military personnel I am familiar with various of the UK ones, which will probably be similar. There is a list of countries that such individuals may not travel to without written permission (due to them being considered hostile powers of one sort or another). Likewise breaching the official secrets act, even after leaving service, still carries severe prison sentences.
Similarly I have ex-prison warden friends, who are not even allowed to associate with people who have served time in jail. Whether or not it was the one that they worked in or not. Essentially, if they have any suspicions about a potential new acquaintance, they are required to make the relevant enquiries to find out.
None of these post-service terms require that an individual carry on working for the state indefinately. However there are separate conditions which allow the state to keep them on in the case of war or a state of emergency. Likewise as to recalling them to active service even after leaving.
So Sydney could find herself having to fight for Uncle Sam, even after she decides she wants out, but only under a publicly declared state of emergency or war. There should be no small print allowing the government to do that covertly, as that is an onerous clause which Arianna, as Sydney’s lawyer, would have been bound to clearly draw to her attention before getting her to sign up.
Post copied to the intended spot above.
And when I rule the world I shall impliment a rule that all keyboard commands in browsers and the like be disabled by default. So that users can turn them on when they have learnt what they actually do, rather than have weird shit happen when they hit the wrong button accidentally!
Some bloody button I occasionally snag with my claw whizzes me up elsewhere in the page (and apparently also de-links a reply, instead placing it as a new post). Basically its only purpose is to f**k me up, rather than improve my quality of life when using the program.
Let those who like the current situation of having to learn a page or more of keyboard shortcuts take the effort to click an option enable them all, rather than those of us who only learn the few they want/need having to cope with random s**t happening when the wrong key or combo is used.
I know Syd can only hold one orb in each hand at one time but has she tried attaching more than one orb to her hands, like with some sort of glove or…gauntlet? or even duct tape?
Yes,
you are now required to do what I am doing right now, an archive crawl.
-I always like to look back on a series when new revelations come up to see the series in a new light. But it also helps keep some aspects clear…and catch any inconsistencies that may come up.
but yes, she can only use one her hand, has to be her hands, and they need skin contact with her palms.
She has even tried using her feet, and her butt-cheeks
I remember her trying with her feet and butt, but i couldn’t recall if she had trying to tape two of them to her palm
The author did not show every variant of the testing Sydney conducted. However we do know that it went on for months, before the bank robbery scene, at the start of the comic. We can be pretty sure that all simple tricks, like taping two, will have been tried and failed, long before resorting to controlling them with her butt cheeks and feet!
Not to mention the fact that two orbs would not fit in her palm. Just check out some of the scenes where you see Sydney holding them in close up. The orbs fill her hand, when closed. If she tried to put two in then neither would be in contact with her palm!
So no one else has mentioned it… that I could tell but why is no one mentioning the fact that Sydney’s hair is in a normal position when she is hanging upside down yet we know her hair is affected by things from when she was flying and it was streaming along behind her.
It has been mentioned, a couple times (have personally mentioned why and how her hair is hanging ‘normal’ for her even while upside down to us: she is not upside down, every thing else is)
It has come up,
to summarize.
Her flight is gravity control
Her hair is moved while flying due to air friction.
There is only 4 options
Immature
Naive Boy-scout
Solkan the avenger
Deadpool
Or go with the One Punch Man paradigm…just hero as something fun to pass the time.
Question – why is Sydney’s hair whipping back when flying if her fly orb gives her her own localized gravitational pull? Should have asked this earlier but was busy with discovery stuff
That…is a very good question.
Because it doesn’t give her a forcefield, so the air rushing past her still affects her.
Yup, as already mentioned (several times), it gives her Localized Gravity (Sydney isn’t upside down, Cora the Explorer is) butt she is still affected by inertia unless using Mr Buble
One of which being only TWO comment blocks above this one.
and people are surprised to see repeats of questions from page 1 on page 2 or 3 in the comment sections…
My point is more the idea that while magic may have hard rules, that doesn’t mean it interacts with tech in the same way as other tech. The orb gives truesight. That’s something it does, so it doesn’t matter if the fake view is a technological hologram or a magical illusion, it sees through it.
This is my second time through the archives and I just notice ThanoSydney’s pauldrons are taped on. like, with Scotch tape.