Grrl Power #72 – Punk Busted
Maxima’s oh so mature disciplinary action here, as has been pointed out in some of the previous comments, isn’t something she’s allowed to do – good news for anyone in any of the services in the real world obviously. This probably isn’t over for either of them but we’ll get to that later.
So Harem has one mind for (up to) 5 bodies. There’s a little confusion over how that works, and while she can do disparate things, reading 5 different books at once or eat, exercise, watch TV, etc, there is a sensation threshold at which something happening to one body will spill over to the others. Knocking her funnybone, even getting tickled, hearing a really funny joke, or any number of other situations. I’m sure you can think of plenty, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing many of those over the course of the comic. Getting flashbanged would be interesting, while it would blind and deafen one of them and disorient them all, it wouldn’t blind of deafen the rest of them (assuming they were out of range) If she saw herself get flashbanged, through a strong window or something, the observing one could spot for the blind one, although from 3rd person she’d lose a considerable amount of coordination.
Oh also, new month, new year and all, if you’re so inclined, give me a vote at topwebcomics.com. I’ll try and have a vote incentive ready in time for the next comic, but, you know, vote for this one too. :)
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Shared pain wedgie, very nice. New character in panel 7?
Also, playing diablo with the censor button FTW.
panel 8* sorry.
Anyone else think that Maxima’s facial expressions are getting better (and more hilarious)?
Well I got to admit, that chain reaction was funny as hell. XD
Super Wedgie of Death!!!!
Pain chain-reaction
Hyper Combo Finish!
flawless victory haremality
I bet Harem is realy glad she wears flimsy panties .
Or at the very least glad that that Harem was wearing flimsy underwear
In pannel nine what is the red and pink thing with the leather strappy thing atached? It looks like some kind of arm .
Oh. It’s her leg. Sorry, I had a little trouble interpeting the picture.
That would be her leg clenched clear up to her chest.
I’m guessing the brown is her boot.
Yeah I like little skirts and big boots. :) Had I planned that panel just a bit better I’d have drawn her from a little further out so you can see her foot, that’d probably make it clearer.
Okay, two things.
First, Maxima has a sense of humor after all, and a damn good one at that.
Second, Harem having a chain reaction/shared crash and burn is even funnier than Sydney going ballistic.
Bravo sir, bravo.
As well, Maxima is showing her strategic planning chops. Misdirection and sneak attack, perfect foil to a telleporter.
Also, Arianna looks a little concerned. Maybe her superior attitude took a hit in the crotch as well.
And Arianna must be wondering what Max might have in store for her for coming up with this stunt in the first place. Somehow, I have the feeling that whatever it is, it will be less physical and more mental.
Step 1 Discipline Harem. Step 2 Let her think on it . Step 3 Evil smile alot at her.
That would work VERY well.
And after a while, when Arianna is starting to relax, just stand behind her and menace for a moment till she turns around demands, “What?”
Then grin sadistically, “Nothing.” And as you walk away, just a light chuckle and ALMOST under your breath, “Almost ready…”
The paniced looks you will get for the week after that, will be almost more satisfying than when you finally DO get them. Almost.
“Forgive Your Enemies. It’ll Drive Them Crazy.” ;)
I don’t think Maxama is the forgiving type. More like the Eat Hot Vengence type.
she will never actualy act its psyops peps – pure mental war on adrianna. kick the pr reps but on her own terf.
Srep 4 Send Sydney out on PR gigs
He, He, I love the telaprompter. Please make her stop cursing. I feel like I’m playing Diablo with the censor button.
Just caught that. Now there is even MORE snot on my keyboard.
Impressive. Didn’t realize that Max knew “Stooge-Fu’ (yeah, I KNOW the Stooges never did wedgies, but they would have if they could).
The results – magic!
Though, point of order here. I thought a Wedgie only became Atomic when the garment was actually pulled up over the victim’s head. ;)
A wedgie also goes atomic when it is yanked so hard that there is material failure. It’s never pretty, always painful beyond belief, and without fail, dang funny for all but the one on the receiving end.
Higher wedgy science right here
There’s a newThree Stooge’s movie coming out.
I believe a true “Atomic Wedgie” ends with the waist-band over the head. Funny+embarrassing+extremely painful! :)
she is a super powered being. either she maxed her strength attributes before doing it or her normal running strength is still impressive, there should be a reaction like this occuring
Let’s all sit back for a moment and imagine if the 3 Stooges were 3 sexy college co-eds. Yeah. Yeah that’s good. Wedgies, bra-strap snaps, ice in the cleavage…
Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk
and funny as hell. wish someone made something like that.
this page was awesomely hilarious. very lucky that Harem was wearing flimsy panties.
I’ll be in my bunk.
I didn’t think it was possible, but Dave, you have actually figured out a way to make the 3 Stooges even better. I bow to you.
Oh, and hehehe. I LOVE the News subtitle in Panel 1.
Any censor who has to contend with Sydney probably deserves combat pay.
WTF combat pay! no way $3.25 for the day is to weak at least hazardous duty pay automaticly for whole month for even 1 minute in environment at $150 a month
I did NOT expect an Atomic Wedgy, great job Dave.
Also nice line from the news lines thingy on the TV, gues that guy really had enough of his job
Also nice way to introduce the 5th Harem.
Playing Diablo with the censor button… pffthahahahahahah!
*Wipes tears from his eyes, and hands DaveB an Internet*
Yeah, I noticed that too. I had a good giggle when I spotted that. I love Dave’s attention to detail.
Nice back tat on Goth Harem by the way.
And somehow didn’t expect Harem to have a case of “Dat Ass!” That is some serious Ghetto Booty on that girl. Or at least that’s how it looks on “Military” Harem.
Dave B. who is the Storm looking girl in pannel eight?
We’ll meet her eventually, she’s one of the tertiary characters, at least I plan for her to be, but you never know how that will turn out. Characters have a tendency to write themselves if you’re not careful. Her collar is a “J” and her hero name comes from a misunderstanding of a word in Back to the Future. :)
What J word would that be? Sorry, it’s been awhile since I watched the movies.
Or… You’re just gonna keep that to yourself until the right time to reveal it (and the character’s codename)? I’m cool with that.
I’m going to guess Jiggawatt, as a misunderstanding of Giggawatt. Very funny page Dave, read it right before work and kept chuckling all night.
Let’s Get Jiggy! To quote a 90’s TV personality.
Man that’s a Will Smith quote. He’s a lot more than a 90s TV personality. :)
I couldn’t rember who said it. It’s been a few years since I heard or saw Fresh Prince.
Only one G in Gigawatt.
Those facial expressions…
Priceless!
Not quite how I was expecting her to get even… though I’m not sure what I was expecting….
Very, very effective, however. I think Harem will probably thing twice before pranking Max again.
Of course, she may still have to deal with a slightly irate Brook.
so far, I would take a guess she would just bide her time and probably use sydney in an even better prank against Maxima, especially with how well sydney seems to be able to affect Maxima
Is the TV in the lounge getting bigger every time I see it? Or is it just me?
Wouldn’t surprise me. :P
Maybe the TV is remaining the same size, but S-L-O-W-L-Y sneaking up on the viewers.
What?
Hey, nobody said it had to be an explanation that actually made sense. ;)
SEE! I told you the TV was sneaking up on me! But NOOOOOO, you wouldn’t believe me. Oh, he’s just being paranoid. But LOOK! It’s happening to THEM too! Who’s paranoid NOW!
What? You mean I said that out loud? No, I was just, rehearsing for a play. Yea, that’s it. A play. I wasn’t carrying on a conversation with the voices in my head AT ALL. 0_O
It’s not paranoia when you KNOW they’re out to get you!
it is still paranoia when we’re out to get you just justified. umm secret society brothers how do we delete these posts? we can’t? crud.
Just because I’m paranoid, it doesn’t mean thay aren’t out to get me.
It’s made of unstable molecules. X3
Well, they’re certainly unstable now.
think so just wait till halo hits the area LOL cascade molecular failure potential.
The News crawl had me collapsed over my keyboard laughing.
And I’m wondering who the dark skined/white haired girl with the “J” choker is too. It that why we didn’t get “In this comics” for characters who were present but didn’t say anything?
Looks like Storm from the X-Men.
Yeah I don’t want to use the Who’s Who to introduce characters, and if a character doesn’t have any dialog or other impact on the page, I’ll leave them off. It’s really so that people better understand what’s going on or need a reminder of who’s already been introduced.
ATOMIC!
Somehow I think it is a very good thing Maxima is not paying attention to what Sydney is saying in that first panel.
*ahem*
Notice how Sydney is holding her hands…
Dude, if that guy feels like he’s playing diablo with the censor button, she really is a swearing demon! thats awesome! oh and rest of comic too, hahaha
See page 33 for refrence to her swearing godhood.
And nobody’s mentioned Dabbler’s and Brooke’s expressions in the first panel?
And something just hit me…where is Vogue? and What was HER reaction?
I’m pretty sure Miss J and the big guy behind Schoolgirl Harem are ARCSwat members who just happened to be in the lunchroom when the craziness broke out, but I’m in favor of having J as a recurring character. Maxima’s face is settling down nicely.
Total failure both sides and crotch. Atomic STRIPPER wedgie! Who said badasses can’t be fun! Also, Tactical Sneakiness Points for Maxima.
By the way, Harem’s habit of calling people by their initials might be collar related.
Now I see it’s her thong underwear being pulled hard. I would suspect she would need a discrete visit to the gynacologist after that. I suspect burn and bruises after that kind of wedgie. And her other selves will feel it too to a greater or lesser degree. Maxima is someone I wouldn’t want to get mad at me. Harem just didn’t figure that Maxima would take it out on her nearest double. Smart move.
One thing I wonder though: If Syd’s swearing is enough to make that guy pound away on the censor button like he’s playing a computer game, how’s he able to type out the titles they see on the news asking for someone to stop her?
He must be very good at typing one-handed.
Why, I don’t want to know.
maybe it’s so hard, that they are using two or maybe more guys!
one’s manning the crawl, one’s manning the Censor button and Crawl decided to quote Censor
Or they could have one of those voice to text things set up
Notice how Uniform Harem and Maxima are dressed exactly alike, cute.
That’s kind of the point of a uniform.
That would be the point of a uniform, yes.
*facepalm*
Actually, I’m wondering if that IS the uniform, or if that Harem tends to dress in copies of other people’s clothes, and today was taunt Maxima day. If so, I am wondering how Arianna will react when it is HER turn.
No, it’s the Uniform. Some pages back we saw that Maxima wants 1 of Harem in Uniform at all times, and that’s this one. The purple hair is probably a lash out to Maxima’s purple hair though
Great.
multi-dimentional rube goldberg attack.
Is anyone else getting a “Your request timed out” message when trying to post a comment? I seem to get that about one out of 3 tries, I’m wondering if it’s just me or if I need to contact the hosting co.
Yes, i got one.
I did too
Me too
I had one when I posted a reply this morning. Had another one just now when I tried (and failed) to post this reply. (Second try)
Another timed out message (Third try)
And that one was the fourth try.
Got one last week, but not so far this week.
EVERY SINGLE TIME I TRY SOMETHING NEW!! Aargh!
Haven’t ever gotten a “timed out” message so far. Will keep you posted if there is a change in status.
I’ve have to ask because I don’t think its been mentioned (also I thought it was another copy of Harem.) who is the red head in the blue flannel shirt?
she’s been tentively ID’d as Brook. Mr. Amorphous’s girlfriend.
She needs to go on the who’s who. Every time she apears someone (some times several someones) asks “who dat girl”. I’m getting tired of explaining.
Yeah you’re right. I don’t think she’d had any dialog yet though. Maybe she will on the next page.
For the last few pages Maxima has been the butt of a few jokes. First with Sidney and her ability to enrage and confuse then with “Harem” and her ability to teleport and hr sense of humor. Maxima could not get back as Sidney but she can get back at “Harem.”
The chain reaction atomic wedgie is among one of the most comical attacks I have seen in a while.
I once saw an atomic wedgie. It was in my church youth group when my best friend decided to tackle and atempt to wrestle one of the leaders (who was also a cop and a very big man) In less than ten seconds there was a sharp girly scream and the sound of elastic being ripped from his whiteies. much laughter followed.
Hellzo, that’s Heatwave, real name Brooke, an ARCSwat super but nor part of Maxima’s team. The big redhead on the other side is Anvil (rear view).
It looks like Harem teleports by reeabsorbing one copy and reprojecting her elsewhere. That’s why Soldier Harem couldn’t vorp away; Harem 1 was in transit and she couldn’t juggle focus that fast.
if that were true she would only be able to add to her number and she could have sent both GND and punk (currently in uniform) to the same place in teleporting reducing count which was set to appear vouge harem IF SHE THOUGHT OF IT!! fear is the mind killer harem scared………
****WARNING***** DUNE reference. What next, the coffee mantra?
—-Takes first sip—-
“It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion, it is by the beans of java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire trembling, the trembling becomes a warning. it is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion.”
—-Takes another sip—-
“It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of java that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning. It is by coffee alone I set my mind in motion.”
maaaaayyyyybbbbeeeeee………
and its claws not hands.
hell of a weakness there… owie
OK I thought the chain reaction “owies” for Harem were “classic”, as each copy reacts to the other copies as well as the first one to actually get the wedgie. The last one was practically contorted trying to grab everything that hurt at once, a drawback to having 5 bodies sharing the same mind…
was wondering why Schoolgirl was grabbing her foot after a wedgie…
i think that was before,,, hence she was unbalanced and hit the cupboard next to her with her head once it hit
Remember, Purple-dyed Harem got the wedgie, Farmgirl Harem stubbed her toe, Goth Harem banged her knee and Co-ed Harem banged her head. The last Harem dupe could have also injured herself (off screen) reacting to the injuries we see.
Cascading chain reaction FTW! I like Max’s tactical thinking: distract one body, attack the other. And they all feel the same pain. Heh. I lol’ed.
max only expected to cause one pain the rest as she said “unexpectedly effective”
whoops it was” more effective than I’d planned”
Anyone else wondering where harem 5 is? The one who actually left the lipstick in the first place. I can just imagine her vorping accidentally in front of sydney in her split confusion. That ambulance is close by and she does still have the location in the forefront of her mind.
Grabbing sydney and taking her back to bug maxima would be better revenge than any more pranks….
but, as stated previously Harem can’t take others with her when she vorps.
But…But…She can take objects…Why not people?
Basically because I wanted to limit her abilities somewhat. I like powerful characters but they all need to have some kind of weakness. Even Maxima, as powerful as she is has the limitation of not being able to do it all at once. Also if she could teleport people (and 5 at once) would create a lot of writing headaches for me, the sorts of things that the guys who write for Star Trek have to deal with all the time, you know the thing: “Sir someone has just departed the shuttle bay without authorization” “Transport them back to the brig” “They’re already out of range” Really? You can transport from geostationary orbit, that’s like 30K miles. Did the shuttle go to warp the instant it cleared the launch bay force field? If so you’d think the guy at the console would have mentioned that.
Basically every enemy base and situation would have to have a force filed of some sort to prevent Harem from teleporting the whole team into the bad guys dressing room and whooping him before he could get his pants on.
If she caried plastic explosives she could telaport in place them in stratigic areas whithout anybody noticeing and blow them when the team wanted to invade the base, blowing holes in the walls so the rest of the team could get in.
weight limit carried to her mind = part of me / my outfit and transportable, a body or great load is other / not me so not relocatable. at least how I see it if all 5 work togather or are lead to believe they are moving there own light load they may be able to expand to carry a person (a la scout teleport). alternate it is a flat carry limit per teleport to her current power. but as mentioned she is developing and the old limits may fade – more copys or more effective event dissociation between copys.
Given that full impulse is a consideral fraction of lightspeed, and at even 0.1C(18,600 miles per second,) it would take less than two seconds to travel more than 30,000 miles, its not really that unrealistic.
There’s already 11 panels on this page, so I leave it up to your imagination as to what happens to “Vogue.”
right now in the ambulance having conniptions trying to grab owies in 5 different places at once
everyone would have seen her when they opened the door to take the “crooks” out so she is either ported and switched to SG / goth harem or to rejoin punk / GND harem. the simplest answer is often the most fun.
Of course, it is actually possible that Vogue doesn’t exist at the moment. She could have simply un-teleported her, which is another weird thing about Harem. She has up to 5 different bodies.
So basicly she destroys her body, like when she’s telaporting but not creating a copy somewhere else. Wonder what happens to her clothes?
go to the same place they come from I guess put where that is eludes me (and I have been scanning)
You know, I was thinking about that. Could it be that the other four Harems are extensions of her personal energy? That would explain why she is stronger when there is only one of her. By dividing up her energy into 5 versions of herself, each has standard strength/energy. Also explains how she could have a body out somewhere, (ie in the ambulance) and just re-absorb that energy, rather than have that body teliport to somewhere else. That could also explain the clothes, they too are extensions of her energy.
Cool Idea. In that case when she is in just one body she might be five times as strong as a normal human with her body mass.
not needing to be physical energy, psycic or even spiritual/magic energy probly psycic based on her not being listed as a mage. also allows for pre set self image to create different looking bodies from the base one.
Also, since she’s part of the team it realy dosent mater is she was in the ambulance when the recovery team shows up.
I kinda figure she was all smug and happy somewhere reapplying her make up.
We’ll likely see her port in or stumble out of the “powder room” with lipstick spazzed all over her face and hair messed up. For Vogue, that shame once realized would be almost as bad as the chain reaction.
Funnier would be if she were continuing to have fun and pretending to kiss another Super who is less than attractive or plain-jane and the sudden pain makes her grab the target of the next prank go all weak and plant her lips on theirs. Suddenly she has a super devotee or everyone sees her swoon (sorta) and go weak in the arms of that person.
Either outcome would be icing on the cake to Max’s initial counter-prank and something she definitely wouldn’t want the “boss” to find out about. Worse even- Max orders Harem to summon all of her copies, before Vanity err Vogue can fix her messed up make up after the spazz attack.
HIVE MIND WEDGIE!
A good default setting would be to isolate the senses to the local processors. ;p
wouldn’t work, how would she see what’s going on then?
well me i am guessing the effectiveness of this came from the surprise,, am pretty sure that in combat or else focused on task situation her mind must create a kind of buffer that prevent sensorybleedingoverload to other copies,, otherwise if they all felt every punch on each copie,,, imagine the pain of having two or more beeing in a fight and hit on
Surprise injuries would happen in combat as well. Judging by Max’s response, this seems to be a newly discovered weakness, which actually gives me an idea for (part of) Harem’s punishment: sensory compartmentalization training. In other words, getting her ass kicked repeatedly without breaking concentration in her other bodies. Like PT, but even more painful.
With the way the effects cascade across the consciousnesses, I wonder if there’s a standing rule for any of Harem’s copies to not/never have sex while there’s a staff meeting, presser, or planning session going on. IF that happens, there would surely be a lot of subtle hints in facial expressions, stutters, and or twitching. One thing is that the women on team would be more in tune with than the ARC grunts or other male staffers. (I bet Dabbler has a spell that does that too if she has an item of their clothing. – Would amuse her and embarrass Harem or not…might be a new thing.
Then it begs the question, does the main Harem retain echoes of her “Copies” memories when she reabsorbs them? Eventually this will lead to two problems- more independent copies who don’t want to go home and may eventually spawn an “evil” copy of themselves (ie separate the independent seeking spirit from the one that “belongs” and is “loyal”) or Harem-Prime is gonna slowly go NUTS (and be able to speak w/Sydney on a semi-normal basis.) — Sanity Leakage has to be a major concern for Harem. Both outgoing and incoming. — Thus a few copies being initially aware of a situation and its repercussions of actions vs trying a new thing will get hairy the first time Harem Prime learns to enhance her mental shields or one of her “copies” does– maybe at first to protect the others from “extreme” sensory input at a time of low mental capacity. (again I see Dabbler understanding and teaching her this mental/Psionic trick. Especially if the copy is one she likes more than the others. That is it’s more open to experiences and “Fun”. Those two going on a “Grrls” night out- “OY VEY!” Alert the Spin and Deny PR dept. Send in “EMP” to selectively wipe any Phones, cameras and handheld computers. *(EMP being any super who can do an area effect or directed and controlled EMP to destroy electronics or at least wipe data. WTH- Dabbler probably could do it with a gadget she invents, probably has one on her that prevents photos of her in “unofficial capacity” from being taken for that matter. But the thing is, will she remember to turn it on if she’s having fun?
** (why mental war/sanity challenge for Harem? Imagine a copy enjoying herself- very deeply and being “recalled” just before her “moment” for a minor emergency, task, or worse yet a Power Point presentation. How does that copy’s mental state affect the “Prime” at moment of “rejoining” and if she’s not let out immediately to express her “ire?”)
//then again- how is anyone gonna know if she’s (prime) has really called in all of her copies to focus her “Minds” on the task at hand? They could all be focused indeed, but on the “Harem” having a really really interesting time instead. (of course then Dabbler might mentally intrude to “watch” // “Voyeur” and give advice mentally. She does have “psionic” abilities. Neh? And that type of situation, would interest her indeed.//
Hate to rain on your parade, mate, but from what I understand, your entire comment after the first paragraph is void. The five bodies do not have seperate minds, nor seperate memories. They are a single mind controlling five bodies. They may act like they have seperate minds, but this is only a pretense. Any “going evil” would be an affectation (and most likely a prank).
Yeah she’s like 5 computers hooked up to a single server in a closed network. There is only Harem, she just has the mental processing power to control 5 bodies at once. So no taking or losing control of one.
Did Max’s patience sack got broken for reals?
Considering her disciplinary action is to dish out a super powered *wedgie* (that also exploits the weakness of a super power), I’d say, “No.” Still, it’s quite (even appropriately) harsh.
it is a “corrective training” she has not set a case or rule invocation to perform punishment.
Ahaha I laugh at loud at every comic, keep up the awesome work :)
Vogue Harem, the one who actually placed the smoochies, is probably sitting quietly somewhere, receiving the sensations of a severe beating without anyone touching her. That’ll learn her!
I hope the Higher Authorities are a) used to dealing with superpower weirdness and b)wise enough to consider this one childish prank cancelling another, letting them both off with a warning.
GND who left the rec room was appearing as vouge check the shoes so for a period vogue was not active but was the one to stub her toe.
It took me a while to realize its not just the wedgie, but that each one was simultanously feeling the wedgie, as well as busting their toe, and hurting their knee, and smacking their face, etc…
Yeah, the awesomeness of Max’s move takes a while to properly sink in.