Grrl Power #746 – You’ve got the touch…
Hmm.
I wrote a follow up page to this one, but in a rare moment of editorial discipline, I decided you guys could probably figure this one out, and I could just move on. Besides, that lets me cut back to Sydney sooner, and usually anything she’s doing is more amusing than anyone else.
Arsenal book 8 is available for preorder. Should be out on the 30th. So if you haven’t read the other seven, you can just squeeze them in if you get to it.
If you more into vengeancy superhero stuff, Jeffery H. Haskell (the author of the Full Metal Superhero series) has you covered in a series called The Wraith. It’s like… Punisher meets, uh, well if I say who I want to, it might spoil some stuff. Anyway, she shoots a lot of bad guys.
I dug both series. I mean, obviously, or I wouldn’t be recommending them to you guys.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
So question about toughness/defense…
Achilles has a 6 (on a 1-5 scale) with the shield symbol. Is that defense? Toughness? (They are NOT the same thing). Something else?
We’re having a debate on another site. I’m arguing that Achilles is the toughest character, but not the best at defense, since there are so many other ways he can be affected and immobilized or otherwise removed from a fight. So clarification would be nice.
That would be a tough question. Defense and toughness do have some similarities for comparison (for example being shot), and a lot of people can be immobilized in a number of ways. This is probably why the two are so often compared.
Usually Defence is how well you can stop yourself taking a hit, through dodging, blocking, shield, armour, etc.
Whilst Toughness is usually a measure of how well you can take a hit before you’re technically wounded & you’re ability to fight is reduced.
An example would be if someone throws a punch at you; if you’ve high defence you block it, low defence it could hit you in the jaw; then your toughness would either let you weather it if high, or low would mean a glass jaw with you being KO’d.
At least in Achilles’ case, I suppose the shield icon best represents durability. 6/5 represents the fact that he’s off the scale entirely, having effectively infinite durability, as there is no known method of physically harming him.
+1
Achilles is the most INVULNERABLE (ie, durable) character, not the toughest. Tough tends to be a lot more than just durability. It usually also implies strength, which Achilles is most definitely not. He IS the most durable though, moreso than anyone else – even more than Sydney’s shield, given how he took the Kaiju blast with no ill effects and even Sydney’s shield (at level 4 out of 5 dots) was at its limit.
On the other hand, we don’t know how durable he is against stuff like mind control, since he was buried in the rubble while everyone else was affected by Vehemence’s violence aura, and he wasnt around at all during the ‘weakening aura’ of the guardian.
I kinda think that Syd’s shield is ☆☆☆☆☆.
It’s just let down by the fact that only one other orb can be active at the same time
Sydney’s shield might be 5 stars, but she so far only has 4 dots on her shield strength line filled up. Who knows. Maybe at 5 dots it will get closer to Achilles level durability.
He stopped an energy blade with his eyeball… there’s nothing more invulnerable than that.
+1
He didn’t even flinch because he doesn’t know what it is to feel pain on even a visceral level.
Now this begs the question… Since someone who has felt pain when they were younger before their powers manifested would likely finch anyway even if as invulnerable as Achilles, then how did he lose his baby teeth? What happens if he gets an impacted wisdom tooth? An ingrown toenail?
He wasn’t born invulnerable, he became invulnerable at some point in life.
As for wisdom teeth, he is utterly unchangeable, idk if he needs to eat, but he literally cannot change, his hair doesn’t grow and is impossible to cut.
He apparently doesn’t remember anything before the 1980s, and was an adult then. So he doesn’t remember ever feeling pain. Now, what happened to him in the 1980s that blocked or erased his earlier memories is an interesting question. It’s even possible that he might be the actual, mythological Achilles and be thousands of years old. In that case, if the myths are close to correct, he was given the invulnerability treatment when he was a little baby, so he probably still wouldn’t really remember ever having felt pain.
If he is the actual Achilles, maybe his brain just fills up with memories to an overload point every, say, 500 years or so and has to defrag itself. Or possibly he experienced a severe emotional trauma and his invulnerability acted to protect his mind by blocking any memories that could lead back to remembering the traumatic event? Or he realized he could will his invulnerability to shut off and tried to do so (because he was world-weary and wanted to die), and his invulnerability reacted by shutting out all the memories that led up to him realizing he could do that, so he couldn’t hurt himself by circumventing it?
There’s just so many possibilities. I tend to think it’s one of the ones that involve his power blanking his memory, just because he doesn’t seem to be able to get worked up about what he can’t remember and why he can’t remember it.
Yeah, tough is one of those words that has a lot of cultural drift. The definition is all about durability or resistance to damage or injury, but in common usage it shares a lot with strength. When you say someone is “a tough guy” or in older usage “young toughs” that doesn’t mean at all that those guys can take a lot of damage, it means that they are strong and aggressive.
Achilles is impossible to harm, and can probably beat any normal person in a fight (Math is NOT a normal person for this purpose) because he won’t feel a single punch thrown at him and isn’t vulnerable to any kind of submission hold. He can also hit harder, and for longer, because he’ll never break a knuckle against someone’s face. It’s possible but unexplored in canon if he even gets physically tired. He probably shouldn’t get tired as fatigue is just a metabolic poison to which he should be immune.
Achilles could be put in a submission hold, but all it would likely do is immobilize him. It can not cause him any pain or damage. I can see Math easily slapping a variety of submission holds on him, but the best that could do is tie Achilles up and slow him down, or even immobilize him, but even that would not cause damage or even joint pain.
Part of fatigue is also using up the oxygen in your body faster than your lungs can supply it, so that part of fatigue I think could affect him and slow him down. I agree that the build-up of lactic acid and other metabolites would not be a big influence in his performance.
I am wondering what happens to him during oxygen deprivation. A submission hold that cuts off blood flow to the brain would knock out a regular person. I guess he would not suffer any permanent damage, but would he lose consciousness?
Yeah, a submission hold that doesn’t give him any angle of applying force is doable. Anything that pushes anything in a way that it shouldn’t be pushed is not.
As such, I don’t think a submission hold can cut of his blood flow. The only way of making him oxygen deprived would be to make him unable to breathe oxygen, e.g. by covering his airways or removing any oxygen from the air.
But, its established that he can’t be asphyxiated, so cutting off his oxygen has no effect.
True enough. A hold such as a full Nelson could work on him because it primarily tries to deny the victim any leverage with which to take action. But many/most submission holds rely on inflicting pain, either straightforward as a way to force submission through the infliction of pain, or as a way to evolve into a more complete hold such as the aforementioned full Nelson. Those types of submission attempts would be utterly useless against Achilles.
And as an added benefit to his higher than normal strength Achilles would be a very potent hand to hand fighter simply because he feels no pain and takes no damage. No attempt to break his hold on you by raking down his instep with your foot would work. No blow to the nose would break it or cause his eyes to water. No kick to the nads would trigger the slightest response.
Achilles can literally lead with his chin without consequence, and he is capable of out-Rockying Rocky Balboa in a fight, allowing his opponent to land blow after blow in the ultimate rope-a-dope. Hitting someone can hurt the hitter almost as much as it hurts the one being hit, it’s just that punching someone in the face a few times usually ends a fight because they have a broken and bleeding nose, which instantly impacts their breathing and inflicts a lot of pain, and they are stunned by the shock to their brain, and while the one doing the punching might have a broken finger or knuckle or two this is doesn’t incapacitate them nearly as much or nearly as immediately.
Achilles doesn’t need oxygen AT ALL. Think of his cells each having an endless supply of zero-point energy they operate on. Some submission holds would be effective in restraining movement, but those that depend on pain for their effect would be useless.
I do wonder what effect overloading his senses has on him, though. Bright light, loud noise, horrible tastes/smells and such might nearly disable him even though there would be no pain or damage.
Hmmm, mitochondria that use the Casimir Effect instead of sugar and water… Interesting idea…
So if Sydney’s lunch is accidentally finds its way into a common meal, then there are only three survivors: Sydney (but on cleaning detail for quite some time), Achilles (“Tastes good. What’s the problem guys?”) and Maxima (“Sydney, that is hot! How can you eat that?”). Everyone else, even Heatwave, is in the infirmary.
I think it might be more that the concept of (physical) vulnerability is removed from Achilles.
If that applies to mental effects is not known at this point of time.
Sydneys shield might ‘grow’ that strong, or even stronger if it is possible.
The skilltree of her orbs is still pretty empty, and if you check back a few chapters when Krona had the freakout about Sydneys skilltree (Archive #506) it might indicate that the tree isn’t just two-dimensional.
There were a couple branches on that skill tree that looked “open-ended”
it’s toughness as in how much destructive force it takes to harm him; he can take a more powerful blow than Maxima without injury
Probably want to add an “N” to the description for Atomic Laundromat. Sad, it’s kind of fun.
Same with ‘Eerie Cuties’
And Girls With Slingshots
Not quite: GWS is still being updated, sort of, just reposting old pages
I watch a guy with slingshots.
He is a mad inventor. Mad because he is content just wearing a safety t-shirt, as his only concession to things like protective gear or safety triggers. As such you get to see him accidentally shoot himself with his own inventions (once managing to hit himself twice in the same spot!) and misfire projectiles off into the woods around his home.
Inventor though because he invents airzookas (a genuine combination between a bazooka and an airgun – and suitably terrifying), magazine fed crossbows (which he has brought to the market, so you can buy them) and has equipped a battlemech to fire a giant slingshot.
Next I expect him to weaponize his hearty laugh. Let him show you its features.
Why do I feel that if you haven’t already checked out the slingshot channel on YouTube, you’d enjoy it. It’s run by a German guy with the greatest unexpected villain laugh of all time.
That is where the link goes to.
Believe they were talking to other people who haven’t already checked it out
I stopped following him. He hasn’t done anything slingshot related in a looonnng time.
Heh, Sci hated Supers before, now she is one :D
To be fair she mainly hates when they get in her way of world domination, rather than their mere existence. :)
She didn’t hate them. She did say she was getting sick of them after Vale punched her out a window (a bit misplaced, since Vale is less a super and more an eldritch necroplasm in a person suit). Later she implied that her (and/or the Alari Empire’s) plan for the supers was to use them as resources or lab rats.
She valued their powers, but had no use for the humans that came with them. That fits with her situation with Scorpia quite nicely: she got the power part while disposing of the human part.
That is worthy of speculation, but I don’t think it is canon.
The context there was that Sciona would be running the Alari empire. The same context was there when she said she’d be keeping Deus as an honored member of her seraglio, as it is usually only those in charge who get to maintain that kind of non-essential luxury.
She doesn’t ‘run’ the Alari Empire. At least we can’t be sure of that. However, she is some sort of high ranking leadership or royalty within the Alari Empire, a ‘Duchess.’ Which doesn’t seem the same as a queen or other similarly higher rank or station.
Sciona was once a General. She was exiled for reasons unknown.
Where was it stated that Sci-fright was a General? o_O
It never says anywhere that she’s a general. The only thing it says anywhere about Sciona with any sort of rank is she’s a ‘Duchess’ (in Deus’s ‘I banged these people’ book) which seems more like a nobility or royalty title.
I haven’t gone back to review again, but my impression was that Sciona fully expected to be in charge. Of the Alari. Either because of the power she picked up via the Brane Ripper, or otherwise. I don’t recall a single contextual thing which either stated or implied that she would just be a high ranking person in the Alari empire. And usually when an exile returns it doesn’t go well for them unless they actually do manage to get themselves placed in charge by whatever means.
But again, I’m too lazy to go back to check. So I guess it’s possible that Duchess Sciona would have been just fine and dandy with being Duchess Sciona and taking orders from everyone in the Alari empire with a higher title than she has. That seems to be just a little bit, no, way out of character for her, but whatever.
Depending on context, a Duchy can come with a lot of leeway; Luxembourg even today is an independent Grand Duchy. Not quite on the same rank as a King or Queen, but in many cases (at least historically) that was more about the size and importance of their sovereign territory than the legitimacy or independence of their rule over it.
In the context of a multi-planetary Alari Empire, I would not be surprised if a Duchy had effectively a free hand over most or even all of a relatively underdeveloped planet like Earth planet, subject only to the nominal direction of the Emperor/Empress.
I was thinking that if super powers can manifest well under extreme conditions, then Sciorpia might of gained her powers right before she died.
*have
Honestly with a name like “Scorpia” she almost certainly had them beforehand. That’s a super alias if I ever heard one.
Or, bear with me, simply a gang name, like “Taserface”
It’s not impossible but I find it highly unlikely that the person with the supervillain alias got super-powers after using the alias, from something unrelated.
Just pointing out, not all badass alias are supervillain alias (or even badass, aka ‘Taserface’)
How dare you mock the mighty Taserface!
Everyone mocked Taserface, even those snooty golden people mocked him as he was about to die! :P
what a day when the tables have turned
Would escorpia’s climax touch work on the invulnerable Achilles?
Hard to say but probably no. He ate a vial of super anthrax so he seems able to metabolize any foreign substance with no ill effect. Something like the aggro aura could potentially have worked on him had he not been buried in rubble at the time.
I’d agree that anything that has to act by physically altering his body (metabolism, neuro-chemistry, etc.) would completely fail to work on Achilles. Not so sure about things that work on more metaphysical vectors, though.
I don’t recall Achilles ever being present when any mind-affecting or physics-circumventing powers were in play in a way that would establish whether or not they work on him. He was buried during most of the aggro-aura part of the fight, and Dabbler’s hypno-boob-jump-rope ‘attack,’ as well, so there’s no way to tell if he was aggro-ed, and he never even saw the rope-jumping at all. The other mind-affecting or physics-skirting powers we’ve seen have been vampiric mesmerism (directly and duplicated by the blood-bot at the Mars warehouse), the weakness aura and the death aura at the Black Reliquary — Achilles wasn’t there, so again, no definitive answer.
He did show up to watch Dabbler make cookies in an apron and lacy panties, but that’s less proof that he’s vulnerable to Dabbler’s hypnotic physicality, and more proof that he’s a.) either bisexual or heterosexual, b.) not blind and c.) not dead. He was pretty comfortable doing beefcake poses for Varia based on no more inducement than being asked to, so he’s apparently not prudish or body shy on his default settings, as it were.
Given that, my best guess would be “not sure,” though I would imagine that Archon would have tested whether, for instance, Dabbler could cast a sleep spell on him before deciding to categorize his powers as being “aggravatingly invincible.”
Reminds me of the look my squad leader used to get after being up in the turret on watch by himself at night. One night one of the guys heard weird noises and opened the turret shield door and found the squad leader with 550 cord tied in a noose around his neck with the other end tied off to the hatch above him. He was really leaning into it, basically strangling himself while he… well, you can guess what he was doing… dude got off on auto-erotic asphyxiation…
is it just me or is anyone else getting season one heroes vibes from the concept of supers in this comic (Sydney not included)
I *knew* it!
Those sunglasses were poisoned!
Touch of Ecstasy, quite the intriguing power. That would most DEFINITELY be of interest to drug cartels…
I guess this explains why the people who killed her thought even selling her dead body would be valuable.
Escorpia: Hey man, pull my finger?
Random Dude: *pulls finger and crashes to the ground in a ‘happy state’*
Escorpia: That’ll be 1900 pesos.
For a second there, I was thinking “Wait, what if all of Scorpias tissues exude that pink pixie dust?” I was expecting that pull my finger trick to cause her to release a pink cloud and take down everyone in the room. Sort of like how the Spleen knocked out the Suzies in Mystery Men (only more happy and presumably less stinky).
Judging by the clerks right hand already being near her neck in panels 1 and 3, there being no second right hand in panel 5 and the skin tone of the right hand on the clerk’s neck EXACTLY matches the clerk’s skin and not the slightly darker skin tone of Escopria/Sciona, it appears the clerk is choking her own neck. If it were Escorpia/Sciona doing the choking I would expect to see the Clerk’s right hand on Escorpia’s/Sciona’s wrist and a clear difference in skin done. Am I missing something or did Dave make a mistake in panel 5?
Yes, you are missing everything on the first page of the comments
Escorpia doesn’t have darker skin. She’s just facing away from the sunlight, so most of her face is in the shade.
I read it the same way as you, TexIII. It took me three reads to figure out it was Sciona/Escorpia’s hand on the clerk’s throat, and not the clerk’s own hand. The last panel put it into context for me as we see the pink secretions on Sciona/Escorpia’s hand matching the pink marks on the clerk’s neck.
I like the artwork, but I thought the drool looked like a lip piercing or a piece of spaghetti. Had to check the other frames before I figured it was supposed to be drool. Liquid, even spittle, doesn’t drip very uniformly. It also doesn’t look transparent. I probably would have put it coming out of her left side of her mouth using a white outline and maybe dripping a little on Sciona’s hand creating a thread as she pulls her hand away.
Until I saw your post I was reading the entire comments section going “what drool?” I thought the fact that her lip ring wasn’t in any other panels was an art mistake
Of all the secondary powers to get, stoner-touch is not bad one… Probably.
Thinking about it, it’s a really problematic one. Considering that if it is only needs to be activated by skin to skin touch, then Escorpia could not touch anyone without it happening. Ever. Cannot hold hands. Cannot kiss. Cannot anything without reducing their chosen partner into a dribbling mass of wipe out. This is the same problem Rogue of the X-men has with her power. Now, realize the utter isolation that causes.
She cannot ever be with anyone unless one of them is completely covered up. Lips included.
And Now, Sciona has that problem.
I don’t think the implications of that part of it will hit her for a bit. But when it does, it’s really going to be an emotional kick in the teeth.
It’s probably something that can be controlled (hopefully), Sciorpia will just have to practice with it to figure out what triggered it and if she can control it (wouldn’t be very good if it only triggered under certain conditions, and she tried it when she wanted it and it didn’t work)
Since there are specific drugs that cause these symptoms:
Rapid pupil dilation – psychotropic stimulants
sialorrhea (or excessive drooling) : typically heavy metals
Delirium and issues with cognitive skills: Psychoactive drugs, antidepressants and anticonvulsants
Also fast acting and leaving a pink/sparkly residue – ok, this could be “Comic Logic”, meaning that could simply be related to the power and not the normal reaction the body would have.
Regardless, we should be able to narrow down what is going on.
Unless there is also some sort of alien “thing” that has identical signs to the above listing.
Same
Hmmmm….
Scorpions are interesting little arachnids. The thing you gotta remember about them is that they’re like ants. There are a lot of different kinds. Different sizes, different colors, and different venoms.
Where I’m from we had three types of scorpion; There were big green ones about the size of a finger that weren’t very dangerous, smaller amber ones that you wanted to keep a good distance from, and tiny little brown things barely a centimeter long with a sting that could knock people out or, if stung by several of them, could be deadly.
Thing is, they were different venoms with different effects. The amber ones had a reputation for being incredibly painful and getting stung would often leave people with a “divot” out of their flesh from tissue necrosis. The tiny little brown bastards had a venom that made muscles stop working. Including your lungs and heart if you got too much of it. It’s a good thing their tiny little stingers couldn’t penetrate jeans. And the green ones just caused a painful bump and annoying rash for a few days like poison ivy.
I have heard that there are scorpions whose venom is used as a recreational drug. I have never had one identified to me, and that use was definitely NOT a thing with any of the types I knew.
So Escorpia appears to have some kind of psychotropic on her hands, and it might in fact be similar to the venom of some species of scorpion. But I would strongly advise people who have just now heard of getting high on scorpion venom to NOT go out there and start annoying arthropods.
The odds of annoying a species of scorpion whose venom actually works as a psychotropic aren’t good. Even if you manage to find the right species, dosage control is going to be a bitch. No, excuse me, I misstated that. You’re going to be dosage control’s bitch.
Personally hoping that Escorpia (and now Sciorpia) has a range of ‘venom’ depending on need: here, it seemed she wanted EssGee to stop prattling and listen
*swats it hard with a big rolled-up newspaper*
Oops!
…
Sorry, reflex action, as soon as I got to the “arachnid” part.
HEY, I like spiders!!! I never kill one, if I don’t need to do so. The more spiders, the less annoying biting flies and mosquitoes.
We manage to keep our house clear of flying insects and bugs, so spiders have no business being inside
You like spiders? Even spiders like this Aussie fucker? o_O
Youfailed to comprehend, this:”I never kill one, if I don’t need to do so”
You failed to comprehend that that is not a tiny little field mouse, that is a possum (not one of those stupid NA opossum’s)
Well, duh. What did you expect from a creature that preys on australian wildlife? To be tiny and cuddly and soft?
I’m disappointed the one in the picture did not catch a rabbit. When they do they help get rid of that pest.
Well, duh. What did you expect from a creature that preys on australian wildlife? To be tiny and cuddly and soft?
I’m disappointed the one in the picture did not catch a rabbit. When they do they help get rid of that pest.
You must be Ozzy!
As an Australian I will note, for the record – that one is not top of the list on ‘scary bastard spiders’.
And it’s not eating a tiny baby field mouse either
Okay, for the longest time, I misunderstood this page. I thought Sciona had drugs residues left on her hands. Not that it was a power.
I was once, in a freeform ttrpg, thrown into a Grand Melee game, Zeus vs. Odin, where the gods were grabbing up champions from every conceivable source, games, comics (DC and Marvel alike), movies, books, etc. Think Super Smash Brothers with no licensing or copyright limitations. Green Ranger vs. Iron Fist. Aragorn vs. Cloud Strife. Rogue vs. Neo. My OC was a Judge from Mega-City 1, Psi Division, whose primary ability was psychometry, but had learned magic use as well. I’d waded into the game (voluntarily) and was having some fun, when the GM decided to throw a real challenge at me. Face to face with The Thing…Clobbering Time, for me! Went full defensive, spent a round just dodging and analyzing. Benjamin’s baby blues were the only weakness, and yes, he’s invulnerable, but he’ll still human, he’ll still blink. Getting him to flinch let me slip past him, someone bigger (Solomon Grundy?) took over, kept him off my tail. That was my ONLY goal, getting him to flinch. One would have to train HARDCORE to suppress that reflex!