Grrl Power #787 – Going outcognito
Sydney is going to find it’s increasingly difficult to go anywhere anonymously. Also, if they’re trying to get into a nightclub, putting already-young-looking Sydney in twintails may not be tactically advisable.
Harem really can steal anything, so long as she can touch it and it’s under her fairly restrictive weight limit. (It’s like 1/5-ish of her body weight – considering she’s a lean, if slightly tall and muscular woman, it’s works out to like 25 pounds. ) She’s hardly unique in this regard when it comes to teleporters. She’s slightly better than Nightcrawler though. She can’t move as much weight as him, and she makes a loud noise when she teleports, but she doesn’t leave a nasty smell behind. Unless she had been making out with a guy wearing Axe Body Spray. Hah, I kid, she would never do that.
I haven’t figured out why punk-Harem-in-a-wig and co-ed Harem are wearing the same dress. Maybe she was adjusting the hem and using herself as the dressing mannequin. And had two of the same dress for some reason.
Harem’s apparel budget must be astronomical. Obviously she can share outfits between herselves, she’s all the same size. (Supers don’t gain body fat in the Grrl-verse, but if she really wanted to, she could put muscle on one of herselves. She doesn’t want to. I’m just saying it’s possible.) Still, when Harem does laundry, you know that panty clothesline thing they do in animes? It’s like 500 feet long. Happosai loses his god-damned mind on Harem’s panty-line day.
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Do… do they realize she just looks like an anime character or a cross of pixal and krona?
Pixel:-“It’s like Krona and I had a baby…”
Krona:-“Well, I’m willing to give it a try if you are!”
Doesn’t Nightcrawler make a BAMF when he teleports?
No, it’s more of a poomf. The wisp of sulfur however is a bit strong.
The cloud or whisp of sulfur Kurt leaves behind is because he’s travelling through a hell dimension momentarily.
Yep. I recall an episode of the animated show where they somehow slowed down his travel through the interval dimension and it was a full on hell, complete with little red demons running around, lava and holes belching brimstone, etc. And then some demons who caught sight of him followed him into his school a bit later and did a bunch of demon stuff that they all had to fight off, of course.
Which runs full circle back to Marlvel’s Magik.
I remember that episode, too! I haven’t thought about it in years.
Well, I mean, doesn’t he canonically travel through some version of hell when he teleports? Or has that been retconned away at some point in the last 20 years? Anyway, having some brimstone cling to him would make sense.
No its still canon, I think, X-men comics tend to have like 20+ different titles a month, dozens of writers at the same time, so what is canon can be…difficult as Marvel has never been as strict on those rules as others. So hard to keep up on what still applies to what character as a limitation or character trait. At one time Nightcrawler could also move through shadows, as could Psylocke, but I seldom ever saw those abilities as most writers apparently didn’t like those abilities.
Those abilities were really cool imo. Yeah he still bamfs. It depends on the writer how loud it is.
Nightcrawler bamfs only when he’s ‘porting away from a place (it’s the sound of air that rushes in to replace that air that he takes with him). When he arrives at another place, it’s pretty much silent because he’s bringing some of the atmosphere of the “limbo” with him & it serves to circulate air in at the point of arrival (hence, the smell of brimstone).
Oh, BTW, at one point it was said (in-comic) that the “limbo” that Nightcrawler uses to teleport is the same Limbo where the mage Belasco used to rule…Until Illyana (the sister of Colossus; aka – Majick of the New Mutants) arrived & eventually took over ruling the place.
For awhile they were saying that it was the pocket-dimension prison where his Father was imprisoned. (along with a dozen other “Mutants” with teleportation-related abilities…)
isn’t that the demon like mutants vs the angel like mutants storyline; where they insisted mutants were responsible for mankind’s belief in both until someone reminded them that X-men comics despite how disconnected they feel are actually part of the same universe as Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange, and numerous other supernatural storylines with demons and angels in them?
-I have many rants about X-men comics forgetting they are in a shared universe; which the writers only tentatively at times bring up, but it kinda ruins a lot of X-men storylines to be reminded of these things, especially when random super-humans point out the public has no way of knowing where their personal powers come from so why they react upon seeing them different than first time seeing a mutant is baffling.
I think it was more they influenced what humans THOUGHT Demons and Angels looked like, but it’s only been like 15 years or so ago so I might be remembering little details like that wrong.
Marvel is still better at canon continuity than DC: when was the last time the Marvel Universe got ‘reset’? DC tends to do it every three damn years
Marvel NEEDS to reset to be honest, Scarlet Witch’s origin alone is like someone had Shakespear at gunpoint. and rather than telling him to rewrite what they didn’t like had him try to explain why the previous thing wasn’t right or only partially right.
Marvel does however do alternate universes that try to simplify things…but for some reason people still complain that one of those isn’t like the comics (MCU) never see so many complaints about the cartoons or Marvel 2, or Ultimates when they mix things up.
but yeah, DC is pointless to invest in anymore; I had just gotten used to Wonder Woman being a goddess; they even used that version for the movies and now she’s…vulnerable to bullets when I checked online. Like…meh, this is why I prefer animated series or movies (typically) over comic books.
Also why I always say, it is perfectly fine to like or even love a character without needing to love or even read their comics/know everything about their comic book counterparts as some “fans” will try to claim. I will always see Superman, Spider-man, and Batman as my “baby’s first superheroes” but the fanboys can jump off a very high cliff for all I care and I don’t have to like everything they are in. Let alone any others I came to like over the years.
What is wrong with Wanda’s origin?
You talking the shitty movie version or the proper comic version?
Have you checked out Wanda’s comic book origin lately?
Original: Wanda is a mutant born to a Roma couple, joins Magneto because he saved her and her brother, later leaves to join the Avengers.
Retcon 1: Whizzer and Ms. America are Wanda’s real parents, Ms. America gave birth at a cabin in the mountains with a humanoid cow mid-wife. Ms. America died in child birth, and Whizzer ran away in grief. the Mid Wife gave the children to a poor Roma couple who wanted children. There was even a big story arc back in the day involving the Whizzer about this. So also they were second generation mutates not mutants.
but wait
Retcon 2: Magneto’s wife just so happened to be at that exact same cabin at the exact same time as Ms. America and Whizzer, and also pregnant with twins. Ms. America died in child birth as did her deformed twins. Magneto’s wife may have also died or left the children in the mid-wife’s care who tried to trick Whizzer into taking them. So mutants again. But again given to Roma couple. This was the status quo for a few decades.
but wait
Retcon 3: Turns out The High Evolutionary LIED, he had kidnapped two children from that Roma couple and altered their memories so they thought their children died. He experimented on them, giving them powers; however he apparently also has Ms. America in a vat somewhere or something, lied to Whizzer, lied to Magneto, and decided to give the children back to their actual original parents, only they think these kids aren’t their actual children thanks to the mind alterations; so end up raising their own children while thinking they adopted them and their original children died. All so High Evolutionary can set this up so they all think they are related to Magneto at some point…oh and his wife apparently was never even at that cabin, Magneto was thrown completely off her trail.
Want to hear how messed up and needlessly convoluted her children’s origins became as well…here’s a hint; in the current iteration they are her children and twins but also born to two separate families with two separate mothers yet still genetically Wanda’s sons…and part of the devil Pandomonium.
Also somehow Cthon is involved in Wanda’s powers and Immortus manipulated her into marrying Vision believing this would prevent her sons who could become major threats to time and space from being born.
Oh also Wanda is the Nexus of Magic, and somehow what High Evolutionary did combined with what Cthon did makes Wanda’s power anti-Phoenix power, able to cancel out the Phoenix force…
oh and sometimes her magic ages her, but usually it doesn’t because even worse than the above stuff is how horribly inconsistent her powers are between writers.
comic books are weird is an understatement.
I could equally go over the timeline inconsistencies of Wolverine, and the massive retcons to the Symbiotes; the existence and ignoring of the Gamma-gene for the Hulk comics (when the X-gene was introduced…PS: mutant origins as a whole also saw a ton of retcons) anywho, Marvel went crazy with the gene thing for a short time and used it to explain how some people gained powers from stuff that would kill others, even Spider-Man had some special gene to survive and gain powers from a radioactive spider-bite…all swept under the rug later.
but yeah, Marvel comics has some baselines, but the stories will jump every which way thanks to no solid rules other than what the current editor allows.
Who the Hael is Ms. Fucking America? o_O
To me, ‘Whizzer’ is a UK-based comic series (or maybe the name of some super whose power is urination)
Miss America and the Whizzer were World War II setting super heroes that opperated in a team called Liberty Legion, which clearly bears no resemblance to any other league.
what Greyman said,
for a good look at them in something other than old comics, google Spider-Man the animated series Liberty Legion episodes. It was a pretty good story arc where Spider-Man , the Liberty Legion 5, Sinister 6, and Kingpin end up teaming up together to fight Nazies.
That said there is a new Ms. America (America Chavez) but no relation to the original, unlike the new Ms. Marvel who at least was a big fangirl of Carol Danvers and took the name after Carol started to by the name Captain Marvel.
Thank you both
Wait, were they really old comics, or just a ‘modern’ comic set during WWII?
what greyman said. then they modernized a second incarnation of Ms. America named America Chavez first appeared in 2011
Guseticus, no Ms. America and Whizzer were really old,
Liberty Legion however was made in 1976, there were writers at the time who loved these old characters; which is why retcon 1 happened, a writer at the time wanting push these characters in the popular eye tied them to more modern characters.
Ms. America and Whizzer however date back to Timely Comics (same as Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and the android Human Torch);
Miss America: 1944 comic cover; this would have been Scarlet Witch’s mother if not for a retcon trying to create family drama with Magneto…that and to make them mutants again because again, Miss America and Whizzer were super-humans like Captain America.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/88/MissAmericaComics_n1_1944.jpg
Maggie was always Wanda and Pietro’s daddy, believe it was Rogue who was retconned to be Nightcrawler’s sister (with Mystique being mother to both of them, rather than just Rogue’s ‘adopted’ mother)
To me, the Mystique being mummy to both, was an example of trying to fix (and explain) two different, potentially contradictory, origin stories, rather than either scrap both of them or ignore one or the other
Rhuen has great info. They were both Timely characters, left to linger long after Cap, Namor, and the original Human Torch were brought back into formerly Timely, now Marvel Comic. To elaborate a little:
Whizzer (Robert Frank) gained super-speed after being bitten by a cobra while with his father on a scientific expedition in Cameroon, and then injected with a serum his father derived from mongoose blood, based on a local folk medicine cure (Dr. Emil Frank was basically what we’d call an ethnobotanist/ethnopharmacologist today — studying folk medicine to understand the underlying science). Later retconned as activating a latent mutation, since, y’know, mongoose blood doesn’t work like that. He makes a brief comeback as an elder statesman type hero, hanging around Avengers Mansion to try to reconnect with Wanda and Pietro, but his older heart can’t handle the stress of his powers, and they convince him to fully hang up the costume after he has a heart attack trying to rush in and protect Wanda.
Miss America (Madeline Joyce, later Madeline Joyce-Frank) was the niece of an eccentric millionaire who had bought an old lighthouse and converted it into a facility to test his theories on atmospheric electricity (basically turned into a fancy lightning rod). The equipment was overloaded by a particularly intense bolt of lightning while she was visiting, and a discharge put her into a coma for a week. She woke up with powers of flight and superhuman strength (“of a thousand men”), toughness, and stamina (later retconned/explained as telekinesis that she was subconsciously using on her own body).
The funky thing about the Scarlet Witch’s powers is that she essentially manipulates reality, even retroactively (see House of M for how messed up that can get). All of the versions of her origin could have been entirely true at the time and have been retroactively changed by her powers (even subconsciously) to the new version, which would then have always been her origin, until she changed it again, ad infinitum.
It’s also worth noting that the High Evolutionary is completely insane, and anything he says should be taken less with a grain of salt, and more with a whole salt mine.
No Guesticus he wasn’t, he just was for the longest time. That series of events is for the most part factual to how it ran in the comics. PS: Magneto is not currently (last I checked) recognized as their father. Disney was blamed for that change to justify Wanda and Pietro being non X-men characters by having the comics decry any connection.
but it is comic book history that he was declared their father under convoluted circumstances to keep them mutants, give them a bigger connection to their criminal pasts in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with Magneto, and undo what the previous writer had done when pushing Whizzer (who was reportedly one of that writer’s favorite characters).
a quick grab off the internet
https://www.factinate.com/things/42-blood-red-facts-scarlet-witch/
what Woodrobin says is brought up in conversation about Scarlet Witch a lot when her origin is brought up, using her kids/not her kids origins as examples of this, Asgardian and Speed; how thanks to her reality manipulations they have three separate births.
Some have argued that her not being related to Magneto NOW is all thanks to her now hating him with a passion and her powers keying in on that to retroactively erase their connection.
and yes, rule of thumb, assume mad scientist with a god complex already caught in a half dozen lies is lying every single time he speaks.
So, because Maggie was only originally their father, is now false because subsequent DC-style writers decided they didn’t like that story so they changed it
Fuck nah with a side of hael no! Maggie being their father came first, so that’s how it is, don’t like it, read DC
Magneto was the 3RD character listed as their father. That is the publication history.
You can love him being the father all you want but its how it went and was based on flimsy enough pretenses that its surprising it wasn’t retconned sooner.
Yeah it was like that for decades and the reason it was changed was legal mumbo jumbo, but that doesn’t change that it was a retcon, not stating opinion here, stating publication fact.
Her origin is convoluted and a publication mess, that was the entire point being made here.
I have a few of the comics of around the time of the High Evolutionary / Cthon / etc. storyline. And I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason I’m even remotely aware of what you’re talking about, because I do not recall ever seeing any other mention of those details in any other comics. So as far as ‘active continuity’ goes this bit of history might well be orphaned for as much as it is ever referenced or reinforced.
Didn’t the High Evolutionary also make an appearance in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest? Season1, Episode 21.
Random Guy,
as far as animation goes, he does show up in the X-men animated series, ties to the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are Magneto’s kids continuity from the time; was also the lead villain for some reason in the very weird Spider-Man Unleashed series.
but his comic book treatments are all over the place, saw how they did the most recent retcon of the twin’s origin with him making some new hybrid character with their powers but I don’t think it ever explained why he wasn’t a god anymore…yeah last time I saw him was in Future Foundation comics and he had transformed into an Anti-Galactus…like I said these comics will ignore each other at times/just plain forget how a seldom seen character was last used.
Yeah, the Maximoff twin’s origin story is like the Joker’s. Multiple Choice. Literally in their case.
The fact you need to ask is wrong enough.
Problem with reset is that it’s pointless unless you focus on keeping everything consistent afterwards, AND will piss off fans who gets their favourite stories retconned out. Meanwhile, properly made alternate universe can be used as “soft” reset – all the original heroes are still somewhere, but hey wouldn’t you like these versions too?
Except when the alternate universe gives us Fant4astic the movie
Yes, the entire point of a reset is to eliminate the inconsistencies that inevitably creep in when you have a pile of different writers work on the same character over time or in different titles, and not enough editorial control to prevent them from fucking up the continuity. But since writers/artists/etc tend to be less technically minded, things like revision control don’t come naturally to them and it is really only a matter of time before the errors creep back in again.
No, I really wouldn’t. I used to be very confused by all the different versions of Superman floating around in DC universes/alternate worlds (Earth 2, etc)/timelines. “Wait, this Superman with the grey hair around the ears, he doesn’t seem to be as powerful as the Superman I was just reading about in this other comic. WFT?” etc. So no, I never wanted or liked different versions of superheroes set in a different universe or “What If?” setting. Not unless it was a very limited run, and not something where inevitably there would be some horrible crossover comic. Because those always sucked.
@Doug.
The Lexie Dunne books are the ones.
There are a few parallels in the “Hesitant Hero” books by S. J. Delos.
I eventually left Marvel altogether over the retconning crap, an I had been reading since the sixties.
With the multiple realities strategy which had made up the Marvel universe before the only two new thing the retconning tool brought to the writers were the ability for Writers who had never bothered to (or lacked mnemonic ability to) memorize six or seven decades worth of extant stories needed to stay consistent to avoid the hassle by erasing the past and the ability to erase past stories on a whim.
The latter has happened a lot, and I and many like me.then created the market for series like Wearing the Cape, and Cape High, and Kid Sensation, and The Girl in the Box, and Arca, And Hostage Girl and so forth.
I might buy used DVDs of a bunch of the Marvel movies at some point and see how much resemblance to the silver age and nineties comics remain, but I prefer reading to watching movies so probably not.
Hmmm. There are two series on that little list Doctor Phogg posted that I have not read. I assume “Hostage Girl” refers to the Big Time series by Jennifer Estep. If I am wrong that is three series. Time to hit Amazon… wow 36 books in the Girl in the Box series! Dammit Phogg you just cost me $200 bucks. (Thank you so much!)
The writers should at least have a passing familiarity, which the label should be able to make available to them in summary form. And then it is on the editors to steer the story away from any major violations of continuity. Only if you grant the writer free reign without editorial control do these things have to creep in.
@CDShap
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074CFRD2W?ref_=series_rw_dp_labf
These. Fortunately the series reached a logical conclusion after four books.
However, there is another series with a similar premise if you like this one.
The Girl in the box books should keep you busy for a while, as Robert Crane cranks out books at a Walter Gibson pace.
Pretty much the same here, I gave up on Marvel some time in the late 90’s, and switched to manga.
I suppose I still cared enough to be pissed off when they erased Warlock from the Infinity War movies, he was always my favorite. But other than that, eh, they’re dead to me.
Pretty glad of that, based on some of the stupid changes I’ve heard rumors of.
Fuck Warlock, what about 90% of the characters involved in the Civil War?
And they didn’t ‘erase’ him, they simply hadn’t introduced him yet, because they did the Avengers movies too quickly after hinting at his creation at the end of GotG Vol.2
Guesticus: At this point the names of the movie are more lip service to comic fans and the MCU like the cartoons is doing its own thing. After all (Age of Ultron) was based more on Ultron’s origin in 616 merged with the Ultimates origin and zero percent to do with the storyline called “Age of Ultron”…which honestly is for the best because it was the start of some psychotic convoluted multi-verse time hiccup stuff.
But yeah, just assume the movies are their own thing, after all if they were like the comics Star Lord would be space Jesus born thanks to an alignment of the planets and given a mission by the Emperor of the Sun and a sassy talking space ship…only to later learn after writers changed and the original creator left and the new writer hated the character’s personality and religious allegory origin to make his dad captain McMOST BOring alien ever J’son…oh he’s an alien…who is 100% identical to a human making him being an alien totally meaningless until a later retcon made him an alien king…and then still pointless.
Stuff like this is why I could care less how the MCU changes characters so long as they keep their core form (ya’know don’t make Dr. Strange a techno-wizard or give Captain America super speed powers and a thirst for human blood or something else off the wall) and are fun movies to watch.
That… was kinda the point: the MCU is different, and until, or if, they merge the MCU with the X-Verse, things can never even come close to the comics (that’s how we ended up with Wanda The Mallrat and her dead brother and Quicksilver and Polaris in two different universes (at least they kinda planned on merging them eventually by killing of the crappy brother in one and not even introducing the sister in the other, which goes to show Feige knows what he is doing, and plans for movies that haven’t been written yet)
“And they didn’t ‘erase’ him, they simply hadn’t introduced him yet”
Yeahnope. The guy was literally as central to the Infinity Wars plot line as Thanos was. Everybody besides those two were effectively bit characters, it was a war between Thanos and Warlock with other people pulled in as foot soldiers.
They erased him *from the plot*.
Just like they ‘erased’ 90% of the participants of Civil War
‘Infinity Gauntlet’ was Thanos versus, well, everyone else, ‘Infinity War’ was Magus versus Warlock (with Thanos helping the good guys)
Have both collections right beside me
Hostage girl refers, I think, to Lexie Dunne’s Superheroes Anonymous series, 4 books.
Nightcrawler 100% bamfs.
Confirmed. He bamfs.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/Nightcrawler_Bamf.jpg/250px-Nightcrawler_Bamf.jpg
Many writers and artists get it wrong. Or rule of cool it, I suppose. Maybe these creators feel Kurt should just be able to choose to make it loud on arrival if he wants to surprise someone.
He’s supposed to leave a ‘Bamf’ sound behind him *where he is teleporting from only* because it is the sound of air rushing in to fill the space he left behind. No brimstone smell there either, as the point he leaves from doesn’t get any washback.
His Arrival point is silent, but accompanied by the smell of the brimstone clinging to his body from his extra brief moment in a hell dimension.
That’s how it was originally described by writer Len Wein and confirmed repeatedly by Chris Claremont. All the other depictions of him bamfing on arrival and leaving a bad smell where he left from are cases of writers and artists who don’t even understand how his power works.
He makes a shockwave when he arrives also as the air is forced out of the way by his body. The only way not to is he swaps the air from where he goes to where he’s coming from, which silences both the departure and the arrival. That takes a lot of concentration so if he’s in a hurry he gets the implosion shock from the sudden empty space and the shockwave from suddenly taking up space that was empty except for air until he got there.
And anyone caught in one of his BAMF’s end up BARFing
Yeah, he used to use that as an attack on someone he couldn’t put a dent in otherwise — multiple teleports that he was better able to weather (although teleporting with a passenger was kind of rough on him, too) until they passed out. I seem to remember him doing that to Sebastian Shaw once:
Problem: Punching? Pump-up. Ported, puking, passed-out? Perfection.
Nah, wasn’t meaning him dragging an unwilling passenger (had forgotten he did that), was just meant anyone getting a strong whiff of that BAMF-gas would start puking
He used to be with Dick Clark on “American Bamf Stand.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLOMdddg11A
I’m sorry but I fully remember it.
Sorry, but it is *BAMF*. Every time. Has been for decades. (I suppose they could have changed it recently?)
It’s BAMF when he disappears, supposed to represent air collapsing around the space he occupied. Where he appears, he usually makes a FOOMF sound, if I remember correctly.
Yes, brimstone smell in both locations.
I distinctly recall a BAMF and do not recall a poomf.
And there is supposedly a race of little mini-Nightcrawlers called Bamf’s
Giant purses can be awkward for short women.
My wife is a bit less than five feet tall, and she prefers backpacks over fashion most of the time.
If she has to be more fashionable she goes with a tiny purse and a pack mule.
pack mule meaning you right? :)
Alas, pouvre moi.
But usually her stuff fits in a cargo pocket or two.
This is against the marriage contract. According to male-written footnotes (in small print), apparently the wife is obliged to accept all the husband’s detritus into the her handbag (= US dialect “purse”), and carry it herself.
Of course it’s in small print.
Yeah, three decks of magic cards in bulky promo cases are not going to make me upsize my purse. He can accept running around with a messenger bag for himself in that case… I worked hard convincing myself to downgrade half my to-carry stuff dammit. ;P I even got my dnd character sheet to fit in a card wallet with mini dice.
My wife has never once been asked by me to carry anything for me in her purse. Across all the years this has never even occurred to me as something I could ask. And I certainly won’t just because I’ve just been made aware that this is even possible. She has cut back a bit in recent years, but I recall once placing her purse on a grocery store produce scale and it weighed 16 lbs. That’s the weight of a professional weight bowling ball, hanging off of your shoulder constantly. I’m not going to add to that by a single ounce. Anything I need to carry will either fit in my pockets, or my car, or it will be left behind because it obviously isn’t really something I need to carry.
That would be bad. She sees a store with gardening stuff or skirts with pockets in her size and she just vanishes.
It’s better when I have my own stuff.
I take note of how other people behave in public to a certain extent. You may think all guys are like you, but we’re really not. Different people are different.
That having been said, when I was married, I did sometimes put some stuff in her backpack. But the thing was, I was carrying her backpack when I did that… for much the same reason as she uses a backpack rather than a purse.
…. So how is Sydney going to show ID to get into the club?
By showing her ID to the bouncer because she is a legal adult; bouncer should understand a celebrity going incognito. Also call ahead so the club’s security knows what to expect, also possibly a club where one of them has contacts that will let them in without commotion.
When I worked security, that’s how they did it. We’d know someone famous was going to be there, and would pretend they’re random people but be slightly more aggressive against drunks than usual.
Also the city police would patrol the nightclub’s parking lot without ever leaving (unless different officers switched out with each other).
(I’m talking about the bar called Crazy Horse in Southern California)
Hah, I should have thought to ask about that. The next page does not exactly follow that procedure. It’s too late to redraw it but I might need to consider a minor rewrite. :)
That sounds like a rational, level-headed, perfectly reasonable way to go about things.
But how is Sydney going to do it?
She took off her glasses and put on a wig and some make-up, not swapped her face with Nicholas Cage!
If a bouncer can’t tell that it’s the same person, then he probably got fired from his last job when he let that guy use a cardboard box to sneak past him.
Also, Sydney, don’t ever swap your face with Nicholas Cages’s – it NEVER ends well……..
Not having glasses can make you look very different, you know?
Is that you, Mr Kent? I really loved that interview in the Daily Planet you did with Superman….
Perfect excuse to share this meme, but yeah glasses and angle can make a difference as can demeanor, but…
https://i.imgur.com/C4hrpo5.jpg
In most depictions, Clark Kent slouches, wears baggy suits to de-emphasize his muscles, and adopts “mild-mannered” mannerisms to disguise himself. The glasses are really secondary to all of that, at most. There’s a really good scene in one of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies where he’s dressed as Clark and he’s made up his mind to go ahead and tell Lois, then reconsiders and changes his mind at the last second.
He takes off his glasses, straightens up his posture, then looks at the glasses, realizes the implications of what he’s about to do, and re-adopts the Clark mannerisms at the last second. The way Reeve does it really gives you a sense of transformation, and of how that kind of disguise might work.
I’m given to understand that it works mainly because nobody believes that Superman might be wearing contacts. ;)
a good real world example of baggy clothes throwing people off.
the move Predator 2, the actor playing the detective is wearing pretty loose fitting clothes giving him a typical middle aged man physique vibe; which makes the line early on “you couldn’t carry him up there” when referring to a Predator’s victim hanging from the ceiling an odd line for anyone not familiar with him.
But he was actually very strong and muscular, you just could never tell through this movie because of his clothes.
Danny Glover in Predator 2
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzAyMGRhMTgtY2M4Zi00Y2Q1LWIwZmYtODU0NzQ5ODBkYmU4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjQ4ODE4MzQ@._V1_.jpg
under that shirt he was ripped with a six pack and large biceps, that loose outfit really hid that in the movie.
Wow. That is genuinely excellent. Thanks for showing me that! I’ll need to watch that movie. I hope Reeve won some kind of award for that role, because honestly I think he deserves one for that scene alone.
Harem and Sydney won’t be recognized out in public,will Peggy be joining them like last time?
Do we have any canon attempt or other semi-official discussion about Harem trying to VORP with one of Sydney’s balls? It could be explained away as her sensing they’re entirely too massive, despite their size, or something, but basically VORPING doesn’t use physical movement, so… THAT portion or “restrictions on power” should allow it
Confirmed: Sydney has massive balls.
Considering she went single-handed against a force of kaiju in the not too distant past, that statement made me giggle more than I should have.
While some are held for charity, I’m pretty sure this is for fancy dress.
Bravo.
↑(+1)↑
Most likely it would work the same as if she had grabbed Sydney and attempted to teleport with her.
I’m assuming the spatial sense involved in her aiming her teleportation would also be involved in her selecting what to take with her. (Actually, can she selectively take part of an object with her?)
If that’s the case, the mass of the orbs (or Sydney and the orbs combined) might not even come into play, as her spatial sense probably can’t pick them up any better than all the other tools they tried to probe them with.
We know that the orbs are ‘tethered’ to Sydney by a force greater than Maxima’s greatest strength can overcome. And the attempt doesn’t even give Sydney road rash i.e. it doesn’t move Sydney at all. I think that pretty much precludes any ability to teleport the orbs away from Sydney. It isn’t the exact same kind of movement, but then the ‘tether’ is not visible either, and it’s properties are unknown other than what we have seen to date.
Do we have confirmation from DaveB that Maxima’s best can’t beat the orbs? It seems really unlikely that Maxima was trying her best in the bank parking lot, because her best would certainly have been enough to reveal the orbs’ true nature on that page by shredding Tubey in the attempt.
I have to assume that, at some point, Maxima has tested that, just because they did manage to best a casual effort.
Probably one of those things that just gets ignored outside comedic applications, though.
Maxima’s resting state strength would have shredded tubey, so that’s no indication. When you rant out “Do you know how strong I am?!?” it can be assumed that you’ve tried as hard as you could out of frustration at being balked at lower levels of attempt. And there was nothing going on that would have made Maxima believe that she needed any ‘points’ in reserve for her other abilities.
Wow Sid, black really brings out your …… boobs.
More “form fitting top”, but yes. And she is ridiculously cute as a redhead in twintails.
The bamf sound effect is a mix between loud or really soft. It depends on the writer and situations. I would guess her range is better but nightcrawler has quite a few speed feats that beat harem.
And carry feats, he has at least carried along Kitty Pryde, which was at least as much his own weight at the time.
Choice of material can also help with the visual effect. A lighter-shaded and/or more reflective part for the top slope, a darker-shaded and/or less reflective part for the underslope, and the brain interprets it as contours. The tricky bit would be getting the different effects positioned just right to give the correct shape to the illusion.
Yeah it looks to me like she has huge boobs on her back as well.
Those are called shoulder blades :).
That’s just how the light is hitting the black dress
V-neck or whatever that cut is called.
Her Halo shirt is V-neck. The new shirt appears to be more of a variation on a scoop top. I could imagine someone calling it a wide V-neck, but this looks to me to be a level or two past wide V-neck.
It’s a plunging v-neck
Okay but also can we talk about how what Harem is doing here is super not-okay? I get what you’re trying to do but come on, don’t just strip someone without asking or warning them. That’s super not okay. Consent’s not just a sex thing. :/
It’s not okay, sure. But I don’t think Sydney is going to be pressing charges.
idk that that should be the baseline of figuring this stuff out cause basically no one presses charges in the US because the justice system here actively makes the problem worse, but sure. Dx
I mean Sydney rightly calls it out and actively says she does not want this. I just wanna like. Make sure we don’t just ignore that? Harem is Bad News anyways and clearly just kinda does what she wants regardless of the consequences, but let’s not brush over this. Forcibly stripping someone’s shirt off in public without their consent while they are loudly protesting is kinda sorta prooobably definitely sexual assault. >.>
Lots of people press charges in the US. It’s a big part of why it’s known as a pretty litigious country.
It’s mostly just rich white people, but some of them are just ignorant. Err, were ignorant, until they pressed charges and then OMG.
Fortunately for me I’m easy going enough that I learned before I learned the hard way, despite the fact I only really learned how bad of an idea pressing charges as somebody who’s not a rich white person is sometime after I turned 40.
But this feels realistic to me, mostly because somebody with a power like Harem’s would probably forget over time that it was a problem for people if she just did stuff. You know all of that crazy experience she got? Part of it’s because she never lasted long anywhere.
Not really. For one thing, there’s a big difference between pressing charges (filing a criminal complaint with the intent that the other party be arrested and charged with a crime) and suing someone. When it comes to criminal charges, sexual battery, which is probably what this would be, is extremely under-reported. Pretty much no one files charges for this kind of situation, not because they’re fine with what happened but because doing so would probably be useless and open them up to all sorts of negative repercussions. So, I definitely agree that pressing charges should not be the baseline of figuring out if a line was crossed.
Yeah, I wasn’t taking the thought quite that far. I was thinking “pressing charges for battery”, but not “and when the details of those battery charges comes out, what happens?” Battery is one thing, but sexual battery is a whole different kettle of piranha.
And especially so for a corporal to a recruit, since this has the added layer of someone in a higher position of authority abusing that position to get away with said sexual assault.
Happy Veterans Day? Way to go, DaveB, for presenting a vet as a sexual predator on this of all days.
Yes, both you and Monarch are correct (although I think you’re going a bit far about Harem ‘being presented as sexual predator, when she probably considered it pranking, like what she did with the Archon GUYS). Remember, when she did the same thing to Hiro, Stalwart, Math, Vance, and the other guy who’s name I don’t know, Hiro did say ‘You know, technically this is sexual harassment’ – he was right, but nothing came of it because no one wanted to press charges over it).
In the end, it still requires Sydney to press charges. Sydney also needs to think that the action was sexual in nature on Harem’s behalf. Basically a LOT of this depends on Sydney’s statements. No statements from Sydney, no sexual assault case.
What war has Daphne been part of to qualify as a Vet? She’s only 19
I joined the Marine Corps when I was seventeen.
Happens a lot in the United States if you graduate that young.
And it was sometimes younger in the past.
Even civilian jobs used to be different. I loaded furniture trucks for North American Van Lines when I was fourteen.
She was 19 in 2011, she was not part of any military (unless Girl Guides, or the US version), and don’t recall any wars at that time
She’s only 19 if you think in boring linear time, according to her :). If you think in collective terms of all her bodies, she said she’s like in her 50s :)
Are those on active service automatically counted as Vets? My understanding was that Veteran refers primarily to those retired from active service, or to individuals with particularly long experience among those still in service.
Look, there can basically be two ways to go about this legally. :)
Civil Suit
Criminal Case.
I doubt Sydney would do either. If Sydney is not making a case about it, there is simply no way to have a civil suit at all. If Sydney is not going to testify against Daphne, there would be no point in having a criminal case even if a prosecutor somehow found out about it and decided on their own to put charges against Daphne, because it would be an impossible case to prosecute. Any possible charge you’d be needing to bring against Harem would require some elements that would need Sydney to cooperate in the prosecution. Even though what Harem did arguably meets all the elements of sexual assault under 10 USC sec. 920, if you use a broad definition of the elements (which is actually where we currently have been interpreting most of the laws on sexual assault for the past 20-30 years).
The basic elements of sexual assault under 10 USC 920 Article 120 (b) (2) are when:
1) one person commits a sexual act upon another person (removing a shirt would usually be defined that way, although it’s possible to prove that there was a lack of intent for it to be sexual with what Harem did to Sydney)
2) without the consent of the other person (Sydney did not consent, obviously); or
3) making a fraudulent representation that the sexual act serves a professional purpose (probably wouldn’t fit here, unless Arianna was there and was saying this was for a Public Relations Marketing scheme in her persona as Halo to separate her ability to party with the Halo persona); or
4) inducing a belief by any artifice, pretense, or concealment that the person is another person (does not fit here)
So yeah, it’s very easy to argue that Harem committed sexual assault… if Sydney agrees to it. If she doesn’t, then it’s impossible.
And I pretty much would be willing to bet you real life money that Sydney is NOT going to press charges against Harem for what Harem thinks is, and Sydney probably realizes that Harem thinks is, essentially a good natured prank, even if third parties do not think it is.
Wrong again, lawyer.
UCMJ
And that’s no strawman, not that you know the meaning of the phrase in any case.
Oberon, is there a reason you are always so insulting in your posts? Especially when you’re ill-informed about what you’re arguing?
Yes. UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice, for those who do not know) is the military justice system for CRIMINAL LAW CASES. The second thing I wrote.
And yes, I know that was not a strawman. When you make a strawman argument, don’t worry – I’ll let you know. :) What you just did was, instead, you making a correction on something that was already accurate.
You couldn’t possibly let me or anyone else know, as you have already demonstrated that you haven’t the foggiest idea what the phrase actually means. You think you know, this is very obvious, but you’ve demonstrated that your understanding is inaccurate at best.
You keep repeating the same thing, without acknowledging that I’ve explained, multiple times, what the term strawman argument means, and painstakingly explained why what you said was a strawman argument. Sorry that you’re so emotionally distraught over being alerted to your poor debating skills.
And now you seem incapable of acknowledging that the UCMJ is for CRIMINAL CASES in the military. The primary difference between that and a civilian court are the rules of evidence are different and the procedural steps are different. The elements, however, are the same. So you’re wrong again, non-lawyer. But hey, no need for you to acknowledge how absurdly wrong you are, right? :)
” and painstakingly explained why what you said was a strawman argument”
To be clear, since I’m sure you won’t read properly, but what you said TODAY was not a strawman argument – it was just you being wrong. What you said the day BEFORE was a strawman argument, which you still seem very distraught about. I only point when people make strawman arguments…. when they actually make strawman arguments. I’ll also point out bandwagon fallacies, hasty generalizations, slothful inductions, correlation is not causation, no true scotsman, ad hominem attacks, fallacy fallacies, and every other common debating fail (there’s about 15 of them) that people not used to arguing for a living make. The strawman fallacy just tends to be the most common one, and particularly ignorant people think it’s an insult, rather than an actual debating failure criticism.
Yeah, that was my thought too. The “there’s no guys here” argument particularly doesn’t work well when the person using it is bi, and has already gotten in trouble once for sexually harassing the other person.
You’re both overreacting.
There is a clear difference between someone caring doing it, and someone not caring ….
If Syd told Harem it’s REALLY not ok, then Harem would listen.
Which would be too late, because Harem had already done it. Your reactions are to what Sydney said after, but like. Harem chose to pull that without communicating about it with Sydney at all? And that’s not cool.
Daphne is still getting Sydney back for the pool stunt, or do you feel what Sydney did was okay?
It was ok in the same way that you getting hit and killed by a car for wandering into traffic like a Buttheadicus would be ok: Not the fault of the driver because there was no intent.
The driver can still be found guilty of some lesser charge such as failure to maintain proper control, but not vehicular homicide.
Seriously Oberon. Almost no one else on the comment boards makes an insult out of practically every post they make except for you. There’s literally no reason for you to have been insulting in that post to Guesticus.
Correction.
Woodrobin is a far more prolific manufactured outrage ranter, and his rants are blunderbuss rants which shoot in all directions.
Blunderbuss rants.
….
I like how that sounds :) Great quip.
Woodrobin may rant, like most of us, Oberon straight up insults when people (usually me) dare to point out how they are wrong (without bothering to post proof, just insults)
Oberon enjoys using ad hominem attacks. It’s one of the 15 debating fallacies. :)
I think I had an argument with Woodrobin once about something legal-related like last week as well but I don’t recall it getting to insults. If it did, it didn’t really stick in my mind well enough for me to recall it. He or she was just very stubborn on his or her stances (not that I’m not also, so I can’t exactly throw stones at that glass house until it actually happens to me).
I provided an analogous situation with which to teach Buttheadicus what he needed to understand about how misinformed his understanding of the situation was. That my scenario involved Buttheadicus wandering into traffic and being killed by a car was just a happy thought that came to my mind as I was looking for an apt analogy.
If by ‘insult’ you are referring to me calling him Buttheadicus, I am merely emulating my hero Rich Morris. Mr. Morris coined the phrase as a means to demonstrate to Buttheadicus exactly how annoying it was to him for Buttheadicus to constantly call his characters by invented, derogatory nicknames. (Details in the comments of this TMI comic) An annoying thing which Buttheadicus does here also, to both people and about the characters in the comic. So if you’re going to complain about this, I’d first suggest that you ask Buttheadicus to stop both that annoying habit and his constant and deliberate typo of the word ‘but’ to ‘butt.” And second I’d suggest that you not place yourself in the position of white knighting Buttheadicus, because he isn’t worth your time and effort.
“I provided an analogous situation with which to teach Buttheadicus ”
This would be an example of an ad hominem attack.
“If by ‘insult’ you are referring to me calling him Buttheadicus, I am merely emulating my hero Rich Morris”
This would be an example of a fallacy fallacy, or perhaps an appeal to authority fallacy.
Also Rich Morris is not a debater, he’s a mediocre actor in poor B-level shows like Z Nation. Not exactly someone you should be taking your debating strategies from.
“An annoying thing which Buttheadicus does here also, to both people and about the characters in the comic. ”
Actually, when Guesticus calls people names, at least he sticks to fictional characters. You make it personal against other real life people.
“So if you’re going to complain about this, I’d first suggest that you ask Buttheadicus to stop both that annoying habit and his constant and deliberate typo of the word ‘but’ to ‘butt.” ”
I’m pretty sure Deus does not care that Guesticus calls him SmugD. Because Deus is a fictional character. I’m also sure that the planet Earth does not care that he refers to the planet as Dirt. Planets are not alive unless you subscribe to the Gaia Theory. Somehow I don’t think you’re hippie enough to do that though. And I’m pretty sure that the word ‘but’ doesnt take offense either, as odd as it is for Guesticus to keep doing it.
“And second I’d suggest that you not place yourself in the position of white knighting Buttheadicus”
Hey, I argue with Guesticus all the time. Rather constantly, actually. Plus I call him out when using strawman arguments as well. But somehow I still think he’s a nice person and he has managed to not devolve to namecalling me. In fact, the one time i thought he did, it turned out to be someone else using a very similar name, and if you recall, I apologized for thinking it was him.
“because he isn’t worth your time and effort.”
What is worth my time and effort is trying to see that this forum is cordial and does not devolve to flame wars like so many other webcomic forums do. I find it refreshing that most of the people here are very polite, even when they disagree. Heck, I even gave you a pass multiple times on forming an opinion on you.
The only similarity would be if the river saw someone standing at the side of the road, maybe a curb-side diner, and deliberately swerved at them, the fact they intended to just scare them butt hit an oil patch which caused them to hit the person is irrelevant
Sydney intended to release her air bubble under Daphne, who was simply enjoying the pool checking her phone, the fact it was powerful enough to blow her top off is no excuse
You are an idiot.
Sydney’s intent was to prank Daphne by blowing some air at her, not to strip off her top. Daphne’s intent was to strip off Sydney’s top, which she then proceeded to actually do.
I don’t expect you to recognize or understand the vast differences here, because you are just stupid beyond words. But here it is in an easy to read format that you can study and go over as many times as you need to in order to understand just how wrong you are.
To Oberon:
“You are an idiot.”
That’s an ad hominem attack. Not very convincing.
“Sydney’s intent was to prank Daphne by blowing some air at her, not to strip off her top. Daphne’s intent was to strip off Sydney’s top, which she then proceeded to actually do.”
And here I agree with you. She was doing a prank, not intending to remove Daphne’s top. So no to Guesticus – there was no intent. This would fall under recklessness (which is sometimes part of one of the elements of negligence), not intent.
See Oberon? I just disagreed with Guesticus, agreed with you (partially at least), and not once did I namecall.
To Guesticus:
What you’re describing, both in your example and in what Sydney did, is called recklessness – which is defined as a lack of regard for the danger or consequences of ones actions. It’s sometimes an element of negligence. So…. in the example with the car, there could be negligence. It might be more difficult to show negligence with the pool incident. Why? There was DEFINITELY recklessness involved, but I’m not sure how you’d prove any damages. Harem didn’t seem to actually mind or get embarrassed by it, she wasn’t hurt, and she seems to have a tendency to just flash her body at a moment’s notice already. I wouldn’t say it’s nearly the same as making someone think you’re going to run them over with a car so they fall into a lake, potentially injuring themselves or at the very least getting them soaked and giving them a laundry bill, and possibly emotional trauma.
No means no, and never requires a “I REALLY mean no” qualifier.
Sydney clearly said “No” (“Not my shirt!” is a firm “No”), was told “Don’t matter because it’s just girls here” by the bisexual person assaulting her (not that the sexual orientation of the assaulter needs to be bi or homo for this to be sexual assault, mind), and Sydney followed up with “It’s still not ok.”
And you’re REALLY going to claim that Sydney needed to say that it REALLY wasn’t ok?
You’re probably headed for a lot of trouble if this is the way you REALLY think things work.
This has nothing on Ren and Stimpy.
Or on Tom and Jerry.
Or Wile E. Coyote.
There are parts of this comic that are meant to be slapstick.
This is one of those, just as the tongue grabbing at the bank robbery was.
Somehow, I don’t find it difficult to distinguish between what is meant to be serious and what is meant as campy exaggeration in the Grrlverse.
Speaking of Ren and Stimpy, it’s gone now due to page refreshes but I saw a distinctly Ren and Stimpy looking Halo image in the Cast pics along the top of the page. Bloodshot eyes, darkened face with veins popping out, looking at once both stoned off her gourd and manic, etc.
I would expect Sydney would make more of an issue about her glasses.
I mean yes her vision isn’t that bad; but even still losing prescription glasses is no joke (even though she is ‘rich’ now I don’t think it has sunk in yet), AND she probably won’t want things to be “fuzzy” at the party.
Basically I would expect she would put up an argument with Harem who would think it ruins the “look”.
Who would cave first?
You are absolutely right about sydney would be very stubborn about the glasses, being blind is massively irritating when you know you have glasses people took away from you… but this is a comic, i would bet it would be easily explained that one of the random things dabbler has made is vision correcting glasses (arc already had those tactical glasses ready for the super brawl, even if they didn’t work) It would actually make sense that there would be several premade sets of glasses to fit people, and that a portion of them would be made to be “undercover / or fashionable” types
Sydney is not blind without the glasses. It was established back when they were being repaired by the Woof doctor that she only needed them for reading or something like that, because she had good distance vision — she went for some time on Cora’s ship without them.
And note that she is now wearing eye shadow — makeup was part of the makeover; someone in the comments was asking about the sudden appearance of the freckles. Freckles are easy to add with makeup and the right shade of makeup pencil.
And Daphne is several experts about makeup and cosplay styling.
Between the base Dr., Cora, Dabbler, and Krona her vision problems should be curable.
Thank you for showing Sidney’s bra straps in the black shirt, I hate it when artists deliberately forget undergarments are a thing when designing outfits.
Also, sudden freckles? Whaaaa? Excellent disguise idea. Can she see without her glasses or is she gonna need to pop in contacts?
And the dresses are easy: it’s for pretending to be identical twins looking for a threesome
Sydney is not blind without the glasses. It was established back when they were being repaired by the Woof doctor that she only needed them for reading or something like that, because she had good distance vision — she went for some time on Cora’s ship without them.
And note that she is now wearing eye shadow — makeup was part of the makeover. Freckles are easy to add with makeup and the right shade of makeup pencil.
Sydney was most likely exaggerating, though probably only a little, when she said she only needed them for reading. If she really only needed them for reading, she would only wear them while reading.
If her eyes used to be weaker and got stronger then she still wouldn’t feel right not wearing them.
Rather then the giant oversized bag, 2 random thoughts – 1, have sydney control the orbs as “large bobbles” on her belt – like an overly disco style thing. or 2, have a cutsey animal backpack to stash them in…. would match the twintails or just partying girl look then, and from the steakhouse brawl we know dabbler could make a pokemon style one at least.
(btw, logic suggests a clefairy backback, sydney logic would probally require an entei or one of the other legendary doggies…. maybe a yorp…)
Backpack would be extra adorable on her, but it would make her look even more like a high-schooler.
wags tail contentedly, whilst autographing merchandise, with pen in mouth*
One word.
Glitzkreig.
That is all.
YES!!
That is all.
This is a good word.
That is awesome!
If she puts a bucket on your head with the first *VORP*, she can get away with anything.
Cannot believe no one mentioned this, but Halo is definitely sporting padding now. You don’t go from an A to a C+ with just by getting form fitting.
This may be true, but you can go from C+ to appearance of being on the A-team with loose fitting and sufficiently stiff. I will point out that Sydney did appear to be shocked and affronted to Peggy asserting that the A-team needed to stick together. Not saying that Sydney has been doing that all this time, but she could’ve been… at least, I’m not aware of any canon pictures that actually showed enough of Sydney to prove she was really as flat-chested as she claims. (She was shown rather scantily clad, but there was always sufficient concealment to keep any such secret she had safe. The closest I can recall that she came to a reveal looks to me like it could be consistent with her having a bit more on top than she admitted to.)
On the other hand, the tops of her apparent bust looks unrealistically high. The overall form of the black top seems similar to some I’ve seen that came with padding built in.
My overall guess is that Sydney has been bigger than an A this whole time, and stealthing via her loose-fitting wardrobe. But, she wasn’t *this* busty; she is padded now. Just not as much as you may have thought.
Anyone want to bet that Harlem has refined this trick by changing someone into a less than dignified outfit for April Foll’s day?
It fits her character. Anyone who thinks they can prank the unit CO, with TV cameras in close proximity, will doubtless have committed acts like that too.
No, you can’t two-time Tubey! Don’t do it Sydney!
I prefer Tubey too :)
Alas poor Tubey.
Sydney has fallen into the clutches of fashionistas.
Tubey is orange.
Always orange.
But message tubes come in every color of the rainbow, and in many styles and materials.
So it’s inevitable that Tubey will have to share. Tubey will have to share.
That’s without options like Sel’s disco belt suggestion above. Or a bat belt with belt pouches.
Or a sheik genuine leather suit with pouches all over it and a catwoman whip. On second thought, don’t trust Sydney with a whip.
Sydney is supposed to be going incognito, which is why she isn’t wearing her signature glasses anymore
They are as much a signature look for as Deirdre’s from Horrornation Street
Arianna’s marketing sense is going off just about now…Halo Handbags. A line of oversize gaudy handbags for when Halo makes her appearances and a line of still oversize but somewhat more discreet handbags when Sydney really does want to go incognito
Yeah, unfortunately, after the “Bank Robbery” went viral, Tubey’s almost as famous as Sidney herself. Probably worldwide, or at least everywhere with a television station or internet access
Sydney still looks overly toned for a nerd that’s had all of a week of exercise.
The answer consistently given to that is Sydney is not an idle nerd. She is the co-owner of a comic shop, which does involve much lifting and hauling of stacks of comics and other merchandise. For much longer hours than a typical 9 to 5 employee. Plus, from what we glimpsed of her pre-Archon life, she led an active tom-boy lifestyle (the scuba diving being an example).
So although Sydney has clocked her fair share of screen time gaming, she has not been a couch potato. She looks toned because she is toned. It is only when comparing her side by side with supers (and their unfair advantage) that she can look pasty and underdeveloped.
Good answer!
Even as a nerd I rode a bicycle everywhere as a kid and went swimming almost every day in summer (no air conditioning during the day) and dug underground forts and built treehouses (where else to read uninterrupted)
So yeah, chess, wargames, heathkits and radioshack projects, montypython and Doctor Who and Star Star Trek and Godzilla…balanced against the physical activity that came in an era when spending the day inside the house wasn’t even on the list of possibilities.
I kept a bicycle rack on my car and rode a mountain bike everywhere until I blew my knees out one last time in middle age.
Personally as a big nerd, (Read the Lord of the Rings before it was hip, and I still have a staff I carved as a teen inscribed with Tolkien’s runes.) I made my HS wrestling team on a bet. Pissed off the coach big time when I immediately quit; It was just a bet, after all. Nerds aren’t necessarily out of shape.
That said, it’s obvious that she hadn’t been doing a lot of cardio, from the way she reacted to having to run.
I did weightlifting in high school as my PE elective. I did it twice, too. I literally could trapezius-pull MORE than my body weight. I was even a figureskater in junior high and early high school, longform & shortform… But I could not, for the life of me, run a full mile in under 10 minutes without nearly puking.
There are different types of strength and different types of athleticism. THe ability to jump hurdles and run the 100-meter-dash doesn’t mean you’ll be any good at javelin throwing, and being great at javelin throwing does not make you a master marathon runner.
I figure skated and did gymnastics, but weak ankles kept me from being rounded enough to be competitive. I could do jumps and spins on ice, but was bad at simple stops. At gymnastics I could fly on the uneven bars (I only weighed 56lbs when I started high school) but was mediocre on the parallel bars and my floor work and balance beam were pretty bad.
I got a start on gymnastics, and it was fun, but then I sprained both wrists, and had to give up PE in college.
Later found out I had something called “hypermobility syndrome”, which does NOT mix well with those sorts of sports in the long run. I think I’ve now sprained or dislocated every joint in my body outside some parts of my spine.
I didn’t think that mixed well with those sports in the short run, either, really. Of course hypermobility syndrome, EDS, Marfans, and all of the other connective tissue disorders are different for pretty much every patient. (Apart from, of course, the fact that they’re all pretty nasty.) You have my sympathy.
Well, in the short run I was absurdly limber. That was helpful. Except that time I accidentally kicked myself in the face.
Reading about it, I’ve only got a mild case of it. Though I did get the arthritis, darn it.
Well I am fitter than I have been in my life, purely due to having a physically demanding job with 12.5 hour shifts and standing on my paws most of that time.
I’m 5 foot 3 1/2 inches, My purse is small.
(Read the Lord of the Rings before it was hip). several times, for me.
Can remember reading that in school (or the teacher reading it to us) in the 70’s
@Greyman
Except for it’s resemblance to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Fighters_(comics) How many here read Tolkien first for the Rune Alphabet, trying to use it phonetically to encrypt messages in class, or to play around while doing your french homework?
Before things like memorizing the Silmarillion and posing questions like “what if Celebrimbor had lived?” The attraction to me was the Runes.
We gotta have more nerds here who did cryptograms and logic pussles who came for the linguistics.
Heh, used the ogham runes from Slaine to translate “Careless Whisper” in the late 80’s, well, at least started to :P
That said, it’s obvious that she hadn’t been doing a lot of cardio, from the way she reacted to having to run.’
That’s because Peggy had her running, until she started crying
As the VERY old joke goes, when I was a kid, the word for mom was “bicycle”. I could leg press as much as the football team in high school – without ever lifting, just hours of escapist bicycling each weekend.
And she could just have the natural body type to get toned easily. Three months slinging boxes overnight at a Walmart was enough to bring me from not in shape to visible sixpack- and yeah, I’m the short skinny type outside ethnically revealing thighs…
He he. I got that reference. Kept on meaning to catch the OVAs, but never got around to it.
The perfect disguise would be for Sydney to taker the orbs and mount them onto a wire frame that she wears on her head. She would also be wearing a nearly-colored wig with almost the right hairstyle. Her shirt would be a standard white t-shirt with a hand-drawn Halo logo. Wrong colored contacts would complete the look of ‘Halo Cosplayer’. No one would pay any attention to her because it is too obvious.
It was said that Charlie Chaplin once entered a ‘Little Tramp’ lookalike contest, and lost.
I think there was actually a Deviantart cartoon that DaveB made that showed that scenario, with Halo entering a ‘Halo lookalike cosplay contest’ and she lost because they gave the first place to someone who did not look like her, but had boobs. There was even someone dressed up like Master Chief FROM Halo in it.
Found it!
https://www.deviantart.com/davebarrack/art/Halo-Lookalike-Contest-431780929
I would not be at all surprised if the pic that Pander posted happened during Halo’s Crossover with Astra… as that disguise actually was used by her in the story… though she was ALMOST found out and exposed as the REAL Halo, because she forgot that she had her Official uniform on and didn’t swap out the insignia and shoulder patches for Cosplay “accurate” ones…
Actually, Halo used exactly that disguise in the Wearing the Cape crossover story. Or…will eventually use that exact disguise?
I haven’t read it, but it turns out great minds think alike. :)
Is it important to notice that the winner was the girl with the biggest boobs?
I mean, it likely explains the winning…
That would be the reason she won :).
He came in fourth, if memory serves.
Red…?
Pink is a shade of red
I get that reference..
to be factual, Pink is an “imaginary color” the human brain makes up when certain other colors mix and not really related to red.
However expecting everything a fictional character says to be factual is as bad as expecting them to always be grammatically correct; its just not realistic dialogue. So common misconceptions like that should be expected.
Commercial-grade landromat dryers, mutta-frakker.
This comic makes me love you as an artist. The random Ranma 1/2 reference makes me love you as a fellow geek!!!
DIE RYOGA!!!!
RANMA! You leave PChan alone!!!!
The lost boy was my favorite character.
When it takes you years to arrive at the vacant lot next to your house because you got lost, you truly have special powers of “lost-ed-ness”
Damn Sydney, those are some fine Venus Dimples there.
The credit should go to Harem, who applied them in the makeover.
Would the purse be more cute if it has YSL labels all over it?
Damn! Those eyes! That can’t be Sydney.
erm… there is a typo! its not Blitzkreig its Blitzkrieg!
Is that supposed to be a Wonder Woman bra?
Sydney is lucky that Harem didn’t try to give her a push-up bra.
Very lucky.
B y the looks of the last panel, Sydney isn’t terribly lucky because that actually happened.
I think it’s a padded shirt over her regular bra.
Padded shirts are a thing. Its amazing the sorts of things one finds out by actually going clothing shopping with the missus… especially if she detests clothing shopping more than you. (Not that I *like* clothing shopping. I detest it also, just not as much. And sometimes it’s necessary.)
I’ve always had to go with my wife. She’s partly color blind, and she just doesn’t have much sense of clashing when two articles of clothing really hate each other.
It doesn’t bother me unless it’s for lingerie.
So @DaveB you are saying she is sorta like Stephenie McPherson. Mrs. McPherson is from Jamaica and has the following stats from the Olympic database: Height: 5ft 8in Weight: 126lb.
If Stephenie had a pair of DDDs, then kinda like that.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Stephenie_Ann_Mcpherson_%2817250916203%29.jpg/800px-Stephenie_Ann_Mcpherson_%2817250916203%29.jpg
so… uh, how did she suddenly get freckles out of nowhere? XD
On the right of panel 4 one Harem is placing the wig on Sydney’s head while another one is using a makeup pencil(?) on her face, so presumably applying freckles.
So, this may be an odd time to bring up this possibility, but with the disguise it popped into my head. What if the last orb is a stealth/ disguise/ cloaking (starship) orb, and she didn’t know what it did because it excludes Sydney from the disguise effect…
She’s tested the seventh orb with Max watching. It’s clearly something more subtle or conditional than that.
I did not notice that halo had so big eyes before… strange…
She does have an anime look, in general. However it does tend to be toned down from the more extreme cuteness that anime can get most of the time. But it can stand out when Sydney is next to one of the rest of the cast, as they have a normal art style (barring a couple of other anime influenced individuals).
Think back to when Sydney has shovelled on the cuteness in the past, for instance when we saw a chibi (simplified anime look with emphasised expressions) of her feeling pathetically hungry.
So it is strange that you did not spot it before, but that could just be testament to DaveB being judicious in when he emphasises her eyes, so that it feels emotionally right and thereby does not necessarily stand out as being unnatural.
Harem forgot to do a quick dye job on Sydney’s eyebrows.
Yup. Creating a bit of an odd look.
Those anime eyes in the last panels are kind of creepy.
That the main, part of Sydney’s character. As was explained early in the comic, in the synopsis. So it is not going away.
True. But I agree with Roborat about the effect in those panels. Anime cuteness is all too easy to overdo (which I dislike, despite having gotten into anime in general). Done well, and sparsely, it can have good effect. But I find the second to last one a bit icky. It looks like Sydney is trying to attract a paedophile. Plus I much prefer her normal look, in any event.
The last panel tones it down, so I don’t get the bad vibe there, but it is still not an appealing look to me (aggravated by the padding Harem has decided to add).
Just remember what this page is in aid of: hiding Sydney’s identity so she can have a simple Grrls’ Night Out without having to fend off ravenous fans
It would succeed with me, so I guess Harem has done a good job.
Sidney doesn’t become blind without her glasses. She is not Mr. Magoo.
Will Sidney realize that it’s not the wig that’s making her cute? She’s had the unearthly cuteness all along.
Yup, I noticed long ago.
Well, if she gets the right Gi, and like… spherical bandoliers to hold the orbs, she could do an Akuma or some other “ass-kicking monk” fighting game characters.
Sydney has already demonstrated that her orbs can do pretty good punches, and with unerring accuracy (her orbs pincered Shadow Boxer’s tender bits with a simultaneous strike from opposite directions). So, whilst bandoliers would add an entangling attack, Halo already is a capable martial artist! What she could really do with though is training to turn her from a lucky amature to a deadly foe.
As for grappling, Sydney is far better off using her tentacle for that, under circumstances where she has a hand free to grasp its orb. However your idea is good for situations when that is not possible, as it could be used even when she has other commitments (such as keeping up the force field whilst flying).
Sadly though it is not without its drawbacks, as the cord does pose a snag risk. When Tubey got caught in the shop door, as one example, we saw that such can occur. Whilst it is not a high risk with Tubey, as that is for when Sydney is travelling incognito (*glares angrily at the handbag*) it is not necessarily wise to introduce an extra risk for combat situations.
This is especially important as the orbs (unless constrained in Tubey or elsewhere) do orbit above Halo’s head, and therefore out of her field of view. Magnified by the fact that the orbs collision avoidance is superb (we have never seen any accidental bump, despite Sydney often being in crowded situations or with other people or objects in close proximity). So she is not used to performing risk assessments for them or avoiding snag risks.
And if the bandolier is worn there is another bunch of risks (and advantages such as flight, but with additional risks to that option), which I will not detail, to avoid a wall of text.
Believe you may be confusing bandoliers or bandoleers (cross chest bullet, or knife, holders) with bolas (weights attached to rope used to entangle)
Or, mayhaps it’s just me not fully understanding what you meant by ‘whilst bandoliers would add an entangling attack’…
I figured the intent of the comment I was replying to was that they would be stored inconspicuously * in bandoleers. However it would take a long time to open up each pouch individually, to let out the orbs. Hence my assumption that Halo would just undo the clasp to let the whole bandoleer (less any orbs being held) be used in a bolas fashion. Which seemed like it would give some ‘kick ass monk fighting capability’.
Given that a bolas is just two or three solid weights in pouches held together with cords. Not too different to a bandoleer, when you have self-propelled self-aiming solid weights being used to attack.
* As inconspicuously as it is possible wearing military like pouches.
Wait I just realized that, while not very useful vs your standard brawler or blaster super, Harem could rapidly disarm any perp she could see that relied on weaponry or gadgets with seemingly little risk (speeders and ninjas non-withstanding). Unless there is some limiter on her power keeping her from ‘Vorp’ing away with an item being wielded by another that we haven’t heard of yet?
That shirt was being ‘wielded’ by Sydney and she didn’t want to lose it.
However an item being held tightly in hand (or a tightly figure hugging garment) may not be distinguishable as a separate item for teleporting purposes. There is likely some threshold beyond which something is considered one item, otherwise Harem would be able to teleport a brick out of a wall (or a whole section of bricks). And if she can do that, then there would be no reason why she could not disarm somebody by removing their arms. Or worse still their head!
Today’s comic has pushed the threshold a little further, but until we see a weapon being taken out of an opponent’s paws we will not be sure that she can do that. It seems likely to me though.
Even if Harem can though, such is not risk free. Maxima demonstrated that a fast opponent can anticipate Harem’s teleport (or react fast enough) to counter her. And Harem has no defences at all, other than her ability to avoid a foe by teleporting away (or regular martial arts skills and standard issue Kevlar+).
Yeah, we don’t want what happened to Wraith happen to Harem, and neither does she
for most teleporters it is adhesion or molecular chain bonding that determines what is one solid mass, sometimes based on the perception of the teleporter in question like a mental limiter.
Field teleporters however like Locus from Marvel comics (pretty sure last I checked she was dead, but this is Marvel so who knows anymore), anywho…field teleporters create a bubble of space or have a targeted area like an invisible sphere or dome and teleport everything inside that field, their ability limited either by or a combination of weight and range; but anything partially in the field and part out, the part out is simply (sliced off) at the molecular level. This way yes, she could cut off limbs, chunks of a body, decapitate someone. Same as take pieces out of a wall, the ground…and the more I say these the more certain I am they killed her and kept her dead for that ability being really hard to counter without dimensional and/or magical defenses against it. and she was an X-men foe.
That’s strawberry blonde, not redhead.
You do realize you just totally missed an opportunity to use the word “enwiggen”, right?
“EnWiggen, v. – to psychologically isolate and manipulate a child into monstrous actions and cold-bloodedness, with the intent of guiding them to ultimately save the human race. See also EmBatman.”
I only just realized how terrifyingly overpowered Harem is.
Like, she can literally VORP the shirt off of someone (I know this was demonstrated before, I just didn’t twig to it then).
How specific can she be? Is it by physical item only? Can she teleport PART of an item? What happens if she tries to grab at her mass limit and the item is more than she can take?
I think obviously she can teleport, say, a gun out of someone’s hand (by, I assume, teleporting herself to where she’s touching it and then teleporting away).
But I also wonder if she could, like, teleport away a crucial part of a doomsday device or a chunk of a spaceship’s armored hull.
And if you want to get REALLY nasty, what happens if instead of teleporting away someone’s gun, what if she teleported away just their HAND.
Even just the ability to teleport away stuff people are wearing is powerful, but if she can do parts of things, that’s a gamechanger.
Even if Harem is only able to add/remove whole items as shown on this page, that could still get rather nasty. A couple of potential scenarios are below; many other variations are possible.
I would guess that she is limited to whole items, and that her limit on carry mass works in the same way as her requirement for airspace to vorp into. If there’s something occupying her destination space, she can ‘feel’ it and the vorp doesn’t complete. Similarly, if she’s trying to pull something beyond her limit, she can presumably ‘feel’ it as an anchor; either the vorp doesn’t complete, or she goes without the anchoring object.
Scenario 1:
Vanadium Man: “Ha! No armed guard will ever stop me! My modular armour can block any bullet!!”
Halo: VORP grab VORP
Guard Captain: “Ready, Aim…”
Vanadium Man: “Aw, [expletive]”
Scenario 2 is only to be used when there is extreme urgency, no potential for a peaceful resolution, and everything close by is acceptable collateral damage. It involves a point-blank-annihilation vest; opportunity to surrender depends on the Archon commander’s discretion.