Grrl Power #828 – Wingwoman
Anvil is the only one who could get away with this. Max and Peggy are good friends, but Peggy respects the chain of command too much to try and manhandle Max into a date, even if she were physically capable of it. When Anvil is off duty, Max reverts to being her bud, and that’s something that Max actually appreciates despite any evidence to the contrary.
This room was supposed to have a window in it so you guys can tell it’s evening, but I forgot. Sydney had more classes throughout the day, but it was stuff like police procedure and law 101 stuff, which is probably boring even in montage form, so I decided to skip to the evening and catch up with Max since we haven’t seen her in a few pages.
They don’t have an Officer’s Lounge at Archon HQ, which is to say it’s not commissioned officers only. This room is more of a… Leadership Den, so Sergeants like Anvil can hang out and so can non-military people like Arianna and Dr. Frost.
As blind dates go, Max isn’t necessarily impressed with athletes. She doesn’t have a problem with them intrinsically – she definitely like a guy who applies himself and excels in his profession, but just being a pro athlete isn’t enough for her. That’s mainly because she perceives a lot of athletes as being full of themselves, but if she sees one of them be able to make fun of themselves, like in a guest role on a sitcom like the League or something, then her perception of them will shift quite a bit. Ultimately, she wouldn’t seriously date an athlete unless she knew they spent at least some of their extracurricular time doing things like charity training camps for kids and whatnot.
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Got a Possible for Maxima’s date that she might actually like: Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a lineman on the NFL team the Kansas City Chiefs, and a M.D. – https://youtu.be/5JRLfHNiMwI
He’s lucky he has the build of a lineman, with a name like ‘Laurent Duvernay-Tardif’ hanging over him…
Can I second this motion?
They are both strong willed and driven. They would both understand the “need for personal sacrifice” when it comes to their respective jobs (Doctors and Soldiers both sacrifice for their jobs).
They really would compliment each other very well.
I just noticed that Maxima is hanging on to a couch, which Anvil has lifted into the air along with Max.
That was kinda part of the joke–the real thing to notice though is that the couch is somehow staying together despite the fact that she is only holding on to one shoulder. You would think that that part of the leather would just rip off or something. I’m thinking its part of Max’s ability to keep a shield around her clothes to keep them protected. Maybe when she started holding the couch it spread to that as well, allowing for it to be protected and possibly also being part of her anti-grav ability as well (Sydney mentions it when Max pops through a hole in the ceiling to tell her to go somewhere and her “hair” (boobs) weren’t affected by being upside down).
That’s already been explained. When she picks something up, it’s “zero range telekinesis”, which is why she can pick an ambulance up by the fender and not just rip the fender off. Unless she intends to rip the fender off, of course.
She meant to hold onto the couch, so the couch gets picked up as a whole, and never mind that it doesn’t have that kind of structural integrity.
I forgot about the ambulance.
It’s kind of bullshit that her ‘zero range telekinesis’ is able to read her mind and either work or not depending on whether she wants to lift an ambulance or rip it apart, isn’t it?
Protip: The only right answer here is “Yes, it is bullshit.”
Lets say it this way. I can choose how to use most of my body parts, Maxima has just more (sub)consciously controllable body parts.
If I’m pulling at something I also can (sub-)consiously control how hard I pull even if that means I can get inconsequent results in whether or not something breaks, if I’m punching I can control how hard I punch even if that means whether or not something breaks under my punch varies and even if I excert as much force I still can control whether or not I break something by changing the direction of the hitting body parts away from something that would break if I hit it.
For Maxima it’s the same she can control where and how hard she uses her zero-range telekinesis.
Exactly. The fact that we haven’t seen Maxima misjudge a lift on-screen and accidentally break something doesn’t mean that she never does so, only that she’s had enough experience using her powers to make such an occurrence rare. She’s only had 20-odd years experience using them, after all. I’m sure most of the cast occasionally misjudge the application of their strength (be they super-strong or baseline human-strong), or stumble over misjudged terrain, but the minimalist nature of comics means that it’s unlikely to happen on-screen unless it’s relevant to the plot.
Why would she not have that kind of control over her own power? It’s not like the telekinesis is a different entity from her that has to read her mind to know what to do. Your hands don’t have to read your mind to do what you want, they are a part of you and your brain controls them directly. Why should Max’ power be any different from that?
It’s bullshit that her mental powers are mentally responsive?
I feel like you are missing the point of telekinesis but aside from that we have seen visually that she can mentally rebalance her stats for speed, strength, endurance etc. It is a core part of MAx’s power set that it is responsive and not an automatic always on thing.
No, Oberon has had long-standing hate-on for Maxi going back years: everything about her, and everything she does is ‘bullshit’
To further expand on what Smoutwortel and Enkrod and yourself said: if you are going pick something up an egg to crack it to use in a recipe or something, you control the amount of force used without even really thinking about it, specially when it comes to the cracking: you know in your mind whether you want to just crack the shell so you can maybe separate the yolk and the white, or smash it because you don’t care, you don’t even think about how much force to use (unless you are one of those kind who know the exact amount of force required), you just do it
Yes.
It’s also pretty much bullshit that a “flying brick” character has “zero range telekinesis” in the first place.
It’s a crutch used by poor writers to handwave away the fact that being strong doesn’t mean you can lift a car by the bumper instead of just ripping off the bumper. Adding on to that unnecessary layer of bullshit even more bullshit about how the power reads your mind and figures of if you’re trying to lift the car by the bumper or trying to rip the bumper off of the car just makes the pile of bullshit taller and more foul smelling.
It’s not BS, and it’s something that’s happened for a while in comics.
Superman and Supergirl have a ‘biomatrix field’
Icon had force fields that envelop what he’s touching.
Superboy has tactile telekinesis.
Also certain speedsters have had to deal with bypasses to basic physics as well like the Flash, Zoom, Reverse Flash, Jesse Quick, etc., who have a connection to either the Speed Force or the negative speed force, or who are not actually speeding up insomuch as having everything else slow down so that even gravity and friction do not have a chance to catch up with what the speedster is doing.
Zero range telekinesis does not necessarily mean it’s actual telekinesis – but rather it’s a way they are simplifying the explanation of why physics doesn’t work like it would for someone who’s powers are purely strength alone, like Caitlin Fairchild or the Hulk, both of whom HAVE had to deal with the fact that physics is still a thing. It’s not something they’re actively controlling with their mind like Jean Grey – it’s more the extension of a field.
“how the power reads your mind and figures of if you’re trying to lift the car by the bumper or trying to rip the bumper off of the car just makes the pile of bullshit taller and more foul smelling.”
As has been explained to you, you don’t need to read your own mind. It’s not like the power is somebody who follows her around doing stuff for her, and has to guess at what she intends. Your arm doesn’t read your mind, it’s directly controlled by your mind.
An ordinary sized human is strong enough to lift a building, and the only problem you’ve got with that is that the building doesn’t fall apart? Not, where’s the energy coming from, where’s the waste heat going, why doesn’t she just drive her feet into the ground when she tries to pick something really heavy up, what about conservation of momentum when she flies…?
Most superpowers toss physics out the window. It’s called ‘suspension of disbelief”.
I’m not sure you’ve read, or understood, what you’ve just written. What you’re describing is exactly a power that “follows her around doing stuff for her, and has to guess at what she intends.”
Yeah, no normal person’s arm reads their mind when they try to rip the bumper off of a car, it just tries to rip the bumper off of a car! If they are not strong enough, they fail, and if they are strong enough, they succeed.
But wait, if you have ‘zero range telekinesis’ then your arm suddenly does need to read your mind to try to figure out if you want to rip the bumper off of a car, or just lift it without harming the car. Somehow, magically, if you want to rip off the bumper then you do so, but if you just want to lift the car by the bumper then that happens instead. How does that work again? Oh, right, your power has to read your mind and figure out your intent, because that makes perfect sense… You’re a wizard, Harry!
Really, try to come up with better justifications for the BS if you’re even going to try to justify BS, because this ‘mind reading’ BS is just stinky and an utter failure at a rationalization. You might as well declare that anal sex is the sex that God can’t see.
Whatever people tell you, that the Bible tells you, you will do!
Give you the sweet sensation of a rock hard rationalization.
Its the person literally commanding the telekinesis as if it was their own arm. The entire point of the power is that its part of you, and isn’t a seperate entity trying to understand your thoughts and actions, but literally and physically capable of being manveured, albeit not entirely in the same way as a arm, but given the basic idea of telekinesis, or any of these ,you are moving something with your mind…
You don’t really understand Maxima’s powers at all, do you? What do you think the word “telekinesis” implies?
hey Oberon.
Go get a couple eggs.
Roll them around each other in your palm with one hand.
Now roll them over each other.
Now place one gently on the counter
Now crack the other into a pan and fry it up for a snack
If your earlier logic was valid, both eggs should have smashed together and sprayed yolk everywhere because nobody told your fingers what you wanted them to do.
You probably cannot explain on a molecules and electrons and nerve impulses level how you made your fingers move unless you have an advance degree, or spend a lot of time reading medical and physics texts, but your fingers do approximately what you want them to do because they are a part of you. Max’s powers are a part of her, not iron man armor that she has to put on and write code for..
If you still claim that you don’t understand how it works, pick up the second egg off of the counter and push it into your rectum while repeating the mantra “If I hate part of a comic enough that it ruins my enjoyment of the rest, then I will stop reading the comic instead of trying to farm the hate of those guilty of the crime of not hating what I hate.”
Hey, voiceguy: Think back throughout your entire life. Did you ever, even once, destroy something even with your puny human level strength that you didn’t intend to destroy?
If you say ‘No, never,’ you are a liar. Or you have never lived a natural life. We have all done damage to something with our puny human strength that we never intended to do. This is a part of growing up that we all partake in.
Now, imagine that you are a teenager and have enough strength to crush a rock in your hand. Do you think that you’ll never accidentally destroy something? Really? How did your strength manage to “read your mind” as people are claiming that zero range telekinesis is supposed to be able to do? I mean, aren’t your own muscles more controllable than some hypothetical psychic power?
The psychic power is more controllable than your muscles. Who are you to say otherwise?
Not sure why it would be ‘bs’ – Superboy in DC comics has something similar with his tactile telekinesis to simulate superman’s superstrength that uses a biomatrix field.
The issue is that this implies a level of control over a completely invented mental power which no person has over their own non-mental muscular control in order to justify a bullshit explanation.
People actually break things on occasion by accident using their poor, human muscles. But somehow a mentally controlled ability of an otherwise non-psychic and completely physical superhero never fails to determine the intent of the person? Really? The difference between rip off the bumper or lift the car by the bumper is always absolutely perfect? Because mental power? Always, and without thought?
Bull shit!
Yes, dumbshit, by accident! No one is claiming Maxi hasn’t broken things, by accident, or ripped off a bumper, by accident
Remember what Maxi has said? She forgets things have weight! Which means, there have been times she accidentally broke something
It also means that she can lift something gently without ripping the bumper off
No on, NO ONE is claiming that her control is perfect, even Soupcan has accidentally crushed something
No, you lackwit, until I brought it up no one had ever even suggested that Maxima might not have absolutely perfect control over a mental power that she shouldn’t have to begin with. Feel free to read the prior posts over and over until you are capable of grasping what they say.
No, it was simply assumed by everyone involved, including multiple expressions of incredulity over the very concept that it shouldn’t be perfectly capable of reading her mind and following her intent, that ‘zero range telekinesis’ reads her mind and either rips off a bumper or lifts a car based purely on Maxima’s intent.
It is just like you to come in with some kind of revisionist history to try to justify your idiot position.
Oberon, it doesnt work by mind reading. It works in the same way that the muscles in your hand work when you pick up a paper cup and you don’t crush it instantly. You’re not mind-reading the muscles. It’s just muscle memory to know not to grab the cup so hard to crush it. That’s how Maxima’s zero range TK, or Superman’s biomatrix, or Superboy’s TTK works too. Just on a higher level than your muscle memory.
what’s so confusing about “a power directed by the will of the Hero”? fire heroes control the shape and heat of the fire they make, fliers choose the direction and how fast, regular super strength they chose if they hold a thing or crumple it into a ball. Speedsters control the direction and speed they travel at. Tactile telekinesis, or zero range telekinesis is how superman and super girl catch airplanes by the wing or under-body and land them safely instead of just punching through part of the aircraft not intended to bear the weight, and then rip the door off of a car instead of throwing the whole car a power that you can’t control is seriously limited
Spiderman controls whether he sticks to a wall or falls off of it, invisible girl controls how much of her turns invisible, Shadowcat decides if she moves through the wall or the floor or both. Martian Manhunter chooses his shape and his density
And Spiderman is a good example, because while he has control over friction in contact with his body, (His whole body, he can hang from a ledge by his butt if he wants to, and has.) his physical strength is just (a lot of) normal physical strength. So he does actually rip fenders off of cars trying to lift them, have things break apart in his hands, that sort of thing.
Not often because his spider sense acts as a limited precognition, so he knows without thinking about it to land on a roof joist when he jumps onto a roof, for instance. But he can’t lift 10 tons of jello, and Superman could.
`Sounds like something Maxima could try exersizing with!
Well, let’s explore it a bit and it might be less confusing for you.
First, the superhero genre is just chock full of characters with abilities which the owner does not have a good, or possibly any, control over. So, yeah. If you want references I can provide them in detail, but I’m not looking to embarrass you so I’ll assume that you grant this point.
And then there is the adjacency to reality, where a person isn’t able to absolutely control themselves, even so much as a normal human with a normal human strength cannot control that strength absolutely. So why should anyone assume that a person with superhuman strength should be able to control that strength absolutely? That’s just stupid…
Have you never broken something using your poor, normal human strength that you hadn’t intended to break? Any honest person will have to say ‘yes’ here.
And having made this admission, why would you then think that a super strong person would never break something, or someone, with their super strength, that they didn’t mean to break? The chances of this literally increase exponentially as the strength of the subject increases…
In a perfect world Superman is able to fuck Lois Lane without ripping her in half. But this is not a perfect world, and Lois Lane is the woman of Kleenex.
And no on is disputing your third paragraph
This whole bullshit that you started was over how she can lift a vehicle intact one moment and rip the bumper off the next, not whether she has or hasn’t broken something be accident, because Maxi herself has admitted (or at least implied) that she has done that!!
Actually, you lackwit, everyone who has responded has disputed this, over and over and over again.
I’m not going to bother to attribute people individually, but here are just a few of the examples that you somehow (because you’re an idiot) managed to miss:
That you had to edit in “perfect” so much kinda shows the hole by itself. Those comments were responding to “her being able to tear off a fender one moment or lift an ambulance at another is BS, tactile telekinesis is BS, it’s impossible that it could ever do this, this is the only right answer.”
In context then, they are not saying “Why would she not be able to have perfect control”, they are saying “why would she not be able to have THAT level of control, to have the possibility to do it sometimes”.
That you preceeded such an flawed argument with an ad hominem suggests you should go cool off. Especially since it’s also a very pointless argument. It’s established and a common handwave. If you don’t like it, fine, that’s your opinion. Hopefully you still like the rest of the comic enough to still enjoy it anyway, but there doesn’t seem to be a need to air your personal lack of suspended disbelief in a hostile manner every time she demonstrates is.
No, it does not. Every post assumed a perfect mental control and cited a supposedly perfect physical control which does not exist as their support.
And since that presumed perfect physical control does not exist, the presumed mental control also does not exist.
It is only bullshit if the tactile telekinesis comes from a different mind than Maxima’s. In which case it is bullshit for it to work with her at all. Honestly, this statement is like saying it is bullshit for an arm to read your mind and know exactly how much force you want to exert on the flower you are picking! Telekinesis is a psionic power after all…
Well that explains why the couch is not ripping apart due to Max’s telekinesis, I had just thought that Archon made sure to only buy super sturdy furniture considering the individuals on the team. Likely is both are correct, but the telekinesis covers all here.
It’s not perfect, though – note one of the cushions is lying at Kenya’s feet.
speaking as someone who has moved a lot of couches, the more expensive and heavy they are, the more likely they are to survive being lifted in weird way by parts that do not usually bear the load. I have lifted and carried a couple of couches by one arm, or by a hand shoved into the inside, then made into a fist.
Whereas the cheap ones are just a series of chairs fastened to a terrifyingly flimsy frame, that gets permanently wracked if you try picking it up by the corner. It doesn’t take super strength to destroy a cheap couch. I’ve grown to hate cheap couches.
Modern cheap couches. The old cheap couches were built strong enough.
Arianna when you clean a prison restroom with nothing but a mop handle a pair of underwear and three bottles of diet lemonade than you can question career choices and I am sure someone remembers the janitor who cleaned that prison restroom
For those Americans not exposed to outside influences, anywhere else in the world a ‘Diet Lemonade’ is a Sprite with more taste. Fizzy. And Ananas is what we call Pineapple.
That I retained this tidbit from a rant is what other folks call a Murical.
Anything has more taste than Sprite. It’s like the most flavorless sugar water ever invented… It has no point other than to be ordered by people who don’t know how to enjoy life.
Original Sprite was nice, even Sprite Zero, the new variety, specially the No Sugar one? Not as good
Add some Mio flavor enhancer :)
I had to Google this. And, oh my nonexistent god, it has electrolytes.
It’s what plants crave.
Also Mio is awesome.
It’s the flavor enhancer of idiots!
Has nobody played physconauts as a kid?
When I was a kid we played with sticks and tin cans.
You were lucky. All I had a was a rock and a blade of grass. Still, it wasn’t a dull childhood.
Still, a better childhood than someone who things Mio is a good thing.
It says that you meet Halo
The problem with Max dating is that anyone outside her own team – who are off limits if ARC has anything resembling most military codes – runs into a woman of steel, man of tissues scenario. In essence, she’s gonna break the poor guy once things get serious, whether she means to or not.
And yeah, Anvil also has that problem, but to a much lesser extent. There’s every possibility that a pro athlete actually could handle her, but your average joe probably can’t.
Not really, with Max power base she can drain strengh and defense to be just slightly above human.
I think you’re forgetting that Maxima can mostly turn off her power.
It’s my impression that Max with her power mostly turned off is still strong enough that a man like me would not be able to survive giving her an orgasm. I’m not sure how much being a little beefier would help with that. I’d think they’d want at least a little super durability of some sort.
Nah. Maxima can just transfer her power from strength to something not dangerous to her partner, like flight or whatever. With her powers turned mostly off she’ll still likely be stronger than pretty much any normal guy, but not ‘oh god I killed him during orgasm’ strong.
Even with zero boost from her power pool, Max’s strength is WAY too much to be uncontrolled in contact with a normal human of any kind. Remember her “I forgot things have weight” comment?
Which was explicitly because she’s got the ability to automatically reroute power to strength when lifting something actually gives her trouble. It’s not an indicator that the floor of her strength rating is so great that everything feels insubstantial to her.
And… just how much control over your strength do you maintain while having an orgasm? o_O
It’s just like you to be completely fine with Maxima’s ‘zero range telekinesis’ being able to read Max’s mind and determine if she wants to lift a car or rip off the bumper, but not being fine with her strength reading her mind and determine if she wants to kill a man during orgasm.
The level of mental gymnastics it must require for you to constantly hold exact opposite opinions at the same time must be staggering.
You really are toe-jam, aren’t you?
When you pick up an egg, you know if you want to crush it or just pick it up, right? You don’t have to tell your hand what you want to do, do you?
His hand has zero range telepathy. It can only read his mind so long as it’s attached to him.
Ah, yes, but during an orgasm when you’ve apparently, according to you, lost all ability to “tell” your cunt not to crush your partner, your supposed “mental ability” to distinguish between ripping off the bumper of a car or lifting up that same car by the bumper is still going strong and working fine.
Right, toe-jam? Right? RIGHT?
You are pathetic.
Now you are getting it: the phrase of the day is “Conscious Control”
It’s the same as when she flies fast: she doesn’t have to calculate the exact speed before hand, she just goes as fast as she needs to
When she wants to lift the ecnalubma she does, and when she wants to rip the bumper off, she does
It’s the same fucking thing as someone who can rip a phonebook in half can also gently hold a baby without killing them
Do everyone a favour, and just leave
Plenty.
You’re making an incorrect assumption there, Bookhermit. She ‘forgets things have weight’ because normally she keeps herself in a ‘perfect triangle’ of strength, speed, and armor. But she can CHANGE that to minimize her strength, which will NOT be ‘oops I killed you accidentally during sex’ strong.
Which requires some thought, and she’s strong enough that she has a track record of accidentally breaking things.
Look, even between non-super humans, accidentally injuring somebody you didn’t mean to is a real thing. I think this probably IS a real consideration for her, and if you look at that haunted expression on her face when Anvil said, “He has a friend”, there might just be a sad backstory for why she’s not dating.
Pretty sure that Maxima’s track record of breaking stuff comes more from that she has a temper. Not from not being able to control her strength.
Think of it like when you pick up a paper cup. You can EASILY crush a paper cup. You can even crush it accidentally. But most of the time you’re NOT going to accidentally crush a paper cup. Your brain naturally sees the cup and thinks ‘okay I need to use this level of force when holding the paper cup’ – there’s no real thought involved in it – it’s largely muscle memory by the time you turn around 6 years old. Same deal with Maxima.
Or lets say Superman – why doesn’t every step he takes cause a crater in the ground when he steps too hard on the ground? Because of muscle memory. He’s grown up knowing how to hold back to the extent that holding back is the NATURAL state for him. It’s why Supergirl tends to be stronger in the comics, according to some writers – she doesnt hold back nearly as much because she grew up on a planet without superpowers, so she’s used to using more effort when doing something and she has to actively dial herself back instead of it being automatic. It’s only when Superman gets angry that he has to actively hold back instead of passively hold back (ie, the World of Cardboard speech to Darkseid).
Maxima has lived most of her life with her powers since she was a teenager. That’s decades of experience in her muscle memory being trained to not automatically go full tilt (even when her strength is at her minimum). Even if we are paper cups to her, she’s not going to constantly accidentally crush us without intending to do so – unless she’s pissed off, at which point she has to make an active effort (like how she had to make an active effort to not crush her phone in the ballroom when Dabbler was ticking her off during Sydney’s interview).
Finally a real world use for my super durability IRL
Dating someone whose father waits on the porch cleaning his shotgun has nothing on dating Maxima.
Maxima’s dad would hold up a DustBuster (little vacuum cleaner) smiling while making little passes over the same height as the dude’s crotch. Smile and wave –like the letter burning scene in Harry Potter.
damn you Dave, I snorted a french fry reading this lol… the seasoning burrrns :p
Mwoo hah hah!
Getting into Sydney’s headspace:
“OH GOD ITS HAPPENING AGAIN! I’M NOT IN THIS PAGE OR EVEN REMOTELY REFERENTIAL TO IT! I’M BEING PHASED OUT OF THE COMIC AUUUUGH!”
:)
For a moment there I thought Arianna was somehow going to be Max’s date.
Remember when Dabbler walked into the conference room way back when Sydney was being recruited? Arianna and Sydney were both thinking “Not a lesbian. Not a lesbian.” So I doubt Arianna would be any woman’s date.
That’s still not out of the question…
It is if Suzie gets to hear of it!
That last panel literally got me bursting out laughing, wife in the other room thinks I’m nuts now :P.
Good way to filter out who is actually your friend.
Real friends respect your wishes when it comes to things like this, “friends” try to force what they think is best on you like Anvil is.
What if your friend wants to do an asinine amount of heroine?
*slow clap*
This is more a case of “what if your friend won’t stop insisting that you do heroin with them”?
(I think Deus is the only one who’s really trying to do an insane amount of heroine.)
Killjoy said “when it comes to things like this,” not “when it comes to suicidaly stupid things.” Comparing a blind date to suicide is hyperbolic and fairly ignorant.
I don’t feel insulted, FWIW.
My point was that Anvil feels that Max is isolating herself from having a social life and she’s trying to get ahead of it turning her into a grumpy recluse.
Uh… DaveB isnt talking about Maxima’s job being suicidal (for her)… he’s talking about how people need both work AND play.
You need to read the words written:
That’s DaveB specifically comparing a blind date to a suicide by heroin overdose.
Nah. Even I can’t read that into DaveB’s post. Look at how DaveB spelled (correctly) the word “heroine“, the feminine gender of “hero“. Certainly (for some blokes) there is indeed an “asinine amount of heroine”, but most of them do learn how to quit the habit in time. Except Deus, but I think his problem is he hasn’t yet managed a high enough dose of heroine to see what it feels like — Harem isn’t what you’d call “Top Shelf”. Jabbers on the other hand…
Maxima and Anvil at the same time would be an asinine amount of heroine. Math would be up for the job.
If anything, he misspelt ‘heroing’
Of course, someone of your esteemed intellect never makes mistakes
Oberon, I think -you- need to read what DaveB said, since he explained in a follow up post. You’re reading into it things he clearly wasnt saying. Here’s his follow up:
“My point was that Anvil feels that Max is isolating herself from having a social life and she’s trying to get ahead of it turning her into a grumpy recluse.”
Also I think he meant heroing, not heroine. But either way, DaveB is saying ‘if your friend is doing something self-destructive, a friend will try to step in to talk them out of it or stop them.’
what’s the ‘right’ amount of heroine? (and I read it three times trying to parse it, thinking “I would do any amount of the heroines in this comic” before realizing you were referring to the drug and not a’doing a female hero)
One at a time…
No, actually DaveB was referring to a female hero, only Oberon thought it was about his drug of choice
‘friends’ will try and force you into things you don’t wanna do, friends will respect your wishes, and best friends will pick you up along with the couch because they can tell you’re trying too hard and actually need to cut loose a little.
The only person who can tell when you need to “cut loose” is you.
I don’t think anyone, even Anvil, can “force” Max’ to do anything she doesn’t want to.
Case in point: if Max didn’t want to be moved by Anvil, she would simply not be moved… grabbing onto a couch is pointless. Max must know this and I would hope Anvil and Arianna both know it pretty much implicitly. It’s got to be just a “protest” done for show.
The problem with this is the military would view this as fraternization. Officers and enlisted, even senior enlisted, are not supposed to mix, part of that is because of power dynamics and maintaining a professional and impartial atmosphere, but another aspect is that officers cannot afford to become too attached to the enlisted under their command because it could compromise their ability to command. An officer needs to be able to order any enlisted under their command into almost certain death (and sometimes completely certain) in order to complete the mission, because such a situation could arise at any moment without warning and the officer needs to be able to deliver said order with no room for hesitation.
Rules like that are burned and salted when it comes to elite fighting units
Your way of thinking went out in the First World War when ‘officers’ were barely trained ‘gentry’, who viewed those under their command as mere pawns who’s lives meant nothing as long as the objectives (made from some other ‘officer’ two thousand miles away) were achieved
Fraternisation actually helps, because those being sent to possibly die know that their friend wouldn’t send them unless it was absolutely necessary, and they will do their damnedest to make sure they succeeded, also knowing that at least their friend will remember them whereas the Top Brassholes won’t give a damn about how many lives were lost
You’ve carefully forgotten about favouritism and blackmail, and all these types of problems exist between officers and officers as well as enlisted and enlisted.
It is good to remember that the fraternisation rules * have existed for some centuries, and the fact they have not been forgotten is a demonstration of the need to keep an emotional distance between ranks in all facets of military activities. Militaries of any nation are pragmatic, not to say ruthless, aimed at keeping a coherent and disciplined defense of the realm, in spite of political and personal interference. Not much can — or should — be done about politicians, but personal inerference can and will be ruthlessly supressed.
* The problems with “fraternisation” are also the reason almost all militaries have no place for non-hetero personnel. Apart from political grandstanding, military brass sees very little (if any) difference between hetero- and homo- relationships, and considers them both to be equally troublesome.
Any organization that expects the people in it to stop thinking, feeling, and acting like people is going to experience problems. And probably isn’t good for the people, or society as a whole.
Fraternisation is not about friendship, it’s about bedship. Friendship is welcomed by the military, simply because no apparat can funtion smoothly without goodwill. But bedship leads to putting a fellow soldier above the needs of the military, above the discipline of (mortal) combat.
Especially, it means that either or both of the people concerned may not be able to put everything into one-on-one combat training, may be unwilling or unable to do anything that might injure the other.
Many people forget, or are not willing to understand, that the military is not interested in love and kindness. The business model of any military is death and destruction, and those in the military understand — for the most part — they need to put their romantic plans on hold for the term of their service. And pray there ain’t no war.
There are a number of nations which do not have an explicit military. But all of them depend on some other nation(s) to defend them against agression. This world is not yet sufficiently civilised that we don’t need the means to make war.
No, no it’s not
Fraternization is literally ‘turning people into brothers’, not sleeping with them
When someone in the military is talking about fraternization, they are talking about sex, not friendship.
Certainly that is the way the term is used by the United States military.
Oh, so a completely different meaning of the word then
Unfortunately, it happens. From the top of my head, look up “sophisticate” for example.
But yes, in this case we are looking at a completely (more or less) military usage.
Oh right, just like ‘decimate’
agreed.
No one said anything about not feeling. You are free to engage in friendships and relationships, just not within the branch. Why would anyone ever want to date a coworker anyway?
As much fun as this page is I’m just caught on the first panel. All I want in life now is to have business cards that read *My Name* *sex pirate*.
“Personality is more important than height” Sure. You just coincidentally are going out on a date with someone taller than literally 99% of men. I’m pressing X as hard as I can.
In Anvils situation that’s actually hardly surprising.
She lives in the richer classes of the US. Those people aren’t the longest in the world, but not short either. Most of them would qualify as longer than 99% of men.
That said the basics of your citique still apply: she seems to date the longer men she meets.
While taller men do tend to get paid more, that doesn’t mean that most wealthy people are taller than 99% of non-wealthy people. That’s not even close to accurate. Most male millionaires fall within a few inches of average, which in the US is 5’9″
6’5″ is still taller than 99% of millionaires.
Correct, that’s why added that final paragraph.
5’9 is still longer than the world wide average human male and that this is the average strongly implies that there’re longer people.
Many blokes were too scared of public opinion to be seen with a female taller than them. Some still are. I can remember when, as nutrition and school phys. ed. improved, girls would sprout like broccoli plants, often overshadowing the boys in their cohorts.
Tall girls would very often struggle for male acceptance, it’s a redneck macho thing, the bloke must be the muscle of the family. I’ve seen far too many tall women stooping to reduce their apparent height, even when not accompanied by their husbands.
Here’s a puzzle: in Oz we use the slang term “bloke”, it comes to us from the original Cockney. But for a feminine slang generic noun, we use (mostly) “sheila”. There is no feminine generic slang noun for “girl|woman” in practically any language in the world.
There are plenty of generic slang nouns for women in many, if not all, languages in the world. They’re just usually insulting or derogatory.
Quite correct. And that’s why I didn’t give them space.
What about… ‘chick’? o_O
That’s certainly, in my estimation, not as clearly derogatory as many of the other terms out there, but some might still take it as somewhat… minimizing? belittling? I think those are close to the word I’m looking for
The connotation I can hear in it is that the ‘chick’ is fragile and must need/want coddling and protection. Of course some women DO want that role in a relationship or even among friends, and not everyone will hear that implied when the term is used, but that connotation, I think, is completely absent from ‘sheila’ – I think it’s free of basically ANY connotation.
Max could exploit Ariana’s tricks to avoid the paparazzi.
Simply said. She could make her appearance more fake and unrealistic, so she could pass for a Maxima cosplayer.
Which works fine if going to a cosplaying convention, or similar environment. Not so much if attempting a normal night out.
Plus Maxima is big enough that she would stand out in any crowd (as in the que at the bank), which would draw attention to her and reduce any conviction that she was not actually Maxima. Then throw in the extremely large Anvil, and the implausibility of finding two people capable of realistically serving as body doubles for them, and the scheme is likely to fall apart.
So, whilst possible, I think it would risk a backfire. Photos of a ranking military officer in a weird get up would not play well to the national press.
Having height can be faked with stelts, but your first argument is really strong.
Poor Maxima.
The only thing I could think of in this situation is, Max let go of the couch! Tis a nice couch and it looks comfy enough for me to sleep on it. :P
MAxima : Faster than sound, slower than an Anvil :D
No playing grab-ass around here. A simple visual check will prove that out.
Sydney should tell Maxima about how she was reluctantly dragged to a nightclub by Harem.
frame 2 “he’s only 6’5” I use this this line (with I ‘m not he’s) when asked my height its interesting when the person links the incongruity of the statement
I do so love Anvil’s little complex. She just wants a big, hunky, taller then her guy to take her into his arms and ravish her. Its a wonderful Celestia complex. I really hope she finds someone like that some day. She is tired of being Big Spoon and needs some Little Spoon time.
I have a female friend who I knew online who was 6’3″ and about 350 pounds. I’m 6’6″ I like lifting people when I hug them, as long as I know they like being lifted. She said she was sad no one would ever be able to do that to her. When I met her in person when I was in town for a convention I made point of picking her up and holding her for about a minute while she giggled like a little girl. Everyone deserves to feel little now and then.
On the ‘always expect ninjas’ angle Deus playing the long game to win Maxima back by setting her up through her friends with horrid dates.
I am, of course, expecting clothing ninjas.
And the Spanish makeup inquisition.
not sure what arianna is cleared for, however, I’m sure she had a bit of work to do after Sydney’s attempted quiet girls night out
Arianna is one of the heads of department, reporting directly to General Faulk, along side Maxima. And is even authorised to initiate covert operations (the bank incident). So pretty much full clearance.
But yea, she will have quite a lot of work to do. However I am sure she can delegate.
Fairly sure she is just the PR department, and part time lawyer :P
Here we can see a meeting with:
1) The head of Archon, General Faulk.
2) The head of Arc-Light, Zephan Zong.
3) The probable head of Arc-Dark, X (we have seen nobody else from there, in a decision making capacity, so there is no other contender).
4) Arianna.
An organisation this size does not have a one woman PR department. Nor a single lawyer. Let alone one working part time! Arianna is a convenient tool that Dave has used, several times, to represent anything not covered by the other department heads above. Which is a very convenient way of avoiding depicting the dozens of ancillary individuals who would have senior non-combat / non-spy roles within any large organisation.
However for Arianna to speak for all of them (given that NONE were otherwise represented in the above meeting, as one example), it is clear that she must have a corresponding civilian position to the military and espionage heads. Corroborated by her making decisions WAY out of the remit of a mundane PR person (such as launching a black opps mission).
It was a joke :P
We -need- the second panel sans text and “6’7”, just for reaction images
A comely woman is a comely woman regardless of height. Or muscularity.
Not really.
I’m trying to figure out what kind of man Anvil’s got lined up for her. Presumably Anvil knows Maxima’s tastes and preferences. (I’m kind of leaning toward he/she/it being female…you know so they don’t wind up having their brains sprayed all over the wall for staring too long.)
her dates first words: Oh wow a date that comes with a love seat to snuggle in, how convenient.
And then find how comfortable it is on the inside, after Maxi hits them over the head with it :P
I don’t think there’s going to BE a first words. or if there are…well… Here’s the thing; Maxima is intimidating as fuck. Add in her political views (which pretty much WILL drown out any ordinary conversation. Activists whether right-or-left, religious or secular, tend to ‘socialize’ as a one-note as soon as the conversation gets any deeper than the weather)
I just don’t see it going anywhere at all. She’s attractive, but we’ve already seen that commenting on that fact is grounds for personal violence. she is the kobayashi maru-there is zero ways to win with her, and her commentary up to this point suggests this is reinforced truth if you have a ‘y’ chromosome in your genome. (Imagine trying to chat up someone who hates you on sight…you wouldn’t, unless you’re a radical narcissist.)
Kenya means well, but Col. Leander has a permanent chip on her shoulder when it comes to men, and aside from the kind of assholes she wouldn’t tolerate anyway, there’s a diminishing number of guys who won’t spend five minutes and find an excuse to go be with someone who doesn’t hate them on sight for existing.
Which is why there are no men under her command, because she hates them all just for existing. No, wait, there are quite a few men on her team, and she seems to get along with them just fine. Even the lecherous Math.
Professional vs. Personal, Torabi. Professionally you can work with anyone if you’re a professional, or if both persons are professional, but Political activism is PERSONAL. So is dating. Maxima is a consummate Professional in her role as Colonel Leander or as the superhero Maxima, but in her personal life, she has personal issues with virtually anyone who finds her attractive (that we’ve seen so far). Leander’s probably a fantastic boss, a great co-worker, and terrific at being ‘one of the group’ but one-on-one I suspect there are serious issues, and regardless of her actual feelings, that’s going to come across as hostile before the first ten minutes of dinner are done. (most men will walk once she starts quoting, say, Andrea Dworkin-or starts rolling out statistics. at that point, it’s over, and strident activists of any sort can’t hold off from rolling out the tracts.)
She’d have the same problem if she were a Fundie, or very-politically-active. anyone with half a brain who isn’t already part of the congregation will basically walk away from a dating situation with someone like that, and most of the ones who’d stay have dishonorable intent or yogurt for brains.
I am confused as to where you’re getting the idea that she’s a political activist, or has extreme political views that will dominate any ordinary conversation. But I suspect that’s more down to differing views on what’s normal than anything else.
The only person we have seen her have ‘issues’ with, was that annoying guy from the comic store
You remember him, Shirley? The guy who came in, with a photo of an author holding an exclusive edition and demanding Sydney get him a copy
You are reading far too much into this Oberon
Max doesn’t hate Hiro, or most of the guys on the team for that matter. The trick to charming Max is to be confident enough to date her, and somehow do so without being arrogant. It’s a very fine line, but it’s doable. It would probably also help to be durable enough that her digging her fingers into your back and clutching you tight during orgasm wouldn’t pop you like a pimple
I kinda think she’s developed better control than that, but it might ALSO be why she doesn’t date. If you’ve read “Interviewing Leather” there are significantly nastier side-effects for superstrength than crush-and-gut-with-your-fingers. (“Kegels”). Thing is, my money is on nobody getting that close. (the ones who would, are too stupid or narcissistic to be attractive to her, and the rest will hear her slip into quoting the verses of her activism and lose interest. Hardcore believers become unattractive VERY quickly in conversation with people who aren’t subscribers to their ideology.)
‘Hardcore believers’, like yourself Oberon?
We already know how you feel about Maxi
“Really?” Let’s be clear here: I think Max is awesome, but in her setting, she’s kinda doomed to be the Lone Hero-as in the one without those personal connections like ‘spouse’ or ‘offspring’ (or a regular scratching of that particular itch with someone she can mutually tolerate after the first night). She’s too ‘together’ with herself to fall into ‘hook up’ culture (she has too much self respect), but she’s kind of unlikely to find ‘that kind of guy’ in an unattached state-confident men attract women, and generally stick with one early on if they’re not narcissistic assholes (the men, I mean). It is vanishingly unlikely that a likewise-eligible partner with enough confidence to hold up their end of the conversation without being threatened or intmidated isn’t already in a relationship with someone else who DOESN’T nuke tanks on national teevee with their bare hands or have a job that involves lethal force to ridonkulous levels. Fun fact: males tend to pursue lower-or-equal status females right along with higher status ones, but females tend to pursue and prefer higher status males and settle for equal status.
sociologically this is the selfish gene at work. presuming Max isn’t mentally unbalanced, hormonally freaking out, or otherwise atypical, name one equal? we can wait, (all three of my deranged personalities). She’s a successful, high status female in the military, and she didn’t get there by the low road. She’s also a self-described strident feminist, which immediately removes most narcissistic men from the menu. She has a certain amount of class and routinely receives a certain level of respect-hence why she’s not making goo-goo-eyes at Deus, (who’s one of the few men in the setting likely NOT to be intimidated by her power or celebrity).
face it, the date’s gonna be a disaster. If for no other reason, than because it both fits the trope, and will be funny.
She’s a strident feminist, which immediately removes any sane man with self respect from the menu.
Or an insecure one, certainly.
No, unless you cite me, all we really know is how you think I feel about “Maxi.”
Who the fuck is “Maxi” anyway, you lack wit? I’m not aware of a single character in this web comic who goes by that name.
A situation where you, who cannot be bothered to get a character name right despite that name having been in circulation for over 10 years, decides to accuse me of feeling in some particular way about a character, is really rich. Can you name your parents? Can you name your cats? I’d ask if you can name your friends, but you so obviously do not have any friends. Can you name yourself? I’ve got a suggested name: Idiot.
Here’s just one example of how Guesicus makes himself welcome:
If anyone cares to view the source, it is here: http://www.tmi-comic.com/comic/batty/
Meh, Maxima seemed to be perfectly capable of relaxing with “the gang” around the keg. And didn’t even slightly look like she was considering dismembering the guy who stripped off his pants. I don’t think she’d be a one-note conversationalist, as long as the people around her weren’t being one-note conversationalists. And Kenya wouldn’t be Maxima’s friend if she was that way, which only leaves the two guys who need to be smart enough to be capable of making light and/or witty conversation with a pair of lovely ladies without bringing up stupid topics that don’t play well in some crowds. And if they aren’t smart enough to do that, then they aren’t smart enough to breed.
im just going to take this opportunity to say that i have loved Ariana from the beginning
Max I suggest professional musicians.
I don’t mean those fluffed up egos of very little brain like a certain bear, that are pop artists.
I mean those who actually know their craft.
There are a surprising number of highly educated people among the entertainer crowd, from Architects [Weird Al] to Astrophysicists [Brian Harold May] to an Engineer that actually invented stuff [Tom Scholz].
C’mon Arianna, don’t lie to us.
If you were truly “unfazed” by this then you wouldn’t have any reason to mention that you were unfazed by it. If you hadn’t mentioned it yourself, then it would have been up to Max or Anvil to notice & mention how “unfazed” you were.
Yah, und heez also err-u-…ee-loosey-…speeks like a hooman not-Jager too.
Dang it, this should have shown up as a “reply” comment under Lunarcy’s post near the top on page 1.
um it would be SUPER fun as she is a SUPER hero.
I love Max’s shirt! Damn!
Wait! I know I’m super late to the party, but are they drinking Augustiner Helles at Archon?!?!!
I love it!
Maybe the best beer from Munich by the way.
That’s not the entry line I would have used. I would have rubbed my hands together, grinned with glee and gloated, “Oh, goody. I won the betting pool.”
You know, I was really hooked on this comic for about the first 500 pages, and the 300 after that were OK. But I’ve really lost interest since. Is it just me that thinks it has completely wandered off into the weeds, story arc wise???
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