Grrl Power #856 – Space kickstand
This is one of those pages where the Grrl-verse kind of got away from me. I hadn’t ever intended to grant Peggy a new leg, but… for Cora and her level of technology, it’s a trivial fix. They don’t want to give her a cybernetic leg, or a hard light one like what Cora has, because that would be handing Earth tech they haven’t earned yet, but growing a new leg from her DNA and attaching it with the stuff in their med bay wouldn’t pollute Earth’s tech tree in any way.
Cora and crew probably aren’t hanging around on Earth for too long, I haven’t quite decided how some storylines are going to shake down, but the fact that they need to be around to attach the leg means Peggy won’t lose her handicapped parking sticker quite yet, whatever she decides to do with the appendage in a bottle there.
It’s kind of funny, I recently had someone message me and say “Thanks for the amputee representation.” but I was setting this up as early as Peggy’s absence from the gun range when Sydney discovered her smart glasses. And again when she got the selfie from Frix. If you look real close by Frix’s side, you can see Peggy’s arm. You can tell it’s her because it has her color banded tattoo on the right side that goes down below her elbow. It’s honestly pretty hard to see.
Anyway, after I got the message, I was like “Thanks, and/or you’re welcome?” Hah hah ho-boy. But like I said it’ll be a while before any progress is made on that front.
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Disabled people handle being disabled, better than “able” people can. I do speak for myself, my knees are getting worse, and I may need a cane at all times to get around, however the Asthma and Emphysema , may kill me first.
Feel that! 3 black styles Half a dozen weapon styles at expert or better and need a cane to get out of bed after 2 knee rebuilds. Once in warmed up its all good, but first fifteen minutes ugh!!!
I hear you! Former paratrooper here and suffered a TBI in Afghanistan. The TBI aggravated a preexisting cerebral aneurysm.
These days, getting out of bed is a fifteen minute affair, to give me time for my balance to normalize after sitting up. Really sucks when I have to urinate in the middle of the night.
I meant handling, their disability!
I had two steel rods inserted to straighten my spine (scoliosis) 37 years ago. I take a good amount of meds for chronic pain. I agree that disabled people find a way. I was born with a messed up back, so I don’t really know any different than making adjustments to my life depending on how my back feels, but I’ve made do with what I have and have lived a pretty happy life. Not that I would not take an offer from Cora to fix me up proper though.
I hear you. I was re-arming out of the safe in my trunk after work, and a 40mph WIND blew the trunk lid down onto my head. Exploded 3 disks and compacted the vertebrae. BARELY missed killing me outright or paralyzing me for life. Instead, I get a titanium plate and 3 fused neck vertebrae…which immediately start growing a forest of sharp bone spurs inside my spine. So I spend all day, every day, 24/7/365, in constant pain. And worst of all, it’s never the same pain twice. The bone spurs abrade my nerves randomly, and it could be as little as my hands aching or as much as everything hurting all at once, including my damned HAIR, I swear.
It exiled me from the mat pretty much permanently, and I had to find ballistic tools that wouldn’t send so much recoil up my arm into my neck because my poor .45 practically poleaxes me with pain if I shoot more than a few rounds. *sniffle* Thankfully, I found a Rock Island Armory 1911 in .22 TCM that’s a bleeding tack driver with a 40 gr. projectile going at 2000+ fps. That helps.
But I miss the Aikido mat. I can do a little randori from time to time, but it can’t be anything really strenuous or it could kill me. At least I got to learn Cane-Fu. I’ve got two combat-rated canes, one of white oak, the other of hickory heartwood. Sort of my “druid katanas”. Or wooden lightsabers.
But I have to take three different painkillers, two of them opiates, just to keep from screaming all day. It sucks. But I’m using the copious spare time from being permanently disabled to learn electronics, re-learn Morse code, build radios, and learn about 4 different musical instruments. Oh, and I learned sport lockpicking. It keeps the fingers supple and helps retrain the nerves so I can still feel my hands.
Oh, yeah…and I used to do a webcomic about 10 years ago.
And then, suddenly…
Deus on TV: “Tired of life being about who you know? Left with a bad hand because you don’t have friends in really, really high places? Machina Industries can get you to 100%!”
“Sign up now for our biological repair program! Order today and get another free limb of equal or lesser value!”
I had been thinking that Brooke might be tempted by an arrangement with Deus if he had the means to fix that toe, and with all that Fracture stuff, maybe he does. In any case she’s going to be plenty angry if she doesn’t get a piece of that from Cora.
I’m sold.
I hope they can fix my diabetes.
I thought it was called “Wilford Brimley Itis”.
Can they also fix people who can’t dance because they have two left feet?
Yes. You just need a hack buddy space tango. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-697-space-high/
If you don’t dance, you’re no friend of mine.
Any fantasy setting, by definition, offers fantastic solutions to real problems. In some ways that’s the whole point of fantasy.
It’s a lazy author that solves a character’s problem with magic and have everything go perfectly though, and this emotional conflict is very fitting. Without it, she’s just getting a cure that’s out of reach for others, but here it’s a perfect step in her whole character arc that will likely affect her future in many ways.
Every time a poor character gets a pile of money, every time a character wins a competition, the author has a chance to give empathy to those who have, and inspire those who have not.
Wow. Well said.
I have been a SciFi reader my entire life. I got tired of some of Asimov’s work. Some were really complex stories that provoked thought and introspection, and still provoke thought to this day. Others were just an excuse to solve problems with telepathy with no repercussions or character development. Those stories sucked! (They were more like watching the Superfriends on Saturday morning than reading Asimov. Maybe they were supposed to be the SciFi equivalent of children’s stories?) Even the great Asimov got lazy sometimes.
Thanks for putting into words something I have thought for a long time.
I’m trying to recall any of The Old Ones who was consistently… perfect? Even Simak slipped up a few times, and it wasn’t from lack of maturity. Doc Smith got a bit childish occasionally too, as did Stapledon…
Then first Simak, that I ever read, was published, in the 1960’s. It was titled, Time Is The Simplest Thing.
Ja, that — IM(NS)HO — stands as one of his best.
try the Miles Vorkosigian series by Lois Bujold ….. start with Shards of Honor and Barrayar …. i think you will like it ….
It’s even lazier author who does NOT (try to) solve character’s problems despite solution being obviously available.
While I agree with the sentiment, the responsibility card must be played judiciously and fit with the plot. If a supervillian were making comments about guilt like Peggy here, I’d be conflicted. On the one hand it’s a great message regardless of who speaks it – but on the other there’s some people who simply would not care.
So, while we’re dishing out “lazy author” comments, I think the laziest author plops out one-size-fits-all narratives whenever they get a chance to flex their personal politics.
Peggy feeling guilty is the antithesis of that. She doesn’t seem like the type to refuse goodwill out of hand but she also doesn’t seem the type to say “c’est la vie.” I like.
I know you’ve gotten complaints about the art style before, but Peggy’s face in the third panel is a really egregious example of why 3d-shaded faces need a lot more careful attention to detail than 2d stuff does. She looks deeply un-human. I feel like going into to much detail would make me sound like I care about it way more than I do, so I won’t, but there’s a lot of room for improvement in that particular aspect of the style.
It’s not the shading, and ‘going into to much detail’ and not doing so is because you care, and good artists like DaveB care as well, and great artists like DaveB make mistakes
There’s nothing wrong that I can see. I’ve been critiquing art for a long time.
The blown out lighting gives her an unearthly vibe while the downward viewport/camera angle* alters her body shape. You can argue it’s a poor combo artistically but in terms of rigor it’s absolutely fine.
* compare panels 3 and 6 for a good sense of how the perspective changes.
Wasn’t saying there was anything ‘wrong’, just, to me, panel three makes her look a little ‘monkey-ish’, specially with the lips and ears and how the head is more ’rounded’ than it normally is
And, also to me, it has nothing to do with the back-lighting
Maybe the angle just brings out Peggy’s inner nature? A glimpse of happier times?
You saying she looks “monkey-ish” is definitely saying she looks wrong. By definition. Her canon features do not look monkey-ish therefore a deviation from that norm is wrong, incorrect, invalid, improper. Unless, of course, the viewport/camera angle is facing downward and you apparently decide to be willfully ignorant of this after having it explained directly in response.
I’m not going to argue this matter. Either use English coherently or don’t write at all.
‘Wrong’ implies fault, in this case, it is simply ‘different’
And was saying it wasn’t due to the ‘blown out lighting’, neither the angle of the ‘camera’
You said mistake. Do note the third definition of fault. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fault
Also, the lighting is an opinion, but the angle is factually demonstrable. You’re wrong about that.
Here’s the definition of “mistake” in case you’re going to try redefining that word next:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mistake
Might as well toss in “wrong” while we’re at it; definition 3 in particular:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wrong
Well since we’re talking about art and not rigor, I don’t see how that’s relevant.
Loving the cross-eyed look from both Cora and Pegs as they look at the bling-glove :D
Cora is de-materializing her own hard-light hand prosthesis to remind Peggy that she also had to make the decision on whether to get a biological replacement.
Which is completely contrary to everything she has ever shared in the past about her evolution of prosthesis. Early on she was poor and made do with what she could, but there wasn’t a hint that she ever hesitated as she was constantly upgrading her prosthesis.
With Cora it seems like the hesitation would be far more of a “why downgrade back to flesh” thing rather than a “why do I deserve to have my flesh restored while others don’t thing.” We only saw her prosthetic evolution in a fairly brief montage, but in it Cora certainly never expressed any hesitancy about upgrading herself when others couldn’t afford to do the same.
I feel like with Cora it was a bit that, since she had a role in creating her own upgraded prostheses and thus the mechanicals are as much ‘her’ as the biologicals would have been, her perspective was more directly about Biological vs. Mechanical limbs.
Dave, my father has two total knees from his time in Vietnam and his best friend lost EVERYTHING from the waist down. Trust me when I say my father would tell Peggy to go for and maybe pass a few Cells along the way!
Great page
And last panel is istant ship XD (Coggy?)
No need to ship, the ‘extra’ at the bottom hints that Cora did sleep with Peggy. So, it’s canon.
I was wondering why she had an ordinary prosthetic instead of some sort of cyber leg from Dabbler.
I assumed it was due to Dabbler not sharing technology. My wonder now is why Dabbler didn’t use this to mend her eye?
Because her cyber eye can do way more than a ‘natural’ eye can (plus it’s fun to pop it out at parties ;) )
And it’s insertable and machine washable.
i’m in an weak point…. just where else could she insert it?
Lets just leave this as PG13… we don’t need to encourage the little blighters!
Let’s just say that Gwyneth Paltrow has nothing on Dabbler, and never will.
And restaurants.
And some aliens are more ‘friendly’ than others :winknudge:
Boldly go where no man has gone before.
I think the Babylon 5 version is a better fit:
‘boldly go where every man has gone before.’
I looked real close. I saw the arm. Yes, the tatoo was really hard to see. What wasn’t as hard to see was the shapely human-looking butt to the right, cavorting in the water. Who else went with Cora? Inquiring minds, and all that.
Indeed, let us admit that a shapely butt does not narrow down the list of potential characters by much. If at all.
Hey, has anyone seen Jiggawatt recently?
Said rear end seems to have a distinct yellow or gold colouration which suggests Gellen to me
My family has a very furry cat. She is the most kissed one in a household. Just sayn’
New toe for Heatwave?
Repair Jiggawatt’s inner ear?
Bio-muzzle for Sydney so if she’s in certain public or official situations she get’s zapped when she uses… “Big Grrl Language”?
So many uses… probably doesn’t hurt that Peggy is bi if I recall.
Misspelled my own posting name when I realized I forgot to add something onto that
“Kora and Peg look like a great couple in those panels” :)
Just did a re read, and you still have to fix Dabbler’s choker on page 547.
Aww, does Peggy have a new girlfriend?
Transgenders, do not want to be “fixed”, just getting GRS.
The would take a cure/wouldn’t take a cure thing is complex. Disabled people are divided on the issue, largely but not entirely dividing up by type of disability. Most paras are eager for a cure, sometimes to the detriment of everything else in their lives. Most amputees will probably take a similar position, yet there are amputees who elect for amputation even though fixing their damaged limb is possible, because it would just take too long. That’s the big question for Peggy. If she has to sit out being operational for a couple of years while she heals and rehabs then it’s a much more difficult question than if Cora can have her up and running in a couple of days. Even with a simple plug-in-and-go, there’s going to be a whole lot of physio and readjustment involved because her body will have to work out a new balance, have to remember to lift her toe when she’s walking and so on. And that’ll go much more than double if you’re talking about a para rather than an amputee.
And once you get outside those disabled by traumatic injury or late-appearing physical disabilities such as MND or MS, the reasons to opt for a cure become far less clear. The culturally Deaf are adamant they don’t need ‘fixing’, as are a large proportion of those of us who are neurodiverse. Meanwhile those who’ve had a missing limb from birth, or other disability arising from birth or early childhood, may not only struggle to see the point of changing the way they’ve lived their entire life, they’d potentially be faced with learning to walk from scratch, or to use a limb they’ve never had. Things the body learns automatically as a child are much more difficult to learn by design as an adult.
And of course there’s the medical unknowns. Some of the attempts to treat spinal injuries with stem cells have been linked to tumours appearing years later. Cora and Frix might be around to splice that leg on to Peggy, but are they going to be around for once-yearly physicals?
I’m a wheelchair user, a cure would have to be very well proven, for my specific combination of disabilities*, and pretty trivial in terms of time required, for me to even consider it.
* I’m really not convinced that’s possible, it would need you to take me apart and rebuild me at the sub-cellular level, without that affecting the way my brain is put together.
Er, would you mind if we take a gratuitous detour through this Wormgate, and the F’Sherl-Ganni can make a clone or two for us to study?
“The culturally Deaf are adamant they don’t need ‘fixing’, as are a large proportion of those of us who are neurodiverse.”
I guess I’m technically “neurodiverse”, having Asperger’s syndrome. Took me until I was past middle aged to learn human social interactions well enough to find a wife, and I still get told I have a strange personality, so I’m not passing for neurotypical, just getting by.
At this point it’s a fundamental basis of my personality, a non-Asperger’s Brett would be entirely somebody else. But if I could have gotten a “cure” when I was young, 60 year old me would have said to go for it. It really IS a handicap not instinctively grasping social interactions, and needing to decode other people’s moods like they were some alien species. I spent a lot of time unhappy before my “Gorillas in the Mist” study of humanity finally paid off. Probably half my life.
As for the culturally deaf, I’ve got no problem with them wanting to continue the way they are, but denying the next generation hearing just so the culture can go on is just child abuse.
The problem with ‘fixing’ neurodiversity is it probably means completely rewiring the brain at the cellular level – so it’s not even this is your brain on Windows vs this is your brain on MacOS, it’s switching out the entire processor architecture. If you go through a change that profound, do you come out the other end of it as the same person? I strongly suspect not.
I think a lot of us here are Americans (I’m not one on purpose, I promise you all that). I don’t hide stuff, especially not from you guys (if you’ve noticed my comments over the years). So I’ll chime in since this topic is one I know pretty well.
I used to climb mountains to take pictures of sunsets and desert mountain flowers. Now I’m a wheelchair user and can’t safely walk to my fridge 20 feet away.
I’m on permanent disability, but I don’t know exactly what disability got me on. It could be…
Emotional Disabilities: PTSD, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, pseudobulbar affect, clinical depression, schizophrenia
Cognitive Disability: autism spectrum disorder (Asperger’s)
Physical Disabilities: hypertension, hypoglycemia, mobility issues
But let’s say it’s my wheelchair use. I would love to be able to be a hiker and mountaineer again. However, if I did get that fixed, it then has to be fixed in my head. I’ve mostly forgotten how to walk at this point. Let’s say both are fixed. Okay, well now I’m kicked off disability- and my income, medical care, meals on wheels, and Section 8 all get cancelled because of it.
I can’t get healed, even if magical means existed. I’d die on the street of starvation and weather exposure if I did.
That’s a particularly good point. Disability benefit systems are not known for their nuanced understanding of “I’m getting better, but it’s likely to take several years where I’ll still need the benefits.”
In Panel one…Sydney is wearing her ubiquitous yellow sneakers, but in Panel 4, she’s wearing her uniform boots…. (At least, I *AS-U-ME those are her toes in mid-air next to Peggy?)
No, panel one is Sydney’s boots coloured wrong (her sneakers aren’t calf-length)
I wonder if there will ever be a spin-off series of the adventures of Cora’s crew
“Duck Dodgers in the 25th Century” episode?
The kiss in the final panel is SO adorable.
More than panel two? o_O
Yeah. Peggy’s expression makes it so.
Are those supposed to be Sydney’s shoes it panel 4? Because they don’t seem to match panel 1.
Yeah, the shoes are the correct shape in panel one, just the wrong colour
Last!
The Minnow.
I don’t get the extra panel. Is there something I’m forgetting?
I think they’re implying that Peggy has slept with Cora, and since it was earlier implied that Hiro (and Math) also slept with Cora, they’re having a similar moment of awkwardness to the one Sydney has earlier after discovering that Dabbler has also fooled around with Frix.
“Peggy might have to start going by…”
…
OH MY GOD HER NAME IS A PUN
MY LIFE IS A LIE AND MY BRAIN IS MADE OF JELLY