Grrl Power #880 – Variable lethality
By “Variable,” Cora of course means “That depends on what I’m shooting and where I hit them.” I suppose that applies to most non-AOE weapons, really.
My first draft had some Predator looking scrawl in panel 5 there, but I thought that wasn’t particularly helpful, so it’s been translated for your convenience.
So, the “stasis” gun doesn’t stop time, because if you reference your technobabble lookup table, it’s too power inefficient to do so. It’s like accelerating mass to light speed without cheating with spacial compression or just straight up warp nonsense. Basically, slowing time to 10% takes 100 energoid-hours, slowing it to 9% takes 200 energoid-hours, slowing it t0 8% takes 400 e/h, 5% takes 3,200 e/h, etc.
At least, that’s how the gun works. The stasis pod is more efficient because it’s maintaining a time slow field inside layers of other fields, and those usually have much larger power cells than a rifle. They can put 10 fields that each slow time by 15%, which is far more power efficient.
Basically what’s happening here is the gun is trying to keep Maxima at something like 2 or 3% speed, but as she realized something is wrong, and is using super speed to compensate, the gun is like “I don’t know what’s happening here, so I’m going to double fist your power cell to attempt to keep things stable. Please be alarmed if your gun starts getting really hot.”
“Torchy” is probably a racial slur, but a fairly mild one. Whatever Torchy is, her race definitely has some demon or devil in their ancestry, neither one is usually ever described as a snowflake. If you call a Marileth a six-armed snake-butt, their first instinct isn’t to go cry about it on Space Twitter. Succubi have certainly heard their share of slurs. On top of all the usual female derogations, they get stuff like “Horned Hussy” or “Homewrecker on hooves.” At least the ones that actually have horns and hooves, that is. Even without their glamors, succubi have morphologically and chromatically enjoyed the spice of life. No, not Melange. Variety. Most have horns. Some have hooves, some do not. Some have that little tail with the spade thing on the end. That has to get caught on stuff. Walking through the woods with a spade tail is probably like pulling a DVI cable out of a big tangle of wires. You know, the ones with the big screw things on the side that get caught on everything? Man, I’m glad we’re moving past stupid cable connectors. USB C fo lyfe!
Oh shoot, I forgot to draw Torchy’s wrist forcefield thingy.
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Since 1% of Maxima is still fast as hell, a fair few zeros are needed after the decimal. To make that fit, maybe the gun scales with size of field and distance as well? Made for harmlessly catching some huge beastie from a distance by slowing it to 2-10% of its speed for a brief bit, it can scale up the time dilation massively when used on a smaller creature at close range.
Looks like it auto scales the output to compensate for the speed of whats contained in it. The 99% drain on the battery must be highly unusual. Aliens are new to supers and Max normaly sits at three out of five for super speed.
The question is, is she currently at three or has she Increased it to 5 already. Mach the knife didnt get rated for comparison i think.
Don’t forget, she can overcharge abilities past 5.
Her going beyond 5 is questionable given her fight with vehemance unless he also did. I dont think such forces were shown though especially as she cant even scratch Archiles.
She can overcharge one ability beyond 5 at a time, that’s how she was able to prevent being pounded into gold-dust (she wasn’t able to do anything else like fight back because it was all defense)
Maybe that 99% doesn’t refer to a 1:100 ratio at which time is elapsing, but how close to its maximum power the gun is running at. Like a throttle. Or a dethrottle? Is that a word, or did I brake English? Crap, inventing words always makes me choke.
I would say you’re right, since that’s the interesting information in a fight: how close is my gun to failing and melting me is often more interesting for mercenaries than how slow is my essentially motionless target moving.
another reason I think you’re right is that it’s named “draw” instead of “dialation”
“Even if you filled the hull with pure neutronium, it would not be enough the reactor. They have a power supply, that while not infinite in strength, is virtually inexhaustable” -paraphrase from E.E.Doc Smith Skylark book series.
Ooooo battery tech sucks galaxy wide too.
That moment you realise that skimping on your offense means repeating a new life grind.
Rock, slingshot, BFG9000 – your choice.
there is also the secondary and tertiary aspects of the power supply.
the transmission and application of the energy.
You don’t need to drain the battery of the ship, if you can overtax and either trip the surge protector to prevent an explosion, or burn out the mechanism. Say the device can detect resistance to the field, so draws more power; if you can hit the point where the mechanism can’t draw more power from the battery or other energy source than the mechanism can withstand passing through it then it burns out; then you are free.
-you don’t need to overpower the power plant, just the light bulb in the room.
*using that example most machines can’t keep increasing power beyond a certain point for safety reasons, machines that can keep drawing power can be burned out if forced to operate at peak levels constantly *heating element in stove or dryer for instance*, and any device designed to draw more power when needed tends to have surge protectors to shut it down if it exceeds tolerance…don’t have that…then it breaks.
My example may have been a bit obscure. Btw( those books that, while a bit dated, are really good sci-fi)
That stasis gun has a limited supply of power in terms of mass and volume. Also, assu
med is that it’s not externally powered. This has kind of been implied via ‘just recharged ‘ remark.
My comment was more about Maximas source of power, which has not been defined
or stated. So for all we know Max could be pulling from a source that is larger than the combined output of the entire multi-verse. Might be similar to Sydneys comment about her pewpew beam and “touching a star”
Aka: MIB ‘size does not matter’ aka channeling the entire output of galaxy sized subatomic energy source’ eg vast energy, b7t limited nozzle.
Ah, I see, a lot of talks have been about the device losing power rapidly and the idea the stasis pod could draw power from a ships battery so last; ignoring the other elements that are causing the faster drain *Maxima is resisting the field*, that she is taxing the mechanism that is set up to draw more power when resisted (something that isn’t as universal as people think, like for example the Evil Dead remake having the turkey carver cause a black out…it wouldn’t supercharge when it hit bone to try and cut through the greater resistance, that tech would just get stuck…yeah moments in action and horror movies that aren’t explained as supernatural but are supposed to be explained by mundane means yet defy how they work or physics stand out to me).
So yeah, just assumed the power consumption comments were another of the (just use a bigger battery)…never mind why fuses can be blown; or are a thing in the first place.
As for Maxima and her source of power, that takes me back to an old character I made back when I was trying to do super hero stories, Galaxy Girl, she was the living avatar of an entire Galaxy and had access to all that power; but it was being channeled through a human sized avatar. She could adjust her physical powers to interact with the world and project energy and basically be a combination Supergirl and a Saiyen (had weird ki like techniques as well); but because it was being funneled through a human sized avatar there was a limit to how much power could be used at a time and how strong the avatar could be made before being a threat to its own structural integrity and the world around them. (I was really big on physical limitations at the time and making reasons why something structured like a person could physically have such resistances). But working around a character like that did produce a lot of critical thinking, balancing suspension of disbelief and elements that are (its a power fantasy just go for it).
Yup. Was watching TED talks about developing Thorium-232 reactors Lifters(sp) for clean safe power again.
They mention that a pea sized amount ,about 0.5in diameter, could power a city of one million for a thousand years.
So I think , what if they could also make the tech small enough to fit a D-cell battery? So about power for a million for one year. Easily enough for a lightsaber for life.we are just scratching the surface of big power.
Heck, we just recently discovdred the third form of carbon, the fourth state of matter (plasma) What if there was another form(s) of ‘electricity?’ – see the subatomic zoo, bozon particle etc
IMHE, battery durability is always behind our power requirements. This is mostly due to capitalism – every advance in battery technology is instantly scooped up by companies that compete to build devices with new abilities that use that added battery capacity. Before you know it, everybody is complaining that the batteries can’t keep up again.
More likely, it’s a power-cell and not a battery- cell.
To wit. gasoline: ~46 MJ/kg. Lithium Ion battery: ~0.4 MJ/kg.
To be fair, gasoline has to mix with O2, but even if you cut the gasoline value by 90% to account for what it takes to include LOX in your fuel cell so that it can push out power at peak rates, you’re still miles ahead of any battery.
For military/mercenary use, she’s probably opted for something more high-end (cause you know, lives depend on it). Perhaps not gasoline powered, maybe micro-fusion, plausibly portable fission (self-depleting uranium rounds, double as a fuel cell nd armor-piercing penetrtors!, and maybe a high-spun pair of neutronium disks for simple kinetic storage, but whatever it is, my money’s on something unlike your chemical battery.
A nanotech battery could have significantly higher energy densities. I watched a show with Michio Kaku where they were trying to design a light saber. One of the big hurdles they had to overcome was the energy draw. They talked about the energy densities possible with a nano particle battery and he stated that they could get energy densities high enough in a flashlight size to power a city for a week or so, if I remember correctly.
the average consumer doesn’t know the difference and will refer to both as batteries…heck cells get labeled as batteries when you buy them. So while not technically true, it is excusable thanks to general word use; so long as you aren’t being an engineer.
I am unsure how nano-anything trumps nuclear power…. but ok.
No idea, maybe he’s thinking of micro-filament conductors or something.
I found the vids on youtube – interesting. It relates to energy density. EG how electrons can be stored per cubic cm.
Well with current carbon nanotubes they are like metals and can have a Huge area to keep free electrons. They cigure se will have ,in 50grs or so,a battery that could store enough energy to power a city (but now for how long)
Not related to this episode but just started re-reading from the beginning again and noticed in #4 that sydney is exiting from the church version comic shop and nor the strip mall version. Good job dave on continuity management.
Oooo, Orrr… DaveB doing a bit of revsionist history.
One advantage of interactive and non static media. Valve did it for the ending of Portal. When Portal 2 released they went back and changed the ending of Portal. Probably for continuity. One discovered disadvantage to printed books. C9uld be cixex with books ver 2.x and user moddable spines. AKA spiral binders
someone is about to get in a hell of trouble
Love Maximas “I’m totally pissed off” villain glare side view in this episode though.
Called it…not a full on stasis gun, merely a dampener. This is going to end quickly.
I’m sure for 99.9% of people in the universe it is essentially a full stasis gun. :)
The fun thing being two of the only people for whom it’s not are in this battle
The phrase is “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Doesn’t matter how many contacts. :)
Wait, that comment didn’t even make sense. Misremembering the phrase + copy-pasting it…
The two maxims of command, “No plan survives implementation” and “The enemy makes plans too.”
Which is precisely why we’re following this storyline, and not Joel running the comic shop or Arianna* editing spreadsheets.
* seriously though, shouldn’t some Archon merch have hit the shelves by now?
But have you ever seen the flight sim in those programs?
Yes, although sadly ’97 was the last one with really good easter eggs. Although I understand you can get extensions for modern versions that add all kinds of [strike]games[/strike] other tools.
Cue music from ‘Cars’ “Ok. Here we go. Focus. Speed….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4LaYn0541ro
“Slowly she turned….” I’m not getting anything as to the age on this one…. but if playing the age of references, but Dabbler in giving our antagonist the taunting nickname (For the glowing torch thing floating about her forehead ring) with her depleting power issues & those wondering if the name is a slur of some kind. I am going to refer you to a very old childrens puppet TV series by Gerry “Thunderbirds” Anderson.
The series depicted adventures of the boy doll, who had a battery inside him and a lamp in his head.
If you haven’t got it by now….
Torchy – The Battery Boy (or girl in this case).
I was not fond of the Justice League movie, (I refuse to ever watch Snyder’s cut) but one of my favorite scenes where the newly revived Karl-El was trouncing the big hitters and Flash hit the speed on to help. Just his look as he realized Kal was tracking his every move and was just as fast.
I’m surprised I had to come this far to see someone reference it, as soon as I saw 7-9 I thought “someone’s seen Justice League. Was a cool moment in an otherwise shit movie. Link for anyone who hasn’t seen it:
https://youtu.be/xy62MyYWnU4?t=88
Dabbler: “Oh, You thought we were trying to save Max! Ha! Cute, No Sweety, it’s your ass we are looking out for.”
OK I must admit that I did not spot the slight bug problem, on my 1st read through!
In my defence, Dabbler was just too gorgeous for me to notice such trivia.
Now that the enemy has named off and called in ALL their members, meaning now ALL combatants from the large crowd will be identifiable, Maxima will have no reason to play possum *what I suspect she has been doing* for the enemy to reveal themselves fully or put their guard down and just power through the beam now. Also the rest of the team; I suspect are either on crowd control or to intercept them.
So the stasis beam is some kind of inertia and momentum dampener? Makes sense, rip out the wiring of a space ship that keeps you from being crushed into the back of the seat and walk around normal during flight and weaponize it to correspond to the much larger gravitational and movement of the planet and you’d affectively freeze small objects in place. Until they move faster and can break the gravitational hold of the object they are relative too. Same affect for kinetic containment, only that would be strength to power through, inertia/momentum dampener would be speed to over power *either way its still technically force only applied differently*.
Probably not playing possom, so much as reacting to suprise. the old “I wasnt ready for panic vomit” routine, it takes her subjective time to move her stats around. if it’s been 30 seconds, and the ray is 99% slowing, she’s had 1/3 of a second since the world started moving at warp speed for her.
I was hoping it wasn’t that easy to capture her. ^_^
Maybe after this the universe won’t underestimate humans… or at least Maxima. :D
I wonder what Halo is up too. Did they capture her as well?
I’ve been waiting for this to… I can only assume she is going to do something ridiculous at roughly the same time the status field goes down. She’s been conspicuously absent for a while now.
I am thinking one or more of them already intercepted the stasis pod off panel. Probably see either it burned up by Heatwave, entangled by Mr. Amorphous, or entangled and crushed in the lighthook by Halo.
My bet is on all three
Of all the supers, the alien mercs would most like Maxima and Halo. Dabbler is nearly as powerful but her abilities are already known. So it would be typical that this alien traps Maxima at the same time that Crimoon traps Halo. But they only brought one stasis pod….
they have no reason to go after Halo, the space cops didn’t see her as she wasn’t at the Fel battle, and even if the Alari had defense satelites still functioning and witnessed Halo’s battle against the titanic planet wreckers being an imperialistic society and not part of the Xevoarchy would have kept that data in-house; so they’d know nothing about her other than she is someone doing customs works with orbs floating around her head. Remember Nth tech is so advanced it looks just like magical bobbles or ornaments unless scanned with something that can pick up something suspicious about them like how they exclude magic so they are suspiciously empty spaces to magic. Even if she fights her basic combat abilities aren’t anything to trigger a red flag of being anything special unless she opens an Aetherium causeway (so far the only thing that visibly gives away how advanced the orbs are).
I love that nervousness in panel 3, you can tell she’s thinking how much she wants this situation back under control.
Now for the real issue. What song should start playing as Maxima enters the fight?
My pick is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLLEZlhToeQ
You know this one is toast when they don’t even warrent showing up on the cast page.
In the immortal words of the immortal Alucard:
“You done goofed!”
When in the presence of Maxima, he may wish to avoid one of his other common lines:
“Big tittied police girl”
I don’t think that quote is exactly cannon, but I love the reference to to Hellsing Abridged. Eeryone, look it up even if you aren’t familiar with the anime.
…I’ve read the manga, seen the original anime (both sub and dub), seen the new anime (both sub and dub), and read the entire HellSING! fansite, and I’ve never seen either of these lines…
Hellsing Abridged by Team Four Star on YouTube, a fan made dub of the Hellsing anime (one of the versions anyway), very hilarious and well worth a watch (especially since it’s a rare fandub that is complete).
Also recommend DBZ Abridged by the same group (not complete but it does run to the end of the Cell saga, sadly they’re not continuing it, at least that’s the current state).
addition, the DBZ abridged dub starts off pretty weak, the Saiyen saga is their worst, but they really hit their stride with the Frieza saga and becomes pure gold during the android and cell sagas.
They decided to stop before the Buu saga for a wide variety of reason, such as wanting to do other work, not feeling the Buu saga gave them good material, and so forth…but they have continued in a way with Dragon Ball Shortz, which are computer animated slice of life comedies following their own post Cell saga continuity.
This is page #559 all over again :D
What even is debuffs to Max.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-559-the-guardian-needed-an-upgrade-anyway/
“Uuuh, I feel so weak… like I can only fly five times the speed of sound, or lift only 20 times my weight…”
To be fair that aura did debuff Max but in the same vein as Deanatay, 10% of ridiculously strong is still really damn strong.
Is Crimoon a curse word or person?
by context it is the person who has the stasis pod.
Probably not.
First off, how often do your awkward, blocky hands get caught on stuff? Humans have this thing called kinesthetics, where we have an awareness of our body and its motions. A being with a tail isn’t going to get it caught on things any more often than a tailless person gets their arm or leg caught on things.
Second off, a tail travels behind you. Anything your body clears is by definition already cleared for your tail, unless you’re moving through a big tangle of wires or the like.
so never stubbed a toe have you? Bumped your hand into a wall, hit a shin on a coffee table, tripped on a root, it happens.
Gotten belt loops caught on drawers? Keychains on doorknobs? Kinesthetics ain’t all that and a bag of chips. XD
I broke my sunglasses bumping my head into the frame of the car door loading groceries into it, I am convinced if I had a tail I’d have slammed it into a door at least a few dozen times…done it to my foot before for crying out loud. Heck people bite their own tongues sometimes while talking. Yeah if people had tails America’s Funniest Home Videos would have had tons of videos of people tripping on them, accidentally slamming them into things, grandpa at Christmas sticking his tail in the fireplace without realizing it and the family putting him out. Especially if they are the less than leg length tails like the little demon ones or nekojin tails that are in the air swishing about.
Kinesthetics is the awareness of your body and its motions. Neither a belt loop nor a key ring held in your hand qualify as parts of your body. That said, if getting things attached to your body by just a couple inches (your clothing, things held in your hand, etc.) entangled with, hooked by, or jammed up against objects is common for you, you might want to seek out medical advice for your sub-standard level of coordination.
Dude, nobody is 100% aware of where all their body parts and attached accoutrements are all the time, let alone the exact position and direction of all objects surrounding them. If humans had tails, I guarantee there would constantly be cases where they got caught in closing doors, under rocking chairs and the occasional moving vehicle tire – there’s just too much going on all the time for us to keep track of every single thing. Kinetsthetics isn’t a superpower. Have you ever gotten a bit of skin pinched in a tool you were using or an object you were holding? Geeze, man, maybe you should go see a doctor. /sarcasm
And all those freaking rocking chairs… myouch!
I never said that a stubbed toe or whatever never happens. But if it’s happening to you on a daily or even a monthly basis, you should probably see a doctor because that’s a level of clumsiness that seems to be unhealthy.
I’m no Olympian, but my getting ready for bed routine involves me stripping down to my boxer briefs, flipping off the light switch, and then walking across the room and around the bed in the dark while taking off my glasses, and placing them on top of the book leaning up against the side of the bookcase next to my bed, then slipping into the bed and getting the covers and pillow comfortable. All done in the dark and without stubbed toes or dropped glasses or tripping over the edge of the bed or knocking over a lamp. Every single day. Kinesthetics is all that, and a bag of chips.
It wasn’t stated the spade tail would get caught on stuff all the time, only that it would have to and he did list walking through the woods specifically. Just like tripping over the occasional root or bumping your head on a branch. Just another body part out there for the world to take a swing at. I suppose we could observe animals with tails and how often they get briars, or stepped on and such; granted not many examples of those with spikes or spades or clubs around these days to observe. Although it seems unlikely the Stegosaurus couldn’t be found occasionally with bush branches between its tail spikes like a deer’s antlers occasionally getting vines and twigs in them.
But I still insist, if people had tails you would have an America’s Funniest home videos (or youtube for you younger crowd…or tiktok for even younger I guess…) video of someone’s grandpa accidentally sticking his tail too close to a fire.
Probably just bits of Thag.
I almost did call it a thagomizer but thought too few would know about that. LoL
I think everyone is UNDERestimating the planning this team has done. They’re still woefully underprepared, but consider these points:
1) They’ve had enough time to research what news/vidoes there are of Max, and they maybe realize that Max is a feminist.
2) Ray may have been chartered specifically to be a distraction/focus, to get her into a place where they can get her without interference.
3) They landed in a heavily-populated urban area, probably to keep her from using any devastating attacks.
4) They probably landed in her country, suspecting/knowing that she would be summoned to oversee
5) They landed far enough from her HQ to probably keep her whole team from deploying
I think Torchy jumped the gun on the capture. She saw the shot, and took it. Any decent plan would have been for Crimoon to unload the stasis pod and have it ready to bring in immediately after capture. Of course, that assumes the stasis pod is theirs. Stasis Pods could also be the galactic equivilent of a lifeboat, and maybe he’s trying to steal one of Ray’s to use. And Ray stikes me as the type of guy that might not necessarily have working lifeboats, and/or would have them really well locked down.
And, of course, we’ve only seen a few members actually participating. Halo, Heatwave and Mr. Amorphous aren’t on-screen yet, and there’s someone else on 869 between Max and Sydney that I can’t place – Harem, maybe? Of course, they have a much better idea of what Max IS capable of, and maybe are trying to create a perimeter.
Also, why did it take me this long to realize the glowing thing on Torchy’s head is an eye?
that would require too many certainties over chaotic variables; several of which by actions alone can be deduced to have no knowledge of. Which would come to Light Yagami levels of Xanatos Gambit BS.
Agree that it’s a long shot to plan all that, but I do really like the theory about stealing the ship’s emergency stasis pod instead of packing their own. Solves a lot of issues with them loading one onto a tourist ship; guns could be smuggled on one’s person, but a coffin-sized device is much harder to sneak in / justify.
Besides one sneak Hanatarō Yamada shinten squirt gun, and it’s all over.
“THAT’S IT VERMIN! WILL KIL….ZZzzzzzz.”
So she’s underestimated them, called out her whole team numbers 6, (7 if she didn’t count the one that is now grappled and choked out). Apparently doesn’t have a backup plan and a backup plan for the backup plan. I’m thinking they are not some specialized force, but a group who thought they could come to this backwater planet and do a quick snatch and grab for some money like they have done before. (As evident by some of the newer gear that people are calling dibs on).
I don’t see this lasting as long as the restaurant fight.
The question is who gets the gear when these people are arrested. I’m thinking the Arc team will be quick to try and snatch this up.
Sorry 7 or 8. Don’t know if Crimoon is an exclamation or a name of someone she’s is calling to bring the Pod in.
well the gear is evidence, so after that is over it will likely end up snatched up by the government to study.
also yes, it is looking like they thought Maxima was the ONLY threat they’d face, and we’ve looked over this whole set up from the last few pages and they either had next to no plan, needlessly set up a get away that was different from their infiltration and planned to go hunt down Maxima after disembarking; or something fishy is going on there as they’d have had no way to know as a complete perfect certainty that she’d show up at this tour bus landing.
(and no, the fact she took down an alien invasion is not reason enough to believe she’d show up also at a tour bus…landing half a continent away from the previous battle),
so I am calling these the type of goons who go through pointless hoops thinking they are smart when they actually aren’t; they are just usually better armed. But smart enough to keep some forces out of the initial conflict to not give away their numbers completely in case of greater resistance than expected.
but clearly these guys had no idea what they were in for. If anyone knows supers then they know unless you are an S-class yourself (or an Omega), or have a team of like ten A-class supers. YOU DO NOT mess with an S-class.
to paraphrase Shocker, “if you see a guy like Daredevil or Punisher a guy like me might stand a chance; but you see a Hulk or a Thor and you run the other way”
Math already called out the “3 steps ahead” rule; Plan B and Plan C really ought to bring more friends with them.
Why not try to keep your chocolate out of your peanut butter? Just because you’ve got an alien species that has a little flame thing on their forehead, why does this have to mean that they have demon/devil ancestry? Are demons just a different alien species in your universe? Or are you so unimaginative that you think that a little flame thing on the forehead just has to mean demonic ancestry, and can’t possible just mean “an alien with a little flame thing on the forehead who isn’t in any way automatically forced to also be associated with demons/devils just because demons/devils and fire are somehow closely associated in your tiny, little mind.”
Fuck!
I’ll point out that Dabbler is said to have some demon/devil ancestry, because succubus are demons in most folklore. And she has no fire on her.
I think the whole aesthetic of the character with the fangs, horns, big red eyes, not just the little flame thing is what is giving the whole demon vibe.
Also of note remember the previous time we saw one of this species they were just a random freaky character design among many; even stated as such; with no background world building designed yet. But hey, people liked the design and DaveB seems to, so scramble on it.
Blurb is a blurb, until its said in comic…although it would help to explain how they knew Dabbler was a succubus despite succubi having extreme variations in appearance for different species. But also yes, demon can be an alien and have tons of variations, just look at Disgaea; those Netherworlds are actually planets in space and have tons of different kinds of demons on them from pointy eared nearly look human to draconic, succubus, cat-girls, alraunes, freaky whatevers and so on.
I will agree though it is usually a bad idea to mix your genres too much; I failed miserably in my attempt to the point I can’t stand reading those stories anymore; sticking monsters, aliens, gods, wizards, and giant monsters all together in one setting, trickier than it looks. But so far DaveB has done a descent job of it.
u mad bro
Far more disgusted and disappointed than mad. Terrible writing is terrible. Terrible world creation is terrible. So many options are available, and to chose one which is cheap, trite, unimaginative and just plain bad is terrible.
If it’s so terrible, why continue reading it? There’s a fine line between constructive criticism and just hating shit because it isn’t done the way you want it to. You actually took time to write ‘Fuck!’ in the above comment, so clearly it’s very upsetting to you. Maybe you should go see a doctor? XD
And you actually took the time to write “u mad bro” in your comment, which means that you both read and felt the same need to respond to me that I felt to respond to the author. So, projecting a bit, are we? Perhaps it’s you who need that visit to the doctor?
Do you see how that works?
Next time, try to think just a little before you post. It might, but probably won’t, avoid exposing your idiocy, ignorance, and hypocrisy.
Panel 10 is the exact moment when the mercenary realized she done fucked up.
i really hope max is slowly dialing it up and is only at like 60percent speed due to dialation its slowly catching up to shifting to speed. then gone suddenly every bad guy has that ominus wind over shoulder “she can be anywhere” reaction and THUD whole bad guy team is down XD
as well to add have the vegito blue power up theme playing whole time XD
When that case give her another third of the second or so from her perspective and she’ll be Clark Kenting it up with the unfortunately the person that turned the gun on her. Too bad she’s no Green Lantern
The green lanterns would just stop the entire beam with their ring.
and I can see it in my head how the comic would explain that away.
Green Lantern trapped by stasis ring, but even caught the ring glows green and overtakes the stasis field; explained by saying all rings are connected to one another and the source of the green lantern power, able to act on its own when the bearer is so incapacitated.
Imma go out on a limb and bet that when Hot Stuff looks around, she’s going to discover that the Team has basically shut her entire merc squad down while she was busy being smug and having tunnel-vision.
Now, what I personally want to see is the lot of them suffering the indignity of being stuck in the Vault. Try to imagine how humiliating it would have to be to be subdued and imprisoned by a pre-FTL civilization. Not to mention having them reverse engineering your tech.
And I bring that up advisedly.
I’m wagering ARCHON would just about kill to get their hands on that stasis tech, specifically for the Vault. And the Universal* Translators would be a serious moneymaker.
Heck, the shipping industry would have a a field day.
Just imagine getting a freshly made 12 couse meal from [favorite overseas fancy food] that was stasis shipped, and the you stasis store it in your stasis food storage cube.
The Deathworlders series does some really fun and creative stuff with stasis fields, including replacing fridges / food warmers.
Can’t recall if it was there or Troy Rising where stasis fields were used in astro mining by deliberately passing the field boundaries through asteroids and clipping them into convenient sheets.
I kinda think they will release them. Provably to the xenoarchy, but they might try for amnesty as well. The tech will probably be bartered just like the fel ship.
In some ways the vault is problematic as both a knowledgebase, resourse and time bomb.
I was expecting the “slow turn” to happen immediately when it first happened. I actually like that it took a few pages. Makes Max to not be *entirely* OP.
Yeah, one weakness aura with one stasis gun would stop her.
*Remembering Sydney puke on Maxs boots.*
Yeah, she needs to know to be ready to activate her super speed.
Exactly. It would have taken her a moment to realize why everyone else was suddenly moving at blinding speed and re-spec accordingly.
‘So. You have chosen death.’
I actually do hope they whisk Max away…. I know it is unlikely but I always root for the bad guys, and to be honest someone as overpowered as Maxima would be truly humbled if she became the damsel in distress.
Call me what you will, but I also want The Punisher to hit accidentally sshoot a civilian kid in one of his careless gunfights, and for Superman to snort a line of powdered kryptonite.
Basically I’m a bit of a jerk, but I think it makes for good stories.
Let’s rub salt in that wound: Have Deus save her
The skeevy six:
Math, Cooter, Deus, Ray, Elf boy and Sydney’s customer of doom go on an epic journey to safe Maxima of the Syndicates.
Eeesh… I don’t know if I would go that far. Math and Deus would be overkill enough!
A. you never learned Maxim #37 of “The seventy maxims of maximally effective mercenaries”, did you? “There is no such thing as overkill only fire and reload”(unless the cost for the kill exceeds the gain of he kill or you’re on the other side)
B. Against a threath that could neutralize Mazima?
C. Muhaha. “If monsters become afraid of you, you know you’ve become a monster yourself”(which is very much out of context, since the quote was written by somebody who was talking about how good he had been at shooting nazis in an airplane)
I am thinking the status gun is projecting a force field that a) slows time inside the field and b) immobilizes the subject so that little jiggles from the outside do not translate into multi-G accelerations. Imagine time is running at 1% of time outside the field, then light outside the field would be incredibly blue-shifted entering the field. Visible light outside the field would become x-rays inside the field, then when those x-rays leave the field, they would return to being visible light; this would mean that everybody outside the field would be seeing a frequency shifted x-ray image of Max, as the x-rays would go through her clothing but not herself (see this reference image in panel 5). So Max may appear nude, or solid black if she just absorbs x-rays instead.
As for her eyes, what to her appears to be visible light, started outside the time-dilation field as far-infrared. You know that images that tell you how hot things are? That is kind of like what she is seeing of everything around her.
Yes, her super-speed is allowing her to react in a time frame that noticeable outside the field (and not just by crabs with a visual acuity that lets them notice the sun moving from second to second), but her super-strength is pushing against the “hold-fast” field, which is causing the power drain in the gun.
So now we know how big the abductor’s support team is. Too bad for her that Maxima has a fire team consisting of some of the most powerful people in the universe and she has some allies in the area that the abductors really want not coming to Max’s aid. Not just because of extra numbers, but also many of them are almost as powerful as Max. Semper Fidelis (I am sure some of Archon used to be Marines) plus Semper Vigilantis would be unstoppable!
I never noticed that the flame eye was fully expressive. Nice touch.
My favorite aspect of this species.
Maybe it’s used for navigation, a pilot so to speak.A bit fishy for ya? Origins from the gas planet Bunsen. [Dodges produce]
I do so love villain reactions at moments like that. Got her fully charged stasis rifle, gets the drop from behind on the protagonist, certain that their fiendish plot has succeeded and all that’s left is the wrap-up party. But suddenly weapon gives a power drain alert and power’s dropping fast and then they look and realize THE VICTIM CAN STILL MOVE! Worse they’ve turned enough to look at them and clearly are NOT happy and fully aware of what’s going on and your back-up at this point is terrifyingly late when you thought you had all the time in the world to finish cleaning up things.
Darnit Dave…making me wish I made enough to donate in Patreon…instead I have to oogle censor bars.
“It was at this moment that Torchy knew. She fucked up.”
Assuming they put maxima in the stasis pod, escape from the rest, and escape from space police that Dabbler and Cora call… then what? Unless the plan is just to keep Maxima in stasis forever as a trophy, what is their plan for when they release her from it?
Hit her with a relativistic projectile just as the field powers down, in the hope of doing genetic analysis on some of the resulting debris cloud?
The common thought here has been brainwashed enforcer…extremely stupid idea, very dangerous.
the smart syndicate move would be to keep her in stasis, run scans and try to figure out how her power works to copy it, use little probes to try and get samples; and make your own clone army of her or enhance your own men.
Because OPTION A if there is a critical failure she will likely kill her captors.
Option B: enhance /create your own loyal soldiers.
and prey that this mysterious entity and her unknown origin symbiote doesn’t have a hive mind queen function that causes everything you made to immediately become loyal to their progenitor should she awaken from stasis.
*Maxima breaks free from the stasis, overpowering the engines after years have gone by.
*Every clone created from her stops, symbiote minds link to her own, share memories with her and her with them.
“the queen mother has awakened, vengeance for the hive!”
Up until now, the only data off-world concerning Maxi was what the Space-Cops observed: ie golden-apparent skin, energy-projectile capable of downing a battle-cruiser
NOTHING about speed, or strength, or, well, anything else
*sees Max’s slow turn*
Oh, there are not enough words in ANY of the languages spoken in that square today to properly elucidate the sheer level of f–ked you are.
Not even if we include Dabbler.
Well, they sorta do.
“Don’t break the cutie”
Followed closely by
HAMMERSPACE!
Based on Max being able to easily surpass Mach 4, that puts her at more than 200x normal speed, 2% of which would still be >4x normal speed while in the stasis field. For another comparison, catching a bullet is >100x normal speed. A slow turn is falling way short of her capabilities.
It’s still way more than she should be capable of doing at all
So, it sounds like a good win condition for the heroes would be to destroy the stasis pod as soon as it shows up, because the odds are the aliens can’t keep Maxima in stasis long enough to get her anywhere without it.