Grrl Power #912 – Maximum trauma!
Well that seemed to have shut Sydney up.
There were a few comments on the previous page about how that guy’s arm will be useless now. You were correct.
So yeah. I expect some, heh, mixed reactions to today’s comic, from “He deserved that.” to lectures on how fantasy depictions of using horrific ordnance on criminals is probably bad and only just a little bit funny. Well, Sydney’s face there in panel six makes me laugh every time I look at it.
I went back and forth if I wanted to go through with it, but this is what I had planned from the beginning of this sequence. Remember way back in like page 194 where I was like “I don’t know how much gore I’m going to put in the comic” and then much later Sciona bisects Cooter because I thought it’d be funny? Good times. Still, this isn’t exactly new behavior for Cora.
BTW, That’s not a tentacle on Sydney’s shoulder. It’s a vertical selection of rib meat.
Check the vote incentive to see Sydney not naked. And then there’s the Patreon version.
(. )( .)
( .)( .)
(. )(. )
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
oh boy, it must be a terrible thing to be bathe in someone else insides… but damn I’m laughing so much I’m scared for my mental health.
also, he did deserved that.
dead is dead, doesn’t matter much how.
Probably matters a lot to Sydney. Not really a more traumatic way for Cora to have handled that.
Poor sydney. Every time there’s something gruesome that happens, she’s never okay with it. She’s gotten over it the other two times pretty quickly though (first with Maxima blowing off Vehemence’s arm, then with the Fracture mugging aftermath).
You forgot her ‘bath’ in the scab-oatmeal (and she had her mouth open that time… )
I’m sure Sydney wishes she could forget that as well. :)
Well… doesn’t matter to the dead, probably matters for Sydney’s mental health and likely for encouraging the additional bad guys to surrender… that’s, of course, if Cora gives them time.
That also depends on if the dead guy isn’t really dead but just needs to reassemble himself…
The immediate smell would have been pretty different than an earth conventional bullet to the head.
That can *not* be sanitary.
Same! Every single time I re-read this page, I simply cannot hold back a laugh when I get to panel 6. Literally every single time!
For some reason im now thinking of the tentacle closet.
Rib meat. Hmm. Now I want some barbecue.
we have it on poor authority that it tastes like chicken, which does not have much flavor.
Actually, according to cannibals, humans taste like pork. One tribe even called human meat “long pig”.
There’s a book called Alive about the Uruguayan soccer (football) team that had a plane crash in the Andes and they were trapped there for about a year and wound up eating their dead to survive. I think they went into detail about what different body parts and human organs tasted like.
I have that one in my “to read” stack…
It’s a really good book. There’s a movie also. Movie’s okay too.
Yeah, but they have since retracted that meaning, because they still use the word to refer to all White Europeans
Who retracted that meaning?
The maori
Hooboy. Syd’s gonna need some serious trauma counseling.
BAHAHAHAHA!
HOLY SHIT!
O_O
….holy shit…
Will…will he be okay? Maybe a bandaid? Maybe some neosporin?
*innocent doe eyed look*
Motrin. Definitely Motrin.
That’s what my Marine’s used to ask for, literally all the time.
He’ll be fine, he’ll wake up tomorrow feeling refreshed and wander outside wandering what happened, and why the city is eerily quiet that day…until a swarm of quill rats descends on him tearing him apart in tiny bite size chunks; then he wakes up again whole not far away…and something else equally or more horrifying happens him to him till it dawns on him where he is.
Nonsense.
That is entirely too much effort expended.
The best solution would be to simply plant him in the Pain Fields, and harvest his suffering.
Hmm, you have a point he was a narcissist who enjoyed having power over others to violent extremes. Planting him somewhere where all he can do is Scream and try and claw at his own flesh or something else is where no one not even himself will ever day his name, see his face, or ever acknowledge him as anything but background or crops ever again.
The False Earth hells on the other hand are more psychological and for general mixed sins populations to wander the surreal and twisted mirror world. Where they think they can be safe, for what is hopelessness without hope to be crushed.
Now I’m reminded of a video game called A Plague Tale from your description :)
Dave, Dave, Dave. Don’t you know you keep the villains around so you can reuse them?
He can reuse that one if he wants. I’m sure someone in this universe has a spatula.
Eh, some villains are just stepping stones to better villains or outlive their usefulness in the rogue’s gallery, or just existed to be killed anyway. This comic is two pages a week, no real rush to fill out a Batman/Spider-man level rogues gallery. Can afford to splatter a few irritating low level antagonists here and there.
that said based on their looks I suspect Death Toll from the parkinlot rumble is tied to them, and probably how they got Concretia’s body as Vehemence likely had them all meet up in one place before being ported to attack. Concretia left her body at the meeting place, after the brawl Death Toll had no priors on record so snuck off, found out who Concretia really was or got to her body called in his wannabe illumanati group and here we are.
So jerk is splattered, the group is still around, and Death Toll may already be a named villain for them.
really we are likely looking at a group identity villain not specific individuals as the threat like the Hellfire Club.
Didn’t have to have prior records, Tollhouse Cookies was there because he wanted to be, probably like the mook who got nose-booped by Anvil and Shadowy Crushed-nuts (not way in Dark were those two innocent bystanders roped in by Kevin)
The relevance of no priors was he was not arrested for the brawl and was able to leave quickly. That he could if there is a connection then contact his fellow hood and mask enthusiasts to the where abouts of other supers there including Concretia and her notable vulnerability.
Yeah, that’s implying he’s involved in this at all, and not being treated for spurting arse-artery in some federal lockup (location unknown)
it is very unusual in comics to have characters with such closely matching unusual outfits and them not have some connection to each other.
You can go back to another page and argue with Pander again about assuming anyone the comic didn’t explicitly said was let go got locked up instead, I honestly don’t care to conjecture such things.
Cowls and capes are very stylish, yknow. :)
If my predictions go well, this villain being non-reusable will allow the Good Guys(TM) to recruit Concretia. Sydney’s dialogue and the puddle of the guy that used to be holding her hostage might make Concretia do a heel-face-turn. It already happened with Jabberwocky.
I am sort of assuming that, given how quickly these bad guys got dealt with, the main point of this storyline is to upgrade Concretia to regular cast member.
Difficult to say. I mean, Concretia took out Sydney with her orbs pretty quickly and easily. I imagine if the only thing the bad guys had was one dude with a car door clicker, Concretia would have separated him from it long ago.
Either there are other bad guys she’ll return to, or she’s also stuck with the situation that her body will die from dehydration in about 5 days unless she can find it… a simple kill countdown that he needs to reset every hour or day should also suffice.
There was a reason why that one didn’t get a name and was characterized as a kicker of puppies.
I mean Concretia is right there…
Three notes:
1) Dude deserved it. He’d already captured and drugged Sydney, was displaying a grotesque lack of empathy for literally everyone around him, and he was *about to ventilate her skull just to see what would happen.* He fucked around, and then he found out.
2) I’m glad I wasn’t eating spaghetti when I opened this.
3) I hope Sydney’s eyes and mouth weren’t open.
He also made concretia say “thank you for making me better daddy” … that alone deserved whatever that was.
Exactly. He’s better off for everyone as red sauce.
…
I don’t think I like Cora.
I mean, the masked men were trash, no argument. I will not miss them. At all.
But Cora is a different level of unreliable and dangerous.
Cora is utterly reliable and dangerous.
Do not mess with her friends, crew, ship, or favorite restaurant.
Cora is a good person to know, not necessarily a SAFE one to know.
She seems a good being as long as you leave her friends, family and crew alone. Sydney is a friend. This ‘Daddy’ scum captured, drugged and then slapped her friend.
Don’t do that.
’nuff said.
These guys were terrible but probably the biggest reason this marks Cora as dangerous is she wasn’t here for the demonstrations of how terrible they are.
Although, the fact they’ve restrained a law enforcement officer and are threatening her while she’s helpless does make some of their crimes immediately apparent.
Sydney got her high-tech glasses from Cora, right? So . . . maybe the glasses have enough eye-control that Sydney could send a copy of what she was seeing, straight to Cora.
Preeeettty sure Cora got a hefty amount of information on what exactly was going on via Syndey’s “enhanced” glasses. I sincerely doubt they’re one-way only. At any rate, she got enough info to know that someone as stupid powerful as Halo was in need of immediate rescuing. I’d like to think Cora had some decent justification for what she did well before she did it… at least in her world of ethics.
Good thing Cora is aligned with Archon, think of all the unfiltered data Cora is getting of Archon HQ…
Sorry, but how has she proven to be even remotely unreliable thus far?
Clearly it’s because she had the audacity to *GASP* use a mean, nasty gun on the bad guys.
Obviously that makes her a sociopathic monster in need of counseling, electroshock therapy, and just generally being told what a horrible, horrible person she is.
Well, at least in the US, it is apparently perfectly justified, EXPECTED even to use a gun on other people these days any time you want. Or, at least that is what various groups would have us believe.
The truth is a bit less clear.
Firearms, whether they be things that fire lead projectiles via gunpowder or whatever high tech toy Cora has are TOOLS, not magic wands. They do not make things better, safer or… My personal pet peeve, they do NOT save lives. A firearms TAKES lives. A trained person WITH a firearm MAY be able to save a life, but an UNTRAINED person with a firearm is a danger to him or herself and everyone around them. Period.
That leaves aside all the messes involving guns, children and alcohol.
Firearms are TOOLS. No more. No less. A person with a hammer may be able to build something, or he/she may be able to bash your head in. Same difference except in the US, many people who should know better are taught that guns are religion. Sacred and no matter how stupid things may be, ‘guns make it better’.
I just listened to a 30 minute rant by a somewhat drunk lady who claimed she bought a ‘Glock’. I was a bit nervous, since drunk lady+ Firearm = bad, then I realized she had been ripped off and her ‘Glock’ was a cheap copy of a Remington .380. Not a very good weapon. Add to that? Its barrel was fouled so if she had tried to fire it? It would exploded in her hand.
Dangerous? Sure. But not to me.
Studies show that defensive gun use stops millions of violent crimes every year in the US……mostly without firing a shot.
2A means that granny can have a pistol that makes her equal to Hulk Hogan with a sword. Without an armed populace democracy falls to a trained elite that IS armed.
Regardless of whether your populace is or is not armed, democracy has already fallen – to those with the money to exploit blind tribalism, usually via media manipulation. The most important ‘weapon’ for the voter is not a gun, but the willingness to check facts and judge candidates by their policies; something which an increasing majority (not predominantly of any one political persuasion) have evidently given up even trying.
Incidentally, care to clarify the expected timescale for that ‘trained and armed elite’ taking over? The last time it happened in Britain was centuries ago, before democracy in anything like its current form was established.
Will people stop fucking referring to the US as a fucking democracy, it’s not, and it never has been
Because she killed him without purpose.
Without purpose?
He clearly had the means and ability to negate people with superpowers. He had Sydney contained and was torturing her. I am betting that Sydney showed Cora all of what happened with Concretia too.
So..
Try to take a man alive who –
1) had no compunction kidnapping and torturing,
2) has weapons capable of hurting the hostage at the very least and maybe hurting Cora. (Maybe. Most cops and military I have talked to would have done the same thing in such a situation, if not as graphically.)
3) He has shown a total disdain for civilized behavior. Give him time, he will threaten Sydney to get Cora to back off.
This is a fast resolution to the problem. Is it a ‘good’ one? We can argue that till doomsday and never agree. But again, most SWAT and Military hostage rescue people would say the same thing. ‘Is the hostage safe? Yes? Then screw the hostage taker!’
The problem is that she didn’t kill him to stop him – she stopped him by hitting the shoulder, and the delayed explosion wouldn’t have stopped him in time otherwise. I.e. the kill didn’t serve a purpose.
Shooting him instantly dead would have been justified. But that’s not what she did.
I mean, aside from the delay, I’d say his death was relatively instantaneous. Up until he became spaghetti, he seemed to be relatively okay. I didn’t get the sense that he had any intention of backing down due to the initial wound, so he was hardly incapacitated. Until he exploded, they likely still believed they had the upper hand thanks to Concretia and numbers. Now that he’s an abstract expressionism painting, his buddies are less likely to resist. I’d say her tactics are brutal yet effective.
The delay is the issue. If you don’t think he can be safely stopped without being killed, don’t mess around. That delay gave him the opportunity to do a number of things – instant gibbing would have accomplished everything you mention, but with less risk. Cora took that risk without any tactical or moral benefit to show for it.
The only thing one can argue here is that the initial shot neutralized the hostage taker(baddie lowered the gun and engaged in dialog).
However…
Seeing as he is accompanied by several accomplices, one of which is literally immortal(What with being made of fucking rocks), you can still argue that this is a justified use of force, since that single discharge will probably get everyone else to drop to their knees while shitting themselves.
Again, we can argue ‘justified’ or not until the stars go cold and never agree.
Such a weapon is horrific. True.
It ended the hostage situation with one casualty that we know of. The ringleader. I highly doubt that his accomplices survived that, but we don’t know yet.
Yes, in my opinion, what Cora did was over the top. No, she is not a nice person when people capture and torture her friends. SHOULD she be?
If Syd survived it, I’m sure they did too. Though they may be fighting Syd for that syringe.
But none of this requires a delayed fuze – which is a tactical risk as the guy stays active for longer.
That was just because Cora liked it.
And she wasn’t even enraged or worried for Sydney, which would have made it more understandable – she was calm and sarcastic.
I don’t think he was neutralized though. It’s not like he was backing down and suggesting they could talk things out. He was pissed and calling Cora a bitch. I suspect his next step would’ve been to send Concretia after her. She probably got enough details to understand he had it coming from whatever Syd was talking to, and his colleagues are likely to be more compliant now. A lifetime therapy sessions aside, she probably handled the situation in a way that minimized casualties.
It’s true that ‘Daddy’ wasn’t showing signs of backing down, but Cora’s choice of round doesn’t appear to have even given him that option. At the ranges involved, using a ‘conventional’ round for the initial disabling and a second to finish him off is hardly any slower or less sure than using a single mincer round with a delay, and it would have allowed ARC to arrest him for questioning if he did surrender.
Well there goes getting any intelligence from those guys, you know, if they actually had any to start with.
I bet Concretia will happily fill in anything she knows if they’ll just recover her body safely.
She and Sydney could have a shared therapy session.
After all, there is a difference between seeing someone killed, and being in the splash zone.
Why wouldn’t they talk??? The best way to get info from a bad guy is to prove you’re willing to kill them right now, ‘oh but if you have something to say… just make it interesting.’
In Crocodile Dundee II he knocked out one of the guys that kidnapped his girlfriend. He woke up hanging upside down off the penthouse patio with Mick sitting there sharpening his knife with a pocket steel.
The bad guy said ‘I won’t talk!’
Mick said ‘That’s Ok’ pulled the rope down lifting him a foot, then slowly drew the knife across the rope cutting one of the braids ‘ I don’t want you to talk.’ checked the edge of the blade and went back to sharpening his knife.
The bad guy shouted ‘I’ll talk!!! I’ll talk!!! Just stop cutting!!!’
The lesson is when confronted with certain death, bad guys will betray anyone or anything to survive.
The reason they wouldn’t talk is that they were standing in the path of whatever that was.
As near as I can tell, one… projectile… was fired. It lodged in Mr. Insecure’s shoulder… and then detonated in a fairly** graphic manner. The henchpeople may still be alive. But very, very, gory.
** By Tarantino’s standards.
That was definitely one Tarantino of gore.
…yes, it’s an ordinal scale.
I’m using that in my future conversations with people. Tarantino level. :)
Tarantino still sounds like something served in a glass with orange juice to me
It also has a spider in it.
Unlikely. The brown mook was standing the same distance from Boss Salsa as Sydney was sitting. If the radius of effect was anything other than “the target organism” then Sydney would have been in danger as well.
So the two hoods are likely standing in stunned silence waiting for orders.
The goons are still alive – on3 of them can be seen standing as their boss blows up. However, the boss was likely the one who knew the most about their organisation, so killing him is still bad for the intel department.
It’s not the extreme gore that bothers me. It’s that, quite frankly, Max should be arresting Cora right about now. I’m sorry, but to let this slide would seriously be a break in character and how things have worked in this story so far. Cora just flayed a man alive in Human jurisdiction, that has got to be some kind of breach of intergalactic law, or cause a severe mess of relations. It doesn’t matter what Cora’s intentions are or not, she can’t just do something this extreme and face no consequences.
I get this was a gag, but…It would be like if Wolverine carved up Green Goblin while Spider-Man is watching. Sure, it’s in Wolverine’s character to do that, but it would also be in Spider-Man’s nature to respond by trying to take him down.
Excessive force maybe, however civilians do have the right to assist one another, granted this would still probably end up as manslaughter depending on the judge. That said Cora has shown herself to be merciless, even vindictive (torture devices on already restrained and guarded prisoners). there is a chance however Archon pre-public reveal would have just covered this up, get some cleaners in there. Chances are Dabbler was a lot like this when she first came to Earth. Cora might just get the “we appreciate what you did, but not how you did it. If you want stick around you need to play by our rules”.
Cora is a space cowboy.
As a note, pretty sure something like the Spider-man / Wolverine example has happened in the comics, at least with Spider-man and Punisher or Blade that I can recall off the top of my head.
Spiderman stopped the Punisher, then realized he’d given a wife-beater a minor fleshwound to get him to realize the error of his ways.
Spiderman stopped Blade, then found out the ‘victims’ were infectious vampires that needed to be stopped before they infected more people.
I believe Spiderman met with Wolverine with a similar misunderstanding, but I don’t remember what it was (fighting the Hand?).
Those are not torture devices, any more than a rope is a murder weapon
You really believe that those aliens would have stuck around if they weren’t basically forced to retain their position? o_O
Get over it , they were restrained and under guard and there were three or four if Dabbler were still conscious individuals to assist guarding them if need be, the move one inch out of position and receive pain devices were excessive and clearly vindictive on her part.
Did you see anyone else acting as guard other than Cora and Raymos? And remember: Raymos was the one who brought them here, and was only pissed at them for not including him in their plan
Personally would have laid odds on him letting them ‘escape’ if they managed to convince him that they would cut him in on their next heist, with a bigger share
No, and considering I also didn’t see them continuing to fight Brut and Henchwench when Maxima stepped in means they are free to be guarding the people they were also fighting.
Seriously, why is this an argument? If a cop had a prisoner restrained by the wrists and ankles and several other odd position straps, and blindfolded, and under guard; and there were some others who could be asked to assist guarding; but then decided to set up a wire frame around them that shocked them if they barely moved; pretty sure that cop would be questioned for doing that.
There is no real argument for its use, there are only excuses, which fall apart real quick when the whole situation is examined in a wider than the one page spectrum.
Nonsense. Get over it yourself. it’s just a specific kind of restraint. It doesn’t hurt unless you attempt to escape.
She was leaving Ray alone with four bound captives. Ray + Cora could take them no matter what, but Ray alone?
Nope. Cora was just making sure that her duty to guard the prisoners was properly delegated.
>It doesn’t hurt unless you attempt to escape.
Or move involuntarily because staying still is hard. Or adjust your position because you’re cramping. Or fall over and are unable to get up because you’re bound.
Flaying alive is a form of torture, and this one was a simple delayed… explosion of sorts, I guess. Clearly a relatively painless death anyway. Very deliberate though, so it’s hard to argue self defense like people usually do when in these situations.
Still, one could argue that Cora didn’t know how different the laws are and acted in defense of a law enforcement officer or whatever Sydney is. Not knowing is generally not a defense, but we’re talking about an interstellar mercenary who does the occasional law enforcement gig here and there.
There’s that whole ignorance of the law isn’t an excuse part though….
Max would give her a pass or be ordered to do so.
1) We’d give a typical cop, or even civilian, a pass over this considering he was attempting to murder Syd.
2) Cora is the only source of alien tech the Earth has and that’s limited to the US as long as she stays here.
Maxi will probably still chew Cora out over it, even if she agreed with what she did
Umm, Cora is NOT the only source of alien tech, considering Sydney has access to Fracture any time she wants (and SmugD has proven himself to be an intersystem smuggler)
First, in most places a civilian who acts to protect themselves or someone else (keep in mind the bad guy *was* about to kill Sydney) is justified in using deadly force with whatever weapon they have at hand. Now you do have to consider that they are in New York City, so Cora would most likely face a long list of criminal charges among them, illegal possession of a weapon. New York has very strict gun control, and pretty sure Cora doesn’t have a permit for her weapons. Unless she has been granted diplomatic immunity, she could be arrested. Fortunately, with the changes in New York’s bail laws, she would probably be released without bail and gently “encouraged” to leave the jurisdiction.
Actually, the laws (federal, state, and local) regarding firearms tend to be specific enough about the legal definitions that alien technology would likely not be covered by them. Too many of the details of the mechanisms and operation would be enough of a non-match to skirt the “gun laws”.
For example the (US) federal definition includes the requirement that it “expel a projectile by the action of an explosive”. If Cora’s weapon propels its payload not by “an explosive” but by magnetic field, or force field, or teleportation, or whatnot, then none of the federal gun laws apply to it. It’s not legally a “firearm”.
Fun fact: Due to another clause in federal law, guns manufactured before 1897 (and there are countless of them still operational) don’t legally qualify as firearms either. They do however count as “weapons” (and so would Cora’s), but the restrictions on “weapons” are far fewer and less onerous than the ones for “firearms”.
another fun fact: Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803–1806) had, as their primary weapon, airguns (I assume they didn’t think they could carry enough gunpowder)
re: “Cora flayed a man…”; not so much “flayed” as “fileted”. Flaying is just peeling his skin off, this guy is ready to be made into jambalaya.
Meh. He was waving a pistol in Sydney’s face and hadn’t killer her only because both Concretia and one of his own men were trying to stop him. If a standard cop had walked in on that scene and decided to use his sidearm to try to prevent a murder, he would have aimed for center of mass and killed the guy. No difference in the end.
Comic book world, super heroes don’t kill bad guys, even if they’re asking for it, because that ways lies the Dark Side of the Force.
Real world, you point a loaded gun at a hostage, you should expect to die.
Cora’s weapon, while at least 300% gruesome, is very accurate, precise, and memorable enough to discourage further hostility. I suspect Maxima wouldn’t entirely approve officially, but she has already demonstrated that she’s willing to engage in a bit of over-the-top theatrics if it means fewer bad guys are willing to step up to the plate.
Besides… Mr. Insecurity already demonstrated he’s a first rate sociopath who only brutalizes people who can’t fight back. Maxima will be more annoyed by the paperwork, and the potential trauma to Sydney. A short-term memory zap might be a reasonable thing for her.
Well said.
Cora does not strike me as someone who fires indescriminantely. She is well trained and very well disciplined.
She did what she did to end the standoff. It worked. Yes, Max is likely going to chew her out, but Sydney is alive and aside from mental trauma, unharmed.
Now as to how Concretia will react to this…
I’d assume that Concretia will be overwhelmingly happy to be out of the grip of the person who was torturing her to ensure her conduct in the furtherance of his crimes.
well Concretia could get into their good graces real quick by two actions.
(Ground Spikes) *create a bunch of concrete spikes pinning these guys down…not literally just angled around them so they can’t make a move*,
and releasing Sydney’s orbs.
We assume Dabbler can use a tracking spell through an astral link to find Concretia’s body if she doesn’t know its exact location, and even if she does to find that spot quicker anyway.
Or Sydney can just say ‘don’t shoot Concretia! She was doing this against her will!’ And I’m assuming the other two guys are going to surrender pretty quickly if they have brains in their heads.
Unlike their boss, who’s brain is probably on the floor, ceiling, parts of some walls ,and probably on Sydney, Concretia, and the other two guys.
Yes, but consider the following: Cora doesn’t answer to anyone on Earth. Normally that would be inexcusable, but she has the added perk of “I just found and returned what is possibly one of your most powerful supers, who would otherwise have been missing for decades- if not her entire lifetime -before she figured out how to get home.”
And let’s not forget that the guy who just got splattered was SERIOUSLY considering ventilating Sydney’s head just to “see what happens.” Max would have at least ensured he stayed in the hospital for half a year for that stunt.
Maxima is a soldier, she wouldn’t have any qualms about killing the guy who was about to kill Sydney. Police officers do have snipers ready to shoot hostage takers as well. Cora shot someone who was about to execute an officer of the law. Why would she get charged with manslaughter?
She wouldn’t. The only actual charge that could stick, even if she was from Earth, would be the cruelty of her weapon being considered a cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the 8th Amendment.
But she’s not from Earth, and probably would be held to whatever standards the Council uses instead (since that’s the only group that has any legal treaties with the US government). And I’m going to guess they probably have standards, if any, which are going to be good for Archon in this scenario.
By which I mean the actual crime would be Torture – 18 USC 2340A of Title 18 of the United States Code, which prohibits torture committed by public officials under the color of law against persons within the public official’s custody or control. There’s another law which involves non-public officials as well, but since Cora was sort of working under Archon’s auspices at this point in time (or at least that would be the argument made), this would be the most likely applicable law that might stick, if they wanted to go that route. Which they probably wouldnt.
Except, Daddy Drywall was never within the public official’s custody, certainly not control
At no time was he ever in custody nor control, by either Sydney or Cora
It’s arguable that as soon as Cora had her gun trained on him, he was in a controlled situation, but I agree that it’s only an argument – it’s probably an easy argument to counter since Cora wasn’t technically ‘in control’ of him until AFTER she shot him, at which point he was already dead even if he didnt know it yet.
So…. well-made argument G. :)
Killing him to stop him from killing Sydney is justified.
The issue is that Cora was confident in stopping him without killing him, but chose a weapon that killed him anyway afterwards.
But Maxima doesn’t know that, so Cora will get away because she can feign innocence.
Cora will not FEIGN anything. She will be straightforward and explain exactly what she did and why, because she has nothing to hide.
The worst thing that could happen to her is banishment from the jurisdiction.
No NY personnel will be involved in any determination of anything, because this event is clearly both (A) under Archon jurisdiction and (B) full of top secret facts.
She has to hide that she killed him out of base motives. Because she didn’t do it to protect Sydney, or she would have killed him instantly.
That’s not as bad as when Sydney fell into a pool of blood. Although it seems to be something of a pattern for her. The main problem is that seemed to be the leader. He may have had important information.
This… this is why police and even MERCENARIES try to take as many people alive as possible.
Because the guy you just splattered might have important information that you want to know and he/she/it cannot give it to you if they are dead… assuming that since this is a comic they don’t have mediums or something that can speak with the dead.
Nope, even if he had concrete proof that SmugD was an evil SOaB, he deserved what happened to him… and more
If he claimed to have proof the that light of the world, our savior in this dark and foreboding universe, Deus, was evil, it would have obviously been a lie and attempt to slander him, just another crime of who is assuredly an irredeemably evil cowl-wearing villain.
And when you eventually settle down with him, baby Xanatos and baby Luthor will be adorable. And due to some crazy turn of events, Sydney, Max, and Arianna will end up as their godparents, and holiday dinners are going to be incredibly tense.
You flatter me with visions of such a lovely fictional future :)
I already didn’t like that Cora took a shoulder shot, which could just as easily have made him fire the gun as drop it, but I’m very unhappy that she used some kind of delayed/remote ordinance here. Lots of prior discussion about whether it was a good move or not, but I can’t really see any defensible reason to save Sydney this way given her huge range of options.
She consciously allowed extra time to act against Sydney (including by the goons, who previously had great reaction instinct), as a setup to taunt someone she’d already defeated. Cora could’ve easily just vaporized the gun (and his hand if needed), put him in a stasis field, or any number of other effective actions, but instead she chose to prioritize malice over Sydney’s safety. She hasn’t done anything yet to secure the room or stop the others; yes there’s some “shock and awe” now but they had several seconds to start firing at an unarmed hostage first.
Cora was introduced as someone willing to be violent, so it’s not a huge surprise, but this moves her from ‘charismatic rough-and-tumble vigilante’ into straight-up ‘unhinged sociopath’ territory.
Sorry but if you are not justified in using lethal force, you are not justified in firing a weapon at someone. This is what people who advocate “shoot to disarm” or “shoot to wound” usually don’t understand about the law. Unless you are in fear for your life, or someone else’s life you are not justified in using force at all. If you fire a weapon at someone you need to be trying to stop them, and the only sure way to stop someone is to kill them. If you shoot at their weapon, you are much less likely to succeed, and therefore you were not acting to save a life, and therefore were not justified in using force. The bad guy had a gun pointed at Sydney, so Cora shot him in the shoulder with a weapon she knew would render him incapabale of firing the gun. The henchmen were not pointing guns at Sydney, and if smart will immediately surrender.
His issue isn’t necessarily with the lethal force I don’t think. While the proposed example (disarm then stasis) may not have been a great idea in the circumstances either, the bigger issue at hand is most definitely the delay.
If it just ribboned him immediately instead of giving him time to recoil from the hit, and then pass around a couple and a half lines of dialogue it wouldn’t be as big a deal. He or his goons could’ve domed Sydney and opened fire on Cora in the time that was granted before he was mulched, and the threat was actually stopped, and the shock and awe was actually applied.
She did this solely for dramatic effect/taunting a standing corpse, which is most certainly concerning.
Also, a bit of addendum that just occurred to me after posting, but Cora also turned the dude into shrapnel in very close proximity to the person she came to rescue. Just more the pile of “taunting a man that’s about to be violently dead” taking priority in Cora’s head over “swiftly neutralizing threats the Sydney”.
Exactly – I don’t like the lethality, but I accept it as appropriate in Sydney’s urgent defense. It’s the malice and the extended risk taken in executing that malice I find unacceptable.
As for targeting the shoulder vs the weapon itself, Cora has cybernetics, a huge array of weaponry literally at her fingertips, and plenty of experience in using both, so I have no doubt she can hit a target with very high precision with whatever scale of ordinance she chooses – including non-lethally (although she probably doesn’t carry any). She had plenty of opportunity to end the threat without killing him at all- her adventuring buddy Dabbler took off Sciona’s leg, for example.
She also had the advantage of surprise, and time on the way over to decide on a course of action, making this a pre-meditated killing, and uncomfortably close to murder using a hostage as a pretext.
Dabbles took of Sci’s leg because she missed, she was aiming higher, with a fucking railgun!!
Sci was aware of Dabbles.
Boss Tartare was oblivious to Cora.
And you’ve just defined why LEO’s prefer a .40 caliber to a 9mm. 9mm may pass through, doing minimal damage. .40 caliber will cause enough shock to surrounding tissue, that your chances of continuing to be a threat are drastically lower. Only in Hollywood does someone who’s been shot through the shoulder manage to somehow fire a weapon with accuracy.
A couple years ago, I had a bout with something called “brachial neuritis”, or “Parsonage Turner Syndrome”– My immune system attacked the nerves controlling my left shoulder. I couldn’t raise my arm, or rotate my shoulder for a month or two. The nerves in question are exactly where Cora’s bullet passed. With a great deal of effort (assuming he felt no pain, and had remarkable self-control) he *might* have been able to raise the gun with his forearm, but he wouldn’t have been able to brace it, let alone aim it, with any form of accuracy.
The risk is that he involuntarily pulls the trigger right as he’s hit. The pistol goes off, and because it’s already aimed at Sydney …
Police snipers aim for brain stem in that situation.
Negotiators are the preferred means of ending such stand-offs for very good reasons.
The various debates on these pages show that people are bothered by Cora’s reaction to Sydney’s predicament. This is a good thing. Violence should never be the first recourse of the civilized.
Unfortunately, more and more these days, people default to violence because it is faster and easier.
‘Once down the path to the Dark Side you trod, forever will it dominate your destiny.’ – Wise words.
This wasn’t a stand-off though – this was just stopping an imminent murder.
Violence to stop violence is needed if we want to remain civilized.
I see your point, but I can see both sides. Using violence to solve violence is a slippery slope. When there is imminent threat to the helpless, violence is often the only recourse, even such EXTREME violence as Cora just demonstrated.
That said? When violence become the be-all and end-all, when it is the only way to solve problems… Then we have bigger problems.
Violence sometimes _is_ the only way to solve problems of badguy violence. And yes, bad guys using violence is a bigger problem.
And I agree that one should be careful to avoid unnecessary violence, but I’m not sure about the relevance to this thread – the situation wasn’t an edge case where one would have to be careful, and therefore this discussion has been tactical.
Although I do criticize Cora here – not for using violence, but because she did it in a way that made clear stopping the enemy wasn’t her main consideration. Cora is definitely slipping off the slope.
When was Cora ever on the slope?
I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt. ;)
actually, violence is wayyy down; except in urban areas where the last 8 months of riots have discouraged police action (see Ferguson effect). Violent crime has been decreasing since the 80s. With so many 24 hour news sources and internet channels all competing for ads/’clicks’; we just have it in front of us allatime.
If his suit had been kevlar-ish to stop the round, the location hit would still have disabled the arm br eakage at the joint or hydrostatic shock giving him a super nerve pinch.
The issue isn’t disabling his arm, it’s making sure no shot goes off in the process of disabling, due to unvoluntarily jerking the trigger.
That would only be true if the gun had been in line. However, Boss Salsa’s minions had pulled it out of align in panel 911-6 and then Boss was off screen when Sydney filibustered.
Cora clearly would have been able to see where the gun was pointed before she fired. Only Dave can say where it was facing when Cora fired.
Fair enough, we don’t know where the gun was pointed, so we can give Cora the benefit of the doubt.
Personally, the blood and organs wouldnt bother me too much, but also getting sprayed with the contents of the ruptured intestines would be rather gross.
It could just be upper torso, above the diaphragm. Leaving just a lower torso standing there for a moment before it toppled over. Unless it is some sort of smart, directed force weapon (not impossible with Cora ) as much as half of the disassembling force would be directed through that relatively small chunk of shoulder, up and out to stage left.
could be, but seems very unlikely. those ropy strings of flesh definately look like intestines to me. plus if the upper torso ruptured like that there would be a lot more bone shards from the ribcage. Unless this weird space ammo leaves the bones intact and only explodes the fleshy bits somehow.
Oh please. This isn’t even the first time Sydney has take a gore bath. She’s been Coated in someone else’s entrails before.
One more incident like this, and “taking a gore bath” will be known as “Wearing Halo’s Coat”. Which works even if Sydney can distance herself from it, because it also invokes the ‘halo’ of a dead soul dropping its outer wrapping as it flies away.
She Does seem to attract gore. Universe balancing for her continued survival I guess.
Son of a…
Sydney, that injector of ‘Remember Me Not’ juice isn’t sterile now, assuming it ever was.
She’ll need an antiseptic shower and medical treatment for being exposed to blood.
Do EMTs get that treatment sometimes?
Speaking about gore in the movies, the motion picture ‘Spontaneous’ has several instances
of people inexplicably exploding. I only saw the trailer.
HOLY SHIT!!!! I knew it was gonna have gore but I didn’t expect that! BRAVO! I love it
Are you sure? It might be a melted femur…
Nah, we’ve seen that before. :P
What happens when the narrator confuses an exclamation mark for a period…
I think this classifies as a period with an exclamation mark.
I’m less amused by this than pitying Sydney for such immediate exposure to the scent. Human insides smell revolting even when the organs aren’t all ripped open, exposing the various fluids in them to the open air, but the mix of bile, fecal matter, and minced organ meat is the smell of open warfare. Soldiers much hardier than her have gotten PTSD with far less driving it. That fact that she’s a vegan just adds to the sad, for me.
I think I’m gonna stop reading this. It stopped being fun, and I don’t honestly see a way for me to get to a point where it would be, again.
Can’t say that I blame you. I don’t feel the same way, since Sydney is, to a large extent, autobiographical for DaveB, but I definitely get your point of view. This page is pretty damned gross, and even that’s one hell of an understatement.
DaveB followed the scab oatmeal bath with a point blank demonstration of a District 9 weapon system
While I can understand the sentiment, I have left comics that started to get a tad darker than what I was in the mood for. As far as this comic goes though this isn’t really anything new. However it does seem to be hammering home something I’ve noticed in the comments. Cora is not a “nice person” she is good to her friends, appreciative, and protective; however when it comes to anyone she sees as a threat to herself or them or just as a criminal she is merciless and even downright vindictive.
She has the attitude that killing is a deterrent; given she is a mercenary and not law enforcement her experiences probably back that as all her experiences with criminals and targets would be short term consequences; kill one the other thugs fall in line, threat eliminated, that sort of thing; while law enforcement and governments need to think long term deterrents, and incentives to obey the law and be part of a functional society.
Everything she’s done up till now in regards to enemy combatants has reinforced that this is her mindset.
I have been accused of being black and white about her, people mistaking me pointing out these traits as somehow damning her; when in truth at heart she seems like a good person; just not in the superhero kind of way, and has little to no regard to anyone who crosses her. She’s Wolverine pretty much.
an addition I was going to bring up all the other moments of gore we have seen in the comic but realizes something. The majority were caused by either Sciona or other criminals (drug cartel executing a woman in a chair whose dead body was then hijacked by Sciona), aside from Maxima blowing off Vehemence’s arm when he was refusing to surrender and was escalating the fight; Cora has been the only “good guy” so far with a body count (discounting Sydney as we don’t know if those ships or kaiju were piloted/alive or battle drones), brutally killing muggers, yes she helped some refugees (after) Sydney had warmed up to her *Sydney has been compared to Dabbler in personality only minus the libidinousness* like a younger Dabbler that Cora would remember so that probably helped in the quick warming up, but heck Sydney “partook” in some of Cora’s crew, so Cora could be thinking of Sydney the same way she thinks of Dabbler so…friend threatened, friend will appreciate the abuser being torn to shreds by a mono-filament wire gyro ball bullet.
Basically I am surprised that people are surprised Cora would do this, she hasn’t exactly been subtle about her view points on the matter.
For some at least, the surprise and/or objection is not so much at the use of lethal methods, as at the use of inefficient lethal methods. It’s one thing for the (wo)man on the spot to eliminate the threat quickly, neatly, and with a minimum of fuss. It’s another when (s)he chooses to use a delayed and gratuitously messy method, for no apparent reason besides looking him in the eye as it activates.
Yeah I see that, the comments also remind me how old I am, and I don’t know how old DaveB is but I suspect he is either near my age group or had a lot of exposure to the same media I did (things are on tape after all you can watch plenty of stuff older than yourself especially at the height of the video rental store boom).
To me nothing about what Cora just did is a surprise, why I was confused I was getting a “text”full from people saying she was using excessive torture methods on already restrained and guarded prisoners a page or two ago in the comic. I mean if you had a prisoner bound by the wrists and ankles, blind folded, and under guard but then set up a wire body cage around them that would shock them when they moved pretty sure you’d get called out on it.
But it made sense for Cora, as did killing the muggers, and this right here because. By her design and personality I picked up she is based on a 1980s early 1990s Action Hero trope; with plenty of Anime cyberpunk from the same era.
To put this in perspective, I grew up at a time where American animation was being heavily censored, however American horror and action movies were going the opposite direction *at least until the mid-90s*, as well those early days of dubbed anime before the censors realized what was on the shelves being unrated or with some vague sticker “absolutely not for children”, Fist of the North Star, Demon City Shinjuku, Wicked City, Iczer One, Black Magic M, Ghost in the Shell, ect… and of course the ones from the Americas like Heavy Metal and Wizards. Then you had the Comic books that went against the censors, taking advantage that DC was being held back to bring in the indie comics like Witchblade, Priest, Spawn, and so many others, even Marvel was pushing where it could with its parade of mullet gun toting action hero characters and pushing forward Wolverine and Venom as much as possible, and Ghost Rider and Punisher.
to put this in perspective with Cora.
this was an era where it was normal for a “hero” to say a one liner before killing someone, the goon henchmen were fodder. Heck go back and watch the 1989 Batman and Batman Returns and do a body count, Batman sets a guy on fire, and even pulls a pin on a guy’s grenades before pushing him down a shaft to explode out of sight of the camera.
You’d have action stars interrogate a guy by laying him ontop of a grenade or other explosive that required pressure stay on it, and when done walk away leaving the person to think..oh maybe it was a bluff only to hear the explosion in the background while the “hero” was smiling.
So ever since we saw Cora and her design put me in mind of cyberpunk anime from the time and she so casually killed muggers and was no nonchalant about with the officer there who only excused it because Cora had save fracture station in the past; all of this has been in character for her as far as my experiences with these genres and tropes have him.
in the current deconstructionist and neo-deconstructionist eras with super heroes where the law and morals and real world ramifications are always brought up this type of character no doubt stands out like a sore thumb.
I mean imagine some of those scenes in those movies and comics today being caught on CCTV and the other heroes asking, “so, um…when we took down the drug cartel we couldn’t help but notice you were smiling and quipping as you tore a guy’s arm off, beat the guy next to him in the head with it, then shoved a grenade in a guy’s mouth before throwing him at the other criminals so the explosion would kill him and them while yelling out, “fire in the hole”
Try again. Cora is straight up Space Opera Action Hero all the way. You see anyone in Star Wars spending any tears over whether they have to kill anyone? Nope. It’s not a thing.
Although, you can also pin her as a James Bond type – gadgeteer, license to kill, etc.
Bottom line, though – she’s good at it, and has fun with it. It’s not socially acceptable on Earth, but SHE’S NOT FROM AROUND HERE.
…and ARCSwat’s medical plan gives the full spectrum of hepatitis shots
Now this is FUNNY!
Did it cut a bit of Sydney’s kneecap to? That’s a big oops.
That is a severed ear, good sir.
Are we sure that guy was Human? Or just an Alien in a “Human Suit” as in M.I.B. because that sure looks like Squid tentacles on and around Sydney. Oh and GOOD GAW, SOMEBODY GET THAT SYRINGE AWAY FROM SYD BEFORE SHES A VEGETABLE!
It’s been explained on pretty much every page: that’s the ends of a few ribs, still attached to meat (mmm, barbecue ribs sounds tasty right now)
Honestly not at all shocked to see people whining about gore and “excessive violence” on this page, despite multiple warning signs (including an explicitly written one on the previous page jfc people), an obvious rapport for the incoming rescuer’s propensity towards extreme violence, and the setup of the same person who got splattered threatening to splatter Sydney all over the concrete “just to see what happens.” I think a good deal of modern society has somehow forgotten the simple phrase: “ideas have consequences.” They also forget that in reality, most cases those consequences are either far too light or far too severe.
Case. And. Point.
Yeah, nobody’s “whining” about the gore or violence. They’re making fully understandable and well reasoned complaints about the fact that Cora, despite being presented as one of the good guys, just killed someone using a method that was cruel, clearly done for her own enjoyment, and was undeniably INEFFICIENT. She held the weapon with one hand – and held the Villain Ball with the other. The only way to justify Cora’s behavior is this:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProtagonistCenteredMorality
Not even complaint on my part, just analysis. There’s nothing wrong with having morally ambiguous characters in a comic. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TokenEvilTeammate
So… What exactly was that???! Seriously, what could do that even theoretically? I’m guessing some sort of super-charging of flesh that it gets shot into.
Also, is Concretia in danger? Does the bastard/blood stain have a dead-mans switch? Can the other two be intimated from from, or are they going to just panic?
If I had to guess based on observed effects the projectile was small but very powerful monofilament gyro-ball cum weed-whacker.
well she repurposed Alari strict training devices as “move one inch and feel the pain” extra restraint devices. So maybe she found some cooking and meat preparation tech from this universe’s resident giant hairy carnivore species meant for quickly slicing up a large carcass to make chili or stew from and found a way to encapsulate and fire it into a target
All I can say is that Cora has a very good defense, He was about to kill a heavy hitter, and had the support of Supers. Who could say that the He or the Thugs were not supers themselves? If all three of them were normies than he was mega stupid, period. Lex Luther would have guards and lookouts. Also he would have a way to get out of there quickly. Instead he got Concreta to subdue a Super, did not choose the location, Halo could have gone anywhere. So instead of taking her away to a secure location to interrogate her, he just wanders into a building under construction, which is in a pretty close to combat, and thinks, ya this is perfect?
Halo warned him, and a smart man would have said, huh? Maybe she is telling the truth. Maybe i should leave but he stuck around and when things were not going well he decided to Ice a Super thinking he could get away with it? As a bad Guy he was not that dangerous and will make other villains think twice. Just like Max little display to the press.
But Arc should seriously have someone work on the collars so that if they are removed without the wearer deactivating them it would activate a alarm and a tracker.
That defense is somewhat compromised by her dialogue of the previous strip… “Maxima suggested I use non-lethal ordnance, but… oops”.
That’s pretty much a murder confession right there… an admission that she’s killing him not because it’s necessary, but because she found it satisfying blowing into giblets _after_ he’d dropped the gun and ceased to be an immediate threat. She had time to start a conversation with him before she killed him… which she used to tell him why she was killing him.
She may have a defense based on jurisdictional issues, but she certainly has none based on any conventional Earthly laws.
…You weren’t kidding with that Spoiler. That is a little bit of gore. Some droplets from his papercut even got onto Sydney.
Lets hope he didn’t have any blood borne diseases.
As she said opps
I neither judge nor condem
If this is a “teeeeeensy bit of gore” i don’t want to know what a lot of gore looks like O.O
And is more of a “let’s give extreme PTSD, and some venereal diseases, to the woman with a Yamato cannon/Buster beam in her hands.”
Intestines are full of fermenting shit and not a good thing to have in your face. (mouth, eyes, nostrils)
Well we all know this isn’t Sydney’s first literal “Blood Bath”: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-580-the-glamorous-life-of-the-superheroine/
In regards to the lethal (and messy) force angle…. Cora will get a lot of leeway due to the alien aspect. And still more because Sydney was under immediate, lethal threat from said messily dead mook. It’s not a perfect defense at all, but it does give her a bit of legal leeway in most jurisdictions.. and combined with the whole “Alien” and the various politics at play… including the fact that Cora is getting the US a functioning Starship with Hyperdrive (The technological/military advantages of that alone would probably ensure that some government alphabet agency or politician would step in to ensure no charges were pressed).
Nobody’s gonna mention bone shards?
So much for interrogating the prisoner! Unless they have a Schlockian brain-ripping device and the brains were left in-damaged.
Hm….. i’m really curious how this will go in terms of diplomatic relations in the long run. Yes, this guy deserved it and Cora did it to save Sydney. But considering she uses the same weapons storage as Dabbler, we KNOW she has non-lethal options she could have saved Sydney with. And she does not actually have any special authority to unnecessarily murder someone. What Cora did was a felony, regardless of intentions. Especially since this was premeditated, judging my her words here. It will be interesting how Maxima will react to this once she finds out, or even Sydney once she can think more clearly again. She seems to have gotten more into a law enforcement mindset recently. And a more idealistic law enforcement mindset, than some real police forces seem to have.
Or it will just be played off in some way, since this is a comic and i might be taking it to seriously.
Don’t play lawyer, if you are not one!
Again, Cora had no way of knowing if he was a Super or not, he had a weapon out and was about to shoot a Arc Employee. She had no way of knowing if he was like Achilles or had some sort of shield or regeneration. Granted she probable knew but I seriously do not think she will be in trouble.
What would be funny if the bullet also had some time of time slip that brought him back together and she was like, I can do this all day, or you can give up.
Reminds of a ‘Strontium Dog’ story in 2000AD: Johnny Alpha shot someone and used a five-second delay temporal delay device to ensure they got to ‘live’ getting shot for a very long time
I’m dubbing this a shredder round in my headspace canon.
Man… Hell of a Oops! Great work btw, and until you find out the back story on the criminal, he may have been a mass murderer that had it coming in 12 galaxies.
Very cool, Cora; Sydney now has PTSD!
There’s aren’t enough showers in the world for that.
Hope her glasses are okay.
unlikely …https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-695-ordnance-schmordnance/
I 100% thought that was a tentacle monster that the bullet had summoned inside the villain.
would definitely be a caster shell to label as “don’t use again”.
To quote Baby Sinclair: *slow turn to the camera* “AGAIN!”