Grrl Power #918 – Ghost fight!
I didn’t really have any idea how this fight was going to end when I introduced HenchWench, but a lot of you were like “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if…” and I agreed. So yeah, I’m super telegraphing the next page, and I apologize in advance if Arianna doesn’t use super proper lawyer speak, but hopefully you guys will be amused anyway.
Concretia never learned to fight. She’s too slow in her stone form for anything but basic ass punching and grappling (depending on the Mohs scale – if she formed a body out of talc or something, she’d be, well, not fast. Like, human speed. But then you could fuck her up with a steel toed boot or a bucket of water. Her concrete form is best described as “lumbering” and anything harder she becomes noticeably slower) And as has been established in the comic, supers are rare enough that they don’t usually grow up in clusters, so she never really needed to learn how to fight. Especially considering that if you smash her golem, she can just form a new one, and regular solid objects can’t affect her concrastral projection. When the evil strip-miners or company-that-wanted-to-shut-down-the-ski-resort or whatever threatened her town, she had no trouble running them out of town.
HenchWench, on the other hand, probably has known other supers for some time. After reading some discussion in the comments, I decided she’s not a contract lawyer, but a paralegal, as they don’t have the same ethical requirements as an actual lawyer. I know it’s weird thinking of lawyers as having ethics, but the point is, you can’t disbar a paralegal for literally being evil.
That weird goosenecked yacht is where the bad guys were keeping Concretia’s body. I hope that’s clear. Apparently that yacht is some crazy concept design, and the gooseneck could lower to the water, and the goose head is actually a detachable speedboat. I was looking for yacht references to draw from, and I saw that and said, “Yeah, that’s definitely the boat these turds would sail around in.”
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He he he. Contract Lawyer to the rescue!
(Arianna’s hero name)
I wonder how much Arianna might be influenced by Pander‘s contributions to the comments, over the years?
I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy about a webcomic storyline as I am right now.
Hostile Takeover/buyout commencing.
And thus, Ariana got her very own Suicide Squad!
Even money Sydney introduced her to the character of Amanda Waller.
oooooh, a buyout, if the board sold out to arianna, then they would no longer be the owners of the LLC and no longer her bosses. If Arianna took over, Henchie’s only power will be to annoy Max. If she bought, then dissolved the LLC, then Henchie will have *no* super powers at all. I am also open to other clever legal chikanery
Heh! RPG’s are always vulnerable to rules lawyers. but now
there’s a real lawyer in on this game…
IMO, Arianna is either doing what Elfguy suggests:
1: Company buyout (Elfguy’s idea, as above)
2: She’s going to inform Hench Wench that the contract itself violates the UCC & is an invalid contract (As many suggested under the previous page)
Either way, I think she’s going to lose her powers before the end of the next page (DaveB’s next Monday morning post-date).
Then again, DaveB loves to play around with tropes & memes in this comic, so I’m still going to leave it open for Option 3: DaveB thought of something that no one else could have figured out.
3: None of Henchwench’s contingency plans are actually valid contracts or even remotely legal because you actually can’t just trick people into signing contracts like that without them becoming unenforceable and Ariana called up whatever local judge is stuck on warrant signing duty for a quick ruling.
In which case her power copying is psychosomatic and not actualy contract based as otherwise she wouldnt have been able to obtain there powers initialy with an invalid contract.
option 4) the contract was never notarized and is not a valid contract no matter what the fine print says.
option 5) the entire contract is legitimate, and she turns out to be the LLC’s manager
option 6) the LLC’s manager is someone close to her (boyfriend husband father exc…) and as such “he” won’t dismiss her.
your going to see this comment later as my add blocker stopped the reply option and I didn’t realize it at first.
At some point somebody noticed the fact that a contract agreeing to do something illegal is null and void on its face.
And HW’s powers go up in a puff of logic when a judge declares the articles of incorporation establishing the LLC are void and the LLC in turn nullified.
I have no idea why they want her to listen to a phone call though. Her powers should have gone ‘puff’ the instant the judge made the call or filed the action or whatever it is that makes judgments official, whether she hears about it or not.
If it matters whether she hears about it, then it implies that HW is a potential A-list Supervillain of terrifying scope. The only limitations on her power would have to be psychosomatic limitations, that she could at any moment break free of – and then be dangerous on a ridiculous scale.
Sadly, she can probably break her psychosomatic ailments while remaining completely unhinged, too.
Doesn’t kick in until the recipient is notified in this case?
It’s not the Judge signing off on it that finalizes the nullification; it’s notification to the party that the Judge nullified it that makes it Official.
Are you having problem of a super nature? Call Archon’s legal department to see if we can help you.
That’s painful on the pun level kind of funny…
Finally! Yay!
Well it is clear now Henchwench’s powers don’t work the way she thinks they work and have a psychosomatic element, because Concretia is rescued and now a super villain and is not her boss as they are currently fighting..also pretty sure fighting your boss is universally a grounds for immediate termination of employment.
even if its a Hell contract this would be a breach of contract.
Also of note there, I don’t believe an LLC is eve a thing recognized by Hell and could be legally set up through the infernal court. Because Hell isn’t capitalist, there aren’t any real businesses or corporations. There are merchants but its not the same. While there are “corporate hells” they aren’t really corporations; they’re thematic. Its like a pirate themed restaurant; they aren’t actually pirates its just pageantry. A corporate Hell is just the souls working in an endless pointless loop, paperwork at a desk, filing, factories, meaningless Wonder Land trials, ect….contracts are solely for the purpose of indenturing someone to a demon.
that said if Henchwench is trying to apply human law and a human contract but treat it as if it were an infernal contract she’s broken both through contradiction.
all that said, it seems pretty clear her power limitation is psychosomatic to her perceptions. Thing is there is a double edged knife here, if she gets clear evidence of this and starts to learn how to really use her powers she is potentially very dangerous.
Concretia changing sides may be grounds for termination, but that doesn’t automatically take effect until someone in the organization acts on it. Just like HW refusing to obey direct orders didn’t void her status as an employee.
As for psychosomatic power limitations and self-awareness, sometimes you just have to believe in yourself for your powers to work, no matter how ridiculous they sound.
Other big flaw if Henchwench tries to claim it an infernal contract just because she may be 1/8th devil or whatever. In the flash back it looked like a real paper contract from a real world law office that they signed in ink. Not a manifested by her will spirit bonded parchment signed in blood.
Also shouldn’t there be a notary? (I’m actually not sure of this one),
again if she used a real contract and is trying to mentally hold on using infernal rules, this is an easy target for a lawyer who knows demonic pacts to declare the contract invalid.
also this LLC looks to serve no purpose other than the commit crimes anyway.
Arianna has an advantage most lawyers don’t. She does regularly have to deal with demonic/devilish entities on a day to day bias *points at Dabbler*.
A notary’s useful if there’s a question whether the contract was signed and by whom.
The contract is formed with our without a notary, which is why when you pay for your Starbucks by signing the little screen they don’t need a notary.
Yep. A Notary’s main function is to verify that there IS a contract/agreement. The Notary doesn’t need to know what the agreement says nor can the Notary act as a witness to what’s IN the contract itself, only that there ARE witnesses that can legally verify that it can be brought before a court for enforcement purposes. For all intents & purposes, anything certified by a Notary is legally equal to a Legal Affidavit of Witness that has Standing in court.
Just like rewinn’s example of a purchase at Starbucks, the legal signature being applied to the purchase at Starbucks IS a legally-verifiable document; that legal signature is what Starbucks needs to authorize the purchaser’s use of a credit card or debit card to use their funds in the bank to be transferred to the store.
Becoming a notary is also really easy. Most US banks have several on staff and even offer help to employees who are interested. It is however harder than becoming an Ordained Minister.
I became a notary just by paying the notary fee. I just have to pay to renew it every four years. But all attorneys are able to become notary publics without taking the notary exam. They pretty much assume if you passed the bar, you know the rules for being a notary. Since it’s part of one of the subjects in the bar under contract law, and the bar is a lot harder to pass than the notary exam, even in the easiest state bar exam (South Dakota).
Lol, my Dad had a sergeant in his old unit who did that. He became ‘The Reverend Master Sergeant’. He did weddings in uniform and even had a sign on his desk and door proclaiming his title. The brass were not enthused, but it WAS legal.
Now, he was never one that ‘I’ would have chosen to do a wedding but to each their own.
Oh crap they just nuked her. Best line in the movie Other People’s Money “Attorney’s are like nuclear weapons everyone has them, and when you use them they fuck everything up.” So yeah Hench Wench just got nuked hard never send an amateur to do the work of a pro. I’m not an attorney I was raised by one it is sort of like being left in the woods with wolves. I know two things for certain I don’t know the law and I don’t know medicine, but I do know enough about each to know who to talk to when I have a problem. Mom was a nurse.
Hm, let me guess…limited legal capacity regarding the contract due to pending warrant of arrest, especially since the contract is used to resist said arrest? Or simply nullifaction of the contract since terms (criminyl conspiracy) were blatantly illegal in the first place?
Or just that the LLC is void for…. god so many reasons. But the two biggest ones?
1) Being used in furtherance of criminal actions = illegal contract = void
2) Clauses where you have to agree to be fired = unconscionable/ambiguous clause = clause removed = HW fired
3) LLCs made where at least one member was under duress as a hostage = formation is invalid = void
4) LLC revoked by Secretary of State or a judge. Likely because of reason #1 and #3.
I know I said 2 biggest ones then gave 4 reasons. I forgot to change the 2 to a 4 before hitting enter.
Lawyers editing the terms is one of their chief weapons. As well as fear and surprise, and an almost fanatical devotion to… four, they have 4 weapons.
Also nice red uniforms.
I didn’t expect that!
but the busses are not running so they will be a little late….
HA! NOBODY expects the Spanish InQ…. um, er… wrong meme, sorry… :D
Yes, internet rule number one is never say how many bullet points you are going to write, until you finish them
Also I am on my phone as I typed this:)
We will forgive you.
We do not expect the Spanish Inqui-
Um…
*cringe*
Always expect the Spani- wait no that’s ninjas. Never mind.
It would be funny if Maxima actually can help but doesn’t know it as the opportunity to discover a new power feat never came up before. What if she could pull a Louie the Rune Soldier and focusing her energy around her hands actually lets her punch ethereals.
It is a powerful extra dimensional energy of unknown source and type.
So many things to say right now
1) Yay!
2) Really, YAY!
3) Phrasing, haha!
4) Yay again!
5) The villains had a really cool looking yacht that looks like a swan. Wondering how they got up to the head. Guessing there are stairs in the neck?
6) Did I mention yay? If not, YAY!
7) I really like the idea that HW is a paralegal, because I’ve known several paralegals that know absolutely nothing about how the law works beyond their hazy memories of the first year of law school and half-remembered episodes of Boston Legal or Law and Order, which sometimes explains why they never passed the bar (although I’ve also known many paralegals who are smarter than the attorneys as well). HW’s very obviously the former type and not the latter type. :)
8) A lot of paralegals haven’t taken the bar exam btw :) And sometimes they havent gone to law school and instead went to a paralegal training program (and they usually tell them that ‘the paralegal certification should not be mistaken a bar certification’) :) So yes, you can’t disbar a paralegal for being evil. Or, at least with most, for… anything… since they often aren’t in the state bar in the first place. :)
9) I’m really really happy right now. Did I mention yay? Because yay!
10) There are just sooooo many reasons to invalidate the LLC agreement. Can’t wait to see this. This is so much catharsis!
PS. Yay!
Why settle for paralegal, TV tells me I can be a high-powered NYC lawyer without a law degree or passing the bar. With enough chutzpah, it’s even been pulled off in real life.
Frank Abagnale did pass the bar, he did a huge cram session for a few days and managed to pass. Which, honestly, is almost more impressive.
Right, he did pass the exam (although it was not 3 days like the movie shows, it was about 8 weeks of study and took 3 tries – still very impressive). However from what I understand, you can’t officially take the exam without a law degree, which invalidates his test results. Dunno if that was true back when he did or, or even now for sure, just going off what I’ve discussed with friends who have licenses in various fields.
For example I had to pass a couple 8-hr exams to be an engineer, but someone who snuck in and passed the same tests couldn’t actually be given a valid certificate because registering for the test includes providing a copy of your degree from an accredited school, which would have to be forged. And they certainly couldn’t become licensed because the national requirements for practice include an accredited degree and 4 years supervised industry experience.
Of course you could falsify all of the above, and it counts for the same so long as people believe it and you aren’t caught. Possibly very relevant to what’s about to happen to HW on the next couple pages when she gets the [strike]rug[/strike] contract pulled out from under her.
Lawyer rules differ from state-to-state. In New York, if you don’t have a law degree, you can instead get by on a combination process: Take some courses, then complete a 4-year apprenticeship with an actual law office for four years.
https://www.nycbar.org/get-legal-help/article/information-about-lawyers/
I don’t believe a 4 year apprenticeship or courses is actually required in New York. You just need to take an exam and pay a fee.
PS – upon further reflection, I guess if you wanted to take the bar WITHOUT going to law school, then it would require the apprenticeship first in order to take the state bar exam (cheaper and probably easier alternative to going to law school, but a year longer), which is the other way you can become a notary without having to take the notary exam (not to mention a way you can become a lawyer without going to law school in several states, although I’ve never met anyone who became an attorney that way personally).
Fortunately for me, you don’t actually have to be licensed to be an engineer in most fields, so long as you do your work for an employer, (The “industrial exception” that swallows the rule.) rather than offering it to the public. Granted, I can’t legally put “PE” after my name, but I can live with that, I still get paid to do the work and called an “engineer” by my employer, and get to know that parts made on tooling I designed are in practically every IC car on the road.
I did get the education, btw, but had to drop out in my senior year to nurse mom back to health after a bad auto accident. So ended up starting as a detailer and working my way up.
I’m currently mentoring a guy who will probably get licensed in a few years. He’ll get to use the PE.
Oh, by the way, in a few states you CAN take the exam without the degree, so long as you can show you’ve done the work for several years.
Here’s a link to a Forbes article on the yacht – https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelingram/2020/09/15/is-this-swan-shaped-megayacht-with-a-detachable-head-the-wackiest-concept-boat-of-2020/
I really love how that yacht looks soooo much.
They might be awful villains who torture supers and tried to murder Sydney, but they have great taste in yachts.
I’m having a hard time understanding why everyone keeps talking about the contract being illegal being grounds for immediate dissolution. She gets her powers from literal devil heritage and superpowers, not any sort of legal system.
Her powers of “employment” are probably tied just to the contents of the contract itself rather than any surrounding legal system. The contract only having a way to break it up in the first place being either a restriction of the powers or henchwench holding onto the possibility of moving jobs.
“She gets her powers from literal devil heritage and superpowers, not any sort of legal system.”
[Citation needed]
There has not once been any canon indication of any such thing. Just a lot of speculation in the commentariat.
DaveB off handedly mentioned it in a blurb under a page like two pages back. That is where everyone has been getting it from.
But yes, on-panel would be preferred.
However her power coming from power copy is on-panel. She stated she gets her powers from working for a supervillain. However its been speculated since then there is probably a psychosomatic element thanks to evidence on panel (such as Concretia not being a super villain).
there is nothing metaphysical about US contract laws or papers so any immediate shift would be strange, it is far more likely her power limitation is based on her perception and she has convinced herself so strongly as to how it works that the already ambiguous in how it works zero physical contact power copy ability is subject to her own mental blocks. So if she doesn’t know, it doesn’t apply.
Even then, it could be something as simple that non supervillains are a lot more likely to bring in an attorney to look over the paper work which would then point out how ludicrously one sided henchwench makes the contracts. Supervillains are usually a combination of dumb (doing bank robberies instead of private sector) and not wanting a legal paper trail (such as by attorney reading over the paperwork and then noticing that it is obviously criminal).
she initially is stated to not need a contract, only to work for a super villain to copy their power. The contract was introduced explicitly for the purpose of forming an LLC of super villains so they all be her co-bosses so she could copy all their powers.
A concept that has been repeatedly smashed to pieces in the comments over and over again.
So the most likely conclusion is her power is psychosomatic and she just believes they have to be super villains and that the contract is legal.
a blurb stated the devil heritage part which would add some credence to human paper work doing anything to aid a metaphysical ability, however even if she has devil heritage her entire crux here is forming an LLC, which is a modern day human construct. I am not going to repeat what several others have been repeating in these comments for like a month now, so leaving it at that.
at the heart of it is her actual power is power copy, and given she is still using Concretia’s power despite also fighting Concretia whose body has been rescued. Clearly neither the supervillain, or works for them, aspects are actually true and Henchwench just convinced herself they are and is too nutso to realize the conditions she herself stated have been broken.
Just gonna leave this here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArtisticLicenseLaw
In short, for the purposes of entertainment and because you can’t expect the writers to be experts in fields they didn’t graduate from, much like physics in a sci-fi movie you shouldn’t expect perfect legal representation in tv shows. Hell I am sure almost every trial I’ve ever seen in a movie or tv show was faulty in multiple ways. That said good chance those same shows have given people who can’t separate fantasy from reality *at least not completely, and I understand as I’ve worked with people like this; they have trouble doing it when the work presents its self as “realistic” and its just over things they don’t know like legal proceedings, police actions, soldiers on a battlefield, buying a house, running a business, ect…),
Dude my one of my favorite YouTube channels, LegalEagle, does reviews of movies and TV shows and grades them on legal realism as well as videos on other legal topics. You should check it out sometime. I wish he would do a video over Herrera v Collins.
Also trials in real life can be faulty in many ways too. That’s why appellate courts exist. Even lawyers and judges get things wrong. The legal system is complicated.
I am not a lawyer, just a layman with an interest in the legal system. I wish I had the time to study law with respect to my current field, information technology, as well as contracts since managed service providers need good contracts as a part of doing business.
I am partial to real doctors watching action scenes from movies and expressing just how horrific the fights would be for the medical response team; so many deaths, likely to lead to death or permanent disabilities, and massive traumatic injuries. Even the heroes who are said to not leave a trail of dead bodies behind, their scenes…trails of dead bodies.
Sometimes, not leaving a trail of bodies is simply an indicator of tactics…
A judge can be called on the phone (by a lawyer) & ask for such measures like a “Immediate Stay of Action” or a law enforcement officer can ask for a “Legal Warrant to Search or Arrest” in a fast-track verification (ie- when time is THE most critical factor, like people are in danger of an immediate threat) if the judge is informed of the prevailing evidence & will expedite the paperwork at first opportunity.
Yeah, sometimes a judge’s ruling CAN be made within a matter of minutes…But the other legal authorities damn-well better be able to back it up with real evidence for the bureaucracy to process it.
That ship is based off an actual design? And the goose-head is actually a speedboat? Why the heck would one raise their speedboat 20′ off the waterline, and anchor it from it’s rear when secured to the larger boat? Does it slide down the neck and jump when it’s launched or something?? Maybe the entire boat partially submerges at times? Some serious overcomplicated loading and unloading mechanism in the neck part there, not to mention stress fatigue from raising 4 tons that high and kept aloft by a single badly angled support beam. (speedboats average around 8000lbs)
Got a link for the actual boat this is from? Because seriously, that is a big waste of money for the ‘speedboat’ holder alone.
It appears to be this one: https://nautika-present.com/2020/11/05/swan-shaped-concept-yacht/
Other renderings of the ship show 2 more ‘small’ craft (real ones from the same designer, I think) docked in the rear, so the speedboat is definitely not needed, let alone practical. But you can’t have a swan without a head, so you just gotta figure out the engineering to make the design work.
The neck folds forward to set the boat into the water, and also settles down onto the back for normal use (actual default position), so that deals with most of the stress fatigue, but even in its display position I think it’s viable. That is a massive support, and doesn’t appear to be hollow. A cantilevered beam that size could easily hold 4 tons on the end.
This looks possible. However, I wanna see you dock the swans head back in place. I expect its actually going to take a skilled crane to load it into place. there’s a helipad in the back as well, that kinda sets the scale. the head is a 16 foot boat if that helps. this isn’t a small yacht. its a very big one.
The head is 16 metres in length (going by the article), not 16 feet. You see a person standing on it.
bleep- misread that. its even Bigger!
The above article has a video which shows the deployment sequence, which shows the boat moving off a pair of giant forklift bars. I presume the lift slots run internally or perhaps under the base of the head boat (the Noggin?) and would be oversized for maneuvering room, so docking would simply be pulling into alignment with the forks and then backing up onto them.
in theory, yes. but I live in Texas. and I can hear the dark laughter from Dayton, Ohio at the idea of backing that boat onto the forks.
Docking going astern isn’t any more difficult than docking going forwards, just stand facing where you’re going and hold the wheel behind you. I’ve docked sternwards into gaps no wider than the boat before, in fact a touch smaller as we pushed the yachts on either side apart with the fenders.
While the forks appear an issue they’re no different to the ramps increasingly being fitted on naval vessels for RIB recovery.
I think the whole concept is ridiculous, the last thing any nautical vessel needs is weight well above the waterline, but it’s probably do-able.
It’s traditional for supervillians to build a base in active volcano, on the ocean floor, on the moon, etc., so they’re not about to balk at paying too much for a fancy yacht with a speedboat instead of a spare tire.
super heroes with a lot of money aren’t much better, especially golden and silver age superheroes with their secret bases, caves, fortresses, and what not.
(or those trying to sell toys in the 1980s as well), the Turtle Van, The Lair of the Thundercats, so many He-man impractical vehicles ect…
Thant’s NOT counting things like various Spidermobiles. Which was especially hilarious when it turned out Parker in lore did not know how to drive because he was a self funded college student with a partial scholarship who still needed to pay for a variety of high end camera equipment, film, his own film processing equipment and chemicals, web fluid and spider gismoes.
Why bother learning to drive when you can get anywhere in Manhattan in 5-10 minutes webslinging?
the toy lines.
You could find Spider Man motorcycles, a boat, helicopter. Heck I came across a Flash motorcycle, and even a Silver Surfer motorcycle.
Some of this type of stuff would be incorporated in cartoons (especially 1980s), although a lot of 1990s and into the 2000s just shrugged and made toys for cartoons of stuff not even in the cartoon…not that they don’t still do stuff like this, we see toys based on super hero movies of stuff not even in the movies.
to be honest they still do this, I haven’t watched any current superhero cartoons so not sure what all on the shelves is actually in the shows but I can speak from experience of older ones that had tons of these superman-mobile, Superman power armor with missile launchers, Wolverine motorcycle that shoots claw missiles, ect…that were definitely not on the shows the toy line is made for.
because,
aesthetics.
real people and super villains/super heroes do weird things with too much money and just because it (looks cool) to them. It only becomes a problem if they assume everyone has the same tastes and make a whole lot of these super expensive vehicles before trying to sell them only to learn the market is a lot less than they thought.
the Homer SImpson car is based on a real, and on-going problem with designing new vehicles. You need to market it first.
but on the individual level.
Magneto’s car, Galactus’s car (yes this one a thing for a short time), every vehicle Batman makes, the Jokermobile, ect…
in short rich boys want big boy expensive toys. and you know a lot of people would if they had that kind of money want the same ridiculous things; and people spend a lot of money making them. I shudder to think of crashing in the xenomorph or Predator inspired motorcycles, or even trying to drive that somehow street legal “flying” saucer someone made…one buy spent a fortune building a giant functional beetle mech that he can’t really take anywhere.
I did not know Galactus had a car. What does he use it for, picking up takeout planet meals at a drive-through?
“Welcome to Uberverse, can I take your order?”
“Yes, I’ll have a medium-sized planet done extra crispy.”
“Is that the Solar Flare Special? Anything to drink?”
“Oceans.”
“Right, and will there be any moons with that order?”
“It comes with moons, right?”
“It sure does. Sentient life forms?”
“Don’t care.”
“Thank you for your order, please drive around to the cosmic window.”
5 minutes later… “Dang, they forgot the moons again.”
I would post a pic of it, it was this giant bathtub looking chariot thing he’d sit in. Didn’t have it for too long. But now thanks to Fortnite mucking up the search algorithm I can’t find it anymore.
When he’s on a diet, does he just have dwarf planets instead?
Don’t forget the Thanos Copter…a regular helecopter with “THANOS” on the side.
I have seen Thanos’s drubbing on ERB. that copter is hysterical.
This sparks joy. Just knowing the Thanos Copter is a thing.
Yes, it is…heh.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Thanos-Copter
Concretia could make a good super-suit pilot. You could cram tech into a stone laced puppet that would give power-suited hero analogues waking fever dreams.
Yes! I love this sort of lateral-thinking use of superpower!
Like, Superman could have SUCH a force-multiplier setup with extra equipment- even if he’s not wearing a whole powersuit, having something like an enormous ‘cargo pod’ that holds, like, high-strength restraints, and fireproof blankets and structural jacks/expanding foam (for temporary bridge repairs, you see), along with his lead suit for Kryptonite situations… maybe a room with yellow-sun lamps… He wouldn’t have to carry it during fights, but he could take it with him when going to disasters or whatever, and just plop it down nearby so he can access it if needed.
Electrokinetics never seem to take advantage of their near unlimited power to power, like, rayguns or energy shields or whatnot.
One story I recall reading a long time ago involved an electrokinetic who was given a backpack full of capacitors….
No one, but NO ONE, can go up against Arianna in contract t law and hope to win. This is the end for Henchwench! Or is it?
**DUN DUN DUUUUUHHHNNNN!!!**
And then it turns out, Ari and Henchie went to the same law school, but Ari was the dunce of the class with Henchie the Dux :P
Now I desperately want HW and Arianna to have a back story.
Structurally speaking, if the neck had a rail on it that was used to lower the head instead of the neck itself moving it would be more viable. The neck itself moving forward to lower the boat could have all kinds of balance issues.
That was my first thought as well, but the concept renderings (linked above) show that there’s actually a hinge in the middle, similar to a backhoe arm. The deploy sequence would keep the head fairly low and tuck it just in front of the bow, not way out ahead of the main craft. No matter how it worked though, you’d never want to load/unload except in very calm waters.
ah yes.
lawfare.
I do wonder if Congreta could work less as a fighter or more Heavy weapons and defense.
Uh oh! Someone pulled out the BIG guns…
This won’t end well!
Even MAXIMA makes way for the lawyers!
After the last couple of pages of legalese trickery… or reasonable attempts at the Grrl Power version of it, all i can hear in my head is the Mortal Kombat theme, but with the words “Oral Contract~” as the main theme instead
“LEGALITY! Arianna wins!”
shudders at all the paper cuts.
Missed opportunity: giving ghostwench a ghost wedgie.
“She’s too slow in her stone form for anything but basic ass punching”
Unf
Fortunately she’s fast enough in her spirit form for some basic tit punching.
My new super power:
“How did you get through that door?”
“Phrasing!”
“You mean phasing?”
“No, phrasing. That’s not a door. It’s an entry!”
Ok. Someone called out the big guns. “Dips the orbital bombardment cannons in respect”
Sorry about the prurient interest and all, but is Concretia’s ghost nekkid? Looks like some kind of sports-bra on the previous page, but here there don’t seem to be no clothing a-tall. What’s the ghost protocol for clothes anyway? They don’t seem to have to match the meat outfit. Could she be ghosting in formal attire if she chose?
Yes, Cree’s spirit form tends to be nekid (as seen when she was floating in front of Sydney)
Likely an art/artist error. Concretia was clearly ‘wearing’ her typical uniform on the prior page, but she doesn’t show it on this page even though it would only take line drawings to represent it. And Henchwench showed her outfit in ghost form even before she merged with her meat body.
She must need to replace those stockings after every fight, very impracticable…
I detect the approach of the idiot ball handoff.
Henchwench is in the middle of a fistfight, and yet will hold tightly to the idiot ball, stop fighting and listen carefully to a cell phone held by someone a few yards away from her so that she can be depowered by legalese. Uh huh.
Henchwench has already displayed her ignorance, add her ego to the mix. A typical ploy in devil contract stories (which applies even if it was just a joke and she’s not part devil), is to prey on their bloated ego that belief that they have a solid legal foundation to win; only to poke holes in it.
She likely won’t believe anything anyone says can rob her of those powers; but she also believes she is holding onto them thanks to human legal mumbo jumbo; so hearing the facts, unable to refute them, and bam; her mental hold breaks and she ends up surrendering the powers because she is convinced she shouldn’t have them.
Yes it sounds idiot, downright (Magneto letting himself be taken away in a police car because he was tricked into thinking he lost his powers because of a wooden gun…) levels of “what?”.
but that’s the thing, she’s clearly unstable and like the guy who honestly believes he’s a juice cup and will die if he falls over, she believes her powers are being amplified to have their powers because of a contract; she is so convinced of this that it worked, so breaking her world view should make the actual mechanism let them go.
power copier (in any of its many variations) has always been the most loosely put together super power in terms of how it works.
No, Mr Juice Cup doesn’t believe he will die if he falls over, he can refill any container with any liquid (unless you are talking about a character no one has heard of…)
I was not referring to a character but a real person from a mental institution in regards to how strongly one can believe something
That’s an interesting form of insanity, given that a juice cup doesn’t die or break or even get harmed if it is knocked over. And also the ease in disproving it only takes a rigorous shove and a “Look, you didn’t die!” Not that I’m endorsing the abuse of those with mental issues, mind.
https://tenor.com/view/familyguy-kool-aid-slip-fall-break-gif-4651381
I seem to recall when it would happen he would scream and go into a panic attack.
this was part of a psychology class in college, I just remembered this one as it stood out as different than the usual, hears voices, person thinks bugs are crawling on his skin cases that were being discussed for delusions.
On another note:
as we don’t know, and it is most likely, the people on the yacht do not represent the ENTIRE organization. While those people are held for questioning Concretia is going to either need to be placed in the witness protection program (seeing as how whomever “they” are knows her real identity, where she lives, and if their organization is wide enough may abduct her again, or murder her to keep her silent or as an act of revenge).
or Concretia can join Archon and sleep on site in her own room, *possibly both options, where her body can be protected, and her loved ones placed under protection, until they weed out this unknown organization.
Am I the only one super excited to see Concretia already saved by Halo and Cora?
No.
I was hoping to see some gratuitous scenes of necessary violence to rescue her body, but hey, Sydney IS kind-of a cop and she HAS been through a lot today. Cora is likely on her best behavior right now.
That said? Looking forward to Henchie getting the tar kicked out of her by Arianna.
Just dropping in for some hopefully constructive criticism.
Maybe some people have complained about it before, but personally I always get annoyed by introduction of problematic abilities. There’s at least four kinds I can think of.
1) Purely overpowered. Think Superman… or actually Maxima, where you constantly have to come up with reasons why they don’t just end the fight immediately or just have to conveniently forget they could do it. Or alternatively have to introduce equally strong enemies, thus making the rest of the cast useless… or worse, have to flex the laws of reality to make them useful. (Like Batman going toe to toe with Superman in a fist fight.)
2) Over-utility. Stuff like unconstrained teleportation, unbreakable shields, etc. Abilities that are not strictly overpowered in a way that could immediately win any fight, but could be used to immediately solve tons of plot points or combat situations. And once again you are forced to conveniently forget about it or come up with contrived reasons. “Oh the villain just happens to have access to an anti-twinkywinky field that stops us from just smooshing out of this prison.” One solution is to come up with all kinds of limitations, but if you don’t have the entire script pre-planned it can be very difficult to do it properly without ending up in situation like “Uh, but earlier they could do X to achieve Y, so why don’t they just do the exact same thing now?”
3) Over-flexibility. The things are way too generic and can be used for too many situations. Things like the infamous sonic screwdriver from Doctor Who. Or maybe Krona. Cheap ways of solving any sort of plot point with a wave of a hand as needed. Comes off as lazy writing, and way too easy to introduce new over-utility aspects of the ability that have to be forgotten later like in the case 2.
4) The “Can’t touch this!” Stuff like Kitty Pryde. Or Concretia, who annoyed me already when she was first introduced. The kinds where even if they can’t beat you, you can’t beat them either, because 99.9% abilities are useless against them. Until Captain DX Machinum once again pulls out his anti-twinkywinky field generator that he just happened to have lying around and that just happens to be the only thing that counters the ability.
So yea, basically I’m saying Henchwench ticks 3 or 4 of these boxes and it annoyed me enough to write this out.
I saw that yacht and immediately thought of an old Scrooge McDuck comic I read 50 years ago. Scrooge had to ship a big cargo of gold across the Atlantic but was wary of Beagle Boys pirates. So he built a boat in the shape of a giant swan (or maybe duck?). It had robotic features that would allow it to defeat pirates.
Unfortunately, the Beagle Boys learned of the new ship and made their own; in the shape of a frog.
Poor choice of shape for the Beagle Boys. Both swans and ducks eat frogs.
Nothing can touch them… Nothing physical at least…
What about Sydney’s Energy Tentacle created by an orb of technology more advanced than any currently known galactic civilization?
I expect it could get feisty with them if Halo decided to intervene.
I am thinking her shield could also probably block the stasis gun without her being slowed down by it.
For such a comical character, Henchwench is proving to be far more capable than her starter stupidity made her seem.
the “toonforce” at work?
Called it.
Plot twist. Henchwench is actually Ariannas daughter (and Aris side is the one with the devils blood) and is now due for some serious parenting talk.
DaveB weaponized Lawyer powers.
OH GOD WHAT ATROCITY WILL HE COMMIT NEXT
he will put coconut in a confection. that is an atrocity.
pineapple on pizza is surprisingly good.
he will introduce a hero that has a pun for a name.
Still better than a hero (or villain) whose name indicates their powers.
TV Tropes timesink warning: Steven Ulysses Perhero
I liked how EGS lampshades it has name affinity magic, and how a major character hated it.
What’s wrong with coconut in a confection? Ever heard of the ‘Bounty’ bar? or even… ‘coconut ice’ (no ice or water involved)?
The yacht needs to follow the star trek next generation saucer separation rule. With the backup crew command deck sitting where the eggs would usually be
If you look up the concept page for the yacht (Linked above) the head is a separable speedboat. Yes, it has the equivalent of Saucer separation.
Yes… which I read in full. or else I would never have thought to type what you were replying to. but my point is the backup deck needs to be in the arse
option 4) the contract was never notarized and is not a valid contract no matter what the fine print says.
option 5) the entire contract is legitimate, and she turns out to be the LLC’s manager
option 6) the LLC’s manager is someone close to her (boyfriend husband father exc…) and as such “he” won’t dismiss her.
You didn’t see the last page, where we found out the LLC’s manager is Hench Wench herself?
I didn’t take it that way. I looked at that page before my comment and felt lilke a flash back to when she was being hired, like she was at an interview. the black hand signing the contract seemed more like the “management” then her.
Top that with the other two watching her “practice” her evil laugh and aside comments, complete with the “I like her she comes prepared.” statement from the mask girl, makes that page more of a flash back.
Heck for all we know the mask girl is the management. after all we haven’t seen her in this fight except during that flash back.
that or the mask girl could be the Alary woman that possessed the shot Spanish “hero” a few pages back.
The mask girl hasn’t really engaged with the fight, but we have seen her before. She’s the one to whom Brüt passed the stasis gun after stealing it from the Interplanetary Acquisitions crew, and has presumably since concentrated on getting herself and her spoils to a safe area rather than fighting above her league. If she’s been named on-page, then I missed it; I sort-of-suggested Masked Missile as a placeholder name a few pages back, but it’s not official.
Flygirl may or may not be Alari (may or may not also be drow, we already met one of them already), but she is most certainly not Scipina
And those panels were a flashback (which many readers had difficulty figuring out)
oops this was supposed to be posted above in Yorp;s comment string as a reply to MidnightDStroyer and Stroth’s comments.
Well none has mentioned the possibility of HW being a binding magical contract like the goblet of fire.
And second what if the deevil went down to Georgia looking for some souls to steal. Henchie could get supernaturaly powered to the nth degree…
Heck law and rules be damned… *ahem*
just to say this, I hated the Goblet of Fire.
So they are bound by the lot given by a magical item THEY MADE for the purpose of drawing lots for a GAME between SCHOOLS, and they knew it had to be tampered with to give Harry Potter’s name…and yet they have no choice but to follow it?
No, that’s just dumb. The Wizarding world is run by idiots and doomed to extinction…given the games were also needlessly deadly and their students are nearly killed every single semester. Well, it was long past time for the wizards to rethink their entire society.
on the subject of devil contract, go back to the previous strip and check out the comments section, it was pretty much what most everyone was discussing.
Honestly, that sounds pretty realistic. They had to follow it, because the alternative was admitting the untamperable goblet had been tampered with. And it was more important that it be trusted, than that it be worthy of being trusted! Isn’t that a pretty normal approach to many things in muggle society?
And the Wizardling world is pretty casual about injuries, given magical cures, and apparently takes a fairly Victorian view of life: You screw up and die? Too bad, so sad, more room for people who don’t screw up.
The sort of things they can only get away with when they convince their entire magical society it needs to stay secret from everyone else. Get to be fascist councils with no regards for life, deathsquads, and enforced through fear of them and more so the “others” of society. This also applies to most urban low fantasy series, including nHrrl power with the twilight council. Being old doesn’t make them right or what is good for their people, it just gives them an ego and pride to hold onto power.
Don’t forget that the series shows multiple instances of human sex trafficking, and I am totally serious. What Voldemort’s mother did to his father qualifies as using drugs to kidnap and rape the poor guy. More than one wealthy wizard is known to have married a woman he wanted, and without her getting any say in the matter (and often love potions and/or the full on Imperius Curse were involved). Hell, the second “Fantastic Beasts” film opened with one of the HEROES from the first film having turned another hero into her brainwashed slave, and while Newt freed him there was no suggestion of legal consequences.
And of course the total violation of civil rights. And to top it off, even the younger wizards never think to break the masquerade for the benefit of everyone. Not to mention how the “muggle prime minister’ is presented as a buffoon. Even the current RL prime minister of the U.K. would have had enough sense to have commandos on constant watch, to arrest and detain the wizards the next time they popped in to say, “yeah, we’re having issues and that’s why some of you muggles are dying in the crossfire. Still not going to tell you anything, sucks to be you.”
Seriously, imagine how the siege of Hogwarts would have turned out if Voldemort and his legions had found the place fortified by some machine gun nests, crewed by soldiers ready to call in the RAF for some air strikes as needed.
Well you did Myth my points i see. Personally the terms “rules lawyer” makes me need to take an Asprin. DEEVILS are tricky that way.
Yeah an artifact that meerly picks one representative per an arbitrary number of schools is a bit dumb. The consequences es could have been you die if you break it. In the books and in the movies it was really never specified the concequences.
And as for courts of law, what the law says and how it’s interpreted IS up to the judge. Judges can toss out anything they want really and toss in stuff too. Thats what appeals are for too. Once you run out of higher courts to appeal to, you’re stuck. In the real world ™ without the peoples enforcement of the system, contracts are just ink doodles on paper.
Btw. You fell for my trap pun… :) exit stage right
Man comments keep missing the intended links. Was meant for Rhuen as conversation.
I spent a lot of time last page of this comic in the comments section discussing Devil contracts.
I do not want to get into Magic Contracts, the types Wizards, Necromancers, Sorcerers/Sorceresses, and what not can use…they are just one step below Divine Contracts in terms of (screw you, you aren’t getting out of this), but at least they are usually straight forward and clear…usually, just make sure failure to adhere to the terms doesn’t lead to you turning into a familiar or some animal or whatever.
I honestly would argue if they should even be called contracts and not ultimatum curses in some cases.
But yeah, if Henchwench is using a devil contract she has a lot of leeway where a normal contract wouldn’t work. Problem is she seems to be basing her entire contract on a human construct (an LLC), so if that was formed via human regulations and laws, then regardless of her own additional power over it, it becomes subject to human law because simply by making it form that way she has agreed to those terms. If she had just done a cultist contract with multiple “masters” she’d be fine; unless she stipulated in the contract they were supervillains and one is not thus nullifying them from commanding her (normally a bad thing in a demon contract as you’d no longer hold sway over the summoned demon), but in Henchwench’s case as she playing these cards upside down, she screws herself over and loses the powers because her external from the contract ability also relies on her working for someone to copy their power.
So, wild random thought: If for some reason Archon doesn’t pick up Concretia, do you think Cora would let her onto the crew if she asked?
We’re all been saying Arianna was going to be the one to take down Henchwench, I have been waiting for this SO hard.
“That weird goosenecked yacht is where the bad guys were keeping Concretia’s body. I hope that’s clear. “
I hate to say it, but that… was not even remotely clear. I’m usually not *that* dense when it comes to picking up implied things in comic form, but I genuinely had no idea what I was seeing there OR why, and my best guess was that it was maybe a spaceship that was on fire somewhere nearby.
context clues:
first panel shows Sydney and Cora with Concretia’s unconscious body safely on a rooftop. Next panel shows a boat on fire with police and a bunch of people bound up in that same binding we saw Dabbler use back at the Parkinglot brawl. Previous pages had on panel had Concretia state she knows the distance and direction of her body and that it was on a boat in the doc, so she could easily lead them to it, or Cora use some other means.
next panel here reinforces with Concretia fighting Henchwench.
So context clues, that was the boat Concretia’s body was being held on and was rescued by Sydney and Cora.
the only way not to get that is to forget what happened before, I know time passes in real life between posts and details can be forgotten. But if this were in a comic book one page to the next it would be pretty clear.
Nice they got her body back and now to finally put an end to that hyperactive idiot by hitting her with power far greater then her, its time for Arianna to unload some lawyer talk and knock henchwenche’s powers out of her.
What has Sydney done this time? o_O
Wasn’t talking about Sydney was talking about henchwenche being the hyperactive idiot. XD
Oh my god they’re about to have Concretia AND Henchwench as new recruits
Concretia yes, Henchwench more likely to jail.
No, not even Cree
She’s a great character, but if they recruit everyone they fight (that they don’t kill first), then all that will be left is the MegaEvil SmugD!!
Concretia needs to be placed into protective custody regardless. Until they can ascertain the size and threat of the group that abducted her in the first place.
She would have to agree to that, but probably would.
G, why do you keep misspelling ‘Paragon of all that is good and noble’ as ‘MegaEvil’?