Grrl Power #93 – Sydney is the only person to get away with this
So yeah the booms were Max testing the shield out with increasingly powerful hits. We’ll see the fate of that new guy in a bit. A few more pages of Q & A, then Sydney gets unleashed on the team at large.
And one more reminder that I’m looking for a guest strip or two, just to make sure I’ve got something to post the week after A-kon. Make sure whatever you submit is legible at 643 pixels wide, but it can be any height. Due by June 3rd at the latest. Contact me via twitter, facebook, or mailing me at daveb-at-grrlpowercomic.com Ok that doesn’t work I don’t think. Try grrlpowercomic-at-gmail.com. Just for submissions though, I probably will only check it periodically after this week.
Update: Ok, fixed the missing “to”, added the 5 o’clock back in and adjusted a wonky looking eye.
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.
Smack that ass! Funy.
Maby you could post the top seven submisions that week.
Convenient itches are convenient. ;-)
Wonder who she’s covertly flipping the bird to.
Probably Arianna.
No ‘probably’ about it. The fact that Max does the covert bird flip right after Arianna’s snerky comment is the giveaway.
Does this make Max a “bird colonel” ???
Ok, I just checked the archives: Yup, she has her Eagles.
Full Bird Colonel
Only when she uses both hands.
After having some discussions I think I need to go back and make her a Brig. Col. but I really don’t want to fix all the insignias. :P
I wouldn’t, in the US Air Force calling her a Brig would make her a brigadier general – as a general Max wouldn’t be fighting with a squad. A brigadier typically commands a brigade consisting of three battalions (approximately 3,000 troops) and with supers being rare Archon wouldn’t have that many.
Wouldn’t it be LT. Colonel then?
Hah hah I’m such a military expert. Yes. Lt. Colonel.
Which is perfect because they are still casually referred to as just “Colonel”
While on the subject, there is a lot of tommyrot on the net as to why “silver ranks gold” in the US military. The real reason is in the materiel used. The insignia are >strong>not silver and gold. They are silvered brass and plain brass, i.e. 2nd lieutenants and majors wear their brass plain and everyone else gets a thin silver plating.on theirs. I hope this clears up any confusion.
Actually, Either one is properly referred to a Colonel. Just as you’d say General whether he’s a Brigadier General (One star) or Major General of the Army (Five Stars). Oh and Dave, if you need to remember Generals, here’s an easy way:
Be: Brigadier General
My: Major General
Little: Lt. General
General.
Hope that helps if they run into Army officers.
Btw Dave, the BG Faulk’s uniform has been driving me nuts for awhile. His ribbon rack keeps appearing and disappearing. When it is there it’s full of Army awards instead or Air Force!
Just so long as you don’t create a new rank like “Corporal Captain.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Korea
Doctor Who’s Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was a brigadier general in the British army, although working for an international organization. When Colonel Jack O’Neil was promoted, he became a brigadier general not still a colonel.
I may have gone overboard on the links. I don’t normally use this many links when I am editing Wikipedia.
I’ve only heard Colonel referring to a full-bird Colonel. And Lt. Colonel was typically referred to as a short colonel, though never to their face, of course. :)
BryanF Huh, I guess the comments only go 10 deep. Might have to look into increasing that.
Yeah I have a few notes about where I’ve forgotten to add them so I can go back and fix them. As far as him having the wrong ribbons… yeah, I can chalk that up to knowing next to nothing about the military and most of the things I want to know not being covered in a wikipedia page. I’m sure there’s a military manual that painfully details what ribbons go with what service and the order they’re supposed to be displayed in, but I just pulled his ribbon stack off an image I found when searching for one star generals. If you can provide me with a relatively high resolution USAF ribbon stack I’ll stick in my references folder and use it to update when I get a chance to go do some fixes.
(It didn’t occur to me that they would be different per branch, I thought they were like Xbox achievements. (x) Did 100 push ups, (x) Got Drill Sergeant’s spit on my face while being yelled at, (x) Learned which end of the gun is the dangerous one) I guess once you get up to a certain rank they’d start to diverge. Army: (x) Did donuts in a tank, Air Force (x) Buzzed the tower
Darkhound That is useful information. I never knew that. You have saved me from writing something dumb, though now I have to re-write that page. :P
In the vernacular (ie. between the teaming, unwashed masses of enlisted men), a Lieutenant Colonel is often referred to as a “Light Colonel” (due to the shorthand “Lt.”), Second Lieutenant is called a “Butter Bar”, Lieutenant (1st or 2nd) is often just shortened to “Lewy”
…but never to their faces.
There’s also Warrant Officers… usually flight officers that were commissioned from enlisted ranks into a status somewhere between officer and enlisted. They get saluted and called Sir (or “Mister” in place of rank, which are usually clumsy alphabet soup), and at least in the Army, are considered hella cool. 2nd Lewys are sometimes cool as well… it’s not until they level up to 1st Lewy that they get the stick surgically implanted into their orifice.
My understanding is that ARC is either a new branch (really tough to justify because it entails setting up a whole new beaurocracy and support structure – each branch having their own system – though perhaps necessary with all these super-types changing the world so drastically), or some type of joint command, which each branch assigning personnel as needed/required, and taking logistical support from whichever branch the CiC decided hang it on.
In either case personnel would retain the service decorations of their branch, so if Faulk is from the army, his having army ribbons makes sense to me.
We know Max is from the AF, but other supers may have been transferred from the other branches (or, like Syd, directly recruited from the civilian population). None of them strike me as disciplined enough to be marines, but Achilles or Amorphous could have been army. But what do I know!
My experience is mostly from movies and books, so my opinions are just about worth the electrons it takes to display them here…
… Except that they casually talked about the time one of them stopped a cruise missile with his face – which sounds to me like the sort of badass thing a Marine-trained super would try.
Achilies, Mr. Amorphous and Heatwave used to be vigilante super heros. I don’t think Achelies was a Marine.
Guys, what are you talking about?
Care to explain to someone from a foreign country who has no clue about “flipping the bird”?
I feel I can learn something here…
“Flipping the bird” is a euphemism for “giving the finger”. In most Western countries, raising just your middle finger at someone is a pretty rude gesture (I’m not sure what to compare it to, but it’s the gestural equivalent of “screw you, buddy”).
Wikipedia is your friend.
It’s the equivilant of giving the two finger salute in the British isles, flicking your fingers under your jaw in arab countries, or showing the sole of your foot in Indonesia. Basicly it means FUCK YOU!!!
I hope you are satisfied with this answer.
Sorry for misplacing my answer: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/526/comment-page-1#comment-16304
To me, it seems patently obvious that it is Arianna. Heck, that’s what I’d be doing at this point.
Zephan looks a bit younger in this page. Eariler he looked like a man in his well preserved late 50s to 60s, now he looks like he’s in his 40s to 50s.
The shockwaves from Mac belting Sydney’s forcefield flattemed out his wrinkles and blew away General Faulk’s five o’clock shadow. ;)
Sydney, don’t taunt the superhero Colonel.
You have to drop that force-field sometime.
For the moment Sydney’s enthusiam has pierced Maxima’s armour, and enabled some bonding with common interest. Secondly Sydney is a civilian . So for the moment, Sydney is safe. Things will likely change when Sydney realises Maxima is a great stooge, and Maxima get’s annoyed with Sydney’s hyperactivity,
“Do not taunt happy fun Colonel…”
That line so needs to end up in the comic.
No it doesn’t. “Super happy bum fun” connotations can stay well away, thank you.
Luckily then, “do not taunt happy fun Colonel” actually connotes an SNL sketch. And given Maxima notes that she doesn’t know what she’s made of, the Happy Fun Ball advertisement copy is particularly, almost eerily, relevant in parts:
https://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90mhappyfunball.phtml
Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing green substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.
Happy Fun Ball has been shipped to our troops in Saudi Arabia and is being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
“Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girl. But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction…. chemical X. Thus, the Powerpuff Girls were born! Using their ultra super powers, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil!”
Maxima, commander and the leader,
Dabbler, she is the joy and the laughter,
Sydney, she is the toughest cusser.. Arcswat save the day!
Fighting crime, trying to save the world, here they come just in time… grrlpower!
(Well, maybe Harem should be the joy and the laughter… not clear.)
Maxima’s ideas on comprehensive testing should be fun – Syd’s force field vs 88mm Gun for instance. Or a competition with Heatwave as to who can burn the most. And generally see whose else on the team Syd can really wind up! Syd vs the new guy should be fun. Notice Arianna’s not so subtle pay back to Maxima, that could get to be a problem that the general will have to step on at some stage.
They should test the forcefield with Heatwave. It can take impact, what about energy?
Remember the first page, transparent forcefields don’t block lasers.
What if Sydney and Harem got into a “prank” war, who would win? Sydney has more abilities and her “lovely” personality, however Harem can be in 5 places at the same time.
I don’t know who’d win but everyone else will lose.
No kidding, that would be crazy! It’d be some new kind of hellish, though to be honest I’d love to see it! Next thing you know Leon’s jacking with everyone’s facebook pages and cell phones, and then it becomes a free-for-all!
That just means 5 latrines get cleaned with toothbrushes at the same time. Oh, and the latrine catch basin can finally get dealt with as well. I wonder if smells can permeate Halo’s force field.
Lasers are focused light, to be honest a transparent forcefield can be adjusted to block a focused light beam but still allow in a scattered spectrum (it just would be weaker against lasers and have no defense against a “Flash”. However heat is another story, as is fire as fire is a gas that emits a great deal of heat. Now on that subject kinetic force (that which is released and passed between objects in motion when they connect/collide) is clearly being blocked as Maxima’s punches arn’t having any impact. Energy has different waves and mediums, its the medium you have to question as to what can get through the forcefield.
Lets look at the laser, a selectivly permeable light shield could allow in low intensity light (normal visible light), but block out anything with a high intensity such as a laser.
Or even simply refraction. Frcefield transparent, means light hitting it will alter direction slightly possibly internal refraction back in the direction it came. Wouldn’t work all the time, but definetly a side effect.
With that argument, the forcefield would look like a heat shimmer wouldn’t it?
Nope! A glass of water has the same minor refraction effect it’s why a straw sittin in a cup of water looks like it shouldn’t connect from where it seems to be under and above the waterline. For that matter glass does the same but with an even lower refraction index.
. . . I would just like to take the time to thank everyone here commenting on this page for proving there ARE smart people on the internet! Yes, I know most people are actually quite bright, but the dumb jackasses always seem to stand out more so it’s great to see people having peaefull and/or intellegent conversations instead of repeatedly using STFU and GTFO. Sq again, thank you all.
Doesn’t matter what the heat source is, heat is just infrared energy. And infrared is just a wavelength of light our eyes aren’t designed to see. Still light. Or electromagnetic energy, if you prefer.
Not entirely true.
Heat can spread by at least three methods:
radiation, which you are talking about;
conduction, within an object or between touching objects;
convection, for example when heating a pan of water from below. The hot water rises.
I’m curious what will happen if Sidney uses her shield to dive into boiling water… Will it conduct heat?
Short wikidive later: Can’t believe I forgot friction. I can believe I didn’t think of net mass transfer or chemical dissipation.
No, heat is the energy embodied in the vibrations of the molecules making up a material. It just so happens that the IR spectrum is quite effective for pumping up these energy levels, which is why IR absorption is an effective way of heating an object, but the energy can be transferred at least as effectively through direct contact, or even via other wavelengths of radiation if there’s a handy pair of transitions to do the emitting and absorbing (how do you think solar cells or chlorophyll work?).
You never know with light beams/ particles. For example most glass is transparent to infra-red (heat) but opaque to Ultraviolet (radiation). THe force field could block out the extremes of the spectrum with opacity while being completely transparent to the narrow slice of light that makes up the visible spectrum.
Actually your close, but it’s the other way around. Glass is opaque to infrared frequencies but lucent to eveything above. The rest though, I’d say your pretty spot on. For instance, polarization would block out ultra violet rays, and as far as making a sheild opaque to all but one color in the visible spectrum you’d just have to tint the shield that color.
Xander: Unless said transparent forcefields block things based on their energy thruput and not whether or not it’s “light” or not.
Laser: High Energy Thruput…anti-high-energy forcefield would block.
Normal visible light: Low Energy Thruput, is not blocked.
In other words, the Force field may block light by amplitude rather than wavelength.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for it to have a joule/cm^2 threshold?
That way you’d get everything from allowing normal light & gasses (so someone can keep breathing inside) through but block out everything from punches to coherent beams of light.
Then poison gas goes through that.
What if the force field is magic in nature in that it blocks things which are harmful? That seems to be the nature of them (magcal). Normal light – not hamful, high-power – lasers harmful. Air – not harmful, poisonous gas – harmful. Sydney’s force field may have some very unusual weaknesses not readily apparent. Anesthetic gas – maybe good, maybe bad.
In regards to the “nature” of the orbs, they could be …
A) Magic, in which case all rules of Science go flying out the window
B) Super Science, which again negates the rules of Science as it establishes it OWN rules
C) A Living Entity(usually either a Supernatural Entity or an Alien), in which case it could “Modify” the effects of Science
D) Alien Technology, closely related to Super Science, but its so potent it may as well be Magic
But yes, her ‘cant touch this’ is priceless, and something I could see her doing that in a REAL fight.
Just one question: What happens with stuff that’s just about near Syd when she activates the field?
Say, Max tries to punch-test and the field flickers–> Max’ fist almost hits Syd–> field goes back on.
Arms severed or not severed?
“Magic” is still energy and follows certain principles. So unless it is mentally directed it will function no differently than other energy depending on the frequency.
“Energy is Energy, whether focused by science or sorcery”
-Puck (Gargoyles)
Although I agree to a certain extent, I have this thing I wrote about the complex dimensional matrix and ignition/propolsion design for a self propelled fire ball conjured by magic that I deduced that certain principles in magic (mostly involving its effect on causality, time, and space relating to its multi-dimensional nature; which can also be used to explain why sorcery can interfere with electrical devices *electrical fields exist in 12 dimensions at the same time (electrons do) thus something that interferes with/manipulates multiple dimensions also interferes with anything electrical and magnetic. At any rate my whole fire ball hypothesis was written mostly to bash the movie “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and the idea that a vacuum field could be used as a perfect defense against a fire ball.
*conclussion, if only loose flame is summoned (which would exponentionally lose power over distance) then yes. However if the source of the fire is a sub-dimensional spherical field that acts as a self ignition, circulation, and propellent force, then when it hits the vaccuum field the fire would be extinguished, but by momentum the invisible ignition sphere field would continue and re-ignite on the other side *heh surprise fire ball in your face* LoL.
So… did Sydney come up with the idea that lasers can penetrate force fields based on pure ruleslawering, or had she actually tested hers using a wicked laser or something? (Is it theoretical or empirical?)
the Same was like 6 months after where we are now, so I’d say experience
*GAME* Curse thee lack of edit button!
Curse you, making me lose the game!
I’d imagine a small crowd has gathered outside the doors of that room. If the sound of Max’s blows were getting strong enough to shatter glass and burst eardrums, I’m sure the other personnel of Arc would have noticed by then- especially where sudden and explosive sounds coming from inside their HQ is concerned. I’m surprised no one outside has checked to see if everything’s okay, especially where four of their top officers are in the room.
Probably timing. It dosn’t take long to punch something, so she just started to hit the force feild harder and harder while Sydney egged her on to hit it harder. Probably only about 15 to 30 seconds passed from start to finish.
yeah i could see a scene of the guards massing on the otherside of the doors,, in tactical gear and all getting ready to blow down the door and go investigate
I can see them having Harem telaporting in to see what was going on first, just to be on the safe side.
I doubt it, since they would probably figure, if Maxima can’t handle something, what can a squad of armored red shirts do?
GI-Joe redshirt janitors
My guess is that this was the source of the boom-ing noises on the previous page. Given how little reaction it generated among a handful of the other members, I’d be suprised if ANYBODY came to investigate.
So, just another day the office?
Mild curiosity, a few jokes… I’m guessing yes.
Hehe wish we could could see Sydney do the MC Hammer – cant touch this dance, she has the the lyrics down thats for sure. :D
Will this do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_pFf6G2qPI
Good one! It was fun to watch.
it took me a few times reading this page to figure out what Sidney was doing in the fist panel., LOL.
My guess is that it is a high threshold force field, only X amount of force can be applied before it is felt, and so far Maxima’s blows are barely tickling that threshold. as for non kinetic forms of attack I think Sydney’s reality lawyer-ing in the first few pages mean she has experience with Opaque force fields, so my speculation would be that she can adjust the opacity of her shield for added protection from energy attacks.
It looks more like a Force WALL than a Force Field. Force fields tend to be more protective (and skintight) overall, but allow more feedback.
Using the HERO systems rules Syd’s field looks like it would be a 2 hex length Force Wall with the limitations No Range (-½), Self Only (-½) and bubble only (restricted shape, -¼).
Well, we were speculating a few weeks ago that the orbs might be ship tools.
So the sheild orb was probably designed to stop metorites.
AAhh, now I see the problem with Superhero-based RPG´s.
They tend to wash out the “Super” out of Superpowers.
It´s the same with Champions (online). May be fun, but all the Powers are just that. Not really comic material.
In order to not “overpower the superhero players” (YES! That actually is as rediculous as it sounds), powers are usually mitigated to: “Not bad, but the next street thug will take you”.
Comics, on the other hand, can use Superpowers as they are intended.
“Strike my Forcefield as often and as hard as you like, while i´m drinking my coffee inside it”
Personally, i like the latter a LOT better.
Which everybody knows by now.
I promise to shut up about it…
Someday…
Maybe… ;)
Try City Of Heroes You can basically do that.
I like Champions Online a lot. Especially since it is very Solo-Friendly (never were one for crowds). A lot like Autoassault. which didn´t make it, so i hope this will.
Anyway, I went more along the line: “No RPG in Comics” and less: “More Comics in RPG´s”
The problem being that she’s wrong with her rules lawyering. Seeing that that was a laser all you need to do block it is a polarized forcefield (that’s the down side of all that coherent light). That said it would result in absorption not deflection as shown on the first page.
And in case that that isn’t a sufficient possibility I think I can come up with some more options to keep the field see through while still allowing for light blocking when needed.
There’s the one-way mirror approach. She could possibly make the outside reflective but still be able to see (and project) normally from the inside
One way mirror?
That would violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics, thus solving all energy shortages & totally changing the society of the story.
aka, it’s too logical to work?
Erm. Sight does not work by vision-beams emitted from your eyes. What you see is the light reflected off objects striking your retinas. If the shield blocks light from outside, none of that reaches your retinas, and you can’t see anything outside your shield. For that matter, unless you’re carrying a light source, you can’t see anything inside your shield either, because without light coming from outside it’s dark in there.
That said, Sydney could cheat on that front, using the telepresence orb. Unless orb effects are also duplicated by the illusion, so illusory Sydney also has her LoS blocked by an illusory opaque shield…
However, the direction of polarization of the field would have to be as conflicting as possible (approaching 90 degrees) to the polarization of the incoming beam to most effectively reduce the incoming energy from a polarized attack. For a practical example, while wearing polarized lenses, look at a LCD monitor and tilt your head from side to side. Because of how LCDs work, you will see the screen change brightness depending on the tilt angle of your head. (for ready example, this video demonstrates the effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3IDDkFL14 ).
Who says coherent light must be polarized? (OK, I google a couple web pages saying so, but they seem to be wrong.) And if coherent light *must* be polarized, is it linear polarization, circular polarization, and which direction is it polarized and why? Basically, the optical cavity of a laser sets things up so the photons have the same energy and direction, but so far as I know, nothing enforces them having the same polarization. I suppose it *could* be set up that way, but sfaik, it normally isn’t.
There’s also a question as to whether Maxima’s energy attacks (however they work; we haven’t seen them yet naict (other than Sydney guessing they are “gold… beams?”)), or Sydney’s ‘splody beams, are actually light, let alone coherent or polarized or both. And what Heatwave’s attacks might be is also very unclear. So whether the force field would block them is similarly unclear. But the nifty thing would be if Sydney could (or her sheild orb naturally does) make the field photoreactive (or energy density reactive), so it’d be transparent until somebody hits it with enough light to be dangerous, and it *goes* opaque at the impact point. Which point, of course, you couldn’t see out of anyways. Xref General Products spacecraft hulls, iirc. Or if not that, the stasis field generator on the exploration ship to the Ringworld. Or if not that, Zaphod Beeblebrox’s sunglasses.
I agree that the game lawyerin’ at the start of the story is likely relevant and/or related.
“Just like the bad guy from Lethal Weapon two, I got diplomatic immunity, so Hammer you can’t sue! Can’t touch me!” — Peter Griffin
The short answer: the polarisation is down to the way the science works, and the way the switching gear works.
The long answer:
[I] LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Stimulated emission: if a photon passes close enough to an excited-state molecule that can transition down at the same energy as the photon, this energy will be released as a second photon with the same frequency, direction of travel, and polarisation as the triggering photon (i.e. coherent). This provides the amplification part, and is why the laser produces a coherent beam.
[II] For pulsed lasers (which you need to get a high power), the cavity is kept non-resonant while the lasing medium is pumped up to allow more energy to be released in the pulse. The most common way to do this is with a polarisation switch, which effectively absorbs light at one end of the cavity. A second effect of polarisation switching is that the pulse has a well-defined linear polarisation when it is eventually released. A search for “Q-switching” should get you more information if you want it.
I was wonering how that worked, man that always bugged me out. Same thing seems to happen with 3D glasses (not the red and blue ones but the modern ones). And as for the tilting LCD screen thing, it’s a handy trick when looking at pictures with areas outside your screens brightness settings, of which i’m too lazy to bother messing with, so i just tilt the screen to see different brightness levels.
even easier,, a laser only work as long as it is over a certain cohesion threshold,, so all you need to do to make a transparent feild that block lasers is to have it act like a prism if you want,, decompose the light,,, or simply have it vibrate in the right electromagnetic frequency but with a garble of amplitudes randomised over the surface,, this would cause the light to loose its cohesion as the vibration would cause the light to resonate with the forcefeild as it pass in it, and the noncohesive amplitudes would reduce the cohesion of the light .
A prism wouldn’t work: It splits light because of different colors, and a laser is all one color. The idea for something which causes some decoherence would work, eventually, but it’s very likely that it wouldn’t matter at the distance Sydney’s shield-bubble is at: There’s no special power in a laser that makes it more powerful than any other beam of light, and it wouldn’t have enough distance to spread before it hits, so it’d just hit in a slightly larger dot. (Enough decoherence could sidestep that, but then you wouldn’t be able see through the shield: It’d be like looking through frosted glass, at best.)
Polarized could work if the laser is polarized (slightly easier to make one that is with current tech, but don’t count on that), and you could orient it correctly quickly enough. What you really need is a mirror finish, or something that’s opaque to the color of the light in the laser. The former would mean more force is applied to the shield (the bounce doubles the force, as the light goes away with as much energy as it came with), while the latter has to dissipate the energy somehow. (So for short bursts, I’d want opaque black. For continuous sustained fire, I’d want reflective.)
Of course, with current tech, 100% opaque is much easier than 100% reflective, which the above assumes.
Consider:
A “Reflective” response might protect Sydney, but imperil all her team-mates!
Also…
1)___Why must the ENTIRE shield go opaque – why not only the portion that’s under attack by the radiation? (This assumes that the shield’s “methodology” is reactive)
2)___If the shield can “Refract” radiation like a prism (as was speculated above), perhaps it could apply this method in a pitch-dark room, to convert heat (or UV-rays) into the visible spectrum – NIGHT-VISION!!!
Or it could reflect it back at the bad guy. But yes, the direction of the reflection is an issue to consider when deploying a reflective shield.
As for your numbered points: 1: Sure, if your shield can vary small sections rapidly, only doing the section you need is a good plan. You only need to be reflective/opaque where the laser hits, and only in the frequency of the laser. But that doesn’t affect my points above at all.
2: Refraction doesn’t change the color of the light – it only deflects it. Different colors will be deflected different amounts, so a prism will split white light into colors, but nothing has intrinsically changed in the light. And even if you did change the color, you’d still be passing the same amount of energy. (Via more or less photons.) End result of being hit with the beam is the same. (Unless you can absorb or reflect the light in the new color, in which case you might as well model the forceshield as reflective or opaque, as it effectively is.)
In no particular response-order:
1)___D’Oh!?! My “Night-Vision” speculation was totally off-base! Thanks for catching that so fast!
2)___I toyed briefly with the idea of “reflecting back at the bad guy”, trouble is, the best of the non-specific shapes for that purpose is a trio of mutually perpendicular planes. (Simplest example: 3 squares that share corners, but no edges, to form the framework of an octahedron)
Such a shape will return “enemy fire” (or even a radar pulse) from any angle without you needing to know the angles involved. The thing is, as far as we know, this orb will only make spherical fields.
3)___Sorry, I didn’t intend to give anyone the impression that I was trying to disprove your entry – my bad, for being unclear. Just wondering how much awareness/control Sydney can (or NEEDS to) exert on this or any of the other spheres, to work them effectively…?
…& the ultimate answer is:
“You’ll just have to wait for the Author’s next page(s) to upload.”
As this is just a theoretical discussion on how Syd’s shield works with lasers… here goes…. JumpinJakes’ Laser theory in comics
1) Iffen it came down to it the shield stays the same transparency and the laser gets deflected. I call this the “Marvel Force field Effect” or Default Mechanics
2) the shield teleports the light to the other side of the shield thus letting it continue on it’s merry way
3) I take an eraser and solve the laser/shield conundrum in one fell swoop.
How about a force field that is opaque only for the laser’s color? Done perfectly, it would dissipate the laser’s energy in all directions and from the inside you could see everything with one color missing.
Or, a forcefield that has a black spot just where the laser hits it.
Best light defense would be a dichroic mirror (look it up!) reaction – have the force field mirror or scatter the high energy incoming wavelength(s), but pass others. That would allow seeing out of the force field, albeit with some color tinting in the laser color(s), while the laser messes with everyone nearby getting back-scatter. If that was the response, only extremely high intensity white light would ‘gray out’ the field. And if it was localized to where the light was hitting it, the effect would be a mirroring on the impact areas while the rest remained transparent. If over the entire field, getting hit by a laser would tint the entire bubble.
Still might be some pass-through damage from the first few photons, though – any reaction delay from the field would permit that. But it fits with the “threshold” level seen with Maxima – energy over a certain level gets absorbed/bounced.
I work with dichroics every day – they are very efficient.
or you could just go with micro dimples (think golfball) which break up the coherency of the laser beam
Gah! Please, no. If you break up the coherence but don’t reflect the beam, you get constructive/destructive interference with the same energy redistributed – speckles at twice the power. That changes the laser effect from being hit with a drill (single beam) to being hit with a cheese-grater – a bullet to a shotgun blast. Not nice. (Having been reading journal articles about lasers run through diffusers this week…)
No, you have to absorb or reflect the energy, not just scatter/scramble it.
If it was a ship tool like we speculated, it would probably automaticly polarize on the frequency that would be harmfull to thier holder.
Well… except that polarization has nothing to do with frequency, and frequency has nothing to do with danger. To a first approximation.
But yes, if it’s a ship tool, it’d likely be set to be photoreactive. If your spaceship is near a solar flare, it’d be nice if it went opaque (or reflective) automagically until the light dimmed. And possibly only that portion upon which unusually intense light is impacting.
“All laws of nature are linear… to first order.”
well in my opinion, the “frequency” of “danger” may go up some in the near future *puts on carnac hat* MWAHAHA
just one thing,,, where is the general’s five o’clock shade gone,,,
and while the forcefield can withstand strong single impacts,, i wonder how it would fare agaisnt highspeed multiple repetitive inpacts
the concussive impacts blasted his 5 o’clock shadow off his face
Well it wouldn’t be a page of Grrl Power if I didn’t forget something. I thought I was doing good remembering the visitor lanyard.
you did,,,and that is why it is usualy easier to draw character’s without the 5o’clock shade,, hence forth why it is so rare,, usualy they are always perfectl;y shaved,, or have a beard so that they dont have to worry about it
No need to be perfect. It gives people something to talk about, and that can lead to some very strange conversations.
Love the subtle finger selection from Max, on the side facing Arianna, there…
Love Max flipping Arianna the bird.. too damn funny >_<
Loving this comic more and more!
You know, I never used a convenient itch. I always pushed up my glasses when they convenient fell :-)
– “Can we go back to the part where you said you just found them?”
– “Sure. Down the back of the couch. Also found two dollars 24 cents. …. what?”
Going to A-Kon eh? I’ll be there as well :3 I’m actually going up there on Thursday since they’re doing a Spirit Walk that night. Can’t wait for the con! :D
As for the comic, I love your work! I’m completely hooked. Sydney is hilarious and the whole cast is fun. :3
=( i wish i could draw (best i can do is stick figures, sadly) but i just had an image in my mind of Sydney getting launched through the wall behind her with a loud sonic boom to explain the last strip and huge lettering saying FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET, meanwhile a small version of the building with a gaping hole has some small figures, one of them saying “good going max.” i would not be upset in the least to see it though, just thought i’d help w/submissions a little
Sydney channelling M C Hammer, and Max (subtly) flipping the bird to Arianna = plenty to like about this week’s strip. Even if not as … dramatic as I might have hoped.
There were a lot of comedic suggestions in previous pages, and it was tempting to go with some of them, but I was trying to think ahead a little and see how that would affect every other scene I have planned. It did give me some ideas though.
It’s your comic and you can draw it any damm way you want to.
If you happen to use some of our ideas for your comic we thank you for it.
Thats what they were put there for, speculation and the thought that they just might be put in.
Signed.
And seconded.
This is one of my favorite Comics, and you write it. Congrats. ;P
No, seriously. I love it. Feel free to continue at your pace for as long as you like.
Thirded.
I can see this one already
syd “I vote for danger lab”
max ” this isn’t a vote, we go for the doom control room”
harem ” danger lab seconded”
anvil “third”
second harem “fourthed”
dab “didn’t you already say you support halo?”
second harem “no that was ___ harem”
i enjoy the story you tell, but its nice to think someone out there is actually listening to their fans unlike Willis (who i am a fan of) who will answer questions, or make comments to others’ comments, but his story is already planned in advanced or S*P by R.K. Milholland (which is my favorite webcomic) that only takes in readers’ questions for the occasional Q&A. it makes you one of the more earthy webcomic artists, the way you get down to earth with us
Heh, thanks guys. Maybe I just haven’t been doing it long enough to get jaded. :) I love the interaction, though I’m still surprised by the number of comments I get on a page. I read them all but it’s getting to the point that I have to do it in chunks like at lunch.
It’s tough being popular. ;)
It’s realy suprising when you see 500+ comments on a forum like this one.
Maybe I should cut back.
Comprehensive testing… yeah, right.
We all know Max’s gonna go all-out on that.
Methinks that she is going to recruit anvil to ‘assist’ with this ‘comprehensive testing’.
full power punches from opposing sides?
That’s an excellent point!!!
With Anvil as an anchor, Max can “go for broke”, with no fear of a “Sydney-Ball” zooming-away like a projectile!
Break-out the ear-protection – “We’s Gots Us Sum Syense- ‘Speriment Ta Du!!!”
:P
:)
Anvil will help just as soon as she is finished with her Speedster-pretzel. Maybe with some hot mustard on it.
Anvil: Watch it Brook. You just about got some on me. Just squirt it on him!
I can see it now: Anvil and Max both wielding I-beams as racquets/bats, playing a version of tennis with Sydney as the ball.
I hope you aren’t going to go the “destined chosen one of fate!” route.
Like in Wizard School. The “Uncle Big Bad” is OK with the good side having a destined chosen one, so long as he can choose for them. Great concept but I found the comic itself fell short.
How Sydney found the orbs; she was walking along one day, a tiny green man with a treasure chest jumped out of the woods; looked around all shifty like; handed her the chest and said, “okay, you’re the chosen one now” and then ran off.
So long at the little green man did not say “Listen up, Dumb-dumb! I just crashed here and, here hold this while try to fix this. [pause] Hey, where did she go?”
Love the subtle and not so subtle interplay here. Sydney just loves to taunt the tiger doesn’t she? Yes I too would be very interested where Sydney found it since it isn’t like she travels the world now does she? No. But you never know what was left laying around over millions of years.
The “Ball Room” isn’t exactly the best place to start high impact testing of Sydney’s powers. And the bad side can have a ‘chosen one’ too. Just look at Annakin Skywalker he was the one who brought greater imbalance to the Force for the Dark Side. It was Luke and Leia who brought balance, though it was mostly Luke Skywalker.
The General has to shave at least 5 times a day. He did so during the demonstration. Carries a new small nearly silent shaver.
Sidney is definitely going on a field trip to the local Artillery Range for some of her comprehensive testing.
And they do make those razors. You can carry a Shavepro Microforce fully charged in your shirt pocket.
I bet they will love testing the PPU orb. Maby Sydney will be able to controle the intensity of the beam with practice.
If it’s a ship tool it’s probably the equivilent of a combination blowtorch/ arc-welder and a weapon.
Tut Tut Tut, only the Hip can call it a PPU!
no none call it PPU hip call it PPO adrianna calls it pew pew orb and I call it an etcher art tool or EAT. hmmm maybe not such a good abreviation.
I can see the testing of the PPO now.
ARIANNA: OK Sydney. Let’s see what the PP…
SYDNEY: Tut tut.
ARIANNA: …the pew pew orb can do. You’ll need a target and Achilles here has “volunteered.”
ACHILLES: I did?
SYDNEY: You want me to test this on a human? I could kill him.
ARIANNA: Don’t worry, he’s actually an indestructible super.
SYDNEY: But…
ARIANNA: Oh, did I forget to mention that the bank robbery was staged and Achilles played the part of the guy who shot you?
ACHILLES: Err, hi.
SYDNEY: [aims PPO] HE. DID. WHAT?! [fires PPO]
ACHILLES: [while flying through the air] This is new.
Or, if Syd’s PPO is more burny than explodey an alternate ending could be –
ARIANNA: Oh, did I forget to mention that the bank robbery was staged and Achilles played the part of the guy who shot you?
ACHILLES: [standing there with his mullet] Err, hi.
SYDNEY: [aims PPO] HE. DID. WHAT?! [fires PPO]
ACHILLES: [standing there as the smoke clears, with a crew cut] What’s everybody looking at?
Or a good joke would be for someone to have replaced his nigh-indestructable testee coverall with an identical normal-cloth coverall. I could see one of this bunch of ladies pulling that prank.
PEW PEW!
Ladies: (giggles)
Test Subject: AUGH!
I’d see Max telling her. I would think Arianna would want to be FAR AWAY from Syd in that scenario.
I am on-board with Arianna being in the interview here, since in addition to being the PR gal she is ARC’s legal council (gotta make sure you don’t violate Syd’s rights), don’t want to leave yourself open to a lawsuit. Once Syd joins, she’ll have paperwork to fill out, but I don’t see Ariana getting near subsequent orb testing unless she sees a PR angle.
Now I’m wondering if Syd will join as a full member – she’s not military and may not want to be – or as a reserve, kind of like the Army reserve. Come in for training on specified dates, unless activated to duty…
Then again, the powered arm of ARC is pretty easy-going, it seems to me, though we have been seeing their off-duty antics, mostly.
Remember that line from MIB?
Syd puts on her new uniform for the first time:
“You know what’s the difference between you and me?” (To Max of course, wo doesn’t really get it.)
“I make this look good.” (Hastily pulls up force-field)
he did balance it. 2 sith, 2 jedi
Been sayin’ that for years man.
Technically, both Skywalkers did.
The Jedi were too bright so there had to be lotsa darkness.
Besides, the Old Republic was a crapsack institution anyways (not that anything in that galaxy was actually any real good),
much like the German Republic of Weimar, which was torn down by a certain failed arts-student.
well i called it what the boom boom was but missed the cracking it was anvil knuckles
Nice segue into the issue of opaque defense against lasers. “When I get her in my sights, boom-boom! Out go the lights!”
“Bang, bang, bang, bang! Vamanos vamanos!” — Clutch, “Electric Worry”
LASER smaser how about a swarm of hypersonic flechettes? Or even EM fired non-explosive rail gun metal or ceramic cubes shot traveling at near hypersonic velocity? Just asking. Would it work while being showered with bomblets from a missile or airplane. How about sonic weapons? We may just find out when the ARC-SWAT comes up against someone or some country fields it in their path.
so Max wants to test Sydney’s force field, what happens when it breaks?, if for example the force field can withstand X amount of energy, you’ll just need to apply X+1 in which case would the force field adsorb X amount then collapse leaving Sydney to deal with the +1 or would it collapse leaving Sydney to deal with the original X+1 + any damage coursed by the collapsing force field
well,,, seeing the room she has inside it,, i would say unless its a projectile,, or maybe many,, she would be safe,, because even if max punch so hard she break the field,,, the punch wouldnt just continue past her range,, and if not sidney could always go; https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/385 again
Though hard to tell if that’s what would happen if Max is punching at her full power and speed.
Like flying around the globe a couple of times to get maxed-out speed and then maxing out strength? Ouch.
mmph,, interesting little detail,,, the forcefeild seem to actualy be a contrustion of overlaping and geometricaly positioned lesser forcefeild as shown by the way it interact with the punch in the first pannel,, thus using that overlapping quality to bleed away kinetic energy over a greater surface,,so unlike a single coherent field,, this multicore/layer geometric dispersal feild would probably not completely break,, instead it would most likely form holes in itself when overpowered
Well, it would make for a tougher sheild than just a single very strong feild.
Looks like whoever desined the sheild went in knowing that nothing is impenatratable, so designed it to replace the sheild scales as they were destroyed.
Feild & sheild?
Guys guys, please remember: “I before E, except after C or when sounded as A, as in neighbour or weigh.”
And weird is just weird that way/
And weird is just weird that way!
I have to admit, I’ve never heard “when sounded as A, a’s in neighbour or weigh” before, but it makes a lot more sense than “I before E, except after C”. I’m using that from now on, while still remembering Darkhounds comment about “weird” being weird. It will be most helpfull, given my forgetfull and scatterbrained nature.
I always knew it as “I before E, except after C, where the sound is ‘ee’.” Eupnonious, hence easy to remember, and I know of no exceptions.
Geh. “Euphonious.”
Ah, that helps too. While I’m usually pretty good with spelling, my brain tends to get borked every now and then. Simple things that I never have any problem with suddenly get caught up in obscurity and uncertainty (it happened just now with the word “uncertainty”).
Hmm… I just thought those were ‘speed lines’ from Max’s punch, rather than force field reactions.
The black lines are, but if you zoom in and look closely, you can see tiny grey lines “cracking” around the impact site.
and since those”crack’, form a coherent matrix,, it seem unlikely it is cracks,, maybe more like a reaction from the field
You saw those cracks when the piece of foam hit the shield also, so it probably a part of the energy redistributing system. That or the shield is made up of lots of tiny shields that can be instantly replaced if that tiny shield is overloaded.
when I look closely at them the shapes are consistent; I think they may be runes; in which case this means the forcefield is reactive as those might be enforcement points.
Panel 3: Epic Frown!
So its a dissipation-type forcefield. Take one blow from one point and spread its force throughout the whole thing till it circles back on itself and poofs, as shown by the runes/hexagons around where she hit. Weakness: Multiple points of contact at high, but differing, amounts of strength.
And that would be, say mixed small arms fire in volleys so tightly controlled as to achieve Time on Target simultaneous impacts on a spherical target. Not actually impossible, but would you bet your life on pulling it off in the field? (She does pack the PPO and no sane Rules of Engagement would prohibit her from shooting back at a deliberate ambush.)
Hmmm I have a WAT (Wild A$$ Theory) What if the shield actually does absorb the kinetic energy of impacts..what happens when it reaches critical mass? If it discharges the stored energy it would be a devastating weapon..like FAE level devastating.
What about if Anvil punched it? Anvil does absorb kinetic energy I think right?
That would make for an interesting test. A variation on immovable object versus unbelievable strength to move it.
Well, if my theory did wind up being canon then having Anvil test it would actually test 2 things, It would test/tax both the Shield’s and Anvil’s upper limits.
It seems to me that the force field does not store energy – it transforms the kinetic energy into an immediate temporary deformation, (so that the volume inside the field is unaltered) which causes the BOOM, because the energy applied by Maxima’s hit is emitted on a larger surface…
Exactly, if it was simply absorbing all the energy, there wouldn’t be any sound coming off of the shield, since there wouldn’t be any vibrations. My guess is that the orb creates millions of those tiny triangles, and then layers them in a way that dissipates energy, but allows for air and obviously light to travel through them. If it didn’t, then 1) syd wouldn’t be able to hold the shield up for long, as she would run out of air, 2) She wouldn’t be able to taunt Maxima because no one would be able to hear her.
Just hit me that they are testing orbs in the ballroom. :)
Depending on the origin of the orbs, the FF may or may not be airtight. Or selectively permeable, depending on environment.
Some readers theorize the orbs may have been designed as tools for a space-farer. In which case, a total environment seal is handy, so it doesn’t leak air in a vacuum. This is also a bonus for use in places with gases one doesn’t wish to breathe. Drawback is limited volume to draw one’s oxygen from, so asphyxiation is likely for lengthy use. I think it unlikely, but perhaps one of the unknown orbs is an “air freshener”. ;)
Looking forward to next week; Zoeng’s question tantalizes us with the possibility of learning more about the orbs, though knowing Sydney the answers he elicits will no doubt be not helpful in the least…
About the ForceField:
None of the kinetic energy of M’s blows was transmitted to Sydney; it apparently was converted to vibrations (the BOOMs).
Apparently little or none of that sound was getting through either, only radiating out, as Sydney was unconcerned about her own eardrums.
However, normal sound (speech) was being transmitted through the field.
At this point, we really don’t know if the field can stop any sort of energy beyond kinetic – it may be a physical shield only, like a meteor defense.
(This would be a major drawback in terms of a superhero defense, and not much better as a ship tool (why not stop solar radiation, x-rays, gamma bursts, etc.), but we don’t know from what we’ve seen yet.)
Some of the things I’m rather curious about, when it comes to comprehensive testing of this orb:
Max is apparently unaffected by her own blows, but she is superhumanly tough. What happens to normal materials?
e.g. If Max threw a baseball bat at the FF, would it stop dead, bounce, or splinter?
Related – If Syd flies as fast as she can straight down and grabs the FF orb at the last second before impact, what happens to the ground? Would the resulting reverberation be like an sonic boom attack?
If Sydney is thrown or flying, will subsequent use of this orb act as an air brake, because of a sudden increase of surface area?
Is her inertia conserved though applications of the FF?
If Sydney tries, can she pick up things through the FF? i.e. could she walk over to Arianna and pull a stick out of her hair?
Does it deform? RIght now it is a sphere – if she tried to walk out the door, would it deform around the wall edges to allow egress, or would it be like a round ball trying to fit in a too small square hole?
Will Max and Halo go to a drum circle sometime?
BOOMbupbupdoombechup
BOOMbupedadoombechup
BOOMbupbupBOOMbupedaBOOM
So many questions….
https://www.projectwonderful.com/img/uploads/pics/52122-1336530408.jpg
That’s going to become the standard response to people trying apply real-world physics to these supers, isn’t it?
If DaveB’s lucky, yes.
I can just imagine somebody wearing a t-shirt with that on it walking through a phisics department, or better yet a student wearing it to class.
We are talking about the ” Phisics? Bitch I’m A Super Hero! ” post that DaveB drew up for any of you who were too lazy to look up what we are talking about.
Yes it is. . . but only one per customer.
:D
Hey David, do you livestream/ustream your drawing & creating process any time? Loved to watch you work. :)
I haven’t yet. I’d consider doing it, the only issue is how long it takes me to do a page. I guess I could just do an hour at a time or something so you could see different parts of the process.
Show it in timelapse.
Or a montage, everything looks awesome in a montage.
Panel #8 – I just officially fell in love with your character. I love Max.
You realy drew Sydney with a cute ass in this one DaveB.
Her smacking it was great, keeps us wanting to see more.
Panel 3: Now I know why it’s GRRlpowercomic :D
(Ok, poor joke. Please forget it.)
Not happening, Rocky – this is the Internet: -nothing- is forgotten. :)
no this is SPARTAA!
What happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. To bad it is accessible to anyone in the world.
And there are some things on the internet that I would be very happy not to know about, let alone see.
So… what’s the first choice for testing super powers then?
The room from the X-men of course.
Appropriately called the Danger Room, probably the source of inspiration for some Holodeck episodes of various Star Trek series.
And it got destroyed often enough.
Btw, the JL have something like that as well.
(And we all know what most guys would do with a holodeck;))
You should look up a fairly recent twitter conversation between Simon Pegg and Will Wheaton, among other things they discuss Riker’s “special” holodeck programs. :)
And nobody noticed the mini-syd panel 8? Seriously?
Just because we didn’t mention it doesn’t mean we didn’t notice it.
Kinda like how you are just realizing that your hand itches.
… or that you are now aware of your breathing and are doing it mechanically instead of subconsciously now
… or that you can hear “Tainted Love” in your head…
Gah! Don’t say that! I’m asthmatic, and once spent eight hours with my breathing reflex shut down. I’m pretty sure you can’t imagine how horrible it is to have to make a deliberate effort for every single breath! Even I have a hard time recalling it. I have drugs for that now.
I suspect some time late Sydney will get a hard,but not injuring, slap on her butt from Maxima. That will reminder her that Maxima has the power literally at her finger tips. And then Sydney can’t sit down for hours—oh the throbbing. “Will it leave a mark?” Sydney asks. “Only in your mind” replies Maxima as she flexes her golden skin covered bulging muscles. She smiles deviously at Sydney. Sydney suddenly feels wobbly in the knees.
Syd get a girl-crush on Max and discover a kinky side at the same time?
would be interesting,,, but from early evidence,, she does seem to like boys :),, altough its true that its the buffness she likes,,, so maybe a buffed girl like max,,,, maybe
I would surmise that Sydney rarely if ever feels real fear. And knowing that someone like Maxima can be around her at all times and come up and hurt her if the orbs aren’t active (and they might be) then she might be more tempered around her and Anvil too. As for weak in the knees this wasn’t due to anything but fear. And fear can put the fear of fear into you.
I have seen the move of patting your ass at an opponent daring them to bite you. As in where the expression “bite me” came from. Even saw it on an early Pokemon episode with Ash doing it to an opponent. In this case it isn’t a sexual taunt.
I can’t wait to see Zephan Zoeng and Dabbler take a closer look at those Orbs of Power. And their speculations on them. Just remember that a vastly more advanced technology can look like magick to us.
She does feel actual fear. Do you remember how the mere mentioning of the word “papercut” made her cringe? And papercuts are some scary sh*t.
I did say “rarely.” Like when she is in full sunlight. And when one of the orbs did far more than she wanted it to. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” summed it up nicely.
AT LAST!
Zephan ask THE question
Speaking of Zephan, does anyone else think his grammer is a bit off?
He said:
“Can we go back the part where you said you just found them.”
It’s a minor slip but I think that should be:
“Can we go back to the part where you said you just found them.”
English probably isn’t his first or second language. For all we know it might be his eighth or ninth after ancient Assyrian.
hey!
that’s a question
the origins of zephan
If he speaks as many languages as Daniel Jackson, I think we can let that little error slide.
How many was that? Two dozen? He’s a walking universal translator!
(And people like me got troubles with their second or third language.
And of course there’s the average Joe who can’t even grasp his native language.)
Random thought: Zephan is supposed to be “comfortable” in the use of magic. As any spellcaster will tell you, regardless of the language you use, you have to be precise in the words you say or the spell goes wrong real quick.
Thats why I like to use runes myself, whenever magic is nessicary, and only when it is nessicary.
Less chance of acidents that way. Unless you Realy know the language you are casting a spell in, it is way to easy for unintentional side effects of the spell you are casting.
Yeah my sister still hasn’t fully recovered from that time she tried to hex me with that Babylonian curse. ;)
Which is why vocal command specific spells should be avoided; especially if they are lengthy. I prefer ones where the spell is actually a mental tool to focus the mind and keep the intent pure to activate the spell; that way a misplaced vowel, changing one word so it rolls off the tongue better (so long as its not a key word), or the pitch of the voice doesn’t hurt the spell (much). and man don’t get me started on sonic vibration specific spells (the pitch and tone have to be perfect; usually a form of magic passed down by creatures with a larger vocal range; and lends its self to the idea of machines doing spells as the sonics are codes for a Deus Logos Machina that controls the universe).
See: Raven.
or belldandy
The first pannels are even better when you play MC Hammer in the background
go back TO the part*
>.>
Easy there littlebeast, There’s a good chance that English isn’t Zephan Zoeng’s native language, and in any case, he’s been through enough in the last hour that a small grammatical error may be excused.
I have to agree with Dark here, most americans can barely speak english.
But I think Zephan is suppose to be a read as a more learned man than most (the head of their research division, I think) – he should know better.
The guy probably speaks eight languages and reads twenty.
You can’t be perfect in every language, expecialy if it’s your second or third language you’ve learned.
Hell the English language changes fairly swiftly and has several dialects.
That’s a cop-out. He has spoken perfect english up until now so there’s no reason to think he’s having any problems with it.
Daniel Jackson: 24 languages completely?
In the episode where SG-1 went back in time to 1969 Daniel said he spoke 26 languages, I know minor nitpick but I couldn’t help myself.
And that was one of the first seasons. I think now he’s up about at least three more.
Good lord what is wrong with me. I missed an ‘a’ on the last page too. And yes Zeph speaks and reads a few languages, English being one of the primary ones. He was actually supposed to have a British accent but I couldn’t figure out how to write a well spoken Brit. It’s easy to write a cockney or Liverpool-ian (Wha’ is wrOng with ya’ Rimma?) for example, but if you try and actually spell out a David Mitchell accent for example, it’s way tougher.
Ah yes, Harem in the third panel.
Have him be from Hong Cong. They speak with a British accent and it’s a crossroads of Asia, so he would have acess to lots of magical lore from all across the world.
Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco (1940) but raised in Hong Kong speaking Cantonese and English. But if you ever heard him it isn’t a British accent.
It depends on what part of society in Hong Cong you were raised in a very diverse and complex world.
Yeah that’s basically his origin. Born in Hong Kong, raised in England and San Fran Little China.
Fun Fact: Bruce Lee’s Real Name
Lee’s Cantonese given name was Jun-fan. The name literally means “return again”; it was given to Lee by his mother, who felt he would return to the United States once he came to of age.] Because of his mother’s superstitious nature, she originally named him Sai-fon, which is a girl’s name. The English name “Bruce” was thought to be given by the hospital attending physician, Dr. Mary Glover.
Lee had three other Chinese names: Li Yuanxin (李源鑫), a family/clan name; Li Yuanjian (李元鑒), as a student name while he was attending La Salle College, and his Chinese stage name Li Xiaolong (李小龍; Xiaolong means “young dragon”). Lee’s given name Jun-fan was originally written in Chinese as 震藩, however, the Jun (震) Chinese character was identical to part of his grandfather’s name, Lee Jun-biu (李震彪). Hence, the Chinese character for Jun in Lee’s name was changed to the homonym 振 instead, to avoid naming taboo in Chinese tradition.
https://www.bruceleefilms.com/
When I started university, the Dean of Arts was a diminutive, chain-smoking Chinaman with an Oxford accent…
I agree with you about the difficulty of depicting RP (“received pronunciation” – ie upper class British). English spelling is not particularly phonetic, so any attempt to show an unconventional accent necessarily vaccilates between understatement and caricature. If you don’t already know how the accent in question is supposed to sound, no amount of strange spelling is likely to impart the requisite sensory experience. I have read several comics with Cajun characters, but I’ve never heard a Cajun accent in real life, so the odd spellings used mean little to me. I grew up with Scottish grandparents, though, so even quite subtle indications of a Scots accent evokes an almost audible response in my head.
And incidentally, I’m quite glad you didn’t decide to have a cockney character. Your transcriptions looks like the visual equivalent of Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent in Mary Poppins, which was, frankly, atrocious. (To be fair to Dick, his acting coach was Irish.)
Thank you.
I did not dare to ask Google because I never encountered this expression before (while I knew “showing the finger” and “middle finger salute”) ant thought that searching for “flipping the finger” would give me thousands of non-related results. Now that I did, I see the mentioned Wikipedia article on the first page… :(
She’ll pound me for saying this, but Sydney has a very nice tuchis. :)
I have a question regarding the forcefield thing, it’s something I’ve been wondering and from what I’ve seen this seems like a great place to ask it. How would the field hold up against x-rays or gamma rays (which are essentialy are the same thing only they’re generated as a result of radioactive decay and alpha and beta particles are produced as a by product). X-rays and gamma rays do not have a particle like visible light does with electrons, instead they’re just tight bundles of energy, which is the property that allows them to more easily move through matter. They can not be refracted by a lens or reflected by a mirror, and having no particle means they are electricly neutral and therefore can’t be affected by electromagnetic fields. So although it takes a very high dose and it takes a long time for even more critical cases of acute radiation syndrome to take affect, x-rays and gamma rays may be a viable means of attack that can’t be defended against. The opacity of the field would have no affect being that the opacity of an object doesn’t necessarily dictate is radiolucency, only the amount of matter the beam must travel through (the density and thickness of the material). Then again, the field is meant to block physical attacks as if it was solid matter, and opacity and lucency don’t matter so it could block X-rays and gamma rays regardless of their frequency. Also, x-rays and gamma rays transmit through matter by slipping through the gaps between atoms, and since the field is not composed of matter and therefore may not have any gaps for x-rays and gamma rays to slip through the field may be entirly impervious to x-rays and gamma rays. Sorry, rambled on WAY longer than I had entended but my brain has a habit of jumping from one thought to another. For those of you poor souls who bothered to read this far into my borrish ramblings, what are your opinions regarding this line of thought? Do you think it’ll come up as an undefendable weakness or maybe make Sydney the only one who can manage a certain task invloving radioactive materials (despite it’s color, I don’t think Maxima’s skin is actualy gold and her powers may not properly shield her. Then again she could move so fast she’d only be expossed for moments thus reducing her overall dosage). Honesly, this’ll probably never come up, but I’m the incurably curious type. Anyone have any thoughts?
Damn, that was even longer than I thought. Sorry again!
Yes, light, X-rays and gamma-rays are all photons. Alpha, beta, and cosmic rays are not. And the OhMyGod Particle is not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh-My-God_particle
the Oh-My-God particle observed on the evening of 15 October 1991 over Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Its observation was a shock to astrophysicists, who estimated its energy to be approximately 3×1020 eV (50 J)—in other words, a subatomic particle with kinetic energy equal to that of a baseball (5 ounces or 142 grams) traveling at about 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph).
One of the main ways X-rays are produced is by firing electrons into metal targets, so X-rays have the same “particle like visible light does”.
Gamma rays, of course, have protons in the nucleus, which get batted around a zillion times as strongly as electrons in the shell; hence gamma rays can have a zillion times the energy per photon. But they’re still photons. Still a particle of electromagnetic interaction.
Gamma rays pass through things more easily than light, because they are more energetic, hence shorter wavelength, hence smaller particle,
and they’d tend to just knock electrons out of their way rather than get absorbed and re-emitted. Electrons just aren’t held in place firmly enough to stop them. However, it is possible to create x-ray mirrors, and devices that focus x-rays. The trick is to use diffraction gratings and/or glancing reflection from metal or ceramic surfaces, instead of conventional transparent or reflective surfaces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_astronomy#X-ray_telescopes_and_mirrors
But I expect it’s impossible to create a gamma ray mirror, unless you have a Niven stassis field generator, or a Vinge bobble. Or something along those lines (see mention of event horizon below).
Presumably, the force field isn’t made of ordinary matter, with electrons in shells and protons in nuclei. So it’s plausible that it could keep x-rays or even gamma rays out. Xref the short novel “Sheild” by Poul Anderson; the sheild described therein was a sharp gradient of (essentially) gravitational potential. Ordinarily, x-rays, gamma rays, cosmic rays, and all sorts of particles could get through it. But turn up the strength enough, and just about nothing could get through; make it as strong as an event horizon, and even the Oh-My-God particle can’t get through. Of course, in the story, they couldn’t make it that strong, so were anticipating being overwhelmed by nuclear weapons as they weren’t by conventional weapons. iirc.
See also niven/pournelle, “Langston Field”.
So, all in all, it’d depend strongly on what her shield is made of. If it’s a potential energy barrier, whether gravitational or some-as-yet-unknown-force-onal, it might could work against… well… just about anything.
Wow, That’s really cool. I graduated from a radiogrphy program (medical x-ray) and they never even mention the x-ray mirror thing. I’ll have to look that up, along with everything else that came after that plus the OMG particle. Although I should probably mention again, x-rays and gamma rays don’t have a particle at all. X-ray and gamma ray photons are composed of tight bundels of energy.
Just to clarify, x-rays and gamma rays are composed of the same particles as visible light. Its beta radiation that is electrons. X-ray and gamma ray photons are just of much higher energy than visible light photons. They are dangerous because they are high enough energy to affect matter on a chemical level rather than just heating it up, and can penetrate deeper into the body rather than being absorbed by the skin.
As to how this will affect the various superpowers, that will likely depend on exactly how Sydney’s forcefield or Max’s resilience works. – Which is a possibly unnecessary level of detail unless it is required as a plot point.
It’s perfectly possible for lower energies to affect matter “chemically rather than just physically”, it just takes a bit more input knowledge. Get a high enough intensity tuned to the right transition, and you can pump a molecule to the point where it breaks apart (photolysis). At which point, radical chemistry takes over and could give you quite an inconvenient chain reaction before being quenched. That’s the basis behind the ozone hole, smog, and sunburn, among other phenomena.
Just saying again, X-rays and gamma rays have no particle which differs from visible light which IS in fact electrons traveling in a sinusoidal wave. If I remember correctly, beta particles are much like electrons but not exactly the same. Just looked it up, they are equivalent to electrons but can be negative or positive (positrons) and they originate whithin the nucleus of the atom rather than orbiting around it like most electrons. You’re dead on about what makes gamma and x-rays so dangerous though. Most people hear radiation and immediately think “CANCER, RUN!” not realizing chemical alteration through ionization requires a high enough frequency to at least eject electrons from their shells, meaning ultra violet and higher.
well,, if the forcefield work by polarising the air and then ”freezing” it in place , it could act as a effective wall.. and properly tuned it would dampen pretty much any type of energy,, including x-ray
The problem is, if the forcefield is solidified/gelled/congealed air, then you’d have problems polarizing x-rays with it. x-rays are at the limit where structures made of atoms will be able to manipulate it in that finicky a way, and gamma rays are Right Out.
Of course, the little structure or perhaps “crack” lines that show up as Maxima’s fist impacts it may indicate that it’s made of something material… but the something needn’t be air, or atoms; it could be something more exotic.
But exotic or mundane, IMO polarization as an operating principle seems to me to be barking up the wrong red herring.
love this comic. glad someone else picked up on the grammo instead of just me. : )