Grrl Power #95 – Harem, sometimes spelled NJP
Someone must have explained Harem’s powers to Sydney. The reflex is understandable, but the “boo” doesn’t make sense unless she knows there are multiple women who all have the same power and sensory network. The only other explanation is that I didn’t plan this scene far enough ahead and should have had Punk Harem coming down in the elevator magic.
Harem’s snide comment comes from the fact that there’s no such thing as power dampers in this universe. Personally I think it’s a bit of a cop-out to have them, but I understand why they exist in mature universes like Marvel or DC, especially with the plethora of super geniuses and alien technology readily available. Incarcerating the super powered in this world will be a considerable challenge.
So yeah, finally got some ads up which most of you probably might not even notice at first if it wasn’t for the fact that I had to shrink the width of the comments back down to make them fit. I may play with the padding or something to see if I can condense them a bit since I know the page gets pretty crazy tall after a while. I’m still feeling it out but the space on the side lets me add some other stuff, like links to comics I like and whatever.
Speaking of which, allow me to direct your attention to Gyno-Star, which I’ve been meaning to pimp for a while. It starts off black and white but jumps to color fairly quickly and is pretty funny if you like superheroes and feminism.
Edit: Updated the flounder mouth since it bugged enough people.
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.
Harem’s face is so cute when she’s terified.
well, it could sim ply be that sidney saw a girl teleport with the exact same visual effect,, and same face, even tough they are dressed diferent and have diferent hair,,, it is a logical conclusion that they are the same person
Doesnt even need logic. I’d go with a hunch instead. Like a fictional investigator once said…if you don’t know, guess, and push a bit. If someone pushes back, you’ve hit a nerve.
Suprised Sydney stoped herself from belting Harem.
Love the understated boo.
Makes sense though. She was on edge before and she’s obviously calmed down, at least as far as Sydney ever gets calm anyway. Still hyper by any normal standard. Plus after seeing one teleporter, she might reason, why couldn’t there be more? That would explain it without Sydney knowing about Harem’s abilities.
wouldn’t Sydney’s response in the first frame to be her “always expect ninja’s pose”?
Thats why she socked Harem in the first place.
NINJA ATTACK!!! Pop them in the nose. Ahh! Not the face!
Wonder who’s knocking at the door?
Probably someone wondering what all the noise is about.
it’s Harem i think as in she teleported out and knocked on the door like she should in the first place :P
I guess it’s Harem on the door, who suddenly remembered proper entrance protocol.
‘Remembered’? Shyeah, right… She popped out to do it properly after Max pulled a scary-face on her.
I think it would be funnier if it was someone else other than Harem, with Harem in line behind them.
Probably isn’t Harem. She’s already been in the room.
Most likely it’s someone in security who is wondering what all the loud noise was about and if they need reinforcements.
Security wouldn’t knock – they’d just boot the door down.
If this keeps up, she’s going to have everyone ‘cept Max and Anvil wincing everytime she comes close.
Well she already has two members who have good reason to be scared to death of her and one that was intimidated when she pulled out “The List”.
Actually it’s three members that are already gonna be wary of her, don’t forget Mr. Stretchy from the bank robbery….tongue judo flipped. The rest of the team is NOT gonna let him live down that Sydney kicked his ass. Even if he couldn’t use his super powers in disguise…they point out he has military training….and she still curb stomped him. Now he’ll learn she had powers being held back too so he can’t even claim its cause restrained powers were involved. ;)
I counted Mr Amorphous oh crap I forgot Ariana
I’d think any of them that saw the video might be a tad concerned when shes waving afist that close, especially when she has floaty balls around her head.
So loved the Boo… poor Harem. How long till Syd hits each one of her?
Place your bets people!
At the rate of updates about two and a half years.
I don’t think Syd’s gonna hit her. Drive her bat shit crazy, maybe.
That’s way more effective than hitting her.
Sydney:Hey Daphne.
Harem: Ahh! Not the face!
Sydney: My work here is done
Maxima: Slips Sydney twenty bucks.
A pity this isn’t Facebook. (Like.)
Speaking of driving Harem crazy – after reading this page I flashed on multiple mental images that I’ve just strung together as my idea for next week’s Grrl Power page.
Carrying on from this week, Max says: Come in.
Harem slowly pokes her head in and looks around to see where Syd is. It seems to safe because Syd, who heard Harem’s first words about Anvil fighting, has decided to go off into the far corner to let Max can deal with whatever’s so important. . . however Syd gets bored easily so while Harem is telling Max what is happening in the lunchroom she starts to entertain herself by playing with her orbs – in full view of Harem as she watches over Max’s shoulder. And we can tell it’s really distracting Harem.
First Syd plays with the flight orb by doing loop-de-loops Peter Pan style.
Next Syd uses her tenticle orb to hang upsidedown in a classic Spiderman pose.
Then we see the other panelists struggle to keep their faces straight as Syd get really “squirrely.” And by that I mean she’s literally acting like a squirrel – She’s inside her force field and is rolling it across the floor like a hamster in a plastic ball! Right past Max & Harem and into the corner behind the teleporter.
From this new location which is outside of Harem’s sightline Syd decides to one-up the teleporter by using the telepresent orb to “pop” into the other 3 corners, one after the other as fast as she can.
Harem looks like she’s about to lose it. Max is suppressing a “serves you right bitch” smile.
Finally Max says: Thank you Corporal you can go now. . . but Syd isn’t done with her yet.
Before Harem can leave Syd slides up to her all “suger & spice & everything nice” like, gives her a cute anime style kitten smile, leans in to put her head on Harem’s shoulder, and with eyes big & bright & wide open in that adorable “please take me home with you” way, Syd says the four most terrifying words Harem has ever heard in her life: See you later, “roomie.”
5 stars for this one! ROFLMAO
THAT can’t be one page, has to be two at least.
DaveB would be pretty stupid not to pick that idea up.
Your comment literally made me rofl from my chair…
If this keeps up, the comments will be better than the comic itself.
Yours got an associate of mine fired today; guess it serves him right though, reading webcomics in the office.
Oh wow, I’ve become NSFW. . . I feel so proud.
Don’t worry, he’s got a new job already.
Btw, it’s Spider-Man. I can imagine Parker complaining about that to somebody like Lois Lane, who’d write it your way, because of ber bf. There’s this awesome ff at ff.net, called ‘The Spider’. Do the math.
Yeah, just add the “Spiderman” typo to all the others in that post.
[English is my first, and only, language and sometimes I still can’t get it right.]
Hey, don’t worry about it.
At least your post is way more readable than most of the stuff on IRC. You have to wonder where those dolts went to school. On the other hand, that explains why the USA are thought of as being the country with the stupidest people worldwide.
Actually I’m Canadian, America is that country below us.
And as for stupid, we’re not doing all that bad;
https://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading
Harem hasn’t really done anything to get on The List yet. I like the bits of it thought, the hampster ball is especially good.
So. . . stuff you can use?
BTW, I wasn’t thinking in terms of Harem being on Syd’s “list” so much as Syd thinking that Harem was on Max’s “list” and Syd wanting to get on Max’s good side.
Technically she already has. Remember we saw a different Harem body respond to the fist to the face, which means all five felt it.
and… Knock knock, guess who??? x]
I like the giant anime sweat drop on Harem! :)
Methinks she just remembered the Atomic Wedgie. Or imagined worse?
itching powder in the panty drawer, especially bad if all the harems use the same drawer. all of them with itchy crotch would lead to some major misunderstanding… not to be confused with Major Ms. Understanding.
Since she feels from all her bodies, you only need to use it on one set.
Yeah, but if all five are affected simultaneously… That’d be punishment for higher misdeeds, methinks. The compounded effect of all five bodies experiencing five people’s worth of itch-powdered undergarments would probably destroy her.
… But would be hilarious to watch.
absolutely.
if Max wanted to really evil there’s a scene in “princess academy” she could use, lets just say it involves itching power and some tampons
Oh gods, I’m *male* and that made me cringe.
I dont mean to nitpick but it looks to me like there is a slight line of skin color in front of harems teeth in the bottom left panel, making it seem like she has a hole in her cheek rather than smiling. Might just be my imagination though.
Hmm, I don’t see that, even if I squint and tilt my head around.
Yeah, I see it now that it’s pointed out. To see it, first imagine that the teeth area is filled in with flesh, and then the lips just make it look like she’s opening her mouth to the left. Now keep that head position in mind, and re-add the teeth, and from that perspective it looks like the mouth is open to the left, plus there’s a hole in her cheek.
I’m not quite sure how best to fix that though.
I’m think he’s talking about this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CheekyMouth
Just an artifact of the art style.
Yeah it’s bad anatomy really, it’s just an evolution of the art style. I like goofy, non-plausible expressions, but I also like American style comic art which tends to stick much closer to actual anatomy, of course that’s if you ignore the Escher Girls. Trying to merge the two is challenging.
It’s also known as “Flounder-Face”. Here’s a wonderful tutorial on how to keep expressions believable and expressive, even if you are going for a cartoony effect.
https://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=333
And as a reader, a full-on-totally-out-there expression, like in the last panel of #83 is far less jarring than a mostly-right-except-for-one-bizarro-detail expression — at least on any character except Sydney. As far as I can tell Sydney doesn’t have an anatomically normal face, even when her expressions are “plausible”. With Sydney, you can throw just about anything on her face, and it works.
It’s a week late, so I don’t think anyone will see this response, but I’m going to throw my two cents in anyways because it annoys me how wrong Siarles and Thor are about this.
That’s not flounder-face or cheeky mouth! That’s when the whole mouth, or at least the majority of it, is shown on one side of the face. The expression on Harem’s face is cartoony, but clearly wraps around her whole face. I’m not quite sure what Ano is talking about myself, but it’s definitely not that.
I’ve since fixed it. She used to have a little line running down the left side of her teeth.
She’s grinning with her mouth streched to one side. You will see her lips like that from the side with her mouth like that.
Heh, the old anime side mouth as I call it.
A bit of history, this appeared in anime before it appeared in Manga, basically as a cost cutting tool. While we in America did things like the rotating background (look at some old Flintstones and other cartoons when they do indoor running and you’d think they were running in circles with the same window, lamp, dresser, ect…going by) in Japan they had other ideas (one shared of course was the frozen background, still used in tv)
but the thing we are looking at was done, was that they had a cell of the character, and when they spoke rather than have to re-draw the whole character, or their head, instead drew them minus the mouth and overlaid different motion mouth cells onto the character cell (hence a mouth of the side of their face, which was done because apparently the alternative was a mouth sticking out of the face overlapping the background, which was less believable)
eventually this became one of the many signatures of the style and began to also appear in Manga for some expressions. However it is mostly seen in anime, or Americans copying the anime style (no offense Dave); as yes it it seen like this strip in grin scenes in Manga now.
So a semantic teleport at the end.
From now on, I’m going to read Zephan’s lines with James Hong’s voice in my head. ;-)
“Generic power dampeners” don’t make much sense, IMO. Setting something up to counter specific powersets is another thing.
A super with flame or electrical powers could be probably be well-contained by keeping them immersed in a reasonable-sized body of water. Even if the trapped super can boil all that water off without harming themselves, there is going to be lots of warning for the trappers.
One book I read about remote viewing suggested that a great way to REALLY throw off a RVer would be to set up decoy places for them to try and “look” into, and then fill those spaces with weirdness – eg. a giant Mickey Mouse balloon or whatever. That way, the RVer keeps getting data that make no damn sense, and has to keep trying. This sort of trick might well be worth considering here..
For teleporters, a lot depends on the exact nature of the power. One anti-TP measure I might consider would be stringing wires (or even string) around large interior spaces (the sort of space someone might consider trying a “blind’ T-port to). The thinking here is that either the T-Porter has some in-built thing to prevent materializing inside/around solid objects (in which case, they would be limited in where they can appear) or else they don’t (in which case that space might get a really NASTY pinata.
Trapping Sydney would take real cleverness – especially since Sydney is up on most / all comic book tricks. One thing I thought of (which would take some smart moves to set up), would be to encase her orbs in something (a steel safe?). It would seem (and later events might prove me wrong) that use / activation of the orbs requires physical touch. So, enclose the orbs in something that Sydney can’t get into or through – and which also, incidentally, tethers Sydney.
Just some thoughts.
In Alfred Bester’s “The Stars my destination” (much better with the English title “Tyger, Tyger”) everyone is a teleporter, but to teleport you have to know both where you’re going and where you’re leaving from. So the prison was an unlit cavern located … somewhere. Since the prisoners didn’t know where they were they couldn’t ‘port out. Although you’ld hear the occasional *boom* from when someone cracked and tried anyway.
General power dampeners can work if there’s a common system to all superpowers. The problem would be inconsistencies that popped up once you get into the nitty-gritty of things. Another problem would be how such would remove the uniqueness of different superpowers, rendering stuff as diverse as, say, mutant abilities the same as magic.
I do know one system that avoids that: inhibitors that work by affecting brain functions, specifically the parts of the brain that control said superpowers. As long as the super-powered being in question is human, or at least has a brain or whose powers are controlled by their nervous system, then the suspension of disbelief (within that world’s internal consistency) won’t be hard.
They did that in Stargate SG-1 in the later seasons to counter the abilities of the Priors. The used subsonic devices to disrupt the part of the brain that allowed them to access their powers. Obviously you can render powers useless by rendering the operator unconscious, but keeping someone in a coma or sedated for extended periods of time presents its own issues.
in heroes they kept all the supers in drug induced comas for a while.
This does however assume that all Powers are controlled by a common area of the brain. If differently-manifesting Powers are controlled by different parts (just as motor control and thought are in different parts of a Baseline brain), you’d have to know exactly what area to target for each Empowered. There would probably also be severe side-effects if you missed. If your suppressor acts regardless of the operating level, you’ve got a temporary lobotomy. If it just holds the Empowered to Baseline level, it’s useless against Tool Users (such as Iron Man), and may not affect some Augments or Artefacts (such as Sydney) depending on how hard the brain needs to work.
DC comics went with some cop-out works on Meta-humans brain bit.
Marvel actually has two different power dampeners, one that works on super-humans and one that works on mutants. The Mutate (Super-human) is an altered genome thus a different device had to be used than those whose power comes from the X-gene, not sure if any specifics exist, but if you use a mutate power inhibitor on a mutant then it only partially works, or only works on low class mutants and a stronger mutant can overcome the device and make it explode. Guess the reasoning is (normally physiology with something added vs fully integrated as part of their physiology).
In my series there are Supression Orbs that emit an Astral dimension interference pattern that dampens the effect/connection anyone in the area can have with the astral plane. However its designed to prevent the use of magic, but not natural super-powers. (used mostly by those who view magic as a crutch), individual powers are also astral based by the connection with their element is due to their astral form matching the same qualities as elements, basically their power goes out from their astral form to influence the environment, magic calls in power from the astral plane into the astral body then influence the environment, so it interferes with the astral signal that allows something external to the astral body to enter an astral body; hence stopping the second stage of a spell *first stage emit signal, second stage recieve spiritual power, and so on*
awww… punk-harem covers up her freckles with copious goth makeup… no.. wait, they are there, just hard to spot!
It’s Goth Harem who covers up her freckles with makeup.
Although on this page the freckles are a little hard to spot.
Freckles are surprisingly hard to do right. Since I work at such high res, it’s hard to figure out how big I should make them so they’re visible at web size. Too big and they look like moles, too small and they’re invisible. This time in order to save myself a layer, I put them on the same multiply layer as Max’s hair reflections in her skin, which made the freckles a little lighter than they should be.
Well, Harem is wearing the same collar on all her bodies, teleporting is her forte (and I don’t know how common it is) and Sydney saw that, AND punk-Harem is likely to have similar mannerisms to co-ed-Harem, so Sydney’s “Boo” makes perfect sense, in my opinion.
That, and magic obviously plays a role (because Dave said so) :P
Love this scene. “Or something.” “Ah. Heh…” followed by knocking, that’s pretty dang priceless!
Actually, Sydney doesn’t even need to know that’s Harem: Someone appeared behind her, in a secure environment with supers around, she’s already broken the nose of one teleporter, and she now has the orbs circling her – which no one who’s not in the room has seen before. Also, no one is reacting as if the person who appeared is a threat.
Given Sydney’s mindset, ‘boo’ makes perfect sense even to a complete stranger.
when i enter a room or a hall way and see someone in there when i expected it to be empty i make some startled noise, originally i said ‘ah’ or ‘oh’ but i replaced it with ‘boo’.
What if Sydney’s force field is impervious to teleports? If so she could be a great Harem deterrent. No running away if she throws the shield around Harem. Powers will always have some limits.
love harem’s face in this strip,,great work there also love the chain of expression for max
So Anvil is in the process of making her Speedster pretzel, to be topped with hot butter. “Hey Brooke…” Mind you, Anvil has often acted as the voice of reason to Brooke and Daphne. No, she is not quite “Daft-ney”
I would suspect the “Boo” is Syd’s typical reaction to someone locking eyes with her and suddenly recognizing her. In as much as Syd can be said to have typical reactions.
That’s a pretty good catch, sir. “Boo” doesn’t necessarily mean “Hey, remember me?” but can mean “Stop ogling my orbs. I’m down here,” especially where Syd isn’t exactly tall. Heh, it’s also a bit of a reverse, “My eyes/face is up here, you know,” which plays well with the premise of this comic.I hope DaveB notices your post.
Yes, that’s a good explanation, we’ll supplement all other possible explanations with this one.
“Boo” has always worked for me. I’m not kidding either: I’ve been on the graveyard shift for 26 years now so I’ve had plenty of opportunities to say ‘boo’ to someone I’ve just scared because they forgot they weren’t alone in the building.
I just quietly walk up behind or besides them and say Hi. I’m a big guy and when your concentrating on something and someone as big as me gets close to you without you noticing can scare the pee out of you.
Plus if I just say Hi they can think that I wasn’t realy trying to scare them. Set’s them up for later…
just tought of another explenation for the boo,,, ok, you have someone look at something float over your head,, then look down at your face and do a face like daphne is doing,, basicly a face of Oh no,, its her mixed with some small fear, you knwo the kind i mean,, i knwo i would react by saying boo to someone who looked at me with a slithly scared face,, so if we asume tha tit when in this chronology: daphne look down from orbs, daphne see and recognise sidney and make that face,, sidney see the face and then say boo,,, it work even without her knowing who daphne is!
I guess I have to explain my post: I don’t say “boo” to scare anyone, I say it AFTER they’ve jumped out of their skin because they came across me while I was just quietly going about my business. Sometimes I even wait until they’ve caught their breath and start complaining/explaining. . .
ARG! Not another good comic strip to read!
Ok…the other possibility that you missed is that Sidney is just, well, so unflappable that she never seems to be all that surprised when something like that happens.
that does not explain Sydney back-handing Harem earlier which happened when Harem teleported behind her in the Archon lobby
For those of you who do not remember Harem’s earlier encounter with Sydney, please review this scene in the elevator. In-universe, this only happened about an hour ago.
Ah, yes…and if you think about it…they’re wearing the same collar- so…..Sidney’s not stupid, just weird.
The punchline to a whole class of Asylum jokes: “They locked me up for being crazy, not stupid!”
Man get’s a flat tire in front of a insane asylem.
While he’s changing his tire a patent walks over and watches him change the tire.
The man accidentaly knocks over the hubcap holding the tire nuts and they roll into a storm drain.
The man says” Now what am I supposed to do!?”
The patent says to just take one nut off of each of the other tires, and that should hold untill he could get to a tire store to get some new nuts.
“Thanks” the guy says.
The patient looks at him and says” I’m crazy not stupid.”
The End
So, Sydney’s now met “two” ladies that can teleport. They have the same power, are wearing the same collar (which is supposed to be a uniform for the empowered that are employed by ARC) and most likely have the same VOICE. We can’t hear it for obvious reasons, but Sydney can. So, while they’re very similar, that’s still not quite enough to make the leap from “two people with similarities” to “multiple clones of the same person.” For all Sydney knows at this point, maybe Punk Harem and Co-ed Harem are fraternal twins. Maxima hasn’t called her by name, either time.
As for the, “Boo,” consider it like the classic “my eyes are UP HERE” line that several of the other cast members have likely had to use at some point. She’s calling Harem’s attention away from the Orbs of Distraction. And in panel two, Harem is definitely distracted.
The other way to fix it would’ve been to have the white-haired Harem port into the meeting instead.
Read Dannyboy01’s comment just a few above yours, good sir. :-) I think he found a way out for DaveB that doesn’t need any retcon-based correction.
That and Max already gave Harem a hard time about appearing in uniform, so it made sense that Punk Harem would show up here since she was already geared up. Presumably she’s taken a moment to secure a new thong.
or is going commando. for safety reasons.
And another vote for a “like” button or a “+” button. I vote for she’s going commando because:
1) she hasn’t had time to go to her quarters and change
2) to thwart another Atomic Wedgie
I vote for “2”
A teleporter with five bodies always has time to go to her quarters and change.
Fair point.
actually I thought the “Not in the face” comment was because of something happening with brook to one of her otehr counterparts….
I just realized:
Heaven help Archon if Sydney, Maxima and Daphne ever get into a 3-way prank war.
That’s a tall order. I don’t think every god-figure ever, combined, could save Archon from that mess.
Actually, speaking of god figures, we need to get Sydney into the tropes pantheon… Maybe as the Goddess of Creative Profanity? (click my name for the link to the pantheon. WARNING: MAJOR TIMESINK!)
Are either of these two in the pantheon yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33zPlnhymCU&feature=share
After the intro by Conan you might want to fast forward past the sacrificial innocent to roughly 3:10, then just sit back and watch two masters of insult profanity go at it. If you wanted a real life clip of what Sydney is like when she gets mad this would be it…
Dunno, haven’t read the whole thing. I do know Batman is in the House of Mentalism as God of Preparations, and Pikachu’s in the House of Beasts somewhere.
Tedd Verres is in the House of Shape as God of Transformation Rays
Also, that video is apparantly not available in my country. Boooo!
Run a search on Conan O’Brien + rude hot dog vendor.
Apparently there is a hot dog stand in Chicago that is famous for how rude and obnoxious they are to their customers. Conan O’Brien has a recurring character on his talk show (a puppet actually) that is likewise famous for being an insult comic. The result when they meet is… formidable.
TV Tropes is a worse time sink than wikipedia. I’d love to add mention of the comic in the webcomics section of relevant tropes, but there’s something wrong with my cookies or connection or something, but for whatever reason I can’t edit TV Tropes. I must leave it to you guys!
Sydney, Dabbler, and Daphne, maybe… but I don’t see Max as a prankster – ever. She’s too… (looking for a word here…)… regimented?
Nah, She just want’s you to think that way.
She is a nerd, that means she has a good imagination.
Ohh, right… forgot that one.
“Say. That. With. PRIDE!”
My money would be on a three-way prank war between Sydney, Dabbler, and Daphne, gradually escalating until Maxima gets caught in the crossfire of one or other. At which point, they have about a second of realisation that their previous war was like mice fighting next to a sleeping cat, before we cut to the dazed aftermath.
5 toothbrushes cleaning the latrines at the same time could really get some work done quickly.
You’re letting them off lightly! You’d want the punishment to be something that’ll force the three combatants into close ‘demilitarised’ proximity, both to bug them and so that by the time they finish the original fight should have been argued out. Perhaps there’s some sort of containment cell that doesn’t tolerate conventional tools and therefore needs cleaning etc. to be done by hand (high magnetic field?); could be interesting dependent on chamber size and whether they need to do a Human (plus Dabbler) Pyramid to get all the way to the ceiling.
Max did say she was a nerd, as such possibly played or ran a few RPG’s. which means she’s got an evil streak (comes from playing evil characters). so she could come up with some real evil pranks.
Syd on the other hand does have an extensive knowledge of anime/manga/ superhero comics as well as RPG experience and orbs. if she and Max teamed up they could do do some seriously evil pranks
So maybe one of the two unknown balls give her the ability to subconsciously know a nearby persons supepower..within reason? meh Magic is my answer to everything too xD
forgot to mention that I love that subtle glowing effect in panels 2 and 3 just wow good job sir
oops just counted the panels properly I meant 3 and 4
Thanks! It’s just a layer set to Overlay with a highly saturated airbrush.
Dave – could you ever publish RPG game stats for the characters? I know of some Champions games they’d fit in! Maxima could put those macho-man heroes in their place! :D
Yeah I’d love to do that, I made Maxima for an obscure version of DC Heroes once, but she was a “starting character” so not quite representative of her actual abilities. I’d have to re-learn all those RPG systems, and update them with the reveals in the comic. Oh to have that time.
you could try mutant and mastermind, it has one of the most comprehensive power system out there,, or use B.E.S.M.,,or abherant from whitewolf,,
Dave the teeth you draw are crazy good it like max is about to leap out of my screen and bite my nose
Thanks! I think her mouth is a little small though. Obviously the size of mouths is generally not a concern in comics with a manga influence, but if you imagine that scowley picture of Max showing her skull, I think her teeth are about 60% as wide as they should be.
Speaking of manga influence, you’re doing the one thing that pisses me off about manga artists on a whole. Panel 8, that slit of cheek in front of harems teeth. That was done for animation purposes and the manga artists picked it up.It kills the art Dave and I know you’re better than that. But that’s a small nitpick, and I have to say I absolutely love Harem in panel 2. Fantastic look of wonderment and the subtle color from the orbs on her cheek and ear.
NJP?
Non-judicial punishment?
might help.
No, no, no… It’s “Not in the face!” How could you forget the “in”? ;-P
Proof.
Heh, noted.
actusly they both work if you ask me,, in fact you will often drop the in in that situation,,, when someone is about to hit you , you most often say thing like,, not the guts,, or nbot the face rather then not IN the guts or not IN the face.
I’ve heard “not the face”
far more often in this type of situation than “Not in the face”
perfect english does not come out of people when they are startled.
Word may have gotten around to Harem’s other bodies. If they share the same brain connexion wouldn’t they know what happened from the beginning with the elevator? Or do they at one point synchronize to share data without confusion from the other Harem minds. Maybe it isn’t on a conscious level. But the fear is real–Sydney is a fire cracker. Small in size but big on reactions. Unless she is prepared and have the Orbs out to play.
I do believe Maxima was threatening Harem with death. And if pushed she just might do it.
As I recall when Mole Man captured the FF the first time he found ways to limit their powers. Jonny kept being blasted with jets of extreme cold, Sue in a room of illusions, Ben in a material of low specific gravity that caught him like quicksand and Dr. Richards…can’t remember. So there would be some means to limit their powers depending. I wonder if separating Sydney from direct contact with those Sydney Orbs would do it. But first someone would have to engage them in battle or watch them to figure that part out without getting crushed in the mean time.
its kind of a hard concept to understand, but all five bodies are controlled by one brain. She controls 5 bodies at the same time, which is why she had the “pain-reaction” from the wedgie Maxima gave her. All five bodies felt the same pain in the same moment, causing a reflex in all of them.
We basicly figured she’s 1 mind in 5 bodies, like a server connected to 5 computers in 5 different locations constantly sharing information with each other in real-time. What one experiences, all do. (Including quite a few jokes about her “Personal” life.
joke about personal life,,, like what happen if one of them is having a ”goodtime” while onether is in a reunion,,, or like saying that she can give a whole new meaning to the phrase, playing with oneself!
Harem’s already her own volleyball team!
Which orb did Sydney make the reflex grab for when Harem TP’ed into the room? I can’t tell on my 13 YO monitor.
Not so much as reflexive orb-grab, but a reflexive nose-punch… which she didn’t carry through on.
Yeah she was just coiling to strike. It’s her natural response.
Heh. Gotta watch those automatic responses, I reflexively wristlocked my finace the other day. She was not amused. She should learn not to goose me when I’m too tired to edit my reflexes, but still.. not cool.
Sometimes training can get you into trouble. Othertimes it can save your life.
yeah,, after beeing,,,nearly raped,, can you be nearly raped,, or is it still rape if he was stopped before actual intercourse,, well let just say i got into quite a defensive period and once almost threw my boss over my shoulder when he startled me by putting his hand on my shoulder.
you know David Sydney saw Harem telelport once for her so could make the conclusion that this punk chick is also Harem, I mean we could give Sydney some credit after all
It also could have been the sound that clued Sydney in. Vorp is fairly specifc and a shot in the dark does the rest.
. . .and on that page Harem did mention that she was also someplace else at the same time she was in the elevator. So if Syd took that statement at face value she could have already figured out what she was dealing with.
Already figured out the multibody angle I mean.
There was also “I’ll explain later,” said by Max and Harem simultaneously. It’s quite possible that Sydney pried the explanation out of Maxima in the elevator on the way up.
I think I’m starting to like Harem more than Sydney, that last panel pushed her just a bit over Sydney XD
Thanks for the shout-out, darling! You’re too kind.
I’m pretty sure it’s been mentioned, but ” tl;dr ” (too long; didn’t read, for those that don’t know it)
there have to be some, probably quite a few, supers that cancel out powers from others. They’d be hard to find since they don’t register as super untill for example someone falls from the air while flying, but worth their weight in more than gold. It’s probably also a good reason to keep a sniper in the squad, a “normal” who is abnormally good at something and can protect the supers from stuff like that
Tiny pet peeve: the word you’re looking for is “damper”, not “dampener”. To damp means to suppress. To dampen means to make moist.
(The obvious joke regarding moistening one’s super-powers is left as an exercise for the reader.)
Well to be fair a dampener might work on someone with fire powers.
I think Arianna just made a note regarding Harem.
“When annoying remind her that Sydney i nearby not letting her know how far away she actually is!”
I just realised Sydney raised her arm in response!
I think Harem just experienced a flashback, shame we can’t see the reaction of her alternates!