Grrl Power #978 – Super C.V.
I know it’s been established that Dabbler has a wind spell, but it’s centered on her and jumping into that melee is not advisable.
Dabbler can probably track what’s going on. As I mentioned on the last page, I don’t think demons would benefit greatly from infravision, so maybe they can see into the UV scale a bit. Not that UV can penetrate dust. Or windows or clothing or just about anything really. Still, between her hearing and her cybernetic eye’s enhanced edge detection algorithms as well as other interpolation going on, she can probably tell almost exactly what’s happening in that dust cloud.
I don’t usually promote YouTube channels, but I found one called Two Minute Papers that breaks down bleeding edge “Light Transport Research” and other computer simulations of light and physics. I’m linking it here, because watching just a few of these will make you realize just what computers will be able to do in just a few years, not to mention decades from now, or even what the computers of an advanced alien civilization might be capable of. For instance, someone is developing an algorithm that takes a .jpg of your face, and then sends motion tracking data over a chat connection, where the receiving computer essentially deepfakes your face onto the motion track. The advantage of this being that it doesn’t stream video, and therefore uses a tenth of the bandwidth. It’s definitely not perfect at this stage, and if you turn your head too much it can start to skew your features, but watching the videos on that channel makes it obvious that if you wait for the next paper or two on the subject, the techniques will be vastly improved. The other advantage of something like that is it can do things like adjust your eye tracking so everyone sees you looking at them, not at their screen while the webcam sits above it, making every single person on a webchat look like they’re checking out your cleavage.
I mention the above channel because honestly, it makes me think something as advanced as Dabbler’s cybernetic eye could so something like reconstruct someone’s face if the back of their head was to her, but there was light bouncing from their face onto the jacket of the person in front of them. So yeah, she can probably track Vehemence and Max through moderate dust.
Sydney could also probably see through that dust if she thought about it. She could track Vehemence with the ComBall’s magic sight, and there are other vision modes she hasn’t even messed with yet, but she keeps forgetting about them.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Wrote, uh… 2,400 words on the last chapter. Which almost definitely won’t be the last chapter.
September’s vote incentive is up! It’s been over a year since Max was featured in one of these, so I figured it was time to revisit.
Nude version is up at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
A-Cup Aficionados is only quarterly? Shoot :(
They only have a small subscriber list…
There are enough of them that Keira Knightley was at the top of FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women in the World in 2006.
But at least they only charge a flat subscription fee.
Too B or Not quite B, that is their question.
they could not support a monthly publication.
I’m sure they’ve got sufficient band width.
Breast puns are the best puns.
Dont you dare…..*shakes fist*
Boob puns tend to fall flat when told to Sydney.
She gets them but she’s just ribbing you.
I feel that I might encourage this behavior from the peanut gallery by my vocal disapproval of it….
I can’t hear you, but you have been quite literal in your disapproval, and for that you get the booby prize.
Not feeling encouraged at all on this one, as I have nothing on the subject to get off my chest.
@brichins Fwiw, my own arguments have required substantial augmentation.
Et tu, Bharda?
Another unsuccessful attempt to nip the punning in the bud.
The booby prizes have been awarded.
I’m glad to see you are keeping abreast of developments here.
Seems like band width would not be a problem…
most publications of this sort are suffering from sagging readership. so its likely just a website now.
and i pity the fool who mixes up their A-teams.
If you are named “Sexist Superhero” 3 times, they award you A Cup
Speaking for myself, I had to expand quite a bit.
Sagging isn’t a problem for A-Cup Aficionados
How do I subscribe? Is there a website, or is it a 1-800 number?
1 800 85QT
What? Such a thing sounds absurd, it can’t possibly exist. I’m going to need to see a link or proof of some kind, you know, specifically for verification purposes.
For a friend.
Science.
… give me the damn link
So, how many other people promptly googled it to see if it existed?
Don’t judge me – I was just wondering, honest. I mean, Portable Restroom Operator, Sheep! and Minature Donkey Talk are all apparently real things as well…
And your findings…?
Minimal, I expect.
Sometimes I suspect there’s a publication for every occupation and interest. I am frequently amused how seriously some of these people take themselves, and occasionally horrified by the callous disregard for the suffering of others displayed in some of them. Every tragedy is a business opportunity for someone.
It’s the law of truly large numbers. Throw a big enough population at even the rarest of predilections, and it will probably have enough subscribers to support itself. Especially since rarity can usually charge a premium price, which its aficionados will usually be willing to pay.
Indeed – engineers working at data centers deal with “one in a million” hardware failures on a daily basis. Some theorists even believe that if you can work out exactly how improbable it is, or if you actually say ‘million-to-one’ out loud, you can basically guarantee something will happen.
According to PTerry, statisticians have discovered that million-to-one odds come up nine times out of ten. Or something like that.
Go A-Team!
Peggy told Sydney that gals on the ‘A Team’ have to stick together.
One of my favorite jokes in this comic.
As opposed to “Double-D Desire Double Daily”, which has a morning and an evening edition seven days a week. They have HUGE *cups both hands against chest* sponsors.
I just want to know where to sign up.
I desperately need this magazine. A cups are best cups!
That’s horrible! I mean, ‘A cups’, seriously! That’s bad grammer. A is singular! For the plural ‘cups’, you should use “The” or “Some” or “These” etc. So that would be…
I desperately need this magazine. Some cups are best cups!
“Grammer”?
Seriously… It took me less than 5 minutes to find the Reddit sub r/TinyTits, and a quick comparison between the timestamp of the top post and the post one page down (before even more posts appeared) shows that there are enough posts for a full Playboy Special Editions (rip) sized print magazine every 3 hours.
Maybe if they get their subscription tallies high enough they’ll go monthly.
They HAVE a hero with Wind powers. Dabbler used it on the Alari homeworld.
I probably should have read the explanation below before posting. I thought she could direct it from what I remembered, but apparently not. My mistake
This is addressed in the commentary.
Ah, and I see you read it between me loading this page, reading it, and commenting. My apologies.
I agree with Sydney, these last dozen pages or so have been boring as shit compared to last time Vehemence showed up.
Sydney could send her immaterial projection closer but that should have been discussed with Max earlier.
Could she record video while doing that or would the phone only see from her real position?
Her projection would still be “standing” in a huge cloud of dust. Also, even if there wasn’t a huge cloud of dust, it’s likely that some, if not most, of the action will be going on too fast for the unaided eye to follow at this point, and it’s been established that her projection doesn’t share any enhancements (like “Truesight”) that Sydney can apply to herself.
yet
Not just project herself, although that would be an option. But the com-orb has an ability to observe auras:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-277-aura-you-having-chowdah-at-the-cah-pahk/
If Sydney is this bored, what a magnificent opportunity to observe the fight(s), while getting practice using the functions of the com-orb, and while Dabbler is right there to try and help her with it. Yet, there she sits; sulking and whining instead of getting experience using one of her more powerful orbs which she knows very little about.
Side bonus: by experimenting with the com-orb and its various modes of vision and analysis … What would it reveal about Maxima’s powers as she uses them? And how they interact with Kevin’s ..?
I am seriously disappoint. This opportunity needs to be revisited in the future, with Kevin and with many of the other supers in training and sparring mode. We …. uh, SYDNEY could learn an enormous amount about superpowers and all the other magics and demonic & supernatural powers, etc. I’m just realizing how fascinating it would be to turn the orb-sight on Dabbler or Detla, for trivial examples just on these pages. And what a perfect opportunity to be interacting with Krona, both to watch her hack reality and as an adviser to explore the powers of the orbs while they are in action.
@DaveB — You gots sum ‘splainin to do. Sir. With respect.
The com ball is classified. And Kevin almost certainly has not been read in on it. So using it for trial purposes in front of an uncleared individual wouldn’t be very bright.
Using it for her own observations, while Vehemence is occupied with Maxima, shouldn’t pose too much risk of revealing anything untoward. It might suggest that the Orb has something to do with visibility, but that was arguably revealed when she first discovered his rage aura in the Restaurant Rumble. It’s only if Sydney and Krona get too into the discussion and forget that they have an audience, that things could get complicated. (Actually, this is Sydney we’re talking about. She will forget.)
” For instance, someone is developing an algorithm that takes a .jpg of your face, and then sends motion tracking data over a chat connection, where the receiving computer essentially deepfakes your face onto the motion track.”
This played a part in Vernor Vinge’s “A Fire Upon the Deep”. It was routinely being used in an advanced civilization to save on bandwidth, and as a result they didn’t notice that a ship had been taken over by a hostile AI and all the crew killed, because it looked just like they were talking with live people, right down to mannerisms and voice quirks.
It’s cool to see tech like that applied intelligently in sci-fi.
Circa 1995. If you haven’t read it I heartily recommend it, even more so the prequel “A Deepness in the Sky”.
Nvidia already has this with heir ai avatar. It got video down to 100 bits per frame. I thought it was already available but maybe they only tested it?
If she only uses it to scroll through her vision powers, then Kevin won’t be able to tell she’s doing anything at all unless he reads her mind to find out what she’s seeing. And if he can read her mind, then he already knows all classified info about the com orb.
Of course, he probably knows about half of the com orb’s powers already. Syndey used telepresence in front of him in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-236-recon. And Sydney *somehow* knew that her allies were fighting due to an agro-aura that could be blocked by Mr. Bubble, as opposed to a one-time “Zap! You want to fight!” spell that had already been cast and didn’t require ongoing maintenance. Kevin was smart enough to deduce other powers from minimal info (e.g. Anvil’s kinetic absorption), so he probably suspects Sidney’s aura-vision as well.
Sorry, this was supposed to be a reply to Oberon in the previous thread. Don’t know how it jumped down here.
Very good points. Except I’m a little amused by you fist claiming that Kevin can’t know what she’s doing just by watching her use the com ball, and then later extolling Kevin’s ability to deduce powers from minimal info.
So if Archon has also pegged Kevin as a good deducer of powers, then using a classified power in front of him, regardless of whether he has seen it used before, regardless of how ‘invisible’ the exercise of that power is, would be at least a very bad idea and might be considered a security violation by Sydney.
Regarding Kevin’s ability to deduce powers, the big issue is whether Sydney modifies her behavior based on what she sees. During the big fight, I don’t think Kevin knew that Sydney was using aura-vision while she was using it. But there’s a good chance that he figured it out after she used her aura-vision-derived knowledge against him. (Mind you, he could have also figured it out from Sydney’s nonstop monologuing while she was using the com orb. But based on his later reactions, I doubt he heard her.)
So it should be pretty safe to use the orb to observe the battle, as long as Sydney has enough self-control to avoid mentioning what she saw. And, yes, I realize that putting the words “Sydney” and “self-control” in the same sentence does undermine my point somewhat. :-)
I’m getting kinda sceptical about this whole thing. Having him spar with the “weaker” members was fine, but having Maxima throw down on him fully seems risky.
Why? Because he “might decide to go rogue and suddenly try to kill her”? They’re in an isolated space. Maxima can always just drop a giant nuke and blow him up, in ways she couldn’t do in the city.
Besides, he’s followed every rule so far, probably seen a dozen psychologists, and the rest of the team is here to jump in to help if needed. Kevin isn’t chaotic stupid alignment.
Because he might try to escape (which might require killing Maxima). He’s still a prisoner, and established as untrustworthy.
And no, Maxima can’t _always_ drop a nuke on him. She needs a clear shot to set it up, and enough slack to max out firepower. If Vehemence chooses the right moment to defect, which he is smart enough to do, he can put her in a spot where she doesn’t have the firepower to spare. And at the level where he can take on Maxima, the rest of the team probably aren’t going to cut it.
Tickle laser.
I like this solution. Especially if they lose control over the tickle laser and hit bystanders as well.
Perhaps they don’t dare trying to kill Vehemence. Trying to kill someone is a very violent act no matter what methods you use so it might give him a immense charge of vitamin V and make him unstoppable. Perhaps their best option is to just try to contain him.
V seemed pretty sure that Lazer would kill him the first time around.
There’s nothing physically violent about using poison and a sufficient amount might kill him. No one has mentioned whether he’s immune to the mortal perils of the flesh.
I would assume he’s much more resilient against poison than your average Joe, because whatever part of the body the poison attacked would get replaced/repaired, whether liver or kidneys or other large organs, or just the various signalling channels or exchange membranes throughout the body or whatever.
So instead of a drop of ricin being excessive, he’d need more than an average epidermic syringe full, depending on how charged up he is. And even that might take a day or more to fully act on him, at which point he could become violent or project his aura to make others violent and charge back up to fight the poison.
I would consider the possibility of poison if you were able to starve him of violence for a while AND take away his mental faculties, and THEN poison him. but what do I know?
Presumably you could just put him in a barbiturate coma, as psychoactive drugs demonstrably work on him. Or just arrange for him to walk into a region where the air is all inert gas, (Does Dabbler have a Maxwell’s demon on tap?) and after a couple of breaths he’d pass out painlessly and suffocate.
Not every lethal poison works by doing damage.
They don’t want to kill him – his crimes aren’t that heavy and Archon are the good guys.
What they were doing until now was fine – sparring with Hiro doesn’t get him to the point where Maxima can’t take him down if necessary.
“his crimes aren’t that heavy”
Yeah. A little attempted murder of a federal officer never hurt anyone. Well… except that federal officervand the 50 super brawl that he started + all the non aupers whonalso got seriously hurt, which resulted in a destroyed restaurant, destroyed highway overpass, and a destroyed construction site. :)
“What they were doing until now was fine”
Yes. Hiro was using an ACTUAL minimally violent fighting style of grappling. As opposed to whatever Maxima thinks this is.
someone on a previous page said this felt like a bad idea, I disagreed as it was like minimal but…now…yeah…it is escalating a bit further than it needs to when you start to hit the point fewer and fewer people can track what is happening and the surrounding area is being torn up just by them moving around.
especially with Vehemence’s power, but I await the rage in the comments section if he pulls a Henchwench and turns out he can teleport just didn’t think of it last time as his stronger than ever before mindset wasn’t thinking clearly.
Good point, magic portals are a thing, and WoG is that Vehemence can do all sorts of magic at a heavy efficiency penalty.
Last time he was grappled by half the team, so a portal wouldn’t let him get away, and before that we was winning. Add to that that being drowned isn’t conductive to clear thinking – Sydney did that specifically to keep him from pulling any more aces from up his sleeve.
This time, all he’d need to do is disengage from Maxima for a second and summon the portal while concealed by dust.
“someone on a previous page said this felt like a bad idea,”
That would be me. I said it was a bad idea repeatedly :)
” but I await the rage in the comments section if he pulls a Henchwench”
I truly hope not. My vote is on tickle laser.
I say we take off and tickle laser the whole state from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Not heavy enough for a death sentence, which is what would be needed.
Again, just a reminder that he tried to murder Maxima and caused a violent brawl against people’s conscious will that resulted in multiple hospitalizations and the destruction of a restaurant, highway overpass, and construction site.
And again just to stress the point, attempted and almost successful murder of who is essentially, in the grrlpower universe, a federal police officer.
And in which jurisdictions does attempted but unsuccessful murder warrant the death penalty? Also, she threatened to kill him first. His claim is that he didn’t intend to kill anyone, but after she took his arm off he was “going to have to kill” her.
Maxima is a federal officer, her threatening to kill him if he doesn’t stand down and disarm as it were is the same as any officer pointing a gun at a dangerous suspect and ordering them to do the same. Him threatening and then trying to kill her would be grounds for her to immediate kill him on the spot.
@Rhuen: “Him threatening and then trying to kill her would be grounds for her to immediate kill him on the spot.”
Killing on the spot to deal with an imminent threat is not the same as executing as subject in custody.
*voyager, I was addressing Torabi’s links and that specific instance more so than the current situation.
I am unclear on what someone’s incentive is to cooperate with someone who’s threatened to kill them. Like, sure, it would be convenient if criminals would just accept the idea that the state has the authority to execute them and didn’t resist, but it’s utterly insane to expect anyone to. If someone, anyone, threatens to kill you, then what do you have to lose by resisting?
@Torabi
Maxima was threatening to kill him if he didn’t cooperate. Hence, if he surrenders, he stays alive, which is plenty of incentive to cooperate (unless, as in this case, he believes he can fight her off so the threat holds no weight.)
@Voyager:
That requires you to trust that they won’t kill you if you cooperate with them. I wouldn’t be inclined to trust someone that has threatened to kill me.
This doesn’t follow. A cop saying “surrender now or I’ll kill you”, after a while of fighting non-lethally, is fairly trustworthy. It’s quite clear that Maxima doesn’t _want_ to kill him, and won’t if she doesn’t need to because he surrenders.
The situation where you worry about getting killed anyway are quite different.
“And in which jurisdictions does attempted but unsuccessful murder warrant the death penalty?”
1) It’s only the death penalty when it’s enacted by the state as the result of a trial. When a police officer shoots and kills a dangerous suspect who was in the process of committing further violent acts and refusing to surrender, given multiple warnings to stand down, and was going to escalate even further, the police are allowed to shoot. And when police shoot, they shoot to kill. Same deal with Maxima’s powers. She gave him MULTIPLE chances to surrender.
To compare, if a bank robber is robbing a bank and a police officer pulls a gun on him and tells him to surrender or he will open fire, and the bank robber instead rushes AT the cop, the cop does not need to predict the future – he’s trying to attack a police officer, he gets shot.
With Vehemence, they tried, SEVERAL times, of escalating levels of damage, to make him stop WITHOUT resorting to lethal force. Even when Maxima blew off his arm, she told him to surrender and he would receive medical aid. She could have just blasted off his head instead.
2) A police officer is also allowed to make a THREAT of shooting to kill in order to make the criminal surrender. It’s not the death penalty here either – it’s attempting to make an arrest. At ANY point in time, Vehemence could have removed himself from the danger by simply surrendering, since he was ACTIVELY committing violent crimes against Archon themselves.
“Also, she threatened to kill him first.”
Actually no, first she asked if this was his attempt to join Archon. Then she asked him, POLITELY, to surrender. Then after he was fighting all of Arc-swat except for her, she stepped in and again warned him why it would not be a good idea to fight her.
Her steps were VERY incremental. She did not start with ‘surrender or I will kill you.’ Which, btw, she would have been in her legal rights to do after he started fighting other Arc-swat members.
“His claim is that he didn’t intend to kill anyone, but after she took his arm off he was “going to have to kill” her.”
Let me get this right with your supposition. If you attack a police office and are just going to beat him the hell up, you think that the cop should NOT be able to shoot to kill the person attacking him? You think the criminal must be actively saying ‘I am going to kill you, copper!” WHILE beating them up? That’s not how it works.
To make it simple:
If you try to beat up a cop, that cop, or another cop there, will shoot you, and they are trained to aim at center mass – shoot to kill. You don’t pull out your gun to fire and aim it at someone unless you are prepared to follow through.
That goes double for when you just started a mass riot, then started physically fighting with multiple police and were WINNING against them all. That goes quadruple if you also seem to heal from everything and can mind control everyone around you to keep fighting.
There was something similar that happened in the JLA comics with Wonder Woman. Max Lord had taken over Superman’s mind, and was convincing him to fight Wonder Woman. And Wonder Woman had even been able to delay Superman from killing him by using her tiara to slice his throat, which stopped him temporarily. She demanded Max Lord release Superman. He said he would not, and he would keep letting Superman fight her, which would have the result of Wonder Woman dying or killing Superman. And the only way to stop him from doing it would be to kill him.
So she snapped his neck.
Don’t give an ultimatum like that to an Amazon warrior. :)
“established as untrustworthy” – four Pinocchios.
Kevin has done everything he said he would do, with the exception of killing Max, which he certainly gave a good try. He needs violence to eat, but he’s a nice guy otherwise. The reader viewpoint saw him wishing good things for Sydney prior to him coming forward to fight personally.
He only decided to kill her after she literally threatened to kill him, tried, and proved that she could by her violence against him.
That has nothing to do with “trust”, that has to do with threat assessment. She was too violent for him to risk leaving her on the field. Then he got caught, so that motivation was over.
Besides, they are just sparring. Neither one of them gets to cut loose very much, so this is a chance for a good workout for each.
Aside from the whole “trying to murder each other” thing, they are probably the best social match for each other. I could see him filling out a nice alpaca sweater and her in her human disguise, on a Ferris wheel.
Oh… this would be a great time for a sudden disaster… a flood or earthquake or something. Lots of edges and corners to something like that.
Well, not nice.
He could have gotten several team members killed by orchestrating that brawl and refused all chances given to surrender until it was made clear that he would die otherwise.
Not surrendering and killing team members still doesn’t make him untrustworthy. It makes him anti-social, probably sociopathic, very dangerous, maybe even unpredictable for many on the team, but “untrustworthy” is a bad descriptor.
…
As I’m about to submit this, I think maybe I misinterpreted your first sentence, leading to the above paragraph, but I’ll leave it in case anyone else happens to misinterpret it as well – I am now reading it like you’re not trying to continue the “untrustworthy” narrative, you’re saying it’s actually that he’s “not nice” – sure I’ll go with that.
“Not surrendering and killing team members still doesn’t make him untrustworthy.”
No, the lying and causing the riot under false pretenses, then lying to Sydney when she questioned him DURING the fight, in the first place, is what makes him untrustworthy.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-236-recon/
Yes, he sort of thinks Sydney is a ‘good kid.’ But he also was lying to her. He ‘hoped she didnt get killed tonight.’ But that doesnt mean he wasnt causing a situation where she COULDN’T get killed that night. Or he wouldnt have to hope that she wouldn’t.
“but “untrustworthy” is a bad descriptor.”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-257-lets-get-ready-to-rubbllllllle/
“Yes! Pile on if you want to have a chance!” (at beating me) – Vehemence on panel 2 of Comic #257.
That seem trustworthy to you? He’s literally lying there. :)
And that’s just with the heroes. He’s untrustworthy even to his allies, who were actually his unwitting pawns, like Vektor and Opal.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-249-the-plot-much-like-the-gravy-thickens/
One was given a serious concussion with a very audible ‘wha-crack’ onomatopoeia to her head.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-250-its-only-overconfidence-if-he-loses/
The other had his ribs shattered with a Ka-CRUNCH onomatopoeia so that afterwards, Vektor’s ribs resembled, as Harem put it in Comic #290, panel 4 “china shop post bull”
Also on Comic #290, Harem described how the WORST of the violence happened after Vehemence woke everyone up and mind controlled them into fighting EACH OTHER to power him up further.
This. Is. Not. Signs. Of. Trustworthiness. :)
How? How was telling them to pile on him if they wanted a chance, lying? They may have had a shit chance in a snowstorm, but it was still a chance
That’s like some yahoo claiming that the lootboxes and Time Capsules aren’t gambling because “you don’t need cash to open them”
Thing is, with villains, you can trust them to backstab you, what you shouldn’t trust is a ‘hero’ to keep their word
Particularly since that’s… kinda how they ended up beating him.
None of them had any idea that it would work. And in fact it would NOT have worked if Sydney had not had a very complicated strategy which allowed it to work, involving not only piling up on him, but also drowning him and not letting him heal his crushed trachea, forcing him to burn more of his power than they were giving him in order to power him down to a point where she could give him an ultimatum that he would accept to surrender.
In this comic, he explains why he organized the big fight. Then admits he’s lying when he’s called out on it: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-251-circuitous-motive-man
In this comic, he spends a page explaining his future plans. Then admits he’s lying: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-274-master-sham
Toss in the fact that Kevin originally allied himself with the rioters and then turned against them, and you’re left with someone who who went back-and-forth on his allegiances and plans so many times that by the time he settled on “I’m going to kill Maxima but spare the rest of the team”, I was asking myself “Is he telling the truth this time, or is he going to admit he was lying again in a few more pages?”
How many people say something, get called out on it, and turn around and say “Just kidding!”
Kevin tended to accompany his “just kidding” statements with violent actions against the person he was kidding, such as shattering their ribcage or attempting to kill them. That raises the stakes from “ha ha what a kidder but he’s basically trustworthy” to “holy carp it’s dangerous to believe this guy”.
“How many people say something, get called out on it, and turn around and say “Just kidding!”
Go up to a police officer, reach into your pocket, and say “I’m gonna shoot you, pig.” And then as you whip out a toy gun that looks real, you can yell “Just kidding!”
See if the cop will not shoot you anyway, and it will be a justified shooting.
You seem to place a LOT of trust in a character who had already lied to get the brawl to happen, who had lied about what he was doing AT the brawl until his ‘big reveal,’ who had lied to his co-conspirators when starting the brawl, and who had mind controlled or mind-influenced a lot of INNOCENT supers to fight when they would not have wanted to normally.
This is the guy you trust when he says ‘just kidding?’
Vekter would disagree. Kevin clearly had no qualms backstabbing him for his own benefit. He tricked Arc-SWAT into powering him up. He either lied when he described the havoc he was going to wreak or when he said he wasn’t going to do any of that.
So he can’t be trusted when he says he’s going to play nice. So they need to able to subdue him if necessary. Powering him up too much jeopardizes that.
> That has nothing to do with “trust”, that has to do with threat assessment. She was too violent for him to risk leaving her on the field. Then he got caught, so that motivation was over.
If he decides again that he has to take her out in order to escape, that’s a new motivation. And it’s not like him killing Maxima is the only threat – if he gets away cleanly, that’s also a failure for Archon.
> Besides, they are just sparring.
Doesn’t matter, he still gains power from the violence. Before it was fairly measured and controlled, but now he’s really throwing it down against Maxima.
Problem is, he now knows they have ways of stopping him without using too much violence
And, he has got to know, that if he does escape, they will hunt him down, and put him down, permanently!
How do we know they are not, both, still just sparring? Just because he is hitting her with enough force to liquefy Sydney (pleasant thought aside… )? That is because that much force is something Maxi can easily handle, anything less is basically not worth the effort
> Problem is, he now knows they have ways of stopping him without using too much violence
So it’s a matter of whether he feels he can defend against that – and the more power his sparring with Maxima gives him(and what’s happening right now will give him a lot), the better his odds look.
> And, he has got to know, that if he does escape, they will hunt him down, and put him down, permanently!
Or try to, anyway. Last time he was faced with that prospect, he decided to permanently take out the biggest threat against him, Maxima.
And I’m not actually saying he’ll do it – but Archon can’t be sure he won’t, and with a violent criminal that dangerous, it’s better safe than sorry.
The only way he could stop them, would be constantly ‘feeding’, because the moment his power drops, they will drop him
The point is, why would he? What possible reason would he have to try and escape?
He probably have no reason to take the risks involved in escaping right now. He can cooperate while waiting, learning and planning for a possible escape sometime in the future. Kevin is a smart knows how to play the long game.
We – the readers – can’t really know whether V will go rogue next.
That makes the slugfest have stakes, which builds reader interest. Just look at all the comments!
whatever he had before he was taken into custody. His property, money, lovers, being able to go wherever he wants, ect…
there are a ton of reasons to not want to be incarcerated even if they do give you some free power ups every so often.
Take out Maxima, and there is much less of a threat. He also knows how to lie low. And like I said, he was already faced with being hunted forever, and he still decided to go for it.
and there is also the comic book, rule of escalation, break the strong hero/villain and some stronger weirdo waiting in the wood work decides you might be fun to “play with” instead. which…might seem like a good thing to him..at least until said weirdos get too strong or too esoteric/exotic with their power sets and he finds himself in some weird reality warping funhouse run by an interdimensional clown girl or or something fighting off traps and monsters and having to solve puzzles.
-always a bigger fish gets weird in comics.
“Problem is, he now knows they have ways of stopping him without using too much violence”
Most of which still rely on him NOT having a ton of power to burn PLUS not using his other powers like the aura. And I’m pretty sure he does not yet know about the tickle laser.
The best strategy in dealing with Vehemence is to NOT do exactly what Maxima is doing, and instead do what Hiro was doing, because Maxima seems to be so bored about not having a real challenge that her ability to think strategically is pushed out of the way by the boredom of being the strongest and toughest person in the room at all times. :) For Maxima, strategy is “What? My powerful hit did not stop you! I’ll HIT HARDER”
It seriously does remind me of another comic called Goblins where the character called Minmax was trapped in vines that gripped him tighter the more he struggled. So his strategy was to KEEP TRYING TO STRUGGLE HARDER.
https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/06082015
This seems to be Maxima’s go to strategy when dealing with Vehemence as well, because when her violence doesnt work, she just tries …. more violence. And as I explained before, saying ‘she’s just inflicting intentional pain on him without violence’ means the person saying that is not aware of the definition of ‘violence.’ I’m assuming it’s because she’s at her current rank not because she’s the most strategically gifted, but because she’s INSANELY POWERFUL so that she doesnt HAVE to be the most strategically gifted one in the room. If anything, Sydney is probably the most strategically gifted one, followed by Dabbler. Who are the two physically weakest characters on the team that have powers in some form other than being a super.
It makes sense. Batman is much better at strategy than Superman. Because Batman NEEDS to be in order to survive in how he constantly fights waaaaay above his weight class. Whereas Superman usually doesnt need to fall back on strategy except the rare occasions that he fights someone more powerful than him, like Darkseid or Doomsday. And usually his strategies are rather…. poorly thought out. Batman’s beaten Darkseid twice, using nothing but strategy. And once using strategy AND a gun that fires a radeon bullet (which is like Kryptonite to New Gods like Darkseid).
This post admittedly went on a bit of a tangent, sorry.
I don’t agree with your characterization of Maxima. She can fight strategically, she just rarely needs to because she is so powerful. Against Vehemence, once she learned how his power worked, she tried several new approaches that didn’t work due to him revealing new abilities. Flying him into orbit made sense, so did going for the headshot (if not for Vehemence’s Regenerating Stronger power, she would have had another shot at his head, which would have killed him.)
Then in the meantime, she developed another approach relying on measured force and precision, wearing him out by making him repair damage with as little violence as possible, which seems to be viable, if just barely (unless Vehemence was lying about his energy balance).
And right now she isn’t actually trying to beat him – she’s sparring with them, and letting loose is the point right now, so it doesn’t make sense to criticize her strategy for being at beating him.
I do believe what she’s doing is reckless, because it risks making him powerful enough to attempt escape, but it accomplishes her goals of getting a good spar in while providing him nutrition.
“I don’t agree with your characterization of Maxima. She can fight strategically, she just rarely needs to because she is so powerful.”
It’s possible. But I havent really seen that with her. At all. In any of her fights so far. It’s almost always about using overwhelming force, not strategy. The only time she tried to use strategy was when she tried to fly Vehemence into orbit but he was already too powerful for that.
I’m not denying that she might not have the capability to think far more strategically than she’s been shown to, but the brain is like any other part of the body, it needs to be exercised. If everything is easy for her, then there’s less reason to assume that she would NEED to rely on strategy in the first place, beyond ‘which powers at which levels should I use to demolish this person.’
“Then in the meantime, she developed another approach relying on measured force and precision, wearing him out by making him repair damage with as little violence as possible, which seems to be viable, if just barely (unless Vehemence was lying about his energy balance).”
She didnt come up with the strategy to beat Vehemence. Sydney did.
“but it accomplishes her goals of getting a good spar in while providing him nutrition.”
It seem to me like ‘I’m so bored and can’t get a good fight, so I’m going to be reckless in my plans with this dangerous psychopath.’
At least so far. The only person who Vehemence has had ANY sort of concilliatory attitude to where he expressed genuine ‘like’ for has been Sydney, and still that didnt stop him from acknowledging that she MIGHT die from what was going to happen. It didnt stop him from doing the actions which might have resulted in her death, even though he wasn’t going to kill SYDNEY in particular.
This is not a person Maxima should be making unnecessary risks with.
“while providing him nutrition.”
Like I said, let him watch a boxing match. You don’t need to gorge yourself until bloated and unable to move in order to get a meal, you just need to get fed a normal meal. :)
I see what you’re saying about trustworthiness RE: Vekter, but I would like to point out that whatever he said to Vekter to get him to come along was not written down in the comic, unless I’m missing something.
Vekter called him a double-crossing SOB, so that pretty clearly displays his opinion on the topic, but we’ve seen enough to show the Vehemence is very intelligent, and could probably very easily drop in a few conditionals here and there to ensure that his “double cross” was in fact completely within the parameters of the agreement or proposal he made, or in whatever way necessary bait Vekter into being an accomplice.
It could have actually been a double cross, or it could have been manipulation and “lawyering” by Vehemence. So far as I can tell, we don’t know conclusively.
That’s a distinction without a difference – what matters is that he maliciously misled Vekter. Someone who does that is untrustworthy.
Even if he made a point of sticking to his exact words, they wouldn’t know that and couldn’t rely on it, and he does not, as shown by his contradictory statements about his plans.
How do we know he maliciously misled Vekter? That implies that he planned to betray Vekter from the start, rather than simply preventing his fuel from getting away
Because he misled Vektor and did so with malicious intent. And literally admitted it afterwards.
I’ll include the links when on my computer instead of my phone.
If he had been planning to fight on Vekter’s side, like he undoubtedly made him believe, he wouldn’t just have stood around munching on violence while his team was losing. Using them as fuel was also part of a long-term plan, because only later he did set up his aura. He also admits he was playing Vekter.
But that doesn’t actually matter, because even if he somehow was originally on Vekter’s side and changed his mind at the last second, that still makes him untrustworthy.
Depends on who you ask: Vekter would (naturally) claim he was untrustworthy for breaking a few of his ribs, whereas Archon could view him as slightly worthy of trust for stopping Vekter from portalling away along with several of the downed villains
I don’t think so – it doesn’t make someone trustworthy if they do something that just happens to benefit you.
““established as untrustworthy” – four Pinocchios.”
I give your four Pinocchios four Pinnochios. He has most definitely been established as untrustworthy. The entire restaurant brawl was dependent ON him being untrustworthy. If he was honest and trustworthy, his plan would not have been able to work at all, because it let him get insanely powered up. Which gave him an advantage he wouldnt have against ARC-SWAT unless they were stupid enough to, say, fight him until he’s insanely powerful again.
Which they seem to be in the process of doing for I-don’t-know-what-reason.
“Kevin has done everything he said he would do, with the exception of killing Max, which he certainly gave a good try. ”
So with the exception of that little attempted murder thing he’s a swell guy. Also the cause of the brawl in the first place and his lying in order to get himself that powered up. Why is he not untrustworthy again? I’m not understanding your reasoning at all.
I get that you like the character, but he’s not a trustworthy guy. You can like him even if he’s a conniving snake-in-the-grass, you know.
“He only decided to kill her after she literally threatened to kill him, tried, and proved that she could by her violence against him.”
He was causing a MASS RIOT and people to hospitalize each other, using his superpowers, then had beaten up most of her team that was left, including Anvil. She then gave him several opportunities to surrender for the ACTUAL CRIMES HE WAS IN THE PROCESS OF COMMITTING before threatening increasing violence, which only led to a threat to kill once he was had already violently beaten on her. Also remember that HE THREW THE FIRST PUNCH. What do you think the police officer who’s job it is to stop superpowered villains should be doing?
If there is a cop in a bank, and someone runs in with a gun and yells ‘THIS IS A ROBBERY’ and shoots the gun in the air…. do you think the cop would NOT be authorized to aim a gun at him and order him to put his gun down and surrender or he would shoot?
Would you argue that the robber would be justified in shooting the cop first, because the cop ‘threatened to kill him?’
No. That’s just weird thinking. It’s not even in accordance with how the law works. In fact, if a bank robber did that and that scenario happened, and the cop fired his gun and hit a civilian instead, the BANK ROBBER would be charged, not the cop. Specifically ‘felony murder.’
And the scenario with Vehemence isnt even that complicated, it’s a lot more direct.
“Besides, they are just sparring. Neither one of them gets to cut loose very much, so this is a chance for a good workout for each.”
Yes but that doesnt make him any more trustworthy. Trust is earned. He has not earned it. In fact, his past actions have actively hampered any sort of trust since the only point at which he surrendered was when he was already beaten due to Sydney’s strategy. THAT is threat assessment – not trustworthiness.
” I could see him filling out a nice alpaca sweater and her in her human disguise, on a Ferris wheel.”
As much as I disagree with the rest of your post, this particular sentence made me smile. :)
“He needs violence to eat”
Oh btw….
Yes, he needs violence to eat in order to survive. Have him watch a boxing match or something every so often.
I need food to survive. I don’t need to gorge myself on an all-you-can-eat buffet Jon Pinette style.
In case no one gets that reference:
https://youtu.be/51rHWly7sHA?t=155
I love John Pinette – my estimation of your taste continues to improve as always. :D
He does callbacks to the Chinese buffet routine in his later years. I can’t find the video but he tells about passing a Chinese place while travelling in Europe.
He’s still a prisoner, sure. But where do you get “established as untrustworthy?”
Granted he did betray his fellow criminals, but that’s not enough to paint him with a blanket “conniving backstabber” label. You can act in different ways towards different groups, people do this quite often.
If anything, I’d expect a criminal who even betrays his accomplices to be even less trustworthy towards the police. It also establishes that he’s willing and able to mislead people for his own goals.
Untrustworthy doesn’t have to mean “chronic backstabber” or “pathological liar”. It just means they can’t _rely_ on his honesty – and one example of betrayal is sufficient to put one’s honesty into question.
And considering they’re law enforcement and he’s a prisoner, not trusting him is kinda the default to begin with.
Pander has also collected a number of other instances elsewhere in this comment thread.
I was considering the escape vector myself. With it being ‘super dusty’ he has at least some minimal cover to gain a few seconds of advantage. And with fighting Maxima in a brawl style (which he wanted) he is being charged up by their most powerful member. I know is is totally into fighting for fighting sake. But as a prisoner, he may be considering the phrase “He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day.” He may well give up any chance of defeating Maxima (slim as that is) when he sees his opening to run for it. And I think that was his intention from the start with his promise to be good for exercise time.
Unless he can *ka-flight* he’s not getting away. Maxima is faster than he is, and can fly. And there are other Archon members around. And unless they are stupid, there is monitoring going on, with all that implies from an organization with access to all of high tech, magic, and unique super powers.
Portalling could be an option – we know magic portals exist.
There’s this trick where you emit a flash, then just look at the first light to make it back. It’s the first light because it took a straight route, so you’re only looking at the light that wasn’t deflected by dust particles. It’s pretty good for looking through turbid media.
But it kind of requires you to have originated the light you’re viewing the scene with.
I would think that if the dust is in between you and what you’re wanting to observe, the first light to return would be light that hit those dust particles and bounced straight back. It would then be followed by light that hit your target, and followed by light that scattered and eventually bounced back at you.
You gate it by nanoseconds, looking at slices at various distances. Unless the dust is so thick that you can’t see through a few inches of it, you’ll get a decent picture, and even if it is that thick, you can basically do a tomography thing to reconstruct a solid image.
That’s for reflected light. For transmitted light, (Illuminated behind.) you just look at the first light through, and you’re good.
I read your first comment like Sydney or Harem should be able to do that. Then I think I understood you’re talking about how Dabbler’s tech could break things down?
Yeah, it’s a high tech solution to fog and dust. In theory you could probably pull it off with incoherent light, too, just with absolutely insane computational resources being required.
Surely you’d need the tomography anyway, for any case where the subject is 3D and/or at an unknown distance? A single slice would only work if the whole subject was in a (pseudo)plane with the same (optical) distance from emitter to sensor, and if you knew in advance what that optical distance was.
“A-Cup Aficionado Quarterly”?
You know, come to think about it, there probably IS something like that out there. Hmmmmmm, how would I work out if that is a real thing, without Daniel the Human finding out…
I got in a lot of trouble a while ago by looking up stuff on his PC and giving it a virus… :(
Aahhh… Whay IS this thing about giving computers a virus? Every time I get the flu or some other lurgy I’ll be cough/hacking all over the keyboard/mouse/screen (I’m sure the cooling system also sucks it up), but do you think this bloody box gets sick like me? Not on your nellie! I’m not even sure smallpox would faze it!
“As I mentioned on the last page, I don’t think demons would benefit greatly from infravision, so maybe they can see into the UV scale a bit. Not that UV can penetrate dust. Or windows or clothing or just about anything really.”
I would imagine that Dabbler would have some kind of vision that could penetrate clothing.. I think it would be very usefull for any succubus to have suck kind of peaking powers.
To be honest I don’t think dabbler needs vision to see through peoples’ clothes? She’s a Succubus, if she wants to see someone’s naked form, she can just… ask nicely? And that probably works for her, 90% of the time?
She also has her porno sense to tell what’s going on under there.
Well, if the combatants create tantric energy yes. Vehemence seems like the kind of guy who would get turned on by a beautiful woman beating him up.
If Dabbler start breathing heavily and going “Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff” …
… there will still be a massive cloud of dust, so Maximance with have plausible deniability.
After all, he’s not in her chain of command (although ethically “dating” a prisoner is highly problematic)
I assume “suck” was supposed to be “such” and “peak,” was supposed to be “peek,” but they’re kind of appropriate.
No no, he got it write the first time… Erm, like succubi just have to “suck it up” as one says rudely to some minion, but then they’re looking to pull the experience to the very top…
I assume heat vision would be useful to a succubus. Horny levels vary from person to person but blood flow to certain regions could work as a better indicator.
Sydney has had an eventful few months (subjective time).
Even more so when you just list them out like that…
How strong do you want these wind powers…extra hot, extra fat, extra bean chili strong. OR G’ma’s pork trimmings and cabbage stew powerful. I wont tell you where they both rate, that’s my little secret.
lets start at The Spleen level and go up from there. hopefully he’s gotten over that nerve damage.
So, this “A-Cup Aficionado” I’ve been hearing about, how might one locate and/or sign up for said publication?
…hypothetically…for research, yeah that’s it, research.
I’m with ya!
Pornhub has categories but small tits includes anything smaller than a basketball.
reddit has a few subreddits dedicated to them – the occasional b-cup still manages to make it in, but I don’t think I’ve seen any basketballs. Besides – if it’s only one or two out of ten posts with basketballs, rather than 9/10, one can just keep scrolling.
Google “Itty Bitty Titty Committee” – it’s everything EXCEPT a magazine
Sydney and Peggy are the charter members for the ARC chapter, IIRC.
Hmmm… Dabbler, you are heavily implying you got a thing for Halo. Granted with Dabbler, it’s not that hard to appeal to her. Granted I think she would have a hard time being attracted to me.
Dabbler always had a thing for attractive supers like Sydney.
Dabbler has a thing, and wants all the things.
However, what she says to Sydney is largely designed to get a quick snack, reminding Sydney of things that bring up sexy thoughts, mixed with various other emotions.
Not that she would pass up the opportunity if offered but I think Dabbler just enjoys teasing Sydney.
ok i don’t know when or how, but i want a sydney cover page of A-Cup Aficionado
we should scroll through the previous donation tier images, I haven’t been keeping track so it may have actual art already ?
Question: How like, plasma proof are the people present. I imaging since Sydney could literally make a warp gate to the corona of a sun, or possibly pour hot starmetal on people using it she’s actually the most powerful in this group.
She’s just not inherently strong by herself.
It’s indicated from the beginning that Sydney’s ultimate power level is unknown. Once she fully masters the orbs she will be indistinguishable from a minor deity.
And, conveniently, already has her own church.
Join the holy game and do the sacred rites of dice training.
Computer AI is amazing for both what it CAN do and what it CAN’T do. In general, it can be a fantastic problem solver that has ZERO common sense about the practicality of the solutions found. It’s just crazy how far away we are from anything we could really describe as “awareness”, let alone self-awareness.
But as a solution engine, it’s great, so long as the designers are able to define their parameters well enough…..
But it has many many wonderful solutions for making paper clips.
Guessing DaveB dislikes Clippy and put a ban on any images of it :P
Can you PROVE that human intelligence is more than a solution engine that’s hominid-maximising?
Can someone link the beheading? I’ve obviously forgotten this
Here ya go. link
While funny, that’s not what I meant ;) No srsly, do you (or anyone) know which grrlpowercomic this beheading refers to?
No, seriously, the comic says she BEDDED a hot male alien. She did not behead one.
She did behead one of the Kaiju though, technically. By blowing a hole through its head. :)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-669-particle-beam-ik/
As you can see, most of the center of its head seems to be missing in the next comic, first panel. Which isnt really beheading per se admittedly.
But yeah, Ed clearly did misread the word ‘bedded. :) I’m just messin’ with ya.
But was it a hot male kaiju?
Definitely hot, given how those sparks were flying. And surely a major point of tentacle monsters is that the ‘male/female’ thing is far less relevant?
What’s that feeling when you’re very small and hot? Starts with an “m”. Yes, I totally read that wrong. Musta been all the expected violence.
Not “beheaded”, “bedded.” As in “slept with,” as in Frix, and it happened at least twice but off-panel.
“What’s the difference?” – George R. R. Martin
Ninja’d.
With all the energy being released down there, that dust is going to rise in a mushroom cloud.
It’s indicated from the beginning that Sydney’s ultimate power level is unknown. Once she fully masters the orbs she will be indistinguishable from a minor deity.
Sorry, disconnected post. Darn laggy internet.
Sydney *is* basically the only heroine with an A-cup since superpowers universally include breast augmentation. It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that she gets highlighted by that magazine; she literally has no competition for sexiest heroine.
Technically, Sydney isn’t a Super-hero, she is a Tech-hero (at least, not until she can harness her spicy-diet for good, and not evil)
Iron-Man and War Machine and Rescue and Batman and Green Arrow and Nightwing and Oracle and Batgirl and Black Bat and Black Panther and Cyborg and Vision and Red Tornado and Booster Gold and Steel and both Blue Beetles and Starman and Stargirl and Hourman and The Question and Vigilante and and AntMan and Wasp and Star Lord and Captain America and the Hulk and She-Hulk and the Flash (most of them) and all Green Lanterns (except Jade) and Robot and Robotman and Atomic Robo and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would all like to have a word with you and disagree that they are not superheroes just because they got theirs powers from science/use technology and/or skill instead of being born with powers.
Except, in this world, actual Super superheroes have a specific body-type
And they are all heroes, just not Super heroes
“Yeah? What’s the difference?”
Excellent point, as far as the naturally-occurring supers go. Even in the DC and Marvel universes, tech-supers do tend to rapidly develop an ideal body type as well (or more commonly started out with one). Hulk, TMNT, and Cap definitely didn’t start out ripped but got a new form automatically. Sydney is a pretty rare example of a super with a non-athletic body not being physically transformed by the tech, and also not transforming it herself via training (a la Batman, Green Arrow) in order to actually be effective.
I suspect there would be a sonic boom of enthusiasm if Sydney asked Dabbler for a makeover. It won’t happen soon but it’s not totally out of the question; she already accepted help accommodating Frix.
Something that puzzles me is why Sydney can be Superprude but enthusiastic about hentai and tentacles.
I think she’s only enthusiastic about watching hentai, not actually participating in it. :)
At least judging from her reaction to the tentacle closet on Cora’s ship.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-710-womenities/
To be fair, it’s ‘super intense.’
Peter Parker started out as a typical 98 pound weakling, and for the longest time after he got his powers continued to look like that, at least in the comics.
Eventually he got ripped, but that was because it turns out that web swinging and superhero battles are a fantastic workout program. His powers as such didn’t make him look that way, and at one point where he got demotivated he actually developed a pot belly.
Supers, not ‘superheroes.’ Because in the grrlpower universe, the term ‘Supers’ seems to have its own, distinct meaning beyond just ‘superheroes’ – because the Barberian is a super, but not a superhero.
I’d argue that ‘superhero’ means ‘anyone who is a hero who also either uses atypical powers, items, or abiilties.’
Which actually happens to be what Maxima herself says during Sydney’s interview.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-84-clash-of-the-personalities/
To quote Maxima on panel 7:
“People with powers, exceptional abilities, or uh… unusual items I gues, are considered a valuable national resource.”
Because that’s the type of people they want for ARCHON, and specifically ARC-SWAT (who are the superheroes of ARCHON). Although if you argue everyone in ARCHON is a superhero, I probably wouldnt argue that much since there’s a valid argument for that. I just don’t see Sandy or Faulk or Leon as ‘superheroes’ though…. although Oracle is a superhero so I guess Leon could be as well.
Oracle, you… do know who she is right? And what she use to do before becoming Oracle, right?
Tes. She was Batgirl before the Joker shot her in the spine and paralyzed her. She was actually a better hero as Oracle. At one point she RAN the JLA. At one point she beat Brainiac, a 12th level intellect, as he tried to control ger mind with nanotechs, by hacking her own brain. She recreated the internet (Internet 2.0) so that she can hack into anything online with ease. She built one of the largest superhero teams next to the JLA (the Birds of Prey), which had over 100 superhero ‘agents’ (mostly women but some men), although a core group of six (herself, black canary, huntress, misfit, proxy, and lady blackhawk), plus thousands of children and homeless people across the globe as informants and spies. Which incidentally is how she discovered Cassandra Cain, the second Batgirl. The only hero who will no longer work with her is Powergirl because of a mission that went horribly wrong. Her identity as Oracle was so well hidden outside of the JLA that even Amanda Walker couldnt figure it out on her own, and Waller has figured out almost every hero’s identities, invluding Batman, Superman, Flash, and Batgirl (ironically).
Do yes I do know who she is. But she was MORE of a hero as the best hacker in the world (and beyond sometimes) than she ever was as Batgirl, who was basically relegated to sidekick status for most of her superhero run. Which is my point.
Okay, you just seemed to have implied that she was only a hacker
No. I implied that, as Batgirl, she was a second tier sidekick to a superhero, and she did not become an actual superhero until she became Oracle BECAUSE of her hacking abilities. Yes, she still could use her escrima sticks and was taught how to use them AND groundfighting by Richard Dragon himself, but that’s not what made her a superhero as Oracle. Her network and her hacking skills and intelligence did (even Batman said of all his sidekicks, Barbara was the one who was more intelligent than him – all of his sidekicks had some sort of thing at which they were better than him – Cassandra was a better fighter, Tim was a better detective, Jason was more ruthless, Stephanie was more stubborn on never backing down, Dick was a better acrobat and athlete… and Damian eventually becomes a better strategist once he’s older)
With Oracle, she was a hacker. A hacker so good that she used it to fight crime as a superhero. Who had some fight-training as well, but nowhere near as much as Cassandra, Dick, Tim, or Damian. More than Stephanie though. Oracle is the best hacker on the planet who could do things which might as well be frigging superpowers once you’re outhacking a 12th level intellect coluan world-conqueror and SUCCEEDING.
Btw when I say ‘actual superhero’ I mean ‘actual superhero on her own merits, rather than as a sidekick to another recognized superhero.’
And yes, in the Grrlpower universe, Sydney is described as a superhero, not a super. They are distinct definitions in the comic.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-127-a-cautionary-clause/
Even Arianna agrees about that. Trust the lawyers. But only the fictional ones.
And me. Always trust me. I’m the only honest lawyer in real life.
Arianna: “It will be a big change in your life, and being on the team will take up all your time. I wish I had longer to prepare you for it, but we have to get you outfitted and introduced to the team.”
Sydney: “… but I get to be a superhero.”
Arianna: “Somewhat inappropriately ominous lighting aside… Yes, Sydney, you get to be a superhero.”
So technically, most of Archon is super superheroes, and Halo is just a superhero. And a super hero, but not a super hero.
And if he’s sick she’ll stop by the ARC cafeteria to get soup for Hiro.
Im picturing you saying that as Zangief in Wreck It Ralph.
Exactly. Only my hair situation isn’t quite as awesome as his.
Problem I have with these dicussions is that — for me — fireys and ambos are the SuperHeroes. Supes & Thor & etc are aliens who out-muscle Earthians. What makes THEM super-heroes? Surely not the fact they can take on most of the star-trash that follows them like navel-fluff?
At least Batman’s and Hulk’s crowd decided to put their efforts and enhancements to serving… their communities while accepting the risk of possible injury or death.
I’ll make the explicit point that if they are invulnerable, they are not SuperHeroes, since they risk nothing.
It’s sad to me that so many people focus so much on the “super” part, and ignore what it means to be a hero. For so many people, it’s just a power fantasy. Indeed, doing something that’s easy for you hardly makes you a hero, no matter how good that act was. A hero is someone who does something that’s hard or risky for them because it’s the right thing to do, and their principles compel them to.
What makes someone a ‘hero’ depends on which side you are on
To some, Blatman is a hero (because they don’t know shit about him), to others (specially official law enforcement and the rest of the population), he is a dangerous sociopathic vigilante who answers to no one (not even the Justice League, the same people he has contingencies to ‘take down’ if they ever become a problem)
So the Joker beomes a hero because he’s always including Batman as a target…
To some people, possibly
But not even Joker sees himself as a hero, more of an anarchist (depending on the version)
I absolutely love the monologue on this topic in Angus. Great movie. Give it a watch if you haven’t.
Some of the magic users are quite powerful and equivalent in size to Sydney (non-bunny Pixel, Krona) – if you’re saying they’re not supers because they have other classifications or are not on Archon… I’m not sure I agree, as many on the “supers” team are not supers, but whatevs – I think any child looking at them would be confused when you say they don’t have superpowers, and many adults, until you say well ackshually it’s magic… and then at least half of those would roll their eyes.
Put another way, Sydney and Dabbler and even Math and Peggy do not have super powers, they are essentially paragons of human (or demon) potential and/or have access to some pretty potent hardware and/or skills and they know how to use them to great effect. Two of them are technomancers, one of which has access to “spells”, one is a preternatural martial artist, and the last is exceptional with firearms.
What makes someone a super, exactly?
I re-read your comment and noticed you said heroine, not super heroine – so basically, I think one could just take my last comment, remove references to Math, and change “super” to “heroine”
I was confused by the “sexiest superheroine” title of the magazine’s award and your mention of superpowers, but most of my point with Pixel and Krona basically still stand – I guess they aren’t out in public? so it’s a matter of public exposure and the fact they don;t know about Sydney’s competition that makes her not have competition?
“What makes someone a super, exactly?”
Good question. I would say it’s some ability, equipment or skill that allows you to challenge other powerful individuals. You don’t have to get all that power from your body. Iron Man can beat super villains using just his equipment (armor). Lex Luthor can beat even Superman using just his skills.
Which would make Halo a super heroine in my opinion.
Lex Luthor beat Amazo simply by talking to him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4TC1xMyZDI
“What makes someone a super, exactly?”
In Grrl Power, it’s something more specific than “has powers”. It hasn’t been formally defined, but we know Sydney isn’t one. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-80-she-used-this-spell-to-scan-a-hotdog-once-once/
Thank you
Yep! But it’s also established in Grrl Power that the word ‘Super’ is a distinct definition different than ‘superhero’ or ‘supervillain.’
Because apparently you can be a super and NOT be a superhero or supervillain (ie, The Barberian, Krona?)
And you can be a superhero and NOT be a super (ie, Dabbler, Sydney, possibly Math)
And you can be a supervillain without being a super (Sciona, the vampires who were working with Sciona)
And before you include Deus in that last category in what will surely be a heretical manner (for shame G, for shaaaaame), Deus is clearly beyond definition, aside from being the paragon of humanity. All praise Deus, amen.
Yeah, it makes sense to distinguish “super” and “superhero”.
Krona, by her own claim, isn’t a super: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-482-panty-raid-0/
Actually, as a VI, she’s an enforcer of an official ruling body, with superhuman powers, just as Archon are, so it could be argued that if Sydney is a superhero, so is Krona.
On the other hand, one might include a certain measure of publicity in the definition o a superhero …
NCIS:LA recently had a storyline where some bad person was using Deep Fake real-time Videos to impersonate members of the team (oh, and a dead terrorist to make it seem like he wasn’t dead), and it wasn’t just visual impersonation, but audio as well
Wait, hang on… we know that Harem knows about the supernatural dwellers on Earth (besides Dabbler, that is), through Deus. But does she officially know about them, within the context of Archon hierarchy? I thought the whole reason for reading Halo in on their existence was so she didn’t reveal them inadvertently through her truesight? It was my impression that, other than Halo, it was info reserved for the upper echelons. If Harem isn’t supposed to know about it, didn’t she just drop her foot in her mouth?
Didn’t Crimson show up at ARCHON HQ a couple times? I would assume there wouldn’t be a giant logical leap from “Vampires exist.” to “Group to keep supernatural entities in line has to exist.”
Harem was with the raid on Sciona’s lair, so she had official contact with the council.
Harem was the one to explain that knowledge of the supernatural is “corporals and above”
You’re right, Tempo. Thanks for jogging my memory, there.
I still can’t decide quite whose side Harem is on. If she’s even on any side besides her own.
“Bedded hot alien men”
“Man, singular, just the one”
Plot twist, he’s actually a colony organism, and so it really is plural.
A fursuit filled with wolf spiders.
Woof spiders
Hao daer you make my eyes read that!
“Vance? What are you doing in Frix’s – GREAT GODS AND GROCKLES DID YOU JUST SKIN FRIX?!?!?!?!”
LOL.
Sydney doesn’t seem to have Tried the Orb that Gives True Sight
And I believe that is still one Unknown ;)
I also think Kevin may have reconsidered the Greatest Threat List….
It wasn’t Maxima who “Took Him Down” last time….
Waiting for the dust to settle and the winner is….!?
Once the fight ends the winner will be the audience.
“Oh thank goodness the News is over. Now we can watch “Who Wants To Be a Pornstar?”!
Does Sydney not have some degree of wind powers? I guess strictly speaking she has “produce breathable air” powers, but couldn’t upgrading that give her wind powers?
I expect that if she started flying in a tight circle over the fight at top speed, she’d whip up some wind. When she goes full speed she’s leaving a sonic boom that’s a WMD all by itself.
But as a “space ship”, or maybe extended EVA suit, there’s no particular reason for her to have wind powers.
In a way she gains wind power after eating Grax.
Except, that’s more of a toxic cloud
And has the distinct disadvantage of self-inflicted casualties from friendly fire.
If she ever added points to the Air Orb she might be able to conjure compressed air ( good luck holding on to the orb as it does that ) or produce other gasses.
Heavier than air Xenon might be good against fire.
Helium would be good for making people talk funny.
In one of the Tom Baker Dr. Who episodes that worked against the villian.
It worked for Inspector Clouseu as well.
Rookie mistake, Kevin’s grinning in that storm so now he’s got a mouthful of grit. Bleah.
maybe their defense auras are up so high now that the dirt is all just bouncing off without being noticed.
*buffing shiny plaque, denoting lifetime subscriber to ‘A cup aficionado’*
Ahh, I always knew that they had excellent taste!
Hey Xuriel, how about whipping out any of your Wind Base Cantrips?
Do not try to tell use you do not know “Gust of Wind”!
Halo won 1st place? Odd. My vote goes to (human form) Pixel.