Grrl Power #985 – Big bodyslam diplomacy
Maxima is not often invited to diplomatic events. “They” learned early on that she only has so many knuckles to crack.
Assuming Tom is 90 feet tall, he would weigh… (one quick googling later) Huh. Not nearly as much as I would have guessed. Roundabout 260 tons. Assuming he’s of a similar composition as a human, of course. I really thought it would be something like 7,000 tons. I don’t know why, a blue whale only weighs about 200 tons. I guess my exponential-math-in-my-head-cortex is out of whack.
I like panel seven, because it makes Tom look like a demonic version of Beaker.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
I finished the last chapter! Man, the fight went in a super weird direction for about 10 paragraphs.
Now… don’t be mad… But the chapter was pushing 10K words and I wanted a little wrap scene, so… There’s going to be one last chapter. I think that’s 4 or 5 times I’ve said that I’m starting on the last chapter, but this time it’s probably not a wild underestimation. It’ll be short.
September’s vote incentive is up! Nude version is up at Patreon.
The October one will be posted with Thursday’s comic. I spent all day Sunday working on it, but I spent all day Saturday working on T:E 2, so I didn’t quite get it done in time. I need to sleep less. Yes… that plan has no possible drawbacks.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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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.
And we *finally* see Thothogoth’s feet!
if you’re into that sort of thing, then yay!
He has suffered the agony of de-feet. And the rest of him must be pretty sore as well.
He gave Max the finger.
That made him prone to injury.
He didn’t toe the line, and as a result was being brought to heel by Maxima.
Max was just opposed to his stance and tried to make him more understanding.
He is now understanding because she is over standing.
Er, standing over.
And technically, he is under lying.
Even if that was the sole reason, it would still have been ankle justification.
Don’t worry about over weight, for some reason “kaiju” things are even heavier than their size should estimate at. Even the original Godzilla, only about fifty feet longer than a Bluewhale is long had an absurd weight estimate.
also nice to see Maxima taking advantage of the zero range telekinesis coupled with her flight to bypass things like leverage. On that note, anyone wandering, yes, regardless of what you shout in the face of a military officer (especially if it is things you haven’t verified to them) and proceed to put your hands on them be prepared to find yourself either in a lock or on the ground.
related to increased strength requirements for their skeleton? Sure there may be different materials rather than just more dense, such that they have a higher strength to weight ratio than our bones, but difference in density would probably be significant
Yeah, like don’t poke the person literally trained to beat your ass in hand to hand
Right just to make clear, the military hand to hand is just enough to hold your own in a fight with a civilian. I went through it, to actually learn how to fight you spend the money and go learn how to fight. Lot’s of NCO’s and Officers I knew had as much training as I did. No really it isn’t anything to write home about, basic judo moves, and I was a combat MOS. Nope if you laid a hand on an officer it was off the stockad with you and if you were lucky not a court martial.
Hmm, he said “I am Dominus Secunde the World Taker” which sounds like something in the range of high general. So… if a high general would tap your belly and you, being a colonel (not sure that’s Maxima’s rank but should be near), would smack him down: Court martial for whom?
In other seriousness, he uttered a threat while doing that a page ago, so he was in for a lesson of physical education.
since he is a general from a diferent potentially invading nation it would be the equivaling of taking out an enemy comander, not exactly discouraged in the military
So Max is totally escalating violence here, right? you don’t get to throw someone onto the ground so hard they’re seeing stars because they poked you and you don’t like what they’re saying. He legitimately could sue here. If not in a Terran court, then any numerous amounts of courts he probably has sway in.
He made claims Maxima couldn’t verify immediately (as she has no knowledge of them), now had thothy gothy here not physically touched her the protocol would have been for Mazima to either repeat the questions or ask Dabbler to verify his claims.
however as he touched her, she as an officer is permitted to subdue him *non-lethally of course*.
good thing it wasn’t lethal – gotta wonder how much of her superspeed is devoted to assessing compressive and sheering tolerances of opponents’ various body parts
The subconscious zero-range telekinesis might help with that, redistributing force as needed. that could also explain the crater; it redirected more of that force downward, increasing the impact on the ground and decreasing it on the giant squishy thing.
Considering he had a moment of being unconscious, I’m gonna say she didn’t decrease any impact to Thothogoth. You can actually see she’s let go in the flashback panel, quite possibly for the exact reason of letting him feel the full force of the ground.
It’d be interesting to know how subconscious it is. I mean… Could she have elected not to use it at least, and have just broken his finger?
Yeah, fairly sure she can turn off the field regarding things she’s holding, or she would never be able to open he favourite bag of chips
Kinda like a minor foe of the early X-Men: dude had a repulsor-field, Beast managed to turn it against him by cranking it up to max, where he couldn’t even eat because literally everything (including burgers) were being repelled from him and he was slowly starving to death
Unus the Untouchable.
I remember reading a later story n which his power had increased naturally, and finally reached the level where it was even repelling AIR so that he died from lack of oxygen…
Although probably Marvel brought him back, somehow, years later…
He announced that he was attacking the United States. See prior episode. He is now a POW, assuming he submits.
Reminds me of the Visa Passport scene from Saga of Tanya the Evil
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5BRkB_zJGxY
No, I don’t think so… Unless someone under his command has either submitted a formal Declaration of War OR committed an act that the US Congress deems an act of war we aren’t at war. In which case he can’t become a Prisoner Of War…
Now, he DID assault a serving military officer while on duty. He can definitely be detained – indefinitely, if even a part of his statement is true. On the other hand, he may wish to be detained – as I pointed out elsewhere, invading an unaffiliated world is very likely to be frowned on by various galactic powers (especially if you immediately lose).
modern militaries dont do the “formal declaration of war” much this days, here is a more detailed (but not by much) explanation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1rzd3eG7ps
so no he declared his intentions he presented himself as the comander of a military and started to theaten the security and sovereignty of the united states which means that maxima as a united states colonel is probably allowed to do this
No, I don’t think she is.
The US Military – and all military services around the world for that matter – are in the business of being absolutely the best they can be at dispensing carefully measured and tightly controlled violence to neutralize threats to their respective nations.
This guy declared himself to be a threat to the nation – and all nations, for that matter – when he disclosed the existence of an invading force and an intent to be the ruler of Earth. That makes him something that has to be controlled.
Max applied what appears to be a carefully measured amount of violence to bring him under control.
If she were worried that she might not be strong enough to deal with the absolute worst she could do, she’d have had to use drastically more violence. Like nuking him into ash instantly before he gets whatever shields up. So allowing him to live may indicate some serious overconfidence and egotism on her part.
But she did allow him to live. Assuming that wasn’t a mistake that gets her and her team killed, it’s possible that he may have valuable intel or be able to call off his invasion instead of forcing them to fight that force.
Umm… no he can’t.
There may be courts he can try to sue in (ones in which he has some sway), but it won’t work. NONE of them hold jurisdiction here. In fact, should he appear before a judicial body that has anything resembling authority over unaffiliated worlds, he would likely be arrested on the spot – threatening to invade such worlds has to be illegal (not saying it isn’t done, just that it’s not legal). Otherwise there wouldn’t be any…
Plus, I suspect THIS Earth breaks any number of precedents and is thus deep in the special category of ‘Leave Them the Hell Alone’.
They (those aliens who ‘need to know such things’) are probably aware that Max is unusually powerful even by local standards – but they should be equally aware that they may be looking at the tip of the iceberg from a long way away. Can you imagine the sheer carnage Vehemence would do to an orbiting fleet – what are they going to do, shoot their own ships?
No, Max isn’t “totally escalating violence here.” Tothamoth did that when he laid hands on a federal officer.
Thothabroth could try to sue, but given that Maxima clearly and calmly identified herself and her authority, and Thothacloth decided to ignore her instructions and then assaulted her (and yes, laying even one finger on someone without their consent is technically an assault), there’s probably isn’t going to be a court which won’t just laugh you away. You’re basically going to the court to claim that you’ve been wronged because the person you threatened and tried to bully wasn’t cowed by your threats and wasn’t bullied. Shit don’t work like that, fam.
Kinda like when Bart Sibrell got his clock cleaned after constantly harassing Buzz Aldrin.
The Judge basically told him “Get the hell out of my Courtroom” when he tried to sue. There was literally thirty witnesses.
So satisfying to watch, although charges were never filed since there was pretty clear evidence for provocation and self-defense.
Still roughly the same thing: “Seriously? Get the hell out of here” XD
“Tothamoth did that when he laid hands on a federal officer.”
Thothogoth has the higher rank. Max smacked down a World Taking general.
My bad, 2 pages ago he states his rank as Arch-Lord.
So Max smacked down the mere Ruler of an Order of Hell. After he calmly announced to bring some New Order.
Are you trolling or just stupid?
When you’re pulled over for speeding, do you refuse to cooperate with the cop unless she is a captain?
Maxima’s rank has nothing to do with anything here. She could be a corporal, and it would not matter. Maxima identified herself as a federal agent, in an area in which she has jurisdiction. Thothomoth’s ‘rank’ also has nothing to do with anything here. He is an illegal alien, trespassing on both US soil and on federal property,* making threats about invasions and assaulting federal agents.
.
* The military doesn’t typically conduct exercises on public or private lands. The exercises with Vehemence have too much chance of damaging property, and in fact did so. And so the quarry is almost certainly on federal land.
Well, since Thothagoth has his armies ready to bring a new order, it should be obvious that he/it? thinks that he has the right to do that.
So, if i go 240km/h on some Autobahn and an American police office wants to give me a ticket, I laugh and tell him to fuck off.
More seriously and NOT rendering any of the above wrong: What will Max do if Thothagoth’s armies drop millions of bombs all over earth, all at the same time?
This comic is (Thank DaveB) not about that kind of seriousness but I still like to not forget such things.
Tom’s the one running around someone else’s turf demanding respect for who he is back home, not Max. So in your example HE’s the officer trying to give you a ticket on the Autobahn.
Tom threatened invasion with a hostile force and overthrow of the US government. And every member of the armed forces has sworn an oath to defend against such threats. He’s subject to not only the jurisdiction of the local (probably military) police, but also the jurisdiction of every last soldier, sailor, marine, or airman. Including Max. Including for that matter Harem or Halo.
Dabbler (consultant and contractor) doesn’t have the authority to arrest him or the authority to use violence against him to control the situation. I think pretty much everyone else here (active members of the armed forces) does.
Who he is, doesn’t matter. What he is, means different people might need to use other tactics besides the ones Max is using. But where he is, and what he did, make him subject to the authority of every member of Arc-Swat – as well as every other US Marine, Sailor, Soldier, or Airman.
We, the countries of Earth, have enough nuclear bombs , to destroy all life on Earth, 3 times over!
he is basically the general of an enemy nation, im sure you would be allowed to punch a russian or a chinese general in the face if both countries are basically at war which is kinda what is happening here taking into account he just said that they plan to invade and take over the united states and posibly the world with an army, he doesnt belong to the united states goverment so he isnt maxima’s superior he is her enemy
Um….. one person having a higher rank than another person only matters when both people are on the same side.
In other words, a private can shoot a general of the opposing army in a war. US privates during WW2 were not under any obligation to obey an order by, say, Rommel of the German army. I’m just saying that Thothogoth’s rank among his group doesn’t really hold any special privileges to Earth, among Earthlings including Maxima, aside from maybe during a diplomatic scenario. But this isnt a recognized diplomatic envoy so…. I have no idea why anyone would think Maxima would get in trouble for this. At all.
He committed battery. Come on guys, there was a whole comic joke about this.
And other than that, he threatened murder of maxima personally.
No doubt he has a army of lawyers at his command.
Being a demon and all.
I feel like I should be insulted… :)
Demons and devils need lawyers too yknow.
Devils advocates? :)
You are a lawyer, everyone else is insulted :P
Come on, that’s mean. Law (probably overall in the world) being as it is, you need a means to even stand a chance. As in, fighting fire with fire.
It’s fine really. I’m just kidding. As I’ve said before, I’m the designated good lawyer in the world. There’s always one in every generation.
But only one. Sort of like Highlander but with less head-chopping…. that you laypeople know of. (shifty look)
We all have to get a head somehow
You’re enjoying this running gag of my hatred of puns way too much. :)
You made a capital mistake when you let us know you don’t like puns.
I am so very guilty, and yet I don’t feel guilty ;-)
Oh, and Iron Rouge meant that all the good lawyers end up back in Hell, where they originated from :P
and all the good engineers end up in heaven. we need to rest!
You are pushing right up against the pun thresholds my friend, some of the dojos may stop taking your contracts if you continue to prosecute this course of action.
The escalation of violence is it’s whole thing. You don’t do it unless you *have* to, which in police officers context which is what we would be most familiar which is so infrequent that it almost never happens (but then the ‘killology’ people rant that they should do it all the time).
Military, they have to escalate more often, they have an established chain of escalation, and usually stick to it. Car coming at you-> verbal warning->warning shots->fire on tires->fire on car itself, more or less.
No in this case, battery and murder threats does add up to ->nonlethal subdual.
> police officers context which is what we would be most familiar which is so infrequent that it almost never happens
Unless you’re black.
Your math is wrong, because a being that big with flesh and bones like a humans or a whale, cannot live in Earth gravity on land. The closest is a 85 foot dinosaur, but most of it was neck, so… yea.
his lower jaw is also floating in the air, I don’t think physiology matters that much right now.
It’s nonhuman, and nonterrestrial. And it is obviously there. This storyverse has both magic and ‘better than human’ tech available, so this guy is probably using one or both of those.
Dabbled established that he’s using magic that makes him larger than his natural size. The specific spell he’s using likely has elements to account for the less pleasant ramifications of the square-cube law.
+1 internet for CosmicPlatonix.
There’s also evidence that the dinosaur may have had a primitive form of air bladder like birds use to fly. An ancestor of rhinos was the actual largest terrestrial creature with it being twice the size of an elephant but it was mostly made of legs (think Tolkien elephants with a different head and you get a rough idea). Generally things with a human body plan actually max out at two meters, anymore and health problems start to arise. The tallest have been four meters and the person needed a cane to walk and died in his twenties from heart problems. Elephants need to use loopholes in biology to deal with the square-cube law (those ears are heat radiators for example). Blue whales have their own flesh slowly crush then to death when they get beached. Although none of this matters because magic.
Heat radiators are not a loophole in biology.
I’m actually more impressed by the genetics of elephants making them nearly immune to cancer.
As big as they are, and as long as they live, that’s damned impressive. It’s a whole lot of cells, times an elephant lifetime which is a whole lot of minutes where something could go wrong with one cell’s genome causing cancer.
Heat radiators are an awesome adaptation, but having a genetic code that goes for instant apoptosis over allowing a cancerous cell to divide is just barely short of divine intervention.
Eh, it’s just evolution. Our problem is that our evolutionary history has a long period in it where practically everybody was dying in their 20’s or maybe 30’s, of accidents, disease, and predation, so mutations that resulted in you dying of cancer in your 40’s or 50’s didn’t get eliminated, but instead just accumulated.
You look at every extremely long lived species, they’re all living in environments where, if you can get past infant mortality, nothing is likely to take you out, so every extra year is an extra year you can reproduce in.
I watched something about that on a youtube science channel called Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
The reason Elephants are very resistant or even immune to cancer is because of their size. Large animals rarely get cancer and when they do get it, they’re either immune or HIGHLY resistant. Same reason blue whales, rhinos, and hippos don’t get cancer.
Here’s the video. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AElONvi9WQ
Btw, it’s called Peto’s Paradox.
The explanation I heard is that it is because they are so large that, before the cancer can grow large enough to actually threaten them, the cancer itself gets cancer and dies from cancer.
Yes, I believe that’s one of the reasons given in the video, so that even in the rare instances where they DO get cancer…. what you said happens.
The thing is cells of large and huge animals work differently then cells of the other 5 ‘size types.’ Seriously though, watch the video – it’s informative and fun. :)
There’s nothing actually paradoxical about it: Evolution is all about “just good enough”. Once you’ve suppressed the cancer rate enough that you’re probably going to die of something else before cancer gets you, the evolutionary pressure to lower it any further is basically gone.
“There’s nothing actually paradoxical about it:”
I didnt name it. That’s just what it’s called. Peto’s Paradox. Here’s a scientific, peer reviewed article on it.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3060950/#:~:text=The%20lack%20of%20correlation%20between,is%20done%20in%20human%20cells.
“The evolution of multicellularity required the suppression of cancer. If every cell has some chance of becoming cancerous, large, long-lived organisms should have an increased risk of developing cancer compared to small, short-lived organisms. The lack of correlation between body size and cancer risk is known as Peto’s Paradox. “
“Your math is wrong, because a being that big with flesh and bones”
Since his size is based on magic, probably wouldnt be accurate to use physics and biology to poo-poo his size making sense. Magic probably can tell the square cube law to get bent.
If no one here knows what the square cube law is… then um….
Here. Kurggesagt did a three part series on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7KSfjv4Oq0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUWUHf-rzks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1KkQrFEl2I
Btw the Square Cube Law is explained VERY well in the third video.
Is that the rule where when you quadruple the distance of an orbiting body, you octuple it’s orbital period?
Yes, I _am_ a nerd…
It’s a rule of basic math, dealing with the relationship between the volume and the surface area as a shape’s size increases or decreases. Basically, as a shape grows in size, the VOLUME (what’s inside) grows faster than its SURFACE (what’s outside). When you apply it to biology, it has some disastrous effects and makes creatures that get TOO big have problems with… well…. existing. As in staying alive. Mainly because it becomes more difficult to keep themselves cool and not just explode or melt into a mass of organic goo (cells generate heat when they do… pretty much anything).
What happens if you not only make the subject bigger, but ‘fill in’ some of the gaps with something to help cool things down?
They go over that in the video as well I believe, on why it doesnt work. It has to do with diffusion as the primary way that living things release waste like heat, because diffusion takes no energy to do. Everything else does take energy, and nature prefers spending no energy whenever possible.
So, having a water-sack wouldn’t help with the heat-diffusion? It has to be external?
At the cellular level, having a ‘water sack’ would still require energy. Not to mention at at a small enough size, like at the cellular level, water is actually deadly, not helpful, because of surface tension.
Diffusion requires no energy. Nature prefers having to spend no energy vs having to spend energy, so life has evolved to make diffusion the primary method of getting rid of heat waste.
Also when i talk about diffusion, I mean between the inside and outside of cells and organs. We do have liquid in us. Many types. Blood, bile, saliva, tears, etc. plus the organs themselves are a majority of water. The human body is between 45 and 75% water depending on age. It still doesnt change snything on the cellular level though. Blood heats up. Liquid heats up. Etc. You need to get it cooled down.
Take the lungs for example. They arent actually just two balloon-structures in your chest. They’re actually more like BUNCH of little balloons instead. Why? More surface area for the organ = more diffusion. Same for every other organ in your body, including skin, which are actually folded up or made to be less smooth in some other way, hundreds or thousands of times at a microscopic level. To make diffusion work better. So we dont overheat and turn into puddles of cellular goo or so our cells dont have to work slower so as to produce less heat.
With the giant naked demon man lying on his back I think we can see why Dabbler left him,
unless his genitals are internal or that’s a thong that just looks like its part of his body.
When he’s not wading in hellfire, there’s serious shrinkage. Like a frightened turtle.
That’s a loincloth covering the “bits”.
And now Detla is probably wondering how Max did that…
Just add to her growing list of “what have I gotten my self into”
So supposing Detla is actually a spy for some galactic interest, what’s she going to say?
“Yah, about invading Earth…. I advise against …. I know it’s not my decision what you do …. Right, it’s intel, not advice that you’re paying me for …. but the intel is … well, maybe there’s maybe some things you need to understand, and I’ve seen them happen and I’m not sure I understand them ….. “
“In my professional opinion, ‘Mostly Harmless’ isn’t gonna cut it.”
By our estimate roughly 60-90% of the population in any given area will be totally defenseless, the remaining 40-10% however will range from able to hold their own against armed soldiers to able to single handedly destroy our entire fleet.
Well, as an arithmetic mean, “Mostly Harmless” is pretty accurate. The problem comes when you look at the minority, which should be considered far from harmless. The weighted mean would work out to be “Potentially Very Harmful.” There are a few hundred individuals on the world that would be able to withstand the attack of a brigade (see Achilles, Hiro, Mighty Halo, Stalwart, Anvil) and there are a few that could even effectively counter-attack with devastating results (see Maxima, or Halo after she finishes getting trained).
Please see the attached video that shows how this one group was able to defeat a Fel battleship in less than an hour. There are other groups of similar but distinct composition around the world. Hostile entry is strongly recommended against! Diplomatic processes may have positive effect, but, with only two known exceptions, this world is still pre-FTL.
These beings were bread to take out predators which roughly doubled their mass and hunted in groups. With sharp sticks. I don’t think “mostly harmless” has every been a very good measure.
No, not really. Mostly these beings were bred* to walk behind herbivores until they collapsed from exhaustion.
And then deliver the coup de grâce with a sharp stick. Traveling in a group would tend to dissuade large carnivores, but mostly they tried to avoid them as much as was possible.
* Although some bread would go really nice with this haunch of antelope.
It’s true. If we were really superpredators (meaning, if we were evolved to eat large carnivores as a regular thing), we’d need a much more robust liver. That “gall bladder” thing wouldn’t be even a little bit vestigal in that case. Carnivores build up a greater level of toxins in their bodies than herbivores; if they’re on your diet, you need to deal with those toxins.
What you can tell about us, if you look at our livers and our blood chemistry, is that we may have had some superpredator ancestor a long time ago. But soft tissues like the liver generally don’t leave fossils, so we don’t really know how long ago. And superpredator’s a very narrow niche requiring extensive adaptation we don’t have and don’t see in our fossil record, so we don’t think it was anytime recent.
Possibly fifty million years, meaning that superpredator ancestor would also be the ancestor of all apes and monkeys including the entire primate order, plus lemurs and tarsiers.
To be fair she did just break the law of conservation of momentum right before her eyes; something we’ve seen her, Sydney and Harem do many times but she has not.
Well, that went better for Tom than I expected it would. Only thing hurt seems to be his pride.
He weighs over 15000 lbs.!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DZKwCVKneg
Everyone is slowly gathering on Thorgar’s face. I guess if he was into getting stepped on then this would be a dream come true.
He has been weighed, he has been measured, and he absolutely has been found wanting.
https://youtu.be/pOsAqP4PNto
Demon Beaker best Beaker!
Sadly, reconciling Beaker’s voice with Tom’s font seems an insurmountable challange.
I thought you were channelling smbc theater.
Biggest rock best rock!
Just in case no one knows what I’m talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_APoSfCYwU
Biggest Tom Is Best Tom!
I’m beginning to almost miss puns now.
If he still thinks leverage is a thing here, he hasn’t done his research. Just publicly available information should have let him know leverage wasn’t an issue here.
These people are using reactionless drives – in atmosphere, inside a gravity well. And that’s just their flight powers. Halo there can pick up sixteen tons (or possibly more now) thirty meters away from her body, with no support outside of her feet. Dabbler has a railgun that can penetrate hills, which she uses with no support in the direction that feedback ought to be flinging her. When Max raised her arm and took a Fel battleship out of the sky, the blast did not push her backward, tip her over, or sink her into the ground until she was standing on bedrock.
What made him think they’d start paying attention to leverage now? Leverage isn’t a thing for these people.
Au contraire Bear. These people ARE “Leverage”. :D
Not even the laws of physics are going to argue with Maxima, *thats* how!
The last few panels remind me of Knight’s Tale. “You have been weighed. You have been measured. And you have been found most wanting. Welcome to the new future.”
Be wary of little girls who show no fear; your preconceptions may not apply. (I know, Max is a full grown woman, but, I mean, look at the size difference.)
I once read an article where the author argued that the super power of superheros was actually the ability to impose their will on the universe. Their abilities were simply constrained by what they believed their powers to be. If Superman believes he can fly, he can fly, even with no visible means of violating the laws of physics. If he believes he can pick a car up by the bumper and lift it into the air, leverage be damned.
there is a excellent series of novels, the first is called ‘Wearing The Cape’ that sort of Uses that premise…
10 years before the first book opens everybody in the world blanks out for a couple minutes and electricity goes out
resulting in Massive auto Collisions, plane crashes, and disasters worldwide,
but in Chicago, just before a plane is about to Make a crater in the runway at O’Hare a young baggage handler picks himself up, way up, and catches the plane in midair.
superhumans appear all over the world by the Hundreds -superheroes, vampires,wizards,mad scientists,
martial artists who use Chi, every sort of abilities from every sort of sci-fi and fantasy, with only one thing really in common… none of their abilities have anything in common. it drives the physicists Nuts
if you believe Magic Absolutely Requires a wand, it does.. if you think wands are garbage but blood works, it does.
if you believe in the power of SCIENCE you can build incredible machines that no one else can duplicate.
the stories Follow a young woman about to start college when a terrorist blows up an overpass to assassinate a senator as she’s driving under it.. trapped in the wreckage she thinks, there are other people under here! I’ve got to get out and And help!… and suddenly realizes she feels -strong- and lifted the debris off of her car…
and So begins the career of Astra, girl superhero
Check out the ‘Miscellaneous’ box on the right of the screen. Sydney has BEEN in that universe.
Sounds a lot like how magick and technology works in Mage: the Acsension RPG.
Wouldn’t that make them gods? Just like everyone else but more so.
Might go on about whales and how little they weigh in expectation of their size. But that size doesn’t have to support itself. The water does. Anything that has to support itself is going to be one hell of a lot denser then any whale is.
Just like you don’t scale up a building 1:1 and keep using standard studs for a 20 story building, the bones and muscles are going to be one fuckload denser so it just doesn’t collapse under it’s own weight
It’s no different then bullshit like Pacific Rim and ANY other media using ships as fucking clubs. As soon as you take them out of water they are snapping like twigs, cause they can’t support their own weight. Kinda why the Titanic snapped in half when less then half of it was merely raised out of the water.
I totally called it.
Everyone did. It’s only the, what, fifth time the comic has done this bit? Sixth?
It was old by the second time. It’s not improving with age.
If you’re not enjoying it, feel free to go somewhere else.
It’s fun. :)
The fifth time she has judo flipped a 60-foot demon? I don’t remember any other 60-foot demons.
I called the method, not the outcome. The outcome was pretty much a sure thing.
Everyone did. It’s the fifth or sixth time they trotted this bit out.
Someone knock Max’s lights out already.
(Mildly amused by the person pissed about the consistent victories of the flying invulnerable person being named Lex)
at least their name isn’t Stanley Tweedle
You did indeed. And I called it even earlier the same day (check the comment numbers):
Mine — https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-984-dont-tug-on-etc-etc/comment-page-1/#comment-910559
Yours — https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-984-dont-tug-on-etc-etc/comment-page-3/#comment-910754
I never claimed exclusive rights to calling it.
I usually don’t have time to read all the comments by the time I see a new strip.
Besides, you predicted an either/or. I’m not sure that counts.
Aww… no tongue (or other noodley appendage) judo throw? Well, I suppose a finger counts. How many knuckle cracks were there?
This is Max, not Sydney. Syd would defs had gone for a face throw.
This page gave me A Knight’s Tale flashbacks and now I’m sad at the reminder that Heath Ledger is dead
and so far size spell thoth is useing may be illusion and not effect his weight of true form so as far as physics is conserned she probly judo threw equivalent of a human male or if going by dabblers description of him a dwarf XD
MEEMEEMEMEMEMEMEMEMME-*WHOOOAAAAA!!!!!!*
Seriously… THAT’s IT?!? After all the build-up, after seeing Thothogoth together with Vehemence, Deus and that arab guy that fought Max to a standstill THIS is what we get? No even more powerful Boss Level villain, but just another episode of the Max and Syney Show (featuring Dabbler) And it doesn’t look like he’s pretending or anything.
If Thothogoth doesn’t come up with some totally unexpected surprise or the Dominus Prime doesn’t show up to show him how it’s done, I’m thinking GRRlpower has now officially jumped the shark!
He was talking about conquering. He’s obviously a more political villian. It just so happens he *thought* he had the advantage in physical strength, too. Now that he realizes he doesn’t, the tactics begin.
And villians that rely on tactics are much scarier than those that rely on brute force. Especially ones who will have a vendetta because they were just embarassed in front of their ex whom they were trying to win back, because he will blame Maxima for Dabbler not getting back with him instead of blaming himself.
Indeed… Dabbler avoided him. It should mean something if Dabbler avoids someone instead of standing her ground.
And the 2nd paragraph: Exactly! He’ll hold an eternal grudge against Max from now on, despite playing polite after smacking him down.
this hardly counts as shark jumping, Halo already fought against multiple world wreking Shadows from Babylon 5 as Kaiju guys, and Maxima one-shotted this setting’s equivalent of the Borg.
at this point slamming a self centered demon lord *whose ego had him open to attack* is hardly shark jumping.
now if Halo unzipped her skin revealing herself to be Q in disguise and tapped danced on the planets THAT would be shark jumping.
If you seriously thought that a condescending GUY could beat one of the HEROINES, you should re-read the title of this comic.
Wasted opportunity, I know, but I still come back for the crazy antics and the nice boobs
Wouldn’t be the first time they jump the shark.
Its possible that:
1) there will be more of a fight in the next few pages
2) as with the vampires being stand-ins for a bigger boss (sciona), thothogoth might be a stand-in for the dominus priori, who would not go down as easily, if at all
3) Tom might have a spell to use on Maxima
It would admittedly be a letdown if all that build up ended with this. But based on past fights it will probably be alot longer than 2 pages.
I would write more but on my phone right now.
Hey Tom, it’s your first date with Maxima and she’s got you flat on your back. You should count yourself lucky (that you’re alive.)
Am I the only one who half expected a ‘A Knight’s Tale’ ending reference here?
Welcome to Earth,
You will learn to Love and Fear us in equal measure.
Failure to do so will result in your pride being hurt and your armies being crushed.
The Universe of Grrl Power is still young, they will learn to either give us a wide berth or embrace us as close allies.
Earth is the final boss. The universe just doesn’t know it yet.
oh so he is just a weakling.
in the same way Juggernaut losing to the Hulk makes Juggernaut a weakling…sure.
Specially as the guy is implied to have a Demonic Army… Say… We should totally get Aranea back in as a Cameo! She could actually hunt some demons that ARE bad guys for a change.
I suspect it’s less Juggernaut losing to Hulk and more Kingpin losing to Hulk.
Basically, although Tom has some brute force that he can use for expedience’s sake, I suspect his problematical actions are going to be more about strategy than muscles.
the point still standing, calling someone a weakling because they got floored by one of the strongest characters in the setting is irrational. Sure seeing this guy before hand being tough would be nice to establish him, but we have Dabbler’s reactions to him and those flash backs before. In a comedic setting it makes perfect sense for the barely mentioned demon lord to just be flattened by the super heroine. Its a specific type of humor, subverting expectations (which tends to either miss or land with people), so long as the setting was comedic before this should be expected. In fact the whole “I am the dark lord” who comes out of virtually no where with little build up getting their ass kicked in a few seconds is a fairly common subversion trope in this type of situation.
meh, Juggernaut has lost to Squirrel Girl. (Heck, Galactus has lost to Squirrel Girl)
Well juggernaut could beat the hulk.
or match his strength leading to a draw.
this here was just a (supposedly strong villain) getting KO’ed by the first move.
where as vehemence was a difficult fight.
My thoughts on this moment went to weird places.
1)Seismologists freaking out over the impact tremors that must have caused.
2)How much land just got destroyed/displaced?
3)The amount of particulate in the air would make it sooo hard to breath.
Seismologists to 911: “Massive localized earthquake over there!!!”
911: “Ok, we’ll look into it.”
Archon (software monitoring 911): “Hey, it’s just some of our crew, we’ll take this one”
Thothogoth does look like Beaker there, and in panel 8 Sydney looks like All Might.
Cool, you just declared war on HELL. At least your pride is intact Max. That’s what’s truly important.
What I’m curious about is the pact. Knowing Dabbler, Tom is probably 100% in the right and she’s using Maxima to avoid paying.
Salvation War, Grrlpower Universe Style.
“When all hell breaks loose on Earth, all Earth breaks loose on Hell.”
You mean, after they already declared their intent on invading Dirt?
…and if that’s the case, knowing Maxima, she’ll just let Dabbler screw Tom over because Dabbler is useful.
What about the finger hold from kung-fu panda?
Sk-doosh.
I Don’t think Tom is Done…
No Way he is going to Win,
But he isn’t Done Yet…
Am I the only one that thinks “Thothogoth” sounds like someone saying “So So Goth” with a lisp?
I’ve been pronouncing it like Thaw-thuh-Goth, but I’m willing to be proven wrong by Word of DaveB.
About 1/3 of the time I imagine it rhyming with “Shoggoth” but I expect there’d have been a second g if that were the intended pronunciation.
I’m with you on the apparent lisp, but to me it ‘sounds’ like Sausages.
At this point Thothogoth knows a few things.
1. This woman could have continued to attack, but stopped the instant his contact/provocation was removed.
2. She is still being calm and inviting him to cooperate, rather than losing her shit and raging at him.
Now, if he’s a little bit smart he can infer a couple of other things.
3. So being calm and inviting cooperation to start with wasn’t sarcasm, scorn, spite, or bluff to start with.
4. In fact it’s not even personal. She acts like someone who’s just doing her job.
If he’s got the classic ‘ego the size of a planet’ he may be offended, or at least disappointed, that there are people to whom his arrival can be seen as ‘just another day on the job.’ If he feels that he has something to prove about being more important than that – and wants to prove it by doing harm – then … then maybe he’s a slow learner, or maybe Max just made a mistake by allowing him to live when his guard was down. One or the other.
Doesnt exactly sound as fun though for a superhero battle. :)
Who said this was a battle?
It’s Dabbler talking to her ex.
Well… it’s set up to be a battle because Thothogoth was one of the boss level villains on the big splash page on Comic #186.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-186-fingers-to-maximum-steepleage/
So far, the boss villains we’ve seen have been Vehemence (obviously) and the vampires (although they are basically stand-ins for the REAL boss level villain – Sciona). And now Thothogoth, who is either a boss level villain himself, or works FOR a boss level villain, which is a possibility since he’s ‘second in command’ meaning there’s a ‘leader’ above him.
Was it a battle the first time they met the one on the bottom of that page?
No.
Not every villian needs to be defeated with violence.
“Was it a battle the first time they met the one on the bottom of that page?”
How do you think battles start. Do you think people meet and immediately just start a freeforall fight?
Your argument makes no sense.
“Not every villian needs to be defeated with violence.”
You’re saying this LITERALLY after Thothogoth looks like he might have been defeated with violence by Maxima.
I feel like this is going to be like past times you’ve had ‘arguments’ where you just post without reading my posts or arguments. Which is going to probably lead to my ignoring you again if you start on tangents or repeating stuff that I’ve already answered, but lets see if my prediction about you is correct.
Wow, you missed someone calling Deus a villian.
You’re slipping.
Could be that the size thing was done in a manner that’s similar to what they do on Attack on Titan. That has similar sized giants, or bigger made through some sort of suddo science magic.
You know all three of them perched on his brow is a prime target for incinerating all three of them at once with a eye beam.
Three marry sue’s gone in one shot.
they aren’t Mary Sues, and this isn’t jumping the shark.
both of these require actions and characters that don’t fit into the established story and setting, and using them erroneously just comes across as “I don’t like this”.
Three of him on his brow, prime target for eye beam. Let’s see.. Reflects off shiny Maxima back where it came from. Mystic spells protect Dabbler. Sydney? She is holding something in her other hand. Force field, with energy tentacle floating in front of her head?
You need to learn what “Mary Sue” means, jackass.
All of the people you just called them are well-developed characters with backstories and HOW they got their powers, AND that they screwed up. a lot.
A Mary Sue is someone who just is instantly awesome at something, has NO backstory, and is an utterly flat character. Rey from the Sequel trilogy is a Mary Sue. Maxima, Sydney and Dabbler are FAR from such.
I know there are a lot of competing definitions for Mary Sue, but my contention is that the common quality has nothing to do with the character themselves, but with how the rest of the work responds to them. It’s when either the character’s properties or the way the other characters react to their behavior aren’t justified by the story that makes a character a Mary Sue. They have properties that aren’t relevant to the story, just to appeal to the author or the audience. The rest of the cast treats them differently, excuses bad behavior, or glorifies them without reason. They operate under a different set of rules.
Can I toss in one of my favorite G.K.Chesterton quotes:
“Don’t you know that the calm of the army is the rage of the nation?”
Those final panels pleasantly remind me of the ending of A Knights Tale with Heath Ledger, one of my favorite movies XD
Same here. Not one of my FAVORITE movies (that title is reserved for Stargate, The Shawshank Redemption, and the Princess Bride), but definitely a good movie. :)
So, maybe Thothogoth’s reply on waking up should have been “Inconceivable!”
Different movie :)
You’re thinking Princess Bride with Cary Elwes (Wesley/Dread Pirate Roberts), Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya), Wallace Shawn (Vizzini, who says ‘Inconceivable’), Billy Crystal (Miracle Max), Chris Sarandon (Humperdink), Fred Savage, Peter Falk, Robin Wright (Buttercup), and Andre the Giant (Fezzik).
A Knight’s Tale was with Heath Ledger, Shanyn Sossamon, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany, Mark Addy, Laura Fraser, and Alan Tydyk.
I’m pretty sure I missed some people but when i’m on the phone I can’t easily check stuff like imdb and have to rely on memory.
DaveB: “I guess my exponential-math-in-my-head-cortex is out of whack.”
Well THERE’S your problem. It’s a cubic function, not an exponential one.
…..
MATH PEDANT MAN AWAY!
I believe a cubic function IS exponential mathactually. To cube is to raise by an exponent of 3.
Yeah, but do your Exponents Dance?
The video is sadly unavailable so now I am dying to know what the video was.
In the meantime, here’s a cartoon on exponential functions. If you’re into math then… it’s probably still not very funny but it’s a good try!
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aV0rOA2_460s.jpg
It’s a song by a little band calling themselves “The Dance Exponents” (they dropped the ‘Dance’ part of their name, like ‘Jefferson Airplane/Starship’ did), called “I’ll Say Goodbye (Even Though I’m Blue)”
Ok I just found the song and listened ot it. Okay song, not really math-related tho, aside from the band’s name.
Technically there’s an exponent in there, but it’s a constant exponent. We don’t call it an exponential function unless the exponent is variable. This here is a power function, not an exponential function.
Not every function with an exponent in it is an exponential function. 3x is exponential. x3 is not.
Ummmm i think exponential is stuff like ‘to the third power’ (ie, cubed) rather than x3 or 3x. Neither 3x nor x3 is exponential
Exponential = a quantity representing the power to which a given number or expression is to be raised, usually expressed as a raised symbol beside the number or expression
Exponents are usually shown as ^2 (squared), ^3 (cubed), ^4, etc.
The reason that ^3 is exponential is because the amount of increase itself will get larger with each additional increase. If it was just x3 alone then it would not be exponential.
3×3=9
9×3=27
27×3=81
The increase each time is just x3
On the other hand:
3^3=3x3X3=27
9^3=9x9x9=729
729^3=729x729x729=387,420,489
The square cube law is exponential growth because the VOLUME increases at an exponential rate (length x width x height) compared to the increase of the surface area. X3 for surface = ^3 for volume
Argh, my formatting got stripped. I wasn’t sure that you’d understand the ^ notation, so I tried a superscript, but it didn’t survive. 3^x is an exponential function, while x^3 is just a power function. Here’s a comparison. Even though they both rise very quickly, they behave very differently, particularly in the negative.
Okay…. 3^x is a lot different than 3x, so hopefully you understand why I wrote all that in response to what you initially wrote.
Yes, I know what ^ means. :)
Also the x being unknown does not mean that a ^3 is not also an exponent. At least according to the definition of exponent in mathematics.
Exponent = a quantity representing the power to which a given number or expression is to be raised, usually expressed as a raised symbol beside the number or expression
Both ^3 and ^x fit this definition. Think about it like this. If I then define x=3, does that suddenly make ^x no longer an example of exponential growth? No.
Yes, x^3 is a function with an exponent in it. But not all functions with exponents are exponential functions. You need the independent variable to be the exponent of a constant base for it to be exponential. An exponential function is of the form a*b^x, where x is our independent variable and a and b are constants. (If someone’s talking about THE exponential function, that’s e^x, where e is Euler’s Number.) But if it’s instead of the form a*x^b, that’s a power function, not an exponential function.
I knew there was a reason I went into law instead of math.
In any case when i’m talking about exponential growth of volume vs size in the square cube law, the ‘exponent’ in question is ‘cubing’ (^3) :)
We seem to be focusing more on the ‘function’ part than the ‘exponential’ part for some reason.
I absolutely LOVE that his first response isn’t wounded pride or rage, but rather shock at confusion about the physics of what just went down; This is my exact reaction to getting wrecked on the mat/ring/field when I thought I was golden
Yep, ain’t it humbling to suddenly find out you are NOT the biggest and baddest guy in the area?
Good thing for Tom that Max already worked off some frustration, huh?
Could that be young Thothogoth at the far left of panel four of page 311?
Yes it is.
Nah, that is Thoth Senior
Why do you think that?
They’re talking about the guy on the Far left, not the guy in the middle.