Grrl Power #99 – This is how you tug on Maxima’s cape
Dabbler obviously enjoys pushing Maxima’s buttons, but in her defense, Max’s buttons are pretty easy to push if you know what you’re doing. There’s obviously some history here. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to work that into the story. At the rate the pages go up, I don’t want to bog stuff down with back stories, even though I think they’re interesting, they’re maybe not quite as funny as the regular comic.
Some of you might have been aware of #comfycon this weekend, especially if you hang out on Twitter. Basically a bunch of webcomicers that didn’t go to SDCC this year did panels via google hangouts/youtube streaming. I sat in on a few, and even figured out how to do one of my own, so I have a few videos up here, if you’re interested in a screencast of me drawing parts of this page. I say parts, cause there’s maybe a total of 3 hours of video and it took something like 12-14 to get the page done as usual. I make no claim that they are exciting videos in any way, I just wanted to make you aware of their existence in case you’ve got nothing else to do for a few hours.
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.
Dabbler is better at aggravating Max than Syd? That won’t do, no, not at all. And I doubt its a coincidence that Dabbler’s ribbon around her neck was only showing XXX for her symbol.
to be fair Sydney has only been there a short amount of time. Maxima has yet to truly experience the aggravating force that is “Sydney”
Don’t forget Maxima is in an I like and am amused by Sydney mood at the moment. And Sydney is also an equal opportunity aggravaterat the moment. Also their is someone who seems to Syd to more strait-laced than Maxima in the room(and may well be) – Ariana.
Now as things develop this might change. But it seems that Sydney for Maxima hits that strange mix of annoying and likeable. Soemtimes very to annoying and sometimes to likeable.
I hope Sydney and Dabbler team up to annoy Max. That has all sorts of potential.
Well…if you think about it. Dabbler is actually trying to push Maxima’s buttons….Sydney…on the other hand….doesn’t even know she’s doing it. XD Imagine if she actually tried.
I foresee Sidney and Dabbler becoming good friends. At least on the annoying Maxima front.
Erm. Dabbler’s a sexy beast?
Yes, yes she is.
That´s kind of the purpose of a Succubus.
I should have capitalized ‘beast’. Think gender bender X-men character.
I think you might be confusing Beast with Mystique. Beast isn’t a gender bender, he’s a blue furry guy with a genuis intellect.
I think he/she meant gender bent X-men character. Google it. I believe it’s known as rule 63.
I know the rule, I didn’t get that from what he said if he said (a gender bent version of Beast), I thought he meant Beast was a gender bender. which was just ??? to me.
I think he’s refrencing Austin Powers myself.
It makes more sense that way.
I thought it was Dr. Frankfurter who is a gender bender not Beast or Mystique.
…never mind.
i see Syd’s expecting ninja again in frame 2
and judging from that orb’s dropping in frame 7, Dabbler’s managed to surprise Syd
no, but probably just getting ready for possible phone shrapnel…
I’d be reaching for the force field too if someone who could piss off Max was coming.
Not to pick nits or anything, but you sure you didn’t forget some anatomy there?
I hope not, where do you mean?
Probably the 4-boob/2-boob confusion.
The only anatomy I noticed Dabbler “missing” was her philtrum. That’s okay, having it missing gives a sense of something weird, alien, and unsettling, without hitting the viewer over the head with it.
I looked back at the older comics and could not find any updates with dabbler having 4 boobs. I could only find it in the profile page. So I am thinking the profile page is wrong.
More likely then not Dave originally wanted her to have 4 boobs but when making the comic he made her with 2 boobs to make it easier to drew.
Its from another comic, Wereworld. Dave’s Dabbler was used in that comic too, and in it she as four boobs.
There! Are! Four! Boobs!
(or at least there shoul be)
That part has already been addressed. Too much trouble and it didn’t look right so only two breasts which is fine with me. No boob here.
Oh, hey, I found another thing missing, though not anatomy. Dabbler’s choker in the comic has XXX. Dabbler’s choker pattern in the Who’s Who shows XXXX.
The three X’s butt up against the edge of visible territory on the choker, last one could be around the curve.
^ This
Sorry, one other thing I just noticed missing. Arianna has a line in the strip, but she’s missing from the Who’s Who.
…aaaand, if you are going to be fixing the Who’s who, you should know that “bizarre” is spelled wrong in Harem’s text.
Words, the artist’s natural enemy.
If DaveB ever put an issue with no mistakes, the first comment will be along the lines of “OK! who are you and what have you done with the real DaveB”
Er, as to the anatomy question – Dabbler’s eyes seem to change color. In one header they were gold, while they were green in the comic. but when my screen reloaded for this comment, they were green in the header. Are they changeable? (‘Yes’ is the easy answer….(c8………)
No, they’re blue and green (the blue one is cybernetic). The picture in the header with the gold eyes is super old, like from 2000 I think.
drat, and here I was thinking you were sneakily implying she was a chromamorph.
First 8 times I read Dabbler’s profile, I thought it said “AD&D Genius”
So much for superheroes playing D&D, finally read it correctly XD
who said super’s can’t play DnD? Syd was doing quite well in issue 1
Sidney was not playing D&D, she was playing either DC Heroes or its offshoot (somewhat improved) Blood of Heroes.
Yeah, so, I’m a nerd, sue me?
According to Dave it was DC Heroes, I don’t think he has much exposure to the Blood of Heroes (aka “Pulsar MEGS”) version. Just so I am not confusing anyone, MEGS refers to the game system used in DC Heroes, which was called the Mayfair Exponential Game System.
Well, Maxima mentioned Ioun Stones…
We do have technology for flexible electronics. Couldn’t Dabbler take it a step or two further and make a rubber/plastic stress ball phone for max?
Or a model equipped with self-repair nanites at least?
It would be funnier if it had a self-defense option. :)
I vote for this option. It’d be even funnier if the phone had an AI with a snide british accent.
“Oh Bother. You went and broke my specially calibrated, uniquely polarized, and hideously expensive touch screen. Again. (sigh) I’ll contact master lloyd for a replacement.
“Meanwhile take this mild electric to remind you not to take your misplaced anger out on me!” As it shunts the full battery load into the metal casing.
Better yet, give em the Buckley person, as with the PDA-AI’s in The Aldenata series by John Ringo… it knows it will always end badly and with maxima in possession and her compatriots, it’s guaranteed.
Or more appropriately Marvin the paranoid android from the Hitchhikers series. “This will all end in tears I just know it.”
some one invent that red bubble wrap form red dwarf, give it to max, it’ll save a fortune in phones
After watching Red Dwarf, I ask you what words reverbrate through your consiousness?
Gazspacho soup
While Dabbler’s at it, perhaps she could include a Faraday-Coil, so that any squeezing/crushing would generate the electric power that recharges the phone’s battery? Put some of that frustration to good use!
the pcb could be replaced with flexible materials & conductive polymers.
just about everything baring mechanical switches & IC chips can be made of flexible material as far as i know.
even batteries
The next page will be #100! Congratulations Dave!
I can’t wait to see Sydney’s reaction to Dabbler. :)
99 pages — this has got to be the longest Tuesday ever!
Congratulations Dave. Your art continues to improve and you’ve managed to gather quite a following
#100 on my birthday? That’s just cool.
Max’s weakness; annoying people. She would kill me in two seconds.
Look on the bright side!… you wouldn’t be annoying anymore!!
Panel 6 Trollface
I think you mean pannel five.
No…panel six. Harem’s troll face. Panel five is Maxima’s RAEG face.
So, that’s what that look was. I thought she was feeling gassy for some reason.
I would note that if Maxima were to be issued the Nokia 3310, she could also use it as an improvised weapon, breaching tool, sledgehammer, surface-to-air missile…
Colonel Maximilla “Sexy” Leadnder – putting the Grr in Grrl Power!
Leander that should be – still, what would Grrl Power be without the typo’s? :)
Dave, maybe do what Erfworld does and post twice weekly, once a graphical post, the main story and once a text based background section?
I don’t think I’m good enough at prose to write story like that. I want it to be in the comic, I’d just like to find a way to insert the backstories in a way that doesn’t bog down the main story. I don’t see that really happening though. Dabbler’s backstory should be fairly amusing and not too long. Peggy’s is kind of dire though. It’s really a different flavor from the main comic.
You could make the back story’s an extra. That way you could take you’re time and wouldn’t affect the main story.
Prose is the sort of stuff I’m good at.
If you really wanted to, I might be able to do something to help after I get one of my collab projects out of the way.
Wow, we jumped from 6 back up to 4 on TWC. I really appreciate the votes guys!
There’s something in my brain that keeps wanting to read TWC as TWA. And they disappeared in 2001! Still, I’ll keep voting as hard as i can.
You said you wanted to do a back story on the characters.Why not make them the voting incentive.Unlike the comic you wouldn’t need to stay on a time frame,just post a new one when you feel like it.
Panel 2, Dabbler’s comment, that made me laugh out loud.
Also, looking at Sydney there in the last panel, can she just “summon” an orb to be where she can grab it?
This will be answered definitively on the next page.
Also, Hey! Next week is number 100!!
Yep! And usually a milestone like that warrants something special, so maybe Dave will treat us to a reveal or. . .
Yeah I’d like to do some kind of big splash or… I don’t know, wallpapers or something, but I think I’d rather just do a regular page since I don’t have time to do both really.
Wallpapers! Wallpapers!
I love getting desktop patterns, and I don’t have any to honor this comic.
I have his Always Expect Ninjas as my wallpaper.
I really like the history, so please keep it in there. The pages taking so long won’t matter soon enough, because you’ll get better at art and the pages will go up faster. And even if they continue at this pace we still don’t care because the story’s engaging.
just a little note for background:
Dabbler has either a phone cybernetic implant or a phone in her choker or in her earrings.
Right.
What´s up with that?
I think modern technology has progressed far enough to incorporate a whole Radio into such a choker, not ONLY the throat mike, so why is Max using… a phone?!?!
Shouldn´t that be a radio?
Obviously the punchline wouldn´t wor otherwise, but that is not consistent with… well anything, i guess.
Of course tech has progressed that far so you can fit a radio into a choker. You could fit a couple of thousand radios on a stamp (but the headphone connectors would be harder to fit. However, using that radio for other things than hot missions with predetermined channels, cryptocodes etc would require more skill than it’s worth giving everyone. While a phone, everyone is already pretrained to use in todays society. So, according to the KISS principle, Maxima uses a phone, which has the added advantage over the choker-radio of being able to call people outside her chain of command too. So in short, no, she should definitely not be using her choker-communicator when a phone works just as well.
With the added benefit that a handset is far more readily replaced than a custom throat-radio whenever someone aggravates Maxima.
Cause honestly I hadn’t established that the chokers were also throat mics the first time she used her phone. They have phones anyway for maps/GPS and other functions, so they can use either to call each other and this scene made more sense if Dabbler was on speakerphone.
Oh, right.
I still think phones are used mainly to call someone, not to coordinate global invasions…
I´m REALLY getting old. :/
Remember Dabbler’s cyborg arm mentionned in her bio? That’s should be where that kind of functionality is. Assuming she’s not using genetically engineered radio abilities, psionic radio powers, techno-magic radio, alien powers, or a succubus power to tap/talk into nearby conversations that sound naughty.
Plus intercom / hands off phone system near the TV would work, but oh COME ON this is Dabbler! She can probably ‘McGyver’ a phone out of a pile of electronic junk, hide it in her hair, and have hot sex at the same time without the other woman noticing (while the men would be too succubed up to notice or care).
I can’t help thinking that a tinkerer character would fit it well with this group. You know the type who can fix a car with pantyhose or wiggle a card in your cable box to get premium channels. Someone who can take the most sophisticated new tech apart figure out how it works and put it back together with stuff from his/her pockets.
Macgyver?
Not really more like the kid who takes apart a clock just to see how it runs smart but not disciplined great with hardware but not software or people. Not interested in theory just practical applications. He would take lab courses without the accompanying basic course. He could (with access to a working model) build a fusion reactor but not be able to tell you why it works. Like Kaylee times 10.
Read Dabblers profile. She is a tinkerer type.
If you get the chance read WereWorld, You’ll see what she’s capable of in that comic.
I wish they would update more often. It seems like they update once a month lately.
Dabbler’s the Field Tech I believe.
Rather weird that in the last panel Maxima suddenly has turned 180 degrees
Not necessarily. Looking at the background in the preceding panels with Max, I am pretty sure she is changing facing as she talks, and may even be pacing around somewhat. As people talking on a mobile often do if there is nothing “holding” them in one spot.
… ESPECIALLY if they are contending with Harem / Dabbler / Sydney levels of aggravation.
I think that’s the reason Sydney summoned the sheild orb.
Even a small tap by Maxima could send you flying or break something.
Check the way Maxima’s hair is moving in panel 2. She spun suddenly, provoking Sydney’s “ninjas!” reaction.
Yeah she whips around in panel 2. I need to work on my sense of motion. Speed lines, here we come! :)
This is also why Sydney suddenly went from being on Max’s left to being on her right. Also notice the curtains behind Max in panel 2. In panel 1, the curtains are in front of Max. Logic says that Max must have turned around, possibly faster than the eye can follow; she can be that fast.
I feel a certain sympathy for the General regarding phone issuance. While it makes perfect sense to have Leon keep a stock of spares complete with backup SIM cards in his desk, Supers being hard on their gear and all, losing two in one day to simple aggravation is expensive!
Taking the cost of phone-replacement out of Maxima’s salary might be a needed disciplinary step…
…but she might feel that it’s worth the cost of all those phones, just to vent without killing/maiming someone.
—
As for the “Dabbler/Sydney” contest for the title of [Aggravates Maxima Most], I think it’s apples-&-oranges, because Dabbler has the IQ to zero-in on Maxima’s buttons & play her like a fiddle, whereas Sydney is the “Dark Horse”, with such randomness that Maxima will be *VERY* hard-pressed to shield herself from it. They represent such differing styles that there’s really no point in comparing them.
—
I’d be far more intrigued by the question of whether Dabbler annoys Sydney more than Sydney annoys Dabbler. That sounds like a competition that has much potential for slapstick, & “collateral damages” (consider a recent example on Pg.97, where Math toppled Anvil onto Dabbler & Harem/Thing#1).
Who says Dabbler and Sydney wouldn’t be delighted at each other’s cheesy puns on a permanent basis? LOL
Dave B – some questions about the shield sphere.
Can Sydney decide where that shield bubble appears? i.e. can she enclose something other than herself? If so, maybe a limit on the range would be a good idea.
I think that it would be funny Sydney decided to put it up around Maxima, as damage control, for example.
Perhaps one of the Harems, or could she Harem thru it? Which raises its own questions; what else can go thru the shield ( https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/55 ).
It could be an easy way to capture / transport villains. The potential for comedy is vast: team mates arguing? put em on the shelf… literally.
Or keeping Math in line. No martial art move could help him with that.
True.
The shield is centered around the orb/Sydney, she can’t encapsulate others with it. As to the answer to other questions, I’ll reveal those in time.
There’s always the need to balance the humor potential in a scene with dangerously overpowering a hero. I’m one of those guys that will sit around talking about all the stuff they should be able to do in Star Trek if they used Transporters and Replicators intelligently. I mean really, why isn’t there a Data on every starship?
I know I’m creating writing problems for myself by making Maxima as powerful as she is, and believe me you guys have only seen a fraction of what she can do, to the point that unfortunately I may have to write her out of a lot of scenes (Where’s Max? / She’s at a budget meeting in DC / etc) either that or come up with antagonists that can specifically deal with her, but I don’t want to do that with Sydney, so I need to make sure she’s not overpowered. Her “only 2 powers at a time” limitation helps ensure that.
When I think about the “dangerously overpowering a hero”-problem, I remember the original DC-version of “The Spectre”. A perfect example of how a character with too much power ruins the ability to create consistent dramatic tension month-after-month, & thus loses your audience.
Goku
focus enough on the character, their personality, relationships with family and friends, and you could make them insanely overpowered *granted it does help he is surrounded by other characters who are also insanely overpowered*
Lina Inverse (her real weakness is her spells go from blow a tree apart to blow a mountain apart with little middle ground) plus technically human in body despite her above normal strength especially for her size.
I find the over-power problem exists more in the comic book settings, put them in a more sci-fi or fantasy setting and sometimes being overpowered means little, especially if you can create some psychological limitations. One of my big worries for my book series is that Rhulan the sorceress may be overpowered, granted physically she is weaker than the big baddies, her magic trumps most things out there, but she also has some major mental hang-ups and may be a tad…loopy, not to mention that she doesn’t want to harm her comrades (especially Hollia) so going all out in battle could harm them with the backwash of the energy. (got the idea from Tenchi Muyo OVA 1) Washu pointed out that Ryoko was holding back in her fight with Kagato because the amount of energy it would take for her to have killed Kagato outright would have endangered or killed Ayeka as well who was in the same room as her.
Tenchi Muyo has some seriously over-powered characters, and its focus is mostly slice of life so you easily forget until the time comes that Ryoko could blow up the planet, or Sasami is the human form of Tsunami (who we go from learning is some ancient space-ship avatar to one of the goddesses that created the multi-verse, and so was Washu as it turned out in OVA 3).
She doesn’t have to be that powerful, you could always lower the amount of power she has now before you’ve shown it and make the story say she has always been that powerful despite what you had thought in your head
That’s true. She has barely used her powers at all, but I think I have enough ways to keep her under control, in terms of situations and opponents.
You could still give limits to Maxima. Such as the more power she uses the more dangerous she is from emitting radiation. And she runs the risk of frying her own self on overload. Must have some kind of weakness.
And while we are asking power questions…Can Maxima change her relative hardness and/or malleability so that she can interact with everyday things like a normal human would? If all of her skin was constantly as hard and resillient as her face was when Sydney punched her, she would find many of the tasks we take for granted very difficult, especially if she doesn’t want to avoid damaging the world as she walks through it.
Opening a door is one thing that would be hard with skin that is not deformable by a doorknob. Any sort of flesh-to-flesh contact with another person would also be unsatisfying, and dangerous to the other person. Even eating with utensils would be tricky if the fork conforms to your fingers instead of vice-versa.
All this sort of raises a question for me (though it’ll probably be revealed later in the strip): In back stories, Max & Peggy met when both were laid up with injuries… What could possibly have hurt Max sufficiently to put her in the hospital long enough to interact with somebody? Nuclear explosion? Tripped and fell into a volcano? Meteor strike?
Yeah I really want to tell that story but it’ll take quite a few pages to get through it even if I keep it to the basics, and very little about their meeting is hah hah funny. Not sure what I’m going to do with that. Maybe I could hire someone else to ink and color it and I could run it in parallel with the regular strip.
As for what could injure Max, what about: Anti-tank mine while she is focused on running speed; or an RPG direct hit while she is flying by subsonicly?
Yeah she can. At her ‘rest state’ she walks around with straight Incredibles, if you’re familiar with the Marvel RPG system. If you’re not, then that’s about Spiderman level strength, she can shrug off 5.65 or even 7.62 rounds, and her reflexes are, well, not Spiderman level, but they’re good enough to react to someone pulling a gun or throwing a punch. There are definitely times where she’ll drop her armor or strength down to human levels, like when she’s crawling into bed. After she falls asleep she reverts back to her ‘rest state’ so trying to assassinate her while she’s sleeping, or putting shaving cream on her hand then tickling her nose are both bad ideas.
The Marvel system was cool, at least the original one was, I don’t know about new editions.
I realize that if you over-analyze superpowers, contradictions eventually surface and the whole plausibility bubble ruptures, but I’ll pose one more question anyhow.
So if Maxima dials down her armor so that she can, for example, shoot pool or have a romantic rendezvous, wouldn’t she be vulnerable as a normal person to a sniper round or a club to the back of the head? Is she in danger every time she uses the toilet? The alternative is to be consciously only affecting the levels of the specific areas of her that need to be powered down, which can be tricky to do if you are touching you can’t see, like sitting on a wooden chair.
In the DC_Universe (before the classic retcon: “Crisis On Infinite Earths”), Barry Allan (“The Flash”) was at a movie theater when he realized that something was wrong…
…the film’s sound-track was “off”, & there was a burning sensation in his neck…
…turns out, a sniper had sprayed the audience with heavy machine-gun fire from the projection booth, & Barry had shifted into high-speed mode without even a thought. It wasn’t because he heard something, but because he was sitting in the back, & he was the first to catch a bullet. That hot sensation was the bullet pressed against his neck, but not yet advanced enough to penetrate the skin.
—
My point is that Maxima’s reflexes (& not her recon-skills) may be her best defense against sniper attacks.
this talk reminds me of an issue I have with one of my own concepts, the Defense Aura. Originally came up with it to explain a fantasy setting where sword strikes and bullets and such could hit someone and cause less and less damage to a stronger and stronger opponent (like the RPG leveling up system), the conclussion was a skin tight forcefield type deal that activates in battle.
But I contemplated that this barrier couldn’t be up all the time, so do I make it so it only works when they will it like any special technique, can it activate by reflex if they detect something dangerous, can the subconcious activate it, ect…
Yeah Maxima is a little paranoid about stuff like that, so she certainly doesn’t advertise when she’s lowering her armor. When she does that she keeps her reflexes high and only keeps it that way for a little while.
I would worry about her sleeping habits.
She was in Afganastan after all. With her powers a bad dream could cause all sorts of damage.
heh, Sleep walking Juggernaut.
Plus she can shoot energy beams from her hands. Got to wonder if she ever blew anything up while just reaching for it accidentaly.
I think Dabbler would have certain issues with her partners. Sure, it seems all nice with four-armed hugs, 4/2 boobs, etc. But those horns look dangerous and poorly located. Tackle hug? Lose an eye. Head turned the wrong way for a kiss? Lose an eye. Shift in bed? Lose an eye.
Yeah, but think of the steering!
Something tells me SHE’s the the one that keeps control of that ship’s rudder. ;)
I just noticed this and I hope Im not the only one.
HAREM FINALY GOT HER DRINK!!!!
You´re right!
Yay for Harem!!!
She gave up cans, though.
Apparently her foreshadowy drink choices only extend to soda.
Only problem is those juice boxes when acidentaly squeezed suddenly can go up your nasal pasages very easily.
Hint to DaveB for further fun with Harem.
I’ll put a few Moxana points up for what’s going to happen next: Dabbler, knowing it’s a minimum security area needs to be in disguise in case some non-cleared people are in the area (right NOW, that would be Sydney) so when Dave has her show up, none of us are going to recognize her… she’ll be looking like an ordinary human… Sydney will start explaining the functions of the orbs, and then when she gets to the 2 we don’t know anything about… heh, heh, heh… I’ll bet… that one of those two orbs will allow Sydney to see thru Dabbler’s disguise, and all heck will break loose as she goes all “Expecting Ninjas” and babbling about aliens or demons…. all the while Max and Dabbler, and everyone else is trying to do the equivalent of the Jedi mind trick “there are NO Aliens here, go about your business”…. and it fails miserably… finally they give up and invite her into the club… thus, it comes full circle back to the first comic… well, give or take a few RPG Game sessions…
yep, I brought that up in a few strips. On the list of powers you wouldn’t know you had unless just the right circumstances arrived.
Seeing through illusions. Think of (El-Hazard *OVA*) everyone from Earth had super-powers, only one of them had painfully obvious ones (gym teacher with super strength and speed and such), the girl had the power to see through illusions, but no one knew not even her till one of the blue elf people (who have illusion spells to disguise themselves) showed up to assasinate the princess and she off handedly mentioned his blue skin (no one else was acting weird about this person, and she had no idea he was even diguised).
I was reading some of the comments above and noticed the ones about Dabbler and “balls” (her seeing Syd’s balls/orbs and then the idea of Dabbler giving Max a stress ball) and I thought: ‘This is a sucubus we’re talking about, other than “the danglers” what kind of balls would she be interested in?’ That’s when a bit of dialogue hit me.
Picture this scene.
Dabbler is on her way and Max, thinking ahead how Syd might react to her, warns Syd. As a result when Dabbler enters the room and meets Syd Syd does remain calm. . . It is Dabbler who spazzes out!
The first thing she sees when she turns to face Syd are the orbs and Dabbler’s reaction is totally and completely “Sydneyish.” She jumps back and strikes Syd’s *always expect ninjas* pose and with a facial expression of surprize and fear exclaims “Holy Flying Ben Wa Balls!”
Then in the next panel she’s still holding the pose but now her expression is one of sheepish realization that everyone is staring at her and she’s lost serious amounts of cool points.
If we’re gonna imagine Dabbler “spazzing-out”, then I’d be imagining her seeing those ORBS & getting all “chibi-eyed” with:
“O!!! M!!! G!!! – How do they work??? Where do I get some??? Can I play with them??? Gimmee-gimmee-gimmee-gimmee!!!”
…& totally forgetting to maintain her human/illusion, so of course Sydney freaks at the sight of her, chaos ensues…
(…heavy sigh…)
…Good Times.
Sorry to double-post, but after I hit [Submit] it occurred to me to ask:
“What if the ORBS have an unintended effect on Dabbler, similar to catnip on a feline?”
What “flavor” of chaos (=”audience amusement”) might we harvest from this?
Also, last night I came up with a comeback line for Syd.
After Dabbler says “Holy Flying Ben Wa Balls!” Syd plucks two orbs out of her halo and inspects them for size, them she sizes up Dabbler, coming to a conclusion Syd then gives Dabbler a :-/ look and says “If you’re loose enough to fit these, sucs-to-be-U-bus.”
No doubt there will be trouble from all this.
Yes having an all powerful character causes problems. Just look at the cartoon “Shazzan” he is an all powerful genie. The writers had to do all kinds of things to make it harder for Chuck and Nancy since Shazzan was summoned by the two halves of the ring together and shout his name to bring him forth by the brother and sister. The writers came up with some interesting ways of making him not the unstoppable deus ex machina in every episode for a time in each episode. Why Superman had kryptonite, and couldn’t see through lead. I have a similar problem.
of course that also raises the reverse problem, (over abundant weakness), if your character is supposed to be insanely powerful, and only has a few weaknesses; it can be too tempting (especially for writers working with strict deadlines) to just jump to using those weaknesses. Someone at DC once said that at one point the sheer amount of Kryptonite floating about the DC universe was getting stupid; they even had common criminals with kryptonite bullets. They attempted a short term writing solution by having Super-man and the other heroes round up all the kryptonite they could and get rid of it.
Honestly I thought that making magic a weakness for him was enough, after all magic isn’t exactly rare in DC, and tech with magic like effects also exists, so plenty of weaknesses (it would help if they gave his personality more depth; but by the time they do a retcon occures) the perfect American…which changes depending on view. My image of SUper-man would never fly as there is some rule against Super-man being controversal *when they do it rubs people the wrong way and they have to turn heel*.
I would love to see/hear/read the background between those two. I think it would give the story more depth.
You said you were having some issues with worrying about backstory.
I have an idea, I’ve left it on your deviantart page and I’m awaiting a reply.
Hey, I responded finally.
HA. Definitely recognize that thing on Dazzler’s left ear *if you know what I mean*
And for the record? This is probably the best damn webcomic I’ve ever seen
An earring, or are you referring to the clip on top?
Clip thingie
…seems a bit pointless to hide the succubus from the newbies when you’ve got the golden-skinned purple-haired one making bank runs and granting interviews.
That WOULD make sense… except I can see hiding the succubus for entirely different reasons. it’s not about looking strange. for one thing, Maxima looks like a human… albeit a palate swap of one. Dabbler could be described as “inhuman” which could be bad for PR for a start. You could also outright terrify the general public into a witch hunt nevermind support for their organization if the first association they made with superpowered individuals was “Demon”
Imagine all the people who stun people with bible overload as their main passtime… discovering a demon… but OH BOY IT’S A SUCCUBUS! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!
“Corat damnit! I’m a fricking ALIEN you idiotic shaved chimpanzees!”
There’s also the possibility of a reverse situation and men and some women get in the way to try and get her attention for possible sexual reasons. That seems fine and dandy until you figure they become a hazard in the field and could cost their own and the team’s lives.
Think of the New Inquisition where they do burn people in North America. (No one was ever burned for being a witch, warlock nor werewolf here, unlike in Europe.)
No they were mostly just burned for being a hidden Jew, Muslim, scholar or Homosexual, untill around 1830. Witches in the new world were mostly tried and “ proven delusional. “
I honestly think the alien impact would be worse than the demon one. “Demon” you could play off as none-human native sentient life forms or descended from super-humans that had emerged millenia before and their interbreeding produced these races that the simpler more superstitious types labeled as monsters.
but open up the aliens can and all the conspiracy stuff, her being with a government agency, all comes flying out, with accusations of hiding them, wanting to know how many are amongst humanity, what the government gets out of it ect… despite the actual facts.
They’d do that with the Demon angle as well. Some people are just paranoid about EVERYTHING.
Okay, I think Dabbler is my new favorite character! xD And is Sydney floating the shield orb to her hand? Kind of liek a just in case if Maxima flips out? xD
seems like it. She might be crazy but she’s not insane
just found this comic a couple of nights ago. It is epicly funny! I must have more!
More should be coming Monday morning (depending on where in the world you are).
I want more……
NOW!
NOW!
now?
Welcome to the house that Dave built but beware of the archive binge – it will leave you with withdrawal symptoms.
We all know that one very very soon Maxima is gonna punch Sydney in her force-field-ball right through to Australia.
I’m not digging through 232 previous posts to see if anyone else has commented on this – sorry – but all those points sticking out from Dabbler’s head would kind of turn me off, much more so than the blue skin and the four arms. Even the ears aren’t that bad; John Varley’s TITAN trilogy covers the subject quite well with human centaurs. (Quite worth the read, by the way.) I don’t know if she can retract them, or if she puts foam on the points, but her thrashing around in the heat of passion with four bayonets near my eyes and face….. I dunno. I hope you address that at some point, Dave. I’d be curious to hear.
You must mean her four horns. Yes it seems if you want to have face-to-face you need to take precautions. Like foam covers on them. I can only imagine the size of the horns on the males of Dabbler’s species. Usually the males have the bigger horns to show off to the females. Dabbler’s look is fine, a bit complicated but nice. I don’t expect to have intimate relations with Dabbler any time soon so that isn’t a worry for me.
That’d depend on which species wouldn’t it? Dabbler’s a true space-American…a damn mutt! :P
“Mutts” rule except for the Eugenic minded who believe in “breeding.” She is her own species. Mixes make strength. Maybe one day in the far-far-far future we may catch a glimpse of Dabbler’s home and see the variety of color her species has.
Just going thru the posts on “this” page isn’t enough! Because you suggested it, I just spent a few hours REREADING ALL of the posts!!!
Didn’t find nothing.
Dam ADHD….
i know the next issue is due out tomorrow, but just had a thought, they’ve asked Dabbler to come up to see if she know anything about Sydney’s orbs… one look at the tentacle orb and whats the first thing she says “ooooo a sex toy”
I wonder if Dabbler will hit on Sydney, And if she would go with it to get under Maxima’s skin?
Just noticed this, but in the last panel, Sydney is reaching for her forcefield orb. Heh heh heh…