Grrl Power #1472 – Impaleus interruptus
Gosh guys, what could suddenly cause Ixah to rush off?
- My table at Vicente’s is ready!
- I have a roast in the oven!
- I left the curling iron on!
- I have to go bet more money that I’m about to stab this guy!
- My brother just went into labor! (Max doesn’t have a sister, so…)
- The warranty on this sword is about to expire!
- I could have had a V8! (Yes, I’m old.)
- There’s a tiny lizard on the sand behind you! Eek!
- Damn! I think I left my ear in the taxi! (See… cause Max is touching where her ear should be, but her disguise covers her ears completely with hair. Ah, yes. Jokes are always better when explained.)
You know, the number of comics I’ve titled “Something something interruptus” is like… well, it’s like 3 or 4 I think. But I guess that still kind of makes it my go to for titling a page when I’m stuck for something more poignant. Then again, a lot of pages do end in some sort of minor cliffhanger. I really wouldn’t even call something like this a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger implies there’s some significant wait before the action resolves. You can end a movie or a TV show or a novel or even an issue of a comic with a cliffhanger. But not on a page within a comic, or, in my opinion, the scene in a TV show right before you cut to commercial. I’m sure there’s a word for that, but I don’t think it qualifies as “cliffhanger,” especially when the season is available on DVD and viewers can watch the episode straight through. I mean, yeah, in this webcomic, there will be a 4 day delay until the next page, but any time after that, someone can just read straight through the archive and this page won’t have a bit of suspense.
Not that it really does, anyway. I think most of you can probably guess what’s going on.
Final version is up, both at TWC and Patreon.
Sexy bodymod news lady Gail has a special one-on-one interview with Tournament Quarter finalist Saraviah Nightwing! And if you subscribe to Gail’s Space Patreon, (which, due to the vagaries of Earth and Gal-Net’s DNS servers, happens to be the same as the Grrl Power Patreon, go figure) you can see that same interview in the nude!
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Is work calling?
We have a few “villains” who know she’s away (Deus, Sciona, Tom), Dungeon trouble was foreshadowed way back when, and Omar (the Nth mushroom-headed guy) is probably still wandering around on earth.
my money is on DOOSH.
just the kind of guy to hedge his bets and test a theory.
The “Nth mushroom-headed guy” has so far only been referred to as “Nthaniel”. Omar is a super, member of ARC-SPARQ, and Jiggawatt’s half-brother. I’m guessing you got confused by the blog on page 1407.
Oops, missed that!
I thought Nth guy was called Nthaniel? Either way, I don’t think he was actually ON Earth originally, he was just projecting his awareness there. But it’s possible in the time the tournament has gone in he either made his way there or sent some sort of Nth probe/forward research team to properly assess the situation.
It looks like work is calling her through the Harem grapvevine.
I guess someone in Galtyn or the anywhere else in the universe figured out she was off-planet and decided to test her response time?
Guess were calling the tournament arch early, oh well
Response might not interrupt the tournament. Is the rule no fighting outside the arena and no leaving the arena? Popping out to fight someone else might be permitted, like a convenience break.
Time limited ring out. This rule was tested by magical portal to a fairy dimension.
I forgot my date with Mr. Moustachio Firefighter EMT.
The hormone surge from the battle plus wielding a sword “enhanced” by Dabbler making her remember she left her boyfriend all blue-bally, would explain a sudden exodus. But not how Harem knew. Maybe Rowan has figured out who she is and is standing outside Archon headquarters in the rain with a boombox and bouquet of soggy flowers?
Harem knew because she is a world class voyeur. :)
Harem knew because she has a copy back on Earth who’s just been told by the General that Max has to get back now! Or at least that’s my guess.
HA worst best case scenario ever.
My guess is “doing that will cause the living explosion to ho nuclear”, so Maxima is running out of the blast radius.
Yeah, that’s my guess as well. Dude’s gonna blow.
Will magic guy catch a clue or just boggle till the blast wave hits?
Considering Harem spoke before Max received comms, I’m guessing some superhero stuff on earth
Fire up the Aetherium Causeway, Halo
Dabbler is watching the fight, so she probably deduced just how big an EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM Eat-Chicken is about to cause.
Dude’s gonna blow the hole planet, so she is stopping the other guy
Blue here literally wasting away waiting for this steak to reach his mouth for half an hour now
I bet it is a new steak each time.
you can see him chewing in the top-right panel
So, is that it for the tournament arc? Well, I’ve seen tournament arcs ending in worse ways.
I would guess that she somehow got a call from home and needs to intervene even if it throws the tournament bets into the sink?
Yea that’s the part that’s got me stuck: if a contestant leaves the field before the contest is over, we have to assume all the bets on that contestant are lost. And we have some serious bets, I think.
Meanwhile Einstein is trying to get our attention about the simultaneity problem, but his waving from the grave is futile when we’re trying to tell a crazy story. Who cares that this isn’t possible in our universe. Neither are superpowers. Go soak your head, Al.
Maybe if she’s only gone for thirty seconds, she can get away with it?
This makes me think of several things.
One is that an opponent is emotionally hurt when he’s in a fight and suddenly “you’re no longer of any importance” left alone.
The other one is a “top gear” level cliffhanger, like the ones with Richard Hammond.
“After the commercial you can see if i drown or not”
lol, just imagining the action bleeds into the commercial, and we see the actor fighting to keep from drowning in a bowl of marshmallow cereal, floating along holding a marshmallow like a life preserver
OMG, THE SUSPENCE, I CAN’T STAND IT!
(Something is wrong with Maxi’s sword, so she has gone to swap it out for another one.)
I mean, seriously, wait the whole weekend, again? Not like the good old days when I first started reading ☢️GRRLpower. It took months to catch up to the latest pages. Can I get some 3D-printed steak while we wait?
Pit Stop.
90 seconds to return to the match?
Is she out or just out of this round?
Can she catch up if she’s several laps behind?
Everything is single-elimination. If she’s out, she’s out.
If she stayed and finished this round for the intermediate payout it would take, what, a few extra minutes? But assuming this is some emergency back on Earth, it will still take some time before she can get to the ship, get Sydney through protests and questions (who as the person responsible for transport absolutely should be in on the comms here), open a causeway to somewhere on earth, then get from that opening to where ever she needs to be which could be on the opposite side of the planet.
And in-between all that, she needs to get out of her printed-on disguise, as well.
Earth does not have FTL communcations, so Harem is the “comm” in this case and Sydney is sitting right next to her.
Thats a clear case of a Harem interlink call, as in something is cooking way back home.
My guess would be something Dungeon related, since it was toyed with after all.
It also could be:
1. Evidence of Sconia still being around.
2. That interdimensional hatter might have called for a meet and … grind.
3. Stellar investigators started sniffing through earth orbit ( again ), as a follow up of “Do you know this blue powerhouse ?”
I guess that would work, but wouldn’t it have to be this Harem that’s on the couch relaying the message? They’re light-years away from Earth, and (correct me if I’m wrong) Harem’s psychic link with the other Harems is the only thing they have to overcome that speed of light communication barrier. The way it’s framed seems like Maxima’s getting a message at the same time, although Dave might just be not showing us that Harem’s getting up to go send the message.
That would be my guess; Harem received the news and messaged Maxima for it.
So we’ll likely see Halo gating Maxima back home.
She was planning to use a non-lethal sword that would knock the opponent out, but noticed it was set to “kill” instead of “stun” and is running across the galaxy to Xuriel real quick to reconfigure it
Me, I reckon that making Boom-boy go ‘even bigger boom’ would cause something like an EMP, knocking out Max’s disguise.
Diabetus? Did Sydney mispronounce “Diabetes” or is she coining a new word? Die-ya-beat-us?
You can thank the immortal Wilford Brimley for the grand pronunciation that is Die-ya-beat-us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6CeGgzaGSE
TEH BEETUS
Can I just say- GREAT forum name. Hail Eris, all hail Her What Done it All.
It’s a common mispronunciation, especially in specific regions of the US. Sydney seems likely exactly the type who would be make a joke of it.
Kinda like how so many people in the United States pronounce ‘nuclear’ as noo-kyoo-lar
Only one “U” in that word, Dubbya.
But his nickname is “double U”.
It’s a reference to Wilford Brimley, he famously mispronounced it over and over in several tv commercials in the early 2000’s as “diabeetus” in several ads for Liberty Medical.
But have you acquired your free diabeetus testing supplies?
‘Code Robotrek. Get Away from boom Kaiji#9.’
If it’s right before an ad, call it a curbhanger. Cuz it’s not such a big deal as a cliff.
“Work is calling” is the most likely reason first Harem, then Max would react like that. Something fixing to massively explode on the field would only be a minor inconvenience for Max: time enough to kill elf-ninja Boi first, then fly out range. That, or Eat Chicjen reached the threshold for a Frieza-level evolution and the universe is imperiled if Max doesn’t switch focus. Don’t know how Harem would realize that though.
What would YOU do for a Klondike bar?
I’d buy one
they are overrated
I’m thinking harem is beside dabbler atm and heard her just warned max explosion guy is gonna end up wiping the entire world away ending this stage of the competition.
RE: Kamboomoid going critical
“it’s gonna feel pretty [expletive] real to you too! Anybody not wearing two-million sunblock is gonna have a bad day. Get it?”
While Max will survive, her disguise outfit will not.
She just got a notice that there’s a table free at Dorsia
awwww shieet… gotta get back to E-arth (pronounced like the aliens in …. some movie? show? ) i bet doosh decided to test a theory. caught like a rat in a trap.
I’m guessing that Deus (covertly) instigated some sort of Earth emergency requiring Maxima’s presence, to stop her from ruining his bets.
Couldn’t Max just tank a nuke if that’s what it was?
or fly over the horizon (out of the arena, starting the clock ticking) and fly back before time’s up!
Perhaps: One of her allies bet on the ORDER that contestants will be eliminated (or some similar bet) and to make that come to pass.
Alternately: mountain kaiju, having had a leg chewed through, is about to topple, leaving even more seismic events and a mile-and-a-half toppling-tailing or pyroclastic flow…
Back in the day before Babylon 5 really introduced the idea of serialized storytelling in TV series to American audiences and nearly all TV series were “episodic” because you could never tell which order the episodes would be played once a series went into reruns or syndication we weren’t used to it when shows like Transformers or GI Joe would have multi-episode story arcs. Everyone DREADED those terrible three words “To be continued . . .” even when we were going to get the next episode the very next afternoon after school.
1960’s TV Batman had serial cliffhangers. It was a childhood trauma waiting for next week!
I never understood why fire elementals would be immune to fire. Resistant? Sure. But not immune.
I am made from meat, bone and acid. And I am pretty sure I am neither immune to meat, bone or acid. In fact my stomach needs a lining specifically so it doesn’t digest me.
A elemental is obviously different from a “mundane” version of that element. They are going to have some kind of “magic matrix”, “core” or the like. And while that one definitely has some serious heat resistance (same reason my stomach has acid resistance), that doesn’t it can’t still overheat or be disrutped.
Also there is degrees of immunity. Maxima can walk through fire, the one ring survives anything short of a volcano and a solar dragon can probably survive a bath in the sun. But I doubt Maxima can survive a volcano or sun bath.
They are immune to fire the same way an ocean is immune to water. All you’re doing is creating waves someone else gets to feel.
The link to the vote incentive hasn’t worked for over a month – can’t vote for the comic. Is Dave ok with this?
I don’t have any issue (just tried it)
Does this link also not work for you? It’s where the vote incentive should point.
https://www.topwebcomics.com/vote/11940
Tear in costume/disguise. That’s my guess. Harem spotted the gold, showing through the hole, and then Maxima felt it.
Anyone else concerned about the effect stabbing some dude might have on Max’s psyche?
No, she’s a soldier.
She’s absolutely stabbed some dude before.
That was in a war (politics, love of country, defeat the “bad guy”, etc.), not a contest she chose to enter to flex her muscles and make some money.
Also while we can assume she probably has a lot of kills under her belt from her military service, none of that occurred within the timeframe of this comic (barring the odd flashback or two? I forget.) I’m trying to remember if she’s ever straight-up killed anyone in the comic, because almost all the fights end with the villain being somehow disabled but still alive.
She blew a hole right through the Grey Anatomy’s chest, and he was immediately transported to the medical ship.
So, how noticeable are Aetherium causeways? I can’t remember. And if only noticeable at the moment of creation/use, how far away from other lifeforms who might be paying attention does the ship happen to be?
Apparent (p675) they can be detected over planetary-diameter ranges, but only while they’re open.
I’m guessing someone (Deus?) wants to bet on Maxima NOT winning…
Actually, if she’s stealthy enough, Maxima might be able to return to Earth briefly, kick ass, and get back before the contest ends.
“We’ve been trying to contact you about your sword’s extended warranty”…
I actually have a bit of a nitpick with the “fire elementals are immune to/absorb fire” trope.
We’re made of flesh, doesn’t make us immune to being punched.
I must assume that, similarly, beings made of some other material are a really precise arrangement of that material that can easily be disrupted.
Sonic boom Back: OK now its sharp.
Condensed water vapor in the vacuum she made.
Slightly Road Runner -esque.
Let’s hope that Max is not gone long enough to be a problem as there are some big bets placed on her.
The referees (if any) are going to call a delay.
Interference?
Unsportsmanlike behavior?
I’m guessing trouble at home. That’s…good narrative timing honestly.
It was obvious something would happen the moment they prepared for the contingency, but it’s been long enough the reader forgot about it, or wasn’t fully aware of the possibility anymore. Good filling of the time with interesting exposition, hijinx, side plot, dramatic reveals, and then bam, hit them with something practically announced ages ago yet somehow still surprising.
Now should that guy feel relieved, or frightened that the opponent that was about to take him out just scarpered like their rear end was on fire?
Him (Thinking) Now what could make HER zoom off like that? Oooooh, Carp.
In #1369 Cora mentions a “butt‑hurt overlord who tried to fix a fight,” so outside interference is already canon. If Thom figured out who Ixah is, others might have as well. Among them might be enemies of Cora’s extended crew of loveable rogues, who might try to adjust the odds by threatening Earth. I hope this means we see them all in action, but who knows?
She’s fast enough to sword the elf and still “Sonic Doom” in time
The United States if I understand it correctly, has sanctioned this adventure of Maxima’s because it created the opportunity to place very substantial bets on her for currency the rest of the galaxy treats as legal tender.
If they are recalling her for active duty on ‘instant’ notice, then someone (General Faulk?) has made a decision that an extra two minutes of response time is worth forfeiting those bets.
Seriously, finishing the round won’t take more than a couple of minutes at most. Tactical military emergencies can require an ‘instant’ response, but even in a fast-moving theater, the kind of emergencies a General would become aware of before they were over would require a response ‘within the hour’, not ‘within the next minute.’
Something requiring a response time under two minutes is more important to the United States than winning those bets.