Grrl Power #226 – Hexectomy
I realized a problem with this page after I had nearly finished coloring it. It results from me having knowledge the characters don’t. Maxima prefers to keep the combat non-lethal… but if Hex didn’t have that shield, which Max didn’t know about but I did, at a minimum Hex would have suffered burns and possibly some exploded organs. Maybe Max thought Hex would Zig Zag more, which she might well have done if she didn’t have a shield, but even if we say panel two is heavily foreshortened, that Pwee Bomb went off pretty close to her.
<– Check out the Patreon campaign for the comic, where if I get enough support I might decide to check out whether or not the Surface Pro 3 is any good as a mobile art platform. Well, Patreon support plus cashing in all my ad monies so far. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that it has potential, but there are a number of critical patches it needs before it’s viable, like right handed artists like myself can accidentally brush the home button while drawing causing the art program to close. I really don’t see how it’s possible they missed that when testing the device, unless they just never had an artist test it, or they only had one guy in all of Microsoft test it and he was a lefty. There doesn’t seem to be any other devices on the horizon that have any potential as a mobile art tablet. iPads are no good cause they’re not pressure sensitive. Even if you get one of those Wacom styluses that fake pressure sensitivity, the iPad doesn’t run any of the programs I use to make the comic. There are some others that seemed to have potential like the ThinkPad Yoga, but Lenovo makes it so difficult to get straight answers about the optional stylus that I have little confidence they’d even support it post launch with patches, unlike the SP3. The Wacom ones are probably the best from a pure art standpoint but they start at over $2000 which is just gross. If anyone knows of a good mobile art solution, feel free to share it, and I don’t mean a screen you can draw on that you have to attach to a laptop, I mean a self contained tablet with pressure sensitivity that will run Windows 8.1 (or at least Win7) and Manga Studio/Paint Tool SAI.
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Clearly she saw the fact that Budget Halo had a shield power on her ARCnet glasses. ;)
I think it is more of the fact that Max was counting on the fact that she had shield powers and therefore the blast would be non-lethal.
Trouble is that there was no clue that she could do that. Had Hex used that, off-panel, sometime, fine. Without that though, there would be no justification in thinking that somebody who could blast and fly would also have a shield.
If that logic were to hold true, then it would be open season on Heatwave. Every villain out there could take pot shots at her*, under the justification that “I thought she would have a force field”, and get away with it!
* Well one, and then she would probably be dead.
Aren’t they trying to kill them? Isn’t that exactly what they should be doing?
no, no my dear sir. see, comic book hero logic 101 states, and honestly rightly so in my opinion, that killing the supervillians you battle, makes you no better then they are.
There are many unanswered questions about this attack. Every prisoner is a piece of the puzzle, because not all will have the same answers. Besides, why generate horrible publicity, get saddled with tons of paperwork and get Congressional Committees going through your lockers?
She addressed Hex as budget Halo, sounds like Max’s assuming (rightly so) that Hex had the same powers as Sydney only less focussed because she’s demonstrated using more than two at once.
I think it’s more like, she saw Hex put up a shield, so she juiced the boom a bit to make sure it knocked her down.
The best post-facto justification would be that ARCNET had some prior intel on at least a few of these perps, conveniently including Hex’s shield ability. Unless, of course, there’s some plot reason why they should know nothing about any of them… and I can think of a few. Mm, speculation :-)
Wasn’t it stated that they DID know of at least a few of these ‘villains’ in advance? Or at least implied that they knew of a few? Maybe not by the villain’s self-picked name, but ARCLight could know in advance of their abilities from rumors, etc.
Cool, that works. Another post-facto justification might be that Hex may have had her shield up at some point while offpanel between #203 and #209, or #209 and #225.
Could be said that Hex going into that fight WITHOUT a shield power (or simply a lot of toughness) could be interpreted as a personal death wish.
I’m going to assume that Maxima has enough control over her power to control the elements of her energy blasts. So it was mostly sound and light. A flash bang that she detonated in the air.
Rocky says Hi, now all they need is to find a moose.
Sorry, Bullwinkle couldn’t make it today. The TSA put him on the no-fly list when they heard rumors that he was a moose-lim.
I heard that American Airlines were willing to allow him on-board. But only in a plot to cook and serve him on the flight! When they consulted Gordon Ramsay though, he told them, in no uncertain terms, “That would be a f**ing bad moose steak!”
I thought the latest news said that the TSA admitted they had made a big moose-take.
The TSA denies everything. Sometimes even their own existence.
Who denies what?
When he went through the body scanner, they searched him after he flexed his Moose-cles.
I show myself out…
You mean he didn’t also tug at his moose-tache?
Also there is the possibility it was meant as an Air Burst, since that would be the most effective vs a flying foe any way, (Much like Flak) and if it was just a air shock wave plus Light….
Dave, my thinking is this: Sometimes, if sufficiently annoyed or angered, even the most cool headed person can sometimes use more force than intended and cause injury to others when doing things that wouldn’t normally cause injury. When angry we tend to slam doors without even trying to slam them. It’s like that. Hex was being extremely annoyed, and considering how fond Max is of Sydney, she may be extra annoyed at what is apparently a cheap rip off of Halo’s powers, thus causing her to use more force than she intended.
That was over pretty easily, I likes.
Well I think that confirms Hex as one of the glass cannons, at least as far as Max and I are concerned.
I still think she’d be dangerous to anyone who is not bulletproof or is borderline but shield is kinda weak. I can think of a couple configurations that might cover more of her but they’d be less powerful and/or would require her to land.
Depends on how strong the Maxi-bang was
Everyone is counting Hex (yes, she so deserves that name) as being weak because she couldn’t damage the strongest golden elf on the whole damn planet!!! and the shield is weak because it cracked after taken damage from same said golden elf!
Attacking Maxima and walking away, is a rare event. Hex should be out cold from that blast and a hard landing. Even the squirrel looks impressed.
The Golden Elf was holding back, a lot. She still cracked an unexpected shield which offered her limited protection again what amounted to a suped up flashbang (a real flashbang would have hurt her ears and caused her to crash as well). I suspect her shield might have held if she used all six Buster Buddies but for that she would have had to be on the ground already and still wouldn’t have protected her ears. A couple of human snipers could’ve taken her down long ago if there were a shoot to kill order in place. Your average normal might have problems but most supers and many sufficiently trained individuals not so much.
Ah, no. They’re measuring Hex against [i]Halo[/i]; whose shield [i]didn’t[/i] crack against some truly serious blasting from Maxima, and whose PPO™ has some serious firepower of its own. (Though we haven’t seen how Maxima stands up against that.)
Thing is, Hex at least can fire her Buster Buddy Blasts™ without endangering life and limb, and it seems that how much how much power she can muster depends on how many BB’s she assigns to a given task. Which means she can potentially do up to six things at once, albeit weakly, or one thing very well.
(Also, she’s got that “look Ma, no hands!” advantage.)
Heh well in any event Max took this one down, fast and hard and even provided a distraction for her team at the same time.
RE: Tablet – Have you considered going with an SP2? Not the latest and greatest, but that might make it more of a bargain soon. That’s what the Penny Arcade guy was using before he tried the SP3 and ran into the same issues you had.
RE: Today’s comic – More laughs! Woo! Not that I mind a good slobberknocker, but for me, the real core of Grrlpower is the funny. More inventive cursing and squirrel surprise, please! :)
I just figured that it was mostly light and sound, with only audible concussive energy.
Pump her for information (after her arrest of course). I assume that this is being recorded by “ArcLight”
Interrogator: OK, Budget Halo, I mean ‘Hex’. If you knew that it was a bad idea to attack us, why did you? I mean you look smart enough, and your powers are amazing. You could have many jobs in the private sector that does not get you arrested. The pay is very good, especially since your talents are so uncommon.
Help us, help you. Tell me who you work for, perhaps knock a few years off your sentence, Help you find legal work. Make your life better.
That assumes that:
a) the villains are working for someone (very unlikely they aren’t, but still within the realm of possible). and;
b) Hex knows who she’s working for.
OK, I read that energy blast different. Perhaps, knowing that Max does prefer “Less-Lethal” methods, I just assumed that it was a giant “Flash-Bang” and the Hex getting knocked so far was from the fact she unexpectedly stopped to use a shield.
I mean, Maxima is seasoned and well trained in her powers. She could unleash a city leveling blast, or make a simple flash of light. Both would use the same “power” she has, just magnitudes of difference in energy usage.
…and as a direct result of the strange contact with the large creature, thus began the origin story of The Neon Squirrel … nah, he didn’t become a super, he just went … (puts on sunglasses) … nuts.
YYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHH
https://www.myinstants.com/instant/yeah/
thank you. so much!
Does Hex have a squirrel phobia or just a reasonable fear of having a frightened and/or angry clawed rodent on her belly?
PS: Look up the Squirrel vs Motocyclist story.
Even if you have a squirrel-fetish, you don’t want a squirrel to land from any height onto your bare midriff
Squirrels are asymptomatic carriers of the bubonic plague, aka the infamous Black Death of medieval times.
–FEAR THE FUZZINESS!! *squeep!*
I had forgotten that story. Thank you. I’m wiping tears of laughter out of my eyes.
To save time for others, here ya go (from Snopes no less!): https://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=26;t=001121;p=0
FEAR THE SQUIRREL!!!
i think the squirrel landed on a broken rib.
I really wish you sold figures like the Spinnerette store of these guys I would so buy ones of maxima and dabbler!
Would buy all 5 Harems, even if they were sold seperately and each one was the same price as ‘single’ figurines (she doesn’t get much love from the readers :()
I am sure there are plenty who love her. Or fancy her, at the very least. She will get her day to shine. And, hopefully, prove herself worthy of respect. But that has to be earnt.
I would find that hard to do unless it turns out her status as a double agent is officially sanctioned by Archon.
I would laugh if Daphne is already outed as a Double Agent; but doing it under the whole group’s approval because, she’s being sent to just entertain Deus and keep him happy and therefore supporting them. He seems like he’s just having too much fun acting the part of a silly super villain. Rich people are known for their eccentricities right? What if his is just what we see and otherwise he works with the good guys? Yeah, send Daphne to act as a spy for him and give him “information” he’ll never use. He’s enjoying himself.
I could handle that. If Daphne was taking one for the team, by being the one who volunteered to keep him entertained. It will be interesting to see how it plays out, one way, or the other.
She’s doing a heck of a good job right now. Arming up the team, spotting, hauling prisoner’s asses out of the fire, zapping one herself and standing guard over the captured ones.
Putin did a good job in securing his countries long-term strategic interests, in the Black Sea. But should we respect his morals for betraying a pact, which allowed Russia to garrison troops, and lease a naval port, in a foreign country? Should other, neighbouring countries, trust that he will not invade them, using this ‘new form of warfare’? Can anybody trust him to uphold the spirit of other treaties?*
Deof Movestofca has pointed out the most critical issue, regarding Harem. To which I would add Daphne’s social betrayal, by breaking Sydney’s confidence, and revealing her embarrassing secret to everybody. Which, credit where credit is due, she somewhat mitigated, by the obvious concern she showed, in not being able to come to Halo’s rescue, when blocked by the shield.
Normally I would say completely mitigates, given that one is a social gaffe, and the other attempting to save a life. But, am suspicious, as to her true intents. We cannot tell if Harem was being sincere. After all, she was just beating on a force field. So could just have been putting on an act. It would cost her nothing, either way.
None-the-less, I shall remain hopeful that she will turn out to be a good girl. But, at the moment, the balance of the evidence is that she is not.
And it may never be possible to completely trust somebody, who appears to enjoy being a double, or triple, agent. Can you be comfortable that you have judged their true allegiance correctly? And, in her case, she may just change it on a whim anyhow.
* Just drawing an analogy here, not trying to re-ignite a current events debate. I appreciate, for example, that Putin made a reasonable effort to ensure the façade of legality. Although anybody who believes that it stands up to scrutiny, really aught to run it by a six-year old first, to see if they can see through it.
I keep forgetting Harem is playing the double game. It’s not affecting her being a help to the team, for now.
Or is she doing the triple
wait i can see it now. Hex has seen the futility of trying to be a super villian and so, inspired by her newly discovered sidekick she gets a super-powered powerup and becomes Squirrel Lass and spends the rest of her career seen only in one panel cutaways defeating the mightiest beings on the planet.
Something like that has already been done.
No shit, Sherlock.
If this scenario ends up with the assailants actually being under some kind of mind control or suggestion, what is the legal defense at their trial? Can they plead temporary insanity, or diminished mental capacity? Since there is no way to test for it, could one or more claim mind control anyway in hopes of reducing their sentences? Also, do the severity of the charges get adjusted according to the intent of the assailant, or the toughness of the intended victims? Throwing a brick at someone’s head may be considered assault against a standard human, but for Maxima this is the equivalent of hitting her with a marshmallow.
maybe something like the Imperius curse in Harry Potter
Diminished mental capacity. And I would say unless it’s Xavier doing the mind control there would be some residual effects that could be detected. You don’t get to muck in someone’s head without leaving fingerprints. Of course that’s if it’s full blown mind control. I think it was just a very manipulative person that knows how to charm people. I read her last interrupted quote as asking herself why she let someone talk her into attacking a large group of military supers.
It doesn’t need to be mind control to trick someone into doing something against their nature.
Hmm. [ Heads off to Wikipedia to look up the effects of “date-rape” drugs are related substances. ] Is there something that can make one highly suggestible, but otherwise able to think? I mean other than large sums of money?
You don’t even need drugs to pull off hypnotic suggestion, to make lots of money. Until the cops catch up.*
* They, of course, will have hidden microphones, in their ears, continuously playing “this is the hypnotist you are looking for, now wake up”
My go to reference for superpowers and the law, is Law and the Multiverse, which is an entertaining and educational blog dedicated to just that.
In this case, they’ve covered Mind Control Made Me Do It and concluded that there are a number of (real world) defense arguments available, such as: No Actus Reus, Mistake of Fact, Involuntary Intoxication, and Duress.
Edit: PS: They’ve also covered the sliding scale of intent to do harm and ability to do harm in Healing-Factors, Indestructability, and Murder.
I wonder what it would say about someone’s right to marry Harem and Harem’s right to marry more than one person.
I think I say that because I think the only one who’d potentially marry Math is Harem (though even then I think they’d insist on sharing mistresses).
Looking at Surface 3 as well. Do you think if you turned it such that the home button was on the left you would still have this issue?
It is a staple of comics that superheroes use the maximum amount of power possible to not be lethal, even when they would have no way of knowing what would be lethal or not to the target.
Recently I watched a Justice League cartoon, with Superman and a few others in a submarine, fighting Atlanteans in submarines. They destroyed the enemy subs left and right, leaving the Atlanteans floating in the water, but at that point they didn’t know they were fighting Atlanteans, or that they could breathe under water. At that point destroying the subs would have been a lethal action if it was against humans. The writers knew it wasn’t lethal, so didn’t consider it. I am glad you have awareness of this situation, most writers don’t.
Now what would be funny is if Hex’s orbs are transferred by defeating the previous owner.
While Maxima did send her flying, the squirrel is clearly the victor by being on top pinning down Hex and so takes possession of the Buster Buddies.
Let the neighbourhood dogs beware…..
Squirrels don’t need assistance in terrorizing anyone or anything :P
It’s the St. Louis Cardinals Rally Squirrel!!! I wonder what he did and where he went off to. Does this mean that he’s been recruited?
On April 28th, 2014 you had Maxima chuck Achilles at Hex and some other enemies, but we did not see the result of the full result of that throw.
I think it is totally reasonable, that Hex used her powers to stop that attack and that is when Maxima first saw the shield. Plus it is very reasonable that the shield did not perform as well as Halo’s shield in that it there was some recoil from Achilles hitting her. Given that that Maxima had already seen her fly and shot lazers, she comes off as an inferior Halo.
We did see most of the result: Hex took what initially people thought to be a header off the roof (but as it turns out, she can fly) and a couple pages back we saw Mrs Whippie (wait, had we decided on a name for her yet? how about “Mrs Whippie” even if that is not what she calls herself?) lying on the ground near the restaurant
The only one we don’t know the outcome/location of is the one Mrs Whippie was knocked into
That was Lee Press-On Claws. His far too brief shot at the big time was blocked by Sydney. Currently he’s enjoying a drug-induced nap along with several others.
You sure he had been on the roof? o_O
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1280 Panel 5. The one in black between Ms. Whipple and Red Eye.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1311 Panel 6. Between Ms. Whipple, again and Hex.
I think that is a reasonable inference.
Is superpowers a human-only thing in this universe? Or is it, you know, some vanishingly small percentage of all animals? ‘Cos if you have an actual super-powered squirrel flying around, with no intelligence beyond squirrel-normal, no team affiliation, and no real motivations beyond gathering nuts, defending its squirrelly territory from others, and makin’ out with the appropriately-gendered squirrels of his or her choice, … that could be all kinds of funny.
Very few comics seem to handle that question well. I had fun in a Champions campaign where powers could happen to animals. The GM had an NPC powered dog, part of whose power was enhanced intelligence but unfortunately not telepathy or speech or writing (at first). It figured out the score and joined the local super team as a mascot. The fun was I was playing a duplicating brick that I had deliberately bought the intelligence down on. It made for several Lassie moments where the dog was trying desperately to communicate something to the stupid idiot humans… who just didn’t get it.
So far, we have been able to conceal our powers. Although people have had suspicions.
Probably the same reason you don’t see zombie animals (and birds don’t count)
Well, there are a few. And canine ones are way more dangerous than the human ones.
If you skip the ‘zombie’ part, I could include the vampire terrier from Blade Trinity.
MY GOD
I CAN’T HELP BUT KEEP LAUGHING ABOUT THE SQUIRREL PART hehe
DaveB’s comedy timing deserves a special award.
+1
Very much so. If there is a web comic equivalent of the Oscars, with a comedy category, we aught to make effort to get Grrl Power nominated.
Just to clarify, Grrl Power has already earn’t first place in a public vote competition, this year. I am suggesting we up it a gear, if there is something akin to the Oscars, that is widely known, preferably beyond just the web-comic community.
The one that springs to mind, is obviously the Hugo Award. Although that is aimed specifically at science fiction. Mind you, Girl Genius slips in, with steampunk, so we might be able to get through as super-hero, set in a realistic world.
The biggest drawback is that nominations and votes can only be made by people who sign up to become members of the organisation set up for that purpose. Which costs money. No free votes. Which would preclude me, sadly.
But, if any readers happen to be members already, you might consider nominating Grrl Power? Sadly this year’s has closed already. So if it is not already on the list, then it would have to wait until next year.
Or, perhaps someone else can suggest something that might bring the comic to the wider attention of the public and/or give Dave greater recognition for his art and/or writing?
Not many people other than a telepath (mindcontrol capacity suspected) would even KNOW there are that many supers in existence. And they all seem to speak english without visible accent, so they are probably local to north America…
Which means — team fights that size may be rare if the telepath is not involved.
Evil Xavier school for the (expendable) gifted anyone?
Haven’t heard all of the bad guys speak yet, OR seen their IDs (probably a more reliable indicator), so any assumptions about their origins / citizenship / ethnicity are, at this point, only assumptions.
Possibly fair assumptions given these specific circumstances, but still.
The “Mine eyes!” guy is probably not a native of the USA. He’s probably Germanic or thereabouts.
Also, I think it was already mentioned “in comic” (By Maxima? My memory does not serve me here…) that the number of supers might have to be adjusted up, just based on how many there are/were in the gang that jumped ARC-SWAT right after their press conference.
Super unknowns would know. One in 800 million rare. They are the ones that can become witches and sorcerers. Such as has been depicted in “The Power” (novel & movie 1967) also in “The House and the Brain” by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1859. From the beginning they seem to have extraordinary abilities from mental feats to physical ones.
re: Tablets? Near-Wacom quality for way less, check out
https://frenden.com/post/69444810884/review-monoprice-19-tablet-monitor-wacom-take-heed
…..part of me wonders why someone would be afraid of squirrels…but then I remember a certain Marvel Comics villain/dictator who was humiliated/defeated by a swarm of them. And then I read this comment and wonder if I shouldn’t make comments while half asleep. @.@
Squirrels been known to maul people. So there no surprise that she’s scared of them. Beside maybe her tummy is ticklish =)
Also am i the only one weirded out by that large stretchy arm with metal infusion that somehow shaved a guy after punching him? Or is the guy in hat doesn’t have mustache?
Ticklish? That’s a small climbing mammal falling from height. It both has and is using claws meant for penetrating/gripping tree bark. On bare skin.
Her reaction is completely justifiable.
Or she knows something that we don’t…
Funny.
Then there’s those mangy werehumans turning from their human form to their human form every full moon.
Hey, I do that! Oh woe, I am accursed! ALL IS LOST!
Werehumans don’t even get the girls like those werewolves do. Stupid werewolves, thinking they’re so sexy with their fur and drool and godawful smell and fleas… wait, why do women think werewolves are sexy again?
…..you do realize that were means human/man right? So…you are saying humanhumans/manhuman. Not many people realize that.
I am sure that was the intent of Peter Sadlon‘s joke. And the first line of KingNobody‘s reply. Although I can see how the rest of his reply might have led you to think otherwise, as it then started to intermix regular werewolves into the comment.
I could see utility in being a werehuman, actually. Assuming that you got the perk of changing the body, without all the hang ups you traditionally get from lycanthropy. Vulnerability to silver, eating people and stuff like that. Especially if you could break the association with the lunar cycle, and change whenever you wanted, it would have a great advantage.
The most obvious being disguise purposes. So secret agents and criminals would really benefit from that. But likewise celebrities, or super heroes, who wanted to be able to also lead a private life. Some folks might be attracted to the idea of being able to switch between male and female. Allowing them to see how the other half lives.
I have even designed characters who are were humans, in all but name. Where one body is optimised for combat, and the other has different advantages. Such as being very brainy, charismatic/ attractive or having other super-powers, psionics and/or magic.
The last is particularly handy if in a world where psionics and/or magic is both outlawed and detectable by the authorities. Or if there is some other serious danger, such as there being creatures which can sense and prey on those with special powers. But, if you are able to switch to being a mundane, physically optimised soldier, in those circumstances, then you can either avoid the problem, or counter it in a way that is totally unexpected.
That was my intent. I almost thought I overexplained it with the whole turning from human form to human form thing… silly me.
There’s also occasional worlds which have a different form of ‘were-human’: Wolves (usually) that turn into humans. Sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart from werewolves (and sometimes they are the same thing; even siblings, but with different ‘base’ forms), but it’s at least a valid interpretation of the word.
Dungeons & Dragons label them as wolfweres, a word which I think suits well. It is also a convention that has flexibility.
If you had a shark that could turn into a human, it would be confusing if it too were described as a werehuman. But a sharkwere, even to someone who had not come across the term, would encapsulate the species, sufficiently to convey the message.
Which would have similarity to another word, where the ordering of the component parts implies a central part of the concept. Namely mermaid. In the film Splash, they are taken to be creatures of the sea who can literally turn into women. That was inspired by a few folklore variants, on the more traditional concept, of mermaids purely being half woman half fish.
Of course you can then mix up the concepts, when you fall head-over-heels in love with a mermaid, and swim out to see with her. Only to find that she is actually a sharkwere, who likes to ensure that there are no repercussions, when she snacks on her favourite prey!
The beings you really have to watch out for, however, are underweres.
When he’s yelling “mine eyes” you can see his teeth. No mustache. Mr. Amorphous can increase density and that seems to change the color of his skin. Same as here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1295
Okay. That Squirrel. Nice touch. Laughed so hard I injured my back again. >.>! Which I originally injured laughing so hard at a previous page. I need to work out more. Poor Hex. If that was caught on camera, I don’t think she’ll ever live it down. >.>
Oh, Leon is tweating it, youtubing it, tumblring it even as we write about the possibility of it.
Bank on it.
30 second delay to keep the FCC from blowing a gasket. Then CNN, MSNBC and all the other new-starved cable stations.
Hey! A lot of super villains have been taken down by Squirrels. Dr Doom for example. Don’t believe it? Look up Squirrel girl.
By the way, if anybody is wondering why Maxima has not wiped out all the other villains by now, given her apparently overwhelming power, consider the following. Up until now Maxima has been forced to keep her defences at maximum. This means that she has little flexibility in what other attributes or powers to boost.
She does always have a reasonably capable minimum level, so can always fly, for instance. It also allows her to return fire, and force the enemies to engage her or otherwise act to protect themselves. But the level of that attack, or to use super speed/reflexes and/or super strength to defeat enemies may not be sufficient to make an overwhelming counter-attack.
Of course it is her intention to give the appearance that she is all-powerful, all of the time. That is her job, as a tanker. But she is not flying up there purely to allow the rest of the team to have some fun. There are limits on her power, and she does not want to risk exposing them needlessly, by acting prematurely.
When opportune moments present themselves, where Maxima can safely shift her capabilities, or use the less powerful default ones, to good effect, she has been doing so.
Max isn’t invincible, imho she can be mind controlled (etc). She’s a really impressive Rock, but someone out there has Paper. Also the rest of the team needs experience and Max’s superiors need to be convinced they need the entire team and not just Max herself.
Agreed. I was just saying that all the elements of the story do hang together.
Exactly. It’s a campaign of harassment and interference. She’s to do what it takes to draw attention to herself away from her teammate. Ideally, you use hunters and tanks for the role, because the former can escape damage while the the later can take it. Sydney powers make her suited to either hunt or tank as needed. Her shield allows her to hurt and that with her mouth and the lighthook she can focus attacks on her. With telepresence, she can lead others to think she went somewhere other than where she went or that she’s down or even dead, Used in conjunction with the team’s communication system she can set traps for the enemy.
I hate this reply system. (That was supposed to be a reply.)
It happens to all of us at times. It would be nice to have either a ‘preview’ or an ‘undo post’ option. Most mistakes, such as missing formatting (something I did above), or this kind of error, are immediately apparent, once they become visible, in situ. But no biggie. We learn to work around the issues.
Dave, roughly how big are Halo’s orbs? Tennis ball/baseball sized? If so, does Harem play tennis or juggle?
https://pad2.whstatic.com/images/thumb/f/f7/Juggle-Four-Balls-Step-1.jpg/670px-Juggle-Four-Balls-Step-1.jpg
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/13/article-2340733-1A4A65A5000005DC-677_634x475.jpg
That is not a question a gentleman asks about a lady, sir.
:p
so it’s OK for a lady to ask a gentleman about the size of his orbs then
The orbs are roughly tennis ball / baseball size.
That would be perfect. Then is becomes can can she use multiple orbs single handedly and or with an unconventional hand grip. I suppose it’d be impossible to Sydneymehameha with more than one orb in the hand due to the kick in a hand but flight, shield, and telepresence/truesight are potentially doable if she could.
Seeing as the two ball split finger and and juggler’s grips are unconventional, Syd might not have thought of using them unless she sees them or does them accidently.
Palm of the hand contact required. If it can’t read her lifeline, it gets cranky and refuses to work.
Juggler’s grip should work then
Well, just to clarify, in a less arguable manner, it is the intent that Sydney has a finite limit of two powers at any one time. She has comprehensively, and exhaustively, experimented with the alternatives and found there to be none. DaveB knows that Halo has a world-super-heavyweight-contender set of powers, even with that limitation. To relax that, further, would make writing for her incredibly hard.
The only circumstances that I could see Halo being able to overcome that restriction would be a temporary, and probably unrepeatable, circumstance where it was necessary to overcome a specific, overwhelmingly powerful enemy. Think of the Fantastic Four combining all their powers, in one individual, in order to take down Galactus.
Unless Dave plans on having Sydney fight gods, on a daily basis.
I say this not to put down the suggestion, especially as it is a clever one. It is just to indicate that it probably will not work, even if Sydney did try it. Which she almost certainly has, long before she resorted to placing them in her butt-cheeks. Although I do take your point about the grip being unconventional, it can be stumbled upon by trial-and-error experimentation, which we saw she had been doing.
Think of it more as a fundamental limit of the power of the orbs. When she unlocks the help page it will probably read “It is only possible to power two of the orbs at any one time. In order to control them, place one in each of two, separate manipulation appendages. More than two will have no additional effect. And will confuse the control process. Which may result in random selection of orb powers, or inability to activate any at all.”
Then I suppose swapping DNA with Dabbles and growing two extra arms wouldn’t do any good at all…
Sorry, I drifted off there… something distracting me…
nope… no good… can’t focus on whatever your question was…
must go off for a cold shower… with four arms to lather up my back…
An exercise in paranoia, for your information and entertainment, over the weekend.
A practical example of what schemes can be dreamed up by diabolical masterminds.
Background information: Sevastopol, in the Crimea, is the base of the Russian Black Sea fleet. The only warm water port they have for 2,000 miles. And their access to the Mediterranean and seas beyond. The EU countries which have ports on the Black Sea are in Romania and Bulgaria.
Both Romania and Bulgaria, like Ukraine, used to be Communist countries, allied with Soviet Russia. So many of the issues that are present in the Ukrainian situation, have parallels in both those countries. With a large number of Russian speakers, albeit a low proportion of ethnic Russians.
Strategically Romania is adjacent to Ukraine, and therefore the Crimea. So it’s ports are vulnerable to both land attack from any major conflict in Ukraine, and are in close proximity to the main Russian base. Bulgaria is the EU country situated adjacent to the only naval access to the Mediterranean. The various straits that pass through Turkey.
Historically, the last time that the Crimea was attacked, by the UK, the staging post for the invasion was Varna, the major port in Bulgaria.
Destroyer USS Truxtun heads for Black Sea amid heightened tensions over Crimea
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has signed a landmark free trade agreement with European leaders
Bulgarian central bank says banking system under attack
Note that the last event took place on the day that the treaty with the EU was signed.
Conclusions: Mafia plot to destabilise the country’s banking system? Possible. There is a very large organised crime presence. Although they have vast amounts invested in money laundering, in the Bulgarian economy.
So any banking and economic crash would hurt most of them badly. But not necessarily one that might have planned for such. At the risk of antagonising every other Mafia group in the country, the government and the EU.
I will let you join the dots on the alternative.
Oh, one important piece of the puzzle I forgot to put in:
Bulgaria is to halt work on its Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline following criticism from the EU and US.
Well, the government has been brought down, so things are pretty dire. The hopeful glimmer being that some arrests have been made. If those are not front men, then it is a sign that they were pretty clumsy and open. Which would indicate short-sighted mafia, rather than anything deeper.
Which would ruin a good conspiracy. But the weekend is over. So cross our claws, eh.
I’d say Hex should count herself lucky she still has feet. That shield didn’t extend down far enough to cover them.
Think unholy airbag of sound and light: some punch, probably enough to break unprepared ribs, lots of sound, enough to ring unprotected ears and destroy your sense of balance, lots of flash, enough to temporarily blind you and bog down your processor. Hitting the tree likely did more damage.
Yea, I was wondering why Maxima thought that budget Halo would have a budget shield.
Eh, its just like The Avengers where Thor delivers a massive blow to some doofy looking civilian with a wimpy red-white-blue shield.
Just say that Maxima’s blast can be remote detonated and that she planned to detonate it 4 meters from the target, but when she saw the shield she detonated it on impact. Also that it was concussive (because concussive damage doesn’t hurt people?)
I think I like Budget Halo! ;)
On top of the excuses to use that flashbang without knowing of a shield:
-Max’s flashbangs are mostly breaking thru energy stuff, but flesh and bones not so much. Max damage being temporary blinded and worse case scenario one eardrum pierced.
-Hex is a “return customer” whose name Max cannot recall because of how many minor one-shot-targets she took down without effort. Or perhaps the “budget halo” is meant as a nickname for the team to get it, since Hex’s real name might not be understood quickly by the team.
-A “somewhat hurt and catched by Maxima as she falls unconscious” scenario was expected. Considering she was firing what amounts to a machinegun and would have switched target eventually, this is a reasonnable action.
Is it just me, or do very few of these “supervillains” behave in a villainous manner? Maybe they aren’t villains at all? It could be a case of rival superheros (perhaps with a libertarian bent) who don’t approve of the military attempting to monopolize the “hero” business. It could be that they’re also government agents who are testing the “combat readiness” of the Archon team. The whole thing could also be a publicity stunt set up by Arianna, or promotional material for a new superhero reality show.
It’s just that these guys seem awfully conscientious and restrained for a group of people involved in an attack on a major military/law enforcement organization (With a few exceptions).
Case in point, we’ve seen that they have at least two members who would have been fully capable of demolishing the restaurant around Archon before first contact was made. Tactically, this would be preferable, as the confusion would delay any counterattack, and those members of Archon whose resilience is insufficient to protect them from falling buildings would be eliminated outright (not to mention the dead and severely injured civilians that would require attention). The only logical reason why they haven’t (other than sheer incompetence) is that they are under instructions to minimize casualties. If I was assaulting a well-armed group of superhumans, “minimizing casualties” would simply not be a factor. “Maximum destruction” would be the standing orders of my supervillain team, as well as “Strike first, strike hard”. If I had to use a nuke (and had the capability to do so) I would without a second thought.
These are not villains.
…(perhaps with a libertarian bent) who don’t approve of the military attempting to monopolize the “hero” business.
Then there are legal ways to address this issue other than preemptive attack. Being libertarian does not give one the right to simply ignore the law when one chooses.
(With a few exceptions).
Are we reading the same comic? The only exception I can think of would be Hex… and that wasn’t out of concern for her intended victim, but an attempt to save her own skin. Shadow Boxer, Heavenly Sword, and “Speedy” tried to do serious bodily harm to various heroes. Almost everyone else wasn’t given much of a chance.
fully capable of demolishing the restaurant around Archon before first contact was made.
That may, however, simply have resulted in winning the battle, but losing the war. First, it would have been seen as cowardly. Second, killing innocent bystanders would galvanize support behind Archon in a way that keeping the battle between supers vs. supers would not.
Actions so far indicate that many of the lead attackers are there explicitly to harvest infamy points. For them, at least, the motivation is clearly not just a case of preemptive self-defense against gobermint vivisectionists or such. They want to be seen winning a big splashy super fight against the newly announced national hero team (though they may not have thought that through).
What their tactics showcase is inexperience. This is clearly their first time in the field:: (1) as a team, (2) against other supers, and possibly (3) performing non-covert action. Otherwise they would have alerted Archon to their existence prior. And so they’re fighting as a mob. Unlike ArcSWAT they don’t seem to have any training in team tactics.
Even Halo is making use of her simulation training (aka, mad gamer skillz).
But, as Maxima pointed out, the leadmost are likely fodder sent in first to wear Achon down and let the.hindmost hang back and assess their performance. Their motivation may well differ.
Villain is sometimes an arbitrary designation that can mean anything from opposes the hero to person who is evil incarnate.
Went through the archives 3 times after finding this comic I liked it so much, and after 3 reads and a week of downtime, I’ve only just realized the girl with a peg leg is called Peggy.
…
Yea…
I find it amusing she screams at squirrel in her lap that is being nothing other than cute.
Yeah cause squirrel claws on bare skin don’t hurt. She doesn’t appear to have superhuman durability as evidenced by the cuts she received flying through tree branches.
hex has a rack, thatd be one for your deviantart page lol
or a voter incentive, with just a little bit more wardrobe disrepair!
Not really appropriate for a character based on a sponsor of the comic. But, may I offer an alternative suggestion, which might tempt you instead. When this battle is over, the heroes will eventually need to sleep.
Then we will get to find out whether or not Halo sleeps in pyjamas or not. Would that provide a suitable vote incentive and not safe for work version?
Sydney strikes me as the dorm shirt and fuzzy slippers type. Plus teddy bear in a mask and cape. Now Harem may have more interesting taste in nightwear.
Aww. Now that has me tempted even more. Harem, however, has already had her turn in the NSFW limelight. :-P
Just to be clear, I never said anything about NSFW. But a few more strategic rips and slips could be interesting without being disrespectful of the sponsor.
My apologies.
Graciously excepted. Have a Scooby snack :D
Yum yum! *wags tail*