Grrl Power #285 – Power down
So yeah, Sydney’s plan ultimately boils down to “choke him out” which isn’t tremendously imaginative, but she did have to jump through quite a few hoops to get there first.
The fight does at long last finally end on the next page. Normally that would be a spoiler, but it’s been a long time coming and a lot of people have been ready for it for a while. I would include myself among them, but I say that while wryly looking at how much stuff I cut from the fight. Some of it is dialog that I’ll probably edit and save for later, some of it’s stuff I can use in other fights, but honestly it may be a while before there’s another big action sequence.
In case it’s at all confusing, panel 4 is supposed to be Sydney checking the time while water splashes off her shield, but looking at the page fresh just before I post it, I could see someone thinking her wrist thing is bursting or she’s blocking a splash with it? Maybe I’ll move the splash lower when I go back through and start doing edits for the book.
(Sorry for the delay in posting. I moronically scheduled the post for “the next day” forgetting that I was starting to write the post after midnight, so it was already the 19th.)
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Looking back on things I find myself realizing that Vehemence’s various stages have the same color pattern as most health bars I see in games that have color-changing health bars. White for untouched is a bit uncommon, but aside from that, he gradually goes from green to yellow to red as he gets stronger/more general ‘damage’ is thrown around.
A while back it was established, or figured out anyway, by other readers (and I was a part of the discussion) that the colors of his tats basically follow an inverted version of Planck’s law. This also is what lead to the surmising that he does have an upper limit, because if it is an inverted version of Planck’s Law, any further beyond red and the returns on further violence are do diminished that he can’t go any higher. Essentially a “soft cap” that’s produced by a curve.
So I spent a good 10-15 minutes trying in vain to use Wolframalpha (among other resources) to come up with the mathematical equation to describe that line; I know it’s a limit function, and I’m pretty sure it involves an inverse, but it seems that ~2 years without needing to do any math beyond basic algebra has dulled my Calculus skills rather noticeably.
Also I’m sleep deprived because I’m wrestling with one of the crappiest pieces of software I’ve ever encountered. (And I’ve been using Windows since 3.1)
sqrt(x) Should be what you’re looking for. It proceeds to infinity, but the high the x value, the lower the change in y.
Or log, log is very popular for slowly approaching infinity. Also any power between 1 and 0 would work not just the square root, cube root works better as it is a function instead of a relation.
Square root is also a function, but it has a domain of only the nonnegative real numbers. Log, by the way, has an even smaller domain, since it doesn’t include 0, and it’s definitely a function.
Vertical line test, every x value (other than 0) you can input into square root has 2 answers, therefore it is not a function.
“So..is there an after party or anything?”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*someone* had it easy in this fight, all cozy inside her little forcefield. :)
Except when she contained the super villain inside her force field, with her! That took balls as it had a very severe risk of death to attempt.
I nominate Halo for a decoration for that action. It is certainly above and beyond the call of duty, for a raw recruit, to go toe to toe with the most powerful villain presently known.
Not only that but outsmarting and defeating him. With a lot of help, yes. But Sydney led them to victory.
I just like that when he starts burning energy instead of breathing she just goes “ug”, and has another plan!
my guess is that its a continuation of her original plan just the burning energy instead of breathing thing means that she has to enact the whole plan instead of v. passing out from oxygen deprivation.
Or she can get the opposite… she go againts a direct order in the field.
If you disobey orders and it looses the battle, you get court-marshalled. If you do the same and win the battle, you get a medal. Special forces units, in particular, need members who know when to break the rules.
and these guys and gals are most definately special forces.
Aye it did, His as it turned out.
Ball pun intended?
It was probably just as intentional as my occasionally repeating that Sydney sure has a lot of balls, especially for being female.
Indeed, although the straight intent was primary, for it’s emotive content, in this instance. The pun just added flavour.
By orders of course. She was told to stay cozy in it, then later on told to draw fire
Oh good lord. Sydney who “doesn’t know how to military” in her own words, is facing her very first Incident Report – involving subsections about lethal force used on American Soil, damage to Government Property not issued to her outfit, nonmilitary combatants, untrained recruits in a hazard zone and taking active part in combat, first contact with a domestic terrorist organization, and about twelve other major categories of administrative headache.
This incident report will weigh twenty pounds if someone prints it out. It could take days, if not weeks.
Handy that Sydney has remained within sight of her commanding officer the whole time. That should limit her exposure to the red tape. Other than signing where Maxima points, on her sections of the report.
Perhaps Arianna might help her out…?
The legal mumbo jumbo is basicly what Arianna is for
That and the fact that she hasn’t even been given a rank yet.
She signed the contract. Her official rank is recruit. That may change right after the fight ends. Field promotion to Private.
We already have a strong indicator as to how Sydney would probably describe the fight if asked – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/352
I suspect that Sydney will be kept far away from actually writing an official report. She is technically a recruit, after all, and therefore untrained in what is required for that.
Thinking on it, probably even better that she does not ILLUSTRATE the fight either. That wiould probably give any reader nightmares.
“…probably give any reader nightmares.”
Especially at that point between after Vehemence had a growth spurt but before he did Ka-Pants…
I was thinking in general terms, actually.
But yeah, an illustration of THAT part of the battle would probably be especially traumatic for the deeply insecure and emotionally frail.
…And maybe even include those with small sphincters…
Isn’t the whole purpose of a sphincter, to be size adjustable?
I got it! The brown unknown orb DOES PAPERWORK! INSTANTLY! IN TRIPLICATE EVEN (and supplies a .pdf for easy download…).
Now that would be a really nice and useful superpower.
It would also be entirely appropriate to the theory that the orbs are part of an EVA toolset- have you ever seen the sheer amount of documentation that Naval requisitions and repairs require?!
Air Force. Couldn’t be too different. My last job before discharge was running a supply room for mobile generators that were old when Truman was Prez. Arranging special order parts was great fun (pre-computer of course).
I never actually saw that theory, but it does make sense.
Some super advanced culture that can make super power giving orbs like we make smart phones, using the orbs for maintainance works. I like it (though why the level up, and why the PPO?)
Hmm, I will spitball that this advanced race is advanced enough so that the tools they issue are self regulating, and the user must display competency with their default settings before further functions are unlocked? As for the PPO.. to US its the PPO, to culture X it could be little more than a portable torch/welder. Tank armor is just below its imagined threshold, like taking a blowtorch to a paper mache’ sculpture.
That is a good point. No doubt the PPO can be used for very accurate cutting of extremely dense materials once Sydney masters it.
The level up system could simply be the system easing on new features once the new worker has gotten used to the old ones
+1
I can imagine Sydney accidentAlly touching the orb while doing paperwork and the entire room is bathe in a white light. When everyone recovers all the paperwork is filled out and stacked neatly.
And even buries them in a peat bog for 3 months
*IUnderstoodThatReference.jpg
I didn’t. Can someone point me to where I can gain this knowledge of paperwork and peat bogs?
IIRC it was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Something about Vorgon’s Proper procedure for paperwork partly involving burying it in a peat bog for 3 months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENgdM87Cqjg
thanks. It’s been a while
Too powerful a power for any mortal to wield
Oh my god I really want that to actually be one of the mystery powers. Bonus points if it instantly fills everything out in incomprehensible alien writing, but the electronic document is still a .pdf for some reason!
And it also supplies your tongue print to.
And once translated, everything would turn out to be perfectly correct in the legal system of the place it’s used
Translated? We expect smart tech, not dumb tech. The paperwork should automatically translate itself, for whoever is reading it. Even Google are getting there. The orb makers should have easily perfected that.
Orble Translate: During the tobbaccanist, the Vehemence hovercraft was full of eels. Give me the fish of Ka-Pants!
That is a major improvement from 10 years ago when half the words would only be transliterated gibberish.
+1
Dr. Who’s Psychic Paper would come in handy…
it would end up looking like a bunch of wavy lines, especially if Sydney tried to claim she was a ‘mature and responsible adult’.
And who knows what Dabbler would see…
Something wibbly wobbly, I guess.
And the PDF version even had to create the new font to accommodate the alien language used.
Sydney… i hope you have pack him in carbonite orb handy i think thats the only way your going to keep him out of action that or make a ice popcicle of v to keep him from actually coming back
The “once and for all” line at the bottom of the comic made me laugh out loud!
I’m glad you cleared that up. Since there are 5 “fingers” coming off of the “splash” I thought she was sticking her left hand through her own hand and wrist thing. Even though they aren’t in a fingers and thumb orientation, but sometimes being incorporeal or made of energy or whatever allows for more freedom of movement.
I thought something similar until I noticed the shield honeycombing from the water’s impact. But yeah at a glance it does look odd.
Indeed. I figured it out, but it’s the sort of thing where a few seconds of “wait, what’s that?” Is probably a few seconds too long.
D’awww, panel 7.
Nice avatar. Wanna come have a tea party?
Yeppers. Love it. And it nicely avoids coming across as smug. Just contentedly happy, at a job well done.
Sorta like a puppy that just got petted.
The team should be thanking their lucky stars that they just recruited Sydney. I’d call that good timing.
Well, yes and no. If Sydney hadn’t joined the team there wouldn’t have been the same press conference announcing ARCHON and inspiring V to instigate the big battle.
I’d have to re-read the comic to be certain, but I think Ariana’s plan was always to out Maxima with the stunt at the bank, thus necessitating a public statement of some sort afterwards. The only difference is that with Sydney’s involvement things turned out better than she had planned and moved up her timetables?
What I’m saying is – even without Sydney’s recruitment I thought plans were already in motion that may have lead directly to this confrontation at some point in the near future.
From what I recall, there was going to be a press conference anyway for ARCHON to go public. Sydney’s addition to it was just last minute. In which case, odds are Max would have still done “Operation Overkill”, and V would still have decided that he had found a feast of violence.
Max said at the dinner that she wouldn’t have been able to do the big bang without Sydney’s shield.
True but she’s a bright girl who would’ve improvised some other demonstration of power, less destructive perhaps but no less dramatic.
Finding out how well Sydney’s shield worked allowed Max to double down on whatever out of control act she was going to pull before Sydney showed up.
Exactly she would have done something but this gave her a safety margin to really make it flashy.
Sure, but even without the big fireworks show, Vehemence would still have seen it on the TV, and he would still have known there was massive violence to be had, and he would still have attacked in just the same way
No, the press conference was already pre-scheduled – hence that “fake” bank robbery.
pre-scheduled… yes, in the sense that Archon personnel had previously called the various press corp. people and said something like “The Government would like to Announce something” and the press people were probably less-than-enthused and were like “ho hum, yeah, ok…maybe we’ll send somebody over, if it’s a slow day otherwise.” so the bank job was the bait to ensure that ALL the Press was there… just as Arianna had hoped for.
Heh, I liked this one. I cant wait to see what the wrap up will be. Oh, and paperwork, the true super villain of all government workers. And I really liked the maxima interaction. Sydney really got to show the team that she belongs with them. I think her trainee program will be condensed a bit. Cover basic protocols and rules, then go straight to power practice so she can learn her limits and what she is capable of doing. After that, full time member. She has shown she has what it takes. Not just an incredible set of powers, but the mind to use them in high stress situations properly. Her only real mistakes were from not fully understanding her own abilities and their limits, like oxygen deprivation, or the lighthook not being useable inside the shield.
She kept collateral down, backed up the team, took decisive action on many occasions, showed she was able to solve mysteries in mid fight, and of course, saved the freaking day here. Without her, vehemence would have eventually gotten strong enough to finish maxima, then leave while everyone else was busy fighting each other. ARCHON would have been a total failure on every conceivable level at that point. Probably would have been disbanded after showing it couldnt handle the very thing it was formed to stop, and in fact CAUSED the first large scale super incident on record.
Minor art issue. Panels 1, 5, and 6 have Maxima with a hunk of hair infront of her ear. Panels 3 (back view) and 8 don’t have it. In 8 we could maybe believe that she’d done a quick brush to get it out of the way, but with panel 3 being flanked with the different hairstyle that doesn’t really work.
Not me.
I don’t imagine Vehemence is just allowing himself to be choked out and is thrashing quite a bit in spite of his throat wound/asphixiation + the other supers pinning him. So, it’s likely they’re being jostled quite a bit, which would explain the hair out of place in each panel.
That said, Max in panel 6 is–as my sister would say–totally adorbs. Whether it’s the water, the post-fight adrenaline crash starting to kick in, or her sincere thank you to Sydney, her appearance and expression is priceless. Well drawn!
So she solves the problem by listening to John Kent telling Clark how to fit in? Just drown the bastards? lol.
That Sydney sure is a clever-clogs, that’s for sure. ^_^
you get everywhere…
What is wrong with Maxi’s voice? Did Fedorka manage to damage her throat even though she was full on strength defence?
Just a little not enough to matter, but enough that she’ll be hoarse for a bit
Took a moment for her to realize she needed to go from balanced to armor when he slammed/shocked her.
He claimed he was already strong enough to kill Maxima. Even if he was not yet, but almost, getting almost chocked is still going to make you hoarse
Impatient Sydney! There’s no rush, just hold him down there for a few more colour changes!
If i understood right V can possibly power down some of his powers and that way get a bigger power point pool to use. Kinda like Max.
At least that is what i think Sydney meant when she say that he might go back into black if he shrink his size.
Not so much get a bigger point pool as try to make the point pool he already has last a bit longer.
That depends on if he is buring energy to keep his muscle form or if it locks down part of the point pool while the effect is active without actualy buring through it.
For all we know his enhancements might be permanent and he is able to convert it back to raw energy. On the downside he will be far more manageable and might lose his new bodyparts but if it catch his enemies offguard he might be able to power up another aggro-aura and this time they would all be to close for Sydney to shield him and the aura from the rest. Then again that could easily backfire as they beat the snot out of him faster then he can absorb the violence. All in all i think the fight is over.
it’d be pretty awesome, if V shrunk down to normal, only to find his regenerated arm still huge and metallic…because, hey, it regenerated that way.
His super-name then becomes ‘Fiddler Crab’, perhaps.
Why not Zoidberg?
Cuz Zoidie is symmetrical, and a Fiddler Cran aint – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler_crab
I was thinking in terms of the (male) Fiddler Crab having one majorly oversized claw. Just like V and his (hypothetical) oversized left arm. Geddit?
I fail to see how “choking him out” would fail to make Vehemence get stronger, since choking someone strikes me as a violent action. Cutting off his air supply in an entirely passive fashion, like sealing him inside an invincible forcefield, might sensibly work, but choking qualifies as an attack according to any form of logic I can conjecture.
It’s still violence and he still gains some energy from it but it’s far less than they were supplying earlier and the and he’s getting slightly less energy from it than he is expending trying to resist it. The net result is a power loss for him, a result Sydney sees he could shift if they don’t change tactics soon..
The problem with sealing him in a force field (it’s been suggested quite a few times) is Sydney has to be Inside the field, it was dangerous enough doing it to cut off his Aggro Aura while he was occupied with choking Maxima. Without something to stop him (Like possibly one of the “Unknowns”), Sydney would be a smear on the inside of the bubble in seconds.
“Let’s seal him inside Sydney’s force field” has only been said 4,359,231 times so far.
Doesn’t anybody actually READ the dang comments any more?
It’s a bit harsh to criticize Will for not reading comments when you didn’t read his. He didn’t say “here’s a new idea!” He was just contrasting the violence inherent in using a passive force field compared to an act of choking.
Given how many force field creators are in this soiree, how else should this be taken?
Right, and he didn’t even say “Sydney’s force field,” he just said “a passive force field.” I would assume they would have access to some kinds of passive restraint that would work also, like the expanding sticky balls that took down Mr. Incredible.
Even if they don’t, someone should get on that. Those suckers are useful. Mr. I can bench trains, and a few of those stuck him down to plain old everyday rocks.
WHAT passive force field?
The only force field in the comic so far is Sydney’s force field. You can’t just asume something exists in a comic universe if you have never seen ANY indication of such a thing in that comic universe
No one is suggesting there is such a force field. No one is saying “they should have used some other force field”.
Will was saying “cutting off a person’s air by choking him constitutes violence”. In order to make that point, he was saying “compare it to cutting off his air by putting him in an airtight force field, which would not constitute violence”.
Dabbler has one too. It just has not seen as much page time, as it is less versatile than Sydney’s. Given her capabilities, it is either the product of magic or alien technology. Therefore there are likely to be others around somewhere.
Yeah, but Dabbles’ is more like a Force Shield than a bubble
Two things. One, quality of the violence matters. As violent as the drowning/choking/piling combo is, it’s too little compared to an all out brawl with intent to seriously injure or kill. Two, quantity of power matters. All that energy he gains, he has to spend it. For all his boasting of having ‘plenty to burn’, if he spends more than he can gain, he’ll get weaker instead of stronger. Forcing V to blow through his energy was a possibility that was thought of; it was a matter of not knowing how much power he actually had.
As far as I can tell, this comment thread and several others like it spawn from a problem of superpowered semantics. “Violence,” in V’s case, doesn’t necessarily mean what it would if we were to complain about “violence in the media.”
Since DaveB has already mentioned that he draws power from non-aggressive sources like a thunderstorm or an earthquake, my working hypothesis is that vehemic energy derives more from entropy than emotion. Thus, even though choking would be violent in terms of “Oh, no, that’s horrible! Someone ought to do something!” it would provide less energy to V than a flurry of more-painful-than-lethal punches.
None of the ARCies are trying to harm or kill him at the moment they are just trying to get him to use up power harmlessly. So their intent is also less bent on destruction. But they also know what they are doing hurts him so I’m sure he’s getting some of the good stuff (violent intent) off of them.
So, now I’m wondering…if Sydney’s bubble blocks water, air, attacks…how can anyone outside of it hear her?
Best I can make out, it blocks anything that may damage or adversely affect the user, which would be Sydney. As such, it probably blocks sonic attacks, but not sound that’s low volume enough to damage her, and lasers powerful enough to cause damage, so anything more dangerous than a class 1 laser.
Word of god is the shield has a threshold of what it blocks. So sound gets through, but sonic booms and explosions dont deafen her. Im not sure how that works with air though, considering a tiny shield was enough for her to nearly pass out from lack of oxygen after awhile.
sort of like the shield belts in Dune?
Energy below a certain threshold passes through it, nothing solid does. It’s a very smart shield, while simultaneously being a very stupid shield
Or having a wicked sense of humour.
Or impeccable taste in beautiful objects.
Sound is vibration. Speaking can make the shield vibrate, which makes the air on the other side vibrate. You can speak through other air tight, thin materials in much the same way
or simply it work by creating a discontinuity or disonance in the energy aplied to it,
so basicly while light and sound can pass trough,, cohesive light or sound ,wich is needed for laser or sonic attack loose cohesion upon passing trough the sheild, thus becoming mostly harmless
Or we go back to page one in the gamer group where a laser cannot penetrate a shield, yet light passes through it. The shield is either aware or takes cues from its user, possibly subconsciously.
The orbs are clearly the product of highly advanced technology, sophisticated magic or something equally beyond our ken. The exact mechanics may be very complex, with many contingencies and safeties, built in. But the purpose, and result, will be very simple:
And if it’s a toolset designed to be used in hostile enviroment, that explains why it’s airtight
Panel 6 — Best sexy, pointy eared Max yet!
Sydney’s smile fills me with joy
And Max’s friendly smile is pretty sweet.
I’d rather see Vehemence killed off permanently. Like have this be a one time thing meant to shock the team into realizing that there are going to be enemies with unforeseen powers that they might not be able to beat… But only if it’s taken that way.
Still, it would be a terrible violation of Chekhov’s Gun if he isn’t killed… The whole “or interred” thing…
A Chekhov’s Gun is usually a prop that is waiting around. I don’t think Max’s speech counts like that. Especially with Max stating a more immediate preference to keep things below lethal despite the current problem with V.
No, it counts… Chekhov’s Gun isn’t about props, it’s about mentioning things and then having them become relevant. In good story telling, something shouldn’t be mentioned. Even in the case of throwing red herrings to the audience, the red herrings should still get mentioned later, if only to dismiss it as a red herring.
Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.
—Anton Chekhov
The mention of a gun is only as an example, not to restrict it to guns or to objects.
A variation on ‘Chekhov’s Gun’ is to be found in any Role-playing Game.
The rule for Referees is as follows. Never ever EVER place a Weapon of Mass Destruction or Doomsday Device in a game unless you are prepared for the Player-Characters to detonate it (probably by accident, almost certainly when/where least expected).
Sounds like you don’t know gamers very well. If someone finds a doomsday device inside an RPG, someone will activate it on purpose
I’ve been an active RPGer for more than THIRTY years, thank you, and a Referee for more than twenty.
no, he knows them VERY well… that’s what he MEANT… if you as the DM mention that there is a WMD… SOMEBODY, somehow, WILL find a way to get to it and activate it, thus you have completed the requirements for having fired that Chekov’s Gun. whether it is relevant to the current adventure or even if they save it for later it’s irrelevant for the point.
… And even if the PCs are totally unaware of a WMD / DD’s existance in their game, they will set it off by accident. Guaranteed. Every time.
Seen it all. From simple “What does THIS thingie do?” situations, to full-on firefights in really B-A-D places, to messing with unknown tech in astoundngly ill-advised ways (“It needs more power.” “OK, let’s hook it up to the Warp Drive…“), or playing mix’n’match (“None of these objects seem to do anything, so let’s stick ’em all together and see what happens…“).
Fair enough
I don’t know, I would actually prefer he die (permanently). I like this comic, I do, but frankly this whole fight has bugged me. V getting power from violence, fine concept. But so far he’s had just about every power he can think of, and he seems smart enough to manage to set up a decent amount of violence ahead of time whenever he wants to do something. His personality doesn’t seem what I would associate with a violence-fueled villain, he has no apparent weaknesses, and the way he’s being defeated strikes me as “Oh dear, I wrote myself into a corner!” I’m sure they meant it all along, but that’s how it comes across to me.
Like I said, I do enjoy the comic, I do. But this fight… urgh. Not a fan.
I have to disagree, he obviously thought of flight but so far has been unable to demonstrate it. It seems to me that he can’t just make up powers, more that he has powers that are flexible enough to make it seem like he is… Basically in a tabletop game, his character sheet was drawn up by a highly experienced munchkin from Hell.
Sort of a “one power” kind of character who has developed a lot of “power stunts.” His “one power” is to absorb energy, but everything else depends on how he uses that energy.
Actually my preference would be that he survives, and escapes.
Than, a little red threat can go through the comic where Arc investigates unexplained sources of violence, do their save the day thing, but has to keep in mind that Vehemence COULD be somewhere nearby, powering up. It would be a nice counter to stop the most powerfull members of the team from wiping the floor with every problem.
And it’d be a cool cat and mouse game, Vehemence never again getting a chance to grow powerfull enough to take on Maxima, and having to play it smart. Because remember, even AFTER the full on superpower battle royale, it took a direct fight with Maxima, who was holding back, to make him strong enough to actually beat Maxima. He’ll never get that chance again, so he’s not as much of a big danger anymore
Okay, just curious, but when did being choked not be counted as a violent act or being attacked? Being choked has always fallen under violent and being attacked before.
I think the consensus at this point is that it is violent, just not quite violent enough to keep Vehemence topped up. He is getting less from everybody holding him than he was getting from Max all alone while they brawled.
Plus he’s using power to stay alive and it’s implied that that is more then what he is taking in from the choking.
It’s covered in the last panel
The blog part of this page and Sydney also specifically mentions that he is in fact gaining power from being slowly drowned and choked out, but the whole staying conscious thing is draining his power a bit faster than he’s gaining power from the violence of the situation.
er, forget the blog, it’s just Sydney saying that.
Ok, a bit lat for asking about this but why didn’t his electricity set off her gun?
The primer in a cartridge is sensitive to shock, like from a firing pin, or to high levels of heat such as throwing it in a fire. Getting zapped did not do enough of either.
Igniting gunpowder (or cordite, etc) with electricity is harder than urban legend suggests.
For reference: https://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/electric_ignition/eignition.html
Anyway, we can assume arcswat has special insulated guns or something :-)
I don’t see that there is a particular reason it would. If nothing else, the gun itself probably acts like a Faraday cage, protecting the bullets inside, by diverting the current around them. Although flesh can suffer bad burns from a lightning strike, I don’t know if a modern bullet would have properties which made it vulnerable to the same?
What I would avoid doing is using that gun. I would be more concerned that parts of it might have fused together. But that would tend to render it inoperable, rather than set it off prematurely. To my, non-expert, mind anyhow.
The heat generated by a lightning strike can set off ammo and explosives. But not high voltage as such. Electrically fired primers are used with explosives though. V’s lightning wasn’t that hot or the blacktop would have been melting. Besides Max’s gun and other gear are shielded by her defenses. Only A Bomb got through them.
You are right. I forgot that her clothes etc are protected.
After a fashion, anyhow. Noting that Max was not wearing a bare midriff outfit when the fight started..
Sure, but A bomb only got through that because her whole thing is extremely powerfull explosions.
Ooo! Ooo! Reminds of an old “joke” (that is presumably real); some words of wisdom from an old computer tech, working with similar era stuff:
“So, when you are working with an ancient specialized giant plotting printer they dont make any more…. and the crucial, special part blows out… and IBM happens to locate the only 2 other known ones still left in existance…and they canibalize one of them… and they fly out the part to you, express… and the tech on the phone says, ‘oh hey, you might want to check that the main fuse is good before powering it on ….
LISTEN TO HIM!”
(the implication being — yes, they fried the replacement part)
If anyone was jumping through anything, it was Dabbler. Not Sydney.
Dabbler was jumping over, not through. =P
Recruit him and that way the fight end.
Nononononononononononono. Nothing that gives him even more screen time.
Max would shoot that idea down with live ammo.
or beat it with a mosque?
+1
Maxima probably worded it something like, “I think you’re bluffing. I’ll raze 1 mosque.”
Huh? “Your comment is awaiting moderation?”
O.o
What did I say to make that happen??
That is a sign of the comment system getting bogged down. Just a default message, at least here. Dave let’s us shoot our mouths off without moderation.
Mainly due to him not really having cause as of yet to do otherwise.. we’re mostly a “civil” bunch
Je suis Sydney!
Ahh, a fine line there. One side of which is heated debate over a philosophical principle*. The other side of which is where people are willing to kill and be killed defending it.
* Of course which principle is at stake, depends on your cultural viewpoint.
But, given the current world-wide sensitive sensibilities on the issue, at the moment, I think that is as far as even I care to take the issue right now.
Did you insult the Dust-Bunny Riding Overlords? Cause it sounds like you insulted the Dust-Bunny Riding Overlords .
I try to keep things on an even keel. But reality keeps rocking my boat.
Reality hates us.
Not for max, firing gun, no matter the size or load wouldn’t even muss her hair. Might kill folk standing next to her though…
There’s a thing that has been bugging me for a while.
Don’t you think that was kind of irresponsible to let Sidney be in the middle of a major battle?
I mean, even though she has the most awesome skill set ever, she didn’t had any kind of proper training (it is still the first day, right? I may have gotten lost timewise). That shadow-claw guy could have disemboweled her.
No military organization would allow someone untrained to be in the middle of a major firefight, even though the guy brought from home the most awesome gun ever. Especially not if the guy had the most awesome gun ever, because he could be dangerous to allies due to lack of training.
Best case scenario she would only give support a properly trained super. Wost, they put her in the noncombatant bench.
This whole incident was a surprise attack. ArcSWAT was supposed to have a nice quiet dinner to celebrate there first public appearance going smoothly and then go home for a good night’s sleep before starting Sydney’s training the next day. Vehemence had other plans. Max’s first order to Sydney was to put up her shield. Shadow Boxer’s ambush was foiled by Sydney’s reflexes and the orbs automatically moving to protect her. Luck admittedly. That didn’t stop Sydney from helping from inside the shield. And the rest is history.
This, exactly.
They had absolutely zero choice and even less warning in the matter. I am 110% certain that, if Sydney had a (known) T-Port ability, Max would have told her to leave at least until the fight was over.
And I am 120% certain that you are incorrect. Because Sydney has the ability to fly away at 400 MPH while encased in what appears to be an impregnable force field. Not quite as instantaneous as teleportation, but it accomplishes the same goal.
And so the point made by ShadowEdge stands: Not telling/ordering Sydney to bug out was rash and irresponsible. Mitigated somewhat when Maxima ordered Sydney to keep her shield up at all times. And then re-justified by all the time Sydney stood around with her shield down, especially the time she deliberately parked her shield around herself and Vehemence and had to rely on his forbearance in not killing her out of hand. Which was quite a gamble, considering that not only would he have gotten stronger by squashing her, but her force field would have dropped, re-initiating the general brawl which was feeding him the power he needed to kill Maxima.
So really, Vehemence beat himself by not killing Sydney when he had the opportunity.
Yeah, sure.
‘Fly away’ through what was basically a free-fire zone. Plenty of bad guys shooting or blasting and, if it should ever arise, thinking “Ooohh, this one is trying to escape. Let’s get her.”
… Which means in turn a very distinct possibility that Sydney would end up well away from any support, whilst an unknown number of supers ganged up on her. Great news if Max intgended using Sydney as an expendable decoy, not so good otherwise.
She WAS only giving support to the trained supers, remember?
She never actually engaged anyone on her own, she mostly helped deflect projectiles with her Lighthook and her Shield. And the only reason Maxima didn’t have her evaculated with the rest of the civies, is because she has an invincible superstrong Forcefield (with clear instructions to stay in the shield. Which shie followed the entire time)
And really, when you’re fighting a massive group of super villains, you’re not going to turn down someone who you know has an invicible shield, AND can still be usefull behind that shield
Thats not true Rob. She personally took out nega knuckle boy, lee press on claws, and some human torch knockoff. She also tripped vehemence at the start of the fight, blinded him temporarily so maxima could disarm him, and did various other bits of direct aid or attacks.
And Oberon, the shield thing with vehemence was a calculated risk. Her options were to block the aura and pray he was telling the truth about not wanting to kill or even cripple anyone, or let them all keep fighting till he got strong enough to snap maximas neck. It also helped she had several plans and backups in place to keep herself alive and vehemence busy.
As for staying out of it. Maxima basically told her to hang back in her shield and only after she proved she could contribute did maxima allow her to do so. Yeah there were ways to tell her to get lost, but keep in mind the exit for flight was blocked by about, ooooh 30 bad guys, most of whom have unknown abilities. “Hey noob! Go fly through the hail of enemy attacks to get out of here, and hope your shield doesnt have any weaknesses!” isnt exactly a sane choice.
This. Yes, it’s a super-strong shield. However, have we proven that the shield prevents all types of teleportation? There’s at least one villain in that party who can create teleportals. How about pathogens? Is the shield as strong when faced with a concentrated force vs. a distributed one? From the little testing that’s been done, there’s just too many unknowns.
Past a certain point of precaution, you just have to evoke writer’s privilege and end the thread. Dave wanted Sydney there because she is the star of the show. End of issue.
There is that to it. Mind you I just watched an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and I can see a parallel between what he routinely does, and Maxima’s decision to keep the new recruit in the thick of it.
One thing that Gordon does, which I always find rather unfair, is to pile the pressure up to the maximum, by changing the menu, rebuilding the restaurant, altering all the working practices, then immediately throw the staff into the deep end by packing the restaurant to the gunnels. Often including either former, dissatisfied, customers or even food critics. On the same night!
But, of course, I am neither in the catering trade nor (in the analogy) the military. Gordon and Maxima both know the value of assessing their new team in the toughest situation going. And Maxima realises that what she is doing is conducting war against super villains. And in war there will be times when risks have to be taken.
Would she want to put an untrained recruit into combat? I doubt it. But once the situation kicked off, she could see the value of both Halo’s powers to the team, and seeing how good Halo is at something other than Tongue-Fu and sparring.
Maxima was turning a Pearl Harbour type situation into a counter-attack and on-the-job training and assessment. You can bet every minute that the team were in the fight would benefit them more than a week’s worth of dull lectures on protocol and procedure!
It came close to failing, but note that Maxima kept the situation as controlled as possible, by ensuring she was the focus of the most serious threats (both the massed attacks from numerous unknown supers and then the arch-villain behind them).
And she kept Halo individually supervised by either herself or Anvil, to ensure that she did not get to make rookie mistakes. I can sympathise with suggestions that Sydney should not have been there.
If I had been her commander, I too would probably have put her in as safe a place as possible. But Maxima had confidence enough in her own abilities, including her assessment of Halo, to turn around a potential disaster.
Aside from the Shadow Warrior who was a complete surprise, Max kept her as safe as possible until she has evaluated the situation. After that she let Sydney take a more active role. Also if Max had sent Sydney away, how could Max be sure other attackers were not waiting to ambush anyone who did run off. At least there Sydney has protectors.
as well as the fact that Max was being a bit cold-blooded, in letting Sydney STAY so that she (Max) can evaluate Halo’s “I want to be a Hero” resolve, to find out first-hand if Halo suddenly realizes that the criminals “really” mean business, and that it’s gonna HURT if she/they screw up and if she subsequently tries to cut and run, thus giving the powers-that-be a clue that she wasn’t “really” superhero material in the first place, therefore it’s better NOW to pull her from the team, and put her in a support role etc… Sydney obviously Passed this little observational test, and is definitely going to be on the team in the future (remember its a flashback) and that she DOES have “The Right Stuff” at base. Sure she’ll need some (LARGE-ish) amount of training, but really, who DOESN’T when going into such a massive career change as she did?
If Maxima cannot be cold-blooded, when the situation calls for it, she does not deserve the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. That is part and parcel of the job. Most people are sheep, who rely on a few sheep-dogs to keep them safe. Maxima is one, who saw a kindred spirit in Sydney.
What makes her good at her job though, is knowing when to be warm hearted. Just look at panels 6 & 7 to see what I mean.
By getting the balance right, Maxima has gained a soldier who is willing to die for her. As opposed to a wet-behind the ears civilian, who has to be taught when to duck and when to shoot.
davie
I just notice something not a big thing but um I look at the ball she holding to the color on here bio and one is the wrong color for the force filed no big just though you should know
She has both the forcefield orb and the lighthook orb in her hands.
She has one in both hands. One is the force field, one is the lighthook aka ‘tentacle ball o’ fun’.
Let him up!? Okay, I’ll pat myself on the back for predicting that Vehemence could use his energy to substitute breathing, but that could take a while for him to drown, if it’s at all possible as he might be able to sustain himself from the violence from being held down.
But what could Halo be planning!? Obviously some kind of diplomacy? I don’t know.
Yea that’s what she meant with him going in the black. Asuming he passively loses some percent of power, as he’s powering down he’ll start to lose less, while still getting the same amount of power. And at that point, he could stay underwater forever, while Arc still has to spend energy to hold him down
“Lift” him up… I expect she means a maneuver like the classic school-bully tactic of pinning the victim’s arms back to expose defenseless target areas. I’m not sure what she’s planning, either, but I SINCERELY hope that no one on the grappling squad mishears that as a request to let him stand up on his own.
You know, I was thinking about the going into the black line and I wonder…. If he shrinks down and loses power, it will take less force to hold his head under water. Wouldnt that mean he is absorbing less violent energy too? He would no longer need more than a couple bricks to pin him in place instead of all of them.
and i think that Sydney’s line of thinking is that for the power level he is at right now, if he shrinks down to the size he was in, oh, say the “it’s Mammary Trapped” scene, then the power available that is the PROPORTIONATE level, would be ABOVE what he is capable of doing right now… therefore he could re-institute the Aggro-Aura, etc get out of the Light-hook noose, regen his throat, and then proceed to wipe the floor with everyone once again… and THIS time he WON’T fall for the same trick twice…
just exactly HOW Sydney plans on doing this “once and for all” thing, i am eagerly waiting for…
Dear Dave, love your work, really do.
I sincerely believe you are among those that raise the bar on webcomics.
Having said that…
Pull a stunt like that again and I don’t know how or when, but karma will get you, ohhh yes it will.
People were fired, people where insulted at traffic, fights were fought, children went to bet without supper and all because of your forgetfulness…
Sir, I Acknowledge that you are human (probably) but in this… You cannot fail!!!
Only commented now because :
a) I Was foaming at the mouth and typing uncontrollably
b) All other versions of this post were considerable more aggressive, might power V and you know how the rest goes.
By the way, loved the party afterwards idea…
Cheers…
um, dude? what the heck are you talking about? what stunt?
The comic was delayed a little on monday
Okay, the website is slowing down again. So definitely not caused by people refreshing over and over.
Seems OK to me. At least now, anyway.
I have experienced zero problems this year, and I have a minimal set up, that is barely better than broadband.
Mind you, does the company hosting the website have servers in multiple countries? If so, could there be problems with one server, and not with others? I have no idea how these things work on websites, so am purely speculating.
It looks like WordPress, so practically speaking it needs to run from one datacenter housing both the app servers and the database. Of course this means if you’re more network hops away from the server than someone else, you’ll get slower responses.
Doh, my “broadband” should have read “dial-up”.
Syd is surely going to eat some verrryy hot chili and then breathe into V’s face to play nice.
SURELY?!
Or just celebratory chili afterwards..
Chili? Far too tame. Sydney wouldn’t go for that, especially if it had meat in it.
Her usual preference runs more towards chopped veggies & rice..Topped off with stuff that would violate international laws concerning nuclear waste disposal.
The main ingredient in those bottles is referred to as ‘chili pepper’ in the same spirit that a nuke is referred to as ‘an explosive device’.
If he de – powers and shrinks back down, will his pants disappear? Sydney won’t be pleased…
The pants will stay just as they are when V shrinks. Midnight Destroyer has the local Brain Bleach™ concession. He’s got plenty on hand for when the inevitable happens.
Actually, I think his pants will stay as they are…But when Vehemence shrinks down, his pants won’t shrink & they won’t stay on him.
That’s what the Brain Bleach™ is for…
This isn’t a nit-pick (since it’s so common) as much as it’s a pet peeve of mine… water isn’t blue.
It looks really out of place here to me, particularly since violently moving water in a newly dug crater in the ground would undoubtedly be brown.
While you can get away with having large bodies of water be blue. Small splashes of water, like the ones against Sydney’s shield looks very strange like that. Like splashing blue paint instead of water. Some transparency would probably help.
As I said just a small nit-pick, since I absolutely adore Dave’s art. ^_^
Much of the water is still gushing out, under pressure, so will not have had much of a chance to pick up contaminants. Plus, being transparent, water will pick up a hue according to ambient sources. And the nearest lightsource is the blue skyhook.
It doesn’t work like that. The simple fact that people are stomping/moving around in the crater will mix the finer dirt with the water regardless, even if the water pipe was cut inside the crater (which it obviously isn’t). Since we know that the water pipe got cut outside of the main crater, the water also has to flow through the dirt to get to the middle of the crater.
Translucent materials by it’s very definition does not pick up ambient light. The reflective quality of water does however reflect ambient light which Dave has very accurately highlighted.
The reason large bodies of translucent water appears blue is that the red, orange and yellow light spectrum gets absorbed in the water over longer distances due to their wavelengths being longer.
This is what spawns the trope about blue water and it’s also easier to just depict it as blue rather than simulating the usual optical effects that water has on things observed through it.
In this specific case though it’s just one colour for another.
Also making it grey-brown would make it look like sewage.
It’s that color because…. REASONS. :)
It’s simply a comic coloring system to ensure you know what it is. rubble doesn’t normally look like what we see in the background.
“Once and for all”? Ok,
1) Have Dabbler screw his brains out and ship him off to Daddy as his latest son-in-law. I mean, seriously, don’t you think she’d have more than one.
2) Have someone put him in anime hammer space
One thing I am thinking about, when is power runs low, will his pants disappear?
1) Dabbler has better taste in harem boys.
2) No room.
3) The pants are real so they stay. Whether they stay on is another issue.
Actually there is room they just don’t have a lamphead to off to open the door.
https://www.bladebunny.com/comic/blade-bunny-epilogue-page-7-and-8/
“It’s full of hammers.” But of course.
hrmmm…. convince him to take a job for ARCswat after he serves his sentence.
I mean if he joins the goodguys there’s far more power in it for him (villains do things now and then but heroes see far more combat then their villain counterparts)
Hell no. Want to see as little as possible of Vehemence the Wonder Rager.
Unstable violence addicts don’t make good cops.
As we have at least one cosmologist here, perhaps you can explain why we have found methane on Mars? I always though that methane came from Uranus.
ouchie!
Methane is also a greenhouse gas worse than co2. Not to mention highly flammable. So if there’s any oxygen there Uranus cold be enflamed.
While methane can come from digesting or rotting plants it also occurs naturally. I believe it rains methane on Titan.
It rains Diamons on Jupiter.
And Titan is covered in Oil. US mission to Titan soon?
The methane rain rings enough of a bell that I am happy with that. And I know that diamonds * are common enough, in the universe, that we are aware of a planet which is made of just that. And the pressure on Jupiter is vast enough that such is plausible.
But oil? Are you implying that dinosaur astronauts made it to Titan, in enough quantities, for their remains to be detectable from Earth?
* If you were instead talking about a species of Daemons, then I will just take your word on it.
Beats me, but it’s there
https://www.space.com/4968-titan-oil-earth.html
And yes, I meant diamonds
Ahh, one man’s “hydrocarbon liquids” is another man’s “oil”. Mmm. Titan is high on the list of interesting planets for us to investigate and/or colonise anyhow. I guess that the dinosaurs must have been insightful, and figured out that we would want to drive cars there too?
Along those lines, do you think we should be planning our landfill sites more carefully? We want to ensure our legacy is of the maximum benefit, for the cockroaches, when it is their turn to rule the Earth.
HA!.. that tells you what YOU know… EVERYBODY knows that it’s REALLY gonna be the Hostess TWINKIES that will rule the world after mankind’s demise…
Hm..I’m thinking they are going to have someone with a tranq gun simply shoot him in the back of his mouth when he tries to speak when being lifted. :) Then again, she didn’t ask for that before telling them to lift him so…
A while before another big fight? are you kidding? this is only the first day of her flash back. see how long it took for that? years!
GRRRRRR. I hate waiting……. oh and when are you going to publish this into a book. I will be one of the first group to start to purchase it!!!
Can I just say that Maxima looks really good in panel 6 with her hair like that.
Also when did she manage to push it back behind her ear? I get that this is apparently taking quite some time, but I would think she’d need both hands for the current task.
Maxima has been receiving secret training from Zintiel. Who’s spells can animate her hair!
A side effect is the caster’s features gradually changing to that of a chaos elf. Such as gaining pointed ears and purple hair.
;) But “Chaos” is Sydney’s forte, not Max’s.
Thou sayest a mouthful.
I do believe that Sydney is the new avatar of chaos.
like it was said in an earlier post… i’m sure that Vehemence was NOT going to drown quietly… he IS struggling to get free, and as such everyone involved is thrashing around a bit, thus her hair gets thrown back behind her ears as a result… OR, it’s artistic license and Dave just wanted to show her face more in that panel…