Grrl Power

[lord_khaine]

Better or worse than a knife between the teeth..?

[Steckie]

Better!
That knife between the teeth made me cringe, but the knife in the foot not so much.

[Brance_a_Lot]

Yeah, that's the only injury that I've seen that really made my teeth grind in empathy. I think it's just because loosing a toe to a knife wound, to me, is a very foreign idea. Plus just the way the knife is sticking out, just makes me shudder.

[Metahuman1]

I was absolutely cringing at both of those, particularly when Heatwave was freaking out about thinking it was in the bone. THAT is gonna suck as far as recovery.

[Matuse]

And I was thinking Jim Carrey in the second Ace Ventura movie when he gets a spear in the leg.

[Avilan the Grey]

I was absolutely cringing at both of those, particularly when Heatwave was freaking out about thinking it was in the bone. THAT is gonna suck as far as recovery.

"This little piggy went to pain town"
Ouch.

[Metahuman1]

I just hope that being that the author want's this to be PG-13 and seems to frown on the grim/gritty fake "Realism" approach of a lot of modern comics, that after the fight we find out that Dabbler has a way to help her at least make a full recovery, or Sydney's orbs that don't do anything we know of yet, maybe it turns out one can trigger targeted regeneration and the reason it hadn't worked so far was that she hadn't tried it on an injury yet.

[Douglas]

I just hope that being that the author want's this to be PG-13 and seems to frown on the grim/gritty fake "Realism" approach of a lot of modern comics, that after the fight we find out that Dabbler has a way to help her at least make a full recovery, or Sydney's orbs that don't do anything we know of yet, maybe it turns out one can trigger targeted regeneration and the reason it hadn't worked so far was that she hadn't tried it on an injury yet.

It's already been revealed that they have a doctor with healing powers.

[Metahuman1]

I totally forgot they mentioned that, partially cause she's still wearing the eye patch. And partially cause it hasn't come up again in like 100+ pages. But still, that's cool, makes me happy that this way he can have the violence in the action scene's be brutal but not go grim and gritty.

[Steckie]

Interesting page, wonder when we'll see that guy watching the fight again.

[PsyBomb]

Just finished an archive binge on this. On the two Unknown Spheres, I'd be willing to bet one is healing of some kind, while the other is a "support sphere" that enhances the other one held. Both are reasonably things Sydney hasn't tried, and in the latter case probably requires more focus than she can normally muster.

What I REALLY wonder is about the level-up effects. Given how similar it is to the FFX Sphere Grid, I'm thinking about three major kinds of Nodes:

1) Nodes which increase the power of abilities
2) Nodes which unlock new abilities (the one she lit is likely one such)
3) Nodes which shift more power to HER, making her more of a super and probably accompanied by a slight character model shift (these are analogous to the stat-up spheres of FFX)

[Super Evil User]

At what point does the art get better? I can tolerate bad art for a while, like I did with Gunnerkrigg Court's weird Brazil nut faces in the first few chapters.

[Steckie]

The art gets better, but it doesnt change drastically.
Still, the comics are pretty funny and so far it has been an interesting take on the superhero genre.

[Avilan the Grey]

So, we finally see Dabbler's... Not A Lesbian powers in action.
Also, Math got pwned by a cheap shot.

[lord_khaine]

Well.. Math continues to be badass to the last though, i really liked his comment about not trying to power up mid fight, even if he directly afterward lost his concentration himself

[Steckie]

I was under the impression that the booby style was accidental and that Math basically defeated himself because he got distracted by the sexy.

[Metahuman1]

I dunno, she's been dealing with him for a bit now, I'd not be surprised if she picked up on him being kinda a perv and decided "what the hell, let's see if this works.".

[lord_khaine]

Im not sure, it really does seem to be accidential that her jacket gets ripped open during the fight, and i dont think she have had any way of figuring out how weak Math were against sexy womans.

At least not considering how he went all out against her in the fight, clearly treating her like a serious opponent, going for a knock out blow the moment she lowered her guards.

[PsyBomb]

New comic up. Intro to a few villains, and Maxima might have some problems coming...

[Nettlekid]

Is anyone else getting kind of sick of Dabbler's Mary Sueness? I really like most of the other powered characters: They have a well-defined set of abilities and a unifying theme within their powers, weaknesses that are usually not too significant but at least acknowledged, and are generally more interesting for it. The only exception to that is Maxima, but she's the Superman analogue for "Yes I know I'm OP," which has its own thing going for it. But Dabbler's whole thing is "I can do all these things (and I'm not the best at them (except I'm the only one who does them so I am, and also I'm really good with all of them)) and have an answer for every problem which was made to show off my answer to that problem." The weird radiation Omanyte is a good example.

Does anyone else feel that way, or am I being too harsh?

[Discus-Spinner]

I certainly think we could see more of Dabbler being outclassed in each field in which she dabbles (the way that Heavenly Sword showed that, no, Dabbler isn't that great a fencer), and also more of her supposed ADHD tendencies.

The hint we got from a couple of earlier strips is that there are demonic entities out there who she runs from rather than fighting, and who want a word with her, so I suspect that her long-term plot function is to drag the rest of the team into plots spun off from her past. But for now, the current story probably needs one of the major villains to sucker punch her soon.

[lord_khaine]

Really..? Dabbler..? i can honestly not understand why anyone would have a problem with her when we still have Maxima hanging invincibly up in the air.

Dabbler at least have been preassured in her fights, it might have been her ego getting in the way, but she were twice inches away from getting sliced up by heavenly.
First when she were saved by Achilles, and second when she blinked away at the last second from the ribbon blades.

[John Campbell]

Thing is, Max is powerful, but what she can do is pretty well-defined. She's super-strong, fast, tough, flies, and shoots plasma or something, and has a power pool that she can shift around to min-max those abilities.

Dabbler, on the other hand, might not have Max's raw power, but between her racial abilities, her magic, and her tinkering, there doesn't seem to be any limitation or boundary on what she can do, given the right spell or gadget, and from what we've seen so far, it seems that whatever the problem might be, she's got an app for that. And since very little of the stuff she's been doing has been previously established, it's got a definite stink of deus ex machina to it.

(We've got a super-speedster mage/tinkerer PC in our DC Adventures game, and it's causing similar problems. That power combination basically lets him have whatever powers he wants at any given moment, and it completely breaks the game.)

[Avilan the Grey]

Thing is, I like Dabbler, she is pretty much defined as Master of None character.
Sydney, on the other hand... That is something that struck me when I started reading this, she is REALLY becoming a Mary Sue. She is also the main character of the story, which makes it even more obvious.

[Discus-Spinner]

The thing is, Dabbler looks less like a Master of None and more like a Near-Master of All. She's been visibly outclassed in one field, once - and the only reason she nearly got her butt handed to her there was that she was assing around trying to prove a private point rather than pulling out the clear solution to the problem at that start.

[The Mormegil]

My take on Dabbler and the whole discussion is, we've had enough of this fight already. It was fun, but I want social interactions and public opinion influencing back tyvm.

[Hiro Protagonest]

The thing is, Dabbler looks less like a Master of None and more like a Near-Master of All. She's been visibly outclassed in one field, once - and the only reason she nearly got her butt handed to her there was that she was assing around trying to prove a private point rather than pulling out the clear solution to the problem at that start.

That point was to stick to only that field. It wasn't some sort of handicap within that field.

Dabbler, Maxima, and Halo are all at really high power levels. That doesn't make them Mary Sues. Dabbler's in particular is relative, but they're all still earthbound, just facing powered humans and they're at the upper end of strength for that (remember that talk about powers being intentionally engineered by some entity?). And even if Halo ends up being the most powerful person ever and the "chosen one" because she found the orbs rather than her powers being apparently engineered like the others, that's still not what the definition of a Mary Sue is.

I feel like either interdimensional or galactic/intergalactic conflict is going to come up (or both), and then the greatest human powers (including non-American ones. Oh and Dabbler... probably) will be facing things as strong as them.

[Metahuman1]

I would like to also point out that for all we know, they look so powerful cause there fighting lots of 3rd and 4th stringers. There Fighting The Vulture or Pyro, not Magneto or Green Goblin.

If fact I think they even implied that they were throwing the weaker one's at them first so that the heavy hitters could come in after with a better idea of what powers and tactics they'd be dealing with, and after Arc had already been worn down some.

[Discus-Spinner]

But they're now onto the heavy hitters, and still strolling it.

[Hiro Protagonest]

But they're now onto the heavy hitters, and still strolling it.

You're forgetting what group they're facing here. These guys aren't exactly the brightest even if they're smart enough to not dive right in.