GrrlPower III: Crisis Of Infinite Filler Comics

[Traab]

Pretty sure it's just the anime-esque art being used for a joke, as it sometimes does.

If it had just been the nosebleed, and maybe bulging eyes then sure, but seriously, she looks like something vital just ruptured in her head.

[Eldan]

Looks like a broken nose to me. Not sure how she got it.

I mean, probably an Anime nose bleed, but art failure.

[The Glyphstone]

And now I'm confused as to the timeline, in addition to the pool scene being ended abruptly.

[lord_khaine]

I guess the pool scene was mostly done at this point? The main bit was discovering how the atmosphere orb works. Pacing is one of the things most people complain about, so i think its fair if Dave jumps on to later the same afternoon.

That it is the same day is something i find likely though. Based on the exchange between Varia and Sydney, as well as her comment about the book she were reading.

[Kantaki]

Dabbler looks absurdly innocent in that second to last panel, considering she's... well, Dabbler.

[Traab]

And now I'm confused as to the timeline, in addition to the pool scene being ended abruptly.

Well at least the nosebleed wasnt anything serious. I still say that was seriously disturbing.

[The Glyphstone]

I guess the pool scene was mostly done at this point? The main bit was discovering how the atmosphere orb works. Pacing is one of the things most people complain about, so i think its fair if Dave jumps on to later the same afternoon.

That it is the same day is something i find likely though. Based on the exchange between Varia and Sydney, as well as her comment about the book she were reading.

I had to re-read the comic with its giant wall of text. My confusion was from the initial read where I thought it said 'the battle last night' instead of 'the other night'. Timeline issues resolved.

[lord_khaine]

I had to re-read the comic with its giant wall of text. My confusion was from the initial read where I thought it said 'the battle last night' instead of 'the other night'. Timeline issues resolved.

Your wall standard is surprisingly low, thats barely a fence compared to some of the more wordy comics :P

[Traab]

Super random power idea! Sydney had the diea of varia carrying around a bit of skin or blood of various people so she could use her powers without being in contact with them, but I was thinking a far better option would be BANDAIDS! Put a handful of skin cells on the pad and she can slap one on her arm during a fight and magneto her way around till she removes the thing. She could carry say, a half dozen carefully labeled bandaids of various people, several of each type for backups and if all it takes is a little skin, the donation would be effectively harmless to the supers involved so they wouldnt mind.

Also, they totally should have saved some of maximas blood from the super brawl. Let her try to activate her gestalt power off of that. Just out of curiosity to see if it would work.

[lord_khaine]

Good point about the bandaids, would be an easy way to get into and maintain skin contact with her cell sample.
But this requires that it is actually enough to activate her power. We really cant know if thats the case, of if she does need to touch the person.

Also not certain how relevant it is to test Max's blood. Its hard to get hold off, and Varia already gets a new super power from each person she touches.
Curiosity is always a reason though.

[Traab]

Good point about the bandaids, would be an easy way to get into and maintain skin contact with her cell sample.
But this requires that it is actually enough to activate her power. We really cant know if thats the case, of if she does need to touch the person.

Also not certain how relevant it is to test Max's blood. Its hard to get hold off, and Varia already gets a new super power from each person she touches.
Curiosity is always a reason though.

I honestly hope it DOES work that way, because otherwise, her power set sucks in many circumstances. Having to remain in physical contact with the person she is leeching powers from would be awkward as heck in a combat scenario.

[Narkis]

Spoiler: new update

Show

I feel like there's a page missing here.

[Celestia]

Spoiler: new update

Show

I feel like there's a page missing here.

Yeah, he hasn't gotten that whole "pacing" thing down yet. Either something is far longer than it needs to be or he skips essential context trying to avoid making things longer than they need to be. Usually both.

[-D-]

Yeah, he hasn't gotten that whole "pacing" thing down yet. Either something is far longer than it needs to be or he skips essential context trying to avoid making things longer than they need to be. Usually both.

But regardless of pacing, there is always time for FANSERVICE™.

[Brance_a_Lot]

There is an edit to the comic, he added a chat box explaining the jump, which makes it a little better. Having an proof reader would of probably caught it, which is why that's part of the writing process.

[Rogar Demonblud]

A proof reader/editor? Didn't he marry one?

((To explain the joke to the young'uns, most authors use their spouses for those exact purposes.))

[lord_khaine]

I honestly hope it DOES work that way, because otherwise, her power set sucks in many circumstances. Having to remain in physical contact with the person she is leeching powers from would be awkward as heck in a combat scenario.

I kinda hope it doesnt, because that would give Varia something around a couple million different potential powers. And that would get far to exploitable.

[Traab]

I kinda hope it doesnt, because that would give Varia something around a couple million different potential powers. And that would get far to exploitable.

She still has to carry them around and get the one she is after attached to her in combat. And most of her powers arent even remotely godlike so just being able to participate in any scenario if her swiss army powers can be arranged that way wouldnt make her overpowered. Not too mention the need to train with all of them. She would be a jill of all trades, master of none. Just as a comparison with a power we have seen. She has magnetic abilities using jiggawatts skin. Put her up against the actual magneto, or lorna dane, and she would likely be obliterated on both the raw power front, and danced around like a bull being led by a matador through sheer skill. While she has a basic competency of the powers, they have had decades of practice and training and experience in using them in ways she has never even considered. So she loses in all ways.

[lord_khaine]

She still has to carry them around and get the one she is after attached to her in combat. And most of her powers arent even remotely godlike so just being able to participate in any scenario if her swiss army powers can be arranged that way wouldnt make her overpowered. Not too mention the need to train with all of them. She would be a jill of all trades, master of none. Just as a comparison with a power we have seen. She has magnetic abilities using jiggawatts skin. Put her up against the actual magneto, or lorna dane, and she would likely be obliterated on both the raw power front, and danced around like a bull being led by a matador through sheer skill. While she has a basic competency of the powers, they have had decades of practice and training and experience in using them in ways she has never even considered. So she loses in all ways.

The bit about carrying them around and using them is really easily gotten around with the sort of gear Achon has access to. Heck, even with current tech level its easy to make a power glove/belt for her.

And that most of her powers isnt godlike is to start with kinda hard to argue when we have only seen her actively using 1-2 of them. Though it hardly matters. When she has access to some million different ones it does not matter to much if 95% of them end up sucking.

Regarding the magnetic power comparison, then Magneto isnt a good model. Due to power creep then its kinda a long time since his power relied on actual magnetism. Even comic book magnetism.
Though the whole deal about having that many different powers is that you dont fight someone head on. You dont match magnetism against magnetism. You turn into living lighning or something like that.
Point is being able to cheat the skin contact bit would turn her into a more effective version of For Whom the Bells Toll.

[Traab]

The bit about carrying them around and using them is really easily gotten around with the sort of gear Achon has access to. Heck, even with current tech level its easy to make a power glove/belt for her.

And that most of her powers isnt godlike is to start with kinda hard to argue when we have only seen her actively using 1-2 of them. Though it hardly matters. When she has access to some million different ones it does not matter to much if 95% of them end up sucking.

Regarding the magnetic power comparison, then Magneto isnt a good model. Due to power creep then its kinda a long time since his power relied on actual magnetism. Even comic book magnetism.
Though the whole deal about having that many different powers is that you dont fight someone head on. You dont match magnetism against magnetism. You turn into living lighning or something like that.
Point is being able to cheat the skin contact bit would turn her into a more effective version of For Whom the Bells Toll.

I dunno, having to mentally flip through all your options to determine the right choice to make and access it versus automatically countering whatever you are dealing with? I think death toll has the better power set for combat scenarios at least. She at best would be ben-10. As while technically she could access some 7 billion powers, realistically she will only have access to about a dozen or so. Several of which are utility powers like teleporting, or could cause massive issues such as using sydneys skin causing a conflict in orbs. Flexibility isnt overpowered so much either. After all, we already have sydney who can swap around numerous power combos, max who can do the same, and dabbler who has her own mix of swords, sorcery, and super high tech gadgets to work with.

As for magneto, it was just an example. Chances are the outcome would be the same with any grrl power character she can emulate. Said other super has had way longer to master their ability and its every nuance, while varia barely knows the basics.

[lord_khaine]

I dunno, having to mentally flip through all your options to determine the right choice to make and access it versus automatically countering whatever you are dealing with? I think death toll has the better power set for combat scenarios at least. She at best would be ben-10. As while technically she could access some 7 billion powers, realistically she will only have access to about a dozen or so. Several of which are utility powers like teleporting, or could cause massive issues such as using sydneys skin causing a conflict in orbs. Flexibility isnt overpowered so much either. After all, we already have sydney who can swap around numerous power combos, max who can do the same, and dabbler who has her own mix of swords, sorcery, and super high tech gadgets to work with.

As for magneto, it was just an example. Chances are the outcome would be the same with any grrl power character she can emulate. Said other super has had way longer to master their ability and its every nuance, while varia barely knows the basics.

Death Toll has a massive weakness though. He can only ever be proactive, he cant really do anything against a passive problem. Like people ignoring him and focusing the rest of the team. Or just continuing with their crime.
But Ben-10 is a good example of what she would likely end up as. Except its the different members of JLA she changes into. And its not like all the utility powers makes you any weaker. If not meant for a combat situation they likely require a lot less training, and could be stored in a seperate power set.

And flexibility is power. Its more or less the main reason for how powerful Dabbler is, and she could force a draw against Max. Varia's power meanwhile gives more or less unlimited flexibility.
We also dont know how instinctive power use actually is. Sydney has almost no training with her Orbs. But she is already doing amazingly well with Flight Orb, Force Field and Light Hook.

[Rogar Demonblud]

He can only ever be proactive, he cant really do anything against a passive problem.

This doesn't scan. Do you mean he's stuck as reactive/can't be proactive?

[lord_khaine]

This doesn't scan. Do you mean he's stuck as reactive/can't be proactive?

Mehh.. english is a bitch of a language. I did mean he is stuck as reactive. He is a tank character without a taunt ability.

[Rogar Demonblud]

No, no, no. English is not a bitch. It's a cribhouse whore that occasionally follows other languages into dark alleys to knock them out and riffle their pockets for new words.

[Douglas]

No, no, no. English is not a bitch. It's a cribhouse whore that occasionally follows other languages into dark alleys to knock them out and riffle their pockets for new words.

The version of that joke that I've heard has "loose grammar" rather than "new words".

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Submarine Sidney, here we go.

I'm almost wondering now how all those werewolfves and such are going to manage. Don't they have more pressing matters at the moment than deep sea diving exercises?

[lord_khaine]

Well.. at least Max got to tell Sydney what a lot of us likely were thinking. That as a basic recruit she dont belong anywhere except the base doing different sorts of training. At least before fate dunked her in the head..

I'm almost wondering now how all those werewolfves and such are going to manage. Don't they have more pressing matters at the moment than deep sea diving exercises?

Its likely only Ingsol that is there, it might be his own private hideout.

[Traab]

Someone brought up an interesting question. Buoyancy. If sydney has her shield up to keep from being crushed, and said shield is being filled with breathable air. How the hell is she going to sink to that depth? I mean, im no expert on this sort of thing, but thats going to take a lot of force to push down, and hold down. I guess maxima is strong enough to do it, but I get the feeling it will be a massive pita. The bigger the shield, the worse it will be. There are other logistical issues to worry about. Where is all that air being pumped into the shield going to go? Its basically impermeable to air, and she wont be able to drop the shield for even an instant to release it. Soooo how the heck is that going to work?

[tyckspoon]

Someone brought up an interesting question. Buoyancy. If sydney has her shield up to keep from being crushed, and said shield is being filled with breathable air. How the hell is she going to sink to that depth? I mean, im no expert on this sort of thing, but thats going to take a lot of force to push down, and hold down. I guess maxima is strong enough to do it, but I get the feeling it will be a massive pita. The bigger the shield, the worse it will be. There are other logistical issues to worry about. Where is all that air being pumped into the shield going to go? Its basically impermeable to air, and she wont be able to drop the shield for even an instant to release it. Soooo how the heck is that going to work?

Ingsol might have a construction down there to use, in which case all they need to do is survive traveling down to it; that shouldn't be a big deal. If they want to have an extended conversation just hanging out on the sea floor, yeah, that's going to get weird. Sydney should have the flight power to get the ball down there, but she doesn't have enough hands to do all the functions they're going to need - and letting go of either shield or fly to refresh the air will have interesting and potentially lethal consequences.

(I'm pretty sure Maxima could do this herself, anyway, if the same effect that provides protection to her clothes could be extended to cover an air tank or seven and rebreather. Probably only one tank needed if she can ascend without having to worry about decompression.)

[Traab]

Ingsol might have a construction down there to use, in which case all they need to do is survive traveling down to it; that shouldn't be a big deal. If they want to have an extended conversation just hanging out on the sea floor, yeah, that's going to get weird. Sydney should have the flight power to get the ball down there, but she doesn't have enough hands to do all the functions they're going to need - and letting go of either shield or fly to refresh the air will have interesting and potentially lethal consequences.

(I'm pretty sure Maxima could do this herself, anyway, if the same effect that provides protection to her clothes could be extended to cover an air tank or seven and rebreather. Probably only one tank needed if she can ascend without having to worry about decompression.)

Now thats true. I hadnt thought of an undersea base that would likely have breathing spaces setup in it. It makes sense, not everyone can communicate underwater after all. So getting down there shouldnt be an issue really. I asked in the mad science setion and made a few assumptions and they figured it would only take roughly enough force to lift a couple cars to submerge her bubble which maxima can do with one finger and not notice. So sydney providing the transport vehicle while maxima provides the acceleration should work well. As for pressure, would the bends even be an issue like that? Inside her shield she might as well be on a submarine, and the crew doesnt have to worry about the bends from a quick ascension.