en en en en en es es es pt en en fr en en en en fr en en en en en en en en en en en en fr fr en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en it en en en ca en en it en en en en en en en it en en en en en en fr en en en en en en en en en en en es en en fr en en en en it en de en en en en en it en en da en en en en en zh en en de en en zh en en en fr en en cs en ta en en en en en en en en en en it en en en en en de en en fa en en en en en en en en it en en en en pt en en it en en en zh en en en en it en en it en en it en en en de en en en zh en en en it en en en en en en en en it en en de en en zh en en it en en en fr en en pt en en it en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en nb en en en en en en en en de en en it en en en en en en en en en en en eo en en en it en en de en en en en en el en en en en en en en fr en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en fr en en fr en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en de en en en en en it en en en eo en en en en en en en en it en en en it en en en en en en en it en en es en en en en en en en en en en it en en en en de en en en en en en en en en en en en ko en en ja en en en en en gl en en zh en en en en en hu en en en en en en en en lt en en fr en en en de en en en en en en es en en en en en fr fr en sv en en en en en en en en en en en en de br fr it de ceb ceb ko ja en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en es fr en en fr es en en en it en en en en en en en en de en hu en en fr en en en es en en en en en en en en en de zh en en en en en en en en sv en en en nl en en en en en en en de en en de en en en en en en
You know, sometimes the titles to these pages are funny references or portmanteaus or repurposed idioms, and sometimes they’re “I can’t think of anything better and it’s been an hour.” It’s the equivalent of browsing Netflix for 25 minutes before finally clicking on something that barely surpasses the “I’m sick of scrolling” threshold. I will let you decide which kind this title is.
The equations floating around Deus are actual math I found after googling disaster recovery. Of course, without knowing what all those letters stand for, they’re probably not immediately useful. It seems to me that there aren’t nearly enough letters and symbols to cover all the needs in math. I mean, sure “c” stands for “the speed of light” in one equation, (which now that I think about it, is probably called “c” because it’s one of the few universal constants. Huh. That’s probably super obvious but I never really thought about it before.) What was I… Oh, right, so “c” means the speed of light in one equation, then it means “circumference” in another, and “number of accidental circumcisions” in another. Of course, the need to reuse symbols for variables is because we only have so many symbols in Romanized languages, but it makes me wonder if in Chinese equations for stuff like this just use the Chinese symbol? I mean, why memorize the what the fancy cursive “Q” in the equation means if you can just use a symbol that means “population” and instead of “Co” with a superscript “i” and a subscript “j”, just use the symbol for “local economic impact” or whatever.
Okay, sure, despite Chinese having ~106K characters, there’s probably not a singular one that means “local economic impact” but you get what I mean. And yes, I know I could probably just google the answer to my question, but I imagine the answer is probably no, Chinese math probably doesn’t look like a three dimensional sentence, but I think that’s a missed opportunity.
ANYWAY. Panel 5 there is just supposed to be a very truncated version of all the stuff going through his mind. He’s also considering environmental impact, cost of relocating population, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis prevention, etc. Basically doing a super computer’s worth of work, but guided by a creative, organic mind. His conclusion is that overall this is a net positive, but will take some effort to fully deal with.
The August Vote Incentive is up!
I’m a big fan of John Byrne’s run on “The Sensational She Hulk” and the imminent show looks very Sensational influenced. Therefore, I was inspired to draw some buff (pun intended) She Hulk, and threw in Red She Hulk for fun. Also, a wild Sydney for scale. Enjoy them posing in various outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
August 25, 2022, 10:51 am | # | Reply
Well, whatever happened it doesn’t seem that Darude wasn’t working directly with Deus. But this is clearly a rule 39 issue, so Darude must be working with the idiots invading HQ.
August 25, 2022, 8:33 pm | # | Reply
… Who sez Sandy wasn’t already working for SmugD?
August 29, 2022, 2:26 am | # | Reply
Mostly logic, common sense, and the fact that Deus’s thought process was calculating the capture of a grade A+ elemental manipulator.
If Darude already was working for him, Deus would not be thinking about the benefits of having him captured and interrogated. You can’t even argue that he was saying it in order to throw Maxima off track, because he didn't SAY anything. It was his THOUGHTS. His very thought bubble shows that Darude was not working for Deus.
I don’t think Deus works with anyone. He works around them, and he works with them as subordinates, but he doesn’t work WITH them.
And while I wouldn’t put it past him to have orchestrated that attack, I’m guessing it’s more likely that he just knows all about the Masked Idjits and their attack, and has planned 10 moves ahead in response, WITHOUT actually coordinating with them.
August 28, 2022, 5:59 am | # | Reply
they could also be totally independent attacks, i mean the idiots invading HQ could have just decided to use the moment where the strongest members of the team are out to attack and that just coincided with the attack at Galytin by a coalition of arab nations hell bent on taking down a rival
i wouldnt be surprised however if Deus was aware of both attacks and organized things for them to coincide
August 25, 2022, 10:52 am | # | Reply
Wow. Deus doing the correct thing, the best way possible, as a responsible leader of a nation. That’s some seriously awesome math there.
Remember, he’s not the titular leader of Galtyn.
He’s just the main economic advisor.
It’s just that economics covers SO many things. Infrastructure, housing, transportation, schools…
Yep, just the money. Which is everything.
I love Deus’ take on it, too.
“Money is simply the root of all.”
August 25, 2022, 10:53 am | # | Reply
Opal is kinda cute in this page.
Right? I actually came down into the comments to say that she looks legitimately happy and healthy here. Good to see that Deus’s work release employees are legitimately doing well.
I think there is also a subtle joke here. It makes some sense that someone who calls themselves “Opal” would really like a large field of shiny, colorful amorphous quartz (although it is probably too dry here for this stuff to actually be a form of opal).
August 29, 2022, 5:03 am | # | Reply
Opal actually takes a long time to form, even if you’re making it synthetically. This is more like Trinitite.
I mean Deus strikes me as the type who wants people who actually WANT to work with him. even if he wants to make sure they don’t have other options for the really valuable ones. better for them to actually like it anyway, happy workers means better work, less chances of them fucking something up due to spite and can’t forget it can just feel nice to have people who actually like working for you
August 25, 2022, 11:10 pm | # | Reply
He actually does, I mean, yeah he is a villain. But he seems like the Hank Scorpio kind of villain.
August 29, 2022, 12:01 am | # | Reply
Strikes me more like the Xanatos type, not EVIL, but a man who is out to further his own goals and has plans within plans within plans that will make sure that his goals get as far as possible
By the end of Season 2, Xanatos was no longer even an antagonist. He was a full on hero at that point.
August 28, 2022, 5:54 am | # | Reply
its just being smart yes, if you treat your employes like trash eventually it will come back to bite you in the ass, many villains have failed because their subordinates betray them at the most critical moment because of the way they were treated, Deus obviously sees the value at treating people nicely even if its only to secure their loyalty to him
August 25, 2022, 11:03 am | # | Reply
Technically speaking c is the speed of causality, which is the true speed limit of the universe and what dictates the speed of light. The speed of light is a consequence of causality having a a finite speed, not a determining factor in and of itself.
August 25, 2022, 4:28 pm | # | Reply
You’re actually wrong, c is the speed of light, it stands for celerity, meaning swiftness of movement.
You can’t just disagree about such matters, you need either arguments or sources.
August 27, 2022, 8:23 am | # | Reply
Claims made without evidence can be refuted with just as much evidence.
August 28, 2022, 1:02 pm | # | Reply
The first claim contained an argument that connected the speed of light to causality and pointed out that causality is the underlying principle and therefore takes precedence.
It is not a strong argument, but at least it is one. The second claim might have been an argument based in historical consensus in the scientific community (at the time that E = mc^2 was published), but it didn’t mention the historical consensus so it isn’t an argument.
Causality, (the relationship between cause and effect.
the principle that everything has a cause.)
August 26, 2022, 12:18 am | # | Reply
Actually c in E=mc^2 is ‘a constant’, not the speed of light.
The problem is there are different ways to measure E and m for ONE combination of measures it is the speed of light, but for others it is a different value.
Is E joules, kilojouls, watts or something else. Is m grams, moles, etc. As the way you measure them changes, the value of the constant changes, but for that combination of measures the value is always the same.
August 26, 2022, 2:24 am | # | Reply
Physical equations are independent of conventional units. Watt is not a unit of energy, mole is not a unit of mass. The equation of mass–energy equivalence follows from the theory of relativity, which is fully based on various experimental results concerning the speed of light (c).
August 26, 2022, 1:43 pm | # | Reply
Some physical constants and equations are unitless, but most are directly tied to conventional units. A mole for example may be unitless in the equations, but it is a specific quantity of atomic-level particles. A watt is a rate of energy transfer (joules / second).
August 26, 2022, 6:49 pm | # | Reply
All of which is largely irrelevant to the fact that c is the speed of light, which is not unit-less. Whatever units you pick for mass and speed, will determine what units you get for the energy, and how much converting you have to do. I suggest NOT measuring c in furlongs per fortnight.
August 26, 2022, 3:08 am | # | Reply
I always thought that ‘c’ was ‘coefficient’
August 25, 2022, 11:06 am | # | Reply
I like Opal much better without the silly visor, and with her hair down. This is a much better look for her.
August 25, 2022, 11:19 am | # | Reply
D is smart enough to know that suggesting Syd should have just bubbled him should be his last words if Max was in hearing range..
August 25, 2022, 12:07 pm | # | Reply
He wasn’t saying that. It’s a thought bubble.
August 25, 2022, 12:08 pm | # | Reply
I always thought a superhero was a catastrophe with a good PR department… maybe the same thing.
August 25, 2022, 1:03 pm | # | Reply
Depends on the superhero and the threat.
Batman vs the Riddler? Yeah, that’s not going to climb to a ‘catastrophe’ deal.
Superman vs Doomsday? Yeah, there’s going to be some property damage there.
August 25, 2022, 5:14 pm | # | Reply
Batman vs the riddler resulted in the city being flooded and mass casualties, definitely a catastrophe.
August 25, 2022, 9:40 pm | # | Reply
I believe in that case, the Riddler had already started the process to burst the dam before Batman became aware? And was too late to stop in the first place?
A fight between the two, though, isn’t going to bring down a skyscraper.
August 26, 2022, 12:10 am | # | Reply
Batman isn’t primarily the fighting type of hero, he’s the thinking kind. So it isn’t primarily his fights that cause the catastrophe.
Also, batman is an anti-hero, not a superhero.
Also too, batman created each of his antagonists, so in a way he caused the burst dam indirectly.
August 28, 2022, 6:03 am | # | Reply
yes but the super heroes that are walking catastrophes usually fight against villains that are walking xk end of the world scenarios, so what do you prefer a couple of destroyed building or the entire human race getting anihilated by the god of hyper death or something like that
August 25, 2022, 12:23 pm | # | Reply
I need a reminder: why did Max’s nemesis go on a rampage over there?
August 25, 2022, 1:10 pm | # | Reply
We don’t know yet. He just showed up.
It looks like he was hired, though, if an enemy nation was invading.
August 25, 2022, 1:46 pm | # | Reply
he is a terrorist and/or mercenary who was working for “someone” or possibly just himself, to attack there. Given that there is also an attack going on at the Archon main base, it was probably a nefarious plan by “someone”
That is all the information we know of atm
August 25, 2022, 1:51 pm | # | Reply
I think he was covering an assault team coming in helicopters – likely to steal or destroy galtyn fabricators. (1056 – 1057) – though the demons seems to have taken care of those.
I guess darude did not expect maxima to be there :) (afterall, where else to hide from maxima and still be able to use his powers than somewhere where sandstorms can naturally happen ;))
August 25, 2022, 2:52 pm | # | Reply
August 27, 2022, 7:37 am | # | Reply
True, but also real, actual demons.
There are those who would immediately scream incoherent religious babble & attack.
…but the “hup-hup-hup” would seem to be an indicator…
August 28, 2022, 6:09 am | # | Reply
my guess is that it is a coalition of several arab nations hell bent on either taking down a rival (lets remember that Deus just finished invading and basically anexing a country with both hyper advanced space weaponry and a literal army of demons) or at least reducing their capabilities by destroying or capturing the replicators (the missiles that they launched where aimed at the facilities that hold said replicators), but since they know that a bunch of helicopters and missiles wouldnt be enough to take down Galytin with all its supers and alien technology they decided to use one of their most powerful weapons, Darude
August 25, 2022, 12:33 pm | # | Reply
So, Deus IS a super, and his power is doing complex mathematical calculations in his head at super-computer speeds. Probably the best power to have if you can’t be Maxima.
August 25, 2022, 1:56 pm | # | Reply
I think deus “hinted” at that in #1039 ;), that a “super intelligence” would be among the biggest threats to countries :)
August 25, 2022, 2:33 pm | # | Reply
And the reasoning in 1040.
Super intelligence doesn’t mean it’s SMART. And is as much a threat to itself as anything around it.
August 28, 2022, 7:21 pm | # | Reply
Well said. Personal experience!
August 25, 2022, 5:18 pm | # | Reply
Still doesn’t explain how he is able to know stuff like when he accessed the vault or Tom being on planet. Even if he has a truly staggering amount of sensors and observation equipment gathering data that hasn’t been shown, it wouldn’t explain the vault.
August 25, 2022, 6:12 pm | # | Reply
It’s almost as if he can hire superpowered spies. Or buy loyalty. Or be like Sciona and Ingsol.
Archon doesn’t have a monopoly on supers or supernaturals.
August 25, 2022, 6:38 pm | # | Reply
Intelligence is one of those things that everyone ‘knows’ the definition of, except when we start drilling down there is a lot of divergence in meaning. Dues has an increased processing power compared to other people, this enables him to ask the right questions over and over again. he makes his own luck. because he can process more he can consider more. I think one of the early expressions of his intelligence is to develop a thorough understanding of human behavior.
I remember someone writing a major paper on human phycology. before publication the author has a successful run as a day trader. Dues is of course going a bit further with his understanding. now if only he could impart a love of puns in his high priestess.
August 26, 2022, 7:21 am | # | Reply
He knew Scorpio. Scorpio was bothered by him knowing too much. If we assume he’s been watching her somehow, then Scorpio led to what’s her name who led to the vault. We should also assume he’s found out about the Council and has spies there.
August 27, 2022, 8:22 am | # | Reply
…the hell are you on about?
August 29, 2022, 1:32 am | # | Reply
Sciona and Scorpina were two different people
August 31, 2022, 3:51 pm | # | Reply
Or Deus had live updates from Harem, while Tom and Dabbler were participating in reunion activities.
August 25, 2022, 12:48 pm | # | Reply
Who wouldn’t want to honeymoon in the hotel at the center of the Mighty Halo Glass Desert? I’ll bet Deus can find a super who can melt a dip in the ocean of glass and create a really huge swimming pool. Maybe even shape the hotel out of glass, like the ice hotels in Scandahoovia. Tourism by portal isn’t to be sneezed at either.
August 25, 2022, 2:57 pm | # | Reply
Glassed sand is pretty fragile once it’s cooled without the additives glass makers add it’s worse than fine crystal. Add in the high day temps and the cool nights it wouldn’t stay glass for more than a year. Plus as sharp as the bits get it’s more of a hazard than a tourist trap. I worked at a window factory briefly and thanks to a moron on a fork lift my legs were buried by broken glass. Even with the protective clothing my legs are covered in scars from it.
August 25, 2022, 10:31 pm | # | Reply
Actually, and the purple tint hints at this, that this isn’t ‘true’ glass. We know sydney’s blast can get through space kaju armor and attack space craft armor like butter. So, with that kind of melting point this likely skipped glass and went right to obsidian, IE: volcanic glass.
August 26, 2022, 6:53 pm | # | Reply
We will probably get a footnote about that, or an aside, in the next few pages. Deus will definitely have it analyzed to see what it will stand up to.
August 26, 2022, 8:19 pm | # | Reply
since sydney made it- it will make bottles very resistant to high Scottville substances.
August 25, 2022, 1:13 pm | # | Reply
Not at all surprised that Deus is already figuring out ways to profit off of this. The tourism angle is obvious. Give the area a catchy name (The HaloBurn!) and reap billions in tourism and the associated commercial activities. Definite political benefits fall out of tourism as well. It’s hard for other country’s to paint Deus as some sort of heartless dictator when large numbers of people visit Galtyn and witness with their own eyes a happy and prosperous population.
August 25, 2022, 2:53 pm | # | Reply
Also known as “You now get to apply for extradition, right after the U.S. state department negotiates an extradition treaty with our country.”
August 25, 2022, 3:12 pm | # | Reply
Deux making his best “Obama not bad meme” impression in the second to last case
he seems to be quite impressed with Sidney’s decision right here
August 28, 2022, 6:12 am | # | Reply
he seems to be able to think hyper fast and process vast amounts of information and imo it seems like Sydney is like a little version of him capable of coming up with crazy ideas that work in an instant
August 25, 2022, 3:28 pm | # | Reply
I looked up that long word; it really is a thing. It also has a shorter name of “Silicosis”.
August 27, 2022, 11:35 pm | # | Reply
The long version was invented as a demonstration of how scientific terminology can be abused to create excessively long words.
August 25, 2022, 5:59 pm | # | Reply
Just spent the last few days binge-reading the entire archive and I have to say I’m super-impressed with this comic. The art starts off very good and becomes fantastic over time.
And looking way back at https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-4/ comic number four, it looks like Halo’s got a promotion coming up. You know, sometime in the next decade or so.
Hope to see you all then!
August 25, 2022, 9:39 pm | # | Reply
Halo got a promotion already, remember, when we got to see her parents.
August 28, 2022, 7:24 pm | # | Reply
That was, a reward, not a promotion!
August 25, 2022, 6:26 pm | # | Reply
Here’s a theoretical solution that doesn’t involve Halo glassing an Olympic Stadium sized patch of desert:
Halo bubbles around Darude AND Maxima. Halo is (theoretically) at risk, but Maxima is right there and way faster than sand-storm guy who is also cut off from 99.9% of his sand. It would be a tight fit, though.
August 25, 2022, 10:07 pm | # | Reply
What keeps him (or many other supers with ranged powers) from injuring Sydney from a distance in the first 1/2 second while cage-fighting Max? He could easily blind her with sand, or drive it down her mouth and shred her lungs, and she’d very likely have to let go of Mr Bubble. And all her defensive abilities only manifest outside the shield, so she’d be a completely defenseless target. Aside from telekinetic control of the orbs, which would only get in Max’s way.
Limiting his ability effectively would a very small enclosed area, which means Max has very little margin for mistakes. Giving her more space to move the battle away from Sydney means a larger bubble and more power for Darude. Sure, Max could boost to superspeed (at the cost of strength and shields), but it would be extremely risky. Far better to pursue a plan that doesn’t expose either team member to extreme danger.
For the right enemy without ranged power though, this could be a good way of cutting off escape or assistance. A teleporter or even a speedster would be screwed.
August 26, 2022, 10:46 am | # | Reply
> What keeps him (or many other supers with ranged powers) from injuring Sydney from a distance in the first 1/2 second while cage-fighting Max?
First: Max can catch bullets mid air within a meter or so of firing the gun. That’s approximately 0.01 seconds, so 1/2 second is a ludicrously long time for Max.
Second: Halo was operating without her shield. She was already at as much risk from attacks, especially ranged attacks.
August 29, 2022, 8:55 am | # | Reply
‘Second: Halo was operating without her shield.’
That brings up the question how she survived flying around while producing a column of rising air thousands of degrees hot. Seriously, she should have been air-fried!
August 26, 2022, 2:14 am | # | Reply
That is not Halos, MO!
August 26, 2022, 2:15 am | # | Reply
She can embiggen, the shield interior.
August 25, 2022, 6:49 pm | # | Reply
For those still regarding Deus as the ultimate villain in all this… note how his calculations address the issue of Halo’s life and well being. “Bubbling him would have cut him off from the sand, but that would have endangered Halo – ergo, that option can be dismissed out of hand.”
Villains are the ones willing to make “acceptable compromises” and “necessary sacrifices” (usually of people who DIDN’T volunteer to be sacrificed). When Lex Luthor tells a woman, “thank you,” then grabs her to use as a human shield, that’s a villain. When Thanos sighs heavily and acts as if his plan is the only possible solution (as opposed to his REAL motivation: to prove to himself and others that he was right all along), then commits genocide, that’s a villain. When a guy in a nice suit at the Pentagon refers to the civilians surrounding a target as “collateral damage,” that’s… a villain.
Deus is the opposite of that. He even makes his subordinates watch instructional videos until they cry, if they get too casual with the killing. I’m in agreement with Pander here. Deus is unquestionably the HERO of this world. He’s probably the only fictional character I’ve ever seen who, if you gave him the Death Note, would write down the names of oligarchs who “will die painlessly AFTER giving all their money to a foundation to be used in solving wealth inequality and other issues,” and foil any attempts to stop him by writing down the names of investigators who “will die at the end of a long, happy life, having decided to give up the investigation and going on to do whatever will make them happy and not harm anyone else.”
August 25, 2022, 8:38 pm | # | Reply
Just because he cares about his own arse (he knows if anything happens to Sydney, Maxi will be rampaging) doesn’t stop him from being a minor villain
August 29, 2022, 2:24 am | # | Reply
Wait… why would Maxima be rampaging at DEUS if anything happened to Sydney. Deus had nothing to do with Darude. Darude was attacking Galytn, which is the nation that Deus is pretty much in charge of. He was going after Deus, essentially.
IF Sydney HAD decided to pull a Vehemence strategy to cut Darude off from the sand, then died? Maxima would not be angry at Deus at all. She’d be angry at whatever nation or nations sent Darude with the soldiers to attack Galytn.
PS – an alternate strategy could have been to bubble Darude with Sydney AND Maxima. Maxima’s fast enough to stop any attacks a sand-less Darude can muster, including protecting Sydney, since Sydney can manipulate the size of the shield. But instead, Deus decided that Sydney’s strategy was the safest for Sydney.
This is not the thought process of a villain, when there was no downside to HIM if Sydney had done a strategy which got herself hurt or put her in danger.
August 29, 2022, 7:35 am | # | Reply
Who said she would be rampaging at SmugD? Meant in general
August 29, 2022, 8:59 am | # | Reply
Hero? Still not sure after him having a missionary KILLED for apparently not agreeing with anticonception. Had he simply had her kicked out of his country, I would feel better about calling him a hero.
August 29, 2022, 2:40 pm | # | Reply
He presumably did, and the missionary came back. They were “warned repeatedly“, and at a certain point, ignoring warnings comes with consequences.
August 29, 2022, 7:32 pm | # | Reply
Still, having her secretly killed is not a heroic thing to do. It also indicates that if he had given her a public trial the locals might have objected to having her killed. It seems Galytn still has death squads; they’re just better hidden.
August 29, 2022, 9:06 am | # | Reply
You guys/gals forgot another reason for him to keep her alive:
She might be an essential part of one of his future plans, atleast as long as he doesn’t know for certain what happens to her balls if she dies.
August 25, 2022, 9:54 pm | # | Reply
that’s a nice feeling, but the death note has a limit of 23 days, if you write a death that occurs after 23 days, it is counted as invalid instruction and the death by heart attack occurs after 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
tho, the death note can kill after 23 days if you don’t specify a time and just say that the person die of a disease that take more than 23 days to kill, so, if “old age” is considered a disease, making someone die of old age without precising “after a long life” might work?
the problem is that people lifespan account for accidents etc, so if their originally fated death was not old age to begin with, that might count as invalid instruction too since old age would occur later and the result is death by heart attack after 6 min and 40 sec
strangely, doing “good” while using a death note is pretty difficult, who would have thought?
August 26, 2022, 1:46 am | # | Reply
While Deus is definitely very ethical and does things with the least amount of harm for most parties, he is certainly an antagonist in that he opposes the goals of the main protagonists with his take over the world scheme and alliances with otherworldly beings.
August 26, 2022, 6:04 pm | # | Reply
Uh, so Archon working with Xuriel counts as … what?
And who says he wants to take over the world?
August 26, 2022, 6:57 pm | # | Reply
Deus says that. He plans it explicitly and will tell you so. And he’s going to do so in a way that fixes everything and is more popular than any prior method of governance.
Well, maybe he won’t show you the powerpoint that far in advance, but he’ll certainly tell you about the current step, and how great it is that he can help so many people while also increasing his wealth and power.
August 26, 2022, 6:10 pm | # | Reply
Or he just didn’t think having Sydney do the equivalent of a grenade body cover for a foreign nation a reasonable expectation?
Ignoring the fact that if Darude just knocks her out or kills her the bubble just falls apart.
August 28, 2022, 6:19 am | # | Reply
he could just be thinking about how trying to spin this in a negative light (oh poor me and my country this evil americans glassed and entire region when Halo could have just bubbled the villain) wouldnt work because they could just as easily point out that doing that would have trapped Sydney in with the villain basically defenseless, so instead of painting it in a negative light he has decided that the smartest choice is to both congratulate Sydney and maxima for helping take out darude and colaborate with the american government giving them their prisioner, of course only after running some tests on him, that way he gets some brownie points and looks like the bigger man
August 25, 2022, 7:50 pm | # | Reply
As a matter of pragmatism, what containment devices does Max have with her? Seeing as this was supposed to be a visit, I doubt they brought much with them. Dabbler might have access to something in her armory, but she’s not there at the moment. Unless she did some off screen communication with Dabbler, I think she was focusing strictly on the immediate problem of defeating our loveless sandstorm. Kill steal indeed. Well executed with “we have a place to hold him” to back up the claim effectively.
It’s hard to do legal analysis on this since we only have vague knowledge of the treaties the US has with Galytn and I think a lot of “international law” is a joke. It’s pretty much guidelines of acceptable behavior rather than enforceable rules. If a nation decides not to honor it, who’s gonna enforce it on them? Short of going to war, the options are rather quite limited. “Stop! Or I’ll say ‘Stop!’ again.”
Yes, Yes, I’m a bit of a cynic
August 25, 2022, 8:40 pm | # | Reply
You mean, other than Sydney? Once he has been cut off from his precious sand, he’s just some buff dude with no power so should be save to Bubble and carry
August 25, 2022, 10:12 pm | # | Reply
Just realized that Sydney could safely capture and transport quite a few super types by herself, so long as they don’t have flight or a ranged attack. Just scoop them up with a big enough shield setting and they’d be stuck in a giant hamster ball with her floating out of reach, flying them to a supermax courtyard for drop off.
August 25, 2022, 9:37 pm | # | Reply
Depends on the nation. And the source.
For example, a UN Security Council resolution is backed up by military and/or economic might. And that’s because of the Big 5. (Course, thanks to the nature of the Big 5, getting a unanimous resolution from all 5 is a miracle. The rest is up to the Minor 10 countries whose turn it is to participate). And that’s not counting if one of the Big 5 just doesn’t outright veto.
A UN General resolution? No enforcement of those. If it’s not regarding the operation of the UN proper, then it’s just ‘announcements of opinions’. They’re designed to not have any enforcement method whatsoever.
August 25, 2022, 8:12 pm | # | Reply
Oh please, don’t say “speed of light is a constant”, because it’s wrong.
Speed of light in a VACUUM is constant, everywhere else it is a variable. Example of that, the worst idea EVER was producing silver plated copper wiring for audio hookups. I’m not talking “silver plated on the end for good connection capability even if it tarnishes”, I mean silver plated all the way end to end.
The speed of light is slightly different in silver and copper. Thus, any signal send along that wire will partly travel over the silver and partly over the copper, and that means it will arrive at the far end, mix in the speaker, and it will create out of phase distortion in the resulting sound. An audiophile was griping at me about his system not sounding right, that it just wasn’t right since he reran all the wiring, I asked a couple of questions, realized he was hearing that phase distortion and told him the cause.
I actually had to go find a college text that explained the transfer of the electromagnetic wave in a medium to get him to believe me the speed of light is variable in different materials! He changed out the wiring and all was good.
Pensive Exultation Regarding Astonishing Revelation of Self
August 25, 2022, 10:14 pm | # | Reply
Oh hey it’s Opal, I forgot some of them got hired by Deus.
August 29, 2022, 1:33 am | # | Reply
She was already working for SmugD at the time of her arrest
August 25, 2022, 10:58 pm | # | Reply
couldn’t he have the obsidian gathered and either processed or sold?
August 26, 2022, 4:49 am | # | Reply
Deus is absolutely a movie-worthy super-villain-hero-genius-something.
August 26, 2022, 5:57 am | # | Reply
I don’t know if it was a case of he cared about halo being trapped inside with the super so much as a super powered resource that could be useful to him was trapped inside with a super. but at least he put her in his thoughts
August 26, 2022, 6:05 am | # | Reply
There myst be some amathist in the sands aroubd there only reason i can think that the glass would be tgat purple
August 26, 2022, 10:43 am | # | Reply
I looked it up and amethyst is made of Silicon and Oxygen, the colour comes from small amounts of Iron. So there must be some iron around for the sand and air to combine into amethyst.
August 26, 2022, 10:27 am | # | Reply
Is Max’s face especially shiny now because she has been sand blasted?
August 26, 2022, 10:51 am | # | Reply
Her face looks extra shiny because I’m bad about remembering to make her glare in direct sunlight but I remembered on this page because the rest of her is dirty and the gasmask kept her face clean.
August 26, 2022, 11:50 am | # | Reply
Plus, she did get a sandblasting facial last page
August 26, 2022, 3:41 pm | # | Reply
Thanks. Also TIL Dave reads all the comments…
August 26, 2022, 8:49 pm | # | Reply
Can we get a separate version of “Not bad” Deus without the math and dialogue?
August 26, 2022, 9:35 pm | # | Reply
I suppose they could’ve tried large-bubbling Halo, Darude, and Max all at once, but that would assume the opportunity would arise.
How long do you figure for Sydney to (probably jokingly) ask if she gets a cut for tourism to the new spot? (With obvious follow-up by Max yelling at her for “You should be thanking him for getting a scenic view of their PRISONS! (Or ours, come to think of it.)”
August 26, 2022, 11:23 pm | # | Reply
Fairly sure that all the eco damage Halo did here is still less than letting Darude continue to remain free. That massive sand storm he had going on when he first arrived had to have killed a great deal of desert life and he apparently had been doing it for years. Better to stop him now.
August 29, 2022, 3:09 am | # | Reply
Sandstorms in a desert may be destructive but it’ll probably return to normal after a while.
Glassing the place, on the other hand, is going to have some pretty long-lasting effects.
August 27, 2022, 2:29 am | # | Reply
You know, Sydney has nothing on the Elites during Halo 3.
August 29, 2022, 3:06 am | # | Reply
I wonder if Deus and Opal have a designated “portals go here” spot in his office?
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What's all this then?
Grrl Power is a comic about a crazy nerdette that becomes a superheroine. Humor, action, cheesecake, beefcake, 'splosions, and maybe some drama. Possibly ninjas.
Updates Mondays and Thursdays.
Rated PG-13 for violence and gratuitous cheesecake (and beefcake)
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I wrote a book!
It's called Tamer: Enhancer, and has nothing to do with Grrl Power. It's actually Tamer fanfic, and it's free! Enjoy!
I wrote another book!
Tamer: Enhancer 2. It's a sequel! It's still a Tamer fanfic, and it's also free! 210K words of weapon building, dinosaur fighting, harem satisfying, lumberjacking, moderate diplomacing, bad guy chopping action. Also some humor. Enjoy!
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