Grrl Power

Yeah but on the plus side they just gained valuable data on her, namely her ID and powers.

Although, I wonder if we're going to get an object lesson in the "powers have a longer range than you think. Think about what's behind your target when attacking and think about what's behind you when you dodge" paradigm. Sydney provoked Heavenly Sword into an attack which has obviously sliced through the wall behind the target of Dabbler. What if there's an orphanage next door? A group of innocent waitstaff huddled in the kitchen? Cars needed for transportation in the parking lot beyond?

Dabbler reveals her "Battle Form" and Sydney successfully derails the fight for a bit.

Have to disagree with Dave. That is a pretty damn nice butt.

Times when a sniper bullet is considered "non-lethal"

So Concretia's bodies are artificial constructs that she vreates out of available materials? Interesting. Is she just a disembodied mid then?

Seems that way.

Anyhow, new strip up. And Dabbler made the elementary mistake of playing to what she should have known were her opponent's strengths. She said that she has a cybernetic hand because she's not as good a sword fighter as she thought. I guess her fabled ADHD tendencies just caught up with her.

edited 26th May '14 5:10:47 AM by Spindriver

Thing is Dabbler is a generalist. She has her points spread over a number of skills/abilities/powers. Heavenly Sword is a specialist. Also I'm betting that the fight is far from over. That four arms crossed configuration probably means a forcefield of some kind.

edited 26th May '14 5:22:58 AM by tricksterson

Sure, Dabbler is a generalist, rather than a specialist - although this is actually pretty much the first time we've seen her being out-matched in a field which she's chosen to pursue at all, which made her supposed over-generalisation and ADHD tendencies look like non-problems. But if you're a generalist, what you shouldn't do is tangle with specialists on their own terms. In other words, Dabbler should have tackled Heavenly Sword with magic, or technology, or ... well, anything except sword combat, really.

She may well survive and win. But this is the first time we've seen her suffering for her generalist/ADHD flaws, really.

Maxima Bingo and Eye-blocks

^_^ I liked this one. It expands a little more on Achilles and how he takes full advantage of his invulnerability for psychological purposes. I will admit that, after the "mammary trap" bit, I fully expected that random bad-guy to be sporting DD-cups...

Okay, most of the terms on the card I can understand why they're there but "Vulcan", "'Moo'" and "Manocracy"?

I suspect that the second is Rule of Funny and the third is trying to make fun of Maxima's feminist rants. The first... dunno. Maybe her relative lack of grasp of pop culture?

Actually, her grasp of pop culture is pretty good. Confessed ex-nerd, remember. I suspect that "Vulcan" is just there as a wild card to make the game more complicated.

I think Dabbler is definitely gonna win this bingo game.

you could also ask, "What's that M61 rotary gun?" (M61 Vulcan cannon)

edited 30th May '14 2:15:21 PM by Poisonarrow

Mach the Knife

Some commentary on how Super-Speed should be a game-breaking power as well as the lack of realism in the "my heat aura disintegrates the bullets before they hit me" trope. My bet is that Dabbler will take advantage of a lack of reaction speed in the speedster by suddenly increasing friction in one foot. That combines the tip of the hat to real-world physics as well as the tendency toward slapstick in the series.

Bondage to Go

... alright, that's mildly reasonable as well. I'm assuming that the "both of you" is referring to her going to be trying to snag up Heavenly Sword as well, which will likely go badly just for fun.

In the background, Jabberwocky and Math are doing some standard acrobatic and highly impractical comic book martial arts moves.

Ballisticus Interruptus

Ee... I know that this arc is supposed to show off just how competent the team can be as well as how they lack that level of polish, but the reversals are happening too rapidly. Heavenly Sword gets an upper hand, then gets neutralized a few panels later. That's just unsatisfying for me.

Yeah... The villains supposedly have the team outnumbered, but they've been able to throw several good people at the task of neutralising Heavenly Sword, while for all the notes about speedsters being scary-effective, that one did damn all except run around talking after his first few attacks (most of which were on people he might have known would be knife-proof). The heroes being more organised than the villains is a valid idea, but this is beginning to make the villains look like totally ineffectual poseurs.

Unless that's exactly what they're there for. Maybe they're a bunch of semi-competant losers gotten together by the real criminal mastermind, who is probably watching this from a distance, and this is all just a test of our heroes capabilities and tactics.

It was explicit that they seemed to be throwing a wave of second-raters in to test the heroes before hitting them with the serious fighters, but the notes on the recent strips implied that Jabberwocky, Heavenly Sword, and Silent Shadow were supposed to be part of the second, competent wave. Jabberwocky and Math are enjoying their dance okay, but the other two seem to have let themselves be outnumbered and outgunned.

I think even the "serious fighters" aren't as serious as they think. They may have more power and skills but are the beta test. I think it's all being organized by whatsisname, the Lex Luthor/Norman Osborne stand-in.

Rhythmic gymnastics deathmatch

It's a bit brighter on Heavenly Sword's part...

She's actually making an effort. I think she rates as one of the more serious fighters, not so much because she's more powerful than the first wave than because she's taking the job seriously.

And Dabbler reveals she's just been toying with her opponent.

Again, I'm really, really looking forward to people showing up who actually make a good standing against the heroes...

edited 16th Jun '14 8:55:15 AM by FuzzyBoots

It looks like the only real limitation on Dabbler is her willingness to make an effort, though. She's got ultra-tech gear in hammerspace, serious magic, competence in armed and unarmed martial arts, significantly greater than human strength and resilience, and the succubus thing. It seems she's far more likely to make herself useless or even get beaten due to faffing about than she is to actually be overmatched - at least against mortal opposition. (We have those hints that there's an arch-demon after her from some time back.) Her ability in any one of those areas seems to make her more than, well, a dabbler.

I have to admit that by the end of that fight I was rooting for Heavenly Sword, who is someone who's actually put some work in and parlayed a fairly limited personal power into becoming a fairly serious supervillain by intelligent application.