SFP

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  • Johan

    It’s … interesting that she keeps calling her Moonshadow, when she herself prefers to be called by her real name.

    • Maybe she prefers Moonshadow? Even if she doesn’t I guess that’s just the name that she’s always known her by.

  • GaryFarber

    Could “somadynamism” be cancellable by some external force? If its workings are understood?

    • What are you thinking, Who Killed Retro-Girl?? The world-building here is a bit less Silver-Age-gone-noir than what little I’ve read of Powers.

      • Lostman

        Jessica Jones also a superhero turn private detective…

    • Insanenoodlyguy

      Possibly?. Somadynamism has shown a very wide variance. It would depend on somebody being aware of the catalyst that gives/supports people powers and cancelling that, if such a force even exists. Otherwise you’ll end up just having something that can cancel out one type of power (maybe general enough to get everybody with a certain kind of power, say, telekinesis) but you’d keep having to make a new one for any giving person with powers. We don’t really know enough yet.

    • zarawesome

      I don’t think it’s been specified that all somadynamics have a common origin yet? Seems to be more of a ‘effect’ than ‘source’ kind of thing.

      • yes, the opening of the comic had the storm that happened. All kids born during that three day planet wide storm were somadynamics, which is why they should at this point KNOW who they all are, unless someones been hiding this long, and why they are all teh same age.

        • dbmag9

          I’m not sure all kids born during the storm (wasn’t the storm during the preganancies? Whatever) are biodynamic, just that all the biodynamic kids were born during the storm.

          • MrSokar

            Alison’s mother was 3 months along during the storms. I wish I could get a better read on how much time passes in the story since the opening with Alison’s birthday. Mainly I wonder with regard To Lisa/Paladin being 21, though it still seems possible they could be no more than 5 months apart in age.

    • motorfirebox

      Honestly, it seems unlikely. It’s almost certain that someone caused this wave of somadynamism. It’s also clear that someone culled the somadynamic population of individuals with truly world-changing powers, as Patrick discussed with Alison the first time they met. It’s not unreasonable to assume that these two someones are the same someone, and that this singular someone knew at least roughly what they were doing when they caused the wave of somadynamism. In which case, you’d think they’d simply cancel out the problematic powers, rather than flat out killing those who expressed those powers, if that were possible.

      There’s lots of ways that could turn out to be untrue, of course, but that seems like the most likely scenario to me given what we currently know.

      • John

        Is the consensus that Patrick was telling the truth? I always viewed his revelation about somadynamism as a way of putting Allison back on her heels and as a way of converting her from an enemy to a friend.

        Plus we know he’s not telling her the whole truth because of his deceptions about his meeting with the chinese somadynamic individuals/gangsters.

      • Haven

        Would it be too pedantic to point out that “biodynamism” is the general term and “somadynamism” specifically refers to Allison’s type of anomaly?

  • Pol Subanajouy

    Good catch. I didn’t notice that.

  • Liz

    That’s because Allison’s not fighting crime anymore, whereas Moonshadow is. It’s also why Allison refers to Patrick, rather than Menace.

    • Cpt. Obvious

      Isn’t Allison the only one who knows that Patrick was/is Menace, or have I confused him with some one else?

      • Liz

        Yes, you’re right. I’m just pointing it out as an example. When you’re actively engaging in your crimefighting/crime-making persona, you’re referred to in that persona, at least to people outside the crimefighting/crime-making group. When you’re not, you get your birth name.

    • Markus

      Also Moonshadow’s not out like Alison is.

    • Johan

      Oh that’s good. Thanks for pointing that out 🙂

  • Insanenoodlyguy

    So it looks like her durability is an aura effect. Remove it from her, it’s just a collection of cells like any other human…

    • David

      I wouldn’t say it’s an aura effect…I would say it’s part of her living cells. If you are able to cut something from her body, it dies…and is no longer invulnerable.

      Just an assumption, of course.

      • Moddey Dhoo

        If it was an attribute of living cells, her skin wouldn’t be as durable as it is and they wouldn’t have to do the 2x liquid nitrogen/diamond-tipped buzzsaw combo to cut her hair. The outermost layer of skin is all dead cells, and so is hair. And nails, for that matter. God I don’t even want to think how she maintains those.

        • David

          It’s still possible.

          The lady says in the comic…”your somadynamism extends just enough into your dead cells”.

          This means it’s possible that her cells durability could waver off as her cells start to die…but is still durable enough to be considered superhuman.

          When the cells fully detach from her body…the durability has completely worn off.

          • Nonsensicles

            Sounds like it’s an effect generated by her living cells that leaks into her dead cells so long as they’re attached. Not quite an aura, not quite an essential property.

    • S.I. Rosenbaum

      This is partly how Superman works, right? Sometimes, in some versions? And why his suit doesn’t burn/rip off him constantly?

  • Ryan

    More problems you can’t solve by punching. I’ll bet her dad’s illness was also a factor in her quitting the superhero business.

    • Juke

      She quit before she found out about that.

    • Donald Simmons

      Her dad only became sick recently, a considerable time after she stopped being an active superhero.

    • dbmag9

      You might enjoy reading the archives – she’d actually quit a while before hearing about her dad’s illness, which is fairly recent (and happens in-strip; you see her quitting in a flashback).

  • Pat

    Also, I wonder if due to Moonshadow’s abilities, it’s hard to recall her name.

    • Moddey Dhoo

      I know I find it difficult to remember her name.
      Mostly just because no one ever calls her by it.

      • Mystery girl

        It’s Mary. (See Issue 5 page 80 for details.)

    • Johan

      Hadn’t though of that … it would make sense too 🙂

  • dbmag9

    I hope creating lovely strips to answer all the questions we raise in the comment thread isn’t getting in the way of plot-making you guys have in store.

    • David

      I’ve noticed this recently, when I finally started reading the comments.

      • strongfemaleprotagonist

        ok guys, against my better judgement I’m gonna swoop into the comments just to say: this is Molly, the artist, I scan y’all’s comments to make sure there’s nothing offensive being said. Brennan, the writer, doesn’t read comments until well after a scene is over so that they don’t influence the script. You guys bring up a lot of questions and predictions and sometimes they’re right! If we were trying to make a comic that couldn’t be predicted at all from one page to the next, that would be CRAZY and probably not fun to read. Thanks for being such rad and dedicated fans of this comic though!!

        • dbmag9

          Wait, you mean you guys aren’t just super-talented, you’re also conscientious and prescient? Thanks for using your powers for good! 🙂

          • From experience, i find that writing a story and script, especially when theres a team involved, often involves asking those EXACT questions of yourself. Okay, we want to show allison as human, getting her hair cut, cool. what… difficulties would that present? WHY. does her hair become normal when cut off her body, or is it like superman’s hair, still the thread of wonder. (and why doesn’t superman grow his hair long, burn it off at the base to cut it, and let them weave ballistic cloth for lois lane et all out of it?)

          • Khlovia

            Yes! Why not indeed?!

        • Firanai

          That is certainly the best course of action. Comments are good for feedback but get to obsessed with them and they will harm the story.

  • motorfirebox

    So I guess she’ll rot just fine once she dies! I imagine that’s kind of a relief for her, or would be if the alternative ever occurred to her.

  • Mystery girl

    They’re storing her hair in a “big gross vat somewhere”? What for?

    • dbmag9

      I assume it’s pretty much the only samples of her DNA they can get. So they want to store it for Science (or National Defence or whatever), as well as keep it away from anyone else.

      • Potatamoto

        Actually, the vat serves no scientific purpose, but you’d be amazed how effective the threat of making someone spend twenty minutes in the Hair Vat is.

      • Kid Chaos

        One word: Cloning.

        • Potatamoto

          I’m reminded of the Thrakkorzog episode of the Tick, and the mucus-clone he created of the Tick. How would Alison fare against an opponent that possesses all of her powers, and is made entirely of hair?

        • Moddey Dhoo

          Truthfully, if you could clone a human and get the child to be feasible and keep the biodynamism of its parent, I can think of at least one person who’d be more valuable to clone (and probably easier) than Alison. Feral. If you successfully clone Alison and the child retains the biodynamism you just have two entities running around who can destroy pretty much everything without much in the way of an actual threat, and if they ever found out what happened they’d probably both be pissed at you. But Feral has regeneration on par with Wolverine, so even if her clone didn’t decide to follow in her mom’s footsteps (and I really wouldn’t blame her) she’d almost certainly be a good learning experience for scientists. Still unethical as hell, but still.
          Frankly, though, I doubt any clone would retain the biodynamism. I’m pretty sure genes had nothing to do with it.

          • I wonder if they did experiments to see if pieces of Feral budded. Is her regeneration somehow tied to her body core, or will a large-enough chunk of her start growing a new body? I don’t really read X-Men, did anyone ever do any experiments with/on Wolverine?

    • Dean

      Pun value. It’s in Hairea 51, of course.

  • Lostman

    who here want to bet the real killer is that girl from the start of the story, Moonshadow has been somewhere else the whole time…

  • Sabriel

    Wow, she hasn’t talked to Moonshadow at all? That’s kind of… harsh. That seems weird to me.

    • Stephanie Gertsch

      That struck me as significant too. Moonshadow is the only member of the Guardians she didn’t talk to.

  • Ryan

    Unlike Alison, Moonshadow’s real identity is not public knowledge. I’m sure when they were together on the team they were all trained to always use everyone’s superhero names so as to minimize the chance of accidentally leaking someone’s identity. It’s important to be careful about such things in this dark, dystopian future where everyone carries a sophisticated surveillance instrument in their pocket.

    Oh wait that’s the present.

    • Rens

      And she recalls very vividly that the first time she made a heartfelt speech about how fucked up it was that a talking head on TV was trying to solicit foreign policy opinions from a high school student from the midwest, the only detail that immediately got the talking head’s attention was the clue about where she came from.

      If Moonshadow still has her private identity, Allison isn’t going to fuck it up for her.

    • Johan

      Right, they may not all have the same doctor, so that makes sense.
      It IS a dark, dystopian future we live in. Dunno if it’s cool or sad :/

  • ZBass

    Other way around, pintsize is the only one she talks to. It was mentioned she hadn’t spoke to Brad since the interview incidence until we saw them meet earlier in this chapter
    http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/page-30-4/

  • Lostman

    ya that same kind of weird doesn’t it; you would think Alison would know Moonshadow/Mary very well after fighting an Equivalent of a small war.

  • gray-haired grad

    True story: On a recent trip to NY, I stopped into St. Marks Comics looking for back issues of Lumberjanes, which they did not have. The dude in the store noted that I was obviously itching to spend money, as I kept asking about other comics missing from my collection that were also out of stock. He casually handed me a copy of SFP. I opened to the page where Feral makes a move on Allison, and Allison hurls her through that honkytonk window. Let’s just say it was love at first sight. My Tuesdays and Fridays just got a little better.

  • gray-haired grad

    True story: On a recent trip to NY, I stopped into St. Marks Comics
    looking for back issues of Lumberjanes, which they did not have. The
    dude in the store noted that I was obviously itching to spend money, as I
    kept asking about other comics missing from my collection that were
    also out of stock. He casually handed me a copy of SFP. I opened to
    the page where Feral makes a move on Allison, and Allison hurls her
    through that honkytonk window. Let’s just say it was love at first
    sight. My Tuesdays and Fridays just got a little better.

  • motorfirebox

    Whoops, nope, not at all. I knew there was a term I was misusing.

  • Cass

    TINY LITTLE PONYTAIL

  • Sova

    Just powered through this last night.
    This is a wonderful comic- I look forward to keeping up with it!

  • Mystery girl

    You, sir, win the Internet today. Bravo.

  • MrSokar

    This reminds that Alison’s involvment with the firehouse is a bit hypercritical after she belated Feral what what she saw as a ultimately futile self-sacrifice. Those firefighter are in essence doing the same thing in a different context.