|
 Strong Female Protagonist is a web comic. It is written by Brennan Lee Mulligan, drawn by Molly Ostertag, and web-curated by Griffin Johnston. It updates regularly Tuesday and Friday. It's primarily about superheroes.  Except, actually, the main character has decided that being a superhero is kind of dumb, because she's not really doing that much good for the world by just punching people.  Unfortunately, she feels like that's all she's really good at.  She's trying hard to change the world, but even if you're invincible and have super strength, changing the world isn't easy. Strong Female Protagonist is about someone whose only tool is brute force trying to find another way to make things better, while simultaneously trying to have some kind of semi-normal life.  Some dudes still get punched, though, don't worry about that.  Strong Female Protagonist is, really, a story about what it means to be a hero, what it means to try to change the world, and what it means to try to live in the world with other people, even when you don't fit in. If you want to give it a try, you should probably start at the beginning. idonotlikepeas fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Jun 14, 2014 |
#
?
Jun 13, 2014 20:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 14:47 |
|
|
This is a Good Comic. To continue appropriate use of force chat from the webcomic general thread, I think Alison is pretty much spot on in her treatment of Miles. Dude was suss as hell. Don't invite heroes to you party unless you want them to act the part.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 00:59
|
|
|
Alison might not have had the best approach to the problem, but she was certainly doing a lot better than everyone else at the party.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 01:08
|
|
|
Tenebrais posted:Alison might not have had the best approach to the problem, but she was certainly doing a lot better than everyone else at the party. In that she noticed the problem and approached it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 01:13
|
|
|
Yeah, sorry, it's hard to feel bad for the guy who was obviously gonna take advantage of that drunk girl and wasn't gonna stop when she confronted him with words alone.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 01:23
|
|
|
This is at least twice the comic has made me worry that Alison is going to go off the deep end though. Viscerally afraid that I'm going to open the page and she'll be sitting on a rooftop covered in blood.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 01:27
|
|
|
The protagonist in this comic and my comic have the same name and it really confused me in the webcomics thread. Now no longer! Also, comic is excellent.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 02:24
|
|
|
Serene Dragon posted:Yeah, sorry, it's hard to feel bad for the guy who was obviously gonna take advantage of that drunk girl and wasn't gonna stop when she confronted him with words alone. Yeah I mean I just feel dreadful for him, can you imagine what it's like to be in the power of someone who could just kill or violate you and there's nothing you can do about i- Oh. Wait. Nevermind.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 04:08
|
|
|
Hah! SFP feels like a webcomic made for me, and I enjoy it very much.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 04:26
|
|
|
I enjoy the interplay between the worldview of the superhero who has to save everyone and the college peer whose background is being superhero who used to have to save everyone. When you come from a life of superheroics it probably doesn't seem at all out of place to grab some dude who's being sketchy and demand answers. I mean, who's going to stop you? I enjoy the comic because it's basically Alison working on self discovery and attempting to gain wisdom instead of just acting the hero because it seems like something she has to do. That said, wisdom doesn't necessarily come from education, but it doesn't hurt and it's a logical first step.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 05:22
|
|
|
Operant posted:The protagonist in this comic and my comic have the same name and it really confused me in the webcomics thread. Now no longer! If there's a super-awkward sex scene in SFP you should totally sue. thatbastardken posted:This is at least twice the comic has made me worry that Alison is going to go off the deep end though. Viscerally afraid that I'm going to open the page and she'll be sitting on a rooftop covered in blood. Yeah, keep in mind that Alison is pretty terrifying. I mean, this is someone who everyone on that roof has probably seen movies of tearing giant robots to pieces with her bare hands. She could kill everyone there with basically zero effort and it's not even clear what it would require to take her down. So when you see her waving your friend around in the air by his throat, your thought process is less likely to be "I bet he deserved that" and more likely to be "oh poo poo did she snap are we all going to die". I don't think anyone's shedding any tears for Bugsy McDaterape, but diplomacy might have helped out more with the PR problem.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 05:22
|
|
|
idonotlikepeas posted:She could kill everyone there with basically zero effort and it's not even clear what it would require to take her down. Psychic attacks, probably. But the only person with mental powers is a good friend of her. Old age maybe? Perhaps also radiation? Nothing practical, really.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 10:27
|
|
|
As far as we know he can't make psychic attacks, just read minds. Unless he was lying, I guess. Given the way Allison's condition seems to affect her her cells may not break down like normal human cells, certainly not at the same rate. Given that her skin can resist anything bigger than 3 microns across who knows how the gently caress her biology even works any more.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 12:35
|
|
|
Based on her fight with Cleaver, she almost certainly still needs to breathe, so you could probably use gas or something. Though it'd be tricky considering how fast she moves and the fact that she can exhale forcefully enough to literally drive a dude backward.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 13:09
|
|
|
I'm not a chemical weapons expert but don't things like mustard gas need to react with the body in some way? If fire doesn't burn her then would a nerve toxin be able to stop her heart? I guess you could flood a sealed room with halon or carbon dioxide, but the logistics of making a room that could hold her are pretty intense.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 13:21
|
|
|
thatbastardken posted:I'm not a chemical weapons expert but don't things like mustard gas need to react with the body in some way? If fire doesn't burn her then would a nerve toxin be able to stop her heart? I guess you could flood a sealed room with halon or carbon dioxide, but the logistics of making a room that could hold her are pretty intense. Well, if she needs oxygen, at least some chemical reactions occur normally. Maybe Carbon Monoxide poisoning would be close enough to regular breathing to take her out? It's a long shot, though. She has no problem running around in burning buildings and she shot herself with the gun in her mouth. Her respiratory system is as crazy hardy as the rest of her.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 14:54
|
|
|
The impression I got from the incident where cleaver nicked her head and the resulting scar, was that her biology wasn't really any different from normal people. She's just afflicted by some kind of effect that prevents changes to her cellular biology outside of what is part of the regular biological processes. What the effect considers "outside of normal" is unknown, but includes blunt trauma and thermal damage and the list seems to be growing, according to Allisons statement that her powers are "growing worse" too. I actually wonder whether Allison technically needs to eat and breathe to survive, or just does so because her normal biology tells her to.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2014 16:00
|
|
|
She could PROBABLY bleed out from an absolute shitload of Cleaver-sharp cuts.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 00:52
|
|
|
She definitely seemed to have a reaction to that cut. The alt text refers to it as a concussion, but blood loss might be involved as well. Hard to say. Either of those would suggest that her internal systems aren't completely invulnerable, just very, very tough. So someone might be able to use missiles or bombs on her; if nothing else, they might knock her out or otherwise immobilize her temporarily. The best bet for stopping her would probably be other superhumans, but her doctor mentions in an early page that even most other superhumans find her intimidating. In terms of one-on-one combat, there are probably only a handful of people that could have a chance of beating her. That said, I think if she went up against the entire U.S. military or something, things wouldn't go well for her. I doubt she could survive a direct hit with a nuke, although it's not likely she's going to run into that issue unless she really pisses off some state-level actor. On a completely unrelated note, the Kickstarter is just about done. It just passed the $50k mark, which means the books are getting a quality upgrade, so if you were thinking about putting in for it as a pre-order mechanism, this is probably a good time. E: Also, one of the Kickstarter stretch goals that was already hit will result in them adding commenting to their site. So if you prefer, you may offer up a prayer for their souls, instead. idonotlikepeas fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jun 16, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2014 15:26
|
|
|
Aww, good girl Alison.  Wonder if she's going to have to split up with toxic roommate now? What will the doctor say?
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 11:18
|
|
|
Now there's convenient timing, I only discovered this comic at the weekend and now there's a shiny new dedicated thread! I've really enjoyed the comic to date. Alison is an interesting character with which to explore the difference between being heroic and superheroic. Patrick's line about how you can't fling poverty into the sea sums it up nicely, I feel. Feral's sacrifice was a visceral illustration of the being both heroic and superheroic which was as uncomfortable for the reader as it was for Alison. That there's some excellent writing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 12:57
|
|
|
I liked the Feral thing because it's an obvious application of her power. In a standard superhero comic they would have said "transplants won't work with her biology, oh well", but the whole point of this comic is to talk about the hard choices. In today's page... Violet is actually not 100% wrong. I mean, we're obviously more on Alison's side here, and she's doing the right thing by getting the drunk girl home, but as we've seen from previous comics, Alison really does have a tendency towards knee-jerk violence that she's constantly trying to keep under wraps. I wonder what will happen next time they meet?
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 14:27
|
|
|
Violet reminds me here of an uncountable number of wannabe psychiatrists who read a little bit about things, understand even less, and applies this gross oversimplification to human behavior in a way that is absurdly wrong. She is right that Allison goes to solve with her fists too quickly, but Allison was not a child soldier (unless we apply a definition so broad as to be meaningless to understand the mental trauma she is tying in here) and simply being used to violence does not lead to PTSD, and PTSD doesn't intrinsically manifest itself as paranoia and violence. Allison isn't in the right here - she brought a terrifying level of force to bear based off suspicion of a situation that she was new to, suspicions yet to be born out. You have two characters both partly right in conflict, which is how things are in real life. This is why I like this comic
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 15:30
|
|
|
Eh, I disagree. If you're stronger than anyone else in the world there's no reason not to use that strength to make things better and scare lovely people. It's not like the broke the dude's neck, she just scared the hell out if him.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 15:49
|
|
|
Well said Fried Chicken. As another thing in Alison's favor, though, the look on the dude's face on page 19 is super creepy. She went off of suspicions, but they were very well founded suspicions.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 15:51
|
|
|
This is a good comic to read. I hope the writer and artist get to do even bigger things because of it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 16:07
|
|
|
Fried Chicken posted:Allison isn't in the right here - she brought a terrifying level of force to bear based off suspicion of a situation that she was new to, suspicions yet to be born out. Ehhhh I really don't buy it. The dude is fine, he's shook up because for a very brief moment breathing was hard and he was completely under the power of an unimaginably stronger being. So, basically the exact same situation he was obviously engineering on someone else. Was lifting him by the neck necessary? Probably not, no. Is it a particularly big deal? Nah, gently caress 'im.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 16:37
|
|
|
Wittgen posted:the look on the dude's face on page 19 is super creepy. Good lord, I've read that page three or four times, and only just now I actually noticed Miles and the drunk girl in the second to last panel. I'm...I'm part of the problem too aren't I? 
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 17:20
|
|
|
Fried Chicken posted:Violet reminds me here of an uncountable number of wannabe psychiatrists who read a little bit about things, understand even less, and applies this gross oversimplification to human behavior in a way that is absurdly wrong. And the only way she could get anyone to help or even the actually listen was to be overly violent.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 19:13
|
|
|
Captain Oblivious posted:So, basically the exact same situation he was obviously engineering on someone else. This is the obvious comparison they're trying to bring up. Does that make it OK? Do the ends justify the means? Granted it's a lot more nuanced than "IS IT OK TO RAPE RAPISTS!?" but it still draws a definite line between using force to secure a goal, and in what contexts that becomes acceptable. That being said, dude was asking for a face-punch. SFP's writer is really good at nailing that "Oh my lord, I want to end this son of a bitch" feeling.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 20:35
|
|
|
Man where is this whole idea that she used some kind of overwhelming force on this dude coming from? She didn't even leave any temporary injuries much less anything lethal or permanent. She just picked him up by his neck, big deal.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 21:03
|
|
|
ChairMaster posted:Man where is this whole idea that she used some kind of overwhelming force on this dude coming from? She didn't even leave any temporary injuries much less anything lethal or permanent. She just picked him up by his neck, big deal. He felt threatened by someone he had no chance of fighting back against. That's it, that's his whole problem with the situation.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 21:32
|
|
|
ChairMaster posted:Man where is this whole idea that she used some kind of overwhelming force on this dude coming from? She didn't even leave any temporary injuries much less anything lethal or permanent. She just picked him up by his neck, big deal. Picking someone up by the neck is actually really dangerous, in addition to choking the victim it can also result in severe neck and spinal injuries. The whole point is that there are a bunch of less-violent ways to restrain someone, but she doesn't really get that yet.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 21:35
|
|
|
I think this chapter is going to try and set up a comparison between Allison and the invisible slasher with how they choose to handle non-super powered criminals. The mentality that Allison exhibits is a bit of a slippery slope. Sure she may not have hurt the guy too badly but who cares right? He was technically a potential rapist so if he get's roughed up a bit it isn't that big a deal right? It doesn't matter that Allison was in control of the situation the moment she noticed what was going on. She can outrun and outclass this one normal person without any effort so why is it that her lifting him by his neck is an acceptable response? I mentioned it in the webcomics thread but she could have easily just stood in front of the door leading off the roof and grilled him instead of choking him to get the attention of everyone at the party. She also could have just put her hand on his shoulder and "gently" held him in that spot until the party goers noticed? The problem here isn't that she may or may not have hurt someone. It's that her display of force completely goes beyond what the situation called for.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 21:47
|
|
|
keep in mind her freakout at the hospital was caught on camera and im sure clips of her threatening to murder everyone in the crowd have circulated widely. alison is a pretty cool girl but the only thing that stops her from killing everyone around her is her own sense of right and wrong which probably feels pretty flimsy when her hand is around your throat e: not to mention that poor vending machine A big flaming stink fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Jun 17, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2014 21:53
|
|
|
Up until she took dramatic action no-one in the party was paying any attention. The pre-rapist wasn't going to answer honestly, and the girl was close to blackout drunk and couldn't speak for herself. If Allison wasn't indestructible and super strong, just a concerned citizen, that girl would have been the victim of a serious crime after douchebag pushed her out of the way. Not saying that she doesn't have issues with enjoying violence, but this was an appropriate use of force.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2014 03:58
|
|
|
thatbastardken posted:Up until she took dramatic action no-one in the party was paying any attention. The pre-rapist wasn't going to answer honestly, and the girl was close to blackout drunk and couldn't speak for herself. If Allison wasn't indestructible and super strong, just a concerned citizen, that girl would have been the victim of a serious crime after douchebag pushed her out of the way. Yes, and by choking him, she does manage to make a scene, but she makes the scene about her and not about him. Hell, when she leaves, some of the other guests are looking sympathetic towards the guy, which is the exact opposite of what she wanted. The thing is, this guy is a symptom of a social problem, and you don't solve social problems by choking people. If on the other hand, she had just made a scene like a normal person might, sans choaking, then peoples reactions would have been on what the guy was actually doing. She's a superhero at a freaking superhero themed costume party, what better place to demonstrate how she'd like other people to react to this sort of thing? Other people can't just go around choking strangers, so everyone at the party comes out of this with nothing. She fixes this problem, but does nothing to stop the real problem. Pavlov fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Jun 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2014 05:03
|
|
|
Yeah, no, I don't think so. As everyone at the party was so loving eager to point out, Miles is a dude they know and like. No amount of talking or convincing is going to get them to believe he's a potential date rapist. All Allison would have done was gotten into a stupid, circular, pointless argument about how he's a cool dude and cool dudes don't rape. Besides, whose word are you going to take? Miles, who's a totally cool dude, or some strange chick whose name nobody even knows and who's obviously drunk? That was the whole point of that whole vignette. Nobody thinks of rapists as people they know.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2014 05:08
|
|
|
Phylodox posted:Yeah, no, I don't think so. As everyone at the party was so loving eager to point out, Miles is a dude they know and like. No amount of talking or convincing is going to get them to believe he's a potential date rapist. All Allison would have done was gotten into a stupid, circular, pointless argument about how he's a cool dude and cool dudes don't rape. Besides, whose word are you going to take? Miles, who's a totally cool dude, or some strange chick whose name nobody even knows and who's obviously drunk? That was the whole point of that whole vignette. Nobody thinks of rapists as people they know. But even if you're right, how is that any different than what happened anyway? I'm pretty sure the same conversation that happened in the comic would have happened anyway, except Alison would would have looked a bit less crazy, and the dude a bit less like a victim himself. People seem a little more likely to listen to someone who, from their perspective, didn't just super-power strangle one of their friends without warning.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2014 05:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 14:47 |
|
|
Pavlov posted:But even if you're right, how is that any different than what happened anyway? I'm pretty sure the same conversation that happened in the comic would have happened anyway, except Alison would would have looked a bit less crazy, and the dude a bit less like a victim himself. People seem a little more likely to listen to someone who, from their perspective, didn't just super-power strangle one of their friends without warning. Because it isn't about them? Miles is trying to rape a girl. Who the gently caress wants to stop and have a conversation about it?!? Allison's first priority was stopping the date rape from happening and then making sure that poor girl got home safely. gently caress people who want to defend date rapists. gently caress people who want to stop and talk about it and maybe discuss how there are two sides to every story, man. Especially gently caress Violet, who would rather treat her friend like poo poo than believe some guy she takes a class with could be a lovely date raping rear end in a top hat. You want to dig deep and deal with the roots of a chronic social problem, that's great, but the time to do it isn't when there's a drugged potential rape victim freaking out in the middle of a party filled with people who would rather see her raped than believe their friend is a sack of poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2014 05:43
|
|