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Lightfoot

  • Wandering Artist
  • 1966
    • Pulse


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Nimrod

  • KC Strip Artist
  • 2122
Re: Pulse Returns
« Reply #92 on: April 05, 2013, 07:20:53 AM »
Oh, I think I have just determined "the plan".
Of course there is no way for me to prove that I am correct.
For if I say it here then Lightfoot could modify the story and I would not want to cause that.

Suffice to say every good superhero has a Achilles heel. Creative exploitation/compensation of that weakness either by a foe or the hero makes for good stories.

One could almost make a flowchart of "What to do if..." for superheros.
If presented with foe of type X then counter with action Y, etc.

That action is typically based on the exploitation of an inherent weakness that is not readily apparent.
As with the current antagonist - a mimic / metamorphic character...

For a MIMIC / METAMORPHIC character
The typical counters are:
1) Prevent the mimic from using their ability, e.g. prevent them touching you or getting a new shape (i.e. Rouge), render them **61** (i.e. Mystique), create a situation where changing actually does not help or makes things worse (i.e. Beastboy, Morph), etc.
2) Overwhelm or otherwise saturate them with new ability they can not control or understand how to use, e.g. the opposite of Option 1 (This has been used with Rouge, Warlock, Wildcard, etc.)
3) Exploit a "hidden" weakness in the current form taken or power being copied.

There are surprising number of shape shifting characters out there and almost as many counters to them. Coming up with the counter when dealing with a doppelganger actually provides insight into the person or power being copied. When handled well it can be a good metaphor to move the story along or indirectly deal with issues that the actual character could or would not.

In Pulse I wonder what power Annie has that another might not be able to control or be able to compensate for?

On of the best exploits of Option 3 was used in the conclusion of Disney's Aladdin.
BE Together...

Images are (c) Nimrod unless noted otherwise

Re: Pulse Returns
« Reply #93 on: April 05, 2013, 11:05:05 PM »
Don't forget the other oft-used resolution when you have a "team" facing a group of opponents with identical/similar powersets:  Switch opponents (also known as "perfectly symmetrical violence never solves anything").

Although for a semi-comedic victory, we could see the Mimic reach for her intended blond target (Tabitha, right?), only for a last-second switch to Annie and finding herself wackily unbalanced due to top-heaviness.  ;)
be seeing you...

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Lightfoot

  • Wandering Artist
  • 1966
    • Pulse
Re: Pulse Returns
« Reply #94 on: April 06, 2013, 01:12:17 AM »
For a MIMIC / METAMORPHIC character
The typical counters are:
1) Prevent the mimic from using their ability, e.g. prevent them touching you or getting a new shape (i.e. Rouge), render them **61** (i.e. Mystique), create a situation where changing actually does not help or makes things worse (i.e. Beastboy, Morph), etc.
2) Overwhelm or otherwise saturate them with new ability they can not control or understand how to use, e.g. the opposite of Option 1 (This has been used with Rouge, Warlock, Wildcard, etc.)
3) Exploit a "hidden" weakness in the current form taken or power being copied.

I'd probably still go through with something even if a short-term story element was guessed (which this is short-term in the scheme of a comic), and only a percentage of readers would even see it (considering this isn't the comic site).  This isn't going to end suddenly, more than one of those counters actually happens.  If I ever made Pulse into books (either sorting them into "books" figuratively, or had them printed as books) this chapter would be the end of the first book (and I guess the short chapter that is next), so I wanted this to be a challenge for them.

My original plan for this chapter more involved the typical issues where they couldn't figure out which was which.  But she doesn't know either of them well enough to pretend to be them, so I went in a different direction.  Although I do have two different endings, but they are sort of a similar theme.








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Lightfoot

  • Wandering Artist
  • 1966
    • Pulse
Re: Pulse #132
« Reply #102 on: May 29, 2013, 11:11:32 PM »
Update today, page 132 "Flashback"
http://pulse.comicdish.com/

Kind of crazy with the colors this week.  I also made some color changes to pages 109, 112 & 113, 121. Added shading to pages 110 and 130, and flipped the last panel horizontally on page 128.

I'm not sure if the chapter ends on the next page or not.  I remembered that there was something else I planned to have happen, but I might just do that some other time.

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Lightfoot

  • Wandering Artist
  • 1966
    • Pulse

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Lightfoot

  • Wandering Artist
  • 1966
    • Pulse
Re: Pulse #134
« Reply #104 on: June 13, 2013, 03:18:31 AM »
Update today, page 134 "A Little Left"
http://pulse.comicdish.com/

Last page of chapter nine.  Next, a short chapter.