As Kelvin is an uncommon unit of measurement outside certain sciences, it’s excusable Sydney didn’t realize that 2100 kelvin is actually just over 3300 Fahrenheit (1800 Celsius). I mean, it’s not that excusable, but it’s Sydney we’re talking about. She just blurted out the first thing that came to mind, and she thought since Kelvin starts at absolute zero, 2100 might be within human tolerance, if still alarmingly hot. Actually 295 Kelvin is right around comfortable room temperature, so she was off by an order of magnitude.

Personally I think Sydney’s reaction is really funny, but I can’t help wondering if I’ve seen almost this exact joke somewhere, probably in a sci-fi show like Futureama or Red Dwarf, and I’ve forgotten the source and am committing a dire act of cryptomnesia. Ever since I started the comic, it’s something I get a twinge about every now and then. I don’t care this time, whatever the origins are this makes me giggle (a manly giggle.) At least Sydney has the decency to be ashamed when she realized how far out in left field her assumption was.

It should be concerning to any of her teammates paying attention to Sydney that she considers the intervening half hour between panels 6 and 7 while Harem was wrangling superheroes (only marginally easier than cats) as non-time, because otherwise it wouldn’t be a smash cut from her perspective. Obviously Sydney didn’t black out or anything for that half hour, and is just recognizing those two moments would fit together in a 4th wall sort of way. Incidentally, an amusing villain would be “Smash Cut” who could make anyone do anything as long as he can get them to specifically say they won’t. His powers can only be activated mid sentence.

Harem’s actually wrong about Arianna’s authority here. Yes, she doesn’t have any say about deployment and stuff like that, but making an appearance at a club is exactly the sort of thing she’s there to manage.

Yes the OONTZs are supposed to be over the word bubble in that last panel. That’s my attempt to simulate how hard it is to hear in loud places like clubs. If it is in fact too obnoxious I’ll play with the transparency and blending mode a little. I want to make you guys have to read carefully like you have to listen carefully in an environment like that, but not make anything illegible. (Even though when I’m in clubs (both times!) or somewhere else really loud like restaurants with open walls and hard floors or dealers rooms at conventions, I only catch every 3rd word. I’m fairly good at piecing things together from context, but a lot of times I pause, smile blankly, and nod “yeah!” It’s weird, I evidently have pretty good hearing for my age, except in loud environments like that where I’m almost useless. It’s been suggested it’s actually the ADD, and not my hearing that’s causing the problem. The number of conversations and other distractions taking place make it really hard to focus on what the person right in front of me is saying.

I know VIPs normally get fancy lanyards at clubs, but I’ve already drawn the next 4 pages and I totally forgot to add them, so they get a hand stamp here. Come to think of it, it’s probably in UV ink because I forgot to draw stamps on their hands too. ¬.¬

Oh, and not to be gross about it, but since it is getting close to the Xmas shopping season, I’ll gently remind everyone about the Amazon link I have. If you click on it then shop like normal, then I get a % of the sale. It’s a good way to support the comic without spending any extra money, and also cut into Amazons profit margins if that’s something that appeals to you. Historically those sales don’t exactly pay the morgage, but they do defray some of my own Xmas expenses, so it is very much appreciated. Unless you guys decide to go to town this year and buy stuff like this or this. You know what the real kick in the teeth is there? $110K for a ruby and it’s not eligible for Amazon Prime. If you spend $110K at Amazon you should be eligible for Optimus Prime.

Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.