Sydney can jangle her way through a basic padlock or a front door, but certainly not in record time. She understands the mechanics of it. She watched a few youtube videos on the subject, then practiced on her own front door and a padlock she had. Not handcuffs though, because she’s never casually had access to them, and mechanically they’re different than a deadbolt. She should look in to that before too long probably.

As the stinger suggests, Sydney does own a number of utility belts. Her first one was really just a bandoleer with pouches, probably filled with various types of candy, hair ties, a magnifying glass, and a tape measure, because she was six. This is her first opportunity to build one with literally military grade hardware. (The proper use of the word literally.)

I haven’t been giving Anvil enough to do lately in the comic. She’s a Sergeant, so this seemed like something that could fall in her wheelhouse. It was either her or the QM we saw once at the beginning on the fight, and the boob hug joke wouldn’t play right with him. ( Y ) :)

Originally I had planned on drawing a lot more stuff on the table than I did, but (besides taking forever) I started running out of ideas because a lot of stuff she could potentially carry around would realistically be a small kit of some sort contained in a pouch or a box, not scattered all over the table – or, the sort of stuff Batman (for instance) would carry on his belt is basically the stuff of science fiction. His grappling hook is just not realistic. Batman is something like 6′ 2″, is dressed in full body armor, and carrying all the crap in his utility belt. Even given than his outfit and gear is bleeding edge materials, he’s still probably hauling around 225-250 lbs minimum. Ok, if someone spent 6 million dollars developing a grappling hook, they might be able to make one the size of a… I guess a liter of soda roughly describes the size as depicted in show, but someone maybe could make one with existing materials and tech that could haul that much weight. Ignore the fact that Bats regularly drag another person along with him, and ignore the problem of the grapple being shot into the side of buildings securely enough to hold that weight – sure usually you’d hook it over the edge of something or attach it on to a pipe or fire escape, but watch Batman TAS or Justice League and tell me he’s not firing that thing into rock and armored walls all the time.

So maybe I could buy the grapple with enough money dumped into it, but then he’s got a million batarangs, and not just what basically amounts to shurikens, but also ones that electrocute people, ones with explosives, ones that spray knockout gas, etc. Then he’s got a laser torch, a microscopic rebreather, gas mask, bat-bolas, bat cuffs, a thing that jams guns somehow (according to the Arkham games) flares, x-ray specs, etc. Some of that stuff is realistic, some of it isn’t. I guess I’m mostly doubting his ability to fit it all on his belt.

A-kon is this weekend, which is my usual local con haunt. I’ll be there Friday and Saturday. I don’t have a table, but I’ll be at some of the webcomic panels and maybe we can organize getting lunch or dinner one night. Details to come.

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