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Thank you for the support! You guys and grrls are awesome!

Cora's plan probably sounds like a bad idea for a number of reasons. Some of those reasons may be laid out in the next few pages. 

At the time this page was posted, a Kg of rhodium is worth about $183,260, which honestly is less than I would have guessed. Iridium clocks in at $132K/Kg, and palladium is a bargain at $35K/Kg. I know they're all useful in electronics, and also that Rhodium was the primary currency in Star Justice, where I guess it was used as star ship drive fuel.

In the Grrl-verse, elements are valued by four factors: how pretty is it, how abundant is in nature, how useful its chemical properties are, and most importantly, how energy intensive it is to mine/refine/extract or artificially fabricate. Generally speaking, the higher the atomic number, the more energy intensive it is. Also isotopes take more energy - generally, the more neutron variance, the more energy intensive it is to create.

Even with alien super science, the laws of physics still exist, and you can't use your nuclear reactor to create more reactor fuel. Well, you can, but even the best alien super science can't get you over 100% efficiency, so it'd be dumb to do. That said, it's also possible to create Dyson arrays around stars and harvest absolutely massive amounts of solar energy, so it's possible to create darn near anything - if you have access to a Dyson Array slash Matter Replicator - Let's just call it a Knights of the Old Republic Star Forge. Not everyone does, of course. Have access to something like that, I mean. Not even every race has their own Star Forge, so while the greater galactic community claims to be post scarcity, the reality is that there is scarcity based economics at play. It's all just at a wildly different scale than what Earth manages. 

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Comments

Teksura

I was honestly expecting Kora to ask to borrow some of Max's team for some tough jobs as payment. Supers are the main asset Earth has to offer, which even Kora acknowledged would be in demand even after she told a press conference that Earth doesn't have anything anyone wants except for its entertainment industry. I was fully expecting her to ask about borrowing a few people. Was not expecting her to ask for Max specifically. Or for it to be some shady possibly underground battle arena she can bet on. But hey, space adventure arc.

Madeleine

What's P.T.O. and would Cora (who didn't grow up on Earth) use that term?

Michael Obert

One bad day at the office = ten unconscious super opponents and money in Cora's pocket 😊

rhekke

P.T.O: Paid Time Off, aka vacation. And translator shenanigans as for why Cora uses the term.

Sean Christopher Duggan

As I quipped in the Tv Tropes thread, the government was all for Maxima selling her body for access to aliens when it came to Deus...

Madeleine

Same question, really: would a translator use abbreviations?

Michael Altarriba

Paid Time Off, and Cora's been doing a lot of hanging around Terrans... and she'd plan her pitch to Maxima before saying anything, so...

rhekke

I'm thinking cultural context. Many military and government organizations heavily use three letter acronyms as part of their internal culture. Using P.T.O. suggests Cora is using words and phrases implying familiarity about both Max's current employment as well as her past service. She is probably trying to not put Max on guard before asking what may be an unusual favor for her.

Madeleine

"Around Terrans" makes it sound like that's an abbreviation in all languages and cultures, which it isn't. But yeah, she's been around her clientele long (and attentively) enough, you're right. (Did I hit the wrong reply button?)

Town Crier

Max must be faking her interest, in that last panel; otherwise, she'd be showing her lady boners. Just sayin'. Dave, you missin' a big opportunity here.

Nathan Wilson

Recently watched a YT vid about some new nuclear reactors a Danish company is making, and it DOES make more fuel for itself. https://youtu.be/bz4aTO6M4Ho?si=F-oBCfjR0a5rArvy Not that fuel is the only resource they're burning. They're making tons of little reactors with a life of 7-10 years each.

Torabi

In a way, this really isn't all that different from the dungeon plan: use superpowers to beat up dangerous and exotic creatures for loot.

Jared

This makes me wonder if perhaps our depleted fuel that has been put in indefinite storage might be a decent trading material.

Bob Ellis

I loved the expression change in the last three panels. Very well done.

JC Urza

And I've heard of breeder reactors, not exactly sure how they work. My guess they are turning not so usable fuel into more usable fuel?

SilverScrolls

Now that's the way to women's heart. The chance to just go all out and tear someone limb from limb (metaphorically unless they're some kind of regenerating xeno that thinks of death as more of a speed bump than a problem) is what every women truly wants

Stefan Schmiedl

Sounds like a nice opportunity to take Vehemence for a walk ...

David Haselbauer

Rhodium, palladium, and iridium aren't rare earths. They are metals. Really good electrically and catalytically, but not rare earths. If you are looking for rare earths, they are on the two rows below the main table, starting with lanthanum and actinium. While they aren't all that rare (you can find them all over the place in trace amounts) easily exploited large concentrations are. They can also be really energy-intensive to separate and produce large amounts of acidic and caustic wastes - at least with the technology we have now. Higher technology might help with that, but separating such chemically similar elements as neodymium and praseodymium would likely still require a lot of energy.

Erin Halfelven at BigCloset

Excellent set up and the expressions are great. :) Just a quibble, the elements named are platinum group metals, not rare earths. The rare earths are things like erbium, dysprosium and neodymium. Some of them are rare and some are just hard to refine since they are so chemically similar to each other. The platinum group metals mentioned are mostly much rarer than the rare earths, and chemically resemble the noble metals like silver and gold.

Richard Riley

Note that military non-civilian types generally get "leave" rather than "PTO."

Nathan Wilson

Yeah, there's a whole chemical process for it, as they mix thorium salts through it. It's pretty cool. They go through it in that video.

davebarrack

Whoops! I probably should have googled that to double check my assumptions about the rare earth stuff.

davebarrack

Someone will have to correct Max on a future page. :/

Hugh Eckert

Iridium definitely should be (more) available in asteroids and the like. It's used as an indicator of asteroid impact on earth- that's one of the things that led to the Alvarez hypothesis about the K-Pg extinction being caused by an impact.

Fogel

The writer privilege. "I didn't make a mistake, the character did"

Fogel

There is a difference between "the government" and "1 guy getting scolded by his peers"

Eric Loken

Officially I am opposed to this entire idea. UNofficially... I am still listening.

eddi_TBH

Max is mightily tempted. Too bad she's not even a little impulsive. When thinking of pluses add, aliens watch her dismantle a killbot with her pinkies, think twice before thinking about bothering Earth, ever.

eddi_TBH

He might achieve apotheosis, then kick Darkseid's ass.

eddi_TBH

She knows Superman's "Cardboard World" monologue by heart. A straight up Strength / Invulnerability split would be 20 shades of cool .

eddi_TBH

PTO is a little more recent anyway. In the 70s it was still leave time.

eddi_TBH

It hits a lot harder when you can watch it live or even in person.

Christopher Upton

I really like the style. Sharpe lines, yet a little cartoon-ish. I hope this one sticks around for a while

Eric Loken

Sadly there will always be some dumbass who thinks they are stronger, or takes it as a challenge. "Well, it got so that every piss-ant prairie punk who thought he could shoot a gun would ride into town to try out the Waco Kid. I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille. It got pretty gritty. I started to hear the word "draw" in my sleep. Then one day I was just walking down the street, when I heard a voice behind me say, "Reach for it, mister!" I spun around, and there I was face-to-face with a six-year-old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass!" -- Blazing Saddles

eddi_TBH

All praise to Gene Wilder and the rest of Team Mel.

Gelatinous Cube

Well, I doubt Max is nerdy enough to have the periodic table memorized.