Spinnerette

T.T indeed.

Wow, talk about Cerebus Syndrome.

So... Does Mecha Maid count as a Deconstruction of a specific kind of Cyborg Super Heroes, or not?

It's too early to call Cerebus Syndrome. This isn't a gag-a-day comic, it's an ongoing story, and there are bound to be sad parts. Cerebus Syndrome is when the comic stops having the light moments.

Mecha Maid/Marilyn seems to be doing fine, anyway. She's almost definitely not okay with dying so young, but she isn't angsty about it, and she makes the best out of what she's got left. Her character arc will probably be a sad one, and she's looking to be an Iron Woobie (no pun intended), but this doesn't mean the whole comic is going to suddenly veer off into the Depression Abyss.

I don't know if Mecha Maid actually counts as a cyborg; some people think she is, that's all. In reality it's just Power Armour that allows her to move, but it doesn't actually amplify her abilities because she had them all along.

edited 10th Nov '10 9:21:39 AM by Luzerne

Break out the mad science! We'll transfer her mind into a robot! Unless ALS affects the brain.

^ It targets the central nervous system.

She just mentioned that she doesn't have powered armor. She has a headband that gives her Super-Strength.

No, she has a headband that makes it possible for her to move by supplementing her weakened nervous system. She also said that the powered armor she's working on for her father is not the same as her Mecha Maid armor. This does not mean that she doesn't also have her own Mecha Maid powered armor. The headband does not give her the ability to shoot jets out of her feet and fly.

I don't know if Mecha Maid actually counts as a cyborg; some people think she is, that's all. In reality it's just Power Armour that allows her to move, but it doesn't actually amplify her abilities because she had them all along.

Technically speaking, there are two kinds of Cyborging: The "intrusive" kind that involves direct implantation of non-biological systems into one's body and supplementing missing appendeges with prosthetics, which is what most people think of first when the term is mentioned; and the "non-intrusive" kind, which exactly what it says on the tin: non-biological augmentations that do not physically intrude on an organism's biology (like Mecha Maid's headset, and all Powered Armour that does not use "direct neural interfaces").

edited 10th Nov '10 10:19:59 AM by MarqFJA

ALS usually causes death through respiratory failure. It seems it ought to be possible to prevent that from happening, at least without the disease progressing much further than it usually has to, simply by wearing her enhancement suit all the time.

It actually causes the degeneration of the motor neurons, so I doubt the suit could replace it completely once they totally fail. But a possibility would be to replace all her neurons with actual wiring, or something in the likeness.

It's right in the second speech bubble. No motors in the armor.

Two or three years left to live...damn.

She doesn't need motors to be kept alive, her muscles are still intact, and with the technology she uses to become Mecha Maid, are actually getting regular exercise. She just needs to preserve her ability to send signals to those muscles to keep them operating. In that case, the suit ought to be able to let her live much longer than she would otherwise, by enhancing her nerves' ability to transmit signals.

Enhancing neural transmission performance does not equate to prolonging the lifespan of the neurons in question.

But you don't die of respiratory failure when your last heroic neuron finally bites the dust. There's a considerable margin between not having enough neuron activity to preserve bodily function and having none at all. Besides, the fact that she gets regular exercise should fight many of the degenerative effects that result indirectly from the motor neuron degeneration.

I'm guessing the Super-Strength is the thing where you don't use all of your muscles is turned off. I forget what the name is.

^^ That makes sense.

It won't postpone the inevitable forever, but constantly wearing the enhancer should mean that her nerves will have to decay further than normal before the effect becomes lethal. Ie.; in a few years, with the enhancer, she'll be where she is today without it.

Yeah, the dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease thing really clashes with the tone of every previous Spinnerette strip.

I'm not diggin it. If you disregard science to the point of super spider powers and black magic summonings and magic robot suits...well, this is just kind of ridiculous. Besides, why wouldn't she wear a simplified suit or headset all the time, under her clothes or something? I mean, even assuming she'll still die, I'd think she'd want to stay mobile in the meantime.

Traditionally, with this sort of thing there's some sort of time limit to the enhancement gadget—maybe it eats up battery power like nobody's business, or some such.

There's also the fact that she probably has quite a few enemies as Mecha Maid, and if she doesn't maintain her secret identity, she can't be with her old friends and family without making them into targets.

I'm not diggin it. If you disregard science to the point of super spider powers and black magic summonings and magic robot suits...well, this is just kind of ridiculous.

You're assuming too much of the genre. Just because there's spider powers and black magic doesn't mean that all medical ailments have magical cures and no one will ever die because everyone can get super immortality.

Besides, why wouldn't she wear a simplified suit or headset all the time, under her clothes or something?

Now you're assuming too much of technology. You can't just build a machine and then go, "Oh, it's too clunky. Okay, I'll just rebuild it so it works exactly the same and has all the same parts, but is smaller somehow." If she knew how to make a smaller one, she would have. That she did not suggests she can't, at least at this time with what she knows and the resources available to her.

This isn't magic. She can't whip up a sorcery spell that automatically heals her of all ailments. You can't say "It's stupid that she's dying because MAGIC! or SCIENCE! can make it go away," if it hasn't been suggested that it can.

Traditionally, with this sort of thing there's some sort of time limit to the enhancement gadget—maybe it eats up battery power like nobody's business, or some such.

As Desertopa mentioned, the time limit is the fact that her nervous system is still degenerating, and will eventually degenerate to the point that even the enhancer won't be able to save her. It doesn't replace her nervous system. It just enhances what's already there.

I think the battery life was more a reference to why she doesn't wear the head band 24/7. And it's just a head band. I'd be willing to bet she could make it unobtrusive. I'm also willing to bet that somebody else is going to use it for temporary super strength.

I wonder if Mecha Maid will try to body-jack Spinnerette. That sounds pretty standard comicbook-y.