Grrl Power #247 – If violence fails, violence harder!
Hopefully no one is disappointed this fight was resolved of screen. Basically the team dogpiled him with every different sort of attack at once and overwhelmed him. Obviously, Goose’s knife got Death Toll in the butt artery, which is a thing. (Don’t look it up.)
There’s a lot going on in this page but as usual I wanted to include more, like between panel 1 and 2, Sydney saying “Actually I guess a pair of handcuffs would have worked too.” Maybe it would have and maybe it wouldn’t have. Anvil’s choke hold didn’t work, but she was also trying to cut off his air supply, which is more attacky than just restraining him.
The other thing is a reversal of a decision I had made earlier, which is that Sydney’s shield actually is airtight. Originally I had planned on making it so it filters out bad stuff like viruses or sleeping gas the same way it filters out too much light from a laser or too much sound from a flashbang. This way, her incredibly powerful shield has one major weakness, which is she can’t keep it up indefinitely, so if she’s flying so fast she has to put her shield up, she’ll have to stop or at least slow down and refresh her air supply every so often, and it limits her ability to go into space or underwater without additional equipment.
Is it just me, or does Maxima in the first panel remind anyone else of Nathan Explosion? It’s that one stand of hair going down the front of her face, plus I drew her face slightly taller than usual. Consistency is one of the more challenging things about any comic, whether the art is simple or complex.
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Do FWTDT’s powers weren’t based on hostility after all, they were based on “who do I copy now?”
As it was mentioned in a previous page, Death Toll’s powers only go so far as to create a polar opposite of an attacking force or, at the very least, some form of defensive measure. If we refer back to the very beginning, there is the “CopyCap” which gives the wearer “copies” of an opponent’s powers. Nemesis, in essence, is the power to counter any attacking force, but not without the limits. To have such powers is highly restricting in that it is very hard to attack because in some cases ((as demonstrated by our friend Death Toll)), you have to be aware of all incoming attacks. It is also very hard to go on the offensive when your only power is a pure-defensive type. Normally when you see the Nemesis-archetype being implemented, there are added “bonuses” as well, such as super strength and endurance and other various additional qualities as to allow the “turtle” ((because of its shell and all)) to become a “snapping turtle” ((hopefully this is obvious)).
That then begs the question of why he turned to copper when holding Jiggawat instead of silver (the best conductor at normal temperatures)?
Might be that the conductive choice was a conscious one and he didn’t know silver was better
It just looked like regular copper but it was actually “Space Copper” that conducts waaaaay better than silver (hey, if it works for the people who are making opposing debates against mine on another page then I’m getting in on some of this “Space Magic Logicu” stuff…. XD )
I thought GOLD was the best conductive material for electricity followed by Silver and Copper being Third but Copper is comparatively cheap compared to the other two
Silver conducts heat a lot better than gold, and my school book last year claimed it was the same with electricity.
Nope, gold is actually a mediocre conductor – it’s used for electrical contacts because it doesn’t corrode. If you want, for example, to use recording gear in a swamp, and you go out there with silver electrical contacts on the plugs for your microphones, you’ll get a few hours of work before it starts to degrade the quality of the connection due to the silver oxidizing. Gold contacts will not have that problem. Inside the wires under the nice rubber insulation though, they’ll use aluminum or copper (usually aluminum because it’s the least expensive), because silver wires are just plain too expensive, but all three are much better conductors than gold.
Gold is an amazing conductor at high tempratures, while still having an increasing resistance by those temperatures(needed to avoid harming more important parts and itself) but those aren’t the case here.
I thought gold was the best conductor, or is it “too Noble” of the Noble Metals? Drat, now I will have to look it up, but I am out of internet time for today so it will have to wait until I remember it during the right time of day!
Grey Boy isn’t stranger. I don’t think he has any stranger abilities at all. Of course he would wipe the entire team in short order, but so would a lot of other worm peeps. Eidolon, Shatterbird, Crawler, Bonesaw, Sleeper, Sion, String Theory, Doormaker, Contessa, The Custodian, Skitter, Lung if he was pumped, the Faerie Queen, Panacea, Dragon, Defiant, Siberian, Noelle etc. Okay, actually some would have trouble wiping the team, but they could inflict horrific damage.
Say what?
How the heck would Defiant, Skitter, Panacea, Shatterbird, Doormaker, Contessa or Bonesaw not die to a single Maxima-level attack? Sure, given a fair bit of prep time and an ambush attack instead of an arena match and they could probably take out most of the team (possibly the entire team in the case of Contessa), but that’s a different kettle of fish. Except Doormaker, he’s harmless.
Most capes aren’t even bulletproof and if a team like the Undersiders were surprised by a simple guy with a pistol who knows how to use it they could easily all be killed.
Dragon, Eidolon, Crawler, Zion, Faerie Queen, Siberian, Contessa and Noelle are all big league S-class capes. They’re extremely rare and dangerous.
Always bet on Contessa versus anyone because she doesn’t get in a fight unless it’s an ambush with her doing the ambushing. It’s basically impossible to have a straight up fight with her unless you’re Scion, an Endbringer, or Mantellum. And she doesn’t even have to actually ‘fight’ you, given her ability to just social you into anything you could ever conceivably be manipulated into doing, up to and including suicide.
Bonesaw is another one that could probably take out the whole team from ambush, but I do agree she’d lose a direct confrontation.
Like you said, S-Class opponents are quite rare. Worm has some heavy-hitters but they’re not the average cape.
You say Skitter would die to a single Maxima-level attack. I point out that Skitter has survived encounters with Behemoth, Scion, Leviathan, and every other Endbringer. I also point out that Skitter has taken out multiple capes. She’s even killed an invulnerable one. Maxima needs to breathe, so she’d be very vulnerable to the method Skitter used.
Then there’s Khepri but honestly everything loses to Khepri because there’s no fighting Khepri. Only a sufficient Stranger could be near Khepri without losing control. Which was partially my point. There’s all kinds of heroes and villains in this comic using projection powers, easily visible with presence, but we have yet to see those with the Stranger set. The closest was FWTDT, as a Trump class, and they had problems with him until Halo identified his power. The whole point of Stranger is that no one identifies them or realizes what they’re doing.
C’mon sydney… put a shield around portal lady, see if she can portal ANYTHING then, lol.
Once again (getting tired of reminding people of this) ONLY if she wants to be in there with her. Canon! Halo’s shield is ALWAYS centered around HER!
Sydney still could wrap Opal with light hook, bring her in close, and then put the shield up around them both.
That should temporarily incapacitate any type of teleporting, by isolating the source. The only one in immediate danger would be Sydney. She could then give her an orb knock to the head until she’s unconscious or has severe trouble concentrating.
As long as Opal doesn’t have any hold-out powers or, heaven forbid anybody actually planned ahead in this silly raid, like a tiny hard to notice gun or something….
yeah, inviting the enemy into your defenses is generally considered to be BAD tactics.
I figured that it was impulsive enough for Sydney to try, because of her experience with Shadow Boxer and Harem.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1286
Ah, OK. Originally thought you were coming up with what was a good idea for her to try as opposed to what Sydney decide in the heat of the moment flush with recent victories.
actually in a small shield / limited port room already physical restrained (with a gap in the molestorb rap up a little below the waist for distraction operations) syd would be rather secure from such threats and I could definitely see syd think of the distraction operations part of it from naruto inspiration.
reminder enbigener have max and dabs as guards in the dome as well, it also refreshes syds air
Yeah trap her in the shield with Halo.
still like https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1287 better, the home run + a villain who doesn’t realize he’s actually the luckiest villain of the group
sorry wrong link, here is correct one
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1290
About the field being airtight, since a few things were already pointed out I will sum it up.
– Now she is surely safe from all air related dangers without the need of a magic like, maybe inaccurate, “bad things” filter.
– Is hard to think about a combat situation that lasts long enough to give her serious problems, and also make it impossible to drop the field five seconds (this one for instance, despite how quickly the problems appeared).
– The equipment needed to far delay the problems is trivial, especially with Archon technology.
– Now we are sure she can go to space and underwater, it could be argued before, and there is no difference in her time window cause the lack of air in both.
In short, it seems that the shield being airtight make it MORE powerful instead.
Of course it is probable that DaveB already has an incoming plot that fits with it :)
These writers are a tricky species. In addition to a well-exercised imagination, they have a subconscious that happily puts in hours of unpaid overtime.
Remember that the shield can evolve with the skill tree.
A shame that a power with such a cool name like Nemesis, only requires you to fight one person at a time. Though you would think you could do more than just stand in the same place and use it offensively. Also wasn’t he fighting three heros just a few pages a go? Does his ability not have a quick switch?
He was fighting three heroes but it looks like they were staggering their attacks. Going by the damage he took I suspect all of the attacks hitting simultaneously is what took him down.
Wasn’t so much Staggering their attacks as the attacks weren’t hitting him simultaneously, or he might be able to counter 2 or 3 simultaneous attacks, but I’m seeing 4-5 between Dabbler,Goose,and Max.
Another edition of random thoughts:
1) I think the first panel would read better as “any one power….”
2) And “un-pop” backwards is “pop-nu”.
3) Not only did one of FWTDorkT’s googly eyes pop off, but I’m surprised no one’s mentioned his tongue hanging out or his missing “tooth”.
4) FWTDT- son of Doomsday?
5) Careful there, Sydney, before you go the way of Unus the Untouchable.
6) Looks like Green Bean is a sore loser… he wants to take his supervillains and go home.
3) i don’t think that the eye has popped off, i think that it’s not visible to us because it’s on the ground… UNDER his head, where we can see at the moment. the nose piece is so close to the ground right now that the googly eye that was to the left of it as he faced us (his right eye), is now touching the pavement…
6) i don’t think it’s him being a sore loser, but as more of a “I’M done playing now, why’s it taking so long for YOU to get ME out of here?!” kind of complaint, especially after seeing his expression in panel 6…
i have a sneaky suspicion that Opal can only make portals to the team mates that she can SEE, if any of them are out of her sight she’ll probably not be able to snag them in her return-to-sender portals, also, her needing a bit more time than Chia-Pet wants to linger, because she apparently can’t instantly create them, which also implies her limits are to actually create them being determined by how many, and or how scattered they are versus just one or two people close by each other and/or haven’t moved from their entry portal’s location, thus “reusing” that one to leave being easier than having to create a new one from scratch… I’ll bet that if she were to be distracted for whatever reason, getting hit, or shocked, or dizzy or startled, that her portals go “poof” and she has to start over again… by which time the fight’s over and she’s been rendered a NON-Insomniac person on the grass.. er… parking lot…
i’ll bet that Chia-Pet is only capable of TK and, while powerful, indeed, is relatively easy to counter… i foresee him getting taken out soon-ish… and that Sydney will be the one to take him out… remember Maxima’s “difficulty” in MOVING the orbs?, i think the same thing is going to stymie Chia-Pet as well, and he’ll keep trying for too long, and or he’ll knock himself out from the effort without any effect.
It did pop off, it is laying on the ground by his head.
And the missing tooth from the mask is probably lodged up his nose.
holy cow! i didn’t notice that at all, i thought that it was just the fringe pattern thingy of his cowl’s hood that was showing… oh, well! can’t win them all..
“Oh my god, Pop backwards is pop!” I had the same reaction when I found that out.
A bit more complex version of a palindrome (a word, phrase or number that can be read the same forward or backward) is when Adam first met Eve: “Madam, I’m Adam.”
I really don’t want Opal to succeed because of that nice hairdresser guy. I mean, sure, he made a few bad choices, but he seems to be a really nice guy! As far as I’m concerned, the hairdresser knows too much and Opal doesn’t want anyone to be questioned. If Opal manages to actually get away, they’ll probably just beat him up or, you know, silence him.
Save the hairdresser!
Save the hairdresser, save the world?
Save the Barberian! Save the World!
Harem versus opal.
There is potential in that fight.
If Halo’s shield is air right, then it must make any sounds Sydney hears distorted as well. Also, her sheild doesn’t stop radio waves. (She was able to communicate with Harem and Max with her shield up).
How just wonder how she’s able to hear at all. Sound is just air moving. If the shield is air right, and as near as I can tell, doesn’t distort at all with an outside force, how does the sound travel through her shield? If the shield distorted slightly I could see distorted sounds making it through – kinda like talking through a balloon.
Space Magic.
Sound isn’t air moving, it’s pressure waves moving through a medium. It’s perfectly reasonable that the shield allows small vibrations but could block intense ones, just like it blocks only very bright light.
Who stuck the knife in his butt?
NVM I just searched the page for knife and found the info in the description.
Just realized: Both Opal & Fedora have along the same style of face markings. I wonder what, if any, the connection is?
Opal has Ra eyes. The Fedora Man has what resembles an Airbender-like tattoo that may continue down is spine down to his feet and very like extends down his arms from his face.
There do seem to be some pattern similarities if you count her matching colored hair that comes together into a single line, if farther back, in a similar fashion to his tattoo. I don’t think their markings are related but maybe DaveB made some pattern similarities to their design to let us know they are siblings? Maybe he is watching out for his sister despite not being a part of the same group? Could make any attempt to stop her teleporting out interesting.
Well, I DO feel like i was robbed a bit actually. I wouldn’t have minded waiting an extra day or two..or heck, hav eone update jsut be a splash page of the team taking FWTDT out. but instead i get…that.
ah well.
I don’t exactly feel robbed but it is a little disjointed. I second a splash page of the dog pile, perhaps as vote incentive and/or book extra.
I have a question. Is that duke nukum in the first frame between Maxima and Dabbler? I have another question. Is it time to kick butt and chew gum. And finally, are we all out of gum?
Oh wait, it says in the upper right that it’s a character named goose, and it addresses my observation. It wasn’t loading properly before, I wasn’t getting any of the characters.
Maxima Explosion. Related to Nathan Explosion. Same universe. Tooootally head cannon now.
As I have not seen it posted yet.
FWTDTroll now has a reason to be butt hurt.
+1
Next time he’ll know not to butt in… no if’s, and’s, or anything else.
He’ll be the “Butt” of many jokes.
But only from people who aren’t trying to butt-er him up.
So, FWTBT was as shortsighted as he presented himself to be when we first heard his name. I wonder what actually stopped him from having a weapon to make sure he does not have too wait like a sandbag that deflects, while “taunting” to make them attack him. Nothing taunts like unloading a clip, or swinging a sword… even throwing hand grenades/homemade explosives… especially if you are able to ignore the explosives effects apparently (flashbangs suggest that his nemesis power does not only work on super powers)
Yeah, if they had planned at all with each other this could have gone so beautifully for the bad guys. Death Toll gets ported in first and walks up to the side of the restaurant completely covered in duck taped on explosives and proceeds to blow up. Some of the squishies are vaporized when Maxima can’t save them all with her reaction speed and they see a completely untouched Death Toll standing in the center of the blast with all evidence of the explosives vaporized leaving just his costume THEN the other members show up to fight. I bet he gets tons of action before anybody does any thinking at all but if they do bother (with Sydney likely dead if Maxima didn’t chooser her to save) it looks like the unprovoked offensive blast was from his powers.
Planning: Its a good thing.
But that’s the whole point here I guess. The baddies didn’t plan much AT ALL and now the good guys will have a chance to plan future action procedures around real team combat experience together. Granted they won’t learn too much about their potential weaknesses from fighting these “seat of your pants” rangers…. *shakes head*
And this is the point that Harem starts porting villains off site into jails away from portal lady.
Or when Opal’s leg disappears from the knee down due to the superpower known as .50 cal.
That was my first thought. Not sure where Archon stands on blowing the head off of the getaway driver – tactically it’s sound (odds that Opal can defend are really quite low; she’d have to either already have found Peggy or have an auto-defense power. Neither seems likely) but ethically it seems like overkill and with pieces of asphalt literally flying around Peggy may be concerned about a ricochet into an unintended target.
I’m more curious about Harem taking the fight to Opal directly: a Vorp vs Hvnnn battle for the ages!
Harem can’t port other people, right?
That is correct. “Nothing living” says DaveB
She could kill them and port them to a meat locker… in pieces (living matter restriction + mass restriction = x_x )
Well just have max also inside just to be safe.
I know its a bit late, but rereading this two things came to my mind:
First: Seriously Opal? The first guy you create a shining portal for is the guy thats in the focus of the whole ARCSWATs attention?
Second: I wonder what happens with the hairdresser that surrendered.
Will they leave him here?
Take him with them?
Do they know he surrendered?
Is he “lawful” enough to come to ARCSWAT after already being in safety and spoil some big bad plans?
This and more in the next episode…..
Same Arc-time same Arc-channel!
Will he become ARC’s official hair dresser?
Unless he has some very esoteric power in conjunction with his hairdressing skills, he’d never see Mr. Achilles as a customer…
To all those justifying killing Opal and Chia-pet: someone dieing ‘acidentally’ in an attack is one thing, but actively targeting and killing someone who has broken off attack (or in O & C’s case, not actually initiated an attack, at best they are still ‘persons of interest’) and fleeing would get the entire unit sent to Military Jail, if not The Hague on charges of War Crimes
Don’t you need at least an “unofficial” war to commit War Crimes?
Opal is in the act of attempting to aid and abet the escape of prisoners currently under arrest. That gives the police the right to try and stop her, and if the minimum necessary force required to do so is to kill her, that would be acceptable.
If she had chosen to port out just herself and Green Hair, that might be a different matter.
They still haven’t actually formally arrested Toll House Cookies, plus, they could argue they are getting him to some much needed surgical attention for his wrecked rectum, seeing how the ones who caused the injury are just standing around while he gushes out (not to mention, they butt-stabbed him after he was subdued)
Okay, options –
Maxima – Hulk punch. Or just grab opal and fly.
Sydney – Her shield has been shown to stop harem’s telportation. She could throw a bubble up around the unconscious baddies as a last ditch effort to prevent escape.
Dabbler – Sava Lava Cuti
Harem – Injections are fun!
Peggy – Put a bullet through Opal’s foot. No more portals. A brutal tac to take though.
anyone else – Hug the Barberian. What? He’s hugable. Plus I bet those headsets have trackers.
Sydney has to form the shield around herself. It is universe cannon.
Not a bad idea, since all the baddies s/he is referring to are already unconcious. No problem with her being inside with them if she’s the only one awake.
Actually…it just struck me that if Opal brings the bracelets along with some of her downed comrades it may be tactically better to let them escape long enough to show where their base is (assuming they have one – The Barberian and Hex suggest they might not).
Just a quick thought all but opal and green hair are unconscious atm so Sydney could use the embigganer to make a teleport denial field around the prisoners
Yep, given that we started the fight with Harem announcing that she cannot teleport through the sheild, I’m putting my bet on the embiggener to trap them. Only problem is not then getting clobbered by Green-Hair-Guy. But that’s what maxima is for.
So, we know that Opal is capable of teleporting people, is able to transport far more mass (in people and their personal effects alike), can teleport things that she isn’t touching and doesn’t need line of sight to everyone she is teleporting (her eyes being closed would certainly suggest whatever sense she uses to “lock on” to others is not based on sight, sound or any conventional sense available to humans. The only question is the range and frequency of jumps she can make in succession. Still, so far she appears to be a superior teleporter to harem in every way except for harem’s 5-person point of view which is, admittedly, a big deal.
Now, assuming her range is not remarkably limited compared to harem’s power… I kind of have to wonder why she didnt skip the super villain idiocy and become a transportation tycoon (or queen if she prefers really). Since it seems she is capable of transporting noteworthy masses (30+ supers, virtually of whom have the superhuman physique and some of whom seem like they’d have significantly more mass than a normal person) she could potentially replace anything between a number of freight trucks to a cargo-ship all on her own. Without the overhead cost of acquiring and maintaining the hardware such transportation services normally requires her profit margin for, well, however much work she feels like signing herself up for in a day, would be significantly above what those companies can pull. Again depending on her total capacity, range and endurance for using her powers. Hell if potent enough she could even simply stoop to blackmailing airlines and the current tycoons in assorted industries to pay her a tidy sum on a regular basis simply to Not bring her abilities onto the open market so they can stay in business.
(obviously I expect Dave has thought of this and she’s either got a limited range or simply the kind of personality that doesn’t have her think of cutting herself a perfectly legit check by using her powers that way.. much like how the “safe-cracker” super in Maxima’s imaginary scenario chose, until he saw Maxima’s big drama blast, to go in for a life of crime instead of using his superhuman strength to make money in construction/demolitions. Seriously, if you have the physical power to rip an armored safe in half with your bare hands… making a mint in the demolitions and construction service should Not be a problem since you can pretty much stand in for 90% of the heavy industrial equipment they use to break or build things with, while none of the usual maintenance and fuel costs… basically just name your salary and if your prospective boss wont pay it? There’s gonna be someone who will.
(and I just realized I’m discussing the personality traits I imagine to be required to rationalize the behavior of an imaginary character who was himself imagined by an imaginary character using him in a hypothetical example for how the “real people” of a still imaginary universe would react to her “our guns are bigger” scare tactic. all of which originate from the imaginary creations of the quite real mind of Dave the author and my personal, ultimately imaginary, take thereof. Imagine that?)
***snort*** “space magic!” yeah…
Or, even simpler, the field goes semi-permeable to nitrogen, oxygen, and CO2 for the duration of the size change. Of course, Sidney can’t / doesn’t know how to do this deliberately yet…
OK, this was a reply to Observer, back in the middle of page 2… Apparently the comments and my old iPad are not working together correctly?
Leave the Magic 8-Ball questions to the professionals:
https://wapsisquare.com/comics/2002-01-25.jpg
I love, love, love this comic. It has amused me for many a year and … I’ve only noticed this because I am rereading from the beginning ( for like the fifth time, XD ) but … I wonder what was the motivation to change Sydney’s bangs to more anime gravity defying bangs? Part of her super power set, heh? Either way, I totally dig the more natural way they fall in the beginning comics ( around her ears and such ) and it really shows the kind of … manic-side of her with how they are now.
It’s just the evolution of art over time. The more natural look makes way more sense, but I’ve been drawing her with the crazy bangs for so long now it’s be hard to shift them back.
For what it’s worth, I’m glad you bit the bullet and changed them back as of more recent comics. They were the single worst thing about her design.
Ok, who just teleported in behind me and whispered “Spoilers, sweetie…” in my ear? Do I suddenly know something?
Wait a minute… the green orb was glowing all weird. Was it telling Sydney that it was time for her to use it? (Considering what it does, which is spoilery for people who are going through this for the first time.)
I haven’t seen anyone with nemesis power since Nemesis Kid killed Karate Kid in the old Legion of Super-Heroes book.
I admit, I totally expected them to have Dabbler tickle him till his bladder explodes, since it (arguably) wouldn’t be an ‘attack.’