March Bonus Art
The previous one is up at the somewhat neglected DevianArt page.
New vote incentive/bonus art is up over at topwebcomics.com. Check it out.
I couldn’t think of a shiny hero from DC, at least not one that a lot of people would recognize, otherwise I would have crossed the streams a bit. There’s one guy, I think his name is Captain Atom, but I only know of him due to a handful of supporting role appearances on the Justice League cartoon, I don’t think he’s ever had his own book.
Those guys ought to be careful not to tick her off too much, she’s out of their league. Iron Man could probably take his suit to a body shop. Maybe Colossus could use those plungers things you use to get the dents out of cars on himself. I was thinking of putting Silver Surfer in place of Iron Man, at least he’d have a fighting chance against her.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Eek! Am I missing a page of the comic? I see the commentary, but no comic…
BTW, yes indeedy, the DC guy is Captain Atom, and he was quite shiny. I’m pretty sure he had his own series for a bit, and would say he’s familiar to DC fans, though perhaps not to casual folks. He was a bit dull (ironic, since he was shiny.)
Thanks for continuing to produce such a fun webcomic! Lovin’ the characters and story!
Yes, Captain Atom had his own book back when DC absorbed all of the Charlton characters back in ’87. He was also in a limited series of his own back in 2005 that punted him over to Wildstorm for a bit. To be fair about his lack of personality, he is a very strict military type from the 60’s where the quirkiness that you write about in A.R.C. wouldn’t have been tolerated.
Okay, I can see Maxima outclassing Colossos due to her versatility but Iron Man? She really needs a herald of Galactus to give her a challenge? And she works for the US Military directly? Shades of Doctor Manhattan….
Don’t get me wrong; the art is very nice, I’m grooving on the story here, and the humor makes Grrl Power something special indeed. Kudos.
Another question that’s been at the back of my mind though is the mix of sexes for metahumans in this world. Is it like the AC Comics/Femforce world were a majority of the supers are female or are we just looking at a very limited sample?
I’ve introduced most of the main characters by now, but you guys will get to experience the same everwhelmedness (?) that Sydney’s going to get once introductions start, which includes lots of guys. So to answer your question, there’s basically an even split of power distribution across genders.
To answer your other question, yeah, Max is pretty powerful, not just in terms of raw stats, but on top of everything else, she’s a dirty fighter. I always thought it was kind of dumb that Superman, for instance, just uses fisticuffs. His job is basically punching people, and he often fights people who are so tough that his natural abilities don’t convey any sort of advantage, and yet it doesn’t seem that he knows even basic martial arts. I’ve never seen him use an arm bar or a wrist lock on anyone. I know the real reason for it – it makes for short fights if a powerful hero fights smart, but since no hero does that ever, I think it’ll be interesting to write it from the other direction.
You guys will see how Max fights eventually. I imagine a fight against Iron Man would start with Max superspeeding up to him then yanking that thing out of his chest. End of fight I’d assume. I don’t keep up with Iron Man anymore, so maybe his armor is electrocuted or there’s some reason that wouldn’t work, but that would probably be her opening move. Even if it didn’t work it’d probably throw Tony into a defensive battle. She wouldn’t mess around with witty banter and trading blows if there’s a clear way to end it straight off.
I don’t want it to come across as me making a hero that can beat up everyone in the universe the way a kid would, she’s not invincible by any means, but she is my universe’s Superman equivalent. Only without all the boyscout stuff. And clearly the comic is more about the interaction of personalities than it is about battle scenes, but eventually there will be some fighting and I have some stuff planned that hopefully you guys will find interesting, mostly since it won’t follow a lot of what you’d find in a battle manga or traditional comic book.
You should publish this on the main board. Maby next Mondays. It would be sure to get a lot of responses.
When you consider Lex Luthor, a totally unpowered human, was his nemesis for many years you begin to see that he never HAD to develop any skills or strategy. I much preferred Spiderman (old school) who grew up bullied and picked on yet became a hero who even then could make mistakes or lose his temper. Personally after the third time Luthor’s schemes killed an innocent I’d have hit him hard enough to stop his heart “Opps!” and that would have been it.
Actually, the last Iron Man I read, (Admitedly a few years ago) He’d managed to have his heart repaired and his suit’s power cells used a thermodynamic emergency recharging system. Aka it could absorb excess heat, (from laser attacks or such) and convert it into electricity and recharges his systems, as well as a photovoltaic system capable of keeping the suit running in normal (non heavy-combat) situations.
Although there was one incident I heard of where he simply grabbed a power main and charged that way. *Shrug*
Like the Colossus. very strong and well drawn. The Iron Man you could of spent a bit more time on.
Made me laugh out loud and show it to a friend. Good one.
Yeah the Iron Man is weaksauce. I spent about 4 evenings on Max, not including a half drawn version that I discarded and 2, maybe 2 and a half on Colossus. I did Iron Man last night in like 30 minutes cause I needed this piece to be done so I could start on Monday’s comic.
Totaly understand. You did great work with the people who realy needed the attention and I’ve seen Iron Man in so many diffrent types of armor that this one dosn’t look out of place.
Good job once again, and go get some rest, You need it.
I don’t quite get this picture. Not to say that it’s not very well done because it is marvelous, but is the joke that both avengers are offering to give her a full body polish? or are they just offering their supply because I’m 65% sure its a metallic skin thing and I don’t recall maxima being a bio-metallic…
Well to look at her, you’d think that Max has metal skin. It’s just two other shiny characters offering her up some beauty accessories that they themselves find useful.
Sounds like if Max Turned afainst the team, the team should worry. In the power range you’re talking about, a hand-clap takes out everybody but Anvil and maybe Dabbler. Of the two, Dabbler is the real problem bcause she has so many odd abilitiies and stuff she can pull out of her bra.
Anvil, Max would just just pull a sleeper hold on. Problem solved.
If Sydney was “powered up” she might give her a bit of a fight.
mainly because of her “Power trick” and “Chaotic mind”abilities
Captain Atom got his own book again when DC started their whole “New 52” nonsense. I think it’s still running — I read the first few and found out I STILL didn’t care about him at all.
Why do I hear a voice in my head saying “wax on, wax off”. ;)
Main strength of Iron Man is his ability to invent, not physical combat, so I understand he would lose when entering the combat unprepared. But Silver Sulfur? Seriously? He can phase through buildings, I don’t see how can he be harmed physically at all … or was he weaker in the comic?
And about Superman: I can easily see he can really be that stupid – I mean honorable – to not bother learning how to fight.
I don’t actually know that much about Silver Surfer, I never followed him in any comic, and thought the surfboard thing was kind of dumb and is maybe due for an update since surfing doesn’t have the attention of most of the world anymore (and don’t get me started on Galactus.) I just remember glancing at his stats in the Marvel RPG once. I’m sure he’s exhibited abilities that would make him undefeatable if all the writers actually remembered them and deployed them intelligently. A lot of heroes and villains are like that. I looked up DC’s Maxima once to see how mine would fare against her, and she was clearly invented in the silver or golden age. For a tertiary character at best, her list of powers was longer than all the Avengers’ powers combined, and they weren’t minor powers either, like super powerful telekenesis and matter control and the like. The problem with a power set like that is the character is either undefeatable or has to be written like a tactical simpleton. Max doesn’t have nearly so comprehensive a power set, but like common sense, in a world of morons who don’t know how to fight, being a competent strategist is a super power.
Love the picture, but I wouldn’t write out Iron Man in a fight. Tony Stark is usually portrayed as a scary-level genius and his armor is pretty much a swiss-army knife of gadgets and stuff. He’s gone up against the Hulk and survived. Pretty sure he’s got defenses against people ripping out his chest-piece, at the least.
She’s a smart dirty fighter, Why go after the tough chestplate when there are all those vulnurable joints and his neck that is ment to move. No need to rip his heart out when you could break his neck instead.
For the Iron Man I know, that chest piece is undoubtedly as armored as the rest of his armor, if not more so. If Max can easily breach the armor, she can easily tear the armor in half and make any “dirty fighting” tactics unnecessary. I don’t know much about Maxima yet, so I can’t really give a good opinion on how she would match up to various Marvel and DC superheroes. I guess it all depends on whose book the battle is taking place in…
Awesome drawing! I really liked seeing these 3 on the same picture :)
Maxima is on Superman’s league? Boy, there is basically nothing these two guys could do against her… Hell, there’s about nobody in the “regular” league that could do anything against such powerful hero! We’d have to call the heavy guns to deal with her (Thor, Odin, Galactus, Silver Surfer… This kind of overpowered busters!).
But as a wise reader once said: “a hero is only as strong as the author/writer seems fit.” That’s why discussions about “X would totally beat Y” make little sense (Songoku vs Bejita, Hulk vs Superman, Hulk vs Thor…) and that’s why we so much like discussing endlessly about it ^_^
Sadly it’s gotten to the point where, realistically, the Hulk could probably beat anyone if he got angry enough. Unless they can warp/alter reality like Scarlet Witch or Molecule Man or something. The same trait seems to carry over to She-Hulk as well. That’s the problem when you have characters with potentially limitless power. They can always go higher. I know for a fact that Thor pretty recently admitted that he could never truly beat the Hulk. On the other hand, though, Zeus completely curbstomped the Hulk a couple of years ago. That was a satisfying read…
See, it’s years of reading artificially drawn out fight scenes in comics that has you thinking like that. The Hulk can’t fly. He’d have no chance against an opponent who 1) could fly, 2) has a ranged attack like Max 3) isn’t a dumbass. It’s probably due to panel composition, but whenever someone can fly in a comic and they’re fighting someone who doesn’t, they’re usually flying 18 feet off the ground – basically well within “thrown car” distance. Why not fly 500 feet up, or 1,000? As long as you can see the target and your ranged attack can hit, assuming it’s a hitscan attack like an energy blast, why put yourself anywhere near the hulk?
Even if he jumps at you, if you’re 1,000 feet up, you’d have plenty of time to move out of the way, and once he’s airborne, fly under him and hit him with another blast, add to his momentum and knock him into the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
In some ways I’ll probably have some very typical superhero fight scenes in the comic, but also expect some atypical ones.
Wait wait… Max can fly, is super strong and tough, knows martial arts AND has a long range attack? That’s overkill, man ^_^
And then people will complain that I always root for “street level” heroes like Daredevil, Spidey or even good ol’ Cap’ !
I mean, ok, Spidey (for example) is quite strong and has lightning-fast reflexes (and spider-sense) but have him eat some shells and he’s history (for a few days/weeks, at best). That’s these limitations that give the suspense and the “heroic” side of the stories: if there is no danger, then there is no thrill – no pain, no gain! So having someone like Maxima on the run basically kills all suspense: she’s so over the top that she fears nearly nothing – except herself maybe: such powers can cause a lot of mess when employed “unwisely”, I would say…
Yeah it sounds like overkill, but then if you think about Superman/Green Lantern/Martian Manhunter… Marvel doesn’t really have a lot of crazy overpowered heroes really. I guess Thor, but really, any of them seem ridiculously overpowered on the face of it. And as I’ve mentioned before, if 90% of your job was hitting people, wouldn’t you… you know, learn how to hit them really good? I guess being sucky fighters is one of those guys major weaknesses. Maxima would probably call them “uncommitted” when you punch someone in the face when you could have punched them in the throat.
But yes, she is powerful and that will create some interesting writing problems for me. But she’s not invincible and I have some bad guys lined up that will make things interesting for her and the team. Protagonists that are too powerful make for a boring comic (though I have to admit that I enjoy the occasional unbeatable protagonist like Kenshiro/Ricky-Oh) You guys don’t have to worry about me making boring protagonists though. :)
One thing that I learned recently through studies of personality models is that “for every strength there is a weakness, and for every weakness, a strength”. This side of Absolute Infinity, that has to hold true even for superheroes and supervillains. One of my favorite reads when much younger was a tag-team match between a gang of villains and Superman (or Superboy?) – all the heroes were outmatched, Superboy by someone who was always stronger than any one person he faced. The heroes got their own back when they switched matchups – Mr. Stronger-Than-Thou was taken down by paired-twin girls (more than one, see?), to his everlasting shame. Yeah, kinda silly, but it illustrates the principle.
See, this is what a lot of people in the comics trade seem to forget from time to time. You have to give people weaknesses corresponding to their strengths and vice versa. Even Asterix and Obelix, otherwise unbeatable, have the weakness of their unstable friendship. Disney’s Hercules had no weaknesses – except for the girl who thought he had no weaknesses (as Hades saw). The Beyonder (talk about a heavy hitter!) could be paralyzed by a brain probe. And so on. I can only make my protagonist work (I’m not here to advertise him, so I won’t dwell on this overmuch) because his weaknesses are commensurate with his strengths. He can whip literally anybody he truly needs to (go on, pick your fictional character, hero or villain, I dare you)… his calling literally demands that capacity. Only, he doesn’t determine the “need”, and his one true vulnerability is the moral character and mental centering that enables him to access his gifts. And that can be his permanent undoing if he isn’t careful. And, he doesn’t learn to use his full capacities all at once (nor are they simply invented on whim as in DRAGONBALL Z as it seems, they logically unfold from what’s already revealed).
Crossovers are fun because you can take your hero/villain, or your fave from some other universe, and not only have fantasy fights, but fantasy reactions. It was a real trip “feeling” the gut reactions of my protagonist (upon first meeting) to each of your “grrls” – which, BTW, would be the one class of entity he’d be the most naturally annoyed with going in. He hates male arrogance with a passion; he hates female arrogance more. I think his reaction to Anvil would be even more visceral than his reaction to Maxima. Harem seems the most like him temperamentally.
She Hulk actualy knows some martal arts. She actualy beat up the Abomonation (aka Leon Bronski) about two or three years ago.
I’m really eager to see Maxima demonstrate more of her strength in the next issues. Perhaps she has some specific training room with incredible dumbbells, like The Thing has? Does she even have to workout to maintain her strength, or is it “innate” (and then has a definite level, that can’t increase)? Many questions remain opened :)
And as always, a hero is as good as his villains are bad – I’m wondering which baddy could have her break a sweat… A mastermind like Lex Luthor? An even stronger enemy (poor Earth!)? Can’t wait to see more – and also to finally know what’s inside this bloody tube Sydney carries ^^
Generally the problem with powerful heroes is that you need more powerful bad guys, but of course the hero always finds some way to eek out a victory, requiring an even tougher bad guy the next time. I hope to avoid that dark spiral myself.
I’d get behind him and put him in high orbit. Or if I had the power toss him to Venus. Lets see him adapt to super hot steaming acid seas.
Actually, they did have him adapt to that… In one issue of Ultimates, where Stark tried to “control” the Hulk in a special room, where he could adapt gravity and air settings. No need to say the factory hiding the room ended up pretty badly :P
The problem with that plan is that in order to beat the Hulk you’re going to have to engage him eventually, which will more than likely have to involve going down to his level again. Long-ranged abilities like Superman’s heat vision might help a bit, but the problem is that the Hulk can take it almost as well as he can dish it out. Huge durability (which also increases with rage) backed up by a healing factor almost on a par with Wolverine. Oh, and he’s immune to telepathy due to his multiple personalities. And he can’t be drowned because he can apparently breathe underwater, or at least hold his breath for hours at a time. That’s my problem with the Hulk. I don’t like it when any character, though mainly heroes, have pretty much limitless power and virtually no weaknesses. Say what you like about Superman (or indeed any Kryptonian), but he’ll always have kryptonite and often a vulnerability to magic to worry about. Martian Manhunter is deathly afraid of fire, IIRC and the Green Lanterns can be taken out by the colour yellow (most of them can, anyway). Hulk has nothing.
I will mention at this point, however, that this problem of mine is mainly with the comic Hulk. He seems to be handled a bit better in other media. He’s even become one of my favourite characters in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Taking on the Hulk physically is a losing game, as he can always get madder, thus stonger. But he does have weaknesses. He’s stubborn, and he’s stupid. Taking advantage of those weaknesses is not easy, but it can be done. Of course, his real weakness is an alternate personality that hates being the hulk…
And like supes, he has a vulnerability to magic, though few have taken advantage of it — I think Dr Strange did in the old Defenders…
He’s not so stupid anymore. He’s still nowhere near Banner’s level, but he’s a lot more cunning and rational than he used to be.
Still, if he really does have a vulnerability to magic (or still has it), then that would possibly explain how Zeus was able to beat him so effortlessly. Y’know, in addition to being probably the strongest Olympian.
This has nothin’ to do with nothin’ but my presently-under-construction protagonist 1) does know martial arts – extremely well; 2) wouldn’t pick a fight with Maxima for no reason at all but 3) would think her one of the most unattractive humanoid females he’d ever met, and from the inside out, even if he’d be too polite to say so directly; 4) has at least four ways to take her out with one blow or blow-equivalent – permanently; 5) even if she somehow managed to kill him, he’d just come back three days later more or less like the Beyonder (for a brief period) and take her out anyway. :D
Interesting, trying to deal with a character with that and other attributes, including vulnerabilities as fantastic as the strengths.
Heh. :) Some time ago I thought about a super character codenamed “Black Hole”. Short story, since I’ll never do anything useful with him: Born on earth, made super by an alien device of ambassadors of an alien race seeking for help to save them from a super nova that was about to go off soon. After successfully becoming supered, he removed the star that was going to explode, then went to explore and increase his powers by himself. After some time he begins to travel the universe, mostly by bending timespace, to create new stars or fix them or move whole star systems, without damaging them of course.
He is able to control the energy of a whole galaxy. Fighting skills or even dirty fighting: Not needed, anything that hits him is transformed into energy. There’s no way to harm him. If something would throw him into a black hole, he could just absorb it or leave it as it was.
He rarely visits earth, because he is no human anymore. Being able to create black holes of any size and dissolve them at will, there is just nothing to match him. But stories about him would be, well, galactic at worst.
Well, this explains why she’s so testy, she’s got 7 balls!