Grrl Power #1117 – Charge!
Heh, okay, so a lot of you guys spotted For Whom The Death Tolls immediately on the last page. I mean, he wasn’t hiding, I guess I was banking on the fact that there’s a bunch of other people with hoods and masks, and the skull mask wouldn’t make him stand out so much. I guess putting him back in a red hood and cloak was a bit of a giveaway.
Unfortunately, the fact that so many people recognized him right off will make Jiggawatt’s actions seem tactically… well, dumb. But as I said, there’s a bunch of bad guys with hoods and they all have different masks, and the number of people who can take even a moderately powerful arc of electricity is fairly low, so it’s not the worst opening move. Granted, it’s a little predictable for the person named Jiggawatt to always toss out lightning bolts, but it’s not like chucking a flashbang in the 25×60 cinder block room would have been great for the hostages. Presumably these three are upper-echelon Ascenders, so pulling her sidearm probably isn’t a significant threat either. If they weren’t wearing masks, some chemical mace would probably have been a respectable and somewhat unpredictable opener. But when you can pump out a few terawatts, it probably feels pretty good to cut lose when you get the chance.
The December Vote Incentive is up!
Please enjoy Cora in a workout outfit. Variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon, as well as a comic to put it all in context. Spoiler, Cora’s ship is like a Roman orgy most of the time.
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Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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well. Butt sniffing presence confirmed. begin plan B, kill everyone while wearing hazmat suits.
Is that Hiro taking a leak on the tree?
Hiro is standing behind a tree, but I think he not pissing on it.
The posture suggests it is the case.
I agree, the posture does suggest that to be the case. I’d expect that kind of behavior out of a German hero, not out of a Japanese American hero.
No, I’m not taking a dig at Germans. Just there’s some things Germans do that is considered acceptable in Germany that is frowned upon in America (and Japan), such as urinating on trees in semi-public. It’s not uncommon for Germans to stop on the side of the highway in Germany and just tinkle on a tree or behind a bush. It’s just not a big deal in their culture. Public urination is illegal in some places in Germany, but it’s almost never actually enforced.
How? How did neither of those two recognize Peri?
Maybe Harem did, but failed to warn Jiggawatt, meanwhile Varia wasn’t at the brawl.
No excuse given the team-wide debrief afterwards which would have used all the video footage taken of it
He is wearing a different costume though, so recognizing him can’t be expected, especially if you only have medium-quality footage. (the brawl happened at night, with light effects from powers)
Jiggs was there, she fought Peri (and was turned on her own team… just like what is about to happen now…)
Red cloak, skull half-mask… not that different of a costume. You act like a pair of glasses is all it takes to disguise Superman.
The cloak and the mask are the same, but the rest of his clothes are different, putting him in line with the other Ascenders. And since he’s masked, she has to look at his clothes.
That’s not the same as just adding glasses.
Add to it that she has very limited time here.
Similar, but not the same: cloak didn’t have the gold chain thing, and originally had a symbols around the edge of the hood, and the original mask lost a few teeth
But sure, let’s go with them being the same
You’re correct, he changed more details. Of course, this only strengthens my point.
As I said elsewhere, he’s wearing a red cloak and a skull half-mask. It’s not that different. You act like all it takes to disguise Superman is a pair of glasses.
Don’t forget the slicked up hair curl
I mean, you can’t just assume everyone on the planet who has a skull mask is the same guy. Skulls are a ridiculously common motif for supervillains. Assuming he’s the guy you can’t attack directly is just as deadly a mistake to make as assuming he isn’t.
“I mean, you can’t just assume everyone on the planet who has a skull mask is the same guy.”
I can and I will. :)
I think that technically makes both you and PWB… hard-headed.
You miscreant with your puns….
One ninja being sent, but since it was a minor pun, he will only mildly traumatize you.
That’s fair. Thanks for the heads up.
*boneheaded.
Dammit that was right there, got too focused on trying to find something for ‘cranial’ and had to settle. I feel like a numb-skull, you come out a head this time.
Jiggs got sucked up by Peri last time they met
Which only informs her when it’s too late. Beforehand, she only has visuals to go on, and Death Toll made some very notable changes to his costume.
(And I was replying to your “neither of those two” implying Harem also didn’t recognize him, which you don’t actually know.)
“Death Toll made some very notable changes to his costume.”
Ummmm no he didnt make any ‘notable’ changes.
Appearance during Restaurant Rumble:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-239-nom-de-boom/
Appearance here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1116-boston-express/
Same exact skull mask.
Almost the same cowl and cape – same EXACT color, very minor different design along the trim back during the rumble and a necklace thing now, possibly denoting rank in the organization like the other woman is wearing.
And he’s wearing a grey suit now instead of a yellow vest over a blue shirt.
That’s literally all the differences. The MOST NOTICECABLE THING? The skull mask plus burgundy red cape and cowl? Almost exactly the same. Nothing ‘very notable’ as a difference. It’s like if Batman changed his shirt and pants to something a little darker in color but still wore the bat cowl. :)
> And he’s wearing a grey suit now instead of a yellow vest over a blue shirt.
That’s what I’m referring to. Because wearing a different style of clothes entirely, only keeping accessoires, obviously changes his impression. He looks like an Ascender now, didn’t look like an Ascender before, and cowls are part of the Ascenders’ style, so it doesn’t really stand out.
“Because wearing a different style of clothes entirely, only keeping accessoires, obviously changes his impression”
I am relatively certain if I went around everywhere wearing a half-skull mask and burgundy cowl, people would realize it’s the same person whether I was in an expensive pantsuit or a T-shirt with jeans. Especially if I beat up someone before and was facing that same person again.
The suit is not what draws the attention. :)
When I was a teenager it was very common for my peers to change their haircolour and style radically. I learned to ignore the flashy obvious changes and look at the less flashy properties. Masks and cowls are even more obviously part of a disguise than a bright blue mohawk, so they can be safely ignored.
I am pretty sure cops and military are trained to NOT ignore identifying stuff about suspects and perps and enemy combatants.
> I am relatively certain if I went around everywhere wearing a half-skull mask and burgundy cowl,
Eventually, yes. But if they’ve seen you once, and the second time everyone else is also wearing stylish mask and cowl the connection isn’t as easily made immediately.
Outside comic time she would have had seconds to go from surprise, turn around at guy talking and then zap. Easy to miss him when he’s the least attention drawing of the three.
Time to see how quick Maxi can get to Boston!
They would have a hard time keeping the portal open, while fighting the Ascenders, so Maxima can’t risk taking the long way around and ending up stuck in Boston.
That’s why it depends on how fast she can get to Boston, they would only need to keep the portal open for a second once she got there
So, is Jiggawatt alive within For Whom The Death Tolls?
As in, stored in his …I don’t know what it’s called… electro-nervous system?
Wouldn’t that be …bad? (for him)
She isn’t inside of his body, she’s inside of the Copper Armor he’s wearing now, created by his power.
Compare https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-243-taking-all-comers/
Probably not, given that his ability specifically gives him a way to both defend and counterattack. She’s probably isolated until he discharges her.
his ability is “nemesis”(he can counter any power thrown at him, and when he last showed up it was only one counter at a time at least) iirc so atm he’s presumably immune to any damage “holding” her like that would cause him.
I thought we saw them 1v1 him on panel and then we skipped past Sydney’s plan where the conclusion was it had a limit to counters, but didn’t narrow it down to how many they hit him with at once. Especially since they probably went from 1-everyone without testing him.
I expect something about PBS/FWDT is acting as a capacitor, storing the electricity that is Jiggawatt.
So, they have just dumped a Jiggawatt into a capacitor? If Max’s punch shoves him back at more than 88 mph, he is going to time travel.
Back to the Restaurant Rumble? So he can get butt-stabbed again :)
I don’t blame Jiggawatt for her action. We had several days to study every stich in these guys’ suits, she only had seconds to react. She also went with a thrown bolt of lightning instead of the full on transformed lightning tackle she tried during the parking lot brawl so even if she had recognized him it wasn’t a guarantee she would be trapped the same way again.
She also aimed at the Corporate AdVisor, not Death Toll – had he not intercepted it, it would have been a decent move, potentially taking out one of Death Toll’s allies.
yeah… I’m a little annoyed that Death Troll somehow moved into the way of the attack and was able to intercept the electricity outright… I could begin to imagine Jiggawatt landing a couple joules of lightning on target and then Deaf Bro reaching over and getting “attacked” after a second or two, and THEN draining her into his copper armor or whatever, but managing to I guess push the boss out of the way or else the boss moving AND Dead Krull jumping in the way is straining my incredulity a bit…
If panel 1 is accurate, Jiggawatt telegraphed her attack, so if AdVisor and Death Toll* are on the ball, they can see it coming and it’s somewhat plausible.
Especially if you consider that AdVisor might have a speed/movement power, judging by the the way he moves and the light effect going with it.
*Death Toll must be good at that, considering his fighting style consists of getting a new power every time he’s attacked and immediately having to adapt it to the specific attack.
I think the left one has telekinesis or such and moved the middle one
She also seems to be phasing through the floor, Ad-Visor appears to have no legs either
She generates a veerrrrrryyy sllllooooowwwww lightning.
that’s really rather frightening (Gallileo)
He will not let her go (Let her go!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKH3jPbebKk
this was 11 years ago….
One of the best versions out there. They do some fantastic covers, including my favorite version of Mahna Mahna.
Thought they did the original as well…
Nope, just made it famous a couple years later. I believe this is the original.
it has a gold butt. it must be the original.
Ooo, thank yous, was honestly expecting the original Muppets with the girls :P
yes it ends with a comment about video conferencing 10 years before covid. If weird al had managed to do an actual video of his ‘cover’ it would have been interesting. though it does feel like covid’s been around for 20 years or so….
If someone is wearing a mask: spray that shit directly into the mouth!!
Vahriah needs to grab the Mustard Dispenser and squirt mustard up the Hooded Hoons’ noses
If Jiggawatt is inside of him, maybe she can do something “inconvenient” to him?
Don’t take this out of context.
Too late.
It’s the Periwinkle Butt Sniffer!
Now let’s see what happens when Tolls meets Variah. Probably some serious weirdness.
I was wondering the same thing myself.
Most likely nothing unless his costume gets torn somehow as she requires contact with flesh and he’s wearing a complete costume that only leaves his mouth and chin exposed and that’d be difficult for her to make contact with.
That’s a good point… What happens when Varia piggy backs on the Periwinkle Butt Sniffer? Does she get the power to nullify the power of anyone she touches?
There doesn’t SEEM to be any real pattern to her power, but there very well might be.
Wow, having Death Toll here makes these wannabes into a credible threat. Which means they have a means to capture any super they want. What will happen if Maxima fights this guy?
Kinda depends on just how powerful his power is – we might find out, but there’s also the fact that if she doesn’t attack him (and is able to use super duper uber speed to ensure there’s no way he can step in front of her (like somehow he stepped in front of lightning(?!??!?)) then she can completely avoid him and instead lay everyone ELSE down?
That would be the smart thing to do – she really doesn’t want to risk that he gets a hard-counter and takes her out, immediately disabling most of ArcSWAT’s capabilities. Much safer to take out everyone else, then let the team gang up on him afterwards like back in the brawl.
I’d really want to find out though, Death Toll is not the only one curious about how his power would hold up.
Yes, they can capture any super they want. But he doesn’t make it so they can capture every super… Just like his power, being able to counter any power isn’t the same as being able to counter every power.
Called it! I figured if it was Death toll what happened was going to happen. Next, I’m calling Max’s version of “We’re on the express train to Hell, Going Doooownnnn!”
I’m thinking that Max is going to say is more along the lines of the World of Cardboard speech. “What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose and show you just how powerful I really am.”
I doubt it. Max is smarter than that. Sydney was able to identify that Death Toll is harmless if not attacked. This makes his threat a known factor and the counter-play fairly easy, don’t attack him and he can’t counter you. Max has spent who knows how long studying that battle and reviewing it with her team to identify what they learned from the fight and what they could do better in the next one. Max knows she can simply use her speed to move too fast for him to intercept and take out his allies first, and he can do nothing about it. Sydney also worked out how to beat him; there is eventually a point where you hit him with so much, ideally multiple powers at once, that it overwhelms him. The latter is not a good idea when you have hostages in the area you are trying to evacuate.
Speaking of hostages, you also have to remember that while Death Toll is terrible when it comes to thinking up names, he’s likely not going to be a complete idiot here. What he has done as an opening move is taken Jiggawatt hostage. He can, presumably, just hold her there and make threats and demands. The organization he works for would likely love to have someone like Jiggawatt to experiment on. He could threaten to simply walk away with her and they can’t really stop him without triggering his ability. This happens to be Max’s exact weakness. Max is not going to want to allow Jiggawatt to be captured this way. It could be enough to stall her and her team from engaging in any major response.
All they need would be Sydney to pop in and surround death toll with her lighthook, not touching him just keeping him in place. She’s not attacking, just making it hard for him to push himself in the way of anyone’s attack on the other two. I’d say as far as Jiggawatt goes, Sydney pops in, taunts death toll enough he uses Jiggawatt to fire at her, Mr. Bubble to block the attack while Jiggawatt comes free. Then Sydney can re-bubble around both of them.
The fact that his power can trigger while jumping in to intercept an attack directed at AdVisor suggests that moving against the lighthook should be enough to trigger his power.
But that’s a moot point, since Sydney is in Senegal and would take hours to get over.
Well, that certainly sucked…for Jiggawatt.
Okay, I’ve said the obvious. Now that it’s out here in the open, we can all acknowledge that it’s out there now & we can go on from here.
Not sure we have the capacitor to just let it go, too hard to resist a line like that without loading up and getting ourselves grounded.
i bet, Nemesis (not gona say his whole name, its stupid)
will smack Maxima with Jiggawatt – because everyone believes maxima is weak to electricity….
I had completely forgotten about that one
Let’s just hope they get Jiggawatt free soon.
Having her still stuck in his hand long term would be rather horrific when it comes time for visiting the restroom.
howd death tole get outta prison? wasnt he arrested? i forget
Unless he had a warrant, probably only spent at most a couple days
Everyone except Vehemence was able to defend themselves by claiming Vehemence mind-controlled them into the attack:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-288-hearts-and-mind-fingers/
Guessing Opal was being held only until her daddy could come and pick her up then…
He was processed and let go. “Fedorka made me do it with his power to make people have the urge to fight” is too plausible of an excuse to really throw the book at anybody BUT Fedorka.
Wasn’t the last time we saw Bell Boy he was laid out with a K-bar knife in his but. Shouldn’t he be in jail? I hope someone asks if he had to use a colostomy bag after last time.
They let go everybody who wasn’t already wanted. The reason being that Fedorka was manipulating everybody and they weren’t exactly fighting of their own volition.
Lets be honest here, you trained us to notice the hidden details and amusing details, so us spotting bell end should not count against her.
Heh. Currently nemesis is triggered by the electricity defence. So, unless his his counter limit is above one, he should be vulnerable to attacks that can ignore a “copper trap circuit armor”, if he does not release Jiggawatt like he did before. Otherwise if he defends against a new type of attack, electricution time. My guess is his simultaneous counter ability is at least two though.
My count from the parking lot fight was 6 different supers with different powers attacked him at once, which overloaded his Nemesis power and put him down, but that was years ago and I have a TBI that affects my memory. So it might have been more.
My read on it is that it was only Dabbler and Goose who attacked him. Dabbler appears to have hit him with the ice blast from her sword as well as a fire spell, and Goose looks like he just knifed PBS in the butt. Maxima appears to have avoided stepping in. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-247-if-violence-fails-violence-harder/
Author blurb of that page says he was dogpiled by “the team” offscreen.
I want to slightly amend my previous comment. It wasn’t Dabbler’s sword that did the icing, it was a spell she cast with bottom lefty. And both of her right hands appear to be on a third spell – lightning perhaps? So three different elemental spells plus a knife to the ass, and maybe some bullets.
He can counter more than one ability at once; I don’t think it was clear exactly how many fighting him at once was ‘too much’, but while there is a limit, and it’s not high, it was greater than one.
I think what happens it that he can switch powers really quickly, so if 2 people attack him, he can counter the first, then quickly turn around and counter the second attack before it connects.
Perhaps I’m misreading Death Tolls’ new color scheme in the second to last panel, but it looks sort of like he might have picked up the ability to nemesis two different power sets at the same time? Last time his whole scheme shifted to match whoever he was adapting against. But this time, unless the image is mid transition, it looks like only half of him has shifted, implying his other half might adapt to someone else. I guess we’ll see.
Just shoot him with a blender bullet like the last idiot.
Anti-power doesn’t do squat against tech, usually.
His power worked against flashbangs last time. It seems it isn’t so much anti-power as it’s anti-attacks.
I found it:
This is the page where he intruduced his name:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-246/
You would think Peri Butt-still-tender would remember what happened to him last time…
What happened to him was that he kicked half of ArcSWAT’s asses, then got drowned in numbers by the other half.
This time he has his own team to cover his back so he can’t get ganged up on easily.
He still got his arse punctured by a large blade in the end, that should leave an impression no matter who you are hiding behind
So? An injury doesn’t mean he changes his career path, especially if he has a plan to prevent further injury.
That’s… not what was being said, was simply saying he would remember what happened, like anyone with even a rudimentary memory-recall
By saying “you would think” you’re implying that it isn’t actually the case, i.e. that something about his actions suggested he didn’t take it into account. Since all he did was show up for the fight, this means you implied he shouldn’t have tried to fight Archon again due to what happened last time.
Who are you trying to fool here?
Obviously someone with the capacity for thought, so that leaves you out?
And just because someone remembers something, isn’t enough for them to avoid repeating
Just like Jiggs remembered him (after the fact), he should now be having flashbacks to what happened (even if it’s a dismissive “Well, that’s not happening this time!”)
Its seriously embarrassing for Jiggawat to fail to recognise Death Tolls.
The skull mask is kinda specific.
Skull masks are fairly common in villainy. I don’t think there’s a single comic book universe that doesn’t have at least 1-3 skull masked badguys.
There is a Nazi gang in the PNW that has every member wearing a skull mask, all 20 or so.
Would Max and the others go in guns a blazing or will they do this by the book?!?
… What book?
“Periwinkle Butt Sniffer”, Harem!
Please try to get the name right!
Isn’t he kind of useless if you don’t attack him?
He can get in your way like nobody’s business. Maxima’s best bet would be to just cave in the ceiling over him, falling plaster isn’t a super power.
He countered flash bangs. He isn’t limited to powers
Hm, true, but he does seem to be limited as to how many things he can defend against at once; Drop the ceiling on him, then while it’s on it’s way down mace him AND finger shot him. One of them is bound to get through.
Unless he gets a power that allows him to fully defend against her – maybe a copy that’s even better, or something that interferes with her power.
Risky.
We also have to wonder if we have seen his full power suite. Thinking back to Vehemence, one has to wonder if his influence would lead the other supers to use their powers in sub-optimal ways in favor of more direct combat.
If Varia is willing to risk it I guess she could hang in there and redirect the portal into the prison so they can escape. Once she lets go of him though, Harem would loose access unless she steps back in or teleports a clone in there before loosing visual.
If Harem jumps in they can both jump out or about. Beyond that, her useful ones are mostly defensive with either phasing or turning into Osmium. Hydrokinesis could be good if they had water.
After that Varia can only hope to try another prisoner for a random benefit or try and close the distance with these guys and grab them. Its difficult to know how “For Whom the Death Tolls” would react with Varia’s touch. I guess it would depend if his power regards her grabbing him as an attack, which it arguably did when Kenya tried to headlock him. There’s no telling what power she’d get though and how it would react with his. Particularly if his powers are actually provided/altered by experiments. The others are also unknown in what power they’d provide varia.
I’d dare say Maxima would avoid him, but if Maxima does mistakenly send a punch or blast his way, I’m looking forward to what the response would be. Might even be something that impacts her Symbiote.
Did Jiggawatt literally forget who he was and his power until she got trapped by him?
Not recognize.
How would one not recognize him? His face mask is VERY distinctive and I’d think after someone traps you like that, you’d remember the person.
She didn’t recognize him, thought he was just some Ascender.
Literally every single person reading this noticed who it was from the EXTREMELY distinctive skull face mask. :)
I would have thought that someone who got trapped by him this exact way at the restaurant fight where she lost 5% of her hearing permanently might have left a slight impression on her that she’d notice the mask.
We had as much time as we wanted to analyze a still frame of him and compare it to past still frames – she only had a few seconds, with several other things to capture her attention (she was probably focuses on the Corporate AdVisor.) It’s not like he wore the exact same costume, as opposed to fitting only the hood and skull mask into the Ascender aesthetic – he doesn’t stand out that much among them.
Most people recognized it as soon as they looked at the picture for even a few seconds. It didn’t exactly take much analyzing.
Did you stand next to most people with a stopwatch when the page came out or how do you know that? You only know that most commenters figured it out, but not how long it took them, and how much they focused.
When a reader looks at that panel, they aren’t time pressured or distracted in any way, but incentivized to figure out who it might be. You can see that by how a few people wondered if Corporate AdVisor was Deus or the woman was Opal.
So naturally, they analyze it deeper than someone in a real time combat situation with multiple things to keep track of.
“Did you stand next to most people with a stopwatch when the page came out”
Yes. Sure, that’s what I do. :) But seriously…
“or how do you know that?”
Because he is very prominently featured in the last panel, and as soon as people started commenting, it was almost universally ‘OH look it’s Death Toll’ or ‘Oh look it’s Periwinkle Butt Sniffer!’ or ‘Oh look it’s The Guy with the stupid name!’
Also I have a pretty high opinion that most of the readers are not oblivious to the obvious. :)
“You only know that most commenters figured it out, but not how long it took them,”
There is a timestamp by people’s comments.
Also, DaveB literally states that the recognition of Death Toll was IMMEDIATE by a LOT of people. So… Word of God on top of everything else.
DaveB: “Heh, okay, so a lot of you guys spotted For Whom The Death Tolls IMMEDIATELY on the last page. I mean, he wasn’t hiding, I guess I was banking on the fact that there’s a bunch of other people with hoods and masks, and the skull mask wouldn’t make him stand out so much. I guess putting him back in a red hood and cloak was a bit of a giveaway.
UNFORTUNATELY, THE FACT THAT SO MANY PEOPLE RECOGNIZED HIM RIGHT OFF will make Jiggawatt’s actions seem tactically… well, dumb.”
> Because he is very prominently featured in the last panel, and as soon as people started commenting, it was almost universally ‘OH look it’s Death Toll’ or ‘Oh look it’s Periwinkle Butt Sniffer!’ or ‘Oh look it’s The Guy with the stupid name!’
That’s why I emphasized “commenter” – you don’t know how many of the people who didn’t comment figured it out. Commenters are more likely to engage in depth with the comic, and people who recognized Death Toll are more likely to comment, so you can’t derive how non-commenters reacted.
> Also I have a pretty high opinion that most of the readers are not oblivious to the obvious. :)
That’s a circular argument: That it’s obvious is what you’re trying to show.
> There is a timestamp by people’s comments.
With minute precision, the earliest comment being timed 9 Minutes after release, so you can’t derive any claim like “figured it out after a few seconds” from that. Looking at the frame for 30 seconds is still an order of magnitude more time than Jiggawatt had.
> Also, DaveB literally states that the recognition of Death Toll was IMMEDIATE by a LOT of people. So… Word of God on top of everything else.
Commenters are real, so this is a statement about reality, not Grrlpowerverse where he would have authority. He just derived that from reading the comments, and making the same mistake as you analyzing it. Not Word of God, unless you believe he’s God IRL.
We have time to go through “Could the first guy be Deus? … wait the second guy seems familiar …”. Jiggawatt does not, she’s busy making an immediate tactical decision, which is why her not recognizing him is understandable.
“With minute precision, the earliest comment being timed 9 Minutes after release, so you can’t derive any claim like “figured it out after a few seconds” from that.”
Things take a little time to actually write.
Someone writes a post 9 minutes after it FIRST comes out, chances are that:
1) They did not read it the very second DaveB posted it. It might have been a few minutes.
2) The writing of the post itself does not take seconds for most people. You’re being a little pedantic. :) Jiggawatt did something dumb. Eve DaveB admitted that, considering that a lot of people recognized him IMMEDIATELY, it would look like Jiggawatt did something really dumb.
“Commenters are real, so this is a statement about reality, not Grrlpowerverse where he would have authority.”
I am about 92.6% certain that DaveB exists within reality. I’m about 84.5% certain that he did not originate in the Grrlpowerverse. But he is the Creator of the Grrlpowerverse, which is what ‘Word of God’ means. When Jack Kirby was presented as the One Above All, it wasn’t because Mr. Kirby was born in the Marvel universe. ‘Word of God’ means ‘the ultimate authority, such as the creator, director or producer.’
Word of God is that a LOT of people recognized Death Toll immediately. On top of all the other obvious reasons that he should have been very, very, recognizable to Jiggawatt in particular.
“We have time to go through “Could the first guy be Deus?”
1) The first guy spoke. If he didn’t sound like Deus, it probably is not Deus.
2) The first guy does not look nearly tall as Deus.
3) The first guy does not tie his tie with the same type of knot as Deus. The knot on his tie is distinctive.
4) The only real similarity with the first guy and Deus is they both wear suits. This is a lot more common than people wearing half skull masks with burgundy cowls. :)
I would say that another point is Deus is currently in Galytn, but he does have a person who can make portals. I won’t even say that the portal he came through looks nothing like Opal’s portals.
However, Opal cannot make INTERCONTINENTAL portals, by Deus’s own admission. Galytn is in Africa. The Ascenders’ Compound is in North America. Specifically North Central Texas.
And before you (or anyone) says ‘You can’t know it’s in Texas’ – yes I can. Maxima specifically said the location on the last panel of Comic #1107.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1107-tube-of-doom/
(last panel)
“Jiggawatt does not, she’s busy making an immediate tactical decision, which is why her not recognizing him is understandable.”
immediate tactical decisions tend to imply looking at who you are shooting at before you shoot. ARC-SWAT literally does training on this for firearms training, and you have to pass it in order to graduate, which Jiggawatt has done. Twice. To make sure the first time wasn’t a fluke. Yknow, so you can make a split second tactical assessment before firing at someone.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-861-exemplarum-showus-offus/
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-862-pew-and-pew-again/
> Things take a little time to actually write.
And you don’t know how much of the 9 minutes was spent writing or how many minutes were “lost” before they actually read it. So you still can’t make a claim about how much recognizing Death Toll took.
> But he is the Creator of the Grrlpowerverse, which is what ‘Word of God’ means.
That’s what Word of God means when it’s a statement about Grrlpowerverse. That wasn’t a statement about Grrlpowerverse, it was a statement about reality, what the readers do. DaveB has no particular authority when it comes to that, he’s only God when it comes to in-universe statements (and even then, sometimes he simply doesn’t know how things work and readers have to correct him). His claim wasn’t word of god, it was a comic author judging the reactions of the readers.
> *snip Deus statements*
You’re missing my point. I know it’s not Deus. Jiggawatt likely never considered it. But people in the comments did, which illustrates my point that commenters put a lot of thought into trying to guess if new people showing up might not actually be new.
Ont thing though:
> The first guy does not tie his tie with the same type of knot as Deus. The knot on his tie is distinctive.
I certainly would have never noticed that. If you do, consider that you might be unusually perspective with regards to that, and your idea of what’s obvious about clothing isn’t representative.
> immediate tactical decisions tend to imply looking at who you are shooting at before you shoot.
I feel compelled to point out that she was shooting ad AdVisor, not Death Toll.
And the tactical concerns are positioning, aiming, surroundings etc. Not fashion choices. Which means Jiggawatt is distracted from recognizing Death Toll with tactical concerns.
“Not Word of God, unless you believe he’s God IRL.”
Depends if I get any favoritism if I start worshipping DaveB. It’s possible. :)
PS – while I think what Jiggawatt did was dumb, considering she’s been trained for this sort of thing, the speed at which all this happened is the only real reasoning I can see as to why she DIDNT look at who she was shooting before she shot her lightning. Which, again, was dumb. But people can be dumb. Jiggwatt can be dumb. She’s been dumb before, like at the restaurant rumble where she almost killed almost everyone with gamma radiation poisoning (or turned everyone into Hulks, I dunno) because she did not understand that positron-electron annihilation creates MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF GAMMA RAY PHOTONS. She knew what positrons are. She should likely have some understanding about a lot of things electricity can do, since that’s her entire shtick. But she didnt know what they do when you use them to ‘erase lightning.’ Because she is not always the best with tactics. Or as Dabbler would call her – ‘You idiot.’
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-234-annihilation-application/comment-page-3/
Does the Church of Deus even allow for polytheism? Where’s your faith, High Priestess?!
she is a priestess of dues. he fully expects her loyalty is for sale.
> Depends if I get any favoritism if I start worshipping DaveB. It’s possible. :)
No, as the High Priestess of the Church of Deus you’re not allowed to.
> while I think what Jiggawatt did was dumb, considering she’s been trained for this sort of thing, the speed at which all this happened is the only real reasoning I can see as to why she DIDNT look at who she was shooting before she shot her lightning.
It wasn’t particularly smart – she could have recognized him. Sydney likely would have. But it’s a very understandable oversight.
And she looked at who she was shooting at – AdVisor. Death Toll merely jumped in. Most people wouldn’t jump in a lightning bolt, so she’d be excused from not considering that and focusing on her actual target.
He may be the only character in the comic with a skull mask, but there are probably many other people with similar skull masks in the setting. I mean, how many comic book characters are there with skull masks? You probably can’t name them all, despite having considerable comic book knowledge yourself. Varia may have, and probably has, encountered multiple people with skull masks, making him less distinctive to her than he is to us.
“He may be the only character in the comic with a skull mask, but there are probably many other people with similar skull masks in the setting.”
Have we seen any other? No.
Has Jiggawatt seen any other? No. But she DEFINITELY saw Death Toll, probably better than most of ARC-SWAT.
Would ARC-SWAT have had analysis done of the Red Team members at the restaurant rumble in a briefing? Yes. And we even saw panels of that briefing in the comic.
Comics #361 – #367
“Varia may have, and probably has, encountered multiple people with skull masks, making him less distinctive to her than he is to us.”
1) Varia did not attack Death Toll. Jiggawatt did. And unlike Varia, Jiggawatt has a VERY good reason to quickly recognize Death Toll since she was in a fight with him, while Varia was not at the Restaurant Rumble at all.
2) Why would you assume that Varia OR Jiggawatt has encountered multipel people with skull masks? Prior to the Restaurant Rumble, they didnt think there were even more than 400-600 supers in the United States, and only about 7000-10,000 worldwide. Of which a number are possibly not possessing combat-capable powers.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-145-lets-talk-numbers/
(panels 6-7)
and they were surprised that there were even 30 at the Restaurant Rumble in ‘The Red Team.’ Even assuming many of them were ‘glass cannons.’ Also, of that 30 (which seemed to be an unreasonably LARGE number for a group as far as ARCHON knew at the time), only one wore a skull mask. Most didnt wear any masks at all. In fact, other than Death Toll, the only ones we’ve seen who wore ANY sort of mask IN THE ENTIRE COMIC were (1) Parking Ticket Guy, (2) MAYBE Opal if you include facepaint over the eyes during the Restaurant Rumble, (3) Some of the Ascenders, (4) The Baconator, (5) Marble Maiden, (6) Target-On-Chest Guy, (7) Cthillia I guess (technically not a super though), and (8) Jabberwokky when she used to rob banks. And I guess Detla (also not a super) but that’s her alien race’s culture. Have I missed anyone? I don’t think I have. Maybe that fictional girl from the 1920s with the werewolf? Or Distress-Girl? Or the Sloth? Assuming any of those even real, although the Baconator is probably not real either, and who knows if Target-On-Chest Guy is real. Any REAL villains that Jiggawatt can be confirmed to have actually MET?
Oh I guess also Ninjas wear masks. But again – pretty distinctive. You won’t mistake them for a skull mask.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-204-i-guess-everyone-parked-in-the-back/
(Panels 4 and 5)
My point was that what we have or have not seen does not tell us what Jiggawatt has or has not seen. We can draw no conclusions, particularly since the comic is not from her perspective, and does not follow her.
I… do not know why I said Varia instead of Jiggawatt. I was probably confusing two different conversations while composing my reply.
I just think skulls are a pretty common motif for edgy characters, whether they be heroes, villains, or civilians. Not just supers. You really think he’s the only one? Again, how many comic book characters do you think there are with skull masks?
“My point was that what we have or have not seen does not tell us what Jiggawatt has or has not seen.”
In general, I do not assume things which there is not at least some evidence for. That’s just random guessing. We’ve never seen any half-skull mask wearing villains (or heroes) in the grrlpower universe. And at the time, the thought there’s about 400-600 supers TOTAL in the United States, and another 6400-9400 in the entire world based on current ARCHON estimates – which was again what the comic said, so that’s why I am relying on that instead of making stuff up in my headcanon without any real basis. :)
I can’t even think of one supervillain in comics in GENERAL (not just in grrlpowerverse) that has a half-skull mask, and I like to think I’m pretty well versed in comics. And of the few comic book villains that have a skull mask at all, they tend to be (1) Full skull masks, not ones that show the bottom half of the face, or (2) not masks at all – their actual faces are skulls (Red Skull, Atomic Skull, Skeletor, Mr. Bones, Blight).
“I just think skulls are a pretty common motif for edgy characters, whether they be heroes, villains, or civilians.”
On shirts? Sure. On the face? Not so much.
“You really think he’s the only one?”
The only one who wears a half-skull mask that only covers the top half of his head with a burgundy red cape and cowl? Yeah. I think he is the only one.
“Again, how many comic book characters do you think there are with skull masks?”
I thought I actually answered this in another post. In response to you, in fact.
I will repost here in case you didnt read that post.
1) Black Mask (Batman villain)
2) Taskmaster (Avengers villain)
3) I dunno, probably a power ranger villain maybe?
4) I think Dr. Destiny had a skull for a head also, but that was only in dreams. Plus again – not a half mask. Not even a mask really. It was a skull for a head. From the cartoon Justice League Unlimited, Episodes 32 and 32. “Only a Dream.” (added since I didnt remember this one in my original response to you)
And there are a few villains that have skulls for actual faces:
Skeletor (duh)
Red Skull (double duh)
Atomic Skull (duh to the duhth power)
Blight (from Batman Beyond)
Mr. Bones (I think from Stargirl and maybe Supergirl and Infinity Inc, but he wasn’t actually a villain – he was more of an Amanda Waller type)
This is in all of comics that I can ever think of. Some of which are not even comics, but are cartoons or TV shows.
Name me any others because I honestly cannot think of ANY.
And I definitely can’t think of any who have a half skull mask like Death Toll. DaveB is really good at coming up with very original character powers and character designs.
*episodes 31 and 32.
Hate typing long stuff on my phone
Oh as for villains with skull MASKS in the comics, there are actually not many. None of which had a half-skull mask.
1) Black Mask (Batman villain)
2) Taskmaster (Avengers villain)
3) I dunno, probably a power ranger villain maybe?
And there are a few villains that have skulls for actual faces:
Skeletor (duh)
Red Skull (double duh)
Atomic Skull (duh to the duhth power)
Blight (from Batman Beyond)
Mr. Bones (I think from Stargirl and maybe Supergirl and Infinity Inc, but he wasn’t actually a villain – he was more of an Amanda Waller type)
In other words, not only in the Grrlpower universe, but in comics PERIOD, Death Toll’s mask is VERY distinctive.
If you disagree, could you show me some examples in comics of a mask like his, let alone in the Grrlpower-verse? I’d be interested to know.
She was probably already amping up the moment she registered their presence. Please take that literally. pun not intended.
Yep. Got to remember she’s combat trained. She typically needs to act before anybody has time to analyze the situation (including herself) in the event of being ambushed.
This is the “fault” of good military training. This is a similar cause of a lot of our friendly-fire instances.
Ahh okay that could make sense. She didnt even stop to check who she was shooting at. She heard them, turned and fired within a second or so. That would explain why she didn’t notice then. She is a rookie after all.
“She was probably already amping up the moment she registered their presence.”
I will not send any ninja hit squads over that since you did not mean it as a pun.
Huh oh. Not liking the fact that he didn’t have to go full copper armor.
Hmm, did we ever see what happens if Varia touches more then one Person?
Well, one thing I could think of how to take PBS/FWDT down is to indirectly attack him.
Like manipulate the environment he is in or the physical things around him.
If someone is immune to magic, you don’t create magical bullets out of thin air, but take Rocks from the ground and hurl them. Ideally hard and fast.
Because even if you used magic (or a Superpower) to throw them hard and fast, its still just a stone that hits and not magic.
My reasoning is, his power would prevent the use of Hydrokinesis to just straight pull the water out of his Blood, as it is a part of his body… but would it prevent pulling the Urin out of his Bladder?
As the Bladder is basically just a water-balloon you keep shut with a muscle.
He would pee himself and that would, as embarrassing as it would be, wouldn’t really be an attack, wouldn’t it?
And then you could use that “water” to form a bubble around his mouth and nose or force it down into his lungs.
And then leave it there.
Drowning isn’t an attack, even if its drowning in you own Pi*s.
It’s unclear what his power considers an attack, but Harem teleporting in to put stun grenades and googly eyes on him only gave him protection against the flashbangs.
Drowning him would absolutely be an attack though.
OK problem with that is even he were to let it get that far, assuming he could have countered it prior, there’s nothing saying he can’t just use his power to breathe in that water, or breathe through his skin, or not need to breathe at all.
The way you beat him is the same way as before… He has any power, not every power. Just hit him with everything from multiple angles. He has to manually counter any given attack, and he’s only human. So he can’t counter every attack thrown at him if it’s a bunch of them all at once.
The fact he was wearing a similar outfit to these guys the whole time should have tipped them off long ago to keep an eye on him given they would have had to process him after the brawl. Sure at the time they wouldn’t know, but after the New York incident you’d think maybe an Arc dark guy would be like , you know we have a guy on record who was wearing the same sort of outfit as everyone in this dangerous organization. Just to cover everything maybe we should ask him some questions about his wardrobe or monitor his activities for a time now. Heck I question if anyone even questioned the people arrested on the yacht.
> The fact he was wearing a similar outfit to these guys the whole time
He wasn’t. The Ascender costumes include a suit, and he didn’t wear a suit at the restaurant – which is the uniform feature of the Ascender costumes, their hoods and masks are individualized.
Evidently he joined them after the restaurant brawl and modified his costume to fit the company dresscode.
He was wearing a suit, just not a three-piece suit and tie
Semantic pedantry.
Yes, yes you are, nice to be formally introduced
Seriously? First semantics without relevance to the argument, now “no u”?
I honestly thought it was a different lame guy…
Meh, everyone is entitled to some mental slips, and it’s been what a year or more in story since that battle-royal? To many stories are written like having an photographic memory with instant access and cross-referancing and pattern recognition is expected. Most people? We’re lucky that Google only takes less time than to type or say something, and it usually comes up with something revelant.
Well you know his weakness is everything but the kitchen sink, all at once.
In retrospect, letting him go just because Fedorka was manipulating everyone was maybe not the best move on ARC’s part.
From a tactical standpoint, sure, the fact that this dude had an obviously villain costume ready to go, was very attached to a threatening moniker, and seemed to relish fighting heroes means he should have been flagged as a threat and at least monitored if not at least kept in prison.
Legally, though, it sets a VERY bad precedent to try and prosecute people acting under mind control/mental manipulation, and unless they were very covert in monitoring him after the fact it opens them up to potential harassment litigation. Sure with ARC-dark they probably could have successfully monitored him without getting caught, but I’m not sure we know how many resources/personnel ARC-dark actually has, so he might have been flagged as sufficiently low-priority that they were focused on other things.
I have at least three supervillain costumes ready to go and I haven’t even got any powers… even if the clown outfit does turn people into speedsters.
So, there were 2 Harems in the jail room, but one of them likely just got exported to Boston when the portal closed (or did it?). And we haven’t seen the other in a few pages – going to make a big difference in unfolding events if there are 0 Harems present now or 1. Presume one is still there since she says “in here” in the last panel.
I think we’re about to see if her teleportation range is at least Boston to Texas. Should be fun watching things unfold and expect we’ll learn some other things about the cast’s powers too.
My 2 cents on the fairness issue:
On the one hand, no, this is not all of them look alike. A bit more stylized, but same mask motif and color scheme.
On the other hand 1), Jiggawatt is dealing with things moving, not still shots in panels, 2) a) he did come in as one of three, b) the middle of three, not the front, and c) he stepped forward to intercept her only as she acted, finally 3) he didn’t before he acted (although we are a sight heavy species for recognizing people, voice recognition plays it’s part too).
Overall, failure to recognize him in time is understandable, despite him standing out in, again, the still last panel of the previous page.
Just wait, Death Toll’s next team up will be with Nyah Nyah Can’t Hit Me Man (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-193-wont-somebody-think-of-the-exploding-children/).
Yes let’s send in Maxima to pair off against the One Person able to effectively beat her. *hands Harem a permanent marker. It is Not a time for Maxima it is a time for ART!
Maxima is there to deal with all other masked guys Jiggawatt was supposed to beat. Pretty sure she isn’t stupid to actually attack Death Tolls until she is sure ARC can pile up on him like the last time, and she is fast+strong enough to not let him just stand in the way of her own attacks
Death Toll is actually pretty easy to beat. Depends on how he’s attacked. His power can counter any power. Not EVERY power. If you attack him with multiple powers, especially multiple DIFFERENT powers that attack in vastly different ways, he goes down pretty quickly.
That just means he’s easy to beat if he’s alone and you heavily outnumber him. This isn’t the case here, he has allies who can distract Maxima’s allies.
And given how powerful Maxima is, defending against her might well allow defending against all sorts of things. What if he gets super strength and super speed from Maxima and uses that to just speedblitz everyone else who tries to attack him?
“That just means he’s easy to beat if he’s alone and you heavily outnumber him.”
2 to 1 isnt necessarily ‘heavily outnumbering’ Plus you have someone who has electrokinesis AND someone who can have hydrokinesis. Those are two powers which, used together, can probably be used very effectively against him when used simultaneously.
“What if he gets super strength and super speed from Maxima and uses that to just speedblitz everyone else who tries to attack him?”
Where did I say that Maxima should be the one attacking him? Maxima’s probably the WORST person to attack him. Jiggawatt and Varia together, however, are much better choices.
2 to 1 wasn’t enough last time – I actually meant ‘heavily outnumbering’.
> Where did I say that Maxima should be the one attacking him?
Context: You responded to a comment talking about Maxima attacking him. So I wanted to clarify.
Two to one was definitely enough last time.
Although Dabbler did both fire AND ice, while Goose used a gun and a knife.
It’s unlikely that Maxima did anything, since that would have let him have powers which could counter stuff which could tank fire, ice, guns and knives all at once most likely.
Again, check the page where he was beaten at the Restaurant Rumble.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-247-if-violence-fails-violence-harder/
Fire – courtesy of Dabbler
Ice – also courtesy of Dabbler
Gun – courtesy of Goose
Inife in butt, almost certainly courtesy of Goose as well
“Context: You responded to a comment talking about Maxima attacking him. So I wanted to clarify.”
I don’t see where -I- said anything about Maxima attacking him though. I specifically responded by saying that Maxima is not needed to attack Death Toll to beat him. I essentially said that Maxima would NOT be the person to use in order to beat Death Toll. It’s not about degrees of power to beat him – it’s about differentiation of powers being used simultaneously. So far, in the past time he was beaten, three things (possibly four) were used to beat him simultaneously – fire, ice, and a knife to the butt. And possibly bullets since Goose was holding a gun at the time and was in that panel for no other reason than to signify he had something to do with Death Toll’s takedown.
> Two to one was definitely enough last time.
I don’t think so, we just didn’t see all the attacks. Word of God:
“Hopefully no one is disappointed this fight was resolved of screen. Basically the team dogpiled him with every different sort of attack at once”
You only see what hit him, not how many attacks he defended against before they broke through.
> I don’t see where -I- said anything about Maxima attacking him though. I specifically responded by saying that Maxima is not needed to attack Death Toll to beat him.
No, not quite. The original comment, using sarcasm, expressed that Maxima shouldn’t attack him. You responded “He is actually really easy to beat”. The meaning of that isn’t clear. So it was just miscommuniscation and we’re not disagreeing about Maxima, but I don’t pointing it out just in case is a bad thing.
Oh … also while one is using hydrokinesis and the other is using electrokinesis, you also can have Harem use… like… a gun. While another Harem also uses a sleepytime cocktail. While a third stabs him in the butt with a fourth using a flashbang. :)
Can’t help but read the last line as “stabs him in the butt with a flashbang”. And cringing.
Depends on the size of the flashbang, and how much lube is used (was used effectively in that “Underworld” movie, although it wasn’t in the butt… )
Both of your posts are causing me physical and emotional pain. :)