Grrl Power #1121 – Phenomenal Cosmic Roll of the Dice
Will they unleash a superpowered supernova? Merge into a Tyrant type creature? Or will Varia just attain the ability to come up with dumb pun supranyms? That one would be less useful than Bird Radar, cause I can think of quite a few uses for that power. Nemesis and Omni-Gestalt are really pretty similar powers, or power sets really, since both potentially contain “all” powers. Nemesis likely has a smaller catalog because it’s purely a defensive ability. It’s hard to imagine Bird Radar as a counter to some specific bird attack power. Although… maybe if someone could control birds and also make them invisible? Eh, sure, I can see it. And if someone could take the form of a giant burrito and the only way to defeat him was to make him boiling hot on the outside and still have a chunk of bean-ice on the inside, then Nemesis could generate a microwave laser power, so while the power is activated defensively, it can still create offensive abilities.
The January Vote Incentive is up! The new on is being worked on. Time for the quarterly fashion show that Anvil puts Maxima through. Can you detect the theme?
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My money’s on them getting interrupted so we’re left wondering.
Oh, probably. But I’m rooting for them each getting the ability to KEEP weakened versions of the powers they discover.
a la Rogue?
NYAAAAH!
– Periwinkle Butt Sniffer, probably
I dunno, he did take the trouble to get those awkward gloves off.
I feel like PBS has been reading the comments for him to propose this.
*gasp* he can even counter the 4th wall!
Honestly, I expect Periwinkle’s next words to be “I was honestly expecting more of a reaction”.
Don’t cross the streams! It would be … bad.
And geometrically tricky in this case
I keep seeing Mr. Skullface’s name being mistakenly called ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ instead of ‘For Whom The Death Tolls’ and it makes me giggle at his expense every time.
My memory keeps insisting he’s “For Doom The Bell Tolls”.
The Bell would not friggin’ dare tolling for Doom.
Victor would find a way to un-ring it out of sheer spite, and I guarantee, The Bell would suffer massively.
As we all know, DOOM is more of a horn guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlsMEIXMQm0
Now see, that would actually be a decent name. A bit pretentious (okay, a lot pretentious), but decent.
This would be bad.
Safest response? Kick him in the nuts.
His power gives him a defense against any attack. A kick in the nuts is an attack, so what’s the defense for that? Big brass balls? If he didn’t already have those he wouldn’t be in this business.
Heh for whom the nut tolls
I really want to come up with some pun involving toll house cookies here, but I’m really tired and overworked and nothing is coming to me….
aw, crumbs!
Give the ninjas and pirates and pirate ninjas a break okay? You guys are making me work them way too hard.
you do know that the pirates look like veggies right?
Did you think being the pun vigilante was going to be a cakewalk?
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The responsible and probably contract-mandated thing to do is to not do that. But I’d really, really like to see. Please, Varia. Try.
Death Toll reminds me a lot of Deus. Same build, same chin, both total dorks but surprisingly competent.
I don’t think they’re the same person, though. Death Toll seems to have a slightly darker skin tone (though that could be an effect of lighting or cosmetics, I guess).
Deus is also significantly taller and could come up with better names.
Deus is also the type of person who, upon coming up with a name like “For Whom The Death Tolls”, could find it HILLARIOUS and insist upon using it purely for his own amusement. Particularly because it sounds stupid.
At one point, I had the impression one of the updates had the two of them in the same room. At another point, Iḿ pretty sure I couldn’t find it. At this point, I’m not going to spend the time to try again.
You make that statement like someone total dorks are normally completely inept. But in my experience, they’re frequently incredibly good at something that requires no social skills. That qualifier is fairly important, because they’re pretty close to completely inept in terms of social skills.
Wait, I think I said that wrong. *we* are pretty close to completely inept in terms of social skills.
Deus pointed out Death Toll to Sydney at the parking lot battle as a suspicious person (The only one with a cloak there) to get her away from himself and suspecting him of anything before his big reveal as BBEG of the whole thing, So we know they aren’t the same person.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-236-recon/
That’s Vehemence, not Deus.
Wasn’t that Vehemence, not Deus?
The question is how would the nemesis power work against a human opponent? Without her Gestaltpower Varia is just human, but could potentially punch this guy because she has military combat training and he probably doesn´t.
Would she be countered or are his powers just against other powerusers?
From what was said during the restaurant rumble, nemesis works against any (but not every) attack, not any (but not every) power.
With a large hunk of Concrete (i.e. Concretia/Anima) flying at him, he developed super-strength & resiliency enough to bat her away. Evidence suggests he would be fine against a human opponent. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-209-dramatic-speed-lines-ensue/
if i remember, Sidney explained it like “he doesn’t have every power, he has any power he wants, it’s different”
like, he has one powerset at a time, and can swap it anytime, he can counter anything on one on one, but if you attack him with multiple powers at the same time, he can only counter one
the other downside is that he can only choose powers reactively, he can’t initiate a power without receiving an attack of sort, just like Varia has basically the same ability, but she doesn’t react to an attack, she react to skin contact
so, if she react to his skin contact and death toll react to her reaction, it can be interesting
or, he react first by having his skin becoming unreadable, like maxima’s skin, and Varia gets nothing
Sydney on Page 247: I knew it! There was a limit on how much he could count at once! Nemesis made it look like he had EVERY power, but he only had ANY power. Big Difference.
Just to clarify, For Whom The Death Tolls doesn’t have a set of power sets that he switches around reactively to being attacked. He gains temporary access to powers that will defend him whenever he is in danger of harm. Being attacked by a human-level punch could be weak enough to not give him powers. Alternatively, if he were to end up in a fight with Math (the Human-level Insane Martial Artist character), For Whom The Death Tolls could just gain super-evasion powers or something equally difficult to utilise offensively.
Which is why he was provoking them to attack him, rather than he attacking them
Remember how much he was begging Maxi to make the first strike?
She just stands there waiting for him to finish getting his glove off. smh.
I guess maser is a word fallen out of usage, so you have to call it a microwave laser, instead? How the mighty have fallen as guess what was originally called an ‘optical maser’? :)
As long as we don’t have a ‘By Our Powers Combined’ incident…
“Are… are you coming onto me?”
Seriously, I’m wondering if this is going to lead to some kind of relationship between them now. Especially once we see who he really is behind that silly skull mask (not just his appearance, but who he really is as a person. Like how Vehemence turned out to be a pretty likeable and fun guy)
He was polite. But it’s important to realize that one can be polite and still be utterly utterly evil. He did turn a bunch of people into superpowered pawns to charge himself up.
Indeed, Kevin’s shown himself to be fun – but also still willing and ready to break parole the moment it suits him. And has already betrayed and seriously injured people on his side. ‘Likeable and fun’ is very, very different from ‘good’, ‘respectable’, ‘trustworthy’, and many other qualities that should be part of a relationship.
There is a trait used to describe psychopaths, “superficial glibness”. It most commonly relates to their ability to present as more intelligent than they actually are but also ties in to a initial perception of being charming or witty. Think of it as protective coloration.
The only relationship that he gets involves a conversation that starts, “You are under arrest for assault and battery on a federal law-enforcement officer. You have the right to remain silent; anything you do say may be recorded and used as evidence against you in a court of law.”
I think we’re about to find out what happens when you’re able to successfully divide by zero
“Define ‘Bad’ for us, Egon?”
Tell them about the twinkie.
Fuuuuusion….HAAAAA!
The main question I have is whether his power is active or passive. If it’s passive, then I see it shutting her gestalt down. If it’s active, I’m quite curious about what she’ll get. She usually gets something related to the super, so it might actually be pretty powerful.
And what if the Ascenders experimented on him the same way they did on the prosoner, and when she touches Peri, he gets the powers, not her?
The idea that the Ascenders set up a trap for Varia’s power, while not knowing she existed, requires a slight (but not impossible) leap.
Can Purple Buttsniffer control what his powers consider an attack? Can he cause himself to think “Her getting powers from me is an attack on me” and thus affect the outcome?
We shall see.
Hey! Purple and Periwinkle are ENTIRELY different colors!!
Totally different, as is every shade even close to them.
I wasnt talking about Varia.
The experiments the Ascenders set up seem to be attempting to reliably create powers. For Whom The Death Tolls/Periwinkle/Whatever his actual name is already has powers, and is unlikely to have been a part of the Ascenders before he got them. As such, there would be minimal reason to treat him to the same experiments. Particularly before they managed to get any reliable results.
Perhaps they were doing experiments on the prisoners in an effort to safely find ways to make their own powers more potent. X-Men Evolution did something on that once. :)
And if you’re a villain and wanting to make your powers more potent, would you use yourself as a guinea pig FIRST or use some prisoners first to get the kinks out before testing it on yourself?
This is why most power stories are based on either a mad scientist working on himself, or an experiment subject escaping after a test went better than expected. Nobody sane and well-funded operates on themselves first.
After the events in the night club where Varia publicly displayed her power, it is possible that the Ascenders are aware of her. PBS may have standing orders to attempt physical contact if possible.
I would think the point of kidnapping people to use as guinea pigs is that you wait to see what happens to them before you do the same experiments on your own people.
If you’ve spent your life in comics you know that those two touching turns into Maxima with the Orbs…
FWTDT’s powers switch from purely defensive to purely offensive. However, we’re missing the best part. Varia becomes IMMUNE to the powers her gestalt unlocks so she could keep hold of his hand and beat him senseless. However, she needs to put JW down first – I don’t think people she’s touching gain her immunity.
I believe JW would be immune. Varia touching Arianna here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1064-bar-be-cant/ made them both immune to the fire attack.
No, the person Varia touches becomes immune to the power she gets.
All the people she is touching should be immune to all the powers she gets. However, we have not been shown her touching two people at once, so we don’t know if it blends, or winner-take-all, or multiplies.
In https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-593-cat-play/ she was touching Heatwave and Jiggawatt, and Jiggawatt wasn’t immune to the Heatwave-granted power.
is this “what happends if an unmovable object meets the unstoppable object”?
the answer is “both surrender”??
so im guessing… nothing will happend, unless “NTH” technology energy levels appear and the universe goes bathshit crazy about earth again
THERE WOULD BE NO SURVIVORS!
In the words of the (possible) Dread Pirate Roberts:
THERE WOULD BE NO SURVIVORS!
“Supermassive” huh? Umm… he’s falling into the troupe where he feels invincible, then finds out he’s not. ;) Supermassive ego more likely…
Max is VERY strong and can boost that if need be, Mr. Bubble would protect Sydney, Harem could ‘port away and come back with a couple of her other selves, all anyone else needs to do is distract him and he’d be done. (cut scene: SM is trying to crush Hiro with all his might, Harem pops in and out dropping a flash-bang, by then Hiro is up and punching SM through a wall)
It’s a tempting offer but it also could be a trick to grab Varia and Jigga without the taunting, or he’s being very cocky again, he doesn’t have every power, just the one he needs.
And only against attacks. Since her gestalt power is defined as not affecting/harming the person she touches, it can’t (shouldn’t) register as an attack. Thus, it should be neutral to his power.
Meanwhile, I’d bet it would give her “whatever ONE offensive power SHE needs for the target”, since that interlocks with Deathtolls’ power.
And the power she’d need for HIM is canceling his power, but his power would cancel her cancel, so literally anything can happen if she were to attack him.
I assume that if they touch the world will have a new God… or both die.
I’m not sure this is all that interesting a question. Here’s why:
– Varia’s power gives her an almost random power depending only on which person she touched. It doesn’t depend on what that person’s power is (though granted in a few cases, such as Harem, it turned out to be related).
– Varia’s power generally makes the person she touched immune to the effects of her new power. Thus, Nemesis’ power probably won’t activate at all, since he won’t be in any danger.
So, Varia and Nemesis stand to get one more data point about what powers Varia potentially has access to. That’s about it.
I agree that Purple Buttsniffer (ie DeathToll ie Nemesis) will probably not get a power… probably. She, on the other hand, is likely to get a gestalt power from him. My money is on “whatever one offensive power you need for the target”, since it completements Purple’s power.
Then, if she were to try to turn it on him, fascinating things could happen. Most likely, both of them canceling each other.
However, she’s also already touching JW, so she can probably jump out if she wants.
Except she’s not really touching Jiggawatt. She needs skin-to-skin contact.
Also even if theres skin to skin contact it doesnt let her jump out or teleport. Jigg gives her magneto-powers
She always gets the same power from the same person, and that person gets immunity to it.
Similar or at least related powers for people who are related.
Touching people who have powers gets her a power related to their power, but not identical.
From this I deduce that she gets a power, for ordinary people, related to the power they’d have if they had a power. If their genetics had the complete key to the superion field, rather than just a fragment.
What’s she going to get from PBS? All we know is that it will be something related to Nemesis, and that it shouldn’t affect him.
But, you know, maybe PBS has a good idea what’s going to happen? She shouldn’t be taking that chance. But comic logic says they ARE going to touch.
This fits For Who the Death Tolls’ personality in a non-dumb way. Also, very individualistic.
Should be a pass from Varia though, despite her own and Arc’s curiosity. And that’s whether this is solely for FWtDT’s info or for his organizations as well. The info alone could be too useful. Then there’s the matter of there is probably at least chance he could keep Varia there, with or without what he might gain from her (since she just found out THAT can happen). No need to give him an incentive. And that’s without consider whether he could use that power to mop the floor with Max.
A bunch ifs, yeah, but CBA/tactical analysis/common sense should flat out avoid this experiment in these conditions.
Of course, in D&D terms, FWtBT only needs to make a touch attack, albiet, possibly for called shot to touch skin to skin (apparently most of each arm, neck, probably whole head (assuming hair either counts or doesn’t block skin enough, otherwise, face and ears).
That’s….
Shit, that would be genuinely tempting.
Cue “The One Ring” temptation music…
…also, I’m curious to see how PBS gets out of this situation without either getting arrested, or switching teams.
No. Switching. TEAMS!!!
Awww…..is SOMEONE uncomfortable with Villain Redemption Arcs?
*specifically in John DeLancie voice*
WELL! I know SOMEPONY who isn’t getting invited to the Grand Galloping Gala this year!
*smirks in smug*
Only if they are deserving of it, Peri isn’t, neither is SmugD or any actual members of the Cowl Brigade (Cree wasn’t working for them by choice)
Do you want to create a singularity? That’s how you do it. Can someone responsible step in before these two goobers break causality or something.
In before “no powers and Varia beats him like a red-headed lift-handed stepchild riding a rented mule on a rug.”
If this universe has Mythbusters, they need to do an episode to test this using all possible permutations of attack and defense.
Like siphon vs a siphon, which tends to be which either is stronger or else cancels each other out. I can be power gestalt and nemesis just cancelling each other out as both are reactive powers and neither has in this moment anything to react to. Now if she touched him while he was reacting…wait, her power is gestalt not copy, so maybe since she can gain powers even from people without active powers…hmm. I think he is hoping some augmentation done to him by this group may cause her to unlock all powers in him at once like giving portal eyes his powers just now, Or at least the more active version of Nemesis, Antithesis (one of the other annoying powers villain to villains where they just look at someone and can utilize a weakness, kind of the same but instead of defending against Superman’s attacks you would start to radiate kryptonite or project images of the alley and his parents ghost angry with him at Batman.
1st, lets just point out that when Varia touches someone normally, 2 things happen.
1) The person Varia is touching gets immunity to the damage effects that Varia gains from a super power. We don’t actually know if its actually IMMUNITY though. Varia believes that is the effect, but we don’t actually know if its an aspect of Varia that makes the person she is touching not take damage, or is it an actual immunity to whatever Varia is doing.
2) Varia gets the super power, not the person she touches – even Varia was incredibly suprised that it happened a differant way this time. This 1 person who gained a power instead is an abnormality. It shouldn’t matter at all what Periwinkle Butt Sniffer has as a power, he doesn’t get anything else from it.
With all that said, It makes the most sense to me story wise, that the teleporter prisoner and Death Tolls might actually share a similar power, so He is hoping for a more powerful version of an active power.
I’m betting on him becoming the square root of -1 aka i
Eg something ‘imaginary’ happens. It’s inevitable, aka the power of DaveB
A dire outcome to ultimate defence is inevitable death. He could get his bell rung by a tollhouse cookie.
Now one punch man vs FWTBT. Imovable force vs unlovable (unmovable) object
They turn into Bugs Bunny in ridiculously convincing drag
Xochil (internal): ooOOOOhhh!! No! No, wait, Max would NOT like it if I blew up the Bad Guy HQ. Although that MIGHT not happen… something COOL might happen…. NO! Max would DEFINITELY not like me colluding with the Bad Guy… he might get cool powers, too… but so would I!! NO, this would NOT be smart… but SO COOL…
My money is on absolutely nothing happening.
The exchange where FWTDT says that supermassive has gravity powers is… like really weird. Is it just me? Like, she complains about how much weight was on her, and he’s just like ‘yes, that guy has gravity powers.’ Full stop. The Varia… I’m not sure? Is she surprised with that ‘oh’ when she already figured he had gravity powers? Or is she just ignoring him and being like ‘oh, I found an ally.’?
Maybe it’s just me, but usually when there is dialog this awkward it is very clearly done for comedic effect. You know, like a couple panels latter where he has trouble getting his glove off. But this just seems like it is supposed to be a realistic conversation.
For a final time, maybe it is just me, but does anyone else feel like it is a really weird dialog in a not intentionally so way?
I wouldn’t say that it’s awkward… so much as it is surprisingly casual. I think Varia expected more of his usual dramatic, grandstanding behavior, and is surprised that he’s just kind of having a chat with her, maybe even being helpful.
I get the impression that he’s really more interested in exploring his own powers than any kind of villainy, but since his powers are defensive and reactive, to do that usually requires goading people to attack him. And while it might be interesting to see how his power responds to the various things Varia might do with her gestalts, right now he is interested in how their base powers would interact. Beyond that, we haven’t been given much insight into his motivations.
Red meets Black … this might happen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVnDVUODRYc&ab_channel=BrokenPeach
Ooo, Broken Peach is a cool band, haven’t seen that song yet, but have seen quite a few already (including when they were still in school)
The one who does the malfunctioning-robot is, poo, the best :)
Fusion dance HO!
I don’t know what the result would be, but please don’t be holding on to your teammate while you do it. I mean you literally just oozed mustard a while back. It is obvious there could be dangerous effects that could harm the person you are carrying.
He seems to be afraid of something see the sixth frame in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1119-how-to-survive-a-1770-mile-fall/ when the prison bars are moved.
Ehh.. I’m bored so I’ll ship them.
Oh, I’ve already head-canoned them.
Definitely a Romeo & Juliet thing, but WAY less stupid impulsive teenage suicide garbage.
…and a LOT more impulsive teenage hijinx style sneaking out for date night at the movies, and local brew & burger.