Grrl Power #1124 – Battle (un)dress
I haven’t actually decided, but I think this guy might be trying to impress/seduce Max? He’s definitely planning on fighting her, but I’m leaning toward this guy being just a little too impressed with himself and thinking “While I’m proving my mettle to her, it surely can’t hurt to show off the V-taper and the 8-pack.” This line of thinking ignores the fact that all Supers are in fantastic shape, so it’s nothing Max hasn’t seen quite a lot of over her career.
Writing a guy with this attitude goes against my personal instincts as well. While I’ve heard repeatedly that confidence is something women tend to find attractive in a man, for me, there’s an incredibly narrow window between insecure or at least cautiously self-depreciating and overconfident douchebag bordering on narcissism.
My own personal speed is that if someone tells me “Hey, you’re good at [thing]” my response is usually along the lines of “Well, I guess, compared to someone who is slightly less good at [thing], then technically… I mean, everything is relative.” I guess I’m terrified of ever dipping my toe into lake douchebag, which in my head is some sort of steaming bog full of industrial runoff, whatever snake oil Alex Jones is hawking, and Axe Body Spray. Curiously absent from lake douchebag? Diluted vinegar.
The January Vote Incentive is up! Time for the quarterly fashion show that Anvil puts Maxima through. Can you detect the theme?
Variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
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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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“What are you, an old Italian man?” flashbacks…
And he claims he’s not Italian!
I wish I had checked the comic earlier because that was the FIRST thing I thought as well! :)
I like his belt buckle.
Unfortunately he’s going to have to order a new one that says “SH” now.
Don’t worry. He will be getting a whole new wardrobe when he gets to prison. Assuming he survives his arrest. Let’s see. He’s got Membership in a Criminal Organization, Membership in a Terrorist Organization, Assault on a Federal Law-enforcement Officer (2 counts), Resisting Arrest. That ought to be enough to keep him out of the way while the Ascension organization gets fully investigated.
Don’t forget Conspiracy to commit kidnapping (n counts), conspiracy to falsely imprison (SO MANY COUNTS), aiding and abetting the above…I know kidnapping generally has a minimum of 5 years per charge on every state (some states have a higher min., pretty sure none go lower), so mr goomba is already looking at 40+ years based on the one prison section.
Plus the FDA is going to have some things to say about unlicensed human trials of an unregistered medication. Although the CIA will probably handle the whisking for them, and continue investigating it behind an impenetrable wall of paperwork and classification.
Like a cooking channel…
Don’t forget he’s committed several acts of conspiracy to commit everything from kidnapping to murder. And accessory to those acts if he didn’t actually “waste his time”.
Acts of Terrorism against the United States is a really good catch all.
Super Guantanamo Bay would be interesting…….. Maybe in space, we have a spaceship now, I would be surprised if it didn’t come with a Xeno physics textbook.
I like his belt buckle too, it is a real clear indicator of where to hit below.
Look, we are not completely unreasonable. We can certainly come to a compromise between the name you wish to be called and the identifier we wish to assign to you. So we’ll just go ahead and refer to you as Super Massive Suck Hole from now on.
SMaSH for short.
I want you to know that I snortlaughed at that.
Just don’t tell me he’s from the galactic core where energy is abundant and life is cheap
Suck Hole clearly believes that his physique is astonishingly impressive. Of course it is nothing compared to the guys Max hangs around with all the time, so it isn’t going to wow her in any way. What I’m hoping happens in the next couple of pages is that Max manages to rip off his mask, and it turns out that Super Massive actually refers to his unibrow.
She’s the boss of those guys, and not of this guy. So he’s dating material, they aren’t. And seeing she already dated a similar guy she has similar reactions to… he’s probably getting at least a date. He is going to have to lose the mask soonish, though, yes.
Deus isn’t exactly a supervillain that’s been involved with kidnapping, torture, imprisonment, human experimentation… he’s a megalomaniac with a button that summons a lightning strike for dramatic effect
That’s not what Dabbler hopes its referencing… *Sly winky face*
re: dating motives and difficulties between supers/normies and heros/villains, obligatory link to Interviewing Leather.
Hey, let’s not dis the unibrow, in particular since mine goes all the way down my nose, except for that one spot where my glasses took a chunk outta my nose back when I got killed the last time. (I got better /Monty Python)
Maxima is channeling Sydney there with the ‘we have a PR-Team to decide your name for you’ attitude.
And also casual use of potentially offensive language directed to a specific random ethnic group. Yeah, a lot of Sydney vibes here.
Yeah, I think Sydney is proving a bad influence on her boss.
Umm, what’s with the banter?
Just take out one of his knees and keep moving…
The whole comic is banter and interstitial moments. Get used to it.
Banter is necessary while she gauges his powers. If she just starts of with a MFP-to-the-face every time, she would have a much higher body count and Arianna’s job would become much harder.
Also, she’s longtime friends with Anvil (kinetic absorber) and has fought multiple supers who can stand up to or directly benefit from assault (Kevin, Darude, near-miss on Death Toll). Exploring your opponents abilities when possible instead of throwing yourself into a potential trap is always a good idea, especially if you have super speed and can adapt/escalate rapidly when warranted.
The Mighty Halo would have liked to have seen that.
She would have passed out from blood-loss
I’d like to think she’s built up a bit of a tolerance by this point.
You would have thought Math would have as well, butt no, he had to be ordered to watch as much porn (on company time) as he could until he stopped getting distracted by bewbies (not that he would become desensitised to them, just not get distracted by them at the wrong time)
I like to think some level of Douche/Creep from the guy in question lessens the effect.
The “SM” belt buckle is a nice touch.
This belt is a signal : “Hit me plenty ,Mistress Maxima”…
He’ll be the submissive in this “fight” – due to the gap of respective powers levels – to fight Maxima you must be superman or Dr Manhattan – . And if she maul him she could say “He hadn’t pronounced the safety word.”
He even splashed out on the LED belt buckle with emblem. “Being a super villan or hero, its all about branding”
Does he seriously wear a SM belt?
Wait until you see how he personalized his underwear!
I’ll bet he also has the SM cuffs, ball gag and gimp suit.
good. we will need them to secure him for transport.
Nope, I’m still going to call him MassHole.
Oh be nice. Boston isn’t that bad.
^^^^ THIS^^^^
You gotta… you really gotta use this name for him… Now just to figure out how Max would come to that solution…
Also, this dude does realize that Maxima went toe to toe with VEHEMENCE and held her own right?
Even took off the guys arm? He sure about this?
This guy has been playing too many Yakuza games.
you made me think of the angry joe review of one of them….
I need some more brain bleach.
I mean why not a breakaway suit? Typically, a suit isn’t something ya wanna find yourself wearing to a melee anyway. Most aren’t tailored for extreme movements or durability to do stuff like fighting or athletics. Plus ya risk having your jacket and tie being used as leverage or choking points against you.
Being said, yeah it is still tacky to have a breakaway outfit. Way too many shenanigan situations can occur leaving you in PR trouble
On the other hand, you risk being mistaken for a stripper or pervert flasher. (To be fair, these labels may also be accurate for this guy for all we know)
Before he was Super Massive. The SM belt initials were for Stripper Mask! Exhibitionist Extraordinaire! Would only perform a night a month at any random country!
Do you guys know how much a Really nice suit costs now days? 10-20g’s for one suit!
So if you are s supervillian who is just starting out you might think velcro seams would save you $$$ in the long run.
Plus the guy came up with a name like Super Massive, we can’t all be genuises. You have to alow for a few idiots in your line of work when there are so few other supers out there.
Can’t have all the Villians be at Deus level. The Universe can barely handle one!
It’s also a Yakuza/Ryu Ga Gotoku staple. When things get serious, off goes the shirt. And in one swift motion, too.
i like the idea of the guy being a self conceded asshole who thinks hes hot shit with a thing for max. will make the beatdown he gets feel so much better.
Listen, Miss Suck Hole, if you tend to get into a lot of fights, and you don’t want to ruin your fancy 50$ suit, either stop wearing cheap suits or stop getting into fights (that you lose) in the first place!!
What if we cmpromise and call him Super Masshole
When it comes down to it, He’s not a supermassive, suck hole, or any of that, he’s just an asshole. A clueless, man-baby Asshole….
Well with gravity control you can probably support lots of kinky stuff to try out.
I think Max has been around Sydney too much that she’s worrying about names right now. But I suspect it won’t matter because in about 40 seconds he’s not going to remember his own name.
She was more offended by this act against Satire, than him being a Super Villain. Girl has Culture i’ll give her that.
Looking at his buckle i am going to have to call him Suck Man.
As you rightly should.
I’d go with Stupid Moniker, but PWB has that crown nailed down.
Sado-Masochist. Simp for Maxima. Suit Moxie.
There’s a bunch that apply.
Stupidman?
Urrg.. now Max is also making that idiotic mistake.
I had expected more from her.
No. Having a PR team does NOT mean you decide what people are called.
Also.
a) quite likely Supermassive is able to afford a bigger PR team than you. And getting known as GoldBarbie would suck.
b) Being able to write Supermassive in 5 meter letters on mount rushmore > having a PR team.
But can he afford a PR team with government-level media control.
A- he can afford it yes. but, regardless of how this ends I doubt the PR team would work for him. (unless its masquerading as a news outlet -naming no names here-)
B- Mount Rushmore is part of the national parks. there are consequences to defacing Mt Rushmore. for one thing if a villan is willing to do that… every nation of any size has a landmark or two and would not be amused at being the second victim…
How is it quite likely that Supermassive is able to afford a bigger PR team than a superpowered branch of the military? The government throws ridiculous money at military stuffs. It’s also been implied that even new recruits get paid a substantial amount.
Only 5 meter letters? Maxima’s hardly going to be impressed by *that*.
Even Peggy could do that (with an artillery piece she found) and she’s not even a super!
It’s like on She-Hulk. First supranym to get public attention is the one that sticks.
If he’s introducing himself it means few have heard about him. So after he’s beaten beyond being able to speak. The one still standing gets the press conference to tell who they faught and how it went down.
Also he’s making bad choices about who to look forward to fighting. Anyone who can fly by just floating through the air basically has a super power counter to your gravity power. At this point his only option is to pull the ceiling down on her. Which will probably be worse for him as it is for her.
Only Mt Rushmore? There are much more dramatic canvases* to make a point on.
*no, not referring to these idiots.
I am dissappointed that neither of those links was to this.
“Having a PR team does NOT mean you decide what people are called.”
It’s a throwback line to what Sydney said during the restaurant rumble to Death Toll (Perriwinkle Butt Sniffer) and earlier to Heavenly Sword. And it does help to have a legal PR team with media ties when you’re trying to write the narrative. :)
“quite likely Supermassive is able to afford a bigger PR team than you.”
It’s REALLY hard to outspend a first world nation government. Especially a military branch of that government.
“And getting known as GoldBarbie would suck.”
Considering Arianna holds the ability to prevent interviews with the media and who gets what info first, a lot of news agencies are going to play ball with ARCHON, like Arianna said to Sydney about Sydney’s concern about paparazzi bothering her at home.
And there’s of course Leon, who seems to have his hands in various points of social media to control what’s going on (which itself is REALLY impressively scary).
“Being able to write Supermassive in 5 meter letters on mount rushmore > having a PR team.”
I’m not sure that 15 foot high letters are going to be all that viewable to the general public. Also Mount Rushmore is actually surprisingly difficult to get close to, and his powers do not seem to have unlimited distance. And a PR team can plaster the name Suck Hole or Gravity Goombah on the news and all the police agencies and talk shows. Much more available to the viewing public.
Yeah, about that interviews with the media part… there are plenty of media who would love to interview a villain who is willing to spill the beans on what a Government-sanctioned vigilante group is doing (remember that flame-guy Sydney pancaked and broke almost every bone on one side of his body?)
Uh, I don’t see many people caring about that.
And, ultimately, the occasional story of possible excessive force really can’t compare to a PR team on Archon’s scale.
” there are plenty of media who would love to interview a villain who is willing to spill the beans on what a Government-sanctioned vigilante group is doing”
1) The Restaurant Rumble was already on TV. No one seems to find ARCHON to be at fault – it was Vehemence’s fault.
2) The fire guy was not actually the criminal – Vehemence was the criminal. EVERYONE else, Archon and otherwise, were the victims.
3) Try to see which is easier to do – interview a convicted criminal behind bars in an ultramax prison, interview a criminal that’s in hiding while he or she is planning crimes, or interview a superhero from a publicly known superhero team that has a PR group specifically geared to putting them on the news and on talk shows, with at least a few journalists who are huge fans of said super group (ie, Suzie News)
Hint: #3 is easiest and will have the most reach to the public every single time.
Have you not been paying attention to real world shit that last couple years?
There are literally thousands of people who don’t trust the government or government-sanctioned media
Not saying any of them are right (or even sane), just that there would be plenty who would tune in (look at how many tuned in to that SmugD late-night interview)
“There are literally thousands of people who don’t trust the government or government-sanctioned media”
Yes, but it’s still out there, while some secretive outright supervillain is going to have a harder time getting his or her narrative out. Regardless of whether there is or is not a significant amount of people who do not believe what the ‘Main Stream Media’ says.
“(look at how many tuned in to that SmugD late-night interview)”
1) Deus is not a criminal though. :) He is the savior of humanity and paragon of virtue for a brighter tomorrow for us all.
2) Deus probably has quite a large PR firm as well, both for himself, his company, and for Galytn, given he both helps to run a nation himself, and runs a multinational corporation which is publicly traded on the stock market and very visibly in the public eye. Plus he probably would be smart enough to trademark supranyms on top of marketing them.
3) All praise Deus, amen.
You are literally the only one who has drunk his Kool-Aid
If he had had such a large PR firm, then why were they only able to get him onto a after-midnight cable economics show? Why not a prime-time big-name chat show, like Graham Norton? Oh right, he probably wouldn’t be able to handle the jokes
“You are literally the only one who has drunk his Kool-Aid”
It’s not Kool-Aid. it’s the sweet ambrosia of the gods.
“If he had had such a large PR firm”
He’s in charge of a multinational corporation. He is internationally famous as a businessman AND a philanthropist AND an inventor and a financial marvel. He essentially runs a nation which he almost single-handedly brought out of third world status into the modern era where the people are happy and technologically advanced and educated instead of in fear of murderous warlords disappearing them when the warlords pocket international aid meant to help the poor. He definitely has a large PR firm. :)
“then why were they only able to get him onto a after-midnight cable economics show?”
Where did you get that the show took place after midnight? The first time we saw him on Macro-economics, true it took place super-late, but according to DaveB, “it’s working its way up to prime time.” It’s very likely that Deus went on the show in order to get it to a more prominent place on television, or because he knew it would get more popular.
Which apparently it was the second time we see Macro-Economics on the webcomic. It’s no longer on after midnight and is presumably closer to prime time now.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-829-spilling-news/
Also Deus might have decided to bed the host, so he was gracious enough to grant her multiple interviews to make her show a lot less boring.
“Why not a prime-time big-name chat show, like Graham Norton?”
1) Graham Norton probably knows very little about actual complex, in depth economics.
2) Deus probably doesn’t want to get Graham Norton in bed with him.
“Oh right, he probably wouldn’t be able to handle the jokes”
Perhaps he, and his P.R. team, prefers that his world-changing economic and financial visionary status not be the subject of jokes. That doesn’t sound like great P.R.
PS – I’ve literally never watched an episode of Graham Norton.
I would point out that Texas prisons have no air conditioning. it took a fair amount of investigation to figure out how many prisoners it was killing and how many people care? I sense an awful lot of celibacy going on. Texas looses a bunch of outdoor workers every year to the heat, and again. lots of celibacy.
Celibacy? I’m guessing autocorrect wronged you, but I can’t figure out what word you might have intended instead.
well. no F*s were given. that looks a lot like celibacy. now i’ve ruined the joke. I blame Skippy.
Not gonna lie, I literally LOL’d at “Suck Hole”. XD
Is “breakaway [clothing]” a thing people understand? I had to look it up, but admittedly it’s been a while since I did any proper theater (just musical performances involving theater; we had no breakaway props and never considered any). I tried searching for it online, but “breakaway clothing” just brings up this ludicrously expensive brand, and “breakaway prop clothing” brings up walls and vases and stuff, not clothing. You’d think it’d be more common?
But yeah, imagine walking around in a breakaway suit all day. It’d be at the forefront of my mind at all times that with the wrong tug, the entire thing could come undone and completely expose my torso from the waist up. I understand that this guy is specifically written to be a douchebag, but I do have to wonder if it’s different for men, their bodies so much less scrutinized and discussed as they are.
the pants are probably breakaway too. I think they usually call it something else. I’ve heard ‘snap pants’ for the lower part. the thing is these things are tedious to put back so not only are you exposed but you also have somewhere around 20 awkward snaps to put together, some at least have to be done before the thing is put on.
its also mostly male clothing. female strippers don’t need to move as fast and have a larger variety of things to wear.
There were a few runs of the snap pants for women in basketball/track & field sports. They were a godsend if you were proper shorts under them and running a marathon in Canadian weather that started miserably cold and cloudy- and the day turned into a full sun roaster after the first couple of kilometers. (Not having to break a stride and tying the legs around one’s waist was a fun and hella arrogant thing to do. ;)
Normally used by male strippers, the ones that get hired for hen’s nights (the ones where they usually show up dressed like a cop)
For me it invokes the 90s WWF wrestlers tearing off their shirts to build hype before/during a match, but in real life some athletic warm-up pants have tearaway snaps for rapid removal so competitors (primarily basketball) can change quickly from keeping warm on the bench to jumping into action – without a risk of pulling too many layers in their haste. A quick internet search tells me this trend also started in the 90s.
My reaction to Maxima’s “Nothing that breaks away is nice” is that I bet Archon’s tailor would take that as a personal challenge. There are definitely professionals in a superhero world who would take literally anything phrased as “You can’t make clothes that X” personally. He’d probably find some way to arrange the tearable seams so that you had to pull it a very specific way in order to prevent accidental malfunctions, maybe embed magnets or something so that after you tear it apart you can temporarily put it back on.
Depends on how familiar you are with male strip shows …
Yeah, he looks like a Suck Hole.
I think Lake Douchebag is the Bog of Eternal Stench from Labyrinth
I’m getting the impression that this guy was a professional stripper at some point.
He’s not the only one that might have some PR problems. Supermassive (excuse me, I mean “Suck Hole”) has the same problem as Saitama…Nobody knows him by either One Punch Man or his real name, but the press calls him Caped Baldy.
Supermassive is usually employed for cosmic objects, e.g. supermassive blackhole.
This guy is gonna be known as supermassive asshole.
Okay, this is the first time I have laughed out loud in a very long time. I truly needed that. XD
POOR SuckHole
Max, you need to remember that “your words can be even more hurtful than your fists”…”
“….”
“…well maybe not YOUR fists but still there’s no need to be unnecessarily mean… man, this inspirational-quote-of-they-day calendar was not worth it”
-HR
It would seem someone’s been playing a lot of Yakuza recently.
Also, it seems to be a bigger sign of competence when you’re doubtful about your ability. How’s that saying go?
“Geniuses are full of doubt, while idiot and fools are full of confidence and cocksure”?
Someone’s obviously spending much time with Ms. Scoville…
;-)
I wish WE were. We’ve not seen her since mid-November.
Hey, how long does it take you to fly over the Atlantic and/or capture a gang of supers? /s
can I get the use of supersonic aircraft?
After the last time? No!
Anyone else who can find the invisible jet can use it. Palmvos, you know what you did.
I have the beer can full of peanut butter to help me look. I’m trying to learn snark from it too.
I’m sorry someone said ‘hey boomer’ and I thought it was a request.
The helmet looked bad before, when it looks like a fancy mask, now? Now it looks so much worser…
I wouldn’t be surprised now if his mask comes off he’s a man in his 20’s that balding, so yeah, Asshole!
To be fair, the males in ARC tend to lose their shirts in fights. Like, alot. So SM getting ahead of the curve for a perfectly rational reason really shouldn’t be catching all this ridicule.
Would’ve been a far better use of time and resources to do more preparation for Archon’s inevitable assault. “I need to look my best for the first 2 seconds of the fight” is terrible prioritization.
It’s Gravity Goomba sir! He’s gone from suck to hole!
And Max will tear him a new one! Yes, Max, give into you’re anger, and soon you’re travel to the Sydney-side will be complete!
If any Spaceballs show up, I am blaming YOU!
*goes off to comb the desert for spaceballs*
I mean to be fair he’s not wrong that does look like a nice suit and people with superpowers seem to get into a lot of fights, so a a breakaway business suit does make sense and cuts down on having to buy new clothes. Also perhaps to avoid having their names changed maybe they should introduce themselves to the Press first or leave a calling card.
You know, it would be easier to just wear functional combat attire and not some goofy outfit you’d expect from a Japanese middle school Chunibyo.
especially with a cape. the guy was wearing a cape then a suit. guy is probably going to freeze because he’s used to several layers and some of them are really warm.
I think Max is being very unfair. He probably doesn’t have access to a Ninja tailor with super special fabrics like Max does.
Unfair…
To a villain who enjoys being a villain and clearly has a few more screws loose than we thought…
I don’t see that. If anything she is being far kinder to him than he deserves after the way his organization kidnapped and experimented on people and how his group treated Concretia. Then again, we DO live in an age of emotion now, where people’s feelings are FAR more important than stupid things like their LIVES, so maybe making him cry is a bit over the top?
On second thought? Nah. Keep burning him, Max! No matter WHAT I am told by modern US society, I don’t give a damn about people’s feelings when they try to hurt of kill me. Neither should Max.
You’ve made it clear that you have some strong feelings on the topic.
The ones that rail against peoples’ feelings the loudest are always the ones who are the most sensitive & emotive.
But how are we going to make Yakuza 0 references without break away suits?
*giggling* just imagining Yakuza O as a third-rate DragonBall Z rip-off where they only kept the fight scenes in which you’re looking at an animation of the background because ‘they’re moving too fast’, only with really bad japanese sound effects, and Adam West Batman fighting-sound animated flash-words (Bam, Pow, etc.)