Grrl Power #1126 – Don’t tug on Maxima’s hair…
Salesgirl: Hello and welcome to SuperMart, how can I help you?
Maxima: Yes, I need a hair tie that can withstand at least 300 gravities.
Salesgirl: I see. Can your hair withstand 300 gravities?
Maxima: It can.
Salesgirl: Goodness. I don’t suppose you need a hairbrush that can withstand hair that can withstand 300 gravities?
Maxima: Huh, I hadn’t thought about that. Sure, why not?
Salesgirl: And perhaps some hairspray with similar characteristics?
Maxima: My question is how would you get that out of your hair?
Salesgirl: I… hmm. I have no idea. It’s mostly a mix of epoxy and kevlar. I suppose there might be a solvent?
Maxima: I think that kind of solvent would work equally well on the hair itself.
Salesgirl: Yes, perhaps that would be something you would give as a gift first. To a mortal enemy. Anything else you might need? Perhaps a bra that can withstand 300 gravities?
Maxima: There’s no way a bra like that would be comfortable.
Salesgirl: It is technically a tungsten titanium alloy form-fitted cuirass.
Maxima: Well I suppose you wouldn’t have to worry about casual jiggles* while going down the stairs in that.
Salesgirl: You do not.
Maxima: I also can’t decide if that would be easier or harder for your boyfriend to get off of you while en route to second base.
Salesgirl: That would depend on whether or not he is equipped with metal shears.
*NSFW link, if you somehow didn’t guess that from context.
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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Gravity is one of the most useful powers in the hands of a skilled user. Also one of the most dangerous. That being said I have a hunch Max is about to make Gravity Goomba need a straw for his suck hole while he’s waiting in the hospital
He blocked her eyes using her hair, which seems like fair game in a superpowered fight. It’s not like he used her bra to do it.
Suck Hole does seem like a competent fighter with his power at least
She needs to go to grappling. If she’s got enough in defense that he can’t actually hurt her, she just needs to get a good grip, max out defense and strength, and start working her way up whatever limb she got hold of, crushing bones, and ignore being flung about for a bit.
Sure, a bit dark, but it’s actually her style, she’s shown no reluctance in the past to deal out broken bones.
“she’s shown no reluctance in the past to deal out broken bones.”
Bit of an understatement, she blew an arm off Vehemence.*
* He got better.
Gravity Goblin’s off to a good start! He’s survived *one* exchange of blows with Maxima, which is honestly pretty impressive already!
…of course, once she gets a grip on him he’s done for, and it’s not like he can really damage her in the meantime. Best he can do is delay her a little.
I imagine that this fight will go to the first side to bring in level-appropriate reinforcements…
You mean, like Stalwart, who is currently climbing out of the basement? And whose own gravity control might give him some degree of immunity to SM’s?
Yup. Or like Portal Girl, who can probably get herself and Supermassive out of there in a way that is (at least) very tricky to follow.
They’ll both be quick enough that this fight will likely last until at least one of them gets there.
Stalwart can increase his mass. He hasn’t been shown to decrease it, and there’s been nothing said about gravity control. I.e. he can make himself weigh 50 tons, but that doesn’t make him fall any faster.
Max should definitely spend several minutes screwing around with this guy instead of cooking one of his feet.
The actual conclusion to draw here is that Max felt the punch at all despite being forced into tank mode.
That means supermassive is alarmingly strong and not a joking matter.
Indeed!
I am not sure she did, the guy certainly used gravity to boost the punch, that could throw Maxima around without actually hurting her, ass opposed to someone getting the same reaction with just brute force.
Depending on how many of those purple orbs he can make, this guy could possibly do the same that Vehemence did and force Maxima into a corner by necessitating going all in on one of her attributes just to stay in the fight.
Vehemence did it by being capable of so much damage and buffing himself up, that Maxima had to go all in on her defense and then couldn’t keep up with him physically. Supermassive could force her to devote more and more power to her flight to counter his gravity throwing her arround.
Thankfully he hasn’t shown the capabilty to dish out damage on the same scale that he can affect Maxima’s movements.
If he wasn’t looking for a fun fight and had a partner or two to dish out damage while he keeps Maxima Pinned she could have been in trouble- except she has her own back up and can still shoot energy beams, which don’t seem to be affected by Gravity, but if they are we might find out during this fight.
I really like Maxima’s powers for this sort of exploritory combat- her powers are strong and simple, but with the hidden complexity of her adjusting her stats being unknown to people, it means the true extend of her power is easy to mis-judge. This all means she is a great target for people like Vehemence and Supermassive, while being able to adapt to stay in the fight, letting the author show off the abilities and creativity of the people gunning for her.
Can’t wait to see what moves other than the orbs Super Massive has.
Assuming Maxima’s beam travels at (or close to) the speed of light, he’d need to create black hole-level gravity to deflect it by a significant amount. And if he can do THAT, the whole team might be in trouble.
Alternately, he may just be stretching/deforming space rather than applying a force to it.
In which case, he can deflect light with trivial amounts of effort.
Speaking physics, there isn’t any difference between creating gravity and warping space.
If he can freely warp space in such a way to mimic gravity, he might be able to affect the drop-off rate, which would allow huge gravitational forces that don’t noticeably affect things more than a few meters away.
trouble…also the local solar system.
He’s going to have to be careful, unless his skeletal structure is augmented in some fashion. I don’t see how his gravity power could apply to his own bones, unless it involves changing his density.
Just how fast can Max reallocate power?
As close to instantaneously as to not matter. Remember when those aliens tried trapping her in a stasis field? It only took a few seconds OUTSIDE of the field for her to ramp up her speed to start being able to move within it.
Wait, why wouldn’t superspeed resolve this quickly (no pun intended)?
Even being a complete master of gravity doesn’t mean the guy is going to have perception or reflexes in the microsecond realm. Just take him down before it can even register in his brain, much less be able to formulate any countermove.
And moving faster will lessen his “gravity well” effects on Max’s actions (the faster you go past even a black hole, the straighter and less deflected your trajectory will be).
My thoughts raced along similar paths…
If Max was moving at a certain high speed, the local gravity well would have to be REALLY strong to hold her arm back, meaning it would possibly suck in many other things from all around. Considering her fist was really close in the last page, that grav pocket would have to stop it, before pulling it towards her, adding it to the strength of the pocket.
So yeah, it should be drawing in everything from all around, to not only stop her arm, pull it back, but also do it in a fraction of a second. I could argue what kind of speed she was using, but considering she didn’t want to insta-kill him (not all supers are resistant to damage and have super speed) and knows how to deliver a lightning speed non-lethal punch, even her using above than average speed would require a very “heavy” grav pocket.
I know i’m arguing a superheroes comic, but that just feels a bit off for me…
1) She already tanked up… and he’s showing a *heavy* expertise with his powers, so if she’s not high on defense, she might end up bug-on-the-windscreen.
2) Gravity is a warp of space, not a force. He didn’t have to *pull* her fist, he just had to make it so a straight line in space missed him. Anything not already planning to occupy that space in a particular unit of time would be unaffected.
go fast enough and you can do the kessel run in 12 parsecs
Always figured he was bragging that he’d taken a dangerous shortcut, instead of going the long way around. At least, it made sense that way.
“In the film, he flies the Millennium Falcon from Kessel through a cosmic maelstrom on a hazardous shortcut that was only about 12 parsecs long. As Lando Calrissian pointed out in that film, much safer versions of the Kessel Run were normally at least 20 parsecs.”
superspeed would help, but shes currently somewhat stuck counteracting his wide area gravity amplification, so she doesnt have the spare juice to allocate to speed at the moment
Someone else pointed it out, but I think he still has his wide area effect going on, and he probably won’t stop with either things like that, or these smaller orbs of focused gravity any time soon- so Maxima would have to juggle flight, to cancel that out, strength if she tries to compensate for toning down flight, and durability so he doesn’t just damage her with either her own weight or the next object he throws her at- Basically what Maxima her self brought up, about keeping her powers tied up, she has to balance countering his powers, against any other strategy, or she just can’t DO anything because then he decides where she is.
Though apparently he is aiming for Melee so as soon as she figures out what to do he is in proper punching distance.
Option one (and probably the most likely) is to grapple, option two is to blast him.
She’s going to AOE behind him. No doubt in my mind.
He may be ridiculous but his power’s are not. gravity is after all one of the fundamental forces of the universe.
Max is incredibly pissed that SuperMassive just pulled off a Goomba Stomp on her.
A Gravity Goomba Stomp.
Feels like I’ve seen that thingamajic from first frame somewhere… KSP navball?
Yup. Plus the orbital maneuver point.
It sure looks like one.
Indeed, just the thing to remind people that near the end of the month, it will be time to go boldly lithobreaking where no Kerbal has crashed before!
(https://store.steampowered.com/app/954850/Kerbal_Space_Program_2/)
…except the open beta for KSP2 will only have the original Kerbol system in the initial release. They’ll add more later.
Did I just see a Kerbal Space Program gauge in that first panel?
Things are going quite Kerbal! Shame “Gravity Goombah” missed his chance to call dibs on “Kraken!”
I think we’d know for sure if we looked at the page in the Patreon!!!
key question is, does his body have some type of protection from his own gravity powers.
strategy i would use against him, get him to suddenly increase her personal gravity to 300g’s while she is overhead, making her crash straight down on top of him. not sure what her actual weight is or if she has ability to change her mass as she changes her power sets, but get her at 300g’s right above him, it would be like old cartoons where aircract carrier gets dropped on someone. maybe knock his visor off then power blast him to blind him right before she tricks him into doing that
“Lesser and Included Powers” are usually assumed, specifically in regards to having any necessary powers needed to withstand your major power.
In Magellan (another super hero comic), one of the characters has super strength, but has to wear a special suit to keep from destroying her own bones if she actually uses it. It’s an interesting limitation.
That… makes no sense? If her bones can’t withstand use of her strength, her tendons and sinews would shatter them every time she made a motion…
The Venture Brothers did a lampshading of the “lesser powers” problem. In one episode there’s an ersatz Fantastic Four, but their Human Torch is NOT innately protected from heat, and continuously screams every time he has to use his powers. (Also, their Invisible Girl has the power of invisibility — but only for her skin, ewww.)
They sound like Mystery Men rejected auditions.
If he can do multiple projections at once, I’d say to pop one next to each of her ears and wildly vary the directions and magnitude to keep her disoriented, it would feel like being on one of those multi-axis things astronauts used to train on.
I’m also wondering if the projections can just attract, or if they can repel as well – although for practical purposes it’s like the difference between an implosion and an explosion, the shrapnel still goes flying. Take the shards hovering in front of her face – a quick, hard spike in Gs to pull them straight toward Max’s eyes at Mach 5, then instantly drop the field to clear the flight path. Even if she can tank a projectile to the eyeball (like Achilles and Kevin), that has to be really disconcerting.
Honestly Gravity Goblin is a good name as he learned how to utilize his powers to fight better and throw off attacks by gravity deflection instead of the basic ability of throwing everything in a full crush or full lift.
Sniper long range rapid attack. He has only active defense that we have seen. So mach 5 or higher should be able to hit him.
Looks like during Maxima’s rather lengthy inner monologue she didn’t realize she could no longer see her enemy. :-)
I guess she isn’t feeling all that threatened by him.
I get the impression that Max can do a decent approximation of Achillies’ powers when she wants to.
Sometimes Grrl Power really reminds me of the old X-Men comics. A time before the big two became obsessed with upping the power levels. More powerful is not more interesting. Not in the long run.
The X-Men have often beaten more powerful opponents by better teamwork and being more creative with their powers and abilities.
I sort of agree, the powers used in Grrl Power tend to be interesting and flexible in the way they’re used and that makes for a good story and also lets the reader theorize and get invested in the cool tricks being used. On the other hand, many of the main cast are borderline OP, so I wouldn’t say they were less powerful in exchange for being more cleverly used.
sound… she needs to use sound… at the right frequency sound goes anti-gravity.. in denser gravity sound is faster..
Style points to SM for crossing his arms for the hit in the last panel.
sound.. she needs to use sound.! at the right frequency sound goes anti-gravity,,. and in denser gravity sound is faster.
You are a worm through time.
The thunder song distorts you.
Happiness comes.
I thought I recognized the Hiss incantation.
Max, you can literally catch bullets. Stop screwing around and giving this guy time to actually respond – punch him from behind, in the kidneys, hard enough to make him pee blood for a few days, then inform him that was a little love tap, and that if he resists any further, you will start using actual force.
Then, if he finds a way to deal with that, melt his limbs. Then, if he is insane enough to continue, well, there are some very obvious solutions that he, unfortunately, will no survive.
Blinding speed would be a good counter, yeah.
I hated this particular Superman comic, mainly because it was making Superman too impossibly powerful to have any real danger to him, but that idea reminds me a lot of Red Son Superman, where he went up against Green Lantern and just took his ring off his finger before Hal could do anything and said “A thought based weapon against someone who can move at ten times the speed of thought. Not too smart Colonel Jordan.”
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/forums/battles-7/kingdom-come-superman-vs-red-son-superman-543232/
Well, that’s betterer than Blatsie simply taking the ring off while he and Jordan were walking in a sewer
He wasn’t concentrating. Hal was too busy trying to guess if Batman was a vampire, then ragging on him for just being a guy in a bat suit. That just involves sleight of hand (in a dark sewer, with someone who isnt bothering to pay attention to the ring on his finger or what’s going on because his mind is wandering,)which Batman learned from Giovanni Zatara (Zatanna’s father).
It’s different than Superman taking the ring off his finger while he is about to use it and concentrating ON the ring actively, in the heat of battle… along with the rings of everyone else in the Marine Green Lantern Corps.
So no, the Superman Red Son thing was way more cringe imho. :)
No, it was more “Blatsie can do anything because he is Blatman!” bullshit writing
No it was legitimately because Green Lantern literally wasn’t paying attention since he was either trying to guess if Batman was a vampire, and then was ragging on Batman for just being some guy in a bat suit.
And Bruce Wayne did spend years learning sleight of hand under Giovanni Zatara, one of the greatest magicians on the planet for stage magic (and he happened to also know actual magic as well). If you notice in the scene btw, Batman doesnt remove Hal’s ring until he’s right up next to him and NOT actively using it, while Hal is very obviously distracted by the realization that Batman is just a guy in a bat suit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTEKkSFtcJE
“I can’t bring my full speed or strength against him.”
At least read before commenting.
“At least read before commenting.”
I did read it. I’m pointing out that it’s unbelievably stupid BS.
If he retains some kind of stationary use of gravity strong enough to keep her away at super speed, then he is being too predictable, and she can use that.
If he does NOT do that, she can use super speed to get to him before his brain has time to react.
“Fast enough (and still strong enough) to catch bullets” is ***FAR FAR FAR*** faster than the reaction time of a normal brain. From across the room, she could be literally punching him in the kidneys (as I suggested) before his brain even noticed that she had moved.
It’s obviously the gravity field slowing her down. It’s nothing more complicated than that.
The Kerbal yaw ball sent me. This fight was just made for these visual gags.
Dang a super fight? When’s the last time we saw one of those?
8-9 comics ago.
Jiggawatt vs Perriwinkle Butt Sniffer
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1117-charge/
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1118-the-grate-escape/
And before that, 26 comics ago.
Anvil and the Lioness Pride vs the Garcons D’ors Gang.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1101-all-the-news-thats-fit-to-duck/
But if you mean MAXIMA vs another super, 50 panels ago (Comic #1077) – Maxima vs Darude, with Sydney giving her the win by getting rid of the sand in the desert.
Then before that there was the Ascenders vs ARCHON at ARCHON base, which ended 2 comics before Darude was beaten with the fight between X, Chimyriad, and Zephan vs the Ascender Telekinetic Sideburns Guy, then before that X and Chim vs some Goon Squads, then before that Goon Squad being beaten by pretty much every member of ARCHON, and before that Varia and Krona and Arianna vs the Heat Guy and some other Goon Squad members. There was also one single panel of Hiro fighting some other Ascender guy who was apparently allergic to wearing a shirt and shoes and had claws for climbing down walls.
I love how everybody in the comment section is using Maxima’s names for this guy instead of his chosen moniker.
How many and how small can he make those pockets of high-G?
This is critical info to know what strategies he can employ. What are his limits in number and strength of these pockets? Is there a combined maximum output, e.g. a thousand pinpricks at one end of the scale and a single car-sized kilo-G vortex at the other? Can he manifest them inside objects, e.g. someone’s skull, or only in open air?
Given Maxima’s nigh-impervious skin probably prevents him from manifesting one inside her, GG could really make some icky messes with other people he fights. Just making one near enough and with high enough strength could literally tear a normal human apart, and making one in the middle of a normal’s abdomen could squish them from the inside. And if he could form singularities…
Yeah she’s slipping up simply because this guy’s an asshole and it distracted her. Better yet, distract him so others can join in, this guy is a paper tiger, I doubt he’s be able to take a solid hit from anyone including Sydney.
I called him a Designated Idiot in a previous page for a reason.
Hey, Colonel… maybe you’re not the right person to fight this guy? Get Jiggawatt some smelling salts and bring her in. I very much doubt this Heavy wants to fight against something that can move at near light-speed.
Yeah, and see how flat he can make Jiggs?
Why do so many commentators want to see Archonites die in nasty ways?
I’m REALLY happy to see this. Maxima suffers from the same problem as Superman, her sheer power level limits the number of foes who can give her a credible challenge. This guy might not be like Vehemence, but he IS providing her with a legitimate obstacle to overcome.
Yeah, it’s admittedly nice when Maxima or any OP superhero has to actually strategize during a fight, as long as the strategy actually pays off (otherwise it’s frustrating to many of the readers). :)
Question: Are goldbeams affected by gravity?
Everything’s affected by gravity. Even light is affected by gravity. If Maxima’s beams AREN’T, it would be a first in the history of physics, and would be worth serious investigation.
More of a violation of physics than the amount of power packed into Max’s form?
This is a Super Power comic, making physics their bitch is the norm for pretty much the entire cast.
Classic physics is a limited subset of claims that are known to be false but useful. Newton’s Laws, for example, are a very useful approximation based upon an erroneous assumption of space having Euclidian geometry. Wrong, but a useful model.
Superpowers are a superset that add exceptions and asterisks+footnotes to classic physics.
However, Max’s beams are energy beams, thus obey the in-universe laws of energy beams, whatever those may be.
I’d expect her blasts have some kind of superion interlacing/tangling, rather than being boring old plasma or whatever. Recall at the press conference where her final shot went off in multiple stages, possibly under her conscious control of the timing, rather than being a single ‘boom’.
Sure light is affected by gravity, but you need a LOT of gravity for that.
A lot of gravity as in a black hole to deflect light a few degrees. There have been instances of black holes being discovered when they bent light from a distant object enough to make that object visible on Earth, something called gravitic lensing.
If I’m reading the motion lines in panel 2 right, SM did a complete 360 to punch her instead of just darting under her guard. He’s probably using gravity assist on himself for speed and power, but that’s still a very showy move instead of a utilitarian one. I’m thinking he’s done a lot of sparring while watching himself in the mirror, but has little or no experience in bar brawls or actual combat. Better to take the clean open shot instead of practicing your form on a move that’s showy but easy to block/dodge and no more effective.
Wow, he pulled off the M. Bison Stomp.
Plan B:
1) Make a gravity well.
2) Send it circling round Max’s head, at close range and high speed, until she throws up from induced motion sickness.
May not work on her – depends if her inner-ear hairs are as mighty as the rest of her, I guess.
Well. That just gave away his trick. It’s not a generalized field but a localized knot of gravity.
This is why you don’t show off in a fight.
plz plz please make him say “who’s the goomba now?” or make a mario sound when he jumps off.
I heard that sound against my will.
Yeah, he’s gonna take her to school like I thought. She’s gonna need an assist, ideally from Achilles and an invisible Dabbler (I assume she has an invisibility spell).
Dabbler’s with Sydney and Anvil assisting in Senegal.
Given her reaction in the last panel I’d say this guy is more annoying Max than inflicting any actual damage. He either underestimates her, overestimates himself, or is aiming for a war of attrition to wear her down, which would explain planning or assuming this would be a one on one fight and the rest of Archon hold back….another case of “if we can beat the main big hero it will demoralize the rest into retreat so we relocate after or never be bothered again.” Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this group ultimately either wants to be some new illuminati rule behind the scenes group or cause terror and try to start some apocalypse scenario to try and take over the world.
Alternately, and far more likely, this fight may be just a monetized diversion for the money people to get away.
So Suckhole appears to have a degree of toughness. Or at least I presume being able to go boots first into Maxima hard enough for her shield to feel it means that most mortals’ legs would snap in multiple places. Means that if Maxima does land a hit with only a single boost in strength and none in speed that she might not be able to damage him.
Interesting to note also that he doesn’t need to touch someone or something to use all of his gravity powers. It appears he can create a gravity anomaly in the air and draw things to it. He just needs to touch them if he wants to impact their personal gravity.
I’m not sure how much Maxima’s blasts are impacted by gravity, but a finger blast at his foot might work as long as she’s at a point she’s willing to take off legs like Dabbler did to Sciona. Heatwave could also get him at distance by simply increasing heat on him until he faints. If Stalwart can reduce his mass to 0 without being vulnerable then he could grapple him. Maxima might also be able to grapple or she simply needs to punch for the centre of his body so deviation of her fist hits his side, collarbone or hip.
Looks like Super Massive is channeling his inner M.Bison/Vega/Dictator
You are the only one to note that reference. He’s a street fighter fan we know this by the references he kept putting in. I thank you for understanding that reference.