Grrl Power #203 – Backhands and commands
I was tempted to call this page “Bitchslap. OF DOOM!” but I thought that might set me on an irrevocable path.
Keeping it non-lethal in a real superhero fight would be incredibly difficult. Super strength would be a particular offender. (Also any kind of energy beam.) Maxima made some assumptions about that guy before she casually backhanded him across the room. He’s big and muscular, but not obviously armored, yet she hit him hard enough to stop him dead in the air and even instantly reverse his trajectory, knocking him back 10 feet. A regular human /might/ have survived that, after all, you can see fail videos of people riding bikes into trees, doing backflips and landing on their face or neck, walking away from horrendous car wrecks… But – most likely if Max slapped a regular human out of freefall, they would die enormously. For now we can assume this guy was tough enough to survive with a smashed up jaw, a kinked up neck and a concussion. But that’s just it, if he had been tough enough to ignore getting hit by a car, Max’s bitch slap (which is surely this guy’s new nickname) would have knocked him back but barely caused him to blink otherwise. Estimating just the right amount of force to use against an unknown opponent in order to knock them out on the first hit would basically be impossible. A hero concerned with not killing anyone would start all their fights out with the most innocuous of taps and escalate slowly from there… Assuming he didn’t see bullets or cars bouncing off him or the baddie didn’t start the fight by announcing that he was Concrete Man, and the hero being the experienced guy he is knows roughly how tough concrete is.
Oh and don’t worry, the whole fight won’t be the good guys one shotting all the bad guys, but having the heroes dispense with some chaff makes the villains they can’t backhand across the room feel more threatening. Sort of a reverse Worf Effect I guess. Or… setting up for the Worf Effect? I don’t know.
This comic also debuts my first cameo for one of the people supporting the comic at the $50 level over at Patreon, Megan Durham. The options were “you or a character of yours” (keeping in mind that I’m not really a portrait artist.) But Megan presented me with an option I hadn’t considered, “you as a character.” If this tells you anything about my creative process, instead of “rebranding” one of my planned villains, I wound up coming up with a new one, which is our teal haired friend with the 6… things floating over her shoulders. Don’t worry her powers are entirely different from Halo’s. I rather like the powerset I came up with, and Megan will benefit from having her cameo extend for quite a few pages before meeting a suitably ignominious defeat. :) We’ll call her Dark Megan, or better yet, Hex! That way she can say stuff like “Hex yeah!” cause that’s what I do to people who give me money. Actually, so far all the people having their characters cameo as villains in this fight will get a few pages out of it, cause that’s how I roll, because seriously, $50 a month? That is way more than a cup of coffee.
I (and possibly some of the other comic creators in the final 4) chatted with the guys over at ComicMix and suggested it would be better if these final rounds got a bit of an extension from the original Friday-Sunday schedule when none of the comics in the bracket actually posted a new comic. This round now extends to Tuesday at midnight, the finals start on Wednesday and will extend I think through the end of the week, where any of the comics that might advance have another chance to promote the tournament in line with their regular posting schedule, so if you haven’t voted yet, I’d appreciate if you took a few minutes – seriously, open the ComicMix page in another tab then continue browsing for a few minutes, their page is really slow. While you’re waiting maybe you can check out Grrl Power’s competition in this bracket. We’re up against MonsterKind, which is quite nicely drawn. At the time I wrote this we’re ahead, but not by a huge margin, and they could rally. Remember, vote using the checkboxes under the brackets, not any of the links within the brackets.
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Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
How does that guy pick his nose with those hands?
The same way porcupines have sex. Very carefully.
I imagine him being able to turn it off and on again, but should that not be the case, yeah, very carefully
Hey, life is like a bed of roses…You just have to watch out for the pricks.
@Lydialeera
I’m gonna steal that one from you!
Go ahead & steal it. I stole it from someone else, so karma is served.
Ooops. I didn’t notice whose comment you were stealing at first. Even though I’ve also heard that porcupine joke before, feel free to steal my roses joke too.
Too bad we couldn’t get him to surrender. I was looking forward to the scene where he was ordered to “put your weapons down and raise your hands in the air”. I wanted to see how his brain would try to work out how to accomplish this order when he has claws that are bonded to his hands.
Like in that X-Men movie? But that cop soiled his panties when Wolvie got back up again and looked squarely at him :D
Yeah I loved that bit. Also when he was asked about his claws slicing out of his skin “Does that hurt?” he replied “Every time!”.
To be honest, the X-Men and assorted movies tick me off all the time, because they just got a real feel about it and how that world really is, how shitty people are treated.
In the given case how the hell could somebody drop weapons that are part of ones body?
The cop could clearly SEE that the blades came out right of the back of Logan`s hands; and Logan even tried to explain it calmly, before the totally freaking cop put a bullet in his head.
In some parts of America this is normal. There are a number of incidents where cops gun down mildly threatening people and are never questioned. Mississippi just passed a law that allows people to refuse service on religious grounds. Not really that far-fetched.
not just in America… such things happen all over the world.
I remember a quote, but can’t remember the source – something along the lines of “I don’t need to believe in the Devil – man is fully capable of every evil without it.”
I’m pretty sure that’s from Calvin & Hobbes. Hobbes said that mankind didn’t need the help being corrupted.
Mark Twain AKA Samuel Clemmons
Clemens actually. Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
When someone has a super-power in a movie or comic the creator has to find some way to show the audience how the power works.Unfortunately, when that power is regeneration, the character has to get hurt to demonstrate it (usually at every available opportunity). Dave even did a reference to this in a previous comic. I don’t remember the archive number.
What if the thing he’s best at is getting stabbed?
Actually in Noir version of Wolverine his claws weren’t part of his body. It was like brass knuckles with blades…
So a) cop thought that it was just some very elaborate weapon…
and b) he’s not wrong XD https://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/upload/public/docimages/Image/h/j/o/wolverine-claws-jackman_410.jpg
Actually, those hands are ENTIRELY the result of picking his nose.
Ooo Oooo, I know the answer to this one!
The answer is:
Once.
He didn’t pick his nose, that’s the one he was born with.
He rolls tissues up to make an excavating tool and uses them instead. Obviously.
Not just pick his nose, but got to the bathroom.
Very carefully and very thoroughly.
That is what girlfriends are for.
Would not be surprised at All if Deus put them up to this, he has the financial backing, location info and such.
5 Whacks and a few blasts later: ‘All done, get the med team in here’
* clicks for lightning effect* MUAHA??? Damn it it shut off again !! let me see now *click click* Rrrrr
*KRACKOWWWWW ( lightning effect)* MUAHAHAHA!!! Medics retrieve this filth MUAHAHAHA!
I think that superman actually /does/ essentially start with only the lightest of hits and works his way up in power against new people, hence the whole “world of cardboard” speech when he can finally go (pretty much) all out against someone. He’s so absurdly strong that if he didn’t heavily restrain himself he’d probably be pulverizing nearly all of his opponents with excessive force within seconds.
And I guess Gwen stacy was a case of accidentally using too much force, even if it was an attempt to catch her and save her life ;.;
Okay a) comics never addressed the issue if all Superman’s bodily fluids are excreted with the same force as his other abilities (hence Men of Steel Women of Kleenex idea and the lack of Superman Jr)
b) Gwen Stacy was already dead when Spider-man caught her, IF we take two things into an account – 1) She didn’t screamed when Goblin threw her. 2) Osborn himself admitted later (to other villians) that he killed her right in front of Spider-man, meaning that he pinned his greatest enemy under a humongous sense of guilt, for the Evulz. What better way for him to battle his enemy if not by breaking his spirit. Besides (unless it WAS retconned) Osborn killed Gwen because she was a threat to him (since she is mother of his children), not just because she was Spider-man’s girlfriend.
It has been stated by Stan the Man himself that the whiplash from Spidey’s web stopping her short in the air is what killed Gwen Stacy. Not Green Goblin.
https://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mat66tM6HJ1r95t24o1_500.png
Well and i was referring to this
https://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls260uCPai1qf8b5u.png
In any case it seems to make more sense that she was already dead.
Because it’s odd that physics SUDDENLY decided to work like they should in a comic book universe. =_=
Sure sure rule of drama…
It’s a case of Schroedinger’s continuity (aka comic books) both things are true.
Things are always true until you have observed their outcome and know which is false. I always have a winning lottery ticket until I check it.
so goblin broke her neck and she was dieing on her way down and the web did her in? mea that seems to work for me…
In this case, I don’t think they’re even conflicting views, really. Goblin *thinks* he killed her, maybe he did or maybe he only knocked her out, hence the lack of screaming, and either way, the web broke her neck.
What is it with comics that this sort of thing needs to happen anyway? Why does somebody important to the hero have to die before they’ll start taking things seriously? And wtf is wrong with Spidey that he needed that lesson more than once?!
i really do like this who killed Gwen talk because it means I can look up this guys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuVpwjYgvgg enjoy physics of Superheros Professor James Kakalios yeah he wrote a book on this stuff.
It’s not just comics. My family used to call it “Bonanza Syndrome”, after the old Western television series. Any woman who became engaged to or married a Cartwright was guaranteed to be dead by the end of the episode.
Sort of like practically any “unnamed crewman” in Star Trek or Galaxy Quest.
Besides the usual Idiot ball?
You know prior to Brand New day – Peter met One-Above-All and he told him to keep faith. He showed him a huge crowd of people that Spider-man saved. What he neglected to show him is amount of people that died =_= What ticks me about it is – Osborn killed the woman he loved, kill his newborn daughter, screwed his life a dozen times over, killed his clone/brother, killed a ridiculous number of people, tried to take over the government, executed terroristic acts all over, cashed in on Scrulls Invasion…
What does it take to send this guy to death row? I get it that some heroes including Spider-man are very unwilling to kill their Rogues but… What about government itself? When Kingpin pissed off Spider-man – he told him, not just threatened him, told him – if his aunt dies – so does he. And had hit-man killed or just shot MJ, he would’ve… Sure fan love Osborn, but c’mon…
Well, it would essentially come down to how the comics treat Superman, and other equivalents, sneezing (well, other things as well, but those aren’t usually shown in comics). If the only time they ever do it is the air explosion / sonic boom effect that they do occasionally for a gag, then yeah, Man of Steel / Woman of Kleenex probably applies. If he/they are able to reduce the force used for a relatively involuntary action that they can generally feel coming / anticipate, then the chances go up that they are able to do so at other times.
The Boys is a comic series that actually comes at the whole super-humans thing realistically, especially on the bodily fluids one. An actual thing that I read in one of their books: “cumshot exit wounds”
There is a short bit in Hancock where he blows a hole in his roof when he gets to the “Mountain-top”.
No it was when he caught her that her neck snapped. You can see it in the drawing. No doubts. In the film Spider-Man does it right in catching a falling person. In the comic he allowed the whip effect to do her in.
Well two of the obvious muscle bound morons made it in and out. Time to get serious. It seems Maxima doesn’t want to destroy their opposition yet. She will regret that later. You don’t want them getting up and coming after you again. Never again. Crush, kill and destroy.
So Maxima wants to go minimal up to maximal. This should be interesting.
Some did: The Pro (2002) – NSFW
Yeah, Supes has to be extremely careful, especially when he’s wearing his civilian guise. He can shred his suit to tatters simply by flexing his muscles. That kind of self-control takes real discipline.
what happenes if you kill 1 harem?
Two more take it’s place. Hail Hydra!
Does it works with breasts too?
You’ve seen Total Recall, right? How else do you think someone gets three breasts?
Enough to make me wish I had three hands..
That’s what your mouth is for :P
Since their brains are connected, it would, at the very least, cause extreme trauma to the rest
Nobody knows, and for obvious reasons they’re not willing to experiment. But there’s a line in the comic that I take to be an accurate statement of Harem’s abilities:
Anvil: And what happens when one of your spares shows up at the hearing and says “There! That’s the woman who killed me!”
What happens if one of Harem’s selves is killed? Hopefully DaveB will show us in the action to come.
Hopefully he DOESN’T, >:(
but my thought was that the other 4 would immediately keel over as if dead from a stroke or heart attack or something, but lacking the injury that caused the death, they’d all be savable if there was someone nearby to do CPR or something. Alternatively, they’d all just go into severe shock.
Or…. OR! They’d all turn green and hulky and smash the one who killed her.
“You’re making one of me dead…. you wouldn’t like me when one of me’s dead.”
I would imagine, that since she can delete bodies at will, the body that was killed would simply return to the energy pool that she keeps them in. She could be effectively immortal if one tried to kill her separately.
That is a very good explanation, and makes a lot of sense
The remaining copies shouldn’t even get the neural-feedback, an involuntary reflex yes (still say that the reaction to the Maximum Wedgie was simply an automatic reflex action rather than all 4 ‘felt’ it), a feeling of ‘lose’ (because an aspect of her is now irretrievably gone) but no physical, or even mental, ‘side-effects’
The question is: would the body remain? or would it *vorp* back to where it originally came from? or just ‘dissapate’ like Yoda did
The prior, I’d imagine. She would probably instinctively try to recover the energy from said body and wo9uld likely receive the corresponding strength and speed boost to her remaining bodies.
I`d say that it`s up to how DaveB refines Harem`s powers in the future.
For example:
Original-Harem is the basis or only one that actually CAN make a new copy or is the generator for the copies. Meaning that killing O-H could either make the copies vanish or simply unable to reproduce more copies.
If she is NOT the sole source of the copy-teleportation powers, then it will be very hard to actually make sure Harem`s existence is terminated (if the backlash from the experience of the one killed doesn`t take her out completely).
In any case, it would be a very traumatic experience at least with the distinct possibility that her mind and the rest of her bodies die simply from the experience of one of them biting it.
It’s been made pritty clear that there is no ‘original harem’
They are all ‘harem’
Yeah, all of Harem’s bodies are more mentally connected to each other than Jamie Madrox ever was with his duplicates.
Actually, the way it has been explained thus far, Daphne is the Original, the rest are Copies. Harem is able to absorb her copies and gets stronger when she does so. When all the copies are gone the one that remains is Daphne.
Daphne=Harem
Harem is her codename. Daphne her real name
They are all the copy, and all the original, depending on which version she choices to absorb
Daphne is able to create four copies of herself, so there are five bodies that make up Harem. The copies are customized in various ways, and when there is a need to refer to a specific one of the bodies, they have names based on how they were customized. There is the original, Vanilla Harem, and the four copies, “Vogue, Goth, Punk, and Co-Ed”.
When she absorbs all her copies, the body that remains is Vanilla Harem.
There is only one person, no matter how many bodies are currently out. Harem works something like a multi-core CPU. Each body has her own separate consciousness, but they all share the same memory, the same subconscious, the same ego, et cetera. She is able to perform five different tasks at the same time, but it is still just the one person.
Would it make a difference if Vanilla Harem was killed as opposed to Goth Harem? We don’t really know. Nothing DaveB has thus far said gives any indication. There does seem to be a distinction between the original and the copies though.
DaveB has stated that not even the Daphne’s are sure who is the ‘original’ Daphne, ‘Berry’ is simply the one that has had the least ‘modifications’ done to her
I missed that. Where does he say it?
Somewhere in the comments somewhere.
As I said, there is no original Harem
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/490/comment-page-2#comment-13945
“The strawberry blonde one (farmer’s daughter) is what she looks like without all the hair styling and crazy wardrobes. If any are “the original” it’s that one, but even she’s not sure, any version of her can be the last one standing, as it were, if she needs to de-teleport.”
Do you recall what happened to Triplicate Girl? When one died she became Duo Damsel. For her no more copies could be generated. However for Multi-Man in the Impossibles cartoon he lost his facsimiles all the time and didn’t hurt him only the original can be hurt or killed. So it depends on how these doubles are made and what they are made of.
How forget it? Loved that character.
“Jupiter Palladium” has an interesting version:
“Duplication Mentals have the ability to create copies of themselves … Duplicates can be harmed without hurting the original, but if the Mental were to come under any physical harm, the duplicates will mirror these injuries. If the Mental is rendered unconscious, the duplicates will disappear, as the concentration required to maintain them is broken.”
You can see it here and the next page.
way i see it, she will have shock but be hurt like a ghost pain in the rest of them. Since she is a collective mind, the main personality for the one that died would simply be re-absorbed then sent to a new form when she has the time to make one.
If the O-H is taken out the others may either continue business as usual, or
option B: her origonal form is rebuilt from the collective group concentrating on making one for her personality to be in. and then there’s
option C they all fall dead.
personal i like option B, it means they all have to go at once.
Of course there is a D option, and that is that there is another Harem that isn’t in this group.
She would be leading a normal life in Kentucky ( or if you prefer * ___random location here__* ) somewhere as the true origonal harem. Thus keeping herself safe and unnoticed allowing her to make copies of the other personaltys in her basement, and have them show up at work the next day.
Fairly sure that each ‘personality’ is unique, and built up over time: if the body did happen to be terminated, the personality would be lost as well, not just stored like a programme until a new ‘blank’ was created
Harem’s cast page: “She displays somewhat different personalities depending on which one you’re talking to, but this is an affectation as all the bodies are controlled by a single mind.”
Hmm well at least the least interesting ones are getting whupped straight out the bag so the more interesting ones can have some time to shine. Some of these do look pretty cool, I do hope they are recurring villains but doubtful. Also if there were originally 10 shadowed figures and one jumped down and two others were revealed why is there only one shadowed figure?
Possibly because some of them saw their bricks get manhandled like that and decided discretion was the better part of valor.
Not just taken out, but Anvil and Maxima took out what would appear the heavy hitters of the group so casually, the first with a nose boop, the second with a backhand without breaking even a bead of sweat.
Not sure if the blue-haired person in the first panel is male or female, but it looks like he or she is contemplating surrender and/or a different career path- and it wouldn’t surprise me if those same thoughts are running through the craniums of other group members.
“Not sure if the blue-haired person in the first panel is male or female”
Read author’s comments below comic.
Sure, have me figure it out the easy way.
At least one of them got caught in the blowback when blue-hair-brick came flying out. A few more may have decided that even if they are continuing the attack the roof isn’t a great place to stand as the building gets less and less structurally sound.
likely it is simply perspective plus the one girl gave an attack order so they went ” off camera ” jumping dropping or climbing down to attack. further the first guy that was nose booped took out the ” standing location” for the rest of his group on his exit from the resonant.
awwwww….. but i like lethal
You wouldn’t if you had to clean the mess up afterwards.
…Or was part of the mess that needs to *be* cleaned up…
To be honest, if I was one of the employees there that’s responsible for the cleanup after closing time, I’d start looking for another job.
Viscera Cleanup Detail.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/246900/
“What the f#$( am I doin’ in the back? You’re the motherf#$(er who should be on brain detail!”
That was among the funniest video-meta games I’ve ever seen or heard of – that’s awesome!
Really makes you think the next time you splatter some alian’s brains all over the carpet doesn’t it?
Hmmm…Doom 3 could use a crew like that for Mars City.
Hmm now that I think about it, is this sorta gonna be a mirror match battle or is it just gonna appear like that but in reality Arc is actually gonna be a competent strategist team that works the whole time to make the right match ups for victory. I’m just asking cause it looks like Kendo Chick might be a match up for Math, who I am very excited to see more of.
i’m guessing these are the lightweights that are all puffed up on ego and not a challenge… perhaps 2-3 of the 16 that showed up might be worth a fight, but i’m guessing between anvil and max they wont win. Of coarse we don’t know the powers of all the attackers so i could be wrong. I don’t believe they will do a ghost match. max tends to think strategically and would play to win.
“awwwww non-lethal but maximaaaaaa…” ::smacks:: the commander said non-lethal ” Shut up lap dog”
Non-lethal = prisoners to interrogate later.
If they can’t get around that minor problem, then they need to replace Zephan Zoeng, with a new defence against the dark arts master.
“Walks by whistling the imperial march.”
You don’t want DADA for that; that’s the Necromancy Professor.
Knowing Megan in real life, I was kind of amused that I recognized her from the drawing before I even got to the commentary section, so well done there.
And did you know the other one was a fan here? :P
Broney! Haha, I didn’t know you were a fan. We should chat!
He got you pretty well indeed :) Very nice character.
Wow, I’m impressed you recognized her. I shall pat myself on the back!
I just realized what this picture is missing.
Teeth. No seriously – Maxima knocked out several of this bloke’s teeth – where are they? Sure it’s bloodless carnage but daaaauym =( They’d fit right in one of the panels. =)
He could’ve lost them in some previous battle.
In the second panel he seems to have all of them.
Two meat walls down, lack of team tactics evident, the calculation of run vs surrender would begin in my mind. Technically at this point for everyone else there a quality lawyer could likely get them off lesser charges.
The upside of two “team” mates going Leeroy Jenkins that early is you get the option to back out gracefully.
I concur that anyone who starts walking away now…it’d be hard to make “party to superpowered mayhem” charges stick, especially since they were kind of just standing there.
But I think there’s little doubt that Arianna has already thought long and hard on ways she can make it stick.
Up to now, nobody has gotten a good look at the bad guys. Except us. So anyone sneaking out is unlikely to get in trouble unless the survivors turn them in.
This had better not be just all the heroes one shooting the bad guys. Otherwise this is going to be a very boring comic!
It won’t be. Though I never realized it before I had ever tried to draw a team on team fight in a comic (old ashcan type comics me and my friends would do) people usually go down in one hit or at least in one page, because otherwise a 10 person fight would take up 3/4 of the comic. So there will be some one shotting but there will definitely be some more comprehensive exchanges.
Kind of like how every fight in One Piece that isn’t over instantly takes 3-7 episodes?
Yeah I want to avoid both extremes.
Hopefully those guys were just the weaker links, and now the major players will be brought out.
Kind of struck me as obvious that such is the case. We just saw cameos of the likely contenders (The Fendora guy, the Cultist with the Gold Eyes, The Woman with the Baroque Mask, etc.) so unless one of the contenders is amongst this lot on a recon mission, the attackers here are the equivalent of the Victims of the Circle of 8 Killings going on in the current Marvel: Avengers Alliance Main Story.
maxima used backhand!
its super effective!!!
second blood moron fainted!
You forgot the ‘critical hit’ part XD
If I was fighting someone who announced himself as Concrete Man, I’d assume he really had the ability to walk through walls.
(Karl and Barbara Kesel’s classic Hawk and Dove. Damn I miss it.)
Is Meat Sack naked? Or wearing speedos?
Maybe he’s wearing shorts made of the same crystal stuff.
Crystals protecting the jewels…heh.
Well let’s hope not. (speaking for the straight males here) But if he is I demand equal time (and nudity) for women. :D
be cautious in your demands for equal time, as Dave has produced nude pics of female team members twice for Valentines (Harems’ Playboy spread, and Peggy’s centerfold)…
If he wants to draw male eye-candy I won’t complain… out loud. It’s his comic after all we just read and enjoy it. But most likely it will be available only in his gallery if he does much like the women.
well supers do like spandex. so its likely he has shorts or tidy whiteys on this is a pg comic after all
I’m betting on a kilt.
Hex sounds like she would be a counter to Gwen, not Sydney
Gwen is not part of the hero team, she’s intelligence.
Weren’t the Referenced by Mr. X as ARC-DARK?
Arc-Dark is blackops.
Gwen is Arc-light, intelligence and investigation
Am I the only one who thinks that Arc-Dark, if you’re looking for a slightly better name, could at least be switched Dark Arc? I could be wrong and that could sound equally stupid, but it’s just a thought.
Everything sounds better than Arc-Dark.
And Dark Arc actually sticks with the theme. The could even rebrand Arc Light to Light Arc, to keep those 2 the same.
So you have Archon, Arc SWAT, and light and dark Arc.
And ofcourse the Arc Burgers
Everybody loves the ArcBurger with Jalapeno and Cheese. Nobody can eat the ArcBurger Halo but the super it’s named for, but people keep trying (even when confronted with the release form).
Ok, for Crystal Hands there. How the ever-loving hell does he see? He’s got no pupils or irises to let light into his eyes and stimulate the photoreceptive rods and cones in the back of the eye. He shouldn’t be able to distinguish the exact position, or anything more than the general direction, of Maxima unless he has super hearing. Which I doubt due to him having rather normal looking ears on his muscle-bound and apparently naked body.
Dave, explanation please?
Maybe he has Riddick eyes?
Maybe it’s echolocation, like a bat? That could explain why he’s always yelling.
Maybe his rods/cones are on the outer surface of the eyes. That would allow for a wider field of (primarily motion-based) vision. The obvious downside would be vulnerability, but that’s mitigated by the Standard Supers Attributes Package(TM)
He could be wearing contact lenses.
He could have compound eyes like a fly (or the Gorn).
Also, maybe he sees through his jeweled hands. They could act like CCDs.
Really, it’s a supers comic, go with it.
He has the same color eyes as Storm when she’s using her powers. https://robertatkins.deviantart.com/art/X-Men-Month-Storm-Colored-257995098
I don’t really understand what’s going on in panel 3. His face deforming appears to indicate that he took one to the face, but what’s the thing to the left of his face which looks like a lit up buzz saw blade? And then it seems to appear again in panel 4, under his head.
The “lit up buzz saw blade” is an impact indicator. In panel 3 it’s in between the guy’s face and Maxima’s superspeed backhand. In panel 4 it’s him hitting the floor.
Have you seen pictures of jets breaking the sound barrier and the shock wave is a visible cloud? That’s what is happening there. Ol’ Glass Jaw is out for the duration.
Yes, I have. But I can also see the jet… To me this seemed like a completely out of the blue “Ultraman buzzsaw attack” (look it up if you never got to watch Ultraman), and was not tied to any identified person.
The similar effect below his head in panel 4 is more recognizable as being an effect from his head impacting the floor, but is this guy seriously taking damage from a fall? I thought he was supposed to be a super villain.
Look to the left of the impact indicator. See that gold blur? That’s Max’s hand.
Looks more like “lead-crystal jaw” to me…Hands made of crystal, but one smack on the jaw & he drops like a lead brick.
in all fairness, that one shot to the jaw would probably explode the skull of a normal human
Pannel 3 is Maxima’s face impacting at extreme velocity
You mean Maxima’s hand?
Hmm, interesting
Yes I do indeed. I wonder how I got that mixed up
Maxima may be the most powerful hero we’ve seen so far, but she isn’t a speedster. She isn’t the Flash, and her punch or slap should be visible.
I like the comic in general, but this I found to be awkwardly shown. If I have to ask what the buzz saw effect is, even though I am well aware that Maxima is stepping into the fight, then something has gone wrong.
Maxima actually is a speedster, it’s a significant contributor to her overall power level. Action is it’s own specific challenge and I will grant that I could have drawn that better, but the panel following is supposed to make what happened clear.
Totally not usable in the current situation, but it got me thinking of what combos Halo could come up with for her orbs in various scenarios. If she combined the Light Hook with the Flight orb she could build herself an actual working TRON light cycle.
I’m interested in whether the effects from her other orbs can pass through her shield. Because then if she could, she would be able to just walk around the battlefield clobbering bad-guys with Lighthook and PPO. I also wonder if she could lift herself up with Lighthook at the same time, allowing her to fly and attack without having to change orbs. Unless Lighthook only lets her move objects in relation to herself, so then she could only stand on the pseudopod tentacle and not move anywhere. But then I suppose she could make it into a floating bridge to walk across.
as she demonstrated in the ballroom, the lighthook does materialize outside the shield
That was not actually showed: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/515
hmm… you’re right NotFred. I stand corrected.
oh, and Happy Unbirthday.
Well, I do not meant that she not demostrated it, just we do not saw it hence we can’t be sure :)
Oh my, unthank you :)
i figure when she levels up a bit more there will be a notch she can use to let her use 3-4 at one time as long as they are near her hand ( holding 2 in one hand or having them float around the one hand closely rather then touching it )
I’d be surprised if you didn’t consider a bird (maybe an Eagle) flown into scene and screaming “Hell Yeah!” right before the Blue Haired gal goes, “Umm guys, where’d that bird come from?” :)
But being your comic I’m sure you’ve thought of better.
What? To me it sounds like you’re hoping to see someone pull out a Falcon Punch?
I’m just waiting to see Peggy start to kneecapping the ones foolish enough to silhouette themselves by standing on the peak of the roof.
Is it just me or did Hex have a mohawk in the last comic. I’m pretty sure I have the right person with the floating lights and all. If it is a mistake do I get a cookie?
I see what you mean, but it looks like its from the wind. The woman to her left has her hair being blown towards the right. Hex looks to have relatively short hair, so can’t get the whole windswept..thing. Least not to the extent of the other person
Here’s my GUESS at what’s going on: someone sent this collection of nitwits out to test and identify ARC-Swat’s REAL powers, not just the ones that were demonstrated during the news conference. So, I expect to see a lot of potentially interesting super-villians falling all over themselves in the next few pages.
Warming up the popcorn, already.
And after that, more villain heads (double meaning!) saying “Excellent…” and “All according to plan…” and “…ooh, I forgot the cake in the oven!”
Yeah, the real question is “why”. Why attack these supers, particularly when they just went on all the major news media to announce themselves…
I’m betting that someone’s actually doing this as a distraction, and that Leon’s having a digital visitor in his network right about now…
What I’m wondering is how a villian team was put together so quickly since this is all still just the first day… It would tend to indicate it is Deus since that type of thing would require an inside person…
It would behoove them to find out who can do what first before attacking. I hope hidden cameras are doing facial recognition soft ware analysis on the shadow figures as they pump their pusses via night vision filter to ARC-SWAT etc. The sooner the better.
Arc-SWAT first trophy is going to be a necklace out of villains teeth.
Not gonna lie, if a cape charging me was practically naked, I would assume they’re probably pretty durable. Actually, anyone going to a supers fight and not wearing armor I would assume is pretty durable.
That’s kind of what I though, or maybe Max is thinking that if you are charging a super with no armor and aren’t durable, you deserve to be injured. What I mean is, if you walk in front of a train, you get what you deserve.
$10 says he isn’t wearing pants at all.
It’s obvious that he’s night invulnerable (although still somewhat vulnerable to Max, judging by the bruising and missing teeth) – if his tactic is throwing himself at the enemy, shirtless, after another guy just got taken out while doing approximately the same thing, then he’s either invulnerable, or would have died a long time ago.
It seems that Arc Light has a monopoly on physical force, so the other villains better have something more clever, or they won’t get more than a page each.
It’s “nigh”.
And i think he’s wearing swim trunks, with no bulge. ‘Roid rage amirite?
There could be three reasons, he might be stronger and more durable than the previous guy (hence him trying to Crowd Surfing on Maxima) Thinking: I’m stronger and i won’t be offhanded by some golden chick.
He could be an idiot.
Or he’s a berserk gladiator, with body insecurities.
He might be a murderer, rapist and a streaker.
Kendo Heart and… Aqua Flare? along with their naked behemoth friend Rock Candy. Trust them, if he offers you his swizzle stick Say No!
(read comments, Hex is a far awesomer name for the blue haired gal.)
Also, suggesting “Heartbreaker” for the blonde with the shinai.
+1
I’m guessing Hex is actually recording events with floating eyeballs, for later analysis
Couldn’t Halo help with evacuating the civilians, just but up a shield to cover the civilians and usher them to a safe distance.
I’m also wondering if Hex is reconsidering her roll in attacking the super heroes.
For this guy you have to keep a major fact in mind that`s even more totally embarassing.
1, Max didn`t evne look at him when she bitch-slapped him.
2. Max actually bitch-slapped him.
3. Max bitch-slapped him RIGHT OUT OF THE AIR!
That means he got stopped right in his attack, without even being allowed to land on the ground; if that`s not an embarassing combination for a super-villain, I dunno what would.
As bricks go he was half-baked. And the other half brick is laying out in the parking lot.
‘As bricks go he was half-baked’. So I guess his official character name is ‘Adobe’ ?
+1
+2
oh no… so next, I suppose since he jumped down into combat from the roof, that would make him Adobe, Acrobat
Yep, that really has to hurt in the pride.
I mean, dude, he doesn’t even have a chance to touche the ground before getting K.O.ed by a bitch-slap by a woman.
What will the other guys in supervillain-prison say?
Hello Dolly.
We can be reasonably sure of one thing that WILL happen.
Namely math trying to flirt up the female villains, or at least smei-trying to use the fighting as an excuse to cop a feel or two.
Female villain: “I want to file a complaint. I’ve been violated!”
Maxima: “You were apprehended attacking Arc-SWAT. You deserve to be arrested.”
Female villain: “Well, just keep that guy away from me.” *indicates Math*
Maxima: “…I’ll get the complaint form.”
Offhand, I would guess that the most likely candidate to take a course in Higher Maths has already been shown. Something tells me the lady on the left of Panel 1 has officially gotten his attention. She’s clearly in the ‘How the hell are supers so attractive?’ zone, and almost certainly has some martial arts skill, otherwise she wouldn’t even think about bringing a shinai into the fight. If that doesn’t get Math’s attention, nothing will.
Judging by the current intellectual standards of these villains, your making a big assumption when you say that she must know how to use the weapon she’s holding.
Still, I get your point.
The 2 ladys look intelligent enough.
For one, they don’t jump into a group of Supers looking for glory.
And the blonde one even looks half like she’s formulating sort of a plan
more telling it looks like Meg-alith was not entirely a willing participant in this gathering supers idea. (drug along by heartbreaker?)
Just noticed Maxima’s shirt says “With Great Power comes Great Responsibility” in Latin. Very nice!
Wow, I would never have noticed that. Thanks for pointing that out!
Originally it was different:
It seems DaveB made up his mind.
I really don’t get why superheroes are so concerned about avoiding lethal combat. For once I’m agreeing with Maxima’s actions: she eliminated a threat, and directed the team in a manner that’ll reduce civilian causalities and collateral damage. If she was too concerned about not hurting the enemy, then he’ll just continue being a threat.
Now I know what you’re thinking: “But Gray! Superheroes have a code NOT to kill! They’re better than the villains!”
Okay, is it wrong for a police officer to use lethal force to protect himself, the public, or a fellow police officer? No, it would actually be expected or encouraged. If an officer is faced with an offender who is armed and dangerous then I really would hope that he would use any resource necessary to protect either myself or someone I love.
These villains are far more dangerous than some thug who’s pulling a piece to try and rob a store or mug a civilian. The big guy that attacked Maxima even openly declared intent. If he dies as a result then so be it. Put him down and focus on protecting innocent life.
I’m A Gray Phantom, and I have opinions on the internet.
It’s not really that they try not to kill them, it’s more that they don’t try to kill them.
So they will prefere to knock them out over killing them, but will still kill them if that’s the only choice
Several reasons.
1.) It’s easier to interrogate a live captive than a corpse.
2.) The public is much more likely to support heroes that show restraint, even if they risk their lives in the process.
3.) Going for the kill should be a last resort, an act to take when no other options are available. If that’s the FIRST thing a hero does, that hero will either become a Knight Templar or One Who Hunts Monsters. Neither of those is desirable.
4.) Maxima said “if possible.” Should any of these clowns start using energy beams or the like, it’s the same as pulling a loaded gun or a knife. The gloves come off and it’s time to get dangerous.
Superheroes avoid using lethal force for a lot of reasons.
The primary reason is because killing people is morally wrong. This is a basic tenet of Western Civilization. It is wrong to kill. There are situations when killing may be required, but even then it is not a good act.
A somewhat genre savvy reason is to prevent escalation. Supers on both sides of the moral fence understand that if one side gets too kill happy, both sides will. This will change the dynamic from “occasional super battles” to “All out war”, and nobody wants that. This is why even the most vile of villains in mainstream comic books does not typically kill people in large batches.
A more practical reason has to do with society and how people perceive superheroes. For the most part superheroes are vigilantes, and they break a lot of laws doing what they do. Society tolerates this because it is recognized that the normal police could not handle your typical supervillain. That tolerance wears thin if the hero uses lethal force. It becomes difficult to be sure which side of the moral divide a super is on when they go around killing people.
One of the interesting differences between how society sees superheroes and law enforcement is that the police can get away with killing more easily than superheroes can. The police have a chain of command they have to answer to, and they are known to receive training in when lethal force is and is not warranted. This makes the public more willing to accept it when the cops gun someone down.
It should be noted that the police -are- expected to keep things non-lethal if possible. In cases where a police officer uses lethal force, there will be an investigation held to determine if it was justified. A cop who gets too kill happy can lose their badge. The police are expected to offer the chance to surrender, and to attempt to capture rather than kill.
That’s all so cutely naive. Go look up actually instances of obvious police brutality and questionable killings, then see how many of those officers face any actual punishment, then come back.
Of course, what you’re saying is the theory of how it’s supposed to work, and that so many people blieve it actually DOES work that way is why they can get away with so much.
As to why super heroes don’t kill, there’s really only one SANE reason: making good villains is hard on the writer, so they don’t want to kill them off. Almost every other reason is stupid and/or insane, at least when used on the same individual more than once. Once is fair, if reasonably possible, as long as they aren’t obviously trying to kill anyone.
(That said, “stop them, and if the stopping also kills them, well, bummer” is OK, while “make sure that they end up dead from how you stop them” is clearly a bit more grey area.)
Well, it’s all about balance. Police say “put down the weapon”, not “DIE CRIMINAL SCUM”! Sure, you return fire if they attack first, but going in all guns blazing is generally not how law enforcement works (note the use of the word generally). After all, if you try to take people alive, they’re far more likely to cooperate.
So Arc light are going to beat these people up, but will at least attempt to take them alive, because there are good reasons to not go around tearing people apart.
Seeing as the villains in this comic aren’t actually targeting the general public yet, there’s no reason to use more force than necessary.
(Emphasis added)
Note a complete lack of any reference to “actual punishment in A Gray Phantom‘s statement. Thus your response is a straw man argument.
There actually was a federal investigation conducted to investigate the the Portland, Oregon police due to their treatment of the mentally ill. It’s seen results, I can assure you (I’m with the Stabilization and Crisis Unit).
But every other point you’ve brought up I’ve already discussed in my original post. I’d rather risk a bad reputation than risk myself, an innocent civilian, an ally, or an opportunity to interrogate. All that comes second, especially reputation, in order to protect innocent life.
Oops, my first paragraph wasn’t finished. I meant to type that: I can assure you there’ve been a number of positive changes.
One positive change is that tasers are being phased out; a mental health expert is being assigned to each squad, and language used is being changed.
Please don’t call me naive. You’re making this discussion personal and you don’t know anything about me.
Er… I think Deoxy was calling TheARCmage naive, not you.
You will keep the complain likewise I guess.
While he may have been targeting somebody else, it still looked to me like Deoxy was being deliberately provocative, and just as A Gray Phantom described, making it personal. Kudos for calling it out.
Yes. That’s why my second phrase was for.
I have the feeling that you are mixing real and comic worlds.
This isn’t a brawl to decide who rules the world and who dies… This is a group of ruffians looking for a fight. The friendlies, through training, already know the Rules of Engagement. Declaring loudly ‘no killing if you can help it’ at the start of the fight is not saying much to your own forces. Saying it where the attackers can hear it, sets a tone of ‘no life is at risk unless you make a stupid move’ for the attackers. Now, they can respect that tone and suffer few if any fatal injuries or permament harm…. Or they can throw those rules out and suffer the consequences.
Is that guy naked?
Did anybody else see the story on the CBS news last night about the Navy working on putting Rail Gun technology on their ships? They did not mention if their technical advisor was a tattooed blond woman.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/navys-newest-weapon-kills-at-seven-times-the-speed-of-sound/
https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/us-navy-unveils-high-speed-rail-gun/
P.S. another article said the project manager is named John Cochran. We are all expecting really good things from his great-grandson Zefram.
Yeah, did notice that, but didn’t actually check the article
A thought about an interesting combination of powers for Sydney. We saw clearly with her shield that force striking the shield is not transmitted through to her and does not cause her to move. If she’s got the flight orb and the shield orb both going at the same time, and a 747 ran into her, presumably the shield would protect her from any effects, which means the 747 would take all the impact and likely be destroyed. So far, so good. But what’s the limit? If she was flying along and ran into a sheer cliff face, would the shield smash a hole into the cliff for her to prevent her from suffering terminal acceleration? Or does the shield perhaps have some helpful ‘inertial dampening’ functions?
I’m rooting for ‘The shield means that a Sydney in motion will remain in motion regardless of external forces.’ Because then we can see Sydney running around the battlefield using those two to pretend she’s Mario, ‘jumping’ on the villains with the flight orb and powerslamming them into the ground thanks to the shield.
Veto!
That wouldn´t be funny, just rediculous.
What pretty supervillains they all are.
What? You thought the Super-sexification only worked on the ‘heroes‘? o_O
Congratulations! Grrl Power is No. 1! Well, in the semifinals at least.
I just wanted to thank you, Dave, for answering my question right in your comment.
One-Hitting each Villain may portray the heroes in a good light, but unfortunately also in a very boring one.
Don´t get me wrong, every “self-made” Universe should have it´s “Strongest Wo/Man alive” (mine does too), and it schould always be a hero (otherwise the lifecycle of the Heroes would be questionable at best), but even if the heroes will ultimately win, the should at least have their work cut out for them.
So the second runner up in the smart guys department commits suicide. For those that have read the Discworld books you understand the reference to the Ankh-MorPork Shades a part of town that if you go into willing at night the watch writes up your death as suicide. I can see the coroner now
Coroner: “This one attacked Maxima?”
CSI: “Yeah Doc that one attacked Maxima.”
Coroner: “Well cause of death is clearly a suicide”
CSI: “But Doc she hit him.”
Doc: “Yup thats what I said suicide.”