Grrl Power #243 – Taking all comers
Jiggawatt’s telebot (arc jump?) is her big hit, but it’s also sort of a high commitment attack, especially against an unknown like (FWT)Death Toll. Punching him sure doesn’t work. It’s not clear if she saw him zap Anvil either, otherwise she might not have tried to lightning him.
Some people in the comments are starting to piece Death Toll together, and this page will obviously fuel more speculation. We’ll see if the team figures it out before Sydney does.
Part of doing this comic involves tapping in to my nerd knowledge to drop in some pop culture nods or sneak in an obtuse reference to something. I’ve put in references everything from Thundercats and Krull to Invader Zim and Phineas and Ferb. Keeping my nerd cred current can be a bit tricky. I can watch Netflix or whatever while I draw, since that’s 90% listening and glancing occasionally at the screen when some actor says “look at this amazing thing which you have to see to understand and which I’m not going to describe verbally!” I am a bit down on my anime consumption since most of it is subbed and I can’t draw and read subtitles at the same time. The most recent thing I’ve watched is the first 8-12 episodes of Attack on Titan, since from about a year ago you couldn’t go anywhere on the internet without seeing some reference to it. Cartoons in general, even if they’re in English (dubbed or native) are harder to watch while I draw cause they tend to move along faster than sitcoms or other long form TV shows like your CSIs and Person of Interest or whatever, and that makes me glance up at the TV more often which slows me down.
I play about 10% as much video games as I used to as well, which is fine since most everything is sequels or remakes these days. I’ve played all of an hour of Minecraft, but that’s all you really need in order to get it. I don’t like MMOs because of the heavy time requirements, also the total lack of player agency. It’s hard to feel like you’ve accomplished anything when the boss you just beat respawns 15 seconds later and on your way back to town you pass 30 people on their way to kill the same guy. Nope, give me single player, co-op single player, or straight up multiplayer, deathmatch and fighting games and the like.
Most recently I made the mistake of installing DOTA2, since I had never played a MOBA before. I get why it’s so popular now, so mission accomplished, but holy crap am I awful at it. One game I played ended with almost everyone on my team being twice my level. I know, there’s a lot to learn and there are a million guides and early game tutorials out there, but again like with MMOs, the time commitment would be enormous. I’m glad I played it, the game world seems like an environment Dabbler would be comfortable in. I could totally see a Dabbler hero in it, but I may have to uninstall it before it sucks up any more of my time.
Comic was broke but now it’s fixed. I’m just testing the admin function really.
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Oh no. Sydney’s thinking – this guy is toast.
Not just thinking! Head-tilt thinking! He’s REALLY done for.
When she reaches 32.7 degrees, duck and cover.
If she suddenly whi p s off her glasses and says, “I got it”, or “By God” duck and cover. Preferably in another state.
Also, “Eureka!” or a simple “AHA!” should be considered fair warning to grab your packet and run.
This is gonna be G-O-O-D.
Agreed: I get the feeling that this part of the cast page is about to come into play:
I bet we have a week.
“…than the power’s owner…”? Sudden realization: could this perchance mean that one of the unknown orbs has the ability to mimic powers.
No, it just means she could do a better job of using the powers if she had them (like how Emma Frost was able to do things with Bobby’s body that never occured to him… and that sounds extremely sordid :P)
And she can then describe the power stunt to the person with the power, who can then do it.
Arc standard issue uniform is basically a mic and earpiece, after all… (And she already has that in place.)
Yeah, that’s pretty much the next thought that came to me. She’s already a Swiss Army Knife of powers, so giving her the ability to mimic more of them would be way over the top.
Bad move Jiggawatt. Always launch a regular lightning bolt before commiting to the big thing
She has shown an impulsive nature. And a tendency to hit hard.
Like in panel 8 :P
Yep. Total victory or catastrophic defeat. She is gonna be fun.
I cannot help but think FWTDT draws his power from his gauntlets.
Or at least he needs to use his hands.
But then notice he has the same designs on his boots as well. Perhaps they act in tandem and he’s using theatrical hand movements to draw attention away from the real problem?
That he is actually standing on his hands? o_O
That would explain his FAAACE!
death toll is basically has the mirror reverse thing going on he doesnt copy the power but has your weakness like you throw a rock he uses paper
That’s what I think too.
I know Dave, the author, has played the HEROES role-playing game. The system has this neat ability called “find weakness.” Batman would totally have this ability. Upon use, whatever you used “find weakness” on bas its defense cut in half for you. (Unless you shout at a teammate, “Hit him in the ‘BLANK.'”)
It’s a super-great skill to have, and surprisingly not many buy it.
But there’s one perfect counter to it that is actually pretty cheap to pick up. It’s also something Batman would have. It’s called “lack of weakness.” Makes you immune to “find weakness.”
I don’t know if Death Toll has “lack of weakness,” but he definitely seems to have the perfect counter to everything. Everything that’s an attack. Clearly the team needs to stop attacking him.
When you encounter an enemy who you can’t defeat, like an immortal for example, all you can do is hope to contain him. A mundane cage might actually be the only thing that could hold Death Toll back. An energy shield might be absorbed him, so that wouldn’t be recommended.
…
And Halo was right before. This guy is a huge dork. (But I still really, really like him and hope he becomes a reoccurring character. I can see him just showing up on missions as the comic’s Protoman, having extremely ambiguous alliances whilst influencing things according to his own agenda ^_^♡.)
I like the idea of “find weakness” but then the question becomes does he decide on how to exploit the weakness or does the ability automatically provide the counter? Countering fire with ice and electricity with conductive metal seem obvious weaknesses. But countering grapple with electric shock seems like one of several possible counters that could have been applied.
Holo-Sydney seems like the perfect assailant. She has no weaknesses for Death Toll to counter so his power would fail which would be a very interesting experiment.
The other option would be to hit him with an attack he can’t see coming. That could be his one weakness. He has to be able to perceive or at least guess the nature of the incoming attack.
Maybe he should have named himself riposte.
He didn’t see the Hex-beams until after they were absorbed
An indirect attack might be effective as well- draining all the oxygen or heat from the air surrounding him and thereby causing him to suffocate or freeze, for example.
The only problem with that is that Riposte isn’t phrasic.
Names that indicate a retaliatory power aren’t a great idea when you actually want people to attack you.
Maybe it’s supposed to be in reference to his witty banter.
So it would be a bad idea to tell him that he fights like a dairy farmer?
Only if you want to milk that insult for all that it’s worth.
Since he’s a dork, he could also have taken the name Hard Counter, but that would give his ability away too quickly.
You mean Hero System, aka Champions?
Yes. Best system ever, albeit a tad complicated.
I don’t think that its simply “finding” the opponents weakness, because that would mean he needed an insane variety of abilities additionally to the one he already demonstrated since he didn’t really exploit weaknesses but counter it with opposing abilities.
My guess is that he has the power to borrow an opponents ability in reverse.
That said, one of his potential weaknesses my already have been shown.
1. If it is based on copying he might have trouble dealing with two opponents who are immune against their comrads opposing powers, since he probably can’t invert clone two abilities simultanously. Thats probably also why Stalwarts ability wasn’t really undone and TWTDT charged Jiggawatt through him instead.
2. He switched from deflecting super-powers to deflecting magic and back. I take that to mean that he doesn’t invert copy an opponent whole but attack-wise. Multiple simultaneous but different attacks therefore might do the trick as well.
3. HALO’s powers appear to be outside the scope of “super” or “magic” and even “muta-genetic”. I wonder if TWTDT is able to copy and undo her type of abilities.
4. Technology based attacks might be hard to invert copy as well. Since he appears to have natural super-strenght as well, getting something throught still would be a challenge though.
Soooo….hit him with a defense? They need to beat him to death with a shield!
so.. Beat him to death with Achilles?
Paraphrased from The Mortal Instruments series:
Person: The holy fire in your blood is the only way to kill him. Not even our best weapons can truly harm him.
Hero: I have no clue how to control the holy fire! What do you suggest? Using me as a club?!
Hmm…clearly strong power absorption that also includes negation of what’s about to hit him…my guess is you’d have to distract him with one and have something else really, really tough hit him before he can react to it. Like have him think Dabbler’s zapping him and then Max goes in for the mini-nuke before he can see it go off.
Or, two opposing attacks – e.g. Lightning and “Darkning”, except Jiggs is out of it now.
Or, just wrap him in a cable/chain (or lighthook, if he can’t aborb that) and bypass his power altogether.
Let’s see if the snipers can peg him. If they can. he can only absorb/redirect powers OR he has to focus on what he’s redirecting.
I see what you did there…
(seeing how the sniper’s name is PEG-gy)
So, his power is to counter whatever comes at him?
He’s Wobbuffet!
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Wobbuffet_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29
+1! I love that little guy!
Wobbuffet! ‘>_<(\
Wobboffet has reflection, this guy has the Nemesis power, he evolves to power to counter the powers directed at him, but usually, this only works against one super being at a time, so a double team should work.
The guy seems to act as a capacitor for powers: absorb, store and release. The good new is it looks like he can store without disrupting (bad for transformative elementals) or merging them Maxima’s tank popper trick + whatever else he absorbed/absorbs = bad.
NO, he counters powers. See where Dabbler fires a fireball and he counters with cold? He’ll evolve a power just to counter the person he’s fighting. Just not sure how he’d deal with multiple opponents attacking him at the same time instead of one at a time. That was the weakness of Nemesis or Trump characters in the RPG and comics.
That ciounter ould just as easilybe explained if he had absorbed an ice blast at some point in the past and is using it now.
Maybe he’s able to store powers that have been used on him before? We saw him deflect Jiggawat’s lightning before, and it’s possible he blocked some stray ice around the time Dabbler took out Heaven Sword.
Sydney’s encyclopedic knowledge of comicbook superpowers means she is the chosen one in this battle.
Not the Chosen One, just the Field Commander
I am still going with them just having to ignore Death Toll while they clean up the other guys. Up till now it looks like he only reacted to attacks aimed at him. Even the ice projection could be something only usable as a counter to fire/heath based attacks.
As he seems to have no offensive capability without being attacked that seems a possible short term solution. But they have to take him down soon.
Do they? He hasn’t actually done anything wrong. But if you really want to stop him, all you have to do is teleport a giant, heavy cage around him.
Yeah, I’m kinda weirded out about this. Anvil just wanted to arrest him for standing there, he has just stood up for himself.
I mean sure, he has a nice evil overlord act, but he hasn’t done anything wrong! Yet they are shooting lightning and fireballs at the guy.
I’m not sure I support this superhero group.(Well with Maxima in charge I definitely don’t.)
Actually in situations where open conflict is ongoing the police can arrest bystanders who haven’t left the area. Generally a request to leave the area is used, before escalating to arrests.
This is often done for both officer and civilian safety.
In FWTDT case he’s has been seen associating with Atomic Bombshell while she’s been actively using lethal force. When confronted he stated he was here with the intent to fight and wouldn’t surrender. In context with the situation there is just cause to arrest him. His lack of active participation gained him the offer of a peaceful surrender.
Are you really suggesting that dumb-toll is the ‘good guy’ in this altercation? Um… “hasn’t done anything wrong!” I think you’re missing the planet, continent, forest, and the trees and focusing on the bark beetle then making an absolute statement about climate based on a leg movement.
Dumb-toll is no bystander. He allied with, arrived with baddies, and joined in an attack. He’s at least an accessory to the assault of a law enforcement team, if not attempted murder, and destruction of private property. (Whether you’d call that terrorism or not, I don’t know.) Dunce-toll not only resisted arrest but he took out the arresting officer. “Self defense” is not an option after resisting lawful arrest. His intent is clearly to attack. His powers seem defensive, and so that’s the role he’s taken, but he’s not passive in this by any means. At best he’s passive-aggressive in his attack.
Personally, I want to see them throw Achilles at dumb-troll.
Talking about looking for things you want to see: we never saw him arrive, and he never ‘joined in an attack’
Head-lock holds is an illegal action, and not authorised for police personal to use as a takedown measure (posted a link to a case where someone died from it either somewhere in these comments or the last page)
He refused to comply with a legal order to surrender. Even assuming that he doesn’t know they are legit, his proper response would have been to demand to see i.d. rather than obliquely threaten Anvil.
Although you weren’t trying to, I think you just came up with the best alternate character name for this guy: “Passive Aggressive”. He can only use force when he is attacked.
(He also leaves his dirty dishes in the sink and refuses to take out the garbage, but that is another story)
…and he’ never been able to keep a steady girlfriend because he leaves the toilet seat up.
He was seen suggesting targets to other members of the villain side of the super brawl. That’s arguably ‘aiding and abetting’ or ‘criminal conspiracy’. He wasn’t doing NOTHING, he just wasn’t actively attacking. They’ve easily got grounds to bring him in under RICO laws if nothing else.
If he’s a capacitor like it looks like, he still has at least Anvil’s kinetics and Hex’s laser up his sleeve. Who knows what else he absorbed before.
Sidney could start to provoke him verbally (or otherwise, like throwing garbage at him) to let him start attacking. I think nobody is as good at it as her (well, maybee Spiderman…)! As long as he is attacked, he seems quite unbeatable. So I’d start to get him into actively attacking. That’s the first step. The second step would be to provoke him, so that he looses his calm and analysing composure. Attacking in rage he would eventually reveal some of his weaknesses (the first would be, to let himself provoke). For Sidney the great challenge would be, to not let herself getting carried away with her mockery.
I think it’s too late to simply ignore him. That opportunity passed. But it would look funny, if the ARC-team would suddenly cease their attacks, surround him and just stare at him unmovingly…
And if he didn’t have a defense beforehand, ARCHON activately provoking him to attack so they can take him down would be a Defense Ari would turncoat for
1) Get the mask, it doesn’t change when the rest of him does!
2) It looks like his power is to turn into the nemesis of whatever power is used against him. Something tells me the best bet is for everyone to stop using powered attacks and let Peggy take him out with an old-fashioned bullet to the brainpan.
Except they’re still restricted to non-lethal.
And FWTDT powers may counter bullets too, turning him bulletproof.
They just need to arrest him, basically. With a net and handcuffs. If there are no powers thrown at him, he’s got nothing.
Wouldn’t a gas weapon work just fine? Surely Dabbler must have one and once it is used she (or Gwen) can crate a forcefield around him. Even if he moves quickly to counter the forcefield chances are he will have to inhale the gas.
Not necessarily true. Earlier someone knocked through the building came at him and he deflected them aside. That was simple kinetic force. So odds are he could do the same to a bullet or gas. I’d be interested to see if there was anything he could do to Achilles. Let the unstoppable mullet tackle him.
By DaveB, yes, by orders, no, Maxima’s exact orders were non-lethal if possible. DaveB is actively trying to avoid having people killed as it create the mood he doesn’t want in the story.
1) Good eye. His powers might be coming from the mask, like how Halo’s powers come from her orbs. Someone should make a grab for it.
2) Assuming he can only counter superpowers, and I freely admit that’s purely an assumption at this point, a 100% Pure Normal Human with a decent grounding in martial arts could subdue him. All the muscle in the world doesn’t mean anything when you’re in a proper joint lock.
To bad Math is already down
Maxima, Harem and all the army guys in the team (Stalwart, Hiro, Shawn) have martial art training too. Not as good as Math, tho, but still high enough to kick the shit out of non-super without using their own superpowers.
They use super powers to give them strenght though. So if DT’s power is to counter other powers, that’d give him something to counter.
Shawn maybe, I don’t think he has powers
that doesn’t really apply to Maxima
in theory she has something like a constant number of Power Points but can distribute those to her liking so she has no perfect counter (she can completely drain a power of hers, making a counter of that power not only meaningless but also dangerous)
she has not only flight but also possible superflight, so she can probably stop instantly and has a 0-Inch punch/push (super durability, superflight, superstrenght)
No she can’t completely drain one of her powers
Her base level is 3 in all her powers, and she can boost 2 of those to 4, or 1 of those to 5
Cast Page:”In extreme cases she can even draw against her other abilities to “max out” an attribute”
but let’s assume she can’t ( don’t wanna argue)
but there still is the problem that DT shouldn’t have unlimited power
I think he also has a system like Maxima (but in his case he absolutely focuses on a defensive/counter distribution)
so Maxima feints with let’s say maxed out strength but switches to flight (instant stop) and then to beam thereby catching DT flatfooted
That does not apply to Shawn nor the other “Space Marines”. They can attack him in hand to hand, once FWTDT has used up all the other powers he has stored.
That’s assuming he hasn’t taken the time to learn mundane unarmed combat
He may still be able to counter a direct attack – maybe the best option is to have someone like Achilles taunt him into attacking them, instead of giving him some attack to counter.
That, or keep his attention focused while someone sneaks up on him and slaps handcuffs on him?
The invincible dude without attacks taunting the perfect counter guy without attacks into attacking him.
That’s going to end in them just staring at eachother for a full day
Keeps him out of the way while the other two bad guys are dealt with!
Anvil tried to punch him, in the previous page, and I’d say that’s old fashion ‘martial arts’. Don’t think that’s gonna work, or like RobK said, they got super powers that change their bodies, so if they come in contact, you’re just gonna get ‘one shot’ like Anvil.
That kinetic attack from a bullet wouldn’t work. Death Toll has a very specific power set by the look of it. No direct attacks will work. This means you have to use indirect attacks. My first choice would be to take out the ground under his feet. Maybe hit the ground around him in a force field trapping him in one location and then ionize it cutting off his oxygen long enough to get him to pass out. The critical problem though is he’s an absorption type villain. and apparently he can convert all energy based attacks into counter attacks. This also means that he would have an absorption limit which means if you hit him with multiple attacks at the same time this could overload his power and take him out as well. That problem with that is figuring out how much energy he can manipulate at once. Two alone however wouldn’t be enough to do it, and currently the martial artist member of their team, whom might actually have a chance was knocked out wasn’t he? in his case he could turn the force of an attack against the user of that attack so he might be able to use Death Toll’s own attacks against him. Now by creating the ice Death Toll also shows that he not only absorbs attacks but he can also redirect and change the energy after he absorbs it. Also the initial kinetic attack from Anvil, in point of fact he absorbed the kinetic assault, then sent it back as what looked like an electrical attack to me stunning, and dropping Anvil. Because of this the force field idea might not work unless you can create a null gravity in the force field and trap him in the exact center of the bubble unable to touch the sides of it. At least that’s how I see it, which means your limited to indirect attacks like taking the ground out below him or blasting him with everyone in the group who can all at once and overloading his power base.
… adopting your idea and continuing my list …
05. Indirect attacks; ( no super / magic ) going directly for the kill.
06. Attacks not involving super / magic ( by a human like Math, for instance ).
07. Paradox attacks; things that can not be invert copied ( within turning / causing a paradox / contradiction ).
08. Maxing out TWTDT; he probably has a upper limit regarding the strenght he can use for his nullifying / opposing / inverting defense, so they might be an attack thats simply too strong for him.
09. Blinding him / diverting his attention / using a feint. He probably has to focus on the attack directed at him so that he can counter it. If his attention / perception is impaired, his ability should loose effect.
10. Multiple effect attacks: It is possible that he might have trouble invert copying attacks that have multiple and in their nature different effects, such as a sonic attack that includes projectiles, or a plasma attack containing enough metal to include lightning.
I must say, TWTDT has a long list of possible weaknesses.
Compared to that, HALO’s 2 weaknesses are close to nothing.
unless of course he can copy and redirect the energy that comes at him into other forms. He could be purposely choosing the energy types that he uses in reaction.
I wonder what would Sydney see if she used truesight orb on FWTDT, who knows, maybe that dot gives additional insights?.
Also FWTDT power looks in a way like Aikido, he redirects attacks or counters them with opposites (what I cant wrap my head around is that one time he whacked concretia into the ground which may indicate super strenght or kinetic energy redirection, also one of Hex`s beams hit him right in the hip without any effect apart from weird light reflexes.) I wonder how many attacks at once can he redirect/counter?
If Sydney forcefield can keep him in, and nobody comes up with anythingbetter, then they may actually opt for starving him out (at least to the point where he collapses, I bet Arianna could make it into attraction “See live supervillain in his natural habitat, for only 1,99!” Live feed could also be profitable.)
she already did that
Not exactly.
While she was holding her truesight/telepresence orb while looking at DT (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1422), the version that was looking at DT was her telepresence clone.
And we know from here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/660 that her telepresence clone does not have the truesight.
So depending on where the real version was looking, she may have checked him out with truesight, but she may also have not
It’s funny how people just keep asuming that Sydney can form a forcefield around someone else. Nowhere have we had any indication that she’s able to do that
Not yet, anyway. She might need to level up that orb a few times before that becomes available.
Bigger point for this situation: Sydney is still an untrained civilian, for all intents and purposes. If she moves her shield around someone else then she isn’t shielded, and there are still other attackers.
This also applies if she tries to put the shield around them with her in it: She’s then inside the shield with a hostile force, and she has nearly zero combat training (I’ll count the advice from Math and Maxima, because I’m generous), while everyone else here appears to have had at least some practice using their powers in a combat situation.
If she lowers her shield, she’s either likely to get injured, or likely to become a hostage. Or both. Any use of her shield has to account for her remaining alone inside it.
the issue here is in syd’s shield he is alone with syd, so if he stores attacks he has an unknown offensive potential with a untrained and soft target, but if he counters forces used against him the shield is non-offensive provoking no response and syd has no power of her own to counter. he may have a level of super strength and or toughness not from stored power / the counter power but syd has ways to counter direct physical attacks (holosyd, fly away, her unique fighting style) until he tires out.
“…nearly zero combat training…”
Well, a person doesn’t really have to be combat *trained* to be effective. Even before coming into contact with anyone from ARCHON, Sydney has already displayed her “Kung Shoe” on https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/149, the effects of her Dragon Breath Power, Tongue Fu & 7-10 Split Technique back in the bank (all on https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/241). there are also several instances scattered around the comic so far where Sydney has Mentally Stunned individuals & small groups of people (with her cursing). and this was all BEFORE Sydney got recruited!
But even as awesome as Sydney IS, think of how much MORE effective she’ll be AFTER training…The mind boggles…
Did he just turned himself into cooper?Looks like he always has the perfect defense for a attack and looses that defense when someone else attacks.Maybe two people should try to hit him at the same time,prefareable two people where the defense for one attack is a weakness for the other.
[Insert slot machine ringing here]
Or just throw something at him. He can’t drain the superpower out of a block of cement.
Pretty much what happened when Concretia was lobbed at him. I originally thought he was an energy drainer or power absorber (or both) myself but it looks like he has his own power source but can only attack those who attack him in some kind of direct reaction. Whatever it does must be mostly handled by the power itself cause if he could choose how his power manifests 100% of the time he would have attack earlier just to get things going (he was clearly very happy they started attacking him ).
Well, Math threw Concretia at him and that didn’t work…
Concretia has a power, which he could drain and use to throw her with.
So you’re saying he can convert the power he absorbs into something else?
It’s what he’s been demonstrated to do, with the exception of the electrical jolt that he gave Anvil when she tried to put him in a headlock. He takes a power to use against someone, and he can counteract a power when it’s used against him.
So…attack him without a power.
His suit changed as he absorbed Jiggawatt. I wonder if there is a limit to that or if different types of energy are anathema to it (why else would he block Dabbler’s fire attack instead of absorbing that too?).
Not just his suit. His face turned copper too. Probably due to copper’s high conductivity. I wonder why not silver, since it have even lower resistance?
Gold has an even lowers resistance, but it’s more likely to get him melted down and sold by his friends ^_~
Nah, he’d counter that too somehow. Probably by turning into living stone and shooting an ice beam at their smelter.
Gold is below copper in conductivity. Using Copper as the standard gold is 71% conductive and silver is 106% of copper conductive, Aluminum is fourth on the list of common conductors. The reason gold is used is because it does not tarnish (oxidize) or create a high resistance connection. Therefore gold is used on circuit board connectors. If aluminum conductors are used in high current connections an anti-oxidant grease should be used.
Also, gold wires can be stretched very thin and still be conductive and not brittle, so able to withstand some rough handling by machines and clumsy humans.
The thinness of the metal has no affect on its conductivity. it has an affect on its capacity to carry a current and that is in turn related to its resistance and its ability to handle heat. The brittleness of a metal has to do with its composition not with its thickness.
Gold is a soft metal(ductile), not quite as soft as lead unless I’m misremembering. its density and value are the reasons we don’t have gold wires.
The conductivity of a metal is measured in Amps/area (like cm^2). Thinner wires mean lower maximum current, all other things being equal. Gold is used in electronics because it 1) is a good conductor, unlike lead which is only a moderate conductor, 2) it can be stretched very thing (<1mm) without becoming brittle, unlike silver and even copper and 3) gold can be very corrosion resistant; gold is used as a coating on some conductors when it is likely that the conductors will be exposed to corrosive environments. Cost is the main reason gold is not used in many more applications, like house wiring. Density would also make it a less desired choice; how much weight does an electrician want to be hauling around?
I wonder what, if anything, would a faraday cage do to him. Or see if he responds to magnetic fields at all.
He would probably use HeatWave’s powers to melt it.
His defense is based on invert copying an attack by its nature.
To oppose an energy surge, you need an energy sink.
For Anvil who can store and release kinetic energy, he gained to ability to drain kinetic energy.
For Jiggawatt who is electrity impersonated, he became a capacitator ( hollow metal object ) which is the impersonation of a sink / storage of electrical powers.
As for Dabbler, she thru a fire-speel, which essentially is pure elemental fire, and with its opposing nature being elemental water, naturally thats what DT would counter it with.
Have Mr Invulnerable grapple him. Since he’s not giving off any energy he might be the perfect attacker.
Either that or have Sydney stick him inside of her force bubble while she is outside.
Otherwise I would suggest tear gas. He hasn’t shown immunity to that yet.
Two problems: Les’ invulnerablity coems from his power, DT may be able to absorb/syphon that, and Sydney currently has to remain inside her shield
Personally, I’d ask Dabbler to remove oxygen from arond him. Doubt he can conter that!
possible, but given that Dabbler has ADHD and that removing something from a given space requires extreme concentration that would only be possible if Dabbler is in hyperfocus
sadly hyperfocus can’t be triggered voluntarily (at least for humans)
Some people, particularly those with things like ADHD and/or autistic spectrum disorders, can semi-voluntarily trigger states of hyperfocus if they feel something is important or interesting. The problem from my experience anyway is getting back from that state.
Magic item involved me think
I think Death Toll is a much better name for him :)
Well it’s been established that he’s a dork, and he’s currently trolling them so… Dork Troll…
…Or maybe even Derp Vader?
Ok that guy officially goes into my list of cool dudes. For now listed under “chaotic neutral”.
Also I give a 90% chance for it being Deus.
With Deus having at least the “Flying Brick” set of powers and with a high propability of super intelligence.
He has gathered Information about the team beforehand (he wouldn’t even need Harem to do that – a TV would be enough, at least for the knowledge he seems to display right now) and equipped himself with devices that help him counter the ARC-teams powers that he can’t counter with his own abilities.
I’m not sure about how he defeated Anvil, but this right here looks like he used some utility of his suit to counter Jiggawatts assault.
I don’t believe that man is Deus. What about Mr’ Tingles back in # 105? Where is he in all of this if he is supposedly keeping tabs on Dabbler?
I would assume that he’s probably somewhere hidden still keeping tabs on Dabbler? Him suddenly popping up every time the team got into a fight would seem to blow the whole idea behind being covert.
Im not 100% sure its deus, but I think the mindset and behavior would match pretty nicely.
But I am pretty sure he is not “X”. (Mr. Tingles sounds like a cat)
For Whom The Death Tolls has a lot broader shoulders.
FWTDT is definitely built like a super so it’s a safe bet any primary powers he has are his own whatever their nature.
Deus does have a similar build, chin and hamminess to FWTDT, so while we can’t say it’s him for sure we can’t dismiss him either.
X is definitely not built like a super. His shoulders are similar to Zephan Zoeng’s (the team’s demonologist who is in possession of unusual items) and I estimate X’s height at around 5’6″-5’7″ based on when he stood next to Maxima which would definitely make him short for a super (Hell, he’d be a bit short for a normal at that height). I suspect he’s just incredibly skilled and has some pretty impressive toys.
Or maybe X is, infact, female
If X is, it’s still not a super build. It’s less of one in fact. No chesticles.
Well, so far he seems able to counter all powers thrown directly at him, though not entirely – zapping Anvil was his only own direct power use so far.
However, just using kinetic attacks (aka “crowbar to the cranium” style) might not work either – earlier, he deflected a bad guy flying at him with his hands as well.
Interestingly enough, everything, bar aforementioned lightning, seems to come from or via his gauntlents, but denying him those probably won’t help either – one would get to take them off of him first, and that is unlikely to happen.
I guess indirect energy projection (aka “I set your surroundings on fire”) or denial (aka “like the ice age I made just for you?”) could work, one would guess he is still human with human limitations (overheating/hypothermia would still probably take him out of the fight, if not permanently).
There’s also the possibility of good old “casual” immobilisation, but since it is probably nigh impossible to get shackles on him, I guess the best approach there would be about a ton of fast drying concrete.
Did I forget anything?
He might’ve picked up that small charge during Jiggawatt’s entrance attack, or from Glowbug. Just kept it around for a brief tazer in case someone went for the grapple, rather than a full absorb like he did here.
I remember at some point during the battle he shrugged off an arc of electricity. It happened so casually that I don’t think anyone noticed.
Huh, I thought it looked like she missed because of problems she was having at the time.
Yeah, she missed because she couldn’t focus for the ringing in the ears
He got hit by the Buster Buddies when Meg went spaz. That could be the energy he’s releasing there.
They need to go up against him with something that has no inherent defense. Just get someone to challenge him to a game of Rock Paper Scissors.
Given the maniacal laughter, I think he’s new to his powers. He’s reading like an akira.
Assuming he’s using some sort of absorb/reflect/react power, it’s quite possible this is the first time he’s ever been able to use it to this level – he’s feeding off the attacks, and there probably hasn’t been a superpower brawl like this one in the history of this world.
So, not new to the powers in general, but new to being able to use them at this level – he’s never had the chance before.
Here’s a thought.
DT might just be a “Remote body” for someone else, possibly fedora, who pointed Death Toll out, possibly to get people to attack him/it.
Either Death Toll’s some sort of solid illusion/power vacuum. or some sort of golem animated by someone’s channeled energy?
That is a disturbing thought. If that is the golem – ONE golem – what powers could the being wield that created it?
Death toll being a golem doesn’t imediately mean someone can make multiples, it might take whoever is making it serious focus to “Channel” the golem, so to speak. and, if it truely is fedora, in which case, brilliant work, having Death Toll be so shiny and distracting while Fedora dude himself is just a dude in a suit with eye marks. This also explains the “Multitasking” comment, if that’s the case
Fedora is both controlling his own physical body and Death Tool then. This’d explain why he got all hammy all of a sudden, Fedora shifted focus from talking as himself to talking as Death Toll.
I like how Halo is full stoic Vulcan in the face of death toll’s high pwn count. A full badass contemplation.
I think we just saw the real suit DT wears. It is shifting to counter attack. Ice vs fire, Drain vs kinetic or energy. He can counter punch hard. But he must be attacked. If Jiggs had thrown a lightning bolt, the suit would have the same reaction. Just like Hex’s beams.
Agree the mask is a key. Maybe if the rig is magic it is the artifact doing the work. In fact the variety of counters DT has used make me think magic item.
Really starting to like the DTs, unfortunately, after this fight, he will never be seen again
If it is Deus, I could see him trying to come back every now and then with new and improved versions of the costume which, like Wile E. Coyote’s ideas, don’t work any better than the first time. Because he “deserves” to be on top.
I just think that he can use the superpowers of any super within X meters of him. That’s why he’s standing and watching. He learns who has what powers and how to use them. He doesn’t have Halo’s powers because they belong to the orbs not to her.
Noone in the fight has used Ice powers so far.
So instead of copying actual powers, he instead just creates the perfect counter (ice stops a fire ball. Sucks all the energy out of it)
One of the villains did though I bet he’s over in the “nappy time” pile if I remember right.
There doesn’t seem to be anyone around him with ice powers (like he uses in panel 2).
He is a perfect deny-er of powers that come at him.
There was a villain using ice powers just a few feet away from him. Said villain is unconcious now. So my theory still holds. But considering that Toll’s costume keeps changing in relation to power usage, it might be the costume that has the power instead of Toll himself. Will be interesting to get the whole story…hopefully before 2015.
Does Stalwart have a neckband of some sort?
He should but he wasn’t wearing it to dinner.
And he doesn’t have a choker like the ladies (and Math)
Actually I do not recall him wearing one ever :)
BTW Hiro’s one is missing at some panels of #230 (and #231 as Messenger already pointed out), and Jiggawatt’s one changed form the early blue-above-yellow-below to the other way since #228.
Really Kopy Kraut again… https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/48
I wonder if that makes OmniGal (without as much cleavage)?
He seems to be like Darwin from X-men First Class, the ability to adapt to any direct assault upon him. That being said what happens if you drop something on him like a car?
Goose did it long before that movie
If you tried to drop a car on him, he’d deflect it with a backhand. We’ve seen him do the same to one of the villains Math knocked out of the restaurant.
One of the earliest opponents of the Fantastic Four was also the ULTIMATE “Darwin”…
…of course, I refer to “The Impossible Man”:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_Man]
…AKA – Marvel’s version of DC’s “Mr.Mxyzptlk”:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Mxyzptlk]
I love ith how the tactic goggles give the location or direction of the other team members – including five Harems.
I didn’t even link those 2.
I was already wondering why those symbols were on the edge of the pannel.
Seems like those glasses could be a team vulnerability since they come off so easy.
That is what a sprts strap is for.
Should be one hell of a strap with possible speedster/strength combos running about.
Think they need glasses that can recognize their retina patterns or something and turn off if the wrong person looks through them cause it gives away team information as well as enemy.
Methinks, one could just walk up to him and just pull off the mask should that be the item giving voice to the powers of Death Tolls. A near miss type had him as “Death Trolls”…. man good thing i caught that one or it would sound some thing like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z4m4lnjxkY
I don’t see how the mask is being held to his face. Granted the hood could be hiding it but it could also be fused to his face. In that case, pulling it off could be — messy.
Dr. Doom messy?
Well, even though Doom’s mask isn’t attached to his face, per se, the face under the mask is already messy…mask or no mask.
Minor art-inconsistancy: if those were Anvil’s glasses Jiggs picked up, the left lens should be missing completely, not just cracked
Also, panel 2 has “Energy Leach” as a power (it should be leech).
They also should list more stuff but maybe the tech guys have a theory about the lightning he used that led them to hold of on listing it?
Probably Brook’s, maybe Amorphous’, even Achilles’.
The more i see of DT, the more i suspect he also has some kind of reaction-time enhancing ability, or maybe even limited precog. So far he has been able to swat rapidly moving body of villain, intercepted several ranged attacks (including what is esentialy a lightningbolt) and caught several punches with seeming ease. True, there seems to be a “get the drop” moment with Anvil getting a grapple on him, but that seems more like DT _letting_ her get that hold because he can´t be bothered to dodge it.
Hit him with two or more continuous attacks and see how he fares. Typically nemesis or “anti” powers are limited to one power at a time.
I am getting Emerl vibes
“Direct Attack not recommended”
Let’s attack him directly in the most literal sense
at least Dabbler had the right Idea of attacking him with a projectile
Here’s a thought. A force field is actually a terrific weapon when you or something runs into it at high speeds… Try using the flight orb and bludgeoning him into the ground with your force field Sydney.
I think there was a Bob&George Comic that points out the problem here: where does the power go?
given that DT can assumably counter an ability he has figured out he could make himself a perfectly anchored individual who distributes all force to the point(s) where he touches Halos shield or he could overpower the flyorb/ redirect her directional force to the side
Wouldn’t work. We’ve already seen him counter attacks like that. He’d probably summon a superior shield and Halo would just bounce away in another direction.
You know what really impresses me about this hero? That his name seems to have no relation to his powers. This means he is, to some extent, far more capable than most of these villains who wear their powes right on their sleeve. Goofy name aside, he might be just as aware of his tropes as Halo.
As of last comic my money was on him being abe to induce entropy (bringing things down to their lowest energy state) along with a smattering of standard strength and speed buffs, giving him immunity to nearly any attack on the physical plane.
Do we have a psychic in the house? That’s my suggestion. Stop attacking on any physical level and try the metaphysical level.
Gwen is the team’s psychic (or something to that effect).
I hadn’t thought of it, but now that you point it out, very few physical power supers have any mental powers, so a mind attack would probably work pretty well.
I bet the mask counters that
Or he’d counter it by summoning a Magneto helmet.
ot the hood can do that
He can’t be immune to everything. That would get boring quick. Even Achilled has weaknesses. Namely putting half a ton of rubble on him. For Whom the Death Tolls needs a weakness to remain interesting. Even Maxima had limits.
you still haven’t figured out that he always had time to react?
I think a silent OHKO from behind would drop him
Give Peggy her shot. Then focus on less “hey let’s dog pile the countermaster” and try something less direct.
The sign of irrationality is trying the same thing multiple times and expect a different result
I assume you mean the chokehold from Anvil as a OHKO from behind
Answer: Yes, it is essentialy a OHKO, but only in the sense that it is one technique and not one hit (or it is a delayed hit, whatever you prefere, so he interrupted her casting)
I think he showed his weakness earlier. He’s sensitive to criticism about his name. He always stops and tries to explain and gets defensive. Let Sydney at him and taunt him into a blind rage so that he attacks and loses the benefit of his reactionary powers.
Right now they are all just mindlessly attacking him.
This is one of the final bosses. They need to use their brains to beat him, rather than their powers.
His weakness is probably in not having any offencive powers. So far he hasn’t done anything but counter other people’s attacks.
Not having ANY offencive powers is a pritty significant weakness, IF your enemy knows about it. Right now, Sydney is the only one who has a chance at figuring it out (as she’s the only one who realizes she needs to think to beat him)
His name is incredibly annoying, it causes everyone to want to attack him, the name even annoys his own teammates. And since Death Toll’s ability seems to react to attacks against him anything that encourages people to attack him without forethought is a benefit for him.
If Death Toll chose his name to hide his ability and to cause people to trigger it, he is craftier then he’s been letting on.
I think his best next move would be to take his victory , give a flashy one liner and get Opal to make an artful exit be for Halo gets her trope-shot in.
Hands down, he gets all the victory points and would be the most acredited villain to show up. And all the Internet acclaim on here.
However, I don’t think he chose the name to annoy people. Given how defensive he seemed to get when Anvil mentioned it was the worst name ever, his “phrasic portmanteau” comment to BA, and that he chooses to wear a cowl because it makes him look imperious, I’m guessing he thought people would be impressed by it. I’m also guessing that might be part of his downfall if Sydney figures that out and puts some heavy aggro into mocking him about it. “‘For Whom the Death Tolls’? Yeah, right! More like ‘For Whom the Dork Tools'”
In the immortal words of Captain Brian Arsala of the Washington DC Special Crimes Unit, “If I had the power to walk through walls, I’d call myself Concrete-Man.”
perhaps he as an absolute limit in which he has to pay a cost or a toll if you will…
He’s absorbed kinetic energy, absorbed and used electric energy, and used an ice blast.
I think he may be a combination of Rogue and Bishop. Rogue for a time could also keep all copied powers in memory and use them later. So he could just have the copy ability in memory, but he’s a bad guy so he likely has a bit more of a higher power level, though with Dabbler, Max and Halo, it might be less than higher power level and just enough to keep them busy.
Though he was attacked first, I don’t recall any badges being thrown around, here’s a new government agency in which many people probably still haven’t heard of and he has a good case for a jury to put all the blame on Arc Swat.
Being the criminal mastermind he can then come out as gay, and really put Arc Swat through the political/media ringer.
I highly doubt they’d need to show paperwork before arresting someone in the middle of a warzone
I said badges, not paper work. :p It’s also the difference between guilty and not guilty. :p
hmm so the gloves are “perfect counter”/power nullifier/absorber (as far as we know), the hood is an electric defense I wonder what the rest is
If nothing else, he needs to be arrested for his poor costume design.
Agreed. His costume is it’s own portmanteau. Iron Man’s color scheme, and the rest seems to be a combination of Magneto, Dr Doom and Skelator. Maybe he should be called Eye Strain Sore. Same formula as his current name.
The sad thing about his costume is how much the color scheme improved after he absorbed Jiggawatt.
His color scheme and costume design are very similar to that of Dr. Strange, right down to the gold trim on the red cape (which, BTW, is missing in today’s update)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dr_Strange_by_Steve_Ditko.jpg
Perhaps, but now imagine the Dr. Strange costume with the light blue and the yellow reversed. Ugh.
Hmm.
I would have thought ArcSWAT would prioritize recovering Anvil over kicking Death Toll’s face in.
I mean, an unconscious agent is hostage/human shield material, and you would think covering fire would be laid down so the agent can be retrieved.
I guess that’s something to cover in their debrief.
It’s been what, 2 seconds since Anvil got hammered? Give them time to get their act together
If you do not know what your foes power is and they seem to be knocking down your heavy hitters one at a time, most leaders would prioritize defeating the target. It is like they teach you in emergency services/first aid; You neutralize the situation first, before jumping in. That way you do not become another casualty. Halo is probably the only person to notice so far that DT is pure defence/counter and thus would not be too worried about getting schooled by going near him.
Zack Tilly!
Right now I’m thinking the best weapon to use against this guy is an airlock to space….
He’d counter it by summoning Frieza’s ability to breathe in space.
And now I’m lost *googles*
Or Batman’s.
Like how everyone’s shown in panel 2 relative to the user of the headset.
I play DotA 2, too. And I’ve only been playing it casually for less than a year (it sounds like a long time but compared to some people it’s really not) and I’m decent at coaching on the basics. If you like the game and want to have a little help or you just want to play for fun hit me up.
Deepbluediver is also the name I use for STEAM, and I’ll look up my friend-ID code thing when I get home.
P.S. This offer goes for anyone else as well.
Part of me wants to take you up on it, and part of me wants to uninstall the game, cause like I said it’s mostly about the time commitment. I think the game will just sit in indecision limbo for now.
I would say don’t get too discouraged. Jo Pereira (the artist who draws NerfNow and a long time DOTA player) says when you start out the matchmaking teams you with people as bad (inexperienced) as you so all the talk of how bad you are is basically garbage. He did a comic about it.
https://www.nerfnow.com/comic/1363
I’m pretty casual myself; I don’t play every day or even every week sometimes. And the Trench-tier can be frustrating at times- no doubt about it. But playing with friends makes it about 100 times better IMO. At the worst, if the rest of your team is feeders and assholes you’ve got at least 1 person to back you up and laugh about it with.
So, if you want to friend me, AND you happen to see me online, AND want to do a game or two, hit me up. It doesn’t even have to be for intense coaching- just for fun. I’ll answer whatever questions of yours that I can, and then direct you to more knowledgeable people.
As promised, my ID is 105440366. You can use it by clicking on button of a person with the “+” symbol in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen, on the top of the “Friends” tab.
@ Gamesman
NerfNow is actually what encouraged me to try DotA in the first place. Which is ironic, because I think he makes TF2 look like way more fun than I ever had with THAT game.