Grrl Power #245 – Operation angry muppet
Lightstorm is one of those things that I set up early in the fight and it kept getting pushed further and further until I finally found a place for it. In its original form, it was Harem finding a cluster of tough villains and dumping a dozen flashbangs on them all at once, then the team dogpiles them while they’re still staggered. I wound up having Max supply the flash and the bang when she knocked Hex from the sky, but this use of the tactic is still valid. Sydney took Math’s lesson to heart and was thinking several moves ahead here. She’s trying to verify what she suspects Death Toll’s powers are, and while a lot of you have figured it out already, she doesn’t want to commit her teammates to anything before she’s at least tested her theory. She didn’t think for a second the flashbangs would do anything, but it made a good cover for sticking the googly eyes on him. It’s weird, he mostly looks like a guy with googly eyes on his mask, but then if you look at him just right, he does look like a scary muppet.
I wanted Sydney to say something funny as her operation activation phrase, so my first thought was “go” in German. Google translate spit out a bunch of options, one of which was “Aufgebraucht werden” A more thorough examination of the phrase seems to indicate that it more closely means “to be depleted” or “to go and deplete.” I’m sure there’s at least one reader who can clarify the phrase, but the non-sequiterness actually makes it more perfect for Sydney. Other than knowing how to curse and a few phrases from video games (meine lieben!) she doesn’t know German, but she probably thinks she knows a few words based on some cursory googling. Plus, I just like the idea of Sydney randomly screaming semi-sensical German.
#MakeComics: Thirteen panels on a page. How not to draw a comic right here folks. Scott McCloud would be rolling in his… well, he’s not dead, so I’ll say Segway. In a normal comic that would be 2 pages of content at least, but I have this need to make each page its own semi-self contained scene. It’s a better read if you’re keeping up with the comic as it’s posted, though I am a bit worried it will make the book rather dense feeling. More bang for your buck I suppose. Probably should have made this a double pager but too late now.
<— If you enjoy the comic, consider supporting it via Patreon so I can continue to food. Or buy something via the Amazon referral link.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
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.
So… I didn’t see that coming o_0…
I suppose she’s going to test the, “His powers are in his mask!”, theory. He might have to remove the mask to remove the googly eyes, and then they can attack him.
Which is a dumb plan. The only hint that his mask is special was when he transformed and absorbed Jiggawatt. This is incredibly farfetched, but within the realm of Halo-logic.
I was full-on suspecting that Harem was going to build a cage around him…
But now I’m wondering if a cage is would stop him… if his power is to counter any foe, and he can bat away a heavy body being thrown at him, and knock Hiro to the ground, then why couldn’t he counter a cage? My original assessment was because the cage isn’t hitting him, but now I’m realizing that’s a slight fallacy…
If I punched a brick wall, I’d break every bone in my hand. That’s because of the force the wall is exerting on my hand, rather than my hand exerting force on the wall. These are the laws of motion as perceived by Isaac Newton.
But what if Death Toll punched a brick wall? If he’s all about perfectly countering any attack, then would the force exerted by the wall into DT’s fist be considered an attack?
This is highly speculative, as we haven’t confirmed DT’s powers yet; I await the next page with baited breath.
His powers (and their limits) MIGHT have more to do with his psychology than basic physics. Just a thought.
well since he’s been countering exclusively it probably has to be external force(he can’t dish it out but he can take it like an obese at an all you can eat) so odds are it would be like anyone else punching a brick wall.
>..<'
wow it ate most of my post, ignore the parenthesized stuff in my original comment, wasn’t filtering my thoughts before typing.
I rather expect that Sydney was testing that his power is Nemesis rather than the mask thing.
He’s only been countering direct attacks aimed at himself. Never actions or attacks aimed at anyone else.
My guess has changed, and I now reckon he’s an eejit who’s lucked into picking up an artefact of perfect counters to direct attacks (the mask), but either (a) he never bothered to pick himself up some ordinance to go along with it (just think how much more attention he’d have got from the team earlier if he’d been carrying and using some kind of big gun), or (b) it doesn’t work if he attacks first.
Not true, Paddy. I believe he’s actually shrugged off a laser beam that bounced off Halo’s shield, and he wasn’t even paying attention. That’s not a direct attack… so this implies his power is persistent and involuntary.
I’d say incoming laser/particle beams is a pretty direct attack, regardless of whether or not you’re looking at them, and regardless of why they’re incoming. Much like the flashbangs not blinding/stunning/clothes-torching him, it’s an incoming damage source, so it got countered.
Of course, those things being countered does imply his power is persistent and involuntary, but it still only shows him countering incoming damage sources, in whatever way is most effective. Stalwart’s the only person he’s knocked down who didn’t get to attack him first, and that was more of a coincidence while he was getting rid of Jiggawatt. I’m going to guess that Paddy’s right on both (a) and (b).
The problem with saying eye contact is I seriously doubt he saw Hex’s face when all the pew pew went flying. The Mask is empowered by his Absolute Confidence and gives him the perfect ‘counter’ for any incoming attack. Someone grabs you, zap them. He didn’t have eye contact with her when she was hit with the jolt of energy. He watched the fight so he could learn what they could do, and thus the Mask would have the perfect counter for their attacks.
“Excellent”
His first comment when the fight really started. Absolute Confidence. Which is what the Mask feeds on. Destroying his confidence leaves the mask starved. Think about how much he hated even his own team mates mock him when it didn’t really matter. He really seemed before the fight started to have a major self esteem issue. Now he’s being laughed at, thus his low self esteem is taking a serious beating.
well dang. Apparently his powers cant counter everything,
What puzzles me the most is the “rules” of Death Toll’s abilities, he seems able to block and deflect multiple attacks in quick succession (or at least I assume that when everyone was piling in they did not politely wait their turn) and even caught jiggawat who was.. well, moving more or less fast as lightning. Perhaps his powers respond more strictly to attempts to apply force to him, hence why Anvil’s choke hold triggered a response, but harem’s slinging a simple belt around him did not. But if this is the case then how does he counter incoming energy blasts that have yet to hit him?
Only idea that works for it all, that I can think of, is that his powers are semi-consciously controlled, energy blast he can see coming at him? Triggers counterblast, laser beam he cant possibly react to in time? doesn’t trigger until it hits him, at which point its simply deflected without harm. This would explain why harem’s attack worked if the first move was to cover his eyes (and apply the googly ones), as this kept him from Seeing the other harems slinging a bandoleer of grenades around him.
This does imply that while he’s effectively invulnerable to harm, the counter-attacks require at least mental action on his part, maybe? But if that’s the case then how did he react in time to a lightning bolt? Arrgh! Time will tell I guess!
So far he has turned toward every attack so far with the exception of Anvil’s hold. He broke that with some kind of shock. While his chosen attack or counter might be automatic he seems to need visual contact.
As far as countering Jiggawatt, she did make a comment before attacking and if it was loud enough for death toll to hear then he would know that a lightning powered super was about to attack and would have an extra second to counter lightning.
Every single counter has been to a direct attack. Harem has been moving around him, but not obviously attacking him.
The speed of the response suggests that it’s automated or automagic, not something he’s thinking about. (I’m strongly leaning automagic). It may well only trigger on a direct attack.
I like the idea that his powers are psychological. How big of a threat do you think he is? That’s how big of a threat he becomes. Whatever you’re worried about, he can do.
I also was thinking, based on Sydney’s actions, that maybe she thinks his powers require eye contact. If people look at the googly eyes instead of his real eyes, maybe his powers don’t work.
He obviously didn’t react to the lightning bolt itself, he reacted to Jiggawatt preparing to attack. The same way you can’t dodge a bullet, but if you’re a master ninja in a comic book or movie, you can potentially dodge the shots being fired from a gun by reacting to the shooter aiming.
That german phrase made me cringe. But others have pointed out how wrong it is already, so I’m not going into again. Sidney couldn’t have made it worse even if she tried.
I always cringe when I hear my language mangled like that. It’s really bad in many anime. The japanese voice actors usually do a good job getting the pronouciation mostly right but the grammar is atrocious and their choice of words horrific.
Anyway… I had hoped to see Death Toll fall today. I guess he gets to fight for another page now…
But you have to agree that the grammar is difficult to get right. And very important.
Given how many strips this fight alone takes I would guess the next one will be another test and the setup for the takedown.
Then again, with modern technology, it’s pretty easy to ask a native speaker about the tetails of grammar. Hell, I’d even do it for free if it meant they’d get it right for once…
Noooo. Coming from a country where you have to learn both english and german I have to say that German grammar is actuelly very easy. There are rules for everything. Even the exceptions. While in english it is more like “mostly the grammar work like this, but sometimes it doesn’t and we can’t tell you why or what apply then”
However, that could be because German is the first language (assuming of course that you are from Germany) The same could be said for someone who natively speaks English, then tries to learn German. When you grow up with that language in the home environment, it will always be easier than trying to learn a second language.
I think you misunderstod me ^_^
When I said we have to learn both english and german it was in the sense that we have a native language, then learn english as our second language and german as the third language.
German grammar is just very consistent, while in english. . . Well it is not.
But at least when you look at an English word you know how to pronounce it. If you plough through a sentence it isn’t too tough to get a thorough grasp of what you ought to say. Although as an afterthought you should be careful. If you are too rough on your voice it may make you cough or give you the hiccoughs.
Unless that word is knight, which should be pronounced more like night or knife which should be pronounced more like nife or. . .
=P
In English we stole our grammar from as many different places as we stole our vocabulary. Most of the exceptions are derived from idiomatic phrases in other languages that made the transition into English and then got retroactively generalized (often with slightly different rules than the original followed) and applied to other English vocabulary.
As a general rule, if there’s something that is absolutely grammatical in German or any Romance language, there’s something very very much like it that is grammatical in English. But an English speaker may only recognize it as grammatical when they stop to think about it, and will consider it a very strange/awkward utterance, because whatever you’re applying it to, they probably habitually use a different grammatical construct in that situation.
Occurs to me that what Sidney has done to Death Toll is (from his standpoint) probably the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to him.
“FEAR ME” is what he wanted, but instead everybody is now laughing at him. The only way it could be worse was if his current situation went on Youtube.
Leon’s streaming it now.
They have video camera glasses. What do you think the odds of Leon not putting it up on YT. Or another site just for villain silliness.
Pretty good chance it’s not going out to the world live. Operational security would make that impossible.
the whole fight isn’t live, but select clips on a delay might end up on youtube
Indeed that was my intent. Leon PROBABLY isn’t putting it up live, but will likely put the most entertaining bits up. Or make a site for all the bits he CAN put up and then let people vote on which ones are the best (for various criteria).
With Arianna’s input to generate money from adds.
There are at least two news units already there (Pinky’s and Suzie’s) pretty sure they are broadcasting all this.
They’re a bit far away to get the full muppet effect though.
I’m beginning to wonder if he’s like Gladiator from the Shi’ar empire…
Googly eyes – brilliant.
Thought it would be something like a frat-boy prank, but that’s even better. Genius.
Well, we can’t be sure right now if Harem did other things to him as well – stick a KICK ME sign on his back? Tie his shoelaces together? Equip him with a ‘My Little Pony’ belt buckle? The possibilities abound.
Aaaaaaaand nowhe’saBrony.
With his powers, shouldn’t any sign on his back say “DON’T kick me” ?
Excellent point.
Instead of that, maybe have the sign say something like ‘100% DORK’ or ‘DANGER. WIDE LOAD’.
“Caution:Objects are dumber than they appear.”
So… he seems to have absorbed harem’s power and now has two bodies. Or is that me mis-reading the comic? If I’m not, then he’s probably also got Harem’s nervous system overload vulnerability. Schmart move, Halo.
Naw he’s just looking around really fast (indicated by the speed lines).
An enemy who loses his power if you ignore him, this can only get funnier from here!
i think it’s more accurate to say he’s an enemy who can’t actually fight, as his power seems to be essentially “perfect counters”.
It’s both his ability appears to be psycho-counte: the ability to counter an attack by the most psychologically damaging method available. If you are afraid of someone stripping your power from you he can do that. If you are afraid someone will trap you if you use your power against them, he can do that. If you are afraid he’s stronger than you, he is. .If you are afraid an attack will fail because he’ll negate it he can. If you’re too busy laughing your ass off at him to be afraid he’s boned.
Not that this is a good reason to be a naysayer, but this theory doesn’t quite explain the costume change, it seems that when he is absorbing attacks he gains a free costume change and powers, and he used Jiggawatt’s power against someone else as opposed to their own worst fear/psych out.
Stalwart is strong against physical attack but probably weak against energy attacks. But I suspect the absorption changes is a side effect of a necessary secondary like his body altering to handle the power he needs to counter an attack.
This looks like a job for Aquama- I mean Achilles! :D
Anyone got a shovel? He’s still buried under the remains of the restaurant
Meh, it is Achilles.
Just direct your strongest attack against the pile, he will survive.
And keep some new clothes handy.
Umm, yeah, they are a bit busy right now, and Archonis currently down a fair number of their members (and most of their heavy hitters)
From what I have seen so far Maxima just has to sneeze the right way.
Next phase of the plan. Surround him w/helium disguised as a gas attack. Now he can hear his own voice and begin to understand what’s happening to himself…
That would be mean!
(Funny, most definitely, but still mean.)
Also, well-deserved.
(But still mean)
I would suggest her next step is to hit him with a water balloon filled with skunk extract.
1) It would make him totally nauseous from the smell
2) I guarantee no one else would be willing to get close enough to engage him hand to hand.
Max’s face in panel 10 makes me laugh the most, but this entire comic shows so many things. Sydney is even more unconventional when it comes to power stunts, and Harem is even more up for the fun stuff than I always thought.
Oh, it IS Nemesis. I thought it might be that a while back ago, but seemed too specific a power to be accurate.
Odd question: Why does Harem make a noise when she ports? It is a natural ability of hers so no powering noise a machine might make or magic might do. & it’s not the displacement of air or air filling a sudden vacuum since that sounds completely different.
It’s her equivalent to nightcrawler’s bamf sound.
She just likes to say “Vorp”
I can picture her making the noise with her mouth every time she ports.
I read the “VORP” as sort of a ripping sound. It’s made by her displacing air as she ports in, or by the air rushing back in as she ports out.
*points to where he stated that sounds different*
And what, pray tell, does “vorp” sound like? It’s not a word; there is no received pronunciation for it. Different people come up with different onomatopoeia. Consider a dog barking; we know what dogs sound like, yes? Well, English speakers often represent that sound as “bow-wow”, while Japanese speakers use “wan-wan”, Romanians use “ham-ham”, and the Welsh “wff-wff” (can we get the Welsh a vowel transfusion?*). Even within a language, there are often different versions–French offers “wouaff-wouaff”, “ouah-ouah”, “whou-whou”, and “vaf-vaf”. That’s for a well-known, practically standardized sound–the dogs can all understand each other just fine. (Yes, studies have been done.) When attempting to represent it in text, however, we come up with all sorts of different versions.
In English onomatopoeia, we have “rip” and “zip”. Both are associated with somewhat similar sounds–a sustained tearing-like sound with an abrupt end. Insofar as the representations are consistent within a language, we might expect “vorp” to at least end similarly. English tends to represent wind in onomatopoeia with “w” sounds, but that may be influenced by the standard spelling of “wind”.”Wind” itself, however, is etymologically related to to Old High German “wint”, Old Norse “vindr”, and Latin “ventus”–all pronounced with “v” sounds, suggesting that people associate “v” sounds with wind.
So, we have “v” (a wind sound), “r” (a sustained tearing sound, as in “rip”), “p” (an abrupt end sound, as in “rip” and “zip”), and “o” (because we’re not Welsh, and have vowels to spare**). “Vorp” could therefore reasonably be taken as an onomatopoeia for a rushing, tearing wind sound that ends abruptly.
Of course, the play on “warp” is a bonus. :D
*I’m kidding, Welsh folks!
**Okay, I’m mostly kidding.
The Welsh use wff-wff – but not because they’re short of vowels. In Welsh ‘w’ is a vowel.
I’m well aware of that, Bear. The “w” represents an “oo” sound, as in “cwm” (which was transliterated in Lord of the Rings as “coomb” in Rohirric.) The vowel comments were a joke. Thanks for reading the pedantic wall of text, though.
When did you become an expert on “what a natural teleportation ability sounds like” exactly? Please direct us to your credentials in this matter.
More generally, I’d argue that the lines between “natural” and “magical” and “other supernatural” are really vague. They’re concrete in some universes, and DaveB may opt to emulate some of those universes’ rules. But until we see them in this universe I wouldn’t assume the rules are the rules you’re used to from other superhero comics. Many of the interesting points come not merely from the subversion of tropes but the subversion of more fundamental genre expectations.
I never said I was. I meant that the sound of air suddenly filling a vacuum sounds different than “vorp”.
Well, the thing is that she can only teleport solid or liquid matter, and she drinks a lot of soda, so… you know, actually this is something that she does not like talking about.
Why wouldn’t she make a sound when she ‘ports?
funny as always.
On the subject of the germain.
Aufbebraucht werden. As mentioned before means “to be used up”.
So I can’t figure out what Sydney was really trying to say. best guess would be “use it” (Mach es), oder “finish it” (Mach es fertig)
Personaly i would have gone with something like:
Tue es jetzt. (do it now.)
Achtung, Fertig, los. (ready, set, go)
Und los. (and go)
just to Keep it in the spirit of non-german german
So it seems like Sydney was probing to see if he could use his powers against something that was “Attack-like” but being used by a person with no intention to attack him. Is it possible he needs the person attacking him to believe they are attacking him in order to counter? Then all you would have to do is give someone a gun with what you tell them are blanks and “pretend” to shoot him in the head? Or would he pick up on your intentions if you were anywhere near the person and him when the “pretend” shooting goes down?
Its also kind of weird that Maxima just stopped in the middle of a fight to chat about a new recruits failure to follow the chain of command. She is a little dangerously overconfident in her abilities sometimes.
I tried to draw Maxima chatting with Sydney while keeping an eye on Death Toll, but it never looked right, so the result is this sudden pause, which will actually make perfect sense once Sydney finally explains what’s going on with DT.
I can kind of see that. I’m looking forward to the big reveal. Great post thank you. :)
Its Harem she should be mad at anyway for actually taking orders, fairly complex orders, from Sydney in the first place. Sydney herself doesn’t really know any better at this point and shouldn’t really be expected to.
I would say it’s a matter of interpretation since Maxima did order Harem to engage Operation Lightstorm at her discretion.
Maxim #2: A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on.
The same principle applies.
The trouble with that maxim is Sydney isn’t even a private yet. She’d make a very good one given time and training but she’s not there yet.
I mean she’d make a very good sergeant.
An EOD specialist in motion outranks everyone. And Sydney just bombed DT’s ego into the Stone Age.
Oh at least, I’d even hazard pre-cretacious.
Not attacking and letting him use your powers against you could go under “only you can prevent friendly fire”.
Max did vaporize a tank, in a rather spectacular manner. But I’ll grant you that we haven’t had too much else to judge her by.
Maxima’s confidence could very well be:
1) Deserved, she’s just that bad-ass.
2) A bit of a show. Keep up the confidence to rally the troops and discourage the enemies. Can’t let them think you’re weak.
3) Overconfidence. She’s good, but she seems to think she’s all-but invincible, and it’s almost certainly going to come back and bite her at some point.
It did; she got her vertebrae popped and her midriff exposed. Painfully, like sunburn hot from the sounds of it. Except she’s metal-skinned, and so the blood vessels don’t show up on the surface all that good, I’d think…
I bet Harem stuck a stuffed Garfield on his back too. Either that or a nodding dog.
Im actually surprised Harem didn’t pants him. Seeing him standing there in his armor and white underwear with cute little skulls would just finish the picture.
What makes you think she didn’t?
YES!
Please, please, please, DaveB, make it so!
Even if it would be mean.
Or ask Maxima to give him a wedgie.
have to worry that would be counted as an attack similar to deshante pantsing him but could be a next exploritive step in confirming his power
If his power comes from people taking him seriously, I will soil myself laughing.
Can’t quite be that, or at least not ONLY that – there’s gotta be some baseline defense there, because he did a fine job defending himself from collateral damage.
The flashbangs don’t seem to have affected DT at all. But he couldn’t stop Harem from playing peek-a-boo and draping a belt over him. Those acts might not have been aggressive enough to set off his power. Which means there is a minimum level below which the power (or the suit) is useless. Not sure how that helps, but it is interesting.
Tickle-fight take down!
We can only hope. Five Harems and a dork in a wriggling pile. Might be fatal to DT if he has a weak heart.
@Aznarcas:
For a non-German German your translations are pretty accurate. ;)
As a Bavarian-German I herby extend my fullest respect.
By the way, I like the Idea of Harem actually saying “Vorp”.
Ich danke dir, mein freund.
Language is kind of a hobby of mine. (it’s really not. Hated it back at school, can’t escape it ever since.)
I still say they should go for the mask. It didn’t change when he absorbed Jiggawatt even though both his costume and his skin did. So either it is so loosely attached that his defensive power doesn’t work on it, or it is the source of his defensive powers. In either case, taking it from him would rob him of his anonymity (but unfortunately lower his hilarity now) and in the second case taking it would stop his powers. As a variation on “take it from him”, show him a mirror and he might take it off.
Nice to note that Max does try to remain in control. If the Colonel had just flat out let a new recruit redirect combat operations it would have made a lot less sense. She is still a little too agreeable, but given that Halo sort of bypassed chain of command using Harem it isn’t a big problem with disbelief.
Taking the mask would not stop his powers. Unless it was the source of them. Right now we don’t know if the mask is the source or not. For all we know he wears it because he thinks it makes him look intimidating.
“Imperious”. The word is “imperious“. Oh, wait, that’s the cowl. NM.
Before this comic, he could of been thinking ahead to the post fight legal defense of they attacked me first. This comic is definatly implying that his powers are reactive. Now the question will be “How reactive is his power?” Handcuffs and a cage might hold him because neither is attacking him but gas (or removing all the air) could be viewed as an attack.
One possible slang usage, I suppose, if one is being extremely unconventional, might be an implied ‘attack’ before the phrase that translates to ‘until used up’. In other words, shoot ’em until you’re dry. It’s not a German usage that I’m familiar with, but it’s something that might make sense in Sydney’s head.
Another one that would’ve been appropriate would have been “Leicht ein Fruer” or roughly translated to “Light him up!”. Since they are, actually, illuminating, Leicht is actually used correctly in this instance.
Also, remember the guy that was pointing to Death Toll and being Affiablly Evil? Ten bucks says he was trying to get Halo to power him up. Which would’ve been quite scary. Which leads me to believe he was less afiable and more devious. Which makes me really want to go look him up and introduce him to pavement at high velocity. Repeatedly.
Or he might have realized that she was the best to deal with him due to her unconventional thinking. Sydney had shown enough of it during the fight for Fedora to pick up on it. If FWTBT truly can only do something when attacked, most military thinking is gonna be ill advised against him. (Before anyone says anything, I WAS in the military & SOP is usually to just hit something hard & if that not work to hit it harder. Which would be bad against him..& what Maxima was gonna employ via attacking him herself.)
i don’t want to sound disrespectful, but “Leicht ein Fruer” doesn’t make any sense in german. if i tried to translate it into english it would be something like “light(in the sense of not heavy) a fire(assuming “Fruer” is just a misspelling of “Feuer”)”. If you wanted to say light a fire that would be “Legt ein Feuer” in german.
Source: I’m from Germany
So how would you say “Light up the Fuhrer!”?
that would depend on if you tell one or more than one person; if you mean “light up” as in “set on fire”it would be “Zünde den Führer an!” for one person and “Zündet den Führer an!” for more than one. if on the other hand you mean light up as in “set the floodlights on him” it would be “Beleuchte(t) den Führer!” ;)
This page made me laugh out loud.
I don’t much care what happens next; this was too good to pass up and was totally worth it.
Random observation: Halo’s orbs don’t cast shadows, even when illuminated by an incredibly bright flash. I think we already knew they were translucent, but they’re not completely transparent. With that kind of backlighting, you’d think they’d appear dark and/or cast shadows.
They interact with reality in unusual ways. For example, the light coming off of them that everyone sees cannot be detected by instruments. See the ballroom scene where Dabbler and the magic-user types were trying to analyze them.
his power is rebound
meaning he can take energy and throw it back
I am still not certain what he has.
The double-face in the 2nd last panel is only his in-panel reaction to everyone laughing at him (not copying harem’s duplication), but it took me some time to see that clearly.
Noteably is that he used his arms to get rid of harem, not the electro shock he used against anvil.
He also seems to be very intent on him being attacked and he did not really move (in the way of an attack directed at somebody else, or otherwise). If so, ignoring him and maybe sicking math/peggy on him would be the easiest way to go.
There is also a decent chance he cannot adapt to gear (his mask had proper filtering) and that he might be unable to counter halo’s orbs (wich so far deny any classification).
It could just plain duplication on touch/being attacked or nemesis power. But without the usual “copy weakness”. Indeed it might be the opposite, that he can become more powerfull then the original.
Jiggawat can absorb and bottle electricity just as well. Wich is what happened to her.
Possibly the ability to absorb kinetic energy is something Anvil has not yet unlocked in her powerset (she only absorbs the energy being projected towards her and never meet somebody else with those powers so she never had anybody to absorb from).
If it is absorption it could also work pre-touch if he is expecting an attack (like when he blocked hex’s and dabblers ranged attacks).
I am still not certain, but him being attacked or in danger in the first place (while not moving himself much) might be the important part of his powers.
I don’t get it.
Is there a way to get it just by following the comic?
What are you having issues with? Hope this isn’t your first super hero comic, cause David (the author) tends to stomp all over traditional comic book tropes.
Harem has an “attack” she’s been practicing called Lightstorm, where she teleports in a large numbers of flashbang grenades. The original attack is to drop them in every corner of a room so no matter where an enemy looks they get hit. In this variant she put them all on a bandolier, pulled the pins, and dropped it on the villain.
It’s an attack that plays to both her strength as a multi-persons teleporter, and her very prank pulling nature.
The googly eyes are a Syndney touch.
I didn’t get it at first, until I realized that if you look at it right, the eye slits in the skull look like angry eyebrows, which then gives the whole thing a Muppet look.
Thank you, now I can see I too :)
aufgebraucht werden – to be depleted, to be used up
Why don’t they just use a force field or handcuffs already; He doesn’t seem to be able to control passive powers otherwise the teleportation would have been either blockable or counterable. I’m assuming he can absorb and redirect incoming powers, but if the power is passive he can’t absorb it because it isn’t applied energy.
Force Field= 0 Joules=No Dice
So if Sydney hadn’t been there to do that would Death Toll just have decimated them?
Um…he’s already “Decimated” them, having reduced their force by 1/10th.
The word you want is “Devastated”
He has not decimated them yet. 1/10 is not a “large” percentage of force loss, maybe 2/10 if you count Hiro getting stomped on. As horrible as is it is to say Anvil’s utility in the fight was starting to deminish as the heavy physical bruisers have mostly been eliminated.
If FWTDT had decimated them that would have been 5 to 6 people completely taken out of the fight at least.
He mays decremented (reduced by some number) the team, but not decimated.
5 to 6? Are there really 50-60 members on the Arc team? If so, we haven’t seen even a significant fraction of them…
Maybe that number includes non-super support staff.
The word has also come to mean “Kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of“, “to destroy or kill a large proportion of” [emphasis added in both quotes] and I could add a plethora of definitions (and, yes, I do know what a plethora is) from other dictionaries. IOW, a literal tenth is not necessary and his usage is correct.
My bad. Misread your comment. You seem to be saying he already decimated them even before Sydney got involved.
That IS what I’m saying…the correct and original definition of “Decimate” is “To reduce by 1/10th” – it has been corrupted by massive misuse by the media.
“Deci” means 1/10th…it’s right there in the word.
1/10th is NOT a “Large percentage” of anything, thus the “new” definition is just plain wrong. There are less than 20 supers on Maxi’s team..thus, having taken out two of them, it has already been “Decimated” assuming you care about using the right word.
New definitions are always wrong. That’s what ‘new’ means. They continue to be wrong until the old definitions are wrong instead. In which case that’s what ‘old’ means. For example, the object on my desk that the word ‘modem’ is now used for does not ‘modulate and demodulate’ – Because my phone signal is now digital, there is no digital to analog conversion involved, and the new definition of ‘modem’ is WRONG! This device is, to be pedantically correct using the original definitions, a ‘network bridge’ connecting two different types of digital network.
Except that now the old definition is the one that’s wrong. If you call it anything except a ‘modem’ even the people who sell and service them won’t understand you correctly. So you have to use a technically incorrect definition for ‘modem’ until you get over grinding your teeth and accept that at this point in history it’s the old definition rather than the new definition that’s wrong. ‘modem’ no longer means mux/demux converting digital to analog and vice versa. Now it means ‘network box that goes between your phone line and your computer.’
Source. And “large” is entirely relative.
Didn’t you mean “more flashbang for your buck?”
Nice job of suggesting/confirming what his powers are, and nice way of getting everyone to pause long enough to listen to an explanation. Good comic-book strategy. And very Sydney.
Wait a moment FLASHBACK! this comic has a reference back to the beginning, remember the argument about see through shields and lasers (which are essentially just bright lights). Now she is using it to block a flashbang! SYDNEY; YOU HIPPOCRATE! GET BACK HERE!
It has been long stated that Sydney’s Dome of Domieness blocks all harmful light and sound, the forcefield that Kopy Kraut used was just a normal forcefield (one that he hadn’t had time to play with)
Not doubting you or anything, but what do you mean by long stated.
Oh, and this wasn’t me dissing her dome skills, it was more just me noting the shout out. I wouldn’t have cared or noticed if she hadn’t have said anything.
Always liked the phrase “Verpiss Dich”
New Strategy: Ignore Fail McSuckyname for the rest of the fight. And probably ever, since a purely reactive power can’t do shit if there’s no attack.
The options for subduing him really depend on the trigger for his power, and its sensitivity. From the evidence so far, I’m fair sure that he needs to be aware of the attack in question. From his non-reaction to the flashbang I’m guessing that he doesn’t need to realize the exact type of attack in order to react. But then, maybe he does.
I’d maybe try teleporting restraints onto him, or gassing him with some quick acting knockout agent (stealthily). If he needs to be aware of the attack *or* requires at least a minimal reaction time, a distraction plus head shot from Peggy might also work. Not all that non-lethal, though.
Incidentally: is Harem capable of telefragging, i.e. manifesting something inside a body? How about partial teleportation of something (just the head)?
We’ve got it on DaveB’s authority that she can’t teleport living matter besides herself. Not sure if she’s tried potted plants, but even when she can handle the weight limit (small child, etc) the official word is she can’t move living matter.
This conveniently messes up most telefragging.
Not if she teleports non-living object into a stationary target. Of course she’d have to leave the part she’s touching outside the other body, but I see no reason why she shouldn’t be able to manifest something at least partially within another person. Such as a live grenade
（￣ー￣）
Is it “can’t move living matter” or “the matter is no longer living at other end?”
Or even more humorous she could be like the Famileech from that dead end Marvel series “New Universe” and she absorbs any living matter she ports into her own body?
I think Death Tolls here is another version of “Nyah Nyah Can’t Hit Me Man!”, just with riposte rather than evasion. So let’s see how Sydney does here…
well its fun to know his power is only useful in self defense…his lawyer will love it
A reaction image to use instead of Nelson off of Simpsons.
Two of him?
Now he is weaker like Harem, so the tactic is divide and conquer.
Speed lines. It’s a double-take.
i can only speculate, but my guess as a native german speaker is that google translated “go” to “aufgebraucht werden” because the word “gone” could be correctly translated to “aufgebraucht sein”, as in “the fuel is depleted” (“der Treibstoff ist aufgebraucht”). As “go” can describe the process of using something up (“the fuel is going fast”), one could say something like “the fuel has gone fast”. And that would translate to “der Treibstoff wurde schnell aufgebraucht”, which uses a past form of “aufgebraucht werden”, namely “wurde aufgebraucht”. German is just confusing like that.
It might be rooted in another of English’s famous ripoff or words from other languages.
Ex: Spiellen in German is “to play” and spiel is a form of the word.
English slang-stole “spiel” to mean a delivery of scripted phrases to convince someone of something –which while game-like leads to some strange translations because Google will ignore words already in the target language (Forgive 20 yr old memories of high school German)
I am very slightly disappointed that grenade didn’t say “pick me up”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCeD2gF9jUo
Or as a flashbang, “Look at Me”
Claymore mines have instructions on them that basically say “point this side toward enemy”.
Not that the backside is ALL that much safer…
Reminds me of Douglas Adams’ “Kill-o-Zap Gun,” which had spikes and sights and other menacing gear to make perfectly clear that there was a right and a wrong side of it to have pointed at you.
The flashbangs should have had an mp3 chip and when activated starts shouting “I’m a 30 second bomb, I’m a 30 second bomb! 29, 28 . . . I lied.” then it goes off.
Someone’s been reading Starship Troopers (The original Novel)
Long long ago, my best friend and I had Role-Playing Game characters who crafted a bunch of 30-second grenades for the campaign we were in. Plus a bunch of even more demented variants. Drove the other Players AND the GM crazy. Good times.
A favorite of mine was the Dumbass grenade.
You throw it at the enemy and it does not explode.
Till someone picks it up, then it yells “DUMBASS!”
Then it goes boom.
Oh, we had that – only the grenade exterior also became super-adhesive after throwing. So anyone who picked it up COULDN’T get rid of it.
Then there was our ‘Sonic Flea’. Fleabombs were designed to leap around in a random pattern after activating – just the thing for disorganizing large crowds or generally scaring the cr#p out of people. The ‘Somic Flea’ did this, and also played music VERY VERY LOUDLY at the same time.