Grrl Power #249 – Much like gravy, the plot thickens
Much like…
- the waist of a quality tester at Doritos
- the glasses of an aging nerd
- someone taking steroids and thinking that by itself will make them buff but not really working out
- the skull of an increasingly stupid person
…the plot thickens.
So this page may bring up a question or two. Will they be answered soon? The answer is yes, obviously, but stay tuned all the same. Same Grrl Time, same Grrl Channel.
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I… Like him. He’s got style! And that’s one of the scariest “I planned this all along, sucker!” grins I’ve seen. :)
Oh I agree
Thirded, and while I’ve said he’s got style all along, he upped his game.
4thed
Let’s skip all of the intervening numbers & go straight to Infinite +1, shall we?
:D
Infinity squared?
Raised to infinity power?
X pi
Dr. R, that almost sounds like a TV series documentary about the investigation of supernatural or alien-origin hemorrhoids: X-Piles
On the next episode of X-Piles, Agents Piles and Driver probe MidnightDStroyer for clues.
First off, freaking awesome name, vaguely descriptive yet sounds cool.
Second I can’t say I’m totally surprised. Dave does have a penchant for the unexpected and Vehemence obviously has had his own agenda. Still what he did, when he did it, and how he did it was more then a little surprising and funny as hell.
5$ says his plan was to use this as an opportunity to try and get recruited into ArcSwat
After that talk with Sydney, it was obvious he had an agenda. It also implies he has a code of conduct to a degree.
What is the big concern is “What Is His Agenda?”
I’m guessing he wanted to take the measure of Arc-SWAT and remove some of his competition at the same time. I love his entrence here, but I’m seriously impressed with his hat!!! How does it stay on in the middle of a rubble tornado?
On a side note, I’m slightly disapointed with Sydney here. I would have thought she would remember that Harem’s teleport wouldn’t go through her shield and drop a huge dome over all the captured combatants to keep them from getting taken away.
She’s probably still a bit off her game due to the hypercapnia and there are questions on how big the force field can be and if it will block formed or forming portals.
True on the minor oxygen deprivation, and if it’ll stop already partially formed portals, or even her kind of portals at all. However, she already demonstrated that she can snag multiple people at once with the lighthook, and the shield can get 20-30 feet across. Easily large enough to get the group of sleeping baddies.
And, of course, Dave is laughing at all our speculation.
He finally hit a twist that threw us off our analasys game.
Yea, he’s probably very happy
There’s no sniggering like self-satisfied sniggering…Vehemence knows this too, just ask him.
Not that that will stop us from making more.
My current theory is that he wants to join Archon as a “mole”, a plan which Vektor doesn’t know about.
I’m enjoying it. :)
****Insert Dan Aykroyd Voice****
DaveB, you sadistic little ——–!
This is what a writer lives for. His entire fanbase going WTH!!??
Followed I did NOT see that coming and nice job, especially when utter in the same breath.
Amen.
I’m guessing this is supposed to be one of the guys in Maxima’s weight class? Or maybe THE guy she was talking about? He looks like he can give them some good training even with Maxima going all out!
I’m thinking some readers aren’t gonna like the loss of this fight if he just knocks them out and leaves after the build up but it will be kind of funny to see what the media thinks of this: A whole bunch of supers that aren’t even supposed to exist jump out of nowhere to attack our super police, do a bunch of damage and then a super super decides to pop in randomly and end it quickly then leaves. Watching that footage has got to make norms feel like they are minnows living in a world filled with large mouth bass and great northern pike the first might decided to eat them at will and the second might snap them up on the way to eat the other predators!
I wonder how long you have to practice, and how many of the “practice dummies” died, to be able to carefully “just” knock a squishy out like that?
He’s not the guy Maxima said was dead, we saw that guy quite a few pages back, along with this guy in a different panel. I think the guy in question was islamic?
Oh interesting, you wouldn’t happen to know the general area in the story that was mentioned or about what they were doing on those pages?
The “challengers” page is: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
The Islamic guy is the fourth panel. While Dave hasn’t said flat out that’s the guy Maxima was referring to, Dave does say in comments on that page that the Arabic text translates to “Dead am I? So much the better.” Which is pretty much a direct reference to Maxima’s statement that the only other person in her weight class was dead.
Well, he might at least *think* he’s in the same league as Maxima – this could be the meaning of his “challenge accepted” on that page.
Thanks I guess with nuggets like that DaveB is trying to make sure even the non-commenters have a ton of reason to read the comments.
There was no confirmation that any of them even was the guy Maxima talked about.
Though I’m guessing DaveB is saving that guy for later
Well. That’s certainly a frightening smile he’s got there.
Almost as Scary as Shiroe from Log Horizon but he accentuates a badass glasses adjust while a shadow fallsover him that only lets you see his silhouette, his teeth, and the glare reflecting from the glasses.
I dunno ’bout that…Maxima has displayed a few really good “badass glasses” look already.
Combine that with a rapist smile and we’ll talk about what’s creepier. They all pretty much scream “you’re so freaking boned dude”, though Maxima does edge out the other two on scary.
Oh my god! That’s hilarious!
Remember what Harem said was in those things she was putting on all their arms? One of the things was a GPS tracker. If Opal teleported them home, ARCHON would know where their home base was. Vehemence may just have incredible listening skills.
That’s not the grin of a man doing anyone a favor.
Well it could be that he’s a direct employee from whoever sent this group, sent along to observe. And he’s sacrificing this (expandable) group to protect the boss
IF that is the reason it would be SOOO much cooler than what I would have imagined him to be doing. It would mean he was basically doing for the core group something similar to what Maxima is supposed to be doing for hers, but instead is training them, only with a less caring attitude since… what do villains care about the chaff? ( I guess he could be using them to learn about ARC as his true deeper purpose ) Please oh great Comic-Kamisama: Grant that this be true!
Aaaaaaannnnnd the award for this weeks rapiest smile goes too ………………..
Yeah, I bet Vektor feels pretty butt-hurt right about now…
I think much like Richard in the LFG webcomic, I’d have gone with, “DERP DERP DEEEEEERP!”
It’s like “Dun dun Dunnnnn” for stupid people. And yes, taking your team of untrained civilian amateurs against a new government agency MADE of supers (note: I did not say government backed super-group) with military training, weapons, and hardware is the HEIGHT of stupidity. Even if you get away, there’s going to be about a million cameras and EVERY technique for identification in the world is going to be used to hunt every one of your dumb asses down.
As Archon was presented, you’re not taking on the TSA, NSA, FBI, CIA, IRS, or EPA. Archon answers DIRECTLY TO THE DOD. This means that if Archon is involved it’s not a criminal matter, a public safety matter, or a health matter, it’s a matter of national defense against a military unit with standing Posse Commitatus and an operational theater of the entire planet.
So go ahead… run.
Either way, they mean “you just got served”.
There’s not much use in trying to deny Archon’s service of a subpeona…
Or, as Robocop so adroitly put it, “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.”
Maybe V’s ArcDark. A mole they placed and now hes double crossing the baddies.
You know…I haven’t seen X lately ;P
Unless he’s got some kind of growth/shrinking power, Vehemence is way too big to be X.
technically we saw him this afternoon. The comic has had a really slow time scale I think its been less then a day since the bank robbery.
True, True
Well, the first few pages were technically a few months into the overall story…The rest of the comic so far has been Sydney’s recounting of her first day in Archon. Use of Flashback technique, and all that.
wait, wait, WAIT how is none of his clothing being destroyed by that cyclone of rubble? even maxima with her ,i kinda make the things i touch indestructible, contact telekinesis has her clothing destroyed(might just be different level of damage but this guy hasn’t even had his hat adjusted…..
The hat is obviously the source of his sartorial invincibility. Down the road when Vehemence is finally aprehended, Stalwart will claim it as a trophy and will no longer have to visit Saville Row after every fight. Maxima will likely have to play the part of Delilah, though, in her own militantly feminist fashion.
Well if we asume that Vehemence and Maxima have the same type of invulnerability (contact telekenisis), than that explains how his clothes are fine.
As for Maxima her clothes getting blown up, that was an exceptionally powerfull explosion that actually managed to hurt her. Vekter is just thowing stones at Vehemence. Non comparable amount of damage
Hmmm, looking closely at it, it appears that the rocks are being obliterated before they actually touch him. You might have to enlarge the screen to see what I’m talking about :).
An ARCdark plant?
I hadn’t even considered that. But … I wouldn’t say that’s a definite no. It’s an interesting possibility, but also the least fun of an outcome. Unless he wore the “face” for so long that he is now “the face”. Then it gets “fun”.
Oh snap! The plot thickens indeed!
I’d like to take a moment to use this page as an example on the difference between a reveal, and a plot twist. The “twists” Shyamalan is known for aren’t actually plot twists. They’re reveals. They’re revealing something to the audience that was previously unknown or ambiguous.
THIS is a plot twist. Nothing’s really been revealed yet, but the plot’s taken an unexpected turn. THAT’S a plot twist.
I eagerly await the next page to find out what happens next.
Also, inb4 someone argues that a Shyamalan’s reveals can still be considered plot twists.
Actual chapter title from a novel (The Phoenix Guards, by Steven Brust): “Chapter the Eleventh, In Which the Plot, Behaving in Much the Manner Of a Soup to which Corn Starch Has been Added, Begins, at Last, to Thicken”
This soup has not merely thickened, but also been stirred briskly.
Stirred with a pretzel.
It’s like Sydney’s evil opposite, if Sydney was an enormous man with face tattoos!
Except whatever else he may or may not suffer from, I doubt that ADHD is one of them.
Enormous is the opposite of diminutive, man is opposite of woman, & tattooed is opposite of untattooed, ergo if he’s evil (with a hint of honor), he is her opposite.
By some comments made earlier, it’s apparent that the bad guy team was just thrown together (one guy was a hair dresser). So I’m wondering if Opal and Vekter know Vehemence before forming this team. If this was there first time working together then Opal and Vecter have nothing to tell Archon about Vehemence that could get him arrested. And Archon has even less reason to arrest Vehemence (as long as he keeps cooperating) then they have for Death Tool.
Well Vekter and Opal were already known by ArcLight. They also seemed to direct the show a little bit.
So my guess is that, while the rest of the grunts were new, Vekter and Opal probably do know him (or thaught they did)
Maybe the only reason he went with them, was to join Arcswat.
Fronthand Backhand?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGAMbNKcN1U
I think Opal lost. Too bad, it was almost her turn.
you know opals portals would have made a few baddies loose a few feet. I’m just saying Practice safe Portals people, It’s all fun and games till someone loses an arm or ends up in concrete.
i’ll bet that those are just the “targeting rings” that she had to do for each person since they were so scattered from when they initially TP’d into place and that once she had finished with the “almost… Got IT…” statement, she would have switched over to work on creating the exit portal and configured… she never got the chance to open that exit portal, therefore the rest of the people never even moved, therefore no possibility of damage.
also, from Dave’s comment’s in a prior comic, in that Opal MOVED the portal versus having him walk thru it with her holding it stationary, in order to force Stalwart to go thru it, and it had those “speed lines” that cartoonists use to depict an object in motion, and the portal rings over all the unconscious people, ALSO have those lines, i am going to assume that she was creating her portals above them in the air then “forcing” their bodies thru the portal because they couldn’t move thru it on their own power, therefore she had to do it for them… but, due to Vehemence’s interference, she lost focus (slight understatement!!) and they dissipated harmlessly…
i’m still on the fence about V. though… he seems nice enough (from what little we’ve seen of him so far) but i’m going to go with my gut feeling and still label him as a bad guy, though he’s definitely not as bad as some of the goobers in this kerfluffle… kinda like Satan, in the book “For Love Of Evil” by Piers Anthony, he started out as a good guy then was corrupted and is still trying to do what’s right, even after becoming the Lord of Lies (etc…etc…), but towards the end of the book, we come across a “REALLY” Capital “E” Evil guy… the “First Blood” guy and Nega-Knuckles remind me of that type of “evil” character, but not Vehemence…
Yeah, Vehemence strikes me as either honorably evil, outright mercenary, or chaotically good.
He’s wearing the evil hat. No good guy wears that hat. He’s evil.
you haven’t seen too many 1950’s P.I. Movies/ Mobster movies… The Good Guys AND the Bad Guys BOTH wore those style of hats, you really couldn’t tell them apart just by the hat they wore… that was the fashion of ALL men, it was the cost of the suit that made them G.G. / B. G. i’m pretty sure that it wasn’t until the advent of the Cowboy flicks that the White Hat = Good Guy, Black Hat = Bad guy came into popularity.
You forgot death rides a pale horse (porsche) where death goes on strike and battles satan in a post dystopian / post utopic magic earth where god and the devil take the battle of souls to earth. (interestingly the Immortals series is referenced a few times in Zanth by the Wise Old Man
it’s been a REALLY long time since i read that one, and i’ve forgotten the specifics of the books, so I’m not sure of how it would apply… no biggie… as for the W.O.M. referencing them, i don’t see it as really a stretch, seeing as how both series are from the same author…
Vehemence is enjoying the show. Opal’s multiple portals would’ve ended it abruptly. He couldn’t allow that. He wants to see the finale.
Suh-prise, suh-prise, suh-prise!
You wouldn’t hit a lady, would you?
No, but then again, you’re no lady.
Why am I hearing that in Gomer Pyle’s voice in my head?
Well, golly, Sargeant Carter, I don’t have any idear why that could be.
“Shu-ZAY-um!”
Did she died!?
My guess would be she was only knocked out.
I don’t know, the “WHA-CRACK!” implies to me that bones were broken, and her head looked at an odd angle before she hit the ground.
Vehement might just be here to clean up the mess Vekter and Opal made by failing. Because those two might have information they don’t want Archon to have.
Not that odd a position IMO. If it were, I wouldn’t wake up every morning, nor would Heavenly Sword in panel 5. Going by distance it probably was louder than it was forceful, though forceful enough to knock someone out can kill them (not that Dave is likely to do that on the basis is sets the wrong mood for the comic he’s looking to create).
More random thoughts*:
1) As someone made reference to in the comments of a previous comic, that’s what you get for being greedy. They should have got when the getting was good rather than try for the whole shebang**.
2) Maybe Vehemence didn’t like the way she put on her face paint?
3) Someone raised the question of whether Opal was human or alien and I’m beginning to wonder the same about V.
4) Didn’t Vekter just finish answering his own question right before asking it (panel 7)? Now if he had asked him “why”, that I could understand.
*But no Jack Handey, as he only does “Deep Thoughts”.
**Almost certainly not an allusion to AB as much as it could have been.
Dave, hats off to you man. Seriously impressed by plot development.
That’s an odd thing to say, because it looks like Vehemence is still wearing his. Unless you’re talking about Opal’s?
I’m still mad that opal would’ve succeeded if not for this dude’s intervention.
Vekter doesn’t look too happy about the revoltin’ development (at least in his view), either.
Yea, Maxima would probably not have stopped her. Though maybe she was planning to jump through one of the portals when they opend?
I know right! Stinking SOB!
You people are all idiots.
His ability to grin that wide was foreshadowed the fricking first page he was on.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
Yes. I am stupid enough to mistake all the shock to be over that.
its a good thing that this teleportation ability fails in such a safe manner (instead of, say, turning them all into chunk salsa)
Crybaby’s name is Vehemence? I must have missed that. That’s like someone calling themselves Sarcasm or Snideness. And here I thought Death Nell had a silly name. XD
Anyone besides me geting serious Kenneth Irons/Lex Luthor vibes of this guy. Also, ten buck’s says they guy was a comic book nerd before he got his mcguffin
Even better twist: He has shopped at Sydney’s store before.
I wouldn’t quite say Lex Luthor. He seems to have a code of conduct. Remember his comment after Sydney rejoined the fight? ((I hope she doesn’t get killed tonight)).
I have a strange feeling that if he saw anyone potentially in serious danger of dying he might have stepped in. For either side.
It’s just the gut feeling I get from him. If anything, I’d call him Affably Evil with an unusual code of conduct.
((I actually had to look up Kenneth Irons, the name rang a bell but couldn’t place it))
A funny little thought popped into my head. If Jabberwocky has woken up by the time the heroes get to her, she should be seen sulking in the corner(on her butt, knees pulled up to her chin, and a palatable aura of depression around her). The reason being because she failed to defend Dabbler’s honor or something like that. Even if Dabbler’s succubus magic has worn off, Jabber should still be totally enthralled by Dabbler.
Jabber strikes my as the kind of person ruled by her emotions and baser instincts. All she does is eat, sleep, fight, have sex, and party. Once her emotions have been swayed, they tend to stay that way, so now she’s totally infatuated with Dabber, much to Dabbler’s amusement and annoyance(succubi probably don’t have much magic for discouraging attraction). What happen next is up to Dave. Is Jabber a jealous lover, does she try to join the team just to be close to Dabbler? I’m sure some funny and embarrassing stuff cab be thought up.
I’m sorry but this would have been a hell of a lot better if he didn’t do that incredibly stupid “Duh, duh, duuh,” thing. It just kills the scene.
Also, real dick move there smiley!
Ah, once again we have IR coming here to do nothing but badmouth the comic.
The Dun dun dunn … it seems to fit his style. A bit of gloating does wonders for when you win.
A dick move? He was waiting for this chance. That much is obvious. He either wants them out of his way because His Boss(which is scary to consider) considers these guys a problem or he wants them in prison to do something that is harder to do from the outside. Or he’s possibly a guy who plays both sides. Impossible to know at this point.
Yes, he hit a girl. But you do know that happens in comics. Now if he went overboard, that’d be another story. It was just a quick shot to take her out.
Typical. Someone has to come in and badmouth me for no reason.
The “Dun dun dunn,’ thing is corny as hell! And like I said completely kills the mood of the scene.
And I never had a problem with him hitting a girl but lets face it. Anyone that just runs in and ruins what you’re trying so hard to do like Teleport you’re entire group out is something that can be considered a dick move.
PLEASE DON’T FEED THE TROLL!
Thought we had a discussion about calling people names?
If you do not like the appellation, then nut up and put out your own comic so we may judge whether or not you can do an interesting story like our esteemed author here DaveB.
Seriously like I said a couple time already if you truly don’t like the comic leave already, it’s a fairly safe assumption that no one is there with a gun forcing you to keep coming back and spew vitriol every couple Monday & Thursday. Do what any rational and mature person would do and go find something you don’t dislike instead. The trolling is just plain tedious.
But be warned you keep up the attitude you currently display I will keep posting my comment.
Who’s the one with the attitude here. You’re the one calling me a troll for no freaking reason! You aren’t a monitor here so how about you shut it and move on!
Unless DaveB. tells me to knock it off that is.
DR.REVENGE.
I know. I shouldn’t have. It was a bad morning for me. My only excuse. Not even a good one. I shouldn’t have fed him. They’re like Mogwai … after the water treatment.
“Puts on POPE hat”
You are forgiven my child.
Yeah, everyone’s entitled to an off-day occasionally…People are human beings, ya’ know.
Except for Trolls…
It should be a very interesting next few comics. I must say that I’m more than a little disappointed that Our Heroes seemed to be well on their way to having totally fcuked this situation up by way of not being able to prevent a mass escape that was only thwarted by one of villain’s own turning on them. That, in addition to Dabbler’s dicking around and Math’s being distracted by something so pedestrian as breasts, adds up to a very unimpressive showing by ArcSwat.
That said, given the fine plotting so far, I’m looking forward to seeing what Dave does with this. Again, it should be a very interesting next few comics.
Mathias says “Aint nothin’ pedestrian about those boobs!”
“wha-crack” is never a good sound effect to happen in proximity to someone’s neck. The only sound worse would have be “ker-snap”.
Reading Vehemence’s thought bubble about Sydney, looking at that smile, and “challenge accepted” makes me think this fight just went from “rough but almost over”, to “we’re going to need some body bags.”
Sydney was in really didn’t have got worry about “surviving” the night at that point in the fight. FWTDT was the really the last big unknown threat hanging out. Vekter is tough, but not really a direct or real threat to Sydney.
And rampaging top rank Maximuma level Vehemence polishing off the wounded… both heroes and villains… that could bring Sydney’s survival into question.
Emperor Vehemence, Lord of the West…. Sounds about right.
Here’s the thing about the “he’s trying to join ARCSWAT – Maxima made it very clear that vigilantes who aren’t signed up are just as much criminals as someone being a villain. What should happen is Maxima arrests Vehemence for assault on Opal (and I’m guessing soon to be assault on Vektor).
Assuming that V doesn’t have diplomatic or some other similar type of immunity, that is.
As Vehemence has shown that he has more intelligence than just about every other “villain” there if Max or any of the others get there before the first punch flies he most likely would step back and let them deal with Vecktor.
Course I never agreed with Arch swats little anti vigilante position.
Does throwing a pile of villains against Maxima count as the Superpowered version of pulling pigtails in the schoolyard?
ROFL
Why do I think that sounds like a Deus plan?
Did anyone else see the slowing down (no blurs) and lessening (stripes of outside) of vektor’s rock shield? I’d say in the next page or two it’s going to fall. Also proves that emotions or loss of focus disrupt his telepathy unlike some.
to me it looks more like the rocks that he originally had swirling around him got pulverized into dust just because of Vehemence casually walking thru it… and all he has left is a swirling DUST cloud, not rocks anymore… he may just have to “recharge” the wall-o’-rocks by grabbing more pavement from the ground.
also, note the camera angles. in panel six you’re getting a full-on body shot of Vektor with LOTS of bands, in panel seven it’s the waist up and you have fewer, but still multiple bands on stuff flying around the two of them, but in panel eight, it’s a close-up, heads only shot, so that means there isn’t enough “space” in the camera view to get more than one or two of the bands from the previous panels, so it MAY be that the wall is still up and running at full strength, we just can’t SEE it…
Am I the only one that was rooting for them to escape?
That certainly would have been interesting. With them trying to drag Hex back into things. Which wouldn’t bother me in the least. Yes, I like one of the villains. I’m not counting Vehemence on either side … yet.
Hex didnt get a lot of airtime, but her and the hairdresser … it’s hard for me to hate either one. They’re just far too ‘soft’ to hate. The Hairdresser gave up, so that makes him a non-entity as a possible threat.
This is excellent, I do hope that Vehemence is on arc’s side. I also really like the voting incentive, I even see that you included 2 characters, one at each end of the picture, that are bigger perverts than Dabbler. Who are the two in the middle though?
The sneaky SOB just earned himself a free ticket out of jail. He can be seen to have warned Sydney that Death Toll was someone to keep an eye on, and now just prevented the escape of several official criminals. No not vigilante in this case, more citizen’s arrest. Granted law officials have in many cases gotten angry about such actions (endangering themselves, other civilians, and making situations worse), but I think this qualifies as an exception.
Except:
1) FWTDT is only dangerous if you attack him, so pointing someone his way is actually causing trouble, not preventing it.
2) Citizen’s arrest doesn’t give you the right to b****slap someone into unconsciousness. That’s illegal for non-authorized personnel.
3) If ARCSWAT has anything like normal police powers they can arrest and hold for at least 24 hours. And if he resists arrest then they can actually charge him with resisting arrest even if no other charges stick. Note that this point has been hotly debated in the comments.
Something about this guy is giving me a real Apocalypse vibe.
I’m sure that could be described as “shit eating grin” by some not nice people.
So aside from rather and clearly able to brush off anything coming his way, what exactly is/are is powers?
Actually, that grin is more like a “serving-a-shit-sandwich” grin…You know, it’s like, “You WILL eat it and you WILL like it,” sorta thing.
And Vektor just got served.