Grrl Power #251 – Circuitous motive man
Maxima has some nerd cred as you know, but Inverse Ninja is a little too deep down the well for her, hence the explanation.
With the fight running longer than I had intended, I almost cut this whole page. Arguably little happens on it except for a little insight into Vehemence’s character, and the lightsaber joke which I can’t believe never occurred to me until I started drawing the second panel, but which I’m now rather enamored with, so in it goes. :)
Here’s something very cool for regular commenters: Reader Kane York (Riking in the comments) has created a chrome plugin that tracks and highlights new comments. It does require you to click a “mark comments read” before you refresh the page each time, but it also has an opt in mode that will refresh the comments when you move between pages of comments and automatically mark the previous page read. I’ve been using it over the weekend and it’s pretty slick. Here’s the chrome link.
If you like you can inspect the raw code here on GitHub, which is nice if you’re a relatively suspicious person like myself when it comes to links handed out on the internet. If you’re using FireFox and have Greasemonkey installed, you can go to the GitHub link, hit the RAW button at the top of the script and FF will give you the option to install it. There’s no IE solution yet, and there may not be, because, you know, it’s IE. Obviously if that changes I’ll post it here.
I’m sure Kane will be reading the comments, but if you see any bugs with the plugin, probably the best place to notate them is over at the GitHub link. (I think you do that by clicking the little exclamation mark in the circle over on the right side at the top of the code window.)
With the intent of being transparent about such things, I’ve added one more ad banner to the page. Usually someone with a Patreon campaign has milestones that involve removing ads, and eventually that will probably happen, but at the moment the summer heat in Texas is killing our electric bill, especially with me home all day with the A/C and a computer with at least two monitors on. Also it’s nice to be able to test out several ad companies and see how they perform. The new one has one of those Ad Choice things up in the top right corner, so if there are ads you don’t care for on it, I think you can customize what it displays or at least veto obnoxious stuff.
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Ha ha ha! ADHD light sabre Sydney is adorkably adorable!
Sure, it’s adorable now, but if she ever learns how to contain the PPO blast into that shape, RUN
If she has The Molestaorb in her hand RUN very fast.
And when she has both in her hands it is to late anyway.
Lighthook not molestorb
That’s just what they call it in public, I’m positive people there thing dirty thought too in fact. In fact I’m sure of it. I saw some of the comments Arianna was looking at on page 108.
I thought she was making the lightsabre effect using lighthook aka the molestorb?
And on backward.
Ooo, future upgrade to her powers. Turn the PPO in a lightning whip
It didn’t make the Ferengi cool or scary, so don’t expect it to work here.
Well, the assassin Ona Nobis from the Jedi Apprentice Series was very adept at using a laser whip, to the point of being able to take on multiple jedi.
Ona Nobis?
…
Seriously, who invents these names? Why not Ona Nobis Acem if we’re at it?
What’s the significance of either name? I ran them both through Google translate, but didn’t find a language which gave them any English meaning. They “detected” as English, but I tried Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, and a couple of others that looked likely. No luck.
Google “dona nobis pacem” – a part of every Latin mass :)
grant us peace
Dona nobis pacem come what ma-ay.
Anna and her sister Doris Da-ay…
The Ferengi, however, started at a negative infinity on both the coolness and scariness scales.
It did in the comics but not the tv series
Plus light whips were cannon in the exspanded universe
Now THAT would be an amazing power!
Imagine Sydney upgrading the link node between the PPO and Lighthook and being able to direct her blast along the energy tentacle.
And you can bet Ariana is probably making notes on action figures right now.
She’s probably also trying to think of how to do figures without breaking various copyright violations. Ie the “lightsaber” stance. So yes … Sydney is no doubt great marketing material potential for Ariana.
Halo TM with Molestorb Sword TM action figure.
This guy is kind of strange.
Sets up a ambush, then betrays them but gets the one he beat the crap out of medical help.
Good guy, or bad guy? It’s all up in the air.
I gues he’s the Joker to Maxima’s Batman (batwoman?)
He thinks it’ll be fun
I guess he is so tough and powerful that he wants someone to fight that would give him a challange.
Sort of like One Punch Man.
One punch as in that’s all he needs to give or receive?
Give. Cliff’s Notes version, Saitama is a salaryman who trained for three years to become a superhero. He succeeded. Then he got bored.
He got bored because he became impossibly strong. Important detail.
The series is called “one punch man” because pretty much anything he punches disintegrates immediately, no matter how powerful it is.
And those things which require more effort (like the one whose single hit knocked him to the moon) get subjected to an ability called “Consecutive Normal Punches”. Looking into material as yet not re-drawn, he also can do “Serious Punch” and “Consecutive Serious Punches”.
No, his motives are quite clear. he loves fighting,but he’s not a psychopath. a good fight to him may be a glorious thing, but he’s perfectly human enough to get along with Sydney, talk politely to the ARC team and point out when someone is needing medical if they seem to be being ignored.
Gentleman Brawler (fighter)? Is that a trope?
Absolutely. I distinctly remember one of the bosses in FFIV was one. Every time you fought him he’d heal your party to full because he wanted to fight you at your best. Especially useful during the boss rush at the end.
Rubicante, the Fire Fiend in that game would do that.
Hear hear. I loved that boss; even thought he was cleary “evil”, he wasn’t “bad”. :P
Don’t forget he also said he hope Sydney survives this night. He seems to like her, Heck I could see him trying to get her to switch sides in a palpitine sort of way.
Only if he can both explain why his cause justifies his actions AND do it in a genre savvy way. Sydney doesn’t respond well to morals or logic without a story attached. Reminds me of a certain race of STNG aliens who could only speak in references to their world’s myths and legends.
https://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Darmok_(episode)
I think it’s that he KNOWS Sidney is completely inexperienced. He may desire to fight her head to head, but only after she’s become experienced in the field.
All he probably sees right now is a witty child with lots of potential but lacking discipline and experience required to utilize it.
Agreed, plus he likes her style but from the nature of your reply I think you meant to reply to “The Creeper” above me.
He whom one just beat up, but for whom one gets prompt medical attention is more likely to live to get beat up another day.
My thoughts precisely – he’s hoping Vekter will come back for a rematch, ideally bringing friends :-)
See, he just wants to help. After this the public will have an enemy again, and they’ll like Maxima
He seems… reasonable. Or close enough. He wants a fight, but doesn’t seem interested in killing any of them, not on purpose at least.
Poor guy probably just wants a punchbag that doesn’t explode when he touches it
Lets be honest, if you were an uber strong super human, a challenge is something you’d desperately need after a while, think of math, only with powers.
I don’t have a problem with him wanting a challenge- it’s his methods for finding one that I find less than admirable.
Obviously. He probably has a bit more of an agenda than that, though.
I love how well Maxima is drawn and shaded in the second-to-last panel…her hair just looks so purdy and I can’t stop looking at the planes of her face. Well done! And yes, Sydney is just adorable in the 2nd panel. In contrast, Vehemence looks positively terrifying in the last panel…eep!
I am curious about the lighthook, however. Can it pass through her shield? In the 5th panel you can see that the end closest to Sydney is on the outside of the shield but in the 2nd one it looks like she’s holding it close to her body inside the shield. Did she have to reform it outside the shield as she swung it around? Or does her thinking it through the shield push it through without compromising the shield’s integrity?
The Lighthook forms outside the shied. Look at panel 5 and nite the space between the orb and the “saber”.
And I can’t erase a screwed up comment sorry. I was trying to say the lighthook reforms rather than pass through the shield.
Oh, I love her expression too :) It is the first time she shows something the sort :))
I can’t totally read it actually but I see it as Vehemence took she a bit out of balance, like thinking:
“Uh? Has him… principles?”
Like it :)
Probably no: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1380 – last panel.
Wait. Vehemence knows the term Genre Savy. Does that make HIM genre savy?
Probably. Even Max has some notion of the terms Sydney uses, most of the time.
He may just be there to give a taste of defeat
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ATasteOfDefeat
Essentially wiping the floor with most of their team(this implies overpowering or somehow incapacitating Maxima), and then “letting them go”.
That could be pretty damn powerful, and give this story a classy villain.
He made reference to FWTDT being a potential threat as he was the only one in an actual cape, so he knows his villainous superhero tropes (…another thing that makes me think this guy is a spARC – (an ARC spy).
Looking forward to Thursday’s panel. :-)
I don’t quite get this guy. He likes to hit people, but he’s nice enough to make sure the people aren’t too badly broken afterwards. Or at least that they get appropriate medical attention. Sounds like he’d be better served making a career out of it. Join the military guy!
My gues is that he’s this universe’s Joker
I don’t buy this guy as a pure baddie either – I think this is a reference to Maxima’s ‘plans within plans’ comment, and the giveaway is his reference to becoming a lightning rod for ever suiper-powered nut-job out there.
Every professor x has a magneto as an opponent; every figurehead for good has an evil counterpart… But what if both figureheads were on the same side? What if Magneto was really a double agent, there to attract and identify truly dangerous supers before they had a chance to do real damage, in a way that Arc inc. as an arm of the DoD could never do?
That sleeper double agent could then arrange for truly dangerously supers bent on violence to be ‘defeated and contained’ as necessary… just as he did with this latest bunch of butters.
But that would only work if he maintained his infamy as one of the few individuals on Earth who could go toe to toe with Maxima and co… and survive.
At first I thought this guy may be Arc Dark operative… I’m starting to suspect this even more, as it’s the only thing that would make his actions make sense.
I think I feel a strategic loss coming on for the good guys… Or at the very least a stalemate.
Hmmm. You’ve got me thinking, which is dangerous. Maybe it’s this: “Maxima, having a bunch of super powered psychos running around is bad for business and disturbs my beauty sleep. I just gave you justification to remove them from circulation, while making you look like a hero. You can thank me later. But I know you will insist that I place myself under ArcSwat’s command. That is unacceptable to me. Therefore, I must now show you that you cannot force me to give up my independence. It’s nothing personal, this is business. Shall we begin?” I suspect however, that Sydney will be the key to heading off a battle of Titans.
I think we can surmise his intentions from when we first saw Vehemence with the line-up of other baddies. His only words: Challenge Accepted. He’s excited about a super group that’s able to offer him a challenge, so he organized this clam bake to check and see if they are actually worth the effort to attack himself AND invoke the Inverse Ninja trope.
Well, there’s nice and then there’s avoid first degree murder charge which would be more problematic than just assault charges. The former is much harder to plea bargain out of than the latter.
See, there’s one major problem with the “join the army” solution. In order to get by in the military you have to be okay with taking orders (and a lot of crap) from your superiors. I don’t suspect that V would do well in that environment. Does he like to fight? Looks like it. Does he like to kill? Looks like not. Good start. But he sure looks like he’s mostly just out for his own agenda, and that doesn’t sit well in the military.
One can be a threat and dangerous without truly being considered a “villain”. As such, Vehemence is someone with a twisted morality code which makes him hard to truly define. The threat he poses is his morality code will let him cause collateral damage and put people in the hospital. So, dangerous yes, full on villain … another story.
However, murder and letting people die is not acceptable to him. Broken bones(most of them) will heal with time. That’s acceptable. It’s obvious he could have easily killed Vektor, but he just used an attack that would take him out of the fight for good. The big thing is, I get a feeling that the strength of his blows would be affected by how ‘soft’ he considers the target.
Sydney, unless she proves otherwise, would get the “finger flick” treatment. Ie just enough force to drop her, but not kill her.
Maxima would get the “I missed and I just blew a water pipe from the raw pressure of my attack”
Like I said, twisted morality code. This is also a way to make the “baddie” feel more human. Because they do have a code by which they abide. Having an animal they care for, or someone truly innocent is another common tactic used by writers.
Of course such codes of conduct are also wonderful ways to restrict the “truly” good guys, or show just how “bad” the anti-heroes can get.
I believe his D&D classification would be Chaotic Neutral. Definitely not law or procedure following, so Chaotic. Good and Evil? He doesn’t care about either. So, Neutral.
Yup, CN is the best allignment, and the most fun (and the closest to true Chaos)
Chaotic Neutral also works. If so then it’s nice to see an arch-villan without some huge long-term agenda.
That being said, regarding Halo as a good kid and genuinely not wanting to see her killed doesn’t quite tie in with the narcissistic bent of CN characters …unless the guy also has a split-personality in its most clichéd form.
I never like the DnD alignment tables only because they never actually worked all that well once they expanded from the original Law/Chaos dimension, no matter the contortions you ended up going through to make your guys motivations actually work.
I much preferred the palladium system that was based more on psychology and morality vectors.
https://gelvgoldenaxe.proboards.com/thread/23 is a great summary page on the whole thing.
Note: Neutral does exist but is relegated to background characters since being a hero or villain would be antithetical to being neutral.
In that system this guy would be classified as Unprincipled or possibly Anarchist depending on how things pan out.
I see him as aberrant.
Well.
He may be a villain, but at least he’s not evil. They could do worse for an arch-nemesis.
What are the odds this is a scheme put together by Arianna?
Zero odds Arianna had anything to do with this. And psychopaths don’t need to be evil to be a major menace to everybody around them.
I’unno, I wouldn’t go so far as to say zero. In fact.. Vehemence might actually be her. Have you ever seen them in the same panel together?
My left eyebrow is twitching nonstop. I hope you’re happy.
Best. Comment. Ever.
And here’s something to think about: How could Vehemence have gotten everyone together to attack Arc Squad in such a short time frame (remember, it has only been about 2 or 3 hours since the press conference demonstration)? Unless he had some advance notice courtesy of our favorite marketeer
he went to Vekter & Opals team first and used her for rapid collection. until we know the full scale of her power this is only a theory, but it also explains the large number of them, also Vekter seeing his group as more important than the others. Imagine Vehemence going to him and his, revealing the plan to attack ARC along with a chaff screen of lesser supers (Vehemence not mentioning that from his perspective, team Vekter is part of the chaff).
The downside of going to Opal to ‘get the band back together’ for this fight is what happened at the end. He purposefully (and literally) squashed their escape from ARC. On live TV. Every one of these guys and any of their buddies are going to be gunning for him the first chance they get. He must think he is so above them that he is not in the least worried of the future threat they pose. His guess is that after he mops the floor with ARC every baddie who sees the film will flock to him as their new leader.
Flashmob tweet.
Really? A just because you have never seen them together reference?
All joking aside, unless Arianna has some serious unseen mojo that she has been hiding, (and please for the grammar there but I am not changing it) I doubt that Vehemence is secretly Arianna. And while it might be cool to think so, remember back to when the villains first busted through the roof. Maxima gave Arianna a questioning look, as if asking Arianna if she had planned this event, and Arianna gave a panicked no. Comic reference: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1260
What better place to hatch your evil supervillainess schemes than working as PR for the heroes? Besides, in media relations, lying is like.. 95% of what she does, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume she could con Maxima as well with a bit of spot acting.
I’m calling it, right now. Arianna’s the big bad. Just you wait.
The irony is, I could actually see a “flunky” or “loyal servant” of the villain perform such duties. It wouldn’t be easy on them, having to condemn the actions of their “boss” but it would give them access to a lot of information.
The flip side is, this can backfire and end up with said “flunky” honestly changing sides and becoming the Real PR person they were hired to be.
I guess if there are two known Maxima-level supers on earth, (ie Maxima and the guy she strongly implied that she killed) it’s not too much of a stretch to believe there are three. Which makes me wonder if gold skin can be bruised…
There’s a story arc there about Maxima’s morality and gold getting tarnished and some such, you know. It’s just waiting to happen.
If A Bomb’s Bolo Blast didn’t do the job I doubt Vehemence has enough power to do it. And remember Max’s style is kill-shots. She will hit him fast and hard and worry about consequences later.
Remember that A Bomb didn’t use the most powerfull thing she had available, because she didn’t want to kill everyone else.
I doubt Vehemence has such moral limitations. He has no intention of killing everyone around him, but the posibility wouldn’t stop him
I think Vehemence really doesn’t want to kill, outright, but he seems to love violence. He expressed (in a thought balloon) that he hopes Sydney doesn’t get killed tonight, but recognizes that he’s about to commit extreme violence & it remains a possibility.
He also gives them opportunity to get some medical treatment for Vektor…Not really wanting him to die, but has no qualms about hitting him that hard in the first place as well as betraying the whole group he came with.
Evidently, those who are no longer of the capability of fighting, he wants cleared out of the way, because he’s aware that the major mayhem about to occur is going to have some fallout-effect & he doesn’t want to commit *accidental* death by collateral damage…If he really *intends* to kill, he won’t hesitate, but he doesn’t seem to want it happen by accident.
Definitely not honest, but at least some level of honor…This is someone that might possibly be dealt with peacefully & equitably. On the other hand, that might not be possible tonight…His intention to perpetrate a major smackdown are clear enough.
Definitely of the Unprincipled Selfish Alignment on the Palladium scale. Not Good and not really Evil but still someone who has their own agenda.
tarnished?
I dunno. He THINKS he’s in her league. We have yet to see proof. He shrugs off cars and punches through fields, which is more or less Stalwart’s league. Maybe he’s a decent fight for Maxima, or maybe she’ll tear his arms off. Hard to guess.
Assuming he really invited every super-not-hero he came across and also that not everyone showed up he really met a lot.
People have been calling him a Joker analog. But Moriarity, Napoleon of Crime, might be closer. An organizer and facilitator of super criminals. Gets his profit from the gross. And has enough power that nobody dares defy him. He saw the writing on the wall and this is his exit. Look for a dead Vehemence at the end. And don’t believe it for a second.
Think the “Six Degreees Of Separation” thing.
He MIGHT personally know or have met or otherwise contacted ALL of the villainous supers there. Maybe. But, I think it much more likely that he knows most of them only by association at best – “Let’s see, if I can get Vexter in, then he’ll bring along his girlfriend who can do the portal thing, etc….“.
My take, anyhow.
I really like him.
I know. I am really hoping that he will be a reoccurring villain. I mean the duality of his personalities so far, the hard and the soft, just makes you want him to escape to fight another day.
Mr Goju Ryu?..
So far I think he is interesting, maybe likable. If he starts throwing around killing level attacks (IMO he is already on thin ice for the level of property damage he orchestrated) or God forbid kills one of the team, I am going to have to regretfully want him dead and cremated, then his ashes fused I to a metal block and launched into the sun. Just to be sure, you understand.
I’m actually hoping he wins the fight.
It doesn’t look like he would kill the defeated. He just wants the pleasure of the victory, and I certainly think humiliating most of ARC SWAT by himself(or more specifically, forcing Maxima to “kneel”, thus making it very personal) would make for a good recurring villain, and make it clear how ARC still has room for personal growth.
This whole fight has been quite the mess, despite how unorganized their opponents were.
Vehemence overpowering them would establish a precedence.
Nice to see a villain who is refreshingly sane, people in it ”for the evilz” are so…boring
Beating up people and possibly getting beat up for the “fun” of it is sane? Especially when he could put his powers to much better use? If you say so.
Well, at his power level it would be difficult to find a worthy challenge in a legal profession, like for example, one-man building demolition in the construction field. Buildings don’t really fight back, ya’ know. Search & rescue type of thing would require holding back when he tries to evacuate a victim from the scene of a disaster (they’re just too darn squishy). He also seems to have a thing against serving under orders to a “superior” position, probably because it’s so hard to find someone that he could consider as his superior in the first place.
Enough power to be wither a boon or a bane, but with enough ego that prevents him from being a boon. Yep, I think he’s doing the only thing that’s right for him…But will wind up being wrong for anyone around him.
“Right” in what sense of the word? Yeah, he seems to enjoy it, but that doesn’t make it any more “right”.
When you’re talking superheroes, sanity can be a rather vague term.
By superhero definition, Sydney is perfectly sane and normal.
He’s not trying to destroy the planet, take over the city, turn everyone into mutants, kill everyone who crosses him, the list goes on.
So in comparison to all that … he’s Sane.
I don’t see why the term should be any more vague for superheroes than it is for non-superheroes. One can be closer to being sane (“not trying to destroy the planet, take over the city, turn everyone into mutants, kill everyone who crosses him,” etc.) than someone else and still not be sane.
Well.. i feel it should be pointed out there that A-Bombs less than fully powered blast were able to penetrate Maxima’s shield at its strongest level, and hurt her, even if only slightly.
Vehemence has had time to carefully observe the entire fight, and i doubt he would not just have wandered casually away if he had not though he at least stood a chance of challenging Maxima.
she was still flying, so it was not her strongest shield
I wonder why Vehemence’s lines changed colour from pale blue to white.
Is it related to his preparing to fight?
Is he buying time to with his conversation?
Or could it just be that he’s moved forward and the lighting has changed?
Power up would be my guess.
This could get a little rough.
Vehemence seem, to have an shield similar to Max’s, in that his clothes are protected by his shield (hence him no being naked from teh grenades in the caddy’s trunk) however his field is a lot weaker.
It took a near nuclear blast to affect Max’s clothes, but a mere Cadillac to the shoulder torn his nice suit..
Panel two has Sydney’s Lighthook looking a little more phallus-y than usual, especially with her cupping the balls – *ahem* – I mean orbs at the base.
Sometimes a banana is just a banana.
Sometimes a banana is a plasma-sword
That would make it a bit hard to peel and eat, I would imagine.
And sometime a banana-plasma-sword is a metaphor for a penis.
And sometimes penis is a metaphor for banana-plasma sword.
Popcorn is ready.
HAJIME!
Vehemence’s psycho grin fails to move around his facial tattoos. So either they are special or Dave doesn’t want to draw the tattoo distortion every time Vehemence displays his perfect dental work.
There seem to be a few tropes at odds here. Earlier, Max brought up how “declaring invincibility and then challenging someone to a fight” was a guaranteed way to lose.
Vehemence never actually said he was invincible though
you have sun and warm days in texas?
I can only remember two days since April without rain or wind or cold cloudy weather in munich… on the other hand, last winter wasn’t much different either…
Just jump on a plane and visit Hampshire for a few days. Papers are saying we’re going to have an extra month of summery weather here
Clouds and rain, that sounds nice. If I ever get a chance I’d like to move to Seattle. I hear they think the sun is some sort of sky demon up there. Seasonal Affective Disorder, more like Seasonal Awesome… Disorder.
I don’t like heat.
Then you would love Adak island in Alaska. That is the only place I have ever known that gave you the day off with the sun came out. The local paper had a cartoon of a frightened child hugging onto his mothers apron strings, her saying It’s ok Timmy, we call that the sun. no one, but no one was inside, everyone was sun burned the next day, those who went up to the glaciers more so.
Or to be a dwarf.
Well, I lived in the Pacific Northwest (Stationed in Washington by the Navy) for about 4 years…The average weather up there is such that they have a saying that goes: “Washington people don’t grow old & fade out…They rust away.”
A bit more concisely: Lots of cloudy skies, year-round high humidity.
at the very least, come up for ECCC “Emerald City Comic Con” that’ll get you a taste of the weather and let your fans in the area get to see you in person, rather than just a gravatar image…
Here in Florida we have clouds and rain nearly every Summer day, we also have sun and rain and thunderstorms (lots of those and very open they pop up and disappear like popcorn) oh and sometimes there’s tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes too (I can’t remember hearing thunder during any of those).
Down here, our ‘winter’ comes in what the rest of the country terms ‘spring’, and the poor lambs still haven’t evolved flippers to cope with the wet :P
Here, in Alabama we have 4 seasons, Almost Summer,Summer,STILL Summer, GODDAMN IT”S FOOKING COLD!!!!!
Yeah, just about the same seasons here: A week until Summer, It’s so goddamn hot, muggy, and rainy, A week to Winter, It’s almost nice.
This is gonna sound odd, but I like this guy. It’s obvious he’s just in it for the gratuitous violence, but at the same time he holds an odd code of honor about himself. Reminds me of my uncle.
This guy is displaying a decidedly bi-polar mentality. I wonder if he is here to woo Max. That might explain his weirdness.
He doesn’t strike me as weird. He appears to be somebody who is so powerful, and so in control of the situation, that he doesn’t give a f__k. He doesn’t HAVE to. And that is scary.
This is the sort of character you see in people like DOOM or Luthor or Magneto. Supremely powerful, capable of doing and getting away with literally anything- however, instead of going all “BLArgheDEATHMAIMKILLEVERYTHING!” they do what they think is right- and because they are so powerful, they don’t bother to constrain their actions to what everyone else thinks is right (i.e., Law)- oftentimes these guys are the ones who are actually capable of the greatest good, ironically, because of those constraints on the so-called Heroes. Guys like this are the ones willing and able to go in and KILL Galactus, not just drive him off. He’d crush the Joker’s skull if they got in an altercation, not just lock him up.
In a way, this is what Aquaman is, but Orrin is held back by needing proper diplomatic relations with the surface world, as King of his own domain.
Chaotic good rather than lawful? I could see that, but though I usually consider the law to be the weak shadow/sister to Justice, law is there for a reason. Law is theoretically there to protect the rest of us forms psychopaths like Doom. Though the Joker should have been executed 50 years ago…
I would have gone with Marvel’s Namor in your comparison, but I get your gist. I’ve seen a few posters compare Vey to the Joker, and I don’t think that’s a good comparison.
The Joker wouldn’t point out that Vek was in need of medical attention: he might have just said something along the lines of, “Alas, poor Vekter. Dying in a drainpipe. Them’s the breaks, buddy!”
I think the character tropes that work best for Vehemence are Affably Evil, Lightning Brick, and possibly Genius Brawler, as well. Archon may not be able to win this one.
Which may also explain why he kept his former comrades from escaping- They’re a consolation prize.
WOO HOO!!! FIGHT!!! And it going to be a Maxima fight.
Hope Maxima isn’t over confident about what she can do.
They are both overconfident. The winner will be the least overconfident one. Place your bets for Thursday.
I don’t know. Would Maxima have an easy time against someone who in all theory be able to hold her at bay with the Force? If size matters not, then one with the force should be able to telekinetically hold Maxima in place (not that the movies ever did such a thing, but it would make for a boring movie if they did :p)
Depends on how much energy a Force user can generate. A master like Yoda could lift a fighter craft or pull down a cliff with some effort. Penetrating Max’s protective fields to Force choke her might be a problem since the Force cannot get through such fields apparently. Holding her would take effort of stopping the equivalent of tons of pressure as she pushed back. As a rule using the Force is magic. It is as strong as it needs to be. Non-quantified and theoretically unlimited. Start plugging in numbers and it is just another TK Power Pool.
Champions for the win.
What I was thinking. In TESB Yoda basically says one doesn’t really have to struggle to do such an act. However, it seems later, that’s retconned to not be true.
But yeah, like most comics, it’s all about what the writer wants the story to be. :p Still fun to discuss/debate/argue :)
Even the very best Force users are still vulnerable to head games, basic physical frailties and so on. They can even be distracted and/or surprised.
The Force is overrrated.
No, The Force is actually under rated. It’s the Jedi who were overrated.
Hmmm, I’d go with that.
Doesn’t matter how deadly the weapon or superior the system, it all really hinges on the boob using same.
Lex Luthor + Superman = Vehemence. Oh, crap.
He does have Lexie’s smile. The mean one he rarely shows. But I don’t think he can fly, unless Max launches him like she did Boilerplate. We’ll see.
Agreed, I don’t expect to see any flight or vision powers. He does display massive strength, invulnerability, and an ability to casually negate defensive fields (well, at least Vecter’s).
I don’t think he negated the field as much as overwhelmed or overloaded it with that punch.
Makes me wonder how a Star Wars/Grrl Power crossover would go
Grrl Wars? I think that’s a video series Dabbler starred in..
I would be all over a Grrl Power/Emp crossover.
That’s not really what I had in mind. Let’s just say it involved Dabbler and a Slave Leia outfit.
Not that I was replying to you, but how about Dabbler in a post-battle Emp costume?
Seriously, the teeth of this guy keep creeping me out.
Is he ooky and is he spooky?
This dude is suspiciously courteous for a super-villain.
You realize that’s what makes a SUPER-villain, right? It’s all about PRESENTATION!
For one to be a true VILLAIN, one must present oneself well and never get drunk on ones own power. there is an art that makes you more than a thug with powers.
Yeah, I think Vehemence is already well-versed in the list at https://www.eviloverlord.com/
Now that I think of it, he probably has some input there…
LOVE the Megamind reference!
+1
Maybe Vehemence’s weakness is copper. Quick, start throwing pennies at him.
cut to a confused Vehemence
“This was not a circus performance”
Or we could just nickel and dime him into submission.
But give him no quarter!
Let’s be Franc about this.
What you’re asking isn’t much of a change but fine: lets just pound him!
I think he has a yen for this fight.
Not surprising, besides clothes, he doesn’t have a mark on him yet.
please ‘check’ this line of discussion before the anti pun weapons are deployed C.O.D.
I sense Sydney will be the one to take this guy down, probably owing to him not wanting her involved in the first place.
I didn’t get that from their interaction. It just seemed like he thought it would be a shame if she died that night.
I can see hit eights when he grins. How many teeth does this guy have in his jaw?
All of them.
And possibly those of others somewhere in a jar at home.
+1
Those would be the teeth that didn’t stay in long enough for the “patient” to get to the dentist’s office.
Eight per half jaw is the max right number (2 incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars, 3 molars) and DaveB has been counting them.
Panel three does gives the impression to have nine in the right lower side though.
Random thought: It would be hilarious if Sydney started using the lighthook to do emotes.
Pleeeeease!! :)
Been a while since we’ve seen a Lawful-Evil type villain, or maybe he just has the Code of Conduct disad. Either way, I think I like this guy, for values of like. He is, after all, a bad guy?
This Gentleman is an excellent example of lawful evil
Well some of my half baked theories from the last post’s comments about him being an ARCDARK mole of some kind are gaining credence. But then I have a wide spread of comment theories on him, like the warrior code ones etc… so I probably don’t get to brag.
Isn’t there a trope about someone announcing their actual intentions (or part of them) when asked but no one believes them so they let them believe whatever? Cause I’ve seen that joke reveal done many times in webcomics. So unless DaveB is reversing this common trend/joke the thing he said first might actually be part of his deal.
If it hadn’t been for the subject matter it looked like Sydney was holding a flute or something in the second panel. Its clear the Lighthook will continue to be Sydney’s go to orb for humorous prop. That thing is awesome for it!
Aaand lets also not forget to put the woman who’s skull was whip cracked unconscious by a super strong man……. that actually is just as worrisome as the ribs. In fact with her back there this scene has some symmetry to one from Death Tolls fight. Wonder if that’s on purpose.
Too bad Sydney forgot to make a larger shield to start with so she would have more air.
I kinda like this guy, can we keep him?
He’s probably hired by Ariana from some kind of super-for-hire agency to make it a good show. She expected this to happen and to make it a good objective lesson they needed someone who actually had some power to join in or people would keep on trying, convinced that they were stronger than the last bunch of failures..
No. If Vehemence lands a solid hit on Dabbler, or Harem, or Goose, or Peggy, they are D.E.A.D. or at least in traction. Arianna is a schemer, yes, but I refuse to believe she’d deliberately expose the team to that level of risk for a ploy.
“…can we keep him?”
Only if you promise to feed him & clean up after him…but you’ll get no extra money on your allowance to hire the massive construction crew it would take.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1260 For those thinking Arianna set this up like the the phoney bank job, check the upper strip of minipanels. You can write the dialog in your head easily enough.
Yes, its too dangerous a stunt (unless he hired EVERYBODY there!) and even then the good guys could have killed the bad guys in an accident. But I guess when it comes to setting up crimes for supers you only have to cry wolf once to get labeled for years. XD
I just HOPE that this will be a very good battle and not another “Big Bad, look at me, oh zap-boom-bang he’s down”. So far most of these people have been total chumps, though a couple of them look like they coulda been contendahs if they worked on it a bit.
Although the point Maxima was trying to make to the worlds supers in the press conference was that fights with them would work out exactly like that. And I think a lot of fights with Maxima in the future will go down like that until they start letting Sydney go on missions with a smaller non-Maxima group. But it looks like DaveB, with this dialogue, is letting us know we can expect some fun now till the guy runs away. Unless he kicks there arse and leaves them alive as his own complete reversal of Maxima’s press statement, “NO, the villains aren’t even enough afraid of you to bother incapacitating or killing you.” LOL
This person brings up a reminder of the comments from the speculation about fighting DT. How do you attack someone who appears to be near invulnerable. If it turns out that pure physical force won’t cut it, there were the suggestions of things like tear gas, nerve gas, suffocation via inert atmosphere, mind control, etc.
If he has an honor code, could he agree to something less destructive to determine top dog, like an arm wrestling match with Max? I bet Arianna could get it put on pay-per-view.
Oil wrestling match or tapioca pudding… decisions decisions….
Hm..I wonder if his power is directly proportional to the number of powered entities (perhaps disabled only) around him? It would make a certain twisted sort of sense: he waited until the majority of the bad guys were defeated and immobilized, he took Opal out before she took his batteries away, and his ‘concern’ for Vekter could then be explained as not wanting to loose one of his ‘bigger’ batteries.
But, with so little info, who knows what his motivations are based on.
.
Which is very similar to some theories people had about Death Toll. But I think DaveB is done mucking about with us with those odd-duck powers that require extensive planning to utilize properly consistently.
But that would be a cool odd-ball power that would certainly generate a warrior/beserker mentality since the crazier the odds the better off you would be.
Interesting guy. In a loves violence kind of way.
A real Boy Scout except for that one little character issue of his – So he likes extreme violence – It’s just one little personality flaw. We can overlook that right?
Cutest jedi eva!
She may well be. At the very least, she’s in the top 5.
Her bruise mysteriously healed again. :p
She used the Force.
She used Grrlpower!
Just as long as she doesn’t start using puppy power.
Except if it involves YORP.
I swear his personality seems like a twisted version of Zaraki Kenpachi. By that I mean fight you till you can no longer do battle (due to death or injury) or he’s defeated and if you do survive his beating, he expects you to survive, grow stronger, and try to return the favor. Zaraki will also one shot anyone interfering with his fight (ally or enemy) and unless he’s bored or otherwise disappointed all during he sports a huge, predatory grin. Bastard even holds back so the main fight doesn’t end to quickly.
agreed, he definitely strikes me as a slightly kinder version of the Kenpachi template (he actually makes his foes get medical attention, rather than hope for the best)