Grrl Power #252 – A mighty blow… to the ego
I know Vehemence said he hopes Sydney survives the night, but that doesn’t mean he won’t flick her in the temple if he manages to get through her shield. She did kind of make him look foolish just now. I guess she forgot Maxima’s “don’t totally piss of the supervillain” advice from a few pages ago, but hey I guess she figured with her shield, why not tank the guy for a while?
It’s difficult for people to see you as a threatening arch-villain if you face plant in the first 2 seconds of the fight. I don’t know why that doesn’t happen to more villains. I mean, sure, Doctor Doom probably has gyro stabilizers in his armor, and Thanos can… well, control time – so he can just pop back to before it happened I guess, but the Flash could trip everyone, or take off their dirty sock and stuff it in their mouth mid-monologue. If I wrote the Flash comic, it would be a very different book.
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Wait, where did Fedorka (or anyone) mention anything about numbers? And what about Peg? Just because she is stuck with the Barret doesn’t mean she’s not to be counted
Would really like to see Fedorka swat Sydney into the next state (she will survive, just be out of the way for awhile)
Not sure if this is an orphaned reply or what but I guess the “inverse ninja” thing is talking about numbers or quantity vs. quality at least.
I wonder if the shield resists being moved as part of its function? I’ve never seen her get moved by being hit while in it? If so moving the shield equals breaking the shield and that would be bad for Sydney either on the initial impact when it burst or when she lands… or what is left of her lands.
No, wasn’t a reply, just something odd that occurred to me when she mentioned specific numbers (went back a couple pages and counted the standing Arc-ites)
> Just finishes describing the inverse ninja principle
> Makes a crack about how she’s going to win because of superior numbers
Also, Vehemence’s double-cross makes sense if we assume he wants to force ARCHON to fight him. If Opal had succeeded in extracting all the other supers, there would be no reason why the team couldn’t just leave when he challenges him. Now they have to stay committed to the battle in order to finish the arrests of all those other villains.
I guess that might make sense to him since he thinks he’s scary enough, once they properly engage him and see his true might, to scare them into full retreat…. maybe if he’s not very perceptive of them as people and a team. But I don’t think Maxima would do anything other than attempt to arrest him once he attacked them, or even refused to be detained and questioned especially as a part of this mess.
Well, one of the aspects of the proverbial “ninja mob” that *hasn’t* been pointed out yet is that it’s also affected by “dramatic use of battle etiquette.” While working in a mob, you ever notice how only 1 or 2 ninja attack at any given time while the rest hang back & politely wait for the lone hero to show off? Why don’t they just prove their superiority in numbers by simply pig-piling on the hero?
One point about this tendency I’ve heard of involves the “ridiculous odds” factor…The lone hero is free to strike out however he wishes because the “ridiculous odds” actually works in his favor, but the ninja mob has to show some caution so as to NOT hit one of their own buddies by mistake.
I don’t know if it’s so much etiquette as it is “I’d rather stay out of range of our leader’s enemy’s (which isn’t quite the same as my enemy) weapons, because I can’t continue cashing my nice paycheck if he kills me like the last twenty or so guys who just rushed him.”.
Never say “retreat”, it’s a “strategic withdrawal”.
That’s a LOT of syllables to be trying to spit out when your troops need to get the hell out of there! o.0)’
Yeah, I also thought it was weird that she remarks at the inverse ninja effect, then immediately brags about numbers. Good thing Vehemence couldn’t possibly punch through her shield, right? I mean, that thing withstood a nuke!
Well it’s a 5 star shield, and 5 star is basicly the most powerfull in this universe. So probably.
But they don’t know that
Honestly, I’d be more worried about him using Sydney’s shield as a weapon. If it’s unbreakable, then it’s an ideal projectile against other supers.
that would only work once at best she would swap from light hook to fly ball and be in control.
Or just grab hold of him with the tentacle and rubber band right back at him, time and time and time again…:D
Yeah, and what happens if he decides to be the paddle-stick with Sydney being the ball?
If he had ever played with one of those things as a kid, he could use the Sydney-ball to take out her team
Then Sydney simply dematerializes the psuedopod (preferably while moving towards him), rematerializes (is so desires), and rehooks him.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
We’re not sure anyone CAN move the shield except Sydney, Maxima couldn’t and her punches were heard through a couple floors of the tower.
Sure, in theory. But even then, an immobile, invulnerable object is still just as apt to be used as a weapon as a mobile one is – especially to a clever super. If you throw someone into a building, for example, they can only take as much damage from the impact as the building is able to offer before they just go right through it. If you throw someone into an unbreakable, immobile forcefield, on the other hand – all of that impact force is immediately realized the second they hit the immovable object. :)
Unless of course that forcefield absorbs some of the force somehow. (Hey, it’s already breaking the laws of physics. What’s a few more?)
So he could make her the payload of a Archillopedo?
Achilles’ invulnerability goes up to six, so no, five is not where the scale caps.
Technically, Achilles’ invulnerability as six is more or less as a joke – it’s so powerful, it doesn’t even fit on the scale.
The way I like to think of it is that five is “the most powerful known”, whereas six is simply an absolute. What was known in the original Marvel super heroes pen and paper game as a ‘beyond’ level power. All the lesser levels were represented with a number (or range of numbers). Whereas a beyond power was simply infinite.
That way the fact that Maxima and Sydney both have powers in the fives does not prevent Dave from later introducing a character who is more powerful than them. That new character simply becomes the standard by which the five is measured, being the new ‘most powerful known’.
Which means that some characters might get reduced to a four rating, unless they are in the same ball park still, just not quite as powerful. And we have the precedent, in that both Stalwart and Super Hiro are rated at four star strength, but one is consistently stronger than the other.
So a five attack may be able to penetrate a five defence, without there being any need to adjust the star ratings. One is simply slightly stronger than the other.
An analogy might be the Rictor scale, i.e. a 5.1 on the same ale is a bit more powerful than a 5.0.
IIRC on the Richter Scale a 2.0 is 10x more powerful than a 1.0, 3.0 is 10x a 2.0 etc etc.
IIRC?
IIRC = if I remember correctly, if that’s what you’re asking.
Correct so using that example Max could have a basic non-pumped beam of 5.4 stars verses Syds defense of say 5.5.
There in would lie why a 5 attack cant break a 5 defense.
Just a theory mind you
I tend to read them as ‘classes’: each star is generally around the same level of power – sure one could beat the other in an arm-wrestling match, but generally they’re comparable. If they have a star difference the higher star person obviously outclasses the lower. The scale goes to five – they made an exception in Achilles’ case because he outclasses everyone.
Note that there’s no actual measurement involved here – it’s just ranges based on who outclasses whom. The point being that a three-star superstrength shouldn’t try to out-strength a four-star superstrength. It’s quick easy classification for the battlefield, not DBZ power readings. ;)
It did not withstand a nuke. It withstood something equivalent to a daisycutter, which is considerably less potent than a nuke, and has no radioactive side effects to speak of.
It’s the ‘teamwork’ part that makes the difference. Being alone makes him a boss encounter, not unbeatable.
why a team of heroes with the government would leave if all the vilains except one are gone sincerely? that would be damn odd
like “oh well you know, it got boring let’s go get a drink” something like that?
Vehemence stopped the other villains from using their escape route when he took out Opal, so in order to arrest them all, they have to fight him first.
Or just fight a holding action while the less “super” members evac the stooge villains.
i think v stopped the getaway because he would have been ported out as well and that didnt worki with his plan
Ooops sorry I meant ARC evac the stooge villains to holding cells or the hospital or whatever away from this guy.
yeah i could believe that situation more for sure. but…still i think his reasons go deeper than that once again. the double cross shows he has a big plan behind it all i think
Perhaps, but all he has revealed so far is a desire to stick around and fight because he likes mayhem. It would be very disappointing if he were to turn out to actually be so one-dimensional, but that’s all we’ve heard from him about his motives to date.
it’s not so much they’re going to win by superior numbers. more they will win because of superior members. thus not an inverse ninja situation more a rioting mob vs a well trained squad.
well trained squad with the idiot stuff they did i am not sure right now…
She does have an issue with the tropes when she get’s cocky, despite knwoing them:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/846
A combination of the Periodic Contractual Genre Blindness and Idiot Ball tropes perhaps.
So she’s so knowledgeable about tropes that she has to follow them even when it’s to her detriment?
Nah, that’d be Wrong Genre Savvy.
Mostly, it’s that she’s just Genre Savvy, not Dangerously Genre Savvy. (That is: She knows what tropes apply to her world in general, but she doesn’t always remember to apply them and think out the consequences of them being applied.)
“LET ME SHOW YOU THE TECHNIQUE THAT’S BEEN PASSED DOWN THE ARMSTRONG LINE FOR GENERATIONS!”
wahahahaha! Loved that character, he was so doofy at times in a show/manga that got rather serious at times
PERFECT!! There are so many parallels to that with his look and Sydney being a shorty with darn near the same hair! Hopefully when Dabbler replaces her arm with automail she will still be able to wield the balls with it. It was so obvious I never would have seen it wriggling on my face without your help. Thank you!
“Holy crap!?” — Sydney’s too surprised to measure surprise in ferret balls.
I think he’s on autopilot mode.
Yeah, I kind of get that feeling too. I’m even inclined to say that perhaps the more he uses his power, the less rational he gets. Almost like the Hulk, but not quite as mindless.
Actually no. When Max hit her shield back at the Hall of Justice, it made the same pattern.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/526
don’t forget the BIG BADDA-BOOM demonstration on the bomb range
Geez that guy has a lot of teeth on show tonight.
I LOVE the “slapstick” sound effect! Perfect!
This page is going to have me chuckling for days.
Though now I’m wondering if Sydney could use the tentacle to play hacky sack with him. So long as he can’t fly or grab the tentacle he probably wouldn’t be able to free himself from being tossed about.
Right now Sydney can chalk up a Mission Accomplished prize. V was aiming for a fight with Maxima but has been totally distracted by a flea bite. I’m betting he’ll focus on Sydney, or rather, her shield until someone gently reminds him there are others waiting their turn to whack him.
The distraction may allow Maxima to shift some of her power over into an attack from defense giving her a better chance to damage him while still maybe having enough time to shift it back before he recovers. Where as, with his speed, I wouldn’t want to shift too much out of defense and come at him with an attack if he wasn’t so distracted.
I vote Sidney grabs one of his appendages with the molestorb and finds out how far she can lift him in the air. If he doesn’t calm down she can grab some air tanks and introduce him to +30,000 ft.
A squishy taking down the shield in proximity to THAT? IF she survives this BALLsy move Maxima will take serious issue with her in the after action bit.
at the time she drops the shield V will be at least temp held in the air out of reach of syd and syd will be quickly moving up out of reach of V if he breaks free so get max putting the tanks on her at 2-3 thousand feet with V 50-100 feet lateral to the side then check altitude limit syd can handle without the shield taking V with
Well we now know the lighthook can affect him..how strong IS the lighthook? can she just lift him off the ground by one leg and give him an (Upside down) World of Cardboard Speech?
we know it can lift a Honda Element.
If she can lift him she should go for a Hulk vs. Puny God (Loki) moment. It won’t work but they need to probe the extent of his abilities anyway. (and its good for lulz)
Ahh, subliminal code of panel 5 unlocked.
Vehemence has the look of a mafioso. Sydney has even referenced this by her “… old Italian man” comment. By using the tentacle orb to make a heart symbol, she is clearly referencing the notorious mafia killings of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre!.
Either that, or she just loves tripping muscle men up and humiliating them. Naa, surely she can’t be that petty? ;-)
Hey, this is Sydney we’re talking about, petty means small, and have you seen how big she is?
reference any magical girl team anime aka power of love/ teamwork
Well she did make her fist impact on the super world by taking down another big man. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/241
However when you are rather short person the world is full of Goliaths to sling stones at. More so in a world where her primary foes will be other supers and the corosponding tendency to larger than norm physical stature and build.
LOL .. just looked at the link and .. AGAIN .. Max’s look at Sydney taking him out by tongue toss! bwahahaha
Here you all go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BdQunJnrEw
Yep, that looks berserkergang-y. I stand corrected about his code name being ironic.
Thinking back on her last fight, I think its time for Sydney’s “Tourettes-Fu” combat style to come back into play.
It’s patented and guaranteed effective in 99% of fights!
I assume there more to this guy this just a hulk type if not Sidney chould just grab wrist or foot with light hook and string him up for hero and max to use as a punching bag..
He’d probably just rip it off or even damage it (temporarily I’m sure being energy it reforms)
I’m not 100% sure you could use Shielded Sidney as a projectile weapon. Couldn’t she use the flight orb to just stop?
Actually I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be able to do so without her express indulgence. When she took all the punches and blasts from Maxima, including the nuke shot, her shield didn’t budge from the spot. I think the shield is locked in place around her, not the other way around. So if she moves, it’ll move, but you can’t force the shield to move her.
Shield orb + fly orb equals ~400 mph wrecking ball. That’s 25 times as much energy (impacting you) as hitting a small deer at 80 mph with your car, or 11.1 times as hard as someone in free fall.
We do not yet know whether Sydney can ram anything with her shield. It has not come up.
We’ve seen her use it to shield her from air (and you know that includes dust and insects at the least) during flight. So the shield can do it on a light scale. It be nice to have her tested and trained to make sure but, if things get scary serious (Maxima gets pwnd or can’t fully stop him from attacking squishies), it makes enough sense to try.
We’ve got no idea how her flight power works. What if the flight orb negates her relative mass while flying? It would allow for very high acceleration while keeping Syd safe and comfortable. It would also mean that the power of an impact would be limited to the power needed to overcome air resistance for the speed she was traveling at. Sure there’s a fair bit of power needed to push a shielded Sydney through the air at 400 mph, but without apparent mass having her crash into things wouldn’t be particularly impressive.
I admit that I don’t think it’s a very likely scenario, but until we know more it’s still a possibility.
All very possible. We’ll never know until it gets brought up in the comic. My original post was just referring to it not being possible against her will. SO not a big chance that the bad guy could pick her up and throw her at an enemy, as her shield seems immovable unless she moves. Could also be a good way to immobilize an opponent. Knock them down and have Sydney drop on top of them with the sield up. They’re anchored in place.
The one thing we do know is that the flight orb seems to generate a local gravity field of it’s own – Sydney’s hair, etc, still falls ‘down’ relative to her, even if she’s upside down.
Depending on how that works, it could reduce apparent mass to zero or increase it to infinity for someone interacting with her from outside the field. (And it wouldn’t surprise me for it to do both, depending on what Sydney wanted it to do at the time.)
Vehemence is pretty big. You can tell he’s pretty big because he falls so hard he cracks pavement.
Being big isn`t enough to crack the pavement though, or it would crack from him just standing on it. He has to have a very hard body and hit is pretty fast, because unless he was just super dense hitting it for that short or a fall would not crack it enough to send up pieces.
I was…I was making a “bigger they are, the harder they fall” joke.
He has to have fallen pretty hard, to bust pavement. Ergo, he must be quite big.
Humor? I’ve heard of it… but we don’t do that sort of thing round here. ;-P
Are you from the FBI? =P
I can neither confirm nor deny whether Observer is from the FBI…
…
Because I don’t know.
FBI? Yes… Yes of course, I am FBI on lone to the special joint task force between the Air Force and NASA investigating this occurrence.
Okay people, from the shared hallucination of super heroines its likely you have all suffered too much inhalation of swamp gas just prior to the shock of the weather balloon crashing. If you’ll all just look into this special light we can use your eyes reaction to confirm the diagnosis… *red flash*
Taunt successful. She’s just doing what Max told her to. Get between bad guys and her less well protected teammates.
Oh dear god!
I knew he was big but….. he has biceps in his neck!!
And his shoulder is bigger than his head!!
AND WE ALL THOUGHT THE TEETH LOOKED WEIRD!!!
DAVE hey! Why doesn’t Sydney just use her hentai molest tentacle to grab a hold of Vehemence’s ankle and hang him upside down?
Or just use the hentai molest tentacle to do some hentai molesting? I bet it’s really hard to concentrate on the fight when you have a living energy probe knocking on your back door.
Does she have that much mental control is the question. She’s been using it like a whip and/or lasso
She can write a website address with it. Likewise she can lift up three separate super heroines simultaneously, whilst running in an embarrassed panic. She has pretty good control.
For the simple reason that she hasn’t thought of it yet, I’d say.
I’d laugh if Monday’s Comic Showed the Bisan Fedorka wallowing on the ground in tears and pain from smacking Hallows Physics Happy Shield. Oh and Hey Just think of all the XP she be Getting.
Well… time for a shield field stress test under max load. Good think Max took her out to get blasted earlier.
No matter how many it takes to take him down.. I don’t think he was expecting the first hit/trip of the fight to come from her lol
Anyone else wondering if perhaps Vehemence is another Maximizer? And the reason he’s not particularly worried about having fed a dozen-odd possibly useful henchmen to Archon is that he-by-himself is worth more than all of them put together, the way Maxima is worth her own entire team put together as well?
…yeah yeah, I know, I’m probably forty pages too late for that speculation. Sue me, I wanted to throw it out there anyways :P
I think he’s a magic powered berserker, like the Juggernaut, not a min-maxer like Maxima.
I say this because he’s got what appear to be tattoos, glowing tattoos no less which post powers he should not be able to get tattoos, and you can no longer see his pupils, typically an artistic decision to show an enraged state.
I suspect he has more than just brute strength though, otherwise Anvil could probably take him by herself, so I’m guessing that, at least, there’s like a magical burst or something at the point of impact that Anvil wouldn’t be able to absorb. His eventual downfall will probably involve Dabbler draining his juice a little or some other sort of voodoo, Max and Sydney keeping him busy for a bit, and Stalwart helping Anvil build up a mega punch to overwhelm his DR and knock him into the next issue in one shot. Alternatively, a deus ex Sydney where one of her unknown orbs becomes known, but we shall see.
Just push the power button on his hand.
A forced shutdown might be hard to pull off if you have to hold it for ten seconds.
It does exist to some degree, in that you have units that cannot easily attack but are hard to dislodge and unsafe to ignore; they do function to protect other units. Oddly enough, this role is not filled by tanks (it’s filled by infantry most of the time).
True. But the key part is that the MMOLG ‘tank’ is something that can draw attacks on itself without being inherently dangerous or being able to effectively block the path of the enemy.
Thinking that such a threat exists and is capable of forcing an attack is the fallacy that lost the war for France, in WW2. They considered their invulnerable Maginot Line would be able to hold any German attack.
Except the threat posed by the defences only worked if the enemy chose to come in range. Far simpler to go around them, via Belgium. Their taunting power was non-existent.
The Maginot Line worked fine – it forced them to go through Belgium, just as planned. The Ardennes Forest didn’t operate as expected though, meaning they took a different path through Belgium then expected.
It was a known compromise: France couldn’t field an army big enough to cover the entire area (WWI had depleted their population severely…), so they built the Maginot Line, and shifted their main army forces to the expected routes through Belgium. Germany found an unexpected (and thought impossible) route and went around them using a new tactic enabled by highly mechanized troops.
Later in the war, the Maginot Line did a decent job of stopping Patton for the Germans – though it was helped by the Allied sides cutting off his supplies.
I think the best example of successful taunting, in WW2, is Churchill deciding to bomb German cities, in order to provoke Hitler into diverting bombers from the squishy airfields, to the high hit point London.
But I think both this example and the comment on the previous page, about using expendable cannon fodder for tanking purposes, go to show the lack of a true real world analogy of a tank.
We do not have invulnerable individuals who can fill that role. Even though we do have a need to draw aggro, and find other ways to pull it off, on occasion.
The trip is awesome but please please please stop weaponizing the adorkability, it’s embarassing for us guys to swoon.
Not sure if asked but… What stops Vehemence from simply picking up the shield (I am guessing he is strong enough to rip the floor shield supposedly goes through) like a ball and throw/kick/use as an unwieldy, but night indestructible weapon?
Come to think again does the shield go through the ground/floor? Does it cause monomolecule thick cuts shaped like the section we dont see in the floor/ground? Can it be dug underneath? Does it end where the floor/ground begins, when on ground? Since it no longer selectively phases air, would not cutting cause some problems when shield is activated on a floor that is not solid underneath?
Questions I am really curious about.
I’m trying to take Vehemence seriously. Really! I am!
But an villain who happens to be covered in tattoos shaped like the X-Box power buttons? Pffffft.. lmao
Great take out but not a good idea to boast at that moment.
Is it just me or does V look like his forehead is caved in in panel 2?
My Goddess, he has eyebrow muscles bigger than Sydney’s biceps! They’re casting shadows on his forehead.
This is the perfect time for Sydney to make use of the FF Orb offensively: Select Embiggener, Triple size. Push him away. I don’t think this will cause an air pressure change as I think the shield cycles on and off on its own in slightly overlapping segments when not in immediate danger as well as when a resize happens. She got woozy because all those powers in range were keeping it in “safe” mode. A request to change size will trigger a refresh as well as a simple request to fresh the air –which she has not learned to do yet,
Quick call for a quarantine of the area and hazmat suits. Vehemence has Youngblood disease.
I thought it was WildC.A.T. scratch fever myself.
I haz ur referenz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ogs0EmMMk
If I were Sydney, I’d stop dicking around on the ground playing with the tentacle orb and get my ass in the air with that flight orb. Let the actual heavy hitters on the team do their work. I’m sure Maxima has some steam she needs to vent. With her fists.
Sydney is one of the least vulnerable people on the team. We haven’t seen the limit of that shield – she may be second only to Achilles. Letting him vent his attacks on her lets the rest of the team see what he can do – which is useful. For right now, she’s doing fine. Let him attack her while the rest of them work out how to attack him.
And, if he manages to crack her hard shell to get at the tasty nerd center? What then? Call for a “time out”?
The same thing that happens if he gets his hands on Harem, or Peggy, or Math, or gets through Anvil or whomever’s defenses: Support fire, and get her out to medical help.
She joined a combat team. Facing combat is part of the job. (Ok, she’s not trained yet – but she signed.)
I don’t think Max is going to wait that long. She knows Sydney’s shield can take a hard hit from her energy blast, so she is likely to see how well V can take a similar hit.
Doesn’t that blast also produce a significant amount of collateral damage?
Her biggest blast we’ve seen most certainly does. But she grounded Hex with a kinder, gentler blast. If Max opens fire, she’ll hit him with something that can take Stalwart or Hiro off their feet. If he keeps snarling, she’ll upgrade. Since Dabbler might also add some ice to sooth the burn V got from Sydney, his life is going to get complicated.
Maxima needs to hit him with Achilles.
They need to first dig Les out from under the restaurant
It’s Achilles, grab him by the ankles and Yank his arse out.
He’s too deep under the rubble. It’s a bad side effect of being totally invulnerable, if you go missing everybody assumes you’re fine just under or behind something. You miss so much while digging out.
Hey, Vehemence… have a nice trip, see you next fall!
=OP
Fedorkha. I like it. ;) And what Sydney did…I dunno, In the end, I think Vehemence will get a chuckle outta that…assuming he’s not beaten into a coma…or gloating as he conquers the world…We shall see. But points to Sydney for that. :D Sometimes, a simple gag is the ultimate set-up for a villain’s defeat…
At least, sidney managed to make him stop smiling :p
But the teeth are still there. Maybe his weakness is he can’t close his mouth after he powers up.
Ghod knows there are supers with weirder problems than that.