Grrl Power #255 – The ARC Wrestling Federation
Vehemence seems to be losing control of the fight, though he fared the Anvil on the head with probably more resilience than the heroes would like. It’s obvious no one is going to accidentally snap his neck, so they’re ramping up the intensity.
To Anvil’s chagrin she’s not wearing her military grade bra, though to be fair, with her chest and that landing, the only thing that might have helped would have been a form fitting platemail curiass. She could have had her arms crossed under and across them but she was trying to stick the landing.
I’d meant to have Sydney calling out attack names throughout the fight, I actually may go and put them back in when I do a general cleanup pass while I’m putting the book together (possibly books, depending on whether or not it’s feasible to do a single volume as thick as this has the potential to be.) For instance on the page where Heatwave accidentally roasts two of the villains Sydney was supposed to lean in and yell “Toasty!” but I guess I forgot to add it.
I’m so pleased with the reactions to the previous page! My favorite comments where the ones where someone read it, then 5 minutes later were like “ZOMG I get it!” Harem may eventually have that moment.
Sorry I haven’t updated the vote incentive yet, but I somehow managed to finish two double pages this week so my extracurricular time was limited. Hopefully I’ll be able to put some time into it this week.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey. I’ll make a permanent link for those somewhere on the page eventually.
<— If you enjoy the comic, consider supporting it via Patreon or the Amazon referral link.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Y’know…if they ever needed Anvil to charge up so-to-speak, why not have Max just start laying punches into her? I’m sure two or three of those would be enough to make a Max/Anvil DBZ Combo attack devastating.
Or with her wrestling moves just have someone really strong throw Anvil at someone. Besides the impact then they have a charged up Anvil right there to deal with.
Max has barely been involved in the fight at all; she’s mostly been providing minor support for the team. This is their first real brawl and she needs to see how they handle things, to evaluate their abilities beyond just their superpowers.
For example: Math let himself get caught up in a one-on-one brawl out of ego, then lost it because Jabs accidentally flashed him. That’s the kind of thing you want to find out BEFORE things get serious. Dabbler got caught up too, but eventually ended it with a little prompting while also taking out a second, bigger threat during the duel – then started taking things seriously and cleaned up a lot of messes. Aside from blocking a single blow against Dabbler, Achilles has largely been useless. Anvil is vulnerable to being thrown and makes it far too obvious that she is more than just simply resilient. Harem’s teleportation is not faster than some of her opponents are.
And, of course, Sydney. Despite everything, she’s proven to be a useful supportive team member, an easy source of annoyance for their opponents, an observant tactician, and capable of tricking enemies into letting their guard down even during an ambush. Oh, and her shield is airtight too.
If Max just started using her rank 9 powers to annihilate everyone, she wouldn’t have learned any of this, all of which is potentially important to know as the group’s commanding officer.
Also, Death Toll would have torn through her – something she’s definitely going to keep in mind for the future.
I don’t feel Achilles has be THAT useless. He did save Dabbler from being impaled.
Waldo seems to be talking about fun tactical possibilities for future fights not necessarily just this fight.
Yeah…that’s what I was going after.
Achilles has potential that’s not being exploited. Sydney’s genre savvy should come in handy for pointing out the obvious power stunt: Pair him with Max, Hiro, Stalwart or a charged-up Anvil for a Fastball Special with an invulnerable fastball.
For that matter, if you have a stationary target (mad scientist machine, fortified bad-guy base shaped like a skull and hidden in a swamp, etc.) Harem can slip into a flight suit and port him to low earth orbit, or Max can fly him up there. Give him some kind of attitude contol (thrusters, one of those flying squirrel glider suits, or the like) and let him drop onto the target from a few dozen miles up. The Vision used to pull that trick using his mass-manipulation powers to stomp on really tough opponents.
He could also ramp up his ability to draw fire and distract opponents by having Sydney train him in the ancient art of Cuss Fu. He also may be the only other being capable of deploying the weaponized hot sauce breath Sydney occasionally deploys.
Total invulnerability seems like a fairly passive power, but it doesn’t have to be.
The aggro drawing swearing techniques that have been passed down through the Scoville line for generations! She cannot simply train another. Also you must have a natural knack for it. Dabbler would likely do well with this training.
I don’t think Harem can transport other people.
Achilles can do a lot of the stuff you are talking about, but its not his comic. I think the girls will be the stars of grrl power.
Harem did teleport other people, she is just limited to a certain weight. Read back to the start of the fight where she gets the weapons etc. She mentions a weight limit there.
Pretty sure Harem hasn’t teleported anyone. When Maxima asked her if she could “hump the Barrett” she said barely. Assuming Peggy uses a stock M82A1 Barrett 50 Cal, the gun weighs 31 lbs. So its a safe bet that no other people have been teleported, unless Archon has some toddlers on staff.
Jack Jack from the incredibles would be a great addition.
Ps238 also showed some interesting characters in the advertising for new pupils section.
DaveB has stated before that Harem cannot, under any circumstance, teleport other living matter. Not so much as a small potted plant. Not because of weight, but because it’s alive. That’s canon. Period.
Actually, they did the fastball Achilles at least once during this fight, here (panel 6 in the background), maybe few times off screen too?
I called this maneuver the “Achillo-pedo”. Connacted form of Achilles and Torpedo.
Ugh, no. “Pedo” has some rather unfortunate associations, maybe try another portmanteau?
TORCHILLES
Well, that’s another good idea…Set Achilles on fire & have him go give the bad guy a nice, warm hug. I just hope he wears asbestos underwear…
So, ‘Pedo’ doesn’t have anything to do with feet slash movement?
‘Pedo-phile’ sounds more like a foot-fetish
The old greek morphemes for “foot” (as used in “pedestrian”) and “child” (as in “pediatrics”) end up looking similar in English, but I think there are different vowels, originally. Or possibly one of them’s a diphtong. Been a while since I took the class.
… and this is what I do instead of sleeping. Apparently. Carry on!
Usually pedi or pede for foot, pedo for child.
But there are words that does not conform to this, such as this… So be careful making assumptions.
Which is why, one would think, eddi started his sentence with “usually”, as in “not always”, as in “there may be words that do not conform to this”.
In English, if there isn’t an exception to how a word is formed/defined just wait until the next update of the OED or Webster.
“Picks Death Troll up and hits Oberon with him”.
Even though he is unhurtable, he is not optimized for delivering hurt to someone else. It would be the same as someone punching you with padded boxing gloves vs. spiked gauntlets. There is too much energy dissipation with the average mushy human to really efficiently deliver enough force to cause harm, especially with your tougher than average super. Sydney even commented on this herself: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/716.
P.S. It doesn’t matter how high he starts out. Once he reaches terminal velocity, that’s it. (Now if they were fighting on the Moon, the higher the better).
Agreed to a point, but worth keeping in mind that, being invulnerable, he’s not as “mushy” as normal. His bones aren’t going to break and absorb impact….as long as he points his finger at a target then that force can be focused down quite a bit. Then question really comes in at what point does his strength give out and he’s unable to keep his joints straightened really
Actually, that’s a rather good point. He should train up in martial arts that utilize spear-hand strikes and the like- or he’d be able to use weaponry that’d normally be dangerous for the wielder (superheated quarterstaff, or burning nunchaku anyone?- actually, nunchaku and 3-part staffs (and any flexible weapon, really,) would be interesting weapons for him, since so many of their techniques to gain energy come from bouncing and wrapping around parts of the body- limiting normal practitioners to using less-damaging materials and swinging slower than they otherwise could- Achilles wouldn’t have that limitation. Bladed/spiked Tungsten-sheathed steel 2-part staff, anyone?) with impunity. And he’s obviously trained/conditioned himself to not flinch or be worried about injury (with that eye-tag), so there’s actually a small bit of advantage there, too.
Truth be told, though, I feel like he’ll really have his chance to shine in their less combatative missions. Not every encounter with a supervillain is going to involve a straight-up Superfight, and Achilles is the man to send in when Professor Ricin booby-traps his lair.
He blocked a sword with his EYE, on purpose.
So I think that he has the flinching problem licked.
SWORD-CHUKS!
Soooooo…
give him rockets……
Then he can accelerate into the target.
The Vision’s trick wors because he fiddles his mass…
…ummm… works… I fight with auto-correct for half these comments and it misses “wors”?
It hates you.
Maxima can do that in future fights. She seems to be doing some minimalism thing this fight do to some training and data collecting thing (… ).
In the mean time during this fight:
There is no reason the OTHER strength supers and the Light Hook couldn’t think to power Anvil up a bit if they get a chance. Since she seems to be mostly concentrating on support Sydney could just start whipping Anvil in the butt with the Light Hook whenever she isn’t actively helping in some other way providing Anvil with a steady charge up. (in the thousands of comments over the last few posts this was probably said several times… sorry I’m not trying to steal ideas but its pretty obvious).
I see at least one reason not to do it:
Not giving away that she is a kinetic absorber.
Other reasons might be:
It would be really annoying for her.
There might be a limit to how much charge she can aquire in a short time (leaving her effectively defenseless when she is overcahrged) so providing a steady charge might not be a good idea.
The charge could dissipate fast. Building one up without someone to use it on in range might just be a waste of time.
The others have more usefull stuff to do then hitting her.
She also has powers besides her absorption. Like superstrenght. And perhaps the one or other minor power that has not been shown so far.
Sure, though they already know this fight unless you are talking about it being filmed. That’s true.
It might be annoying though there is no sign yet that absorbing energy is bothersome to her.
Some points that might be true but we have no way of knowing for now.
I said if she wasn’t doing anything else at the time. (Sydney seems to have the most spare time right now as the noob on backup)
Yeah, she has enough power that there would be much less reason to do it against opponents you expect to be weak.
Mostly good food for thought thanks.
There is a reason why team hasn’t been super punching Anvil to booster her. She’s trying to run a cover as a resilient, and it doesn’t make since to punch your own damage resistant teammates during combat.
After this fight they may reconsider trying to hide this aspect of Anvil, but only FWTDT and Vehemence seem to have noticed it. Although FWTDT may not actually know depedning on how his power works. It may just react and not give him detailed knowledge of what he’s countering.
Yeah, though if she can hold a charge for a long time they could still do a half charge at the start of each working day so she would have something to start with. (and they may have. Who knows how much FWTDT stole… )
Right, just like Sebastian Shaw. One account about him had him spend the start of each day punching a wall for an hour to build up a charge of kinetic energy that he could tap into at need if he wasn’t directly attacked by a kinetic weapon strike which he could absorb.
That always struck me as being uncharacteristically stupid. …Had a Champions hero who had proportional Absorption: when he knew there are going to be a fight he’d “temper” himself. He had a gadget that started with firing low velocity tennis balls at him and finished with a flourish of .50 cal machine gun fire…
You don’t get any cardio at all if you do that. An hour punching a wall, on the other hand, is just like an hour on the treadmill, or an hour on a speed bag.
…Which was just crappy writing. You can’t get more energy out of a punch then you put in to it unless your metabolism is more than 100% efficient and/or you are already tapping in to some extra-bodily energy source – in which case, absorb that energy.
But assuming your ‘storage pools’ for kinetic and biological energy are separate, it’s a decent way to transfer from the later to the former.
Is he knocked out yet?
Not even close!
watch him be buried up to his waist with his feet kicking in the air and cussing ARC out.
Nothing like adding insult to insult when dealing with an arrogant egoist. Take off his shoes and check if he’s ticklish.
anyone else noticing scovilles re/disappering bruise she is supposed to have at the last panel?
I think her appearance in the corner is something along the lines of an internal monologue/commentary voice as opposed to her being there in the flesh. (no damage, no orbs, no shield).
As for the proposed addition of WWE style running commentary on the fight moves, I personally think it would put her over the edge from endearing to annoying very quickly.
Whoops. I forgot to add a reference to the similar ‘pop-up’ Sydney in this comic:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1377
Her voice wears her forearm device? Eh, you may be right though I think even then had he thought of it he would have put the bruise in. I think he just forgot it again voice or no.
It’s a cool forearm device, why would your inner voice NOT wear one? :p Bruises aren’t half as awesome in comparison. Just annoying, really, so that can be kept off. :p
Yes, DaveB forgets that bruise a lot. But he does get around to fixing them once he notices one of the comments on it. (kind of wish there was a “to be worked on” log file displayed somewhere so I would know when he already knew about it so I wouldn’t be overly bothering him… ) He remembered the big guys missing tooth though!
Oh! Ooooh!!!
My reaction when I finally understood, this morning, after reading Dave’s little editorial, what Sydney was referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buHv1EvUHj0
Doh! I have the dumb!
Hah hah hah.
Yea I didn’t get it at first either. Even after reading a few comments I was confused until I said out loud “She dropped Anvil on him…..oh.” I was ashamed for a moment because with how much I love puns, I should have gotten it sooner.
Admittedly, I got that it was a Looney Toons reference but didn’t get exactly why until I was telling a friend about the comic and ended up saying that out loud as well.
I absolutely looooove the effect around Anvil in the 3rd panel as the power behind Vehemence’s swing+impact whoomphs (yes, whoomph…I have a way with words, damnit!) the cloud of dust and detritus in the air. And my coworkers did not particuarly appreciate my outburst of laughter when I literally laughed-out-loud at Vehemence’s expression in the 4th panel.
I also enjoy that you show Anvil pulling down on (or at least holding to) Vehemence via her left arm as she strikes him to give her uppercut maximum effect. It’s impressive how much thought goes into your work, whether it’s in the gritty details or the overall flow-and-effect….I only regret that I lack the ability to time travel into the future to read the rest of what will inevitably come in this comic. It’s one of those webcomics in which you find it, you DEVOUR it, and it leaves you starving for more…so you reread it while you wait as patiently as possible for the next update knowing it won’t come fast enough.
Yeah, I just recently (2 days ago) picked up Wapsi Square. Like a dummy I started in the middle, can’t stop until I get up to date, then I’ll be forced to go back to the beginning and start over…archive dives are fun, but that things been going on for 12 years…at 5 updates a week. But the arts not nearly as detailed as Dave’s :D
Whoops. That’s a word you never want to hear uttered by a member of the Bomb Squad.
Did I say red wire? Sorry, I meant blue wire.
I suggest you check out the second Lethal Weapon movie. They have this bit in there dealing with bombs that’s really hilarious along with a whole number running with red and blue wires and the cutting of the wrong wire.
Grab the cat. :-)
or The Shadow, colourblind scientist trying to disarm a atomic bomb he built under mind control
I thought the fact that’s his first response was pretty hilarious. No ‘uh oh’, no ‘oh cr*p’, just a little ‘oopsies I hit the wrong person’.
Maxim 3. An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody
And if you see him running with his protective gear still on stay ahead of him.
When I and a few other members of my Engineer unit graduated from an advanced IED disposal course in the Army, we all were given PT shirts that read “IED DISPOSAL” on the front and “If you see me running, try to keep up” on the back
am I the only one who thought of Mike Haggar when they saw this?
Not quite the classic Haggar piledriver, but I see where you’re coming from.
Which one is Roxy? o_O
Erm… Harem, maybe? O.o
You do know who Roxy (and Poison) was, don’t you?
Poison got all the attenton and poor Roxy got left behind :(
Am I the only one who is starting to see Sydney as a Squirrel Girl analogue? I suspect that at least one of the mystery orbs will summon some sort of rodent.
Ok, just googled it, I am not the only person to make the connection.
No, Hex is the one who summons the squirrels.
Cute.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1384
Welp that guy is done.
You sure about that? o_O
If he isn’t he is gonna suffer a headache from hell thats for sure.
Maxima not only steps in but in a true teamwork crafted attack ( I don’t know if they trained for this but… close enough for now). This may not be every little thing I’ve hoped for but its so very far in the right directions after all these pages I can’t help but be extremely satisfied with this page. Its so satisfying it helps make the pages leading up to it more fun.
VERY. GOOD. POST.
Thank you very much DaveB. I can hardly wait for more. :D
Dave, your characters expressions make me laugh so hard!
My compliments!
I think it’s time for Vehemence to tag in his partner, because ARC is double teaming him and the ref is doing nothing.
Too bad he turned on his partners earlier. No hot tag for him. Whoops. :)
If self duplication or division is one of his powers… this could be fun!
The ref is doing nothing? What ref are you referring to?
Sydney is the commentator, not a ref; the other bad guys are already down for the count or ran away before Harem could catch ’em with a bracelet; the squirrel that Hex summoned probably ran off thinking, “Plenty of nuts here, but I don’t want any.”
Not a fan of pro wrestling, are you Midnight?
I like pro wrestling…It’s like watching a soap opera after it’s been hosed down with pure testosterone.
:D
We are the refs.
We are the children.
(now we need someone to sing the next line)
While I definitely have a love for Anvil, since she has the same power-set as one of my old Champions characters (a male kinetic absorber named Brickbat – a “brickbat” is a construction tool used for knocking bricks into place. His absorption went equally into strength and presence, so he could intimidate people after taking their heaviest punch), Dabbler is still my favorite character for the series. I have to admit, though, that this is the only comic I’ve read where it’s a close run between half of the cast! Most comics have one clear favorite.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/brickbat
A brickbat is not a ‘construction tool for knocking bricks into place’. You *lay* bricks. If you throw a broken one with intent to injure, you’ve thrown a brickbat. Still works as a name for your character.
Is getting your ass handed to you a superpower? Because that seems to be all Vehemence is accomplishing so far. If he’s the main event, I hope Thursday’s panel will show some inkling about it.
He’s taking some damage but he’s not really going down for longer than it takes to stand back up. Against an entire team that’s finally starting to act a bit in concert. That’s way scarier than anybody so far. All it takes is for him to knock one of them into a squishy etc… one mistake and this could get pretty sad for the ARCies really fast. IF he has any regen this might be a loooong fight with a serious risk as if the ARCies get fatigues first. He did knock out one of their strong men though if he does that once in a while then his partial win will be mostly a matter of endurance. (I say partial cause I think Maxima is still definitively stronger than him. Its probably too early to meet a super of truly equal to superior strength)
Yup, most wars are wars of attrition, whether personel or supplies, the winner is the one who can reduce the other to unsustainable levels
After watching this fight play out, I have one real concern: Sydney’s All-or-Nothing level of defense. She is either utterly invincible, and able to fire on/tentacle/snark on anyone with impunity, or she’s dead. So far if ANY of the villains had hit Sydney with her bubble down, she would have been a fine red mist. My concern is that she seems even more unstoppable than Max is supposed to be.
Her ranking on her write-up are WAY too low with what she has demonstrated thus far. Maxed-out energy blast, maxed out defense from the force field (which also counters radiant attacks such as bright flashes, not to mention Harem’s teleport), definitely super-strength from the lighthook (example: countering Vehemance’s throw of Anvil, then throwing Anvil back down). Yes, she can only use them one at a time, but they can’t be taken away (Max’s strength couldn’t pull them away), and if she’s bubbles up, she can take all the time she needs to switch at will, as she has been doing.
I worry she might be edging a bit into Mary Sue levels of unstoppable.
It’s the classic problem…
How many superheroes are bullet proof?
Realistically, all of them unless the plot needs them to be shot.
Sydney’s primary weakness is the impenetrability of her shield. If you got a group of supervillans to start throwing fire and then poison and then acid at her in turn, eventually she would have a choice between suffocate and die horribly.
But, she’s part of a team, so she does not have to make that choice. What she can’t do, her team does for her and vice versa.
She’s taken one shot from Shadow Boxer, which she sorta deflected but still left a bruise and caused her shirt, Dave just keeps forgetting to add it when he draws her.
The shield is mostly her go to protection. She’s supposedly mauled a mugger at some point before she gut her powers. Since she’s gotten the she mauled Mr Amorphous and KOed Math without benefit of her shield. Her flight and telepresence abilities can in theory provide a bit of protection from some adversaries,
“…and caused her shirt…”
Huh? I’m guessing this was a typo/cut-off phrase, but can’t figure out what was meant.
“…and caused her shirt to be bloodied…”
Sorry and thanks guess I was still waking up a bit when I typed that… no one ever accused me of being a morning person and I’ve been a bit out of it all day.
And another accursed Monday is in the rear-view mirror, thank entropy.
The sign post up ahead reads Monday in7 days
Oh, the inhumanity!
Except for Deof then it is nothing but Mondays.
Would that be a Groundhog Monday?
Truly, thou art a master of cruelty.
And it can always get worse.
Yup. Just passed a sign reading Monday in 5 days, and I think I see another one on the horizon…
On the plus side, it means that a Grrl Power update is that much closer than it was before.
I’m not a morning person either, Peter, despite military experience… such as getting up at 4am for a 10-mile run. I’m sure my cat wishes I was a morning person. (I adapted her from a military family whose new landlord wouldn’t allow pets. She insists on being fed at 0500 on the dot.)
And to this day, I think my mother was the only person who understood what “plergb hfarizz ungemby… and coffee” means.
Syd’s rating takes into account her inexperience. IIRC Dave has said that with training she could possibly match Maxima (or at least make Max work for it). However there are glaring weaknesses in some of her powers right now, such as 1) PPO being basically uncontrollable 2) Limited air supply within the Shield 3) Inability to use any other orb besides the Shield in flight at any useful traveling speeds.
Maxima has almost as much power asleep as Sydney does awake with two orbs in her hands. Max is already super tough with super senses when asleep and the instant she starts to wake up she has complete access to all her powers. Sydney has to be awake and in possession of an orb or she is nearly powerless to defend herself in a super world (the squishies in this team seriously need to get armor, weapons, tricks, holdouts… and use them all in combat and keep some of them around at all times). Sydney is a perfect example of why their is a popular phrase, “You gotta sleep sometime.” and Max really isn’t. Sydney is probably safe from becoming this universes total Mary Sue until Max is sucked into another dimension for a while two arcs from now…
Ah yes. I really feel like everyone who wants to write Superhero fiction of any kind should take a month to read the Ayla series of Whateley Academy stories. Take a look at a series that encourages the writers to fully explore all the ramifications of powers and access to hyper-technology in a world full of supers.
Aaah, good Ole Ayla. That story still going on? I don’t even remember where I left it.
Miss Goodkind and the rest of team Kimba are in limbo at the moment. I hope when “The Secret Return of Alex Max” is wrapped up we’ll get some more tales of daring do from the original cannon cabal.
And if one of the two unknowns are regenerative healing cocoon then the one-shot takedown may not “stick” and she’s back up before the ref counts her out. (REALLY!? The spellchecker garbles everything else but a lost letter in “count” it was perfectly happy with leaving a swear word?)
I would agree that if she starts keeping the FF up on permanent basis she has to leave it permeable to air, setting her up for shots that aren’t any more killing to her than say to Biro…
What was that Vehemence? Something about not punching the kinetic absorber?
Hence panel 4 :P
If anything, this should make him hesitate a little before throwing punches to “check [his] target”.
Either its a continuity error or the perspective is off, but didn’t vehemence lose a tooth? Could be some sort of wolverine or better level of healing. Just throwing it out there.
Think in panel 7 the tooth shows missing. Most of other panels don’t seem relevant to the upper right canine.
Er… upper right surgically, as in looking at rather than his upper right.
You can see it’s missing in panel seven but his head not in the right posion to see it in the rest of the panels.
Though if you go by the name, vehemence could be a situational power increaser, the stronger people he fights the stronger he gets, much like he was hurt by the stomping on the foot and couldn’t get it out until he knew it was beyond his level….and amped it up. Stalwart punched out a tooth, Anvil’s empowered palmstrike didn’t even crack a tooth.
Love the DBZ style combat! Keep up the amaze-ball work!
What concerns me is that, aside from the broken tooth, Vehemence appears to actually be taking these hits without significant damage.
It might be that DaveB is just getting better at drawing muscles, but Vehemence is looking a lot punier than when he first ripped off his suit (especially the second panel).
Maybe he’s an Evolver. What doesn’t kill him literally makes him stronger, but it also refines his current powers. I’d bet (if that’s the case) before this fight he spent time lifting heavier and heavier objects to boost his strength- that’s why it was so focused in his arms (he didn’t think/wasn’t able to do similar leg-boosting exercises) and had people hit him/stood in front of a pitching machine (then jumping from high places, then having cars driven into him, etc.) to boost his resilience. Those exercises did a lot, but they couldn’t get him to the point of complete resistance to superpowered attacks- but now, he’s in a real fight, and his power is shaping him to step up to the challenge. Stalwart socked him one, and he lost a tooth (a punch stronger than any hit he’d taken, but he was already pretty darn resilient from his training). Stepped on a foot, pinned him in place- he has a heavier weight to lift now, and becomes capable of it. Stalwart’s punch then prepped him to take a strike of Anvil’s weight, and that impact prepped him for the heel-strike, which prepped him for the Nautilus Slam volley with Maxima and Anvil. And in addition, since this is a period of extended physical effort, his power’s now taking the huge bulky burst muscles and working them into leaner, denser endurance muscles.
Kenya’s facial expression in panel three is simply…..priceless.
His face in panel 4 is equally priceless :D
no, no… it HAS a price… a WHOLE bunch o’ PAIN, that is…
Is it wrong that my only question is “are there such a thing as military grade bras?” What would they be made of? How durable would they be?
Okay, it’s one question that leads to many.
She needs to go have a chat with Jaguar Girl over in “Wapsi Square” about where she gets her special bra’s from
Not really. The closest I could find were bra’s designed to go under police armored vests but they actually have less metal and hard bits themselves in order that the bullets impact won’t press those bits into the woman’s body. (just bare bones sports bra’s with “police” written on them really)
Some fun stuff for civilians through the years though:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/28/skydiving-in-a-bra-d-cup-_n_1634286.html
https://www.guns.com/2013/05/01/the-womens-armored-bra-of-wwii/
https://ebbra.bigcartel.com/product/original-red-ebbra
https://www.arcstore.com/bras.php
That last link is especially intriguing, considering the name of the store and that it’s an ARCBra that can be combined with an ARCPanty*, both of which are ARCRated. Moonlighting, DavidB?
*This product seems to be no longer available**.
** Then again, neither is the ARCBoxer Brief. OTOH, I thought it odd that they still carry ARCSuspenders. I don’t know about anyone else, but I do know which area of the body I would prefer to protect if I had to chose.
As for the video on that page, I must be missing something as it doesn’t appear that the bra is actually protecting anything.
Might be a good fit for Jiggawatt.
Are you looking at the white ordinary bra or the black ARCBra? (doesn’t BRA stand for Battle Ready Armor in military speak?). I bet you mistook the black bra on black dummy for a shadow of the other set up? The black one is supposed to resist the current up to a certain point I think. And the part I’m sure of is its not supposed to melt or burn like the ordinary bra does so you don’t suffer extra fire damage after the original hit.
Perhaps you aught to send them some emails about their missing underwear. I wonder if these outfits help against tasers?
“I bet you mistook the black bra on black dummy for a shadow of the other set up?”
No, although you’re not too far off. I realized it was a dummy, I just didn’t/don’t see a bra on it. Re-reviewing it in slow motion makes it easier to see that flare up on the left bra is obscured at faster speeds by the flare up that caused it.
And I would think any e-mail with the subject line “About your missing underwear” would be turned over to the local constabulary posthaste in most cases.
Not against tasers. They have metal barbs to poke through stuff and touch the skin. A stun gun, maybe. The material blend sounds more flame resistant though.
That is the point of arc-resistant clothing. It is designed to prevent burns from arc-flash when working around sizable amounts of electricity. When you get an arc in a substation it is basically an explosion. We had a bad accident at my workplace where a guy badly burnt when he mistakenly started working on a live 13,500 volt substation on the roof and basically blew it up. He lived, but recovery took over a year iirc. Since then, whether it is powered or not, if you are working on high voltage systems you are wearing arc-rated clothing. Even our 480V equipment requires it now.
Something I did not know. Interesting. I was thinking of arc welding but none of the people I knew that did that work used more than gloves and the helmet. Very rarely an apron. Thank you.
So… question:
Why has Peggy not been continually shooting Anvil with her sniper rifle this whole time to charge up Anvil’s kinetic energy reserves?
Well, for one it would be a faux pas if nothing else.
And two: Its been mentioned that however Anvil’s ability works, it doesn’t work quite perfectly enough to prevent bullets (and other REALLY high speed objects) from doing damage.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
One of those going down, 6 will be left
Vehemence is far from defeated. The meaning of those stripes hasn’t even been explained.
On the other hand, Vekter and Opal (panel 5 in the comic you linked to) are down, so I guess you’re right after all.
Vehemence is still fighting. Vektor is down off screen and _may_ be out via Harem.
Opal could be playing possum if Vehemence set up for the big fight ahead of time and didn’t tell Vektor so he wouldn’t mess up his lines with poor acting. I mean there was no blood shed and Vehemence was able to punch up enough to overcome 75 tons of Hiro…
Who is actually watching her now that this fight is going –she could be ported out already…
True but we can see her in the parking space behind Anvil as she upper cuts Vemenace into the air.
Unless their final designs and colors hadn’t been locked down at that time those are not Vekter and Opal. “Opals” hair braids are the wrong color and design while “Vektors” head band is gone and he has sharpened teeth or mutant shark teeth which we don’t see in later shots.
It is Opal, she is laying face down with her hair up over her head, so it is not showing her braids.
If you pay attention you will also notice her dress/robe matches previous shots of her.
Um… we were talking about the two people in one panel of the “Villains Page” possibly being Vekter and Opal. Unless you meant to reply to my comment just above the one you did reply to but that doesn’t quite work either as I state that I know it is Opal in the parking lot behind Anvil in that one.
*shrugs*
In Grrl Power Anvil drops You!
Best
From Russia With Love
+1 on your comment.
Nope, not buying that Fedorka is out of it just yet
Fantastic action page, I really like the dust clouds. I especially love the panels where you play with transparency.
I haven’t seen anyone mention it but on the same track as fast-balling Achilles what if two or three team members did the same thing with the Skeletor muppet Death Toll? Wait until Vehemence is distracted then toss ‘Toll at him.
It would be like one punching a dragon. It would also be great to see Vehemence’s reaction to being power down.
Sydney is missing her bloody cheek again
Well, it’s a little hard to tell without knowing how they landed, but I’d say we’re looking at some sort of belly to back inverted piledriver. It physically resembles the vertebreaker, but belly to back instead of back to back.
My personal favorite is the front flip piledriver, aka the Canadian Destroyer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YBs3I8kDuw
Also, nice to see Sydney can toss someone with enough strength to hurt this big guy. Makes you wonder what’s the strength limit on the Sydney Noodle Arm Express.
Something like this maybe? https://vimeo.com/81263921 But to make Arc S.W.A.T think he is more vulnerable then he actually is rather then prove he is really tough.
Slight concern that OPAL is not handcuffed, tranked, etc. If she’s actually awake, what better place to slowly and quietly VORP everyone else on the team, one at a time, from behind and place them in dungeons, hearts of volcanoes, etc.
I do like that V’s power lines are looking grey-ish, which I assume means he’s running down on power.
Time constraints. It hasn’t been that long between Opal being KOed and the current strip. Only one or two Harems are handling trank duty.
Well, the heroes having the early lead naturally means Vehemence will have a costly comeback. Just a matter of how and when.
I like how when Anvil absorbs the kinetic energy of his hit, her power pushes all the dust around the point of contact away. Reminds me of the old science experiment involving pepper floating on water and a fingertip with soap on it. I wonder what would happen if she were punched underwater?
I’d suggest that anvil’s style would not involve catching fists with her palm like that.
She has control over momentum / kinetic energy. Depending on the details (like it she *needs* to directly oppose the applied force or if she just needs skin contact). she would either do a more normal soft block to catch (much like what she has in panel 5, but you really only are using 3/4 fingers, ring and middle and thumb, on your own hand about half of the grabbed hand is sticking out… it looks like anvil has a much larger hand, or is grabbing too far down, you really want the smallest point, right before the wrist, although again control of momentum. With enough flexibility with the momentum absorption it seems like she could make anyone she touched “Freeze” with a super powered version of “sticky hands” the tai chi / wing chin drill.
Or other option if she needs to directly oppose the force, she *would* probably grab with her fist, but it would be a more awkward cross body grab and an outside soft block, the block would transition to the grab and the block thing would move overtop of the grabbed arm straight up to the face while the grab hand pulled and body twisted… although again depending on her momentum control she might be able to just bypass most sane body mechanics and just rely on her momentum storage… or maybe she needs *really* good body mechanics so she can be more careful / efficient with her stored momentum usage.
-S
I think there has already been a discussion of whether she’s actually gripping/catching his wrist or just blocking him from warding off her strike with his arm.
By the way I’d like to mention Anvil’s apparent incidental power of being able to tell how strong the opponents are. Send her in first and she can tell how hard they hit by how much kinetic energy she absorbs from their blows.
Hey Dave! Question! Is that purple ring thing (which I like by by the way) around Anvil’s uppercut supposed to be indicative of her releasing her kinetic energy? If so, then does that mean you’re gonna go back and add some minor purple rings to the Nose Boop of Doom? Or perhaps the rings only manifest with an extreme release of her energy.
They might be sort of like “speed lines”, i.e., they might just be a representation of power rather than actual physical manifestation.
They’re an artistic interpretation of “mach rings” – when an aircraft breaks through the mach barrier, there’s usually a ring of moisture that’s flash-condensed into steam around the plane (example: https://imgur.com/3brDA). If you saw the last superman movie, they did something similar when supes was accelerating up through the atmosphere.
The implication is that Anvil’s strike is coming so fast that her fist broke the sound barrier (which would make a pretty awesome “boom”/”crack” sound right about the time she struck him.
see also: https://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/soubar.html
Oh, that’s pretty cool. I didn’t think Anvil would be moving that fast, but then I guess releasing her kinetic energy would prolly give her a quick speed boost to her attack.
My guess on Vehemence’s powers; basically I think he’s this universes Hulk. The angrier he gets the stronger and more damage resistant he gets. Hurt him and he gets even angrier and even stronger. The solution might be to make him laugh… queue Halo. :)
I think that was a misqueue on your part…. =OP
D’oh! You’re right. My excuse is it was late/very early morning and I was tired :)
That’s ok, I’ll ex-queues you… this time.
Now you’re just being mean, rubbing it in!!
:P
“Offers Slythe some “medicinal” ointment”.
/Hands Slythe a probable list of “medicinal” ointment ingredients along with a note informing to use at his own risk/
I don’t think he’s getting angry at all – in fact he seems to be enjoying himself. I’d say this guy just likes to fight, and has trouble finding people sturdy enough to provide any sport
well he got grounded bet his world got rocked as well. might as well hit the road there’s no beating the tar-mac out of this team. please someone stop me I can’t stop making bad puns
You don’t have to hit us over the head with them.
I think V has been getting “asphalted” more than getting “rocked” so far, but both materials feel about the same when one gets hit by them…
You don’t have to hit us over the head with them.
This was supposed to be a reply to another comment. Feel free to ignore it.
Denied!
Then you don’t feel free to deny it? (Which, I probably should point out, is different from feeling free to not deny it).
Blech, strike out “deny” and insert “ignore” in its places.
I Deny you Ignore
Then I Ignore you Deny. Ha!
I ignore your ignore.
Double ha!