Grrl Power #256 – Tactical shift
That was an impressive hit, but if anything Vehemence seems to be picking up steam. I would have liked to soften that up a little by starting with a panel of him reeling a bit from the tumble, or at least Anvil’s chin smash, but that’s not the critical point of the page. The fact that Maxima is finally coming down from on high is.
Getting her face right in the last panel was important. I wanted her to look just the tiniest bit crazy and/or excited. Not steepled fingers crazy, just the realization that she’s going to get to cut lose on someone. Normally panels like that where someone’s wearing a subtle expression take me several tries, but I managed to knock out something pretty close to what I wanted on the first try, (not including the usual juking around the eyes to make them even and stuff like that, so… yay!
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.
First panel typo. “Buzz off Red”
“Buzz off, Red”
Commas, or the lack thereof, can make a world of difference. Which of the following is more socially acceptable? “Let’s eat grandpa!” or “Let’s eat, grandpa!” :P
In my defense, Grandpa was delicious.
Typo shmypo. He’s calling her “Buzz of Red” intentionally! Like her RED hair is so inefficient in a fight she should just get a BUZZ cut. Or maybe he’s implying that, like Buzz Aldrin, she’s only going to be remembered as a historical footnote in this fight (possibly just for having notably red hair).
In which case Dave need only have put a comma after “Now”
Whoops, fixed now.
Godzilla Threshold — achieved!
I can see the slight smirk indicating she does not need to hold back as much.
Nice job.
Yup, World of Cardboard speech time.
I’d prefer a variant of Alucard’s “Releasing Control Art Restriction Systems” speil.
My thoughts exactly.
I wonder if his power might be “momentum”, like Lung from Worm. Meaning that the longer a fight goes the stronger he gets.
“Was thinkin the same thing!”
As I expected, that only annoyed him
so is Maxima pulling an inverse ninja now?
A Reverse Inverse Ninja? Sydney already said that Fedorka was doing the Inverse Ninja trick
So, those tatoos are magical in nature?
Is HE magical? At the very least he knows a great deal about magic.
Impressive magic technobauble
I believe the ‘technobauble’ is the little figure hanging from the hilt of Dabbler’s sword.
LOL, good catch on that remark
Let me guess: Juggernaut (from Marvel) was not the *only* person to find the Crimson Ruby of Cytorrakk…
Genre savvy Sydney should recognize that’s what he wants and say so.
But that is also what we want so she better keeps her mouth shut.
Veh seems to be most impervious to attacks he expects or can see coming.
Stalwart and his punch got through, anvil drop got through, but not the max kick, dablers first sword swing cut hit, her second blocked, gooses(I’m assuming it’s goose with the gun) bullets have damaged his pants..
I suspect Veh is just showing off in order to provoke a full blown attack from Max, which he’s planned for and will hence backfire on max….
Now the real question is, can he deliver against Maxima?
And Syd’s Hentacle reaching for Anvil in the background?
LOL, she should just wrap the end around Anvil and the middle around Vehemence.
…And with your words, I have a certain internet meme pop into my head: “Now kiss”
I can see Sydney turning her and Achilles in to a paddle-ball of doom.
At first, I figured it was Sydney *retracting* her tentacle (meaning, it just took here a while to do so after dropping the
hammerer, Anvil)…*But* she doesn’t appear to be holding an orb in her right hand at the end of yesterday’s comic (what is that in her palm, an antenna?). As even Sydney isn’t foolish enough to drop her shield at that point (the previous comic shows the shield orb in her left hand), it stands to reason that she let the tentacle dissipate and then just grabbed the molestorb again immediately afterwards…In the comments of that one people say that image of her was a sort of mental picture of her “voice” and not the real her… The antenna is actually a strap that goes around her thumb to secure the device.
He didn’t see the flashbang coming yet shrugged it off.
Speaking of seeing, I think the better move would have been to vorp in just in front of him and give him a blast of military grade mace/pepper spray straight to the eyes.
Actually, considering how much he spreads his legs, a full power blast to the family jewels would floor him, I don’t care how impervious to damage you are, a hit in the family jewels WOULD floor any male villain that still have them attached, no matter what.
What about Achilles?
He blocked a sword with his eye earlier.
Unless your balls are virtually invulnerable. o.o
“You’ve got a-…”
“HEY, WATCH IT!!!”
“…-of steel! You must be NIGH INVULNERABLE!!!”
Isn’t that what the molestorb is for? One tackle grab…coming up!
Ahhh, is he ticklish maybe?
Or maybe he doesn’t think of it as provoking so much as putting on a little show to impress her with his ability to take her on when she’s being serious. (sort of like a mating dance… )
Looks to me like the sword attack left a minor skin cut and his block is against Dabbler’s spell, not a second cut. I don’t think his noticing it coming has anything to do with his vulnerability, the attacks that get through are pretty massive after all, but we shall see.
He looks like he is missing a tooth too.
He is trying not to show what his weaknesses are even if they do affect him.
Actually, from what I can tell he’s only shrugging off lesser impacts (bullets and flashbangs) with no effort.. I think the pink circle-impact in panel 4 is from Dabbler’s spell Not working on him. So no, he’s not ultra-impervious, but yeah.. given his magic technobabble and the gosh darn blatantly supernatural looking body tattoos… I think this guy is a muscle-mage type, instead of learning how to teleport or cast fireballs, he’s buffed himself all to hell and back, protecting himself against mind magics and generally just making himself a metaphysical juggernaut.
It would actually make a lot of sense, it explains how he could Find all those supers to recruit in such a short span of time (a lil divination, Opal can fetch them sure, but unless she can mystically locate anyone from a picture or whatever I expect they needed to get in touch with people some other way), it would explain his smarts and tactical thinking by actually sitting back and observing/studying the archons like any good mage would when dealing with a new enemy. And it would explain his obvious and clear love for fighting a good fight, which certainly fits the moniker of a guy who mastered the mystic arts just so he could be strong enough to punch the space shuttle off of the ground.
If this is the case, then that opens up All kinds of trope-twisting shenanigans he might pull once he gets serious, depending on just how flexible a mage he is of course, from suddenly whipping out ranged attacks or flight, healing himself, mystic teleports or getting clever with illusions or some mind tricks of his own.
Your description fits the average Battlemage, those guys tend to have 2 main weaknesses, excessive force that overpowers their magical protections, which basically means all their magic reserves gets drained at once leaving them completely helpless, and Anti-Magic fields, inside one such field a Batttlemage are just a very fit Average Joe, can’t do anything even remotely superhuman.
Supers are not new, and he said he had already met or heard of the Mook Squad, so he knew where to find them and slash or contact them
I like how, throughout this fight, even after getting a tooth knocked out, a crushed foot, an Anvil dropped on him, a crushing kinetic-energy-powered palm-heel uppercut to the chin, and a nautilus slam into the ground…Vehemence still has that toothy grin on his face. He’s thoroughly enjoying this entire slugfest, and it’s awesome!
Of course, whether he retains that grin once Max joins the fight…that remains to be seen. Hehehe…
As others have already said, Maxima’s intervention may be what he is specifically angling for.
Maybe this is for pure ego…. “I bet Max, that makes me the best”
Althou I highly doubt it…
He’s a fanboy. His final goal is to get a date with Maxima.
I wonder if Maxima’s ever given the World of Cardboard speech?
Argh! You beat me to it. (See below) While I was finding the clip on YouTube, you got this one in.
I’ve always wondered how other heroes and the general public would have reacted if they could have heard that speech. Truthfully, it could be a bit unsettling.
The part about “Batman will never give up while he can still draw breath! None of my team will,” actually would instill admiration from me. Or are you talking about the part that starts, “Me, I’ve got different problem.”?
I honestly think its part world of cardboard part he lives for a decent fight. While there is ego in play there it’s not undeserved. He knows he’s as tough as hell. He knows people of his calibre are few and far between and wish to face them becasuse a good fight is its own reward and that pain and death are the potential price for fun. At the same time he’s not out to kill anyone for no good reason and is unlikely to keep attacking after their defeated If he knows they are hurt he may even give them the option to stand down and seek medical attention. If they do die they either got unlucky or they were too stupid to stop when he gave them the chance.He sees in Maxima the same drive to fight at her best and wish to test his mettle against hers, free of the restraints both are usually bound by.
Super strength, super toughness (though not as high as some others seen), very fast, and now also magical knowledge? And above all that, maybe most dangerous of all, a working brain. That last part gets overlooked sometimes by the berserker type.
Though Vehemence will get what he wanted, a super powered brawl between himself and Maxima.
I don’t think it’s actual magical knowledge. I think it’s just mockery. I read it like this: “Your mumbo-jumbo might be audacious, but it does not hurt me the slightest.”
Not sure if I agree, Glew. “Thaumian Excitation” sounds more like a “technical” term. The second part is definitely mockery, though.
I think it was implied that he was the one to gather the mob of villains for the attack, so the odds of him having some kind of network of intel are pretty good. I wouldn’t put it past him to have prior knowledge on magic in either a general sense or in the course of prepping for all of this, he is really giving the impression of someone who is willing to put in the time to learn about his opponents before hand.
Normally I would agree, however Dabbler are not a Thaumaturge, so it does not fit in this situation
There’s a distinct possibility that his powers are magic in origin. Being able to withstand a spell could be anything, but making it fizzle before it touches you somewhat suggests a counter-magic effect.
Why not both? Vehemence with a brain and a basic brick set up (perhaps with a few extras that we have yet to see), and then used that brain to get connections to add on a magic upgrade, being the “Tats”. I like how one of the tats moved off of his arm when he blocked Dabbler’s spell.
He may have even learned magic himself, so that he can be All That when he needs to be, which may also be why he was hurt by surprise blows. His baseline is maybe Super Hiro level, but with proper buffs that he can shift as needed, he can go beyond.
It could be counter magic or it could be an Anti-Magic aura, who knows really
If it weren’t for the fact that people keep successfully hitting him in the face, I’d say his power is like Borg adaptation: First time an attack is used it gets through, but if it doesn’t kill him he becomes immune in the future to that type of attack. We’d then have to surmise then that he’s been shot, kicked, suplexed, hit with magic force balls, and flashbanged at some point in his past… though oddly never tripped, cold clocked, palm struck or slashed :p
eh, the first thing that happened was him getting triped.
Yeah… looks like he may have something like The Calculator…
Eh, that makes him too close to Bell Troll. I think this “early” in the comic DaveB is still having fun with new and exciting power sets to play with.
For some reason, this set up is reminding me of Superman’s “World of Cardboard” speech. This is Maxima’s opportunity to actually cut loose because the big guy seems to be able to take it.
Best moment in that finale. great series too
Right, next page Sydney is whining, “But you were supposed to give your ‘World of Cardboard’ speech! Oh, by the way did you notice that whenever somebody attacks him, he …”
Unless those towers just happen to be empty, Superman must have racked up quite an impressive death from collateral damage count there.
Eh, he checked out the flight path with his Everything Vision to make sure no one was in the floors of the 6 towers Darkseid was punched through. He also ensured that no falling debris would hurt or kill anyone, and that the massive shock-waves and earth quakes caused by his punches would cause no civilian casualties. Because when you’re strong enough to punch someone through 6 high rises and fast enough to be waiting for them when they arrive, casually winding up for yet another blow, you obviously have plenty of free time to do all of those other things as well.
This is why I hate Superman. He is simply too powerful to challenge legitimately. Even his “death” at the hands of Doomsday was contrived.
Do we get to hear her Superman versus Darkseid speech :D
That may make for a couple of panels next page, but then Sydney interrupts her with an observation of Vehemence’s actually weakness. It does not look like he has a power of Nemesis, like For Whom the Death Tolls, but something similar. He can clearly initiate an attack.
It’s on YouTube, if you actually want to *hear* it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl_5UwS57X8
I was wondering..maybe its been mentioned already and I missed it but can Sydney cast her shield around others excluding herself? I was wondering if she could put it around Vehemence then shrink it down to the point all air is excluded also?
There has been no indication anywhere that she can
No she can’t. (everybody in the comments has mentioned all the ways she could be overpowered with it so I doubt she will ever get it in an upgrade now that DaveB’s read them! XP lol We are really Sydney’s worst enemy aren’t we? She’s probably have the power of a god by now if we would stop pointing out all the ways she could do “tricks” with her powers!! LOL)
Actually, it seems more likely that she would eventually get a shield-at-range she could cast on someone else via one of the node upgrades–if she’s using the shield on someone else she’s leaving herself VERY vulnerable to anything coming at her. It’s an acceptable tradeoff of strength vs weakness.
Yeah, but its just one more thing she can do that will allow her to quickly fix even more problems directly with her powers rather than having to spend more time thinking outside the box. Since thinking outside the box is more fun to write and read I just figured DaveB would do his best to avoid such a fundamental upgrade and keep it to things more like the combo powers (which sacrifices the ability to use two powers at once) and lesser tweaks to existing powers like making her shield opaque.
Yes she can.
During the test range demonstrations, when Maxima’s turn came to show off, she had Sydney shield the reporters and other bystanders. On archive page 170, she even initially brought up the shield with Maxima inside it.
Archive page 173 ( https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1129 ) specifically shows the entire group of reporters inside Sydney’s shield-ball.
wrong, she was still the center of the shield, she just made it large enough to protect the crowd of people.
And while you are partly correct, yes she can shield others, you’re also wrong. She can’t do what RayNAiken suggested, shield V and wait for him to suffocate, as she can only cast the shield around herself. When she used her shield to keep the reporters safe she was also inside that shield. She has never been shown forming the shield around some one or some thing else.
If V is in the shield then so is Halo. If V is suffocating because of being in the shield then so is Halo.
Of course she might be able to use a breathing apparatus, but with V inside the shield I don’t think he’d feel inclined to let her keep it for very long.
if anything i wonder if she can put up 2 shields around herself, one for her protection and one to contain vehemence while he calms down or is forced to endure her endless taunting…which would end with him screaming “I GIVE UP, JUST MAKE IT STOP”
Everyone who thinks that is exactly what Vehemence wants to happen, say “I”!
Everyone who thinks this is exactly what I want to happen, say “Vehemence”! :-P
Vehemence
Everyone who wants nothing to happen, say “entropy”? =OP
|
I
It WAS specifically HER challenge he accepted on the villains page…
Let’s see now. There were 6 villains (and Deus) on the page. This fight has gone on for 50 pages. If Dave follows EEOC guidelines and gives them equal time, we would have (5×50) or another 250 pages of comics to get to them all. At 2 per week, and enough filler to set up each fight, this keeps him busy until at least 2024.
I really can’t say I have a problem with that, considering the quality of the strips to date.
My thought exactly. Who cares how long the day is taking as long as it’s good stuff, Maynard?
But, it is fun to joke about. :-) I admit I love the comic and the way Dave writes it, but… Jokes. :-P :-)
There will be no joking on the Internets!
Ok, now at that rate calculate the amount of time this comic will be running at its current pace considering Sidney said this all happened MONTHS ago.
…because by MY calculations DaveB will be writing this comic until about two and a half weeks before the heat death of the universe.
Nope, don’t have a problem with that, does anyone else?
We might need sweaters. And a flashlight.
Don’t forget the pizza and pop.
So… No “Mansion of E” fans? Robert M. Cook took more than 3580 episodes to go thru a single day (granted: some is filler, it’s told from MANY viewpoints, and it’s a REALLY LONG day…).
Brought up in the last 2 issues.
Yups, by me and one other :D
Better watch out, some one swore revenge on you and the other for it.
why do I get the feel he’s a male version of Max?. in much the same way as max can switch her powers/ skill set arround, Vehemence can do the same or simular
If that’s true then he will become a long term fixture of the comic if he’s Evil Max. But hopefully he has things that replace the fact that he can’t fly and blast (unless he is hiding the fact that he can do one or both of those so the others can play for a bit)
I was wondering if he might not have some kind of psychic power of persuasion which allowed him to get the whole motley crew he assembled to attack. Some of them seemed a bit confused about it (as in “why is this a good idea”, or “I’m a hairdresser!”).
Oh, you mean temporarily increasing a person’s “vehemence” to the point they go all gung-ho on whatever aggressive act in front of them? I could see that.
I had a similar thought, though currently Max’s max appears to be of a higher level if that is the case. So far Vehemence hasn’t shown any ability to fly or shoot energy beams (he might keep that as a trumpcard though) and while Maxima has casually shrugged off attacks and survived a point blank explosion Vehemence got a tooth knocked out by a fist.
Ok so he’s part borg and adapted
There’s a though. How about a magic cyborg? The lines provide his boosted strength and other powers. That would explain a familiarity with magic as well.
Like Douglok? That kid who was merged with the Phalanx? Or something like that (it was about 10+ years ago, and never really read those X-books)
I think we are about to learn just how strong Halo’s sheild is
also MAXIMA TOOOK OFF HER GLASSES! RUN!
Instead of the buzzword bingo game, they should be counting Max glasses tropes.
Here she has:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheGlassesComeOff
Max had this one during the mini-nuke:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScaryShinyGlasses
They may have counted as these during the bank robbery:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CoolShades
Sydney even gets a person mention in web comic tab of this one:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlindWithoutEm
This is actually not an instance of The Glasses Come Off, as that requires Nerd Glasses (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NerdGlasses). Rather, it is just another example of Cool Shades.
Gonna say, i’m not against Sydney, but i hope she isn’t the one to bring V down. she had her moment to shine against FWTDT, but V is just outside her weight class. let the real (see; experienced) heroes get their moment by showing us just what Max can do to end this huge, long, awesome fight.
She’s been working on being a good supporting player and doing a pretty bang up job for a newbie. So I wouldn’t mind if she helps in a supporting role while letting Max do the heavy lifting. I would also laugh if Maxima and him almost knock each other to the point of collapse and then Sydney comes over and “taps” Vehemence the rest of the way into unconsciousness while saying something about “Sorry for the “Kill Stealing” Max!
Outside her weight class? Halo was the first person to actually have an impact on V when she tripped him with her Lighthook. Then she reversed his removal of Anvil from combat for some period of time whilst simultaneously hurting V and charging Anvil with a decent amount of energy. Hugely effective!
It looks like in this strip that she tried to collect Anvil again but was just a bit too slow to pull it off. Because that’s how I interpret her Lighthook just waving around through the strip without doing anything constructive. It also looks like V used his brain and pitched Anvil away from Halo in order to prevent a repeat of her last rescue. I only wonder if that was actually brain power or just luck, because he would have to have deduced how Anvil got back in the fight far sooner than he expected in order to act on that knowledge.
I don’t think Halo will be “the one to bring V down”, because right now it’s a dog-pile with V as the focus and everyone is contributing what they can. Even if Halo gets the finishing blow in it certainly won’t have been a solo effort. And Halo is clearly proving to everyone that she can work well within a team environment (which has got to be a bit of a shocker to everyone), add synergies which were not there previously, and use her own powers quite effectively.
OMG, thank you for using deus ex machima correctly. Its a pet peeve of mine when people replace the deus part.
oh, also.. long time reader first time caller
So instead, Dave replaced the Machina with Maxima.
Could we not have “Dudes, its Maxima”?
The Canadian version is:
Dudes, eh Maxima.
Wait, maybe this one will get moderated but how about “Do sex, Maxima!”
What, because they’re drawing from the machine something other than a god? Why would that be a peeve?
Have never heard of that being used without the Deus part
like daze ex machina? or doom ex machina? read one heard the other or did I read both and hear one at some point….. whatever.
I have been wondering. Do you have to keep your pet peeve on a leash? Does it need a permit in built up areas? Does it attack pet projects?
Does one have to mind one’s peeves and q’s?
only if your peeves and Ques arn’t properly trained and house broken.
Vehemence just likes to fight. He’s like a super powered mma guy. He’s probably studied martial arts, magic, science, comic books, etc. All to maximize his ability to win in a fist fight.
By the way Dave, you nailed Max’s expression. As soon as I saw the last panel I knew she was thinking, “My turn!”, with an almost manic glee. It’s often hard for officers to put themselves more and more into a directory role as promotions remove them from the action. It must be really hard for a superhero, who more than other officers, is leading the charge.
When I saw that last panel the CSI: Miami scream just came into my head
Shanghai Knights, “We’re back in the saddle again!” that’s what was playing in my mid anyway
“Deus ex Maxima”
haw
I didn’t see the spelling before reading it the second time.
Can we get a side order of Act of Sydney with that?
)
^ I think you forgot this. In the author commentary.
Also interesting to note that getting his tattoo cut didn’t affect it much. I was wondering if it was like energy paths and cutting it would stem the flow. Guess not.
I wonder if Dabbler was wondering the same thing…
Well he didn’t have to go to prison to get shanked!
I always thought Shank would be more of a stabbing then a slicing sound effect?
Yes, yes it is (unless you are talking about tasty meat, mmm, having lamb shanks for dinner tonight)
Sidney didn’t have a “I’m not on this page” panic moment. She’s grown. ;-D
She has the tentacle and a speech bubble on this page
Where is Sydney’s speech bubble? The off-panel speaker in panel 1 I figure is Dabbler, just before she slices Vehemence. I am thinking that the Dues Ex Maxima comment is coming from Harem. When is Sydney talking here?
I think this is Dabbler’s speech bubble.
If the tentacle had pulled Anvil away it could have been Sidney’s. Unless she did a catch and release with Anvil but I doubt that.
While I initially saw it as Dabbler’s, it actually can be used as Sydney’s as well. The dialogue does not require Sydney to actually catch Anvil to work. She simply has to make an attempt like we see now to work.
Nah, the way the statement is specifically replying to what he is doing with Anvil it has to be Sydney’s. Though the tentacle disappears in the next few frames I assume she had to send it up high to catch Anvil at the top of her arc.
No, that is Dabbles in the first panel, not Sydney
Its possible and you are welcome to your opinion of course. But Sydney is also in that general direction and that statement makes more sense for Sydney to say if she is trying to deny the success of the action Vehemence is taking in the same panel while Dabbler is just cutting him in the second panel which doesn’t stop him from anything he was doing or talking about in the first. Unless DaveB said something somewhere that it was Dabbler talking and then obviously I’m wrong. *shrug*
Wonder if he’s ticklish?
LOL, just like superman’s weekness is kryptonite, Vehemence weekness is he’s ticklish. (insert image of Sydney with evil grin using her tenticle orb to tickle him)
…ew.
No.
Just… no.
Everyone always go for the Kryptonite when talking about Superman, but he’s shown other weaknesses over the years. Magic being a big one, for instance.
becouse it’s the most well known
And you can get it at any corner store.
villians can get magic and ultra tech at the corner store you know the creepy one that was always there that wasn’t always there yesterday
I’m liking Vehemence more now that he seems to have reacquired his balance and sense of humor. I like me a stylish villain.
Maxima said it herself, ‘They say superheroes are best defined by their gallery of rogues’. I think it’s a good sign that we have a quality villain from the start who I can totally see having fun interacting with ARC in the future.
Yep. Vehemence is having FUN here. Looks like Maxima’s looking forward to this.
The question is whether this battle is supposed to end with Vehemence in custody, or not. Dramatically I can argue it either way, but if he DOES end up taken in, that would imply that we need someone a lot more badass than he is showing up to be a more continuing threat.
Catching him, yeah, but keeping him? That might be challenging, and he can learn and level up just like the heroes do.
Nothing keeps him from getting out of jail and fighting them again.
Matter of fact with his skill getting out of whatever max security jail they put him in could be a rather tasty piece of cake.
And more buzz by getting out with a minimum of damage to the prison itself !
Or maximum, depending on the day of the week. And yeah, prisons in superhero comics are about as air tight as a screen door, so odds are good he’ll make a return appearance in either case.
Random comment:
I noticed in the last panel that Max does not have pierced ears. Is it because as a feminist she thinks such things are trivial and demeaning, or has she never been able to find something that could actual puncture her skin?
Or because it would actually give the villains something to yank. (maybe)
Vehemence seems so polite perhaps if she hands him Dabbler’s sword and asks him nicely to take care of it before they get started…
Not everyone has pierced ears…
Max can shut down all her defenses if she wants to. So no pierced ears is her choice.
She has a base where she is still superpowered on all fronts but with a pool to move around. Maybe she could get her defense down by doing that “overclocking” thing she does to one power feeding off all the others but I bet even then she still has some defense. Perhaps a diamond drill while she is doing that?
Or ask Dabbler. It’s a fairly safe bet she’s got something squirreled away in her lab that could do the trick. But I’m fairly sure that by the time Max met Dabbs she’d already decided against piercing her ears. It might have been something she would have gone for when she was in her mid teens though.
I keep thinking that “Halo” is going to finish him off, either with one of her mystery balls or by using her shield on him to cut off his air supply or something. And then she’ll become a particular target when the bad guys escape from “super jail” later on.
It’s actually tricky to figure a guy like this. The “last bad guy” usually has some greater plan. Was his idea really just to wade into a poolfull of superheroes and throw down for fun and profit, or is he up to something else? Is he testing them all for future reference? He could be a “dragon,” a high-level gofer for some other villain (and/or villainous organization).
She has to be the center of her own shield and I’ll bet DaveB will finish playing with all her other balls first before using his two aces in her sleeves there. But he may let her do the smart strategy thing in the end. She seems to go through training and get promoted pretty darn quick in the flash forward at the beginning of the comic.
Here is proof that Sydney doesn’t have to be in her sheild.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1112
She’s inside the shield there…
That’s just proof she can make the shield bigger to ALSO protect other people
It also shows that Sydney doesn’t necessarily need to be at the *center* of her shield, be must still be*in* it.
I think that’s just a side effect of all the many things DaveB was trying to squeeze in to that shot and still wanting to show that she had her shield up. But I admit it looks that way.
regretfully we must refute your claim as syd was still in the shield she generated in that episode just max wanted to not be in it with her, (out of fear or something else you decide LOL).
Considering how well he’s holding up as it is, his whole one-man-army approach isn’t as stupid as it could have been. He’s also giving the vibe of fighting for the sake of a challenge, so I don’t think he’s likely to go after Sydney specifically if she ends up giving him the K.O. blow. It would seem more likely for him to give her respect for managing it, albeit in the form of taking her seriously.
Deus Ex Maxima…That may be the best thing ever.
Man the super-tanks are always the worst to deal with…
Nah, healers with a full pool of energy slash power slash whatever is worse
“Oh come on! Will you stop healing yourself and die already?”
https://www.supermegatopia.com/booty/gallery/gallery.php?thisLink=viciouscycle.jpg
This sums it up nicely.
So Dabbler’s sword is capable of injuring him. Good to know. I love the shot of her flipping away when Vehemence stomped the ground to hurl her towards him. Would love to see a greatly blown-up (haw!) version of that panel. Her pose is really graceful, the move is excellent, and it certainly puts that figure of hers on magnificent display. ;)
What exactly is the “fazsh”-ing circle thing in panel 5?
Dabbler’s spell being blocked is my guess.
I’m pretty sure it’s Vehemence deflecting Dabbler’s Thaumon excitation. It possibly has something to do with his tattoos but mostly seems to just show off his impressive ability to take a hit. Plus his comment that Dabbler needs 3 orders of magnitude more power (which I think either means 30x more or 1000x more) implies that he’s just shrugged off whatever “Sava Lava Cuti” did.
“3 orders of magnitude” is either 8 binary or 1000 decimal.
“Sava Lava Cuti” is a sleep spell. She’s used it before…but I don’t have the link handy :(
Grrl Power #235 – The rad muncher!
Actually it may be just a general incantation similar to raven’s from teen titans, she can use the same incantation for varying effects.
Honestly, the longer the fight goes on the more thrilled he seems to get. Either he is liking the challenge, or he is getting a rush from facing them all and still being able to hold his own. V has Pride, thats why he was so ticked when Sydney made him look silly. He is trying to prove something.
I don’t know something though seems off. He has a trump card somewhere or somehow. I do not think they will be able to detain him even if they win the battle. It just seems to easy.
It often seems like the first major villain a superteam faces becomes their biggest threat/archenemy. Maybe he’s seen what they can do and wants to claim the slot?
The question is why he would engage in this entire exchange in the first place.
He’s obviously intelligent, powerful, well informed, organized, and calculating. He had intelligence on the fact that there were more supers combat active in the immediate area than ARCHON thought were in the entirety of North America (Opal not withstanding). He then managed to organize them into a semi-cohesive group without actually taking up a leadership position.
Now we go on to the actual fight. His face is all over several news media outlets. Blood has been spilled, so he will be identifiable by D.N.A. analysis. Given the sophistication of ARCHONs equipment, they likely have voice print and retina scans as well. He WILL be identified later. Moreover he would know this.
I put forth that he’s trying to get arrested for the purpose of staging a jail-break. By releasing all these now criminals with nowhere else to turn but a life of crime he would become the de-facto leader, as their previous leader had obviously failed them.
Just my two cents.
But they were all arrested because Vehemence blocked the escape. They’ll know that.
I doubt he’s trying to do anything really evil.
Hell, I doubt he’s evil. He may not be a lawfull guy, but he’s polite, and friendly (within the situation).
I’ll bet he’s even holding back his really big powers, because he doesn’t want to kill the people he’s fighting.
My prediction is that this fight will end inconclusively. He may knock out some of the other guys, but in the end fight Maxima to a standstill, neither able to beat the other.
At this point he’ll smile, say thank you, and vanish.
When you have powers, have trained yourself to a ridiculous level, and have no true competition…I imagine you spend a lot of time being bored and/or looking for a challenge. In this case, there’s a (presumably) nation-wide broadcast of Sydney’s PPO and Maxima’s ability to withstand that along with all of the other supers and their abilities…AT LAST he’s found something against which to test his mettle. I can’t even begin to imagine just how much anticipation and excitement he had at seeing the newscast (granted I’m making some assumptions on his character in that he doesn’t seem to be truly evil and seems to have extensive training in various skills).
(Excuse my brain for thinking of things after the fact.)
Additionally, he could have jumped into combat at any time and crushed some of the weaker ArcSwat while they were dealing with his ‘minions’. The fact that he waited does imply a few things: he knows he’s stronger than many of them and doesn’t want to waste time with them, observation (probably confirming some of his guesses and suspicions more than anything)…it could also imply he wants something closer to a fair fight. And when he did get involved it was to interrupt Opal’s escape attempt…which alternately could have various implications of it’s own.
Remember, Dave is a “One Punch Man” fan… And that pretty much describes Saitama’s life…
You are assuming he is going to lose though
Given that this is all a flashback, we know that he loses. That may mean that he pulls the typical villain “I’ll be back!” while fleeing, or it may mean that he is captured or killed. But that’s all which remains to be seen. The only suspense remaining is who if anyone on the ARC side is injured or killed, the further display of exciting superpowers, and exactly how the fight ends be that escape, capture, or kill.
I suppose there is always the possibility for some other outcome, such as a heel face turn with a remarkable amount of forgiveness on the part of ARC. This we will learn in due time.
Know, we don’t, he could still win, all we know is that Maxi, Anvil and of course Sydney are still around, for all we know he killed all the others and ARCHON is rebuilding from such a catastrophic lose
Anvils slam and throw has her powered up again.
Harem should stop with the flash bangs and start with explosives, a necklace of claymores for example.
They seemed to be probing for weaknesses or maybe that’s just my way of thinking.
A claymore is an anti personel mine. It has a relatively weak explosive, and propels sharpnel in all directions.
Shrapnel is as dangerous as bullets. HE isn’t harmed by bullets. There is Archon personel around that IS.
So claymores would be a very bad idea. What you need here is anti tank mines
Fat lot of good that is going to do her now, she is in the next county, and Fedorka can withstand her best moves now
Very satisfying. Especially Sydney managing to be the most annoying to him while still well within her “support” role! Teamwork is best, thanks Sydney!
Sava Lava Cuti: Isn’t that an evil sleep spell from a “Kids in the Hall” skit? Was she trying to sleep him?
Yup, sleep spell.
She used it before: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1420
That was too bad. I thought she would take her cue from Sydney (the tripping ) and Anvil (the upper cut to Maxima) and sever his stable connection to the ground with say a grease spell, a levitation spell for Anvil or something cheap like that. Maybe now that he casually mentioned his high spell resistance to direct attack she will concentrate on either changing his environment or powering up her allies. When I’m playing a game and the big bad ignores my best direct hits then I pour my magic into everything ELSE! ;D
So, how strong is Maxima exactly? As in: how hard can she throw something?
According to my back-of-the-envelope calculation it should take between 10^10 and 10^12 Joule to get 200 kg of bad guy up do a decent escape velocity, which comes in between 1 ton and 1 kiloton of TNT yield (transferred straight to kinetic energy).
Which sounds very do-able for a super of her caliber.
Point is: it’s a valid strategy to chuck bad guys that can’t be contained or talked down otherwise into space. Provided they don’t have some kind of locomotive powers. With a bit of practice, she might even be possible to chuck ’em into the sun. She would have to adjust for the rotation and angular movement of the earth, but once they’re going in the right general direction, gravity should do the rest.
Not advocating this as a first response, since it would be lethal to anyone except Achilles-level Invulnerables, and eternal torture for the rest. But as a last resort?
I think a lot of super fights would be cut short if one of the default responses was to throw them into the sun.
Not too many, since you need a high Brick or kinetic Manipulator power. Teleporters actually needn’t bother, since they also can go for the Earth’s core or mantle. And of course it doesn’t happen in ‘traditional’ comics, since you also need someone who can survive space / the sun / hurtling through the atmosphere above escape velocity, otherwise it’s a very unambiguous killshot.
But yeah, I do wonder if Archon has an official protocol for this. After all, it’s probably more cost effective than maintaining some kind of super-prison in a pocket dimension, which they are going to escape anyway.
Btw, Archon is allowed to kill, right?
Oh, and of course space might be an even better option, considering how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. Why keep the superpowered maniacs in your solar system if you can just chuck them somewhere they’ll never be able to get back from, and also never be found?
The odds of them being found is extremely small, but not *infinitely* small, so it is a dead certainty that they will be picked up by a passing ship. Whereupon they will have a fish shoved in their ear, be given a towel, be offered a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, and be sent on their way.
Personally, I would like to know if Vehemence could take on the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal.
“I didn’t pick them up.”[said Trillian] “What do you mean? Who picked them up then?”[said Zaphod] “The ship did.” “Huh?” “The ship did. All by itself.” “Huh?” “While we were in Improbability Drive.” “But that’s incredible.” “No, Zaphod. Just very very improbable.”
One problem with that, Dirka, and that is collateral damage. Unlike a rocket launch, you’re hitting the target with enough force for escape velocity. That is going to cause a hell of a shock wave, and likely kill anyone who isn’t shielded at least within a city block.
Way back when I was in college, a friend of mine scored a car pass to the area where they let people watch Shuttle launches. This was around four miles away from Launch Pad 39, and we were anticipating a good show. We got it, and indeed, we heard it and even *felt* it.
When I took the KSC visitor’s tour (I lived on Merritt Island), the guide mentioned when we saw the Launch Pad that if you within a mile when the Shuttle launched, it was likely to kill you just from the sound. That’s just to get it off the ground, not to get it into orbit in one go.
In short, *bad* idea, unless you’re doing it well above breathable atmosphere… and I suspect Max has to breathe and eat and other Life Stuff.
Hm, good point. I had envisioned it more as a throw than a punch. And since Max can fly, she can anchor herself to her surroundings, which should mitigate the opposite reaction force of a kiloton-throw a bit. But yeah, we’re probably still talking about an awful lot of shattered windows and concussions.
On the other hand, if you’ve got two penumbrate-class supers duking it out in an urban environment, you’re already looking at massive collateral damage (hello there, Man of Steel), so a souped up fastball special starts looking pretty good.
The guy I’m working on has a few dimensional lockers that could prove useful, when his abilities aren’t fritzing them out. Think hammerspace on steroids but the remotes to open the doors have wonky batteries.
Earth escape velocity = 11 200 m/s
KE = 200/2 * (11 200^2)
KE = 12.5 x 10E9 joules
Granted, I have no idea what you meant by a “decent” escape velocity. As opposed to an indecent one? We’d have to ask Dabbler about that.
Yeah, but your projectile is going to face quite a bit of atmospheric resistance, which means that simple escape velocity is not going to cut it. I didn’t want to calculate the loss from drag, hence the three order of magnitude ballpark. Plus a kiloton is such a nice and tidy sum.
One minor quibble in the artist’s comment, context suggests that max wants to cut loose, rather than lose something.