Grrl Power #258 – Unstoppable force, meet Maxima’s face
Except for the broken nose, that’s just about exactly how Max wanted that exchange to go down. Grandstanding is always a risk in the superhero game given the enormous range of abilities, but she has enough experience gauging the relative strength of other supers by now. She saw Vehemence punch a roughly 75 ton Stalwart a few inches off the ground and that gave her an idea of what he could do.
You can see her visualizing her power distribution there on the page, but she wasn’t quite able to max out her armor like she’d planned. She needed to keep some of her power pool reserved for flight so she didn’t get knocked back, and strength so her head didn’t snap back. Her armor makes her less… floppy (in a ragdoll sense, not in a girl on a trampoline sense you perverts… although, I guess in that way as well) but with a punch like that she needed a little extra. She can even crank her armor up so high that she can’t move, but that only happens when she’s actually drawing against her strength for an ultra boost. Keep in mind, even without spending her pool on anything she’s still pretty tough. In Marvel superhero terms she’s like straight Amazings (which is 50 on a 100 point scale, 6 being a regular human and 100 being Thor/Hulk/Silver Surfer level.) Her power pool dump puts her at the 100 point level (in only one stat) and if she draws against her other abilities she can exceed that.
Yes, Maxima’s blood is blue. I don’t have any particular reason for that other than it’s been that way in my head for a long time. If nothing else, that should tell you that her unusual appearance is slightly more than skin deep. Also that she should blush green. I tried to color her that way on the one page on which it happened, but she looked seasick, so I just kept it red. I’ll have to think of some canon reason it happens that way.
So what does all this mean for Vehemence? Stay tuned!
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome which I can’t live without anymore, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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SleepyBulldog,
I think you miss the point about Maxima, and many like her. It’s the difference between the sheep and the sheepdog. The sheepdog doesn’t have to love the sheep. It may be often seen barking and nipping at their heels. Remember, it’s closer kin to the wolf than to the sheep. Still, without it, too many of the sheep will be wolfchow. Think of her as an Anatolian Shepard breed, and you’ll be closer to the truth.
Add to that, she’s been long in the military. That means she’s seen the disdain that the press, and so many of “the clerisy”, and the elites they front for, have for the military far too often. Do note her lectures to Sydney on paying due regard to civilian casualties and damage. She isn’t the friendly cop on the corner. The military seldom make good police, which is why Arianna disavowed the notion.
I have not read any of this comment but I will reply by posting a url to a random website you will be too curious not to click
https://weirdpoll.com/3348/
Must… not… click… link….
Ok, lost that fight.
Internet 9001- Deof -1,000,000
Do you have a link for that?
I agree. Max is not a cop. Max is a hammer. When you have a big nail sticking up causing problems you don’t ask it nicely to stop you bring out the hammer and pound it down. Subtle is useless in this case. Did V check for bystanders before unleashing that Haymaker? No. His indifference is his crime. Max actually showed concern for civilians and her people so she has the moral high ground here. Not to mention he convinced a lot of powered individuals who might have stayed out of the spotlight into attacking a legal governmental agency. If she seems to have a huge ego that’s just her awareness of just how powerful she is.
HMM-m-m…
Is it still considered ego (or even arrogance) if her self-assessment is accurate?
I have an Anatolian cross. She is not a herding dog, though she has border collie in her. I would not what to try to get at he boy, with her around, though.
I gotta admit: I don’t know who it will be, but -someone- is about to suffer a very humiliating bout of asskicking. I’m leaning towards his haymakership simply because while Max is the DPS/Tank of the crew when it comes down to it, Sydney is lethally capable support and that tentacle of hers is enough to make hi life very difficult.
On that subject, can she project the forcefield around other objects? Because that might make her the most powerful single-target fighter on the team. Forcefield around bad guy until he passes out or just outright dies. Or if it can be narrowed, she can simply sever things until he stops (think nanometer thickness dropped along the shoulder joint, for example). Forcefields are hella scary as offensive powers if they aren’t epicenter-fixed.
Currently, she can form a force field around just another person. She would have to be inside it as well.
can = cannot
Well, she can’t do so now, as far as we can tell…but she’s barely advanced her skill tree at all yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets even more crazy shield powers eventually once she really maxes that thing out.
Even if she can’t yet, maybe she’ll be able to in the future. She does have a skill tree capable of improving her powers or adding new ones – it doesnt seem like a leap of logic to say that there’s a skill upgrade to let her combine the comm and shield orbs to let her have the shield surround someone else.
For that matter, other combinations can be stuff like:
PPO + Lighthook = REAL lightsaber/laser whip
Fly + Comm = Reverse/Increase gravity on another person.
Comm + PPO = Time Bomb?
Currently, her Comm Ball projection is only audio & visual.
But if her advancement in her skill tree allows for Comm + Shield, if the shield alters itself to the same shape as the image projected by the Comm ball, Sydney’s image would be *tangible.*
Maybe a comm upgrade which lets her do actual teleportation too. Or duplication.
We already have a duplicating teleporter in Harem. DaveB seems to want to keep powers in the more or less unique range. Halo is there to add to the team, not replace it.
Also, one Sidney is more than enough for the world.
I could see Dabbler mentioning the possibility just so she can enjoy seeing Max acquire a new tic…
OMG Sydney clones would be awesome! But maybe the comm ball upgrade was just to allow one extra illusion.
Three years later we find out you guessed right comm ball upgrade lets her teleport to the location the dup projection is.
I’d actually say Amazing is 8 or 9 on a 10-18 level scale, (depending on if you count Shift 0/X/Y/Z, Class 1/3/5000 and Beyond). This is because most of the time it’s the column that matters, not the numeric value, with each column being worth about +5 on a d% roll.
Going up from Amazing(50), you only have two steps before you hit Unearthly(100). Going down two steps only drops you to Remarkable(30).
The talk of Marvel Superheroes reminded me of the character I once rolled. And I mean, rolled all of the following was rolled randomly (both what powers and their strenght). In the end I felt guilty because he was basically the most powerful guy there by far.
Fighting: IN (36)
Agility: EX (16)
Strength: IN (36)
Endurance: G (8)
Reason: TY (5)
Intuition: FE (2)
Psyche: EX (16)
Health: 96
Karma: 200
Resources: P (3)
Popularity: 20
KNOWN POWERS
Darforce Manipulation (IN): Covu sometimes seems to flow around punches or other attacks at tremendous speed, leaving an afterimage that then follows the movement a split second later. (Flavored as: “When hit make power check at enemy fighting strenght to evade, unless surprised.”)
Bodyarmor (AM): Most often, he does not even seem to acknowledge the attempts of others to hurt him.
Recovery (G): In the rare cases where he has been injured greatly, he is known to have come back to good health at a speed that baffles most doctors.
Life Support(AM): It seems that for a limited amount of time, he can use monk-techniques to shield his body from harm that comes from the envirnomant, be it walking through a river or moving through a burning building.
Resistance to Disease (IN): He has yet to be seen ill in any shape or form.
Equipment: None
Talents: Most of his skills seem to lie in hand to hand combat. He was at a time seen to wield different weapons, but ultimately was much more capable with his bare hands (Martial Art B). Further is he able to twist his hands and arms in strange ways, allowing him a much greater chance of hitting those that become his target (Weapon Specialization: unarmed strike).
He is also known as a capable helper in emergencies, often applying First Aid to injured people.
Dave:
If you’re open to artistic suggestions:
The dust cloud in the background of panels 9 and 10 (the two back-to-back closeups on Vehemence’s face) should be receding into the distance relative to its position in panel six.
Think “shock wave”.
Yeah I was actually going for that but I guess I messed it up. I think when I was doing that I had been working on backgrounds all day and was ready to be done with the page. :)
They may not be receding (like his hair, long ago :P) but they are changing
That’s mean!
I wonder if Vehemence has some clues to Maxima’s power like he had with Anvil’s and was trying to sneak a punch in before Maxima could decide how to distribute her powers.
I was wondering, how quickly Maxima can reallocate her power? Also is there a difference in speed between shifting her pool around and dumping stats?
Have his teeth grown back or is it just the angle?
Just the angle: if you look you can just make out the gap in each frame you can see his entire mouth
remember kids, the most important part of police action is looking cool
Just remember kids: Psychological Warfare, if done right, can end a conflict before it escalates…Sometimes, even before it begins.
Here the perfect link to show what going to happen: https://cheezburger.com/8334916352
“HOH SHIT!”
BLUE blood? Blimey. The surprises just keep coming!
Apparently she’s has haemocyanin instead of haemoglobin.
if i was vehemence i would probably shit my pants in that last panel.
So, Maxima’s a blue-blood. That explains a lot. Wonder which royal family she belongs to. #LamePunsAreLame
Uh, hope it’s not too late to point this out before the book version but there’s a typo in panel 2 when he says ‘We have a least that much in common” should be “We have at least that much in common”
I’ll add that to the fix list.
THAT’S what happens when Unstoppable Force meets Immovable Object: The energy is dispersed throughout.
That is the best last panel in this comic. So far.
This is my favorite page of all time. Seriously. I have it bookmarked.
Wait… Do Maxima’s eyes change colour? They were blue when she was a teen, and I could’ve *sworn* they looked blue in more recent pages, or in the vote incentive box… But here they look purple, and now in the voting incentive they look purple, too. Did I just misinterpret the colour earlier? Am I misremembering? O.o
Hmm. It does appear to have gone unnoticed that Maxima’s not just laying down the options to Vehemence in Panel 2, but subtly throwing him an insulting gesture while she’s at it. Or maybe that’s more a British use of the gesture.
Yeah, that’s a British (and a few other Commonwealth countries) thing. In North America it doesn’t mean anything. I think it’s more common for us to signal “two” in the same way as the “peace sign”, with palm forward, but the palm back version is seen often enough.
Great work on this page – the setup, and that last panel :D.