Grrl Power #260 – Adding injury to injury
The sound effect “BootToTheHead” is a nonomatopoeia. It’s a sound effect that doesn’t sound like the sound it’s supposed to sound like, and they amuse me. I thought of the word nonomatopoeia as I was writing this, and I was duly pleased with myself, but a quick google reveals that it’s already a word. Damn you millions of people who lived before me! (shakes fist)
Vehemence really needs to turn this fight (beating) around or throw in the towel, although it may be telling that he considers a .50 caliber round to the eye “poking.”
That last panel could really use more shrapnel from the shattered slab of parking lot now that I look at it fresh a week after drawing it, but man, I’ve been pulling a lot of late nights with all the double pages of late, so do me a favor and imagine it with chunks of asphalt spraying out and the whole thing looking about 20% cooler. :)
Here’s something you guys will hopefully enjoy (and hopefully not abuse). Fred Perry, who does Gold Digger, both of which I’ve mentioned several times before as Gold Digger is my all time favorite comic, has put the first 199 issues of the comic online for free. I believe the thinking behind this is it’s difficult to see issue 225 of something on the shelf in the comic store and think you’ll jump right in. Obviously there’s a lot of history there, and unlike a comic from Marvel or DC that reboots every 12 months, Gold Digger is one contiguous story. By offering 20 years of backstory for free, I think Fred is hoping to pick up some new readers to the current storylines.
I’ve been vacillating as to whether or not I should link this archive from the comic, my concern is that a sudden influx of traffic and the subsequent downloading of 199 PDFs times 10,000 will cause Fred either some bandwidth or expense issues with his server. So I’m putting the link up with the hopes that you guys won’t go in there and just leech the whole library all at once. I’d suggest reading the first few issues, see if you like it, and if you do, have at it, just remember this is the last 20 years of Fred’s professional life on offer for free, so please make use of the donate link, (edit: to be clear, the donate link on the Gold Digger page, not my donate link) if for no other reason than to cover any surprise bandwidth costs. Also there are links to subscribe to the latest issues there on the side if it turns out you do like it. I think if you enjoy Grrl Power there’s a fair chance you will.
Here’s the link, please enjoy Fred’s quality responsibly. :)
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.
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.
Yup, he’s still aweke and fully concious.
So now the question is: Can he fight back, or is he just a sandbag to Maxima at this point?
V tried, I think, to block that last punch. He may be going defensive.
Looked more like he was just going “Not the face, note the face!”
It wasn’t his face he was worried about ;)
Max figured he’d get a little higher before her punch landed.
No look at the speed lines. She was aiming for the face but diverted at the last moment
He had his arms up to block the shot to his face. Always good to redirect your shot if they think they know where its landing.
Since he was worried about the low blow stomp, perhaps a swift knee to the love spuds may make him fall if he is foolish enough to get up from this one.
The speed lines do not lie.
Or she was feinting towards his head while meaning to aim for his midsection the entire time.
He’s also not grinning, just grimacing.
He’s not getting defensive. You’re the one that’s getting defensive.
=OP
Passive Defensive? That’s a new one
It just might be older than you think. =OP
Well, new to me :P
That’s the problem with you young whippersnappers. No respect for the classics.
What has that tree ever done to you, Max!?
And that poor squirrel.
Well that squirrel is the reason the restaurant collapsed
Cunning beast, playing on our sympathy until the stab in the back.
Yeah, the ‘back’, right /wink
Yup, that poor squirrel just can’t get a break. No surprise if it would go nuts.
Well, Maxi went after Fedorka’s
He gets knocked out of the tree he was trying to sleeping, then after that maniac leaves and he just about settles down again in another tree, then this huge idiot comes though and destroys his new tree. What does a guy have to do to get some sleep around here?
Survive
considering all the bad things that have happened to that poor squirrel are we also seeing the origin story of dun dun dun The Vigilante known as Secret Agent Squirrel. I think I just revealed how ancient I am.
Ah, the ‘ol Saturday morning cartoon lineup…I remember it well:
Mighty Mouse
(Original) Jonny Quest
Snagglepuss
Merlin Mouse
Snidely Whiplash
Dudley Doright
(Original) Pink Panther & the Inspector
Thundaar the Barbarian
Even the Spiderman of the 60’s
Why did we ever let those “holier-than-thou” busybodies ruin our childhood by getting them cancelled?
Because we where young, powerless and unaware of them? That and some of us lived far far away in other lands. Good thing CartoonNetwork just re-re-releases it’s old series on alternate channels. Progress.
If one mother can get an entire line of adult collectable figurines removed from a toy chain, what hope is there?
It’s people like that who don’t know when to just butt out…In my youth, we didn’t need any warnings of “don’t try this at home,” because we already KNEW it would hurt. And yet, we’re the generation that grew up figuring how to better run other peoples’ lives & imposing that kind of nonsense.
Fortunately, I matured into the Age of Reason before going THAT far.
But the tree started it.
lol i think v has just worked out what hes in for
a quite literal curb stomping
Well, Vehemence wanted a fight & now he’s got one: I’d be willing to bet that Maxima might even be thinking, “You wanted a fight, you SOB, so shut up & fight already!”
Panel 2: Even with all of Max’s military combat training, it’s obvious she also knows Ti Kwan Leap – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjo_bWOILjY
Panel 5: Sorry V, but you caught Max in a very UNladylike mood now…Even less of a ladylike kind of mood than Sydney with Shadow Boxer.
Panel 6: Max is so pissed, now she tilts the pinball machine after she missed the balls.
Panel 7: Even though they say that the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, I don’t think Max is flirting with him here…
The quickest way to a man’s heart is through the diaphragm. No bones to get in the way.
For Max the quickest way would be a full power beam to his heart
Tell me where V shops for clothing. I want to get a pair of work pants like that. They should have been reduced to assless chaps by now.
Try some riding jeans with a denim / aramid mix. Very abrasion resistant.
Same place as the Hulk
Somewhat better colour choice, but. Why the heck does Dr Banner ALWAYS opt for purple?
He thinks it matches nice with green?
Limited color selection in the extra-stretchy sizes. Old fart pants, ya know. He’s lucky to find something besides plaids.
Bruce bought all the same suit because that way he wouldn’t have to decide what to wear and could focus that much more on science. He got all purple because pre-Hulk Banner was a colossal dork.
I am not making this up. It’s from a Peter David-era story with Doc Samson recording notes on Bobby’s case. Maybe a back-up in an annual.
Purple is love, purple is life. Purple is best color. Science!
I’m sorry, that reminds me of the strip where Syndey got close to Achilles after an explosion went off. And the whole backside of Achilles clothes were ruined.
by definition, aren’t all chaps assless? if they weren’t they’d be….pants.
The only chaps have seen with no asses was on “King of The Hill”, the episode with the lawn-mower racing in particular :P
Holy mackerel, twice. Once for Max’s clobberizing and again for Fred Perry’s Gold Digger Archive.
wut?
Reference I missed? (If so, no need to flesh it out, I don’t know said archive.)
There is news and a link in Dave’s comments. tl;dr Fred Perry has posted a heap of Gold Digger online for free reading (donation button for thank you).
Thanks… I just noticed myself, now when I carefully read the wholeartist’s comment and not only the first 2 paragraphes before rushing to comment… Got the haste punished immediately…
Damn you, missing blank *shakes fist*
It’s just something Dave mentioned in the commentary.
I forget… are squirrels cute woodland animals or evil plotters of our doom in this comic? I kinda want to know if that one got saved or not. ….. That is a squirrel right?
The same one who so nimbly dodged Hex’s attack.
Depends on who you ask
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1384
And the next comic also…
Why can’t they be both?
That is a different tree from the one Hex crashed into, since she brought it down.
As to if that is the same squirrel https://www.exiern.com/2008/04/03/all-squirrel/
I think Dave just has something against squirrels.
They are colour coded.
The brown ones are cute woodland animals. The grey ones are evil plotters.
Oh? Then what about the red squirrels & the black ones? The black ones, being so rare, might be the few “innocent bystanders” in squirrel society? And the red squirrels are the “cannon fodder minion” class subjugated by the grey squirrels (red fur, red shirt…same difference)?
Bravo, sir. Good catch.
Read “Bullfinch” to find out. It’s no longer being updated but the Squirrels there have a super-scientific civilization.
You do know about Squirrel girl from Marvel that defeated Doctor Doom?
and GALACTUS!!!
AND Thanos
Squirrel Girl vs. the Marvel Galaxy…
Fight!
And Wolverine. but…it was consentual.
Which Marvel female hasn’t Wolvie been with? o_O
Surprised there aren’t heaps of mini-Wolvies running around by now
He had a vasectomy. But for some reason it didn’t take…
WHAAAA?! Pictures! PICTURES DAMNIT!
Depends. Did momma squirrel risk life and limb to save her baby, or was she using it as bait to hunt dogs?
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/115827021638018304/
Looked to me like she saved the baby…She actually pulled it out of harm’s way instead of whipping out her “Finish Him” move on the dog.
I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again: Never underestimate a squirrel. Do you know anyone else who can run full speed up or down a tree with his nuts in his mouth?
And that’s not counting the females ;)
As far as it goes with female squirrels, once the nuts are in her mouth, they belong to her…
That looks like it could be important.
I do hope this is going to be an actual fight, not just a curbstomp battle.
The fact that he’s still talking right now suggest that it’ll be a real fight yes
All that and still no bruises and his eye has stopped bleeding. V might not regenerate but he seems to heal almost instantly. Max is going to have to work harder to keep him from coning back. Maybe even get some more help.
Looks like his scratches from Dabblers’s sword are also gone.
Though that could just be DaveB forgetting a detail
I think I can see some Constructicons in the background. Maybe they can form Devastator to help finish this situation.
You do know that the Constructicons are Decepticons, don’t you?
yeah, but as per the really old one in the movie, the SR-71 in the museum, whether a Decepticon or an Autobot being a “good guy” or a “bad guy” is a PERSONAL CHOICE… he was a Decepticon, but he was a good guy… so that could also apply to them as well…
You mean the senile old coot? The one that has been on earth for over a hundred years and just happens to be in the form of a jet bomber from the 70’s? o_O
Actually the SR-71 was a ultra-high-speed surveillance jet. It had no offensive capability.
Either way…
Yeah, I loved Jetfire. Especially that quote of his grandfather being the first wheel. “And you know what he transformed into? NOTHING! But he did so with HONOR!”
Hahaha, classic
That varies by continuity. Some versions present the Decepticons predating the Autobots. Most do not.
Dave has put back the cuts and the bleeding eye. Still no bruising though. V is tough, but he seems to have a limit.
I’ve just been looking over all the previous few strips, Veh seems to be hurt, get stronger, get hurt, get stronger…
Maybe he feeds off pain. in which case he’ll be very strong now… or very dead…
Ooh . .. masochism based power?
I know! He’s Disciplinary Committee Chairman IRA GAMAGORI!!!!
And now I imagine all his lines said while yelling in that voice. It is quite humorous actually, thank you.
But he’s not…the…
Wait. Is he the largest person in every scene he appears in?
I think Stalwart is the closest to his actual size so…yes?
Better get Ryuko and Senketsu to handle him then
Ooh, ouch… Sydney is being very smug there.
And you wanted a fight, V. If Max doesn’t give you a breather, it’s because you asked for it.
She is going to keep stepping up the power until V quits or stays down. And I don’t think she is anywhere near topped out.
Neither is he, now it’s his turn again
Indeed… He ist still making fun quotes… So he is not really worried about his physical integrity, by and large.
He should be. This isn’t a game – Max WILL KILL HIM if necessary.
Maybe he is sure she is not able to kill him?
He didn’t look sure in panel 6!
He looks like he is thinking “this is going to sting”, not “this is the end”.
He doesn’t think she can kill him. He knows that she can hurt him though.
I think he is certain that she won’t really try to kill him. After all, if that was what she was after she’d just kick him out over some lake, desert, ocean or the test field where they performed the demonstrations earlier, and give Vehemence a taste of her blast power.
There’s just so many ways she could take him out if she was going for the kill that it’s fairly certain she’s still holding back and are tying to detain rather than kill.
And there are good reasons to try to detain. Dead men are harder to interrogate, and Archon will want to know just how and why he whistled up that bunch of malcontents. The media angle is not as clear. On one hand it would look good if they were able to take all the perps down with no casualties, on the other hand turning V into meat paste would send a strong signal to wannabe criminals and might deter some from having a go at super villainy.
She can try… oh wait, she has been trying, and failing so far
So which is it… has she been trying to kill him or has she been possibly holding back?
Just because she has been trying doesn’t rule out her holding back
I think V is quickly finding out there are no “turns” in fights.
The construction equipment implies that roadway is not in use.
Looks more like it was a road still in construction that collapsed. The full bridge next to it is fine
Also, it looks like she hit one of the supports for a bridge/overpass/wahtever that wasn’t up yet, so much less harm done.
So that’s what happened to the mosque? No wonder she No wonder she warned Sydney. And then got carried away again.
I’m thinking that Max will come out of this fight with something that actually TOPS “The Mosque Incident’.
I think the bill, at least, has already topped the mosque. If they hit the ramp, bye-bye Archon annual repair budget in one fight. Plus unhappy cimmuters.
“commuters”
The way the roads are these days, would anyone really notice anything odd?
Now Archon gets the bonus of good PR by having the team help in the rebuilding of the roadway. It will make good video of Max and Hiro flying the steel beams into place while Jiggawatt and Heatwave weld them together. Stalwart would just have to stand on a piling and increase his mass to drive it into the ground.
Nah, Stalwart would be Jumping Up and Down to act like a piledriver.
“Those roads under construction were an accident. Mostly.”
Well, if Max pitches in to help, the reconstruction costs could be vastly lower.
For Maxi’s sake, let’s hope she has been holding back, or she is not as tough as she has led the entire fracking world to believe
Bluffs only work if they are not a bluff
Or when everyone thinks that it is not a bluff .
I much prefer the expression on people’s faces when they call a bluff and learn I wasn’t bluffing.
Can’t say I didn’t warn them about the bombs set to kill their familes.
I’m going to guess that, the moment that boot landed half a centimeter away from his crotch, he realized he may have made a mistake
Those are the most vital of vital organs to any male.
She’s just trying to help him earn his Darwin Award. Admit it, he could be better off OUT of the gene pool.
His bait and tackle just crawled up into his gut so far he’s gonna need a warm towel and oil to get them out of his throat.
True LOL from me. +as many as you want to complete the set.
Is that better or worse than a frog in one’s throat?
Depends on how big he is :P
Soooo…What do you think? Did Maxi’s gut-punch move them further up, or back down into normal position?
Just missed them on the way up.
If the next page shows Vehemence starting to cough and/or choke, I’ll take your admonition as being canon in the comic…
If a pair of walnuts come out of his mouth, we’ll see the REAL reason the Squirrel went Ebil.
I think this is going to come down to whether Vehemence can kick it up a notch in speed or not. Though Max seems to have paused, noticing she just severely damaged an overpass. “Oops” indeed. That’s gonna come out of your budget.
It IS pretty telling that being shot in the eye, then punched and spiked down by Maxima, STILL got only a dialogue of wiseassery from Vehemence. He was obviously not looking forward to Maxima kicking him in the family jewels, but given the priors, I don’t think he’s down yet, and I suspect he’s not going to run yet. If he *IS* going to try to run, now is the time; Maxima’s given him the distance and a moment of time to work in.
Yea, it seems to be Maxima’s super speed that’s giving her the biggest edge here.
Vehemence probably would have blocked that last hit to his face, but using her speed she diverted and hit somewhere else instead.
Also, asuming he’s not just holding back his own flying powers to suprise Maxima next pannel, that’s giving her an edge aswel
Yep. Given what happened in the prior hits, I don’t think that last punch to the gut took him out, or even close. On the other hand, if he can’t either match her speed or pull out some other trick (say, a slow-down field, flight, etc.), he’s just going to end up being a punching bag 90% of the time, which will not work out well for him.
Maxima is combat-smart and has super speed and flight, neither of which Vehemence can match. If she continues to fight smart, not only will Vehemence lose, but he won’t even get in another shot.
We actually do not KNOW what Vehemence can match. His conversation thus far hasn’t really indicated he’s even pushing himself. Most of his looks of startlement or worry have come from things more like “dirty pool” than anything else. “Bad form”, as Hook would say. Max doesn’t let him finish his monologue, she almost stomps his balls, she has him shot in the eye with a .50 caliber rifle, she’s just not getting into the FUN of things.
its rather like playing a 4x strategy game multiplayer with someone not interested in an hour or so prep to make the war at the end all the more fun to play. the sort who rush tier 1’s at you in the first 5 minutes of the game. dull sorts, them.
Exactly! Or like playing Magic: The Gathering with some munchkin Mr. Suitcase who optimizes his decks for one-turn kills, and you prefer long-drawn-out duels that show off many different combos. Maxi just is being all businesslike and Vehemence came here for FUN.
Toss an energy blast at him for good measure, Max. Just keep piling it on until he stays down. Or hit him hard enough that he leaves a crater on the moon: see if he can breathe in space.
While he is at a construction site and not under a motorway in use that is still not a good option.
Hey, at least they already have the equipment on hand to rebuild that bridge…..
Also, i’m pretty sure that squirrel is gong to swear vengence on arcswat and become a supervillain….
I believe that it will play both sides against each other .
All this comic is just the backstory of how Squirrileitor become the doom of humanity… maybe not.
“I am Nutatron, Master of the Squirrielacons!
Are you implying there’s more to that squirrel than meets the eye?
We’ll see when an army of flying squirrels start invading Archon.
Wouldn’t that, technically, be an airforce? Or would they be paratroopers? :D
Was thinking an Air FLEET actually. =P
Aerial combat which ever way you slice it :P
Next comic: Vehemence charges out of the clouds and hits Maxima
Or: Maxima grabs him/punches him so hard that the fight is moved to outside of the city, so she can really unleash the pain without fear of colleteral damage
My own guess is that the two sides come to an agreement/truce that allows V to get away and Archon deal with the damaged bridge.
So, now we know why Maxima was staying on the sidelines for most of the fight… I wonder who she threw into that mosque…
Well, where else would to send a religous fanatic?
If anyone knew, they weren’t letting on that they did. Instead, one lone voice was heard asking, “Who was that mosqued man?”/
Abdul Abulbul Amir
Nce
5 cents says it was the guy she thought she killed.
Help. I have to make a presentation to a room full of Directors and VPs in less than a half hour – and I can’t stop laughing.
OK, I’ll sober you up quickly.
PRESIDENT BIDEN!
That doesn’t sober me up anymore. I can’t think of anything he would do that actually worse than what’s being done.
Of course, President Average-Two-Year-Old fits that, as well. And would probably say fewer dumb things, actually.
Nah, Biden, like Quayle before him, is one huge portion of the Presidential life insurance policy. I hate to think huw mucked up the world would be if he was in the oval office…
Seriously, in what way could things be WORSE? The only reason Obama hasn’t been impeached is that he’s black. A white man who did half the things he’s done would have been impeached.
Sure, Biden’s a complete idiot, but “babbling idiot” is a much less painful than “intentional a__hole”.
What exactely has Oshama actually done? He himself, not someone else and he taking credit for it (like getting a Nobel Peace Prize within 2 or 3 weeks of him taking office)
NO POLITICS! *taps his XXL Sledgehammer*
Make sure you load it with high yield rounds :P
Oh no, this is an actual Rock-breaker sledge XD
That highway construction site is eerily reminiscent of an XCOM: EU map. Pretty sure V would squish a Muton Beserker in mid-charge with all that momentum. :)
if we’re talking about the broken L shaped one, got i hated that map on terror missions.
god*
Gott, it’s a formal title and you left off a “t”. ;)
you beat me to it.
i just had that one twice last night playing that :D
Ok… I tried… but this time I don’t get panel 6.
It looks to me like either V’s legs were broken off like a piece of rock or the hole in the ground somehow covers the front part of the piece of rock where V is sitting. Both seem unlikely.
Nah. Max in pressing down hard enough chunks of the parking lot are being levered up. There’s wone coming up between them and the 4th wall
The 4th wall? You mean, I see the distant side / outside of a chunk of floor she had kicked up?
*stares at panel 6 while squinting* Hm. With some imagination… yes, it could be. Thank you!
“outside” -> I mean “other side as seen from the inside so as if that chunk was transparent except its outside all around”.
You are seeing a bit of the underlying dirt still attached to the parking lot Maxi’s heavy foor pushed up (heh, Maxi should go on a diet :P)
I considered that, but then the middle part of that piece must be nearest to the viewer – and the “back folding” of the rim on the right side of the middle part shouldn’t be visible… Or, if the middle part is more away from the viewer than the left & right parts but it’s rim is higher (just as it looks), that wouId mean that I look a bit from above onto it and then I would see the floor behind the rim (but I don’t, I see V’s and M’s legs cut off at the rim). Still can’t make sense out of it :( There’s an Escher effect somewhere…
There are two pieces: the piece Fedorka is on, and the smaller piece between his legs and the camera
That much is clear, but it still doesn’t work for me. It gets better when I cover the “critical parts” of the rim of the smaller piece with my fingertips. But when I uncover them it looks impossible to me, again.
Does nobody else have a problem here?
Also, many thanks for helping me!
We will have to await input from DaveB
Panel 5: V should have eaten more spinach.
If the supervillain gig doesn’t work out for him, maybe he could do old-timey comic characters impressions for a living (such as Little Orphan Annie in panel 6 of a previous comic).
Why? So Max’s punch in Panel 7 would make him puke it up?
how long’s this fight being going on and when are the police getting there?
just asking since arcswat or the group their fighting are wearing any kind of uniform, so to a casual observer is this basicaly a street fight between to rival gangs (two gangs of supers, but still two gangs) and peggy fireing that Barrett on top of that air conditioner will attract the police
I’m sure Arianne has already liaised with the local police on this one.
Considering it’s 2 groups of supers, I’m guessing as long as they can possibly take.
IF – they are there already, they’ve probably set up a cordon and are waiting for the action to cease. Tackleberry is being held back by his buddies though. ;)
they managed to take Takleberry’s guns? police academy ftw
Tack doesn’t feel right ever since they took the Javelin Launcher out of his trunk.
He and Sledgehammer are sitting together discussing the pros and coins of different weapons of massive overkill.
Gods, I thought I was the only one who remembered Sledge. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing”
Only man I know that downs a helicopter with a RESCUE FLARE!
Loved that show, Sledge and his father Jack :)
Um?
I’d love to know where this reference is from.
Old TV show “Sledge Hammer” a Dirty Harry parody of sorts.
80s TV Series: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090525/
Well, when reason fails, force prevails.
Magnum Force :P
MAXIMA Force!
or the few times it showed his apartment, the Peephole is a rifle scope stuck into the head of a silhouette target.
A street fight between two gangs? No this is a fight between a put together gang and the authorities. Maxima’s group are now the official “police” for this type of instance (who were attacked in the donut shop as it were). Since all of ARC’s support types are also here its unlikely the local authorities have not been informed and told what ARC will allow them to do.
From most observers’ point of view, it’s just 2 groups of Supers fighting over territory
Yes, I saw that I had misread or skipped over crucial parts of their comment but there is no edit button on this sucker. Still it wouldn’t come to much with the police since ARC has most likely taken steps with them.
True, even a lone patrol car would either head towards the reporters or Ari would intercept them and explain what is going on
Sure but I meant like ALL of ARC is there so the tons of support personnel on hand most likely called the local authorities and told them what to do and expect. They most likely have people who’s primary job during an active conflict is entirely that (till the conflict is over and then they push paper for like ever…. ).
No, not all of Arc, more likely just one unit and support
But yeah, Ari probably got on the phone straight away, if not Leon
Police? WTF would the police do in this, except get in the way and die? I would presume they’ve been informed and are staying FAR FAR away until called in, IF they’re ever called in rather than the military.
Vehemence is showing the ability to take punishment on the level of main battle tanks, at least. He and Maxima’s throwdown is something that even other supers don’t really want to be close to. If Vehemence actually gets up and he and Maxima start mixing it up for real, NO ONE wants to be near that.
Think of the end of the recent Man of Steel movie, where a large chunk of New York is just destroyed by them beating each other at high speed. I really liked that, as it was, given the assumptions (nigh-indestructible, utra-strong, flying people) a lot more realistic than the usual “we have a massive super-hero battle, and nobody in the area is hurt” baloney that happens to often.
This could be like that. Yes, “NO ONE wants to be near that.”
Of course, if Vehemence can’t fly, Max should just knock him in to orbit and be done with it.
V doesn’t seem like a bad guy, but he really should know when to quit.
I mean, he seems super resistent to damage, so he’s probably going to be fine, but all that damage to the environment!
Level up! Special defense +0, Attack +0, Skill +0, Self-control -2, Strength +0, Intimidate +100.
That’s one tough squirrel.
what a great birthday present a beat down of bad guys
what a great birthday present todays my birthday a beat down of bad guys
Pretty sure that this guys tank isn’t gonna mean much soon. You still gotta be able to counter at some point, else all the tank in the world is useless.
At the moment, he is a straight Meat Shield and not a Tank
If it makes you feel better, nonomatopoeia has only been a word for 3 years, since Matthew Evans of the UK submitted it to Miriam-Webster in 2011.
Anyway, awesome scene. I’m guessing V will be making a comeback in the next panel. Probably with lasers.
Possibly charging at Max after throwing some rubble at the others to distract her.
You know, Max is actually giving him what he asked for, even if it isn’t what he actually wanted. He asked for a real fight, and Max is giving him that, he just didn’t expect the intensity. Panel 5 clearly shows that Max is still not resorting to the dirtiest possible tactics, so she is giving him a “fair” fight, for a rather serious degree of “fair”.
“The sound effect “BootToTheHead” is a nonomatopoeia.”
I prefer “unsound effect” (from TVTropes).
At least the bridge is still under construction. All the equipment for repairing it is right there, but I can just see tomorrow morning.
Insurance adjuster: So you are saying some vandals broke in to the site and destroyed one of the abutments? Did you watch the news last night? This wasn’t vandals.
Foreman: Well then, it was a really tight earthquake. Look at all this damage. The city lawyers are going to be all over us for going over-time and over-budget.
Insurance adjuster: I agree this is not your fault. See that restaurant over there?
Foreman: What restaurant? You’re pointing at a rubble pile.
Insurance adjuster: Yup. After I am done here, I am going over there. Both the damage over there and here were caused by a fight between people with super-powers yesterday evening. Don’t worry; we will cover this. The city will understand about the delays. Your contract does contain a non-negligent third party delay clause, right? So let’s go over exactly what was damaged after you guys left last night.
Everything
“And,” continued the insurance adjuster, “What made you think a lone squirrel security guard was sufficient deterrent?”
“It was supposed to be Squirrel Girl, but she said something about ‘Intellectual Property conflict’ and left before her shift was up!”
Dave, a question about Maxima’s power set:
If she wants to deliver her most powerful punch, does she max out her strength or her speed stat? The energy delivered by an impact is dictated by the speed, so whatever delivers the fastest punch should be preferred. But reaching those speeds in short distances (such as throwing a punch) requires a huge amount of force, and the follow-through would take more strength.
I guess it boils down to weather Max’s strength automatically scales to her speed, or if her speed allows her to somehow ignore the physical requirements (lots of speedsters don’t seem much stronger than an average person, but would need tons of force to accelerate their limbs to high enough speeds to do what they do).
Not quite.
A low speed car is still going to carry a lot more energy than a high speed bullet, but the damage dealt is going to depend on how quickly that energy is transferred, to how large a surface, and whether the impacting objects are continuing to exert force.
In the context of a punch there’s also the continuing application of force resisting the deceleration of impact and increasing the damage dealt. With a punch you swing for your punch to stop half a foot behind the guy’s head.
So the answer would basically be a math formula created by someone good at math (IE not me at 5 am).
Yeah, don’t get me started on relative lethality of cars vs bullets. I spent the last 8 years of my life trying to explain just that to people not getting the idea.
In a nutshell, if someone made a bullet that was as lethal as a car doing just 30 MPH it would be banned from use in warfare as a WMD.
You are both correct in your statements, but in this case, I’m treating a number of variables as constant, no bullets, no cars, just punches. I’m assuming Maxima is delivering the blow, and Vehemence is receiving it. Thus, the impulse of the blow should have a fairly consistent profile. As far as I know Max does not have the density varying abilities Stalwart has. Her fist is not changing size. So the materials coming into contact are the same, mass stays the same, and the surface area is the same.
So to simplify the question a little, since the other variables can be ignored: can Maxima accelerate her fist faster by maximizing her speed or her strength, and if speed is better, shouldn’t that require more force than she can supply without boosting her strength?
Flame’s Idea that speed boost is a cognitive thing actually would make a lot of sense. She is always able to move that fast, but isn’t always able to think that fast. I would be quite satisfied with this as the answer.
The optimal attack then, assuming instant stat switch, would be full boost to speed, aim the punch with care, full boost to strength, hit as hard as possible.
Velocity squared times mass divided by 480,240 equals the kinetic energy. That is Velocity in feet per second, mass in grains and the kinetic energy will be in foot pounds. Remember it is 7000 grains in a pound. Now all you have to do is figure out how much Maxima’s fist and arm weigh along with however much weight from her body she adds in. Good luck. :-)
Damn, do americans understand metric units that bad that you have such an arbitrairy number in the formula to help calculate it?
0.5 * m * v(squared)
Done
“grains” is used for bullets, so that makes for a better comparison to actual firearms.
And, whatever the merits of another system, I still wouldn’t want to mix systems.
I grew up around guns and the culture was grains for weight, feet per second for velocity, and foot pounds for energy. It is easier for me to deal with in these terms and I am too old to try learning some newfangled metric system. :-P
I thought it was mass in grains x velocity in ft/sec squared divided by 450400 (7000×64.34 is 450380).
Well, I wrote the formula down from a hunting magazine several years ago (don’t even remember which one now), so it could have been wrong, but I am not too sure.
Short answer would be to max out her strength stat, because that’s the stat for how hard she hits. Her speed stat isn’t so much velocity as it is reaction time and her capability to hit things, like how she was able to switch targets on Vehemence. If you’re thinking RPG elements, her “speed” is her Agility/Dexterity stat, while Strength is for damage potential.
However, the best combo would be her best strength and everything else at normal level, so she can pick her targets of opportunity and hit optimally.
Speed stat also adds to her speed. Which is velocity
Think the Flash. That kinda super Speed
So yea, speed definitly adds to her punching power
It’s quite simple really, she just needs to balance her stats between strength, speed and armor while pulling against her flight and energy blasts. The majority of the pool should be spent into strength in order to do maximum damage, armor would be next so she doesn’t shatter her arm on impact, and speed would be high enough to prevent reaction from her targets as well as increasing the damage of the punch.
think of it this way, a boulder the size of a house can cause a lot of damage by just rolling down a hill. if you attach rockets to it to increase it’s speed, it will do even more damage. if you apply a metal coating to it it will survive running into another boulder of the same size with minimal damage to it while also destroying the other boulder. the boulder represent’s maxima’s strength stat, adding speed and armor to it make it much more effective.
Hey, V has new info on him in the Who’s Who…
I’ve seen people mentioning part of the site that discusses people like other villains that we haven’t seen yet, but I can’t find it. Where should I be looking? Or were these just things in the sidebar for particular comics? If so, all those sidebar-comments should be collected somewhere for people to see them if they want to look for info…
You mean the cast page?
Look at the buttons above the comic, on the right. Directly below the portraits
The Who’s Who is in the sidebar and will list those who talks in the current strip, usually. There has been some omissions…
The one page that is often referred to as a villain gallery is this one: Grrl Power #186 – Fingers to maximum steepleage!.
Oh, thanks. Now my confusion is lifted, and some things are interestingly clear.
I still think we need a more extensive background page!
I was slightly confused by similarity between panel 4 and panel 8. In 4, Vehemence is barely visible in a haze. It took me a moment of contemplation to realize that what is seen in 8 is a few bits and pieces bouncing out of the panel rather than an indication of the present or former location of Vehemence’ legs.
Guys, if the bad guys (in this case, Vehemence), cannot fly, while you can, you don’t smash them around laterally or into the ground. You do what in Smash Bros is called juggling. Smack them into the air and keep smacking them up such that they can neither land nor recover. It’s quite effective – and a pain in the assignment to be juggled. Of course, since it would be Maxima doing the juggling, the process could well continue until pretty far up. Of course, the jugglee is going to have a rough landing, but since they’ve probably lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen/breathable atmosphere before being allowed to fall, they can probably be partially guided into missing anything important/too breakable or deliberately into something that won’t break (Sydney’s shield maybe?).
Juggling works until the person being juggled does a little free-fall maneuvering and manages to grab the juggler. Then it becomes a grappling match. Which Maxima might still win, but it would be a bit less one-sided. And Maxima might need atmosphere too.
see the problem with that would be grabbing hold of max is like grabbing hold of a live WMD…if you do she is likely to blow you up in order to get free since she knows she can boost her armor high enough to withstand the explosion.
“Ow, you booted me in the head!”
“You are lucky, Ed Gruberman. Few novices experience so much of Tae Kwon Leep so soon.”
Classic radio sketch. :)
Since “Gibbs” was used as a sound effect, “boottothehead” should have been simply “Gruberman.”
Y’know, I think nobody as smart as Vehemence puts himself up for a pointless one-vs-many fight with the most powerful known super team, unless he stands to gain something from it. Not just some agenda that he’s fighting for, but from the fight itself. Whatever agenda he had, if it’s anything other than exactly the kind of physical violence happening right now, there was a much easier way to do it.
So I think that, for some reason, Vehemence wanted and still wants to be punched around just as hard as he’s getting punched around right now. He’s got some weird-ass power that he’s going for a permanent power-up on or something.
I’m still not sure V is actually all that smart in the first place. He seems to keep trying to treat the fight as a game and getting surprised that Maxima (not to mention most of the other Archon agents) isn’t doing the same.
I do agree. I posited in a previous comic that his powers aren’t Brickery, but rather a Crawler-esque Darwinism- what doesn’t kill him makes him harder, better, faster, stronger. He took himself as high as he could get through conventional workouts and subjecting himself to more and more powerful impacts (I imagine he probably crashed a few lemons into cliffs at the end of his training cycle, with him inside).
Well, the bonding company will be unhappy, but this is why construction companies get builder’s risk insurance with supers’ fights covered.
the only problem i see with that train of thought is that until Archon was announced TODAY, the existence of “Super Hero’s” and “Super Villains” has been rumor and conspiracy theory stuff, nothing that any kind of company would actually take seriously enough to formulate plans for. i can just about guarantee that TODAY, NO insurance company currently has that kind of insurance… but TOMORROW they WILL, that’s for sure… and it’ll be at an extremely high premium, too…
True. All policies are about to get updated in a big way. In the meantime however, there will be a massive legal battle between the contractor and their bond company regarding whether it’ll get covered under their current general liability, in the meantime it’s going to suck to be that contractor.
I think now know why ARC picked that particular restaurant in the first place. Looking at the last panel shows the highway pretty darn close. The building was probably scheduled to be demolished during the construction of the overpass anyway.
Arianna can do the Microsoft thing and spin this as a new ‘feature’. “Do you need a building taken down in a hurry? call ARC industries for your demolition needs. (Not affiliated with HULK SMASH! incorporated)”