Grrl Power #263 – Don’t do it you fool!
The number of people who can call Maxima babe is extremely short. I think it’s literally just Anvil and Peggy, and obviously just in a “buddies throwing slang” sort of way when no one else can hear. Baby is right out.
Seeing someone slam into the ground after getting clobbered looks cool, but I figure as long as Maxima is conscious and can stop herself in time, she’s not going to give the bad guy the satisfaction. Also I guess there’s issues of property damage to consider, even if that whole parking lot is going to have to be torn up and repaved at this point.
This page is obviously mostly just transition. I would have liked to fit more on it as I too am getting anxious for this fight to wrap up, but it didn’t break down that way. I toiled with what Vehemence says in the last bubble, and I wanted to be more leading, but we’re so close and I didn’t want to tip my hand yet. The next page is a double though, I’m excited, I think you guys will like it.
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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His plan consists of hitting them a lot, then selling the rights to Hollywood and retiring on the toy royalties.
Brilliant!
I mean, plenty criminals actually have done something similar to that, come to think of it, though it wasn’t their goal when they started, obviously…
Is he about to be shot in the eye again?
That was going to be my comment.
Time for Peggy to be shooting him again. A lot.
May not work a 2nd time. Notice the color change on Vehemence’s markings? Assuming more of his powers are coming into play as indicated by the change (not to mention that he took that heavy beating from Max and yet now just did a number of her), it’s possible any further shots from Peggy’s Barrett are going to be futile. (And that’s besides the other observations made here by other readers.)
Methinks it is time for Peggy to put down the Barret and ask Harem to go fetch the Fat Man
(Fallout 3 reference – https://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fat_Man_%28Fallout_3%29 ).
Davyyyyyyy, Daaaavyy Crockett. Glasser of the wild frontieeeeeer.
Dumbest weapon ever. Nuclear RPG with a maximum range smaller than the blast radius. Whoever thought that was a good idea… probably got rich.
Sign of the times. Back in hte 1950s, design ideas were tossed around for just about every piece of military hardware imaginable – making them either nuclear-propelled OR nuclear-tipped. Often both.
…. And, BTW, there was also a nuclear hand grenade proposal. Even worse problems with the blast radius versus how far it could be lobbed.
Ah the ‘atomic age’. Where someday everyone would have atomic refrigerators and stoves.
The Davy Crockett isn’t like the nuclear hand grenade simply because they actually built the things. They even scrubbed the nuclear airplane (for good reason), but somehow the Davy Crockett actually got produced.
Never had a customer complain! :D
That might be over her weight limit.
Do you think so? Little Jimmy didn’t seem to have any problem with it…
Doesn’t hurt to try.
alterior motives? called it :D
Ulterior
well.. they ARE outside..
Anterior
Posterior motives – he can stick his plans up his arse.
Eesh, looks like he WAS just powering up…
On the bright side. Evil plan! Woo!
Vehemence: “Nah. Not gonna do it.”
“You got me monologuing, you sly devil!” ~ Syndrome
Dum dum DUM
Thats is his steakhouse and he wants to collect the insurance.
***snort*** But seriously, if that’s his steakhouse, he sets up the fight and is conspicuously present elsewhere or he’ll never collect the insurance. No insurance company pays without thorough investigation…
unless he owns it through someone else, or has another identity
Exactly. His secret identity is a meek, balding middle aged man with a paunch named Frank Vehemence.
Only when he says the magic word “Vehemence” does he transform. It makes things a bit awkward for him when he has to introduce himself to someone he has just met, but then all villains need a disadvantage. He gets around this limitation by doing a Bond introduction, because when he says “Vehemence. Frank Vehemence” he transforms twice so rapidly that only a speedster can detect the change.
His evil plan….
Step 1 – Fight superheroes.
Step 2 – …
Step 3 – PROFIT!
Step 2 (done before step 1 ) : Take several million in bets that you can punch Maxima in the nose twice.
Finally! Its here! Its Finally here!! The Evil-doer Monologue! The point where the whole plot turns! xD (special shout out to Frozone from The Incredible, the car scene)
Given how overwhelmingly powerful (and flexible) Maxima is, it’s good to see someone go toe to toe with her right out the gate. She was pretty confident in her position as top-dog among the world’s supers and this battle is turning a lot of the ARC team’s assumptions on their heads (just the sheer number of villains present at this one fight throws off their entire model of how many exist, for example).
It would be different if she were to use her flexibility.
She made the mistake of continuing using her strength instead of going back to defense. At least until she knew the effect of her last attack.
Indeed. She is fast enough to catch bullets (which means her thought speed is also crazy), yet she isn’t maxing her speed then switching to strength for the attack, then back to speed to position for the next attack. While in speed mode she would have hours to plan what to do as V’s big, meaty fist approaches, then she could move out of the way and execute the plan. Speedsters really are the ultimate when it comes to super powers, just they never really get to use everything their power entails. Except for Quicksilver in the last X-Men movie.
It’s her(their) conquering Caesar moment. Makes for good storytelling. I approve.
Yup, she underestimated him
blue -> green -> yellow -> red -> he explodes.
More like: white -> blue -> green -> yellow -> red -> black -> gone!
I’m thinking he’s cursed and needs to take some extreme punishment in order for the curse to be lifted. He’s tried all sorts of “crazy deathwish” things in the past and his markings haven’t so much as twitched. Along comes someone who can punch like a nuke and of course he’s jumping at the chance.
All you have to do to defeat him is to press the colored wedges in the same pattern.
Did we just witness a blue snot rocket in panel 6?
Also, hitting a broken nose a second time is excruciating. I feel bad for her and herself the following days…
I was already wondering what that was
Max is gonna end up wearing a mask anyway. She’s due the double-black eye.
With blue blood and yellow(ish) skin I would think any bruising would show up with a green tint.
Note: The following is unnecessary and uncalled for science explanation (see midichlorians)
Max’s shiny skin would suggest a middle layer of iridophores, cells that reflect light and give some fish their silvery sheen. The upper layer would contain chromatophores that only transmit certain wavelengths of light. (in Max’s case, yellow). This would also require the absence of brown melanin pigments in the skin, essentially making her albino and prone to sun damage. The presence of the blue cyanophores in her blood make make up for this by absorbing the harmful UV radiation. These would also contribute the the violet coloration of her hair and eyes.
The science… Or pseudo science is awesome… All 80 tons of it…
…That sounds even worse than getting hit with the proverbial ton of bricks…
Cue Roger Rabbit for my stand-in!
DENIED!
This is gonna hurt!
Obviously.
I thought that was what we saw in Panel_5…?
Panel_6 looked to me like Mr.V had jumped out of the hole in the ground
& tried to land on Max in the process.
I guess this is the point where Max goes home, puts a paper bag over her head and never opens her big mouth again.
One can only but dream :P
Or at the very least stops arrogantly showboating so hard that she simply stands in front of an unknown enemies fist. For a military person AND the field leader of this team that was retarded. Waaaay more retarded than overdoing it for the camera’s. (though she may come to regret that as well).
Looks like the author thinks he has a way out of this without disappointing the majority of us. Should be fun. Max really hasn’t taken too much damage that she didn’t bring on herself. Vehemence has merely managed one real and unexpected solid hit on her. No team mates have helped her significantly. So you’re happy Max ending is still possible. :) Course so is my favorite ending where the team helps a little.
Hopefully the bubble at the end is just DaveB teasing the set that wants V to be a agent for good or neutral of some kind. I actually would rather have a solid win for the team or Maxima at this early point so they don’t have to put up with all the worrying about funding and concerned congress hearings that may come from a team that seems ineffective to the public. (true they got everybody else but you know its the uber powerful shiney one that got away the public opinion is gonna center around)
Team already helped. If Anvil didn’t get her out of the way, there is a good chance she would be a golden-blue smear on the ground right now.
He didn’t merely manage one solid hit. He practically one-shotted her. She was down and helpless after it.
You are absolutely correct her behaviour is extremely idiotic. So idiotic, in fact, she has officialy became the 3rd character I dislike.
Now, if I was Arianna, I would have a footage of this looped together with her overbearingly arrogat public display from earlier, and would play it and rub her face into it every time she would step away from the plan.
True, and that’s cool in its own right (for the team not for Maxima), but I am hoping for them to come together as a team to actually put some hurt on this guy. At least some strengthening of the sense of team spirit could come out of this messy “win” (if it is a win).
One solid hit is all it takes to put you down after you happily let them put a dent in you for free. That nose is like the missing scale in Smaug’s golden armor now.
Having read your past comments I am not surprised (sorry I didn’t get around to replying to that last one they were getting kind of large and I didn’t find the time.) Its clearly becoming a type of story you don’t enjoy. I myself will hang in there to see if others realistically notice some of these flaws and or call her on it and if she can change when she realizes them. I don’t think she is a willfully bad person, just running off some bad assumptions and habits she has clearly gotten away with for too long (and that clearly don’t match her new working environment), so I believe that she will change as she grows in awareness. But I’m just saying that to say it I don’t expect you to feel the same and I respect your opinion. Dabbler I remember is one, Maxima another, who was the other character you dislike?
I would like the one rolling film on this fight to be the General as he calls into account her command performance throughout this event. Her commander making note off all of these errors in a debrief from which she is expected to learn to do better or face consequences would take some of the sting out of them for me. ( I don’t feel as strongly as you do about them but I do have some griefs) Maybe she will get some slack though since damn their intel sucks. She shouldn’t have assumed so much, and that should be thrown up in her face, but the info she had was nothing like the reality. Nothing at all…
Well, he mentioned they will need everyone to “pile on if they want to have a chance” just a few panels earlier:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1506
Veh may have slugged her solidly, and max is probably not very used to pain, not having much exposure to it..
On the plus side for max’s survivability, she probably had her powers firmly in the Strength and flighty mode, and maybe just in the flight mode.. meaning a whole lot less resilience..
If max just dumped all her ability into Armour and speed, with a touch of strength she should be able to just punch him constantly..
I still stand by my prediction that Veh has pain based powers… more pain more power..
If he hadn’t been using his full power earlier, then he is a good actor to having everyone fooled….
Second theory..
It’s a full moon, maybe veh is a lycanthrope, or a derivative of that.. just without the excessive hair….
It’s not that I dislike the story. In fact, I like the story premise itself -As I see it, a santioned team of people with superpowers working for the official, public organization not because they are forced to or just paid to or because it allows them to “vent off” as it is the usual way in superhero comics, but because they either really enjoy it or consider it their duty or any combination of the above.
Also, no hassle with secret identities, no lying to their loved ones, no pretending they are mild-mannered reporters or hedonistic playboys and so on … It’s refreshing.
I simply dislike the direction Max’s character has gone, as it reminds me of the annoying fate of every other top-tier character who needs to be dumbed down greately, constantly forgetting their own powers and skills just so they don’t solve everything by themselves and to have the rest of their team something to do. If such a character cannot be meaningfully incorporated with the rest without suffering from plot-induced weaknesses, perhaps there shouldn’t be such a character around.
Plus, as I mentioned, I intensely dislike bully-type characters whose arrogance completely overshadows their actual abilities, regardless of their moral compass. In Max’s case, it is at the point where Dr.Doom or Namor would tell her to tone it down a bit.
Initially, I loved the idea of a practical, military-minded but compassionate top-tier super who uses skills and brains as much as the actual powers.
However, now I see very little redeeming qualities in her character, except being something the team can occasionally throw at strong enemies for a short breather.
The 3rd character I dislike is, unfortunately, the protagonist herself.
Well sure, I figured you came here for a reason I just thought that if you come to dislike a large portion of the major cast including now the main protagonist its gonna sour the story to the point that you may not be able to hang it there till some of them “grow up” a bit. If I started off The Dresden Files disliking Dresden, Murphy AND Bob the skull after a certain battle I would have felt safe to say that I disliked the story from that point on until something “healed” “grew” or in some way rectified their characters for me even if the idea of a hard boiled gumshoe wizard still intrigued the hell out of me. I’m thinking one of those characters is gonna be a major player in every arc of consequence from now on.
I’m not trying to talk you into leaving though. Its actually rather nice to have an thoughtful person about who keeps an eye out for these discrepancies. I’m sure such points made intelligently, as you do, is of great value to the author who is trying something new here. But it might be a bumpy ride if you do. ^_^’
Oh, definitely a bumpy ride. But so far, the rest of the trip is nice enough, and bumps still have the possibility of being smoothed out, and I am interested in seeing if and how.
If they don’t, I will leave in peace.
If they do, I’ll be happy I remained along for the ride.
While I admit Maxima has room for improvement (but then again, who of us doesn’t?), this is just one more accusation that just doesn’t fly. Let’s suppose she chose differently and perhaps dodged his swing. Would the fight have turned out significantly differently? And if you believe so, on what do you base that assessment on?
I’m so unsure of what you’re saying here I am almost thinking that you replied to the wrong comment? I don’t think I feel the way you think I feel if this was the right comment that you replied to. Lets just say I agree with you and move on…
Not to mention “I myself will hang in there to see if others realistically notice some of these flaws and or call her on it and if she can change when she realizes them.”
She had two choices: take the punch or dodge it. The former, if she had been right about his strength, was probably her best opportunity to get him to surrender without having to take a chance on hurting him in return. The latter, however, wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the fight much, since he would have probably have hit her sooner or later anyway. Thus, her decision to take the punch had some strategic value which dismissing her decision as “showboating” fails to recognize.
Ah, that helps thanks.
Parts of that comment were kind of general and referring to more than just this recent “V” segment of the fight. Now that I’m on track.
Pretty sure she took that punch as hard as she possibly could because she was “grandstanding” (Not showboating. You’re right I remembered her words wrong. SHE said she was “grandstanding”.) She didn’t try to grab the incoming fist or block with something less sensitive than her nose.I got the idea from what Maxima herself said. However some of my hopes for the future are also based on the fact that SHE said it so is much less likely to repeat that particular error.
But lets assume that “V”s speed was such that when her armor is at whatever level she set it to she couldn’t do anything else. That still leaves not holding herself rigidly in place against it but I will further assume setting herself to “speed” and dodging was the only other option to a smack to the nose while holding herself in place with whatever she had available. What would have been different? She wouldn’t have developed a broken nose. I can’t really say how disorienting that is for her or how it is affecting her decisions. It did make it so that when “V” decided to step things up a bit he had a ready weak spot to target to great effect. She would have rallied much faster after this when his attack revealed he has either been holding back a tad or his powers are continuing to change during the fight as his color shifts suggest. (which she may not be fully conscious of at the moment as she is trying to think through another hit to an already broken nose)
Battle being what it is I can’t say for sure how crucial or not a difference it would have made at this point (time travel, fate, luck and fiction authors being what they are) but you don’t simply hand a free landed attack to an unknown power unless its desperately needed to create an opening for a attack of your own. And she had no reason to be that desperate at that time. And I get why she did it. She explained it in the accompanying thought bubble I referenced above. I just feel it wasn’t a very good reason particularly for a military person. But its hardly the end of the world or anything. If characters are gonna have room to grow then they can’t start out perfect.
I was replying to someone who already is inclined to dislike Maxima so I used rather harsh language cause they wouldn’t care if I did. ( I like her but sometimes she makes me crazy! So I took the opportunity to vent a bit. XP XD ) But I’m sure in the long run I will be happy enough with her.
Lol, at first I tought that the “I got you” line was from Vehemence, it took me a while to realize that there was a tentacle from the molest-orb. ^_^
Denial denied?
I think it’s actually kind of MORE intimidating that this guy is beat up so bad. Not in a “He’s been hurt but is still coming” kind of way. More like… “He is willing and able to sustain injuries like this and doesn’t mind the fact that the heroes can hurt (and maybe even kill) him. For some reason.”
Could be one of those villians who gets stronger the more punishment they take. Hence the mood ring body tatoo.
Hulk is strongest there is?
_And_ he´s still smiling.
As much as I don’t want V to win, I quite enjoy seeing an opponent who isn’t cardboard compared to the team.
And it is blatantly obvious now the tattoos are changing color. Before you could argue that it was the lighting, dust, etc. but that highlighter-greenish-yellow is clearly different.
This.
Two things I noticed:
1. Why did V fall out of the sky so fast, I mean, sure it looks awesome, but what part of his power allows him to accelerate so fast.
2. Is one of his abilities extreme pain tolerance? Cause he hasn’t been clasping his injuries in pain and he’s received a much greater beating than Max.
He wasn’t falling down, he was pulling the planet up :P
True, but only by a very small amount.
Fg = (G*m1*m2)/r^2
F=m*a (Newton’s Second Law of Motion)
m1*a = (G*m1*m2)/r^2
a = G*m2/r^2
An equal and opposite force applies to the Earth and the object falling to the Earth. Because the Earth weighs so much in comparison, it experiences much less acceleration than the other object.
Or is this a Dr. Farnsworth reference from Futurama?
He jumped quite high out of his former position. Take a look at panel 4.
I used to be a rake but I left my farmer position.
So long as he jumped high enough to hit terminal velocity on the way down, any additional height is pointless.
Unless he humped into orbit and got enough accel before he hit atmo that he hits like a meteor. In which case there would be substantially less parking lot visible. Also, his ability to math would be terrifying.
Math don’t swing that way.
how do you know what he does when he’s alone?
rip maxima’s nose
It’s a good thing this comic started out with Max displaying a healed nose. Considering the kind of damage her nose is taking (so far) in this fight, Sydney’s flashbacking over a few months gave Max’s nose time to get out of traction.
“Don’t get your nose out of joint, Maxie…”
…Too late…Two times, too late…
Remember. The doctor at the base is a super with accelerated healing abilities.
Soooo … you think Dave will be able to learn how to draw Max without a nose?
I hope not.
i kept looking at the old pages this weekend becasuse i was wondering if his tattoo changes, it felt more like a hunch and seems i was right lol.
and GOD THIS IS GETTING EXCITING, even my character would be having loads of furn in that hehe.
It did change it’s color. From light blue to “glowing” yellow.
And it was somewher in the middle between both when he hit max last page (but that might just be a color fluke due to artist style).
Well, at this point his revelation is going to surprise me because I see almost no way how Vehemence is going to profit from that situation. Even if he was Maxima’s counterpart in another organisation (perhaps private security) and wanted to show that they can compete with ArcSWAT, he just comitted several felonies on camera.
Unless he evolves or powers up through combat and he was just using the team as a sparring partner until he became too powerful to stop there is no way he can put a positive spin on this fight.
Most criminals don’t fight the authorities unless they have no other option. But in this fight, there is nothing on the line. There is no money to be gained and I don’t think their reputation would have been all that better for attacking ArcSWAT with superior numbers when they are in a civilian setting.
If their initial attack had succeeded and they had defeated ArcSWAT, then the consequences would have been bad. For example, I could see laws getting passed that regulate and/or confine superpowered people. Which would suck for anyone who has distinctive features, like glowing tattoos all over their body.
So who got this villain group together? Vehemence? Someone else?
Vehemence better have a very good reason for this entire mess because from a risk/profit point of view, the villain side wasn’t going to come out on top.
If you are the only one still alive, you are effectively god.
Laws only affect you as long as they can be enforced against you. V could easily make himself the head of a criminal organisation and could come out everytime the fed’s would appear to cause him troubles. Or just take over the country, for that mater.
ArcSwat is the only organsiation right now that would be a problem for Vehemence if he used his powers on normals. In fact being a problem for him is part of thier job description.
That would be naive and short-sighted of him. Yeah, so he would any fight… and then?
If the government really wants to make trouble for you, fighting isn’t going to help at all.
They’d freeze your accounts, disconnect your home from utilities and try to keep you away from the public. Anything you want to do or want to get you’d have to fight for. That’s no way to live. Imagine having to break through a police blockade and robbing a supermarket anytime you need groceries.
Oh, and while you were gone, someone raided your home. Or burned it down.
You couldn’t go anywhere in peace. Watching a movie? Eating in a restaurant? Forget about it.
No matter how strong you are, you can’t be everywhere at once. You -could- go on a killing spree but that wouldn’t solve your problems, it would just alienate everyone further. We are so used to the comforts of living in a modern society that we don’t see it anymore… until it is gone.
P.S. This has real life applications, too. Just think of all those gun nuts who have a huge armory “in case we need to fight the government”. Yeah, as if they’d give you a fair fight.
That’s true to a degree. However, this works the other way around. If anytime government does something to upset the invincible and unstoppable uber-guy, said guy just goes out and destroys a city block and murders couple of thousand of citizens of the country in question (or a valuable goverment installation – power station, or administrative building or a bank), and no one can stop or deter him – then everyone would rather give him whatever he wants without a fight
It’s about who can hurt whom more. And being invincible and having massive super-strength definitely helps in the hurting department.
I thought about that, too. The problem is… he is one versus many. Unless he can live without sleep or peace or even a moment to rest, he is not going to win in the long run.
Everyone has a weakness. Perhaps they couldn’t defeat him, but maybe they can teleport him away? Trap him in his own mind? Something like that.
If he truly turned out to be unstoppable, then he could replace the government. At least he would get classified as a force of nature and each of his appearances would be treated similiar to a hurricane. Actually, he’d be on the same level as the Endbringers from the serial novel Worm.
How do we know he is ‘one versus many’? Maybe he has his own cyber-squad to keep the Government cyber-squad busy
If you are built like Fedorka, and decide to go full villain overlord, you don’t need bank accounts or utilities or any of that other petty crap
Sleep or rest? Who is going to be crazy enough to disturb him. You mean all of humanity would willingly throw their lives at him in order to maintain our independence? I applaud your faith in humanity, but I think most people (me included) would go: “So he wants his own hotal complex on Hawaii, a virgin harem and his own private airforce? I’d say let him have it! It’s not worth the fight.”
…he is one versus many…
Again – not necessarily. Every villain will have a bunch of minions, either due to fear or just greed. So he would be a country within a country (unless he wants to fully replace or destroy the goverment). As was already said – the law and rules would simply stop applying to him until and unless somebody stronger (or comparably strong) appears,
I think if you overdo it people and coverments would simply start to treat you like a walking natural desaster. Keep taps on you and try to turn you away from important instalation, but otherwise just run like hell when they see you coming. A bit like ‘Sin’ in Final Fantasy 10.
I think the counter point is that V would probably enjoy fighting through a police barricade. Also, I think he could use the threat of random acts of violence to ensure people didn’t try to cut off his utilities. Sure, that alienates a lot of people, but there are probably just as many who would flock to you out of fear or misguided respect. There are blatantly criminal, overtly violent organizations that still manage to attract members and have existed with varying degrees of success over the years.
From what I saw of him so far V doesn’t enjoy killing. He relishes challenging fights but he wouldn’t like to beat up civilians or police officers just doing their jobs.
The criminal organisations you mentioned often represent the only option for those people. If they had an actual choice before they got into it too deep, they would probably not chosen to be criminals.
A Vehemence fanclub would be much smaller and heavily depend on his protection – without him they’d get picked off by the authorities.
Running water, electricity, Internet access, etc. are all nice things to have. Getting those turned off would be quite an inconvenience. Mind you, he could just approach the various companies about it.
“But we have a court order to turn off your power.”
“You think I care about that? You will turn my power back on today and I don’t pay for nothing.”
“We can’t do that.”
Crunch Thud
“Okay, so who replaces him, now that he is incapacitated? Are you going to tell me ‘No’?”
He bled from a .50 round. Which is only at the top end of what can be delivered by a single person sniper rifle. Other single person weapons, such as anti-tank rockets, can pack a significantly higher punch. And that’s just in the realm of single person weapon systems.
It’s hardly a credible statement that no one but the supers can harm him. It might take tank shells, Vulcan cannons, air to ground missiles, or naval bombardment, but Vehemence can clearly be injured or killed by conventional weapons.
He rather clearly has gotten way stronger and tougher since then.
Since then? You mean, maybe one minute ago, tops, and probably more like seconds ago less than one minute?
He is tough, the whole Cadillac bouncing off of him and the rocks dusting against him established that. Plus taking several hits from Maxima and a few cuts from Dabbler. But we haven’t really seen any indication that he is getting tougher as this fight goes on.
You know, seeing Max’s nose broken again makes me wonder if one of the unknown orbs isn’t for healing? I mean, as I’m writing this, I just woke up, but has Sydney encountered anyone with a serious injury before tonight?
Not that we know off
She encountered many. One she didn’t inflict herself, that’s a different story.
Ahhh… another me…… ahhhhhhhhhhhh
On the other hand, Max is stunned but not out, didnt even hit the pavement… I’m willing to bet that whatever V is about to say, he’s going to regret taking the time to say it in the end at least a little.
Deeeefinately curious as hell as to what he is about to say though *gets the popcorn*
My evil plans tend to be more passive-aggressive in nature. I discomfort and guilt people over to the dark side.
Works best when use on politicians, lawyers, anyone in the insurance industry, CEO’s, and used-car salespeople.
It is much easier to get people to come over to the dark side when they are already there… ;)
I just give out cookies…
Ah. So you’re the one with whom the Girl Scouts of Evil and Cookies has been competing. Beware, they are cute, adorable, and thoroughly ruthless. And, yes, Wednesday, some of those cookies are made from real girl scouts. One does not fail the pack leaders…
Come to the “good” dark side we have the all you can eat bacon bar.
*sigh* I had hoped the fight would not go this way. Generally the first fight is a good way to make an impression on a character, which is why I was expecting a cakewalk. Instead, we get a brawl where every character gets to show off except maxima. Instead, she gets to be the worf to demonstrate how oh so strong the villain is.
Pity, I like max and was hoping it would take a few fights before this happened. Maybe she unleashes the pain on the next page, but what we see here is that he took everything with a grin, she got punched off guard once and needed to be carried away. Not the debut of my fav character I was hoping for.
Sorry for the morose post, finishing up an all night shift brings out the tiniest violin. Here’s hoping for the next strip.
Or the DBZ effect. Hero gets beat on until digging deep and finding a little extra to win in the end.
Max’ doesn’t fit the Worf trope. She didn’t get squashed before the fight started as a demonstration of V’s power.
What we have here is Max re-learning that underestimating any opponent will result in a pain. She went into this all, swagger and “I’m the best there is at what I do,” and it quite literally blew up in her face. Hopefully we’ll see some character development for her from this. Confidence is one thing, arrogance gets it’s shiny gold ass kicked.
I want to see Maxima say ‘bite my shiny golden ass’ sometime!
DaveB!!! Make it happen!
I am forced to second this motion. All in favor, say “Aye”
Aye!
If it happens there is a good chance someone will have that phrase on their “Make Maxima say…” bingo card…
I don’t think Max would say that to someone like Dabbler…She’d be all too happy to comply, I think.
don’t forget, there are OTHER players in that bingo game, one of them may have it on their card… also, it doesn’t need to be Dabbler that she says it to, just the fact that she said it could, depending on the rules laid out beforehand off camera, get that person the points…
She didn’t need to be carried off, she is just clearing out her sinuses. You can see her blowing blue snot and blood onto the pavement. Anvil is just watching her back while she is distracted.
The Worf effect is more when a self-described or story-described badass gets their ass handed to them without effort. Max and V have dealt each other about the same amount of damage so far, its still in the love tap region. After all, there are still intact things in the surrounding area, and neither has begun using energy blasts yet.
Hard to say from just what we’ve seen. The next page will really show us how much damage has been done. I’m still slightly annoyed Max hasn’t actually be a named Villain yet. We’ve seen Dabler and Math smack around the villains, but all Max got to do was sucker punch a no name, and get hit by an explosive. First major fight we seen her in, and she’s having to be led off the page.
Here’s hoping the next page breaks him in half while he is monologuing.
Agreed, we don’t know just how much damage’s been done yet. From what we can tell, V is bruised all over, his eye is still bleeding and closed and he sure looks like he needs a medic if he was just human. my personal bet is that the green hue of his markings means he’s getting either improved healing and/or painkillers mixed in with whatever they normally do.
On Max’s side, her nose has been double-tapped and the pain is keeping her dazed for a few, but beyond that I dont see it slowing her down much, much less putting her out of the fight. And contrary to what some might say, I really dont think maxi has gone all out yet, yeah she went at him hard.. but lets consider the sheer power we saw her put into that particle blast at the tank-buster show. If she put That kind of power into her strength? V should be in orbit.. or at the very least flying across a few city blocks, not just through a construction site. Its your basic “hit them hard, then hit them harder until they stay down” approach, she just didn’t realize that while she was causing him pain… she wasn’t actually doing much structurally to put him down, which is clearly required in his case. I still do believe she’s perfectly capable of taking it up to that level if she has to. The only question to me is if she will let him monologue first, interrupt or use the time he takes talking to come up with a plan.
Possible strategy; go for a leg to slow him down? As I see it that could be a way to stop him without killing him. Either go all strength and pound it into a meat slurry, or zap it with her beamy thingus, the one she used on Hex but at maximum power. She could ask Sydney to join in with the PPO. Together they should have a good chance of crippling him.
Vehemence is hilarious!
I still want to see him brought low by skinny little Sydney. Talk about a blow to the evil ego!
Quite frankly, if that happened, would personally stop reading, and fairly sure a lot of others would as well
Actually, there’s a pretty large betting pool going that bringing down V is how Halo earns her “Big Guns” nick. Contact your local bookie for odds :D
Waldo may have some bookie-trouble with his *current* bet…The fight may be paused for a few panels or the next page, but it’s not done yet.
(Hoping Waldo still has unbroken legs by next Monday’s comic)
Fairly sure “a lot of others” wouldn’t stop reading, or even care much. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sydney is the one who managed to bring him down or drive him off, she is the main protagonist of the comic, after all. Plus, she’s the one who seems to be the most well versed in “super hero” tropes and abilities, compared to the others. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has nothing to do with it, or if he succeeds at whatever his goal is and sets up a longer story arc. All of them are decent possibilities.
No, nonono! She is not ‘the main protagonist of the comic’, she is simply the current focus and Narrator, can’t remember where slash when but DaveB said that when this day finally ends he will be switching between the characters letting them have their turn in the spotlight
I’d like to hear why.
Sydney is almost as powerful as Maxima, and has a fairly similar power set. Replace “superstrength” with the molestorb and “superarmor” with the forcefield and they are pretty much clones. Both can fly, both have an energy blast, and both have what amounts to a variable power pool, where Sydney loses out on sheer power because she can only use two powers at a time while Maxima has her strength, armor, and flight all the time and can choose which ones to boost.
And if you look at the course of this entire fight, they’ve been doing pretty much the same things. Sydney because she is untrained and was ordered to keep her force field up at all times, but still has managed to contribute significantly, and Maxima because of the paper-flimsy reason “I need to see how my team performs against a larger group of unknown and potentially far more powerful supervillains who might kill one or more of them at any time. But because I really, really need to see how they perform I will stand back and needlessly expose them to unnecessary danger even though I can probably take out a villain every 5 seconds or so.”
So both of them have acted in only a support role so far, excepting only this latest one on one slugfest between V and Maxima.
Looking at the Cast list, Maxima is a 9, Sydney a 6. Part of that might be Maxima’s training and ability to be a more efficient soldier, but I would bet that if it came down to Maxima using power-blasts or super-strength all out to crush Sydney’s shield or if Sydney had to try and blast through Maxima at top armor, Maxima would probably win both challenges at this point in time.
But Sydney has a skill-tree, we can presume but not really conclude that Maxima cannot literally level up her powers. So Sydney certainly has the potential to become Maxima’s equal in terms of raw power in her… powers. But at this stage, Sydney’s main edge is her genre-savvy skills and that people will underestimate her where they would take Maxima as the seriously as the obvious threat that she clearly is.
I want to see Sydney come up with a way for a combination of others to take him down with no problem. she’s a master of power-stunts, right?
though if she could put her force field over V (without her in it) she can choke him out (oxygen), or let max blast away from the inside…
So far, the rest of ARCSwat didn’t actually try to “team” Vehemence…They all tried jumping on him as a bunch of individuals, like the way they took Death Toll down to overwhelm his Nemesis power & Max tried the “toe-to-toe” tactic (which wound up being “fist-to-nose”). What they need is a solid plan to lead V from one to another teammember, keeping him helplessly off-balance until the “team combo” effect brings him down.
I strongly suspect that Sydney’s the one who comes up with it…
The “put V in a forcefield bubble and suffocate him” theory has been suggested multiple times in the comments to every strip ever since Death Troll was first demonstrating any kind of power, and several times before that, just not quite as regularly.
Problem with this is that so far in the comic there has been no hint that Sydney is able to do something like that. In every instance where she is shown using the shield she has been inside it.
There is a very slim chance it’s something the shield orb can do but Sydney hasn’t figured it out yet. There is a better chance that it’s a feature that can be enabled by Grrl Power #183 – Confirm skill upgrade Y/N”spending a “skill point” in the right place on Sydneys skill tree. But then there is also the possibility that it’s something she will never be able to do.
Only Dave knows for sure…
I won’t swear to it but I think her having to be inside it is wog but I’m to lazy/short of time to go looking (someone will know and reply I’m sure).
I’m starting to think some of the more recent ones actually know this and are saying it to mess with us.
the more people mention it, the less likely it is to ever happen… At this point, we may actually be into negative percentages…
Especially since the author now knows the second she gets that upgrade the fans will be chomping at the bit for her to start suffocating any serious resisters.
Really ravenous fans will insist she get some kind of a gas grenade to launch into the villains area just before sealing them off to speed up the process.
I think the biggest reason why that orb will probably never have an ability like that is simply that its purpose is Not containment. She has an orb for that, the Lighthook (aka naughty-names). Which I expect may well have upgrades that let her form more complex shapes than a continuous, single-branched pseudo-pod. The only functional difference at the moment is that the field appears to be more structurally reinforced/rigid than the pseudopod, since V was able to wiggle out of the pod and even use it to pull Sydney against the walls of her own forcefield. One dares assume that at least one of the Lighthook’s upgrades includes either a simple strength upgrade or the ability to “lock” the shape of it in place at a strength level comparable to the forcefield, maybe even make it self-sustaining so she can set up say a pillar to support a ceeling, fix it, and then use her hands to combine force field and flight to get the civilians out of there via airlift.
Your original point makes sense.
Sydney wasn’t pulled against the walls of the forcefield. It moved with her. That I am sure of.
The part that many people seem to feel is in contention is whether it is always centered on her. Since all the panels “proving” that the forcefield doesn’t need to always be centered on her are also panels where the artist would have had to move things around a tad in order to show everything in the panel that he wished to show I remain in the “forcefield always centered on Sydney” camp till wog (which I may have missed somewhere) drags me out of it by force.
“I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for that nosy kid!” I don’t see a dog in this action, so can’t add him to the outburst. Hmm, somebody got a lycanthrope they want to lend us?
Now that i think of it, that would be a great line over at PS238.
Where did Yorp go? o_O
He is in the audience, not in the action.
Bearing in mind science of Grrl Power filler, Max’s shield/strength partially come from an ability to affect the structural integrity of anything she’s in-contact with, can she use this to set her nose (though doing so might take some power from another ability)?
Even if she can’t she can probably use it as a cast after it’s set.
My worry is that no one will be strong enough to set it.
WELL, IT’S ABOUT TIME!
Tag team coming up? Max pounds on Anvil for a few seconds to “charge” her up, then distracts V by sparring with him until Anvil can punt him into the stratosphere. Even he needs to breathe, I imagine.
On that note, why doesn’t Anvil have Max charge her up before every fight? If Max is the big hitter, and Anvil can store multiple hits and combine the energy, it seems to be a sensible plan for the team.
I’m just wondering why she even dodged the meteor smash from Vehemence?
Because Maxima had to get out of there. Max doesn’t abosrb hits, it’s either dodge or tank. Tank turned out to be a bad idea last time
Last time she put too little into toughness, choosing to keep a bit of strength and flight to enable her to take the punch without being pushed back or even having her head rocking back. This was a choice she made after guessing at V’s strength, and it was intended to look impressive to the cameras. And no she was not showboating because she is vain or any other personal reason. She did it to dissuade potential perps who thought they were real tough, and to get people like V to look to her as the one they will have to beat in order to become “top dog”, thus ensuring they come after her and Archon so they don’t have to go out hunting for them.
This time she was less prepared. Her power pools were tuned for primarily strength and flight so she could grind V with the pylon. When he attacked her she had minimal time to react and reassign her powers. So when he hit her this time her toughness was much lower than last time so now he really connected and did some damage. And as for dodging, I don’t think she did all that much of it. When V hit her she was not braced for it so he sent her sailing with that punch.
I hope she’s got some kind of healing factor cos broken noses are just really not fun. Oooh I wonder if there’s a super with medical powers.
There is, the doctor back at base that patched up Sydney’s eye. Max outright says she has healing powers.
Something about accelerating the natural healing process for the most part? Might not be the kind of powers you’ll want used on you till AFTER your bones are set properly and all the parts of your body sewn back on…
which would be done by the same Doctor before/during/after application of said healing powers… for all we “KNOW” right NOW, is that “she has healing powers”… that’s it… no other details as far as i’m aware of… i believe it’s mentioned that all she may be able to do is to accelerate the natural healing process… but unless she knows WHAT to accelerate and what NOT to speed up, she may do more harm than good in the l;ong run, what with scar tissue forming, bones knitting together wrong, etc… so i’m sure she’s taken “mundane” medical courses to GET that knowledge… thus she would know that for Max to not be disfigured she would need to set the nose properly, etc… and if she can’t do it just by herself, she’ll know to get help from somebody, or to have Max go into the negative values of whatever armor/strength stat is preventing the setting of her nose, and poof! we get past this obsession with Max’s nose being in fine shape in the present, and messed up here in the past (this WHOLE comic to date is all a flashback remember!, well except for the first three or four strips… but still)
You’re right and I was aware of the present we saw in the past. While I was replying to Alandryfter, who was discussing a healer back at base, just before I read his I had read Pants comment about a “healing factor” and I guess my thoughts on the one colored the other. I suppose I was trying to let Alandryfter know that his Healer possibly wasn’t gonna work out the same as Pants’ Healing Factor in that if it wouldn’t have been able to be eventually healed through time and effort of professionals then it may not be healable by the base’s healer. Healing Factors on the other hand often take care of just about anything with the main component often just being how long they take to work.
Sorry for muddying the waters and thank you for your apt explanation. :)
I still want to know where supers find clothing that stays even somewhat intact through these fights. Best guess I’ve got is that their defenses, like The Flash’s nonfriction aura, actually extend a bit beyond skin surface.
Max’s defense field does, at least. She comments here that Atomic Bombshell’s attack got through her outer field and destroyed her jacket.
You know, for a second there I thought that bottom panel text meant we could actually send in evil plans and you’d write them into the script.
You can always try. And if you truly do have real life-type evil plans, contacting your local police department would be a good way to discuss them.
If you hadn’t announced a two page spread next time, I would be expecting Vehemence to just say, “Not gonna happen. I’m outta here!” Then he would make his escape and only come back in another 150 pages or more.
so… first thing the next morning?
It’s pretty obvious this guy is smart. And no matter how tough you are, getting into a brawl with a superteam is not smart, no matter how strong you are. Why paint a target on your back. So I really am curious as to his motivation.
Easy answer would be building a rep, but that’s the sort of thing a low level thug might come up with, not someone who’s obviously not got anything to prove. So, part of me is still of a mind that we might be about to hear something from left field.
I’m expecting a “Just for the fun of it!” before he attacks.
Distraction. Meanwhile, all the secret files, bank accounts, and Chuck E Cheeses in the world just got robbed.
“I am Lord Gluxnorp from the planet Steroidus Prime. I have come to Earth to find a new queen. It is you Lady Maxima!”
Or he’s a parasite looking for a newer, better, host body.
And picks Sydney
or he’s one of the aliens/gods/whatevers that are giving out the superpowers in the first place (in-universe theories here) and he is here to run a Quality Control Test on them to find out who shall be culled as unfit to wield them… the ones that pass the test get to keep the powers and are allowed to live…
PS i hope the link comes out OK, it’s comic #139 just in case it doesn’t work right…
YES! the link worked!… and the reason i think that Halo will be the one to take him down is that she has powers outside of his testing criteria (ie, the orbs were made by yet ANOTHER alien race) and that he is not prepared for them, therefore he doesn’t have any immunity/defense against them, well not so much as NO defense, but he’s optimized for the superpowers inherent in the genetics of the populace (that his people are the ones giving out)… NOT by technological items wielded by said beings… ie, you would not send a person in to test a subject if that person was not able to demonstrate a greater knowledge/ability than the one being tested… but Sydney is kinda cheating on this test… it would be like a high school kid taking an algebra test (all the Supers except for Sydney), the teacher (Vehemence) would logically be expected to be able to do Algebra and probably the next course up the food chain, ?geometry i think it is?… whatever it’s irrelevant… but Halo is like a kid that brings in her super-duper scientific calculator that can do quantum mechanics equations at the push of a button… she’ll ace the algebra test and there isn’t anything that the teacher can do about it because he himself CAN’T do the same things as the Orbs… (yes, yes, i know he can take the calculator away, but you see my line of thinking i hope… he’s just not prepared for them right now…)
A better analogy would be the “high school” teacher giving the algebra 1 test to Sheldon Cooper.
?huh? who’s he?
Annoying math genius on should “Big Bang Theory”.
All main guy characters are geek/nerd.
^show ^
PPS… that would ALSO explain a bit better as to how he “discovered” all those other supers as well… his people were keeping track of the ones they gave the powers to in the first place, thus, when Archont was revealed to the public, as “the Good Guys” he had a few people in mind as a foil to them, and “activated” them. (in the terminology of spy novels getting their Moles to do whatever it is they were told to do…)
**SNERK!**
You get Five Internets for Best Comment Thus Far.
So, Maxima in Sailor Moon Cosplay?
Yes please!
Actually, if V just wants to bolster his reputation with this fight, it WOULD help in whatever underground activities he normally conducted. Since V is used to dealing with “normal human” criminals & flunkies, think how much more FEAR he can use against them, to get his own way.
“You think YOU can stop me, you little punk? You may be the Big Guy in charge of all the criminal activity on the Eastern Seaboard, but I took on ARCSwat & walked away intact! I’m the NEW Head Honcho around here & don’t you forget it!”
Yep, upping his rep is still a viable reason for this fight with ARCSwat.
I tried to forward the plan but my email said it was too long. So when I tried to just send a phone number so I could monologue it, the address came back unaccepted. :(
Stick to the simple:
1) Mutate
2) Challenge the world
3) ???
4) Profit.
Uh, oh. Looks like he’s going to monologue.
He knows his tropes.
It’s obligated
Five bucks says that Sydney actually finishes the guy off by using one of the UN-NAMED POWER ORBS.
Like I’m guessing one is a Group Healer and the other is like a fucking POWER UP! In which case Maxima just gets TO OP STATUS and beats the dude up till he can’t move.
Agreement that it is probably Sydney who takes the lead in beating this dude, but doubt if it will be quite that simple.
Actually, I think Sydney actually finishes the guy off using an orb we’ve already seen.
It won’t require beating Vehemence up at all. He’ll just stop fighting.
Deploy shield round him to stop him doing anything then wait till he runs out of air :D
Everything we have ever seen so far about Sydney’s shield indicates that SHE HAS TO BE INSIDE IT
So no
Calling Capt. Obvious, Calling Capt. Obvious! We have yet another instance to be recorded & logged.
And on page 1 of the comments, no less…
Yep, and RobK beat robin by 56 minutes! Good job RobK!
Though robin did have an original slant to his post:
How about this? She makes a very tall, thin bubble, and flies up to the top of it. She can fly scary fast, and keep away from him if he jumps. The more he fights and jumps, the more he uses up the air. She’s smaller, so she needs less to start with, and won’t be exerting as much, so she can wait him out. Then as he weakens, she contracts the shield until she’s basically riding on his back, holding them both in a small bubble. He will pass out first, see above. Then she can let go…or just wait until she faints, to make sure he’s good and out. The bubble will probably shut off if she does, so they just wait until she zzzs out and put V on lockdown.
That’s one option. Maybe the skill-tree increase lets her project a field…or just shape it in a more useful fashion, her still inside it, so she makes it like an hourglass, with V on one side of a constriction from herself. She still runs a risk of suffocating herself, but this might be one of those “prove to yourself you’re a hero by risking yourself to stop the bad guy” moments. Isn’t that what DEFINES a hero?
*sighs* Once again: Sydney has to center the shield on herself. That is from the author himself. That means she would be in there with V. Pretty sure he would do something about that long before the air runs out…
Sometimes I think people say it on purpose just for the hell of it. ;p
So sad that everyone is still stuck in single orb mode.
Thanks to the refresher on the power matrix someone posted earlier, https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1166 did nobody but me notice that there were power feats for each and every pair and that ONE was active and available? [Blue+Red]
As an aside but on the same subject I was reminded that two of the seven mid-ring points [no direct lines to any other points but one] were active and are linked to two sectors of the core point.
I suspect that central wagon wheel is an indicator of general “power level”, as in, she’s currently a level two out of a possible seven. Perhaps she needs to unlock each spoke of the wheel to access different tiers of upgrades.
or she could use the ppo and vaporize him.
absolutely, Kamenriderhellhound; she can fly one of them in through that gap in his teeth and block his airway.
Hasn’t he realized that revealing this stuff is a /bad/ idea?
Monologuing is one of supervillainry’s most important traditions. Shame on you for suggesting he do otherwise. ;)
Absolutely love the comment tag at the bottom of the page today.
I wonder what her mental pain tolerance is like, she’s probably not been hurt in a long time, kind of a shock to the system…
I expect V to start monologue-ing and then have it disrupted by one of the good guys. One of those “you caught monologue-ing” moments. This comic doesn’t seem to follow traditional superhero tropes where the bad guys get to monologue for extended periods and the heroes just sit there and take it all in. Shoot, they even make fun of the traditional superhero comics.
Hey Vehemence’s tattoos are green. Does that mean he wasn’t even using his powers that entire time? Or was that pylon he was hit with full of gamma radiation?
err gamma radiation doesnt make you green.. just saying, nuclear stuff tend to work differently than in the comics or movies. Nuclear reactor cores tend to emit a blueish light ;-) look up Cherenkov radiation if you are interested. But gamma radiation, neutrons etc are colorless in principle. Of course if you allow for an extreme amount of inelastic scattering processes (not the case here) you can tune the leftover energy to any color you want.. but that is far more easier written than done.
The reason that subatomic particles are invisible is because they are so small, the wavelengths of EM energy that make up the “visible spectrum” are too long to actually reflect or deflect off of them. Without any means of your eyes (or other sensing equipment) to receive the reflected energy, you can’t see it.
How scientists discover the existence of subatomic particles is that, even though no one can *see* anything that small, they *can* see the effects that such particles have in the surrounding environment as the particles pass through it. It’s the same way YOU know that air existts even though you can’t see it; when the air moves (ie: the wind blows), you can see it push leaves along the ground & rustle tree branches.
The electron microscope can “see” very small things because it it uses a stream of electrons, which reflect from even small objects, then gets received & translated onto a display screen that we CAN see with our eyes. When they say they’ve “discovered” a new particle, it just means that the discovery is new. The particle itself isn’t new, it’s just our ability to *perceive* it is new.
Err are you trying to lecture me MidnightDstroyer? or what is the aim of your post?
Because working on a worldwide unique optical microscope, having worked with neutrons and High energy X-ray(aka Synchrotron radiation) I know my share there :)
The latter part of my previous post was more a fun train of thought of where you could go with some flexibility.
Nope, not at all…Just supplying some of the background info for those NOT in your field and perhaps not even up to the physics of why our senses work in the first place.
I’m not in any field. I told you already….I left my farmer position. Sigh, ok just kill me.
Oh no, you’re not getting off that easy. We will force you to keep commenting for many years to come!
Nope, nope, nope…We’re not going to give you the satisfaction of living up to your screen-name.
Yep, science has proven that gamma radiation actually makes you gray, unless your colorist has troubles keeping your coloring consistent.
So, Mr. Fixit was realest Hulk there is?
If his tattoo lights are an indication of energy levels, green light is less energetic than blue – it’s possible that his power levels are being lowered through this.
More likely though, that’s not the case.