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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First-time commenter here, along with a theory!
What if Vehemences markings are NOT the source of his power?
What if they’re a LIMITOR? Perhaps the more damage V takes the closer to his true strenght he gets?
I don’t think it’s too far fetched considering his blood knight tendencies and apparent knowledge of magic.
(Apologies if this has already been suggested, but I’m too lazy to go surfing the comments.)
lol do not give the author any ideas jeez…..
to late, from the previus pages it seems like a “reactive” type of power/spell aka the more hits/damage he takes the more he can deal
Seriously, obviously doesn’t play D&D, or RPGs in general. Rule number one, the most important rule: NEVER GIVE THE DM IDEAS.
As a veteran DM/GM of more than two decades, I must say I /loved/ it when my players gave me ideas. I loved their moans, groans, and their protests to their fellow players when I followed up on their ideas too…. Then again, I was always known for my… sadistic DM streak.
Oh, I love giving the DM ideas. That and tempting fate (i.e., the DM). So I’m constantly getting yelled at by my fellow players. However, it’s a fun comment to make.
I’m a masochist, in case you couldn’t tell XD
“Power Glows” nuff said.
A Tvtropes reference?
Walker, you are EVIL. Just the war I like it.
I’ve got a theory! It could be bunnies….
Go on…
NO, not bunnies. I have seen what Monty Python did with one. It can only get very ugly passed that. :P
looks arround for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
+1 for musical Buffy episode.
… Or Maybe Midgets.
I’ve got a theory! It doesn’t matter…what can’t we do-oooo, if we’re togeeeether!!!
i’m wondering how many pages until sydney discovers that she doesn’t have to be inside the forcefield and can project it around someone to contain them…
My guess… A lot!
Actually the discussions on this that has been going on in these comments has me more or less convinced that it would be a very bad idea for the author to let her have this power. So many power stunts has been suggested for this that it would become hard to keep Sydney from being way overpowered. I’m not claiming to know what David is planing, it’s just my thought’s on how it is likely to play out.
I think it IS likely, actually, but it should require Sydney to level up that specific orb quite a bit before it becomes viable. At that point, she would have a lot more experience, be more tempered with military training, and would be less…destructive..with its use. At least, that’s how I see it.
This is why Sue Storm is by far the most dangerous member of the Fantastic Four in a straight up fight. Non-lethal? Put you in a bubble, expand it until the air is so thin you pass out. Lethal? Put a bubble inside your mouth and expand it until your head explodes? Lethal for the Hulk, or someone else too powerful to head-boom? Put a bubble in their throat, let ’em choke to death. And do on.
I don’t think that’ll ever happen, because that would be a more or less instant victory vs. any non teleporting foe. Its the same way with putting the shield through someone to cut them in half.
There’s a sort of rule of thumb that the narrative side effect of a power will never overshadow its primary function, because that eats up your design space.If the author wanted to include a character who traps people in an invincible shield I suspect he’d purpose build one for that, not graft it onto a character already overflowing with personality.
Sydney’s shield is hihgly appropriate for her personality, in that it lets her do the arrogant comic relief dialog that she loves and compensates for her tiny and non super tough physique. If the shield was instead able to defeat any foe then Archon becomes the Sydney escort service, and that’s really a different vibe that the author seems to be going for.
Harem actually can’t teleport through it so if she could project it around others she could contain teleporters as well.
Welcome to comment town!
It’s like funkytown.
It will keep on moving and grooving with major energy.
With lots of talk about, talk about, talk about “it”
I’m really enjoying this strip and its good for Maxima’s development to know that there are people in her “weight” class out there. But do be careful not to drag this out too long. Like the “Dragon Ball Z” “five minute” that took over six episodes or the “Zap In Space” battle with Gunner that lasted over a year in updates.
The other danger with draging this fight out too long is you more and more require a Deus Ex Machia solution.
Of course it wouldn’t be Deus Ex Machia, but one simple solution would be for Sidney to encase Vehemence inside an air tight force field and containing him until he runs out of air and passes out.
her bubbles are centered around herself, she’d need to be hugging him tightly for that to work
Sid needs to on the inside of the shield, and as we dont know yet if the orbs are working if she is knocked out or killed as long as they are still in her hands or not, so that ide while good its doomed to fail, atleast untill she have unlocked the skill for it (if there is one ^^).
shield inside a shield or being able to change shield shape would change that. probably upgrades at best, nonexistent at worst though. not possible now :(
Welp, there’s the obligatory comment about Sydney’s shield for page 3…
This looks like a job for…
Well isn’t it Obvious?
Dude your trophy case will be huge if this keeps up.
*Walks by with a new trophy case* Razzing frakking Obvious I’m gonna frazzle bazzle…
Aw, c’mon now…If Math judges Sydney to be at least a 7th Dan Black Belt in Cursing, that doesn’t even stack up to a Yellow Belt. Focus, man, FOCUS!
Yep personally I think a spicy KO for V after or nearly after V KO’s Maximus if Sydney took a hit while delivering a kiss of fiery spicy death would take everyone down a peg (see my previous comment). It its a real shame that Sydney actually got a bite of her baked potato before things went down ’cause that would probably take most of the heat with it. That and it isn’t close to April fools, I could totally see Dave pulling something like that as an April fools gag. (Hey Dave don’t get any ideas alright ; ) )
OK, because my brain is operating at about 5% due to sleeplessness, calling Vehemence as a mole who’s here to train the newly-teamed-up supers in what to do or not to do in a super fight. A) Don’t get normals involved, Peggy is a damn good shot and a fully trained soldier to boot, but she’s still too close to the action. Vehemence has shown he’s fast and powerful, one second of distraction and he could land a punch like Maxima just took. It would splatter Peggy (or any of the detection team for that matter) all over the wall. B) Don’t monologue. It give an opponent an opening to, say, punch through a column and into your recently broken nose. C) Don’t get cocky, because Karma’s a bitch (see problem B above). D) You’re a unit, so for the love of Gyno-star: TEAM UP ON THE OPPONENT!!! You have super-strength, teleportation, stretchiness, flight, magic, sexiness of all types, lightning, shields and a guy who’s literally invulnerable in your team. Use that to your advantage (and, no, using him as a projectile doesn’t count). E) Make sure your insurance is paid up. Seriously, you don’t want to have to pay medical bills, Arianna would have an aneurism (you Americans and your silly lack of universal health care). Just my idea, it’s probably wrong, and you’re free to nick it if you like, Mr DaveB Author, sir.
“a guy who’s literally invulnerable in your team. Use that to your advantage” is using him as a club allowed?
It damn well better be.
How about we run the Light Hook up the entirety of his intestinal tract and use him as a combat puppet? At least then it would be harder to “misplace” him during the fight. (seriously he needs a combat mecha suit or something. He’s immune to damage so at least it could be powered by literally anything even if super deadly normally)
We’d have to revert to letting Sydney call it the Hentai Orb again, and I don’t think that’d go over terribly well with … eh, screw the legal department. :P
“eh, screw the legal department.”
With the Light Hook?
In corkscrew mode.
letting Sydney call it the Hentai Orb again + the mind set of a percentage of the readers = errr, lets just say “you dont want to go there”
Yes they do! They’re some TRUELY sick puppies! Besides, Sydney’s part owner of a comic shop! Ain’t NO way she hasn’t read at least a few adult comics!
Oh she has… She can send you some links if you’re interested…
You have just absolutely destroyed any “regularity” I’m going to have for a week due to me clenching tighter than… well,…. nothing that I can think of………. eew.
On a scale of 1-10, that would induce a “Pucker Factor” of at least 12.
I had considered that this would be the one way Sydney could beat a hugely powerful guy like Vehemence. Evard’s Spiked Tentacle of Forced Intrusion, anyone?
Can It do spikes??! I can’t wait to see Sydney face down a bunch of bank robbers in a leather outfit with a little smile while she gives the Light Hook a little crack and murmurs, “Mmmm yeeeess”.
you might need a cold shower
And therapy
How about a shower with a cold therapist?
Does the therapist have spikes?
About point A) Peggy knows what kind of action she’s getting involved in & she’s not leaving herself vulnerable, as Concretia found out…The hard way.
About point B) It’s a comic & monologuing is just a part of the genre, by both villains & heroes alike. In a lot of cases it happens when ego overrides common sense, especially if the one monologuing doesn’t think there’s anyone to stop them from doing what they talk about. Start listening when *real life* politicians start peppering their speeches with phrases like “New World Order is coming,” or “We’re switching to a service-based economy, so get over it,” and the like. Yes, these two examples of monologuing (out of many) have actually happened in real life, here!
About point C) No argument there. The Cosmic College of Hard Knocks employs harsh teachers…They giver the test first & the lesson afterwards.
About point D) You’re not the first commenter to make that point & probably not the last either.
About point E) ARCSwat & Archon ARE in the military chain of command…They don’t need to worry about insurance. Archon even has a doctor with healing powers back in the infirmary. This is just a guess, but I’d say that getting injuries fixed up is such high quality that, as long as someone gets there with some life left & most major organs intact, they’ll eventually pull through…Even if it would mean being crippled to some extent & transferred out of “hazardous duty” status.
They already tried the team approach. Vehemence was just so tough that it didn’t do much. Maxima’s like their nuke option and anyone would tell you that you don’t want to be between a nuke and its target. As long as they stay on the sidelines, Maxima can hit Vehemence with as much force as she thinks she need without worrying about her team.
Then continue with long range assists with warning cues to Maxima. Though I think she lost her ear phone thingie. Does the collar do communications as well? If it does I wonder why she had both?
It would be nice if the main group had trained for signals of that sort beyond whatever experience Max has with really old companions like Peggy they had to have SOME training as a group before announcing the team right?
i think that its more of a blue-tooth ear piece that wirelessly connects to the collar, which is the actual transceiver unit for the comm system. i would hazard a guess that she can’t hear anything right now since she lost that earpiece, but the microphone is in the collar itself so she should be able to talk about stuff and they will be acted upon ok… one thing would probably be “Harem, i lost my earpiece, vorp me a new one” ( her saying please would be optional at this point in time though)
Huh, she is the only one I’ve seen with an earpiece. How would the others hear her?
it uses a throat mike for when the earpiece is not in range. the collar uses the vibrations of someone’s larynx when talking and processes it similar to how it would when using a “normal” microphone.
I meant the others couldn’t hear her because they don’t have ear pieces but I went back far enough to see some of them have them. I guess it just isn’t always getting drawn on all the team members all the time or something but I’ll assume they are there for now.
Vehemance is trying pretty hard not to kill anyone, I think Peggy is safer from him than she was from, for example, Atomic Bombshell.
Maybe Sydney can stop V by simply getting in his way. He seemed to like her.
He did until she tripped him while V was making his big entry scene. He tried to punch her into orbit then.
So here’s a question. They have access to a .50 cal sniper rifle, so why haven’t they broken out the standard non-lethal cop gear? For instance, pepper poppers, vomit gas, tear gas, irritant gas, mace sprays, and the like. It’s obvious that V has to breathe and he has exposed mucus membranes, so he’d be at least partially vulnerable to these tactics. On a similar note, if they’re a higher-tech setup, where are their laser dazzlers and microwave area denial systems? He seems like he’d be at least partially vulnerable to these things as well. Even if it doesn’t stop him, it’ll at least put him at enough of a disadvantage to make a difference. And if it DOES stop him, why wreck the place over it?
The point I’m making here is, if they’re supposed to be a professional outfit, why are they pulling out the lethal crap as their first reflex, then acting like they’re worried about killing people? Break out the proven non-lethal stuff first, then work your way up.
How many injuries and property damage do you think would have been diverted if Harem popped in when the fight started with a case of circa-1970 vomit-agent tear gas and they dropped that on their way out of the building? At least a good half of the bad guys would have been screwed, leaving a stronger contingency of the good guys. Maybe not as showy as a full-on powers fight, but who cares about showy when you’re taking TWO YEARS to get through ONE FIGHT? It’s starting to feel like DBZ: one punch an episode, packed in by unnecessary dick-waving.
That isn’t to say I’m not enjoying it anyway. :D
They aren’t in any future… is now.
No guarantee at all. He has eyes and ears, but Harem’s flash-bang didn’t even tickle him. Unless he’s got some special weakness, there’s no reason to think that pepper spray would work any better.
Not saying that some of your ideas aren’t worth trying. Or at least consideration.
But bear in mind that this WAS a social gathering, so the team was packing light as regards equipment. Any extra hardware has had to be t-ported in by Harem – and I daresay she’s been pretty dang busy just hauling in the basics.
Also note that many of your ideas are basically area-effect weapons which could just as easily affect friendlies.
Also also note that this is a fight of superbeings, meaning that a lot of combatants are flying, leaping, t-porting and otherwise moving around the field much MUCH faster than any normal human can. So a the stuff one might routinely use to suppress or discourage a gang of violently-inclined normals (read: riot control) might be less useful here.
Well, if you look at comic #186 (Fingers to maximum steepleage!), Vehemence appears to be the first picture Dabbler’s demon with the joke about urinary tract problems from comic #176 (Intergalactic baggage) appears to be number three. There are four others that don’t appear to have shown up, and then there’s finally Deus who’s paying Harem for info on Archon.
I suspect Deus is going to be set up to be the series’ big bad, and the other six in the comic are just major bad guys. Something about shady and enormously wealthy businessmen with definite military business just works well for a behind the scenes instigator/orchestrator to work well as the big bad (also obviously parallels well with Lex Luthor).
If he wins his teeth will be worth a fortune on Ebay. If anyone can find them. Is his tattoo gold or a very light yellow green? Different panels suggest different colors to my eyes.
I think it’s changing colours, or shimmering at least.
I think I’ve worked out who Vehemence is. He’s an insurance sale’s man
who’s beating the crap out of them to prove how much they need insurance in their line of work
Or the superhero version of the old martial arts master, who attacking them to get an idea of their level ability before taking his position of trainer for Arcswat
Chiun?
I like this idea…
Ok, ok, my turn for the theories. If Sydney grabs an orb with both hands, maybe she can do a double effect! Then she can double shield and have vehemence in a smaller shield within her shield! YAY
Or she is in the smaller shield and Vehemence is in the outer shield.
Or she uses one of the unknowns and finds out that it block super powers.
to maxima, who is used to thinking of her self as more or less invulnerable, even minor injury would be shocking and scary. A normal person hurts them selves all the time and grow used to it. To superman a scratch is shocking because it’s rare. What I’m saying is that it would not be unusal or unrealistic for a nigh invulnerable person to have a low pain threshold or to overreact to an injury. it’s actually very unlikely that such a person if they have had their powers for any length of time to deal with pain and injury well.
This idea has been brought up multiple times, but I’m choosing to address it here (nothing personal, nonimportante)
I don’t see why so many people seem to think that Max suffers any delusions that she’s unstoppable. In her speech to the press, she made it clear that a member of the team (i.e. Dabbler) fought her to a standstill, and there was another member that was her weight class that is apparently “comic-dead” (closely related to “mostly dead,” but messier), and in the cast page, DaveB told us that Max & Peggy bonded while they were both in the infirmary, and in early comments, implied it was as a result of her fight with “comic-dead.” Clearly, she knows full well that she can be hurt, and probably even has the constant spectre hanging over her head, dreading the time she’s truly beaten (the overwhelming majority of senior military officers are absolutely terrified of making a bad decision that costs lives – and rightfully so, of course; and her being beaten would have some pretty bad implications for the rest of us)
I’m actually saying the opposite.
nonimportante,
To this, I can only reply “Captain Hammer”
With Maxima specifically that’s not likely to be the case.
Her invulnerability is only one of several powers that draw from a limited pool. How much punishment she can take is highly variable and tanking a hit depends on her “calling it” right and having the right amount in place. She almost certainly guesses wrong sometimes and probably had a long periods of pailful mistakes even against opponents who can’t necessarily penetrate her “maximum defense”. while learning the magnitude of her powers.
I stand by the fundamental premise of my statement
Noting that Max has not always had things her way.
First, she apparently was not born with her powers but developed them later. That has to make for a big differance.
Second, there is specific mention of her having been hospitalized at least once during her military service. One can assume she did win that particular fight, but the fact that she has limits (and is cognizant of same) is extremely evident.
I stand by the fundamental premise of my statement.
Which is to say, you can’t think of a proper response to the points that I and others have made. So noted.
no which is to say I stand by the fundamental premise of my statement. That someone who is Very difficult to hurt would react more strongly to being injured then a normal person because pain and injury are unfamiliar. no one has raised any meaning full objection to that.
My guess is they are not reacting so much to your “fundamental premise” but to your opening statement that specifically Maxima might find even minor injuries “shocking or scary”. And its possible that she might. But the story suggests that she has been through enough combat and moments where she got caught with her power pants down that between that and her brief years as a normal mortal child she might, note might, have a better resistance built up than say Superman who had his powers from the get go, in higher all around amounts, and with out the high likely hood of being caught with them down in general combat due to a strategic error.
Your premise is most likely generally correct. However your specific example of Maxima is what they are more concerned with and it has at least some small but actual evidence against it.
So I guess its just a matter of how many nerves of hers managed to get deadened and what mental barriers to pain she has developed during what damage she has managed to receive. This of course doesn’t even discuss if she has some mild healing factor that slowly brings her functions back to near perfection over time. In which case she would never develop deadened nerves and only mental blocks would be of use. It does seem she would be unlikely to develop such mental capacity unless she specifically lowered her defenses and let someone hurt her while practicing some kind of mental exercise to build such defenses.
I’m calling Sydney combo-ing known orbs in a new fashion without KOing Vehemence. I find it highly unlikely that she will use either flight or forcefield in said combo. I feel that flight would add nothing to the fight as Vehemence cannot fly, and the shield This leaves three orbs. Energy Blast (PPO), Telepresence and Truesight (TT), and Lighthook (Hentorb (LH)).
PPO and TT would mean either an explosion based around a Doppelganger or a limited ability to interpret superpowers and associated strengths and weaknesses of said power.
PPO and LH could combine to make a whip with an explosion centred around where it whipcracks, or act in the same way as a shaped/moulded explosive.
TT and LH could mean she has the ability to divine the power source of supers and then that intel can be shared. Either that, or it’s a lame combo (battle-wise) and just means she can find out what her existing skill points have been spent on. Which could be an incredibly interesting gimmick.
I also suspect that teamwork and a couple of awkward power stunts will leave V disappearing with the iconic ‘I’ll be back!’ style statement. After which he will be beaten up by the demon Dabbler saw at the press conference.
I have a better idea actually, telepresence also gives her a clone, and she did find she can convert it with the help of Dabbler into things on a person’s mind. For the easy win, use telepresence in conjunction with Dabbler to make V see what he fears the most. Using this in conjunction with a hard core attack may be enough to take V down, wouldn’t you guys agree? Fear placed into the equation might give them the edge to win.
Or, you know, she can’t combine orbs. Because she hasn’t done or said anything that indicates she can.
If you look at the “skill tree” depicted in the strip Grrl Power #181 – Power UP! you can see that all the orbs have potential interconnects. This suggests that combining two orbs can have some synergistic effect.
At this time only one of these interconnects has been activated, and that’s the Flight orb – Energy blast orb link. Exactly what this means is still a mystery as she has yet to find the users guide to the orbs…
Flight orb + PPO = ‘afterburner’ turbo speed. (although you DON’T want to be standing behind her when she activates that function)
FYI: Larry Niven did the reverse of this in a short story where he used the photon drive of an unarmed Earth ship as a weapon to destroy an attacking Kzinti ship.
For those of you who like diving down into the nitty-gritty details there is a page describing the theory behind a lot of sci-fi space weapons https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunexotic.php
Cpt Obvious,
Why does this remind me of “The Greatest American Hero”?
Because Sydney was too distracted by the new shinnies that she forgot to look for the manual that was with them. :-)
By the way, has anyone else commented on the fact that several of the power up lines continue off without nodes like they may open up to something else later?
Yes there has been some discussion on that matter .
Ah, I rarely kept up with the comments past page one until the new system where unread posts can be checked without reading everything again. Thank you.
There has been some discussion on this in the forum, most of it in this thread.
The forum sees very little activity, but it’s good for keeping track of things like this.
Thank you. Somehow I missed the forum all together. :-/
I am more interested to see if the central nodes that form the pie wedges between two balls give her the option to startup a power in one ball and keep it going while switching to the second –not to other hand. Flight and PPO were the two linked this way I think –or was it flight and force field?
That is an interesting idea. It was the PPO and Flight.
even just having telepresence and hentorb used together to block v’s vision (or telepresence for vision and shield due to his pressing threat
Considering how OP Sydney’s powers are (within their limits), I’m surprised she hasn’t just hogtied big V using the Molestorb.
she tried earlier, and not only did he get out of it, he was actually DRAGGING her AND the force field around the lot before he did… she may have had the Hentacle wrapped around him “lightly” (relatively speaking of course) and he just seemed to do a lazy “spin”, like a dance move, to get himself out of it’s grasp… but I’ll bet that if she REALLY wanted to get him stuck good, she’d spin him up with so many layers that even Spider-Man would have feelings of inadequacy over it…
Or do the smart thing and grab him around the torso (NO ARMS INSIDE, thank you very much) next time he goes for a jump or otherwise goes airborne. No joints inside times nothing to brace against equals target practice.
and I’ll bet that if he can get out of the Hentacle just by spinning a bit, then if you leave his hands free, he’ll start dragging himself BY the Hentacle back towards Sydney using it as a rope that he climbs up, kinda like those ropes attached to the roof in high-school gym class that you had to try to climb up to the top of… the “top” of the rope in this case would be Sydney herself…
that might be tricky if the rest of the team gets their act together. And its REALLY hard to build up rotation when your main mass is bound up. And hell Sydney might be able to let him just free spin himself at that point (or at least be able to track the motion accurately). As for ‘climbing’ back… whoops she lets go and he falls.
I will seriously lmfao if the first panel of the next comic is simply “Nah, I think you will have to just keep guessing” as Vehemence wades back into the fight. Would be a nice acknowledgement of his genre awareness.
Or “Psych! I don’t have any plan except to beat you into the ground.”
I’m having a super tough time thinking what his plan might be. Best guess is “I was sincere about just being pro violence. Let’s continue fighting, I’m having a great time.”
Or his plan involves vanishing in the next second.
Considering the first punch broke her nose when she was fully shielded and he now seems to be at a higher power level now with this latest punch (unless the color change represents a power shift not an upgrade), Max must have had just enough time to react and put up some kind of shielding before the punch hit otherwise I would expect the damage to have been much worse.
She wasn’t fully shielded. She put a significant chunk into flight to stop being knocked back.
and a little into strength to keep her head from being rocked back. Reminds me of how some girls will squeeze their feet into shoes that doesn’t really fit, but they are convinced they look good.
Max could have gone for speed or she could have armored up all the way. In either case she’d have been perfectly safe, but ducking out of the way or being punched across the entire parking lot doesn’t really look cool for the cameras, so she guestimated what strength V would be able to muster and choose her toughness accordingly. Turns out she underestimated him slightly and that’s what got her nose broken…
Okay fine. Not full shield but the implication was that it was fairly close. Vehemence seems to have gone through a power boost here and that before she was probably not at all focused on shielding (maybe not no shielding but fairly low), I still think she must have reacted and put up some shielding which is why her face didn’t completely implode.
This is what I expected.
A collection of base and unjust criticisms leveled against one Lieutenant Colonel Maximillia Leander:
Criticism: Maxima shouldn’t have done [fill in the blank] because of bad consequences.
This criticism is only valid if a clearly better alternative exists.
Criticism: Maxima threatens anyone who disagrees with her.
The only people Maxima threatened at the press conference were those who decide to abuse their powers by trying to use
them for criminal activities and the only others since then are those who have (physically) attacked ARCHON.
Criticism: Maxima could decide to take over.
All evidence points to the exact opposite: she’s fighting against people who would do that because she thinks doing so is
wrong.
Criticism: Maxima is bossy.
That’s practically part of her job description as a commanding
officer.
Criticism: Maxima treats her teammates poorly.
The closest I’ve seen to this being true is her giving a wedgie to Harem and even that was only well-deserved
punishment/payback for the latter’s prank in the ambulance.
Criticism: Maxima is arrogant/over-confident
I’d say she’s more self-confident than arrogant, with some justification considering “only two individuals… have ever fought [her] to a standstill“.
Furthermore, she deferred to Sydney’s “genre savvy” when dealing with For Whom the Dork Tolls instead of insisting on whatever her
plan was, which is hardly a mark of arrogance.
Criticism: “Max is… utterly unconcerned with the consequences of what she has set up with the little ‘look how
awesome we are’ conference.”
On the contrary, I think she expecting this sort of reaction, although not this soon or against so many opponents. The
purpose of the conference wasn’t to show how awesome they were, but how dangerous they were in an attempt to
get some potential villains to decide against a criminal career and- for those to chose to go that anyway- to attack ARCHON
instead of the general population.
Criticism: Maxima is enjoying beating up on V too much.
First, Vehemence claims to be the leader of an attack that has injured several of her teammates and has refused several
offers for him to surrender, which goes a long way in explaining the severity of her attack. Second, this is her reaction during the attack and she might feel differently after the fight has concluded.
Criticism: Maxima is hitting him while he’s down.
If he has a problem with that, he shouldn’t have attacked ARCHON in the first place or surrendered when he had a chance.
Criticism: He’s getting back up, so she should haven’t had slowed her attack.
See my answer to the first criticism in the list above.
I guess that’s what I get for composing the above in notepad and not checking it after copy/pasting it in the comment form.
I don’t think these are all exactly criticisms.
Maxima has been depicted as pretty much a good person granted limitless power. She’s using this in exactly the way that we’d hope someone would, to lend force to the existing democracy. There is literally no evidence that she has any desire to take over.
I start with this, because I don’t want to accidentally give the impression that Maxima = Hyperion. She’s not that guy, and I”m not accusing her of being Evil Superman.
At the same time, she isn’t really a Lt. Colonel, or a soldier at all in any sense that matters. Its just cosplay, like a dictator putting on a general’s uniform, or Superman being given an honorary title by a grateful government. Her actual job title, if you could summon its platonic essence, would be something like “Strategic Deterrance”, “WMD”, or whatever dramatic phrase you could come up with.
You can see this from her behavior. She does things that would see a replaceable person fired immediately, and she doesn’t fret about it. She has good reason not to fear, as she is indispensable. Any government official that suggested that they try and discipline Maxima for not acting like a real Lt. Colonel would be out of his or her mind.
Actually canonically she is, she earned that rank under the USAF before she they started Archon & ARCSWAT and for the sake of the story Archon is part of .mil. Barring disciplinary action service transfer do not result in loss of rank. An O-5 will remain so no matter what the new branch’s name for it is.
Sure, I’m not trying to say her title isn’t legal, I’m saying its not the important part of her identity.
A Lt. Colonel takes money and provides leadership. Maxima doesn’t need money and provides atomic bomb level firepower. You couldn’t swap her with Lt. Colonel Jane Smith from the next unit over, because Jane can’t level cities with beams from her hands.
Describing Maxima as Lt. Colonel is like describing her as a biped. Its true, but it isn’t the important part. Its like her appearance. She may wear a military uniform, but the detail that matters is the golden skin that tells you you are dealing with earth’s most powerful being.
Such as? The closest incident I could find of this is her wedgie of Harem. However, I think that in most units like this one, leaders are given a bit more leeway in choosing disciplinary measures since the perpetrators might not be as fazed by official, traditional punishments.
On the contrary, she has shown no inclination that she would refuse such punishment (IIRC, even Superman has submitted to being arrested at times). If nothing else, such a refusal would undermine her authority as a leader, since if she’s able to chose which parts of the military code she will follow or not, then why shouldn’t her subordinates be able to do so as well (and that would include following her orders)?
@Deof Movestofca. Well reasoned and said.
Freaking thank you.
Haha Max should just go all sword-and-board on him, where sword = Achilles and board = Anvil.
Coming up next: Sinister Plans of Evil that don’t involve nipples or navels.
Also, I want to see a team play with Maxima swinging Halo around by the Lighthook with her shield up and Sydney singing “And I came in like a wrecking Ball !! “
ahhh that takes me back, so it does!
so, why not stick him in the shield until the air runs out and… tee hee, just winding everyone up :D
(Actually, if Harem humps over a scuba cylinder and some regs for Halo and she traps him in there with her and in a big enough bubble that she can keep out the way at the top (using the flight orb), would that work?? probably been suggested, also, i guess V can jump high enough to make it too risky, oh well).
Real reason i logged in to comment was that, much as I was enjoying watching Maxima demonstrate her culinary skills, it’s fun to see her being equalled. I just wonder what degree of head-tilt Halo’s going to need to fix this one?
The problem with trapping someone in a shield bubble that large is that the total volume of air inside will be huge. So it would take a very long time before he would start suffocating.
Well that and the fact that V probably could jump high enough that Sydney would have to keep dodging. One mistake and she’s paste…
A variation would be to give Sydney a bunch of teargas grenades or some other kind of gas weapon. It would still be risky, but at least it wouldn’t take as long to get a result.
“Has a minion bring out 3 more crates of trophies”
He could also just chuck rocks at her.
Really that plan is just gambling that Vehemance would rather get captured than kill Sydney, which might be true. He’s gone out of his way to kill no one thus far.
Oh, I just realized. Math and Max have pretty much the same injury (broken nose), except Max is a lot more resistant to concussion. The two of them may even wind up convalescing in the same room of the infirmary after their doctor treats them. Let the fireworks commence.
Math may be waking up any minute now, comes out to Sydney, asking her, “What did I miss?” Mind you, I think both Max and Math each suffered from (and by) the same hubris.
Oh, excellent. This is just what I was hoping for from Vehemence. Including him talking long enough for Max to finish shaking off the effects of that blow.
HAHAHAHA, I just read whatever you call the little sentences that are at the bottom of the pages, and I burst out laughing at the the one on this page! XD I love that one. :)
Now go back and read any that you haven’t done so already. Eating and/or drinking while doing so are strongly discouraged, though.
To be honest, I’m actually surprised how well Vehemence counters/blocks/etc with an eye damaged and oozing blood. He can’t have much in the way of depth perception and even a trained fighter would have some difficulties hitting perfectly when their spatial perceptions are off-kilter.
What countering/blocking? Until just now he hadn’t been able to do anything since Peggy shot his eye. And now he has gone straight through a concrete pillar to Max’s face and missed a ground pound. Presumably because Anvil and Max moved, but hard to say for sure.
Well he has proven that he can be a archenemy to her
no no no… do not leave clonable dna around in quantities…
Thanks for the reminder.
“Has a minion standing by to retrieve DNA samples”
That is just another reason to keep Heatwave around. “Okay Brooke honey, now bake the blood out like we discussed…”
As long as they aren’t the Despicable Me minions…”Ba-na-NAH!”
I’m kind of hoping Sydney flies up onto a roof and uses the PPO to blast him while he monologues.
I don’t know if this has been said yet but what if one of the two unknown orb powers is mind to mind speech and thats just level one level two Sid can put thoughts in peoples heads three pictures and so on.
Hrm. Psychic powers. That’s an interesting idea about that one.
I’m somewhat hoping that the unknown one (because comeon, the green one is clearly going to be a healing power of some sort) is just some sort of run-of-the-mill power. Not something themed to the set, not another Archetype, but just something simple, like Hydrokinesis or something.
you could be right i guese we’ll just have to wait and see
green also often means earth (or nature) powers, just another possibility
Stick Achilles on one side of Vehemence and hit him with all you’ve got from the other! Come on, people! You have a walking damage shield right there!
Or, on the other hand, Sydney could intervene and pick him straight up. I don’t think he can use the lighthook to gain traction.
Of course, my money is on ‘thinking tilt’, followed by ‘let’s see if one of the stupid pointless annoying orbs does anything’ followed by ‘OH WOW WHAT IN THE WORLD’ followed by ‘level up’.
She can use two orbs at a time in conjunction with eachother. I reckon it’s too early in the story to reveal one of the two other orbs. She hasn’t tried some pairs of the known orbs, so…
Achilles wouldn’t work very well as a backstop, he is invulnerable but he doesn’t absorb kinetic energy so he would go flying after one good blow. Anvil on the other hand would absorb the energy and stay in place, at least until V grabs her and throws her away again…
I have to wonder how much juice would have Avil gotten had she stood under Vehemence while he landed.
Dear ARCswat@archon.mil,
My name is Psycho Gecko. I am this many years old. I plan to destroy the earth by releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, trapping miniscule amounts of heat. The gradual build-up will lead to the destruction of the polar ice caps by melting, releasing huge amounts of trapped methane. Soon, the earth’s climate will change and become inhospitable for human civilization. Oceans will rise, wildfires will rage, and there will be a new mass extinction event.
Also, I may have bioengineered Justin Bieber.
Yours truly,
Psychopomp Gecko
I think the most punishable offense there is bioengineering Justin Bieber.
Agreed we must destroy PG for this crime against nature
AGREED!
For your offense against humanity I say
UNLEASH THE ASS KRAKEN !
A really big molestorb?
Ship killing squid with a penchant for sodomy.
And a mile wide sadistic streak.
Peggy shot him in the other eye mid-monologue!
HA! Nice
but seriously how funny would that be. some thing along the lines of and then i will destroy the wor… bullet hits second eye, what is it hith you lot and trying to blind me son of a bi….. boom maxima ends it with a mini version of her earlier demonstration. he was begining to anoy me. sid chimes in with a quip about collateral dammage and maxima responds with there are perks to being the boss pissing of the lawyers is one of them.
mini cartoon down the bottom of the whole team chanting maxima maxima maxima
I’ve always wondered (somewhat disgustingly) whether sydney’s light hook had enough force to pop out an eyeball by going between it and the skull. would be even better than seeing it shot by a bullet!
Nah, in the nuts. It is the only part of his body he seems to care to not be hit at. The sniper overwatch saw him flinch vs the Nutshot so Peggy is prepping for a Gelding-strike. Possibly followed by a Lighthook “thousand years of pain” poke in the psterior.
And V goes all Kill Bill Vol 2, except with superpowers? Might want to re-think that.
“I suppose this is where I reveal my evil plan and all that…”
…
“Can I join you guys? Did I pass the tryouts?”
looks like i did so welcome mysterious stranger, dang dang dang dang
mine was fairly simple become world leader rule with firm but gentle hand untill my death at the age of 28
AHHH! i just realized i’m 27 11 months and 29 days
no not real birthday but great joke
Maxima (after a groin shot that connects): No.
Is that Monara in the vote incentive all the way on the right??
Unknown Orb thought: Maybe these two only activate when used in conjunction with another specific Orb? So if one of them is the “heal” orb, then it only works with Telepresence and heals what the Sydney image passes through? (Including original Sydney). The other one could be an area multiplier: when used with Lighthook it causes many of them to manifest, when used with flight she can piggyback a group of non-flyers (while this latter gives her a group flight option it has no force field so does not allow high speed etc).
Oh no, he’s monologuing… Well, this is gonna give Sydney time to think and plan. Vehemence is in for a galaxy of hurt. Time to put him in a force field and fire the PPO into it and let it bounce around. Operation Mix Master!
Gotta wonder if he’s as tough on the inside as the outside. Could always give him a grenade suppository!
I certainly hope he doesn’t get stupid enough to kill one of the team! I suspect that Halo would go all Dark side on him. As weak as she might seem, tactical use of her orbs, (the ones around her head not on her chest. Get you mind outta the gutter! Sheesh!) Could very easily prove her to be vastly more powerful and dangerous an opponent, than ANYONE expects! I wonder if she can implode her forcefield. If so, squish goes the bad guy!
Problem with plan A: Sydney has to be inside the forcefield as it is centred around her. Detonating her PPO blast in there is a suicide mission.
Problem with plan B: Sydney has to be inside the forcefield as it is centred around her. I am sure you have enough sense to see that imploding a forcefield you are currently in is not a good way of staying alive.
problem with area between plans a and b: the grenade would squash before his cheeks would be forced apart, much less the sphincter
Remember folks; any sufficently advanced fighting techniques are indistinguishable from opening a huge can of Whoopass!
My thought is that if enough people suggest Sydney should be able to put people inside her shield without her in it (which is currently not possible) post after post it will sink so far into every corner of DaveB’s mind that he will give this annoyingly overpowered power to evil Sydney from and Alt Uni or whatever her NegaDuck archrival is.
Vehemence: “Aaand TIME.” Turns toward Deus walking out with a large check. “Yessir just like I said, 2 minutes vs the whole team or 1 minute vs Maxima, just like the bet says.” Holds out wrists to be cuffed. “Say six months for minor assault charges in a nice little cell then easy ten years worth of Fiji money from the bets won. You would not believe the odds against drawing blood too.” Leans in. “I sur-ren-der. Oh by the way can you say Di-plo-matic I-mmuni-ty?”
…and that’s when Halo or Dabbler Murtauh’d(sic) him…
I don’t think Dues would openly implicate himself with Vehemence. For one thing, you can bet that all of Dues’ contracts with the military (& even US private sector associations) would dry up & Dues would be indicted for all of the collateral damage resulting from this fight.
While your idea would be totally out of left field & unexpected, Dave IS trying to keep a fairly high “reality factor” in this comic…And that’s what’s kept many of us here this long.
Just another theory about V: he’s the head of a Petraeus-like organization that wants to privatize fighting/jailing supervillains.
Explains: purpose of the fight- show that ARCHON would be ineffectual (never mind it’s their first fight on the first day they’ve been introduced to the public).
Explains: why he foiled escape attempt- he gets credit for it
Explains: why he requested medical help for Vektor- makes him look caring and ARCHON uncaring (never mind that until he did so, ARCHON had no way of knowing whether he would attack anyone trying to help him and thus taking him out would take priority)
Explains: why he wants Sydney to survive: either he thinks she makes and will continue to make ARCHON look bad or he wants to recruit her.
Explains: why he seems so unconcerned about breaking the law- possibly hoping public opinion/fear makes people overlook his actions.
If he’s out to replace Archon with his own outfit, he’s off on the wrong foot. His brag about collecting bad guys to attack Archon is on record and there’s no way any government would allow him to operate with such an out-of-control style. He’s just an amped-up gang leader who is willing to waste his own people to gain an edge.