Grrl Power #264 – The team receives some bad news -OR- Oh crap is right
Yuuup! Do me a favor and imagine the dramatic music rising as they talk, then the sting right after Dabbler says “…violence” Dunnnnnn! In fact it’s probably best if you read the remainder of the fight while listening to some track from Two Steps From Hell, who are hard to beat when it comes to god damned epic music. Actually, listening to some good Two Steps From Hell tracks makes stuff like shopping for groceries feel a lot more life and death. If the comic was movie or tv show, I’d definitely use that gag. I do have some “audio required” jokes that I’m saving for the movie version. :)
Drawing a 50 person battle royale for my first fight was daunting, but this was a big part of the reason for it. I knew Vehemence would settle for nothing less, and now the team has unwittingly powered him up to the point that he’s capable of trading blows with Maxima. In fact actually trading those blows was quite helpful to him. Like a succubus, it’s good to be near the action, but much better to be directly involved.
As villains go, I think Vehemence’s powers are pretty original, at least to my knowledge. It’s a good part of the reason why genre savvy Sydney didn’t peg him before he gave it away. After I thought him up, I was able to come up with a few other antagonists with similar abilities though. Certainly a few entities from Star Trek fed on conflict or anger. War, from the Incarnations of Immortality books owed his godhood to ongoing wars, and Ares from DC comics is powered by conflict, but I think making it akin to tantric magic is more or less unique, so I’m pretty proud of him. It also makes me think of what other abilities could be derived from a normally intangible source of energy. An angel powered by charity? An Avaristic user, powered by wealth and greed? Straight up good or evil? There’s a lot of potential there, something I’ll probably explore a bit more in the Grrl-verse. :)
Boy that last panel took a lot of work, and I’m sure it’s missing many a scorch mark and crack. I know panels prior to this haven’t really shown the cumulative damage very well, and if I have some time I’d like to go back and fix that, but like I’ve said before, drawing rubble is quite tedious. I also would have liked to have shown everyone laying unconscious where they fell for maximum effect, but I already established that Harem and Sydney were carrying them from the field of battle and sedating them. There should be more flaming bits of Shawn’s car scattered everywhere and stuff like that, but I basically worked on the panel until I ran out of time and had to start coloring. Still, I think it carries the impact I wanted pretty well.
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he stopped opal from teleporting the fallen/captured villians away, what if his powers are relying on their proximity
Actually, I think he just didn’t want to leave. That and a short fight with the TK gave him that much more of a boost.
Maybe not so much direct proximity but someone stupidly getting up and trying to start a fight…
Okay, that makes sense, but he should still be a little more pissed about losing sight in one of his eyes, if I were a supervillain, I would be pretty pissed off by that myself.
I just hope ARCHON can stop him from getting revenge for it. Otherwise, there’s going to be a whole lot more of pirates and denture-wearers.
Making the team clueless what Vehemic energy is just made the delivery so much more powerful — delivering a solid plot point when a joke is expected. Thank you SO MUCH for that!!
I loooooooooove Dabbler and I looooooooove that in Grrlverse nobody is pretending that superpowers are “science”. They are straight-up magic, and several kinds of them are actually called that, and Dabbler is an expert.
I really love her character.
I love that she didn’t instantly make the connection of how fucked they are and had to answer the question out loud.
I love that she seems to be quickly making friends with Sidney.
I love that HER powers are not vehemic >_<
Also she looks better and better with each new appearance.
If dabbler wants to stop vehemence herself with seduction, will she need to power up by causing the arc members to… Interact?
Can harem put a bracelet of sleepy time on him while the others keep him busy so he doesn’t remove it?
Assuming that the bracelet could pierce his skin at this point.
I don’t think “stopping his powers with seduction” is anything close to what’s possible.
The closest to this is probably for Dabbler to power HERSELF up so that she can go toe-to-toe with / overpower Vehemence, but…
she would need at least the same intensity of her power source (A FUCKING MASS ORGY WITH EVERYONE GLEEFULLY ENTHUSIASTIC) for the same duration of time (MUCH LONGER THAN VEHEMENCE WILL NEED TO EITHER ANNIHILATE THEM OR GET AWAY)
fuck, there aren’t even enough people there anymore to do that, I mean discounting the sheer stupidity of the idea even if there were
so
no
of course it’s possible that Dabller’s skill can partly make up for lack of raw power, but that’s not got anything to do with “stopping him with seduction” at all
(I’m pretty sure that just her succubus powers won’t have any effect on him in this supercharged state at all, just like, magic resistance too high T_T)
also I am now imagining Dabbler starting to make out with someone on her team in the middle of the battle because she needs a quick power-up
to be more precise, I imagine that someone to be Sidney and I imagine her 1) enthusiastically going along with it because why the fuck not and 2) finding TONS of humor in the situation.
I
I MIGHT ship them
ok to be QUITE honest I’m imagining her doing that right now to counter him
Needs more than that. Arc orgy ;)
could definately work while under halos shield, might get a little short on air if the charge up takes too long, wonder if the shield can go opaque or they might give a show heh heh heh
I think given what the audience is (not any journalists around rn) it’ll be fine as long as they are off panel
its time for the……HUG ATTACKS!!!!
so to win against him they need to go all carebear on him?
Vehemence- When the Cooldown Hug is a deadly weapon.
Take care with the ‘powered by emotions’ characters. DC’s Lantern Corps (based on Green Lantern) cover them pretty well: Green-will, Blue-hope, Star Sapphire-love, Red-rage, Yellow-fear, Orange-greed, Indigo-compassion, White-life, and Black-death.
I LOVE what you did with Vehemence. I violence powered villain is easily one of the coolest I’ve ever heard of. He also seems reasonably smart, making him even more dangerous.
“What’s in my Violin case? VIOLENCE!” -Jinx, League of Legends.
ha, nice one. up to this point i thought you had only one good villain – death toll (that ended in very unsatysfaying way), but it seems vehemence is more than just superpowered idiot like he seemd at start.
great work, keep it up!
Prediction: they can’t beat him and he gets away, following the common arc of first encounter being heroes losing to up the tension, and maybe several subsequent ones depending on how massively the villain is being set up.
Him getting away would be something of a victory, because at the moment, he seems unlikely to leave.
Quick! Somebody fire up a joint!
…that’d be like BOOM! Headshot! for someone who thrives on violence…
It’s all nice and legal now in D.C. Holding two freaking ounces is just fine now, and considered to be “for personal use.”
I am calling that they float him in the air somehow, unrestrained, so he cannot interact with anything
So, does anyone else think that Sydney is going to turn her barrier into a trap for him? Lock him down behind a barrier that he can’t break through, and wait for him to pass out from oxygen deprivation. Vehemence isn’t just a thug, he’s a fairly knowledgeable arcane practitioner, given that he was giving Dabbler tips on how to actually improve her blades and spells. And to quote Uncle “Magic must defeat magic.”
Why do you think V won’t be able to bust through?
Her shields are definitely tough, but there is no reason to suspect that they are actually absolutely invincible. Moreover, in the write-up she is shown to be more vincible than Achilles and on the same level as Maxima.
That, of course, does not account for the fact that she has only been shown to be able to create her shields around herself.
And I’m good for another page… Thank you!
Captain Obvious is powered by people thinking Syndey’s shield can be formed around other people with her outside it.
Yea, it’s a good life. I’m just a bit worried about my weight. It’s starting to settle around the hips…
Here’s your trophy, and a gift certificate for some liposuction.
…Also, here’s a gift card that will pay for the expense for 7 sessions with a Professional Nutritionist, to help control your calorie intake from award-gluttony.
Excellent. That fit with one of my theories.
A Vehemic energy user is like Global Thermonuclear War. The only way to win… is not to play. The more you fight, the stronger he gets. So don’t fight. Just evade him until he runs out of steam. Unless he gets power from his OWN violence — bootstrapping, so to speak — in which case you have a bit of a problem.
Good plan… but then nothing is stopping him from wreaking general havoc and giving out mass murder and destruction like it’s Halloween candy to make you engage him.
You’d have to somehow contain the guy.
The better solution would be for Dabbler to simply have sex with him. Her succubus powers should be up to the task of seducing him (or making him rape her, if you want to go full-squick), and while sex is not precisely antithesis of violence, it should be far enough removed to let his powers run their course.
Unless, of course he can contain the collected vehemic energy indefinitely without loss.
But even then it at least provides time to regroup and strategize. And charges Dabbler up.
Good luck to her trying to do that while he’s trying to kill her. By which I mean, ‘that sounds like a terrible idea’.
Unless he mates like a Klingon, and you are doubley… screwed!
How about a nice hug from Achilles…?
the problem with that is Achilles has just above average strength and probably wouldn’t be able to stop him from doing anything…if anything he would end up being used as armor for V.
it would be better to have Max, Achilles and Anvil work together to keep V from doing anything by having anvil and Achilles take the hits without fighting back while max makes sure they stay in the fight.
At this point I am wondering if he IS “foolishly” revealing his secrets. Maybe he timed this reveal for a reason. Maybe his power has limits and he’s reached his maximum energy density, in which case the reveal is needed to make our heroes pull back. If so the answer is to hit him with everything so he overloads.
That could end horribly if he just happens to like gloating. Once victory is assured, the evil ego demands that the fools that opposed you must know exactly why they are so pathetically inadequate.
In my personal experience.
Unless instead of overloading he just bleeds off the excess, so that he’s always at max power as long as there is a power source for him to use.
Dabbler’s and Vehemence’s child… Venerence. Powered by sexually transmitted diseases. *giggle* how did this happen? Oh, they NEEDED to stop Vehemence, don’t they??
Worst. Power. Ever.
Haha!
Worst. Joke. Ever.
:\
So, the first thing that comes to mind when dealing with this guy is Sebastian Shaw, whose powers are different in nature, but basically played similarly. The longer and more powerfully you hit him, the more powerful he becomes until he’s unstoppable.
And I recall Rogue’s solution to him. Pick up. Hurl into stratosphere. Deal with once he lands in another zip code and runs back, several hours later.
All the super strength in the world doesn’t do anything to your mass. Enjoy your ballistic trajectory. Maybe aim for the ocean.
And as a side note, shame on all of you for nobody comparing this guy to Sebastian Shaw.
Actually, you need to go back and re-read all the comments, Shaw has been mentioned many many times
Shaw’s been mentioned. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be that, though, because really, Anvil’s pretty much like Shaw, and I was sure that Vehemence wasn’t quite so simple.
Shaw is pretty much exactly what Anvil is. V is different from both of them; gets his power from ANY violence, not just absorbing kinetic motion.
Anvil doesn’t quite roll the way Shaw does. Shaw has a portion of her powers, with the ‘grow stronger by absorbing’, but to my knowledge, he still takes the hits, instead of being able to cancel them the way she does. For that matter, Anvil’s powers, at least as displayed so far, seem more focused around the absorption and redirection than self-enhancement as a result.
The difference is in tactics. Anvil is ‘turn an enemy’s power against them’, whereas Shaw usually uses the same plan as Vehemence, i.e. ‘get them to keep hitting me until I totally outclass them’.
Your solution (well, not just yours, others have offered a similar approach) assumes that Vehemence has no other powers than “take damage and hit things”. While he hasn’t SHOWN others, it would be an EXCEEDINGLY poor strategy to assume he doesn’t have other abilities. Given the fact that he has CLEARLY thought this attack out both in general and in some detail, I would expect that any capability someone on the team has shown is something he has a counter for, if he needs it. So since he knows there are people who hit hard, and people who fly, the idea of being thrown very high/into orbit/etc. MUST be something he’s thought about.
I would be extremely disappointed by him, in fact, if all he is is basically The Incredible Rage-Hulk and nothing more.
He certainly didn’t have a good answer for being pitched airborne earlier. And while that may be true, you may be giving him a little too much mastermind credit. After all, technically speaking, Harem can teleport him into the middle of the Atlantic, and he may not have a hard counter for that because it’s a little hard to HAVE one. One must work with the resources available in the time allowed. Assuming your enemy has a counter for everything is a good way to get terrified into lack of action.
He exceeds Harems carry weight. She can carry about 25% of her own weight. Un-summoning all her copies does actually increase her body mass slightly, so her max carry weight varies between 25 to 50 pounds.
This will be fun! :D
Vehemence’s lines DO come from his ass, lol. Also he reminds me of a skunk, just it comes out verbally in his case, LOL
Another option might be to overload him. Maybe he has an upper limit of absorbtion…
we need either super Gandhi or super Jesus or super SOMEONE peace loving
SuperChong!
Or, possibly, Prince Valium, and his squire, Xanaxos!
That sounds like it would have been in the sequel to Flesh Gordon, the Prince Valium and Xanaxos bit. ;)
Actually Prince Valium was in SPACEBALL’S the movie.
All hail the power of merchandising.
He was also a consort of Lydia’s stepmother in Beetlejuice.
Or someone that *negates* power, like Leech (a mutant in Marvel comics), or Aquarian (who can negate all types of energies, even emotional ones) within a certain distance.
One thing I really hate about characters like this is that so often they don’t seem to have an upper limit. Just because they can power up from some sort of outside source, there really should be an upper limit to how much they can contain before it leaks out faster than they can hold it, or they blow up.
He’s powered by a concept! Why do you expect realism? I mean, violence has no mass or volume, so logically there is no limit to the amount you can store.
Not so very much different from the Hulk, who gets stronger the more you get him angry. So far, no one has been able to really go toe-to-toe with the Hulk long enough to know if even even *has* a limit to his strength; DC & Marvel had even the more powerful Silver Age Superman taking on the Hulk & even Supes was having trouble taking the kind of punishment Hulk can dish out.
The only way to “defeat” Hulk is to find a way to render him unconscious or defuse his anger. Vehemence seems much like that because any limit he *might* have would be very costly to try to find it.
How do they stop him? Bring in the one being powerful enough to warp the very fabric of reality “Comic Code Authority Man”! He can say to Vehemence “Your actions are detrimental to the young minds of this good nation and I hereby cast you into the pit of moral indignation!” Unfortunately, he then turns around and says “As for you half dressed hussies, put some clothes on!” Pointing at Dabbler, “And the portrayal of demonic entities is strictly forbidden. She will have to go. Starting tomorrow I declare this comic to be called Happy Funny Bunny Land”. https://www.comicartville.com/comicscode.htm
Times have changes since the ’50s.
Bwahahah! Nice:D!
Sorry to burst your bubble man, but Justice League did it first.
https://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Annihilator
Close but not quite. That was aggression, this is violence. The first is an attitude, the second an action. Also, I’m not sure V would power down instantly if everyone came up and gave him a big kiss.
Actually it was Star Trek which did it first.
Wait, didn’t somebody suggest custard pies awhile back? What if everybody has a reason to laugh at this guy? Quick, send Harem to the bakery!
What happen if you attack him with a feather duster?
Can you tickle him to death?
I had a solution to their problem that involved a little Max/Sydney coop a couple of strips ago that also had the advantage of being (mostly) non-violent. I don’t want to say it again, just in case it is spoily, but I’m interested in seeing how close it gets.
By Popular Demand
Mouse over or Click to see who.
Ok. So you take this guy out with a tickle fight? Sydney shoots a tentacle out and starts wiggling it in his armpit. Once he starts laughing, have dabbler join in with all her arms.
Just see who laughs last!
REALLY hopping one of the unknown orbs has a sleepping gas or maybe reverse mood ring effect (meaning it projects the emotion Syd is feeling) cause atm he’s basically the vilian warmonger
Easy way out: put him into orbit around earth.
I thoroughly expected some sort of reference to “sex and violence.” :)
Is defeating Vehemence similar to defeating “For Whom the Death Tolls?” (Don’t fight him.) Dabbler could have interesting ways to make that work.
Ahhh so that’s why his tats/line thingies changed colour during the fight with M.
“OK, so, everybody just chill out, be calm, join hands and sing Kumbaya…”
Really, an aggro-eater is pretty easy to defeat once you figure it out. I’d bet that Math, taking a coolheaded, disciplined, and non-angry approach could defeat him; martial arts are not “violent” as I think it’s being defined here. His name (Vehemence) means a passionate or strong feeling” so he’s powered by the emotions of violence, not the act itself. Separating those two is VERY difficult, but a Mr. Miyagi could do it. If Vehemence is powered by the “emotion” of violence (IOW, anger, passionate anger, expressing itself as physical violence) Max’s problem is one of not having enough detachment. You (quite literally) should not take it personally when battling Vehemence.
OTOH, I have a bit of a problem with “violence” being how Vehemence derives his power, because “violence” can be applied to decidedly non-emotional actions– a hawk taking prey is certainly “violent” but is not emotional, other than possibly “happy I have a meal” emotional. Better yet, a tornado is one of the most “violent” forces on the planet– does this mean Vehemence gets charged up by strong thunderstorms? Is he a secret storm chaser? Is that why those idiots do that? ;-)
Have Sydney crack-wise until everyone is laughing and feeling all jolly-good. Brings the comic back into the “funny” realm it started out with.
Honestly, though, it’s kind of a letdown. Am disappoint. Just not enough to stop reading.
I think they just misheard Dabbler. He gets his powers from ‘violins’. He just came here after attending a symphony concert. His favorite power-up tune is Ride of the Valkyries.
Oh no! Next, Vehemence teams up with Lindsey Stirling and becomes *unstoppable*.
Thank you, you and Juan made my night. :D
Archon pays Stirling to play only soft love ballads…
I spit my coffee out, thanks Juan!
(Hands a wet washcloth Tassit to clean off his/her keyboard & monitor)
And another candidate for the Internet Darwin awards
I actually found some evidence indicating that Juan is right! It seems that the source of V’s power originates on the 7th Circle of Hell. Vehemence knows a thing or two about magic, so it really wouldn’t be unreasonable that his power is an innate tap into that plane.
But it really IS violins! See for yourself: https://luciphurrsimps.com/2013/09/01/factory-recall-19/
You’ve nailed him! WoG (Word of God, also known as DavB) is that a thunderstorm will charge him. No violent intent there. Intent is just like a flavor for him, it makes the violence taste better…
The world must be like a Baskin Robbins for him.
…OMG!…Even though it might not actually be worth much to V as a one-by-one, individual occurrence, we HAVE to keep him OFF the internet! All of those thousands upon thousands of frustrated face-palms! The mind boggles!…
Right now there is a serious question about how to counter Vehemence. But there is an answer! FWTDT is the key to winning every fight against a single super you don’t know how to counter. Plan:
1. Figure out how to move FWTDT around without setting off his powers.
2. Move him in front of any villain you want to neutralize. If they don’t attack FWTDT to get him out of the way, you are at least frustrating them.
3. If they do attack, FWTDT will not be harmed anyway, and note how FWTDT’s powers react. Use that as a guide for how to counter the villain.
Of course there’s the little problem of convincing the authorities it is legal to use a defeated enemy as a human shield, but that’s a niggling little detail. ;) Actually, you could work out a deal with him to lower his sentence each time he is used as super-defense.
The sorta-hidden line at the bottom made me chuckle.
There REALLY needs to be a “Dun, dun, DUUUNNN!” in there somewhere. Followed by Vehemence doing a slow clap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7Op86ox9g
Like that?
i wonder if syd’s bubble is also a portable chamber of understanding?
Pathfinder nerd here.
Vehement creature
Cr+1 (1 to 5 hd), +2 (6 to 10 hd), +3 (11+ hd)
Vehement creatures gain the following special ability:
Powered by violence: everytime a creature damages another creature within (50 feet × vehement creature’s hd,) the vehement creature gains an amount of vehemence equal to 1/4 of the damage dealt. If the vehement creature is damaged or deals the damage it gains 1/2 the damage instead. The vehement creature cannot have more vehemence than it’s current hp. Any excess vehemence is lost. Out of battle, vehemence degrades at a rate of (vehement creature’s hd/2) per minute.
Having vehemence grants a number of bonuses.
1. The creature gains a cumulative +1 to attack and damage for every 10 vehemence it has (max at creature’s hd)
2. The creature gains cumulative dr 1/- and fast healing 1 for every 20 vehemence it has (max at creature hd/2)
3. The creature may spend vehemence to reduce the damage from an attack by the amount of vehemence spent.
4. The creature may spend vehemence equal to it’s hd to rage as a bararian equal to it’s cr for one round.
Super Gandhi? Seriously? Have you ever played against him before? He’s a dick.
https://www.quickmeme.com/img/25/2579538149367b953667e61de02f23835c4d2195fba4f0132d7aa81ec8feaf94.jpg
Well, it gets pretty peaceful when there’s nothing left alive…
Soo… HE LITERALLY by just being peaceful, it’s been done in the episode ‘Hawk and Dove’ of “Justice League Unlimited”
So why doesn’t Sydney just think of that and just tell everyone to just stand in his way without doing anything… with no violence around him, he will INSTANTLY become weak as he has nothing to feed off of.
We can’t assume that he will instantly “de-power” once there is no violence around. If it was that way then he would have “reset” at the pause after he hit Vektir, the warm-up was more for him than the heroes.
It’s more likely that it’s like a battery, it charges him up and he can spend it at will, and it slowly degrades over time outside of “charging conditions”.