Grrl Power #266 – Schooling before the schooling
Arc-SWAT will definitely need to review their arsenal and tactics after this fight. That’s something they’d do anyway, but you know what I mean.
I had a few names to pick from for the violence absorbing demons. Succubi means “to lay under,” Incubus means “to lay upon.” My first thought was “to stand over” but the Latin for that wasn’t great sounding. I don’t recall what it was, I found a really comprehensive Latin dictionary when I was looking up names, but I can’t seem to dig it up again which is a shame since it’s probably not the last time I’ll need to look up a bunch of Latin words. I hate that when you can’t remember the search term you used, or the chain of links you followed to find a good resource.
Hah, as I was typing that I did a few more searches and found the page.
Anyway, there were a lot of latin words I could have gone with, I chose to call “violence eaters” Malumus just because malum also means apple or fruit, which I thought would make for a cute scene with Sydney as you see on this page. Actually for the sake of accuracy, mālum (long a) mean apple, malum (short a) means evil, cataclysm, etc.
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 vehemic power up gave him the ability to flick his tongue! There’s no hope for them now!
Hey, if it gives him the ability to lick his eyebrows, Dabbler would probably jump him there in the parking lot.
Don’t you think that poor restaurant (& the surrounding city blocks) have seen *enough* damage already?
Wah! I come to the comic too late in the day, and my joke is already taken.
That’ll teach me to get a good night’s sleep!
You & DaveB both…In his case, he forgot to draw in Sydney’s shield orb in panel 3. Don’t panic, though! He’s already mentioned fixing it…After he gets HIS sleep.
The only chance I see is to kill him in one hit. Make the damage higher than the violence absorbed.
Max going all out with the fireworks might do it, unless he has enough magic to create a shield which would rival Sidney’s, but they would have to be very far away from anyone.
The problem with this idea: they are in the middle of a populated city. At least judging by the presence of buildings for Peggy to make a sniper nest in.
I’m seeing a lot of open spaces around them. At least one chunk of skyline with no buildings. New construction of an overpass with a functional freeway and overpasses nearby. Looks more like an area a nearby city is growing into because of freeway access there. Its not a desert but maybe if the teams support has been working there butts off in coordination with local authorities the only civilians within a mile or so to be still evacuated are the media, Arianna and the rest of the team itself.
IF they did get them all evacuated before dealing with him they will still get flak for trashing an area where citizens live but probably get patted on the back by those in power who actually know what they were dealing with and how little loss of life and property there was (like no loss of life) compared to the threat.
I think I know how they evacuate people. Harem. Sure she would have to reduce her bodies to like 1-2 at a time, but she’d be able to teleport multiple people to safety. …I think
Nope. Word of god is that Harem cannot teleport living things regardless of weight or species. Not even a potted plant.
Ooops. Well they probably have another teleporter on staff…
Even if Harem *could* teleport the living, her maximum weight capacity (with all but her one body absorbed back into herself) is about 50lbs.
Refresh my memory.
Do we have any word on how dead they have to be in order to transport. Like total cell death or just life signs zero dead? What if they were completely frozen in a fashion that a revival process had been invented for?
Just thinking about future work arounds Harem might use to save someones arse in a jam.
The other problem: What if it doesn’t work? What if he lives?
That’s a nice right eye you’ve got there. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it …
I just finished reading Gold Digger (First 200 issues are free now btw, check it out.), and saw a super villain named Array. The parallels between Array and Harem are amazing. Array is more OP, of course, but who isn’t in Gold Digger.
Just imagine the ‘2 of them’ meeting.
Quite a backlog to catch up on. Yeah, Harem and Array have certain similarities… well, Array can make new versions of her that aren’t the same as the original… Actually, other than there’s more than one of her, they have almost nothing in common. It would be interesting if they met though.
His joints are still weak points. If he has no leverage, all of that vaunted power is useless. Also, eyes, ears and mouth. Gasses should still be efficient and how durable are his insides?
Superdurable. I think it’s pointless to come up with any ideas on how to beat him before we actually see what he can do with all this power. I think I was right- it was a mistake to assume he only used it to get big and strong.
So… Peggy to snipe into his mouth or up his butt?
It has been suggested that his skin is too well protected to use tranquilizer darts. Your comment has inadvertently given me, as the saying goes, “an idea, a wonderful awful idea.”
Two words. “Tranquilizer Suppository”. Finding a volunteer to administer it may be a problem.
Max: “Cadet Scoville, you know how you have referred to your energy tentacle as the ‘hentorb’? Well, it is time to put that description to the test.”
Recruit, not Cadet. Anvil points out the difference: grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1015
Time for a battlefield promotion, perhaps? :D
Well, we already know she’s gotten to Corporal rank within a couple of months after this fight, but she’ll still have to complete her recruit *training* before any promotions can be confirmed as official…That’s just the way military advancement works.
I’d like to believe that at least in the realm of normal combat damage, as a list of “places I would like to avoid being shot/stabbed/magic-zapped”, that EVERYONE has a weak-point of “anus”.
okay wait… if he has gotten /just enough/ energy to do what he’s about to do, will it drain all of it? If he’s betting on a one-shot, all the team needs to do, basically, is survive it.
And after he powers down, it’ll be possible to go for not immediately violent options like Xuriel’s mind control or the lighthook or basically anything he’s too strong for right now.
Of course, if he’s betting on a one-shot, given his intelligence as displayed so far, it’ll probably be a very dangerous and kind of prolonged one-shot…
He can feed off of his own violence. Violence with intent, in this case his, is higher quality so he looses very little to nothing when using his energy to attack. If he just stood there his body would burn through it eventually by keeping his defenses at Maxima level so really he is better off to keep attacking and try to force everybody to react if he wants to keep this going or just to crush them and move on with his life. *shrugs*
Basically he can attack for as long as his charge would have lasted just standing there doing nothing.
By English definition violence itself must be intentional. We may call a volcano or earth quake violent, but it really isn’t since neither are sentient nor intentionally harmful.
The question is if Vehemence is a perpertual motion machine of violence. Can he generate more power/energy from perpetrating violence himself than he expends in the doing. The terrifying answer appeares to be YES! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, YES!
1. swift and intense force:
the violence of a storm.
2. rough or injurious physical force, action, or treatment:
to die by violence.
3. an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, as against rights or laws:
to take over a government by violence.
4. a violent act or proceeding.
5. rough or immoderate vehemence, as of feeling or language:
the violence of his hatred.
6. damage through distortion or unwarranted alteration:
to do editorial violence to a text.
And that’s just one I called up. But all of the definitions I can bring up allow for the natural violence of storms, volcanoes, etc…
More importantly DaveB said in his author’s official comment description text under the last update that it was something he could feed on but that intent made it higher quality.
Yes, I think he comes close to refilling his tank by the same amount he uses when he attacks.
Sydney tells them to throw a knockout gas grenade. Then touches something on her shield orb that allows it to be projected over someone else. Vehem is now in a sealed air bubble with nothing but sleepy time mist.
Drink
Peter Sadlon, if you take a drink every single time somebody proposes that Halo projects her shield over something besides herself, you may not survive the day, much less the week.
I never specified it absolutely had to be alcohol. In fact I specified whatever poison you want at the time. For me it’s been mostly half caff tea and water (which if you ever had the local water you’d forgive me for calling it poison).
At the rate the suggestion is being repeated on the other pages, you could be risking caffeine OD or real water poisoning.(dilutional hyponatremia) Better back off to half-shots of tea and go decaff at least for the comments drinking.
I think it has been etablished that Sydney must be INSIDE the shield.
She unless she finds the “shield everything but that area” button for the shield (so she would be on the “right” side of it), it will not work.
Also, this has become a drinking game, as you can see.
So.. how would she project it over someone else when our much vaunted creator of this comic said that she can only project it around herself
When was that mentioned?
Well then, drag him up to the edge of the atmosphere and let him pass out.
Here’s your sign
I feel like a bad guy for really liking vehemence. He just so polite for a bad guy. The way he smiles after Sydney makes the apple comment and generally the way he’s been towards Sydney. I really like the guy. I hope we see more of him in the future.
“What a polite ultra-powerful criminal. I hope he doesn’t die.”
Yeah… That does sound a little weird… But I still like him a lot. He’s a nice villain.
It’s ok, I like him too. He’s a pretty awesome villain. It would be a shame for him to get taken out of the story so early. He’s polite, likes Sydney’s jokes (except perhaps the one where she trips him with her lighthook), intelligent, evil, and would be an awesome addition to the team if we could only get him past this whole I-want-to-be-a-villain thing. Whatever his agenda is.
He and Sydney would be a bangin’ combo.
Took me awhile. If he got energy during the L.A. race riots, he’s a little older than he looks. Or he was a very young child *kid punches a bully through 2 houses and a volkswagen beetle*
Maybe he’s actually like 70 years old and because he’s muscled, bald, and the vehmic energy keeps him alive longer than normal. Actually, that would make sense. He went to beat up the team simply so that he wouldn’t die from old age. Did… Did my joke comment turn into a legitimate theory?
So…he’s like an evil Master Roshi?
That…actually makes sense. It would explain why he’s so pro-violence. Coming from way out of left field like that, it would make a great plot-twist. If V actually IS a Demon from the Underworld, maybe he’s in a human form because he screwed up some task & is being punished to serve time in a human form…His only way to get back “home” is to *earn* his way back into the Infernal Grace by breaking the “curse” of his punishment.
Yes… Yes it did. Shame on you. ;p
Actually, at this point I’m guessing he’s a demon, and is about to show his true form.. and then be like “Excellent, been needing to get free for a while. Thanks for the pick up? Oh, yeah, I’m done now, that was all I needed from you. Bye!”
Imaging the sparring sessions between him and maxima:O and if he can use any kind of violence then he and Sydney could be a killer combo, since I believe pounding away on a forcefield could be considered violence. Instant power up with unlimited, until proven, range.
The Grrl Power equivalent of holding A+B+C to power up. You get Halo & V to whale on each other for the first few rounds of a fight, suddenly V has a level 3 super charged up with no risk or damage.
Heh! They already DO make a bangin’ combo, evidence is here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1491
Oh, yeah… Forgot about that one. That also supports the what Teberoth said about him being a reverse master roshi
Heh! Trip, face to ground (slapstick) bang…Fist to shield, (unrequited love tap) bang.
Vehemence actually said something similar about Sydney as an aside a ways back.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1422
Completely unrelated, he probably knows which orb is the telepresence orb as well…
Many people like villains in general. I also like V as well, though not because he’s ‘nice’. I like that he’s essentially a nerdy brute. ;p
Yeah, Vehemence can be polite, as long as you don’t piss him off. So too, Dr. Doom can be polite when he wants to.
From what I can tell, both Maxima’s powers (given the pentagon a flexibility we saw earlier in this fight) and Sydney’s (given the upgrade tree) are quite detailed. Considering the thoughts of balance that have been shown throughout the comic, I’m inclined to think that these characters were built in some sort of superhero gaming system to ensure that their powers had a defined limit. The creator has, at least once, mentioned the “Wearing the Cape” series, which if I recall correctly was also a superhero series where the author admitted to having built the characters in a RPG (Gurps, I think, but I’m not sure).
Assuming this is the case, there are a number of factors that define this power: firstly (as stated already), the distance over which he can absorb vehemic energy, with the energy gained dropping rapidly as the distance between him and it rises; secondly, the point he starts at (is he a badass getting even more badass, like Goku going Super-Sayan, or his he more like an average Joe becoming unstoppable, like Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk?); thirdly, the point where he can’t get more powerful (is his maximum power level closer to Captain Marvel, Superman, or Darkseid?); fourthly, how fast does he go from minimum to maximum; fifthly, does he have to spend the power absorbed to do stuff, or does he have a certain level of power he achieves if he’s absorbed enough energy; sixthly, how long does he retain the power he’s gained.
As for how to beat him…the answer has to lie in some clever, nonviolent takedown. What I find interesting is that, when describing his power, Vehemence only considered two angles: violence on, or violence off; they either continue fighting, or they try to stop the fight and depower him. It speaks to his psyche that he doesn’t consider any option that doesn’t inherently revolve around violence. Not sure if this is a key to beating him, but it’s certainly an interesting touch on the creator’s part.
I think the author mentiond that Maxima used to be a writeup in a old version of the Hero System. He explicitly mentioned “Multiform”, wich is one way to realise somebody like max in it.
I still think his weakness (not a big one) is that his violence must relate to people. If they would just let him fight illusion made by dabbler (or have math artfully dodge him for prolonged time) he might use up his powers without getting any back.
That or just one hitting him, if they can afford that kind of damage to teh surroundings. And the bunch of knocked out villains.
Hmm, maybe one of the Villains has a power they could use? Opal (if she only targets one person) might be fast enough to get him into LEO.
His weakness is light-hearted banter. Halo has it under control…
You know, I’m thinking that you’re actually on to something. So far, all he’s wanted to do is to test himself. He does actually seem to like Our Heroine… and as far as I recall, nobody has actually asked him what he wants. He’s also kept death to a minimum, so mayhap he’s just here for a workout against the one force he’s been able to find that can take what he can dish?
Perhaps he’s making a demo video so he can sell his services as a mercenary to very high bidders? Lot of news copters and such about by now and I bet he was setting up some cameras when he was just hanging out on the periphery. LOL, so mostly he just wants to test himself but as long as he’s here he has found a way to advertise his source of income. Nice.
It has previously mentioned I believe, but yes entertain him, make him laugh..
Question is does he need to focus to maintain his energy boost or not? it does wear off for sure, else he wouldn’t have said that he now has more than after the la race riots (panel 5). Just the main question now is: how do you speed it up(the draining/decreasing of his energy), pacifism is too easy especially since his own violence does power him( whether it slows decrease of pool, maintains it or increases it is unclear I believe).
Humor would suit DaveB of course, love&lust is maybe so overkill that it doesnt suit the comic fully, bringing Math or anyone back “magically” is too lame for DaveB.. so yeah entertainment and illusions sounds most like DaveB atm in my humble opinion.
You remember the bubble cannon from The Incredibles? Immobilization is a thing.
No. Lol. Maybe he is a stranded time traveler and in need of a Vehemic version of 1.77 Gigawatts of power to return home. SO he engineered this to just say goodbye to the past. See you at your 107th birthdate great great great grandma Maxima!
He has demonic powers. He would need 1.666 gigawatts.
Even that seems a little low, considering how much violence has already happened. I’d go with 666 G-watts as an even number, because it sounds like you’re messing with some kind of continuity issues when you add decimal places to that number.
That’s only if he is using a demonic dimension to travel through time.
The true “cosmic factor” to affect Infinite Improbability is 42. Believe me, it took a lot of Deep Thought to figure that out…
;)
Time travel using “hell” is not that easy.
Unless you cut a deal with the being that has complete control over that dimension.
But then of course later there would be Hell to pay. :)
Contrary to popular belief Lucifer does not control “hell” he is just the chief inmate
I think the cosmology proposed by Ann Rice in the book “Memnoch the Devil” was pretty interesting. She pretty much detailed a well thought-out alternative to the “Devil is only the chief inmate” doctrine that actually makes sense.
If you haven’t already try and read the Hell anthologies, that’s where that line of thought got started for me
I remember that one anime where the Devil still had a lot of the juice that the most powerful angel would have despite getting defeated so he was incarcerated in a spot where I guess they didn’t care what he did to those who got close enough for him to exert his crazy strong reality warping powers over: Hell. He was chained up in the middle and basically Hell as we know it existed BECAUSE it was that close to him. He was just kept from moving but if you were within his sphere of influence he could mess with you. (the closer you were the more he could control like Dante’s rings of hell. Exactly like actually.)
Though originally I just meant some random hell dimension with a big powerful boss like in Angel the TV show spin off of Buffy The Vampire Hum-err-Slayer.
Well, there’s also Dante’s Inferno as a reference point for what Hell might be like, but:
Inferno was written in the style that promotes religious *dogma*
Memnoch the Devil was written in the style that’s in line with religious *doctrine*
Big difference between doctrine & dogma…That’s why I prefer Anne Rice’s view over any others I’ve read so far.
If you want a *really* different viewpoint, try Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun. The Savior & Messiah returns…And He is *royally* pissed off…
;)
Here’s an idea: If you can’t beat him, hire him.
I’m not exactly sure what he’s done so far that couldn’t be swept under the rug legally. He gathered a bunch of supervillains together, pushed them at ArcSWAT, and let them beat the crap out of the villains and apprehend a small horde of potential threats. Arianna could spin that not as crime, but a civil service. Mostly all Vehemence has done actively is pose and threaten, letting the others bring the fight to him for the most part. If all Vehemence wants to do is power up on violence, he could do that fighting bad guys as much as the good guys. And if that isn’t enough, that still allows him and Maxima the option to spar each other for his “nutrition”.
At the very least, it would give ARCHON enough time to research a way to control him. Plus, thematically, it would give the team another genre-savvy ‘good guy’. One whose loyalties are suspect vs Sidney’s confident and eager (and obviously loyal) heroine.
I’m afraid that “what ARCHON can’t wave away” is coming next page )=
Sure maybe, but he is probably going to insist on seeing Maxima in full surrender after being completely beaten first. He’s establishing himself as alpha. Contract negotiations after that will be a bitch and the damage to ARC’s credibility as far as defending the citizens goes… I mean NORMALS who don’t even work for the government could have bought the enemy off. Real secure feeling. Especially when V could simply except a better offer at any time and the public knows it.
I can’t see them hiring an unstable violence addict. Don’t think of Vehemic energy as food; think of it as a drug, and his behavior begins to make much more sense.
BTW, Kudos on the improvements on your detail consistency – Sydney’s arm computer still shows the damage from the the homerun guy she knocked out in her first fight.
Heh I noticed that too. Good stuff.
It’s something I can do in the inks, so if I remember its there when I’m penciling, its easy, but the bruises and cuts are done in colors, when all my pencil notes are turned off. I’m slowly getting better at remembering them though.
Botching languages should become a tradition for Grrl Power! First Arabic, then German, now Latin! Although the translations are certainly right, just the suffix makes no sense. Ideas for more languages to botch: Japanese, Tamil, Finnish, Tagalog, Swahili, Warlpiri, Guarani, Turkish… the list is endless, but make sure there’s variety! If you want you can ask me directly for botched translations; I’m pretty good at them.
I can help with Russian if it’s ever needed btw. Even the botched version if it’s necessary!
I can’t comment on the Arabic or German, but in fairness, things named after Latin words are often not declined properly. I’m curious why the “malumi” demons were named with an Earthly Latin root at all…we know very little of the other races/planets in this universe. Regardless, the author could totally say that the name came around because long ago someone once called a vehemic user an “exemplum mali” (nature of evil, example of evil, precedent for evil). This caught on but got distorted when passed around (as so often happens – think the telephone game) and became “malumi”, and then when it was coined as the actual term for them it was broken into “malumus” for one and “malumi” for many.
That, of course, is only if he understood the subtext on that website he posted which said that malum is a neuter 2nd declension noun, not a masculine one, and so has different endings – which he probably didn’t. I mean, the guy can’t know everything. He’s still got an awesome comic.
You want an author that actually gets Latin declensions right, check out Terry Pratchett. The dude’s got his Latin down.
Well, sub + cubare means “under” and “to lie” so “sub(-b)(+c) + cubare(-are)(+us)” means a demoness that humps the soul out of you somehow. I’m just borrowing a suffix, not conjugating a verb.
That said, my ability with Latin only extends as far as online dictionaries.
I think the question is on malumi/malumus, not succubus. The plural of the noun malum is mala. So the vehemic-using demons *should* be called Mala. …Not quite as cool sounding, though.
Although I’d have to refer heavily to my notes & papers, I can be the go-to guy for Egyptian Hieroglyphs to butcher. It would also be a good avenue as references to “Ancient Magics,” with only Mesopotamian magic being more ancient & *undocumented* shamanism/animism preceding them both; I say “undocumented” because the Mesopotamians invented writing not very long before Egyptians came up with their own; anything more “ancient” than them is, by definition, undocumented.
Good luck at finding a *reliable* way to get them into your comic though…there’s literally thousands of Hieroglyphs. Heck, for that matter, Egypt even adopted foreign deities a lot & built up a pantheon of somewhere between 2300-2500 deities to worship; That’s a very rich source for Ancient Magics, right there.
Maybe they can teleport him into a really, really deep pit?
They can get a digger from Digger Town to make a bottomless pit. Brilliant!
Where’s The Underminer (last scene, The Incredibles) when you need him?
High-five for you, sir:
^3^ /)*(\ ^_^
beneath you!
High 5, low 5? I wasn’t too slow for that, was I? :P
He is probably battling with Mole Man for control of the underground realm of Subterranea.
Hmm, wonder if the mythical Apple of Discord was named such due to the silly wordplay.
The Apple of Discord predates Latin, so it seems unlikely.
Well, there’s also the Apple of Discord that’s affiliated with Steve Jobs…
Could they not just shoot him in the other eye? A nigh-invincible blind guy is far less threatening.
With all this talk about what his powers can do and how to defeat him am I the only one wondering how he knows Latin, why he has a weird friendly vibe going on and how he knows enough about succubi that he knew Dabbler was one from just looking at her. Also he commented on her spell power in a very learned way. V is giving off a strange “Old guy” vibe to me..like he’s actually a LOT older than he looks.
The LA Riots (1992 right?) are not that long ago so I suppose he could have seen that easy enough but he’d have been …what? …17-27 back then?
The Latin and his knowledge of succubi is also rather strange, he does not strike me as someone who’d study to gain knowledge… he’s more of a hands on kind of guy. (I’ll admit I could be totally wrong with this one…maybe he was some book worm and got the power of some long dead demon from some ancient scroll or something. But if he was a Demonology expert or something I’d have expected the Zoeng to connect the dots on that.. there cant be -that- many experts in the field)
I think I can also add how he was dressed. Very old school high class, clearly a custom made suit with a fedora? (that was a fedora right?)
I’m just going to take a wild stab in the dark here and say “He’s some kind of Demi-God of war or something, been around for ages, didn’t learn Latin he actually spoke it. Not actually evil just gets really bored and this is how he relax’s. I think the reason he has that weird friendly vibe is because I really does like the Arc folks but he’s also totally at peace with who he is and what he does and none of this is even remotely personal.
I believe it was a Trilby. The hat. I do think this isn’t personal; he’s a violence addict getting his fix.
The LA Riots, AKA Rodney King Riots, were indeed in 1992.
Vehemence is referring, though, to the LA Race Riots, AKA the Watts Riots, which were in 1965
Okay then I am going to double down on my assumption that he’s some kind of ageless demi-god of war.
On a side note… I’m not the only one who’s really into back-stories and how supers got the way they are right? After all it defines so much of who they are and what they do.
Has it been established that Vehemence is actually human? I’ve been wondering if he’s a demon like Dabbler for some time now. Taking a peek at him with Truesight might be illuminating.
Sydney already talked to him while using her truesight/telepresence orb. It’s been established that her telepresence self does not get the truesight, but this is Sydney we’re talking about – if she was curious enough about him to check him out with her telepresence, she probably looked at him with her real self too, to check with truesight. Actually, since she was using that orb during the fight, there’s a good chance she checked out each and every villain there while she was chilling in her shield. She’s wacky, but she’s not stupid. And she would love to be able to tell Maxima she discovered something with her “super special superspy” abilities or something.
If she remembers too…. “Look, a squirrel!”
Haha you have a point there. She probably meant to and got distracted by Death Tolls >.<
I like the fact that the big bad has a soft spot for our heroine.
Yeaaah.
He’s gonna miss her…
I hope he DOES miss her…enough times that she doesn’t die.
But WE already know she doesn’t die here, don’t we?
Well, we know she doesn’t die
PERMANENTLY…
dun, Dun, DUN!
(((Pssst! One of the unknown orbs preserves her mind and the other unknown orb replaces a “spent” body)))
*V smashes her… for the 57th time*
*Sydney pops back into existence*
V: “JUST DIE YOU UNKILLABLE BITCH!” (he liked her but there are limits.)
Sydney: “I know you are but what am I! Also ouch. Stop that already its annoying.
V: *single tear rolls down from good eye*
If an atomic-powered noodle slap to the eye didn’t kill her (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/697, panel 11), then it only made her stronger.
~a respectful nod to Friedrich Nietzsche~
Ugh…I got a bad feeling… look at what V’s right arm is holding…
a) he’s either gonna grunt his power and force all his wounds to heal super fast and painfully
or
b) tear off his own left arm for an ego attack as well as a personal boost in power.
– magic levitation hasn’t been suggested, maybe it’s time that the team’s support mages earn their stipend?
– silly suggestion – dump him into a vat of jello and cornstarch slurry – everyone loves jello and the slurry of cornstarch will resist impact w/reciprocal force (you can run across a cornstarch slurry where standing on it you’d just sink.
Ooh Yeah!… Non-Newtonian Fluid… fun stuff that goop is… fun stuff indeed.
So when Dabbler says “Demons with the ability” does she mean some random demon that developed the ability is rare or that the race of demons with that ability is rare? Were demons originally all one species and they broke into breeds over time due to power affinities or family training habits?
I just kind of wandered if demons was more a description of a type of being or was there actually an original demon “species” from which they all broke off from. Maybe they are not even fully divided yet and can still reproduce with each other like dogs can even though they look nothing alike in form and size? Maybe an explanation for why Dabbler is so mongrel in genetic makeup?
well, we know that dabbler is Part succubus. Thus we know that there are at least Two kinds of demons, succubi and non-succubi and also the malumI so three kinds minimum. We know they can apparently interbreed with at least one of the various other things dabbler is part-something of.
Hence it seems quite reasonable to assume that demons are not just one species, but a whole gaggle of diversified subgroups with specialized talents or abilities that give them an edge in certain situations or environments.
We know that the abilities of a demon seem to be hereditary, since Dabbler inherited her mother/father’s ability to manipulate tantric energy among other succubic powers.
It therefore seems reasonable to assume that malumi, like succubi, are a specific sub-type of demonkind with a specific ability, ie being able to manipulate vehemic energy and, probably because they are such high-priority assets/targets in any conflict they get involved in, are “rare”.
The team clearly needs an immortal with a bad attitude. He/she wouldn’t do much damage, but also would never, ever leave the villain alone until he turns himself over to protect his sanity.
Don’t we already have Achilles that does that?
Why don’t we just send HIM in?
Pretty sure V needs actual damage to be dealt to gain power up.
And hell, even if he does deal actual damage, Achilles can just wait until V’s bored and exhausted.
He’d just stick him in the ground or something and use his ass as a chair (if he’s lucky).
Sydney’s telepresence plus shield would do the trick as long as he can pop her shield (maybe that’s what THIS! is?) but he doesn’t find her annoying. He actually seems to like her.
i’m going to go out on a limb here and say he is using his excess energy to regenerate all the battle damage inflicted upon him so he is fighting in top physical form…after that he will still have enough energy to take on the rest of the team except sydney since she still has her bubble he needs to find a way to pop…i wonder if the green orb is a healing orb and the brownish one absorbs energy…the red one is the ppo, shoots high intensity energy blasts; blue is flight; purple with the design inside is lighthook; plain purple is the bubble; and yellow is comm ball…so healing and energy absorbing would make sense…ooo…just thought of a nice name for the set…infinity spheres because like infinity there is no known limit to what they are capable of doing.
IMNSHO, Dave would have to do some careful tap dancing if he were to have one of the unknown orbs be the thing that wins this battle. Writing this in without making it a cheap cop would be hard. I’ve previously compared it to a “Who dun it” where in the last page it’s revealed that the murderer wasn’t the butler or any of the other people that’s been mangled through out the book, but instead it’s some one who never even been hinted to exists but stumbles back to the scene of the murder and implicates him or her self.
See, I’m just waiting for Sydney to make her shield orb form around his nose and mouth.
Don’t have to use violence to subdue an unconcious enemy.
Sydney has to be inside the shield.
You do get points for having obviously not read the comments on the last half dozen or so strips.
Here’s your sign.
And Pete gets a drink
And the rest of us get a longer page of comments…
I’ll just get a snack. :/
And then he super-jumps away rendering the whole fight scene rather pointless.
Am I the only one who thinks that Anvil is the solution here? She literally absorbs his power. She doesn’t really get affected by the violence, and it may have just been the lighting, but it seemed like his tattoos dimmed when she absorbed his energy earlier. So long as Max and Sydney keep her in range of catching his blows, he’s going to steadily bleed power because his attempts at violence produce fewer and fewer results.
That or Achilles. V did damage Anvil before. Achilles is outright immortal.
The only thing that I remember Anvil admitting damage on was that squashing V into the ground from on high hurt her boobs. Which wasn’t from an actual attack. Guess she has trouble with straight gravity with no impact?
Achilles is indestructible by his described powers (though even the author mistakenly lists him as invincible so you know… dictionary trouble…) not immortal necessarily. He has looked the same for a while but its not known yet if he is resisting the damage brought by time and living as well as everything else. But since he has no other powers he can’t harass someone who can stick him in the ground and forget about him (or maybe do the space hurling thing everybody wants to do to V. Which would be ironic! )
gravity despite impact? I know what I want to say in my head but the words look so wrong…. :(
The damage she did to Vehemence right then came from the force of gravity pulling her down (plus Sydney flinging her, of course). If she’d absorbed it as she landed, there would’ve been nothing done to V. She had to deliberately not absorb it in order to damage him.
As for the question of Anvil being the answer, she probably would be – if V would be so kind as to hit her and not anyone or anything else. At this point, he’s probably a crapton faster than her, and as previously demonstrated, he’s intelligent enough to not hit her on purpose.
Sydney should attach the light hook to her and make her maneuverable enough to screw up V’s attacks then. IF he refuses to attack her then she may proceed to draw kitty cat features on his face with permanent marker! lol
Achilles is invulnerable, not a powerhouse. He is virtually useless here.
Hmm, there’s something in what Dabbler said about never hearing about a human with vehemic powers. I’m assuming that she’s including superhumans in that comment.
Perhaps the reason is that human physiology can’t handle being amped up with vehemic energy beyond a certain point. That it causes irreversible cellular damage and after a short while, death.
Unfortunately, since humans can’t help but use this power when they discover they have it, when they inevitably get into a fight with some supers which amps them up, they die.
Major bit of speculation, though. :)
Great comic!
Ooooh! So its like War of the Worlds where the environment of the very world the aliens want to conquer and live on KILLS THEM!
Awesome thought Martin. Its refreshingly different and simple at the same time. Aaand it would allow this to nicely wrap up in a few more pages just like promised.
Apparently he could also hear them whispering, as he just broke into their conversation with an apropos comment.
Those saying “Ooh, look, he’ll be draining himself” — remember his little speech: “I attack you, I get stronger”. Maybe he isn’t 100% efficient, but don’t bet that he can be reduced much by him attacking, especially if his blast hits more people and does more damage for MORE violence.
So is their going to be a whole seven sins absorbing super powers thing, now? If tantric derive powers from lust and vehemic from wrath, what would you call the other five? Well, I suppose tantric derives power from acting on lust (orgy) and vehemic from acting on wrath (brawl), and both sex and violence are possible without sin, but even so. Envy could be invidic, greed cupidic, sloth acedic, gluttony gulic, or pride superbic or maybe exaltic or fastic. Of course, if there is a connection, then any acting on wrath would probably trigger vehemic; it wouldn’t necessarily have to be violence per se, and presumably physical violence without the presence of wrath would not trigger it, so perhaps that theme doesn’t actually work here.
Heh. One of the running jokes in Dragonball Z was that Vegita was pride-powered, because whenever his ego got bruised he lost it.
People keep saying that normal background violence isn’t enough to keep him “charged”. Not in downtown where-ever, that’s probably true.
What about Beirut? Or any of a 1000 other hotspots in the world rife with weapons and carnage?
Instead he hangs around downtown where-ever hoping that a super powered team will step forward and charge him up?
Now, let’s say he beats the living heck out of the team…then what? From now on, when they see him coming, they run away. He has no more “extra-tasty” power source.
Seems self limiting.
I still say kill the idiot and move on.
Yes, that’s why he set this up so he could have his moment in the god-like mode probably. (on TV and everything right proper)
Yes, if they had any inkling that he was gathering power to dangerous levels they SHOULD have killed him early on. But they didn’t and now he has reached new power levels and they have to reach a little deeper to kill him. Like killing him might require enough energy to kill even some of the stronger ARCies if they don’t leave before Maxima sets it off. Evacuate the area for miles or throw him into space then do whatever Maxima’s true strongest blast is (she said the demo wasn’t her best at all)
So now its probably become a peripheral damage issue which they need to clear or find a way around. Sucks being a good guy and having to worry about stupid stuff like that. ;)
Nah, he’s actually simple to kill. Have Harem “vorp” in and shoot expanding stcky glue up his nostrils and down his throat.
Suffocation anyone? Or else he tears his own throat out to remove the glue.
Another idea would be to pick him up….and yes, it can be done. glue a large coat hook to the midlle of his back and molest-orb him. He’s too muscle bould to reach it to tear it off, and being suspended in mis-air gives no traction.
Now, force him down…say 1/4 mile into the Marianas trench…Sid’s force field (with air) let’s her go that low, and Maxima’s power slam will submerge her.
I bet he’d drown long before surfacing. If not, push him down again.
I’d probably make some effort to blind him before trying the glue idea with a non speedster like Harem. The vorping alone might not be enough to stop him from popping one of them and then they all go down from the shock. Personally I think he is seriously amped up right now and just fast enough that only some kind of near speedster could perform such an action up close like that successfully unless they get that other eye at least temporarily blinded.
Maybe if they can get it on him in the first place. Have to allow for that until we see what new abilities his current crazy power level grants him like whatever “This!” is.
As Dabbs indicates they haven’t set up and trained for enough containment situations like this so someone will probably have to play with him while Harem goes and fills the grocery list somewhere. I’m sure glue that instantly sticks to wet mucus membranes despite the attempt of super powered lungs to blow it out probably isn’t found in the local Hardware store.
Okay. I don’t know why nobody has even given my theory the time of day. I must be a total idiot, and be missing something pretty obvious, but I’ll try one more time..
Couldn’t Syd just take her shield and…
okay, fine… here’s what I actually posted twice (albeit the second one was right before the update, so probably was largely missed)
“HEATWAVE! I mean, come on. I don’t care how beefed-up the big V has become, or how much stronger he gets from the attack, what’s he gonna do when Heatwave starts slow-roasting him? Flex his cellular structure so the molecules can’t get all excited? All the team has to do is keep him from getting to her and eventually he will cry uncle–probably when organ failure kicks in. Then Max can order Brook to stand down, or let her exact some frontier justice right there in the parking lot. So great. Brook gets to feel better about herself after being taken out by a stupid knife, and Max has a teachable moment about how important it is to have even erstwhile “wimps” like Brook on the team.”
I know she’s injured, but just do what they do in the NFL and fill her full of stimulants and pain killers and get her back on the field (of battle).
So why isn’t this a good theory? Probably V’s Next Big Thing will make it obsolete, I guess, but dangit! YAY HEATWAVE!
Please feel free to make merciless fun of me now…
Sorry, Brooke is sedated now. She passed out from pain and would have to be sedated else she trigger her powers in pain induced nightmare. SOP.
Ok, so you’d like to bring a doped up, injured Brooke into a fight with an extremely powerful, highly mobile opponent? Because you can bet that V won’t just stand there and wait to be boiled like an egg. Either he squashes her or just runs away. They currently have no one who can protect her from V, and I doubt her power would work from within Halo’s shield.
So yeah, dumb idea. Take a hint.
IF they can wake her up maybe. I don’t really know how “focused heat beams” work (cast page) but V already defends himself by making his body resist impact. Kinetic energy is kinetic energy. I think whatever his energy field does when it defends him from Mega Maxima slams it would have some blocking effect on her “heat beams”. Your thinking him as just flesh but his defenses come from energy. So think like a shielding energy lattice interwoven throughout his being maybe?
People probably just missed you in particular though I think others have suggested Heatwave. Or maybe they are referencing you on page one when they list it among already suggested attacks on V?
Or maybe they are referencing you on page one when they list it among already suggested attacks on V?
Yes they are.
Oh Dirka. Why so angry? I apologize for missing your page 1 post, but before then hadn’t seen any arguments against Brook. Must have been in one of the 18 bazillion comments I haven’t read in the past. I could counter the various things mentioned here (because I’m still sure I’m right–in principle–certainly no dumber than anything else people have come up with), but what’s the point? We’re probably all wrong. I’d just like to see the poor, slow-witted ginger make good.
Anyhow thank you, Scotto, and Observer for engaging, at least.
Another thought to throw in – there’s a theory running rampant that V’s a demon in disguise. If so, he (like Dabbler) can probably use magic – which means there’s probably something he can do to prevent Brooke’s ability. And if not, he’d probably just one-shot-KO her the moment she tried anything – the amount of power he’s beefed up on certainly seems enough to take her out in her current condition.
Sorry – don’t think this is Brooke’s day. Maybe another fight.
Dirka’s not always that snippy. Must have a pet peeve about all these theories being repeated lately. Big fight and lots of new folk weighing in. Bound to happen (at least until we find a way to get wog knowledge and popular theories stored somewhere people can find them) and Heatwave hasn’t actually been suggested all that much at all compared to the others. Sorry if the community is giving you a rough time of it. I certainly understand what its like when you have an idea you would like feedback on that seems to get the cricket treatment.
Cast page says she’s not as dim as she seems just kind of thinks with a different priority to her order of thoughts?
I don’t think its a dumb idea but I think his energy based defenses will give him time to act against her at his now uber level of charge. But even if you are right the characters in the comic have to think of it, decide it is right and decide it is correct enough to be worth trying to get her back up and fighting form where ever she is awaiting evac and treatment. (assuming she is not already being transported away) And they have to stall V this whole time probably leading to more hurt on the team or him getting stronger. If another solution presents itself it will probably be used instead just cause Heatwave got her little piggy sent to the meat market.
Again I’m sorry you have been made to feel particularly unwelcome for presenting an idea that isn’t any worse then most fans speaking up here. And I understand that when no one replied to your actual comments and there are tons of comments to sift through you might decide it was missed and try again.
Besides all of the above that’s already mentioned, DaveB is already scripted out to the end of the fight already, at least far enough ahead of any of these ideas/suggestions get posted to the comments. In all cases,we have our ideas, yes, but we need patience to reach the point where Dave posts the final tally.
If it seems frustrating that you’re getting “the cricket treatment” now, try to look forward to a future update from Dave where you can post your correct guess in an “Ah Ha! I nailed it! Neener, neener, neener you dweebs!” moment at that time.
That seems like it was meant to be replied to Fookiesan? Cause, more or less, I’m cool. I just shot gun a variety of my comments into the discussion area and sooner or later someone can’t resist the bait! heeheehee gotcha!
You’re correct, Observer. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell where a post will wind up in a multiple-nested comment thread. I never claimed to be anything other than human, with all of the usual frailties & fallacies inherent thereof.
Apologies. It was unfair of me to lash out at you. Won’t happen again.
Sincerely,
Dirka.
PS: Still a dumb idea though ;P
The big thing Arc-SWAT needs to remember is to NOT attack people who are asking them to.
Well, in Death Toll’s case it wound up the best way to bring him down, once they figured out what DT’s limitations were…But I think it would be too much to expect that tactic to work *twice* in such a short period of time with a second villain.
As my dad used to say, “The first liar doesn’t stand a chance.” As far a it goes in the comic, DT was the first liar…
As someone else pointed out, V has an ‘ancient’ kind of feel to him. Maybe he is getting a little on the old side again and needs to power up completely to be able to regenerate back to youth. It would be funny as all get out (to me) if he spins a cocoon here, then emerges as a cocky teenager with the same marks but a shock of hair. “But your honor, I am a minor…”
This could easily segue into him joining the team but at a much lower power setting. His limitation could be that if he peaks too soon in his apparent lifetime he starts out again even younger, thus he wouldn’t be eating to much of a diet of violence around the ArcSwat folks –just teenage snacking.
This whole fight wouldn’t even be worth watching without Sydney.
I know what you mean…It’s a bad enough blow to the superhero genre when you’ve slogged through all of the tropes multiple times, but Sydney’s demonstrated the ability to subvert those tropes in a highly humorous fashion.
So who says that ADHD is actually a *dis*ability?…
:P
Ooooh! More glowy, glow junk, Haven’t you died of radiation yet Vehemence? Seriously!
Ooooh! You think his junk glows too? The prior page gives us a pretty good look at the region in question. Nothin’ shining through the pants, but we don’t really know what those stripes do below the belt.Not much of a bulge though, either. Maybe this is all overcompensation?
His crotch tats will glow just fine once his junk reaches its “Avatar State”. That’s what “This!” is. ;D
“Hey, you leave your junk out of this!”
…A phrase you’ll never here Dabbler say…
Arrrgh! I menat “hear,” not “here.” This is a direct result of not having an edit function handy.
Time for me to grab my prescription of Dammitol…
I don’t know why but I just feel like Sydney’s mystery orbs are gonna save the day or something. Like they can absorb energy or manifest some sort of pacifism aura.
I still say max out speed and flying and drop hits ass in orbit, zero g wiyth nothing in reach all his vehmic power means squat, hell in a vaccum if he even can remain alive means no air for fancy pressure wave attacks like hulk uses. Of course I also recommend another 50 cal round to his good eye to make it easier on Max to snatch and drag him into orbit.
Not a good idea. Not only does he have enough strength to break free from Max’ grip by now, he also would be able to pummel her at his leisure while they are in the air. If he’s to get to orbit or beyond he needs to be thrown or punted.
a counter to your argument, have sydney use lighthook and her shield orb with max inside to act as a flight component…they go up at high speeds with V being dragged with lighthook. i know he was able to drag sydney when she was on the ground but that was because she couldn’t brace against him and he is so much stronger than her. but take away that disadvantage by having them go up instead. can’t drag them back to earth unless he weighs more than lighthook’s upper limit. and even if he climbs lighthook to get to them, they will be inside sydney’s shield which he will have a hard time breaking.
Even before beging powered up by Max V was able to manipulate the lighthook. So he can break free quite easily.
V got out of Sydney’s lighthook before the power up, at this point it would not even take him much effort to do it again in all likelyhood.
And in regards to using the tentacle for superior leverage… at the end of the day you have to wrap it around some part of V, there is no part on V you can encircle like that with even one band of the lighthook that he cannot reach with at least one hand. Therefore there is nowhere you can anchor the lighthook that he cannot reach and break. At best you can yank on him a little for a few seconds before he breaks the grip, but that’s all you get and its definitely not going to let you tug him into orbit with any consistency.
Sydney has already shown herself to be both quick and accurate with the lighthook/hentacle. A few seconds would be all you would need to get him 20 or 30 feet off the ground. Then as he pulls it loose from one appendage, just grab him by another, all the while gaining altitude. It’s not like as soon as he gets free from it he’d be instantly on the ground again. Plus we don’t know if she’s even tried to make multiple strands yet. I don’t think it’s been specifically said that she can’t, so it’s still a possibility.
Though I agree that it’s not impossible that Syd can have multiple hentacles going simultaneously I think it’s improbable at this time. As evidence “A” I’d like to submit the strip “#198 – Sydney’s a what?”. Here she uses a single hentacle to abduct Gwen, Harem (one of her) and Peggy for a emergency superheroine conference.
Sure it’s done under immense stress, but this is one time when I think she would have used several hentacles if she could.
As evidence “B” I want to submit… There actually isn’t any evedence “B” that I can think of, so I guess that’s it for now…
That idea might be viable if multiple hentacles happens to be one of her “level ups” with the orb, but only time (& DaveB) can tell us for sure.
Its been suggested elsewhere by someone else that if a powerful enough adhesive that sets up on contact well were used to attach a handle to a part of his upper back it is believed heavily muscled men would have trouble reaching he might then be manipulated with less risk of breaking free.
I pointed out that this would probably require a humorous montage of Harem begging at various high tech labs for something like that or I guess she could just ask her friend DEUS the EXecutive she knows over at MACHINA industries. He seemed to have access to all sorts of useful gadgets! ;) (this would most likely loose us part of the tvTropes reading audience instantly though. Even though technically it was sort of hinted at with THAT NAME come on! LOL )
for some reason, Vehemence reminds me of Midnight in Dr. Who, slightly unrelated, The midnight sun was the only Dr. Who villain that literally scared the Doctor. The weeping angels, were merely acting upon predatory instincts in the need to eat, The Dalek’s while clinically evil, still have their redeeming points, the midnight sun.. purely enjoyed making people kill each other for no reason whats so ever then enjoyment, which is why Vehemence reminds me of that episode.
i think Sydney is going to be the one who ends up taking him down at this point. figure ol’V is all “smash main cripple” then Syd says something Syd-like and he’s all “yes miss scoville” then as soon as he turns his attention back to the other’s he’s back to “smash, main, cripple” mode.
to me that implies he has no violent tendencies where Sydney is concerned and somehow the team is going to figure out a way to exploit this to defeat him in the end. and this also gives Syd her hero cred with the group, as the newbie they thought would just be in the way at first to the one who ends up saving the day.
Him being (probably) human, I think there might be a way that Dabbler could deal with him. PR nightmare of course.
And no. Bad idea. Just google that and add violent. In this case that would probably be a bad combo.
I never said it would be enjoyable. Even for someone like Dabbler. Just that it might be possible.
Thinking… Strap large indestructible nerf gloves and boots onto him. Dig a deep hole, kick him into it, and fill it with foam.
Will he suffocate? Hopefully.
Well, in DC comics, that’s how Doomsday was introduced…Imprisoned underground with heavy restraints. But he still managed to break out, trash the entire Justice League (& a whole bunch of other heroes), a sizable chunk of Metropolis & even kill Superman by the time he was stopped.
DaveB has already said that “universal power negation devices” don’t exist in his world (at least, haven’t been invented, developed or discovered yet), so even *getting* V restrained & contained is going to be difficult.
“No prison in this world can hold me, you fools!”
Yeah, I could see this being said…
Special thick transparent aluminum tank full of something he can’t actually breath (that is monitored to make sure it stays that way!) but isn’t particularly toxic. Oxygen hose through small whole in ceiling, a small hole for plumbing and another for food delivery. Any time he tries to power up his oxygen is shut off till he calms down. (might want to include a panic button for if the Oxygen delivery breaks down and the guard is inattentive for a minute or something… ) This would work for many supers that need oxygen really so that’s over half your prison right there.