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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You know, I expect that team doctrine is going to undergo an overall after this fight. Combat feeders are clearly more common then anyone realized when they got started; this fight has seen three of them. Anvil, For Whom the Death Tolls, and now Vehemence.
That’s three out of… I lost count of how many people were in the fight exactly. Lets call it twenty. So better then 10%. Error ratios are going to be high at these small sample sizes, but it’s certain a respectable percentage at this point. That means you need your doctrine to actively be on the lookout for Anvils, Death Tolls, and Apple Crunches. What’s the saying, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”
There were about 45 superpowered participants in that fight. So that doesn’t include Goose, Peggy, Shaun, and Math. ‘Combat feeders’ actually aren’t, by those numbers, very common, but because of the threat level they represent, they need special attention and protocols in place.
I know how to take this guy out. All you need is either a) an energy sink (aka have Max use Anvil as a shield), or b) a completely frictionless sphere.
I am reminded of Ivy fighting the Denarians in the Dresden Files. I think the Frictionless Sphere would be the best choice.
How would you use a frictionless sphere? You couldn’t throw it, pick it up, or stop it from rolling away at the slightest push unless you put it in a box
telekinesis.
I keep saying that Halo’s shield could be the answer, if she is able to expand it out to a 200-foot radius. all she has to do is use the fly orb to stay in the center, and no matter how he tries to jump for her, she just dodges back out of reach. Eventually he runs out of energy. Problem solved!
Inefficient and dangerous.
Have Sydney use lighthook and pick him up by his feet/ankles.
And twirl him around over her head like a lasso for a few minutes, V will then be to dizzy to do anything.
Rinse and repeat as necessary.
IF it works. How many times is it said that we don’t know the shield’s max size, V’s jumping distance, or the fact Sydney does not have super level reflexes? Also, why does he need to jump? He can chuck objects at her, too, or jump AND chuck projectiles. And this does not include what ‘THIS!’ is. You sure you want the two in the same field?
In my head canon, “for whom the death tolls” has been renamed to Dead Ringer, and now Vehemence is “Bad Apple”
Well, Death Tolls certainly got his bell rung & V certainly is one, nasty, bad apple.
Can Maxima achieve escape velocity? If so I’m pretty sure we could effectively ‘punt’ him off the planet. We’d at least finally get to find out if he can fly too!
And in the ten minutes it takes for maxima to fly there Vehemence would have killed her already
They are trying to take him alive.
Technically, if you just jump straight up in the air, you DO achieve escape velocity. But unless you can *consistently continue* to overpower gravity while on the way up, you’ll come back down again. All the flyers are doing different from you is that, whatever they have to overpower gravity, they can keep it going.
Hmmm, the first idea I had was to use a counter-Juggernaut strategy by air dropping a large volume of industrial plastic on top of him neutralizing his range of motion. But I see now that since he is a syphon-type, the tornado trick is called for as well. Lower the oxygen level in his vicinity until his brain shuts down, if his endurance can outlast that apply hard vacuum. In a pinch, Sydney could create a shield around him and dump him in a large body of water, preferably as cold as possible to induce shock to his system when his energy runs down.
Sydney has to be IN the shield.
Also: V is highly mobile.
Has that been actually been established?
And if it has, is there a maximum size to the shield? Since topologically a shield which just surrounds Sydney and a shield that surrounds everything except V are the same thing.
once by the creator of the comic. Several times by people pointing out that the creator said it.
However, that COULD be one of the upgrades on the shield’s skill tree. Forming the shield around other things would come in mighty handy and would be a good “end game” ability.
It could be. It currently isn’t.
And at this point, I’d rather it not.
No, no. This fight could be ended so easily if Halo would only park her force field right around Vehemence’s head to choke him out.
How obvious can this be?
Oh, wait. It’s only as obvious as she fucking can’t do that. Ok, so since that isn’t an option, now what?
Have a beer. It’s all I got.
What if he she made a shield that happened to cut through where his head is at the time? It would still be around her. The question is if he could keep on coming in since other things she cuts through remain unharmed, but none of them were alive or moving.
Oddly enough. Someone used a good counter to juggernaut in a fanfic.
If you can’t stop him from going through something, help him go through it a heck of a lot faster. Aka, slam into his back at full speed and strength/durability while he’s walking forward
Heres your sign
so THAT’S how it feels when villains monologue on a comic that is currently updated, as opposed to an archive binge!!
ehhhh, I will like it more in retrospective.
In all honesty, maintaining a frenetically paced battle is probably not one of my strong points as an author. The inability to just flip to the next page right now definitely exacerbates that.
Dave,
Just think of it as a weekly cliffhanger :D
…Eh…Twice-weekly cliffhanger.
I hope Dave B runs out of cliffhangers or else I’ll end up pushing him off of one
Someone pushed Dave B off a cliff! Will he survive? Wil this villian be caught before he trys killing other artists? Come back to find out!
You know, it seems like some artists only live as long as they can keep anticipation high enough to counteract the level of reader frustration…That’s the best weapon they got in their arsenal.
In the olden days (before TV), movie theaters used to show serial films & ended each one on a cliffhangers so as to keep the audience coming back for more…And buying tickets on the way in. I’m just grateful Dave isn’t charging us ticket prices for this…
Same Grrrl Power time, Same Grrrl Power channel.
Yeah my recent archive binge tells me the pacing is good on a read through, even with this long battle.
Hey DaveB. Where is the shield-Orb? It looks like it is supposed to be in her left hand, but I think you forgot to draw it. I can clearly see part of the shield in the top corners of her frame, but no orb in either hand.
A possibility that no one seems to have mentioned (that I have noticed) is that he is in fact, a demon in disguise. It’s not like Sidney has done a true-sight check on him or anything like that.
We did have some foreshadowing for a situation like that when Sydney tested whether the com orb projection has truesight in addition to her actual body (it doesn’t). So even though she was using the projection to talk to him during the fight, she hasn’t hit him with the truesight.
It is also possible he is a tiefling (I think that’s how you spell it). That is a half demon with some traits of the demonic parent.
Yes she has.
See comic 236.
Of course that only covers magical glamors as far as anyone knows.
why doesn’t Harem just teleport him to the pacific ocean wait a few hours till his efforts to stay afloat use up his energy then port him into a cell?
She can’t teleport others. She has a fairly restrictive weight limit for clothes and equipment.
And what if she “de-ports” to just one Harem?
A single Harem has a maximum ‘port capacity of about 50lbs.
“Just barely” enough for her to “hump the Barret” for Peggy to use.
Sorry, nothing personal, but as a one-eyed bald muscular comic character (no, not him) once said. ” That’s all I can stands. I can’t stands no more”.
This brings up a need that this comment system is sorely lacking; a ‘read me first’ section.
It could answer a few basic questions like
‘Sydney can only form her shield around her self’
‘Harem can’t teleport living objects’
‘Max can’t throw people into orbit’ (as far as we know)
Or we could just be nice and say ‘welcome’ to all the new people reading the comic (and hopefully voting regularly)
As long as everything in the readme is word of god quotes or summaries. Though he could make a separate section for fan created often repeated theories and popular theories. They could put all these in the forum in “pinned” topics and just have a little bit of link text on these comments’ header saying, “Here are some wog quotes and popular fan theories you might want to check out before geeking out.”
There have actually been some “aside” comics where certain things have been explained, like how Max can lift a car rather than simply ripping off a panel she’s gripping. They’d be good to add to a FAQ.
Anvil appears to have the best counter to V, as long as she does not reciprocate. Gee, I really hope that V is showing some versatility here, otherwise he’s just a one-trick pony; granted that the trick is really, really potent. Interesting polar-swings on his personality: calm nerd/intellect to berserker.
I’m thinking (and we will see Monday) that he can use the gathered Vehemic energy to heal himself, the yin to the violence’s yang as it were. He may not be able to use it on a regular basis because of how energy cost prohibitive it is.
But I would think the best way to take him down is indeed an energy sink/energy leech. Just as long as it’s someone who could take the energy without having to get in too close for a knuckle buffet from Vehemence.
Hmmm…As long as there’s someone there to chew on his knuckle sandwiches, V can certainly keep dishing them out. Yeah, “knuckle buffet” sounds appropriate. I like it.
His major drawback for keeping a steady stream of customers seems to be that his knuckle sandwiches are loaded full of jawbreakers…
Oh. Ick. Regen would be bad. Still, without anyway to fly, he would still be vulnerable to being towed into space, or the middle of a desert, or the middle of a large body of water. Wonder if he would drown?
The very first thing V did to Anvil was grab her by the hair and throw her into the sky. That got countered by Sydney using the lighthook. If Anvil tries to go toe to toe with V now, odds are she’d get thrown into the neighboring State so hard that if Sydney tries to grab Anvil in flight, they Both get a free trip to Alaska (or wherever, Alaska is just funnier to say :D).
Well, Bumf**k, Egypt is actually funnier…
Some sort of gentle rubberband effect to keep them close together in a nonviolent manner…
I assume that the next panel is going to be him running away with his arms up making Dr. Zoidberg noises. WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP!
That….would be so god-damned funny……
That would horrible, and I would enjoy it immensely.
I would laugh.
Or maybe he does the “pulled off my thumb bit” and the others are like… What?
Nooooooooooooo, not a cliffhanger! :(
Cliff hanger twice a week…Get used to it.
;)
This might be an odd question – or not, given that Sydney plays D&D – but why doesn’t she try putting a forcefield around the entire universe…EXCEPT Vehemence? She obviously can create force fields of varying sizes, though she’s probably never tried to create an inverted one. That thought process – put it around everything but him – would work for creating the inverted force field that keeps him in rather than keeping anything out. Given that it’s tough enough to stop Maxima at full force, it should be enough to contain him. Then just let him expend all his energy inside, while Harem makes out with herself to empower Dabbler enough so that when the shield drops she can perform a grapple take-down and hold him still.
…would that work?
Well, most of us still aren’t entirely certain what Halo’s *maximum* shield-size is, but it’s probably not enough to “separate” Vehemence from the rest of the world. If Sydney *could* try anything like that, she’d probably have “level up” with her shield orb before “inversing” it might be possible.
Dave has said (as the WoG for the comic) he’s already plotted out what ALL of her orbs will *eventually* be capable of doing as Sydney levels up her skills with them.
Although he did reserve the right to change the effects of the “unknowns”, should the story take a turn that made making them do something else be a better choice. (Rule of funny).
If it’s a matter of invoking the “rule of funny,” I’d say someone’s seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit a few too many times…But that wouldn’t stop me from laughing anyway.
The thing is, the inverted shield wouldn’t actually be all that large. In fact, it’d be about the same size – maybe a bit bigger – than the personal shield she currently has up. It’s just by conceptualizing it as being around everything but that space, it would be projected with the stopping force pointed inward.
So the only question here is CAN the shield orb project an inverted shield?
…probably can’t. For a superhero team dedicated to non-lethal capture and law enforcement, the ability to project inverted shields would be way OP. It’d be the go-to solution for EVERY supervillain they come across, because – as it’s been shown – it can’t be teleported through, either.
Is it a bad thing that I’m starting to ship Halo and Vehemence?
I dunno about shipping (I rarely ship because they almost always fall through), but I’ve noticed Vehemence has a lot more [what’s the word? Kindness?] towards Sydney than he does the others.
I wonder how the cooldown will treat Vehemence, he’s a lot more 3-Dimensional than the other supervillains. I hope they don’t have to kill him, I like him too much for that.
Hear that, DaveB? A random stranger on the internet will think slightly poorly of you if you follow that line.
I see it more as Vehemence as being more cordial than anything else. He also seems to be starting to respect the scope of her intelligence & her ability for “innovative thinking.” I also think he’s getting somewhat amused by the things she says.
Check out Maxima’s entry in the Who’s Who on the right side of the comic: Initially, Maxima was easily irritated with Sydney’s antics, but has been amused by her too…I think “amusement” is a lot of what V gets out of Sydney too.
It’s a very fleeting kind of feeling, since he lashed out at her pretty hard after she tripped him, and even if he remembered she was shielded, it was a near thing, if she hadn’t been holding the shield orb, or if the molestorb didn’t work through the shield, Sydney would have been a thin film of tissue on his fist.
Well, Max now has an official *duty* to find some way of dealing with the new recruit. Initially, Max got frustrated to the point of resisting the natural urge to choke the living sh*t outta Syd: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/450 (last panel) for example & https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/526 (panel 3), but I think the single best example is https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/720 (last panel). That last example is not your ordinary garden-variety facepalm…That’s a crouch in a corner to get away, double facepalm!
Vehemence doesn’t have that kind of restriction on him like Maxima does…He can lash out freely at any frustration.
This comment seems adrift as I swear it keeps floating to the end of the comment chain on the last page. Perhaps replying to it will lock it down.
Truly this is the most screwy comment section I have every participated in. (not that I have participated in just tons mind you).
Nope, didn’t work. Weird.
Aw.. ok ?
Hey Midnight! Have you broken the database again?
Yep. looks like it…
Be careful with accusations, people. If I can do this purely by accident, think of what I could do if I decided to deliberately become a hacker…
O.o
Today, the Grrl Power comments. Tomorrow the World! We all tremble at the implications…
Given the current state of our world, breaking it a little might not be such a bad thing. ;p
I think that was more for making him into a fool by tripping him, and kind of a knee-jerk reaction. I mean, when someone humiliates you and you’re a hulking violence-eater, you’d probably lash out unthinkingly.
Da bawse has commented that he’s going to make full on death a relative rarity in the comic since it’s supposed to have something of a lighter tone.
Probably. ; )
I hope this wont end in cheap solution like one of unknown orbs Halo is carring being debuff drain or reset other power ….
I’d be surprised if it was. I trust DaveB not to resort to cheap ass-pulls.
Meh, I assume you are referring specifically to the unknown orbs being the perfect counter to Vehemence. I admit that would be annoyingly cute writing for this level of battle.
However, if the activation of one is simply useful to the cause that would be fine with me as there has been plenty of foreshadowing of them as unknown powers (with Maxima thinking out loud as to various possible things that would activate them later) and as future Sydney being the “big guns” that the “ass pull” trope would be successfully avoided.
Sydney suddenly being able to Heal Maxima over time spent channeling might be a nice little thing. Being able to supercharge someone’s ability as long as she is holding it and targeting them would be a bit much though.
Hm, that would really depend on how it’s handled. But as I said, I trust Dave.
In a way, one of them being an energy drainer would make sense. When she activated it before, it would be draining her own power and looping it back into her, making it seem like it was doing nothing. Perhaps that is how the orbs maintain their power, off the stolen energy of others. Highly unlikely, but fun to think about!
She has no power but there were supers in the room. If it is an area effect Maxima might have noticed it (don’t know if X has a real power… ). If it has to be targeted with a toggle or her will or, REALLY BAD, touched to the super in question it might take extensive testing to work that out. I guess in a moment of frustration she could shake it at V and mentally say “WORK damn it!”.
Personally I like that DaveB has chosen to keep universal power negators or drainers out of play on start up and I hope he doesn’t reverse that decision even partially. Makes things less interesting and more importantly, even by fantasy standards, it makes no sense in a world with such a diverse potential not only for types of powers but for power sources.
GURPS RPG has a handle on that particular trope already, with the Quick Gadgeteer advantage, in which the character can carry “gizmos” that are technically undefined until they’re needed to save the day. Since Dave has already said that he’ll be using superhero-genre tropes, but he’ll also be subverting them…I doubt he’s planned the mystery orbs for that purpose & instead is plotting the story to fit an already-decided function for them.
I think you just described Dabbler.
Yep. However, some major limitations GURPS has on Gizmos include:
Whatever the Gizmo is at the time the Gadgeteer defines it, it must be of an appropriate size in accordance with the container in which the Gadgeteer pulls it from (ie: vial of acid fits in a pocket, a one-man glider fits in a car trunk, etc.).
Another limitation is that the Gizmo must be something that already exists at the current level of technology OR a device that the Gadgeteer has already designed, built or owns.
So far, Dabbler has also been abiding by another restriction imposed by GURPS rules, in that only the Gadgeteer can use Gizmos. Other character types cannot carry or use Gizmos, but they CAN use one if the Gadgeteer *defines* as a specific item first & let’s them use it.
Dabbler’s wrist-mounted teleporter means that any Gizmo she summons has to be able to fit through the portal-opening it can create. Otherwise, Dabbler has no limit on the size of the Gizmo she can call for, except that it has to be originally located inside her lab/workshop (so far, Dave hasn’t revealed how large THAT might be).
If Vehemence is Apple, does that make Dabbler PC?
I guess being an openly hyper horny omni sexual opposed to slut shaming is PC now. But she seems to cross the line into sexual harassment on many occasions especially considering her conscious use of a power to force people to be horny in ordinary work conversations. That’s not very PC.
Dabbler is clearly Linux-based then. After all, its full of system daemons and is brought together (outside the Linux core) by a multitude of people in group efforts or independently and utilizes known standards, although new and enticing things are being developed all the time. If that isn’t Dabbler, I don’t know what is. :P
How user friendly is it? Is it easy to use by even the most novice of beginners while still having features that attract advanced users? ;D
Well, my parents (in their 60s) prefer Linux for the games, and have a much easier time using it than current versions of Windows.
Your parents? Eeeeeeew…..
I think Sydney would be more like Unix…Hard to understand at first, but can be amusing & extremely useful once you start figuring it out.
Dabbler will never be PC!
Yeah, you don’t get much more PI (politically INcorrect) than Dabbler…
is it me, or is the playfullbanter that sydney gives, actually a bit disarming to Vehemence? :p
Just a small hint: Dabbler has her finger on the trigger of her gun. A trainied shooter won’t do this unless she has her gun aimed at a target.
Even if they were trying to surprise a near speedster reflexes and they are using non-lethal armament? (it wraps people safely up) Also won’t work on several of those present anyway….
Who says Dabbler is a trained shooter? She uses a sword, but isn’t an expert a sword-ing either.
By definition of the word dabbler, she probably isn’t an *expertly* trained* shooter, but she at least has sufficient training to have an idea what she should or should not be shooting.
…Except with her mouth…She’s pretty slack when it comes to NOT shooting off her mouth…
Glow mysteriously?
Grin?
Did he become radioactive?
I feel it in my lines, enough to make my system shine,
welcome to the new stage, to the new stage, welcome to the new page,
Vehemic-active, malum-active!
I’m kickin’ ass, makin’ a fuss,
Grindin’ Maxima into dust,
This is it, the Vehema-lypse!
Woah-oh!
Get in his way & you might as well start singing Living on a Prayer..
Tactics to consider employing against Vehemence:
Paint ball to the face/eyes. He’s then blinded and tactically ineffective, with very little “violence” to feed him.
Remove all oxygen from the nearby air (e.g. halon).
Paint ball is an awesome and refreshingly new idea. Minimal violence and he would have to actually stop and dig it all out. Should work as long as his reflexes haven’t been amped up higher now. Which outdoes my Halo’s telepresence clone floats in front of his eyes for simplicity and the ability of a non-powered to do it. Nice.
The other one I recognize from an earlier conversation… are you restating the paint ball one for someone as well? (Just curious not judging. Its important to get the knowledge out there)
Does he gather power from distance violence? After all, he seemed to need to be close. Peggy took out his eye, and I wonder if she can do it again if she is far enough away. Although, I did see a green glow where is left eye used to be in panel 7 here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1533
so it may be a moot point if he is regenerating.
Glow is from his green glowing tattoo that runs down over his eyelids and so is more visible when they are closed as that one is.
He gets more from closer but if we stick with the paintball he would get little from that especially since the intent behind it was of a weaker nature. Just a drop in the overflowing bucket he currently has.
Regardless of how much range Peggy has with the Barrett, there’s the violence when the bullet hits Vehemence. Would that be close enough to count? Yes.
Vehemence doesn’t need intent or even anything alive to absorb Vehemic Energy. The V-Energy is generated from the *action* of violence. Generating V-Energy is a matter of physics, when you get right down to it: Action-Reaction, Cause to Effect.
What about Dabbler using her lust power to drive him to give her really rough and violent sex?
Sex and violence aren’t mutually exclusive. So… It wouldn’t do much to drain him even if it worked. Well… Not drain him of his violent energy.
At his current level wouldn’t she die or take serious damage before powering up?
So we are either about to see something really cool, or the superhero version of “Hey, ya’ll watch this!”
So… What would stop Halo from putting Vehemence in a bubble and smothering him into a long nap? I am misremembering if she can project the field around others or if she has to be in it with them, but I do recall that there’s no more air in the bubble.
Sydney can only make her shield around herself. She’d have to be in it with him.
Heres your sign
Drink
So cant Halo create a prison using her orbs, not with her shield orb, but the orbs themselves? Would that reveal to much about her powers, would she have to get dangerously close? for those wondering how, armpits shoulders front and back of chest, he can still move his lower half and arms but he is not getting near anyone. Sorry if this has been mentioned before.
From what has been shown so far in the comics, the orbs have a certain level of strength they can use to stay in position when sydney wants them to. They also have a greater level of strength, possibly nigh unbreakable level when it comes to bringing an orb beyond a certain distance away from sydney.
V was able to pull an orb (and sydney with it) while she was grappling him with the Lighthook before he achieved green-mode. Therefore it is extremely unlikely the orbs could pin him now by being used as physical blocks.
… Maybe that’s how she beats him, taunts him into trying to take her balls away and having him waste significant levels of energy failing to do so?
I knew I forgot some part of it, thank you for the clarification.
As demonstrated with Maxima after the bank robbery (& in one instance inside, during the robbery), Sydney can draw them to her when she wants them. Yes, there is a certain amount of strength the orbs can utilize when it comes to stay inside of their maximum distance from Sydney…But at that point, it becomes a bit of a guess as to whether they go to Sydney or (if held back with sufficient strength) they pull Sydney to themselves.
First sorry for my lousy english…(german nativespeaker).
There was this comment that V will use his Rage Aura..on the team..but I think he wil use it on the other villians..they will awake as “Rage Zombies”, break the cuffs ang give the team real troubles..and V a Power-Up on Super-Level…but he is a Character with (I think so) deep Backround..there is more behind it..and that he is a Half-Demon!
SubMissle, lol.
Weakness was labelled in that ‘apple’ bit: Rotten fruit and other assorted horridly smelling things, like chloroform.
Genius, now who’s going to walk up to him and try it. Who wants to try to put a rag next to the roid raging mans mouth? Anyone? No.?
1. Harem can teleport.
2. This.
Oooooh, genius! Douse him in Butyric Acid and watch him puke his guts out!
I’m actually rooting for a scenario where they don’t take down V by force. He seems such an odd character, as he combines a gleeful enjoyment of violence with a clear concern for the lives of others. He also seems rather clever, and to top it all off he’s just so affable.
I still can’t fathom his ultimate goal. What’s his plan *after* the fight, provided he wins? Arc Light has not exactly been on the ball, but I’d bet anything that they’ll be keeping tabs on him from now on. And Archon *will* be developing strategies to take him down as soon as this is over. Basically he has just painted a big fat target on his head.
So what are his choices? Can he stay powered up forever? I doubt it. Can he obliterate the entire team right now? Unlikely, since they still have some fliers. Escape to another country and hope Archon won’t dare to cause a diplomatic incident? What’s gonna stop them from going in covertly in Black Ops disguises?
Actually, the last idea is the one that makes the most sense. V is auditioning. He’s showing the world what he can do, stomping the migthy Archon. I bet Russia and China will want their own military supers, and could, to a certain extent, guarantee his safety. Plain old supervillains and criminal syndicates would only be a second choice, unless they’re either sneaky enough to keep V hidden or powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with Archon and the US military.
Anyway, I would be surprised if he’s simply there for a good fight, and damn the consequences. He seems much too smart for that. So, fingers crossed for an interesting resolution.
Final thought: I really want to see more Sydney & Vehemence interactions. Not in a shippy way, more like older brother / little sister kind of thing (think Kenpachi & Yachiru). V’s general levelheadedness complements Sydney’s hyperactivity perfectly, and at the end of the day they both have their own special kind of crazy.
Problem is he hasn’t shown any movement abilities. He can likely jump really high, but I’m not sure he can move in a way that he couldn’t be kept under surveillance. Unless he has help.
My thinking is that he saw the super heros on tv, thought, that’ll taste great, and whipped up this whole thing in a couple of hours. There is no master plan beyond gorging on super violence.
He’s more or less immune to law enforcement, who cares if folks know he exists? Assassins, cops, whatever the powers that be send after him are just going to be free violence.
Did you read my post?
Archon, who have some serious resources and a master class tinker, will be doing their utmost to find sneaky ways to take down V. In a world of super science and powers there are endless possibilities. All Dabbler has to do is make some containment foam á la Incredibles or Worm, and he’s had it.
To reiterate, it is highly unlikely that he can simply go on punching stuff forever without needing to rest. And once he does, Archon will be there in a snap, and they will make damn sure that they get their man this time.
And I hate to keep beating that dead horse, but if worst comes to worst, they can simply keep punting him into the sea until he’s cooled off.
Well, not if he kills them all.
*sigh*
I give up.
Never Give Up.
Never Surrender
=D
Thanks, that helped.
you welcome
I read your post, but I think your model of V gives Archon more credit than he actually does.
Here’s how I model his thinking.
I’m going to go round up some dudes and fight those Archon clowns. Once I beat them up everyone will see how great I am. If they send human dudes after me, great. If they send Archon after me then sure they’ll have some prep, but I’ll have killed most of them, still not dangerous. Why would they even take human orders to come after me, anyway? Easy enough to pose as super cops when you think you are tough guys. Once they see how awesome I am maybe they’ll want to be my gang instead.
Actually, I think Dr. Revenge said it better. They aren’t going to be coming after him, because when this fight is over they will know better, or be dead.
Max can fly. Syd can fly. Dabbles can fly (see the bussing scene). Kenya can be punted to safety. Harem can teleport. TPK is looking pretty bad at this point. Not to mention V has repeatedly show reluctance to kill.
As to giving Archon credit: yes, they’ve been caught with their pants down. But already Max and Dabbles are acknowledging the problem, which means they, and by extension Archon, WILL start brainstorming as soon as they’re done licking their wounds, if not sooner. I’m simply expecting them to do what any sane individual, let alone military branch, would do.
I am not saying Vehemance is going to kill Archon (we know, in fact, from the flashforward, that he isn’t). I’m saying that his plan is to have a fight with them, full stop. He hasn’t thought anything through beyond that, because he’s a musclebound dolt.
You post that he seems clever to you, and then you run down all the ways that he isn’t being clever. Then you can’t figure out his ultimate goal. What about Occam’s razor?
Why does he seem clever to you, specifically? What evidence of his intellect outweighs the monumental stupidity of his current actions? Isn’t it a simpler explanation that he’s a violence junkie getting his fix than the idea that he has a secret plan?
You might be on to something, maybe I like V so much that I want him to be clever.
However, I do maintain that in organizing this whole shebang he has displayed some measure of competence. In a matter of hours he managed to collect more combat capable supers than Archon thought existed, and, if he’s to be trusted, did so by manipulating Vector. He engineered a situation where he’d end up pretty much unstoppable, at least at the moment. Furthermore, I’d say he showed quite a bit of control by not joining the fray or giving up his game too early. Not only that, when queried by Sydney, he exploited her short attention span by pointing her towards DT, which quickly resulted in even more juicy violence. I’d also like to add that the way he switches between roid-rage and relative calm does not gel with him simply being “a violence junkie getting his fix.” This whole scenario screams ‘deliberate,’ and it just seems odd that he would go to the trouble of creating a situation where he has every advantage without any thoughts to the aftermath.
But then, maybe I’m still giving him too much credit, and all this really is just him going for the biggest fight possible. Maybe he’s just good at thinking on his feet and using the tools at his disposal, reacting rather than planning.
But that explanation still leaves me confused, just as the whole character does. So I’m exited to see this all pan out.
So……listen stop me if this sounds silly but…..as far as passive takedown….why not just lock him down inside his own little force bubble via the Halo Force bubble ball? it is nigh unbreakable….she can sustain it for just about ever….and is it just me or does he LIKE Halo???
When did this go from being something of a running gag amongst those who read the comments to a running gag performed on them by those who read just enough to be cute? XP LOL
Sydney has to be inside it with him per wog. Which he needs to make a Dabbler mini-comic or a link to a pinned readme series at the forum that is at the top and bottom of the discussion page here.
Heres your sign
I bet by now you’ve got that saved and just keep pasting it in! ;)
Drink
Oh god! He can dramatically yell “This!”
WE’RE SCREWED!
ll bet he grows back that tooth …
To quote a famous robot, “Yep, we’re boned.”
“He’s glowing? Oh, great, now with the glowing, nothing good ever comes from the glowing.”
Especially if the one doing the glowing can credibly emulate the effects of a high-grade bomb…
That’s just below “Contemptuous Sneer” on the Villain Pre-Ass-Kicking Quirks list.
I’ma chargin mah lazor!
Hiya folks. We all seem to be focussing on how BigV is to be taken down. I think that is impossible. I reckon V just wants to cut loose and have a fun time, then be an authorised backup brawler for the team. You cant show what you can do until you do what you can do, and V is only able to do this the once. His secret power is now public, and if he is avoided by everyone, after time his energy level may decline to near zero, he will be a soft kitten eventually able to be wiped out by an angry feather pillow.
So, the endgame is not more violence, but something else. I guess it will be the rapport between Sydney and V which will enable this to be met.
BTW, I would have loved to have seen V as an ancient wrinkled man who had lived years and years on the preiphray awaiting the time to reveal himself to a superteam at this very time… not a bloke in his peak/prime. But, it’s an awesome character.
He’s a criminal (no matter how nice some find him or how considerate he is to hand out concussions instead of ripping off heads! XP LOL ). He should be taken down before being offered a “deal” anything else leaves the team on unequal footing with him especially as far as Maxima commanding him to do anything and also just sends a bad message to any who learn of it.
But he is becoming very popular so it wouldn’t surprise me if DaveB is searching for a way to bring him back if it wasn’t planned that way from the beginning.
They’ll have to figure out a way to take V down NOW, otherwise he’ll just be able to GO anywhere he wants, DO anything he wants & nobody would DARE to even TRY stopping him.
It looks to me that setting up this fight actually IS his first move towards his “endgame.” If he successfully pulls off this fight & can walk away from it at his own leisure, the whole world is at his beck & call…And he KNOWS it. Let’s face it, the destiny of the whole WORLD is at stake here…
But, in accordance with the way DaveB started this comic, we already KNOW Vehemence really won’t be walking away as easily as he thinks. The only question is HOW Dave finishes this, but it’s still written well enough that I’m cliff-hanging for the answer he’s scripting it for. ;)
The fate of USA actually.
What makes you think that he’ll restrict himself to just the USA?
“Today I conquer America. Tomorrow, the WORLD! Bwaa-ha-ha-ha!”
I’ve listened (i.e. lurked) to the various comments about how to take V down, and I’m surprised that people haven’t mentioned some of the other ones that aren’t quite as Deux Ex (tossing into space); don’t involve restating the “known facts” (Syd’s shield); and don’t involve thinking around the use of a single team member (“hey throw Anvil and/or Achilles at him”).
Personally here are my choices for stopping V (or at least greatly slowing him down):
1. You have several team members with high powered blasts that can obviously melt rock. Make a very deep hole of liquid rock and keep him in it. Sure he can punch his way through solid matter at this point, but you can’t really punch through liquids – nothing to grab hold of. Plus it’s disorienting, hot as hell and not actually violent at all.
2. Same as above but just let the rock solidify. You can only break it if you have enough leverage – and no matter your strength – if the hole is deep enough you won’t have the leverage.
3. Lots and lots of disorientation. Syd has her telepresence, Harem has teleporting, Dabbler has – whatever the hell tricks she has. Just keep him busy with attacks that disorient, confuse and annoy. Oh, and prevent him from acting. Trips, smoke (which we’ve already seen works to some degree); hell spread oil on the floor and let him slide around for all I care. Just keep him busy. We have no evidence how mobile he is except maybe a hulk-style “super jump” and those are easy to counter with a bit of illusion magic (which I think we’ve got Gwen for) just make him jump in the wrong direction (Ryan above me mentions this). Wait for cooldown, or for him to give up out of frustration.
I can also come up with a few ways to encase him (albeit temporarily) in ice (using the blaster-types as primitive heat pumps) although this is dependent on the nearby surroundings. Since I doubt that we have a convenient body of water to take the fight to (doesn’t even have to be that big), I can’t comment on those.
But anything scenario that even temporarily immobilizes V allows for Max, Hiro, maybe even Syd to take him out to the ocean / special prison / island habitat for wayward youth / Drusilla’s Special Hell for Evil Nuns and Naughty Boys Who Talk In Church ™ / whatever you want to call it.
Frankly I’m most keen on a combination of #1 and #3. With a bit of teamwork to distract, a couple of focused blasts to dig a nice deeeeeeep hole straight down, and another couple to cause it to collapse in a molten mess, V should be nicely buried and trapped for a goodly period of time. How long that is? Entirely up to our esteemed author. But he’s not getting out any time soon.
So, your suggestion is something at least remotely familiar with the time Spiderman manages to lure Juggernaut into a freshly-poured, very deep foundation site? The concrete was still like quicksand, Juggy sank to the bottom & it took him several months to walk out of it.
“This.” being opening your mouth really wide?
Or is he gonna do a Fus Ro Dah?!
Wow, you must be “born” for “dragon” the internet for answers, aren’t you?
:P
He’s obviously’a firin his lazor.
I think max needs to take acupuncture lessons as well as pressure point classes in order to be effective against targets like V. acupuncture and pressure points can be used in a violent fashion but the effect is so immobilizing and painful that even if it powers them up they will be temporarily crippled to the point of being unable to fight back.
You know, I’ve been wondering if Sydney’s shield would hold him, or at least make hìm pass out due to lack oxygen
Only if Sydney suffocates with him inside of the shield…
I don’t think she’d even get that far before he Vectored her. Or worse.
Heres your sign
Drink
I can only see this ending with sydney encompasing vehemence in her force field and waiting it out. also I just noticed that harems picture in the cast page looks NOTHING like what she does in the comic :P
You mean you can’t see that picture being any combination of a few of them?
Seriously? I have lost count the number of times the wait or suffocate by shield has been made IN THIS PAGE ALONE. @_@ Are you people trying to bury Captain alive in his trophies? Really? XP
Heres your sign
At least your method of keeping the running gag running doesn’t involve burying Capt. Obvious in trophies…Instead, you turn it around & bury them in signs.
I like that.
“Bows Graciously”
I think this is a great demonstration of Pavlovian response…
Drink
I just had a thought based on what I have seen in the comments.
Yes I know Syd can only make a shield around herself, but does that shield have to be spherical in nature? Can it be ANY shape? If it can then well…hey, make a shield around herself but have it trap Vehemence out of it, like a giant, fingerless, airtight hand. o.o.
Also, interesting thought. Harem can’t teleport in or out of Syd’s shield, which raises the question that does it also stop energy from entering and leaving it as well as air? If that’s the case…
Would that not effectively shut down Vehemence’s further growth, at least from outside sources?
We’ve actually already seen that it stops air from getting in or out. As for energy, well, it doesn’t stop visible light (which, as per the first few strips, begs the question of how well it deals with lasers).
Actually WOG is that it has a threshold. Harmful levels of light and sound and such, over normal levels gets filtered out,
So a “melt a hole in your torso” laser would be downgraded to “flashlight” once it hits the shield. And a “burst your eardrums” mortar hit would be turned into a “ring your ears” mortar hit.
I’m aware that it’s airtight inside, I was talking about shaping it to still be airtight on the outside holding something…and if the energy transference is WOG then well, does it extend to vehemic energy is my question. XD
We’ve seen that the shield CAN alter its shape to be more aerodynamic when Sydney flies (when she & Max flew out to the testing range for the press conference). But we DON’T know if that’s by Sydney’s will or if the shield alters itself automatically in that case. We DO know that she can willfully enlarge it (it’s a specific rune on the orb itself) as she covered the reporters against Maxma’s tank-busting demonstration. But we haven’t yet seen for sure if Sydney can form any kind of specific shapes other than what Dave has shown us.
Another thing we don’t know (yet) is if Sydney can change the size of her shield *while it’s operating* or if she has to choose its size before activating it. If she can alter it in-situ, then she could have the option of forming the shield around herself & an opponent, then enlarging it to lower the air pressure still inside the shield, which would make breathing more difficult right off the bat. I’ve seen Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four pull that stunt on someone & it can knock them out pretty quickly…But for Sydney to try that, she should have her own self-contained breathing system with her.
Closer to what I was asking, as Im still wondering if she can form it around something to trap them OUTSIDE it… but makes me think of one important fact.
Sydney could, technically, be used to changes in pressure, seeing as she scuba dives…and if she ever brought that gar with her one day, well she could try that trick and see. XD
Guys, you are missing the obvious. DaveB has already admitted to reading “Please don’t tell my parents I am a supervillain.” Sidney has the same supervillain power as Eclaire, superhuman cuteness! Everytime Vehemence talks to her he smiles and calms down. In the process he loses an entire d6 of vehemic damage bonus. Let Sidney chat with him for 5 minutes and he will be sitting on the ground playing with puppies.
I did not read all 3 pages of comments so apologies if someone else already [pointed this out.
Good point. Also, if that doesn’t work, pick him up by the left ankle with the lighthook. Let him hang out for a while, be ridiculed by all & sundry (particularly Sydney), see how much vehemic energy he has left after he’s been laughed at for a while (note: NOT a solution for dealing with Hulk & other “anger” sponges!).
I love it. She’s the cute puppies to V’s Hulk.
What’s interesting about V’s power is that it doesn’t seem to grant him much in the way of super-healing. He’s still banged up and scratched up from getting whupped by Maxima; even his eye is still swollen shut. And, by the same token, it’s pretty clear that the damage resistance granted by his power does not automatically rise to meet the amount of damage he takes. So theoretically, it actually would be possible to ‘simply’ beat him to death, assuming that you can continue to hit hard enough to overcome his growing damage resistance.
Depending on where Dave goes with this power, it certainly is a possibility. However, I think the fight will end with something ridiculous given how badly the word of Dave wanted to finish this. :p
Since this’ll be lost in the comments and never looked at, why do I have this huge brain boner pointing towards the idea vehemence is going to explode in some way?
Totally reasonable prediction, based on popular cartoons. Also, ew, tmi.
He’s mindf**k us with that description, Ebonbolt.
“Now I can only do this trick once so watch close.”
Pop
Splat
“Eww.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=CVspg-K-rTw#t=1267
This may have been mentioned earlier in the comments, but…
In Frame 3, Sydney should have the Shield ball in hand (I could see it in either one), but I’m not seeing it in frame. But I am seeing the shield at the top.
Dave mentioned he forgot it in his post and would fix it when he gets up again.
I think you missed this one: Mystery orb #1, #2, or both together.
But the main question for me is will Dave come up with an ending we haven’t thought of?
I’m not sure what this would accomplish yet but it sounds annoying:
step 1; Halo flies just above him
step 2; Halo forms Her shield around herself and.. Just his head.
even if you presume it isn’t a vorpal shield; if it is a perfect shield, he now has a giant ball on his head, which he can’t take off. he still can’t use his arms or legs against Sydney. And, he may or may not be able to move the ball. if he theoretically can… Halo could just fly higher so he was dangling by his legs and had no leverage.
so, unless he has laser beam eyes, he would be immobilized (along with Sydney)
It might also cut his head off.
I don’t think we’ve seen Sydney form the shield around many things, but if you think about it, if it actually is effective inside solid objects like the floor or ground without cutting them up, then it should (“should” he says) be harmless to anything else she forms the shield intersecting, like a table or a lamp or a body. We need to see what Dave says about the shield and its interaction with other matter around it.
Dave?
I’m sorry, I’m unhinged perhaps, but I can’t stop trying to laugh at the idea of the shield cutting off V’s head. It’s just such a gruesome and unexpected way to end it that it’s hilarious.
I also point out that I…vehemently…hope this does not happen.
Dave is having way to much fun watching us flail around in the dark…
So far, we’ve only seen Sydney form the shield with someone else either fully inside or fully outside…Maybe it could be an option to *partially* shield something, after she levels up with her shield more, but only Dave himself knows for sure at this point.
I’m not sure if I’m worried about V. So far he hasn’t actually tried to injure anyone seriously (the biggest hit hes landed was on Halo’s shield). Unless that’s all because of the inability to kill off any main characters, I’d almost go so far as to say that he’s purposefully NOT hurting anyone. Maybe he just likes getting into fights, and he hasn’t told them this because if he did they wouldn’t fight him anymore.
I think Maxima’s nose might have a different opinion on that “biggest hit” part, LOL.
He did show concern for Vector.
Actually, he DID tell them that he’s pro-violence, just after he decked Vekter but before he started fighting the team. As far as it goes with “purposefully not hurting anyone,” try telling that to Maxima’s nose. He’s probably showing restraint at outright *killing* anyone, but that could be only to plead out of “lethal intent” charges if he should get caught & stand trial…He’s shown enough intelligence to be capable of planning ahead for contingencies like that.
If he kills people they stop doing violence, counterproductive from his standpoint. Author pointed out that he wouldn’t hit rioters because that would stop their rioting.
I think he also doesn’t kill because he doesn’t want to, but it could be as simple as not wanting to stop the violence. Seems pretty clear he kept the scrubs around by knocking out Opal/Vektor in case any of them wake back up and start knocking things down.
If killing stops the violence that he feeds on, then knocking people out (like he did with Vekter) ALSO reduces violence. That being the case, he’d actually have to restrain himself a lot more than merely “not killing,” just to keep people active enough to contribute to the violence.
That is *exactly* what he’s been doing while fighting the team…*Hurting* people, yes, but not *incapacitating* them. He had to take down Vekter & Opal because they would have *stopped* the fighting, which is counter to his purpose for being here in the first place.
I can’t… read… through all … the comments…!
My question is, which hand is Sydney holding the force orb with? It kinda looks like she isn’t, by the size of the fist.
DaveB comments on the very last small type line of his author’s blog section under the comic that he realized he forgot to finish it just as he needed to post it. He promises to get on it after he sleeps.
It would slot into the hollow cage made by the fingers of her left hand. If you can’t read through all the comments then just type in DaveB into the “find on this page” or “find” feature of your browser and look for actual comments posted by the author (flipping past ones like this where I just spam his name) starting with his official comic description and blog thing. That will let you know if he has declared any word of god stuff. The rest is just us making crap up or possibly repeating old wog statements (which the DaveB text will also usually find). Right now I’m making the effort cause I am enjoying the end fight discussion but usually I just look for what the author said… and maybe Yorp. :)
Yeah, Yorp’s been missing quite a bit lately. I even had to go back to grrlpowercomic.com/archives/147 to keep my memory fresh.
He stuck his nose in on page 2
Yeah, I noticed that & even added a reply there, back when there was only a couple of pages of comments…It’s just that I’ve noticed Yorp’s presence has gradually declined during the course of the past dozen or so comic updates.
He said something about life getting in the way an update or 2 ago