Grrl Power #267 – Don’t worry, he’s got nothing on Frieza
Ok, NOW he’s growing. His size has fluctuated a bit just due to my art. Turns out drawing a really muscular guy like him throws off my sense of proportion fairly easily, but yes, now he’s all growed up. All upper body, though. Typical guy, right? To be honest his size may continue to fluctuate slightly throughout the remaining pages. He’s supposed to be about twice as big now. Turns out it’s even harder to draw hulk sized dudes the same size each time.
I really wanted this page to be a double, just cause I’m sure a lot of the comments will mention events that occur on the next page, but it has 13 panels on it and I couldn’t just couldn’t swing it.
#makecomics: The nature of sequential art can make for some weird word bubble placement. I needed Max to talk first in order to give Sydney something to react to, which is why Max’s word bubble isn’t right above her head. Normally you either arrange the characters in the order they speak or flip the camera around to put them in the right order. The problem this time was they were already lined up a certain way and I wanted to show their faces, so I couldn’t flip the camera. The more characters there are in a scene, the more complicated your character blocking becomes. The ballroom scene where the team interviewed Sydney was… quite challenging toward the end.
Edit: Whoops, I forgot his missing teeth, they’re back… or gone as the case may be.
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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That wasn’t an attack, it was… a… um… a hug at range! Yeah!
at least Sydney has her priorities straight
You sure about that? She’s still verbally dissing him at every opportunity.
But then again, that’s Sydney in even *normal* circumstances…She’s *still* got more balls than anyone else seen in the comic so far (pun intended).
..I’d ship him and Sydney if he turned reformed.
I ship them now
With that much power, V would sink that ship, even if it were completely accidental.
I mean, Look at the guy! Even his *fingernails* are glowing with power!
Ok, new strategy: Feed the beast. Give him even more violence. Have Maxima punch Anvil at full strength a few hundred times. Vehemence will get so overstuff with vehemic energy that his body can’t handle it and he explodes.
I’m also still a fan of Maxima grabbing him by the wrist and throwing him into space.
Not strong enough. And at this state vehemence would likely counter her grab and send her on a direct trip to China through the ground.
technically one way would be to use Judo style to the extreme, where one does not use any force at all, but channels the foe’s force toward themselves, and that in case of vehemence, increase his growth in a more rapid pace until he overloads, but that would take not doing anything, and allow Vehemence to do the first move(and vehemence continuously doing the ONLY MOVES)
His body just changed to accommodate a very high level of vehemic energy. This is a bad sign for the pop him like a zit theory. I’d hate to be a the super cop who essentially created Godzilla and unleashed him on my headquarters city. (not to mention the whole thing being televised)
And if his body can handle it? Then he’s be unstoppable. Well even more so.
Okay, you have a superhuman who just transformed into a tattoo hulk and is perfectly willing to commit more acts of violence to get stronger. I don’t think Vehemence has a upper limit or dabbler would know about it with her demonology knowledge.
Wouldn’t feeding him violence until he pops be a generally bad idea though? I mean sure there might not be much left to be destroyed in the resulting explosion but still why take the chance of unnecessary collateral damage?
lovingly hug him to death
I like this idea. You go first.
Well, they say you always hurt the ones you love…So, it’s a good thing I don’t love him, because I’m sure as hell not capable of hurting him at this point. Well, yeah, I *like* him & I like the character concept, but that’s a far cry away from *love*
What I don’t like is the concept of what the Grrls are facing right now…Standing on Ground Zero with Bruce Banner, just as they’re pushing the button on the G-bomb. In this particular scene the only practical difference is that this is a V-bomb…
If this turns into a final fantasy style boss battle then maxima would probably fall asleep before Vehemence gets below half health
I’m sure its been said but the phrase kill them with kindness comes to mind.
He is defiantly no Freeza. Brolly on the other hand… In witch case there even more fucked!
Oh, I completely forgot that anvil was standing next to maxima. So that random arm in the last panel confused me slightly
He did do a good job emoting surprise and alarm with just one arm.
Kinda reminds you of the old song….ok, I apologise in advance….”Tie a whitish ribbon and then go knock-kneed”
I can’t take dudes seriously when they bulk up that much. They don’t look strong; just lumpy.
The problem with guys that have that many big lumps is that they obviously can dish out quite a few lumps of their own…
“Step right up & get yer’ free lumps right here! I’m dishing them out, left & right to all comers!”
Even his muscles have muscles…
Normal humans like us (depending on your definition of “normal” anyway)? He could tear us into itsy-bitsy pieces (respectful nod to Hannover Fiste)…with just his eyebrows.
Okay, got it wrong last page
Can’t believe the resident expert on vehemics would make such a monumental screwup o_O
The only *real* Vehemic Energy expert around here that I see is being drawn on the comic pages…Oh yeah…Also the guy who’s writing & drawing the comic pages too.
No matter how you can look at it, DaveB IS the “final word” on expertise here…
Was talking about Dabbles
Dabbler IS included as one of those being drawn in the comic…
Wait, what are you going on about?
Was saying: how could Dabbles make such a fundamental screwup by attacking, with violence, someone who literally feeds on violence
I don’t know weather wonder dork is saying that because she is nervous, or because she really doesn’t know just how screwed she and the rest of them are. At that strength level I doubt even her shield could protect her.
I think the point of Sydney’s out burst is that she already know how to beat him and is amazed the others don’t see it. that is kind of the point of her character
I can still see at least three fairly good options here, first off just shoot him with with Dabblers rail gun, I don’t think he is powered up enough to tank that kind of hit. Second. have Harem drop some Unmaker sauce on him, as an added bonus she can unteleport that body and build a new one if she gets any on herself. Finally and most promising, use Sydney’s shield and flight orbs on him. Yes she has to be inside the shield herself, but there is nothing saying that all of him has to be inside with her, if she just captures his head or a fist he’s pretty much stuck unless he has the strength to outright break her shield, and it has been demonstrated to be an awful lot tougher than the lighthook. A few hundred miles of swimming would probably take care of his power reserves quite nicely, and Dabs is probably quite capable of fitting him with and explosive collar that would detect vehemic energy and would detonate before he got tough enough to avoid having his head blown off.
“…she can unteleport that body and build a new one if she gets any on herself.”
The sauce would still be on her body when she re-forms it again. It’s like putting a body “into stasis” when she unteleports. This is why her various bodies retain whatever appearance they had in between teleports.
Of course, this aspect would have no effect on this particular tactic, but Harem would have to be ready to take a full-body scrubdown immediately as soon as she unteleports. I bet Math would volunteer for that duty…Hell, for that matter, *I’d* volunteer too!
The shield automatically adjusts its size around people. Remember nega-knuckles guy?
Max picks up Sydney, Syd shields herself and max, uses lighthook to grab V and Max flies them into orbit.
alright guys, here is the easy way to beat a guy like V. Have Sydney put up her shields then taunt him, nothing can break her shield. Since it can’t brake he isn’t capable of doing actual violence to her. That keep taunting and making fun of him so that he spends all of his energy on the insurmountable wall that is her shield. While at the same time doing no harm at all to him which would power him up even further. And to add insult to injury use the psudo arm thing to tickle him as he attacks.
He’s still doing damage to the shield though, and being violent. Not to Sydney directly, but to the shield it’s still violence
Or just use the molestrorb to throw him into space.
Also she would doubtless run out of air long before he exhausts himself.
:P
The point is moot, though, because he’s proved himself far too savvy to be baited into such an obvious losing situation. I’d even toyed with the idea of putting Syd & Mr.V in a (very large) shield together, then she could completely fill the remaining volume with “Lighthook”, to immobilize him – much the same way we fill a container with packing-peanuts to immobilize a package for shipment. The flaw here is that he’s proven himself strong enough to work his way through the tentacles, & they’d be sharing the same air, to Syd’s detriment.
I’m not worried, though, because even if Sydney hasn’t hit on a solution yet, we can rest assured that DaveB has…
…so just be patient, & be rewarded with fun story-telling.
:)
The question though on the limits of her powers… Could the mystery Orb be a “Ditto” orb that lets her double up on whatever other power she is using? Like Dual wielding light-hooks or generating two doppelgangers, or nesting egg shields(Yeah she has to be inside her shield but who said that she had a limit of one? If she could make two She’d still be protected in the inner sheild and be fully able to contain the big lug limiting the amount of violence he can juice up on… And contain the possible explosion if he overeats.)
The “mystery orbs” (there’s 2) can be literally anything at this point except flight, shield, hentacle, truesight/image projection, or energy blast. God (DaveB) only knows what that will be, however.
Riiiiight, lets do it that way. Because “Hay, guys! I totes just discovered the exact new orb power which will let us (well me really, but you guys helped!) beat this guy!” would be the epitome of excellent writing. Or it might just suck beyond belief. After further review, it would suck beyond belief if Sydney suddenly discovers a new power which saves the day. Look up Deus ex machina for reasons why.
you guys miss the point, the shield is to protect her, yes, however, the tentacle tickling him is for disarming his powers. If his power becomes disarmed through laughter and laughing while he is trying to attack Sydney, then that laughter could disarm his powers as their a diverse opposite to anger and destruction.
Stop suggesting things that won’t work on someone with an ounce of brains! Vehemence is too smart for that crap.
It’s too bad she still has a standard human strength body. She could extend the light whip while in the shield, and Maxima could use her and her shield like a nunchuck against V
Or another option would be some type of energy conversion device/ability. Dabbler might have one in her weapon storage bin, or perhaps know where to find one.
On another note, how many energy absorption/release characters are in this comic, and can any of them convert between types? I can think of three right now, and they don’t convert (as far as I can tell, but I may be forgetting).
Vehemence: vehemic/vistric energy
Anvil: kinetic energy
Dabbler: sexual energy
Heatwave can absorb/control heat, but it’s not a power boost. Also Jiggawatt and Glowbug can absorb/control electricity. Hiro can absorb and return sonics at least and maybe other energy types. Not control but reflection, I think.
Someone just toss him into space. He will either pop when exposed to too much power, or become invincible, or just pound on anvil until she breaks him in half.
Or none of the above.
Heh! Page https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/192, bottom-left panel, the bottle in the middle.
That would make every one of your statements true, including your admonition about “in hindsight.”
Arrrgh! This reply didn’t even wind up on the same *page*, let alone nested with the comment that this was meant for!
Ok, mentally move my main comment from here to Comments-page 1, nested into Argent’s comment at the bottom of the page, then ignore *this* comment.
DENIED!
Just for that, you can have your signs back…I won’t pass them out for you, you meanie.
:/
Alright,
APROVED WITH HONOR!
Honor has nothing to do with it. Ninja don’t fight for honor, we fight to WIN.
Those who win determine what is right “honorable”.
And I ALWAYS win.
Not if I still refuse to distribute signs on your behalf.
;)
I still live so there for I win.
Well, I’m not dead either, so we BOTH win with a tied score.
The one who dies first loses.
You ever seen The Highlander?…
As a ninja also, I’m *real* good with swords.
Many times.
And as an evil mastermind, I am vertical good with orbital bombardment
You know, It bothers me that the symbols on his wrist are connected like that when all the rest are connected correctly. The wrist is like Omega + X , whereas everywhere else its Omega+Y. It shouldn’t but it does.
Here’s a thought on that: Perhaps the “X” pattern (4 converging lines) provides for extra strength, compared to the “Y” pattern 3 converging lines), as you describe it.
I think a good reason why his forearms would need extra strength *there* in particular is that the human hand can only generate a lot of *gripping* strength because of the forearm muscles. You can even check that for yourself on your own forearm…Lightly hold an object (hopefully you’ll get an object that’s not fragile, like glass) in your hand with your fingers curled gently around it. Your *light* grip is from your finger muscles. Now grip that object tightly & feel your forearm muscles tighten up.
When it comes to super-human levels of strength, one of the biggest problems with manipulating large objects is you can’t get sufficient grip to hold or move that object around: It’s the physics of *leverage*. Maxima has that problem solved because her Zero-Range Telekinesis provides that leverage for her. Vehemence might have to rely more on sheer *strength* in his grip, so the tattoo pattern provides for a greater proportion of strength to his forearms to get that strength into his grip.
Vehemence needs a workout buddy. Friends don’t let friends skip leg day.
Hey someone sneak up behind him and tie his shoes together.
Any volunteers?
Well, Sydney already pulled the Lighthook Trip maneuver on him. I doubt that Vehemence would “fall” for that trick again.
Personally ( I know I’m going to get raked over the coals for this), but I’m getting tired of this storyline. either find a way to kick his butt once and for all or have him explode from violent overload.
“Starts up the grill”
*Grabs a rake from the toolshed*
*makes some BBQ sauce*
Make some teriyaki for me please.
Not a problem.
*makes teriyaki*
Anyone like their Caseyorourke spicy?
I’m thinking more of sweet & sour sauce & served on a bed of rice, thank you.
As before stir-fried with noodles.
Remember it only feels that way because we have to wait a few days between pages. Webcomics are odd like that; it’s easy to get bored with a plotline because it seems to take so long to resolve, but it’s really meant to be read like a book throigh the archives in the future, and the pacing is geared for that.
I have a feeling Sydney already has a plan since she still has such a big mouth. Every power has a weakness and sydney read enough comics to probably guess his
Love the glow-in-the-dark tattoo effects. It makes me wonder if they are linked to his power.
SYDNEY (at Quicke Mart): I am requisitioning these, will pay later. Archon emergency!
*runs out of store, with an armload of luminous highlighter pens*
Ok
Forgetting that this is a comic (and a very well written one, congrats Dave).
Forgetting that is already shown that exists, magic, Uber Science and even superballs that no one knows how they work.
Forgetting that obviously there are still people that instead of enjoying the ride, want to apply common logic to a fundamental inadequate framework.
YOU guys want a solution!?! Here goes! (Dave , I will not feel at all offended if my comment gets censored)
Make Anvil go down on him!!!
I DARE any man to be violent while receiving a BJ and I dare ANYONE to show me someone that wanted to fight after one!!!
…In any case hitting Anvil while doing it wouldn’t do any good…and goes right with the spirit of this comic.
I kinda doubt that’ll happen. One bit of real-life logic that’s been consistently present throughout this whole comic is that Dave is trying to keep the NSFW label off of it.
Yes I understand that.
Just got a bit frustrated, I mean Dr. Revenge cannot possibily have that many many signs…
Well, Capt. Obvious’ trophies are electronically generated out of the thin atmosphere of the ether-net, so I see no effective limit for Dr. Revenge’s signs either.
If we apply DBZ logic to this situation, Vehemence should have one more transformation to go where he shrinks down to a lean gymnast-like form which is MANY TIMES more powerful than the form featuring in the final panel.
I hated dbz, so I pray that does not happen. The post about making him do things to himself was over the top, but would mind control feed his power? Maybe Dabbler needs a boyfriend…
Just to point out, V is now MUCH taller than Kenya.
Weeelll, I could explain why that actually helps the dynamics of a…forget it.
I’ll go back to a very family oriented, “no comments” .
And still the magic pants stay on :3
Ok, just looked back, one Captain Obvious Medal for me please.
To contribute something useful: If overloading him were an option Dabbles would have mentioned it.
“Tosses a trophy at Dirka”
Finally I’m one of the crowd. Now I can officially start clamoring for Sydney to put V in her airtight forcefield and choke him…
I’d be careful about that. I’ve got a few mountains of trophies here and they’re starting to destabilize the tectonic plate. I might just accidentally unload a few tonnes of these at your door…
It looks like you weren’t careful enough about avoiding those surveillance drones. Your secret identity has just been compromised. https://babyblues.com/comics/november-18-2014/
Had a weird thought of how to defeat V. Now that he’s so big, is there anything stopping Sydney from surrounding him at joint points in his body with her orbs and moving “out of range” so they become immovable? It would be like Thor putting Mjolinir on Lokis chest.
Of course the question is. Do they move at her direction. The only reason she knocked Math out that one time was because an orb traveled with her fist and hit him as he dodged.
Yes they move at her will
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1290
for reference
Can’t believe I forgot that lol
Also this and this…
And panel 4, back at https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/838
Let us not forget this gem.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/373
Ah! I’d forgotten about that…
Hm, I suspect where past the point where this would work. He managed to haul her around with the hentacle, so it stands to reason he could move the orbs themselves.
Range could be another issue. The orbs seem to be limited to a radius of 2-3m around Syd, which, forcefield or not, is way too close for comfort. Plus, once again, V can and will dodge suspicious stuff that’s moving towards him.
*we’re
He didn’t “haul her around”, she was straining against him, and then he suddenly did a disengage that overbalanced her.
sorry to disappoint you but… take a close look at panel one here: that is CLEARLY her being dragged around by V… Granted, she has the Shield and Hentorb in play, so there isn’t anything actually PREVENTING her from moving around (whether by herself or by the influence of an outside force, namely Vehemence) and it MAY have been different if she had the Flyball and the Hentorb together, and dropped the shield for this, but since she didn’t, we can’t be sure…
He like the Hulk O_O
Crazy idea:
A lot of people have been suggesting getting V into space. The problem is how to get him there, since he can out-grapple anyone on the team at this point, and it’s possible even Maxima can’t deliver a single hit with that much force behind it. Even if Anvil could be charged to that point, the shock wave from such a powerful blow would be comparable to a bomb going off.
The orbs have a hard limit on how far away from Sydney they can stray. Even Maxima can’t move them farther away. Even though she probably wasn’t using anywhere near full force, the force exerted by one of the orbs should be enough to lift V (no mater how strong someone is, they can only sustain a maximum downwards force of their own weight).
V also really likes opening his mouth, to laugh, taunt, roar, etc. Sydney should quickly slip a few of the orbs down his throat, keeping her flyball and shield orb out (and who knows, maybe one of the unknown’s could do something useful in there). Then fly up. Once V is off the ground, he has nothing to push against, and is basically helpless. Drop the shield, bring shield up to a larger size. We don’t know if the flyball can reach the speeds necessary for low earth orbit, but with the air inside a nice large shield, she can drag him up to a higher orbit that has a lower speed requirement. That’s assuming he doesn’t just pass out from the lack of oxygen.
Come to think of it, if you can suffocate him, just lodge one of the orbs in his trachea.
The trick would be getting the orbs into him. But his mouth IS conveniently larger now…
The orb wouldn’t necessarily have to go into THAT end of the digestive track.
A reverse “Flubber” moment?
Constant acceleration iirc could obviate the need to actually reach true orbital velocity.
Nothing that he’s shown so far indicates that he’s immune to vacuum.
Given all the oddly polite banter, I wonder if he’ll leave Sydney alone?
I.e., one doesn’t need to be in outer space to be placed into vacuum.
I wonder… does the shield orb have to make the shield around Sydney? It’s airtight, so if she put it around Vehemence… someone that massive and violent and hyped on adrenaline will burn through the oxygen fairly quickly, I would think, and if Halo can hold out against a directed blast from Max and the whole daisy cutter impression she did, and made the shield small enough that V didn’t have room to get all of his leverage going…
Maybe could work.
Always expect ninjas!
One hopes most desperately that one of Halo’s mystery orbs has Energy Siphon powers. That way it doesn’t matter what the source of his power is; she’ll be able to drain it away in a non-violent manner. Then maybe they can lull him to sleep with old 1960’s hippy pamphlets and then tie him up with tie-dye tee shirts and bandanas.
Unfortunately any energy he expends at fighting even if it is restraints, empowers him more. So unless you can get him off planet or maybe paralyze him he would be unstoppable.
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe the result is that Archon does NOT defeat Vehemence? For one, archon seems highly outclassed right now, and them winning is not guaranteed, especially considering that Vehemence might not really want to even kill them.
Consider this, what if Vehemence doesn’t actually want to kill any of them, but just wants a hell of a fight so that he can absorb energy? To use an analogy, what if this is like a five star meal to him, and his main motivation is just to “eat”?
Then if he kills any of them, then the opportunity for future five star meals is denied. So perhaps he will just have his fun, and then leave them be (properly bloodied and beat of course). And then he can come back at opportune times in the future for more “meals”.
Who knows, he might even appear at a future time and help archon against another dangerous supervillain, if it means he gets his “meal” (in this case on said other supervillain).
Is it me or does anyone else find it strange that Vehemence’s pants grew along with him instead of tearing to shreds?
About a half-dozen people on the first page of comments did. Many mentions of Hulks and purple pants were made.
Jokes aside, I don’t find it any more strange than Anvil’s Unobtainium brassiere. Modesty armor is alive and well in DaveB’s universe.
there are 3 full pages of comment that i am not going to read…
just something i was thinking about.
technically, i am pretty sure he can power-up himself by flexing his muscles REALLY hard.
You know, his tattoos are looking increasingly like chains. I wonder if they aren’t something imposed on him, something he’s trying to break by powering up.
wouldnt it be an actual good thing if he got more and more powerful? because the way i see this going down he becomes so large and strong that he cant move and the Super Heroines attack him over and over until he eventually explodes due to all the power he is getting from violence.
Except for the small fact that it appears that his increase in size is completely under his conscious control. To point, last page he said he had so much power that he could do “this” and then appears to concentrate for a second before expanding.
oh yeah, forgot that. my bad
Nah, I’d say that he was just bluffing about doing anything at all, and he was counting on the fact that Max/ Dabbler/whomever, would go with their first instinct to “stop” him… IE, to use force (vehemic energy power-up!)… and he powered up that ‘last little bit” to enable himself to go to the next level/form… if they had NOT done anything to him at all, like Sydney tried to say, he wouldn’t have done anything except look silly for that few seconds that he was “squinting… REAL HARD” and he would have had to do/say something else witty…
I suggest we name this form.
Wait for it.
Vehemoth.