Grrl Power #268 – Vehemence revealed
You can see why I wanted this page and the previous one to be double. There were… a number of comments on the last page about how V has magic pants or whatever. You can see that is clearly not the case. Even though most comics don’t have that comics code authority seal on them anymore, certain items of clothing are still for the most part curiously immune to battle damage. If that was the case in this comic, I might be tempted to have Sydney suggest making a suit of panties for use as armor. All that being said, Wolverine does tend to get all his clothes blown off at least once every dozen issues or so. I guess the writers like to remind us how hairy he is every so often.
Male nudity is almost always played for comedy cause guys are gross or just funny looking without clothes, and even when it’s a sexy guy who gets caught with his pants down in front of a woman, her reaction is usually comedic. Women are so sexualized in media that it’s more challenging to play female nudity for comedy, but I’m sure I’ll find a way at some point.
Those of you who recognize the “KA-Sound Effect” gag know it from The Wotch, which is one of the webcomics that made me think I should do my own. It has some pretty rough art in the beginning but good expressions, characters, humor and writing. It’s a curious comic, filled with stuff that I, being a well traveled denizen of the internet, associate with a lot of impossible sexual fetishes, like magical gender swapping, petrification, people being transformed into monsters and other stuff, but the comic itself never gets into anything sexual at all. If I had to describe it in one sentence, I’d say it’s like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets El Goonish Shive. EGS by the way is the comic that inspired the Who’s Who widget on my own comic. Characters in EGS tend to change gender and hairstyles, sometimes even species at the drop of a hat and while it’s one of my favorite comics, I will admit to being kind of lost as to who was who more than a few times while reading it.
Drawing Bulk Vehemence is proving to be a bit of a challenge, and he looks a little weird in a few of these shots. I will attribute that to his size being a little uneven while growing and endeavor to sort it out quickly in upcoming pages.
Vehemence isn’t still growing by the way, this is just the last thing that happened right as he stopped. Also, his power set isn’t Vehemic absorption… and making pants, but he said it already, he has a lot of power to burn at this point.
Edit: Whoops, I forgot V’s battle damage like a boss. Fixed now.
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.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
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SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Hmm. Definitely some personality quirks with this guy. He held a polite conversation with Sydney early in the fight. He expressed concern for her welfare during the fight. He expressed concern for a villain’s health after hurting said villain. He has exchanged polite banter in mid-fight. And he has now shown concern for his personal public nudity. Yet, when he is absorbing energy from violence, he appears to have a completely different personality. I have expressed this opinion before, but there definitely appears to be a pattern to his behavior. It is as if he were possessed by one of those demons, or under the influence of some sort of drug or micro-electronic device attached directly to his brain. I’m wondering if his glowing bands are directly related to his absorption power, and if they can be somehow blocked.
Or I may be watching waaaaay too many behavior profiling shows…
That’s quite normal for your age/income/social bracketing.
Hah!
Not concern for his nudity. Concern about their reaction
Sure. The opposite of violence is not what he is after. The reactions of everyone (even Max) would reduce his power, not increase it, as they would be less tempted to commit acts of violence while being..distracted.
I would submit the idea that violence IS a drug to him. He’s trying to get his fix.
I see it slightly differently: after a long time of mediocre power-ups that he couldn’t participate in ARC SWAT, with some help from him, gave him the fight of his life. Violence-based power or not, there is probably some serious gratitude and/or appreciation there. Killing any of them would lower the future potential – this guy’s best bet is to become a recurring villain, even if that just means showing up at any ARC SWAT fights. So, if he’s smart he considers them sparring partners, not enemies. And this guy is showing some intelligence and restraint also. In other words, also good for a recurring villain.
After the big buildup of the psychological profile of this character, I don’t think Dave wants to just throw him into future comics as “Nyah Nyah PLEASE Hit Me Man”.
That’s Death Toll anyway.
Vehemence is more of a Hulk impersonator. If he’s there, then it doesn’t matter if it was a massacre, wedding or parent’s night… he’s now front and centre til he leaves or swears to play nice
Well, it probably gives him atleast a rush, and probably a full on high when absorbing lots of violent energy. He probably gets a little carried away then
1) Challenge world – check, 2) Stomp Heroes – check, 3) Pants on – check, 4) Profit.
New plan to fight him:Attack the pants,he will spend all his energy by summoning new ones.
He thought he was being polite to the mostly lady team by summoning those pants. Going out of their way to destroy them would tell him that they want him naked. Personally I think they should avoid forcing him down that chain of logic.
On the other hand they do have a succubus on their team and that would be excatly her kind of direction. ;)
So we have the Magic Pants trope subverted and then… he actually creates magic pants. Nice.
I do enjoy playing with tropes. :)
I think you’re an expert tight trope walker…
That was beautiful and painful at the same time.
That should be an author-trope
Well, I was ALMOST right on the previous comic thread.
Magic pants were there….just not the ones he was first wearing.
So next comic Sydney pointing out this very trope?
I think Sydney will be trying very hard to forget this ever happened. Getting super-flashed was not in her contract.
It’s probably mostly surprise and shyness. She’s got a healthy interest in sex, including Japanese tentacle hentai, but probably not a lot of practical experience. So catching Vehemences improvised striptease act was a bit much for her. It wouldn’t surprise me the least if she later tracks down the video recordings and take a good look to make sure she didn’t miss anything.
is it in anyone’s contract?
Dabbler.
It’s the rare occupation that allows you to play with your tropes in a public venue…
For a lot of super-hero comics the outfits are so skin-tight that they might as well be bodypaint anyway, and frankly in many cases that feels like pandering to me. I’m really glad that Grrlpower has so-far avoided that (mostly).
Of course these days I compare almost everything to Worm (the web-serial) which could get away with a bit more because it’s a written format, just like books can get away with stuff that would would earn R/NC-17/X movie ratings. And when nudity or near-nudity comes up it’s almost always played for a gross-out factor instead.
If I ever did my own superhero thing most of the characters would wear body-armor, not because they needed it but because regular clothing couldn’t stand up to the rough-and-tumble lifestyle. Screw your “unstable molecules”, DC.
Aren’t unstable molecules a marvel invention? I think Reed Richards first came up with them because of the various abilities the FF members had that made regular clothes useless….
Yes, you’re right, sorry. I made that post just after I had woken up and the wires in my brain where still crossed.
Here’s a fun fact-
There’s a class of materials in Real Life known as Auxetics (google it!). This type off material is set apart because of an odd arangement of atoms in the molecules- almost an accordion fold.
What this does is reverse the usual compression reaction- normally, when you ‘squish’ something, it ‘squashes’ outwards, with the material moving away from the point of squishing. However, Auxetic materials ‘squoosh’ when compressed, instead of ‘squashing’. What that means is that the mass of the material moves towards the point of squishing. Also, when you stretch an Auxetic material, it actually becomes thicker, instead of becoming thinner like non-auxetics.
This ‘reverse squish’ behaviour means a couple things- for one, it means Auxetics actually become stronger when you hit them, at the moment of impact. This means they’re being looked at for hyper-durable workwear and flexible armour applications. They’re very tough. Second, some of the Auxetics they’re developing are long-chain polymers, which when woven with normal, non-Auxetic materials, create a fabric that can stretch without losing thickness. These Auxetic polymers are very similar in structure and chemical makeup to things like Mylar and Kevlar, which are heat and fire-resistant materials. And some Auxetics are being used in the development of ‘invisible’ materials- materials that are transparent to certain wavelengths of energy.
The kicker? Auxetic molecules can spontaneously decay sometimes. In other words, they’re “Unstable”.
All Fiction is just fact that hasn’t been discovered yet.
^This
TL;DR–the main reason why unicorns are fiction is because no genegineer has yet figured out the right Genetic combination of DNA to make them fact…yet.
Ok, all that is certainly interesting. But can these super-materials only be used to make skin-tight clothing, or if I layered them together into some kind of design that looks like body-armor would that be even stronger?
Give it time. Gor a material with properties as weird as that, I am sure there are useful applications we haven’t even DREAMED of yet.
Just wait until the Japanese porn industry to gets hold of these. Weird is just the beginning for them. I bet there are some of their stuff that even Dabbler finds distressing.
For another example of Science in action, check out Air Gel.
Oh, and I love how vehemence seems to act like a posh Jack-the-Ripper. “So sorry there, I seem to have gotten a spot of blood on your shirt as I was carving out your liver. Let me get that for you.”
“Only if if one” ? me spots an error, methinks. Otherwise funny page :)
Whoops! It’s fixed now.
I notice Shawn is using a pair of micro-binoculars. Examining the phenomenon CLOSELY
Plus the George Takei reference.
From now on I’ll be reading Shawn’s dialogue in George Takei’s voice.
Well, I notice that Shawn *lowered* the binoculars. Evidently, he didn’t need them to get a good view anymore…
:/
Prtobably couldn’t fit in the complete view.
Or he fogged up the lenses.
Get the pants off again, Dabbler just got a massive tantric energy boost!
I thought the Ka- gag came from Rip Haywire.
I thought it came from The Wotch.
But I have no idea who was influenced by whom here.
This is a typo.
The correct sound is:
A – Sha-PANTS! (Shazam)
B – Kame-hame-Pants! (DBZ legacy)
C – Pan… Pan… Pan… Pantscats, Hooooo… (Thundercats legacy)
D – Panpanpanpanpanpan… Paaants… Panpanpanpanpanpanpan… Pants… Pants… Pants… (Adam’s West batman legacy)
If he can summon pants, he can pull off a Kamehahmeha Attack! Or a Godzilla radioactive breath!
It’s curious how you can be aware that male nudity is often played for the sexist “men are gross” cliché but still have your two primary protagonists observably disgusted by it.
They’re conditioned to reapond that way. We know Sydney’s super ahy about sexual stuff, too. Maxima is probably less disgusted by the penis than she is by the absurdity of the situation and lack of forethought on his part. She may even be assuming it’s deliberate to ‘show off’.
Respond, rather, and super shy. Trying to type on a phone while on a bus.
Might I suggest you try typing while IN a bus, not ON a bus. It is safer. Wait, are you Spider Man?
(and yet we do ride IN a car for some reason)
Even stranger – aircraft! (eg. “Snakes On A Plane”.) You cannot avoid being “in” a plane (except wing-walkers), but it’s always “on”.
Maybe it was “on board” and we all got lazy…
Reminds me of a George Carlin skit.
Airport personnel: “Everybody get on the plane. Get on the plane.”
George “F@$% you I’m getting *in* the plane. Let Evel Knievel get *on* the plane. … There’ seems to be less *wind* in here.”
In fiarness, maybe catchTwentythree was speaking truth, as in really being ON a bus. I imagine typing under those circumstances would be difficult.
Vehemence is wearing reverse Bruce Lee track pants. This is Dave’s secret clue that his real name is Lee Bruce.
+1
Now that I think of it, ability to materialize giant pants on self might be the most out-there superpower displayed in the comic.
I’m guessing that in this case, he has so much power that he uses the Macross flight theory for superpowers (Screw Aerodynamics, if you put enough rockets on a brick, it will fly.)
That’s true enough, that if something has enough power to generate thrust, it WILL fly. My dad used to have a hobby with model airplanes: One day, he met someone who was trying to fly a plane that he built but it wouldn’t fly. He insisted that there must have been something wrong with the aerodynamics of it, but my dad told him that the engine was too small. He kept insisting that it was an aerodynamic problem & my dad said, “If you put a big enough engine on it, you could fly a cigar box that had singles for wings.”
The guy didn’t believe my dad, so he told the guy to come back tomorrow & he’d prove it…He spent that night building, yes, an airplane with a cigar box body & shingles for wings. He mounted a large engine on it & went back out the next day with it. It flew.
Kudos to your Dad.
A brick might take some serious power to get in the air, but here is a link to a video of some things that have no right to fly but does so anyway.
Conventional aircraft (planes & helicopters, for example) get some of their lift from the aerodynamics of the shape of their wings, combined with overall velocity from engine-thrust.
You also have to remember that rockets go all the way into space…The only “lift” they get is from pure thrust. Their chemical-reaction based engines are where they get that much thrust.
Dr. Strange used to conjure up his magic duds when caught off guard. :)
I rather like Vehemence’s reaction. The whole ‘Yes, I’m here to beat in your brains and gain huge amounts of power, but there’s no need to be crude…’ thing. Fun stuff.
In non pants related items, today’s Easter Egg is in panel two. Sydney’s orbs are casting a a shadow from her bangs onto her shirt in a batman cowl profile.
Holy crap, an actual easter egg. Good spot
Holy crap, Batman! Good eye for the detail.
V also dropped some very important info on himself. He’s a bit of a newb with his powers, and that his powers appear to evolve, similar to Halo’s powers.
Staring in wonder, embarrassment, lust, disgusted, finds it suitably impressive, George Takai
Grr thanks post timeout
Staring in wonder, embarrassment, lust, disgusted, finds it suitably impressive, George Takai
Try the telepresense orb now maybe that was the upgrade you unlocked.
Actually Hold off on that there’s the possibility the pants aren’t a summons so much as an illusion akin to Dabbler’s human appearance.
I’m debating whether Dabbler’s expression or Anvil’s is the best.
Definitely Anvil, it has that “I don’t realise eveyone can see me checking out his package” look. It would have been funny if she was also recahing forward without knowing it.
Anvil. Dabbler’s reaction is rather predictable, with her being a succibus and all. Anvil is more suprising, and actually a little character building.
I wonder if that last part is on purpose. DaveB does seem to have a reason for all of his details, so I’m going to guess yes
Anvil for sure. Not sure what kind of reaction to expect, but impressed was not on the top of my list. ;p
Okay, now he DEFINITELY regenerated. “grumblegrumble, it took a while to do that much to him”
His eye is still closed, presumably really damaged
Perhaps his eye is a sufficiently complex piece that he cannot regenerate it as quickly as he might heal from Dabbler’s shiv marks? I think DaveB has noted somewhere in these comments that he added back some battle damage he left out initially, but I cannot find it now.
I always found it preposterous that “healing factor” was instantaneous for everything. Cuts and contusions, sure, but teeth, bone, and major sensory organs?
Yea, it was nice that Sydney still had to keep the eyepatch on for a few hours to give her eye time to recover, even after visiting someone with healing powers.
You can accelerate natural regeneration, but you can’t just make organs magicly apear.
Also, in order to grow big any significant portion of your body, you’d need a significant amount of energy. Think a full week’s worth of calories just to grow back a limb. On top of all the food you already need to function
Magic. Freaking. Pants.
I want this superpower and I want it NOW.
Emergency pants. https://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020408
Honestly, I would have prefered there be a noticeable bulge if we were going to be doing a nudity joke that had at least two out of three characters excited..
Harem was impressed by size, Halo maybe, just embarrassed that she did…………. Dabbler for sure, Anvil for sure, Shawn did the Takei voice, so he might have liked it………the only one definitely negative reaction was Maxima, so either she was “all business” in her mind (we in middle of a battle) or she is not attracted to guys
I interpeted Maxima her reaction as more an ‘getting real tired of this’ than full on disgust
Indeed. I’m getting more of an antipathy toward someone who didn’t have the sense to take precautions vibe than a man-hating lesbian vibe. She’d have likely had a similar reaction to Glowbug’s wardrobe mishap as well probably more so as as a woman she should now better.
I, for one, now have an entirely different take on Shawn. And I mean that in a complimentary way.
He’s certainly a good deal cuter than Math.
okay WHERE THE HELL did it come from? that pants lol
Wait, did Sydney grab the molestorb? I can’t tell from the color, but it looks like it, so she’d have to have the shield orb in her right hand? It looks like the purple orb is in panel 5 but looks like she’s holding it in the last panel, but the shield is still there. Maybe it just rotated out of view and it’s the shield orb that has the purple glow…
soo.. what you are saying is, that Sydneys first reaction when a guy loses his pants is to reach for the molestorb? well, as she would say, “I have seen enough hentai to know where this is going…”
She appears to be holding the Shield orb in her left hand all the time (no reason to swap hands), so I reckon it’s just the Shield glowing with power.
Anvil`s! :-)!
Well, considering what Anvil’s super power IS, I’d think she WANTS Vehemence to pound her a good one…
All I can think of after reading this page is, “Solomon Grundy want pants, too!”
I do find it funny that the first thing he fixed was his nudity when his left eye is still out. If he’s got so much power as he’s claiming, why not heal that up? I know I’d rather have my eye back than worry about people seeing me oversized and naked.
LOL, true. Lets be nice and assume that when it was all theoretical he mostly studied the spells he thought were “fun” instead of more practical things like healing or regen. If he had this power all the time I’m sure he would have refocused his studies. He certainly will after this fight anyway!
Once you get past the idea of him somehow learning magic in the past without being able to do magic it almost makes a sort of sense. He seems to know a lot of supers including some magic wielders. What spell would most supers, hero and villain alike, need the most? The one that allows them to quickly change into their alter egos. I dressing, clothes creation or illusory change spell would be ideal for comic super type beings!
Given the kind of damage that supers can do and often receive, I’d think personal healing would be a priority.
Maybe magic directed at healing interferes with his magic gained from hurting
Maybe this is one of those worlds where the source of your magic is a factor in whether you can heal? *clutches frantically to straws*
Well healing is kind of the opposite of violence.
So my guess is: he can’t magicly heal himself
He probably didn’t notice his nudity at first *because* he still has to keep his (one good) eye on the battle…
Hmmm… I get that everybody is happy that we have subverted a trope and had a nice joke built off of it but him being able to create real or illusory pants creates a lot of potential logic issues no matter how powerful he is. Since his power doesn’t come with such instinctive understanding and he has already dropped enough hints as to his knowledge in a wide spread of areas but particularly magic/demons being able to bend his energies into creating pants the instant he powers up despite spending most of his time without such power suggests that he has strong knowledge of a few spells or an even stronger knowledge of the principles involved and was just waiting for an energy source strong enough to allow him to transcend the fact that he was born with no innate magic ability. However that works in this world. But there are worlds where you can study magic your whole life and never do more than cantrips (if that).
To me this would be an awesome story opportunity. Imagine that Vehemence grew up always wanting to be a learned magic user (wise wizard). He dived into the dangerous super world excited that HERE magic was real and attainable but then tragically learned, after many adventures, that he had no natural affinity for it and would never be able to do much. Instead he either developed or somehow stole a power that not only required him to spend his days around brutes to power up but when powered up transformed him into a super brute as well. But in his desperate magical studies he came across the idea that if he had ENOUGH power gathered quickly before it could drain away he could transcend his innate limitations and force spells that he normally wouldn’t be able to master with his non-existent talent.
Imagine his utter joy when he saw the announcement of a force that when put in opposition to a similar force would grant him all the power he could desire to burst that unfair boundary.
Buuut DaveB words above suggest this is a one off thing that wasn’t planed for or intended as a natural effect of V’s powers and that’s kind of illogical to me. If I suddenly graft a set of wings onto a person and plug them into their nervous system they are gonna have to spend months just getting them to move in directions they intended let alone fly. Their mind isn’t set up for them like birds are (and even birds need a few tries and some exercise first). If magic was that instinctive Gwen would be farther along and with little need of training except maybe in terms of power management.
OK, so he has just crap tons of power and maybe due to having previously had this power for a short while due to some riot or another he got an inkling that he could push some of that power out in a way other than what his body instinctively does. And that’s… livable, I can live with that… but couldn’t you have had him fudge it the first few tries? That would have applied a little balm to my mild logic burns and given us an excellent source of comedy.
V: “Erk! Whoops! Um… no problem ladies for I am now so incredibly powerful I can simply create what I need. BEHOLD PANTS!”
*poof!*
*bunny appears and V quickly holds it in front of his crotch*
Dabbler: “You’re going to need a bigger rabbit there son.”
V: *blushes* “Heh, one moment.” *concentrates*
*poof!*
*small bra appears*
Harem: “Well, I guess that takes care of the berries but what about the twig?”
Anvil: “You mean log right?”
V: “Dammit I need less distractions… um, I’m just gonna turn around and pretend you aren’t all staring at my junk so I stop thinking about… stuff. So don’t attack me for a second OK?”
Maxima: “Seriously?”
Dabbler: “Hey, he’s using up his energy on this without gaining any back of his own free will. But if you want to fight him naked… I’m willing.”
Maxima: “Gah, FINE, but make it quick there are cameras filming me standing next to this… this, whatever THIS is!” *grumbles*
V: “Okaay, learned this in Tibet” *turns around and speaks some vaguely mystical sounding chant and focuses with his eyes closed*
“And wallah” *Ka-Pants*
Several female voices: “FINALLY!”
Dabbler: “I could have stood some more.”
One of the Harems not actually standing right by the fight: “I’ll be in my bunk” *vorp*
__________________——————————–
Just a thought. ^_^’
Dabbler: “Darn, and here I had the oil out and ready…”
The part I didn’t spell out here well enough is that if V can do pants when that isn’t a natural function of his power set, or has enough knowledge to divert his power to pants (heh), then he should be able to do other spells. Just being able to do one spell needs a bit of foreshadowing or later explanation. (foreshadowing would be best…. )
That’s what DaveB meant. He wasn’t saying PANTS BECAUSE, he was saying “here’s your hint that he can also usevehemic energy for magic, and has so much power to burn he’s willing to waste it making pants.”
Yeah, “Ka-Pants” and some of his comment down below the comic suggest its magic but what I was worried about was whether V hit this power level and suddenly has magical powers over reality that work precisely as he intended them to or if he trained as best he could without this power level and is now just putting his knowledge, and whatever cantrips he was able to manage for practice, to work now in a big way. I’m hoping for the latter as it makes more sense. He’s reached a power level close to this one at least once before so maybe he got some practice there as well.
And while the latter of those two would make more sense that he could create an item with magic it still is surprising he has that level of mastery.
I feel like you’re assuming it should be hard for him when he clearly knows his shit really well and making pants is TRIVIAL now that he has such an excess of power.
No matter how well you tell a kid how to ride a bike, and show them how its done, they still have a pretty good chance of crashing. Often more than once… At the very least they look hella unsteady at first!
I don’t know how magic works in this world. Maybe creation of objects is trivial. Maybe its not. (if breaking just a few atomic bonds blows the crap out of an area rebuilding them probably takes a crap ton of energy and possibly a great deal of subtlety learned through experience?)
He appears to have used the scraps of his old pants and shoes to make more elastic track pants, actually. Comparably simple transmutation.
Entirely possible. Wasn’t particularly drawn that way (would have taken too many panels I’m sure) and the type of material is so different it would mean completely changing a couple of types of molecules into some other types. Now we just got to get him some lead so he can change it into gold! Or maybe U.S. dollars into Kuwaiti dinars or something worth its paper anyway!
He should start his attack round off by changing everyone’s clothes to metal. Bind all the weaklings in one stroke. (or add the surrounding metal to them if that’s too much for him)
Man, triple post. I wish I could edit. In short what I’m saying is that there is no reason to assume this is his first time using magic just because it’s his first time getting huge. What do you suppose he used previously collected energy for?
That’s possible and is one of the options I was getting at. Its the option I favor. I had to post a second time because I realized I hadn’t said that clearly enough.
But its still possible DaveB meant the other thing which is why I mentioned it as an option. An option I don’t like as much. I favor knowledge = power and worlds where having a crap ton of power but no idea how to use it properly or safely can actually be a detriment or weakness in some areas.
Anyway, even though I spoke of two ways this could go down, I thought I actually spent more time talking about the option both you and I favor or at least equal time but it seems I gave you the impression I was only discussing the other one somehow. My bad for my poor communication skills.
+1
Too funny!
Brilliant!
“But there are worlds where you can study magic your whole life and never do more than cantrips (if that).”
True enough. In the GURPS system, the “default” condition that is assumed is that the world itself can act as a natural generator of mana, the “fuel” for casting magic spells. In worlds of higher levels of mana, anyone can use magic if they know how to use it. In other worlds that have average mana levels, there are minor spells anyone can use (with the knowledge) but more complex magic needs to draw some mana from the mage him/herself to work; This is where the Magical Aptitude (aka: Magery) advantage comes in, as it’s something that allows mages to tap into their own inherent “power source” when most people can’t. Then there are worlds with low or no natural mana sources & NO ONE can use magic, regardless of knowledge.
I’d say that Dave’s world here would be considered Low or Average mana in this context: Those with Magical Aptitude can learn & wield strong magical effects with proper study & training (like Gwen), but if referring to someone like Zeph (Gwen’s Mentor) might cast minor magics, but still not cast higher magics at all, despite having higher levels of magic *knowledge.*
By your description of Vehemence, he seems to be someone who has *learned* a lot of magic, perhaps even higher levels, but didn’t possess the Magical Aptitude naturally. He eventually found a way to artificially focus mana in a manner consistant with the Magical Aptitude ability; that’s what his tattoos are…His artificially-induced source of the Magery advantage. Now that he can *cast* spells, being powered from Vehemic Energy (absorbed by his tattoos) to act as mana, he uses spell *knowledge* to make his pants…Which also brings to question: What is his *scope* of knowledge, now that he can absorb & channel the power to *use* his knowledge? What is really the extent of his magical learning?
That’s sort of the direction that I’m hoping to go. There is still room for DaveB to take us somewhere completely different… but some kind of strong magical knowledge background being important to what he is doing now would certainly make the most sense to me.
Assuming he IS going the direction you (and I) describe I would still sort of expect to see some fumbling. Talented magic users have the ability to train with actual magic energy all the time, well I’m sure its draining but often anyway, while something about the way V has been talking and the way the fight has been going suggest to me Vehemence only gets to play with actual magic energies on that level when he gathers enough juice to break some kind of barrier or act as a catalyst or something… Whatever it is that allows him to fake being like the innate magic talents, it just makes me feel like he wouldn’t have enough time to practice to get good at everything (running around looking for massive sentient caused violence like city wide riots or something) so I would expect some problems of some kind when he tries to use magic in a big way. Maybe a stall out, maybe a comedic focus error like the one I described above or perhaps something more serious. I mean let him cast some fireballs and enjoy himself but showing him still getting used to his power couldn’t hurt the believably IF what we’ve been talking about is the route DaveB is going.
I’ll live if it doesn’t go that route and I suppose skipping all of that will get this fight over with so we can get on with the “good stuff” of all the training and other “day in the life” fun.
Oh, I forgot to mention (darn you no edit function!). Guesticus made the point that V stating he was an “innate” vehemic user suggested he was born with or otherwise came by naturally the ability to absorb and use vehemic energies. There are some other definitions of the word that might allow us to bend around that but they may be right. If it is truly born in then maybe the tattoos are magic he learned to help him steal this energy away from his superpowers normal functioning and redirect it such a way that he can use it for spells? This feeds back into my theory that Vehemence was blessed with a super power that didn’t match his hearts desire. What happens when a super is brilliant enough to use their power to the hilt but to the bottoms of their soul actually want another power. What if in super terms Vehemence is a “Transpotentia”?
Still think you’re all overthinking it. It seems less “he can’t do it normally so he had to learn to do it like THIS” and more “this is just how he does it”. Dabbler probably uses tantric energy to excite thaumions. It’s all magic, just using different power sources.
Overthinking it is part of the fun! :D
Maybe in that case. If he can always use his energies to make spells then as soon as he got any kind of a charge he would use it to spell people towards being more inclined to violence then use the energy that causes to make a stronger version etc… like Dabbler’s relatives seem to do naturally.
Perhaps he is unable to use and/or store regular mana and is only able to do so with mana that is “seasoned” with violence.
For those of us who know GURPS a version of aspected magery , or aspected mana requirement.
I’d say that’s the case. But it could be that his tattoos act more like a Powerstone (in GURPS terms) that collects energy…It’s just that his *tattoos* are limited to absorbing Violence-Aspected mana. If V had the natural Magery advantage, he could use any kind of mana.
Is that a chocobo on Shawns hat? Or a harvest moon hat?
He’s an ex-seal. Its a baby seal picture. Its from his shirt joke earlier, “I dare you to try and club THIS Seal!” LOL
I am guessing that the power to summon clothes would explain his well tailored suit and willingness to tear off shirts. But can he summon pizza? Now there’s a power….
I would have preferred magic pants because the next logical place for Sydney’s tentacle rape orb to attach where his arms bulked up won’t reach … is his anus. Also good for messing with their concentration.
/was not trying to go there, but trying to defang a fully charged villain and we don’t have a Bobbler that works on him.
Talk about a wardrobe malfunction!
Seriously though, this is one of the best superpowers ever! Crank up some metal, start headbutting random things, new costume!
Oh great. Now he’s starting to look like one of those morons with a tiny head on huge shoulders/back muscles. Hope doesn’t grow more. That being said, hilarious strip!
Yea, his neck muscles are a little TO much
In the comments with the previous comic page, someone posted a YouTube link to “The Huge Quest.” You see a lot of it going on there…
Okay… a few things…
First: Is it possible he’s putting on the pants for more that just modesty’s sake? No doubt Dabbler got some kind of boost from it, maybe its not only that he’s polite but he’s also clever enough to spot it and stop it?
Second: He says he’s never grown before so if the pants stayed the same size there should have been some… *cough cough* discomfort almost instantly. ….. Every one of us males can confirm that if clothing is causing any kind of… difficulty.. we fix it pretty damn quick.
Yes he’s a super and yes he’s highly resistant to pain and damage, but as we saw a few pages back with Maxima’s big stomp, he was still rather concerned with damage to the pants parts… so… yeah… pants suddenly applying rather a lot of pressure should have had more of an effect I think.
Third: Is V going around commando or is that white with yellow spots his underwear?
If commando: Dude… that’s just weird…
If that’s his underwear: Is that really what you wear with an expensive custom made suit that you are taking to a super-brawl? ..really? … really really? …
Fourth: Maxima’s face… that is a scary scary man-hating face… Now the research has not come back yet but I’d pretty sure that face can cause impotence… please be very very careful with future use of that particular face..
Fifth: Sorry for the nit-picking, awesome comic as always.
Sixth: better super power than magically appearing pants? Making your pants disappear off yourself after a long day.. given that would ruin the fun of kicking them away…
Yes, that was his underwear having burst at the top as well. It does seem he shaves the carpet to match the drapes though. He must be some kind of body builder or swimmer in his past…
Even though the visual evidence doesn’t support this theory, I’d like to think V’s undershorts would be white with the “Evil Smile” emoticon printed all over them. It would be in tune with the general facial expressions he’s been displaying so far anyway.
Specifically:
https://www.smile-day.net/tag/evil-smiley-faces/
Yeah, he’s soooo apologetic–no, really, it was an accident! I had no idea! I’ve bevercgrowm like this before?
Really? I mean, seriously, who free-balls it in a battlefield? And, yeah, his boxers could have just shredded along with his pants, but underwear tend to be stretchier than outerwear. Odds are, his jockeys would have outlasted the slacks–at least by a frame or two. Certainly long enough to provide an opportunity to avoid the public nudity incident. I think he’s just showing off: both the pants power and whatever attribute he displayed that has Dabbler’s tongue peeking over her lips. Apparently more than just muscle grows from Vehemic energy.
Um… I free-balled it for a solid two years of actual combat deployments. Some people just don’t like to be confined, or like having yet one MORE layer of fabric to ride up on you.
He wasn’t freeballing. His boxers are visible tearing in the panel where his pants rip.
“Really? I mean, seriously, who free-balls it in a battlefield?”
Historically speaking, Celtic Spearmen (the “common” warriors, not the “elite” who were made legendary) would strip down & paint blue patterns all over.
Hysterically speaking, they believed this would make them less vulnerable to wounds & injury…
don’t know how true it is, but i heard that the Woad they painted themselves with, was also an anesthetic… thus making them less likely to actually FEEL those injuries until the fight was over.
apply topical anesthetic to 500 people, drive those 500 into a mindless “mob” state, give them weapons, point at Roman Legion and shout “KILL!!” and watch History unfold.
Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, and others who lived before underwear.
To say nothing of a few groups around AFTER the invention of underwear.
The central premise of ‘Carry On Up The Khyber’ immediately comes to mind.
just rember to keep your dangler warm
oh sorry it’s called a sporran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-3dqb1izAo
Underwear wasn’t really hard for them to figure out. It’s just a matter of how you can wrap some goat-skin hide around you. As a side note, Egyptians figured out how to weave fine linens when pretty much everybody else was using animal hides.
Lol saiyans get glowy hair, her gets glowy pants. Probably the better deal in a fight.
9th panel… is that a George Takei reference? :D
That is how it sounds in my head.
Dave has already said that this was his deliberate intention.
Is anyone else simply DELIGHTED at how polite this guy is? I swear, his manners just make my day.
Yes, indubitably. I hear him as “Clancy Brown doing Lex Luthor with a British accent.”
so did maxima fix her nose and clean the blood off her face off-screen? does she fast healing powers?
His posturing and other, um, antics are certainly giving her enough time to polish her face with a sleeve or something. I don’t know if her nose looks all that fixed?
Nah, DaveB tends to forget to draw minor injuries sometimes. He forgot Sydney’s face bruise a few times aswel
Max’s nose still has a bend in it.