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.
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Im not going to read through; at this point, 569 responses to see if this was covered but….
I just broke my Suspenders of Disbelief.
Dude just did a perfect 1:1 conversion of energy into (im guessing) 1-2 pounds of matter.
That is a rediculous amount of energy.
Presuming Einstein’s famous equation is correct:
It’s enough energy that if detonated it would make a hole in the planets crust big enough to make the Yellowstone supervolcano’s inevitable eruption look puny in comparison…
… what sufficiently advanced form of pelvic sorcery is this?
Its MAGIC!
It’s a kind of Magic!
“Don’t Lose Your Head” over it…
Or perhaps “Clarke’s 3rd Law”:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws]
In any event, [E=mc^2] only refers to creating matter from energy, or vice-versa.
I believe that far less energy is needed to take pre-existing matter & re-shape it by pumping energy into its molecular bonds. Thus could a set of torn rags be “recycled” into a new, form-fitting set of tights…
…hopefully stretchy enough to survive any further growth.
Does the team want to take a Mulligan?
Is that what they’re calling a quicky these days?
To all appearances, Vehemence cast a magic spell that conjured the pants. If you want to try explaining magic in logical scientific terms, the magic spell either “teleports” the pants from somewhere else, or it gathers atom-sized mass from the area; the “area” could be either from the immediate surrounding area or maybe through some kind of inter-dimensional link. the atoms being gathered are directed by the spell to assemble themselves into the appropriate molecules to form the material. Since the mass being gathered on the atomic level, it’s effectively invisible until enough of it is assembled into the form desired. Think of how the teleporters work on Star Trek…
TL;DR–See Dr. Revenge’s reply just above.
Nope. My definition of “Magick” is that it is literally “Supernatural” or above/beyond Natural Law, so Magick can create energy or matter with no proportional cost. I am currently lobbying to have Reality recognize and abide by my definition, and will shortly start an online petition. (If you can’t be surreal, why be?)
Harem has at one point generated four copies of herself. Even counting the fact that each individual gets a bit smaller and lighter when a new copy is popped, she needed at least 100 pounds of “new” material for each body.
And in a setting where a person can generate and turn into lightning, while another can survive “attacks that would destroy matter on the subatomic level”, the laws of physics might just not apply on a 1:1 basis.
The laws of physics from this level of “reality” have great differences from Dave’s world.
Some have great deals of attention aid to the. And some are like “we exist?”
Some have great deals of attention paid to them. And some are like “we exist?”
Actually the mass conversion of two pounds is close to the power of Fat Man, and that merely wiped out 35,000-40,000 people. While c^2 is a very big number, most people don’t realize how small a joule actually is.
Fat man was a one to two gram conversion, not pounds.
You’re right. My (admittedly half-assed) research said megatons instead of kilotons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nuclear_explosions gives the effect of a 20 megaton bomb. While I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it, it still doesn’t compare to a super volcano.
This assumes the pants were created from 100% energy to matter conversion, and not assembled magically from basic elements, or even that they were summoned. He also gained all that muscle and bone mass in the last page that caused his pants to pop in the first place… way more energy than creating pants out of thin air.
Also his old pants are gone. I’m pretty sure he transmuted the old pants into larger, stretchier pants.
Sorry but you must not only read them all but also scan them 3 times a day for further replies and comments. Its the Law of Dave.
It sounds to me like you’re assuming that Vehemence is converting violence energy on a 1:1 conversion rate? If that were the case, then there wouldn’t be any leftover effects from violent actions. If anything, there’s more violent energy present than V’s ability to absorb it! Think of it this way: If there’s 10 “units” worth of violent activity going on & if V is absorbing even only 1/10th of it, he still powers up. Even if he can only absorb 9 of those energy “units,” he will still power up & there would still be effects of violence evident.
Battling supers is a *very* violent activity, even in an area as limited as the few blocks already affected. when Vehemence mentioned being at the LA riots, he was most likely to have been quietly standing by to absorb, rather than risk getting caught by the cops. That violence may seem a high rate to *us* but it was also spread out over large areas, mostly out of his range of absorption.
Right now, V is getting a lot of highly-concentrated level of violence within a short range…Comparing this battle to the LA riots must seem like he has a 100-person buffet line set up for just himself!
there is just so much pants science going on right here XD
Basically, the short explanation is, “If he can create muscle mass, then he can create muscle shirts.”
Muscle “KA-PANTS”
I’m betting the pants are an illusion much like Dabblers glamours. He is after all using magic in a way very similar to hers. Plus added fun when anyone uses any illusion negating effect. Hands off the com-ball Halo.
Or he could have just been keeping a pair of “emergency pants” in an inter-dimensional pocket. Always keep a pair of emergency pants…you never know when you’ll need them.
Odd you would say “Emergency Pants” as if it were a common thing…
https://dragondoctors.dhscomix.com/archives/comic/ch-4-page-24
Here is the original pair of Emergency Pants. https://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/020408
Creator of Dragon Doctors here, it was indeed a shout out to Sluggy at the time, but I put it to WAY more use. A shapeshifting mage better oughta have a change of emergency clothes, after all!
Also, I wondered why someone was linking to my comic from an unknown source. Heh.
Even though Shawn obviously didn’t need to keep using the magnification effect of his binoculars, no one has yet noticed or mentioned that, not far from here, Peggy still had her eye up to the rifle scope…
She’s focusing on a potential target. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Maybe if they keep destroying his pants he’ll get embarrassed and leave.
You’re a fan of EGS, Dave? Holy crap, that’s awesome. That comic doesn’t get nearly enough attention for its level of amazing perfection.
I think it scares people. It doesn’t mean to, its just different.
I mean, it’s perversion without the sex! I love it!
Good one, I never bought the whole bit with the Hulk where the legs of the pants split but the pants stay on, that just never made any sense at all to me. Good job on this so far, you’ve really got something here that just keeps getting better, as for those who don’t get the spare pants bit, V is a being much like Dabbler. This being the case then why wouldn’t he be able to make pants materialize? This makes total sense to me.
Am I the only person who want’s V & D to get together for a ‘bit of fun’ later on?
I think Dabbler’s interest would involve more than dabbling…She’d probably go for full-scale research & experimentation.
Why am I reminded of Tenchi Muyo? https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f40/BrikHaus81/blog/tenchi/tenchiep7.jpg
Personally, I see a relationship between V and Anvil, as V isn’t so much as a dick, as just someone who is currently rather excited about punching someone in the face harder than he has in the past without killing him/her.
I can certainly imagine V and D doing some experiments to see if there was something that fuel them both at the same time, but I am quite certain the GM would have to veto that, as the logistics of that would break down quickly.
Now does anyone question the idea of dousing him with itching powder and letting him do himself in?
Douse the itching powder with DMSO & queue up Frank Sinatra for this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGZDkVQkEmw
Do it. Hey it worked in game when I used a 10lb bag of it on Tiamat. Of course the result was messy, disgusting, and had the rest of the party vomiting but who cares?
Since DMSO is a liquid, wouldn’t that turn it into Itching Mud? Kinda hard to apply, I would think.
Would it matter when the bad guy busy disemboweling himself for you?
Mud slinging is easy, just look at all the politicians and ‘reality’ shows, specially the “Real Housewives”
Is it bad I can easily reenvision V & Dabbler as a very pervy super-duo: Maso-malum & Sado-succubus? Before every patrol some S&M, then who nows where the night goes.
I’d think Anvil would be a better match for Vehemence…No matter how violent HE gets, she can still take it & get stronger in the process.
it WOULD be an interesting way to see what their upper limits are.
What I find strangest about this is that a guy who plans to beat the crap out of these gals gives a crap about what they think. Why would he care if they’re happy?
Dude, embrace the violent nature of forcibly displaying yourself those who’d rather not see!
V was just as embarrassed by losing his pants as the team was surprised in their various ways. Besides the crown jewels need support while engaged in violent activity, just like a lady’s breasts.
Hey, he’s a complicated dude.
Plus, as eddi pointed out, fighting nude is not a great idea.
just slap some woad on and he’ll be fine
He doesn’t like the muddle of the woad. (With all due respect to Randall Garrett)
Vehemence is ALREADY happy to be in this fight. To him, a fight like this is just Heaven on Earth. He can afford to compromise with the ladies on *some* points, as long as he can still keep the fight going for as long as he wants…
If Vehemence gets any “happier” this comic is going to get re-classified as an outright hentai, even with those new super-stretchy pants.
Also, having read numerous comments now and reflecting on this installment for a couple of days … it occurs to me we have discovered one of Big V’s weaknesses that can be exploited to some effect, if performed strategically. All they have to do is de-pants him. Harem could vorp in and out with them, for one near-instantaneous example. I’m sure she’d volunteer without hesitation.
Other goofy hijinks that ridicule and embarrass him. They might not actually drain him (although, maybe, just a little), but could put him off-rhythm & off-balance at critical junctures in a fight and create other exploitable openings. Any & all anti-violence sort of clown tricks that generate laughter are possibilities.
I think that Vehemence wants to see how far he can go. He has never had this much power before, and while he knows some spells he has never had the power to use them. That could also explain his concern for Sydney, he is uncertain of whether or not he can control this much power. He might even be afraid of exploding and releasing all that power at once, or he knows some spell that he does not know the effects of and this is his way of trying it out.
I suspect that Vehemence was brought up by nuns in an orphanage. This would explain the 1950s politeness plus the leanings towards…er….disciplinary beatings. I can only assume that he was caned so hard one day his genes activated as part of the next evolutionary chain.
So not displaying your junk to people you’re going to kill is out-of-date 1950s politeness? I guess I’d better get with the times… *drops pants*
Yes, get with the programme, mister!
did anyone else hear Shawn’s “Oh Myyy” line in George Takei’s voice from Team Fourstar’s DBZ Abridged?
No, you are the first to mention it
We should serve the cake now. The Takei Room is starting to overflow into the hall.
I asked that 2 pages back and was told that was the point however you’re the first to mention the abridged DBZ use of that quote.
Must be a common response because I was JUST about to say “who else read ‘Oh Myyy’ in George Takei’s voice in his head” and then I read the most recent comment. Though I wasn’t going to say anything about dbz. That’s kind of become George Takei’s catchphrase at this point.
Lol he put on his Big Boy pants.
+1
It’s about time he did. He IS playing with the big girls now…
Did anyone else hear Gorge Teiki’s (forgive my sp) voice in panel 9? I am still laughing.
There’s cake left in the Takei Room for those mentioning his voice.
I have to say i really like Vehemence. He is a smart well educated and polite person. You can tell he was brought up properly. It almost seems a shame that his power set means he is dependent on the more violent of the population. Villains tend to be smart or strong and Vehemence is both. I will be very upset when he leaves the storyline for whatever reason.
When people ignore that the villain just grew a size category (Because THAT is OBVIOUSLY possible) and instead complain about pants that appear…
I will now include 2 ‘logical’ explanations for KA-PANTS:
Illusion
Hologram
There. Now can we argue about the impossibility of generating several cubic feet of mass? Oh wait. There is a 1st level spell for that in D&D. Oh, and Hulk does it.
*Rolls eyes*
Guess it’s not impossible then.
/sarcasm
There is one thing that Vehemence can do that the Hulk can’t…Use magic spells! He just needed to gather enough Vehemic energy to cast. It doesn’t mean that his pants HAVE to be illusion or hologram, because magic is also capable of summoning & creating spell effects as well as illusions.
I’m afraid Peggy will only have a long range view at the goods… that’s why she has a spotter with binos.
I am completely amazed that there is no ‘Emergency Pants’ page on tvtropes.
Which, out of a sense of 1950s era politeness, I will not link.
It’s nice to see can be embarrassed. All these different ways to say my god.(hee hee hee)
Well, at least he didn’t suffer from Hulk Syndrome. Biiig muscles; tiny wee-wee.
I wish we could have seen Peggy up on her rooftop, wondering if she could shoot em off.
Well, the Hulk definitely has magic pants, so if V did too he wouldn’t be the only one. ;)
he is just such an awesome dude. make him recurring. “oh, sorry…[pants]”
Dabbler was happy, so I’m assuming it was, at the LEAST, a 1:1 proportional growth
That may not have been the cause of her reaction. Vehemence is rather excited by violence, perhaps in a way more to Dabbler’s tastes, than every one elses’?
I just had a George Takei moment….
Shawn is now and forever voiced in my head by George Takei.
“Women are so sexualized in media that it’s more challenging to play female nudity for comedy …”
Clearly you’ve never watched an anime. :P
Also, how the hell does he have pants powers?!
Do we have a scale of reference? Italian Salami?
Yes, we have a Succubus licking her lips and saying “Oh-ho-ho my gods”.
Judging by Dabbler’s comment, and her credentials, that may be an under-estimate. I suspect a donkey would probably be envious!
Reading Shawns reaction, I can’t help but think of George Takei XD.
I love how polite vehemence is. When not attempting murder.
Name: Vehemence.
Abilities: Harnesses vehemic energy. At Stage 2 (green markings), can create pants.
Anyone else read panel 9 in George takeis voice
Not when I first read it, but I have since come across the meme and an interview with him talking about his relevantly titled book. So now, yea, I do get echoes of that.
soy puto
ok im confused max is clearly heterosexual or bi (as she doesn’t mind and also agree’s with some of the tantilzing that her coworkers and others make on the guys. why is she in digust when she sees a dick.
If the recent deluge of sexual harassment complaints in the news doesn’t give you an idea, then frankly, I don’t know what to say.
Actually, I do. While most guys are ok with surprise boobs, most women are not okay with unsolicited weiners. As a woman in the military (i.e. the ultimate boys’ club) she has seen her share. Ok, not as many as most women in the military, because a lot of guys are legitimately afraid of her, and most women don’t have the luxury of being as powerful as an entire battle group. Even when she wasn’t a Lt. Colonel, she could confidently lodge complaints against superiors without it affecting her career trajectory too much, as she knew full well that she was a uniquely valuable asset, and wanted to keep her around rather than protecting the feelings of Captain Can’t Keep It In His Pants.
As Dave says. But do note that you have a flaw in the logic of your question. Maxima’s toleration of coworkers antics is nothing to do with her own sexuality. That stems from ‘if all the individuals involved are happy with it, then it is not an issue’.
Spoiler: I do agree that Maxima is straight, because we have seen, later in the comic, that she fancies Super Hiro. Plus possibly she may be bi, but in denial (although I doubt that). However, should Maxima spontaneously become lesbian overnight she would not suddenly stop straight coworkers from being able to have fun with members of the opposite sex.
She would though come down with a golden fist on anyone who was behaving in a sexual way to someone who disliked that. Regardless of their genders or sexual orientations.
Oh my, that would be a interesting sight to see
anyone else hear shawn say “oh my” in george takai’s voice (aka mr sulu).
Uhm.
Excuse me.
When all this fighting is over, can I keep him?
Forever?