Grrl Power #272 – Sandbagger Vance
When you blow someone’s arm off in a superhero comic, it’s really only going to go one of two ways. Since Vehemence is an Arch-Villain, it had to go this way. Maxima just needed to face someone who wasn’t going to be out-powered. It’s a rare situation for her to be sure. I’m sure some people will be disgruntled by this and others will be… uh, gruntled I guess, but don’t worry about the fight resetting or anything though, we’re entering the home stretch.
I needed Vehemence to be so tough that if he ever shows up in the comic again, everyone knows that the proper response is “Oh shit, run!” He was always my guy who could go toe to toe with the Hulk or Juggernaut, Superman or even Darkseid, assuming Darkseid didn’t open with the ol’ Omega Beams. Vehemence is smart enough to know not to face off against a threat like that without warming up a little, which is a large part of what makes him Arch tier. Ooh, I just had a thought, I know I said him vs. Vegeta in the little byline, or whatever it’s called, but imagine Vehemence vs. DC’s Parasite. I’m actually not sure how that fight would go down but it would definitely be bad for the city it takes place in.
Drawing armored limbs that don’t look like Colossus’s is challenging. I tries doing vertical strips of armor, but he wound up looking like a metal eel or something. Which… is kind of cool, just not the look I had in mind for him.
So the Patreon campaign recently exceeded $3000 which is amazing! Within a few weeks of a year after I lost my job actually, or as I prefer to think of it, was promoted to full time comic dude. I want to thank everyone for their support as it’s been a great year. It turns out I really don’t miss the commute to the office to grind away in a cube like I had done for the last 20 years. The milestone goal for $3000 was “really making a living for realsies” so when I my wife had the chance she signed me up with her health insurance. Being without for a year was a little harrowing, but spending 10-12 hours a day drawing is inherently less risky than commuting and being around other germ bags. Still, yesterday I got a gentle reminder that living lean is really only a short term solution. I woke up and some nerve or tendon in my shoulder had decided to twist around the wrong way so I was in a fair amount of pain and had a super limited range of motion. Fortunately sleeping on it the next night fixed it (hooray for the human body I guess?) I was hoping it would since I didn’t want to live out the rest of the month like that until the health insurance kicked in.
Speaking of the health insurance though, I picked $3000 because it’s a round number and that’s how our brains work, not because it was the number I came up with after sitting down and doing a budget. Since American healthcare is enormously expensive, riding on my wife’s plan is more than a car payment. At least it includes dental and vision, which the cheaper Obamacare options don’t, and I could definitely use some new specs and a good tooth scraping. Unfortunately I will probably have to add at least one more ad banner to the site to make up the difference. I don’t want to, and I know it’s a first world problem, but the good thing is that I should be cash positive after that which is nice since I don’t want to be one of those webcomicers that has to run a kickstarter to afford to attend an out of state con. It also makes the next Patreon milestone easy to pick, which is to ditch some of the ads.
So I’m looking forward to next year! The first story arc will be wrapped up, and I’m excited for the next one. I promise more than one day will pass during it. :) I can put together a book (honestly it may wind up being two or even three volumes just cause a 300(-ish) page color book might be hella expensive), run a kickstarter for that, and even start looking at some of those out of state cons.
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Hey Vehemence, I’ve got an honest question for ya.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here (no pun intended, but dang, that should have been,) and say you’ve never regenerated before. So, how did you even know you could do that? Even if you knew you could, how did you know HOW to do that?
The internet
No, I’m gonna say he has. He arrived looking pretty buff. Once, he might have looked like the male version of, say, the main character but obviously found some v-energy to work with.
(But I wondered that as well before thinking of one possible answer…)
So he wants the V?
Lets be honest with ourselves here, but who WOULDN’T?
Maybe he HAS regenerated before. Maybe that’s why everyone was so impressed when he burst out of his pants earlier. :)
…but imagine having THAT removed…*sympathetic shudder*
“Hmm, I need to test if I can regenerate parts. I better cut off something completely unimportant to find out.”
Who noticed he regenerated his missing teeth! Hands?
Hah! Liars! ^_^
I also noticed his left eye regenerated too.
Well, Dave DID reserve one whole close-up of V’s face with his left eye wide open & his winning smile…
(sarcasm)Nope, I missed that entirely(/sacrasm)
Yeah, DaveB deliberately showcased it. I think everyone noticed.
He got some Shiny new teeth. This is obviously not going to end until January or February.
The differences in his visual acuity from eye to eye have to be driving him mad.
Also where’d the blood on Maxima’s face go?
Syds meds are definitely wearing off she’s got a spacy look going there.
Considering the adrenaline rush she has been going through off and on all day, and the distinct lack of a proper meal since she has been picked up, it isn’t a wonder she needs her meds now. At least she noticed it. Interestingly enough, she has appeared more stable through this fight than through all other confrontations she has had today. I think I prefer Sydney in this more stable format. She is still obviously unbalanced, but she at least has been able to provide beneficial improvised solutions and excellent analytical skills through this fight (so far).
Is it too early in the story line for one of the unknown orbs to be known? Specifically, in this situation, where one of the orbs depletes the energy that V has stored. It could be called the “Delilah” orb.
Anyone else notice the new dot on his regenerated hand tattoo?
There isnt one on his other hand.
Whoops! There’s supposed to be. I’ll get that fixed when I can.
The blood from Max’s nose is missing as well :)
Nah, she wiped that off. It’s the blood from V’s exploded arm that went AWOL.
I only have a short span here so I have to do the “didn’t read the comments so” cop out. I did of course search them all for DaveB and Yorp so I got all the important ones! X-P
So he is claiming Goku Regeneration and violence energy absorption/use are his two original powers? I don’t know I think with his additional ability of “whatever magic he can study” thrown in this makes him borderline overpowered. Why not just let him have magical healing/regen spells? The addition of being able to add an unknown motley of learned magical defenses to shore up his vs. his opponents attacks as he learns of them in real time seems more than enough really (he has instant cast as well!). Now he would be working his way towards kicking your ass even if he was unconscious that round… wow… The odd part being why were there no signs of regen (since it looks to be of the energy based whoosh there’s your new body part variety) before now? Or can he consciously stop this ability to conserve power towards what he feels is more important?
I guess having this be an additional built in power on top of his learned ability to access instant cast spells from, who knows, ALL OF THE MAGIC SCHOOLS (or whatever they have here) seems a bit much. His original powers plus all of magic at instant cast should be enough for an intelligent strategist to give Maxima a run for her money all by itself.
But its not a real biggy since apparently V is being groomed to be a major series long thorn in the side of the ENTIRE TEAM which is pretty powerful. Well, at least when they are all awake and doing intelligent things which I assume they will get better and better at as the chapters build up.
i suspect it weakens him in the long run to use the Regen ability, as i believe he might actually be expending the energy he’s gathered from the violence, hence why he wasn’t constantly regenerating. he probably spends more then he gathers when losing said limb. also now that max knows he can regenerate she might start getting lethal.
My feeling is that it’s a positive feed back type deal. His limb is physically stronger because of the regeneration process, but he’s still using up his vehemic energy to power the process.
I imagine that the most economic use of vehemic energy is just literal power boosting of himself. Sure, he can cast “Summon: Pants” and probably a boatload of other spells, but since he’s probably gaining energy only in combat, and the more vehemic energy he feeds into his power boost spell the tougher and stronger he gets, it’s just SMARTER for him to use it for self-upgrade and keep some in reserve for regeneration. He’s still using it up, but unless somebody fights back, he’s going to be losing more than he gains at any one point.
EG: Positive feed back loop only happens when Two or more parties are being violent, when it’s just him? He’s losing power.
Hehe, maybe its not “instant cast”, but “pre cast”, and then he can fire them off later. A tanky/bruiser wizard doesn’t need to waste spell slots stocking up on fireballs, so he gets to fill them all up with utility spells and awesome buffs!
“Hmm, for today, I shall prepare the following spells: Glue-Feet, Regenerate Right- no *Left* Arm, Enlarge Person… oh what the heck, I’ve got a few lower level slots left, I’ll go ahead and prepare “Summon Magic Pants” too!”
Following the whole fight through, V never really used any subsequent “magic spells” until after he’d gained some level of power stored. It’s possible that Vehemence is something like Gwen’s mentor, Zeph: He’s encountered magic users & has studied magic, but doesn’t have any innate ability to *use* the magic he knows, but it teaching that knowledge to Gwen, who *can* use it.
It’s not beyond the range of reason that V doesn’t *normally* have the ability to use magic, even though he has the knowledge…Until he first absorbs Vehemic Energy to power the spells he uses.
He uses violence as fuel the same way dabbler uses sex as fuel. Various spells he can or cannot cast are not limited as we can’t know where he got that knowledge or how extensive it is.
Should’ve gone for the head first.
Also, he was green. He’s gone yellowy/orange now. I wonder what happens when he hits red.
Maybe going red is a good/bad thing? Maybe there is no point of diminishing returns and he can actually reach ‘overload’? Would make sense for him wanting to burn his power when he gets it -and- for augmenting his impressive power list with spells.
Note 1: Sydney forgot to put her sheild back up.
Note 2: Maxima can’t kill Vehemence anymore
Note 3: one super human is going to get killed
Note 4: Sydney’s plot armor will protect her from Vehemence killing her
Note 4 Is invalid, since this is still a flashback.
Note 5: I forgot this was a flashback
Note 6; FLASHBANG!
(sings) Blinded by the Light…
1) this is something I hope is addressed in training. After being informed that her shield could suffocate her she has been taking it down too often and for too long. Pretty sure she should have had enough oxygen in there to last the whole fight so far unless she was really over doing it. And even then the first refresh she had should have been her last needed…
2) His body parts seem to evolve individually. If so. His head is still vulnerable.
3) That could have happened at any time up till now really. I figure he just runs at the end, when Sydney figures whatever it is out, now that they have made him permanently stronger apparently by removing parts of him. Though he may take a second to let her “power up” his other arm! lol
4) Covered by someone else.
So I read ALL the pages of comments, and here is one idea to defeat V.
Dabbler is a succubus, love is the opposite of violence, sort of.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/641
Here it shows that Dabbler can push a lust aura. She should just crank it up to 11 and see if V can resist that. Also, when V grew bigger and ripped his pants off, Dabbler looked mighty interested in the goods. So, make V horny. That should slow him down.
Also, V was shown waaaay back here.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189
So, is this a secret look into all the villians to that will be in the comic?
Won’t the list aura have side effects, like harem, Sydney, and Maxima going……… Yeah.
She’s only part succubus, so her lust aura might not be potent enough to get through his magic-resistace.
No, she’s a succubus. 100%. They don’t exactly keep Aetheon Thrones in Jersey.
From the cast page for Dabbler.
She has a complex heritage, suffice to say she is roughly 1/2 succubus, 1/3 doppleganger, and 1/6 some unidentified alien species.
All of the above, plus:
It’s already been pretty thoroughly discussed that love (or in Dabbler’s case, sex) are not opossing each other nor are they mutually exclusive of each other. Lust & violence mix together all too well. The actual antithesis to violence would be passivity/apathy/lethargy. Vehemence gets stoked up by acts of violence, so the direct counter is non-action.
Ummm… okay sure? And that applies to this how.
Maxima shows way more restraint by an obsessive amount then real Law enforcement does under way less dangerous situations.
I am happy he got his arm back but worried that he seems to be on the verge of taking maxima’s head off.
Also I was kinda hoping he’d join the team, rip that idea.
Stiiiiiill waiting on Sidney to suffocate him in a forcefield
Still waiting for people to realise that she’d suffocate as well, and she’d be inside the forcefield as well.
well, if she could place it without her inside it, it would work. the orb has a bunch of buttons we haven’t even been shown a use for yet. soooo, maybe. lol
Still waiting for Atlantis to rise.
didn’t a drinking game arise out of this suggestion?
With enough creativity, anything can become a drinking game.
it did, most of the players are now in an alcohol induced coma
At this point, I don’t think there would be a scoring criteria that left anyone sober enough by page two to move on to page three.
It will happen eventually, but for now there’s been a slight setback. The total weight of the trophies has crushed the ones near the bottom…
Firing Orbital delivery cannon again.
Here’s your sign.
Considering this isn’t the first time this particular OP has been saying it, he must really love your signs.
Considering the number of comments on this, I feel Dave should directly address it in the comic, or perhaps a bonus panel of some kind.
Yeah, maybe something along the lines of Dabbler’s Science corner will fill that bill nicely.
The fight I’d really want to see would be Vehemence vs. Lung from Worm (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/)
Yikes! That there is a SCARY thought!
Didn’t he become strong enough to fight on-par with an Endbringer at least once?
Indeed he did.
Saw your post so I went and read that story. Freaking good story, loved it. But Vehemence would crush Lung before he got much in the way of transforming done. As was proven very early. Do enough damage to him fast enough he is screwed, Veh could do that.
Just my 2 cents anyways. great idea still. and thanks for the new read.
Vehemence’s tattoos have gone from white, to blue, to green, to orange, will it go to red, then purple, then finally black? It looks like his stripes are going through the rainbow.
It will finally turn to Octarine but only a couple of the more magical team members will be able to see them at that point.
Sydney, forcefield, flight orb… and SCUBA tank.
If he stays rooted to the ground, fine, stay out of his reach. If he jumps… the sky’s the limit.
If Anvil and Achilles are in there to keep V using up oxygen fast, then maybe.
Hmm. This team has three different people who can take whatever violence anybody wants to dish out. Halo’s shield is awesome. Achilles’ invulnerability is awesomer. And if anything hits Anvil, she just goes “ooh that hurts so good, stop it some more.”
Max if she switches to mostly-armor can still probably take anything V dishes out, too — but she needed to go off the offensive with this clown, like, three pages ago. If she keeps putting her stuff anywhere else, she’s going to get killed at this rate.
Also, I have a feeling that if she does blow his head off, what grows back will not be his own head, nor even a human head, and probably will contain a brain that has nothing in common with his personality other than a love of violence, which has just been waiting to be free of the human baggage it’s been hindered by so far.
I just can’t help thinking that between three (possibly four) of them who can take big hits, they ought to have a way to contain this guy.
Problem for Achilles, he can take the big hits but he can’t stay in place while doing it. V could punch him through a couple buildings and a truck’s engine block, then collapse another bridge support with his head (and, well, with the scraps that used to be the truck). He wouldn’t be hurt, but he might have to do the Goofy yell again and nobody wants that.
So we need mobility to put him back in place for containment whenever he gets swatted away. Sounds like teleport, but Harem can’t handle that much mass. Suppose Hiro is fast enough to catch him and bring him back often enough for it to matter?
Also, exactly how Amorphous is Mr. Amorphous? Could he go liquidish and just flow around Vehemence? It would be a completely nonviolent hug, not really resisting Vehemence’s movement, moving with rather than being hit by any swings, and essentially acting like a giant nerfball surrounding the guy. He might feel a need to recite the “Hey, not Gay.” mantra as he goes full-on hug with another guy, but if so he needs to just catch up to the times and get over it. Hell, Gays are respectable upstanding married couples now.
Hmm, what else have we got to work with? What cool stuff can Sidney do at the same time as she has the “Don’t Kill Me!” orb in her left hand? I think maybe the true-sight/telepresence orb is the right choice, because whatever’s going on with this guy she needs to see more than is immediately obvious to sight.
We’ve not been counting the rest of the squad here. Everybody’s been thinking in terms of Max + Halo, but Hiro, Math, Gwen, Stephan Zeong, Stalwart, and everybody else is there too. Be more creative, folks. Stop thinking in the same old rut!
And now, back INTO the same old rut, here’s how I think it should work out if/however they do get him contained. Sidney. Flight orb, Shield Orb. Maxima: Flight, pick up and carry Achilles and use him as a shield. Sidney forms an orb around all three of them plus Vehemence, Maxima keeps Achilles acting as damage sponge between them and Vehemence, and then they fly out of there and, a few hours later, leave Vehemence alone on some tiny tropical paradise in the outer Bahamas where nothing violent ever happens?
If Sid can lift enough by flying in the shield, maybe they can even take one of Harem along, so she has a positive teleport target to the far end. Then she could bounce one of her alternate bodies back and forth to the island so as to rapidly bring in a supply of food and drinking water, plus maybe a pitcher of mai tais, a cabana umbrella, a beach chair and some extra-large swimming trunks, all while he’s beating on Achilles. Achilles doesn’t mind, really. He’s into it.
Whaddaya think?
I think you settle record for longest single post on this website ever
Not even enjoy close.
≠
Stop. Fighting. Dear god, this hasn’t stopped making me cringe since vehemic energy was first announced. I do understand why this has to be written, in terms of revealing some character traits and establishing V as some kind of ultra over-powered mega villain of doom. But this is making our heroes look like witless morons. Which I suppose is kind of acceptable, given that quite a few of them are remarkable good at surviving, but really isn’t good for strong story telling. Either hit the man with some kind of weapon that atomizes, or prioritize containment, don’t just try and explode his bloody arm.
Math is unconscious (Jabberwocky took him down with booby technique)
Hiro I think is unconscious as well (saw him unconscious in the overview – after the thing with Breakpoint and that other person)
Stalwart is unconscious from Vehemence’s punch
Gwen, Zephon, and Geek guy (I forget his name) are cloaked or were taken to a safer location away from the violence, probably by Harem, since the building has been destroyed.
The ones who are left still in the fight (now that Peggy was told to leave the area as well) are Maxima, Sydney, two of the Harems, Anvil, and Dabbler. Everyone else is either incapacitated, or no longer there (like Mr Amorphous and Arc Intelligence, whatever they’re called, and the marine guys), or buried in rubble (ie, Achilles). And since Maxima and Sydney are arguably the biggest power sets there who have actually been effective at all against Vehemence (Anvil’s been effective mainly with Sydney’s help, and Dabbler has not been very effective at all except a few sword cuts), that’s why most people are figuring Vehemence would be beaten by maxima, sydney, or some combination. Though I do think using Anvil more, or using Death Toll’s unconscious body, would be a good strategy.
Waking up Death Toll MIGHT work, as they’d have to put Death Toll in the path of one of Vehemence’s attacks and/or convince him to help. Plus, they’d have to trick Vehemence into the attack in the first place, as he knows about Death Toll’s ability too.
Anvil/Maxima/Sydney are, as you stated, the other options. Sydney can do tricks with her shield, which might include pinning Vehemence down with Flight + Shield. Maxima can try to tank long enough to wear Vehemence down, but even putting everything she can into armor might not be enough. Anvil is a strong counter to Vehemence’s abilities.
Achilles has the weakness of being batted around to easily, but he’d be good for taking some hits along the way.
Hide behind the pile of dead bards! or the unconscious muppet. either way I need sleep.
Darth Gomer: You get 3 XP for quoting something from The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.
Most of you post is quite reasonable, even if all you’re doing is questioning where everyone else is.
“Also, exactly how Amorphous is Mr. Amorphous? Could he go liquidish and just flow around Vehemence?”
This one has some problems: Sure, Mr. A might be able to pull a Reed Richard’s Grapple on him & it’s worked quite well most of the time. But neither Mr. A or Richards could stop the victim in that hold from wandering around & blindly flailing about anyway…They’re just not strong enough to actually immobilize him. While wandering around & swinging blindly, he’s bound to hit *something* sooner or later, which would get Mr. A pinched in between V’s fist & whatever he hit…Literally between the proverbial rock & a hard place…which would injure Mr. A severely. If this tactic were to work at all, it would only serve as a temporary distraction to V while buying time for other teammates plan (so that V can’t hear their planning) & set up to do their plan.
Damn should of started with the head
And have a regenerated skull that has a me ha-brain with no memories and only a thirst for violence? Not a good idea.
OK. So one point. If you were going to be stuck on a desert island, Vehemence would be a perfect companion. He can bulk out to make one delicious regenerating meal. Tastes like chicken.
According to reports, actually tastes like pork. “Long pork”
…I’ve seen some of those reports…
I dunno, too much junk food can be bad for you. ;p
AHHHH. Bad wording, BAD WORDING, BAD WORDING!!!
INTERNET WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME (and my imagination)
Welcome to the Internet. Your world has expanded.
“The face was no longer bone, but animal – the face of a white wolf. “I forbid you nothing. Nothing,” uttered the awful face. “You may go anywhere – you may open any door. But, little bird, remember that you must be prepared to accept whatever you find.” The long jaws spread in a smile filled with teeth.
~ Peter Straub, Shadowland
Great… When the post most argued against isn’t one from me claiming that the story has jumped the shark but is instead about how to cook human flesh, I will just wait for the next comic and will hope for a reset on the comic topics.
^______________________^
Would you like some Breach Blain (or is it Blain Breach… can’t tell which way to read this…)?
You can *say* Brain Bleach ™ if you want to, as long as you include some way to include the ™ on it, ya’ know…
;)
This little thing here (™)? Just trying get rid of my current… uh… stock.
[™] ↞ this might not work
©2014 EB. ¯∀¯
and it didn’t…
I think short of a lethal takedown this fight ends by him leaving because he got what he wanted by being powered up and He just leaves because he no longer has a reason to continue fighting having already achieved his goal.
So, every time he uses his powers, his stripe gets less brighter… almost depleting. What if this ‘Vehemic’ energy isn’t something he can generate? And the stripe is kind of like the stripe on a battery, where the brighter it is, the more he has stored.
Ok, so I take it he has never regenerated such an extent before, or has some way of reseting his form? Because that kind of power when over-used makes social interaction all but impossible. Seriously, look up a guy called Crawler from ‘Worm” by Wildbow. Crawler was a sadomasochist with exactly that sort of power. Over the course of several years and looking for ever greater fights he became a 6 plus-limbed multi-ton lizard/mammal creature with far too many eyes.
Hmmm. WEAKNESS FOUND! :)
I have no idea what sort of weakness you’re talking about having found. From what I’ve seen, he has no weaknesses.
Has anyone suggested having Halo making her shield very big and using it in conjunction with the flight orb to try to simulate an enormous weight to keep Vehemence pinned to the ground and unable to move? There are several unknowns with regard to the idea, such as the strength of the shield and the flight orb’s ability to match any opposing force from Vehemence, but Maxima and Stalwart might be able to contribute to the latter.
There is also the question of whether Halo could find a “sweet spot” with regard to her position and force, such that she could keep Vehemence pinned in a way that he couldn’t move her off and she isn’t actually applying force to him to keep him pinned incase such force qualified as violence.
It would at best be a temporary measure while the team tried to brainstorm other ways to contain Vehemence (teleporting in more equipment, or setting up a magic ritual to affect him) , but it would be funny to have it result in Sydney keeping him pinned the entire night and driving him insane with assorted bits of pop culture.
The shield being airtight would be mitigated by Sydney making the shield very large to hold a lot of air, and she could open up the reveal of her plan by dramatically telling Harem “Bring me my scuba tank!”
while that WOULD be funny, i don’t see it happening for the simple fact that he punched THRU a reinforced structural concrete pillar in order to hit Maxima in the face… sure Sydney could probably knock him over and pin him for a few seconds, but then all he would do is punch/kick/dig his way deeper into the ground, where Sydney’s shield couldn’t go without shrinking to fit the hole he made… thus bringing HER closer to HIM… and possibly close enough to a point that he could maybe punch thru the shield itself and actually hit HER?
I’m still trying to figure out how he punched through a pillar without it breaking apart before he got all the way up to her. The pillar wasnt wider than he was. Only thing I can think is maybe Maxima grinding it made it shorter and shorter until it was short enough that he could just punch through, but you see that one panel where he’s clearly somehow tunneling THROUGH the pillar with the ‘boom boom boom’ onomatopoeia. Then I thought ‘maybe he is able to shrink then grow again right before punching. But he said that time with the pants was the first time he grew.
So I’m just going to use suspension of disbelief as my reason for that. But some of the stuff since then is wearing suspension of disbelief thin, and getting into ‘Wesley Crusher’ territory.
Since most people here are undoubtedly VERY familiar with TV Tropes (including the artist/author), it’s probably apparent what a Wesley Crusher is. :)
Vehemence was punching up through the pylon as Max was pushing it down on him. He crumbled it as it dropped lower, taking a few punches to crumble its entire length…His last punch got through when Maxima came down low enough to stick her nose in the way (for the second time).
Ok that makes more sense then.
The booming noise is Maxima crushing it into him over and over, breaking the pillar further until it’s at a point where he can hit her through what’s left. It’s like collapsing a telescopic pole – it does it in segments, but it’s hard to illustrate just how painfully Max was doing that without a load of additional panels.
No, max was not alternately lifting the pylon & smashing it down repeatedly. She was pushing down on the pylon & twisting it with a grinding motion. The repeating booms was V crumbling the pylon as Max was pushing down.
Part of the idea here is that Vehemence would be knocked over and pinned flat against the earth, making any movement difficult, though obviously not impossible.
Even if he does try to dig himself out, it would slow him down and might even make him expend more energy digging that he would gain from the act, since it is suggested that certain types of violence give him more energy than others, assuming digging can even qualify as violence (though I would assume it can).
Further, Sydney’s shield can get pretty big, so she could cover a large area, meaning Vehemence would need to dig a fair distance to get out from under her, while Sydney could just fly over the area to keep him down.
Heck, she could even smash into him, knocking him back into his tunnel, turning their epic brawl into a demented game of Whack-A-Mole.
While Vehemence is distracted, Harem brings in knockout gas canisters that the team roles under the shield at Vehemence. Even if he is somehow immune to the gas itself, unless he is immune to breathing all together he might still pass out from lack of oxygen.
…Or did I just earn myself a trophy for using a variation of the “suffocate him with the shield” idea?
V said a few strips ago that he has “never grown before.” Does that mean that he’s finding out about these powers RIGHT NOW? Is that his motivation for this fight–to just find out how far he can go? Or was the growing triggered by something specific that hasn’t happened to him before this fight? Could figuring out the right triggers be the key to winning?
So many questions… Monday can’t come soon enough. I love this webcomic.
He probably knew in theory that he could grow, and never had enough power to successfully use the grow power.
I wonder if Vehemence is part demon, or if he’s just hit the superpower lottery.
wow, that guy has all the best powers
Also the fact that the simple fact that you CAN ride your wife’s plans for +mucho might mean that the Obamacare options AREN’T cheaper — after all, whether they offer help or not is based on how the price for coverage for HER ONLY compares to YOUR ALLS income together. And remember, you can always add dental a la carte to the obamacare options, or just get dental/vision on the open market separately with whatever.
Say what?
https://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/12/02/367837115/obamacare-glitch-puts-subsidies-out-of-reach-for-many-families
The so called Obamacare Glitch.
In keeping with the health care post: Try Zenni Optical for glasses! I bought a pair of glasses with photochromic lenses (generic name for transitions), for about $30. Shipping is another $5 per order. I get several pairs of glasses from them a year (most of them costing less than $15 for the complete pair), and just donate the ones that I don’t like. So I get super cheap glasses that wear well, and some poor schmuck gets to wear my unused cast-offs for free! Zenni will occasionally offer “buy 2 get 1 free” promotions as well, which makes them even cheaper. My entire family has bought glasses from them for years. Thus far, we have not found another online site that offers their combination of selection and price.
No, I don’t own stock in Zenni. I wish I did (or they at least had a referral program!).
Bad for the city? Try bad for the planet it happens on.
Thought, prob already brought up but hey~.
Suppose he’s only doing this to get strong enough to be of use when some inherent threat the team is unaware of stops by? Perhaps his ability to feed off violence allows him to sense it in some way, and he can sense a big one coming that is rather too much than even he’s comfortable with…I.E: Violence enough to destroy all living things on earth or above.
OK, figured it out. We need someone who can cast “AntiMagic Shell” real fast. Cast it on V, because that would block his abilities, since they are technically magic, then have someone behead him.
Well, some of his abilities are magic, but I’m not sure his innate vehemic(?) powerbase is susceptible to that?
I’m just waiting for Sydney to pick up and throw “For Whom The Death Tolls” at Vehemence.
If you can’t beat ’em…
That’s about the only strategy I can think of right now which would NOT be a rather poorly done deus ex machina for ending this fight, since so far Vehemence is pretty much able to stop ANYTHING and there’s no way for him to actually lose, which actually makes him a pretty broken, overpowered villain.
Villains with no weaknesses are like heroes with no weaknesses. Boring and badly designed for a story.
Now admittedly, Vehemence is only at this power level because Maxima didnt do the smart stuff from the get-go, but still – if she had done that stuff, people would complain that she’s not a hero, but an anti-hero for going for a kill as the first resort (which would be counter to EVERYTHING she had been doing up to that point). So having the story put them in a situation where the one definite way to beat him is not something they’d do as a FIRST resort (since they’re actually the good guys), then making him have no weaknesses at all (assuming this Death Toll idea isnt used, now that we know that on top of his Hulk-like ‘the more violence I get, the stronger/more invulnerable/faster I get’ power, he also has anti-magic, anti-lift-me-up, and REGENERATION – where it makes him even stronger still), that’s just boring. It’s not like they have someone who can attack his mind, which so far is the only spot that he hasnt been shown to have defense against, but from how this story fight has been going, he’d probably suddenly form mental shielding against any psychic attacks because of REASONS (“I lied, I had one MORE power – mental shields! ha ha ha ha blah blah blah blah”)
And when you try to control my mind, I get stronger!
I had an odd train of thought. For whom the death tolls is a muppet, muppets are soft loveable characters, like Micky Mouse. Grab micky by the ankles and start wailing on V. Now add sound effects.
It’s well known that Mickey Mouse is actually pure evil. I mean they showed that on South Park and everything. :)
… get sued for police brutality.
Police cannot wield a subdued perpetrator as a weapon, or use them as a shield. Using DT’s power’s offensively would fail, and whether or not he needs to be conscious od an attack for his power to work, V’s too smart to blindly punch him. He fell for that switcheroo once, he won’t a second time.
And DT (or his family or maybe Vekter, if his piwers don’t kick in and he gets turned into red paste) could then sue Arc-SWAT.
ArcSwat are not police.
I’m going to pull the “Didn’t have time to read all the comments” card.
I know people have implied this was set up by Deus, and everyone thinking he’s evil, but there’s room for him to be the one to help end the fight with something in his armory. Who knows…
If you follow that line of logic, perhaps Deus set up this fight just so that he COULD show them his “use” and worm into their hearts/ earn trust.
It’s highly unlikely that Deus set this up. Vehemence openly claimed he set it up by manipulating Vekter into thinking it was his own idea. back on that “villain introduction” page Dave showed shortly after the press conference, Vehemence was the *first* one shown (“Challenge Accepted,” grinning broadly). Deus was the *last* one shown & in a completely different setting.
Maxima, afterward: “You know, you really should’ve just played professional football. All the violence you can eat, for three hours a week. You’d fit in just fine with any defense. Now we need to put you in solitary for the next hundred years or so…”
So… did V grow a robot arm just now? Makes me wonder, maybe these powers aren’t his naturally, but he’s using some sort of technology (whatever those lines on his body are, I guess) to absorb vehemic energy for him and it can’t recreate organic matter?
I like Vehemence’s powers. Some people might find his being able to regenerate a bit of a Deus Ex Machina, but I think it works. He’s got a bit of a funny personality and genre savvy, making him someone you wouldn’t mind chatting with if he wasn’t being a villain. And there are plenty of powerful foes in comics who have been beaten time and again. It’s just that getting them to the point of being beaten is the hard part. How many times has Superman been beaten half to death before he stopped Doomsday? Twice? Three times? (I’m only thinking of in one continuity. It doesn’t count if it was in different timelines or whatever). And Take Darkseid. He’s proven himself almost impossible to beat, even by Superman. that’s what makes him so interesting.
Blue= start power
green= med to high
orange= high to extreme.
Is he going to have more color changes? Also a rough idea of the levels to the colors would be nice above is just my best guess.
One thing I am reading in the comments is how boring this villain is but I cannot agree. We know nothing about this villain. All we know is what he has LET us know. This whole everything was setup to allow him the best advantage in a fight against ALL the ARC personnel. Which means he is running the fight. Which means he is smart.
You want a boring villain? Remove the intelligence. Make him as powerful as above 100% of the time. That is boring.
This is a simple question of finding the thing he is hiding. For example he has stated a similarity to demons. What if his power is removed if a banishing spell is used on him? This is not a fight about who is stronger. This is a fight of who is running the game and how long he can make others play by his rules without them realizing they can play by different rules.
This is what makes him a scary villian in my books. He isn’t just smart or strong, he is both, and he planned ahead. As great of a character as he is, he needs to be put down for good, otherwise the next time ARC meets him, they might not walk away.
Had a though, V seems to be the arch rival/nemesis character….
I suspect he came here with the express purpose of defeating max, and once he has achieved that, leave the unconscious Max on the ground and leave ominously.
He could shadow the squad and any time the team got into too much trouble come in a save “his favorite violence feed” and every now and then, after a massive brawl come and remind them he is still around and still bigger and better.
Which totally makes sense. It is a short-lived predator that consumes all of its prey.
Plus it fits with the genre, Max, only a few hours earlier declared herself to be more powerful than anyone else…
It was inevitable that she would get whooped.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/846
Sydney V Math foreshadowing.
To the Max!
I am fairly sure there wasn’t a 12 hour time gap between the posts. Two hours max(!), I swear.
Sydney shield. Does it cut off limbs or could she like fly above V and then form the shield around her and his head? He cant break it and cant reach Sydney but then the air would quickly leave and slow him down? If Sydney got an airtank she could just suffocate him unconcious. But the only works if she could put only part of him in the shield. I say this cause the shield seems to adjust to the ground and not expel it or displace it.
Wow, it still goes..
One more alcohol induced coma, one more sign and one more trophy
Not the same. The plan is the other ‘typical’ idea of trapping V, which woefully assumes she can a) make a shield big enough, and b) V is somehow too weak and too stupid to still not catch her. So, no trophy, no sign. But I could use a shot of coffee. ;p
Oh, wait. Not even. This is the partial envelopment suggestion, the one that doesn’t even work. Still, one shot of caffeine? :D
Sydney doesn’t have that kind of control in specific shaping of her shield. At least, not yet…That may be an ability she can unlock with her Skill Tree with the orbs. DaveB is the only one who knows if it’s possible or not, but either way, it’s just not possible now.
How do you know she does not have that kind of shaping? We know she can make it bigger but nothing on smaller or with certain parts of people in it. And we have seen her have it not tear up the ground. However at the moment it would not work with in the time frame it would take to lower and raise the shield V could get to her. However that is if he tries he might want to see what she tries. He seems the kind of villain who might do that the first time he encounters someone underestimating them once. Conversely she might be able to just put him half way in it and hold in place. But all of this assumes he can’t break the shield as we have seen nothing really even come close. Tax the shield but not break it.
To even answer that first question, see Dave’s description in comic number 205.
V is a greyhat specifically deployed to kick Maxima hubris to the curve.
Ariana is the mastermind, V his her kid brother.
V is only doing big sis a solid!
His pet is the evil squirel…
Hmmmm….
Arianna would have needed a full background check on herself & who her family is before she’d get anywhere near Archon. Good theory, but problematic for her to pull off complete disassociation from any relatives.
On the other hand, the evil squirrel might be Arianna’s pet…
I shall not take hints about squirrels from the likes of you, sir.
Actually, in my office, the maximum penalty now is the squirrel punishment thanks to you.
Most man squirmed with one glance.
Most women e-mailed the picture to their husbands…
Yes, I work in a very sick place!
Hey, don’t blame me! I didn’t snap the pic originally nor did I post it on the net.
But I would advise that you never underestimate a squirrel’s abilities…There’s a couple of documentaries produced by the BBC entitled “Daylight Robbery” & “Daylight Robbery 2” for some references.
Besides all that, just consider…Who else do you know that can run full speed up or down a tree with his nuts in his mouth?
Touché, game set and match.
I conceed .
“Most women e-mailed the picture to their husbands…”
I suppose that makes sense. Since that particular punishment doesn’t scare them at all, they’re essentially “off the hook.”
8-)
Sorry, must link to this (oh, and NSFW due to likely giggles):
Squirrel Nuts