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.
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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Given how he waited until he suffered fairly catastrophic damage most likely he can’t regenerate often, explaining why he didn’t use it previous to this point to fix his eye or teeth, that and it could be the more damage he’s taken first the more he powers up when he regenerates so he had to wait for something like getting his arm blown off before fixing himself.
For those who felt like it was just impossible for someone like him to go unknown, he showed up with dozens of supers that had never shown up in the records for ArcSWAT. So many that they felt they needed to rethink their figures on how many supers existed to have so many unknowns show up at once (the one tank was living peacefully as a hairdresser until he got roped into things). Not hard then for someone like Vehemence to go unknown until this point especially since until Maxima’s challenge he didn’t think there was anyone around to really let him cut loose so he wasn’t motivated to go rampaging.
It’s called “Milking the moment.”
Also, how did he know he could heal? None of his current body parts look replaced. Also, someone suggested he is a violence demon in the making – this page might prove it
Maybe they start to look more natural all the time? Or, how do you know he hasn’t got a titanium kidney?
Also, he’s apparently using certain abilities (like pinning himself to the ground) with ease, despite likely never having had as much power as he does now. It’s not unreasonable to me that he’s knowledgeable about his abilities or learned about the kind of things he can expect to do be able to do, even if he never before had enough power to activate them.
*Meant to say “look more natural OVER time”, as in they slowly revert from metal to flesh, as his power drains away.
Yeah, that’s the way I figured his regen must work, as well. Otherwise, you’d think he’d just get himself damaged and keep regenerating until he looked like Onslaught or something.
That’s like saying that you can’t operate a computer if you’ve never used one but read all about it and have been shown how to use one from a friend/aquantence
The human mind is fun like that. It works better when you don’t think about what you’re doing. So naturally some of what you could potentially do is lost in the process. Because you can’t think about it.
There is still much we don’t know about his abilities. It is far too early to say he can’t do this or he can’t do that.
Or he’s smart (as we have already seen) and doesn’t give away his abilities in advance (as we have already seen).
Honestly, I am starting to think that V isn’t even a ‘real’ melee fighter, The way he throws his punches, clenches his fist*. and even how sloppy his guard is** But rather he might be a Violence powered mage, that would explain why he is rather knowledgeable about Dabbler,Anvil, can block spells, ground himself, conjure pants, and swim up a concrete pylon to smack Max in the face.
*thumb sticking out ontop.
**if it isn’t an act..as he blocked Dabblers spell, and as he gains power from the intent as wel from the actual hit, he might have baited them into hitting him like that.
Excellent point. That V could actually be a mage of some kind rather than a “real” melee fighter makes a lot of sense.
the man managed to protect his nuts from maximastomps, he was smart enough to go for Anvil’s hair and use throwing moves rather than feed her kinetic absorbtion. He is definately not a martial artist supreme like Math, but there’s no question the guy knows how to do violence with his bare hands.
Ontop of this he also has obvious magic talents, an education that goes beyond what most common mortals get as far as I can tell, what with knowing about supernatural things, succubi, latin and other esoteric bits and bobs that set him distinctly apart from both brute brawn for brains and your average bookworm.
I agree with the others here that V probably kept from using his powers mainly to set up the sweet moment, also to keep from discouraging people from continuing to fight him. If he just healed every time they managed to give him a bruise, why would they keep trying? Or worse, if he did that before he got high enough a Vnergy charge, maxima might possibly have gone for the “blow off arms and heads” before he would be fast/strong enough to stop her like he did now.
If he regenerated earlier, then they wouldn’t have blown his arm off and made him more powerful.
Now, somebody better think of an idea fast, or Maxima’s going to blown that smug head clean off (well, it will probably be quite messy), hoping that it will kill him. It won’t. It will probably make him more powerful.
try hitting him where there are no lines? or erase all his lines on the body beacuse they seem very relevent to his powers.
Except the lines grew back with the arm
Yeah, they seem to be inherently built into his physiology, whether they were artificially inscribed or he was born with them naturally.
There’s no getting the stripes out of this tiger, nope.
Just get a street painter and add some new ones…
He’s an innate user of vehemic energy. In other words, it comes natural. Those lines just seem to indicate his power up level. Considering his personality, I’d say those markings are something he just has, or that he figured out how to do and he uses them just for show.
Man, they are so STUPID!
I figured out long ago what they should do with him. I mean, they have a SUCCUBUS! And even she tries to use force instead pheromoning him into drooling submission…
It’s already been discussed that Dabbler’s Lust Aura would probably just get Dabbler killed. Lust & violence mix together all too well…
At least we can be certain that V will have a raging boner.
Well, he might not be *raging* per se, but he’d certainly put it to use…
( •_•)
( •_•)~⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
…With Vehemence.
Yeeeee-ah!
Anyone would scream ‘yeeeee-ah’ after he sticks that thing in. >;d
Well, anyone who’s smaller than the proverbial 50′ tall woman…
We already saw that other people can get inside Halo’s force field if she forms it around them. I’m sure she could let Dabbler in.
Well considering the impenetrability of Halo’s force field and the suffocating tendencies of it, it think use of it would be a good strategy as it would work as a non violent take-down.
Captain Obvious should be here to give you a reward and Dr. Revenge a statue. Syndney has to be in the shield and trapping her in there with the rape machine that is Vehemence would probably not be a good idea.
And now for a shield idea that isn’t stupid. Team (including Dabbler) -> inside shield
Dabbler -> beholder spell
At the very least, I want to see the end result of this.
…Vehemence gets jealous because he can’t get inside the shield, even as he watches everyone who *is* inside jump Dabbler all at once…
I would think they would have difficulty keeping enough oxygen in the super sexy fun ball.
That’s why we have oxygen tanks!:D
I just assumed that halo didn’t have to be inside the force field.
Now it would be fitting if he’d shout “I’m the Juggernaut, BITCHES”!
Maybe “I’m A Juggernaut,” purely for copyright reasons.
“I have…one more power…I hadn’t mentioned…I can regenerate, and when I do. IT MAKES ME STRONGER!”
…
…
…
Frakk this, I’m out.
Many people have an issue with this but…
Most tissues in a human body and even bones become stronger after healing.
It’s one of the secrets of martial arts, micro fractures that keep healing and make bone stronger.
Tissues can become so strong that eventually hamper neighboring tissue since elasticity and other mechanical properties differ.
So this is pretty much the most “normal” power exhibited so far…For a Vehemic growing, magically anchored super tailor.
There is an upper limit to how severe of an injury makes the tissues stronger, and not just because of it disrupting the surrounding tissues. The ‘cleaner’ the injury heals the greater the degree of effect you get, but only in so far as you are able to maintain a certain minimal amount of strain on the tissues from exercise. Once you can’t exercise the tissues to maintain that minimal amount of strain on them they will always re-heal weaker. That’s why micro-fractures make the bone stronger, full fractures that require immobilizing the area for several weaks end up becoming a weak spot.
And I have learned something today!
Also, his arm is probably now made of crystallised violence, or some other magical substance, so it makes sense that it would be more powerful that mere augmented flesh and blood. And bone. And skin, and tendon, and ligament, and I’m going to shut up now.
No no, it’s cool, Sydney said “hmmm” a few comics back, so obviously this is going to get resolved in a totally not-ridiculously-implausible way that doesn’t seem the least bit like an ad hoc development driven solely by a plot-based need to respond to a problem in the immediately previous strip.
Probably it will be something to do with his magic tailor power.
https://acidsquirrel.com/post/63235
‘Nuff said…
Oh good grief. Not only does he absorb, but he also regenerates, and he also adapts. <:P Someone put the schnook to sleep already.
Dabbler tried but her sleep spell wasn’t strong enough to get past his defense.
As for the art aspect, making non-colossus armored limbs is tricky. I find that going with plates or circles makes it stand out more. Another thing is to follow the musculature with lines so it looks like each muscle is an individual piece in the armor.
Little late now but something to think about. :)
What about scales? Essentially modeling it on lamellar armor.
Have you tried to draw scales over a large surface area? Making them look half decent takes a long time on a smooth surface. Now factor in the contours of his arm. That is an insane task, it would look cool though.
After disarming the subject he managed to re-arm himself. *Note, subject should not be able to sue due to physical injury*.
He might claim disfigurment though. Does metal skin have normal sense of touch?
Maybe emotional harm and civil rights infringement. From now on, every time he goes to the airport he is going to be stopped at the metal detector and pulled aside. This could make him miss his flight. He could sue the TSA for failure to follow ADA guidelines for persons with prosthetic limbs.
I always wondered what would happen to Logan if he ever had to fly commercial. How would he make it through the metal detector, and how would he answer to ‘Are you carrying any concealed weapons?”
They got around that in “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”:
…
Detector Dude: Next!
(Cameron steps forward, arch bleeps)
John Connor: This is my sister, and she has a metal plate in her skull.
Detector Dude: (scans) Wow, you’re not kidding… OK, next!
They dealt with that at the end of Wolverine 3 (and probably earlier in the comics) “I’ll take the body check” ;p
Funnier implementation https://youtu.be/xxWxwmRGlcQ
As far as it goes in the comics, Wolverine has medical documentation that verifies his metal implants. It *does* mean that he has a slight delay while the authorities confirm it, but he still gets on his flights with regularity.
At the end of X-Men: The Last Stand Wolverine is approaching the security area. He specifies that he wants the pat down instead of going through the body scan.
When he mentioned the regeneration paired with it making him stronger the first thing I thought was “He’s got the hybrid powers of a Saiyan and Piccolo’s people” so I think the comment line under the comic is just fine as it is.
I reckon it makes perfect sense he can regenerate. What use is a species that can gain magical energy from violence if they get themselves maimed and killed constantly? I would say it’s right on par with a Succubus creating powerful illusions to help seduce others easier.
And for some reason whenever I think about the Malumi and Succubi I can’t help but compare them to the Lantern Corps.
Is this a sign that Sydney might have started to fall for Big Bad V? They seem to have some chemistry between them.
Sydney has ADD. She got distracted.
And you have to admit, that is an awesome combination of powers.
DaveB,
PLEASE for the love of God end this fight soon.
This has been dragging on for FAR too long, and vehemence has only made this past month of comics nearly unbearable to read. As a matter of fact, I stopped reading for about a month hoping that by the time I got back the fight would be over and this comic would be good again.
But the vehemence arc hasn’t stopped yet.
In my opinion, the fight should have ended with the last panel for pacing’s sake, and the healers regenerating his arm instead of it being an innate ability. But your the creator of this comic and that’s your call.
But I really hope your plan on ending this within the next few comics.
I know that people’s tastes are different, but do you have any specific reasons for not liking the last few pages? I know it’s action instead of humor, but this is a SUPERHERO comic after all- at some point some kind of super-baddy throwdown was practically inevitable.
Mainly it’s just that he’s seeming WAY to OP, you know? And not with limits / morals / human personality to pair with it like max does. I’ve never found supervillains who are nearly undefeatable like this to be very interesting or captivating characters. I like it when characters have to think to overcome obstacles, but it seems like this guy has no weakness.
But hey, I guess if this all adds up to revealing one of the unknown orb’s powers, that could be cool.
If you where talking about heroes I’d think you have more of a point- it’s not an uncommon opinion that superman can be a boring character when done wrong.
Personally I think that nigh-unstoppable villains make for good conflict, though your certainly not alone in disliking when it drags on to long. I don’t know if you read (or have even heard of) Order of the Stick but a recent ark had a BBEG who was almost batman-levels of prepared, and people started to complain about that too.
In my opinion having challenges to overcome is a good way to show the heroes struggling or going through character development. Maybe you’re just feeling a little impatient- if this had a more frequent posting schedule or came out in large chunks perhaps it would feel like it’s dragging on so long.
(just to be clear, I think the pacing is adequate, I’m just hypothesizing about what the OP might be feeling).
Your totally right :)
I feel like if I were reading this say, like, a year in the future when I can read through all of these in one sitting and not have to wait for each new page, I might feel VERY differently about the pacing.
But yeah, I am kind of an impatient person.
Dave has stated that his goal with pacing is for the pacing to be good when read in compiled books later… not necessarily now.
Perhaps you should consider waiting for the books since that seems more in line with your personal tastes?
I can totally second this; I didn’t read OotS until recently and the General’s arc was already complete and there wasn’t anything wrong with the pacing at all.
Honestly I think this is less of a “this villain” problem or a “this comic” problem and more of a “fight scenes are excruciating when doled out one page at a time” problem.
Well, it’s kinda all Max’s fault we’ve even gotten to this place anyway- if she had just killed him outright and not given him so many chances to surrender, this fight would long be over.
Unlike Vehemence though, Max doesn’t need time to “power up”, and I think V is smart enough to realize that if given a second chance, Max will NOT drag things out. He’ll kill her if he can because there’s LOTS more places to get violence (especially if you remove a stabilizing force in the world) that aren’t as directly dangerous to him.
Agreed.
Either Max needs to dial it to 11 and take out V permanently, or Sydney needs to come up with a plan ASAP.
Either way, the longer they wait the harder it’ll be.
From the Authors”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.”
No going to 11, But if i had to geuss that the medication Halo get’s is enough to sedate an elephant…a Super powered Vehemic fueled Elephant. (That or as I mentioned before: V actually spoke the truth, about being “pro military” As it suits his Vehemic addiction)
It’s Adderall. The maximum dosage of Adderall, apparently, since when the Arclight person suggested upping the dosage Maxima told him “they don’t write prescriptions for meth.”
Well, they are trying for a ‘positive’ public image for ARCswat, so immediately going for the killshot right off the bat is probably not an option for them when an opponents power level is unknown.
General: Maxima, can you tell me why you killed ‘this’ one?
Max: He made a threatening movement. Sir.
General: He was a retiree with a bad back and no history of powers.
Max: No history ‘yet’, Sir. And I wasn’t going to take any chances. Sir.
Besides the PR nightmare of a “kill them first thing” would be, they ARE under Rules of Engagement AND have to abide by Rules for Escalation as long as they’re operating on US soil in a civilian populated area. If they were doing anything overseas in a war zone or any other legitimate “field of combat” situation, they have a different set of rules to follow.
If they DON’T follow those rules, then they could all be charged with criminal actions under both Civil AND Military Law.
Exactly. “Lawful” good characters are always held back by such restraints. Vehemence knows this. They need to dump a bunch of frictionless liquid on him as someone suggested in a post on a previous comic.
If he can’t even stand up or move, he’s neutralized until his powers wear off.
He could still anchor himself. Would make frictionless liquid moot.
The problem, honestly, is that the author has too many heroes, and Maxima is too powerful. Without someone like Vehemence, there’s no threat. Even if, as you say, he has “no weakness” – neither do the heroes. He’s evenly matched with Maxima, and it’s a far better fight than the nonsense earlier where a bunch of heroes got injured just because the author realized the fight would be boring if Maxima joined in.
And to people who say how he’s an arch villain, he should be unbeatable….
Imagine if Doomsday was introduced in issue 2 of Superman. Seriously, you don’t bring out the ultra super mega unstoppable-est bad guy who can do EVERYTHING and pull powers out of his butt for months so early. At first, he was ‘oh he got beaten that fast, this is disappointing’ Then ‘oh, he’s still alive and gave MAx a good fight, this is pretty good’ then ‘ooooh, violence makes him stronger, nice twist’ then ‘okay, now this is getting a little ridiculous’ then ‘okay, very ridiculous’ then ‘someone please kill him now, or kill me now so I don’t have to read this fight for another 2 months + of how Vehemence is so powerful and awesome and we should realize it because he can do everything and you should like that even though it’s getting to the point where we are getting REALLY tired of him pulling new powers out of nowhere ‘because he has power to burn”
Honestly this is closest to my complaint.
It’s not that he’s unbeatable. In fact, I don’t think he is… I think Sydney is going to illustrate a moment of absolute brilliance and wipe the floor with him by exploiting some narrow flaw he has… something that wont work next time they meet but would end the current conflict in such a way that it knocks V down a couple pegs.
But I do have a hard time seeing him as an arch villain because I can’t see his motivation. Arch-villians have reasons that make them villains. Hell even just “villains” need some characterization. Otherwise they can’t really rise above the station of “mook” no matter how powerful they are.
A villian needs to be a foil for the hero’s goals and flaws… not just some big meat stick that the hero can’t beat. Even a super smart genius chessmaster would be just a mook if his reasons for what he does doesn’t justify the conflict with the hero.
I don’t think any character shown yet is deserving of the title of villian or arch-villian simply cause there hasn’t been time to establish the basics needed for such characters to have such a status.
It’s not issue 2… it’s four years into the comic. :/
The fact that it’s the first fight is definitely unfortunate. Basically the author has no idea how pacing works.
You get what you pay for. And this is free.
It’s been said that the artist/author is keeping in mind that the pacing changes if someone basically does an archive-dive, and that’s what he’s aiming for.
Also, I didn’t realize everyone webcomic was required to follow a “one way and one way only” guide for how to do things.
All seemingly invincible villains have that one secret weakness that the heroes can exploit.
Options:
1) Try small glowing green rocks.
2) Make him say his name backwards.
3) Attack him with something colored yellow.
4) Throw a bucket of water on him.
5) Tell him that everything you say is a lie. Then tell him you are lying.
6) Then there are the old standbys of holy water, garlic, or silver weapons.
7) Boobs.
If ‘those’ were his weakness, given the line-up ARCswat presents.. he’d be dead.
They weren’t bare.
8) ARG.
9) Red Dust.
10) Positrons (thanks, Jiggawatt).
11) Radiation-absorbing Omanytes (thanks, Jiggawatt)
Regarding 5), Telling someone that everything you say is a lie is already a contradiction in itself, since if everything you say is a lie, the statement is true and thus false, etc. No need to repeat yourself ^_^.
Not exactly, because if “everything I say is a lie” is false it does not imply “everything I say is true”. So, your statement could just be false.
You can get around this in various ways, for example two statements:
“My next statement will be false”
“My previous statement was true”
will do it.
I can speak for the OP, but I can say I even like this arc and I still find it a bit tiring because of the format. Humor and dialogue can be parsed out over several days or weeks, but it is hard to keep the hard hitting action hitting over a month or two.This must be what it is like to have super speed in all things, no matter how exciting something is, if it is happening a 1/1000th of the speed for you than it is for the people involved you might get a little tired of waiting for the blood drops to drift lazily to the ground.
Thank you.
It’s not that the arc Isn’t interesting. It’s like being the flash watching a fast-paced action movie.
While it’s fast paced for you, he’s been waiting for that punch to hit for like an hour.
If you have a problem with the pacing, then only read it once a month (but then you wouldn’t get to read the witty comments about your goldfish)
I dunno, the Slo-mo sections of Dredd were fantastic.
I think it’s time for a group hug. Hug the toughness right off him.
Time for… Attack of the Care Bears!
Oh dear gods, NO!
I would rather see the world burn.
If I were there & Max gave the order to call out Barney the Singing Purple Dinosaur to confront Vehemence, I’d kill him myself if he arrives…
Anvil’s a kinetic energy absorber, so while that works fine against V, she’s not in the same damage sponge category as Halo’s shield or Achilles. One good electrical attack would put her down for the count.
Derp, meant this as a comment for a post on page 4, sorry!
Remember people, pacing on a web comic can be a little difficult. For us long time readers who tune in twice a week, the pace may seem a little slow, but eventually this comic is going to be reproduced in book format. If you do an archive binge you will find that things flow a lot better.
Totally agree.
If you don’t subscribe to this belief, may I recommend this experiment:
1: Grab a Batman or X-men comic that looks good.
2: Read it until a fight scene starts.
3: Stop reading after 1 page of fight scene. Thereafter you may read 1 page per 3 days.
4: Tell us what you think of the pacing of the fight scene.
Called it, AGAIN!
Pacing isn’t the issue for me here – as long as it’s entertaining, I don’t care how long the fight lasts in-world, and I don’t care if a single webcomic day takes a couple of real world years.
The issue for me is the arbitrariness. I assume we’re heading towards “Sydney-solves-the-seemingly-insoluble-problem-and-cements-her-place-on-the-team”, and I’m good with that. But this problem was already seemingly insoluble. The more Vehemence just pulls random powers out of his hat as needed, the more it will seem that the eventual solution works “just because”. Why doesn’t he have a new random power which thwarts whatever solution Sydney comes up with? Because he doesn’t, ok?!
This would be more interesting if there were some set ground rules, there’s no obvious solution based on them, and then cleverly there turns out to be a way to solve the problem which was consistent with those rules. This magic doesn’t seem to have any ground rules allowing the team to anticipate reliably what will or won’t work. So the eventual solution seems like it will be the equivalent of George Lucas suddenly saying “oh by the way R2D2 can fly” as the way out of a problem.
I hope I’m wrong.
There is only one thing that truly terrifies me in this comment, and it’s something that really is getting overlooked: Sidney was on meds throughout the series so far. What is she like -off- the meds?
Probably less focused mentally. Considering everything she’s already gone through in just this day so far, she’s also likely to be more distracted with physical exhaustion & pretty darn hungry on top of that.
When voting at TWC, I saw an interesting comic.
When I clicked on the banner, it was not what I was expecting.
When I thought about it, I decided this is a new form of artistic expression.
Convention: The first word should be repeated in each line.
Convention: Sentences should be concise and properly punctuated.
Convention: The vampku should be no more than three lines long.
LOL…
Yes, saves bandwidth.
Q: how do you do ‘spoiler’ tags?
Spoiler is the word you want, enclosed in square brackets.
Spoiler must be said at the beginning and end of each line.
Spoiler, at the end of a line, must have a “/” placed after the opening bracket.
Thanks, Yorp.
But are these allowed: ™ © ¿?
Guess I’ll have to wait 3
daysseconds to find out.What? One needs to test these things!
Or substitute “paragraph” for “line”. But avoid any line break, or you will come out of spoiler mode.
I just had a really funny thought. He started out as a vehemic ameba and over the course of a few millennia of feeding on violence (and being destroyed a few times) he has grown into a mostly human form (still feeds on violence).
He really just wants to evolve/level up again, but in order to do so he has to absorb a ridiculous quantity of violence and then get completely destroyed in order to do it. After he levels I imagine he has a higher violence capacity but a lower level in it than he did to get there, (after spending a bunch of energy regenerating from nothing). Every so often he just has to level up in order to ensure that nothing in his current epoch can destroy him while he is in a low charge state and couldn’t regenerate.
He is probably a pretty friendly guy whenever he isn’t trying to power level…
… That’s how to beat him. Make him Burn power on growing huge, generating pants or other things to impress or other things, appeal to his pride, sportsmanship or otherwise string him along somehow. He’s not stupid so doing it wont be easy, but really at this point there’s exactly two ways to beat V, Drain his energy or get him to spend it (preferably without killing anyone).
As for how to know what costs the most energy.. Dabbler’s a fellow manipulator of etheric energies.. maybe she has some ideas? Of course if dabbler shares, odds are its going to spoil any chance they have of stringing him along on it so its a tricky game indeed.
Still, I bet that’s how, if at all, V gets defeated: Sydney (or the team) figure out a way to string V along into spending more power than he means to in order to depower him… maybe not enough to be defeated, but enough that it gets dangerous for him to hang around and he vamoozes, sort of a draw.
Is anyone else a little put off by the fact that Maxima reacts to someone healing after being wounded as a hostile act worthy of death?
And did Sydney forget to keep her shield up or did the cartoonist get tired of drawing it?
If she wants to keep living, she has to take it down every now and then (completely air-tight means no fresh air gets to enter)
I thought there was a conversation about this back closer to when it first came up and it was pretty much agreed that there should be more air in even the smaller shield then she would need to survive the whole fight so far? Assuming she is freaking out and really burning through it I would expect her to only need to take it down once or so during the fight which she has already done several times…
I suppose she has the excuse that Sydney doesn’t know for sure how long she should be expected to be able to breath well in there and might be trying to constantly keep the air fresh just in case. Hopefully it will be addressed later in training cause she is taking it down too often during this fight, she doesn’t take cover when she does it and she leaves it down long enough to hold a conversation. (quick step to the side should mostly refresh her air. Dangerous around a near speedster.
It’s a hostile act because he bragged about another power, rather than surrendering and saying “lemme just heal up first k?”
He really needs to be hit with a kill shot though. This is a guy who gets stronger from violence, and the team is using minimal necessary force to subdue him. Every time they fail he requires more force to be stopped, but they underestimate how much force that is every single time.
If they don’t have access to any non-violent take downs that work on him, they have to skip straight to overkill before he gets strong enough to endure their max power attacks, or he will become invincible and the team’s done.
Two shots to the eyeball don’t count as ‘kill shots’? o_O
They already knew he was in the same power bracket as Maxima when they did that. So they knew it would not be kill shots.
Well no, clearly, because he’s not dead.
Hate to just point this out but….she mentions her meds might be wearing off….could this have an effect on her powers?
Her powers come from her balls
And, for being a female human, Sydney’s got more balls than anyone else…
well ya but coul dher being on some medication effect them at all?
She controls them mentally. Being on meds that affect her ability to think or concentrate could have some effect. I’ve already postulated that, even though Sydney has activated them, perhaps hasn’t been able to establish any control on her two mystery orbs because maybe the meds might be interfering with mental control.
So I reread the fight. V broke Max’s nose at low/start power while she maxed her armor. So even if she did that now it won’t do much other than maybe let her not die?
She wasnt maxing her armor, she kept some in strength so she wasnt knocked back, and she didnt really drain anything else. She just put her spare in armor really
The metal makeover is either temporary or, quite possibly, it’s new the same way his ability to grow even hyoooger is new to him, odds are he can turn back to flesh if he really wants to since, really, at this point not being able to seems the less likely possibility. At this point really V’s tats have gotten a full colourband stronger than the “strongest” he’s been before this brawl he set up.. so odds are good even he doesnt know the proper limit to what he can do now (how would he practice it after all?) But odds are he has been around a long time and has tested various aspects of his powers, from healing to lesser growings (I could swear he was looking a lot less bulky when he was still wearing the suit/trenchcoat). So while he doesnt know his limits, he probably has a good idea of what his options are. .
I just reread the major portions of the fight in order to track the color changes in V’s markings, here is what I found.
Definitely white early in the fight before her sees any real action.
Might pick up a little pinkish tinge during the middle and end of the pre fight (hard to tell, could be skin tone showing through)
Becomes clearly blue after being hit with car (and resulting explosion).
Reverts back to flat white shortly thereafter and remains white until the pylon-driver (except possibly for a slight and short lived blue tinge after Sydney’s trip attack).
Light green during his counter pylon-driver.
Dang it accidentally hit submit too early. Back to it now…
Strong green during reveal, but fades to light green.
Glowed (possibly with pulsating lights) during growth activation.
Light green continues until the arm exploding incident, during which it appeared yellow (but that might have been dust and explosion interference).
Afterwards shows yellow-orange color.
Regeneration caused no noticeable change in band color apart from activation glow.
Other notes.
His old eye was light blue on white, his new eye is yellow on light yellow, and his new teeth may be sharper than previously.
Conclusion
Given the fact that his coloration reverts back to previous colors so quickly and doesn’t seem to increase particularly unless he gets hit with something exceptionally strong, I am actually beginning to doubt that he actually gains energy from violence at all. Yes his apparent energy levels have increased over the course of the fight but not in a particularly linear fashion with regard to violence dealt. I suspect his big “reveal” may have been a red herring to distract them from his actual power source. While also subtly pointing out that the bad guys won’t always tell the truth about themselves, their motivations, or most importantly their abilities.
I am glad I read through most of the whining in this thread to read your comment, as I hadn’t thought about this before. Now I only have to hope the author takes his work as serious as you were doing your research and this comic will be a blast to read, looking for new clues every strip.
It can go two ways with the color change:
– the more reddish, the more power he has got – when the markings will turn red, he will be at full power
– the more reddish, the less time is left in which he can use his powers – when markings turn red, he will reach his limit.
I think it may be the first one though, cause he seems to take his time…
Has anyone actually asked him what he wants?
Obviously he wanted the power up and a chance to test himself, but what else?
He has not actually killed anyone yet and is surprisingly civil at several points.
I do not know if he just wants to prove he is the best or is he trying to ‘ascend’.
I wonder what he would do if Maxima actually openly acknowledged he was more powerful than her…
Would he continue the fight or simply leave having ‘taken the crown’ so to speak?
Because right now the team may or may not have the means at hand to subdue him, so maybe something to buy time may be in order.
Well, Vehemence did say what he wants. He’s there to beat the crap out of them.
If Max openly acknowledged him as her better, he probably won’t accept that…She still has some crap in her that he can beat out of her.
I think he’s already got some plans in mind for after the fight, but won’t be satisfied in leaving until he’s beaten the crap out of everyone. He might leave then.
He wants to fight because of reasons. Because he can.
I… actually saw this coming. Anyone capable of the minute control of power it takes to not only grow in size but to reshape energy into matter like that is capable of magical regeneration to a degree. It’s why it always made sense to me that the hulk’s wounds could heal, or something like him with similar abilities. The problem is that Vehemence definitely needs to be conscious for it, because his is a magical power or spell or whatever you want to call it. Or to put it better, he needs a head. Max’s last shot should have been fatal, but instead she decided to test her powers against his.
Funny thing is I’m not against this from a story stand point. Max is, not undeservingly, quite arrogant about her powers. It makes sense from a character stand point and despite the brutal assault from the last page, it was a non-lethal attack all the same. Crippling, at least to her, but non-lethal. She’s a soldier who respects life and also believes herself to be the most powerful thing, or one of them, on this world. That she would go for a non-lethal, brutal, over powering approach is awesome. And the fact that it failed and bit her in the ass… or possibly face/neck soon enough, I hope will come into play in her character later on. I’m not sure if I want her to become more willing for lethal measures in the future or to accept this outcome as a risk for not killing every superhero they come across, but either way I look forward to the story unfolding.
I really don’t mind Max being arrogant about her powers. It’s a nice change of pace from normal comics, where girls are always either winding up being damsels in distress (even if they have powers), or found to be weaker than the MEN, because they’re women and therefore if the men are seeming weaker, obviously they’re just holding back (blarrrgh, stupid), or some need to always put some woman in her place if she acts like MOST of the superstrong men act. As if Captain Marvel or Supreme or Thor don’t act absurdly arrogant and rarely, if ever, get called on it. But they’re not women – they’re men, so they should obviously be able to be arrogant without problem.
This is all of course sarcasm btw.
The thing I liked about Maxima is she was arrogant but could back it up, and this fight is basically just… totally killing that rather original take at things :)
Why is regeneration ‘another’ power? We know he draws energy from violence, particularly violence directed at him. We know he can do various sorts of transformations (such as creating clothes, and growing) using that energy. He seems to have started the fight untouched, and since he can obviously take damage, and has probably gotten in fights before or he wouldn’t know about his powers, must have some sort of healing. The fact it’s a metal arm is slightly surprising, but “blowing off my arm makes me stronger” is not.
well, either his regen is another spell he can fuel with the Vnergy… Or, like some supers, he actually has two distinct powers: Innate user of Vnergy And Regeneration with a powerboost built in (the powerboost may or may not be tied into the first one, only Dave knows).
V started this fight with plenty of charge thanks to the huge brawl everyone had been having, and even then some of the heroes managed to knock some teeth out, a simple .50 cal anti-materiel rifle was able to hurt him etc. It stands to reason that on an empty tank he’s not notably stronger or more powerful than most of the supers who’s main focus isn’t being superstrong/durable. In short, he’s not all that great if you can catch him running on fumes, but pretty much anything you do to fight him, successful or not, winds up making him stronger so your only real hope is ending it early or finding some way to make him spend what he’s built up until you can go for the one hit win.
In short, V’s powerful, unquestionably a contender, but its not fair to say he’s more powerful than Maxima, she needs no windup, no charge time, and remains the singularly most powerful super we have seen so far if you don’t count those with the ability to near-infinitely boost up from a baseline if given access to an appropriate powersource.
I’m not sure if anyone else has posted this yet, but I think I know why Vehemence wants ARCSWAT to succeed.
Previously, super-on-super fighting in the U.S. likely tended to be small-scale and infrequent, allowing their existence to fly under the public’s radar. For a creature that feeds on violence, this would be a poor state of affairs – people who could level whole city blocks deciding to limit themselves to trading punches and quips in an empty parking lot, making the overall “nutrition” of their fighting far less than it could be if they didn’t hold back.
Now, all of a sudden, the government has debuted ARCSwat, a large group of supers whose job is to repeatedly pound the tar out of other supers. For Vehemence, that’s like announcing the opening of a free all-you-can-eat buffet and PCP dispensary. Of course he wants them to stay around: their mere existence will create a veritable feast of violence.
I hate the sensation of my meds wearing off. feeling my mind slipping away. an then the weird thoughts start
I think the setup to end this fight was revealed early on. If the way to depower him is to stop attacking him, and to keep him from attacking anyone else, you need to restrain him >gently<. Just keep him from moving. Sidney has two powers that can do this besides her shield. One is the molestorb, which I don't think has an established upper strength limit yet, and the balls themselves. Just encircling his waist with enough that he can't wiggle through the gap would be enough to keep him rooted to the spot. Remember when Max tried to yoink Sidney out from under the ambulance by pulling on her poster tube, and nearly smashed her own face in the process? I assume Sidney can simply will them not to move, or keep him just out of reach.
You mean the Lighthook having no upper strength limit, when earlier in the fight V was clearly shown to be able to move against it – and drag Sydney along in the process – even before he powered up? We know that V in his weaker form was able to move around with it there, and only recently was it used merely to distract him without actually being used to hold him down.
The orbs also – when active at least – seem to only be able to travel a certain distance from Sydney, i.e. a couple of feet around her. Basically to do the waist option she’d need the V.
(ticked off were bear comes back with a shadowy figer) ok Mr. am all powerful for ya I have some one who can stop you with two words ok Richard he’s all yours shadowy man walks up to V and says only two words I Disbelieve and v stops and passes out all his power fades and is gone forever max looks at the shadow finger and ask what the hell is that guy the were bear smile that Richard the worlds most powerful Nega-Psychic
Hmmm…Could someone do similar by hitting him with the ?
,a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centipede%27s_Dilemma/a>
Arrrgh! Maybe I’ll get it right this time:
NUTS! Okay, I give up. The link is Centipede’s Dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centipede%27s_Dilemma
Sorry, I can’t make that one work. How could they get him to over-think the use of his powers?
BTW: <a href=”URL”>Text</a>
Quick! Someone summon a demon who derives its power from awkwardness and clownish behavior! “Insulsus” or “rusticus” seems like they would be the best root word choices for a name. Sydney would be its new best friend……..
Random thought, what if it were Fluffmodeus from Something Positive. Just picture that scenario.
Best way to defuse/distract V ? Ask for an autograph/autographed picture. I’m quite sure it would work. For a time.
I’m thinking that hitting him with curative or healing effects might be a way to go. The exact opposite of violence? Certainly, it couldn’t make things worse.
You’re talking about that thing he just did to himself?
Well, worst case it makes him stronger, not like he cant take pretty much everone already. That said he just healed all his noteworthy injuries so… What exactly would you try to heal?
Well, gee, I dunno how these things work. How about simply chucking a ‘Cure Light Wounds’ spell at him and seeing what happens?
Oh god he’s crawler lite.
Well, crawler was a bit of a doofus, though.
Say, DaveB, are you going to add an “Arch-Light known Villian intelligence” navi button alike the “Cast” button ?
I mean you introduced so many seriously fine (wannabee) villians and even went through the trouble of having them tagged nicely be Arch-Light, but the only way to find at least some of them is by finding and reading the corresponding passages.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a site listing them all including maybee a few links to archs they appear in ?
I, for one, would like to enjoy them a bit more, especially since you hinted that we are going to see at least some of them ( such as Vehemence ) again in the future.
Also, I still have laughing fits remembering some of the allotted aliases you gave them … ;-)