Grrl Power #273 – Power… drain?
So a bit of a mixed reaction to the last page. That’s ok, not everyone is going to agree with everything in the comic and I felt that the stakes needed to be upped before we hit the resolution. As always, my pacing could arguably be better, but I’ve written out to the end of the fight and the entirety Vehemence battle is actually less than two comic books worth, (American comics, not 100+ page manga) so take that Dragon Ball Z. Hopefully the bi-weekly posting schedule is what’s making it feel drawn out, but that’s really only something that can be fully judged when it’s possible to read the whole fight in one sitting.
Oh and I just want to say up here in the comments that the solution people are suggesting rather a lot, which is that Sydney put an airtight shield around him probably isn’t a viable solution, because as far as has been revealed in the comic, Sydney doesn’t know how to make the force field around someone else. She has to be in it, and by default it’s centered on her, though that can be adjusted. I only mention it here because I’ve seen it get suggested about 14 times per page for the last several comics. I’ll go ahead and spoil this: she doesn’t know how to do that, it’s not a deus ex I’m holding on to, and it would be super OP if she could anyway.
On this page we see Maxima’s weakness, if it’s fair to call it that. Force her into a high armor state and she’s only able to bring her default strength to bear. It’s not much of a weakness since she’s so strong to begin with, but in the rare case she’s up against someone hugely powerful it can become a problem. Vehemence stumbled onto it but didn’t quite guess its nature. Dabbler did figure it out on her own which is how she was able to fight Max to a standstill. Dabbler forced Max into an armor dump and left neither one of them capable of hurting the other. The real trouble happens if someone forces her into a strength dump – someone with gravity powers or enormously powerful telekenesis or something like that. It would leave her only slightly tougher than a really butch tank, which again, not that much of a weakness, but against right super powers that can still be a problem, as we saw how the tank fared in at the firing range.
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At this point, V has built up so many points in his “Vehemence Absorption Pool” he can pretty much do whatever he wants. Max has already had to shift her multipower to full defense just to tank him, so she (and every other heavy hitter) are effectively out of the fight.
Sydney, being a gamer, probably has come to a similar conclusion and is thinking outside the box – mind control (calming beam?), perception control (illusions / invisibility) or time control (haste effect to speed up the fade rate on V’s powers?) for a solution.
Is giant lesbian orgy to power up Dabbler still not on the table?
If I had the time to do “Grrl Power After Dark” this fight might be resolved in an entirely inappropriate manner. :)
So if Harem were to use her feedback loop she could power up Dabbler fast enough?
I would endorse this, but, not what’s going to happen.
Huh. Now you make our mouths watering.
….well, NOW you have my attention; well, more so than you did before anyways; don’t tease us with things like that please :P
So how much would we have to get on your Patreon to make that dream a reality?
I second that question! :D
Enough that he never has to worry about ad revenue, bare minimum.
Do I see an excellent idea for a future vote incentive?
Famous quote from Robocop 2: “I’d buy that for a dollar.”
It wouldn’t even have to be lesbian Arc has some guys still up & around.
Heh, “up.”
…
I’ll just go now.
Heck….. sounds crazy, but let’s give it a shot!
If the sex is violent enough, will it power Vehemence too?
Truthfully, orgies never stay on the table… or any one spot for that matter.
What instantly popped into my mind “Oh no, fatal blood loss, my only weakness!” :D I don’t even know where it comes from, I think Syd has said something similar before… Anyway, it seemed appropriate ;P
You may be thinking of https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/589, where Max is asking about “…a situation that would prevent you from using your powers,” with Sydney replying, “uh, being riddled with bullets?”
At least, that’s my guess.
Khan said it in Magicka, but since Magicka is riddled with references to other things it’s likely they pulled it from elsewhere.
My contribution: Sydney has Harem remove everybody from the field, especially Maxima, except herself (behind Forcefield) and possibly Harem (in a fade). Vehemence has nothing to hit but a wall and thin air. No broken bodies or violent emotions to feed on, Sydney declares that he is now in the starkest form of Peace: that of Desolation. Vehemence quickly depowers as the fight is simply over. He is then captured in a depowered state.
There are to many to remove by hand. They have to carry about thirty captured attackers and only private transportation at the site.
And not all cars survived.
Ah, but Harem can’t teleport others. Sure everyone else can just up and leave, but at the moment Maxima’s stuck.
Well, you didn’t want them to use Halo projecting an impenetrable shield. So they ignore some knowlege about the powers of the next Archon member. :P
Question, exactly how does Sydney’s Lighthook work? You said it was strong enough to pick up a car, but in what way is it this strong? Is it geolocked to Sydney like the Orbs are in which case it is theoretically infinitely strong and moves while ignoring weight, or is it like a robotic arm controlled by Sydney, and only so strong? Just thinking.
On the cast page it gets a strength rating of 3.
Well judging by the barrett (approx 30lb or 14.0 kg) she could teleport a small child or animal so at least that’d be a solution if they were ever stuck in the “Shoot ‘Em Up” plot.
Except that a small child would still be another person, which means she still can’t teleport them.
Trouble is the only animate matter she seems to be able to transport is herself with or without weight restrictions.
On the Power Curriculum Program scale from Toaru Majutsu no Index/Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator Harem would likely rate Level 4 (Powers of an extent that their wielder acquires tactical value of a military force) where Maxima is clearly a Level 5 (Powers of an extent that their wielder can fight alone against a military force on equal terms). One of the teleporters from the Index Universe is also a Level 4 and she ha some of same limitations a Harem and while she can’t create multiple bodies she can teleport up to 2 people and teleport objects into other things. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEEYe6lvtik
somehow I red that as ‘teleport small children into the stratosphere’, and now I can’t get that image out of my head, and the sound effects are making me laugh uncontrollably.
Am I going to have to hand out signs for this one to?
Why hand them out when you’ve got the option of orbital bombardment?
Bombard V with small children from orbit. You know you want to.
I prefer to use IRS agents.
Those can get messy. How ’bout tacos?
Tacos rule!
https://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/040405c
IRS agents are more fun.
Also when I save 1 it powers my Fwoosh for a while .
And who is going to complain about wasting them.
Hippies and Monks the solution is Hippies and Monks.
A buffet (or smorgasbord for us Scandinavians) of “squishies” is not the best solution to someone who crunches “tanks” one-handedly.
“Like Lambs to the slaughter” is a far too fitting example for that situation.
Depends on the Monks, I think.
I still think the magic user in the group….. Shall we say Dabbler? Needs to go back to basics. Excessively strong magic foe? How about an anti magic spell? Exorcise the demon? Banish him to the lower planes for a few centuries to cool off?
I’m now in the ball park that Vehemence is in some way associated with the Malumi, likely through some form of lineage or direct family relation. Took me a look at the comments to see the various metals suggested, but hasn’t anyone thought of Auracite? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1377
If Dabbler is part succubus with a link to Tantric energy and has a sword made from Auracite, it’s not so much of a stretch to imagine that V has some sort of link to the Aetheon thrones as well.
Perhaps he’s done a Wolverine, and has an Auracite skeleton? It would perhaps explain the ley lines across his body, aptitude for channeling magic related directly to his body and the potential Auracite spikes now coming from the regenerated limb.
As for everyone suggesting ideas, I’m pretty sure Sydney is for some reason going to be the way they beat this, even if she just out-thinks V and works out how to beat him for the other team members to mete out whatever punishment is necessary. In one of the earliest panels, Maxima addresses Sydney as colonel https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/60 which is a pretty decent commander’s rank, meaning clearly she proves herself sufficiently to get promoted that high, even if not just in one battle.
CORPORAL, surely…
All of that and that’s the only thing you pick up upon?
Regardless, promotion to corporal is apparently “the junior enlisted soldier must be serving in a leadership position that would typically be occupied by an NCO such as a sergeant or higher”.
Essentially it ranks Sydney as a sergeant at that point without the official rank likely due to not having served long enough, meaning that she still has to pull something pretty decent to get bumped up the ranks like that.
Perhaps there was nothing else that was controversial. Auracite skeleton? Quite plausible, given Dabbler’s use of electricity earlier. Can’t rule it in or out.
Actually, I think we can. Max clearly ripped V’s arm off including the bones, so unless the Auracite can replace itself, that arm would have been weaker than the rest of his body, not stronger.
Good point!
Maybe his vehemic energy is synthesizing aether from somewhere into auracite.
Sadly Corporal is not a hard rank to get. They make it sound important but its not. In the Army it is barely an official rank. If Sydney has a degree she could be brought into enlistment as an E-4 and then if the command like her she will be “promoted” to Corporal. Which is to say they give her a new rank identifier and more responsibility but no more pay. It is usually done when a unit has a shortage of NCOs to run operations.
Considering that Syndey’s Adderall prescription borders on Meth, she has a habit of overworking her info in combat, has poor accuracy with the PPO, doesn’t even know what two sevenths of her powers sources do, overreacts to everything and has a sketchy attention span even on her meds, I’d argue she’d still need to do something of reasonable worth for the command to ‘like her’ in that respect. Maybe not something spectacular like bringing V down solo, but at the very least figuring out how the team can.
…. and don’t call me Shirley.
(for those of you too young to get that one, go watch the movie ‘Airplane’)
I would say they don’t makes films or movies like they used to.
They dont make anything like they used to
even Nostalgia Isn’t what it Used to be.
Alright Gladis.
Actually, she called Sydney a Corporal, which is quite a bit lower (E-4 instead of O-5/6 in US military)
What rank is a bomb technician running at full speed?
Outranks General of the Army, I believe.
For all practical purposes, outranks everybody
Except the guy in front of him.
*tosses that guy into space*
He still out ranks bomb tech, has really gotten out of blast range first.
2. A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on.
3. An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
reminds me of a t-shirt i saw
https://www.zazzle.co.uk/bomb_technician_t_shirt-235233601189066336
A Lieutenant who knows what is going on is either
A: standing on a hill in Kansas or
B: was at one time enlisted and became an officer later.
Sydney could always lock Vehemence inside her shield with her. He did say that she was a nice kid and he hoped she didn’t get hurt… Would he hurt her himself?
Maybe not, but given his current power level (and built), it’s quite a sure bet that he could hold his breath longer than Sydney. So her only option would be to kill him, and so far he didn’t do enough evil to justify that for her.
Based on how Vehemence bitchslapped Opal into oblivion, I’m guessing he’s not above doing that to Sydney. Well, it didn’t take long for the shieldlock to be proposed… again.
at least this time they recognized that sydney needs to be inside the shield for it to work…
Even if Vehemence doesnt kill her when locked in a shield, Vehemence can just flick his finger at Sydney’s forehead, knocking her out, which makes her let go of the orb and the shield goes down.
On this page we see Maxima’s weakness, if it’s fair to call it that. Force her into a high armor state and she’s only able to bring her default strength to bear.
I don’t think that counts as a weakness. Maxima’s options are to either become weak or to get seriously wounded/dead. I’m hard pressed to consider a scenario that would force her into a high stat state that isn’t life threatening. I guess the argument is that once she’s in a high stat state that she’s no longer as “super” as she used to be so she can be defeated with relative ease but if Max couldn’t go into the high stat state in the first place she would have already been defeated.
The only real weakness is that people learn that Maxima’s powers are variable. I’m sure most of the time Maxima tries to give the impression that all her stats are permanently maxed out but having someone realize the true extent of her powers is highly variable would allow them to exploit that fact.
Yeah indeed – it wouldn’t be a weakness against anybody but V: Even though he can’t hurt her, he could use her body as a club and distribute more violence all around. And that’s about his only option, because once he lets go of her, she can switch from all-armor to normal and fly off.
And even knowing that Max’ powers are variable… I see not much weakness in it because it’s still Max who decides what power she will use. Unless… she needs to fly and is hit with a nuclear blast mid-flight andis too slow to switch to all-armor.
Damn you, missing blank:
… mid-flight and is…
I think that V assumes that Max is loosing strength because of the electricity and not that she is redistributing her stats like a Munchkin gamer. I suspect that he will leave her for dead buried under the parking lot. Max will get up while his back is turned redistribute her stats again before shouting “puny god” repeatedly until she strikes oil with V.
forcefield around V’s head.
The author quite literally said that this isn’t an option in his post on this page.
there had to be one
I even bet there’d be one.
“Gives Pete a coupon for a free cookie”
No gift cards?
Not for you.
And I am a little old school.
Ignored every bit of the creator’s statements below the panel did you?
Actually, no. This is someone suggesting that she use the shield as a way to trap just a single part of him inside with her (his head, still attached to the rest of his body, of course), which I don’t think Dave has expressly said she can’t do, yet. Then she just flies to space and lets him decompress.
DaveB says:
express enough for ya?
Sydney flies above V.
Brings up shield with bottom edge of shield at V’s neck level.
Sydney at center. V’s head caught in the bottom.
Sydney flies straight up. Or sideways. Or down. Body goes where the head goes.
Or…it could get messy if the shield simply…… completes itself instead of going around V’s neck…..
Of course, Sidney would NEVER think of such a murderous idea…but…..sometimes..nuke’em from orbit is the only way.
Also doesn’t work. Dave explained that at the start of this fight with Shadow Boxer. The shield automatically adjusts around people.
Darn it…. I thought I was being smart….okay then….let’s see……..
um….
and…..
Nah…
got nuthin!
Also, even if that Did work… at this point I think we can all easily imagine V pulling some good old fire/frost/lightning breath out of his mouth and zapping Sydney till she goes away. I expect he’d use a not so lethal method before roasting the interior… but no bets on if he Could do it if he had to.
What you are saying is essentially correct as far as what Cargosquid and the others are saying but just in case somebody reads through I’ll state that actually what DaveB said was it adjusts once on formation automatically to avoid slicing up ANYTHING near Sydney, living or otherwise, and then only adjusts as Sydney makes it.
Full quote:
“Apparently there was enough room between the wall and the table for a shield that large. Good thing it either automatically resets to a smaller default size or Sydney thought to reset it herself after the demonstration, where if you remember the shield was large enough to totally destroy that room if it went up in there. Her shield does form centered on her, large enough to encompass her, but will adjust itself up or down a bit not to slice off anything near her, which is why Shadow Boxer there didn’t get a haircut when her shield went up. That may be a yet undiscovered option though. Something else to note is that the orbs don’t automatically activate when Sydney grabs them, she can hold them without them turning on, but in this case it was a defensive reflex.”
Actually, he did. As catchTwentthree has mentioned, shield auto adjusts to avoid cutting things when it’s formed. Proof, see Dave’s comment on Sydney vs Shadow Boxer. So that idea is also out.
The power is strong in this one. Must be in management or ready to run for elected office.
Nice troll.
*takes shot*
Though they didn’t say it would be Sydney’s FF, did they?
Who’s to say that Dabbles doesn’t have one of her own?
That would’ve been done long ago the moment she suggested containing him.
Firing ALL orbital bombardment cannons.
Here’s your signs!
I thank you for your contribution. Trophy accepted and added to the pile.
You may as well take em to the recycling center and make some money off these people.
Of course with amount you have better spread em across several centers.
And states
Just not California. It’s actually illegal to transport recyclables into california for the purpose of making money. It might only apply to things like cans (that have a crv) but I could be wrong.
So now we have electrical powers on top of strength, invulnerability, speed, magic resistance,regeneration, “stick to ground”, and ‘I get stronger the more we fight’? What’s next, lasers from his ears?
Now, early on, we learned that Max served in the military, fighting other supers. But “V” didn’t! No, he stayed hidden, getting into ‘fight clubs’, and then devised a elaborate ruse to get into this battle?
Sure…why not.
He’s a magic user. Those are all spells or magical effects. Instead of eldritch bolts, fireballs, portals, etc he mainly enhances his own body and fighting abilities. And makes pants.
You forgot clothes beam, easily his most metro attack.
Actually, that move to kapants himself might have been his biggest mistake by far. e = m *c * c, and creating pants out of nothing takes energy. Even if he rearranged the atoms of the air, that would still have huge energy requirements.
Correction: second biggest mistake. Growing to twelve feet tall might mean more mass, and that’s equally expensive to create… but he created a LOT of it.
Which raises the horrifying question: if he could do all this after growing so much, creating new pants and a new arm, what could he have done had he not gone on a transformation spree?
He rearranged the atoms… of his old pants and shoes. He just transmuted his damaged clothes into new ones.
Or maybe he summoned them from the semi-elemental plane of workout pants. We don’t know where the ka-pants are from.
They’re at least stylish ka-pants.
And hopefully more stretchy than his previous pants.
If not, beat them till they are.
You want to beat his pants?
I would never have guessed you went that way.
I don’t, but I’m sure there are others who wouldn’t mind.
To quote Varric in Dragon Age II, if he pulls a dragon out of his ass, I’m leaving.
that could be interesting to watch, but, I’ll be more interested in how he got the dragon in there in the first place, because i think the dragon may have something to say about it.
Well, no one said it had to be a big dragon…
Ugh! I did that completely wrong…It should have came out like:
What? It did it again!
Ok, one last try:
I give up…I put the quote “What’s next, lasers from his ears?” inside the text-code, but only my reply wound up showing up there.
Some girls might appreciate that as much as we did with Spinny. ;p
The proper link for those who don’t know.
https://www.spinnyverse.com/index.php?id=19
Pretty sure next he’ll be able to fly and teleport and alter reality. I hate Vehemence and the type of broken character he represents.
We still don’t know if having Sydney’s shield partially envelope something forces it to be pulled in or pushed out, or if it would cut. If it cuts, then fly over him and drop the shield for a split second and cut his head off. We don’t know if thats’s an option based off what we’ve seen, but it should be know in-comic at this point.
since shes not digging a trench as she walks the shield is either flat on the bottom when shes not flying or is smart enough not to mess with existing matter either way i don’t think she can use it as a cutting tool. best she could do is play human pinball. Either that or break out he PPO and try to decapitate him (But I don’t see Sid doing that unless V actually kills Max and we know since this is still flashback that max survives this.)
We know it’s not an option because Shadow Boxer didn’t get a haircut several pages ago despite Sydney activating it involuntarily.
Shadow Boxer was already up through the floor & got his first hit on Sydney *before* she activated her shield.
Go read DaveB’s commentary on that page, he explained that the shield adjusts itself around living things on activation.
Yeah, Shadow Boxer was already close enough to get his first hit on her that the shield *included him in it* when she activated it. That’s what I said.
She activated her shield after, not before. Plus it’s Word of Dave.
Actually, aren’t we saying the same thing?
Not an electrical engineer, but perhaps seeing a light at the end of this particular tunnel.
V thinks Max is weak against electricity, so fully expecting him to shunt more of his stored energy into a larger electrical attack. Hoping for some physics trick involving Dabblers superior grasp of same plus Jiggawatts ability to generate and channel electricity, and locking him in that discharge state till he’s drained.. but if Dave wants Sydney to be the one to Wesley the teams way out of this, that’s cool too ;)
All that plan is missing is the obligatory witty comment to cap it off.
After he lying on the ground all drained, we see Sydney standing over him saying “OK, that’s it! You’re grounded mister!”
That would work if Sydney was wearing shades, for the David Carso impression
I really hope you don’t use a cheesy Deus Ex Machina to get rid of V. He deserves better ;)
Deus is probably watching this fight on TV. He’s not going to do anything.
Also his rates make Washington lawyers cringe.
Though his fingers are all yellow from his favorite TV time snack: Cheesy Puffs!
But if he did do anything at this point it would probably be through a device or cats paw.
At this point, nothing but a cheesy deus ex machina WOULD beat Vehemence, since he’s currently a walking Deus ex machina himself. Or he’ll get bored and leave to destroy the world, then destroy the world since nothing can stop him from what I’ve seen. I hate Vehemence. Have I mentioned that yet?
V is not Deus, Deus is Deus.. it says so on his company logo.
Also V is neither unbeatable nor really unfair. Had maxima started this by blowing his head off.. it probably would have worked, had she taken him into orbit by airlift from the Strart.. that might have worked, had anyone tried to deal with him Before the whole super brawl charged him up.. and then tried dealing with him with slowly escalating levels of force, he might have been beatable as pretty much every move taken by everyone worked perfectly into his suite of powers… Just as planned.
In short, the reason V is having his way with everyone right now is Because he planned things out, played his role smart by staying out of the fighting instead of joining in early just cause he could… And managed to strike a balance between pissing people off and not pissing them off too much to let him snowball into being his currently overpowered self.
Calling this op or cheesy or unfair is like calling it unfair is pretty much the same as walking into a minefield which the enemy proceeds to bombard with artillery and then complaining that you have no choices to make that wont probably result in you getting blown up.
uy… the grammar is weak in this post, apologies and hopefully what I meant to say remains clear enough to get the ghist of it, in short: V set the trap and put himself in the perfect situation to gain maximum benefit out of his particular powerset and is now reaping the rewards of that which is why the heroes are in such a tight spot now. This is not him being unfair or poorly designed as a character, quite the opposite as a villain is only as dangerous as he is competent.
We know Maxima and Anvil, at the very least, survive until several months later. So for the moment, i’m going to set aside the very interesting question of how, and just accept that they do.
Next major question; Maxima clearly established herself as the alpha super in the press show. V is now, clearly, hugely out-powering her. How is this going to play out in the news? Even if the team wins, pundits will point out that it was a very near thing, and Archon certainly appeared to be very close to loosing it’s most powerful asset (even if Maxima reaches Achilles level invulnerability, she sure looks like she’s down for the count).
They are also more supers then they expected (probably, we’ve seen a few minor hints this is a multinational group pulled together by portal girl, so this may just be a good portion of the whole world’s combat capable villains) and two of them have proven to be worthy of significant concern for the team. But any of them alone could be a huge threat to a civilian population, and there are more of them than the team can deal with.
Even if the team is able to decisively trump V with whatever clever plan Sydney is coming up with (and that’s looking less and less likely, with Dave hinting that he’ll be back), this fight raises serious questions about whether Archon can deal with all the threats they draw out.
Will even Arianna, master of spin, be able to handle this?
Well, there was a noted ‘lack’ of press at their post debut party, so no matter how this comes to a conclusion the spin that will be put on it will be from Arianna’s PR machine, win, lose, or draw.
Dug thru the archives, and correct myself as Arianna is with ‘a’ network van in #227. Wondering if that is their embedded reporter, as that seems to be the only news crew present. And if embedded, of course they are going to let Arianna spin it how she wants. That’s expected in exchange for being embedded.
While we’ve only seen the one news crew, and even if that was the only one there at the start, the fight has been going on for some time now. It has also been loud, and several of the powers used produce some bright flashes of light; both of these things would attract a fair amount of attention. Other news teams HAVE to be interested, and even if they are only on their way and haven’t actually arrived, some idiot with a cellphone camera has probably tried to slip up close enough to at least get a few distance shots. If really crazy, they could be hiding in a nearby bush.
Worst case scenario, the other team miss the beginning, and only catch V practicing his electroshock therapy on an apparently helpless Maxima.
I’d expect several different videos of V turning the tables on Max, from several different angles, on YouTube and the nightly news, and we all know the thoughtful, well reasoned posts YouTube is known for. Dave can hand wave civilian observers if he want’s, but to me, the idea that there is just the one camera filming all this seems very unrealistic. Sure Arianna should be able to control the editing/spin on that one news team, but what about all the others posted online, in their entirety?
Easy way to spin this, assuming archon wins the day, is that not Moments after announcing the formation of their organisation, they where attacked by a coalition of supervillains seeking to knock them off in a pre-emptive attack upon the nation’s ability to defend itself against that very threat. Naturally such a powerful response surpassed anyone’s expectations but in spite of great adversity and the overwhelming force of the aggressors, the Archon team stood triumphant in the way with minimal injuries and no casualties on Either side.
Obviously this gets tweaked a bit depending on if V manages to off anyone, but short of that it does look like no one has been killed and injuries have, considering the forces involved in this battle, been remarkably mild with not a dismemberment among the lot of them unless I guess you count Concretia’s dummies.
And Vehemence’s arm.
“Electricity drains your strength …” as Max switches to pure armor. Well, that’s a small victory for the good guys, but at this point, they need anything they can get.
I’ve been mulling over Vehemence’s earlier conversation with Sydney. While he may well have drawn his conclusion based entirely on their talk, it seems likely that he may also have an innate sense of a person’s capacity for violence. Max and many of her team have killed before, and as military, understand that they may need to do so again. By comparison, Sydney is lily-white.
Vehemence’s flaw may be that he is limited in some way by his opponents willingness to be violent. While I wouldn’t recommend this, it is possible that Sydney attempting to stop Vehemence by trapping him in her force field along with herself would actually work.
I dunno how many of this comment you are to again bring up the shield, but you do realise that his own violence will power him stronger, and even in his powered down state he could easily be violent to sydney if that would make her drop her shield, he seems gentle enough to keep it to a fast but effective tap but still.
The only way I could see Sydney survive being inside a bubble with him is either while flying in a huge shield that is too big for V to jump to reach her, or while making a protective cocoon with her lighthook. But V has already shown to be too strong for the lighthook to work
Yeah, I think I realize exactly what you’re saying.
Let me put this another way. Vehemence’s power presumably has some sort of limit. I’m guessing that he can’t use violence on someone who isn’t inclined to do so themselves. It seems like he recognized Sydney as just such a person a couple of months ago.
Wait what? Sydney’s completely inclined to violence. Its her default state! She threw Mr. Amorphous, slashed Lee Press On Claws throat with his own claws, and tossed around various folks with her lighthook. She’s a super cop, ready and willing to mix it up with anyone.
Since when? For one, violence he throws regardless of whether someone fights back will still count, and more importantly, it takes very little effort for V to knock out Sydney whether she’s inclined or not. Him not wanting to see her die does not mean he won’t at least hurt her.
Fair points — let’s say Sydney isn’t inclined to extreme, lethal violence. Consider her reaction to Max’s talk or Vehemence’s, er, disarming.
in the end, what sydney wants wont stop V from flicking her face if he has to, as said by Dave in the same page where V gets the faceplant and proceeds to THOOM a fist into sydney’s shield.
I went back and re-read Dave’s comments. You’re absolutely right about what he said.
Let’s just say that I’d expect anyone using vehemic or tantric powers to have some kind of limit to their ability. In the case of Vehemence, I’m wondering if that limit might be someone determined not to use violence. (Another potential counter would be a healer.)
While Sydney did engage V earlier, and provoked a counterattack, the situation may well be different now that she knows how his power works and has been horrified and sickened by the effect Max’s blast had on him.
Of course he has limits. Dave has stated some factors that determine the quality he gains, one of them being intent, another being range. It’s safe to assume that, though violence he commits himself also charges him, violence committed directly at him gives him far more power. The trouble is he is far beyond those limits. It is not enough for one side to stop fighting, as V said. V himself must also stop attacking as he can both gain some kind of charge from attacking and breaking stuff, and he has a whole lot of power to burn. So the question now is how to make him stop fighting first.
Also, as stated in the comic itself, healing actually makes him stronger, so, no, that one is not the answer.
Are we forgetting the punch he already threw at Sydney?
Fair points — let’s say Sydney isn’t inclined to extreme, lethal violence. Consider her reaction to Max’s talk or Vehemence’s, er, disarming.
I’m beyond caring how long this takes, by now I just want to see what happens when V’s power lines go beyond red.
Overload?
Resulting in an explosion that covers the whole state with violence and Vehemence?
Judging from what I heard on last physics lecture, they will convert to heat, and become invisible.
Yeah, technically infrared comes after red in spectrum. But I think that has never happened in fiction, red is always the highest value before things go wrong.
We haven’t seen how maxima powers herself up yet? Is it electricity?
Vehemence thinks he’s going to kill her but he is in fact doing a Thor to iron man lightning attack and is going to make her more powerful than he can possibly imagine… While dumping his own power reserves
I believe she doesn’t power up – she has her power and that’s how it is.
Still though, he is expending energy doing that.
The winning move: diplomacy check
“Hey, V? We (ARC SWAT) are your best source of power and you know it. Specifically, Maxima is your best source of power. Killing her or any of us would decrease your future potential, and, unlike your limb regeneration, that’s potential you won’t get back. Congratulations, you beat us. How about we acknowledge that and you leave without having to spend more of your pool?”
Someone on Pact’s (https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/) board pointed out how one of the characters used diplomacy to get out of otherwise unwinnable situations, so I thought it could work here.
First and foremost ARCswat are cops, federal cops at that, and the feds are not known for negotiating the escape of criminals, even at the cost of hostages.
Agreed. Sigh. The first parts of my suggested statement might keep V from killing Maxima and/or others, even if the second part is unrealistic.
Thankfully,, Max lives to see several more months, so nothing to worry there. :p
Also the new media is here. If there was only one thing Ariana would try her level best to kill Max over… this is it.
news media… bad keyboard
I apologize if this has already been asked and answered, but how much time, effort, or concentration does it take for Max to shift her abilities around? For example, can she armor-up fast enough once an attack is already thrown to defend against it? Can she dump strength/flight, fling herself at someone, and armor-up in the air to become a living cannonball? What about swapping between other stats and her death-ray thingy?
Also, what happens if she’s knocked unconscious? Do her stats stay in the last formation she put them in or do they revert to a-little-bit-of-everything mode?
It’s possibly as fast as she can think. So, as she is a speedster, it would mean that it’s nearly instantaneous, at least when she’s maxing speed, judging from her reflexes.
Awwww thats so cute… he thinks he did it…
What about Achilles? “Super Taunting?” Invlunerability? Higher defense than Maxima….Put him and Sydney up against Vehemence and wear him out.
On the bright side, if she does survive this, everyone will think she has a weakness she doesn’t have and beating opponents in the future will be that much easier
Parts of V look metallic now, so maybe they’re vulnerable to magnetic fields? Jiggawatt could make a pretty hefty electromagnet by making lightning spin around in a cylinder near V, with maybe Syndey and/or Hiro holding some metal objects in the middle of the cylinder to help direct the field. I don’t know if it would be any more powerful than Max’s attempt to pick him up, but it could be worth a shot.
Alternatively, since V is anchored to the ground, a classic solution is to slice out a chunk of the parking lot around him and lift the ground he’s standing on. The big problem with that one is how to cut it; I’m not sure if the molestorb can push hard enough sideways to serve as a cutting tool. If V stays on the rock then they can fly him anywhere, and if jumps off he becomes vulnerable to the “throw him into orbit” trick while he’s falling.
A large burst of positrons in V’s brain might ruin his day. Hopefully Dabbler’s plush toy can handle the fallout. (Does that mean he’d have a positronic brain, Mr. Asimov?)
We know that Syd can’t shield V’s head, but the molestorb’s probably long enough to make a bubble around his head. It probably wouldn’t be 100% airtight, but it would probably be good enough to hold an anesthetic gas. The big problem is how to keep V from pulling it off… I suppose blowing his arms off might buy them some time, but it’s a big power-up for V if the gambit fails.
Well, let’s see… Jiggawatt electricity rating… 3. Nope, not going to lock Vehemence’s metal arm by magnetic force. Although that should be a valid tactic for future reference, if there’s a giant block of steel around and the enemy is an armoured dude or the like.
Jiggawatt may still be the answer (a rather permanent one albeit) if she shoots some anti-electricity into V. Can you say earth shattering kA-boom? Hmm.
Not a chance. Even if we ignore that the Darkening may have been a one-off by author fiat, it didn’t cause any earth-shattering kaboom when used against Glowbug.
Also… the magnet gets pulled as much as the target. If the target is anchored better than the magnet you end up with a homing projectile.
But that would be violence… so not a good option here.
“what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Vec is truly the embodiment of that saying.
poeple are still probably thinking its a good idea so lets talk about it once more.
even if DeathTroll (DT) decided to fight vech…
idea appeared…
DT has already shown the power to (“but sydney already…” SHUT UP) turn copper (or was it some alloy?) so DT is capable of body tramutation (under condition).
if DT could turn into slime or be rubbery like MR.Fantastic, that would “Surely” counter his power right? RIGHT?! NOOOOOO!!!!
first of all, Vechs power is deffensive+utility, and DT only “counters” direct atacks.
even if he prevented Vech’s atacks from reaching him, or doing damage, it would NOT realy counter his power.
second off, with slime body he cant realy take damage right? few pages ago someone mentoined a manga. one of the characters punched so hard, the preasurised air has torn a sludge monster to pieces. why wouldn’t that happen to DT?
third off, so DT counters his punch… guess what LIGHNING.
we know he can counter one power at a time. NOW he has 2 to deal with, sort off.
even if you found solution to first 2, with the third point, this idea flys out the window.
You got two things wrong- firstly, there’s indeed a limit to how diverse attacks he can counter, but he certainly handle two or three things at once. Remember, when they finally took him down it was with ~7 simultanous forms of assault.
More important, however, is how DT counters attacks. It was evident his defence includes an element of retaliation. Jiggawatt tried to telebolt-zap him and was trapped, Hiro tried to air-stomp him was slammed into the ground, and most significantly, Anvil tried to punch him and had her batteries drained. Applying that kind of counter to Vehemence should neutralize him near-instantly.
Agreed, V’s most obvious counter is to somehow remove all that built up energy he has, if he Did make the colossal mistake of attacking DT for any reason and DT was awake to counter it, V would probably get taken down hard.
The catch of course is that you’d need DT both awake and willing to tangle with V (rather than just teaming up with the big guy again, offering him a reduced prison sentence does not amount to much if V offers him No prison sentence.
Also, V has to somehow attack DT which he would never knowingly do. There are ways it could happen but none of them appear plausible at this juncture.
Alright, i forgot about drain, but… wait that still doesn’t solve it because as i already said, HIS POWER IS NOT OFFENSIVE in itself.
Anvils power absorb kinetic power and then return it when she is attacking.
V’s power absorb the violence, and then uses it to make if body more durable, or efficient.
It is not DIRECTLY used to attack.
You say that every time DT counters, he also retaliate.
as i mentioned in another post under another page, if DT counters by creating an “equall and opposing force”, thats EXACTLY what V want to happen, because THAT’S what make him stronger, and its what would likely happen, because DT would counter the massive punch, and not the power that made it so strong.
Then there is a point of willingness that aclys mentioned.
Well, “Richard” (for some reason also known as the d***) already solved that one.
Then comes the ability to counter multiple powers.
its not that he can counter multiple power at once, its just that he can switch rather fast.
why 7 of them?
A) team was angry so they all ganged up on him.
or
B) they wanted to do it fast and redundancy makes it much less likely for him pull something.
maybe both, they seems satisfied afterwards.
if i missed something, say what it is. i will try to be a little less angry next time.
i find it funny that someone like him having already got done proving his intelligence would assume someone like max letting go is sign that electricity is her weakness when he’s trying to crush her espcially what with having the ability to do a singularity explosion and survive it
Well he doesn’t actually know what Maxima’s powers are.
The Press conference only listed a brief overview and said that the extent of those powers was classified.
No one outside ARCON (and the audience) knows Maxima has a shared power pool.
What V just observed is that when he hit her with his electricity attack she lost strength and flight capability. Something he hasn’t observed any other attacks causing. His conclusion is partially correct in that this attack prevented her from using her offensive and utility powers, but he’s wrong about the exact mechanism. Mostly it’s that without knowing about the shared pool he has no reason to suspect that the magnitude of his attack can affect her ability to utilize non-defensive powers. So he concludes it must be the nature of the attack (electricity) that did it.
I sort of think that Jiggawatt will have something to do with the next page. She’s a relatively new addition to the cast, which suggests that she was needed for more than we’ve seen so far.
Heh, I still like the idea of stalwart and hiro, maybe a few other heavy hitters, just punching the ever loving crap out of anvil so she can build up kinetic energy, then have her unleash enough in one punch to launch the space shuttle into orbit. I call it the reckoning bomb attack, for those who are old fans od World of Warcraft.
Nice try Dave but not only did all of those people not bother reading any comments a decent number of them don’t bother to read your comic descriptive/blog text either. And the ones that do will just move on to the next most popular non-theory like Dabbler being able to teleport more than her equipment or Harem being able to move large chunks of matter and living matter at that. But we appreciate your help with the good fight down here in the comment slug fest!
So he can make his tattoo more elaborate? And it grows stuff at all its major… power points? when needed needed to help transmit more power? I don’t think merely messing with that tattoo is gonna have much effect unless the scribblings you do are equally magical. It would just heal itself otherwise I assume. It would be awesome if you had some kind of magical paint which when applied with a power backed chant would allow you to short the damn thing out. Since he is using methods vaguely in Dabbler’s ball park I would assume she could help advise Sydney. She was crouching behind Sydney’s shield back when Sydney was still keeping it up (why does she keep taking it down??? It should hold enough air for most of the fight. Actually all of it so far but meh, I’ll give a pass for one air scoop if Sydney was hyperventilating early on… after that she’s just endangering herself!).
Replacement parts are supposed to be better right? His new eye is the same color as his tattoo. Does he have “violence vision” or perhaps can shoot “violence rays” out of it now? I hope he doesn’t grow another power spike out of it… eerg…
Time to start swapping dark green and peach orbs out, see if one of them isnt actually a power drain. Chekhov’s gun might have pointed to the mystery upgrade on the yellow comm ball, but since she has used that once already in the fight… might be unlikely.
A solution IS dabbler… but not with the zappyzapps.
Hasnt anyone suggested she just “turn it up to 20” and just vamp him into a drooling mess? :)
“MAXIMA I”M GONNNA KEEEEELLYOOooooo..ooooooOOO preeeetty…..”
Yep, quite a few have already mentioned that. Unless Dave’s work-up for Dabbler’s Lust Aura doesn’t agree with the rest of us, it probably isn’t going to do much good for someone that violent to be overcome with lust…Those two concepts can be mixed together all too well.
Dabbler might very well be the first succubus in known history to suffer “Death by Snu-Snu.”
I’m not sure there’s any reason to think Dabbler can die. I mean, living things can, but to what degree is Dabbler alive? She’s a shape shifter, does she think with her brain? Or does this world have a concept of souls/spirits?
Basically, with physics out to lunch in a super comic, there’s no particular reason to think our current concept of the universe is remotely valid. Dabbler doesn’t act like she is fighting for her life, she acts like she’s messing around. Maybe she’s not concerned because she’s not in any danger.
Or Dabbler is simply too scatterbrained to bother.
Dabbler has not actually shown Any ability to shape-shift yet. The human forms are Illusions/glammer, which is why she had “invisible” arms to grope maxima with during the interview and why sydney’s truesight saw through it… We dont actually know if it can see through shapeshifting effects… it cant see through someone wearing a paper mask after all so it all depends on wether it simply negates illusions or also works on transmutative effects.
Either way, while I would not put it past Dabbler to know a few, ahem, sociably useful spells for letting her disguise herself as things not matching her default body type or for other purposes, she has yet to demonstrate this ability and it certainly doesnt look like an option she could use to, say, avoid getting impaled by heavenly sword’s thrust where achilles had to save her with his shameless abuse of an eyeball (t’was his own so its mostly alright). So yeah, if V got affected by her lust aura, and that’s a pretty humongous if at this point, nothing really stops him from expressing said lust in ways that would give them both a charge and.. well, as MidnightDStroyer said above, it’d probably be one of the first times a succubi (or a part-succubi in dabbler’s case), got in bed with something they could not outlast.
Electricity, huh? I vote to go old school, real old school, like Wizard of Oz old school. Someone throw a bucket of water on him and watch him short out.
Just a random thought, but maybe one of Sydney’s orbs is a “Copy-cat” ball
Oh god. A Hulked-out, hopped up on Violence Sydney? That would be fantastic to see.
Hey dude! You want to see the whole city being laid waste? Sydney’s meds are wearing off & you want to ADD that much V-Energy to her?
O.o
What about that orb that even Halo doesn’t know what it does? Now wouldn’t it suck if it flew out of orbit, touch V, he loses all his power, the orb flies back to obit Halo and all the other orbs get a recharge? I mean, since the orbs are part of the comic and it has been mentioned before Syd doesn’t know what that one of them does, it wouldn’t be deus ex machina, now would it? And this whole arch would be explaining just how they fund out what it does.
Well first off, there are two mystery orbs. Secondly, I agree that would be more than a bit cheap, so im hoping that isnt the way it happens. As for the other orbs getting a recharge, I dont think we have seen any signs of them NEEDING a recharge. I mean, we have yet to see sydney even feel a bit tired from keeping that shield up and helping out in all these fights.
That’s exactly what a deus ex machina would look like!
For the whole “power stealer” schtick to make sense it helps to have a unified framework of powers. A mutant power that suppresses other mutant powers makes sense, or a spell that dispels other spells. But powers in this world seem like a diverse catch all. I don’t think Sydney would have an orb that relates to magic user’s like Dabbler/V’s abilities.
On the other hand, has she taken a look at V through the true sight orb like she did for For Whom The Death Tolls? Be a kick if he’s just a little guy hiding behind a building controlling the big hulk form.
again nicelt draw… but Vehemence will never stop trowing up new power every page?
Once he stops gaining power, yes.
Sydney could try orb-towing… Grab flight and force shield. We know the shield is airtight, so she can use it to breath in space for a few minutes.
now, fly directly above vehemence, and position her OTHER 5 orbs into something vehemence can’t easily escape from… maybe a pentagon shape pinching around his waist.
sydney flys straight up, the orbs go with her, and vehemence goes with the orbs. then drop him off in orbit. The hard part is calculating a stable orbit by eye… hopefully her GPS bracer can help her with that. or she could bring dabbler with her inside the force shield.
Hey! Great minds think alike, Although in my post I suggested around his neck.
Given that Maxima has already shown that you can’t drag the orbs away from Sydney, this might actually work. Although Maxima was just casually pulling on them, not using her full strength, and V has a LOT of strength right now, so who knows?
Then again, Math could figure his way past her orbs, so *shrug*.
Alternatively, V has shown himself to be very genre-savvy and a bit of a chatty guy. I honestly think Sydney’s safest shot might be to just see if he’s as easily distracted as she is and just start talking to him and asking questions. Best case he gets distracted and doesn’t notice he’s just lost power. 2nd Best Case he switches targets to Sydney and at least lets Maxima get back up and do something else. Worst case the shield breaks and Sydney is smashed into tiny pieces and V, full of remorse for killing such a nice girl so brutally, powers down and is captured. So practically a guaranteed win…. right?
It’s also been shown that Sydney can’t drag the orbs if they’re held in place by something. She was jerked to a stop at lunch by her tether to the orbs because the strap on the tube was caught on an armrest, and later because Maxima stepped on the strap. There’s no indication that she could tow anything with the orbs that she couldn’t otherwise move, and since Maxima wasn’t able to pull V loose from the ground, I doubt that Sydney could, either.
Here’s a really odd thought, though: The orbs are “invisible”, magically speaking. They don’t radiate anything that is detectible by magic. Does that mean they wouldn’t radiate vehemic energy if used in a violent fashion? Say Sydney beaned V with one, like she did to Dabbler–would he gain any power from it? V’s defenses clearly require some expense of his energy; if Sydney could attack him (even with cherry-taps from the orbs themselves, silly as that would be) without recharging him, could she wear him down eventually?
that would depend on how powerful sydney’s flight orb is, compared to maxima…
also, he implied he was burning power to resist maxima’s lift, and then he attacked her, stopping her from continuing the lift.
maybe if sydney keeps pulling for long enough, he’ll run out of power resisting her?
Yeah, I suggested the ‘orbs as collar’ trick a few pages ago. My add-on with that idea was to have Max (would now have to be someone else) fly Halo in a circle around V right at the max radius of her orbs’ tether. That way, no matter which way V tries to move, Halo will be on the opposite side of him and he won’t be able to push past the orb. (This would require lots of speed and really careful timing.)
Dabbler scanned the orbs with her techy sensors as well as magic, didnt get nothing useful from that either. If not for the remote possiblity of this actually being true…
What if the orbs are Not real? Like.. what if they are a mental, semi-psychic analogy or interface device with whatever is their source of power… the metaphorical star shown earlier or some such. In other words, the orbs are not physical items at all but simply holograms if you will.. ones able to imitate properties like mass and shape which is why they could homerun nega-jerk’s balls like they did.. and why they can dead-stop anyone trying to pull them too far away from sydney. But also why they are not subject to other factors, why the light projections are invisible to technological sensors and cameras and why they are so gosh darn hard to get a reading on using any sensors more complex than what sydney is equipped with naturally?
Obviously that raises almost as many questions as it might answer if not more.. but its an interesting thought I thought.
At this point, I don’t think more power is going to help. More likely they need to make him loose focus, maybe do something against his alignment. What happens to a violence-caster if they do an altruistic act?
V already told team archon about the ribs he broke in Vekter, granted it was after breaking them himself but… Also he put on pants for everyone’s benefit. I guess you could argue it was for his own sake as much as theirs.. Still, he’s far too polite and generous with things for altruism to be his only weakness.
Maxima:”Leon, reroute all airline traffic to clear the overheads. Dabbler, get his attention now!”
Dabbler “YooHoo!”
V:
Maxima: All to offensive blast, center mass “BLINK!” Ker-BLASSSSST
The beam is visible for several miles.
The only thing left is a metallic arm and maybe from the shins down.
Awww. It pulled the sound effect from Dabbler’s power buildup:
Dabbler: HuminaHuminaHUMMINA! “YooHoo!”
Sheesh
V: Eyes ker-sproing
(Blasted html grabs when you don’t want it, ignores when you do)
Now I’m wondering how Maximas stat pool works. It looks like she just distributed her excess powers to max out her armor stat. If she can do that with the other 2 pools, I think I have a simple solution but the drawback would be becoming a nuke.
Basically she would need to grapple him and get him into a full nelson with her hands pointing towards his head and get her legs wrapped around him, draw against her speed and flight to max out her power blast in addition to armor, and redistribute the left over into strength.
Maybe wake up Opal and have her port the guy into the moon and let Max fire through the portal as an alternative. She may like that idea :)
Wake up Opal remains my favorite idea. If she can beam him to the moon then there’s no need to fire through the portal. CLOSE THE PORTAL, leave him on the moon.
She used the maxed blasts to blow off V’s arm earlier, they can plainly do damage to him. But there are a few problems what you are suggesting.
1. She’s currently maxing armor and getting throttled. If she lets up on the armor to blast or fight back he’ll probably break her neck.
2. Even if she could pull it off, Blowing off his arm just made him stronger. Blowing off his head might work…or it might just make him stronger once again.
Author has mentioned a few times that Maxima has a degree of power she hasn’t shown yet. She is currently just pushing her pool around. She also has the ability to drop her stats below their baselines in order to ubermax a particular power. We don’t know if he’d survive an ubermax blast/punch, but Maxima would have to make herself super vulnerable to try.
The problem with waking up Opal is that she will then use her power to leave, like she was trying to do once she realized the whole plan was fubar, except possibly this time only taking herself for speed. Then you’re down one prisoner, and otherwise in the same condition battle-wise.
She might, in which case, sure, that’s bad, but really, she was never going to be a prisoner. If she wakes up, she’s gone. If you keep her constantly unconscious she’s basically a casualty.
But it might be possible to get her cooperation. Put a gun to her head, or Vektor’s head. Maybe she’d just like revenge on the dude who back handed her into unconsciousness.
Basically, it can’t hurt (it could, I suppose, Opal might start attacking them, but that seems unlikely), and it might help save them from the imminent massacre.
Time to play Possum Comatose, Maxima!
My favorite comment so far. +100
Anyone else think Dove from DC’s Hawk and Dove team would be an excellent choice to fight V? Incredibly hard to hit (with a powerset skewed heavily toward awareness, prediction, and agility), powerful enough to possibly avoid becoming a stain on the asphalt if he/she (depending on the incarnation) is hit, and highly peaceful by nature.