Grrl Power #274 – Master sham
Well that’s concerning. The team is going to figure out something and fast. Vehemence’s own plan isn’t terribly grandiose, admittedly. He’d obviously thought about what he could do with a huge amount of power, but all those things spiral into violence on a scale he doesn’t seem to be interested in. I think if asked about it, he’d reply that stirring up that much chaos would just be rude. He’s only interested in fighting fighters, but he’s not above benefiting from free form violence either. Ok, maybe he’s helped facilitate it here and there as well, but nothing that would lead to wholesale slaughter.
Anvil of course absorbs kinetic energy, but that thing that Vehemence did was more of a short lived push-you wall of force. He normally can’t do that, or really most of what he’s doing tonight, but then he never sucked up all the V-Juice from a 50 super person battle royale before either, not to mention took on 5 supers directly afterwards. In RPG terms, he basically has nearly any power he wants now, but he’s paying a big cost penalty for making them up on the spot. That’s fine with him though as his current pool is wide and deep. I say nearly because so he’s as much as admitted he can’t fly, and he’s yet to show that he can come up with powers like telepathy or other indirectly employed abilities. It’s all been direct physical stuff, maybe except for the anchor, but that’s a very bricky power anyway.
Panel 3 was almost a parody of political cartoons, with a caricatured Vehemence sitting on a throne as people labeled “poor” led people labeled “rich” to the gallows or something. I was about 5 minutes into drawing that before I decided spoofing political cartoons is a tall order since they’re all basically parodies of themselves already.
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I am thinking that Math is the guy to take Vehemence down. Vehemence appears to need not just the use of force, but a strong angry use of force to power up. Otherwise, the explosive demolition of a building would do better than a Brazilian sports riot. Math does not strike in anger. He is concerned with monitoring his technique and looking cool insofar as using proper technique may not already include looking cool.
Too power up well you mean. I don’t think “intent to do violence” is the same as anger. And Math seemed pretty intent. And very focused as well.
It seems like V would be too fast for Math now. Besides, Math is still out afaik.
It’s not force, it’s violence. Math is violent even if he doesn’t strike directly or in anger.
Just a thought on how to beat him. Wouldn’t it work if he was ticklish? Tickling is not violent and Halo could tickle him with the tentacle thingy. It is even possible that laughing hard will drain off his power as well. Just a suggestion.
I’m still advocating that X be the one to save the day. He has to be there because Dabbler is, and we have no idea what his capabilities are, other than near-perfect cloaking. Of course, he might not be a super, so the idea could be ludicrous, but………..still would be a left field solution that no one in the comic would have seen coming.
Nath is already unconscious via jabberwocky
Math is basically made of fog as compared with V. This guy takes sniper rifle bullets to the eye without missing a beat. Math cannot affect him in any way until he is depowered.
Maybe he’s ticklish?
Not everyone is ticklish though
This is why I’d prefer to use itching powder instead of trying to tickle him.
Isn’t it paste if you soak it in DMSO?
Not if you give it time to dry out first. It can be ground down back into a powder. However, unless they already *have* s supply of such, they’ll have to skip the DMSO…Time is something they don’t have a lot of.
Some kind of magic disruption spell would be useful right about now for the more fine tuned stuff he’s doing that resembles magic anyway. Things like the force push might be raw enough to avoid being disrupted unless its performed by a very strong mage.
I like that the leader of the war on classist richie rich boys is wearing a giant expensive looking suit and hat! XD
Thanks for helping in the war on silliness down in the comments Dave. I can see what you are doing but don’t feel the need to make Sydney do things she has seen enough evidence of to know they can’t be done (Maxima already tried to lift him right in front of Sydney) or it will take believably away from her amazing, for a newbie, strategic analyst skills. Ten replacement theories will take its place so its not worth that. ;)
If someone diverts the lighting could she move enough energy around to break his hold?
Is Sydney TRYING to be taken hostage. GET BACK IN YOUR DAMN SHIELD AND STAY THERE. Frankly Dave was fudging by suggest she ran out of oxygen as early as she did let alone multiple times and now multiple times in the same segment of the fight… Even taking into consideration that Sydney doesn’t know how long her trapped oxygen can last (thought she’d have some idea from scuba class but maybe that sort of thing did come up) this is getting a bit much!
We have at least three muppets behind Vehemence. (kind of surprised googly eyed Death Toll isn’t behind him actually! XD ) I wonder if even the more obscure looking ones started as a “muppet made into norm human” concept?
I’m kind of saddened by them still attacking individually so much against someone who has more than proven proof against that BEFORE he powered up. Why wouldn’t Anvil ask Sydney to tie the Light Hook around her waist so she can effectively fly and not get casually knocked away all the time. She’d just keep coming back which might or might not get V to waste energy but its tons better then the individual “Get Him” stunts we are seeing…
So he’s shown them that he CAN misjudge things. Maybe an illusion mixed with good old fashion briar rabbit trickery is in order? Gwen can do a “No See-Em” spell. She’s less experienced then Dabbler but being a specialist chosen to be trained because of her natural ability maybe she has more raw “Ooompf!” to her spells?
I feel embarrassed now…I only recognized 2 muppets there and I’ve been a huge fan of all things muppet for many years
Well the Muppet version of the American Eagle helping overthrow the system was just too much to resist. I wonder if we had a blown up, uncropped, high res version if we could spot more? Maybe that’s a blonde female with large lips to the right of Sam the Eagle. ;)
Thought that was the Vulture from Marvel (you know, one of Spidey’s many many arch-enemies)
I didn’t even know they had Marvel Muppets. This would be an awesome show to see!
I dunno… Is the world truly ready for a Marvel Miss Piggy?
https://nerdbastards.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/tumblr_m5gsgy4ESB1qgu2vjo4_1280.jpg
Here. Marvel Miss Piggy.
https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/TWSMissPhoenix.jpg
And the world still spins. Or is that divine punishment?
I think I can find a Kermit Green Lantern one if you want to test the world’s stability some more.
When you’re a Green Lantern, Kermit, it’s very easy being green.
Has it occured to anyone, that if maxima survives this relatively ok with her powers intact, that this might have the opposite of the expected effect upon her? That in future super fights, instead of using lower levels of force and ramping up, she might switch right to the higher levels of force right away, energy blasting away enemy super head and limbs right from the beginning to prevent another potential opponent such as V from charging up in the future? This could end up with almost every super that maxima faces in the future being quickly killed by her, rather than her risking this happening again.
It would also be in her nature to go for the “max violence, right away” route as a future solution to super battles, and it could work to.
To give an analogy, if the cops ever faced an opponent, who using lower force levels on -such as pepper spray, tasers, etc. – just charged them up to the point where the opponent was bulletproof, then in the future, the cops might switch to using guns from the beginning for all opponents in order to prevent such a thing from occuring again.
*If* she survives? Recall this is primarily a flashback told through Sydney (despite conversations she in no way could recall or would be told of) where Maxima and Anvil greet her.
She survives. No ifs ands or buts. Short of dying and going on a ‘we brought a super back from the dead’ so early in the universes life. Is the trouble with these flashback type stories, when you put a key character in mortal danger but show them months down the road alive and well…kinda cuts the tension at the knees.
The real question is: When does Sydney pull out the ‘big guns’?
And another minor but interesting note: The corner of Sesame St. and Wall St. Muppets and business men, the rioting is doomed regardless.
I also had forgot about that. But yeah, she’s gonna live.
She might be a clone of course…
Or it’s her twin sister…
Or ported in form an alternative reality…
Or a Doombot.
Or a Life-Model Decoy…
Or a Skrull.
Or a ninja.
And then villains realize they also need rapid escalation and super fights become very lethal and half the cast dies in a few months.
Except, oh wait, this is a flashback and Sidney appears far too content with life to be under constant threat of death and having seen friends die.
So no, Max doesn’t rapid-escalate in the future.
Yeah, it just figures…The villain doesn’t really get started with monologuing until he’s got the hero in the proverbial deathtrap. Considering what he’s just revealed about his future plans, I still want to see him again (& he bound to show up *somewhere* later on), just so there’s a way of revealing more of his own personal *history* before this first-appearance of his.
His future plans are to possibly go to Brazil. He already basically said he was joking about all that other stuff. Said that’s what was expected of someone in his position, so wasn’t being serious. More of a dry joke.
I was more implying the trope that Maxima got Vehemence to start monologuing (now that Max has V right were he wants her), not so much that he’s actually telling the truth about his plans. I haven’t discounted the fact that Vehemence is indeed tossing out a whole bunch of different ideas, but that’s still monologuing.
Love the Bert and Ernie Adaptation
Well, they are at the corner of Wall and Sesame Streets :P
glad i wasnt the only one catching that!
I wonder if V has anyone important that our heroes can kidnap. Either that or they should try to find embarrassing photos of him to post on Facebook. Perhaps Dabbler had a chance to get a shot earlier?
If anyone in ARCSwat saw that while wearing their tactical glasses, you can bet that ARCLight has a photo of V’s nudity already “saved to file.” Later on, I’d guess Harem would want to see that file & say, “One of me will be in my bunk.”
Only one? o_O
Well, unless Harem takes a file copy on a Kindle (or something of the like) with her to her bunk, at least one of her will need to stay at the display monitor…
Because police should totally take hostages to force criminals to do what they want, right? I think you have that backwards.
True, but who ever said that I’m on the side of good? ;)
They’re not police. They’re military.
But they are not in a warzone & they are on US soil, which means that they have to abide by the rules as civilian police do. Both military & civilian police have procedures accounting for Escalation of Force & granting sufficient opportunity to surrender…But the benchmarks in those procedures are on different scales.
Arianna went over this in the press conference, that there are differences on the new laws around Archon’s use in the states.
Another way it could end is that Max *IS* connected to the demon that Dabbler had a flashback about and that demon is going to intervene in some manner to tilt the balance back in his avatar’s favor. It would count (barely) as a foreshadowed element of the story.
i dunno about max being conencted to a demon, or being an avatar of anything, but i am preyy sure the demon we have seen is NOT an ally. when we have seen him in the flashback, he was being banished to a hell dimension or something like that.
and when max asked “whats the worst that could happen?” the demon was listed there saying “found you”. if anything, he would make things even worse for them.
if i am wrong, say the number of the page that proves me being wrong about it.
Oh, certainly not an ally. But he may have a vested interest in Max staying around so he can ‘make things worse’ later.
It’s not Max that the demon has history with, it’s Dabbler. There’s no reason to think he has any interest in Max.
I think the suggestion is that Max IS the demon, or its earthly proxy. Her power, in this theory, would stem from it. The only real evidence there is Dabbler flashing to the Demon promising to return when she sees Maxima reveling in the destruction at the power demonstration.
If this theory was true, Maxima’s imminent demise would prompt the demon to kick it up a notch, making Maxima go Super Saiyan 2 in order to save her from whatever V has planned.
I don’t subscribe to the theory myself, but that’s the general outline.
It could just be an omen. Might not have anything to do with Maxima. Probably doesnt. Just the fact that ‘there will be a great burning to herald my return’ is something Dabbler interprets as a foreshadowing or reminder of that.
Now would be the time to try giving V a small portion of the power of the sun at this head. PewPewPew.
Yes. This. Please.
What is Sydney trying to do with the Hentorb? And how did Fedorka get out of it this time?
I think she’s trying to lift him straight up off the ground. And I think he’s just gluing himself in place.
No idea how he got out of it this time. Honestly, very little idea how he got out of it last time though I’m assuming it’s some sort of leverage thing since he said “ole’ ” when he did.
Is that a sign with a pitchfork on it?
Yep.
Noticed that too and had a _very_ good bellylaugh about it.
And it’s held by Ernie (with Burt standing in front) at the intersection of wall street and sesame street.
Doesn’t Sydney’s (and Anvil’s) actions count enough to add them to the SideBar?
The rule Dave established is characters with dialog. Neither of those has dialog in this page.
Well, Anvil did say “Oof!”
And there was this one time Arianna got a panel despite neither saying anything or appearing on the page.
For that page with Arianna in it, it could be because she’s not as well known as the other gals, so a little memory jog was required.
She was, however, mentioned in dialog, (or rather, mentioned in passing in internal monolouge, but text is text.) which appearently counts.
Hey Dave, if I remember correctly, you said that at full maxed out armor, Maxima couldn’t move, but she had to move her leg between the 4th and 6th panel, is she *still* not using her full potential?
Side note, V is going to have travel problems, given the size he is. He would never fit onto a standard bus, and unless he can keep his power and shrink back down to normal size, spotting him using public transportation would be very easy; no way anyone is letting that guy get on a plane. He could walk down to Brazil, but that would take a while. Even if he can shrink down, I think he’s the only guy around with glowing tattoos on his face.
Also, he may as well spring for a fully bespoke suite, since I’m pretty sure they don’t normally make the XXXXXXXL size he is wearing now. If he insists on showing up to every riot looking that sharp, and if he keeps going through his suits the way he is now, I think it’s going to get rather expensive, if he can even find a tailor to work with him.
One word: “KA-Suit”
The fact that V had enough connections in the “criminal underworld” to set up this fight, I have little doubt that he already has access to material resources too. For example, it’s not cheap to find decent clothes for a guy as big as he is, even *before* his growth spurt…He probably has access to long distance travel that’s already able to accommodate his size in some level of comfort without resorting to regular commercial travel.
Max has essentially two “maxed out” states. One is like this where she’s committed her entire power pool to one attribute, the other one is a desperation max out where she draws against her other abilities for a temporary boost. It’s an exhausting thing for her to do and that’s when she can’t move. That may or may not happen later.
Wait…if she does the 2nd Maxed out all the other stats go to normal human level?
Pretty much, yeah.
Then, except a very, very few circumstances, that’s pretty much a suicidal move.
Hence why she hasn’t done it yet. It’s really only useful (in the case of endurance) when there’s an undodgeable attack she knows she couldn’t otherwise survive.
In fact, most of the “second maxed” states would be only useful for specific feats (like “must reach point X now” for speed), as actual combat generally requires a good mix of strength, speed, etc.
Even worse, it would theoretically be impossible to use maxxed out speed or flight, since she *needs* insane endurance to survive that.
…or survive a Uber Blast, or support Uber Strenght etc, etc.
Unless an ‘uber blast’ is directed in one direction only.
so the way i see it, and i’m not sure i’m RIGHT, but… it seems that Maxima has basically three different energy levels… her Normal level that is like the left-hand graphic in panel 4. it being that she has a majority of her available power evenly distributed over all 5 stats (the grey pentagons), with a somewhat large-ish portion being unallocated and can be shifted as needed(the blue pentagon and blue arrows). Then there is the Right-hand graphic, where she needs more power in one stat than she has currently, so she shifts all of her variable energy into whatever stat needs it at the time, while simultaneously keeping her normal levels in the other four stats (right now that would be the Shield/armor stat being boosted…) THEN there is a third level… one only used in desperation (as may be required soonish) where she shifts EVERYTHING into ONE stat… that would be the equivalent of moving not only the dark and light blue energy but ALSO the light and dark GREY pentagons worth of energy (that portion of her power that is normally evenly divided, as her “base” power levels in the Other stats that do NOT have the focus at the moment (in the earlier graphic, that would be the energy blast and speed default levels) thus MASSIVELY increasing that one stat but dropping all four of the others to non-super levels…
Or he owns his own plane. Or a car. Or knows people who have private planes, since apparently he knows all sorts of people in the criminal underground despite no one ever having heard of him.
You know what would be handy right now?
If someone careered into them knocking V off of Maxima… hmm to make it more interesting how about the villain Maxima claimed to have killed on the grounds they don’t want her to die at V’s hands?
V did just effectively hospitalise a large number of villains it wouldn’t be a stretch if one of those who gave this a pass has caught sight of this battle as I assume its being televised and get involved on the grounds that V is making them look incompetent?
Well it is a thought…
On the subject of the orbs and the Grid: maybe the doublelined nodes are the “Two-Hand-Nodes”?
if that was already debunked correct me please ;)
No No. I like that idea. It would make sense with the thought had earlier that the original race to use them had 3 or more ‘hands’ that counted.
Does anyone else wonder how strength and durability can be separated? It seems like they would be directly related.
Strength: increased muscle power, literally, Maxima could bench press more. But, if exposed to heat, cold, abrasion, or something sharp, or say electrical current, she could be hurt or at least inconvenienced.
Durability: a great resistance to injury, but not allowing her to exert more force than usual.
In this particular case, the differences becomes quite important: while the neck has muscles, none are arranged in a way that would prevent the trachea from being crushed through sheer force. But by upping her durability, she … isn’t dead yet.
Also, look at Achilles, his durability goes up to 6 on a 5 scale, but he is only a little stronger than a normal person, since he doesn’t have to worry about tearing muscles.
Well, significantly stronger. We’ve got a ridiculous amount of potential power output in our muscles (some of the best power to density ratios in the animal kingdom, actually) and he’s got bodybuilder quantities of musculature at probably powerlifter quality due to “Superhero Perfection Syndrome”- that along with the ability to go beyond what is safe means he can probably punch through a foot of stone and rip 10 gauge steel if he’s trained himself to release his limiters constantly (which he probably has due to the eyeball thing).
Ok here is an option. Harem pop over to portal girl and wakes her up. Offers her a deal a get jail free card in exchange for portaling V someone inconvenient (like the middle of the ocean)
Opal has a severe concussion. She’s not getting up and doing ANYTHING tonight.
Still my favorite plan. I give it a 10% chance of success (most likely Opal would just leave, or V would avoid the portal, or they couldn’t wake him up, or any of a host of other problems), which still beats lighthooking/tackling V.
Seeing this, he made one HUGE mistake – they now know that the next time they see him, he dies. He’s stated a willingness to kill. Screw the comic book ‘But we’re as bad as they are if we kill!’ bullshit – spread him across non-contiguous COUNTRIES.
I don’t think he’s gonna show up without prep, ever. He’ll make sure he’s got power to start with.
Still comes down to a need to kill him if they ever run into him again.
She WILL start with his head. And unless he has Deadpool regeneration abilities, I think he would be toast.
He’s only willing to kill people if they’re trying to kill him first. As of right now he’s only dangerous to Maxima and if he’s confident she won’t try and kill him he probably wouldn’t kill her.
He’s not the bad guy here, he didn’t escalate a friendly brawl to lethal and maiming force. Maxima did, and if she dies it’s her own damn fault and no one sane would blame V for it.
Vehemence is not the bad guy here?
He’s instigated a mass attack on federal *military* agents. He’s responsible for every bit of personal injury & property damage that’s occurred, because he’s the one to admitted that he set it all up.
If he’d surrendered when Anvil first asked him to do so, he could have been taken in for questioning but would have been released since, at that point, he had not personally contributed to any of it. Instead, he outright *told* them that he was there to cause mayhem, rather than denying his presence as if he was anything more than “being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
So, V is not the bad guy here?
Starting a conflict and actually be the worst person/group in it are to veeeery different things.
Hitler vs Churchill , hands down.
Hitler vs Stallin, debatable.
You actually qualify this as “FRIENDLY”?!?!!! No, a friendly brawl is wrestling between buddies or a verbal sparring match or a one-on-one game of basketball. This is a knock-down, dragged out, vicious, no-holds-barred, murderous, violent battle of the titans! There’s nothing amiable about this and, if you think there is, you might want to crack open that dusty unused dictionary and look up the meaning of “friendly”.
I think you have a way of never having to serve on a jury. Just tell them your opinion on what you just said.
I hope you don’t actually practice this method of thinking, where you can go up to people and start fighting them, and then if they fight back or try to kill you, you’d think ‘sane people would say it’s their own damn fault.’
Poor Vehemence, he just wanted to beat everyone unconscious without them doing anything to defend themselves in an escalating way. How dare they. *Sarcasm*
Well, if something can be too violent for V, then this can be resolved with the pewpew orb. We don’t know how powerful it is, but I have a feeling that it cant be toned down and Sydney is clearly afraid of it. So what may happen is Sydney takes her shot, misses, but V now knows about it and makes a run for it and gets away. At least that’s the only scenario I can think of that let’s everyone live. Unless Deus ex Sydney happens, which will probably involve her new skill point.
I don’t think it boasts the raw power to wreck his shit like you think it does. Maxima blew his arm off and h barely flinched. I doubt he’s going to run scared from it.
But if it’s similar, and she gets him in the head…
IF she gets him. Note how long it took to start it, and note how difficult it was for her to aim. Also, collateral damage.
And as far as the OP goes, I am more than certain what Max used on V was far greater than the PPO. If he’s not running from that, he’s not running from an erratic PPO.
By ‘too violent’ he means that Maxima has enough power to kill him if she’s aware of his presence before he can get some power pumping. Anvil may be able to do fatal attacks but she needs to take in some damage first, necessitating violence, and Dabbler may have spells but even when V was still mid-power they weren’t all that effective. If Maxima had known who he was, what he was capable of and what his motives were, she’d have been able to annihilate him before this point. That’s what he means; he can’t have someone as potentially violent as Maxima still hanging around because he doesn’t stand a chance against her top strength if he’s not on full form as well.
Problem is: we *know* Max will still be around, and that V is supposed to be a recurring villain. I’m curious to see how Dave makes that work. Right now I’d bet any money that the next time V pops into public attention it will be *boom* (Max supersonic) followed by *boom* headshot. So not only will Max have to walk away from this fight alive, she also has to be incentivized not to kill V on sight next time. Wow, this was complicated enough before V threatened to kill anyone…
yep, we know both Vehemence and Maxima will not die or be maimed…. how can this end without a riddiculus Deus Ex?
Just because you can’t imagine a prober solution doesn’t mean the author hasn’t thought of one.
Seriously, at least wait until the reveal to start complaining. Sheesh.
It may also involve V’s relationship with Sydney. I think if he’s given the option to kill Sydney or to retreat, he will retreat. That is why I give the example of the PPO as I don’t she has something else to force that scenario
We could do it with a LITERAL Deus Ex. This could be the Dave B. version of the TOS episode ‘Squire of Gothos” https://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Squire_of_Gothos_(episode)
At this point we hear a voice from the sky say it is time to stop playing with his toys and “come in now”. To which V replies “Aww mom, I was winning!”
“If you don’t come along now, we won’t let you instigate any more riots.”
;)
That’s a bit too logical. Comic books are given certain…hmm, lets call it privileged questions that you don’t ask. No one snipes spider man.
one possible incentive for her not to do this is as follows.
V shows up.
Max zips over and blows V’s head off.
A now hyper charged V sucker punches Max because she just fell for his decoy.
V would only have to set this up once for Max to be incentivized not to go full boar before confirming it’s the real V, giving him enough time to charge up to her level. (it does bring up a good question, V feeds more if he is “involved” in the violence, does him being the intended target count as him being involved?)
He gains more power if the violence is done with an intent to harm, so he probably would receive more, but perhaps not necessarily because he specifically was the intended target.
we have a theoretical scale of somewhere on the level of a star in terms of power for the PPO. Which should be enough to be scary for big V.
Nah, stars are way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way beyond this street level stuff.
It’s sort of like… There’s the particularly strong piece of toilet paper and you fire a battleship gun at it. No, wait, like if you got some wet toilet paper and sicced a hundred Star Destroyers on it.
Seriously, it seems most people don’t even have the slightest grasp of orders of magnitude… >_>
Class warfare: Because it worked out great for the French!
V is just yanking Max’s chain.
Just trolling.
It did work out wonderfully for the French, in the long run.
Okay, ever since he revealed himself, I have heard Vehemence speaking in the voice of Killface from Frisky Dingo, but panel 6 here just tears it. It’s TOO perfect. DaveB, I don’t know how you envisioned him sounding when you created him, but he’ll always be Killface to me.
London calling!
Now that Vehemence’s motives have been revealed, the team actually has a very good chance of being to convert him to their side. If he joined, he would have a front row seat to every superhero battle to come, allowing to reach a similar power high on a regular basis, as well as giving him a large number of people he could spar with afterwards. If Halo talks fast enough, they could win him over, and walk out of this fight with another recruit.
I don’t think the justice system works that way. That can work in Fire Emblem or Justice League, maybe, butthere’s protocol and accountability for Arc-SWAT. They can’t hire someone who just committed several vicious, violent felonies.
Except that, before he started fighting the team, his only real felony was conspiracy to assault federal officers. Even up to now, his biggest crimes were self-defense, resisting arrest, and public indecency. So, until he actually kills Max, which we know doesn’t happen, he has a chance.
I mean, Sydney only got recruited after a vicious and violent assault on an undercover federal officer. And she only got recruited because of an incredible suite of highly useful abilities. Hell, with that argument, Death Toll should be recruited too. He was also only ever defending himself, and has one super-versatile power that would likely let him clean up any villain he was sent against.
I think this is pretty much there. I agree with you, that at the very start his only real illegal act was conspiracy and a little vigilante justice on the guys he was conspiring with. Then ARC opened up on him. Granted, he was making the first violent move, Sydney tripped him, then he wailed on her shield- but he knew that her shield would hold, and at that point the whole fight was going. The first actual punch (that connected) was Stalwart’s.
Violence isn’t going to stop him (clearly) and they have no access to psychics or powerful enough majicks either- diplomacy is probably going to be their only real option I think of ending this on their own terms. I actually kind of wonder if he’s even realized the potential for violence he’d have if he joined up.
The justice systems is built for a world where “all men are created equal.” That ain’t this one. ArcSWAT elects to act subordinate to the military/intelligence branches, but if they decide to bring V on board the Colonel isn’t going to say anything.
Basically they are Commander Shepherd. Admiral Anderson will always approve. He’s cool like that.
Says who? Judges used to give criminals a choice between jail and the military. French Foreign Legion would accept him as well. Military outfits have a little more ‘leeway’ to recruit people compared to regular law enforcement.
It would have to come down to the choice between the pros and cons. If there’s enough pros, they could offer him military service in lieu of jail time.
They could offer amnesty for all previous offences as part of the deal of joining up, or make his community service in the form of fighting for Archon. Let’s go down his options:
1. he loses. Obviously bad for him.
2. he wins. Can’t happen, and would still be bad for him if it did.
3. he escapes. so-so, he gets away, but he’s being chased constantly and don’t have much of a chance to power up.
4. he joins. no one chasing him, tons of violence, free transportation to violent areas, chance to get off-planet and involved in interstellar war, and he can toe-to-toe with anyone he wants without risking his freedom. Also, he can change his mind at any time.
Conclusion: If Halo is genre savvy and calm enough to consider the possibility, Vehemence’s best option by far is joining up. All he needs is a good sales pitch.
you make a very compelling argument there. I guess the biggest downside is that, as part of archon, he’d be expected to join on situations that would quite potentially be lethal for him, or unfun in general, he might enjoy his freedom a little much for that. Also, there’s the issues of working for the woman you broke the nose of twice.. and said you where going to kill etc, awkward to say the least.
Finally, he’d have to submit to some pretty thorough examination by archon, meaning any and all details about his powers would be in their hands should he ever “change his mind” and try to get out.
So while joining up is fine if all he wants to do is get into constant battles, maybe take on a frustrating challenge of having to keep civilians and such safe. But the price is getting leashed and tagged for future mischeif.
i just realized: if sydney can’t lift him and max couldn’t before going max armor 1 then that means his muscle mass should be incredibly dense yet the road is only cracking from impacts so that means he must not only have super regenerastion, violence Absorption, and the ability to make/port cloths but also some kind of antigravity to prevent his weight from breaking the ground. or he can move his wight around…somehow. or better answer i guess: magic
i wonder if max has any not-dead-dead type powers if “killed”
I think he cast some sort of anchoring spell when Maxima tried to fly him up, so he isn’t going to budge unless he wants to.
I feel like Ernie’s protest sign should be the number ‘4’, or the letter ‘h’, or something like that.
“Today’s episode has been brought to you by the letter V.”
+1 and nobody else has done the joke yet.
Looks like someone needs a hug. Actually, that MAY be a way to disarm… er, depower V (thank you ‘Ernest, Scared Stupid’). We shall see….
Except all he has to do is struggle, and it becomes violence. Hugs are very easy to turn into grappling.
Also, you have to touch him first.
If one of Sydney’s two unidentified orbs has a healing power, that could be useful. Healing would be the opposite of violence. Healing Vehemence ought to shrink him down to size quickly. That, or just give him a big kiss.
‘Cause healing his arm sure did weaken him, huh?
Why are people ASKING for Deus ex Machina? D:
Because he has the nifty remote-controlled ‘Dramatic Thunder and Lightning’ thingy in his office? MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Uh, did he not heal EVERYTHING a mere couple of pages ago? Using his own power? And end up getting stronger? What makes anyone think that having someone else heal him will make hi m weaker?
He didn’t “heal” so much as he *replaced* his missing body parts. It’s less a matter of healing, regeneration or regrowth & more of a matter of “conjuring up” replacements.
Regardless, he was using his own power to bring himself back to full recovery, and then some. Healing via an outside source makes less sense.
Earlier in the day back at the bank (their time) Max threatened to throw Achilles into an active volcano. Is that volcano still available?
There are transport issues.
i actually thought about it last night, but i figured maybe Sydney would try to use For Whom the Death Tolls as some kind of shield for Maxima. figured she’d grab him with her tentacle and then whip him in between Vehemence and Maxima and he’d have to counter Vehemence’s attack or get hurt himself. from that point on i think Maxima would only need to hold on to him and keep using him as a shield XD
I’m surprised Max doesn’t know enough Aikido to deal properly with V.
I think it’s just at the stage where skill isn’t going to cut it. You can’t apply enough leverage to make joints lock etc. Simply put, he’s brute forcing a win over skill now that he has a hold on her.
WIth the lightning Maxima has to keep her durability up. In that state she doesn’t have the strength to fight V, its like a ten year old fighting an MMA dude. If she goes over to strength/speed to get back in the grappling match she’ll fry.
I really don’t see how V expects to be able to get away with killing Max, he’s pretty conspicuous to try and hide now they know what to look for, and if he ever depowers to the the level he was at when Max started fighting him the airforce can just drop a bunker buster on him and he will be just as dead as Max could make him.
Incidentally, Sydney is being clever with the lighthook there, trying to lift him into the air will give him pretty much nothing, but he has to burn power to stay stuck to the ground. I doubt she can drain him fast enough to make a difference, but at least it isn’t making things worse.
A bunker would probably work even now. They’re pretty powerful.
Let Dabbler teleport in two superconductive cables and connect V to the city power grid. With luck, it will siphon off a lot of his stored energy before he realizes and turns the current off.
Problem: Not all energy is electric in nature.
Problem: What energy he is expending is already going somewhere, either Max and/or ground.
Problem: That sudden an influx of power would blow out the closest transformer box and then that would be it.
Actually, to be fair the team does have an electrokinetic on their side, and he is using electricity. Big strategic mistake for him, if they can bring her back into the fight somehow.
Jiggawatt is out of commission after what happened with Death Toll.
Your plan has one fatal flaw, V. You’ll never get a suit big enough.
I’d be pretty certain he has enough in material & financial resources to have a suit specifically tailored for him. Probably even enough to afford private travel to pretty much wherever he wanted to go, instead of relying on normal public or commercial means.
Someone answered this question in a comment above…
Ka-suit!
He’s thinking ahead. A massive war would result in a lot of violence but it would also destroy the things he likes (eg running water). Also massive revolutionary wars tend to result in a few years of more calm afterwards as people pick up the pieces.
Just go to other country and start another war.
Vehemence is strong, but we’ve seen that he’s far from indestructible. Why haven’t Dabbler and Sydney taken advantage of his being preoccupied with Max to break out the PPO and “magnetic slingshot?”
he might be too tough for that at this poiny, and if it dont kill him /knock him unconscious it will make him stronger and therefore threatens maximas life.
Why do I think Sydney PPOs both of them?
i have thought about the overload idea, can it really work like that? i mean if he gets stronger by violence dont that mean he can also contain more power as well? violence may increase all of his abilitys including durability of handling his own power and therefore making him capable of handling (theoreticaly) unlimited power.
Dunno. Overloading is always a risky strategy, because he either dies, or ascends to the status of “God of Violence.”
Sydney in panel 4 is adorable.
Also, question: Do V’s regenerated parts ever go back to looking normal? Because if not, he must only ever have suffered minor injuries up to this point (since he didn’t have any grey metallic-looking bits at the start of this fight).
Welp, to sum up this page, she should’ve blown his head off, he was in it for the lolz, and he’s gonna kill her. Given that he still isn’t quite strong enough to end Max, I would be curious to see what he uses to power up, and whether that will actually be what the team will use against him. That is the feeling I’m now getting considering how desperate everyone else seems to be.
He called in a tactical airstrike twenty minutes ago :3
Wonder what would happen if Dabbler used her Beholder spell at max power on V. Would definitely be one way to drain him down as it wer and probably Buff the hell out of Dabbler afterwards. Plus the ability to gloat over Max how her Tantric abilities saved the day.
Not gonna happen, Word of Dave.
Also, to reiterate: Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.
Something hilarious just occurred to me: If Dabs goes nuclear with the Beholder spell, she’ll get dogpiled by whoever’s still conscious before breaking through V’s magic resistance (which must be off the scale right now). Of course the ensuing orgy would power her up nicely.
Maybe that’s what Dave meant when he said that things would have been different if the comic weren’t SFW.
“she’ll get dogpiled by whoever’s still conscious”.
Yaoi coments I let it slide but you are getting seriously nasty!
…
I like it!
Just pointing out the logical conclusions of that suggestion. Unless you’re taking dogpiled literally, in which case …eww.
Heh. I noticed Bert and Ernie in the crowd there.