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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The way V’s powers are being explained in Dave’s comment, I’m honestly curious if he’ll still keep his regenerated parts after he depowers. I mean, Dabbler has a similar style of power via tantric energy, but she still has a bionic eye and arm. Meaning she either, A. has never had enough energy to do a true regeneration, or B. she needed to build them so that she could have some sort of replacement. So it could be that, if he gets depowered below a certain point, the regenerated parts vanish assuming they are a full replacement. I can see him keeping the eye mostly in tact, but the others are clearly full magic.
Her hand and Eye were replaced by alien overlords. She didn’t build them. She has too much benefit from them to remove them at this point to regenerate real replacements.
I reckon it makes perfect sense he can regenerate while Dabbler can’t, It all fits into their theme. Malumi naturally use their magic to make themselves invincible fighters because what use is a species that can gain magical energy from violence if they get themselves maimed and killed constantly?
Succubi on the other hand use their magic to create powerful illusions to help seduce others easier, even going so far as reading peoples unconscious mind to see what they best desire.
I just love the fact that V is standing at the corner of Wall Street and Sesame Street.
Priceless.
and the guy in the background has a broom with a pitchfork picture on a piece of paper taped to it.
pitchfork guy is ernie and the guy in front of him looks like bert
Nice catch. Does that make it a picture-fork?
The funny thing is, I identified them as burt and ernie before I read any comments, but I failed to notice the “sesame street” sign until you pointed it out to me. Isn’t that messed up?
*giggles* I just got off an 11 1/2 Hour shift, come home to read toe comic and catch the Wall/Sesame Street joke as well.
Priceless Dave.
Know who lives at the corner of Wall and Sesame? Count de Monet.
Nice one. That will go down in the History of the World.
One million dollars! Ah, Ah, Ah.
Two million dollars! Ah, Ah, Ah.
Three million dollars! Ah, Ah, Ah.
I actually saw that in a political cartoon at some point. Maybe you saw the same one. Though he said “vun” instead of one.
V is still operating under the false impression that Maxima is weakened by electrical shocks. I wonder if THAT mistake will lead to his downfall?
I’m just looking at max’s for and wondering if she can do her energy attacks from her feet as well as her hands
I was thinking the same thing myself.
I mean, is it some kind of rule that energy projection powers are focussed in the hands/eyes/sometimes mouth.
Goku did it first anyway.
Well, I have seen energy projections from… other sources and orifices. Powerful stuff.
As a man with energy projection powers, I can say that we prefer to keep those energy blasts to ourselves. Too weird.
But yeah, feet blasts are okay. Makes for some powerful jumping at the very least.
Well, I’m sure having multiple options is so long as you’re careful when and where you fire from. Man of Steel, Woman of Kindle…
Usually, we don’t bother using feet blasts offensively because that means standing on one foot and – with recoil – that can be disastrous.
Maxima is in the perfect position to vaporize Vehemence’s head though, assuming her energy blasts aren’t limited to her hands. And I’m not convinced that he can regenerate from not having a head any more.
“willingness to limb me”?
weird phrasing.
He needs to die for so many reasons. Newest reason is for using the word “kerfuffle”
The only word that deserves death for its user is “absotively”. Or “posolutely”.
Oh, absotively posolutely.
Please don’t hurt me. :D
Can I limb you? Just a little?
Let us never forget, “Inconceivable” by Vizzini from The Princess Bride and “I am invincible” by Boris from Goldeneye.
saying you’re gonna limb someone is like saying you’re gonna brain them. it might sound a tad odd at first, but makes perfect sense given how easily “braining” caught on. Loads easier than saying dismember, and more amusing than rip limb from limb or shred which fits his personality better, as he seems to have a less than serious way of being serious
The phrase isn’t weird.
You just aren’t used to getting limbed. :D
Solution for Zero: fight someone more brutal than Megaman.
(ignore the second post of this near the bottom, that was a one time mistake)
I prefer to think of the term of “braining someone” to be more applicable for those who don’t seem to *have* a brain…If we could brain someone who needs it, then we really *could* fix stupidity.
;)
There is a thread on page one of these comments that mentions “limbing” as a term used in LARP games. Also limbing axes to remove tree branches.
Another vote for the intersection of Sesame and Wall streets. Nice touch.
Clearly, there are only three options:
1. Max and Syd let him pound their respective shields until he gets tired.
2. Tickle attack! (Seriously, it could work. Laughter is the antithesis of violence.)
3. Mass orgy. (Only one member of the team would vote for this one, but she’d be really happy about it.)
Too bad the “throw him into space” tactic didn’t work out, but I’m glad it was addressed.
Mass orgy was also addressed. To paraphrase Dave: If this comic wasn’t PG, things might have played out quite differently.
4. Itching powder.
5. large pile of poison ivy dropped on his head by Harem (wearing gloves)
6. a couple of flashbangs mixed as misdirection with a great lot of Nitrous Oxide, ie Laughing Gas
7. Fire hose from the street corner; this guy needs to cool down.
8. Pepper spray by the gallon
PPO to the head
PPO + lighthook = real lightsaber
Oh crap, I bet she’s going to try that at some point now.
One can hope. I doubt she will, but one can hope, especially after her earlier ‘nyooow! nyooow!’ stuff.
It would be cool.
Even better…It would also double as a laser-whip! That she can control where it goes & how far to reach!
Kinky
https://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070622111718/starwars/images/d/d2/Githany_lightwhip.jpg
9. Sydney orders takeout. The Unmaker will deal with him.
Surprise proctology exam via hentorb… Nobody expects that during a fight. Would be a big enough shock to get him to release Max at least…
And it’s not violent. It’s loving… sort of.
Violent, maybe not. Violating, yeah.
New nam for the Violatorb. The Proctorb!
That reminds me of a 2nd Edition D&D Wildmage I ran way back when.
One of his favorite spells was a custom one called “Irresistible Debilitating Wedgie of Doom.”
No saving throw, and didn’t actually require the target to be wearing underwear. Or anything at all. Extremely effective if the target was wearing platemail.
Wow, i guessed two comics back that someone would be killed but i didn’t expect it would be Maxima.
It won’t. This entire fight is a flashback and Max is alive and well in the present.
Im hoping V dies still
Well we only saw Maxima, Anvil, Sydney, and her friends in the flashback so maybe someone else is gonna kick the bucket between now and the flashback ending.
I think Stalwart was also in the pre-flashback as well.
We were told earlier that Archon wouldn’t be coming out of this grand melee unscathed. So far, the only casualty I am aware of is that Heatwave lost a toe.
Achilles is clearly going to die. Am I the only one who sees this?
I think you are the only one who sees that.
How would Achilles get killed? Even his atomic structure is immune to any kind of disruption that anyone can think of to try.
Or are you in need of some kind of specific font that could be used to denote sarcasm, like the rest of us are?
I agree with you. That’s why I said ‘I think he’ s the only one who sees that.’
Achilles has true invulnerability. True, absolute, frustrating invulnerability. No actual ‘super strength’ beyond the expanded levels of strength he has due to not having to worry about muscles and ligaments tearing from exertion, but it’s not like he’s Superman. Plus he can’t keep himself in place from what I’ve seen – if he’s punched with enough force, he goes flying. He just doesnt get hurt from it.
I need to invent a drinking game where every time we read about V getting a new power, take a drink …
Only for people who hate their livers.
Just reallly really really want to see Vehemence die. Since now apparently has added more powers of ‘wall of force which doesnt actually act like force at least insofar as not being able to be absorbed by the kinetic absorber even though it’s clearly exerting kinetic force’
I was under the impression that Anvil had to be prepared for an attack in order to absorb it, similar to Max. She was probably prepared to get punched in the face again, and the wall of force caught her by surprise.
My take on her power is that it react much like a non newtonian fluid. Push it and it’s will flow. Punch it and it will react by going stiff. Push, pull or throw Kenya and she will pretty much be at the mercy of regular physics or a reasonable cartoon version. Punch her violently and she will absorb most all of the energy adding it to her own temporary pool.
Not really – the comic only updates a few times a week. It’d only really be a problem for archive-bingers…
Really, V’s only power is to absorb, store & channel Vehemic Energy into various effects & purposes. It probably be inaccurate to ascribe every single channeled effect as a new power.
Yes but when the ‘various effects and purposes’ is ANYTHING AT ALL HE WANTS TO DO, it is a new power each time. Vehemic energy just being the reason for being able to do all these powers. It becomes a very moot point, because he keeps forming these new powers that he’s never EVER used before (he stated so in the beginning of the fight) yet seems to have perfect control over how to use it all. Heck, by the same reasoning as everything else he’s done, one could say he now has a power of reality alteration and can turn other living beings into sock puppets. BECAUSE HE HAS SO MUCH VEHEMIC ENERGY TO BURN.
blah
Also, apparently being immune from a learning curve is another of his powers.
In Panel 4, I see Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street…
If you look closer they are still on Sesame Street where it meets Wall Street.
What is Sydney doing in panel 4? Nobody’s addressed that yet.
Pulling on the hentai orb and trying to throw V.
I’m sorry to say, but this has gone on WAY too long.
V should have been left for another day. He could have absorbed all that energy and then left to fight them another day. Heck it could have been explained as he wanted to fight them when they were in top form, not already worn out from a fight.
And also, assuming V doesn’t escape, they MUST kill him. Someone like that could not be contained (as its been stated there are no power draining gizmos to allow the imprisonment of supers in this world), leaving only one option.
Personally the unwillingness of supers to kill ridiculously dangerous and violent villains is absurd. Its simple pragmatism, when someone like that shows they cannot be contained – or in this case obviously can’t – you need to remove them from the world before they escape and kill again.
In mainstream comics, the reason that superheroes don’t kill villains is so that the comic book companies don’t have to keep coming up with new villains every issue.
I’ve said the same thing Eric. It’s gone on so long that it’s absurdly stupid at this point. Especially if he’s supposed to be a recurring character. Which he shouldnt be at this point. Maxima is supposed to be pragmatic about her powers – she’s a soldier and if killing him right off is the best way to go, she should.
It’s simple pragmatism to nuke every dictator who threatens us into oblivion as well.
I read a quote once that sums it up perfectly I think. “Kill all the spiders to save the butterflies and you risk becoming a spider yourself.”
As an addendum, I do agree V should have been left for another day. As it is, as powerful as he is, I can’t see him as a real villain never mind arch-villain. The difference between mook and villain is characterization and motivation. Villains have these things and mooks don’t. Vehemence doesn’t… ergo he is a mook not a villain. Just how I see it.
If they had taken more time to build him up and explain his motivation or flesh him out more (specifically what kind of threat he poses (and not in the nebulous “he’s powerful and doesn’t mind beating up the good duys” kind of way)) then maybe he would strike me as a villain type.
Whether they realize it or not I think for some readers that’s why this battle has become too long… even more so than the slow update cycle. In their mind’s eye V simply doesn’t rate this kind of “screen time.”
I agree. His motivations are very mookish. He does it because he wants to do it. This fight is so bleh at this point. It’s weird too that there’s so much focus on Vehemence as if he’s the central person in the comic, when I thought it was ther heroines – especially how they act normally.
Didn’t DaveB once say (and I’m paraphrasing) that ‘a fight between Wolverine and Sabertooth for the umpteenth time isnt particularly memorable, but Wolverine going out for ice cream afterwards is.’
He’s the mountain the other characters are going to climb. He’s getting the focus while dave builds up how high he is so we see what an accomplishment it was to defeat him at this point. Ultimately designed to tell us more about the characters than V. (which doesn’t always tell me things I like about them so far *cough* Maxima *cough*)
Dave’s admitted this, including all the fights leading up to it, went on longer than he would have liked. Though it will go by faster as an archive dive.
As for the second point, you’re really still talking about the pacing issues of this fight cause this is not only V & ARC’s first fight it is a part of the end of THE FIRST FIGHT. So Dave hasn’t negated his own comment.
None of this means you have to like him at all by the way. Lots of people have lots of problems with several of the characters which I think is as much about how long it takes to move forward in an ongoing webcomic done by one dude as it does there being all that many huge problems. Many of us here in the comments are, myself included, examining the hell out of every little thing that’s happened as we wait. Which is part of the fun of course! :D So carry on. Carry on.
Don’t be ridiculous, lots of villains are that way. Maybe not so many comic book villains, but hannibal lecter or Mr. Kurtz type villains. Lecter didn’t have any sinister plan. He was just terrifying and badass. And Mr. Kurtz, he was the heart of darkness itself. Or something like that. But he wasn’t aiming for anything coherent like world domination or stealing all the babies in the world or blowing up the moon or any such nonsense.
Hannibal Lechter is a sociopath. A functional sociopath, but a sociopath. His motivation was he was a genius, and he wanted to prove he was smarter than the police and FBI. He later on finds a protege fellow sociopath (not quite as functional though) and his motivations are to guide his protege in how to outsmart the police and FBI as well. His protege had some sort of whacked out motivations himself, that were mainly a result of his insanity.
When a person is truly insane, motivations are not quite as important. But V’s defenders (and I’m not sure what DaveB’s view of V is for sociopathy) don’t seem to be saying V is a sociopath, though he should be considered one far as I’ve seen from his lack of any real motivation beyond ‘do evil.’
Lots of poorly written villain characters are sociopathic – pretty much every Captain Planet villain is. So is the enemy that James Earl Jones plays in Conan. It’s hard to have a well-written sociopathic character unless you make sure to NOT make him (or her) overpowered or two-dimensional. I consider Vehemence, so far, to be BOTH two dimensional and overpowered at the same time, making him a particularly poorly described villain who’s only defined by him having any power he wants if he has vehemic energy.
By two dimensional btw, I mean no real backstory to describe how he acts. If you have to put a backstory in AFTER he’s already done everything, it feels forced and like you’re shoe-horning in someting to try to show that, despite being two dimensional, he’s really deep (which totally feels false).
V is not a villain with any understandable motivations. He’s not a sympathetic villain like Victor Freis, trying to save his wife Nora. He’s not a nationalistic or envy-driven villain like Dr. Doom, having envy against Reed Richards AND wanting to make sure his little dictatorship nation doesnt succumb to foreign powers (even if he is totally evil). He’s not a villain who simply can’t help himself but do bad things, like Galactus, who NEEDS to eat the lifeforce of planets in order to survive and maintain balance of the universe. He doesnt have some abuse-based past that’s been spelled out so far, like Harley Quinn or Bane. He doesnt have a misplaced extremist personality where he thinks he’s doing something GOOD, like Poison Ivy or Ra’s al-Ghul.
He’s a non-personality. A non-motivation beyond ‘fight.’
Even Doomsday had a motivation for fighting, and he was basically mindless. He was trained to hate all living organisms, especially Kryptonians, as part of how he was created and ‘raised.’
First, those characters appear in books and movies… not a slow-release format like comics. You need something very different to keep people interested between releases and you can’t go inside a characters head for exposition like you can in a book.
Second, you’re right, Lector had force of personality. V doesn’t. Lector was sinister. V isn’t. Hannibal Lector was a bad ass. Vehemence is not. He’s just a dude with crap-loads of power and a brain… which would make him a great villain if he had more of a reason to do what he is doing than “Hulk smash!”
Last, I never said his motivations need to be cliche. Just that he needs more. More than that he needs more characterization which is something Lector gets in the very first scene in which he appears and which V hasn’t… again because of limitations of the format.
If Vehemence doesn’t get killed quickly, Dave will have time to flesh him out more…
After all, this IS V’s *first* appearance & to reveal his whole life is just not feasible IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS FIRST FLIPPIN’ FIGHT!
had this been naruto shippuuden, we would have been force fed 400 pages of his backstory since the start of the fight already.
Yes… I just acknowledged all that. That’s my reasoning in a nutshell. There hasn’t been time to give Vehemence characterization. Which is why any appearance by him at this point with him as the central focus should be short and to the point and not have a conclusive ending.
If the fight had ended and “the guy in the suit standing by the tree” had disappeared that would have been better. It would have been a wonderful little hint that V was something different… something more. Give him a few more minor appearances as you slowly flesh out his character and why the viewers should be invested in his defeat… and *then* have them fight it out.
Right now I just don’t care that much about V. I don’t care how powerful he is. I don’t care how his powers work. He’s a mook… I want to see him get pummeled into the dirt and the heroes move on. I don’t want to sit through a long fight with him complete with villain-hero banter that carries no weight because the “villain” is just another mook at this point. That’s my problem. That he can have more characterization and motivation added later doesn’t change that *right now* I don’t have a reason to want to watch him.
Granted it’s the kind of thing that silver age and golden age comics were notorious for (bad man is bad cause we say he is bad and must be stopped)… but I grew up with bronze age comics and expect a little better writing. I even pointed out this problem before the whole “powered by violence” reveal and fully expected the fight to end more quickly because I didn’t think Dave would make this mistake.
True, but even reading as an archive, this fight with Vehemence is getting ridiculous in how many ‘and by the way’s that he’s getting. It seriously is reminding me of a Dragonball Z cartoon where it takes 15 episodes to just have a quarter of a fight, before one of them says ‘okay, now I’m REALLY serious and going to fight for real (after which there’s another two seasons of the next few movements they take).
I’m exaggerating, but you get my point. Vehemence is just getting ridiculous at this point – he truly is becoming Sylar – a villain who would have been a good ‘starting’ major villain, before you get to others (of which there are a bunch that DaveB showed – like that that spacegoddemon thing Dabbler fought, or the mummy, or that secretive group one) – because Vehemence seems to have no motivation other than ‘I want to do this just because.’ Plus powering him up so much at this point that it’s becoming VERY difficult to think of methods to beat him that don’t rely on deus ex machina. And we have the commenters now repeating stuff which DaveB has explicitly said will not happen, and cannot happen, like ‘Sydney using her force field around him somehow without it endangering her.’
Then there are the now many times repeated, but personally I find doubtful ideas of:
1) using her force bubble as some unstoppable object to hit Vehemence (despite the magic that’s keeping him from being able to be budged or lifted)
2) tickling (guh)
3) itching powder (double guh)
4) Opal waking up and teleporting rocks into Vehemence’s lungs
5) the power of love (orgy making Dabbler as powerful as Vehemence, because what this fight needs is 3 months of orgy). Actually…… I shouldnt say that – I’m thinking there are lots of people who WOULD want that. But anyway, Word of God says no on that anyway :)
Not to mention in the event that he does leave or escape (and Maxima is going to live – that’s a definite, since this is all a flashback), Maxima, who’s SUPPOSED to be a pragmatist, would do a kill shot before V can blink the very next time his head pops up (which V did state as the reason why he has to kill her) – so in addition to everything else – having a ‘do anything power’, so far limitless strength/speed/invuln/regen gain potential, being a master strategist with contacts beyond what Arclight is able to know (despite being one person and Arclight being a government funded institution with huge reserves), prep time, charm, intimidation, fighting skill, and arcane knowledge… he also is as genre savvy as Sydney AND is more of a pragmatist than Maxima! Seriously. GUH. Please die, Vehemence. The dead are not violent. So I hope and pray for Vehemence to no longer be violent by dying.
You are much more relaxed about this than I am; I now have a flat spot on my head from the number of head-to-desk connections this arc and these comments have forced upon me.
My problems with Vehemence have nothing to do with pacing- or, at least, nothing to do with the pacing of his portion of the fight- and everything to do with what a wasted character (and broken concept) he is. Frankly, just about any of the mooks the team dispatched with ridiculous ease earlier in the night could have made a better, more interesting arch-villain.
Vehemence is too powerful; even if they somehow manage to find a surefire way to knock him down, he’s going to stand out as someone who either always has to be taken down the same way- “Make him say his name backwards! It’s the only way to undo all his evil mischief!” or he’s going to be executed. I won’t even say he’ll be executed the next time he shows up; he’ll be hunted down and killed like the scum he is, because allowing him to choose the battlefield would be patently stupid.
Trust me, I can’t stand how this fight is becoming, and last update I think I wrote entire novels about how dumb and boring this was all becoming with how overpowered and plot-armored V was getting. I’m with ya, brotha.
I just can’t say anything that I havent already said in the books worth of words I said last update. Because nothing about V has really changed from what I was saying about him, except he’s outright stated wanting to kill Maxima, and there are some commenters who think ‘he’s not bad.’
Yeah, and Jeffrey Dahmer wasnt evil either – he was just really hungry and no one would give him a happy meal. Oops, there goes my sarcasm dripping off again.
Kill all the spiders to save the butterflies and you become a jerk who just dealt a significant blow to the stability of the ecosystem by removing a part of numerous food chains. Similarly, plans that consist of “kill the dictator to solve everything” tend to have side effects such as chaos, civil war, and more dictators, even if you use less indiscriminately murderous tactics than actual nukes.
Killing your average supervillain is usually fine though (assuming they stay dead), since their extraordinary nature means they are usually not part of some delicate system that would be disrupted by their loss.
If the spiders are giant and threatening to destroy the world’s population along with the butterflies, and have the power to follow through on that, the eco-system will adapt to the loss of the uber-predator that can destroy everything else.
It reminds me of that movie with the dragons. Reign of Fire. The male dragon has to die. It doesnt help the eco-system to have him around. He needs to be extinct.
Until you find out the super-villain was under mind control and was actually a closet super who was just trying to have a normal life and you just murder him.
Or you it turns out that he was actually the prince of a small kingdom whose entire population has been infected with a tech-virus and are being held for ransom unless the “super-villain” does exactly what he is told… but you killed him instead of exploring other options so now an entire country worth of people are dead too.
As I said… When you take the route of saying it’s ok to kill super villains to save people you run the risk of becoming a super-villain yourself. For example, Batman lets the Joker live not because of some nebulous devotion to an ideal but because he understands the slippery slope he would risk sliding down.
First he kills Joker and then goes back to fighting without killing… until 2 years later when Poison Ivy poisons all of Gotham City and thousands die before Batman can work out an anti-venom… so he kills her too. Then a new villian shows up 3 months later who has a nuke and is going to blow up Gotham so Batman kills him too… only to find out the Villain had disabled the nuke himself and the “villain” was putting on a show for the media to buy time while secretly working with Catwoman and Nightwing to track down the guy who has his wife and kids held hostage.
Huh, I had thought the spiders quote was sarcasm (because putting it in terms of turning into a spider makes it sound ridiculous).
On supervillains, I am not arguing for killing as an approach to every single supervillain; I was thinking more along the line of villains like the Joker who get sent to prison and escape it repeatedly while murdering all the wile. With villains like that, it is irresponsible to expect prison to work the next time. I can see Batman having a case for not killing them since he is self-appointed and entirely outside of due process, but once the police get their hands on the Joker after his second, third, or umpteenth prison break failing to shoot him then and there will only lead to future rampages. I guess you could argue for crippling the Joker in some way instead of killing him, but that seems potentially crueler.
@ Pander: I was referring to actual spiders, not monster spiders from hell and space. The latter are not actually part of the ecosystem or any other regular system to be disrupted. If you want to compare with something that is dangerous but IS part of an existing system think of forest fires, which are dangerous to contain but essential for some kinds of forests.
Comparing V to a common spider would imply there are LOTS of people like V. V is the super mega ultra spider from hell. Or if you want to use the forest fire analogy, he’s a forest fire made of a special thermite/napalm combination which does not get extinguished by lack of oxygen or water and sticks to all surfaces to keep growing and spreading the flames … which occasionally decides fire might not be good enough of the firefighters come up with a way to put it out, and spontaneously instead turns into a blizzard. Then a blizzard with fire at the same time because … why not. :)
I said that most threats cannot be effectively dealt with by simply killing them off, but this does not apply to most supervillains, who in many cases cannot be dealt with without killing them. We are both saying that most supervillains should be killed, so I don’t think we are actually disagreeing.
Ah. Ok I agree with that. I just think V in particular needs a good killing. Or as max said “interred”
Again… the issue isn’t what it does to the people being killed but what it does to the hero doing the killing. When killing becomes an acceptable option you run a very high risk of killing someone who *didn’t* need it. No one person can know everything. Not even some one like Batman. And killing is as permanent as permanent gets… there’s no way to fix it after the fact.
Yes the DC universe would almost certainly be better with Joker dead. But it would significantly worse off with a Batman willing to kill. The trade off isn’t worth it.
A more appropriate solution would be a special exemption to the law that keeps sending joke to an asylum instead of the electric chair. At least he could get his day in court that way.
V isn’t interested in starting wars or destroying civilization for the same reason he didn’t plan on killing anyone that evening. Wars, collapsing society and massive social unrest cause death, often on a massive scale. And the dead don’t cause violence (except in the “done to death” zombie nonsense).
In a way, V’s attitude about killing, because killing denies him what he wants, reminds me of a character I wrote years ago (and still fiddle with from time to time) who doesn’t kill because the dead can’t suffer physically or be broken mentally (especially the mental suffering), of course, the character I wrote wasn’t fed by that, he just enjoyed watching others snap.
With 7 billion people on the planet, a few thousand dying seems to be pretty violent imho.
See, it’s not just about the fact that V wouldn’t gain anything from dead people, it’s that he doesn’t want to. The way I see it, V isn’t a sociopath or a psychotic mass murderer, he’s just a guy who likes to fight, he’s the kind of guy who likes starting punch ups in bars only to find out he has unimaginable power, the kind of which he will never be able to use to its full extent unless he fights people of equal power.
I mean, he’s going to kill Max, mostly due to the fact that she blew his arm off and would happily kill him if she had the chance at this point, but all he wants is a fight, so he can properly “stretch” as it were.
It’s not like his powers have any other practical purpose, except for lifting fat, angry bears i suppose.
He’s going to kill Max because he understands, pragmatically, that she will kill him the very next time he pops his head up if he doesnt kill her first. Welll.. he won’t actually because we know Max survives, but he wants to and is going to attempt to.
There’s the pragmatic side of things, yes- tha’ts what he’s vocalizing. But there’s also the primal, emotional part of things. Vehemence (though he doesn’t show it) is probably terrified of Maxima right now. She EXPLODED HIS ARM, and has expressed and shown a willingness to do the same thing to his HEAD. He’s saying he’s killing her due to pragmatism, but I’m betting it’s actually just self-preservation buried under a layer of violence-dope and adrenalin allowing him to also think through the whys. Most of the reason any healthy human will kill another healthy human is because the killer doesn’t want the killee to reverse their positions.
She exploded his arm because he was doing before … EXACTLY WHAT HE’S DOING AFTER SHE EXPLODED HIS ARM… just not as powered up.
No, before he wasn’t trying to kill anyone and even went so far as to remind Maxima of injured combatants that needed medical attention. He was just in it to have a grand time in combat and enjoy having his power levels taken to new heights that his previous travels and absorbing violence from riots never took him to. THEN Maxima blew his arm off and when he went to regenerate himself (a non-combative, non-threatening action) she tried to carry out her threat to kill him if he didn’t surrender to them (since he could take care of his own medical needs).
Once she went lethal and proved even as powerful as he was then she could potentially kill him and definitely could when he was at more normal levels she pushed things into ‘kill or be killed’ territory where at least for him there was no desire to kill anyone. Certainly if he were truly about going around killing people or had he’d have ended up being noticed prior to his revealing himself but wasn’t. Anyone that died fighting him was likely either an accident or they also went into ‘kill or be killed’ territory and at that point, well, you can forget about him being nice and non-lethal in his attacks when yours aren’t. Making it especially ironic that the VILLAIN was the one trying to keep things non-lethal, it was the supposed hero who escalated things into self-preservation range and no-holds-barred combat. You aren’t after all supposed to use lethal force against someone less they to are and Vehemence actually hasn’t been using lethal force (based on his opponents) and certainly hasn’t been threatening any civilians either with this fight or so far as we’ve seen up to this point.
Soooo, basically you’re stating that if he kills her, she has it coming because she started it?
Don’t know about Nightmask, but I certainly wouldn’t. It’s just the irony of seeing the so-called hero side being the one to use lethal force (in the context of supers anyways) first. Can’t blame Max for upping the ante since the non-lethal methods have done little to stop him, hence the limbing.
No that’s not what I’m stating, I already stated as Bleh points out that the irony is that she, not Vehemence, is the one who took things to lethal intent when he, the villain, was avoiding lethal actions. Once Maxima chose to change the rules of engagement to actively lethal attacks she really can’t fault the guy for responding in kind instead of continuing to choose to avoid lethal attacks. It’s one of the main reasons in comics heroes aren’t actively killing villains, because those that otherwise wouldn’t be engaging in lethal attacks or would otherwise surrender would instead switch to lethal attacks or otherwise more dangerous tactics they otherwise wouldn’t out of a need for survival.
So at this point Vehemence, who was in it for the brawl and to see just how far his abilities could go with enough vehemic energy, now has to worry about survival instead of ‘oh you have cleverly defeated me good show’ and pushed into that corner you can expect what restraints he had to come off as he lowers himself to the level the HERO chose.
Actually if everyone recalls, Vehemence made the first physical strike also. To the face.
I think you got the wrong idea of what I was saying.
First things first, I didn’t say V was a psychopath or a sociopath. My character is. V might be a sociopath, but that has yet to be determined.
Second, I said V didn’t want to kill, because it suited what he wanted, in this situation, to refrain from killing. It’s not that he has a problem with killing, he just didn’t feel the need to.
Going off some things that the Author has said in his commentary, I’d say that V’s goals in this were fairly simple. One, have some fun. Two, test himself, and this new super team. Three, instill a fear into this new super team, and any other would be future opponents, to tuck their tails between their legs and run at the sight of him so they don’t mess with any of his future plans. While it’s clear that he enjoys fighting, he also seems to enjoy watching others fight too. (Maybe he gets an endorphin rush when he soaks up energy from violence.)
One thing I can say for certain is this: Max should have nuked his head instead of his arm.
I have this odd feeling that Sydney, is finally going to learn to utilize that NEW POWER she gained, but hadn’t understood how to access it. Some form of syphoning ability, perhaps? hm… At least I hope.
I hope not. Deus ex machina to end this would be basically what I was concerned about. Which a new power that she gains without anything ‘checkov gun’ing’ it which just happens to fix everything would be.
Guh :(
The strip is running out of potential resolutions for this fight that aren’t Deus Ex Machina
What you just said has been becoming my mantra since last update :)
Only stuff I can still think of is ‘reaching his vehemic energy limit and exploding/losing his energy entirely’ (lame resolution but at least not a deus ex machina), using Death Toll’s body for his Nemesis power, or Vehemence’s death via some attack (or multiple simultaneous attacks) to the head or entirely destroying his body (via Maxima’s plasma blast, Sydney’s PPO at full blast, and Dabbler’s rail gun.
she’ll learn how to use it sooner or later, but why would you associate a hypothetical energy draining power with the Telepresense Orb? to me it would be more appropriate for it to be one of the two unknown orbs that that one.. the TP orb is for various forms of communication, sight, sound, I’ll bet that some of those blank skill points will let her change the hologram to something OTHER than herself, and some of the other ones will let her feel whatever the hologram “should be” feeling at the time/place it is being projected into, and that even more Exp. will allow it to physically interact with its surroundings. but i DON’T see THAT orb having anything to do with energy draining at all…, sorry.
Personally, I think this fight ends with Arianna walking out and saying “Okay V. We’re done.”
… and him instantly stopping the fight.
Arianna paid him to set up a huge fight for the press, and V himself to teach Max a little bit of humility, and to show her that she can’t just power through anything and everything she runs into.
I think Heatwave, Math, Jiggawatt etc. would have *issues* with Arianna after that…
Yeah, if Arianna pulled a stunt like that there’s no way the team would ever trust her again. Arranging for your own team to get pummeled in a fight that destroyed a public building and put bystanders at risk just to one up your field commander is so completely unacceptable.
Also, trying to pull a stunt like that raises too many questions, like how she even knew who V was and what his powers were given that he didn’t show up in the ARC database, and how she could trust him not to go too far (and if she hadn’t thought of that, she really doesn’t deserve her job).
Hypothetically, it’s possible no one was in any danger. There could have been any number of ways that bystanders would be protected without any one knowing it.
Also hypothetically, it’s possible V is in ARC’s system but the people dolling that info out, (the general, leon, gwen, etc) are under orders to hold back that information for this fight.
Hypothetically again, it might not just be Arianna… it could be General Faulk who feels it’s time Maxima was brought down a peg.
The hardest part to explain then… however… is how some one ARC *was* aware of (hyp. Vehemence) could be aware of this many supers without ARC also being aware of them and/or how/why they would have kept that a secret from Maxima this whole time. *This* is where the idea of this fight being a setup starts to fold.
I just can’t see that idea being accurate here.
I agree it doesn’t quite fit, as I noted above. But honestly… from a writer’s perspective… it would be better than him being an actual villain. I’m not happy with the way V has been introduced otherwise.
I just think DaveB is a much better writer than someone who would make a twist that M Night Shyamalan-ish.
I agree with you about the last sentence though :) Wish he had just escaped EARLIER, or the arm-blow-off-strategy had been successful, then he just escapes afterwards. I mean yes, he started as an affable villain, but now he’s just a … words cannot describe.
“Menace to society” would be a good phrase. After all, this guy is planning to travel and take advantage of riots, which isn’t quite the same as travelling to foreign countries to sample the cuisine.
Yeah, a lot of people here seem to think that just because he doesn’t want to kill people (except Maxima), he’s not a bad guy. They’re forgetting that he still wants to hurt them. Domestic abusers, after all, generally don’t want to kill their victims either, but that doesn’t get them off the hook for their actions.
Going off on that ‘V works with ARC’, he could be an independent super who decided to test ARC and their skills. That would explain how ARC might not be aware of him. I know some people don’t like him because he’s pulling out more and more powers out of his ass, but from the conversation we had between him and Sydney I actually like him quite a bit.
And if he returns as a recurring villain, the drama could be him fighting smarter instead of relying on his powers completely.
I liked him when he was still an affable villain, not where he’s Dragonball Z Vegeta Hulk Infinite Zeta. No amount of affability will make him likeable to me anymore. Plus he said kerfuffle, used limb as a verb, and now in addition to EVERYTHING ELSE… apparently his range increases with his power. So he’ll basically be able to take in violence into energy from almost anywhere eventually. There’s no drama with Vehemence. There’s just the same power creep over and over again, and so far I’ve yet to be wrong on predicting he’d just pull more powers from his infinite bag of vehemic ‘I have power to burn’ energy tricks
Hrm. Maybe this fight is somehow going to push him over an ‘event horizon’ and he’ll become a Dr. Doom/Thanos/Darkseid/DCAUAmazo. Capable of absorbing violent energy from far enough away that he starts absorbing from geological activity, which boosts him up to cosmological ranges which boosts him even farther, and he starts up an empire on Mars or something. Then he occasionally becomes an opponent for the team, essentially toying with them without any real intention of killing them or anyone else, but they keep running into him anyways.
Yea. Please. Dear God. No. The problem with this character is not only that he is overpowered (and he is), it is that he is boring!
That said, I suppose every time he shows up, I can go and read something else…
Amen.
Perhaps V works for *sigh* Arc-Dark?
Anyone here know Vanish+Doom? Anyone?
Uh… With an emulator, yeah.
Vehemence’s size and relative invulnerability are temporary, thus his motive to kill Max. Since his initial appearance was uniform and unscarred, I’d expect his new eye, arm, and teeth to return to their normal state over time as well.
Or he has never been injured this badly before. Or had enough power to use a regeneration spell. One reason V planned this attack was to see how much power he could gain. V’s remark in panel two of Monday’s comic, “Now Let’s see what else I can do with this abundance of power.” suggests V has never gotten this powered-up before. He knows what vehemic energy might allow him to do but until now it was all things he had studied.
Killing Max is a logical plan here. But Max might have a different opinion.
I’d buy that he has never been this powered-up before, but he’d have to know about his regeneration somehow.
I think Vehemence is smart enough to have done research on vehemic energy. Maybe even had a master who taught him how to tap the energy. Without a lot of energy to burn he couldn’t do these things before even if he knew how. Now he may have reached a point where a soccer riot or two will keep him topped off.
… this is where he attacks Sydney to piss off Maxima even more, isn’t it?
…or any one really. He simply takes threatening action against civilians which forces Max to take violent action to slow him down long enough for them to get away. Rinse repeat with him getting stronger every time.
Sydney may have one easy way to beat Vehemence if the Lighthook has some of the same controls as the Force Field. Make it near mono-filament sized and move it through an ear into the brain. Sure, he can regenerate, but the mere threat of going back to mental infancy by scrambling his brain would be enough to get him to back off. I don’t think he’d be able to regenerate memories.
I like that idea. :) Though there hasnt been any suggestion that the width of the lighthook varies, unlike the length.
The biggest problem with my solution is from a writer’s perspective. The only villains she wouldn’t be able to do that to would be other people with force fields and beings with different biology. So it’s probably not going to happen. Too hard to write for later.
I might be biased by my hatred of how horribly broken Vehemence has become.
And boring. Lets not forget boring.
That’s why I hate all speedsters. And love them. They are unbeatable by anyone not as fast as they are. I’m talking the Flash/Quicksilver level. You can’t beat someone who can write a 800 page novel in the time it takes a bullet to travel 30 meters. *cough* Days of Future Past *cough*
I cannot disagree with you at all. Especially about the Flash. He’s incredibly inconsistent.
Oh my god, Vehemence is totally a poor disadvantaged person who resents his lack of privilege! Panel 3.
I don’t know why Sydney hasn’t simply switched the Force Field from around her to around Vehemence. Maybe I missed someone asking the same thing. I understand he has set an “anchor” so Light Hook wouldn’t fling him, but she hasn’t tried a non-violent approach. Such as jailing him in the Force Field… unless Force Field has to be centered on her and encompass her as well.
Yeah, Dave confirmed that she wouldn’t know how to do that and the force field can only be centered on her. Everyone was saying that was the answer, so he answered it in his little description under the episode a comic or 2 ago.
looking back at Daves comment to the previous comic I can’t help but laugh. I accept this trophy for the good cause of bringing Atlantis back to the surface!
I actually made the prediction that Dave’s comment would be forgotten already by the time the next (this) comic was posted…
You and bleh were rigth, it’s all I have to say!
Drinks on me!
What did I say? Never underestimate the power of ignorance. ^^
Thanks for answering me. I didn’t read that part unless i’m waiting for an update. Sadly I only have time to check for updates not as often as I would like. Great Story however.
v wants to look good, has vainity. push one of the unknown orbs in his mouth and down his throat,through his stomach into the small intestines,syd can use the truesight orb and shield,while sitting inside she can manipulate orb through his intestines small and large forcing him to have an accident,then the orb gets to his prostate ,where syd can mess whith him some more.take the other orb she can’t use push that into his mouth,queball style .so syd will have him from prostate to sinuses
… I love that idea. And wish that would happen. I don’t think it will, but I wish it would.
Really, anything at this point that (1) makes Vehemence look like an idiot and (2) kills him stone, never-to-recover dead.
I don’t know how long David Barrack is planning on dragging this comic out for, I saw it in like 2010. But if he WAS inclined, he might make Maxima into Obe Wan Kenobe. He’s already made the allusion comparing vehemence to darth vader. So Maxima DIES here, and then Sydney of course plays the part of Luke, she’ll have to become powerful enough to fight Vehemence and the evil empire he’s built up. The only thing missing is the emperor on top of that.
I don’t think that would work, given that Maxima survived to the opening strips. Might have been plausible if this entire battle was not a flashback.
I’m not sure if anyone else has pointed this out, but I noticed that V still has severely burnt skin around where he regrew his arm. This leads me to believe that while he can regrow lost body parts, he can’t repair tissue and organs that are still there, just damaged. If that’s true, then if Max had used less firepower they might have killed or at least disabled him. Just send a burst of searing fire through his stomach to burn his internals to a crisp. I think this will be a handy lesson to Max, sometimes less is more.
Seems likely that he’s just an addict. He could no more get away from a violence filled lifestyle than any other addict could.
He probably wouldn’t get involved in wars any more than most addicts could get involved in farming to grow their own fixes.
Dave’s got a point there. Nothing easier than getting a humans to explode with rage, or resort to violence. Say the right thing, put the right wedge between people, give power to the right people, and before you know it people just can’t kill each other fast enough. And there rather dim witted too. No mater how horrible the atrocity committed they never learn. People just keep making the same mistakes over, and over, and over again.
Kinda makes you wonder how humans lasted this long. Or how they even got the idea for being “humane,” to begin with.
Fast breeding cycle.
Didn’t know there was a corner of wall and sesame street.
Wonder if that’s were Elmo gets his stock options?
There’s one of the Sesame Street gang who would *love* being able to go around the corner to Wall Street to count stock options…
…Guess who?…
Ahh, ahh, ahh.
He also makes an amazing pimp.
*starts counting b**** slaps*
Here’s a question: Is it violence to calmly break a pencil? Is intention or mood a part of violence? Or is violence in this comic simply interpreted as destruction?
Because if you can wreck/kill something with the same attitude as you would taking out trash, and that’s not violence, then you could easily defeat Vehemence provided he wasn’t powered up.
Seems as far a vehemic energy is concerned, the action provides energy. An avalanche provides energy. Throwing a rock at someone also provides energy.
what is going to happen is that Maxima is going to play dead, and V will wander off to find a sport riot. Let V cool down a bit, THEN you can blow off his head.
Either that, or Halo tries to PPO to save maxima.
How many dots did that thing have again? (checks: 3 + 2 in a diferen chain)
I wonder if the pew-pew orb would have any effect?
I still want Sydney to take him out.
Figure one of the ‘not known yet’ orbs is like the good old ‘ultimate nullifyer’ — if she could only figure out where the ‘on’ switch is.
She knows where the “on” switch is on both of her mystery orbs; she even activated them back in Archon HQ when she was being interviewed. At that time, Max guessed that they would need to be activated during some kind of preexisting condition before they would do anything.
When & where such preexisting conditions apply is up to Dave to set up…
Or at least use that telekinetic tentacle to give V a wet willie.
Okay. I think that V’s ability to make stuff up using his vast power pool is what is going to trip him up.
Not because he will run out of power, but because of his crude brick-style use of new powers.
The way I see it, at some point, skill and finesse beat raw power. Genre-savvy Sydney could tell you that just because the end-level boss has a metric ton of hitpoints and hits like a nuclear-powered jackhammer, doesn’t mean there’s no way to beat him. Teamwork, timing, and tactics are the way you beat those guys.
Unless there’s more to reveal, Vehemence isn’t what I would consider to be a good candidate for a recurring villain. He is (in my opinion) a one-shot, and while he may seem like an insurmountable obstacle right now, that’s only because we haven’t yet seen how he’s beaten.
What I hope comes out of this is that when the bad guys clear the field and try to take on Archon, they set themselves up to lose. I don’t care how powerful Vehemence is, he’s only one guy and he’s not really a team player. He can try to ice-skate uphill, but it won’t end well for him.
When the villains team up and maximise their advantages, they can quite possibly escape to fight another day even if they don’t win, and they will prove to be much more of a challenge. Hence making for a much more interesting comic (again, in my opinion).
The phrase isn’t weird.
You just aren’t used to getting limbed. :D
Solution for Zero: get into fights with someone more brutal than Megaman.
would be funny if V is not actually that big or powerful…but is just a powerful illusionist XD
Max and the others have just been fighting the illusion he made or something.
thought I doubt that’s what’s going on.
I think Syd would have noticed. She made it a point to check out Death Toll with her truesight orb, and this guy’s a few orders of magnitude tougher to beat.
Though she hasn’t actually done so on-screen, so, yeah, possibility.
Unlikely, since Sydney’s already used the telepresence orb and if he also had the power to make illusions that Sydney can’t see through, it would negate that power in almost no time after it was introduced, also after Deus and his assistant had already foreshadowed how, even though illusionists are rare, Sydney would in her new line of work eventually meet them all.
Well we all or most know where this is heading.
Is anyone else slightly worried that V said he knew what to do in the same shot as Sydney with her shield down?
I really love the drawings in this pages , Muppets and the boot to the face made me chuckle .
One of the good sideeffects of V being so über is that Maxima is no longer MarySueMixa , at least she hasnt been called that in the comments anymore .
But what makes me curious and has not been speculated upon is Vs last sentence : He just got nuked by Maxima and that was not enough vehemic energy for him and now he mentions some way to get even more energy then through that nuke . What the hell could that be ?
My speculation , much like Dabbler has a lust aura to make people horny he can generate a violence aura to make people angry / violent and he will use it on Sidney , getting her to use the PPO Orb .
Instead we have a MarySueVehema.
I think it should be MartyStuVehema
:-)
Second speculation : this isnt even his final form :-))
1) I concede to your correction, sir.
2) I wish I had thought of saying that.
All I can think to stop Vehemence is to literally throw Achilles at him and get Vehemence to waste power by beating him up. It’s not violence if Achilles can’t be hurt by the blows.
It’s still violence even if there’s no injury. Earthquakes & thunderstorms are violent & he can charge up from those too. That’s Word of Dave.
So far I think there’s only two ways to get him to waste energy in his attacks. Have him punch the angry muppet or Kenya, and we know he doesn’t want to tangle with her in that way.
My reasoning is that the muppet has his perfect counter power which would pose a threat to Vehemence, though he doesn’t know exactly how. Anvil on the other hand absorbs kinetic energy when punched, so the level of violence is dramatically reduced compared to if he was punching anything else.
His counter to the muppet show is avoidance. He doesn’t have a reason right now to attack the muppet, so avoiding any contact is good enough. Anvil he can either avoid, ignore or push away. If she’s getting irritating he can throw her into the next state and she’ll be out of his hair for a good while. She wouldn’t be able to soak much energy from the throw, but the landing should give her a good boost. Even then she can only run so fast…
Okay I am going to call it here, some very salient points to make include – 1- Sydney no longer has her shield up, 2-Vehemence is within grasping distance, 3- No one has ever tried to take Sydney’s orbs away from her yet, 4- Vehemence has been constantly harangued by her all through this fight, 5- Vehemence has seen how powerful those orbs make her. After all, what better way to power up than to use/destroy someone else’s power? All this leads into number 6- The conditions for one of the other orbs to activate. Even Maxima couldn’t so much as ‘move’ the orbs away from Sydney, so what happens if someone tries to violently take control of one of them?
Interesting thought. Do the orbs have their own active defenses? And what causes them to bond with a person? And what might break that bond? There is are gaps in Sydney’s story about how she found the orbs. How did she learn to get them to work? How did she even figure out what they were? Her version of flying out of the water looks pretty, but Max didn’t seem impressed.
Hey! That’s a NEW theory (i think)!
There should be a bunch of emoticons here with fanfares, flying confetti and marching bands, but the comment section doesn’t seem to support this, which might be a blessing when you consider what I might have been able to cook up…
I can see where Vehemence could get the idea that grabbing the PewPew orb and using it on Max seems like a good idea. I just can’t picture what will happen if he tries.
Up until now my guess was that he was going to go for Sydney, and either threaten her to make Max blast him again now that he figures she’s weak enough that it wouldn’t really be a threat to his life, or get Syd to lash out with the PPO. Again he’d be counting on it not being life threatening for him as it appeared to be weaker than Maxima’s blast during the demonstration.
But I like your idea better. He’s going for her orbs! That’s my new favorite theory for the next page…
‘He’s going for her orbs.” Isn’t that what got Math into trouble in his last fight?
Not quite. What got Math was Jabber’s (unintentionally-placed) booby trap.
;)
When Sydney swung a fist a Math when he startled her he easily dodged the fist and ran right into the orb just behind it. Koed, massively injured and seeking TLC from Harem… righttt.
Actually there was some backstory to how she learned to use the orbs. Or is still learning HOW to.
The fly orb was the first one she touched, and learned to use that by accident. After which, the other orbs she’s shown the ability to use have been at a very basic level. She wasnt even sure in the beginning that the force field would be able to resist more than some foam. She found out the lighthook was strong enough to lift a car from testing. She learned about the PPO and almost burned down a forest. She only knew about the yellow orb’s ability to make a projected image – she didnt know anything about the truesight until Dabbler, and it was a surprise to her. And she doesnt know at all what two of the orbs do.
Sydney actually has shown to have had a very slow learning curve, honestly.
Unlike Vehemence, who apparently masters each new power that he develops out of nowhere from vehemic energy within a few seconds of having developed them.
I think V already knew the spells/powers but never had enough energy to rev them up. That was his biggest point about starting this riot.
Not from what he says as he’s creating the new powers .
Why would he tell people exactly how he does all that he does? Maybe he is spending so much time harping on how much he can do now that he has huge quantities of fuel because he doesn’t want them thinking about the exact nature of his abilities. He seems to like to banter by spouting a bunch of false leads to his motives on a few occasions maybe he is doing the same with misdirection concerning his powers/abilities. Wouldn’t surprise me if the tactical eureka they come up with is when they notice a logic fail between something he said about his powers and what is actually observed and then exploit that knowledge.
He had a mage stink about him to me BEFORE the Ka Pants thing. (which is a specifically magical sound effect Dave chose )
I’m betting they can only be used by Sydney till she’s dead though this hasn’t been tested yet. They can’t be moved away from Sydney till she’s dead so we know they acknowledge her as their user that much.
So what I feel you are really asking is will V kill Sydney for an easy power up? Logically he should cause with her powers to use before his kick in he would be unstoppable in a lot more scenarios (Maxima beating on the shield would power him up nicely). Does he roll that way enough to take that kill shot when he doesn’t have enough info on the orbs or even if he can bond with them?
I don’t feel he does. Though if she became a serious threat to him I believe he would kill her but as long as she’s helpless, he thinks, he will let her keep feeding him.