Grrl Power #275 – Wake up call
The rather spirited debate about Vehemence and the direction of the fight continued in the comments for the last page, I’m sure this one will only add to it. Again I want to reiterate that the whole fight isn’t rebooting at this point despite what it looks like. I mean… you know, pretend it is so you get that “ooh how ever will they survive?” vibe and all that.
I think the tail end of the battle is bumping up against the weakness of the webcomic format, which is that a bi-weekly posting schedule makes it feel like a bit of a slog. It’s only been three pages since Vehemence regenerated his arm. In webcomic time that’s a week and a half, in comic book time, that’s maybe 30 seconds to turn each page.
After I drew this page it occurred to me that there’s probably no way Harem didn’t see the wave coming. One of her big strengths is being able to view a battlefield from multiple angles simultaneously. Right now she’s at a slightly reduced capacity though. The strawberry blonde “default” one had her wrist broken by Vekter’s rock chucking antics, so she’s currently in un-teleported limbo. It will definitely suck for her when she re-teleports that one cause for her it will be the instant after her wrist was broken. Another of her is probably rummaging around the Archon Armory looking for something that might help with Vehemence.
It’s easy to forget that information we as readers take for granted isn’t omnisciently shared among everyone in the comic. Even I forgot for a while that Sydney and Harem don’t know about Maxima’s power pool – remember it’s classified info and it’s way above their pay grade. Sydney barely even has a pay grade at this point.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome which I can’t live without anymore, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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So… awakening powers, some sort of adrenaline infusion?
Since Shadow Boxer didn’t start screaming in pain right away, it must be quite a boost.
Truly it is better to give rather than receive. Especially if you are preparing to escape after killing Max.
Marth and Shadow-guy’s eyes are glowing the same color… I get the bad feeling we may be dealing with zombies.
The next big question is exactly who Sydney is yelling at, she’s facing the wrong way to be talking to Vehemence.
I wonder how strong Max’s defences really are, is she even feeling anythign right now, with everything dumped into Strength?
I think you’ll find she’s maxing armour/defense/constitution/HP, not strength
The glow is probably just a sign of the magic waking them, not a lasting effect.
Sydney’s obviously yelling at the awakened villains to keep things from kicking off again and feeding V even more power
Sydney’s obviously yelling at the awakened villains to keep things from kicking off again and feeding V even more power
Yeah, judging from the lightshow effects in the background of panel 7-8 the bad guys are already starting up the fight again. What’s probably why V woke them up, to power up more to finish Max off. However I see a possible victory-from-the-mouth-of-defeat thing here: The bad guys have a teleporter who can move people across the planet. If Syd can have a talk with her, fill her in, she could port V somewhere remote – darkside of the moon remote.
Shadow Boxer’s eyes glow anyway, and Math is already making wisecracks. They’re as normal as they ever get.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1290
Shadow Boxer’s eyes glow purple, not yellow.
Go back two installments: she doesn’t have everything in strength, she has everything in defense.
Damn, this forum could really do with an edit button. Yeah, Strength was a brain blurb on my part. I mean to type defense.
As far as zombies, I meant I think Vehemence might be using magic to force them to fight.
I’d say it’s not as much a zombie-glow as it is V’s vhemic regeneration-glow. Seems reasonable he’d want his new power sources in their best possible shape.
Not really looking like regen, just forcing them into consciousness and suppressing their senses of pain.
This does open a new avenue for dealing with Vehemence though. Get Vekter to convince For Whom The Death Tolls to go after V. Maybe he can sap all of that Vehemic energy like he did Anvil’s kinetic. That or get everyone to hold hands and give the best performance of kumbaya the world has ever heard.
Adrenaline. That’s the word I was trying to think of. I think he basically just gave them all a shot of adrenaline.
It looks like they are just being energized but I understand your concern. Lately Dave has been doing a sort of homage to the creative folks of the comment section. Many of the things V or Sydney has done in the last so many exchanges closely resemble one time popular theories for future turns in the battle predicted by commenters. The idea that V could use his energy to create kindle the love of violence in others thus making them Vehemic Zombies kind of has been discussed since we first heard how he was powered.
He’s been disproving or twisting those theories so far but who knows? Maybe he’s playing this one straight for a change. They did immediately start fighting despite their last memory often being of pain and or having their ass handed to them…
Just because they are all waking up doesn’t mean they are all going to want to pick up the fight where they left off … ESPECIALLY if they get wind of WHY Vehemence recruited them in the first place.
Look at their eyes. He just pumped them all full of vehemic energy; they won’t be able to help themselves.
Also, look at the penultimate panel. Some at least are already attacking him.
Yes, it’s a good thing too. Because those attacks won’t make him stronger or let him make even more impressive godlike powers or anything.
Zippydippywiggle.
…And it looks to me like Sydney’s the one who’s going to be passing that wind…
Pun intended.
“Hey! Green haired levitation man! Can that portal lady you brought along make portal phones so we can tell all your buddies that Vehemence is a backstabber who gets power from ambient violence?”
HEE-HEE! :D Dis gon be guuuuuud!
(Yes I really do start talking & thinking like a Hill-Billy when I get pumped about something.. no idea why.. not from the USA, never lived in a cabin in the mountains and cant play the banjo….it..just kind of happens… )
O
/|\
(o\_)==”#
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| |/
Here you go.
Zippydippywiggle.
It’s a badly done guy with a banjo on his knee.
WYSIWYG text messes with ascii art.
<code>
I wonder if this works...
</code>
How does that meme go?…
Oh, yes. “Paddle faster! I hear banjos!”
I read it as if it were a Jager talking. (from Girl Genius)
Well, for every dark there is a light. For every Vehemence, there has to be a Ms Apathy. Where is this mysterious superhero to bore everything back to normakicy.
As to pacing, I’m fine with this further twist. I just want a cool something to link Sydney back into the storey.
X is the closest thing we’ve seen to that. But I’m afraid X is limited to themselves and unperceivability.
Zippydippywiggle here also.
Apparently too drunk on apathy (if that’s even possible) to even lift a finger. :p
Yes. Ms Apathy, the superheroine who gets more powerful on apathy, sees this on TV, goes ‘meh’ and goes to bed early in an extremely powerful manner.
Overconfidence. The Bane of every supervillian.
I don’t know, he forgo giving himself ‘Omega’ threat level, so, not too over-confident.
{Annoyed Edit} ‘DID’ forgo…
Well yeah, he isnt entirely sure he’s at level infinite yet. Bleh.
Still overconfidence either way.
Yes. Now they have him right where they want him.
Zippydippywiggle.
Actually I think they have him right where he wants them.
That too.
We’ve lulled him into a true sense of security!
Plans within plans
Unless he doesn’t also control the reawakened supers, vehemence might be in some trouble.
Trouble? Trouble of what? Creating more violence?
I don’t think he would want to control them. Let violence and chaos reign. He will get back the energy he expended with interest.
I think this is a bad idea actually. He has to have a cap! Even Maxima has a power max. Otherwise he’s a god and that’s no fun. I think he’s gonna pop like a balloon.
Hello, me from last update.
Sorry. This comic gets so many comments per page you can’t read the all. Well you can but it would take an hour.
i’ll summarize without using the word I’ve been using this update.
For the past 3 days, I’ve been saying how Vehemence is massively overpowered to the point of being a broken character that essentially ruins the protagonists (especially Maxima), kills future potential for him as someone interesting who will not be killed right away, and is basically boringly omnipotent due to how anything anyone does, he will be able to counter by using vehemic energy to create a new power. Now more other people are saying the same thing. I also had mentioned, several times last update, the ‘pop like a balloon’ thing as one of only a few possibilities for a non deus-ex-machina resolution, one of the others being Death Toll.
For those who felt this was too long to read:
TL;DR Zippydippywiggle.
er, 3 updates.
Even if he does have a cap, I get the feeling he’s never hit it before and is really curious to find out if he actually does have one or not and just how good it’s going to feel to get there. Violence seems like a drug for him.
Which makes me think. “Violence. My Anti-Drug.”
I’m waiting for him to be so jacked up on violence that he grows 150 feet tall and gets nuclear breath. Then he can go out into the ocean and fist fight Gypsy Danger.
Not concerned about his cap at all. In waking everyone up, he has also woken up people who can potentially stop him, including Opal, or Death Troll. That, or something else up Dave’s sleeves happens. Squirrels, for instance.
Oh yes. Because they had Vehemence on the ropes for the last few pages….
}-/
Oh, they totally do. Just you wait, you’re going to be kicking yourself with how obvious it all is.
I wonder if Dabbler’s glamour is still in efecct.
If you’re talking about her “lust aura” it never has been. If you mean her “illusion of normalcy”, nope, not for a while now.
The one on Jabberwokky? Probably not.
I’ve been wondering if Dabbler’s charm (lust aura) might actually have an effect on Vehemence. Normally she can order people around without them having a second thought. Curious why she hasn’t tried that, when nothing else has worked? Or if she still might…
Or she realized she can’t do it. Either because it won’t work, or if it does, it will backfire. She did get taken aback when she realized he was a violent apple.
I concur, Vehemence is a violent apple. The Grrls even got a good view of his worm…
Oh myyyyyy…
You forgot to close your Takei tags!
*ahem*
WOOH! Oh myyy…
That’s was weird.
Oh yeah… Forgot them tags become invisible… Ah well.
Sydney being the Voice Of Reason.
On a scale of 1 to 10, that’s eight talking raccoons.
I wouldn’t use that scale around Rocket. He’s got an itchy trigger finger and a Groot sized chip on his shoulder.
A: we already know Max doesn’t get crushed. She was in the first few pages before the flashback, which is where we are now technically.
B: Was that some sort of EMP burst V let out? How else would he disable the sleepy bracelets?
C: “the odd an alien invasion”? Me thinks a typo occurred.
I don’t think V snapped those cuffs. Some of the mooks are pretty strong ans I think that was one of them. others may be awake but still cuffed for now.
Or he also has telekinesis. Which he probably does have.
V’s using spells so his only limit right now is what spells he knows.
Not really. He doesnt have a limit of what spells he knows, because he’s caused effects already that he’s never done before. He said so.
zippydippywiggle.
He hasn’t EXACTLY said that and he has a tendency to misdirect or make things up when it amuses him/serves his purpose but after rereading something that the author himself said in a blog post I’ll give you this one for the moment. And if true it would harken back to an old concern of mine about V before we had some hopeful signs that he was real mage that mirrors your concerns.
I would agree that if V can do anything just because he has a huge power reserve it would mean that the author has a logic fail. It takes knowledge + power to do this many completely different effects. Handing me a super computer doesn’t grant me the ability to code, handing me a gun doesn’t make me a sniper, etc… The most V should be able to do with such a new power level is maybe fumble a couple of related effects out of it (preferable somehow related to his other powers nature) that should actually be extremely energy inefficient because he doesn’t know how to do them well. But I am told by the author to wait for future developments and possibly info dumps in comic that will help with some of this. (perhaps the possession by demon thing that was popular a while back… ) Though I can already tell I won’t be able to resist a few more comments in this vein. (oh me. *sigh* )
Vehemence has stated already that he has power to burn at the moment, so he is experimenting something fierce right now. He also probably knows a lot of spells he has never had the power to use before, at least not on this scale, and so he is simply overcharging spells we haven’t seen from him until now.
We probably haven’t seen even a fraction of the spells Dabbler can use either, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have them. I have a hard time believing that she defeated that demon in the flashback with the limited power set she has displayed thus far. Which means she obviously powered up like Vehemence did here (sadly not shown), and then used abilities that were overcharged to beat up the demon.
I kind of think of him in magic the gathering terms as a creature that has:
“When Vehemence comes into play, you may secretly imprint any number of instant or sorcery cards you own on him face down. You may look at these cards at any time. Whenever a creature attacks or blocks, put a number of charge counters on Vehemence equal to the power of the creature. Whenever damage is dealt from any source to any target, put that many charge counters on Vehemence These abilities work even while Vehemence is a morph creature or not in play. Remove a number of charge counters from Vehemence equal to the cost of a spell imprinted on him: put a copy of that spell on the stack and choose a target for it. Vehemence’s power and toughness are equal to one eighth the number of charge counters on him, rounded down. Morph: remove a charge counter.
This is obviously an unglued/unhinged card. :P
I don’t think we have any reason to believe he has telekinesis. I think that would be a totally different super. Also — it would’ve looked different on the page — handcuffs would’ve floated off their wrists. Instead we get a zap/wave of electricity (a power he has just displayed actually possessing). It looks like the handcuffs were maybe electronic devices or something, and his wave maybe shorted them out or something, so they fell off. Either way it was clearly related to the shockwave he sent out, which jolted everyone … but made nothing float around on it’s own.
This was in response to Pander’s telekinesis comment, obviously. I really don’t like the way this forum is setup. Never mind the inability to give other comments a “like”, or to edit your comment. Bring on the Disqus!
From the sound (Pssh) I would say the cuffs were unlocked and not broken.
From V’s telekinesis. zdw.
Thought that since the beginning of the fight. We know Max survives. We know she leaves the fight right unscathed (doesn’t look to have any permanent injuries). The only real question is, does V escape or not.
However Dabbler has the ability to mimic to appearance of people, so Max can die/ be really injured and Dabbler could mimic her to keep moral up and reduce the chance of attack from other bad guys. I hope that we get some clue as to what Halo’s lonely ball does.
I dunno, the comic’s name is grrlpower. I don’t think one of the main 4 are going to get killed in their debut fight. Maybe that’s too meta, but I’m pretty confident.
I don’t think it’ll go that route :p Max is Grrl Power’s Superman and usually you just don’t want to get rid of the characters that bring in the readers (Max is one of them).
I don’t find this bad. Do people really expect characters like Batman or Superman to die and/or stay dead? :p No! I also don’t want to! I leave that for the mangas ;)
That, and this is still the first fight. We’re not at the point of killing off main characters just yet. :p
Whoops, got it fixed.
Well I am sure there is a super that has powers that can expand time and space, and his name is called DaveB, a flashback from a couple of months ago lasted 4 years. If he would go into a fight with quicksilver and/or the flash he could drag time so slow that even at full speed he would seem like in slowmotion and easily take them both out by putting a sydney-level hotpepper in their mouths. Seriously DaveB has like the ultimate superpowers :p
K But now they are all woken up, and if Sydney can stop them to fight and Dabbler convince them into a huge orgy instead then Dabbler can go kick V’s butt.
Hey Math, we missed ya. Please don’t be under Vehemence’s control.
With the other guys coming back I wonder… what about Achilles? I know he’s still trapped under a big pile of debris and can’t get out… which seems oddly convenient? I don’t know what he could DO specifically, but if anyone is going to be a neutral player where the violence absorber is involved it’s probably the invulnerable guy. You know, the one who had his hands in his pockets while Maxima was throwing his at enemies? Achilles dgaf about violence.
He has the same yellow glowy eyes as the other reawakened villains. And as Vehemence’s regenerated eye (and the same color as his lines)
Zippydippywiggle..
Yeah, but his various scrapes and bruises didn’t heal, so I don’t think it was the full version of V-heal. Just a nice, refreshing “I just got 8 hours sleep and drank my morning coffee already!” type heal.
I bet Achilles is immune to V’s vehmic wave. It seems to me like his invulnerability is a side effect of him being effectively ‘stuck’. He is still in the 80’s, he doesn’t seem to change emotions….I think he’s basically read only memory to the world, and not only can he not be damaged, he can’t be affected in any way beyond moving him around. I bet if we get a look at Achilles his eyes are the same way they’ve always been.
He is not read-only, he mentioned getting bored with jumping into a volcano after the first few times. He plays a stunt man for spare cash or perhaps just for the fun of it, he isn’t completely static.
Simple yet effective, I like it. Still largely clueless as to how shtuff will be resolved, not even bothering to theorize at this point, just hanging on and enjoying the ride.
Heh, spirited debate…
Z to the zippy d to the dippy, wiggle yo.
Zippyfoshizzledippyizzlewiggle.
I agree, Dave have been consistently throwing curve balls since the fight started, I’ve pretty much given up trying to predict what will happen next. V’s powers as the plot demands is a little annoying, but the mechanism behind it has been well explained, and is reasonable in context.
If I were to predict something though, I’d say Vector and Opal should be ripe for at least a temporary alliance, assuming V’s wake-up-wave didn’t also give everyone a mindless blood lust.
But what I’m really expecting is something totally unexpected.
I’m impressed someone took the time to so thoroughly wrap Heavenly’s hands, it should render her ability ineffective since she can’t pick anything up, but this is a comic.
Someone tell Math he needs to switch to Akido or just do something else that focuses on evasion/control. Do you think joint locks or blood chokes count as violent?
V’s powers as the plot demands is a little annoying. And Mt. Everest is a little protuberance in the earth.
Zippy is a dippy to wiggle.
Btw, to the last sentence you said.
Yes. They hurt.
Of course they’re violent. There’s also the problem of whether V can even choke or evade V with said moves to begin with. Remember, Max herself is one of the few people who beat Math in a match without resorting to spells or booby traps. :p
Math choke or evade V, Math choke or evade V… Meh to full day brain farts.
Well, it *was* a Monday when you posted that brain fart, so you’re forgiven.
;)
I can see people not liking this but I for one am hoping this will backfire somehow. Vehemence is getting cocky so it will only hurt more when he falls.
Zippydippywiggle.
Zippydippywiggle?
*nods* Zippydippywiggle.
Zippydippywiggle? Not sure what that means. I wanna be in on the joke!
Check further down in the comments. I explain in scuffles’ thread.
Just say “check my previous posts” you’re making yourself seem like an idiot. I’m done with V myself, but I’m not resorting to childish gyberish over and over again. It only worked for Yahtzee because he explained it immediately before saying it.
Again, not bothering with it anymore. No need to call me an idiot. Thanks.
I think Marbles and the teleport chick will be two who will want a piece of V.
It would depend mostly on whether or not Vehemence healed them as well as waking them up. Even though we don’t see Shadow Boxer screaming, that was the same exact moment he was awakened & maybe he hasn’t yet started feeling the pain yet. As for Vekter’s broken ribs & Opal’s concussion, would that stop them from acting even though they’re probably awake too?
But then again, V’s initial “wake up call” also released all of their binders, so I could concede that at least *some* healing could have been included.
it could be an adrenaline rush that they don’t feel just as bad as they are beaten up.
We’ve already got a spoiler (this is still Sydney’s flashback after all) that Max survives & Vehemence isn’t active at *that* time; if he were, then the flashback wouldn’t have been so calm…
Welp, it’s pretty obvious why Vehemence didn’t mind letting all those other baddies get caught…With a big enough power source, he probably figured he could release them anyway.
DaveB, I’m not one to complain that V is apparently too overpowered, like some have said already. What else would qualify for *Arch*Villain status anyway? :P
I still remember Dabbler saying that if SHE had gotten this much Tantric energy, she could’ve single-handedly beat the whole team too. Vehemence has already displayed a range of knowledge that would grant him diversity of actions, just as Dabbler does.
Those who’ve been complaining that Vehemence has been written poorly haven’t really figured that the same complaint would be just as valid for Dabbler as it might be for Vehemence. The only significant difference between Dabbs & V is not really the source of their power, it’s the fact that Dabbler doesn’t really *master* any one subject, but Vehemence has delved more *deeply* into his field of knowledge; He could still probably pull out a lot more that might even catch Dabbler surprised, because she’s…well, a dabbler not a master. Dabbler real strengths lie in the fact that she doesn’t have to *depend* on only Tantric energy to accomplish anything significant…Vehemence has to *rely* on just his use of V-Energy.
So, all in all, I think you’ve written this out quite well & all of these pieces *do* fit together, regardless of what others have been saying.
Zippydippywiggle.
I agree, V isn’t too overpowered initially but his ability to increase his power level through violence definitely puts him in the Arch-Villain territory. Most commenters are forgetting a couple of things. 1) Arch-Swat knew absolutely nothing about him before this. 2) He planned this so that he would get maximum advantage before they found out. 3) While he has a wide range of powers, based solely on the spells he knows and the amount of power he has to fuel them, he isn’t all powerful.
He doesn’t have “new powers on demand,” as some put it, and actually started out below Max in power level. That said, with all his potential he’ll probably be ranked 7 (Maxima’s level) or 8 by Archon.
What the author hasn’t told us is that the name ‘Dave Barrack’ is actually a pseudonym. The author is actually M. Night Shyamalan. At the end of the battle we find out that this is the actual timeline of the story. The original first few comics set in the ‘current day’ are actually a dream by Sydney who was knocked unconscious in the fight. She wakes up just in time to see Vehemence standing over the bodies of her comrades and gloating ‘The World is MINE!!” (surprise!)
The end. roll credits.
What a twist! (see Robot Chicken)
Then when she wakes up, Sydney will still be in a somewhat similar situation than her “flashback” implied.
Considering that this is a time during an evening when her meds might be wearing off anyway (but she was “sleeping” when they wear off), maybe it even adds imperative that she has to wake up NOW! During her dream, V’s power & aggressiveness are so strong that she subconsciously realized that it’ll still be up to her powers & genre-saviness to stop Vehemence.
Perhaps, despite all his boasting, V is losing energy at a high rate trying to take out Maxima. Waking up the other villains would boost his strength if they start fighting again.
Yes. He’s been shown to be barely hanging in there and struggling more and more with each passing page, hasnt he…
Generating and maintaining that much electric power takes quite some energy and because V thinks that electricity weakens Maxima he just needs more energy
If he ends up relying more on shocking Max than crushing Max, boy will he be disappointed with the results…
There. Another hilarious way to take out V.
That’s pretty clearly his plan, I think. He can’t kill Maxima with his current power, he’s strangling her and crushing her and blasting her and she’s not taking any damage. He needs a power up. He is hoping that the reawakened villains will start fighting again and boost his powers up.
Hmm – on the two last pictures, we can see powers darting around – so it would be a fair guess that Archon and the supervillains are starting to fight once again (and Vehemence said he knew how to get the power he needed to kill maxima – so that’s his solution – starting superpowered violence once again.
(Hence why we see sidney’s back on the last picture, while she’s yelling to everyone to stop – (as for the villains, she would say to them that they are being used by Vehemence – opal and vekter might be able to confirm that Vehemence betrayed them if they woke up too)
Afterwards, Vehemence told that he has a ‘radius’ for absorbing violence – what’ll happen if the violence perpetrators go away from him ? :)
He said it his radius increases as his power increases.
So his range is probably oh….. the milky way galaxy. Nah. Maybe only half the Milky Way Galaxy.
Zippydippywiggle.
For Whom the Death Tolls for the win!
If anyone can stop Vehemence, he can!
Dt’spowe is pure defense. And V knows it. So does everyone else now. He’s gonna be running around yelling “hit me, het me!” and getting zero takers until he wanders off sulking.
Until Opal sends one of V’s punches DT’s way, causing the latter’s nemesis powers to drain V back to normal. Villanous teamwork for the win!
I hope.
I actually suggested, at least twice, that Sydney Lighthook the unconscious Death Toll in the way of V’s punch, so now there are two ways that can happen. =)
I did also, quite a few times. We’ll see.
That would definitely be the case normally, but the vehmic wave is something to consider.
The reawakened may be super aggressive and violent and not thinking clearly. For that matter, Archon except for those in Sydney’s shield may be affected the same way. Death Toll would thrive in an environment where everyone must attack whatever they see.
On the other hand, V himself seems more aggressive and ranty with every page. Thinking clearly, he wouldn’t attack Death Toll. But he may no longer be thinking clearly.
Unless V also induced some significant healing with his wake up call, Death Tolls will have some significant injury to deal with…Especially with one certain injury that puts a pretty big *butt* on his ability to move around much.
O.o
It’s butt a flesh wound.
Even though there was the *one* panel that showed the injury, it wasn’t a very good angle of view (Thank God for that!) to see if that knife severed any nerves.
At the very least, an important blood vessel was cut, hence the actual gusher of blood. Unless Harem (she’s the only one(?) who we’ve seen tending the wounded & restraining the prisoners) could stop the bleeding on the scene, he might have even bled out by now.
At any rate, when he’s awake enough to learn of the actual extent of his injuries, the placement of that knife will probably be something of a “shocker” to him…
Does he still Goose’s knife sticking out of his backside? Thinking about it, that has probably been removed and patched, at least until they can get back to the infirmary at Archon headquarters.
I would feel very vindicated if this happens.
You know, since it’s the only remaining way to beat him that I’ve said for a few days. Other than him popping his cap, which seems to not be about to happen.
And of course, as always, Zippydippywiggle
Well. Pander’s going to flip.
And I sort of agree. This guy is all kinds of over the top. I just can’t buy that he just jump-started everybody on the field without burning an enormous amount of energy, yet he’s all still got lightning going, he’s still got metal arm going, he’s still strong enough to keep Max planted.
The problem is that nothing he does seems to actually cost him anything. Making this stuff up on the fly should be expensive, but he shows no sign of his power actually diminishing when he does stuff. It’s ridiculous.
I’ve read that V is supposed to be a recurring villain, but his talky talk last page was spot on. There’s no reason why Max won’t take his head off next time he pops it up without a super-brawl worth of power to play with. Plus, if she doesn’t actually beat him in this fight she just got her backside kicked by the only significant bad guy we’ve even seen. And we’re supposed to believe Max is the tough, respected commander of this team?
Maybe it’s just the two-a-week thing but I just want him to go away so that we can get back to our regularly scheduled comic without having to worry about annoyingly verbose bad guy with ridiculous god-like “I can actually do anything” powers. But I want him to go away without having to make Max look weak and ineffective because that would be a stupid result for a first fight.
So.. how are you gonna do that boss? I still have faith, the rest of the comic has been fabulous. But seriously, this guy is well past my “I’m sick of this nonsense” limits.
I think my sarcastic meter broke. For a while, I’m just going to use one word.
Zippydippywiggle.
This comic is becoming zippydippywiggle. Because Vehemence is zippydippywiggle. I use the word zippydippywiggle because the english language might not contain enough words necessary to fully describe the displeasure at this broken character breaking the storyline. It might, but if I actually wrote them all out, it would probably make all the comments I’ve made in the past two days seem excessively brief.
It would make War and Peace seem excessively brief.
I don’t know whether to congratulate you or Google. Because less that three hours after you coined the word, this comment section is listed by Google as the only hit.
This thing of yours is not coming off well. It in fact comes off rather troll like. And that’s from someone who has never had a problem with any of your past relatively polite and logical arguments.
IF I someday (maybe soon… ) come to agree with every single one of your points otherwise I will still not think this little campaign of yours showed anything but an emerging troll side. Venting a bit in part of a comment or two is one thing. Inventing a childish catch phrase to symbolize your hate of the comic’s current course and attaching it to every other comment (often with no explanation) is becoming another thing entirely.
So much so I now have to ban myself from posting anything else for an update or so cause clearly your negativity has corrupted me towards the dark side or I wouldn’t have bothered to reply to this nonsense at all.
Yeah. I’m frustrated. Not trolling. I stopped doing the word.
It was actually meant to be funny.
If you’re so all-fired against Vehemence & the comic, well, no one’s forcing to to continue reading it. If you really hate the way Dave’s writing it, find a comic that fits *your own* style of pacing so that you’re less likely to complain that you don’t get a “full reveal” fast enough for you.
What part of ‘I’m not bothering to comment about it anymore’ do you not understand?
What part of ‘I like the comic, I do not like Vehemence’ do you not understand as well. Stop trolling me to argue about it more.
Oh come on, don’t you dare be surprised. This is the most predictable thing that’s haopened since he said he could control vehemic energy! He’s just pushing his Violence Aura! Complain if you want about him being too powerful for a first fight or whatever but this is the most logical extension of his abilities, lifted right out of Dabbler’s displayed suite of similar powers.
… Anvil, they’re daring! Get them!
Zippy
Dippy
Wiggle
PS – yes, I remember that display where Dabbler became God. That was from the deleted scenes wasnt it?
ZDW.
Yo quit being an ass. There’s being frustrated and there’s being an asshole outright, and you definitely are into the latter. I reiterate: if this frustrates you to this poibt, you should probably just stop reading for a few weeks.
Zippydippywiggle you, you zippydippywiggle enabler.
“lifted right out of Dabbler’s displayed suite of similar powers.”
Besides, that’s what you said. Dabbler’s obviously displayed this suite of powers a well. I must have missed it in my zippydippywiggle induced fury.
I’m talking about her ability to inspire lust. Why shouldn’t he be able to inspire violence? Now I don’t like that it broke the cuffs; I’d like to see an explanation for it. But I’ve been waiting for him to push his violence aura since it was revealed that his energy manipulation works similarly to Dabbler’s.
1) Others could still control themselves when she was pushing her lust aura. zdw.
2) Tele-zippy-kin-dippy-esis-wiggle.
3) Yes, because it makes sense for unconscious people to spontaneously re-awaken when violence is pushed on them. zdw
3) Apparently they do, because that is the thing that happened.
Look, I’m not saying I like it, I’m saying it’s a perfectly logical power for him amd that I saw it coming, so it boggles me that people are surprised or that this is somehow the straw that broke the camel’s back. V’s dialogue appears to be Dave setting up a pretty classic fall via supervillain hubris, which means the end is in sight. I don’t know how that’s gonna happen, but we know this fight doesn’t end the way V wants it to, so I’m willing to wait and not spam nonsense words at everyone.
Whenever people in the hospital are in comas, I hear they wake them up by making them really mad.
Fall would imply he’s going to lose badly. He won’t. At worst, he’s going to escape or just leave and be recurring. Word of DaveB.
Better one word than several million. Zippydippywiggle.
Better one well thought-out comment than several dozen.
I count 64 comments from you on this one page, and it’s still Monday.
This is supposed to be ‘Grrl Power’, not ‘Pander’s Whining Corner’.
Grrl power seems to have a distinct lack of grrl power in it lately.
Btw if I could edit my posts, there would be a lot less of them unfortunately.
1) We don’t know that these ones can’t.
2) You are really going for the petulant child angle, aren’t you?
1) I bet you a zippy they arent resisting, since they’re shooting at him or at others right now.
2) Dippywiggle.
He’s not just inspiring violence, he’s healing a bunch of people who’ve been beaten into unconsciousness or drugged into a stupor, THEN inspiring violence.
*nod*
Oh yeah, Math looks real healed up to me.
He was unconscious. Now he’s conscious. That’s a heal, even if not a total heal of scars and whatnot.
I wouldn’t really call that a “heal,” more like a forced Recovery Phase in terms of the Champions RPG.
I think a bunch of us though this was what he was doing when he was about to hulk out. Driving everyone into a rage is definitely in his wheelhouse.
V has probably spent much energy but we(and Maxima) think that he is still as strong as before
now he is powering up again
In panel 7, the glowy lines on V are fading away. Also his face seems to be going stark white. He’s running out energy perhaps?
Think that’s a reflection off the lightning.
The white is reflection fron the lightning bolts. But the markings are fading to yellow. That may be why he took the energy to wake everybody up. Restart the fight and power up again.
The color in his face is being bleached out by the lightning not a foot away from it. Lightning tends to have that effect.
But I will grant you that the line crossing his right clavicle does seem to be fading.
This is not the first time I have been reminded of the original Star Trek episode Day of the Dove. This page points to even more parallels. Sydney should be seeing them by now. But does that mean that she just has to get everybody laughing to weaken Vehemence to the point where they can slap the drug-cuffs on him, or he slinks away as his power is drained?
BTW, in the last balloon of the second-last panel: the odd an alien invasion. Remove an for better grammatical flow.
In that Star Trek episode, laughter did the trick & it might well work here too. But if Sydney can manage to tell the truth about Vehemence betraying them in the first place, no one’s going to be well disposed for laughing about it.
I still think Apathy would work better, especially if they can infuse it directly into Vehemence. It would take some high level of magic or psionics to make it directly affect him I would think.
Maybe they can throw tribbles at him. They usually have a calming effect.
Like here in the comic, they didn’t *have* any tribbles to use…different episode, different Klingons, different settings.
It does make me wonder if perhaps Sydney’s comic store might not have a stock of tribbles to sell?..
They can make bootleg gribbles. All they need are some hairballs.
Huh… Gribbles instead of tribbles. Nice one, autocorrect.
That’s why I turn off my auto-corrects…They function more like auto co-wrecks.
They really don’t have to laugh, just stand around and do nothing. Sydney seems to have that much figured. It’s how to stop V from fighting that is the problem. And stop him fast before Max gets hurt badly. She might not have been killed, but broken bones and internal injuries could still happen.
Actually, Vehemence said before all this even happened, and I quote/paraphrase “And before Miss Scoville suggests it, not fighting me won’t help either. It’s too late for that.”
Possibly a lie, possibly the truth. We don’t know at this point.
Meh.
I referenced that ST episode right when Vehemence revealed the source of his power. But I don’t think that laughter will drain him, because remember he gets stronger from pounding on other people, and tough supers make superior punching bags.
Oh. Good. Mind control or body control hive mind something powers (notice Math’s eyes being yellow glowy like Vehemence’s).
And telekinesis to remove them from their bonds, while not looking at them, so there’s some sort of telepresence or omnipresence he has too. And he’s a level 10 everything. He’s being humble. He is an omega. 10 is clearly not high enough – he needs to be level infinite. If an alien invasion did happen, it might take him more than 10 seconds to cause their atoms to split apart – we need to get it down to 1 or 2, maximum. Can someone please just make him into Dr. Manhattan and the ability to destroy the world with a thought and put it in a permanent state of violent destruction (then he doesnt need his magic pants since Dr Manhattan doesnt wear pants – maybe a speedos), whereupon he can time travel back one second to experience the violence again for all eternity, upon which point he becomes infinite power, since Omega is still limiting him?
That’s a good thing. Vehemence didnt have enough powers. Mind powers were sorely missing.
He is not in any way a Marty Stu/Mary Sue….
Or maybe it’s not absolute mind control and is just ‘must fight’ mind control.
Yeah, I think if he had mind control he’d use it on Maxima. My bet is that it is just a sort of “instant mosh pi, erryboddy fight!t” spell.
(Ironically, if he used that sort of spell on Maxima, he could kill her, since she’d push power to strength away from durability. But he doesn’t know that, because he thinks she’s always this durable and that only his lightning is draining her strength.)
Let’s see, On the one hand V’s reached Epic power levels, enough to burn energy on wild spells, from a fight that resembles a WWII carpet bombing run. Max blowing his arm off sent him to a new level of power and the continued violence is enough to keep him there. On the other hand we have an alien invasion scenario that would make this violence look tame. I don’t think I’d like to see V powered up by the alien invasion.
Why, pray tell, would an alien invasion do any better?
zippydippywiggle?
Why would there be an alien invasion? As Dabbler stated, which is easier: Grab water from some undefended low-gravity comets or from a high-gravity rock with nuclear missiles available?
Two simple words:
Beachfront. Property.
Not going to find much of that on a comet in the oort cloud.
From what the astrophysicists say, Earth is pretty water-poor, compared to other planets & moons that have the kind of environments that support water at all. Heck, for that matter there are moons entirely covered in water (although it’s frozen) just within our own solar system. Just drop a floating habitat down & the whole moon (or planet) is beach-front property!
For the sexy lifeforms. Nukes be damned.
Its just a spell. A one shot burning of energy to cause everyone in the immediate area to wake up and boost their emotional (vehemic) response. Even better its a prince charming in reverse: he kisses them and they all wake up pissed at the first person (target) they see.
Of course Jabberwock will still be under the charm effect probably. And the anger effect will be less effective to those already in combat (IE awake). It would not surprise me to see the surveillance group wade in swinging, or Peggy stumping in (20 seconds of flight, on direction, via CO2 jump launch in her prosthetic).
Looks like a wave,which means its probable not targeted.He just woke the guy with the Nemesis power and the stupid name,if he learns that he just were there to be beaten ,to charge up V,he will probable be pissed and V can’t do the multiple attackers trick.
So everyone is waking up? Which mean Death Toll is back in the game. Remember how he downed Anvil, draining all her stored energy?
Obviously V would not be stupid enough to atack him directly, but what if Death Toll were to simply walk into the arcing lightning coming of V’s arm?
It’s been mentioned
Mentioned it a couple of days ago.
Death Toll? Maybe not – his power is Nemesis, so if it works even while he is unconscious, then he probably just personally countered V’s violence wave.
Now the interesting point is that FWTDT’s counter-powers often have visual aspects (ice for fire, copper skin for electricity, etc.). So does the visual aspect of FWTDT’s counter of V’s violence wave give a clue about how to counter V?
If the ‘violence wave’ had triggered DT’s Nemesis, there would have been an effect on V already, like there was an immediate effect on both Anvil and on Jiggawatt.
Oh yeah, I forgot. Zippydippywiggle.
Opal too! If she’s awake and in her right mind its a big problem for Vehemance. She could evac the conflict in under a minute.
Welp, Here is his escape plan. Wakes up everyone, driving them to an aggressive frenzy (probably) then unleashes his big attack he presumes will kill maxima, and escapes in the confusion since he doesnt want to kill them.
Zippy friggin dippy damnfriggin wiggle.
I’m Still Waiting For the Someone (or even Sidney) to bring up the Idea About ‘Apples’.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1538
I think it means something … or it would not have been brought up in a round about way.
I brought that up two days ago.
Oh yeah. Btw, zippydippywiggle.
Sorry I didn’t make it clearer … I meant in the GRRL Power World.
Ah, ok. I did bring it up as a joke since there’s no real way other than Death Toll and ‘balloon filling with air until it pops’ as ways to beat him without deus ex machina. Because people were calling him a teacher. And then I said ‘Apples are his weakness’ Then followed up with saying how malum means both violence and apple.
I was totally totally serial. Totally. Having apples be his weakness and Sydney pointing that out, running off and coming back to throw apples at him would make total sense.
Zippydippywiggle.
I so do hope that those powers of his do BUT revitalise. But seeing how quickly the fight resumed, it probably is a safe to say that it also pimped their rediness for violence – which,admittedly, would not be too surprising.
But … that guy is scary enough as it is, but if he also were to restore life energy and health, especially if it includes waking the dead, I couldn’t deal.
Necromancer stuff freaks me the hell out. No wonder those are not very social.
Zombie dead are a lot more violent than the dead dead, based on the Walking Dead. So he probably can do that too.
Zippydippywiggle.
swomeone throw an army of carebears and mlp at his face damn it
something has to be done
Well i like it , his violence Aura is totally in line with Dabblers lust aura .
And i would wager he just doomed himself , since if everyone woke up so did Death Toll
and more importantly : Opal .
She should be justly pissed , cue one teleport to the desert .
Yes. If V is not careful, they might start attacking him and/or others in the area violently just like V wants.
Again, only thing that’s possible is someone throw Death Toll at him, V instinctively tries to turn him into a kumquat with his do anything power, and instead he turns himself into a habanero, which Sydney then eats.
Or he just becomes God. Not just god with a lowercase g, lets not pigeonhole the poor underpowered guy.
Zippydippywiggle
Kerfuffle :-)
And no , Death toll is not the only thing , like i wrote : Opal ditching him in the desert should cool him up .
and Zippydippywiggle is really funny , thankyou :-)
He probably has teleport powers also now. And his range is probably the entire world since his range increases with his power. And since his power is now zippydippywiggle, that means his range is zippydippywiggle to a factor of zippydippywiggle. The only thing which he can’t counter is a power which counters anything he tries, which is Nemesis.
Anyway, next page, the entire population of the world will zippydippywiggle all over this zippydippywiggle, making him zippydippywigglingly powerful.
I’m just waiting for anifreik or catchtwentythree or someone to say why this is such a good thing. And how V is not overpowered and a wonderful character putting Maxima in her place, since she’s done so much overpowering stuff, like the time she destroyed the world with her pinky, necessitating V needing to be this powerful. Or all the displays of supreme power Dabbler has done, gleaned from one sentence from her saying ‘if this was an orgy I could beat the entire team.’
Zippyfreakingdippywiggle.
Oof. I love having words put in my mouth, it’s delicious. I can’t help but feel your childlike tantrum might fit better on tumblr, though.
In any case, I said this was predictable, not that I particularly like it. I suppose to bring him down with hubris, you have to set up some hubris and give him time to make a self-defeating mistake, but I’d like to move on back to the slice of life humor stuff again soon, and every time he displays a new ability ot drags the fight on longer. Now, we disagree about certain points regarding V, you and I, but please don’t shove words in my mouth, and for the love of god stop throwing a tantrum all over the comment thread. If it bothers you that badly, you’re really best setved stepping back for a few weeks until this fight is concluded.
Yes, they have him right where they want him now. At godlike power. He’s done for.
Zippy yer dippywiggle.
Or I guess you could just put more words in my mouth.
CatchTwentythree says Zippydippywiggle.
I guess God would say kerfuffle after all. He’s pretty old and that sounds like an old person word.
I miss when God was just some kid in a bow tie and hat in Supergirl, carrying a baseball bat, talking to Linda Danvers and calling himself Wally.
Opal might be the best defense. If Sydney can convince them all not to fight (as they are playing in to V’s hands and his fault they all got a kicking) and that they should all go while they have a chance, even getting Opal to send them away, it will spoil V’s plan.
He knocked out Opal to stop her taking the bad guys away as he wanted them all around for this moment.
He burned energy up using his repair trick, thinking the reward would outweigh the payout. If they don’t fight, he might not be at a self sustaining level and has no chance to reach a high enough level to take out Max
There we go, Halo’s calling a halt to everything. If she’s going to try to turn Vehemence, it’ll be next page.
Ugh! You know, an effective Arch DOESN’T have to be some over the top, lightening bolt weilding, regenerating mass of muscle with limitless power.
Look at the Joker! No special powers, just psychosis and brains.
I would have rather seen someone spank the team using booby-traps, well thought out ploys and effective strategy, especially compared to this!
And I’m going to see MORE of V in the future? Oh yipee!
Hello, me from the last few days.
Looks like there ARE things too strong for him.
If I were the strategist, I’d divide people into a Halo-centered defense team and a Dabbler-powering orgy team.
Thankfully, I’m not :p
If he has limits, then I bet he’ll have to reach them at some point. I have some ideas involving Halo, but I’d probably better not risk guessing openly :p
I was actually expecting V to look up and see Sydney standing at point-blank range with her Pew-Pew orb ready to fire, giving him one last chance to surrender or find out if he can regenerate a missing head or heart.
That…would actually probably work. Not bad :D
Well, actually, I will risk guessing. Did anyone notice Halo doesn’t look at him at the last two panels? This is strange, maybe she noticed something. Also, I wonder how much her shield can take, maybe she can go all defensive and wear him out? And her tentacle orb could be useful, if I were her I’d tickle Vehemence or grab the “Toll” guy and swing him in front of him. (Omg, I just figured Dabbler could be unbeatable if the orb was hers…I feel a bit weird now)
Also, she still has two “surprise” orbs. Which is cool :)
*at the last two pages, not panels
I’m with Dave here, the fight isn’t going on too long. Not in Superhero fight standards. I peaced out near the start of the fight (sometime around when Math was showing off) because I knew that it would take a while updating twice a week.
I came back last week and it didn’t seem drawn out to get caught up. We’re actually getting more action overall than mainstream comics and it’s pretty good.
People complained about all the preliminary stuff dragging on too long, now they complain about the fight dragging on too long. It’s human nature to complain.
I’d like to complain about all the annoying “Zippydippywiggles,” but I can understand their frustration. Vehemence is up to Galactus level powers now, though his normal power level is below Maxima’s. That’s something to keep in mind, he can’t normally do this kind of thing.
I’d like to complain about the railroading of a Vehemence victory via godhood when there was absolutely no way that anyone was going to just kill him right before all this happened or how the resolutions are being dwindled down to deus ex machina or Death Toll or V’s death somehow, but zippydippywiggle.
Humph! V doesn’t know power. He’s never encountered an IRS agent in a “mood”. *shudder*
So, he also revived the Wobbuffet-man, didn’t he?
some thing tells me that he is training them prehaps? for something else to come?
That’s wishful thinking, and really bad writing.
I’ve enjoyed your pace Dave. Don’t worry so much about it. ^_^