Grrl Power #276 – It’s not cheating, it’s “boosting”
Gauntlette finally gets a chance to do some damage after Jiggawatt cut her down during her arrival flourish, but it might not last as it looks like Sydney has figured something out about Vehemence that in hindsight is probably pretty obvious. The question is, what will she do with that information? I’m betting it’s something significant.
If I hadn’t had Hex sneak away already, panel 6 would have been Glowbug vs Hex, a fan cameo faceoff! I guess I could have put Breakpoint in there but sonics vs lightning is a poor matchup as we’ve already seen. It basically comes down to whoever gets the first shot since you can’t really block one with the other. Sonics vs. Lightning sounds like a sports match. Actually the SuperSonics was basketball team and the Tampa Bay Lightning is a hockey team (I had to google both of those) Personally, I think sports would be a lot more interesting if a hockey team played against a basketball team, or a baseball team played against a football team. Asymmetrical sides. That’s what makes for an interesting matchup I say. Protoss vs. Zerg, Zangeif vs. Ryu, rugby vs. curling!
It’s probably too late to remind people about the Amazon affiliate link as Xmas is just under a week away, but you last minuters can still use it. Unfortunately I don’t think I get a percentage of the rush shipping charges. :)
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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SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Interesting twist…Mind control also?
More like “aggressive mind fogging” IMO.
Looks more like berserker rage to me.
Yes Sydney, currently they are mindless pawns.
Yes, and Sydney realizes she is immune due to the Force Field, so she can block the continuing effects from reaching the others (and since it blocks one way it would also block V from reaping the benefits of the violence outside the field as well).
If you aren’t cheating you aren’t trying.
I don’t think so. It only affected unconscious people. Dabbler and Harem are fine.
Well, villains fighting villains and heroes fighting heroes… but also villains and heroes fighting each other. As I suspected, it’s an overcharged vehemic aura that I guess is probably pretty tough to resist.
Let’s just see what Sydney can do with this information. Or Dabbler! I wanna see her use that big brain.
or shake her butt. reverse hypnotism is best hypnotism
*sigh* this fight keeps getting more and more predictable…
When you got so many people trying out so many different ideas, you really can’t say it was *un*predictable…
;)
But really, there were quite a few people wondering if V’s wake up call also infused an increase of aggresiveness…Now we know.
his first appearance was “the nice villan”. at that point we know how he looks.
the second time, was “the brute with invincible hat”
at that point we did’n knew much, and we could not predict his power.
but now, we have seen him getting progressively stronger, and it has been revealed that his power is the same as dabblers, except violence instead of horny’ness.
we know that dabbler can make people horny, with more than just her look, why wouldn’t V make them violent?
Interesting to see that only the Magical demon, and Sydney’s Forcefield seem to have resisted it
This vehemic aura only seems to affect those that were woken up by it, Dabbler was just as unaffected by as Sydney. Though, even if that hadn’t been the case, the shield isolating her would seem plausible, seeing as it’s withstood just about everything else so far.
…But…
Is Sydney felling more aggressive because V is cheating? This may be due in part to her meds wearing off too.
Or maybe her shield didn’t isn’t completely countering his wave of impulse-aggressiveness?
O.o
Sydney is being negative, resentful and sullen. Oh no! She has been infected with passive-agression!
Sydney is always aggressive…
I’m not sure that Dabbler has resisted it. We can see from Glowbug/Bombshell’s fight that the berserkers are able to use ranged attacks.
I think if Dabbler was unaffected she’d try and slide in and shoot him upwards, so that the railgun wouldn’t cut a swathe through miles of countryside.
Dabbler is still thinking about the situation. Compare to Hiro and Stalwart, who clearly don’t
The time to take risks in order to reduce colleteral damage has past though. This is a thread that has to be stopped.
This is a guy who has threatened to kill one person. Dabbler’s gun will cut across miles of landscape before the curvature of the earth brings it to the sky. There’s no way to know how many people it will kill. Could be 0. Could core a schoolbus like an apple.
In their right mind an ethical person would not fire the railgun horizontally to save one life.
It’s not about that one life. He’s also not threatening just one life. Or did you somehow think he’s going to live a lawfull life after this? It’s about what he will do if they don’t stop him now. His potential for destruction warents some potential death, because it could save many more lives later on.
Also, if it comes to the very long term, unethical thinking, that one life is also worth more than a schoolbus. Or 50 schoolbusses. Even if you ignore Vehemence’s potential for destruction
Because that one life has the potential to save so many more
It may not be an pritty thought, but not all lives are worth the same. Every time Batman does not kill the Joker, he risks hundres of innocent lives. Sometimes, ending a life IS the ethically right choice. In exactly the same way that hunters kill deer if there are to many. It’s more ethical to kill a few now, than let many more starve through the winter
Woah, Dr. Doom, didn’t see you there.
What you’ve articulated is almost literally anti superheroism. Its pragmatic and consequentialist, but its a sort of polar opposite morality to that espoused by comic books. Instead of Superman laying down his life to protect a city, he would let Metallo tire himself out on the city, because after all Superman has saved the earth many time, he has to value his life at greater than one city. If a couple of folks have to die while he fetches the anti-kryptonite suit, then that’s on Metallo’s head. Think of the danger to earth if he let himself die!
There could be a comic like that, but this one hasn’t shown any signs of being it. Dabbler, in her right mind, wouldn’t kill innocents to save Maxima or kill V. (Or, if she would, its a major plot twist. I could totally see it, Dabbler is pretty rapey, but if her demon morality != the team’s comic book morality it will be a big plot point.)
We’ll know soon enough though. If she keeps fighting Gauntlette she’s affected by the rage power. If she breaks off to protect Maxima then she was trying to fire the railgun horizontally of her own free will.
I’m not even sure it is the railgun. By my memory, the railgun had the ring part arranged vertically, whereas this is horizontal.
Nevermind, I’m wrong.
Panel 8: Dat face! Sydney FTW!
I like how her shirt has grown spikes
Sooo, what is it that Sydney has figured out?
It looks more like she already figured out a way before and now she is mad enough to try it.
Lighthook down the throat and into the lungs?
You can suggest that all you want, but I still don’t think this is that kind of comic. Choking somebody to death by shoving a tentacle into their lungs simply isn’t in keeping with the general feeling of the comic.
I agree that I don’t think that will happen, but Cloud 9 did do something similar in World War Hulk.
By the looks of it V has set off some sort of hyper-aggressive aura effect. Everyone effected has an irresistible urge to beat the snot out of whoever else is nearby. Rather handy for V as (unless there’s anti-perpetual-feedback rules or a cost > gain balance) he’s getting energy as long as the effect persists. Sydney has just worked that out. Whether, or how, she can come up with a counter of some sort remains to be seen.
Hmh..
I think Sidney will now run to V and give him a piece of her mind…
If her meds are indeed wearing off, it’s really starting to sound scary…
I think Vehemence is about to be…put on TheList
Oh crap, that scene would be hilarious!
Que, Sydney walking up to V, slapping him across the face with light hook, pulling out the book and writing him down..
And for the next plot twist. It was all just a dream!
…A dream sequence introduced within a flashback…
Interesting method of writing, I’d think.
;)
Ugh. If that were the case, I’d quit reading.
The entire comic is also in a dream. So it’s a dream in a flashback in a dream, in a comic on the internet.
(not actually a dream as far as we know. Just a joke)
Well, the comic started as a dream of Dave’s before he could start posting it to the ‘net…
Vehehemence make Sydney angry. Vehemence will not like Sydney when Sydney angry.
But seriously.. STOP
So far Vehemence has super:
Strength
Speed
Toughness
Stamina
either Regeneration or matter creation (which seems more likely to me)
force fields
energy emanation (electricity at least)
morphing (growing)
and now mind affecting powers
That’s a Marry Sue suite of powers if there ever was one.
And Max and Sydney don’t? I mean, this is nothing new…
And let’s not forget Dabbler…One of the things I like in this comix is that several people seem to have a bunch of random super-powers, which makes it sort of fair when they fight with each other :p
Guys, chill down please. Yeah I agree that the pacing has been a bit off these past weeks, but give the man a break.
This is a big ass fighting scene with complicated powers, a lot of characters and a determination to keep things logical. If Vehemence were to just be defeated by a Max bamf moment it would be underwhelming, wouldn’t it? It’s almost over now, hold on. And go read some non-sequential webcomics to get a change of pace. I do and it makes the wait for the next page in sequential ones muh easier.
That being said, Dave, maybe you did bite of a bit more than you could chew, but I think you’ve realised that already. The only thing I would say is: you keep saying how this fight only seems interminable because of the twice-a-week updating webcomic format while in paper it would be a lot easier to go through. Well, ok, but this IS a twice-a-week updating webcomic. If your goal is to get this published and to have future readers approach it on paper first, then you have a point. But if you intend to keep it as it is, then you may want to reconsider the pacing for future action sequences. The re-read may be easier, but the first one remains a bit draggy. The first part of the story was also very slow paced, but all the gags took the weight away. With the necessarily higher drama levels here… well, it is getting a tad tiring.
Just my opinion. I know nothing about comic making online or onpaper. I’m just speaking as a reader. I personally don’t mind too much, but it looks like others do.
This was not mean to be here. Please reply to the re-posted comment below.
Being fair, five of those are compressed into the single skill of ‘magic use’. I just wish he struggled with ita little more. Some evidence that brute-forcing magic isn’t easy or without risk of backfire.
It is his first time using much of this, so not too concerned with outward signs just yet. Likely can’t even feel the strain unless it drags out longer.
streangth/speed/toughness/stamina, is one, body enhancement – 1
regeneration or matter creation, well… i have nothing to say about that one. – 2
force field.. what? he has a force field? he force blasted the anvil, but that’s not a force field… he has the anchor power however, so that’s 3 now.
lightning is the effect of him regenerating, so its hooked up under 2. – 2
growth… that’s again body enhancement. – 1
and “now” mind affecting aura… as if dabbler couldn’t do that. its already reveal that its mostly the same power(set).
lets sort it
1 – streangth/speed/toughness/stamina/growth.
2 – ability to recreate lost parts, which may result in additional ability (in this case electrisity)
3 – he can project the stored V energy in a few ways. aggro aura or force blast for example.
i have no idea where to sort anchor, or pant spawning. he shown the knowledge of magic, and that is not limited to be only used by the “gifted”, it may be that.
you called 9 powers, in result its 3 aspects of the same power, and possibly magic…
Uh.. the lightning isnt ‘hooked up to regeneration’ He did regeneration. THEN he did lightning. Stop trying to minimize the immense amount of powers he’s doing
i didn’t said “regenerate” said “recreate” which is much different.
and you can’t deny, that he didn’t had the lightning before.
…
you use your mechanical skills to make radio… does it mean that you have the power to receive radio waves?
i dont know how to say it, he did not make lighning, be he made something that allowed him to make lighning… i dont know how exactly it work, but it IS aftereffect of him making a replacement for the lost arm (and tooth… and eye)
You’re realllly into semantics arent you
I guess Sydney only has one power – orbs.
Seems to me someone could stand a Hvarti to go with that wine.
I don’t know why you’re all up in arms over V’s power list. It’s almost like you people don’t even read Dave’s commentary or responses to inquiries. He, himself, has said that Vehemence DOES NOT NORMALLY have access to these kinds of powers; however, V has never had this kind of vehemic energy stored in his battery before. It was a battle of supers, followed by him fighting supers, followed by him fighting Max and while he HAS been utilitizing that energy in his battle with Max the very act of fighting her has generated more (as is this new scheme of waking up the unconscious supers and making them fight one another with a sort of battle haze in their minds). Dave even said that V is probably strong-arming the vehemic energy into generating these new powers he doesn’t normally have at his disposal, which is causing him to expend a greater amount of vehemic energy. So, when it’s all said and done we, as readers, don’t really know what exactly V can do on a regular basis other than absorb energy of people fighting and potentially regenerate damage (though not likely to the extent he has so far).
Yeah, just because the author has commented about Vehemence’s powers doesn’t mean that it doesn’t suck.
I’d be personally more or less OK with an even longer list of abilities if they came from him being a learned mage who just didn’t have the juice to play with spells he has SERIOUSLY researched before now. But some of Dave’s comments suggest strongly that this isn’t the case. If I understand the jist of what Dave seems to be hinting at he just spontaneously sprouts new powers that are totally unrelated to the nature of violence, his similarity to Dabbler’s abilities, or the powers he has already shown (just made stronger).
For example. Pushing an aura of violence that encourages more violence from others, particularly those with will issues (unconscious), makes sense as it is not only violence related but similar to something Dabbler does who’s nature is already established as being similar to V’s. Yay!
On the other hand we have powers like “wizard unlock” or “Ka-Pants” which bears a resemblance to nothing he has done before reaching top power levels, has nothing to do with violence, is not comparable an innate power of Dabbler (she learned to use complex spells just like everybody else I’m sure) and would actually be very complex to accomplish. And he just made it up because he had all this power laying around. Huh??
Making a giant ball of energy and hurling it at his enemies or something similarly crude is what I would expect a relative greenhorn to accomplish PERFECTLY with his new found tank of gas. The wave of violence actually is fairly simple in addition to requiring no need to transform the energy into something else which is why I approve of it wholeheartedly.
Say we had a guy who his whole life only had very low end computers to work with and only used them for simple things. At one point he spent some time on his friends more powerful computer and it was so fast and fun to work with he went out online and learned to do some simple coding for web pages (like he made some colored text, a simple border and a picture for a background. Yay!). One day he wins a contest that rewards him with time and storage space on a super computer. He says, “I have never before had this much computing power. I will make a game!”. After three days he has made a one level fps that has all the elements you would expect from such a game and is fairly pretty to look at to boot. His friend is surprised and asks him how long he has been researching how to make a game in order to bang one together so well and so fast. The guy replies that he never has but he made that simple web page and just look at how fast and powerful this super computer is! His friend is puzzled but has to accept it for now because well, there it is and he’s playing it….
If I attach a pair of wings to your spine and wire it in to your brain but don’t add any birdie gray matter (I.E. the instincts/reflexes to fly) would you not only be able to fly but be able to do so PERFECTLY the first time out?
V never has any problems. He just shoves enough power at something and it works out perfectly. Not adequately. Not good enough to accomplish his goals. He dreams something up and he gets EXACTLY what he wanted on the first try. I would expect fumbling, oddball effects from his first tries (he’s strong enough at this point to be able to tank through a spell failure or two!) and since he had to force a lot of energy to make multiple attempts some sweat drops and a realization he better be careful with the experimentation until he has Maxi down and out because he’s burning right through his tanks highest levels.
Word from Dave is that it will make more sense at some point in the future (I think he meant by the end of the fight) and I look forward to that. (demon possession? something to do with the tattoos? a high priest to an Elder Being of some kind?) I certainly am not one of those that threatens to stop reading comics over this or that thing. Anything can be made to work with good enough writing later on and I am patient. One man is working very hard on this. (and by pointing these things out I actually think I am helping him ) Clearly he is doing fairly well or we not only wouldn’t have so many fans here but fans who care enough to have very long and occasionally heated debates.
Observer –
Think of it this way, using your analogy (and don’t forget that V seems to be a lot older than he looks): He has a hold of some tools that can pump out games really fast with just a little bit of basic coding experience to tweak it, but it uses up about 5 times the memory and 3 times the GPU cycles it would take to run that exact same game if it was coded efficiently.
You believe he has a tool that helps him achieve specific spell effects without specific knowledge of how that is normally achieved? And this tool needs tons of energy to help him skip this normally required step for creating non-innate spell like powers?
I have wondered about the source of those tattoo’s source.
Or the source of those tattoos even.
It depends on how magic works in this case. Sometimes, magic is something you must study and learn to make work, other times, like in EGS, you just have to have the power, and decide to use it.
I see V’s abilities as fitting with the second type.
Well, Gwen seems to have to learn despite having innate talent. Zephan has tons of mystical knowledge and first hand experience and I wouldn’t doubt we may yet see him pull something magical off at some point but he is not the go to guy for spells. When they needed a scan of Sydney who was right in the room he asked Gwen and then Dabbler but he never tried because he probably can’t.
So this universe seems to need both “talent” and training for most characters. I’m sure we will see some unique races and demons who partially get around this with some unique spell like abilities but so far my feel for this universe is that if you want to get something done magically that is not one of your innate tricks you need to work at it.
My feeling on V is that he is normally lacking the spark/talent or whatever but overcomes it by having an overwhelming mana compatible power source. How he overcomes the training part is yet to be seen. Demon possession (or the reverse) or connection to an Elder Being like being their high priest is popular with me right now.
dnd 3.5
wizards and sorcerers
an example of both types there
magic through learning and magic through innate ability
so grrlpowerverse may have both types of magic
So trying to make this gaming concept make some kind of sense in a living universe they give you comments like this:
“Sorcerers create magic the way a poet creates poems, with inborn talent honed by practice.”
PRACTICE. This alone would lead us right back to square one really.
“each sorcerer also acquires a much smaller number of spells, since they do not use spell books and cannot simply copy new spells from others’ writing.”
Sorcerers as I understand, and love, them are sort of the magical athlete to the wizards book worm. Where wizards have to find a book or study under someone who can explain it sorcerers simply have to get out there with there ball and bat and keep throwing and swinging till they connect and then work on getting the ball where they actually WANTED it.
Applying “innate” spell casters to a world meant to make some kind of sense just goes back to Practice. Where in a game you level up by any means necessary and then whamo you get new spells even if you leveled up by helping clean a sewer with a physical shovel (it was so Zen you achieved spells mystically maybe? XD) in a world with some kind of logic you wouldn’t automatically learn (studiously or like a magical athlete in the field) new spells perfectly by being pounded by or pounding on Maxima.
Its not the end of the world but it is more than a bit messy world building wise. For now. As the comic continues and we learn more that may change. I myself could come up with some reasons he might have such spell knowledge suddenly thrust upon him without working at it so I’m sure Dave can.
I’m not sure about V being in the second category, he does have command of Latin, he knows magical terminolgy(his reply to dablers sleep spell)
I believe V is a studied magic user, that has the innate ability to absorb violence energy..
He probably started as a brawler, and with age he learnt magic with time as a way to use the energy he started to acquire.
It’s not Mary Sue, when it’s the villain of the story who has to take on a team.
Seriously, how do you expect one villain to be a team threat if they’re not powerful?
I wholeheartedly agree with Sydney. Please, V, fuck off already. You’ve badly out-worn your welcome, and your “new-powers-every-panel” schtick is making it worse. It seems to me that he’s going for the ultimate power-up by trainwrecking the entire comic.
IMHO, V goes against what I thought was once Grrl Power’s fundamental premise; comic where the powers are solid and their use and fallout actually is logical. Now V’s powerset is getting close to “deus ex machinegun”. He’s not just besting the heroes, it’s getting precariously close to the point he’s besting the writer.
And in the end it seems that the only useful lesson to be learned here for Maxima to immediately and without mercy nuke anything that seems dangerous.
I keep hoping for a satisfying conclusion. Good luck!
The tragedy here is that for an arch-villain, V started off as a very very likeable one. Someone who’d be nice to see to scuffle with the heores time to time. But after this I wonder if I ever want to see him again.
Are you kidding? I’d totally like to see him again! I bet that when this is over they’ll have found a weak point or two of his…which means he’ll have to surprise us next time.
And that’s exactly the problem – I can’t bear any more surprises from him. His powerset growth trend is easily at the point where he can just pull of a “you only defeated an illusion of me” in a few panels.
Problem is, assuming he gets away somehow, if Max ever sees him again, she will blow his head off on sight. V won’t get a chance to power up next time.
The team will most likely go out to deal with problems in smaller units after this (which was a department wide shindig not a mission) so he can catch ARCies without Maxima on board.
He can also simply not show his face (disguise or hiding behind a building or something till his catspaw(s) have generated enough juice) to be blown off until it can take it.
In short he will have made himself a more cautious behind the scenes mastermind at the same time as he has probably shifted Maxima into a more aggressive mode which could bite her on the ass later.
Max is an extremely highly-rated speedster when she arranges her powers that way. She can get to wherever her teams are in a hurry if she needs to. And after this night a V sighting is a guaranteed ‘drop everything’ moment for Max.
Well first they have to sight him… (disguise and or hiding)
Then they blow the oh shit button and attempt to contact Max. I don’t know what her top speed is but even state of the art Jet fighters would take a while to get across the ocean (like at least an hour or so?). Add in the fact that she may be engaged in something considered fairly serious like, oh, the presidents daughter is being held out of phase of normal reality by a super villain or visiting dignitaries are buried under tons of rubble (*shrugs* or whatever distraction V came up with to be considered “worthy”)
Anythings possible when you are the one who gets to wait in the shadows and plan while your enemy has to stay visible comparatively.
Or Dave could just take the easy way out and team him with that guy she thought was dead.
Actually, he’s STILL not strong enough to actually hurt Maxima
If he were just a brick with increasing strength like Hulk, there’d be no problem. But now that he demonstrated Raise Dead Lite with Mind Control, one of the most broken powers anywhere, my pain treshold has been reached.
Next he’s probably using his power pool to spew confetti, increase his credit card’s limit, find his True Love and fix his grandmother’s car on the other side of continent.
A good power system is defined by its limitations, and V seems to have none whatsoever when it comes to spending his violence pool.
So the one use of power that is Perfectly in line with the whole vehemence/violence energy schtick is the drop that overflows the cup? Lets count it really: He’s getting enhanced physique the more violence is done around him… simple enough, he can regenerate when harmed and grows stronger from this… also pretty natural from being a violence fueled war machine. Then there’s a few magic spells, sticking to the ground? pretty basic magic trick in a few rpg’s and some shows ive seen. (Carpet of Adhesion anyone?).
Energy projection, making conventional and convenient low-value items appear? Also a pretty basic kind of trick in many magic genres. The most outlandish part is having him grow the nodules that project energy for him… But it’s ultimately just the fx part of a lightning aura style deal.
As observed he is Still not powerful enough to hurt Maxima when she goes turtle-mode, meaning that if maxima put it all into strength or energy blast? She could Still one-shot him if she went for the head (of course if she goes for all out blast, she probably wont have to limit the hit to just his head). In short, he’s able to pull a lot of little moves, and his raw strength right now is able to overpower maxima’s default spread, but he’s only That powerful because of the whole setup and Vnergy-smorgasboard he’s been nomming on all fight long, in short he’s dangerous but as a threat for the likes of Maxima and crew I think he’s just about right.
Yup.
Vehemence might not realize it, but Maxima is STILL capable of blowing his head off. The problem is that, in order to do so, she’d have to put alot of stats into her explosion skill, which she can’t afford right now.
If Vehemence let go for even a second right now, he’d be dead (asuming he can’t regenerade his head).
So really, they are at an impasse. Vehemence is slowly gaining the upper hand though
The key issue here for me is not how much power he has – it’s how many different ones he has and the way he keeps getting more without end in sight. In nearly consecutive panels we get:
Growth
Summon Pants
Anchor
Regeneration
(Absorbptive?) Armor
Lightning
Force Push
Raise Dead Lite
Mind Control Lite
Now that there’s another fight raging, nothing’s stopping him from getting ever more ridiculous ones to keep fueling the positive feedback loop. And that’s in addition to any Strength and Toughness boost he gets basically for free. It’s getting tiresome.
AND we’re already through FOUR rounds of Evil Gloating.
Then there’ the fact that Mind Control can trump any and every other super power in existence.
“Magic” is basically another word for Super Powers, so V being a magic user is just saying he can shit new tricks and powers without any logical limit unless such is specifically established.
And I have to stress, Max is only losing because she wasn’t ruthless and pragmatic enough. Would it make a good supers comic if it was just Max doing Orbital Nuke on every rogue that comes across? Because it’s really starting to seem the only viable alternative.
How about this: he has 3 powers total all with Magical SFX:
Vehemic energy absorption Area Of Effect radius of around 100 ft
Empathic Controlled aggression effect, boosts all stats slightly, x2 effect if unconscious
Solid Illusion Projection Area of Effect 2 hexes (he only affects those that attack _him_, are close, never throws or shoots at a ranged target. People outside the range “see” the effects that he edits to match a miss. Peggy’s eye shot parted his hair underneath the illusion, so he edited in damage. )
This last one includes the growth, pants, regeneration, strength, resistance, Force Push and even the Lightning aura. I think the block of the sleep spell could even be related as the illusion tricked Dabbler into mis-targeting. He will be revealed to be a skinny white teenager, say around 16. The more violence available to him allows him to expand the radius and strengthen the belief effect –right now Max is choking herself to death.
How about this: V doesn’t get any more ridiculous than he already is, his lines reach red and he goes out in a blaze of glory, never to return.
I was one of the first to want him to be a mage. DaveB seems to not want him being a mage. Instead Dave’s comments are suggesting he just has so much power he can force magical effects and make them work perfectly on the first try. Magic that is completely based on power with no learning/experience/special artifact/whatever required to make work CORRECTLY is a type of magic that is very annoying to read about. It means he should just come up with the thought “defeat everybody” and pump enough power into it while chanting “Magic do what you will. Magic do what you will” over and over like Schmendrick the Magician. (who was at least amusing because his magic saved him on its own but because he didn’t understand it usually did so in a bizarre, uncomfortable, awkward or otherwise upsetting way. XD )
Him making a fireball without learning how would have been annoying. Him doing some complex effect like unlock everything or make pants (illusion or otherwise) is super annoying without some kind of learning or trial and error.
If it turns out that he is in fact a learned mage then Dave’s comments are not phrased well or misleading on purpose.
Schezuan, very accurate list, though you forgot a couple of powers he has shown
Wizard Open Everything power
Increased Superstrength
Increased Invulnerability
Increased Superspeed
Strength, Toughness and Speed are basic brawler powers that are established immediately like is his ability to use vehemic energy to augment those. My problem is his “magic” use which gives him seemingly limitless ways to spend his vehemic energy.
The local magic system really needs better outlining beyond power source, now every bit of magic that V and Dabbler pull of seem quite random. V’s use of magic is so off-the-wall that even genius magic user like Dabbler doesn’t seem to have any idea what he is and isn’t capable of.
About Remote Houdini, you are spot on.
I meant increased strength/invuln/speed as in ‘stronger than Maxima, penultimate plus’ level. Rather than his base ‘paragon level’
If those were his only 3 powers from violence though, even if massively more than Maxima’s power level, I don’t think anyone at all would have a problem :)
This isn’t a normal game-system type set-up though. It’s basically been stated that V is probably the only human like this anywhere- and you need someone who’s able to go toe-to-toe with Max (an almost equally broken character).
Vehemence is basically the Darkseid-to-Superman thing here, I think.
Honestly, if he shows his face again after this, I’m out. He’s outlived his welcome for not just me, but quite a few people. He has been the cause of a 33 week fight. Out of 52 in a year. He has made a fight that lasts nearly a year, and we’re not even done yet, and that’s the only way he could be her Darkseid. For someone that finds the fight scenes infinitely less interesting than the everyday stuff that they were doing before, it’s almost like the comic I fell in love with has taken a six month break and was replaced by an actiony punch up version of itself. If he does this again, I’m bailing on it.
I should really make a tumblr for people to check before they come to the comic at this point: “ISVEHEMENCEONTHEPAGE.tumblr.com”. People can check it and if the answer is yes they can wait until he’s not and take him all at once in a manageable chunk of reading.
One of the most dangerous things to do with a character anywhere is the whole “New powers as the plot demands” trope.
It’s the reason Superman underwent a major retcon.
He used to be able to shapeshift, blow up entire solar systems by sneezing, grow stronger from blue KRYPTONITE, and a bunch of other things just by saying “SUPER” before doing it.
Finally, DC settled on his “normal” powerset. Flight, Heat vision, X-ray vision, (both of which are plausible but unlikely in living beings), nigh-invulnerability to non-kryptonite, non-magic weapons,super-strength and his arctic super-breath. DC temporarily transmuted Superman into an energy being so he had to re-learn his powers, but that quickly got old and he got changed back.
Vehemence, on his first appearance, has already crossed the “new powers as the plot demands” threshold. Granted, it’s been somewhat believable because he’s trying out things that he’s never been able to power before, but it’s quickly reaching the point where his death will be “and there was much rejoicing.”
It would have been better for the story had Vehemence only assisted Arcswat in apprehending Vekter and Opal (who were both committing major felonies), and surrendered, and then much later, after learning his powers, and “conveniently stumbling upon” Arcswat fighting everything from supers to rioters then ultimately been revealed as the primary antagonist behind all the attacks.
At that point, it would be ultimately believable that he’d be able to pull off his “powers as the plot demands” flawlessly like he is because he would have had time to PRACTICE WITH THEM! And Dave wouldn’t have to worry about him being a recurring villain because he’d been in the background a LONG time, and a fight-to-the-death could be finalized in a single encounter.
Instead, Vehemence has effectively painted the plot into a corner. We KNOW Maxima survives this because this is a flashback. This kills all the dramatic tension that Vehemence is trying to generate, by threatening to kill her. So now we have a conundrum where we’re trying to find an acceptable vehicle by which Max and Vehemence both survive the encounter in an acceptable fashion. Either Max and Sidney somehow find a way to subdue this Marty Sue juggernaut, or he grows more bored than the audience is right now and leaves, after immobilizing Maxima so she can’t pursue. Or worse yet, some outside influence makes it all moot by neutralizing everyone.
None of these outcomes would be very fulfilling, and yes, if both Vehemence and Max somehow escape this encounter, Max WILL go for a headshot the next time she sees him because he’s officially designated himself armed and dangerous, and has made a lethal threat on a duly appointed law enforcement officer in the line of duty.
If Vehemence ever shows up again without already being as strong as he is now (and with him being a capacitor of power, it’s likely he loses power over time), he actually IS dead.
After this fight, Maxima will know how to stop him before he gets to strong, and will not hesitate to do so.
So at most, he’s probably going to be a force on the background after this. A driving force for the bad guys
God I hope not, there were many potentially interesting archvillains in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1189 and I’d be sorely disappointed if V kept stealing time from them.
V had his opportunity. Now it’s time to say sweet goodbye. As for V being Max’s Darkseid – I don’t really want to see him again before we’ve gone through the other guys we got a glimpse, and by then it will, uh, 2025?
Those are pictures. You can’t asume someone is interesting because a single frame picture looks cool.
Except for Deus, and now Vehemence, we know NOTHING about those pictures. They don’t even have a name
“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”
– Anton Chekhov
The Trope is Chekhov’s Gun, and I’m absolutely positive that DaveB is aware of the trope. Beyond that, the Mummy Guy pictured is already hinted to be Maxima’s old nemesis.
The next archvillain can be moderately bland and still be more interesting than more of V. They already made a good first impression, so it’d be waste to not show them in character.
DaveB has already thrown several tropes upside down, subverted, and even lampshaded. He’s not just going to blindly follow Chekhov’s gun
It’s a trope and an established device for a good reason. Subverting that invites another trope, What Happened To The Mouse, which has usually negative effect to the story.
That it is an actual sneak peek to rogues’ gallery is hinted by the fact that V was the first villain in the grid, and alas, he was the first of them to make an appearance in force.
We know that #3 is Dabbler’s nemesis
We know that #4 is -probably- the super who fought Maxima to a standstill, and was thought to be dead. Who would have been a better idea for this sort of fight than Vehemence, since it was a least foreshadowed.
#5 feels a lot like ‘The Light’ from Young Justice to be honest, at least from that one picture.
After reading all the replies and giving this some more thought, if you don’t like the Darkseid analogy, how about comparing him to Parasite instead?
Someone who has a lot of potential but needs time to and opportunity to build it up. And at least in the DCAU, he was less interested in complex schemes or wild plots, and more about simple pleasures.
The team won’t be sent out in its entirety all the time. This was a special occasion after a press conference not a mission. Maxima may be busy. He used the information had on hand to take this chance at glory and now that he has new information the next time will be different. Plus whatever reveals about why he can do so damn much that Dave has promised me if I hang in there. I’m hanging!
I don’t think Mind Control should be listed here, actually.
Yes, he put some kind of fog of aggression into their minds when waking them up. But that’s where it seems to stop. From the looks of it, he has no further control over them at all.
So, this was more or less just a one time “Let loose the hounds of war”-kind of spell and that’s it.
That is Mind Control of the emotional type, just like Dabbler’s Lust Aura is. Not a complete puppet-like physical or thought-level control, but mind control regardless. It’d be ridiculous to say it’s not when V’s making friends fight with each other with a clear intent to hurt, maybe even to kill.
Dabbler’s lust aura isnt mind control though. They’re quite capable of resisting it, and Maxima doesnt get lust-ed from it – she got angry about it. Otherwise every time Dabbler was in a battle all she’d have to do is what vehemence is doing right now, and everyone would start having sex with each other whether they wanted to or not.
Also Anvil was able to gibbs smack Dabbler when she did it during the press interview.
That is mind control, power that directly influences the minds of others. There are of course different degrees of control and ways to manipulate the victim; in my book Dabbler’s and V’s abilities solidly fall within that category. At the intensity she used to prank, sure, they were still largely capable of individual thought and action but affected regardless. Maxima was angry partially because she was lusted. Jabberwocky got too personal with uncharged Dabbler, and look what happened to her. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1432
Dabbler hinted she could do the same as V: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1536
I’d settle for manipulation in this case. Since mind control in my book includes actual control. Which V simply hasn’t. At least as far as we know by now.
If violence and anger can boost his strength, maybe some of that old hippy flower power love and peace can weaken him…
Calling Capt Trips.
Indeed!
But… that would be more or less Dabbler’s domain and she didn’t even try. She must know it wouldn’t work.
Peace yes if it could be distilled and pumped into or at him some how. Love no. Love is not the opposite of violence. Its more like a complimenting energy. Like how wind fans the flames it might even make him strong if also make him go in a different “direction”.
True death or ultimate Order might be a potential opposite to violence. Peace of the grave right? Violence is things moving about full of energy right? Some takes on Death and or Order would at best be the cessation of all change. (yes I know Death can also go the “transformation or transition” route but that’s not the aspect I’m doing here)
I think Sydney is calling him a cheater because she’s figured out, (as we had long ago) that Vehemence has an infinite feedback power-up loop going. Whereas before, he had to sucker other people into being violent of their own free will to power him up, he can now force people into being violent and so has an unending and escalating power source, at least until everyone in range kills each other. Unfortunately, I cannot see a resolution to this storyline now that isn’t going to suck. I hope DaveB proves me wrong.
In the real world, infinite positive feedback mechanisms quickly lead to a catastrophic end. Bright flash, loud noise, little bits-O-V in the air. It would be funny if one final nose boop turned V into Mr Creosote from Meaning Of Life.
Similar to the “when his tank reaches full V will burst explosively” theory?
Your explanation makes me think of Galloping Gertie, a bridge that endured a positive feedback loop powered by the wind until the vibrations were so large that the bridge was torn apart.
From the looks of it, one could knock the affected people out again. And they wouldn’t rise once more unless he was using the power again.
Which would probably come down to a heavily loss-making course of action energy-wise if they were working quick enough.
So, less good a plan than one might think at first as soon as your opponent knows what to look for.
I think with all this violence V will just go level red and shut off like overheated mech.
If Sydney Hit V with the PPO it might knock Max loose and distract him enough that Max could deal with him better.
I like it but hope now a FUN and fast solution by Sydney so we can stop this fight. and go on
As interesting as today’s comic is, I found the comments just below it to be the most interesting, when David starts rambling, it always proves entertaining.
Curling vs. Rugby… Now THERE is a sports matchup I would watch the HELL out of!
And now I can’t help but imagine the rugby players try to carry the ball over a field of ice while the curling players are cutting them down with well placed stones slidden at their legs.
Slidden?
I like it.
I have a new word now.
Thanks.
I wasn’t completely sure so I checked before posting. And it is the correct form for slide in this case.
Wasn’t there a parody skit where they combined Golf with Football?
“Here’s the tee off. It’s a nice line drive down the fairway… Oh and there’s the rush tackling him into the sand trap. That’s got to hurt”
Anyone got a link to that? Sounds like something I’d love to check out!
Its hard to be sure but are V’s tattoos a little less orange the past couple of strips?
Indeed so. And they’re also getting shorter. Check out the previous page’s Panel 7.
Always looked gold to me?
Maybe in boosting everyone to conciousness and making them aggressive theyre now running off his power too and draining it?
That would defeat the entire point. But it’s possible that it cost him alot of power to do this, and it would still take awhile to get that back, and only after that would he actually start to gain power from the move
Yeah, that’s my theory. Normally when he spends power he gets it back because he’s spending it to do something violent. Waking everyone up and de-cuffing them took a lot of power, and he only gets it back when they start fighting. If someone can de-escalate things Maxima might be able to throw him off.
Where are people actually seeing in the comic that he’s weakening at all? I know it can’t be wishful thinking,because most of the people saying it are Vehemence fans. Is it to try to make him seem less Marty-Stu-ish/OP’ed?
Seriously, I’d like to know. Thanks.
Nowhere, we’re just making educated guesses, trying to understand how his powers work.
For example, we know (unless there’s a big twist coming up and everything he said was a lie. I doubt that) that he feeds on violence. It’s what makes him stronger. In essence, it fuels his powers.
We also know that, after saying he had power to spare, he did a whole bunch of crazy things, like grow, and ancher himself to the ground. Basicly magic. So we can asume he uses his stored violence power as ‘mana’ for magic.
We can asume that waking everyone and inducing blind rage in them must have cost alot of power (mana), because it’s such a big effect. Conventional RPG rules indicate that, the more a spell does, the more it costs
Yes, but where (in the comic itself) has it looked at all like Vehemence has weakened at all from all the powers and abilities and sheer strength/invulnerability that he’s been throwing around for the past 4 months? I understand you saying that you are theorizing he’s weakening, but he doesnt seem to be. He doesnt even do so much as grunt, his ‘tattoos’ arent reverting to earlier stages of colors, he’s monologuing like he might as well be having a tea party as killing the supposedly most powerful super on the planet with one hand. You might just be making educated guesses, but I’ve read a bunch of people who are V fans who seem to be bending over backwards to say ‘look, he is weakening, he’s not overpowered’ (then in the very next comment says ‘he needs to be overpowered in order to beat all of Arcswat!’)
Nowhere, like I said. This is all speculation, based on the things we think we know.
But if we asume that his bigger form is basicly a spell, than that makes perfect sense. He has used his power (mana) to get bigger, and as strong as he is now. And instead of there being a direct correlation between how much power he gathered, and how strong he is, he is instead constantly burning power to maintain this form.
Now, he wouldn’t have done it if it was actually going to drain him quickly, so presumably he could keep this up for a long time, but he’d need another big power injection to get strong enough to actually crush Maxima. So that’s why he is spending a large portion of his mana pool (and thus reducing the time he can stay this big) to instigate more power. Basicly he’s investing mana to gain more mana over time, but untill that pays off, he’s weaker (has less mana).
in other words, he’s attempting to power up again. time for Sydney to give the wake-ees a nap so he can’t.
It took me a second, but it seems Hiro is pulling a USPS on Stalwarts package.
Priority Mail indeed.
GAAAH! Reposting this because for some reason i popped up as a reply to myself the first time around… Now it’s easier.
Guys, chill down please. Yeah I agree that the pacing has been a bit off these past weeks, but give the man a break.
This is a big ass fighting scene with complicated powers, a lot of characters and a determination to keep things logical. If Vehemence were to just be defeated by a Max bamf moment it would be underwhelming, wouldn’t it? It’s almost over now, hold on. And go read some non-sequential webcomics to get a change of pace. I do and it makes the wait for the next page in sequential ones muh easier.
That being said, Dave, maybe you did bite of a bit more than you could chew, but I think you’ve realised that already. The only thing I would say is: you keep saying how this fight only seems interminable because of the twice-a-week updating webcomic format while in paper it would be a lot easier to go through. Well, ok, but this IS a twice-a-week updating webcomic. If your goal is to get this published and to have future readers approach it on paper first, then you have a point. But if you intend to keep it as it is, then you may want to reconsider the pacing for future action sequences. The re-read may be easier, but the first one remains a bit draggy. The first part of the story was also very slow paced, but all the gags took the weight away. With the necessarily higher drama levels here… well, it is getting a tad tiring.
Just my opinion. I know nothing about comic making online or onpaper. I’m just speaking as a reader. I personally don’t mind too much, but it looks like others do.
You cant do such thing against V. It’s too violent.
Shit. Answer didn’t link. (comment-277395)
Another cliffhanger~!
*keeps on holding breath*
*passes out*
I do like that fist girl’s power though. Ultra cool. She might even be able to pick locks with it.
Fist Girl reminds me of Southpaw from She-Hulk comics.
It looks like the armor and weapon pieces Susuke creates around himself in Naruto Shippuuden.
What they need now is…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_MYe_bBrhw
Subdue everybody with her volcano vomit?
Two interesting things about this page.
1. Only the people who were unconscious seem affected by the violence hype, Sydney and Dabbler seem immune.
2. The affected people seem a little… dorky? They’re fighting each other with no apparent care fr friend or foe but there’s no rage, instead they make silly jokes and generally act like a bunch of 10 year olds on sugar high, if 10 year olds on sugar high had superpowers and murderous intentions. Is that Vehemence’s *coughadorablecough* nerdy side shining through them while he’s busy being evil villain of DOOM?
Yea, there doesn’t seem to be any violent intent here.
Sure the explosions are still violent, but without intent, there’s probably going to be less energy for Vehemence to gain
Actually the violence after waking up doesn’t surprise me. Children often come out of anesthesia in an uncontrollable rage, and adults tend to be very irritable when they first wake up. Here you have a bunch of folks who were knocked out and have terrible headaches being woken up by a blast of vehemic energy. No mind control just uncontrollable rage from being woken up but not having their senses about them.
Yea, but Hiro and Stalwart are highly trained soldiers. Not children.
And they’re not even serieusly pissed at eachother. Hiro is making a pun based on what Stawart says (spaceshuttle, Apollo launching the shuttle). But they are still fighting eachother. That goes directly against all training
I guess in this world unconscious people don’t get a will save also his power wakes them up somehow after they fail it…
They are fighting on automatic sort of? Isn’t quipping and snarking at each other a basic ability of supers with any kind of fighting experience? Its dorky cause they aren’t quite with it and so aren’t putting their full intellect and will into making the best trash talking lines they can? LOL its nice to theorize on something silly given all the more serious discussions of late.
What I think could happen:
Sidney is drawing all the aggressive attention towards Vehemence. All the bad and good guys are starting fighting Vehemence, who is getting stronger, but can’t focus his attention at Maxima, since he has to fight off a bunch off very angry superheroes and -villains.
Question is: How? I think there are some hilarious possibilities for Sidney (especially for her), like using her lighthook like a whip and then shouting: “There is the bad guy who betrayed you all!”, pointing at Vehemence. In the end all this aggression and fighting should overload the villain, and sadly the point “you can solve all with violence” is taken again.
Or the solution is different…
That would actually be a very interesting scenario
Um no. Vehemence would LIKE that. She needs to think of something else.
Actually, I don’t think he would. Despite assertions to the contrary, Vehemance is not invulnerable. He takes damage, just not a lot and he gets over it quickly. But all the gang rush would have to do is jar him free from Maxi, and it’s game over. Either she blows his head off, or he’s forced into a quicker getaway than previously planned.
Thing is he’d still have to defend himself. So it’d be either release his grip on Maxima (at which point she wouldn’t even stop to check who was nearby, she’d just blow up him, and unlucky enough to be nearby), or let everyone wail on him, which would distract him enough to probably have the same effect.
Remember, dispite Vehemence not realizing it, the only thing stopping Maxima from blowing him up is that fact she’d have to draw power from her defences to do so, at which point Vehemence can kill her. If he let go, he’d be dead
so my guess is some variant of absorb shield tied to something like magic from mutents and masterminds
Next time on Grrlpower: How Sydney gets the nickname Big Guns
Can you really complain when a villian decides not to play fair. It’s a surprise he was fighting as honorable as he was so far. Especially considering the heroes were the first to play dirty.
Noones complaining that he doesn’t play fair, the complaints are that he just seems to keep pulling new powers out of his hat, and is starting to feel like a Deus Ex Machinegun
That was more a comment at Sydney who seems peeved that Vehemence is cheating. I mean come on he’s a bad guy. Technically this whole fight was one big cheat from him.
I definitely think she needs to give him a peer with truesight. He may have some interesting stuff going on.
Vehemence is a bad guy? But I thought he’s a gentleman brawler misunderstood nice guy affable villain who just likes to fight potential trainer hired by Ariana, according to V fans. You know. Despite him saying flat out that as threats go, he is the omega, the dragon, the 10, blah blah.
I’m shocked. Shocked I say. Shocked.
Gentleman brawler I can maybe understand because all he can do is hit things. The rest of his abilities are passive..well were passive what with the metal arm. Secret trainer?! No offense but that’s ridiculous. Regardless of how much charisma he has I refuse to believe Arianna or Arc would put people in danger like that. Say what you want about the staged bank robbery that shit was controlled and two bank robbers are nothing compared to what 20-30 super villians.
Well, those were the theories, mostly wishful thinking, that people have tossed around to somehow make V such a swell guy. All summed up nicely in a shocking (heh) package.
Which, by the way, you should be shocked! ‘Cause he cheated!
Well, I’d compare it to the Safe/Euclid/Keter ratings of the SCP Foundation. In their classification schema, a “Safe” item is not one that isn’t dangerous, but rather one that is easily contained- one such “safe” SCP object is a telephone that constantly rings, and if you pick it up and listen to it, you are sucked into it and presumably tortured by the horrible noises that come out of the speaker. Can it condemn you to a eternal torment? Yes. But all you need to do to contain it is not pick up the phone, so it’s safe.
Vehemence, in that way, is actually a fairly “Safe” villain, despite being so powerful. He lacks much in the way of malevolent intent, and tends to be fairly rational (even if the basis for his rationality starts and ends with “I like tasty violence”). In addition, most of his power is inaccessible unless he’s around a large amount of violence- thus, all you need to do is keep him away from super fights and he won’t be hurting anyone.
This doesn’t make him any less of an “Omega 10” threat, it just means that he’s a nuke that you need to work hard to set off.
I have a feeling sydney figured out that he is boosting his powers by causing violence, because he’s seriously tapping into his energy pool, so he’s trying to replenish it.
My guess is that she will turn on her shield, go to him and start yelling an unending stream of swearwords at him, either distracting him allowing for Maxima to launch him somewhere or making everyone start sniggering and giggling so they stop fighting.
If you aren’t cheating in this game you aren’t winning. Remember kinder Winning = surviving with full use of your body and no parts of it missing.
2 more pages
Kind of late with that railgun.
The moral of the story? Don’t be kind to people who assault police officers.
Heh, Dabbler pulled out the Coil gun and then recoiled when the Gloves came ON.
The only important question on my mind looking at this page, how in the hell does Dabbler get those jeans on?
Magic
They’re illusions, remember?
Nope, those are the real deal. Remember when she transformed, her clothes stayed the same.
@Tassit, got to be easier to get tight jeans on when you can pull up on the front, back, and both sides at the same time. :D
@Anifreak: nah, I’m pretty sure they’re illusions, just like when Sydney saw thru her mundane human clothes (snerk…) at her interview, Dabbler was *really* wearing a pink tank-top and pink Daisy-Dukes, with the Bustier and pants being the illusion. and when she was fighting Heavenly Sword and transformed into her “Battle Form”, why would Sydney even make the comment about her clothes NOT transforming if she was wearing jeans? Especially after THIS scene where she’s being introduced to the Team. thus confirming that those jeans are indeed illusions…
I’m sure she’d demonstrate if you asked nice…
I love Dabbler. Aside from all her unique personality quirks and skillsets that make her a joy to watch in the comic, her attitude in the first panel is priceless. A girl can really get behind that sort of aggressive combat thinking…”let’s see him regenerate his brain stem.” Amaaaazing.
Jesus, K, don’t you know how much that stings?
He does have parts that don’t grow back. Fortunately he doesnt do his higher thinking with his brain, apparently :)
I am wondering what Heavenly Sword is doing in panel 6. Did ARCSWAT put gloves and/or tape on her hands to try and block her powers?
So who thinks Dabblers little Gauss cannon would have worked? It’s got to be moving the slug at insane speeds to shoot things out of orbit. I suspected that if Maxima popped V’s grey matter, he wouldn’t have been able to regenerate that, and it looks like Dabbler had the same idea. I wonder if she has any other toys that might work well for this situation.
I don’t, because This Isn’t That Kind Of Comic. People who want Vehemence to die brutally are entitled to that opinion, though I doubt it would be as satisfying as they think. Arc-SWAT successfully and brutally and deliberately killing a villain, setting that actual precedent, seems like it would mark a shift in tone for the comic as a whole.
Well, its seems the author has some interest in keeping things mildly logical and cops/agents would kill him by now.
She said that was one of the more likely options for criminals coming up against her.
She is a soldier so we will probably get a back ground story at some point involving those she or Peggy had to kill in combat.
She blew his arm off with a bit of bone sticking out as a warning. That’s a fairly brutal warning. (what she was warning him about was killing him brutally and deliberately).
She seems to like to make statements meant to make future villains knees rattle. Killing him after a bunch of cold warnings would do that. Not just because she killed him but because she gave him a bunch of warnings first, letting him power up to crazy levels, and then offed him. Much scarier than getting him right away or seemingly by luck. It looks very much like he got three warnings and then he’s out! That broadcasts authority and duty not just some super thug who didn’t like what V stood for and decided to smack him down.
There is so much foreshadowing leading towards her popping him, or somebody in the future, now that to me it already feels like the tone of the comic has shifted significantly in that direction. (its already a violent and bloody comic with burst eyes and bones sticking out of blown arms… )
People have been suggesting that idea for a while, and, along with any uber blast or projectile suggested, I agree it likely would’ve worked. Tis why I think instead of a hard counter by V (which would definitely entertain me for none of the right reasons), Dabbler gets rudely interupted before she could test her ‘theory’ on him. :p
Someday, people might get their wish.
Looking more and more likely it’ll be Death Toll who takes V down.
The aura probably woke him up too, and even if he hasn’t shaken it off with his own power, he may still be playing defensive because of how his power works.
He can just grab V’s arm, and counter the electricity, freeing Maxima to boom headshot him. Though I think Dave said V will be a recurring villain? So I guess he’ll be incapacitated somehow by Death Toll’s counter.
FWTDT’s powers only seem to work when you actually attack HIM though.
Vehemence is to smart for that
He’s been tricked into taking a swing at Anvil before. Maybe Sydney will get his attention, then kick up a dust cloud and get him to come at her through the guy with the Nemesis power.
Normally, but he’s been getting more supervillain by the page. I think the Vehmic energy is going to his head. He’s been tricked into punching Anvil before, I could see him getting tricked into punching Death Toll.
I suppose all Sydney would have to do is use the lighthook to forcefully throw DT at V. If DT were to cannon into V at high speed that might be enough of an impact to trigger DT’s powers and drain V of his energy via direct contact, much as he did with Anvil.