Grrl Power #277 – Aura you having chowdah at the cah pahk?
Sydney confirms her suspicious on this page as well as discovering a new power in a rather nonchalant manner. Presumably she’ll get excited about this later. Does this vision mode detect all magic or just auras? She’ll need to experiment with that at another time. I wanted to have her cycling through other visions modes as I had some other jokes lined up but at this point I’m cutting everything that doesn’t move the fight forward. Still, ideally I would have liked to have her fumble around a bit before she happened on exactly the thing she needed.
I would have liked to 3D map the aura onto the battlefield, make it contour to the ground, but that’s not really a tech I posses in my drawing programs. Also the aura itself took much longer to draw than I would have guessed. The fight in the middle panel has a few bits I especially like, I’ll probably post it in an enlarged format on the DA page later today. Edit: Here it is. Lots easier to see the detail in this version. Edit 2: I’ve also posted the raw aura here, which makes it way easier to see all the stuff I hid in it, if that’s a thing you like.
Thursday is Xmas, but I’ll be posting a page anyway. I expect people will be otherwise occupied for most of the day, and honestly a day or two off wouldn’t kill me either, but I don’t want to hold up the fight at all, so check in when you get a chance. Also, thanks to everyone who used the Amazon referral link to do your shopping, it definitely helps to defray my own Xmas shopping costs.
Speaking of moving the fight along, of the next 4 pages, three are doubles and the single has 14 panels on it, which is why I haven’t been able to update the vote incentive. I appreciate everyone who keeps clicking on it even though it’s well beyond stale by now.
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.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
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.
Another good page though I am soooooo saddened to see you dropped out vision change panels and jokes to cater to the rather admittedly vocal minority. I for one love the normal pacing of your comic, I mean why the heck is everyone so desperately wanting Day 1 to end when each page and panel has been so enjoyable, never could understand why the time progression of a fictional comic setting is so important to some folks. Hell for me let the fight last another year if it takes it, I just do not wanna miss any of the fun panels you could draw and read the jokes you would write all in the name of hurrying up the pace of a fictional setting.
PS Dave, enjoy your Christmas man, I appreciate your intent to keep the fans happy but do not sacrifice your family holiday to fan service we can wait a day or two for the update.
I would be willing to wait a few updates to see the vision change gag added back into this update.
I haven’t noticed a change, and I still see the vision change panels, even after a refresh w/o cache.
What change do you see?
He’s referring to the additional vision gags Dave was going to add in according to his blog under the comic but decided to skip in order to get this fight over with sooner.
Sounds like something that could be added as an additional page in a later print volume :-)
If one of those alternate vision modes is ‘make all clothing invisible’, them I’m all for it.
(I’m sorry, Math is awake again and his pervy-ness aura is affecting me)
Math has no such power, that’s your own unadulterated pervitude >.>
It’s not Day 1 that we want to end. Just the Vehemence fight. There were no jokes during the Vehemence fight aside from the pants one.
Playing roadrunner with Anvil was not a joke? That one alone had me laughing for several minutes aloud when I first got it…
Not feeling like arguing about my intense dislike for Vehemence on this comic today, considering how awesome today’s page was. But yeah – I guess that was a joke. More like a one panel pun on words. But you must be easily amused if you were laughing for several minutes over that :). Or maybe I just dislike Vehemence so much it makes things that are normally funny just meh. Except ka-pants. Because ka-pants was hilarious – especially the ‘Sulu-esque’ “Oh myyyy.” The Anvil thing? It wasnt….. well…. as funny as every single funny page leading up to the Vehemence fight though.
I want to see more of Sydney flailing around like a wombat on crack or giving everyone migraines.:) That being said, this page was awesome though and the first sign where I think they’re actually going to come up with something that Vehemence just doesnt counter somehow. Because Sydney already thought of something, and must have read DaveB’s notes or the comment board or something then said ‘nah, that’s not gonna work’ then thought of something else that’s better that will work. :) The last time she did the ‘hmm’ thing, everyone thought she was coming up with the win then, but it wound up being just using the lighthook to help a little and give Maxima a chance to blow off V’s arm. This time it feels like she’s going to have an actual plan with effective results.
Not arguing either, guess we are both easily amused, just by different things. I considered the ka-pants stuff worthy of a slight grin at most. Maybe because I have followed The Wotch for a long time, and the ka-effects are pretty common there. I’m looking forward to Sydney’s weirdness too, but the roadrunner page was so good that I’m willing to forgive Dave for a lot of jokeless pages, while he does whatever he feels need to be done for the story to continue. Good memories, and multiple layers in that “pun”. You think you get it, it’s easy to recognize the roadrunner sound. And then you read in comments that it was ANVIL she dropped… Not going to dissect it further, I don’t want to ruin future archive dives for me too much.
I swear to god this joke didn’t occur to me until I was just about to start inking the previous version of this page, prompting the scrambling redraw. Once I’d thought of it there was no way I couldn’t use it since the setup was perfect.
If this wasn’t planned, just afterthought after the page was almost done, it was pure genius.
Yeah. I guess the road runner pun is funny to people who like Frasier, while Sydney Wack-a-thon is funny to people who like … I don’t know.. Simpsons or South Park.
For me, stuff like this is funny…
https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/264/b/1/frozen_by_davebarrack-d800dxx.jpg
https://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/185/f/1/demon_stuff_by_davebarrack-d7p6wl7.jpg
Doesnt require riddles to ferret out the funny. It’s just funny because it’s funny :)
Not all jokes are home runs but we need to actually see them to determine if they are giggle worthy in the first place, which was my comments point in the rirst place. All of us have differing sensitivity on our funny bones but lets be honest here I for one believe that if even the most simplistic jokes can get a smile on my face as opposed to being so analytical that I rarely laugh at much in life, I would prefer to be the far happier laughing idiot my friend.
this is a web comic about super powers. so obviously there is a super fight.
to me, super fight is not about exploits and interaction of the powers involved.
and so far that’s what was happening.
we have seen how one powers counter another.
we have seen how the “powerless” have been still useful in the super fight
we have seen 2 most powerful supers known fight.
we have seen some characters do more than you would expect (darkning, tentacle block, laughing toll…)
and if you add jokes and comedy to it its all the better.
what is a super fight to you? what is missing, and whats overdone? would you read a page, with someone completely different, but with the same powerset as v?
WOULD YOU BE SATISFIED, IF HE DIDN’T SHOW ALL HE HAS?!
WOULD YOU BE SATISFIED, IF HE FALLEN AFTER A FEW HITS?!
well, at least you weren’t too negative on this one.
also, as for jokes.
-light saber
-anvil drop
-deus ex maxima?
-tumble weed
-“also, apple”
-sesame street
and that’s just ones i picked up. so don’t say there were no jokes.
Anvil drop and deus ex maxima are, at best, puns. Mild ones.
‘Also, apple’ is just… well that’s not a joke. It’s just… malum is latin for not only violence, but also for apple. I guess it’s funny in a ‘oh yeah, it is, isnt it’ sort of way, but not funny in a ‘haha’ way.
Okay, the Lightsaber thing and the tumbleweed were good. I forgot those ones, my bad.
Maybe I should restate though – there have been very FEW jokes. Especially compared to the funny thing each page before V showed his stupid bald fedorka covered head.
For me:
The Anvil thing was a good joke because it had lots of layers to it. It was just good fun because Sydney was making something happen and that something was V being surprised and even hurt a very little leading to his next mistake (and for a while there LAST one… ). It was a verbal pun presented visually which took a second for some to parse. It tied into the old looney toons where long conflicts could actually be fun to watch (sadly this was nothing like that but could have been if there had been more gags like the vision thing today which didn’t happen :( ). It was like one of those moves in old Scrabble where you put down a single letter only worth one point by itself but end up with a twelve point score off of it. A sweet if simple move.
Ka-Pants, on the other hand actually reminded me of everything that was starting to go wrong (or seemed to be going wrong with it if Dave’s right and later developments will square me with V. *shrug* ) with watching the Vehemence fight and so while I recognized the humor it mostly annoyed me. Though I did give Dave kudo’s for the Wotch reference.
So it kind of amuses me that you enjoyed the joke which, from my point of view, is a symbol of everything that is bothering you and are meh on the joke which was pure Sydney goodness. Not saying you’re “wrong” (as everyone is prone to do on these things) or anything. Humor is all in the eye of the beholder of course.
Different strokes for different folks.
The reason I didnt find ‘apple’ funny was not because of how Sydney delivered it, but rather how Vehemence reacted to it. “Yes Miss Scoville, it also means apple.”
When Sydney ‘added’ to Maxima’s boss comment during the demonstration, that was hilarious because it was frustrating to Maxima. Vehemence just glossed over it so it just was a non-joke joke if there’s no reaction to it.
I’m assuming that is for Traab.
I really never got into the whole apple thing in the comments or as a joke. Though the overall effect of his bipolar-rage/gentlemen thing throughout the many updates was kind of amusing.
I guess. I just didnt find it to be a joke – more just ‘interesting little factoid’ given Vehemence not playing the straight man to Sydney’s ADHD on it.
It’s like saying ‘Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side’ then the other person saying ‘That’s accurate – going to the other side would be a good reason to cross the road’ – it negates the idea that it’s a joke. :)
When Sydney added to Maxima’s ‘interred’ threat, with a bunch of additional words, that was funny because it was minimizing Maxima’s threat and driving Maxima nuts, making her say “Stop adding stuff!”
Also saying “incontinent” is always funny. Poop (or lack thereof) jokes.
The apple thing I liked because it not only broke up his big scary evil build up as he described what that meant, it also showed that he was amused by sydney again. I honestly like him because of that. He can go full hulk rage while still getting a chuckle out of who he sees as “a sweet kid” I like my bad guys to be more than one dimensional.
And I REALLY like amiable evil. There is just something so much fun about meeting the big bad, hearing his plan to destroy all of reality and then he starts asking if you need spare pillows or something for your cell. One of my favorite bad guys was the Mayor from Buffy. He just had this leave it to beaver dad aura of geniality around him, and yet he is blithely going around sacrificing women and children so he can become a demon lord or whatever. “Well gosh! A plan without you is like cookies without milk! And thats just not fun at all! Speaking of which, I just baked a fresh batch, you want some?”
Yes, The Mayor was a really good example of Affably Evil. I just don’t find Vehemence to be Affably Evil. Probably because he has no real goals, while the Mayor had a goal of becoming a demon. So the fact that he was so polite and 1950s mentality was a jarring comedic play on his absolutely evil intent. :)
“And I REALLY like amiable evil. There is just something so much fun about meeting the big bad, hearing his plan to destroy all of reality and then he starts asking if you need spare pillows or something for your cell.”
^That.
Amicable evil is a subtle layer of humor that I enjoy. In Ann Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series, even the scholarly David Talbot told LeStat that he wouldn’t try to destroy the “evil vampire” right away because it would be more of a pleasure to talk to him.
and if you enjoy amicable evil, you most definitely should watch ‘Howard The Duck’
;} If you haven’t already, that is. :)
or even if you have.
I think that’s the first time in recorded human history that anyone actually suggested someone else watch Howard the Duck as a good thing, rather than as some vicious prank to make the viewer’s eyes and ears bleed in protest.
Since I saw Guardians I have been wondering if the are going to try a new version of Howard the Duck the movie.
Except Guardians was just awesome… whereas Howard the Duck was just awful.
Like I said a new version
Also, I was initially attracted to this webcomic for the same reason I love Amanda Conners when she draws comics. She focuses on the more humorous side of being a superheroine. Yeah, there are fights, but they’re side issues. This fight has taken 1/3rd of the length of the entire webcomic. I’m probably less dour and negative about it now because 1) this page was awesome, and 2) I feel like it’s finally going to END in the next few pages, hopefully from something either Sydney or Maxima or both of them do, and it’ll get back to the ‘better’ pre-Vehemence comic again, where the interaction between the heroines/heroes were at the forefront of the comic, instead of a seemingly never-ending fight.
PS – yes I would have been satisfied if V didnt show EVERYTHING in the first fight, and wasnt able to do all this within 12 hours of Archon becoming known to the world. If he got beaten quickly, then came back in the future, THEN pulled out all the stops, it would have been better for a ‘recurring villain’ character.
What does a super fight mean to me? Exploitable weaknesses, which are able to be used within the confines of how the story is progressing. V has none, because the only ‘exploitable weakness’ would have been to either not fight at all, or to kill him or fly him into orbit within the first few seconds. Him being beaten, then escaping, then thinking up a plan on how to beat them all using vehemic energy, and revealing that that’s where his power comes from? It just would have been more interesting, and would have made the fight over already.
Okay, that’s all that I will say about this now. I was hoping to not bother saying much about Vehemence anymore, honestly.
As for not fighting him, if they knew, they wouldn’t fight him.
As for killing him, maxima had a chance, but instead she decided to get him alive, and that was a mistake.
Also, no matter how strong you are,that alone wont let you throw someone into orbit. that also require speed, cause gravity and air resistance is a thing.
She could probably carry him, and throw him from the highest point, if not for the anchor.
Technically speaking, Maxima actually has the speed required as well. But yeah, carrying then throwing him would be better ideas. If he’s cut off from the vehemic energy, then the anchor wouldnt be an issue.
Btw, Cosmic-powered Spider-Man punched the Hulk into orbit, and Ultraman punched some generic other villain into orbit as well.
Supergirl took a train that Equus threw at her, and hurled it upwards, and it went into orbit, then out of orbit when it just kept going and going and going. So there’s comic book precedent. Though DaveB does have a habit of defying comic book tropes :)
“Though DaveB does have a habit of defying comic book tropes :)”
well, when jiggawatt used her “darkning” DaveB commented, that he check how it would behave, before drawing it.
do you think someone who checks behavior of a negative lighning (was it call positrons or something?) would do something as orbital punch? i am sure it would be an inspiration, but it just being a “comic book trope” is not good enough.
maxima has “zero ragenge telekinesis” which means as soon as she let him go, her power has no effect on him. the initial velocity is all all that there is keeping him going up. if it is not enough, then its not enough.
at the end of presentation she broke the sound barrier in seemingly no time, but because of the anchor we will never know
Considering Vehemence actually SAID that was a possibility, yes, I think DaveB would do an orbital punch if the situation calls for it.
DaveB also has done stuff like ‘A Wizard Did it’ to explain about the shield’s air impermeability not causing Halo’s ears to pop. Which I liked, btw. Remember?
“I don’t know … space magic?”
btw, zero range telekinesis does not negate inertia on an object that’s hit. So once he was no longer touching, the initial velocity CAN be enough if it was sufficient velocity. It takes is the ability to hit with 23,000 lbs of force to cause something to escape earth’s gravity from a settled position. If Maxima can do that, then she can punch a person into orbit from the ground (if she’s in the air already, it’s closer to 15,000 pounds of force.
The Flash also punched someone into orbit once. His opponent was a White Martian member of the Hyperclan, Flash doesn’t have superstrength, but he accelerated to near lightspeed and used relativistic mass increase to allow him to punch a nearly Kryptonian level being that hard. If I remember correctly the story was in the early Grant Morrison JLA run during the late 90s/early2000s.
i might have said it poorly.
i didn’t said, she cant get him into orbit, i said it being a trope is not enough of an argument.
As for halo shield “wizard did it”, well, its halo shield. there are loads of things we don’t know know about it.
My theory about it was that it doesn’t actually expand, but instead it rapidly puts in new layers, trapping air in between.
Alternatively… well, we don’t know that the shield is air tight.
It also lets the sound in, until its too much, in which case it blocks excess.
Those orbs were definitely not some 2 minutes of work (unless someone had the ability to stop time…)
maxima’s zero range telekinesis.
after they are separated, maxima cant add to his velocity, or prevent the loss of the velocity. i didn’t said it would slow him.
and as for V saying it, he definitely mentioned somewhere, but i am pretty sure he didn’t said anything about a “punch” which we are talking about.
and as for the numbers you provided, i cant help but think they are made up.
first of, some things are heavier than other, and V is rather big right now.
then consider air resistance, again, V is kind of big right now.
you cant apply a flat number to ALL the things.
and for you liking the “wizard did it”.
i cant remember something i didn’t see.
i don’t check comments very often. i didn’t even knew you existed before you were everywhere. (no offence)
Maxima’s zero range telekinesis doesnt mean force impact stops as soon as she isnt touching them. It’s just a science-y way to explain how Maxima’s strength works so that stuff like large objects don’t collapse under their own mass, fall apart at the weak areas, why muscle mass doesnt need to factor into her strength, etc.
It’s like Superboy’s Tactile Telekinesis, or Superman and Supergirl and Power Girl’s ‘Kryptonian Biomatrix’ – they can all still punch a person into orbit if they hit hard enough.
As for the numbers, they arent made up. I can provide links if you’d like since I did a google of how much thrust it takes to reach escape velocity of the Earth’s gravity and enter orbit.
Maxima’s zero range telekinesis doesnt mean force impact stops as soon as she isnt touching them. It’s just a science-y way to explain how Maxima’s strength works so that stuff like large objects don’t collapse under their own mass, fall apart at the weak areas, why muscle mass doesnt need to factor into her strength, etc.
It’s like Superboy’s Tactile Telekinesis, or Superman and Supergirl and Power Girl’s ‘Kryptonian Biomatrix’ – they can all still punch a person into orbit if they hit hard enough.
As for the numbers, they arent made up. I can provide links if you’d like since I did a google of how much force it takes to reach escape velocity of the Earth’s gravity and enter orbit.
No offense taken. I never bothered commenting at all until the Vehemence stuff started getting annoying – I was reading the comic (and comments) for 2+ years before the fight started.
As for V having no exploitable weakness…
Uh, he totally does…. Lets start a list:
1.A sufficiently powerful attack can maim him if not kill him.(I’m operating under the assumption that Maxima is still trying to take him alive, but figures she needs to get him to expend his mana pool first. His strength is that his mana pool is filled by violence. The reasion he seems so overpowered at the moment is that he has a massive pool of mana to cast from.(He’s a wizard.)
2.He has a mana pool.(As in he has to expend energy to cast spells. Again the only reason he seems so overpowered in this encounter is that he’s farmed an absurd amount of mana early on in the fight…)
3.His own knowledge of his opponents.(He doesn’t know how Max’s powerset works, and I’m still thinking that she is exploiting this fact so that he’ll waste mana trying to kill her, since she prettymuch knows what his powerset is and it’s limitations. Dabbler has a lust fueled version of the same power-set.)
4.His aggro aura radiates outward… Look at today’s page… notice where the gap in his aura is… It’s risky but I imagine that Halo could totally contain that with her shield.(It’s risky because if he notices she would be in danger, though Maxima is acting as a pretty good distraction at the moment.. Though the other risk is that Halo might try to nuke V with the PPO if she exposes herself to his aura by containing it…
1. That’s a non-weakness in this fight, since it was STARTED with him already being able to know all about Archon when they knew nothing about him. It’s setting the story to make a guaranteed loss of the only weakness he has, so that he has no weaknesses (albeit Halo will likely find a new weakness I hope)
2. His Mana pool appears to be unlimited which makes it not a weakness.
3. His knowledge of his opponents seems to be quite efficient. The fact htat he thinks lightning weakens Maxima doesnt really do much for a strategy considering he’s technically correct – she HAS to be at max armor to survive, which by design makes her have to remove power from strength, which does weaken her. So it’s not lightning that weakens her, but any extreme damage that makes her have to pump everything into armor that weakens her. Non-weakness for Vehemence.
4. This MIGHT be a weakness. I’m hopeful about this.
1. he knew their power cause he was watching.
they didn’t knew his power and weaknesses because he hid it well, before he could compensate for this.
in short, brains OP
He didn’t hide it well. It was a railroaded thing. He got every superpowered being on the western hemisphere together to attack, including many who the government funded with unlimited resources Arc Light did not know about, within 12 hours of Archon being introduced to the world, knowing about Dabbler somehow for reasons that hopefully will be revealed because it sure wasnt from just ‘watching’ her, and figuring out that Anvil is a kinetic absorber, rather than just invulnerable, because she ‘leans into punches’ – that’s a pretty major leap of logic. Everything V does is a pretty major leap of logic, rather than actual intelligence. Actual intelligence would have implied actual time being spent watching them for more than the 5+ minutes the 11 month long fight has taken.
Would rather not argue this again since we’ve already done this for the last 4-5 updates and we’re clearly not going to convince each other, so i’m not going to respond to anyone who tries goading me into more talk about this.
1. You have a misapprehension of what a weakness is. Being able to be killed isn’t a weakness. Being vulnerable to Kryptonite is a weakness.
Remember when Sydney was asked what her weaknesses were? She replied “being riddled with bullets” and “a stake through the heart.” Both are not weaknesses, they are simply things which kill anyone, even V. He might not be able to be riddled with bullets at the moment, just like Halo inside her force field isn’t able to be riddled with bullets, but if it somehow happened he would die.
2. A described weakness which exhibits no actual consequences is not a real weakness. V might have to spend his absorbed vehemic energy to power his “spells”, but there’s no indication at all that this has in any way inconvenienced him. Instead what we see is him ass-pulling new powers in every new comic.
3. Pander handled this one well and I can’t improve on it, so I’ll just reference Pander’s reply.
4. So he can’t get an effect through an impenetrable force field. Neither can Maxima, or Harem. Again, not a weakness, just a fact of life.
Keep in mind, whenever I say “dropped” I really mean “saved for later” I have a big big notepad with all the jokes I haven’t used yet.
I don’t actually have a problem with his jokes. I love his jokes. But his jokes are funny because of the story around them, not just because they exist on some perfect plane totally separated from the story. Sydney isn’t funny in spite of what she does, but BECAUSE of what she does…and the rest of the jokes in the comic really sort of revolve around her perspective. Taking the perspective away from her–which is what this fight has done all too often–takes away from the humor…which is why I come here.
Now, you CAN take the perspective away from Sydney, and not hurt the jokes, the humor, or the story, but you have to do so in a controlled manner, or in such a way so that the perspective will naturally loop back to Sydney.
I’ve actually learned a lot from coming here, both as an author, and as a story-teller, so in case I haven’t said it before…Dave, good job. If you keep at this, you have serious potential to become one of the greats. You have created an excellent and well-balanced team, and as long as you continue to develop them and improve them (and, please, please, please DON’T retcon them), you will go far.
Someone has the stargate font
And the one outside that is from metroid.
Oh god there’s a font? I hand drew all of that. :/
Which makes this page all the more impressive.
at least you didn’t decide on Wingdings
wait… those sound like some kind of snack…now I’m hungry… gonna go munch some Gummi Metroids
(I’m sure they could make ’em, and if they do, it was MY idea)
BTW, Dave, your artwork is awesome, and if I could afford it, I’d be buying this webcomic off the shelf. If i could find it.
We must then hope that when he is done with “Day 1” he will do a kickstarter to put it out in traditional format .
Well, considering that her forcefield seems to cause a cone of free space behind her I suggest just poping a field around his head, or just around him as a whole, it would stop the effect.
The comments section must be write-only for you…
You mean you actually read trough the mess that is the comment secton? I have things t odo, like eat, and sleep.
Sidney must be within any force field she creates. That’s WoG (or Word of Go-err Dave).
Yeah but right now he’s busy trying to kill Maxima…. If there was ever a time to pop a shield around him now would be it.(But I’ll again say there is the risk that Sydney might PPO everyone on the inside if she falls under the effects of his violence aura… Though on the upside the worse case scenario is that everyone inside the force shield dies.)
Option two is that she exploits the embiggener and carefully positions herself between him and those best able to perform a non violent take-down…
Being inside the shield with Vehemence right now would be a bad idea for Sydney, whether he actively attacks her or not. Do you really want Sydney to be exposed to Vehemence’s Agro Aura right when her meds are wearing off?
Here’s your sign .
FIRE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS .!
For real…!?!
Drinks are on me!
*hic*
Here’s hoping for a Dry January…
yeah I need to get those cannons tuned up.
These sure have reduced since DaveB explained things, but clearly there are still some people that never read anything
I see a couple of more spires of Atlantean buildings emerging…
Here’s hoping that those trophies don’t amass enough to collapse it all into a black hole before Atlantis is fully revealed.
oh, wow. I never even noticed that. cool….
Asspull inc?
Are we talking about Death Toll’s injury again?
Machina Industries leading competitor?
Something I’m surprised no one else has thought of… She doesn’t need to get Vehemence inside the shield, just everyone else. She mentioned the shield’s “embiggener”. She only has to encompass others with the shield to protect them, then convince them to follow her around in a circle until everyone else has been collected inside the shield too. Then it’s just Vehemence and the debris. The most he could do is throw an impotent tantrum at that point.
She can’t safely drop the shield to permit anyone inside (the aura would effect her), but she can sweep the cone of negation her shield projects through Vehemence’s aura across her team by walking a circle around him. After that, any one of the team members could pick up Death Toll and use him as a meat shield while they retrieve Maxima or something.
Use the Lighthook to grab everyone up, take down the shield then quickly put it back up with everyone inside. Vehemence loses access to their vehemic energy. Maxima punches him into the next continent. Vehemence gets away but loses. Maxima gets to be badass. Halo is the hero of the hour.
She can’t risk lowering her shield with the field in effect. If she’s effected she can do incredible damage with her powers. Also, while separating everyone from Vehemence prevents him from drawing more energy, it doesn’t make him weaker. You do make a good point though, in that she can use the light hook move team members, and the cone behind her shield should have the desired effect.
One more thing; your plan against Vehemence involves punching. Stop that. Punching bad. Buying off Opal to send him into high earth orbit is more feasible.
Maybe. It is possible for someone with adhd to be violently distracted by random shiny things. The aura may increase that 10 fold.
I knew a guy with ADD who built a magic the gathering deck consisting of “That looks cool” and “I’ve never seen that before. And won an unofficial tournament with his 250 card deck he threw all those cards into.
Imagine what a person with adhd and superhuman powers can do with an effect that accidentally increases their focus violently instead of increasing their need for violence.
Get permanently distracted while looking at their trading cards?
She could punch him into orbit. Then he can be all powerful in outer space.
and you could join him and we’d all be sooooo happy.
You could go screw yourself since you decided to try to get into a fight where there was none.
What a trollolo you are.
No, it doesn’t reduce his powers…his own actions reduce his powers. Think of it like a car engine–running the engine uses gas, but as long as everybody is fighting, they’re giving him an endless supply of gas.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed but I did. Dabbler and Heatwave both have their own auras. That opens up other questions.
Dabbler is no surprise being part succubus. Heat Wave has a bunch of us scratching our heads.
Wouldn’t that be her heat aura? o_O
no.
she do has fires round her, but if you look on the enlarged image, you will also see a “magic circle” under her feet… interesting
It could be the range of her pyrokinesis. i.e. anything within that aura is something she can light on fire directly; anything outside she has to throw fireballs at.
Maybe the ‘circle’ under her is just a reflected image of her heat signature?
The giant symbol covering the field isn’t Magic it’s and Aura so by taking that into account we can also conclude that under Heatwave doesn’t have to be a Magic circle. Sydney is looking at Auras therefore anything we see is most likely an aura. even under Dabbler is most likely her Lust Aura rather than a magic circle.
while i… “don’t disagree” with the heat wave’s not being magic… but-
dabbler’s lust and V’s violence is the same thing basically.
its like comparing fire magic to ice magic. however different the effect is both are magic.
if dabbler’s is not magic then neither is V’s.
or at the very least we have no evidence AT ALL to classify them separately, while we have fair base to say they are the same, at the page 264(not sure if it was said elsewhere) she call herself a “tantric user” for one, and the fact that V knows that she knows is another sign of them being related somehow.
maybe magic is just a super power that is super common somewhere else?
maybe all powers are actually magic? who knows.
in the writeup on heatwave it states that she has a heat aura.
Noticed the ‘cone of silence’ (tm Get Smart) behind Sydney’s shield, did you? Forgot that the aura began in a ripple effect outwards from Vehemence as well, I see.
Dave, you are doing such an awesome job with this comic, and i hope that you will have a great Christmas.
That may just be a ‘shadow’ caused by the Bubble, it depends on if it remains after Sydney moves, or if it moves with her
Anybody noticed the title from Triple-X yet?
Just next to Heatwave.
I think I understand a bit about the orbs. They don’t exist. I mean, they don’t exist in this reality as we understand it. They’re something else, and that something else makes them react to everything in this reality in the way they do. They’re not actually working like they do, the just do so because that’s how Sydney thinks.
UMMM. Has anyone seen the Squirrel lately?
Our overlord? Where did it go? O.O
Wait what?
Our overlord and master, the squirrel. It’s plotting something off panel. O.O
Enraged squirrel. The horror, the horror..
Squirrel Girl. Nuff said.
If Doreen gets involved Vehemence will just be beaten offscreen in one panel.
new, buffer flatman, with sparkly tattoos…being peeled off the wall opposite your computer monitor.
Wait what?
Last panel: Be afraid, be very AFRAID!!!!
Looks like Heatwave got over her little ‘boo-boo’ quick enough o_O
Or the ‘violence adrenaline’ shot is making her ignore the pain.
Looking and thinking The reason Deathtoll hasn’t woken up was because he was completely konked recently everyone else was under the effects of a sleep aid or just heavily injured. the Adrenaline from violence and the removal of the sleep aid most likely woke them up.
If this ends with her holding a cigar and saying “I love it when a plan comes together.”…
That’ll be Dave’s line.
No, she’ll be dramatically removing her sunglasses.
Only the general has Dramatic Glasses here.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/479
I just noted something that I feel is significant. We know this giant aura deal is a “spell” of sorts. That is, a deliberate use of /magical/ energy. It is massive (compared to the two others) and was activated by an act of will, not traditional spell-casting maneuvers (cryptic words, gestures etc). Now, that stated, it makes sense that Dabbler also has an aura. She undoubtedly pulled out a number of enchants or what have you way back at the start of this barney. But that then brings us to Heatwave.
Heatwave originally just struck me as a slightly dim but good-hearted super. This was wrong though. The cast page states that she [simply processes information in a different order a lot of the time, making it seem like she’s missed something obvious]. So perhaps a non-standard style of reasoning. But since she doesn’t appear a educated caster then we can reason that her magic is innate. The cast page /also/ states that while manifesting powers she becomes stronger, taller, etc. What if she’s less a fire oriented superhuman and more a fire oriented being? It would perhaps be interesting to see what would happen if she were in the middle of a forest fire or intense furnace. Would she manifest more strongly? Would non-human features become apparent? The question is less, who is Heatwave and more What is Heatwave?
I noticed that also, but Heatwave has a heat aura. Dabbler has a lust aura.
Or this particular vision mode of the comm ball doesn’t specifically show magic at all, just auras regardless of type.
Does this sentence ring any bells?” “A great burning will herald my coming!”
oops. supposed to be a reply to RedcaptheMad above ^
You should probably put some ointment on that.
Holy crap.
That would be the greatest mindfuck.
Though she didn’t exactly show up out of nowhere. Achilles and Amourpheus have known her for years
Don’t know Dabbler’s age or how long she lives so we don’t know how long ago that happened.
If he was banished from the world he may have had to find an odd ball way back like manifesting in his own bloodline or some cult here helping him corrupt a child (just needs time to finish growing inside and then a burst of energy to crack the cocoon/egg). Seems like earth always has the most mongrels (humans have a lot in common with Dragons that way… ). So Heatwave may not know she’s carrying a passenger.
Doesn’t really work with the ‘found you’ back on #186 though, if the demon was manifesting via heatwave it would already know where dabbler was. (though equally it’s curious that said demon would just be happening to watch earth news at the time).
Ofcourse that could just be Arianna’s imaginings but given that Mr ‘Challenge accepted’ turned out to be real that page is looking like a preview of supervillains to come.
oh, for sure that could be what’s happening, but that was ALSO the hypothetical scenarios that Arianna was throwing out there in her rebuttal to Maxima’s nonchalant attitude, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it was happening for real AT THAT EXACT TIME… it COULD have been a flash-back to when the Demon DID find her, and set Brooke up as his mole in order to get Dabbler to drop her guard around Brooke. and it also plays into the fact that Heatwave doesn’t seem to “track” completely with “standard” human though processes… possibly a symptom of the Demon inside? it could also be something like what Observer was saying about having to need the extra energy in order to crack open the cocoon, remember how many movies and such have the good guy only being a puppeted body for the bad guy, and in the big “reveal” to the good guys, they always transform (usually in an extremely painful manner) into the bad guy’s TRUE form, the best example i can think of is the movie “The Thing” (the recent-ish Stephen King version, not the original 1950’s one)
O-M-G, this is the best panel yet. Sometimes you got to take a step back and look at the big picture, you know? Love the work. A few questions, are you going to make a board for all the villains in the comic like you did for the Ark-light people? Also, I’d like a few posters. One of the battle but with much more detail would be great.
Happy face.
I’m glad to see that Sydney is finally coming up with something to end the fight with. It’s not that this is a bad story, but the webcomic update pacing is drawing it out past its welcome. It holds up really well when you read it in one sitting (in fact, after a recent archive binge I can say I enjoy the whole fight more than some mainstream comics), but drawing it out over a year is an unfortunate webcomic reality.
Not like I can complain much though. I get webcomics for free! I can handle a wait for a bigger payoff.
first there was idea to close him in her forcefield.
then there was deathtoll counter
some more force field
now some people were talking about light hook (ALSO known as the hentorb)
how does it work?
in the example of anvil, and tenta block(saving jiggawatt) she had no problem at all keeping balance, as if it had no effect on her.
but when she tried to slow down V (page 257) he threw her out of balance (we also see there dabbler scratching V with her sword, so i found it… by looking for something completely different).
I have really been enjoying this especially since updates have been more regular lol
I’ll 2nd the wish to see this page expanded instead of the next new update. That panel really DESERVES to be a double page spread!
So where is the squirrel and is it under V’s influence too?
I can’t see enough detail on the big aura panel to tell if their pant legs have unusual rodent shaped bulges so I don’t know…
The squirrel is at church revival.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IhjYWfHwFHM The Mississippi Squirrel Revival by Ray Stevens.
does she… does she even remember that her face is bleeding?
Sydney? She is totally focused on rescuing Max. I doubt she feels the injury right now. After though, is another thing.
No she doesn’t
She’s going to crash after the adrenalin dies off though. Headache, sleepy, stuf like that
First of all: stargate! :D
Also, not only does Sydney’s shield stop the effect inside her shield, but also beyond it. She has to grab at least her team and put them behind her so they aren’t affected.
Thanks for posting the agro aura, that is really nifty.
Then suddenly Fluttershy appears and saves the day…
By using The Stare on Vehemence? Its not violent so it might even work if it effects humans.
That “aura” are an elevenfold magic circle, thats some heavy duty stuff he has going on there, as thats stuff like that usually takes archmages a few weeks to set up properly, give or take a week or two depending on “verse” in question.
Maybe that’s just how the orb translates what it senses into something Sydney can begin to try to understand. Possibly using images plucked out of her own mind.
quite possible, can’t really say as I cant say exactly what kind of detection she’s using, it’s deffinetely not “Detect Magic” though that stuff reveals magic as bright light, and something of that magnitude would be liable to permanently blind Sydney as it would be like lookng into the sun at close range.
What I’m getting from your post is “assumption assumption conclusion”.
Not every ‘verse pulls magic spells from DnD, even if it is an extremely large influence on magic systems everywhere.
Wow. I thought I would get people started on that grayed out tool symbol and they would solve the mystery of its meaning for me but so far no takers? It looks like a tool symbol from an image editor sort of like mirror image but the triangles don’t overlap like that in any image editing program I look up.
The only other thing triangles tend to represent in programs is a play button. So maybe some kind of combination of the two concepts? Mirror image plus play button equals… maybe records her telepresence orbs output for later playback?
I think she is using the “sight” portion of the Telepresence orb, and not manifesting a Tele-presence. So the grayed out function is only active/available when she has an image acting somewhere else. Maybe she finally unlocked the ability to change the image into something else … “Badgers!” just got real batches.
I swear the spell checker lies in wait for me to press submit and then wham.
“Badgers!” just got real bitches.
I know… autocorrect is both evil and politically correct that way.
Hmmm. 3 circles from small to large could be an option to size up the projected image to “deity addressing natives” size. Circle with a dot in it could be an option to make the image solid allowing her to interact with things around the image, The next down with fuzzy edges may make the projected image itself invisible to visible light,
The circles could be for the vision modes since they were lit up when she was thinking about that function.
Hah! I did not realize it at first glance, but SOMEONE put a Stargate constellation ring in the Aggro Aura. :P
yeah, i see the Stargate text (i’m not anal enough to actually TRANSLATE the text, but…), the Metroid stuff, Kirby krackle, Batman, Wonder woman, a heart, a club, a diamond, though i DON’T see a spade… a Pac-Man (with dots, and Ghost) and I’m sure the ?pigeon? / ?penguin? / bird head graphic is from SOMEWHERE I’ve seen, but i can’t remember WHERE I’ve seen it before. then a variation of the medical “staff of life” Caduceus, and that weird hand-held energy weapon from Quake, other than some interesting line work kinda reminding me of either Celtic Knots, or Native American artwork, i can’t find any more easter eggs… can you?
While we are all doing pattern recognition — the shadow/burn down right from Sydney looks like the outline of
If that tag didn’t work –Cow and Chicken
frame 9, looks like Sydney’s either about to do a boldrick impression or she’s come up with an evil plain
I wonder if anyone else noticed that Syndey’s force field casts a shadow on the aggro aura…
Facepalm moment. I have been wondering what the straight grid lines in the Aura meant, as they seemed to line up with the action… yep those are car parking lines.
So when the fight is over and the bad guys are arrested, will they be able to claim Vehemence’s powers forced them into combat through some sort of mind control? How would the law even address it?
I think they’ll consult their experts – you know, Dabbler, Gwen, her teacher – and they’ll confirm V only activated his power AFTER they were all arrested. It’s nice when heroes are the part of law enforcement isn’t it?
Stargate symbols
And merry Christmas
wouldnt it be cool if halo unknown orbs were the battery and distributor of her powers? so one would pull energy from the surroundings and the other feeds that power to all the other orbs
not only that but if halo could manage how to work them she could have energy drain and a team energ boost
I don’t think the problem is really that the fight is lasting too long. I think the problem is that we never really had a sense of expectation that the fight was going to be this long, and so it feels like you don’t know how to end it. I mean, I know you do, based on your blogs, but there are certain signals, a certain rise and fall in tension, that feels natural in storytelling. You can amp it up, but you can’t do it arbitrarily. For example, if the big bad had turned out to be Deus (with an obviously different lead up to that reveal) people would be a lot more patient to see how things turn out because we have a bit of a sense of who he is and we’d be anxious to see more. Vehemence had all of one panel, in a hypothetical scenario, before his reveal as the big bad here, there was none of the buildup you kinda need to have in order to ramp up an action sequence this hard.
I don’t think this sequence is bad. My goal in criticizing is so you don’t learn the wrong lesson. There’s nothing wrong with long action sequences in theory, but action isn’t itself a payoff. Like an orgasm, the important thing is that it’s actually releasing. If there’s no buildup then there’s nothing to release and the action sequence is just going to be disappointing.
What confuses me is the people affected by the aura who KNOW VEHEMENCE GETS MORE POWERFUL FROM VIOLENCE.
Why aren’t they trying to resist?
Because I’m Apollo 13ing your nuts?
They are angry and that doesn’t lend itself to a reflective mindset. Dave mentioned Dabbler might be aware of her condition, but she has to fight Gauntlette or get clobbered.
Wait a second, where did the Brunette who talked about donuts on page 199 go?
She is guarding Leon, Gwen and Zeph on o roof several buildings away