Grrl Power #283 – Tectonic uppercut
Things continuing to go badly for Vehemence. We get to see Maxima really max out an attribute here, making her temporarily stronger than V even with all his built up power. It’s a testament to how tough he is that his head didn’t just pop right off. This is really quite risky to do in proximity to him, since it leaves her… probably still tougher than a human, but downright mushy relative to his strength. Still she’s got that ‘super strength toughness’ at the moment like you see in comics, where she’s not particularly bulletproof, but still somehow doesn’t rip all the skin off her hand when punching him hard enough to cause a localized tectonic upheaval.
I would have liked to have made this page a double, but the way things laid out, the next page worked better as a double. We’re so close to the end of the fight. I just put the finishing touches on the final page of it last night. Hope I remember how to do the slice of life stuff again. :)
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Nice, catch the open wound before he can regenerate
Ghaa! Could you imagine if he regenerated around Lighthook? That would nerf him dragging Sydney around quite a bit.
Well she can always turn off the lighthook. That’d leave Vehemence with a big gap in his throat
She could probably just slip it out, too.
Hulk did that once – gotten eviscerated and used his hand to keep in his guts, and then healed up with his hand still there.
Personally .. given Maxima’s training … I would have thought she would have taken the chance to blow his head off as opposed to just a throat punch.
That’s her max strength punch. And she couldn’t exactly shoot her pew-pew power in the middle of a populated area.
Yep, Max red-lined all of her spinach into her muskles; Popeye would be proud. In panel 1, her “power-pump indicator” turned red & rung the bell at the top.
I thought of that as well, but Max’s beams are pretty explody, and Jiggawatt was hanging on V’s arm. Anything that’d take V’s head off would vaporize Jiggawatt as collateral damage.
She’s obeying Sydney now. (apparently she had time to see the signal off to the side, switch powers AND attack V without super speed before he could react) Who obviously had the plan and everybody working together so I guess there is some momentum there that a soldier who had previously seen one of Sydney’s plans work would respond to? (actually she wouldn’t know being on the ground struggling and all that this was Sydney’s plan [other than the Sydney-esque zaniness] but anyway… ) *shrugs* But yeah, I would have blown his head off, if I could, too.
Maybe she felt safer in close proximity to V with maxed strength which seems to grant her hands some required secondary power toughness so she could in a pinch wrassle with him till she got her toughness back if what she did wasn’t enough to stop him attacking her. Blaster would have left her wide open defense wise if he had managed to slap her hand away or something.
The whole “required” secondary power thing is interesting. If we were going for whatever passes for realism in a fantasy setting it makes a lot more sense for Sydney’s orbs which are unknown in source and could do just about anything as far as we know than for Maxima and her pool. In some situations like this one it makes less sense for her to have “required” secondary powers than anyone else because of the nature of her pool. If she dumps everything into a stat then where is the required secondary power coming from when she drained the primary power that most resembles it?
I’ve thought about it a bit, and if we’re going for the realism approach we would really only see Maxima pump strenght for wrestling and heavy liftimg, in a real fight you’d want everything in speed + just enough defense that your fists doesn’t pop from the impact.
Think about it, what would be better in a fight: A train traveling 20mph or a bullet traveling 2000 mph?
I could see that. Though if you could get some body to stand in front of the train long enough…
But since she has required secondary powers, which oddly mimic her primary powers, we will rarely see such logic except when Dave feels like it. Too bad. It might have been interesting seeing Max come up against some walls with her “weakness” (power pool) and later figuring out ways to get around them. Like building stuff that projects her a little when she punches so she can put more into speed than defense. etc…
There was a lot of potential for growth and intriguing writing that is going to be eaten up by the “required” secondary powers. Its still going to be a super fun ride but… I’m a fan. I always want more. LOL XD ;-P
Perfect reference here:
Admiral Kizaru, from One Piece.
Unles you were fast enough to dodge the train (and remember, even with max strenght, Maxima still has 2-3stars of inate speed powers. So it’s still really hard to dodge, and Vehemence is still distracted), the train will do WAY more damage
From what I can tell, this is ‘Max+’ strength, where she’s lowering her other powers down to barely, if at all, super-human, and putting all that energy into one power. An example that Dave gave was that doing this with toughness would make her barely able to move. Note that in the little graphic, the arrow pointing to strength is outside the outer-most pentagon, and that the inner-most pentagon (representing minium power) is smaller. God, I hope this explaination is understandable, it’s hard to describe ‘Max’s Power Pool Pentagon’, as I have just named it.
Sure, but as DaveB explained in this very comic (and when she maxed her defences a few pages ago), she still has base powers. Strenght/defences rhoughly the same as a regular brick. Asuming that her powers are evenly distrubuted (which they seem to be), she still has a base 2-3 stars in speed aswel, even if she maxes out something
Maybe it’s just the physics geek in me but my answer is: the train…at least in a situation like this. Remember…Force=Mass times Acceleration, so it doesn’t matter how fast your bullet is going (unless we’re talking about approaching the speed of light or something…in which case, the secondary energy bleed off is going to kill everyone nearby anyway, and Max might as well do her Pew Pew attack), the train is going to impart more force onto the target, period.
Granted, since the train is much, much slower, it’s better in MOST cases to take your bullet approach…Max is strong enough at her ‘normal’ level to take out most baddies…but in this case, when she’s basically got a free shot and she knows that the target can take it…unleash the train!
I would add that a well-aimed bullet can do a shocking amount of damage, while a train is more of a “collateral REGION”-type of response.
Train, bullet, you’re still dead either way, either through massive blunt force trauma or hydrostatic shock (if not organ failure).
This is actually looking like an interesting plan. As my instructor taught me: if he can’t breathe, he can’t fight. Mind you, my instructor was talking more about solar plexus than throat, at least at that level of training, but the axiom still applies.
You’re using the wrong type of force for the situation
Force with this formula is about how much force you need to accelerate a specific mass with a specific acceleration.
For damage, you need to look at kinetic energy, which is 0.5 x mass x velocity.
Mass and velocity being ‘worth’ the same in this situation. The bullet may be traveling 100 times faster, but the train is WAY more than 100 times more massive than the bullet
Errr…I think you mean KE = 1/2 * m * v^2
If you’re talking about kinetic energy, speed is WAY more important than mass…although something that is *enormously* heavier can still win. For example:
Mass of .50 BMG bullet: 46.7 grams
Speed of a .50 BMG bullet: ~1000 m/s
Mass of an average train: 10,000 tons (9.07E6 kg)
Speed of an average train: ~50mph (~22 mps)
Fermi calculation for KE of bullet: 0.5 * 50g * (1000 m/s)^2 = ~25,000 J
Fermi calculation for KE of train: 0.5 * 10E6 kg * (20 m/s)^2 = ~2,000,000,000 J
The bullet is going 50x faster than the train
The train outweighs the bullet by 200000000x
The train has has only 80,000x the KE of the bullet, despite being massively heavier. The train has more KE, but speed is still more important.
I’m with David on this, speed is more important. I floated a discussion similar to this a while back. Everyone was using Bullets and cars for that comparison, but the important thing her is that one thing remains constant, Maxima’s fist is doing the hitting. So ultimately, does speed or strength get her fist moving faster? And if it’s speed, that actually means she can apply more force in speed mode, since F=ma, and the mass is constant. This page suggests Dave intends Maxima to hit hardest in strength mode.
One possibility that I thought was an interesting idea was that Maxima boosting her speed isn’t a physical thing. Her body is always capable of moving at those speeds. Dumping into speed is like overclocking her brain; suddenly, she can start thinking fast enough to move at that speed while still be in control. It’s not perfect, to move at her maximum speed, she would also probably be at near max strength, or flight, making speed kind of a twofer.
Has DC ever addressed weather Superman or the Flash hits harder? Actually, I’m not sure which one is faster, and even if Supes can fly faster than Flash, can he move his limbs at the same speed? I’m more of a Marvel guy.
My understanding of Maxima’s powers is like this. She has a force-field that can put different amounts into strength, toughness, speed, flight, and explosive blasts. Underneath that force-field, her skin is made of an unidentified metallic substance which is incredibly durable on it’s own. Basically, even without her force-field, she’s somewhere on the level of Colossus or similar characters; and, since the strength comes from a force-field (it’s been described as essentially tactile telekinesis) one could argue that it is essentially a shaped explosion, and that the equal and opposite force from the punch could apply back to the force-field, not her hand.
Nice move: Even if V does regenerate his neck, with Sydney’s lighthook around it, it will regen in a crushed shape thus blocking his air. I want to see Max and Syd try that same move again, only this time with Max kicking V in the balls. I’m just wondering what shape V’s equipment will regen in with a good sailor’s knot around it. ;)
That is a cruel and horrifying idea. Someone give this man/woman a medal.
Boom bam slam
Ooooohhhh, that’s gotta hurt.
Zoom Zam !
Bam, Zoom, Straight to the Moon!
Wham Bam Thank you mam.
More like *snap* *crackle* *splunch* “EEEYAAAAAARGH”! than Wham Bam…
Also Yabba Dabba Boom!
Hey, at least Max is acting like a real friend for Vehemence. Unlike this guy (https://acidsquirrel.com/post/66031), she’s not about to let him skip “neck day” for his workout.
Another site on which to waste time on? Like I don’t have enough of those. Besides, now I’ve got to find a use for this video.
I’m sure you’ll find some use for it whenever Dave gets around to highlighting Heatwave more…
;)
Or the next time Achilles gets bored.
Ohhh, that’s gotta hurt. Unconsciously hands are moving to throats as we speak.
Hold up, was V literally attached to the ground when he got punched, causing those shock waves? I reiterate, that’s really gotta hurt so bad omg.
It occurs to me that, for an attack like that, being so securely anchored probably worked AGAINST him. Instead of soaking up less damage and being knocked-back by the rest, he gets ALL of it in the neck. Nasty.
Yep, like when max decided to tank that punch to the nose to showboat. Because she refused to recoil or otherwise absorb the hit as anything other than a wall, it busted her nose. Had she let it knock her away she probably wouldnt have even bled.
Is that anchor his or Dabblers?
*Dabbler’s
And nevermind it’s his: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1549
I seem to remember he’d got some sort of anchor running, so that he could crush Max into the ground rather than just doing a push-up on her neck. Which is all well and good for what he thought was a static situation, but being a conscious action its release is subject to the same reaction time as anything else.
Keep in mind that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Since Vehemence is anchored all that force she is putting into his throat has an equal amount pushing back on Max. That energy from her is dissipated through her back into the asphalt and spreads out from there in a shock wave.
…I need some cough syrup…
Think I got some Hall’s somewhere.
Pfffff Vicks all the way baby
Ricola for me.
Screw the syrup, I’ll take the drop. That way, if someone’s annoying you, just spit it at them.
You could still spit the syrup at someone, but a sore throat won’t see any benefits from it. Yeah, make it a cough drop; at least some of it can get where it’s needed before spitting it.
Wonder what the little purple aura on v’s throat in panel 6 is
The beginning of regeneration
His regeneration trying to kick in and make it steel like. I wonder if it did anyway and he has now permanently crushed windpipe.
That’s his regen power kicking in.
Gotta say, it’s a lot sparklier than Wolverine’s regen.
If I was able to regenerate, I’d want it to be as sparkly as possible. Preferably blinding
What you’re describing is “Doctor Who” level of regeneration.
Meh as long as it’s not twilight style sparkling, we are fine
Vampires don’t sparkle. But regeneration sure can be
It can also blow up ships, as the Doctor has demonstrated.
I think it was the regeneration of his regenerations that blow up the ships
IRL regeneration is done over a period of a couple days so that people don’t notice you grew your finger/skin/whatever else you cut/burned/chopped off back. Saves a lot of pointed questions from guys in lab coats that way. Gotta dial it back if you get hurt bad enough to wind up in a hospital with things hanging out before you can regenerate. That shit was uncomfortable. And the food was terrible.
I think people would notice if you cut of your finger, than show up a few days later like nothing ever happened
At first glance I thought it’s his own lightning crystal, stuck where it causes HIM much discomfort for a change, instead of to Max. On closer look, it is only crystal shaped glow, so… the crystal itself probably just dissolved, but not before hurting him considerably.
To me, it doesn’t look like Max broke one of the crystals off of his arm & jammed it into his throat. When Max hits V, her fist is completely closed, with no room to be holding anything in it.
But I have to admit that it certainly does look like a chunk of crystal left lodged in his windpipe.
There is “crack” sound in the first panel. Either his thumb she was holding with left hand, or the crystal in her right hand. I admit, the closed fist works against my theory. Maybe little art error? Or she balanced it on top of her fist before striking him, we only see her fist on his neck…
I know, it’s not too likely to do that in her position. And now that I look at the large panel, that crystal on his hand is still there, so you are right.
What confuses the issue for me is that in the middle of that purple glow is a blue center-core that looks like a solid material the same color as the crystals on V’s arm.
She broke his thumb so he can’t hold her down/choke her effectively anymore.
The crystal is still on his hand in the wide shot, I’m pretty sure the *crack* was max breaking his thumb.
Most of the crystal is still there in the wide shot. See those fractures through it in the first frame? I wouldn’t bet against Max using a shard of the crystal to give her punch a super-hard tip, like a hammer and chisel.
Some might say you shouldn’t get Maxima angry, but this sequence just proves to me that the one you _really_ don’t want to piss off is Sydney. That girl is downright dangerous!
Best to stay off her list.
Master of Understatement (Level Up)
Poor Leon’s on the flipside of it.
Yeah, it’s scary, but on the other hand, you know that anything she likes that much is something she’s really gonna protect, right?
Yes but do you really WANT her kind of protection?
This was evident very early on.
Mr. Amorphorous was the first of ArcSwat to witness Sydney’s self-defensive offense…And itdidn’teven involve using any of her orbs.
;)
The list is long.
And reads “Oh the humanity!”
no, just the Police reports do…
I like how is only able to hold to the ground with the tips of his toes
I wonder if the spell was only set to anchor the balls of his feet to the ground. It makes sense, as it would be harder to shift your weight / balance if you were magically forced to stay flat-footed.
If it’s actually him almost being ripped off the ground despite his spell – HOLY CRAP.
It looks as though the blow was strong enough to yank upward a region of land that included Syd, but almost immediately sloughed-off an outer rim, followed by a second rim, leaving only the area directly surrounding himself & Max. Based on Syd’s off-balance posture, I’d say that even the outermost rim was deep enough to include all of her shield, including the part that was meant to anchor her safely to the ground.
Also, I really hope that Stalwart got to watch as V got a taste of his own “space shuttle”-treatment!
Ouch, that really has to hurt. still i wonder what that mini-aura thing at V’s foot did.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1549
He’s ancoring himself to the ground, so he doesn’t fly off
… Which, considering all that is now happening, is arguably counter-productive for V.
Instead of taking less damage and merely being knocked-back by the rest, his solid anchoring meant he got ALL of Max’s attack right in the neck, literally AND figuratively. Not pretty.
He probably never turned it off, and didn’t get the time now
Seems to be the key. Stay three steps ahead; give V no time to react/regen/process incoming vehemic energy. Don’t give him any more chances to surrender.
Is Anvil about to grab the tentacle that’s wrapped around V’s throat? Owww.
(LOL, autocorrect keeps trying to change “Vehemic” to “Vegemite”)
Very much so. V has shown to be be creative and intelligent, however he even said that he’s never had this much power, and he’s experimenting a bit too. Seeing what he can do. That .ears his reflex reactions are probably going to be more basic when caught off guard.
Also, I’ve heard of the Columbian necktie, where the throat is cut and tongue pulled through, but what kind woukd it be when one of the most powerful supers crushes your throat and then you get a glowing tentacle tied around the crushed remains? A HenTie?
LOL, I like your joke, HenTie with the Molestorb tentacle…. hehehe.
Hehe I got it too. +1
This has probably going to be answered on the next two pages, but no…I think Sydney wants Anvil to grab and throw V by his tongue.
Similar effect to lighting a stick of dynamite in a concrete box the size of a small closet…That extra force is going nowhere else & greatly concentrates the effect.
I would have assumed that would have broke his neck getting hit that hard. With that said, even if he started to regen, he’d still be a limp noodle until the vertebrae/spinal cord are reformed/regen’d.
Sadly, that does not appear to be the case, since his arms are still moving with purpose after that punch. Maybe Anvil can correct that minor issue, though.
Well, he is very tough. Just not indestructible, it seems.
No, but his tranchia is definitly crushed.
So no, or limited, breathing until that has regenerated, and that is currently blocked because the lighthook is in the way
If I was V, I’d be more afraid of getting thrown into the sun than any bodily injury. Staying anchored is probably his best bet.
An instant blunt-force trauma tracheotomy. That takes real skill to perform, and incredible toughness to even survive. Yup, he is tough, no doubt about that.
Well, we definitely saw an ‘equal and opposite reaction’ on the parking lot surface there.
Can’t wait to see what happens next. :-O
I passed over the physics until you mentioned it. If V is being shoved up with X tons of force, then Max should be shoved DOWN with X tons of force, driving her down into the parking lot. Either the anchor spell is reinforcing the pavement, or Max left a little in her flight stat to stabilize her position.
And as a plus, we have Sydney’s bruise, her wrist strap, V’s new teeth and his golden eye all present and accounted for.
Maxima’s strength power includes an anchoring ability, so maybe she’s reenforcing the pavement.
Yeah, that would be her Zero-Range TK.
TK: the most versatile and overpowered psychokinetic ability that exists.
And, technically, the most likely one to end up actually existing, given how quantum effects work, their ability to be influenced by human thought (RNG’s output skewed probability distributions around the times of major disasters), and the fact that humans, as a species, still don’t understand the limitations, or lack thereof, present in their own mental capabilities.
Nice hangman’s noose Syd!
I see, he still had the “Stay in place” glyphs going so that he could push down on Maxi with more force than his body weight. That worked against him, this time! Wonder what Anvil’s part of the plan is? Just have to wait until Thursday to find out :D.
Don’t worry, Dave, from the snippets you’ve dropped during the fight, you’ll do the slice of live stuff just fine.
We’ve seen that when vehemence pulls against the lighthook – he’s really pulling against Sydney at a distance. Solution? Have the kinetic absorber grab the free end of the noose. Presumably the lighthook will never break (or so we hope) and any tugging pulling or struggling V could produce would be absorbed by Anvil before it could carry through to tossing Sydney around.
If Anvil could counter pulling, V wouldn’t have been able to pick her up by her hair and fling her away earlier in the fight. She only absorbs kinetic energy from impacts, which pulling doesn’t count as.
More likely part of the plan had Hiro and Stalwart punching Anvil as much as possible during the delay (while they were also distracted by Dabbler’s jump-rope routine, yeah) to build up her energy stores so she could come in and contribute to the smashings.
I think, from the snippets we could see earlier, the plan is actually for someone to get Max to Falcon Punch Anvil so that we have TWO people with that crazy level of strength.
Anvil is also simply very strong.
And currently Vehemence doesn’t seem to be getting any air. Anvil doesn’t have to pull him on his back, she just has to stop him from getting out of the noose
All of them were seeing the powerfull hipnoboobs
Unlike Hiro and Stalwart Anvil is a grappling specialist and least likely to get murdercated by the powered up V. I’m thinking she’s going to get in on the chokings.
And V doesn’t seem to have a defense against Anvil other than trying to toss her out of the fight. Not an option at the moment.
Dang right it’s going to need to be resurfaced. I wonder if the people who repair Superhero collateral damage are an arm of the company that employ people to sneak around ancient tombs depositing health kits and power ups…
+1
Pretty sure it is. They used to have an automotive arm too, but the people hired to do the QA were wildly inconsistent. Some models would be able to withstand collisions at hundreds of miles per hour, while others would fall to pieces if you tapped a damp sponge. It marked the second failure in the company’s history, after their roadrunner trapping division went under amid a flurry of lawsuits.
I think their automotive branch had a sister-branch that arranged bullet wounds…
I do have to admire that one guy at the roadrunner trapping division – he had amazing artistic skills, and could paint a tunnel in a cliffside you would swear could be walked right into
Puts most professionals to shame.
Yeah, but their explosives division sucked horribly. The timers were never consistently advertised — hell, it almost seemed like the fuses were time-lord technology, re-purposed by Eros for amusement.
What about the guy who somehow manages to stick a rocket launcher into a clay pot?
Depends on the sizes of both.
Stinger rocket, in a flowerpot.
The rocket itself is fairly small. The actual launcher anything but.
THIS. I can see a webcomic based on this. And we can take Jee’s suggestion and name it 1-up. I LIKE this idea. Too bad I cant draw…..
S.H.A.D.O.W.
Webcomic about a company which repairs the damage inflicted by superfights and removes the memories of any witnesses
Are you sure that’s the name? Couldn’t find anything on it trying to search for it, and the premise sounds interesting.
I wonder if Archon has a construction company on retainer. I really hope they don’t own one. That leads to issues. Like delibrately causing damage, to make money repairing it. Still, I could see a construction company agreeing to reduced prices for exclusive rights to repairing these sort of damages. Especially if, say, Archon loaned them some of their employees for the jobs.
ARC-ITECT (Improved Engineering Taskforce for Collapsed Terrains) wouldn’t be paid to repair damage. First, they would be a government agency, which means that rentability would not be their objective (they couldn’t anyway). Second, this could be their main opportunity to prevent lawsuits and keep ARCHON on the positive side of public opinion.
+1
very nicely done
+2 – lovely acronym, too
Looks like the parking lot is being lifted, not cratered. That makes sense for Vehemence pulling the ground with him up, but there should be just as much force *down* where Maxima is. That kind of thing is tricky to work with though I guess.
On a side note, it took me a while to get what the flashback was referring to last comic and I think it would help if the important words ‘wasn’t ready’ were echoed or something for significance in flashback? Either way, great comic.
I’m pretty sure physics don’t work like that.
The middle plateau which there both standing on doesn’t seem to have broken, which means it must have take all forces completely.
now taking into account that every action has an equal and opposite reaction (in this case kinetic energy) then the force maxima put into vehemence must also be put into the plateau itself, while on the same time (because vehemence is anchored to that plateau) having an (nearly, assuming vehemence his body absorbs a part, ) equal force go up should cancel each other out! (classic blow your own sail scenario)
simplified:
plateau takes equal opposite force down from Maxima’s punch = -1P (P is the force of her punch)
plateau takes (nearly) equal force from Maxima’s punch hitting vehemence up ~1P
-1P + ~1P = ~0 P
(assuming the plateau can take all these forces as shown in the comic)
So,
either nothing should happen to the ground or there should be a downward force (difference between vehemence his body absorbing part of the energy and the energy that maxima put into the punch) or the result should be completely different (and more spectacular if you ask me), namely that the plateau should split in 2 in between vehemence and maxima, then an upward shock-wave effect (like in the comic) going from maxima to vehemence direction and an downward effect going the other way.
Also, did you notice that Sydney shield also seems to have protected against the moving plates in a perfect shield circle? meaning that either her shield is locked in place proportionally to the earth or must somehow be locked into the ground further beneath
There’s also Max’s Zero-Range TK linked with her strength. It could be stabilizing the ground in her immediate vicinity the same way she lifted that ambulance without it falling apart from uneven stresses.
Regardless of the effect on the patch of ground they are directly on, the rest of the concrete’s upheaval is from the shockwave caused by the impact
That does seem semi plausible as a reason why you wouldn’t get the split plateau effect the other physics man described in more detail. I’m still a little skeptical about it because that would imply the ground around Maxima would still stay level while Vehemence lifts it, creating a crater anyway, just a inertial one like Sydney’s rather than an active one. Granted, there’s a lot of wiggle room when it comes to super powered physics like that.
The main way to get the effect (sans powers) you see here is if Maxima ‘threw’ her punch so her zero-range TK was able to absorb it being thrown (no crater) but when it lands on Vehemence all that momentum and energy is transferred. Of course that is not at all how one effectively punches someone because you get so much more force out of it by continuing to punch after the initial throw. It’s a little late to draw it in and you can only think of so many things when building a comic like this, but a split level shock would have been really awesome to see.
What Midnight said about Max’s Zero-Range TK. As for Sydne’s shield, it’s probably locked into a set of spatial coordinates relative to Sydney, which can be adjusted. When It’s larger, but Sydney’s moving around inside it, it might have been locked by her to a location, and the orb calculates the appropriate coordinates for that ‘spot’, which Sydney has specified, instead, possible semi-sentiently, meaning it understands ‘There, that spot’ instead of ‘This distance away, relative to me’, as Sydney as touched the edge of her fore-field before. Note I am not in any way an expert on this, this just seemed like the best explantion I could come up with for what we’ve seen the force-field do.
Stop it! Don’t know know every time you apply real-world physics to a comic, a catgirl dies?!
Come on, man! Think of the poor, poor catgirls!
Do note, I have catgirl hunting licenses available so if you want to continue the conversation and kill some catgirls, please pay up.
We also provide cloning for catgirls to replenish the population. Sadly, a recent mishap in which someone boarded a shuttle thinking it was going to the killsats used for hunting catgirls (they love the laser designators and cluster under the plasma cannon target) and sabotaged it resulted in the deaths of several thousand young catgirls. But this catgirl hate crime and act of sabotage won’t stop the cloning facilities for long! (It’s just the next couple of batches of catgirls will have less education in order to get them out in time for the next hunt.)
Illegal killing of catgirls does rack up some sizable fines, however. Please be sure to purchase a catgirl hunting license. Just in case. You don’t want to run a catgirl over (poor things are attracted to headlights – they act like deer when a car is approaching) and get hit with a fine along with car repairs, do you?
I may be off-base, here, but I’m fairly certain that cat-girl licenses are only issued for the
capture-&-snuggle-&-release of said prey, seeing as how they’re on the “endangered species”-list.
:P
Said permit may be modified to include tagging with an “RFID”-chip before release, to help study their migratory patterns.
Yea, he’s trying to scam you. Don’t fall for it
You’ve not heard of the Great CatGirl Hunt of ’11, which resulted in the widescale decimation of the catgirl herds? My lawyers worked long and hard to ensure catgirls were not put on the endangered species list; any claims to the contrary is just claims by catgirl fanciers who can’t fathom the fact catgirls are dangerous and need to be controlled.
Hell, there was a massacre over at Something*Positive in which several people lost limbs and at least one was dismembered and devoured alive by pintsized catgirls who went on a killing frenzy when someone dissed their favorite catgirl webcomic. Fortunately, there was one smart person with a laser pointer and the catgirls were distracted away from devouring everyone.
As for them actually being endangered (no matter the fact they’re not on the Endangered Species List), that’s what the cloning facilities are for.
Don’t be fooled, those catgirls are deadly killers, look what happened to Lou: https://somethingpositive.net/sp11182008.shtml
Well, if he survives this, they are all beyond screwed,
Not so much “if he survives this” as “if he gets up afterwards”.
Since max went all strength shouldn’t she be out from the footstop? She had nothing in defense.
Max can “borrow from” the other attributes, but I don’t think she can completely “Zero out” any of them, so she would still have a minimum level of defense left.
She still has inate defencive powers, just not as much as when she spreads her extra points out over evertyhing
I think her innate defensive powers are basically “she’s literally made of metal.” Her biology is vastly different than most people, even most supers, and while she can turn off her defensive powers, she’s still made out of an unknown metal.
Or something that just looks shiny like metal.
no its no issue since she can use her muscles in her neck (and her other arm holding V his thumb) as counter force for V. Presumable her armour is stronger, and on top provides protection against lightning.
Footstop? If you mean from either A. Recoil from punch or B. Ground Shaking from shockwave of punch: Zero-Range TK. Which is an answer to a LOT of the problems with super-strength in super-hero stories.
I like how Sydney is how standing in a depression because the pavement around her force field has uplifted. (5th panel)
Wow, good eye. I had to go back & look at it again. but that little detail gives us a little more info about her shield’s capabilities, doesn’t it?
;)
Nice catch! But if the earth didn’t shift under her feet – why is Sydney losing her balance and saying “whoa”?
Even if the ground didn’t actually upheave, there’s still the non-dangerous tremors that might have conducted through the ground…Sydney’s shield (by the Word of Dave) works on a “threshhold principle,” in that normal, non-dangerous stuff gets through (like light, so she can see) but dangerous levels of the same stuff (like lasers) won’t.
Yup, low non-harmful and or comedic levels of energy but no physical material gets through. I think even slightly harmful levels of energy could get through if it was funny enough given that being knocked around enough to possibly fall on your arse is slightly harmful.
Hmmm…while lying on the beach, would the shield prevent sunburn while letting enough sun through for a nice tan?
…Inquiring minds want to know…
Well, a tan is a defensive reaction to damaging levels of the sun’s radiation so I guess no. (Sydney will keep it up 24/7 when she figures that out) Which also means that her orbs somehow know what she can take and adjusted semi-intelligently. There HAS to be an AI in one of the orbs or a little AI in all of them. If it was sentient after a fashion that would be kind of creepy… Sydney would be Halo the Slave Master!
Or it could be magic.
Some sun tans certainly do seem like Heavenly Magic. Others… maybe they come from the other place…
Yeah, there’s probably some sort of ‘programming’ in the orbs, though they’re probably not self-aware. At least I hope they aren’t.
Perhaps one of the mystery Orbs is some sort of “Health Status”-monitor, that measures her well-being, determines what will be allowed to penetrate, & how much is a safe amount…?
It could also be a twitch reaction. She saw the whole area in an upheaval and braced herself for being tossed around, and when it didn’t, she was off balance. Like if you think something is gonna hit you and you flinch hard enough to stumble. And as for the Woah? localized earthquake from a punch is totally woah-worthy.
Sort of like forgetting that there’s still one more step at the bottom of the stairs, huh?
;)
Tomorrow morning at the comic shop:
Joel: Did you meet anyone interesting at your dinner party last night?
Sydney: There was this one new guy who had an interest in me.
Joel: What happened?
Sydney: I felt the earth move.
I died a little just now.
wouldn’t that be “WE felt the earth move…like a 6.7 earthquake.” While on the news “6.7 earthquake centered on Johnston street”
More like, we MADE the earth move
Be fun to rewrite the entire thing that way. (borrowing heavily from the giants who commented before me. :) )
Tomorrow morning at the comic shop:
Joel: Did you meet anyone interesting at your dinner party last night?
Sydney: There was this one new guy who had an interest in me.
Joel: What happened?
Sydney: He showed up with a bunch of party crashers. He seemed cool. Fun to talk to. Really playful to. He had some great moves and all the girls wanted to dance with him. I thought I had a chance to lasso him but then he started hitting on Maxima like I wasn’t even there…
Joel: That sucks.
Sydney: Tell me about it but then at the last minute I really put myself out there, laid all my cards on the table and exposed all my vulnerabilities and he really truly saw ME for the first time that night!
Joel: Whoa, aaand then??
Sydney: I felt the earth move.
Oh great, now we’ve got shippers.
We’ve always had those. They just got drowned out by the Vehemence Pro/Con “debates” of recent months…
It’s an infestation of shippers. You know what to do.
Yup. Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
There’s only one way to handle “shippers”…
…DOCK their pay!
(…groan… …twitch…)
…I think I hurt myself…
…
I’m not sure if that is good or bad
I had to really crane my head around and pier at your comment to get that one.
I guess footstomp isnt really correct mmm bleed off from max’s punch? There is a shockwave effect and she should be affecred.
Even when not (ahem) “Maxing” her defence, she’s still plenty tougher than a normal human. If Jiggawatt can survive the blast (and she appears to have), then Max should have no problems. Mind you, I hope someone is ready to catch Jiggawatt, as it would seem unfair for her to start the plan rolling and just get literally tossed aside :-/. I would assume Anvil is going to stop V from breaking the chokeorb’s hold, but seeing all my guesses have been wrong so far, I guess I’m waiting for Thursday like the rest of us :-)
One point, with all the comments of “why doesn’t Sydney just force field V and wait for him to run out of oxygen”, I don’t recall anyone suggesting strangling him with the lighthook to get the same effect (ok, with a big help from Maxima). Three steps ahead people, It’s plain DaveB is there already :-)
“but seeing all my guesses have been wrong so far” -> “I guess I’m waiting for Thursday like the rest of us”
Doesn’t that mean that you will be stuck waiting for example for next Monday, while the rest of us will only have to wait for Thursday? *ducks*
(could be tomorrow too, I guess)
“chokeorb’s hold” XD that’s perfect
Choking with the hentaiorb has been suggested, but the general consensus was it probably wasn’t strong enough to get the job done. If his neck has already been crushed and Anvil helps out on the other hand…
What do you mean with footstomp? The little panel showing Vehemence’s foot? That’s his magic ancoring him to the ground, not a stomp
Really wish you’d have posted this as a reply to your other comment, Ironwolf. I would have removed parts of that post, since others said some of it here. And, as I and others have said above, Max’s strength is Zero-Range TK, which she might have used to stablize herself and absorb (some of?) the counter-force from her punch/hold the ground underneath her together. Which also explains why her hand isn’t harmed by the force of her punch.
Resurfaced nothing. They are going to have to strip it all off, and redo the basing materials as well. So pretty much totally rebuilt.
They’ll probably have to re-level the ground before they start laying the basing too.
Thats a part of basing. Essentially the entire area (likely including sub-surface supports beams) is likely junked.
Not to mention underground electrical line, gas and possible sewer pipes. With that much sudden upheaval, its pretty much assured that it’ll all need to be checked and replaced.
No way! Rope it off, leave it as is, build a wall to hide it, and then sell tickets to tourists as the site of the first major superhero/villain battle. This is business, people.
“Drat! the lack of oxygen, my one true weakness”
“Being punched in the throat with enough force to send an elephant to the moon! My other one true weakness!…I’m getting a lot of these lately.”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/589
Uh, were you referencing back to Sydney’s weakness with mittens, or being riddled with bullets?
O.o
both?
Either/or, Vehemence doesn’t really share those weaknesses with Sydney…
He’s merely referencing the ‘weakness’ theme. Like being unable to breathe through the new hole on his throat is his weakness. :-)
‘Drat, something able to cause major physical harm to me, my one weakness! Aside from ice-cream! I LOVE ICE-CREAM!’
Boobs! My one… TWO true weaknesses!
I think 1 of 2 different possible weakness may manifest here.
Either the “lighthook” will…
1)__block the “regen” until she lets go,
2)__or worse, it forces the throat to be re-built in a crumpled, constricted form.
In either event, the net effect should be a severely reduced oxygen intake.
Don’t pave over the lot. You put down a sigh saying this is what happens when you eff with Arc and show it to tourists! Photos in the crater are five dollars a head children are free.
+1
This is Arianna we are talking about, it would be $14 a head, kids under 10 are free
I wonder how Anvil will play a part in this. Her power is kinetic absorbtion, but could she also perhaps drain Vehemence the way Death Toll drained her?
We’ll find out.
Note that Anvil has gone close quarters with V before (with mixed results), and there was no indication that she could drain Vehemence then.
That is why I was wondering what Anvil could do in this situation as well. The only times, so far, she was effective against Vehemence was when he punched her and she punched back. They didn’t know that Vehemence was storing power as well back then though.
If she gets s good grapple on him, she would absorb any attempts to get her off, which would make her stronger and harder to get off. Preventing him from stopping the light hook, and increasing the likely hood he passes out.
Betting she grabs the free end of the lighthook, Sydney can’t hold V with the lighthook by herself, not enough mass to counteract him pulling it. But Anvil could hold V’s leash just fine.
nope -V would just electrify Anvil and that’d be that.
We’d have to see V able to electrify normal skin, instead of just his steel arm.
Does the Lighthook conduct electricity?
You’re assuming the light-hook is conductive.
You’re asuming he can focus on anything other than flayling madly with a noose tied around his neck
That was before he was stuck on the ground and choked. He’s kind of a sitting duck at the moment, Anvil should be able to connect. The idea is to drain him, I suppose.
My current theory is that Sidney will let go, or at least loosen the henticle, which will obviously send V flying forwards and into Anvil, to drain him and power her up.
So far we have had zero indication that Anvil drains anything from anyone.
She simply absorbs the energy already being expanded.
So no, this is just like those suggestions that Sydney should ‘trap V in her shield so he’ll suffocate’
She’s also limited to extreme forces, I.E. impacts, it seems. Otherwise, well, gravity pulling is kinetic energy, so she could absorb that and float. She’d have no form of propulsion, mind, or at least not a decent one, but she could float. Yeah, I had the idea for a character with the power to absorb most forms of energy, at range, store the energy, then use it produce any of the energy types he can absorb. Then I realized just how INSANELY powerful it was. For example, hovering like that? You gain power, instead of expending it. Same with creating darkness (by absorbing light), or extreme cold (by absorbing heat). Flat-out kinetic absorbtion is less insane, but still pretty exploitable.
*gravity pulling you down (We really need a comment editing system on here)
What if Anvil was to place her palm on your chest and absorbed the kinetic energy of your chest expanding when you breathe? Could she suffocate you that way by not allowing your diaphragm to expand? Interesting way to kill someone. Could theoretically stop someone’s heart that way too.
That might kill him, but he’d have plenty of time to get her off (by pulling on her hair)
Anvil take the hook and preven V from throwing Syd.
My guess is that Anvil grabs onto the light hook, then holds its end keeping it on V’s neck, while he flails around wildly trying to yank the light hook off, which will have the side effect of slamming her into the parking lot, nearby buildings, trees, etc. None of which actually hurts her, and in the bargain makes her able to keep her grip more firmly on the light hook.
I SWEAR BY THE INTERNET GAWDS
this comic’s update and the free coffee they serve at work on Monday’s are the best parts of my Monday’s.
Also… Broken Thumb! Totally called it.
well i always threaten to throat punch a dumb bastard but ouch
“I don’t always threaten to throat an annoying bast**d, but when I do, I make sure to not be bluffing.”
~ World’s Most Interesting Man
His tattoos just dropped in colour in some fashion too. Not so much yellower as duller, and I think even duller again between panels 6 and 8.
If his tattoos go by the visible spectrum of light, starting at violet/blue, then it’s possible he’s going further towards red, which is why the tattoos look darker. So he’s still gaining power, if that bit’s correct.
Well, he is getting a tonne of violence expended on his behalf (and his anatomy). The question is whether he can be subdued faster than he gets charged by the subduing.
This moment is ruined only by the knowledge that V will be a recurring villain.
I bet they kill him.
That just means he won’t die. He can still almost die and spend 2 years in the prison hospital
And near death experience plus coma leads to full body evolution. Why not?
It’s a comic book. He could “die,” but later they find out he’s not really dead, magically came back, received the robocop treatment, made a deal with a devil, was a clone/robot, etc. I mean, how many times has Jean Grey died now?
Was really a demon all along and “dying” sent him back to his proper plane/form…
ah, look who’s so smart…
I’ll have you know he’s only MOSTLY dead
Seriously?
Do *YOU* wanna be the volunteer who gets to go thru his pockets for loose change?
Better you than me, Dude.
The hard part will be finding what’s left of his original pants.
As the ones he is wearing now are magical pants.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1554
Well, not outright stated by stringly implied to make a comeback. And two comics later in the commentary we get:
“In RPG terms, he basically has nearly any power he wants now, but he’s paying a big cost penalty for making them up on the spot. That’s fine with him though as his current pool is wide and deep.”
The problem is that V simply teleporting out of reach is within the realm of possibility and would be VERY unsatisfying end to this battle.
Said comment also nicely sums up my biggest problem with V and I consider a weakness in otherwise very good power system.
I still only see Vehemence with one real power. It would be the same way with a wizard with 100 spells known & access to a very strong “mana pool.” The only real power involved here is “Wizardry.”
I felt that way initially. Lots of people do. It makes tons of sense and makes a lot of what he does hurt ones head less.
Dave hasn’t come right out against it (V the wizard [we’re off to beat the wizard. The vonderful wizard of V!) but in his posts and such he does seem to be suggesting its one off “whatever he wants” powers with “high cost” caused by a huge pool of collected energy rather than spells V actually has spent time learning/developing. (that quote in Schezuan’s post is from DaveB) Basically being a wizard previously to this is not something Dave wants for this character. He probably feels it would make him overpowered when actually being able to write your own powers is probably more damaging. *shrugs* At least we still have the hoops he has to jump through to get to this power level where he can manifest whatever he wants. That’s a good weakness to start with. Even Peggy could have ended him after he had absorbed most of the initial super brawl.
But I feel yah. I REALLY wanted the wizard/sorcerer angle as well since very little else feels right given what he’s been pulling. High priest to an elder being that can grant abilities on the fly and host to/disguise for an experienced demon were other acceptable possibilities.
Perhaps there is a limiting effect to his power though. This is vehemic energy. Perhaps it can only be used for combat purposes? Creating armor (Ka-Pants), getting bigger, stronger, buffing himself and creating attacks. Maybe this flavor of energy can’t work in passive ways like running away? Or perhaps the cost would be ridiculously high. It would be a logical limit I’d think.The energy is violent in nature co can only be used in violent ways.
The armor end of combat isn’t very violent and if it extends to Ka-Pants it can be extended to anything that gets between him and damage really. Armor basically is passive and running away is also a tactic in combat (regroup and attack again).
Flying on the other hand is very active and would open up tons of new ways to actually attack.
Powers I would expect if it was “flavored” by violence? Super strength (I’ll give a pass to the required secondary power durability… why not), false hit points (he’s immortal till you take out his brain or he runs out of gas basically sort of the ultimate supernatural beserker) but if he has no way to heal up he will burn through his power pool quickly once he acquires normally fatal wounds, disintegration field at the higher end of his power pool, destructive beams or balls of energy, the shown violence aura, resistance to mind controlling spells trying to get him to do anything non-violent like sleep, some kind of violence sense which means he can sense the beginnings of earthquakes/storms/rock slides even if he can’t quite feed that far if he’s within a mile or two of the source and he can dodge darn near any attack done by a sentient being or near sentient being because he can sense the gathering intent to commit violence and the closer he gets to the actual release of that intent’s violence the better picture of the upcoming attacks nature and power level he gets. With that last one he could dodge anything life threatening until he powers up. So yeah, I could probably go on all day but these alone plus the level of strategy we’ve seen from him already make him capable of being a major threat to the whole team without the need for the anchor, growth or Ka-Pants.
Well, that was actually kind of fun. Thanks for the idea.
I’m not sure I’d necessarily credit Ka-Pants as armour. As I see it, they could easily be taken as a ‘free action’ from DaveB rather than a ‘points action’ of V.
The bursting trousers highlight the expansion and point up the likes of the Hulk, but the exposed “Oh My” would trash the nudity-PG rating. So DaveB donates a Ka-Pants, with no apparent bonuses other than being clothing, and business proceeds.
‘Instant Change’ costs a mere 5 points in the old Champions RPG system. 10 points if the Character wants to vary his wardrobe. Vehemence’s ‘Ka-Pants’ is clearly just a minor variant of that.
Man, I haven’t played Champions since college. It was a blast.
Favorite character of mine: Polarity. Vari-pool, special effect “Reverse natural laws”
Classic Champions character built by my best friend.
‘Bonsai’ – yes, the character was Japanese, and liked to yell “BONSAI” in battle (Think about it). Main power set used the infamous Transformation Attack rules, for which he had three basic variations:
(1) Shrink target to six inches height (or less)
(2) Shrink target, but NOT his/her clothing, foci, etc.
(3) Shrink target’s clothing, foci, etc., but NOT the target.
Sadly, Bonsai never got much of an outing. Our first scenario, the Ref pitted the team against a sea monster (basically a Megalodon on steroids). First round of combat, Bonsai shrank it to the size of a goldfish, which another PC then scooped up (with TK) and installed in a decorative aquarium at our base.
(Bonsai then arranged for the beast to be periodically zapped with his shrink ray, so it couldn’t get back to full size).
The Ref went straight back to D&D after that experience, and never spoke of Champions again.
Great days.
Verily! I am vhipped to vexatious vitriol by the visage of vicious villain that is Vehemence, the Vonderful Vizard of Veaponized Violence, voraciously volfing a vealth of vreckage. My verbiage vill be vindictive lest he is vanquished with vengeance!
(Thanks to Observer and V for Vendetta for inspiration.)
As it has come, V is effectively a wizard and very similar to the only properly known demon around. Dabbler can be assumed to be symmetric in power, but V is now pumped, D is not so he can just ignore any spell due to Power Levels (“Chutzpah”).
Like I’ve said before, “(Do Anything With) Magic” is a terrible power unless defined and limited somehow, because it kills suspense – any situation can be solved by it. I still can assume that V can simply magic himself to top again – the only thing holding him back in the second to last panel is his reaction speed.
Magic outside of what’s familiar to him likely takes focus (like KA-PANTS seemed to). Heck, seems like his powers in general take a second or two to manifest. They also probably drain more power than magic he’s used to. Although Dabbler did say that succubi were ‘Tantric Psionoclasts (sp?)’ earlier, and implied that V was a Vistric Psionoclast…so maybe it’s psy-based. They use energy from certain emotions to manifest various effects. Which would require a certain amount of focus. Or maybe it’s a mixed of psychic powers and magic. Hm…
Well you saw that suit. He cares about how he’s dressed. He probably just kept imagining and reimagining designs for the Ka-Pants.
But yeah, if you consider him to be casting then he is doing it without any kind of components at all. Dave seems to be indicating he is just grabbing chunks of his huge power pool and shaping it with his will like a god but without any of the knowledge of such an elder being with no errors, slight fumbles, retries or nothin. (psi’s still have to train or something yeah? ) Just POOF! Brand new never before tried effect perfect on the first try. I have this puppy who just got to full dog size recently. TONS of power and energy. Can travel up to car speeds and has great control as far as tendons and such working. Still wipes out and thumps into things often when trying something new because she doesn’t have the experience to go with it. Power isn’t everything. But this is old hat for anybody that reads what I’ve been writing for a while now…
I would hazard a guess that a similar storytelling problem existed with the early incarnation of DC’s Spectre, as well as the newspaper comic-strip “Mandrake the Magician”.
And if I had to guess, Anvil will grab the lighthook close to the orb and try to pull on it to either choke V out or pull him off the ground, Plus that will give Maxima time to finish extricating herself from her pinned position.
I like this guess. Even if Sidney is not strong enough to do anything to V using the lighthook, the lighthook itself might be tough enough to be used as a noose by a super-strength type.
I think it’s mainly there to stop his trachea from healing. and strangulation
I think she needs Anvil to help pull the noose tight so he can’t regenerate. The light hook isn’t powerful enough to hold against V’s current strength on its own. He’d just rip it off.
I’m gonna guess that Max is going to slip Anvil some kinetic energy as part of The Plan. And I think they’re going to keep playing into his need to breathe.
And this is Sydney’s First Day, too! No wonder she makes corporal later!
No, there’s no way Maxima could have been informed of the plan, so she can’t be part of it
Part of the plan looks like it’s “get max to” if you look back on the page with Jiggawatt doing her thing.
Sorry, it’s “get Max to hit”. You can read some of the message on Jiggawatt’s phone.
“get Max to hit Anvil”, maybe?
Well, Max was smart enough to figure out:
(1) break thumb (nearly off!)
(2) hit V so hard his grandma was knocked unconscious
Next: play along with whatever horrible outcome Sydney has planned.
She specifically hit him in the throat as Sydney gestured in the second panel
You’re right, I missed that first time I read it.
That whole block is going to look like a Fallout 3 live action game area complete with background radiation.
Gawd, now you have me imagining FO3 cosplayers.
“The horror, the utter horror.”
Ghouls, Supermutants and Raiders oh my.
Hey now, a couple of the Raider’s armors are kinda smexy in a post-apocalyptic kinda way.
Sydney’s gonna get a raise
If it weren’t for his feet being anchored, V would have already gotten one…
I think that ‘crack’ sound, was his thumb ..l
Ok who is supposed to catch Jiggawatt?
Nobody.
She can just arc-jump to safe ground as a electric bolt.
I will, I will.
Shocking.
guaranteed to give you a charge.
Yes, it will be electrifying .
And I shall wear my rubber speedo and flipflops, and nothing else.
X_X
Wow! That was enough to leave vehemence…speechless.
…I bet they were getting tired of his bragging anyway, right?
:P
“I’d pay real money if he’d just shut up.”
I wonder how much the payment was…
;)
I imagine they’re STILL paying – in monthly installments!
Something about this puts me in mind of the old story about the guy who gets his genitals caught in a bear trap. (Quick pause as we all flinch from THAT mental picture)
Afterwards, in hospital, the guy tells a friend that the experience was the second worst pain he ever felt in his life.
When asked, he clarifies that the worst pain happened a half-second later, when he hit the end of the beartrap’s chain.
Thinking that Sydney’s plan may have something of the same quality. Not the genital-targeting, but rather “If you thought THAT was bad …“.
Wait… Are you suggesting the bear trap was MOVING at the time?
No. Abd I have zero idea what you think you are getting at.
According to the phrasing used, the bear trap was moving…right along with the guy running…until he reached the end of the chain.
I see.
I can’t imagine that actually hurting MORE than the trap clapping shut though.
The initial “catch” probably hurt pretty bad, but imagine that being followed by a “yank”…
“I’ve hurt you. and I want to go on hurting you.”
~Khan Noonian Singh
Well put, and well-quoted. :)
That still sounds more painful than this Darwin Award winner (https://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1996-07.html)…This poor sap only hurt for a fraction of a second or so.
Clearly they should sell off the ruins of the parking lot and restaurant, probably pieces of it, as super battle souvenir’s. I can see the dollar signs in arianna’s eyes now.
So, a few things going on here we should look at. First is the kinetic shockwave released by Maxima’s impact. It’s not a perfectly efficient motion, so Anvil will be picking up on that at least in part. We also need to look at how Anvil has a certain amount of super-strength, even without taking in energy, it’s just that her kinetic absorption gives her a far higher limit than others.
I’m expecting her part to play being contributing to the Lighthook’s strength. While V is anchored to his local area of the ground, that ground is no longer anchored to anything else, making him heavier but not quite as sure-footed as he hoped.
We should probably also note the fact that now he’s much more concerned by Sydney clamping down on his neck, and is no longer pinning Maxima even if his strength could keep up with her on overcharge. Though I don’t know Maxima’s role in this, I’m expecting an Exponential Piledriver from Anvil (due to their powers, Anvil is the only one who could theoretically actually pull this off. Max can’t do a move like that according to her abilities.)
Or possibly she grabs the lighthook and spins him like he did with her hair earlier. At this point, throwing him over the horizon looks like a good option.
Or into a large body of water, that would help with the preventing him from breathing bit.
I was thinking that, but I felt like she might be a little low on energy. Besides, Lighthook appears to be more of a controlled manifestation rather than a force in itself. Sydney creates it and can move it around with a certain amount of power, but not beyond that, as if the Lighthook has a really low top speed in every scenario. I would’ve suggested along those lines, it just didn’t seem like that’s the way the orbs work.
He could just lash out with magic and just stop the fight cold.
Something like mass sleep/knockout spell, or just huge blast attack would likely render everyone but Sydney and maybe Dabbler and/or Maxima unconscious. More likely – get both of them as well, since Maxima has no defense versus mind-attack (As far as we know), and he is way more powerful than Dabbler now.
Then he could either kill or just ignore Sydney, murder Maxima and walk away.
Or restart the fight back with his aggro aura, to get back the expended energy if he really wants to.
Sydney’s plan so far could have gone wrong a bunch of ways. Obviously it’ll work, because the narrative requires it, but I think she’s in for a dressing down about thinking these things through.
Of course, she won’t be the only one. Pretty much all of ArcSWAT made some mistakes tonight. Dabbler, for example, defending her pride trying to win a swordfight with Heavenly Sword.
A dressing down? Sure it could have gone wrong in many ways, but that’s the risk you take when it comes to throwing together a plan on the spot. I think it would be pretty terrible to take Sydney to task for all the flaws in a plan that she had literally seconds to put together when the person yelling at her has had days to think everything through. The fact that she came up with a decent plan at all is a miracle.
I agree that she shouldn’t get a dressing down; on the other hand, she should get a sit down during the debrief where her plan gets picked apart as they go over ways the plan did break as well as ways it could have potentially broken. That’s the way you learn to make your future plans better, especially if it can be done in a way that doesn’t make you defensive.
That’s what they refer to as a Debriefing Session.
;)
Because you feel like you’ve been verbally stripped naked in front of a critical audience?
That too.
But Vehemence actually initiated his own session, right there…He’s the only one to blame for that one.
“If it is stupid and it works, then it ain’t stupid”.
Agreed that any debriefing afterwards might dwell on the flaws of Sydney’s plan. HOWEVER, one would also have to consider what other options existed at this stage, and I don’t think there were a lot.
She basically saved her boss/commanding officer’s life. Doubt she’ll get yelled at.
Just noticed, it looks like Sydney turned V a full 90 degrees. She was at his left shoulder to start with, now his back is to her. Since his regen takes concentration to heal, and the fact that Sydney interrupted that concentration, he still has a broken/dislocated thumb, so even less likely to be able to pry the lighthook off.
The fact that she turned him might mean his feet aren’t anchored anymore either.
She DID think it through, in true Sydney fashion.
ANY plan could go wrong in a bunch of ways, especially against unknown supers. Fact that no one else up to this point came up with anything to beat V (and in fact ended up part of his magical battle royals) makes a dress down to be highly hypocritical.
She’s not even a rookie. She is barely a recruit. The ink on her contract can probably still be smudged. He commanding officer cleared her for some action and then everything went pear shaped as the entire team basically folded to V. Max, the strongest and most experienced, had several rounds with V and was rendered helpless. Nobody had a plan. Mostly because they were violence zombies… After ALL else failed, like every damn thing, the complete newb chose to act. She won. The military puts a lot of stock in winning.
She will get lots of pats on the head, congratulated in front of throngs of press and then they can start her first day of training where they will have to work super hard to shrink her head back down to normal size and explain all the things that COULD have gone wrong. She will be harder to reason with maybe now that she is The Hero of the Steakhouse Super Brawl.
Agreed. Yes her plan was patchwork and has flaws. EVERY plan has flaws. However, seeing as everyone else’s plan seemed to be “stand ar I understand and watch Maxima get killed”. And she’ll be forgiven for giving irders. There is actually nothing wrong with someone with lower rank giving orders to someone higher rank, as long as 1. The higher rank people don’t object, and those orders don’t countermand and standing orders. Just remember maxim #2 in 70 Maxims Of Highly Effective Mercenaries. “A Sargent in motion out ranks a lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on.” https://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries
Wiw, stupid autocorrect. That was supposed to be, “Stand around and watch Maxima get killed”.
You’re agreeing with me but in a way that suggests you think you are disagreeing with me?
Heh, well, its hardly the first time that’s happened. I tend to create walls of text. Or I suppose you could have meant to reply to the OP and somehow got me instead?
Well, we do learn the hentacle has some level of super strength, since it was strong enough to do that to V as well.
Though, he still looks to have a hold of her when she maxed out the super strength before punching him in the throat.
She mentioned early on, during the powers reveal, that she’s picked up a car with the hentacle.
V seems to be missing an arm crystal in panel 5. Also broken thumb, ow.
Max had a hold on the crystal on the back of V’s hand & it certainly does look like it’s broken off in panel 5, even at that wide scene.
In panel 1, that “crack” could be either the crystal breaking off or V’s thumb snapping (even though panel 5 still shows V’s thumb still attached). But when Max hit V’s neck, her hand was closed into a tight fist, with no room to have a crystal fragment in it. It would’ve been easier to see if Max had used something like a palm-strike.
And it really does look like a solid, blue piece of crystal in the middle of the purple glow stuck in his neck. To me, it just looks like a few conflicting clues that would seem to cancel each other out.
No I meant that the crystal from his forearm is missing, as in it was there a page or 2 ago, but Dave forgot it here.
I see what you mean.
In the wide-shot, you can see that the crystal that Max attacked is still on his hand, but there’s a crystal missing from the arm-space between his hand & the trio of crystals on his shoulder.
The “crack” is clearly his thumb breaking, but not being ripped off. That’s Maxima getting free. She then throat cocks him at FULL strength, not just her native strength. The glow is his regeneration, brightening to white at the center as it’s working overtime to restore his pharynx before he chokes and suffocates.
The crystal Max was gripping was the one on the back of his hand and that one is still there. The one on his forearm where his tattoo does a circular bit seems to be missing in the wide shot though.
Maybe it is just me…
but the way Halo’s hands are in the last panel kind of look like she’s about to Draw a Yu-Gi-Oh card…
Not to be THAT guy, but if the Lighthook went around his neck from behind, then the tip went over the top of the strand, shouldn’t the loops of the noose be going in the other direction?
The only way the Lighthook could loop like that was if it was more of a “twist-tie” turn instead of a noose loop, but the last panel shows that it is indeed tied off as a make-shift noose.
I don’t think it’s a noose, they’re just wound around each other.
It is an attempt at a makeshift noose knot, but they aren’t twisted around each other.
The last panel definitely shows the end of the tendril is looping around multiple times. If they were twisted together, they would look more like a helix/braid twist.
Hm. Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree, I guess. To my eyes it is a simple drawing of two strands twisted together. It looks just like when you twist wire. The tip doesn’t look like it’s going in a different direction, it’s just coming out loose from underneath in the same direction the rest of the strand it twisted… To think of it, seems like it’d be quite tricky to actually tie a complex knot such as a noose with her light hook, anyway. I imagine it would take practice, considering that it does with normal rope.
Soo, you (we both) may be over-thinking it. ;)
But. If we’re going there: a noose knot doesn’t twist together at the bottom like that. It’s very different at the base.
Here is a graphic to explain what I mean: https://www.predatek.com/dg/hn_knot.gif
In this case, alternately, the “twist” is consistent down the length. The strand doesn’t run back through the middle.
And it doesn’t need to be a noose, just twisting wire is very effective as a stopper when you’re trying to work quickly, and secure something (like when soldering). Nooses don’t actually secure anything, because they need gravity to become tighter. And I don’t think Sydney’s tiny body would be enough. :) So, a noose wouldn’t really be very useful here, anyway.
But when all is said and done, if it still bothers you, just remember — ultimately since it’s a comic, it gets physics allowances. :p
Oops, botched that quote/reply all to hell. Well, you know what part is yours…
It went under first.
Funny thing is, with hands that big it is extra hard to get hold of the light hook.
Good thing they just recruited Sydney! They wouldn’t be in a good spot without her! For me this was the most exciting page to date. They had better show some major respect after this. Just sayin’. ahem. GO SYDNEY!!!! RAAAAAHHH *foams at the mouth like that dude from avatar*
Well if they hadn’t recruited Sydney Max wouldn’t have done her massive fireball demonstration and wouldn’t have attracted V’s attention (at least not so soon).
I’m certain that Max always had in mind some kind of demonstration above and W-A-Y beyond Arianna’s dog-n-pony show. It’s just that Sydney’s appearance enabled her to ramp things up.
The team would still have been announced, and Vehemence would still have seen it.
No way he’d pass up on such a load of potential violence, even if Maxima didn’t apear that strong