Grrl Power #850 – Puni of the titans
Vale is by far weirdest character I’ve come up with, I think. Her powerset is a little confusing, and we’ve hardly seen her do anything. She seems to be some sort of ectoplasmic… thing, riding around in human shaped exoskeleton?
I’m not sure what’s got Vale’s dander up tonight. Her and Max have met before. I’m pretty sure. They must have. Oh, right, back when Sydney got her air recycler thing. For a moment there I was thinking they’d never been on the same page together, but they still would have obviously met off panel long before then since Deus is supplying gear to Archon, and him and Max had taken several meetings together.
So a lot of good information about people with dual citizenship trying to claim some sort of ambassadorial diplomatic immunity posted in the comments of the previous comic. The consensus seemed to be… probably not possible, but maybe possible, especially if the person in question had a lot of connections and had lunch with the Secretary of State every so often – BUT – most likely it’s something Deus waves around when he comes across some sort of law enforcement that hasn’t done their homework. He’s kooky that way. And if nothing else looks like it’s going to work, he can always fall back on the lawyer zerg rush.
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She gay for Max?
Well Vale does seem to be acting like Combat is a form of foreplay in this scene.
Yet considering what she is, I’m not sure any human idea of sexuality applies to her.
Do we actually know if she’s a eldritch whatever or just a really strange super?
Pretty sure she is a shoggoth in a skinsuit.
Sciona did say she wasn’t a super,
but then again I am not a fan of establishing things because miscellaneous character said it. They can always be mistaken, or simply not have all the facts. After all not like eldritch powers, or even just various gas morphing powers aren’t unprecedented in super characters in main stream comics.
But when does an alien being either cese to be a “super”, or become one?
What is the definition of a “super”?
any being possessing metaphysical abilities outside the normal limitations of their species.
A “super” vampire for example can be a day walker. (although super classifications do get complicated when applying to supernatural beings)
generally each species “super” classifications are treated separately from one another.
or
if the alien is among a species with less abilities, they can be classified as “super” so long as not too many of their kind are around for comparison (Martian Man Hunter), (Super Man), for example are considered Supers on Earth, but only in relation to humans, but wouldn’t be considered as such if they were among their own kind in a situation where their abilities would be the norm.
So Sciona is saying “She’s not an Earth-human super”. Which seems to make a kind of believable sense.
Most likely.
One can argue Sciona simply never encountered a super with these abilities. After all had Sciona attacked Concretia while possessing some substance the result would have been the same, broken shell, spirit like essence underneath; just a different visible aesthetic.
But it is reasonable to assume either Sciona is unfamiliar with what Vale is or never seen that power before so came to the conclusion she’s not a human-super; or did recognize what she is and stood down from that point on. Either way Vale clearly frightened her, of course either way her experience told her two things (this individual is stronger than her, and she can’t hurt this individual).
While one can argue that Sciona has simply never encountered a super with Vale’s abilities, we do know that Sciona has done at least some significant research on supers – enough to be able to temporarily take their abilities via blood magic. So I’m making an assumption that this is different than any of her studies on supers, and therefore she does not think Vale is a super at all.
You saying that trolls are, in fact, super humans? :thinking:
But then, some supers don’t have natural forms that look like humanoid species. Some of these supers, while meeting Rhuen’s definition, don’t have “blood” in any sense we — or Sciona — can recognise.
So, yeah, Sciona has arrived at a “correct” conclusion. But still recognises Vale is simply too dangerous to play with.
“Super” in Grrl Power seems to have a very specific meaning of people spontaneously developing powers along with an idealized physique, presumably by the same process, although no one knows what it is.
Humans with super powers who aren’t classified as supers include Sydney, Math and likely Krona, and there’s also vampires and werewolves who started off as humans. Maxima is both a super and got powers from an artifact, which by itself apparently wouldn’t have made her a super.
Vale could be a human who got changed by a strange artifact, like Sydney, or “infected”, like vampires and werewolves, or possessed by something, and possibly a super on top of that, or she could be a strange alien, or just a super with a very strange power.
While Sciona seems to have done her homework, we don’t know whether her reasoning is valid, given the strange forms supers can take, see Rhuen’s post.
On that matter, are we sure whether Vehemence is a super?
I’d take Vehemence as a super: he “absorbs” violence, which strengthens him. I’m not sure he requires ambient violence to simply live, like food.
Nothing follows from this, though. We don’t even know whether actual Malumi need violence, and we don’t know what othes ways to get vehemic powers exist. If anything, Supers seem to have their own power source.
And remember, my main point is that ‘human with super powers’ doesn’t imply ‘Super’, it seems to imply a specific source, although in practice it’s most likely, “gained powers spontaneously, along with super physique, we’ll call them a super.”
Thinking on it, ‘innate’ user of vehemic energy sounds like he was born with, and if I recall correctly supers develop their powers at some point. But that’s fairly weak evidence.
“born with“… “develop their powers at some point”
Nothing to say they don’t get/develop their powers in the womb. OTOH, Vehemence could have caused his Mom a ton of grief, possibly leading to an abortion, so maybe no significant powers as a foetus, but could be as an infant.
We note that in at least one story arc Supes as a baby was fairly “normal”, he didn’t really develop powers until something that looked like puberty. Maybe that was lack of exposure to the Sun?
I’m somewhat under-educated in the matter of comic-book supers, but I’ve seen nothing that indicates (fully) developed powers at an early age. In Wolverine: Origin we see that young James Howlett had no extant powers until he’s around 10, when the Logans return to rob the Howlett estate. But there is a hint that the Howlett/Wolverine claws may well be a genetic trait, however no clues are given about their origin.
I would expect child supers to develop slowly, like “normal” kids. I’ve seen some fun in a couple of online comics where the kids have “well developed” powers, but after a while those comics became boring as the author struggled to find believable (-in-universe) scenarios.
Maxima is a Super, and she developed powers only as a teenager. Harem, if I recall correctly, too.
Other stories have no relevance to the specific mechanics of Grrl Power.
Supers develop their powers at some point in life, hence if we take Vehemences statement to mean he was born with his power, he wouldn’t be a super.
Other circumstantial evidence: Vehemence’s powers work together with magic, which isn’t something we’ve heard supers do. But I think it would be very hard to _prove_ he isn’t a super.
Stories other than Grrl Power don’t matter. Grrl Power has its own concept of supers.
“Stories other than Grrl Power don’t matter. Grrl Power has its own concept of supers.”
Absolutely. We need to jump on a lot of people who bring irrelevant imitation supers into this commentary.
* Sadly abandons links to an infant developing super powers in Incredibles 1 and 2. *
“Absolutely. We need to jump on a lot of people who bring irrelevant imitation supers into this commentary.”
Can you clarify your meaning? This sounds a lot like sarcasm, but I can’t see the point in that case.
Clarification: Almost every page of commentary invokes non-Grrl Power supers and lifeforms. We all bring examples from other universes for comparison.
Like I said, they can’t be used to derive the mechanics of Grrl Power supers. This goes doubly since Grrl Power supers are a very specific thing and not just “humans with powers”.
Comparison with other stories has a place, but this isn’t it. At most they can serve as illustration, but that doesn’t replace evidence.
The evidence points towards Grrl Power supers becoming supers at a later point in life, and whether that’s different in other stories doesn’t impact that.
Vale definitely’s a bit of a peeping tom. ‘She likes to watch,’ as the big D said to Sciona.
1) Not sure “she” is a she. Her present form might just be her current preference, or Deus’s.
2) Not sure Dave used the right F word in the last panel.
Well, if she prefers to wear a human female body suit, and (as she does) reads a niche magazine about female supervillain decolletage, I’d say she identifies as female, which is plenty enough reason to use the appropriate pronouns, at the very least.
Whether her species (assuming she’s not something unique, like an embodied concept or a thought-form) has anything similar to human genders would be hard to guess. They could have, and her gender among her kind most closely corresponds to a human female, or she could be like Dormammu and Umar in Marvel Comics.
Dormammu and Umar are Faltinians, massively powerful mystical energy beings that live in a cosmos where matter does not naturally exist, and is fact considered abhorrent. They have no genders and reproduce by budding off new Faltinians once they have collected unique energies they want to incorporate into their offsprings’ matrix (the whole reason they grant spells to beings like, for instance, Doctor Strange, is that the cross-dimensional transference gives them access to exotic extradimensional energies that enhance their prestige and their ability to reproduce . . . they really are weird by human standards). Dormammu and Umar were considered perversions, because they lusted after matter (Dormammu in the sense of wanting to conquer land and rule over people, Umar in the sense of wanting to experience the pleasures of the flesh).
So, Vale could be unique, could be female-like by her species’ standards, or could be considered very odd by her species for identifying with (or even being interested in) a human gender or human sexuality. We just don’t know enough to know.
Pretty sure Vale is a shoggoth.
Shoggoth are slime, but yeah, she seems to be a gas like version.
That said, Shoggoth aren’t eldritch beings; they were slime based constructs made by advanced aliens that went rogue and killed their creators. So if she were like them she could be an advanced android, construct, hyper dimension NPC, ect…
I would LOVE to see Max give her a kiss on the tip of her nose. [Other than being the most adorable pic, IMO it would also throw Vale for a loop in how to react to that.
I see her doing that cutesy noseboop and then as Vale tries to process the shift from combative to cute, decking Vale across a city block before she can process the return.
Showing that she learned some tactics from Sydney.
I believe noseboop is Anvil’s move, not Sydney’s.
I mean, I picture it for the sheer distraction/unbalancing factor rather than the Anvil-style energy release. As Max pointed out… it’s about what they’re ready for, more than how fast they are.
And for all of Sydney’s other talents, her hyperactivity makes her very hard to read.
more like gay for combat I’d say. like goku in dragon ball
Next Valentine’s Day suggestion? Combat fore play that would probably result in lots of lost or damaged clothing.
Wait, wasn’t there an invotive with Valyeur and someone else? Believe it may have been Sci-fright?
Yes, Yes it was
Pretty sure that’s how Gohan was conceived.
considering according to Super Goku never even kissed Chi Chi, I’m not sure how they ever had sex unless Chi Chi had convinced Goku it was endurance training…Go for ten LoL.
Vale. In. Do not. My. Attack. Presence. Federal agents? Bit of a clunky presentation there
Don’t dead/Open inside.
“You heard the door! Don’t be dead! Open and get inside! Obviously it’ll be safe in there!
I agree. Threw me a little bit, too. It might work a little better to have the balloons in the same location, but move the words and balloon ties to zig-zag from top to bottom.
I thought I had vision problems. And I was sure I had cognitive problems. Then I read this conversation.
It says: “Vale, do not attack Federal Agents in my presence”. The balloons are clearly linked in the correct order…
Ye, I know. Still clunky placement. As Tok said, it’d work better in a zig-zag pattern.
For readability of the text, yes.
It will make a mess of the frame if the connections between the speech bubble go every way.
Dave could have gone with a single speech bubble and a full stop between every word, but that does not quite convey the same message that this format does.
Clearly a situation where the medium does not support the message and there is no good compromise possible.
I cast Summon Marshall McLuhan!!
Yeah, at least DaveB connected them all in order. Some other comics I’ve read, the artist has to explain later the order that disconnected speech balloons are meant to be read in. I understood the path and context suggested above, DaveB’s pretty good in that respect.
can Threads that do your to order. execution where Avoid possible.
I read it as being spoken through clenched teeth.
Just piping in to say when I read it, it is with a slightly lower pitch each bubble down from “Vale” then back up to the start for “In” and going lower again. To me this makes sense.
King illegal forest to pig wild kill in it a is!
King, illegal forest, to pig wild kill, in it, a, is!
I more or less share the sentiment. The bubbles are *readable* in the correct order, but not intuitive, so it takes a long, long moment of staring after strong initial confusion to actually get, and understand, what the actual word order is because while connecting the bubbles you can eventually follow it, it isn’t the way we’re naturally inclined to read it.
I cannot wrap my head around what is happening in panel 5/6, but I’m sure it will make more sense whenever her powers are explained.
Confusing, isn’t it?
From the look of it there is a certain similarity between her powers and Harem’s
She appears to be de-manifesting her body that is located a bit at a distance and manifesting her body well within Maxima’s personal space.
Either the process is incredibly fast, or she is not restricted to needing to have a physical body to affect the physical reality within her range.
I’m guessing she’s one of those entities that live in higher dimensions than us, and can move about in weird looking ways because what we see of her is just the part intersecting our 3D space. As her local “angle” changes during those sorts of movements, you see odd cross sections of her.
This wouldn’t be the first time Dues’s personal defense just materialized. I don’t know if its a power of hers or some sort of personal camouflage device built into her exo-frame (or whatever it is). Apparently he has tech that he hasn’t shared with Arc.
I’m betting Vale’s exoskeleton has been upgraded with alien tech since we last saw her.
I’m betting Vale’s exoskeleton was alien tech since before we knew there were aliens in the series. (Yes, I realize she hadn’t been introduced then. Doesn’t mean she didn’t have alien tech, though.)
You mean, like the plumbus? Or whatever this thing is?
That “thing” is a miniature ‘marker’ from the game Dead Space.
It looks like, rather than risk scuffing her supervillain haute couture boots stepping over the railing, she just stepped out of them. Plus, glowing, smoky, and bizzarely-still-boot-shaped feet are more intimidating than even designed-to-intimidate villain boots.
Yes, before this it seemed she had to leave her skinsuit behind if she wanted to travel in her true form, but now she apparently can take it with her?
In this page, panels 4 & 5, we may assume Vale’s “exoskeleton” has been parked up someplace inconspicuous, as we don’t see her “normal” form approaching it. However, looking at panel 5 on this page, that looks suspiciously like maybe hydraulic actuators and a couple of clevis pins.
I have no idea what’s happening in panel 6 but.
I wonder if Vale can cloak her exoskeleton? That would make a deal of sense.
Oh, I am pretty sure the Eldritch abomination that is Vale would be a pretty hard matchup for Maxima
Considering that Sciona nearly shat herself after Vale took a couple of hardlight wing impalements and just shrugged them off…
Assuming either of them had a means to actually hurt the other. It might be an automatic stalemate.
Or Sciona recognized what Vale is and noped out.
I would say it is the other way, Sciona didn’t recognize what Vale is and opted out because of that.
Either way, Sciona took one look at Vale and boarded the Nope Train bound for NotAChance.
Well… the way things are represented here, it’d mean Maxima would have to go All Out on her….
Which is…environmentally unsound… possibly on a planetary scale..
We know she has powers that rival or surpass serious military-grade alien weaponry..
But my guess is that Deus still has a soft spot for his home planet, so it won’t happen soon..
I think you are giving Vail way too much everything. If she was an Eldritch what would she care about Deus or his money. If he had something on her she would be a lot colder towards him perhaps even hate him. She defiantly cares about something Deus has which eliminates her from being some sort of godly personage.
You are giving human motivations to something that is not necessarily human.
Why she is working for Deus? maybe she is bored. Maybe she is the eldritch equivalent of a brony but for humans (she is essentially cosplaying (not very well) as a human), maybe is a vacation. Who knows? (beside Dave, maybe)
Maybe something very human: to see how far Deus can go before royally screwing it.
Why does Puck serve Xanatos as Owen? Because he was impressed by Xanatos and his prizing true loyalty above riches alone.
And because he enjoys chaos and trickery, and being Owen gives him both opportunity to participate and a front row seat.
For some hyper dimensional beings, combat and sex are one and the same, exchanges of volatile energy into one another that could result in the destruction or creation of entire worlds, dimensions, and possibly mix to create more of their own kind in unique and unexpected combinations depending on what sort of powers they used to fight.
If Vale saw, or the news shoed Maxima took down a Fel battle cruiser with one “hand of the goddess” move, it could have been like a giant mating call, AKA: she got eldritch wet for what Maxima’s got packing in the projected power beam department.
Vale’s quite disarming.
I’m not sure she has a leg to stand on, though.
You are both abominable.
Chill, Aphotep. No need to Smite them for their ghastly deeds.
Some speaking right behind you is in no way, shape, or form a valid reason to pull your weapon. Sunglasses should be in for some riot act reading from his boss when he gets back to his office. That was amazingly unprofessional.
Word. It also doesn’t make Maxima come off at all well given her sonic attack on the gaggle the previous page to be chewing Vale out for doing her job and preventing that jackass potentially injuring someone.
Doing her job includes whispering a thinly veiled threat into his ear to provoke a response?
You call it a threat, I know plenty of lawyers that would say that Vale just made an observation. Whipping out a firearm and pointing it in the direction of one of your own colleagues on the other hand is not the hallmark of a professional agent.
This isn’t a strictly legal matter, unless Deus or his bodyguard wants to bring that guy to court, and federal agents aren’t machines bound to the exact letter of the law.
In a world with terrifying super powers, teleporting behind someone to whisper something ominous in their ear is gonna get a volatile reaction.
As you say; a good lawyer could argue it either way.
I’d be arguing on Deus’s side obviously.
The only real defense I see for the fed is they usually have qualified immunity against most civil suits unless the agent violated clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. And it’s a VERY convincing argument to say that a reasonable person would know to not start swinging wildly around loaded gun with your finger on the trigger just because someone whispered in your ear.
“And it’s a VERY convincing argument to say that a reasonable person would know to not start swinging wildly around loaded gun with your finger on the trigger just because someone whispered in your ear.”
Kind of ignoring the context of the situation there.
Not really, FBI agents are actually trained in de-escalation and negotiations. He should have turned and verbally warned whomever whispered in his ear, not reacted like a surprised cat, and especially not swung his gun like a club; especially not with civilians and other government personnel in that same direction.
Unless I’m mistaken; de-escalation training does not prepare you for surprise whispers.
Do not sneak up on and try to surprise an FBI agent just to get a reaction, they will in all likelihood hit you.
hit yes, although a more controlled verbal warning would be preferable.
draw their fire arm, no.
“draw their fire arm, no.”
I don’t believe you know what de escalation training actually entails if you think his reaction was particularly out there.
+1. We note that Spitz is prepped for trouble* from the start, that’s the only reason you wear sunnies at night.
It is true that de-escalation training doesn’t prep you for surprise whispers, but general combat training should prep you for all sorts of unexpected sounds which you then have to contextualise so you can respond in an appropriate manner. Some of which may well be de-escalation…
* Or prepped to start trouble?
“but general combat training should prep you for all sorts of unexpected sounds”
Should or does?
Should or does?
Hypothetical, but: “When did you last reprise your basics?”
Answer: “You don’t. Post-op debriefing should take care of that.”
Rejoinder: “Post-op debriefing? What’s that?”
Spitz wears sunglasses at night to hide the fact that he is all hopped up on methamphetamines.
Sonic attack? She snapped her fingers really loud to get everyone’s attention.
What Vale did was targeted and not really comparable.
She created a sonic boom with that finger snap. Vale prevented someone from wildly shooting a gun. At one of his fellow agents. And possibly escalating the situation to where Deus could be in danger.
IE, Vale did her job as a bodyguard, and also probably prevented a federal agent from being shot by another federal agent who is way too jumpy on the trigger finger while he was trying to detain Deus without so much as warrant.
(or even probable cause. I’d even say he doesnt even have enough for reasonable suspicion in a legal setting).
No, she didn’t. If she had, from that close; some of those people would be dead or bleeding from the ears.
What Maxima effectively did was a very flashy shout. What Vale did is a lot different.
“Vale did her job as a bodyguard”
Her job includes sneaking up on armed federal agents and trying to give them a scare?
“No, she didn’t. If she had, from that close; some of those people would be dead or bleeding from the ears.”
Blonk, I recommend you re-review the panel from yesterday with the onomatopoeia of ‘SNAP’ – it caused everyone to jolt and caused Lorlanna to go flying out of control behind her. Even if not a sonic boom per se, it was at least like the Hulk Clap, which creates a concussion wave from the sound.
“What Maxima effectively did was a very flashy shout. What Vale did is a lot different.”
What Vale did was a whisper. IF you think a whisper is more startling than a concussive-level snap, then you must be a load of fun on the 4th of July.
“Her job includes sneaking up on armed federal agents and trying to give them a scare?”
Her job includes dissuading people from attacking her boss. Also it includes preventing situations where her boss might get shot.
“it caused everyone to jolt”
Because it was a abnormally loud noise with little warning. Jolting is a natural reflex to such a thing.
“and caused Lorlanna to go flying out of control behind her”
If her flight requires any sort of concentration or control then that was probably due to her own jolt.
“What Vale did was a whisper. IF you think a whisper is more startling than a concussive-level snap, then you must be a load of fun on the 4th of July.”
Because they are very different. A firework going off or someone visible shouting something loud from a few meters away will grab attention, maybe cause a jolt if you’re not expecting it.
Someone suddenly appearing beside/behind you and whispering way too close into your ear will garner a much different reaction from most people.
“Her job includes dissuading people from attacking her boss. Also it includes preventing situations where her boss might get shot.”
Doesn’t answer my initial question; As far as I’ve seen what she did was needlessly provocative during an interaction that was still pretty cordial.
I suspect being “needlessly provocative” is Vale’s primary source of amusement.
As do I. It’s good for the story, I like it.
Also, I didn’t notice it before, but either his trigger discipline is terrible or he’s actually intending to shoot someone.
his index finger is outside the trigger guard…?
Sadly, the lack of a valid reason rarely stops the gun being drawn and often fired :(
To play the devils advocate… he lives in a world of superpowers and his training would include situational awareness. A teleporter appeared behind him, and whispered what could be construed as a threat. He had a right to defend himself.
Nah, he just has to fill out lots of paperwork, even more-so since his firearm was damaged during the encounter. “So, you were not justified in pulling out your weapon and a member of the public near you defended herself by slicing up your weapon while it was in your hand?” “Yes, ma’am.” “Did she continue attacking you after you were disarmed?” “No ma’am.” “So once you were no longer a threat to public safety, she stopped. So, by your testimony, the civilian is not liable to charges, and you are off the street until you re-qualify on firearms safety.”
It probably won’t be that clear cut.
Actually it probably would be. I’ve seen a few examples of real life police with poor trigger discipline who were put on desk duty because of that.
And everything David said is entirely accurate.
1) He threatened not only a civilian, but another federal officer with reckless behavior.
2) The gun was sliced up, but the agent was not even remotely harmed.
3) Slicing up the gun prevented him from accidentally shooting the other agent, or preventing it escalating into a more dangerous scenario for everyone (except Maxima).
4) Once the agent’s reckless behavior was over (due to his gun being removed from play), Vale did nothing else.
5) The agent initiated the aggressive actions. Talking is not an aggressive action. Pulling a gun is.
6) The agent had no probable cause or warrant to detain Deus.
7) The situation was not dangerous UNTIL the agent pulled his gun.
8) Deus did nothing illegal. As always.
9) The agent could very well be suspended, so getting off with just being put on desk duty until he re-qualifies for firearms safety is letting him off easy.
“real life police”
1)The FBI aren’t police.
2)The Grrl Verse world is still one shaken by and likely afraid of the existence of Supers.
3)You in particularly are clearly biased against this officer and aren’t giving the benefit of the doubt or any leeway in this situation and are ignoring anything Vale might have done.
Which very well *might* be how his superiors will treat him but I doubt it.
“The agent had no probable cause or warrant to detain Deus.”
You don’t know that and he wasn’t attempting to.
the FBI are held to much higher standards, rules of engagement, and training than cops. He could actually get in much worse trouble than the average cop would drawing his weapon in this situation. If some kid snuck up behind him and shouted boo, would his first response be to draw his weapon and swing it wildly in their direction? If so, at minimum he’s off field work as he is a liability.
Again; context. He isn’t just randomly wandering down the street and pulling a gun because he got spooked.
He’s in relatively intense negotiations with a influential diplomat and one of the strongest, and most well known by criminals, super heroes in the country.
In two other points.
1. Attempting to point your weapon [not just draw, he got arm extension before he saw the state of his weapon] because you are ‘spooked’ is not justified, especially when the background of his target would be another federal agent.
2. If anything, doing it in front of Maxima and Deus would make the situation worse, not better. Demonstrating your jumpy gun handling in front of not only a high authority [Max] but also a civilian with influence and motivation to make your department look bad [Deus] is further career suicide. Screw up AND embarass your department and superior? Enjoy that Alaska listening post.
Okay, now I know you’re taking it a bit too seriously there.
Max doesn’t even comment on it and calls it out as an obvious threat.
He is facing someone who is known to have several supers working for him and had these supers kill -at least- one person. his reaction is more than understandable
1) Maybe he shouldnt draw his gun on such a person then.
2) I’m sorry but are you under the impression that his agency has some other understanding of what happened in Galytin? Or are you using meta-knowledge? Methinks the latter. So no, his reaction is completely unreasonable.
Mr Blonk seems extremely attached to his theory that Vale whispering in his ear justified every action of mr agent took after.
Also, mr -totally not a transparent codename- Spitzer identified as being with HSA (which I did not know even has agents on the same level of authority as the FBI?)
The agent either came into the situation with his gun already drawn, which is shockingly unprofessional by even the most lax standards of law enforcement agencies, and in any agency(*) the best he could hope for from the Internal Affairs review is a deskjob and requalifying for firearm safety since the first time clearly did not stick. Given the potential political fallout of this botchup, he might as likely get a boot job. Either out of he agency or so far away that not even Deus can find him again. The phrase comes to mind of ‘you need a seeing-dog and a ouijah board to find the place’
Or the agent pulled his weapon in reaction to a whispered comment. That is such an extreme escalation of force that I cannot imagine the IA review board will clear him of that black mark either. Again the best he can hope for is a desk job and requalifying.
Asking a high ranking functionary of a country to come in to answer a few questions, especially one who is the spokesman for the first aliens to visit and stay on earth (openly) and employs an unknown number of superpowered individuals is /political/. You send senior agents for that, possibly even the head of the local bureau. Because you want to make absolutely clear that you have are being polite and mean no disrespect, but at the same time have the (military) power of the USA behind that request and it would be impolite to decline.
You do not send a trigger happy trainee who spooks and escalates at the slightest unexepcted development and who did not even know or remember to check for Deus’s bodyguards and make sure they, too, understood there was no threat to their boss intended.
Then again, the scene as written may not have been particularly realistic but it was a lot funnier than realism would have been.
(* other than the regular police force where this is done with alarming frequency, especially when the officers expect to encounter black or latino people :( )
“1)The FBI aren’t police.”
The FBI is a federal law enforcement and domestic national investigation agency. They ARE law enforcement. They’re just the federal version of it. Wrong – first time.
“2)The Grrl Verse world is still one shaken by and likely afraid of the existence of Supers.”
Apparently the agent is more afraid of a whispered bit of advice than he golden superheroine who is capable of making concussive waves by snapping her fingers and creating nuclear blasts on the news. Pretty sure it’s not just ‘the existence of supers’ – it’s that he knows he’s on shaky ground, is on edge, and probably should not be assigned to the field if he acts like that.
“3)You in particularly are clearly biased against this officer and aren’t giving the benefit of the doubt or any leeway in this situation and are ignoring anything Vale might have done.”
I’m actually not biased – I’m specifying that he did something wrong because…. he did something wrong. Vale de-escalated a situation that he had escalated by drawing his weapon and swinging it around wildly.
Which very well *might* be how his superiors will treat him but I doubt it.
“Which very well *might* be how his superiors will treat him but I doubt it.”
I’m talking about from a normal training perspective. Federal agents are not supposed to just start pointing their guns at people because of a whisper of advice given while he was attempting to (rather likely) detain someone without probable cause.
It’s not ‘biased’ to point out facts btw. Or at the very least, not unfairly biased.
“You don’t know that and he wasn’t attempting to.”
That was the ENTIRE point of the previous comic pages which led to this page.
https://www.fbi.gov/about/faqs/is-the-fbi-a-type-of-national-police-force
Is the FBI a type of national police force?
No. The FBI is a national security organization that works closely with many partners around the country and across the globe to address the most serious security threats facing the nation. We are one of many federal agencies with law enforcement responsibilities.
So in short you are taking police to mean any type of law enforcement, but at least in america police=the specific body of civilian law enforcement whereas the FBI is a separate body.
And side note, It is very annoying that you try to debate like a lawyer. By that I mean, never ceding a point, never admitting when you are proven wrong, to the point of bordering on insane troll logic. You take whatever your side says as completely literal gospel, or if it is too literal, you try to construe it in whichever way is most favorable for your argument instead of whichever way is most likely.
Seriously dude, trying to say that Deus has committed no crime in clear contradiction to him committing several crimes and practically holding a sign saying “im a supervillain” is just rediculous.
*Narrator: For those following along at home for the ironic comedy, remember that in real life Pander is a) a lawyer, b) a woman, not a ‘dude’, c) enjoys trolling as Deus’s head cheerleader *
a) what is annoying is that they try to debate like a lawyer (regardless of whether or not they are a lawyer) outside of a courtroom, where it just comes off as insane troll logic, b) I will call everyone ‘dude’
Deus has commited many crimes, probably ordered other to do most of them.
However, that is irrelevant here.
The only thing that is relevant is: Which of those crimes can be proven in a court of law?
From what I understand from the comic the answer is: none of them, which means that every law enforcement officer, including Maxima, may suspect him all they want but they have to treat him as innocent.
And to be perfectly clear, /we/ (the omniscient audience) have /seen/ Deus commit only three crimes:
The first is ordering the assassination of the previous ruler of Galtyn and allowing his son to succeed his father. Scintilla presumably triggered a heart attack in the dictator so proving murder is going to be difficult. Not to mention that this crime was committed in Galtyn, which is wildly out of jurisdiction of any American law enforcement agency.
The second is his breaking into the vault with confiscated magical items. A vault that was located in a cave that is only accessible from deep under water and whose existence kept secret from the entirety of humanity. The Council, being the somewhat legal owners of said vault and the items in it, could press charges against Deus for grand theft. But Deus is not a supernatural so he is not subjected to their legal system, and the Council will not open the whole can of worms of outing themselves just to prosecute Deus for stealing items they do not want to admit even exist let alone were stolen.
So again, this is outside the jurisdiction of any american (or human) law enforcement agency. Even if they knew of this crime which they emphatically do not.
And third, Deus used some of the items he stole to make an illegal shopping trip at the Fracture. The laws he broke there are of the intergalactic community. This is so far outside american jurisdiction that there aren’t words to accuratley describe how far.
Unless and until they have evidence of Deus commiting a crime in the USA (or against American citizens) none of the agencies have any ground to arrest or detain him. Most the ones mentioned have no power to do so regardless. The CIA is not even allowed to operate on American soil against American citizens. (yes they can try to argue that he has a dual nationality and that gives them some leeway, but not to the point of declaring his constitutional protections null and void)
The FBI is the only agency present that can as him to come to the bureau to answer a couple of questions and make that binding. The HSA could invoke the patriot act and detain him as a suspect of terrorism, but doing so would create a scandal that goes all the way to the office of the president.
And no, Maxima has neither jurisdiction nor seniority here like she claims. Her mandate is ‘protecting the USA against extraordinary threats’. Which Deus evidently is not. He is not a threat to the USA and he is not extraordinary (*) himself. He employs some of such individuals but that is no reason to involve ARC, and most certainly not to involve the enforcement arm, ARC Swat.
Sorry for replying to myself. I forgot to copy this bit
(* being extraordinarily smug is not in and of itself a crime that would get ARC involved)
And that seems to be his biggest “crime”, in the eyes of those who can’t provide any specific instances of the supposed crimes he’s committed. He is successful, he ignores or breaks social rules, while following the letter of the law. This, in some people’s minds, makes him a cheater.
I’m inclined to believe that we shouldn’t encourage such behavior, but that the correct solution is to fix the ineffective laws, rather than complain about people violating unwritten rules. Systems that rely on self-policing and unwritten rules are fragile and should not be depended upon.
You seem to be forgetting that the council could either a) prosecute him under mundane laws for breaking and entering, theft, and dealing in stolen property, while simply using the veil to cover up that the artifacts actually function via magic or b) prosecute him under their own law system, which from an outside perspective would result in him either disappearing or being replaced with a dopple.
You are also forgetting the SHITTONS of treason and high crimes involved with actively cooperating with an enemy nation to invade the country, seeing as how the alari were fully planning on invading and were for all intents and purposes at war with earth up until they got destroyed by the squidwards.
And even if Deus could legalese his way out of that, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a morally evil thing to do. Going under an assumption that he is only a bad person if he is caught is rediculous.
I don’t know… An elite commando of a foreign nation used lethal super-powers to threaten me, my team, and basically every branch of the US government seems like a defense.
I’m not quite sure what happens if part of your brain is suddenly on the other side of a sliced wormhole, but I do know you don’t survive it.
Basically, Vale shot a warning shot, straight through a crowd. Readying your weapon seems like the appropriate response.
It’s not clear that power works on anyone but Vale, so it’s not clear she made the threat you seem to be thinking she made. It’s also not clear that she can necessarily shut down the wormhole while someone’s partially through it.
Finally, it’s not clear that’s actually a wormhole. It could just be her ghosting in and then teleporting her shell ontop of her.
The fact that it’s that vague would probably get him off the hook too.
Sorry, but no.
All Vale had done, when agent clueless pulled his gun and swing it around wildly was whisper in his ear that “I can think of a few other reasons to detain him would be a bad idea.”
That is not exactly a deadly threat that justifies escalating to the potential of lethal violence by the agent. Any halfway decent defense attorny will have no problem at all to convince a jury it is no threat at all. Remember that WE know it was Vale behind him and that she is far more deadly than anybody in the world, except maybe for Maxima. The agent did not know either of those things and massively overreacted when he was startled by that voice.
The agent went into that situation at a hair trigger and that is NOT a good frame of mind to confront anybody, and most certainly not somebody who can cause immense financial and political problems.
The internal affairs of his agency may of course rule that he was justified, but more likely than not they will decide that he needs extensive retraining.
Of course if Deus really has a diplomatic passport then whoever did the briefing for at least the CIA and FBI agent massively dropped the ball too. You do not approach diplomats with this much aggression and bluster, unless you WANT to provoke an international incident and potentially put at risk the lives of Americans abroad. That is something the field agent needs to know :)
“Any halfway decent defense attorny will have no problem at all to convince a jury it is no threat at all.”
No problem? Most people find just the idea of super powers terrifying when thinking about it too long.
And a bodyguard Super with unknown capabilities teleporting behind a federal agent isn’t exactly a non-aggressive action either.
He didnt know who was behind him. You dont get to pull the “terrifying super powers” card till he knows that, and even if he did know that doesnt excuse his lack of professionalism. He was waaaaaay out of line, especially given the tone of the interactions with Deus and Maxima till that point.
She vorped right next to him when no one was there previously. He could, and probably will, easily pull that card.
Sure, the exact letter of the law may not cover that, but it doesn’t exactly cover phasing/invisibility either.
For all the agent knew the person behind him could have been one of Deus’ lawyers. An unknown female voice says something that any good lawyer would have said is no reason to be flailing around with a firearm.
A lawyer that magically appeared out of nowhere and leaned in to whisper something ominous into his ear instead of just walking beside Deus and introducing herself?
Sure, buddy.
He has no grounds to claim he knew they magically appeared behind him. Had someone simply walked up behind him in this noisy situation where he’d have easily missed hearing them there and said the same, surprising him, we have cause to believe he’d have reacted in the same irrational manner.
There was a pretty distinct lull in the conversation and Vale’s half mouth appeared pretty much within his peripheral vision.
Regardless: That’s not how lawyers introduce themselves.
There was a distinct lull in the conversation and Vale’s half mouth appeared pretty much within his peripheral vision.
Regardless; that isn’t how a lawyer approaches people in such s situation.
I dunno, I bet Pander sneaks up on opposing council like that on the way into the courtroom.
Council to defendant: “-nd so I think our defense is pretty solid.”
Pander, out of nowhere over both their shoulders: “I can think of several reasons that would be a bad idea.” * Brushes by their stunned faces in shark-fin hat. With matching shoes. *
Don’t forget the bunny ears also.
You seem to forget that you along with everyone else are idiots; myself included. Most of the population is too stupid to be rational and the smart portion keeps forgetting how dumb the majority of the world happens to be. Remember that knee-jerk reactions against perceived threats are what they are trained for and that Supers are still fresh and feared alike. Add to that fact that Deus has just made himself a target by implying that he may be a threat to national security and the bureau would have reason the be defensive in there dealings.
And then there’s everything else that everyone here has brought up. It may be upsetting, but this is why we have so many problems. People assume you can just say X+Y+Z= what you should have done. But no one
Looks at the psychology of it, nore do they care.
Obligatory Men In Black reference
Only a fool would think it would be handled like the agent was at fault. The movies are only there to make civilians feel better. They’d still say it was Vale’s fault as the aggressor, even though she wasn’t necessarily.
Aside from the sheer incorrectness of drawing his weapon, then turning toward a crowd of associates… he also drew on someone standing close enough behind him to whisper in his ear (and then he turned right when she spoke from the left). If you do this in real life, and they ARE hostile (or even as twitchy as he is), you’re DEAD. No one can draw, turn, aquire a target, and fire before an actual combatant behind them acts.
You may be correct but that doesn’t stop every gun-wielding combatant from first reaching for their gun in every instance of that situation. It is a fairly common mistake. About the only time I have seen a character’s first reaction in such a situation not be to go for their weapon, and instead go into a defensive maneuver first (to aquire distance and a few seconds to draw weapon) was when the character in question was one of the main characters in a story and also presented as a fast reaction bad-ass.
“No one can draw, turn, acquire a target, and fire before an actual combatant ” Some of us can shoot over our shoulder, and still hit their target.
Secret, practice.
Agent Spitz is right-handed. He was last seen fondling his sunnies, at the time Vale said her line. So now he has to park his sunnies, dive for his shoulder holster, get the gat, point and aim over his left shoulder while acquiring the correct target out of at least two.
Spitz is not a MIB. He is only human, despite his atrocious social sense. Secret, listerning to your instructors. Who would have advised dropping to the ground and maybe try a foot-sweep to inhibit possible attack.
I bet Vale is pissed because Lorlara is kinda semi taking her place – or just annoying in general.
I doubt it. Lorlara’s job is a personal assistant with a sideline in cheerleading, Vale’s is to protect Deus and hurt people who are a threat. Not much cross over there.
Vale has made it very clear that she’s not Deus’ secretary.
Nice plumbus you have there Vale. It would be a shame if a Maxima happened to it.
Oh, we’d *all* like to see it, Vale.
But I don’t think you’ll appreciate the outcome as much as you think. XD
Unless her shields work against protoplasm, I’d say Max would last only up until Vale gets bored of her extreme workout.
Protoplasm, sure.
Ectoplasm, who knows?
The problem is that Max can’t bring out the big guns in such a crowded situation, whereas it doesn’t seem likely Vale’s attacks level blocks. That means that Max is at an automatic disadvantage. She’s still got super strength and speed, but if snapping her finger creates a bang like that, going all out hand to hand could homogenize the squishy humans present.
Vale’s powerset, as ambiguous as it may be, doesn’t look to be as collateral damage inducing.
So, if they were fighting in the middle of a desert my money might be on Max, but in this situation likely the only tactic that wins is taking Deus hostage, which isn’t a good guy move.
What I alluded to was the bipedal shell that the energy form of Vale resides within. I haven’t acutally seen the shell referred to as a plumbus but after the fight Vale had with Sciona her shell was damaged. Later on she stated she needed to buy another plumbus but the plumbus was never defined.
There is a DC comic superhero Captain Atom that wore a suit stabilized his form and contained his radiation. When his suit was damaged in a fight with Superman he lost containment and went up in a nuclear blast.
Vale’s dependence on her shell is not defined but I don’t see her leaving it if she depends on it to protect herself like a space suit. I suspect if any life suport capacity is within her shell it would be at best akin to a snow suit and the purpose of it is to act as a prosthetic body & communication aid.
Its a Rick & Morty reference. A toss away gag in other words.
Plumbus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMJk4y9NGvE
“fight” is the last word going through anyone’s mind right now.
heh … heh … heh …
https://youtu.be/grkaKRWkjM8
Isn’t Vale shorter? Either she can change her height or those are some killer heels!
She’s about Sydney hight. Heels wouldn’t cut it.
It was my impression that panel 5 was all about showing that Vale isn’t standing on her feet. Or, if she is, her feet may be in a different location. In any event, the distance from Maxima’s face to the ground is not an issue that Vale’s body needs to deal with.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-409-elevator-predicate/
Given her comparison with Sydney here she’s probably between the two, and not much shorter with her boots on.
It seems as though Vale can walk on air, see panels 3 & 4.
Trash, at first I thought Vale was ectoplasma stuff riding around in a human exoskeleton and then I see those panels forming her leg and taking another leg apart and now nothing makes sense.
On the dual citizen diplomatic immunity… I’m not sure anyone has ever represented a country as an official to another country of which they are a citizen. Generally a nation would require you to drop any citizenship, obligations or entitlements owing from another country before they make you an official of political nature to avoid any such conflicts of interest.
Being a citizen of another nation could mean whatever that particular nation thinks it should mean with regards to requirements to act in the best interest of that nation or submit to authority.
It wouldn’t surprise me if (with the right authority) Deus could be forcibly conscripted into archon and elements of his business in the U.S. forced into supplying for the military and sharing military technology or information.
We accept Comic Book Physics as part of the Grrl Power Universe.
We seldom see Comic Book Law.
*********
Lorlara and Vale serve different functions.
You can’t expect Eldrich Abominations to set up appointments and bring coffee.
I’m not sure if Deus was joking or not but apparently mortal watching is one of the Vale’s Hobbies
I dunno. It’d be damned funny if Deus had an eldrich abomination bringing him coffee.
it just means he’s a bigger monster and i mean that likely
literally not likely sorry
…
Is that just coffee they don’t bring? Because if so, fine. Otherwise, they seem to do just fine getting me water and oatmeal and stuff.
That said, Vale doesn’t seem like the same sort of Eldrich Abomination.
That’s the difference between an Ambassador and a Consul. An Ambassador is the representative of the Head of State of a given country, to the host country’s Head of State. He/she will usually be a career diplomat and almost certainly the citizen of that country. There can only be one Ambassador, but they will have a staff and establishment of appropriate size.
A Consul is a lower rank, and may not be a career diplomat; in some cases it might be an honorary appointment. A Consul might be a local national, or a diplomat from another nation entirely, representing the interests of the designated nation, such as they might be – usually, in practice, acting as a contact for businesses and travelers from that nation.
So Deus might be the Ambassador, or a Consul, he just needs to be appointed by the relevant authority in that nation and accredited as such by the host nation. He is unlikely to be a Consul, though, it isn’t a sufficiently senior role to be useful to him.
Assuming he can do that under US law, of course – I don’t know about that.
The title he used is Chancellor, which is a HIGH official (Hitler used that title when he ran Germany). In most places, it’s either the head of a major governmental department or the equivalent of a Cabinet post (even higher). It’s NOT a title held by any career diplomats anywhere… And Deus seems to be using it in place of Prime Minister (given that his only direct “superior” is a King).
And the current usage of “Chancellor” is “Head of State”.
However. Merriam-Webster: 4. the chief minister of state in some European countries.
Plus, Wikipedia.
Current in many places that usage may be, but not universal</a. Still a high position, though, even when it's not the top.
I have heard of ambassadors having been chosen who were in fact citizens of the country the representation was being made to, rather than the country that was being represented. That said, I haven’t heard of said ambassadors ever citing diplomatic immunity.
It was my impression they didn’t have it, or to the extent they had it, it was for the country they were representing, and was more a matter of the leader of the country they were representing not wanting to bother educating their ambassador on the finer points of their local laws, since their ambassador was spending so much of their time helping them sort out the finer points of the trade laws of the country they were negotiating with.
But as Dave points out, that doesn’t stop somebody in such a crazy position from attempting to cite it.
Somebody representing a country of which they are not a citizen, even at the ambassadorial level, happens all the time.
Small countries with insufficient funds for their own diplomatic staff to every other country in the world, or countries with some problematic legal status, frequently have the embassy of another country represent them.
Granted, this is not what you probably were thinking about :)
It’s a case of an official with dual citizenship ( two european citizesnhip French and Spaniard) Manuel Valls , he was an prime minister and he was before minister of the interior (It’s a combination of the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security in the United States) – 2014-2016 and 2012-2014 – and ran as a candidate for mayor of Barcelona in 2019.
She was able to reform her body parts when Sciona pierced them, chances are the shell is something she formed around herself and can take apart and reform at will along with regenerating.
Reform? OK, possible, but much more likely — given she was having a phone conversation and never even batted an eyelid during Sciona’s “physical” — she didn’t even notice, even when talking directly to Sciona. What we probably saw was DaveB’s interpretation of Sciona’s metaphysical pre-mortem vivopsy.
I’d say less didn’t notice and more didn’t react. Most likely Vale noticed hard light blades sticking through her shell which we assume has touch receptors given her other actions. However none of the damage was permanent or even threatening to her natural state. Not reacting in this situation while her parts automatically come back together (as seen in close up panels), is a psychological tactic, a “you are so insignificant to me, and pose so little threat that I won’t even bother to respond to your attack”.
As opposed to a boisterous character who would monologue or tease their opponent resulting in a further fight, in that instant Deus was on the phone, so the quickest end of the fight was to simply not react, it is oddly more demoralizing for the opponent.
Essentially the difference between the kaiju that swats at the helicopters shooting at it vs the one that just keeps walking. Either way they didn’t hurt it, but the second has a more ominous air to it.
Actually, no. You don’t lose your citizenship just because you’ve taken a government position in another country. And yes, there is real-world precident.
The following is from former DA Bob Ingerson, famous in comic circles for his “The Law Is A Ass” columns for at least 25 years, concerning the Joker’s shocking new appointment to Ambassador of Iran during the “Death in the Family” storyarc. The emphasis, tho, is mine.:
[…]Now I have to play Scrooge again and to an organization which has enough problems already, because it just lost its liability insurance due to the frequency with which its patients escape. Joker wasn’t expatriated, when he accepted the post of U.N. ambassador from Iran.
In the 1967 case of Afroyim v. Rusk, the Supreme Court held the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution precludes Congress from revoking the citizenship of any citizen, natural born or naturalized, unless the citizen voluntarily renounces said citizenship. We don’t automatically lose our citizenship by accepting a position with another government; we must renounce it.
I’m sure the Joker didn’t renounce his citizenship. If he had, he would have needed an entrance visa to get into the country to address the U.N. and the United States could have denied him the visa as it recently did Yasser Arafat. As we did not see this scene, we can safely assume Joker didn’t need an entrance Visa, which would have been denied. And, if he didn’t need an entrance visa, it can only be because he’s still an American citizen.[…]
So yeah. If a sociopatth like the Joker could waltz back into the country with all the graveyards he’s filled, then a mere buisnessman like Deus will have no problem whatsoever. In fact, he should have it easier: ‘Deus’ is apparently his real name, ‘Joker’, on the other hand, is a Nom de Guerre. The gov. should have plenty of ammo to keep him out of the States (“I’m sorry, sir, but your fingerprints have vanished from all of our databases, and ‘The Joker’ has been pronounced deat over half a dozen times; There’s no way to prove that you’re the real Joker, Sir. Please go with those gentlemn over there, and we can clear this right up…).
Be careful what you wish for.
Also, I entered this on my phone, first, and it never showed up…
Is Vale really an alien being?!?!?
No, I’m pretty sure Vale’s an Eldritch horror from beyond space and time.
which would still make her an alien,
although that brings up the question, on the civilization tier. Do eldritch beings that exist outside normal reality count as 3rd tier or are they a separate side thing as they aren’t so much a civilization as random and varied formations of creation.
my running guess is Deus is either one of the squid like world killers in disguise or is a god like ancient alien (based on greed energy ) that made them and was the enemy of the aliens that made the orbs.
he’s likely on earth because he was trapped here after the battle that killed the orb user
vale is likely an Eldritch horror that works for him because she knows the truth
Pretty sire she is a shoggoth.
Dave, I know you’re busy with the story, but the next time we see Sydney’s Arcswat quarters
could you show that it`s not too cluttered with collectables?
But do show that she subscribes to ALL the premieum channels and streaming services.
Are 100 inch 4K ultra short throw laser video projectors a thing?
I was waiting for my Lotto money to come to find out.
So, not anyone new (does Galytn’s super-military even exist?), just Vale again. Still have no idea what the deal is with her.
They exist. They’re just not necessarily *from* Galytn.
I think Vale’s tune might change if she ever actually fought Max.
Because, apparently, how strong Max really is classified and hasn’t been shown in public yet either.
As Sydney might describe her; She’s a classic example of the side-villain trying to provoke the clearly stronger protagonist.
Though Vale would have access to the information Deus has on Max, which I am fairly certain includes more than what is publicly known.
Even that might not reveal much.
As was said by Dave in a blog post:
“Maxima has like 50 different levels of punch. The MFP is closer to the top of the scale than it is the bottom, and Sciona is only the third person she’s ever hit with it that hasn’t been instantly decapitated. (Keep in mind that Maxima fought other supers in some overseas action. If you misjudge the toughness of an opponent on the superhero scale by even a little bit, stuff can get fatal real fast.)”
Max has rarely gone really all out apparently.
I think a big issue I have with that last shot is that top. Any fast movement is going to have Vale ‘exposing’ herself in more ways than one. Despite what folks think, fashion tape won’t do much for sudden movements/heat of the moment, and given the cut she’s not wearing a bra (I guess being an exoskeleton, they’re not just perky, they’re rigid, so she doesn’t need them). Plunging necklines are great for the sexy gaze, but that’s it, and Max could have her scrambling with a few quick movements.
The “clothing” could easily be built in/attached to the exoskeleton/skin suit/whatever vale’s riding in/wearing/whatever. Also, since it’s an exoskeleton/skin suit/whatever, I’m not sure Vale would really care all that much if this part of that part of it was exposed. It seems likely that Vale isn’t even really a “she” in any sense we would understand, anyway.
Bear in mind that she once had half her face blasted off, and it didn’t even faze her… I think Vale looks that way because she wants to look that way.
It could be more like that alien cship captain and her hologram clothing. Remember when dabbler hacked it to make her covered (barely) by clouds? Similar setup. She wont pop out because thats not what her outfit image is setup to do.
Wow….Ummm. The last panel really got my hormones channeling their whoremaons. And that from someone that has exactly ZERO use for lez scenes. Any ….fetish I might, might have harboured for the meme were crushed by a lesbian. When she described to me just how much sexual attraction lesbians have for men.
Pubic hair on soap.
THAT is how lesbians views us males, in any given situation. Kinda hard to keep a woodie going when you know your are LESS attractive them pubic hair on soap.
So, now that you know that you are repulsive to them, still think you little fantasy of ‘converting’ them is still valid?
^less attractive to them…
What?
I’m pretty sure that for most men the idea of “converting” lesbians doesn’t even enter into it.
Wow, could you be any more of an Incel?
First of all: Bisexuals, and Pansexuals exist.
Secondly: A single member of a group is not representative of the group as a whole. Nor are they beholden to any generalizations of the group. A lesbian could find a certain man attractive, much like how a heterosexual man could find another certain man attractive as well. For whatever reason. Sexuality is not so black and white, it’s a beautiful spectrum.
Thirdly: Whether someone finds you sexual or physically attractive has nothing to do with how they feel about you in all situations. Just because someone isn’t attracted to you doesn’t mean they find you “repulsive.” Not everything is about sex. Grow up.
Robert Heinlein: “A man does not insist on physical beauty in a woman who elevates his self-esteem. After a while he realizes she IS beautiful – he just didn’t notice at first.”
Same thing goes for people in general. Not only will a gay woman feel a new interest if it’s a particular man she’s falling for, but a straight man will feel the same way for a man he’s fallen for. “I like women! …But… I’m happier hanging out with him than I am with most women… and… he really understands me… and…”
Eh – sexual fantasies have no need to conform to reality. For that matter, lots of quite common sexual fantasies would be horrid to have happen in reality instead of just pretend. (Like how people can enjoy action movies WITHOUT wanting to see gore in real life.)
The “converting a lesbian” fantasy probably has more to do with getting a mate you KNOW will never cheat on you with another guy. And… that fantasy just conveniently omits any potential of same-gender cheating because that isn’t a fear the hind-brain recognizes.
And then things get a lot uglier because there is a percentage of the (male) population that believes the fantasy and that a lesbian is a woman who never had sex with a man (and that they are the man who can teach her to be attracted to men instead).
Lesbian women run an even higher risk of being assaulted and raped than women in general and it is this fantasy that is a big part of the reason why.
And it affects women in a less violent way as well. I learned quickly that dancing with your girl friend or girlfriend does NOT sent the expected message to the leches that just will not leave you alone at the club. Instead of ‘I am not interested in men so. go. a.way.’ they hear ‘woohoo, threesome with a pair of hot lesbians’ and proceed to be even more insufferable. Of course, the nice guys you wouldn’t mind dancing with for a bit because they understand that ‘just because I danced with you does not mean I promised to do a bit of horizontal dancing with you later.’ do get the message and leave you alone.
Yeah, I like playing RPGs, but I don’t want to really fight a dragon.
also, I’m pretty sure there is somebody, somewhere, that think that pubic hair on soap is hot.
don’t assume I’m a male in the lesbian sex fantasy I’m have thank you very much
‘I didn’t attack ANY federal agents. I merely field stripped his firearm.. with extreme prejudice’
That’s why I only “informed” you not to do it instead of beating you to pulp.
How do you beat someone into a more solid state than they already are?
Extreme pressure
Ring Ref fist pumps, “LET”S GET IT ON!!!”
Was this all a lead in just to have Vale rub up against Maxima?
Can’t wait for this Deus scene/story arc to end, so we can get back to some Halo fumbling and cascade of swearing.
Smeg, frell and gorram! Forgot to get a Gravatar first!
No way Max could effectively fight Vale in a public venue. The only way she’s likely to HARM Vale would be with wide-area energy attacks.
BTW, called it. It WAS Vale.
Is she named after Welcome to Nightvale?
Also, looks like Dabs was right!
Mess Dress – TOTAL power move.
Didn’t appeal to who she thought it would, tho.
And the mental flashback to that scene now has me wanting to see Max take on Vale while wearing the Thunderdome black leather outfit.
It would seem like unless Hyper Halo was wearing flats in 407 next to Max then heels in 408 next to vale, that vale should be a few inches shorter than max, based on comparison. They do appear to be Very slightly Slightly different height, wich raises the question how tall is Max, Vale and The Seemingly Massive Deus. For that matter is Deus a Dateable height for Anvil given that his eye-line is about the top of Max’s forehead? (as seen in 407) im guessing he is still 4-6 inshes shorter than her but at least if he stares straight ahead he will only be looking at her chin or adams apple at worst instead of lower.
Is Vale a combination of:
1. The smoke monster (Lost)
2. The remains of a probe that collided with god (Futurama)
?
Vale is Vale.
And she’s dating Zathras.
Based entirely on what Dave said…
Vale is a Spectral and her command item is in possession of Deus. This makes her both incredibly dangerous and completely contained. Immune to physical (which is why hardlight doesn’t work) but is maxima considered a physical or a metaphysical which branches into the ability to hit that which isn’t?
OK, what’s with this boat cloak? I’ve thought for several installments it’s looked rather — slimming? It drapes STRAIGHT DOWN!! It’s somehow compressing Max’s usual massive assets? Given that Vale is about as large proportionally as Max, even if she’s floating to match Max’s height, it’s physically impossible to get their faces into that close a proximity, without Max being… flat as a male. Given both parties bustiness and apparent firmness, Vale would normally have to be pushing VERY HARD to get their faces withing 6 inches of each other.
I’ve worn something very like a boat cloak. A gir,l not as well endowed as Vale, had to press her breasts FIRMLY against me to get that close (and I’m male).
I @&)&;:-@ Autoincorrect…
Let’s see… gir,l is girl; withing is within.
Lovely, now it’s trying to spell the corrections differently incorrectly… withing isn’t even a word — and how does it get witching out of within?
“Withing” is a word. A withe is a willow twig, osier, or any tough, flexible twig or stem suitable for binding things together. So, Withing is to bind stuff with withes.
Why do people put up with auto-correct?
Or better yet, why don’t people review what they’ve typed before posting, to catch those kind of errors?
What I do — not often enough — is get it into TedPad and check it there. Mostly this works.
Now kith
Then kin?
This raises some interesting questions, like “how did all these agents end up here simultaneously”, “why did Vale allow them to approach in the first place”, and “why did Vale wait for Max to assert control before appearing, only to incite one of them to do something hostile and stupid in front of Archon, the other agencies, and the general public”.
I suspect the answer may be that Deus is playing 4D political chess to cement his relationship with Archon (and possibly Max herself), and to have an excuse to blow off all the other agencies in spite of publicly announcing things that would otherwise be in their domain. If so, Vale is an infinitely more capable and cunning assistant than Lorlara has been thus far (let alone her combat and retrieval skills).
Assuming this isn’t just Dabbler screwing around with Max for giggles – we’ve seen them face off like this before, Dabbs can look like anything, and it seems a bit out of character for Vale. The purple and teal color scheme makes me wonder.
“This raises some interesting questions, like “how did all these agents end up here simultaneously”
They probably drove their after finding out about Dues’ dinner.
“why did Vale allow them to approach in the first place”
Vale has literally no legal authority to stop any of them from approaching. And any attempts to physically disable them would get her boss into a metric fuck ton of legal trouble.
Vague threats are one thing. But fighting agents in any physical capacity? That’s a paddling.
“They probably drove their after finding out about Dues’ dinner.”
Quick! A multi-billionaire who is helping the lives of a formerly impoverished nation while simultaneously wanting to do business with the United States to keep this country the most powerful one in the world is having dinner with our greatest superheroine! Lets get down there to harass him without a warrant or probable cause! To the fed-mobile!
“Vale has literally no legal authority to stop any of them from approaching”
1) Vale did not stop them from approaching. They approached. Vale only stopped a trigger-happy individual from waving around loaded gun without cause while in the vicinity of her employer, of whom she is the bodyguard. Which means her job is to keep him safe. She also probably saved the life of the other agent. And since he did not even have any authority to detain Deus, I’m not sure what his argument would be.
“And any attempts to physically disable them would get her boss into a metric fuck ton of legal trouble.”
Then it’s a good thing that she did not physically disabled him. She warned the trigger happy fed fellow, and then prevented him from potentially getting another agent killed. The agent himself was not remotely harmed, and Vale would have been extremely capable of easily doing to him what she did to the gun. If anything, it took more effort to NOT hurt him than it took to disable his weapon.
I’m not even sure if what she did could be classified as assault, since she…. didnt physically touch the gun until it was already broken. Even if it could be an assault, there would be a clear mitigating defense of others involved as a counter-argument.
“Vague threats are one thing.”
Yes. It was barely even a threat. It would be a bad thing to detain Deus for no reason. There are so many reasons why that would not be threatening language, rather than simply good advice given in a way to get the guy off his confident streak of thinking he was in charge.
“But fighting agents in any physical capacity?”
And yet she didnt fight.
“That’s a paddling.”
Judging from Vale’s normal outfits, she’d probably be into paddling.
“Lets get down there to harass him without a warrant or probable cause! To the fed-mobile!”
Uh, you know the situation isn’t that clear cut, right? In fact Max is there specifically to investigate what the fuck Deus is up to as well because, surprise surprise, the situation isn’t that clear cut.
“Vale did not stop them from approaching. They approached.”
I’m not claiming she did. Did you not read the comment I was responding to?
The commentor was confused as to why Vale didn’t stop them and I responded with the fact that she couldn’t have without stirring up a bunch of trouble.
“Then it’s a good thing that she did not physically disabled him.”
So I’m guessing you didn’t read the comment I replied to and are just making a knee-jerk response?
“And yet she didnt fight.”
Yeah, you’re defending Vale from accusations I’m not even making here.
“Uh, you know the situation isn’t that clear cut, right? In fact Max is there specifically to investigate what the fuck Deus is up to as well because, surprise surprise, the situation isn’t that clear cut.”
Max is there because she was INVITED.
Federal agents don’t need an invite to approach/question someone. You’d be surprised by how little reason they need at all to justify something like this, actually.
She was invited after she made that phone call to SmugD to find out what the fuck he was up to
Yes, obviously, these agents drove (or whatever) to the restaurant. I’m not curious about the mode of transportation, I’m interested in the timing. Acronym agencies do not coordinate on anything like the scale needed to have one of them determine the time and location of his previously unplanned dinner, inform all the other agencies, coordinate an arrival time, and all show up together, in under half a day. Which they obviously didn’t, since they’re stepping all over each other, and I can’t think an agency with a reason to involve all the others.
They all arrived at the same time because someone, somewhere, pulled off some amazing social/political engineering to tip someone in each of these agencies off, with almost zero notice, with a place, time, and incentive to show up. Possibly people at multiple levels in each organization, since field agents are not all autonomous and have bosses/teams that sign off on their activities.
Someone with serious clout wanted this meeting to happen, and for it to reflect poorly on the agencies – which would have nothing to gain from mishandling relations with Deus. Most likely case, Team Deus is behind it, and it’s a play to set up a dominant position for future relations. We haven’t seen any of his other minions, so either this is Vale playing through an orchestrated scenario, or Lorlara doing something ham-fisted like collecting her lord’s enemies in one place so he can crush them.
My best guess? It’s because he brought his new intern along.
She was causing a pretty big scene in a public restaurant with dozens of other people around to watch and record her doing so. Anyone with real connections probably would have found Deus easily after that.
The question is whether or not he did that on purpose.
Hmm.. plausible. But it’s not the kind of restaurant where the target clientele are people who routinely whip out their phones to angrily tweet about their their first-world-problem of being annoyed during dinner.
And even if another diner (or staff member) did post something (“lol I’m serving Deus tonight”), that still gives a dozen agencies less than 1-2 hours to find out and get field agents in place. Again, near-simultaneously, although of course some of them would be waiting longer than others for Deus and Max to come out. I think that’s more of a ‘rule of funny’ than a plot point though.
> Why did Vale…
Because she likes to mess with earth mortals… that’s one of the few things we know about her.
> it seems a bit out of character for Vale
What character? She hasn’t been seen very much for us to really get a feel for what her character even is. We’ve only gotten a few glimpses, and there’s been hints that Vale is some kind of ancient eldritch entity. Assuming that’s correct, I suspect that she’s only at Deus’s side so long as it suits her unknowable, unspeakable purpose.
She’s working for Deus’s interests though, very professionally and consistently so far. This is beyond her just jerking some random humans around because she’s bored – she’s sending a message presumably one Deus approves, and setting a tone and precedent during his first interaction with most of these national security agencies.
As for character, she’s always been quiet and stayed completely in the background until provoked. We’ve seen a glimpse or two of humor, but nothing this direct before in taking the initiative.
Vale always reminds me of Lovecraft’s 4D creatures slumming in the 3D world. Or exiled to our plane and making the best of it. She’s awesome, whatever she is.
New head-canon – CDC agent Swallows (the redhead lady) is actually Claudia Donovan of Warehouse 13. I expect the Warehouse will be liaising with ArcLight in the future, if they can manage to work with the Council after all these centuries.
Subscribed!!!!
Totally thought that that was Pinkie (Suzie News’ rival) at first
Maybe a relative?
With that smirk, I imagine Vale imagines whomsoever shalt win the contest shalt be on top.
I’d let her win.
Between Max’s experience, her range of powers, and her ability to optimize those powers as needed, I would bet on Max taking the victory in the end, but Vale would likely give a good fight until Max got her measure.
And of course Max has the ultimate super-power: speed. Doesn’t matter if the other guy can kill you in one punch if they can’t ever hit you, because to you, they may as well be standing still.
Not sure about Sydney. We don’t know enough about Vale to say how her powers would affect/ be affected by Sydney’s orbs.
Hm… that doesn’t sound right…
Especially in this comic where every second woman has breasts the size of her head.
The biggest problem with the behavior of federal law enforcement over the last two pages:
Deus is a US citizen. The only reason any of those agents need to give for throwing him in a cell is “because”. Since he is aiding the corrupt regime of a potentially hostile foreign power, the reason is “Because Treason” followed by, “go away lawyers. We don’t care how many of you there are, we get to hold him incommunicado for a time determined by a FISA court. And by the time you figure out your way around that one he will be at a black site on the moon.”
If he is indeed invoking diplomatic immunity Vale just committed an act of war by attacking an employee of the US government on US soil, or terrorism, take your pick.
Which means Maxima, who would know these things, has every right to place Deus under arrest, because he has committed crimes in her presence. Finally if Vale or the Alari protest, Maxima can employ a, how do you say, more energetic solution.
By all the laws passed since 9/11/2001, Deus will spend the rest of his life at a black site. Good thing Maxima has restraint.
but… but everyone has to act like fools so Deus can look like the coolest, smartest richest person in the world. ( i mean can’t you see how much smarter Deus is because he known not to wear sun glasses at night un like the stupid FBI agent…)
sure in any sane world Deus would be in hot water at the very least but in a sane world all these agencies wouldn’t be acting alone like this either. but again the government has to be seen as weak, ineffective and corrupt to make Deus look good.
An active war with Gelatyn would be really uncomfortable, due to their super army.
Sure they have the diplomatic right to declare war, but so had Liechtenstein when Schwiss accidentally invaded it 3 times.
We also don’t know Vale’s official position.
Soldier from Gelatyn protecting an important official: war.
Overactive employee from Machina industries/private protection firma as a faceless organization: Vale goes to super jail and Machina industries/private firma pays a big fine.
Machina industries as a face having organization: Vale goes to super jail, face of Machina Industries/private protection firm goes to jail or gets sued by US officials in the country he currently gets political protection from, Machina Industries/private protection firm pays a big fine.
Employee acting under direct command of boss: boss and Vale go to jail, company pays big fine and if the company has a face this face goes to jail.
All cases are bad for Deus, but some are a lot better than others
Laws matter precisely as much as people think they matter. For some reason, laws matter less to people with money and political connections.
That’s because they’re based on power and all those things you describe are power too.
More explained: laws work, because there is a community of people backing them up with parts of their power in the form of taxes and help, but in return for this the laws have to work pretty spread to protect the entire community, so if someone has a little more power than the law on them they can easily escape that grasp.
‘Oh, right, back when Sydney got her air recycler thing.’
Sydney? Who’s that? Oh you mean, Miss Not Appearing In This Comic.
Is it me, or does Maxima look like she has 2 noses in the last panel?
The agent who drew & lost his gun would probably (in my opinion) get off without facing charges for it, as any competent defense lawyer could make the 2 separate claims that 1. He was startled, and 2. No lasting harm was done. I get the impression that Vale and Deus wouldn’t be interested in pressing charges anyway, as they were more interested in conveying a threat (and that was thoroughly accomplished).
“The agent who drew & lost his gun would probably (in my opinion) get off without facing charges for it, as any competent defense lawyer could make the 2 separate claims”
Admittedly yeah. He’d hav a defense against criminal charges. And he MIGHT still have qualified immunity against civil charges (or at least I’d argue he does). But his department has its own administrative charges which he would probably not have a defense for. I could probably argue for him to not get suspended, but most people would insist he be on desk duty for a while with how he just pulls out his gun with his finger on the trigger and aims it at another agent without even looking first.
” I get the impression that Vale and Deus wouldn’t be interested in pressing charges anyway,”
I get that impression too. I feel bad for the agent, although he was being stupid and was doing a really wrong thing.
Charges against Spitz through official proceedings would be nothing compared to the bureaucratic hell Deus could create by turning his superiors against him.
I can just see the newspaper headlines:
“Disgraced Federal Agent Does a Spitz-take.”
Look again, his finger is clearly on trigger-guard
Some folk believe in Trial by combat.
Vale appears to believe in foreplay by combat.
Sadly for her, Max does not. And anyway, I don’t think Max is into …. uh, Things. Vale is a Thing, right? I mean, regardless of presenting as male or female, I’m pretty sure Max isn’t into Things.
Dabbler is into both, she should check that out ;)
And vice versa.
So, is Vale taller now?
Vale is as Vale wants to be.
she seems to be the kind of being where legs are an optional feature, so height is probably adjustable.