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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So Vale is an actual threat to Max? I didn’t think there were any but in true hero fashion there has to be a ring to her yang. So since Sydney’s level is not fully known and developing as we speak…nah, too much conjecture. I will table that for now.
Ying not ring
yin not ying. We’ve been over this during the restaurant brawl with Vehemence.
Here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-286-aaaand-scene/
If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ying on it.
DIE.
Ding ding ding
Bada bing
There are multiple threats to Max. Vehemence, when sufficiently powered up, could go toe to toe with her at her strongest and he could’ve actually killed her (albeit implying that she, in slightly different circumstances, could kill him).
The threat who even she admitted was her equal that she allegedly killed, survived and is alive and poses some sort of credible threat to her, even if we don’t know the details yet.
Presumably, the aliens that destroyed the Alari homeworld would present a credible threat to Maxima as well (though it’s hard to tell given it was Sydney, not Maxima, who ended up fighting them).
And while Sydney managed to prevent it from happening, Maxima had the potential to be taken out of combat by the super whose power was to give them the needed power to beat their current opponent–had Sydney not intervened, caught onto the trick used, and stopped her, Maxima was readying herself to throw herself into an opponent whose power would, presumably, have a tailor-made counter to Maxima’s. (It’s difficult to say if this hypothetical would’ve worked, maybe Maxima is too strong for a counter-power to work, a-la Darwin-the-mutant’s power to get what he needed facing The Hulk being to teleport hundreds of miles away, but there’s at least the POTENTIAL he’d have taken her out, we’ve no way to be sure.)
And that’s just the known ones, not even going into the people on Maxima’s team. (Dabbler, as mentioned, fought her to a standstill, and Sydney’s capabilities have shown the capacity to maybe surpass Maxima’s abilities, but both are on her side and thus wouldn’t threaten her.)
Suffice to say, Maxima might be the strongest publicly known superhero, but she’s not completely and entirely untouchable to the point where she has no credible threats; they exist. And Vale is, presumably, on a level where she counts as one.
Further, we have seen what happens when you try to physically damage Vale (when she got stabbed in the eye/face with a [possibly monomolecular] sword), which is to say, jack-all. So, Max, full defense, may or may not hold up against Vale’s attacks, but Max full strength is unlikely to do anything significant to Vale, either. Super-speed and invisibility semi- cancel each other out, and both seem to manage flight of some variant or other, so that’s a wash. Max’s energy blasts may be the only thing that Vale actually has to worry about, and then Max would have to toast most of the area (simultaneously) to have any chance of hitting an invisible, floating, highly maneuverable Vale – which Max won’t do for fear of collateral damage to the planet. Though, there is a point of “it’s worth it” somewhere. Hopefully Vale doesn’t figure out how to trigger it….
This is a tough call. Maxima is faster than Sydney. Her energy blast is stronger. She may not have the ability to make it into a shotgun-like burst as Sydney does, which had to have been handy against the fighters, but it is clear (the demo shot at the tank wasn’t just a straight up blast, etc.) that it does have some level of customization. Max and Sydney are tied in, I’ll call it armor vs force field. Having her armor hit by strong attacks effects Maxima and can hurt her, and that hasn’t been the same with Sydney, who appears to be invulnerable up until the point where her shield fails and she dies.
So one the one hand in the fight against the kaiju and fighters, Maxima might come out the loser compared to Sydney because 1) She (probably) can’t quickly slay fighters with a rapid fire blast and 2) Getting repeatedly hit might slowly wear her down, as we saw in her fight against Kevin (IGetStronger, villain name forgotten) while Sydney just shrugs it all off.
On the second hand, Maxima might be hit less often due to her faster flight speed, and she has a lot of physical resources that Sydney doesn’t have, such as strength (probably not terribly important in this fight) and endurance. Because I’m sure no one thinks that Sydney can keep going as long at anything as Maxima.
On the gripping hand, Sydney was able to warp out of there, while Maxima would be limited to playing hide and seek on the planet if she needed to disengage for rest or sleep.
In terms of Max vs the fighter craft, I think it would depend on how concerned Max is about collateral damage. After all, we don’t know the upper limit on the size of that explosion she made during the press conference demonstration. Additiobal shots aren’t needed if your first one is big enough to wipe out the entire swarm, and the hanger bay they came out of.
I’m not sure max is faster than sydney any more.
Not if you count that Aetherway bypass thing
cars don’t count when measuring a foot race.
portals don’t count when measuring flight speed.
especially when the portal is less teleportation and more pre-set points in space on a dial up. Different kind of travel
Portal aside, her last speed unlock was a huge jump in flight speed. We haven’t seen Max’s best, but Sydney went from Mach 4 to playing Moses parting the Red Sea at low altitude.
I think Syddles is currently at Mach 16.
sydney’s shield did survive a direct hit from like a several megaton nuke at point blank range and it did strained the shield but supposedly her shield isnt maxed out and we already see the huge diference that even just one level makes when she jumped from max mach 4 to mach 16 after maxing out the flight path
Maxima might have had significant trouble fighting the giant Kaiju’s. Remember they had a shield that Sydney was simply unable to penetrate. The only reason Sydney could, was because she teleported into the shield.
As far as we know, Maxima can’t do that. So it’d be a question of if she had enough punch to break through the shield.
Seeing what she did to the spaceship, it’s very possible that she DOES have enough punch for that, but we don’t know.
As far as we know, even conventional weaponry can be a threat. She may be bullet proof and hit like an adamantium freight train (when her DEF is set almost to high and STR is balanced but she still got injured while on tour and was in recovery before Archon was a thing. It wasn’t mentioned “how” she got injured though. Check Peggy’s bio :)
Maxima fought other supers in Afghanistan though, so it’s more likely she was injured by one of them – possibly the presumed dead one who fought her to a standstill.
I put a ring on my yang sometimes; it vibrates. The ring, not my yang.
Bit late to the party, but it’s very possible Vale isn’t particularly sensitive to physical damage.
‘she’ seems to be some form of amorphous entity that prefers (or is ordered) to take the form of a human female.
It’s very possible there’s nothing there for Max to punch, which would honestly be the most effective way to counter Max. Her casual destruction of what I’ll call “Borg”-level shielding means there’s unlikely to be anything short of a space station that can keep her away by force. But it doesn’t matter how much damage you can do if you can’t hit anything, and intangibility is a better counter than super-speed because even if you’re too fast for her somehow, there’s this thing called “AoE”.
So Vale is an actual threat to Max? I didn’t think there were any but in true hero fashion there has to be a ying to her yang. So since Sydney’s level is not fully known and developing as we speak…nah, too much conjecture. I will table that for now.
Did you miss the Vehemence fight?
I thought I did but apparently I missed or forgot something.
Yin Yang.
I got it now. Had to go back to 2015 to find it. So she has had a capable challenger before. I guess I forgot because teamwork got him in the end.
See, here’s the thing. Deus said that if Sciona had her real body back she might, MIGHT be a match for Vale. The thing is, Sciona, with her body back, got absolutely CURBSTOMPED by Max. This suggests that, if Deus is a capable judge of power levels (which is kind of a coin flip whether he is or whether he’s overconfident,) Vale could end up fought to a standstill by someone that Max completely trashed. Also, due to her crazy beam powers, Max is more likely to be a good match for Vale than Sciona. Sciona would need prep time to set up some serious traps, but I’m willing to bet that Max’s beam could turn Vale into a cloud of expanding subectoplasmic particles pretty quickly, especially if she pulls against other abilities.
But we did see Sciona try to fight Vale after getting her body back, and Vale was effortlessly dominating her. (#600-602) So it looks like Deus was actually hedging his bets.
So we only know that Max and Vale are both much stronger than Sciona, which tells us little about their relative power level.
Vale’s opinion of her own strength is… considerably higher than Deus’. Or her opinion of Sciona is considerably lower. And as smart and resourceful as Deus claims to be, I think Vale is probably the better informed of the two on her own nature, as well as that of the Alari.
“Be careful with that word* Sciona. You are long lived, but only very slightly harder to kill than a human.”
* mortal.
I love Vale, she’s such a tease.
This is unusually forward for her though. It almost looks as though she saw an opportunity to tweak Maxima and took it. Maybe she crits Maxima’s weak point by glancing downwards and whispering something.
Something about underwear.
Wow,the sheer sexual tension that last panel implies with that pose off.
Seriously I don’t think that was the vibe that was meant, but it is the one implied.
I find it hilarious actually, how Max keeps getting into these stand offs that imply sexy tension with various people.
There is a HUGE difference between sexual tension & jerking someone’s chain. As Deus’s bodyguard, she’s seen enough of Max to know that Max really doesn’t like be hit on outside some parameters that Vale doesn’t really care about except that she knows that this is outside them.
Grow some breadth, people. ;)
Agreed – tension implies both parties are interested at some level but hesitant to act. Dabbler and Vale invading her personal space is harassment and borderline assault. And while Dabbler has been pretty clear in her motives, Vale may (arguably) just be interested in a good sparring match.
Is there really? Both involve jerking.
And we have implied sexual tension in the last panel… How does Max do that? I mean seriously you get the feeling that any fight they get into has fifty fifty odds that it might go to the bedroom…
Is Max just catnip to people, she already has a WONDER Woman to her Super-Lady, and now what seems like a Catwoman to her Bat-Lady. Couldn’t really say Superman and Batman since Max is in no way a man, or identifies as a man from what we have been shown.
I don’t see sexual tension. Perhaps Vale is being sexually forward to piss off Maxima. Maxima’s got a sideways stance and is glaring at Vale whereas Vale is facing forward and is looking on slightly seductively. So Maxima seems more likely to sock Vale with a haymaker.
Am I going there? It appears I’m going there.
Vale: Shall we take this up to my room? Deus got the ultra-deluxe penthouse suite – three floors, diamond chandeliers, glass staircases, gorgeous view of Central Park, perfect for sparring…
Max: A Park view? That IS perfect. When I defenestrate you, I don’t want you landing in traffic or crashing through another building.
Vale: SO conscientious! Promise me you’ll last longer than my last fight – she gave up after one good pounding.
Max: That would be Sciona, right? Yeah, she didn’t last very long with me, either. I promise I’ll work you over REAL good.
DARPA Agent: A-are they talking about fighting, or sex?
Deus: *sighs, pulls out phone* Honestly, I doubt there’d be any less property damage either way. Looks like I’m sending another expensive present to the owner of the hotel.
“Her powerset is a little confusing,”
Being confusing works to Vale’s advantage… how did they put it, super speed is countered by super confusion?
In any case, one of my early guesses is looking more likely:“Vale doesn’t have any visible weapons. That doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t crush, chop, perforate and julienne an opponent, however. At the same time.“
Wonder what Archon knows about Vale. It’s hard to tell exactly what Maxima saw Vale do between the last page and panel 4 here, but if she was at all surprised it didn’t show. Did Harem fill them in on the Sciona stabbing or is there further history there?
Yeah fighting isn’t what comes to mind seeing those two like that, I’m sure what ideas I’m getting would make Dabbler all interested.
So Vale is some kind of an Extremis robot?
Maybe!
Huh found out Sir Ian Holm the actor died. Wonder how much it would take to get a tribute to him done.
Great Actor, too bad a lot more of the good ones have been dying off lately…
Now kiss…
What does “puni” mean? The only thing I could find is an avant-garde artist or a Hungarian expression for something relevant to people who see sexual tension in the last panel.
I know the word as a tiny slime monster in a video game franchise. the Atelier franchise.
which raised my eyebrow given how often Vale is compared to a shoggoth.
although I think maybe he meant Puny, as in small and weak. Which is the namesake for the little slime.
then again, the sentence makes more sense to me imagining the tiny slime puni counterpart to a titan.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/atelierseries/images/4/41/A17_Blue_Puni.png/revision/latest?cb=20180518105421
there are a wide variety, being the Atelier series answer to the slimes from Dragon Quest. Like purple and red, giant ones, ones so big there is a dungeon inside, king ones, ect…
like here is a Puni inside a giant Puni
https://lparchive.org/Atelier-Iris-Eternal-Mana/Update%2009/33-puni20.jpg
Related to this. u·ni·tive
/ˈpyo͞onədiv/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
adjective: punitive; adjective: punitory
inflicting or intended as punishment.
“he called for punitive measures against the Eastern bloc”
(of a tax or other charge) extremely high.
“a current punitive interest rate of 31.3%”
That was the best I was able to ascertain.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Kiss! Kiss Kiss! XP
Nope, the spider colony living in a Vance suit wins, paws down!
Spiders Man!
At the end of the movie “A.I. Artificial Intelligence”, there were robots that look very similar to what Vale would look like if she wasn’t projecting a hologram.
which is the generic featureless humanoid form. Old school humanoid slimes, ghosts, aliens, its why some people mistook those robots for aliens.
Which made me think of the princesses from (The Phantom Tollbooth), among a few cosmic beings in some comics which project as just humanoid with no features but have glowing bits for bodies.
I didn’t find them featureless- subtle points of light here and there. Kind of like nanotech swarm computations.
featureless in the same sense as Slenderman or a Shadow Person. There Is a human shape, and even possible contours to the face, but no obvious eyes, nose, or mouth.
I am honestly pretty sure at this point the law would require the Federal Agents to take Vale into custody. Period.
She damaged a Federal agents property in front of a whole busload, effectively, of witnesses. And if she in any way resisted Maxima would probably be legally required to step in, since Archon “exists” to counter Superhuman threats.
And to not spam the thread I’ll respond to myself. Legally speaking, if a Federal agent decides to arrest you, the law is quite clear on this. You cannot resist, even if it is a baseless arrest. You go to jail and get your day in court, because resisting arrest, even unlawful arrest, is in and of itself a crime. The only case any sort of resistance is legal I know of is under a Texas law stating you can resist arrest “If a police officer is using excessive force that is likely to cause you injury” and even under that law you are only allowed to resist to the minimum level of force neccessary to prevent yourself from being injured.
I was more interested in the way Max phrased that… “in. my. presence.” Rather as if she was also saying “If I didn’t see it happen, it’s not my business.” Do you think maybe those agents are not on her Christmas list?
or its not just that she’s doing it, but that she has the audacity to do it right in front of her as if flaunting that she can get away with it regardless who is there.
That’s what I thought too.
reading back I just realised we have a bit of an unresolved mystery
In page 848 there is a dark haired man sitting a car at a short distance of the keystone cops saying “what are those idiots doing?”
He apparently is with some form of law enforcement, but which? All the relevant ones and a lot of irrelevant ones as well, have introduced themselves and mr dark and mysterious was not among them…
I was guessing Arc Dark or Twilight Council.
which the Twilight Council has cause to question Deus too, Supers are public knowledge, get enough Supers running around, with enough diverse powers, and the global glamor of concealment might not work so well anymore and tatter at the edges enough to flop off in the psychic winds of perception.
I’m fairly sure it’s Special Agent Johnson. We don’t get to see the CIA carrot-top due to the in-car angle.
I love that last panel.. mainly because its almost verbatim from some girl vs girl poster I saw ages ago… anyone know which one I’m talking about?
An MMA poster?
no.. it was similar to ‘The Kiss’, but I don’t remember who the women were :(
You can’t spell “Do not attack federal agents” without “do attack federal agents”.
Do Homeland agents really have such poor firearms training? It’s at least good that he’s maintaining trigger discipline, but he shouldn’t be swinging it so haphazardly, especially not towards people he doesn’t want to kill.