Grrl Power #884 – Wham, Smash, to the Scaffolding
Today is just not going according to anyone’s plans it seems.
I’m pretty sure panel 1 is the best boot I’ve ever drawn. I know that’s a weird thing to fixate on, but between Maxima’s collection and the uniform boots, I draw a lot of them.
Fun fact. Alf is short for Alien Life Form. I assume most of you know that. I don’t know why I assume that, beyond you guys being generally pop-culture savvy. And by pop-culture, I mean a TV show from 1986. But that’s fine, pop-culture has a long tail. I’m not sure what the cutoff is. OG Star Trek and Doctor Who are still fair game, but the Frank Nelson reference from a few pages back is probably borderline. Presumably references from the court of Louie the 14th is too old to count as pop-culture… but that’s a bad example because that stuff wasn’t broadcast to the masses anyway.
I’m not sure where “pop-culture” starts actually. The original comic strips in newspapers? The first movies? Maybe the first plays? Even if those were super popular, they’d ultimately have a limited audience due to physical considerations of attendance. I think mass literacy is a requirement before you can have broadly consumed “culture” as it were. A quick googling shows that England passed the Forster’s Education Act in 1870, which, after a few tweaks, led to mandatory primary education by 1891. So, I guess pop-culture could have started to exist any time after that, at least in the English speaking world.
Then again, stuff like Beowulf has been around since 975 AD, so who can really say.
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Who else is rooting for Max to pull the pins on those grenades faster than he can see and then let him monologue until they go off?
Are you Groot?
Yes, but he’s the uncommon one.
We are.
ME!!!!
you say that now, but all i see is ‘I am Yeet.’
Or Achille while grappling, that would be fun, too.
Okay, I’ve read through the comments and didn’t see anyone mentioning the high tech Brass Knuckles Not-Kevin is wearing. I’m guessing this is what he believes will allow him to fight Max.
Seriously, given what is publicly known of Max, why would anyone start shit with her? Just her answer to the question about Supers in Iraq in the interview a few months back (in comic time) would give most thinking people pause. “Fewer than there were.”
I’m guessing that these guys are … the other kind of demon, like Vehemence… the vehemic users…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-264-the-team-receives-some-bad-news-or-oh-crap-is-right/
Which makes this first team not fighters, but hors d’oeuvres.
Very tasty ones at that. Although I doubt they are that, that’d be one hell of a plot twist. Although I’m more leaning on super villain collation.
Nah, vehemic energy users were categorized as extremely rare… they’d never even heard of a human one before Vehemence. I don’t see them being recycled as the big bad in two different encounters in a short period of time.
If by “short period of time” you mean six years and 650 strips, than you may be right…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-218-battle-break-or-the-most-dick-way-to-block-something/
Yes, we are old
6 years *our* time, maybe a few months in-story time which is all that matters.
My guess, the “super-factor” is related to mental degeneration and heightened overconfidence. While “official” teams could upset this with rigorous training regime and proper indoctrination, assorted militias and villain groups usually lack self discipline to do the former, and tend to substitute zealotry for the latter.
Could possibly just be increased Testosterone production, which would somewhat be supported by the higher-than-average muscle mass you see on all Supers.
or its not a super related factor and just normal human ego. Some people can handle powers, others are corrupted by it. Some can hand having weapons responsibly, others are just looking for an excuse to shoot something.
this all came up when Maxima was at the announcement about supers existing. Some people end up thinking they’re some kind of god, get that ego in them; and think they can take on anyone no matter what they see; we see this with people who learn how to fight too. Some end up looking for a fight, get over confident, and you have to knock them down a peg; doesn’t always stick though.
Not necessarily in counter with my point. While I do agree with the notion of such behaviour being inherent to human nature, the “super-factor”, which demonstrably enhances physical and mental traits of the awakened, could possibly also drive negative qualities into overdrive: suspiciousness into paranoia, impulsiveness into ADD, and self-assuredness into overconfidence. Which will kill you, slowly, and insidiously.
I am always iffy of series that pull that (makes mental conditions worse and causes sociopathic behavior) in supers as it comes across as some really negative coding, especially if supers are represented in a form of “fantastical racism” sitting in for minority groups or other marginalized groups. As I recal though the two biggest series to pull this revealed later on it was all a lie by the government and the sociopathic behavior was no different than normal human behavior taking advantage of their powers as an easy opportunity to commit crimes (Painkiller Jane) and (Witch hunter Robin). (I think it may have come up in Deadman Wonderland, S Cry ed, and some others)
>negative coding
>supers are just humans
Please chose one. Either sociopathic traits are inherent to humanity and “its not a super related factor and just normal human ego. Some people can handle powers, others are corrupted by it”, or supers are perfect ultimate Übermenschen, and dirt-blood unter half-beast have no reason to distrust the actions of their betters.
You can’t support both points of view. That way you either come as dishonest, or brainwashed.
Dixi.
Well somebody who embraces critical thinking would be open to the possibilities of both points of view. Just because we live in a system which favours adversarial debate (law courts being a formal example, likewise party political debates) does not mean that everybody has to pick a side and solely argue in favour of that and against all contrary points of view.
Of course if one side is being vigorously defended already, then it can behove somebody to speak up as Devil’s advocate, so that the other point of view is not neglected. Because if that happens too often, then we, as a society, may find perfectly good options being sidelined and ignored.
So a wise person might raise contrary options and even less likely ‘way out there’ ideas. Such as “maybe dinosaurs had feathers” or “perhaps the signs of phosphene, on Venus, are actually a side effect of industry, rather than biological or natural non-biological reactions?”
Whilst chemists may heavily support one point of view, biologists another, if the truth is something non-intuitive, then we may take an inordinately long time to discover it. Or, even worse, may never unlock it!
Not sure how you came to the conclusion you just did. I didn’t say supers were perfect ubermenchen, only that having powers could be an excuse those already susceptible to greed and sociopathic behavior would use as an excuse.
If anything not understanding what I mean by negative coding raises an eyebrow. Negative coding in this case is if you place supers in a position as a minority group, and imply in your setting that just by being super they have this mental defect. That negative coding comes across like……eugenics and implying certain ethnicities or neural types are inherently dangerous or bad; why the minority coding in Zootopia is awful; because their minority coded group ARE predators with natural killer instincts.
I was saying DON’T DO THAT. Just have your supers be normal humans with powers; no *oh there are so many villains because it screws up their neurology to produce an adverse amount of sociopaths/psychopaths* being fallible humans who could be corrupted by having powers *like handing someone a weapon who is angry at the world but otherwise would have no means to lash out* is not the same thing.
A bad person can have powers.
But having powers doesn’t make you a bad person.
this was actually covered in this comic back at the press conference about supers existing.
It is as was feared, a flashy show of strength from the authorities will cause more villains to view it as a challenge to be accepted. The more powerful and violent the Heroes, the more powerful and violent Villains will come out of the wood work. DC and Marvel are making bank on that principle.
yeah, but Maxima was right, in real life you don’t see people challenging the police to a shoot out at high noon (anymore; and let’s not start in about the protests; speaking as an average and the majority of those are peaceful; not someone attacking a group of cops just to look tough)
*not anymore. In some days gone by; and in some areas; you do end up with a group of individuals who have access to power and influence who end up thinking that their weapons make them the ones who should be in charge so they will go after law enforcement *see old west shoot outs, Mafia, terrorists*, this super powers thing is a new wild frontier and that balance has yet to be established so with them being more common than previously expected; you are getting people crawling out of the woodwork trying to make a name for themselves as the big fish. Trying to set up a “stay off my turf coppers and their won’t be any trouble” scenario.
Not in most developed countries on most days. But standoffs happen periodically, riots are somewhat common, and drug lords are a fact of life in many developing countries. Powers could easily make any of those situations more likely to occur and escalate.
“Thinking people.”
…
You see where you went sideways, now?
You would think that this guy’s fist would suddenly stop the moment it entered the stasis beam/field surrounding Maxima.
The stasis field was going down (note the “Flicker” in the previous panel) due to Maxie’s speed boost draining the battery.
So this guy calling her “Alf” (See the series about A.L.F.) makes him apparently a local super.
Maybe his punch was powerful enough to overload the final 2% of the battery.
It’s more likely he entered it and drained the last percent with Maxima having zero reaction ticks. Otherwise at her speed it wouldn’t have even landed.
Strictly speaking, unless the field collapsed the exact instant his fist hit, this blow shouldn’t have connected. She was FACING him during the entire swing and moving way, WAY faster at the instant of impact. His blow had to not only have brown through the last 2% of the stasis, it had to have arrived unexpectedly.
So, I’m guessing he was invisible, too. If he wasn’t, that means he’s considerably faster than Maxima was with the field down to 2%.
The field was flickering out in panel four, his fist came in panel five, Maxi was concentrating on Torchy, doesn’t matter how fast she is moving if her entire focus is on one threat
The first Modern (ie mass news papers being a thing) Pop culture phenomenom is probably “Le Bete du Gevudan” or the Beast of Gevudan from France. The story hit & spread like wildfire in the brand new newspaper industry. Clickbaity headlines flashed across France & into other countries. Wild theories & stories filled every new artical till even the Frence King & the Church noticed.
To this day you still find people debating what happened. Was it an actual documented Werewolf? An insane mass murderer? An exoctic pet from Africa that got loose? Some cult covering up ritualistic murders?
Reading through the reports of the Gendarme & comparing them to other known wolf attacks show that it was probably just a series of wolf attacks that got blown out of porportion…. Or was it? Mwahahahahaha!
Dickens was, sort of, High pop culture. Jules Verne was Nerd pop culture. And then there were the penny dreadfuls… Then there were folk songs, which spanned the range from high to low, ancient to modern.
Dickens, obviously, was pop culture as we know it. But Cervantes was, too.
The difference is that before newspapers and mass media, “pop” culture was just culture. It moved slower and stayed relevant, rather than having a fifteen minute shelf life.
Pop culture goes back to the division of society into classes. High culture was the stuff the nobles liked and could afford (sculpture, painting, poetry, stories), Low Culture was the stuff the commoners did (usually drinking songs and children’s stories – they couldn’t afford books orto sculpt or paint). Chaucer was one of the first guys who tried to bridge the gap writing commoners bawdy stories in the kind of verse the upper classes read.
…one of the first guys *In English* who tried…
Dumas didn’t write novels so much as serials with cliffhangers and clickbait-y chapter titles. They compiled the serials from a storyline into books such as The Count of Monte Cristo.
Cervantes was just the first Fanfic author who got well known.
fun fact…. that’ll actually have hurt Max probably. As she was moving at max speed–so her dial was low on the rest of her stats.
but if her dial was cranked to max speed, she would have seen the fist coming with enough time to pump the invulnerability dial before impact… i hope.
No, because all her speed went into countering the effects of the stasis field, leaving her slower than a regular human still.
Did you see what setting she was on? where was that? I don’t remember seeing that – we have someone (Torchy) remarking that she must be moving extremely fast, because she knows how much the stasis gun is capable of slowing things down, but she doesn’t know exactly how fast Maxima can move. Dabbler MAY have a good idea how much the stasis gun can compensate, and probably has a much better idea of what percentage of Maxima’s Maximum speed is required to “end this faster than you can blink”, but she didn’t say whether she would have to be actually moving at her maximum speed in order to do that.
I’m sure Maxima’s at least a little injured. Maybe her nose again… poor nose. However, we have no idea how much she was dumping into speed and how much she was reserving for whatever else. For instance, though it’s not going to be enough to obviously prevent her from getting injured with the right amount of opposing force, she’d have to have a minimum amount of durability to just resist being torn apart by the air she needs to move through when she’s using super-speed.
It’s entirely possible she didn’t see it coming at all, for whatever reason, because, if she was dumping a lot into superspeed, one would think she would have dodged or brought her hand up to catch the punch or something – poor nose…
we’ll see
Not if the fist came just as the time-slow was ending – it’d be like the end of those Quicksilver scenes in the movies where everything suddenly starts moving – only a million times faster.
if the fist popped out of nowhere, sure, but it had to come from somewhere, whether a portal or from him walking up behind ALF – she’d likely have SOME opportunity to perceive it – question in my mind is how pissed she was (and how focused she was on impacting and collapsing ALF/Torchy’s windpipe, assuming she has one there), that she might have dismissed him to an extent(?)
Also on how focused she was on the face she was about to smear into paste.
Even odds that she didn’t see the other guy, since her clock speed was slightly less than normal human movement.
Mhmm. Lots of pain, although with max Speed with the Perception that comes with it, she might’ve been able to switch.
Maxima always has a minimum level of her super powers, regardless of where she allocates her variable capacity. For instance her super strength is always well above Achilles’s. Likewise her defence is still capable of soaking up low tier super attacks.
However as Maxima’s capabilities are now well known, and this guy still seems confident, it is reasonable to assume that he is above that. So your conclusion is probably correct. Although perhaps not as bad as you fear.
“Well known” might be an overstatement. As a reminder Maxima was fighting Vehemence at 1/1/1/0/0 back in Power Drain. And all she got from fighting that way was a broken nose. When she went full defense 0/3/0/0/0 she couldn’t overpower him, but he couldn’t hurt her.
Electro knuckles will mildly annoy her. Nothing more. BUT… they don’t know that yet.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-273-power-drain/
One bulky tank and since the Vehemence team compared their powers in tanks a mildly strong super could’ve done some serious damage
Actually Vehemence WAS hurting her at 0/3/0/0/0. 0/3/0/0/0 was all she could do to not die though. Had Sydney not intervened with her plan, Maxima would have died. As it was, Maxima had an injured larynx for a while after that from the being strangled.
However, everyone started thinking electricity was her weak spot after that, most likely because her ability to shift her ‘points’ to different areas is classified information that most of the other team does not know, let alone the villains.
Deus probably knows though. :)
After the Sconia fight he at least knows that electricity is no problem(Harem was there and would’ve told him)
Mmm, we should not assume that Harem is telling Deus everything. She seems mostly to be enjoying the double agent role, for the kicks. So passing on things which would advance her boyfriend’s business interests is on the cards. But detailing her colleagues classified information and weaknesses (or lack thereof) are things which could get them killed. That is not something I think she would intentionally do, and she is smart enough to realise its significance.
Good point and “Date is such a strong word”
<a href="https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-131-queue-maniacal-laughter-and-lightning/"Triple agent, even!
Stupid finicky html parser
Actually Harem isnt sure whether or not electricity weakens Maxima. Remember Sydney and Harem had a back and forth about that and Harem said “I don’t know?”
@Pander. No, she wasn’t being harmed. But eventually if he kept getting stronger from everything he’d hit that 3 dot. Total defense means no offense though. The second the lightning ended she could switch to full strength. This ended the stalemate of defense that stays vs strength that grows. It would have taken longer with the lightning vs defense alone. How long? As long as a piece of string.
I was thinking more of her demonstrating a nuke-like attack at the press conference which revealed the existence of super powers to the world. That will have gotten as much air-time as Neil Armstrong landing on the Moon.
Follow that up with destroying an alien battle cruiser, in full sight of the press.
Whereas the fact that Vehemence is in the same league as her does not detract from how impressive both of them came across in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park ®. The world saw that it took an entire team of elite SWAT supers to take him down. And Maxima fought him toe to toe, on her own.
So only supers who are confident that they could destroy a Fel Battecruiser or take down a full Arc SWAT team would make a move like this. Unless they are insane, really stupid or on drugs. All of which are possible. But dramatic tension makes the former more likely.
methinks his confidence is wildly misplaced
Safest place in the ‘verse is *inside* a stasis field.
but the field juuust collapsed in the panel before Max takes a hit.
so in those moments of time between panels
where maxed-out super reflexes are no longer negated to an order of magnitude less time flow than what is normal.
Max is catching up to (and accelerating well beyond) normal time flow and what was seen as a blurry mess of time dilation before is coming into sharp focus.
Within that period of a few hundered milliseconds, at least from maxes POV, that big ol background blur is coming into focus as an incoming vehmence-sized fist that is too close to dodge.
Certainly a rare-for-Max “oh shit. This is gonna hurt” moment.
But super-reflexes do make for almost instant power swaps.
Max probably wont even get a bruise out of that.
And looking at my wall o’ text … conveying that from Max’s perspective would have required 3-4 panels by itself.
Dave aint gonna do that
I could also see a level of reflexive stalling as she suddenly goes from barely unable to move to suddenly unhampered, well aware that she lives in a world of cardboard where she can’t afford to move when she’s not entirely certain there isn’t a civilian’s head within swatting range.
But yeah, it can all be assumed.
We will get about twelve words of exposition that answers the question. Me, as writer I’d put Max out for at least three pages so the other team members get their workout. Dabbler and Cora go down next.
Of course, the mercs won’t take kindly to anyone trying to steal their kill, even if they couldn’t have killed it themselves.
Those people don’t seem to care what a bunch of busted up alien mercs think.
I would say any story or character that becomes well known enough that it can be casually referenced counts as “pop culture”– So Beowulf, many of the Norse stories about Thor, Baldur, etc., would count, along with Greek plays and the Odyssey.
The ultimate example has to be the conceptually brilliant but linguistically improbable ST:TNG episode “Darmok”. It’s *all* “pop culture” references (and that might be where the idea came from).
Darmok and Jalad at Kalenda’s!
Shaka, when the walls fell… :(
Dabbler, her thighs wide? Because she was skipping the lighthook.
Not specific enough.
How about
Bo Derick, when the braids sway at the beach.
To olde a ref? Maybe…
Baywatch, when they filmed intro.
I preferred the original book, where the character had been swimming naked. Curses to the prudishness of the film industry!
*waving paw in fury*
*saucy wink
:-D
No intelligent person would be thankful for someone ‘warming up’ Maxima, making sure she’s in pure combat/kill mode. Not unless they’re like Vehemence like someone else suggested and that’s quite unlikely given how rare Dabbler said they are and she’d never heard of a human having those powers so another human with them is really remote (and I doubt the author would be that predictable and lazy about things to have another show up given how nigh-impossible they are to stop).
I said exactly the same thing. Why would they want this team to be warmed up? Can’t be for anything good.
The first casualty of engagement is always Plan A. Tossing some cannon fodder out to draw the enemy and their immediate resources together helps greatly collapse the probability space and reduce the number of surprises. Then when you see what pieces will actually be on the board and their disposition, you’re in a much better position to deploy your main offensive.*
*In fact, it’s such a good tactic that it’s common wisdom to hold a reserve in case the enemy’s diversion turns out to be the main attack. The WWII Allied assault on Normandy relied very heavily on misinformation and a light division drawing the main body of the German forces farther up the coast. By the time the High Command had enough intel and received permission to respond in force, it was too late.
Must be Kevin’s younger brother Melvin.
Maybe just a fan of 80’s tv?
Still, ‘ogre’ there is about to get up close and personal with Sputnik … in orbit. Then perhaps hit him with a rock, I suggest the moon.
Since Max has fought one like Kevin, she is not about to repeat, and let meat tank stay grounded.
I had no idea Alf was anything other than the name of an ugly alien from some TV show that aired when I was 4 years old. Mostly because I didn’t watch said show.
That’s where he got his Dirt name from, real name is ‘Gordon Shumway’
Bye bye New York!
So that’s definitely another vehemic demon, right? Like that’s what vehemence was. Not a super, just a humanoid alien with violence powers. Like a succubus is a humanoid alien with lust powers. WAIT!!!! HOW MANY YEARS HAS IT BEEN SINCE VEHEMENCE SHOWED UP?!?! IS THIS THE ANNUAL?! a quick check has informed me that it has in fact been five years since vehemence was neutralized, and I am suddenly feeling old
I think that this is a native New York super villain. Given that he referred to Torchy as being an “Alf” (Alien Life Form, per the author’s blog).
Just wanted to mention ‘pop culture’ began in the 1950s, although the term ‘popular culture’ is from the late 1800s
Andy Waterhole
He didn’t start it, he just, well, popularised it
I see what you did there :)
A Neanderthal, a homo sapiens and a Denisovan walked into a cave bar and told pop culture jokes to each other.
Given how much Maxima had to boost her speed to move while under the fields effect her defence was probably low enough for that to seriously hurt.Would be interesting if that was a knockout punch as that would give villains a circuituitous way of actually being able to do anything to Maxima other than get her attention(Translation: When the heros are too powerful/capable its kind of hard for there to be any suspense to the plot.This is why Batman has more readers than superman)
But isn’t Sydney the hero of this comic, and the rest of the cast sort of supporting protagonists? Yes, we care about what’s going to happen to them, but their level of competence makes it very unlikely that any of them will be killed off or even badly hurt (unless they become victims of The Worf Effect, where someone got to beat up Worf to show how tough they were)- whereas Sydney is highly vulnerable, still learning what she can do, making tons of mistakes, and in frequent jeopardy. She’s the audience-relatable character. Maybe everyone wants to be invulnerable, but we can’t understand how that would feel; but everyone understands how it feels to be in over your head, like Sydney.
Sorry- that kind of went on a bit. But I hope you got my drift.
That is why Halo is the protagonists and Maxima still has to clear even one encounter by herself, while both Halo and Dabbler have done exactly that.
Furthermore people think Maxima is the overpowered one, because her powers are flashy, but the only non-surpassed(by allies) power she has is super strength in all other aspects she gets beaten by others(Speed=Halo, explosion=Cora(anti-mass drivers), Flight=Halo, Durability=Achilles and probably a lot of other characters.
Halo doesn’t have speed other than flight. At max, Max’s reaction speed and movement speed outclasses everyone. (She’s the only one that can catch the bullet.)
In the basic she’s outclassed in speed, just as Halo’s shield is in the basic outclassed by Achilles even though it can protect groups better.
Furhtermore there’s a real possibility Ren outclasses her in reaction time and Dabbler’s ribbons have outclassed superspeeders before.
Oh no Halo is overpowered as all hell too-we still dont know her upper limits in any direction and fans for ages have gleefully been predicting her getting even more broken powers/upgrades as she “levels up”.The only saving graces for Halo as far as im concerned is that shes having to level up and her ADD is to outright cartoonish levels that Ive never seen in a real person(The closest Ive seen is someone before they got diagnosed and even then without meds they werent bouncing off the walls like Halo does)
HA, HA!! I just got the title! (Assuming it’s a spin on the old Jackie Gleason line from The Honeymooners. If it’s not, I didn’t get it.)
I wanna say it probably isn’t, just to confuse you
Ok, so big burly blondie is I’d say 80% surely not Vehemence, but he could definitively be a Vehemancer/Malumi.
Now is he human?
We don’t know, he could be using disguise tech since I would guess a lot species knows of the Malumi and they would probably stick out in a crowd of humans.
Those that knows about the Malumi would most likely either A run their ass off the planet or B be prepared for some serious trouble since those guys quite literally live off violence and a planet with women capable of punching spaceships would make for some delicious violence.
And if that isn’t motivation enough for a Malumi to go seek Max out, the Malumi might be a mercenary.
Unlike Vehemence, he’s armed, those knuckles most likely contains some weaponry (I guess electricity since that’s the rumored weakness of Maxima).
And let’s not forget those grenades (could also be some kind of stim pack), if they are grenades then he’s here to cause damage.
Whilst Vehemence was in for a good fight, this guy may be there to kill Max or just rough up the entire earth hero force as what’s essentially a publicity stunt.
Most of the eye’s of the galaxy seems to be on Max and earth so what better way to make yourself known as a top tier Merc than to kick the crap out of someone capable of taking down space ships?
Another potential motivation could be that the Malumi knows that Maxima beat Vehemence and want’s to beat her out of some sort of racial pride?
Now if this guy’s a Malumi, then as a combatant I’m going to say that he has the potential to be even more dangerous than Vehemence, since V most likely never/rarely ran into someone in his own weight class.
A Malumi from off planet will more than likely have had a few scraps with other Malumi at the very least, since if they offer their services as mercenaries then every galactic warlord would want one on their payroll.
And if not other Malumi then at the very least it would have seen quite a bit of lethal combat.
Just some thoughts…
This guy “misteriously” reminds me of Vehmence and his gang and thus I will put here my analys about how to lock up the different members of his gang(I know most didn’t get locked up and the author already established how they did it, but I just find it entertraining to do).
Vehmence: somewhere remote(when his fight aura is revealed he starts bragging about how his range of absorbsion has never been over regional), held high by things he can’t manipulate with touch(telikinesis, magnet rammed in his butt, gravity, etc.) in a vacuum. When he is powered down enough 200meters underground should suffice(while bragging he mentions his range decreases with lack of power).
Shebang: heavily armored deep under water.
Opal: poisoned with a sickness/toxin only known to her warden of which she receives repressants as long as she stays in prison and is cured when she leaves and gps tracker.
Guy with superstrength: high ceiling, lowly electric walls, deep under ground.
He with whom the death tools: normal prison, but guards are armed with multiple kinds of weapons.
Telikinetic: everything close to him is locked to the prison.
Lasereye: sunglasses and heathresistant absorbent walls/inverse aquarium except for guardposts, which would be reflective just as guard suits(depends on the power of his laser).
budget halo: ceiling everywhere and inverse aquarium except for guardposts, which would be reflective just as guard suits.
Shadowman: ceilings everywhere and no holes or transparant parts for the guards.
Lightbub: normal prison, but everything close to her is electrical insulated and preferably non-conductive.
fire guy: everything and everybody close to him is either thermally insulated or heathresistant.
superspeeder: ceilings everywhere and everyone is behind a wall with on-human sized holes.
heavenly sword: everything is locked to the prison.
Claw guy: kept hovering by something he can’t touch with his hands.
Breakpoint: silence chamber and distant guards.
Jabberwocky: Dungeon without ceiling.
Crystal guy: same as claw guy.
Boxer: Dungeon without ceiling.
Black guy with cristal hand: dungeon without ceiling
Nega brass nuckle: dungeon without ceilling
Concretia: floating prison made out of non-stone
Vague greenleg guy: taser armband should keep him from doing whatever he does.
Suicide is also harder in my situation than with the general solution.
Feel free to add, question or suggest changes.
Other supers:
Krona: vr.
Pixel: Surrounded with heathresistant cooled(possible reflective) walls, floors and ceilings with only less than person sized holes.
Harem: same as Opal.
Sydney: mittens
Maxima: deep dungeon with ceilings filled with something sturdy and amourphous with enough room for air to leak through, like small stone sized lead balls, anti-tank weaponery everywhere around the edges, anti-tank mine and turbo magnet rammed down thorugh the throat and super strong magnets on the ceiling and on the ground keeping her down.
Dabbler: with prison chosen clothing, disabled teleport arm(hammer) and distant guards in an anti-magic cell(ask council and Arc-Light). Once in a while neighbouring chamber is rented for first night after mariage.
Math: normal prison
Heathwave: Deep frozen cell(she gets insulated clothing), heathresistant cooled walls and non-dense air.
Jiggawatt: Conductive walls, conductive always present ceiling, rest: lightbub
Mr.Amorphous: hermetic locked heavily armored prison.
Achilles: guards with rocket launchers
Hiro: Ceilings everywhere
Stallward: see superstrength guy.
Jiggawatt: Lightbulb+undeground with ceiling
Anvil: guards get non-kinetic weaponery, everything is locked to prison, Cushioned armored walls.
Varia: fully clothed.
Escaronia/Sconia: distant people.
Other superlike creatures:
Fast puncher(forgot his title): same as super strength guy.
Direpopulation: Normal prison.
Icon: Ceiling and no holes bigger than his individual plates.
Fey: ceiling and no holes bigger than a small fey.
Wyrmil guards get non-kinetic weaponery.
Cthilla: same as lasereye.
Vampires: no holes bigger than a bat, will
Succubi: keep them sex-starved or in an anti-magic complex and feed them by renting suites to recently married people.
Vampires would depend on how close to the traditional powers they have. If they can turn into mist, it needs to be hermetically sealed, not just “no holes a bat can crawl through”
Good point. I had mostly based it on shown powers in the grrlverse, but we ofcourse know more thant that alone about vampires.
Vale: soulbattery
Deus’s magneto: no magnetic materials and magnetical insulate him.
X: tracker.
Deus’s mass invisibility guy: tracker and healthchecker on everybody.
Angels: ceilingseverywhere
Spinerette(she still has no official name): Refilling disposable layer of slightly sticky liquid on cell insid quishion on walls and distant guards.
For Dabbler and other succubi +ceilings everwhere(Tamtha’s wings have to do something don’t they).
the Demon Huntress is Aranea.
Thanks
I feel kind of bad for the person that donated and got that cameo, not just on the punching bag side; I mean she held her own and I don’t know the agreement or how in character that all was.
No the thing I feel bad for them about is how they weren’t named in comic. The blurb stated their name, but their name never came up on panel.
Sconia(full power): chained to the prison with retractable chain(a bit like a retractable dog leash), soft locked gloves, armor, Teleporter disease(same as Opal and Harem mentioned before) and cusioned wings.
Death Toll: Normal prison, cushy nondangerous walls, floor, ceiling. No attacks, so he’s powerless. Guards don’t have weapons.
Although you could have fun designing antiweapons to use against him. For example, telekinesis weapons (to fix him in place).
Sydney already showed that multiple attacks of different kinds do the trick.
Why a ceiling though, he can’t fly unless someone throws him into orbit.
Vale: soulbattery
Deus’s magneto: no magnetic materials and magnetical insulate him.
X: tracker.
Deus’s mass invisibility guy: tracker and healthchecker on everybody.
Angels: ceilingseverywhere
Spinerette(she still has no official name): Refilling disposable layer of slightly sticky liquid on cell insid quishion on walls and distant guards.
For Dabbler and other succubi +ceilings everwhere(Tamtha’s wings have to do something don’t they).
Once in the so much time let a boxer train within 200 meters of Vehemence. A man gotta eat.
Also needs to be Lawyer Proof. I suggest dark side of the moon.
Thanks for the tip.
I think all my solutions except Vale’s are more lawyer proof than the dark side of the moon, because the health effects of the moon are still largely untested and my solutions are generally pretty humane, yet many of them are still not lawyer proof, thus I will write them nicer prisons:
Clawguy: Dungeon with thick easily slicable walls that regenerate and cannon that shoots him down without enough force to get through his skin if he tries to climb up and all guards are armed with rocketlaunchers.
Vale: I still have nothing better than your solution.
Oh, no, no, no. Not quite.
Howeverb i do approve of all the lawyers and rules lawyers on the dark side of the moon. All of them.
Every time I say dungeon I mean deep, dry and wide pit with locked cover.
The big guy is a super working for Konstanine Zaitzev:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-367-collar-commandeering/
note that Zaitzev is “consolidating power on the East Coast”, and they’re in NYC
Uh, Oh
Nice catch.
Well remembered.
Although he must have changed his MO if this is a move by him. Given that his minions normally have either subtle powers or leave no surviving witnesses. Whereas this guy’s is hardly subtle. And if he is intending to leave no witnesses, then this is the opening move on genocide, as this is playing out in Times Square and there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of witnesses, and amongst those will be a number who are live-streaming to millions of viewers around the glove.
As mentioned there a common trait of these people is to get cocky and so leak it that way.
Someone did their homework.
*applause*
Now, riddle me this, Batman…
Why would Zaitzev, a man who definitionally must be both intelligent & well-informed, expose his hand via a direct confrontation that is likely to result in his assets being arrested, and subsequently interrogated?
What’s the payoff, and why is it worth the risk?
Payoff take out the one known threat to his power, while they’re beaten up, spread out and restricted to light ordenance.
It’s worth the risk, because if he takes out Archon there’re no known blockades to expanding his power to more parts of the united states.
Other explanation: somebody got overconfident in his organisation(whether it is him or someone else doesn’t really matter), which is according to Maxima’s warning speech is an expected common trait among supers and according to the explanation speech in the cited page is a common trait among super mob bosses.
That’s not a payoff, that’s an opportunity. Potentially.
When I as “what’s the payoff,” I’m asking what the potential get for this massive risk would be. What could possibly be worth attempting to directly challenge the might of the United States government?
Unless his ultimate goal is literally to overthrow the government, replacing it with himself, he’s got more to lose from “eliminating Archon,” than most. Remember that ‘organized crime,’ can only exist in the framework of a stable society with a predictable order & exploitable legal framework.
That requires the State to be able to enforce those Laws, which means that Zaitzev has a vested interest in Archon’s existence. It essentially helps insulate him from rogue supers deciding to take a stab at him & his operations. Or someone like Deus, who unquestionably has more power at his disposal, and a distinct motive to either subjugate or eliminate Zaitzev, as potential competition.
Well…more a nuisance, than competition, but you get the point.
If he can overthrow Argon there’s nothing he knows of that could oppose him taking over the entire US.
Or, if someone makes a very, very public attack alien that requires superhero intervention, with or without international intervention for either side, it becomes far more likely that other countries like Zaitzev’s mother Russia (presumably?) will decide they need super teams. Anyone with an existing super team, especially with native members, would be in line for massive defense budget funding and quite possibly be able to have some past indications forgiven.
BTW not sure if ‘Argon’ was a typo or a deliberate punny commentary on the noble gas, vis a vis the untouchable nature of the main characters, but when in doubt I’ll laugh at the wordplay.
Thanks for the benefit of the doubt.
While I confess the noble gass has always been my association, I can only wish I was that slick, so no it was just a typo.
I’m sure references to “Lil’ Abner” and “Pogo” would be references lost to /most/ of the segment of “Pop Culture” who’ve made the jump to reading webcomics -despite a fandom in the millions back in their time. -All because they aren’t actively reprinted online or on newspapers.
Frank Nelson is easier to access on video and yootoob. Pogo had a video presence -a grand total of 2, but the one TV special was locked away for decades and most fans never knew there was a movie. (“I Go Pogo” pretty much represents how this election cycle is going.)
Then again, Pogo could go pop again someday. “Rocket Raccoon” was a bad pun on a Beatles song and look how he made a huge comeback…
Pop culture’s been around for ages! It’s just changed a lot as technology’s come along and like you say, the pop culture of even the 60s is largely irrelevant today. Hot New Playwright Bill Shakespeare’s hasn’t been considered hot or new for a good 400 years-ish, but was absolutely pop culture at the time. He makes all of his own pop culture references too. The theatre’s been so popular historically that there have been actual riots about theatre ticket prices going up (Look up the OP riots).
I think it’s just kinda hard to appreciate these days now everything’s recorded that back before then we just did it all ourselves live. Plays, music, dancing, poetry, singing, etc. People might not have been educated, but it doesn’t mean they couldn’t appreciate a good story or song (or write their own).
Le Pop Culture C’est Moi.
Où se trouve Boo Boo?
Looks like a new playmate for Anvil
Geez, hope Max is okay after that hit. Considering she can dial up one aspect of her powers in exchange for weakening others, her defense might have taken a nose dive moving that fast.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-273-power-drain/
One tank, which is in super terms around one fully active moderate power.
Based on her mental “gear switching” of her abilities. She was probably all in on “speed” which means that hit probably hurt. A whole lot.
I think the Hulk Hogan wannabe is about to find out what a whole keg of “Whoopass” tastes like.
*sigh* And now Max is going to get up and single-handedly defeat all the bad guys Superman style. *yawn*
You actually made her vulnerable and depended on teammates for a brief second. But now it’s going to be the same boring Dues Ex Maxima B.S….
I do not understand why folks like these sort of Mary Sue/Marty Stu type characters.
Maxima hasn’t currently ever beaten up the entire opposing team or been able to do that adequate.
Vehemce fight: her reasons for little interferance were inadequate(just see it as a way of testing the abilities of her teammates, she didn’t seem to think of it as a big challenge as a start and how your team acts under stress is important info), but she couldn’t take Vehemence and probably “He with whom the dead tools” by herself.
Sconia was more an “the other type of villain” to quote Adriana and as such the entirety of Arc-Swat except Sydney and Dabbler was useless.
The aliens had her pinned down instantly.
These guys seem to be better prepared and will so probably have adequate firepower to take her, so the more subtle powered like Sydney and Dabbler will get a new chance to shine.
Hiro beat Sconia’s turbo robot, not Maxima, because she couldn’t
This’s not only a plot device it’s also an effect of the nature of her powers.
All her powers are flashy combat bound, yet far from all encounters require just flashy combat powers.
This gives the rest of the team the power to shine in the spots she misses: Anvil, Heathwave, Dabbler, Halo and Achilles are better shields(or more flattering: protectors), Halo, Harem and Dabbler provide better and safer intel, etc.
Okay, she could have taken the Fel, but that’s not very special Sydney took a group of aliens by herself too, Dabbler and Cora make a job out of it, Heathwave seem and Jiggawatt to able to take like four aliens and since melee and teleporting seem to be a viable solution to shields so can the rest of the team and most of the known supers.
As for why people like over powered characters.
They give you somebody to safely root for.
I don’t understand why people keep reading if they know everything.
Maybe yes, maybe no. As Chir said, and I agree, Max is most likely maxed out on speed, so is normal on invulnerability.
She will probably recover, maybe even for this fight, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s KOed right now.
*sigh*
How many times will this have to be gone over in the comments? OP is not a Mary Sue.
A confident and strong character is not a Mary Sue.
A Mary Sue is/was a very specific trope; not just a “oh this character isn’t a self loathing emotionally broken fighter who barely manages to escape the fights they are in”; grimdark and the dark age of comics were not as mature and “we so smart, fun heroes who save the day are kiddies stuff” as they think they were.
Maxima can’t do what everyone else can with no explanation, she isn’t automatically loved by everyone with no explanation, she isn’t right every single time, and she doesn’t solve every problem with no one’s help even when there is no reason she should be able to. A Mary Sue sticks out of their setting, an outsider character better than everyone in the setting in every way; basically a self insert perfection fantasy fanfic character.
It is also important to differentiate between Mary Sue, Living Deus Ex Machina, and OP for the setting. Because they are not the same.
and to be honest every time I see “Mary Sue” brought up in a genre that is traditionally a power fantasy for people who feel helpless in a world they can’t do much to change (how the superhero genre started and caught on during the Great Depression and two world wars) expanded from the masked hero genre; all I can think is they must have this mindset where they view grimdark or the nearly helpless hero as the only way to go and are conditioned to backlash at anything different.
I am not fully against them, yes having an unstoppable hero can get boring *if you make the series action focused rather than comdedic or character driven* in which case such characters become an interesting think piece on adapting to a world of cardboard and thin glass/plastic.
However while I can enjoy characters like Venom, Harley Quinn, Tank Girl, and other more human characters; they are also usually fun to read and watch; but when you go down that rabbit hole where (oh its not realistic for them to keep winning) all you find is a depressing pit of dead rabbits being eaten by maggots. Some people can get a cathartic release from that; but generally people who deal with this crap in their daily lives are looking for escapism, and seeing super powered characters with minimal physical threats and enjoy each other’s company and have fun is what they are looking for; its why series like Tenchi Muyo and Slayers caught on; why so many superheroes survived the test of time like Spider-man, Superman, and so on who you see marketed to all ages; why the majority of those (we dark and grim and agro serious errr) characters are delegated to niche markets unless they can become fun too *Deadpool*
actually I recommend Overlysarcasticproductions trope talk segment on Grimdark; her break down and views pretty much hit the nail on the head and my own views.
but in the end (there is no Mary Sue, if they don’t break the rules of the setting)
+10
*applaus*
Good application of Red’s analysis, hon. Take a victory lap, you earned it!
I agree!
Specifically, I agree that everyone who some how hasn’t stumbled across them needs to go watch Overly Sarcastic Productions *NOW*. :)
I will go ahead and post the links as these are fascinating insights into the tropes, since I mentioned both, and to my experience they often go hand in hand when it comes up.
Mary Sue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2-GIY9RTqU
Grimdark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQAWBeFnkg8
Please do bear in mind that every time you use “Mary Sue” to attack an author’s work, you are conducting cyber-bullying. Mary Sue is an original character, created by a specific person. Who has been ridiculed for it ever since. Kindly take a moment to think how horrible that must feel.
Then, of course, you are choosing to extend the insult of comparing a professional author’s work to the same ridiculed fan fiction work. Plus it is poorly defined and thereby useless to make constructive criticism. Especially when applied so badly that it does not even match the original usage.
Now how about mentioning your real name, so that we can spread it far and wide for as a term for “cyber bully”. Let that be your literary legacy. Or does that not sound appealing?
I know this wasn’t your primary goal with this comment, but thanks for the etymology lesson.
I didn’t know this and am really happy for the addition to my knowledge.
Ahh, in which case, thank you for the good graces you took my comment in.
As you might guess I really really dislike that particular term, and occasionally get an overwhelming urge to try and stomp it out! Which is a fruitless activity, but if I can gradually spread awareness of its negative origins, hopefully it will be used slightly less.
There goes her nose again? or did she had enough time to prepare?
As the stasis gun was losing power it seems reasonable it was flickering and had less affect on Maxima so she had to slow back down proportionately to not just plow through the person she wanted to grab but not annihilate in her wake. How much of that readjusted to armor though. But physics, she wasn’t braced for that punch so was sent flying, regardless of how much or how little damage was actually done.
Her nose tends to give a more flashy blue spring effect when hit.
Max was only a bit peeved before… But a sucker punch? Now she is gonna be…angry. Almost feel sorry for that guy. Almost.
And now… “You made me bleed my own blood…” {Look of determination}
1. I thought Sydney and Dabbler were watching. How could this overgrown, steroidal abomination get that close?
2. I foresee a very pissed off and motivated Maxima releasing some serious frustration on said overgrown, steroidal abomination.
1. No, Sydney has been tasked to take the box of high technology and hide it somewhere. Whilst Dabbler said she was going to move to a vantage point further back. So her back is probably turned, whilst she is going there.
2. Very likely. Although it does depend on how badly she may have been hurt. As various folks have already pointed out, Maxima will have her variable powerers dialed to maximum speed, in order to have escaped the stasis field. Meaning that her defence will have been at a minimum level.
On the plus side that minimum level is still super, and may have kept her from taking too much damage. On the minus side the guy who hit her is likely to recognise her. She is really distinctive, and is the head of Arc-SWAT, which has been getting massive media coverage. Not to mention her notorious nuke-like demonstration. For him to still be confident that he can take her (and other super cops) on means that he is likely pretty powerful.
Or he may be just high on drugs and about to get a pounding. But I think this build up is more likely to lead to a serious fight. One with Maxima out of the scene for these opening stages.
1- Sydney has left to hide the stasis Chamber, so she’s out of play for a couple minutes at least,
and dabbler is across the street and still dealing with the two slip and slide Minions
so it’s probably going to take her at least 30 or 40 seconds to get over there.
Additionally both of them probably Were thinking Maxima Will have everything wrapped up momentarily
and aren’t paying nearly enough attention to the surroundings.
2-that suckerpunch only knocked her down the block not across town, so while she might have
A Bloody nose And a split lip and be a bit shook up I doubt she has any serious injury
other than being really Pissed off.
Achilles and Heatwave were both attacking shortly before Not-Kevin arrived, yet both aren’t seen right now. I think we’re in for another wide shot that shows people tied up in one-on-one fights.
There’s also the chance that someone/thing is in the building Max was just punched into, or that it or the scaffolding collapses on her. It took her a while to dig out of the exploded tunnel, and she can’t just super-strength the debris off her without the risk of impaling a bystander.
I mean, heck, if I was planning this I’d have Opal or someone with similar powers open a portal up behind her to coincide with the punch. Put her in a cave deep underground, the middle of the ocean, or even the moon. Get her out of the way to deal with the team. My eyes keep getting drawn to the bit of dirt between the “M” and “A” in “Smash” – it looks like an effect of some kind there that’s not the debris.
Re. the final point, that just looks like part of the debris cloud. The texture looks like the trail leading up to the building, and that appears (to me) to just be the same puffing up at the point of impact.
“Pop Culture” is an abbreviation for “Popular Culture”, Dave. It doesn’t especially have a date range; more it’s measured by what stories we keep in our collective consciousness.
Consider a hypothetical reference to a TV show from the same timeframe as many popular references, but it was an unpopular show that was cancelled after a single episode. (Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Melting_Pot_(TV_series) ) It was seen by very few, remembered and cherished by virtually no one. It was very unpopular, and thus not considered as any part of “pop culture”, and references to it would be entirely pointless.
all that goes through my head is the guy has metal knuckles. if he needs the metal knuckles he just picked the wrong fight.
Specially if it’s the knucks that give him his powers, ala Bane (the real Bane, not that crab-mask wearing wank-knob from the last trilogy)
Almost wonder if they’re vibranium, or a similar material or mechanism that can reflect kinetic energy – if he has significant strength and exceptional reflexes, he MAY be able to use them to great effect. I think they’re unlikely to protect against Maxima if she’s actually attacking, but he is probably one arm/leg of a group of folks with complementary powers, so… who knows
DaveB knows!!!
Just to be that guy, vibranium knuckles or boots or gloves of any kind should have the opposite effect. (Yes this is, the problem with cap’s shield and why the rim can’t be vibranium but another material to bounce off objects). Kinetic force goes both ways, the shield it all vibranium should absorb the kinetic impact upon colliding with a surface and instead of being bounced by that force instead just fall flat to the ground as the only force acting on it could be gravity.
same with covering your hand in it, the energy you are exerting through it with the punch is instead absorbed by it, so your hard punch instead becomes a light smack if felt at all. As the kinetic force from your opponent’s resistance is absorbed/diverted, as is that of your punch. So at best your weight throws you off your own feet as none of that force went into your target.
Satirical novelettes passed from person to person like proto-zines were totally a Thing around King Louie’s time. They definitely counted as Pop Culture.
definatly a market in NYC for a busness like Damage control
Ywah how about ARC-force – subdivision that employed various suoers who don’t feel to need to do hero work, but do want to help out with unusual but usefull powers.like the dude that went back to construction after seeing the WA-BOOM demo of Max. Charge more, to get more.
“Building just got smashed? Behind schedule? Dangerous or unusual conditions? Maybe we can help get the job done NOW.” Emergency situations?” Etc. DaveB already sorta mentioned other supers like that.
Lawyers would have to reconfigure/ rewrite health / insurance waivers laws.
Eg power exemptions:
Hazmat: do you have poison, fire, chemical, radiation immunity?
Heck Achilles pr9bably has a decent income hiring out to labs for materisls testing. invaluable for hazmat cleanup too.
just to point this out, there would be no point in Achilles being a subject for lab testing unless you mean him doing the testing by moving things about in unsafe conditions. Because as a subject you’d only get negative results as nothing can hurt him anyways. Totally defeating the point of testing the safety of new potential products, materials, and medications. It didn’t hurt Achilles, but that new makeup will give X-number of people hives for example.
Punched yes, but now Free.
Is that…. Kevin?
As in Vehemence
No,
this is a different brute character.
Not every Hulk is Bruce Banner.
I am calling this guy Commando Crusher until his real name is given. Just look at what he is wearing.
if he’s ‘Commando’ you need to see what he’s NOT wearing
Which brings back unwanted memories of Vehemence’s first time enlarging himself.
phrasing
I’m going to assume that’s not Vehemence?
Looking closer I see that it’s not Kevin, this dude has hair.
This may seem like a badass entrance and all, but it’s not. If that guy had hit Maxima hard enough to do any kind of debilitating damage, that wall would have not stopped her. All this guy has done is stolen an ass-kicking from its rightful owner.
Remember, Maxima’s abilities run on a shared pool of power. In order to speed up fast enough to overcome the stasis field, she probably had to pull nearly everything from Strength, durability, beam attack, and Senses.
So it is possible that Mr. Overcompensation may have actually hurt her in this instance. Of course, that was his one free shot. If Maxima’s not down for the count, he’s going to be in for a World of Hurt.
Hurt her? possibly
Slowed her down? probably
Pissed her off? most definitely!
LOT’s of commenters seem to think she must have put all of her points into speed – but there’s no basis for that at this moment, unless I missed something…
Even if she had (to counter the Stasis Beam), she is still stronger than a ‘normal’ super