Grrl Power #892 – The most valuable hostage
For the record, I think Muppets were primarily felt overtop of foam, but I could be wrong about that.
I’m sure this is not recognized police procedure, but it turns out that blowing off Maxima’s clothes is a good way to really annoy her.
Mid-combat banter is a bad idea. Don’t take your eyes off the Apex superheroine while you introduce yourself, especially one with super speed. It’s all about timing.
This is another reason for Max to carry a gun. It would technically be far more dangerous for her to point a finger at the guy’s junk, or even grab it, but… it might convey the wrong message.
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Clearly all the powers she has got has gone to Hench Wench’s head :/
all two of them.
but yeah one wanders if this was the strongest person she’s ever worked for.
Also: Thats another example of things that work with a gun better than a pointed finger :o
I swear I read the blurb, don’t know why I didn’t register the author saying the same thing :o
Nothing to see here.
Move along :(
Bonus points for checking his knee. IT is not lethal force if the target can survive it. The attack merely becomes highly painful depending on how many bullets are left in the clip.
IIRC, Rex is a break action.
yeah, there’s only one round in maxima’s gun. it’s not how many rounds are in it that you should worry about but rather how many rounds she has on her at the start of combat. she can reload and fire it faster than most machine guns and with the laser sight she will be many times more accurate in the process.
Actually haveing faced a groin injury, it is possible for that to be a life threatening injury.
Although the Brut’s skin didn’t break, the side of a leg bone is what stopped further penetration. There is no penile bone, its more like open cell foam pumped with fluid. Think a stressball and how would you like your stressballs essentially having a high powered pencil rammed into them? On a normal human that kind of deformation can cause internalized bleeding which can be very hard to staunch. Its close to a major artery on both sides and there is no place to put a tourniquet. In many respects a groin injury of that type is more lethal than a gut injury although the gut injury exposes your internal organs to air which is also bad.
*On a normal human that kind of deformation can cause internalized bleeding which can be very hard to staunch. Its close to a major artery on both sides and there is no place to put a tourniquet. In many respects a groin injury of that type is more lethal than a gut injury although the gut injury exposes your internal organs to air which is also bad.*
Which was why soldiers were trained to bayonet opponents in the crotch. I learned this from my late Grandfather and his WW2 buddies.
With the added benefit that the groin area needs to be highly flexible to allow for agile movement, so it’s a lot harder to apply effective armour than most other placed on the body.
No question, it could be lethal. Although, it doesn’t have to be lethal to be… debilitating.
And, I mean, let’s face it, no one wants a tourniquet down there. Better to just bleed out, I’m thinking.
I really don’t think a lot of males, even largely invulnerable ones, are willing to take a t-rex to the testicle. I mean, maybe Superman and Achilles, but that’s probably the whole list.
Dr Manhattan was another candidate but he is at least a rank 10 using the cast power level…
And a parodic super vilain in a french series Flander’s Company
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/FlandersCompany
Check for Hippolyte Kurtzmann in this page
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/FlandersCompany
“I’m full pain now”
It is legally lethal force if the force applied is capable of killing, whether the victim dies of it or not. People have survived being shot in the chest with a 12 gauge; others have died from being shot in an extremity with a .22. This is why you DO NOT SHOOT TO WOUND. If you shoot someone with the intent that they not die of it, and they do anyway, your legal and moral situation stinks. Basically, if you are justified in shooting at all, you are justified to shoot to kill, but if you’re not justified to shoot to kill, you’re not justified to shoot at all. ARC-SWAT is a military organization, facing opponents who are deadly weapons when they wake up in the morning, so their rules are a bit different.
Part of the deadly force continuum that authorizes military members (I’m assuming it is similar for most branches) to respond with deadly force is if the opponent shows the capability and the intent to seriously harm others. Supers make it very easy to cross that line. Even if Brut didn’t intend to and knew he wouldn’t harm Max with those grenades, that can clearly be viewed as the capability and intent to seriously harm others. Something that wouldn’t even faze the average super can easily kill or maim the average person, and using that something against someone it doesn’t effect still shows the intent to use it on others.
to continue the thought, when dealing with unfamiliar supers, you have no idea how much force they can shrug off. They might have a once shot shield that will stop anything, but one hit expends it. They might have huge muscles, but be no more resistant to damage than the average weightlifter. They might look fragile, but only because they have never encountered anything they consider heavy. (Max looks fit, but not buff like Anvil)
Considering he was the one who popped her across a street, she has a reasonable estimate that he’s got some level of invulnerability, if not momentum control. The kind of force that it would take to impart that much momentum would likely shatter a human hand.
Max seems to be trying not to resort to instantly lethal force first, if she was, she’d have vaporized his head. From there, I’d guess that it was a mild probing attack. From there, there’s a couple of options: if he’s not that invulnerable (or it has some kind of trigger effect), it probably would have taken his leg off. If he’s low level invulnerable so he can shrug off pistol rounds with mild effort, it could have broken the bone. The moderate level we see, it looks a lot like he was hit by something heavy but not able to penetrate, as if he was hit with something like a baseball, enough to leave a massive bruise (assuming no healing factor). If he had a high level of invulnerability it probably would have just skipped off and annoyed him.
People tough enough to shrug off anti-material rounds cannot be that common, so she has a pretty good baseline for the kind of toughness he’ll demonstrate, as she’s probably not interested in accidentally putting her fist through his chest.
> Bonus points for checking his knee.
Did you really miss the Skyrim reference there?
That reference predates Skyrim, in another webic, where a female character was shot through the knee, and then raped and murdered and turned into an immortal golem
and it predates that unless that webcomic was made before Terminator 2, where Sarah Connor says that to the doctor at her psych ward that she stabbed with a pen.
Forgot T2, just tired of the damn Skyrim references, as though they invented it, as a joke
Were you refering to wapsi square?
Are you refering to Wapsi Square?
*Ahem* Now that I have your attention…
Finally! This idiot realises to use the tiny amount of meat he has between his ears.
Although I do believe Dabbler is interested in the considerable meat (apparently) elsewhere!
yes but he should be in custody first. need to establish who is in charge before the festivities begins. also helpful to get some basic consent.
That’s NOT the meat he’s concerned about using.
Also, Mr A’s sympathetic groin-protecting pose in Panel 8 is hilarious.
Oh yeah. THAT will get a guys attention all right.
Party FOUL!!! Also, idk if this was previously discussed, but if joining an LLC gave hench wench all of their powers, what would jointing arcswat do to her?!?!
A nice comfy prison cell?
It pays to remember three things: a) she gets her stolen powers from her employers, not her teammates. 2) her employers have to be supervillains, and III) she is a raving loony!!
Bold of you to call someone a loony while mixing arabic and roman numerals. Not that you’re wrong, but still.
Also, i’m not convinced that she accurately described her powers. She might have just thought calling her employers supervillians sounded cooler or something. Remember: loony.
Also also: I’m not sure if her superiors in a military structure would count as teammates or employers for the purpose of her powers. Are they bound to an actual contract on paper or is it just about who she considers her employer? We will see. Maybe.
I just noticed you used a) and not 1). Makes you even more of a loony but also shows that my brain apparently has less of a problem considering a and 1 the same than 3 and lll. Not sure what that says about me.
Welcome to the loony bin! Tea?
For me, it recalls Buzz from Home Alone
No, he just thinks he’s Paul Buchman (Mad About You).
The military IRL uses contracts with the enlisted folk. Source: Was enlisted, many years ago.
And remember Sydney signing the contract with Ariana? So Arc does use contracts.
Problem with ARC-contracts would still be that HenchWench receives the powers of the ARC organisiation, not those of here fellow ARC-employees
i.e. HW’s boss wouldn’t be Maxima, but rather be the DoD, or maybe US government, depending on contract wording.
I’m not sure which super-powers ARC-the-organisation conveys..
Wasting tax-payer money on shiny glass headquarters? Mandating ridiculous load-bearing requirements for skyscraper rooftoppools/training-basins? Prodigious spending on intimidating ballrooms? Haggling about salvage rights with alien representatives?
I guess we could argue that “being a bureaucracy” conveys “unstoppable inertia”..
So privatize arc-swat and make it employee-owned.
Make ARC a worker co-op?
Now there’s some socialism in your America!
It’s worse.
A socialist/communist would be against it, because the most powerfull weapons of the entire country would stop to be controlled by the representatives of society(elected officials)
A Libralist/anarchist would be against making it a worker co-op(and as long they’re not anarchists probably also the government losing control over the mightiest weapons in the arsenal)
So if Hench Wench joined Archon, she would gain the powers of her employer, that is the Commander-In-Chief, the President of the United States. Hmm, Obama was president at the time this comic is set, so hopefully she would become rational and charismatic, but have no other superhuman abilities.
No superhuman abilities?
B-but—
https://antarctic-press.myshopify.com/products/barack-panther-vs-the-tremendous-trump?_pos=4&_sid=dcecf7dfc&_ss=r
Was it all a lie?
That does not happen for a few years in the Sydney-verse.
I need that comic. Now.
Mixing Arabic and roman was intentional, and it’s okay for a fellow loon to call someone else out for being a loon, it’s in the handbook
Shhhh! You’re not supposed to talk about the Handbook!
Delta)Their employer is the US government, which “supposedly” represents the people of the US. If ARC-SWAT’s members are citizens, they may consider themselves to be her employers. There’s a LOT of gray around how a power like HW’s would work, how bound to the legal system or ideology it is.
Perhaps she is a raving loony because she got her powers from her super villain employer. It would be funny if she got the personality as well as the powers from her employer. Things could get interesting if Dabbler, Math and Sydney employed her.
DUDE!!! WHAT IF SHE WORKED AT SYDNEY’S COMIC STORE?!
do we know her employers have to be villains? she probably never tried to get a hero to hire her.
So does Brut have antiperspirant powers?
Do they still make that? I’m 67 and I remember Brut and its stupid commercials from the 60’s.
Brut – the Axe of another generation.
Brut stunk to high heaven, but unlike Axe, it wasn’t made to be applied in quarts and smell like insecticide
Strange thing is I dated a woman for whom Brut was an aphrodisiac. Other colognes or after shaves didn’t affect her much, but when I wore the Brut that she gifted me she was like “Ooooh babyyyy!”
I knew a girl in the late 70s* who decided to wear Brut. She said most women didn’t like the smell of it – but men liked it. So she would wear it to attract them.
I don’t think it did anything for her. TBH, she wiould have attracted men if she wore no scent.
* (The 70s was her era, not her age.)
I think he’s sweating quite a lot right at the moment, so I’m gonna go with ‘no.’
I was under the impression that that stuff does not stop the sweat it just kind of masks it. I’m willing to be wrong on this, but what’s the mechanism?
I have no idea what Brut produced but you have generally two different types of products:
1. Deodorants, which simply mask the sweaty scent.
2. Antiperspirants, which block perspiration directly.
There are also some pharmaceuticals, which diminish sweating. Not sure how they do that or how good they are.
You do not want antiperspirants, that can lead to cancer because you are preventing a natural bodily function from, well, functioning
Mum use to be an AVON representative for over thirty years, before AVON UK decided to completely pull out of the Pacific market
Antiperspirant blocks perspiration by plugging fours deodorant simply leave something there for the perspiration to activate and change its scent. Some people can’t use antiperspirant because the blocking of the pores method causes a rash. From experience I can say that I would rather be sweating and odd smelling than a than not sweating odd smelling rashy and itchy.
I had to hide miself to laugh. ‘Nough sed
This is the part where you stand veeeery still…. XD
His expression is actually priceless on the Comedic level.
We need to find a way to inject carbon into his pupils, because I think they just contracted hard enough to form diamonds.
Hench Wench is one of my new favourite characters. If I could get half that enthusiasm from my henches, I’d be ruling the world right now.
No! You don’t want to rule the world, think of all paperwork involved, and the responsibility
No, it’s better to simply own it and rent out the rulership
yes… but how would an eviction work in your case? I mean what court could you go to?
being the owner of the world, if you tell someone to get out, they must leave, no questions asked since you are the HIGHEST authority in the world. just make sure that the next person you put in charge isn’t a dumbass.
That would be the Court of Imaketherules.
It’s a surprisingly effective and efficient trial system, though the appeals process is admittedly somewhat lacking.
Usually, those strong enough to own a world enough to appoint someone else to run it, are also strong enough to do their own evicting
Morph? Stop protecting Mini-Morph and sucker-punch that bitch!!
I had to look back at the last panel for this detail, and then I had a really good giggle after missing it the first time.
The sympathetic protecting was a nice added bit
Should have been a little wisp of smoke rising from where her laser sight was hitting the briefs…
Those aren’t briefs, that is a stripper pouch (now we know what he does for a day job)
I mean, dabbler did say she left just enough of his underwear to be decent, for all we know those used to be boxers
I magnified the screen-for educational purposes only. It’s …unusual… for a jock/stripper pouch/thong to have a fly. My guess is that Brut’s undies didn’t start out looking like that.
A dabbler spell leaving a guy in tighty whitys? Not in this space-time continuum.
Adding injury to insult.
green lasers are usually not hot enough to make fabrics smolder. you need a blue or violet one for that.
PS: Wondering how’s the allien control going. … ¿Are they simply ET at this point?
All the aliens are watching intensely, while their primary attraction puts on a show of a lifetime
Even if he managed to survive the hit at that range, he would wish he couldn’t :D
You could have superman level powers and a hit from THAT at close range would make you wish you didn’t surive.
Just want to point out: most excellent work on Maxi’s face on this page
Well, as far as Brül goes: “Umlaut” is singular, “Umlaute” is plural, and if you go dative plural like it seems to be the case in this sentence, it’s “Umlauten”. But it’s cute to see whenever someone talks with some broken German in-between. :-)
English usually doesn’t pluralize German loanwords as German would, and it basically never accounts for cases. When did you last read the sentence “I ordered three hamburgern” or “All kindergärten are closed due to the pandemic”?
More importantly, it’s just one umlaut, so the whole issue is moot.
I guess there’s a common misconception that the dots above the “u” are called Umlaut. (This is not the case, Umlaute are stand-alone letters.)
Still funny because of the broken German. Brüh im Glanze, Brüt!
Sorry cobber, but the common is not a misconception. The umlaut is indeed a diacritic, and the word means “change of sound”. Look it up in Online Etymology, and also in OneLook Dictionary Search. Its usage dates from about 1300AD.
It was originally a full “e” written over the “u”, which explains some spellings like “Mueller” (which is legitimate in German) and can be used when you don’t know how to get at the U-umlaut in ASCII — it’s Key-0252 in non-Unicode.
It started as a diacritic, but the Umlaute are officially considered distinct letters of the alphabet. That’s because they don’t just sound different, they also change the whole meaning, for example:
sagen – to say ; sägen – to saw.
Due to history, “ä”, “ö” and “ü” can be written as “ae”, “oe” and “ue” respectively, if the umlaut letters are not available.
In the final panel is Mr Amorphous protecting his junk in male sympathy? ;)
Wouldn’t you?
Yes. Yes I would :|
Nuclear nut negotiation negates non-compliance.
+1
Testicular threat traps thief.
I want Hench Wench to come back regularly. She’s great.
Hench Wench is high on power. Pull a RoboCop and fire her to remove her powers.
Somebody get to be cellmates with He For Whom The Bell Tolls. In the idjit cell block.
sadly we don’t mix genders that way though belltoll could try to present as female….
Do you mean The Periwinkle Buttsniffer, AKA For Whom The Death Tolls?
Pretty sure a boot/hoof/tentacle/repulsor in the reproductive organs is a universal pan-galactic police manoeuvre.
Not just among galatic police. Earth super cops like Robocop use it with skill as well. Seriously, what freak programmed Murphy to do perfect nutshots even when the target is obstructed?
“pan-galactic police maneuver” should be read as “used by police across the galaxy”, not “used by galactic police”
Umlauts are not used over “u” in Swedish. (Metal bands and German names are exceptions.), Only å, ä and ö differs from the standard English alphabet. They are not variants of “a” and “o”, but unique letters and sounds.
I’m always a bit confused by U.S. use of ‘ü’, because I’ve studied German and that’s just not how the letter is pronounced there. More of an “yyyy” sound.
Brüt should be happy she is only using the gun and not her finger. Maxima would never convey the wrong message.
Sydney has been gone for a while. Is she ok?
She went to hide the collapsible pod, and I’d say she’s smart enough not to make a sonic boom over New York City (though if I were her I totally would). Not sure where she’s dropping it off, but likely a bit away so nobody else gets their hands on it.
She’s using the fly orb and most probably the Lighthook at the same time, so she isn’t using her shield.
Would you fly supersonic without a shield?
Sounds like a good way to get a bug in your eye, like riding a motorcycle without a face-covering helmet.
another idea is to put the pod on the ground, bubble around herself and the pod. she then becomes a stationary protector of the pod.
Fly up, hug pod, fall for a bit together bubble both of you then start flying. I’m sure Sidney is smart enough to figure that out.
Yes, on the second try…
considering its small size she could set it down, sit on it and straddle it with her legs…or just set it down and rebubble around it as she was able to take passengers before just sitting inside her bubble without direct contact with her to free up both hands for fly and shield.
She could toss the pod with the light hook, fly up close, then pop a shield big enough to contain it before it falls, carrying it in the bottom of her shield bubble. Then she could fly as fast as she wants. She’s too good a comic nerd/rpg nerd not to think of that.
Perhaps she accidentally trapped herself in that trap thing she were supposed to deliver somewhere else. That would be in character for Sydney.
the power core was removed by Dabbler before she had Sydney take it somewhere. It is doubtful it can even expand without a power core, let alone trap anyone.
It hasn’t really been that long since she was tasked with securing that pod
excellent point, since she was given the pod, everyone else has taken no more than 3 actions, so in D&D terms, maybe 18 seconds have elapsed.
And just like that, EVERY male in Times Square, (and six blocks surrounding) surrendered.
I like that Mr Amorphous is, despite his incredible toughness (I seem to recall him taking ‘space shuttle’ mass kicks), covering the goods. Some things are just instinctive.
Wasn’t that Hiro kicking Stalwart? Either way, flexible or not, I agree with you, because YE-OUCH!
Tell me YOU didn’t do the same. I know I did.
3 comments (using arabic here) 1. I see that Mr. Amorphous is protecting his (dang, someone beat me to it). 2. Definitely do not connect Lora Lee (Smug D’s admin assistant or whatever her name was) with Hench Wench…(the cheer-leading will be like gasoline and fire with similar explosive reactions). 3. I believe Dabbles had something to do with the remaining clothing. She’s like that you know.
The suggestion of Lorlara and Hench Wench being ‘connected’ raises a question. Does Hench Wench’s Power only pick up on the Powers of Supers? Or would it also pick up on powers inherent to all members of a People, such as the Alari wings? Only one way to find out…
Panel 7 is perfect.
…huh. Someone pointed out in the last page’s comments that Hench Wench’s profile image in the Who’s Who wasn’t taken from any panel on that page. We now see that it isn’t from this page either, and it doesn’t seem like the story is headed in a direction that would give us that expression on the next page.
Unless, of course, the flier who couriered the alien weapon comes back and has not-previously-seen powers that let the scavenger crew all escape or something.
I could see that image coming very soon. Brut trying the classic Robocop “You’re fired!” In an attempt to get her under control and she reminds him that by contract that requires majority vote of the LLC.
Confused … what about the on that flew in and grabbed the stasis gun? Who’s she, and where is she getting arrested? Pretty sure that wasn’t hench, unless she’s changed costumes.
Number of employers seen < number of employers in existance
And I believe the answer may be ‘she got away with the stasis gun’. Honestly, I hope they did, as the positive and commercial uses of stasis technology are fairly sweeping if they can get the power demands to a manageable level.
before Maxima cut off Mr. Amorphous it looked like he was about to mention her…somebody probably should as it seems Maxima didn’t see that individual so isn’t aware yet someone absconded with the stasis gun.
You can have godlike powers but a shot from THAT hitting THAT spot would put you on your knees in utter pain, pure utter and complete pain…. ohhhh seeing the image makes me a bit queasy… yipes. 0.0 Max has a very very VERY scary side to point her gun THERE. o.o
also if he’s normal there is a sizable artery and vein there as it isn’t a muscle (despite any antics some men can do with them) so bleeding out is a possibility. and given how much it will hurt probably not a bad idea.
Indeed.
New meaning for No Nut November
Genius XD
I believe that somewhere in the Archon Tower there is a tally board stating “# of days since Max threatened or damaged a testicle” and it has just been set back to ‘0’
I surrender.
Yeah, I know I’m not a supervillain fighting her, and the the action is happening in another country, on the opposite coast, AND in a fictional universe but just the thought of that gun pointing where it is gives me the shudders.
Using the threat of a lethal weapon on Brüt is fully justified. Given his extreme damage resistance, Maxima had to get creative to get his attention.
Two dots, one umlaut. Brüt is wrong. Heatwave knows what an umlaut does, she probably took High School German. Brüt just thinks they look cool.
If Henchwench makes too much fuss,he can just fire her, thus rendering her powerless.
que Robocop …
Dick your fired!
2xOn-Tan-dra ;)
Here we see Brut making his first smart decision since getting into this fight
At least they learned from the first supervillain battle royale and are following Silver Age rules. Otherwise I’m sure Dabbler or Sydney would be left to the task of naming them…
I hate to admit it, but when I first saw Panel 6 I thought Not_Kevin (Brut is a dumb name) had somehow manifested a firearm from his crotch.
I’d missed both the laser site pointing in the ‘wrong’ direction, and Max’s delicate hand.
Speaking of Max’s hand, it’s been established in comic that she doesn’t use lipstick or whatever other product that other women might use to color her lips, does this oddly fashionable natural coloration extend to her finger nails as well? I can’t see her being the type of woman who would bother.
That was how I saw it at first too, but I view on my phone and her hand wasn’t in view. The glowing laser point make it look like a warp gate, and that would be an odd place for it to manifest. Unless his power was create warp gates in clothing, since this is all his clothing, it would make complete sense.
that’s a really effective way to make a man surrender
Max’s first question isn’t just about expressing concern, either – it’s to draw his attention to how hard her gun hits. He’s going to be a very good boy, I think.
So the hench wench is flying at 10k feet without a parachute, do you get charged with murder/slaughter if you fire her?
if you shoot your gun into the air at a party and the bullet arcs down and kills someone, then you have committed manslaughter, so it’s that at very least, and 2nd degree or even 1st if you knew she was using your flight power at the time.