Grrl Power #968 – Menagerie Fu!
I think I said it before when Jabberwokky was first introduced, but it’s been a while. She has a super weird power. She has basically any power or set of powers she wants, so long as she can justify them thematically. Usually that comes in the form of animal based kung fu styles, whether or not such a form of martial arts actually exists. Also… this give her some pretty wide leeway. There was some old kung fu theater movie I saw where a guy used Toad Style, which meant his skin was basically impervious. Like… toads have rough skin, but I don’t think of them as being particularly tough. I don’t think the have armadillos in China, but maybe go for Turtle Style instead?
Anyway, despite her “unlimited” power set, she’s still kind of constrained by physics? Well, not really, because in panel two there, it looks like Vehemence has about four hundred pounds on her, but she catches his fist and throws him. Not even like she’s using judo/his own strength/momentum against him. She actually seems to out-muscle him there. But she is constrained by her own mental idea of what kung fu is limited to, even if it is fairly crazy movie kung fu. For instance, yelling out “Eagle Style” doesn’t allow her to fly. It might let her jump high and even glide for a bit, but straight up flight seems to elude her, as do hadoukens and yoga teleportation. I guess she hasn’t watched Dragon Ball or OnePunch Man. Not sure if her powers would suddenly evolve if she thought cartoon martial arts counted, but I’m sure a terrible live action OPM movie is on its way.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Getting close to finishing the final chapter, but… I don’t know, the ending I had planned kind of feels dry? I might want to extend to book to end on an action note? I think that would add 1 or 2 chapters. I’d be worried about that making the book too long, but honestly I’m not sure why that would be a problem. I’ve gotten used to reading pulp sci-fi and fantasy that usually clock in around 90K words, but there’s nothing wrong with a longer book, so long as there’s interesting stuff happening in it, right? Well, I’ll have to finish the “final” chapter and see how I feel about it.
August’s vote incentive is up! I know, that thumbnail isn’t so enticing, but I promise, the rest of the picture is worth it.
Nude version is up at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
To be fair, if I had super powers I’d prefer they be orgasm based rather than kick in my face based.
Wolverine *cough*
Yeah, his power sucks. A lot.
And not in any fun way.
I’d be soooo skinny.
… yeah, it’s easier to get kick in face than sex.
Math in this comic: Boot to the head
Math in the vote incentive: Boob to the head
Best comment for today’s comic thus far.
So, if this comic is “Menagerie Fu”, does that make the vote incentive “Menagerie A Trois”?
(Except there’s four of them. Stupid reality spoiling my puns.)
At least you gave it a tri.
And didn’t put a (tri)dent in the available list of puns.
Ménagerie à Quatre, perhaps.
You are thinking of the Five Deadly Venoms movie, and the reason it is a toad is to justify the “venomous animals” theme of the martial arts
Saw the beginning of that. Couldn’t get over the fact that they showed how deadly a guy was, by having him smash plates.
It IS a really stupid movie, as typical for the genre.
tomato, nightshade.
Although toads are technically poisonous not venomous.
Okay, I know the cut-off line, but OTOH would you rather have a Komodo Dragon sandpaper your skin or get some of its drool in your mouth? And the Komodo Dragon isn’t the only animal that blurs the lines here, just the baddest.
Komodo dragons technically aren’t primarily venomous, they’re septic/exanguinative. They’ve evolved perpetually bleeding gums and very thick saliva so that their mouths are breeding grounds for a variety of nasty bacteria that they themselves are immune to. They bite their prey and then wait for them to die of septic shock and/or blood poisoning. Which given the bacterial load, typically doesn’t take long. They also secrete an anticoagulant, which would sort of count as a venom, and which helps prevent the body from walling off the bite area with a blood clot, as well as causing the prey to bleed more.
I should note there’s a study disputing the septic bite theory, but it was conducted entirely using captive Komodo dragons that are kept in clean conditions and fed prepared food, so its conclusions have been called into question. There’s also the fact that Komodo dragons have an extremely potent antibacterial peptide in their blood that can kill even multiple-drug-resistant pathogens, which argues for them having something hugely septic going on that results in an advantage in having a strong antibiotic circulating in your body 24/7. (They’ve synthesized a version, called DRGN-1, which can kill MRSA and other very antibiotic-resistant bacteria).
DRGN-1! y’know this is one of the reasons I read GP comments. This is, without question, the most intellectual populated comment section across the ‘toon universe. I learn something new just about every time Dave posts a new page and people start filling the comments. My wife contracted MERSA several years ago and it took more than a year for her to recover. Complicating her recovery is that she is allergic to penicillin and several other antibiotics.
Sorry i saw DRGN-1, it reminded me of the model number of the Dragon Heavy Mech from BattleTech universe, which is DRG-1N
That was both educational and entertaining, thanks.
Can depend on the animal though.
Example: Captive poison dart frogs are more often than not separated from their food sources they would normally eat. As they synthesize the poison from their foods (like many other poisonous animals do), this makes them completely harmless.
Fun fact 1: Tiger keelbacks are both Poisonous and Venomous snakes.
Fun fact 2: Hooded Pitohui, a little bird in New Guinea is rather poisonous (due to it’s diet)
Fun fact 3: Don’t eat spur winged geese. Due to their diet, you may get very sick as a result of biting into a fresh cooked goose dinner.
“Fun fact 3: Don’t eat spur winged geese.”
Avian fugu?
Mountain Hemlock
Um. Ah. Er… I’m confused. I researched Mountain Hemlock. and it’s generally not considered poisonous, and in any case it’s not in the general Spur Winged Goose habitat range. Is there a meme I’m not aware of?
HOWEVER, I did find that Spur Winged Geese often feed on Blister Beetles (Spanish Fly) which are immensely toxic. But also, the common Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is native to Europe and North Africa, and could possibly be grazed by the geese.
Oh, I was thinking of Prairie Chicken.
Oops, I was thinking of Prairie Chicken.
Huh! So I am a big of fan of Super Sentai (what Power Rangers is adapted from) and one series, Juken Sentai Gekiranger, (what Power Rangers Jungle Fury is adapted from) is a Kung Fu / Martial Arts themed series. All the monsters in it were animal based and “martial art” style to match.
In Gekiranger there was a group of monsters in it called “The Five Venom Fists” and had no idea that it was a reference to Five Deadly Venoms till now.
https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Five_Venom_Fists
There’s also a “Toad Style” in Kung Fu Hustle.
I can’t help but Wonder was Kevin getting sickly and wasting away in prison or was she simply using that as an example? Also I worry about Sydney sometimes get that girl some chocolate covered Trinidad scorpion.!
Carolina Reaper chocolates :)
The two of them are practically interchangeable as they Vie for the top position in the pepper hierarchy. Personally I prefer cooking with scorpion.
Because of the position of the commas in Dabbler’s statement, the phrase “becoming sickly and wasted” refers to “he”, Kevin.
Why are his lines green?
If I remember his earlier fight correctly, they change colors depending on how powered up he is. Color coded for your convenience.
They are greenish-yellow in the opening panel and turning brighter green at the fight goes on, so warning to opponents?
Energizer battery tester.
Ha! Man, I forgot those things existed.
Dabbler. You should not be in the room right now. You keep forgetting you and Jabberwocky aren’t allowed together.
That order from Max was somewhat rescinded. Dabbler & Jabberwokky had already made some progress on that problem somewhat and Max finally just said “You guys work it out.” At some point, a commander just has to trust the talents & intentions of the people under her. And, Dabbler really isn’t in the chain of command anywhere. She has some sort of “civilian consultant” status. At this point, Max is really only worried about real consent, and that Dabbler obey the same rules she needs to obey regarding all the other team members.
They took care of that while Sydney was in space for months.
While Sydney did not actually exist for months.
That order was kinda stupid anyway: how are they supposed to figure out what is up with Jabs if Jabs and Dabs can’t be in the same room together? Jabs only reacted like that around Dabs
Wait, they’re using him as a skill test dummy? I mean, I guess it would make sense, since leaving him to waste away would be inhumane, but I honestly thought that role would’ve gone to Death Toll, the guy with the skull mask with nemesis powers. Maybe he could be considered an advanced class for skill testing?
Death Toll is a PERFECT counter in a one-on-one fight, which doesn’t really help in individual training. But, he’s also easy to beat because as long as you don’t attack, he can’t counter you.
You COULD say Death Toll is actually a really good one, like Olushola said, an advance class one. He always counters you, so you have to counter the counter. But I guess there is not “winning” a one on one session with him, just a “How long can you last” sort of deal. Which is still good training. Makes you more prepared for when things don’t go your way in a fight.
Vehemence has been shown to be strangely more reasonable than Death Toll. Also, it’s easier to set a curriculum with him. Whether you want to drill against a big, strong brick, or a lightning generator, or whatever else they can ask him to do, VS the guy whose response to getting the boot to the head is equally likely to be to turn into a humanoid slime monster or sprout razor blades from his face…
Yeah that’s fair, but you also have to plan around his powerlevel since you have to account on giving too much or too little violence either making him too strong for who he needs to train with, or not worth the time if he hasn’t gotten enough. With Death Toll it’s all relatively the same person to person. It’s always a counter to what ever effort someone puts in. I like to think the unpredictability is essential in training to counter a counter.
I mean, The Periwinkle Butt-Sniffer did show up to a hastily-organized brawl wearing a cowl he already owned, as well as a lame name he was far too proud of, so Kevin seems infinitely more reasonable to work with regardless of relative power levels.
The Power of
The Periwinkle Butt SnifferFor Whom the Death Tolls would probably make him unsuitable for use as a training opponent, if (as I assume) there’s a value in having that opponent be consistent between opponents. When the Nemesis power reacts differently to everything that anyone tries against it, and always scales to meet the incoming threat, then there’s not much basis for comparison available. Vehemence, in contrast, has a few tricks available depending on his power level, but they’re relatively straightforward and at-will.You’re using vehemence as a skill test dummy? I mean, I guess it makes sense, seeing as the alternative is to leave him to waste away or starve, which is inhumane, but I thought that role would’ve gone to Death Toll, the tool with the skull mask and nemesis powers. Maybe he could be an advance dummy for testing skill?
I remember a song called Boot to the head.
Two comedy sketches (Last Will and Temperament and Tae Kwon Leap) by The Frantics.
SENSEI: Mastery of Tae Kwon Leap requires patience.
STUDENT: Patience, yeah, yeah, how long with that take?
…
STUDENT: You little…! [tries to punch SENSEI]
SENSEI: Boot to the head.
STUDENT: Ow! You booted me in the head!
This is what I came here for!
Google boot to the head Dr demento
Yeah, there’s at least two videos on YouTube that includes live action performance of the skit as a whole. In the search bar at the top of the YT home page, type in “Tai Kwon Leap” & prepare for a laugh at Ed Gruberman.
Have you learned nothing from the lesson of Ed Gruberman???
Yes, master, I have learned to things.
That Anger is a weapon only to one’s opponent.
And Secondly, Get in the first shot. BOOT TO THE HEAD! (Swoosh!)
You missed.
Teacher: You missed.
Student 2: Uh, yeah. Well…
Teacher: You too shall be honored to learn a lesson…
Oh, Ed Gruberman, that idiot…
It was also immortalized on television by The Frantics in their short lived comedy show called Four on the Floor. A brilliant show that slightly predated Kids in the Hall.
I completely forgot Rick Green was in The Frantics.
The old kung fu movie you mention, I’m pretty sure, is The Five Deadly Venoms (aka Five Venoms).
I was thinking Kung Fu Hustle. Didn’t think there could be more than one moive that has Toad style King Fu.
I don’t know why there would be a limit one movie. Toad species are native to every continent except Australia and Antarctica, and after the infamy of the cane toad introduction to Australia, I’d expect Australia to produce at *least* a couple movies with toad style Kung Fu on its own.
When will Jabbers and Math become an item? Please?
Imagine if Kevin was the norm… Child protective services would show up because you haven’t been beating your child.
Not really, he powers up and feeds on all violence including the ambient violence in his surroundings from things like stormy weather. He could just be an athlete of some sort or near a sports team with a lot of violent activity like wrestling or hockey.
He would be a big fan of Rugby. Although, he did mention enjoying soccer hooligans.
I’m sure I remember another character here being limited by their own imagination?
That sort of limit is one of the few cases where (very limited) mind-rape might be justified. Massive moral quandry for Dabbs, I guess?
Off to re-read everything again :)
I mean, it isn’t necessarily her own imagination that’s the limit, it’s what she can justify as an animal themed kung fu, which is so incredibly specific that it’s honestly kinda difficult to get any powers out of it beyond enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Obviously there’s some extra stuff she’s gotten, like I think I recall a tiger style or something with like energy claws or whatever in the diner brawl, but there’s only so far you can get within that hyper specific genre, pretty much regardless of how extensive your imagination, because it isn’t about being able to imagine, picture, or even describe it, it’s about being able to justify it. To me, this reads more as a psuedo sentient power acting as a dungeon master trying to decide if it will allow her to do the cool but blatantly not in the rules thing she wants to do right now, and rule of cool can be hard to adjudicate properly.
Mewtwo style (:
Elemental dragons style
Gorgon style
Lots of potential if they think about it.
Then there are other comics like Jungle Juice where exhibiting physical traits are possible.
It is not just animals though. In the parking lot brawl she also used ‘paladin style’ to become somewhat impervious to attacks and create a short range energy/shockwave kind of attack. I don’t remember tiger style or energy claws however, are you confusing her with Pixel were form who has laser claws as her super power?
My bad, not paladin style but crusader style.
Disco Porn Star Style?
do we dare ask for a vivid description?
If you mustache a silly question… weaponized cockslaps, surprise granny boobs, and cheese-grater leghair
Regarding Dave’s description of Jabberwokky’s super power, thus gives a fairly incredible opening to open her up to a much larger universe of skills/powers.
Fundamentally, her one, main superpower is: It’s all in her head. Well, mostly, but effectively if she believes in something, it becomes a power. There is such a range of weird training options here. Hypnosis? Self-hypnosis? Just convince her of how a style with any absurd name works and she can do it. Put her on a regular diet of chop socky movies? Anime & manga? Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan marathon? The ideas she gets from all of those become new skills.
It comes down to imagination training. Teach her to creatively world-build skillsets in her head, visualize them, then give them names … as she declares those names, the entire skill tree she imagines with each style becomes reality.
If she trains in real martial arts, she doesn’t even have to work on all the high level belts. Just progress enough through several low level belts in many of the arts to get the basics. The moves & theory will all fuel her imagination on how the mechanics might work, combined with the rest of her fantasy world, and it just strengthens the belief in herself to use each skill & style. Especially if Math is willing to train her, his mastery could lead her down fantastic paths of imagination. Jabberwokky might be able to perform moves that Math can’t, just so long as he describes what he would like to be able to do vividly enough for Jabberwokky to convince herself it’s a style, or feature of a style.
Her training could effectively be sitting down with Math and watching old Chinese martial arts movies while he creatively describes how some of the absurd styles could work, the mechanics from real world martial arts that were the inspiration for the movie depictions. Later they could spar a bit to fine tune and bring them out more.
Now an interesting question I would explore if I were ARC: does this power of self-suggestion extend beyond fantastical martial arts styles? If Jabberwokky believes in something called “Succubus Kiss Style,” for example, could she charm someone in a way similar to how Dabbler charmed her? If she thinks of it as a fighting style, she could very well express something like it, even if it isn’t actual succubus magic.
The power of imagination is infinite. Even her failures (such as inability to actually fly) could still reveal alternatives that attempt to simulate unattainable skills (a long, leaping & fast glide through the air).
So if she can imagine a rattlesnake style or black widow style could she bite someone and poison them? That could be really, really nasty if she imagines the sea snail (I forget the exact name) that has a venom that can kill a human in 30 seconds.
I think you’re thinking of the cone snail. There’s a lot of different ones but IIRC Conus geographus is the most dangerous.
If someone grapples you, you go “Man-o-war style” and your skin stings them anywhere they are touching you.
Could be fun.
Basically, tes. The point of my post is that all she has to do is convince herself of particular features for an imagined “style.” If it isn’t possible with her superpower, her superpower will still attempt to emulate that power with some sort of approximation. The results of her attempts teach her what she can actually do, positive re-enforcement/feedback loop and she then imagines it with greater conviction and expectation of the results. She can build a vast, vast tool chest of techniques and skills to pull out under millions of different circumstances.
I emphasize: her failures are every bit as good training as her successes. It’s also why I suggested learning self-hypnosis techniques. If she can put herself into a trance state that just really believes a thing, her superpower will have better chances of emulating or even achieving it.
I’m guessing her superpower would be tied to use of chi, or qi energy. What can be achieved by yoga and tai chi masters, she can harness all of that plus the power of her imagination and will. Continuing with that speculation, I would tentatively categorize her superpower as the ability to “super manifest qi into physical reality,” to the extent that it seems like magic use.
Further research and experimentation is required. Having Math as her mentor is probably one Hell of a good first step. Dabbler on-hand for analysis and advice also. Plus whatever they may be allowed to have going on. Sydney should also take a good, long look at her with her Orb of Observation. It will probably reveal something similar to the energy patterns she saw feeding Vehemence during the Steak House Brawl.
Now imagine she watches those real life anime movies like dragonball evo or the bleach one with sidney at her side who explains how the kamehameha works….
Maybe her Black Widow style lets her shoot energy blasts from her wrists. Cone Snail style would not be what a hero would be wanting to use: Slow, hard, venomous dart near the mouth. A 5-inch snail can kill a human. How much damage could a 68-inch version do? I think she should investigate Cuttlefish style. Her skin gets to change all sorts of colours!
Mr Bean style
Jabberwokky’s powers don’t straight up break physics, they’re skill based with creative visual effects. Her ‘Crusader Style’ doesn’t actually make her durable enough that bullets bounce off her face, it just raises her DCV to the point where she’s nearly impossible to HIT without using an AoE (one hex) attack.
Except that bullet (-like objects) did in fact bounce off her face when in Crusader style.
Yes, but The Crusader’s Sword failed to strike true, in that the target was able to dodge.
The crusader’s sword struck true. True is straight ahead, not wavery. It did that.
That’s the creative visual effect. Vecter actually MISSED with those ball bearings.
Sort of like how legendary-grade female armor works when it’s just dental floss and three coins
How you’re coming up with this theory, which is utterly unsupported by any content in the comic in any way whatsoever, I do not know.
In panels one and eight it appears Dabbler’s front arms are dominant.
Her rear arms are just hanging there and appear less muscular.
She should work on that in the gym.
Math officially practices the ancient martial art of “Ti Kwan Leap!”
I wonder if he ever encountered Ed Grubberman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajEOZ4tBqjQ
Awww..you beat me to it!
I suspect Math is the instructor in that routine. Or at least knows him.
So beating the snot out of Kevin is the equivalent of giving him a round meal? still feel it’s a real bad idea,but it’s far safer than having him in the wild guess.
Well, it looks like he’s only out on a supervised day-pass anyway. After the recharge, he goes back in the slammer.
I’m going to guess there’s a common source for panel 6 and panel 3 of #209. I do wonder whether it’s a deliberate callback, or if Dave remembers that he already used it.
I noticed as well how similar the poses in the two pages looked, but looking at them side by side they are nearly identical, down to the motion wave surrounding the boot, exact same number, length, and formation of spikes. Either they’re both traced from the same source, or the pose from today’s page was traced (or used the same original line art) from the old page.
Shoulders are different. Look at the arms.
It is very likely that, line-wise, the current one is drawn as a callback using the older one (flipped) as a reference for the posture and the linework on all but the shoulders and face.
Hummingbird Style lets you dodge really well.
“Weightless leaping”, where a martial arts master can do, basically, zero-G maneuvering on earth, is a genre convention in wuxia, so Jabberwokky really should be able to pull it off. Just show her “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and she’ll be moonhopping in short order.
In the final panel, is it more grammatically correct for Dabbler to say “… Most people don’t need *to* experience vicarious face kicking…”?
Ah, yeah.
She can be excused as English is not her first language, and some people do talk like that or even used to be more common to speak like that.
One thing to avoid when writing dialogue is the Victorian style *as in write in proper grammar at all times* as Mark Twain pioneered it grabs the audience and makes the characters feel more real and alive if you write how people talk.
-just stick with a speech pattern though-
Yes, but it’s all but unreadable the way Twain did it. Nowadays, if you are not going for comedy or parody or something culturally offensive, you put enough deviation in syntax and wording there to imply the accent, rather than write it out phonetically. You might have an occasional word that has a phonetic spelling (zink for think or whatever), but not more than one or two a paragraph.
hence pioneered not mastered.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I will now be humming Boot to the Head all day, getting those weird stares from coworkers! YES! Geek cred points!
He got a boot to the face….. where’d the shoe come from?
That’s the other shoe dropping.
*claps*
I’m just impressed with this.
Well, I have watched clips of fire dragon and earth dragon (I think) styles and there are single styles combining multiple animal styles in existence.
Films like Kung fu hustle, the medallion and crouching tiger hidden dragon even odder examples like tekkonkinkreet are OP examples of martial art films and viable under her power set.
Remembering of course that she is a super and Math isn’t and with more experience his ability could be considered hers before powers are taken into account is an interesting point. Her power set being martial art based seems to fast track her knowledge and experience of different styles so that won’t be long in happening.
I’m waiting on something weird like Australian Herbivores style from her.
Remember her Crusader style, as well. It added a level of invulnerability and even an invisible sword type energy. So her ‘styles’ can apparently gain additional abilities outside martial arts.
I get that Math is the obligatory “I don’t need powers to kick your ass”, but Vehemence has been fighting for a while now, and should be able to take hits from Maxima by this point. Not full strength ones, since he still looks under 8 feet tall, but still…
I assume that kick was a ‘shake his brain’ type. But nothing shakes when he can take an rpg to the chin after a few minutes of violence.
He needed to absorb the violent energies of a 20+ all out brawl to get up to being a big enough threat that Maxima felt like stepping in, and even then Maxima still dominated the first part of that fight. Right now he’s only been shown fighting 3 people in, most likely, one on one bouts which shouldn’t be anywhere close to what he got in his first appearance.
Math has consistently been portrayed with superhuman strength.
Frankly, despite his claims to be just human, you should think of him as having martial arts themed powers, with (ki based?) strength, speed and combat precog. Actual human martial artists can’t do what he can.
If I recall correctly, they handwaved in both directions when introducing Math. “He’s not a super/meta (any way we can detect) but he’s so dang good you wouldn’t know it.”
In fact his only weakness is (was?) female bits. Womanite?
“Super” is a very specific thing in Grrl Power and by far not the only source of superpowers. Krona explicitly has a unique thing going on, and Sydney(who also was checked over without finding anything in her) technically has no powers but the orbs give her some. So “not any way Archon can detect” doesn’t mean anything.
And “being so dang good” i.e. skill can’t explain his performance. If it’s not straight superstrength, it’s access to something like ki that normal humans don’t have allowing him to perform superhumanly.
I think the `toad style` impervious skin is a callback to the infamous poison toad issues in Australia, in which imported cane toads became problematic, and as individuals unfamiliar with them tried to deal with these invasive pests without any handling experience, the legend of exactly what these toads could survive grew to legendary proportions.
I’m not saying that the cane toads could or couldn’t actually survive all of this stuff, just that the level of what they were reported to be able to survive was just ridiculous. I’d guess it would go past just `invulnerable skin` and include things like `resistant to being smashed`, as these toads would reportedly survive being run over by cars, trucks, and even tanks.
We-e-elllll, we do claim to have the most dangerous and indestructible pests in the world, but cane toads are only run-of-the-mill. You run over them with a car, they get flat and stay that way. And the skin is not as tough as ordinary boot-leather — many have died after being bitten by dogs. But the dogs also died.
However. If the ground is soft-muddy, then you’re missing one of the “hard places”: the toad squishes into the mud and gets to live.
Unfortunately, cane toads are only slightly less poisonous than a Komodo Dragon, so should not be touched with bare skin. I suspect a Dragon would have an intense tummy-ache for several hours if it ate a toad.
I’ve never seen a cane toad in person, and I’ve never been to Australia. But the reports I saw, back when Australia was coming to grips with the then-recently introduced toads, was some people were saying that driving over them with a car was not sufficient.
I personally do not care about the veracity of those reports. Simply *because* of the reports, and the fact they escalated all the way to tanks, and various other crazy reports being reported at the same time, it seems plausible Jabberwoky could believe them enough to use them for powers.
A thing is unique or it is not. There is no ‘fairly’.
yes there is.
You can have a design based on another design but you’ve added so much too it that its like 90% your creation although the base premise or aesthetic is recognizable as this or that, or a trope, genre, ect… and some parts of it you’ve seen in other works but “not like this” or “in this arrangement”
that creates “fairly unique”.
The only thing that is unique is the Winslow. It is the platonic ideal of a small green, fuzzy, stupid reptilian thing.
those who try to be as unique as possible end up not being unique as they fall under avant-garde, surrealism, and Dadaism.
Nothing falls under the sort of strict, unqualified definition of unique that some people demand. If something is only unique within a specific context, is it still unique? If you have two things that are each unique within multiple contexts, but one is unique within more contexts than the other, isn’t one more unique than the other?
First: I suspect Mosquito Style is a stealth/evasion/vampiric healing form, for Jabbers.
Second: I repeat, Vehemence-Dabbles tag team, “Rough Sex,” needs to be attempted.
Ah! Dave is getting lazy. :D
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-209-dramatic-speed-lines-ensue/
Math did this exact move before with Concretia: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-209-dramatic-speed-lines-ensue/
He should know better – the same move, especially if it was a battle-ender, will not work ever again.
He needs a Combat tropes 101 session with Sydney.
She’s gender flipped Hak Foo from Jackie Chan Adventures.
Good old Five Deadly Venoms, a staple when me and my buddies get together every few months.
Toad Style Kung Fu is a real style. From https://imperialcombatarts.com/rare-kung-fu-styles–animal-substyles.html
FROG & TOAD
蟆式功夫
Frog & Toad fighting styles master powerful bone breaking kicks, leaping collisions, take-downs, throws, fast spear hand strikes, and ripping, raking, stabbing grips with the hands. The powerful toughened legs of Frog are also used for reaps, and sweeps that hook, pull, and capture. Frog uses specialized swimming style blocks with the arms and hands that capture strikes or open them up for vital point strikes.
my Grammar sense is tingling, shouldn’t it be “don’t need ‘to’ experience vicarious face kicking”? I can’t help it.
English isn’t even Dabbles’ fifth language (on Earth)
Who else should take on Vehemence!?
I’m sure Dabbler would like to “take on” Vehemence.
Anvil! As long as Kevin plays nice and sticks with physical attacks, their fight should be able to continue indefinitely.
*nah nah* I refuse to elaborate
So, there was some discussion about how Hench Wench must have demon blood in her lineage, as the source of her contract-based powers. Perhaps K-er, Vehemence similarly has some Malumi blood in him? Just how much have demons crossbred with humanity in this world?
Strangely, the only type of demon that wouldn’t leave any half-breed human offspring are succubi. Succubus babies always seem to be succubi. Or, if a succubus had a male baby with a human, would it be human? How succubi breed is still one of those cloudy areas DaveB hasn’t gone into. (That they DO breed is established – hi there Tamantha!!)
Iirc, Dabbler said that all Succubus children are female, and did not elaborate.
So, if a succubus conceives, then the resulting child will be female. There may be other species that can have children using genetic donations from succubi, which would somehow not be a succubus child.
Chicken, egg, tomato, tomahto, etc.
That would make way more sense than “Her super power knows when someone else with superpowers has signed a contract”. To me, it’s one of those world-breaking ones along with Jabberwocky’s power set of “I can have any martial art (or really, any power) I want by imagining it’s real”. It overwhelms the suspension of disbelief in a superhero world for me. I’m starting to wonder if this whole comic isn’t just a pen and paper scenario that Sydney and her friends aren’t just playing out.
Ah yes, the Flashback Hypothesis. Someday the final page will be Sydney waking up from a coma in a hospital bed and reveal that the entire comic was All Just A Dream.
A member of her her gaming group will explain how she cracked her head on the store counter after blacking out from forgetting to breathe while speed-talking excitedly through a new scenario where supers are actually real and so are werewolves and vampires and maybe aliens and all the rules-lawyering opportunities that would crea- *crash*
J: “Galactus Style!” [prepares to eat planet]
Max: Dial it back, please”
J: “Mr. Rogers Style!”
V: [starts to attack]
J: “We all feel sometimes like we need to hit somebody. Let’s talk about that”
[Fight is over]
In the vote incentive, is that Varia and Jabberwocky? I’m sure this isn’t canon, but it’s interesting that Varia’s power doesn’t seem to be reacting to Math.
It just means that the power she gets from Math isn’t one that causes any physical changes. When she touched Sydney nothing seemed to happen, and when in contact with Jiggawat she got magnetic powers without any physical changes either.
“When she touched Sydney nothing seemed to happen”
The orbs started rotating around both of them, implying Varia could use an orb while they are touching.
Nobody (in the comic) noticed though.
I think it’s less “could use one orb” and more “became identified as halo to the orbs”
Something that really only matters to the skill tree
The comment was about Varia showing physical changes, and in that regard nothing seemed to happen. She didn’t burst into flames, sprout fur, or anything like what was shown at the night club.