Grrl Power #969 – Gravity assisted motivation
You know your job is weird when your boss kicking you from an eighty foot cliff is not grounds for a HR complaint.
Ren, for those of you who don’t recall, has “Super Adrenaline.” He’s trying to avoid the Supranym “The Black Hulk” because, well, he doesn’t turn into a giant bulky guy, doesn’t want to get sued, and also has an issue with being labeled by race. It would be like if Lewis Seinstien turned into “The Jewish Hulk” which of course now that I’ve typed that can only imagine he’s Hasidic with the beard and the corkscrew sideburn things. I can’t decide if he’d wear a yamaka or one of those flat brimmed hoiche hats.
Damn, what was I talking about? Oh, right. Ren still doesn’t have a supranym. His power is supercharged adrenaline that, as referenced on this page, puts him at a level where he can at least make Max notice. Someone once suggested calling him “Red Bull” which immediately led to “Black Bull” and both of those were shot down on the spot.
He knows he needs to come up with something eventually, or he’s going to get the Arianna special, which just means something legally safe, marketable and cool, in that order.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Went back and did some editing to the penultimate chapter, but that’s probably a misnomer now, because I’m really leaning toward adding a chapter or two so that I can end the book on a fight. Also spent part of the weekend working on a potential cover for the book. Didn’t get a lot of work done on it because I restarted halfway through and went browsing through a bunch of Frank Frazetta art, but as iconic as his stuff is, 1) I can’t realistically emulate it, 2) It doesn’t match the mood of the book or the previous cover. Still, I was getting frustrated with my art process and was wanting to try something a little more painterly. If all else fails I can use that picture of Xerxa, but I’ll keep noodling on it when I have free time. Hah hah, that’s not a thing.
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.
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If his only power is adrenaline how did he survive that drop?
Tis amazing what you can do with some adrenaline and well executed tumble. Tis all about redirecting your energy as quickly and efficiently as possible. Typically the problem with falling is that we have no time to deal with the shockwave of energy as momentum carries us along the same trajectory into the ground. Adrenaline causes your body to push to the max, your brain works overtime, your muscles pull out all the stops and you’re far beyond what your body and skill is far beyond what you would normally be capable of. Thus as he hits the floor he would shift his stance into a forward fall, and drop into a roll redirecting all that energy (at what would be truly significant effort, but thankfully those muscles are boosted!)
Hopefully that provides a plausible explanation for you.
I think the author should cover the side effects of adrenaline though, because it’s not all fun and games.
Been there, done that. Bike crash.
Rolling will prolong the time of impact, meaning you slow down more gently and it takes less force, but there are limits to this – as you fall higher and faster you need to slow down more in the same amount of time, meaning more force on your body.
Most of what I see online says 15 feet is where a parkour expert tops out, and that cliff looks to be about 30 feet, so that would definitely give a normal human a few bruises. But if Ren has a dash of super-toughness to go with his super-strength (the two usually go together so that your muscles don’t rip your body apart) then he’s probably fine.
He’d need some kind of baseline resilience, or he’d shred his own muscles and crack his own bones. Although a toughness linked to his super-state would be interesting (for us, scary for him) in a surprise attack. Like if a boxer sucker punched Ren. The boxer could end up with a shattered fist as Ren “hardens”, but still do enough initial damage to put Ren out of a fight.
While yes… you’re forgetting that this guy is a super, so his adrenaline is likely to work in a more enhanced way. A parkour expert is not really working solely with their adrenaline, they’re working on muscle memory, technique and base strength. The adrenaline is simply part of the thrill.
This guy on the other hand gets a significant boost to his adrenaline or rather perhaps their brain and physiology processes adrenaline in a much more efficient way delivering more bang for the buck. This allows him to exploit the properties of adrenaline. Adrenaline can in some cases double your strength and increase your brains capacity to process and store information so that would absolutely cover the ‘dash of super toughness’, or if you mean resistance, I don’t think he needs that kind of resistance provided he can redirect the force quickly enough. Remember: super adrenaline. We can’t measure him against trained professionals because trained professionals aren’t using adrenaline to get the job done.
Adrenaline is commonly believed to increase muscle strength – so it’s plausible that super adrenaline gives super strength. Especially once you realize that strength is needed to move fast, not just perceive and react fast.
With super strength he can stabilize himself while rolling on impact.
We don’t know if he’s landed yet, they might have a plan.
The biggest problem with adrenaline is that your brain partly shuts down to give faster reactions. The three words for the adrenaline response is “Flight, Fight or Freeze”. If you do not have a plan before the adrenaline kicks in, you sure aren’t making one after. You will try to run away (Flight), stand your ground and attack the danger (fight) or you will vapour lock if your only now starting to figure out what you are going to do now (Freeze). One reason people that are responsible for people’s lives train, like pilots, police, firefighters, etc., so much for emergencies; so they already have a plan when things start to go wrong and be less likely to freeze up.
Good luck Ren. I get the feeling his landing target is Kevin.
Well that’s true of normal adrenaline, but his “super adrenaline” seems to work differently. Like, in his introduction he appeared to be calmly observing a glass falling. His power seems to be connected to adrenaline, but enhances its associated effects independently, giving him accelerated cognition, super speed, and super strength/durability based on how intensely he’s fighting. If it were *just* adrenaline, he’d routinely injure himself with his power.
Indeed, this is the point I’m trying to make. It’s not the normal adrenaline, this is him being able to process that in a far more efficient way for a longer period of time allowing him to ‘use’ that adrenaline rather than it just giving him a temporary boost to whatever he’s trying to do right then.
And do not forget the ‘aftershock’ aka the ‘post stress jitters’.
Depending on how much adrenalin is stil in your body afterwards tou can get a, sometimes severe, nervous mental reaction and/or start shaking physically. It’s always good in that case to have sombody around to help you calm down.
Been there too.
You kidding? The ole reptile brain (which triggers the adrenal system) is the fastest response in the human body. His adrenaline hit maximum before he fell 6 feet – well, slower if this happens to him all the time, but never much slower.
It’s “super adrenaline” so he basically dramatically increases in strength, speed, toughness and healing as he ramps up. It’s not just strength, reflexes and pain resistance like us plebs.
So he is a discount Lung?
But not *as* heavily discounted as everyone assumed
For all we know, he could be a stealth Lung instead. How long has Ren been at high adrenaline? I would guess that pre-Archon, his super adrenaline probably solved most if not all situations that invoked it pretty quickly. Has Max put him through extensive training to find out just how it affects him if the situation lasts for an extended time?
so what I’m hearing is that Ren is the guy you send to fight Scarecrow or any fear based enemy
XD Yknow that would be a funny sight to see.Specially in Scarecrows case since he only has fear gas to work with.Kind of imagining him Scaring Ren half out of his mind and Scarecrow having to hide from thrown cars while screaming for help!
Okay, this one is just flat out funny. Well done!
I thought the super adrenaline gave him speed and strength, but he must also have some kind of super toughness, otherwise being dropped that far down would make him a super powered pancake.
Well, having increased toughness becomes sort of a required power if you have superstrength, otherwise you risk seriously injuring yourself every time you use your superstrength.
As a speedster, he’s already playing games with inertia and traction. From his flash-perspective, the ground is coming at him at a leisulrly pace, plentl slow enough for him to land safely on, even at terminal velocity.
I don’t think we have seen him do anything that requires traction or inertia shenanigans yet, so that isn’t in evidence, and it doesn’t mesh well with the description of his power.
That said, strength is a given, which would support a roll (and he can easily land in a good roll given his reaction speed.)
Seeing the glass of water fall slowly off of the table does not require traction or inertia shenanigans, but actually *doing* something about it almost certainly does if the glass was actually glass.
True, we didn’t see that bit, but he didn’t relate anything about how he cut himself almost immediately on first learning about his powers, so at least there’s a suggestion that there were some. Maybe he didn’t recognize that. But if you react to a falling glass that you did not expect to fall quickly enough to catch it before it breaks, you’ve probably broken it in the act of catching it.
At least, I did. I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t have lacerations all over my hand and embedded glass shards for the doctors to deal with, but I’m *not* going to complain about only needing three stitches from it. I will admit that I did not see it in slow motion, but I didn’t fling the glass at anyone, so I clearly managed to slow my hand down close to enough to avoid breakage. But the glass was falling, and my hand wasn’t sufficiently soft.
The glass from that scene actually looks like a plastic cup, so Ren could afford to let it fall out of curiosity. Which also neatly explains why he calmly watches to begin with instead of using his powers to actually catch it in time.
I’m not even sure if that scene is something that happened as opposed to just Sydney’s imagination. (Compare Nyah Nyah Can’t Hit Me Man.)
Don’t forget, he’s also likely a Super, which grants him a base level of supernormal strength and toughness before even considering his powers. I suspect a fifty-foot drop would not phase any of the Supers in Arc-SWAT.
In addition, a speedster should be able to make the fall work for him, by simply aiming for the cliff wall, and running along it. Ren’s still learning, admittedly, but here’s hoping he’ll figure it out.
Probably not handy to have a superpower that won’t work unless your adrenaline is pumping.
I believe it was stated that he starts out at about 5x normal, and ramps up from there. So he’s not completely vulnerable before he gets going.
He just have to inflict some kind of pain on himself or use drugs to get the adrenaline pumping.
Or just expect a fight (or otherwise challenging situation.)
As a general rule the guys in Grrl Power get the crappier powersets and in the few cases where they have nice powersets theres usually a gal with a much better version of it =).
Eh, I wouldn’t say that. Obviously Maxima, who is the strongest at everything, confounds things when it comes to comparing guys and gals, but Hiro and Stalwart are very strong, Math has a very potent power, and on the villain Vehemence is quite broken. The girls just tend to get more focus.
Stalwart is budget Hiro and Hiro is basically budget Maxima (And Maxima is budget Superman).Math has no powers to speak of as hes a badass normal and Vehemance doesnt count cause one hes a Villain and two hes supposed to be on the Darkseid end of the threat spectrum so he has a super overpowered ability-and even then the past couple of pages have shown he cant fight worth a damn.Kevin seems to rely on a mix of brute force and magic to win overall.
At some point ill have to list up the girls and the guys and see which side adds up as the best though even now im betting heavily on the girls =).
Like I said, Maxima is the one overpowered character, I don’t we can derive a trend just because she happens to be female.
Math absolutely has powers, his performance has nothing to do with badass normal.
On Vehemence, 1. why don’t villains count? He’s still a guy, isn’t he? 2. He’s supposed to be strong and has an overpowered ability so he doesn’t count as overpowered? I can’t follow your logic here. 3. Him being a bad fighter doesn’t say anything about his powers. And if it does, you definitely don’t get to dismiss Math.
To derive a general rule of guys get the crappy powers you’d need much more than a list total, especially as the cast is majority female to begin with, as there’s more of a focus on the girls. I would say they tend to get the more interesting powers, from a narrative viewpoint, which is entirely different.
From the cast page itself:
Name: Mathias
Age: 32
Height: 5′ 11″
Hair: Straw Blonde
Rank: Civilian Specialist
Powers: Math is a preternaturally skilled martial artist, capable of moves that many would call superhuman. His reflexes, speed, attack and defensive abilities exceed many members of the team that actually have powers in those categories, making him one of the more dangerous members on the team, despite him not technically actually having any powers.
Vehemance doesnt count cause I was talking about the heros in general.The stronger the heros the tougher the threat thats needed to create suspense.Hence why brute force enemys like Kevin are made(and possibly more cunning enemies later to challenge Archon in a different way).
And thanks for partially agreeing with me on the gals getting the better powersets at the very least you also have to admit the girls powersets have far more general utility too making them more effective in different situations =)
> despite him not technically actually having any powers.
I call bullshit on that. There’s no way for a baseline human to perform like Math does, his martial arts aren’t mundane. For all intents and purposes he has a martials arts power, just nothing Archon can formally measure. Certainly from a narrative viewpoint there’s little point to the distinction.
If you restrict it to Archon’s heroes, we have a quite small sample of guys to derive a general rule to begin with. Hiro, Stalwart, Amorphous, Math all look pretty decent, Achilles is literally invulnerable. I don’t think any of them got the short stick.
> And thanks for partially agreeing with me on the gals getting the better powersets
Uh, I don’t think I did… I said they were more interesting, but purely from a reader’s perspective.
> at the very least you also have to admit the girls powersets have far more general utility too making them more effective in different situations
This isn’t obvious to me either. The guys pull their weight outside of combat, too.
Since im comparing Archons heroines to Archons heros I kind of have to deal with a small sample since in comic new hires tends to lean more to women with high utility powers(wont be long til we have a certain astral projecting earthbender on the team) over the male supers in archon that weve seen so far.
I cant really respond to this one without making a wall of text listing the girls adaptable utility compared to the guys mostly one trick pony powersets but though the guys can pull their wieght outside of combat its usually in a way that a baseline human could do as well opposed to the girls who have mobility,teleportation that can be used to transport relatively light items long distance instantly or just instantly scout areas and casually snuffing out housefires with a wave of a hand (Though apparently heatwave finds that kinda gross).
In short the women in Grrl power have absurdly good powersets and thats even ignoring the fact that they have 3 gamebreakers in the girls roster including Sydney whos technically powerless(Shes in a green lantern situation ofc) while having more powers than all or archon combined and keeps spawning more each time she farts.
Hiro is a fast flyer, and he can carry a bus in flight too. In terms of mobility and utility that’s quite good. He also has sonic absorption and word of god is that there’s even more to his power. Achilles has been shown creatiley using his invulnerability in a dozen different ways. Stalwart’s stalwartness and Amorphous’ limited shapeshifting aren’t useless either.
I think you’re also underestimating the mundane utility of strength, and toughness also has its uses.
Yeah, the big three are all female, but I don’t think it’s fair to call the guys’ powers crappy. As far as supporting characters go, the guys hold their own.
Call him Rush.
Or along the same lines, maybe “Surge” or “The Surge”?
Bonus: If he ever becomes a Lieutenant, you could call him Lt. Surge.
Already the name of a soda… Which was noted for being pumped full of OBSCENE amounts of caffeine..
The only obscene amount of caffeine is NONE.
Needs an upvote button.
MODERATE levels of caffeine. 69mg per 16oz. Once again discontinued.
If a sergeant, Sarge Surge.
Surgent
And his son, Resurgent.
and daughter Deturgent
She would be a Detective, cleaning up the filthy streets.
and that would be a deterrent
What… is that the Grandson?
If he had a boyfriend, he would be an Insurgent.
Or “Reflex”, since a big component is that his reaction times improve?
Or “Throttle”
Amp would be a good name. If you know his strength/speed/reflexes are amplified by his adrenal response, then it’s crystal clear, but it can be explained as having an ability to amplify his strength without giving away the basis (and therefore suggesting a counter). Kal-El doesn’t call himself Defenselessagainstmagicman or Kryptonman, and J’onn J’onz doesn’t go by the Martian Pyrophobe, after all.
Bonus: if you’re an opponent and all you know is his name, you’ll waste time wondering if he has sonic powers or the ability to amplify other supers’ powers and get tangled up in analysis paralysis, potentially.
2nd bonus: “Black Amp” does not roll off the tongue at all and makes trying to inject his race into his name painfully obvious (although, to be fair, that could also be said of Black Goliath and Black Lightning, and that doesn’t seem to have stopped anyone).
If it increases his intelligence so that he can do math really fast, he could be the “Black Adder”.
He categorically stated that “Black” was not going to be part of his supernym.
Racist naming aside, it would also too easily turn into making him some kind of sidekick or rival for Math which just doesn’t seem to fit.
“The adventures of Math and his sidekick Black Adder!”
—
Math once again foiled the evil schemes of Black Adder and his nefarious gang of Subtractors!
… all we need is for someone to have “a cunning plan”….
Involving a weasel and a turnip?
oh that voting incentive… poor Math
I don’t think he’s complaining
Death by snu snu.
That involves a crushed pelvis not in evidence in the vote incentive.
So Ren needs to think up a Supername? How about Adrenaline Rush? Seems his powers revolve around how much adrenaline he has pumping through his body, letting him move at incredible speed, so I think it might work. Can’t think of any others right now tho…
That’s one way to ensure that his enemies will come loaded with syringes of norepinephrine/noradrenaline… You don’t exactly want your name to give [i]too[/i] much insight into how your power works, your strengths, or your weaknesses. Like, how many people do you think attack Achilles’ heel? Or try to cut the hair of a brute named “Samson”?
Call him Captain Slow then
I hope you do know that nickname is already taken.
Yes, by an elderly car guy
That or any equivalent like Sloth would be funny on marketing posters or whatever, but you’d really only get one surprise attack out of it before the secret was out and Ren would be still saddled with it forever.
Hmmm, how about “Titan” in that case? Basic enough to not give away any power details, yet possibly scary enough to make the other guys rethink the fight once word gets out…
…As long as he doesn’t spell it as “Tighten”…
Gotta love the third panel “Well, that happened.”
Wonder if you can get him pumped with the right music…. adding headphones to his “hero costume”
I recommend BFG division by Mick Gordon.
I can just hear the thought process, which is mostly just “…don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. Whatever you do, don’t laugh.”
Kevin got fed by that kick like Dabbler gets fed by air kisses.
I am disappointed that was a *THOMP* and not a *PUNT*
Yes, more PUNting please.
Nice to see Jabberwokky extending her powerset to include animal speech with the ‘Muttley Muttering’ as she walks back.
It’s more like Yosemite Sam “cursing” than Muttley, who only wheezingly snickered…
Actually….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf_IH3rj0hY
rakkin sackin… sassafras.
Kevin’s stance pretty much proves he either is on
1- mental control
2- mellowed out
3- been told that if he starts his antics, ge gets daisy cuttered by Max
I assume Arc-light has people on retainer who are able to get into people’s heads (metaphorically or literally) and work out their motivations. [SPOILER WARNING FOR FURTHER TEXT]
In the Invincible comic, a character took over the world and stopped supervillains by… more or less giving them what they want. Whether that be funding for research or a purpose in life. This wouldn’t work for some but the more deeply you can understand a person, the more likely you’ll be able to make them an offer that’d stop them from rampaging around.
No doubt this is all a highly controlled exercise, part of a “good behaviour” prison deal.
He behaves, and in return, Archon will feed him with the occasional sparring session.
I don’t think Kevin is an evil guy. Just a bit warped by his particular type of power, and how he feeds on violence, he sees it differently. For example, he intended for the entire super fight he set up to be completely non lethal. He didn’t have to do that, but he chose to do that.
I can see that, especially given he was supposedly getting sickly in jail without any violence. I mean, sure, he caused massive property damage – but he got his “Vitamin V” from people who could take a beating and give one back.
Not saying he’s an angel! But it makes things a little more interesting if he *needs* the occasional bit of the ol’ ultra-violence.
The commentary reminds me of the black hero Tiger from Spinnerette. He’s Tiger NOT Black Tiger and if you want to set him off just call him Black Tiger because he hates people doing that because he’s black. Which is fair, it’s not like he’s a black counterpart to a white hero named White Tiger (which existed briefly in the Marvel universe) or like Black Goliath who was the black counterpart to the white hero Goliath. He’s just Tiger. I’m surprised he hadn’t put on a full skin-concealing mask just so people would stop doing that but I suppose he thinks that’s letting them win or something like that.
Actually there has been 2 white tigers in marvel comics, one of them even had a standalone comic and was one of the original four team mates in the ultimate spiderman tv show
Yes, the one was Hispanic if I remember correctly who wore the trio of magical talismans that once empowered a group of martial artists and the other an evolved female white tiger that eventually asked to be returned to being a normal tiger. Both existed briefly in the comics and was a tangent I didn’t bring up since one or two existing really wasn’t a point.
There was only ever the one Goliath, who happened to be black.
He was never “Black Goliath.”
Bill Foster.
Hank Pym was NEVER Goliath. Just Giant Man or Yellowjacket.
What about Apache Chief?
Call him Nitro.
ren shall alwys be the Blulk.
That might have issues with another gamer comic, KODT.
More like with Marvel comics, considering their mass-murdering serial killer named Nitro that infamously indirectly killed Mar-Vell and set off that awful Civil War storyarc decades later.
Thought Mar-Vell did from cancer…
Damn, that’s better than anything I’ve seen, and definitely better than anything I can come up with.
For a code name, how about Rush?
As in ‘adrenaline rush.’
Better saved for a speedster so few good names for them not already copywritten
Ren is a speedster.
Since when?
Since he was first introduced. Or are you saying that someone who can see a glass falling in slow motion can’t do anything about it?
I’ve always read him as a low to middle grade speedster done with consequences intact. That is, unlike the Flash, he has momentum and the muscles to do something about it. So if he punches you with a fist going 1000mph, it actually feels like a 1000mph. You don’t sit there and take it like a normal punch, allowing him to deliver 50 of them in rapid succession, unless you’re so massive that first punch didn’t send you flying.
He’s even shown doing “lots of punces in quick succession” while sparring with Maxima, so he’s definitely a speedster.
Problem is, if you DONT throw physics out the window, 50 speedster punches cant hit harder, collectively, than a single well braced haymaker. Every action has an opposite reaction, and without fiddling with traction or gravity, he’s only got so much power he can impart before he flys away in the opposite direction. (and 50 punches implies he’s doing it steady state, at a level that wont fling him away)
I don’t think that’s true. Punching hard means moving fast, i.e. quick acceleration, so the time spent exchanging momentum with the ground will be short anyway. And since that time is the limiting factor, Ren can probably get out a good number of power punches very quickly. He wouldn’t lose power on individual punches when he puts out a lot of them – traction limits his haymaker just as much.
And that’s assuming that Grrl Power even takes traction into account – I don’t seem to remember even the strongest punchers like Vehemence(Maxima, Hiro and Stalwart get to cheat with their powers) having issue with that.
I’m going to assume that along with the super strength and speed he gets the required secondary power of super durability. I am reminded of the webcomic Magellan, where there are characters who have super strength but only a tiny amount of increased durability, leading to the danger of them potentially literally ripping their own body apart if they try to use too much of their strength.
Rush is fine, but it might lead to problems due to movie rights. Something like Thrillseeker is probably a safer option.
Ren could call himself Adrenergetic.
Or maybe that’d both be hard to say, and to obvious about his powers.
The corkscrew sideburn things are called “peyot” (PAY-yote) which just translates into “sideburns”. And it’s spelled yarmulke, but you got the phonetics right.
Signed, your local Jewish friend
My lame super name suggestion would be…. Espresso,
Delta just standing there like “What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
Thanks, I missed that the first time around.
And then there’s Dabbler next to her there, channeling her best “Road Runner watching Wile E. Coyote fall to his (not) doom yet again” energy.
I love Hiro’s restrained action pose in the 2nd-to-last panel – clearly his reflexes are responding to a teammate being punted suddenly off a cliff, while his brain is still moving from “wtf Max” to “oh wait I see where you’re going with this.”
Um, Detla, if I’m not mistaken. But she’s probably less bothered by the people whaling on Kevin than she would be by all the people suggesting that Ren should use a superhero name that tells his opponents how to take him out.
Personally, I feel like Ren’s probably a fine name for him. Sure, it could have some consequences for his family, but it’s not like he’s got a disguise and I feel like Archon’s probably put a high priority on family and friends defense. It’s one thing to try to extort an independant superhero to do something by threatening their family. It’s a very different thing to do it to one who is on a team, especially one who is wearing a hot mic literally all the time they’re off base.
Names: The zone, the Athlete, Spike (as in adrenaline spike), Achilies, Mr. Dynamic, High Striker (its what that carnival strength test game wher you use a hammer to hit a bell is called), La Strada (fictinal strongman in a Fellini film), Dreadlift
There’s already an Achilles in this comic, friends with Mr. Amorphous. And I think most of your other names aree trademarked.
His speed and reflexes get faster and faster as his adrenaline spikes, right?
So how is that supposed to help him survive the fatal fall he just got pushed into?
the sensation of falling tends to spike the adrenaline somewhat
as anyone has woken up by it or gone skydiving can attest to
That had literally zero to do with my question.
Author answered that Ren gets a flying brick package minus the flying. Strength, toughness, even healing, etc.
How about Mr Moment. One moment he’s there the next over there. But it would soon be conflated with Movement and end up Moo-something which would lead to jokes and a depressed speedster.
My Speedster in Heroes was Mr Ludicrous (speed was past plaid) and he had super resilience too. Which was good since he had poor stopping and control powers at full speed (it was way beyond his perception). He’d pancake on something or someone (shedding excess potential energy into kinetic locally) like mr plastic or mr fantastic.
His partner could absorb kinetic energy/potential energy/radiation and use that to pump stats in a fight. Got to a point I’d have to carry him and get drained when it was time to stop. Then I’d dump him fully charged in middle of bad guys and start to run around doing things until it was time to stop again. The enemy called me Crazy Train. Smart he really wasn’t (to the point of being immune to many mental attacks or seduction based attacks.)
… that doesn’t seem to really work for me. I’d suggest Semi-present Ren, except that it’s very clear that his powers work *very* different from my… whatever this is.
Though, I guess you are suggesting something at least closer to a contiguous existence. At least I’m usually around at times I’m needed, so it’s not like it’s boring.
“You know your job is weird when your boss kicking you from an eighty foot cliff is not grounds for a HR complaint.” or a First-degree murder charge.
About the Voting incentive. Isn’t that Varia laying on Math? Why hasn’t she changed. What happens to her if she is touched by three or more folks at once. What’s her final form?
Varia Hey guys.
Guys we were wondering. you change into variable things when you touch different people, right?
Varia Right
Guys What happens when you touched Math?
Varia (giggles) nothing really, my breasts just got bigger. Like really big. Too big I’d say. Nothing useful about that really.
Guys (look lost in the distance as they travel to Imagination Station) uhhhhhhhhhhhh
Varia Okay it might have possibilities.
I also wondered about that. As nice as it is to see her having some fun, she is touching Math and thus could show some change. Doesn’t have to be much, as some powers don’t have visible changes like the fire form she had briefly on the night out.
I mentioned this on the previous page as well, but not all unlocked powers show a change in her appearance.
We’ve seen this with three people so far. Harem (lets her piggyback on Harem’s teleportation), Jiggawatt (gives her magnetic powers), and Halo (unknown, but theorized to give her access to the orbs).
And that’s just from people where the unlocked power is obvious.
There could be some that grant an unlocked power that seems entirely useless, until much later. For example, if Varia had touched Sydney prior to her finding the orbs, would the power grant have been the same? It would’ve seemed like a dud both in and out of world, rather than just in-world.
I don’t think Varia gets anything from contact with people who don’t have any superpower at all. Math is “just” rilly. rilly good at martial arts, but is otherwise a “normal” non-super-power human.
The same probably (?) applies to Sydney. As far as we know, Sydney’s affinity with the orbs isn’t a superpower. We don’t know why they are keyed to her and she can use them at all, it’s likely that the first person to touch them might have established a bond with them because the previous owner somehow became decoupled from them.
Would Varia gestalt a power from touching Peggy? No.
Side thought on Sydney: if the orbs reset/decouple from an owner upon that owner’s death, then become available to the next being to touch them … future plot line: Someone may attempt to test that theory by killing Sydney.
Side-side thought to that: What actually constitutes “death” as far as the orbs are concerned? Sydney could be medically “killed” by some method (Earth has some possibilities, Galactic civilization certainly has hundreds & thousands of others), and would the orbs then be available for someone else to link with? After 10 or 30 minutes? Or half a day?
Varia gets a gestalt from everyone, even perfectly normal random people: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-797-bust-a-gestalt/
Also, Math has absolutely has powers, his strength and speed are beyond human, and his skill seems too good to be mundane too.
Black Bull… So at least we have his porn star name all picked out.
Push ups be damned I’d be cursing her for that one!
How are you all overlooking Crash
I was favoring Nitro pretty strongly, but now I have a new favorite.
How about The Ellipsis, spelled ‘…’
Then he could sneak attack villains right after his dramatic entrance, while they’re gesturing impatiently and going “Yes yes, who are you?”
“Terminal Velocity, better than Coffee”
That could probably sell as a t-shirt for skydivers and other “adrenaline junky” types.
Should have gone with Australian magpie style. Would have taken Kevins head off.
So Ren is like Vehemence but instead of violence it is adrenaline that makes him stronk?
Y’know, a name doesn’t have to have to do with the power set, it can just be cool for its own sake.
Renaissance?
Renascent?
Stimpy.
Pray that Sydney isn’t chosen to take on Vehemence….!
His name should be Ramped
Canonically, Doc Samson is the Jewish Hulk
Is Lewis Seinstien a specific person or an example name?
I’d call him wings because of what red bull gives you
Sadly as various scrapes and bumps can attest… this is not true. (Ouch!).
Something simple that hints at adrenaline maybe? Like calling him Thrill or something snappy like that?
If you’re looking for suggestions from the comments, I could throw out “Reflex” as a supranym for our adrenal hero-in-training.
Different super names for Ren.
Rev, Nos, Fullthrottle, Clutch, Amp, Tripp, Gear…
Names Axed.
NFS, Fast n’ Furious, XXX, Zoomber, Overdrive, Number 1, Speedster, Speedracer, Kit, Herby, Kirby…