Grrl Power #971 – Riprap Punch!
These action pages don’t always leave a lot to talk about. Vehemence tries to punch Ren, Ren hits first, blows are exchanged, V gets knocked through a cliff. Okay, that’s a little more interesting.
I’ve called Ren’s power super adrenaline, and that’s basically what it is, but in some ways he almost kind of works like a Barbarian from Diablo 3, where the longer a fight goes on, the more access to amazing powers he has. Yeah, in a lot of ways, he’s actually very similar to Vehemence, though Veemy gets stronger from any violence happening in his vicinity. Ren has to be much more of an active participant, and it’s not like he develops the ability to talk with fish or anything. I mean he gets progressively stronger, tougher, faster and heals faster. When he first discovered his powers, his “Rage Meter” topped out at Ten. When he sparred with Max, he was nearing Fifty. Right now he’s pushing Sixty, Sixty-Five. His training has expanded his pool, but he’s constantly spending that pool when he moves fast, heals, etc.
So to answer Sydney’s question, he’ll definitely hit his cap before Vehemence does. Another five years of training? The two of them might actually be able to fight each other to a standstill. Except, as we saw in his first appearance, Vehemence can start basically making up powers when he has a massive amount of energy to throw around. It’s like a mage with the ability to cast any spell he’s ever seen, but if he hasn’t studied it, the mana cost is multiplied 10 times. And in Vehemence’s case, he’s got phat mojo to drop. So Ren by himself wouldn’t be able to beat Veemy in straight fight, but he’ll eventually be a significant addition to the team’s punch factor.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Very nearly done with what I thought was going to be the final chapter. It actually still might be. I’ll have to see how it goes. I think the book will end better on an action scene, so I’m going to play with it.
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The Escalator would also be a good name.
Riot, Rampage, Force Multiplier, Bigman, The Drama Bender, The Stick, The Lunch Eater, Sir, Fracture, and Kevin.
Whup-Ass
I’d vote for that one.
Me too.
We already have a Kevin though. In fact, Ren’s fighting him right now.
Rampage actually sounds very good
More of a supervillain name, IMHO.
Marvel had a super-hero named Rage. A black teen that due to his being exposed to toxic waste ended up looking like a tall, muscular 20-30something black man with superhuman strength and durability. Also a more super-villainish name but used for a hero anyway (I think he qualified as a 90s cynical, angsty super like exploded at Marvel and DC at the time).
Dressed like a luchador too, right?
I’m not sure Riot or Rampage would be the best possible name choices for a Black superhero, just saying. Escalator’s more subtly an issue (in terms of escalating or de-escalating a police encounter being a term you don’t want to evoke).
Big Sir would be a good pun if he was from California (it’s taken by DC, though, so that’d be a problem copyright-wise, both in and out of universe).
I suppose Mister Boombastic is probably a copyright issue, too.
Big Stick (as in “talk softly, but carry a big stick”)? Dabbler would approve, but I’m pretty sure Max would shoot the idea down.
could always name him after the sound effects.
“Chud” might be a problematic one though…
Maybe use an intensifier, so “Big Chud” or “The Amazing Chud”?
Nah… too reminiscent of a cheesy horror movie back in the early 80’s… C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) people might begin to wonder just exactly HOW he gets his powers…
and its unrelated yet somehow shares the title dark zombie comedy sequel, CHUD 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az_L-SFTrpo
Chud has connotations…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqDToaLuJ7I
Rampage is also a DC super villain. Upon absorbing too much solar energy, she transforms into a orange skinned giant with a red mohawk. The transformation tends to cause her to go berserk – hence: Rampage.
while there is no shame in choosing a name used before *nearly a century of comic books exist, hard not to repeat a name without making something super silly like calling yourself Icelicious Delux*, or Strength McCool Dude.
that said some consideration can be made for the company you keep with other characters. Riot and Rampage especially. Heck Riot is the name of a Marvel symbiote; the villain used in that first Venom movie in fact, and Rampage a Predacon from Transformers.
Rampage is also the name of a DC super villain that looks like she’d Maxima’s evil twin LoL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampage_(DC_Comics)#/media/File:Kittyrampage.jpg
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/1/17/Rampage_002.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20091113001223
Rampage is also a Marvel superhero, with a super suit
https://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Rampage-Marvel-Comics-Champions-Stuart-Clarke-l.jpg
I haven’t seen any of the Marvel movies…
Well an idea of just how many words have been used for characters.
from left to right these characters names are
Scream, Lasher, Riot, Phage, and Agony
and the link didn’t post
https://media.comicbook.com/2018/07/who-is-riot-symbiotes-1124701.jpeg
They should have used Scream in the movie. She is quite a sexy villain.
What about Shriek?
seen the trailer for the second Venom movie yet? Shriek is in it.
Boring. Can’t compare to a proper monstergirl like Scream.
Had heard of Shriek, not Scream
Scream has her own comics, sort of, usually pops up as one shot issues here and there. She is fairly popular among symbiote fans.
Shriek was in a Spider-Man cartoon though
and Screm was in a few videogames, the Universal Studios Spider-man ride, and has now appeared in Spider-man cartoons (the newer ones, appeared alongside fellow symbiotes Mania and Scorn in the newest one)
a basic visual synopsis of games and cartoons (could have been titled and edited better)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bej9nkUuGXw
I think Shriek was also a Batman Beyond villain.
* misreads that as ‘Shrek’ * “No idea what plotline that would have made sense in, but I’d watch that episo- oh, dang.”
*Pander
yep, animation only it seems. Guy with a sonic suit.
https://dcau.fandom.com/wiki/Shriek
@Brichins
well…for Shrek
Devilartemis
Perfect Cell vs Shrek
(I would just link the actual fight parts but he didn’t post the finale seperatly for some reason and only part of the compilation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iG8AG5uhZE
She is still in the comics, alive again somehow, but that’s comics.
In the Venom movie I was irritated that we saw a symbiote with Scream’s colors but that it ended up dying…didn’t understand that, the whole symbiotes weak and dying in the lab rather than busting out like they’d normally do.
correction to my own post as of August 2021 Scream is dead again…this makes three times now, granted at least this time the host didn’t also die with her. Her clone/hybrid offspring Silence *brand new symbiote, not a bad design, although it looks like a ghostly version of Scream; but fingers crossed Scream proper is brought back before too long *death for a symbiote is a real iffy and easily retconned thing…heck the original Venom (Black spider-man, before venom ever existed) was shown on panel to have fizzled away to nothing after Spider-man got it off.
I get why they want to make a creature named “Silence” mouthless but it makes her less expressive. A comic book character generally needs a face to show emotions to the audience.
yeah Scream is still the supperior design, this Anti-Venom version of Scream *She is Silence because she is the absense of Scream* just has this Red She-Hulk feel to her..like derivative of a derivative…which is worse as Venom and all symbiotes are basically psychotic spider-mans with slime powers, and we already had Carnage (Venom only worse) and Anti-Venom (Venom but not)…and Scream now has an anti-venom version…what next give Lasher or Mania an anti version called Hugger and Calm?
Well at least they tried to make her new and different by removing the mouth but it also took away part of what makes the symbiotes unique. I get that they have to try new designs and versions of old characters but this one is just dull.
All of them / any of them (except Sir) with “Sir” put in front of it.
That sounds like he’s up to something…
How about ExScale its more markatable
Some that I like: Crescendo, Apex, Boost, Surge, Gainz, Amp. All a bit on the nose.
Marathon.
Been used (what hasn’t in all of comic-dom?), but appropriate without a ton of baggage.
Ren isn’t actually tapping vehmic force himself, though, right?
Plot twist! And then they will keep punching each other until they can take over the world together. Ooops.
Ooooh! Professional World Super Brawling! We want Tag Teams! We want Tag Teams! We want Tag Teams! We want Tag Teams!
I can’t be the only one wondering exactly hoe they plan on stopping this?
Is V going to be a good boy in exchange for privileges?
Just “smoke” grenades.
They may or may not be green and smell like nachos :P
Max blows his head of if V doesn’t go beddy by boze time
He’s in an isolated place. Once Ren gets out, Maxima could just blow him up from range and there’s not much Vehemence could do about it.
I mentioned this earlier, but I think Kevin has concluded that cooperating is his best option. After all, getting to fight powerful supers is fun for him, and if he refuses, max is willing (and able) to deal with him.
That could run into human rights issues, releasing him to use as a training dummy and if he tried to escape killing him when they themselves released him from prison.
They haven’t released him, he is only out on work-release, kinda like being taken out to work on a chain-gang or being allowed to attend a funeral
Modern work release isn’t nearly so restrictive as a literal chain gang, although I’m sure it depends on the state and the specific situation. Years ago I worked construction with some work-release guys with non-violent felonies; we picked them up each day from an off-site housing compound with little more than a security fence and gate guard, and dropped them off again after work. No ankle monitors, armed escorts, etc, just the threat of going back into a cell and losing early parole chances (and a decent job) if they didn’t come back each night. Basically a halfway house situation.
Wasn’t implying that chain-gangs even still existed, just saying that there are ways for a prisoner to be let out without releasing or pardoning them, and that f they attempt to not return… ‘bad things’ will happen to them
Aikido. Control him without fighting. Immobilization isn’t terribly violent. Get a few joint locks on and just wait until he cools down.
Black hulk smash!
Sooo….. they’re letting this go on to what exactly? Also, wouldn’t Ren start to tunnel vision with all that adrenaline he’s building up? Not exactly the greatest tactical decisions are made hyper focused on a target hyped up like that.
Until V has enough supply to last a few more months doped up
A d that would be an interesting weakness
I agree with the footer text. A big money-maker and another positive propaganda piece for ARC-SWAT. Tell V that part of the proceeds will go towards his food budget and I’m sure he’d put on a great show.
Hope Ren doesn’t get performance anxiety on camera.
Tying Kevin’s food supply to his cooperation, even as a bonus incentive, probably violates several US laws on prison rights. However they absolutely should be filming this training exercise, as well as all other power-related training. Not only will it help the leadership review and plan around capabilities, it would give Arianna some amazing PR / recruiting material. Even if most of the footage remains classified for a decade or two.
If it were his basic rations (i.e. what a Baseline of his metabolism would require) tied to his co-operation, I’m sure you’re right. But would the same apply if it were an opportunity to earn more/better rations? At that point it’s a luxury rather than a necessity, so the rules may be looser. I think that’s how those prisons that incorporate workshops frame their workers’ labour; those with more knowledge of the USA’s system(s?) may be able to elaborate.
Yep, that’s what I was thinking. Basic prison food under normal circumstances, steaks if he puts on a good show.
Speaking from personal experience.
The work available in prisons (generally speaking) is defacto slave labor.
Less than a dollar a day is earned, if at all. Even Chinese workers got more money (unless you a wuigur)
What few commisary items that are available for purchase (like soap or an extra t shirt or a new toothbrush or a box of swiss rolls) are puchased by the prison at a walmart and then sold at 7-11 prices.
(so yeah 3 days wage for a bar of soap. 4 days gets you a box of nutty bars both of which were bought by the prison in bulk for less than a dollar per unit)
What does the prisoner get?
No benefits beyond being allowed to have something to do besides stare at the walls the 10’x10’x10′ box you live in with one sometimes two other people and a toilet.
There is nothing “Good” about it.
Except as a possible warning to show what happens to workers that have no rights.
You’re kind of touching on something else here-the use of Prison labor to manufacture or create anything of economic value is probably a bad idea, yet it’s a very POPULAR idea…and shouldn’t be for the reasons you cited as to why it’s inhumane.
IOW prison labor should not provide anything of value on the open market, because it creates a perverse incentive to use prisoners as a substitute for workers that have rights, can quit, and aren’t being held at gunpoint.
I don’t know if this was mentioned in the previous comics about this scene, but I wonder if one of the other reasons they are doing this exercise is to show Vehemence that they know how to handle him now. Just in case he wants to do a big rumble again, in the future.
I found myself suddenly thinking during this ‘if Vehemence had ended up on the Alari homeworld and absorbed all that violence wouldn’t he have become like a god?’
during the extinction maybe
when the team got sent there probably not
cause the only things around to cause violence there were the giant robots
he would need to survive long enough to build up a charge to start being their equal
On the other hand, V would probably have tucked in and saved the planet. He doesn’t actually believe in killing (much). Dead planets suck for violence, so he’d want to balance the fight by taking down the home ship and letting the kaiju keep blowing things up. Until he got tired of that flavor of violence and blew them away so he could go get some tastier stuff.
I doubt V could tank a nuke like Mr Bubble did, even all juiced up, but I am wondering now about whether he would’ve powered up from the violence if he arrived after the fact. Does he have to be present for the violence occuring, or is there a lingering power charge?
And do sentient/sapient beings need to be involved, or does purely inanimate violence (like the drone swam Sydney obliterated) count too? Maybe he doesn’t need brawling, maybe he just needs a Concord jet to jump to the epicenter of natural disasters before the energy dissipates.
It’s been said he feeds on all violence, including the violence of things like natural disasters like earthquakes and rock slides. So all the fires and residual stuff happening after the planet was attacked would feed Vehemence just fine.
I do not recall it being said he feeds on the violence of natural disasters.
Vehemic energy is implied to be from vehemence; which is an emotion. Natural disasters don’t have intent, no anger, hatred, fear, aggression; they just are. It would be like Dabbler trying to absorb lust energy from two rocks grinding into each other.
I think it was mentioned that he’d get some energy from an especially violent natural event, but that deliberate violence was better in quality and/or ‘taste’. Can’t remember the citation, sorry, but I think it was Word ofDaveB rather than on-page.
Okay, not a fan of “word of god only”, its always preferred to see it on panel. Still that seems off, natural disasters are often much bigger scopes of events; even if less per (whatever) is gained the scale alone should compensate; like the difference in calories between eating that bag of chips and the six bowls of salads or whatever.
it might also be that the “violence” of the actual earthquake doesn’t provide the required vehemic energy, but it’s actually the reactions of the life-forms INVOLVED in it that are what gives off the vehemic energy (humans reacting in fear, anger that somebody got squished, the animals running away in panic, etc.) and the reason it doesn’t “taste” as good is because it’s only like half of the “normal” vehemic ingredients… it’s like if person A is fighting person B then Kevin gets BOTH sides of the violence input A and B… but if person A is only reacting to an earthquake then he’s only getting person A’s input… the earthquake doesn’t give off any energy as such so that’s why it tastes weird…
dunno, that’s just my $0.02 worth, we’ll see if DaveB has anything else to say later on.
Technically, we don’t actually know those were drones. Sydney just found it comforting to assume they were, and not make any effort to discover evidence to the contrary.
True, but couldn’t find a way to reiterate it without completely derailing the narrative question. Personally I prefer the drone theory; even if they were evil faceless mooks, I prefer not thinking of Sydney as a mass killer.
“I’ll stop them as soon as Vehemence hits his next level”? It wasn’t that easy the last time. I don’t see Vehemence falling the Bouncing Boobie Beguilement a second time.
That’s pretty much what the techs said at Chernobyl.
V is still green level, he’s got a few shades to go in order to be as much of a threat he was at the restaurant.
Unless he is holding back to don’t seem like a threat. Kevin is a smart guy.
Well, there is an emergency distraction zipper on the front of Dabbler’s corset that could work.
And there might be some additional agreements where Vehemence and Dabbler play lightningrod to each other by converting one type of energy to another, but that’s probably best left to the more ehm… discrete PR departement that has a very limited and thrustworthy number of customers.
Is ‘customer thrustworthiness’ established through an interview with Dabbler?
Vehemence probably knows he won’t get the same gentle escalation he got last time.
If he starts fucking around, Max is liable to just start off by blowing off his limbs.
I dunno man … a triple-B might not work but Dabbler’s triple-Ds are mighty mighty
All that needs to happen is for Sydney to bubble Ren. That takes him out of the fight. Although I wonder if Max hasn’t gained more power herself after one shotting that alien battleship. Meaning that the more power she uses lets her tap into more power.
They’re in an isolated area. Maxima has access to a lot more powerful attacks this time, compared to back in the city. She could probably just blow him up from range, like with that giant fuck off spaceship.
But I doubt that’ll be needed. They worked this out before hand with Vehemence, and he seems like an honourable person. If he is a good boy, he’ll get another feast like this soon enough.
Heck, he’s even getting it on more than just as an “annual” as Sydney implied at the end of the steakhouse scuffle.
Exactly – it’s a case of “you behave and stop when we say stop, and we’ll keep doing this on a regular basis. You don’t stop? We’ll put you on happy drugs on a space station in lunar orbit, and the closest thing to violence you’ll ever taste again is that one episode of The Care Bears where Tender Heart Bear gets the sniffles.”
Emphasis on “Next level”, which is far from the level he bloodied Maxi’s nose at
-Ren can train his super adrenaline? That’s unusual. I’d expect super powers to be inherent, and training only improves control and effectiveness at using them.
-Vehemence actually has a cap? A cap that’s at a level attainable for Ren? When Vehemence was previously overpowering Maxima?
I was under the impression that Vehemence goes stronger as long as the violence escalates – and the stronger he gets, the more violence he can dish out and take, so as long as he’s fighting seriously, he should grow beyond all bounds.
And if Ren can be more powerful than Maxima, that’s gonna be quite impressive and a bit of a gamechanger.
harem trained hers to the point of being able to have 4 duplicates at once
when her powers manifested she could only make 1 duplicate
jiggawatt has been shown to be able to do things she didn’t know she could do until she tried it
and vehemence upper limit is unknown, he currently not at the same level where he was able to be a threat to Max
I’m not sure that the increase in Harem’s multi-tracking capacity was due to training, as opposed to her own underlying development. Most people are physically taller and stronger in their mid-20s (her current age) than they were in their early teens (when her Power first manifested), whether they deliberately train for it or not.
As for Kevin, it’s “He gets more powerful as he absorbs more violence.” He’s in the middle of a rock quarry in sequential one-on-one (and two-on-one) fights. There was more violence in the first minute or two of the mob scene than there has been in all four of these match ups.
I’m not referring to the current comic, but to the statement in the author comments that a more experienced Ren could fight Vehemence to a standstill. The current situation is not a standstill – both of them are still getting stronger. Only after they both hit their limit and still neither can win we could talk about a standstill. And we know that Vehemence grows strong enough to take on Maxima – hence, so should Ren.
It is a common trope now to be able to train one’s powers to get stronger, perform more feats, has been for some time. It is used to explain some superheroes getting stronger over time who were clearly weaker before, or train to develop new ways to use their powers and work on getting better at that skill so they can do it easier next or do more with it.
Vehemence however was absorbing the violence from like two dozen supers fighting each other before; but it was implied he was reaching a point of diminishing returns *at some point it can cost more energy to use the powers than he is gaining*; think a mana-drain or auto-heal; but you are using more powerful spells as the mana level rises until the spells you are using cost more mana than you can drain possibly automatically like stronger defense auras until they exceed the mana drain and start to cost more mana than it can drain so you end up in this holding pattern. The auto-heal example being hit by opponents doing more damage than you can heal.
Vehemence though looked like he could store it up before he hulked out; but after a certain point the changes to his body started to reduce how much he could gain. So likely there is a cap limit just not a solid line of *this is the mana limit* and more a bouncing back and forth of (you can continue to absorb it, but the power needed to store that much is costing so much that you’ve stopped gaining).
> but it was implied he was reaching a point of diminishing returns
That wasn’t my impression. He said that him attacking made him stronger, and he did still get stronger from fighting Maxima one-on-one (and Maxima certainly didn’t expect that to stop). He was forced into choking Maxima out which apparently is less nutritious, but I’d expect that as the fighters get stronger, so does the violence, so keeping up brawling would give him income scaled to his powerlevel.
as the fight went on he started to gain powers slower, chances are the amount of available energy was getting to the point he wasn’t gaining enough to power what he was expending.
Sydney
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-285-power-down/
I believe that was because he was forced to burn a lot of power to stop himself from suffocating (which required his inefficient magic hax, using a lot of power), and because he was basically just being held down, which isn’t as nutritious in terms of violence. And it still took a while.
And I’m not seeing any slowdown during that fight – the duel with Maxima started with him significantly outclassed by her, then quickly brought him to her level. Clearly the magnitude of violence matters a lot for his income.
No, he trains how he uses his Super Adrenaline, like a speedster learns how to run faster without smacking into a street lamp
No, it has explicitly expanded his power pool.
No, it’s expanded how he can use his power pool, as one would with continued training and understanding of said power
Ren is reminding me of a COH/V Brute, but then again, does V. You keep fighting, your damage level keeps going up. In the game, the bonus DOES top out, but still, the fact that Ren is literally going TOE TO TOE with V is incredible.
Thanks for reminding me of my nice years of Energy Melee/Willpower Brute.
It’s now clear why I have an unreasonable motivation to support Kevin.
The difference is just a three piece suit.
Thanks a lot.
Kevin is definitely a Brute, Super Strength/Willpower build would be my guess.
The game’s back, by the way. homecomingservers.com
As someone who beta’d COH and COV (and still has the install disks packed away somewhere), I am happy you posted this. Thank you.
Maxima will stop them? It wasn’t that easy the last time. I don’t see Vehemence falling for the Bouncing B**bie Beguilement a second time.
Does the comment system have objections to the relatively innocent word for that piece of female anatomy?
OK, now it appeared. I waited for several minutes, and then assumed that the comment system had a list of no-no words that tripped it.
Well how on earth would we discuss, well, nearly anything about Dabbler with such filters in place?
We’d just have to use euphemisms for the **ss* and v*** and *eni* and stuff. Especially stuff.
At the restaurant rumble, there were a couple dozen combatants for Kevin to feed from for quite some time. Here there has only been 4 opponents and only for a few minutes. Kevin is getting a lot less energy this way.
Such fights would be way more fun if the Most basic laws of physics were taken into account. No more standing around while the oppnent gets all the momentum. Max can use flight to stay in place. But pure brawlers…
Im assuming now that they have had some time, instead of coming up with a plan in the heat of battle, they have better methods to subdue Kevin if need be.
In the parking lot fight, Dabbler mentioned that a lot of her equipment and spells were still tooled for lethal takedowns. I suspect she has a LOT of new ways to stop V, now that she’s had time to retool.
Why do Sydney’s glasses look like they are on upside down?
I asked my older cousin that once. She just… examined… me, as you would a strange new life form. Then she said “Typical boy! Go play under a large rock.” I was 8 at the time, she was 10.
Because @DaveB always draws the arms attaching near the bottom of the frame instead of the top or sides. I guess that changed when Cora remade them with AimAssist and instant messaging functions. Maybe she needed the arms to be slightly longer by a few mm for the power supply.
If Vehemence gets stronger from nearby violence, is there an inverse effect? Could he be de-powered by, say, people going googly over something cute in the immediate area?
Could his kryptonite, in fact, be Sidney tumbling down a YouTube rabbit-hole of adorable kitten videos?
Bring in the Bathing Capybaras!
Summon the kissing otters!
purloin the perambulating platypii
I cam’t wait to find out what Vehemence’s collar precisely is,otherwise it’s kinda suicidal to have him like this.
As people have been explaining over the last several pages, Max is.
If he gets out of line, she vaporizes his head (and probably the rest of his body). Simple as.
That’s a great line, but it would be murder, and Max isn’t in to that. Kevin would not directly attack. He’s always been smarter and more strategic than that.
If he doesn’t have an escape power, then he’s not going to escape… this time.
Let’s suggest something for next time. Kevin drills straight into that mountain he just got knocked into and down. Max has to go after him, but she also has to be violent to make that happen. Meanwhile, he’s drilling straight down, while absorbing his own violence and her violence. All he has to do is hit enough violence stored that she can’t grab him and fly with him, and she can’t capture him the easy way. Simultaneously, no one else can keep up or interact with them, so it’s one on one, with no advantage.
That’s the best shot I can see for Kevin escaping. (Unless they are near a place Kevin can unleash some violent geological activity.
I’m not seeing Kevin choosing an escape so soon.
He’s basically being given exactly his desire: very strong people to wrestle on a renewable basis, with very few consequences.
Also likely a fat paycheck.
Possibly.
But frankly I think the awesome V-itamin from the exercise is probably enough to keep him fine with the plan, at least for a while.
Soooo.. Vehemence is basically a Muscle Wizard?!
He can certainly cast “Fist!”
Rey must have some sort of super durability as well. If he was just getting more and more hyped up on “super adrenaline” he would either start breaking his own bones and tearing his muscles just moving, not to mention having a massive coronary.
Then again he did get “kick started” by being kicked off a cliff, so I guess the whole super durability thing goes without saying.
yeah, its why I am having a hard time figuring how much stronger he is now vs when we first saw him. All of his development has been off panel, thought when first introduced his super strength was like F or D class super strength *super hype the adrenaline on command or super muscle efficiency beyond what regular human beings can do*. But he is showing much greater strength now which naturally has to go with enhanced durability or as you say; you’d tear your own body apart in the process. and the blurb suggesting he can keep going up. Although one imagines part of his training is adjusting to the higher strength levels, a classic weakness of this type of strength build was the strength going up faster than the mind can compensate and overwhelming them *classic Hulk’s big weakness was if made too angry too quickly it mentally overwhelmed him making him pass out as he got too angry and too strong too quickly to adjust.
Yeah, he gets toughness (and healing). WoG confirmed that in the comments of #969
Vehemence gets nullified by being em-bobbled aka Force Sphere and then sent to space till he passes out.
As long as he hasn’t hit the point where he can keep others from taking him airborne.
And exactly how do you propose they do that? Nobody has shown the ability to put someone in a force field before, so it would be a bit of an ass pull.
And if you’re thinking of Sydney’s force field orb… re-read the comic. It doesn’t work that way.
Panel One’s Double Hammer Fist is a classic fictional violence move, but like the Star Trek double-fist, probably not too useful IRL as it’s easily cancelled by Ren’s straight punch. That’s ok, stuff like this is part of the genre!
Looks cool though with the big scary Vehemence towering over Mr Adrenaline.
Rule Of Cool is the ultimate Fighting School!
Kevin is clearly fighting for fun and Vitamin-V nibbles, not to actually hurt anyone. Hence his pulled punch at Detla. He’s using stupid moves, because why not? He has a problematic power source/set, but he’s not evil, or stupid. He’s planning to go back to his cage peacefully, although he may make Max growl at him just for funs. Plus if he fights stupid now, it may cause people to under estimate him in the event he does have to get serious at some future date.
His mommy always told him to play with his food!
Strangely enough, so did Dabbles’ :P
The owners of this Quarry must be delighted for all the free gravel processing.
Think panel 2 has revealed Vehemence’s weakness – just press the back of his left hand for 3 seconds.
Did anyone else ever read the Worm web novel? This fight is giving me serious Lung vibes. He had a power that would make him progressively stronger the longer the fight went on, letting him trade blows with Kaiju level threats.
Yup.
It’s one of the reasons I consider Max a lot less scary than Dabbler.
Max is a high-level Mover/Brute/Blaster/Striker
Dabbler is a Changer/*Master*/***Tinker*** And we know how nasty those last two are in a fight.
I know that you changed the style, to make it easier, DaveB, but I am finding this to be my favourite style you have drawn the comic in. Please keep it up. Especially if it does make your work a bit easier too!
I’m not in love with Sydney’s glowing Pikachu cheeks, but aside from that, I like it.
Kevin’s having fun right now, glad to be doing something and blowing off some steam. He knows he’s dead meat if he tries to escape.
i dont know if this is better served by a dbz joke or a dbza joke.
Limit Break?
Max is gonna feel like such a doof if it turns out Kev has voluntary control over the color of his patterns and has just been playing them with nice reassuring not-really-powered-up colors to lull them into a false sense of safety until he’s ready to kill her.
After all, he is known to think at least sometimes. It would make perfect sense for him to ‘fake’ a telltale on his power level just so he could use it as a misdirection later.
Good god, Sydney in Panel 6 took a deep dive straight into the uncanny valley. Who replaced her with a creepy mannequin? Jeebus D:
Thanks for the clarification on what Ren’s power is. When I read “Super Adrenaline” I thought it would be something more along the lines of amped reflexes, not building steam. Though it does make more sense why they joked that he was Black Hulk now.
More potential names: V-Up. Adrenaline. Crash? Red Bull? The Tortoise (slow and steady leads to super levels of power?) High Octane/Octane. Redline ( i think someone else suggsted that too ), Powerup, Victorious (eyyyy silver age ).
Has anybody ever calculated, how powerful blows can get before they have to break the sound barrier?
The blows themselves will never break the sound barrier. However, it may be possible for the fist/hand/foot/whatever to travel that fast. After that the power, better thought of as “force”, is given by the equation F=ma, Force=mass x acceleration, or mass x velocity / time.
We really are talking ’bout supers here ‘cos of the “equal and opposite reaction” bit which places a huge strain on the footwear as you try — in vain — to remain in the same place. The consevation of energy thingy will probably also jellify your skeleton a bit.
Ummm. We would do better to consider the momentum here, once we have stabilised our footing…
Momentum is mass x velocity, so arithmetic is mu-u-u-uch easier — no pesky long division involved.
So, first we weigh the whole arm from the shouder joint to the finger-tips… This (in Ren’s case) should give us around 10Kg. So 10^3g x 343m/sec, we’re looking at 3,430Kg per second, and it’s the shade under 3.5 tonnes which concerns us here.
Once could also check the energy result against the compression / shear forces required to punch a Vehemence-size hole through a section of quarry outcrop, given basic assumptions about the material (probably granite). I nearly started down that path, but decided that just for today I’d just let cartoon physics and Rule of Cool have their moment.
And you didn’t spot my glaring error? Shame on you. Now tell me what the exponent in the first term should be.
And while we’re here, it may be better to take only the mass of Ren’s forearm, as his humerus is likey to be more of a propulsor than a payload. So just for rules of cool and comic, a 5Kg payload at the speed of sound at ATP will give “only” a 1.75 tonne hit, focused in an 8″ patch.
Momentum and force are different concepts, you can’t just equivocate kg*m/s and tonnes(of force, I assume). Force is the rate of change of momentum over time.
If you want to calculate damage potential, energy is probably a better measurement than momentum, because energy is force*distance, so it’s more directly related to both force of acceleration and force of impact, since the distances are fairly constant.
Oh dear. It’s obvious I need a physics 101 refresher :( Please elucidate where I fell off the tracks, starting with my initial response to Black Pete’s soundbarrier question.
I’d be so eternally grateful if you could show me…
If you want one simple, easily calculated number, you’ll have to go with energy, which (very roughly) corresponds to physical deformation and therefore damage.
If you want to calculate the force, you’re still best of starting with the energy. Force=energy/distance. However, calculating the actually relevant acceleration distance (to determine how much force is put in) probably involves complex biomechanics, as does determining the distance over which the fist imparts its energy to the target.
An alternate approach would be to look at real punches and scale up from there. Quick research suggests boxers punch at up to 15m/s, speed of sound is 20 times that and force scales quadratically with speed, so one can roughly say a transsonic punch is about 400 times as strong as a punch by a trained boxer.
Now that’s odd. Every physics text I’ve ever seen tells me “Force=mass*acceleration”. Are you telling us the text-books are all wrong?
Force=mass*acceleration is also true, the way I described is just more convenient(especially as kinetic energy is itself a relevant quantity). If you calculate the acceleration first, you’ll end up doing basically the same thing, but with a few more steps in between.
I’m honestly kind of hoping we get to see whatever deal was made with Vehemence. Like “we won’t let you get to LA Riots level, but if you behave you’ll get a steady supply of people to punch.” I would imagine that between the previous defeat, the quantity-vs-quality argument, and a newfound appreciation for the Devil’s Lettuce, Kev would probably agree to such terms for awhile.
Soooo… basically he is the Hulk. A black Hulk to be more accurate. A “blulk” if you want…
I’m convinced. Blulk it is!
Anybody’s else picking up Sidney’s foreshadowing?
Sidney: “We A-listers have nothing to worry about”
Max: “Sidney, tap in!”
Sydney is far from being an A-lister yet, President of the A-Team certainly
Her arrogant ego is getting ahead of her (again), she has not even completed Basic Training yet, but because she has been on some Super Secret Missions (purely because of her balls) and she can call Maxi by her name rather than rank she believes she has a seat at the Big Grrl’s Table
Sydney could boom tube him to Fracture Station.
Kevin: What the…
Sydney: If you want a ride home, surrender now.
Kevin: Um…OK, you win.
Why would he want to go home to prison? He could stay at Fracture and find some race that loves to fight, say… a bunch of drunk Klingon’s on their honeymoon?
Admittedly, that would also solve their problem.
And a few weeks later, the ARC crew receive their invitations to the wedding feast of Vehemence and Kolana. I’m sure full military dress uniforms would be considered suitable attire, but I’m not sure what would be expected of the civilians.
The usual: a nice suit (doesn’t have to be a tux) or a pretty dress (unisex, both options)
But do Klingons have the same traditions and/or the same standards for ‘nice/pretty’?
(Hindsight check: I should have actually put some reference to Kolana being one of the aforementioned bridal party in my previous post. Went so far as to check what would be a canonically-recognised female Klingon name, as well…)
oooooh….”Yeah, in a lot of ways, he’s actually very similar to Vehemence, though Veemy gets stronger from any violence happening in his vicinity. Ren has to be much more of an active participant,” could Ren maybe have some alien blood in the old family genes? Did great Great great-however-many- greats- Gramma like them big and not too bright? Might explain the similarity and differences to their powers and make for an interesting side story someday.
Just the first thought in my head after reading today’s comic.
Which I love, you make great soup!
UNA
Will a fight with V give H the experience needed for a level up? Gaining from training and giving Dabbler a chance to observe the Nth tech.
Black Redline is doing better against Vehemence than Maxima did!
Vehemence is also only at a fraction of the absorbed energy he was then. Then, fed on the violence of two dozen brawling supers. Now, after being starved of violence for at least half a year he has had quick sparring matches with a total of three people, only two of which were supers.
Yep, if Kevin hadn’t had that superbrawl beforehand to charge up, It wouldn’t have even taken Maxima to talk him down. Achilles would probably have just put him in a sleeper hold and done. Or Dabbler woulda “Sava Lava Culi”‘d him into Dreamland.
Also, V is sparring here, not actually trying to kill Ren like he was Max at the end of the battle. But even so, Blackline is rockin’ it here.
I stated in the past that in the previous comic was mentioned that Vehemence was powered down to nearly dying, but that was wrong.
It was https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-968-menagerie-fu/.