Grrl Power #972 – Warmup’s over!
Early UFC matches were fast because no one had figured out that grappling basically dominates in one on one fights, then just after that everyone started to learn counter grappling, and then after that, they had to start putting time limits on the bouts because some of them turned into thirty minutes of two dudes basically just laying on the mat.
Maxima is instituting a boredom limit.
Anyone get the feeling Vehemence is mostly here just for the big rematch?
I think super powered grappling would look exactly the same as regular grappling. Just the actual grappling, mind you. A super powered suplex would be dope. Or a DDT, or an 80 story elbow drop. Most “show” wrestling moves would be pretty cool actually. Even that one where they stomp when they punch to make it sound like they’re hitting harder. Like, they know we can see their feet, right? Anyway, I assume the super version would collapse the storm drains underneath the fight and look cool instead of childish.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Very nearly done with what may or may not be the final chapter. I know I said that last time, but I went off on a thousand word tangent. I mean, that’s my writing process. Just… slap down whatever comes to mind. Well, not really. I am a little concerned that I’m cramming an awful lot into the back quarter of the book. Content is good, but pacing is important too. Anyway, I incorporated some stuff from the latest canon Tamer. I won’t spoil anything here, but, you know, read all of those before mine if you’re planning on reading them at any point.
I should finish the chapter this week hopefully, then see how it looks.
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Looks like Kevin likes the taste of Max’s Vitamin V.
kind of like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkwFM1WfW_Q at 4:36 LoL
And Dabbler shows that even she can find rolling around on the floor boring.
That one got a barking laugh from me.
It’s only boring for Dabbler if there isn’t any ho yay going on. So I’m going to assume that neither Hiro nor Vehemence inserted a finger into the anus of their opponent. And before anyone jumps to any knee-jerk conclusions, please be aware that this is a move used in wrestling at all levels of competition. It is called a “butt drag,” because you use your fingers in the opponent’s anus for leverage.
Do I want to know what kind of wrestling you watch?
Turkish oil wrestling?
No. No you do not. And neither do I. :)
I found some reading material to up your education level a bit:
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education-lab/article19508166.html
“It’s called the “butt drag,” in which a wrestler grabs a rival’s butt cheek and puts fingers in the anus to get leverage. The move is widely used at matches around the country and has been around for decades.”
I’m reading this as finger insertion not being supposed to happen (it’s illegal even in MMA), with proper execution just grabbing the butt cheek.
Like, sure, fingers can slip, but I call bullshit on this being standard technique.
I wrestled competitively – yes grabbing the butt cheek is a move, and neither party is generally happy about it being the right one. Proper technique is basically just wrapping your hand around the lower rear part of the pelvis (inferior pubic ramus) like a handle, which does indeed place the knuckles or fingertips against the anus. Colloquially, “checking the oil” and it’s pretty disconcerting. It is generally done from the front or one side when both athletes are down on the mat, and the victim’s legs are bent, as in any other position the grip doesn’t actually provide any leverage.
Some wrestlers / coach do believe in applying significant pressure, but it is absolutely not, as the above article phrases it, ‘inserting multiple fingers deep into the anus’. But as the contestants are clothed, actual insertion would require extreme and deliberate force, or something going very wrong.
Excuse me, but I’ll stick strictly with co-ed wrestling with rubber sheets & salad oil included.
What, no jell-o?
Prude. :)
“Salad oil” is often a mixture of oil and vinegar. That could be uncomfortable or even painful depending on where it is applied. Stick with straight oil. Or gay oil, no judgement.
Kevin looks so ready for a rematch
Ultra rich fatty bacon-drenched vitamin D.
Did Dave just admit he watches wrestling?
No…more like MMA
I do. There’s SOME wrestling that’s just real fun to watch. It goes from silly (watch this and I dare you to not laugh) https://streamable.com/p9a264 to just fucking badass (while inadvisable) https://vimeo.com/535940001 .
WWE generally sucks though.
RAW and SmackDown suck monkey boners, nXt on the other flipper is how sports entertainment should be
Specially with the current InDex story line (with Johnny and Candace playing the ‘parents’ to Indy and Austin)
It helps that Dexter bears a frightening resemblance to Grampa Charles (fairly sure we are not related though)
We can’t get the other shows down here though, would like to see Sting again :(
AEW is far superior to NXT, especially the way things are going to be going now.
Also: You don’t have access to TNT? Or shortly TBS? That’s no good. Mexico? AAA rules though.
Why would Dabble of all people find two muscular sweaty men wrestling boring? I dare say many females I know would like to watch that for a long time.
The point is that the two of them just grappling is so boring that EVEN Dabbler, the one person who should be 200% invested in watching that, was getting bored. Basically, you know it’s boring when even the succubus loses interest.
Yeah that’s true. Also maybe she wanted the main course even more: Maxima and Vehemence grappling.
I think it’s less of a “watching the two of them wrestling is boring” and more of a “um, how long can this go on? Haven’t they had enough time at this?”
I’ve seen wrestling matches between a couple of closely matched guys where the amount of movement over time was very slow after the first minute or so, because the stronger of the two *almost* had his opponent in a lock that his opponent knew he wouldn’t be able to get out of, *but* the weaker of the two was positioned just right so he had better leverage for staying out of it enough to counter the strength difference. As such, they weren’t rolling around, they were just laying there together.
Admittedly, part of the reason for that was the weaker contender had come to the realization that he was ever so slightly weaker and did not have the skill advantage he needed to make up for that, so he was going for the stalemate.
I’ve no idea if that was what was going on here or not.
Look up Goldberg vs BrockLesner 2016 to get an idea of how entertaining their fight was likely getting…
As the guy who recommended to UFC to use colored wrist tape for these situations ala Sambo competitions on a well known MMA Message board (and it was adopted shortly after, so I’m taking credit) I understand when that can be boring and confusing, but to those of us who love the intricoes of handfighting and wrist control we are probably putting this more on Dabbler.
As the guy who recommended to UFC to use colored wrist tape for these situations ala Sambo competitions on a well known MMA Message board (and it was adopted shortly after, so I’m taking credit) I understand when that can be boring and confusing, but to those of us who love the intricoes of handfighting and wrist control we are probably putting this more on Dabbler.
I replied to the wrong person before my bad.
There wasn’t enough fondling or humiliating hold to hold her attention.
I think you have the correct angle here. To expand a bit: Dabbler gets excited by and feeds on tantric energy. While two sweaty, bulked guys grappling each other gives a nice bit of visual, if the guys aren’t getting tantrically aroused, there’s nothing there for Dabbs to feed on or really hold her interest. It’s a fight, violence is being created & unleashed. Great for Kevin, boring (eventually) for Dabbler.
Dabbler has an extremely diverse palette. She might be able to appreciate the sweaty muscular wrestling, but only for so long.
It’s like… asking a bdsm or furry porn enthusiast to enjoy pure vanilla. There’s nothing new or interesting happening after the first minute of appreciating they’ve never seen two particular strangers going at it.
she can beat me up any day.
Honestly, Kevin is a great matchup for Max, not just in terms of power.
He is intellectual, honest, not maniacal, decent looking, and willing to listen to her. He’d make a great civilian consultant, to avoid any hierarchy issues too!
I am just torn on what to call this ship…. Kevima? Maxivin?
Hmmm.
Maximence
I totally ship Maximence.
Vehemax? But Maximence is good to.
I like Vehemax!
But VHX would probably last twice as long.
Maxvin?
He doesn’t even have to be a civilian consultant. Though I feel like he’d need to not be Archon’s prisoner. Dating ones prisoner is generally frowned upon. On the other hand, she’d be able to keep tabs on him easily enough.
All of that said, I don’t think we’ve had enough exposure to Kevin’s character to really know if he should be in a romantic or sexual matchup at all. I mean, he’s basically just been shown to be interested in fighting, apart from Dabbler’s mesmerizing him. However, I do admit that he’s only been in scenes where his interest in fighting dominates his other interests, so it’s also too soon to claim he’s ace+aro.
He tried to murder her in cold blood.
That’ll put a damper on any wooing attempts.
They were both pretty juiced up at the end of the battle, I think they can still be frenemies. If only because they both need a sparring partner they don’t have to hold back with.
I’d suspect not as much of a dampener as you’d think in her profession.
What do you mean?
In Max’s previous profession, she killed people that tried to kill her.
Unless Klingon
And it wasn’t cold blood, they were both fairly heated by that stage
How the heck did Hiro’s shirt survive this?
Kevin is the only one who respects Hiro’s shirt.
That’s how boring this fight became. Hiro didn’t even lose his shirt! :-)
this is the Combo breaker. Hiro is seeing action, and his shirt survives. I can almost hear the disappointment.. and my hearing aids are busted.
Imagine how frustrating it must have been for poor Dabbler. Patiently waiting for that sweet moment when Hiro’s shirt will inevitably be destroyed as it always is but, nothing.
Yeah, that was probably the breaking moment… when Max realized that HIro’s shirt was NOT breaking.
Dave puts so many of these little details into the comic. It’s sometimes awe-inspiring to look back on them.
Maybe unbeknownst to the rest of the team Hiro (who seems ignorant of his own shirtless powers) went to Ashley (the super tailor with fashion ninjas) and got a near indestructible shirt. This could be the new running joke… all the ladies deliberately putting him in situations that should leave him shirtless and it always fails.
Feels a bit risky to fight against Max when she’s the main factor keeping him in check.
If he gets powered-up enough, he could invent a long-range teleport power and skedaddle.
Even though I thought so too at first, now I’m thinking that Maxima isn’t dumb and that she 100% must’ve consulted with others and especially Dabbler about this beforehand, and since our Jill-of-all-trades is present, I bet that there are multiple safety measures in place.
Maybe Dabbler has Boob Rockets that drain away someone’s power on impact. I know that sounds silly, but this is literally what happened in a Dr. Slump episode against a foe with pretty much Vehemence’s power. So…. yeah, totally silly. :-)
Is she? I seem to remember it was Dabbler and Sydney that beat him, not Maxima
Sydney came up with a plan to beat him, and dabbler used the magic to put him to sleep after V stopped resisting, but neither of those things physically beat him.
Kevin has far more to gain from behaving than he has from escaping
His powers are magical, remember and magical teleportation can be warded against as confirmed by Sconia in the vault heist.
He’s still surrounded by the entire team, so a team effort like the last time is still an option.
Also magic power can be drained as shown by Sconia’s kill puppets.
He’s currently in a prison situation, so installing some extra counter measures isn’t really that strange or hard.
List of options:
– they can fill that place with all kind of distractions in an instant.
– his body filled with diddling balloons, so they can slow down his bloodstream if he goes rogue(automatic activation mechanism if he doesn’t stay within a certain gps range).
– Fill this place with teleport warding.
– Infect him with curable non-airborne disease that takes a lot of energy to fight off.
For example an e-coli infection.
– The council, knows a dozen people who can make some kill puppets like the Sconia mannequins. Get one of them to build a magic stealer.
– Order Sydney to cover the entire area in mr. Bubble.
There was a Marvel comic where Piotr Rasputin (Colossus) is asking Cytorrak to remove the power of the Juggernaut from him (he’d taken it on when the X-Men managed to convince Cytorrak that Cain Marko (the original Juggernaut) had gone apostate by being possessed by one of the children of Cul Borson, Asgardian God of Fear).
Cytorrak replies that he has no wish to do so, because his goal is to have people fear and respect his power. Villains enact their plans and then go into hiding or spend their loot, giving him only short, intermittent bursts of often hidden activity. Heroes, on the other hand, go often and publicly into battle, and in Cyttorak’s view, praise or fear directed at Colossus as Juggernaut is praise or fear directed at Cyttorak, because his is the Power of the Juggernaut, unstoppable force.
I think Kevin/Vehemence has a similar cost/benefit analysis going on: sparring with heroes gives him a steady, legitimate dose of what he wants, vs. acting as a villain, which involves a lot of hiding, maneuvering, plotting, arranging, etc., none of which is that sweet, sweet violence.
Burning energy to get away from a fight seems extremely antithetical to Kevin’s power source. Also, there’s a distinct possibility he’s the only thing in the world that could provide enough resistance to let Lt. Col. “I sometimes forget things have weight” get a good burn on. Also note, Sydney, who can cut Kevin off from the proverbial tap with her forcefield, and Dabbler, who slipped through his defenses with a jump rope routine, did not take a turn. Actually, it’s entirely plausible Dabbler’s in rare form today, since Cora and crew, sans Frix, were all available to her, and Max sees this as her best chance to get a decent workout before they have to switch to offering Barberian a fancy meal and a spa day once a month on Archon, or whatever they’re going to do to make sure Dabbler’s feuled up for V-day…
Have Vehemence’s color levels been explained? He started at purple with the alien warrior… then green with Math and … NotVixen… then yellow as the fight with NotVixen (by the way, the cast page really should get updated)… back to green with Ren… orange with Hiro…
Her name is Jabberwokky.
Where are you getting “NotVixen” from?
Jabberwocky is not Vixen… No?
Yeah, but so is everybody else. I don’t think there’s a single character in the comic named Vixen. So there’s an implication that Jabberwokky is very similar to somebody name Vixen, enough to be confused for her, but it’s not clear who that might be. A character from some other setting, perhaps?
They’re talking abouit Vizen from DC. She can take on the traits of various animals as a powerset. If you ever watched Justice League Unlimited, she’s the African gal with the Amulet.
One of the most memorablemoments in the show is her taking on the Strenght and Mass of an African Bull Elephant, and a mind-controlled Wonder woman still managing to suplex her.
Yes, thank you. I couldn’t remember Jabberwocky’s name, but her power set is very similar to Vixen’s, thus… NotVixen. I’m glad at least one person was able to understand the reference. My fault for assuming that people reading a webcomic about mostly female supers would be familiar with established female supers from one of the big publishers. She’s served on the Justice League several times over the years, so she’s not exactly obscure despite not being one of The Big Seven.
I’d go with the “other setting”.
DC Comics Vixen? Who is able to emulate the powers of animals? Kind of like Jabberwocky?
The last panel is for sure a Hulk avengars reference.
Ehhh that’s a bit of a stretch. V just shoved Hiro out of the way because the main course had arrived
Definitely a nod.
Marvel did not invent “person shoving someone away”
Also, the Hulk doesn’t shove. He punches.
I find it funny how Kevin is all for continuing to fight Hiro… Until Maxima says she wan’ts a go, then he shoves him away like a plate or rancid meat.
You’re hungry and munching down on a Jumbo Jack when someone comes by and tells you to stop eating the Jack in the Box, then suddenly transforms into a juicy 32oz medium rare porterhouse… what do you do?
See a doctor because I am OBVIOUSLY hallucinating.
nope Hallucinations are the scariest things you can see. they are not real (thank god) but you can see them. and they are scary.
Not accurate.
Not all hallucinations are horrible. I was on a medication once that caused me to hallucinate. I saw my dad (who passed away) and it was far from scary. It was comforting since I was freaking out at the time.
Grappling, more like… nappling.
Damn, that /is/ difficult.
“Early UFC matches were fast because no one had figured out that grappling basically dominates in one on one fights, then just after that everyone started to learn counter grappling, and then after that, they had to start putting time limits on the bouts because some of them turned into thirty minutes of two dudes basically just laying on the mat.”
Sorta, kinda. It wasn’t long before people figured out how to deny grapplers the range they needed, and then the evolutionary race began. During the very first UFC I predicted that grapplers would dominate for a while. Then people would figure out their tricks. Then it would be down to who was good enough at their own game to force the other guy to play it. And, well, I was right. Of course, now Dana White has decided that fighter who are “too tactical” (read: not enough big punches) don’t get fights, so it’s becoming pro-wrestling.
this reminds of me something else as well, the death of robot fighting competitions.
In the early days of robot death matches there was a wide variety of robots, then they had to enforce weight classes, then you primarily saw four finds of robots *flippers, spinners, smashers, and rammers*…rammers died off before too long, and people armored their robots pretty well against smashers…but this arms race started to make the competitions predictable…and in fact eventually you only really saw one kind of robot (spinners). people figured out how to make them heavy, enforce the blades, ect..
this made every match predictable…and increasingly dangerous for the audience *heavier metals being shredded, there were actually incidents of the shatter proof glass around the arenas being damaged and pieces getting almost through it.
they tried to switch things up by adding obstacle courses and such to get people to mix it up…but the ratings were tanking by then because; again; it got predictable and boring to see the exact same looking robots doing the exact same things.
Sort of, kind of…
The “too tactical” is because UFC isn’t actually fighting. It’s a sport. A sport that heavily favors grappling. Grappling is boring to watch, period. I want to see strikers.
The problem, and reason, UFC is a sport instead of actual fighting is because they put tons of restrictions on strikes (for safety reasons) such as a ban on full extension punches and kicks. They also limit where strikers can hit. That is indeed for safety, but it also gives an unfair view of the full possibilities of fighting.
I say this as someone who has seen big MMA blowhards get dropped in a real fight by 1 well-placed hit to the throat/groin.
There was a lot more variety in the styles of fighting before the UFC became the elephant in the MMA room. There’s abundant evidence that Dana has decided that the UFC has to have a particular “look” which means less grappling, less variety in striking, and the striking there is has to be a certain sort of boxing which he likes. It’s not just safety. He’s been screwing over fighters who aren’t showy enough even if they’re better. You don’t get that in any other sport I can think of except for aesthetic performance ones like gymnastics.
It’s not just that. The UFC was created by the Gracies as a promotional event for their particular style that they were offering to teach for money. So they created a situation in which the fights took place on padded mats (which offer less stable footwork for standup strikers than a harder surface, AND make it more comfortable for fighters wanting to go to the ground), and instituted other rules all meant to favor their own particular system.
Then they declared, “the UFC PROVES, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Brazilian Jiu Jutsu, and especially Gracie style, is the ULTIMATE fighting style! See? No fighters can match us!”
…And then their competition began to train in grappling, even if they only learned enough to avoid going to the ground… and then the Gracies started getting their butts kicked… and then UFC got sold because the Gracies had already achieved their goal: to promote their school and get lots of students.
I remember that and how the Gracies were unbeatable and then unbeatable in luta livre and then unbeatable except by other Gracie students and then “We’ve made our pile.”
Yeah, in the beginning the people they allowed in weren’t great grapplers, standup or ground. There were no Sambo players for quite a while. No Judoka. No Mongolian wrestlers. So on. So forth. Not until they had milked things for what they wanted. But the point I was trying to make is that people pretty quickly learned how to deal with straight grapplers by learning enough to control distance and time or survive until they could break and try again. We saw the same thing in the early days of modern boxing when Mendoza dominated until suddenly people learned how to deal with things like his cross and he wasn’t unstoppable any longer.
It’s how every martial art has evolved. You come up against something you can’t deal with. You learn to deal with it and jettison stuff that doesn’t work in the process. The Gracies were unstoppable and magical until they weren’t and Kazushi Sakuraba became known as the Gracie Hunter.
After Max has had her turn and Vehemence is all riled up, they should send Sydney in for a game of “Tag” with him, with a few rules:
1) Vehemence can’t attack Sydney per se, he’s just trying to tag her to win.
2) Sydney can’t use the Shield Orb or the Pew Pew Orb.
3) Sydney can’t fly out of range (height cap) but can still fly.
This will make Sydney try new orb combos besides relying on “Shield and ___” always, and possibly give her XP for a pip upgrade.
See, I think that’s a bit much when Vehemence is all juiced up. She can barely lift over 15(?) tons with the lighthook, and flying without the shield is 100x worse then riding a motorcycle without a helmet, especially at higher altitudes. And without the shield orb, a topped off Kevin’s errant flick would send Sydney’s giblets flying across the floor and walls.
So Sydney has to learn something. Oh, dear, we can’t have that. She’d get skill points.
I think the main problem is how much can Vehemence hold back, not everyone has Superman’s “precise muscle control”. It would be like having a boxing match with heavy machinery, one errant turn even at low speed and well…its resistance is a lot higher than yours, so broken bones, torn muscle tissue, impacted organs, ect…
Learning something by pressing random buttons during combat would be really stupid. The one time Syndey tried that, it got her killed by unexpectedly teleporting her to Sciona. All the other times Sydney learned new powers (truesight, air bubble, featherfall), she did it by experimenting in a reasonably-safe non-combat environment, usually with Maxima standing nearby in case the experiment backfired.
The general rule is that Sydney learns new powers out-of-combat, and goes into battle with just the powers she already knows about. The most experimenting she’s ever done in-combat is trying different settings on already-known powers, such as different flavors of truesight during the V battle, and different pew-pew firing patterns against the giant monster on Alari.
So MisterCinephile’s rules limit Sydney to flight, air bubble, lighthook, and com ball. Flight, air-bubble, and truesight are pretty useless in this situation. (Flight *would* be useful, but not if the rules require her to suicidally zoom a few feet above obstacle-filled rocky ground without collision protection.) So that leaves the lighthook, and the com ball’s illusion & teleport powers. She actually could evade Kevin for a little while using those powers, especially teleportation, but she’s SOL once Kevin runs fast enough to tag her before her next teleport: that tag will arrive with the speed of a locomotive.
That sounds like an interesting matchup, both as a fight and as a tactical exercise, but I wouldn’t expect to see it at this stage. Today appears to be solidly a ‘straightforward fights’ day, to avoid complications on this first trial session while they establish a desirable pattern for Vehemence’s good behaviour reward. More complex scenarios will be added in later if all goes well (see panel 4), but even then I wouldn’t expect them to pit squishy Sydney against a fully-fuelled Vehemence first time. Give her a few sessions to work up his power levels.
Hahahhaah, the look on Kevin’s face is classic. *Now* he’s excited. XD
Yeah that’s one of Dave’s best faces.
“Outta the way, kid. The grownups are
talkingfighting.”Huh. Kevin looks like he is a few shades of purple away from becoming a Thanos twin in that last panel. That chin….
I noticed that.
Looks like grappling is indeed a less nutritious form of violence. Good to have confirmation in case Kevin goes rogue again.
Dave has convinced me.
Vehemence is the perfect training dummy.
You can train with him on every level, when powerfull enough he can vary basically unlimited in power pool, his primary award is the fight itself, he can take a hit and is an intelligent opponent.
I still think Death Toll is AT LEAST as good as Vehemence. Not for basic stuff mind you, but an advance class of countering counters and seeing how long you can last against or beat your nemesis. As that would be pretty useful in super brawls. Heck, there can even be a damage mitigation score as well. How little can you damage the area around you while you subdue or be subdued.
It might even be possible to use him to train against different powers: A goes through the motion of attacking him, he gains the counterpower to A, B then spars him with A’s counterpower.
It’s not a given this would work, but if Death Toll can choose which opponent he counters, he can train Archon members against a wide variety of powers.
I don’t think there’s enough retention for that scenario to work:
the Periwinkle Butt SnifferFor Whom the Death Tolls would gain counter-A as you suggest, but this would be rapidly replaced by counter-B once his opponent changed. Gaining and then retaining a specific reactive Power is more Varia’s thing.We don’t know how much control he has when he’s fighting multiple opponents – it’s entirely possible that he can choose which one to counter, so as long as he still has A going though the motions of attacking, he would be able to use that power against B.
Don’t know he can’t, don’t know he can. Nothing to stop them trying it, and his eventual takedown by multiple attack vectors suggests that there is some reaction lag. I think they’d have a hard time keeping his Power reacting to A when he’s getting more actual attack from B, at least without causing excessive interference with B’s fight, but there’s only one person who knows and his name is DaveB.
He was able to use his Jiggawatt counter against Stalwart, while Jiggawatt was disabled.
I find your emphasis on our lack of knowledge weird in response to a post explicitly marked as speculation.
Not a bad idea, just have to keep in mind Death Toll is a uni-focus nemesis and with each opponent looks to switch to a new antithesis power rather than add additional powers ontop of what he has. He also has the defense reaction limitation it seems. Like he can only use the power when being attacked, not able to gain the counter power then go on the offense…I think, or at least not for very long.
too many powers at once was shown to be a weakness.
could argue that he may not be able to defend against indirect powers *not aiming at you, I was aiming at the ground under you…geokinetics could be is kryptonite sort of deal*, questionable if his power also activates against non-super power attacks like guns and sword,
then there are the multi-element powers and the exotic energy powers that have that sometimes nasty side effect where adapting to them means using a power that damages yourself (the degree where the metaphysical defense can adapt is always something to ponder, like where is the limit. If someone uses chaos magic can you summon forth unity magic without permanently rearranging your own molecules into a state of crystalized oblivion…although he did morph a little for electrokinesis…so this is a pondering of (how exotic and how powerful can he adjust too).
My idea was that he could choose to keep the first power while mostly fighting the second attacker. He only needs to be able to choose not to when someone else attacks him – which should be a given, otherwise a second attacker would take away his current power without warning. Can’t fight like that.
How well he can hold onto A’s power while A just pretends to attack him is a question, however.
Ren looks a bit like Hiro when he’s fully hulk’d up
I was wondering if I missed something. What happened to Ren?
Ren was just discarded. Abruptly and definitively.
As was Hiro.
It seems like he turns asian while fighting, so we should call him the Asian Hulk
Man, I really like seeing Kevin again. I hope he gets to have more appearances from now on.
The face of a man that has nibbled on breadsticks and now sees the rare 2 pound steak come out of the kitchen.
Ok, last two panels made me laugh. Hard.
I appreciate the enthusiasm being shown.
last 2 panels, hilarious! love it.
also, i just noticed the new vote incentive. poor Math. rofl
There has to be a boner equivalent to that last panel, as I’m sure Dabbler would all too euthsiatically explain.
Max’s expression in panel five is priceless. So, who wouldn’t want to grapple with Max? Black lines: I know it’s less work for you and normally it doesn’t matter, just don’t see/notice them. But in panel four and six they stand out and make Kevin look like a jigsaw puzzle, noticeably his chesticles. No undue criticism here, just fan feedback ‘cause I love your work.
It’s been hours and finally it’s come to me what the last panel reminds me of… Hulk and Thor in The Avengers.
I’m seriously starting to think that Vehemence will consider enlisting sooner rather than later.
Gotta wonder if Kevin is reconsidering that just approaching ARCHON and putting in an application may not have been the better decision for him. A regular supply of vitamin V without having to be sneaky about it /and/ situations where he could really cut loose like the Fel showing up.
I swear Kevin’s cheating a little bit and using some kind of cleaning effect. Hiro’s shirt is covered in dirt while he’s still nice and shiny.
Supers rarely get dirty. It’s one of the mysterious powers many of them have. Supers are too clean, sexy, fit, not hairy, never have clothing damage over the censored bits, etc…
maybe high durability also translates to the skin having -phobic properties that make it difficult for dirt to embed onto the skin and stick there.
also defense auras can be adjusted to repel dirt, water, as well as attacks.
Unless they’re Maxi and Hiro :)
Is it just me or is red lipstick and nail polish just wrong with Max’s complexion. I mean it’s Dave’s character and art but I’m curious as to what those of you who regularly use make-up think.
I am pretty sure the implication is that she doesn’t actually wear makeup. That is just her natural coloring. Just like her skin and hair.
well, if Hiro didn’t had a shirt(I was surprised his shirt survived the exercise), then maybe we can do more 30min of it
As to Kevin only being there for the re-match: Honestly, Kevin’s right where he wants to be at this point. Sure he’s locked up for a large part of the day (apparently in what amounts to a high-end apartment with catering and as much entertainment as he wants), but he’s apparently getting access to large doses of violence with some of the strongest in the world. Why would he want to leave right now. At the very least, he’s getting an education is a wide range of super abilities (which he can copy/counter at a high enough charge). If he really wants to beat Archon in the long run, he should just happily cooperate now and bide his time while they literally provide him everything he needs to win later.
Though, again, I don’t think that he’s inherently evil. Sure, he likes violence. The existence of boxing, wrestling, martial arts tournaments, fencing, etc all puts him in a very big club of other non-evil people. He’s also genre savy like Sydney. If he really wanted to experience truely, epic/world ending levels of violence, then he’d be better off joining archon. They’re the ones toing to be fielded against big threats after all.
I agree that Kevin is not an evil person. He took steps to ensure that no one would die in the brawl he started, for example. He only decided to kill Maxima as a self-defence measure.
His priorities are a bit twisted compared to the general population, on account of him feeding on violence, but he was basically just a kid in a candy store after seeing the Archon announcement. He just lost all impulse control and decided that he had to fight them.
That depends on how you define evil. But generally I agree.
that said, “they may have innocent minds and simple, almost childish motivations at times; but that does not mean they are not evil, or a threat”
-paraphrase someone talking about the fae.
the idea being someone or something can have an almost pure way of looking at the world and be motivated by very simple wants and desires; but that doesn’t mean their actions to get them can’t be constituted as “evil” to some degree or that they aren’t still a threat to others.
Agreed to a sense, but there’s one particular action that stood out to me about Kevin that marks him more as ‘trouble maker’ than evil. Just before he started his fight at the resturant, he told them to check on the puppet mastermind bad guy because he felt ribs break, and basically got him aide right off the bat. That action alone kind marks him as not even being a sociopath. He has expressed genuine empathy. As Robk pointed out, he only decided to try and kill max because she was a legitimate threat (and she wasn’t exactly pulling her punches either).
Don’t get me wrong, he did wrong and his current incarceration is warranted, but I honestly think he’s better as an asset than an enemy. It also helps that despite being the alpha meat head, the guy seems legitimately intelligent as well. Not up to dues’s level, but not far from it either.
No offense but… if you want to murder someone in cold blood because they aren’t willing to let you create mass riots and chaos unfettered, I’m pretty sure I’d call that evil.
Always looked at Kevin kinda like I do as some ‘Alpha-Muscle’ martial art mangas I follow, like Baki or Tough.
Never really got the ‘evil’ vibe from Kevin. More of a ‘Oh. People are fighting. That looks like fun, plus them fighting gives me a charge. Imma fight too.’
If Sydney had video footage of hir fight with the Eldritch things and just showed him ‘Hey. This is what we might be up against down the line.’, he’d probably want to join up, just for the chance.
Kevin very much wants Max to administer his dose of Vitamin-V…I mean, who wouldn’t? ;-)
Honestly? Recording Kevin and Max brawling and obliterating the area would show the aliens that Max isn’t the only insanely powerful monster to fear on this planet.
it also increases the superman effect. to prove how badass you are- go to Earth, throw down with Archon in New York destroy a few buildings, then leave. sure couple hundred to several thousand people die, but the badassery has been proven.
that was actually the plot of a Powerpuff Girls episode, turned out why monsters kept attacking Townsville was because the Powerpuff girls were there and if they survived and got back to monster island they got that acclaim from the other monsters for being so tough.
I believe somewhere Luthor invokes this effect to suggest that Superman is the greatest threat to metropolis.
Dragon Ball Z Abridged brilliantly brought it up about Goku too, how so many threats keep showing up because of him.
hell if not for him Beerus wouldn’t have shown up on Earth, and there wouldn’t have been a tournament of power potentially putting multiple universes at risk of total destruction.
So this confirms that, currently, Ren is weaker than Hiro?
Hiro is one of the most powerful members of the team.
Plus I think he’s also second in command, after Maxima.
Well, third if you count General Faulk.
Not necessarily – it might be that they had to pull out Ren before Kevin got too strong for Hiro to spar. It’s definitely evidence though.
That last panel, first thing I thought of is that scene of Hull and Thor in the first Avengers right after they kill that alien ship thing and Hulk punches Thor sideways out of the screen.
The fucking smile on his face is the best thing I’ve seen for weeks.
VEHEMENCE SPEAKS! I was starting to wonder if they muzzled him or something.
But yeah, Vehemence was just getting lubed up, here. Now he’s ready to take a Maxima-sized violence boner.
(Hey, Dabbler needs to feed, too.)
Is this dance Taken? *snort* I love Kevin’s expression.