Grrl Power #975 – Cheap kick
Vehemence must be really bored in prison to stop in a middle of a fight and play ball with Maxima here. Without at least a trickle of violence, he starts getting full body restless leg syndrome, and that’s just for starters. Just like a succubus can’t self-pleasure to gain tantric energy (like there’s not any other reasons to do it) Vehemence can’t punch himself in the face to power up. Now, if he smashes his head through a wall, and that causes sizeable collateral damage, then he can start building power from that, but if he’s not already powered up quite a bit, he can’t do enough damage for a net gain. Just like tantric magic, vehemic magic is much more effective the more people are involved.
For her part, Maxima takes pride in being a flying brick who actually knows a little bit about fighting, but she also likes to cut loose when she gets a chance.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Spent most of the weekend working on the next vote incentive/nudie thing, but I think I’ve figured out the Eye-Q powers of everyone involved for the final fight… unless the final fight is against dinosaurs. No spoilers?
August’s vote incentive is up! I know, that thumbnail isn’t so enticing, but I promise, the rest of the picture is worth it.
Nude version is up at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
What kind of ladies does Kevin hang out with?
Lets just say I doubt his sexual preferences are vanilla…
I’m going to have to second that. His preferences strike me as far away from vanilla as one can get given the pain tolerance thing factors in at all to his love life…. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that Max might even fall into his type if it wasn’t for current circumstances.
well, there is the subset that like to punch the snazz out of each other in bed, but I assume kevin wins those by default. and he doesn’t strike me as the sadistic type?
Mal, I’d go with masochist
i figured him as being too alpha for that too.
Since Kevin said he impresses women with HIS pain tolerance, Kevin probably is fine with being on the receiving end in the bedroom. Ie, masochism.
BDSM for him might be like regular sex is for Dabbler.
ALL sex is regular sex to Dabbler
The subject does kind of bring up the concept here; if Kevin gets a bit too “charged up” from a refueling session in the quarry, could he be “drained” back to an acceptable level of strength by a session with Dabbler? Would a strong BDSM sesh fuel them both? Will we get to see Kevin in a bitchsuit?
I feel like this would be worth testing – if Kevin and Dabbler can charge up on each other, that’s quite convenient, as Dabbler usually exhausts her partners.
I don’t think it can spiral up to infinite levels, because sex probably isn’t scalable with power the way violence is, but it definitely means they’ll have a lot of endurance.
Although Dabbler’s comments about parking-lot destroying orgies might suggest differently.
The “me want snu snu” kind of ladies.
Can we now make the assertion that he’s probably not asexual? :)
Well he was distracted by Dabblers hypnoboobs. By the way, it was a good thing that he had ka-pantsed himself before that happened.
And that nothing happened to his private parts. Remember how everything looked when it grew back?
everything that grew back bejeweled and metallic during the fight reverted to normal flesh when his power levels drained from the fight
To be fair, straight women also get caught up in the hypnoboobs. Your sexuality doesn’t matter, they’re literally hypnotic.
I wasnt really arguing about the type of sexuality, just that he wasnt asexual. :)
Yes, with the new evidence we can. That counts. :)
Even gay men can get distracted by bouncy bewbies
True. And Dabbler’s boob charm have been strong enough to hypnotize the straight woman Sydney before.
“Straight woman Sydney”
Hah. So she says… but she’s probably a little bi.
And if she wasn’t before, she most likely is after meeting Dabbler.
Didnt she threaten to remove Dabblers other eye if she tried anything sexual with her?
Huh. I always thought Sydney was the one making the jokes.
Sydney is straight as an arrow. We see her checking out well-built dudes all the time, but her reaction to superheroines in the shower is jealousy. Other than Dabbler, who cheats, she’s at no point showing attraction to the hot women around her.
She’s willing to consider a poly relationship that includes other girls.
She may be declared straight, but she could be bi and in denial, which can definitely manifest that way.
So, so many people are bi and in denial if legitimate research is accurate.
> She’s willing to consider a poly relationship that includes other girls.
The relationship in question is more of a “sharing Leon” type of arrangement, and sharing a partner dosn’t imply anything about the relation between them.
> She may be declared straight, but she could be bi and in denial
She’s not just declared straight, she’s shown to be straight. If she were in denial, we’d still expect the attraction to show, at least subtly, while surrounded by the hottest women on earth. But there’s nothing, even while showering goddesses tease her with innuendo.
Actually, I’ve hunted down WoG from https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/gp0100/
“Sydney’s not into girls at all, but gender preference doesn’t mean a lot to Dabbler, especially when she’s doing her succubus thing.”
“She’s willing to consider a poly relationship that includes other girls.”
Prety sure that Sydney is straight, not bi. At least if you want to believe her own thought bubbles back when Dabbler first came into the interview room pushing her lust aura and Sydney kept thinking to herself ‘Not a lesbian, not a lesbian.’ She’s so NOT bi that she resisted a sex demon’s lust aura. :) It seems odd to say that even when every instance for her has been to say that she is straight, every crush she’s had or daliance she’s had has been for men (and with the exception of Leon, extremely masculine-looking men), every time she’s made a comment has been to literally say things like ‘no homo,’ and every thought bubble she’s had shown has stated she’s straight, chances are she’s heterosexual. I think there would need to at least be an example of her expressing even a passing interest in sexual attraction to another woman (rather than what she tends to get – incredible levels of body insecurity) otherwise if we’re going to assume she’s bi and in denial.
As someone else said to me in a pretty good argument (when we were discussing whether Kevin is asexual or not before we saw here that… he’s not asexual), just because the hypno boobs mesmerized her didn’t mean she was actually sexually attracted to women (ie, she did protest about how her looking at Dabbler’s boobs was not sexual attraction reasons just before getting mesmerized by them because she wasnt prepared for how Dabbler’s body is literally hypnotic) :)
I also don’t think her agreeing to a polyamory relationship means she’s bi – it means that she likes Leon so much that she’d be willing to share him with Krona if Krona was also okay with it, and as a result of not wanting to be a hypocrite, if she was going to be in a relationship with both Frix and Leon, then she can’t demand that Frix NOT be polyamorous as well.
But we have seen that Sydney is REALLY not comfortable with the idea of Frix being with other women. She’s just really trying hard to make something work which she is simply not used to and not comfortable with because she wanted to also be with Leon. She wasnt saying she wanted to be with Krona, and threw a shoe at Leon (rather unfairly) when he asked if a menage a troi sort of deal was what she was suggesting).
Harem, her own peanut gallery. XD Rather interested in exactly where they’re going to be taking this. It is a quarry and all, but throwing each other threw effectively mountain sides is kind of escalating things a bit more than is safe right?
It’s safe, Achilles is there to block Vehemence from slamming into something expensive.
Now we need someone or something strong to keep Achilles in place during impact.
Now I imagine Hiro using Achilles as a bat and Vehemence as the ball.
That strikes me as being as effective as using a wet noodle. An indestructible wet noodle, but a wet noodle none the less.
Not a wet noodle, just one of them pool noodles
A wet noodle full of BONEs indestructible bONes!
If you swing him with enough speed it should be effective. Should look funny in any case.
No, no, Achilles gets to be a shield! Have him grab his ankles and strap his hands down so they can’t open (maybe dunk them in molten iron or something?) and his arms and legs can be used as straps!
You know… that does pose the question of how limber he is and how stretching for him works. Kind of makes you wonder how feasible it would be to wrap him around the vitals of someone like Anvil and use him as body armor.
Yeah, chain him to the arm of one of the big guys. That way they can also use his head as a improvised boxing glove.
DM: “An arrow is flying directly at you. You have one action point so I’ll allow you to try something.”
Player1: “I grab Achilles and use him as a tower shield.”
Achilles: “I block with my eyeball.”
DM: “What the hell is wrong with you guys?”
Dabbler: “Nothing, now is he within sight range or firing from around cover? Asking for my boobs.”
Harem: “I search the east, west, south, north and air for the opponent. Do I get a bonus from how many me’s assist?”
Mathias: “I need to attend more of these D&D sessions.”
Building a campaign and DM-ing for Archon with their own character powersets would be a hilarious and very difficult task, and probably pretty good strategy training to boot. I would love to see a brief story arc of it happen in-comic (or at least a vote incentive).
Wasn’t that basically what we saw at the start?
With Omni-brat and Kopy Kraut?
Shhh, don’t jinx this!
But yes, although Sydney was the only super involved, so we’re only halfway there.
Somehow I think Achillies would be about as effective as a backstop to Vehemence being punched by max as a wet towel.
But at least Achilles will not get torn up in the process.
Achilles might not be able to stop a flying Vehemence, but he can at least hang on and keep the team updated on his position. Sound effects optional.
I would advice to also put Anvil or Sydney behind Achilles to deal with the actual momentum(or nail him to the ground)
The last two panels made me snort so loud. Thanks for the laugh on a Monday morning!
I hope I’m not the only one who was reminded Trinity from the matrix in those last two panels. You know, this iconic scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwIoFXo4664
When in doubt, channel Chuck Norris and spin-kick them!
Wasn’t even a spin kick. It was just a side kick while she was floating. Plus, I would assume there would be a mini-dustdevil under her if she’d spun that fast
I like how cooperative, reasonable and polite Vehemence is. That is the kind of evil juggernaut he should be IMO.
You’ve got dumb muscle, that’s dangerous, but smart muscle, that’s a whole other level of scary.
Kevin’s not really evil per say. I’d go with chaotic neutral. He doesn’t really want people to get hurt, he just wants mayhem to happen so he can feed off it.
Violent neutral. Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, none of them matter. Just needs his dose of violence.
A kitty is evil to a mouse and good to its owner/human.
Kevin necessarily views a species that generate tasty violence as a food source. It’s nothing personal, he just needs to feed.
Perhaps he will develop a form of violence vegetarianism that feeds only from willing donors, such as here in Archon’s training facility.
I’m betting Kevin is a high functioning sociopath. Somewhat bright, superficially charming and not a moral thought in his head. Kind of like a corporate executive or a politician with superpowers. He doesn’t seem to embrace evil the way Deus does but I’m not seeing muych empathy there.
Glad you said it :P
Maybe not much empathy, but perhaps some?
Recall that in page 236, after meeting Sydney, V thinks to himself that she’s a good kid, and that he hopes she survives his debut fight.
Was it enough to stop him from making his destructive entrance? No. But he does express concern for her well-being, and not in a performative way.
It seems like in this comic universe most of the supers are one of a kind. There are instance of power duplication such as super strength or damage resistance but so far we haven’t seen any exact duplicates. So in Kevin’s case we are just projecting what we know about people in general onto a limited data set. Part of what makes Kevin an interesting character is that we don’t know. Some folks are lovely people until they have too much to drink. Perhaps Kevin gets intoxicated on his vehemic sustenance after a certain point.
We don’t actually know whether Kevin is a Super – there are demons with as far as anyone knows exactly the same power.
Power high seems plausible.
He may not even be human or mortal. A demigod of violence perhaps.
Deus’s ’embracing of evil’ is, from what we’ve seen on-page, very much at the shallow end. He won’t hesitate long in letting the ends justify the means, but the ends aren’t necessarily all that malign.
Deus is a joke character. A very funny joke if you ask me. A parody of super villains and corporatism. He is a power hungry super villain but he is so pragmatic about it that he almost becomes a hero.
Yes, he reminds me of Nr.2 from Austin Powers. Doing everything legal and by the book, but at least in the spirit of things we appear evil. And make a huge profit.
And it’s much less of a fuss when there are tax accountants checking the books.
Deus is the embodiment of enlightened self-interest.
I think Deus and Kevin are both chaotic neutral. Not intent on evil for its own sake, but it’s just so incredibly practical sometimes in achieving their larger goals.
You got a point there. Bu Deus gleefully embrace the vice of greed so I think that makes him lean towards evil. He can also be quite sadistic sometimes.
It must be opposite day or something where you are, since Deus is actually a paragon of virtue and works for the betterment of all mankind. All praise deus amen.
He may have a evil streak but he probably do more good than bad for the world. Mostly because he don’t want to bother with superheroes attacking him.
“Mostly because he don’t want to bother with superheroes attacking him.”
His big plan was literally to bother with supeheroes to make them attack him.
Not sure how he has, so fr, done more good than bad. His violence aura probably creates a LOT of riots, and most normal people (and supers) probably don’t have super-healing even if they don’t die from it.
That doesn’t really strike me as ‘good.’
I think you may have Deus and Vehemence crossed with that past answer. Unless there’s a very effective secret double identity going on…
Vehemence seems more Chaotic neutral than Evil a bit off in the head as in does not let rules or likes get in the way of a good fight …. if he had a little more of an altruistic out look he could be a Worshiper of Kord ….. but i’m DnDing this just to give a outlook people can relate too or look up ……
That looks like a lot for little Harem to take. We were told that she doesn’t yet know what happens if one of her is killed, weren’t we?
Don’t think Harem got hit; she got knocked ass over teakettle by the shockwave from Maxima kicking Vehemence into next Tuesday .
Thursday coming actually. :)
Thanks. Now, just thanks to you, there’ll be a smash cut and we won’t see Kevin again until next Monday.
I expect the Harem in motion will teleport to a safe place (like the top of the quarry) and roll to a safe landing.
Harem’s bodies can teleport to nowhere, right? There was the broken wrist incident that she put off having treated. That body ceased to exist until her doctor was ready.
So this one can wait until The Mighty Halo can form an energy net to catch her.
She can catch herself: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-309-conservation-of-momentum-into-your-head/
And … Max is good enough at what she does to have figured out that Harem will be embarrassed but not permanently damaged.
Maybe Harem will also learn not to get too close to a bash-up between supers just for the lulz….but probably not.
It’s not the first time she got yeeted by a punch shockwave.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-258-unstoppable-force-meet-maximas-face/
ha ha I forgot that.
Harem: “A habit is hard to break!”
also she
a. can become more durable if not fully spread out over multiple bodies, which I would do if I was bringing myself in the same situation as when I got last launched.
b. is in uniform. I agree normal soldiers aren’t equipped with ways to minimize fall damage of this scale, this should have a lot more priority for Archon.
Warning: rant about possible ways to minimize maxima blast damage in their current deployment.
a. build an inductive system in the surroundings and magnets in the suits to absorb kinetic energy.
b. The bullet resistant clothing and it’s weird momentum spread should minimize the damage of the initial force enough to deal with most of the blast(some might ask how force spreading is supposed to work on already spread force. The fashion ninja incident told us it does at least with bullets. I have my theories, but those are irrelevant to the current subject.)
c. A parachute or glider could be standard issue for all ARCHON members without build-in inertia protection.
Selective hearing protection could be a more high budget gadget to help with this. Selective as in: filters low and high frequencies and filters extra hard by more energetic airwaves(especially since the Breakepoint incident).
d. heavy clothing should minimize the distance punched.
e. inbuild airbags
f. upward teleport training for Harem to transfer as much of the excess momentum as possible in corrigatable and equally spread vertical momentum.
Huh – Harem’s bodies retain momentum when they teleport, but if she deteleports a copy, does it still retain any kinetic energy when it re-manifests? We’ve only seen a re-pop happen once, in the doctor’s office, and there’s a pretty good chance that copy was holding still when it was uninstantiated.
Any shockwave that is strong enough to send you flying will also lead to life threatening injuries. Except when it’s comic relief in a comic.
Harem does have a healthy dose of durability also.
Only if she has some bodies stored, which she usually does not.
A kick like that makes me wonder what her boots are made of to not just explode off her feet from the force. Same for her clothes for that matter.
Maxima’s powers extend to things she touches. Her clothes are equally protected as her skin.
Only if not required by The Rule Of Comic: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-521-to-no-dress/
Not equally, the force field is weaker away from her skin, but good enough she doesn’t destroy them by moving.
Dave B have wisely decided that she is not completely immune to clothes damage. That is the way a proper superhero comic should be.
only the stuff that is skin tight. undies and spandex yes, regular clothing, no.
It seems to work a lot like how Superman and Supergirl’s kryptonian biomatrix works, or Superboy’s Tactile Telekinesis.
Tactile Telekinesis is literally what Maxima has
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-dabblers-science-corner-1/
Or you know, Zero range.
Yep. It’s identical. :)
MOST things she touches. If the damage output gets too high for her field it does bleed thru but then there’s her skin armor level to get thru as well. gorblimey already linked the event.
Also her boots are from Machina Industries and have carbide cleats.
Another of Maxima’s superpowers: summoning ghost tables.
Still not sure if his power’s view of violence is unitarian or not. But it’s sort of looking like it’s not.
I’m wondering if Vehemence’s attitude about ARCHON has actually changed (ie, considering actually working for them instead of just being a chaotic violence – still don’t trust him though), or this is a long-haul plan to make them get their guard down about him.
Because he’s been behaving surprisingly well.
Actually I shouldnt assume it’s not. I’m re-reading the dialogue and it COULD be still unitarian in how he GAINS power, but not on how he spends it.
I really miss Dabbler Science Corners.
Yeah that’s a too tough nut for me to crack so I’ll just enjoy the super fights for now.
Why shouldn’t he behave? He doesn’t hate them, in fact I suspect he always quite liked them. Which don’t stop him from attacking them when they are in his way of course. His regenerative powers may protect him from aging (he does look kind of young, but then again so do almost all supers) so time may be on his side. Why not play along for now? Watch, learn and plan for the future.
“Why shouldn’t he behave? He doesn’t hate them, in fact I suspect he always quite liked them.”
The only one I’ve seen him show any actual ‘like’ for has been Sydney. The rest he seems more indifferent to, or only likes in that he likes the idea of beating them up. Sydney’s the only one that he seemed to really use kid gloves on.
But yeah it does seem like he’s realizing the benefits of behaving and basically getting the best of both worlds – club med service, then club med violence without him having to do anything to get it except not be a chaotic psychopath.
“Why not play along for now? Watch, learn and plan for the future.”
Yeah he does seem like the type of person to play along until it’s convenient for him to betray them honestly. That’s what he did to Vektor and Opal, after all. He’s not a dumb brute – he’s calculating.
My guess is that there are a lot of factors that play into it on both sides.
On one hand, there are the physical aspects like how much force is put into an attack.
On the other hand there are probably mental aspects as well.
The amount of pain it causes could fit both categories, so I’m not sure where to put it.
Max was tying to find a good balance for the aspects she can control.
-she’s calm and precise in her attacks
-while extremely violent, her attacks were also efficient, going for pain and movement restricting injuries instead of generously applied blunt force trauma to KO him
Since she’s asking him about his balance, she definitely didn’t know if it would work or how well it would, and given that he attests at least some of his reaction to the surprise and not the pain, It don’t think we could count that as a win for her strategy.
Even more so, I doubt it’d be effective in a real fight, given that there he can pull out stuff like his aura to increase his gains and endanger people besides Maxima to bring her out of balance emotionally.
Basically, Kevin told her her strategy worked, but barely. So in a one-on-one fight where he couldn’t use his magic, she’d win.
In other words, no, she doesn’t have a magic bullet for him unless he’s being cooperative.
I like how you just did the ‘Yes, but actually no’ meme but a lot longer.
+1 internet for you.
Of course, we don’t know how honest Kevin’s being here. I don’t think he and Archon have enough rapport yet that he’s going to fully trust them with accurate analysis of his weaknesses, especially if he ever wants to get out from under their thumb.
If I were in Maxima’s Shoes with her power, I would just perfect making guys like him airborne and the getting them spinning and keeping them spinning with a change of direction every once in a while. Nothing turns a pile of muscle into a non-combatant like vertigo and motion sickness.
My favorite Marvel FASERIP TTRPG character messed with people’s sense of direction, their visual perception’s orientation, and their sense of the direction gravity was pointed by looking at them. Had to have line of sight to their head for it to work so even a simple medieval shield could mess it up. Named him Zero-G. You’d be surprised how quick someone folds when they’re incapacitated with nausea or doing the “Where the *duck* is the ceiling?!?” thing that indoor cats do when they get outside for the first time because they feel like they are falling upwards.
It can’t be unitarian, that doesn’t fit with anything we’ve seen. However, if force is a relevant factor, and Maxima minimizes the force*, that explains what we’ve seen.
*compared to the damage it does.
Why does Kevin’s religion matter?
“Unitarian” refers to the concept of “unitarian violence”, introduced by Pander and described as: “a unitarian view of violence, where each instance has a value of 1, regardless of severity, as long as it can register as ‘violence’”
Kevin isn’t “chaotic”, he’s always had sensible rules in how he goes about things. That’s part of what makes him so cool
ehhhhh…. I get your point actually. And you’re probably more right than I am on this. I guess he’s not actually chaotic per se. He just likes revelling in rather chaotic situations (to an extent) because they make him stronger.
Despite his rationale for why he does what he does seeming to be for an illogical reason (there are much better ways for him to get power), and despite the fights he creates being chaotic in nature, he actually does seem to have a lot of PLANNING involved in creating this chaos. Sort of like how Loki is the God of Mischief, but has plans upon plans, or Joker has these intricate plans despite being an agent of chaos as well and will claim “Do I look like a guy with a plan?”
Yes, Joker, you look like you have a very intricate plan which is insanely complicated where you’ve thought of every possible contingency for every possible outcome except that a ferry full of criminals would not blow up the ferry full of innocent civilians.
Like Joker, Vehemence seems a lot like an agent of chaos. He introduces a little chaos into a situation in order to get power from it, although that chaos is planned by him. So… yeah, he creates chaotic situations but he himself is not chaotic, I guess.
Again Joker put it well:
“Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order. And everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos.”
So when I say chaotic, I suppose that I mean that up until that point he seemed to be causing riots and chaos for the sake of causing riots and chaos, because it made him powerful. Creating a state of complete confusion and disorder. I will grant you there’s a limit to how chaotic he likes things, since he does find war to be too unruly. But his rationale for why he does a lot of the things he does seems to not be the most logical of reasons. Like many have mentioned, he could have just gotten a job with Archon from the get-go and been set for life on violence.
He literally bragged about liking to create chaotic situations (to an extent) while he was trying to murder Maxima.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-274-master-sham/
To be fair, a lot of what he was saying was just because ‘that’s what someone like him is supposed to say’ But that first part seemed like he was telling the truth. It wasnt until he starts talking about creating regional conflicts that he starts lying.
“I am going to have to kill you, but I’ll leave your team alive, if a little bruised. They’ll need to be if they’re going to contribute to all the trouble I’m going to stir up after tonight.”
I don’t think he’s chaotic – the restaurant brawl as set up by him had clear sides.
And I’m not sure why you’re so sure he’s just lying about the regional conflicts part. He says he’s going to “take in a sports riot”, as opposed to creating anything or stirring up trouble, so it looks like the entire “stir trouble to gain from it” was a lie. Conversely, he has clearly expressed a distaste for unruliness.
He likes violence, but he enjoys a regulated sparring session(recent pages) just as much as a free-for-all brawl.
“I don’t think he’s chaotic – the restaurant brawl as set up by him had clear sides.”
Yes, like I agreed with Dal – he’s not chaotic himself per se, but he like creating chaotic situations within a certain limit. Anything short of all out war, because he said “war is too unruly.” But that might just be a redeeming personal preference for him, because war is definitely violence and so it should be something that would definitely power him up a lot.
“And I’m not sure why you’re so sure he’s just lying about the regional conflicts part.”
Probably because he was lying a lot leading up to the brawl in the first place. Given that he was saying it while in the process of trying to murder Maxima, I’d probably have a hard time trusting stuff that he says as an absolute truth.
“He likes violence, but he enjoys a regulated sparring session(recent pages) just as much as a free-for-all brawl.”
My personal opinion of it? A free-for-all brawl is a buffet. But sometimes you don’t want JUST buffets, you might want a small piece of pie and some coffee instead. :)
He doesn’t like creating chaotic situations – he likes creating violent situations, and he accepts some chaos for more violence.
> Probably because he was lying a lot leading up to the brawl in the first place.
Um, you’re arguing that he was telling the truth about riots – claiming he was lying a lot beforehand rather undercuts that. He clearly was lying at some point – but which point we don’t know, and as reasoned above, his entire spiel about inciting violence being a lie seems consistent and plausible.
“He doesn’t like creating chaotic situations – he likes creating violent situations, and he accepts some chaos for more violence.”
I dunno. I find riots to be pretty chaotic situations.
“Um, you’re arguing that he was telling the truth about riots – claiming he was lying a lot beforehand rather undercuts that.”
Good point actually. I shouldn’t assume he’s ever telling the truth. Misinformation is a powerful tool for a supervillain or superhero.
Because he knows that he can only face Max full on and win if he has a huge power ramp up, like 50 supers and a few dozen civilians beating the shit out of each other for half an hour. Long before he gets there she can use her energy blast to reduce him to a sticky mist. He can regrow a limb when he’s powered up, but probably not a head. He is smart enough to bide his time.
Yes, I agree. He’s someone who would bide his time and not make a problem for himself until he thinks he can trounce everyone. Which will be harder now that they know, at least in general, what his powers are and what will NOT work on him.
It’s not and you’re flatly wrong. Inventing the unitarian explanation whole cloth requires either low levels of comprehension or an unwillingness to actually consider alternative explanations. Your focus on this being the *only* way the strategy makes sense blinds you to all outside perspective because you’re overly invested in this idea.
” Inventing the unitarian explanation whole cloth requires either low levels of comprehension or an unwillingness to actually consider alternative explanations.”
1) Ad hominem attack because you can’t argue without making personal insults.
2) the ‘unitarian concept of violence’ explanation was in the event that Maxima’s strategy would WORK on Vehemence. Which it didnt. You need to read what I wrote more carefully, rather than make a strawman argument to make arguing against me easier. :)
“Your focus on this being the *only* way the strategy makes sense”
Then explain how Maxima’s strategy would work if it’s based on intensity of violence instead? Because what she was doing was VERY violent. Just very few instances of violence. The only arguments I’ve gotten from people on why her strategy would have worked if his powers are based on intensity of violence instead of instances of violence required people to use the word ‘violence’ in ways that ignore the definition of violence, and instead claim it’s about ‘effort put into the violence’ or ‘rage involved in the violence’… or sometimes people claiming that pain was separate FROM violence (despite my writing the dictionary definition of violence multiple times, in which if you’re intentionally causing physical pain/harm/damage/injury, that IS violence. There’s no way to argue that what Maxima was doing was NOT causing intentional infliction of pain, harm, damage, or injury. In fact it was causing all of those things.
But hey if you have an alternate argument on how Vehemence’s powers work in a way where Maxima’s power would have been effective, feel free to explain it if you can, in a way that fits the definition of violence and fits with what we’ve seen of Vehemence during the restaurant fight AND this fight.
Or, yknow, use personal insults or strawman arguments more. Either one. The first would be more convincing though.
It’s fine if Maxima is very violent, because V also uses a lot of power. She only needs to be somewhat less violent than a standard fight with him to put him into losing territory. And it’s less violent because there’s less force involved than if she broke his body by whaling on him, and your own definitions include force in the concept of violence.
He said he gained a lot of vehemic energy, just lost slightly more. So yes, it was violent, and it can still work.
Yeah but I’m assuming that Vehemence does not normally heal every time he gets injured. We already saw in the restaurant fight that he didnt bother healing his eye and lost tooth until his arm got blown off. Then he just healed everything.
Btw just out of curiosity, why are you so heavily invested in my little comic nerd theory that you need to break out hte personal insults anyway? It seems like you’re being a bit too personally invested in me, instead of the comic.
That’s uncalled for, Pander has been perfectly polite and you can disagree with her without insulting her.
Is that a jumping side kick or a floating side kick?
Yes.
You said it wrong… you should have said it like this: YES
I’d love to see a conflict between Vehemence and Marvel’s [original] Juggernaut. “Nothing can stop the Juggernaut”, after all, but an escalating opponent like V. would be less of a walkover than so many of the other foes whom he’s faced… and it’s been shown that, secure in his unstoppability, J. does appreciate a good challenge. I’m not sure what would end that fight, but I could see the two of them happily sitting down together afterwards — with beers, and perhaps plates of ribs — for a friendly comparison of notes. “Same time next month?”
Nah, more like Strong Guy
SG and J had a fight once, would have ended in a stalemate if the effort hadn’t giving Guido a heart attack (technically, he did stop Juggs, and he died after the fight…)
Juggernaut’s also been stopped by the Hulk, Onslaught, Gladiator (in the X-Men cartoon), Superman (in one of the crossovers), and Wonder Woman (in the other crossover). Also Spider-Man (who always seems to punch waaaay above his weight class) once stopped him by first blinding him with webbing and leading him into a construction site where he get stuck in wet cement, at which point he stopped and then couldnt move again. And Professor X and Jean Grey each stopped him with a psychic attack. :)
So sad that Maxima didn’t go for the Matrix Kick there
Omg, Kevin failed right there!
Maxima said “VERSES” lol!
Obviously maxima wanted him to reply in proses ^_^
(BTW there’s a typo on “versus”)
“Attacks verses” – MC V-Mence as a rapper who gains power from vicious bars and violent disses. :D
And just like that Vehemence lost all his coolness.
“Attacks verses” sounds like a more eventful kind of choir.
“Spitting fire” taken to its logical conclusion.
I’m amazed that Max didn’t tell Sydney to take on Vehemence.
(Note the look on Sydney’s face as Harem plays heckler…!)
I get the feeling that they haven’t figured out how far she can push things before getting a PTSD lock-down. Also, can she be effectively violent at this point, that does not involve producing the equivalent of city-sized calamari. That much violence might either overwhelm Kevin’s power to recover, or charge him up too much for him to be safe around.
Actually I wonder if V can even feed off Sydney when she’s in her bubble. We know it can cut off his violence aura at least. A valid tactic may very well be everybody in the bubble and take potshots at him with the PPO until he stops being able to grow legs back (albeit, uh… Potentially a bit brutal)
I’d say, no.
Here’s why:
if Dabbler has a nutritious session with someone they become temporarily less responsive and she has established this is, because she feeds of them. Kevin’s way of ingesting his special dietary requirement is canonical mostly equivalent to Dabbler’s way of absorbing her Vitamine-T, which implies that he doesn’t only need violence, but also someone to feed off.
You already established that Sydney’s shield robs him of the latter.
If I’m right about this he would be weak against automation and distance weaponry in general. It’s quite easy to snipe him from distances he can’t absorb over and when the robots are doing all the work there is nobody to feed off.
Actually, Sydney can probably deal with him pretty easily if he isn’t ramped up yet: Grab him with the hentacle lift him off the ground, and hold him there. It didn’t work last time because he was amped up enough that he could stick himself to the ground, but at the start of a fight it should work great.
Daphne should know better than to harass Max at this point.
many people like Daphne know they shouldn’t, but also can’t stop themselves.
You do make a valid point.
Once more into the wall! The quarry operator is going to be in for a surprise when they come back. “What the hell did you guys do in here? There has got to be an extra 3 tons of rock broken off the walls in various places, but that does not look like damage from explosives.”
it’s all profit at that point… they didn’t need to USE those explosives, they didn’t have to worry about the safety related costs like barrier placing and removing, security to verify no one is still inside the blast zone, protections from flying debris, etc… all they have to do is send in the bulldozers and dump trucks to pick up their new load of gravel that just “Mysteriously Appeared”… though I’ll bet that the company that owns the quarry has already gotten paid quite well by Archon to “rent” the facility for a day or two, to offset operating costs that were lost due to no “proper” production going on during their sessions here.
Max is kicking with the wrong leg for that setup/approach. She wouldn’t get her full power kicking like that that.
Full power would likely go through Kevin. Awkward.
She’s also too far away.
I like how Daphne has a new hairstyle and color for one of her selves.
Abby has had a hair cut (not sure if we can say it’s a new colour as well seeing how DaveB is simply using a new crayons), and Bodie has gotten rid of the pale pink patch
Totally knew Abby was the ‘scientist’ of the group :P
Abby? I think I missed something with the names of the Harems…
I know one of them was nicknamed Co-Ed (the white-haired one), one was nicknamed Hot Topic (not sure if it was the black haired one with the purple bangs, or the short haired purple with the pink streak), and one was nicknamed Strawberry or Berry (the pink haired one). I don’t know what the other two were nicknamed.
Which one was nicknamed Abby? The blonde or the one of the ones that isnt Hot Topic?
Have you forgotten? Had posted them long ago
Berry is the first one, Gothamer is the gothy one, Blondini is the middle one, Bodie is the military one, and Abby is the white-haired one with the glasses (named after the goth in NCIS)
I thought the white-haired one was called ‘Co-Ed’
Maxima was calling her that before her ‘date’ with Deus and everyone else seemed to know which one she was talking about.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-837-wheel-of-girlfriend/
Panels 5 and 6 – Maxima: “Which? Oh, I saw him with Co-Ed, but I assume she rotates herself through her partners for variety.” The one that Maxima saw Deus with was the white haired one, so I assumed that’s Co-Ed.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-603-schtooping-with-the-frenemy/
These are just personal names for them (although ‘Berry’ doesn’t seem to fit, all the rest can at least be squinted at to look like actual names, and ‘Barry’ just plain doesn’t work… Berryl? maybe? maybe not)
Ohhh okay. I thought I was missing something in the comic when you were calling her a different name.
I mean, he LITERALLY asked for that.
Harem’s request, which he agreed with, was explicitly for more *punching*. That was clearly not a punch.
Why would Max do such a powerful move as to injure Harem? Seems like a rookie move and possibly killed her.
I understand she can just teleport or another copy can be made, but that’s got to be painful to the rest of them.
Harem could be her own film crew. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has already happened.
Did Max actually physically kick him, or is that the anime attack where your move hits the air, and the air shock wave does the damage?
Yes, she physically kick him into Thursday (and Abby into last Friday)
Physically kicked Vehemence, lateral air shock sent Harem flying, is how I read it.
Nice to see the whole ‘equal and opposite reaction’ thing in the last panel: Maxi kicks Kev, and is pushed back (a little)
I was going to ask about that. How is she anchoring herself in the air like that. If she isn’t, that kick should have resulted in her going backwards a lot more than that.
She can fly? I mean, it’s more like levitation than propulsion-based flight. She can control her position in space. She can carry some significantly heavy things while doing so. Why wouldn’t she be able to resist the reaction force of her kick?
Yeah, she can adjust her position while hovering
You can see her being pushed back by the fact her hair is blown forward hard enough for the hair-tie to fall out
Flying is different than anchoring yourself in the air. Even with levitation she is still hanging in the air not attached to anything.
But she can propel herself through the air, and exert a significant amount of force in doing so. Canceling out the reaction force of her kick should be trivial for her.
Please stop giving Kev ducklips (as in panel three), he doesn’t deserve that
A shockwave like that should at least pierce her eyes and eardrums.
Wait, when did Kev get his knee broken? o_O
On the previous page.
Thought that that was his nose…
Forgot she ‘CLOK’d him after ‘CHONK’ing his nose
You have to admit, Harem deserved that little shockwave.
I love Halo’s wry amusement in the background.
I do like that Max took the time to verify if her strategy even worked, instead of just presuming how effective it would be.
Question is: is Kev telling the truth about barely breaking even?
“You’ve go to to know when to hold, know when to fold,
Know when to walk away, know when to run….”
Okay, I did not expect that Vehemence basically broke even from that, assuming that he was being honest. It looked like Maxima was super efficient in the violence-to-injury-ratio, and usually destroying something takes a lot less effort than healing something.
Apparently the people who argued that her attacks were gruesomely violent were right. He basically got enough juice from them to heal the damage she did, breaking even (more or less).
Two sound-barrier breaches? I’m guessing the first one was Maxima’s foot, and the second one Vehemence flying backward–.
Either that, or she accelerated him to Mach Two, and that’s the shock-waves of him breaking the sound barriers M1 and M2? Nah, that wouldn’t work… the first would have been him going from zero to M1, then him actually speeding UP for the send one…nope. ok then how about it being the first shock-wave is him going at M2 and the second is him SLOWING down to M1? Maybe? but I’m not sure if there would even BE a separate shock-wave at that speed transition when slowing down.
yeah now that i think about it, you’re more than likely correct, the first is her boot accelerating and the second is it’s impact on\with him.
Then again, it doesn’t necessarily mean a shock wave from something traveling faster than the speed of sound… it’s the same as when a semi passes you on the highway, there IS a noticeable “shock wave” just from a massive object trying to push everything out of its way (the air) and you just feel it as it passes by… and that truck sure as heck ain’t going Mach One!
Once you’re going supersonic, there isn’t a second ‘barrier’. Movement generates a pressure wave ahead of you, which starts to move the air out of the way rather than letting it pile up on your front. That wave moves at the speed of sound, so as you approach that speed the air doesn’t have enough warning to get out of your way. You’re effectively taking it by surprise! But once you exceed the speed of sound and the air has zero warning that you’re coming, that’s it – you don’t get a bonus shock for exceeding its reaction speed twice over.
Huh?… i thought i heard/read somewhere that for multiples of Mach, you get more “sonic booms” the higher the Mach number is…or am i confuzelling it with Mach/Shock Diamonds in the exhaust plume of a Rocket/Jet Engine… i think that the more velocity the ejecta is coming out of the nozzle the more diamond patterns it can make before conditions that form them fade out, thus more Mach Diamonds…
Hmmm, i Googled it and i guess i was wrong all this time, i can’t find anything about multiple booms … OH Well, learn something new every day, I guess!
I also heard of it, so I also checked it.
He’s right although there’re ways to create or at least detect multiple sonic booms.
My lack of knowledge on the subject keeps me from finding more credible sources than these ones.
https://libredd.it/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6g23jk/eli5if_an_object_creates_multiple_sonic_booms/
https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=733125
AH! The light-bulb turned on!… from what i understand after i read both of these threads, it seems like the first boom you get to hear is from the front of the object pushing the air AWAY from itself, and the second boom you hear is from the air collapsing back into the space that was just previously vacated by said object when it moved on, kinda like Nightcrawlers “Bamf” sound when he teleports away… the air rushes in from all sides and when the air from one side hits the air coming from the other side, that’s the second boom you hear… but you’re right there isn’t a third or fourth boom from going Mach 3 or 4 or even faster…
They both asked for it.
Yeet the supervillain!
Just reminded of Superman’s speech:
“But you can take it, can’t you, big man? What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose and show you just how powerful I really am.”
I like that Vehemence has a non-idiot side to his personality. There’s even circumstantial evidence that he may have a talent for being a detective. This guy is too valuable to sit forever in a cell.
With his power set, his intellect genuinely isn’t a weapon. He doesn’t give a crap about the usual “rewards” of crime, and achieving them by devious means wouldn’t give him his vitamin V. So he doesn’t get much motive to lie about things or deceive others into doing things. Deus wouldn’t like him because he doesn’t have ulterior motives that make him easy for Deus to control.
The most devious thing he’s done was set up the restaurant fight, and – honestly – with his violence-promoting powers and the help of the teleportal-opening woman whose name I forget, that actually wasn’t all that devious. Once the two of them decided to do it and knew who to contact, they could set it up in an afternoon. The hard, brain-occupying part was identifying and locating all the potential belligerents, and that was good detective work, not deception or trickery.
For your first point, you’re in luck. The restaurant fight doesn’t appear to be anything close to enough to get him life long or even 5 years. Remember there’s circumstantial evidence he is the reason nobody got killed and he’s an A class super with a versatile power set, so he can quite easily get some rich dude like Deus to bail him out of material and financial damage for a few heavy duty jobs like moving something they would normally need a construction crew for. Although he could be convicted for second degree attempted murder on Maxima and resisting arrest, which are a little harder to get yourself bailed out from, but he appears to have a clean record, since he slipped under the radar before the fight and to not having seriously harmed maxima in his sudden attempt of murder, since she looked fine and didn’t go to the hospital. Resisting arrest will cost him either less than a year in jail or a pretty big fine, both of which are irrelevant to the grand scheme of things, but attempted second degree murder would get him around 5 to 15 years depending on state jury and judge. He also is potentially eligible for both the impossibility and withdrawal(although withdrawal is harder) defense, which would kick it way back to the battery charge he already faces for the fight(I got my information from sources as https://www.attorneys.com/homicide/attempted-murder-charges-and-penalties, https://criminal.laws.com/criminal-law/degrees-of-murder, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_punishments_for_murder_in_the_United_States, https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal/Resisting-Arrest.htm, https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal/Resisting-Arrest.htm, not real law school, so I’m neither authorized nor willing to provide legal advice. I’m simply speculating on a fictional scenario with real world sources).
I disagree with your second point.
He’s super easy to control.
Just provide him with a good income of violence and money and he will do almost anything.
Your third point I already questioned(attempted murder on Maxima)
The portal woman is named Opal and her boyfriend also played a serious part in the planing.
I suspect the detective work was done by Opal and her boyfriend, since they both have been established to have contacts in the super world, contrary to Kevin, who due to his lack of radar visibility could even be seen as a probable newbie
This feelslike a superman vs darkside moment where supes talks about how he lives in a cardboard world and what he has here is a rare moment where he can open up.
Ah, but was it a Boot To The Headtm?
Nah, Vehemence doesn’t blab out nonsense to the Master. Though we could use an Ed Gruberman somewhere.
With the power levels Max *COULD* employ, I wonder if she could actually push Vehemence BEYOND his capacity to load up? Kind of overcharging a Lithium battery until it fries itself?
Given that Vehemences can grow bigger and stronger, probably not.
Btw DaveB, you spelled versus wrong. (versus, not verses)
Minor nitpick.
I’m surprised that Sydney showed up in today’s Who’s Who, considering she had no lines an only one panel had her even in the strip at all as a background character. :)
She shows up even if she’s not on the page at all
Sydney gets an alert if she’s not on the page (see the mini-comic) https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-51-thats-gratitude-for-ya/
OHHH! Good recall! I remember that one! :)
Also hilarious :)