Grrl Power #984 – Don’t tug on etc etc…
The problem with someone who speaks in 18 point monster font is that you can only fit so much per page. I’ll probably have to lower his volume quickly. (For reference, the normal dialog font is 6.5 point.)
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
It’s getting close! At least the end of the fight scene is. The chapter is also pushing 10K words by itself so a separate wrap up chapter might be in order. Man, I am not good at planning this stuff out, am I?
September’s vote incentive is up! It’s been over a year since Max was featured in one of these, so I figured it was time to revisit.
If you just popped by to see it right when it went up, you might have missed the update. Her nipples were a touch high in the first version, and if you poke through the comments there, you can see the reference I used, only that model’s boobs were about 3 cup sizes smaller. Anyway, I flew her nipples south for the winter and updated the relevant pics.
Nude version is up at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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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.
Who’s recording this for ‘Darwin Awards ‘ ??
On the other hand, I also think the response could be along the line of
‘oh the attack on the Fel ship ? That was maybe 1/3 of my possible power.
I’ve had to research a few stress points on earth…. Just in case I ever end up needing to go ‘all out’..
And that’s not really taking into account what Sydney did to the Squids on Alar – though………….. I wonder – is that/those the “armies” to which he refers?
I highly doubt those are his armies.
the things on Alari looked like giant versions of the Fel we saw later; I’d sooner bet they were some pre-Fel, Fel gods, or Fel based giant bio war mechs used by someone old and powerful the Alari ticked off; also note the octopus like sentry that detected and reacted to Sydney’s orbs by sending out a distress signal that was instantly responded to.
felt less “demons” and more like the Shadows from babylon 5, possible 3rd tier civilization ship and weapons.
the demons don’t seem to know the orbs, and given this guy’s old school demon lord style, his “army” is probably a bunch of spiky and horned guys with swords, spears, shields, and the like relying on supernatural strength, supernatural metal, and magic, to overpower a world. Sooner expect their army to look like it crawled out of Castlevania.
*snerk* “He doesn’t know about the 7 orbs!“
This…this more complicated than the fuxshing seashells, innit?
I really hope the 7 orbs are not meant to be used for the same purposes as the three seashells.
maybe that the purpose of the unknown orb- to process waste Sydney just hasn’t thought to hold it while doing the business.
there’s a family guy reference “one poop removal please” *it gets sent to a random dimension.
I hate that I found this to be hilarious.
its just a crappy joke.
Thank you. I no longer find it funny. Obligatory ninja hit squad en route. I’ve instructed them to only severely maim instead of kill as a thank you.
I hope you don’t need them for anything. its supposed to be a cold winter this year. I want to be prepared in case Texas freezes over again. its crappy fuel, but its cheaper than firewood now that the equipment is done.
hey, at least the Orb’s are high enough tech to not have THIS to deal with…
All he needs to do it curse a bunch and there’s no more need for the 7 orbs.
How tall is he really though? 3 feet?
No doubt he will get the size spell removed at some point, otherwise it probably would have not been mentioned.
Does kinda feel like a Napoleon Complex, dunnit?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/20/65/88/206588812f9be1c4d8ffe6745bef54ab.jpg
Chekhov’s enlargement spell
Sometimes, I love the wait for a page to payoff. Where’s Deux and his lightning window (and maniacal laugh) when you need him?
Um, sorry. Is she actually the most powerful person in the universe? It seems ill-advised after all they saw to NOT treat someone called a “World Taker” and who just appeared through a portal a “bit” seriously, especially considering she’s on par at most with Dabbler if magic is involved. It’s fine to be cocky and I get plot armor, but at some point someone in the universe is going to just slap her away.
She’s a woman covered in a geo-goo shell whose defense was maxed out previously in the comics from just one guy choking her… and she probably isn’t the only person who got one of those geodes as it came from somewhere.
They are taking him seriously though?
Like how much more “serious” could Max be about this without attacking him unprovoked?
I don’t get the impression she is taking him seriously, either.
It’s the dogged way she’s going things by the book despite the situation that makes it feel like she’s a customs officer resignedly going through the motions with a traveller who thinks they’re too important for customs. That isn’t how you treat someone who has said they’re a major representative of a foreign power even if you aren’t taking them seriously. It doesn’t matter how much of a threat a foreign power poses it’s basic diplomacy to not go around making enemies by treating their representives like uppity tourists.
Having said that, I doubt she’ll suffer any consequences because he’s inflating his position, or he’s outright lying, or any one of a dozen things I can’t think of this second that make what she’s doing okay in retrospect despite it being a boneheaded move from an on the ground perspective. Maybe a token reprimand about how she shouldn’t have handled it like that but that it’s okay given things she couldn’t have known about.
Actually, that is how you handle someone (something?) like that if you don’t want to piss them off (at least, not piss them off too early… )
He isn’t any sort of recognized foreign power.
So she’s treating him as a she should; a powerful individual who came into the country illegally and is badgering her team.
She sure seems to be taking him as seriously as possible. I see no jokes, no quips, no snarky comments. She’s basically giving by-the-book responses:
Introduction: She identifies herself, her rank and job, establishing her authority to make the requests that follow.
Requests for information: She asks him to identify himself, where he is from and what his intentions are. She also asks for some form of identification.
Deescalation: After he becomes belligerent, she makes polite requests once again that he state his business, and that he moderate his tone. Note that the worst she is threatening him with is an invitation to peacefully leave if he does not comply.
The entire time, she is respectful, professional, and gives him plenty of opportunity to not be involved in a fight. And this makes sense because she doesn’t want to be responsible for dragging Earth into an interplanetary war with an unknown foe. This is essentially a first contact situation and her actions here and now will be scrutinized heavily by a military review board if it turns into a fight. Try and imagine Maxima sitting at a table explaining to the president and several generals why all of Earth is now at war with a force that can easily overpower non-superpowered militaries.
Maxima is 100% in “keep her ass covered” mode. She doesn’t know what kind of threat she is facing, and hasn’t had a chance to get intel from Dabbler. But that doesn’t matter. As far as her superiors will see it, she is addressing a foreign entity who, apparently, is someone important in whatever political structure they have over there. If this goes poorly, it’s her ass. But, Maxima also knows this is being recorded. That means her best play, even when it becomes obvious that it’s gonna be a fight, is to remain professional and by the book and let *him* throw the first punch. Once he attacks, she can justify use of reasonable force to simply remove him from our planet. I don’t think she’ll even want to kill him without knowing what kind of consequences such an action would have. Maybe killing a dominus secunde is a big enough deal to cause his entire people to bring orbital bombardment upon our planet in the name of avenging him. That’s certainly a worry her superiors will bring up after the fact.
My prediction is Maxima is going to respond to these most recent threats by informing him that she will pass his offer to the leaders of her government, and request that he return through his portal until such time as they have made a decision. She may advise him against military action/threats and inform him about her government’s policy on such things.
But the big prediction I’ve got for y’all? Vehemence. He’s still around there. All this talk about armies and invasions and the associated violence have got to sound really awesome for him. I betchya he’s gonna try and join up with Thothogoth, maybe sneak through that portal to escape Archon custody and then offer his services and join Thothogoth’s army. What could *possibly* be better for him than joining the armies of someone who is called “the world taker” and, presumably, fighting to take entire worlds?
He’s there, all of them are. But Keven just dumped his energy.
And what’s up with that, anyway? He didn’t need to do that after surrendering to Archon. If we’re expected to simply assume that he did it off-panel then we’d also be expected to assume that Thothogoth decided for some reason not to portal in. It seems utterly contrived and invented purely as an excuse for Thothogoth to show up, but adding a new ‘ability’ to a character that makes no sense if you give it even a few moments of thought isn’t very good writing.
Because in order to get him to surrender the first time, they forced him to burn off that excess power by drowning him. They got him at least down to yellow before he surrendered, and he’s back to white shortly afterwards. The question is whether his regeneration ability continues to work while he’s unconscious, because if so, some of his excess power was presumably spent repairing his throat.
He presumably doesn’t need to dump all his power, or may not actually need to dump it at all. It’s not clear from the comic whether he did so for his own safety, or just to reassure Max that he was cooperating. Or he may have intended for it to cause a distraction that would allow him to escape. We’ll have to see what his next move is to better understand his motivation.
“And what’s up with that, anyway? He didn’t need to do that after surrendering to Archon.”
It might have been a pre-existing condition of this entire exercise and agreement. To dump most of his excess power except what he needs to survive and not be sick.
“It seems utterly contrived and invented purely as an excuse for Thothogoth to show up,”
I mean… it is an excuse to have Thothogoth show up (but the excuse is to have an actual story arc), but I don’t think it was contrived. In that it doesnt seem to have been a wy that seemed unrealistic and artificial. It made sense that Archon would require Vehemence to NOT keep all that excess power before going back to his prison, so… not contrived.
She is taking this seriously, she is also doing her job.
Having her grovel before the demon lord would be out of character.
the one guy choking her was practically the Hulk, we can assume an S-class like her by that point in his power up, so not a point against her.
as for not only person with the geode goo…we don’t know. the situation has a very Guyver feel to it, like a weapon left behind by a precursor civilization that had an out post on Earth that bonds with other species. Given the mercenary reaction I’d say in the current galactic era they are rare to at least nearly or completely unknown. If anyone does recognize the bio-boost armor then it would probably turn out to be some ancient ascended race or had left the galaxy or reality ect… some time ago. Or just gone extinct after some long forgotten war among other tropes for ancient space faring species. I mean some automated recovery, recruitment, or individual from that species or has their knowledge coming looking for have increased in probability now that she has made galactic headlines.
So a few things here.
First, Max vs Dabbler? If Max isn’t holding back then magic or no magic she’d wipe the floor with Dabbler so hard it wouldn’t even be a fight. I don’t know where you got the idea that they’re roughly on par, but it certainly isn’t from anything we’ve ever seen in this comic. Dabbler’s only good with magic by Earth standards. She’s actually more of a, *ahem*, dabbler in it by galactic standards. A very smart dabbler, but still no master magician or anything.
Second, Max is a very by the book person. What you’re seeing is not her not taking the threat seriously. It’s her following protocol and refusing to be the one to initiate violence as protocol dictates. She very much IS taking him VERY seriously. She’s just bound by lots and lots of red tape that she strongly believes needs to be there.
Third, Max has very good reason to be cocky. Not only is she practically a force of nature in her own right, but she’s being backed up by Sydney (who, though undisciplined and not very well trained by comparison, actually is on Max’s level power-wise) and the rest of ARC-SWAT, plus Vehemence is still there and is likely to take a dim view of a demon lord trying to conquer his home planet. And if push comes to shove she’s going to have a LOT more backup in a few minutes if she needs it.
If anything Tommy Boy there should be taking her seriously, not the other way around.
> And if push comes to shove she’s going to have a LOT more backup in a few minutes if she needs it.
That reminded me of something. US military is pretty much a superpower of its own. So… where were those guys in the Endgame? Why weren’t there airstrikes on Thanos’ forces? I mean, in the first Avengers movie there was something at least — local cops showed up, and then we’ve seen some soldiers pulling out some heavy equipment (which probably didn’t do much, but hey, they at least tried). Come Endgame — nothing. How is it possible?
“That reminded me of something. US military is pretty much a superpower of its own. So… where were those guys in the Endgame?”
Good question. I’m assuming the answer would be that they were caught unaware and it takes a little time to actually move the troops into place. Because the US Armed Forces doesnt have access to magical sling-ring Dr. Strange portals to go from Wakanda to the Stark Compound in 5 seconds. :)
True, and I can even buy that there weren’t anybody stationed near the Avengers compound (given their strained relationship with the government there should be some troops their, but with Thanos wiping out half of the population maybe the government had other priorities). However, at least air force should be able to get there in time.
Even that takes a little time to coordinate though. And the sling ring transport is a lot quicker.
Remember in Avengers 1, when the aliens attacked New York, how long it took for even SHIELD, who works faster than a federal government, to make a call on what to do, let alone actually do it. The fight had been going on for a WHILE at that point. Annnd their call was to nuke the city :)
> First, Max vs Dabbler? If Max isn’t holding back then magic or no magic she’d wipe the floor with Dabbler so hard it wouldn’t even be a fight. I don’t know where you got the idea that they’re roughly on par, but it certainly isn’t from anything we’ve ever seen in this comic.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-150-not-sure-where-max-stencils-her-kill-marks/
And thanks to that and Dabbler under performing at times (see Henchwench fight) Dabbler is at risk of the Warf affect. We have one instance of her being a bad ass and that is handling mannekillers single handed. Also the flash back with this guy. But it spells out she isn’t good at direct attacks and relies on op spells for offense with a high collateral damage problems.
I seriously do look at Dabbler as ‘the Batman of the team.’ :) Jack of All Trades, Master of None. But that winds up making her EXTREMELY powerful, even against people who are superior to her in one or two areas, because, as she said in her fight against Heavenly Sword:
“A conversation I had at dinner made me want to win a sword fight, but it’s clear that you’re a better swordswoman than I. I’ve never gotten by on excelling at any ONE thing… and my bag of tricks is vast.”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-223-unlike-a-dead-parrot-heavenly-sword-does-go-voom/
At which point she beats her opponent in about 5 seconds…. the opponent who she had been taking the ENTIRE super fight to try to beat unsuccesfully when she was just relying on swordfighting alone.
Dabbler beats people by attacking them where they are weak, not where they are strong.
She beat Heavenly Sword (who was the better sword-fighter) with magic.
She beat Math (who is definitely the better fighter) with magic as well – a ‘sticky air’ cantrip apparently.
She beat Jabberwokky (who again is probably a better fighter) with a succubus enchantment kiss.
She beat Sciona (who might have been better at magic, we don’t know for sure) with a frickin rail gun to her leg and wing.
She beat Mac the Knife (who is faster than her by a WIDE margin), with technology – the mummy bullet thing.
She has the capability of teleporting, of putting people to sleep (which would have worked on Vehemence if Maxima and the rest of Arc-Swat had not already powered him up so much), enchanting people, mesmerizing/hypnotizing people, casting illusions which are PHYSICAL in nature (like she did with Heavenly), etc.
Dabbler doesnt have just one method of beating someone. She has dozens, depending on who she is fighting. Sort of like Batman, as long as he’s prepared, he can beat anyone from an average street level criminal to a cosmic-level opponent like Superman or Darkseid (each of whom he HAS beaten, in multiple ways for each of them). If anything, the only person he ever really had a problem with was the Joker, because the Joker is difficult to prepare for (although Terry McGinnis figured out the Joker’s main flaw, which Bruce Wayne never actually figured out).
https://youtu.be/8LikMS5gDDI?t=70
You… clearly haven’t been paying attention lately: Blatman is Jack of All Trades, Master of Them All
There is nothing and no one he can’t beat or overcome, which makes him a complete arsehole and a lousy character (which, unfortunately, is what Sydney is heading towards)
Name any skill and i will give an example of someone better than batman at that skill. Probably someone batman has either partnered with, mentored, or learned from.
If he wasn’t the MoTA, how could he beat someone else
He is a contradictory: everyone is better than him in some way, but he is better than all of them and can beat even the entire Just Us League
“If he wasn’t the MoTA, how could he beat someone else”
Because Batman’s bag of tricks is vast. He specializes in MANY things, not just one. So even if he’s not the BEST at any one thing, he’s still good enough in other things that he can beat someone by focusing on where they are weak, instead of where they are strong.
If he has to fight, say, someone who is a better physical fighter than he is, and loses the first time that he goes up against him, he instead analyzes them, finds their weakness, and attacks THERE instead.
Take Batman’s contingency plans for example.
He can’t beat Green Lantern in a straight up fight generally, because the ring is just too powerful. So his contingency plan for Green Lantern is based on psychology instead. Using Scarecrow’s fear toxin to nullify the advantage that he gets from the ring, because Fear and Self-Doubt is the enemy of Will.
He isnt a shapeshifter, so he can’t beat Martian Manhunter in a straight up fight either. So he relies on a few things.
1) Fire that can’t be put out with water, because again – it’s a psychological attack.
2) Incorporating allies into the JLA like Plastic Man, who is immune to mental attacks AND is also a shapeshifter as well – probably a better one than J’onn.
He can’t beat Superman in a straight up fight on his own, so he has multiple contingencies for that.
1) Tech and Allies – using the armored bat suit (plus help from Carrie Kelley in a tank and a one-armed Green Arrow with a specialized kryptonite delivery system arrow) which puts him more on par with Superman – we’ve seen that in both the awful live action movie, and also in EXCELLENT The Dark Knight Returns. He even did so in a way to give himself an excuse to not KILL Superman, by faking his own death AFTER he had already beaten Superman.
And he explained this to Superman in no uncertain terms, that if he ever wanted to, he could ALWAYS beat Superman because he plans ahead far better than Superman. A bit more psychological intimidation.
“You’re feeling it now, arent you? What the rest of us deal with every day. Your own mortality. Don’t worry, you’ll survive. The Kryptonite will work its way out of your lungs soon enough. … But I didn’t have to go easy on you. A different binding agent? A stronger mix? I want you to remember that. I wanted to remind you to stay out of my way. In all the years to come, in all your most private moments, I want you to remember THE ONE MAN WHO BEAT YOU.” Then he faked his own death so he would not have to kill his friend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ZYZdEN4g4
2) Chemistry – making or finding different variants of Kryptonite, both real and synthetic – Batman has literal storehouses of Kryptonite of every variety. When Superman gave him a piece of Kryptonite (as well as a Kryptonite Ring that Lex Luthor had made) as a counter in case he ever was out of control, Batman did not bother to tell Superman that he actually had a TON of Kryptonite already (not only a ton of green, but even very rare variants of kryptonite, like red, blue, black, white, and gold) and just accepted the ring. :)
https://external-preview.redd.it/WG9GDclYocD5YR2B8F62bCbSBC_6wms-tQX2PzZJGck.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=2a22770dad54e76aa546d5d333d113574a7ee397
3) Psychology – Batman’s used this to beat Superman as well. In one showdown between the two heroes, he told Superman that he had put a bomb on an innocent person in Gotham, and if Superman even was to TOUCH him, the bomb would explode, and told him to give up. He told Superman to use his super-senses to see if he was lying. He was not lying. Superman surrendered, because Batman knew that Superman, without being mind controlled, would not kill. Especially not an innocent person.
…
The bomb turned out to be on Batman himself.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/2d6fe455534f77206c7a8c74b8dca83b/a71eec866bc964b1-f7/s1280x1920/95aa26cd00c333f8fee44da2c8ccd13dc1988b0a.png
4) Emotional manipulation – in Hush, when Poison Ivy CONTROLS Superman and tells him to kill Batman and Catwoman, Batman wins. How? A variety of ways. He had kryptonite ‘brass knuckles’ to slow him down a bit. He took advantage of Metropolis’s sewers, which are lead lined thanks to LexCorp. He lied to Superman when in the sewers, telling him that he had released the gas mains while under the Daily Planet, where Lois Lane worked, which prevented Superman from using his heat vision to end the fight in two seconds (because Batman knew that ‘deep down, Superman’s a good man, and deep down… I [Batman] am not.’) And then, when all that was no longer enough to keep Superman from killing him, he had a backup plan of having Catwoman push Lois Lane off the top of the Daily Planet, which snapped Superman out of his mind control in time for him to fly up and save Lois Lane, his true love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTjGg14RbVs
5) Bargaining – Dr Strange might have the best example of using bargaining to beat someone who is more powerful than he is (Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain). But Batman’s no slouch in that department either. He beat DARKSEID by threatening to blow up ALL of Apokolips (he had armed all the Apokolips bombs in the Apokoliptian armory simultaneously) if Darkseid did not surrender, release a brainwashed Supergirl to them, and promise to NEVER go after her again. He got beaten up badly by Darkseid and still refused to undo the bombs’ arming codes. And Darkseid was impressed and surrendered to Batman as a result and acquiesced to all of Batman’s demands.
6) Betraying his one rule – Batman’s one this exactly one time since he was rewritten to ‘never use guns to kill.’ He created a radion bullet, and used it to mortally wound Darkseid in order to stop him from taking over the universe. Batman wound up ‘dying’ (he was actually teleported 2 million years into the past) but he still wound up winning, even in apparent death.
Batman does not attack someone where they are stronger than him. He attacks them where they have a weakness, even if that doesnt just mean trading punches.
Btw here are the links to both ways that Batman has beaten Darkseid, who utterly outclasses him in sheer power. In neither example did Darkseid decide that the best way to beat him was simply punching (although in the comic, Batman did TRY punching him using apokoliptian armor, which DID NOT WORK AT ALL, so he went to plan B).
1) Batman Makes Darkseid an Offer he CANNOT Refuse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE5RXhPwlKc
2) Batman shoots Darkseid.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2e/43/9a/2e439a889ad141715ba367703b2c273f.jpg
Like said: he’s a contradictory, he’s the master of everything except what he is currently facing
Since when has Blatman ever been an ‘innocent person’? Specially placing a bomb on someone designed to blow up if Blatsie was touched?
And, again, Blatsie is only as good as the plot (which he has specially tailored to him and him alone, because he killed the tailor upon delivery :P ), that’s the true reason he is able to beat everyone: because the fans would riot and burn down DC (the city, not the company) if he ever lost
“Like said: he’s a contradictory, he’s the master of everything except what he is currently facing”
I don’t see how that’s contradictory. He’s NOT a master of everything. He’s just extremely good at everything. There’s always someone better at any one particular thing though.
“Since when has Blatman ever been an ‘innocent person’?”
Steelmanning your assertion for a moment. Assuming that Batman is not an ‘innocent person’ objectively…. it’s based on Superman’s ability to tell if Batman was lying with his super-senses. Batman clearly thinks he’s innocent, so he’s telling the truth as far as a lie detector like Superman’s super-senses can tell.
“Specially placing a bomb on someone designed to blow up if Blatsie was touched?”
Well… it was placed on HIMSELF. Because Batman won’t kill another person.
“And, again, Blatsie is only as good as the plot ”
Isnt that the case with any protagonist of any story?
“because the fans would riot and burn down DC (the city, not the company) if he ever lost”
Nah. Batman loses all the time. He just learns from his losses in order to figure a way to win in the second fight. Remember how Bane ‘broke the Bat?’ Plus there was the Emperor Joker storyline. DC didnt get burned down even though Batman was repeatedly killed by a nearly omnipotent Joker.
I have to re-post this because again I did more than 3 links, so it got put into moderation. Here’s it without the links. The links will be in the future post, after it gets through moderation, whenever that happens
——-
“If he wasn’t the MoTA, how could he beat someone else”
Because Batman’s bag of tricks is vast. He specializes in MANY things, not just one. So even if he’s not the BEST at any one thing, he’s still good enough in other things that he can beat someone by focusing on where they are weak, instead of where they are strong.
If he has to fight, say, someone who is a better physical fighter than he is, and loses the first time that he goes up against him, he instead analyzes them, finds their weakness, and attacks THERE instead.
Take Batman’s contingency plans for example.
He can’t beat Green Lantern in a straight up fight generally, because the ring is just too powerful. So his contingency plan for Green Lantern is based on psychology instead. Using Scarecrow’s fear toxin to nullify the advantage that he gets from the ring, because Fear and Self-Doubt is the enemy of Will.
He isnt a shapeshifter, so he can’t beat Martian Manhunter in a straight up fight either. So he relies on a few things.
1) Fire that can’t be put out with water, because again – it’s a psychological attack.
2) Incorporating allies into the JLA like Plastic Man, who is immune to mental attacks AND is also a shapeshifter as well – probably a better one than J’onn.
He can’t beat Superman in a straight up fight on his own, so he has multiple contingencies for that.
1) Tech and Allies – using the armored bat suit (plus help from Carrie Kelley in a tank and a one-armed Green Arrow with a specialized kryptonite delivery system arrow) which puts him more on par with Superman – we’ve seen that in both the awful live action movie, and also in EXCELLENT The Dark Knight Returns. He even did so in a way to give himself an excuse to not KILL Superman, by faking his own death AFTER he had already beaten Superman.
And he explained this to Superman in no uncertain terms, that if he ever wanted to, he could ALWAYS beat Superman because he plans ahead far better than Superman. A bit more psychological intimidation.
“You’re feeling it now, arent you? What the rest of us deal with every day. Your own mortality. Don’t worry, you’ll survive. The Kryptonite will work its way out of your lungs soon enough. … But I didn’t have to go easy on you. A different binding agent? A stronger mix? I want you to remember that. I wanted to remind you to stay out of my way. In all the years to come, in all your most private moments, I want you to remember THE ONE MAN WHO BEAT YOU.” Then he faked his own death so he would not have to kill his friend.
2) Chemistry – making or finding different variants of Kryptonite, both real and synthetic – Batman has literal storehouses of Kryptonite of every variety. When Superman gave him a piece of Kryptonite (as well as a Kryptonite Ring that Lex Luthor had made) as a counter in case he ever was out of control, Batman did not bother to tell Superman that he actually had a TON of Kryptonite already (not only a ton of green, but even very rare variants of kryptonite, like red, blue, black, white, and gold) and just accepted the ring. :)
3) Psychology – Batman’s used this to beat Superman as well. In one showdown between the two heroes, he told Superman that he had put a bomb on an innocent person in Gotham, and if Superman even was to TOUCH him, the bomb would explode, and told him to give up. He told Superman to use his super-senses to see if he was lying. He was not lying. Superman surrendered, because Batman knew that Superman, without being mind controlled, would not kill. Especially not an innocent person.
…
The bomb turned out to be on Batman himself.
4) Emotional manipulation – in Hush, when Poison Ivy CONTROLS Superman and tells him to kill Batman and Catwoman, Batman wins. How? A variety of ways. He had kryptonite ‘brass knuckles’ to slow him down a bit. He took advantage of Metropolis’s sewers, which are lead lined thanks to LexCorp. He lied to Superman when in the sewers, telling him that he had released the gas mains while under the Daily Planet, where Lois Lane worked, which prevented Superman from using his heat vision to end the fight in two seconds (because Batman knew that ‘deep down, Superman’s a good man, and deep down… I [Batman] am not.’) And then, when all that was no longer enough to keep Superman from killing him, he had a backup plan of having Catwoman push Lois Lane off the top of the Daily Planet, which snapped Superman out of his mind control in time for him to fly up and save Lois Lane, his true love.
5) Bargaining – Dr Strange might have the best example of using bargaining to beat someone who is more powerful than he is (Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain). But Batman’s no slouch in that department either. He beat DARKSEID by threatening to blow up ALL of Apokolips (he had armed all the Apokolips bombs in the Apokoliptian armory simultaneously) if Darkseid did not surrender, release a brainwashed Supergirl to them, and promise to NEVER go after her again. He got beaten up badly by Darkseid and still refused to undo the bombs’ arming codes. And Darkseid was impressed and surrendered to Batman as a result and acquiesced to all of Batman’s demands.
6) Betraying his one rule – Batman’s one this exactly one time since he was rewritten to ‘never use guns to kill.’ He created a radion bullet, and used it to mortally wound Darkseid in order to stop him from taking over the universe. Batman wound up ‘dying’ (he was actually teleported 2 million years into the past) but he still wound up winning, even in apparent death.
Batman does not attack someone where they are stronger than him. He attacks them where they have a weakness, even if that doesnt just mean trading punches.
I put Dabbler in the Batman/IronMan type classification due to inventor/gadgets. If you beat her and leave her alive or if she had time to prepare study and prepare before the fight then highly specialize tools and weapons are coming into play.
I’d say Batman more than Iron Man since Tony focuses almost entirely on his tech, while batman focuses on alot more than just tech.
“First, Max vs Dabbler? If Max isn’t holding back then magic or no magic she’d wipe the floor with Dabbler so hard it wouldn’t even be a fight.”
Clearly false based on Maxima’s own statements in the comic, and you don’t really have any basis to state that with such assurance. :)
“I don’t know where you got the idea that they’re roughly on par, but it certainly isn’t from anything we’ve ever seen in this comic.”
Probably should re-read this strip. Which is where we get the idea that, in a fight, they are roughly on par. Stated, IN THIS COMIC.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-150-not-sure-where-max-stencils-her-kill-marks/
Not to mention that you’re acting like Dabbler was not holding back as well.
“Dabbler’s only good with magic by Earth standards. She’s actually more of a, *ahem*, dabbler in it by galactic standards. ”
No, it’s that Dabbler is sort of like the Batman of the comic. She’s excellent at MANY different areas – way above ‘standard level.’ But she’s usually never ‘the best’ in any one area. She sacrifices ‘master at one’ for ‘jack of all’ when it comes to skills and techniques and magic and tech. Which, when you’re fighting someone who’s very powerful in one area at a time, is a very good position to be in. It lets you attack your opponent where they’re weak, when they’re focusing their strengths in another area.
Like with Batman, he has partners who he admits are each better than him in at least one area.
This is all according to Batman himself:
Tim is a better detective.
Dick is a better acrobat.
Barbara is more intelligent.
Jason is more ruthless, especially in an interrogation, and plans ahead more. Which is saying something compared to BATMAN.
Stephanie is more stubborn and will never quit.
Cassandra is a better fighter.
Damian thinks more outside the box.
Again, all this is based on what Batman himself has said about his partners/sidekicks.
Even with Carrie Kelley, who’s Robin in a different reality, he said she was better at escaping traps.
However, Batman would be able to beat all of them, because Batman, while not being the best, is high expert level on so many areas that he can compensate for where he isnt the best by being better in every other area.
“Second, Max is a very by the book person.”
Quite a few times, Max has not been by the book. Especially when trying to capture Sciona. She wound up almost destroying a bridge, for one thing. And still didnt capture her.
She also underestimated Vehemence multiple times during the restaurant fight when Sydney was trying to warn her, and almost did the same with Death Toll until Sydney stopped her by explaining Death Toll’s power and how even she would not be able to beat it in a straight-up fight.
“Third, Max has very good reason to be cocky. ”
This is true. She definitely has a good reason to be arrogant and full of herself, since she legitimately IS one of the most powerful supers on the planet. But that’s bitten her in the butt multiple times already. Which is cool. Her arrogance is a legitimate weakness which makes her more interesting as a character.
“Sydney (who, though undisciplined and not very well trained by comparison, actually is on Max’s level power-wise)”
Plus I’d say that Sydney is a MUCH better tactician than Maxima, who might be a little too used to relying on her overwhelming strength to ever think of using better tactics. We’ve seen Maxima go barrelling into fights before when it’s tactically unwise, dismissing legitimate tactical disadvantages she might be at:
1) With the Super Mannekiller (saying ‘Even if this thing can copy powers from my blue blood, it’s doubtful that it can match my magnitude.’)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-519-mesmurprise/
This was particularly dumb of Maxima, since she had NO reason to assume that it WOULDNT be able to match her ‘magnitude’ except that Maxima is incredibly arrogant about her power levels. The Super Mannekiller is at least partially powered by magic, and Maxima has no clue how powerful that could be. Then she said ‘I keep my blood in a pretty secure container.’ Despite Sydney pointing out that she HAS bled before in a fight after getting punched in the nose by a not-yet-full-powered Vehemence. Not to mention the Super Mannekiller did have access to other powers, like vampiric Domination, which Maxima was only BARELY able to fight against because of a crack in the Mannekiller’s lens. Hiro had to save her before it could use its laser claw to pierce her ‘very secure’ skin.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-520-from-distress-to-datstress/
“and the rest of ARC-SWAT, ”
Each time Maxima’s fought a boss level enemy, there has been multiple members of Arc-Swat fighting alongside her, including Sydney. It hasnt actually made things that much better for her in the past. Twice, the opponent escaped, or twice the opponent almost killed her if not for Sydney one time and Hiro the other time (and I wouldnt even really call the Super Mannekiller a boss level character, more like a first lieutenant to a boss level character, Sciona).
“plus Vehemence is still there and is likely to take a dim view of a demon lord trying to conquer his home planet.”
Why would you think that Vehemence would not want the world in a state of continual war against an incredibly powerful alien/demonic opponent with an army? As long as they don’t win OR lose, it would provide an endless buffet to him, and make him insanely powerful in the process, with the few people of killing him too preoccupied in the war to do anything about him. I seriously will never understand why people keep thinking Kevin is good or would be good, beyond his own self-interest. And his self-interest tends to involve having a steady stream of violence, and that’s it as far as we’ve seen in the comic.
“And if push comes to shove she’s going to have a LOT more backup in a few minutes if she needs it.”
Annnnd why would you think Tom doesnt have a lot more backup as well? He literally just said he has an entire army poised to send Earth back into the stone age (“start anew with lessons learned from past mistakes”).
‘If anything Tommy Boy there should be taking her seriously, not the other way around.”
Depends. Clearly Tom is familiar with Maxima’s power levels. So this could go one of two ways.
1) He’s a jerk so he’ll immediately get his comeuppance by having Maxima beat the hell out of him. Cathartic for the readers but completely invalidates all of the foreshadowing about him and buildup, and would probably be sort of a lame ‘boss level character.’
2) He has just as much of a reason to be arrogant as Maxima has, if not moreso, because he has the power behind his jerky, egotistical boasts to back them up. Which would mean Maxima will need to think outside the box to win. Or our expectations might be subverted in some other way we havent yet predicted.
Thank you for the accurate analysis! I’m glad to see that there are still people ACTUALLY reading this comic, and not just looking at the pretty boobs.
I fear however she will not get the humility lesson she needs, and instead she will just trash the giant cocky demon for comedic purposes…
“Thank you for the accurate analysis! I’m glad to see that there are still people ACTUALLY reading this comic, and not just looking at the pretty boobs.”
Sorry I didnt read this part of your post well, got distracted reading a back issue strip where Dabbler’s making faces in Maxima’s boobs. :)
Also thanks :)
“I fear however she will not get the humility lesson she needs, and instead she will just trash the giant cocky demon for comedic purposes…”
I don’t know. If we base it on the past boss level characters, she probably will get at least a little humility and it won’t be nearly as easy as her attitude makes it look like it would be. It makes for a better story when the super-powerful protagonist comes at the antagonist from a position of potential weakness, rather than one of unstoppable strength, because then there’s something to overcome, which tends to be the difference between the Hero’s Journey and a Mary Sue. And Maxima is not a Mary Sue from what I’ve seen in the comic so far.
She’s had her butt handed to her a few times, has had to retreat a few times, and has had significantly LESS powerful characters escape her a few time (although the Hench Wench one was incredibly annoying to me because it didnt seem to be based on anything in comic, and was more based on a patreon thing- I guess I can understand it from a business standpoint, but from a narrative standpoint, it was annoying that she got away the way that she did and would have been so much better if Arianna had actually been the one to beat a super who’s powers are based on a contractual agreement).
She got he butt handed to her by Vehemence, and probably WOULD have gotten her butt handed to her by Death Toll – both if not for Sydney’s intervention.
She couldnt capture her quarry with Sciona (not once, but multiple times), and by Wyrmil/Cooter (although Cooter is not technically a villain, he’s a hapless pawn who I sort of feel bad for).
She had to retreat from the Squidwards.
So we don’t yet know how this will turn out. The only reason I am a little in the same ‘boat of concern’ as you are is because, trope-wise, when a villain starts acting all egotistical and jerky, declaring his inevitable victory and mocking the protagonist…. usually it means they’re going to be thoroughly trounced – sometimes immediately for comedic effect as you accurately suggested.
Like with Spackles McChunkysalsa and Cora.
I’m just hoping that all the foreshadowing of this guy, and the fact that he was one of the boss characters on the splash page of villains who would NOT be so easily dissuaded by Maxima’s press example of her power.
Because comics. He’s charming, powerful, and interesting, so people want him to continue to play a part in the story, and to develop relationships with the other characters that produce interesting situations. It is not unusual for comic book characters to change sides, and to be forgiven for terrible crimes without necessarily having paid the price for them.
It does represent a troubling worldview, in which morality is more about group affiliation than actions, and “great men” live by a different set of rules than everyone else.
To add on to your quoted reply (easier to use a ready-made quote :P ), and this is a reply to Panderific
You mean, like you and SmugD?
I literally predicted you saying that :)
Hence why I wrote:
“Of course, someone like Guesticules might bring up Deus, but I have no idea why, since Deus is not in any way a villain and is the greatest of all heroes and a paragon of virtue and the light of humanity, all praise Deus amen.”
Clearly there is no similarity between Deus and a villain, whether common or a boss level villain. For Deus is the paragon of all humanity, and shall light the way to a better tomorrow for all of us. Even to the heretics like Guesticules who shun his greatness. Every action Deus has ever taken has been quite justifiable and to help the innocent, only ever punishing the irredeemably and unquestionably evil, and even that is a rarity for him to do. For Deus believes in redemption for all.
All praise Deus, amen.
“Because comics.”
Yeah, okay. But that’s still sort of a very lame and lazy reasoning for it, and this webcomic has mostly been a lot more savvy than relying on circular logic like that.
“He’s charming, powerful, and interesting, so people want him to continue to play a part in the story, and to develop relationships with the other characters that produce interesting situations.”
All that can still happen without him being good. Take Disney’s Gargoyles, for example. Yes I know, Xanatos does a legitimate heel turn to being actually good (although he was never TRULY bad to begin with, just manipulative). But lets look at the ACTUAL villains in Gargoyles.
Demona = She’s bad and most of her troubles are through her own doing. She’s an EXTREMELY sympathetic villain because of this, even though she’s unspeakably evil and a lot of what she does is completely unforgiveable. But she’s INCREDIBLY well fleshed out, has deep relationships with almost every other member of the cartoon, both among villains, heroes, and neutral parties, and plays a MAJOR part in almost every arc. Demona is definitely the MAIN villain of Goliath.
Plus even if the villain is NOT sympathetic (since I do not find Vehemence to be remotely sympathetic at all), they can still be well fleshed out and interesting. Again – Disney’s Gargoyles.
Thailog = as charismatic as Xanatos, and as powerful as Goliath. He also has a pretty fleshed out history on why he does what he does – take Xanatos and remove his ties to humanity, and you have Thailog. He has NO redeeming morality values though and betrays EVERYONE he ever teams up with, including Demona.
Or take a lot of Batman villains as an example. Great examples of both sympathetic and non-sympathetic villains. Penguin, Riddler, Bane, Scarecrow = examples of non-sympathetic but incredibly well written villains. Mr Freeze, Harley Quinn, Baby Doll, Ventriloquist, Two Face = Examples of sympathetic villains. And even villains who are… sort of on the fence between sympathetic and not sympathetic depending on if their backstories are true or made up, like the Joker (who can be completely an unsympathetic villain OR a sympathetic villain who simply cracked after ‘one really bad day.’ – mainly because he has mulitple different backstories and we never know for sure which, if any, is the true backstory) or Killer Croc, who became how he is because of being treated like an animal for his entire life… but in the end he is just a monstrous ‘person.’
You don’t have to be ‘good’ to have a fleshed out character that makes a major impact to the story. Heck, I think Sciona is becoming an example of an evil character who is getting very fleshed out who is sometimes almost cartoonishly evil in her plans.
I don’t see why people are wanting Vehemence to be ‘good’ aside from that they don’t want to be a fan of a bad guy, and are maybe embarrassed that they ARE a fan of a villain.
“It is not unusual for comic book characters to change sides, and to be forgiven for terrible crimes without necessarily having paid the price for them.”
That’s true. There’s ample examples of that in the comics. Rogue from X-Men. Black Cat from Spider-Man.
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy and Catwoman from Batman. Technically speaking, Loki from Thor (if you only look at the new TV show, which is a pretty good one). Jumba from Lilo and Stitch. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver from both X-Men and the Avengers movie. Megara from Hercules. Diego from Ice Age. Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Deadshot (arguably) from The Suicide Squad and Batman.
But there’s usually some sympathetic reason for them BEING bad in the first place, which enables the heel face turn to happen. With Harley, it’s because she was not actually ever a bad person – she was psychologically manipulated by the Joker. With Deadshot, he has the sympathetic element of caring deeply for his daughter to the point where he does not want his daughter to think of her father as a cold-blooded killer. With Rogue, it’s the guilt of putting Ms Marvel into a ‘permanent’ coma and the feeling of loneliness and guilt that comes with never being able to physically touch another person. With Faith, she was manipulated a LOT by the Mayor, who did genuinely care for her despite his being completely evil. With Loki, it’s the death of his mother that seems to be the major turning point for him, as well as the destruction of Asgard, combined with (in the TV show at least) his viewing of how ‘all Lokis are meant to fail’ according to the TVA. Etc. Etc.
—–
Of course, someone like Guesticules might bring up Deus, but I have no idea why, since Deus is not in any way a villain and is the greatest of all heroes and a paragon of virtue and the light of humanity, all praise Deus amen.
I was attempting to explain the reader motivation and expectation, not what I expect DaveB to actually do. But while I do think he’s addressed that “pay for your crimes” element a bit with Jazza, I do imagine he’ll explore it more in the future, with someone with bigger crimes that are harder to justify. I don’t assume that he’ll just lean on “but comic books do it!” as an excuse, but that he’ll take it as an opportunity to subvert or deconstruct the genre.
“I was attempting to explain the reader motivation and expectation, not what I expect DaveB to actually do.”
I get that. But the whole answer of ‘There are readers who want it because comics’ is still sort of circular logic for readers as well.
“I don’t assume that he’ll just lean on “but comic books do it!” as an excuse, but that he’ll take it as an opportunity to subvert or deconstruct the genre.”
Yeah, but he did already deconstruct it with Jabberwokky. And probably with Concretia. Concretia has a sympathetic background on why she was being villainous, and Jabberwokky … does not. So he sort of already deconstructed the whole ‘villain heel face turn’ thing. Plus Vehemence simply doesnt seem like the type of person who WANTS to be good, or even have people think he’s good. His only really redeeming value is that he doesn’t really want to kill most people. Which, as far as values go, is setting the bar pretty low to not want to be a murderer of ‘most’ people. :)
Oh sugar, you just gone and done the dumbest thing in your whole life.
Tothogoth isn’t wrong about our corrupt institutions. And frankly they need to be kicked down. By at least ten pegs or more. But he really shouldn’t pick a fight with the Maxima. That’s not going to end well.. *wince*
I’m really hoping that this next scene starts with a broken finger and ends with Maxima getting an opportunity to remove the self-imposed chains.
Really hoping that Maxi finds out that, while she’s the top of the Dirt-pile, she’s below c-level to the rest of the Galaxy
…But she isn’t? We’ve seen alien reactions to supers. From the almost disbelieving reactions even mediocre supers get from aliens we can safely assume that Max is SS tier even by galactic standards.
No, it’s just supers are fairly unique to Dirt, and the ones who have encountered them have been on the low side who probably weren’t expecting them at all
Remember, Lapha and crew thought the stasis gun and pod would be adequate to handle things, which means they have used them in the past to great success
So… if they thought the stasis gun and pod would be adequate, then obviously Maxima is more powerful than they were expecting, and thus more powerful than the average valuable target in the galaxy. So, not “c-level”.
Just because someone turns out to be more than expected doesn’t mean they don’t have something capable they didn’t think would be needed
If it wasn’t for Maxi’s powers, then the gun pod would have been more than adequate: they just weren’t expecting her to also be such a speedster to counter the effects
Exactly. They came up with a method to capture Maxima based on the EXISTING data on her.
That she was incredibly strong and invulnerable, and that she could fire a plasma blast capable of taking down a shielded-up Fel Supercarrier. So they had a capture plan based on that. If they had also known that she’s a speedster and her upper limits of her speed (which they now DO know) they could come up with tech and strategies to counter that as well. Like maybe a slow beam which ALSO turns her intangible to anything but the material of a containment pod, which removes a threat of Maxima to the captors, or perhaps an actual stasis beam, rather than one that just slows her down a lot (it might be more expensive but probably possible). Or her requirement of breathing, which she DOES require, in which case maybe they could make a portal dimension gun to put her in a pocket dimension with some sort of special anesthetizing gas (it worked on Superwoman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, since she also needs to be able to breathe). Maxima’s skin and hair and outside is invulnerable, but she still needs to eat and process food, and her ‘armor’ likely doesnt cover all of her internal organs, just her outer body since it does protect her clothes to some extent, which suggests she isnt as invulnerable from the inside.
Maxima’s power levels are classified for reasons just like that – it makes it harder to develop a strategy to defeat her if you don’t know the extent of her powers at maximum output. It doesn’t mean that her maximum output is unbeatable.
The info regarding the Fel ship and her being able to handle it would suggest she is impressive even by standard galactic ratings.
Cora was very much impressed, and she seems to be pretty knowledgeable about the state of galactic military willy-waving.
If you can get a “you just did WHAT?!!” out of her like with the Fel ship, it’s a pretty good indication that what Maxima can do is unheard of for any one person. Possibly large military arrays/battleships with that power, but definitely not something a person can do.
But still, one person, no matter how powerful, is still, one person
If she were trying to conquer a world that would be an issue, or protect the entire world from a full scale alien invasion. She could do a lot of damage but depending on what methods the aliens use to invade either her sense of not putting people in danger, or screw it I’ll avenge you…or worse yet the aliens have really good PR and the very people she is trying to “save” turn against her not wanting to be saved.
that said against a demon army, I think unless they actually have a real full scale invasion plan and not just the usual demon *open one rift and pour out like a swarm of bees attacking the immediate area and spread out with no real plan of action beyond that* then she as a single S-class has a good shot of ending it by her power slaughtering a few dozen demons drawing the rest of them too her as their hierarchy is usually based on strength so want those rank points taking down the big opposition, and add launching a few nuke level attacks through the portal (a bottle neck position) should put an end to any swarming attack methods.
Unless Tommy is actually speaking latin, he could be using Dominus Secunde as a title, same with the name of his boy-band (remember, Brut only used the umlauts because they looked cool, he didn’t pronounce his name with them)
Well, i know it’s not going to happen, but man, I would LOVE to see Max, Sidney and Dabbler fight an enemy that would be as hard for them as they are for all the smucks they’ve defeated. Those three seem so absolutely sure of their own invincibility that it would actually very good for them to be taken down a couple of pegs, because that kind of attitude sets them up for a nasty fall. So far we the only one of them we’ve seen worried for a moment was Sydney when she fought the Cthulhuzilla’s on the Alari planet, but that lasted like, two minutes?
Yes, that would be a pleasant change, doubt it will ever happen though :(
Um… Vehemence literally did almost beat them all. And Sciona actually succeeded in her plan to return home, even if the plan AFTER returning home did not go at all like she had thought it would thanks to the Alari Homeworld having been already wiped out by the Squidwards.
Maxima gives an arrogant front but still – if she was truly so assured of her own invincibility, she wouldnt need a briefing on how Sydney defeated the Squidwards, now would she? She needs it in order to form a strategy should they ever have to fight them again.
Which admittedly for Maxima so far has amounted her her strategies being ‘hit them even harder.’ (okay, to be fair she did try an alternative strategy against vehemence in the restaurant fight once it was too late for it to be effective). But still, I’m assuming there are people in Archon who do develop better strategies than that.
So, his saying world taker got me thinking, and the fact that while she knows the title, she didn’t know he was that yet..
Could it be that the forces sydney fought on the silnar home world be his forces? If so, he’s in for a very rude awakening.
They’re on US soil, implied to be a military base – or at least, on lease to one. There’s no important infrastructure around here, or they wouldn’t be using it for super-fight practice. It’s far enough away from civilian presence to be considered ‘safe distance’, for the same reason.
Is there any good reason for them not to call in an airstrike? I mean, it’s all well and good if you can fight somebody at a high level of power, but wouldn’t you rather see how they stand up in front of the 30mm autocannons mounted in the noses of about a dozen A-10 Warthogs? Or whether they can tank a few cruise missiles? There’s a good chance that sort of thing could make the whole fight significantly less dangerous – for your side anyhow – and easier, and shorter to boot.
There’re a few.
Secrecy: The existence of his kind is secret even for most parts of the military.
Resource managment: if they can do it without spending millions on fuel, munition and bombs it’s greatly appreciated.
Practice: a great part of them is invulnerable enough to at least play with the option of practicing on real life targets.
Intel: if they can get him alive he is a lot more valuable, because he seems to be a high ranking officer of a hostile force and thus probably in the know about some parts of it’s operation(like: how big is it, what are its primary assets, where is it, how do we get there, what’s keeping them from attacking right now, who’s in command and what are its weaknesses).
I think there’s some sort of Law Of Comics about using conventional forces in a supers battle.
The only exception is if they are using ridiculously cool weapons like a chaingun with six bayonets, Peggy’s sniper rifle, or at least a repeating grenade launcher.
Maybe part of the problem is deployment. AFAIK most military units are not running around all the time ready to shoot something; they have to draw their stuff from an armory which takes time unless you have Harem. OTOH supers are ready to go as soon as they’ve had their morning coffee.
“unless you have Harem”
the JDAM which is a laser guided mainstay of the US armory weighs in at around 600lbs. Hiro, Max, and Sydney could haul that beast around. But really, I’d rather the airmen trained and equipped to handle something with around 500 lbs of high explosives in it do the heavy lifting here.
but yes it takes time to set up and launch anything armed. there are a few jets maintained at ready launch with air to air stuff. but air to ground not so much.
Aaahhh, @DaveB… “OutboundComic” seems to be MIA. The link in the “Webcomics I like” now redirects to Baidu. Comic Rocket lists it as “For Sale”.
I hope he wont miss his finger to much.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a reality check for Maxima, she is in dire need of a humility lesson. She already had a close call with vehemence, twice, Dabbler told she could take the whole team after an orgy, she had to flee Sciona’s planet and both Krona and Sidney could easily beat her, under the proper circumstances. I understand that she is a U.S. colonel and she has been the biggest fish of her pond for most of her life, but it would be better to overestimate your opponent, rather than underestimate them…
She’s not the Pillsbury Doughboy, fella.
Sticking the tip of his claw in her belly button, bad form there…
The only way this gets interesting is if Max(or Max + Sydney) *can’t* solo this guy, because the way she’s been built up so far we’ve been trained to assume that she can easily solo anything and fights only fail to end in One Punch because she’s holding back her true power level or there’s some novel complication.
That said, demonic invasion? Eh. We don’t really know anything about how they run worlds, but given what we do know I give them even odds of legitimately improving things on earth for the average human if they conquered us. Human society, governments, and economy are fucked up on so many levels once you look past the surface that doing better wouldn’t actually be *that* hard for a conquering empire or the ilk(not mentioning any specifics because let’s not get into polyticks in the comment section).
There have been MANY times in the last few years when I thought being conquered by extraterrestrials would benefit humanity as a whole.
As long as they don’t intend to eat us, anyway.
Kalenath, for one, welcomes our new insect overlords. :)
Well, they can’t be worse than our current monkey and lizard overlords… right?
It depends on whether or not you can be helpful in helping to round up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
Technically, isn’t that poke the very definition of assaulting an officer? Sure, it may not be intended to do harm, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over my life? It’s that One Does Not Simply Touch A Cop.
Just sayin’.
Thing is, Thothogoth SAW that tv broadcast where they introduce the team to the people of Earth. He at least has SOME indication of what they (including Max) are capable of. He also may have heard about the Fell incident. In fact, that ‘Found you’ moment was before Sydney got stranded on the Alari planet, so he’s had plenty of time to gather info on Earth and their supers. And still he laughs. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’s gotten a LOTt more powerful than Dabbler remembers. (It also wouldn’t surprise if it turned out Dabbler really screwed him over – she’s always struck me as the kind of person who’s first and foremost interested in her own fun and doesn’t care that much about others. I wouldn’t call her Chaotic Evil, but she’s definitely closer to Neutral than to Good.
The thing is, why doesn’t Max win spars with Dabbler? Because Dabbler knows the spar is coming, and prepares. Speed spells that kick in if Max uses super speed. Shielding spells. Attack spells specifically designed for Max, and already prepped.
If Max just up and attacked Dabbler out of the blue, it would probably be an automatic win for her. But she’d never do that.
Thothogoth knows about Arcswat, has had time to prepare for Arcswat, and he’s not poking Max just because he’s an ahole. He’s prepped specifically for her.
What he doesn’t know is that Sydney is leveled up, and has equipment that seems tailor made for countering magic…
Warning: Do not taunt the Happy Fun Maxima! This isn’t exactly new territory.
very unrelated, but:
not gonna lie, if he was more normal sized i’d hit it..
probably toxic personality, but hey thhat demon bod
People are hyping up Maxima retaliating that belly poke and Thotho losing a finger, but I honestly hoping this triggers a more drawn-out brawl where even Max struggles. It’s been ages since Vehemence’s fight, and Sydney going to space didn’t really give Maxima or the others too many opportunities to shine.
A little scrap here would be really fun. Especially with Vehemence still present as a wild card.
Samson slew the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Thorough is about to do himself in with the same weapon