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.
… He’s not getting that finger back, is he?
he might whether its still attached….
“Do not taunt the Happy Fun Maxima.”
That’s the second Happy Fun ball reference I’ve encountered in as many days.
What.
Into his brain stem, he is.
This is not going to go well for Tom.
My first reaction was “Oh dear…”
Soon he’ll learn just how much he’s underestimated how powerful she and many other humans are, another object lesson to the greater universe to not mess around with Earth.
Lady Maximillia, may all your punches be as an elephant landing on a mouse.
Depends on the size of the elephant and the mouse (reference to the elephants in the second ‘Journey…’ movie with The Pebble, and the rodents in “The Princess Bride”)
While I like the “Just so Stories”, in this case I’ll take Hannibal’s beasts as a measure.
Place your bets: punch or yeet across the playground?
The Hulk classic puny god bashing seems fitting to me.
My thought is “plainer removal”.
I have little doubt that Maxima is going from the attitude & expressions she’s seen from Dabbler. Even though we didn’t see anything in-comic that might suggest that Dabbler had already told Max everything in the past, that’s not to say that it didn’t happen. It’s possible that Max already knows everything she needs to know about Thothogoth.
Dabbler still wasn’t talking about it the last time that it came up in her head.
And she quickly dismissed it when it did
not the brightest in the box, isn’t he?
oOooooo … he gonna die. Ugly.
if Tom is not careful he might find himself speaking out his chest as that neck flesh looks a little like silly putty ……..
I make the bet its Max who will get a much, much needed lesson in humility.
This is the start of a new arc.
I doubt the main opponent is going to fold that easy.
I’m not sure this guy is an antagonist.
He was on the page with all the other ones.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-186-fingers-to-maximum-steepleage/
So was Deus, who is very ambiguous. It’s not out of the question this guy will also be ambiguous.
I mean, he sounds decent, based on his promises. Unfortunately, he’s probably like most other politicians when making those kinds of promises. At least Deus is honest about being out for himself and giving large crumbs to those who serve him.
Deus was clearly and obviously there as the equally powerful counterpoint to all those bad guys.
Sure there are all these villainous antagonists with ill intent, but fortunately we also have the infinitely good paragon of humanity, Deus, here to protect us!
:)
All praise Deus, amen.
I’ll amend my statement to “very ambiguous, unless you’re Pander, High Priestess of the Church of Deus”. ;)
But I suppose that, despite all his machinations, someone should still give him his deus.
I second Deus getting his deux. Exactly what that consists of remains a subject of debate.
Deux tell. ^_^
Dues ride to the rescue at the head of a army of super mercs and green carded Alien Legion Galiana finest!
I’m positing that Max (and perhaps Sydney and/or V) will curbstomp Thothogoth, his size will revert to normal, and Dabbler will intervene to protect her estranged boyfriend. There is likely some ‘Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do’ time coming for Dabbler for not previously disclosing an active area of concern attached to her.
Eh…I do seem to recall this coming up previously, and Dabbles saying “Deal with it later,” or some such.
I think that comment was here, to Cora: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-737-succubus-couture/
I am currently imagining Maxima performing the ‘Wushu Finger’ Hold from Kung Fu Panda on Tommy…
Rip that finger off!!!
And then let Sydney drop him off at Kaiju planet. See if he likes an actual tall boy.
Or bend it backwards. Ouch.
And the only reason Dabbler hasn’t gone for the popcorn is that she doesn’t want to give Tom a heads up.
Harem could use one of herself to bring some in.
I predict either a Maxima finger-suplex body-slam or a barely-suborbital uppercut.
I guess Vehemence batteries willquickly fill up again.
My money’s on him escaping discretly.
Orr…
Maxima: “Kevin, sic ’em!”
Is that finger going to get bent backward? Has Vehemence gone on a little vacation? Just how much of that size-management potion was needed to facilitate relations between Tom and Dabbler? All these questions and more! Next time folks!
Heh, I can’t help imagining the look on Max’s face if she tried bending back Tothogoth’s finger – and discovered it wouldn’t budge!
I’m having flashbacks to the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man. $50 dabbler whispers something in his ear and he shrinks.
Somebody shrinks after Dabbler whispers in their ear? That’ll be a first!
Yeah, Ghostbusters kind of sprang to mind for me, too. “As a duly-designated representative of the City, County and State of New York, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the next convenient parallel dimension.”
‘When someone asks if you are a god, SAY YES!’
Honestly? You would think the mages would be at least remotely competent enough to ward the planet from threats like this…
They probably normally do but Sciona was two, maybe three months ago in-universe and she gutted the system they use to manage planetwide magic. They’re able to keep local effects running well enough, but it’s going to be a while before they can get the global network back up to snuff.
Kevin dumped a *LOT* of karmic energy…. Enough to make Dabbler comment on it…
I doubt the mages or whoever could deal with a localised overload like that..
Hey, humanity has plenty of our own dictators ready to impose their order on everyone already, thanks!
I can just imagine Vehemence trying to get into Thothogoth’s eyeline so can mouth how much of an epically bad idea everything Thothogoth’s doing is.
I can’t see V/Kevin turning down the lunch someone’s about to be fed. After a fight with Thoth, Kevin should be maxxed out and porked up like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
The word your looking for is pop… Big trouble in little China style boom.
I believe this is going to end up in “Bruh” faces from EVERYONE that is not Tom or Max.
Oh my….Thoth has essentially just declared war against the entire planet. There are so many directions this can go. David is ebil ‘cause my popcorn and beer will be stale by Monday.
Plot twist, he’s actually more powerful than Maxima.
It’s possible, given how he is a “boss level enemy” like Vehemence was.
But Maxima did beat up vehemence a lot before he totally turned the tables on Maxima and almost killed her.
The only reason Vehemence got the jump on Maxima is because there was collateral damage nearby. She can’t go full power to offense in a populated area.
Out here? She can let loose.
Plus, in this fight all the other parties present are fighting with Max.
“The power of friendship compels you!”
“And teamwork!”
“Scoville, stop adding stuff!”
Again that also was the case with both the Vehemence and Sciona fights. The other “boss level” characters so far.
V had a bunch of 2nd and 3rd-tier supers charging him up at the restaurant, and Sciona was holed up in in her own lairs both times huge stockpiles of blood magic. This time all the personnel and the venue are all Max’s and Tom’s pretty much on his own, in foreign territory.
Although we don’t know what else is on the other side of the portal with him or what prep work he’s done. But I’d think Tom will have to be tougher than either V or Scion in order to counter Max’s situational advantages.
“V had a bunch of 2nd and 3rd-tier supers charging him up at the restaurant,”
And even with all those 2nd and third tier supers charging him up, a single antimateriel bullet was enough to severely hurt him. It wasnt until Maxima started fighting him that a bullet to the eye did nothing.
Also we have no idea what sort of precautions Tom already has in place. We know he has at least one magical effect going – and he probably has quite a few more as well. Plus again, there are a lot of assumptions being made by a lot of people that, for some reason, this guy will be a cakewalk for Maxima, despite there being NO reason for anyone to make that assumption. Especially since even Dabbler is impressed with his title, which apparently he did not have the last time they interacted. Probably symbolic of his power levels if he’s second in command of some massively powerful demonic horde.
“Although we don’t know what else is on the other side of the portal with him or what prep work he’s done”
Exactly. Which is why I’m not making an assumption that he’d be a cakewalk, as cathartic as that might be for when he starts acting like such a jerk. :)
“But I’d think Tom will have to be tougher than either V or Scion in order to counter Max’s situational advantages.”
Yeah, I feel that way too. :)
Plus, genre-savvy-speaking, generally in a superhero narrative (or a video game) the third boss level is probably going to be more difficult than the first and second boss levels.
The inverse ninja effect is in play too. Then again, he just declared himself invincible and challenged her to a fight, which may cancel out inverse ninja effects.
Both are good tropes that you bring up. :) Plus you used in comic links for both tropes. Nicely done.
Um…. maxima DID go full power multiple times against Vehemence, and therecwas a ton of collateral damageto the surrounding area.
Max is also QUITE the glass cannon. While her durability is nothing to sneeze at, her plasma bolt’s power output is FAR greater than the scale of what it takes to significantly injure her. So it depends – does she get in the first shot with her best weapon? That is likely a different outcome than if she tries to punch her way through the same problem.
I strongly suspect that is Max shoots, Sydney will revert to “Kaiju Battle Survival Ultra Instinct” mode and suddenly become absolutely goddam terrifying to everyone.
Possibly resulting in her getting the kill…and immediately making everyone look at the little goofball in a very, very different light.
…yeah, this could get very, very unhappy-making very, very quickly. \’=(
Then again, Sydney needs to grind as much XP as she can – probably in the Team’s best interest to assist where necessary but otherwise let Sydney do the work.
if you’ll remember back on page 4 Anvil Says ‘look out the big guns are here’ while Max is standing right there.
I don’t think she’s making a joke about Sydney’s brawl size, I think she’s commenting about what the whole team
by this point in the story are all aware of…that Max is the SECOND most powerful super on the team.
> and suddenly become absolutely goddam terrifying to everyone.
I’d really like that plotline:
Everyone adjusting to knowing just how powerful and terrifying The Mighty Halo is, her dealing with people being scared of her, etc…
I think it’s unlikely, because Dabbler probably gave Archon some intel on the power of demons, so Maxima would have some idea of what she’s up against.
I somehow doubt Dabbler mentioned Thothogoth from the murmuring convo between her and Cora.
Not him specifically, but demons in general, including his “type”.
“Put that finger on me again and I’ll take it away from you.”
Wow. I see this a lot in Wuxia stories. Character 1 (Thothogoth), who was defeated by Character 2 (Xuriel), suddenly thinks he can take on Character 3 (Maxima), who has fought Character 2 and tied. Not to mention that this is not a duel, he called out the Earth. The whole team is going to beat him like he didn’t have supper ready when they got home. I expect Vehemence will throw in for S&Gs.
Is it wrong that I kind of like Thothy here. Like considering just the history we know and the flashbacks it’s implied this isn’t just an overreaction from him. Dabbler probably screwed him over a bit. Like I don’t think it’s completely on Thoth that she ditched him just mostly on Thoth. I think they should just talk. If he didn’t just threaten to take over Earth I’d argue Max shouldn’t even get involved in this.
He seems like an all right conqueror. Definitely Lawful Evilish, but if you read his exact words, he’s not talking out of the evil side of his mouth.
Are you trying to be reasonable or something?
How about an Aetherium Gateway around his head and then close it.
Aetherium Causeway :)
“I have an Army.”
“We have a Maxima…”
“And a Sydney.”
“Can I offer you a drink?”
Outnumbered but never outpunned.
Some mother fucker is always trying to ice skate uphill.
Tommy boy done goofed
So he basically just threatened to invade Earth with an army? Did he really do that in front of Max? Did this guy not see her core out an entire Cruiser in a single shot, clear through its shielding?
I mean, there’s bravado, then there’s just sheer stupidity. He just slid into the latter. If Dabbler doesn’t calm him down soon, he’s gonna write a check with his mouth that his ass and his army isn’t going to be able to cash.
Uhm Secundus dude? You just went from guy that might have a reason to be there to saying you plan to invade and kill those here. That is a declaration of War. Xuriel knows the abilities of your army to let the lesser powers combine to take them down. You have several Powerful foes right there. Including but not limited to Max, Halo, and Vehemence.
This is really looking like the Belgian army trying to invade the USA.
Well Dabs was said to be hiding from this guy so he may be tougher than the average baddy. Dabbler was able to fight Max to a standstill so maybe Max is weak against magic? Then again she tanked a weakness field spell in the vault and a vampire stare from a not robot, so… yeah maybe don’t poke the Alpha super.
Also a secundus implies a primus so this guy could just be the set up to something bigger… though probably smaller
Well, there’s the sort of hiding where you change your name and leave the country, and the sort of hiding where you say ‘Oh god, him again? Tell him I’m not here.” Dab’s attitude so far seems to lean more one way than the other, but we’ll see.
It’s a good thing he has his hand out already, Maxima is about to put his ass in it
Oh no he didn’t
this is not gonna end well for him
Maxima, please don’t murder him at least
When Maxima asks you what army,she means you no longer have a army
if you use magic to make yourself bigger, does that increase the area of your aura ? I mean if you get big enough, I could see Syd using telepresence to teleport inside you and then giving some terminal indigestion.
BUT
I assume that you just penetrate a person “magical” auras normally.
curious on the whole powers vs people. AKA deadliest person in a fight is a discrete tuned TK who gives heart attacks and strokes, not boulders and busses to the enemy.
Sydney: “There’s size magic and you didn’t tell me?”
She handed her a vial.
I thought that that was Elasticgirl potion.
Max hands him off to Sydney and says the limits are off, just try to keep the collateral damage to the quarry.
Sydney: release restraint level….Zero.
When hope is gone,
undo this lock
and send me forth
on a moonlit walk
Max: “Halo?”
Sydney: “Yes, Max… Ma’am!”
Max: “Care to tell me how this fellow compares to the things you fought on the Alari homeworld?”
Sydney: “Errr, wouldn’t I have to fight him to be able to know that?”
Max: “That’s the general idea, yes. Only potential collateral damage in the area is Kevin, and we know he can take it.”
Sydney: *grinning and giggling*
“Even so, remember to fire up into space or down into the ground, not into the next county.”
Going further, there aren’t a lot of sentients that know Sydney took out multiples of them. He’s not concerned about Maxima, but it would be funny if he learns that Sydney defeated multiples of them and suddenly starts backpedaling.
Thothogoth: “That was YOUR team?”
Max: “No, just her.”
Thothogoth: (Shrinking back to normal size) “Hold on a minute. I think we got off on the wrong foot here.”
Bonus points if it turns out that the army he’s referring to are what hit the Alari, and that those creatures are the “Dominus Primus” or similar.
Seems plausible. I’m still curious how widely known the destruction of Alar and/or their invaders is. Cora called them “world killers” just after arriving in orbit, and we still don’t know what she knew about them or when/how she learned it.
Considering there were Alari refugees on fractal, that seems to represent a public awareness of it happening.
Excellent point, I’d forgotten that plot thread… I wonder how things are going in Galytn.
So the destruction is known for sure, but the exact cause may not be… but surely there are some decent eyewitness accounts among the survivors, so if the Squiddies are a known faction it’s probably public knowledge. I wonder how that investigation is proceeding over at the Xevoarchy (assuming they didn’t order it).
No, no it doesn’t: that encounter was over a month ago, so extremely doubt that they would be the same
She might ask Vehemence if he’d like to have a little more ‘fun’, or ask Sydney to take out the trash. Dabbler is cracking wise, so she’s not panicking about him being too powerful for them to handle.
I hope it’s Vehemence. I can honestly see her using V as a way to test Thothogoth’s power before engaging.
Thats a damn good way to test his power level and possibly get rid of a major annoyance at the same time.
“Hey kevin?” “Yeah?” “Limiters off, take him down” *cue evil grin from V*
Yeah, I was just thinking this is as close to an ideal case as possible for a major incursion. Contained environment, all the heavy hitters are present – and nearly no one else. Vehemence still nearly fully powered, if you want to throw him at the issue.
Honestly, given the reaction Dabbler had when Vehemence revealed his powerset – I’m pretty sure they could stomp this guy right now. If Maxima can’t do it alone, the team can.
Vehemence may or may not still be fully charged. He was at least preparing to dump excess power into the ground, when his means of doing so apparently gave Thothogoth his opening to manifest. It’s not clear from the relevant page whether he got as far as actually dumping power (as opposed to only preparing), and if so how much he’s still carrying.
My read of that page is that he dumped *some* of it, hence my ‘nearly fully powered’ – how close I don’t know, but at the point he got thrown off he still looked fairly high-powered to me.