Grrl Power #250 – It’s only overconfidence if he loses
Sydney will explain “Inverse ninja” on the next page, but this is one of those cases where I probably need to scoop her so those of you unfamiliar with the trope are up to speed. Basically it says the more bad guys the heroes face, the less of a threat they are. In other words, 100 Stormtroopers? No sweat. One Darth Vader? Big problem. Weirdly, the way the trope works, 100 Darth Vaders are exactly the same threat as 100 Stormtroopers. It’s only when you get down to the last one that he becomes a threat. It’s like, conservation of action. Normally there’s no way the hero could beat 100 Darth Vaders, and that’s why it makes a good cliffhanger to end on, but when the next episode starts, the hero gets a lucky shot and hits the gravity suck death vortex thingy that 99 of the Vaders were clustering around, but that last one? No way he’s going down in one lucky shot.
Two hundred and fifty pages. Part of me wants to pat myself on the back and part of me wants to kick myself for doing a 50 page fight. I really didn’t intend it to last that long which is especially ridiculous considering how much I cut (ahem, saved for later I mean), and as you can probably guess from this page it’s not quite over yet, but I promise I will make the remainder as concise and entertaining as I know how.
I don’t know why I’m so bad about remembering little details panel to panel, other than there just being a lot of details to remember. But I bring it up because I want to point out that Vehemence’s coat didn’t repair itself in the last panel, I just forgot to draw it all torn up somehow. It’s a fairly minor art repair, I just didn’t have time to fix it as I’m scheduling this post at 1 am.
Remember the Who’s Who is just people with dialog, otherwise it’d be taller than the comic.
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According to the “Super Names Always Matter” theory, this “Vehemence” must be powered by strong emotion.
In which case this whole many-on-many high-stakes brawl was actually staged to psionically power him up. He benefits from the feelings of betrayal he elicited from Vektor.
That would make a lot of sense actually. He could feed on the confusion and frustration of Archon while they try to figure out what his deal is. Don’t think that’s actually the case, but if it was it would not surprise me.
There’s also a matter of the possibility of irony, as this webcomic is not bound by the unwritten rule of anvil-level subtlety in the Marvel and especially DC universes. His code name already describes him in much the same way the One-Piece CP9 member known as the Silent Owl lives up to his moniker. Vehemence is calm, subtle, enigmatic, with quite a dry sense of humor so far. It’s also possible his name indeed has something to do with his powers, but more in a ‘the cobbler’s children have no shoes’ sense? That, or it has to do with the people he represents more than himself?
Chapapapapapa!
Interestign thought:
His marks seem to have the same color as Halo’s Shield. Halo’s power has so far avoided classification and was able to withstand even some of the Lt.’s more powerfull attack.
What if his and Halo’s Power have the same, currently unknown source?
From his expression, I’d guess he doesn’t have balls, he has a suppository.
They might be linked, but I don’t think it’s likely they have the same exact source. After all, Vehemence has that whole “Herculean build” that natural supers are born with, so he isn’t powered by an Artifact of Sealed (unknown) like Sydney is. But the orbs might ultimately come from whoever he is/who (or what) he’s descended from.
Or he works out like every moment he can because to maintain a build that prevents other supers from automatically looking for his Hidden Dragon Balls…
Possible, but that would still require a naturally unnatural build, seeing as he’s the standard 7’4 that the rest of the male supers are. For an example of somebody who basically works out all the damn time, see Math.
It’s a minor thing but can you somehow make it so that when we click a who’s who we get a list of the comics that they’ve been a who’s who for? It’d help for some of the minor characters we haven’t seen for a while or if we’re clicking through past strips.
Feels to me like that would require some database querying, (actually it certainly will) which I’m not quite sure Dave is up to.
Would need to find someone to do it.
I think that would work, but I’d have to switch my comic management back end from ComicPress to ComicEasel, something which I plan on doing eventually, but not for a few months at least. Probably the next time I move hosts, I’ll hire someone to clean up the site backend and do all that stuff.
So you plan to just wait and do a dozen things all at the same time, while moving to a new server and making us suffer in limbo……..great idea!
Makes sense to me. If you’re gonna switch hosts you’d have to go a’coding anyway.
That’s why I’m planning on hiring the guy who wrote ComicPress/Easel to do it. :)
Assuming all of the who’s who’s use the same images (Or a small pool of images) It would not be too hard to create a script to query the archive, roll through the list of pages, parse each page, and create a list of instances of each image in the Who’s Who
You could then upload that information some extra page. It wouldn’t be as clean as coding a proper backend but I could do it no problem.
I think that function is more or less built in to ComicEasel, which is regularly maintained.
So does this mean that Shawn can sue Vekter for destroying his only way to get to work? =)
In this case, Vector is an exception to the “Don’t hit someone with a car” rule, since he can’t hit someone harder than whacking them with an object (TK by itself, particularly with the “no living targets” rule, doesn’t hurt all that badly, unless you’re using it to pinch off blood vessels in the brain, or doing the “Force Choke” bit, or something.)
Just a little note: Ex- anything military usually means the person was dishonorably discharged. That’s why you often hear someone described as “a former” Ranger/Seal/Marine/etc… Doesn’t mean anything, really, just something that they pointed out to us. I was “former” infantry, not “ex” infantry.
Actually, using “Ex-(military)” doesn’t necessarily mean Dishonorable Discharge. What? No one can retire from their job (earning the “ex-“) without it having negative connotations?
However, it’s still acceptable to use the regular job-title (in some cases) for someone who’s retired with positive distinction: Presidents are still addressed as such, even after they’re out of Office (with or without Impeachment being a factor).
Just because it’s a technically accurate definition doesn’t mean that’s the proper reference. After all, a widow is an “ex-wife.” Precision in language, sir.
The ninja rule: one ninja is the most efficient fighter in the world
The inverse ninja rule: a bunch of ninja are the most inefficient group of fighter in the world
basically if this apply for supers: 1 super will always win against a bunch of supers, that’s why supers should battle on 1 to 1 to have fair fights
“and then he threw a chimney at us!”
In a different genre, “Beam me up, quick! It just ate my phaser!”
It’s not that they’ll always win but a single super who takes on an entire team will almost certainly be more powerful than any individual member of the team.
I do believe this is known as “the Conservation of Ninjutsu” on TVtropes. Beware: tvtropes will eat your soul. Also a lot of time.
“Come to TVTropes…We have boobies!”
… Say what you like about Vehement, but I can’t help but admire his sense of style. ^^;
Yeah, was just about to say i realy like his style. Wanna take bets on whether he has diplomatic imunity or not? :)
Oh, I hope he isn’t Dr. Doom-expy. ^^ He seemed more levelheaded than that when talking to Sydney before.
Terry Pratchetts Discworld has the same thing! They call it ‘The Code’ over there…
I guess it had to be a cadillac. A Smart Car would’ve driven itself out of reach.
No, I don’t think so. Those things seem to make their drivers think they’re invincible. Too many times to count, I had one buzz in front of me so close I lost sight of it (I drove a semi). That’s less than the length of the “Smart” car from my front bumper! …don’t get me started!
Smart Car. Dumb Driver.
Is that Duke Nukem standing beside Dabbler?! O_o
i don’t believe it is though i can’t recall if dave has actually given the name of the Nukem look alike.(if so probably earlier in the fight when harem was arming the team)
it’s goose, his name.
where are his hands in panel 2? are they in the pockets of his suit jacket? most of those suit jacket pockets are fake and don’t actually function as pockets
In his pockets, real tailored jackets have real pockets
Well when I can afford one I’ll learn that fact for myself
Long time reader, first time commenter! LOVE this comic.
I think Terr (above) is onto something with Vehemence’s name meaning something. His powers may be emotionally charged. Possibly he ‘amped’ up when everyone was getting decked in the past few seconds. He may also be some sort of ambient power leech.
Some things to keep in mind:
1. Vekter knows him (or knew him) by his work name.
2. He’s been watching this whole time, and he really hasn’t done anything to help his ‘fellow’ villains.
3. On the contrary, he’s just prevented their escape. This makes me think two things:
a.) He wants them there, obviously.
b.) Maybe he NEEDS them there.
Hello new commenter, love Harls and have a moneybank that looks similar to your picture :D
“Montebanc” ? Spell checkers are dangerous beasts that should be locked away and fed lawyers.
Wasn’t a typo (no idea what a ‘montebanc’ even is)
Montebank – A flamboyant charlatan. Or a fancy phoney to back off on the syllable count. Harlequins could be considered as a class of montebank I suppose. And neither has anything to do with moneybanks except for trying to get at the contents under false pretenses.
Have a real moneybank in the shape of Harls (from the hips up), same style as MsChiff‘s icon, but the eyes are goign the other direction and the ‘hat pom-poms’ are sticking up more (and she’s plastic :()
That kind of reminds me of that tera-kinetic in the show “Heroes” who was the leader of the traveling circus of powered individuals. Not only was he able to move earth with his mind, but his level of power was proportional to the number of “circuits folks” in his cadre.
Tactically that is some rubbish positioning.
Yeah, but I’m sure its just so DaveB can get the reaction shots of as many of those who will participate in the next fight as he can.
My theory is he didn’t want anyone stopping his enjoyment of the fight to come. Opal was just about to by dragging everyone including himself outta there while Vektor was about to by avenging Opal. He was probably also giving himself an opportunity to warm up in the process. I also think he was using the warm up fight to weed out anyone among the heroes who might not be up to his challenge rating.
That was a response to MsSchiff’s post.
If they knew he was there this whole time I’m surprised they didn’t bitch him out at some point for loafing around while the group, and then just them, are getting their arses handed to them. Vekter seems to know him better then he new most of the chaff. (I don’t know that for sure since he definitely underestimated him just now but I feel things are pointing that way)
For the record I had planned on putting a panel in with Vekter yelling at him “Feel free to help any time asshole!” but somehow I kept moving it or forgetting about it.
You could still have a light muttering from Vektor: “First he Pikes have the fight, then he backstabs our ride home so he can aggro their whole front line?”
At which Sydney could geek out and point “GAMER!”.
Doubt he’s do much talking one way or the other.
Thank you for clearing that up. :)
Opal should have just opened a portal that made one of the stronger heroes attacking someone weak fall through it to end up attacking Vehemence! Though I guess they were keeping her advantage on the down low so the get-a-way driver didn’t get targeted… Maybe Vekter could have picked up rocks near Vehemence and thrown them at Maxima thus using power ventriloquism (to throw ones power? Powerloquism? not really a short way to say it……. ) to get Vehemence targeted.
Because Vekter was so much more involved in the fight than Vehemence was?
Yowch, those teeth again. When you see the teeth, get out of the way or you’re in a world of hurt.
Um, this may sound weird, but what if he has the ability where the more allies he looses, the more he powers up? Like a revenge type ability.
Say one ally drops, he gains a boost to his attack and defence. He just lost how many people?
Uh oh.
The problem I see with that is they were more like pawns than allies.
Someone made a similar argument for Death Toll. But powers like that would make your combat abilities really hard to bring to bear. I just doubt the way this character is being brought in to play that he shares that much in common with Death Toll. (hard to activate powers… )
For such a power to work, you’d have to actually concider those people allies. He doesn’t, they are just pawns to him
250 pages? CONGRADULATIONS!!! *curtseys*… and NOW INTRODUCING the MAIN EVENT! or is that a bit of an understatement? lol! HUGS!
If he was Paul Gruber’s brother, they should get John McClane and call it Die Hard with a Vehemence.
Crash of cymbals and loud explosion!
That needed a bit more than a rimshot.
you forgot the “Yippy-ki-ya mother ****”
Soo… he is dead now isn’t he? Vekter that is.
Or at the very least pretty badly injured, and going to spend a few months in traction.
I dunno, a smart TK limited to metal/earth might be wearing chainmail that he can stiffen to take the hit. Remember the first rule of the smart villain: when you get obviously taken out by a hit you play possum and then fade into the background.
Given how Vehemence reacts and responds towards Halo, I’d say it’s fairly likely that Mr.LovesLethalForce Vekter won’t be getting up any time soon.
You know what? I’m excited for this fight to be over, because then this DAY will be over. It has been the same singular day for four years!
Haw, I’m worried Sidney will be too familiar and casual with the people on the team simply because to US(and presumably Dave as well) this is a four year long relationship with the characters.
WE are familiar with them, but realistically, Sidney cannot be.
Well this day is actually a flashback.
So I gues after this fight, we’ll fast forward a few months to the new status quo
A fast-forward would really suck…
Don’t be worried; of COURSE she will be. Just because she doesn’t know them very well doesn’t mean she won’t (sorry about that) act familiar towards them; after all, that’s just how she is. As I’ve said, her body pumps caffeine and capsaicin instead of blood; she’s hyper and if she could breath fire, it wouldn’t fully classify as a superpower, or even a surprise.
Besides, she knows the group just as well as we do; so far, Dave’s focused mostly on her point of view, so other than Harem’s meeting with Mystery Guy A, we’ve really only seen what she has. Actually, we’ve probably seen an hour or two less than she has, though the game at the very beginning may have been a couple of hours (for those of you who don’t play tabletop RPGs, trust me, combat takes a LONG time, even without people arguing about how stuff works. or arguing in general); however, that mostly gave us info on Sydney herself, not really anything on anyone else.
However, I just caught that Sydney makes Corporal! Good for her! And in a couple of months…. That’s rather impressive ladder-climbing. She rapidly gets a higher rank than Skippy!
Lot of info dumps, introductions and “getting to know you” moments to get through. Now that the introduction of new characters and world building stuff will slow down the comic can speed up. Still be so many days a YEAR but definitely way faster than this I bet.
Is it me, or does Vehemence kinda remind anyone of Joe Fixit (AKA the Grey Hulk)?
Can anyone tell me who the guy with the blond hair and red t-shirt is or is he just a homage to Duke Nukem?
Well, I just read through the comments and dozen folks asked that question and two dozen said it was a guy named “Goose”. Goose is the guy who stuck the knife in Death Tolls arse according to DaveB and his name is in the Who’s/Who of that comic post but not here for some reason? I guess because you have to say something or do something more than “strike a pose” to get in the Who’s/Who.
Anyway you are not alone in wondering so maybe DaveB should break that guideline this time and put Goose in today’s Who’s/Who as well until folk get a lock on him.
Goose “doesn’t say much”, so instead of when having a dialog (never) I bet he has been included when somehow it is relevant, like when he did the, er, prominent stab.
I do not think it will make any difference, experience say people just do not read before comment.
That’s goose – he, like shaun, is a former soldier who traded up for something more exciting. he also happens to bear an unfortunate resemblance to a certain 90’s video game character
Yep, he joined ARCHON because being a Ranger wasn’t ENOUGH of a Challenge.
did somebody say inverseninja? https://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/17p70/
i always forget which email i used to make the gravatar. woops.
I wonder if you could successfully use Death Toll’s unconscious body as a shield to counter this guy’s attacks. Only one way to find out!
You’re joking but I’m pretty sure if he kept protecting himself when unconscious then they would have had to kill him to capture him. However it might work if he was semi-conscious? Adjust one of those wrist thingies so they could bring him around as needed and mount him on a frame with handles much like the one I proposed for Achilles. Then the two strong arm heroes wielding the two “ultimate defense” wierdos could lead the charge shield bashing as they go!
I have to wonder why Vekter used a car as a weapon. If he wanted to do damage, he’d be better off using one of his metal marbles. The same amount of kinetic energy pushing a little steel ball is much more dangerous. That’s the principle behind guns.
Simple. Force = Mass x Acceleration.
Guns work off of an extremely high acceleration to compensate for mass.
If both objects are accelerating at the same speed, then the object with more mass is going to do more damage. The possible caveat to that is, if the density of his marbles are significantly higher than the larger object, then it’s possible to cause more damage because the larger object (the car in this example) crumples into the object, dissipating some of the energy due to crumpling.
For vekter to get the same amount of kinetic energy from his metal marbles ( I just can’t bring myself to say his steel balls), he’d probably have to accelerate them to hyper-velocities.
Hyper-velocities is rather the point. He applies the exact same amount of force to a metal marble, it accelerates a lot faster. When it hits, the force will be distributed over a much smaller area, and thus more likely to do damage.
He should be able to do a pretty good imitation of a rifle. The same force that it takes to toss a car at someone applied to a bullet would be pretty impressive.
It is odd for lots of reasons (why not strike upwards and lift the strongman into the air? Why not grab him with rocks and lift? Why not try to choke/blind him with dust? Why not surf you and your girlfriend out of there on a rock [ if he can lift himself which we don’t know yet]?) but I’ve just been assuming his professionalism, if he really had all that much, died when his girlfriend got whacked down and he was just reacting wildly at the end there. His powers seem to have some funky hard limits all over the place to help with writing but if I try to think about how those work without a LOT more evidence I’ll give myself a headache… so the psychological answer is less painful.
Well, there’s a strong argument in favor of Vektor losing at least *some* of his TK control when Opal got the smackdown. By definition, TK is initiated by mental focus & concentration, so when he saw her fall, he lost some of his mental focus & reacted more by reflex and/or panic instead of any kind of effective planning & focused thought.
He might have a somatic limitation on his TK (object only moves as fast as he waves his hand), meaning he can’t reach higher speeds regardless of mass.
See, though, this depends on his TK being Force based. It’s entirely possible that it works by causing acceleration or manipulating velocity regardless of mass (which would be a terrifying weapon, depending).
One point in favour of this is the sheer number of objects he’s flinging at once- he doesn’t seem like the sort who’d be interested in the mental discipline to focus on that many individual items- however, if he’s simply saying ‘This stuff is moving in this direction at this speed’ it makes things like that shield a lot more reasonable.
Also, his name’s Vektor, not Newtonne.
All Telekinesis is Force based. It’s the power to manipulate kinetic energy, also known as force, at range. Acceleration is a function of force applied to a mass. Manipulating velocity is a matter of changing either the direction of travel or the acceleration, and is done by applying force.
That’s not saying that all Telekinetics can do the Telekinetic Rifle trick. Maybe Vektor can’t. Only DaveB knows. It seems like a likely stunt for someone who carries around metal marbles to use as a focus for his powers.
There is a finite limit to hyper velocities though. To top that off, you won’t even get to the limit before things go bad, very bad. Just like the electron positron issue a few pages back, once you go past a certain velocity threshold you pretty much kill yourself and everyone without defenses against hard radiation and subatomic particle spray. Please refer to https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ for a more in depth analysis with decent enough illustrations.
The thing to remember here is that for the amount of Force is Mass times Velocity. So to increase force you either increase the mass or the velocity, and as I just pointed out, velocity gets very very dangerous.
I’m going to call that Max and Vehemence will develop a “it’s complicated” close relationship that will last for most of the comic or so.
To make it standard way I dove, and almost drowned, in TV Trope (https://tvtropes.org) and got this:
I call that this battle will end with them becoming Worthy Opponent to each other. Surely there will be some Combat Compliment.
I call that Max will end finding Evil Virtues in Vehemence and maybe he will come up being her Evil Counterpart (they are alike except for the alignment).
He is likely a Magnificent Bastard. Also we already saw him doing the Pet The Dog (being nice) and probably will do it again.
I bet that will be a Take That Kiss, in this fight or later, likely from Vehemence’s part, maybe to buy himself an open.
Vehemence seems to be a Spirited Competitor (fight just for the challenger) and that will drag him to Max over and over.
I bet that there will be some Foe Romance Subtext (attraction without acting on it) and maybe they end Go Karting With Bowser (dating off duty in a friendly way).
I really really really hope they end having a Destructo Nookie (earthquake sex). Maybe they will do Dating Catwoman (accepting the feelings and going ahead with them) but I do not think so.
It is possible that they comes up being a Designated Villain and/or Designated Hero (everybody think so but they are not actually it) but I really doubt it.
Well, we will see.
PS: All the italicized names can be use in the search bar of TV Tropes site.
“fight just for the challenger” = “fight just for the challengE”
IF he takes her seriously as a challenge and shows no sign of disrespecting her or her power because she is female (like refusing to fight in a certain way that he would against a male etc… ). If he doesn’t torment his victims or act like “Might makes Right” as any time. If he shows signs of a understandable Cause. If, if, if…. then maybe there might be some respect there for a fellow soldier that might slowly creep towards the Frenemy stage where they might even be able to work together “just this once” on a few occasions to save the world or a friends life etc… MAYBE even some “tension” might develop over the course of a LOT of time if Maxima has trouble finding a boyfwiend as a giant female OSCAR award. I don’t think Maxima would create the kind of security risk that getting involved sexually/romantically with a criminal would cause (unless he is a undercover agent for our side…. ). It just doesn’t match her personality to date. (she’s also kind of a stick in the mud when it comes to sexuality)
Glad you agree :)
Ok, ok, I take that back, I was trying to do a jokingly answer but then realized that my reply contradicts my opinions.
To be clear I actually do NOT think Max will see a romantic relationship with Vehemence as a security risk, she is too careful to have a slip no matter what, and too self confident to be afraid of it.
But, as I already said, I also do NOT think that they will have a romantic relationship, for a lot of another reasons. There we agree :)
BTW yes, each prediction have implicit my belief that all the prerequisites will be fulfilled, of course. Also take note that far now Vehemence has not done anything actually EVIL. He even stopped a massive escape of criminals. He is a HERO :))
Seeing how he took down Opal I really doubt it :)
Anyway I take that you do not agree with my predictions, or see them as improbable, and it is fine.
I’m edging towards improbable but with more data who knows. And the comics too know for me to know if she comes in as his type physically or in other ways…
If he turns out to be a part of ARCDARK or something like it his chances go WAY up the moment she figures that out. His lack of a badge or any kind of nod from the government makes him a pure vigilante to Maxima and I don’t think she likes them much. Right now he’s a vigilante that just used potentially lethal force against HER perps. So if they have sexual tension I bet it goes with whichever trope says: “You piss me off so much I have to kiss you!” I’ve seen that a lot so I know it must be one. Though I wouldn’t like it much if DaveB went that route.
The one reason I won’t entirely discount the possibility is because watching Maxima squirm or get pissed off cause she has developed harsh views about people treating her as a sexual being is a big probably permanent running gag in this comic. I mean eventually someone she is capable of having feelings for HAS to come along to bring that to its ultimate fulfillment.
That second sentence got really garbled somehow. It was supposed to be something like, “And the comic’s too new for me to know if he is her type physically or in other ways…” That was just scary bad proof reading even considering these are just quickie comments on a webcomic!
It happens to me all the time!! :) Also I edit a lot (a lot) and if in a hurry (almost always) then many errors in conjugations and words order.
You dug up a lot of tropes for your theories…No disrespect for you research ability. But I also keep in mind that Dave has openly admitted that he’s going to use and *abuse* tropes in this comic a lot.
I suspect you just provided plenty of research material for him to invert & subvert later in the comic…
I hope :)
As the saying goes, “there is nothing new under the sun”. Eventually, almost every work of literature either follows, inverts, subverts, or averts at least one trope.
Or, and this is probably more true, people make up tropes to fit stories rather than stories using tropes
I don’t think that a trope (itself, as opposed to its name) is so much “made up” as its particular pattern is recognized.
The name is certainly made up, but the pattern exists.
You could say that a story retroactively uses a trope once it’s been defined.
Just noticed the symbol on his hands and forehead is “power” as in a power button on the computer.
Ones on the hands are closer than the head one. The extra lines connecting them throw it off as well.
Just as long as he does not have a big apple missing a bite on his chest. Don’t need an “iBad” hogging all the fun there.
So you’d prefer he have a chunky little robot man with antennae?
He’s not a robot, he’s just a naughty little droid.
No no no. Nor a little Penguin really. But an “intel inside” would be VERY funny to me for some reason.
Oh My!! It would be hilarious if he powers up by consuming microprocessors.
Would that make him vulnerable to design flaws like the original Pentium “math issue”?
guys all this is nice and all but I’m still trying to figure out the powers of the last two balls in Halo’s arsenal. They have to be important, otherwise their wouldn’t a reason they made such a big deal about it up to this point early on. Night is ever done without a reason and situation like this could be that very reason we don’t know, then again the power up she did right before the restaurant was destroyed could of course also come into play here even sooner. You never know what could be of greater importance in a situation like this.
Everyone is wondering about Sydney’s Mystery Balls, well, everyone except DaveB
My guess is that one ball is thoroughly mapped out and is integral to major plot and character development later on. The OTHER ball is a left over “Get Out of Jail Free Card” in case DaveB writes himself into a truly nasty corner later on. Then he whips out the heavily, but generically, foreshadowed vunderbal to save the day, and his arse, we all applaud his genius for getting us all worked up about something he clearly had mapped out from day one (but actually didn’t). And I will be applauding just as loud because while it may seem like a cheat its a really smart one that I may steal for myself some day… Always plan out your exit strategy as far in advance as you can!
I’m really excited that I found this webcomic. I’m loving it!
This is something I’ve been wondering… do the Archon foot soldier folks like Goose and Sean have superpowers or were they just special forces like Peggy?
Because Sean appeared long ago as an example of transferring personnel when they were explaining why Archon was a new military branch and not a non-military agency, but it wasn’t clear whether that meant he had superpowers or if he was just a really well trained soldier.
They are not super but “special”, none specific skill has been mentioned yet.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/385
Has not been stated if Shawn is a super, a skilled normal like Math, or a regular space marine.
He has the ability to swim fast, hold his breath a REALLY long time and talk to marine mammals. But the Maxima League rarely has need of these abilities (like this fight…) baring certain natural disasters so he falls back on his training as a Navy Seal most of the time.
Hah, I like that :)
Later on he looses his hand and has it replaced with a water proof assault rifle/grenade launcher a la Dabbler. ( why does Aquaman actually seem cool when inserted into DaveB’s universe? ;D )
Nope, nothing can make AquaDork seem cool, not even DaveB
The Villain Tally Returns, Likely for it’s last installment… Think of it now more like a retrospective on the fight thus far. Now that we’re down to the final boss there isn’t too much use for this list anymore. It’s been fun keeping track of all this and if we ever get a big brawl arc again I will likely do something similar to this.
Reminders:
+ My original post of this list and its subsequent commentary can be found HERE
+ Things that I specifically want verified will be marked with this symbol: *(?)*
+ Suggestions for unnamed bad guys are welcome, but I get the feeling we’ve found out most if not all that matter at this point
Changelog for V1.10:
+ Active/Defeated status and “last seen” page # as usual
Still Active (In rough order of 1st appearance)
1) “Vehemence” [1st appearance: #186]
——Last seen double-crossing Vekter #250
———————————————————————————
Out of the Fight (In rough order of presumed defeat)
1) Blue-haired Meat-head [1st appearance: #200]
——Beaten by Anvil in #202
2) Crystal-handed (Apparently naked) Meat-head [1st appearance: #202]
——Backhanded by Maxima in #203
3) “Shadow Boxer” [1st appearance: #205]
——Beaten by Halo in #206
4) Caucasian male wearing black shirt [1st appearance: #206]
——Choked out by Anvil in #206
——may be Defeated Villain 19 below pictured face down in #224 *(?)*
5) Spiky hair with yellow tuft Male [1st appearance: #207]
——Bean-bagged in the face by Shawn in #207
6) “Concretia” [1st appearance: #204]
——Beaten by Math in #209 and shot by Peggy in #216
——Inactive status unconfirmed
7) Female in red costume with gymnastics ribbon [1st appearance: #204]
——Beaten by Achilles (launched by Maxima) in #209
8) Caucasian Male in white tank top [1st appearance: #210]
——Beaten by Math in #210
9) Black Male with fire knuckles [1st appearance: #210]
——Beaten by Math induced friendly fire in #210
10) Laser beam eyes [1st appearance: #204]
——Ameteur dentistry by Math in #211
11) “Lee Press-on Claws” [1st appearance: #204]
——Beaten by Halo in #212
12) Anvil’s 3rd bad guy [1st appearance: #212]
——Only torso with a light blue shirt, and belt in Anvil’s grip shown
——Beaten by Anvil sometime between #206 and #212
13) Male in navy blue shirt with Mohawk [1st appearance: #214]
——Pictured defeated on the restaurant floor in #214
14) Shirtless sweaty Black Male with braided hair [1st appearance: #219]
——Beaten by Heatwave in #219
15) Male in Blue vest [1st appearance: #219]
——Head-gripped by stalwart in #219
16) “Heavenly Sword” [1st appearance: #203]
——Defeated by Dabbler in #223
17) “Silent Shadow/Mach the Knife” [1st appearance: #204]
——Incapacitated by Dabbler in #220 Drugged by Harem in #224
18) Partial shirtless torso and arm wearing black pants [1st appearance: #224] *(?)*
——Pictured defeated face down in the grass in the very bottom corner of #224
19) Caucasian Male wearing black shirt and camo pants[1st appearance: #224] *(?)*
——Pictured defeated face down in the grass in #224
——May be Defeated Villain 4 listed above *(?)*
20) Blond Male in red pants, yellow shirt, with hat [1st appearance: #226]
——Beaten by Mr. Amorphous in #226
21) Laser-burnt male in green Camo skinny jeans [1st appearance: #227]
——Hit by Friendly fire from Hex in #227
22) “Gauntlette” [1st appearance: #204]
——Beaten by Jiggawatt in #228
23) Caucasian Male with dark pony tail and green cloud legs [1st appearance: #228]
——Beaten by Jiggawatt in #228
24) Blond Male in overalls with orange energy lines [1st appearance: #228]
——Beaten by Jiggawatt in #228
25) Pair of legs wearing red pants with black greeves [1st appearance: #228]
——Thrown into the asphalt by Maxima in #228
26) Caucasian male with yellow shirt, green pants and fire hair [1st appearance: #204]
——Beaten by Halo in #229
27) “Hex” [1st appearance: #202]
——Last seen escaping through the bushes in #229
——Inactive status unconfirmed
28) “Boilerplate” [1st appearance: #226]
——Beaten by Maxima in #230
29) “Breakpoint” [1st appearance: #204]
——Beaten by Hiro in #231
30) Giant wearing Orange shorts and glasses [1st appearance: #204]
——Suggested name: “Budget Hulk”
——Beaten by Hiro in #231
31) Blue crystal swordsman [1st appearance: #204]
——Suggested name: ”Blue Ice”
——Beaten by Hiro in #231
32) “Glowbug” [1st appearance: #204]
——Defeated by Dabbler in #235
33) Hairdresser with Zebra Mohawk [1st appearance: #229]
——Suggested name: “The Barberian”
——Surrendered to Dabbler in #235
34) “Jabberwokky” [1st appearance: #213]
——Squished by Vekter in #238
35) “Atomic Bombshell” [1st appearance: #202]
——Defeated by Anvil in #241
36) “For Whom the Death Tolls”/”Death Toll” [1st appearance: #204]
——Defeated by Dabbler, Goose, Maxima and Halo in #247
37) ”Opal” [1st appearance: #204]
——May be Forshadowed Villain #7 *(?)*
——Defeated by Vehemence in #249
38) “Vekter” [1st appearance: #204]
——May be Forshadowed Villain #6 *(?)*
——Defeated by Vehemence in #250
———————————————————————————
Foreshadowed (In rough order of 1st appearance)
1) Deus [1st appearance: #130]
2) Vale [1st appearance: #130]
3) Demon Lord (“Screwball”) [1st appearance: #176]
4) Panel 2 [1st appearance: #186]
5) Panel 4 [1st appearance: #186]
6) Panel 5 Foreground [1st appearance: #186]
——This may actually be ”Vekter” *(?)*
7) Panel 5 Background [1st appearance: #186]
——This may actually be “Opal”*(?)*
8) Panel 6 [1st appearance: #186]
——————————————————————————–
Honorable Mentions (In rough order of 1st appearance)
1) That Flying rescue guy! [1st appearance: #7]
——Not a villain, but his TV show was canned before filming.
2) ”The Filmer” [1st appearance: #8]
——Technically a figment of Halo’s imagination, but I desperately want him to be real!
3) Lightning fist bar fight guy [1st appearance: #185]
——Suggested name: “Electric Fohawk”
4) Black construction worker [1st appearance: #185]
——Gave up his life of crime
5) “Nyah Nyah Can’t Hit Me Man.” [1st appearance: #193]
——”He doesn’t actually commit any crimes though, he just shows up during battles and annoys everyone. And I’m this (–] [–) close to making him canon.” –DaveB
Have faith on DaveB! Could be trans-dimensional reinforces in the way :)
I will repeat that I like your list and think it is a great job. You came up with the appropriate names and/or descriptions, and I specially like how you managed to be brief and clear while include all the relevant information.
For sure there are a few others among us that are keeping track of all kind of things but you took the time to write it down and share it, so thank you :)
I’m just waiting to see what Vehemence can do when he actually makes a fist. Is he that sure of himself, or was he being “light” with his strikes so far to keep from killing the 2 non-super durable?
My theory that’s too weird and out of the box to have even the slightest possibility of being true, even if it explains a lot:
1) The markings on Vehemence look like power buttons because that’s what they are. “He” is actually a humanoid (though probably sentient).
2) He comes from an alien/extradimensional society (possibly amoral) that discovered that Earth has supers somewhere between 5-50 years ago. Explains: why ArcSwat’s numbers are so off (his owners have been storing and/or creating some of them) and how they could contact and gather so many supers without ArcSwat being aware of it)
3) This is their version of a reality show. Explains: his dramatic flair and “betrayal” (attempt to increase ratings).
4) His physical power (and possibly their political/social/economic power) derives from the ratings: the higher they are, the more powerful he is. Explains: his earlier multi-tasking (checking the ratings, if not high enough, he would simply bail), why he didn’t engage ArcSwat earlier (he was going to take on whichever side won the fight), and why he/they want Sydney to survive (thinking about future episodes and seasons).
So how would Sydney go about beating him? By asking him out on a date. This either disgusts his militaristic viewers who aren’t into that romantic, mushy stuff, which causes his ratings and power to plummet or shows them there are other ways to be entertained, which causes peace to break out.
My screen name is Deof Movestofca and in no way, shape, or form do I endorse the above theory.
So, MojoVerse then?
I don’t remember the Mojoverse all that well, but I think there are some similarities. I was thinking, though, that his powers were more directly tied into his ratings. Take away his viewers and he is no more formidable than a non-super.
Oh Noes! Look out for the ArcBabies…
Oh yes! Would love to see the ArcBabies, even if it’s just as an invotive!
Can we just take a moment of silence to mourn both the hat and the car. 2 great things were lost today.
As far as I can tell, the hat wasn’t lost, just taken off. Although I suppose that’s still a loss to fashion.
Why is Duke Nukem there?
Read through comments section (or at least search them for “Duke”).
Wait did he just kill Vekter, that ka-crunch leads one to think many bad things have just happened to his rib cage and anything in it.
If Opal and Vekter are not dead, it’s only because Vehemence didn’t care either way. As long as they could not mess up his plan, he hit them just hard enough in his own opinion.
I find it interesting he waited to attack opal and Viktor until they were at their highest levels of exertion. Thinking power siphon? Would
DaveB, another nitpick from me.
You mentioned a while back something that seemed to make sense to an extent, but in this page I came to realize why it doesn’t. Maxima told Sidney not to hit an enemy with a car because if she can already do that, she can probably hit ‘harder’ on her own.
The problem with this is mathematically speaking, you’re wrong.
Taken from wiki ‘In classical mechanics, linear momentum or translational momentum (pl. momenta; SI unit kg m/s, or equivalently, N s) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. For example, a heavy truck moving quickly has a large momentum—it takes a large or prolonged force to get the truck up to this speed, and it takes a large or prolonged force to bring it to a stop afterwards.’
If two objects are going at the same speed (Max’s fist and a car) then the object with greater mass will have more momentum. Now I’ll give you this, if Max hits someone else with a car, it might as well be wet tissue paper. But that doesn’t negate the mass of the object she’s swinging with. She made other good points about why Sidney shouldn’t toss a car at someone, but ‘you’ll do more damage’ without the car is not a correct one. The fact that Max can increase her velocity to gain momentum to make up for the difference actually works -against- her because she has enough strength to increase the velocity of the car swing too.
Now, in this specific instance, I have no idea how accurate the image above is. The car had more momentum (mass and velocity) then the guy standing absolutely still. Logically he would have gone flying. Because he has super strength and super durability, I don’t mind that he wasn’t phased by the blow, but the fact that he remained perfectly standing is a bit unrealistic. No matter how super strong he is, he can’t ignore physics too much. Its why people with super strength tend to -have- super durability, so their bodies can handle the stress of what they can do.
That said, he could be psychic or something and have tactile telekinesis, so maybe this is an accurate representation of what would happen.
Thought it was more a case of “don’t use the Hentorb to hit them with a car, use it to hit the ground with them”
Almost forgot to mention: anyone else hear Goofy in panel 7? Or maybe Team Rocket for the younger readers?
Grenades don’t work like that! They spray fragments, not make massive explosions!