Grrl Power #258 – Unstoppable force, meet Maxima’s face
Except for the broken nose, that’s just about exactly how Max wanted that exchange to go down. Grandstanding is always a risk in the superhero game given the enormous range of abilities, but she has enough experience gauging the relative strength of other supers by now. She saw Vehemence punch a roughly 75 ton Stalwart a few inches off the ground and that gave her an idea of what he could do.
You can see her visualizing her power distribution there on the page, but she wasn’t quite able to max out her armor like she’d planned. She needed to keep some of her power pool reserved for flight so she didn’t get knocked back, and strength so her head didn’t snap back. Her armor makes her less… floppy (in a ragdoll sense, not in a girl on a trampoline sense you perverts… although, I guess in that way as well) but with a punch like that she needed a little extra. She can even crank her armor up so high that she can’t move, but that only happens when she’s actually drawing against her strength for an ultra boost. Keep in mind, even without spending her pool on anything she’s still pretty tough. In Marvel superhero terms she’s like straight Amazings (which is 50 on a 100 point scale, 6 being a regular human and 100 being Thor/Hulk/Silver Surfer level.) Her power pool dump puts her at the 100 point level (in only one stat) and if she draws against her other abilities she can exceed that.
Yes, Maxima’s blood is blue. I don’t have any particular reason for that other than it’s been that way in my head for a long time. If nothing else, that should tell you that her unusual appearance is slightly more than skin deep. Also that she should blush green. I tried to color her that way on the one page on which it happened, but she looked seasick, so I just kept it red. I’ll have to think of some canon reason it happens that way.
So what does all this mean for Vehemence? Stay tuned!
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Sydney approves Maxima’s badass reply.
like a BAWS!!!
I don’t know why, but panel 7 Max makes me laugh.
its meant to be, dave can’t resist putting a little funny thing here and there whenever he can( usually every panel) the comic started out with the intention of showing the inside and the less glamorous side of super heroing. that’s one way of doing it ^-^
Also, what is Maxima’s blood based on? It doesn’t look like iron. Cobalt?
That’s the thing I was looking for, bingo.
From what I’ve been able to find, Cobalt can not bind oxygen under normal circumstances, but it can under very high tempratures.
So asuming some kind of extreme conditions, it might actually be a viable oxygen carrier (I think)
Actually blue blood would Likely be copper based.
Dr. “Bones” McCoy, after considerable experience, renders the opinion that no, that would actually be green. :D
Aaaactually blue is copper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemocyanin
Ah, but those are free floating metalloproteins that are not bound to the hemoglobin as would be necessary in human/Vulcan blood. But Maxi bleeds blue, so maybe she doesn’t actually have hemoglobin. Does that mean she isn’t actually human? DaveB’s author comment seems to hint in that direction…
shhshssshshhhhh…… its royal blood. max is a queen….
+1
blue blood. very well played sir.
I can definitely see her in domme gear with a whip yelling for you to call her queen. I scares the male aspects of my personality no end.
Actually the reason is a little simpler then what type it is more than likely iron, that said there are certain countries that just don’t like show blood in a fight you run into this alot in video games which is why you get no blood when there should be. Dave maybe creatively complying with those laws since they can read his comic.
Actually: germany had quote Some FPS games to alter the victims’ blood to green. Like in Wolfenstein 3D. In Medal of Honor: Allied Assault we (in Europe) had to download a blood pack because it would standardly show dust clouds when you shot a Nazi.
Not exactly. It didn’t have to be green; it just couldn’t be red.
The idea is that Germany doesn’t like “realistic violence against human opponents”. This is why in the German release of Command & Conquer, the soldiers were all cyborgs with black blood; in Carmageddon, the pedestrians were replaced by zombies with green blood; and so on.
Or it’s just the quantum distortion of her personal force field – the same effect that makes her skin look golden.
Was this explained anywhere? I don’t remember, but it’s a good idea.
(Except that it does not explain her lips being red and her fingernails being red, too)
While Max doesn’t need lipstick, I don’t think it’s been stated whether or not she uses finger nail polish.
Remembering her general stance about male/female differences in treatment, I’d rather expect her to remove the red lip color if she could and not paint her fingernails the same color. I may be wrong but that’s what I believe to have understood so far. From that I assumed she would neither paint lips nor fingernails (nor color her hair).
there was a mention that lipstick or nail polish wouldn’t stick right so she can’t wear it
She doesn’t need lipstick because her lips are naturally that colour, that’s how she knew it was Harem who kissed the guys in the ecnalumbA (and, eventually, so did Heatwave)
“ecnalumbA ” WTF? That’s almost backwards, like you’re a dyslexic who can’t spell.
Yeah, realised afterwards got the ‘m’ and ‘b’ mixed up :(
Next time you see the front of an ambulance, take note of how it is spelt
I it spelled that way on the front so idiots can read it when they look in their rearview mirror as it is coming up behind them. What they should be doing though is not looking where the ambulance is…but pulling over so that it can get by.
Which you can’t do safely without checking all your mirrors and looking around you.
“It’s quantum-physics!” is practically the sci-fy way of saying “It’s magic!” ;D But since there is magic in this universe, then why not both? I have had my disbelief suspended for more distracting things.
Cosmic foam collusion is the best one I’ve heard.
If the cosmic foam is conspiring against us, we’re in trouble.
My vote: ‘relativistic quantum mechanics’. It’s the reason gold is yellow and other metals are chrome-ish. It’s the reason mercury is fluid at room temperature instead of thirty degrees higher. So Max has iron-based blood like everyone else, but she has other organometallics in there too.
Heya Diane, didn’t realize you were also fans of this comic.
quantum magic!
All things are relative: (attributed to Albert Einstein)
Particularly in trailer parks: (addendum by me) ;P
This discussion could rage for the rest of the series! ;)
For the record, our blood is blue unless it’s carrying oxygen, then it’s red. That’s why blood contacting air is always red, due to the hemoglobin. Copper blood would be blue when carrying oxygen. Normally this would mean Blue(ish) skin, especially in thin skin areas like the lips. Pigmentation changes the effect in humans. DaveB’s explaination that her skin is a bit more explains it in Maxima’s case.
Also for the record, copper blood would indicate alien origin because it doesn’t exist on Earth. It would also mean that she couldn’t eat our food, it wouldn’t be nutritious and some of it would be poisonous. Keep in mind that this is a world of Superheroes though, The usual rules are only guidelines.
To quote the Sci-Fi author Wilson “Bob” Tucker, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.” =)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab – copper based blue blooded organism, native to earth.
Thanks for the correction. =) Can’t know everything but any day you learn something new is a good day.
Hmm – does that explain why Maxima is so crabby? (duck and cover)
interestingly enough, the Horseshoe Crab is actually a Eurypterid, or Sea scorpion. not a Crab, the more you know! :D
And scorpions are a type of arachnid, Go JOE!! :P
The reason for her different blood chemistry is that baby Max arrived on Earth in a rocket originating from the (horseshoe) crab nebula. Her home planet was destroyed by the evil Space Lobster armada. Their leader said to the planet’s rulers “Kneel before Zoid(berg)!”
Copper based blood is not uncommon, though only found in anthropoids and mollusks.
That said I wouldn’t call Maxima a mollusk, to her face or otherwise.
But you would call her an anthropoid? o_O
Octopi have copper-based blood. I think horseshoe crabs do, too.
Even weirder, chlorophil in plants look exactly like hemoglobin…except it has a Suphur atom at the center, instead of Iron.
It’s not that it doesn’t happen in nature…it’s just unusual.
Sorry, it is a magnesium at the center. The structure was determined by Ian Fleming. (This one was the chemist, not the author. He studied bonds, atomic bonds.)
D’oh!
…The rest of my statement stands.
The whole “blood is blue when deoxygenated” thing isn’t actually true. Human blood is red due to hemoglobin, which is red. Highly oxygenated blood is brighter red, deoxygenated blood is darker red. Think of that dark red as similar to what drying blood looks like, not “kind of purple” like I have seen referenced.
Veins aren’t even blue, that effect has to do with light scattering and spectrum absorption as light penetrates the skin and bounces back.
If you want more information, there are a rather large number of posts on science blogs, biology education sites, and the like.
-Cheers
Also new information. They’ve changed that since i went to school then, a shockingly long time ago. Or else my memory isn’t what it used to be, which is also a possibility come to think of it. ;)
No no. Your memory is likely fine. I’ve discovered that nearly every single weird science fact that I learned in school is suspect. I am now in the habit of double and triple checking those things when they come up. Seriously, everything from “Why is the sky blue?” to the Bernouli principle’s relationship to aerodynamic flight — all wrong.
Yeah. And schools still teach lies frequently. I now need to check this before accepting it.
Reminds me of the QI episode when they corrected scores for all the facts that have changed since they started.
And it’s not just science, but history as well. See Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen, a book I highly recommend.
link correction
Out of curiosity, why is the sky blue?
That about light diffraction seemed too simple from begin on but meanwhile I’m unsure whether I know anything about it :-/
Science teacher mode on
We actually call it light scattering these days. The higher the frequency of light, the more likely an individual photon will get scattered as it interacts with the various molecules in the atmosphere. This means that blue light seems to come from everywhere in the sky during the day. When you look through a large amount of atmosphere, like at the sun at dawn and dusk, almost all the blue light has already been scattered and pretty much all that is left is red and yellow light.
This is so pronounced the further you go that during the lunar eclipse earlier this month, the moon appeared as red as only the red light went all the way through the atmosphere and was bent by that journey enough to actually hit the moon and be reflected back to the Earth for you to see, if you did not have total cloud cover on that night (boo, hiss, bad clouds!), like I did,
Science teacher mode off
Sometimes when have to give blood for tests, it comes out a lovely purple
Does your blood jump out of the vial when heated? :P
mine does
Don’t stick around long enough to find out
mine unseals the tube or jar and crawls away before being put on heat or will carry the ceremonial tools to position then climb into place on occasion
What if it was something boring like blue pigment?
Excellent tactic on Maxima’s part. If Vehemence hit her with everything he had (and why wouldn’t he at this point – he got what he wanted, a throwdown with the big dog) then he might just give up. No, I don’t think it’s likely, but it’s worth a try.
Very risky tactic though. She not actually invincible, just very strong and very high armor.
She gambled everything on hoping she had enough.
It was still a calculated risk.
After all she watched him fight against her troops.
If he broke her nose, then she barely had enough. Assuming her physical weak points are similar to regular humans (and not horseshoe crabs) then the same punch hitting her chin instead of her nose may have knocked her out.
Good night Vehemence.
His real name isn’t Gracie, is it?
At this point he may change his name to Mud.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd was such a popular rogue that they brought him back for another episode, thankfully with a completely different plot. I think that would be a good character to feature in one of the new ST movies.
A comic Star Trek movie would be good. But I don’t think the studio execs will allow it.
You mean something like Star Trek: The animated series?
I think a shockwave which could toss Harem around like that would probably also burst most of her organs, but I’m willing to let Rule of Funny reign instead.
Remember, even with all five versions running around, Harem is tougher than a normal human. Plus the more directly she was standing behind Max, the less the shock wave could hit her.
It looks like it might have been the shockwave travelling through the ground that shot Harem up into the air. Also it is entirely possible Harem doesn’t always have all the copies out, especially during a fight, for the increased safety.
That raises an interetsting point. I an not sure if anyone has asked this, but what would happen if one of Harem’s “others” were killed. Quick-like, as not to allow her time to absorb it, like a beheading (or something).
I do agree however that the shockwave would likely have destroyed her innards if it could throw her that far.
Since her bodies are just physically independent instead of separate entities, I’d guess killing part of her would be like cutting someone’s arm off.
Painful, debilitating, but not life threatening with proper medical care (in her case, therapy).
Thought train derailment: She could totally cosplay as floating head doctor from scrubs for halloween or conventions.
World’s most giant doctor too, at the same time.
Now add the trauma of feel yourself dying and dying.
Don’t forget the phsycological trauma of actually feeling yourself DIE.
Remember her brains are linked, each one of her feels what the others also feel
Well looks like Harem got a flying lesson.
Sydney can catch her or she could just absorb that one or teleport it.
She did seem like an earthbound misfit before that.
+1 for P F reference
Thought that sounded familiar, can remember when that video came out, the look on that guys face when he leaps off the cliff is pure “Oh FUCK!!! Why did I just do that?” :D
Well that didn’t go quite as planed for Vehemence, but he dose not look to worried more quite impressed lol also “MY TURN” is gonna HURT
He doesn’t look worried because he saw something Maxi hasn’t noticed: her blue blood dribbling from her nose
actually, she has, she does know her nose is broken. hence the “you ARE strong” comment.
No, she knows her nose is broken, but does she know that it is also bleeding? Probably not
And you think that noses DON’T bleed when they’re broken???
Wouldn’t know, never had one
Is that a ‘is she seriously that strong’ hah hah or a ‘that is a super cheesy thing to say right now’ hah hah?
That was a ‘sudden realization that nothing happened when he took his best shot’ hah hah.
That is the face/reaction of a man who has just realized he stepped in some DEEP shit. The kind you can’t just pull out of now.
The only other time a face like that shows up is when you call your wife by her sister’s name during……. a special moment.
“It was at that moment that Vehemence knew…he’d f-cked up.”
This needs to be read aloud by Morgan Freeman and played when you mouseover the last panel ^_^
I wonder how. Such it would cost to get that made?
Last panel, V’s reaction & expression – https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IThinkYouBrokeHim
Somehow, I think V is about to learn what Darkseid felt like shortly after Superman’s “World of Cardboard” speech.
I wonder if it was in fact his best punch. Though Dave has been hinting on wraping up the combat soon, so I don’t think we can expect many more “Haha, but it’s not even my true from” reveals.
Agreed, but we should be fine for one more, or max dosn’t truly get her time to shine, and V only looks like a fool if he dosn’t have more up his sleeve (sort of like the “i-can-punch-through-an-engienblock” anvil took put, only slightly thougher.) . And V does not look like a fool from what we have seen.
Also I’m going to guess that his hand hurts a little
If not right away, then after he wakes up.
Probably depends WHERE he wakes up, too. My guess is the Moon.
Nah, remember Max’s lecture to Sydney about hitting them with the planet? He’ll be atleast halfway to the Earth’s core.
Good point, though punting him to escape velocity would probably have a certain appeal.
…but did she say *WHICH* planet…?
Maybe she could hit him with the Moon…?
OK_OK_OK, I exaggerate for effect.
My guess is a very secure hospital room shortly before his arraignment.
That was his reaction to her blue blood. Superpowers he is used to. Freaky biology still surprises him a little though not to the point of shock (he seems to well informed for that).
Note the lack of a question mark at the end of his last line. V isn’t asking “What the fuck?” He’s saying “What the fuck.”
see this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlatWhat
I love the look in his eyes in panel seven. Total lack of comprehension. Like explaining astrophysics to a dog. He’d give you that same look.
His face from panel seven onwards goes through several stages. Starts with “No Comprehension” then moves to “What Is She Looking At?” and finishes up with “Maybe this wasn’t such a Hot Idea(tm).”
V has really put his foot in it now. Hope he picked out his casket.
Panel 6, you can see Vehemence thinking “Eh, this is awkward, her head is still attached.”
I am a bit surprised Max let Vehemence pull his hand back… (she’s holding it in the second to last panel, but in the last panel, he is “hold-free” again)
Max is kinda shy. She doesn’t even really like to hold hands on a first date. If V is smart, he will quit now and try to arrange a second date after he figures what went wrong with his perfect plan.
…what makes you think that he would consider this as “something going wrong”?
Well, V does have Max’s undivided attention. That seems to have been the goal of the evening’s entertainment. Which means Vehemence has won. Why that doesn’t sound right, I’m not sure.
I think in his species this is considered part of the mating ritual. Klingons can get a little rough-and-tumble too.
Vehemence immediately regrets this decision.
… And a whole bunch of other decisions that led to this one.
Unfortunately, sensible as it might be, going home and rethinking his life is probably not a viable option at this point.
This was Vehemence’s second worst mistake.In this case his worst mistake was being born.
He doesn’t regret his decision, but he both rues and laments it.
So, Maxima makes Supervillains rue the day they met her?
What’s next, Arianna sending out videos about how she’ll “Unleash ARCHON and destroy your evil empire, unless you pay me one million dollars!”?
“Heh, Heh… only one MILLION?… Sure, it’ll be in a briefcase on your desk by the end of the business day… Would you like it in small, unmarked bills, or would a cashiers check suffice?”
that is only for this week next week you need another mil
I thought that was her hourly rate.
a company that is billed out of existence can’t be billed again
The last payment would be ownership of the company .
And then Vehemence was Damaramu. “I, VEHEMENCE, WILL FOREVER REGRET THIS!”
It hasn’t all gone Max’s way tonight. Her back is injured and she just got her nose broken. But it is the final result that matters.
She’s going to have to suck a lot of points away from armor to get her nose set properly and her back popped back into place. The super healer is going to have a lot of job gratification working on the super tank in the group. I mean how important to the team would that make her feel! :D
When she said her back was popped, I’m pretty sure she meant “popped” in the way that I chiropractor would do it. Her back isn’t injured.
This.
Then that means her back was out of alignment before the Bolo-boomer (can’t have been ‘popped back in’ if it wasn’t out in the first place)
So she had an Incredibles moment? Crap maybe she had that bad back for years with no one strong enough to help! XD
Could simply be ‘popped’ in the sense of removing pressure caused by an air bubble. That’s what makes the sound when you crack knuckles/jaw/back after all.
I spent some time thinking about how much strength would be needed to put her nose back. She’ll probably have to do it herself. I really don’t see the doctor (who may have healing powers, but I assume normal human strength) able to shift Max’s super cartilage.
Max bleeds blue because blue on gold looks cool.
If Max dials her defense to minimunm, Anvil or one of the other bricks can do some hopefully supervised plastic surgery.
Magic healing from the ARC doctor, who has healing powers, is the most likely method.
I agree. Because, you know: MAGIC.
She will probably just suck points away from armor by overclocking something else. The healing doctor only accelerates normal healing for the most part if I understood the explanation quite some posts ago.
So with most of her power into armor, Vehemence is able to break her nose. That means that, if he can catch her off guard, he will be able to REALLY hurt her.
So now the question is: How though is Vehemence. Will we get 2 off the most powerfull beings in the world punching eachother now and getting nowhere, or will a swifth kick to the nuts do him in?
Max was able to adjust her power while V was in mid swing. She can just switch back and forth between strength and defense while punching and blocking. V is in for a bad time.
Yea, but a suprise hit from Vehemence, if she was concentrating on some other aspect, would hurt her. Problem is that he probably doesn’t KNOW that.
The true nature of Maxima’s power is a closely guarded secret, I doubt even her bosses know it. So for all Vehemence knows, she’s always this though
And I don’t think V is going to get another free shot, now that Max knows she is borderline for resisting him. Time for some fancy footwork.
Occurs to me that Vehemence is not exactly the stealthiest super on the block. Which makes surprising Max especially difficult.
We know he’s got some super speed though
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1491
…Or he was just faster than Sydney expected him to be. That page doesn’t necessarily show ‘super’ speed – just someone who’s faster than a muscle-bound brute often is.
Max, however, IS superspeedy, AND can fly, not to mention she was strong enough to wipe out a guy who beat the crap out of Hiro earlier in mere seconds…so.. yeah.
Oh, you mean Boilerplate
Maxi is not a ‘muscle-bound brute’ though, just a ‘brute’ (or rather, a ‘bully’)
As for V’s toughness level, Stalwart managed to knock out one of his teeth (and possibly damaged his foot), and Dabbler nicked his arm a few times (lightly bleeding), so he’s definitely not invulnerable.
Technically, if they’re too evenly matched in terms of strength/defense, it’ll be a question of which one wears out faster, and at this point neither of them is in “perfect” condition. Then again, if the rest of the team is smart, they’re currently evacuating prisoners and personel to a safe range, so Max can really cut loose.
or setting everyone up inside sydney’s big bubble like the one she used at the press conference.
Iirc Max uses a Krav Maga based style. If V thinks brawling haymakers are adequate, he is hosed. She could easily have blocked that punch, and from what little I know of KM, the counterattack should be simultaneous… She gave him that one. Now the question is, does she take her turn and punch him, or does she start taking him apart?
Max does not need maxed out armor, if she does not try to “no sell” his punches. She deliberately tried to stay in one place and in the same pose. I am sure, that had she allowed herself to fly backwards from this punch, her armor would hold even without maxing out. And even half-trained martial artist can avoid taking the full force of a punch, so she could have negated most of it just by shifting backwards.
Consider also the old “Rope-A-Dope”-routine.
Given her high-speed reflexes, she can “dance” back-&-forth between strength & speed, to hit-&-run without ever taking so much as a touch from him.
As a taunting maneuver, Max has more than enough skill to stay motionless until the very last moment, then super-speeding just out of reach. To a “super” with her reflex-speed, Mr.V is a mere statue, & his fist can pass just by her ear over-&-over again. Once he’s worn himself out, she can strike.
Meanwhile, how likely is he to ignore her punches if she delivers 75,000 of them in the space of one heartbeat? Simultaneous left-&-right fists can deliver devastating damage without dislocating his head from his neck. The motion would be similar to doing the breast-stroke (which in a normal fighter would mean that the attacker’s torso is left undefended), but at high speed, he’d have no time in which to lash out at her in return.
Until it turns out he is also a Speedster…
Question: Where are Arianna and Leon?
Last we saw them Arianna and the press were on the other side of the street, in a parking lot
We don’t actually know where Leon and Arclight are. We know they are pritty close by, and hidden by magic though
Ari is across the street with the reporters, at a hopefully safe distance https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1386.
Leon and other Arc Light members are on a nearby roof under a ‘Nobody Here’ spell. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/370
I completely forgot Leon was the one giving the antagonists their funny designations.
For a moment there, I was worried they might be in the rubble of the restaurant.
Tbh, I didn’t know she was blushing on that previous page. Blushes tend to happen on the ‘apples’ of the cheek, which in the panel referenced were brightshiny yellow, and the ‘blush’ was applied like blush *countour* tends to be applied…which is a darker color streaked faintly just under where the cheekbone’s midline sits…or where you want it to look like that midline sits, making the skin above it look brighter and thus more prominent. If she’s physically blushing in anger/lust, she should have the ‘apple’ bushing, which is the roundest part of the cheekbone swell which lies closest to the nose on either side, and not just the under-edge of the cheekbones.
Soooo…she wasn’t blushing in that panel, so much as the lighting at that angle made her cheeks reflect the reddish brown of the carpeting/wood paneling in the room? *hands you a free hall pass*?
Actually a broken nose is a serious problem when trying to fight. The nose is directly connected to several major nerves, and getting it broken will seriously disorientate someone.
But then it’s the same thing with almost all injurys in real life. Real professional fights can always be over in a few hits
Yeah, probably similar to the “I just got shot in the leg/arm so it’s not a big deal” thing you see in films.
Granted: People have been known to actually ignore wounds like these in life-threatening stress situations. Or collapse into a heap of hurt or a state of utter shock. Or the middle way of “Dang it hurts! But I can still hobble to safety, because I must!” All are possible and have been registered in the past.
I really hate how arbitrary shot wounds are sometimes handled in movies though. I can’t even count the number of times that a shot to the shoulder leads to an insta-dead or dying within seconds character. Seriously guys, such a wound from a standard firearm won’t be deadly unless you hit a main artery. And even that would take some time until death. Or gangrene (or some other infection, sepsis, whatever) sets in. Which it most likely will at some point if it goes untreated. But that will take even more time.
Actually, I believe the shoulderwound is the most common wound in Hollywood-movies… it looks messy and painful but is not lethal so the character can be back in the fight and/or alive at closing call, even though the would put him/her out of commision earlier :-)
Except that they DO still require medical attention, or you will still die
Blood is a fickle mistress.
Well yes, shoulder wounds are worse than I probably made it sound in my first comment. But they’re still not deadly within seconds if an ordinary firearm was used.
Yet they often are in action movies.
Which annoys me to no end. If you want to insta-off the character and went to the trouble of fixing him with some special effects stuff simulating a hit by a gun, you might as well choose a location on the torso where an actual hit really could kill a person in an instant. And not one that would take some time even in a worst case scenario, hours to days in most cases and might even heal without medical attention if a person was particularily lucky.
There are actually very few locations on the human body that would directly kill him. Only the heart and one of the major arteries really. Even if you get a bullet through the brain it’s pritty survivable.
The really stupid part is that, sometimes minutes from eachother, a shot in a random location instantly kills a random mook, but the exact same wound on the protagonist is either shrugged off, or if he’s supposed to die, he still lasts several minutes for a heartfellt goodbye
Sort of like in Live Free or Die Hard (while the Smithsonian Institute gives it the Mythbusters treatment)?
The conclusion was that Hollywood made another movie myth? Seriously? Like we didn’t know they have been doing that for over 100 years? Aren’t people who work at the Smith supposed to be clever intelligent smart people? o_O
Question: what did they make that mannequin out of? Not sure what material slash substance they used, but fairly sure it’s thicker slash harder than human flesh
ps, getting really tired of comments not getting posted on this site because the request timed out
found in that case just back up one page reopen comment window and the comment should be there so you can hit submit again.
Not with IE7, and not with this comment programme
For some reason I was under the impression that he was aiming thru a previous bullet-wound. The reason for the villain jabbing McClane’s shoulder with the muzzle was to inflict pain where a bullet had already passed thru the shoulder earlier. Yes, there would be further soft-tissue damage, but the goal was to use an unexpected path which the previous bullet had already made.
There is also the fact that Everyone’s Body is Different.
I was bit by a dog as a teenager, my mind basically shut off. It wasn’t life threatening, but my brain took a vacation. Seriously. I went into Shock. And I’ve got a high threshhold to pain!
A trained dog handler who has been bitten numerous times would be able to deal with it, even if it hurt a lot. He’s got experience in such matters, at the time, I didn’t (thankfully I still don’t!)
Some people have lower or higher pain threshholds.
And of course there are medical issues where bleeding is a Bad Thing. Hemophilia being one of them.
Location of the wound can also aggravate the speed at which excess blood flows.
Of course what’s even worse with some injuries is trying to fix it yourself, especially if you don’t have a full medical background. You can far too easily aggravate the damage and make it even harder to properly fix. So, any injury like that, you let a medical professional take care of it. That’s what they’re paid for after all.
Eh. I broke a friend’s nose with a boffer sword one time – went for a two-handed blow across his chest just as he went low for my legs, and I nailed him square in the face instead. His reaction was, “Ow! Shit. You broke my nose.” Then he went in to the bathroom, re-set it, cleaned up the blood, and came back out and fought some more. It was like the fifth time his nose had been broken; he was used to it.
Reminds me of my friend Jake, who is about 6’9″ tall (that’s around 205 centimeters for the metric-only readers). He’s hit his forehead on so many door frames and ceiling fans that you could probably break a 2×4 over his head and he wouldn’t even wince.
We held a party for one of our other friends at my house; I have ceiling fans in almost every room except the bathrooms.
Me: “Hey, Jake.”
Jake: “Yeah?”
Me: “When you stand up, watch out for the…” THUD THUD THUD Oww! “… ceiling fans.”
Tip for Maxi, when intentionally taking a shot to the face, dip your head just a little to take the hit on the forehead. The bone there is among the most dense in the body, and curved to distribute the force without breaking.
But she had to LOOK like she didn’t care, for psychological effect. Totally worked, but the price is a broken nose. I half expect V is thinking, “OK, my knuckles are broken, does anybody notice?”
You can almost see the confidence draining out of his body.
I can support Ani’s advice. I’ve been in that position before, and it hurts your opponent’s hand more than your head ;-)
“Punching someone in the face is a bad move.You’ll break your hand before you break his head.”
Her lips are red. Her skin is golden. Her hair is purple. Her fingernails are as red as her lips.
All that apparently without being painted, at least I vaguely remember it was claimed at some point that Max doesn’t do makeup.
And now her blood is blue?? Quite the opposite of gold (actually, gold is golden because it absorbs blue light…)
From that I take it that she can’t blush. Because her blood color cannot have anything to do with her skin color and we know how a blush works… Unless… the only thing I can imagine is that she produces these colors deliberately, it’s part of her power sets.
I hereby demand a “Dabbler’s Science Corner” that explains Maximas coloring!
haha! i guess blue blood means somewhere down her line she was a noble or something ^-^
Damn, you beat me to the joke…
Rock, Talantus, Runner… you all get a +1. Congrats XD
I’m waiting to see what blast powers come out of the blue pills on the back of V’s hands. Might make things interesting.
“She saw Vehemence punch a roughly 75 ton Stalwart a few inches off the ground” ….Isn’t the Space Shuttle supposed to be like 75’000 metric tons?
The weight is right for the vehicle itself minus the full fuel tank and boosters.
Huh, no. The German wiki page tells a maximal start weight of “109.000 kg”, that would be 109’000 kg in English = 109 metric tons. Also, even without that, 75 tons for the space shuttle alone seems quite reasonable. Weighting 75’000 metric tons, it would probably sink into the ground…
The Endeavour shuttle weighs 78 metric tons empty. Even the entire system of the shuttle, external tank, solid boosters, fuel and payload only brings it up to 2000 metric tons in total.
That BOOM was so loud, I saw several buildings, of a religious nature, ducking for cover.
+1
+1 and max will never live it down
A church and destroy mission?
Just rocking the casbah again.
That moment when…Well, shit.
I do so love a properly delivered No Sell.
I love the “Little Orphen Annie” eyes in #6.
Watching V’s face go through all those changes is great fun. Dave scores big again.
The expressions on this page are all fantastic. It was the right choice to go this way over actual action.
DaveB puts too much funny into every page. Just when you thought you’ve noticed everything, someone else points out something that you missed.
So Dabbler is the demon and Max is the alien.
On a more serious note, the more oxygen in your blood the blueish the tinge. Look at blood vessels on the back of your hands,your wrists and anywhere else they come close to the surface. Blue. Maybe max has hyper oxygenated blood. And the gold odd just a side effect
Actually, it is the oxygen in the blood that turns it red, hence the reason that your blood runs red when you get cut, even it comes from a vein. It quickly absorbs oxygen. Your veins show blue because that blood is low on oxygen, and is high in carbon dioxide and other toxins.
Beat me to it. *shakes fist* I have to remember to refresh the comments page before posting.
Nope. Oxygenated (arterial) blood is bright red, deoxygenated (venous) blood is dark red. Ever donated blood? They connect you directly into a deflated, sealed bag – no oxygen to come in contact with – and the blood is always dark red.
Human blood is blue when de-oxygenated. Which is why it is always red when it leaves your body (it absorbs oxygen from the surrounding air)
Not true and here is the explanation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18–LFIs-FM
I sit corrected. That’s what I get for using half-remembered biology classes from a decade ago for my scientific sources.
*tips hat*
Another possibility it that you remember correctly what the teacher taught wrongly.
*is
So we now have 3 solid theories:
1: Max’ blood is copper-based (which would produce a very very dark, green-tinged, blue blood)
2: her blood is iron-based, but doesn’t oxygenate (or more specifically, carries gaseous carbon)
3: she has normal blood, but some aspect of her superpowers causes odd coloration in hair, skin, lips, chitin, and blood
Personally, I prefer theory 2. Other thoughts?
Number 2 is false, because iron based blood is never blue. See Gamesman’s link
#1 is false because Star Trek biology (or any ‘ology’) is utter batflap
We don’t need theories. We know why her blood is blue. It’s blue because the author said:
“Yes, Maxima’s blood is blue. I don’t have any particular reason for that other than it’s been that way in my head for a long time.”
True, but if the readers can come up with a plausible explanation, fairly sure DaveB would appreciate it
Theory #4,
Maxima’s powers are of an extradimensional nature and it has affected the way various parts of her are colored.
I prefer #3, of which #4 would be special case.
Blood is not really blue. This depends probably a lot on what you call blue. but it is nothing ever like the colour of the sky or the colour represented here in the comic. Human blood gets different shades of reddish/purplish. Veins appear blue not because of blood, but of their own ‘merit’. Diseases like cyanosis makes you appear blue not because of blood, but the skin get discoloured.
I was not sure and saw some contradicting stuff, but the more sensible things say that human blood is red, and may only be called “blue” because of people’s colour indifference.
https://chemistry.about.com/od/biochemistry/a/Is-Deoxygenated-Human-Blood-Blue.htm
https://www.answers.com/Q/What_color_is_carbon_dioxide_filled_blood
https://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/09/01/is-blood-ever-blue-science-tea-2/
Max has received criticism for hanging back and observing while her team took hits, and for appearing arrogant… I think she just silenced a lot of critics.
Now it’s her tunn.
“turn” I’ve stopped drinking coffee before reading this strip.
Safer for your sinuses and keyboard. A few misspellings are a small price to pay.
Since the objections, at least mine, had very little to do with her abilities: Not really. But I’m very happy with the turn things have taken! ^0^
ROFL good one max
but now i hope you know to be careful for his punches just “in case” too
Three thoughts.
One: That’s badass.
Two: Shouldn’t there be some blue blood on Vehemence’s hand in the last panel?
Three: Is it just me or does Vehemence’s fist look like he’s punching Max with his second knuckles as opposed to his third?
I guess its more of an oozing bloody nose that didn’t leave the nose until after he retracted his hand a bit so he didn’t achieve the Japanese massive blood splatter effect with his punch.
welp? whats welp mean? (panel 7 “welp, my nose is defantely broken…”)
if she was speaking, then maybe her boken nose was affecting her speech, but it looks like she thinking it
A more casual form of “Well”.
Bah, stupid enter key.
Usually it’s used with a slight self-depreciation manner
Welp is a common (in the U.S.) distortion of the word well. Like “Well, I just stepped on an armadillo.”
More like “Welp I just stepped on a porcupine.”.
I… don’t think you’d still be able to think that calm and clearly after that.
Unless you had some seriously solid and about knee-length boots on.
I sat on a cactus hidden in some grass once an the first I knew of it was the fact that I COULDN’T FEEL MY ARSE AT ALL! O.O” Until after I got off of it. Acupuncture works! XD
I too have sat on a cactus before. Take heart! You are not alone comrade.
*sob*
In soviet Russia cactus sits on you.
It is fortunate, then, that there are no cacti in Russia (checked wikipedia first this time). Other than the occasional houseplant, I would assume. But those would be small enough to be of minimal threat to the populace.
Have you seen some of the spikey things on some of those small house cacti? Needles look on in envy
That is what they want you to believe
I once fall into a small patch of prickly pear… not fun
Bull nettle, also not fun. And then there’s this guy:
https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8476512512/hEC50BA24/
Maybe I’m just more fatalistic but when I do something painful I could have avoided (like bash my shin on something) my first cogent thought is usually “Well THAT was stupid!”. But that could be just me.
Same here, don’t get hurt very often, but tend to be very calm when it happens, and yes, do say something simple like ‘Ouch’ if say anything (save swearing for the computer :P)
Which is why I said first “cogent” thought. Sometimes extreme pain will momentarily render me non compas mentis.
As Oscar Wilde once said “We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language”.
Wow, Vehemence’s reaction is really intriguing. He looks too calm. His whole character is interesting. He obviously not just some meat-head. But who is he and what are his goals? Guess we’ll just have to keep coming back to find out :D
I’d say he’s currently experiencing shock and disbelief, hence the non-reaction.
He was all set to say something clever as Max fell, but the words got scrambled when nothing happened. His brain is currently doing a cold restart.
Yea that’s probably it
whats wrong with the old wipe the blood away with your thumb whilst asking “is that the best you can do?”
Because he shouldn’t have hurt her at all, and wiping the blood aways acknowledges that he did, in fact, not only hurt her but damaged her in a way that can’t be denied
Yea, this implies that she didn’t even notice the blood
As much as I don’t like Maxima, these pages make me appreciate what a total dork she is (it’s a good thing). (^_^)-b
It is good that Max is able to tank pain as well as actual damage. I always imagined that one of the problems with nearly invulnerable types is that, when they do get hurt, they are so unused to it that they react badly, i.e. Lee Press on Claws. Part of taking pain and damage without being seriously affected is practice, so I am guessing that Max lowers her defenses to the point that she can feel things while she is sparring with the other bricks on the team. Her overall reaction is still impressive.
Maybe she is already in pain from her popped back? Nothing masks pain like MORE pain somewhere else. I wouldn’t even notice a broken nose in the major throes of a kidney stone! Maybe the back is annoying enough to distract from it and release the endorphins she needs already.
Cracking your back (‘popping’ it) can feel quite good, if it relieves stress and small spinal displacements. I don’t think popping her back is disabling, it was just a surprise through her shield.
Depends on how it’s popped, but guess all those people who have popped their back and ended up prone on the floor or couch are just wanting false sympathese
“Cracking your back (‘popping’ it) can feel quite good….” [Emphasis added for those who seem to have missed it.]
When the robot popped Mr. Incredible’s back would be a good example.
Reminds me of Wolverine. there was ain instance where a guy stole Wolvie’s powers and basically gave a bunch of rich people them. one makes the very stupid mistake of saying they were the wolverine now. Wolvie proceeds to cut the crap out of them with KITCHEN KNIVES and a bunch of them freak, despite the regeneration. Wolvie may be able to Regenerate, but it’s his ability to take pain that makes him badass in my book, mean, seriously, saw him take a full magazine of slugs from a Franchi SPAS-12 once. he was up in about five minutes or less. Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell.
“Just because I can heal from it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
Why didn’t Vehemence get thrown back by his own punch? Can he fly too or is the ground that muck more solid where he stands?
His lead foot is dug into the ground. He braced himself for the blast.
From all the things that have happened I think he is also kind of heavy or able to form some kind of connection to the earth (in addition to the bracing thing everyone is saying).
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/Requiredsecondarypowers
notably, these sections:
Nigh Invulnerable
Super Strength
well for the blush you could always use the excuse that her blood turn blue in presence of oxygen or even nitrogen,, but inside her body it is a diferent color( just like in most humans)
Blood inside your veins and arterys is just as red as when it’s outside your body.
It only looks blue because light traveling through skin doesn’t stay the same color
Blood is a darker red when deoxygenated.
Am I the only one who read that line as “You bade be tayg uh steb bagg… You ARE strodg!”? Which, I suppose, would be one good reason for not simplifying it down to “By turd!”
I know (from experience) that a broken nose doesn’t automatically make you talk as if your nose is massively stuffed up, but, for some reason, I always hear it that way in my mind.
Yeah, was wondering why she didn’t sound like that
Vehemence has been looking for someone who could give him a decent fight for so long, he overlooked the possibility that he would find someone who could so thoroughly clean his clock, he develops the super-power Absolute Time Sense.
He’s been showing off a bit. When he gets a good gage for the bit stronger she is he may actually start behaving like an experience fighter facing a stronger opponent would. He IS strong enough to hurt her after all. He just needs to take this a LOT more seriously. Perhaps his broken nose coming up in a few ticks will help with that.
Totally agree. Haymakers look impressive, but is a BS move for any average fighter let a lone an experienced one.
…and it dosen’t matter how strong you are, you always old a bit back until you are absolutly sure you will not inflict more damage to yourself than to the target.
There are reasons most powerfull shots in boxing and other martial arts are given to soft tissues or to leveraging points that move.
Yeah, but he hasn’t shown himself to be an experienced fighter. Stalwart easily dodged his punch. Anvil told him to check his target after he gave her a great deal of kenetic energy, and it was more luck than skill that he gave her a ride on the hairy-go-round. Even good old Halo easily tripped him.
He’s not experienced. He’s just never tussled with people who have had training before – but it has never mattered because he’s so unbelievably strong and tough.
Actually, I’m wondering if he has some kind of variable power pool, like Max.
We know he has speed and his toughness seems, in retrospect, kind of variable. Just that he has been mostly opting for STRENGTH.
The classic Superman Can’t Really Fight trope. Not always true depending on who retconned him last, but a staple plot element over the years. Take away his power or set up an enemy who is equally powerful and Kal El gets the snot kicked out of him.