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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Is this more of Maxima’s tactile telekinesis at work?
If she used it to anchor herself by “grabbing” the ground, it would explain why a punch to the face fractures the ground instead of making her fly.
I don’t think that Tactile Telekinesis is the ‘standard’ for super-strength and invulnerability in this universe. Rather than being PK based, I think that most bricks are Exemplar-style (or Old-Superman). It’s a factor of density and alternative chemistry/materials in their tissues- One way to test this is to see if a body part retains its durability when away from the ‘host’. Are Maxima’s toenail clippings tough enough to scratch iron? Do Vehemence’s hair clippings have a tensile strength greater than that of steel?
See, tactile telekinesis is only really used in situations where you’re picking up buildings or ocean liner or stuff- and nothing like that has happened yet- but with how the environments have reacted to super-impacts so far, I think it’s just straight up physical strength without any TK element to it.
“Vehemence’s hair clippings”
*snigger*
Yeah I think you are gonna be hard pressed to find any hair clippings from Mr.Clean there.
Nose hair clippings? Or his eyebrows? Or maybe the nether region hair patches?
You get them, and we will test them.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/373
8th panel: Tactile Telekinesis?
Not only explains why she can lift things like that but having the bulk of her powers come form some kind of telekinetic manipulation would go a long way to explaining how she can shift her powers around. Her bizarre body structure explains why she keeps a certain level of strength and endurance even when moving those energies around and why she is a cut above other supers who are also telekinetic based.
She may not be the norm for this world but she does seem to have a lot in common with some of the classic super man package types of Whateley if I remember (PK supermen?).
I don’t know if DaveB has explained it anywhere yet. On the official description on that page it says, “It shall be expained” like in the future but knowing him he probably snuck it in the comments somewhere! XP
The comic right after it (Dabbler’s Science Corner) explains it. It’s not “Tactile Telekinesis”. It’s “Zero Range Telekinesis”. Totally different thing.
For the record, you can find the strip here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/376
As has been guessed: While she’s incredibly strong by nature, the “boosts” to her abilities come from this telekinesis thing.
Ah! Yes, I see now totally not tactile telekinesis. (whatever that is…)
How exactely is that different again? o_O
Zero Range in Champions is a synonym for Tactile or Touch Only. Zero Range described here would be Self Only in Champions.
Never played Champions (not too sure even which game you are referring to), but can’t imagine what ‘Self Only’ would be (but that may just be regional dialect, like how an Aussie would wear a thong on their feet, but an American wouldn’t)
A power that normally has a range, but only works on the person who possesses that power. Healing for Self Only, not like Regeneration since nothing grows back is an example. TK Self Only would be and oddball Flight power since they don’t really fly just float. Max’s force field is Self Only and Halo’s is one without that limit. What those who are hoping to see her use it without being in it mean in game terms is Usable On Others. Halo can protect others but the field has to include her.
Okay, should have said “understand ‘Self Only’, but how does that work with TK?” but you explained that :)
Hmmm, that means 2 people with different abilities (non flight) could fly: Self Touch TK (sounds kinky :P) and Levitation, but they would both need some form of momentum to move horizontally
Basically, if you work under the assumption that Telekinesis is a Field effect (like Gravity) rather than something more like the Bigby’s or Force spells (which summon what are essentially magical objects that then act on things), your traditional Telekinetic can project that field effect all the way out to the edge of their range. Tactile, Zero-Range or Personal TK simply has a ‘range’ of little more than a few inches from the skin of the user (which is why it envelops costumes). The TK field then basically intercepts objects before they touch the material below it, effectively replacing the skin as the ‘object’ subjecting force upon the outside object- a PK/TK Brick never actually touches anything they interact with.
Because this field is also through their body as well as around the surface, it normally also allows for flight or levitation.
However, “Tactile” telekinesis also suggests the ability to project/emit that telekinetic field through and around anything you are touching- in which case, you are lifting, say, an ambulance by exerting a few milliNewtons of force on every molecule that ambulance is made of, all evenly distributed, allowing you to manipulate the whole object as a rigid body/volumetric point, as opposed to a hollow box of bendable material.
Technically, I suppose you could have a tactile telekinetic whos power could encompass something that they couldn’t lift- this would essentially allow them to treat that object as invulnerable/immovable to themselves- a TK that can lift more than they encompass ends up ripping chunks out of whatever they’re grabbing, but those chunks are perfectly formed and unaffected by the removal process- they could grab a globe of sand out of the ground, and the hole would fill back in, but the sand they’re ‘holding’ wouldn’t fall apart.
Thank you Anvildude
Some Americans would wear thongs on their feet. What other people call sandals or flip-flops, I used to call thongs… until thong underwear became more common in the late 80s / early 90s.
Reference, for those in the audience not as familiar with Australian turns-of-phrase as I am. What most Americans thought of when you said “thongs” back in the 70s when I was born was basically sandals, with a single strap between the first and second toes. This is what Australians still think of when you say “thongs”.
What Americans think when you say “thongs” these days is either a g-string for women, or for men it’s much closer to what they call a “budgie smuggler” (because it looks like you’re trying to smuggle a bird in your underwear).
Sorry, the last line should read “it’s much closer to what Australians call a budgie smuggler”. Wish I could edit my posts.
I don’t know if anyone has posted this bit of trivia yet but in order to have blue blood Max would have to use copper rather than iron in her body. And yes Star Trek was wrong about the Vulcans. The only reason copper turns green when left out as in the case of pennies and such is the presence of so much sulfur in our environment. Inside a body or in a pure oxygen environment it oxidizes blue. Fun fact Lobsters and Crabs have copper based bodies too.
The blood is blue because of her unobtainium-generated body chemistry, of course!
For more details, consult a comitee made of all 3 of Dabbler’s parents. They know it’s just a small unimportant detail that does not get in the way of the fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemocyanin [copper carrying blood], although with her red blush it could be said she has a Hemocyaninoglobin [Hemoglobin / Hemocyanin hybrid]. It could be a handwave of Alien / Meta-person biology [also why a blue blooded person blushes red rather than green].
Wait, so this means that Maxi is literally a “Blue Blood”? o_O
THE BLUE BLOOD SHALL RULE US ALL!!!
So let’s see….Maxima has caught a bullet out of the air, has flown at 800+ mph in-comic, broken super-strength and toughness limbs to free up other team members during the fight, and has GOLD SKIN, and everyone is criticising Dave’s decision to give her blue blood?
“Well done, great job, bravo, slow clap” ~ Handsome Jack.
I think you may all be missing that she’s a superhero who is friends with Dabbler, a succubus/doppelganger/alien hybrid, Jiggawatt, who is made of lightning, Achilles, who doesn’t know pain, and Harem, who is a five-in-one date deal. Please people, think before you bring pedantic reality to a quasi-real superhero comic.
I haven’t actually so much criticizing that decision as discussion on why that might be technically and cracks about royalty.
As one Power Girl fanart I saw put it “I can turn tanks into steel confetti, fly at Mach 4 without breaking a sweat, get a mountain dropped on me and shrug it off, and my TITS are what you find implausible?”
Hehehe, her and She Hulk (the original, Bruce’s cousin) are awesome that way.
Hmm, That is the grin of someone that has spent far to much time without have a decent challenge, in any term.
not Term, I meant form.
Um when you heat up gold it goes red, so. . .mebbe that’d work? Cuz when you blush yer face heats up too
When gold turns red it is melting.
And just like that you made me reread the archive from a single link. Well done.
The only way to make this bit better would be if Maxima said ‘You are strong’ and instead of letting go of his fist went full/ maximum on Strength.
‘You are strong’
‘EYYAHH!!!’
Not really all that cool looking for the cameras she knows are on it, but it would have ended the fight.
Darn. The sound effect auto-deleted.
Let me finish Vehemence’s response.
“Hah Hah, what the fuck- have I gotten myself into?
No no no, it is: “What the fuck… is that coming out of her nose? Is that blood? Or snot?”
Exactly.
Why not both?
I just looked at my desk calendar and I must say: Well played, Dave. Well played indeed.
Today we start the final ‘boss battle’ of this engagement and you managed to time it to start on National Boss’s day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss's_Day.
We just had this boss with DT: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SheatheYourSword
We know V is: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BossBanter
Let’s hope he is not: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AntiClimaxBoss
Of course if Max does beat him he’ll just say: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ILetYouWin
By the by, I vote for a super strength/ super speed field goal kick to his nuts. His stance is probably wide open right now as his brain tries to figure out what just happened.
The image of him flying over a hundred feet afterwards might be the most intimidating visual possible for this fight to produce. Would play wonderfully on every news service in the world.
I thought we liked this guy! Why does everybody keep wanting to see him nutshot?
We like Maxima more. We also want to get to the part where Dabbler kisses Maxima’s nose to make it all better.
Not all of us :P
Well, yes about the nose kiss, want to see just how red Maxi’s face can get under that gold sheen :D
Vehemence is pretty cool, for being a villain, but I have to admit that I favor Maxima over him.
Yeah, I admit that my opinion is biased, in that it’s affected by the fact that Max is a female & I’m a male with baseline heterosexual tendencies.
agree V is cool for a villain and prefer leander to him but that is because he does bad things while trying to be likable when the LtC does the best she can for others and is put in a place to do things that seem arrogant or bullyish against her preference
I find it ironically that people can like this guy yet still dislike Maxima and/or Sydney. Maybe there’s more to his back story than DabeB has let on, but so far, it’s hard to view him as little more than a common thug. While his wish that Sydney will survive the night is a redeeming quality, he still seems to have orchestrated the superhero equivalent of a rumble that’s endangered lives, caused extensive property damage, and injured several people for what appears to be the sole purpose of “whee, that looks like fun” and, if so, he could have avoided all that and still got the fighting he wanted by simply going to ARChon and seeing if they were hiring sparring partners.
Because his attitude is till currently less annoying than Sydney and slash or Maxi combined
So endangering lives, causing extensive property damage, and getting several people is more excusable than having an annoying attitude. Some people have very bizarre moral codes, IMHO.
ahem… alleged annoying attitude.
Welcome to the comment section of the Internet.
Logic and morality need not apply here
Maybe not, but just because someone else refuses to avail himself or herself of them doesn’t mean I have to do so as well.
Didn’t say he was a great person, he is still a bad man (not sure why, but always hear ‘bad man’ as heard on Billy Idol’s “Power Junkie” song), just currently his Gentlemanly Attitude is personally better than Sydney and Maxi (and still like both of them)
For a fictional character in a story I’m reading, yeah, actually. Fictional stuff getting fictionally busted up and fictional people getting fictionally endangered in the service of the story is all well and good. If there weren’t someone doing it, it wouldn’t be a very interesting story.
A character fictionally annoying another fictional character is fine, too. A character actually annoying me is not.
Fictional or not, he still seems to have little to no regard for anyone else (except possibly Sydney, depending on why he wants her to survive the night) and appears to care only about his big fight. I have yet to see any indication that this is anything but one huge ego trip for him and if others get hurt or even killed or have their property damaged in his pursuit of his goal, that’s just too bad for them.
Maxima and Sydney, OTOH, are the complete opposite of that. While they are getting paid, they could have probably made at least a comfortable living going rogue or staying neutral, with the latter choice probably much safer. Instead, they have deliberately chosen to place themselves in harm’s way to protect those who would be vulnerable from supers who thought their powers gave them the right to lord it over others. Not only that, but they’ve done it in a legal manner that shows that don’t consider themselves above the law and appear to be willing to accept whatever punishment is due them should they get caught breaking it. True, they have their own personality quirks, but IMHO, that only makes them all the more human and endearing. After all, who among us doesn’t have such quirks, especially those that annoy someone? I would think that they have as much right to have them as anyone else and the extremely few times where I’ve thought it was a bit over the top, I have chosen to look at who they are overall and have found them very likable.
He did tell Archon that ChiaPet might be in need of medical attention
I no longer like him. Despite several years of buildup, he’s just as ineffectual as all of the other villains. He managed to inflict the same amount of injury on Maxima as any of the other villains has managed to inflict. A punch to Halo’s face, a minor knife wound to Heat Wave, a few bruises and a bloody nose to Stalwart, it’s all about the same.
This fight didn’t need to be shown at all, it could have been discussed in past tense in a few strips maximum. All it has accomplished is to show us the powers of the team, and Halo, and the villains. All of which could just as easily have been done in present tense.
And good luck presenting a credible threat to Maxima which doesn’t just flatten any of the rest of the team. And if it doesn’t, there goes any credibility.
The art is good, but the writing and story is poor.
Wow! One punch that doesn’t instantly take down the reported Strongest Women in The World and you are dismissing him as ‘ineffectual’? o_O
Let’s at least wait until we see what, if anything, Maxi can do to him
i like how he straight out mouthed off the Author too. Care to link YOUR OWN SUCCESSFUL WEBCOMIC, OH GREAT ONE?
You’re an insult to the screen name you chose.
The “you’ve got to have the same successful product in order to offer up a valid critique” argument is a rather sad one. You’ve never decided that a restaurant wasn’t worth going back to due to the food or the service? Oh yeah, well how good is the food at your restaurant? Never panned a bad movie? Huh, what have you directed lately?
And really, if all the author wants is fawning sycophants, isn’t that just a bit pathetic? The comments section is called “Discussion”, not “kiss my ass here, please.”
To be fair, you did offer alternatives to fix what you saw as bad writing/art (? what do you call the production of a webcomic, anyways? Wrarting?) and give good examples of what you seem to think are cases of ‘ineffectual heroing’. However, you’re being rather abrasive in your speech patterns, which is causing people to react defensively instead of cooperatively.
I’d suggest avoiding absolutes in your reviews (“…all of the other villains…”, “…all about the same…”, a few other uses of “all”, “…any credibility.”) as that makes it sound as though the entire creative effort was bad and are perceived as attacks- flat statements (factual or otherwise) sound more professional, even when pointing out flaws or giving praise.
I understand your frustration, though. It’s hard to understand why an (let’s call it “X-Class”) Hero, someone who’s professed to want to avoid unnecessary violence, wouldn’t use their overwhelming power/abilities (and in this case, training) to simply end the fight before it has a chance to do harm to anyone.
However, I don’t believe that it’s impossible, and similarly, I don’t believe you should write of Vehemence quite yet.
In fact, a relatively simple way to make him a ‘match’ for Maxima, without making him capable of ‘wiping the floor’ with the rest of the team, is to make him primarily defensive. We’ve seen him shrug off hits from Soul Reaver, bullets, cars, explosives, hekaton punches, megaNewton kicks, and whatever force the Hentacle can exert, with little damage to show for it and a smile on his face. It’s quite possible that his Defense stat is up near (well, near as in flea (normal) compared to Human (V, Max) compared to Redwood (Achilles)) Achilles’ level of invulnerability, with ‘only’ enough strength (offense) to bust through most of Max’s Armour. I don’t think he’s actually got any Superspeed that isn’t just derived from strength, nor do I think he has any answer for maneuverable or long-range opponents, or any special Mover powers of his own. So he can take what the team and Maxima dish out, but can’t serve it back to them- basically causing stalemate until a secondary objective is either reached or failed, making battles a lot more interesting with him than classic “punch-em till they stop moving” superhero Slugfests.
Also, all the fancy little moves and action sequences may not have been strictly necessary in a narrative sense, but they looked cool and gave us some cheese and beef cake- which is half the reason for making a Comic instead of writing a Serial.
Okay, so let’s take it that he manages to beat Maxima. What is then there to stop him curb-stomping all of the other heroes and killing them all? I think – yes, I can hear it coming – it’s the end of the comic! If Vehemence were to wipe the floor with firstly, the world’s strongest woman and superheroine, and then her entire team of lesser heroes, there wouldn’t be much of a comic left. This is also their first canon fight appearance, and no hero loses their very first engagement, or they wouldn’t survive to give us a plotline.
(Before anyone brings up the Avengers, all of those team members were successful in their own right prior to the team. That was only their first team fight, not overall fight.)
Also, which is better for a comic; pages of explosions, somersaults, half-nelsons and laser beams, or a veritable script of information describing what happened that we didn’t get to see? Efficiency in storylines is a very stupid idea, because if you want it to be efficient you might as well just put a line saying “Some people did some stuff” or, to be a little more precise, “some super-powered people did some stuff.” That way we wouldn’t even have to read any of this, but it’s good to see you’re still sticking to that principle at page #258, that a lot of this comic could have been ignored if we wanted to be mechanically efficient about it all.
Maybe if that was his intent, but it seems his intent is to have a good no-holds-barred fight with Maxi, and to show the world why they need Archon
I wouldn’t say that anyone that beats Maxima can automatically one-shot the entire team. This is a super-hero comic, not Dragon Ball or Bleach, so who-beats-who is not only determined by a one-dimensional power scale, but also by some good old-fashioned rock-paper-scissors.
Any brick that manages to tank Max’ nukes & physical blows might be susceptible to Dabbles mojo, or Jiggawatt’s lightning, not to mention any other power-stunts Sydney might cook up between the abilities of the team. But then the *threat* doesn’t even have to be physical, since Max clearly wasn’t immune to the sexy-glamour. Who knows maybe Achilles’ invulnerability extends in that direction, and he would be well-suited to taking down such an opponent.
For further reference, please see Worm and HPMOR. I know they’re a bit overhyped, but both provide excellent accounts of how ostensibly powerful opponents are taken down by supposedly weaker characters.
Finally, I’d like to point to Strong Female Protagonist for an example of how there can be conflict even if a character is almost entirely invincible.
Maxima has said (I’m not looking this up, so I hope my memory serves) that only two people have ever fought her to a draw, much less beaten her. So there isn’t much of a rock-paper-sissors thing going on here. It could (should) be introduced in the future, but right now it’s a linear power graph: If you can beat Maxima you can flatten any other member of the team.
Slight point being missed here.
What if an enemy was a Vapour/Gas controller, and was able to suffocate or drug Maxima? (we don’t know how her respiratory system works, yet, so plausible. Plus, Superheros). They’d have ‘beaten’ her. However, they’d have a harder time against, say, Halo and Achilles, both of whom have methods of fighting or ignoring Asphyxiation.
What about a portaller that’s faster than Opal? Even if Max doesn’t suffocate, can’t fight very well from the Moon, can you, and it takes time to get back- however, Dabbler’s got her own teleportation and tracking magics and technologies, and Harem’s ability to teleport plus be in multiple places at once could handily counter that. True, an opponent able to take out Maxima would probably not have any trouble with, say, Heatwave, Stalwart or Mr. Amorphous, but that’s why there’s a whole team with a bunch of disparate powers, instead of just a mil-squad of Bricks with Bats.
I don’t think Max will split his fork, for one reason. As satisfying as it may be to kick him into the next city, she’s got to worry about collateral damage. He might land on someone, or their car, or take out an intersection. That wouldn’t be so hot, after all. She can’t get away with wrecking a city like Supes did in the recent movie.
She’ll probably punt him into the air, switch to flying and do a smash attack down back to earth to end the fight with minimum property damage
They kinda already did that :P
No, Anvil was the smashy one. Maxima could just punt him into next week.
Excuse me. Excuse me!!!!!! Could you kindly remove your fist from my face, thank you ever so much?
“Ha… Haha… This is going to hurt, isn’t it?” ~ The mind of Vehemence in 3… 2… 1…
This is definitely an ” Oh shit” moment.
I dunno. I could easily be wrong, but I read his expression more as “WELL now, that’s surprising”, and not “Holy crap I’m in it now”. I.e., he’s surprised, but not thinking this is a disaster, just a situation that’s going to push him a lot farther than he expected.
I think I’m one of the people of the mind that it’s surprised him, but in a really bad way. The whole line “Hah hah, what the fuck” sort of implies he has been completely caught out by this, and really doesn’t know how to react.
Not knowing how to react doesn’t mean it’s a negative.
He could just as easily be amazed that he made her bleed, expecting her to be completely impervious to his attacks. Or be taken aback by her witty banter.
The first time I ream Maximas thought bubbles I thought she said “think of something totally 80’ss to say” which made me a little confused. Boss makes much more sense
Why are you trying to ream a bubble?
Huh. Bleeds blue. Interesting.
Also, Vehemence is about to change from being a causer of pain to simply being pain. :)
Shame, since he’s a villain with manners and everything. (Chatting with Sydney so politely, and actually going so far as to hope she doesn’t get killed that night.) Seriously, excluding the hairdresser, when’s the last time a villain had manners?!
He broke her nose and his fist is still perfectly undamaged. She may be decently stronger, especially when concentrating on an attribute, but he is still close enough to pull something off if he is as intelligent as he SOMETIMES seems. Or he could always turn out to not really have any “gentlemanly” ways when pressed and just grab one of the gawpers on the sidelines, a dozen or two feet away, as a shield or two…
The problem with taking a hostage as a human shield is threefold:
(1) You have to know whether or not your enemy cares whether or not the hostage dies (okay, in this case, it’s a given that they do care… they’re heroes, after all)
(2) taking a hostage as a human shield is seen by most reasonable people to be the act of a coward. V does not strike me as a coward.
(3) Something the hostage taker also often fails to consider: If the hostage dies or escapes, and there are no other potential hostages in the immediate area… who do you think you’re going to hide behind?
Finding anyone in this country (the US) with manners is a Herculean task. As for villains, classic Penguin was always a consumate gentleman. Just because he’s courteous doesn’t mean he’s not plotting to kill you.
Yeah, was thinking of Pengie as a Gentleman Villain with Manners (but not afraid to stick one of his umbrellas through you)
Dr. Doom is also a villain of civilized caliber. That is, he’s not really a violent sort when he’s up to talking things out. But should you give any implication of insult to his intelligence or ego, oooo-boy, watch out!
The problem being that Doom’s ego is the size of a small moon.
Only a *small* moon?…
“That’s no moon…”
“, … that’s my wife!”
Oh, sorry, I thought you were talking about bowling balls. Just remember when you order pizza, say “no anchovies, please”.
Woot! Max’s face in panel 12 says (to me anyway) “Finally, someone who I can really punch without killing them … severely injuring, maybe, but not killing them.” I think a punch to the sternum would do some damage, then when he doubles over, a knee to the face while gripping his head. One good broken nose deserves another.
…or a foot to the knee, so that he can’t run away?
There’s a typo. “We have a least that much in common.
Yeah, should be “We have at least that much in common.”
He also left Harem out of the Who’s Who (She said “Yipe!”).
This is my favorite page of the entire comic. I think Sydney is awesome, but this page is so clean, easy to follow, and well drawn.
Think there must be something wrong with me: when the vampires take the blood ‘samples’ for tests (or so they say) it sometimes comes out a lovely shade of purple (or maybe maroon), the veins on the back of the hands (when they can be seen) are more of a grey (maybe even black) than blue
Dark periwinkle blood! On top of the natural purple hair and eyes, metallic gold skin, pointed ears, and natural crimson lips…At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if medical check ups have discovered an extra internal organ not found in other humans, super or otherwise, the doctors named a ‘squealdillyspooche’ just to be cute. Superman’s isolation from the rest of the meta-human world at least ends with his Dragonball Z-level of excessive power. Yeesh.
I want to make some form of the ‘you got your chocolate in my peanut butter’ gag here, but I really can’t think of one at all.
well played.
well played.
I will treasure that last panel forever in my heart.
Whelp. I ship it.
Is it just me, or did maybe Fedorka connect while Maxi was still thinking about which power to dump her stats into?
I think you may be right. I doubt the stat dump is instantaneous.
Yeah, and it was a choice between Shield and Speed, if that was full Shield Stat Dump, then she is in a lot of trouble!
Dave does say that she didn’t do an entire stat dump into shield, keeping some for flight and strength to stop herself from moving.
…
I sense a Maximally effective smackdown approaching. *Grabs Popcorn*
Yeah, Maxima is one shifty lady alright. Now we get to see what her “max-effect” might be.
I wonder – is Vehemence similar to the Marvel canon’s Gladiator? Powered by confidence and arrogance? The more vehemently he delivers a punch, the stronger? If so, what happens if said confidence is shaken?
Actually this page gives me an excellent chance to ask a question a friend of mine posed when I was telling him about Maxima. “How long does it take for Maxima to rearrange her stat points?” I don’t recall it being mentioned before either in comments(not that I’ve read ALL of them) or in the little article that goes with each page.
Obviously I’m not expecting DBZ level powering up, because it was stupid when DBZ did it. But at the same time I figure it’s not quite instantaneous, but I guess I could be wrong about that.
I’m kinda confused about panels 12 and 13.
Vehemence threw one punch, with his right hand.
In panel 12, it looks a lot like Maxima is grabbing his fist in her hand, but then in panel 13, his hand is free.
I read it as her just pushing his fist away from her face so that she can say her boss-like comment.
+1
Nice fight. Loving Maxima and Halo.
“It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls of independent means…”
“Superpowers are rare, and if you have them, chances are you’re the only person you’ve ever met who has them. That isolation might have made you feel like you’re the most powerful person on Earth. That you’re unstoppable. That your power gives you primacy to hurt or rule over others. Well, I promise you…
We’re more powerful.”
Thing is I think with Vehemence it was just the cort of challenge he was hoping for. He likes fighting (much like Math does) but he can’t go all out. The isolation probably made him feel he can’t have the sorta fight he craves for fear that he’d actually hurt someone badly. I bet win or lose he thanks her for the fight and tells her if she ever feels like cutting loose again to let him know.
I mean the following as constructive, well intentioned criticism.
While Vehemence’s right hand, specifically his pinky finger, looks normal in panel three…
In panels seven and eight, it looks as if his right hand, specifically his pinky finger, looks like it’s missing some bones.
I understand that, due to the angle, there’s supposed to be another bone that’s curled up, out of sight… but it just doesn’t look right.
It also doesn’t look as massive as it should (especially height-wise), like it does in panel four.
No, in panel 3 and 4 his fingers are curled up as you would expect from a typical punch, but in panel 4 he decided to punch with the 2nd joints
Also (as mentioned somewhere above), if you refer to Panel_#3, his white “tats” are missing from the back of his right hand. They’re still there in Panels 5,7,8, & 13 … as expected.
vehemence didn’t make a full fist when he punched maxima. How come?
also, the blue power lines are missing from his hand in panel 2
panel 3*
As the troll in the corner used to say right before the fireball, acid vials, and general hail of ranged weaponry was about to connect…”Dis gonna hurt, baaaad.” *earth-shattering waBOOM!*
Read this comic for over 3 years (it’s awesome) thanks DaveB. First time posting.
Not sure if it is my Australian grammar but shouldn’t the 2nd speech bubble from V say “We have at least that much in common.” Not “We have a least that much in common.”
Thanks
Nothing to do with grammar, simply a typo :P
Besides, grammar got run over by a reindeer.
Does that mean that Christmas is coming earlier than Halloween this year?
Or are we going to experience The Nightmare Before Christmas?
Tune in for the next episode of The Grammer Nazis Blitzkreig to find out…
:P
Nope, I was talking about last year. We’re stilling wondering whether we should keep the verb conjugations or send them back.
There’s nothing wrong with your English usage. As history shows, languages tend to tend to change over time, when there’s a separation of geography & time, coupled with a bit of influence from a previously-indigenous language/culture.
In essence, between the USA & Australia, the British-English speakers consider us as “speaking English” in a manner similar to how the Spanish people consider Mexicans to be “speaking Spanish.” The origin of language has the common root, but differs due to distance & time. In our respective context, we’re still “English speakers,” but we’ve taken English “across the pond,” while you’ve taken English “down under.”
They have taken it “down under” and “buried it seeks feet under” (yes, that is how they pronounce the number 6 :P)
…Or probably would have phrased it as “two meters under,” not “seeks feet.”
But that spoils the joke :P
@David Barrack The term you seek is, Inert
Just trying to help. Adore your Score.
777
*at least I believe or is it meant to be like that?
so um.. hey David… have you spoken with a game developer yet? you apparently have a HUGE fanbase. and why the hell wouldnt you. so… in conclusion.. do a kickstarter for a game or something. i havent seen a new technical fighting game in ages. bring it on!
My spin on this idea would be, let some other pro do the graphics engine, & let DaveB focus on the character “skins” & plotting. Otherwise, we might risk seeing his page-output drop to less than 1-per-month!
I had a feeling he wasn’t going to go for option one.
They almost never do. Barberian is the only one out of the mob that took the option.
Barberian was basically a Non-combatant that got dragged along.
Or so he says…
Max’s grin sure resembles that of the previously spurned lover now in position to offer long-awaited revenge. I tell you, Mr V. and Ms M. have a past history.
Nope.