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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By the way, Eleven Blue Men, sodium nitrite, argyria, are blue people issues, but I am not aware if silver blood is a possibility. It would be blue, I would expect. Gold skin. Silver blood. Too bad she’s not a platinum blonde…
I see the irony in your comment…
It certainly took a lot of brass.
Maxima is gold and bleeds blue.
Welp, all hail her Royal Highness Queen Maxima.
Can someone please explain this reference that I keep seeing but have no idea where it came from?
Try this Wikipedia article.
Hm… Linky no worky… Trying again…
There used to be ‘blue skin’ due to ingesting silver…. from silverware and such…. which the aristo-s could afford while everyone else used wood or fired clay. But then, how to explain her golden outer shell?
You’re referring to argyria, and it still happens today when stupid people take a lot of colloidal silver as “alternative medicine” and end up looking like a human-sized smurf. (You know what they call “alternative medicine” that’s been found to work? Medicine.)
Yes, but most “alternative” medicine wasn’t created in a lab
Neither is most traditional medicine, the majority of it is extracts from herbs and one can make extracts with a blender, ever clear, the herb, some cheese cloth, and a couple mason jars… The use of a lab is just to make it easier to get rid of impurities that could poison you, unlike “alternative medicine” where if it can have any effect at all, it’s just as likely to cause you illness from toxins or in some cases severe injury or even death.
Take chiropracty for instance. Some of it actually works, and what works has been adopted by osteopath doctors who actually know their anatomy. But people who to chriractors who actually are a part of a woo religion called alphabiotics, a religion that denies the germ theory of disease. They are not required to learn anatomy. As a result of chiropractic manipulation so made with anatomical understanding, people have died or nearly died from brain stem stroke.
That or to synthetically recreate natural substances.
Take aspirin for example, it was originally an chemical extract from willow bark and/or types of Spiraea. It’s later synthetically modified to have less side effect and then later to eliminate the impurities that come from extracting it from plants.
Or some smartass considers taking colloidal silver until his skin turns blue just for the laughs at people’s expense from walking in and their face the very first time they see a giant smurf. I wouldn’t know ANYTHING about that! *Hides the white pants and hat* None at all.
“Believes Smurfett”s story”
The thing about argyria as a result of colloidal silver is that after taking it long enough the condition is permanent.
Happened to an American senator, as I recall… let me check.
Here it is. Stan Jones, libertarian from Montana, candidate for the U.S. senate in 2002 and 2006 (but not elected). Argyria caused by consumption of a home-made silver product that he made due to stress-related dermatitis he suffered since the death of his father. Still claims that his good health, aside from his skin color, is the result of his use of colloidal silver.
ah got it
Or did I ?! 8O
“Blue Blood” is a classic term meaning “royalty”, and of course gold is also associated with royalty.
If you read the webcomic “Homestuck”, the Trolls also have ranks based on blood color, and blue is pretty high up the chain.
Its not just the Blue and Gold. Purple was a rare color to come by way back when, often going for very high costs, and was often seen in royalty because of the steep cost.
It wasn’t that it was rare – though it wasn’t easy to get. It was that it faded quickly, which meant that if you wanted it to stay that color, you had to get it re-dyed again and again, which was, of course, expensive.
During the Ming Dynasty yellow was solely reserved for members of the royal family, and anyone else caught wearing the “Emperor’s Colours” was put to death.
So if someonepissed himself and his pants turned yellow he was put to death?g
Only if he somehow died from embarrassment.
Or dishonor. China and Japan used to have a wierd honor code. Commit major dishonor? Commit seppuku by killing yourself to regain honor.
“Commit seppuku by killing yourself to regain honor”… isn’t that a bit redundant?
Seppuku is ritual suicide, so by definition, you are killing yourself. In this case, by disembowelment… it was reserved for samurai, and even they usually had to request permission from their lord, unless it was to prevent imminent capture on the battlefield (and also assuming it was voluntary seppuku… see below.) After the 16th century, there was usually a second (called a kaishukunin) standing by to cut his head off before he could shame himself again by showing pain.
Starting in the Edo period (1600-1867), seppuku became a more involved ritual, and also a para-judicial institution. Obligatory seppuku could be ordered as a form of capital punishment (but it was still reserved only for samurai), but in this case, it did not necessarily absolve his family of the crime. Depending on the severity of the crime, half or all property of the condemned could be confiscated, and the family would be punished by being stripped of rank, sold into long-term servitude, or execution.
The female version is Jigaki, and was practiced by the wives of samurai who had committed seppuku or bought dishonor, or in the event of an imminent military defeat to prevent rape. Women committing jigaki would usually tie their knees together (so that they would remain in a dignified pose) then slice their throats.
Gold *crowns* are associated with royalty. Max’s “crown” is purple.
The color most ossiciated with royalty historically is pur…ple. Oooooooh. I see.
ossiciated? wtf? *cries*
should be associated…
There, there. It’s not your fault there is no edit function around here.
Ever hear the term Blue Blood. It refers to Nobility who could afford to stay inside all day, their untanned white skin clearly showing their veins and their blue blood. Working class for one reason or another, dirt, sun exposure, didn’t have such easily visible veins.
maybe her bloods oxygen carrying cells have cobalt instead of iron?
There are creatures, like horseshoe crabs, with copper based blood (instead of iron based blood like ours) that gives their blood a blue-ish coloration.
So does maxima eat copper wire or something?
More likely leafy green veggies like spinach and kale which contain copper. If her blood is cobalt based, then any meat product will do, including eggs. Or a nice B12 supplement.
Thought spinach contained Iron? o_O
One trace mineral doesn’t exclude another trace mineral
Hmm, I don’t think I noticed Max has pointy ears before now
That’s why she tends to have her hair down, The Golden Elf of Doom hates that name :P
That is the face of a man who’s just realized how badly he’s miscalculated his abilities.
No, that’s the face of someone who wonders what the hell Maxi is made from, literally
Well, I’d estimate that Maxima is “worth her weight in gold”…
More like unobtanium. That shit is worth $25,000,000 per kilo.
…which is why it’s pretty much unobtainable…
Just like Maxima level super heroes
on max’s blood, there are some haematological conditions that will cause the (normally clear) plasma to turn blue, there are also drug cocktails that will turn your blood blue, a few will even give you “super Powers” (Enhanced Strength, Reaction Time, Pain Resistance) for all of about two to five minutes when the doctors wount know what killed you, the Stroke, the Anurisim, the Shredded Tendons and mussels or the toxic shock.
perhaps Max has a biology that is immune to the down sides of such chemicals and even produces them within her body, so when she powers up her blood turns blue?
So you are saying that maxima is a biological junkie?
By that logic we’d all be biological junkies.
Each time you do something that makes you happy, your brain releases chemicals that effectively make you high.
Being happy is literally addictive
Yeah well I like being high on happiness. And no, that does not reference any kind of drug addiction I may or may not have.
Yeah, can remember when Glen Campbell (or was it Bob Denver? no, not “Gilligan” :P) was brought into court along with Dee Snider and Dweezil Zappa because of his song “Rocky Mountain High” :D
“Oh God!” – a “John Denver”-joke???!?
:P
“That really BURNS, GEORGE!”
No, it wasn’t because of “Rocky Mountain High”, though he was definitely there at the senate hearing instigated by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). There were three songs (Pyromania by Def Leppard, W.O.W. by Wendy O. Williams and W.A.S.P. by W.A.S.P.) and two music videos (“Hot for Teacher” by Van Halen, and “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister) that were presented as evidence about “. . . the pervasive messages aimed at children which promote and glorify suicide, rape, sadomasochism, and so on . . .”
What John Denver did was to state that he was strongly opposed to censorship of any kind, and that in his experience censors often misinterpret music, as was the case with his song “Rocky Mountain High”. (The PMRC thought he would side with them, thinking he would be offended by the lyrics as well. How little did they know…)
Dee Snider showed up in his usual outfit (the same one he wore in the video for “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, and I bet the PMRC was smirking when he walked in the door thinking that he would be totally ineffective as a defendant. What they underestimated was just how literate and well-educated he is (he had dressed that way on purpose), and he proceeded to epically sink every argument they tried to make.
Oh, and it wasn’t Dweezil Zappa, either. It was his father, Frank Zappa.
Shhh. Don’t say that too loud or some kid will run afoul the schools zero tolerance drug rules. I can see it now, the school board declaring that no longer the students allowed to be happy on school grounds…
Actually I can think of a reason for the blue blood, first off though I have to ask, was she born that way, or was it due to an accident of some sort which in turn activated or created the power? If it was through some form or type of accident when she was younger I would suggest something like say an accident dealing with electromagnetism. High volumes of electromagnetism would allow her the ability to energy dump into different powers like strength or invulnerability and it would explain the blue blood. This is because it would increase the metallic content of her blood which would also increase her ability to stat dump as well. it would also explain her ability to fly, and the blasts she can can deliver, especially if what ever accident combined electromagnetism and nuclear energy. I’m just guessing in either case because I really don’t have any idea of the exact creationism being used for her powers.
It was mentioned that they have no idea what causes people to develop superpowers, but it seems to be an integral part of each of their biologies that when it “matured” as they grew it manifested as super powers. At least that was how it was described to be like for Harem and was implied to be the same for Max, Hiro, Anvil etc.
They talk about it a bit here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/880
I don’t see how any of what you said explains anything about maxima any better than it explains the fact that most chopsticks used in China are made in America…
actually it does if you think of the chemistry of it. In some cases it is an event, like with the flash getting hit by lightening in the police lab and splashed with all of those electrified chemicals which gave him super speed. How or what gives her flight could be a BIG hint into what creates her powers. If her flight is through electromagnetism then her other powers have a basis in it as well. Now since we know she can stack her stats all into one basket that means what ever the source of her powers happens to be, it links all of her powers which is why she can stat dump like that. Its the control factor of her powers base. This also means that if an enemy can figure out what that is they can in turn find her weakness. Every super out there has a weakness of one sort or another, the trick is finding that weakness if yuo want to fight them and win.
… oh, okay. She has either a limited VPP or Variable Slots in her (very large) MultiPower. Probably the latter, but possibly the former …
It’s possible it was just a quick mental summary of her choices. I expect it’s more complex, but when a large half naked man is about to punch you in the face that is no time to dwaddle.
DaveB addresses that in the second paragraph above.
… no, DaveB describes the choices Maxima has and/or can make, and frames it in part in the Marvel Universe – whether it’s the RPG or not, I’m not sure, I haven’t played Marvel since the FASERIP days. I’m describing it as a matter of choices between two power constructs in another system – one which Dave has, in fact, mentioned before, specifically in reference to Maxima – the HERO system. (And in this case, Multiform wouldn’t work as well, I don’t think.)
‘More complex’, Cal, can be as ‘complex’ as a MPow slot with ‘variable advantages’ – or a straight-up somewhat-limited VPP. I tend to go with the latter, just because of the possible variations of some of Maxima’s powers, such as the two (three?) versions of her energy blast we’ve seen so far. I’d lean (somewhat) towards the VPP, just because, but it can be tough declaring certain Powers (as compared to lower-case-p ‘powers’, which are ‘what it looks like’ as compared to capital-P ‘Powers’, aka ‘What It Does’) off-limits.
DaveB explained some time ago how Maxima’s powers work.
She’s a natural 3 stars in all her powers, and can boost 2 off those (any 2 at a time, of her choise) to 4, or 1 to 5. (scale of 1 to 5 used in the cast page)
Or she could draw against some of her other powers to go above that
I’m surprised she didn’t think to bow her head right before he hit. It’s a classic defense of the old bare knuckle brawlers – instead of punching you in the nose, they end up punching in the forehead – i.e. the big hard dome of solid bone that gets used for headbutts. It didn’t take long for both fighters to end up with broken knuckles after a few rounds like that.
As she said, she was grandstanding, and paid the price with blue snot running from a broken nose
I’m pritty sure that’s blood, not snot
I’m surprised she didn’t think to bow her head right before he hit. It’s a classic defense of the old bare knuckle brawlers – instead of punching you in the nose, they end up punching in the forehead – i.e. the big hard dome of solid bone that gets used for headbutts. It didn’t take long for both fighters to end up with broken knuckles after a few rounds like that.
Bowing one’s head is also a sign of deference, which Maxima might take as an admission of weakness.
Or more likely Max was just thinking of how cool it would be to take a punch straight to the face without even flinching, and still came up a little short in her estimation of V’s strength.
I’d probably be more impressed if she headbutted my hand and broke every single bone in it
Max is a trained and experienced fighter. She knows better than to take a punch at all if it can be blocked or deflected. She is also the second largest ego in this fight. Max went for the showy trick and mostly got away with it.
With V’s expression in the last panel, I’d say Maxima’s ego just shot up to the #1 slot.
I want to marry Maxima. I hope she likes girls. We can discuss feminist theory together and come up with some “boss” lines. <3
Depending on how hardcore and what type of feminist she actually is, she may not like the idea of marrying anyone. :( But you can buy her a cup of coffee/beer/rocket fuel and discuss feminist theory with her anyway!
WTB panel 12 as a wallpaper.
I can’t get enough of Vehemence’s face in panel 6.
I hope you’ve learned your lesson here, Dave. Mention in your commentary that your searching for a canon explanation, or are otherwise stumped, for something and you’re gonna get a small wikipedia’s worth of suggestions & discussion from your fan base. Which can be a Good Thing. Use that power wisely.
My 2-bits of thoughts on this installment, Max’s blue blood can be a phase that’s active when she’s powered up, intensity of blue can shift, perhaps down to shades of red when she’s more or less completely relaxed. Her purple hair coloration might well be tied to whatever metabolism is involved with the blue coloration of her blood. Kind’a like Dabbler color-shifting pink when she powers up her sexy.
When she blushes, you could use shades of intense, deep red (perhaps even a bit purple-shifted, if it works visually?) along the lines of her current lip & nail color. That would be fitting embarrassment for a tough character like Max … when she blushes, it’s intensely more obvious than with most normal people. Tie that in with Max Word Bingo for bonus points.
When she bruises, you can use intense and glorious shades of royal purple, malachite/forest green, midnight-electric blue, etc. Play up on the metallic characteristics of her skin tone and make it an oil-slick like rainbow. That exploding bola that wrapped around her might be a good possibility to experiment with to see if any of that works out visually in a way you like.
Oh, and Hai! First post. Been following since about two years now, but the comments have always been so crowded I just skimmed them and figured I’d get lost in the noise of everyone already saying what I had in mind. Really nice strip. I love what you’re doing with it. I’ll drop into the comments a bit more after this. Thank You!
I’d envision green bruises working better visually if they were a very dark shade of jade – almost black.
You are not lost, we see you! :) Welcome to the comments from an infrequent poster (but frequent reader)!
Welcome from out of the wastelands, we don’t, in general, bite, but watch out for Puppy, if he starts to sniff in places you don’t want sniffed, some toss a few boxes of ‘Scoville Snax’ the other direction and he will leave you alone (until he comes back wanting more :P)
Maybe it’s just me, but we seem to have a rash of first time commentators on (especially) this and the last couple of pages. Welcome, one and all.
Or maybe her gold skin makes it impossible to blush? And the blue blood could be caused by it being copper based instead of iron. So in fact Maxima’s skin color could be caused by the high amount of copper in her blood.
The purple hair though? Maybe she has it dyed
Nah. Dave already established that she does blush and, in fact, provided a link to an example already in canon. I was suggesting that Max have an embarrassing “weakness” of sorts … her blushing and bruising being more obvious than your average bear. It would totally be in character with her (as I see her) in that she would really clamp down on her own emotional reactions specifically to maintain that command presence. I think we’ve already seen somewhat tsundere aspects of her personality that would be utterly mortified if other people were able to see her blush.
As far as copper-based blood/metabolism, that might be thinking a bit too narrowly. I suggest that the “way that she is” is more panchromatic … probably a much broader spectrum of metallic metabolism, where many metals are incorporated. Titanium, cobalt, palladium, chromium and etc. assortment of exotics. Her gold-tinted skin could, for example, be a palladium alloy without any gold present at all.
Just in more general terms, what I was suggesting to Dave is that, if he is looking toward canon explanations, he offers himself broader artistic possibilities by going with a spectrum of colors rather than a specific & limited palette. He would have room to explore various tints and hues for different circumstances (bleeding, bruising, blushing) all to various degrees.
So, canon could be “Yeah, Max, she has a buttload of metallic chemistry as part of her make-up, therefore she often has vibrant metallic-colored hues depending on lighting & circumstances.” /explanation and on to the fun of semi-randomly depicting whatever wild idea occurs, especially in comic-relief situations.
Maybe she even glows, if she blushes hard enough. “Hey! Max said ‘quim!'” “She did NOT!” “Does she even know what that means?” “Who had that for Bingo?” Dabbler (in bright pink mode): “Oh, Colonel Sexy! Want me help you with that one? C’mere for some private lessons!”
Last thought for me on this strip: Getting her nose broken is the sort of thing that gives people serious black-purple raccoon eyes. If Max does bruise, she’s gonna have to wear large dark sunglasses for a while. Unless maybe someone with mad makeup skills can match her gold palette. Queue up Dabbler, with technology enhanced makeup and an opportunity to work very … intimately … on Max to make her presentable for public appearances.
Just thought of something: does anyone, apart from maybe Peg, know that Maxi bleeds blue goo?
Her Gyno?
I have to admit that as interesting as the colour of Max’s blood and skin might be, I’m really intrigued by her ears. I mean, the colours can be explained reasonably, but what’s with the pointy ears?
Is she a Vulcan or an Elf?
She is the Golden Elf of Doom! :D
My thoughts are that Vehemence bit off more than he could chew since she handled that attack pretty well. But I also think that Maxima bit off more than she could chew since he broke her nose in the first place. We might be looking at the third person to force her to go all out. Or at least a recurring character. I really hope so. He’s badass and he knows pop culture. He’s like an evil Sydney.
I interpreted Vehemence’s comment in the last panel more like, “Wtf? Blue blood? You’re ridiculous.”
I could be wrong, but I was under the impression Dave’s comment referred to Max’s blushing green. Which makes more sense considering the gold + blue.
Credit where it’s due: Vehemence’s hand does not appear to be broken…
Not a fair comparison since the nose is made of mostly soft cartilage and the hand is made of, well, you know, actual bone.
The nose itself may be soft, but the stuf behind the nose is pritty solid bone
Is it just me, or does Vehemence look slightly aroused in that last panel? :3
I’ve heard of amazon chasers, but I don’t think Max would like the attention.
I don’t think she would either. Personally, though, I’d like to be able to turn a superhero on by thoroughly impressing them. Taking a punch to the face isn’t something I’d likely do, though, even if I had super powers.
That said, I’m sure Dabbler is taking notes.
Not one comment about V’s look of “I think I’m pooping a little in my pants,” in the last panel?
Seriously, that is a look reserved for, “I lost the pin,” and cases of double coyote ugly.
TV’s eyes in panel 6 are IMO too nonplussed. I don’t know…
I suspect that inherent superpowers are influenced by subconscious self image, desires, and such. Maybe Max subconsciously wanted to be unique, and maybe in her geek phase she liked elves, thus the ears.
however I mentioned the iron in the blood for a reason, or even three. Firstly, I’ve run into other hero stories with heroes that have electromagnetic powers and often their blood turns blue because of the high iron content. This however depends on the powers in some ways. In the case of one hero I read about his powers were given to him from having an MRI done, and while he was in the machine it was struck by lightening, which is why I mentioned the flash and his powers being created by lightening. But also the MRI changed the chemistry in his blood making it blue. This is because of the mixture of high iron content and hemoglobin that is naturally found in blood. Now being able to warp magnetic fields could enhance strength, the ability to fly, and all of the powers which we have seen Maxima use. That’s why I chose it as a possible extension of her base powers for an example. Her powers could come from literally hundreds of other sources though but that was the first one that came to mind. Now if she is your basic mutant she could have always had gold skin, or as she hit puberty her skin could have changed color. An example of this would be BEAST from the X-men. My main question though is the why of her blood color which could be a major hint to any villains watching this fight as to where her powers come from, which would then have harder fights as they work to try and take her out using the available information. You just know some super villain out there has to be planning for future encounters and how best to attack next time. That’s why I’m so curious about it.
i find it interesting that Vehemence apparently re+grew his broken tooth in this page
No, you can see the gap in panels 1, 4 & 13
It’s just that he’s got so many that the missing one doesn’t show up as much.
You know the color of her blood could be red in the body and blue outside. There are a number of chemicals and elements that when they are exposed to air have a tendency to change color. The reason blood is red is that it contains elements that turn red when exposed to oxygen. Perhaps she breaths one of the other elements that make up the air we breath, so her lungs only take that in. This causes the blood to be red in her system, but when the blood is removed and exposed to the other elements in our atmosphere it turns blue.
You would have to consult a real scientist to figure out what it is that does that.
This has already been dismissed as a myth at least once in the comments. Please don’t have to make them do it again. =OP
Forgot the link.
Let’s try that again.
so she has hemocyanin carrying cells instead of hemoglobin carrying cells in her blood? I only know that because of the Baltic squid (blue blood, three hearts, and swimming with them is like swimming with the velociraptors from Jurassic park)
Unless the iron compounds in her blood are something akin to prussian blue. No reason that she has to be using a blood chemistry that has already been encountered and is widespread.
Generally, one saves the ‘haymaker’ for the final blow, the punishing move that will once and for all cruch your opponent.
After whetting his whistle by plowing through the rest of the team, V’s all amped-up and looking to make as great an impression as possible. Leading with a haymaker makes me think that he either expected more in the results department, or doesn’t actually know how to fight.
Personally, I hope for the latter; we might get a sweet backstory of a totally ordinary guy who gets these absurd powers and then gets his clock cleaned because he relied on them too much against a trained fighter like Max.
Oh, and his face at the end is beyond perfect. :)
I think he was also grandstanding, and hoping for the big finish of flattening the team leader in one blow to send a message. It just didn’t go the way he hoped… That or he wanted to see how Max would respond to that kind of attack. He spent most of the fight observing everyone, but Max had been hanging back for the most part so he doesn’t have a clear view of how she fights.
He also has some super speed, as we saw here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1491
So there was not actually any time between him deceiding and the punch landing. It’s just that talking is a free action, so you can’t asume duration of an action based on the amount of dialoge (in comics).
So it’s a reasonable opening, Maxima is also not visually ready to block the blows, and is only able to react quick enough thanks to her own super speed
Martial artist here. RE: Haymakers. They’re useless in a real fight, unless you’re using them to feint. If I’m going to hit you, I don’t want you to see it coming. The only time to throw a chambered or wound up punch is after your shoulders are turned anyway, after a dodge, block, or jab. Any fighter worth their salt knows that counter-attacking and surprising are the most devastating techniques one can have.
Amen. All the flashy, impressive, and intimidating moves are meant to be exactly that… flashy, impressive, and intimidating. And highly damaging, if they actually do hit.
The problem is that in actual combat, unless your enemy is already on the ropes, it’s probably not going to hit. You’re far more likely to leave yourself wide open for the enemy to land several good blows and probably knock you flat on your arse. They tend to have a long windup, and the opponent can see you telegraphing your moves from a mile away.
The problem with what Maxima just did is that some people don’t scare when they come across someone who is or appears to be stronger than them. For those people it just psyches them up and has them fight harder. If what I believe is true Vehemence might just be one of those people and that last frame is him becoming battle happy.
I think his expression in panel 6 might just be more proof in him being a ‘Sydney’ kind of person. A bit of a ham who has the ability to make a good showing at the same time, if that makes any sense. But still, I love that reaction.
Well, blast. Someone beat me to the blue-blood aristocrat comment. I snooze, I lose.
in Hero System terms I think Vehemence has a base strength score of 60 (100 tons) and powers up when he goes Into that wierd rage mode where his pupils disappear.
Always knew Maxima was somewhat of a blue-blood. . .
You mean, a snob? o_O
It’s not a good sign when you’re rooting for the villain. Maxima is snide, rude, arrogant and a bully. We’ve seen that she likes frightening normal people more than once, and often for petty reasons. Add to all of this, she’s apparently as powerful as the rest of the team put together.
This does not make for good storytelling. The reason Superman isn’t insufferable is because he is humble, recognizes the value of human life and does not think himself superior to anyone else; he just happens to have gifts that he uses to protect others. If he were constantly lording his powers over the other heroes and bullying civilians, reminding them that he could slaughter them all before help arrived, he wouldn’t stay a hero for long no matter how powerful he was: someone or someones would take him down.
It feels like Max is an attempt to emulate Alucard from Hellsing, but it’s a poor transfer. Alucard’s powers are held in check, for one thing. And for another, he actually -wants- to be beaten. He admires humanity, seeing himself as beneath them, a failure for having given in to darkness. He’s not going to go down without a fight, but he’s always looking for an honorable foe who can finally give him release on his own terms.
Cripes, of the only two people who’ve fought Max to a standstill (not even beaten her), one wants to get in her pants and she thinks she killed the other one. That’s not a way to build a hero’s credibility. I’m really, -really- hoping Vehemence will pull out all the stops and curbstomp Max, forcing the rest of the team to take off the kid gloves and save her. It might make Max more readable when she’s not the invincible asshole, and she might come to appreciate her team better when they save her ass. Or maybe her ego will finally reach peak levels and she’ll go rogue, since she seems to already hold society, and humanity as a whole – in poor regard.
Either way, I hope that the story develops beyond “Max is invincible, terrifies innocent civilians, suffers no repercussion despite how bad a person she is, is still admired/lusted after by the majority of readers regardless.”
… pretty sure you’re the only one with that viewpoint. I could deconstruct your post point by point, but I’m pretty sure nobody wants a flame war here.
Nope, not the only one
I agree with the Wyrm and disagree strongly with SleepyBulldog.
You are allowed to disagree
Well I agree to disagreeing with agreeing to disagree
I agree to use Nuclear weapons to settle arguments
Well, I love Maxima. Dabbler is too much of an annoying Mary Sue, but so is Sydney. Max is just awesome.
Sydney is NOT a Mary sue. If she was then she would have used her orbs or completely destroy all of the supers she fought. Then she would also have to be freakishly beautiful. Sydney is definitely not freakishly beautiful, cute and adorifying, but not the hottest person around
Nah, what makes Max less than insufferable is her behind-closed-doors personality. She’s a closet geek, and actually a little bit silly when she lets her guard down. I’m hoping we get to see more of that, as ARCHON becomes a little bit more of a Super Team and a little bit less Police Academy.
I hate to tell you this but you haven’t been paying any attention at all to what Maxima is about or why she does or says things. Your really only making an assumption, when you assume you make an ass out of you and me. I think you better go back and reread like the entire comic from the start because you’ve totally messed up when it comes to understanding Maxima and if you’ve done that you might have messed up understanding others as well. You have what she says yes, but you also have her actions, yet you take them separately as being unrelated and so you’ve read her in the wrong sense. She is in a world where she has been treated different from day one, her exotic looks set her even further apart and some men, especially military types have probably tried things with her which she didn’t take kindly to. Don’t even mention the people on the other side trying to kill her, not to mention she might have had people on her side also trying to kill her so yes she is bitter. However what is she trying to do? She is being a hero, but she is doing it in such a way as to say that messing with her and her team could be or outright is a death sentence. Yes she has turned them into a target but at the same time she has removed several threats doing so. Only the serious criminals are out there at this point and striking right now. This fight was not only expected it had to happen in order to set the reputation of the team from the start. She cares for people, genuinely cares for them or she wouldn’t have put herself and her team in this spot. She knows she is one of the top tier of the highest order level supers out there and she admits it openly. This isn’t her first rodeo and she makes no bones of just how powerful she is. As for her so called bully act, she lets her team do the fighting and keeps herself in reserve because if she has to step out and use her powers she knows people will get hurt, maybe even her own side because it is a major escalation in violence if she has to join in the battle. Again reread the comic and open your eyes this time. Pay attention to everything and stop trying to assume things that aren’t there.
so is the big shock wave from his punch or the flight energy max used to hold her self in place.
Does anyone remember the book series wildcards? It had a character called Golden Boy who tried to stop a get away car. knowing he was much stronger then the car he simplify stood in front and tried to grab it. weighing no more then a normal man he went flying.
Guessing she didn’t actually have time to switch her powers
The authors comments addresses this. The word from Dave is that she did redistribute her powers and most of it went into armor but some of it was used for flight to keep her from being pushed back and strength so her head wouldn’t snap back. She did this so it would look impressive for the cameras.
If she had been going for efficiency then she’d either maxed out armor, resulting in her being unharmed but sent flying by the punch, or speed to make her able to avoid the punch altogether. but neither of these options would have projected the image she’s going for. Her goal is to either scare potential villains straight, or have them focus on her as their main opponent. Any villain that comes to her looking for a fight is one less they will have to hunt down.
how is this remotely related to anything I said?
I was about to drop this comic but this is the kind of page that makes me hang on.
The thoughtless, all-powerfull hero is boring as S-Man. Maxima has limits, and she is aware that she has them, but not 100% what they are. Good.
I’m sure she knows exactly where here limits lie. But without knowing exactly how strong your opponent is, that information isn’t worth much
After reading this, im suprised noone (that I saw) thought of a certain classic poetry rhyme:
“Roses are red,
Her blood is blue,
You just punched her in the head,
Guess what she is going to do?”
(My guess is she’s done all the grandstanding she’s likely to get away with, making a pretty solid statement of how damn tough she is in the process. Next comes the asskicking meant to keep people from wanting to try her just to see if they can “do a little better” than he did).
When you look at panel 3, its like an old “you choose the path” storybook. “I’ll give my answer in the form of….”
A) Sphinx-esque riddles
B) Deconstructive analysis
c) Interpretive dance.
Just sayin. Dave has a chance to do alternate reality panels.
Dance off between Archon and the entire team of badguys
Wouldn’t be much of a dance-off. Everyone on the villains’ side except for Vehemence is currently dancing the Inanimate Object Jig.
The Inanimate Object Jig? Or is that the Horizontal Ragdoll? I never did learn much about dance moves.
Well it’s more as a what could have been alternative to the battle royale
And offcourse as a final Vehemence vs Maxima.
I nominate Sydney, Harem and Leon as judge
But if any judge’s panel includes Harem, doesn’t that automatically constitute forcing a bias in the judgement? After all, she already possess 5 votes just by herself.
Well just 1 Harem then
In 3 he has 3 bones after the knuckle.
In 7 he only has 2.
Regarding the problem of Maxima having blue blood, blushing green, and this effect looking like she is nauseous instead of embarrassed, I recommend letting it stand. If you let it stand, you would have to show in canon an example of her getting embarrassed and the green signalling others mistakenly that she is nauseous. In that situation, Max might take the out and go to the restroom to “recover from the nausea” while she is instead going to simply recover her composure. The problem with this kind of situation is that Maxima’s character might not do any such thing as taking an out for a variety of reasons. This is more of a seed of a possibility and would require more thought. It does however let you use the green blush going forwards with no more than a handwaved explanation regarding her earlier red blush as just “the lighting” for in world logic and the need to be clear to readers for artistic creation purposes.
I thought nausea thing was if her glasses were dirty. Yes, I went there: no see a ….
It could also be that her blood is blue when heavily oxygenated, and reddish or something when not as heavily oxygenated (building on the false myth that human blood is blue in our bodies – it’s not, but hey… could be the opposite myth thats true with Maxima?)
Okay, having the “Html 500” error in Legostar is bad enough (at least you can just go back and retry to post) but the “your request could not go through because it timed out” error here is too much, this may be the last post from me until it’s sorted (not that missing posts from me will be a big loss)
Try going back a page (CTRL + left arrow, at least for me) and then hitting “reply” again if you were replying to another comment. At least for me, the comment shows up in it’s entirety just as it was before and all I have to do is hit “Submit Comment” button again.
Yeah, do go back a page, and the comment box is empty (stupidly still using IE7)