Grrl Power #271 – How do you disarm someone with super powers?
This is really Vehemence’s fault. Gentleman brawler or not, he made it clear their options were limited. If anything he’s lucky that Maxima didn’t start with his head. It would seem he forgot that Max is a solder first, and this would definitely be an ignominious end for Vehemence after such a promising start. On the other hand (sorry, V) that was also fantastically violent, so hopefully Max was right about there being a tipping point.
TV Tropes is running a kickstarter to spruce up their site, front and back end. They’re a good resource and drive a lot of traffic to a lot of webcomics so at least give it a look. Just be careful with your time if you go to TV Tropes proper, as the site is actually a time vampire.
I just want to casually remind everyone about the Amazon affiliate link since it’s cyber-Monday, something that e-tailers just made up a few years ago and now we all just accept is a thing. Evidently Saturday was “Small Business Saturday” in an attempt to win back some customers from the Amazons and Wal-Marts. I imagine within a few years nearly every day between Thanksgiving and Xmas will have its own name, from “Knick Nacks Thursday” to “Oh shit it’s nearly Xmas and I still need to do all my shopping Wednesday.”
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome which I can’t live without anymore, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Okay I didn’t expect Maxima to do that, very effective though.
Now let’s just hope he doesn’t have regenerating powers.
I thought she might go for a leg to make sure he couldn’t run (though that would make it easier to bleed out), but still.. Sydney sums up my thoughts very well
It looks like she burned the arm to ash,i doubt that there would be much more blood if she did the same to his leg.
Less burned, more vaporised. Considering Max’s powers, I think this is the result of something almost unstoppable hitting something slightly less unmovable. That isn’t a cloud caused be the explosion, that’s his arm, reduced to pretty much it’s smallest constituent parts.
“…that’s his arm, reduced to pretty much it’s smallest constituent parts.”
Aaaaand, that reminds me of something else: “Try to image all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.”
~Egon Spengler
Also the answer to the question, “What happens if I grab Max’s butt?”
Internets.
You win them.
Well, maybe if you or I grabbed her butt, yet Dabbler got away with it.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/607
Only thanks to the General.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/620
One of the perks for Dabbs to be officially classified as a *Civilian* Specialist…
There is the improbable chance she would take you up on it just to shame you, or while even less likely, superheros need love, too! Don’t start something you can’t finish. (On the other hand, what a way to go! Nerdy boys across the globe would make pilgrimages to your grave!)
Dabbler has magic shields. And they got dented.
You get to enjoy a close up view of Pluto, when you land from the automatic punch she throws.
Both Pluto as in the planet and the God of the Dead. When Max is finished with you, Tartarus is going to seem like Heaven.
And no, you will not be seeing Micky Mouse’s pet dog. (Always did wonder about that, since Goofy is a dog as well, wouldn’t it count as slavery . . . . )
Different species. One is officially sentient, the other is not. Still, it could be argued that Pluto is a servant, not a slave, as he does get room and board for his labor, and doesn’t go through any distress.
I wouldn’t say she burned it, precisely. As a matter of fact, considering that the jagged end of one of his arm bones is protruding from what remains of his arm, it is a safe bet she caused an extremely-condensed localized explosion with her fingers–which speaks a lot to her fine control of the incredible destructive power she has at her disposal (imagine taking the explosive force of say a nuclear weapon and squeezing all that into the space of a few inches without letting it cause any collateral damage).
Maybe one day Sydney will have the same kind of control to the point she could use her PPO to perform laser eye surgery…but she might be a bit too spazzy for that kind of restraint. :)
That said, going off topic, Max’s face in the 5th panel looks skewed. While each feature looks proportional in regards to the other components…the face itself seems squished. That could just be my brain reading the angle wrong…but I don’t think the way her brow is scrunched waaaay down and how the musculature between it and the nose is wrinkled particularly helps (I mean, looking at it again and at how it’s drawn, it almost looks like her nose has a nose on top of it T_T).
“That could just be my brain reading the angle wrong…but I don’t think the way her brow is scrunched waaaay down and how the musculature between it and the nose is wrinkled particularly helps”
I’d also think that much scrunching of facial muscles would be painful…Considering the fact that her nose has been *broken twice*
:P
I think a lot of that his her broken nose.
Don’t forget, her nose is broke…
If V’s got any healing spells at all, now’s the time to use them!
With that ammount of raw super violence I would think so. Although how much would he burn off regrowing a limb? That’s slightly more complicated than manifesting pants, or creating enough counter force to prevent Maxy from tossing him into orbit.
I dunno, he’s powered by violence. one would assumme it would be hard to channel that power into something thats pretty much the exact opposite of hurting someone
Hard to say. Manifesting instant bike shorts isn’t really a violent act either.
It’s more like he *absorbs* only violent energy, but once he *has* it, it’s just energy he can use for other abilities.
My guess he has them, but since they are the complete opposite from Violence it should drain his powers enormous, so he would have to make a choice between fighting one armed risking Maxima to be true to her word, or to heal himself and draining his powers to such a level he would be a easy pickup by anyone.
Well Chi Anchor and Bike Pants weren’t Violent but were easy enough.And if you think about it Regen is plenty violent. Bones forcing them selves into place Muscles and raw nerve endings bursting into existance, skin rushing to form. Basically Wolverine Regen. It’s one of the worst, most violent types of healz. But gets the job done.
Just because it’s a good power doesn’t men it has to be nice about it.
Also in the comment below me Dabbler is fueled by sex, but has plenty of violent spells.
No Nemrog, look up the definition of violence: “Physical force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing”
Healing even if extremly painfull is with the porpose of undoing or minimizing damage. Regeneration can be painfull but is not a act of violence.
And the fact that he has powers that are not violent, makes me believe he might have the power to deal with it, but it will burn power, and healing should most likely burn a lot of power for him.
personally I do not get why you would make the mistake to compare it to sets of power like Dabblers, it just shows you missing the point (just like the person below you) that I am trying to make.
To use his explanation: think of it having a rechargeable battery, if I would normally charge it with violent energy it would charge, if he uses some of his power it depletes a little, but now I am putting a reversed battery against it..It would seriously drain the power (technically it would short-circuit and most likely something will exploded/burn)
Wait, why would Bike Pants be easier than regeneration? The latter is just giving the body enough extra energy to follow the instructions already hard-coded in the DNA. The former is creating a completely unnatural and complex matrix of fibers that must conform topologically to a surface that Vehem cannot even see. Both are creating mass ex nihilo, but the bike shorts are mass in an utterly different configuration from anything in the near vicinity. It’s not like he was re-making his pants and then altering them for his new size. This was a completely new garment constructed of unknown materials, with perfect seams and hemming, as well as colored trim. I would find it much more likely to see Vehem to release or manipulate vast amounts of energy in any raw form, than to create a specialized piece of physical engineering, like the bike shorts. It’s like having a howitzer and saying because it is a powerful gun it is no problem for it to something simple like make pancakes out of thin air, all perfectly round, in a stack, on a plate, with fresh blueberries and a dab of whipped cream.
Think of Vehemence as being a kind of rechargeble battery. It takes electricity to charge it up & it outputs electricity when you hook it into a circuit. But while sitting idle, it’s *potential* energy stored by the chemicals inside.
Sure, if V cast a healing spell using his stored power, it would cost him some of his energy. If someone cast healing magic on him, it shouldn’t negate any of the charge he’s storing. It’s just that the energy to cast the spell on him isn’t specifically Vehemic Energy, it just means he can’t absorb it.
Dabbler is powered by sexies but has violent spells.
She’s not only powered by sex, however. That’s just a small part of the complete breakfast.
And her magic isn’t even tied to her succubus heritage in her cast write-up. The glamor she can put out might not be magic, but succubus heritage, while everything else we’ve seen that is a spell is probably her sorceress ability. Or perhaps her psionic ability… Nailing down exactly what part of her hodge-podge (spell check wants me to capitalize that for some reason) of powers comes from, other than an obviously mechanical device such as her Bondage Gun, is likely to be difficult if not impossible. Sure, a succubus is all about the sexy and thus her glamor is probably from that part of her heritage, but magic and psionics are also fair game as an explanation.
There’s also the possibility he may try to escape & heal/regen later…If he can actually get away. Even if he can’t regen later, he might try to get a cybernetic replacement (Do I hear a telephone ringing at Deus Industries?).
Then again, it’s also possible that his innate ability to absorb violent energy is linked to the patterns of his tattoos…Max just f*cked that up royally. She may have just nullified his ability to gain more power.
Well when it comes to self healing, if he could I figure he would have fixed his eye at some point. Depth perception comes in handy for the whole fighting thing, and it’s not like he was budgeting energy at that point or anything. I think that arm might be gone.
Maybe he can, it just takes some concentration and alot of energy. So he didn’t want to burn the energy on not trying to hurt Maxima.
He probably figured he’d have plenty left over after the fight to fix everything.
My guess is he’d be able to regenerate that arm, but it’d cost him all his energy. So renegerating now would mean powering down, and thus basicly surrendering
Even if he has spare energy to burn and can regenerate his arm, he needs a head to concentrate on doing so.
And if that’s what she plans to remove next, he wont be able to re-grow one of them.
The destruction of the tattoos is interesting. Maybe they’re the source of his power, maybe as some have suggested he’s actually a Malum in disguise and they instead tie him to the earthly plane and/or his “human” form. Time will tell.
Also, I believe it was said at some point that the team have access to magical healing. Could come in handy here (as well as for their own downed members).
I think the tats are less his max energy. But rather channels to direct his powers while showing how charged up he is like Dabby. After all she got a hand cut off, but that didn’t dampen her powers. But then gain her hand is alien magi-tech.
I seriously doubt he as healing powers beyond shutting off pain. After all, his eye and numerous scrapes are still in place.
My guess is, V can regenerate but that would drain his energy reserves quickly – so he decided to postpone that after having a victorious battle.
My other guess? He can regrow his entire arm, but that action will use up most of his hoarded power.
True, but that act was Super Violent, might just give him enough food to get it done without too much loss. Hopefully. Either that or he has a third form squirelled away. But yeah that probably put a dent in his power reserves.
Conservation of energy says you can’t get out more than you put in – Real world gets its percentage first so you never get out ahead .- _-‘
Oh dear creator – I hope he doesn’t/does pull a Black Knight.
“It’s only a flesh wound!”
“‘Tis but a scratch!”
The law of conservation of energy just cries in the corner in any superhero or magical setting. Don’t look to science to predict what can or will happen.
Well, if we apply Einstein’s E=mc^2 to the superheroing business, it would take an awful lot of energy to embiggen oneself. Or regrow an arm. Or even simply re-pant oneself.
That all depends on the actual mechanics of how it is done.
He just drew his pants from the pants dimension.
It possible he has them but they require so much time and energy that he can’t afford to use them during battle. Easier to get the fight over and then heal.
You knoiw in all comic or movies regeneration allwaya seems to be automatic, even with magic all the person needs to do is wait and tata. V’s powers seem to be a little more swiss-army-knive, in that he could do a lot with that energy if he knows what he is doing. My guess is he can us the energy to regenerate his arm and his eyes, but he is going to have to brush up on his anatomy lessions first.
There’s also the fact that regenerating is not going to be instant.
Sydney got healed by someone who has healing powers (her eye/eyepatch), but still needed to wear the patch for several hours while the healing was taking effect. And that was a far less significant injury then Vehemence had to his eye
I’ve always assumed that that was just a joke. The doctor had healing powers in the same way that any doctor has healing powers (by doctoring on people).
Except that doctor fixed straight capsaicin damage to an eyeball in an hour with no complicated tools or chemical neutralizers visible, setting an accelerated healing process underway in almost no time.
Also Maxima confirmed that “they know she has healing powers”, which makes sense as to why she’s a doctor working for/with/under Archon
To be fair, though, Sydney has ludicrous capsaicin tolerance, and sometimes such tolerance extends even to a person’s eyeballs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhfobnpvhnA
Sydney’s eyes probably do have some sort of built-up resistance. Every time she eats a plateful of that nuclear waste, her eyes are subject to the rising fumes. Indeed, Dave has even given some indication of that resistance right here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/192 (That poor fly in panel 1). That was *before* she spiced it up even more!
I rather suspected overwhelming force might be the solution. Maxima was still handling this with kid gloves until now, and Sydney’s seeing the other side of crimefighting.
It’s kinda rough that Sydney’s FIRST DAY forces her to face the face that, as Law Enforcement, she might have to do something like that herself…But it’s good in a way, that it’s something that she learns early.
Better she learns it now then whens he has to do it.
And it could have been worse, she could have actually seen him dead, and know she had a direct role in that.
But yea, poor Sydney. :(
Even now, Max is *still* trying to keep it non-lethal…She could have taken his head off with that shot, but still trying to get him to surrender rather than die.
Yea, I figured she’d go scorched earth. Since gradual escalation just resulted in him becoming more powerful the easy solution is to jump up an order of magnitude before jumping that order became outside their capabilities.
Agreed.
Easy for some to argue about what SHOULD have been done instead, especially after the fact. However, V set the terms for this entire engagegment.
That Maxima…such a disarming personality.
Very handsome
Poor V, now he has a handicap
Sad thing is, he might even try to apply for Social Security disability…And *get* it.
Bet Arianna could help with that. :P
But be careful he has not been rendered totally armless yet.
Do you mean to say he is still armed?
He’s been rendered armless you can tell by the fraying at the shoulder. (my apologies to Danger Mouse)
Shush Penfold :-)
You really have to hand it to her.
i know having to use those powers would cost an arm and a head, but this is ridiculous!!
Arm and a leg*
i stand by my previous comment lol
I was planning on using that pun myself but now I’m just stumped.
Welp. That’s ONE way of solving that.
One thing I noticed is that, in the last panel of the previous page, Max was just thinking that she needed an opening…On the *first* panel of this page, Sydney gives her that opening. Sydney’s consistently proving that she’s capable of thinking & acting quickly as a *team member*
I hope Dave can continue to keep up with the pace she’s setting…
Brace for the puns. All hands on deck!
V’s left hand (& arm) are already present & accounted for on deck
V has been disarmed.
But not defeeted
Well? Somebody give the man a hand!
That was a handy defeat Max handed him.
“…your wife will be opening all of your ketchup bottles for the rest of your life.”
~quote from the movie “Armageddon”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA….
So THAT’S the sound of one hand clapping!
That was well handled!
Gotta hand it to Max, that’s one way to strong arm someone.
Vehemence is going to have to start shopping for hand-me-downs.
He should stop now before it costs him a leg.
…and another arm.
I’m Dave Barrack, and I approve these puns.
If you approve of an ad to go with a political campaign, I’m sure you’d win the election…Hands down.
so now he’s a one eyed one armed violent super people beater?
UGH!
…Just…UGH!…
+1 Internet for that & I’ll even throw in a free https://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/joker.gif as a bonus.
*ahem*
He makes pants ka-pants violent super people beater?
*ducks*
He would be overqualified to enter banking as a loans officer.
i wonder if there is any body hiring for a one armed bandit…
Guess he’s nothing more than a one-armed bandit now.
Guess he’s nothing more than a one-armed bandit now.
Here’s a bag of silver dollars. Have fun figuring out where to slot the coins…feel free to ask Dabbler for advice and don’t get in her way if you get a “Jackpot.”
If we defeat V, will we get a shower of silver dollars Scott Pilgrim style? Given he is now a one-armed bandit…
It’s Armageddon!
As a Lefty I am
offendedgrossed out by today’s strip.::Shudder:: Agreed
Where’s the “If you have elbows, or are an elbow, look away” warning?
Vehemence still has one elbow left but still wasn’t looking…
Poor Sydney. Though I guess it’s a better introduction to death then most new soldiers would get
(disclaimer, not a soldier. Just guessing)
Considering Archon’s unique positioning in the hierarchy of things, ARCSwat is really the soldiers’ branch, even though their other duties will also include responding to unconventional threats (ie: super-powered criminals) & aid during natural disasters.
That’s the Official Byline, anyway…
I disagree. As a soldier (who, thankfully, has never seen combat) it is far better to be “trained” (for lack of a better word) on death in combat. The training law enforcement and military goes through help “prepare” for the mental and emotional trauma of combat and war. It gets a person to start thinking about the situation, and helps prevent people from freezing up in the heat of the moment. Most still throw up after their first time though, that is just a normal reaction to the insane situation.
It would have been better if she had been trained. But Sidney is strong (and this is a humorous web-comic), so she will pull through fine. I would like it if Dave included a post-combat counseling session (even the strongest people, emotionally and physically, need someone to talk to about these things). But I would understand if he did not, as those sessions can be heavily dramatic.
Hey Dave, have you read the new(and quite popular) manga “My Hero Academia”?
I get the feeling the author might be reading your comic, judging by the current arc. xD
Also, it’s a REALLY good superhero manga so far, so you should check it out.
It’s set to be one of the big-name manga very shortly.
I never have, I’ll give it a look.
Nice! I think you’ll enjoy it quite a bit.
Well, im certainly going to give it a shot myself with that recomendation Brainblow :)
And kinda hope this isnt solved yet, would be kinda sad if this got solved the DBZ way, though just overwhelming power instead of using your head.
It’s indeed pretty good, and it is published in Weekly Shounen Jump, which is the most prestigious manga magazine in Japan.(Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Jojo’s Bizarre adventure, Death Note, Beelzebub, Bakuman, and many more came from it)
So within a few years, it will probably be a big-name series.It is currently ranked very highly within the magazine, and volume sales are taking off, so you might as well just catch this wave before everyone else.
It does look neat and I like the idea of supers all over. I’m always worried about getting into a new manga though because they like to kill characters more than I care for. And since they are so long I might enjoy a manga for a few years before they suddenly kill a character I really like and I spend time being depressed. (And while some people might enjoy being depressed, I do not.)
What are you talking about? Manga is a HUGE medium, just like western comics.
And this is a WEEKLY SHOUNEN JUMP series.
One Piece, Naruto and Bleach(among dozens of others) are not much known for frequently perma-killing major characters.
And I’m GLAD when a series actually has the guts to kill a character and have it stay dead.
Have the guts? Glad? Why? What about a series killing a character permanently makes you feel good?
The chance of death implies that change is possible and that actions have significant consequences. If the world “resets” every week, then the need for character development pretty much disappears. Death isn’t the only way to do it, but it is a great way to spur dramatic changes in the rest of the cast. So, while I miss Ned Stark, I like GOT a heck of a lot more than I would (probably) because of the actions that his death set in motion.
(Side note: I hate GoT. They overuse death to the point of near meaninglessness.)
I understand that. I don’t see why a death has to happen to get that point across. I personally never read/watch/play a story with the assumption characters will live. I go in with the assumption anything can happen so I’m still relieved if they all live. I don’t understand why so many people seem to need to see a character die to understand it is possible. My question of “why?” to Brainblow was why he thinks a writer being willing to kill off characters is something that should be enjoyed, lauded or respected.
As far as death being a great way to spur dramatic change, I will only agree in that it is almost guaranteed to cause change. It’s a very negative and sad way to change things, but it definitely changes things. I think as a story writing element, character death should only be used in very important ways both in the narrative and from a writing perspective. It should never be done for shock value or to change things up. That just devalues the lives of the characters.
When you’re dealing in the arena of politics & power, death follows you everywhere.
Or has everybody forgotten how bad governments can get? Forgotten so much history, even recent history, have you?
Without death in a story where characters frequently THREATEN with death, all TENSION disappears.
“New villain curb stomping the heroes? Eh, they’ll be alright. Nobody dies in this series.” You should be able to see how that can ruin a series, or at least degrade it.
“Death” was a joke in most of Dragon Ball, with all important characters simply being
revived if they died.
This BREAKS engagement with the series, and makes the narrative way more predictable, and anything any character does can never be assumed to have CONSEQUENCE.
Having death be a present element in the story does not “devalue” the characters whatsoever. Au contraire, it makes them PRECIOUS, and it engages you even more in their struggles, and the struggles of other characters when death DOES happen.
Am I saying that an author should kill their characters left and right? Hell no. That’s just pretentious.
But if you’re so scared of ANY character dying then I will kindly recommend you some fluffy “slice of life” series where hardly anyone ever suffers anything worse than a nose bleed.
Also, GOT deaths all have logical reasons for happening. The narrative is actually very reflecting of real life, in that there’s actual CONSEQUENCES for the decisions you make.
(Not sure how to properly quote so I’ll do it this way.)
“Without death in a story where characters frequently THREATEN with death, all TENSION disappears.”
See, my mind does not work that way. I still feel the tension even if the characters have never died. I’m still metaphorically on the edge of my seat.
“You should be able to see how that can ruin a series, or at least degrade it.”
Actually I don’t. I understand that for some people, they no longer feel the risk if they don’t see a character actually die, I just don’t get why they feel that way or why they feel they need death to validate danger. Do you need to see your friends get into car crashes and die in the real world to understand that it can happen? I sure hope not.
“Death” was a joke in most of Dragon Ball”
This I will agree with. But that’s not why I personally wasn’t engaged and disliked the series. The characters quite often made decisions that made no sense and their personalities also were awkward at best.
“Having death be a present element in the story does not “devalue” the characters whatsoever. Au contraire, it makes them PRECIOUS, and it engages you even more in their struggles, and the struggles of other characters when death DOES happen.”
I will agree that it is POSSIBLE for that to happen. But just doing it, just killing characters not automatically make the other characters more precious. And the more you use character death to try and add value to the other characters, the less success you will have. I say it devalues them because then you are not wondering if they will make it (emphasis on life) you are wondering who will die next (emphasis on death). I’ll revisit that in a second.
“But if you’re so scared of ANY character dying then I will kindly recommend you some fluffy “slice of life” series where hardly anyone ever suffers anything worse than a nose bleed.”
I’m honestly not sure if you’re being insultive with that sentence or not. Would you clarify? Anyway it happens, while I do enjoy slice of life series a lot, I enjoy good adventure as well. It’s not that I’m afraid of character death. In most cases, it just makes me really sad and I get enough of that in my daily life without it being in my fiction. There are plenty of stories that I really like that contain a death, though. For example, have you seen the new movie Big Hero 6? Without wanting to put detailed spoilers here for anyone who hasn’t seen it, I’ll just say that a couple of characters die near the beginning of the movie. It has a profound effect on the main character and is a driving point throughout the entire movie. It’s one of my favorite movies already. What I can’t stand, and I suppose as you say am afraid of, is stories where the death serves no purpose or is used to excess.
“Am I saying that an author should kill their characters left and right? Hell no. That’s just pretentious….. Also, GOT deaths all have logical reasons for happening. The narrative is actually very reflecting of real life, in that there’s actual CONSEQUENCES for the decisions you make.”
I find a conflict in your statements because Song of Fire and Ice has almost as many deaths as pages(obviously lots of minor or unnamed characters but that’s still a lot). I haven’t watched GoT or read the books, but I’ve had lengthy discussions with people who have and have learned quite a bit about the series. I’ve heard the statement that there are reasons the deaths happened, or were consequences of character actions. First, consequences can mean things other than horrific death or ruined lives. Also, just because there is a reason for the death does not mean the death has any meaning. Death is very serious in the real world and has a huge effective on those around the person who died. Therefore, in my opinion, any death used in a fictional narrative needs to serve a purpose, both in the events of the story and the effect of narrative. I find it very hard to believe that every death in GoT has such a purpose or effect. Shock and awe stops being shocking when it happens all the time. I’ve spoken with people who say that GoT has desensitized them towards character death. That’s a problem. GoT long ago reached the point where the question turned from “Will they make it?” into “Who dies next?” To me, THAT devalues the lives of the characters, both to the reader, and to the writer because you no longer actively think about who lives but rather who will die. You become more interested in finding out who dies next instead of trying to journey with those who live.
Er… ‘many deaths as there are pages’? I know it’s an exaggeration, but really? The fact you haven’t watched the series or read the books and you’re depending on other people’s opinions is very telling.
hmm can’t reply directly to bleh, anyway.
Actually it’s only a slight over exaggeration. There was a study done: someone put tabs on the pages with deaths(yellow for minor, blue for supporting, red for major or something like that) and literally the average was every other page. My point is: that qualifies it for “killing characters left and right.” Also, I am not depending on other people’s opinions. I have talked to a great many people about the content of the stories(not opinions of) as well as read various summaries from various sites online. A lot of it matches up so I’m confidant that I know enough about it to formulate an opinion.
For the record I’m not arguing that words on the page are well not formulated. In that aspect the books are probably well written. (The must be for people to put up with this level of emotional distress) All I’m saying is the large number of deaths makes the deaths gradually more worthless and the narrative that he is telling is not very good as a result. My opinion, of course.
Uh huh, and having seen the show and gone through at least a couple of novels, the majority of deaths are gonna be cannon fodder and minor support, something to be expected considering the world in which the series takes place is at war. Seems to me yoy’re seeing the quantity, but none of the context. I am telling you, until you truly read the story and watch the show for yourself, your opinion means very little.
Are you trying to say that all war novels have this many of CHARACTERS die? Cuase that’s not true. They may have a some characters die, and they may have a large number of PEOPLE die. But in the terms of a narrative, there is actually a different between people and characters. In Sword Art Online, at the begining of the second episode they 2000 people have died, which is what happened off screen, but doesn’t mean as much to the viewer. In episode 3 they have a character with a name and a personality die on screen. That means something to the viewer.
Also, I do have context on a number of the deaths. That’s something I’ve tried to make sure I have so that I’m not just shooting hot air. In the prologue of the story you are introduced to a scouting party, all of which are named and given some amount of characterization before they all die horrible deaths. I know the deal behind that archer girl with the hard to pronounce name, the whole situation with The Viper. I know about the series of events that led up to the Red Wedding. I know more about the story than you are giving me credit. I would not generate such disdain for something without first learning why I should have such disdain.
Who said anything about other war novels? I am talking in context with the setting, and despite the fact it is a fantasy series, this story draws parallels from reality. Death is an unfortunate part of it all. It’s a savage world regardless of how much the so-called civilized people in the series try to dress it up.
And what of the prologue? What of the fact that they have names? They’re still minor characters, while at the same time, their deaths were not mindless within the narrative, nor were they random. That was to set the stage for the beginning of the story, revealing an overall threat at large. And then we have all the other deaths, which indeed serve to further the narrative along, be it pushing the plot forward, character development, etc. When they say ‘winter is coming’, you better believe all hell is breaking loose. It is the underlining theme despite the story jumping from one setting to another.
You say you’ve done your various research and are aware of the major and little deaths going on while not having read the books or watched the show. I am no stranger to this kind of research, because I’ve also done it myself. One example. Without having watched them, I’ve gathered knowledge on the Gundam series, a bunch of them I hadn’t watched. I learned about the plot, the tech, the characters, episode summaries, the apparent philosophies, the deaths of some of the cast, victories and losses, etc. I have spoke with many people within the fandom, the UC and AU fanatics alike. We’ve argued matches based on imaginary stats. Not surprisingly, that knowledge have often influenced my conclusions on said series, and made me like them or hate them, depending on my findings. Then, somehow, somewhere, I managed to watch a handful of them. Well, my opinion has changed. Series I thought I wouldn’t have liked, I ended up liming them. Series I thought I would like, I struggled to get through them. Some of the so-called lessons that the shows were supposed to deliver, they fell flat because of its delivery. I pretty much realized that I was a fan of drawing Gundams, but not necessarily watching a Gundam show.
Point, if something within the narrative makes you not wish to watch something, it’s fine, don’t bother. Having personally seen the show and read the novels, I can tell you that I personally am not as enamored wit Game of Thrones or A Song of Fire and Ice. There are things in the TV series that came out better than the books and vice versa. I find at times the pacing of the books felt odd partly because of the POV style of writing, while the TV series has a tendency to lose me on certain character moments because of its format. But I can tell you that, unlike some stories, the deaths that have happened have been anything but overused. It is much, but it isn’t pointless, and truly only a handful of the cast can be considered important, and those that end up dead, whether big or small, they weren’t meaningless. I can’t stress enough, you can’t make that conclusion for everyone or even yourself until you take the time to even read some or watch some, and that is why I cannot take your opinion seriously. If you do that and still come to that conclusion, then your opinion has weight, and I am more willing to accept. But as I also said, if that’s a part of the story that keeps you from persueing the series, then there is nothing wrong with that.
The reason why I brought up other war novels was because you said that all the deaths happen because it’s a war torn world they are living in. I was just pointing out that the deaths in the series ARE a bit much, even for a war novel. That’s all.
Anyway, that is well said. (Actually probably the most rational response I’ve gotten most anyone on the subject.) If I came off as though I was trying to make any conclusions for anyone else, I apologize as that was not my intent. But as for me, I do agree that actually experiencing something can change my opinion on the topic. But in this case, I am 99.9~% sure that reading Song of Fire and Ice will not change my opinion of it because I know myself very well and know how I react to even minor character death. I have very strong opinions about character deaths in narratives and story writing in general because as a writer those are both very important to me.
I find it very hard to believe that with so many characters dying that every one of their deaths has meaning, either in the plot or the effect of the greater narrative. I’ll grant that I might be wrong, but I find it hard to believe. I have reasons for that belief, but honestly, this really wasn’t the right place for this conversation anyway. I do apologize to DaveB for holding it here, even if it’s only in a small portion of the comments section.
Bleh, I do appreciate your well worded response, and though I don’t completely agree with what you are saying, I respect your point of view. Good day. :)
So, we know Maxima’s clothes are protected by her powers, but I doubt Vehemence’s are. So are his pants damaged now?
Well the last panel isn’t showing us any sort of “shadow of the colossus,” so presumably his magic pants are intact.
“Shadow of the colossus”. Nice. Very nice.
But he’s currently wearing MAGIC PANTS!
Strange – I did not take that guy for a Mormon.
If nothing else, they’re most likely soiled.
They were summoned from vehemic magics… I’d expect a large scale energy explosion at close range would make them stronger instead of ripping em up. The effect is probably like starching em while you’re wearing em ;)
Yay. Starched pants. :P
You know, V could probably open up a fashion chain. Insta-clothes Ltd!
All she has to do is take off the right one as well, and he’ll be mostly ‘armless.
Ha
I agree…And wish to add a tip ‘o the hat for Doug Adams in line with your comment’s similarity to his HHG book “Mostly Harmless.”
+1
If he keeps pushing Max is going to give him blew eyes, one blew right and one blew left!
and after the other arm she needs to remove the Left Leg.
I have nothing against the right and then neither will he.
… and hitch hiking should be easy – Eye, you look armless, hop on.
“To the Pain!”
She should have taken off his right arm, because now it’s getting a bit confusing. His right arm is the only one he’s got…left?…
Precisely.
When one has one arm, one should remember which arm is left.
You got that right.
“Just a flesh wound.”
“I’ve had worse.”
Well.. That simply escalated.
But what if Max/the team actually kills him? What did they kill him for? Property damage? Intent for violence?
I mean, he didn’t exactly show killing intent..
Yes. I am a pacifist.. ;-)
Annnd I only meant to emphasize killing. Stupid typos.
Considering the power of the attacks he’s used, I think it probably would fall under the definition of lethal force. Meaning he’s used lethal levels of force on others, even if it didn’t result in a death, so it would be acceptable for them to kill him.
It’ll be a bit of a PR black eye, but considering they captured another 30 or so alive the death of one perpetrator during the engagement/incident/whatever probably wouldn’t look too bad to the brass/press.
The first punch he threw at Maxima was strong enough to blow Harem away with its shockwave. If that’s not “assaulting a police office with lethal weapon” I don’t know what is.
Actually, when he told them they had no hope of letting him go, he was pretty much saying that he going to kill them.
That’s a bit of a stretch, as interpretations go. I think he probably wanted to keep the fight non-lethal, since what doesn’t kill him literally makes him stronger, but sudden escalation beyond that point is another matter.
He is directly responsible for a direct attack on a militairy team, during which attack several personal was injured. The only reason noone died, is because Archon is so good (or because Sydney is awesome)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1508 Would have killed, if Maxima wasn’t so super. So clear intent to kill
The first thing that he did that they could charge him with is assault (against Vektor). Considering he broke ribs and tossed him dozens of feet away, it is easily felony assault. Add in resisting arrest, trespassing, assault of a peace officer, conspiracy to commit an act of terror (he admitted to gathering a bunch of supers to cause mayhem and disorder), destruction of private property, and indecent exposure, and you have a dangerous criminal that needs to be taken down as quickly as possible and as forcefully as necessary, in order to protect the citizenry.
Also, this takes place in 21st Century America, where “To Serve and Protect” is often discarded in favor of “Cover Your Ass” and “Take Any Excuse to Use Your New Toys”. This is now a country where police pepper spray non-violent protesters, shoot family dogs for barking, and use tasers on mouthy pre-teens. Given all that, Max has been the model of conciliation and restraint.
Yea. Even now, with a fully legit reason to kill him, and a good oppertunity, she’s STILL giving him a chance to save his ass. Very impressive
Hmmm. Vekter did hit him with a car. I think he could make a plausible self defence statement for that.
Sure Vekter hit him with a car, but that wasn’t the first action in the exchange. The first action, of course, being his attack on Opal, who was no imminent threat to his person.
He admitted, of his own free will, that he’d organized the entire confrontation. Enough of what the group did could qualify as a terrorist action, I.E. destroying a public place where non-combatant people would be under a high level of possibility of getting hurt due to the actions of the group. Only ArcSwat’s actions kept them mostly safe.
With that in mind, by V admitting he organized the attack, that make him the default leader, a.k.a. the head of a terrorist organization.
Add to that, V’s extremely clear statement of intent about personally fighting Arcswat.
I am with Sydney on this, but if that is her reaction now, I wonder if she remembers what she did to the clawed guy. I hope for her that he survives.
Funny, I was on the second comments page when I hit submit.
Having your nuts crushed is alot less bad as having your entire arm explodified
Not Shadow dude. Claw dude. She hentacled his claws to his neck.
To be fair, I think she’s more grossed out over the sight of a blown off limb than a ‘scrape’.
Not neck, trapezius muscle. He’ll likely have no more lasting damage than a stiff left arm for a while.
Assuming the there are still some remains of V’s left arm maybe laying on the ground, I’d say that arm is getting stiffer by the moment, beyond what trouble Claw Guy will have.
I looked it up. There was a lot of blood for a muscle but his claws weren’t deep in. I guess he will survive for the sake of a lighthearted Sydney, if he even gets mentioned again.
could have a fear of seeing his own blood, or he just wasn’t used to feeling pain anymore.
He fainted at the sight of his own blood. Not that unusual normally, but you would think a super villain would be made of sterner stuff.
Even if he had started with, “I’m pretty good at managing my power output so if I promise to only break bones, pulp skin aaaand occasionally use dangerous amounts of head trauma to “carefully” knock out some lady who was only trying to run away and, oh yeah, thinks she is on my side can you promise not to seriously maim or kill me?” “What if I pinky swear?” “Come on guys I know I got this gang together and then let them loose in your general direction but how was I supposed to know they would attack with lethal intent while you were in a steak house full of unpowered civies?” “Sure regular cops would have shot us a million times over by now if we’d attempted the same thing with equivalent conventional weapons without standing down when told to by authorities but we are all supers who live by the super duper code!”
You are faaar from alone in this opinion though.
I know people are serious about these but they just kind of make me giggle. OK, I went a little far with the mocking reenactment but when you think about it, it really is kind of silly. I’m thinking it comes from the fact that this is a super hero comic and so people who come here have read a lot of comics involving boyscouts and bad boys with a heart of gold than actual police types. I am aware of regular comics through the other media and wiki’s they create but don’t really read them. I read their more “realistic” (not actually realistic but watch ya gonna do?) webcomic and web serial counterparts so to me this guy getting killed was highly likely after he kept forcing their hand like that.
And for forcing their hand, he lost an arm. Sweet deal.
Before even conventional cops can incarcerate the perp, they have to be sure he’s disarmed…
I’m fairly certain that Maxima could crack walnuts by placing them on her forehead and scrunching her face up like in panel 5.
I guess when the enemy only grows stronger with each hit, the most efficient tactic would actually be to just go all out early and smash them before they could outstrip your offensive capabilities, but *WHOOF* – I did not expect her to take a limb off. Here’s hoping V is right handed.
Hey, hey, HEY! Don’t be dissing Sydney like that! She’s already earned the title as “ARCSwat’s Official Nutcracker” during her confrontation with Shadow Boxer!
But on a lighter note, if V wasn’t right-handed before, he’ll have to learn now.
All I can think of is Roland Deschain’s line in the 2nd book of the Dark Tower during a similar mishap…
Maxima might be able to crack walnuts with her forehead wrinkles, but wouldn’t it be more fun to see her crack them between her cheeks? (Maybe that could be a vote incentive =D )
Be careful, the nuts that get cracked might be your own.
Panel 2: On Max’s right hip, it looks like her pants & belt were split wide open & about ready to fall off.
Not that I’m complaining about that possibility…It just seems to be an error in art & color, because it’s quite clear that her pants aren’t in any such danger in panel 5.
I think that’s the stripe on his pants you’re seeing.
I’m thinking in panel 2 what you are seeing is the the gold streak up the side of Vehemence’s pants just behind Maxima. If you look closer you can see her waistline defined and lining up with the pants, and the color of the extra area to the right of the pants doesn’t quiiite match her skin.
I don’t know if V’s legs are thick enough for that to make sense as drawn. I’d expect the outer edge of that leg to be hidden behind Maxima in that position. /shrug
Ah yes…I see it that way now. It just looked weird the way I saw it.
The idea that Max’s pants are about to fall off might just be wishful thinking on my part…
+1
You know, I was actually considered trading off my left arm for seeing her shiny posterior.
And she would probably tell you to “kiss my shiny golden @$$.”
~A tip o’ the hat to Bender
Him… I can shake on that. XD
She would be the “Golden Hind” of legend then?
On Panel 2, V’s racing stripe on his pants is almost the same color as Max’s skin, the ink line breaks them apart, but I can see why you thought that was Max’s thigh, not V’s.
Love the comic, the art style, and the witty banter shared by both friends and foes…but…Maxima is getting pretty…dull. She’s the superman character: Boringly always the ‘had enough power to do it’ character. This arc had great potential, but it ends with ‘yaaay, Max had the power to end it all along’…
How do you know it’s over?
Don’t forget one primary factor about the way Dave set this up: ARCSwat is not for super *heroes* but for super *soldiers*
Archon is under the DoD (Max says so during the press conference). The chain of command is military. Max was already a soldier before Archon & ARCSwat was established. It’s a pity that Sydney was (marginally) misled by Arianna that Sydney would get to be a “super hero,” but the difference between the two has just been made all too clear to Sydney.
The fact that Sydney stays in (as of “prior to the flashback”) means that she *does* make that distinction & decides to stick with it.
To be fair, it’s the first real fight. Maxima’s superiority needs to be established in-universe before she starts meeting enemies who really require more creative solutions, otherwise shebecomes the Worf.
“otherwise shebecomes the Worf.”
who is the worst…. just the worst………. worst
Be wary that Maxima could still wind up becoming tied in with the Worf Effect. Up to now, Dave’s just been establishing characters & what they’re capable of doing. Vehemence is *the* guy who’s here to show us what Maxima *can* do & how tough she really is. Later on in the comic, you can bet ARCSwat will be facing other challengers too…REALLY tough ones.
Worf was an awesome character, who got significant character development and entire plot arcs devoted to him.
Unfortunately along the way he was constantly getting his ass handed to him to show how bad the baddie of the week was.
Well considering healing is the complete opposite of Violence, any healing he would now receive, does not matter if it his own or from Archon. It should seriously drain his powers, even if the healing is against his will. it would be like his kryptonite. So maybe Sydney activate your unknown green ball and heal the arm and drain his power completely.
I don’t even think that healing is the opposite of violence. Violence is defined by action-reaction, cause-effect. It seems to me that the antithesis of violence would be passivity/apathy/lethargy.
Agreed. Healing may be in his spell book, but using it under combat conditions might not be possible. He’s had a couple short breaks where he could have patched himself up and didn’t though. Same for regeneration. It doesn’t have to be a combat-related skill. If a character survives they can take hours or days to fully heal.
Hero comics. In the next chapter, V get a bionic arm or something :)
I think he (and other supernaturally strong) people are the only one’s who can pull that off; usually the bionic arm is way stronger, lifting cars and whatnot, but it’s still anchored to soft and/or squishy human, so I never really got how that happens.
yeah, people don’t realize most of your arm strength actually comes from your back and legs, so getting a bionic arm wouldn’t necessarily make you stronger, unless you also had your legs and spine reinforced as well.
In ‘Cyborg’ (the Martin Caidin novel that formed the basis for ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ TV series abd spin-offs), it was mentioned that the doctors had also reinforced the rest of the guy’s skeleton (especially the spine).
In V’s case, assuming he can’t somehow regrow a new arm, a bionic limb is on the cards. Trouble is that if he “bulks out”, it’s going to look kind of stupid and probably not even fit.
Max’s “Bless you Sydney” warms my heart, I love their relationship :3
On an unrelated note… is it bad that that close-up in panel 5 gives me a page 176, panel 2 Dabbler moment?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1145
“Oh shit it’s nearly Xmas and I still need to do all my shopping Wednesday.”
Where I’m from we simply call that *Christmas Eve*
You think that’s bad add the birthdays of two neices and their father.
How about two sisters, a nephew and a mom?
My condolences
I love gift cards
It’s just a flesh wound!
Techniqually, it is indeed a flesh wound
Well, no. His arm *bones* were affected too.
;)
The arm bone is still kinda connected to the shoulder bone, but he has definitely lost a few verses from his left side if you care to sing it.
I’ve had worse!
Is is too late for V to call it a draw?
I wonder if he will quit when he is a head ?
Hopefully V knows when to quit while he’s still a-head…And still *has* one.
Meh..that was…crude….yeah..I know he is a villian..but really..? I like V …therefore…meh…
I hear you. At least that level of super violence was destructive as three of their fights so far. So 3 times the fun. And at the very least anyplane of the physical universe has violence. So he’ll get strong enough to break free, and wise enough to kick butt when he knows for sure he can go after them. Rather than running blind.
I have a feeling his injuries were only temporary. Don’t know why, but I also think he could turn out to be a good guy soon enough.
I like V as well, and I must eventually draw him myself. However, what Max did to him, that was fun. ;p
Poor guy, I hope that wasn’t his masturbating arm…
Ha! Oh, how did I not think of that? Then again, given the reaction to him being pantsless, it might have been more of a team effort.
Well, if it was, it’s not any more…
“The Stranger….” that is all..
If that’s the case, think of all the kittens that died because of THAT arm…
and once again it must be stated that Maxima is making a point to the viewing audience that this is not the Comic Book World. ArcSwat is a Law Enforcement Agency and will use lethal force if necessary.
She also made that point clear during the press conference. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1142
Well, she made a promise, and now she’s delivering on it. It’s not like they can claim they weren’t warned.
and V did somewhat cockily say “Challenge accepted”. wonder how he feels about that statement now?
Well… Pre-90’s comic books. 90’s and forward loosing an arm is small potatoes once you start looking at Wolverine/Authority/Hellblazer/Punisher/Lobo/etc.
Last time I’ve seen this pun, it was Vegeta vs Cell.. and Cell did regenerate.
I’m curious now, do you think he still plans on fighting, or will he take up Max’s offer and surrender?
He also has the option of Run Like Hell.
With a super-speed flyer (Max) & a remote sensor (Sydney’s Comm Orb) following him? Unless he has some kind of teleport magic handy (as in, one-handed casting), he’s not going to get very far.
I wonder what the range is on the comm orb.
It doesn’t really matter, because Sydney can fly at hundreds of miles per hour herself. She is almost as fast as MarySuemixa, because of course no one bests MarySuemixa in anything.
Ok, Achilles does, in a single area, while also having nothing at all special in any other area. The things MarySuemixa could do to poor Achilles might leave him begging for death, even though they didn’t hurt a bit, while the things Achilles can do to MarySuemixa can be counted on the fingers of V’s left hand.
“…can be counted on the fingers of V’s left hand.”
If you count the way a computer’s processor does, that’s easy; they start counting at zero.
Dave, I thought I had it figured out last night. Put all three of them inside Halo’s forcefield and have Max burn off their oxygen. All Max would have to do is keep him from Sydney for a few minutes until Max was the last one standing or they all passed out and the team outside the forcefield was able to restrain him once the force field orb rolled out of Sydney’s unconscious hand.
But no, this WAY more awesome.
Excellent strip overall, but today’s … just epic.
I think that wouldn’t work because
1. Sydney has less stamina than the other two.
2. Just the shockwaves generated by Maxima and Vehemence would be dangerous to Sydney.
There are a few problems with that, though you do get credit for remembering that Sydney has to be inside of the shield.
First – anything Max could do to burn off all of the oxygen would likely burn off all (or part) of the Sydney.
Second – there’s no indication that Sydney can use her orbs while unconcious, so it’s just as likely that the shield would drop as soon as she passed out.
Third – due to lung volume, it’s likely Sydney would pass out way before Vehemence, which means the shield would be down before it was useful. Also, V can summon pants, so he might also be able to summon oxygen.
Fourth – just because he’s been nice to her so far, doesn’t mean Vehemence wouldn’t attack Sydney – he’s already taken shots at her through her shield (page 252) – if she’s putting him inside her shield, she’s actively entering the fight, so even in his “polite brawler” framework, that makes her a fair target.
Everyone keeps talking about Sydney creating a shield that she’s not the center of. Why doesn’t anyone ever think of nested shields? Her small shield, and a second, larger shield, making her be like a soap bubble floating inside.
I wonder if that could be one of the upgrades on the tree…
People have already thought of that, and the general conclusion was if she got it, it would be an upgrade and not something she would have right off the bat.
DaveB, I think you meant to say “soldier” in the author comments, not “solder.”
As I have some background in electronics technology, I’d say Max’s Blast Beam would make an excellent soldering gun…Even though on this page, she used it more like a cutting torch.
Hopefully that was enough super violence for him to do a full body heal / regen. Although I wonder if the equivalent destructive force of 3 of their fights rolled into one, after a healing, how much he’d have left?
And with Maxima’s Gourmet Blast I wonder if we’ll see an upper limit, or if he’ll get to the point where violence to counter a violence eater stops working. Since in the fight so far he becomes immune to damage after he gets hit with it again (well same level power at least.).
And we need more V he can’t be written off. He’s this series first most interesting villain and with the power to escape any prision eventually like and good rogue gallery villain … unless he has some secret identity that gives him diplomatic immunity and no extraditon treaty. Then he has a get out of jail free card similar to Bane. But wouldn’t be as fun as seeing him break out of somewhere.
You don’t get away with stuff like this with Diplomatic immunity, it can be revoked.
Well, in the recent case of an Indian Ambassador (UN I think? Not sure) she was convicted of the crime, but her diplomatic immunity allowed her to escape prosecution and she was merely expelled from the country.
Diplomatic immunity let her walk away from it *once*. The conviction process only resulted in justification to expel her. After expulsion, immunity can be revoked, which means permanent exile from entering the country.
You’re absolutely correct and made my point better than I did. I should have said that diplomatic immunity would prevail (although in the context of this comic I think this isn’t even remotely relevant), however V, in this situation, would be expelled and immunity revoked, and his return could result in immediate prosecution or (and I’m just guessing here) the possibility of prosecution without trial considering the previous conviction.
Have no idea how all of this works in the legal world, just saying that given the slight (although highly improbable) chance V had diplomatic immunity, it’d only save his ass once.
Was the crime conspiracy to create a terrorist plot, attempted murder, or any of the various things they have V on at the moment?
I for one love how dabbler hides behind Sydney (again)
Also: Poor V.
Although I fully expect him to reveal that he actually only has limited “storage capacity”, but can use vehemic energy in his vicinity without any limits.
Maybe fire some VIOLENCE BEAMS at MAX while shes standing there with her pan… uhh.. DEFENSE down. She just has to have shifted her energy to her laser for that attack.
Sure, but you actually think she didn’t shift back to defence after the attack?
It would be the sensible thing to do, but I don’t think so for two reasons:
1. What she says and the way she stands leads me to believe that she is rather preparing a second attack, in case she needs to make good on her threat.
2. I don’t think she can do it instantaneous.
Although now that I think about it I see a third possibility:
She manages to get everything on defense and realizes too late that speed and evasion would have been the way to go: V could break her nose before, but NOW he might simply punch through a real guard (even one armed)
Who said she had to draw energy from defense for that shot? That really wouldn’t make much sense due to splash damage. What would make more sense is drawing from either flight, speed, or strength, and maxing out beams and armor…
With regard to your second point, if you look at https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1508 When Vehemence is actively delivering a punch, you can see Maxima considering where to pump up, whether to strengthen her defense or her speed, making it clear that during combat, even without her speed seriously pumped up, she has time to consider options of power distribution and act on them while most other people would be relying on reflexive action to determine whether to duck or not.
As an in-the-field tactical commander, one of Maxima’s greatest hidden assets will be how fast her superspeed allows her to think. How do you really fight somebody who can think multiple times faster than you, even while being strong enough to toss around tanks, tough enough to shrug off cannon-fire, and having a number of other tactical options.
Were I Maxima, one of the LAST places I’d de-power fully would be speed, for exactly that reason.
Welp, other than the method to give her time, that was pretty much exactly what I expected. Excellent.
Owwww.
I expected that too. But I wasn’t sure what the result would be.
Perhaps the lines/glowy markings on V’s arm are the breakaway points? You know, kinda like the breaks between soda crackers?
All in all, we shouldn’t feel too sorry for V. After all, it’s not like he was using his power to save kittens from trees or the like. He was inciting violence in order to profit from it. He also went and poked a hornets’ nest on purpose. Not matter how mannerly he might be about it, he should know that hornets don’t care about such niceties.
As danger mouse world say
https://www.dangermouse.org/sounds/goodgrief.wav
I think Sydney is reconsidering her decision to join Arcswat.
Max is banking on the fact he will not be able to overpower her once she incinerated his arm. I think she would have been hedging her bets better if she had obliterated her leg. Even if he powers up massively after that, his mobility would have been deminished.
Al and all, let’s see whether V can, first of all, recover from the shock and then properly recgonise his situation.
I really like TV Tropes, or at least I want to like it, but it seems like a lot of legitimate tropes get banned because advertisers don’t like them. I hate knowing that I’m reading the censored version of the site.
Okay I need someone to do some “Super Hero Clothing Math”
The girl who made the exploding light bola (I forget her name but I remember she “does not fall well”) she was able to blow up part of Maxima’s clothing with her explosion but Maxima’s own clothing is still intact as is (I assume) V’s new pants.
Is this all to do with the power of the explosions,
the focus of the blast,
Maxima’s powers (as in she does not hurt herself with her own explosions or puts protecting power all the way up a millisecond before the explosion),
that she was not expecting the girls attack and did not have protection all the way up,
or something I have not considered…
You mean Atomic Bombshell .
She put her defence pritty high for that explosion, but it was simply really freaking strong.
She can switch her powers instantly as far as we know
She probably didn’t have her defenses all the way up that time.
If you re-read the comic she was surprised by the attack when she’d thought she’d dodged it and Vektor turned it around to hit her.
Then again Atomic Bombshell didn’t use her most powerful attack, over-nuke, because it would “kill everybody there,” or something to that effect.
Hell, this is “lose your arm” week… Trafalgar Law in One Piece and Vehemence in GrrlPower… Let’s hope V is left handed.
Because Maxima blew of his left arm?
I really like Law… I wonder if we’ll see him graft another arm to himself somehow. It seems like the kind of practical solution he might employ.
I guess Naruto jumped the gun too soon. And even did it twice for that matter. :p
ACK ACK ACK!!! TOO SOON LOL
ACK ACK ACK ACKITY ACK ACK.
No it is never to soon.
Time for awkwardness! Let’s sing a song for V!
[i]If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!
If you’re happy and you know it, and you really want to show it,
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands![/i]
Just for the sake of rubbing it in…
https://receivetipstricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/joker-clap.gif
I think V is totally going to pull a Piccolo (DBZ). Get the look of battling extreme constipation, do a lot of shouting and BOOM! Arm’s back.
So there’s not going to be any trick to his defeat? Just “Maxima harder” and almost certainly learn nothing in the end?
I’m really starting to hate the character.
Just “Maxima harder” is going to be my favourite comment of the episode.
I think you’re dismissing Dave much too quickly. No way this doesn’t backfire horrifically. Narrative structure demands it.
Why? She’s just fulfilling everything we were already told about her and performing actions well within her job description. Unless you mean some kind of problem with V later on? Which is possible if he uses his spells to rabbit. Should have just killed him right there.
Its pretty early so V may just be character establishing fodder.
Actually, you’re right. The webcomic format does weird things to me expectations sometimes because of how long it takes to progress, I feel like we’re much further into the story than we actually are. This could easily still be in the setting up characters stage, although I almost feel like we got enough of that from Max at the press conference.
You make a very good point there. I’ve been waiting and hoping for a good resolution to this battle, because it seems like it’s been going on for weeks, but then over the weekend I went back and read the entire comic from beginning to present and it put into perspective that we’re still very, very early into this story.
Anything they learn would be in the debriefing etc… (hear me Dave? Really should be one. Lots of questions about tactics and such here to be answered… )
I’m assuming its a shaped charge power stunt like Atomic Bombshell did on her. Maxima has her negative points and fishy logic but none of it makes me hate her so far. May even be interesting if her higher ups call her on some of it.
I’m assuming its because she Maxed’ out (plus the power stunt thing) in a team combo with Sydney that you dislike her. (without Sydney’s distraction she wasn’t able to spend the time to generate the attack or execute it safely apparently) ‘Cause this makes her overpowered? Well, Dave was gonna upset people either way with that. I’ve heard people make a convincing argument that after all the backstory, foreshadowing, and general hype around Maxima leading up to this point that she had better deliver in spades on her first fight against an unknown threat on her first day or DaveB’s promise to the reader had been betrayed. I take a path in between the two but you can see how Dave was going to disappoint somebody. If this is the end then this at least fulfills the promise of Maxima’s character so she now has very little risk of becoming a false tough guy who only exists so that others seem strong when they beat her up also referred to in the tropes as “The Worf Effect” https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWorfEffect
I mean you can write a story any which way to start and still make it work but here maybe we are just fleshing out characters and making real that which was mostly covered in flashbacks and exposition up to this point. We are learning a lot story wise but maybe the only character who has been established well enough to need any growth is Sydney. Aaand it looks like she is getting some.
Its early I’m sure we will have a chance to “See the REAL Maxima.” as future events bring pressure to bear.
“Just Superman harder.” “Just Captain Marvel harder.” “Just Hulk harder.” Just Green Arrow harder.” “Just Batman harder.” The solution to almost any problem a superhero faces is for said superhero to just do more of the thing that they do. Whether it’s hit things, shoot things, or think about things, if they have a “thing that they do,” it is what they will do to solve whatever problem they have to deal with.
I don’t see the problem here. With a character like Maxima, at some point the solution to a problem has to be “Maxima Harder” or there is no point in her being there. (Well there could be a point, but that’s an entirely different type of story) That shouldn’t always be the solution but it needs to be at some point and I think it’s better for it to happen early in a story than later.
On another note, I’m a big fan of the phrase “Maxima Harder.” It makes me giggle. =D
> I don’t see the problem here.
The problem is that Max is so much more powerful than the team that they are pointless. With strength, speed, defense, energy blasts, and flight all at “off the charts” levels, she could have cleaned up all of the opponents in the entire battle in a few seconds. The only reason that the other team members got to fight at all is because Max was hanging back watching and making comments instead of mixing in. Right now everyone else is just standing around making popcorn because they have nothing they can contribute to this fight. (With the exception of Halo, who can only offer distractions and pratfalls.)
V was established to be the mega-villain, the ungodly powerful guy…and the best he could do was break her nose and make her take a step back. Whee.
In short, the problem is that Max is *too* powerful — it makes her boring and everyone else irrelevant.
There’s one thing a team provides that Maxima alone can’t handle…She can’t be everywhere at once & can’t do everything at once. Maxima’s primary responsibility is to mold ARCSwat into a functioning *team* & so far she’s stepped in only during those instances where the *team* was having little to no effect. Maxima is on the “front lines,” sure, but she can’t *be* the whole front line by herself.
Congratulations. You just described the entire superhero comics genre.
DC: superman vs Green Arrow.
Marvel: Phoenix vs, I dunno, Angel.
Just because Max is the most powerful doesn’t mean she’s all powerful.
What would have happened if Sidney wasn’t there to keep her from just straight up tackling the angry muppet (Death Tole). What if Breakpoint had had a chance to look for Max’s physical weakness and try to exploit it. What if Atomic Bombshell had gotten of a second shot in at Max, or a third or fourth. What if Heavenly Sword had had a chance to test her light sabre against Max. What if Vektor had had a chance to try and slow her down with his telekenetic stuff. What if Opal had been shuffling allies about to keep Max from landing hits or putting them in position to mess her up. What if Boilerplate, Jabberwonky, the jolly roof jumper, and some of the other mid level beefcake mooks had been given a chance to dog pile Max.
What if all that had been happening at once.
Max is not unstoppable. She just needs a lot of stopping to get her attention.
The length of this fight got away from the author. Its merely meant to be an establishment as shown fact of what was previously mostly just told to the reader. Vehemence is the strongest in a long line of character establishing fodder just so Dave could take Maxima for a real spin combat wise. He may be reused more successfully later against a partial team or with a better plan vs. Maxima later on though.
Which brings me to my second point. Team has a huge jurisdiction (mostly national and some international) and job description (also includes natural disaster situations, rescue and clean-up. Situations toxic to regular agents etc… not just fights.). Maxima may already be responding to another situation or even being loaned out internationally. (she’s fast but even she can’t be in two parts of the globe or even nation effectively) Heck she is so powerful she may be left back at base coordinating things remotely as leader so she can be used as a reserve (again time issues depending on how fast she figures out the other team needs her and then get there.) If she can take vacuum fairly well Maxima may get loaned out to NASA (not to mention the obligatory asteroid collision and alien issues!). The rest of her team are strong enough that they will be expected to split up into teams to deal with multiple situations at once. Sydney can operate in space for that matter and the others are perfect vs. other toxic/energy environments so may be dispatched to deal with them cheaply so as to excuse their budget. (I’m sure their duty description was left a little vague in parts so they could do just that). Long story short the whole team won’t be together all the time and are so big with so many redundancies (multiple tanks, multiple dps, several members who can do multiple things [Maxima, Dabbler, Sydney]) so that they can be split up and sent out in smaller groups or heaven forbid some of them can go on vacation. So you see there are ways around a powerful character dominating all the story arcs. Not to mention this is a “slice of life” story focused on non-combat life (yes I know, but Dave is working out the pacing bugs etc… its early yet… ) and mostly on Sydney.
Which brings me to my third point. Since the comic is “Slice of Life” and centered around Sydney it wouldn’t surprise me if Maxima’s biggest challenge or even her first curb stomping happens partially off screen. Like we are just happily dee dooping along in Sydney’s ordinary off the job life when her and her gaming buddies catch the beginnings of a live news broadcast showing Maxima being badly defeated. As it ends Sydney’s phone and other communicator start ringing simultaneously as she looks on in shock. The rest of the story arc would be about how the ARCies respond to this “impossible” event (emotionally and otherwise) and help each other rally before really kicking it into gear to solve the problem/catch the baddie without their ace in the whole.
After that arc we have Maxima dealing with the fall out of whatever psychological issues come with being “beaten” again. (its happened before that she’s been hurt badly but its rare enough I would expect it to be an issue if handled as an opportunity by the author) Possibly getting some good flash backs to the first time she was hospitalized after a fight before the comic started.