Grrl Power V: Probably Not an Octopus

[Kantaki]

Also yes it looks like Ray isn't really contributing much here, but then we know Max is able to hit the dude with actual superstrength while Ray may only have the power of being big.

I mean, „less effective than Maxima“ is a silly metric anyway. Most people and weapons* fall under that category. Lady can oneshot capital ships after all.

Also, less effect doesn't mean no effect.
Ray might not hit as hard as our Goddess of Ash, but it definitely looked like Knuckleduster felt that.
Unless that guy has some really good aces up his nonexistent sleeves I wouldn't count our purple frie... acquaintance out.

That large-mode is probably primarily for intimidation, but in case that doesn't work it should still be good in a fight.
Not „trained soldier with actual superpowers“ good, but still enough as long as Knuckles doesn't turn out to be Offbrand Vehemence or something like that.

*That can reasonably be deployed anywhere near stuff you don't want gone.

[Traab]

One can only assume that most supers, especially ones with powers that lend themselves to being brawling bricks, are prone to overestimating themselves and might even have a bit of EXTREME EGO problems. Also this guy seems to not be a total moron and also not alone so if nothing else he may have a solid sounding escape plan.

It would make sense. As a brick type you are used to being the strongest person in the room, and sufficiently tough bricks dont have to fear conventional arms let alone anything less than that. So you naturally develop an ego about how tough you are. Someone squishier but with even nastier powers, such as jiggawatt or heatwave, on the other hand, are going to be VERY AWARE of how fragile they actually are in a fight. Glass cannons. Regular cannons only care when hit by a bigger one. Keep in mind, this guy just took a bullet used by big game guides to halt charging big game animals without so much as a scrape to show for it. And he took it to a joint! Something only slightly less fragile than an eye shot. There is a reason he seems somewhat slow to react. he probably hasnt had to care about what the other guy is doing in a fight for a very long time.

[lord_khaine]

You have no experience with biomechanics of strikes nor did you think about it all that deeply if you think that's the case.

What? bwhahahahaha

Oh thats a good one. But no using fancy words like biomechanics does not make you right.
There is a REASON for why a strike is the most defauly unarmed attack. And a chop is mostly used against defenceless bricks.

Its not that a few obscure martial arts figured something out that the rest of the world could not.
But rather that simply put, you can get more power behind a punch. Something that by the way is very easy to with a sandbag.

One can only assume that most supers, especially ones with powers that lend themselves to being brawling bricks, are prone to overestimating themselves and might even have a bit of EXTREME EGO problems. Also this guy seems to not be a total moron and also not alone so if nothing else he may have a solid sounding escape plan.

Hmm. I will buy the extreme ego problems thing. He does seem exceptionally tough.
And while he isnt "sniper rifle to the eye" tough. Then thats a bit that can easily get lost in the brawl.

[Forum Explorer]

But i can see i was wrong. There are in fact organisations who are dumb enough to put a bounty on max.
Would not want to be in their shoes when the retaliation is launched.
I mean its technically about the same as hiring someone to take a hit out on Max.

The whole thing about being a shady organization is being hard to track down. And I'd say there is a better than even chance that Arclight is already working to track them down. And if the shady organization is just a front for a hostile government, than it's even harder to meaningfully stop those bounties from being placed.

[Vahnavoi]

Its not that a few obscure martial arts figured something out that the rest of the world could not.

There's nothing obscure about this, forearm chops to neck are functional and used both by law enforcement and athletes in combat sports. I already gave you the name by which the specific technique goes in law enforcement circles. At this point, I am convinced you've never followed your own advice and actually tested these techniques on a sandbag, nevermind a living person.

[sihnfahl]

And if the shady organization is just a front for a hostile government, than it's even harder to meaningfully stop those bounties from being placed.

Black ops. They'll cease with enough 'encouragement'.

[HandofShadows]

It seems that these attack isn't made to cause real damage, but to try and embarrass Max. It's a phycological attack.

[Traab]

And the mystery of what this guys powers actually are deepens. He seems to be teleporting grenades into her clothes somehow. Even as she beats the tar out of him. Is he hoping she will go stereotypical girly, yell "YEEEK!!!" And cover her chest with her arms? Or is he hired from tmz and looking for some great paparazzi shots out of this? Or does he actually think he can wear down her defenses with grenades?

[sihnfahl]

And the mystery of what this guys powers actually are deepens. He seems to be teleporting grenades into her clothes somehow. Even as she beats the tar out of him. Is he hoping she will go stereotypical girly, yell "YEEEK!!!" And cover her chest with her arms? Or is he hired from tmz and looking for some great paparazzi shots out of this? Or does he actually think he can wear down her defenses with grenades?

No, he knows she's too professional for that.

He's a distraction. He's occupying her time and trying to push her buttons to keep her attention on him.

[Max_Killjoy]

This is a classic case of digging a deeper hole. At some point, she's going to stop holding back and throw him into space.

[tyckspoon]

No, he knows she's too professional for that.

He's a distraction. He's occupying her time and trying to push her buttons to keep her attention on him.

This is what I'm assuming now. He's the designated distraction/fall guy - the rest of the team he's with is currently escaping with the stasis gun plus anything else of value they may have taken off the aliens (potentially up to and including some of the aliens themselves.) Probably banking on ARC-SWAT either being unable or unwilling to escalate combat to the point required to stop them, either because they're unwilling to just straight up kill grenade-dude's team or because it would involve unacceptable amounts of collateral damage and civilian risk to have that fight in the middle of a major city. Brick here is probably either expecting to get extracted somehow (at this point it would need to involve something like teleportation, time stopping, somebody able to create very powerful glamours/invisibility, etc, as he has earned too much of Maxima's attention to just slip away mundanely) or is expecting to get a big enough payoff to make a decade in super-power maximum security prison still seem like a decent trade.

.. also I feel like at some point Maxima really has to make good on that 'surrender or be dead' posturing from the "introducing Archon" media event. The people she fights are clearly willing to use lethal force, and they won't always be doing it to her/Achilles/Sydney's nigh-impenetrable shield so it can be waved off with a 'well it's not really lethal to them'. (Eh, who am I kidding, it always will be, because that's how Comic Books Do when they're not trying to be Dark And Edgy for Maximum Shock.) But things like this dude's grenade stunt would both be spectacularly lethal to people with a lower level of toughness as well as being a general risk to anybody in the area, and that seems like the kind of thing Maxima would want to be shutting down with maximum efficiency and a reminder demonstration of just what you're really trying to fight if you decide to attack ARC.

[sihnfahl]

This is what I'm assuming now. He's the designated distraction/fall guy - the rest of the team he's with is currently escaping with the stasis gun plus anything else of value they may have taken off the aliens (potentially up to and including some of the aliens themselves.)

Which would be straight-up ignoring the rest of the team. They're distracting the main bruiser with their brick. Dabbler and Cora aren't in any frames. And Heatwave was flanking the Stasis Alien - where's she?

Probably banking on ARC-SWAT either being unable or unwilling to escalate combat to the point required to stop them, either because they're unwilling to just straight up kill grenade-dude's team or because it would involve unacceptable amounts of collateral damage and civilian risk to have that fight in the middle of a major city.

Which would run off the idea that they haven't come up with non-lethal takedowns for folks of that power level - they just haven't deployed them yet.

Extraction should be quick, so you don't give your opponent a chance to deploy additional measures.

[Max_Killjoy]

The more I look at this, the more I dislike it... starting to think that Dabbler's juvenile need to tear into other people's non-exhibitionist, non-free-sex-ness preferences comes straight from the author.

[Traab]

The more I look at this, the more I dislike it... starting to think that Dabbler's juvenile need to tear into other people's non-exhibitionist, non-free-sex-ness preferences comes straight from the author.

The multiple shower/dressing room/swimming pool scenes didnt teach you this? Dave likes his cake, both cheese and beef.

*EDIT* As for him being a distraction, that might work if we didnt have cora plus most of the A rank arcswat team already on site and taking care of business with relative ease. Taking maxima off the board is better than NOT doing so, but its hardly going to cripple the rest of the team who are doing just fine. If he WAS trying to setup an offscreen "We had to let them go boss, it was too dangerous" I would be VERY disappointed as its very lame considering how much fighting they have been doing already. That said, if we learn that this team of mercs were hand picked to counter the known members of arcswat to make this a full scale distract while the looting takes place, that could work. And demonstrate the downside of being publicly known along with at least some of your abilities, if not automatically their full scale.

[Forum Explorer]

Black ops. They'll cease with enough 'encouragement'.

I doubt it. Maxima is too uniquely valuable to never not be a target. She's like if the US had a single nuclear weapon that could not be rebuilt. It would be a top priority to remove her, at nearly any cost. A relatively low risk strategy like putting a bounty on her head would be pretty much a given.

.. also I feel like at some point Maxima really has to make good on that 'surrender or be dead' posturing from the "introducing Archon" media event. The people she fights are clearly willing to use lethal force, and they won't always be doing it to her/Achilles/Sydney's nigh-impenetrable shield so it can be waved off with a 'well it's not really lethal to them'. (Eh, who am I kidding, it always will be, because that's how Comic Books Do when they're not trying to be Dark And Edgy for Maximum Shock.) But things like this dude's grenade stunt would both be spectacularly lethal to people with a lower level of toughness as well as being a general risk to anybody in the area, and that seems like the kind of thing Maxima would want to be shutting down with maximum efficiency and a reminder demonstration of just what you're really trying to fight if you decide to attack ARC.

She didn't say 'surrender or be dead'. She promised that she'd either capture or kill everyone she fought. Which has mostly been the case so far with Sciona being a little bit of a grey zone in that she did die, but came back anyways.

[Max_Killjoy]

The multiple shower/dressing room/swimming pool scenes didnt teach you this? Dave likes his cake, both cheese and beef.

IMO, there's a difference between that, and establishing a character who clearly doesn't enjoy being exposed or objectified but then repeatedly doing these things to that character, as if they deserve to be put through these situations for not being like Dabbler.

[sihnfahl]

I doubt it. Maxima is too uniquely valuable to never not be a target. She's like if the US had a single nuclear weapon that could not be rebuilt. It would be a top priority to remove her, at nearly any cost. A relatively low risk strategy like putting a bounty on her head would be pretty much a given.

Unless said risk is black ops bypassing all your elaborate security and 'rendering' you elsewhere.

[HandofShadows]

It occurs to me that the "brick" that Max is punching isn't the one putting the bombs on her. Someone else if around doing that. A speedster or maybe a short range teleporter. We already saw that the brick had someone else (with wings) working with him.

[Traab]

It occurs to me that the "brick" that Max is punching isn't the one putting the bombs on her. Someone else if around doing that. A speedster or maybe a short range teleporter. We already saw that the brick had someone else (with wings) working with him.

Thats actually a fair point. The grenades DO seem to be coming from our brick though. Its highly unlikely to be a speedster though as max is really really fast as well so would likely be able to tell one is running around shoving grenades in her shirt. Teleportation seems likely though as that is the easiest way for the first grenade to get inside her jacket.

[Forum Explorer]

Unless said risk is black ops bypassing all your elaborate security and 'rendering' you elsewhere.

Tracing an offer of money isn't easy and even then, the person behind it might be too important to strike at, even if you could. Like a threat to Maxima (not even direct action) is not worth a war with Russia simply because they could drop enough nukes that Maxima wouldn't be able to intercept them all.

[Radar]

Thats actually a fair point. The grenades DO seem to be coming from our brick though. Its highly unlikely to be a speedster though as max is really really fast as well so would likely be able to tell one is running around shoving grenades in her shirt. Teleportation seems likely though as that is the easiest way for the first grenade to get inside her jacket.

There is also a possibility of someone really good at misdirection. Even regular pickpocket artists can do crazy things without people noticing their tricks in plain sight and announced beforehand. Maxima is really fast and could catch bullets, but did not evade Sydney's reversed lunch, because she was not seeing it coming.

[AvatarVecna]

If I were pointing to anything as proof that the author inserts weird sex opinions into the comic, Dabbler would be Exhibit A and Deus would be Exhibit B (specifically, the several consecutive comics devoted to displaying his sexual prowess).

[Yuki Akuma]

Reminder that Dave Barrack used to draw porn before he started drawing Grrl Power full time.

You really shouldn't be surprised.

[lord_khaine]

He is quite skilled at drawing semi-nude girls in excellent health!

[Traab]

You know, its funny but im a part of a similar discussion on the newest dominc deegan comic where the author seems obsessed with drawing naked characters. Grrl power doesnt seem to bother me even remotely as much despite its fairly in your face sexualization. Maybe its the fact that the characters ARENT drawn fully nude 33% of the time? Maybe its the fact that as a heterosexual man i have less objection to seeing well drawn attractive women in their skivvies on a regular basis while deegan characters are more realistic in proportions and often male? Or maybe it just seems to fit better when dave does it and doesnt feel too gratuitous because he doesnt do it remotely as often? Bottom line, for me, while there has been a time or two when ive rolled my eyes at something I felt was a bit over the top, daves choice of artwork hasnt bothered me much at all.

[Forum Explorer]

You know, its funny but im a part of a similar discussion on the newest dominc deegan comic where the author seems obsessed with drawing naked characters. Grrl power doesnt seem to bother me even remotely as much despite its fairly in your face sexualization. Maybe its the fact that the characters ARENT drawn fully nude 33% of the time? Maybe its the fact that as a heterosexual man i have less objection to seeing well drawn attractive women in their skivvies on a regular basis while deegan characters are more realistic in proportions and often male? Or maybe it just seems to fit better when dave does it and doesnt feel too gratuitous because he doesnt do it remotely as often? Bottom line, for me, while there has been a time or two when ive rolled my eyes at something I felt was a bit over the top, daves choice of artwork hasnt bothered me much at all.

Artwork wise Dave's work has never bothered me. And most of the time the antics aren't that annoying either. Dabbler regularly pushes me into regular annoyance with her crap, and the Deus stuff was skeevy as all ****.

But other than that, I'm mostly fine with it.

[Radar]

You know, its funny but im a part of a similar discussion on the newest dominc deegan comic where the author seems obsessed with drawing naked characters. Grrl power doesnt seem to bother me even remotely as much despite its fairly in your face sexualization. Maybe its the fact that the characters ARENT drawn fully nude 33% of the time? Maybe its the fact that as a heterosexual man i have less objection to seeing well drawn attractive women in their skivvies on a regular basis while deegan characters are more realistic in proportions and often male? Or maybe it just seems to fit better when dave does it and doesnt feel too gratuitous because he doesnt do it remotely as often? Bottom line, for me, while there has been a time or two when ive rolled my eyes at something I felt was a bit over the top, daves choice of artwork hasnt bothered me much at all.

Short answer is, Grrl Power has enough good qualities that make it easier to overlook some irritating details. Art quality in of itself might be what makes it less painful.

It also depends on how well nude or seminude scenes fit into the whole work. If they come up naturally and have sense in the grand scheme of things, then it will be fine. If there is no reason behind people walking around au naturel or worse, the scene feels forced and or derails the plot, it will obviously be jarring.

Dave is pushing it at times, but I do not think that it weights the whole comics down as most of those scenes were sewn into the narrative or helped to flesh the characters out.

[Dragonus45]

It also helps that Dave has always been up front that the comic was at least partially an excuse to draw super fit hot people and there isn't much point in complaining about it.

[Radar]

It also helps that Dave has always been up front that the comic was at least partially an excuse to draw super fit hot people and there isn't much point in complaining about it.

Yup! As long as it does not detract from the plot, there is no serious reason for complain. Unless someone simply finds such drawings distasteful, but as you said, the author is very open about this.

An example of how nudity can badly interfere with a comics is the History's Strongest Disciple manga. It has great plot, humor, artwork and it shows that the author did do some research on various martial arts which might have been turned up to 11 but still the solid basics are there. But... for no good reason female characters get their cloths ripped in pretty much every single fight (especially later in the series), the skin-tight cloths might as well be painted on and very often we see the action from a weird angle just for the sake of gratuitous graphics. It gets really annoying. The whole work is still very much worth reading, but it could have been much better without the forced and overused fanservice.

[Mechalich]

Yup! As long as it does not detract from the plot, there is no serious reason for complain. Unless someone simply finds such drawings distasteful, but as you said, the author is very open about this.

An example of how nudity can badly interfere with a comics is the History's Strongest Disciple manga. It has great plot, humor, artwork and it shows that the author did do some research on various martial arts which might have been turned up to 11 but still the solid basics are there. But... for no good reason female characters get their cloths ripped in pretty much every single fight (especially later in the series), the skin-tight cloths might as well be painted on and very often we see the action from a weird angle just for the sake of gratuitous graphics. It gets really annoying. The whole work is still very much worth reading, but it could have been much better without the forced and overused fanservice.

In Japan fanservice translates to additional cash for a series via ancillary market streams, things like figurines, posters, pillow prints, and so on. Consequently there's a very real level of economic pressure to present fanservice characters - both male and female, though Japanese media tends to feature fairly starkly divided gender targeting in their productions - in a gratuitous way.

Considering that this very comic's commentary section advertises nude images available to Patreon supporters, I think its safe to say that explicit sexualization is likewise a distinct aspect of Grrlpower's revenue stream.

Grrlpower, like many other webcomics, seems to be primarily supported by the revenue stream that comes from Patreon supporters; especially as the site features relatively few adds and doesn't sell pdfs as far as I can tell. Consequently the value of each hardcore fan drawn in by the fanservice and willing to fork over some amount of money every month in support drastically outweighs that of anyone mildly interested that excessive fanservice turns off. That's basically the nature of the patron-based arts model, it's tailored only to those who are paying for it.