Grrl Power VII: Let Me Explain For The Next Thirty Comics!

[Dragonus45]

Except that controlling his own mass, and making himself heavier is the same.
And not something that would make sense anyway. You control your own arm as well. Until Max grasps it and starts the "stop hitting yourself!" routine.
Supermassive also controls Stalvarts mass. But eh Stalvart is close to as strong as Max. I guess possibly just cutting the effect by ½ or 2/3 would do it for Stalvart.

The actual thing that needs handwaving is Stalvart grasping someone this fast.
And not getting slogged 10-20 times in the face between last panel and 2nd last panel.

No, controlling is own mass is not only making himself heavier, and no there is no need to handwave Stalwart catching him either.

[Forum Explorer]

Except that controlling his own mass, and making himself heavier is the same.
And not something that would make sense anyway. You control your own arm as well. Until Max grasps it and starts the "stop hitting yourself!" routine.
Supermassive also controls Stalvarts mass. But eh Stalvart is close to as strong as Max. I guess possibly just cutting the effect by ½ or 2/3 would do it for Stalvart.

The actual thing that needs handwaving is Stalvart grasping someone this fast.
And not getting slogged 10-20 times in the face between last panel and 2nd last panel.

Superspeed is such a big problem for stories like this to handle. Being able to catch bullets makes Maxima massively hypersonic, and now any opponent she doesn't repeatedly pummel is apparently also super fast? Like Hench Wench. No stated super speed yet somehow able to land blows and even escape Maxima's grasp.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I think it was already established that Max's superspeed is conditional. She has to either already be at superspeed, or anticipate something in order to jump to superspeed on time.

In a situation when her opponent is forcing her to dump power into defense, especially multiple ways, her superspeed can't even properly come into play.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Also, "has superspeed" =/= "constantly sprinting". In any fight lasting more than a few seconds, it's not unreasonable to pause to catch your breath, assess your opponent, plan your next strategy, etc.. Bad luck for Suck Master that Stalwart was in a position to take advantage.

[Mechalich]

I think it's also probable that Maxima (and other characters with similar abilities) have their physical superspeed restricted by limitations on their cognitive speed. Essentially, Maxima can go faster than her mind is able to keep up. This means she can move at extraordinary velocities and perform incredible high-speed stunts, but she's not able to experience the world like Quicksilver in the X-men films. Much like Superman, she's superfast, but she doesn't have the full 'Speedster' package.

[Shining Wrath]

What needs explanation is how Stalwart knew Supermassive was there at all. He can see through dirt? How?
OK, maybe he can feel him because manipulating gravity is noticeable - you are bending space-time.

Stalwart could have felt Supermassive moving around, spotted a pattern, and just waited in a likely spot. The battle has been going on for a while since he dropped in, so he moved to a likely spot, and prepared an ambush. His super-strength implies that when he feels SM moving closer he can move his hand very quickly through the dirt. The art implies that SM was actively attacking Max with thrown dirt (that's likely a taunt) when Stalwart grabbed him.

[TeChameleon]

There's also the fact that Stalwart saw him fighting Max when he smashed through the room on his ballistic trajectory to bust the generator.

Also, Max has been giving orders about Suck Schmuck over the radio.

[Dragonus45]

Shot's feel like they have been fired in the direction of the folks who didn't understand how Stalwart's power worked. Glad to see the fight didn't get suddenly shut out though it's been fun seeing someone actually give Max a run for her money.

[The Glyphstone]

It's an acceptable handwave too - Stalwart has the Flight power stunt, he just hasn't practiced enough yet to show it to anyone.

[lord_khaine]

Shot's feel like they have been fired in the direction of the folks who didn't understand how Stalwart's power worked. Glad to see the fight didn't get suddenly shut out though it's been fun seeing someone actually give Max a run for her money.

I think your confusing shots fired with handwaving done to explain why Stalvarts actual superpower was secret to everyone including Max.

But yeah its quite respectable waving. That actually makes sense.
Stalvart might have a power with mobility options. But he personally lacks the agility for it.

A bit like when you want an olympic grade weight lifter to take the role of a ballerina.

[The Glyphstone]

I didnt notice till the comments pointed it out, but Supermassive's nipples have disappeared between pages.

[lord_khaine]

Possibly one of Supermassives weirder powers.
At the same time. He is fighting both Max and a friend.
He can hardly complain if his last power rolled got silly xD

[Shining Wrath]

This is going to be interesting. SuperMassive is calling for everyone to join the fight, and the other Ascender supers are going to join.

How does SM feel about collateral damage? Can he target his powers only against Max and Stalwart while missing someone else fighting next to them?

Also, it would be a major plot twist if the bad guys assembled a team equal in power to ArcSwat, or even close. That's not just "there's more supers out there than you know", that's "there's a huge criminal organization operating inside the United States raising an army with sufficient power to threaten a coup, and Homeland Security and / or ArcLight didn't even know they were there".

Question that comes to mind - where is Charmyriad? It seems like she could take the form of an Ascender who is down for the count, and get right next to SuperMassive, and then go full Lovecraftian Nightmare all over his beefy bod.

[lord_khaine]

The Supermassive who is currently fighting off both Max and Stalvart?
That seems kinda suicidal.

[Traab]

The Supermassive who is currently fighting off both Max and Stalvart?
That seems kinda suicidal.

Too be fair, his "fighting off maxima and stalwart" is basically "Using cheap tricks to keep them from obliterating me" I mean come on, he made her hair go into his mouth to cause a gag reflex so he could break the choke hold he was in. And he wasnt able to do anything to harm maxima. He was just able to no sell her own abilities in turn, and even that i think is relying on a combo of surprise and not giving her time to think. Dont get me wrong, still super freaking impressive, but its not like he is actually making it a close fight. He is just drawing agro so everyone else is free to act.

[tyckspoon]

Too be fair, his "fighting off maxima and stalwart" is basically "Using cheap tricks to keep them from obliterating me" I mean come on, he made her hair go into his mouth to cause a gag reflex so he could break the choke hold he was in. And he wasnt able to do anything to harm maxima. He was just able to no sell her own abilities in turn, and even that i think is relying on a combo of surprise and not giving her time to think. Dont get me wrong, still super freaking impressive, but its not like he is actually making it a close fight. He is just drawing agro so everyone else is free to act.

And a good chunk of counting on Maxima not being willing to escalate to this to the point of just obliterating him/half the base outright with a truly high-power beam or going full strength and putting her fist entirely through his chest and out the far side of his spine. He's making for an excellent distraction and is probably enjoying showing off more than he should, and he's demonstrated a quite respectable combat capability, but I don't think he can be said to be 'beating Maxima' so much as he's preventing her from figuring out how to win.

[lord_khaine]

If your in a 2 v 1 fight, and not getting obliterated its not cheap tricks, its skill.
In this case Supermassive got into possibly the worst case scenario, grappled by someone with a perfect counter to his gravity power.
While flanked by quite possibly the most destructive super in the world. And managed to get free.
By all account he is both around the same tier as Max, he is also highly skilled in combat.

I mean come on, he made her hair go into his mouth to cause a gag reflex so he could break the choke hold he was in.

Key point here is that he was already breaking out of Stalvarts attempt to put him in a choke. He is less grappled this comic than he was previous panel.
Stalvart is by his own account immune to Supermassive's gravity power. So he is doing that by raw strength.
Quite possibly being stronger than the 2nd strongest member of Archon.

And a good chunk of counting on Maxima not being willing to escalate to this to the point of just obliterating him/half the base outright with a truly high-power beam or going full strength and putting her fist entirely through his chest and out the far side of his spine.

But thats the entire thing. Max cant escalate things because she is caught in the gravity zone. And forced to apply the majority of her power to negate it.
She already failed at smacking Supermassive despite getting a distraction. She would fail even harder at trying to pull a Mortal combat finisher.
(in part because atm Supermassive is stronger than her. She is weaker than Stalvart without her power pool boost)

[Shining Wrath]

This is an example of something I've written before: every super on the planet knows who Maxima is, and has thought about how to fight her. SuperMassive has by his own admission been looking forward to this for a while. Maxima, on the other hand, had no idea he existed or what his powers were until 2 minutes ago. Right now the SM / Maxima power ratio is as much in SM's favor as it will ever be, and the longer this goes on, the worse it gets. Which actually makes me wonder if SM should logically be planning on killing her; this may be the only chance he gets.

Charmyriad going Full Lovecraftian Nightmare means tentacles with vampire mouths attached to dozens of places on SM's body draining him of blood as the rest of C's body wraps around him like a blanket. Good luck countering that with gravity without ripping your own body to shreds. Do not underestimate just how nightmarish Full Lovecraft can be.

[tyckspoon]

I see Hiro managed to lose yet another identical tight black t-shirt.

[lord_khaine]

This is an example of something I've written before: every super on the planet knows who Maxima is, and has thought about how to fight her. SuperMassive has by his own admission been looking forward to this for a while. Maxima, on the other hand, had no idea he existed or what his powers were until 2 minutes ago. Right now the SM / Maxima power ratio is as much in SM's favor as it will ever be, and the longer this goes on, the worse it gets. Which actually makes me wonder if SM should logically be planning on killing her; this may be the only chance he gets.

Except they dont know much besides that she is strong, fast, flies, and shoot beams of sparkly doom.
Its limited how much you can actually plan on that.

Charmyriad going Full Lovecraftian Nightmare means tentacles with vampire mouths attached to dozens of places on SM's body draining him of blood as the rest of C's body wraps around him like a blanket. Good luck countering that with gravity without ripping your own body to shreds. Do not underestimate just how nightmarish Full Lovecraft can be.

How effective would you expect this to be against Max, Hiro or Stalvart?
Its not going to be more effective against Supermassive. Who have just demonstrated physical power at least on line with Stalvart.
Best case scenario is not getting ripped in half by someone strong enough to lift a house.

[Kantaki]

I see Hiro managed to lose yet another identical tight black t-shirt.

It's his superpower.

[Shining Wrath]

Except they dont know much besides that she is strong, fast, flies, and shoot beams of sparkly doom.
Its limited how much you can actually plan on that.



How effective would you expect this to be against Max, Hiro or Stalvart?
Its not going to be more effective against Supermassive. Who have just demonstrated physical power at least on line with Stalvart.
Best case scenario is not getting ripped in half by someone strong enough to lift a house.

I'm going to bet the Ascenders have better intel on Max than that.
If Stalwart can be affected by having his scrotum squeezed, SuperMassive can be affected by having vampiric fangs embedded all over his body. We haven't seen that much of Charmyriad, we do not know what the upper limit to her powers might be.

[TeChameleon]

... what is that one woman 'flying' on? I'm guessing that it's supposed to be water, but it looks more like the awful CGI from a Fruit Gushers commercial

[lord_khaine]

I'm going to bet the Ascenders have better intel on Max than that.
If Stalwart can be affected by having his scrotum squeezed, SuperMassive can be affected by having vampiric fangs embedded all over his body. We haven't seen that much of Charmyriad, we do not know what the upper limit to her powers might be.

If Max can be affected by Vehemence punching her full force on the face, Stalvart can be affected by Sydney punching him in the gut.
Are you aware thats basically the logic your using here?

You are literally claiming that if A > B then C > D. Where neither A, B, C or D has any actual connection.
I seriously cant get where the idea, that someone who is in the toughness category where you shrug off hits from a high power sniper riffle, would be affected by teeth?? of all things.

Stalvart didnt get his balls squeezed a bit. He had them kicked by someone strong enough to make a hole in a modern battle tank.
While on the upper limit of Charmyriad's power. We actually have a vague idea of how strong she is.
She didnt casually break her bindings. She vent through an elaborate masquerade to get her interrogator close enough to bite.
So right now evidence favor that she is in fact not strong enough to bite a tank in pieces.

Meanwhile on Max, her actual limits are confidential even in Archon.
So i actually doubt they have better intel than what can be seen from her public fights.

[Shining Wrath]

OK, so by touching Mr. Amorphous Varia gains the power to make the ground itself pliable? How does that even work?

I'm now interested in seeing what happens if Varia manages to grab hold of SuperMassive. It appears that her gestalt of other Super's powers can be better than the original power.

[lord_khaine]

OK, so by touching Mr. Amorphous Varia gains the power to make the ground itself pliable? How does that even work?

It works in that when Varia touches someone she gets a vaguely random super power?

She does not gestalt the power of other supers though.
She just gestalt other people.

[Shining Wrath]

It works in that when Varia touches someone she gets a vaguely random super power?

She does not gestalt the power of other supers though.
She just gestalt other people.

I'm not sure what you mean, because I've only seen her gestalt the power of supers.

She seemed to know what power she'd get from Mr. Amorphous, but I can easily believe that she's practiced with everyone in ArcSwat to determine exactly how she interacts with them.

We may have to kick Varia's assessed power level up if she can do Jiggawatt better than Jiggawatt can, Mr. Amorphous better than he can, and so on. Also, what does she get from touching Harem? Can she create an army of Varias? Imagine 5 Varias, each touching a different moderate-power super and using their power better than they can.

[Keltest]

I'm not sure what you mean, because I've only seen her gestalt the power of supers.

She seemed to know what power she'd get from Mr. Amorphous, but I can easily believe that she's practiced with everyone in ArcSwat to determine exactly how she interacts with them.

We may have to kick Varia's assessed power level up if she can do Jiggawatt better than Jiggawatt can, Mr. Amorphous better than he can, and so on. Also, what does she get from touching Harem? Can she create an army of Varias? Imagine 5 Varias, each touching a different moderate-power super and using their power better than they can.

Her ability when touching Harem is that she can tag along on the teleport. She also needs to keep in physical contact with the person to get the power, so saying she can do it "better" than any given person really, really underestimates how much of a weakness that is in a lot of situations.

She gets a power from every single person. Many are not useful. Some she can't figure out immediately. They aren't inherently related to any super powers the person she touches has, but can be.

[tyckspoon]

I'm not sure what you mean, because I've only seen her gestalt the power of supers.

She seemed to know what power she'd get from Mr. Amorphous, but I can easily believe that she's practiced with everyone in ArcSwat to determine exactly how she interacts with them.

We may have to kick Varia's assessed power level up if she can do Jiggawatt better than Jiggawatt can, Mr. Amorphous better than he can, and so on. Also, what does she get from touching Harem? Can she create an army of Varias? Imagine 5 Varias, each touching a different moderate-power super and using their power better than they can.

Flame powers from Arianna who as far as we know is not a super, and the Nightclub excursion where these three random people presumably aren't supers as well. It does appear that Varia's gestalts most often involve a physical transformation, although that may 'only' have been for the sake of making it more obvious what was happening on the page.

[halfeye]

Flame powers from Arianna who as far as we know is not a super, and the Nightclub excursion where these three random people presumably aren't supers as well. It does appear that Varia's gestalts most often involve a physical transformation, although that may 'only' have been for the sake of making it more obvious what was happening on the page.

I think with Arianna it was that Arianna was touching the (powered) flame, and Varia was touching Arianna. I think that in today's comic, Varia is touching the (powered) water, which has given her power over that water to contest with the control of the water power girl.