Im afraid you are mistaken, if you look two pages back Sabr’s helmet is intact when she snatches up Melee. And on the 1st panel of the previous page the is a “shfff” sound effect as Sabr lets he face armor slide back into the helmet.
Ether is correct. The post refers to the last panel of this page, where the crest of the helmet is separated from the rest, & the right side looks dented.
that was great. I half expected her to use the grapple to apply joint pressure, maybe break the elbow or shoulder, but taking dominant position works as well, especially with how hard she can strike. Clearly better than normal human, probably just pure training / skill origin power.
Taking into consideration that Miss Melee has been doing this kind of thing for the better part of 20 years (possibly longer), Vanessa was pretty much screwed once an opening popped up. How screwed will depend on how badly hurt the demonstration team got when SABR first opened fire.
I note she uses the hand still covered in a glove to punch the metal helmet. Wearing padded/armored gloves is definitely a better bet than having perpetually shredded knuckles. I think, as long as they can prevent a rearm or disable the suit, they’ll probably leave her for the police to handle (not the general, tho’). I do hope someone (like Mr. King…) was smart enough to call the police. If not, Miss Melee may have to restrain a very angry general until they arrive.
Okay, the Iron Fist was a bit of an asspull and I let that go. But now Miss Melee can leg scissors a person in a power suit that is still functional and has no room for her legs to get to the neck and punch a metal helmet hard enough to severly damage it without her Iron Fist powers? BS!
I’m super curious; did Jan learn her super-power punch (patent pending) as a bonus development of her crime fighting/marital arts skills, or was it more “mysterious crystal found in jungle” or “bequeathed by a beneficent/dying space alien/ancient god” type of origin? I doubt the “happy lab accident” origin story-trope (re; spiderman, the flash, etc.) was the case… but, hey, this comic is already great, so I’m not going to nit-pick until we [readers] learn more of the backstory. I’m even more curious as to how this parent handles her offspring engaging in super-heroics- “Oh, it’s okay for YOU to risk your life, Mom, but not me? Don’t be such a hypocrite!!” Ooh, Jan’s gonna wish for another murderbot instead…!
I want to thank the artist/author, and urge that worthy to ignore BS from nitpickers and naysayers. If they don’t like the series, they can go elsewhere, and leave Ms. Melee to the aficionados that can appreciate her.
Here is one of the basics about superhero writing 101, establish what your character can do from the get go. You wouldn’t hear a peep out of me if the writer had shown Janice using the Iron Fist in a training montage or something after the fight with the Brazilian Ninjas. If anything the training flashback that you want would be perfect right there because it would establish what she can and cannot do due to being inactive for 15 years.
Earlier in the fight with Sabr it showed that Melee was probing for weaknesses in Sabr’s armor, which she would have exploited as soon as possible and could find none. But introducing a superpower this late in the game and having Melee take out an opponent in a still functional power suit that I might add could only be somewhat staggered from a 14 year old girl is the very definition of an asspull. This came about because of poor planning or the writer writing himself into a corner.
Channeling some sort of energy for a top martial artist in a fantasy setting is pretty expected. Her not using it unless she really needs it is believable because she is a hero and the damage it could cause. Keeping your ultimate weapon/power/technique secret is how not to lose 101.
Using it as a last resort is not the problem. Introducing the concept in the middle of the story with little to no fanfare is. You were just like me and thought Miss Melee was just a highly skilled martial artist, but the introduction of chi, chakra, haki, nin, spirit energy does not work this late in the game because context matters.
nah, a reveal of a hidden power is totally allowed. it does feel like a bit of a “rules change” from the comic up to this point, but that’s OK too. the slow pacing of a webcomic can throw off the flow of stuff like this (unless you’re the lucky bastard who discovers the comic late and gets to archive binge your way through).
it was subtly telegraphed after all, i can believe that it was planned a long way out rather than any kind of “writing your way out of a corner”.
General Ironwood: ok, warfare isn’t rock-paper-scissors. It’s about bringing a gun to a knife fight. Sabr beat our suits, the Melee team beat Sabr. You two are hereby drafted.
Fortunately the draft was abolished due to conscripts not being happy or professionals.
They had a tendency to die a lot during training under blood and guts type officers – though I hear that went away in ‘nam when a lot of those officer types had fatal encounters in the field.
SABR made a big mistake opening up her face armor before the fight was done. I like how Melee is attacking her weak points, like disturbing her balance and going for SABR’s unarmored parts.
“How about we go a few rounds [i]without[/i] the suit?”
So needed to be said.
“I’m ok with violence and murder as long as I’m winning, but please don’t hurt me.” You’re not impressing me, SABR.
More like, “holy shit, I have no more power left. What can I say to stop me from getting hurt by the woman who punched my arm armor off?
Do you mean…arm-or?
She managed to mangle the helmet and knocked parts of it off too.
Im afraid you are mistaken, if you look two pages back Sabr’s helmet is intact when she snatches up Melee. And on the 1st panel of the previous page the is a “shfff” sound effect as Sabr lets he face armor slide back into the helmet.
Ether is correct. The post refers to the last panel of this page, where the crest of the helmet is separated from the rest, & the right side looks dented.
that was great. I half expected her to use the grapple to apply joint pressure, maybe break the elbow or shoulder, but taking dominant position works as well, especially with how hard she can strike. Clearly better than normal human, probably just pure training / skill origin power.
Taking into consideration that Miss Melee has been doing this kind of thing for the better part of 20 years (possibly longer), Vanessa was pretty much screwed once an opening popped up. How screwed will depend on how badly hurt the demonstration team got when SABR first opened fire.
I note she uses the hand still covered in a glove to punch the metal helmet. Wearing padded/armored gloves is definitely a better bet than having perpetually shredded knuckles. I think, as long as they can prevent a rearm or disable the suit, they’ll probably leave her for the police to handle (not the general, tho’). I do hope someone (like Mr. King…) was smart enough to call the police. If not, Miss Melee may have to restrain a very angry general until they arrive.
It clearly shows Melee punching SABR’s soft and squishy face not the metal of the helmet.
The last panel shows damage to the side of the helmet.
Oops, you are correct, I totally missed that.
Okay, the Iron Fist was a bit of an asspull and I let that go. But now Miss Melee can leg scissors a person in a power suit that is still functional and has no room for her legs to get to the neck and punch a metal helmet hard enough to severly damage it without her Iron Fist powers? BS!
Sabr was shaken up by the beam disruption which gave Miss Melee just enough of a window to do her thing.
I’m super curious; did Jan learn her super-power punch (patent pending) as a bonus development of her crime fighting/marital arts skills, or was it more “mysterious crystal found in jungle” or “bequeathed by a beneficent/dying space alien/ancient god” type of origin? I doubt the “happy lab accident” origin story-trope (re; spiderman, the flash, etc.) was the case… but, hey, this comic is already great, so I’m not going to nit-pick until we [readers] learn more of the backstory. I’m even more curious as to how this parent handles her offspring engaging in super-heroics- “Oh, it’s okay for YOU to risk your life, Mom, but not me? Don’t be such a hypocrite!!” Ooh, Jan’s gonna wish for another murderbot instead…!
I want to thank the artist/author, and urge that worthy to ignore BS from nitpickers and naysayers. If they don’t like the series, they can go elsewhere, and leave Ms. Melee to the aficionados that can appreciate her.
Here is one of the basics about superhero writing 101, establish what your character can do from the get go. You wouldn’t hear a peep out of me if the writer had shown Janice using the Iron Fist in a training montage or something after the fight with the Brazilian Ninjas. If anything the training flashback that you want would be perfect right there because it would establish what she can and cannot do due to being inactive for 15 years.
Earlier in the fight with Sabr it showed that Melee was probing for weaknesses in Sabr’s armor, which she would have exploited as soon as possible and could find none. But introducing a superpower this late in the game and having Melee take out an opponent in a still functional power suit that I might add could only be somewhat staggered from a 14 year old girl is the very definition of an asspull. This came about because of poor planning or the writer writing himself into a corner.
Channeling some sort of energy for a top martial artist in a fantasy setting is pretty expected. Her not using it unless she really needs it is believable because she is a hero and the damage it could cause. Keeping your ultimate weapon/power/technique secret is how not to lose 101.
Using it as a last resort is not the problem. Introducing the concept in the middle of the story with little to no fanfare is. You were just like me and thought Miss Melee was just a highly skilled martial artist, but the introduction of chi, chakra, haki, nin, spirit energy does not work this late in the game because context matters.
nah, a reveal of a hidden power is totally allowed. it does feel like a bit of a “rules change” from the comic up to this point, but that’s OK too. the slow pacing of a webcomic can throw off the flow of stuff like this (unless you’re the lucky bastard who discovers the comic late and gets to archive binge your way through).
it was subtly telegraphed after all, i can believe that it was planned a long way out rather than any kind of “writing your way out of a corner”.
General Ironwood: ok, warfare isn’t rock-paper-scissors. It’s about bringing a gun to a knife fight. Sabr beat our suits, the Melee team beat Sabr. You two are hereby drafted.
Fortunately the draft was abolished due to conscripts not being happy or professionals.
They had a tendency to die a lot during training under blood and guts type officers – though I hear that went away in ‘nam when a lot of those officer types had fatal encounters in the field.
What?!? I’m up to date, already?!? NOOOOO!!!!!
“Not the face! NOT THE FACE!”
SABR made a big mistake opening up her face armor before the fight was done. I like how Melee is attacking her weak points, like disturbing her balance and going for SABR’s unarmored parts.
I wonder: Does losing that crest severely hamper the function of the SABR? Remove certain options? Destabilize… something? Hmmm…