So, Phlogiston, unnamed fire-user with bad taste in catchphrases, Neuronet, The Conjurer, and 84. Yep, one from each group, leaders or not. ‘Leaders’ is a good guess because they were generally the people who spoke first when confronting him.
I think it’s a giant F, if his entrance a few comics ago is any indication. I’m guessing Feonix! (Yes, I know that is horribly misspelt, but I’m not sure he would)
Checking back to his first appearance a few pages ago, it’s a stylized “F,” not a “P.” vonBoomslang’s “Firehawk” sounds quite possible, or maybe something similar like “Flamehawk” or “Flamewing.”
Never let it be said that I can’t admit when I’m wrong, I went back and looked at the panel again, you guys are right, it is an ‘F’ not a ‘P’. I feel really silly, it took me like 5 minutes of staring at the screen to understand why the ‘F’ looked like a ‘P’.
Check out http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10172014/. Meson is the top left figure (see previous comic for his intro). The fire-user comes in in the bottom panel with a different team. Similar colors, but different costume, different effects, different team.
A leader is not always the one with positional power. On a true team, leaders can shift often and seamlessly depending upon the situation. So, is 84 a leader? Yes. She is already asserting her abilities once teleported to the new location, whether she knows it or not.
Well, I think we can identify several qualities Veles is looking for in his new nemesis:
– All five are metahumans capable of independent flight
– All five are de facto leaders in their respective cliques
– All five have a penchant for stating the obvious
They’re more similar than they are different: either they’re going to become great friends by the end of the ordeal or they’re going to tear each other apart.
I don’t know. All of the available choices were capable of flight, and while the Rockslide look-alike needed a jet-pack, I can’t tell if Neuromind’s flight comes from similar technological assistance (i.e., the disk-things on his suit). Plus Phlogiston did not seem like the leader in her group – Meson did – and the wind Elementalist seemed more like the leader than the fire one who got chosen. And the only thing “Fire-man” has said is “Fire in the hole, baby!”, which (at least to me) doesn’t qualify as “the obvious”.
Your conclusion, however, I think is totally valid. Then again, I only guessed right on three of the five, so you should probably only pay attention to 60% of what I say.
The circles are similar, and you might be right. However, on the following page the circles around his head were gone, but he was still airborne. So if they weren’t using technological means to stay airborne, my guess would be that the ghostly female member of their team was handling the levitation duties.
Unfortunately there’s not enough to go on with the current page for me to generate more incorrect speculations – I’ll have to wait for the next update.
Isn’t being entertaining to watch basically a requirement for a nemesis? I mean, if I were a villain selecting a hero, he (or she) would need to be someone that can keep me entertained.
Veles doesn’t need them to fetch it. It’s just for the lulz mostly. Most of them don’t seem to get that. It also may not look like a traditional eye and he only said they had to ‘claim’ it, not ‘fetch’ it. You really have to pay attention with these God-types.
If a bathrobe is sufficient to hitchhike the galaxy, why is it in poor taste when fighting crime? Is it it over-formal? Not sufficiently revealing?
(Consider the average superhero costume – looks like a drag race carr or a professional skier without the restraint, or like a swimsuit.)
Personally, I think that “the Conjuror” ‘s outfit looks like Starlord’s from the beginning of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie, although, I suppose that Starlord could have been wearing a high tech alien version of a bathrobe.
In the last week I have been getting the ads stacked on top of the comic instead of (previously) side-by-side. Firefox 33.0, doesn’t happen in IE. Anyone else getting this?
I’m having that problem too. I’m on the latest version of Firefox, so I’m wondering if it’s a Firefox-specific problem. (Update: Nope, it’s happening on Safari on my iPad, too.)
Using Chrome OS and having no ad problems with this site whatsoever. In fact, I only see the three ads over in the left sidebar with a lot of empty space to the left of that. I think it might have something to do with your display aspect ratio, my laptop is 16:9(HDTV). If you have one of the older 4:3 ratio displays (standard TV) then you might get overlap.
Huh…. Phlogiston presumable has fire powers, which means this group of five has two fire casters. Conjuror and Neuronet both may have some way to influence peoples’ minds.
That means the only one of the five with a unique skill set is… 84.
Lesson learned?
Also, I wonder if we’re going to see some reference to Nodwick.
Mm. Neuronet’s go-to seems to be mind control, while Conjuror should (if the name makes sense, which it might not) summon creatures and substances. As for Phlogiston, phlogiston was released when substances were burned… phlogisticated air is full of carbon dioxide, so she might just have gas-related powers not encompassing combustion.
Alchemist’s believed that an invisible substance called “Phlogistin” allowed substances to burn. One of their goals was to find a way to transfer this from one substance to another. From wood into stone for example, which would allow them to burn the stone.
The Dragon Tree Spellbook, part of the Arduin Grimoire game system, had a spell called “Flying Phlogiston” that would do it. That system was never as popular as D&D though.
So… What are the chances of 84 just throwing the game? It’s not like she particularly wants the prize, and she’s too good a person to try to win just to spite the others (much as they deserve it). OTOH, she’s also too good to just phone it in. :\
Something tells me that whoever gets the smack laid down on them will be because of their own stupidity, walking boldly (and cockily) into a situation where patience and thought would be better used, and -none- of this group (84 excepted) have shown any ability to do this (they all arrived on the scene claiming that their group would be the ones to lay the smack on Veles…)
With this being the case (IMHO), I see 84 winning by default.
Actually, Phlogiston was not being one of the vocally loud ones. If you look back a couple of pages, she is explaining to Xenon what a ren-fest is. And “Fire in the Hole” should be the first to go down, as he seems to be all cliche.
My prediction is that 84 won’t be the one to claim and bring the Eye to Veles- however, even if technically she doesn’t qualify to be the new Champion of Earth, I’m sure Veles will consider 84 a truer, more worthy Champion than the person who did. Veles is, after all, a trickster god. Besides: “… mine is the only opinion that matters.”
Atlas is, of course, something of an expy of Superman and Veles is something of an expy of Myxzptlk. And those stories are always an opportunity to demonstrate Superman’s high intelligence and ways to work around a problem that can’t just be punched with what tools he has.
So while we’ve seen little of Atlas and what we saw didn’t give him an opportunity for him to really flex that intelligence, what we’re seeing here is the evidence of something he did on the off-times battling this trickster god where his intelligence would be most paramount.
the big thing in this arc is that it really feels like Earth-238 is undergoing events similar to those that shaped Argos (replace ‘teams’ with ‘house’, and how its very easy for her ‘team’ to switch goals from ‘FISS recognition’ to ‘FISS supremacy’), just like this contest just from the basic rules, is a magic version of that between Argos and the Emerald Ones
Good point, but probably different starting circumstances: Earth’s FISS movement is currently (reluctantly) led by 84, who is very much not a “kill all non-FISS” person and has seen the result of such thinking on Argos.
At first I thought that the F.I.S.S.-only supergroup was the first of its kind. Given the four other groups that appeared in this story and the opinion of other supers toward the ‘grunts’ it seems to be more of a defensive move.
That, or the eye is merely supposed to be a catalyst to some really bad behavior for Veles’s entertainment. He likely plans on choosing whoever would be the most entertaining as his primary antagonist, no matter what he intimated before the contest. I’m willing to bet that he wants to watch everyone fight amongst themselves, see who is capable of getting along, who is willing to come up with the most thoughtful and clever ways of overcoming obstacles, and who is likely to provide him with the biggest intellectual challenges in the future.
“I’m a god of chaos and trickery. I reserve the right to stretch loopholes to the breaking point.”
Other than 84, I believe that the characters were selected for arrogance and being disparaging of others. Look at some sample comments they have made.
http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10152014/ Phlogiston “A Renaissance Festival. Think of them as Monty Python re-enactments where they sell turkey legs.” (I wouldn’t be surprised if Veles was a RenFest and Monty Python fan. And when he says “And now for something completely different”, it really is different.)
http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10242014/ Conjurer “Indeed, and this is no place for mere brute force. Leave those doings to those of more subtle and intricate powers.”
Nodwick has conditional superstrength, no flight, no superspeed and DEFINITELY no invulnerability. Not a FISS. He’s also genre aware, which doesn’t really map to the supers concept.
Aw. Somehow I had it where the side bar was on top, and the image was fullscreen without scrolling. But then I tried to hide the sidebar so I wouldn’t have to scroll down either (And the ads would still be downloaded so you’d still get money), and it broke it. Tried to put it back, but it’s still on the side.
Yup. Looks like it’s one from each group, probably the leaders (involuntary leader in the case of 84).
So, Phlogiston, unnamed fire-user with bad taste in catchphrases, Neuronet, The Conjurer, and 84. Yep, one from each group, leaders or not. ‘Leaders’ is a good guess because they were generally the people who spoke first when confronting him.
Well, Veles wouldn’t pick an established underling as his brand-spanking-new nemesis, would he? ^^
He totally could. Trickster god, remember?
A underling would be to boring for him
Who wants to bet that the “unnamed fire-user” ‘s name is something like Pyrokinetic or Pyromaniac, I mean there is a big ‘P’ on his shirt.
No bet. If he’s unimaginative enough to think “Fire in the hole!” is a good catchphrase, his hero name probably starts with “fire”.
My guess is on “Firehawk”.
Firehawk is an existing heroine and Aaron avoids using known heroes in this title.
… PyreHawk. Fits the P, fits the bird motif, avoids either trademarked superhero name (Firehawk, Phoenix).
I think it’s a giant F, if his entrance a few comics ago is any indication. I’m guessing Feonix! (Yes, I know that is horribly misspelt, but I’m not sure he would)
I’m betting its “Firebat” old D&D referance
Checking back to his first appearance a few pages ago, it’s a stylized “F,” not a “P.” vonBoomslang’s “Firehawk” sounds quite possible, or maybe something similar like “Flamehawk” or “Flamewing.”
Never let it be said that I can’t admit when I’m wrong, I went back and looked at the panel again, you guys are right, it is an ‘F’ not a ‘P’. I feel really silly, it took me like 5 minutes of staring at the screen to understand why the ‘F’ looked like a ‘P’.
It a F not a P,i think his name is Fred.
Flameo Hotman. His font is just too big to fit both of his initials.
“un named” fire user is “Meson” if I read the strip correctly.
FYI: New layout makes the strip halfway down the page with a vertical ad above it, probably not intended.
IE 11 on Win 7
Check out http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10172014/. Meson is the top left figure (see previous comic for his intro). The fire-user comes in in the bottom panel with a different team. Similar colors, but different costume, different effects, different team.
A leader is not always the one with positional power. On a true team, leaders can shift often and seamlessly depending upon the situation. So, is 84 a leader? Yes. She is already asserting her abilities once teleported to the new location, whether she knows it or not.
Well, I think we can identify several qualities Veles is looking for in his new nemesis:
– All five are metahumans capable of independent flight
– All five are de facto leaders in their respective cliques
– All five have a penchant for stating the obvious
They’re more similar than they are different: either they’re going to become great friends by the end of the ordeal or they’re going to tear each other apart.
I don’t know. All of the available choices were capable of flight, and while the Rockslide look-alike needed a jet-pack, I can’t tell if Neuromind’s flight comes from similar technological assistance (i.e., the disk-things on his suit). Plus Phlogiston did not seem like the leader in her group – Meson did – and the wind Elementalist seemed more like the leader than the fire one who got chosen. And the only thing “Fire-man” has said is “Fire in the hole, baby!”, which (at least to me) doesn’t qualify as “the obvious”.
Your conclusion, however, I think is totally valid. Then again, I only guessed right on three of the five, so you should probably only pay attention to 60% of what I say.
Neuronet’s power set seems to include telekinesis which is what he uses for flight (note the similar circles around his head and under the feet of his teammates).
Most of his team can’t fly on their own, which means they’re likely all wet now that Neuronet’s inside the egg.
The circles are similar, and you might be right. However, on the following page the circles around his head were gone, but he was still airborne. So if they weren’t using technological means to stay airborne, my guess would be that the ghostly female member of their team was handling the levitation duties.
Unfortunately there’s not enough to go on with the current page for me to generate more incorrect speculations – I’ll have to wait for the next update.
There are a few dozen heroes flying about. I suspect even if his comrades started to plummet in his absence, the remaining heroes caught them.
*Or* he just picked the ones he thought would be entertaining to watch, without any regard for the whole nemesis bit. Because, you know, chaos god.
Isn’t being entertaining to watch basically a requirement for a nemesis? I mean, if I were a villain selecting a hero, he (or she) would need to be someone that can keep me entertained.
Veles doesn’t need them to fetch it. It’s just for the lulz mostly. Most of them don’t seem to get that. It also may not look like a traditional eye and he only said they had to ‘claim’ it, not ‘fetch’ it. You really have to pay attention with these God-types.
Well, “claim it and bring it to me”, so “fetch” is kind of implied there, I think.
Has anyone ever told the Conjuror that it’s generally considered bad taste to fight evil in your bathrobe?
Maybe it’s Hugh Hefner’s alter-ego?
If a bathrobe is sufficient to hitchhike the galaxy, why is it in poor taste when fighting crime? Is it it over-formal? Not sufficiently revealing?
(Consider the average superhero costume – looks like a drag race carr or a professional skier without the restraint, or like a swimsuit.)
Hey, I TOTALLY would fight evil in my bathrobe…
The question is, would a bathrobe be the entirety of your costume? Because that would really strike fear into the hearts of evil doers.
Personally, I think that “the Conjuror” ‘s outfit looks like Starlord’s from the beginning of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie, although, I suppose that Starlord could have been wearing a high tech alien version of a bathrobe.
Yeah, Starlord came to mind the first time I saw this guy. They might have nothing else in common, but there’s a marked resemblance.
Not a bathrobe, its a smoking jacket !
In the last week I have been getting the ads stacked on top of the comic instead of (previously) side-by-side. Firefox 33.0, doesn’t happen in IE. Anyone else getting this?
I’ve got that problem too.
I’m on 33.0.2, and I don’t have the problem. But I have AdBlocker and NoScript up at all times since my last virus-induced hard drive meltdown.
I’m having that problem too. I’m on the latest version of Firefox, so I’m wondering if it’s a Firefox-specific problem. (Update: Nope, it’s happening on Safari on my iPad, too.)
Upgrade to Firefox 33.0.2 and it’ll clear up straight away. (May need to reload the page, though…)
Nope. I’m currently on 33.0.3, and the problem’s still here.
Same for me on Chrome
I get it in IE 11.0.12, but not in Opera 25.0
Using Chrome OS and having no ad problems with this site whatsoever. In fact, I only see the three ads over in the left sidebar with a lot of empty space to the left of that. I think it might have something to do with your display aspect ratio, my laptop is 16:9(HDTV). If you have one of the older 4:3 ratio displays (standard TV) then you might get overlap.
Huh…. Phlogiston presumable has fire powers, which means this group of five has two fire casters. Conjuror and Neuronet both may have some way to influence peoples’ minds.
That means the only one of the five with a unique skill set is… 84.
Lesson learned?
Also, I wonder if we’re going to see some reference to Nodwick.
Well, there does appear to be a certain plant-druid’s skull on the ground from Use Sword On Monster.
I noticed this as well. all 4 of the comics hosted on nodwick.com routinely have cameos from each other, and I really like that.
Mm. Neuronet’s go-to seems to be mind control, while Conjuror should (if the name makes sense, which it might not) summon creatures and substances. As for Phlogiston, phlogiston was released when substances were burned… phlogisticated air is full of carbon dioxide, so she might just have gas-related powers not encompassing combustion.
Alchemist’s believed that an invisible substance called “Phlogistin” allowed substances to burn. One of their goals was to find a way to transfer this from one substance to another. From wood into stone for example, which would allow them to burn the stone.
The Dragon Tree Spellbook, part of the Arduin Grimoire game system, had a spell called “Flying Phlogiston” that would do it. That system was never as popular as D&D though.
Phlogiston sounds like a pyrokinesis user where the other fire user projects the flame from himself.
Wait, so they have to literally have to “catch his eye”?
he said something like “catch the eye of the heart”, so it’s probably just a riddle
So… What are the chances of 84 just throwing the game? It’s not like she particularly wants the prize, and she’s too good a person to try to win just to spite the others (much as they deserve it). OTOH, she’s also too good to just phone it in. :\
She’ll win by default, as everyone else is likely to get competitive, and thus be eliminated.
As in, through incompetence.
Brain-guy gets smacked down first, then fire dude, then arcane guy, *then* archaic physics woman.
Something tells me that whoever gets the smack laid down on them will be because of their own stupidity, walking boldly (and cockily) into a situation where patience and thought would be better used, and -none- of this group (84 excepted) have shown any ability to do this (they all arrived on the scene claiming that their group would be the ones to lay the smack on Veles…)
With this being the case (IMHO), I see 84 winning by default.
Actually, Phlogiston was not being one of the vocally loud ones. If you look back a couple of pages, she is explaining to Xenon what a ren-fest is. And “Fire in the Hole” should be the first to go down, as he seems to be all cliche.
Neuronet was floating two others of his group.
I hope soneone remembered to catch them.
My prediction is that 84 won’t be the one to claim and bring the Eye to Veles- however, even if technically she doesn’t qualify to be the new Champion of Earth, I’m sure Veles will consider 84 a truer, more worthy Champion than the person who did. Veles is, after all, a trickster god. Besides: “… mine is the only opinion that matters.”
I agree.
The way I read that sentence is that he will choose based on performance and not by who holds the Eye.
I was expecting Moonshadow ending there with 84, but I guess this is 84’s own showtime.
Atlas -might- have been more interestng than his appearances actually give him credit if he could interest Veles for so long….
Atlas is, of course, something of an expy of Superman and Veles is something of an expy of Myxzptlk. And those stories are always an opportunity to demonstrate Superman’s high intelligence and ways to work around a problem that can’t just be punched with what tools he has.
So while we’ve seen little of Atlas and what we saw didn’t give him an opportunity for him to really flex that intelligence, what we’re seeing here is the evidence of something he did on the off-times battling this trickster god where his intelligence would be most paramount.
first time replying in the comments.
the big thing in this arc is that it really feels like Earth-238 is undergoing events similar to those that shaped Argos (replace ‘teams’ with ‘house’, and how its very easy for her ‘team’ to switch goals from ‘FISS recognition’ to ‘FISS supremacy’), just like this contest just from the basic rules, is a magic version of that between Argos and the Emerald Ones
Good point, but probably different starting circumstances: Earth’s FISS movement is currently (reluctantly) led by 84, who is very much not a “kill all non-FISS” person and has seen the result of such thinking on Argos.
At first I thought that the F.I.S.S.-only supergroup was the first of its kind. Given the four other groups that appeared in this story and the opinion of other supers toward the ‘grunts’ it seems to be more of a defensive move.
I think holding the eye is trapped unless you claim it first.
It’s a two part challenge. Claim the eye then retrieve it and get to veles.
That, or the eye is merely supposed to be a catalyst to some really bad behavior for Veles’s entertainment. He likely plans on choosing whoever would be the most entertaining as his primary antagonist, no matter what he intimated before the contest. I’m willing to bet that he wants to watch everyone fight amongst themselves, see who is capable of getting along, who is willing to come up with the most thoughtful and clever ways of overcoming obstacles, and who is likely to provide him with the biggest intellectual challenges in the future.
“I’m a god of chaos and trickery. I reserve the right to stretch loopholes to the breaking point.”
Other than 84, I believe that the characters were selected for arrogance and being disparaging of others. Look at some sample comments they have made.
http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10152014/ Phlogiston “A Renaissance Festival. Think of them as Monty Python re-enactments where they sell turkey legs.” (I wouldn’t be surprised if Veles was a RenFest and Monty Python fan. And when he says “And now for something completely different”, it really is different.)
http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10172014/ Nameless fire guy “Fire in the hole, baby” (Do I really need to make comments about his comment.)
http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10242014/ Neuronet “Kid, you don’t raise your hand to be called on by the bad guy!”
http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10242014/ Conjurer “Indeed, and this is no place for mere brute force. Leave those doings to those of more subtle and intricate powers.”
Flame guy and they grey lady will be out first. Neuronet will be next, with the Conjuror and 84 left to the end.
That’s how I’m betting.
Cue the Nodwick cameo!
Now that you mentioned it, I remember: PS238 is the future of the Nodwick World. There already was one crossover, there could be another one.
Nodwick is an early FISS.
Underappreciated, strong (when ordered to carry loot), intelligent and observant.
Nodwick has conditional superstrength, no flight, no superspeed and DEFINITELY no invulnerability. Not a FISS. He’s also genre aware, which doesn’t really map to the supers concept.
Which makes F.I.S.S. the first superhero powerset and hyperintelligence the first villain powerset
I wonder if Veles is offering pay-per-view so the other heroes and the world at large can watch the action.
I’m really enjoying the 84 arc. I’m not as big a fan of Tyler as many here.
Aw. Somehow I had it where the side bar was on top, and the image was fullscreen without scrolling. But then I tried to hide the sidebar so I wouldn’t have to scroll down either (And the ads would still be downloaded so you’d still get money), and it broke it. Tried to put it back, but it’s still on the side.