I’m guessing you don’t actually care about Wonder Woman one way or the other, but in case anybody who’s reading this does, this guy is wrong on the Internet. William Moulton Marston liked writing about bondage, yes, but it’s generally acknowledged that him combining this with making a role model character for little girls was weird and creepy.
It’s not like he’s bouncing back plasma shots with a lightsaber dude. His axe is bigger than his head, he just has to vaguely guess where the other guy is aiming and put the axe there before he fires.
Hitting that guy square in the forehead with the richochet, though, that does deserve a “wut”.
Best, the man who can reflect bullets. With WOOD.
Byron the child abuser. I see family court in his future.
And then there’s the faces.
=_=
>_>
<_<
I knew this crew was the medival equivalent of anonymous.
Of course, wood stronger than steel is an old staple of fantasy settings. To say nothing of magical protective weapons.
And then, there is the fact that the whole chapter gives a vibe of those old movies on swashbuckling pirates, and reflecting bullets comes par for the course.
Wood stronger than steel…yes, Loblolly pine, tried to cut a 100 yr old timber with a 12in radial saw…I needed a new blade… TWICE. Than stuff hardens like steel because of the chemical make-up of the sap. It’s the closest related pine to the trees that eventually became petrified. Of course there is more to the petrification process but you get the idea, I hope.
I suspect Best had a bit of help from the ship taking off. I see him as a competent fighter/adventurer, not an exceptional one. Well, possibly exceptionally lucky.
It is like a tease.. it is also funny because homeboy villain is all like “You are doomed now!” but he totally forgets that it isn’t over the edge of the ship.. it will just drop Best to another part of the ship. So, he’s flat footed now, but he just killed the whole crew… so I’d still be totally worried. But then you’re not sure if you really want Best to die or not.. because he’s obviously not as useless as we all wanted him to be so that we would be justified in wanting his death.
Ok, I want to put this here because I haven’t found an email address for well intentioned criticism…
I just found the comic last night, and read through the archive. Upon waking up, I saw this page again, and something bothered me.
The axe looks to be way too heavy to be stopped with the sword in the way you depicted. It could have been stopped with a different technique, but to me it looks like his wrist or sword should have snapped (or, failing that, the sword would have been knocked back into his face)
That said, I like this comic, and will continue reading it. I love the art, the story so far, and the characters. I just know the best artists like to be informed of things that at least look like mistakes.
Worst deflected a bullet, but doing so his “Axe” got knocked back into his face. That’s a 1d3 rounds Stun, which seriously affects your ability to fight. He was probably swinging that “Axe” just hard enough to smash a wounded butterfly.
Von Carnage however, is not only uninjured, but he’s a pirate ( Swashbuckler type possibly) which makes him very good with a sword, and he likely has a high Strength score.
There’s three things I’d like to bring up in support of Von Carnage blocking that axe swing.
1. If you look closely, he already moved his upper body out of the way, that axe wouldn’t hit even if he didn’t have his sword up, so all he has to do is keep his blade in front of him to keep Best from thrusting the tip of the axe into his torso.
2. Best just blocket a musket ball with his axe a second ago, that’s a lot of force that would have gone up his arms, weakening his grip. I’m surprised he could swing that heavy of a weapon that well so soon after the deflection, especially when the balance of his axe would be so far away from his hands.
3. Best’s arms are almost fully extended, so he’s dealing with a great deal of momentum while he can exert relatively little control over his axe. If you’re going to try and redirect his swing or just try for a parry (rather than block it) that’s a great time to do it.
Of course, that overly complicated analysis is entirely wrong if Best is actually in the middle of a thrust rather than a swing, in which case a parry while Best is off balance (and there’s almost no way Best could have his feet planted properly while standing on that ledge) followed by an immediate frontal attack is a perfectly logical move on Von Carnage’s part.
Regardless of his success against Best, the pirate is screwed. Byron, Frigg, and Gravedust could almost definitely take him one on one. Syr’Nj may or may not be able to depending on what she has left in her goodie bag. Von Carnage’s only backup is useless now, he either has to spend the next half a minute (at least) reloading, try and draw another weapon before Gravedust plants an arrow in him (or Byron throws an axe), or try and wield his musket like a club against several highly trained veteran fighters at once. Even assuming Von Carnage is willing to put himself in harms way for his musketeer, he can’t possibly block two thrown axes at the same time, much less one or more magic arrows that we already know can maneuver around a man-sized moving target and still hit with perfect accuracy.
Sure, he could have blocked it, but I just think that whole panel looks a bit awkward. Considering the prior and subsequent panels, I still think it looks odd. it looks like after expertly deflecting the bullet, which really didn’t look like it had all that much of an effect on something with the mass of Best’s battleaxe, Best swung at Carnage. Best’s swing looks awkward, and so does Carnage’s block.
This is just my opinion, and I’m choosing to share it with the artist in the hopes that she takes it in the spirit it is offered, and either decides that no one is perfect, and that sometimes, artists can gain from having a non artistic person look at their work and give honest feedback.
The following panel makes it look like Carnage’s sword just kind of pushed Best’s battleaxe out of the way (with one hand, against best’s two handed wild swing).
P.S. even if you have your feet planted properly, a kick with sufficient force will force you to adjust them, which Best had no room to do. That’s not the part I thought looked off.
tl;dr version: I think a wildly swung battleaxe will break a sword blocking with the flat of the blade.
I’ve got a simpler explanation – this is a fantasy setting, momentum has very little impact. Causality is determined by plot. Or dice. Depends on the GM :)
From the angle I can’t be sure if it’s a bullet to the brain or a graze. In the latter case, he might just be dazed. I’m not counting that guy out until I’m sure.
P.S. I didn’t look all that hard, mostly because I’m in a hurry and have to leave for the train in less than ten minutes, and I would have forgotten about it if I hadn’t done that right away.
So, is it assumed that “Captian Von Carnaj” is the adult on the bridge of the ship, or could he yet be the little pipsqueek? I wonder which way those spirit arrows will fly.
Where does the sound come from? I don’t see anything that looks like a pickup or a resonant chamber. Obviously magical pickups and an amp underneath the decorative veneer :P
On the ricochet, it’s going to hit you! Best covers Faith No More!
And if the bullet was higher caliber, bald henchman guy would have Face No More.
Staring, yes, but is he…squinting?!?
Oh nooos, he is! Doom awaits!
I love how everyone else has that momentary sun-blind look as they come out of the innards of the ship.
He deflected it. With his axe.
To quote Frigg, “wut”.
Because reflecting bullets is awesome and Mr. Best has ranks in Awesome as a class proficiency.
Incorrect. Reflecting bullets is stupid.
Are you calling Wonder Woman stupid?
Them’s fightin’ words.
Wonder Woman is the bondage loving Princess Peach of the Justice League.
“Hands tied! Powers inexplicably gone!”
I’m guessing you don’t actually care about Wonder Woman one way or the other, but in case anybody who’s reading this does, this guy is wrong on the Internet. William Moulton Marston liked writing about bondage, yes, but it’s generally acknowledged that him combining this with making a role model character for little girls was weird and creepy.
Hey, are you going to justify your assitude based on the fact that two people had sex with you at the same time a few years ago? Again?
That would be hilarious.
Well I wasn’t going to bring it up since it’s not at all relevant, but sure, yeah. Let’s go with that.
It’s not like he’s bouncing back plasma shots with a lightsaber dude. His axe is bigger than his head, he just has to vaguely guess where the other guy is aiming and put the axe there before he fires.
Hitting that guy square in the forehead with the richochet, though, that does deserve a “wut”.
Best, the man who can reflect bullets. With WOOD.
Byron the child abuser. I see family court in his future.
And then there’s the faces.
=_=
>_>
<_<
I knew this crew was the medival equivalent of anonymous.
If you look at his axe closely, you can see that the whole weapon is made of metal. It even has a second smaller edge on it.
Of course, wood stronger than steel is an old staple of fantasy settings. To say nothing of magical protective weapons.
And then, there is the fact that the whole chapter gives a vibe of those old movies on swashbuckling pirates, and reflecting bullets comes par for the course.
So, as they say: “Why so serious?”
Wood stronger than steel…yes, Loblolly pine, tried to cut a 100 yr old timber with a 12in radial saw…I needed a new blade… TWICE. Than stuff hardens like steel because of the chemical make-up of the sap. It’s the closest related pine to the trees that eventually became petrified. Of course there is more to the petrification process but you get the idea, I hope.
And folks the term is deflection (or deflecting) bullets. SCIENCE!!…. sorry it came out…sorry.
The term is “reflecting” if you are hitting anyone with the bullet after you deflected it.
But let’s not be any more annoying.
Quit correcting and get genuflecting.
I love how Best kills the entire crew and then gets kicked over a ledge.
It’s official. Best is the man.
Er, elf.
Are you saying he’s the Best man?
*Rimshot*
I suspect Best had a bit of help from the ship taking off. I see him as a competent fighter/adventurer, not an exceptional one. Well, possibly exceptionally lucky.
Fear the man with the torch. He can bring everyone’s day to an abrupt and explodie end. Or maybe it’s more like assplooie. I forget.
Is it just me, or does they writer enjoy throwing Best into scenarios where he *should* die?
It is like a tease.. it is also funny because homeboy villain is all like “You are doomed now!” but he totally forgets that it isn’t over the edge of the ship.. it will just drop Best to another part of the ship. So, he’s flat footed now, but he just killed the whole crew… so I’d still be totally worried. But then you’re not sure if you really want Best to die or not.. because he’s obviously not as useless as we all wanted him to be so that we would be justified in wanting his death.
Well, played, my webcomic gurus.. well played.
hellz yeah i called it!
Ok, I want to put this here because I haven’t found an email address for well intentioned criticism…
I just found the comic last night, and read through the archive. Upon waking up, I saw this page again, and something bothered me.
The axe looks to be way too heavy to be stopped with the sword in the way you depicted. It could have been stopped with a different technique, but to me it looks like his wrist or sword should have snapped (or, failing that, the sword would have been knocked back into his face)
That said, I like this comic, and will continue reading it. I love the art, the story so far, and the characters. I just know the best artists like to be informed of things that at least look like mistakes.
You have to really look at what just happened.
Worst deflected a bullet, but doing so his “Axe” got knocked back into his face. That’s a 1d3 rounds Stun, which seriously affects your ability to fight. He was probably swinging that “Axe” just hard enough to smash a wounded butterfly.
Von Carnage however, is not only uninjured, but he’s a pirate ( Swashbuckler type possibly) which makes him very good with a sword, and he likely has a high Strength score.
Despite all his rage he is still just a rat in a cage?
There’s three things I’d like to bring up in support of Von Carnage blocking that axe swing.
1. If you look closely, he already moved his upper body out of the way, that axe wouldn’t hit even if he didn’t have his sword up, so all he has to do is keep his blade in front of him to keep Best from thrusting the tip of the axe into his torso.
2. Best just blocket a musket ball with his axe a second ago, that’s a lot of force that would have gone up his arms, weakening his grip. I’m surprised he could swing that heavy of a weapon that well so soon after the deflection, especially when the balance of his axe would be so far away from his hands.
3. Best’s arms are almost fully extended, so he’s dealing with a great deal of momentum while he can exert relatively little control over his axe. If you’re going to try and redirect his swing or just try for a parry (rather than block it) that’s a great time to do it.
Of course, that overly complicated analysis is entirely wrong if Best is actually in the middle of a thrust rather than a swing, in which case a parry while Best is off balance (and there’s almost no way Best could have his feet planted properly while standing on that ledge) followed by an immediate frontal attack is a perfectly logical move on Von Carnage’s part.
Regardless of his success against Best, the pirate is screwed. Byron, Frigg, and Gravedust could almost definitely take him one on one. Syr’Nj may or may not be able to depending on what she has left in her goodie bag. Von Carnage’s only backup is useless now, he either has to spend the next half a minute (at least) reloading, try and draw another weapon before Gravedust plants an arrow in him (or Byron throws an axe), or try and wield his musket like a club against several highly trained veteran fighters at once. Even assuming Von Carnage is willing to put himself in harms way for his musketeer, he can’t possibly block two thrown axes at the same time, much less one or more magic arrows that we already know can maneuver around a man-sized moving target and still hit with perfect accuracy.
Sure, he could have blocked it, but I just think that whole panel looks a bit awkward. Considering the prior and subsequent panels, I still think it looks odd. it looks like after expertly deflecting the bullet, which really didn’t look like it had all that much of an effect on something with the mass of Best’s battleaxe, Best swung at Carnage. Best’s swing looks awkward, and so does Carnage’s block.
This is just my opinion, and I’m choosing to share it with the artist in the hopes that she takes it in the spirit it is offered, and either decides that no one is perfect, and that sometimes, artists can gain from having a non artistic person look at their work and give honest feedback.
The following panel makes it look like Carnage’s sword just kind of pushed Best’s battleaxe out of the way (with one hand, against best’s two handed wild swing).
P.S. even if you have your feet planted properly, a kick with sufficient force will force you to adjust them, which Best had no room to do. That’s not the part I thought looked off.
tl;dr version: I think a wildly swung battleaxe will break a sword blocking with the flat of the blade.
I’ve got a simpler explanation – this is a fantasy setting, momentum has very little impact. Causality is determined by plot. Or dice. Depends on the GM :)
Wouldn’t that backup have to recover from the musket ball lodged in his frontal lobe, first?
From the angle I can’t be sure if it’s a bullet to the brain or a graze. In the latter case, he might just be dazed. I’m not counting that guy out until I’m sure.
Long in-depth analysis hurt Simon’s brain.
Simon like comic. Simon not like long comments. :(
*** Skims down to tl;dr version ***
Oh. OK. It’s still epic cool to look at.
Looking forward to the Monday comic!
P.S. I didn’t look all that hard, mostly because I’m in a hurry and have to leave for the train in less than ten minutes, and I would have forgotten about it if I hadn’t done that right away.
Sorry for being unclear, What I wasn’t looking hard for was an email address
GO Gravedust!!! whooot! Arrows of fate will fly!
Take ’em down, Gravedust. Double shot!
There’s just something very appropriate about a guitar having a ‘Clash’ sound effect.
Looking at the second panel, it doesn’t look like he ricocheted the bullet off his axe
It looks like he ricocheted the bullet off the *guitar strings* on his axe, which then snap under the strain.
…unless I was unobservant and they got severed earlier.
So, is it assumed that “Captian Von Carnaj” is the adult on the bridge of the ship, or could he yet be the little pipsqueek? I wonder which way those spirit arrows will fly.
I think Inigo Montoya up there is Von Carnaj and the pipsqueak is his son.
I think the pipsqueak is one of the kidnapped children. He could be the one that’s in the sack in the picture way back in chapter 3. Maybe.
Only after reading all the comments did I catch the implied broken strings…!
However, I still have to wail.
WAAAAAAH!!
I have to wait until Monday to find out who gets the spirit arrow in the critical hit?!?
*goes off to invent selective time travel*
This makes TWO web comics that fuel my infernal research!!
*semi villainous pose*
Implied? Look closely, and you will see the strings curling to the sides from being severed.
Looks like the rest (well most) of the team can’t believe Best disposed of the entire crew. Frigg is especially like “Wow. Best did this? Rly?”
All I want to know is how he can still play that axe and wield it as a weapon. Gotta be enchanted.
Where does the sound come from? I don’t see anything that looks like a pickup or a resonant chamber. Obviously magical pickups and an amp underneath the decorative veneer :P
“NOT THE FACE”
Oh my god they ruined his guitar!!!
I never liked that Best fellow anyway. Deck ‘im Carnaj!
Kapwang, eh? Nice. I’m quite partial to a good Thoink or Zwipong as well, myself.
I believe kapwang is a combination of “kapow” and “twang”. Quite fitting in this context.
Nope, sorry. The correct sound effect for any kind of guitar combat is El Kabong.
Thinkin’ REALLY hard about all this, aren’t we?
Thinking hard or hardly thinking?
And folks the term is deflection (or deflecting) bullets. SCIENCE!!…. sorry it came out…sorry.
Best has been taking a few pages from Eddie Dean’s book with that axe.
*takes note of the blank/confuzled/WTF stares from the (captive) audience*
Err… I’ll take my knowledge of awesome characters from dodgy computer games and go home now…
He not only deflects bullets with an axe… he reflects them. On a line only slightly higher than the original plane of travel.
I hate Best for real.