V09 – Pg13
Ophelia was never supposed to die here. She was originally supposed to be killed back when Thade and The Nine murdered the General Phelps household. As I worked out how the following story would flow, there would have been nobody to guide Pendragon to Downing Street and and tell him (and the reader) what was going on. Hence, she got a reprieve.
Heroes can and will die in Vanguard. How will the rest of the team react to her death? Read on…
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Vanguard usually updates twice a week (Wednesday and Friday), but it’s only updating once a week for the next few weeks. I’m currently drawing pages over at Reynard City and only have a few to do before I’m done.
Dan
MrHades
Edited by
Gary Cohen
Who also produces the Excellent Mallville Rules comic – Go read!
Opheliaaaa!!
Superhero down! 🙁
Well, she successfully distracted Max from Kingsword, and by now, he should have completely forgotten about Spitfire. Who, should now be remembering that he can fly, and since he’s already high in the air and has broken arms, should be deciding it’s a good time to disappear for a bit. Nobody would be able to track one guy flying above the clouds. Wonder if Max knew Spitfire could fly when he tossed him. I find it interesting that even though most powers seem to be given through genetic manipulation, there are also people with natural powers, which appear to be quite strong. Although he’s a bit of a glass cannon, it seems like Luke should be able to cause more damage than an Alpha-one, especially if his powers aren’t full power yet.
99.9% of the super in this comic are glass cannons
I had to look up that term, but yeah, doling out high levels of punishment is one thing, taking it is another.
Ouch! Didn’t expect that at all.
Always the fancy TK effects, You know whats really scary …the ability to snap a vein going into your brain by TK.
I figured that she can only ‘do’ what she can visualize, hence the use of her hands. If Ophelia could use her powers like you’ve mentioned, Max wouldn’t have stood a chance!
I thought Ophelia was more cunning then that, don’t try push the entire super body back, bind one knee – manange and he won’t ve moving very quick.
Her trying to match strength with strength was ultimately her undoing. MaX being one of the strongest Meta-Humans in the World, that was a bad idea.
To be fair: I don’t think she ever encountered a foe she couldn’t hold so far. And we already noticed that as cunning as she is, she also tends to get a bit cocky. Usually with good reason, but it just was a bit too much in this case.
I guess by the time she considered what else to do, he was already right up next to her and then it’s too late.
Well you saw it wasn’t working, but yet you still kept going
Yep, she should have adapted and tried a different tactic, but with MaX’s abilities, including the Super-Speed and strength, she’d have most likely been sunk either way.
Ophelia was doomed the moment it was established she couldn’t hold Max back, really. Even if she’d tried to switch tactics, if she’d let him go or even relaxed her hold on him for just a moment, he’d have engaged his super-speed and the end result would have been the same.
at least she made him work for it, look at the veins in his neck, he’s actually straining.
I will be completely honest. I wanted to love this comic, I wanted to love this story and I wanted to enjoy all of this. I’d liken it to Game of Thrones, another series I wanted to love. And one I ended up never touching again beyond a book two.
Your art has improved tremendously, you weave a very intense story, but it started in the middle and I really can’t say I’m at all interested to see where it goes next. I don’t -know- these characters that are dying, I can barely remember their names. Mind you I am -very- keen on details like that too, so its doubly sinful that you couldn’t get my attention with it. You made some allusions, but this story and these characters would have been better served with several stories in between each of these massive events, places where you could have fleshed out the characters and given me, the reader, a reason to care about their violent falls. Right now I can’t help but feel it was, at the very least, a rushed story. And if there’s more to come after this big climax, it won’t be with the characters I was just starting to get to know. Their dead.
You like to say that heroes will die in Vanguard. I have no problem with a grimmer sort of story where mortality is possible. Its how you go about doing it, just as how Game of Throne’s does it, that bothers me. Senselessly. There was no hope that some of these characters would live and no gravitas to most of their deaths. By your own words this woman was slated to die, perhaps at her very conception. And it really, really shows in your writing, because the story has given two rats asses about her or any of the others that have died. At the very least, Game of Throne’s made me feel a bit queasy when one of its characters was mutilated or killed off every once in a while.
This story made me feel a lot of things, but in the very end its worst sin was making me feel… disinterested. Oh, another person whose name I don’t know, whose personality I don’t know and even whose super power (the only thing I should at least be able to identify by reading the above page) I don’t know. Whoopie. I would have rather known these people dying, because right now that woman getting her stomach punched out is… some random woman, not a hero making a noble, if vain, attempt at stopping a villain. And that villain is… well less a villain and more kind of a prick. Maybe seeing him as he was before? Maybe seeing him devolve into something uglier? But nope, it was quite literally a few pages and bam he’s supposed to be this horrid monster we readers should fear facing off against these heroes we hardly know.
I hope you take this as what its meant to be, and not just as some troll simply trying to rile you. I would like to see this story gain depth in area’s its lacking rather then simply give up on it. I won’t be removing it from my bookmark, but I think I’ll put it in my ‘check back in a few months’ folder to see if you’ve taken anything I’ve said into consideration.
they’re*
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Arillius.
If Vanguard isn’t the kind of story you enjoy, there a great deal of other quality superhero comics to be found over at ‘The Collective of Heroes’ site: http://collectiveofheroes.net/
I appreciate you taking the time to say something instead of just clicking away. Please feel free to check back on the comic in a few months and see if it has developed into something you’d enjoy!
Regards, Dan
You know, I agree with some of his points. The story does feel rushed in places, and not everyone has all the development about them that I’d like. Ophelia was a flat character, and her death-while a surprise-doesn’t really affect me all that much. But honestly? I’m fine with that. It’s rather refreshing to have a webcomic where the updates are regular, but more importantly they all advance the story, one way or another. There has been very little in the way of hero/villain talking over each other as they fight, and when they DO fight it wasn’t just a dick-measuring contest. I’ve never felt the need to go back through the archive or get onto a forum to figure out what was going on, because the relevant information isn’t buried behind 3 years’ worth of pages. It’s simple, enjoyable fun reading.
TL;DR summary: Room for improvement? Yes, always will have that. Enjoyable read anyway? Yuuup.
I am waiting for kingsword to walk up to max and crush his friggin head and skullf*** him.
Keep reading chum. Kingsword ain’t done yet! 😉
Not sure how that’s going to work, since Max was smacking Kingsword around before Ophelia intervened. It looked like the ailing ‘Sword was little match for Max.
Our boy still has a little left in the tank…
I’m thinking Gradlon is gonna bring him some of max’s med he’s gonna overdose and go nut.
I wander when it will occur to Team Maxtreme that if the governments of the world collapse all their money will be worthless.
He’s a bright guy – I imagine he has invested his finances accordingly, as he seems to possess some knowledge of what’s going on.
I figure max just wants to live as long as he has his life and powers he can rebuild. I was mostly thinking of the other members. Also if a government collapses it’s currency loses value and property laws and legal ownership become meaningless so unless Daedalus is specifically leaving certain countryies alone, and shielding them, I’d say your pretty much screwed no matter how you’ve invested.
I was mostly thinking of die-blood and x-bow
They might not be so shielded. They don’t seem the types to look farther into the future than the next few days.
FALCON…
PUNCH!
GAME!
The winner is…
“MY BLOOD! HE PUNCHED OUT ALL MY BLOOD!” – Scout, Meet the Sandvich
Lol – I reigned in the blood on this one. I was gonna have a ton more, but took it off!
Ahh ophelia, we hardly knew you…
… and now, we never will 🙁
I Rebuke you, Arillius!
I like this story, I like the improvements and I know we will see character growth and such! now…
If I was Ophelia, I would have ripped out his eyes, and stopped up his nose, mouth and ears.
Then pull down a building and hide!
As He goes by or breaks free hope to add my strength to Kingsword as a double whammy!
Just my 2 cents, Nuff said.
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and I recognize not everyone will like VANGUARD. Just one of those things, I guess.
did my comment disappear?
nope i have a part time idiot attack, excuse me.
Nope, it didn’t! lol
theories
1 One or more heroes of the pervious generation will show up and take out the hollowmen and, in spite of putting up a respectable fight be defeated by team maxtreme but buying time for vanguard to rally.
2 one or more supervillains will come to their aid motivated by some combination of patriotism/not wanting someone else to rule the world/ hoping to extort money and, or pardon/ a obsession with creating order
3 Wodon will sacrifice himself to summon the Wild Hunt. Hern, his followers, including wodon and past champions will ride out to slaughter the invaders hern will partially heal the surviving vanguard and deliver his warning to them and they will stagger off feeling bad they never believed him
Dan, I want to say that you certainly did your job. I really, REALLY want to see DoucheXtreme killed in a satisfying messy way. Preferably something involving small glass rods, calipers, and a Teddy Ruxpin.
Teddy Ruxpin!? Ha ha! That’s an old school reference!
…and if you hate MaX, my work is done.
Just thought I’d add my two cents worth to what Arillius was saying. I do agree that the pacing is crazy, and the vast world crisis feels contrived. However, I also think that the frenetic pace is very much a choice on the author’s part. So while I might be wishing for a few down issues to get to know the characters and make the world events feel more real, reading the archive all at once like I just did today, I am also getting the adrenaline pumping.
I really disagree about not caring about the characters, though. Ophelia wasn’t really a main character, but even so, I think I still got a good feel for her, and while I’m not particularly fond of her, I still feel some loss with her death. As for the central characters–Pendragon, Lady Godiva, Kingsword, Spitfire, Woden–the slower beginning of the comic and the frequent looks into their personal lives have really cemented them as sympathetic and interesting characters that I’m quite honestly scared for.
In any case, I look forward to seeing where all this mess goes!
Glad to have you onboard, Kevgor. I take all your points on and i’m striving to make this comic as good as I can. There’s a few twists and turns coming up, but once everything settles down… well, It’ll be interesting, to say the least.
Nah, she’s fine. She’s fine. Everything’s fine. Elaborate ruse.
Tis’ a flesh wound!