Little bit of a kind of sort of not really bluff from Rob before; Thor having multiple immunities was the big surprise. XD
Also, funny story/probably damning example of how bass-ackwards my approach to this can be sometimes; the idea of Tony being unable to damage Thor under normal circumstances has been in the plans for a long time, mostly because it struck me as a funny consequence of Rob establishing his weapons as "strictly nonmagical".
It wasn't until I started on the Avengers chapter proper and started getting closer to the fight that it hit me... if nothing Tony does can hurt Thor, there was no logical reason for the fight to continue. So I started panicking a bit.
But! I'd also planned for Tony's armor to be able to absorb electrical damage as an upgrade made in response to Whiplash very early in, so from there it was just a matter of connecting the dots together.
Despite all my complains on the previous page, I'm gonna admit: I like your version of this fight MUCH more then in source material.
I hate Thor acting like a dick, striking Tony in the back, striking Steve when he tries to calm him down. And then Steve not throwing his mighty shield at him. And then Thor calming down for no reason. Al of that is so silly!
One of the main advantages of this style of comic is that I can always rely on the good old Pitch Meetings for inspiration when I hit a motivation block.
"Okay so now Iron Man and Thor are going to fight!"
"Why would they do that?"
"Because it happens in the movie and I can't just skip over it."
"Oh okay let's start working on an explanation for that then."
Okay, I used up a lot of my "response" time following up to something from the previous page so...
...I'm just going straight to "the GURPS". The main way one deals with damage in GURPS Fourth Edition is using an Active Defense (Block, Dodge, Parry) to avoid it, or having sufficient Damage Resistance (DR) to safely soak the damage. Normally, DR doesn't do anything more than that but when you have "Powers" in effect, be they ultra tech, magic, psi, super, spirits, divine, infernal, etc. you can get some nice bonus options. Like DR that really does absorb damage.
Absorption is an Enhancement to Damage Resistance in GURPS. Your DR still prevents you from taking damage as per normal, but that damage converts to "points" that can be temporarily spent elsewhere. Even when your "damage battery" is full, your DR still protects you as normal; you just won't be able to "store" that damage. You lose one point per second, with unspent points depleting before spent ones. As a reminder, GURPS combat turns are 1 second long. Though I said "temporarily", there's one permanent way to spent the points: recovery. For every two points of absorbed damage, you can heal one Hit Point. Period; there's no time limit on this healing, and these points never "drain" away. You can still lose those Hit Points by being injured again. Fatigue Points (FP) can similarly be recovered, however it costs three points of absorbed damage per one FP. If this is all you can do with the absorbed damage, Absorption is a +80% Enhancement.
You can also select one of your existing character traits (at character creation) and have your pool "damage battery" points let you temporarily raise that trait. For example, if you want a character who absorbs damage to fuel their Strength (ST) Attribute, then every 10 points of damage can pay for +1 to your ST. So if your Absorption just soaked 21 points of damage, you could "spend" it on +2 ST. At the end of your turn, the 1 unspent point of absorbed damage is lost, but you still have +2 ST. At the end of your next turn, the 20 points of damage fueling your +2 ST drops to just 19. You can no longer afford a full +2 to your ST, but it just convert to +1 ST with the leftover 9 now draining away turn after turn. Again, this version is a +80% Enhancement for your Damage Resistance.
If you can spend the Absorbed damage points on any of your traits, it is worth +100% e.g. it doubles the CP cost of your DR but any trait you already have, the absorbed damage can boost. I think it can also be used to heal HP/FP as well. Getting to the fight from the film, this could be as simple as Tony's suit having the +80% version, only letting him recover HP/FP. How could that be? Another thing GURPS has is "Extra Effort"; you spend more FP doing something, exhausting yourself quickly but you can push your body to its limits in doing so... or in this case, the suit can be pushed to its limits. So the "damage battery" can be tapped to recover FP spent to fuel stronger-than-normal attacks, faster-than-normal movement, etc. Pushing yourself like this can also risk injury... that the slowly depleting points from your "damage battery" can be used to heal, at least if you have need to spend them before they naturally drain away. So, "before" being supercharged, Tony probably couldn't hit Thor hard enough to do any real damage... but now Tony can push the suit to its absolute limits for a few rounds of combat, hitting hard enough that even Thor feels it.
You'll probably like it even better with a proper explanation. No, not just playing coy; this really is an area where I think GURPS excels, though maybe D&D and other systems have something similar, but of which I was unaware. Oh, and since this is going to become a good post for anyone interested in GURPS, I'll write it with a general tone, and specify if I'm addressing you (TheScarletTroll) from now on. :) I'll explain Extra Effort
I'm assuming anyone reading this has access to GURPS Lite for Fourth Edition. It is a free .pdf so if someone reading this doesn't have a copy, you can get one from Warehouse 23, the official storefront for GURPS .pdfs.Note they recently switched to a new online storefront, which I mention because I normally get paranoid when looking up such things myself. ;) Why should you get this? Understanding the Extra Effort rules makes a lot more sense when you understand how basic combat works in GURPS. Things like knowing a Combat Turn is only 1 (one) second long in GURPS! As a preview, though, I'll name some of the combat that the default version of GURPS combat includes:
Aim
All-Out Attack
All-Out Defense
Attack
Change Posture
Concentrate
Do Nothing
Evaluate
Feint
Move
Move and Attack
Ready
Wait
Okay, some of these aren't in GURPS Lite, but I already made the list based on the "Combat Lite" section of GURPS Basic Set Characters. Combat is actually covered in more detail in GURPS Basic Set Campaigns. Some of the above options come with choices to make.
For Example: All-Out Attack might sound like Extra Effort if you're only going by the names. To understand it, you need to understand that GURPS Combat Turns are 1 (one) second long and you normally only get one attack, one Block, one Parry, and as many Dodges as you need. Block? Dodge? Parry? Yeah, GURPS gives you Active Defenses you can use when you're successfully hit by an attack. All-Out Attack lets you pick from one of four bonuses by sacrificing those Active Defenses. In the above comic strip, Thor would abuse the heck out of this, since his ability to safely absorb/ignore damage means he usually doesn't need to defend. ;) The options you get with All-Out Attack are Determined (+4 to hit), Double (make two attacks against the same target), and Strong (+2 to overall damage or +1 damage per die, whichever would be better). Wait, I said four bonuses: instead of two attacks with Double, you can use the first attack to Feint, then immediately follow with an attack. Since Feint is a Maneuver in its own right, normally using up your one attack for the turn, I thought it needed a little more explanation. Just like in real life, when you Feint you make an attack that looks like it could hit your opponent, but wasn't actually meant to. You misdirect your opponent to make it harder for them to defend against the next actual attack.
Okay, but what about Extra Effort? This has both Combat and non-Combat uses. The idea behind it is using sheer force of will to push your body past its usual limits when performing physical tasks, which will cost to Fatigue Points (FP). Extra Effort can be used to temporarily increase your Basic Lift when digging or lifting, daily mileage when hiking, Move when running or swimming, distance when jumping, and ST for the purposes of throwing, making a single ST roll, or for tasks like drawing a bowstring or cocking a crossbow. How it works in game terms: You must make a Will roll at -1 for every 5% increment of increase. There's also a penalty equal to however much FP you're currently missing e.g. if you have 10 FP, but you're currently at 8, then you're rolling at -2 on top of the penalty for the increase. You can get a +5 bonus to your Will roll when sufficiently motivated by fear, anger or concern for a loved one, but don't get too excited; it is at the GM's discretion and the text says you should generally have failed a Fright Check (...that's bad) or a Control Roll for the appropriate Mental Disadvantage (also bad) or have been subject to an Intimidation roll (again, bad thing!).
Whether you succeed or fail, you're still out the FP! How much FP depends on the kind of task and the amount of increase. Instantaneous efforts (like making a jump or throw) cost 1 FP per attempt. Ongoing tasks involve repeated rolls or have their own, specific rules I won't elaborate on here. If this sounds too good, remember that penalty equal to your current missing FP: using Extra Effort for long stretches requires some serious Will checks!
Now for Extra Effort in Combat! Note that this is an Optional Rule, so be certain your GM allows it before bringing it up at the table. :D These rules are intentionally simpler than the above so they won't slow down combat as much. Declare you're using Extra Effort and mark off the FP you're spending before rolling to attack or defend. If you critically fail means 1 HP of damage to whatever body part was involved in addition to the normal Critical Failure penalties. DR does not protect.
You then pick from three options:
Feverish Defense: Spend 1 FP to get +2 to one Defense Roll. Flurry of Blows: Halve the penalty for using Rapid Strike for 1 FP per attack. Mighty Blows: Gain the same damage bonus as from All-Out Attack (Strong) without having to sacrifice your defenses, and for 1 FP per attack.
Rapid Strike? Yeah, forgot about that one. You can use this to "attack faster", gaining an extra attack. However, both attacks are made at -6 to your Skill. So, Extra Effort lets you spend 1 FP to have a -3 penalty for one attack, or 2 FP to have a -3 penalty for both attacks.
Whew, I bit off more than I thought with that one! I'll add one more things; characters with the Machine metatrait cannot use Extra Effort. What about my suggestion for Iron Man in the above scene? I think they're allowed an alternate version of the above, but it costs Hit Points... and nothing says the Iron Man suit has the Machine metatrait. While it comes with a lot of goodies, they're bundled with a lot of drawbacks and 0 (zero) CP traits... and Iron Man's armor should be "super" technology. It is built as a massive Advantage for the Tony Stark Player Character, as opposed to it being intended as a realistic machine. I believe the suit actually does have some capacity to repair itself, so I'm thinking it lacks the trait. If not... hey, like I said, Absorption can be used to do more than recover FP and HP.
Author Notes:
Also, funny story/probably damning example of how bass-ackwards my approach to this can be sometimes; the idea of Tony being unable to damage Thor under normal circumstances has been in the plans for a long time, mostly because it struck me as a funny consequence of Rob establishing his weapons as "strictly nonmagical".
It wasn't until I started on the Avengers chapter proper and started getting closer to the fight that it hit me... if nothing Tony does can hurt Thor, there was no logical reason for the fight to continue. So I started panicking a bit.
But! I'd also planned for Tony's armor to be able to absorb electrical damage as an upgrade made in response to Whiplash very early in, so from there it was just a matter of connecting the dots together.